⚡️THUNDERFANG S3 #36

⚡️THUNDERFANG S3 #35: Checkmate

A three-way match between Locke, the Moriartys, and Jane decides the fate of the Forge.

GXYZTavon Gatling

Conspiracy Awaits

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Panic and realization set in. I wrapped an arm around John and Ira, pulled them in close, and shouted, “EVERYONE, BRACE YOURSELVES!”

The truth had yet to find its way to Jane, a puzzled expression on her face.

Then fear.

Jane’s body was flung through the air, followed swiftly by John, Ira, and myself, and anyone else on top of the platform. Our screams and rushing wind filled my ears as we soared over the sea of groaning Risen, our limbs flailing about.

We landed amidst all the other Branded, tumbling over and over against each other and the dead, rocky surface of Avam. A pillow of wind softened the blow, but only barely.

I replayed as much of the vision as I could remember in my head as I stood up, looking for any clues as to how we could beat Malice itself. I spit out dirt and blood and wiped any excess off with a fist while Watt helped as many of the others as he could to their feet. 

“You’re too late, Detective,” Malice said. Fuck. That thing was reading my mind—or was this all part of the script we’d been inevitably following? “You’ve already lost.”

I was bombabed with flashes of my lightning being turned on me, the memories forcing their way to the surface. “Whatever you do, do not—”

My heart dropped. I was, in fact, too late. What I’d seen ages ago played out exactly as foretold. Lightning, ice, water, soil, wind, and fire soared towards the malevolent entity. And, exactly as I had feared, Malice didn’t flinch.

“Tsk, tsk.” Malice stood there like a disappointed parent about to teach their child a lesson they would never forget. “That’s mine.” A wave of pure energy rippled through the air and launched all of the assaults back at those who had attacked, each Branding tinted with a black and purple aura.

The lightning struck the two Lightningbranded who had attacked. One of them was the older man who’d recharged me. Their bodies convulsed, millions upon millions of volts of electricity now coursing through them. They collapsed, their eyed rolled into the back of their heads, yellow and black sparks dancing off their skin as steam rose from their bodies. 

Shards of ice chased four Cryobranded. One shard found purchase, impaling the Branded in place at an uncomfortable angle. The others attempted to fight back, but their Brandings were useless against Malice. Each shard split into smaller ones and ripped into them. Then, as the life left them, the shards burst, spraying icy shrapnel into the others nearby. 

Waves of water condensened into a hundred small streams as it whipped the bodies of two Wavebranded before they snaked into their nostrils. They clawed at their throats, ripping away at their flesh in a futile attempt at survival. They collapsed with the others, drowned in the water they’d previously commanded. 

Boulder-sized chunks of Avam’s soil unceremoniously engulfed two Quakebranded. When the mounds collided with the planet, the hand of one of the Quakebranded was all I could see as they were dragged further and further below the surface until there was nothing left. Not even a trace that the dirt had been disturbed. 

The wind struck a Cyclonebranded I hadn’t noticed earlier, the air much more sharp and deadly than I’d even seen it. Bit by bit, the air flayed at his skin until there wasn’t any left. He fell to the ground, organs and muscle and bone and blood exposed, writhing in pain until he eventually stopped. 

Purple-tinted fire chased three Infernobranded as they ran for cover. But the fire expanded and consumed them anyway, their bodies igniting as their screams filled the air. The image of the burning Risen from the derelict flashed before my mind. The three fell to the ground as the fires burned and filled the air with a sickening smell.

Cries of despair and anguish swept through those remaining. Many started fleeing. The loved ones of the recently deceased tried to help, but to no avail. There was nothing left for them—for any of us—to do now. A few more Branded, as if oblivious to what had just happened, attacked Malice, only to meet the same—or a worse—fate. I turned my eyes away from the carnage.

“You are a pawn, Detective,” Malice said, slowly floating down from the platform to the ground. The Risen parted, leaving a wide path. “You all are. Following orders,” Malice said with a smirk. “All according to plan. Stay in your place.” Despite the gentleness in the words, there wasn’t a damn thing gentle about it. All it did was heighten my fears.

