I_L: Chapter 5

 

Noelle walked into a large dome-shaped chamber, larger than some hotel lobby's that she'd seen, but not even half as well furnished. Dozens of crates, hairy couches, makeshift carpets and tacky pinup posters of Androibas Annual along the wall made the station a hiss of kitsch. The weapons pile she could see in the corner was cluttered and outdated, even the coffeemaker seeming to run into a cracked pot. She stepped on some kind of plush toy and took her boot back.

"This is the Chameleon Station. We rummaged it from an asteroid field wreckage after a Lavalite attack before the usual yellow tape could be thrown up." The red catsuited woman, who identified herself as Crimson Vixen said. The girl, with her waxy, sheeny skin seemed clever to the group, the rest following her for her ruthless efficiency. Her body seemed droop at certain points, requiring a firm slap or pinch to resolidify herself by choice. The big furred red lady next to "Cutie" was hot as a burning bush, sweat escaping her pours. Wulfenborn as she was known, her wolf-like ace scowled and a metal caps were installed into her shoulders, implicating various augmentations. Her had sharp, deadly claws and a red, hot gaze that could melt stone. "Grr. Not every day that a government spook wants to walk through the halls of the PFU alone."

Noelle chuckles. "Well if I'm with you guys, I'm not alone am I?" She says with that big, lovable smile of hers. She wasn't the only one happy to be in the Chameleon station. "How did you find us? Who are you? We've all been condemned by society, are you responsible for us being rejected at the PFU? We're going to have to kill her." A rugged bird-man with a ripped leathery coat, baggy trousers and a crooked dagger slouched back on a couch, he didn't need to

introduce himself for her to recognize him as Ivan Jackie Cripson, 'The Ripper', an infamous troublemaker in the Renegade Lyfe scene. "I'm Noelle." She said to him.

Ivan leaned forward in his seat, trying to catch the rest of what the girl was saying to is group of friends, but the guy next to him was shaking his head. "Ah'em Crazed. So they call me. But innit just a bit nutso to be letting a copper into our midst? We're ta' bad guys. She's prolly just trying to escape the PFU's detection. Cannot 'rust her." Frank Listino, or Crazed as he went by spouted, his oversized coat, baggy scarf and scruffy unkempt hair all giving the appearance of someone in perpetual disarray. And yet despite his shaking hands and baggy eyes, Crazed made no confusion of impressions.

Noelle sat on the opposite couch and relaxed. "Yeah, do as your conscience dictates but mine is clean. Why don't you guys give me a hand? I'm not gonna try anything, I swear." She added with a wide-eyed innocent expression. But a small, almost imperceptible shake, a nervousness in her voice and eyes was what she wasn't really fooling around with. She was here for reasons unknown to them.

Vixen didn't look impressed with the girl. She kept a smile on her lips, but Noelle could see she didn't feel very comfortable with her presence. "Okay. I'll tell you what," she paused. "Why don't you take some acting classes, do a few shows, and come back after your goodbye tour. You're not buying this act right?"

Ivan gave a look of disgust. "Nah, man. I gotta keep my options open, I'm still on the lookout for a job. Maybe she's got something for us." he looked to Crazed to ask permission, who nodded. "Even if she's a secret agent, best we can do is interrogate. We have to trust her, atleast until we get more information out of her."

"I really am an agent. A cargo Inspector. My job is to protect the cargo I inspect and search after it when it goes missing. Not to judge or condemn." She scratched her cheeks abit. "You know the Merchant? Or someone named Blackbox? They have networks everywhere.

Probably files on all you too. Course you're all wanted criminals, WL playbooks have your mugs every year. Like you, you're Vandal right?" She kicked her shoes off towards a bulked figure in a stretched leotard, suit-pants overtop and a steel mask, bandages all over his ripped arms. "Disgraced underground fighter kicked out of the entertainment rings for dosing, has a bad reputation in the drugtrade as a repeat customer who doesn't pay his tab."

