We Could Be Heroes

by Mike Chen

  “Right, I think that’s the—”

  A loud crashing sound came through the headset, or at least that’s what it sounded like until the communication cut off. Ahead of her, blinking lights continued to tease Zoe, each pulse a reminder that she had no clue what she was doing. “Jamie?”

  “Okay. It’s okay. We’re safe.”

  “What happened?”

  “The whole building’s coming down. Kaftan carried me out. You know, she seems way stronger than you.”

  “Wait, did you say Kaftan?” Did some debris fall on her head? There was no way Jamie just said that he was working with Kaftan. “Sasha Kaftan? The woman who ordered us to be shot on sight?”

  “Zoe,” a voice said through the headset. But not Jamie’s.

  It was Kaftan.

  “If you hurt—”

  “Jamie’s fine. No time to explain. I’m the electrical engineer who designed the power system. The system in front of you is the conversion chamber for Project Electron. It takes in electricity from the power grid and splits it into two parts. One part powers all of the hardware necessary for the Electron system. The other part acts as a containment field that feeds the electricity into a conversion system. It holds the energy and converts it into matter that can be digested by the Project Electron user.”

  Zoe really, really, really wanted to interrupt this lecture but decided she probably shouldn’t.

  “There’s an overflow discharge process that normally dissipates to ground. However, the system is overheating. Looks like a coolant leak, which means it has hindered the discharge process. It’s overloading the system instead of finding a path to ground.”

  Coolant leak? Zoe pictured the pipe of green goo jutting out of the wall after she tore the equipment off of it. Zoe kept that part to herself, given that they were in a freaking basement with ground all around her. But she had to say something.

  “So what does that mean?”

  “It means, the grid isn’t getting back its power until you do this. It’ll all stay here, building up until everything in the facility overloads, resulting in the reactor exploding. The coolant is highly flammable and if a flame catches a trail to it, this place sees extreme structural damage. And the city stays off-line.”

  “Wait, how is coolant flammable? That makes no sense.”

  Kaftan’s scoff was audible over the headset. “Do you really want me to explain ethylene glycol right now?”

  “Well,” Zoe said after a pause. Steam shot out of overhead piping, singeing her hair. “The whole thing seems like a really bad design.”

  Jamie’s voice popped out of the headset. “Zoe, you need to listen to her right now. Things are falling apart.”

  “Right, right.” Hopefully Kaftan’s mind powers didn’t include the ability to detect eye rolls. “Did I say that out loud? What I meant to say was, ‘How the hell do I shut this off before it kills all of us?’”

  “First, you need to divert power to the facility’s backup generator. That gets the doors and locks going again. And the main elevator. There’s a large yellow knob. It should be currently pointing up. Push it in and rotate it to the left. Then throw the reset switch above it.”

  Zoe scanned the scene in front of her and confirmed to herself again that none of her previous revisions could have possibly been trained in anything technical. She barely understood the directions from Kaftan. “Okay, big circular yellow knob. Pushing it in.” It sank in, with more resistance than expected. A sudden warmth covered her left shoulder, along with the sharp pain of a reactivating wound. “And turning.” It landed with a heavy click, and though the space still rumbled with activity, several mechanical pieces locked into place within the reactor.

  At least it sounded that way. Which was probably better than nothing happening.

  Her fingers gripped the switch above the yellow knob. Wouldn’t it have been easier if someone just labeled this Reset? She threw it down, and as soon as she let go, it sprung back up to default. More bangs and thunks rattled the space, then a separate set of lights showed up on the left side of the room.

  “Done,” Zoe said.

  “That’s it,” Jamie said. “Doors are opening again. We’re on the move.” Over the speaker, other voices shouted, though it wasn’t clear if they came from police or Kaftan’s guards or something else.

  “Zoe.” Kaftan was back on the line. “The last step. Get down the next hall to the containment unit. You have to throttle the remaining power in the containment unit to discharge. From the amount of buildup, a sphere of energy will discharge. The room is built to absorb some of that and it should slow it down some. So you’ll need to run as soon as you throw the switch. You’ll have about five seconds to get out of the room. Then a minute, maybe two before it breaks that and vaporizes everything in its path, probably within a fifty-foot radius.”

  “So you’re saying I’m fucked,” Zoe asked, scanning the room for the door through the thick air.

  “Run fast. And hope no exposed coolant lines are within the vaporization radius.”

  “‘Run fast.’ This would have been easier if you hadn’t put power-blocking anti-serum in me. Thanks for that.” Layers of grime caked onto her face where sweat and dust met as she moved across the reactor room to the small hallway. The sliding door thankfully actually worked, sending her to a smaller hallway. Her eyes adjusted to the near pitch-blackness of the space, the only light from a slit at the bottom of the door at the end.

  Zoe wasn’t sure if anyone heard her; the channel remained open, allowing a clamor of noise to come through, a blend of voices of all kinds and volumes—including someone, probably Kaftan, saying, “If you want to do this, fine, but we really should take it outside before this place collapses.”

  That didn’t provide much encouragement.

  “They’re on the move,” Jamie said through the headset, his words hurried. A loud boom rippled through the space, only to be followed seconds later by an even louder one. Dust fell from the ceiling, and whatever was happening wasn’t good. “Kaftan has surrendered. She’s in custody. I’m on my way to you. Random stuff is on fire everywhere, so be careful.”

  “That’s stupid. Get out now. I’m serious, don’t make me stun you again,” Zoe said as she reached the end door. It began to slide open, but stopped after only six inches or so. Her fingers gripped the metal door and she pulled despite the screaming pain from her gunshot wounds.

  “No, we’re in this together.”

