Chapter 17: The Battle of Port Moonstone, Part Two

  Emma and I made our way to Takeuchi Industries HQ, doing our best to stay away from cactus spikes and gunfire. This was insanity. Sure, Emma and I had been fighters back in the Crystalline Initiative, but I’d never been involved in a conflict of this scale. Usually when the Staaldier mechs got deployed, we’d stuck to evacuating people who needed help, maybe mopping up a few stray monsters. But we’d never dealt with a situation where three or more potential threats were active, and where soldiers were storming the streets. As we arrived, the Major filled us in: hostages had been taken. Our new mission was to link up with QPS Special Emergency Response Team, free the hostages, and take Iron Mask dead or alive.

  Going in, I realised we didn’t have a real plan. Pearl and Opal had been the self-appointed leaders of the Crystalline Sisters, so I just went along with whatever they told us. Blast monsters, save lives, simple right? Now I was expected to show leadership, and I hadn’t done that since I ran for school captain.

  We went in a back way, through a Starbucks, where we were confronted by a small bunch of guys with shotguns and black body armour, the kind you’d expect in an action movie. Almost instantly, they had their guns trained on us, and my hands went straight to the sky. “Don’t shoot! We’re on your side! The Major sent us!”

  Their leaders looked up, looking incredulous. One of them was an older guy, with a shotgun and a beard, and a steely glare. Maybe the Army’s been giving lessons to QPS. The other guy was a bit younger, maybe: it was hard to tell behind the sunglasses. He was tall and jacked, with slicked hair. The older guy snorted “You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific, sweetheart. There’s a few Majors in the Army.”

  “We’re the Crystalline Initiative. Major Jones set us, orders from Canberra apparently. Look, we’re the magical girls, we got sent to rescue hostages and help you take down Iron Mask. You guys got a plan?”

  Sunglasses spat. “Can you believe this, Sarge? Couple of fucking cosplayers think-“

  The old guy raised his hand. “Can it, Senior Constable. Orders have come in from Canberra. I’m going to be honest with you all: this is not an optimal breach environment. There’s a single chokepoint, far too easy for Iron Mask to defend. We’ll have to enter floor 27 via the fire escape, breach, clear and secure the hostages. We’ll need to rely on numerical superiority as well as greater firepower. Any questions?”

  I raised my hand. “I don’t know if anybody knows, but this one’s a different Iron Mask to the one that we might have fought years ago-“

  “Cross that bridge when we come to it, merc. Hostages are priority one.”

  The crew all unholstered and prepared their weapons. Even with my powers, I felt kind of under-equipped with just my umbrella. The time came, and we all filed into the fire escape, Emma out the front with her sword, me up somewhere in the middle. Around me, I could hear the sounds of gunfire muffled by concrete. My heart pounded in my chest, and my knees felt like jelly. By the look of everyone around me, I got the feeling that this was a shoot-first and ask questions never kind of operation.

  Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter any sort of resistance in the stairwell: in the past, Iron Mask had a habit of setting up booby traps that seemed to come out of nowhere. The hairs on my neck were beginning to stand up: Things were going far too well for my liking.

  Once we got to the main office, one of the guys kicked in the door, and we stormed in, finding hostages all kneeling on the ground. Iron Mask looked up, giving no indication of her intentions or emotions, as muffled gangster rap played from a speaker somewhere in the office. The old guy held up a hand as the group assembled into position. There was something wrong about this, something I couldn’t put my finger on: something in the way Iron Mask was moving.

  We pointed our weapons, neither of us moving. I tried to get a read on Iron Mask, but that blank expression didn’t help. She began to clap slowly, and looked over us all. I looked around desperately for the trap, but I couldn’t see anything. But then she spoke.

  “Go on now. Motherfuckers can start shooting if ya’ll want. The irony, as I see it, as that these hostages are the safest people in this city right now. You can have them: They co-operated fully with the agenda. They served their purpose. Emerald, Amethyst? Ya’ll only worth half a damn each. And since the rest of you are collectively worth less than jack fucking shit, this leaves you motherfuckers outnumbered.”