Vandal gripped his Scorpion blade, he eyed Noelle with a dark gaze. "The truth you speak, is I a bad man?" His speech and lips were rather slurred.

Noelle felt her face turn red. "No, I swear! I'm on your side! Can you trust me?" she didn't really care about the other's response, she was trying to tell them that her intentions were for good. But they could be a little skeptical right now. Especially Vixen. But, like Vandal said, they needed to take the risk to trust her. "I can also offer you a job. Help keep your criminal life a secret." Noelle added.

"A job?" Cutie chirped, although Red Vixen wasn't taking her arms apart from her squeaking chest.

"Technically I'm just passing one along." She threw a folder on a dark brown table. "One of the Pillars gave me this. An assignment, well I'm re-assigning it. Something about finding someone named the Pawn? I bet if you pulled it off they'd be impressed enough to let you back in."

"Ohh, so you're like us." said Ivan. Crazed hid behind him, the Ripper his usual go-to shield. "You want in with the PFU too?" He took out a cigar and bit the packaging, before lighting up and smoking one out. Vixen didn't really look as nervous about it now, but her eyes darted to the girl. "We were kinda wondering. What do you want? You lookin' to join us? You got a way you can earn with us? The Lyfe is more profitable than a simple life of a Paramour grunt."

Noelle shrugged. "What do you all want with Paramor Frontia United? You seem to wish you were in with them, based on the little sit down I watched earlier."

Vixen glared angrily. "Each of us formed this team for the express purpose of trying to be recognized and recruited by them. That's all. We all have our own reasons."

The Inspector eyed the caged parrot by one of the tables, pecking away at grains in a feeding dish.

"Really? You don't really seem like the idealist types. You all want a revolution in Xi that bad?"

"Must I repeat myself? We all have our reasons." Vixen grabbed Noelle by the arm. "And we'll take you on as one of us. You'll have to live up to your name, but we'll keep you alive. It's not often we get these people who know their way around a gun. Well that's what they're like out here. And I know you don't like Paramor Frontia. But it's only them who will keep the resistance alive. Otherwise, you're on your own." She looked down at the file.

"Oh? So I should be working for Paramor Frontia too? Paramor is a terrorist group to the government, there's a reason they have no respect for them. A lot of the Paramor Frontia has

their faces hidden. But some of the people on their side could be sympathetic." Noelle said. "As in, you guys want me to keep doing what I'm doing now? With all these cameras everywhere in the solar system? Oh, that's a fun role for me to be in! The famed inspector, newly promoted.

Working with rebels." Her eyes grew wide in an innocent pose, her voice shrill in excitement. Noelle was not really doing anything nefarious, she didn't intend to overthrow the government nor become a patriot or anything. That would be just the opposite of what she was in here for. But she was still being watched back with her group she knew. The Merchant, Blackbox, she could never trust them, their self-interest would turn against her on a dime.

Vixen picked up the folder. "Tabloid, Tangerine, analyze these documents. See if you can find any info on the subject's profile or any leads." She said to two androids in back of the group, appearing similarly slender like porcelain dolls in blouses and skirts, one in lime green metal and the other sun-orange. The former was already taking the file and flipping through the pages, the latter was sniffing a magnet and shivering. "W-w-w-will do.." Tangerine said, twitching as they rubbed said magnet over their metal bowlcut of hair and plopped another on their mechanical chest.

A red beeping light started to flash on her Pocket Compt Communicator, normally reserved for extradimensional incidents and frequently Tachyon activity. The last time it'd beeped like this, she has still a Security Chief. The rest of the group looked silent. "Looks like work calls. Some kind of emergency." Noelle flashed through the coordinates on her Comp. "I've got to skidaddle, my flight pod isn't too far from here. I'm gonna miss you all, keep in touch?"

Ivan and Vixen looked at one another. Cutie merely giggled, covering her mouth as she huddled over behind Noelle. Crazed sat skittish, Vandal eyeing the inspector with threatening

suspicion. The two androids paid no mind to anything but their work as they poured through the folder.

