Chapter 1914 – Counteroffensive 3 – Awkward Car Rides
Fusion’s forces travelled in isolation.
They were allowed to be part of the caravan of cars that rolled down the highway. Cars, carriages, and other modes of transportation, it should be said, all of them contained within the Mobile Barrier that Romulus’ own chosen vehicle projected. It was a fortress on sixteen wheels, taking the entire width of the street with its roman columns and layered garden. No doubt it was even larger inside. How or when it had been taken off the ships was a question John did not ask.
Not that he was given the chance to ask anything. The limo they were using was one of Fusion’s cars. The driver was one of Fusion’s drivers. Everyone inside the back of the car was part of Fusion. There were people outside the car that rode on magical steeds, capable of running at the speed of a car, but all of them had their visors lowered, their banners hidden.
They were deliberately hiding their heraldry. An insult twice over – they found the task of accompanying his car shameful enough to not want it associated with their houses and they did not wish to be identified by him. It was a clear ostracization from the military effort.
On the plus side, that gave them time to talk.
“You know, you can breach whatever subject you wanted them here for. I’ll distract myself with music,” John offered.
It was an offer to the only person in the car that was not part of the harem.
Moira did not seem to react to him at first. The redheaded Warden had her eyes clenched shut. Her teeth were grit behind lips pulled by her sneer. She was trembling. Her arms were crossed in an immense amount of negative emotions, too numerous to count. The tap of her finger on her own arm suggested that annoyance was chief among them.
“Can you grow up?!” The outburst came with the flying open of her green eyes. She tilted forwards, punching the table that occupied the space in the middle of the limo with her right fist.
John got an uncharacteristically deep look into her cleavage. Despite weather and war, the Warden was dressed revealingly, doubly so by her standards. Her top was of a deep red that matched the wavy tresses of her hair, held up by two thin shoulder straps, while hugging her midriff tightly. She wore the kind of yoga pants Rave wore all the time – which was to say that they were practically painted onto her body and sat deep enough that an enticing amount of her V-lines were showing.
John had to actively resist the magnetic effect those lines had on the male brain. If he just rose a little bit in his seat, he could have checked if those pants were tight enough to cause a camel toe as well.
Alas, he did actively resist. His gaze wandered back upwards, stopping for a moment at the shield pendant sitting in the valley between her medium-sized breasts, then remained firmly on her face. This time around, the ire of the Shield Warden was not directed at him. Her stare was clearly directed at Rave.
Who was currently making out with Hailey.
Country gal and cat woman remained embraced for another second, before they had their tongues untwisted enough to part.
“What’cha so worked up about?” Rave slurred, her speech even less controlled than usual. She was quite clearly intoxicated by the act of kissing an adorable country gal. It wasn’t until her second sentence that the thread of saliva between them broke. “What do ya expect us to do, just sit here and be all broody and moody until we get there?”
“I would prefer the usage of the words ‘serious’ and ‘contemplative’,” Moira shot back.
“Ain’t nothin’ I gotta contemplate about this whole thing, Moi-moi.” Hailey gestured with both hands, although one arm was mostly covered by Rave. The kiss had stopped, but a greater force than a conversation and a stern glare were necessary to break the covalent bond between haremettes. “I’ve been making ammunition to kill Lorylim for the last couple days. Preddy sure I got my priorities fig’red out.”
“And yet you do not treat the situation with the proper severity.”
“Moira,” Hailey let the name linger in the air for a moment before continuing, “I respect ya, but you’ve got no idea how severe this fuckin’ thing is for me. Rayd’s lost her limbs in front of me, my favourite man in the whole world is hurtin’ and my – mundane – parents might suffer the same fate his did if that mould-pile of a person gets his claws in their brains.” Eyebrows furrowed, the enigma engineer continued, “If I want your advice on how I’m copin’ with all of this, I’ll ask for it.”
The rebuttal had Moira sufficiently chastised. She averted her eyes in shame. “How are your parents?” she asked, carefully.
“Blissfully unaware of the Abyss all ‘round them,” Hailey answered. There was tension in her voice still, but it faded with every spoken word. “We’ve got eyes on them. No idea how valuable that’s gonna be though.”
