by Drew Hayes
There was an implied “for now” that neither chose to comment on. In a world like theirs, when reality was such a fickle enforcer, nothing could ever really be taken for granted—not until they were dead, like Lozora. That was the price of living in a world of miracles.
Shifting forward, Ivan set the less-filled glass in front of Tori, then lifted his own. “I didn’t know Presto, either as a cape or a person. In truth, he likely would have been an enemy in almost every circumstance imaginable. Yet today, his bravery and determination helped keep my former apprentice... my friend, safe. To Presto, one who deserved to chase the title of superhero.”
“To Ike.” Tori whispered the words, more to herself than to Ivan, before gulping down the single mouthful of liquor. It was excellent, yet horrible, for reasons that had nothing to do with flavor. “Okay, and with you brought up to speed, it’s time for both of us to go clean off. I need to meet with Doctor Mechaniacal in a few. This is the perfect chance to kick off our new project, and we’re not going to miss it. After that, don’t expect to see me around outside the lab for a bit.”
“Got new plans in mind?”
There was real danger in Tori’s smile, a look Ivan knew all too well. When faced with a power that much greater than themselves, most people’s reactions fell into one of three camps. The vast majority were scarred by it, forever made afraid by the knowledge that there were some limits they simply couldn’t overcome. Some took that pain and grew, however, resolving to be as strong as they could, to minimize how many times that gap would appear. Then there was the third group, the ones who saw how high the mountain stretched and were filled with one all-consuming notion: if they can be that strong, then so can I.
“Lots,” Tori confirmed. “It’s time for a updated model—past time, really. Especially now that I’ve got a lead on a new material. One that can stand up to the leagues I want to play in. A long road ahead on that front, though, so I’m jumping in as soon as possible. Not going to have as much free time pretty soon.”
Ivan watched as she set the glass back down, keeping it a healthy distance from the head-bag. “Care to elaborate?”
“Nah, it’ll be more fun to let you see with everyone else. Time for a shower, anyway.” Tori slowly pulled herself from the chair, suit not moving with the usual grace in its current condition.
“Before you go...” Ivan wasn’t quite sure how to phrase this. It had the potential to be taken wrong, but he and Tori generally understood one another fairly well. Sometimes, it was best to just plug ahead. “Tori, are you sure you want Hephaestus to be the one who killed Lozora? She is not unknown, nor without friends. I won’t deny you the glory you’ve earned, but there is much less baggage if Fornax did the deed. Otherwise, you should expect eventual consequences.”
“When the guild reopened, you asked me what kind of villain I want to be.” Tori’s eyes darted from the bag to her right hand, still clad in the killer gauntlet. “That head is my answer. I want to be the kind of villain people fear, because they should. The person no one dares to fuck with, knowing what awaits them. The world needs bogeymen, things to rightly fear. I want everyone to understand what happens to those who cross Hephaestus, or her guild.”
It was a path Ivan knew all too well, one he’d just recommitted himself to on intergalactic television; he had no room to cast judgment, no matter how much he wished she’d found a safer road to travel. But Tori Rivas didn’t want normality or safety, and only she could live the life that was best for her. Even if it meant one that might end up significantly shorter.
“Then we tell the truth. Hephaestus killed Lozora. Make sure that new suit is a good one, Tori. You will have enemies coming to test it.”
The first coherent thought Donald had was when the cocoa burned his tongue. That sharp jolt of pain finally yanked him from his reverie—a mix of injury, exhaustion, and emotional fatigue. By the time all of the other superheroes climbed free, the fight was over. Presto was gone, and the rest of the New Science Sentries were near inconsolable. Since then, Cyber Geek had been running on what felt like autopilot, forcibly putting one foot in front of the other.
Backup arrived eventually—they’d caused too much destruction to not get noticed—and from there, they’d all largely been swept into more experienced hands. He’d gotten some texts from Tori that they were evacuated, but safe, which left him with nothing to do except dwell on the fight they’d just had. On how, once again, he’d been ultimately useless when the threat turned severe.
