Chương 168: Act 3, Chapter 22: Storm

Day in the story: 7th January (Wednesday), around 4. 40 a. m. My preparation took around forty minutes overall, not the initial fifteen I assumed. But on the plus side, I had a vision system ready for other people to look through instead of planting that vision into their own minds, which I guessed most people would appreciate. Oh, and we also now had a few spiders crawling through that house and looking for Robbie.

"This is good for scouting, when they cling to the walls like that," Caroline said, as she sat next to me watching my painted screen display feeds from four spiders and their cameras.

"But you could also look into origami, if you haven't already. You know that?"

"Yes. I never spent much time on it, but it seems like a brilliant idea to easily and cheaply break into the third dimension."

"There are many tutorials online. I once tried it myself. It's mighty calmin'."

"Thanks, Carol. I will definitely try that," I replied, watching the inside of the house unfold before our eyes.

"May I call you Carol?"

"Sure, let's risk it," she replied, and Loki wagged her tail. The first hallway in the building was entirely normal in its presentation—wooden panels on the wall, white ceramic on the floor, a shelf for a myriad of boots, most of which were streetwear running shoes and high boots. There was a mounted hanger on the wall with plenty of purple, black, and navy blue jackets and a few hoodies. A style that shouted Rhythm the moment I noticed them when my first spider wandered in.

The problem was obvious at first glance as well—or rather, at first listen. There were speakers and cameras mounted at almost every corner, and they all played something, and while I hadn't considered this angle at first, I now imagined that Robbie didn't need to project his own songs to use them against us, the same way I didn't need to create art to consider it an artistic creation.

"If he is inside, this could easily turn into a bloodbath," Carol voiced my thoughts.

"So much music everywhere."

"Can't we just bomb the shit out of him? I could paint a big explosive, or I could just irradiate him."

"Jess. That's not why we are here. We need to detain him, not kill him. If possible, that is."

"I say it's not. Are you with me?"

"No. Not yet. Let us see more first. There could be other people in that house. We ain't even sure yet if he is there."

"I am just thinking of the plan if he is."

"I am not sure if an explosion or that other thing you mentioned would work. He healed a broken back, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"So he might heal through other injuries too."

"Through an explosion? I can hardly believe that."

"That would probably be enough. Mages can survive those sometimes, though. Rarely, but they can."

"How are Hexblades dealing with rogue mages then? You ask them to comply?"

"We are looking for mages with abilities suited for apprehension, like myself. I could ask Loki to get him, and she'd get ahold of him, placing him in stasis. There are people that can put others to sleep or make them lose consciousness in other ways."

"You want to cut him off from being able to use his powers?"

"Yes, pretty much."

"Maybe deafening him would work then? Cutting his ears off or flashbanging the shit out of him?"

"Good lord Jesus. You are a walkin' nightmare. I am glad we are on the same side."

"Are you sure that we are?" I joked, half-serious, but she didn't like it. Her face turned sour. She didn't comment on it, though, and instead focused on the feed from one of the spiders that moved out of the hallway, underneath the door gap, and into a bigger room. It was most likely some living space, with two leathery couches, a few wooden cabinets, and a big sound system in the center of it all, connected to a flat TV the size of half a wall.

It had been turned off, but there were speakers in here as well, playing some hip-hop song through them. Another spider chose a different path and went into a soundproofed room that looked like a recording studio, with a glass wall in the middle and a playing and singing station on the other side. It was empty now, but all in all this started pointing toward it being Rhythm's house.

"This might be his place, judging by the music obsession alone," Caroline pointed out.

"Maybe we should send Loki inside to quicken the search, though. Your spiders are not the quickest."

"Bad time," Loki said, sniffing the air and setting her ears upward, twitching them.

"Hide," she added, and I closed the spellbook with a quick clasp, as Carol and I ran toward the small brick wall that divided the street from the small park on the other side. We dropped to the ground right as my Usagear materialized around me, letting me hear and smell with my animal senses. Some bigger Chevy model came closing in and made a full stop with hissing wheels right at the gate of the house we'd been infiltrating.