  A couple of our group moved forward slowly and kneeled, shotguns levelled at Iron Mask’s chest. I looked around desperately, for the trap that I knew had to be coming. It was then that I saw the desks, or rather, the pots on the desks, each one with a tiny Saguaro cactus. And another tiny cactus person, this one with a flower crown, began to peek out from Iron Mask’s hoodie. Iron Mask looked me in the eye. I began to charge an attack, realizing just what her real plan had been.

  “I guess Mary Poppins over here’s beginning to catch on, but the rest of you punks didn’t spot what’s in front until it was too late. When you meet your ancestors, best apologize for being some dumb motherfuckers.”

  As if on cue, the cacti jumped out of their pots. I could hear the rumblings of the roof tile above us. Outgunned, outnumbered, outplayed, and to top it all off, smoke canisters erupted from the ceiling. Emma charged, slicing at cacti as she did, neatly bisecting them, two or three at a time, but they started pouring out of the roof, and smoke began filling the room. The soldiers were shooting at Iron Mask. One bullet struck her, but she must have been wearing body armour under the hoodie, because she tanked the hit. I followed up with a blast from the umbrella, striking home. I heard her grunt in pain.

  As Sunglasses and the old guy shepherded the hostages out of the room, cacti continued to pour in, and Iron Mask started to step back. Emma was striking at the horde, making it look effortless, like she always used to. But I could see Iron Mask charging up another energy attack, aiming at Emma. No way could I let that slide. I aimed, fired an energy bolt directly into Iron Mask’s chest, striking true. More cacti were pouring down, like something out of an Alien movie: How many of Che Saguaro’s subjects/comrades were out here, trying to avenge their fallen king? The old guy gave the order to fall back and let me deal with Iron Mask, so I needed to work out how to avoid drowning under a spiky tide.

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  There was a fire extinguisher in the room right near my cover. Yelling at one of the soldiers to cover me, I made a break for it, dodging cactus spikes as I did so. I knew I needed something unconventional to bring down Iron Mask. As she charged an energy blast for me, I sprayed her face with the foam. She blasted me across the room, but the foam had done its job disorientating her, and reducing her to a choking, spluttering mess. As I dragged myself to my feet, she shook some of the foam off of her and sprinted down the hall. I was still trying to stand when she jumped through the window, shattering the glass. And like the idiot that I was, I followed her.

  Leaping from the window, l stuck my umbrella out and began floating, descending slowly. To my shock, Iron Mask was zipping through the city sky, aided by the wingsuit I hadn’t noticed her wearing. Goddammit, how did I not predict she’d pull some bullshit like this? I grit my teeth and floated after her, but she was going faster and faster, and apart from the factory trip, I hadn’t flown using my umbrella since I was seventeen. The tiny cactus creature from inside Iron Mask’s hoodie was sitting on the back of her wingsuit, and began firing cactus spines at me, taunting me all the while in that rich, deep voice.

  “You’ll make fine fertilizer, magical girl! This land belongs not to merchants or to peasants, but to the very crop!”

  Che Saguaro sprayed more cactus spines at me. I did my best to dodge, but the problem with my umbrella is that it’s not very agile, especially compared to the wingsuit, and this new Iron Mask was a lot more agile than the original I’d fought when I was a teenager. Furthermore, I couldn’t really float and shoot at the same time. I ended up catching a spine in my left arm. Fortunately, it didn’t hit anywhere vital, and it didn’t penetrate very deeply, but goddamn it hurt like a motherfucker, and all the while, Iron Mask was zipping about like a human sugar glider or a fighter jet.

  She landed, and that’s where things began to even up. Wingsuits are designed to fly, but they’re not designed to run in. I was now close enough to the ground where I could risk a shot. Taking the opportunity, I aimed, charged a beam, and shot her in the back. She grunted, but I wasn’t taking any chances. She sprinted into a nearby restaurant: Farrugia’s. I followed her inside. I could hear them

  Iron Mask and Che Saguaro had begun to try to herd the workers of the restaurant into the freezer, aided by a couple more cacti that had wandered into the restaurant. The staff were fighting back, shouting old Maltese battle cries, and threatening to turn these cacti into bajtra. Brave, to be sure, but these were still civilians, and I couldn’t risk their lives. Iron Mask would have to wait.

