An Honest Living

by Ben Mariner

  “It’s just the three of us, though,” I reminded her. “Who are we getting up to speed?”

  “Rea…” Grace began, but trailed off. “Just focus.”

  “We’re trying to focus, schnookums.”

  “Heads up, we’ve got movement,” Lisa announced. “Stay frosty.”

  “Pun intended?” I joked.

  “Shut up,” said Lisa with a sigh.

  I pulled my phone out and activated the camera. I was about to ask where Lisa was looking, but it’s pretty hard to miss a barbie doll who looked like she had been in a fight with a bear but was still trying to look her best. Tabitha’s hair was somewhat depouffed from the night before and one chunk was sticking out at an odd angle. She was wearing sunglasses that nearly covered her entire face. Her clothes were mismatched and one shoe was a fashionable snow boot while the other was a flip flop.

  “Jeez, she’s looked better,” Grace commented.

  “You’re telling me,” Lisa replied.

  I zoomed in and snapped a few pics. If nothing else, this would be fun to hold over her for a while.

  “Any sign of who she’s meeting?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Lisa replied, moving around for a better vantage point. “Wait, yep, he’s here.”

  I was still watching Tabitha as she sat down on a bench with her back facing me. At Lisa’s word, I looked up to see a familiar man stride into the park. He was wearing a red turtleneck under a tweed jacket with leather elbow pads. It had been a while since I’d seen him out of costume, but it was hard to forget the pretentious Dr. Edward Ackworth, Awesome Man’s mild mannered alter ego.

  “Somehow this is both surprising and predictable,” Lisa said wryly.

  I snapped some pictures, making sure to get Ackworth’s face in them before he turned his back to me.

  “What the hell happened to you?” he asked as he sat.

  We had bugged every bench in the park so we could get audio.

  “It was a rough night,” Tabitha grumbled. “How are things progressing?”

  Ackworth produced a folder and handed it over. Even zoomed in, I couldn’t make out what was on it.

  “God, so many words,” groaned Tabitha. I could practically hear her headache in the words. “They still don’t suspect anything?”

  Ackworth shook his head. “All is according to plan.”

  “And what about Lane Raskin?”

  I watched Ackworth shake his head.

  “He has served his purpose. The distraction he created was enough to put doubt into Grey’s mind about ever allowing another Cackler to change sides. The way ahead is clear. Whatever happens to Raskin, happens. He’s of no use to us anymore.”

  There was an odd mixture of relief and offense going on inside of me. Great that I was just a pawn, but damn it I was just a pawn. And to Awkward Man, no less.

  “Should we go?” Lisa suggested. “That’s everything we need to clear Lane’s name.”

  “No,” Grace said sternly. “They’re manipulating my father, they need to pay.”

  “We can make them pay,” argued Lisa. “That’s why we’re recording them.”

  “How soon before Wayne Grey is out of the way?” Tabitha asked, unknowingly interrupted us.

  Ackworth shrugged and checked his watch. “Shouldn’t be long now. All the pieces are in place. All is waiting on my word.”

  My stomach sank into my feet.

  “Grace,” I said, at a loss for words.

  There was no reply. The sonic boom above our heads shot my stomach up into my throat. The statue of Colossal exploded into bits. When the dust settled, Grace was standing in its place, her purple and silver armor gleaming. The all too familiar shoulder rockets were activated and locked onto Ackworth and Tabitha.

  “Is she nuts?” Lisa asked, annoyed.

  “Obviously,” I replied, stepping back from the window and looking for something heavy. I grabbed a nearby desk and hurled it toward the window. The window splintered but it didn’t break. Good enough.

  “What the hell are you doing?” demanded Lisa.

  “Helping,” I replied before activating my suit and sprinting towards the window.

  The glass shattered around me and I lowered my shoulder and barreled through into open air. Neither Ackworth nor Tabitha seemed to even notice the glass raining down behind them. On a perfect collision course for the both of them, I reared a fist back for an epic punch that would have obliterated a normal person. At the last second, Ackworth lifted into the air. I went sailing right by harmlessly, my trajectory changed from them to Grace. She didn’t even have time to react. I crashed into her and we both went sailing backwards across the park.

  “Holy crap,” I heard Lisa say. “Are you guys okay?”

  I rolled off of Grace and realized my sister’s voice wasn’t coming through the earpiece. She was standing next to us.

  “Nothing hurt but my dignity,” I replied, standing and brushing myself off.

  “Mr. Raskin,” Ackworth said from above. He’d somehow changed into his Awesome Man garb. “We were just talking about you. Nice of you to drop in.”

  “Solid pun work,” I admitted as I got to my feet.

  Tabitha went en fuego and changed over to The Hotness. “Have you guys been following me? How did you know I was going to be here?”

  Lisa scoffed. “You literally told me. Last night. Remember?”

  Awesome Man looked at her askance. “Is this true?”

  The Hotness thought for a moment and looked defeated. “Like I said, it was a rough night.

  “We’re here to stop you,” Grace said, stepping forward. “You won’t hurt my father.”

  The two Bennies looked at each other quizzically.

  “Who said anything about hurting your father?” Awesome Man asked, amused.

