Cross materialized back at the refinery. The machinery was unfamiliar to him. It took him a minute to realize he’d landed behind a large stack of storage boxes. To his left, several large sections of steel pipe lay neatly stacked. To his right, there was an open area where he could see the same chaos and fires from before.
Then Kestrel flew backward past his line of sight.
Cross ran out from behind the protective shield of the boxes and pipes to see what was happening.
He turned to the left to see Kestrel slowly getting back to his feet. Kestrel grimaced in pain, and Cross could see a ragged gash in his cowl that revealed a small part of his face just around his left eye. The skin under the cowl had a similar gash, slashing down from his forehead, narrowly avoiding his eye.
Kestrel cradled his right arm against his body and held it steady. He took a deep breath in, and as he released it, he yanked a jagged red spike out and screamed involuntarily.
He turned to face the opposite direction, holding two more talon spikes in each hand. Blood leaked out of the open wound on his arm, staining his jacket and the shirt underneath.
Then Cross heard the sound.
A throaty roar echoed off the buildings all around them.
The ground reverberated and shook as an enormous blood-red creature strode into view.
Skewer’s chest and torso were abnormally wide and thick. His body bristled with serrated spikes, blades, and jagged uneven projectiles. Skewer towered over Cross and Kestrel, his seven-foot frame forced them to crane their necks up to meet his gaze.
Not that it could truly be called a gaze.
“HELLO, MEAT SACKS,” Skewer said, his voice bursting out like a sharp, phlegmy cough. He turned slightly to his right, casting a dismissive glance at Cross.
“ RUN AND HIDE, LITTLE BOY,” He gurgled. “ YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS.”
The blades on Skewer’s skin began to shift and slide, sending more and menacing barbs from his torso up the lengths of his arm to gather into swirling masses around his hands.
He raised his arms toward Kestrel and began to advance on him as the circles of blades spun and swirled faster and faster.
Cross ran as fast as his legs could carry him and placed himself between Skewer and Kestrel, right in Skewer’s path.
Skewer roared and sent hundreds of spiked and serrated blades surging through the air at Kestrel.
Kestrel raised himself slightly off the ground, hovered there, and braced for the attack.
Nothing happened.
The blades Skewer threw could not be seen anywhere, as if they never existed.
Skewer stopped in midstride. For a brief moment, he did nothing.
He looked at his hands and back up at Kestrel and Cross.
“WHAT THE F-”
SPANG!
Skewer’s roar died in his throat as one of his blades struck him in the face. It ricocheted harmlessly off the surface, but it briefly thwarted his attack as he whirled his head this way and that, trying to find the source of the attack.
“WHO THREW THAT?” Skewer yelled. “WHO THE H-”
SPING! SPACK! SPANG! CLANG! SKISH! SKOW!
More and more blades appeared out of nowhere, striking Skewer high and low, on his foot, in his face, in the chest, on his arms, again and again, and again.
An immense jagged spur slammed into Skewer from the side. It staggered him, causing him to stumble and crash into a steel supporting wall.
With an enraged howl, Skewer launched himself off the wall, flying through the air as he aimed straight for Cross.
Cross looked up at him and smirked. His eyes flashed crimson for a moment and he thrust his hands at Skewer.
The air was suddenly filled with spikes and blades of all shapes and sizes. They appeared from all different directions, slashing and slamming into Skewer from every conceivable angle.
The blades still failed to harm him but the sheer number of them briefly overwhelmed him as he roared and slashed futilely up and down, left and right, front and back.
As blades continued to assail him, he sunk to his knees, growled low in his throat, and fell to the ground. The blades continued to hammer him mercilessly.
Suddenly he was on his feet again. In his claws, he held an enormous length of steel pipe. Skewer extended the pipe in front of him and charged at Cross, moving impossibly fast for a creature his size.
Cross’ eyes bulged. With no time to disappear, He dove to the side, landing hard on his arm and left side.
Pulling himself up on one arm, he continued to send blades at Skewer, hopelessly trying to slow his charge.
The creature burst through the hail of spikes like they weren’t there, bloodlust and anger drowning out all other sensations.
A blur of motion slammed into Skewer from his left side, rocking him back on his feet once more and sending the massive pipe clattering to the ground.
Kestrel grimaced as he circled past Skewer for another pass. A fresh spike stuck out of his right side.
With a fierce yell, he dove back down, slamming into Skewer again. This time the creature staggered but stayed upright.
Kestrel gasped and clenched his jaw in agony as a thick spike stuck deep into his left bicep and hung there.
He circled and flew straight at Skewer with a talon spike in each fist, screaming defiantly as the creature roared and sent fresh blades surging past him and sticking into his flesh again and again.
Cross managed to pull himself up to a sitting position. His right arm hung uselessly at his side, refusing to obey his commands.
He tried to drag himself closer to the creature with his good arm but it couldn’t sustain his weight and he fell hard on his other side.
Gasping in pain, he flung his left arm out in front of him.
The steel pipe lifted, disappeared, and then slammed hard into Skewer’s legs from behind, sending him to the ground with a sharp snapping sound.
Skewer howled in pain and yanked his head up just in time to hear Kestrel scream and see him hurl the talon spikes through the air.