The car doors opened with much unneeded energy, and a man stormed out of them, knocking on the gate and then pacing back and forth frantically. And I knew that man. Dr. Gerard Jugger, a Domain of Biology user—the man I'd seen facing the Rhythm in training when I was still undercover in EoT. He didn't look too happy about being here, if that wasn't obvious. Robbie came running through the house, passing along the walls where my spiders got a look at him.

"We have our confirmation now," I whispered to Caroline, but she already had her phone in hand and was sending a text somewhere. Probably to the backup team. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Keep quiet," she told me, just as our target—the fratricide—came out to face the other man.

"The fuck is your problem, Jugg? You need a gracious reminder?" Rhythm said. He was wearing a tank top and some pajama-like long trousers, along with a hastily put-on pair of running shoes on bare feet.

"Lower your volume when you speak to me, you animal," Gerard told him, grabbing him with his big hand by his shirt. He was wearing a black jacket and a matching pair of trousers. He had slickly brushed brown hair.

"Your behavior is giving us a problem, so I am here to send a message."

"That supposed to be it? I ain't fucking hearing anything over the noise some rhino is making out of his face-mounted ass," Robbie responded, grabbing the arm and pushing it away.

"Get the fuck out of here before there is only an eulogy left of ya."

"No. Stop fighting with those Nazis and focus on the big picture."

"Tell your boss that as long as mine is out, so am I."

"We are asking now, but you know well enough that she can force you to do what she wants. It's better to be obedient than enthralled."

"Maybe if you don't have the balls," Robbie told him with a smirk and was about to turn when Gerard took a quick swing at him and sent him flying toward the ground. He followed quickly, dropping onto his knees and trying to catch him with some kind of hold. The opening riff of Thunderstruck started playing directly in the air, giving me a flashback to the scene that started this wild hunt of mine.

"Let's get him now—use the argument for our benefit," I told Caroline, who just waited.

"No," she replied, keeping her head low, while Jugger was thrown a few feet away from Rhythm by violent slashes of physical force derived from the guitar playing in the song. His jacket was in shreds as he hit the pavement. He smiled, looking up at the sky.

"I hoped you'd resist," he said, and instead of standing up, his entire body swelled instantly, becoming a tumorous mass of undulating muscle, skin, hair, and ever-popping eyes and arms.

"You are an ugly fuck," Robbie responded.

"I will bury ya," he added, and when the first thunder was shouted in the lyrics, a lightning strike from the clouds overhead hit his opponent. Unfortunately for us, the hit made him crash into the brick wall, destroying it in a way that exposed our presence. As Gerard's body shivered, regenerating and crawling upward with dozens of arms, its multiple sharp-toothed mouths spoke in unison when they noticed us.

"You moron—brought Guild on your head!" His changed form abandoned pursuit of Robbie and instead focused on us, rushing toward our location like some oversized, ripped-to-the-brim centipede with dozens of human arms—crossed with a swollen larva and a snail, his upper part covering itself with some kind of armored shell." Loki, stay!" Caroline shouted, and a golden shadowlight burst out of her toward the dog, who stood on all four between us and the galloping monstrosity.

She stopped moving entirely, like some kind of canine guardian, while my partner grabbed me by the hand and forced me to follow her away from the fight. I joined her in that run for a second, observing with my additional back eyes as more thunders struck Gerard, who didn't care anymore and tried to ram his way through the much smaller dog. When his form met the golden retriever, it splashed against her as if a car had hit a pole.

She was like an immovable object caught in the moment, and the wave of reverberation hit the mass upon impact, breaking the arms that let it sprawl and dropping it to the ground once more, freezing it in place. Only then did Loki move again, shining with golden shadowlight that fit her so well. She jumped on top of the mass, digging for a second with her front paws, throwing torn muscle and blood around. She jumped aside when the thunder hit where she had stood and continued that dance as Jugger regenerated.

Malik's brother laughed his ass off, though, which made me angry.

