⚡️THUNDERFANG S3 #29

⚡️THUNDERFANG S3 #28: Bodies, Bodies, Bodies

Christa questions Locke’s involvement in Shiningstar, leading the Irregulars to more than one shocking discovery.

GXYZTavon Gatling

Conspiracy Awaits

Join and gain access to member-exclusive chapters of ⚡️THUNDERFANG, early chapters, free digital products, and so much more.

Subscribe

Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

⚡️ THUNDERFANG Interlude #3

Avam defies all of Ira’s expectations. And so does the handsome stranger he meets that will change his life.

GXYZTavon Gatling

My heart fluttered remembering that moment in time. He’d been so paranoid back then, waiting for me or my friends to—literally—stab him in the back, completely unaware that I was ready to give him my heart from the moment I’d seen him.

I thumbed the black iron ring on my finger, unable to stop my smile from spreading.

Like Irēn, his parents had been surprised that Ira taught me the Ironsworn ways, and even more surprised at just how closely I adhered to those teachings. 

“You ran back to save Jane, even though you could have died?” Dalon’s eyes were wide, eager to hear what happened next.

Our recount of our initial meeting had taken a few turns here and there, but we’d mostly stayed on task over the last hour. We glossed over how we ended up on separate planets, though. 

Another story for another time.

I could tell that Ira was soaking up their presence, despite it being virtual. They’d missed so much of his life and, despite how he might have felt before, he was eager to fill them in. It brought a smile to my face to see them eager to listen.

“You should have stopped looking for us ages ago,” Arayna said finally. “You have so much on your plates already.”

“We tried, actually.” Ira shook his head. “But then his brother told us we had to keep looking for you. You’re the next step for some reason.”

“The Hivebranded older brother that went missing when you were both kids and only appears to you?” I couldn’t tell if Dalon was asking a question or simply confirming the oddity of the facts. Regardless, I sighed and nodded. It sounded so much crazier having someone else say it out loud.

“Is there anything you can tell us?” I asked. “I don’t think Michael would have pushed so hard for us to find you if it wasn’t life or death.”

“Well, you already know Akim was looking for the portals—that’s what we’ve been searching for, too.” Arayna adjusted herself in her seat. “There are supposedly three of them. They’re called Iron Gates. Rumor has it that these were originally going to bring us all—humans—here after the Cataclysm, but they weren’t ready in time.”

“Why would Akim Salvi need Iron Gates?” I paced the common area, stealing glances at the crime board in case something happened to fit.

“Better question might be who is running things since he’s dead? If he found them, then where are the Iron Gates?” Dalon said.

“Mom, Dad, do you know why Shiningstar is on Saffron by any chance?” Ira walked over to the board and took the notecard with the ill-fated ship’s name written on it, as well as Dr. Hendrix’s.

“I have no idea,” Arayna said with a sigh. “And it’s empty now, which means all of those Risen had to have gone somewhere.”

“What if…” I hesitated for a moment. “What if the Risen aren’t on Saffron anymore? What if one of the Iron Gates is there and they’ve already sent them to wherever the hell they needed them to go?”

Ira’s eyes narrowed. “Didn’t Irēn say that the number of Risen in the Salvi Sigil was its lowest in years?”

I nodded.

“What if they’re moving all the Risen?” Dalon’s words weren’t meant to strike fear in my heart, but it did nonetheless.

“But where?” I paced with more intensity, wracking my brain. Where could they be taking them? “If the Shiningstar Risen aren’t on Saffron, and New Bohemia’s Risen rates are low, maybe two of the three Iron Gates are there. But then, where would the third one be?”

The moment I said it, I regretted it.

This had to have been why the Adlers were important. How long would it have taken us to put this all together otherwise?

If I continued to say what I was thinking out loud, would that make them come true?

…Foolish. I only had the idea because it was shown to me. It was already true, and I was simply catching up.

I’d been shown the hell that awaited us, thanks to the precursor vault. I knew exactly where the Risen would be waiting to swarm us.

I looked to Ira, sadness and resignation in our eyes. He knew, too.

In sync, we said, “Avam.”

The others were more annoyed than shocked once we told them about our revelation. Avam was the last place any of us wanted to go to, especially the three of us that’d already been there.

Jane’s green hair drooped as she leaned against one of the walls, one hand clutching the other arm through the sleeves of her black shirt. Her eyes were lost in thought. Perhaps she was remembering her vision, too—the one where she lost control of her Ghostbranding and fell through the planet. That was a particularly nasty fear, one I wouldn’t even wish on Jillian.

Ira and John sported similar looks; I did my best to keep my emotions at bay. I’d already talked about giving up and I wasn’t allowed to—I wouldn’t forgive myself if I did. Not even because Michael would probably find some way to manipulate me anyway, or Tick would push events towards the inevitable. But I wanted to do this now. 

