Tash had been out of Sage’s training program for about 6 months, but this was her first real assignment. That’s not too cliché, she thought. Should’ve brought Ensign Ricky to back me up. Nerves usually came out in sarcasm. Well, nerves and most emotions really. It’s not like she was green though. When she first manifested she became a vigilante of sorts in her city. That’s what drew Sage to her. At least that’s what they told her. Something about the girl she was after now was different though. She didn’t pop on any of the normal radar. The first Sage got wind of her at all was 3 months ago when a biker gang claimed to have come across a sand witch in the desert. The local authorities thought it was some kind of joke, but Sage makes a point of at least trying to look into any strange activity reported in norm society, so they sent some feelers out. What they came back with is what gave Tash the wigs.
According to Sage Intel whoever was out in that dessert was not in range of other adepts. It’s like some kind of manifest dead zone. Population density versus square miles or something. Tash didn’t really understand the math, but what it meant was there were no other adepts to challenge her out here. It meant this chick, for god knows how long, has been living out in the desert, alone, with the ability to shape reality around her without anyone to mediate her. It meant Simple Sally probably has one hell of a god complex and an appetite for destruction. If the biker’s statements were any proof, this is one twisted sand bitch. Sage policy though is to at least try to rehabilitate. This was supposed to be strictly a snatch and grab operation, but somehow she doubted it.
The wind seemed to get more and more furious as she continued on, reducing visibility to practically nil. Sand slammed into her with surprising force, nearly knocking her to the ground. Fuck this. Tash activated the armor hidden under her cloths. Metal alloy of a technologically advanced yet unknown origin surrounded her and left her looking like a futuristic super soldier. The sand and wind were no match. That was easy. Either she’s not that powerful or she wasn’t expecting to be resisted.
Her answer came thundering into view. She saw the sand grow dark and furious in front of her. She thought she saw the outline of a girl, but then all thought was lost. The gravel sound of sand slammed into Tash’s ears and into her mind, screaming wordlessly with a voice of fury. She fell to her knees, hands to her head, C69 forgotten in the sand. The scream ripped her to shreds from the inside out. The fury of sand; shards of infant glass tearing at her soul.
In agony she managed to say in an almost inaudible whisper, “Activate sound filters.” The click and hum of advanced electronics manifested into her helmet, then silence. Free from the voice and the fury of the sand, Tash threw her self backwards, backpedaling on the ground away from the figure forming out of the storm. It regarded her with eyes of darkness. ‘It’ now because Tash was no longer sure this was just some crazy girl. Something else was at play here. She could feel it. Almost as if the shadows heard her thoughts, the darkness began to swarm around her. Like a sea of blackness, it rose on all sides, blotting the desert sun already diminished from the sandstorm still in progress.
Training and reaction finally kicked in. She flip-kicked back to her feet, a Turbine-X950 Super Shotgun in her hands. Click-click, Boom! A barrage of shrapnel flew into the sand figure, scattering particles of its makeshift body into the wind. Click-click, Boom! Another and another as she stepped closer and closer, each shot whittling the creature away.
Beneath the sand the shadow began to grow, filling the empty spaces with a solid void. The darkness had mass, a gravity that pulled at Tash. As she gazed into that emptiness she began to slow. Click…Click……Boom. Her resolve waning she began to dissolve into that nothingness, floating toward the safety of oblivion. She felt lost, but safe, as if she could and had abandoned everything to the dark embrace of death. Just then a tiny little dot of light caught her eye and as she watched it, it grew. It began to shine brightly, illuminating the dark. The light rushed at her and suddenly she found herself back, starring at the sand-shadow beast, shotgun forgotten, held loosely at her side. What happened?
She could see now, somehow clearer, that the beast before her was the girl, but not her at the same time. It was like she was possessed, using borrowed powers to fulfill her desires. Tash sprang back in to action, filled with renewed determination. Click-click, Boom! One after another, but this time a light surrounding each shot shredded the darkness; the light that saved her helping her now again.
As Tash fired, the darkness subsided, and she noticed the sandstorm begin to die down. She could feel the girl more solidly now, and though she wasn’t sure, she thought she felt her trying to pull away from the dark influence of the shadow. Perhaps rehabilitation isn’t out of the question. As the final shots chased away the dark, the wind died down to a whisper. The sand parted and fell revealing a girl lying still on the ground. Tash moved cautiously forward, C69 back in her hands now instead of the sand shredder, eyes never wavering from the figure on the ground. She began to stir. ‘She’ again because whatever ‘it’ was, was gone. The face turned to Tash was sharp with dark features; sand worn and hard, but a weariness shown at the eyes. She had the look of the betrayed. Like one who was promised the world and failed to get delivery. Shocked. Alone. Afraid.
Gun still pointed Tash released the visor of her armor, revealing her own face. “I’m from Sage. I’m here to take you in. What’s your name?”
The woman looked up with sullen eyes, “Lilly. My name’s Lilly.”
“Will you come with me willingly Lilly?”
Lilly’s eyes began to drift up with watery abandon, face poised on the verge of collapse, but the floodgates held. She seemed to pull herself back from the edge, composed for the moment. Eyes still diverted though, looking somewhere up and to the right, but not really looking at all.
“Lilly. Will you come with me?”
Her eyes came back to Tash’s with a measuring look. In that moment Tash saw something she hadn’t expected. Intelligence, but more than that. Something on the edge of that look struck Tash as devious. As a calculated gesture of measuring the odds. Part of Lilly wanted to take the fight further. But in the end her eyes reflected their master’s surrender, “I will.”
With those two words Tash felt Lilly’s resistance slip away. It was over. The C69 went back to it’s home on her hip as she extended a hand to Lilly. She noticed, as they headed back to Tash’s XJ-50 HoverCyke, that she began to feel better the further they got from the dead zone. Strange, because she hadn’t realized anything was wrong, but as they moved away from the scene of the battle, a sensation of dread she hadn’t realized she had began seeping away. She saw that Lilly seemed to perk up too, though she was still defeated, in more ways than one. She's going to need a lot of help, but that’s what Sage is for.
As they got to Tash’s HoverCyke the sun was just reaching the tips of the distant mountains. Well, as far as cliches go, riding off into the sunset ain’t bad. I even got the girl. Looks like mission one is a success. “Too bad Ensign Ricky didn’t make it.”
“What?”
“Nothing Lilly, nothing.”
End
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