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Chapter 16
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A news helicopter flew over Siren’s Gauntlet this morning. They only ever came this way when there was a story to sell. After a long week, an anonymous tip had sent the team and their flying craft toward the Vambraceman base to the northwest.

The reporter onboard could already see a couple plumes of smoke from the base. This confirmed some things she had heard, at least. “Roll it, roll it!” she said eagerly to the cameraman. Now she had to wait for the cue from the morning news anchors, who in turn had to wait for their cue from their sponsors. This story seemed too legitimate for anyone to pass up.

Who was attacking the Vambracemen? And why?

“Wait a minute,” said Psi Wizard, who had finally sensed the one conscious mind beyond the door. It was still opening, and both Sean and War Lagoon were poised for an attack. “Stop, stop!”

Ohm Wire ran at them, and they to her. Psi Wizard had no choice but to use his power to impair their mobility.

The three of them tripped over their own legs, and stared at one another in an awkward manner while they fell to the ground. Psi Wizard ran inside the room so he could stand between them.

“Like I was trying to say,” Psi Wizard said, “wait a damn minute. You’re all lucky that I could recognize Kyra’s mind, though it’s been changed by the same force that affected Dav—I mean Mary. Actually, Kyra, I think your mind is more clearly yours than hers was just yesterday.”

“Mary’s mind?” asked Ohm Wire.

“It took longer to recognize. It could be that demon inside her head.”

“She’s inside me too. Maybe not my mind, not unless I’m really upset, but she's definitely in here with me. It’s a party.”

“Then I caught you all at the right time. A second or two later, and we would all have regretted it.”

War Lagoon interrupted, saying, “This is well and good, but can we get control of our legs back?”

“Hm? Oh yeah.” Psi Wizard released his hold on their mobility, and everyone stood. “How did you manage to get out and whoop these guys?”

Ohm Wire realized that he meant the Vambracemen on the floor. She said, “It’s an ability the demon gave me. Look, see?”

Her white eyes glowed. A corporeal astral projection appeared behind the men, and tapped the mage on the shoulder. All three guys looked at the projection, who waved and vanished in an instant.

“Cool, huh?” asked Ohm Wire.

Sean said, “Have you needed to feed since you started doing that? On men, I mean.”

“No, I don’t . . . Whoa, no! I’m not a succubus in body like Mary is. I just share the same demon’s essence that she does. Who are you, by the way?”

“My apologies, miss, my name is Sean. I work for Maryann. And I recommend you don’t make a habit of using your demonic abilities. It drains her energy, and then she’ll need to feed again.”

“It does?”

“I think so. I don’t know for certain, but that’s one risk I’m not willing to gamble. I know it drains Mary when she uses her own demonic power, but you say you share in it.”

“I’ll take your word for it. So . . . are we going to stand around all day, or are we going to meet up with Mary and the others somewhere?”

Psi Wizard and War Lagoon shared a smirk.

“What?” she asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Psi Wizard said, heading for the door. He pressed against his earpiece. "We found Ohm Wire. Heading out now.”

All he or War Lagoon could hear was static.

“Undercut, Adamast?” Psi Wizard called as he passed the door into the main hall. “Mortar, do you read me?”

Orbs of arcane energy clashed together with the office. Max barely pulled Mortar out of the room in time. They fell on the cold concrete floor of the hallway where the explosive energy ravaged the air overhead, and dissolved.

A few technicians passed through the walls like ghosts. Mortar picked himself up quickly enough to fire off a stream of flame through the hallway. The searing heat incinerated the demonic spirits possessing the technicians, and they fell. Their bodies burned and withered into glowing ash until that, too, vanished.

“You killed them,” said Max.

“They were already dead,” Mortar responded. “That’s the unfortunate thing about the Circle and its ritualistic possessions. Too many men or women lose their souls or lives in the process. I’d love to stop these possessions for good. Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. But, where’s the rest of them?”

Genine stomped on the foot of the man holding her, and then she shot an arcane beam at the two holding her mistress; no, her friend.

Adamast Cross had pushed back against men and arousal as best she could when a violet beam swiped both Vambracemen from her hands. She fell back against the wall again, unsure of what the passing beam would do to her. Adamast looked to her right in time to see the beam fade.

It had left a large hole in the wall; the two Vambracemen were nowhere to be seen.

The last one of them standing inched away from Genine seconds before the door was yanked open from outside. Princess Undercut stepped inside with patches of her costume missing. She, however, was in one piece.

“Invulnerability fucking rocks,” Princess Undercut stated.

Then the last Vambracemen hit the floor. “Why?” he asked. “Why do you do this?”

“Because you’re holding a friend of ours who doesn’t belong here. No offense, sweety, but we don’t trust half of you to play nice.”

“Your captain included,” said Mary.

A helicopter could be heard outside at this point. The ladies groaned, thinking it could not get any worse, but then they heard some eerie laughter.

Figures elevated through the ground. Most of them looked like lab workers or doctors of some sort, but with pyres in place of their eyes. They turned their gazes on everyone in the room. One shot a blast at an unconscious Vambraceman, finishing him off.

