Shadow Queen

I floored the accelerator as Tiger opened the window.

We raced down the FDR Drive in the middle of the night as several vehicles gave chase. They were running out of patience and we were running out of road.

The Tank was designed to take damage, hence the name. It wasn’t designed to outrace everything. That being said, Cecil had planned for contingencies. The only issue was we didn’t have the several miles of open road I would need to activate those contingencies on the FDR.

The two vehicles behind us were closing as Tiger reached into the one of the weapon compartments and pulled out an Eradicator. It was one of the weapons Goat had designed for the Directive. If an RPG could be reduced to handcannon size and fire the equivalent of bazooka shells, that would be an Eradicator.

It was designed for breaching operations. Tiger wanted to blow up our pursuers and chunks of the FDR.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” she said as she opened fire and missed, the recoil nearly throwing her out of the Tank. “These idiots don’t know when to quit.”

“Have you ever used a Eradicator before?” I asked, grabbing her by the waist, and pulling her back into the Tank as I swerved around the light traffic. “Do you even know how to use one?”

“What’s to know?” she snapped back. “Point and destroy. How hard can it be?”

“Put that thing away before you destroy the entirety of the FDR,” I said. “I’m not going to explain to Ursula how you managed to rip up several miles of roadway. You know the DAMNED are not exactly the patient types.”

Machine-gun fire ripped across the side of the Tank. I swerved to the side to avoid the next barrage of bullets.

“Shit,” Tiger said, ducking beneath the open window as rounds punched along the passenger side of the Tank. “That was close.”

“They’re using conventional weapons?” I asked, accelerating down the FDR. “Really?”

“I didn’t say they were smart, just determined.”

“It seems they don’t like you, any reason why?”

“Don’t ask me why they hate me, ask them.”

“I would, but they seem to be speaking your language—violence.”

More machine-gun fire raced across the back of the Tank.

“If they even scratch the finish,” she said, “I’m going to introduce them to pain. I just had her detailed yesterday.”

“This is what happens when you end a conversation by burying your claws in someone’s stomach.”

“He drew a blade on me,” she explained. “What was I supposed to do? Let him think he could get away with that? Not in my reality.”

“How far away is Ox?”

“Three minutes,” she said. “He’s coming up behind them.”

“We’ll run out of the FDR in three minutes,” I said. “Can you slow them down?”

“Stop the Tank,” she said, her voice determined. “I’ll slow them down.”

“Tiger…” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t ask if you could slaughter them. Can you slow them down without a wholesale massacre?”

“You doubt my skill?”

“At wholesale slaughter? Not in the least. At restraint? I wonder if you even know the meaning of the word.”

“I know restraint,” she said her voice dark. “Stop the Tank and let me show you.”

“I am so going to regret this,” I said under my breath as I brought the Tank to a stop and turned it sideways, blocking two lanes on the FDR. “Leave the Eradicator.”

She placed it in the weapons compartment.

“I wasn’t planning on using it,” she said, stepping out of the Tank and into the roadway. “You coming?”

“Minimal damage to the FDR would be good,” I said, stepping out of the Tank. “As it is, I’m going to have to make a call to the DAMNED.”

“Minimal damage to the FDR and maximum damage to these idiots,” she said with a smile that promised pain. “ Works for me.”

“Do not kill them,” I said, standing next to her. “They may have information we can use.”

“Unlikely.”

“Tiger…alive.”

“Fine. Broken, bloody, and bruised, but alive.”

I nodded and glanced behind us. The Brooklyn Bridge loomed in the background, illuminating the night as the FDR Drive spilt into several off- ramps in the distance, heading to lower Manhattan.

Two black BMW M5s screamed down the FDR heading straight at us.

“I wonder what the strategy is?” I asked as the cars bore down on us. “Maybe they want to crush you?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” she said as she gestured and stepped forward. “I doubt it will be the last.”

The air shimmered in front of her as a wall of energy raced forward to intercept the cars. Tiger’s inherent ability as a kinetic mage lacked any overt energy manifestation. Her casts didn’t glow or produce light of any kind. It’s what made her ability so dangerous.

It was difficult to counter what you couldn’t see.

Both cars slammed into the kinetic wall of energy. They didn’t come to an immediate stop, which would have jettisoned the drivers through the windshields, most likely ending their lives in the process. Rather, Tiger designed her wall to ‘catch’ the cars slowing them down as they approached.