  “You just said it,” Grace insisted. “Not more than five minutes ago. You were going to get him out of the way.”

  They both laughed.

  “And you think that means we want to kill him?” The Hotness laughed.

  “What else could it mean?” I wondered out loud.

  Awesome Man lowered himself to the ground. “We simply want him out as the leader of The Liberty Gang. He’s clearly no longer fit for the position based on his recent…” he gave me a look of disgust, “choices.”

  “This was all because Lane was offered a position with The Liberty Gang?” Lisa asked incredulously.

  Awesome Man shrugged. “This has been a long time coming, but he was the catalyst for action.”

  “You were getting too close,” The Hotness put in. “You cosied up to your little muffin over there to get ahead and we couldn’t have that. We’ve both been on this team way too long to get passed over by some newbie.”

  I threw my hands up. “Hold on a damn minute here. You set me up and put this all together because you think I’m just using Grace to get to the top? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “And what about you, Tabitha,” Lisa snarled. “You’re sleeping with Grey. How is that any different than what you think Lane is doing?”

  The Hotness looked disgusted. “Ew, what? I’m not sleeping with Grey. He’s like...a hundred years old.”

  “He’s forty-six,” Grace corrected her.

  “Yeah, that’s basically the same thing,” the flame talent scoffed. “So gross.”

  “But, if you’re not sleeping with Grey,” Lisa said, trying to logic her way through things. “How did you know about the secure server he uses?”

  The Bennies laughed again.

  “Oh, it’s so secret and secure,” said Awesome Man mockingly. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know about it.”

  “The password is literally Nocturno,” The Hotness added.

  “Can we get back to me please?” I said, steering the conversation back on track. “You two were going to put me in jail because you thought I was trying to sleep my way to the top? That’s so messed up.”

  Awesome Man looked unrepentant. “Try t
o see the bigger picture, boy. You were simply a stepping stone. A means to an end.”

  “Oh, right,” I said sarcastically, “That just makes it all better.”

  “Enough,” Grace said forcefully. “You two have crossed about fifty lines and now you have to answer for your actions. You’re coming with me.”

  The Hotness sighed.

  “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’re kind of forcing me.”

  She produced her phone and hit the screen a few times. I barely had enough time to wonder what she was doing before a purple metal fist smashed into the side of my head, driving me into the ground with incredible force.

  “Ah, what the hell?” I said, choking on dirt.

  “Th...that wasn’t me,” Grace said, fear in her voice. “I think she hacked me.”

  “How intuitive,” The Hotness said with an eye roll.

  “Since when do you know how to hack?” Lisa asked, mildly impressed.

  “Since you told me how,” the flame talent replied.

  I looked at Lisa. “What’s she talking about?”

  My sister had an embarrassed look on her face.

  “Oh, boy. This is awkward,” she said. “I maybe got a little drunk last night and maybe, maybe, told Tabitha how to hack Grace’s suit.”

  Grace was bearing down on me. “How did you even know how?”

  Lisa scoffed. “Seriously? Mechs and battle armor are so easy to hack. They run on a closed net-”

  “That’s great,” I said, cutting her off, “Thanks, sis.”

  Grace hauled me to my feet and started driving her fist into my stomach over and over.

  “It’s not me!” she cried. “I don’t have control.”

  The rogue suit picked me up and tossed me across the park. I wasn’t hurt, of course, but it definitely wasn’t any fun. I got back to my feet but it was no good. Grace shot forward and snatched me up, kicking the thrusters in. We were zipping upward much faster than I would have liked.

  “I don’t think I can stop it,” she reported as we climbed higher. “This is bad.”

  “You’re telling me,” I said, looking down at the rapidly receding city.

  “No you don’t understand,” said Grace. “The trajectory is taking us out of the Earth’s atmosphere.”

  I gaped at her. “Into space?”

  “How else could she deal with you?” reasoned Grace. “You’re invincible, but you have to breathe.”

  The air was getting thinner. I looked up and saw the blue sky slowly fading to black. In a few seconds we’d be in outer space and I’d be dead. As completely awesome of a death as that would be, I had to think fast. I wrapped my arms and legs around Grace’s suit, holding on as tight as I could.

  “This is probably going to hurt you a lot,” I told her, “but I can’t let go.”

  “Do it,” she said, understanding.

  I increased gravity to a five. Our ascent slowed significantly, but we were still moving upward. I felt an extra burst kick in and we sped up.

  “More!” Grace insisted.

  “Alright,” I said, closing my eyes. “Let’s crank these babies to eleven.”

  I spun the dial all the way up and there was an instant shift. Grace’s suit was giving it everything it had, but the gravity was too much. We were plummeting to the earth like a teenager’s underpants on prom night. The city was rushing up to meet us. The suit’s thrusters were sputtering.

  “Power is failing,” Grace reported.

  “Should I slow down?”

  “Can’t risk it,” she replied. “Backup power could kick in. Do what you have to do.”

