Space twisted around me and I appeared in Owls lab. She was over on her computer that had like fifty monitors that were flipping through different pictures. Doctor Kathor was standing next to her watching. I walked over to them, weaving between the lab equipment and experiments. I could see the stones setting on the pedestal I had been collecting with Owl. It looked almost complete.
Doctor Kathor gave me a nod as I stepped up next to him behind Owl. Owl was working on some math on the monitor in front of her, the others were flipping through cameras of a city. I watched them a bit before I saw something familiar, “Is that Angle City?”
“Correct.” Owl replied.
“It took quite a lot of planning and I ended up asking Owl for help with it but we have a plan.” Doctor Kathor told me.
“For the thing you guys keep saying is a vampire?” Doctor Kathor gave me a nod. “So what's the plan then?”
“I am going to teleport everyone out of the city.” Owl answered.
I didn't know much about teleportation but that sounded hard. “How many people live in Angle City?”
“A little over three hundred thousand.” Doctor Kathor answered.
“Its going to burn a whole lot of my systems out when I do the teleportation. Its not meant for this, I am editing it so the margin of error is small and people don't get hurt.” Owl continued.
“What happens if it's not small enough?” I had to ask.
“We lose some arms and legs when I start mass teleporting people.” Owl answered.
“I used up quite a lot of favors to get this set up. Most of the mages on the continent are at evacuation sites waiting with medical care.”
I nodded at Doctor Kathor's words. I reached back and ran my hand across the cold metal of my coiling dragon staff. I was going to put it to work soon. I continued to watch the screens, they showed me alley ways and the like. “What do you have the screens doing?”
“Looking for lost people. Undocumented or homeless people. Angle City has quite a few. I will have them all before we teleport you to the city.” Owl answered.
“I feel sorry for the people sleeping. How's the government going to react to something like this?”
Owl shrugged from where she was doing math, “They won't be a problem. If Angle City gets destroyed its projects they can get behind. The second continent doesn't really fall under the power of governments though. Its mostly warlords.”
Doctor Kathor nodded, “the little warlords might kick up a fuss but that's something to be ignored. Quite a few people will throw donations to the rebuilding of Angle City, it's a cosmic certainty.”
I didn't know what a cosmic certainty was but i felt it was probably that thing screwing with fate or destiny or something. Owl did something and closed down the computer program she was using then pushed back away from the desk, the chair she was using rolled back and she stood up. “Follow me.”
She walked through the lab with us following her. She led us to a door and when we got close it split in the center and slid open. Inside was a circle platform. It was up off the ground and around the room there were a bunch of vehicles, all of them shaped like Owl. I could see the bike thing she drove around Swivel city in the corner. There were steps going up onto the top of the platform and some going down under the platform.
Looking through the steps I could see under the platform. Below it were rows and rows of computer equipment. Something was hanging from the ceiling, it was wide at the top where it was attached to the ceiling and the closer it got to the platform the smaller it got. It was built in layers.
Owls arm reached out and she pointed to the platform, “You are going to stand in the center of the platform. I will trigger the teleportation and you will appear in Angle City and everyone else is going to be teleported out.”
Doctor Kathor's arms fell from where he had them crossed at his chest. He looked at Owl in disbelief, “All of them?”
Owl let out a huff and shook her head, “ Of course not. It's gonna take about five minutes from the second Suneya teleports in.”
Owl walked over to me and from her cloak pulled out a little bud, “Put this in your ear. It's a mic and speaker combo. I will be able to hear you and tell you when the city is empty.”
I reached out and took it from her fingers. It was light and made of some kind of plastic. I set it in my ear and it instantly warmed to my skin temperature. “What happens if it falls out?”
“It won't." Owl answered with surety.
I turned to the platform and started walking up the steps. I could feel the situation set on my shoulders. I could tell this was going to be world changing. I didn't know enough about the world to know how world changing it was going to be though. The way Owl and Doctor Kathor were acting told me a lot. Doctor Kathor setting up the medical care areas was telling. That Owl was willing to burn through equipment told me she believed I could put the thing down for good.
I stepped into the center of the platform and turned around to the two of them. Doctor Kathor crossed his arms and gave me a nod. Owl waved at me, “Take a couple steps to the left.”
