“You tell the truth,” Flintlock said, hand up to show he wasn’t going to attack.

  I wasn’t so sure, still caught off-guard by the transformation. But Twitch was scanning him, screen up and ready to alter his stats if needed.

  “Who the hell are you?” Charm demanded.

  “Flintlock,” I said.

  The man eyed me with suspicion, then nodded. “That’s what I’m called, yeah. Come from a long line of badasses, and before the time traveler Frank brought me along for his adventures, I was on the verge of dominating the new world.”

  “And now?” I asked.

  “I was taken by these fucks and shoved in a metal box. Fucking sucked, especially when the dreams started… Those fucking dreams.”

  “You know Frank?” I asked, then glanced over to Twitch and Charm with a subtle nod to show them that I’d handle this. “He seems to be a good guy—vouched for by Hadrian.”

  “Hadrian, eh?” Flintlock laughed. “That rat-fucker never liked me, but he’s got a good head on his shoulders. Don’t get me wrong, we fight for the same side more or less, but he didn’t approve of my methods.”

  “Which are?”

  “Put a hole in ‘em, for one.” He had been searching around and stood now, flintlock pistol held high victoriously, then nodded at his eagle. “Sometimes have Goldilocks here claw their eyes out, if I didn’t get to ‘em first. Frank gave her the name—before that I called her Eagle. Keep it simple, ya know?”

  I shrugged, amused by this guy, but we had business to get to. “I’m inclined to trust you, if you’re still on the same side as Hadrian. We’re going to have trouble soon. Can we count on you?”

  “If it’s about tearing out the eyes of those who captured me and kept me in that box, you bet your sweet petunias I’m on your side.”

  “Wake as many as you can,” Twitch said, moving to the next sarcophagus. I was glad to see Flintlock helping, even though he surely needed rest to restore his energy.

  We only had two rows open and were working on rousing the supers within when an explosion sounded and the building shook.

  “They’re on their way!” Andromida’s voice called over comms. “Sending our location now—”

  Before she could get the last word out, a section of the nearby wall burst open and in stepped exactly who we were looking for. We would have preferred to free more of the trapped supers first, but at least our fight was upon us.

  “Where’s my son?!” I demanded, turning to face them and preparing everything within my arsenal.

  “I wish I knew,” the tall, well-armored woman in the front said. “But I’m glad to see you brought us Charm again. At least that saves us half the trouble.”

  “They didn’t bring me anywhere,” Charm snarled.

  She didn’t hesitate, leaping into the fight with blinding light. Her targets didn’t even see the hit that took several of them to the ground.

  Flintlock had his pistol out and pulled the trigger. I half expected it to explode in his hand, but to my surprise the shot not only hit, but spread out at the last minute to hit several of the enemy as electricity chained between them.

  “Holy shit,” I muttered, then when he grinned my way with a gold tooth and a gleam in his eye, I added, “That was badass!”

  “Frank always called it the ‘Contra effect,’ because once I have contact with the enemy, my shots have different effects. Like some game-thing he showed me called Contra.”

  “From the 20th century, yeah,” I laughed, surprised this pirate shifter would know anything about that. I’d love to hang out with Frank sometime. Sounded like a cool dude!

  It only hit me then, as I shot through the ground to come up behind one of the enemies and slam my war hammer against their head, that Frank might have actually been from the 20th century. After all, he was a time traveler. With that thought in mind, I decided right then and there that I would definitely find a way to make it happen sometime—to partner up with the dude and make a visit to the golden age of games and film.

  For now, we would find Kai and stop these sons of bitches, then work on reuniting Flintlock with his crew.

  Three more of those fox-cult bitches came running into view. One paused and moved her hands, sending a wave of gold light over her friends, while the other two started moving their hands in a different pattern that caused the air around them to crackle.

  When Flintlock’s pistol went off, this time the round vanished. I hadn’t noticed him reloading, so I figured the shots were part of his powers as well. His eagle screeched and rose up in preparation for an attack.

