The tall grass bowed in the strong winds that howled over the hills surrounding the manor. The sky was roiling with dark clouds that looked like an inverted landscape of its own, with crumbling gray hills and valleys that sometimes revealed glimpses of the lightning held within them, yet to be unleashed upon the earth. The stormy winds drowned out the shuffling of H.E.S.P. soldiers and Shapers that lay around me on the crest of a hill, waiting for the signal to begin the raid. I could see the right half of the manor from our position about half a kilometre away. Rain had yet to fall.
The walkie-talkie on my hip buzzed and a voice spoke, “Be advised, weather is abnormal, localized to this area. We suspect a Shaper is the cause. Over.”
There was something else floating in the sky, silhouettes that I could only make out when the lightning flashed. They hung in place, angular and stationary, despite the strong winds.
“Something is buried in the ground,” the man next to me whispered into the radio. His eyes were startlingly bright and multi-coloured with every hue imaginable, pupils of different shapes and sizes rotating around like orbiting satellites. “Whatever they are, they’re alive, buried shallow, spread out around the perimeter of the manor.”
“Copy,” the radio operator responded. “Delta Squad has observed a contingent of people moving in from the southeast. Unidentified affiliation. They aren’t using the road. Stay low until we determine their intent. Over.”
I looked across to the hills east of us, but I couldn’t see whatever they were referring to. The geography broke sight lines easily and made it hard to get a grasp of distances.
We were west of the main road that wound through the hills to arrive at the roundabout entrance of the secluded Quebec manor. There was a squad to the east of the main road, the ones who had spotted the unknown contingent. Another squad was behind the manor, while the last and largest was further south of us and would move once the battle began.
Each group was a mixture of H.E.S.P. and other organizations. I wondered if it was a good idea. The mixing meant that no organization could act decisively against the others and that seemed good, a deterrent to any Organ moles, but it also meant that we didn’t have established trust in our teammates. That seemed like a recipe for poor execution.
I surveyed our team. I knew a few of the H.E.S.P. soldiers by name at this point, although there were a few I didn’t recognize.
Then there was the man with multi-coloured eyes from South Africa. He had Shaped sight that allowed him to view biological matter through solid objects and discern the purpose of other Shapes. His codename was Isipho.
From the Philipines was a young woman, codenamed Capiz, who had been assigned to use her Shape to protect our more vulnerable team members. She was bundled up in a black cloak, gloves, and a balaclava. The skin around her eyes and the bridge of her nose looked like it was made of pearl, starkly white and shiny.
There was also the Witch who hung back at the base of the hill, shushing the three elks that stood around her, shuffling and making plaintive noises. Her codename was Fir and she had insisted that her Wolves be as protected as the humans on our team. One of the elks stood still, staring directly at me. Fir turned to glare at me and I looked away.
I didn’t steal a glance at the other intimidating figure standing at the bottom, who Fir and her Wolves were giving a wide berth. I already knew what she looked like. A tall, morbidly obese and shirtless man whose skin rippled with something moving underneath. Codename, Host.
Kay lay to one side of me, her butterflies taking shelter from the wind behind her body. During transit we had been nervously joking about our codenames. I was Marrow and she was Brimstone. The names didn’t quite fit as my bony projections were hollow and brimstone butterflies were yellow.
The most unexpected team member was Conrad. Despite being fully geared in a H.E.S.P. combat uniform, Conrad was not a combatant, yet I felt safer in his presence. As cold and acrid as he was, I was counting on his piercing discernment of people’s intentions.
“Two targets have exited the manor, front entrance,” the radio squawked.
“What is that…” Isipho murmured, pupils spinning. “He’s covered in molten metal.”
I couldn’t see the entrance but that could only be Damascus. Which meant that she was here. I let some anger spill out into the connection between me and Nell, rousing her from where she was doing preparations kilometers away.
The Witch of Organ wasn’t our target exactly. Neither were Chase or Seth, despite the good chance that they were here. We were here for the weapon. Get inside, strike hard and fast, steal or disable their trump card.
“All squads be advised, combat has broken out in the forest. It’s not us. Two different parties. Prepare for engagement.”
I looked to the forest bordering the north-east corner of the manor. There were flashes of light within and a few faint sounds were carried to us by the wind.
The tension in our group steadily grew. Hands tightened around weapons. Kay’s eyes were wide, taking it all in.
