Neko-laus 3: A tale of two kings

Chapter 20: Artemis

This was fucking embarrassing.  Umas rubbed a circle on my back as I hurled again into the bushes around the corner from the entrance to MI.  My stomach was sore from the force.  Wiping the back of my hand across my mouth I could feel the cool sweat across my brow, the dampness at my shoulders and pooling at my lower back.  This wasn’t food poisoning.  Taking a few deep breaths I pushed myself up and swallowed then turn and spat out the lingering taste of vomit. I stabbed white coats and now I couldn’t come into the MI building.  This was not my will.

“My Liege, we can wait for reinforcements...”

“I burnt that bridge, Umas.  We are it.”  Umas just nodded and scanned the perimeter.

It took longer than I wanted it to in order to get my breathing under control.  I couldn’t go in the front door fine.  There was more than one way to skin a cat.  We moved shadow by shadow to the rear of the building.  Sure enough there were entry doors and even a cargo platform.  I couldn’t see any exterior cameras but they had to be there.  This building was too big to drop into complete darkness by myself.  It was going to have to be surgurical stealth.  I found the door to the stairwell by following the series of small narrow rectangular windows directly on top of each other going up.  Thirty-five floors.  This was going to burn. Or was it?

“Can you hear me?”

We hear you King Nicholas.

“You told me that you could feel me.  Is that just the one who would be king or any latent?”

All latents can be felt but we only answer to the bloodline of the Kings of Shangrilla.

“Is there...are there any members of the bloodline in this building?”

A line pale fog began to form before my eyes then suddenly it slammed into the side of the building and disappeared.  I blinked.  I had been thinking of this river of golden light energy as water.  That gave me a way to understand this thing, this force that came to me.  However water doesn’t do that.

“My Liege, have you received an answer?”  I didn’t understand Umas.  It was clear that he was a soldier but his unwavering loyalty was strange and a little off putting to me.  I’ve only faced betrayal when I’ve had to rely on others...until I got to Grim and to Mags.  Without voicing my uneasiness I knew that Umas would die to protect me.  I’d done nothing to warrant it. 

“No...it went to look.”  I didn’t know how else to answer him.

A ribbon of light sprang from the ground waving in the slight breeze of the night.  Your Majesty, two offspring of the Shangrilla bloodline are inside.

“Can you tell me if there are others in our way?”

Your Majesty we are an extension of your will.

“Can a regular man use your strength?”

If you will it.

“My liege?”

I stared up at the building. Thirty-fifth floor.  Elevators were out of the question.  “We have babies.  We have to take the stairs and we have to do it fast.  Every guard we encounter affects the chances we have of getting them out of there.  If they figure out what we are coming for, they will kill them rather than let them go.”

Umas’s face hardened with resolve.  “No they won’t.”

I dropped my hand on his shoulder squeezing it in comfort.  “I am going to give you an energy boost.  It will allow us to run up faster and further than we could normally.  If you don’t like it or if you can’t handle it, tell me and I’ll stop.”

“Do not worry about me, my liege.  If what you offer me will rescue your heirs, I will endure all pain and discomfort.”

There was a moment of unease then I called on a thin ribbon of light directing it into this strong frame.  He stiffened slightly but relaxed quickly accepting the power reserve.  I anchored it around his chest to help with his heartbeat and his breathing.  We needed to be as fast as we could go and if that meant being supernatural, so be it.  I didn’t know how long Mags and the rest of the gangs would keep up their onslaught but if we were still this deep into the city there would a shit storm trying to get out of here with two little ones.  Sleath and speed.

I left my curved blade on my back but pulled the long dagger from my forearm as I touched the lock on the outer door.  It opened with a whisper.  We were running up a mountain with about as much effort as walking across the floor.  The river, or fog of golden light floated up the stairwell above us darkening the passage, dimming the security so we passed unseen.  Flight after flight fell beneath our boots until finally a large set of numbers stared back.  They were empire but a smaller set underneath allowed me to read, thirty five.  Neither of us had broken a sweat and our breathing was even.  There should have been an alarm.  This building would have it’s own security.

Umas reached for the door handle.  I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.  Something wasn’t right.

“Are my bloodline still on this floor?”

Yes

“Are there others?”

Yes.  They hide in the rooms.  No one wants to see the King.

