XI. Anima De Profundi
He's Future They Denied Themselves. Whether to Embrace or Slaughter is the Question of the Hour...
They hadn’t words for such a sight. Valentina, Brennus, Marcus, and Sabina all stood at the cave’s mouth, beneath the Great Rock of Níyol, beholding for the first time in their lives, the future meant for them. The white wolf stepped forward, past her gray lover, her muscle-bound brother-in-arms, and his red bride, to stand before this incredible specimen of a hound. In nothing but her ragged denim, white tank top, and the same sandals that rode shotgun to the slaughter that split her mind all those terrible months ago. She set one white paw into the future, and approached the incredible figure.
By God, it was real. There was their Überwolf, their hound of tomorrow. Backed by the sun, the halo effect almost too good to be true. He was a gray wolf, standing tall at around seven feet, with long dark hair catching the late afternoon rays. His wardrobe was rather inconspicuous; flared jeans and an darkly colored, unbuttoned blouse. The sandals he wore were black, with straps crisscrossing the tops of his paws. What marked him as such a peculiar specimen were the obvious augmentations. Whatever powered him was all on display in his chest; a spectacular collage of colored strips, a full spectrum in constant, shuffling motion. One of his eyes wasn’t exposed so much as it was simply black. The same black-and-pinprick-white that terrorized the Hunters in their maladjusted days.
He didn’t seem particularly impressed with the welcoming committee and wasn’t shy in saying so. “Who in the deviled irons are you?” he asked impertinently, his voice faintly British. “Vacationers?”
“The name’s Valentina.” the downright dwarfed white wolf replied. “This is Brennus behind me, and our red friends are Marcus and Sabina.”
“Tertius,” the gladiator offered in kind. “Now let me pass. I’ve got some readings to follow up on down that cave—”
“DON’T!” barked Valentina. “It’s a long, hair-brained story, but that machine down there is meant to kill YOU and your kind.”
Tertius cocked an eyebrow (his only naturally colored one). “And how would you know?”
“We been down there, we got our minds read by it and we don’t have the electric guts it wants to shut down.”
The lean mountain of hound shook his head. “Now this, I’ve got to see.” He took two steps forward before the rest of Val’s pack joined her, forming a wolven blockade.
“I appreciate the concern,” he snarled, voice deepening and flanging with electric ire. “But I am quite capable of handling myself.”
“You don’t understand,” Marcus piped up, “we mean YOU. As in you, handcrafted piece of electric bullshit. It wants to terminate your ass and stop ya running around without Momma Ace’s leash.”
A venomous growl grew deep in Tertius’ throat. “Do I have to fight you all then, or can we at least take turns?”
Marcus was the first to lunge and the first to catch the mighty warrior’s backhand. The muscular red wolf slammed into the cave mouth wall with a crack. Sabina leapt towards her lover, desperate to tend to him, leaving only Valentina and Brennus. The gray martial artist came in with a sweeping leg kick, only to be met with what were almost certainly steel legs. He didn’t feel pain upon the clash of their shins, but only when he was yanked by the hand and thrown aside like Marcus.
Val stood alone, eyes mad as hell, and yet utterly terrified by the beast before her. Instinct said shoot his lights out, but the knowledge to be gained was worth the whole world to her. She picked up the heaviest stone she could manage with one hand and flung it at gray gladiator’s body. He recoiled briefly before flinging the rock back, sending Valentina flying into the cave. After that, it was an all-bets-off blowout. The men rebounded and grabbed the beast by both his legs, pulling furiously in a bid to topple him, and topple Tertius did. Sabina leapt on his back, beating her fists furiously upon it. The image bordered on pantomime as Valentina came off the dusty cave floor, just in time to see, in one terrifying display, all three launched off by Tertius with two leg kicks and simple leap. Their positions changed, Marcus wrapping his leather-cuffed arms around the gray gladiator’s head, Brennus dealing and trading blows with Tertius’ arms as they flew. Even Sabina tried to take the boys’ place in wrestling the warrior’s legs to the ground. Yet again, the trio were flung from their adversary’s back and front.
As valiant their efforts were, every move was matched in timing, motion, and sheer strength by the incredible stranger. When all three were felled for the umpteenth time, he snapped his attention back to Valentina, the crazy bitch who brought this whole affair down on him. Tertius’ black eye grew as piercing as those guards, the images coming back to the tenacious white wolf in her maddened state. She felt the rubber of the Humvee’s pedal beneath her paw, the sounds of crushed bones ricocheting in her mind, the crowd’s demonic roar building and building until—
“ENOUGH!”
