Tattoos and Rail Guns Chapter 19: Cavetown Orphans and Water Usage

Kev and the two lieutenants had been following the cavern for a few miles. The cavern may have been natural but had been reinforced over time. The supports were ramshackle at best but seemed to be doing the job. They did seem to be a little dustier than a cavern should be; there was no visible water either, which was weird considering that the cavern was obviously caused by erosion.

The lieutenants took advantage of the time to square away some details, figuring that as long as they kept the chatter down to a minimum and in the subvocal range; they still maintained a good grip on their rifles. Kev kept a few paces ahead of them so as to ensure that he could hear better; every so often, he would go a bit further and then wait for the two to catch up; the movement allowed him to be sneak ahead of the two armor-clad women. Without his tattoos active, he practically faded into the shadows.

It was after one of these excursions that they came upon Kev listening for something. He motioned for them to be quiet. They slowed down and prepared for action. What they saw as they approached him were a series of lights just ahead of him. A pair of sentries guarded an open door. The sentries were well-armed but lacked decent armor; they were obviously just boys, maybe thirteen, wearing thick leather armor, jeans, and boots. They were talking loudly and ignoring the area around them.

Lieutenant Prowse did some quick motions and dropped into a prone position; she quickly had the boys in her sights. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Sawyer grabbed Kev and he quickly fell into position behind her. She approached the door. In a few moments, she was standing before the boys.

They continued to ignore her. She cleared her throat. They grabbed their weapons. Kev tensed but she motioned for him to heel. Kev took advantage of the situation to look over the boys; they were unwashed, thin, and their lips were chapped. He looked inside the door, and the area inside was a bit more subdued than he had expected.

The taller boy looked at her, then smiled at the other boy. “Larges. Heh.” The other boy smiled back. The first boy faced her. “Good thing that you stopped. Your kind isn't allowed inside.”

She relaxed her weapon a bit. “Then get me someone I can talk to. I bring trade.”

The boys shuffled a bit, then turned. After some intense whispering, the smaller boy ran off. “Mike'll bring back Scythe. He's our negotiator.”

“Fine.”

“I like your armor. I hope that's part of the trade.”

“I may be able to get you your own suit.”

“That would be nice.”

The smaller boy returned, an older boy in tow. Behind a dozen boys were following at a distance. They each had a rifle and various melee weapons. The older boy was in jeans and a vest, wiry with a scythe tattoo on his chest. Two blades lay flat on his forearms, ready to spring into position at a moment's notice. The two pulled up to Lieutenant Sawyer. “Nice blades. You must be Scythe.”

He ran his fingers through his copper hair, more to show off the blade on his right arm more than anything else. “You're larges. As such you're not allowed in the cavetown unless you've won your way in. We can do this the easy way or the hard way?”

She went to subvocal. “How many could you take out?”

There was a meaningful pause. “The first two and this new kid easy. Maybe another three or four before they started shooting at me.”

“Okay. Stay frosty.” She looked at Scythe and returned to normal mode. “What's the easy way?”

Scythe smiled, as did most of the boys. “Me and the boys here spar with the two of you. No weapons, just boxing. If we decide you're tough enough, we let you in.”

“Sound vaguely fun. Fine. The first sign of a weapon and my friend here brings out his sword.”

He inspected Kev. He smiled. “He doesn't look like he has a sword. This should be an easy match; we have an army.”

“We have a Kev. Kev, knock-outs only, and only use weapons if they do.”

She got out of his way as he stepped forward. “I understand, Lieutenant.”

She took another few steps. “This should be fun.”

The boys charged. Kev braced, then practically became nothing but a blur. He merely slapped the boys as quickly as he could; they flew backward but were unconscious when they hit the ground. He grabbed some attackers and pulled them in, slamming them against each other. The smile on Scythe's face quickly faded into a scowl. As the last boy fell, he flexed and his blades flew out. He charged Kev, arms ready to slice.

Kev glared at him but the glare disappeared as he became apparently bored. He merely hit the younger boy in his solar plexus. Scythe fell to the ground.

Between gasps, he was able to get out a few words. “Trade was mentioned?”

“Yep.” Kev faded into the background, allowing Lieutenant Sawyer to come forward. “I'm Lieutenant Melany Sawyer from Fort Solace. I'm empowered to trade on their behalf.” Mike and the other boy were taken aback. Lieutenant Sawyer smiled inside; Scythe tried to act cool but she had caught just the slightest hint of surprise. She went subvocal: “So, think General Martins will back my play?”

She could hear the smile in Lieutenant Prowse's voice. “Depends on what you get, in all honesty. I'm not sure they have much to trade.”

“Not the point, actually.”

“True. Fine; keep in mind that we always have spare camping supplies and our scavenge teams are always finding comics and toys.”

“Roger.” She switched to normal mode. “So, what do you have to trade?” She knew that they didn't have much but she may as well start somewhere.

He looked her over. “We can take what we want from you, so don't mess with us.”

She smirked. “Fine, but let's keep this civil. We're looking for information about the general area, and where to find some wizards. We'll accept sorcerers in a pinch.”

“That information is expensive.”

Kev tapped her on the shoulder. She leaned back. He whispered, “Ask if they have an empty pool.”

Intrigued, she stood straight up. “Do you have an empty pool? I think we may have something interesting for you.”

Scythe's eyebrow went up. “Yeah, for the boarders.”

Kev looked at Scythe. “We can trade water for the information.”