“Cut the power to this floor.  Kill the lights.”  Umas pulled his double blades and I kept to my single dagger as we stepped out onto the black floor.  There were no windows to offer ambient light from the city so it was just like walking in the dark with your eyes closed.  “Give me a trail to follow.”

A single thin line of light moved straight down the corridor until it finally curved to the left about three doors down from the far end.  The golden line didn’t give off any sort of glow to illuminate the walls so Umas shuffled forward slowly relying on his Wild honed senses.  It was silent.  It was oppressive.  With each step forward I was hearing my heart beat turning into a giant signal drum of warning.  We were past the point of no return now. 

A few feet ahead of us there was the whine of machinery and then the dark was blasted with light as the elevator opened on the floor.  I could feel the sudden tension in Umas as we waited for guards to come spilling out but nothing happened.  No one came out but the doors didn’t close either.  Umas moved quickly to investigate but it was empty. 

I moved past him stepping up the pace because each moment here felt so out of sync.  Something wasn’t right.

Magic swept past us sending the lights into a hard bright glow as they came back on.  The sudden change left me slightly disorientated.  Umas shouldered me behind him as he took up a defensive stance.  The elevator slid closed leaving back in silence for a moment.

“You truly are remarkable, Mark IV.  When the scientists decided to take you away from me, I fought them like the brat I was but I can see that they were right letting my donor break you in.”

What the hell was that?  I moved Umas out of the way.  He resisted at first then allowed me to shuffle him sideways slightly.  He still used his body to cover half of mine.  A man stood in the hall way dressed from head to toe in white but the cut of the cloth wasn’t medical.  It was a Battle Mage’s uniform minus the silver death head insignia.  There was something else off about this figure.  He was tall but was narrow in the shoulder as if he had grown in height only.  The length of a man but the width of a boy but the magic that he wielded was real enough.

“Who are you?”

“You wound me, Mark IV.  I am your partner.”

“I already have a partner.”

“Ah yes, Arthur Magnus.  How is my donor?  Don’t bother denying it no body was ever recovered, his or Grant Wendell’s, at the crash site and you only stopped broadcasting a couple of days ago.”

Shit.  Shitshitshit.  Now that my eyes had adjusted I took a good look beyond the white uniform.  He had golden hair and eyes the color of the summer sky.  The features were similar but were stretched just enough to let you know that you weren’t looking a something that was natural.

“I’m not here to cause trouble.”

“Of course you are.  I’m going to help you.  I’ll give you what you want and in return you will give me what I want.”

“What do I want?”

“These.”  He turned and waved a hand at the open door.  “Hurry up.”

A couple of nurses stepped out of the room each one cradling a baby in their arms.  “M7...this is against all”

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!”  The next instant happened so quickly.  The mage reached out ranked the bundle out of the man’s arms then hit him with a magical blast that lifted him off his feet and slammed him backwards to the room to the sounds of falling equipment.  The female nurse dropped to her knees crouching over her bundle one hand on her mouth stifling her cry of fear.

“Yes, I’m a clone.  They grew me here.  There raised me here.  They showed me how to use my power but they won’t let me outside and they won’t give me a name.  So, I’m going to make some changes around here.”  He lifted up the baby with one arm, fingers clutching at the blanket around it.  “First change, no more experiments.”

My heart froze.  He wouldn’t.  He couldn’t.

“Well are you going to take it?  It’s not exactly light.”

“I’ll go my Liege.”  Before I could say anything Umas slipped his swords back into his scabbards and moved forward his hands open and extended.  I thought M7 was going to drop the baby but he waited until Umas gathered it in his arms.

“That one too.”  The man with Mags distorted face pointed down at the floor.

The female nurse shoved the baby bundle away from her.  “Can I go now?”

“What did I tell you to call me?”

“KKK... kkk... King Tiger Artemis Magnus.”

That explains why everyone was cowering in fear of the King.  A medical experiment gone mad with the mage ability ranked in the high percentile and who had no qualms in using it.

“You can go...what are you doing?  I said that you can go.”

“But what about Eddie?”

“Oh, he’s dead.”

“He was your partner...”

“They paid him extra to show me how to fuck so I wouldn’t hurt the other mages and latents they wanted to pair me with.  Don’t cry for a sex toy, unless you want to join him?”

“No, no.  I’m going.  I’m leaving.”

“Nurse Confirey, call security and tell them to escort the babies to the Shambles.”

