Order of the New Ages (chapter 9 - prequel) by KitKaramak < Submission

Keywords male 1201003, female 1093014, human 108865, fantasy 26981, kitsune 18235, succubus 5045, sci-fi 4742, military 2848, combat 1251, occult 326, paranormal 191, supernaturals 2

Novus Ordo Seclorum

June 23rd, 1999, 11:58pm
Tunguska, Russia

Sinopa Parker shuffled the photographs into a neat pile in her lap then slid them into an envelope.  She reached up for the rearview mirror, angled it towards herself, in the passenger seat, and pushed the envelope into the reflective surface.

Karla arched her brows then glanced back at the road.  “It still boggles my mind how you can use something as normal as a mirror to travel between realms.  I just… I don’t understand what’s so different or important about this other mirror if you people can use any mirror like that.  And quite frankly it’s a little weird, you know, thinking your people can watch us while we brush our hair or use the bathroom.”

Chance cut in, “Why are you putting your photographs in the mirror anyway?”

“To keep them safe in my realm,” Sinopa replied with a smile. She glanced over at Karla, behind the wheel of the SUV, and said, “The mirror we seek is the only one of its kind.  While our people can move freely between realms using any reflective surface, humans cannot.  But the mirror we seek would allow even humans to see into our realm and call on us at their leisure.  During the time of the original treaty, we had a great respect for the leader of the Esoteric Community.  It was a gift to him.  He died at the beginning of this century, and we placed it into the hands of a caretaker.  The Esoteric Council took it from him and I’ve been tasked with retrieving it.”

“So, what happened to that guy?” Chance shifted it weight, leaning forward slightly so that his seatbelt was taut.

Sinopa turned around in the passenger seat and faced the boy behind her.  “Well, he passed away.  No one knows what happened for sure.  Some say he was assassinated by someone who was power hungry.  It happened in 1905 under rather mysterious circumstances, and it lead to the community drifting apart.  Then sides were formed.  An all-out civil war happened in the summer of 1908, right here in this area.  An enormous battle of supernatural beings.  Over six thousand people facing off against a mere nine hundred people.  They fought over the fate of some boy prophesized to change the world. The boy disappeared.  Nobody knows the child’s identity.”

“Who won?” asked Chance.

Karla grinned and reached for the rearview mirror.  She readjusted the angle then smiled at Chance, behind her.  “Nathanial Carrington.  He didn’t agree with either side based on their political policies, but he chose a side based on how he felt about the fate of the child.  He claims he knew what the child was capable of, and that the child had to die.  When the child disappeared from his cottage, both sides blamed the other… the larger faction attacked in the morning, a little after seven o’clock.  They had a group of people who could control telekinesis far better than myself.  They grouped together and tried to bring down a piece of debris from space.  They were going to hit our camp with an asteroid.  But we had Nathanial.”

“Jesus.  What happened?” he asked, intrigued by the story.

Karla cut her gaze back to the unpaved path in the woods.  The subtle evening mist glowed in the high-beams.  “Nathan told everyone to fall back.  Ethan was on our side back then.  He never technically changed sides when he died.  Nathan and I are the ones that separated from…anyway, moving on; Ethan was teleporting groups of people out as quickly as he could manage.  Nathan told me to leave, but I stayed by his side.  He was my closest friend at the time.  I wasn’t going to abandon him.”

The succubus paused with a smile, then continued her story. “Nathan channeled every bit of lightning he could, with the help of this smart Austrian guy named Nick.  Dapper guy, that Nick.  Anyway, between Nick and Nathan, the biggest, brightest, unholiest pillar of light you could ever imagine came down from the ionosphere.  It struck the object, whatever the hell it was, somewhere in the lower part of the stratosphere.  The thing burst apart as it came down into the troposphere.  That’s uh... you know, the regular sky.  It was amazing.”

“You mean like one of those Plasma Globes, when you touch the surface, and there’s a bolt that goes from your hand to the thingy in the center?”

Karla grinned.  “Just like that.  They stayed linked up for several minutes.  Then the object exploded.  It made the Atom bombs over Japan look like a wimpy grenade by comparison.”  She cut her gaze to Sinopa and added, “No offense to the suffering of Japanese civilians, of course.”

“Your respect is appreciated,” Sinopa replied.

Karla continued, “It’s estimated that this thing went off like a twelve megaton bomb, flattened eighty million trees, and leveled everything for about eight hundred square miles.  Whatever was left was on fire after that.”

“How’d you survive?” Chance asked, eyes wide.

“Fear.” She smiled weakly then shrugged.  “It was the first time I ever teleported.  I didn’t know I could do it back then.  Even after I did it, I didn’t know it was me.  I thought Ethan came back for us and nabbed us out of there in the nick of time.  But I later found out that he was in Vanavara, like… forty miles away, with some of the survivors.  The blast killed eighty percent of both sides.  Only the people that Ethan had been evacuating were saved.”

“Oh my God,” he whispered, seeing some imagery in his mind.

