Planet Hero- Civilian

by M. A. Carlson

  I quickly started opening and closing keyhole portals, exploring the floor I was on. It didn’t take long to figure out I was on the lab floor. Their appeared to be five labs in total. I needed to get into the largest of them, which was located on the other side of the elevator, the entrance located at the opposite side of the circular hallway. It was also the most well-guarded. Two men stood at every door between the labs and me. That meant there were four doors on the exterior walls that I would need to clear before I got to the door I actually needed. That made ten guards in the hallway and two more inside the lab that I could see with my keyhole portals. I also imagined they were all going to be as tough or tougher than the first guard. I also assumed I was going to be under a time constraint.

  “Five doors, ten guards, half to the left, half to the right, and two more inside,” I mumbled to myself. It was strange to hear my voice after so many days of silence. So many days of being afraid to speak for fear of being caught.

  It was time to free those people. Then I could figure out how to escape.

  28

  First things first. I needed to disable the fortresses lockdown and destroy the security terminal in the bridge. Hopefully, I was close enough to do it. Which gave me something else to consider. I still hadn’t figured out how to press the big red button in the command center that would disable the lockdown without risking a lost finger. And even if I did break the system, I still needed to figure out how to get the scientists through Terminus’s negation field and into the hangar.

  Then I had an idea. I looked down at the unconscious guard, or more specifically, his rifle. Its barrel should do the trick. I grinned, it was still very risky, but I had nothing to lose at this point . . . other than my life . . . or the lives of the engineers . . . I needed to stop thinking about these things.

  I activated my Time Compression and opened a small Portal just above the lockdown button, it wasn’t much bigger than the barrel of the rifle. Or I tried to. It opened and fizzled immediately. Apparently, while the negation wave couldn’t reach me up here, it was still able to reach the other end of the Portal to disrupt it. And worse, I couldn’t quite time the gaps in the negation wave from here. I ended up opening almost a dozen portals trying to guess at the gap. The eleventh portal held, and I jammed the rifle through, hoping my enhanced speed would be enough.

  As soon as the barrel of the rifle cut off, I knew I was out of time.

  The loudspeaker boomed, “Lockdown rescinded!” It worked. The barrel of the rifle depressed the button before it was cutoff.

  I activated my Time Compression one more time. I opened a portal just behind the security terminal and formed the fastest Void Burst I could in the short time gap before the portal fizzled out. But it didn’t matter, it would still go off.

  I opened another portal to see if I did enough damage. I might have overdone it. The terminal was scrapped as were the terminals to either side of it. And the man that had been working the terminal didn’t look like he was in good condition.

  The loudspeaker crackled to life again a moment later, “Cloaking disabled! Security protocols disabled!”

  Okay, that was a happy accident. Unfortunately, Terminus would definitely know something was up now.

  The time for being careful was over. It was time to act. I ran left down the hallway. I hit the first pair of guards, detonating multiple small Void Bursts next to them until they fell unconscious. I kept running, keeping one eye on the black energy bar that was steadily falling and not getting the chance to refill. I repeated the process, taking out eight more guards, until I was back to the elevator where I started at. Yes, I ran past the door I needed but it was better to eliminate the guards first, then worry about rescuing the engineers. This also gave me a few minutes to recharge. The black energy bar was almost completely depleted. Still, I couldn’t wait too long, so as soon as I had about a quarter of my bar refilled, I moved on to the last door.

  With the security protocols disabled, the door opened with ease.

  As soon as I entered the lab, I saw the six engineers were huddled together in fear. A pair of nervous looking guards were threatening them with rifles. A pair of small Void Bursts near each guard’s heads and they were down for the count.

  “Alright folks, time to go,” I said. I was tempted to give them a classic movie line but knew it was pointless as none of them would even get it.

  One of the engineers collected himself and spoke, “And who are you?” The older man was malnourished and looked extremely weak. His hair was a dull brown with the occasional grey hair mixed in.

  That was a fair question. None of my planning with the heroes ever accounted for me attempting a rescue or theft of the power amplifier in question. And call it a hunch, but I didn’t think introducing myself as Dr. Portal would go over well. “I’m . . . the Physician. I’m here to rescue you, now let’s go before Terminus figures out what I’m doing.”

  The same engineer asked, “Go where?”

  “Away from here,” I said.

  Then the man asked, “And how do we do that?”

  “I . . . haven’t quite figured that part out yet. But there must be another way out of here,” I said.

  The woman I saw on the monitor, the weakest of them spoke up, “Then we’ll all die here.” She was a petite woman with dark brown, almost black hair, like her counterpart, there were a few strands of grey mixed in. As a doctor, I wanted to start diagnosing everything that was wrong just from looking at her poor state, but this was neither the time nor the place.

  “Maybe we will, but I don’t intend to die without a fight,” the man that first spoke said, looking with hard eyes at the device that was suspended in midair above the workbench, held in place within an energy field of some kind.

  The power amplifier looked just like the one I saw on Dr. Portal. It was a sleek tube, maybe a foot and a half long. It had softly glowing blue indicator lights but nothing that told me anything about how it worked. No buttons or switches, just . . . nothing.