“Yes, of course...I’ll do that now.”

Umas backed towards me his arms filled with the bundles.  “Why aren’t they crying?”

Artemis just offered up this chilling sentence. “The doctors here prefer silence.”

“They did something to them?”

“We are in a MI facility.  Here they make the impossible possible.  I’m nine years old and look at me.  I should be in the military.  My mage ranking is better than my donor at the age of nine, it’s better than at nineteen.  CONFIREY!”

The woman’s frightened voice floated back.  “Security has acknowledged your request.”

“This is not a request.”  I felt the draw from him and cut it which also left Umas without the extra energy.  He staggered slight but kept the two quiet babies safely in his arms.  The whole of the building rumbled and then the structure screamed as an explosion rocked us.  “Tell security the top floor has been eliminated.  If they won’t do as I instructed I will implode another floor.”

“Artemis...”

“NOW!”

This mockery of Mags was unstable: a child of limited experience in an adult’s body with an adult’s power guided by a child’s sense of want.  Umas made it to my side and I reached out to gather one of my babies into my arms.  Raven black hair and pale, oh so pale, skin was exposed.  Eyes opened, blinked then stared at me with wide eye wonder.  Topaz iris.

“You can look but you don’t touch, Nicholas.  They are like me but I will not allow them to stand in my way.” 

The elevator doors opened once more this time grey uniformed guards slowly peeked their heads out weapons at the ready but they didn’t know who was the enemy.  “CONFIREY!”

“Yes, these are the escorts.  They are to take them to the border gate and let them go.”

“You, go now.  No, not you Nicholas just your friend and those babies.”

“My Liege.”

“Go.”

“I can’t leave you here, my Liege.  I made an oath.”

“You said you’d protect the kingdom, Umas.  Those silent babies in your arms are my kingdom.  I am counting on you to keep them safe and get them home where they belong.  It’s not safe here.”

“Yes, I understand, my Liege.”  Tears were streaming down his face as he turned away moving towards the open elevator.  The MI guards backed into the car as Umas entered.  Artemis stopped at the open doors and I swear time stopped for a moment.

“I will know if you detain them.  Trust me when I say that it will be for everyone’s benefit not to attempt to fuck me over.  Go.”

This left those people hiding in the rooms and me in the corridor.  The female nurse fucked off down the opposite stairwell when the mage was at the elevators.  Artemis turned his attention back to me and damn if I didn’t want to cower.  Just raw energy was radiating out of him and it was pure natural ability.  There were no red stones of enhancement implanted in him.  His physical form could have handled it but his mental state wouldn’t.

“Nicholas.”  A half familiar smile beamed at me.  I was able to keep my instinctive recoil hidden.  This must have been what Grim meant when he said the manufactured mages didn’t last long in service.  This was just too un-nerving.  “See, I know your name.”

“Yes you do, Artemis.”

His smile broke out into a broad grin.  “I like how you say my name, Nicholas.  MI brought you here to be my bonded Latent. The doctors thought that I was at that stage but I wasn’t  I was only seven and my body was being accelerated through puberty.  I took one look at you with your soft black hair and pretty golden eyes and all these hormones just jumped me.  I hurt you bad, there was blood everywhere and that’s when the docs decided to give you to my donor instead.”

The wide smile collapsed as his face darkened with rage, “They didn’t consult with me, they just took you away and handed you over to him.  They said I was too immature.  I was in a growth stage! What were they expecting when they offer a meal to a starving man?”

“They wiped all my memories of this place.”

“Standard operating procedure.  We had fun between experiments.”

“We had sex.”

“Yeah, but we played games and watched vids.  The docs didn’t like it but if I left you on your own you only got into trouble with security.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“You’d try to get away.  I’ve seen the Shambles on the security cameras, it’s nasty and dirty.  The people don’t look like they bathe.”

“They don’t have enough food to eat or medical attention.”

Artemis’s eyes lit up.  “I see you took the present I sent you.”

My stomach cramped into a tight ball.  “Present?”

“The decommissioned medical pod.  I knew that when your signal from your citizen chip went intermittent after the crash that you had damaged it when it dropped into uplink mode only every two weeks.  Then the signal finally ceased all together, your location was pinpointed to the Shambles.  I was going to have the pod taken to the Wild and left there but your signal was so much closer to home. If you needed medical attention, it would be there for you.  MI already knows that names of all the doctors that cross the border without authorization to treat those Shamble folk so I knew that there would be staff for it if you needed but this is even better.  You’re going to stay with me now and we’ll make a new bond of synchronization.”

