The beach Tessa points at is all white sands and blue water; there are plenty of people on it. Even with the massive rainfall, the stats on the window show the local temperature at seventy-one degrees. It’s only a couple of degrees cooler than when we got on the jet in Phoenix
Kate nudges me from the side. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten,” she says quietly.
“Forgotten what?” I say innocently.
“We missed your birthday,” she says with a sly smile on her full lips as she opens a map on her phone.
“Kate, you know how much I hate birthdays,” I whisper back to her. All I need is for Tessa to overhear and we’ll have another night of me watching my friends drink like fish.
“I’ll table it for now, but we’re doing something... and soon,” she says giving me the eye.
“Fine,” I say back.
Please buckle up. We are coming in for our final approach. Epic flashes the warning across the screen. Everyone slips into their seats, followed by a chorus of buckles. Each row has four seats. Kate, Carlos, and I are in the first row. Carlos has his shield and spear resting int he fourth seat. Monica, Tessa, Fleet, and Lux make up the back seat. Teddy stayed behind in Spire’s med lab—if anything goes wrong, Kate can teleport the wounded directly to him. This is his day to remain with his wife and I didn’t think it was right to ask him to leave her to go on a mission. Besides, I have some local-ish help coming.
Epic handles the landing as smooth as any piloted plane I’ve ever been on—the wheels touch down with light bump and hardly a sound. The Emjet vibrates a little as the engines go into reverse to slow us down and within minutes we’re pulling into the private hangar Mars Tech rented for us to use as our temporary base while we plan our assault. This all had to be done on the sly for a lot of reasons. Mostly, though, if Strungel catches wind of what we’re doing he’ll just bolt. And I want him dead to rights.
We have arrived at our destination. Please secure all carry-on luggage and put your trays up and your seatbacks in the upright position... I am looking at you Fleet.
“That hurts man. I always clean up after myself,” our speedster declares.
The team pauses as he speaks, then we burst out laughing. “Pshh, try and sell that line to someone who hasn’t seen you demolish the kitchen after a mission,” Tessa says. “They had better table manners in prison.” Another chorus of laughter follows as Tony turns beat red.
“You try and feed the beast sometimes,” he mutters.
Lux pats him reassuringly on the back. “It’s okay Tony, when you’re hungry you’re hungry. It’s not your fault twenty-percent of the food ends up on the floor.”
“No, that’s the definition of his fault,” Tessa replies to the blonde alien.
“Oh, my mistake. Then yes, you’re a messy eater.”
“It’s a good thing you’re so frigging gorgeous, or I might take offense,” Tony says with a smile.
“Maybe you should try taking a bib,” Tessa says jokingly.
Before this gets out of hand, Kate steps in. “Focus people. We’re here under cover until we’re not. No costumes, no powers, no armor...” she looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “You all know how serious this is. Be cool,” she says with a glare at everyone.
“I’m always cool, or like, haven’t you heard?” Monica says with her valley girl accent.
I groan. It only takes a minute for everyone to disembark the Emjet, then Epic uses the advanced hydraulics to lower the jet, making it easier for me to roll off. The hangar is a bit chilly, made more so by the open door letting in the driving rain and wind.
Three black SUVs with drivers wait for us near the front of the hangar. The team huddles in a circle at the bottom of the ramp waiting for me. As I approach, the rearmost SUV disgorges its passenger and I can’t help but grin ear to ear on seeing her.
“Tia!” Kate cries as she bursts from the team and runs over to our friend. My two friends hug before Kate puts her arm around Tia’s shoulder and drags her over to meet the team. “This is Catia Tichenor. She’s the police officer who helped us when we were trapped in Buenos Aires,” Kate explains.
Enamored as I am with Tia’s power-set, I, of course, told the team all about her. I’m only too happy she could come up to help us on this one.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Amelia and Kate speak much of you,” she says as she shakes hands. Besides me, she’s probably the shortest person here—which I find highly amusing since, physically speaking, she is without a doubt the strongest.
