Lightning Bringer: (Lighting Seeker Book 2)

Glass Knives

Three things happened at once as the ballroom filled with screams.

One. The doors behind Vale shot open filling the space with large metal creatures. Beings that had taken on too many human traits to be considered robotic, but covered in far too much gleaming metal to be anything other than AI's. They got here faster than I expected. Something must have tipped them off.

Two. The chandelier hanging above the room, which was a symbol of delicacy and elegance, an illusion of a life that didn't exist, snapped. It hurled towards the ground, looming towards several people frozen in terror.

Three. A flash of blond, unmistakably, undeniably belonging to a silent boy with eyes of the sea, caught Vale's attention in the corner of the room. Sky, who had been reported missing, was there, in the crowd, and as their eyes locked for a mere moment, the look she received wasn't one she recognized. The warmth she had remembered, the gentle smile that had seemed to only belong to her was gone, was replaced by a hardened exterior, a pair of twin blizzards that sent a chill down her spine. That isn't my Sky. That isn't my silent boy.

The feeling of metal hitting her face knocked Vale's mind back to the AI's around her, and her body towards the banister. She stumbled backwards, her back hitting the railing, her mask slipping off of her face. She turned and gripped the railing, forcing her mask back over her face, angry that she had lost focus.

But the memory of Sky's eyes moments before, drew her face back to the crowd, and she scanned the ballroom again, looking for her silent blond boy, needing his presence there to be true. If he's here, I can find him. I can save him right now.

She spotted Dash, the metal jets at the bottom of his prosthetic legs jolting him towards a paralized woman. He crashed into her, shoving her out of the way of the falling chandelier, her blood red skirts narrowly missing the glistening, terrifyingly beautiful light fixture. The woman hit the ground, rolling several feet before scrambling away. Dash did not follow, swallowed from Vale's view by the crown of light before it hit the ground, shattering into a thousand shards, glass knives hungry for marks.

Vale heard a blood curdling scream rip through the room, surprised that it was her own, which seemed impossible since all of the air had left her lungs the moment Dash vanished below the luster of glass shards. She clamped her mouth shut before she completely lost control of herself and turned in time to block the first AI that came into view with her metal arm.

She was pushed back, her shoulders tilting precariously over the railing as the AI's strength played against hers. She heard Ace and Geo communicating with Mortem over the ear piece, a blur of words that Vale couldn't focus on, not with half of her body bending backwards against her command, giving her an uncomfortable view of the now naked ceiling.

Transforming her metal arm, the plates adjusted, changed in length and size until it became a large sword. Ignoring her mind's instinct to keep her feet on the ground, Vale lifted her legs, allowing her body to flip over the banister, her legs following behind her.

As Vale fell through the air, she shoved her heels, which were sharpened into daggers, into the AI's torso, feeling the metal rip under her feet. She reached through an opening in the banister as her body righted itself, and shoved her sword arm into the AI's thigh, stopping her fall.

Vale hung twenty feet in the air, a river of broken glass below her, an army of AI above her, torn between wanting to dive into the shards to find Dash, and her duty to destroy the creatures above before they could kill her and everyone she cared about.

Ripping her eyes away from the ground, Vale used her free hand to grip the railing, and after yanking her metal sword free, hoisted herself on top of the railing.

Waving her sword dramatically, she shouted so everyone in the room could hear, her voice full of playful mischief "come now, which one of you gentlemanly AI knows how to show a girl a good time?" Not waiting for a reply, Vale ducked, yanking the knives out of her heels.

She tugged on a set of twin gears sitting on each heeled boot. The gears appeared to look like little more than a flashy accessory, but with a quick turn, quickly retracted the arch or her heeled boot, turning them into flat steel toed boots. Much better!

Transforming her metal arm back into the pulse gun, she stood back up, shoved the knives into the pulse gun, charged them with electricity and shot them towards the two closest AI's. Hitting them each in the temple, they shook wildly as lightning wrapped around their bodies. They dropped to the ground, useless shells.

"Lightning, I need backup!" Ace's panicked voice filled her ear.

"On my way," Vale called back. Jumping off the banister, Vale crashed into three AI's, sending them clattering to the ground. Transforming her arm back into a sword, she sliced through them, their metal frames no match for her arms unbreakable material, falling away like tissue in rain. Once they lay in pieces at her feet, she jumped back to assess the rest. Six more AI's. She'd have to be quick.

Waiting a beat until the AI's were closer, Vale shoved her now metal hand into the ground and shot a pulse of lightning across the ground. It grew large and wild, threatening to snake down the stairs as it consumed everything in it's path.

Vale rarely used lightning attacks without a clear target, the energy proved to be too unpredictable. Hungry to devour more than she was willing to risk.

All six AI's buckled and fell as they lit up in webs of light, their bodies short cuirting with overwhelming power. Vale turned and dashed for the railing. Wrapping her steel fingers around the metal banister, she soaking up all of the chaotic lightning that had gone astray which threatened to pour onto the terrified audience below. She soaked it up her arm, and stored it for future use.

Then, she reached under her dress and pulled out a metal wire with a hook at the end. Ace had proven to be quite the skilled seamstress, hiding weapons in secret pockets all across her dress. She had to admit that the doctor's skills with thread and needle went far.

Throwing the hook up, she caught a small piece of the chandelier that still hung to the ceiling and climbed onto the banister. Then she jumped, praying the small hanging wire would hold her weight long enough so she wouldn't break her neck.