The Gates of Troy (Lopez Time Book 3) Page 17

  Oddly, Memes was the one to speak then.

  “As you will, Officer. We can have travel at need for this?” She sounded in charge suddenly. It was a bit of a change up. More like what he would expect from someone on the council, actually.

  “Yes. Get with me first. If I’m not available, then try Eve, Barb, Avery, Phillip, Kait or Vince. They won’t charge you. Not for helping to save the world.”

  That got a muffled sound but it wasn’t happy really.

  More…

  A bit annoyed.

  Probably with him making claims for the others but he wasn’t wrong, even as he volunteered them to do things without permission. They’d help, because otherwise the world might just end.

  Chapter eleven

  There were good things and bad in the news cycle that started at about six that morning. The nice part was that the talking heads were actually being very good about delivering the needed portion of the message to the masses. True, even with the veil down, most of the people of the world didn’t believe what Troy was saying but that part didn’t matter. Not to him.

  Sure, he didn’t love being called an imaginative liar five times an hour. No one really would. The big point though was that millions of people were getting the word out and about half of them were talking to their friends and coworkers about what was going on. The bad part wasn’t even that bit.

  No, it was that just past noon, one of the beings showed up in Times Square, demanding to be worshiped. The name of the god wasn’t secret, being Adama.

  No one wanted to be rude to the guy, since he was clearly very powerful, but no one knew who the heck he was supposed to be. Even the news people couldn’t find any reference to the fellow online.

  Troy was on television live at the time, sitting in Atlanta, when that took place. They had cell phone footage from at least five different phones that showed the large, powerfully built being killing people. The intent, clearly, was to slap hapless tourists around until the others got in line with the human sacrifices to placate him.

  “I will rule this world! I claim this land as my own. Kneel before me, and I may allow you to exist for another moment! Fail in that and die this day!” His face was smooth, not having a beard or anything but the golden light around him, and flipping cars over at a distance, were hard to miss.

  Most of the people on the screen were running away. Wisely, it seemed.

  “Fudge.” Troy didn’t mutter the word but it was heart felt. “I need to handle this one. Sorry about cutting this short. Let me…”

  It was interesting, after he set the bridge up. It was in front of him in the studio but also showed up on the cameras. He noticed that when he glanced at the monitor. It was an interesting effect, he decided. Walking through, Troy tried to scramble up a plan. This particular god was kind of intimidating but a big part of that was down to a low frequency sound, much like thunder, that he was producing the whole time.

  It was kind of a cool effect, Troy had to admit.

  On the good side, the guy wasn’t that popular with anyone. If it had been a recognizable god of old, people might have started in on the worshiping part right away. Probably not, for this one, given the obvious violence. What was happening was more of an act of terror, rather than celestial light or awe-inspiring reality warping.

  He waved at the man, who seemed to be human, other than his obvious super powers. He also spoke perfect English. All of the gods seemed to have mastered that one so far. How that worked… Well, he could see it. After enough time and focus on the idea. The issue was that Troy was a limited being.

  The idea of a cage was a specific thing to his tiny vampire mind. A box with bars or an impassable barrier. A cave with an energy field over the front could work as well. If it had been different than that, which there was no reason it couldn’t be, considering who’d made it, these beings might have been walking around right next to regular people for thousands of years. Watching language and customs shift and change slowly, as they happened.

  With nothing else to do, other than learn the new things as they took place.

  Waving his right hand, Troy thought about what to do. The being turned to him, and actually stopped doing what he was, glancing at the still existing bridge that hung in the air, looking like a nearly perfect circle. Like a door into another room. The only difference was that both sides of it showed the studio that he’d just left. From different angles, depending on where you stood. It always looked like a disk though, instead of a sphere, even though it was that as well.

  Adama turned on him, a fierce expression on his face.

  “You are the liar who would remove me from my rightful place?”

  The words got a sigh. There were at least fifty bodies on the ground, their heads flopping, having had their necks broken in most cases. It seemed to be the golden guy’s signature move. He was very large, Troy noticed, as he walked up. Not attractive but at least seven feet tall and muscular. For clothing, he had what seemed to be a grass skirt. His look was off for any particular racial group as well. That grass at his waist, a glowing aura of gold light and long black hair were about his best features. His facial bones looked almost warped, being too heavy for a modern person at all.

  Then, the guy probably had never been one of those at all.

  “Liar? No. I’m very honest, most of the time. The offer is totally legitimate. Now, do you wish to find a new place? Whatever you want that way is doable. Everything exists. There has to be a place that really needs you. We can go and do that now?”

  The being stopped, a wave of gold light washing out from him, trying to cover Troy. In response he shook his head, and simply moved. Using magic to force himself to faster speed than he’d ever managed before, to kill the pain of the action. Time stressed under his passing. The world itself screamed on a level that no one alive could ever hear.

  Then they fought. It wasn’t just him running up and hitting the being once in the head or anything smooth like that, either. That had been his hope but the man, who figured himself to be a god, was darned quick. More than that, after several very fast passes, Troy flying back on the last one, it was sort of clear that the man was many times stronger than he was.

