Chapter 130 - Rise and Fall

It didn’t take us long to find Alex’s people.

They’d set two blocks of north Cambridge on fire. How, I didn’t know, but Alex had a few people who could cast Lightning or Fire attacks. If the fighting gets desperate enough, sometimes there’s just no bandwidth for paying attention to what’s behind your target. I’d found even after being in as many fights as I had, sometimes situational awareness was tough to maintain.

The fires were a problem for later. Alex’s troops were in deep shit. They’d found the werewolves, all right, and it looked like they’d made a fighting withdrawal over the same two blocks that were now ablaze.

“My God,” Maggie whispered. I was holding her close to my side with my right arm while we rocketed through the air toward the battle.

“This isn’t going to be fun,” I said. “I can’t guarantee I can keep you safe. I’ve got to go after Cerberus. If I can get him clear of his minions and Cleanse him, and it works? That’s the ‘we win’ button. But if it doesn’t work, we’re going to need to take them all down the hard way, and that means we could really use to have Alex’s troops all in top shape.”

“You need a healer,” Maggie said.

I nodded. “Your Heals and your Cleanse would save lives down there. But it won’t be easy or safe. You okay with that?”

“I think we’re way past trying to keep me safe, Cam. Besides, with all the crystals I picked up from our little adventure together, my guess is I’m as strong as most of Alex’s people, right? I can handle it.”

“You’re not as strong as Alex’s people,” I said. “You’re stronger. The only person down there who’s still stronger than you is Alex himself. And even he doesn’t have that much of a lead on you.”

“Wow. Really?”

“Absolutely. But I’ll drop you somewhere outside the fighting, if you’d rather.”

Maggie shook her head. “No, I’m in. Set me down near his people. I’ll Heal who I can and get them back in the fight.”

“Okay. Hang on!”

With a burst of speed, I shot down the street toward the fighting. Alex had picked a small stone building to hole up in, which wasn’t a bad idea. There were only a couple of doors the werewolves could get through, and most of the windows looked too small for them. It left the humans pinned down, but gave them a space that was easier to defend.

Most of his people were already inside, although a dozen or so were still withdrawing up the steps toward the building’s main doors. Two of them were carrying someone, and I realized with a start that it was Alex! If he was down, they were in serious trouble. I swooped in low over their rear ranks and dropped Maggie so she’d land at the top of the steps, near the door. I saw her hit the ground in a damned-near-perfect ‘superhero landing’ pose and grinned. She had this.

But the dozens of werewolves swarming up the steps toward her were a threat that couldn’t be ignored. I had to take them down, at least stun them long enough for Alex’s people to get inside, for Maggie to Heal a few. They needed breathing room to get themselves organized again.

I could give them that.

I poured on the speed, using Celerity to the max as I shot skyward. I went up hundreds of feet in seconds, then turned around and came back the other way. Flying as fast as I could, I flipped myself around so I landed feet-first in the center of the werewolves.

My arrival impact shattered the pavement for twenty feet in every direction. The shockwave from my passage sent enemies spinning away, tumbling head over heels. In one blow, most of the werewolves were down, stunned for at least a few moments. None of them were out of the fight, but I’d just bought our side a little much-needed time. I cast Heal on myself to restore the damage I’d just done to my knees.

I’d also made it clear I was back. Cerberus hadn’t been in my blast radius. He leaped down from where he’d stood his ground atop a bus about fifty feet away. A few bounds, and he was near enough to shout over to me.

“You back! But you lost gift. I will give you again.”

“Hard pass,” I told him.

Then Cerberus took another look at me, a real look, and blinked several times before taking a step back. “Small one is stronger now.”

“Yeah. I am,” I replied, closing the distance between us. “I’m much stronger, now.”

“How?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I replied. Then I flew directly at him.

Cerberus wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, it seemed, even if I out-ranked him by two tiers, now. He tried to hold me back, to take the impact of my full-body rush, but even as massive and strong as he was, he wasn’t as strong as me. I drove a shoulder into his chest with the force of a missile. All his air went out in a huff. As I collided with the werewolf chief, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pushed on, using Flight and Strength to carry both of us into the air.

We arced upward, climbing away from the street. I was taking a chance, here. Cerberus was stunned by the charge, but that wouldn’t last. My Natural Armor was tier ten, but I had no guarantee it would hold out against his bite. Sure enough, just seconds after we’d lifted off, Cerberus had his act together enough to try chomping down on my shoulder. I couldn’t risk it, so I pushed him away from me with all my might, shoving him back toward the ground.

He slammed into a house, punching a hole in the roof, the third floor, and the second floor. I followed him down through the opening and shattered the ground floor with my landing, sending both of us into the basement. Planks, boards, and chunks of concrete rained down around us, but I largely ignored it all. If the whole building dropped on our heads, I might have a bad day. Short of that? Probably not.

Cerberus growled as he rolled back to his feet, teeth bared and claws outstretched. He took a step toward me, crouching into a fighting stance.

“Cerberus is not so easy prey.”

“I’ve noticed,” I replied. “But you’re going down anyway.”

************************************************

Maggie used to love watching gymnastics when she was younger. She'd always been jealous of the grace those athletes could demonstrate. The way they'd sail through the air and then land perfectly enthralled her. Now, thanks to the magic of the event, she could do that too.

The landing she made would have thrilled her younger self. She pegged it, hitting with a loud crack as her boots slammed into the stone steps. Maggie was on her feet again in an instant, sword already drawn and at the ready. All around her, anxious faces turned, trying to figure out just what had arrived in the middle of their formation.

"Who are you?" one young man demanded.

Maggie held up a hand. "Relax, I'm here with Cameron. Where's Alex? Is he okay?"