“If I may, Izha is highly unlikely to have an in with them. Your parents are practically homesteaders. As far as we can tell, to act stealthily, Izha requires at least a degree of consent from his victims. He is much like a demon in that way.”
“He tempts with what we desire, then brings a plague upon the houses that opened their doors to him,” John mumbled in agreement. He thought back to his first encounter with a manifestation of the creature. It had been after Salamander had forced her own evolution during the journey back from Europe. The encounter had left scars on her, but the corruption had gone to John and into the creation of a swiftly destroyed body.
Still, he needed an in.
“Likely he could take control forcefully. To do so with mundane people would be his end, however,” Nightingale said softly. “Evidently, he wishes to achieve something. Hailey’s parents will be safe. Mine live in a defended area.”
“And mine are way away from both theatres of this war,” Rave added.
John did not want to add the obvious comment, that all of those factors were worth fairly little if Izha really put his mind to it. That he had not yet was another sign that there were limitations to the Latebloomer’s reach. After all, intent was plenty. Only capacity would have kept the malevolence of that nihilistic creature in check.
Instead, Nightingale returned the talk to safer waters. “My patriarch offered that you may discuss your matter of import.”
Moira blinked a couple of times. Her entire head suddenly turned, facing John directly. She stared at him. Then she stared at something beneath the table, probably her hands. “No.” A harsh and clear answer.
“That bad?” Rave asked. “Ya know I’ll tell him, like, 99% of things we chat about eventually, yeah?”
“I am aware that you are practically one brain, yes.”
“Nah, I live in his brain. It’s really big, plenty of room in there. Wonder how his skull is keeping it all together though.”
“I do have frequent headaches, but those come from the hijinks of some cat-eared, pink-haired tomboy,” John quipped.
“Very funny, tiger.”
“I know, I am hilarious,” he declared with a smug grin.
“Regardless of what kind of symbiotic life form you are, I am not comfortable breaching any topic of intimacy at this moment!” Moira declared and crossed her arms under her chest.
Hailey pointed at the gesture and its consequences. “Ya know, your ‘grow up’ comment loses a lot of value when ya push your tits up like that.”
Made aware of what she was doing, the redhead shifted her arms on top of her breasts. That did much less than usual. “Immodesty is not my goal, I assure you. I am simply… endowed.”
The country gal, easily two cup sizes up on the Warden, gave her the driest stare imaginable. Green eyes rolled over to the jacket that Moira had discarded when she had gotten into the car. Losing the winter jacket had been understandable, but the front-zipped sweater was a different matter.
It only occurred to John now that Moira was going through all the motions of showing off.
And he was the only guy in the room.
‘Could she be…? No, I won’t even entertain that line of thought. She must be trying to seduce Jane… No, that makes no sense, Moira isn’t that kind of woman.’ He chased those thoughts away entirely. There was a line of logic here that made too much sense, and if he acknowledged it, it would go to dangerous places. ‘Of course me chasing it away is already a form of acknowledgement… blast you, erudite mind.’
Granted, it was a more pleasurable line of thought than his current situation.
A knock on his window drew the Gamer into that reality. Through the dark-tinged glass, he saw the gauntleted hand of a knight. A second tap urged him quicker than he could move. It was the disrespectful gesture of someone who thought themselves more important than what they were doing.
‘They are putting the humiliation on a little thick,’ John thought, as he rolled down the window. “How can I help you?”
“His most sublime majesty has tasked me to inform you that we are stopping in 2 minutes.”
“King Newman.”
“Pardon?” The knight’s question to that statement was an insult unto itself.
“I know and respect Romulus’ anger towards me. His ire I accept and I will not chide you for your own, as it is born from loyalty.” John’s annoyance seeped out of his being. “Ostracize me, if you will, but I will not put up with this blatant disrespect. You are on my lands. If you are not willing to call me by my title, then send someone who will.”
“…It is noted, King Newman,” the griffon rider responded, then moved his steed away from the window.
In the absence of friendship, respect through strength was still preferable to subservience. Yesterday he had been patient with the abuses, repentant even. After that, portraying further weakness would have sent the wrong message. He understood why they were mad. He did not consider himself in the wrong.
