literature

All for Dome, Dome for All - Round 5

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Pike and Billy spoke with Avidan for a while. Avidan was nice and the things he talked about were expanding their view of the Domers in general. In a lull of conversation the three heard pounding footsteps and then six people stormed into the room brandishing huge wrenches and hammers and pliers and things. The one in front shouted at them.

“You Outers better let our friend go, or we’ll let you have it!”

Rather brave, considering Billy was in the room. Even sitting he made the room feel smaller. Before Billy or Pike could react, both who sat stunned at the entrance, Avidan leaned back in his chair without worry, arms behind his head.

“I didn’t realize we were friends, Leto. As I recall, you’ve had it out for me ever since I got the beacon job before you.” Leto flushed brightly and scowled as he lowered his makeshift weapon to point at Avidan.

“Shut up, that job should have been mine and you know it.” Another Domer spoke up, tapping her leader on the shoulder.

“Uh, the Outers?”

“Right! Let’s get ‘em!” Avidan shook his head and stood up.

“Will you all relax? They didn’t take me captive, I led them here. We’ve been talking for nearly an hour while you were off doing who knows what.”

“We – we were forming rescue parties to save you.”

“Well I don’t need rescuing, so put your tools down and I’ll introduce you.”

Introductions were made, and while the new engineers were wary at first, like Avidan, they quickly forgot the physical irregularities as they talked with the Outers. ‘Weapons’ were dropped and they all began to discuss things. Billy got a few more questions answered, though not as fulfilling as he’d like. Eventually the idea of showing them around the inside of the Dome was brought up. Pike and Billy wondered at the wisdom of this. They were trying to sneak into the Dome. Avidan reassured them that they would be with him and the other engineers, and that they got in because defenses stronger than some locked gates were disabled long before then due to a perceived lack of a threat. They asked what he meant.

“The Dome hasn’t kicked anyone out in about two hundred years, and we haven’t had attacks on the Dome in about as long. I think security assumed Outers had seen what we were capable of and wouldn’t even try, so they slowly lost vigilance. Even sending out security drones to sweep the perimeter is rare. I don’t think anyone knows you’re here yet. You didn’t alert anyone higher, did you Leto?” The engineer shook his head.

“No, I hadn’t seen them and I didn’t want it to be some false alarm so we just grouped up together without telling anyone.” Avidan nodded and turned back to Pike and Billy.

“If you’ll follow us, we’ll give you your first look inside the Dome.”

The trip was mostly silent, the engineers using the colored bands to navigate without pause. Pike had trouble with them herself. She missed them most of the time, and couldn’t quite understand how the Domers could work with such a system.

Eventually they were led into a room lined with lockers and a wall supporting three large cylinders. Two of them were full, and as Avidan placed a stopwatch sized device into a slot, the maintenance droid cluster floated into the empty cylinder to match its siblings. Avidan and the other engineers gathered things from lockers and put away equipment before leading the two Outers through a heavily latched door.

Strangely, it wasn’t the view Pike had expected upon properly entering the Dome. The door let into a building and she looked out at its lobby, sagging slightly.

“Well, this is a little disappointing.” Avidan guffawed.

“This isn’t how most people would normally enter the Dome. You’ll have to live with a little let down. C’mon, step outside.”

Only a few steps and they were beyond the sliding door and out into open air. The building stood alone in a field, lined up against the wall. A paved path led from the door away over a hill covered in wavy grass. Things so unfamiliar to her, Pike thought she’d never see them herself. The sun was bright, but not as hot and harsh as outside, probably due to some Domer ingenuity. Staring out at the clean environment and the city beyond that, Pike was slammed with exhaustion as the effects of staying up all night caught up with her.

She slumped heavily against Billy and closed her eyes. He asked her something, but sleep was louder and she was gone.




Pike left the room when the Domers’ attention was on Billy. She made her way upstairs and found the noise followed her. No people though. She opened a window, hoping a breeze would dampen the sounds from below. Sticking her head out the window, Pike took in the darkened section of the city. So many empty buildings.

The Domers had taken them to this building in this abandoned part of town to avoid too much attention. Here they’d be allowed to sleep while the engineers went off to their families. They’d come back hours later, towing family and friends along. Pike had been mistrustful of such obvious morbid curiosity (What are Outers like? I hear they’ve got two heads. Do they even talk like people? I thought they became animals by staying out there so long. Etc.), but it had turned to genuine interest in the outside world and the cultures that had sprung up by the hastily formed communities. Pike had shaken so many hands and answered the same questions as new people arrived late that she was quickly overwhelmed. She’d left as soon as an opportunity arose to slip away unnoticed.

A particularly loud exclamation from downstairs startled her into looking back at the door in distaste. As she returned her gaze to the window, her eyes locked onto the window ledge. It jutted out from the outside wall of the building several inches and old instincts kicked in. She leaned even further out and saw unintentional handholds dot the building’s exterior. With a grin she pulled herself onto the ledge and out the window.

