Beware the Black Battlenaut (2 page)

*****

Freak was halfway across the dry plain when she smelled smoke. She recognized it immediately as the smoke from melting plastic and metal, the smell of a burning Battlenaut. In a panic, she checked the instruments...but her Battlenaut wasn't on fire.

As far as Freak could tell, the burning-Battlenaut smell was coming from the same place as the smells of baking bread and roses that had filled the cockpit earlier...in other words, from thin air.

The burning smell wasn't pleasant like the others had been, though. It turned over a rock and sent things scurrying in her mind.

For example, she thought of the day when Gwen Tuileries had died because of her.

Right after the missile had hit, Gwen's Battlenaut had had that same burning smell. The only difference was, Freak remembered the added smell of frying meat when Gwen had cooked inside the cockpit.

All through Freak's first tour of duty, Gwen had been her guardian angel. She had always been ready to haul Freak's rookie ass out of the fire, even if it meant disobeying orders or bunging up her own Battlenaut. Or losing her life.

One night on Gallop, when their unit was pounding a Rightful garrison, Freak's Battlenaut had been crippled by a land mine. Just as enemy artillery had pumped out a missile to finish her off, Gwen's Battlenaut had leaped in to take the hit and save Freak's life.

Maybe Freak wouldn't have felt so bad about it except for one thing: she'd been working for the other side all along. Even as she'd betrayed the Commonwealth, she'd always planned to save Gwen...and hadn't counted on her own allies being willing to kill her in the bargain.

Freak had worked for the Commonwealth ever since.

As she followed Grist forward, the stench of melting Battlenaut and burning flesh in the cockpit intensified. Finally, it got to the point where it made her gag.

It was then that it occurred to Freak that maybe she'd come across a sign of the Black Battlenaut...and maybe, she had more of a personal interest in the Black Battlenaut than she'd expected.

After all, it couldn't be a coincidence that just as she was searching for the Black Battlenaut, the smell of her dead, betrayed friend rose up to greet her.

Could it?

*****

Grist brushed a blob of pink foam from the controls of the spellcaster and programmed it to grant his Battlenaut added speed and virility. He would need every edge the magic beans could give him when he took on the destructive might of the Black Battlenaut.

Pink foam from the cockpit ceiling splattered over his visor, and he wiped it clean. He was glad the foam wasn't quite smart enough to hurt him, but it was definitely more aggressive than the green swirly-gas that had filled the cockpit a moment ago.

When the hot go-juice spurted into his arm again, everything wavered and turned red...then straightened out and became a more soothing pale blue. The ring of circadian lights flickered around the front viewport, only they weren't
lights
anymore but
darks
.

His co-pilot, Broom Thornapple, who lived in Grist's armpit, nudged him and whistled. "Wow," said Broom. "Nice welcoming committee."

Grist looked in the direction where Broom was poking. Through the viewport, he saw a line of Battlenauts lit up by the beam of his searchlight.

The six Battlenauts stood across the mouth of a pass in the foothills, shoulder to shoulder, blocking the way. Each of them was painted red and festooned with bones and skins.

"Best hope your magic hoops have the power to fry those demons," said Broom. "You know what they say about the Black Battlenaut's minions."

"Monsters. Abominations." Grist licked his lips and swallowed hard.

Just then, the line of Battlenauts began to move. Grist lurched to a stop and brought all magic wands and wish-guns to bear on the line.

All at once, the six Battlenauts raised their right knees, then dropped them. Next, in unison, they kicked their right legs in the air, swinging them to chest level.

And dropped them.

They repeated the moves. This time, they hopped a little as they lifted their knees and kicked their legs.

The ground shook whenever they touched it. Wild music skirled over the comm, its punchy rhythm matching the movements of the Battlenaut chorus line.

*****

Freak swore she could feel the hot breath of the Flesh Battlenaut gusting against her own Battlenaut's back.

She quick-checked her visor display and saw the horrible thing still gaining on her. She was running hard, maxing the specs, and she was still going to lose the race.

Just moments ago, she and Grist had been chasing the monstrous Black Battlenaut. Now, she was the prey of something equally monstrous.

