To Walk the Constellations Pt. 05

"Goodie," I whispered.

"And now, to drop the flag, none other than the trivid sensation and primogeniture supreme of the entire eastern seaboard...Glorious Stellar Cartography!" The femme shouted, then pointed down. The huge track we were on had a small platform near the middle, and on it stood the most jaw-dropping, mouth watering girl I'd ever seen. She was dressed in a red, flilmy dress that clung to her every curve like a second skin, and she took great pride in showing off her fangy smile -- her face concealed behind only a half-beak crest, leaving her jaw and mouth free to show off.

She was also holding up a small red cloth.

I glanced and saw Techne and crew were gone.

I looked back.

Williams was spinning his huge hammer in one hand, grinning wickedly. Coultan's sphere was already spinning up, the spikes glittering as they swished through the air. Tyler was revving the engine of his bike.

I gripped my bars.

"Come on Glory," I whispered. "Lets show them what a fucking Liminal Knight can do."

GO

The red cloth dropped.

I slammed on full and was kicked in the chest by six elephantines at once. Despite the ouch, I still managed to whoop as I shot past the podium that GSC was standing on, so fast that when my wing clipped it, it left behind a glowing mark and nearly sheered the podium off entirely. She screamed at me, but then I banked left and felt Glory respond -- shooting up and off the ground. I laughed like a loon and then saw why going fast was not the best idea.

Immediately around the bend was a cliff-face. Four dozen tubes, each about the width of a single chariot, were set into the side of the stone and concrete, and liquid dribbled from many of them. Sewer grates. I slammed on the air brake -- instinct roaring through me. I had no idea what an air-brake even was. But then I saw: The wings on my Glory flared outwards and fanned out and the air screamed as I was dragged near fair to a complete stop.

Omega shot past me, his horses kicking their legs, flames exploding from their hooves as they ran through the air, dragging him behind. "Duck!" Omega shouted to me.

I ducked.

And a sledgehammer, swung by Williams, smashed through my wind shield, Williams himself laughing as his chariot thundered by. I smashed down the throttle and banked to the left, nearly impacting into the moon-shape of one of the other drivers. Their lancer threw a harpoon at me and it struck a glancing blow off my wing. The explosion sent me into a twisting spin and I screamed -- then hit one of the tubes at an angle. The belly of Glory screeched along the metal, spraying up sparks.

"Venn!?" Techne's voice boomed from all around me. I kicked an altitude peddle and then twisted -- swinging around the interior of the tube until I was flying straight and level and not about to scrape my entire belly off.

"Techne!" I said. "Some Liminal fuckery must have blinded you and blanked your memory."

"Bastard," Techne snarled. "Mal and Rossk asked, I...I thought you were back on the ship, I-"

"No time for-" I looked back. Behind me, I could hear the roaring of jet turbines. Coultan was tearing up the tube behind me, his sphere rolling and spiking everything in his path. "-no time for any of that!"

"Well, I'm scanning the area with the Tiamat's sensors," Techne said -- I could hear clittering and clacking. "And...shit. You got a lot of hungry critters on your route, Venn."

"What?" I asked.

"They bred exigenics to-"

"Of course they do!" I kicked the throttle up another notch, glaring at head of myself, glaring into the wind as I banked left, right, down, left. The tube kept twisting and behind me, Coultan kept gaining and gaining.

Then we were out of the tunnel, busting out into a circular chamber roughly the size of the whole Tiamat. The floor was covered in what looked like a whole lake of water, though the water wasn't clear or anything. It was more of a grayish-blue. The entire diameter of the circular chamber was spanned by a massive wall of gridded metal, which was slowly spinning on its axis, stirring the water up into frothing waves. I could see the other chariots that had gotten here too. Omega was swinging around to give his lancers a chance to whip at Tyler, who was trying to get close enough to stick the side of the horses with the bladed tip of his bike.

Spider, though, was in trouble. He was trying to rush straight towards the exit, but Williams was rushing closer and closer. One of Spider's lancers stood and threw a harpoon. Williams took his hand off the reigns, caught the harpoon with his free hand, then threw it right back -- and it struck the side of Spider's chariot. Smoke and bits of metal exploded into the air and I could see Spider desperately pulling up.

He hit the wall.