He was fast, faster than I anticipated.  I was hit with a blast that lifted me off my feet but then I was twisted around and flung down hard on the floor before the elevator doors.  With Mags I could feel the build up to a spell but there was no telegraph of that with Artemis.  Scrambling to my hands and knees I let out a groan as I was slammed magically again.  I splayed out on the floor like a crushed spider my cheek pressing hard into the cool tile.

The weight of his body pinned me to the floor along with his magic.  I couldn’t even force my hands down to push up.  His nose ran along my nape then snuffled in my hair.  “You smell of exotic places, Nicholas.”  He kissed my neck.  “I can’t wait until you take me there, away from this sterile hellhole.”

His groin settled between my legs then pressed up against my ass.  I redoubled my efforts and just found myself straining.  “I know how to fuck you now.  I’ve practised a lot because I knew you weren’t dead even though they tried to tell me you were all wiped out in that crash. I want to make up for that less than stellar performance from before.”

“Get off me!”

“Don’t struggle.  You’ll just get hurt.”

The golden light responded so quickly filling my leaden limbs with enough energy to get my elbow up and smash Artemis hard in the face.  His weight slid off me but I didn’t have enough time to do anything else as another magical hand slapped me off the floor up onto the corridor wall.  The back of my head connected first and I was out before I landed in a pile  at the baseboards.

“I WANT TO BE NICE TO YOU!  WHY WON’T YOU LET ME BE NICE?” 

My head went thunk  again as his hand wrenched at the collar of my shirt.  I could feel my body jerking as he tore at my bandolier and chest protector then finally he got to my clothes.  I couldn’t focus.  He swam in and out a mix of golden hair, white shoulders and blue eyes.  My thighs were spread wide around his hips locking in place between him and the wall.

“What is this?  What is this?   WHAT IS THIS!”  Artemis rammed his hand down directly into the center of my King Tiger tattoo.  It flared to light – hot and searing making it impossible not to scream.  I kicked at him but my flailing legs were useless barely getting any force into it at all.  I caught his hand and tried to lift off.  Artemis head butt me hard and I collapsed back against the wall but the sheer agony on my chest was gone.

“You’re mine.  Nicholas you’re mine.  I had you first.  You were always coming back to me.”  A kiss pressed against my throat. 

I was hanging in the grey inches from being engulfed.  I was going to die here.  All that white coat fear wasn’t the doctors it was him.  MI had built a monster and it was everything they were trying to build only they had no way of controlling him.  My waist was yanked forward as Artemis worked on getting the belt of my pants undone.  If MI thought that I would be the control they had underestimated their creation.  I was nothing more than a mouse, a toy to be mauled by the modified king tiger.

My arms fell limp at my sides.  The back of my hand hit a knife handle as Artemis almost folded me in half then his mouth sealed over mine.  His tongue thrust forward running along mine then he began to coax me, to entice me, to play.  Nurse Eddie had taught him how to kiss.  Trying to pull away only brought both of his hands up on my head, holding me still for his lingual onslaught.  Slowly my fingers closed around the hilt and started to pull it free of the harness.  Artemis caught my forearm and dragged it up on the wall a band of cold encased my wrist.  Moaning in protest only allowed him to deepen the kiss.  The knife dropped from my fingers as he caught my outer arm and pinned me there magically as well.

Artemis eased back pushing his head against mine.  “It’s okay.  I’ll forgive you because you don’t remember.  I’ll give you better memories than the ones you had before.”  He sat up his eyes glazed with desire then he looked down at the king tiger tattoo.  “This won’t do.”

“Mags gave this to me.”  I cringed as he laid his hand on my chest.

“I said, I was here first.”

“I was playing you.”

“What?”

“Why would I want to be your latent when you and your MI buddies just killed off my entire family?”

“Those were just Shamblers.  They are not even citizens so they are of no consequence.”

“They were my crew!”

Artemis cocked his head to the side.  “Ah, your so called love sold you out for a citizen chip and a cozy little single in section C.  Your other so called love is rotting the Wild.  You don’t have good judgement, Nicholas.  I’ll be taking over your affairs of the heart so you won’t have to worry.”  