“Anyways, the blast happened while I was in mid-teleportation.  I reappeared with Nick and Nathan just after the boom and the shockwave.  Methos calls my timing a mathematical improbability, I call it luck.”

“I call it divine providence,” said the kitsune.  “Someone wanted you alive as part of a plan.  My people are always planning and scheming.”  Sinopa shifted her weight.  A katana at her side thumped against the interior of the passenger door.

“Moving on, when I reappeared, everything was crazy.  Fire was everywhere.  And I was so damn afraid, that a second teleportation happened.  Math-boy Methos estimates that I covered over a hundred miles in just two teleports.  Later, Ethan helped take Nick back to New York.  He was home by dinnertime, which, in America, was an hour or two after the blast.  I didn’t teleport anything again until a few days before my birthday in 1943.  Anyway.”

“Where’d that happen?”

Karla frowned.  “Philadelphia.  It was an accident.  I snuck onboard a Navy ship to screw a sailor, while it was in port.  We got caught in mid-climax.  Height of emotion, you know?  I have to focus to use my telepathy, but teleportation is triggered by emotions.  Anyways, I was going to be arrested for trespassing.  I freaked.  Next thing I know, I’m lying on my back, on a wharf, a good distance away, panties in hand.  That’s how it happened, honest to God.  Anything else you hear was all rumors to sell a story.  It never arrived in Norfolk, Virginia.  It just… vanished for a few seconds.  Nathan says he thinks that I was able to teleport a three hundred foot steel warship because it was currently charged with high amounts of electricity.”

Sinopa tilted her head. “Electricity amplifies your teleportation ability?  Perhaps that is why you traversed such a great distance in 1908.”

Karla glanced down at the gas gauge.  Half a tank remaining.  “Yeah, Nathan and Methos came to that conclusion.  Anyways, I later find out the Navy was doing a top secret project, that’s why I was at gunpoint when they caught me with the sailor.”

Chance cringed. “Uh… Good grief, Karla.  That’s… wow.  So… what was the top secret project, did you ever find out?”

“Oh, yeah… of course.  They were trying to use electric generators to change the magnetic polarity of the ship’s hull.  It would make the ship invisible to magnetically activated ocean mines.  But with all that juice going through the ship, I caused it to phase when I teleported.  Anyone who wasn’t in direct contact with the ship at the time… well… they didn’t phase with the ship.  So a handful of people got injured or killed when they fell into the walls.  Er… Bulkheads.  Whatever they call it.”

“How can someone not be touching part of the ship?  They had to be standing on it right?”

“Yeah, hon, but if someone was in their rack, they’re not touching the deck.  Apparently one guy decided to jump down a deck ladder.  He was in mid-air or something, when the ship phased.  Uhm… Another guy was standing on some canvas tarp on the top deck; another guy was painting on a wood scaffold, supported by rope.  So a handful of people were messed up because of me.  I caught up with the sailor I shagged to make sure he was okay… he told me what happened and said the entire crew was forced to sign non-disclosure agreements.  At the time, I didn’t know it was my fault.  The ship was brand-freaking-new at the time; people pointed the finger at the Navy.”

“And nobody found out what really happened?  Like, the Navy or whatever?”

“Oh, sweetie, the Navy had no clue; they freaked like everyone else.  Just eight years after the ship was built, the US Navy abandoned it like a redheaded stepchild,” Karla glanced over at Sinopa, added, “Again, no offense,” then continued, “The Navy sold it to Greece.  They wanted to put as much distance as they could between themselves and that ship.  Out of sight, out of mind.  They gave Greece several similar destroyers, hoping the Eldridge would fade into obscurity and be forgotten.  I don’t know why but brass and sailors, just Navel people in general, were hardcore superstitious people.  Let’s not talk about my screw-ups, though.”

“Okay, sorry.  I just… I guess I don’t get to see this side of you.”

“What, the vulnerable side?”  The path opened up ahead into a large clearing.

The building in the center of the clearing reflected the headlines back at them.  It was a two story tall mirror that went back as far as their eyes could see.  It appeared to be many, many times larger than the complex beneath Marseille, France.  “It’s larger than a sports stadium,” Sinopa whispered, in awe of the enormous compound.  “And wrapped in mirrors; why?”

Karla switched off the high-beams then turned off the headlights all together.  “That’s reflective window tinting, I think.  Try to think from the perspective of someone who wants this to be a secret.  If it’s mirrored, then it reflects the woods around it.  The word of the day is camouflage.  The roof is covered in grass with a couple of small trees planted on top.  If you have a building that reflects the woods with grass on the roof, then anyone flying overhead or wondering through will see the forest mirrored on the sides of the building, making it invisible by day.  Pretty damn smart, huh?”

Sinopa folded her arms with a frown, resting them across the expanse of her pregnant belly.  “Most impressive.  It makes the complex in France seem insignificant by comparison.”

“Should’a seen it last night, Mrs. Parker,” Chance said. “I’ve never seen so many people at one time.  It was surrounded by huge stadium lighting posts that were so bright, you’d have thought it was the middle of the freaking afternoon.”  He trailed off and tilted his head.  “But tonight I don’t sense anything.  Or whatever, you know what I’m trying to say.  Still feels weird saying it like that, though.  But… nothing; the immediate area feels as empty as it looks right now.”