Mostly. Kind of. The thought of my lightning going crazy and ripping the skin from my bones was suddenly fresh again. It was more memory than speculation at this point. Same with the vision of meeting Malice. Being tossed back with barely a gesture. 

We had every right to be scared—terrified, even.

But if every entity conspired to get us together for a showdown with Malice, that meant we at least had a shot, right? We were the only ones capable of stopping what was coming, as well as whatever mundane threats the Moriartys posed.

Christa stood with us, the Adlers projected into the common area, as we planned our next move. “So, we’re headed to Avam, then?” Christa said.

“Getting there is going to be difficult,” Ira said. “Trust me.”

“Then what do we do?” Christa furrowed her brows. “If we can’t get to Avam to stop this war, then we’re doomed.”

“And I’m quite sure we are running out of time,” Arayna added, concern coloring her words.

“Time.” Tick perked up, eyes large, filled with an idea. “Time!” He shot to his feet and mumbled, seemingly doing calculations in the air with a finger. Unsatisfied with the result, he looked at me. “Do you know when, when the Risen first started appearing?”

Jane let out a clipped laugh. “What? Always. What does this have to do with getting to Avam?”

“It doesn’t but…Think, think about it. How are they controlling the Risen? How are they making the Risen?”

“It’s been a naturally occurring phenomenon of the area surrounding the Salvi Sigil for a couple centuries or so now,” Dalon said, though the slowing of his words at the end sounded more like skepticism than confidence.

“No other planet?” Tick asked with a smile.

“Where is this going, Tick Tock?” Jane huffed.

“A couple of centuries is pretty, pretty new, considering the Forge,” Tick began. “Locke, don’t know if it was this, this timeline or one of the others—”

“Timelines?” Arayna’s confusion went unanswered.

“—but you said you and Diogenes were discussing when certain Brandings appeared in the Forge, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. She said Lightningbranded appeared over 600 years ago.”

“And Ira’s, Jane’s, and my Branding are much, much newer. And, honestly, weird. Even Diogenes’s Branding is weird.” Tick watched all of our facial expressions, waiting, as if he’d just delivered the punchline to an extremely funny joke.

When none of us caught on fast enough, he grunted loudly and rolled his eyes. “I think the Risen are created by someone’s Branding,” he said with resignation.

“Excuse me?” Christa’s response was the loudest among us, but we all reacted similarly. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

“I kept trying to answer the question, ‘Why were there Risen in the precursor vault?’ It didn’t make sense. I also didn’t get how anyone could control Risen with any, any certainty. And I wondered why only New Bohemia has Risen sightings—and only directly, directly above the secret underground facility that holds and captures all the Branded.

“A long, long time ago, the first—umm, what should I call them?—Deathbranded popped up, accidentally made Risen, got caught, and all the Animus began, began making sure to keep an eye out for them. They probably never get sent to Avam, either, which might, might explain why New Bohemia has so many Risen. They’ve been stockpiling them.”

Before I knew it, I was slow clapping, mouth agape. I was stunned. “Did you loop back to tell us that?”

Tick stood tall, pride beaming off of him. “Nope! I’ve just been thinking—a lot, a lot. Helps that I have other timelines to compare this one to. Remember, remember? Shiningstar crashed in one of them; maybe they got it right this, this time. I mean, right for them, not right for us. You know what I mean.”

“Look who’s trying to take Locke’s job.” John pulled Tick in close and jostled him, their laughter banishing some of the darkness that we’d allowed in earlier.

“That is one mystery potentially solved, but we still need to get to Avam somehow,” Dalon said, bringing us back to our current dilemma.

“Why don’t we head to Saffron?” I said. “We can meet back up with Lestrade, make sure the Risen are actually gone, and if they are, maybe we can follow them.”

“Most of our support is currently on New Bohemia right now,” Arayna said. “I feel as if that might be the better entry point.”

Irēn raised a hand, then looked from me to her brother with apologetic eyes. 

She wouldn’t dare—

“Why don’t we split up?”

Of course she would.

“Yelena and I can head with Christa,“ Irēn said, cautiously navigating Ira’s expression, “and we can meet on New Bohemia. Find the portal there. The rest of you can head to Saffron.” Irēn flinched at Ira’s reaction. “I know, but…I’ve been looking for Mom and Dad for ages. Besides, I’m an Irregular, too, right? That means we’re never apart for long.” 

She gripped Ira’s shoulders, attempting to force her smile to make him feel better. “This way, some of us are on New Bohemia. We have Kaisa and Fletcher on Obon. Lestrade and Blackstone are en route to Saffron. We’re all over the Salvi Pass. If something happens, the Forge isn’t waiting for just you or my future brother-in-law to rush in and save the day. We’ll have people there, ready to put things in motion.”

