Issue #67 – Emet
Part 5
Oversized fists came down on the hood of a compact car with so much force that battery housing rated to withstand a two hundred mile an hour crash cracked. The exposure to air set the chemicals inside ablaze, sending white smoke billowing up to wreath the golem that perpetrated its destruction.
The construct paid it no heed, following its edict of destruction by grabbing the twisted frame of the car and hurling it into the side of a passenger bus. It was surrounded by crushed and disabled cars, many burning. Most people had cleared the street the moment the thing totaled the first car, but there were injured who hadn’t been able to escape in time and gawkers trying to get video of the attack from a safe distance.
Codex took her rebreather off her utility belt as she charged into the low lying white cloud, happy she’d thought of that precaution when giving everyone their standard field kits. Unfortunately, she knew that there was little to no chance that anyone else around might have thought of it.
Her usual, non-lethal methods weren’t going to do much here, but lethal ones would, at best just slow it down. That left abnormal methods. She took out her own dedicated handheld containing the digitized Books of Reason and Passions and scrolled down at random.
In the past, the Books had demonstrated the ability to add content spontaneously based on the needs of the user, but were fickle and inconsistent about it. Years of scientific inquiry had all led to her throwing up her hands and declaring it to be magic.
But if magic worked, then she wasn’t going to reject it simply because she lacked the tools to properly study it. There were observable causes and effects even if the mechanisms weren’t visible—which wasn’t all that different from physics.
The effect at the moment was that the Book of Reasons stopped on a page she knew and had used before: a spell called ‘To Reveal Mystical Properties And True Natures’ it then ticked down a few more scroll lines to a new section on the spell: ‘,Expedited Casting Of’.
“Alright.” she said aloud, the rebreather making her voice hollow and raspy. Both she and Occult had fallen into the peculiar habit of speaking aloud to the Books when they weren’t thinking, of late. “I’m trusting you on this.”
From her utility belt, she took a wooden coin with grooves carved into both sides so deep that it almost snapped apart to the touch, which bore magic symbols carefully drawn all across its surface: an instant rune. Much of magic relied on drawing magical circles with appropriate symbols on them and the runes could create those in the air instantly in the size and shape one needed. Occult had discovered the trick in an ancient books whose other ‘secrets’ turned out not to be real or worth pursuing.
Consulting the Book with her other hand, she snapped the coin, causing a circle of yellow, whirling script to form in the air in front of her that was two feet across.
Codex moved quickly, producing a small vial of clear liquid from her belt and flicking a few drops of it into the circle. They froze in air and flattened out until they formed a clear disc hovering in the center of the floating circle. Next came a small piece of rock, which crumbled to powder when thrown against the disc and tinted it a rosy color.
“That which is not of any world, but runs through them all,” she recited from the screen, “And that has been given form by the cunning hand, be revealed to the eyes. Bestow your secrets and from the whole, make known the elements.”
The disc warped and changed shape, going form a flat plane to the fisheye lens, to a simple magnifier before settling into a sense assaulting image that bypassed the eye and went right to the brain.
Codex saw the mounds of clay formed into the vague shapes of men, felt the outpouring of unfiltered willpower in the form of utter faith entering into the mounds and forcing them into the now familiar golem shapes and filling them with unmatched strength and resilience. As long as the faith never wavered, the golems would not stop even to the point of destruction.
And finally, she came to understand the Secret. Faith powered a golem, but they were driven by Words. Important words. Words of power and truth. One such word what that made them live at all: Truth.
No sooner did it come to her than someone cuffed her a savage blow to the side of the head. The city street suddenly returned as Codex broke eye contact with the revealing spell and staggered hard into the side of a demolished car.
“I’ve learned all I can from leeching the internet.” a voice she didn’t recognize declared. “But you have vaults and vaults of knowledge and skills. Combine to the power of a Warped Star.”
Codex turned in time to dodge a palm-heel strike to her temple, but that proved to be only a feint as Warpstar used her dodge to grab and draw out one of her tonfa. She had no doubt who he was, as the members of the team who had fought him were thorough in their descriptions.
“Amazing.” Warpstar drawled and pressed his attack. “Your essence is knowledge. I know combat styles, sciences—a million small facts.” His expression suddenly darkened. “Except for memories. The Book of Passions: where is it!?”
Codex drew her second and countered him while at the same time side stepping so that she no longer had her back to the car. “So you’re Warpstar? What does it matter to you where the Book is? The last time you tried to use it, it punished you.”
“Months in a frozen wasteland with nothing but penguins and leopard seals for company.” Warpstar confirmed, hammering her defenses with strong attacks from all directions. He was trying to find a weakness exactly the way she would have.
The flurry of attacks forced Codex to take several steps back. “But this time will be different.”
