“Please, this is really embarrassing, but I need to leave right now. It’s urgent,” I say, pointing below my belt. I wonder if other superheroes need to resort to lying about the bathroom as much as I do, or if this is unique to me. Probably everybody does it. These are the things I tell myself to keep my humiliation in check.
“The porta-potties are on the far side of the booths to the east,” the guard says.
As he points to the outhouses, I try to move past him, but he again blocks my path.
“Sir, I’m serious. If you try to evade the rules, you’ll be leaving here in handcuffs.”
“Under whose authority?” Derrick asks.
“Under my authority,” the guard repeats, his magtonium crackling with blue electricity.
A hologram of April Allard materializes on stage to thunderous applause. I’m out of time and out of options. I look way up into the sky and see a tiny glint of light. I nod toward it, hoping Jim can see me from the camera.
“What are you looking at?” the guard asks, agitated.
“Don’t worry about it,” I answer.
“Um, should I worry about it?” Derrick whispers.
I close my eyes and concentrate. My bond with the nanosuit isn’t strong enough for me to feel confident that this will work. I’m thinking up a Plan B when I feel a tingle on the back of my neck. The handful of nanobots I snuck in with me are working.
“I’ll need the two of you to move along,” the guard says. He places his hand on my shoulder and gently pushes me toward the crowd.
“Hey, keep your hands off him!” Derrick shouts, putting himself between me and the guard. “He’s not doing anything wrong.”
I struggle to keep my eyes closed. My instinct is to defuse the situation, but we’re past that point.
“That’s enough out of both of you. Turn around and place your hands on your head,” the guard barks.
Two sounds rise above the murmuring of the crowd. The first is the guard struggling with Derrick, forcing him to the ground. With his magtonium, he could kill Derrick with a thought, and if he hurts him, I’ll have to react whether I’m ready or not. That will likely get us both killed.
The second sound is a low whistle. It’s growing louder with each passing second. I open my eyes and catch sight of the nanosuit disk an instant before it makes contact.
It was stashed in the aerial reconnaissance vehicle, aka the hot-air balloon. Jim had it parked high over our dorm since it returned from Kaldonia. As I raced to the pavilion, Jim loaded my magtonium onto it before remote piloting it to follow me. It was a stroke of genius on his part, but the altitude made it tough to get it to drop exactly where I needed it. I had to rely on guiding it remotely using the small number of nanobots I smuggled in.
I can’t believe it worked.
The suit envelops my body and powers up.
I grab the guard’s shoulder. My transformation happened so fast he didn’t even notice.
“Step back immediately, sir, or I will be forced to—”
The guard finally notices. He’s confused. He looks at the red O on my chest, and the confusion turns to panic.
“Requesting immediate back—” he shouts into the radio embedded within his suit.
He doesn’t get to finish the sentence. My gloved fist smashes into his face, sending him skidding across the grass.
“Come on, Derrick!” I shout as I pull him to his feet.
“So much for subtly.”
We run toward the exit. I check if anyone is following us, but all eyes are on April Allard. No one noticed our brief tangle —except, of course, for the wall of magtonium-covered guards forming a blockade ahead of us.
“Ah, crap.”
With their attention focused on me, Derrick can still make a break for it.
“Get out of here,” I whisper to him. “I can handle these guys. They’ve left the exit unguarded. Now is your chance.”
He hesitates.
“Please, don’t argue. Just run,” I say.
He nods and starts running.
A guard peels off to chase after him. That made him my first target.
I throw my body into his, and we leave a small crater in the ground upon landing. He lifts himself onto his knees, but my magtonium-covered hand grabs his head and slams it into the dirt before he can stand. Goodnight.
An arm wraps around my neck and pulls me into a headlock. I reach back, grab my assailant by his shoulders, and throw him over my back. He crashes into an empty holographic booth.
These guys are strong, but they don’t know how to use their suits yet. It should take him a few minutes to get untangled from the wreckage. In the meantime, more guards rush toward me.
Two grab my arms as a third charges. I wait until he’s close and lift into the air. He misses and crashes into the same destroyed booth.
The two other guards are startled. Obviously, they haven’t learned how to fly yet and are scared of heights. I use this to my advantage and rise a thousand feet in a matter of seconds. The pair tighten their grips around my arms.
“Sorry, fellas.”
I give my arms a firm shake, and their holds slip away. They scream as they plummet back to earth. The nanosuits will protect them from the fall, but it’ll take them a few minutes to recover.
Below, the crowd is looking up at me. That means trouble. These guards might be new to magtonium, but April Allard surely has bigger guns she can bring out. I need to take advantage of the confusion while I can.
I spot Derrick running toward his car in the makeshift parking lot, but guards are hot on his tail. I swoop down and lift him off his feet. He panics and claws at my arms for a handhold.
“I’ve got you, Derrick,” I say.
“You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought you were one of them.”
“Nope, but let’s hurry in case any of them know how to fly.”