"He's over this way," the man replied. As soon as Maggie rattled off names the guy knew, he relaxed instantly. “We just got him inside the building, but he's down for the count. He was pretty badly hurt by one of the werewolves before we could stop it."

Maggie nodded. "Cameron and I saw that as we were flying in. If you take me to him, I can Heal his injuries and Cleanse the bite, if he was bitten.”

The man's eyes got very wide. "You have Cleanse? I thought only Marion... I thought we were..." His voice trailed off, then he flashed her the first genuine smile she'd seen on his face. "Ma'am, I don't know who you are, but there are some people inside this building who are going to be very glad to see you. Come with me, please."

The scene inside the building looked like something out of a hospital TV show right after a mass casualty event. There were wounded everywhere. Fortunately, although Alex had thrown all of his eggs into one basket with Cleanse, he'd had the forethought to share around the few Heal crystals he'd managed to acquire from the dungeon. Several of his troops had the spell, and they were moving from patient to patient, working as quickly as they could to stabilize the most seriously injured.

Something about the group bothered her, but it took Maggie a moment to put her finger on the problem. Then, she realized there was no one calling out commands, no one issuing orders, nor directing traffic for the medics or telling the active fighters where they should go to help defend the rest.

Alex's people were still doing a good job in spite of that; they'd clearly been trained well, and all the effort they'd put into drills was paying off in spades. Still, with no one in command, it wouldn't last. Maggie had to get Alex back on his feet. If he had a second in command, odds were he or she was down for the count as well, and Alex’s return to the fray would have the strongest impact.

"Take me to him," Maggie commanded. "We need to get your boss back in the fight."

"Yes, ma'am," the man replied. "Right this way."

He led her to a corner of the building's front hall, where several badly wounded fighters had been laid out on the stone tiled floor. One young woman knelt there, a strong white glow around her hands as she tried desperately to stabilize a horribly wounded man. For a moment, Maggie was afraid the wounded was Alex, but then she realized it was a stranger, someone she didn't know.

Whoever it was, the medic’s tier three Heal wasn’t cutting it. Maggie knelt beside her. “I’ve got this.”

She reached out and touched the injured man, activating her Heal spell. Tier eight did a lot more good than tier three. Wounds closed in front of their eyes, tissue knitting itself back together with impossible speed. Maggie cut the Heal off after she’d done enough to bring the man out of danger. He was too wounded to get to full strength, and she needed to conserve her mana for others. She dropped a Cleanse on him to finish things, because at least one of those wounds had been a bite.

“Who are you?” the woman beside her breathed.

“My name’s Maggie,” she replied, pivoting so she could examine Alex. Maggie laid her hands on his body and let both her Heal and Cleanse inform her about the man’s condition. Oddly, he wasn’t that bad. Aside from the wound on his throat, anyway. That one was looked nasty, but even it wasn’t life-threatening.

She readied a Cleanse first. There was no sense risking Alex turning into one of those creatures. But to her surprise, there was no curse to Cleanse. He hadn’t been bitten. Maggie shifted tactics, calling on her Heal to heal the wounds to his throat. It looked like he’d been choked, like someone tried to strangle him. Just as before, the skin Healed before her eyes. In just a handful of seconds, the wound was mostly better. His neck would be tender for a few days, but he’d be all right.

Maggie reached out and shook Alex’s shoulder. “Hey. Rise and shine time, Alex. Your people need you.”

It took a minute for him to come around, but then his eyes blinked open. He looked confused as he stared up at her. “Maggie?”

She nodded. “Yup. Cam’s here, too. We got the Cleanse spell from the dungeon.”

“Marion’s gone,” Alex said. He closed his eyes.

Maggie shook her head and leaned in close. “She’s not. Or might not be. There’s hope, a chance, I mean. Cameron got a tier ten Cleanse! He’s hoping it might be able to reverse even the already changed werewolves.”

“What?” Alex’s eyes snapped open, but instead of the hope Maggie thought she’d find there, all she saw was pain. Why? That didn’t make sense.

“Yeah. We don’t know for sure that it’ll work, but he’s going to try.”

Alex smashed his fists down into the stone on either side of him hard enough that the blows smashed chips from the floor. “Didn’t you hear me? She’s gone! Dead! She was the one who attacked me, and my people, they…”

He couldn’t finish. He broke down sobbing instead. But Maggie had a good picture of what must have happened, now. Marion-werewolf had gone after Alex, had bitten him, had almost killed him. His people saw a werewolf about to kill their leader, and they did the smart thing and killed the werewolf.

They probably never even realized it was Marion they’d slain.

“Alex, I can’t pretend to know what you’re feeling right now,” Maggie said, leaning in close, so only he could hear her. “But your people need you. They need leadership, or a lot of them are going to die. This fight isn’t over yet.”

“It is for me,” Alex said. Then he closed his eyes again, and refused to speak further no matter what she said.

Maggie spent another minute trying to coax him out of his shell before giving up. She’d seen cases like this before, in an ER. People just got overwhelmed by the shock and horror of what they’d seen. Their minds couldn’t cope, so they shut down.

She stood up and looked around the room. A casual scan of the people present told her she was the highest rank still standing. These people were going to die without a leader. Someone had to step up.

“God help me, it might as well be me,” Maggie muttered under her breath. Then she raised her voice, mirroring the tone she’d heard a battle-axe of an old nurse use during a crisis.

“Healers! Over here, right now! I want you getting people triaged, and the ones who need Cleanse over to me!” Maggie shouted. People took notice. “I need whoever is senior from the fighters, too! Now! Let’s go, people! We’ve got lives to save and werewolves to beat into submission.”