Notice 15 2 Raises
Common Knowledge 5 Success
Interlude 1 Tragedy
I will take the Benny for the interlude.***
Kim sighed with relief as she got the reactor put back into place. The lead balloon would dissipate on its own, so she left it in place as she, Silver, and Jack headed back up in the elevator. Silver was big enough that it was a bit of a squeeze, but Kim didn’t mind, as it left her pressed up against Jack. She gave him a shy smile.
Jasco was waiting for them when they arrived back up at the main floor. He had news of Rondo Killian, dead at the hands of one of his daughters. Well, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.
“I hope they get a good deal with the Black Market,” Kim said. “Those women and children don’t deserve to be thrown out of their home.”
Kim handed Jasco a data pad to get the codes to the underground facility. It might come in useful sometime. She would poke around and see what needed to be done to get it more or less functional, plus it was just fascinating.
***
Kim stared out at the wilderness as they returned to Black Mesa, clutching behind Jack on his robo-horse once more. She thought back to the last time she had been in a facility like that. She had been six, and her father had been out on a job. Her mother had taken her on a trip north. Kim had stood and watched her mother don her armor -- the very armor Kim wore now -- always amazed and entranced by the glittering, magical jewels.
“Stay close, don’t wander off, and don’t touch anything,” Tara told her daughter. Then she turned and pressed a control on the armor. The hillside shimmered and disappeared to reveal a large metal door. Kim stared in fascination.
Tara input some code into a panel, and the door slid open. With a techno-mage mother, Kim had grown up around plenty of technology, but nothing like this.
“Hello, Tara,” came a feminine voice from somewhere. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you, Sara,” Tara said. “This is my daughter Kim.”
“Hello, Kim.”
Kim giggled. “Hello, Sara,” she greeted.
A shimmering figure appeared, flickering unsteadily. It was a young woman with black hair and eyes, pale skin, smiling.
“Sara is my sister, Kim,” Tara said, approaching the woman. She reached a hand up and touched Sara’s cheek. The image flickered and went out. “And what did I tell you about wasting power with the holographic system?” Tara scolded.
“I just thought my niece should at least see me,” Sara said. “She looks just like you.”
Tara smiled. “Sara and I discovered this place years ago, just after we came to Kingsdale. Sara never had the magical potential I did, but she did have psionic gifts that allowed her to interface with technology.”
Kim frowned. “Tele-tele-me-chan-ics,” she sounded out the difficult word.
“Well, she’s a bright one, isn’t she?” Sara commented. “Like mother, like daughter.”
Tara grinned. “Runs in the family.” Tara picked Kim up and started deeper into the complex.
Kim stared at her reflection in one of the jewels.
“There was an accident, and Sara was hurt badly. But she managed to upload her mind into the computer system here,” Tara explained. “I try and visit while working on a way to see if I can get her out.”
“Meanwhile, I sit here and wait, looking through pre-Rifts data. You wouldn’t believe the amount of porn…”
“What’s porn?” Kim asked.
“Sara!” Tara gasped.
“Sorry,” Sara said, a grin in her voice.
They entered some kind of control room. A table had been set off to the side with tools and various gizmos, widgets, and doo-dads. Tara set Kim at the table and then pulled off her helmet, shaking out her long, dark hair. She set the helmet on the table and removed the rest of the armor.
“Now why don’t you build mommy something while she works,” Tara told her daughter, giving Kim a kiss on the forehead.
“Okay!” Kim said. Her small hands grabbed for the tools and a few components, studying what she had available.
Tara slid into the seat at the control console. “So what have you found for me to look at, Sara?”
Kim lost track of how long they had been down there. They had brought a cooler and sleeping bags, like it was a sleepover, and Kim played and worked on her robot doll while her mother and Aunt Sarah worked. Occasionally when her mother needed a break, Kim would talk and play with Sara.
Then at some point Kim was awakened from her nap.
“Tara! We have intruders!”
Kim sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning, looking up at her mother.
Tara had sat up straight, turning to a bank of monitors, flipping on cameras. “How could they find the place? Did you have the hologram up?”
“Yes, Tara. They didn’t come through the door. They teleported in.”
Tara cursed and rose up, hurrying over to her armor, but the door to the control room opened.
Kim stared as a man dressed in black approached. He had long, black hair slicked back. An ugly, jagged scar marred the left side of his face, over his eye. That eye socket was filled with a red, glowing light. His left hand was a red-scaled, gnarled, clawed appendage, seeming too big in proportion to the rest of the man’s lean, tall frame. He would have been handsome if it hadn’t been for the scar and demonic eye and hand. His long black cape flowed around him, and his walking stick clicked on the metal floor.
“Ah, you must be the lovely Tara Black,” came the smooth, cultured voice. “Allow me to introduce myself--”
“Atrocles,” Tara hissed.