Even with her precaution, the front of both cars crumpled as they impacted her cast, appearing as if a giant fist had punched them. It wasn’t too far off from the truth.

Tiger looked at the cars in disgust.

“German engineering at its finest,” she spat. “What is that, carbon fiber? May as well make them out of tissue paper.”

“Nice catch,” I said as the cars slowed to a stop. “I’m impressed.”

“See?” she said. “I know restraint.”

“I stand corrected.”

In the distance I saw a large black van closing in on us.

Ox.

The passengers who were eagerly trying to fill us with bullets minutes ago, opted to remain in their vehicles with the doors locked. Tiger cast again creating another wall behind the cars, preventing them from reversing, effectively trapping them between the walls of energy.

“You want to do the honors?” Tiger asked. “Or should I?”

I peered into the cars and saw that each vehicle contained three passengers. Their energy signatures were negligible which meant they were low threat security.

“Not a mage among them,” I said, walking to the cars. “What exactly did you say to them? I mean aside from skewering the one who drew a blade on you?”

Tiger approached the car on the left.

“I asked them if they had heard of a group called Maledicta,” she said. “Then they got all stabby.”

“I doubt these are part of the group,” I said as I drew close to the left car. “Dark mage assassins don’t use machine guns. They prefer to unleash deadly casts.”

Tiger stepped close to the car and tapped on the window. It remained closed with the window up.

“Open the door or I open it for you,” she said, sweetly. “Trust me when I tell you that’s its better and safer if you open the door.”

The driver’s door opened a crack.

“Throw the weapons out,” she said, this time not as sweet. “If you so much as point one of those machine-guns in my direction, this car becomes your coffin and I shove it into the river.”

To make sure they knew she was serious, she raised a hand, whispered some words, slowly making a fist. The air around the car hardened and began crushing the car, making the streamlined design even more streamlined as it was crushed from the sides.

The men inside quickly opened the windows and tossed their weapons out. She turned to the second car which was several feet away and they, too, threw their guns onto the roadway.

“See? They may be misguided, but they aren’t suicidal,” she said. “Driver’s out.”

When the driver hesitated, probably due to fear, she pointed at the driver’s door and slashed her arm away, ripping the door from the car. The driver stumbled out with the force of the cast.

“That’s a little over the top, wouldn’t you say?”

“Nothing like fear to get a point across.”

“Or make them completely uncooperative,” I said. “Tone it down a bit. They aren’t a threat.” 

The driver slid back on the ground away from Tiger with a look of fear on his face. He backed up into the car, his gaze remained transfixed on the door which sat several yards away.

“How? How…how did you…did you do that?” the driver stammered. “That’s not possible.”

“Normals?” Tiger asked, peering down at the driver before shaking her head. She turned away and headed to the other car. “They’re all yours.”

I approached the driver.

“What’s your name?” I asked as I drew closer. “Who do you work for?”

“Patrick. My name is Patrick,” he said. “I can’t tell you. He’ll kill me if I tell you.”

I felt a surge of energy coming from both cars simultaneously. Tiger who was next to the other car turned her head suddenly and shot me a glance. 

“Get back!” she yelled as she hit me with a cast that propelled me away from the cars. “It’s a—!”

I landed hard on the far side of the Tank and rolled for several feet. She never managed to finish her sentence. I managed to get to my feet and saw her cast a shield as both BMW M5s exploded as she stood between them.

The shockwave from the explosion knocked me back farther. Tiger managed to walk over to me, stunned and bloody.

“When I said broken, bloody, and bruised, I meant them,” she said, slurring her words. “Damn, that hurts. I’m going to need a moment.”

She leaned on the Tank and sank to the ground.

She had managed to harden her skin and took the brunt of the blast with minimal damage. Her body had started healing, but she was still dazed and slightly out of it.

The explosion had taken both of us by surprise. I walked around the Tank and headed to the charred wrecks that used to be the BMWs.

All of the passengers were unrecognizable. The flames had burned them nearly to ash, which meant it was no ordinary explosive device. Nothing burns that hot, that fast without affecting everything around it.

This flame targeted mostly the humans.

Someone didn’t want us to know who they were, and was willing to kill to keep their identity hidden.