Chapter 14:
Going Against the Flow
BLACK CLOUDS billowed in the sky, and uneasy tremors rocked the ground as A-Ka was spat out by the gaping mouth of the portal, which loomed large inside the cloud cover and lightning.
“Aaahh!” he screeched, though the wild winds tore away his voice.
“Brace for impact!” Huixiong’s voice called.
Ten thousand feet in the air, Huixiong spread his arms wide, his bulk bursting through the clouds as he careened toward the ground. Shahuang also shot out of the unstable crack in time, a huge bazooka slung over his shoulder. The moment he placed the scope before his eye, he seemed transformed into a wholly different person. With one hand still in the pocket of his windbreaker, his lanky form became like a sharp blade emerging from its sheath as he rocketed toward the earth below.
“Countdown to collision: twelve, eleven…” From his pocket, Shahuang pulled out a small, finely crafted metal tube, pressing a button as he pointed it at Huixiong. With a hum, a huge net made of something like spider silk wrapped around Huixiong. The great net shimmered with a liquid luster as it exploded into a parachute.
With an elegant somersault, Shahuang flew toward A-Ka. A-Ka shrieked at the air resistance he felt; he had never thought he would be plummeting downward in a several-thousand-foot fall!
Shahuang fought against the fierce wind as he hollered, “I’ve got you!”
The wind battered them, leaving them almost helpless. Several times it tried to rip A-Ka away, but Shahuang clung to A-Ka’s wrist. As Shahuang was about to open his parachute, there was a sudden flash of black gold. Heishi swooped by, and suddenly A-Ka was out of Shahuang’s hands.
However, A-Ka was still screaming.
“I’m going to go deaf,” Heishi said coldly. “Can’t you be a little quieter?”
With that, the metallic wings on Heishi’s back spread open, blotting out the world around them. They acted like a glider as Heishi flew toward the dark horizon. They spun in a wide circle in the air, the mountains and the land skimming beneath. In the distance, Father’s tall tower was wreathed in a vortex of lightning and purple clouds.
No longer screaming, A-Ka stared in awe at the majestic sight that was Father’s tower. It looked like a probe pointing straight up at the universe, sprouting out of the vast land beneath, but it also loomed as ominously as a specter of death. Millions of intelligent robots danced through the air around it, like worker bees in a hive.
“The backup program, Labere. What you call Father.” Heishi’s eyes reflected that view of the City of Steel. “It’s a little different from the impression I had in my mind.”
“Is that right?” A-Ka turned his head toward Heishi. “What’s different?”
Choosing not to elaborate, Heishi only grunted in response. He dove forward, sending them down toward the earth below.
They were on the western side of the City of Steel, where the marshy plains were covered with nerve gas to slow down those who would try to pass through. Father’s regime extended all the way to the Eastern Shore, and every square inch of it was built with the intention of preventing any human from escaping.
Heishi held onto A-Ka as they slowly descended. Two white parachutes burst open in the sky like dandelions, and the two mercenaries floated toward the forest at the end of the plains. Next, Feiluo opened his own glider, tailing Heishi as they spiraled downward.
A-Ka could clearly make out a person standing by his feet—the Moran of the past was there with them. The gem on his ring was pointed inward, toward the center of his palm, while his palm splayed toward the sky. Thousands of strange ion beams shot out from the ring, creating a bright line connecting it to the time portal in the sky.
“Is there anyone else?” Moran called, bracing himself against the strong wind.
“That’s everyone!” Heishi shouted back loudly.
“Uncle Moran!” A-Ka cried out.
Moran smiled at him and nodded.
Observing Moran’s past self, A-Ka felt both close and distant to him at the same time without knowing why. As they landed, they saw Shahuang and Huixiong dangling from the branches at the forest’s edge.
Half an hour later, the group gathered on one side of a lake on the swampy plain, clustered around Moran. After conducting a head count, Moran said earnestly, “Mercenaries, a clone, and a warrior of unknown origin who comes bearing a prehistoric weapon. I imagine your identities must not be ordinary. Nor that of this…this child, either. Now, shouldn’t you introduce yourselves?”
“Your Excellency the Pontiff,” Feiluo said, “I am the lieutenant colonel of the Second Corps under the command of General Liber, Feiluo.”
Moran looked at Feiluo and nodded. “You used to be someone inside the City of Steel?”
“My previous identity was that of a spy,” Feiluo said, pointing at his own head. “The chip spurred me to contact my other comrades in arms during the Revolution of the Clones.”
“I recognize you,” Moran said to Huixiong. “President. And this individual is…Shahuang of the Hundred Battles.”
Shahuang smiled but didn’t make a sound, while Huixiong nodded.
“I’m called Heishi,” Heishi said simply.
“A-Ka,” said A-Ka, smiling as he introduced himself. He had found this affair a little strange at first, but now he remembered—the Moran of the past hadn’t recognized him, and it wasn’t until he had boarded the ship heading toward the Western Mainland that they had ostensibly met for the first time. “I’m a completely ordinary human,” he said. “I’ve come to help lead them into the city because I once lived there.”
Moran smiled. “Humans themselves are already extraordinary. My dear friends, why don’t you tell me about your plans? I am not quite sure why you have come. I merely received a message from my future self saying that General Liber will start an all-out attack tomorrow, so I imagine we at least have a little time left.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, Moran walked slowly across the plains, Huixiong and Shahuang acting like two bodyguards as they flanked him. Feiluo explained the general course of events to Moran. When he got to Heishi’s identity, Moran couldn’t resist giving A-Ka another look.
“I am the representative for the Clone Regime,” Feiluo said matter-of-factly. “Commander Angus sent me here to help carry out the mission this time.”
Moran nodded, accepting this.
“Uncle Moran…” A-Ka started. “No, Your Excellency.”
Moran smiled. “Actually, I quite like that form of address. You can just call me Uncle.”
“What have you come here for, Uncle?”
“Liber’s request was for me to come and purify Father. They had me wait here, but I imagine that since you all have brought fresh news from the future, the outcome of this revolution is already set in stone.”
A-Ka gazed up at the horizon. At this time in the past, Heishi was still slumbering in the cryosleep chamber, and A-Ka’s past self was still resting in the humans’ gathering area of the City of Steel. Liber had yet to lead his squadron of people charging toward Father. Though everything would still march toward that inevitable end, they found themselves, right now, in a sort of strange tranquility.
A-Ka thought about how tens of thousands of clones would leap into their mechas and battleships one day later, rushing toward Father like moths toward a flame, only to meet their fiery deaths in this enormous steel city. Imagining that, he couldn’t help feeling an unspeakable sadness.
Just then, Moran turned and bowed slightly to Heishi. “Please allow me to express my humble gratitude on behalf of humankind, Son of God.”
“There’s no need,” Heishi said. “Saving you all is not necessarily for the sake of the entire species.”
Feiluo, Huixiong, and Shahuang looked askance at Heishi. A-Ka couldn’t resist laughing at that. He knew that no matter where they found themselves, Heishi would always have that disagreeable attitude that would irritate anyone he interacted with.
“Well, for tonight, we will need to make camp within the forest,” Moran continued. “Tomorrow, we’ll find a chance to sneak in. I haven’t been able to obtain a map of the interior of the city yet, but let’s discuss that after we rest.”