“I saw the cell phone footage of you flattening that robot like a bomb,” Tony says. “That was impressive as all get out.”
Tia looks to me to help decipher his Boston accent and idiom. “It means—you’re awesome,” I tell her with a grin.
“Oh—thank you. You too. All of you. The Protectors are something of a legend and it’s an honor to be here.”
Something’s a little off about her, a sadness I can sense but not put my finger on. I’m no empath—I’ll leave that for Kate. “People, hop in the vehicles and we’ll get a move on,” I say. Then to Tia, “Hang on a sec.” She nods and the team picks up their luggage and boards the three vehicles.
Kate hangs back as well. I’m sure she senses the problem too. “Tia, what happened?” she asks when we’re alone.
“I suppose there is no hiding from you, sim?” she asks with a smile. She glances down at her booted feet then back up and I can see the tears in her eyes. She’s not crying, but they are certainly wet. “I was fired after what happened,” she says with a sigh.
“No!” I can’t believe they would do that. She mentioned they had some corruption issues but this seems ridiculous.
“Did they give you a reason?” Kate asks.
Tia shakes her head. “Not one I believe. Something about a property damage clause in my contract. They hung all the damage square on my shoulders. I lost my job, my pension, everything. If it weren’t for my mom…” she says unable to finish. She discreetly wipes her eyes with a finger. “But it will be okay. The sun will shine again.”
“Damn skippy it will,” I say with a grin. I have a plan for her, but I can’t go into it with her right now—we have more pressing matters. “Let’s roll,” I say, pointing at the waiting vehicles.
San José is a gorgeous city of stark contrasts. Green, jungle-covered hills surround the city of glass and metal. Driving down the road we could be in any city, but then we take a turn and we’re face to face with a wall of jungle that comes right up to the street—and sometimes over. Rain washes over us in waves, pelting the car hard enough to make it hard to talk over the pounding. The wipers are on overtime trying to keep the rain off the windshield as we drive toward downtown.
Kate, Tia, and I are in the front vehicle. I’m using the opportunity to fill Tia in on the details.
“This Strungel built the giant machine that attacked my city?” Tia asks.
I nod. “Among other things. He also made the armor that was used to frame me, and he attacked my—our—headquarters with my own weapons. He’s dangerous, determined, and deadly. Don’t take him for granted—I have no idea what his superpowers are or what he can do. Part of why we’re here covert-like is to do some recon before we take the fight to him,” I explain. “Oh, while I’m thinking about it, here.” I hand her a pair of stylish glasses. “They polarize automatically, and they let you speak to Epic.”
Her eyes light up as she puts them on. The glasses are programmed to work only for a specific person. Epic knows who.
It is nice to meet you, Tia. Thank you for helping Amelia in Argentina.
She looks between me and Kate for a second, confusion clouding her face. “Who am I talking too?” she asks.
I am Epic. An autonomous intelligence created by Amelia. My full-time job is keeping her from blowing herself up.
“Hey now,” I say. “It’s not your full-time job.”
You are correct. It would be more like two full-time jobs… if I were a human.
“Everyone’s a critic,” I mutter. Kate just laughs. “Oh Amelia, you’re precious. Hon, you do tend to solve things by blowing them up.”
I open my mouth to argue but she holds up her hand. “The Creature, the Th’un, the Robots... the list goes on,” she says.
She’s right. I hate it when she’s right, which is pretty much always. “Fine, fine, I blow things up.”
Tia chuckles. “It’s good to be back with you, my friends. Now, what’s the plan?”
“Simple,” I say. “Scout the island he lives on, work out its vulnerabilities, and take him down. No mess, no fuss, and no giant robots.”
She nods, running a hand through her short blonde hair. “Oh good. The last one left me sleeping for a week.”
170
The weather here is unpredictable, to say the least. When we arrived yesterday it was seventy-one and pouring down rain. Today, it’s almost eighty and sunny. Perfect yachting weather. A yacht. Just the idea of owning one kind of turns my stomach. The last place I ever want to be is out on the water. Yet, here I am, out on the water.
