Planet Hero- Civilian

by M. A. Carlson

  Major Miracle clapped me on the back, then asked, “I’ll arrange something for first thing tomorrow morning, does that sound acceptable?”

  “Yeah,” I said, “That sounds fi-”

  My sentence was cut off as an air raid siren suddenly filled the building.

  Major Miracle’s good humor and mood vanished almost instantly. He ran out of the room, followed quickly by Hammer Jack, Para-Hypno, and Mental Star, leaving just Light and me.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, hoping Light could tell me.

  “It means the city is under attack,” Light replied.

  “Under attack?” I yelped. “What do you mean under attack? I thought this was supposed to be a Fortress City. Doesn’t that mean it’s highly defensible?”

  “Don’t panic. It’s probably just a beast horde migration,” Light said, trying and failing to reassure me.

  “And if it’s not?” I asked, feeling a pit form in my stomach as I had my own suspicions.

  “It could be war with another nation,” Light said.

  That gave me something new to worry about. I asked, “Does that happen?”

  Light grimaced. Again, the man was completely lacking a poker face. Still, he answered, “Not really.”

  I gave him a flat look.

  “Or . . . it could be Terminus,” Light finally relented, stating what I suspected to be the case.

  “Okay, so what do we do?” I asked.

  “We do nothing. You’ve already done more than enough to help,” Light said. “For now, stay here, stay safe. We’ll take care of the rest.”

  Somehow, that did nothing to reassure me. “And what about you?” I asked.

  “I’m here to protect you,” Light replied.

  “And how much protection do you think you’ll be against an 88th Milestone villain who seems to be capable of blocking powers?” I asked.

  Again, with the grimace. That was something Light was really going to need to work on in the future. “I was ordered to protect you, so that is what I’m going to do.”

  “And who ordered that?” I asked, then added, “And when did they give the order?”

  “It’s a standing order,” Light replied.

  I was about to reply when I felt the building shake. “What was that?”

  “An impact tremor,” Light said.

  “That seemed awfully close,” I said. I was starting to feel claustrophobic again. I didn’t like the idea of having a building crash down on me, trapping me.

  “It was miles away,” Light said, putting a hand on my shoulder in an effort to calm me down.

  Another impact tremor followed his statement, this time it felt much closer. I asked, “Still miles away?”

  Light grimaced.

  “Stop with the damned grimacing all the time. You want to be a hero and reassure me then you can start by not doing that,” I snapped. I took a few calming breaths, which were interrupted by another impact tremor, this one shaking the lights above me. I took a few more. “How close?”

  “Too close,” Light said, finally looking worried.

  “Where can we go?” I asked.

  “This is the safest building in town,” Light said.

  “Until Terminus’s flying fortress hammers it into the ground,” I said, feeling panic start to creep in.

  Another impact tremor hit. This time drywall dust fell from the ceiling followed by a long crack running along the wall and across the ceiling.

  “Okay, maybe we should relocate,” Light finally said.

  I agreed with him whole heartedly. “What are we waiting for?”

  “Follow me,” Light said, moving to the door and out into the hall.

  I was right on his heels.

  We ran down the hall and then down a flight of stairs. I wanted very badly to ask him about going deeper into the subbasements, but he was moving too fast.

  Ward’s familiar voice called from up ahead of us, “Light, what are you doing?”

  “Moving Davis somewhere safer,” Light answered. “What are you doing with those people?”

  The engineers I rescued were cowering behind Ward, looking frightened but significantly healthier than when I last saw them.

  “The same thing you are,” Ward replied as another impact shook the building above us, which was quickly followed by a second and a third impact tremor. The last of which caused part of the hallway behind us to collapse.

  “We need to get out of here,” Nick said. The engineer wasn’t nearly as gaunt as he was a few days ago but he was still thin. At least he had a healthy pallor to his skin, and he was now clean shaven.

  “We’re moving you all someplace safe,” Ward said, attempting to reassure them.

