Rocco and Owen were already in the den when Bastion entered.
Bastion was in the middle of the room when Owen said, “Close the door,” so Bastion closed it telekinetically.
Owen jumped right into his ass-chewing. Bastion ignored him and wandered over to the sofa to sit through the storm. Rocco picked up the tirade when Owen quieted down. Bastion lifted his arms and rested them on the back of the sofa, waiting until their anger was spent.
It took many minutes. Finally, Bastion held up a hand, giving the two men a chance to breathe. “I understand family. Your boys were not harmed. Nor would I ever harm them. I understand the sacred care we have for our children. It is why I disappeared them.”
Owen folded his arms. “I’m not following.”
“When the ghouls come here—and they will—it will be when our defenses are down. They will spill into this house like boulders through the doors and windows. They will run throughout the house, sniffing out its occupants. They will shred every living thing they find—cat, dogs, men, women, and children. My team and I will train you to fight them. And you will overpower them because they are beasts, not strategists, but every being here who cannot fight will be slaughtered. All of them.”
Silence met his words. He could see the anger leach from Rocco and Owen’s faces.
“There is much you could do to fortify your home, but perhaps there isn’t enough time for that. When the ghouls come, disappearing the civilians and animals is all that will save them. Out of sight, out of mind—ghouls are simple creatures. And though they may smell them, if we have disappeared them, the ghouls will not try to attack them. Your children, your women, they must become entirely comfortable being disappeared. They must be trained in what to do and how to act…how to survive the hell that will soon be here.”
Owen and Rocco, who were standing in front of the big mahogany desk, now slumped against it, bracing their hands on its edge.
Bastion waved his hand over his torso. “I would show you the scars I have from fighting the monsters, but they don’t stay on me. I heal too fast. They will mark you forever.” He stood. “You can see the many scars on my pants.” He lifted aside his tunic to let them see his messed-up suede trousers. “Your skin will look like this.
“Acier will be here in a half-hour for your training. Afterward, he will inspect your weapons and see what you might need.” He started toward the door, but looked back at them. “Now, I am going to finish my breakfast. My methods are unconventional, but then, it is an unconventional war we fight.”
Bastion could feel Selena’s energy just on the other side of the door. He walked a little slower, giving her time to scoot away. She was halfway down the hallway when he left the room. She looked like she was just coming his way.
He smiled at her. “I heard you scurry away.”
She bowed her head. “Dammit.”
“You heard all of it?”
She sighed and nodded. “You really think those things are going to come here?”
“I do. And not just because you’re here. Flynn sends them after the changed ones in the resistance, like me. Even if you and I here and never came back, the Ratcliffs will be here now and then. And Owen’s father. Flynn will finally execute the revenge that he lives for when he destroys these fighters and those who aid them. And then the Omnis will burn the house. It happened before. To Merc. He lost his wife, his children, his whole fucking soul.”
Addy and Mandy came into the hallway, blocking his access to the kitchen or dining room. If he thought their husbands were pissed, well, he’d never seen a protective mother before.
He put his hand on his heart. He was not lying or manipulating them; he was earnestly repentant for upsetting them. “I ask your forgiveness about my prank this morning. Your boys were in no danger at all, but only I knew that at the time. I am very sorry for frightening you.”
Even if they forgave and forgot what he’d done, he couldn’t. He’d lived so long a mutant among other warrior mutants that decent, regular behavior was never his natural state, and that saddened him, because he was losing his humanity in giant leaps at a time.
Still, he believed he’d done what he’d had to do.
“Bastion,” Addy said, stopping him, “it was terrifying to see that you could make our children disappear. I’d like to know how to stop you—or find them—in the future.”
Bastion slowly smiled as he looked at both women, then behind them to their husbands. “There are some things I can teach you.”
Mandy nodded. “Good. Because if it happens again, I will disappear you.”
Bastion laughed and gave them a brief bow. He really liked this group of fighters and their families. Dieu, how he hoped he could shield them from the worst of what was coming.
34
Bastion moved in a slow circle as he read the readiness of each fighter surrounding him. Eleven men, two females. Ace was a few inches shorter than Selena. The men towered over them, though that wasn’t what mattered. Size wasn’t a predictor of fighting prowess—lethal intent was a sole determinant of survival, and everyone here had a high amount of that.
Bastion opened an illusion in the center of the group of a life-sized ghoul, standing on his hind legs, then dropping to all fours as it walked around the inside of the circle, like an animal in a cage.
“The ghouls you’ll face are unlike any adversary you’ve ever met,” Bastion said. “They are predators. Their only purpose is to kill. In the heat of a fight, they’ll even turn on each other.”
“They aren’t intelligent.” Acier continued. “They receive their instructions from a handler, who may be near or far. He can redirect them at any point, calling them off an attack or refocusing them. They operate on pure instinct, as they aren’t sentient. They have no fear. They can feel pain, but it only serves to fuel their frenzies. Being mutants, they heal fast. Not immediately, but fast. If you don’t deliver lethal blows to them in a fight, you’ll just have to take them down later, so it’s best to finish them off when you have the chance.”
