Metal Deep 3: Infinite and Forever (4 page)

SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

I tossed for a couple of hours. I slept very little. All I could hear in my mind was Scion’s young eager voice say the name “Thantosa” over and over. Had this been Largo’s plan? Is that why he sent me? I felt like I was being sucked into this unknown Thantosa lineage, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be. Don’t get me wrong, they seemed like swell folks, and every new piece of information that came to light made them seem like they were the Kennedy’s of their day. But that was long past. I wasn’t out to remake broken family lines, walk in former footsteps, or even live in old shadows. I wanted to stop the Street Vipers, and then go back to try and merge as many of mine and Maeve’s days together as possible.

 A little before noon I cleaned up and helped myself to a large loaf of cherry and sugar bread Scion left out for me. There was a note saying to eat as much as I liked. More dangerous words have never been written. One of the benefits of being village protector was that he got as much food as he wanted, so if I needed more, all I had to do was ask. Thoughtful kid, I liked him more and more. I finished it off and then chased it down with another pot of that awesome citrus tea he left warming on the stove.

I walked around before finding everyone up at the pavilion where the Hades brothers had been laid. I paid my respects quietly from afar before wandering back around through the emptied village. I wondered what exactly I was supposed to do there. That morning before I left, Largo’s instructions had been two simple words, “Go and Help.” For a man who loved to talk so much, it was a great time for him to get quiet and cryptic. I decided I would hide his Ale stash and his pipe when I got back. That would show him.

After I was sure I had seen just about all there was to see, my Cyborg hearing caught commotion off in the distance behind one of the big waterfalls that rumbled behind the village. It took winding down a few paths to get there, which gave me more of a chance to sightsee areas I had missed. I loved all the little quaint homes, elegant stone paths, countless bridges, and every-kind-of-fruit tree you could think of. I envisioned myself living there when I spotted an open grassy land-bridge up between two trickling fountain springs. It was a perfect spot for a little house.
What if?

Finally, hidden behind some clover and elfseed bushes, I found a rocky path that led behind the ground-shaking falls. I snuck quietly up to a large entrance obscured by the falling water. It was a great hiding spot. The water would crush anyone trying to make it through from the outside, and the pool beneath was so far down that anyone trying to jump away, had they made it that far, would likely not survive. There was only one way in or out.

I moved behind a stone monolith that guarded the cove that led to the door. The black doors were a couple stories tall. They had square rivets bigger than my head lining the outer perimeter, and on the inside, two large sculpted half-tiger faces adorned the edges that met. While closed the tiger looked complete, save the slight gap that ran down the middle of its face. There was no visible means of opening the behemoth gates, and by the luck the two goons were having with their ineffectual blowtorch, there was no getting through uninvited.

The tall one cussed, “This is pointless. We should go before their little memorial is over. If we’re discovered we won’t be as lucky as we were last time.”

“Relax” the shorter one said. He was obscured behind the other guy, so I couldn’t get a good look at him. “There’s only one left. You saw what happened to the others. We’ll have another group of Viper’s here soon enough. Until then let’s keep working on this door. There has to be something we missed.”

“Well, I just don’t get it.” The big one prattled on, “I don’t understand the latest fascination with all the artifacts we’ve been sent after lately. I signed up to be a Street Viper so I could drive fast and not take any crap off of anyone. I didn’t know I was here to play errand boy for leader of the week.”

“Yes, Drake and Cade were unfortunate loses.” The other one agreed, “But this is world-changing stuff with powers bigger than us at play. It would behoove us to go along. It’s going to be bad for whoever picks the wrong side for what’s coming.”

The big one snorted, “Oh yeah, because you look like following them has really worked out for the
best.
”

Just then he moved, and I was able to catch a glance. The little guy had been changed. His skin had been completely mutated into the grime and grease of what I had been. The metal hadn’t been as dark, so the goop that oozed from between the skin-plating stained more. He was ugly. He also looked sickly. The experiments they did on him had not been to his benefit. He was probably just another Street Viper lackey who got used as a guinea pig, and judging by the stains under his glowing yellow eyes, he would not be around to regret his choices much longer. Don’t ask me how I knew. It was a new instinct I felt.

There was something familiar about him. I felt like I had seen him before. I inched around the side of the closest onyx monolith to get a better angle. Out of frustration and complete desperation at their lack of success, this sickly Cyborg pulled out a sword with his good hand, and then he struck at the doors with it. It sparked as it glanced off. There was a significant scratch left in the doors, but clearly the sword was not going to be enough to get them in.  It was all I needed to realize where I had seen this guy before. He was the one who had run off with Maeve’s blade that night she saved me. I recognized the sword he awkwardly held backward from its designed intent. I had seen its twin plenty in the last few weeks. Every time we trained with weapons, there was sadness, frustration, and anger Maeve held over the loss of it. I asked once why she just couldn’t get another one made, but that went about as well as asking about her dealings with the Vipers. All she would say was that it was irreplaceable.

