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Azad reaches down and scoops Jiminy’s gun up, so he now has both the fully
operational model, and Reagan’s prototype, which isn’t as powerful. He looks
down at Vanore, who is starting to do some breathing exercises. “Let me have
her so I can take her to get medical attention.”
Mandica stands with Vanore in her arms. “No, take me and her both.”
He shakes his head. “You need to make sure this never happens again. That
man has waged war on the living, and he’s prepared to overtake multiple
domes in order to get it done. The Seagate Savior is rallying her people,
and I need you to do the same for Ravensgate. I promise, she will receive
the best care this side of Gatewood.”
“I brought her back to life,” Mandica explains, “with this stone.” She
twists her shoulders demonstratively, but not enough to actually show the
Philosopher’s Stone. “But probably only this one copy of her. Her backups
are still likely dead, so don’t let anything else happen to her.” She hands
her over to him. “What’s happening?”
“Underbelly is under attack,” Azad answers as he’s accepting Vanore. “Unlike
in most cases, we can’t turn this off. They’re coming from other domes,
since I don’t have time to explain how, let’s just say, they’re not using
the door. You saw how I got here, and you’ll see me leave. There is more to
this universe than you know, and whoever this person is, he has the same
power. Real power.” He magically disappears with Vanore.
Mandica pulls her earpiece out of her pocket, and calls Elysia. “What’s
going on over there? Are you being attacked?”
“Yes!” Elysia replies as she’s grunting. “Zombies!”
“Zombies?” Mandica questions. Zombies were played out centuries ago.
“Hordes of them! We think they’re coming from Zombiedome! There’s, like, a
portal. A real portal. We don’t know how they’re doing it!”
“We need to get back to the vactrain,” Malika offers.
“That will take too long. Do you have any guns?” Mandica asks Reagan.
“Just this.” He holds his arm out. His own nanobots crawl out from his
sleeve. They shape themselves into a simple tube, with a handle for him to
grip, before exacting details and texture onto the cylinder as they bond
together into a more solid shape.
“Yeah, that’ll do.” She just points, and lets him blast a hole in the tower
wall.
“Don’t be mad, but I think we should go supersonic,” Mandica tells them
both.
“We have definitely not tested that,” Reagan warns.
“Underbelly is, what, about 2,000 kilometers away? So if we just go—”
“No, no, it’s not happening. I won’t allow it,” Reagan insists.
Two minutes later, they have reached the opposite side of the Loegria dome.
Malika is carrying Reagan by the waist. He blasts a hole in one of the
dome’s panes so they can fly right through it. Now they’re flying over the
real Castlebourne, no longer protected from the thin and unbreathable
atmosphere. Fortunately, all three of them can survive this without even
dying once. It’s not particularly comfortable at these speeds, but they only
have to manage for half an hour, moving at roughly Mach 3. It’s actually
better for them to go this fast now that they’re so exposed. They slow down
to cruising speeds, and crash through the Ravensgate pane, but much lower
this time since there’s a greater risk of diamond falling down on someone’s
head.
They continue to fly at cruising speed until they’ve reached the heart of
the city. It too has been overrun by zombies. Some of the other superheroes
are fighting them off, along with some supervillains. Everyone else is
running for their life. This is a black swan event for them. They were not
programmed for this eventuality.
“Why would this Jiminy guy do this?” Mandica questions. “What’s the point?
Everyone is either an NPC or using a temporary substrate. Yeah, it might
hurt if you die, but they knew what they were signing up for. Does he just
want to cause chaos?”
“It’s not just here,” Reagan is looking at his wrist device. “There are
zombies in the residences too. Some people there are like you were before
that stone. I have to go.”
“Wait!” Mandica urges when he tries to break away.
“I can’t wait! People are going to die!”
“We all saw what Azad did. He has real powers; ones that go against what we
all learned about physics. Elysia said the zombie portal is real. But she’s
in Seagate. They’re using two different portals, and if they’re all coming
from the same place...”
Reagan nods. “Then that’s how they’re getting into the residences too. We
have to get to that portal, but first, we need to make one stop.”
The three of them return to the lair.
Jaidia is there in a fresh new body. She’s naked, putting on her original
wings since her upgraded ones are still back in Loegria. They have to go on
before her costume.
“That was a quick turnaround,” Malika points out.
“Azad knows what’s at stake. I blew past reentry procedures,” Jaidia
explains.
Reagan heads for his private lab. He has never let anyone into it before,
but he leaves the door wide open this time while he makes a beeline for a
raised black cabinet. He inputs his code and biometrics, opening the doors
and extending a set of two stairs. Inside is an outfit that none of them has
seen before. It’s mostly brown, embellished with some white and silver. It’s
not simply a wing apparatus that attaches to the back, but an entire suit
which he steps backwards into. The wings are feathered, the rest is piped
and painted to be reminiscent of feathers. “Meet my new character...The
Harrier.”
“And we’re married to that name?” Malika asks him awkwardly.
“Absolutely,” he replies. He steps out of the cabinet, and walks back down
the steps. He’s a little off-balance, but at little risk of tipping over.
“Let’s go join the circus.” His visor snaps shut, concealing his identity
entirely. He leads the flock out of the lair.
The portal is probably 40 or 50 meters wide, but only a couple of meters
tall. Zombies are knocking each other over as they shamble in. The team
won’t be able to slip through without encountering them. To protect their
wings, they land as close as possible, and start fighting their way through,
bashing zombies’ skulls in, and tearing off their heads. It’s a bloodbath,
but necessary, and the point of Zombiedome. They were designed to be
threatening and deadly, and to die for it so visitors can have their fun.
Their teeth are sharp, but not enough to pierce their skin, which is good,
because according to Malika, you actually can become a zombie yourself, and
either exit the game, or have your brain dumbed down. They are not
interested in that here. They keep punching, kicking, and tearing until
they’ve reached the portal together, and then they have to keep fighting on
the other side to break free. They take flight again to get some rest. They
scan the immediate area to find the paths to Seagate and the Residences.
It’s not going to be so easy. There aren’t only two more portals, but dozens
of them.
