From Heaven To Earth (The Faith of the Fallen) (34 page)

“I need your confirmation, Vern. Do I take the shot?” Eyes asked.

Vern looked at the Executor’s men who had already taken aim at the
building.
It’s more important for them to remain alive than for this asshole
to die.

“Evac. Now,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Eyes said. “Eyes, out.”

“Fire,” the Executor said.

“I think not,” Vern said. Her hands emitted a green light. Her dresses
leaves whirled around her and reassembled themselves into a form fitting green
body suit. She threw her glowing hands above her head.

Concrete in front of her lifted up in a wave as the Executor’s men fired
their rockets. The remaining press fanned out. Some ran to their vans parked on
the side of the road, others moved to what they thought would be a safe
distance away from the action.

The sudden lurch of the ground caused some of the soldiers to off shoot
their rockets, few managed to keep their aim level. When the rockets reached
the wave of concrete they flew straight through it.

Even the misfired rockets recalibrated themselves in the air. All of the
rockets flew over her head for their intended target.

“Damn it,” she swore and lifted her hands again. A second wave of
concrete flung the recovering soldiers into the air again.

Let’s see how he handles this then,
she thought.

Vern turned completely to the building and struggled to lift both hands
up over her head. She concentrated on the ground beneath the building. It
bubbled in response.

Waves of concrete surged above the building and hardened, forming a
protective dome around it. She conducted wave after wave with her hands,
thickening the dome.

“Shoot her,” came the Executor’s voice from behind. Gunfire answered his
request.

Vern caused wind to gust around her in an effort to throw off the
bullets, a couple grazed her. She fell to her knees.

“Unphase them when they reach imminent collision distance,” Peter said.
“Your effort was pointless. The missiles can penetrate any solid matter.”

Vern landed on the ground and faced the soldiers. “If I can’t save them
none of you are leaving here alive.” She closed her eyes, and the green glow
from her hands seeped over her whole body. The ground in front of her rumbled.

“Kill her.” The Executor watched the rockets get closer and closer to the
building and smiled. A white flash blinded him and they exploded.

“What the...”

A singular multi-colored aura filled his screen and faded. When it did
the Executor saw that the building had not been damaged.

“Eyes, come in,” Vern whispered.

“We’re here, ma’am. Somehow the explosion didn’t even scathe us. We...”

“I’ll contact you later,” Vern interrupted him. “I have negotiating to
attend to.”

“Right. Eyes out.”

“Kill her! Kill her!” the Executor yelled. Bullets tore through the air
into Vern, who still emitted green light. The projectiles bounced off and left
her unharmed.

Ahead of her the ground trembled violently and liquefied.

“Cycle through your ammo, something has to punch through whatever shield
that is!”

The soldiers continued their barrage. Vern was unperturbed.

“Use rockets!” the Executor yelled at them.

Peter watched Vern’s aura closely as the rockets exploded around her.
Smoke and debris clouded the area in front of the capitol. Peter could see her
aura plainly on his screen. It flickered and faded.

“What a waste of ammo.” He chuckled. Then, his front visual was
encompassed by only green. “What the hell is this?”

A low groan from the cloud escalated to a scream, a concrete giant in the
likeness of Vern stepped from it. Vern herself knelt behind it, unharmed and
still glowing.

“Go my avatar!” she commanded. “Wipe the ground with them!”

Her giant roared and charged the soldiers.

Peter turned and looked at them. Most of them were reloading. “Scramble!”
he yelled. He pushed a button on his helmet. His business suit became like TV
static and faded into his suit of combat armor. He pushed another button. His
armor at his neck liquefied and covered his helmet, excluding his visor. The
armor hardened. His men did the same and used their jet packs to scatter into
the air. Peter turned back around to see the giant coming straight for him.

“Of course she would come for me first,” he grumbled. It lumbered closer.

“I need a weapon...” the Executor said, he looked and saw some men had
left their guns. “Attack her!” he yelled. “Kill her and this giant should
disappear!”

“I need to...” the Executor was cut off by the giant’s punch. He spiraled
through the air and into the capitol.

“Good thing this armor’s tough.”