The gruff voice in his ear might have caused him to leap right up, if the cocoa hadn’t already brought him partially out of the fugue. “It wasn’t your fault.” Ren’s rough hand fell on his back a moment later.
“How did you know?” Donald didn’t even glance up from his Styrofoam cup. He couldn’t stand the same zoned-out stares on the faces of the other capes in this area: a place for those who’d seen too much this night to decompress.
“Because Ren feels the same way, just like the rest of us.” Lucy plopped down to his right, still clad in her costume, save only for the mask. “We’re all aspiring superheroes. We all take too much responsibility when things go wrong. He’s right, too. In this case, there was no victory to be had. Presto... he saved us.”
Tears welled up in Donald’s eyes. He’d barely even known Ike, but this was the first time he would be burying a fellow superhero. That fact alone was scary enough to draw the waterworks. “There might have been ways to escape.”
“There weren’t.” Irene took the final spot near him, sitting closer than she normally preferred. “Not without risking innocent lives. Presto saw the chance to make a difference. He had the ability to matter, the opportunity to act, and the willpower to see it through. That’s what it takes to be a superhero, if only for a moment. He made the hard call to keep us alive.”
In a way, that was true, but largely by coincidence. The real people he’d been protecting were the New Science Sentries, none of whom were currently in the same room. Probably off for a debrief—the same treatment his team would be in for once they’d had a chance to recover. With the chaos of the day, everything had to be tackled in waves. The ones who needed more time were shuffled around to the end of the queue.
Last time he’d been in a real pinch, he’d made it through thanks to the power of his team. Today, it was thanks to another superhero, one who wouldn’t be around to pitch in next time. Donald was tired of being saved, frustrated to feel like he was making progress only to hit one wall after another. Yet painful as it was, his other choice was to accept that weakness, to simply say that this was the league where he could play and leave it at that. Be left behind by the friends who were taking time to make sure he was all right, even after living through the same hell themselves.
He had to get stronger; only now, Donald was starting to understand that this wasn’t some temporary condition. For as long as he lived in this world, he’d forever be climbing, striving, reaching just a bit higher, all in the hopes that the next time they hit a major threat, he’d be the one making a difference, not another person getting saved.
Presto had perished protecting them all. Next time, Cyber Geek wanted to make sure no one had to die. Not if he could become strong enough.
Epilogue
“I’d like to thank you all for being here today.”
That opening was the only traditional thing about the morning’s event, the strangest funeral Tori had ever attended, though she’d really only been to a few. None of those had been in bars, however, let alone ones rented out for private mourning. The others had also had dead bodies present; in the case of her parents, barely recognizable ones, but bodies all the same. While this was not a traditional funeral, it did feel fitting. Presto hadn’t really been a traditional cape.
“I put a lot of thought into what I could say about Ike Pemberton, whether I should lay more emphasis on the man or the mask to eulogize him properly. In the end, I realized that to honor my friend, there was only one clear cho
ice: I have to emphasize the truth. Because almost above all else, Ike hated bullshit.”
Austin’s line drew a small chuckle from the audience, meager as it was. Aside from her, Beverly, and Chloe, all seated at one small table, the crowd largely consisted of the remaining New Science Sentries, Cyber Geek’s team, and a few strangers Tori didn’t recognize, along with one she very much did. As a newer cape, Presto had gotten little time to make an impression. The world would mourn their hero through the AHC’s public memorial and upcoming ceremony for all those lost in the invasion. Today was for those who knew the man beneath the moniker.
“That trait could make him abrasive, hard to work with, and even harder to befriend. It also kept him honest, upfront, and one of the few voices I could always trust to tell me when I was making a mistake. Ike valued truth over sentiment, and would hate nothing more than being held up as a saint just because he passed. Ike was our dear friend, and also an asshole much of the time.”
