Brash and the Schrodinger Snare Ch. 04

"You bastards!" G282 shouted, holding P90, who was shaking her head.

"It was a disruption wand...I'm okay..." she mumbled.

Blackheart laughed. "Now, Princess..." he called down. "Or should I call you Queen Lioncourt..." he grinned. "Lets give you something bigger ta deal with than little ole me."

And before our eyes, he touched the button.

In space above Necronox, hidden by stealthed, radar absorbing materials, engines started to hiss. They didn't need to be powerful. They were pushing something that, for all of its immense size, had almost no weight. To us on the ground, the horrible thing looked like a suddenly born star. It was close to the horizon and seemed to glow brilliantly. The shaft of light it sent out was invisible in the thin atmosphere, but the effect it had on the distant buildings to our north was obvious. Those buildings exploded into brilliant light. Wailing alarms started to screech outwards and Alex dropped to her knees, completely stun.

"No..." she whispered.

"Lets see how you pretty vampires can see yourself in this mirror..." the duregar laughed, turning and dragging a kicking, screaming Kira back into the shuttle.

I snarled.

And kicked on my theme song.

Vampires were running into their houses, their bodies aflame. Most of them would survive the short exposure to sunlight. But the light of Necronox's sun had been focused - it wasn't just sunlight. It was the next best thing to a laser. It was going to burn through those houses and those cowering vampires would be literally toast. But, in time with the beat of my theme song, I had picked up Orlock's discarded shirt and put a rock into it. I twirled it faster and faster and faster and faster. Alex looked at me, completely confused.

Faster faster faster.

If Necronox hadn't been so gosh dang cold, this would not have worked. In Earth, drag would have stopped me. It was how Orlock had gotten his stone to railgun speed. I wasn't as fast as he was.

But I was stronger.

BRASH! Freddy mercury sang. AHAAAH! SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE!

And I loosed. The rock shot from the sling - and at the same time, I flung my other arm out, as if I was going to catch my own sling's shot. As I grabbed it, I shrank, hitting the smallest size I could. And so, crunched down to the size of a mouse, my cells screaming at me for compacting them so close together, I sank my finger into the rock that now felt like it was the size of a boulder as it hurtled upwards. Without much mass to pull it backwards, it shot up and up and up. The thin air that roared past me was still enough to flatten my frills against me. I gritted my teeth.

The vast sweep of Necronox spread beneath me as the rock, its momentum sapped by gravity, hung in the air. I scrambled up, shifting to a form that was essentially all leg. Every muscle I had compacted into one huge, cocked piston. I tightened down, feeling my whole body burn with the effort. And with that, I leaped. The rock flew back down so hard and so fast that it drew a streak of pure white flames in the thin atmosphere behind me. The mirror swelled before me, a massive, brilliant circle of silvery white as I grew to my human form, my arm lashing out as I created my psi-sword.

HE'S FOR EVERY ONE OF US!

STAND FOR EVERY ONE OF US!

I smashed into the mirror sword first. The blade punched through the incredibly thin material - it was basically nothing but gravel and rock, spread out wide, then coated in a silvery material. Made dirt cheap in record time. Classic duregar craftsmanship, I presumed. Since I had never met one before. The impact set it slowly rotating. Below me, I could see the glowing mirror starting to fade, fade...then go out as it no longer caught the sun. I grinned and jerked my arm free, seeing that my wrist and forearm was coated in glittering, melted slag.

"Hah!" I said.

"Oh, you think yer clever do ya, lad?" Blackheart's voice echoed in my head - transmitted via radio. My HUD painted the target reticule over his shuttle. It was climbing out of the gravity well on a wing of fire. I smirked, then smashed my free hand into the mirror. Fragments went flying and I grew a dozen arms, plucking them from the air. Then I kicked off the mirror - shooting towards the shuttle. It started to slew to the side.

"Yee can't fly, ya daft bastard!" Blackheart said.

"Funny thing, Blackheart...for the man with thrusters, you sound like you're the one whose adrift!" I said, my arms tensing as they bunched behind me. They started to hurl the glass shards of the mirror. Chunks of rock and silvery, reflective material. It wasn't what most people would use to accelerate themselves...but beggers can't be choosers. Each time I threw, it imparted some motion to me. And here's the thing.