He tried to stand up but stumbled. The blow had knocked the air out of
his lungs. Vern’s giant dashed for him. Peter rolled onto his hands and knees.

“Activate jet pack on my mark.”

“Awaiting your mark,” the calm, female voice of his computer said.

When Peter was within reach, the giant attempted to smash him into the
ground.

“Now.”

Peter’s jetpack catapulted beneath the giant’s descending fist. All the
while he kept his eyes on two weapons near the end of the capitol’s porch and
tried to keep himself level, so he could make a grab at them.

Vern’s giant threw out her right arm to backhand him as he flew past. Her
glancing blow sent the Executor into a barrel roll. His head bounced off the
marble floor, but he kept himself in a straight line. Peter reached out for
both weapons as he passed over them and grabbed one of them.

“Here! Come at me!” he yelled at the giant as he flew out from under the
entrance area of the capital. He landed on the ground some distance away and
stole a glance at Vern.

The weapons aren’t doing a thing to her,
the Executor frowned.

Peter turned to see the giant jump from the capitol at him.

“Here she comes.” The Executor checked his ammo. “Next to no bullets. Some
rockets. This is going to be interesting,” He looked on the bottom left hand
corner of his screen to see what ammo was loaded into the gun. He took aim at
the giant’s chest and fired. Chunks of concrete exploded on impact. She fell on
her back, and the tremors shook Peter from his feet.

“Damn.” He activated his jet pack and launched himself over the giant and
took several more shots at her before she could get up. “They seem to be
affecting it.”

“Sir! Sir!” Suchi’s voice said through the speakers within the helmet.

“Yes, is that you captain?” the Executor asked, as he fired at the giant.

“We’re seein’ red, sir! Bona fide blood! It’s a bullet orgy out here,
sir. We’re poundin’ her hard. Hittin’ it deep...” he said.

“You’re going to rehab ASAP, Suchi. Christ.”

The Executor zoomed in on Vern and noticed several fresh abrasions on her
chest and head.

“Could it be?”

Vern’s giant sprung up and searched for her opponent.

“Suchi are you still there?” the Executor asked as he used his jet pack
to hover above the giant.

“Always here, sir. Always!” Suchi said.

“Alright. I’m gonna test something. Whoa!” The giant jumped at the
Executor who barely dodged its palms by jetting out of the way. “Load phase
rockets!” he yelled into his helmet.

“Rockets loaded,” the computer said.

Peter jetted for the giant while she was in the air. The Executor fired
two phase rockets and increased the speed of his jet pack beyond safe
parameters and caught up with his rockets. They passed into his body.

“Unphase in five seconds,” he whispered. He kept an eye on his jet pack’s
temperature. It was in the red zone. He could feel the heat through his suit
and grimaced.

“Rockets will unphase in t-minus five seconds,” his helmet answered. A
countdown appeared on his screen.

The giant saw him and stretched out her arms to catch him.

When the Executor neared the giant’s reach he pulled up.

His rockets unphased. The first blew both of the giant’s hands off at the
wrist and threw her arms out at her sides. A large portion of its chest and
lower face turned to rubble instantly. She fell back onto the ground, roared
and moaned.

“Report, solider,” the Executor said as the giant crumbled to dust before
him.

“It’s her time of the month!” Suchi said. “Heavy bleeding. Down comes her
shield! She’s out! Start the count men! 1, 2, 3, 4...”

“Suchi!” Peter cut in.

“Sir, sir!”

“I have two orders. First order a cease fire. Secondly, shut your damn
mouth. I’m coming to finish her myself.”

“See you soon, sir!”

His soldiers had already surrounded her by the time he arrived. Peter
landed in front of her. She was on her back. Peter pushed a button to clear the
tint from his visor so Vern could see his face. She tried to say something to
him but could only cough.

“Awake I see. We’ll find the rest of them. It’s only a matter of time.”

“What the hell are you trying to prove!” she coughed out.

“If you have nothing helpful to say then you are no use to me,” the
Executor leveled his gun at her head.

“Ignorant fool,” Vern said. “My death will only rally the most powerful
half-breed collaboration to fight against you. My husband should have left you
to die on the street.”