Scant minutes later, Pike was on the roof, feeling triumphant. The grin was stuck to her face and adrenaline ran through her blood. She let out a giddy laugh and spoke to the night air.

“I haven’t done that in years! Damn that felt good.”

The air moved more freely up here and she could feel her hair begging to be freed. So she pulled at the band keeping her hair constrained. Her hair didn’t go far, short as it was, but lifted gently in the wind, feeling wonderful. She spun slowly, admiring the view given by her new altitude.

The roof was flat, surrounded by a low wall, machines and vents protruding in a few places. It wasn’t much to look at, but the night sky inside the dome was spectacular. Well, nearly night. The nearby buildings were all the same height and they gave her an unobstructed view of the setting sun. The glass of the Dome warped the sunlight into what Pike assumed was a facsimile of an old Earth sunset.

She watched the sky change colors for several minutes, leaning comfortably on the waist high wall. A strange noise drew her attention behind her. Someone was doing an awful lot of grunting over the side of the roof. Before she could approach to investigate, a small pasty hand reached up, heralding the arrival of the rest of a young child. They panted and wheezed as they clambered onto the roof only to splay out near Pike. A minute of breath catching passed before they rolled their head to meet her questioning gaze.

“How did you do that? I saw you climb up the outside of the building and onto the roof so quickly! It took me forever to do the same thing.”

Pike considered them for a moment before realizing why this child was familiar. She’d met them before, but she’d been reaching her limit of new people while in the midst of a sea of them.

“You’re Avidan’s child, right?”

“Hanne. And you didn’t answer my question.” Pike chuckled.

I can see why Avidan would find Hanne to be challenging.

“I’ve had a lot more practice than you. When I was growing up, sometimes you had to climb to survive. I haven’t done that in a long time, so I’m sure my younger self would be embarrassed by how long it took.”

Hanne watched her in silence. They turned to look at the colored sky.

“Are you up here because of the sunset? It’s not really much to look at, not tonight anyway.” Pike shook her head.

“The sunset outside the Dome is sickly looking; this is much nicer, even if it’s not spectacular to you. But it’s not why I’m on the roof.”

“Why then?” Pike rolled a shoulder dispassionately.

“Sometimes being around too many people for too long, especially strangers, tires me out. I need to be alone to…recover, I guess is the best word for it. Recover from being worn out by so many people.” Hanne glanced at her before returning their gaze to the quickly darkening sky.

“Oh. I guess I understand that. I feel like that a lot lately. What do you do when you can’t get away from people to recover?” A small chuckle escaped Pike’s lips.

“Well, I climbed up here to escape, didn’t I? You could always find a place only you know or can get to. That’s a great way to get some time alone.” Hanne slumped on the parapet.

“I barely managed to get up here. And I don’t even know how I’m going to get back down.” They were silent for a moment, but before Pike could remind them of how much practice she’d had, Hanne looked up at her excitedly.

“You know how to climb! You could teach me!” Pike held up her hands defensively.

“I don’t know, I don’t think I’d be a great teacher.” Their head sunk.

“Oh. Can you at least help me back down then?”

“Yeah, we’d better do it before it’s fully dark. C’mon.”

Pike led them back to the edge she’d come up and helped them clamber over the wall. Before they could slip, she climbed over too, experienced hands gripping the lip of the roof. She reached out and grabbed their ankle.

“Put your foot here. See how the ledge sticks out a little? With something like this you normally want bare feet to really feel where you’re putting them, but I don’t want you worrying about carrying your shoes.”

She continued instructing them as they descended, finally getting them back inside. She furrowed her brow upon realizing what had just taken place. She threw her arms up in defeat.

“Okay, I changed my mind. I’ll teach you some basics. You’re quick to learn and I guess I’m not terrible at teaching. Who knew?”

“You’ll really teach me? When can we start?” Pike held up a finger.

“Not tonight, it’s already late and I’m still exhausted. Tomorrow. Come back in clothes you feel you can move around freely in. Now shoo!”

Hanne ran off downstairs to tell their father, nearly bowling into Billy as he came up the steps. Billy pressed his back to the wall as the child ran past and then looked to Pike.

“Did I hear right? You’re going to teach them how to climb?” Pike crossed her arms and sighed.

“Yeah. I realized that if they were my kid, I’d want to encourage them in anything they found interest in. I figured that if I’m here right now, I can show them what to start with. How’d you get away from the crowd?”

“Most of them have left already. Like you said, it’s late. I think it’s mostly Avidan and his friends. When I realized you’d escaped, I suggested we call it a night. Honestly I’m ready to sleep for a week.”

Pike nodded and they both went down to bid farewell to the remaining Domers, many of which promised they’d be back the next day with more questions. Pike was nearly asleep on her feet as they finally left and she trudged to the second story to fall unconscious.




