Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6]

by Haskell, Jeffery H.

  “Amelia… why didn’t you say something?”

  Tears instantly well up and I drag my hand across my eyes to wipe them away. “Because it was my fault. And I wanted to fix it before I said anything. Hold still.” She’s reading my guilt. Guilt and pain. They took her, experimented on her, and it was my fault.

  “Epic, initiate.”

  I know what she’s seeing; hundreds of images flash in front of her. Epic records her brain wave reaction to the images in a sort of neural fingerprint. Her face twitches as she focuses on the images. I watch her brain waves fluctuate. This serves two purposes. One, it makes sure she’s the only person who can control the animetal she’s about to receive. Two, it links her with it. When I wear a suit, like my MK III or IV, I have either synthsuit or a neural connection to the suit. She won’t have either for what I’m doing—she’ll need another way to control it.

  “Amelia, how much longer?” she asks through gritted teeth.

  “A few more seconds and…. Done.” The images stop and Kate immediately jerks off the glasses, followed by the headband. Of course, her hair and makeup are still perfect, not mussed up at all by the tears I see in her eyes or the metal I strapped to her noggin. My perfect Kate. Well, except for the missing arm.

  “Can I have my coat back?” she asks.

  “Uh, no. I need you to leave it off for the next part.”

  She nods. I wheel over to the dispenser above the sink. “Okay, this is going to feel a little weird. What I want you to do is close your eyes and concentrate on making a fist, okay?”

  She nods, weariness obvious on her face. “Amelia… is this what I think it is?” she asks in a whisper.

  I nod, not trusting my voice. She sits in front of the sink, leaning over, her waist pushed up against the lip. I ask her to hold her fist under the dispenser. She closes her eyes and nods.

  “Epic.”

  Initiating in three… two… one…

  Animetal pours out of the faucet, its shiny silver surface looks like a mirror flowing onto her. I get why Carlos was so freaked out by this. She’s not going to be covered head to toe, though.

  The liquid covers her arm before flowing under her clothes to the other side. It’s supremely weird watching it crawl across her skin. She suppresses a shiver as it moves across her body, rippling under her clothes like a snake.

  “The only reason I’m not freaking out is I can sense how calm you are,” she says.

  “Quiet. Focus.”

  The animetal reaches her other side, forming upon her shoulder. As I watch, a new arm sprouts, flowing down until it is an exact mirror of her left arm. This was the tricky part—programming it to be a mirror instead of a duplicate, otherwise she would have a left hand on her right arm. She sucks in a breath as the animetal flows into her from her stump, attaching the way an actual arm would. Tendons are coated and extended inside of her. The ball joint and everything else about her shoulder and arm are perfectly replicated. With so little surface area to work with I had to make it work like a regular arm, attachments and all.

  “Can I open my eyes yet?”

  “Give it a few more seconds.” I turn to the monitor to watch the internal progress. Pulling up my AR keyboard I type a string of instructions… as I finish, the arm solidifies; showing muscle definition, bones, knuckles, the whole bit. Once the shape forms, the arm ripples and sets its final form and color. Starting from her shoulder, the color and texture flow down like water. When it gets to her hand it is indistinguishable from her other arm. I can’t even see where it connects.

  Kate opens her eyes, watching me as I examine her new arm. “Amelia… my God. How?”

  “Well, science, duh,” I give her an eyebrow waggle.

  She lifts her new arm, staring at it in amazement as she opens and closes her hand. “Amelia, I can… I can feel it? This isn’t just a prosthetic, is it?”

  I shake my head, sending my hair whipping around me. I’m too excited about this stuff. I brush my hair back and smile. “It’s you, now. Part of your neural musculature. For all intents and purposes, anyway. You’d be surprised how hard it was to program. I designed the stuff to be malleable but figuring out how to make it match you was a pain. Thankfully, you’re so dang perfect I didn’t have to program in a lot of flaws.”

  She reaches over and lightly punches me with her new arm. “Thank you. For real, thank you. I’ve been… lost since I got back. This helps. More than helps.”