  I whistled for the cacti’s attention. As they turned their focus away, I fired off another beam at Che Saguaro, blasting him to bits. Decapitation strike of OPFOR XO, just like Elias taught me. As soon as the flower hit the ground, the other cacti were spooked, grabbing the flower crown and scampering, as the staff cheered. I looked around. No sign of Iron Mask. I stepped out into the street. Still no sign. Shit.

  I patched through to the Major. “Major, this is Crystal Guardian Amethyst: Che Saguaro has been eliminated, but we’ve lost sight of Iron Mask!”

  When the Major eventually did patch through, she told me to fall back, as the cacti were retreating all across the city, and to link up with Emerald if possible, then await further orders. Her voice sounded strange, like she was holding something back, or like she was haunted by something. I didn’t pay a lot of attention at the time: I was tired and in pain.

  I was definitely too tired to fly, and my brain was ticking over. Was anybody okay? Was Emma going to be alright? What about Manannàn? Where had he been in all this chaos? I fired off a quick text, asking him to let me know if he was okay. But that only left Elias. I tried to rack my brains, trying to think where he might possibly be.

  My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of cannons going off in the distance, and choppers buzzing overhead. It was then that I remembered the words I’d missed when chasing Iron Mask.

  ”Major, it’s Silverback. I have visual on Rahab. Preparing to engage. Silverback out”

  Shit, shit shit. I ran toward the sound of cannons and gunfire, to see a tall, blue catfish thing smacking the shit out of Silverback. At least, it looked like Silverback might have been buried underneath a blanket of garbage. And all the while, tanks were trying to get a good angle to hit the blue monster. I took cover, deciding to see if I could get a good angle myself. I was lining up the shot when a nearby group of soldiers chucked flares at Silverback. To my horror, it wasn’t long before a fire started. The garbage seemed to rustle, then I heard a blood-curdling scream as the garbage jiggled, then started fleeing, burning as it did. As tanks and choppers started hitting the blue monster, I rushed in. Silverback was on fire too. I looked around for something, anything to put the fire out and rescue Elias, but could find nothing.

  I screamed Elias’ name, and that blue thing looked at me. Furious, I fired off a shot, striking him in the arm. It screeched and looked like it wanted to fight me, but another missile struck it. It roared in pain, arm hanging uselessly at its side at an odd angle. I rushed towards Silverback, ignoring the orders of the soldiers. I tried patching through to his comms, but he must have turned them off. I tried radioing the Major for help, but didn’t get any response from her. Sticking out my umbrella, I caught a gust and tried to fly up in front of him, see if I could find an escape hatch somewhere on the mech. I even tried trying to bust the mech’s cockpit open with my umbrella, anything to avoid watching him die in front of my eyes. I caught a glimpse of him, slumped in his chair. He didn’t look afraid. He looked exhausted. He gave me a small smile and closed his eyes as I kept battering away with my useless umbrella, unable to stop myself from crying. I tried to radio through to The Major, but I couldn’t get through, and even if I could, I don’t think she would’ve understood a word I said anyway.

  I tried radioing through to Elias. “Goddammit Elias, pick up! You’ve got to get out of there!”

  No response. The flames were growing hotter, more than any fire I’d ever been close to, threatening to consume the two of us. I was stuck with the worst possible choice: flee, and watch Elias burn to death in front of me, or the two of us could perish together. My arms were growing sore, and I was running out of energy. I pounded, one last time, and begged with the strength I had remaining.

  “PLEASE!”

  In my panic, I hadn’t see the firefighting choppers flying overhead. So I was shocked when foam started to drop from the skies above me, extinguishing the flames. I couldn’t stop myself from crying. He’d live. We were gungy, exhausted, and I wanted to smack the everloving shit out of him for making me cry, but Elias Beltran was going to live another day, to be a thorn in my side, and I couldn’t have been more grateful. Already I could hear him responding on his radio, but I was still too upset to understand a single word he was saying.

  I looked back at the soldiers, who were breaking off. I floated back down to the ground, turning back into my normal self, feeling the pain of the cactus spine in my arm. I needed to get that checked out, I needed a long sleep, and I needed a strong drink.