Untitled Chapter to Untitled Novel

Author's Context. Last week someone wrote a firearm versus magic story. I commented on it that it was a lot like a scene I had in my head for a story. Below is that scene. Be advised: it is graphic. This is not a pleasant scene in the slightest. It is gritty. Story TLDR to this point: Nathan was a senior in college, studying mechanical engineering. He learns that his parents are from another reality and fled a Corporation that was hunting down mages who used magic independently of the Corporation's product: the Current (which is magic ready to use for anyone). This scene occurs at the end of the second book after Nathan left Earth to go fight the Corporation. \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* “Surrender, renegades,” the harsh voice of the Corporation’s capture team called out. It vibrated through the windows and walls like he was in the building with them. “Your spellwork won’t hold against us for long, and we have the whole building surrounded.” A voice rang out with a spellcommand and the building shimmied. Dust fell down on the whole group. Nathan looked at the huddled group as he sat under a window. The younger children sobbed into their parents’ chests as the latter tried to console them. “How long can your shields hold?” He asked their leader, Hester. She sank down next to him, “I don’t know. That was probably a level 3 shieldbreaker. They want us for the camps, especially the children. If they hit us too hard, they know they could drop the building on us, but repeated hits with even a level 1 breaker spell which eventually drop the shields. They can use the Current while we have to pull raw magic the old way to use it.” Nate frowned, “What camps?” He was starting to get a real Nazi vibe from those Corporation goons. The corporate overlord/zaibatsu vibe was bad enough but if they were full blown Nazoids, it made him realize more why his mom and dad fled to Earth. “The work camps. The Capturi take anyone who tries to draw raw magic themselves to the Corporation’s work camps. It’s the standard sentence for anyone who violates the Law Against Magery. We know they use them somehow. The ones they release you don’t see them much but it’s clear that they,” she paused and shuddered, “they are gone in some way. They don’t talk. They’re just gone.” Nathan gulped, “Torture?” “We don’t know. There’s no magic left in ‘em though. Honestly, it’s probably better to die here rather than go through whatever they do. They took my cousin when he accidentally pulled magic. He came back wrong. Barely talked. Barely ate. He hung himself about a year after.” “I’m,” tears welled up in Nathan’s eyes, “I’m so sorry. That’s just…” Hester patted his shoulder, “Your mom and dad. My da’ always said they were good people. They’d be proud of you for trying, but this ain’t your fight, Nathan. You can walk out and be clear of this.” Misui’s voice rang out suddenly. “Where are Cai and Krisa?” “Oh fuck,” Nathan murmured. He’d forgotten The twins had gone out to get candy. He’d caught them sneaking out but didn’t stop them. Let them be outside any cordon. Please God let them be outside any cordon. Two screams outside immediately put an end to any hope. The harsh voice sounded out again. “We know you are harboring an Outsider. We will be coming in and taking you all. You will understand how serious we are.” Nathan moaned. He was living in a bad movie. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Don’t you dare you motherfucker. Don’t you fucking dare. He risked turning around looking out above the window sill. Cai and Krisa were each held in place by two of the Capturi. He got a good look at them all in their shiny armor, with gold and silver piping and the inscribed runes of power Hester had taught him about. Most of them bore runespears, but the two holding Cai and Krisa held daggers made of a pink metal of some sort. “We want the Outsider. Now! Your lives mean nothing to us. I want you to understand just how little.” Nathan watched their commander nod towards the two holding Cai and Krisa. “NO!” he cried out as the Capturi holding brought up the dagger and laid it against Cai’s throat. A fountain of blood gushed out and Misui screamed. It sent a shock through the room as pain sent everyone to the ground, except Nathan and Hester. He felt a wave of revulsion drown him. His breathing tightened and sharpened as he ground his teeth. He could hear the blood pounding in his ears. They want me. Oh they can have me. They aren’t going to like what they get. He thought he’d only growled that in the confines of his own mind, but Hester put her arm on his shoulder. “You can’t go out there,” she said, “They will kill you and us no matter what happens.” Nathan rounded on Hester. The blood pounded louder in his ears and chimes sounded like tinnitus. He had heard her but only barely. “Give me my stuff,” he growled at the old woman. He felt his nails digging into his palms. Those motherfuckers had killed a kid. They were going to fucking pay for every drop of blood. “Nathan,” she had shrunk back from him. “Give. Me. My. Stuff. Now.” he commanded her. He watched her swallow and left. I’ll show these assholes what an Outsider can do. They are going to be very fucking sorry they ever saw me. Bastards. Sons of bitches. Motherfuckers. Nathan stoked the rage and hate as hard as he could. If I’m gonna die anyways, there’s room in the grave for them with me.” Hester returned quickly with Nathan’s backpack and the harness that held his shotgun and Colt. He didn’t say a single word as he practically ripped the pack apart and pulled out the box of deer slugs. The pump in his hands felt more than comfortable as he angrily racked it over and over to pop out the birdshot. It was almost soothing to feel the action and pour rage into the machine. He began to load the deer slugs in their place. Nathan felt heat ripple through him as he loaded his weapon. The cartridges felt cold in his hands as he picked them up but they quickly warmed as did the cold steel of the shotgun. “Those little missiles won’t do anything against them, Nathan. Their armor is rune guarded,” Hester said in warning. “I don’t care. I do not fucking care. These assholes are gonna learn the same thing Germans did in World War One.” “Wha…” Hester started to say but was cut off by Nathan rising and strapping his pistol to his waist and Bowie knife to his side. He started to walk towards the door. Hester watched him go and as he walked out of the light, she saw the heat rising off Nathan. \# Capturi Commander Beauregue had served 17 years rising up through the ranks. He was the personal enforcer of the Board and the