Life as a New Hire Ch. 34

Ajax, 'Red', Kwen and one other Greeks ran up the slope to reinforce his beleaguered men atop the ridge at the same time his men on the far side of the battle unleashed their hounds in a last, desperate attempt to break contact. Ajax's move wasn't a personal attempt at freedom. No, he was buying time for the few unharmed men he had left and the walking-wounded comrades they were helping along.

He had to hold the ridge long enough for them to exit the ravine and vacate the firefight. His plan might have worked, except for two things ... Master Corporal Menner and Cáel Wakko Ishara, who were blocking the exit at the top of said ravine. As I had morosely predicted, Ajax remained unscathed.

At that moment, I had three things working in my mind to balance my understanding of men. Alal, Timothy and Felix. I hadn't had many male friends, for obvious 'infidelity' reasons. Alal's thoughts had long been clinical, not emotional, so he wasn't of much immediate help. He'd carried me this far as a tactician, but now I needed a hero.

Felix certainly fit the Ajax mode, if you discounted his loyalty to his brethren. But no, Timothy was my guiding light at that moment. Timothy was a model of fraternity - male unity and sacrificing for your brotherhood. Few people got away with calling Timothy, or any of his friends, fags, faggots, queers, or homos.

Far fewer got away with it twice, and it was more than just Timothy's build - it was his spirit and the belief that people rallied around the appearance of strength and yearned to stride boldly forth if given the impetus. Given my own metrics, the big, gay, tattoo-artist Timothy was the manliest man I knew.

[Mycenaean] "Ajax," I screamed at the top of my lungs. "I have come to watch you die! Face me!" Over the surrounding din of battle, he spotted me. I held my P-90 overhead in my right hand - and open challenge and undisguised target. Behind me and under cover, Menner was switching out the warhead of his AG-7.

I doubted the Mounting Trooper had truly believed we'd get this far with my insane plan. No one shot me. Ajax's eyes hardened

[Mycenaean] "This is your doing!" he bellowed as he motioned the three others to continue upslope.

[Mycenaean] "Yes," I yelled. Ajax threw his H&K aside and started coming at me. Oh, he could have put twenty bullets in me and watched my macabre dance until I collapsed. What brought him on was his desire to see the architect of his destruction die as he watched the last flicker of life fade from my eyes. I endeavored to meet him half way. I even selected the tree.

Ajax drew forth a Kopis - a Greek blade from a later period. He held the blade high. The kopis was primarily a hacking weapon, though it did have a point. I drew forth two of my tomahawks. It was all part of the Wakko Plan. Now that I had his attention came the next wacky phase - I ran into Ajax, putting my shoulder into his diaphragm.

His kopis came down on my back ceramic plate, shattering it and probably cracking a few of my back-left ribs. At the same instant, I heard the whoosh of Menner's AG-7 rocket propelled grenade launching.

Even as I felt my knees giving way from the power of the Mycenaean champion's blow, the world erupted in pain and fire. Fuck that hurt, yet more hurt was coming. The result of a TBG-7V's detonation is called a thermobaric explosion. I was betting my existence on Master Corporal Menner being able to put it close enough to knock me out without turning me into a crispy critter. The kill radius was ten meters.

The rocket propelled grenade hit a tree a few meters behind Ajax and high enough not to kill us. The concussive force of the explosion tossed Ajax over my shoulder and slammed me into the ground. A dozen Succubae Rockettes in high heels were dancing on my cranium as I sat up. I forced myself back to my feet and turned to face Ajax. I realized I'd won.

[Mycenaean] "What the Hades was that?" a shaken Ajax thundered. "If that was your best shot at killing me, it was pathetic." He drew his .45 with his left hand and put four rounds into my face. At two meters he could hardly miss. The bullets brushed over my skin like puffs from a post-coitus cigar.

[Mycenaean] "What the..." Ajax muttered.

[Mycenaean] "I said I had come to watch you die, not that I planned to kill you myself," I laughed. I heard the titanic rustling through the trees. She was here. I readied my last two tomahawks. I couldn't afford to go looking for my first two. That bastard Ajax had kept his kopis, the fucker. I could see the realization dawning on him.

[Mycenaean] "What did you do?" he growled. Yeah, the sounds of battle were very distant now, muffled by the barrier between dimensions. We were not in that precise, same ravine we'd started our battle in. We had transferred over to its spiritual facsimile - my Ishara-space.