"Freak? Come in, Freak." The voice on the comm sounded like Raw's, but Freak wasn't fooled. She recognized the disguised voice of the thing that was hunting her.

All she saw on the video feed from her rear-facing cameras was Raw's Battlenaut racing after her...but she knew that, too, was an illusion. The thing that was back there, reaching for her, could not be caught on video, though the naked eye could see its true form.

Her
naked eye had seen it, and she would never
forget
it.

The thing had started out as a single Battlenaut that had stepped into her path. Freak had jammed her Battlenaut to a stop while Grist had continued running onward without her.

The strange Battlenaut had stood motionless for a moment, its gold armor glinting in the beams of Freak's forward running lights. Then, it had raised one arm from its side. It had turned its hand over and opened it, revealing something pink and wet in its golden palm.

Zooming her optics to maximum mag, Freak had gotten a good look at what was in that hand. Just before the mystery Battlenaut had opened its mouth and dumped in what it was holding, Freak had recognized it.

The mangled, naked body of a human being.

As Freak watched, the Battlenaut had chewed up the human remains. It had chewed them with its mouth open, the lower jaw swinging wide to give her a good look at the gruesome mess.

After a long moment, the gold Battlenaut had finished chewing. It had opened its mouth wide once more, showing that the mashed remains were gone, and then its mouth had closed.

Suddenly, streams of pink flesh had boiled up from the seams and joints and vents in the gold Battlenaut's armor. Rolling and twisting and meshing, the flesh had stretched over the metal like a suit of skin, one throbbing layer weaving over another.

It was then that Freak had turned around and started running.

*****

As the squad of Rightful Battlenauts opened fire on Freak, Raw leaped into action. It was either that or let them pound Freak into bits, since she wasn't fighting back.

Based on her recent behavior, Raw thought the odds were good that she didn't even know the enemy was there.

Lasers blazing, Raw charged the nearest rebel and did some damage to its guns. As slugs fired by another Rightful blasted his armor, Raw brought everything he had to bear on the first Battlenaut's midsection...lasers, sonics, missiles. The instant he let it all fly, he swung his Battlenaut hard about and bounded after the other rebel.

As Raw scorched the second rebel Battlenaut with laser fire, he checked his visor display to make sure Freak was okay, which she was: still running, barely staying ahead of the third Rightful Battlenaut. The Rightful was lighting her up with laser fire, but Freak was shrugging it off.

Unlike Raw's Battlenaut, which took a hard shot to the chest from one of his opponent's missiles. Raw's Battlenaut shook and teetered from the explosive impact and started to fall over backward.

Quickly, Raw spun the Battlenaut's upper body around and fired slugs at the ground. The recoil kept the Battlenaut on its feet and ready to continue the fight.

Raw just wished he could deal with the killer itch on the bottom of his foot so easily.

*****

Grist marched in the Battlenaut Day parade, waving at the throngs of Battlenauts of all shapes and sizes cheering from the stands. The whole time, he searched his surroundings for the Black Battlenaut, who had run off in this direction after Grist's last sighting.

The six dancing Battlenauts at the mouth of the pass, it had turned out, had all been parts of the Black Battlenaut. Right after their big dance number, they had crashed together, cranking and twisting and snapping into one giant Battlenaut with black armor and weapons galore. Then, instead of attacking, the Black Battlenaut had raced off, leaving Grist to try in vain to keep up.

"He's out there somewhere," said High Five, who looked like an oil spill with a mouthful of yellow tongues. His voice sounded like continuous belching. He floated in midair and was Grist's new best friend. "I can feel it, buddy-Joe."

High Five was never wrong, except about women. "I hear ya," said Grist, carefully scanning the crowd. He thought he saw the top of the Black Battlenaut's head peaking out from behind the stands, but the image faded when the hypo cuff poured more go-juice into his arm.

A droning electronic anthem played from speakers along the parade route, and all the spectators hummed along with it. Vendors sold candy-coated humans stuck on sticks, which Battlenaut children licked and crunched.

"You seen one Battlenaut Day, you've seen 'em all, right?" said High Five.

Grist laughed. "You can say that again."

