Pt. 089.c — Day 10 Mara Challenge

Mara landed on pavement that was broken in long, buckled slabs. A city bus lay on its side at the next intersection, wheels still turning slowly, and a leaning bank of traffic lights blinked red over a crush of abandoned cars. Smoke rose behind the rooftops. Somewhere farther away, an alarm was sounding a steady evacuation tone, though she could not tell whether anyone remained to obey it.

Van appeared beside her with uncertain footing. Mara caught a glimpse of his face before he saw what was coming toward them.

At the far end of the avenue, a mound of construction debris stirred. Something hauled itself over a concrete barrier on four thick limbs, followed by another creature that moved upright on jointed legs. More shapes came after them, using the rubble like a staircase. A third clung sideways to the brick face of a damaged shop, then dropped to the road among the others.

Alters.

Mara counted seven before the bodies tangled and made counting useless. Their attention ranged from window to window and across the doors of empty vehicles. They were searching. One stopped over a discarded coat and put its muzzle close to the fabric.

Van made a strangled sound. He stood rooted beside her, eyes fixed on the advancing horde.

She seized his wrist and pulled. “Here. Now.”

He stumbled after her. Two overturned dumpsters had come to rest at an angle behind a delivery entrance, leaving a narrow wedge of space between their dented steel sides. Mara squeezed through first, dragging Van into the gap so abruptly that the buckle on his armored belt scraped metal. She pressed him back against the wall.

“Don't move,” she whispered.

She cast her illusion across the opening. A heap of black rubbish bags, soaked cardboard, broken packing foam, and the untidy remains of somebody's ruined restaurant spilled over the gap. She gave it the dimensions of the refuse piled elsewhere along the wall, then adjusted the sheen of the bags to match the overcast light. No elaborate scene was needed. Just enough of a mess that a hunter would keep looking for something alive.

Van stared at the new wall of garbage. His nostrils flared. “Really?” he mouthed.

Mara set one finger against her lips.

The first Alter came down the street at a heavy, irregular lope. Its claws clicked over the pavement. Another followed close enough that Mara could hear its breath catching deep in a throat too broad for a human body. Through a sliver between the dumpsters she watched one of the beasts pause, head turning toward their hiding place.

The creature was almost twice Van's width through its chest. Its face had been drawn into a long, muscular snout, and the plates along its neck opened and shut with each breath. Mara held the refuse illusion steady while a real fly worried at the edge of a nearby sack.

Van was looking at the same creature. From his perspective it was an enormous stuffed animal assembled by a deeply unwell toy maker: patchwork gray fur, a crooked felt muzzle, dangling ears and glossy black buttons where its eyes ought to have been. Tufts of cotton poked through a seam across its forehead. The thing leaned close enough for him to see a loose stitch at the corner of its mouth.

“I hope there are tasty people nearby!” it announced in a cheerful little voice.

Van shut his eyes.

The real Alter sniffed, snorted at the dumpsters, and turned toward a distant crash. Its companions passed in a rush of clawed feet. One slapped its palm against the side of a car hard enough to cave in the door, then joined the others at the next junction.

Mara counted another twenty breaths before she let the camouflage thin. Even then she waited until the last of the hunting cries had dwindled behind the buildings.

Van opened one eye. “I don't think I can do that again.”

“We may not have to.” She stepped out into the street, checked both directions, and beckoned him after her.

He emerged with a deep breath that lasted only until the air reached his nose. “Could you not have found somewhere that smelled less like an expired seafood market?”

“The smell was half the point.”

He looked toward the dumpsters, then at her.

Mara smiled. “If I were getting revenge, you'd know. Besides, that wasn't a particularly bad hiding place.”

“I'm going to disagree with you until I've had a shower.”

They left the dumpsters behind. Van watched the empty corner where the Alter had stopped, his expression turning thoughtful.

“Were you making them look like that?”

“Like what?”

“The monsters. That one had button eyes. And stuffing. It talked like an educational cartoon made by someone who hates children.”

Mara stopped walking. “What did it say?”

He repeated the line. She stared at him for a moment and then laughed, a startled little sound that escaped before she could contain it.