Scythe looked hungry for a trade. “Okay. We have information on a couple of bands of sorcerers. We could even hook you up with the Green Skulls.”

“I don't know what a “Green Skull” is, but I'll bet we could talk.” She felt Kev's presence behind her. “Show us where the pool is and let us talk to them and some of your scouts.”

“Fine. Follow me.” He motioned for them to follow. The two followed and she switched to subvocal. “We'll be back shortly. Give us fifteen minutes before asking about an update.”

“Roger.” A moment's concentration and a small countdown clock appeared at the bottom of her vision. “Clock is running.”

They went past several small buildings, apparently garden sheds that had been built right here. There were plenty of tents, but there was also power as evidenced by the number of lights in play. Kids played on various devices, some of which were plugged in. They followed Scythe to an empty pool. It was deep but had been smoothed; a crowd of kids with skateboards was using it as a miniature skate park. Scythe cleared everyone out. “Here you go.”

Kev looked up, measuring the ceiling height. “Thanks.” He calculated the volume of the pool and turned to Scythe. “This could get messy but it will take about ten minutes.”

Lieutenant Sawyer glared at the boy. “If you could go grab the information requested, please?” He walked off, miffed.

Kev reached behind his back. She could see the outline of a wave. As he touched the tattoo, his eyes flashed a greenish-blue and they appeared to become pure fluid for a moment. A cloud formed over the pool and rose just ten feet. It started raining; the kids started whooping and hollering, clothes were shed, and it quickly became an impromptu swimming party.

She looked at Kev. He straightened up. “One of the first tattoos I asked for was for the ability to control water. It is good for waves.” He shrugged as she smiled.

Scythe returned with a couple of other kids in tow. Two were in camouflage from head to toe and the other was a girl with long green hair. “Stance and Lawn are two of our best scouts; they should have the information you need about the local area. She's Glorious; she's a sorceress.” The boys saluted as she curtsied. She returned the salute; the boys stood a little taller. Glorious smiled at Kev; he was flustered.

“One last thing, Scythe: Could you get me a leader? We need to discuss something big.” She took a step closer to him and lowered her voice. “I'm curious about an alliance.”

He smiled. “I figured you would try that. Based on this, however, it could happen.” He walked off.

“Kev, do you mind interviewing Glorious? We need to know what she and the others are capable of.” Kev's nodded as Glorious stepped in his direction. She looked at the two boys. “Just a sec, guys.” The two went to attention. She switched to subvocal. “Jules, you there?”

“Yessir.”

“We should be good. Just hang there for a little and we should be coming out.”

“Roger.”

“This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

* * * * *

Rodriguez looked up at the building in front of them. The Rochester-Fallon had been a major hotel just a few years ago, the destination of the richest tourists. The hotel offered its guests a wide range of amenities, ranging from gyms on every floor to access to bodyguards for local events; those bodyguards would be most appreciated during August's Biker Rally. The rally had changed from just being a biker's get-together almost 65 years ago when motorcycles stopped being the defining vehicle of rebels and were replaced by the hoverbike, but the rally was still the meeting point of rebels, revelers, and those just seeking an escape from normal day-to-day life.

Now, the hotel was a skeleton of its former glory, abandoned by humans as demons had decided that they would take it over. The hotel made an ideal beachhead for them as it not only provided a great view of Fort Solace but also a location that was easily fortified. Better yet, each floor had its own power generator and there were solar cells throughout that helped power the building. The building was also within the blue zone; this meant that the demons had access to raw mana. The combination of access to magic and technology made it an irresistible target.

As Rodriguez looked at the tower before him, it was hard to miss the demons flying around it. He watched a few soar around the lower floors in large, lazy circles around the building. They all ended up near the roof, which had been established as an eyrie a few weeks after the cataclysm. When the portals to other worlds let in the demons, they had gone straight to the higher skyscrapers and the lower depths: Those below could prey at their leisure upon the runaways, prostitutes, and criminals, while those above could ensure that no one could come to rescue anyone.

Those who could run elsewhere did while those who couldn't or wouldn't hunkered down. All fled from the skyscrapers and other tall buildings, and eventually the city was cleared of all human life, either by choice or otherwise. Now only demons lived in the cities, with no sign of even the rats or pigeons.

He scanned down the rest of the building. He was expecting a hive of activity, but only one floor beyond the eyrie showed any signs of activity. The fiftieth floor was awash in signs of power use, from lights to security to maintenance protocols, but no other floor showed any signs of civilized life.

This caused a chill to go down the spine of Rodriguez. The use of electronics demonstrated an intelligence that he was not used to associating with demons; while the demons that he had encountered so far may have shown a certain taste for causing as much terror as possible, they had not shown much in the way of actual intelligence. The terror they had caused just helped make their hunting and feeding easier; it was hard to see it as part of an ongoing strategy. That cunning was noted by a lot of the scavenger squads, but none had noted any real intelligence.

This meant that either they were hiding their intelligence or that there was an intelligence guiding the demon invasion. Neither made him particularly happy. Obviously, he would need to talk to Walker about the mythology of demon intelligence. He was pretty sure he wouldn't like what he would learn.

However, that did make for an easy target. He and the squad with him need to reconnoiter the area and make notes for Lieutenant Sawyer later. He put down the binocs and turned to face his squad. He signaled to move out and started walking towards the skyscraper in front of him. The three men followed him.

[The last chapter can be found here.]