She grabbed a massive rock with both hands and threw it with the might of an ox. Had whatever servos withing him moved but a millisecond sooner, Tertius could have caught the stone his hands and not his face. All the same, there came a deafening snap, and rattling thud as the gray gladiator fell to the ground, a statue wrenched from its podium. All the world fell silent for the furious white wolf, as all her companions stared with shocked expressions. It wasn’t the manic display of strength, nor the command in her voice. It was those eyes, those damned jade eyes, mad with everything from power to fury to obsession. They were the eyes of a woman who found that white whale of hers, one of many, and would not let him go even if the harpoon’s rope wrapped her neck and drowned her on his next dive.
“Don’t...don’t kill him!” she barked hoarsely. “Get him...get him away. Get him...”
With a frightful, chattering gasp, she too fell into that ever-familiar black abyss, her eyes lingering on the felled gray warrior until their last shutter.
She came to in her own Humvee, sat in the passenger seat while Brennus did the driving. Marcus had taken over his Mach 1 Mustang, and helped Brennus hitch the car they had found at the base of the winding road. Their surprise guest was the owner of a well-preserved Lincoln from the 1970s, headlights sheathed, and her owner doubled over in the backseat.
They drove for a solid hour, clearing many a mile before stopping off at the mouth of a dried gulch. Clear and safe of the mysterious base’s influence, the quartet reconvened to discuss the stranger.
“I don’t know what the hell is up with that man,” Marcus began. “But he ain’t fit to be around. Not the way he comes up swinging.”
“I’ve never known such a brute,” Sabina added.
“If we can find some way of restraining him and getting him back online,” Valentina surmised. “We can at least learn everything we can. After that...then we figure out what to do about him.”
“You mean kill, right?” Marcus cut in.
“If necessary.” Val nodded. “But I’d like to keep something of him around so we can understand more about what these guys are. It’s one thing to have it on paper, it’s a whole different ballgame to have a real McCoy in your midst.”
Marcus saw the logic, but still shook his head. “Y’all work your programming magic on him. But the second he starts swinging, I start coming back on him like a ton of bricks.”
Sabina felt the muscular red wolf shivering in his rage, one she was quick to try and quell with that ever-effective touch of hers upon his bare chest. “Easy, Formosa, easy.”
Brennus and Valentina returned to the Lincoln hitched behind her Humvee.
“How’s our guest?” she quizzed.
“You’re a mean bitch at the mound,” Brennus teased. “Your curveball knocked him down cold, but he’s built tough all the same. Face’s barely scratched, but not nearly as worse for wear as it should be.”
“Anyway of getting him back up and running?”
Brennus pointed to his neck. “Dip-switch panel at the back of his neck.”
“Meaning it should act just like an android’s. A proper factory reset oughta make ‘im docile.”
“If he was a normal ‘droid, yeah.” Brennus hastened to add, resting a gray hand on her shoulder. “But no telling what happens when I level those switches.”
Valentina looked down at the ground first, kicking a rock with her sandaled white paw. “Well, help me get the heaviest chains we got. We’ll tie ‘em down in his car. You flip the switches, then we’ll see.”
They found some heavy links in the Humvee’s rear compartment, and carefully crossed them across the towering gray Bastard, and anchored them with the heaviest weights on hand. It was a miracle neither wolf crushed their feet getting them sorted, though Marcus’s strength came in handy for the final positioning of the blocks within the car. He also helped lift the Lincoln from the hitch and onto the ground.
Once ready, Val hopped into the town car’s passenger seat and Brennus into the back. Gently, he slid the fur-covered panel down and leveled all the dip-switches to their centered position. He sat back, Marcus and Sabina standing outside awaiting the signal if things should go south.
Slowly, the lights on his Technicolor chest came sliding and shuffling back to life, and his eyelids fluttered. Instead of the mechanical monster they dreaded, or the blank slate they could easily extract data from, the same faintly British accent from before, but in soft, muddled tones.
“Jeez,” he grunted, panting slowly. “Everyone alright? Every—Christ, what happened?” He not only saw the two wolves within his car, but the two outside, all scuffed and scratched. It wasn’t a gloating act of faux-concern, the worry in his chorused voice seemed genuine, if delirious.
“What do you remember?” Brennus asked. Much to his surprise, when he felt the gray’s forehead, it was warm. It was that of an organic hound with a fever.