A loud sniff from Ellie in the front, though she was holding up better than Kyle, who was already crying openly. Some folks cracked smiles at the sudden swearing, but there were no titters this time. The moment no longer felt right for such mirth.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell you that Ike had the natural disposition of a superhero, that he was always fated to fight for the side of side of good. None of that. Yet even though he didn’t especially like them, he still used his power to help people. In the end, Ike passed us all up, going out in the most heroic way I could imagine, saving the rest of his team.”
Chancing a glance over her shoulder, Tori noted that the woman standing at the edge of the room wasn’t crying. The look on her face was more severe, almost guilty looking. There was no logical reason for the woman to wear such an expression, but Tori understood why it was there. This sort of failing probably always felt personal to her.
Standing at the bar, which they were treating as a makeshift podium, Austin lifted his glass, and the others followed suit. Tori wondered what the capes would say if they were to learn that the world’s most feared villain had lifted his glass to Presto in the same manner. Sadly, posing such a query would essentially be opening a case of worm-filled-cans, so some things had to remain a mystery.
“To Ike, a reminder that the seeds of true heroism can spring from any one of us, when defending what we love. I’m sorry you had to save us, and I promise we’re not going to waste the second chance you provided.”
An echo of “To Ike” rumbled through the bar as everyone tipped back a glass, toasting to the cape missing from the room. Since the invasion, apparently the AHC had begun scanning space, searching for Alfred or Presto’s remains. No luck so far, which was about as expected, given how much area they had to scour. It meant there was no corpse to lay to rest, however. Instead, they were gathered around one of Presto’s spare costumes, laid out artfully inside a glass case.
With Austin’s speech done, some of the crowd headed over to the bar for refills, while others trekked to the bathroom with relief in mind. As for Tori, she decided it was time for light mingling, making her way around to the back of the room where the lone figure had been watching from the shadows. Her target made no effort to escape, even as Tori drew close enough to speak softly.
“I didn’t think Ike warranted a personal appearance from Lodestar at his funeral.”
“He most certainly did. Unfortunately, when she shows up, the focus shifts from where it’s meant to be, so I’m here instead,” Helen replied. She wasn’t in a disguise, necessarily, though her outfit was more stuffy and professional than Tori would have expected, creating a different vibe altogether. Tori wondered if she’d have recognized Helen were she not in the know about her secret, and just how potent that identity cloaking of hers really was.
“Do you always go to cape funerals?”
“Not always. Job often gets in the way. All the ones I can though, yes. It’s the least I owe them.”
Did she really feel guilty over not being there for Ike? The woman had been battling a space monster intent on eating their sun, a fight that only she could have won, protecting the entire planet as a whole. Maybe that was what it cost to be so powerful; when you could do anything, it meant what you chose to save was all the more important.
“How have you been?” Helen broke Tori out of her reverie with a slight turn and a friendly smile. “With Starscout meetings temporarily suspended, we haven’t gotten to catch up in a couple of weeks. I was glad to see you made it through alive. Especially knowing what a good helper you can be to your friends.”
Her eyes darted pointedly to the rest of the room, making it clear she knew what Hephaestus had done but had no intent of airing that secret out here. It was bizarre, realizing Lodestar was keeping tabs on her. That was likely unavoidable, one of the encumbrances of being Fornax’s apprentice.
Thinking of Ivan made Tori uncomfortable. She had no idea how Lodestar reacted to the guild’s move against the Wrexwren. News outlets had called it horrific, unconscionable, an extreme overreaction. Tori, on the other hand, had gotten to see the results. It wasn’t as if the world had suddenly become a clean and sparkling utopia—there were still a great deal of criminals out there, all at varying degrees of morality. However, after Fornax’s appearance, the guild was suddenly deluged by debts being repaid and oaths of loyalty being reaffirmed. Most of the rule-skirting had thinned out quickly, helped along by the guild’s new commitment to enforcing their edicts. They would never be powerful enough to influence every action of every criminal, but they were once again a threat to be considered. Worse than before, in many ways. Under the old system, they’d been a rumor; now, they were fact.