  I try not to tear up, I’m almost successful. “I’m glad you like it because now I need your help.”

  “Wait a sec… I thought The Armory damaged your armor. How did you build this and repair your suit?”

  I giggle. “I didn’t repair my suit; you’re wearing it on your arm. The MK VI is fresh from the ground up, with a little animetal reinforcement. I had to go old-school for this one, with a few alien improvements. After the fight, I didn’t have a lot left that was usable. Epic and I went back to the drawing board and this is what we came up with, a hybrid suit.” I wheel across the room while I talk, glancing over my shoulder at Kate. She marvels at her new arm, raising it, making fists, waving it back and forth as she follows.

  “How did you combine the tech?” she asks.

  “There’s some irony here. I came up with the idea based on how muscles work—”

  You came up with the idea? The large monitor on the far side of the lab that displays Epic’s words blinks on and off to make sure we see his words.

  “Right. We came up with the idea on how to increase the strength of the suit on a more permanent basis. Let me show you.”

  “Thank you, Amelia. Thank you, Epic. Really.”

  I smile at her when she surprises me with a hug. She smells like jasmine and vanilla. It’s crazy how she lights up as we talk. I pat her on the shoulder and she lets me go. She must see how I antsy I am to show her the suit since she sighs and motions for me to go ahead.

  131

  Normally it takes weeks to book a visit to the Pentagon. This is where saving the President’s life comes in handy. Kate and I showed up outside, bright and early, and asked to see our liaison in person. While it took an hour of confirming our identity and making sure we weren’t carrying any weapons (no armor for me and Kate is a weapon) we were then granted access. They had me change chairs, which is annoying because they use the standard hospital wheelchairs and those always make me feel less mobile than the ones with the angled wheels that I favor.

  The Pentagon itself is huge. Vast hallways that go on forever. Door after door down uniformly large halls. I feel like I could drive a truck down these things. I’d probably have trouble getting it inside the walls though. When the uniforms took a decidedly green turn, I figured we were closing in on where the US Army kept our liaison officer.

  He looks up when we enter, surprise and worry clear on his face. I don’t need to be an empath to see when someone looks trapped. His eyes go from me to Kate in an instant. Despite the picture on his desk with a pretty wife and daughter, he lingers on Kate a little longer than is appropriate. Not that it is his fault. Kate always looks stunning; today is no different. Dressed in green slacks over four-inch heels, with a gray top that hugs her chest and shows just a peek of her cleavage, all wrapped in an awesome leather jacket. She has the I just stepped out of a fashion magazine look. Me? I’m wearing jeans, a t-shirt and the fluffiest down coat I could find in my closet. It’s only sixty degrees in Virginia. After a lifetime in Arizona that might as well be freezing.

  “Ms. Lockheart, Ms. Petrenelli? What a surprise. I’m honored.”

  “Major Nelson, I know you can’t give me back my immorally seized gear, but do you understand your people took my original armor? Not just the technology I acquired from the aliens. Now, that armor is out there in the hands of people who are using it to hurt others. As you can imagine, I’m pretty pissed about the situation.” Despite my best efforts, I’m sure my anger is obvious. He’s totally taken back by my attack. He was half standing to shake ou
r hands when I unloaded on him.

  “I didn’t know about that Ms. Lockheart—” Kate taps me once on the shoulder in our pre-arranged signal. He’s telling the truth. “I was assured that we only confiscated the items related to the Th’un invasion per the treaty the US signed with the security council nations.” Truth.

  I nod, slipping on my glasses to access Epic. He’s not currently breaching the Pentagon’s firewalls and scanning their files for the location of my gear. I swear. Part of why we wanted to surprise Nelson was so Kate could get a clean read on him. He may have known we were in the building, but he didn’t have long enough to prepare any kind of mental defense. Not that he could have any against my Kate.

  “Major, can you find out who was in charge of the operation?” Kate asks. She’s turning up the juice—I can feel it. The Major swallows hard, reaching up and loosening his collar. His office is small; a few pictures of him in fatigues adorn the wall, plus his framed West Point degree. The picture of him with a young woman and a baby is facing him. I forget where I read it, but I know if a picture is facing the guest it means the person wants others to see it. If it is facing them, it’s because they want to see it. It’s mostly facing him. Which I guess is a good thing.