“I'm sorry,” she said when he gave her a wounded look. “I didn't do that.”

“Then I think Verena has been playing with my eyesight.”

“The reality filter,” Mara said. “Apparently her idea of preventing trauma is to make the apocalypse look like a nursery rhyme.”

“They're still the same size. That's the part I'm having trouble with. If something bigger than a refrigerator is going to eat me, it shouldn't have sewn-on eyebrows.”

His joking had restored a little color to his face. Mara appreciated the effort. The fear was still there, tucked behind every glance toward the next intersection.

“So what's our plan?” he asked.

“Standard protocol is to contact Excelsior. A strike this large should have a command structure, evacuation routes, reinforcement assignments. If we're going to help, we need to know where they're directing people.”

She raised her forearm and activated the communicator built into the cream-and-burgundy sleeve of her costume. The small display shimmered to life. Her unit searched through emergency frequencies, paused, and began cycling again.

EXCELSIOR NETWORK: UNAVAILABLE

---

Mara changed channels and tried the direct emergency repeater. There was a dry burst of static. No response.

“Maybe the signal's blocked?” Van suggested.

“Maybe.” She tried a third channel and got the same result.

The streets suddenly felt much larger.

“That's bad, isn't it?” he said.

“It is.” Mara lowered her arm. “The Alters have broken through border settlements and outer defensive lines before. They've reached cities. But not this far into territory that's supposed to be secure, and certainly not in numbers like those.” She looked toward the western skyline, where a new pillar of smoke was rising. “Excelsior should be coordinating every responder within range.”

“What does it mean if they aren't?”

“I don't know.” She checked the screen once more, though nothing had changed. “I don't like the possibilities.”

A crackle came through the communicator. “Dreamweaver? Dreamweaver, please tell me that's you.”

Mara nearly lifted her wrist into her face. “Katherine?”

“There you are.” Katherine Wren's voice came through a persistent electrical hiss. “I've lost three channels trying to reach you. Are you both all right?”

“Very much so. Where are you?”

“An upper floor with a view of the southern approach. I've spliced together two damaged consoles. The connection may not hold.”

“Katherine, Excelsior's down.”

“The main command network is down. Some local systems still answer, and I've managed to bring up an unstable copy of Brainstorm on one of them. It isn't connected to Excelsior's central network.”

Mara recognized the name. Brainstorm was the system Excelsior used to track deployments, assign Empowered defenders, and coordinate the moving pieces of a battle too large for one commander to oversee.

“You got into Brainstorm?”

“Only a local copy. The deployment records are incomplete, and I don't trust its map beyond the streets I can see. But I can still reach some municipal controls.”

Van leaned over Mara's shoulder to listen.

“Katherine, do you need help?” Mara asked.

“I need a decoy who can move fast. There's a gap in the city's defenses I can't close from here.”

“Of course. But are you sure? We don't know how Verena intends to grade us if we interfere with each other's assignments.”

“Verena can go to hell.” Katherine’s tone surprised them. “Nothing in her rules prohibits cooperation,” Katherine continued. “There are civilians in the path of those Alters, and I have no intention of letting her scoring system decide whether I help them.”

“That sounds rather more like you.” Mara felt herself grin.

“Before I explain anything else, though, indulge me. Hand Van the microphone.”

“What?”

“Indulge me. He's standing right here.”

Mara raised her wrist toward Van. “Apparently she wants to talk to you.”

He bent toward the speaker. “Hi, Katherine?”

A voice answered, slightly muffled and unmistakably his own. “Hello, other me.”

Van went completely motionless and Mara had to stifle a laugh at the look on his face.

“I'm with Katherine,” the voice continued. “She's using something that looks like three computers patched by Dr. Frankenstein’s intern. How's your day?”

Van opened and closed his mouth. “I was almost eaten by a stuffed animal.”

There was a short silence.

“Right,” the other Van said. “So it's going about as well as mine.”

Katherine's faint laugh slipped across the connection. Mara lost her battle with her own amusement.

“I hate this,” Van said, though he was laughing now too. “I really, really hate this.”

“Please remember to tell me what happened when we're put back together,” the other Van replied. “If I have to inherit these memories, I want context.”

