“When the barrage of bullets hit and took out my sisters, I turned, horrified that I hadn’t been able to save them. Two were still alive, fighting back, but bleeding badly.”

  She paused, arms shaking, finger moving back and forth as if about to go for the trigger.

  “I—I can’t imagine,” I said.

  “You can, but you’d have to imagine yourself in the shoes of the shooters.” She looked at me with pure hatred then, her eyes almost turning red, it seemed. “They were all Orion Corp. I found out when I saw that fucking “O” on the badge when I tried to kill one, and only survived because I fell, tumbling down a cliff. Dead for sure, they must’ve thought, their point made.”

  “What point?” Cheri asked.

  She took a deep breath. “None. There was no point, at least, not one that made sense to me. But I later heard it was simple—the headmistress of Supraline’s had refused their request for all ‘demons,’ as they called us, to be sent to them for mandatory service when finishing the academy. The headmistress told them to fuck off, so my family was the response.”

  I gulped, only then realizing that my arms were shaking too. After what we’d seen down below, this was a shock, but it didn’t surprise me anymore.

  “You might hate me because of who I was,” I said, slowly, trying to think through what I was saying. This could go south fast. “But believe me… that wasn’t who I thought I was. This… all of this? What you’re saying, what’s going on here, it’s totally fucked. And you want to see them fall, right? See them suffer for what they did. Me too, okay? Me. Fucking. Too.”

  Cheri stood there awkwardly for a minute, then held up a hand, “Me too. The voices said to just stay quiet, but… I want to be clear—me too.”

  “Got it,” Erupa said, actually allowing a half-laugh at her. She breathed long and deep, then looked at me, making eye contact. “Cheri, what do your voices say about this guy?”

  “That he fucked up. But that we’re going to need him if we really want to do this. Oh, and that he’s great in the sack, and that you should try him out. His sex sweat smells like a walk in the forest.”

  Erupa frowned. “Cheri…”

  “The last stuff might have been all me,” Cheri admitted. “It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes.”

  A moment followed during which we could hear shouting from inside the compound, some clanging and banging, and then silence for a moment. The clanging started again, and Cheri said, “Maybe we should get moving?”

  “Wait,” Erupa still held my gaze, but now her expression was softening. “She’s with you, but she’s crazy. You really are this new man? Prove it, but we have to move fast. It’s not like there are a lot of options here, but I want you to know that I’m choosing to stick with you, okay? To show you that I’m not like those Orion pieces of shit, or what they tried to say my family was post-mortem, those filthy lies. Fuck! Okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Whatever we think about each other—whatever we thought—clean slate. From now on, you’re just a hot super with horns.”

  “And you’re just a semi-attractive horny guy,” she shot back. The corner of her lip curled up. “Let’s go see what the hell’s going on in that asylum, shall we?”

  “Please,” I said.

  “About damn time!” Cheri said, and she bent down, daintily, holding up a grenade that apparently hadn’t exploded. “Oooh, look what I found.”

  If that one was intact, I wondered. Turning to the side of my ship, I found a portion of the wall knocked open by a blast, but not enough for the enemy to have found my stash. Oh hell yeah, this was about to get interesting.

  The explosion hadn’t damaged my babies. If it had, a much larger explosion would’ve followed, because in here I had stashes of gear to use during my bounty hunting. Everything from flash grenades and frags, sleeping darts and powders, several more pistols, and items I’d confiscated over the years.

  As soon as I realized what we had, I slammed the button in the back to see if the ramp could still close. To my relief it did, though only about seventy-five percent of the way.

  “What was that about?” Erupa asked, glancing over, her eyes going wide to see all the gear I started pulling out.

  Cheri yelped at the sight of her sword and snatched it, kissing the hilt and then rubbing the teddy bear chained to the bottom. “For good luck,” she explained when she saw me giving her a confused look. “And because I missed her.”

  “Then it all makes perfect sense,” I replied with a grin. Equipping myself with an extra pistol, I had to admit I felt more at ease.

  We stocked up on other gear, to include grenades and a few energy bars I’d stored in here. There were only two water pouches, enough for us each to have just enough for now. As we went through the rest of it, my empath powers on high alert in case there was a problem, I suddenly sensed very strong excitement from Erupa.

  “Where the fuck did you get this?” she asked as she pulled out a wrist device, several packages of wrist and shin protectors, and other odds and ends.

  “One of my targets was transporting,” I said. “Not sure where to, but yeah, intercepted and didn’t have a clue what it all was.”

  She gave me an amused glance and said, “Ezra—”

  “Oh, so you do know my name.”

  “Shut up, and yes. This stuff… it’s Citadel-level shit. Forget SupraTech, this makes you the weapon.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “Think biotech combined with nanotech but powered by superpowers. Basically, it’s an augmented reality system of upgrades, based on the powers of one of two supers I know of. One of them is called Lamb and works at the Citadel. If these originated with her, we might be in for a grand ol’ time.”

  “Holy shit,” I replied, sarcastically. “I have no idea what you just said.”

  “Aug-Eye implants, with boosters placed in certain parts on body and weapons…” She turned to me and grinned. “Our chances of taking down this shithole just got a whole lot better.”