The next morning was hectic. Pike woke to banging on the door, not exactly something she was accustomed to. She blearily pulled goggles over her eyes and stumbled downstairs. Hanne was beyond the door, grinning excitedly.

“Hanne, I don’t know what time it is, but it feels early. Why are you here so…is that fruit?” Hanne’s smile faded a little as they looked down at the bowl of apples they carried.

“Is…that okay? We didn’t really leave much here for you two to eat, so I thought in exchange for you teaching me, I’d bring breakfast.”

For a moment Pike could only stare at the fruit. She took one reverently and brought it up to her nose, inhaling deeply. She looked at it again, almost in disbelief, and then back to Hanne.

“This is real? I mean, not made with any crazy Domer tech?” Hanne screwed up their brows in focus.

“Well, they’re grown in greenhouses and we use technology to monitor their health. But they don’t erupt from test tubes or anything.”

It was all Pike needed to hear and she sunk her teeth into the flesh of the apple and delighted in the crisp crunch. Her grunt of pleasure sent Hanne’s smile soaring back to brilliance. Focused on chewing, Pike waved them in. They set the bowl on the table everyone had been seated around the previous night just as Billy descended the stairs. His reaction was very similar to Pike’s. The three sat at the table and just enjoyed what the Domers considered a normal breakfast.

As Pike finished her second apple she saw Hanne squirming in their seat. Eager, aren’t they? Before she could ask if they were ready to learn, another knock came at the door, less enthusiastic than Hanne’s but somehow with the same eagerness. Billy answered this time.

Behind the door was a crowd. Pike stared around Billy’s frame at the gathered mass as they suddenly started asking questions. Avidan came running up the side of the group, panting and out of breath. He waved a hand at them.

“Hey, sorry about this. I asked them not to swarm you so early, but I think everyone is a little too curious to be polite.”

The crowd continued to ask questions over Avidan and began to press forward, making Pike feel claustrophobic in the relatively small room. She leaned over to Hanne and whispered a question. Upon confirmation she hopped to the doorway and squeezed past Billy. She prepared her loud voice and said something utterly alien to any Outer.

“Gee, it’s such a nice day out, why don’t we head to the park to talk? It’d be a shame to stay inside.” A smattering of consideration came from the group, but several voices spoke out in agreement, such a suggestion perfectly reasonable to the relatively sheltered people.

“Good idea.”

“The park’s nice.”

“I guess it would be nicer than cramming all of us in that dining room.”

“It is nice out, what a great suggestion.”

And so, with a gentle stampeding, the mass of people turned and began walking. Pike sighed in relief. She shot a smile over her shoulder to Hanne.

“Thanks for the park idea. It’ll be good for teaching you too.” She jerked her head after the crowd. “Shall we?”

Hanne’s face lit up and they bolted out the door, and being the last to leave, Pike closed the door behind them. And then opened it again to grab another apple from the table and pocketing it as she ran back out.

* * *

Pike answered the occasional question as she walked with the group, but most of the Domers talked to each other and she couldn’t help eavesdropping. Most of the conversations were rather mundane, asking each other how work was going, or what their family was up to, things Pike had heard and had participated in back home. Some discussed what Outers in the Dome might mean and the tournament they had brought up, but there was less than Pike expected.

Avidan interrupted her conversational spying, nudging her shoulder and pointing to his child excitedly marching ahead of the group.

“I haven’t seen them this enthusiastic in a long time. They barely paused to breathe last night, telling us about climbing onto the roof and how you were going to teach them more. Then they leapt around the house, knocking furniture over and bouncing on their bed. I’m not sure whether to thank you for sparking their desire in this or to push you off a building for making our lives more interesting.”

Pike chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck.

“I don’t know how good I’ll be at teaching them, but Hanne seems excited about it. I’m guessing they would have tried it on their own just after watching me do it. I at least need to teach them how to not hurt themself while practicing.” Avidan nodded, watching Hanne jump off another planter box.

The park wasn’t terribly far, maybe a half hour’s walk through streets full of mostly identical architecture. The only variation came with closed and locked stores and shops, the variation used to mark them as non-residential.

The park was a wide open space, a neatly trimmed lawn dotted with trees. Walkways weaved through the park and in the distance Pike could see a manmade lake shimmering and extending under a bridge and next to several of the buildings. Pike was both impressed and nervous. Old instincts told her there were no places to hide in case of threats. She shoved those feelings down, reminding them there were no mutated animals here, or raiding Nycker gangs. Instead, she joined Hanne on a gentle slope.

The next several hours were spent answering questions and showing off. It felt like showing off to Pike, but Hanne and even some other kids paid attention to her instruction. So many questions though. If Pike had thought the adults had been curious, she hadn’t been expecting the children.

They asked about where she came from and her home. They asked about her family and her friends. What’s the outside like? How did you do that thing with your foot? Upon learning about her life before the Socratics, Hanne inundated her with requests.