  Grace might have been gung-ho about me drilling her into the earth, but I wasn’t quite so onboard. This armor could take a beating, but this would be like dropping a cruise ship on top of her. There was very little chance it wouldn’t kill her, armor or not. I had to time it just right though. Right before we hit the ground, I spun the dial back to zero and even lessened gravity a bit

  The impact was enough to shatter the windows on the lower floors of the surrounding buildings and put a crater in the ground the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool, basically decimating Colossal Park.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, releasing my grip on Grace and getting to my feet. I felt sick to my stomach as I watched her broken suit spark and twitch. There was an insanely long moment of silence that grew the pit in my stomach to the size of a basketball. “Grace, answer me. Please.”

  Her suit whirred and for a second, I thought it was going spring back to life and take me for another joy ride, but the helmet slid back to show Grace’s dazed, but basically unscathed face.

  “That didn’t feel great,” she replied breathlessly. “Mind helping me up?”

  The suit peeled back enough to let me scoop Grace up in my arms. I was looking for somewhere safe to stash her while we dealt with Awesome Man and The Hotness, but I saw Lisa had already incapacitated both of them on her own. I jogged over to her side.

  “Both of them already, huh?” I asked her, surveying the scene.

  Lisa shrugged. “Are you kidding? Couple of pushovers, these two.”

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  “We should go,” I suggested.

  Lisa nodded. “Good idea.” She nudged The Hotness with a foot. “They’re not going anywhere.”

  “Ice cream?” Grace asked.

  “Oh, that sounds good,” I answered enthusiastically.

  “Totally on board,” agreed Lisa.

  We rounded the street corner just as Maxima City police cars came to a screeching halt in front of the ruined park.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Images and audio recording turned into Maxima City Police and the Liberty Gang have cleared the criminal known as Wrecking Ball from all charges against him, Susanna Squalls announced from the TV in the corner of the coffee shop. The Liberty Gang has assured authorities that the culprits guilty for the attack on Maxima City Bank and Trust have been dealt with.

  “What’s your dad doing with them anyway?” Lisa asked Grace, taking a sip of her coffee.

  “He didn’t want another scandal like Magnificent Man,” answered Grace, “so he’s pulling them off active duty. They’ll be doing routine maintenance around Liberty Hall for a while.”

  I laughed. “I’d love to see The Hotness scrubbing floors. That would be worth the whole debacle.”

  The news switched over to sports.

  “Is the suit all fixed up?” I asked Grace, eyeing her chair.

  “Bigger, better, stronger,” she said with a wink. “And the operating system’s encryption has been tripled, so no more trying to kill you on accident.”

  “Can’t argue with that.”

  “More importantly,” Lisa put in, “have you finally decided on a name for yourself? You can’t very well have people calling you Grace out in the field. Or pookie or whatever.”

  “I have,” Grace responded with a nod. “Sentinel. What do you think?”

  “Nailed it,” Lisa said with a smile.

  I gave Grace’s hand a little squeeze. “It’s perfect.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to join our new team, Lisa?” Grace asked over the brim of her coffee cup.

  Lisa shook her head. “I helped out this time around because my bro was in trouble. I’m not the crime fighting type. I kind of like living outside the law. Makes me feel like a badass.”

  I shrugged. “Just don’t make us come after you, kid.”

  “Try and see what happens,” Lisa said with a glint in her eye. “It’s not like you aren’t going to need a nemesis.”

  I laughed, but the look on her face made me uncertain whether or not she was joking. I decided to take it that way because she’d kick my ass if I really tried to tangle with her.

  For a moment, everything seemed like it was back to normal. As close to normal as things could get, at least. But things like that have a way of being cut short.

  The TV cut to static in the middle of Chet Worthing
ton’s sports report. It wouldn’t have been completely distracting if the picture hadn’t been replaced with the image of what could only be described as an alien. It was vaguely humanoid, but with blue wrinkled skin, no nose, and a bulbous head. It was standing in front of what looked like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise only way more hardcore, lots of rivets and jagged metal. Kind of like how you’d picture the devil’s lair to look like in a heavy metal video.

  Greetings, Earthlings, it said in a gravelly voice. The lips definitely didn’t match the words so it had to be using some kind of translator. I am Tor Eckman, Warlord of the Trekkees. I come to you now in warning. Our armada is on a course for your planet. When I arrive, you will bend the knee and swear fealty to my empire. If you refuse, we will enter your atmosphere and leave naught but rubble in our wake. We look forward to a calm and peaceful surrender. You have one Earth week. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

  The picture switched again, but instead of going back to Chet and his sports nonsense, a ticking clock appeared. Everyone else in the place just went on about their business. It wasn’t like an alien had never threatened our planet before. Lisa was already sipping absentmindedly at her coffee. Grace, on the other hand, worried me. She looked like one of her nightmares had just come true.

  “Grace, you okay?” I asked her.

  “I have to go,” she said and wheeled herself towards the exit without another word. When she was out of sight I heard the telltale burst of her thrusters.

  “What’s with her?” Lisa asked, looking after Grace.

  “I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head.

  I looked at the ticking clock on the TV.

  This was definitely going to be bad.

  Will the Trekkees destroy life on Earth as we know it? Find out in…

  Breaking News

  Maxima City Talent, vol. 3

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