“I’m going to show you a fight that we had with the ghouls inside Liege’s girlfriend’s apartment,” Bastion said. “You’ll see it from my and Acier’s perspectives.”
Bastion looked at Acier, coordinating the replay of the fight they had with the ghouls in Summer’s apartment.
“Remember that what you’re about to see is only a memory,” Bastion said. “The ghouls aren’t here in real life, this replay isn’t live, and they can’t hurt you.” He nodded toward Acier.
Bastion walked in a slow circle inside the ring of fighters gathered around him. He felt the wave of tension that cut through Selena’s team as they watched the scene unfold. Their eyes were open and fixed to the image. The scene played until all the ghouls were dead.
"Wait. How is that even possible, what you just showed us?" Kit said.
"I told you, it was a memory,” Bastion said.
"Right, but no one here can see each other's memories," Kit said.
"We're mutants, remember?" Bastion asked. "Our minds have been enhanced. Our skills are always evolving. Everything we do, regulars can do—but with extreme effort. We've been enhanced to operate at the highest level of human capacity. Our memories are almost perfect. They don't fade with time. We can recall vivid details about every experience."
"But how are you sharing those with us?" Blade asked.
"Smoke and mirrors,” Acier said. “It's just a matter of emitting the right electromagnetic wave frequency to convince your brain that it's seeing what it's seeing. What you call the ‘real world’ is your brain interpreting the inputs it receives of light and shadow, frequencies, all filtered through your own understanding of those things.”
“This display is just us altering your sense of reality.” Bastion looked around the group. “Those monsters are agile and strong. I would hate for them to spill out into normal human populations.”
“It would be disastrous,” Kit said.
Bastion nodd
ed. “It would be the end of our secrecy—and of life as regular humans know it.”
"These ghouls don't live long,” Acier said, “which is why the Omnis are so lackadaisical about using them to take down enemies. They are tall, fast, and lethal, but they are not sentient, and they can be easily tricked. Their nails are razor-sharp, and their brains are so hopped up on adrenaline that they won't notice a fatal injury until they are physically incapacitated. It takes maybe four minutes for them to bleed out, and in that time, they will continue to fight. We've learned ways to trick them so that one of us could take down a small group. They often travel in small packs of three to five. My team and I can project images of ourselves across whatever fighting space there is, even make other monsters look like us so that they turn on each other and do our work for us."
"Again, how do you do that?" Blade asked.
"Mind games,” Bastion said. “That's all it is. We can begin to teach you the same skills, but as you are regular humans, it will take a long time for you to conquer this ability. For our training to be successful, you must overcome your natural belief about your own limitations—otherwise, it will inhibit your growth.” Bastion nodded at Acier.
The scene in the middle of the ring of fighters lit up with another memory. In this one, Acier showed himself projecting his image onto some of the ghouls. The group watched in fascinated horror as the monsters turned on themselves. When that fight scene had played out, it disappeared from the circle.
Bastion could feel Selena's tension and fear. Blade looked at him with a frown, clearly still not grasping how any of it was possible. Bastion cast her appearance on the group around her—but only made this projection available to her eyes.
She gasped.
"How many of you do you see, Selena?" Bastion asked.
Selena looked around at the group in disbelief. "We are all me," she said.
“No, we’re all ourselves,” Blade said.
Bastion released the illusion from Selena's mind and set the same illusion in Blade’s mind, making everyone in the ring look like him. His eyebrows rose as he looked around at his teammates, seeing only his own face.
“And now I see all me.”
"And now?" Bastion asked as he removed the illusion from Blade.
“Everyone is back to themselves."
“This is how we cause the ghouls to mistake other ghouls for us,” Bastion said.
“And you think we can learn to do that?” Selena asked.
Bastion nodded. “It’s not a quick lesson. It’s what we will be teaching Nick, once he joins us. It begins with focus and concentration. Nick’s progress will be faster than the rest of you will because his brain is actively being rewired.”
“For now, to deal with the immediate threat,” Acier said, “we’ll teach you how to fight the ghouls.”
“How does Flynn haul these things around?” Kit asked.
“Typically, in cattle trucks,” Acier said.
“So he’s got to be warehousing them somewhere,” Blade said. “Maybe somewhere near a highway so he can move them around quickly.”
Selena looked at Bastion. “What if we look for the ghoul warehouses while also searching for Flynn’s hidey-hole? Hit him from both directions?”
Bastion and Acier exchanged looks. “It isn’t as easy as it sounds,” Bastion said. “Everything associated with Flynn is under his protection—meaning it’s covered with illusions and compulsions. You wouldn’t even know if you got close to one of those.”
“A protection is just a spin of energy, right?” Selena asked.
“Basically.”
“Energy that you can sense?”
Bastion set his hands on his hips. “Not necessarily. Flynn’s eluded us so far.”
“I agree that we need to train to fight these ghouls,” Owen said, “but we also need to work on finding Flynn. If we take him out, the ghouls end, no?”
