Through Darkened Glass

On Angel's Wings

The disruptor was up, the range finder sending a pencil-thin laser into the shadows that hid the voice's owner.

"Show yourself."  Keplar grated.  "Or I'll turn everything in that corner into swiss cheese.  Your call."

The shape that slowly moved forward and into the light was one that sent a chill racing down his spine, his hand abruptly slick with nervous perspiration as his goggles gave it a shimmering halo brighter than anything he had seen in years.  The last time he had seen one, it had been a female.

Her dark gray wings extended as she swooped in, her long blond hair pulled into a tail and held in place with a circlet of black metal, she was an avenging angel that attacked his squad during his second tour.  A white tunic with a red cross marked her as a Templar, an elite soldier that used her wrist-mounted laser whips to slice through his buddies like a razor through silk.  He could still see her face: hauntingly beautiful even hardened in resolution as she cut his squad to ribbons.

This one was taller, the wings white instead of gray, clothed in a modern business suit instead of a Templar's red and white tunic.  But his face was as handsome as hers was beautiful and as filled with resolution as he stared at Keplar.

"A celestial."  Keplar husked.  The most deadly and powerful of all the mirrors.  Then he was firing, holding the trigger down to send a steady stream of plasma-suffused alpha particles screaming at the big creature's chest and face.

By all rights and the laws of physics, his disruptor fire should've punched at least thirty holes through the celestial's broad and muscular chest.  And it should've put another five or six through that too perfect face.  Yet, in denial of every one of those laws and rights, he missed.

"Grrrk."  He gurgled as the celestial's massive hand went around his throat and lifted him into the air.  The disruptor dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers.

"If,..if you're going to kill me, get it over with."  He managed past the vise-like grip the powerful creature had on him.

The celestial regarded him for a long moment with ice blue eyes, obviously considering something.  Then he was carefully putting Keplar back on the ground.

"I'm not here to kill you, Gabriel Keplar."  The creature said, his voice smooth and effortless.

"I am here to hire you."

In the midst of preparing to go for his gun, Keplar brought himself up short.

"Beg pardon?"  He stammered, looking back at the powerful creature whose shoulders strained the seams of his well tailored suit.  Whoever this thing was, it had money to have clothes like that.

A slight smile touched the celestial's lips at Keplar's stumbling question.

"I said, I am here to hire you."  The smile disappeared.  "But not to rundown another faceless mirror.  I need you to retrieve my business partner.  Before he sells the secrets he stole and gets this entire world destroyed."

The picture slid onto the desk: a high res, 2-D that showed some suit with a thin face, graying hair and a long nose.  Beside it was a cred access card, it's gold fringe announcing its value in the hundred of thousands.  More than enough to get that new door he wanted.  Seeing the gold fringed cred access alone made Keplar pay attention.  Then the celestial spoke, recapturing Keplar's attention.

"My former partner, Reginald Barclay."  The mirror said, tapping the image as if Keplar was too stupid to make the connection.

"He's human."  Keplar ignored the unconsciously made insult to say with a frown. The big celestial nodded.