The Mirrorverse
Chapter 72

Syrhahn

“It’s time!” Sam roared at the top of his lungs. April and Syrhahn shared a worried look before running towards the designated meeting area.

The others were already there, grabbing assault rifles of an unknown type to Syrhahn, everyone’s combat trouser pockets already filled with ammunition.

Syrhahn slung a rifle over his shoulder and another in his hand, while he also filled his trouser pockets and ammunition belt with bullet clips. Sam and Beth had the advanced weapons the same as Xhisara had given to Syrhahn on Eden, but there were not enough for everybody, so war for Syrhahn and April was still a projectile launching affair.

April took her weapon and leapt lightly onto Syrhahn’s right side, where he held her like he had held Viskra when he was very young. April was so tiny, he barely felt her weight.

April was to open portals in the direction they were already running in, thus zipping them around the battlefield with both of their guns blazing. It was the only way Syrhahn was likely to stay alive.

Ka had teamed up with Josh, the green guy from Eden, as an engulfer could not be spared as a baby sitter. Ka looked even paler than usual, his skin pure white against his jet black hair.

Syrhahn could feel April shaking through the right side of my body, and he was scared for her. This was no place for a child.

Mid thought trail he suddenly found himself somewhere else entirely. It wasn’t hugely unlike the infinite white of the hospital world, except he had full control of his body, and could feel the weight of April clinging to him.

Immediately switching into assassin mode, Syrhahn observed the scene in the split second before it changed.

They arrived facing the brown haired, short man, whom Syrhahn now knew as William, about ten metres from him. Syrhahn’s group were touching each other on arrival to facilitate engulfing the group to the same spot. Sam was at 60° to Syrhahn, Beth at 135°, Josh at 240° with Ka to his left, and Animal was at 300°.

William was at the centre of a protective circle of five people. He had a weapon and Spectrals were disappearing into mid-air as he fired it. To his right, Brian was toting an MaGMa assault rifle from Syrhahn’s era. Clockwise from Brian, there was a blonde woman who was touching Steve and Brian directly, clearly prepared to engulf them at zero notice.

The battlefield was white and endless, the cathedral type structure that had been present upon Syrhahn’s last visit was gone.

William and his close protectors were surrounded by four more travellers, two of which the allies had managed to land directly in between. The farthest was only twelve meters away. What this all added up to, was a lot of people with guns in a small area with no cover.

That’s where any similarity to any gun fight Syrhahn had ever been in ended. Nothing in his years of obsessively mapping his surroundings, of knowing exactly where people where, what they were doing and what they were likely to do next, prepared him for the war of the travellers. Not least that he was moving so fast, he had no idea where he was at any one time, since April was holding the reins.

In a flash, everyone had moved. People were darting left right and centre, Syrhahn couldn’t get a lock on any bad guys without risking hitting an ally. He was just running, while April opened portal after portal, taking them around the perimeter of the ever growing group. More allies and enemies were appearing every second and the battlefield grew accordingly, causing Syrhahn and April to spiral further and further out as they portalled around the fighting.

People were dropping like flies as William fired his weapon indiscriminately through the crowd, not caring whether he hit friend or foe. He just wanted to kill as many people as possible while he could, truly a madman in Syrhahn’s eyes.

Many of the newly arriving travellers were unarmed and using their gift to take their enemy to their death.

Syrhahn and April continued spiralling out away from the fighters, trying to stay alive more than anything. They couldn’t get a lock on William as everyone was moving so fast they were more like blurs popping up and vanishing than distinct beings. But then Syrhahn saw him. William.

“He’s there!” he shouted to April, and pointed to William and the very dark woman from the holovis vanishing where the Spectrals had just been.

A split second later William and Zinia reappeared. Syrhahn shot at them, killing the woman as William disappeared through a portal.

“Xhisara!” screamed Syrhahn, as he saw his friend appear at the far end of the still growing battle. The sheer volume of travellers arriving had caused the small battle to escalate, not only covering more and more ground, but air space as well. Travellers were disappearing through mid air portals in pairs, then reappearing solo having disposed of their foe.

“Syrhahn,” he heard Xhisara say from behind him, then they were no longer in the battlefield.

“I killed the woman with William, she was his tracker?” said Syrhahn rapidly, which Xhisara affirmed,

“Yes, show me where.”

They stepped forward through April’s portal to the exact place they had last seen William.