  “You don’t understand,” Nick protested. “She isn’t going to stop until she gets us back or she kills us. You need to get us away from here. As far away as you can.”

  “I’m sorry citizen, but I cannot safely move you to another location at this time. I assure you that you are perfectly safe within the confines of the Hero Association Headquarters,” Ward said, his voice taking on that tone I had come to think of as ‘Hero-Speak’.

  It surprised me when it actually worked to a small extent. The six engineers calmed slightly. Only for five consecutive impact tremors to hit the building at once. I could even see Light and Ward were starting to panic.

  “You need to get us away,” Nick pleaded this time.

  Ward took a moment to master his expression before he spoke, but I could still tell even he was unsure of what to do. “There are safe bunkers further down. You’ll be safe there until the heroes have resolved the situation.”

  Nick didn’t believe him. Then he spotted me. “You, you’re the Physician, right. You can make a portal. You can get us out of here, right?”

  Ward and Light looked at me slightly confused. I had completely forgotten that I had given them that name. “I . . . I-” I didn’t know how to answer.

  “You can at least get us to the next building over, right?” Nick asked. “Maybe even two or three buildings over.”

  I looked to Ward and Light for help but neither of them seemed to know what to do.

  “What about the van?” Sam asked. I was glad to see the woman was in much better health. “We can use the van’s invisibility mode and fly far away. You can get us there, right?”

  Now that was an idea. I just hoped the van hadn’t been moved or towed away by that incompetent hero that arrested me. Still, I looked again to Ward and Light for confirmation. Light grimaced again, looking even more unsure about what to do than I was. But Ward . . . Ward looked conflicted only for a moment before slowly nodding.

  I closed my eyes and pictured the flying invisible van. I pictured the inside of the van. The spacious compartment inside. With a mental command, I opened a portal. I peeked through one eye first to check the portal and to my relief, the other side was indeed just inside the van.

  “Alright, everyone through,” I said, stepping aside and waving everyone in, including Ward and Light. When they were all through, I joined them on the other side, closing my portal behind me.

  The van looked to have been untouched and unmoved, though only by sheer luck if the outside was any indication. As the van began moving, I got a good look outside. There were craters pockmarking the streets all around the Hero Association. There were bodies lying unmoving in the street. Worse, there were moving bodies, many of which were injured, some probably dying. Part of my training to become a doctor involved crisis work. Emergency room rotations and the like. Part of me demanded I go out there and start triaging the wounded. Doing everything I could to help. Another part of me was terrified that I might end up just like them. Then I saw a crying child, she was trying to drag her unconscious mother or sister and I knew I needed to help.

  I made my choice and I was about to teleport when there was a cry of frustration from the driver seat. The van was moving but it appeared Ward had no control over it.

  “Can any of you engineers
disable this autopilot?” Ward yelled into the van, finally sounding panicked.

  Sam and Nick both rushed forward.

  “Where are we going?” Light asked.

  “Up there,” Ward said, pointing to the flying fortress that was still bombarding the Hero Association and its surrounding buildings.

  “That’s bad, right?” I asked, forgetting about the people on the ground. I could still go but that would mean abandoning the engineers.

  “It’s certainly not good,” Ward said.

  “Okay, I’m opening another portal,” I said. I finally had good line of sight down a street. It looked untouched at the distance I was capable of opening a portal. “Everybody, move through, quickly,” I said.

  Four of the engineers went through followed by Ward and Light, but Nick and Sam were still in the driver seat and passenger seat.

  “Come on you two, let’s go,” I said, watching with worry as we got closer to the fortress.

  Nick didn’t wait another second. He almost ran from his seat toward the Portal. Only for the Portal to fizzle out before he could cross the threshold.

  “No,” Nick’s panicked voice said. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he kept repeating to himself as a full-blown panic attack settled in. I wished I had a sedative I could give him. Sadly, I had bigger fish to fry as Terminus’s flying fortress loomed ahead of us, the hangar door waiting to swallow us whole.

