by S. J. Delos
When I finally got downstairs to the laboratory, I found the Justice Brigade’s genius rolling around in front of a terminal, looking rather impatient.
I had met Hannah, a.k.a. Contriver, during my initial tour of the facilities. At the time, she was sitting at the table in the dining room, and I didn’t give the fact that she wasn’t standing a second thought. It was only later that Hank informed me that the pretty, bespectacled blonde had been rendered almost paraplegic during her Activation.
“Apparently, when her brain kicked into overdrive it fried portions of her spinal cord,” he explained. “She still has some feeling, as well as a bit of mobility in her legs, but not enough to actually walk. Or stand for more than a few minutes.”
She glanced up at me as I neared, her frown turning into a small, welcoming smile.
“Hey, Kayo,” she said. “How was France?”
“Does everyone know about that?” I asked, leaning against the side of the table.
She shrugged. “I know because Henry ordered me to access every available satellite to figure out where you were. Even though I told him that Transport’s power shorts out the com unit’s location beacon.”
“I just feel embarrassed the asshole got the drop on me before I could figure out he wasn’t an InBee.” I nodded at the screen in front of her. “Is this a bad time?”
“Not at all,” she said, waving at the monitor. “I was just going over the data from yesterday’s fight.”
I looked at the gigantic screen, which was divided into four sections, each one showing a different angle of the battle outside Delgado Corporation’s building. “Trying to figure out how we managed to win the fight, yet lost the prize?”
“That’s just it,” she said, pointing at the images. “Why go to this trouble? I mean, there was no reason for Doctor Destructor or Coerce to engage you guys. Why not just have Transport blink in and out of Delgado’s vault to get what they wanted? If it was a distraction, or to keep you guys busy, then why not have Turquoise Tornado and the Harbingers there with them?” She shook her head. “It’s all very disconcerting.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, looking at the various camera angles. On a cursory glance, it looked like the footage of yet another run of the mill super-powered battle: someone was getting punched, someone else was releasing an energy blast. However, if one took Hannah’s concerns into consideration, it did seem like an unnecessary gamble on the Harbingers’ part.
“Think they were testing us?” I asked, glancing down at the seated girl.
“Maybe,” she replied. Then she looked up at me. “Or maybe they were testing you.”
“Me?”
She nodded. “The Justice Brigade has fought he Harbingers more than a few times before. But they’ve never been so open in their actions. It was as if they were deliberately calling us out to face them.” She shrugged. “Since you’re the only new variable, it is likely they changed their tactics to see what you were capable of for themselves.”
I blinked, then pointed at the leather-clad tramp strutting across the monitor. “Now that you mention it, Coerce said something really odd to me when she entered the fight. Apparently, she had been anticipating meeting me. They knew I was going to be in town.”
She glanced back at the screen and gave a little shrug. “That’s not an intellectual stretch. Considering all the media coverage on the Heroes’ Ball over the past couple of days. Your name has come up several times.”
“True, they might have known I was coming to Chicago for the banquet, but how would they know I had already arrived? Plus, my attending the Ball doesn’t equal helping out The Justice Brigade.”
She tapped on the keyboard for a second, the darkened monitor beside the first springing to life. “Okay, so the incident with Storm Front barely made the news, other than a brief mention. Which doesn’t include you.” Her eyes swiveled back and forth across the stream of information flowing before her. To me, it was a jumble of words, but Hannah seemed to process it easily enough. “Your name also doesn’t appear anywhere else but an incident report of a torn up street.”
I frowned. “Yeah, that was from a crash landing after Discharge zapped me with a lightning bolt.”
She flinched, looking over at me. “Ouch.”
I leaned against the table. “Okay, so even if they knew I was working with you guys, how would the Harbingers know I would be at the Delgado attack? Hank could have easily sent me to deal with the other incidents.”
“They couldn’t,” she said, tapping on the monitor with a fingernail. “Unless they knew you were with Hank.”