  Part of his chest caved in, where the being had gotten his one good blow in. It had just been a punch. Fast but not a thing that he shouldn’t have been able to avoid. Powerful but not enough to kill Troy instantly.

  Increasing the flow of power around him, Troy grinned, as he stood.

  “Nifty! You can see into the future? Can you see far enough ahead to understand what’s about to happen? If so, you might want to try running. That or talking things out? There’s still time for that.” He felt a bit cocky, actually. He had an idea, after all.

  Interestingly, Adama tried to attack again, rather than running away like he probably should have. That was, Troy had to figure, either a sign that he was about to die, or that the psychic reflexes of the guy didn’t let him see much of the future at all.

  They punched and kicked then, with Troy using more movements and Adama trying to grapple with him, even though making a solid grab wasn’t working for him. There were also some odd, overhand slapping moves from the ancient guy. They were powerful, at a guess but not that fast. More to the point, they had such a big wind up that it was easy to get out of the way.

  As such things went, it was, he thought, kind of even. Adama had the basic big man benefits going on, if written larger than life by a good clip. He was powerful, and had great reach. When hit, he absorbed more of the force of the blow to a good extent. Not enough to keep him from being hurt though.

  For his part, Troy was faster by enough that he could move in and hit, then get back, forcing the other man to lunge for him. Moving out of balance and rushing into punches and kicks several times. It wasn’t making him go down. In fact, what was happening there was kind of similar on both sides.

  Healing using magic, of one sort or another. Both of them were clearly pushing things that way.
Wounds that should have bled just sealed up every ten seconds or so. When bones snapped, they clicked again, after a grunt or two, and places that had collapsed in returned to normal moments later. It was a huge stress on Troy’s energy stores after a bit. The glowing golden guy, who kind of stank, smelling a little like a skunk for some reason, didn’t show anything like fatigue for his part.

  Troy wasn’t either, so hopefully they were in the same boat that way.

  Then, he was also trying to set up a stream of magic, in order to create a bit of a distraction for the mountain of a man. The idea was something that he hoped would be unique enough to be hard to fight instantly. Using fire had come to mind but everyone knew that one and would have a strategy against it. The same with any normal state of matter. Water, earth, air or fire were things that people knew about back in the day. This guy might even know about complex physics and things like that, if he’d been interested in learning about it.

  Still, Troy understood, very closely, something that almost no one else really did. Possibly even ancient beings of great power. The concept was known. After all, everyone kind of had the basic idea in their heads. They thought they did anyway.

  It was just that he’d lived it, for a long, long time.

  Adama actually stopped fighting, as the wave of magic washed over him. For the first time, the look of anger and rage was altered into something different. Fear.

  “What… What is it you do to me?” There was a sense of awe in the words. The glow dimmed, then stopped.

  The god that was nearly forgotten to history, at least in that capacity, faded, looking a bit like a ghost. Becoming translucent. When he was all the way gone, Troy took a breath and sighed.

  “Nothing. I did absolutely nothing to you.” Literally.

  Instead of flame or lightening, Troy had covered the being with a nothingness so total that it had mimicked the nature of the void between worlds. Imperfectly, of course but it had been enough. Adama wasn’t dead. He simply didn’t exist any longer. Not even the matter or energy that had made him up was there now.

  Looking around the famous landmark, Troy winced. There were a lot of dead and dying people there. It was tempting to go and try to help them. The thing there was that he couldn’t let himself appear that weak. If he seemed to care for regular people, then it would be used against him. That could drive the death toll up. He moved then, walking back into the television studio, across the country.

  The man that had been interviewing him, Brent, just sat there for a moment, and blinked.

  “We just… All right, I need to collect myself. What happened there?”

  “Adama made a mistake, Brent. He should have gone to another reality. That or opted to live a quiet life here. I could buy him a house and pay for food for him. That didn’t seem like enough for him. I hope that the others will be more understanding. We want to handle this with peace and love, not… This kind of thing.”

  There was a knowing look then.

  “Your hand was clearly pushed here. I know that our thoughts go out to those that were harmed there, before you got to the scene. Thankfully, you were available to subdue this being. Adama… I don’t recognize the name.”

  The man held his ear then, and slowly nodded.

  “Okay. Adama means man in ancient Sumerian. The first man, specifically. In the bible that would be Adam. Most likely not the same person. What do we do if you aren’t available? Normal people can’t protect themselves from things like that. If, goodness forbid, you went down…” The man seemed worried but not as if Troy was a danger to him.

  That part was actually nice, so he made himself smile a bit.

  “I’m not alone. This isn’t about violence. We have many people that could have walked into that scene and taken care of it the way I did. The point is to do it without violence. This was a failure on my part, here today. I should go and see what can be done to make the next encounters work more peacefully. Thank you. All of you.”

  There was a slow nod then.

  “Understood. We can get you back on, in the future?”

  “Sure? Hopefully to go over much more boring things.”