Suddenly halting her retreat, Codex stepped into Warpstar’s next blow and trapped his arm with her own. She rocked her weight back on her rearmost foot for a throw, but Warpstar now had the same akiddo expertise and moved with it, reversing the throw and hurling her down on her chest instead.
Codex, however, had used the momentum of the fall to strip the tonfa from his hand, and as she rolled to her feet, she collapsed the handles on them and joined them together at the ends. With a ratcheting sound, the two weapons became a single bo staff, which she thrust into Warpstar’s midsection.
“The difference is going to be that this time, the ROCIC is going to remove those stones from you and throw you in prison.” Codex said, flourishing the staff.
Warpstar dropped into a low stance, knees bent far and arms akimbo. “That isn’t going to happen because you can’t win.” When Codex thrust for him, he dove to the side and rolled, coming up in another loose-limbed stance. “You know bojutsu and Tai Xiang Pek War. You even know Krav Magra.”
He leapt at her, suddenly straightened up and threw two spinning kicks at her in rapid succession that she deflected with her staff. “But I know one style you don’t: Lekyedt haveyb shely.”
“Hebrew?” Codex asked. She was about to question why the Native American villain was speaking Hebrew when she felt and heard the approach of the golem. Without looking, she ducked its first attempt to grab her, then performed her own combat roll to get out from between Warpstar and the golem.
But the golem, under direct orders, was faster than its bulk suggested, and before she could right herself, a pair of gigantic hands caught her up, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off the ground. She tried to kick, but her heels weren’t hard enough to break the unyielding clay.
With a smirk on his face, Warpstar came to stand in front of her, out of range of a kick to the face. “Now: tell me where the Book is. Once I have it, I’ll leave your city and take my golems with me.”
His smirk faded when Codex actually laughed at him. “The golems were just a distraction so you could go about hunting for the Book. My god, it’s just like a murder mystery on television: the biggest mistake you made was in creating a cover-up in the first place.”
Warpstar narrowed his eyes at her. “What are you talking about?”
Codex laughed at him again. “You don’t even understand what you’ve done to yourself: as far as we were concerned, the Book of Passions got rid of you for good. You were only on our radar as a small chance of us meeting up with you again—we weren’t on the lookout for you.
“But when you sent this golem army, we went on high alert. In fact, your ‘distraction’ was so overwhelming that we’ve called in all the markers to deal with it.” She suddenly got deadly serious. “There are more defenders in this city or in route right now than you ever would have run into on any other given day.”
She smiled into her rebreather. “And then you let me rope you into a speech long enough to make a phone call.”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than one of the golem’s arms exploded into a cloud of flying dust and pottery shards. A second later, the other did as well, freeing Codex.
Warpstar stepped backward, eyes widening. “What…”
A red and yellow blur appeared before him, resolving into a young woman in a sleek bodysuit and cowl with yellow tinted goggles. She dropped her shoulder as she close on him, slamming it home with enough force to knock him backward and over the hood of a car.
Callie Kreiger, AKA: Vamanos, looked at her result with honest shock at how much of a punch she could pack, then glanced back at Codex. “Um, my manager says that this should count as an audition.”
Codex kicked her staff up into her hands. “You’re certainly on the fast track now.” Then into her comm, she said, “If anyone didn’t hear that: we’ve found out who’s behind this: it’s Warpstar. No idea how he’s doing it, but he’s here and the entire attack is a feint to get at the Book of Passions.”
“He’s just after a book?” asked an incredulous voice from one of the auxiliary channels.
“Whitecoat.” Codex started toward the spot where Warpstar disappeared behind the car. “It’s a magical world thing. Probably something new for you guys in New York. Do you have an ETA?” She turned the corner to find Warpstar missing.
“It’s amazing how much friendlier the train is when you’re part of a group of fully costumed prelates.” said Whitecoat, unaware of her predicament. “We’re in the city, coming up on the station in five.”
Codex looked around for a clue as to where her quarry had gone. Vamanos came around the other side, looking for the same thing. They shared a concerned look. “Good. Hey ‘coat? Urban can track, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I think we just lost Warpstar.”
***
The Waterview neighborhood sported some of the highest dollar property in the city with houses located on the river. A convenient seawall blocked the sights and sounds of the docks and bridges away from the delicate senses of the wealthy denizens who called the place home. It did nothing, however, for the golems.
A dozen had come ashore at the first private boat ramp and were dispersing to lay waste to any standing structure within reach.
Shuck bounded across a marble patio to collide with a golem in the midst of demolishing one corner of an opulent house, bringing the creature down and crushing its chest with his huge paws. From his back, Damsel sent out her mechanical tendrils to wrap another and throw it into the pool.
They were too late though, as the roof of the mansion gave out with a groan and collapsed all along the rear side.
