Chapter 346 - Far Future, Ch. 56 – A Black Night is Here (1/2)
I looked at my Band, and noted the signal had dropped. That was a big surprise. Unfortunately for the thaumaturgic static, it didn't block Marktells. You needed an actual full-blown Ward to do that.
And I had six other Bands I could shunt it through anyways...
-My Queen, I have confirmation of Warp Sorcery on the community guards, and judging by the way the locals are tearing open their doors and charging for me with guns blazing with magical spikes sticking out of their souls, everyone around is afflicted. A Juris alert is probably a good idea.- He knew our line had been cut when my video feed went down, of course.
-Notifying,- he /replied smoothly, his mind working as he danced through the system with the ease of long experience. -That Tactical team you worked with before.-
-That's not bad. Make sure you cc the Umbrans and Coronals. You know how they love this stuff.- At which point I also /copied to Sir Dorval and Philius everything I was saying, startling them in the middle of whatever they were doing.
Me, I was booking for the Merschoen residence, as an array of slugthrowers, lasers, gyrockets, ion beams, needlers, and a few fusion grenades were being sent my way, to the dismay of all the landscaping about.
I could have gone down that sinking drive to the main doors, and hewed my way through the durasteel. Instead I blew a bolt from Paten through the armored glass, fractured it, and with complete disregard for the fact that a wise person does not dive through or onto razor-sharp shards of steel-hard glass, I dove inside as the wall and windows behind were coming apart with heavy fire from the neighbors.
The riot doors were starting to come down over the stairs going down. I flipped and drove Chalice down into the motor, right through the floor, shorting it out. The slats of durasteel stopped half-closed as I continued sliding over the floor, smashed my way through the railing, over the riot doors, and was over the edge of it and slithering down like a snake.
The butler down there was waiting for me to come, but the first thing that came over the edge was Paten, who put a bolt into his forehead before the rest of me followed, and his riot gun discharged into the ceiling, making a mess of the drop-tiles as it did. The maid, her eyes twice normal size, held the trigger down on the modified fusion torch, and some fourth state of matter sprayed up and caught me as I came over.
The next shot blew her cranium apart in white, blue, and purple, and the flaming spray went up to the ceiling, leaving a trail of ash behind it as everything in its path was carbonized... except for me, as I was immune to fire and simply had a bit redder gold on my skin.
I didn't even bother to get up, going down the stairwell as if it was a slide and pulses of hard light and gyro rounds blew apart around me, trying to track me as I zipped down faster than gravity, throwing off their aim. I face-planted against the wall upside down, standing on my head as I whipped both arms out.
Mrs. Merschoen tried to Blink away from the shot coming for her, and found the dimensions locked down. Her Soak took the first bolt, which drew a bloody path across her cheek, and she shrieked at me as she promptly dumped an Energy Blast out at me.
My Interdiction was up in full, which was probably really annoying someone, but my Null itself I kept local.
Warpfire blew past me and the wall, and absolutely shredded the ceilings and floors. Steel beams melted and blew away, the hovercars in the garage over there counter-exploded to add to the fun, the ceiling lifted away in blue-purple flames and totally trashed the upstairs.
-Well, she isn't just a Six Psi, pulling that out of her ass,- I thought, as the unmarked wall behind me protested at the lack of support starting six inches away from me, surrounded by twenty feet of nothing to either side, and the upper floors collapsed.
Mr. Merschoen was gasping at his unresponsive arm, where a Shard from Chalice had pierced right through his shoulder and rather messed up the nerves there.
I turned my feet and swiveled as the last of the energy blast swept past me, feet coming down, locking with heavyfoot, torso following and facing them, still shooting Paten.
Her Inertial Armor took part of the hit, but the Sun Shots flared, and she gasped as the feedback coursed through her brain, holes popping up in her gut and chest as banefire'd bolts detonated.
The telepathic attack was incredibly powerful. A normal person's brain would have melted right there. It came out in a wave, and unfortunately Mr. Merschoen stumbled in the path of it. His cerebral tissue became steam, and his head exploded nastily as the wave rolled over me, overclocked as she sensed my resistance and spent the power to overcome it –
Yeah, my Null took care of it. But before then, she wasn't driving her power into an unmoving wall. She was driving herself into an unmoving wall with THORNS.
She screamed as the feedback tore through her mind and body as her telepathic attack was rent apart, and her psyche with it. Brain tissue blew her eyes right out of her head, and she fell over, not very happy with me and how her new life of Great Ubah Powah had turned out.
”You killed my Mommmmyyyyyyyy!” a young teenaged girl screamed as she rounded the corner, clutching a heavy laser in her hand. If I couldn't see the magic nails sticking into her, making her nothing more than a puppet, I might have felt a little guilty when Shards, a Bolt, and hard light crossed paths, and the cute kid went flying back without her head on her shoulders, punching lines of hard light through the ceiling.
The building behind me collapsed with a roar, deciding it had had enough, while the glowing spots the pulsed laser shots had dotted across me rapidly faded. I was basically immune to most hand weapons, although gyros could give me problems once they blew, and if there were enough of them.
I faced the hallway to the sleeping wing, and the subfloor beneath it.