“Be advised, Delta squad was discovered by the approaching group that we believe to be Organ-affiliated. They have engaged.”
Daria was in the Delta unit. I hoped she would be okay.
“Vehicle sighted on the main road, approaching the manor. Again, this is not us.”
Isipho whirled around, his eyes tracking the car that moved in and out from behind hills as it sped towards the manor. The final stretch of road before the manor’s entrance loop allowed me to get a clear view of the jeep that raced towards the entrance. It ignored the loop and plowed straight across the garden box in the center instead. It disappeared out of my sight and a split second later the boom of an explosion ripped through the air. The plume of fire and smoke lit up the sky for a moment, brighter than the hints of lightning.
“A suicide run?” Kay whispered, voice trembling.
Distant figures spilled out across the hills as the fighting spread towards us from the east.
Isipho’s neck cranked upward and he pointed while crying out. “Above us!”
I glimpsed a shadow dropping out of the sky. It landed on the other side of our hill and I felt the ground shake on impact.
The commander of our group, a veteran with graying sideburns, stood up and barked out, “Beta squad, engage!”
The soldiers rose as one and opened fire. Gunfire drowned out the winds and I covered Kay’s head, craning my neck to try and see what they were firing at.
A soldier’s broken body flew past me like a thrown doll.
“Nick!” Kay shoved me off of her. “Go!”
I got up and ran over the crest of the hill. Another soldier tumbled down past me. The soldiers had engaged an inhuman-looking figure on the other side. The force of the bullets made the figure slide across the grass, driving it further downhill.
It took my brain a second to process what I was looking at. What looked like the front half of a rhino stood as a shield, a thick gray hide now oozing blood from bullet holes. Behind its shoulder, a massive wolf head had a soldier clutched in its toothy jaws, its single yellow eye staring at us in a very human way. Two pythons as large as steel beams writhed in the grass, the most injured of the lot from the gunfire. All of these animals connected back to a central being, who I could only see the shadow of, obscured by the rhino they were using as a shield.
The salvo was ended by a signal from the squad leader.
“Hang on. You guys aren’t Organ,” a gruff voice said from behind the larger-than-life living parts of animals.
“We should kill them all the same,” another voice smoothly responded from behind us.
An androgynous person with long black hair stood on the neighbouring hill, holding a long and slender knife. There was a grunt of surprise and I turned to see at the bottom of the hill Host had fallen to her knees, her large frame bleeding from a stab wound.
One soldier aimed at the knife-wielder and shot a round at them. They didn’t react, not even flinching. It was as if the bullet had passed right through them. They smirked.
“I’m not as keen,” the gruff voice rebuked. “Violence is only enjoyable when it has a purpose. I’m loath to be fightin’ our own, let alone some other random party.”
The wolf growled as it held onto the struggling soldier in its maw. “Listen!” the person at the center of the animals roared out. He had a thick Scottish accent. “We’re here to settle something internally. Don’t interfere and I’ll leave you be. Sound like a deal?”
“You’re Organ?” the commander asked coldly.
“Aye.”
“This is a multi-nation operation on the Shaper terrorist organization known as Organ. Surrender and submit yourself into our custody or we will use lethal force.”
“Ye already did,” the man grumbled, slipping further into his accent. “Ah’ll do naw such thing.”
“Something is coming!” Isipho shouted. “From the ground!”
Dirt sprayed into the air near the Scottish man. A bone-white limb, as tall as a tree, stretched upwards before falling down to plant its massive hand against the ground. It pushed itself free, dirt falling in clumps off its pale body as it rose to a towering height.
The soldiers opened fire, red spurts of blood colouring the otherwise alabaster giant, three times as tall as a human. The skin was twisted and scarred, like an ashen dead tree still standing after a lightning strike.
Its face was likewise a misshapen mess of once human features, a black fissure running down the middle split the head into two parts. It barely reacted to the bullets as it raised its hands and tilted back its head like it was expecting rain.
“Shit!” the Scottish man shouted. “Fall back, Fendi! We were expected!”
“Caution!” the walkie-talkies spoke, “Several Aberrants have emerged in the surrounding area. Be warned-”
Lightning struck simultaneously across the hills. Eight pillars of jerkily etched light manifesting at once.
The blinding light and a deafening boom encompassed everything as the white Aberrant was engulfed in lightning.