“Damn it, they’re really good at this ‘engine of destruction’ thing.” she groused into the comms.
Ape Knight, astride Embarr, was on the street, making use of his lance to destroy any golems that tried to exit Waterview into the city proper. “That they are. But remember: at the moment we cannot destroy them utterly. Focus instead of hobbling them efficiently to minimize their movement.”
She sent her tentacles to smash out the kneecaps of another golem, then looked back to realize there wasn’t much to protect in that area anymore. “I know, but that still isn’t saying much: they put themselves back together too quickly.”
Spurring Embarr into a charge that overran a golem that was plodding out of a driveway, Ape Knight tsked. “We do what must be done not because it is easy, but because it is a duty that we have chosen to take up.”
Damsel sighed. “I know, Uncle Lucian. I was just hoping, you know, to prove I know what I’m doing with this, especially to Alloy.”
“Um…” alloy’s voice crackled over the comms. “You guys do know this is an open channel, right?”
The sound Damsel made in the comms made everyone flinch. “Oh my god, I just made things so much worse haven’t I?” She guided Shuck back as the golem she’d thrown into the pool hauled itself out.
“This is hardly the time or the place, Squire.” Ape Knight chided.
“Nah, it’s cool. We talk and stuff mid-battle all the time. Especially when it’s mindless stuff like knocking these things down.” Alloy himself was atop a rampart he’d formed atop the wall keeping the initial surge of golems from leaving the marina. Between Isp and Ops and a flail made from a small section of wall, he was keeping the golems there focused so they didn’t try to get out another way.
His flail crushed a nearby golem’s head and it collapsed to the ground amid a heap of its fellows, all of whom were slow to reform thanks to interference from the others also trying to reform in the same spot. “But really, don’t sweat it. Bad impressions were made, I’m not used to having fans who are also heroes, and believe me, having a hard time against a tough baddie isn’t proof that you’re bad at anything. I’ve gotten into spots where I needed a civilian to save my ass more than once, and we’ve got bad guys that keep managing to get away. Doesn’t mean we’re not fighting the good fight and saving lives, right?”
Beaming, Damsel sent a tentacle to slam the golem back into the pool, and this time, she sent another into the water to break open the drain. Without the added buoyancy and no other golem to pull it out, her hope was that it would be trapped in there. But for good measure, she pulled a round, ceramic disc from her belt, twisted a small key out of it, and tossed it in. A small explosion threw up a spray of water that was suddenly murky with dissolved clay debris: debris that was then sucked down the drain.
“Right. Thanks, Alloy.”
He laughed awkwardly. “No problem, kid… I mean Damsel.”
“Now that deserves a round of applause.” said a cheeky voice on the comms. “The rousing mentor speech somehow seems a lot better than making you confess to your parents like I did.”
“Whitecoat?” Alloy almost tripped off his homebrew rampart. “Y-you heard that, sir?”
The Whitecoat laughed. “Like you said: open comms. Everyone heard it: Owl, Improv, Stunner, Urban… Oh, and I think the Superhuman Intervention Unit guys might be tapped into too.” He laughed again at the audible shudder coming over the comm link. “By hey, I’ll do you a mitzvah and also let them hear me say this: Good job, kid. You handled the powered fan thing better than I did with you.”
Alloy swelled with pride, channeling it into a powerful strike that toppled a golem backward into one of its comrades. Then he froze. “Mitzvah?”
“There’s a non-zero chance I’m using it wrong, but it’s like a good deed. I must have picked it up from my… um, a friend.”
“No, I know. Joshua from Witch Seed talks like that to… It’s Hebrew right?” Alloy said absently.
“The combat banter is getting kind of abstract, but, yeah.” said Whitecoat.
“No, I’m going somewhere with this. I’m in a mythology class and it just so happens that today we started our unit on Jewish Mythology. Today was Lilith, but I remember the little overview box on the first page: golems are from there.”
“Yeah, I remember that.” Chaos chimed in. “Rabbi Loew’s Golem, right?”
“More than just that, I think.” said Alloy. “But really, think about it: we’re so used to all this legendary crap we run into being different from what we expect: elves are black-eyed teeth monsters, demons are astral squid, gremlins give life to the lifeless—but what if these golems are exactly what they say on the tin: honest to god mythological golems?”
“Okay,” said Darkness, joining the conversation, “But where does that get us?”
Alloy took out his palmtop, abandoning the fight to Isp and Osp. “If I’m right, I think my text book might be able to tell us how to beat these things. Only problem is, it’s on my tablet back at the dorm room. So the fate of the city rests on my roommate not having gone to dinner yet.”
About Vaal
Landon Porter is the author of
The Descendants and
Rune Breaker. Follow him on Twitter
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