  The slightly older seeming man, who had a flesh tone bump on his lip on the right-hand side, started speaking then. Another person, a man in a t-shirt and jeans waved for Troy to move then. There was no speaking. Not until they were in the back, well away from the studio itself, behind a sound dampening door.

  “Great job out there, Mr. Lopez. Can I get your contact information? Not for the show. Just in case I need to call for help. That was awesome.” The boy had to brush his hair, which was a bit long, out of his face. He wasn’t strictly white but most people really weren’t.

  Not in America.

  Troy left from there, heading back to where Krista was, up in Canada. This time he was back on the set of her show. The one she was directing, not starring in. The star, as it turned out, was L. C. A good-looking guy that was actually nice enough seeming.

  This time, when he walked through the bridge, the man waved at him. They were a bit away from the spot where the shooting was going on. The man held a cup in one hand and an apple in the other. It was apparently lunch time.

  “Hey! I didn’t think that I’d be seeing you today. I caught that mess over in New York on the news, between takes… You look okay? I…” He glanced at Troy’s chest, which got him to look down. His clothing was a bit of a mess. There were spots of blood on his white shirt, and there were torn places. In all, he didn’t look that bad, considering what had happened.

  He winked.

  “I know. That was a cluster of sour grapes. I haven’t changed yet. I should get to that but I was checking in with Krista first, to make sure there isn’t a media side thing that I need to get to. She’s running point on our effort to let people know about what’s going on.”

  The man nodded.

  “This way then? We all try to eat together. Not all of us. Just most. The cast and crew. This is one of the least snooty acting gigs I’ve ever worked on. We all stay and read our own lines off for reaction shots. If we have to do green suit work, we actually climb in them ourselves, instead of having an intern do it, like on most shows. I don’t know if it makes a real difference as for quality but… You know, it does? We all try harder, knowing that everyone else is doing it.” He stopped then and actually chuckled a bit. “Sorry. That probably seems really trivial. You’re doing big things. This is… Ultimately, it’s just a game. Not that important, really.”

  There was actual humility in the words.

  “That has a real place though. You’re making new things. Creating a world in the minds of millions of people. There’s real power in that, too. That said, I haven’t seen your show yet. The only thing I watch anymore is Rick and Morty.”

  That got a laugh. A real one, as the rows of round tables came into view. They were inside but the space was nice and large. A bit like a school cafeteria. Except the the food smelled better. The cool kids were a bit extra pretty as well. At least compared to his high school. Avery turned, smiled hugely and waved to him.

  “Troy! I nearly went to New York earlier to help but you won too fast. You’re well?” She looked at his clothing as well, which she’d made for him. There was no sense at all that she was upset by the state of them. “I have some new things for you to wear, back home. In Vancouver. I was going to use the delivery as an excuse to come and see you.”

  L. C. settled in next to Judy Swan. The woman was cute but also an Alede, which meant she was interested in everyone, constantly, as far as sex went. Normally. At the moment, she just seemed scared. Most of the others were more relaxed than that. Probably because they didn't understand what was really going on.

  “Mr. Lopez! We got word about that god. How did you survive?”

  He played that one down, a lot. Honestly though.

  “It wasn’t easy. You know, so I can look kind of cool when I go into the rest of this? The truth is these escaped beings aren’t all that
. Dangerous, or at least some of them are. Some are more or less just powerful people. I mean, other beings, not just humans. The meaning of the word god kind of shifted, over the last few thousand years, if I have that part right. So, these are tough men and women… And other things. They aren’t all bad, I don’t think. The first few that I’ve encountered are probably the more aggressive ones. What happens with the others… I don’t know. Some might just… Get a beach house and kick back? Maybe try out for a job on your show here? We shouldn’t paint them all with the same brush though. Some of them are probably nice enough people.”

  He related the part with Genesh, since that was his best story so far. At the end, Judy, reaching across two people, touched and held his arm.

  “That’s better than I’d been thinking. So, the whole thing is about keeping the greater demons out of this, so that cooler heads can handle it without a massive battle? Let me know if I can help with that? I don’t know how that would work but I’m here for you, if it comes up.”

  The others at the table, nodded. Half of them did. Some of them clearly didn’t want to risk being pulled into danger. That was smart enough of them really. Troy didn't think less of them for it. They were actors and actresses. Of the people there at the moment, the only one that he would have taken into a fight with him on purpose was Avery.

  Most of life wasn’t about violence, thankfully. Not even for a vampire like himself.

  The others ate, picking at their food, except Avery who downed about five thousand calories of things that got envious looks from the others. It didn’t show on her body at all, which was lean and hard, for a girl. Military seeming, really. Her curly black hair made ringlets on her head. She was in a tight t-shirt that hugged her body, without a bra on underneath. That was probably for ratings.

  After all, she was too young, technically speaking, for her to be allowed to do nude scenes. So, they dressed her in clothing that covered her but would allow for perverts to have masturbation material. Not that he blamed them for their solo adventures that had her in the starring role. She was cute. Also, so old that the rules in regards to her were a bit silly. He was in the same boat but no one in the world would question him if he wanted to do topless cable television.