“Not much else than a few fists thrown.” the tall gray gladiator sighed.
“That’s about all you need big guy,” Val teased. “Only thing that took ya down was a rock in the schnoz.”
“That figures,” he chuckled lightly. “What’s your name?”
“You don’t remember?” Val perked up, confused.
“Christ, I don’t know any of ya.” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. When he felt the dip-switch panel, he slid it shut. “Thanks for resetting me.” he smiled to Brennus. “Lord knows how many times a good fall fucked me up. Name’s Jovian—”
“Tertius,” Brennus corrected. “You said Tertius back at Níyol.”
The gray gladiator shot up from his chain-link binding and looked to the martial artist with dismay.
“Oh brother,” the cyborg groaned. “So that was it.”
Marcus, shocked by the ease with which he shed the binding wanted to leap into action, but was stayed by Val’s raised hand and Sabina’s presence.
“Where’d you get my ol’ chains from?” he asked, puzzled.
“Those aren’t yours.” Val replied, coolly. “To be honest, we wanted to grill you about a few things and that’s the best restraint we had.”
Again, the gray gladiator seemed at a loss, eyes innocently flitting about. “Well, I shouldn’t be too surprised. If I said my name was Tertius, either I was back in Haven or I took another crack on the skull.”
“Close enough,” Brennus interjected, checking Jovian’s vitals all the while. “What we, the four of us, were trying to warn you of was what was in Níyol. It’s remote deprogramming facility. It’s meant to attract former gladiators from Haven’s Colosseum, those from the art of aremort. I take it you are one such hound.”
“Yeah.” he replied, innocent as a newborn pup. “Mind if I hop up, quick?”
“So long as you don’t go anywhere.” Val nodded, producing her Mars automatic.
Jovian shook his head indignantly. “Well you ain’t as quick as the hounds in Haven, so I guess none ya are secret agents.”
He slowly crept into the driver’s seat and reached across to the glove-box. When he pulled the papers out, he dropped them right into Val’s lap.
“Take ‘em down, pass ‘em around.” Jovian sighed, kicking his broad flat paws up on the steering wheel. “You’re looking at one of the ring’s biggest fighters. And you’re sitting in the car that nailed all those points.”
The photographs were promotional stills of the very hound before them, with great golden cuffs and necklaces, all atop a proper Roman guard uniform. More perplexing were the other items. One was a fan message over electronic mail he replied to, and the other were x-rays. X-rays revealing just how much of him was still of flesh, fur, and blood. And it was a lot. In fact, many augmentations outwardly presented as showpieces rather than hardware. At least, that’s how the x-rays made it seem. That is, except for one.
Jovian’s black eye.
“Fun fact,” he casually added. “This little bead was taken from the very hound who claimed the real one. A guard animatronic malfunctioned, and I got a spear straight through my eye. I took the bastard down half-blind, but didn’t want to go running around with an eye-patch—”
“Why do you say all this?” Val interjected. “You speak so freely.”
“All men speak freely when there’s nothing left to lose.” Jovian smiled, getting the long black locks out of his eyes. He swung his sandaled paws down onto the brake. When Marcus stepped towards the car again, Jovian noticed.
“Not going anywhere, officer.” he replied, his big hands held high. “Just wanted to check and see if the brake was still as spongy as I left it.”
When he pressed his right foot down, it was. “Mind checking and seeing if there’s a fluid leak?” he asked Marcus, cranking down the window. “Take these as insurance.” He chucked the car keys at the buff red hound. Marcus caught them, face vacant.
“Wait, didn’t you take these Brennus?” Marcus added.
“I thought I did.” Brennus replied, digging through his pockets, only to find them empty. “I guess our new friend is also a master pickpocket.”
“Guilty as charged.” Jovian snickered. “Mostly comes in handy when doing magic tricks at shows. Mystifies the audience before the real action.”
Marcus was ready to pounce, but Sabina was just as quick to soothe.
“Well he did ask nicely at least.” she sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“You and two other pairs.” Jovian chuckled. “Your troupe are the most hounds I been able to keep around without sending anyone shrieking into the hills.”
“Well, you do stand out.” Brennus nodded, still studying the X-rays.
“What interest you all have in the old sport?” he quizzed.
“Former participants.” came the cold answer from Valentina. “Former unwilling participants.”
Jovian cocked his head, absolutely puzzled at the phrase. “Unwilling? They used to hold auditions ahead of each season? What’d they do that for?”