"You mother-" I hit on the throttle, but before I could shoot at Williams, Coultan roared over me. He did something to his jets that made them stop dead and swing backwards, so his ball wasn't being dragged behind them. Now, it was swinging at me and the spikes were rushing right at me. I hit the altitude peddle and twisted -- so rather than going up, I was going sideways. The spikes clipped a wing and I started spinning and spinning.

SPIN

Spin.

Blood. Rushing to my head.

Red hazed my vision.

Shooting at the water.

I didn't touch the controls.

Glory flipped around. Burned hard, skidded up the wall, arced around, leveled out and I felt the blood sliding back out of my head. I gasped out and saw I was shooting right for Coultan.

Fuck this guy.

ANNOUNCING MYSELF.

I didn't have time to think. I just leaped out of my chair, planting one foot on the wing, gripping onto the engine casing with my free hand. I could hear gasps and cries of shock from distant crowds -- and then the announcer: "What is Driver Venn doing!?"

Glory kept flying me nice and straight.

I grabbed my threshold blade, snapping it out.

This time?

This time it roared to life. The red holographic field shimmered to life around the monomolecular core and I grinned, fierce and eager, as Glory twisted, so that I was right above the cable connecting Coultan. I swept my sword up in a curving arc and drew a line of red right through the cable.

The entire world was dead silent.

Coultan's jet engines smashed into the wall of the chamber. And his sphere plunged into the water, missed, and hit the metal axis of the stirring sweeper. The explosion was nearly as bright and Glory straightened out and slowed down. I stood on the wing, my hair trailing behind me, my sword in my hand.

The other charioteers were gaping at me. Even Omega, his fuzzy caterpillar bushing up.

"She's..." the femme announcer paused. "Driver Venn...is a Liminal Knight!"

BOUNTY

"The first driver, lancer or hunter to bring me Venn," Arthur F's voice filled the chamber. "Will be given four thousand units of mana and a free ticket to Atom!"

"Fuckery," I hissed, then shouted, louder. "Arthur, you dick!"

Somehow, I knew that my voice was being picked up and boomed out of speakers. I didn't matter. Every chariot was swinging around, save for Omega's. Omega was staying back. I hopped back into Glory, snapping my Threshold Blade to my belt, then kicked on the engines again. There was only one exit out of this place -- a huge, maw-like tunnel that was half full of the filtered water that was pushed out of the circular chamber. I skimmed right over the water and spared a glance back to see that two other chariots were right on my ass.

One of them was a coffin shaped box strapped to two jet engines. Thanks to the driver flying by laying on his back and manipulating controls inside of the lid, there were a goddamn total of six lancers on it. Each one had whips, spears, and twirling weights on the end of metal sticks.

The other was Williams. He was dragging his hammer along the wall, sending up a spray of tiles and sparks behind him. His eyes glowed behind his golden comedy mask. I looked up ahead as Techne's voice spoke in my ear. "Okay, you're about to come to a street. But there are some serious lasturrets set up to make sure that you're not going into civilian airspace."

"I got an idea," I said, grinning.

The coffin chariot came close enough for the lancers to start doing their job. Two of them with whips started cracking them at me. A whip scored along the edge of my cockpit. Another smashed into the engine housing, sending up a spray of sparks. I lifted my arm to make sure none got near my face -- and one wrapped around my wrist. The barbs bit into my skin. Blood flowed. I hissed. "Fuckery!" I grabbed my blade and sliced the whip off with a quick twist -- not even needing to extrude the whole sword properly.

That still left me with a nasty bracelet.

The space ahead of me suddenly filled -- gray, muscular tentacles reached up into the air, unfurling and reaching. These had to be the hungry critters that Techne had mentioned. I banked to the left, nearly hit another that reached upwards, cut out my speed, then dove forward. Water swept along my fuselage, nearly skimming into the cockpit proper, but the streamlined design meant that all the water instead went past, rather than in. That meant that William's swing at my head missed by a good five feet. But now, he was able to fly over me, taking advantage of the slowdown.

He didn't seem to care much about the tentacles -- and the why became painful clear: The heads of his front horses opened up, revealing snub-nosed guns built into their metal skulls. Bullets chewed tentacles apart while William swing down at me with the sledge. I junked and dodged -- but that slowed me down even more, allowing the coffin to get closer. Now, spears poked down at me, and a whip scored along the front of my Glory.