[Mycenaean] "When I realized I couldn't kill you and that the only person on this Earth who could, wouldn't (Alal), I went looking for someone who could," I taunted him.

[Mycenaean] "That makes no sense," he gruffly replied. The noise of something big moving through the trees was no longer impossible to ignore.

[Mycenaean] "Well, she isn't 'of this world' so I had to bring you to hers," I laughed. The Dragon burst forth from the overgrowth and hovered over us both.

Her head was gigantic (I had my Terrified Goggles on; I almost wished they'd been Peril Sensitive instead), her white mane whipped around in the breezes that surrounded her body and the top of her head was a snowy white. The mane flowed down her spine and along her serpentine body. As her scaled progressed downward, they darkened gradually until her underside was a thunderous gray - she was a living storm cloud.

She had no limbs, nor did she breathe fire. Her strength lay in her enormous maw, her rows of razor sharp teeth, pronounced canines more like rapiers than teeth, and in her powerful, electrically-charged coils.

"Ajax, meet the Goddess Illuyankamunus," I grinned like a fool. "Illuyankamunus, meet Ajax, the Unconquered and sworn foe of Amazons everywhere."

"You idiot," Ajax spared me a glance, "this monster will kill us both!"

"While survival was part of my plan, it was secondary to seeing you dead first," I smirked. "Right now, I'm sure she's more interested in you...I think I'll run." Illuyankamunus' mouth opened and her roar was like a thousand thunder bursts.

Her venomous saliva splashed both of us. I managed to get my forearm over my eyes, but that was it. Her toxic expectorant burned like a hundred tiny needles then the flesh went numb. Some of it had hit my forehead and lower lip. The numbness was turning to something else - something indescribable before I smelled the stench of rotting flesh.

My body was being corrupted - turning necrotic in seconds. I ran. Behind me, Ajax's war cry echoed through the ghostly spirit plane. The land was similar to the real world except the alterations of mankind weren't as evident. Lighting repeatedly cracked and more thunder staggered me. Ajax wasn't going down quietly. I heard Illuyankamunus cry out in pain.

The rot dug down to my skull, teeth and gums. The skin on parts of my right thigh and stomach was gave way and the muscle's beneath twitched in agony. Chunks of flesh on my forearm sloughed away. Dating after this was going to be a bitch. I kept up my headlong flight to nowhere. All I had to do was keeping going until my mortal body woke up. I no longer heard Ajax.

What I did hear was the sound of the titanic serpent moving through the trees once more. Bushes were trampled, branches broke yet her pace was unstoppable. When I knew the race was done, I turned around. I wasn't sure why. I wasn't really a 'Heroic Last Stand' kind of guy. The great draconic head towered above me on a serpentine neck.

[Sumerian] "Despite being a monster, you are rather quite beautiful," I mumbled. No, even at death's door I couldn't resist hitting on the babe. Her 50 meter long body lashed out, encircling. I launched an attack with my left tomahawk. I tried to bring my right one up, but the nervous system to the hand had disintegrated and the weapon fell to the ground.

I didn't seem to hurt her. Oh well. In came the coils, binding me tightly. My remaining ribs began to crack. Her leering mouth hovered over me, letting me wonder if I was going to be squeezed like a used up tube of toothpaste, or swallowed alive. She breathed on me again. This experience was wholly different.

A cool spring shower washed over my face and began drenching my body. Things...things made sense somehow.

[Sumerian] "My venom inspires madness, Cáel Wakko Ishara," she related. "I had to bind you until my healing breath reinvigorated you...so you wouldn't hurt yourself."

Her coils loosed up enough to give me limited mobility. My flesh was not decaying after all. It had been was my torturous imagination playing tricks on me. Either I was afraid of flesh-eating bacteria, or of growing old. I'd explore that later.

[Sumerian] "What does this mean?" I asked. She seemed confused. "Why aren't you eating me?"

[Sumerian] "I am not devouring you because I still have need of you Cáel," she rumbled.

[Sumerian] "I'm not sure we are on a first name basis," I coughed. Much of my pain still felt real. "Just kidding. I'm on a first name basis with every woman I meet."

[Sumerian] "I could still devour you for your impertinence," she seethed.

