ULTRAMagic Babel - Chapter 18

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    “Wow, this is all levels of strange…” Blood-Wraith remarked as he looked around at the abandoned experiments and disheveled cabinets of Warehouse Omicron. It was like peering into a window of the past he was never meant to see. He then picked up a folder full of papers and tapped in on the table to straighten them out. “Any info on me?”

    “Doubtful, given that you were fairly late to the party.” Gummi answered as he picked up a box of documents off of the floor.

    Lia wiped her finger across a dusty, glass case and grimaced a little. “Actually we were curious as to whether or not your abilities could have been applied to our research, Blood.” She went to a filing cabinet next to her old desk and pulled out a packet of papers that she then handed to him. “Here you go, if you’re curious.”

    Blood-Wraith nodded as he skimmed through the report and noticed a curious detail. “Wait, you guys thought I was an ar’ton?”

    Lia paused and snickered a little. “And to think that was utterly top secret not too long ago… Yes, Blood. Given your potential, resilience, and nature it was a safe bet. And taking into consideration our great interest in the ar’ton, there were actually plans to capture you for study…”

    Gummi shook his head. “You guys planned to kidnap Blood-Wraith? The boy who was popping off with new forms and magic every week?” This warranted a few chuckles.

    “How so, exactly?” Blood-Wraith questioned with morbid curiosity.

    “Probably with Gummi’s spider magic, I’d imagine,” Andelin pointed out as she walked over from some broken test tubes.

    “Oh of course!” Gummi lightheartedly complained. “Because I totally could have gone toe to toe with Drago, Leif, Tusk, and Desislav, HA!” His old exasperation from the end times of The Eternal Church could be felt and it made the others laugh.

    “Gummi has spider magic?” Mal wondered as she walked over to the main table. “What do you mean by that?”

    Putting his hands together, Gummi pulled them apart, causing sticky strands of silk to stretch from them. Notably his arms had turned shiny black, resembling spider chitin. “Yeah, it’s… Let’s just say I let myself be experimented on a little back in the day. It was a different time…”

    “Hold up,” Blood-Wraith interjected as he held his hand out with it having turned shiny black, just like Gummi’s. “No, it can’t be…”

    “Actually yes, because the spider you killed at the Metal Oasis was the one I got my spider powers from…” Gummi’s whole body then turned to segmented, black chitin, with four extra spider legs coming from his back and glowing, yellow eyes. “That spider was a familiar of The Great Dark Lurker, a spider astral god-go figure.”

    Blood-Wraith then assumed a similar form with glowing blue eyes and looked at himself. “So that’s why Azure Spider always felt off, yet natural, and why I can spin webs-because Baxter told me the armor he made for me didn’t account for that ability.”

    Gratiana then stepped over and placed her hand on Gummi’s shoulder. “Dear…”

    “I know, mom,” he said as he reverted back to normal. “Hey, I made it work, despite the surreal, spider-based dreams I’m plagued with… I mean, I’ve always been in the shadows after all…”

    “Sweetie, I’m still concerned for you, even to this day.”

    “Well Leif did become friends with Lurker back in the Epoch when they were young,” Mal pointed out as she placed a folder on the lab table. “He probably views Gummi as a replacement and Blood as a good friend in need of help. Of course Gummi may also be seen as an ally given what’s going on now and his change of circumstances. Lia? Here’s… Blood, are you going to stay like that?”

    He looked down at his sleek, chitinous body and nodded. “Well it’s dangerous in here after all, isn’t it?”

    The clicking sound Blood-Wraith’s chitin made was a little unsettling, but Mal had to concede he would be ready just in case things went south. And given what she was sensing it was quickly turning into a good call. “Fair enough, I guess. Lia here’s the files for the various construct types. Side note, the files on me are off. I’m actually genderless, not female.”

    “You’re not a girl?” she asked, a bit surprised. “But your voice? And mannerisms?”

    “To be fair, we’re all in agreement that I was originally supposed to be a female primordial. You can keep referring to me as a girl though.”

    “Don’t do that on Will’s Earth, Lia,” Blood-Wraith added. “Will told me and Mal about how some Earthlings are very sensitive when it comes to topics such as gender and pronouns…”

    “It makes me wonder how they would react if they met an entity like me…” Mal noted. “I’m not worried about them offending me, I’m more worried about their potential for infighting.”