“You’re the boss… To be clear, you’re not actually the boss. I’m still the boss until you’re eighteen. But given our current circumstances, I’m bequeathing the title of boss to you until we land.”
Thirty-Six
We land on Derrick’s roof, and he ducks inside. I stay to scan the skyline and make sure we weren’t followed.
I tried my best to be discreet, but someone could have seen me engage the nanosuit. I can only hope it hit me so fast no one realized it happened.
After a few minutes, I power down and head down the stairs to Derrick’s apartment.
“I still think you should go to one of Midnight’s safe houses,” I shout toward Derrick’s home office.
“No way. There’s too much at stake for me to go hole up somewhere.”
“This isn’t a normal emergency. This is aliens invading Earth, and we have no idea how to stop them.”
“You’ll figure it out. In the meantime, the world needs to know what’s happening, and I can’t tell them if I’m locked away in some dungeon.”
“I’ll talk to Midnight and explain that you need internet access. He’ll understand.”
“He will? Are you talking about the same Midnight I’m thinking of? Tall, dark, and cranky? Because the guy I know doesn’t usually change his mind.”
I let out an exasperated sigh. Derrick’s right. Midnight won’t listen to me or anybody else. If he suspects the Volarians are looking for Derrick, he’ll make sure the safe house is in full lockdown mode. That means no visitors, no outside communication, no exceptions. Those aren’t terms Derrick is willing to accept while the biggest story in history is unfolding right in our city.
“Fine, but I’m staying overnight to keep a lookout,” I say as I move some pillows out of the way to sit on the sofa. “There’s zero chance the Volarians didn’t know that was you.”
“They’ve got bigger concerns. If they come after me, it’ll be an admission of guilt. Their plan didn’t happen today because of us. They still need people’s trust, and they won’t have it if they pick me off.”
The Volarians will absolut
ely vaporize him into dust if they think he might expose their plan. I’m too tired to argue. I’m staying the night whether he likes it or not, and if I see anything even remotely strange, we’re out of here.
Thirty-Seven
I sleep like the dead. The smell of freshly brewed coffee fills the apartment when I wake, practically pulling me out of bed and floating me into the kitchen like a cartoon.
In the kitchen, I find Derrick has cleaned himself up. He’s shaved for the first time in weeks, and he’s already dressed. He places a cup of coffee in front of me before I can even pull out a stool.
Growing up with an older brother as my primary caretaker wasn’t always smooth sailing, but he did let me start drinking coffee when I was twelve. He said it was a myth that caffeine stunts your growth.
“So, are you going to tell me what Volaris is like, or do I have to beat it out of you?”
“Volaris is … weird. It’s like Earth in a lot of ways, but … not. There was such a huge difference between people there. So many people seemed like they had nothing. But it was still beautiful. It’s hard to explain. There were so many colors. And the wildlife was so different, but also not that different, if that makes sense?”
“It doesn’t.”
“I got the impression that a lot of people didn’t even know they were in danger. I think anyone with the means to leave is planning on ditching the planet entirely before everyone else catches on.”
“Is there any way to stop them?”
“Midnight and Sarah are deciphering the data I brought back to figure out if there’s anything we can do.”
“Well, if they make any progress, let me know. I’d love to get the exclusive on it.”
“Sure. Not really a priority right now, but okay. Speak of the devil,” I say as I pick up my phone to find a notification from Midnight.
We have a problem.
I hold up the phone to show the text to Derrick.
He winces. “That’s usually not good, is it?”
“No, it’s not. He is the master of understatements.”
I finish the rest of my coffee, even though it’s too hot to gulp down. I’ll deal with a burned tongue before I abandon a cup of coffee this early in the morning.
“I’d better get going. I’ll be in touch if I learn anything substantial.”
“Same here,” Derrick says.
Thirty-Eight
“What’s going on?” I ask as I climb the ladder into Midnight’s water tower lair.
He waits until I’ve closed the hatch before stating matter-of-factly, “Iris has gone back to Volaris by herself.”
“What? Why? How?” I exclaim.
“She can explain,” Midnight says, gesturing to a corner bathed in shadow.
A figure stands up and approaches. It’s Robin Clay.
“Your friend threatened to kill me if I didn’t take her.”
“She wouldn’t have done that.”
“No? From my understanding, she’s got more than a few kills under her belt.”
“So do you.”
“Touché.”
“She’s not like that. She would never kill to get what she wants.”
“Listen, kid, I wasn’t about to press the issue and find out. She wanted to go to Volaris. I took her to Volaris. End of story.”
Midnight glares at her. He’s not happy with her explanation either.
“When are you going back for her?”
“She didn’t plan a return trip. If she’s got another way back home, she didn’t share it with me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. She must be planning to return to the same rendezvous point as last time.”
“I don’t think so, kid. They’ll be watching the last pickup spot after the three of us made it out of there by the skin of our teeth.”
“Okay, then, she probably expects you to pick her up where you dropped her off.”
“I’m not so sure,” Midnight says. “She accessed my systems last night and retrieved the preliminary data I’d decoded.”