Did you ever fight monsters? There were mutated animals, but we tried to just avoid them. Fighting them usually got you killed. Did you go on many adventures? If you count exploring old buildings for supplies to be adventures. What’s the tallest thing you ever climbed? A decrepit three story building. We’d stayed inside the night before and it nearly collapsed on us as we left. My friend left something important behind but was too scared to try the stairs. So I went up the outside to retrieve it. Pretty much had to run down the building as it collapsed on the way out. Wow!

The morning passed quickly, and Pike suggested a rest for lunch. Many of the kids looked pooped and readily agreed, though Hanne chafed at pausing. A group of adults went off to bring back food and the time waiting was spent in idle chatter, and Pike got to talk about her children and listened to stories of Domer children.

A shout swiveled everyone’s attention to a man running toward them. He waved a device around as he ran. Pike couldn’t decipher the look on his face. As he approached another Domer stepped forward.

“Hey, Clavin, where’s everyone else? Where’s the food?”

“They’re coming, but forget about the food. There’s been an announcement, a big one!”

“Okay, what is it?” Instead of answering, Clavin handed the device over to the other Domer who read from it.

!Attention!


This is a priority message for all citizens. Due to a change in policy, this government has decided to permit entry to any persons from outside the Dome. Collectively called ‘Outers,’ these people differ from us greatly, in both appearance and behavior. Invitations and moving will happen over the next few weeks and generally be open to any applicants afterwards. They will be housed in the many uninhabited sectors of our home, to allow acclimatization and integration to occur slowly. We ask that you be patient with us and with our new neighbors as time goes on. Thank you.

And below were several official looking signatures.

There was silence from the group as the news settled in. And then everyone began talking at once. Some Domers had pulled out communicators to contact friends or relatives to ask if they’d received this news or if it was some prank. Pike heard a group discussing that the tournament hadn’t been mentioned at all. Were the Outers lying about that? Another Domer broke in, reminding them that the leadership had done shady things before now, why wouldn’t they try to hide their disgrace? Which started up a new argument and it was all too much for Pike to be directly surrounded by.

She looked down at Hanne and nodded her head away from the larger group. Hanne broke into another grin as they followed her. Pike had them climb up on a taller planter box so they could practice falling properly, but Hanne was a little distracted. As they balanced at the edge, they couldn’t help asking their own questions.

“Does this mean you’ll be moving into the Dome with your kids?” Pike nodded slowly.

“And my husband. Well, that was my original goal, to get my family in here where they’d have a better life. I mean, that was probably everyone’s goal, really. So, I suppose that is what this means.”

Hanne jumped down from the box a little roughly, making Pike wince at the landing.

“That would be awesome! Then you could keep teaching me, and I could meet your kids and we could be friends and…” Pike couldn’t help but laugh at their enthusiasm.

“Hold on, my children are only a year old. It’s going to be a while before they can truly come out and play with you, especially now that you’re learning this kind of thing.”

“Still! This is going to be great!”

Shouting drew her attention away from her lesson. Unlike Clavin earlier, this yelling was clearly angry. A small mob of people surged toward the gathered Domers. As they got closer Pike could see Domer fingers furiously pointing at her and Billy. The group wasn’t large, but their aggression still set Pike’s instincts on edge.

“There they are!” “This is their fault!” “Why don’t you just go back where you came from?”

Avidan stepped in front of their charge, holding his hands up high.

“What is going on here?”

“We’d heard you’d brought these…deformed freaks inside. And now they’re going to stay and there’s going to be more of them!”

“So? There’s so much space here that we can’t even begin to fill up. This won’t even affect you right away.”

“We can’t trust them! They’re all criminals, that’s why they’re outside the Dome in the first place. Outers are all the same, they can’t be trusted. They were ejected all those years ago because they didn’t belong here then, and they don’t belong here now!”

Pike’s attempt to defend herself was interrupted by another Domer from the group who’d been asking them questions.

“Our government ejected people who opposed their plans too! Not everyone who was kicked out was a criminal! And that was hundreds of years ago, the people alive now had nothing to do with them. These Outers have done nothing but be pleasant and polite, answering our pestering questions. You’re just bigoted!”

“Actually…” All eyes swiveled toward Pike. She recoiled at the sudden attention, but she’d just remembered Delta G and her inherited bigotry. She’d thought Nomads were all vicious and cruel, and there were others who agreed with her. But after spending a night in a dump truck with Pike, she’d had a lot of her misconceptions straightened out.

“Um, they might be bigoted against us, but I’m sure there are just as many Outer bigots against Domers. I’m not exactly unused to bigotry because of who I am. Everyone is going to have to adjust and get over their initial ideas about others. I think, if we looked past the physical differences and cultural differences, Domers and Outers are a lot more alike than…anyone would really like to admit.”

This wasn’t what they wanted to hear, of course, though some lapsed into thoughtful murmuring. The majority of the group was still angry and still looked like they wanted to throw her bodily out of the Dome. Before they could organize to do anything of the sort another shouting group rounded the corner of a building in the distance.