I glanced back to the screen, right in time to see the footage of Scarab putting the sleep-inducing headband on Coerce. “On another note, I have a question about those devices used to keep the bad guys out cold. You got them from Delgado Corp?”
The brunette looked at me from behind her glasses, nodding her head. “Yes. However, I did help out with reviewing some of the pre-production specs. I also made a few suggestions for improvement.”
“Such as?”
She wheeled over to another workstation and, with a few keystrokes, brought up a rotating three-dimensional schematic of the device. “Well, the first generation prototype had horrible after-effects on the test subjects. I mean, massive hangover-like headaches upon waking up.”
I winced at the memory. “Like having done a dozen tequila shooters on top of a whole bottle of whiskey?”
Contriver rubbed her forehead in imagined sympathy. “To say the least.”
I glanced around the lab. “Is there some way to make a call from here?”
“Sure,” she said, wheeling toward a large screen on a nearby wall. “Who do you want to call?”
“The Good Guys.”
A few minutes later, Hank, Cassandra, Hannah, and I looked at the faces of Greg, Richard, and Sonya as they looked back at us. Hannah had insisted that Major Freedom and Silver Scarab be brought into the conversation when I mentioned Doctor Maniac.
I brought my teammates up to speed on our battle with the Harbingers, including the sleep-inducing devices created by the Delgado Corporation. Then I gave the assembled members of the Justice Brigade the abridged version of what Martin had done to me in the bar.
“Sonya, do you think a similar device knocked me out?” I asked.
She was silent for a moment before shrugging. “Anything’s possible, especially where Doctor Maniac is concerned. You know that personally. However, he never touched you, right?” When I nodded, she glanced at Hannah. “Is it possible for the delta inducer to be used at a distance? Without the need to actually put it on the subject?”
“Maybe. But it would require some kind of special broadcast amplifier to work,” the genius in the wheelchair next to me said. “Otherwise, it would knock out everyone in range. Norms and Enhanced.”
Greg got a concerned look on his face. “What if he didn’t put the device on you. What if it’s in you?”
“What?” I shook my head. “You think I swallowed it?”
“That wouldn’t work. It would have to be closer to your brain,” Contriver said, glancing up at me. “Against your skull at the very least.”
“But,” I protested, looking at Sonya. “You ran a full scan and didn’t find anything.”
“I did,” she replied, nodding. “But I also know that our equipment needs a massive upgrade. Getting good images through your Class Six hide is tough enough. Throw in the additional thickness that comes with a skull makes it that much harder.”
“We can do it,” Contriver said. “Our bio-scanner is designed to use a quantum-entangled particle beam to bypass the protective field of Class Four durables and above.” She looked at Sonya. “I could run a scan and get the results in less than an hour.”
Mister Manpower nodded. “Do it,” he said. Then a little sheepish look appeared on his face. “I mean, if that’s okay with Major Freedom.” He turned his gaze to Hank.
“Yes,” the star-spangled icon said. “I
think that’s an excellent idea. Hannah, run the scan. We’ll call you back in an hour.”
Contriver nodded, then turned off the screen. She wheeled backward and looked up at me with a small grin. “Ready to get deep probed?” she asked. A very amused chuckle followed.
I arched a brow at her. “Why does it seem like you’re going to be having fun?”
“Because,” she said. “This will be my first chance to use the highest setting. No one here is a Class Six. It’s like owning a Ferrari and finally being able to go out on the Autobahn.”
“Great,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m now being compared to the fast lane.”
“Given some of the video footage I’ve seen,” Scarab said with a grin, “it seems like you like it there.”
“You okay?” Hannah asked, looking at me from around the monitor in front of her. Her mouth was turned down into a small grimace.
“Yeah,” I said. I poked at the bright pink flesh of my arm, wincing. “Ouch.”
It had been several years since I had a sunburn. I inherited my mother’s fairer skin tone which meant spending many a summer being slathered with sunscreen for protection. Or aloe for relief.