The two were giving up. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll just say there was nothing here to find.” The little one said after lashing out.

“Fine with me,” The big one agreed. “I hate this place. It creeps me out, and those people are annoying. Plus there’s still another one of those brothers hanging about. No fun or profit here.”

I didn’t really care what they said about leaving, because I had my mind set that they weren’t getting away with Maeve’s sword. I wasn’t really
supposed
to fight anybody. It was more of a find-out-what’s-happening thing. But Largo said “Help,” and I guessed this would qualify. I stepped out from behind the monolith and dared my disgusting counterpart to make a move. I wished it hadn’t been daytime, because I could have used the moon-juice, but I would manage.

They both stopped for about a second. The little one screamed as if he were expecting me, “That’s him.” He jumped and swung the sword at me.

He missed the blow only after I slipped on the wet rocks and fell backward. I barely had a chance to react before he was on top of me. I held off the sword arm with one hand clasped at his wrist, while the other pushed back against a three-pronged bionic claw that chomped at my face. He seethed black bile from his metal lips, “This is your fault. You’re the reason this happened to me. After you left they started experimenting on all of us who had been on the detachment you escaped from as punishment.”

We wrestled for a moment. He was strong, but I was stronger. I gave him a headbutt that shattered my poor glasses. I rolled him off and jumped free in time to be met by the other guy who had turned their blowtorch into a flamethrower. I felt the fireball roll toward me. Out of protective instinct, I crossed my arms in front of me to block the flame. Sway and I had actually worked on this once. Well, it was more of a theoretical hypothesis as we tried to figure out what I was, and wasn’t, immune to. She was pretty sure my metal parts could handle fire, and thankfully she was right. My jacket, on the other hand, was not so lucky. The sleeves melted off as I used a back-roll Maeve taught me to get away from the flame.

I couldn’t hesitate; I did a quick springboard roll forward and grabbed the torch by the nozzle. A quick squeeze shut it down with a slow hiss. The guy swung at me, and with a Cyborgized-Adrenaline boost, I kicked him right in the chest. He teetered backward into his metal buddy who then slipped toward the edge and fell over. I don’t know why, but I dove to catch him. I slid on my stomach and made it in time to grab him by the wrist of the hand that held the sword. Anger filled his eyes; he cussed and spit at me while I tried to rescue him. I braced against the wet rock as best as I could, and pulled him up. I almost had him to safety when he brought his claw around, and from the center of it sprung a spike that crackled with untold voltage of electricity. 

With a blinding flash, he speared my shoulder. The electric spike cut through my metal skin like a hot knife. Looks like we found something I wasn’t immune to … Sway would be happy. A bright blue river gushed from a wound that felt as if a million tiny razor blades were spinning inside my body. The pain was beyond anything I had felt, even while undergoing my transformation. It must have been the improved senses. I screamed and tried to hold on to him, but the voltage sent me into some kind of overdrive. My hand that held on to his arm squeezed so tightly that it crushed his already weakened frame. The shoddy makeup of his transformation couldn’t handle the pressure. His wrist literally crumbled between my fingers, and then ripped apart no longer able to hold against his own dangling weight.

With a loud snap, the spike broke off in my shoulder, and I still held his hand that grasped the sword. The rest of him fell and was taken into the falls where he was crushed somewhere in the bottom pool.

I staggered back. Everything spun, or maybe it was me spinning? I fell toward the black gate as his friend yelled, “Feringal!” He came to stand over me. He was Rage’s vessel, and he was ready to pour it out on me. “That was my brother!”  Everything kind of blurred and flickered in and out as I lay helpless beneath him. He had found a shotgun and held it to my face. He pumped the handle, and I waited for him to pull the trigger.

LEGACY

I thought I was a goner. I should have been. The gun barrel was about an inch away from my nose, but I was only half aware of it. Most of my attention was focused on the thrashing waves of pain rolling from the epicenter of my shoulder where I had gotten stabbed. It was in the haze of everything when I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming after the gun lifted away because of a blurring kick from Scion.

He appeared out of nowhere and sent the gun hurtling end-over-end, over the edge, and into the grip of the falls. Another spin-move connected a kick and two successive fists into the Viper goon that rolled him back toward the path that led to the giant doors.