“I’ve been okay. Mostly busy with work. In fact, I’ve got a big event later today. Thankfully, they didn’t set this at the same time.”
“Glad to hear it,” Helen replied. She rummaged around in her pocket, producing a small white card. “In all our time together, I don’t think I ever gave you my number. Shoot me a call if you need anything, Tori. Even just perspective or guidance.”
Despite an initial wave of hesitation, Tori accepted the card. Odd as it might be, having direct access to Lodestar was not something she was dumb enough to pass up. There might well come a day when that phone call saved her life, or the lives of her friends. “Holding out hope I’ll switch over?”
“Let’s just say that I think anyone willing to put their lives on the line in a fight that isn’t even theirs has superhero potential. You can call about other issues, too.” She checked her watch, then noted that the official part of the funeral seemed to have wrapped up with the speech. “As for me, time to get back to it.”
Tori was mostly braced for the hug farewell—she’d gotten accustomed to Helen enough after their few weeks together—though it was still bizarre knowing who had their arms around her. After pocketing the card, she turned to find Kyle walking over, a pair of beers in hand.
“Do I see Tori making new friends of her own free will?” He handed over the spare drink as he arrived, which Tori accepted. In truth, it was hard staying sober at this event, not only because of the palpable sadness in the air. The timing couldn’t have been worse. After working so hard to get things ready so fast, their big premiere had to come on the day of Ike’s farewell.
“More like making small talk.” Tori instantly realized she should have come up with a better lie—by this point, Kyle knew she hated that sort of chitchat—but the words were already out, so she took a long drink to cover them. “How are you holding up?”
At her question, he paused to wipe his shining cheeks. The tears had halted, but their effects remained. “Good as can be expected. The AHC was able to mend my injuries, so at least I’m not out a job, too, but losing Ike was a bigger blow than any of us were prepared for. Doesn’t help that Professor Quantum already wants to start interviewing replacements.”
That did seem soon, after little more than a week and change. Then again, how long was a superhero te
am expected to operate a member down? Getting a replacement might be safer, not that Tori was quite socially inept enough to voice such a notion.
“I’m not sure if I ever said this or not, but I wanted to come over and apologize,” Kyle continued, halting only for a healthy sip of his own drink. “Our team was the reason you all got put in danger. They were using you to draw us out.” A dark laugh slipped past his lips. “It seems like every other time we talk, it’s me apologizing for putting you in danger.”
“Yeah, seems about right,” Tori agreed. “Maybe you should stop.”
The words hit like she’d kneed him in the groin, so Tori hurried to elaborate. “Stop apologizing. You fucked up once and got me exposed, there’s no sugarcoating that, but it was only once. Everything the world does following that isn’t on your shoulders.”
“Be that as it may, we’re not going to let it happen again. When the apartment building is repaired, we won’t be there. Another team can take over protective detail, one with less baggage of their own, inherited or otherwise.”
Had this news come on any other day, there was a good chance Tori would have leapt upon it. A chance to be free of the New Science Sentries, with no suspicion on her in the process? But today wasn’t that day. Not with what they’d lost, and with the twist of the knife she knew was still coming. She couldn’t steal this, too.
“Look, the water takes forever to get warm, our front door lock sticks, and people keep pissing in the alley out back, but it’s not that bad of a place to live. No need to go running back to your fancy superhero lair just like that.”
“Tori, I meant—”
“I got what you meant. You want to move to keep me safe. Well, guess what: I’m not safe. Because the world isn’t safe. Shit happens, human or meta, and we all do our best to muddle through. You want to leave, by all means go ahead, just don’t do it for me. Live where you want to live, how you want to live.”
