Chapter 17

The bubbling foam behind us didn’t exactly make me feel better. Lucas and I backed away slowly, which only gave the four Bedaup’s an opportunity to close in. They were each smaller, yes, but I wasn’t very confident in my jumping or dodging abilities. Lucas might have been fine, this stuff was easy for him. Which is why I thought it was crazy he chose to stay right next to me and let these things, uh this thing, get closer.

“Let me take him, Cassie.” One of the Bedaup’s snarled, “I won’t burn him. Much.”

“I never did like folks calling me Cassie.” Lucas said, “sounds too juvenile, you know?”

“Now’s not the time for the name game.” I said.

“Nah, you’re right. Not when you got it right before.”

“Th- that was a mistake.”

“Yeah you’re right.” A Bedaup echoed, “what was it he called you before? Lucas, right?”

“So you were paying attention.” Cass said. “Wonderful.”

“What’s the deal with that, anyway?” another Bedaup said. “Just sounds like another name to me.”

“Well it- it’s different.” I said, “on our planet that’s more of a male name.”

“What- Oh geez.” The four Bedaup’s all seemed to speak in unison, until one broke off again, “is this one of those dumb gender things other species care so much about?”

“Yeah I know, it’s a real pain, huh?” Lucas said.

“I can take him off your hands.” Bedaup said, “make life a whole lot less stressful.”

Lucas pressed a button on the vat behind us. The smell of bubblegum became overpowering as the lid opened and bits of foam began bubbling out. A large metal arm churned the concoction, making some of it fly out and float gently to the floor. He pressed me against it and brandished his gun at the surrounding Bedaups, who by now were each hardly a foot away. “Alright back off!” He said, “or your precious little gold mine here gets it.”

I saw what he was going for, but I didn’t think it would work. We had been working together all this time, why would Bedaup think he would actually push me in? I had to make it convincing. “Lucas, it’s soap. What could soap do to me?”

“Okay can you actually stop calling me that?”

“Why should I? According to him it doesn’t even matter right?”

“Just because he says it’s alright doesn’t mean I say it is.”

“Oh, so now gender and names do matter?”

Another Bedaup spoke up, “uh guys?”

“Can it, Jell-o.” I said, “we’re having a conversation here.”

Lucas ignored him, “You are such a child, you know that? I fly you out here, show you the time of your life, and you can’t do the littlest thing I ask you? We haven’t even approached pronouns, this is just a name!”

“If it’s just a name then it can’t be that important.”

“Everyone else up here calls me Cassandra. Why can’t you?”

“Because it can’t be that easy!” I pushed into him, “People don’t change that fast. It’s not how things work. You can’t just call yourself something you’re not and expect everyone else to get along with it.”

He scoffed, a condescending little noise that made me want to punch him. We were only pretending to fight, right? “Something I’m not?” He spread his arms wide, “You- you seriously look at me now, right now, and tell me that I’m not a woman? Tell me that I’ve been lying to you this whole time? That I’m gonna snap my fingers and change my mind and be a boy again?”

“I- I don’t-”

“Yeah. You don’t. And do you know why I know you don’t want that? Because I can tell, Matt, that every time you look at me and say the wrong name it gets harder and harder to force yourself to do it.”
I grabbed him by the collar and pushed him nearer to the vat, foam licked the ends of his long hair. I stared him in the eyes, those same eyes. The worst part was, he wasn’t exactly wrong. How was I supposed to turn him back if he had changed so much? Who was he anymore? If flesh was this malleable, could it really go as deep as the mind?

Lucas took advantage of my distraction and flipped me back over onto the vat. I could almost taste the foam now, and for a second thought I was actually going to fall in.  Bedaup didn’t like that, “Hey! Easy on the merchandise!”

All four Bedaups leapt at us, Lucas pulled me out and together we dove out of the way as a wave of yellow ooze flowed above us and landed in the foam vat. I caught glimpses of goop smashing into goop, and eyeballs twisting around each other as sickening colors merged into one big blotch once more. From the second we landed Lucas was on his feet. He slammed the metal lid shut and the auto locks on the vat clicked in place one after the other. From the windows I could see it, a blur of yellows and pinks that blistered into the other. Bedaup’s screams were muffled by the vat and the music that still throbbed into my skull. The vat began to rumble, and Lucas was pulling me up before I realized the danger we were in.