  “I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve, too,” I told Flintlock, preparing to make an impressive move against our foes.

  Before I could do anything, Andromida came out of nowhere with, “I found a device that activates a portal. My guess is it could help us to find them.”

  “Lead the way,” Twitch said, running over to join her.

  “Um, excuse us?” one of the three cult ladies said, and then thrust her hands forward so that the energy blast they were creating now shot out at us, knocking us back but not causing any harm.

  At the same time, Charm appeared from thin air, likely cloaked, and caught the woman with both hands around the head as she leaped. Her opponent fell back to slam to the ground as Charm tore her helmet off and sent claws of light down to finish her off. I cringed as blood sprayed.

  “Your tricks are impressive,” Flintlock said, and lifted his hands out to become an eagle again. Only this time he merely sprouted a few feathers.

  I cocked my head in confusion, then continued with my planned attack against the enemy. But something was wrong. My powers weren’t working properly, and when I pulled up my screen to see what was up, it simply read my name with blurred words beneath. At least the screen was still there.

  The attacker who had cast the gold boost on the others charged me, and I had to think quickly.

  “Charm!” I shouted, backing up and putting a hand to the wall before attempting to move through it. No such luck.

  “What—what’re you doing?” Charm asked, leaping over to join me and catching the attacker with a kick to the face that sent her onto her back in groans of agony, mask collapsed in on itself.

  “They hit us with a dampener,” I said, nodding to Flintlock who was in a fist fight with the third cult lady.

  His eagle swooped down and clawed at the hair that stuck out from her mask, and it was enough for Flintlock to land a good shot to her neck. As his attacker stumbled back, gasping for breath, Twitch leg-swept the lady and then hit her with a hack from her screens to leave the lady asleep.

  “Well, shit,” Twitch said, turning and adjusting me with her screen. “Try now?”

  I touched the wall again to see if I could travel through it, only to find that the wall rippled with gold light.

  “What the fuck?” I turned to Twitch, who shrugged.

  “I’m showing you as fully powered, but your color wheel is messed up.”

  “Wonderful.”

  “And me?” Flintlock asked.

  “Right. One sec,” Twitch said, and applied her corrections to him. He tried his power, only for it to turn him into what looked like a walking were-eagle, complete with feathers and talons, even a beak, but in man form.

  “Whoa…” Charm said, stifling a laugh.

  “Hey—the portal?” Aegriss said.

  “She’s right,” Twitch agreed. “We’ll have to figure the rest out later.”

  Aegriss showed us the way, and as we went I couldn’t help but notice Flintlock looking at his buff-eagle self with pride and humor. I wasn’t sure what my current messed-up power structure would result in, so I hung back to let Charm and Twitch take the lead closest to Aegriss.

  When we reached a hall, Aegriss motioned the others forward but lingered back with me and put a hand on my shoulder.

  “You need me,” she said.

  “Always.”

  With a hint of a smile, she closed her eyes and formed a connection. An explosion went off in the distance, followed by what sounded like gunshots and more explosions. I craned my neck to see about the portal machine, but then Aegriss’s connection hit and it was like I was her looking back at myself.

  As the echoes of battle began to diminish, an uncanny sight took over my vision. It was as though I was staring at myself in third-person, similar to a character in a video game. Overlaid atop the image was a translucent screen that was a mix between a heads-up display and a programming console. It had lines of code, constantly updating and changing, interspersed with figures and values. The text was rendered in vibrant hues against the backdrop of the game-like reality around me, not so different from what I was used to, but different enough.

  Power Level: 89.

  Energy Reserve: 73%.

  Special Ability: Quantum Charge - Cooldown period.

  Running my hands through the intangible interface, I started manipulating the numbers. The interface responded like a dynamic, live-code editor. I saw lines of code representing my power settings, including ability cooldowns, energy reserves, and power scaling. The chance to tweak them was almost intoxicating, considering how accustomed I’d been to my previous power set.