I moved over and she nodded then lifted her arm. She hit a couple buttons on her forearm then dropped it. I felt the floor beneath me vibrate. The things below the platform started humming louder. The pitch of the hum changed and I could hear fans spinning in overtime. The thing above me started to glow a lighter blue. I kept my eyes on Owl, that she didn't react told me this was supposed to happen.
Finally space twisted and I was away from Owl standing in the middle of a street. The auction house was ahead of me. There were people on the sidewalks. I got some looks but they continued walking. The guards from the casinos on the side of the street startled and reached for things inside of their coats. One of them vanished making the others share looks then turn and run into the stores they were guarding.
The city still felt the same as the last time I was here. The air smelled of chemicals with an after scent of rot. There was trash leaking from full garbage bins on the side of the road. I saw a car sitting on the side of the street, the tires were missing and someone was underneath it pulling off more parts. A chop shop out in the open.
I took a step forward and started wandering down the street. The ground felt sticky and I could feel the curse of this place start trying to reach out and touch me. It was a nasty oily thing that made me shiver at the thought of being affected by it. I saw a few people vanish in the twisting of space. People were starting to wake up to what was happening and were exiting buildings and starting to stand in the street.
That allowed me to see how fast they were vanishing. When people were teleported from groups or mid sentence people scattered. Down alley ways I watched people in rags take cover from what was happening. Diving into dumpsters or crawling into mounds of garbage bags.I felt bad for them but it firmed up my emotions to what I was about to do.
“That's everyone. You can begin.” I heard from the speaker Owl had given me.
I reached inside myself with my will and grabbed a handful of refined chi from the ocean inside me. I twisted it as I walked, forming it into a shape that I let drop back into the ocean. I could feel it float on the top, burning through more chi as the technique activated. Through One Form pulled my soul forward, deeper into my body and aligned it with my mind. They resonated together, It let me see the spiritual and the psychic rot of the city.
There was a layer of black sludge that coated everything. Just from examining it I could tell this was what kept pulling people back to the city. Their souls fought it off and their minds got addicted to it. It was a pervasive and devious way to keep people trapped in the city.
A little bit floated through the air near me and I watched it spark and burn away as it got close. The technique had placed a solid ring of golden aura on my forehead showing how far I had mastered the technique.
I grabbed another handful of chi and twisted it into another technique. This one let me feel the whole city. If there were humans still around I would have felt them as little glowing lights of warmth. All I felt now was rot and decay. It sunk deep into the ground, quite a lot farther than just this city.
I stopped walking and looked down between my feet. Deep, farther than the rot, farther than the city itself I felt something else. It was massive and barely awake. It noticed me looking at it and looked at me with a massive sleepy eye. It dismissed me and went back to doing what it had before. I think I just felt the planet.
I shook my head and started walking again. This time with a destination. I was heading to the thickest place of rot and sludge I could find. I knew that's where I would find the thing. It was surrounded by vampires and I could feel its tendrils latched onto them.
It noticed me too, but not with the clarity of the planet. The tendrils pulsed and the undead started heading in my general direction, “Someone pick up that phone because I called it.”
“Called what?” Owl asked from the ear piece.
“Its not a vampire.” I replied as I pushed off the ground and landed on top of a building.
I jogged in the direction of the thing. “It is a vampire Suneya.” Owl replied.
“No, it's some kind of eldritch thing. I bet it feeds on people's souls.”
I pulled my pipe from my belt and threw it forward. One of the undead jumped over the side of the building and caught it with its face. A flash of chi and the pipe bounced back to me.
“We know it's an eldritch thing Suneya.”
“You guys said it was a magical disease though.” I replied to Owl.
“Yes. A disease spread by the eldritch thing you are going to face. It does the same thing as other vampires, and feeds on humans.”
I stopped building hopping and thought about it as I let the undead approach me. Damn having that pointed out to me made me feel dumb. I threw my pipe again and another vampire turned to ash. The kiseru rebound into my hand and I took off jogging again. “I am still going to kill the thing.”
Owl didn't reply and I stopped at the building where the thing was hiding. It was a skyscraper. It had to be at least fifty stories. It was all the way at the top and I was not going to climb that. I pulled my coiling dragon staff from the small of my back then set my feet. I threaded chi through the staff then brought it forward before sharply pulling it back, snapping it like a whip.