Tom Dowd - Burning Bright

Kyle reached out and placed one hand on the man's heart, the other on his left hand at the focus. He would have to slow the man's metabolism, slow his respiration and heart beat, slow his body down to where critical seconds became critical minutes. Kyle picked a rhythm in astral space, the slow beat of ambient energy, and slowed his to match it.

The ork realized something was happening, and stepped back, pulling his sidearm clear as a dull halo of green energy began to surround the injured man. The ork's eyes searched the area, but he could see no target, nothing against which to protect his friend. Then, as the energy flowed around the mage, the ork's radio crackled to life.

Kyle couldn't make out the words that came over it; they were an electronic signal, cold, lifeless, and meaningless to his perceptions in astral space. But the ork's reply was clear.

"Roger, roger!" he shouted into his throat mike. "Officer down, ground floor near the loading dock. I need a trauma alert and another mage. Something's happening down here!"

Kyle felt the injured man respond, his body sliding into synchrony with the rhythm Kyle was providing it. The blood flow slowed, nearly stopping. If Knight Errant could get a medic or another magician with healing spells here in time, he would survive.

"Roger that!" said me ork trooper. "One bug down here. Repeat one bug down!" The radio crackled in reply, and the ork returned his attention to his companion. Kyle backed away. There was little chance the ork would notice him. The emotions and lingering energy from the fight with the spirit were dampening any of Kyle's own aura that might have leaked into the physical world, but he still didn't relish the sensation of being pushed aside by the trooper's Significantly greater mass.

He looked around. There were no physical signs of the magical battle that had just taken place, only the physical effects of the weapons fire and sprayed blood. He heard footsteps running toward him from where the cockroach spirit had been standing. Kyle shot in that direction, wincing at the pain that coursed through him. He quickly passed a field medic and another trooper. Far beyond them, way down the hall, he could see another trooper covering their movement.

Kyle willed himself in that direction, and found the trooper also guarding an injured hospital guard who sat in a small pool of blood. Continuing on, he passed through a pair of swinging doors, and into the what seemed to be the hospital's shipping and receiving area.

There had been a fight here, a pitched battle, from the look of it. Kyle saw six bodies, two were Knight Errant and two seemed to be hospital employees probably caught in the crossfire. The last two looked human at first glance, but even though they were dead and their auras long vanished, Kyle could sense something wrong about them.

"Secure the site!" a familiar voice yelled, "Cover the bodies!"

Kyle turned and saw Lieutenant Facile in full combat gear, one arm bandaged and bloody, leaning against a pile of boxes. A doctor or nurse-Kyle couldn't tell which-tended him. Despite his injury, Facile's aura seemed strong. Kyle quickly floated over to him and slowly made himself visible.

Across me room, a half-dozen weapons instantly turned on him. None fired as he held his hands in a submissive raised position.

"Facile," Kyle said, as the lieutenant stepped in front of the woman assisting him and used his good arm to draw his heavy pistol. "It's Kyle Teller."

"Son of a bitch!" Facile said. "What the frag are you doing-"

"I killed one of the roach spirits down the hall from here." Kyle pointed back in the direction he'd come. "One of your mages got torn up pretty bad, but I was able to stabilize him." He paused to let those words sink in. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

Facile had turned to look in the direction Kyle had pointed, then relaxed and reholstered the weapon. It was another few moments before the frightened nurse resumed work on his arm. "Fraggin' bugs attacked the hospital in force," he told Kyle, gesturing at me two strange bodies now being covered. "At least four true forms and a half-dozen or so of these clean flesh forms."

"Flesh forms? True forms?" Kyle asked him. "What's the difference?"

Facile gestured again at the pair of now covered bodies. "We call these pieces of trash flesh forms. They're possessed by bug spirits, but they look human. Most that get possessed aren't this lucky. True forms just look like fraggin' big versions of the real bug."

"Where's the boy?" Kyle asked.

Facile pointed toward where Kyle took me loading dock door to be. The physical details of me concrete and metal room were nearly indistinguishable to him. “Took him away in a car waiting out there.”

Kyle was about to head in that direction, but Facile stopped him. "Don't bother! I don't even have a make on the car." He pointed at the dead troopers. "They're the only ones who saw it."

“No idea which way it went?”

"None."

"Security tapes?" Kyle looked around the room to see whether it contained any dull machinery that might be a camera.

Facile shook his head as the woman administering to him stepped away. “They hit the security room first after eating our sentry spirits. Trashed all the digital storage. Backups were in the same room.”

Kyle nodded. "I'm at the Truman condoplex. Let me know right away if anything else turns up."

Facile almost seemed to laugh. "I'm sure Captain Ravenheart will call you once she's done chewing us up here."

Kyle shifted out of his physical manifestation and accelerated at maximum speed across the short space of city.

Back at the Truman house the patio area around his body was quite a mess. Apparently the roach spirit had hit Kyle hard, not only on the back but on his left leg as well. His body had apparently thrashed, sending blood pouring from the sudden wounds. Hanna was seated across the patio being assisted by one of the other staff members. Kyle also noticed that Dan Truman was standing watch over his physical body, along with Seeks-the-Moon and two of Truman's personal- not Knight Errant-guards. Someone had already administered emergency first aid to his body. In spirit form, he'd barely felt it.

Kyle called out mentally, "Moon!"

"Yes!" came the clear reply as the spirit looked up at him. "Are you well?'

"Well enough. How bad do I look?"

"You've been worse," Moon said. "You've made quite a mess of the patio, though, and I'm afraid your friend Ms. Uljaken was a little unprepared for your spontaneous wounding."

Kyle laughed, and then commanded Charlotte, who immediately appeared in astral space.

"The two are dead?" she asked him. Kyle nodded, recognizing the empty spaces within himself for both spirits, the second apparently destroyed when it moved to help him against the roach spirit.

"We're fighting what seem to be some kind of insect spirits." With those words, Kyle saw Seeks-the-Moon's face blanch and his powerful aura waver, for just a fraction of an instant. Even the air elemental, normally supremely detached, seemed to shudder. Kyle was surprised; he'd never heard of such spirits before either.

"I understand," said Charlotte. "I will try to serve you well."

Again, Kyle was surprised by the tone of near finality in the spirit's words. "Good," he said, "Stay alert."

"They will not pass me," Charlotte assured him, then vanished.

Kyle willed himself back into his body, re-forming flesh and spirit into one, but instantly regretted the decision. The pain was terrible, and he felt his body spasm as he reacted to it.

Dan Truman started to speak, probably wanting to know what had happened at the hospital, but Kyle held up his hand. Seeks-the-Moon also reached out and placed a hand on Truman's arm to still him. His body wanted to sleep, but Kyle knew he couldn't.