A second later, Grist noticed in an absent-minded way that the cockpit was full of fizzy water, and High Five had been replaced by a word, "GOOD," in bold black letters a foot high.

"What do you say, Word?" Grist slapped in annoyance at his hypo cuff, which had just shot him with more hot go-juice.

Word reshaped itself from "GOOD" to "LOOK," pointing at one of the video screens with the tail of the "K."

Without thinking, Grist looked at the screen Word had indicated. The words "BLACK BATTLENAUT" filled the screen from top to bottom and edge to edge, rapidly flashing bright and dim.

Grist tried for a better view through the forward viewport, and he got it. Just like on the screen, the words "BLACK BATTLENAUT" floated up ahead, blinking on and off.

Grist's heart beat faster. "Is that him?" He pointed at the words "BLACK BATTLENAUT" through the viewport.

Word swirled around and reformed itself from "LOOK" to "CRAY."

And it was at that moment that the comm kicked on again.

The anthem "Tried and True" blared from the speaker. A few bars in, a human voice spoke up over the music. A man's voice.

A familiar voice.

"Hi there, Killer. Time to settle the score."

"
Cray?
" said Grist.

*****

"Hello, Sharon," said the woman's voice over Freak's comm. "Been a while."

Freak kept driving her Battlenaut hard and didn't answer.
That's Gwen Tuileries. Gwen Tuileries is dead.

The smell of burning Battlenaut and human flesh was so strong in the cockpit, Freak gagged. The hypo cuff was hitting her with go-juice what seemed like every ten seconds. Her head was spinning, her stomach lurching.

And her dead best friend was calling on the comm.

"You're headed straight for me," Gwen said over the comm. "Just a little further, Sharon."

Hearing that, Freak slammed on the brakes. A second later, as her Battlenaut stumbled to a halt, she remembered the Flesh Battlenaut that had been chasing her.

Freak whipped around, expecting the Flesh Battlenaut to pounce on her...but the pounce didn't happen. In fact, she could see no trace of the Flesh Battlenaut in her searchlights.

She did, however, see a towering black figure.

Gwen laughed lightly over the comm. "Oops. I misspoke. Actually, I'm
right here
, Sharon."

*****

Raw had his hands full keeping the attacking Rightfuls at bay, when suddenly his Battlenaut was hit from behind by laser fire.

A glance at his visor display revealed a familiar transponder signal back there, and the feed from the rearward camera confirmed it. Even as Raw fought the rebel Battlenauts who were chasing Freak, Freak had turned around and was shooting at Raw.

So now it was three against one. Not that he was the kind of guy who sweated the odds.

First things first. Set your priorities.

As lasers and slugs hammered his Battlenaut, Raw stormed the closest Rightful. In spite of the heavy fire, Raw drove his Battlenaut up close and shoved the barrel of a laser cannon into a breach in the enemy's armor.

After pumping in a few blasts, Raw darted away. The rebel exploded, throwing out a shock wave that sent his partner reeling.

Even as Raw struggled to keep his Battlenaut on its feet, he growled with delight.
One down, two to go.

That was before Grist charged up and opened fire on him, too.

*****

"Kill me once, shame on you," Cray said over the comm in Grist's cockpit. "Kill me twice...well, you can't kill the
Black
Battlenaut
, can you?"

Grist tried to block out the voice as he fought to keep up with the Black Battlenaut. The behemoth had grown to colossal size; its walking strides were so vast, Grist had to run at top speed just to stay in weapons range.

He fired his lasers again and watched them skim harmlessly off the Black Battlenaut's ebon armor. The hypo cuff squeezed tight, flooding his arm with blazing go-juice.

That was when the Black Battlenaut stopped and turned. Each footfall made the earth tremble.

Grist cut loose with his Battlenaut's lasers and sonics, but he might as well have been firing feathers. The Black Battlenaut stood unfazed and stared down at him.

"Let me explain," said Cray.

At first, Grist didn't realize Cray's voice wasn't coming from the comm anymore. It took a minute for the truth to sink in.

"We should've done this a long time ago," said Cray, who now was leaning against the cockpit wall, aiming a lopsided grin at the man who had shot him to death.