Page 116 of Tapeworld Induction

Isaak turned away, shame roiling in his gut. He swallowed hard, his legs like jelly, his heart and stomach intertwining in a chaotic rubble. “Why are you doing this to these people?”

She stepped nearer to him again, still fondling her breasts, and taunting him with exaggerated moans. “Doing what, silly boy? Tell me… Don’t you want a taste of this again?” She placed a hand on her crotch.

He hunched his shoulders and flinched away. “I don’t need you, or your pity sex.”

“Ah, that’s right.” She smiled and stopped playing with herself, crossing her arms. “You found yourself a whore.”

He met her eyes. Suddenly his squirming chest was filled with rage.

“Shut up! You don’t know anything about—”

“Dylan Colt,” she interrupted, stretching her arms. A cloud of particles enveloped her. Her face and body changed in a flash. Into Dylan’s.

“What’s she really like?” Astrid slid her hands down the sides of her chest and waist. “She’s got a hell of a body, tight in all the right places.” She threw two punches in the air. “Can hold her own in a fight too… Have you slept with her already?”

He grunted. It was disturbing, seeing Astrid wear Dylan’s face like this.

“When I looked in your brain, when you slipped on the Sleeper, I found out all there is to know about her and your little relationship. She’s just like you, another pitiful worm, a rebel without a cause, a true-born vegan. Oh, but don’t worry. We’ll give her cause to revolt soon enough. Pity she won’t be here to see it herself. My Jewel has her in hand right now!”

Astrid leaned her head back, laughing. She shape-shifted back into the pencil dress, back to wearing her own face. She raised her hand, fingers outstretched. A few words escaped her lips, then a bolt of lightning cracked the ground between them. A cloud of smoke transubstantiated around Talia. Through the haze, he watched as an enclosure – a see-through glass cage, filled with water, surrounded with cables, circuit board chips, connection ports, and metallic adornments – materialised, trapping Talia within it.

He turned to Astrid. “What are you doing? You’re going to pay for this!”

“Forget her, Ike. I’m done pretending. I want you!”

“Yeah? Well, come get me!” he shouted, arms outstretched, ready to fight.

Astrid flew towards him and slapped him to the floor, her nails sharp as talons. “You are in my space! Look what happens when you can’t stop messing with my plans!” Her voice was hoarse, rage bursting out of her.

Isaak coughed, struggling to sit up. He put his hand to his chest and it came away bloody where Astrid had cut him with her nails.

She snapped her fingers and Talia started struggling. She banged her fists on the glass from the inside, her eyes gone white, convulsing, the water bubbling and chaotic.

An ache engulfed his heart. “No!”

Get the Gunkatana and attack her, now!

He tried to get up, tried to activate the gun-sword at his side, but Astrid forced him back to the floor, preventing his movement with a simple gesture, without even touching him.

He couldn’t even move his hand to rip the tape from his head. Tears streamed down his face. The sound of Talia’s semi-conscious whimpers became impossibly hard to listen to. Tears formed rivers in the dirt that caked his face. Sweat lined his brow.

Talia…

He looked at her again to see her natural eye colour return. Through the pain, he could have sworn she winked at him.

What was she doing— Oh!

Astrid turned towards Talia, who was still pounding her fists into the glass, fighting the torture and the pressure of the water. “Enough!” Astrid marched towards her, gesturing at her with a twisting motion.

But Talia’s distraction gave him an opening.

He was free from Astrid’s grasp. He gripped the tape on his temple and ripped it off. In the moments before his consciousness left the Tapeworld, he saw Astrid dematerialise Talia away.

41

Buzz

Dylan