Not missing his opening for a chance to escape, the Street Viper ran off, promising that he would have his revenge. Considering that the two Vipers were ready to go and not come back before I interfered, I was not feeling great about my continued impulsiveness of stupid. Now, one was dead, the other out for blood, and all while I was left crumpled on wet rock with a fresh hole in my custom new Cyborg pieces-parts.

Another hypothesis Sway wanted to test was my ability to heal. The metal was biological in nature, and so in theory, it could possess the ability to mend itself in the same fashion as skin heals. I hoped so, because I did not look forward to the endless tongue lashing should Sway’s services be called upon.

Scion let the guy go, and he helped me up. “Are you okay?” He asked. Pain and blue blood-like fluid continued to roll from my shoulder with every movement I made.

I nodded. It was mostly a lie, but it hurt too much to actually speak of my great discomfort.

That was when I noticed him staring at my more
unique
elements. The fight had burned and smashed away my “disguise.” I really didn’t care if he was freaked out. I shuttered and wheezed for him to pull out the spike. With a single heave and another
intense
round of eye-popping pain, he did. Like a splinter,
granted a million-volt splinter
, once removed, I immediately started feeling better.

“Well, that sucked,” Was about as deep as I could continue in the conversation. I probably should have started with, “Thank You.”

“I heard the fight.” He said, “Looks like I got here just in time.”

Hello, understatement of the century.

After taking a few more deep breaths, I tore away my singed jacket. I had to call for help, but unfortunately, when I went digging through the pocket for the new cellphone Largo gave me, I found it partially melted. Why did I expect something to have actually gone right? I tossed it down and worked at freeing Maeve’s blade from all that remained of that guy Feringal’s hand. I felt bad he died, but if he had just left the blade in the woods, he would still have been alive. Okay, so it made sense in my head, and I was looking for any trickle of water that could help quell the fires of guilt.

Scion wanted to head back, and I was in agreement. However, I stopped to stare at the huge doors before me. “What’s in there?” I asked while tapping one with a finger. Like a kid I’ve always got to touch.

“Don’t know.” He said, “Those doors haven’t opened in more than a thousand years.”

It’s like they were listening to us. I swear I saw the tiger head on the doors twitch a smile just before the sounds of gravel being scraped with metal echoed over the thunderous sounds of the falls. Scion took a step back as the doors slowly swung open. I looked at him; he looked at me. “We have to tell someone.” He said.

“Let’s go in.” I insisted. Now, I admit, I’ve been through a lot lately. Having my body Cyborgized, finding the possible love of my life, losing a loved one, discovering that one of my Elvish roommates could very well be my nemesis for life … need I continue? I understand that my decision making abilities are impaired.
Because
I know that, I should instinctively do the
opposite
to whatever I’m feeling at the time. This is especially true when my gut instinct is to charge headfirst into a secret chamber that hasn’t been opened in over a millennium.  Yet, like a moth to a flame, I persisted forward. Is anyone else surprised I’m still mostly alive? I know I am.

“Maybe we should wait.” Scion said. “I’m just the protector. I’m supposed to keep people out. I don’t know that I’m supposed to go in.”

“What are you afraid of?” I asked while taking another step closer to the opening. I had to see what was inside. It was a feeling much like I had back at the expo when I was compelled to sign up for the Street Vipers.

He grabbed me by my arm. Thankfully it’s wasn’t the one that had just been
speared.
“Wait.”

“You wait.” I cut him off, swatted away his hand, and marched through the doors.

I turned as the gems on my hands glowed bright with their green energy. The light moved up my arms with a hot tingle, and ended somewhere around my eyes where I felt as if I were building up to overload. I dropped Maeve’s blade and grabbed my head. Every millisecond felt as if a new fire started flaring to life inside my skull. I heard the doors start to close. They scraped closer together as Scion still protested. After they had lumbered shut, with an instinctive movement, I somehow pushed the built up energy out of my head, down into my body, and out of each arm.

From both of my hands streaked green streams of light that sparked, cracked, and burned through stale air, and at the end of their path, they struck two round rock carvings inlaid on the distant wall. The light filled the carvings like boiling liquid. This steaming luminescent liquid I created then fed through a spider web of connections that lit like fuses leading to, and lighting, smaller wall carvings throughout the chamber. Congratulations to my new found freakiness. We had light.

I guess Scion had a change of heart about joining, and had jumped through the closing doors at the last second. Judging by the terror strewn across his face, I guessed he was regretting his decision.

“We shouldn’t be here.” He said.

“Why not?”

