Eric and the Quantum Dragon

Archimedes Tower, Pan City

Saturday December 22nd, V26 (2046)

“Miss Angelina, please wait for me” Hammerton called out to his young charge, his normally expressionless face lined with worry. Angelina and Carmody paused and looked back at the tall man as he shouldered his way through the milling crowds.

“Hammers sure is possessive today” Angelina said to her friend. Carmody glanced at her hand held rather tightly in Angelina’s own, much as it had been ever since they had arrived at the Metro station earlier in the day.

“He’s not the only one” she sighed to herself. Angelina had not let Carmody out of her sight from the moment they all met at the Metro Station near their school and through the journey into the main station located at the base of the Archimedes Tower.

She did not mind hanging around with her friend but having Hammers the butler watching over them every second was getting really tiring. The butler reached them at last and the trio set off once more. Angelina had been to the Tower a number of times in the past and wanted to show off to Carmody her knowledge of the massive edifice.

“So right now we are in the public section” Angelina declared as they reached one of many viewing balconies that projected out into the vast open space of the atrium. Before them was the circular central space that rose up half a kilometre like an inverted cone. The open centre was ringed with balcony edged floors, the lower ones filled with shops and restaurants and the upper ones various types of professional offices.

Carmody looked over the railing at the distant floor, marvelling at the transparent Maze that had been constructed in the middle for the Levitator races. Beneath it she could make out the big lake that filled the lowermost level of the atrium, gleaming blue in the bright lights. People milled about on the many floors below, as tiny as ants. Mixed into the colourful masses she could see small pockets of blue uniformed Guards and Police Auxiliary, trying vainly to keep some semblance of order.

“I reckon every person in the city must be here today!” she enthused to Angelina. The other girl leaned her forearms on the railing and gazed downwards as well.

“The Police Auxiliary too!” Angelina added. “Probably a great day for a crime spree as every law officer seems to be in the Tower!”

“Don’t tell Achmed that” Carmody joked. “He told me he’s been itching to try out his new net diving rig. He says the network is in an uproar at the moment because of all the weird activity coming out of Europe. Apparently hackers have been breaking open secure data files across the world and net divers are jumping in to grab what they can”

Holo-screens around the open space began to flicker to life again, showing repeats of the morning races and their teacher’s spectacular rescue of the small boy. Then after a few commercials they displayed the afternoon’s schedule of events, with the Grade One Levitators competing in the Maze shortly.

“We had better join the rest of the gang” Carmody said to her friend. “I think we were meeting them down at that restaurant” She pointed to an establishment three levels below them and about a quarter of the circumference around.

“That’s a long way to walk” Angelina observed. “Let’s use the travelator” She led Carmody and the ever present Hammers to a series of moving footpaths, the outer ones moving at a slower pace than the inner ones. They ran in both directions, completely encircling each level with regular gaps to allow travellers to get on or off or change direction.

Angelina leaped onto the slower moving travelator first, dragging Carmody with her. They then stepped across to the inner one which was moving at a faster pace, with Hammers joining them a moment after. For all his blank faced calm, he could move quickly and with remarkable agility when he needed to.

They had to cross over to new sections of the moving footpaths every couple of hundred meters but they were soon at the right section of the encircling floor. From there they used one of the many glass walled elevators than ran up and down between the public floors, joined by a couple of men and their wailing son.

“Sorry about Jackie” one of the parents apologised. “He is a bit over-tired from all the excitement”

“It’s fine” Carmody told both men. “My little brother gets like that too”

The girls and Hammers exited at their level, waving goodbye to the child and his parents. They spotted the rest of their friends outside the restaurant they had booked and hurried over to meet them.

“Glad you made it back” announced Lilly, standing arm in arm with Achmed. “This place is absolutely crazy today!”

Right at that moment everything got even crazier.

=====

Aisha Fenwick was twenty years old, with a bright bubbly personality that all of her customers found very appealing. She was a valued staff member of the Archie’s Place Sports Bar and Grill, located in a very popular sector of the Archimedes Tower.

The usual clientele were all well paid executives and office managers from the upper Tower levels, generous tippers to an attractive and cheerful waitperson like Aisha. Today though the whole Tower was overrun with racing fans and sightseers, some here as genuine aficionados of the sport but most here just to take advantage of the big party atmosphere.

She muttered under her breath as another drunk staggered in and took a seat in her section of the table service area. He looked pretty worse for wear already, his heavily bearded face showing flushed and puffy where his skin could be seen. His shirt even looked soaked from some previous spillages but she put on her best smile and marched over to her new customer.

“Good afternoon sir, welcome to Archie’s Place” she beamed at him. “My name is Aisha and I will be your server today. How can I help you?”

The big man, having squeezed his substantial belly into the booth, regarded her with red rimmed eyes.