The connection clicked as Katherine took back the microphone.

“Thank you. I needed that.”

“You two are impossible,” Mara told her.

Katherine moved on from their moment of shared absurdity with chilling quickness. “From this building I can see a substantial pack moving toward a multilane roadway downtown. They have no opposition on that route. If they follow it, they'll reach populated districts that haven't been evacuated.”

Mara looked toward the nearest road sign. She knew the city well enough to picture the broad avenue Katherine was describing.

“There's a river bridge off that road,” Katherine continued. “A central-opening drawbridge. Its controls tie into a municipal network Brainstorm can still reach through a maintenance connection. I think I can raise the middle sections and sever the route back into the city.”

“You want to trap them on the other side first.”

“Exactly. If I can cut the span while they're concentrated across it, the bridge becomes a barrier behind them. They'll be forced away from the city center and toward the far-side defenses. I can see patrol activity out there. It's not an ideal solution, but it's a better problem for the defenders than a horde loose among the shelters.”

“How many?” Mara asked.

“Dozens, possibly more. I can't count them accurately from here.” Her voice crackled on the unstable connection. “You're the only one I've reached who could plausibly do it and survive the attempt.”

Mara glanced toward the deserted storefronts, calculating turns and distances. “How long until you're ready?”

“Don't wait for me. Go now. I'll be ready when you reach it.” Katherine's voice tightened. “I won't be able to stay on the communicator. This equipment isn't mobile, and I need all my hands and most of my concentration to keep the link alive.”

“I understand. Good luck.”

“You too, Mara. And please keep your Van in one piece. I'm becoming attached to mine.”

The signal died and they began jogging. Van following a few feet behind, boots striking the broken pavement a little more heavily than hers. His longer stride brought him alongside her almost immediately.

“Can I ask you something without it sounding insulting?” He gave her a worried half smile. “Are we actually capable of doing this? I know your illusions are incredible. But a horde of Alters is... it's a lot, even for a frontline hero.”

“And I'm not a frontline hero,” Mara finished for him. “I know.”

She watched the next intersection while they ran. “I wasn't offended.”

“We aren't going to overpower an army,” she continued. “We're going to give it a reason to move. The dangerous part is keeping the pack interested in the illusions without them noticing us.”

“You’ve done this sort of thing before. I'm still trying to get my knees to stop shaking.” He glanced back. “When I see them the way they really are, I freeze. Even with Verena's filter, I'm barely keeping up.”

“You heard Katherine. You know what's ahead, and you're still keeping up. You could run 10 short meters and we’d be whisked back to the hotel.” She kept her voice level. “That's enough for now.”

He watched her for another few strides. “You make everything sound possible.”

She raised a hand as they neared the next crossing. Van stopped beside her.

Between two smoking cars at the far corner, a pair of Alters picked their way through the wreckage, sniffing along the curb. Another moved among the windows farther down the road. Behind them lay the broad avenue leading toward the river.

Mara checked the approaches and nodded once. “Ready?”

She followed his gaze to a crashed fire engine lodged against a concrete median. One equipment compartment had sprung open, scattering lengths of hose and a rescue bag across the road.

Van crossed quickly, pulled the steel-headed bar of a Halligan tool free of its bracket, and tested the weight in his hands. One end had an adze and pick, the other a forked prying blade. It was meant to open stubborn doors, not fight monsters.

Still, the weight of it in his grip steadied his nerves. “Ready,” he said.

Mara looked once more toward the Alters. “Then stay close, and follow my lead.”

Mara took the first corner at a steady jog, then turned down the broad avenue toward the river. She needed the Alters to see something worth chasing, and the abandoned roadway gave her room to create it.

A woman in a torn blue coat appeared twenty paces behind them, stumbling as she tried to support an elderly man. Two frightened teenagers followed, one with a hand pressed over a bloody bandage on his shoulder. More figures assembled around them: a family hauling a rolling suitcase, a limping delivery driver, a child clinging to a woman's arm. By the time Mara reached the next traffic light, a ragged column of refugees was straggling along the avenue behind her.