The gravity of Necronox was helping me.

The shuttle had to fight it.

I could see the deurger trying to slew to the side, to try and both escape the gravity well and escape me. But each chunk of mirror I threw made me lighter - since I had less glass to throw - and that meant that every remaining bit of glass I could throw went further. I twisted at the last second, sending myself into a spin and bringing out my psi-sword as my theme song went into its second repeat. Hey, it was only two minutes long, and space is big!

My sword punched into the side of the engine casing on the left wing of the shuttle, giving me enough purchase. I stood as the shuttle finished clearing the atmosphere, its flight path smoothing out as I shifted my feet to give myself cool claw-chompers that let me hold on. The top of the shuttle popped open, an airlock opening as duregar started to scramble out. Their feet maglocked onto the shuttle and I saw they were carrying swords and pistols. I smirked, then started to scramble forward. I got my foot up on the roof of the shuttle just as the first one brought his pistol to bear on me.

"Kill him! Kill that fucking dragon!" Blackheart was shouting.

I slashed the pistol in half, then kicked the first duregar off the shuttle. He went flipping away, tumbling into low orbit. Someone else could arrest him. Though I did glance back, just to check and make sure. My HUD showed that his rocket boots could get him into a stable orbit. And he was in power armor. Good!

The second duregar almost managed to put his sword into my tummy thanks to my mild distraction. What a jerk! I looked back, parrying his sword with mine. He thrust and chopped with brutal, efficient hacking motions. He swung high, then low, forcing me to skid backwards along the roof of the shuttle, my sword crackling. His blade looked like it was made of solid adamantine, so I couldn't just hack it in half. His friend was shifting carefully to the side, making sure to lock his mag-boots each time he settled.

I riposted, catching and twisting the second duregar's blade, then working my searing hot blade against his power armor gauntlet. I twisted, then popped his sword free. As he watched it whip away into the infinite black, I grinned and then slashed shallowly, cutting a chunk of armor plating off the hull. His arms cartwheeled as he and the chunk he was maglocked too tumbled away into space. Two down and safely waiting for Necronox authorities to pick up!

The last one, though, had decided to take advantage of his open shot. His pistol was a brutal looking particle beam lance. He leveled it at me.

He fired.

I let go with my feet an instant before. The shuttle whipped past and I flung out my palm, sending a Scorpian style spike on a biomechanical chain - shapeshifted into existence thanks to P90 inspiring me with her grappling hook gun. It hit the rear fin of the ugly, blunt shuttle, then jerked taut. My arm screamed and almost ripped from my socket, but the sudden tension on the chain turned it from line to pivot, and I swung on it like a ball at the end of a morning star's flail. My feet smashed into the chest of the duregar.

Magboots versus dragon's mighty flying missile drop kick!

Who do you think won!?

I let go of the biomech chain, grabbing onto the lip of the airlock. It was starting to close - and I had to shrink to a mouse sized to fall through the hole just before it slammed shut. Once I was inside, I grew and slashed in the same moment, landing inside the shuttle on a disk of metal that smoked and glowed a cherry red along the edges. Blackheart stood near the pilot's chair - the pilot was hunched over the console, ever inch of his body screaming: I am not getting paid enough for this nonsense.

Blackheart stood there, a particle pistol pressed against the temple of Princess Kira. He looked wide eyed as he glared at me, his body trembling.

"W-What are you!?" he snarled. Or tried to. It was more of a fear-stammer.

"I'm Brash the Dragon," I said, grinning, lifting up my crackling psi-sword. "You kidnapped my Princess. Prepare to die."

Brethghol Blackheart looked at me. Then at Kira. Then at me. Then at Kira again. Then slowly, he lifted his pistol up and away from her head, letting it dangle from his finger. I smirked, slightly, then lowered my sword. I stepped forward, plucking the pistol from his hand. Once I had tucked it into my belts, I grinned. "By the way, I'm just joshing you. I haven't killed...anyone in this adventure so far. Gnarly, huh?"

Blackheart gaped at me.

TO BE CONTINUED