"Don't be a stranger. Sorry if we're not the best welcoming committee." Vixen sighed. "But now you're one of us."

"One of us?" Noelle said, oddly liking that turn of phrase. "One of the Wreckers." She smirked.

"I like that.. catch ya on the fly!" She sped out towards the Chameleon Station's exit and soon found herself back in the spacial region of the marshes, hopping into her flight pod a short trek later. The activity was occurring on Martian soil this time, in a citystack not too far off from the one she'd been at days prior. While her pod traveled towards the red planet she spotted a cluster of asteroids, nesting and flying towards it with growing blue and green chunks structured into their massive bodies.

"Aestragons?" She shirked abit. If Aestragons were gathering that meant, Lavalites. "Not satisfied with the droppings are they? They're going for the whole meal.." She said as she put on course for the citystack's surface. The massive citystack rested on a platform of several dozen miles large. Its base was a square around the hollowed out tree with a metal frame like the rest of the cities here, with windows and balconies, making it look like a tower to the heavens with civilization built around it. At its peak, an asteroid landed on the Stack near the top. She sulked as she landed her pod amongst the larger androids near the landing site, people fleeing from the invading carapace coated cyborgs. The designs of their armor, their mint-colored blood and penchant to invade inevitably reminded one of the infamous Techtnoids, but humanoid enough to march on two legs and wield terrifying heat in the form of plasmic cannons. Their bodies were

always coated in stylish metal, faces so warped and coated in carapace armor that most wouldn't consider their troops anything but some kind of armed monster.

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An alarm sounded from the inside of the city to out.

 

"What the hell is going on in there? The Lavalites are attacking the platform.. They never went after anything but asteroids and ringworld factories until now." She pulled out her Volt gun and carried on cautious. As she marched forward, a woman stood in a purple cloak with an eye printed on the top of the hood covering her face, purple lipstick adorned across her face. Far from running, Noelle watched a dozen Lavalites approach her hostile. She merely stood in the breeze and placed her hands on her chest, clutching large pearls dangling across her neck. "A beautiful display of brutality. Now, my own sentiments I will express."

She kept her composure, not moving a single muscle as the Lavalites came closer and closer. "I welcome your intrusion. I was in your path. Now our path disconnects." With a folding of her arms onto her hips and gentle wavy swing of her waist, the Lavalites stopped cold. They dropped their guns, and then all of them dropped to the ground, still and without movement.

Noelle approached further cautiously.

 

"Good luck with that. I'm trying to find my crew, they went into the metrostation." She said as she was already on the way there. "But there's thousands of them."

"Noelle, if I may, we mustn't go that way." The cloaked woman said.

"How did you know my name?" Granted, she'd gotten more self-promotion than she was comfortable with as of late so it wasn't hard to guess how, but still.

"I am Psi. From the Society of the Mind. Few thoughts are shielded from me." Noelle's hand reached towards Psi, who flinched away. Noelle stopped immediately.

"Don't touch. I would hate to accidentally take a life like some of you." Noelle took a step back and pulled her hand away. Psi stood at the window, staring at her. "I'm more sensitive to others, so I'm often more aware of thoughts than other people. I have a gift, but it's not nearly as powerful as yours. I don't know what you'd call that thing, but I can see your thoughts. And I can see your gift. But that's not for here."

Noelle looked up near the center of the stack, a few miles away where a large beam of light was beaming from on high. "Tachyon Cascade? At the same time Lavalites are flooring the place and showing off their jib."

"The The Xi'an DarkGuards scythes will flood through here in an hour. Once they arrive, even an invasion of this scale will be wrapped up shortly." Psi said.

Noelle pointed towards the beam near the center of the stack. "Let's go this way." "Noelle, the They’re going to tear apart the place. We should be evacuating."

The girl unloaded her Volt Gun. "Doubt they are going to break this place to nothing within only an hour. If this is true, they might as well wait it out until then. Let's see what else is out there. We might find something useful." She pulled up a map on her Compt.

Suddenly the sound of footsteps and clunk behind her broke the Inspector's attention.