She knew how to make frightened people move. She had seen enough of them to imitate the stumbles and wrong turns, the desperate backward glances, the instinct to keep a hand on the person beside you even when you ought to be running faster. Her false civilians were bright enough to draw attention and untidy enough to look real at a distance.

Two rescue workers in reflective jackets appeared at the back of the column. One waved a glowing orange traffic wand toward Mara. The other held a red light high, urging the imaginary crowd onward.

Mara turned and raised her voice. “This way! Keep together and follow me! The bridge is still open. Move!”

Her voice carried over the empty street. The rescue workers waved their wands, their mouths moving in silent instructions that the real spectators were too far away to hear.

The nearest Alter stopped nosing through a car. Its head lifted. A second beast looked up from the doorway it had been clawing open. They caught sight of the moving line, and something in their manner changed with awful speed. Searching had been a chore. Hunting was a pleasure.

One bounded over the trunk of an abandoned car. Another scrambled onto its roof, sprang from the far side, and landed among Mara's false civilians with enough force to dent the asphalt.

The woman in the blue coat vanished beneath its claws. Her form came apart in streaming washes of translucent color, the illusion's carefully arranged surfaces breaking into smoke-thin ribbons.

The Alter skidded, baffled by the absence of weight and blood. Then it saw the others.

Mara risked a glance over her shoulder. “They're closing faster than I expected,” she said.

“They're coming from the buildings too!” Van called.

“Good. The more we draw away the better.”

They ran. Her last illusory family fell behind. A beast pounced on the elderly man, and his figure broke across the road in a wash of blue light. She made the remaining decoys run faster, fighting the urge to look back again.

Van saw another huge stuffed creature tumble through a refugee's outline and skid across the road. Its bright button eyes swung toward him.

“Hey! My snack went away!” it complained in a bright, injured voice.

Van nearly tripped as a stitched paw struck the asphalt hard enough to split it. He put his head down and ran.

More appeared at windows and alley mouths, drawn by the commotion. Some joined the pursuit immediately. Others followed the movement with puzzled, predatory attention before springing after the false civilians.

Mara pulled the surviving figures toward the center of the roadway. If the stragglers scattered, so would the Alters. She needed them in a single rush toward the bridge.

---

Three Alters charged straight into the cluster. The decoys vanished on impact. The beasts tore through the empty air and raced after the figures still moving.

Mara's breath rasped in her throat. She couldn't keep replacing them indefinitely. The next cluster she formed was thinner at the edges; farther figures lost detail the moment she stopped watching them. A pulse of pressure sat behind her eyes. She let the outermost decoys blur rather than spend the concentration to hold every fold of cloth.

There was a burst of movement to their right. She caught it through the windows of an empty pharmacy: three Alters rushing along a cross street at an angle to intercept the chase.

“Van, stay left.”

He looked toward her pointing hand and saw them coming.

They were too close for a change of route. Mara had seconds, perhaps fewer, before one of the creatures reached the junction and cut off their path to the bridge.

She lifted her free hand. A circle of white brilliance snapped into existence above the cross street. It moved like a searchlight mounted to an invisible helicopter, its beam sweeping over the charging Alters. Mara sent the dazzling circle around them in a tight arc, then swung it directly across their eyes.

The first beast recoiled and clawed at its face. Another shut its eyes and struck a parked motorcycle in its haste to escape the glare. The third tried to jump beneath the beam and collided with the others.

Van ran past the intersection with his Halligan held in both hands. Mara followed a stride behind him. By the time the light vanished, the three Alters had gathered their bearings and were chasing again, enraged and eager to catch the prey that had escaped.

“That was brilliant!” Van said between breaths.

“You have enough breath for puns?” She asked incredulously.

The main avenue widened. Distant traffic signals blinked over the wreckage of a delivery truck; beyond them, a line of warehouses gave way to the low stone buildings near the riverfront. Mara could smell smoke, then a faint clean trace of water between the burned-plastic fumes.

Their claws struck pavement in a ragged thunder. The pack was growing, and fresh predators were beginning to look past the false refugees toward the two real people running ahead.

Mara let the stragglers go. She kept only five decoys moving ahead of the pack, just enough to give the hunters a direction. Van had breath to ask questions; she needed an extra few strides to answer.