  I couldn’t let him use the power amplifier, especially if it might kill him. It wouldn’t end well for anyone. I did the only thing I could think to do. I surrounded the floating device with dozens of small Void Bursts and collapsed them all at once. The machine was shredded, pulled apart so violently that I was forced to open several small portals to divert the shrapnel.

  “No,” the man said, dropping to his knees. “That . . . that was our only hope.”

  “Nonsense,” I said, trying to think of what to do next. I had a feeling that going down would be a bad idea. But going up was no guarantee we would be able to escape either. “Does anyone know how this remote works? I mean, how do I get the elevator to go up?”

  The weak woman I saw in the monitors, the one I thought didn’t have long to live, stepped forward and said, “Up? Let me see it?”

  I handed the remote to her, placing it in her shaking hands. Her eyes glowed briefly then she tapped on one of the buttons. It was the one at the bottom as I was holding it. “This one,” she said.

  “Great, thank you,” I said. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Sam, Samantha Greer,” she said.

  “Okay, Sam, let’s go,” I said, leading the way back to the elevator. I was hoping that guard reinforcements weren’t already on their way. As we moved, I quickly learned the names of the engineers, the only one I really took note of was Nick, the man that wanted to use the device.

  Thankfully, the elevator was empty, and the ride up went without a hitch, even if it was a tight fit with the six engineers and me. As soon as everyone was out of the elevator, I created the largest Void Burst I could and closed the doors and sent the elevator all the way down. A few seconds later there was a very loud boom as my control of the Void Burst was suddenly cutoff, which was followed by the elevator tube crumpling inward with sudden force.

  “And now we’re trapped up here,” Nick said, he was the man that first spoke to me.

  “No, now they
are trapped down there,” I said, looking around for a way out. I seemed to be in a bedroom, a very large bedroom with expansive windows that looked out over the uncloaked fortress. This was a tower, a spire of some sort. Terminus really did think of herself as a queen.

  Thinking of Terminus brought me back to worrying about her extending her negation field up here now that she knew where I was, but nothing happened. Even after a few minutes, she did nothing. I needed information. I opened a small portal in her throne room, hoping I would catch a glimpse.

  It was utter devastation. When my Void Burst collapsed, the resulting implosion was much worse than it should have been. It didn’t take me long to see the elevator shaft was crumpled like an empty soda can, except for a large torn out section near the ceiling of the throne room. That was the spot where the connection to my Void Burst was most likely severed. What I didn’t account for was the vacuum already inside the tube, suddenly empowered by my Void Burst weakening the integrity of the structure, such that it magnified the collapse and causing it to implode inward like a giant Void Burst. The implosion tore through the throne room, obliterating the throne and tearing up the walls and floor.

  Terminus appeared to have been flung into the collapsed elevator with such force that there was an impact crater above the elevator door where she hit. The woman was laying on the floor, partly covered in rubble. She had scrapes and cuts and hopefully a few broken bones, but she was still breathing. And I now understood why she didn’t extend her negation field. She was blissfully unconscious. Unfortunately, I also knew I couldn’t count on it to last very long.

  “Okay, we need to go quickly,” I said, looking up as I closed the keyhole portal. I opened a much larger portal to one of the hangars that I found while conducting my search of the fortress. The important thing about this specific hangar was that it contained a pair of larger flying vans. “Hurry through before she wakes up and cuts off my power again.”

  The engineers looked at me dumbfounded but it didn’t last long as Sam shambled through the portal without questioning me. The others quickly followed suit until I joined them, closing my portal behind me.

  I tried to open the door of one of the vans, but it didn’t budge.

  “You need one of the security cards,” Sam said helpfully.

  I grinned. Hopefully, the card I stole a few days ago was still active. I touched the card to the door handle and the familiar sound of automatic locks disengaging followed.

  “Now, does anyone know how to drive one of these things?” I asked, opening the door for everyone to enter.

  Nick volunteered.

  “Get us in the air,” I said, taking the seat next to him.

  “What about the doors? They’re still closed,” Nick said.

  “I’m going to make us a door,” I answered.

  Nick nodded and started the engine, lifting us into the air a moment later.

  Then it was my turn again. I opened the largest portal I could. I just hoped it was large enough to fit the van through. Not that Nick had any control over that. As soon as I opened the port, the hangar depressurized, and we were almost instantly sucked through the portal and spat out just outside the flying fortress.

  “I can’t believe that worked,” Nick said.

  My eyes were looking out the back window where the now visible flying fortress could easily be seen. The entire structure was painted white with large splotches of rust infesting the surface. I also noted that it had guns. Some of which were starting to move in our direction.

  “Drive!” I shouted urgently, already mentally preparing to start opening portals behind us if the fortress started firing on us.

  Nick didn’t hesitate. The vehicle suddenly jerked forward, and I sank back into the passenger seat.

  “Anyone know if this thing has a cloaking device like the cars?” I asked, opening my first portal behind us as the first shot was fired. I redirected the shot back at the cannon that fired on us, feeling satisfied when there was a small explosion from the weapon emplacement.