"Give it a rest," I grinned. "You may be as old as creation, yet I doubt you've had more than two boyfriends, whereas I'm heading for 300 girlfriends." Her coils tightened around me once more.

"Don't be presumptuous," she threatened.

"No," I shook my head. "I've got your number now. Kill me and Pamela and Saku will kill the last of your line. After all your exertions over the past 24 hours, you can't stop them."

"You think you can bargain with me, mortal?" she hissed.

"No. You are a girl and trust me, you can never tell a girl anything she doesn't want to hear," I jibed. "I'm giving you a reality check. If you do X, then Y will happen. I have given no orders concerning your mortal family, but that won't save them from those two."

"There are other things I could do to you," she sizzled.

"Nope. Ishara will own your bacon if you try to crack my mind," I snorted. "I'll tell you what; you stop acting like a cranky deity and I'll stop acting like a jerk, Illuyankamunus."

"My name is not Illuyankamunus," she grumbled. "I am SzélAnya; Illuyankamunus was my father."

"Oh, then I apologize," I give a tip of the hat. "SzélAnya is a far more fitting name. It is both untamed and vibrant." Yes, I was sexing up a Goddess. Thanks to Ishara she couldn't read my mind. The dragon-goddess regarded me studiously before letting her coils relax. That led to my 'Eureka' inspirational insight.

"You have recreated your Father-Daughter relationship," I gasped. Mysticism was lost on me. Daddy-daughter relationships I understood. "The males of your line are your 'Father'. They give birth to the 'warriors' - their female offspring - while the sons carry on the bloodline to the next generation. Your daughters are...they don't carry your divine essence?"

"How..." blink, "How did you figure all that out in the past few seconds?"

"I've got some serious Daddy - Granddaddy actually - issues as well," I sighed. "Once I looked past you being a big dragon-monster, it all fell into place. One unanswered question: who are the women masquerading as the Amazons of House Illuyankamunus?"

Her look said it all. She didn't know and she didn't want to admit that she didn't know, because she had this whole Goddess-vibe going on, I was a mere mortal and professionals a (Deity in this case) hate admitting they are in the dark about anything in their specialty.

"I don't know," she confessed. Good for her.

"I was traumatized by the death of my 'sons'. When I recovered, I was cut off from the others," she explained. The pain of that ancient event was etched upon her features. It was good to see that she gave a crap about her followers.

"I cannot hide them and give them enough protection to keep them safe, SzélAnya," I said.

"I'm asking your permission to take your children back to Havenstone where there will be thousands of Amazons around for protection," I proposed. "Havenstone is the name for the Amazon central base of operations. It is New York City," I clued her in.

"Why should I trust the Amazons, or their Goddesses now? They abandoned me and killed my children," she challenged me.

"Your options are slim. Also, I am Cáel Wakko Ishara, I speak for Yakko Ishara, first of my line and the Goddess of Oaths herself, Dot Ishara," I swore. "We will pledge my Sisters to your cause, take your grievances to the Keeper of Records and the Council. Finally, I am an Ash Man, son after son back to the Amazon Vranus Ishara who, with your Amazon, Bolu (the old warrior who accompanied Vranus), left the Amazons to safeguard the last Arinniti sons."

"That is why we resonate," her draconic head nodded. She further loosened her body's hold on me. "I still don't trust you."

"You did kill Ajax for us," I pointed out. "We owe you for that."

"I did that to save my own kin, not yours," she grumbled.

"We don't have to tell them that," I gave her a sly grin.

"You would lie to your High Priestess and your Goddess?" she scoffed.

"The High Priestess is dead and we have yet to choose another. As for me lying to Dot Ishara; why do you think I made it so she couldn't read my mind?"

"That is annoying; she must have been piqued. Why do you call Ishara 'Dot Ishara'?"

"I'm starting to feel funny," I tried to work out some mystical cramping. "Are you keeping me here?"

"Yes."

"What does that do to my body?" I worried.

"Your heartbeat is racing, your lungs move weakly - the seed of air - oxygen - is leaving your body and blood," she told me.

"Basically I'm having a heart attack and organ failure, not to mention possible brain death," I chastised her. "I don't want to die, in case you were confused about my intentions," I added.

"I...I will let you go. We will talk later," she replied. Her body uncoiled until I could collapse on the ground. There was pain...and then I woke up.