“Good.  Let’s hope you didn’t jinx us, babe.”  Karla reached back and gave his knee a firm pat.  “I expected them to see us with thermal, run out here screaming at us in Russian, which I can’t speak, and… yeah.  I like ‘nothing.’  It’s drama free.”  She reached up, switched the interior dome-light from ‘door’ to ‘off,’ then opened the driver-side door and stretched.  “God.  That was a long bumpy drive.”

Sinopa and Chance both exited the SUV on the passenger side then quietly eased their doors shut.  They hip-bumped their doors, clicking them into place.

Karla, on the other hand, slammed the door shut, causing a deep echo of noise in the clearing.  Birds raced out of several nearby trees, startled.  The demoness cleared her throat.  “Guess I still have my moments of being a screw-up, huh?  Are we still alone, babyboy?”

“I… I think so.  Maybe you should give me another shot of that Everclear stuff and make out with me again, just to be sure.”  He felt a little bolder in complete darkness.  “I can’t see anything out here.”

Karla grinned at his flirting.  “Maybe I will, hon.  Listen, Chance, don’t doubt your ability.  Have confidence in it.  Own it.  Seize it and all that.  Make it your bitc—”

“He gets it,” Sinopa interjected.  “My friends, I can see well in this area.”  The vertical slits of her foxlike eyes dilated fully, allowing her to see with relative ease.  She reached for Chance’s hand and walked him over in front of the SUV then took Karla’s hand and guided it to Chance’s free hand.  “Now we’ll go together.  Perhaps we should have brought night-vision.  Jonathan uses them for some of his heists.”

“Heists?”

“Hai.  Have Karla explain what he does for a living at a later time.  This way.”

Chance immediately saw an image in his mind of a man in a black suit, rappelling down walls with a stolen artifact under one arm.  He bit his lip and stayed quiet.

The trio followed Sinopa across the clearing to the corner of a two story non-descript building.  She glanced back at Chance and asked, “Do you sense anyone in this area?”

“Sort of.  I don’t know how to explain it better than that.  I feel like we’re not alone, but I also feel like we’re being left alone if that makes sense.  It’s so quiet tonight.  Last night, there were trucks parked on the side of the building and lots of commotion.  But now I barely sense anyone at all… God, it still feels weird to say it like that. ‘Sensing’ someone.  Makes me feel stupid and geeky.”

“Suck it up, babe.” Karla glanced around then frowned.  “I hate that it’s overcast.  No moon, no lights… I’m starting to be able to make out the sky but everything else is still black as shit.”

Sinopa gave Chance’s hand a tug.  In turn, he guided Karla to follow.  The three followed the mirrored glass wall for a bit until Sinopa came to a simple door.  She reached for it and turned the latch knob.  The door opened with ease, quietly, on well-oiled hinges.

They made their way inside, which was dimly illuminated, but certainly brighter than outside.  Karla released Chance’s hand and pulled the door shut behind herself.  “I really expected one of those haunted-house squeaky doors.  Thank goodness for small miracles.”

The trio walked forward and came to a handrail.  The first floor appeared to be a ring around an enormous empty gap that went down untold stories.  Sinopa squinted then shook her head.  “It appears as though it goes down forever.”  She counted the dim yellow light fixtures that marked each story down.  They faded into the abyss in the low-teens.  “From best I can tell we are looking into a figurative bottomless pit.”

Chance smiled, feeling a little more confident. “Now what, fearless leader?”

Karla smirked at the boy in the dim lighting.  “Oh, I’m the leader now, huh?”

“Hot and smart, a killer combination.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s me.  Hedy Lamarr.  Hot and smart.  Did’ja know she dated Methos for a short time?  Anyway… I have no damn clue what to do right now.  There’s no plan for this, other than looking for a mirror in a building that is owned by Doctor Who.”

“I… wait, who?”

“Yes, Who.  It’s bigger on the inside than it seems on the outside.  By a lot, actually.  I don’t think this is going to be as easy as I initially planned.”

“No, I mean, who is Hedy Lamarr?”

Karla shook her head with a wry grin. “Oh, she was this super-hot actress who also invented techniques for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping.”  She saw his confused expression and sighed.  “Like Wi-Fi, babe.  Remember?  The little card in the side of my laptop that lets me connect to the internet without wires?”

“Right, right.  So when did she invent that stuff?”

“During the Second World War.  Hot and smart doesn’t make me a leader, it just makes me hot and smart, heh.”

“Hai, my husband and I have invested in an up-and-coming technology group called SIG. They’re based out of Washington, and are working to develop a technology they’re calling Bluetooth.  It also uses this ‘frequency-hopping spread-spectrum’ bit.  I didn’t know it was invented by an actress, though.”