After the announced two minutes, the car came to a slow halt. The fortress before them needed almost a hundred metres to roll out its remaining momentum. Compared to what it must have weighed, that was a pretty short stretch.
“Is there a point to me accompanying you?” Moira asked, as they got ready to disembark the limo. She sounded tired and… defeated, in a strange way. “To the battle, I mean.”
John mustered the redhead. Despite her tone, there was steel in her eyes. He was not in the mood for lies; neither did he know her to be someone that preferred them. “What comes next, I fear you would not be much help for.”
Moira rolled her jaw, and nodded. “Then I will hold this position.”
“Much obliged. Hailey, Lorelei, you two will stay here as well. Gale, Jane, with me.” The women nodded and broke into two groups. Letting Rave stay as well would have allowed Moira to have that conversation she clearly craved. Alas, the feline Lightbearer coming along was both a sign of respect and she was one of Fusion’s most capable fighters. Two things he desperately needed at a time like this.
They moved to the head of the caravan. No one guided them, but no one stopped them either. A corridor of turned backs clearly showed them the direction they were expected to head. It ended in a wall made of gold-armoured warriors. John had seen the Praetorians before, albeit not in their full battle regalia nor from this close. Spears crossed, Romulus’ personal guard barred him from advancing further.
“Let them through,” the Apex spoke.
Two spears were retracted. John and his women stepped through the gap and into the space behind. It was just another part of the grassland in the southern USA. The only thing that made it special was that Romulus stood there, accompanied by his two women. Sol still only had burning eyes for John. Luna kept her gaze demonstrably averted.
John noticed that she was a step removed from Romulus. No doubt the revelation had cascaded into the moon goddess revealing that she had her suspicions and the Apex consequently getting angry at her. Judging by the fact that it was just a single step distance and their general body language, that was a minor spat in the grand scheme of their relationship.
“According to the map you provided, we must be in the right area?” Romulus asked.
John felt a sense of loss at the impersonal, regal way that the Apex addressed him. It was exactly the way that one ruler ought to speak to another, nothing less and nothing more. “That is correct,” the Gamer answered in a similar tone. “There should be a Protected Space ahead that we could have melded into.”
“I believe it best we split our forces here. The majority of troops will stay here. You and I will form the spear tip.” Demonstrably, he let his eyes wander. “You anticipated this strategy?”
“I did.”
“Then there is no need to waste further time. Lead the way.”
“As you wish.” John raised his hand to leave the Illusion Barrier. A moment later, he stood at the side of the road, accompanied by Rave and Nightingale in casual clothes. It was winter, but it was also near the southern coast and the weather was always warmer there. Romulus, Sol and Luna appeared in their own disguises. John did not stop to inspect them in detail. They would re-enter the Abyss soon enough.
That John was made to walk at the front was another sign of distrust that was not lost on him.
As he walked, he kept his gaze firmly ahead, only checking back when he considered it prudent to do so. He did not want to create even the excuse that someone could feel like he did not trust Romulus.
“What would you have done if he rose without me finding out?” the Apex asked.
“I’m not convinced that whatever rises from that spring will be your brother,” John answered. “Regardless of what it is that surfaces, I would have talked to it, then either attempted to eliminate it or sent it on its way. Either way, I would have notified you after.”
“Am I supposed to believe that?”
“It would please me if you did – yes, I know that things are not the way I want them to be.” John stepped over a tree root. “You do not trust my words right now, so I will simply give you the cold logic. I did not want Fusion to become the battleground between you two, so I hid him. Once the physical location of it would have changed, my reasons to hide it from you would have narrowed down to one.”
“If it is a god of Remus, rather than Remus himself, you do not trust me with the power.”
“We both know that’s not why – it is exactly because I trust you. You have never been shy about what you intend to do with that power.” John stopped suddenly. The nearby trees had been sprayed a bright pink. It was a common way to mark the edge of property around here. It also marked the edge of the Natural Barrier they had found Remus in. “We have arrived.”
Romulus’ steps crunched fallen leaves under his soles. His hand landed on John’s shoulder for a brief moment. It was a memory of the relationship they had had just a day ago. “For all of your genius, John, I do not think you understand me.”
The Apex entered the Natural Barrier after speaking those words.
John wrestled down his confusion, then followed.