  “Sam, get up here and help me look,” Nick shouted urgently. “Physician, just do what you can to keep us from getting shot out of the sky.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I gave up my seat to Sam, doing my best to slip past her without knocking her over. I might have teleported if energy wasn’t a concern, my energy bar well below the half mark. I had a feeling I was going to need every last drop of energy I could muster and more if we didn’t get out of range of the fortress fast.

  Two more of the big guns fired at the same time. I repaid them with redirected shots, taking out two more weapon emplacements. But the size of the weapons being fired were significant. I wouldn’t be able to redirect many more shots.

  “How’s it going up there?” I yelled.

  “Slow,” Nick shouted back.

  Another shot and another redirection. “Please hurry, I can’t redirect many more of these shots.”

  “We are hurrying,” Nick shouted back.

  Three shots and three redirections at the same time and the black energy bar was almost completely drained, no more than a sliver remained. “That’s it, I’m out.”

  “Hold on,” Nick shouted, suddenly diving the van toward the ground. And it was just in time, six shots went off at once, all of them missing thanks to the sudden dive.

  “Got it,” Sam said.

  Nick suddenly leveled out the van and I fell to the floor rather painfully.

  “I can’t believe that actually worked,” Nick said, his shock evident in his voice.

  “Straight to New Haven and the Hero Association, if you please,” I said, still laying on the floor of the van and completely unwilling to move. Everything ached. I was pretty sure I overused my ability and was now suffering the Nana-feedback Ward warned me about.

  We were free. I actually managed to escape. I stopped Terminus’s plans, rescued the kidnapped engineers, and I wasn’t even a hero, just a civilian. Not bad Davis Malory. Not bad at all.

  29

  The flight back to the city was easy. The flying van cruised above the wilds and was never attacked by any of the beasts. Given the size of some of the birds that we occasionally saw as we flew over, I hoped the invisibility cloak, or whatever it was, that kept us out of sight would keep us alive. I truly believe it was the main reason we made it back alive.

  When we landed at the Hero Association New Haven Fortress City branch, things got a bit messier. First, I needed to convince the hero on duty that I wasn’t Dr. Portal. Then I needed to convince the hero’s supervisor, another hero, that I wasn’t Dr. Portal and that I was on a mission from Major Miracle himself. Unfortunately, I, along with the engineers, were all taken into custody. Me as a villain and them as my victims. And despite the engineers all vouching for me, the hero still didn’t believe me, stating I could have hypnotized them. After that, I really did not appreciate being associated with Dr. Portal. It might have been fine for the mission, but the mission was over.

  They held me for three days. I was interrogated multiple times by heroes I had never met. Heroes who also refused to reach out to any of the heroes I knew. And when I asked them why they wouldn’t reach out, the only response I got was that they were all away on a mission. My guess was that mission was an attempt to rescue me. Joke’s on them.

  When they did return, it didn’t take long before Major Miracle, Para-Hypno, Private Eye Light, Blue Ward, Mental Star, and Hammer Jack all found me locked in an Ability proof cell. Was it so wrong that I enjoyed the look of absolute disbelief on Para’s face when he saw me sitting there looking bored? Or Hammer Jack’s for that matter?

  After that, I finally got the chance to debrief. I made sure to complain about the hero that arrested me, but it wasn’t like there was much I could do about it. Major Miracle did gently chide Para for not setting up some kind of emergency passphrase.

  “And then you came here?” Major Miracle asked after I told the story for the second time.

  “Yes,” I an
swered. “And then I came here. I came with the kidnapped engineers who should be around here somewhere, unless the idiot hero that arrested me sent them all home.”

  “I’ll go look for them,” Ward volunteered.

  “Make sure they got proper medical care,” I said before he left the room. “They were all malnourished and probably dehydrated.”

  Ward clearly didn’t understand what I just said and yet he nodded anyway and went on his way.

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure our healers did good work,” Major Miracle tried to reassure me. “But back to the matter at hand. Terminus, he died and left his mantle to his daughter?”

  “That’s what she claimed,” I said. “Her Ability was similar to what you described. She didn’t exactly give me a DNA test to prove it, but I had no reason to doubt her. And Terminus had no reason to lie if she was planning to kill me anyway. It’s like Para said, villains really do love to monologue. She was no exception.”

  “It sounds to me like you did one hell of a job,” Hammer said, slapping me on the back with far too much strength.

  “Thanks,” I groaned out in response. “But what’s next? I can’t imagine she’s just going to let me go after that. Especially after I destroyed her power amplification device.”

  “No, I doubt she will let it go,” Major Miracle said. “But that is a worry for tomorrow. Today, we celebrate your resounding success.”

  “If possible, I would like to check in on the engineers,” I requested. I felt responsible for them. I wanted to know they were okay. That they were going to be okay.

  “Of course,” Major Miracle replied. “Occasionally, I will check in on the first man I ever saved. A lot of heroes do the same kind of thing, at least, the good ones do.”

  But I wasn’t a hero . . . I mean, I might have saved those people like a hero, but I was not a hero. I was a doctor, the kind that helped to heal people. I was also leaving this place as soon as the heroes figured out how to send me home.