I hated that she made sense. She made perfect sense actually. If we got to Saffron and there was no portal, we could easily call up Irēn to search for it there, or ping Kaisa and Fletcher to see if Walden or Corra knew anything about the Iron Gates.

I just didn’t want Ira’s family to be separated again after finally reuniting.

Ira pulled his sister in close and hugged her deeply. Arayna gripped Dalon’s hand, who seemed to be holding back tears of his own.

“Why don’t you come with your sister?” Arayna did her best to not sound too pleading. If I were her, and the child I hadn’t seen for years finally appeared, I would lose all sense of pride. I would plead and beg. 

But, then again, I was slipping into an era of selfishness. Maybe Arayna was making sure her child had a choice.

Maybe I wasn’t too different from Michael.

“I can’t leave Locke,” Ira said, taking in the sight of his parents and Irēn with glossy eyes. “I know that you all are alive now, and safe. We’ll reunite when this is all over, I promise…” 

He shook his head. “I Swear.”

Dalon placed a reassuring hand on Arayna’s shoulder, and his parents nodded in unison.

Irēn and Yelena’s sendoff was far less dramatic than the others. We’d already become somewhat comfortable with the concept of the Irregulars, so we continued to tell ourselves that we would see each other again soon.

Now we were down to just five—myself, Ira, John, Jane, and Tick. The Brandeds. I hated thinking it, but I did feel a bit more secure with it just being us. I felt like I could worry less about their safety, as each of them had proven they could handle themselves in combat.

…Well, except maybe Tick. But then he could always loop back and warn everyone, so I let myself find some solace in that.

As we made our way to Saffron, I couldn’t help but notice how much quieter the Scarlet Adler was. What was once a ship filled with Blackstone and Irēn playing cards loudly, and clanks and booms from the lab as Yelena worked on one project after another, and Kaisa and Fletcher giggling, trying to keep their relationship under the radar…was now quiet. Even Jane and John didn’t play as much; their laughter seemed to have left with the others.

Ira sat next to me in the co-pilot seat as I flew, a plush blanket wrapped around him. “I’m going to miss them,” he said softly, only loud enough for me to hear.

“We’ll see them again.” I didn’t even try to mask that I was telling myself that just as much as I was telling him. I hoped that we wouldn’t lose anyone else. I wasn’t sure if my heart could take it.

A knock on the open cockpit door drew my attention away from Ira.

“Sorry to interrupt, but…I’ve got bad news.” John was dressed comfortably, in his favorite lounging attire of black sweats and a black hoodie. He held a tablet in his hand, which he extended out for Ira to take.

As Ira looked over it, he groaned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“So, I decided to look into Saffron and New Bohemia a bit more, see if I could find out some more clues as to what we’re walking into. Well, remember how Irēn said that there was pretty normal Risen activity on New Bohemia? Seems like there was more to it than that.”

Of course.

“Apparently, there’s something wrong with most of the Farewell Mesas,” Ira said, still swiping through the data. “Seems the Salvi Sigil and Port Wreck had to open up specialized buildings to help accommodate the cremations, but then wouldn’t let the families be with their loved ones as the ceremony took place.”

“There’s no proof that the bodies of their loved ones were ever burned,” John added, shaking his head.

“So they’re taking the bodies,” I said matter of factly. There was no denying it. It made sense: if I wanted to build an army of Risen, why would I let the populace keep eliminating what I needed to make more?

It made my stomach churn.

IT’S TOO LATE TO STOP IT.

WHO KNOWS HOW LONG THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON?

THEY COULD HAVE HUNDREDS—THOUSANDS—MILLIONS OF BODIES WAITING TO BE PLACED UNDER THEIR CONTROL.

I closed my eyes and did my best to banish the negativity. There was still hope—Michael wasn’t cussing me out yet, so I figured we were still on the right path. But we were at a severe disadvantage. All those bodies—

I opened my eyes, gooseflesh forming at a particularly terrifying thought. 

There weren’t enough bodies on New Bohemia for that.

“John, get in contact with Lestrade. Hopefully she’s back by now. Tell her to look and see if bodies have gone missing from Saffron, too.”

“Wait, what?”

“If I’m right—and I really hope that I’m not—they would have done something similar there, too.”

“You’re jok— Of course you aren’t,” Ira groaned.

John took the tablet back from Ira and nodded, then headed back out to the common area.

“We need to hurry.” I pressed a few button on the console in front of me, and Ira took that as his cue to strap in. 

Next week on ⚡️THUNDERFANG:

Locke and the Irregulars set off to stop Jack Moriarty. And despite the circumstances, they keep hope alive.