"How's that? The boss says we might find something useful." Brick said behind her, catching her offguard. "Well if the our Chief says we gotta go check it out, we gotta go check it out." Ragnor, Vengence, Hawk, Blackbox and the Merchant were among them.

"When you said you had to leave the club early and would meet back soon, you should've said it'd be on the clock." The Merchant chuckled.

Psi stood nearby, eyeing the cascade and its bright pulse through the sky up ahead.

 

"I'll be going with you. Noelle feels there's a reason we need to be up there. I trust such dedicated intuitions." She declared.

"Hey, no hard feelings. There's always room for a mysterious hot chick on the crew." The Merchant grinned.

The group found a jeep and started to trek their way through the platform's city roads, Noelle driving in the pilot seat.

As they made their way out of the club, the group was attacked by a group of Lavalites. "We've got company." Hawk peered out the side.

"Vengence, get your weapon ready. The Inspector will be in over her head here." The Merchant yelled.

Vengence pulled out his Axe and quickly fired it at the attackers, hitting one and drawing their attention. The thundering boom of his axe acted with a quick ricochet, punching through armored bodies, bouncing back and reflecting back into Vegence's hand like a lightning bolt for him to throw again within seconds. As they started to turn their way, he quickly fired at them

again and hit another and another, punching back whole groups of them as they started taking off and sending torsos flying.

The invaders started to take notice and swarm the sides of the road, attempting to rush in to block the jeep's path.

Brick's gauntlets started to glow, energy flowing through his arms. He put one hand flat and made a fist with the other, slamming the latter into the former. The solid cobblestone grew in density until the pressure burst, sending earthquakes parallel along their path and shattering the ground into a kinetic break that hit the Lavalites and flattened many heading towards them.

The group continued to make their way through the station.

 

Psi sent a wave of psychic focus wherever she could, knocking their attackers unconscious whenever they veered towards close whether when leaping onto the vehicle or trying to fire from the roofs of buildings and the sides.

As they got further along, the group started to be surrounded by more Lavalites and the surrounding area started to get darker, the noise of the Lavalites becoming louder and more frequent.

"There! It's just up ahead!" Noelle shouted, hitting the accelerator. The void of light encompassing up the Citystack created a giant wall, making the area seem brightly lit and swirling between blue, grey and white backgrounds casted on every surface. The shadows of the Lavalites had become an almost formless mass trailing behind them while giving chase, their shouts and cries behind the group twisting into garbled sounds beyond elegant description. By

the time they arrived within a few dozen meters of the Cascade, the Merchant turned to Blackbox. "We're in! Hit'em off!"

Blackbox rose both her arms and a tidal wave of pure pitch-black shade grew from her arms and flooded the road behind them, consuming the Mob in shadows and sending them sliding far away.

"Why the hell didn't you do that earlier?" Hawk asked, thankful she intervened.

 

The jeep entered an isolated period of dark, as if teleported to where no vision possible. "Because of that." She replied mordantly.

The jeep slowed. Everyone was trapped in a miasma of sensory deprivation.

 

Noelle however, could see a slit in the dark coating her vision. "Everyone wait here." She said, her voice somewhat panned low in the void.

She hopped out of the Jeep, finding she could still feel the road. She took one step at a time, eyes starting to glow an eerie cyan-blue. While she'd seen the Tachyon Cascade countless times from afar, cleaning up from its effects, fought its visitors that it flooded the universe with, this was the closest she'd ever been exposed to it. The slit widened like an expanding line, and a dark line into eternity became a field of white. With her other hand she took hold of her jacket, her left hand pressing against the metal clasp on her shirt pocket as if it could feel what was beyond. She took a breath, then another. She began to fade, her body becoming translucent, merging with the light of the infinite beyond, her eyes glowing an eerie cyan. The light and the power she'd absorbed became a giant pillar that surrounded her, breathing and flowing like a thick lifewater. Just like the gel back on Mars, she was able to stretch her hand through it and

with the gentlest of breath, move it around at will. As she drew closer she began to see a shadowy form approaching. She could not see the person itself, but she could see them. They were coming towards her.

