Enemy of My Enemy

The first knock was lost in the thunder.  Alex Blackburn sipped his drink by the roaring fire, staring contemplatively at the dancing flames.  The second knock, however, he heard.  With a sigh, he got to his feet and went to the door.

Standing in the pouring rain was a woman in a drenched cloak that he knew all too well.

“If it isn’t the Archangel,” he said dryly.  He leaned against the door frame and sipped his drink.  “What brings you here, Caelynn?”

She stepped under the awning and lowered her hood.  He saw tear streaks on her face.  A small flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes before he regained his composure.  

“You win,” she whispered.  “I’ll surrender.  Just...please just let him go!”

Alex raised an eyebrow.  “As much as I’d love to take this deal, I don’t currently have anyone to let go.”

“Stop it!” she cried.  “Don’t mess with me.  Haven’t you put me through enough already?  Haven’t you sunk low enough?”

Alex straightened.  “Look, doll, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cole!” she yelled.  “You kidnapped your own brother to get to me!  How much further can you sink before you reach hell?”

What was intended as an angry outburst and expected to only increase the smug air of self-satisfaction around him had a drastically different effect than Caelynn could have ever expected.  

His blood went cold and every ounce of confidence immediately drained from his demeanor.  Fear flickered in his eyes for a mere second before being replaced with cold determination and a terrifyingly empty expression.  The only remaining proof that he was feeling any emotion was the white color of his knuckles against the crystal glass.

“Cole’s been taken?” he asked, his tone deadly.  He quickly glanced around, then pulled her inside.  “What happened?” he demanded.  “Did you see any faces?”

“You really had nothing to do with it?” she whispered. 

His grip around her wrist tightened.  “Of course not!  I don’t know or care what you think of me, but I would never hurt my little brother.  Never.”  He released her hand and walked over to his desk.  Slowly and hesitantly, Caelynn followed him.  He set down his drink and activated the holo-screen.  “Who took him?”

Caelynn shook her head.  “I didn’t see any faces.  They were in ski masks.  But they had your trick phaser to stun me, so I assumed it was your op.”

Alex ran his hand through his hair distractedly.  “Well, I’ll look into that.  Did he have his phone?”

“It was in his pocket, but fell out during the struggle.”

“Damn.  I could’ve tracked that.”  He sighed.  “How many assailants?  What was the getaway vehicle?  What can you tell me?”

“You...you’re going to help me?”

Alex glared at her.  “Someone took my baby brother.  I’m going to do something to get him back.  Only question is if you will help me.  I know you don’t agree with my methods, but they get the job done.”

Caelynn didn’t hesitate.  “If you can save Cole, I won’t berate you on the how.  But this ‘alliance’ ends once he’s safe.”

“Naturally.”  He tapped a series of commands into the keyboard and tapped a few glowing icons on the holoscreen.  “I’m tracing the unique electric signal from the Impeder that you so graciously called the ‘trick phaser’ right now.  So.”  He turned to her.  “I need you to tell me everything you can remember about the incident.”

“I...I was panicking and in considerable pain,” she whispered.  “I think there were...six?  Seven?  At least two sounded female, they were all in black…”  She shook her head.  “I don’t know!”

Alex sighed.  “Come here.”  He opened a drawer and took out a silver headband-esque device with glowing blue displays on both sides.  “This will play your memories on the screen here.”

Caelynn looked at him hesitantly.  “I don’t trust you.”

“I promise it’s not going to harm you,” he said irritably.  “You’re my best chance at tracing Cole.”  He took a step closer to her.  “If I had him kidnapped to lure you here, I would have been ready and waiting with a plethora of items to neutralize your powers, all sorts of trick traps and I would be in my ass-kicking outfit.  Certainly not in my bathrobe and pajamas.  Even if I wanted to appear off-guard, I could and would have killed you already.”

Caelynn’s lip quivered and she took the device from him.  “Okay,” she breathed in a quavering voice.  

Alex’s expression softened slightly.  “You put it on like this, over your forehead,” he explained, his voice slightly hushed.  “And, uh...I won’t hold anything extra I see against you.”  He stood right in front of her to adjust the head piece on her and then tapped the display.  He turned back to the holo-screen and pulled up the feed.  “How long ago was this?”

“Barely more than an hour,” she answered.  

“You just immediately surrendered?” he asked incredulously, swiping through a few different screens.  “Didn’t even try to find him first?”  He laughed.  “Some great guardian of Skystead you make.”

“They...well, you’ll see,” she whispered.  “And I can’t risk him getting hurt.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at her.  “Damn it, you’re lucky I can’t use this weakness against you.”  He pulled out the desk chair.  “You might want to sit down.  This process could hurt a bit.  Just like a real quick headache, nothing lasting.”

With a quiet nod, Caelynn sat down.  Alex tapped a button on his keypad and the screen blinked into the scene from the restaurant that evening.  

