Supers - Ex Heroes 5

by Jamie Hawke

  “My thought,” Twitch went on, letting the light fade away, “is that some of you have other powers that might be able to work this way too, without having to change anything internally.”

  “For example?” Gale said.

  “None of yours, unfortunately.” Twitch’s eyes moved across each of us until they stopped on me, considering, then shook her head. “None of the rest of ours, I don’t think. But when we meet other supers, it’s something we can try. And seeing that this worked, I think what Sam mentioned, her idea, might have some legs.”

  “And this shield, if you call it that,” I motioned for her to try it on me and she got the message, so that the blue suddenly surrounded me, “it’s as strong as what Andromida did?”

  “Probably not, but it’s damn strong and works in addition to whatever you already have. Give it a try.”

  I moved around, tried jumping and darting left, then right, and yeah, it moved right along with me. “Gale, hit me with something good.”

  Gale frowned, lifting a hand.

  “Careful, we’re on a ship,” Twitch reminded her.

  Gale nodded, then thrust forward so that a blast of lightning hit me. It was weak, I could tell, and merely vanished against the special shield.

  “Harder,” I said.

  This time she pulled back with an ice spear and then heaved it, so that it would’ve gone right through my head. Luckily, the spear also vanished when it hit the shield. She was about to try again, when the shield vanished.

  “Whoa, whoa!” Twitch jumped forward and waved her hands. “Doesn’t last super long.”

  Gale laughed, releasing the ice spear so that it evaporated into the air.

  “Damn.” I checked myself over. “I feel good. And Twitch…” I nodded, impressed. “I think you just leveled up.”

  “That so?” She grinned, then made a quick motion on a screen that popped up and was gone just as fast, leaving behind it a shape like a two above her head. “Hey, what’ya know? Level two!”

  A couple of laughs, but not me. “Bullshit. You’re level thirty-two, minimum.”

  “Thanks, Breaker. Your meaningless level assignments mean a lot to me.” She laughed, coming over to take my arm in hers. “I joke. I appreciate the compliment.”

  “Okay, so that’s useful,” Laurel said. “But… a dragon.”

  “That’s what I was just thinking,” Aegriss said. “I’m sorry, maybe it’s because I’m from one of the planets where dragons don’t exist—”

  “Before today, none of us thought they did,” Andromida cut in.

  “Ah, to be clear,” I raised my hand, “I’m still not convinced they do.”

  “Right, but ignoring all that,” Aegriss said, not even looking my way, “assuming this is legitimately a dragon, I haven’t the foggiest idea how to kill it.”

  “Or is it slay?” Andromida asked.

  “What?” Charm asked.

  “Slay,” Andromida repeated. “When you kill a dragon, I think you have to slay it.”

  “Except it re-spawns,” I pointed out. “So maybe ‘defeat’ is a better word choice here.”

  “And I think the point is, none of us knows where to even start with this,” Gale said. “Though, my thought is I can use the wind to move around, trying to hit it with ice spears.”

  “Sure.” Charm looked at her hands, then shook her head. “I have a feeling my new charm strikes won’t do much against a dragon. Maybe my breaths though?”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Andromida said.

  I cleared my throat. “Don’t forget, Sam said this was set up not to necessarily, or not only, beat the dragon, but to use teamwork. To sacrifice for each other.”

  “Now there’s a point,” Aegriss said, grinning, at least for the moment forgetting to be annoyed at me. Or sad, or whatever she was going through. “As long as we work as a team, all of us going all out for each other, we have a chance at this.”

  “Sure, but… we also want to get it over with fast and not get hurt or killed in the process.” Shimmer turned to Twitch. “Wait, what if we tricked it? Illusions?”

  “I don’t think so,” Andromida answered. “It sounds like exactly the type of maneuver it would’ve been set up to prevent.”

  “But it sounds like somehow the enemy made it past,” I pointed out.