  30

  The hangar doors closed with a sense of finality. And while I may have escaped once, I honestly wasn’t sure I could do it again.

  The loudspeaker boomed once again, “Beginning Pressurization!”

  I waited, knowing it wouldn’t be long until the process completed.

  “Pressurization Complete!”

  I looked outside the van, specifically at the doors. I was afraid guards were going to storm in by the dozens. Unfortunately, what happened might have been worse. Kidnap, And, and Ransom entered.

  Kidnap yelled, “The boss wants to kill you herself, Dr. Portal. If you really are Dr. Portal. Personally, I wouldn’t mind killing you myself after what you did to Ransom’s nose.”

  I know it was inappropriate, but I couldn’t help but celebrate a little, saying, “Ha, I was right, the big one is Ransom.”

  “Do you really think now is the time for this?” Sam suddenly asked from right next to me. I completely missed her moving to look out the window with me.

  “Probably not,” I replied. It might have been a little flippant on my part, but when you’re staring death in the face, one of the first things I seemed to lose were my inhibitions.

  Kidnap seemed to be getting impatient as he yelled, “If you don’t want to come out on your own, we can come in after you.”

  “To hell with it,” I mumbled. “You two stay here.”

  “What are you going to do?” Sam asked.

  “I’m going to deal with them,” I said.

  “But the negation field,” Sam protested.

  I cocked an eyebrow and gave her my best lopsided heroic grin. I winked at her then vanished. I used Teleport to move near the door that led into the fortress, thus putting myself behind the trio. With my Time Compression still active, I created three Void Bursts just in front of each member of the trio.

  I dropped my Time Compression in an effort to conserve some of it, I would need it if this didn’t stop them. Instantly, all three voids bursts at once. The trio were suddenly and violently torn off their feet. Propelled forward by the sudden suction of the voids collapsing, the trio flew through the air and bounced off the side of the van, cracking a pair of the windows in the process.

  “Ooh, that must hurt,” I said confidently, believing all three were down for the count. I would have put money on it that all three were down between the concussive force of the Void Bursts and the impact with the van. I would have lost that bet.

  All three were definitely hurt, but they still climbed back to their feet.

  Ransom put a hand on the van as he did and shoved, sending the van skidding across the hanger. It told me he was strong and that his strength was probably Ability related if he could move the van so easily. On the bright side, his nose was bleeding again, which suggested he didn’t have a lot of physical resistance. On the other hand, he was able to get back up again. So . . . maybe he did have a high physical resistance and I was hitting him just hard enough? As a doctor, I knew there were places I could hit them to do the maximum amount of damage. Unfortunately, it would require the perfect shot and probably more power than I was comfortable using against another human being, superpowered or not.

  Kidnap was the slowest of the trio to stand. It looked like his shoulder was dislocated and his arm was bent the wrong direction. I knew he must have been in tremendous pain. I could hardly believe he was standing with such injuries. And then with a few sickening snaps and pops, the damage reversed. Kidnap seemed to have the ability to heal. Painfully heal, but still heal. That or his Body Recovery to Physical Injury was through the roof.

  And then there was And. And was the one that disturbed me the most. He was almost folded in half from the combination of impacts, and yet he didn’t appear to be broken, just . . . bent. When he sprung back up to his feet looking completely uninjured, I wondered if he had healing like Kidnap did. Then he punched at me from across the hangar, his arm extending like rubber. Only my Speed saved me, and even then, I just barely dodged as his fist grazed my cheek.

  It also made me very aware that none of the Abilities these three used were blocked, whereas my ability needed to be used between the waves of Terminus’s negation field. It told me that either Terminus really did have that much control or that these three had some piece of tech that preserved their abilities.

  “It was only a request, she didn’t say we were required to take you alive,” Kidnap said, cracking his knuckles, an action mimicked by Ransom.