Siege, Hush, and Tremor found their way to my side. Siege’s hands were smoking, the burning rage within them tampered down in his fists. He’d never backed down from a fight before. Ever. Hush’s everpresent yet subtle touch on the wind was gone. In fact, the air was the most still I’d ever felt on Avam—or anywhere within the Salvi Pass. It felt as dead as our hopes of survival. Tremor looked like she did the day I saved her. Only this time, she wasn’t the only one powerless.

The two remaining Moriartys huddled together amidst the chaos and confusion. The father had his arms wrapped around his daughther, eyes clinched shut, while Jilian sobbed. A Branded collapsed in front of them, softly pleading for help in their final moments. Jillian stifled a cry, as if doing so would make them the next to die.

Jane stood motionless, eyes wide. Tick frantically looked over the ground and John surveyed the warzone. Could it even be considered a warzone or battlefield if one side had no chance at winning? His Ripley Slater persona was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the one birthed on Avam had taken over. NEVERMORE cowered with the rest of us. Ira took my hand in his.

“I couldn’t have done it without you.” Malice smiled and motioned to the chaos around us, gleeful. I took it all in, suddenly very aware of the part I played in it all. I was the reason they were all here. Every single one of them, including the Moriartys, was here because of me. We could have left everyone captive and come back later. I could have drawn the Moriartys somewhere else and made them play by my rules. But no. I had done exactly what Malice wanted me to do. 

What hurt the most, though, was the sickening realization of what specifically Malice was referring to. It hadn’t been clear in my vision. I had felt like I was missing something. But in the present, I realized what I could not have before. The throngs of freed captives scattered about, crying and destitute. My comrades, backing me up despite the inevitable. My antagonists—no longer enemies, not with Malice standing in front of us. 

Malice had been pointing at one specific person when he’d said it.

Jane.

Disbelief flooded her, and an emptiness I’d never felt before consumed me. 

But only for a moment. 

“Now, shoo.” Malice flung everyone back once more. 

I caught sight of the balefires peaking through the clouds as I landed, the last thing I’d seen in the vision. What good would wishing do now? We were done for. We’d lost.

The ground shook and cracked, swallowing a few of the Branded as beasts and shadows and mist burst forth, like bugs fleeing a carcass. The 44^th’s skin burst, puss and blood and bone making their way to the surface. “My Miseries are complete,” Malice shouted, hands stretched to the sky. Just like Akim in his final moments. The Risen fidgted and began their slow shamble towards the remaining Branded. 

“THERE ARE RISEN IN PORTENT. I REPEAT, THERE ARE RISEN IN PORTENT.” Lestrade’s shouting in my ears only hammered home that the hell we were experiencing was only a taste of what was awaiting the Forge. Gunshots echoed in the distance as familiar screams filled the background. “LOCKE, WHAT HAPPENED!”

“It’s the same here! I’ve never seen this many before!” Irēn shouted. Ira gripped my arm tight as more chaos flooded the comms.

“Like I said,“ Malice said, training his crazed exurberant eyes on us, “it is far too late for any of you to do anything.” The 44^th was missing teeth now, making Malice’s smile that much more horrifying.

Tick rushed foward, hand gripping a very dirty pocketwatch. “So then we won’t be late!” He flipped the pocketwatch open and—

Malice snapped his fingers. Tick’s body siezed.

He collapsed to his knees, head in his hands as his screams joined the cacophony. Somehow it was worse than the others before. I rushed to his side, trying to find an injury. As tears streamed down his face, I struggled to breath, the horror sending ice through my veins.

He looked so much like Conan.

“That should shut him up,” Malice said with an eye roll. Tick began mumbling, though it was too low for me to make any sense of it. I couldn’t hear much else over the sounds of death all around me.

Red hot tears stung my face as they slid through cuts and scrapes I didn’t know I had. “Malice, STOP!” 