Even from this far away everyone could see they were not Domers. People of different shapes and colors and malformed bodies charged forward, all anger and volume. Pike saw several weapons being brandished and while most were simple weapons like poles and clubs, several had longer range weapons. At least one carried a crossbow. She recognized several from the tournament.

“Shit.”

Then the screams started. The Domers around her began looking around frantically, unsure what to do. Several of her detractors pointed at her and Billy, accusing them.

“We told you they couldn’t be trusted!” “They distracted all of us so their allies could attack!”

Pike tilted her head back and sighed in annoyance. They’d been so close to talking things out, but the tournament seemed to have ruined that chance. She was going to have words with whoever had thought up the competition.

She dropped her head, looked to Billy and adjusted her goggles in what she hoped was a heroic manner.

“Will you please escort the Domers to wherever they think they’ll be safe? I’m going to try to calm our ‘friends’ over there down.” He looked worried, and his cat had retreated into his bag.

“Why shouldn’t I go with you? That’s a lot of people to cool down.”

“Because you’re bigger than me, and if some of them follow to attack the Domers, you can actually probably protect the people we like.”

“The people we like? What about the rest?”

“Only if they ask politely.”

He gave her an odd look and shook his head at her bad joke, but helped Avidan move people out of the area. Pike briefly wondered that Avidan had become their impromptu liaison to the Domer people and had gained credibility as a leader.

She steeled herself and turned to face the mob bearing down on her. They’d seen the fleeing Domers and were making a beeline for her location. As they neared she put her arms in the air and attempted to boom.

“Hold it!” The group more or less came to a halt, all eyes on her, along with the pressure she’d felt earlier. “Why are you attacking now? There’s been an announcement to let us all in! You don’t need to invade!”

A woman stumped out from the front of the group. She was a full head shorter than Pike, but Pike knew size wasn’t everything. Her frizzy brown hair fell over the left side of her face, obscuring that eye from view. She wore shorts and a red vest over a sleeveless white top. She carried a long, dense pole as a walking stick in her right hand.

Her left arm was…not there. In its place hung a chain, a wicked spike dangling at the end. Her right leg ended in a heavy work boot and her left leg was similar to a suit of armor. A lump of foot-shaped metal rested on the ground. A greave was attached at a flexible knee joint to a thigh connected to her hip, all made of sturdy looking metal. As she walked, Pike could see that she was unused to the leg and it looked heavy, but she carried herself with confidence.

She stepped right up to Pike and looked her over. Though this girl was younger and shorter than her, Pike suddenly felt extremely nervous. She could see the muscles of her right arm bunched as her hand flexed on the staff.

“You don’t look like a Domer, so why are you so keen on protecting them? They’ve had it easy for a long time. Why shouldn’t we just take what we want?”

“You can get what you want without the violence! Was there not an announcement on the outside? They’re making preparations to let everyone in!”

The girl’s face scrunched up into a vicious snarl.

“Oh, we got a announcement alright. Telling us to be on our best behavior. Saying we’d be constantly monitored and that we’d best not step out of line toward our ‘superiors.’ We didn’t think too highly of their ‘generosity,’ so we decided to let ourselves in. That gate keeping us out didn’t last very long, we shoulda stormed this place years ago.”

Pike threw her arms out to the sides in disbelief. What idiot would intentionally rile up the people they’d been effectively tormenting for the duration of the tournament? If it could even be called a tournament anymore. As far as she knew they’d only had one official round.

“Well, that’s pretty stupid of their leadership, I agree. I guess not everyone here is a genius. But there are good people here. I’m sure we can work all of this out if you just stop this now. There’s plenty of room.”

The woman looked to be considering it when her eyes darted to a nearby alley. She stomped her heavy metal leg forward menacingly and pointed.

“Who’s spying on us, you Domer freak?”

Pike whirled to see who she was pointing at, only to draw in an anxious breath.

“Oh, Hanne…” The woman spun on her.

“You know this peeper? Are they your handler or something?”

“Hanne is just a kid, I don’t know why they’re still here. They should have left with the others.” The woman sneered.

“Yeah, right. Sounds like you’re already in league with the Domers. What’d they promise you if you could get us to stop? I’m not stopping for some Domer puppet!”

A young man stepped forward, skin and hair abnormally pale, square goggles pulled tightly to his face. He placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder as though he didn’t want to draw her ire.

“Jae, I know this whole thing is upsetting, but maybe we should take a moment. That really does look like a kid.” She whipped her head around at him.

“Can it, Cairo! The leg you built is awesome, but it’ll only get us what we want if I’m there to shove it up someone’s ass! I’m going to take care of that spy, and then I’m going to take care of the Domer’s little toy here, and then we’ll take what’s ours.”