One of the major benefits to becoming invulnerable was that solar radiation bounced off my epidermis as readily as rain, making sun damage a thing of the past.
Contriver’s scanning chamber was like being in a tanning booth with the dial set to “Shake and Bake”. The whole process only took a little more than ten minutes, but due to the level required to scan through to my core, it was like a near-eternity of sandpaper rubbing against my flesh. Even the parts of me that were clothed—Hannah assured me that my pants and tee wouldn’t affect the readings—felt toasted.
“The discomfort should only last for a little while,” she said somewhat unconvincingly. “Once the quantum beam stopped hitting you, the accelerated healing we Enhanced possess should have begun making repairs.”
“Doesn’t make it hurt any less,” I grumbled. “At least tell me it was worth it.”
“Did the scan examine you inside and out? Yes, it did.” She tilted her head, looking at the screen. Then her fingers flew over the keyboard as the eyes behind her glasses widened. “Hmm… wow. It seems you have a chip in your head, Karen.”
I jumped up and rushed over to stand beside her. “What? What kind of a chip?”
“Unknown. But it’s definitely a microchip of some fashion.” She pointed at the enlarged image of my skull as she pressed another set of buttons. The bone images vanished, leaving only the red and blue wired depiction of my gray matter. Her hand moved across the touchpad. The screen brain rotated in response, revealing a sharp-edged rectangle perched neatly right above the stem. “It’s directly over your hippocampus.”
“How in the hell did it get there?” I asked.
“Well, I’m going to assume that it wasn’t there before you Activated. Which means it was placed there afterward. Probably by Doctor Maniac.” She shook her head, tapping on her chin. “But the big question is how? That would require cutting through both your skin and skull, through the Class Five durability protecting them.”
“An atomic blade?” I asked. After all, the specially designed blades made cutting and shaving my hair possible.
Hannah shook her head. “There isn’t an atomic blade around capable of cutting through bone tougher than Class Two.”
My stomach rolled over, and my shoulders slumped. “Then he must have turned off my invulnerability first.”
“What do you mean, ‘turned it off’? He can do that?” she asked, looking at me like I just revealed I was really Behemoth in disguise. “I mean, I knew his Enhancement could alter other’s Enhancements, but he can also turn them on and off?”
I nodded. “Yeah. However, I didn’t know he’d done it to me.” As if I needed another thing to hate Martin for. I sighed. “So, how do we deactivate the chip so he can’t knock me out again?”
“I don’t think we can,” she said. The look she gave me was full of apologies. “It seems to be activated by a particular frequency. A powerful enough burst from the right one should fry it. But we can’t just start broadcasting random signals at your head. The wrong one would probably cause some kind of feedback.”
“I’m guessing that would be bad?”
“Probably. Worst case scenario is it would fry your brain and leave you a drooling vegetable for the rest of your life.”
“Great,” I said, shaking my head. “He can shut me down whenever he feels like it.”
“I’m afraid so.” She paused, giving me a strange look. “Although…”
“Although?”
“Why did he reveal it now? You said you weren’t trying to apprehend him. So, why not wait until he actually needed it to use it?”
I shrugged. The genius made a damned good point. Martin never, ever, did anything without a reason. After the incident, he would have known I wouldn’t stop until the chip was discovered. Tipping his hand was really not his style.
“I think I’ll ask him that the next time I see him,” I said, clenching a fist. “When I’m hauling his ass off to prison.”
“What if he just puts you to sleep again?”
“I’ll make sure to climb to ten thousand feet at the first sign of drowsiness. If he lets me pass out, then we’ll both fall to Earth. It won’t be my fault if the impact injures him.” I grinned at the thought of Martin screaming in terror as the ground rushed up toward him. The image nearly made me chuckle. “After all, I’m the one who is invulnerable whether awake or not.”
Hannah laughed, shaking her head. “You’re awesome.”