  “Possibly. The whole thing was kept hush and hush and need-to-know,” he says.

  “But…?” Kate asks.

  He smiles, sitting all the way down and pulling himself closer to the desk. “But… you two are part of the premiere super team in the world. Bear in mind, Ms. Lockheart,” he says to me. “there is no possibility of finding out where it was taken. It’s not that I don’t want you to know, it is that no one knows. Part of the deal we made with all the other nations was that only the team handling the actual tech could know.”

  I raise an eyebrow at his choice of words. “When you say ‘team,’ it wasn’t military?”

  He shakes his head as he types a few keys pulling up the information we want. “No. What military could be trusted? Everyone wanted the weapons for themselves. We all agreed on a neutral non-profit organization—not a private military contractor or even a weapons company. These people make a living disposing of dangerous materials in third world countries. Like leftover landmines, unexploded ordinances, that sort of thing.” He loses focus on us for a moment as he searches his computer.

  “How very humanitarian,” Kate says with feeling. Considering my tech is out there, I don’t share her same sentiment. The Armory had to acquire my armor from somewhere. Since these were the people who took it, this is a good place to start.

  “Here we go, Superhumans for a Super World,” he tells me with a grin on his face.

  “I think I just threw up a little in my mouth,” I whisper. Kate just smiles back and reaches over to take the card he offers.

  Ricardo Rico Rafael

  Super Humans for a Super World

  Buenos Aires, Argentina

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Kate murmurs. I don’t think Nelson hears her or can tell she’s upset. It’s only because I know her so well. Her shoulders slump ever so slightly as she hands me the card.

  “You know this guy?” I ask.

  “We’ve met,” she says to me then turns to Major Nelson. “Are you telling me the world handed the most advanced technology humans have ever seen, to a stage magician?”

  The social temperature in the room drops to match Kate’s tone. I’m glad I’m wearing a coat.

  “His non-profit was the only one everyone could agree on. I’m not sure you realize how close the world was to all-out war. I speak with no hyperbole when I say, this close.” He holds up his fingers and I can’t see a space in between them. “This deal was brokered at the eleventh hour. We had the entire Enterprise carrier group steaming for the Baltic Ocean. Believe me, this was the better compromise.”

  Kate shakes her head. “Thank you for your time, Major. I hope you are right, but since her armor is out there now, I can’t imagine you are.” She turns and marches out, leaving me to smile at the officer and play catch up. When I finally do, she’s walking at near top speed.

  “Kate, I can’t keep up in this crappy chair. Slow down, will you?”

  She turns and sighs. “Sorry, hon. I just can’t believe… never mind. I’ll tell you about it on the flight home.”

  “Home? Nope. Buenos Aires here we come!”

  132

  Cruising at Mach three thirty-five thousand feet up isn’t as much fun when I’m not the one doing the flying. Epic has control of the Emjet en route to Argentina. This isn’t the same jet we had before, but a MK II version with, what I consider, luxury accommodations. Plush chairs, carpet on the walls, a big TV, kitchen, mini bar (not that I drink), and a full bathroom suite, including a rainfall shower. It’s wide enough that two people can easily walk past each other—as long as one of them is willing to turn sideways.

  I glance out the window; the wings are in their swept back configuration for maximum speed. At this velocity, we don’t exactly need a lot of lift. Kate sits opposite me, sipping her coffee.

  “What’s eating you about this guy?” I ask when I can’t take the silence anymore.

  “Epic?” she asks.

  I am here.

  “Can you pull up all footage and news about a super team called, ‘The Fabulous Five’ and put it on the big screen.”

  On it.

  “I know you never followed super-news, Amelia, but honestly, how do you not know this guy’s name?” she asks. I glance down at the card. Ricardo… Ricardo…

  “The only person I know who’s named ‘Ricardo’ is an awesome actor who is sadly no longer with us. Why?”