The yacht, named “Unreal”, is a hundred feet long with five stories from top to bottom, it feels like a floating hotel. Thankfully, you can rent these things, even if it costs an exorbitant amount of money.
“Amelia, you don’t have to wheel around with a life jacket on,” Kate says to me as I come up the specially designed ramp from the lower decks.
“Says the supermodel in the bikini,” I retort.
She looks hurt and I soften my expression a little. “Sorry, Kate, I know you don’t get a choice. It’s just... you can feel how scared I am, right?”
She closes her eyes for a second and nods. “Yes. I was blocking it a little because of how overwhelming everyone’s emotions can be. I’m sorry too, hon. Leave the life vest on if it makes you feel better. Just know, if you fall in I’m coming in right after you, okay?”
That does make me feel a little better. It’s irrational, I know, to be afraid like this. I can’t kick my legs, though, and the thought of drowning sends shivers up my spine.
“Stop,” she says with a grin. “You’re going to freak me out. Now, come on and enjoy the sun a little. You never go out in it.”
I relent. “Fine. Don’t take your hands off the handles, though,” I tell her.
She pushes me up onto the upper deck. The whole yacht has been converted for a person with my particular disability to use. Railings in the bathrooms, ramps instead of stairs—even the ramp up to the front deck is designed for wheelchairs.
I’m wearing a plain white t-shirt and shorts. I’m not a huge fan of shorts because my legs aren’t my best feature, but Kate made me. Everyone else is running around in shorts or bikinis. The salt air smells weird in comparison to the dry air I’m used to.
“If we’re going to look like rich tourists playing around on a yacht, then we have to look like rich tourists playing around on a yacht,” Kate tells me while she pushes me past Lux. The alien is in heaven here. She often refers to her home as “The People of the Light.” I never quite understood what that means, and I’ve never asked her to lie down on the table so I could scan her. She’s done so much for us—I haven’t wanted her to feel unwelcome. After all, she doesn’t have to be here. Her home is recovering, her people rebuilding—she could be with them. Instead, here she is trying to help us. Right now, though, she looks like she’s one step away from needing privacy, lying on the deck in her barely-there bikini absorbing the light like a plant.
Tony is doing his level best to impress her with card tricks. She doesn’t seem to notice though. Despite his powers enhanced build and his hands so fast he can catch all 52 cards before they hit the deck.
Tessa is up in the wheelhouse dressed in cutoffs and a rainbow-colored tube top with her feet up on the railing. When I look up at her she waves with the hand holding a beer. Monica is in human form, on the prow hanging out with Carlos—they’re chatting about something, but I don’t catch most of it until Kate rolls us up.
“All I’m saying is, be honest with the guy and he’ll come around,” Carlos says just as we arrive.
“Thanks, Carlos,” Monica says leaning against him. “I’m glad we stayed friends.
“Me too,” he says.
Looking at Carlos in his board shorts, with that absolute ripped physique, then at Monica, Lux, Tessa and finally Tony, and knowing what Kate looks like... I’m starting to feel way out of place. It’s not that I’m surrounded by gorgeous people, but the way their bodies have adapted to their powers... I’ve never wanted superpowers before but now... I kind of wish I could have them long enough to be whole again.
“Stop it,” Kate whisper to me. “Self-pity tastes almost as bad as envy on you.”
I nod. “Sorry. A moment of weakness.”
Monica stands up, stretching in her one-piece suit. Her belt looks oddly out of place around her trim waist while she’s wearing a swimsuit, but there’s no escaping the adornment for her. Without it she’s a ice-cicle.
“I’m gonna go check on Tia and get some food,” she says with a smile.
Carlos stares at the sea as she walks away, leaving the three of us. Poor Tia is seasick. Despite living next to the ocean most her life she doesn’t actually ever go out on it. We’d gotten a half hour out when she became violently ill. Thankfully, the yacht came stocked with Dramamine.
