Chain Gang All Stars

An HMC floated toward each of their lips.

Locked, they were still. They held the stillness, felt their power. Staxxx thought, How embarrassing for you. All these chains and look at me, free as all wind. “I’ve said it all,” Staxxx said. “Pay attention.”

Thurwar looked across to Staxxx and into the HMC. “I love you,” Thurwar said. And they were released to the sounds of thousands.

Thurwar ran. And so did Staxxx. They moved in quick, leaping steps over the grass that sprung them to each other. They ran just as fast as they could into each other’s arms. Her knee, she did not care, it hurt but this was it. She’d give everything her knee had. They arrived at each other.

They held each other. The people were quiet. They held each other, and each knew she was holding a part of herself in her arms.

“Us, okay?” Thurwar said.

“You and me,” Staxxx said.

When she pulled her lips away from Staxxx’s the people were stunned to silence.

They let go of each other and Thurwar looked one last time at Staxxx, this warrior who had shocked the world by being herself.

The killing time was here.

“You ready?” Thurwar said.

“Swing through,” Staxxx said.

“What?” Thurwar said.

“I love you.”

“Wait,” Thurwar said.

But Staxxx had already pulled away.

“You and me,” Thurwar said.

“Us,” Staxxx said. And they turned away from each other. Thurwar wiped her eyes and jogged to retrieve Hass Omaha. When she turned Staxxx had pulled up LoveGuile from the ground and the people were elated once more.

The world roared and rumbled as Thurwar felt her hammer’s weight. She imagined its force and all it had stripped from its world. Hammer in hand, she ran.

They met each other not far from Thurwar’s Keep. Staxxx was faster, and for the first time in Thurwar’s life LoveGuile’s head was rocketing toward her.

Thurwar’s body took control. The thought that drowned was: I should just lie here, I can’t do this. But her body said, This one thing I will do for you, let me hold this endless hurt, here you need not think, just move.

Staxxx’s body was in the air, and she threw her momentum into a downward slash of incredible speed, which Thurwar knew she’d be able to adjust even midswing.

Thurwar took a hard sidestep and before LoveGuile could poke its nose into the grass, it was whipping around a crouched Staxxx as she spun her body again and sliced it through the air. Many Links had tried to sway at the waist against this attack and found their intestines on their boots soon after. Thurwar jumped back and felt the vicious trail of air left behind by the blade.

Again, Thurwar’s body said.

And again it came. Staxxx’s feet angled themselves for another rotation, and her waist and arms followed as LoveGuile came again through the air, horizontally, the slash that cut Links in half. Thurwar waited for it and Hass Omaha begged for release; it was tired of watching LoveGuile dance alone. Following the feeling, Thurwar jumped back again, but as she did, she loosed her grip on Hass Omaha so that she held the very end of his handle and swung up into the air.

The clang of metal on hammer made the people explode to new life. LoveGuile shot straight up into the air. Thurwar saw the opening. The way to crush, the path to freedom straight through a heart that had kept her alive for so—she thought too long, and even as she moved forward to deliver a blow, Staxxx, in her strength and grace, was able to end LoveGuile’s ascent and charm it into a nosedive toward Thurwar’s head. Thurwar stopped her swing and shrugged up as she swayed. LoveGuile slashed through the Hammer logo on her shoulder guard and Thurwar felt a tingle that rattled from her shoulder to her hands.

Leave thought behind, her body said. Trust me. I can do this.

LoveGuile bounced off her armor and was rearing back to cut through her face when Thurwar pressed forward. More thought drowned. She was there, completely. Fully in a moment unlike any before, there with Staxxx. All she could ever do was press forward. Thurwar and Staxxx. Their eyes met: grateful and destroyed.

Thurwar tossed Hass Omaha to her left hand, then grabbed the scythe’s shaft below the head with her right. For the first time that evening, LoveGuile, the weapon that women and men the world over feared, was still. Thurwar turned her body while holding on to the scythe and swung hard and down toward Staxxx’s crown. To survive, Staxxx had to let go of LoveGuile completely, and Hass Omaha came crashing to the floor as Staxxx’s boot crashed into Thurwar’s face.

The first strike to land.

They stood in their seats. She had missed but she’d swung through, and knowing she could made Thurwar feel something worse than anything she’d ever felt. She took a breath. She was still there, breathing. Her body, the feeling said, I know it hurts, see the hurt, feel it, then move.

The people roared and roared. An appetite that would never be satisfied sharpened and stretched. Thurwar held LoveGuile and stumbled, the weight of Hass and the blow to the head unsteadying her. Staxxx grabbed her weapon with two hands before drop-kicking Thurwar in the chest and stomach. Thurwar released LoveGuile as she was blown back and rolled. When she looked up, Staxxx was running toward her. A body running forward, a hurricane in the flesh. Staxxx swiped hard at Thurwar and Thurwar got to her feet and began to jump back, and even as she did, she knew it would not be enough, so she collapsed to her back and watched the blade rend the air above her face. She kicked forward, and heard Staxxx gasp, and the sound of it made her want to split herself open. But she got to her feet. Tired but ready. She could see Staxxx’s breathing was heavy.

They pressed off the grass toward each other. Staxxx leapt into a tight sideswipe and again Thurwar saw the world slowly as Hass pressed LoveGuile away: a second impossible deflection.

LoveGuile recoiled and already Hass was back and ready to eat. Poised to devour the Hurricane Hamara Staxxx. With her hammer back in her dominant hand she swung up toward the sky, toward the jaw, up to break. Thurwar swung as if to crush the dark clouds above. Her body helped her summon a velocity both devastating and absolute. She swung knowing that when she connected, Staxxx would be remembered, multiplied, forever.

But as the hammer moved, she realized that Staxxx had taken the deflection and used it for her own devices. She was already spinning, bringing LoveGuile back around toward Thurwar’s neck. She could not stop, she could not move; all she could do was see what was waiting for her on the other side. As she swung up, Thurwar was ready to be freed.

What hit the side of Thurwar’s head was LoveGuile’s blunt back. Staxxx was turned back around and her face was once again in the path of Hass’s murderous rush.

“Gotcha,” Staxxx said, and she dropped LoveGuile to the ground.

Before the scythe could find the earth, Hass Omaha rose and blew Staxxx away. The two were freed, and Loretta Thurwar stood among the people, who’d been thrown to a rapturous, rapturous silence.