    Lia thought about something Milosh had been suggesting back when The Eternal Church was in full swing and shuddered. “I am so glad Milosh is dead, as that would have given him ideas… Anyways, thank you, Mal,” she said as she opened the folder and retrieved a key card. Lia then went to her desk, swiped the card through a scanner, and pressed the power button to the tower computer that sat next to a bulky CRT monitor. “After this starts up we’ll be able to do a quick containment integrity check and…” The computer began making awful noises and started boot looping. “NO, not now!!”

    “Jeez, it must have been off for too long…” Gummi remarked, the computer’s malfunctions starting to worry him a little bit.

    “Shoot, maybe we should have brought Barry and Vapor 6 along…” Blood-Wraith concluded.

    Gratiana then stepped over and placed her above the case. “Hold on, I have an idea…” She focused and electricity arced from her palm, causing the whole computer to jolt upwards an inch. It startled everyone and scorched the case, but after a momentary black screen the computer went straight to the desktop. “There we go.”

    “Incredible!” Lia complimented. “What did you do?”

    “Well it looked like the Magic Energy Battery, or MEB for short, needed a little invigorating.”

    “Goodness, it’s running just like new… Alright, let’s see who’s still here…”

    The process of checking the warehouse’s database was a bit slow as there was a lot to go through. Things were going fine until errors started popping up. Missing Mimics and Haze were to be expected, but what scared Lia was the Juggernaut. The system was confused and claimed it was missing, but also present. Lia felt a massive sting of adrenaline, but relaxed a little when she saw that the Imperator was still contained. She got up, took a breath, and turned to the group. Her worry was as plain as day on her face.

    “What’s the verdict, Lia?” Gummi asked.

    “We need to check the testing area.” She then retrieved a rectangular key from the top drawer of her desk and grabbed the key card. “Be extra careful as I have no idea what the actual status of the constructs are. Stay alert and tread softly.”

    It was unsettling to head to the farthest reaches of the warehouse with Lia’s warning in mind. After she entered a code into the keypad, swiped her card, and undid the lock, a huge metal door slid into a slot into the wall with a low rumbling sound. It was dark and dusty, so Lia flipped a couple of switches. The dirty bulbs of the overhead lights struggled to illuminate the room, but what could be seen was foreboding to say the least. Glass tanks lined the walls containing the Mimic constructs with 16 through 20 missing. That was to be expected.

    As the group searched the room for anything out of the ordinary, Lia thought she heard some rustling that was not them. Upon coming to the Juggernaut’s tank, her heart dropped. It was empty and the door was open. “Everyone?” she choked out. “We have a problem…”

    Gummi quietly stepped over, careful not to alert or disturb anything. “What is it, Lia?” he whispered.

    Before anything else could be said, what sounded like a man’s voice roared at the group and the owner of that vocalization charged at them. It had to have been the Juggernaut. Barreling through Gummi, it went straight for Lia. The construct got a hold of her, but she escaped its grasp with a burst of fire from her mouth (a technique taught to her by Waramunt as a means of self defense). From the light that was briefly provided it could be seen that the Juggernaut had the typical black and red color scheme of a typical shadow construct, but appeared to be made out of glass and wood. Mal ran up to get in between it and Lia, but the construct picked her up and tossed her aside.

    Gummi then picked up a telephone and chucked it as hard as he could at the head of the construct, with it making an audible ding sound. Their foe snapped its head towards him, switching targets for just a moment. Gummi had to be careful as he backed up, as one wrong move could easily unleash another shadow construct. Using some web from his palms, Gummi latched a metal box and hurled it. Unfortunately the Juggernaut caught it and tossed it to the ground with a loud crash. A low growling indicated its anger, but that frustration had blinded it to the mischievous trap that had been set…

    The Juggernaut tripped over something and fell flat on its face with a thud. Blood-Wraith laughed from the ceiling as he had managed to lay a tripwire that went on to suspend their attacker above them. He quickly skittered to cocoon and subdue the construct, but it managed to get itself down with a maneuver of brute force that took a chunk of ceiling with it. The Juggernaut then began swinging the web and rubble around, clearly planning to sling shot it at Blood-Wraith. As the boy panicked and crawled out of the way with the construct adjusting its aim, Gummi took a massive breath. He then ran up and belted out a loud elk call in the construct’s face.