  Everyone considered that, then Twitch said, “True, but let’s focus first on how we can beat it the way we’re supposed to, and then find out how the enemy did so, for the purpose of pursuing them.”

  “Well, keep our minds on it,” Shimmer said. “Let’s take a break. Maybe some of us can keep strategizing, but if you need to get your mind right or check your blasters, now’s the time.”

  As we broke to prepare, Twitch strategizing with Gale, Shimmer, and Andromida, I nodded to Aegriss and when I was close, asked her to come with me out into the hall. We passed Laurel and Charm talking heatedly, Harp listening in, and I had a bad feeling that I was the reason for their discussion.

  We made it into the hall and, seeing that we were alone, I turned to her, unsure how to do this. After a moment of silence, she started to turn to leave, but I reached out and took her hand. It was meant more as a way to ask her to stay, but she took it to the next level, taking my hand in hers too, caressing it.

  Her eyes rose to mine in a vulnerable way, and in that moment she was every bit as real as Charm and the rest of them.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, and was starting to come up with all sorts of other cool things to say when she kissed me instead.

  It was a passionate kiss. When she pulled back, one hand on my chest, the other still holding mine, she stayed close, staring into my eyes.

  “I understand the confusion,” she said. “Not long ago I would’ve been back on the Paradise Planet, programmed in a way that would’ve made me kill you.”

  “Try,” I corrected her.

  She grinned. “Sure, try. But here we are now, and all of that has changed.”

  I nodded, but then sucked in a quick breath. “Can I just be honest? Ask questions, figure out what’s bothering me so I can move past it?”

  “Of course.”

  “Like you said, you were programmed. How about now?”

  She pursed her lips, then shook her head. “No.”

  “Just… no?”

  “Think about it this way—ever heard of a genie?” She waited until I nodded in confirmation. “Well, before it was like I was a genie shackled to my master, unable to leave. You set me free.”

  “Oh.” I put my free hand on the one she had on my chest. “And… I mean, you are mechanical inside?”

  Her hand twitched at that, her eyes narrowing, but in a flash it was gone. “You asked if we could have this conversation and I said yes. So… if it helps to know, yes. What’s inside of me isn’t the exact same material as you have inside of you. Do I still have emotions? Needs?”

  “Programmed emotions and needs?” When I saw her wince, I lifted her hand, kissing it. “I’m not trying to be rude, I’m trying to understand.”

  “I see that. But this type of relationship… it shouldn’t be something I have to convince you about.”

  “You don’t—really, you don’t. I just… that’s the last question.”

  She was tense, but made an attempt to loosen up, to relax into me again. “A.I. machines originally programmed me, yes. In a way, you could say you’re programmed as well, right? Predetermined in some ways, between DNA and your upbringing, but I’m not holding that against you.”

  The voice in my mind said to ask more, to argue that it was very different, but another voice won out instead. This voice wanted nothing more than to not give a shit, to take her for who she was and if that somehow turned out to be a mistake later, I’d deal with it at the time.

  So instead of saying another word, I pulled her close, kissed her forehead, then her cheek. I pulled her back, finger under her chin and eyes on hers. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Be
ing patient.” I leaned forward, lips to hers, and let go of her hands to wrap my arms around her instead. “I hope to make it all worth it.”

  “You?” she laughed. “You’re very worth it, I can already tell.”

  “I don’t know if you’ve known me long enough to really know that.”

  She shrugged. “The other ladies know so, and that means I know so.”

  I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was wondering if we should pick up where we left off. A laugh hit me—no, it wasn’t her eyes, it was our shared connection again. It was strange, how it worked so subtly.

  “Would you prefer we cut it?” she asked. “The connection, I mean.”

  “Not at all,” I replied. “It could prove very useful in a fight… or in the bedroom.”

  “So there will be an ‘in the bedroom?’”

  “Come on,” I laughed, then kissed her again. “I certainly hope so.”