“What’s the plan?” Carlos asks without looking up.
I glance over at Kate, who takes a step to stand beside me, hand on hip as she looks out at the horizon. I reach down and put the parking brake on both my wheels and then grab the railing.
“It’s fine. Go ahead,” I tell her.
“I thought I was the empath?” she asks with a grin. She let’s go of my chair and slides her shapely legs under the railing to sit next to Carlos, both of them dangling their feet over the side of the boat. He glances at her as she sits next to him, a sly smile spreading on his face.
“The plan is, today we run recon. I’ve got Epic maneuvering Artemis into position to look down at the island. We have a couple of really powerful cameras ready to snap picks as we go by, and one high-altitude drone doing a flyby.”
Carlos chuckles. “Jeez, Niña, you sound like a spy thriller,” he says.
“Well, I do like to be prepared. I searched for maps of the island, but apparently, there are a lot of little, uncharted islands around here, and this is one of them. Weird, seeing as how Google has mapped the entire surface of the Earth—or at least it feels like it.”
“Today is just fun in the sun. I can dig it,” Kate says with a wink at Carlos—who suddenly looks very interested in a bird flying overhead. I can see the blush creeping up his neck though.
“I think I’m going to go back inside. You all have fun,” I say. Kate starts to stand but I wave her back down. “I’ll manage.”
I unlock the breaks and spin around. The yacht is designed around wheelchair accessibility; the decks are flat, with grip to prevent me from sliding off. I should be fine. Tell that to my heart, which feels like it’s trying to burst from my chest.
Once back inside I let out my breath and inhale three times as deep as I can to calm down. I roll down a ramp to the little communications hub I installed and check to make sure everything is working.
“Amelia, next time you need my help, tell me if there is a boat involved first,” Tia says as I enter the room. She is seated and cradling a bucket, having just thrown up. The acrid scent of stomach acid hangs in the air and I’m glad I’m not one of those people who vomits because someone else did. Tessa stands silently behind her, patting her back and holding her hair.
“Feel better?” Tessa asks.
“Strangely, I do.”
“I’m gonna head back up, boss lady, have fun with your geek accessories,” Tessa says as she sashays past me.
I stick my tongue out at her as she leaves. “She must really like you, to be down here. Tessa isn’t known for her niceness,” I say a
s I wheel over to the gear I have set up.
“She seems sweet to me. We have similar interests in music.” She puts the bucket down and scoots over to where I am turning on the surveillance gear. She helped me pick it out since she has the most knowledge on the subject... part of being a cop.
“All right, let’s see what we can see,” I mutter. I flip the master switch and all the gear comes to life with an electronic whine. There are three monitors and they all flare to life. The one on the far right shows me Artemis’ path; the countdown clock shows one hour until she’s in position. The other two monitors are the mechanical version of Lockheed floating in the breeze a mile above the island, and the cameras mounted to the flying bridge of the Unreal.
“Wow. How do you do all this?” Tia asks, spreading her hands out to show she’s speaking about the equipment. “I mean, you have your own satellite?”
I feel my cheeks heat and I have a desire to hide my face. I guess it never came up when we were trapped in Buenos Aires. She must have assumed I was working for someone.
“I kind of am a... uh.” I don’t know how to say it.
She is a billionaire, Catia. There is very little her money cannot buy.
“No,” she says shaking her head. “He’s joking, right?”
“No, he isn’t. I, uh, he, has made some substantial investments with seed money I made. For the last five years, he’s been playing the stock market, making me, or Mars Tech Global, more and more money. At this point it’s self-sustaining but he likes seeing how much more he can make.
My goal is to make Amelia the first woman to be the wealthiest person on the planet.
“Epic!” I yell. I had no idea that’s what he was trying to do. Even with all the government tech contracts for the super-teams, Mars Tech wasn’t making that much money. “How come this is the first I’m hearing of this goal?”
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 91