Then we hit the end of the tunnel. There was a brief moment where we soared over a huge ice canyon. Then we hit the streets of the megacity of Masque Macabre.

MEGACITY

From the ground level, the Megacity was even more awe-gape-shock inspired. The buildings rose up in endless, gridlike rows, each one looking more sepulcher and ominous than the last. Gothic statues leered down at us from on high, and the road we drove over was painted black and white, lines guiding us into lanes. Lanes that were cleared of normal traffic. I didn't see the laser turrets that Techne had mentioned at first -- I had thought lasers would have barrels, rather than being black spheres set on tripods.

Then all I had time to focus on was my plan. I skimmed close as I could to the turrets that marked the edge of the lane. The coffin kept pace. I drew my sword, twisted Glory so that she was flying with her belly to the buildings. I was almost hanging out of the cockpit and I slashed the grund with my sword. The monomolecular tip, held in place by electrostatic force, tore apart in a spray of magic, filling the air with a sudden pall of black smoke and refracted, ruby red holographic light. That cloud swept over the coffin, causing it to slew in the air. I pulled back and gave the coffin a nose bump.

It jumped in the air, skidded, and then shot out over the laser turrets, missing the turn we were all supposed to hit.

The effect was instant pyrotechnics.

There were no beams, no cuts. Just one second, the coffin and her lancers were fine. The next, they all bust into flame at once. The flames were white hot and they left zero seconds for screaming or pain. The next instant, ashes were spilling over the somber buildings. And I was banking hard left, my teeth clenched as William kept his distance.

That was what nearly got me.

ARROW

Something fast and narrow smashed into the cockpit, right next to my left hand. The end that bumped repeatedly against my cheek like a drummer's stick was fluffy -- tipped with a set of soft ridges, frilled and ribbed. I gaped in complete shock. Then heard the second one coming with enough time to duck. This second one skimmed along the front nose of Glory, having shot through where my head had been before it hit the black finish and bounced away.

I looked back and saw that Tyler was standing on his bike, controlling it with his knees. His weird C weapon was in his hands. He was using it to -knock- arrows up to the bow. That was what it was! A bow! Hah! Thanks, voiceless voice.

The idea of being killed by a six or seven million year old piece of technology was so goddamn insulting that it nearly made me go livid.

Tyler loosed and only by nearly driving off the edge of the track did I avoid it. The arrow was immolated by the lasturrets and I was getting hemmed in. Another dodge, I'd either go over the turrets, or I'd get my head smashed in by Williams. The two vampires were getting closer and closer every second.

Williams lifted his hammer. Tyler drew back.

And then Tyler jerked forward, clutching his chest.

Smoke rose from his back.

And behind him was Omega -- his chariot thundering forward, his lancers gripped to either side. But it was Omega who held the sleek, silver pistol. It wasn't junked -- it was a real gun, with a revolving chamber. He pulled back on the trigger and fired again -- and this caught Tyler in the shoulder, flinging him just enough to the side that he had to slow to avoid hitting the lasturrets. I grinned, then looked back just in time to see William swinging his hammer down at my face.

I lifted my threshold blade and it sheered the hammer in half as if it wasn't even there. The head thunked to the floor of my cockpit, right between my thighs, and William gaped behind his mask at the headless hammer he held. I swung upwards and took his hands off at the wrists. He didn't even seem hurt. He was just more shocked than anything else -- and then his chariot went off the road. He leaped away with a exigenic cat's grace as his chariot exploded into flames.

Omega rode along to my side, grinning at me. "Good going lassie!"

I set my threshold blade down and sent him a big old thumbs up.

THE RED THREAD

Something struck me -- and it wasn't an arrow. It was a sight. As we soared around the corner, leaving Tyler in the dust, I saw that there was a shimmering red line in the air that floated above where William stood, looking at his hands. The line pulsed with pale orbs of light, flowing up the line, vanishing into the darkness. When I looked up, I saw more lines were joining it. Threads by the dozens. Hundreds. By the millions. As my eyes focused, I saw them more and more. The whole city was connected by these invisible threads...no.

Not the city.

The vampires.

"Omega!" I shouted. "Blow out the turrets ahead of us!"