It was a stupid decision, a suicidal one even, but Pike’s fist connected with Jae’s face before she could realize that. Jae had taken only two steps toward Hanne when Pike had chosen to interrupt the assault on a child, her parental instincts kicking in.

Jae stumbled back from the blow and locked furious eye contact with the shock frozen Pike. In that moment, Pike knew she was going to lose this fight she’d picked. So, she ran. As she ran toward Hanne she could hear the enraged woman behind her.

“I’ll take care of these two and keep them from getting in our way. The rest of you, find those Domers!”

Pike ducked into the alley with Hanne and put her hands on the child’s arms.

“Why are you here? Why didn’t you leave with the rest?” Tears were forming in their eyes.

“Is she going to kill us? I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Why is she so mean?” Pike pulled them into a quick hug.

“I need you to run, run as fast as you can to your dad. He’ll keep you safe when you’re with him. I’m going to make sure she doesn’t follow you. Quickly now, go!” She gave them a shove and Hanne stumbled down the alley, scrubbing tears from their face.

Pike could hear the woman called Jae clanking toward her menacingly. She had no idea what she was going to do, so she just hurtled herself at the threat. She barreled out of the alley and slammed her shoulder into the woman in an attempt to knock her down. Jae had apparently been expecting some sort of attack and had braced herself. She took a step back, but then a step forward brought her heavy right hand into Pike’s head.

Pike was knocked to the ground, goggles colliding with pavement. The cracked glass of the right lens shattered at the impact, and she blinked reflexively, quick enough to block any glass from entering her eye. She kept it closed, the daylight painful even through her eyelid. She looked back at her Outer opponent who was picking up her walking staff. She hefted it in the air and grinned cruelly at Pike.

“This new leg of mine sure helps with taking hits. But I think it’s time for me to start giving them.” She advanced on Pike, the staff held in a striking position. Pike did the only thing she could think of and ran.

She fled across the street as Jae noisily pursued her. The first alley she came to ended a short way in. She’d die if she went in there. She turned down the street, looking frantically for options. A planter box hanging off a low window sill grabbed her attention, and before she could second guess herself she leapt at it. She placed a foot on it and pushed down hard to vault herself upward, arms outstretched. The box, long unmaintained, broke apart as she jumped and clattered to the ground.

Pike’s fingers grabbed the upper story’s window ledge and her feet scrambled for purchase. When they caught she scrambled up the wall, using the window ledge to further propel her hands to the roof. In just another moment she’d hauled herself up and looked back down.

The angry woman was looking up at her in slight awe.

“How in the world? Get back down here so I can properly kick your ass!” Pike glanced to the side and back down.

“Uh…no.”

Ignoring the woman’s shouting, she pulled back and sat down on a vent. From under her tool belt she stretched her shirt until she could dig a screwdriver into it and tore two strips. She removed her goggles and held one strip in place over her right eye as she replaced the goggles. The second strip was balled up and placed into the empty socket. She pulled her hands away and found that her eye was no longer screaming in pain, but her depth perception was just as wrecked as before.

“Guess it’ll have to work,” she mumbled.

A triumphant shout startled her off her seat. Jae was hauling herself up over the lip of the building. How?

“Ha ha! Found a ladder! Now what are you going to do?” She rolled onto the rooftop, sitting there for a moment .

“You look rough, are you okay?” Jae stood shakily.

“Shut up, we’re fighting! And it’s not easy climbing anything with one hand and a heavy leg.” Pike looked around for a solution and found an entirely undesirable one.

“Aw, crap.”

“Yeah, nowhere to go. We’re going to finish th – where are you going?”

Before she could over think it, Pike was in the air between buildings, having hurled herself off the roof. The neighboring roof wasn’t too far, but it was a similar height and she sunk quickly. With her depth perception ruined, Pike’s foot caught on the edge of the roof and she rolled onto the rooftop roughly. Gravel caught in her skin, gouging small wounds all over her exposed skin. She could already tell she was bleeding from it.

Crap.

Hoping the distance would be too far for her pursuer, Pike looked back and felt her face drop in despair. Jae backed against the far wall and sprinted toward Pike. It was a disjointed and awkward sprint, but it was apparently just enough. She landed on the parapet and tottered back and forth for a moment before balancing and grinning madly.

Now properly scared, Pike scrambled to her feet and took off for the next edge. She pushed off to maximize her distance and hoped her aim was right. She could hear the metal prosthetic behind her, chasing her. Her landing was better this time, though she still had to brace against the ground, with more gravel cutting into her hands.

Her direction dead ended and she was forced to turn to the left to keep ahead. She heard Jae’s battle cry as the woman leapt again to land solidly on the roof. She was getting better at jumping. Pike vaulted over a vent and planted both feet on the wall before leaping for the next building. This time she landed only needing to windmill her arms around for a moment. I guess I’m getting better at the jumping too.