The hollow laughter echoed again, coming from the newcomers.

“My power isn’t working on them,” said Psi Wizard. “Why isn’t it working on them?”

War Lagoon leveled an arm with the technicians’ heads, and a dark mist appeared around their faces. That, at least, caused the possessed technicians to flail around without any sense of who or what they were looking at. Or firing at, for that matter. Blasts of energy filled the main corridor of the holding block. Sean did his best to raise a defensive barrier, but then Ohm Wire ran outside of it with her metal claws ready to strike.

The reporter spoke into the headset microphone, “The Siren’s Gauntlet base belonging to the Vambracemen appears to be under attack by some deranged scientists with magical powers. They’re shooting all over the place, and . . . HOLY SH--!”

One of the possessed technicians had managed to cling onto the front of the helicopter. He was laughing maniacally and radiating a lot of energy. The broadcast ended suddenly for that station, and more helicopters were on their way. The wreckage of the first one twirled and fell to the ground while the newcomers approached.

Only five more technicians had lingered underground. Max and Mortar Mage dispatched them quickly, but the latter was at a loss of what to do next. That was very bad. He was a scatterbrained sort of man, but never indecisive. Indecisive was a sign something was horribly wrong.

Mortar stared at the reactor if only because that was where he’d happened to be that moment when the last technician fell. It was a nuclear reactor, but with modifications. They were dangerous ones, using powerful magic not taught anywhere around Paragon, nor even the physical plain of reality as far as he knew.

“Sir?” said Max.

“It’s so wrong,” Mortar said.

“Shouldn’t we try to contact the others?”

“My earpiece won’t work because of this thing. Those technicians must have built and maintained this reactor, and now there’s no telling if it will blow or not. Now the others are too far to warn. If anything even tries to tap into this reactor, Paragon will do the best impression of the sun turning into a black hole; an impression you’ll wish you’ve never seen. It’ll be like the end all over again, except it’ll be here. Right here. I hate it. I hate things I cannot stop or change.”

“What about that device in the other room?”

Mortar shot a glare as if to try answering the question without words. It wasn’t one of anger, but of both curiosity and sudden awareness of everything that could go right or wrong in this situation in an instant. Too many variables.

The hero ran past the demolished office into the other room, and found the circular device just waiting for him.

As Max caught up to him, Mortar said, “I play bright and sunny to hide my own shadows, but this . . . This is a reminder that our world is a fragile stem brimming with so much, and all the while teetering on an edge most of us will never see. We have to keep this thing from turning on, or so help me death will seem like the good ending. Come on, help me dismantle this contraption before—“

The glyph chose that second to illuminate. Of course it did.

“No,” Mortar said. He repeated it several times in rapid succession and increasing volume.

“I don’t understand,” said Max.

“Have you ever imagined what the end of the universe would look or feel like?”

“I try not to entertain the thought.”

“When that reactor blows, you won’t have to.” Mortar grabbed a large wrench, and started banging one of the pipes running out of the device. He did so more out of anger than any rational thought, until the wrench loosed from his hand and bounced off of the pipe.

Max looked around the room, and found a only one console. He pointed at it. “What does that do?”

Mortar looked, and said, “That looks like a communication module. Note the microphone and speaker. I saw another speaker outside the office door. That’s not going to turn this off. If only it were so simple.”

The glowing glyph became a pillar of light that touched the ceiling. Yellow warning lights flashed overhead. Knowing that the reactor was due to blow at any second, Mortar stood up with his signature smile.

“Not what I meant by going with a bang. Not how I wanted it to end at all, but that’s being a hero. After what I’ve seen and taken part of, I guess this is the only way.” He pulled out a device. “I can save everyone else with the right spell, one that unlocks this box. Max, I want you to run. I’ll close the blast doors and take my final bow. It will hurt; oh my goodness it will hurt like nothing else. But, I'll gladly go with my conscience intact. Max?”

He turned toward the mage, who punched him square in the face.

The ground was shaking. Adamast quipped to herself that things were always getting better around here when she’d knocked down another possessed technician.

Another tried to sneak up on her, but one of Adamast’s female allies tripped the technician and elbowed him in the face. It was Ohm Wire. She smiled at Adamast while the men caught up to her.

Yet another reunion was cut short when an arcane mark appeared on the ground in the far corner where the holding block was located. The last few technicians all fell like puppets whose strings had been clipped. Even Adamast and Ohm Wire felt something very wrong from that glyph.

Giant, scaly hands surfaced from inside the glyph. A monstrous horror climbed out of it.

“What on Earth is that?” asked War Lagoon.

Adamast shook her head. Her demonic memories surfaced again, bringing her to her knees. Princess Undercut shook her.

“Snap out of it,” Princess Undercut said.

But then Ohm Wire was the one to answer War’s question. “That’s the Abomination of Tribunals. An emissary and liaison of three great forces. And, if we can’t stop it—“

“Our executioner,” Adamast finished.