"We can't run!" I said, stopping cold.

"You will just leave her there?"

"I can't fight them myself. She is my power," Caroline responded.

"Help is on the way. We just have to keep them here."

"Hell no," I said and freed myself from her hand. With just a second to spare, I pushed both of us away from the point where lightning struck.

"Hide!" I shouted as I ran between the trees, watching her do the same. Continuous lightning strikes fell from the angry heaven on the whims of the Rhythm, who was now fighting us and Dr. Gerard alike.

"Don't be stupid, Jess!" she shouted, but I didn't care anymore. I wanted this man dead, and he would be. I already had a plan for how to do it, so I started throwing my eye-cards all around myself, infused with the sense of sight, sticking their shiny metallic rectangular forms into the bark of the trees. I just needed to get close enough to throw at him.

I bolted toward him while doing that and rushed into the scene where he tried to smash Jugger with beats, while forcing the thunder onto the park I had just left. His eyes widened when he noticed me.

"You!" he shouted.

"I will end you for what you've done!" He raised his voice even more, just as Gerard's abominable form rose, towering over the poor dog to my left. He looked like a wave made of human parts and waving arms, right before he crashed down, trying to smash Loki. She was faster though, dodging aside and ramming the mass, breaking lots of its bones in the process. The Rhythm, however, focused on me, so I let my cards fly toward him. Eye-cards first.

One after another, I must have sent dozens of them in just seconds, each thrown away by some shield of force he projected around himself, as the air shimmered in purple and blue shadowlight with each hit. I didn't mind, though. They were just distractions that lodged themselves around, providing me with vision all around.

"You bitch, you thin—" The force of an explosion cut off his gloating as my explosive card hit the field instead. Then another and another, forcing even more noise into the night. Gerard's car shrieked with an alarm briefly hit by the blast, before it was totally destroyed when one of the cards struck it. The Rhythm, however, held pretty well, unfortunately. He was smiling widely as the music changed to I'm Still Standing. The same song that played when his brother was killed by him.

"Cheeky fucking bastard!" I shouted as his burnt skin and torn flesh regenerated.

"Keep the party tricks to yourself," he said, but it sounded more like a whisper under all that noise around us. I dodged by moving aside quickly as the eyes on my left noticed Gerard undulating into some kind of tentacle made out of human arms that went around the entire area like a whip. It smashed and destroyed the entire length of the Rhythm's house wall and almost hit him as well. He managed to drop down, though, and forced more of the song's beats into attacks directed at the doctor.

Gerard, however, stopped moving entirely, shining briefly with golden shadowlight, as Loki on top of him seemed to grab him into her invisible leash. When he noticed that, the next attacks were directed at me instead, turning the vibrations in the air into a weapon of destruction. I felt only the first of those as it hit me from the front, forcing my body onto the ground as all of my bones hurt.

When the second of those beats hit, I wasn't there anymore, appearing on a card far to the back of his position, already with Noxy in my hand that I brought here from my Domain. I aimed but was hit back before I could fire, throwing me off again. He didn't even look in my direction to do that. Another teleport placed me behind the broken wall, where I stopped and made the shot, forcing the music to break with the power of Noxy's roar.

My arms, stabilized briefly by the power of my Usagear armor, felt the force push back through them. It hurt like a motherfucker, but I held my stance and the bullet went flying like a magnetically accelerated rail. Instead of the Rhythm, it hit some afterimage of him that he left behind, shattering it into melodious yet discordant sounds, as he dropped briefly to all fours. He crawled away due to the force of the impact, leaving more of those afterimages behind. My body kept hurting.

But I teleported again to another position right next to him, to one of the cards that lay there. I made a quick few steps to get close and personal as I appeared with my Flying Sword in hand instead, just to get smashed aside toward the remnants of the wall with a wave of his arm. He jumped toward me as the music changed to some house techno I didn't know.

One hand went around my throat, fingers closing in, trying to crush it, while the other grabbed my right arm and slammed it against the wall with enormous force, forcing me to drop the blade.