“Yup Hedy Lamarr.  In 1942.  She patented a way for a torpedo to be controlled with radio frequency hopping. Then she and some composer, who helped, took the patent and gave it to the US Navy for free.  It goes through eighty-eight frequencies like a piano-roll – guess that’s what she needed the composer guy for.  Makes it hard to detect or jam a remote controlled torpedo.  She was married to an Austrian arms dealer, selling to the Nazis.  She left him, met a Hollywood tycoon on a ship over to the US, talked him into making her an actress then came over here, and later gave that frequency-hopping patent to the Navy to fight the Nazis.  Love that girl, she was a rebel.”

“Impressive,” said Sinopa with a nod. “Glad your role model was someone of such intelligence and beauty.  She sounds like she should be an example to women everywhere.”

“Oh!” the succubus exclaimed, adding, “And, during such an extremely conservative era, she was also the first actress to be filmed having an orgasm on screen.  My hero!”  Karla grinned, sticking her tongue out through her teeth.

Chance brought his palm to his face.  “Can, uh… Can we focus?”  He looked around in the fairly dark area then said, “Let’s find a way to go down to the lower section.  I don’t want to use an elevator though.  That might be noticed.  We should take the stairs if we can find them.”

Karla hooked a thumb at Chance, facing Sinopa, and said, “He’s manning up isn’t he, darling?  I like being in charge sometimes, but at times like this I don’t want the responsibility or blame if things go south.”

“Okay, I’ll take point.  Let’s start looking for the stairs, then.”  Chance started walking along the wall.  The women followed him.

Sinopa came up alongside Chance and pointed.  “I can see a door in the dark up ahead.”

Chance walked in the direction of her finger and came to a simple door with a simplistic staircase logo engraved besides the doorframe.  He eased the door open.

Contrasting to the main area within the building, the stairwell was brightly illuminated, causing him to squint.  “Okay, this is the plan.  Whatever floor we decide to investigate, we’ll close our eyes for a moment before going out of this staircase.  That way we’re not stumbling around blind again.”

“Sure.”  Karla took the lead, skipping down the steps of the silent building.  “C’mon, you two.  I’m interested to see what’s going on down here.”

The first floor down had a doorway and Karla opened it.  Beyond the door was black obscurity.  She frowned then waltzed out onto the first subfloor.  Like above, the main floor was a mezzanine around a dark concrete pit.  However, there were marble highlights and a potted plant by the wall.

As their eyes adjusted they came to realize that there were open doors along the wall with small offices.  Each one they explored had a desk, a few chairs and a telephone.  Most of them were empty.  One of them wasn’t.

A box on the desk held books and daily planners.  Karla flipped the light switch.  Instead of a light on the ceiling, a corner lamp came to life, flooding the room with relaxed illumination.  “Well.  The lamp has a nice ‘like home’ kind of feel.”  She began rummaging through the boxes.

Sinopa stood at the doorway, back to her friends, eyes towards the dim building.  She sniffed at the area, ever alert.  Her orange-furred fox ears perked up, standing tall from her hair.

Chance picked up a book from the box and began rummaging through it the way Karla was doing.  “What’s the Thule Society?”

The succubus set the book down and reached for another.  “A German study group who later became obsessed with a make-believe land, like Atlantis, that was supposed to be the home of the so-called Aryan Race.”  She held the new book up, so he could see the creature on the front.  “Look, it’s the face of Moloch.”  She turned the book over, so he could see the back of the cover.  “And this is supposed to be Hyperborea.  A mythical land at the North Pole where the sun shines all the time.  This is some dark shit, babe.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“Because I’m turning four hundred, sweetheart.  I’ve lived through all this malarkey.  I like to read a lot.”  She rubbed her thumb over the cover then sniffed it.  “Christ.  This tome is wrapped in human flesh.”

“Oh my God, seriously?”

“Yup.  Told you it’s dark.  These yuppies met at the Four Seasons Hotel, started talking politics and tried to stage an uprising.  It got a bunch of them killed, but there were some prominent people in the group and that started another layer of drama, followed by a citizens’ uprising.  Later down the road, members got into the occult.  I guess, sometimes, you can’t have science fiction without throwing in some fantasy.”  She flipped through a few pages then scanned the words within.  “Here’s some stuff about Catharism.  Suddenly, occult stuff likes to focus on anyone who disappeared, like it’s a conspiracy or a coverup.  Yeah, the Cathars died; it happens.  Moving on.”  She flipped through a few more pages.  “Oh, now we’ve got some crap, here, saying that the child of Jesus and Mary – his girlfriend, not his mother – is the Aryan leader, whose descendant will rise up as the false prophet of the Bible, but will be the true…” she trailed off and flipped a few pages.  “This is rubbish.”

“I don’t follow any of it.”