    Stumbling back in pained confusion, grasping its head, the Juggernaut stumbled into a strange field of magic that rendered it helpless as it flailed in the air. Mal had her hand raised and was focusing hard. The spell she had in mind was a gamble, but there was no other option that did not result in a drawn out fight. She spoke an incomprehensible void spell that caused the construct to rapidly spaghettify. It cried out in defeat as it vanished into nothingness, leaving behind an eerie silence. The group did not say anything for what felt like an eternity as they were quite shaken up from the ambush.

    “You okay, Lia?” Mal asked as she helped her up.

    “What-what was that?” Lia struggled to say. “Did-did you kill him?”

    “No, I just sent him to where he needed to be. Leif would have been really upset with me if I killed someone…”

    “Hold on, where did you send him?” Blood-Wraith inquired as he crawled down the wall.

    “Earth… 23, I think.”

    “Will’s Earth? Are you sure about that?”

    “No… yes… maybe? I can’t really control where that spell leads. Also I believe that construct will call himself ‘Anderson’ in due time.”

    “Well at least he’s out of our hair,” Gummi said in a hoarse voice. “Mom, Andelin? Are you two alright?”

    Gratiana went over and hugged him. “Oh my goddess, your poor throat! Andelin, could you prepare some more tea once we’re out of the warehouse?”

    “Of course,” she replied. “Perhaps some green tea or camomile will help…”

    “Aw, mom…” Gummi said, a little embarrassed.

    Lia took a breath to steady her nerves and smiled. “Well I guess I’ll have to update the database then…” She then realized something that caused panic to settle in. If the Juggernaut was able to get out, what of the Imperator? “We need to check on Audamar, right now…”

    Andelin readied two cards and led the way. “Let’s go, Lia. I’ve got your back…”

    The two hurried to the farthest end of the room and beheld in horror the empty state of the glass tank. “Source! He’s out!! He got out!!”

    “Easy, Lia,” Gummi tried to say. “This doesn’t mean he’s still alive. It could have easily been a… no, damn it, that wouldn’t be an ideal outcome…”

    “Let’s not panic, Lia,” Gratiana interjected. “Surely your team installed a failsafe, correct?”

    Andelin exhaled. “The Imperator was not ready to be utilized and required more testing. It wasn’t ready for the failsafe…”

    “DAMN IT, MILOSH!” Lia screamed as she banged the glass tank with her fists. “WE NEEDED MORE TIME!”

    “Alright, then we’ll just have to fight it!” Blood-Wraith declared. “What’s a single construct compared to The Lich of Old?”

    In any other situation Blood-Wraith’s bravery would have been encouraging… had Lia not known the full details of the Homunculus Project. “Blood, do you not understand what I meant by potential?! We gave him the ability to grow and improve-it’s what we needed to test! I mean jeez, he’s already a level 2 construct and Source knows what else he can do! I was playing with fire and it’s about to burn us!”

    Blood-Wraith was unphased and took a breath. “Lia, we can do this! We’ll take him on, all of us. It’s the guild’s duty to keep the Cosmos safe and by the Source, I am going to do that…” A series of alarms with red lights then went off. “Um, Lia?”

    “The Omicron Contingency… EVERYONE OUTSIDE NOW.”

    Boris and Stanislav heard the commotion and were ready to act, but were worried when the group came rushing up, urging them to head outside. A strange shadow construct leapt off into the air from the warehouse roof and Lia knew exactly who it was. “What was that!?” Boris demanded to know.

    “Boris, Audamar is going to lead a platoon of shadow constructs to secure The Eternal Church!” Lia answered.

    “The church we leveled-damn it! What do you need us to do?”

    “Head to Castle Haugen, warn Sten, send some knights, and be ready to call The ULTRAMagic Guild at a moment’s notice!”

    “Roger that! Let’s go, Stanislav!” Boris ordered, the two running to their vehicle and tearing out of there once it started.

    Blood-Wraith took a breath and focused, turning into Indigo Wolf-Remembrance. Gummi followed suit, turning into a giant Elk that glowed with arcane energy. “Quick, on our backs!” Blood-Wraith instructed as the great beasts knelt down. “Like it or not, Lia, we are going to have to fight!”

    “Alright, but I hope you two can run fast…” she replied as she hopped on with Mal.

    “Haha, Gummi, how about another race then?”

    Gummi snorted and shook his head at Blood-Wraith as Gratiana and Andelin steadied themselves. “Ha, now? Of all times? Alright then…”


Next: Chapter 19

ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)

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