“Which showed…?”
“The Volarians do not have plans to coexist with humans.”
“They’re not planning on staying here temporarily either, are they?” I ask.
“They left out important details. The ship they are preparing to launch from Volaris isn’t just carrying passengers. It’s also carrying mining equipment. The Volarians have already found their ultimate destination—a planet named E-23 that is roughly one hundred light-years from Earth. However, they don’t have the capability to travel that distance, not without making a pit stop. They’re planning on mining Earth for all we’ve got, then using a hydrogen-conversion engine to fuel their journey into hyperspace.”
“And I’m guessing we need that hydrogen?” I ask.
“Considering the vast majority of hydrogen on Earth is currently found in Earth’s oceans, lakes, and rivers, yes, we need it.”
“What do you know about April that you’re not telling me?”
“Nothing,” Midnight says.
“You’re lying. You’re always lying. There’s no way you haven’t looked into her, but you haven’t shared anything else about her. What are you hiding?”
“That’s not important.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
Midnight hesitates. I’ve rarely seen him hesitate. “The data you brought back from Volaris included information that gave a clear picture of some other things.”
“What kinds of things?” I ask, beginning to feel impatient.
“April Allard isn’t who you think she is.”
“Then who is she?”
“Her real name is Violet Jones. She’s Iris’s mother.”
“What? No. She can’t be. You’re just trying to distract me long enough to think of something else to tell me, some other lie.”
What Midnight is saying doesn’t make sense. He’s intentionally trying to confuse me.
“I’m not lying to you, Connor. I didn’t believe it myself at first, but I’ve seen her face now. It’s her.”
“Bull. Why did Iris really go alone? Why didn’t she wait for me?”
Midnight hesitates.
“I’m not sure.”
I don’t believe him. I press further.
“I don’t need you to be sure,” I say.
“Primary data showed that the wormhole they’re planning to use to teleport the passenger ship to Earth could be sabotaged if it were overloaded with enough quantum energy—the type of energy someone like Iris can generate. It could be used to create a feedback loop that would be powerful enough to destroy the generator. She went there alone because it’s a suicide mission. She has no intention of coming back.”
“Well, I won’t let that happen.”
“Connor, I—”
“I said it’s not happening!” I yell so loudly that Robin flinches. “Do you have enough juice left to get me to Volaris?” I ask her.
“Maybe. Taking one person is much easier than two. But if I take you there now, it’ll be a long time before I’m recharged,” Robin says.
“I’m willing to accept the risk.”
I pull out my magtonium and suit up. As the liquid metal coats my body, Midnight rests his hand on my shoulder and says, “I can’t let you go there without a plan to get you back home.”
“But you let Iris go?”
“I didn’t know what she was doing. Had I known, I would have stopped her too. It’s suicide.”
“It’s only a suicide mission if I die.”
“They’ll know you’re coming and they won’t be caught flat-footed again.”
“I don’t have another choice. I have to bring Iris back.”
“I’m sorry,” Midnight says.
“For what?”
“For this.”
A surge of electricity courses through my body, paralyzing me. The nanobots drip from my body.
“What are you doing!”
“I’m not going to allow you to risk
your life on something this dangerous.”
In his hand is a device I’ve seen before. It’s a nondescript black wand with a probe on one end that’s crackling with electricity. It looks like the souped-up cattle prod those goons used on me back on campus. Before it can cause my magtonium to detach completely, I summon my remaining strength and slap the device from Midnight’s hand.
The wand skids across the smooth floor and comes to a rest under a workstation. Midnight rushes to retrieve it as I hunch over to catch my breath. The magtonium is climbing off the floor and back onto my body.
“We’re leaving” I announce to Robin, who looks scared.
“No, you’re not,” Midnight growls.
A roundhouse kick connects with my jaw, and I crash to the ground.
I barely catch his foot as he goes to stomp on my chest. I might be stronger, but he’s a hell of a lot quicker. I twist his ankle, but he leans into it and somersaults in the air before I can get any leverage.
“I’m going, and you’re not going to stop me,” I say.
I rise from the ground. Midnight charges at me. There’s a blur of punches and kicks that I can’t block. He targets the exposed areas of my body that the magtonium isn’t covering yet. Another kick to the face knocks me flat on my back.
Midnight hovers over me, panting, and commands, “Power down.”
“No.”
He spits out a mouthful of blood, marches to the other side of the room, and picks up another cattle prod. Arcs of electricity crackle from the business end of the weapon. I groan and flip over, preparing to defend myself against another attack.
Two arms wrap around my torso from behind—Robin.
“Are you sure?” Robin asks.
“Yes.”
“No!” Midnight yells and rushes toward us, his face contorted in anger.
“Are you ready?” Robin asks.
“Go!” I shout.
I close my eyes, and the magtonium forms a seal around my face. The sound of Midnight’s electric prod cuts off as we teleport across the galaxy.
Meta (Book 5): New Empire Page 15