one they sent to deal with the most intractable problems. Whether it was Magery, Current thievery, or attempts to overthrow the Corporate, Beauregue dealt with troublemakers with prejudice. Catching the children had been a stroke of luck. The little fools bore the mark of Magery all over them. He’d hoped to have caught more of the renegades out of their hiding hole. His watchers had followed the Outsider here and now they would have him. The renegades would all have to die of course. The boy child was just the first, but they didn’t have to know that. The potential influence that the Outsider may have had was just too much of a risk. The door opened and Beauregue smiled. Either they would be surrendering or his men would get target practice. The man in the door was tall and when he came into the afternoon sunlight, Beauregue recognized the Outsider by description: tall, lanky but in the way of trained soldiers, black hair and beardless, and young-barely more than a schoolboy. The fool carried a wood and metal object in his hands. No runes. Nothing on it at all to indicate it had any power. Beauregue began to laugh at him. The look of rage on the boy’s face was pathetic. \# Nathan walked a few steps into the plaza, with his eyes locked on the sneering Capturi Commander. This motherfucker has to die. That was not a thought ever to have crossed his mind except as a jest. This time was deadly serious. The man was not to walk away from this regardless of what happened to Nathan. Nathan shouldered his shotgun and called out to him. “Hey! Asshole! Let’s go!” \# Beauregue laughed as the boy brought up whatever little toy the metal tube was. “Hey! Asshole! Let’s Go!” Now, unfortunately, while Beauregue was a capable and talented Capturi and spellworker, the one thing Beauregue was not was a trained engineer with a working knowledge of electrodynamics. If he had been there was a chance that the next few moments would have ended differently. But, he was not and therefore didn’t recognize the glowing orange patterns forming on Nathan’s shotgun as indicative of a magnetodynamic system for accelerating objects to very high rates of speed. And my dear readers, we have a word for that kind of system. However, Beauregue did belatedly realize that the orange and black glow he saw down the barrel of Nathan’s shotgun was ominous in the least. Of course, that realization was too late. \# Nathan let out half a breath and pulled the trigger. Lines of blue fire sprang from the shotgun and enveloped his shoulder as he did so. Orange light flared down the barrel as a line of black and orange lanced across the plaza towards that motherfucker of a commander. Red lines of force arced in front of the man as whatever it was that Nathan had just done slammed him backwards. Nathan tracked the bastard’s line of travel and fired again. Another line of orange and black fire lanced forward. There were no red lines of force this time. Instead, the fire slammed into Beauregue and blew a bloody hole the size of two fists through his midsection. Beauregue’s body flew backwards farther and slid across the remainder of the plaza on a slip and slide made of his own gore. Nathan turned to face the one that had killed Cai. The entire Capturi seemed frozen in place, apparently disbelieving what had just happened. Nathan didn’t care, but this time he got time to aim his shot better. Another line of orange and black fire lanced outward, but this time took the man right in the face, leaving a headless stump that fell forward, blood gushing from a heart that didn’t know its brain was gone just yet. Krisa screamed, but she was able to break the grasp of the man holding her to run towards Nathan. The Capturi ignored Krisa’s escape and turned their attention towards Nathan. “Okay. Motherfuckers.” he said, “Let’s go.” He pumped the shotgun to get the next shell in the chamber and fire again and again. More Capturi fell as they tried to bring their runespears to bear on Nathan. Throughout this, Nathan felt himself a surreal place where his rage flowed all through his body and out through the shotgun. There was a small part of his mind where he could remember only loading five shells plus the one in the chamber, but the gun hadn’t stopped firing when he pulled the trigger. It would get hot for a moment but always seemed to have ammunition. Nathan felt a hand on his shoulder and he wheeled around, breathing heavily. The blood pounding in his ears was gone. Smoke and fire were all around the plaza, as was blood and the corpses of Capturi. Hester was in front of him, the blood drained from her face. She was shaking slightly. “Nathan. They’re all dead.” she said quietly, “What did you do? How?” Nathan used his free hand to wipe something liquid from above one eye. His hand came back bloody but there had been no pain. It had to be someone else’s blood. “Look at your weapon,” Hester said, “It’s different.” Nathan looked down. He could feel the shotgun vibrating in his hand like a powertool. Orange rings glowed along the barrel, which itself was warm to the touch. Hester ran her hand over it and pulled it back quickly, hissing. “Nathan! It’s drawing raw magic! That’s not possible.” Movement came out of the corner of Nathan’s eye. A figure seemed to be pulling itself along the ground, trying to get out of the plaza. A Capturi was trying to get away. “I need to handle something first.” Nathan growled. The bloodlust was almost gone but not quite. Those fuckers had delivery killed a kid. None of them get to walk, crawl, or wiggle away. He wanted to do this one just like they had done Cai. He pulled the Bowie knife out of its sheath of his thigh and stalked over to the figure trying to get away. He recognized the figure not from its armor but rather the hole that was through its abdomen. It’s blood and guts leaked out more slowly than it should. Nathan used his foot to kick the Commander over onto his back and straddled him across his chest, using his legs to pin his arms to the ground. “Where I come from, you motherfucker. We don’t kill kids. I want you to think about that as you feel this slide into your throat. I can only hope that it hurts even a small fraction of what you did to Cai and his mom.” The Commander wheezed, trying to say something but only could gurgle as the knife penetrated the soft tissue of his throat. More blood oozed out as his body thrashed in a deathroe and then went still. Nathan stood. Fantasy novels always had wizards coming back even from something like this. He pulled out his pistol and cocked it, firing one shot into the Commander’s forehead. His brains blew out the exit wound. That son of a bitch was not coming back.