“How far is the bridge?”

“Two intersections, then straight to the river.”

“And what happens when the road runs out?”

Mara kept her eyes on the gap between a tilted lorry and a row of concrete planters. “I'm an illusionist, Van. Improvising is what we do.”

He gave her a disbelieving laugh. “I thought Cassie was the crazy one.”

A fresh howl rose from the junction behind them. Van glanced back and quickened his pace.

Mara vaulted a low fallen sign, landed, and waved him after her with a grin that arrived more easily than it ought to have under the circumstances.

“I have all sorts of surprises left for you.”

Their route curved between warehouse walls and a parking structure with its ground floor burned out. For the first time Mara could see the river ahead, a gray band beneath a pall of smoke. The drawbridge crossed it in four broad lanes divided by a painted center line. Near the middle of the crossing, the two lift leaves met at a long steel seam. Heavy housings beside the towers concealed the machinery that would raise them.

The road to the near end was clear except for a few abandoned cars. A little green hatchback stood near a shuttered service entrance, its driver door half open. Past it lay the bridge approach, the strip of pavement between them and the river's edge.

Mara measured the final stretch with tired eyes. It would take more concentration than she wanted to spend while running.

She let the last illusory refugee drift away behind them. The Alters were close now, a crowded mass of claws and limbs flooding along the broad avenue. Some still snapped at the disappearing figures. Others had caught sight of the two real people and were accelerating with alarming purpose.

Mara turned her focus to the bridge. The first problem was the sight line. If the creatures watched them disappear, they would recognize the trick. She needed to hide the changeover, give them something new to chase, and make certain the pack committed itself before Katherine opened the span.

“Listen,” Mara said. “When I tell you to drop, I mean immediately. Throw yourself down without hesitation.”

“Right.”

He nodded and increased his pace. The green hatchback flashed past on their left. Its passenger door was closed, its rear window cracked. The road surface changed from battered asphalt to the concrete apron leading onto the bridge.

The first Alter rounded the final warehouse behind them. More crowded around it, catching sight of the straight, unobstructed roadway.

Mara drew a breath and spread her fingers. Light burst outward in a wide fan.

It flooded the bridge approach from parapet to parapet, bands of gold, white, and deep blue opening over one another until the river and the first lanes disappeared behind a luminous curtain. The pursuing beasts recoiled from the sudden brilliance. Some skidded to a halt; others swerved into their companions. For a moment the whole horde compressed against itself in a confusion of momentum and glare.

“Drop!”

Van threw himself to the ground without thinking. His shoulder and back struck the pavement hard enough to drive the breath from him, but he twisted just enough to keep his head from striking the asphalt. She tucked her shoulder and fell beside him.

The fan of light thinned. Where Mara and Van had been, a dozen Maras ran onto the bridge. Then two dozen.

Burgundy coats and cream sleeves flashed between one another as the illusionary women scattered across the lanes, some looking over their shoulders, others reaching back to beckon their pursuers. One slipped on the concrete and scrambled up again. Another ran with an exaggerated limp. Two went along the outer rail, daring the hunters to cut across the roadway after them.

The adjustments were quick, each double convincing from the proper distance. She let the farther figures blur at the edges rather than spending concentration on every detail. The Alters needed movement and the promise of someone to catch.

Over the two real people on the pavement, she laid the image of a parked compact car: battered silver panels, dusty windows, and a flattened rear tire. It sat at a plausible angle beside the curb, concealing the pair lying close enough together to fit within its shadow.

Van watched the undersides of a monster's enormous felt paws gallop past the illusory bumper. One of the Alters slowed beside the illusion, nostrils working.

Mara held the parked-car image steady until it passed. The pack swept past them soon after.

One Alter lunged at the nearest false Mara. Its claws tore the figure into a spinning cloud of paint-like light, and it barreled on after the others. Another caught two decoys at once, leaving the roadway streaked with color that faded before it could touch the ground.

More creatures raced across the city-side leaf of the drawbridge. Mara sent her remaining doubles ahead, keeping them just within reach. Every destroyed illusion gave her one less figure to maintain and one more chance to replace it farther down the route.