But Jae was still coming and she looked pissed off at all of the hassle she was being put through. The only path Pike could really see now was to her right, though she’d have to climb. All other directions lead to a large drop or back toward Jae. So without much choice, Pike very carefully leapt to the side of a taller building and climbed to the roof even higher than she’d been.

Looking down she saw Jae just getting to the previous roof and glowering up at her. Pike sighed in relief. There was no way Jae was going to climb up a building’s face with only one arm and a deadweight hanging from her hip. Pike stepped back and examined herself.

Small wounds along her hands and arms were slowly but surely covering her in blood. She considered it very lucky she didn’t have glass in her eye, though she felt scratches there too. She still had a syringe of the solution that temporarily fixed her hemophilia from when she’d stolen them from the hospital. She pulled it out from her tool belt and considered it. She hated needles, and not just because they tended to make her bleed to death.

I need to deal with her, and there’s no way I’m going to accomplish that if I bleed out before she gets to kill me herself. This is going to suck.

Pike uncapped the needle and braced herself for the prick. A jarring clang behind her caused her to jump. She looked back to find a chain wrapped around a pipe jutting above the roof.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She ran over to the side of the roof and looked over. Jae was climbing her chain, using her real foot to find places to plant the metal one. Concentration filled her face and she was only a few feet away from reaching the edge. Pike’s eyes widened and she scrambled to pull the chain free from the pipe, but Jae’s weight kept it securely anchored.

Then Jae was pulling herself up and at the first sign of balance she slugged Pike in the arm, sending the syringe flying across the roof. With obvious experience Jae unfurled the chain from the pipe and immediately whipped it down across Pike’s legs. Pike fell hard, feeling the spike cut into one of her legs.

Jae leapt on top of her and started beating her about the face, pinning her arms under her powerful and heavy legs.

“I’m not about to lose what I’ve fought for! I’m not going to let some Domer lover like you ruin my chances at helping my family! If I need to beat you into this concrete to get my sisters the care and respect they deserve, you’d best be ready to be a whole lot more intimate with this roof.”

Pike managed to get a hand free, but was unable to get any leverage with it. Jae was able to ignore her attempts to remove the heavier woman. Pike felt her tools digging into her thighs as Jae settled more firmly onto her. In that moment her brain disconnected from the pain and the fight and just wanted to let her know that one of the items in her tool belt was an odd shape. She remembered putting it there during the first round of the tournament.

Still struggling, Pike managed to pull the device out of her belt and aim it at Jae’s face. Having ignored most of Pike’s flailings, Jae didn’t notice Pike push a button to release a canister’s worth of compressed air directly into her face.

Crying out in surprise, Jae stumbled back off of Pike. She flailed her arm around and tried to wipe her face, sure something had attacked it.

Pike scrambled to a crouched position, dropped the canister and tried to locate the syringe. She was bleeding even faster now, thanks to Jae’s chain whip and her new broken nose. She saw it across the roof, thankfully unbroken, but its location behind Jae revealed that she didn’t have enough time to get to it. Jae was nearly recovered and would continue pummeling Pike when she did.

Beyond both Jae and the syringe, Pike saw water. She’d made note of the lake’s location earlier in the day, not wanting to go anywhere near it. Now it looked a lot more appealing than being punched to death.

So, with a battle cry more like a whimper, Pike drove herself forward and tackled into Jae’s torso and right over the side of the building. Jae screamed. Pike screamed. It was a two and a half story fall to the lake’s surface. Pike watched it hurtle toward them as Jae thrashed about.

“This is going to suck!”

Pain. Pain and wet and surprisingly not cold. The water was warm and clear, and flowing into her eyepatched eye. The bottom didn’t seem far away, but her lungs suggested otherwise. Pike managed to disentangle herself from Jae who was still flailing. Pike kicked off her shoes and undid her tool belt, both of which threatened to make the lakebed her permanent home.

She kicked off the bottom and thrashed her limbs around in an attempt to reach the surface. She spared a glance behind her and saw Jae struggling. Her metal leg sunk firmly into the mud and her chain whip seemed to have caught on something. Lungs feeling tight, Pike ignored the other pain in her chest and stretched for air. She was a terrible swimmer, but her buoyancy was greater than anyone with metal limbs.

Upon breaching, Pike swam/sank to the nearest shore she could see. Coughing could not deter the happiness she felt at being able to stand, but looking up would do it.

Standing on the beach was a young woman, one that reminded her an awful lot of the one she’d just left at the bottom of a lake to drown. Straighter hair and homemade prosthetics on the right side of her body clearly marked who she was. Though one eye was useless, both were staring beyond Pike. Her hand covered her mouth and tears came to her eye.

Pike looked back over her shoulder to the lake, and then back to the girl, and then with a sigh headed back into the water.

Minutes later she dragged Jae’s limp body from the lake, both prosthetic limbs missing. She dragged the both of them far enough that the water wouldn’t drown them and flopped down next to a choking Jae, exhausted.