  Cheri pointed to the smiley face on her tit, as if the smile on her face wasn’t enough to show how she felt about that.

  “Perfect, how does it work?”

  “Yeah, that’s the hitch,” Erupa said.

  “You don’t know how to work it?”

  “Oh, I know. Problem is… will it work for us? See, the thing is that these kind of toys, if you will, are kind of imbued with her powers, but it’s more than that. I’ve heard it called her essence.”

  “Sounds gross,” Cheri said but shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I’m out. Just… gross, is all.”

  I laughed. “So it’s SupraTech.”

  “You’re not listening.” Cheri took the wrist device along with a case that held various arm guards and shin guards. “There we go… if it accepts us I mean.”

  “You keep saying that…”

  “Right.” She grimaced, then looked from me to Cheri. “We’re all fighting against Orion Corp. now, agreed?”

  “Yes,” I said, and Cheri shrugged but then nodded enthusiastically.

  “And because the Citadel is fighting Orion Corp., we’re kind of on the side of the Citadel. Well, let’s find out if the Citadel sees it that way.”

  With that, she turned to me first and started putting on the wrist piece—which had a green lit up area on it, like a screen. Then she attached some of the shoulder guards and leg gear, taking others for herself and Cheri. Oddly, as soon as they slipped them on, the gear started adapting to match whatever they were wearing. I looked down to see mine did the same.

  “That’s a good sign,” Erupa said. Next, she closed her eyes, and said, “Here’s hoping.” When she opened them again, she blinked, her mouth fell open, and she grinned wider than I’d seen her yet.

  “What?” Cheri asked, and tried the same. “Oh, badass.”

  I don’t know what’s happening,” I admitted. “More… crazy?”

  “Fuck you,” Erupa said. “Just blink and wish to see your stats.”

  That’s what I did and, sure enough, I saw what had made them so excited. First, there was a screen that showed various aspects about myself, assigning levels of skills and abilities. It told me that my strength was a seven on the scale of ten, my speed a nine, and verified me as a Tier Four super—which had always annoyed the hell out of me, but I knew it had to do with how powerful we were and therefore was valuable in some strange class sense that was bullshit. What I wondered was, were the stats starting points that could go beyond ten, or was that the max? I was guessing they could go beyond, and that excited the hell out of me.

  At the bottom left, it had a line that read: Empath. Quick Draw and Aim. Upgrade? I reached out with my hand, confused about how to interact with these screens, but sure enough, they stayed in place and I was able to click on the upgrade option. A new window showed, with options for how my powers could be enhanced or upgraded.

  “It seems to be gauging our current levels and powers,” I said. “And then… somehow it enhances us? Like an amplifier power?”

  “Ezra, Ezra, Ezra,” she said, moving around in her screens, though I couldn’t see them. Somehow, we could each only see our own screens. “You don’t seem to realize that you brought a knife to a gun fight, and all along you had the equivalent of a mech warrior with a nuclear core.”

  “Really fucking cool,” Cheri chimed in. “Like we were getting darts thrown at our faces from the heavens, now the gods are all jizzing on our—”

  “Too far,” Erupa stopped her. “Know when it’s too far, okay?”

  “Hey, you like mechs, I like god jizz.”

  “Seriously, she’s right,” I said, agreeing with Erupa, but Cheri just shrugged and went back to her screens.

  I did the same because I was fascinated. The later levels didn’t give me the details of what I’d achieve, but level two mentioned being able to expand my ability to sense attacks and enhance my range. Both sounded intriguing. Nothing related to my gun handling yet, but then again I was about as good as they came at that, so it figured.

  “What do your upgrades do?” I asked them.

  “Isn’t that a bit personal?” Erupa asked but had a hint of a smile.

  “Meaning you won’t tell me?”

  She shrugged. “You know about my shadow strike, the one I almost used on you when you were taking me in. It’s kind of all bullshit, more like giving someone a bad burn, but I built it up in stories over the years. Well… that might not have to be the case for much longer.”

  “No shit?”

  She smiled wide this time. “We just have to live long enough to level up, and we’ll find out. Also, my other skills look like they have promising upgrades.”

  “I’d imagine a Tier Three has plenty of badass skills,” Cheri said, frowning.

  “You’ve got your… thing,” she said, glancing my way.

  “Cheri can hear voices,” I said, trying to talk her up, but when the words left my mouth, they didn’t sound as cool as I’d hoped. “I mean—”

  “And other things,” Cheri said, waving off the comment and giving me a glare that I took as a sign to shut up.

  “Well, anyway, this is going to kick ass,” I said, making sure we had all the grenades, ammo, and blades we could handle, then making sure the rest was better hidden. We were just about to head back out when my empath power picked up on hostility.

  “Whoever’s in there, get your asses out here, now!” a man’s rough voice called from outside the ship.

  “Guess playtime’s over,” Erupa said, swiping away her screens as I did the same.

  “You kidding?” Cheri said, licking her lips and moving her sword around in a practiced kata form. “Playtime’s just getting started.”