A cold and quiet shadow began to descend on the Citystack's main street, many streets crunching as they fell upon the packed support of the stack's ancient heavy wooden boards. The Lavalite mob frozen everywhere in the city, even as Xi soldiers began to eye them from the atmosphere.

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Noelle squinted her eyes at the approaching shadow. The shadow rose into a humanoid form. The air rippled as the form began to grow. In a few seconds, the person grew to 7 feet tall, and their head forward. It had nice shiny plating, its body was a perfect, human shape. But they weren't like any android or augmented model that Noelle had ever seen, and the aesthetic of some of their plates made them almost look like a Lavalite, if it weren't for the visibility of their ochre face with red, purple and green streaks across in heavily stylized cybernetic circuits over their cheeks, lips and forehead. A kind of hybrid of humanity and a Lavalite.

The other Lavalites appeared behind her, each holding onto a hand. They pulled themselves to the light and she could feel the coldness, the temperature dropping to near death like coldness and the sudden rush of air through her lungs. Each Lavalites hand began to glow a bright red, and like her, they could see each other as bright flashes of red light. Each one that she

could see her, but ignored her entirely. The Lavalites began to run towards the light inside the Cascade, their glowing red. When they traveled far enough after stumbling upon it, they vanished into motes of light and faded into the aimless, endless white until they couldn't be found anymore. Entire crowds of them walked into the beam as if retreating, and all vanished from the streets before long.

Suddenly the Tachyon Cascade began to fade and dissipate. The light rose until it dissolved, giving the city its regular glow back. The Lot group felt their senses returning, they saw Noelle with some strange entity.

When the light faded, the Lavalite man was still there, staring at her. "Who are you?" She asked.

"The Hivesman." He said. "I am, their speaker."

 

Noelle looked at a crest on their chest. A chess piece- a Pawn. “This is what she meant by Pawn?” Now it all made sense to her. The P.F.U. must’ve known this person would be here, and she wouldn’t have been let into their base until she brought him. She touched his chest to see if he as physical, and the Hivesman nodded seemingly to confirm.

The Merchant looked around on the empty streets, the Xi Hydrocopters starting to descend. Mars was soft, sunny and safe again. The streets were quiet.

"Let's get out of here," She whispered.

 

Blackbox, The Merchant and Brick started to investigate after. Most of the population had been long evacuated.

The three set off into the city, leaving the shadowless street behind. As they continued, they passed many of the empty stalls and houses that the Lavalites once inhabited, as though they had vanished overnight. They passed the empty streets of the city where people once ran, and people where once lived. They walked down roads, looking left and right, listening for any noises that might signal there was life still in the city. But it was as if the city was deserted, but the sounds were of people still running. The streets that had once been filled with Lavalite activity were now completely quiet, empty.

That night they flew back to the Project Station, the Hivesman sitting next to a girl dressed in white, Theabelle on the couch, hugging him while Noelle laid back on her bed.

She lay in the quiet of her quarters, enjoying the feeling of her mind being finally cleared of the darkness. The Merchant came and sat on the edge of the bed.

"How does it feel, being home?" She asked quietly.

 

Noelle looked back at The Merchant, her eyes still not quite adjusted to the dark of the room, she could still feel how deep that gaze was, how she was staring right through her. But she wasn't, and when she glanced back up, she was smiling at her.

"Feels like I've got soap suds." She answered.

 

"Slipper and sore huh? Very good, I like it." The Merchant nodded. She smiled again, ignoring that avatar of avarice walking away.

Noelle watched on with her eyes glowing as she moved her fingertips. She could sense the emptiness where she once lay, the life once lived. Between her fingertips, she rubbed and pinched enough that tingly, tiny droplets of foam started to form, the same odd gel. She flicked

her fingers, sending it on a creaking path in the distance, shaking it off, like flicking pale soap crumbling straight from your softest touch.