“Occult crap.  It bleeds back into politics at some point and gives us this whole, ‘Order of the New Ages’ crap.  Everyone thinks they can lead us into a bright new world of peace.  It’s akin to saying they want to skip the crappy parts of the Book of Revelations, and skip to the ‘thousand years of peace and prosperity’ part.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

Karla smirked. “Then you’ve gotta get to the part about how half the population doesn’t like being told what to do.  So, in order to make things peaceful, you’ve gotta kill that half of the population.  Politics and religion should never mix.  It goes one of two ways.  You either get popular religion in charge, like in the Middle Ages.  The church starts wars, kills people, and gets away with it.  Or, the unpopular religion takes charge from behind closed doors.  People refer to it as ‘occult,’ and start saying the Government is being run by these obsessive people who like numbers and logos and they keep their ‘religion’ a secret.  Blood oaths, the works… it’s a mess.  And you know how it all works?  Money.  The God freaks and the occult freaks are both really good with money.  Moving on.”

Chance frowned and fidgeted.  He picked up a daily planner and skimmed it then showed a page to Karla.  “We just missed everyone.  Apparently they packed up last night.”

“Dammit.  Well, I want to see what’s at the bottom.  You guys with me?  It can’t hurt to look.  I want that mirror, so I can pay off my condo and relax.  Cold hard cash.”  She tossed the book onto the floor then stepped on the binding on her way back to the doorway.

Sinopa stepped aside to let them out of the office then pointed at the floor.  There was a faint logo printed in the marble.  “What is that icon?”

Karla circled it then frowned.  “Chance?”

He licked his lips then recited, “It’s dark shit.”

The succubus smiled.  “Exactly.”  She circled the logo again.  She bent at the waist and studied the logo.  “There’s an owl here in the middle.  And beneath it is some sort of triangle.  And over here is a Star of David, but it’s lopsided.  And up here…”  She stood up straight then rubbed her chin.  “Oh, get the hell out of here.”

“What?” asked Sinopa.

“I thought this looked familiar.  It’s Washington DC’s layout made in line art.  The owl is the White House.  Nevermind, it’s ridiculous crap.  Whoever has the money to make a building like this and keep it a secret… they’re completely mental.”  She turned back towards the stairs and began walking.  She noticed the logo again on the floor further up, and occasionally on the walls.

“Who is behind all this?” asked Chance.

Karla folded her arms as they continued back towards the staircase.  “Painted on the walls, gritty in the halls, the republic’s logo decorum, their Novus Ordo Seclorum.”  She grinned over at the boy and said, “I just made that up.  Should make it a song and sell it to a punk band.  I could be rich.”

“What was all that stuff back in that office?  What’s with the logo of DC or whatever?”

“Oh it’s stupid stuff, hon.  I don’t want to talk about occult and conspiracies because it’s annoying.  Two hours later, the conversation turns into the gunman on the grassy knoll, and Oswald standing in the doorway, and the magic bullet.  Before long, you’re talking about Masonic stuff, the Knights Templar, and then you’ve got people trying to take every single conspiracy in history and stitch them together, like it’s all one big plot contrived by demons and aliens.  All because people have too much time on their hands.”

“Oh…kay.”

She grinned and opened the door to the stairs.  “If we get to the bottom of this building and I find some irrefutable proof, then I’ll gladly eat my own words.  But it hasn’t happened yet and I’ve been around for a while.”  She squinted in the bright lighting of the stairs and the trio continued their descent again.  However, there wasn’t another door on the next level down.  Nor the next, nor the next five.  On the tenth sub-floor, there was another logo, scrawled on the wall.

The group descended into the bowels of the building.  By the twenty-second subfloor, their mood had changed to reflection their irritation, frustration and soreness.  Karla came to a door, glanced down the next set of stairs, then back at the door.

She pushed her hands together, cracking her knuckles.  “There’s no damn way I’m going down any further until we check this door.  God.  Can you imagine how much it’s going to suck to carry a mirror back up to the top?  How far down are we?”

“I think we’re about two dozen stories down.  I lost count in the upper-teens.”

Sinopa reached for her blade, moved adjacent to the door and closed her eyes. She wrapped her fingers around the handle and clenched it firmly.  The kitsune remained motionless for a moment.  Karla and Chance nodded to one another then closed their eyes to make their pupils dilate.

“Wait.”  Chance reached for them.  “Something isn’t right.”

“You can sense someone waiting for us?”

“I’m not sure.  I definitely think there’s one guy out there.  And the person seems familiar.  And confident.  It’s like… I should know him or something.”

Karla opened one eye, half-lidded.  “I bet it’s that Foster guy.  I won’t be fooled by his crappy wall of fire again.  I’ll use my telekinesis and blast it right back at him now that I know he’s going to be behind it.  Anyone else with him?”

“I want to say yes, but I really can’t be sure.”

“Whatever.  Let’s do this, team.” Karla opened the door, swinging it hard on its hinges.  She stormed out into the room, which was only slightly brighter than up on the ground level.

Standing up ahead was a man she’d not seen in a month.  Darius Vei.  The man from the New York Hospital where she met Chance for the first time.  Karla narrowed her eyes and balled her hands into fists.  “You.”

“Me,” he said in a calm voice.

“Well, now things are getting interesting,” she said with a smirk.  In a taunting tone, she asked, “Is your insomnia back, now that you don’t have me to make you fall asleep?”