Omega leveled his pistol. He fired and fired and fired -- and three of the turrets exploded into sprays of glass and sparks. Over that deadzone, we flew. We were off the track and roaring above the civilian streets. Those flying coffins that most vampires used as transport slewed out of the way, trying to avoid us -- but we rocketed by, leaving behind smoke and flames. People walking on slidewalks gaped and pointed at us.

"Where the bloody hell are we going lassie?" Omega shouted, his lancers looking to him with fear in their eyes.

"Following the thread..." I muttered, soft enough he couldn't hear me. I banked back, then shot up along the side of a skyscraper. Windows flashed past so quick I could barely see them. Then I cleared the roof and was looking down over the whole sweep of the city. The threads gathered together -- pinning into a single theater that looked big enough to cover up the entirety of Junker Port, or to wrap around the Tiamat and leave enough room to tie seven bows. The rope of red light reached out towards the a single point. It was not quite in the center of the city -- but the rope itself phased through buildings and even through the floor. I could see the interference patterns. It wasn't a real object. It was just...something my Liminal powers could see.

What had Thale called it?

My djinn. My Machine. I had to ask him more details on that.

But I hit on the thrusters.

Omega and I came to a stop on the ground, Glory whirring and his horses tossing their mechanical heads as both settled down. I sprang out and looked around where we stood. It was like the graveyard's center. The buildings here were smaller and quieter, long abandoned and covered in dust, grime and graffiti. But what was more, there were coffins. Coffins by the dozens, by the hundreds. They were set on the ground, leaned against walls, tucked into window niches, piled up. Omega hopped off his chariot, pistol in hand, his red briefs distressingly bright against the gray desolation.

I hopped off Glory -- and yelped as Glory started to shrink. The cockpit collapsed, the black surfaces folded in on themselves. The whole thing folded and folded again, until it was the size of a very thick, boxy black belt, or a bandoleer. I picked it up, expecting it to be heavy enough to tear my arm off. Instead, it was light as a feather. I slung it over one shoulder. "Magic," I muttered.

"Where are we?" Omega asked.

"We're gone," Consuella said.

ABANDONED

Consuella and Oz both slung off the chariot and sprinted away. They vanished around a corner before either Omega or I could even blink.

"I can't even blame them," Omega muttered. "If I had any sense, I'd follow them." He looked at me. "But you're a Liminal Knight. If anyone can save this world, it'd be you."

"Save it?" I whispered, starting to walk towards one of the ruined buildings. I ducked under the low doorway and held up my blade. A focused thought shaped it into a light and it spilled out along even more coffins. I knelt down, opening it up...and saw a vampire slept inside. Their eyes were closed, but the inside of the coffin itself was filled with a fluff of wires and cables. Diodes attached to the vampire's forehead. Their eyes were closed and their wrists were laid across their chest. I could see red fluid flowing along the wires and tubes, gurgling softly. My brow furrowed. "The fuckery?"

Omega shook his head. "The vampires here are sick. They can't die, and they can't live. This Hippodromic nonsense is merely one of their blood sports, Venn. In all the stories, Wotan Hohmann would come to a world, strike down a tyrant, unmask a villainy..."

I grinned, slightly. "This Hohmann sounds like quite a guy."

"He fought the bastard Haram for nearly a hundred years," Omega said, then spat and booed. I did the same dutifully. Our voices got swallowed by the desolate urbanity around us. I shivered, then started forward, my jaw tightening. There was a red thread in here, a red thread to follow. It snaked through narrow corridors and past more and more coffins. They got stacked up and piled like small forests as we headed down narrow flights of winding stairs, past niches that led into vault-chambers that were crammed with yet more coffins. Their lacquered black wood shone at us in the light of my blade.

We came, at last, to a door.

The door was made of sleek silver metal and it had a pair of strange runes on it.

"You know them?" I whispered.

Omega shook his head. "I know Basic, Interlac, Hegemonic, the Tongue of Truth, Protona...but not that."

I made a face. "I don't even know what most of those are..." I sighed, then tried the door. It refused to budge. I looked down at my blade. "One sec." The light winked out, then changed instantly to ruby red brilliance. I slashed and the light came back to full -- the door looking unchanged. But I knew, this time, that the reason for that was simply cause the sword was that sharp. I kicked the door and two pieces fell inwards, revealing the room beyond.