  And leaped at me, his rubbery legs propelling him at me faster than I thought possible. I activated my Time Compression just before he reached me. I used my Teleport to cross the hanger then created a few Void Bursts where I had been just a moment before.

  As time resumed, the voids collapsed, pulling the rubberized villain in multiple directions but doing nothing to really injure him. Though I did take note that he wasn’t snapping back to form as quickly. Then I remember one of the important lessons that had been drilled into me by Hammer, Light, and Ward during training. Everyone had a finite amount of energy to use their Abilities. Once someone used it up, they would have no choice but to rely on their Body enhancements. And villains . . . villains had a bad habit of being one trick ponies, going all Body or all Ability. Not that I was much better, but it still gave me hope, especially when I looked at my own energy bars. They were just over half full.

  My distraction from watching And to see how long it took for him to return to his normal form almost cost me everything as Ransom and Kidnap moved suddenly enough to get on either side of me. I barely got Time Compression activated fast enough to Teleport away again, leaving behind a Void Burst in the space I just occupied.

  The void collapsed and the pair suddenly and violently collided with each other. Ransom’s elbow collided with Kidnap’s head and his neck twisted with a sickening crack. With his healing ability, I wasn’t sure if it would keep him down. Not that I had time to worry about it as And was back after me again.

  I ducked one punch but didn’t sense the punch coming from behind me until I was punched in my kidneys. I felt pain shoot through my gut, burning my insides. I felt like I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe for fear of the pain it would induce if I did.

  Reflexively, I activated my Time Compression, which in hindsight might have been a bad idea while I was in so much pain as the slowed down time seemed to magnify the feeling. I felt every second of it. Still, I needed to act before And’s head impacted with my face. I wanted to Teleport but at some point, And grabbed my shoulder. If I teleported, there was a chance he would just come with me. Instead
, I created a Void Burst just behind his head.

  The Void Burst went off and And was suddenly whipped back the way he came, and lucky for me his grip on my shoulder slipped free. I took the opportunity to Teleport to give myself a little breathing room, which I would need. My golden energy bar was almost depleted, and the black energy bar wasn’t much better.

  “That . . . hurt!” Kidnap yelled angrily as he climbed back to his feet.

  “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I complained. Okay, maybe I wasn’t going to be able to beat them. Maybe I did overestimate myself. Given their seemingly indestructible nature, I was starting to get the picture that I was outgunned. That, and I had low energy bars that were beginning to wane from continued use every time I needed to Teleport or use a Void Burst. “What the hell are you three made of?”

  “Power,” Kidnap answered. “And you are lacking enough power to really do us any harm.”

  I looked around the hangar, desperate for a solution when I saw the large hangar doors. Sometimes, I was too smart for my own good. If they wanted to see my power, then I supposed I would need to oblige. I may have grinned a little as I teleported back into the van.

  “It doesn’t seem to be going well,” Sam commented as soon as I appeared.

  “It’s not,” I confirmed. “But I just realized something. I’ve been thinking about things like a doctor. I need to think more like a hero with too much power and not enough commonsense.”

  I moved to look out the other side of the van. Specifically, at the hangar doors. The hangar doors which did not have the lockdown doors engaged. I waited for the next gap in the negation field and slowed time. With the little bit of time I had, I opened the largest Void Burst I could right next to the hangar doors and let it rip.

  I should have warned Sam and Nick to buckle up. Heck, I should have buckled up myself. The hangar door burst inward with a gaping hole only to get sucked right back out again from the sudden change in pressure. Pressure that sucked the trio straight out into the open air. Unfortunately, the pressure was also enough that the van got sucked toward the hole as well. Thankfully, the van hit the hole on its broadside, thus preventing it from being sucked out with the villains, which actually wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world. Eventually, I would have gotten out of range of the negation field and could have opened a portal or maybe even just teleported us away. Still, because of the sudden tumbling of the van, we got tossed around pretty good. It was sheer luck that the cracked windows didn’t shatter.