“Beer!” he demanded. “Local stuff, not that Australian crap they keep trying to serve me!”

“Perhaps Sir would prefer to have some food first?” she countered pleasantly. “We have some excellent Buffalo Wings or perhaps a Beef Burger?”

Harford Kane snorted unpleasantly at the young woman.

“Are you deaf or stupid, girly?” he snarled. “I said I wanted beer!”

The air conditioning sent a fresh wave of cool air into the bar, which Aisha appreciated as she was rapidly losing her temper with this customer. In fact she was getting pretty tired of all of them, with their constant demands and inadequate tips!

“I think you’ve had enough beer, Sir!” she responded, making the “Sir” sound like some kind of insult. She surprised herself by placing her hands on her hips and glaring back at the man with mounting anger.

“You women have had it in for me all day!” Harford yelled, uncaring that the scene was being watched by everyone else in the bar. “First that little punk spills my drink, then she attacks me without warning! Next thing I know I have the Tower guards giving me a hard time and my girlfriend sends me a text to say we are done!”

He surged to his feet, the buttons on his shirt catching on the edge of the table and popping loose. His big hairy belly faced Aisha in all its glory as he jabbed a fat finger into her chest.

“Just get me a damn beer!” he shouted.

“No!” she shouted back and she felt an incredible surge of power run through her. It felt amazing and she watched with a vicious smile as the big man staggered back under the power of her single word.

It was like every word she uttered had physical force behind it. Aisha drank in the noise as her angry customer raised his fist and ran at her. She had never felt anything like this before but it was wonderful!

“Stop!” she screamed and the man was hurled back across the floor; tables and chairs flipping as the solitary word threw a hurricane at him. Customers screamed in terror and she pulled their frantic noise into a single point in front of her.

Harford regained his feet and stood unsteadily, his face a mask of sheer horror as he looked at Aisha. Behind him the other patrons were scrambling for the doors, desperate to escape this madness.

“Go home!” she roared and focussed all of her anger and power on Harford. The wall of solidified air picked him up and hurled him bodily through the restaurant, shattering the glass windows and sending him careening across the crowded walkway that lay beyond. He hit the Ceramiglass railings and crashed to a painful stop.

People on the walkway gazed in stupefied confusion at the chaos within Archie’s Place as Aisha drew a whirlwind of broken plates, glasses and cutlery around herself, her voice screaming out loudly in its centre.

“Everybody go home!” she exulted and like a massive bomb the objects flew outwards from her, shattering windows and slicing through the unprotected bodies of innocent diners.

Aisha stood in the centre of the explosion, eyes wild and unseeing. Blood dripped from her nose and eyes as she rocked slightly on her feet.

“Please go home” she whispered. “We are closed for the day” then she fell unconscious to the cracked tiles of the floor.

For the first and last time in her life, Aisha Fenwick had become a Gunsinger, a dangerous type of Aeromancer. If she had been the only one to undergo such an unexpected Awakening then the Tower security could have coped with the destruction.

Yet Pan City had attracted thousands of potential Awakened to itself and many more who unknowingly had the chance to be an Adept. The HEx that flowed through the air conditioning gave many of them their chance to experience that power and to take their revenge for whatever wrongs they felt had been done to them.

It was going to be a crazy time in the Tower, just like it had been planned.

=====

It was the first explosion from an eatery three premises over that let them know things were not going to be normal.

Fire bloomed out over the balconies, sending people yelling in fear and triggering the first of the fire alarms. Other screams, bangs and crashes started to erupt all around them, each one caused it seemed by wild bursts of lightning or fire, howling winds or sheets of razor sharp ice.

Jericho-Two paused for a moment then looked at Eric.

“Did you get the message from Archimedes?” the Avatar demanded. The boy nodded to his older brother yet did not move.

“You go, Two” he shouted. “I am staying here to protect the team”

Jericho grimaced and turned to face Sofia.

“I’m sorry, Sofia. The Tower is being attacked by Awakened and Adepts that are out of control and I need to oversee the defence”

“It’s Okay, go do your job” she replied and with a last lingering glance the Avatar raced off, flanked by his four Guards.

More explosions and screams echoed around them and the group huddled together in one of the viewing balconies. All around them they could see people running for the exits, crowding the elevators and moving footpaths.

Angelina was gripping tightly to Carmody, both of them looking wild eyed at the sudden destruction being wrought around them. Carmody was clenching her empty right hand, wishing she had not left Excalibur at home today. Hammerton the butler was standing protectively in front of them both, shielding them with his body and sniffing speculatively at the air.

Eric had drawn his slim pistol from a concealed holster, watching alertly as the chaos unfolded about them. Sarah was crouched beside him with Miss Abrams while Fiona was standing slightly forwards of the group.

“Fi-Fi, get back here” Sofia demanded. “You are making yourself a target out there!”