She counted the crowd crossing the center seam. Fifteen. Twenty. She could no longer count by individuals. The horde had become a rolling mass of movement, and the leading Alters were already on the far half of the bridge.

A smaller one hesitated near the central joint. Mara made three new doubles appear beyond it, sprinting toward the opposite bank. The creature gave a guttural cry and followed.

Van watched a brown-felt monster with a dangling stitched tongue race past the place where he lay.

“Wait for me! I haven't finished chasing!” it chirped.

He closed his mouth around the laugh that threatened to escape.

At last the final shapes cleared the seam. Mara held the decoys on the far side and waited. For one terrible second, nothing happened.

Then something deep within the bridge groaned. A warning bell sounded at the river's edge. A line of orange lamps flashed along the barriers, and the steel joint at the bridge's center separated.

Katherine had found the controls and with a mechanical roar, the two central leaves began to lift. The city-side roadway rose into a wall of steel and concrete, climbing away from the river. Across the widening gap the far-side leaf tilted upward in the opposite direction, forcing the Alters that had made it onto the sloping section to scramble toward the opposite bank.

Several tried to turn. They found a growing gulf where the road had been, dark water shining far below.

A broad-shouldered Alter leapt for the raised city-side section and struck its sheer underside. It fell back, claws scraping uselessly at steel. Others crowded the far bank, unable to get past the open center. A few turned after the remaining false Maras, tearing them apart in frustration. Beyond the bridge, small blue flashes appeared around the far-side defensive positions.

The mass of Alters was no longer heading into the city.

Van shifted beneath Mara, careful not to jostle her until the last of her illusions faded. She let the compact car disappear around them and sat up slowly, staring at the divided bridge.

“We did it,” he said.

Mara heard the disbelief in his voice. Her own lungs were burning and her arms shook with the fatigue of sustained casting, but the sight of the raised leaves filled her with fierce satisfaction.

“We did,” she answered, and laughed. “Katherine, you magnificent woman.”

Mara had no way to thank Katherine through the dead channel. She looked at the raised bridge again and hoped the woman could see what she'd accomplished.

Van helped Mara stand. He bent to retrieve the Halligan, which had slipped loose when he threw himself backward.

“I can’t believe that worked,” he said. “That was extraordinary.”

Mara was preparing a suitably immodest reply when something moved in the dark beside the shuttered service entrance.

Mara felt the hand close around her ankle before she saw it.

A thick, clawed grip shot from the service entrance and jerked her sideways. Her boot scraped over the curb. She hit the pavement on one hip and was dragged backward with such force that the bridge, the road, and Van's startled face spun out of alignment.

“Mara!”

Something pulled her into the shadow of the loading bay.

The Alter had hidden behind the fallen shutter, its dark hide lost among soot-blackened steel. It was broad through the shoulders, with a wedge-shaped head and thick, heavily muscled arms. Its claws remained locked around Mara's ankle until it dragged her up from the ground. It wrapped her body in a crushing grip.

She tried to wrench free, but the creature was too strong. The pressure of those arms squeezing her ribs made the bones creak alarmingly. The force should have broken something inside of her. Instead, a fierce and unwanted rush of arousal displaced the pain.

The sensation arrived with such force that the power she tried to summon flickered at her fingertips and failed. She tried to cast again. Her attention scattered before she could finish the first plane of light.

Her chest was intact beneath its grip, but she couldn't draw a steady breath or gather enough concentration to escape.

The Alter bent over her, its mouth opening to reveal rows of uneven, inward-pointing teeth. She braced one hand beneath its jaw and pushed, earning barely an inch.

“Van,” she gasped. “Run.”

He was already moving without thinking. The Halligan struck the Alter across the upper arm with a metallic thud. The creature's head snapped toward him. Van hit it again, driving the forked end into the joint above its elbow. The beast roared and turned far enough that Mara could breathe.

To Van, the thing was a hulking patchwork nightmare. Brown fur covered its enormous shoulders, the seams stitched with thread as thick as cord. A floppy felt tongue hung between two rows of white triangular fabric teeth.