CHAPTER 28:
THE LAST RESISTANCE
I left the lab after Hannah promised me she would continue to review the data. She hoped to find some way to counter Martin’s device. I went back upstairs to the main level, running into Cassandra in the hallway leading to the living area.
“There you are,” she said. “I’ve been looking for you.”
At first, I wondered why she didn’t just call me. Then I realized I was still in my sweats and tee. “What’s up?”
“Hank asked to me to go back to that warehouse in Gary to see if there are some additional clues that got missed. I wanted to know if you wanted to tag along.”
I was pretty sure that Major Freedom and I found everything the Harbingers had left behind, but if the guy who started the whole superhero movement thought it was a good idea, who was I to argue? “Sure,” I said, nodding down the hallway. “Just give me about ten minutes to get changed.”
“Okay,” she replied. “Meet you on the roof in ten.” She turned around, heading toward the elevators.
I went back to my quarters and slipped into a clean version of my loaner uniform. Part of me wanted to keep thinking of it as my new uniform, but I wasn’t planning on wearing it after today.
Of course, admitting that to myself didn’t completely eliminate the thought that Hank and the rest of the Justice Brigade were actively trying to recruit me. Doing their best to show me how I fit into their merry band.
Once I pulled on my boots, I stepped into the exit shaft in the closet, flying up the tube to the roof of the Tower. The early afternoon sun was high overhead, though there was a line of dark clouds rolling in from the northwest.
Since flight wasn’t one of Scarab’s powers, I half-expected to the team’s smaller hovership—the one they called “The Scout”—waiting for my arrival. Instead, Cassandra stood alone at the edge of the building, looking out at the storm over Lake Michigan.
“Hey,” I said as I landed next to her. “I guess you need a ride?”
She nodded. “Jeremy… Astounding Guy… he wanted to join us. I told him Hannah needed to give the Scout a tune-up, so that meant you were going to need to fly me out to Gary.” A bit of color slightly darkened her olive face. “I hope that’s okay with you…”
“It’s fine,” I said, arching a brow. “You don’t like Astounding Guy?” I had met Jeremy m
y first evening with the Brigade. He seemed quiet, shy, and nothing like a stalker.
“We dated for a little while,” she said. “But it just didn’t work out, us being teammates plus some other stuff. I ended it.” She sighed. “He says he’s cool with just being friends, but he keeps coming up with reasons to be around me. You know, switching patrols with someone, showing up at places I’m at. That sort of thing.”
I nodded. “Yeah, it can be rough sharing a bed with someone you work with.”
She gave me a sideways glance.
“Oh? That sounded like the voice of someone with actual experience.” She leaned closer in a conspiratory manner. “Tell me, was it Manpower or Rocket? Since I know Captain Awesome and Omega-Girl are already a couple.”
I shook my head. “No,” I said, moving around to stand behind her. “It wasn’t any of them.” I put my hands under her arms. “It wasn’t even a superhero.”
“Who then?” she asked, turned to look at me over her shoulder.
“Doctor Maniac,” I said, shooting up into the air, carrying her with me.
Her surprised scream of “What?” got lost in the rush of air past my ears.
Scarab and I spent nearly an hour canvassing the abandoned warehouse. There was no sign they had returned after the previous day’s battle, and it didn’t look like they were going to be coming back anytime soon.
The lack of anything related to our actual mission meant that she found plenty of time to grill me about my relationship with Martin. I tried to keep it as detached as possible, painting it as the stupid mistake of an angst-filled teen who fell under the sway of a diabolical madman.
However, she felt that there was more to it than that.
“All I’m saying,” she said, pulling open a crate that seemed to be less dingy than the ones next to it. “Is that if you were just a means to an end, he wouldn’t keep showing up the way you say he does.”
“Yes, he would,” I countered, hovering in the air about fifteen feet above the center of the factory floor. “He probably gets perverse enjoyment just throwing wrenches into my attempts to have a normal life. Well, normal for an Enhanced superhero.”