  It was akin to being in an RPG, where you could roll the dice and decide the fate of your character. In fact, I went for it and attempted a virtual dice roll.

  Finally, it began to slow, and with bated breath, I watched as one side gradually came to rest facing upwards. The number glowing with a bright hue was ‘4.’ Almost instantaneously, the numerical values on my interface began to flicker and change.

  Power Level: 93 (+4).

  Energy Reserve: 78% (+5).

  Special Ability: Quantum Charge - Cooldown period shortened.

  A surge of power coursed through me. It was as though the dice roll had catalyzed the changes, increasing my strength and energy reserve. It was a game of chance, and this time, it seemed luck was on my side.

  What the hell this “power level” referred to, or any of it really, was beyond me.

  Energy surged within me. I was not just adjusting the settings, I was reprogramming my very powers, introducing an element of chance. A power randomizer. And that was fucking awesome.

  “Breaker,” a voice sounded in the distance, and then again, “BREAKER!”

  “It’s okay, go,” Aegriss said, and I snapped out of it.

  I turned to see green hair and then processed that it was Twitch. Charm was holding off three Nihilists while Twitch pointed to the machine behind her and shouted, “I hope you’re back, because I need your help. Are you with me?”

  “I—I think I’m ready.”

  She motioned to the machinery while Aegriss ran to a door panel and said, “I’ll shut down the doors.”

  “Something’s trying to come through,” Twitch told me. “We have to stop it. Charm, try to keep anyone who makes it through off of us.”

  Twitch darted toward the ancient control panel, her nimble fingers flying across her screens and then those of the machine, an orchestra of clicks echoing her movements. Her furrowed brow reflected in the pale light of the screens.

  I reached out, trying to suppress the energy feeding the portal’s growth. The raw power pulsed against my own. Each passing second felt like an eternity as we raced against time, a mere pair standing against a force beyond our realm. And all the while, the portal continued to pulse and grow, visible through the windows above, a silent countdown to the arrival of our enemy.

  But then the reality of our predicament hit me and I started to slow. My mind reached out to Laurel, hoping for good news, but in return received images of her and the rest of our team trying to push enemies back through portals – but there were too many for my team to hold back. Another thought hit me, and I released my energy.

  “Breaker, what’re you doing?” Twitch shouted. “Block the portal!”

  I turned to face her. “If whoever’s coming through had a role in taking Kai, wouldn’t that mean we want them to come through?”

  The frustration in her eyes turned to resignation and she took a deep breath, then let her screens vanish.

  “It’s happening,” Aegriss said.

  The solid, metallic ceiling, etched with intricate engravings and reinforced against countless battles, receded. In its place was an opening, a portal to the unknown, and the entire room was bathed in a mesmerizing palette of colors.

  The portal pulsed, the colors shifting violently. A silhouette took form, a gargantuan figure whose presence sent shockwaves through the otherwise impregnable fortress. He was the one—Ragnor—the being from before who had demanded Charm right before his troops had taken Kai.

  Ragnor towered over me, his eight-foot frame a solid wall of mottled gray skin and rippling muscle. His silver eyes glowed and his crimson hair was elaborately braided.

  Now that Charm was standing there in front of him, sizing him up, a nervous tingle ran up my spine, and I couldn’t help but feel I should be screaming for her to run. However, everything I knew about her and our team told me the opposite—that there was nothing we couldn’t handle together. So instead I prepared for the fight to come.

  “You’re the son of a bitch who took Kai?” Charm asked, rising up into the air, tails moving around behind her as if they were scorpion stingers ready to strike.

  “I am,” the man said. “And I have to say, it’s truly a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Lemme at him!” Charm shouted, and then she shot past us with an explosion of sound and light. I pitied the poor bastard for the hell she was about to unleash on him.