“No,” Bastion said. “We’re not sure how much the OWO itself knows of what Flynn’s been doing. Perhaps his work is a sanctioned activity—if so, they’ll send a replacement for him. The only way to terminate the ghouls permanently is to destroy the labs making them, along with the specs used to formulate them. And we’ll have to find the scientists heading the program and either bring them over to our side or terminate them. As for the remaining ghouls left without a handler, it’s possible they’ll turn on each other and kill themselves. But it’s also possible that Flynn’s got a backup who will pick up where he left off. Or it’s possible that the Omnis will take control of Flynn’s breeding program.”
“And if that happens, we’re up shit creek,” Acier said.
“So it’s monumental, but not insurmountable. We’ll find a way,” Owen said.
Acier grinned at Bastion.
“What?” Owen snapped.
“Nothing. You just sounded like Liege there for a moment.” Acier laughed, Bastion didn’t.
“It’s the hope that keeps us fighting,” Bastion said.
For the next week, Bastion and his friends divided Selena’s team into groups and went through drills on the basketball court. Blue gymnastic mats had been spread out all over.
Every now and then, when Selena had finished her rounds with the ghouls, she sent a look around at the different groups undergoing the same training. The room was filled with monsters—and her friends were covered with mock blood where real blood would have been if these ghouls were more than mirages.
The monsters looked every bit like werewolves from the worst B-movies she’d seen, except these weren’t static masks made by third-rate costumers. The faces of these ghouls had full motion. They growled and snarled and squinted and flashed enormous canines.
The training was grueling. None of them were making much headway in learning how to defeat the ghouls. Sure, they got in good strikes, even some lethal ones, but not enough of them to take out a pack of the ghouls single-handedly.
That afternoon, Selena and Owen were the last in a late session in the gym. Most of the others had already finished for the day. Acier’s focus and energy were indefatigable, so she took advantage of that as she pushed for another round.
Selena wiped her forehead with the back of her forearm. She was panting and sweating and covered with blood—the illusion of blood, anyway.
“Again,” she said with a nod to Acier, who brought up a fresh group of ghouls.
“Enough,” Bastion said. He’d joined her and Acier before the end of the last scenario. Selena straightened from her fighting pose. She caught an expression in his eyes that he immediately blinked to cover, but the ghost of it remained.
Fear. Sorrow. Disappointment.
He didn’t think she could do this.
“Again, Acier.”
“I said enough.” Bastion nodded at her. “You’re covered with the blood of your many deaths. This isn’t working.”
Selena was so tired that lifting her arms was a struggle, but she’d be damned if she gave Bastion the satisfaction. “It isn’t working yet.”
Before they could get into it further, a scream ripped into the room. Instantly, the monsters disappeared, as did the fake blood covering her and Owen.
Selena turned to see Addy, Owen’s wife, standing at the hallway door, losing her shit. Owen rushed over and pulled her close, burying her face in his chest. “It’s okay. I’m okay. It was just training.”
She gripped his arms and leaned back to look at his face. “You were covered in blood.”
“It was all an illusion. They were having us battle simulated monsters. It’s a mutant thing.”
Addy’s hands shook as she patted his chest, arms, shoulders. At last, her crazed gulping of air slowed. Owen hugged her again and began murmuring low words of comfort, rocking her.
“Remember when I used to slay your dragons when we were kids? I’ll soon have real ones to fight, but at least these ones don’t fly.”
Addy shook her head. “No. That was make-believe when we were kids. This is real life.”
“It’s something that we all have to face.” Owen put his arm around her and led her from the gym. “I think it’s time we called for a group meeting to discuss this.” He looked back at Bastion and the guys. “We’ll get together tonight, after the kids are in bed.”
Selena looked down at herself, seeing that the blood-soaked clothes she’d been wearing were really only sweat-soaked. Now that she could finally take a full breath and didn’t have keep powering through, she realized how tired she was. Her fingers ached from the tight grip she’d kept on her KA-BAR.
Bastion still stared at her, that hint of devastation returning to his eyes. “I know what she was feeling.” He nodded toward Addy. “That fear of watching someone you love dying.”
“It’s been a week, Bastion,” Selena said. “How long did it take you to learn to battle them?”
“That’s not the point.”
“It is the point.”
“You’re a regular. The skills you have can be fine-tuned, but they aren’t going to evolve into anything more. At least, not quickly enough.”
“You said humans could do anything mutants can.”
“With time, Selena. Lots and lots of time. We don’t have that.”
She wiped her face on a gym towel from a nearby table. Her hands were shaking with fatigue. She fisted the towel to keep him from seeing, but as connected as they were, he probably already knew.
She and the Legion guys were alone in the basketball court. She met the eyes of each man, seeing if their assessment was the same. It was. She walked out, her legs rubbery, but her back was straight and her chin was high.
She’d be damned if she showed any sign of weakness in front of them.
Bastion sat at the bottom of the stadium seats and dropped his head into his hands.
Acier watched him warily. “’Sup B?”
“You ever see the future?” Bastion asked.
Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion Page 31
