Chapter 2

One of the most lucrative businesses in the current age was weaponry. After the war and the subsequent cataclysm, law and order degenerated into fear and chaos. The people needed to protect themselves and thus laws pertaining to firearms, or rather the enforcement of those laws were ignored, both by the people and their governments. The dwarves profited the most from this policy, they being a crafts master race. In ancient times they had been renowned for their abilities to craft peerless weaponry and armour. Some even took on humans as apprentices and taught them some of their skills, some of which became famous smiths. Dwarves were the only reawakened race to have adapted easily to human technology and, in fact, they enriched it as well. In the current age dwarves have formed the backbone of weapons research, though none of them have ever worked for any government, they worked as shop keepers selling their wears to any customer who can afford it as their greed for money was great.

It was to one Flint Hammer to which Eilie traveled, in the western part of Quebec City. He was the only dwarf in the city and thus his skills were in high demand. He was also quite mad, as many of his creations could be just as lethal to their users as to the targets. At least, he was considered insane by his kin, Eilie always found him quite charming.

The dwarf's shop seemed quite small, the weapons and armour in glass displays. Of course no weapon had ammo in it (I may be crazy but I ain't THAT crazy, he'd say), the armour on display was merely for show, it could grant no real protection and all of the real merchandise was in the warehouse connected to the shop. He had a sophisticated security system, which he designed and created himself (if ya have something worth protectin', ya should protect it yuirself); he had never been the victim of theft, because, it was believed, no one wanted to risk finding out what would happen were someone to trip the alarm.

"Well, lass. Yuir timin's perfect. I just got yuir order in!" Flint said in way of greeting to Eilie as she entered the shop.

Eilie walked around the shop looking at the display cases, looking to see if there was anything she might want while Flint went to get the inventory of the merchandise he had for her. She stopped to gaze at a particular display, which contained peculiar bullets. These bullets were larger than most, thus being unusable for popular gun types, the middle of theses bullets were capsules that contained glowing coloured substances that was different from bullet to bullet.

“Hey, what’re these?” Eilie asked Flint when he returned from the back room.

“Oh, those? Well ya remember the ‘demon gun’ I wanted to make?”

“You mean that thing you saw in a cartoon once, like a hundred years ago?”

“Okay, first it’s called ‘anime’ an’ I got it as a relic from before the Awakening. Second, it’s a sound theory, usin’ elemental energies to summon monsters. Tell me, how do elven summoners call magical spirits?”

“They gather up mana energy from the land and focus their will into it, creating a semi-sentient being who exists, temporarily to carry out its creator’s orders.”

“Yeah, but those mages can only summon one type o’ beast an’ that’s because it’s linked to the mana energy ya use. These bullets contain crystalis that’s absorbed a particular element. Crystalis, when blank will suck up the element it’s in like a sponge in the ocean. When it’s in a total vacuum, it becomes blank. The problem I’m havin’ is tha’ I canna put willpower into tha’ elements when they’re fired from the gun.”

Eilie whistled, the sheer amount of pure crystalis that he must have purchased was staggering and to have it converted to a type that was virtually useless, in terms of energy production anyways, for a hobby just proved how mad he was.

“Don’t snicker at me missy. May I remind ya that ya had yuir guns designed after something ya saw in a certain vampire anime?”

“Alright, can we just drop the subject and get down to business already?” Eilie said in partial disgust, partial amusement.

“Whatever ya say, lass. All right, we got a hundred ammo clips, delivered to the usual place; yuir new blaster is ready, we have that custom made lightning gun ya wanted and that other thing, though ye may want ta be discreet about it and ye might want to hack the net-gov’s codes before tryin’ ta use it: they’d probably detect ya weren’t a valid user if ya didn’t.” Flint said as he placed the last three items on the counter.

“Do you have anything new?” She asked as she held the blaster up for inspection.

“Well, we do have exploding rounds.”

“Exploding rounds?”

“Yeah, you fire them and they blow up on impact, guaranteed to make a hole the size o’ yuir fist in virtually any armour.” He boasted.

“Gimme five clips, we’ll see how it works out.” She said handing him her cred-card, to pay for all her purchases. She also laid her empty ammo clips on the counter, so that Flint could refill them.