“Stop poking me, you big bully!” it declared in an indignant squeak.

Van swung the Halligan again. He knew what the real thing was. He knew the felt claws could rip steel and the harmless-looking stuffing concealed a strength Mara could not resist. The filter gave him something safe to look at, but it couldn't disguise her trapped body or the awful sound she made when the Alter dragged her upright.

“Let her go!” The steel head struck its wrist.

“Get off her!” Another blow, hard enough to sting through Van's palms.

The Alter struck at Van with its near arm, keeping Mara pinned under the other. Van ducked beneath the swing and jammed the Halligan's fork into the sensitive armpit. He pushed with both hands and all his weight. Metal scraped over the creature's hide; its body twisted in rage.

The creature released her and rounded on Van, eyes fixed dangerously at his throat.

Mara dropped to the ground, catching herself on hands that didn't seem entirely under her control. Van planted himself between her and the Alter.

She reached for him, intending to drag him clear and cast another decoy. Another pulse of the arousal effect ran through her, and her fingers closed uselessly against the pavement.

“Go,” she managed. “Van, please.”

He lunged forward with the Halligan in both hands, driving its pointed end against the creature's chest. It staggered half a step, more surprised than injured. Van followed it, shouting so fiercely that the words lost their shape.

His shout broke at the end, more breath than sound. He left himself wide open after each swing, but every blow forced the creature another step away from Mara.

The creature caught the next strike on its forearm and lashed out. Its claws swept across Van's armored chest. The force threw him backward into the street.

A gold panel flared beside Mara.

MASTER PROTECTION COMPROMISED

Protection Award Remaining: 2/3 VP

Van hit the ground on one shoulder and rolled. The armor showed three pale claw marks across its chest. He curled briefly as the substituted sensation flooded him, struggling to draw an even breath.

Mara's stomach dropped. If the Alter struck him again, he might not be able to stand. There was no telling how much force those arms could deliver.

“Van!”

He got one foot beneath him and rose as the Alter charged. Van jabbed with the Halligan, bracing one end against the pavement like a short spear. The creature swatted it aside, but not before the hooked blade caught beneath the plated ridge of its shoulder.

Van wrenched downward with a desperate shout. A hard crack carried through the loading bay. The Alter twisted away, one arm sagging briefly before it could bring the limb back under control. Its next step was uncertain.

Van backed off, still holding the Halligan between them. His hands shook. He couldn't seem to stop shouting at the creature, words torn apart by panting breaths and the furious need to keep it looking at him.

---

Mara pushed herself upright beside the shutter. He had given her seconds. She had to use them. The little green hatchback stood only a short distance down the curb, where its driver had apparently abandoned it during the evacuation. The open door faced her. She made for it, keeping low, one hand sliding along the masonry for support. She stumbled twice. Each time she caught herself before she fell, though the world seemed to shift unpleasantly around the edges.

The interior smelled of old coffee and warm plastic. A canvas bag had fallen across the passenger footwell. The keys were still in the ignition.

Mara pulled the door shut and turned them. The engine coughed, caught, and settled into a ragged idle.

Outside, Van retreated along the wall. The Alter pursued him, favoring the arm he had injured but gathering itself for another rush. Van lifted the Halligan, too exhausted to do more than threaten.

Mara shoved the gear selector into drive. “Van! Left!”

He heard her and turned, moving before thinking as his training took over. He threw himself away from the wall, stumbling clear of the vehicle's path.

The hatchback surged forward. Mara had only a few yards to accelerate. She needed no more. The front bumper struck the Alter at knee height, pitching it backward against the brick service wall. Steel crumpled, the windshield crazed into white lines, and the engine roared as she held the accelerator down.

The creature convulsed once between the car and the wall. The masonry cracked behind it. Its raised arm slid down over the hood. Then it stopped moving.

ALTER DEFEATED

+1 VP

Mara eased off the accelerator. The engine died under a gush of steam.

For several seconds she sat with both hands clenched around the wheel, waiting for the Alter to rise again. Her pulse hammered at her throat. The replacement effect had accumulated into a maddening distraction, every seam of her costume suddenly too present against her skin. She could scarcely distinguish the trembling caused by exhaustion from the trembling caused by the Hotel.