Artemis started burning my insides.  I tried to be stoic but the agony seared through my senses and I started to scream.  Ribbons of golden light encircled me but I couldn’t break my through his spell.  I thrashed and bucked as the scent of burning flesh filled my head and made me want to vomit.  I was dying here.  I had two little babies I hadn’t even held and I was never going to hold them.  My heartbeat was pounding loudly in my ears and fast.  I was the wild bunny Grim called me so long ago.

No, nononono.  Don’t fight.  Pull it.  Drain him.  Siphon his power away.

“What are you doing Nicholas?”  Artemis clawed his fingers and dug them into my chest.

“Killing you.”

Mags?  The burning power stopped and Artemis’s weight toppled sideways trapping my leg under it.  My vision was blurred with tears.  I couldn’t see properly.  The magical bindings at my wrists were snapped as if they were simple string.  Thumbs thick and rough with calluses swept the tears away from my eyes.  “Mags...”

“Are you injured?”

“Chest.”

“Let me try something.”  I blocked his hand with my forearm as he moved to lay his palm on my chest.   It was still in searing pain.  “It’s all right my sweet brave little neko.”

The tattoo cooled like a misty spray hiding skin at a waterfall.  The burning abated.  I looked up at him now really sure that it was him here with me.  The first thing that came to my mind was stupid but it came tumbling out of my mouth anyway.  “You got long hair.”

Compared to Artemis’s military shorn locks, Mags was a rebel with hair swinging around his shoulders.

“All the better to hide this.”  Mags reached over and yanked a small thin stiletto out of Artemis’s neck.  “Someone told me to keep this close because one day I might need it.”

Mags kissed my temple.  “Magic is not the be all and end all.  Can you stand, Nicky?”

I couldn’t stand.  I was lucky to get to my knees and sway.  Mags grabbed my scattered gear then caught me under the arms to help me stand.  It was like space sickness all over again.  I think my body was going into shock.  Mags drag walked me over to the elevator then pinned me in the corner as he punched the buttons.

“I had to...”

“I know.  I’ve seen them.  Two little kittens missing their meows.  I know you had to rescue them.  Once the pod is set up, Sergeant Pepper and the Doctor are going to give those kittens a good going over to make sure that nothing is wrong with them.”

Glancing down at my chest it looked like I got hit with a lightening bolt.  If Artemis was trying to lift them it didn’t work because now the lines were darker, almost incised.  On my flesh.  I threw up.

Mags hurried me out of the building.  It was surprising silent and empty until we got outside.  Various gang colors were moving with purpose and skill. 

“What?”

“The Resistance has seen just how harmful Military Intelligence can be so they are taking the building down.”

“Resistance?”

“Today has shown just how effective we can all work together.”

“You could bring that building down all by yourself.”  I was confused.  So much effort was going one around me when Mags just has to do his thing and the walls would come tumbling down.

“It’s a hard thing to learn, Nicky but I ain’t that important and that a battle mage is not the be all and end all.  Besides, I’m the Witch of the West and First Wife of the Kingdom of Shangrilla, I really don’t have a say in Empire/Shambles affairs. Now let’s go and look at those kittens.  Maybe now your mother will stop treating me like a stole something precious from you.”

Pfffft.  “You didn’t steall nothing.  I gave you my heart...and I’m going to throw up.”

I ended up cradled in warm arms holding my weapons braced across my knee and shoulder.  I felt like someone tried to turn my flesh inside out.  Mags had me back outside the gate in the Shambles proper when the night sky exploded in a cloud of red and orange.  The rumble of the collapsing building was felt through the ground then a grey dust cloud began creeping out of the city.  The Empire wanted weapons of war so they bought, stole, bred and manufactured beings. King Tiger Arthur Magnus, rank one had been their brightest until they over jacked his power to the point of self destruction.  Panzer Mark IV Latent Neko-laus was too much of a headache and security risk to deploy properly.  The little hand bred Latents were lost in the terrorist explosion and M7 aka Artemis Magnus was a dangerous failure at growing battle mages. The only thing the Empire got out of their efforts was another warfront.

Which was fine because if they were killing each other, they wouldn’t be looking for me and mine.  Closing my eyes my head dropped forward and then against Mag’s chest.  To the sound of his heartbeat I let myself drift in a sense of security I rarely had growing up.  Thump, thump.  Thump, thump.  It was the steady beat of home.

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Only epilog left....