  “Me too.” She grinned, eyes moving to the closest door as an image of her on her knees going down on me passed through our connection. I’d just finished, but hell, I could try again, I thought… Except, as soon as I had the door open (to find out it was a small storage closet) Sam’s voice came back through the ship.

  “Time to gear up, ladies and gents. It’s dragon-slaying time!”

  From the other side of the main door, I heard Andrdomida say, “See, told you all ‘slaying’ was the appropriate verb.”

  I sighed and grinned at Aegriss. “Next time, I guess.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “Okay, but quick taste at least.”

  “Wh—ahhh.”

  Before I could answer, she was on her knees, pulling it out, and gave my semi-limp dick a nice, long, lick. Then she quickly put it in her mouth, pulled it out, and grinned as she stood.

  “To remember me by.” She spun on her heels, heading for the bridge. “Don’t forget to put it away.”

  Dammit, now I was full-on erect again, and we had to fight a dragon. I quickly did my best to tuck it away, following after her.

  15

  “Why are we coming in to land?” I asked, seeing right away that we were rapidly approaching a silver planet. It seemed barren, flat, without anything other than a dim, purple mist.

  “So, there’s a part of this whole equation I didn’t tell you about,” Sam said as her ship detached now and landing ahead of us.

  “What’s that?” Twitch asked.

  “I can’t exactly help you in the fight. I can advise, nothing more. Part of how it’s set up. But hey, this way I get to see your powers in action. Should be fun.”

  “Yes, fun,” Andromida grumbled.

  I knew how she felt. Instead of running off to deal with the situation on Earth, here we were. For her, it was all about taking out Muerta and finding the Asterisk connection. For me, it was about saving my home world. Both needed to be done as soon as possible. Instead, we were stuck here, fighting a fucking dragon.

  “This is so fucking stupid,” Andromida said. “Why not just build an off switch?”

  “She’s still listening,” Charm hissed.

  Sam simply frowned our way before saying, “I’ll sign off and let you get to it.” The image of her fizzed out to switch to a view of the planet we were landing on.

  “Like she told us,” I said, standing and pulling up my screens to check out my stats and skills available. “In case she turned.”

  I figured I’d need my fast travel ability and any projectiles I could make use of, so turned on tempest and amped up shields. While doing so, I had a thought and used my troubleshooter and coding to make an adjustment. Seeing Twitch with her experiment had opened up my mind, sending me back to my gaming days and filling my head with ideas. I could experiment, too, and it seemed to work. I was able to make a profile that I labeled ‘Traveler,’ which was made up of those skill sets. Going back to the other setup, I labeled that profile ‘Paladin,’ and set them both to where I could easily switch back and forth without having to adjust skills each time.

  Next I applied my last skills points to further amp up the shield and my speed, knowing I’d need each of those in fights to come.

  “Right,” Twitch added, bringing us back to the topic of Sam and the dragon. “In theory she was never going to need a reason to shut it off. It sounds like, as far as they knew at the time, this was it.”

  “And if your dad pointed us in this direction,” I added, still talking to Andromida, “I have to think he knew what he was talking about.”

  Andromida glared. “The same dad who was there when the Citadel fell? I shouldn’t have to remind you that he isn’t perfect. None of us are.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Charm unstrapped from her seat’s harness and stood, her tails out as she stretched. “Now, why don’t we stop talking and go conquer a fucking dragon?”

  With a squeeze of my shoulder and a tail brushing against my cheek, she was off, Laurel and Harp grinning and following close behind. I couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like to be them, to have met and grown close to Charm, only to lose her for years. And from what it sounded like, they knew what had happened to her and had to be okay with that. For me? No way in hell.

  “I gotta agree with Charm.” I stood, heading for the door. “No point sitting around and talking when we could be getting on with it.” When Andromida opened her mouth, I added, “Sooner we finish, sooner we get back to pursuing Muerta.”

  “And Asterisk,” she mumbled, following.