“Actually, yes.  It’s difficult to sleep again.  And I can’t seem to find any other succubus to help me.  Yet.”

“Aw, isn’t that a shame,” she said with a grin.  “Guess you’ll have to take care of it yourself, Darius.  If sex with three people is a threesome, and two people is a twosome, then I now understand why people call you handsome.”

“What are you doing here, Karla?”

“Me?  I’m trying to figure out why people who want to find Thule would give a damn about Moloch.  It’s really contradictory to me.  You’ve got books here about finding the Aryan Race, and signing blood oaths that prove you’re not of non-white ancestry.  But it’s bound in the flesh of a dark-skinned human, and has an Ammonite god on the front, that was popular in North Africa and the Middle East.  It makes about as much sense as...”

“Shut up, Karla.  You’re an idiot and you can’t begin to understand what’s happening here.”

“Why don’t you shut up,” Chance snapped, adding, “She’s smarter than you think.”

Darius rolled his eyes. “I see you’re still dragging around your child toy.  Really, Karla.  That’s awfully low of you, having sex with children.  I respected you as a motivated mind, even though you clearly are incapable of seeing the bigger picture.  But this nonsense?  You running around with a little boy, leading him around by his little dick, like a leash.  It’s a new level of disgusting, even for you.”

Chance opened his mouth to speak but Karla quickly thrust her fist to the right, gesturing him to stay quiet with a single extended finger.  Silence.

She leered at Darius for a moment then, in a soft, yet firm tone, said, “I’ve not slept with him.  The boy still has his flower.”  Her tone began to crescendo in volume, “And I don’t appreciate you saying that shit to me; you know how much I hate when men defeminize a woman with emotionally insulting attacks.” Her tone evolved into loud shouting. “This is the sort of shit that makes me want to burn down an oil refinery, Jesus-fucking-skateboarded-off-a-cliff-and-turned-into-a-pterodactyl-Christ!  I’m going to rip your balls off!” She took a deep breath, paused, and then, in an eerily calm voice, added, “One-on-one.  Right now.  Let’s fight, asshole.  An electric bio-leech against an organic bio-leech.”

The right corner of Darius’ mouth turned up into a half-grin.  A single dimple formed.  “Hmph.”  His sly smirk infuriated her and he knew it.  “I don’t think so, Karla.  I have my orders.  You see, we’ve spent the last twenty hours cleaning out this facility in preparation of your arrival.  So, whatever you expected to accomplish here... forget about it.  You’ve lost.  I’d like to tell you we could fight, now, because I’m sure everyone wants to see what a supernatural lover’s quarrel looks like.  But it’s not going to happen.”

“I’ve come for that goddamned mirror and you know it.  Now get out of my way or I’ll make good on my threat and rip your balls off.”

The man began rolling up his right sleeve.  “If anyone is getting in the way, it’s you.  You’ve caused too much trouble.  It’s a shame, because you showed great promise.  But your usefulness is at an end, so you have to die.  The boy is telepathic, so he has to accept a lobotomy or he has to die.  I prefer the latter.”  Vei switched to his left sleeve, rolling it up to match the right one.

Darius’ eyes cut to Sinopa.  “And, you… you’re toeing a fine line.  You’re not powerful enough, yet, to be considered for extermination.  No treaty has been broken, technically.  But truth-be-told, I’m racist against your kind.  They start drama.  From Moloch to Loki, from Set to Typhon, from Zeus to Tamamo-no-Mae; they quarrel and start wars, and fuck their siblings, as well as human children… and they got away with it.  They started trouble and they got in the way.  That’s why deities were banished from this realm in the first place.  That treaty is important to the older and wiser of the Esoteric Community.  We hate you fucking faith-fueled freaks.  Many of my peers feel the same way.”

Sinopa remained stoic and calm.  “It’s interesting to note that many of the gods were born as supernatural human beings.  They deceived humans with their abilities.  And, after their death, the faith of their followers allowed them to be reborn in the Celestial Realm.  If you find us dramatic, it is because we’re born from human culture, human sin, and human imagination.  We’re born from you, with all your flaws.”

“While I still don’t exactly understand how you people come into existence, and while it’s true I hate your kind… I’m going to give you one chance to honor the treaty and walk away.”

“Oh, will you now?”

“Yes.  You’re pregnant… and because of that, I’ll let you walk away right now; no questions asked.  But if you pursue this mirror, you’ll be in violation of the treaty, and I won’t think twice about having your head removed.  I’ll gift wrap it and shove it into that mirror and send it right back to your precious farmer god.  We’ll bury your body under next season’s crops and see if it makes the corn grow any better.  You’ve got ten seconds to leave, Parker. Remember to consider the lives of your children first and foremost.”

Karla ground her molars together in disgust. “I’m gonna…”

Sinopa gestured to Karla with her left hand, to keep the succubus from exploding into action yet.  Meanwhile, with her right hand, she withdrew her katana slowly.  The blade created a scraping noise against the sheath, then rang out like a tuning fork.  “Have you met Aris Sokolov, Mister Vei?  Did he warn you that I was on my way?”