“Count Atrocles, if you please,” he said. “So you have heard of me.”
“Caleb told me about you,” Tara said, inching her hand toward the TW pistol at her belt.
Atrocles’ face seemed to harden at the name. “Ah, yes. Mr. Black. The man who defied me and marred me.” His demonic eye flashed, his jaw tense and working beneath his skin, making the scar ripple. “Well, soon we shall even the score.”
“Not likely!” Tara yanked out her pistol. The shots ricocheted off a magical shield surrounding Atrocles.
“Now, now. None of that.” With a gesture, a wave of force slammed into Tara, sending her flying. The edge caught Kim, and she screamed before pain and white light exploded in her vision and everything went dark.
Explosions of magic and yelling pulled Kim awake. Through a fall of her hair, she blinked, trying to see. The lights had gone, out, but the room was dimly lit by the light of a glowing rift. Hot, sulphurous wind blew into the chamber from beyond the rift. Kim struggled to move, only to find herself held in place a couple feet off the floor by magical tendrils. A familiar figure in black struggled with a sword against two demons, striking, slashing at the monsters, then vanishing in the darkness to appear behind, slashing again.
“Daddy!” Kim yelled.
Caleb glanced toward her, distracted enough that a claw sliced through his armor, the force sending him flying, smashing into a bank of computers.
“YES! KILL HIM!” Atrocles stood above the fray near the rift. Tara was held by similar magical shackles nearby, struggling to get free.
“Mommy!” Kim yelled. “Help me!”
“It’s okay, Kim! Daddy’s here!” Tara called to her daughter.
“Here to die!” Atrocles laughed boastfully. He sent a magical blast at Caleb, but the shadowy figure was no longer there, shadowporting across the room to Kim. He slashed with his sword, disrupting the magical bonds.
One of the demons leapt. Caleb cried out in pain as claws raked through his armor, taking him to the ground. He grabbed the demon, forcing it back away from Kim as she hit the metal floor hard, whimpering and crying. She scrambled away, hiding under the table.
Caleb rose up, covered in his own blood and demon ichor, as he killed one of the demons. He squared off with the other, his shadow sword almost invisible in the gloom. The other demon stalked toward him. The fight was short and brutal before Caleb was knocked to the floor again, struggling to rise.
The demon lifted Caleb by the neck and carried him to Count Atrocles, holding him aloft.
The count grinned, black mystical energy forming in his demonic hand. “I have awaited this day for a decade, Black!” he snarled, his red eye flaring. “To make you suffer as you made me suffer!” He lifted his hand to release the killing magic.
A blast of energy rang out. It slammed against Atrocles’ mystic shield, and he looked over, startled, to see the six year old girl holding the TW pistol. Kim squeezed off several more shots. Most went wild. One struck the demon in the face, and it howled, more in surprise and anger than hurt. It flailed out, dropping Caleb. One of Kim’s errant blasts shattered the mystic bonds holding Tara aloft. She dropped to the floor at Atrocles’ feet.
Caleb took advantage of the distraction, grabbing up his sword. He spun and cut off the demon’s head, then rammed the blade through the mystic shield and into Atrocles. The evil mage gave a howl of pain and indignation.
“Not again, Black! I swore to make you pay!” Blood spurted from the count’s mouth. His demonic hand grabbed Tara by the throat, and with superhuman strength he lifted and through her.
Tara screamed. “Caleb!” And then she disappeared through the rift.
Atrocles reached out, and Kim felt herself in the grip of magic once more, being lifted, flying toward the rift.
“NO!” Caleb screamed. Leaving his sword embedded in the count, he disappeared into the shadows, reappearing to catch his daughter. The light flickered as the rift started to destabilize.
Atrocles gave an evil, gurgling laugh as he coughed up blood. He glared at Caleb. “Another day, Black,” he vowed, and then he was gone with a blink of magic, still clutching Caleb’s sword in his belly.
The rift started to shrink. “Tara!” Caleb yelled, surging to his feet toward the rift. He made it three steps before collapsing under his own injuries, then tried to drag himself the rest of the way.
Kim stared in horror. Her mother’s face appeared in the rift, hand reaching out toward them. Caleb reached, his fingers just brushing Tara’s, trying to grasp her hand, slick blood preventing purchase.
And then the room plunged into darkness as the rift collapsed fully.
Silence.
“MOMMY!” Kim screamed.
***
Kim jolted awake, still clutching around Jack’s waist as they were pulling up to the Sidewinder Saloon. She buried her face into the back of Jack’s duster, hot tears stinging her eyes and cheeks. She hadn’t realized how tired she was, drained and worn out from the fight. Had she cried out in her sleep? That would be embarrassing, for Jack to hear her crying for her mother. She sniffed and composed herself again. She had to be a brave adult now.
So why did she still feel like that terrified child who had just lost her mother?
***
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