“Run!” He called. Together we plodded down the scaffolding toward what we hoped was the way to the exit. Our answer came in the form of Krazmundo, who met us around a corner and grabbed both of us up over his shoulders. The fifth Bedaup was still trailing behind him and a hundred little hands reached out for the eyeball Krazmundo had clutched in his lower right palm.

“What happened?!” He called as the sound of groaning metal echoed behind us.

“No time to explain!” Lucas said. “Just go- AHH!”

Bedaup had been running up here far too much, the metal that was keeping us up had been corroded. The platform holding us gave way and we fell through. I gripped onto Krazmundo’s arm as tight as I could, while Lucaas held tight to his shoulder.

Clunk! We stopped falling. Krazmundo had managed to grab onto the loose grate that now dangled over a hundred feet above the vacant floor. I watched for any guards or patrons, anyone who could help us, but even the bartenders had fled thanks to all the chaos we had been causing up there.

“MY EYYYYYEEEE!” The fifth bedaup leapt out and Krazmundo dropped the eye. Bedaup spiraled downward for it, his body smacked the ground and showed me just how fucked up we were about to be.

“Dammit!” I said, “this is the second time today I’ve almost fallen onto a dancefloor and I am NOT A FAN.”

“Not just almost.” Lucas said, “this time we’re actually going to fall.”

“What are you saying?!”

“Just remember to roll!”

He fired two blasts to an area of scaffolding above us. I heard something snap and the pathway we were hanging onto swung out, peeling the rest of the scaffold like rope. The ground rose up to meet us and Krazmundo let go just before the whole path fell. In the panic I had let go too and I tucked and rolled with the momentum, which made the ground feel less like a hard slab of pavement and more like a skittering slip of sandpaper. I finished out flat on my back, and could feel the searing cuts all along my arms. I decided to just let it happen for a moment, and all the pain cut through my nerves in a painful surge.

“Matt! Are you okay?” Lucas called from somewhere behind me. I groaned and gave a thumbs up, too dazed to speak. I looked up at where we had just been. The DJ Tower was still spinning. To be honest, it was almost beautiful. Nothing but a glistening mecca of music playing whatever it felt, dancing with the strange slow beat it had chosen for our exit. I kind of liked it. Just like I kind of liked the pain.

It wasn’t self-made, no, but it was deep, pure, and simple. A pain gathered from progress, a pain I pursued and got just by trying to do all of this. I took another breath, and my body melted into it. Against everything, for some bizarre reason my brain decided that this moment made everything worth it. That this was the good pain that I so desperately craved. I decided I needed to really think and feel the moment.

The ground. I can feel the ground.

The lights. I can see the lights.

The explosion. I can hear-

…what?

The sound was like someone had squished the largest water balloon with a fifty ton weight. A yellow-pink foaming sludge burst above the DJ tower and gushed from the ceiling all around us. I was so in awe, I jumped when I felt Krazmundo’s large hand hoist me onto my feet. He pushed me around and pointed at the exit. I think he told me to run, but by now my senses were too fucked to be sure of anything. We ran together up the dancefloor, across the bars, and into the entryway. We turned a corner, I pushed at the door, and the blazing artificial light of Critwell station made me see white. Several creatures were talking around us. Some were screaming, others were crying. My eyes finally adjusted to see that the crowd was a mix of dancers I had seen inside and other curious passerby. I blinked a couple more times to adjust my vision, and realized that the dog man from before was among them. His eyes met mine. He seemed worried, and raised a hand as if to signal me over there.

 I could only blurt out “Run!” Before the foam burst out of the club. The crowd scattered, some trampled over others and some could even fly as they made to escape the massive spill. Steam pulsed from its core, and the faint howls of a strained Bedaup accompanied it. My vision became a blur of screaming streaks of color. We took advantage of the confusion to slam into a nearby crevice unseen. Sirens wailed, and I didn’t want to hang around to see who they were coming for.