  She huffs in exasperation, folding her arms across her chest and turning to stare out the window. “You’ll see.”

  Requested information loaded.

  “Play it,” Kate tells my AI.

  As the images load, I scratch at the black bracer wrapped around my left wrist. Who knew how hard it would be to get used to wearing something like this? I need it for my new delivery system, but dang if it isn’t annoying.

  Images replace the darkness of the screen; five people appear, each in a different color costume. “Holy primary colors, Sun Tzu,” I say with a grin. Kate gives me a blank stare.

  “It’s funny because of the quote… you know, from the Art of War?” Her blank look turns into a scowl.

  “Keep watching.”

  Their leader is the brightest, dressed all in red. He reminds me of Mr. Perfect a little—too manicured beard, perfect suit. The other four are just like him. Three men, two women, all in different colors. The two women are twins, one dressed all in black, the other all in white. The footage shows them fighting supervillains and taking down monsters. I recognize a few of the bad guys, but the clothing and the… oh, it’s the 80’s. A while before I was even born.

  “They were a magic super-team?” I ask her.

  “Keep watching, Amelia.”

  I turn back to the screen in time to see the headlines. Fabulous Five Under Investigation. Followed by the twins being led away in cuffs. Yellow, Blue, and Red are photographed at a funeral. Then more tragedy—two members involved in a murder-suicide? Wow. Sounds like a real mess.

  When the screen goes black, I look over at Kate, her scowl hasn’t gone away. “I take it you know more than just what’s on the screen?” She nods.

  “Epic, maximum privacy mode, please?” she asks. The lights flicker to blue, letting us know that full ECM is underway.

  “What happened?” I ask her.

  She takes a moment sipping her expensive French coffee before turning to me. “Two of the team. Yellow and Blue are dead. Yellow, Gruffen Serebryannikov, murdered Blue then killed himself. The sisters were caught practicing…” she closes her eyes for a second. “what Pierre would call, soul magic. They started off sacrificing animals but quickly moved up to people.”

  My hand goes to my mouth involuntarily. “That’s horrible.”

  “The court agreed. New Mexico almost re
-instated the death penalty for them but didn’t. They were sent to the South Dakota UltraMax.”

  Oh no. “Epic, are they still there?”

  Alarm flashes across Kate’s face. “Why wouldn’t they be?”

  “Because Cat-7 released all prisoners during Ericsson’s attempted coup.”

  They are kept in stasis in the lowest level of the prison. After several attempts to escape and fourteen murdered fellow prisoners, they decided the only way to imprison them was to freeze them. While some superhumans’ powers can be neutralized by signals or electrical impulses, “magic,” as they call it, has no detectable energy signature.

  I nod. “Well, that’s something. I still don’t understand though. It looks like Red—”

  “Ricardo,” she interjects.

  “—Ricardo was the only one not involved in the crazy,” I say. “Or is there something that wasn’t in the public news?”

  “Not anything I could prove. When I worked for the CIA he was on our list.”

  “List? I don’t—”

  She cocks her head to the side and raises an eyebrow.

  “Oh, that kind of list.” A kill list. “Is that what you did for them?” I ask in a whisper. She never did go into detail about her time at the agency. Only a little here and there. The only reason I know is that we were on the lam together.

  “Among other things. I dug into him and, on the surface, he’s untouchable. After his team disintegrated he formed his non-profit, recruiting people with powers who didn’t want to be superheroes or villains. They cut a deal with the UN giving them access to every country that has a treaty with the UN. They are basically a country unto themselves.”

  “I get it—you think he’s a bad guy—but is there any chance you could be wrong?”

  She shrugs. “Sure. Are you ever wrong about physics?”

  That brings me up short. “Uh, no. Not normally.”

  “I got close to him once, Amelia. Just the one time. I could smell evil on him. His mind was a bag of demons and it nearly killed me just to look inside his emotions. A furnace of contained rage and contempt for life. Now, here he is, in charge of one of the most powerful, richest, benevolent organizations on the planet.”