“Your husband?”

He looked at her and recognized her as Michael’s wife, as his surrogate
mother. Memories of happy times with them filled his head and were quickly
juxtaposed by recollections of heated arguments about him. His action’s
ramifications struck him and broke him. He seized, accidentally pulled the
trigger to his gun several times and killed five soldiers before he dropped it.

Suchi landed next to Peter and pulled a syringe from his combat belt,
prepped it and injected it into Peter’s suit.

His seizure stopped. His vision sharpened.

“Sir! Sir!”

“Stop screaming, you idiot. I’m fine. What happened.”

His suit alerted him to a new half-breed threat above.

“Spread out!”

They jetted into the air.

“I came as soon as I could, mother!” came a voice from above Vern.

“Xoe, no...” Vern coughed, she looked up at her.

Her daughter floated down from the sky and landed by her mother. Even
though she weighed a little over 95 pounds and wore a bright pink soccer
uniform she managed to look imposing enough for Peter to feel uneasy before
hugging her mom.

“That girl looks familiar too. Open fire.”

Xoe encased herself and her mom in a green shield before the bullets
reached them.

Peter watched the soldiers as they continued to unleash their barrage on
the two half-breeds.

The concrete around the mother and daughter bubbled.
 

“Xoe. you shouldn’t be...” Vern coughed and couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Mom, don’t worry. I’m just going to hold them off while Drean gets the
rest of the compound evacuated. He won’t let any of them help.”

“Who?” she asked.

“You’ll meet him later. He’s really cute.”

Vern couldn’t help but laugh. She went into a coughing fit.

“Try to calm down mom,” Xoe said. “Save your strength so you can heal.”

Xoe closed her eyes. They glowed beneath her lids as she concentrated. A
green leaf pinned in her hair grew a long stem and it fettered her hair into a
tight bun.

Flocks of concrete birds burst from the liquid around them. They crashed
into the soldiers and circled back around. Some of the soldiers fell out of the
sky after the second pass.

After the birds slammed into several soldiers the concrete animals fell
out of the sky due to disrepair. When the concrete hit the ground it reverted
to liquid, seeped back into the ring around Xoe and Vern and produced a new
bird.

Contusions darkened Xoe’s visible skin.

“You’re using too much of your Inner,” Vern protested.

“We just need to hold them off,” Xoe said as she concentrated on her
distraction.

Some of the birds made a pass at the Executor, who shot them out of the
sky with ease.

“Evasive action, men. Use motion tracking shells.”

Soldiers left in the air tried to fly away from the birds while their
ammo changed.

“Peter is commanding them.” Vern pointed up at him.

“That bastard,” Xoe swore. I’m going to kick your ass, brother.”

“Your language, Xoe.” Vern coughed.

“Now isn’t the time, Mom,” she snapped.

Soldiers opened fire at the birds. When the bullets made contact the
birds liquefied and hung in the air.

Peter zoomed in on Xoe.

No injuries other than those bruises. It’s because those birds aren’t
really being destroyed, that’s why. She’s good.

“Let’s see how they do without their Executor,” Xoe said.

All the birds in the air liquefied and the concrete around Xoe and Vern
normalized.

Peter’s soldiers regarded the suspended concrete with confusion.

“Sir. I’m starting to think rehab is a good idea,” Suchi said to the
Executor.

“That is the smartest thing you’ve ever said,” Peter replied. “But,
you’re not hallucinating. She’s planning something. Stay on guard.”

“Roger, roger,” Suchi said.

Xoe converged the liquid concrete into one large blob. When the last of
the liquid entered it changed and solidified into a gargantuan bird. It
released a piercing cry into the sky.

“Hold fire, men. This one is mine,” the Executor said. He smiled at the
bird. “Load phase rockets, keep them unphased.”

“Phase rockets loaded, unphased,” his helmet said.

Peter took aim as the bird bore down on him and squeezed the trigger.

When the rocket came within a few inches of the bird it became a thin sheet
of liquid concrete. It flew straight through and hit a group of soldiers
instead.

Peter tried to jet upward but the liquid concrete moved with him and
surrounded him. It closed around him, solidified and fell to the ground.