The Earthly Queen: The Woman of Worlds Apart

Chapter 16: (Eris)

I race through the yard and somehow avoid being incapacitated. By sheer dumb luck I haven't been shot. I"m able to shoot the attacking Glimmers right out of the air. I have a feeling that this luck isn't going to stick around forever.

In one hand I have my gun and in the other I have the Milligasher - it being the only other weapon available. I waste neither. Whatever Glimmer isn't shot by me gets pulverized to periwinkle goo as soon as they get close enough.

I would normally feel really shitty about killing an animal but, in the heat of the moment and the circumstances surrounding it, my sympathies have run pretty dry.

My goal is to get back to the van we drove in with. I have to 'take the scenic route' to get there but I'm getting closer and closer all the time.

The Skyjackers are being held at bay for the nance by Mack-He. He's summoning huge amounts of energy from the house's electrical systems and is lobbying bolts of deadly energy at our foes. Sikh is quick on his feet and does all sorts of impressive martial arts twirls and flips and ducks to avoid them. Opal zips around on the hoverbike and tries in vain to get around Mack-He. She's getting nowhere.

I'm finally at the car! I fumble with the door latch. The automatic lock clicked as soon as we exited before. Keys, keys, where are the keys?! You know what, fuck it! I raise the Milligasher and smash the butt into the glass over and over until I hear the tinkle of shattered glass. The car alarm goes off.

Opal sees what I'm doing and roars with anger. "TRADE ME!" she yells to Sikh. with that she pulls the bike back and races at Mack-He, head on. She actually switches the bike into autopilot and gets up on the seat and - as it gets closest to Mack-He - makes a mighty leap up and over Mack-He's head. The unexpected move throws off his aim and he misses. Sikh hops on the bike before it can crash and continues trying to get around Mack-He.

Opal does a controlled roll as she hits the ground before leaping up and racing towards me. She throws her hand out just as I get the loor unlatched and opened. The car shudders as, in horror, I watch as the entire vehicle flies apart and falls to the ground in thousands and thousands of individual pieces like a model airplane kit.

I look up at Opal in shock and she grins. She swaggers over, holding up her gun, cocked and ready. "Isn't it a bit hypocritical of you using that thing?" she says. "Thought you were some 'innocent' normie. But here you are, slicing and dicing like one of us. Wonder what that says about you."

My nervous hand worries the handle of the Milligasher. It finds a switch that, when flipped, unlocks five buttons.

I accidentally press one. The blades go from sixty to zero abruptly and then launch themselves out at Opal like extremely long knife-tipped tentacles. "GHA!" she does a desperate flip to avoid the blades and lands on her back, hard. The blades retract and I aim at Opal and press the button again. Opal rolls out of the way seconds before she's be impaled by hundreds of blades. "THE FUCK? Not fair! Kris didn't say they could do that!"

I press another button. The whole Milligasher grows warm in my hand. The device starts to disintegrate in my hand. The tiny, tiny, pieces of metal skitter over my arm like tiny insects and rearrange themselves before reforming as a blade-claw tipped gauntlet.

Several Glimmers have come over to make themselves useful. One launches from the side, pulsation knuckles at the ready. I swipe at it with my gauntleted hand. I slice the creature's arms right off on the first swipe and stab it through the chest on the second swipe.

Opal is on her feet again and can only stare with wide eyes. I look back at her and blast the gun from her hand. I accidentally get one of her fingers in the process. She shrieks and glitches the tiny stump that's bleeding uncontrollably.