The ex-Guard looked back over her shoulder at her friends and colleague. She smiled a little smile and shook her head.

“My job is to protect you all, So-So” she reminded her and with that took off her jacket and right glove. The short sleeved blouse she wore beneath showed the polished metal of her replacement arm and she flexed the fingers experimentally.

“The air has been saturated with HEx” Eric told them. “Archimedes has detected large concentrations in this sector and he is trying to shut down the air pumps!”

There were more screams and angry shouts, coming closer through the smoke and fog. Shapes could be seen, running madly towards them.

“Is that what made Andrew Frobisher go crazy?” Sarah shouted to Eric.

“Yes” he admitted. “We don’t know why it is being distributed but it makes NOMAs angry and violent. Some of them manifest Awakened powers but they can’t control them!”

“We have incoming” Fiona alerted them as about a dozen men and women surged out of the smoke. Their faces were contorted in rabid fury and they screamed incoherently as they rushed the small group. Fiona lifted her right arm and a small section popped open on the forearm.

“Don’t kill them!” pleaded Sofia and Fiona nodded her head in agreement.

With multiple “pfft” sounds she aimed and fired slender darts into the closest attackers. They ran a few steps more then collapsed to the floor, seemingly unconscious. Two more closed in on her before she could shoot them, one swinging a broken chair leg and the other carrying a kitchen knife looted from an eatery.

With a metallic clang, Fiona blocked the overhead blow from the chair leg with her metal arm and drove her left fist deep into the man’s stomach. As hyped up on HEx as he was, the retch-inducing strike sent him staggering to his knees.

The other one, a woman with the knife, screamed a wordless shout of hatred and stabbed at Fiona. With her enhanced speed, Fiona caught the knife thrust harmlessly against her left side, trapping the woman’s arm with her own, then spread her right hand fingers wide and laid them on the enraged woman’s skull. There was a flash of electrical discharge and the woman fell stunned to the floor as well.

Another pair had rushed past the defence of Fiona and closed with Eric. He was tempted to shoot them but he realised they were not doing this of their own free will. They were victims of the HEx so he used his pistol as a club, knocking the first one across the side of the head. The man fell sideways, his momentum sending him barrelling into Sarah.

Before Eric could prepare to defend the second man leaped on him and carried him back against the balcony railing. He was savagely punching at Eric’s body while his teeth were snapping at his throat like some attack dog. Eric clubbed his pistol down, knocking the man senseless and pushing him away.

On the other side of the group, Lilly and Achmed were back against the railings as well. A woman holding what looked like a fancy candelabra from a posh restaurant got past Fiona and was bearing down on them, her face a mask of pure hatred.

“Get behind me Lilly!” Achmed shouted and dropped into the Guard fighting stance that Eric had taught them. His face showed his pure terror yet there was no denying his determination to protect the girl..

As the crazed woman rushed in she swung the heavy metal candelabra in a wild arc, aiming for the boy’s head. He ducked under her blow, marvelling to himself how easy it felt, then drove his elbow into her unprotected torso. She “oofed” loudly and crumpled into a gasping ball to his side.

“Hey, that worked really well!” he turned to tell Lilly as a second attacker, a large balding man, slammed into him. Achmed was driven backwards into Lilly and they all hit the balcony railing hard. Achmed blacked out from the impact, his last image being of Lilly grabbing the candelabra and swinging furiously at the man who hit him.

Hammerton sniffed the air once more and regarded the wild attackers and the nearby blasts and crashes of energy.

“The air is tainted, Miss Angelina” he declared. “You must come with me!” He turned and grabbed her hands roughly, pulling her away from where she was crouched with Carmody.

“We are not leaving my friends!” Angelina shouted back and tried to pull her hands free. The butler’s grip was unbreakable and the girl screamed in pain as her fingers were crushed.

“Hammers, let go of her!” Carmody shouted and rushed to grab his arms, trying to free her friend. “Hammers, you are hurting her!”

“She is mine and I won’t let her go!” Hammerton shouted and for a moment his eyes locked with Carmody’s. The eyes were no longer those of Hammers the butler, they were of something else and the girl felt a sense of something dark lying within the man.

Carmody felt her power flow into her Ability, strong and pure like the first time she had wielded Excalibur.

“She belongs to no-one!” Carmody bellowed and drove her clenched right fist deep into Hammerton’s side. With a boom like a thunderclap he was hurled across the walkway and out of sight in the swirling smoke. Angelina slumped to the floor, holding her hurt fingers close to her stomach and whimpered softly.

In the midst of all the chaotic struggle, it was only Sofia who felt the first tremors that heralded the ultimate disaster.

“Kids, I think the balcony may be breaking apart! We need to get to the main walkway!”

Unfortunately no-one heard her over the rest of the noise and so they were all caught unprepared when the whole structure broke away from the supports and toppled into the open space of the atrium.