Flint returned shortly with the clips and gave them to Eilie after he confirmed the transfer of funds. Eilie attached the extra clips onto her belt for easy use later. She was walking towards the exit when she saw multiple law-enforcement vehicles pull up. She immediately turned around when she heard them call for her surrender.

“Citizen 6185, come out with you’re hands up. You are hereby under arrest for the murder of bishop Duplessis.” One officer called out.

Flint pressed a button by his counter causing a metal blind to drop in front of the windows to his shop. It effectively shielded the two from the outside; there was no way the cops could enter.

“Doesn’t this count as aiding and abetting?” Eilie asked of the dwarf. “You could get executed for helping a murderer.”

“Nah, I don’ have ta worry ‘cause if they tried to even arrest me I got something ta blackmail ‘em with.”

“Well if you have something like that why don’t you help me out then?”

“And I thought I was crazy.” The dwarf muttered himself. To Eilie he said: “If I did then I’d have nothin’ to protect me, an’ besides this is yuir problem. I will, however, let ya use a special weapon o’ mine ta get away.”

The dwarf activated a mechanism and one of the display cases closest to the front slid to one side and a sort of platform rose from the floor. On top of it was a large, cylindrical object. The Flint tossed Eilie a cartridge and nodded towards the weapon. Eilie shrugged and slid the cartridge into the slot in the weapon. A handle and trigger slid from a panel on the side that faced the ground and a scope slid out from the side. The last thing to happen was that the end of the weapon split into four equal parts and when they were far enough away from each other, they slid back into the body of the weapon slightly, locking into place forming four prongs at the head of the gun. They began to emit small lightning bolts between the parts.

“Okay... What is it?” Eilie asked.

“That is a point-singularity weapon, and be very careful; it hasn’t been tested yet.”

“A black hole gun and you HAVEN’T tested it yet? What the hell makes you think it will work?” She asked.

“Trust me. Just be careful, you have only one shot and it has one hell of a recoil.”

‘How the hell would he know if the recoil was that bad if he never tested it before?’ She wondered.

She sat on the ground just in front of the platform, grasping the handle and trigger, looking through the scope; Eilie thought it must have an x-ray feature because she could see outside the shop perfectly well. Most of the cops outside had their weapons ready and were apparently waiting for her to come out, which was understandable because the shop had only one entrance and exit. She calmly pulled the trigger, at first nothing happened but then she saw black energy forming at the head of the weapon, between the four prongs and black lightning crackled between them. She had no idea what happened next, for there was a bright white light and the next thing she knew she was shaking her head trying to clear it and her back, which had been against the platform was in a great deal of pain. The front of the shop had been totally destroyed, the vehicles that had been out front had been ripped to shreds as well as some of the officers that had been outside. Some of the wall of the neighbouring building was completely gone as well as one of the corners; consequentially the entire building had begun to lean to one side. Taking the opportunity to escape, Eilie ran down the street. She did not get far however, as her way was blocked by a Level 3 Enforcer.

“Going somewhere?” The golden behemoth said.

Eilie swore under her breath as she saw that this Enforcer was a Lazarus, one whose soul had been ‘saved’ from death and placed within the mechanical shell. As this one was more intelligent and freethinking than the usual Enforcer, it made him that much more dangerous. His face, which was the only thing to indicate that he had once been a living being, was that of a man in his mid to late twenties with black hair, dark eyes and a black beard. Eilie, however, was not daunted; she charged at the Enforcer. The Enforcer raised his arm to strike her down with his claws, but never got the chance to do so as Eilie thru a light grenade at him. The ensuing burst of light disrupted the Enforcer’s optic sensors and when he could see again, Eilie was gone.

“She couldn’t have gone far.” He said.

He deployed his remote drones to find her; the diamond-shaped hovering in the air went off in different directions in search. Eilie had indeed not gone far and had ducked into an alley. She was almost to the next alley, where she believed she could escape, when she saw one of the drones float down the same alley she was in, barring her way.

“Time to see if these exploding rounds are really any good.” She said as she took out her gun and fired.

As advertised, the bullet and the target, as small as it was, exploded on impact. Eilie ran and turned down another, narrower alley. The destruction of the drone, however, was noticed and the Enforcer knew exactly where she was and where she would be headed. He was about to pursue when a communication over a special frequency, designed only for him, reached him.

“Don’t bother going after her, I’ll take care of it.” The voice said.