Part of Valentina was fit to burst, ready to light into this regime stooge and all he stood for to her and the others. And yet, that lone, true eye, was not only puzzled but concerned by the very prospect.
“Lemme tell you it from the whole beginning. Every step.”
While Marcus inspected the Lincoln’s brakes and Brennus surveyed the remaining artifacts of Jovian’s file, Valentina spun the entire tale from the beginning. From her horrible experiences soaking the ring in blood to her finding of fellow survivors to all the clues and conjecture they arrived at, the picture painted widened the gray gladiator’s eyes, both artificial and organic.
“I...I...I can’t believe it.” he gasped. “I just can’t believe it. I can’t...unless that’s why they closed up shop.”
“Is that why you escaped?” Val pressed.
“Escaped in a roundabout way,” Jovian remarked. “They did call us ‘Überwolfs’ after we got our augs, but I was never abducted. I signed right up for it. They said it was just a part of the show. Jazzed up our image and all that. I knew the changes were permanent, but I didn’t think the games would end. But then, one day, whole thing was canceled. No more shows, no promotions, nothing. Like it had never happened. And then they tried to—oh God, is that why they tried to draft me?”
It was like seeing the stars of a constellation he had grown up with finally connecting before his eyes, the innocent bliss of his kayfabe completely demolished. Valentina rested a hand on his shoulder.
“I know the games themselves mean a lot to you.” she began.
“But all of this is why I’d never fit in afterwards. Had no hope of reintegrating into the city looking like this, so I guess they just said ‘sure, why not, dump him in the military, let him get shelled to death!’ Get the same thing every time I roll through a town. Least andies get to look like they’re real. I do all of this for show, can’t get it changed back, and I get the pitchfork and torch treatment the rest of my life. Christ, it’s why they killed Jayne.”
“Whose Jayne?” Sabina asked in her soft Latin timbre.
“First gal I met when I came out here...and the last gal I’ll ever get close to. Picked her up off the roadside, nothing but cutoffs and a cropped-top covering that soft, white fur of hers. Was running away from some crazy biker asshole. Bisected his ass with my trunk and kept going. She was named Jayne, and she didn’t look at me cockeyed for having one black. And well, she made better love than any girl I ever dated in Haven, I’ll tell ya that much. But I picked one wrong town, bought one wrong motel room, and stayed one wrong night. Just finished making love, I got up, and...y’know how we used to kill ‘em in the ring?”
Val shuddered before giving a knowing nod.
“And how you do it because you know they can’t really feel?” he soldiered on. “They did that to Jayne. Cut her right up in the dark, not even thinking. I had gone down the hall to the bathroom, and when I heard her scream I came running back to find a pack of thugs just...hammering away. Laying right into her like she was all microchips and tungsten limbs. I killed every hound standing that night, buried her and kept going. Ain’t stopped since.”
Both the women, for all their strength and resilience, couldn’t help but shed a tear at the tale. And it wasn’t helped by the consoling from the back seat.
“That’s a lot to happen to ya before 20.” Brennus sighed, rubbing his shoulder.
Val’s eyes widened when she looked to the seven-foot-tall fighter next to her.
“Really?”
Jovian quietly nodded.
Of all the affected wolves she knew, their first willing participant was now the youngest hound she ever met, younger than herself at 25. She pulled the towering hound down and held him tight. Not even a half-hour ago, she was willing to gut this poor creature for every scrap of data he was worth. And one cruel, quiet part of her mind was prepared to still take on the task. After all, her own pistol wasn’t too far from her hands and his gut.
But in the end, she just couldn’t do it. Not now. Not after all that was said.
“How about you fall in with us?” she offered. “I want to learn everything I can from you about the Colosseum. Location, procedures, history, everything they told ya. Even the front-end story from the inside’s important. Especially how they did all this to you.”
“What if another freakout happens?” Jovian pressed. “What happens if one ya gets hurt when they try coming for me? I can button up all I like, but when people see this eye, they go crazy.”
Brennus, Sabina, and the now-upright Marcus, back with the keys, all looked at her.
“Let me talk it over with these three.” Valentina soothed. She hopped out of the car and joined the rest of the pack.
Everything discussed beforehand was re-litigated again. In his “Tertius” state, he was a walking death machine, only fixed with some blunt force trauma. And there was Valentina’s own natural cynicism in the wake of her experience. It could be all some elaborate ruse, a defense mechanism. But she still wanted that data. And even beyond that, there was the simple fact he was still mostly organic. His augmentations were concerning, but as with their past understanding, the conversion was permanent. And in that organic body was an organic heart that had opened itself wide before them.