“Because the point of these doors…” He pointed to the closed black gate that bounced green shadows over us. “…Isn’t only to keep people out. But to keep
something
in.”

I heard his warning, but I was too busy cutting what was left of my burnt shirt into strips with Maeve’s sword. He saw what I was doing and helped tie them together so that they would wrap around my shoulder.  I didn’t know if that would stop the “bleeding,” but blue stuff was pooling around my feet, and I was feeling nauseous. I may not have been able to cry, but I had no problems yacking my guts out in impressive displays of velocity.

Once we were able to gather ourselves mentally and emotionally, we took a few steps into the chamber. The green light shone two rows of dusty columns that rose up into unseen darkness. I thought it odd that even my vision couldn’t penetrate the blackness above. At the far end of the main chamber, which must have been two football fields long, there was a vast assortment of very large doors. All had different designs and colors. Some were angled and hard surrounded by precious metals. Some were just plain wood, old and rotted. Another had a line of diamonds that hung from silver streams.

“Have any ideas?” I asked as I examined the many other strange and different doorways.

Scion shook his head. “I bet anything it has to do with those.” He pointed to the Dragonstones on my hands. “I thought you didn’t know what Dragonstones were?”

“I don’t know how to use them.” I admitted. “I was hoping you could teach me.”

Again Scion shook his head. “All I know is that there are three other gates like these.” He thumbed a point over his shoulder to the way we had come in. “And nobody is allowed in or out.

“My brothers and I used to talk about what was in them. Some legends said that it was an entire trove of Dragonstones. Others say it was the tombs of ancient Pure Bloods. Another story said it was the prison of terrible beasts meant to be unleashed during Armageddon. Those are the popular guesses. There’s about fifty.”

“I’m going with World of Warcraft dungeon.”

Scion ignored me and continued, “The general consensus concerning an element of truth among all the stories was that only someone with an intact Dragonstone could open a gate. And not just any gate. That person would have to be a member of whichever family was responsible for sealing that gate.”

I knew where this was going. “Let me guess. This was the Thantosa gate?” 

“Yes. “

I thought for a moment. I thought about everything that was happening around us. I considered the
coincidence
of how the
one
guy, who had the
one
thing that could get my attention, happened to be in front of the
one
gate I could have possibly opened. Was this a small world, or a big plan?

“Oh my God!” Scion blurted out with realization, “You’re a Thantosa.”

“It seems more and more likely,” I huffed.

He dropped to a knee and bowed before me. It’s often one imagines being worshiped by loyal minions, and as a child I had a posse of teddy bears whom I ruled with an iron fist between cookies and nap time, but this was something different. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt with my good arm and hauled up to his feet. “Don’t ever do that again.” I warned.

“But you’re a Thantosa. You come from one of the greatest Amalgam heritages to ever have lived beneath the moon.”

“I am kid from Alabama.” I assured him, “I may be related to this great family, but I am anything but great, so
please
don’t do that again.”

Scion all but shook with excitement, “You don’t understand. The things your family has done. My own family served yours back when the Infinites protected the world from the great Evil. Your forefathers built this cavern with the help of my forefathers. It was your destiny to find your way to it. If you understood the fear your family name once engendered in those who did wrong? Even the name, Scion, which I humbly carry –It’s said that in some places old magic still has to bend its will to that name, and those of darkness still flee from it. All because of what your bloodline did. Many protectors wore it in hopes that it would be true. But they were not of the Thantosa lineage, and so most never could understand its true power.”

“I don’t care.” I said curtly.

“You should be honored.” Scion said bluntly. “You have a legacy few could ever dream to claim.”

I took a step away, because this guy was laying it on too thick, and I was starting to feel guilt. I didn’t grow up to care about lineage and heritage. I was nothing special. I was just a kid who ungratefully waited tables, and a son who shamed his own dad. Now I’ve got a teenager, with more sense of honor and duty in his left pinky than I could ever hope to have in my entire metal-ravaged body, swearing allegiance to me. I had grown up into an ungrateful prick. I felt like I deserved to be the guy splattered at the bottom of the waterfall instead that Street Viper, Feringal. If not for Largo’s interference, it very well could have been me. My attitude has always been more Viper than that of Scion’s fabled Infinites.

“Let me come with you.” He said. “We could be the new Infinites of our day. We could make the world a safer place. I could help you discover who you are…”

He was cut off, when from above, rained the darkness that obscured the ceiling. It morphed into a floating shadow that swirled in a circle around us.  It jumped up and then dropped between us, and with a punch from extended tentacles that took a solid shape, which hit like rocks, shoved us each in different directions. Scion landed against a pillar. I hit the doors.