  CHAPTER 24: CHARM

  Alien Planet

  My explosive attack made contact with Ragnor, and I threw everything at my disposal his way. From charm breaths meant to disorient him and rend his mind, to my superpowered claw attacks, this man should have been writhing in pain and confusion by the time I pulled back, if he was still a man and not just a pile of ash.

  To my surprise, he simply shook his head and grinned. “A real… pleasure.”

  This motherfucker had just said it was a pleasure to meet me, then reiterated it after I’d attacked him with my full arsenal? I took a deep breath, pulling on my surroundings to ensure that my next attack would be even stronger, more advanced than anything I’d ever attempted. And this cockroach-licker just stared at me with that stupid smile! Did he not understand that I was about to break his own foot off in his ass?!

  “Give Kai back to us,” I demanded, drawing in a deep breath to prepare to bring my attack to a new level.

  “Excuse me?” His voice betrayed confusion.

  I grounded myself in the memories of each new power I had acquired, each tail I had grown, preparing to take him down. “Leave this planet, and tell your boss we’re coming.”

  “Ohhh, I don’t think so,” was his smug reply.

  His arrogant grin held steady as metal seemed to grow from his suit, encapsulating his head like a sleek, futuristic helmet. First, it rose, reminiscent of a regal cape’s collar, then curled to envelop his face, leaving no slits for the eyes. A shimmer of light danced over it, and the reflective surface soon mirrored everything around it.

  Shit, what was this? Considering that he hadn’t been fazed by my first attack, the fact that he now wore some sort of mysterious armor actually gave me a moment’s doubt. I threw myself at him for the attack, landing blow after blow but not seeing any solid results. More than once I managed to throw him to the ground and slam him over and over with strikes while Breaker and the others fought through Nihilists and cultists to join us, getting a blow of their own in every once in a while. For some reason, Ragnor kept focusing on me and let me give him a beating. Still, his armor wasn’t fazed.

  I knew I had to hold my own. I couldn’t let this monstrosity overwhelm me. He was mine to deal with, and the others needed to focus elsewhere. I lunged forward and put all my strength into one solid punch. His arms spread wide, seemingly inviting the attack as I swung towards him with everything I had. He seemed to be intentionally letting me hit him square in his face, yet whatever power was behind my punch glanced off of him.

  My arm shocked back with a stinging sensation that rose up through every inch of me until it felt like there was smoke coming out from my joints while he stood there completely unbothered, just staring at me emotionlessly without ever blinking or flinching away from the impact.

  “What was that?” Breaker asked, coming up to my side and checking to see if I was wounded.

  “That armor... I don’t know,” I replied. “It’s like... it absorbs what I throw at it. Same with your strikes.”

  “All we can do is keep trying. Get something from him about Kai’s whereabouts—anything!”

  I nodded, then charged back in as all around us lightning crashed down in fury through the building. I felt other powers igniting in answer.

  “You won’t stop us from finding the relic,” Ragnor roared, then turned to his followers. “Bring me his damned son!”

  They spread out, and sure enough, the son of a bitch didn’t seem to know where Kai was! I spun to see that Breaker was staring at Ragnor with a mixture of confusion and anger. Backing away, I found myself confronted with the surreal sight of my own duplicates materializing beside Ragnor. My initial reaction was stunned admiration—damn, I did look good. But my vanity was quickly replaced by a chill of apprehension. I was now facing off against not one, but two versions of myself.

  The first clone was a younger version of me, a naive Charm with only three tails. Her aquamarine hair spilled over her shoulders, fitting nicely with her forest-green combat suit. Her eyes, brimming with fierce determination yet lacking the seasoned wariness of countless battles, tracked my movements.

  Her counterpart, though, was a near-perfect reflection of my current form. Eight tails flickered behind her—only one fewer than mine, each one glowing with energy. Her eyes held the same hardened resolve, her stance mirroring my battle-ready posture. Her suit, like mine, bore the signs of our many past conflicts.