Marcus, when he looked back to Jovian, the gray gladiator reduced to a sheepish smile, he saw some of himself in the passenger side window. A similarity of countenance, a mirror-glass reflection between the two.
“We must have the information,” Valentina argued. “And maybe through that, we can work to find a way to keep him as Jovian forever.”
“And let him run around being a persecution magnet for the rest of his life.” Brennus argued. “Kid passed over the adult threshold only two years ago, and him spending the rest of his life ‘roided to the nines, constantly getting badgered for the privilege.”
“But I don’t think that’s a death sentence.” his white-furred lover shot back. “And with any luck, getting the data we need outta him won’t be either. But if that kid’s on the level, and my gut says so, he should be riding with us. He can help us know what to look for. Maybe these guys all have normal personalities. Maybe he’s got a sixth sense for ‘em. And if not, he might be the only hound who can match them!”
Both lovers turned to Marcus, their true-blue brute. He looked down to his dear Sabina before crossing his red, leather-cuffed arms, and nodding his head.
“I say we have him on a trial-run.” Marcus replied. “If he can hold his own, keep that head on straight, and not cost us anything in the long-run, he deserves just as much a chance as any of us. Just as much a chance y’all gave me.”
With nods shared between all four hunters, they turned back towards idle Lincoln and her master. “Hop on out, kid.” Marcus hollered. “Let’s talk business.”
He rose to his incredible height, and walked over, puffs of desert dust kicked up with each step. He looked down to the quartet. “What’s the word?” he asked coolly.
“You’re in for now.” Val smiled. “So long as you can prove yourself. Keep that panel on tight, and hopefully we don’t hear much more from your ring persona anytime soon.”
Jovian nodded. “Thanks. Now can I get some names around here.”
“I’m Brennus,” began the gray martial artist. “Your nearest in class is Marcus.” The red-furred Hawaiian-styled barbarian equaled the gladiator’s handshake with equal force.
“I’m his wife, Sabina.” the red lady grinned.
“And I’m Valentina.” the white wolf nodded.
No sooner had the pact been forged, than it would be put to the test. Shots rang out, sparking off all four rides as the hunters split up, bolting for their cars. More of those pesky scavengers reared their heads. In rust-bucket pickups and ratty choppers they rode, taking shots at anyone and everyone. Marcus tossed the keys back to Jovian as the gladiator dove back behind the wheel, whipping a rifle from beneath the passenger seat.
The boxy Humvee, slick Space Age DeSoto and long black Mustang all made haste as the scavengers gained on them, trying to blast anything of value off of them, from silver hubcaps to steel plating. Jovian swung his town car around, and lined himself up behind the pack of thieves. Literally standing on the throttle, he swung his head out and shot rich green laser fire into everyone behind the wheel. Those swift reflexes managed to stay his hand every time one of the others fired. Sabina, in particular, was in ferocious form, wielding her husband’s sawed-off with well-timed blasts.
When a biker came roaring up to Marcus’s DeSoto, he reached over to Sabina before she could reload, only to take a shot of Jovian’s rifle to the head, body left spinning beneath the Adventurer’s flat wheels and Marcus’s flat-pawed driving. Even when the others got the memo, Jovian wasn’t shy about using his Lincoln as the weapon of choice, the low-riding sedan slamming its front into bike and truck alike. Those who didn’t fall to Val, Brennus or Marcus and Sabina’s fire and horsepower were chewed up and spat out by Jovian, whose prized Lincoln looked like a prize fighter after ten rounds of right hooks to the jaw. Even with the worst of the thugs were in their rear-views, no one slowed until they hit the town of Veldt. When they reconvened outside of town, and all the lovers embraced, Valentina brought Jovian into the fold. She pulled him right out of the driver’s seat and into the tightest grip she could muster.
“That’s one way to make yourself count.” she beamed.
“How many others are there?” he asked softly.
“Only the future holds those answers. And maybe you’re part of that future. Just not in the way they planned you for it.”
There was a sullenness to his organic eye’s gaze, but he plucked his mood back up.
“Guess we’ll have to find out together, huh?”
Valentina nodded. “We’ll get topped up on supplies here. And if anyone gives the big guy shit, tell ‘em they got me to deal with.”
Brennus, Marcus and Sabina all playfully saluted, for it was true, that in Jovian held much of their future. And it also held true that it wouldn’t be in the way anyone planned for...