“Of course I’ve met Sokolov; he works for the EC as a hired scientist and a physician.  The EC owns this warehouse.  I know he’s been your doctor, and I know he’s oddly infatuated with those two abominations in your belly.  Humans born from an animal god?  There’s something exceedingly disgusting about bestiality.  Yes, I know about your tails and your ears, freak.  I cringe at the thought of Jonathan Parker fucking a fox.  But no, Sokolov didn’t warn us you were coming.  We’ve known because we tracked your flight out of France.  Truth be told, Aris Sokolov begged for us to let you live because he’s obsessed with those creatures in your gut.  I was going to honor the promise I made to him about letting you live.  But drawing your sword was the wrong thing to do, you dumb Shinto bitch.”

Chance approached Karla and said, “They airlifted the mirror out two hours before we got here.  I think I’m getting pretty good at this, I actually know what’s going on here.  I know what the building was used for, what was made here and where it all went.”

“Shut your mouth, boy,” Darius snapped.  The lights came up, illuminating the rest of the large empty area.  There were machines on the walls with mechanical attachments, and conveyer belts in the far back corner, quite a ways across the room.  There were spots on the floor that were slightly faded, as if to suggest that heavy machinery once filled the entire room.

An electric field flickered at the far ends, then doors opened and several dozen men filed into the room.  Some had guns; others had their hands in fists.  One of them carried large knives.  They flanked the trio at the center of the room.  Chance looked around at all the people whose conscious mind flooded his.  He turned pale, upset about not having sensed them until now.

Darius smiled.  “Did you know that a high current of electricity, or in this case, a field of it, can disrupt telepathic screening to a degree?  It wouldn’t have worked for a refined telepath, I’m told, but who knows?  There aren’t any because we kill them everytime one manifests.”

Chance frowned and tensed up.  “He’s right.  I didn’t sense them until just now.  Maybe I can try to do that thing I did before.  It might be our only way out of here.”

“We counted on you being a rookie, boy.  And now the three of you are right here, in an old fashion trap.  We used the mirror to lure you here, and flew it out once you were on your way.”

“Karla… let’s just flatten them then run.  I know where they’re taking it, now.”

“Didn’t your cougar tell you about my ability?” Darius squinted his eyes at Chance as if in an admonishing manner.  The teenager sank to the ground, gasping in agony. “I understand you rendered our people unconscious in France.  The creatures you saw… they remained in a coma, allowing our people to put them back into stasis when they awoke.  Quite impressive, boy.”  Chance curled into a ball, gasping for air.  Darius continued with a sardonic smirk.  “But whatever it is that you think you know, child, will die with you right here, right now.”

Chance appeared shell-shocked, unable to think clearly or focus.  Darius turned away from the trio and announced to his men, “Kill them all then dispose of the bodies.”

Karla looked at chance, feeling something she’d never felt before, but something she knew all too well.  Unable to see Chance suffer, she came to realize at that moment that she loved him.

As soon as Darius turned away, Karla threw both of her arms out.  Her skin incandesced in a hue of bright pink, glowing in the shapes of glyphs beneath her hands, forearms and biceps.  Three-dozen men were thrown back.  They became pinned to the far walls and floor in various sections throughout the enormous room.  Darius was among them, pressed up against one of his soldiers.

“So,” said Karla, eyes cold and narrowed.  “Fancy that.  You’ve brought your mates.  Good on you, lad.  Now stay put while I converse with my team to decide your fate.  Sinopa?  Chance?  Do I kill him or let him live?”

“Karla,” Chance murmured, sitting up gingerly, “You know how I feel about killing people.  You know how it even bothered me when Michael took the head off that creature in France.  I’m just…” He shook his head.  “Killing him in self defense is one thing, but pinning him to a wall and executing him is extreme.”

Darius, pinned across the room, called back to her in a stressed voice.  “How long can you hold all of us like this?  You can’t kill us all by the time you wear out.  You’re only… prolonging the inevitable.  And then my people will overwhelm you.”

“Dear me.” Sinopa rolled his eyes.  “Karla, are you feeling especially emotional at this time?”

“He’s an ex… I damn well am.  Plus it really pissed me off that he did his fucking psychic-vampire mojo to Chance.”  She curled the right top corner of her lip, sneering with disgust.  “I’m pissed off because I actually liked that asshole.  I held off on my feedings with others, and I went out of my way to be nice to that dickhead.  And he betrayed me.  He betrayed me.”

Sinopa turned to Chance.  “And you said you read him?  You know what is going on?”

“Yes.  This is even more messed up than I care to admit.  And I think I might understand that creepy stuff from that book we saw earlier.  Just a little, because what I read from him.  We should go.  We need to make a run for it.”  Chance got to his feet.  He cleared his throat then looked himself over.  “It only hurt for a few seconds.  But I’m fine.  No pain, I’m good.”

Karla nodded, relieved.  “Look, Chance, I don’t want to kill him either.  He’s a lying douche-nozzle and a scumbag, but I had a history with him.  Unfortunately, he’s right about one thing… I can’t hold these guys against the wall much longer.”