“You sure you can handle it, Leon?” The Enforcer asked.

“Don’t worry about it Jacques, I said I’d take care of it.” Leon said

Eilie was still running down the narrow alleyway when she saw a figure at the end of the alley. The figure wore what appeared to be a long red leather jacket. He seemed to have a breastplate underneath with a gem embedded in it. He also wore red gloves and boots as well as a pair of black pants, he also carried a black metal staff topped off with a blue gem. She could not see his face because he had on a red helmet that had a sort of faceplate on it thus effectively preventing anyone from seeing his face. All of this indicated he was a technomage.

Eilie took in the fact without much concern; she just hoped that he wasn’t one of the higher-level mages, because if he were, she would not be able to escape. She ran straight at him and the mage lowered his staff as he prepared to defend himself. Instead of a direct assault, however, she jumped onto the wall of the alley and rebounded on the adjacent wall, as this was a narrow alley, and using her momentum, leapt over the mage’s head. Unfortunately, as she was about to land, the mage turned around and thrust out his staff. A net made of energy surrounded her, the technomage’s magic ensnaring her.

“Please tell me you didn’t think you could escape with a stunt that looked like it was out of a twenty-first century movie.” He said smugly.

“I could only hope, right?” Eilie said as she struggled in the net.

The mage brought the still hovering net and its prisoner into the open and saw Jacques approaching. The Enforcer hovered a mere foot off the ground and was propelled by small boosters on his back when he needed to move fast.

“I guess you really didn’t need my help, Leon.” Jacques called out.

Leon didn’t have time to respond as a great shadow descended upon Jacques. It was a large gargoyle, at least as tall, if not marginally taller than Jacques himself, who towered above most people at two and a half meters in height. Axe descended upon the technomage, distracting him, thus breaking the energy net. The huge gargoyle faced off against Jacques and showed no fear.

“It would be rude of me to fight without introducing myself.” The gargoyle said to Jacques. “I am Titan.”

“Well as long as we’re being polite, my name is Jacques.” Jacques replied. “And this is my fist!” He said, taking a swing at Titan.

Titan merely caught the punch and Jacques tried to punch him out with his other fist. Again Titan caught it and the two grappled with each other, one trying to gain the upper hand over the other, though it seemed to be a pretty even match. For his own part, Axe seemed to hold up well against Leon for a while, until the latter used his technomagic to telekinetically throw Axe through the adjacent wall.

“And now for you.” He said to Eilie.

She pulled out both her handguns, ready to defend herself. Leon did not approach though, he merely stood there watching her, or so it seemed to her, as it was impossible to see his face through his helmet. Suddenly, he cocked his head to one side, as though listening to something. He turned his head slightly and looked at her, again at least as far as she could tell.

“You’re free to go.” He said.

Eilie stared at him sceptically. After all this he was just going to let her go? She did not think it likely. A though sensing her doubts Leon reassured her.

“Don’t believe me? Alright I guess I just have to prove myself then.” He said as he walked over to where the two giants wrestled.

With a wave of his staff, the gargoyle and the Enforcer were thrust apart, encased in energy bubbles. Both protested such treatment, but neither was heard as no sound escaped from the transparent spheres. Leon waved his hand and the bubble holding Titan burst, the gargoyle landed on his feet. Titan looked ready to fight the mage but Eilie stopped him, indicating they should go. As they left, Titan carrying the unconscious Axe, she looked back and nodded her thanks to Leon. When they were long gone and out of site, Leon released Jacques.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jacques asked. “She’s an assassin and you’re letting her get away?”

“Who accused her of the crime?” Leon asked as his helmet broke up into many bands and wires and snaked back into his coat.

He had a handsome face with a certain sharpness to it, short silvery hair, ice blue eyes and slightly pointed ears, revealing him to be a half-elf.

“You mean who called the division? It was an anonymous call from what I understand. Why, were you able to trace it?” Jacques looked at his long time friend, the one who had extracted his soul from his dying body oh-so long ago.

“Yes I was finally able to. It turns out it was the Minister of Defence, Louis DesChamps.” Leon said calmly.

“So the government is involved? Shit, this complicates matters doesn’t it? Just don’t get caught investigating them like your old man alright?” Jacques said.

“I’m not so foolish as he was, but we have other stuff to deal with; here comes the press.” Leon said as various TV news vehicles pulled up.