Caelynn blushed and Alex scowled as the sweet romantic moment she had been having with Cole played on the screen.  Mercifully, Alex refrained from commenting.  Alex scanned quickly through the date up until he saw memory-Caelynn get up from the table and look about suspiciously, holding a hand protectively in front of Cole.  He resumed the real time playback.  

“Caelynn?” Cole’s voice came slightly distorted from the projection.  “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Caelynn in her memory replied.  “I thought I heard-”

The glass window near them looking out on the street shattered.  Caelynn immediately turned to protect Cole, her wings flaring protectively around him.  When the explosions settled, she turned immediately towards the threat, keeping her wings spread as a shield in front of Cole.  A handful of figures all in black were jumping through the wreckage of the window, guns trained on Caelynn.  Her face slid into ‘battle-mode’ and she rolled her neck.  

“You guys picked the wrong place,” she said cooly, slamming her fists together.  The simple green dress she had been wearing transformed into her white and gold combat suit.  She thrust her hand towards the nearest threat.  The bright beam tangled around his gun and she yanked it back, sending it clattering to the floor.  

“Do you think we’re stupid?” one of the other assailants said in a distinctly female voice.  “We’re right where we want to be.”

Caelynn’s eyes narrowed.  “Blackburn’ll have to do better than a few masked thugs.”  She formed a ball of energy and fired it at the one who spoke.  Her target ducked out of the way and opened fire.  Caelynn grabbed Cole and flipped behind the table.  Using her momentary break, she formed a shield and turned to Cole.  “You gotta get out of here,” she told him firmly.  “I’ll keep them distracted while you slip out the back.”

“Caelynn, I can’t just leave you!” Cole protested in a whisper.  

“I can fly, shoot energy beams and heal fairly quickly.  You can do none of that.  Don’t be reckless.  Get out of here.  I’ll call you later.”

“But-”

She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into a quick kiss.  “No.  Leave.  I’m not letting you get hurt.”

In real time, Caelynn suddenly became very interested in the oriental rug.  Alex let out a tense exhale.

Cole was giving Caelynn a strange look.  “Fine,” he finally said.  “But you better not get hurt either.”

Caelynn smiled.  “Me? Never.  See you in a few.”

She jumped up, weapons flaring to life in her palms, wings spreading to give Cole as much cover as she possibly could when an orange ray erupted from the doorway, penetrating her protective aura and striking her squarely in the chest.  With a scream of agony, she crashed against the back wall.

“Caelynn!” Cole screamed.  He jumped up and ran towards her, only to be yanked back immediately by the nearest assailant’s grip on his arms.

“No…” Caelynn muttered, trying to get to her feet.

“I told you we should have led with the big one,” the man holding Cole commented to the one with the weapon.

“And I told you why we didn’t,” the woman snapped.  She fired again, knocking Caelynn down before she had managed to rise to her knees.

“Ouch,” Alex remarked dryly.  “Well, I’ve got a lead.  I know that woman’s voice.  Lilith Paige, a skilled mercenary known in the criminal underworld as ‘Aftershock’.  I guess I can’t fault you for losing to her.  Even I have, on occasion.”

Caelynn looked at him in confusion, but he was still staring at the screen with enough intensity to make a mob boss cower.

Lilith approached Caelynn menacingly.  She signaled to the mercenary holding Cole.  He and two others quickly bound the struggling boy and started dragging him towards the door.

“Cole…” Caelynn called weakly.  Lilith smirked and kicked her.

“Listen carefully, Archangel,” she snarled.  “You have three hours to bring us what we want or we will kill your darling Cole in ways so painful you can’t even imagine.”

“No...please!”

“Three hours!” Lilith repeated, turning gracefully on her heel and stalking out.  She nodded to the men holding Cole.  With a sick grin, one of them took out a short knife and plunged it into Cole’s leg.  

The sound of his scream of agony mingled with Caelynn’s desperate cry.  Lilith laughed.  When she reached the door, for good measure, she fired the Impeder on a higher setting.  

The screen went black.

“I don’t even know what it is she wants,” Caelynn whispered.  “I woke up and it had been almost an hour.  They gave me three hours to save his life, but who knows what they’re doing to him while they wait.”

Alex nodded.  He focused on his work with a barely controlled fury brimming below the surface.  Even knowing it wasn’t directed at her, Caelynn shivered.  

“I’ve locked in on the location of the Impeder.  We can only hope that’s where they are.  Since you don’t know what they want, we can’t go in with plans to negotiate.  We’ll need to be ready for a fight.  I’m setting up a system to be running facial recognition on Lilith and Cole so if they’re seen anywhere, I’ll know.”

Caelynn nodded.  “Let’s go.”

“Not so fast,” Alex said, pointing a small remote-like device at a wall.  A well-hidden door suddenly appeared and opened.  “We’ve got to be prepared.”

Caelynn followed him into his lair.