Krazmundo led, pushing anything out of his way with ease. Lucas hopped trash cans and kicked walls like it was second nature. Leaving the wake for me to deal with. I skidded haphazardly around every obstacle. My feet stubbed metal, my arms slapped brick, I couldn’t keep up with myself let alone them. Finally, we came to a large wire fence. Krazmundo practically stepped over it. Lucas tangled up like a spider monkey. He landed on the other side just as I caught up and looked back to me, “Come on!”

I hunched over on my knees, regretting the lost quiet I was enjoying seemingly seconds before. “Please just- just give me a minute.”

“We can breathe when we’re safe, right now we need to go!”

“I know, but I-”

“Come on! We need to-”

“STOP RUSHING ME, BITCH!” My voice bounced on the walls between us. I screamed again, “Jesus Christ, is THIS what you do for a living? Huh? Nearly die at a nightclub one second, go running from the cops the other?! I just got here! So excuse me if I have to take some time to adjust to getting chased, burned, pulled, pushed- SHOT AT!”

“Matt I-”

“I can’t just be this, okay? Why the Hell do you have it so easy and I don’t?! You can just run away and be this thing you want to be and I- I- I I have a target on my back! That you painted! I understand how serious this is but if I don’t take just one second to to fucking BREATHE I’m going to die before any bounty hunter gets their hands on me!”

“I painted that target?” He said, “You- I’ve been trying to help you this whole time! You’re the one who keeps making things worse!”

There was a clattering behind me, but I didn’t look. Krazmundo came back around, “hey! We need to move! Now!”

“He’s right, we’re not doing this again, come on.” Lucas said and motioned me to come over the fence.

Maybe using all the energy I had on that fight wasn’t the best idea. I grabbed hold of the fence lining and tried to pull myself up, but I was just so tired. I fell to the ground, and gasped for air.

“Matt!” Lucas cried. I heard Krazmundo grunt and in the blurriness of my vision I saw him punch down the fence to get to me. I wasn’t sure why until something latched onto me and hoisted me up. Suddenly I was in the air, looking down at both of them. I jerked up, and realized I was over the shoulder of a third party scaling the building. I could see a long tail covered in black and felt claws digging into my back. It leapt out of the way as Cass fired a barrage of lasers.

I wiggled and punched at the kevlar material it was wearing. “Let me go! I’m not letting this happen again! Let me go!”

“Hold still!” A male voice, strained and agitated. The creature struggled to hold onto me and keep his balance. I didn’t care, I kept struggling. I kicked and managed to bust him in the face. He dropped me, but doubled back and snagged me by the foot. He started to hoist me up, so I did the only thing I could. I kicked off my shoe.

I fell head first and was cut off mid-scream when Krazmundo caught me. He oriented me back on the ground where Lucas put an arm in front of me and aimed up at the assailant. They were covered in all black, but the silhouette was distinctly reptilian. He hissed and jumped up to the roof of the building.

“Just your shoe?” He said, holding it up. “That won’t do.”

“This is our bounty!” Lucas called, “I’ll kick your ass if you come any closer!”

“You should know by now, this is more than just a bounty.”

“Have you been following us from the club?” Krazmundo called, “what do you know?”

“You played the song. It’s already begun. There’s no room for error here. Give him to me and you might be alright.”

“Were you the contact?” I said.

“No. The Sphere was not meant for me. But I don’t have time to sit here and be your teacher. Eli’s expecting me back.”

“Eli? Was this all just some stupid set-up? Huh?” I said.

“I don’t have time to argue.”

“Then spill it!”

I was interrupted by a crackling voice from behind us. It spoke in another language before repeating, “Freeze! Drop your weapons!”

We were soon flanked on either side by troops in gray jumpsuits. They pointed long rifles at us and several tentacles reached from their backs ready to attack. By the design of their outfits I could tell these were Tangerian. They looked almost like Zwendel, complete with helmets. I instinctively held my hands up and realized that the lizard we were talking to before had taken the opportunity to leave.

“Ah come on.” Lucas chided, “you can’t arrest us! Didn’t your mommy tell you? Silmon’s prop!”

“Weapons down! Hands up! Now!” Came the order. Krazmundo and Lucas grudgingly obliged. One of the officers came around to each of us and placed us in handcuffs. When he got to Krazmundo he looked down at his large hands, and back at the tiny little handcuffs.

He looked to one of his fellow officers, “We uh… really should have brought the big ones.”