She reached for the door. It opened a few inches, jammed against buckled metal, then yielded enough for her to squeeze through. She slid out awkwardly, caught her boot on the sill, and landed on her hands and knees beside the car.

“Mara!” Van was there before she could attempt to stand.

He dropped the Halligan onto the road and crouched beside her. A gray scrape crossed his chest armor, stark against the red panels. His face was pale beneath a layer of dust.

“Are you hurt?”

“Apparently not. I’m something else entirely.”

The attempt at humor came out broken. Her voice trembled, and Van's concern deepened.

“Can you stand?”

She nodded. A foolish response, given that she had just failed to get out of a car properly. But Van offered his hand and waited for her to take it. She slipped her fingers into his.

He pulled her up.

Mara found herself close enough to see dust caught in his eyelashes. His hands shook harder now that the fight was over. He opened his mouth, found nothing to say, and took another unsteady breath.

She remembered begging him to run, and the way he'd stepped toward the Alter instead. Her fingers tightened around his before she noticed she was holding on.

Her knees weakened again. Van put an arm around her waist to steady her.

“You were magnificent,” she whispered.

He gave a breathless, incredulous laugh. “You hit a monster with a car.”

“I wasn't thinking very clearly.”

The words had scarcely left her before she stepped closer and caught his face between her hands.

She kissed him.

Van went rigid in surprise. His hand hovered near her cheek before settling uncertainly at her shoulder. The kiss tasted of dust and the bitter edge of her own breath. Verena's substitution caught every small contact and amplified it until she couldn't tell whether she was trembling from fear, desire, or relief.

A gold screen appeared beside them.

MARA ELLISON GAINED 3 VP

Kissing the Master +3 VP

Van drew a breath as the kiss broke. His free hand touched her shoulder. “Mara—”

She kissed him again before he could finish. This time she parted her lips, her tongue touching his for a brief, searching moment. Van caught her by the upper arms as she swayed and turned his face gently away, keeping her on her feet.

Another notification brightened in the air.

MARA ELLISON GAINED 1 VP

French Kissing the Master +1 VP

She barely saw it.

“Mara, wait.” Van searched her face. “You're shaking.”

“I know.” She tried to steady her hands against his armor, but they kept trembling. “It’s so hard…feeling this right now. It’s too much. The effect closes the gap. I can’t tell where wanting stops and reaching starts.”

His expression softened, and she leaned toward him again.

He held her a little farther away, gently, his hands at her upper arms. “I feel it too. But that thing nearly killed you, and you’re still shaking.”

She pulled closer, one hand sliding around his back and catching him low, drawing him against her. Her hand cupped the curve of his ass for a moment in possessive reassurance.

“Not all of it, Van.” She said as she disengaged. “Not all of it.”

A third gold panel flared.

MARA ELLISON GAINED 4 VP

Touching the Master's Butt +2 VP

First Time Bonus x2

Van made a startled noise and caught her wrist before she created too much distance. “Mara.”

“Don't think too hard right now.” She swallowed. “We just had a near death experience, or as much of one as the system allows.” Her fingers tightened around his. “You were very brave, and we fought for each other. I don't want to act tomorrow as if I didn't mean any of this.”

“I don't want to pretend that either.”

He took her hand away from his body and held it between both of his. Mara looked at their joined fingers, then up at his face.

She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Her heart was beating far too quickly. The ruined hatchback hissed behind them, and beyond the river the raised drawbridge held, its steel leaves standing between the horde and the city.

There was a faint chime.

Mara opened her eyes to a final screen, its gold border gleaming against the broken roadway.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

ALTERS DEFEATED: 1

MASTER PROTECTION: 2/3 VP

CHALLENGE AWARD: 3 VP

Mara read the total once. Then her gaze dropped to Van's hands holding hers.

Van saw where she was looking and lowered his eyes. “Mara?”

She lifted her head, but before she could answer, white light flooded the space between them. The shattered windscreen, the collapsed Alter, and the raised drawbridge disappeared beneath it. Mara tightened her grip on Van's hand, and he squeezed back as the street vanished.