Pike could feel her energy draining, and knew she’d bled too much. The sky was darkening, despite the early hour. Jae sputtered a question.

“Why are you so keen on defending these Domers anyway?” Pike shook her head wearily and pulled off her goggles, useless to her now.

“I’ve met them, and they’re more like us than we’d think. They’re proud, and xenophobic, and quick to anger and violence. But they’re also loyal, kind, generous. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, especially for their kids. Even the bastards that started this ridiculous fiasco were doing it to preserve the future for the rest of them. Just like I believe it of the Outers, the Domers are mostly good people.”

Jae turned to look at Pike with her good eye, her sister hovering over her to make sure she was breathing.

“You’ve had time to think of all that?” Pike panted a laugh, more tired than she’d ever been.

“Just been a really…busy few days. I think I’m going to close my eyes now. Don’t be alarmed if I don’t open them again, s’natural.”

What?” Jae sounded alarmed, but Pike couldn’t bring herself to care. Her eyes closed slowly and in the distance she could hear another voice calling her name, but it was too far away for her to recognize it. She went under.




Pike sat on a hill. There was grass under her. Real grass, not stunted weeds or the Astroturf of the world she knew. There was even a tree above her, and the setting sun looked beautiful instead of haggard and ominous. A steady thunk approached from behind her, but she ignored it for the moment, keen on enjoying the view.

Finally Jae eased herself down next to Pike, setting her walking staff aside. Jae took in the view in silence only for a moment before lightly punching Pike’s arm. Pike glanced over to meet the former Nycker’s eye through her new goggles.

“You know this isn’t the end, right? Just because they’re letting all of us in doesn’t mean things are going to be perfect now.” Pike nodded. She was fully aware of the struggles to come.

It had been three weeks since the invasion by the Outers, and a lot had happened. The invasion force had ultimately gotten lost in an abandoned section of the Dome and grown bored. Billy had found them breaking down doors just to see what was behind them. He’d talked to them and convinced them to give the integration a chance. There’d been a lot of grumbling, but they were much more agreeable when they weren’t so riled up. They’d agreed to not hurt anyone.

Billy, bless his heart, had personally gone back to the Socratics. Along with his own family, he’d escorted Pike’s husband and children to the Dome. After getting them settled, Billy had taken her family to see her at a Domer hospital. This one was much nicer than the last, with droids that were attentive rather than homicidal. Pike had lost a lot of blood, but they’d gotten her medical attention quickly enough that she wasn’t going to die.

Through heavily bandaged eyes she’d seen her family enter the room, Billy standing just outside. Many tears and explanations later, especially for her husband who’d panicked at her disappearance, they’d sat quietly together for a time just holding hands until a medical droid came to update her medicine.

They’d left to get food, and that was when the leader of the Dome entered her room. She’d thanked Pike for distracting the horde of Domers long enough to keep anyone from getting hurt. Pike was very glad her children had left with their father. She had bitched the woman out for several minutes about her policies and decision-making while the medical droids floated nearby and twitched awkwardly.

To her credit, the leader listened to every word Pike shouted at her and apologized sincerely when she had finished. She said that she’d be stepping down to allow for the creation of a jointly run government so that everyone was represented. She’d left then, not letting Pike get any more words in. Pike settled back into her bed, mostly mollified.

Since then she’d moved into the home that had been reserved for her and her family and ate delicious food and Hanne nearly burst their door down trying to see if Pike was alright or not. Hanne had also apologized profusely for starting the conflict in the first place, and it was at this point that Pike turned to the newly arrived Avidan to ask what had happened to Jae and her sister. He’d smiled and said he’d make it so they could meet up. And while she’d been reluctant to see her, Pike had eventually made her way to the hill with the tree at sunset.

Pike looked over at the younger woman.

“Glad to see you’ve got two legs again. They still working on an arm, or are you going to replace it with a chainsaw?” Jae rolled her eyes, but Pike saw consideration on her lips before she shook her head.

“Do you really think this can work? After all they’ve done?” Pike nodded slowly.

“I think that it’s not going to be easy. There’s a lot of hatred on all sides for just about everyone else, but if we give it time and actually work at living together we might be able to pull this off. You and your sister and your family and my family can get along and get the future we make instead of what’s thrust at us.”

Jae was silent a moment, just staring at her. Then she snorted and laughed.

“That’s really cheesy, Pike.” Pike nodded again.

“Yeah. It is.”
Pike and Billy get to know some Domers, but when an announcement of integration goes out, will Jae and her riled up Outers ruin the chance at peace?

Wow did this fight me the whole dang way. The front is still rough, but I think the piece worked with me enough to get this done.

Jae belongs to :iconxmayflowerx:
Billy belongs to :iconlegendaryhero64:
Cairo belongs to :iconmidnightcootie:
This piece is for the final round of :iconlet-me-in-oct:
© 2016 - 2024 LongshotLink
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Legendaryhero64's avatar
Pike you precious<3 It's beautiful.