“Stop?” Malice laughed, as if what I’d said was something uncomprehensible. A joke. “No. Face it, Detective. I’ve won, and you’ve lost. ‘As at the beginning, so at the end.’ Are you all going to flee this time, too? We can play this game for eons. This was even more fun this time around.”

A growl erupted from within in Siege’s chest. He took a few steps forward and ignited his hands, the muscles in his arms tensing. “Somebody’s gotta stop you!”

“And who’s going to do that? You?” Malice’s head lolled to the side.

Purple engulfed Siege’s fire, and he bit back his screams. Inch by inch, the fire slowly crept up his arms as Siege’s body bubbled and burned.

The wind picked up as a storm ahead grew louder, lightning lancing from cloud to cloud. John winced and checked his arms. His suit was being ripped to shreds. And beneath that, small cuts. Hush fell to her knees as the same thing happened to her. John’s eyes filled with fear and tears.

“No, no no no!” Jane backed away, arms outstretched, pleading for mercy. And then she stopped, her worst nightmare taking shape. The bottoms of her feet had vanished below the surface. She screamed and tried to pull them out, only to slowly dip further and further the more she struggled.

Tremor was fighting off something similar, though the ground was rising around her, encasing her body in thick solidified rock. No matter how much of it she managed to break away, it flowed back around her.

I started crying before anything even happened to me.

My lightning, borded by an evil darkness, began crackling unwillingly, burning through my suit and leaving patterns like tree limbs and roots on my skin as it spread. I swallowed my cries as I looked at Ira. His feet were wrapped in strange spiky black roots. With each layer, they ripped through his suit and drew blood as if they needed it to survive. I trudged through the pain and wrapped my arms around him as he did the same. 

This was it. It was hopeless. All of our powers were being turned against us. The things we had been punished for were punishing us. Innocent people were dead. There were so few of us left now. None of us deserved this. Jane yelled out as she wrapped her arms around Watt, attempting to use him to pull her out of the ground. She had sunk up to her chest. John and Hush were bloody. Tremor could only scream, her arms too heavy to move, the ground still encasing her in her future tomb. Siege would probably never regain use of his hands again, if we survived this. White foam escaped Tick’s mouth as he continued to mumble. None of us deserved this.

All the while, Malice laughed.

“I’m so sorry, Ira. I…I should have never come. It’s all my fault.” My heart raced and I pulled him in closer.

“No, it’s not,” he said, wincing between words. The roots were up to his thighs now. “You were trying to save us all.”

“But I couldn’t! Instead, I led everyone to their deaths and—”

“You did not do this!” Ira shouted, anger in his voice. He pressed his forehead against mine and I couldn’t help but stare back. “This is all Malice. You brought people together, you saved them. You did everything you could. If you hadn’t of come, Malice would’ve found another way, and you would’ve blamed yourself for that. But none of this is your fault!”

The pain coursing thorugh my body made it hard to stand up straight and I eventually fell to my knees. Ira fell as well, the roots sprouting rotten black roses. The putrid scent of decay permeated the land.

“I…I failed.” The voltage had ramped up and I cried out for a moment. Ira locked our hands together, but I was beginning to go numb. I could barely feel him now. “You called me a Hero and I … fucked up. I’m not anything you called me. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Yes. You. Are. You are all of those things! I don’t care that we’re about to die. I won’t let you think you are anything less than you deserve! But…only you can decide who you are. You have to believe it.”

If we were going to die here, then I wanted my last sights to be of him. Of my love.

I took his head in my hands and kissed him deeply, almost biting his lip and my tongue as a lance of pain shot through my back. I did my best to block out the sounds around us, of death and despair, of unanswered cries for help, of Tick mumbling, of Malice laughing manically.

“I love you, Ira Adler.”

“I love you, Locke Holmes.” 

Next week on ⚡️THUNDERFANG:

They've tried bargaining, wallowed in depression, been consumed with anger, and accepted their fate.

Now, denial.