  78

  We lowered the ramp and stepped out, armed to the teeth. No shots came yet, so at least they were smart enough to gauge our strength before attempting an attack. Only one man was visible, but now that I was aware of potential trouble, my empath ability was firing all sorts of warnings my way. The guy had the arrogance of a prick who had us vastly outnumbered. And now that I thought about it, did our Citadel gear do any good if we hadn’t leveled up yet? Something I’d prefer not to find out, but our recent weapons find would help in that regard.

  “Which side?” the man said.

  “Not happening,” I replied. “You first.”

  “No shame here. We mean to kill Muerta. Now, if you’re on her team, speak up so we can kill you too. If not, hop on over here, boy, so I can welcome you to the winning side.”

  “We have a problem,” Erupa hissed next to my ear. “He just said Muerta.”

  “I heard,” I replied, remembering that name all too well. I remembered the contract and remembered being pissed when Antinel was the one to bring her in. Let’s see, former Orion Corp. chief, turned after… “Wait, didn’t she slaughter her whole team?”

  “Yes, but she even admitted it.”

  “You two lovebirds done chatting?” the man asked. “We’ve got a whole hell of a lot of people to kill, and you’re slowing us down.”

  I didn’t like the tone of this guy, and his emotions were coming across as super aggressive. As if he was actually just talking to us because he had to… to distract us. My gun went up and I spun at the same time Cheri did, apparently her voices telling her about the guy sneaking up behind us. The poor bastard didn’t even have a chance, his leg coming into view and me shooting out his kneecap before spinning back to take out the guy with the cocky attitude.

  More appeared, and now Erupa had a pistol, roaring as she charged them. It seemed like a bad move, considering the fact that the ship could provide cover and she was now out in the open. Then again, a blue lady with horns charging you and shooting can be scary. I spun to see if Cheri needed help, but she was leaping into the air with thrusters on her boots, her sword crunching down through the man’s skull. She kept going, flipping over the side of the ship and landing to apparently take out another attacker, as there was a yelp and a thump. But then the gunshots started from all over.

  One hit me, but the wrist device made a sound as a shield flickered around me. Now the device had a number on it, reading seventy-nine percent. It was a shield! Had Erupa knowingly given me the only shield? I’d have to talk to her about that.

  In the meantime, the speaker had pulled out some sort of energy force field, a handle in his hands and shield spreading out before him, and he was backing up to a fence where others were now firing from. They’d clearly gotten one of those loot crates the Orion light-being had spoken of because these certainly weren’t the guards’ weapons.

  The ship was providing me with some cover, shots pinging off it, but Erupa was out in the open near the attackers, and I had no idea where Cheri had gotten off to at that point. I figured my best bet was to stick with the one I could see, so shouted, “Advance!” in case Cheri could hear me, and then charged, shooting as I went.

  My shield took two more hits, causing me to stumble each time as they packed a bit of a wallop. But much better than death, at least. Forty-three percent left, I noted when reaching the gate next to Erupa.

  We had a section of the wall on our side of the gate, using the base of a guard tower to fire on the enemy on the other side. Erupa gestured for me to follow, and soon we were charging up the stairs, so that we were able to fire down on the enemy who, confused about where we’d gone, had started charging around to our side of the wall. We dropped five of them before the others realized what was happening and got to cover. Next, we charged across the gate to their side, where we took out two more before descending.

  “You aren’t so bad for a dick,” Erupa said, helping me down the last bit of the wall by grabbing on with one arm and swinging me down. Damn, she was strong—the muscles in her arms bulged, making me jealous.

  I landed to find a woman swinging a machete at me, but was fast enough to duck and sweep out her legs. Erupa landed on her a second later, knocking the blade away and dealing her some damage, while I turned to fight two mangy dogs of men who were like fighting whirlwinds. They were everywhere, trying to get in any attack they could with flailing arms and legs, and after a moment of confusion, I ducked and rolled out of that shit, coming up to shoot them both in the heads. Forget fairness when they’re acting like idiots.

  Another exited and had a large rifle that showed a bar of charged energy on the side, but he had it aimed at me and didn’t see Erupa there at his side. She frowned, assessing the gun, and then kicked out his knee before snapping his neck. As he started to fall, she reached out and took the gun, shouting, “Mine.”

  She spun and unleashed a beam that tore through a man charging us from behind and caused another to flee. But another shot and it started to smoke. She cursed and tossed the thing, diving back to tackle me to the ground as it exploded.

  I stared up at her there on top of me, realizing her leg was pressed against my crotch and gulped. She gave me a curious look, then jumped up and helped me to my feet. Nobody was left but us.

  We’d just gotten our stash of loot, but had to admit some of the weapons these bastards had were worth taking. The most impressive was a glove with odd attachments that would shoot out a burst of fire when the wearer was throwing punches. Erupa picked that up with a wicked smile. She was going to have some fun with it, I was certain.

  “Where’d Cheri get off to?” I asked, sticking my head around the edge of the wall. A man was sneaking up, rifle at the ready, but moving around our ship to the other side. Likely to take out Cheri, if she was over there. I took aim and fired, then signaled. “We have to go back out for her.”