  We emerged from the ship to step out onto the gray and silver world, but as soon as we’d all disembarked, the silver started to shift, as if someone were blowing smoke. It twisted, turning and shifting, moving around us until all we could see was each other and the silver mist. And then… the dragon.

  It appeared from above, swooping low and breathing a burst of purple and blue. Not flame, but some sort of energy that reminded me of a plasma beam from the old Metroid games. For some reason, the blast hit about ten feet to our right, and when I turned in surprise, I saw why—there was an image of us, being blasted apart.

  “Good thinking,” I said to Shimmer.

  “Dragon fighting 101,” she replied, grinning. “Make an illusion and hope the dragon isn’t using senses other than sight to find you.”

  The dragon, seemingly content, pulled up and went to do a victory lap. Suddenly, Harp was there, flying at its side and hitting it with her voice. A wave of energy went out from her, leaving those of us on the ground slightly disoriented. The dragon, having taken the brunt of the attack, screeched and went flailing down, one of its wings slamming into Harp and sending her careening back toward the hard ground.

  “I got her.” I bolted over, catching her before she hit. Her large, brown eyes took me in with a sort of daze. Her eyes darted up, wide with fear.

  I spun followed her gaze to see the dragon incoming. I dropped low and slammed my hand to the ground and shot both Harp and myself over to the other side of my team. Charm was whooping and running straight at the incoming dragon, while Andromida cursed and then shot forward at her side, pulling at the planet. To my surprise, her tunnels worked perfectly here, metal from the earth rising to push her forward, more metal moving to take out the dragon.

  Charm breathed in her multi-color breath and her tails flailed, each taking on a different color—one blue and one purple. Suddenly, she flashed out of sight. I staggered, still in the process of lowering Harp to the ground. Charm reappeared on the dragon’s neck as it veered up and away from Andromida, but Andromida’s metal managed to slice up. The metal screeched against the dragon’s scales, and the dragon was up again.

  “What did Charm just do?” Laurel shook her head in awe.

  “It was badass!” I replied.

  She laughed. “I was referring to throwing herself on a dragon’s neck all by herself, thinking more about how foolish that was. But yeah, badass.”

  She had a point—the dragon was lifting, screeching and weaving about as it went, so that holding
on became a very difficult task for Charm.

  “What else do we got?” I asked.

  “It’s still disoriented from her sonic blast.” Laurel nodded toward Harp. She was right. The dragon wasn’t only flailing about because of Charm. It was clearly unable to get a grip on where it was meant to be flying. And as we watched, we were able to make out flashes of light that I had to assume was Charm doing her best to attack it up there.

  “She won’t take it down,” Gale pointed out.

  “Ye of little faith,” I replied.

  Gale shook her head. “Not what I meant. Charm’s a badass, but Sam’s whole point was that the test was set up so any one individual couldn’t do it alone.”

  “We need to clip its wings, then,” Twitch said.

  “Breaker, you got that dragon in you still?” Gale asked. “I’ll get up there and distract it, you take it from behind.”

  “Whoa there.” Shimmer giggled and held her hands up. “Sorry. In Charm’s absence, somebody had to take over with the dirty-mind jokes.”

  I chuckled nervously, ignoring the look Twitch and Andromida gave me. Both had been around during the Metallica incident. “Not going that far, but I’ll attack it if I’m able.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Aegriss said, analyzing the situation. “And if you two attack in exactly…” She scanned the sky, the direction of the dragon’s flight and scattered movements. “Never mind. Now! Go now!”

  Shit. I flinched, startled by her sudden exclamation, and then ran forward while activating my illusion skill with the bit that allowed some reality to mix in, ready to take to the sky, wings bursting out as I transformed. Gale was at my side, smiling wide.

  “You know, I find men who can fly sexy as hell, even with the scales and fire breath.” She took off, leaving me to wonder if she was serious or messing around.

  A heartbeat later I was in full dragon mode, shooting through the air and coming in hot on the dragon. Gale was carried through the wind, that silvery fog swirling around her. She waved at me, then pointed.