SHUNK SHUNK
“AAAHRRRRRR!!!” Skewer roared. He bellowed again but quieter this time.
He tried to stand and fell. He tried again, made it to his feet, and lurched forward before stumbling again, striking the ground with a tremendous crash.
He did not move again. Two long, thick talons protruded from the narrow slits of his eyes and out the back of his head, extinguishing the light forever.
“WHOA.”
Infierno paused in mid-flight and stared.
A sickly green behemoth emerged from the smoldering refinery and stepped into the previously calm waters of Lake Archer. The water roiled and bubbled with each step the creature took.
Infierno flew in close to the creature, making a quick circuit to get a sense of the threat.
The creature ignored him completely, continuing to take massive strides across the lake and moving steadily closer to the rest of Blackway.
Infierno flew directly in front of the creature and blasted it in the chest with twin columns of fire.
The creature’s skin puckered and sizzled where the flames struck it. An angry growl rattled in its throat.
It stopped moving for a fraction of a second and regarded Infierno’s flying form scornfully.
“GO AWAY.”
The creature swung a massive clawed hand that Infierno barely dodged.
It roared and began lumbering toward Blackway again.
Infierno flew towards the creature again, sending fiery blasts to hit it and other blasts in front of the creature in an attempt to slow it down.
He thumbed the Key-Comm three times, then yelled into the receiver.
“Kestrel, are you there? Cross, can you hear me? This is Infierno, and I’ve got a BIG problem out on Lake Archer! If you can hear me, get here now!”
No one responded.
Infierno dodged a giant fist. He was about to try the comm again when two bright streaks of blue and red light flew past him, striking the creature in the back.
The creature roared in shock and anger, lost its footing, and tumbled face-first into the lake.
Infierno watched as the streaks slowed and took on the shape of an enormous blue falcon and an equally massive red eagle.
One small boy wearing a slate blue domino mask clung to the back of the blue falcon. Another small boy rode on top of the red eagle.
Infierno recognized the masks and figured these boys must be more of Kestrel’s recruits.
They both stared in surprise at the flaming man floating in the sky. Infierno lowered his flames just enough for the boys to see his matching domino mask and then brought them up to cover his face again.
The boys circled Infierno. They saw his face and smiled knowingly. They threw him a quick salute and then both boys dove straight for the creature, yelling in excitement and defiance as their warbirds slashed at the creature’s back with long, sharp talons.
The creature suddenly reared up, slashing out to either side and briefly forcing Dusk, Bastion, and their two warbirds to retreat to a safe distance.
It threw its head back and let out a tremendous roar that echoed and reverberated. Its skin suddenly started to change, progressively growing darker and harder.
Then scuttling, skittering, clacking sounds began. At first, it was barely perceptible, but it continued to increase, growing louder and louder and doubling on itself until it drowned out all other sounds.
The hawk and eagle grew uneasy, dipping up and down as Dusk and Bastion held on tighter, struggling to stay on their backs.
Then the beast spread his arms wide and exploded. His blackened skin dissipated, spreading out into the air before striking the surface of the water.
The pieces littered the surface of the lake, covering more and more of the lake as it continued to group and grow.
Infierno flew lower, trying to get a closer look at what was happening.
“That can’t be it,” He said. “We barely even touched that freak, there’s no way it’s already over.”
As he got a bit closer, something strange caught his eye.
The pieces of the monster weren’t dissolving or sinking; they were crowding closer together and drifting towards the shore. He flew even closer.
No, not drifting, crawling.
The surface of the lake seethed with hundreds, thousands of Erebi*1, crawling on top of and over each other in a mad dash to reach the shore.
Their enormous pincers flashed and crashed into each other and their jaws opened and closed hungrily, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth that crowded together, filling almost every square inch of their mouths.
The living mass of insects surged closer and closer to the shore, while a smaller shape moved and shifted deep in the center of the group.
“NOT again,” Infierno growled, zooming through the air until he stood right in front of the Erebus army.
He released massive, roaring columns of flame from both hands, incinerating every Erebus that came anywhere near him.
Red and blue flashes darted in and out of the horde as the eagle and falcon snatched more and more Erebi, soaring high into the air and dismembering the creatures before swallowing them whole and diving back into the fray.
Klee! Klee! Klee! Klee!
Infierno looked up to see a human shape fly briefly in front of the sun and then dive straight for him.
Before he could react, Kestrel landed beside him. A disheveled Cross slid off his back and stood beside Infierno. A makeshift sling immobilized his left arm.
Kestrel winked, said, “Thought you could use some help,” and flew away.
Several Erebi were practically on top of them. There was no time to talk.
Infierno opened upon them again, burning countless bugs to ash.
Cross held out his good hand, sending bug after bug away and then slamming into each other at tremendous speed.
Right in the middle of the Erebi, Staslek rode on top of an enormous Nyx**2. He wore a loose suit of alien body armor that appeared to be covered with something like crocodile scales.
A long, black blade hung in a scabbard slung across his back. He no longer looked like a small middle school boy; He was taller and built more like a young man.
He could see Erebi being destroyed everywhere he looked, but many more surrounded him.
A sound made him dart his head up to scan the air above him.
* plural of Erebus
** Queen Erebus