Sinopa stepped between Chance and Karla.  “There is only one clear way for us to escape with our lives.  Karla, with all due respect, and my deepest apology, I’m going to act in our best interest.  You’ll have to be upset with me later but now will not be the time.  First, we must escape.”  The kitsune sheathed her sword then clenched her hand into a fist briefly.

Darius ignited into flame; he began to writhe in agony, screaming, pinned to several others against the wall.  He flailed about as the flames licked up over him, scorching the bulkheads.

The demoness blinked.  She watched with wide eyes as her ex-boyfriend cried out for help.  Her jaw went slack.  “D…Darius.”

Sinopa put her hand on the succubus’ shoulder and, with her other hand, reached for Chance.  In a soft, humbled tone, she said, “Karla, use that emotion you now feel and teleport us to the top as quickly as you’re able.”

Karla blinked once more.  She still had her hands out, keeping the group against the wall, although some of them appeared as though they were able to move, somewhat.  The succubus stood still, eyes growing moist.  Her heart ached, remembering the feelings she once had for the man.  She watched him, burning alive, and felt grief – their relationship lasted a year, and while she never truly fell in love with him, she did come to care deeply for him.

And now he was screaming in anguish, dying.  Her lower lip trembled, her emotions torn.  “But… I’m… I’m not sure if I can…”

“YOU MUST!” shouted the Kitsune.  “Before the rest of them attack!  They’re all supernatural, trained, and the three of us are no match for a room full of them!”

Karla watched as Darius burned before her eyes.  The emotion welled up in her chest.  She felt an intense pang of guilt, not wanting to see him tormented from a drawn-out excruciating death.  Her emotions welled up within her heart.

The succubus wrestled with the grief over the loss of a lover, and the guilt of watching him break, coming undone with such exquisite pain.  She felt anger that Sinopa was killing him… And, at the very bottom of her heart, the demoness felt a dash of jealousy that Darius suffered at the hands of someone other than her.  She felt remorse that things didn’t turn out differently.  It would have been so much easier to simply never see Darius again.  Instead, she was forced to watch him burn alive.  It all came to a head… the trio disappeared.

All the people fell away from the wall, able to move freely again.  Darius dropped to the ground, still burning.  Immediately, one of the nearest people rolled him over, then smothered him with their body until the flames were extinguished.

Karla, Sinopa and Chance reappeared ten stories above ground only to disappear once more.  They reappeared every few seconds, falling in reverse, until they reached the top.  She dropped to her knees, panting and pale.

Chance knelt beside her, offering a comforting touch and supportive words of sympathy.

Meanwhile, Sinopa peered over the ledge, into the faint glow of illumination far below.  “We have a head start on them.  Chance, if you can simply tell me where they’ve taken the mirror I will pursue it.  I’ll understand if the two of you wish not to be further involved.  And, I’m sorry; Karla I know that you were upset with him, but not enough to kill him.  And I know I robbed you of your chance to engage him one-on-one.  But we simply do not have time.  You said in the car, earlier, that teleportation is fueled by emotion.  I knew no other way, at that time, to fuel your emotions.  Forgive me.  Chance, if you tell me what you learned, I will continue on alone.  I promise the both of you will no longer be burdened by the encumbrances of my mission.”

Chance helped Karla to her feet and put an arm around her.  He lifted her left hand up over his shoulders, and helped her back towards the door.  “Come on, we’ll figure out what we’re doing next in the 4Runner.  We should go.”

They made their way outside, leaving the door open.  It illuminated the ground somewhat.  Sinopa led them back towards the SUV.  Before they could reach it, the entire clearing illuminated with enormous stadium-style lighting, causing the trio to squint.  Most of the lighting fixtures had scaffolding around them, as if to suggest that they would be removed soon.

Several flatbed trucks were in the distance, half loaded with various objects.  The ground was covered with wheel ruts and tread marks.

Karla looked up, wearily, and saw several armored trucks and GMC Hum-vees with United States infantry in a horse-shoe shape.  “That’s, uh… that’s how bright it was, here, last night,” he said to Sinopa.  Assortments of weapons were trained on the trio in a half-circle around them.

“That mirror is worth a half million dollars,” the succubus groused.  “That’s going to be on my epitaph at this point.”  A buffeting noise came from above, drowning out her words.

Two helicopter gunships swung into position, directly above, with two spotlights dancing over them.  They backed up to the reflective-tinting, pressing their backs against the building.

Someone in one of the Hummers shouted over a bullhorn.  He gave orders to the company of soldiers, telling them to train their weapons on the trio.  A cacophony of metallic clacking came from all sides as the men chambered rounds into their guns.

One of the first supernatural soldiers to reach the exit door, shouted at the top of his lungs, “What are you waiting for?!  KILL THEM!”

“Kuso a,” Sinopa swore under her breath.

In unison, Chance telepathically translated; “Oh shit.”

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Order of the New Ages (chapter 9 - prequel)

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