  “Idiotic self-sacrifice is more my thing than yours. Get out now.” One more hard tug bent the door enough for her to get through, revealing a grate bridge leading to the blue glow brighter than any electrical projection by Waris. She shielded her eyes from the light, allowing the finer details to come through—including what appeared to be a small control panel next to it.

  A control panel across a bridge. This would be easy. She paused, squinting at the display on it—some sort of meter appeared to be filling up and right now it was a sunburst yellow color.

  Yellow. Yellow was good. Yellow didn’t indicate danger.

  Two steps after that thought, another boom rattled the space. Above her, bits and pieces of concrete fell, starting off as a drizzle of dust before becoming an avalanche of pieces and chunks. When the dust cleared, a half-blocked path stared back at her, the opening from the bent metal door now not quite big enough to fit her, despite her small frame.

  Now the lack of math skills really seemed like an issue. She gauged her powers and knelt down, willing them to restore just a bit faster so she could throw one massive punch at the door, just enough to increase the opening’s size for her to escape. It flowed through her blood and lit up her muscles, flipping a switch telling her that she was ready to go when another massive sound rattled the space and the floor dropped out from under her.

  * * *

  Zoe had blacked out, but it had to
be only for a few seconds. This was the logical conclusion because when she opened her eyes, pieces of the bridge were still being torn off of their main struts and landing in front of her. And Jamie’s voice pressed through the headset, in its most affectionate and annoying way. “Zoe! Zoe! Come on.”

  Zoe found herself on her back, several pieces of sheared metal on top of her. She sucked in air, assessing how much of her strength she retained. Good enough, she thought before realizing the headset managed to stay on. If she made it out of this, she’d totally leave a good review regarding its sturdiness. “I’m here.”

  “Entire rooms in the facility are collapsing. You have to hurry. We’re coming for you but you need to hurry.”

  From her spot on the floor, the display was out of view. But its screen illuminated the space around it, and instead of not-that-bad sunburst yellow, it now burned with a red glow.

  That wasn’t good.

  “Jamie,” she said, trying for once to project calm in her voice, “turn around and get the hell out. If I see you coming, I will use all my strength to throw you out of this place myself. You understand? I don’t need your death on my mind.”

  “But—”

  “Seriously. Shut up. Turn around.” Metal clanged and scraped as she pushed the pieces off her, one heavy chunk at a time. The last piece refused to budge even though it was only about half the size of the others. Zoe’s muscles burned, an unnatural feeling of completely natural organic processes that indicated her strength needed to return.

  She looked again at the display, hoping maybe it had reverted back to yellow from red. It was still red. But now it was blinking.

  No one in the world could help her now.

  “Okay. You win. Zoe, this place is falling apart.” Jamie’s voice turned hurried but quiet. “Please move fast.”

  “Yeah. I’m on it.” Her breath steadied itself, coming and going with a calm rhythm despite bits and pieces of concrete and metal dropping all around her. Zoe took in one more deep breath and shoved the remaining piece of metal over her. Something warm flooded her elbow, and a quick look showed that the gunshot wound had started bleeding again. But at least none of that falling metal had punctured her in the gut or her legs. She jumped up, palms out to hover at switch level but nothing took hold, air slipping between her fingers. “Jamie?”

  “We’re almost out,” he shouted, the sound of debris crashing accompanying his voice.

  “Keep moving.” The blinking red remained, a beacon of the single simple goal she needed to get to if her body would just work with her. Throbbing continued out of her shoulder, a pulsing beat that reminded her for the moment, she was mortal.

  She needed to wait.

  “You’re safe?” she asked.

  “We are. Did you do it?”

  Where was that tangible push, that invisible pressure that always propelled her up? The unseen force that kicked against her grip, the same way copies of the strongest magnets in the world would do everything to break apart—where was it?

  But Zoe knew, she knew the answer to that question. Because for all the times she fought against serum after serum, memory erasure after memory erasure, every time she clawed back, she did it through sheer force of will. And this time, she needed more than that. She needed biology and Kaftan’s serum to play nice with her stubbornness, and it wasn’t happening.

  “Not yet.” She swallowed hard, looking at the distance between her and the control panel. Around her hummed machinery, the guts of the containment unit. “I need some time to charge up.” She dusted herself off and marched forward until she stood directly underneath the control panel, probably a good ten feet. Her hand touched the wall, looking for a physical grip in place of the ether that let her hover in the wind; it singed a layer of skin off her fingers, the sheer heat from the pressurizing energy getting to be too much.

  “How much time?”

  There was nowhere to go but up. And up would take time.

  “A few minutes.” She took a deep breath and considered the path in front of her. “Hey, can I tell you a story?”

  “Sure.” That single word sounded like it took all of Jamie’s energy to get out.

  “I remember. I remember some of my revisions after touching the glowy thingy. And before I was the Throwing Star, they were testing my powers. I was actually cooperating with them. But to do that, I had to stay at the facility. Seemed like a good deal at first. You know, I’d do these training exercises and then return to my room. Watch all the movies I wanted. When you think about it, my family must have been pretty fucked up for me to go to Telos and agree to all that, right?

  “Problem was, I got restless. I felt like I was meant for more, you know? And they didn’t like that. They planned on resetting me again. I mean, they didn’t tell me this, but see, there was this guy. British guy named Bill. Guess we’d become friends while we were there, and since he worked on the experiments, he had insider information. And he warned me. He said that if they found out, they’d make him wipe his own mind, but he didn’t care. It was important that I knew.

  “So they tied me down and injected me to reset everything, but I was prepared and I broke out. I tried to, anyway. The serum slowed me down and everything was fading. Made it to the rooftop. And poor Bill, they forced him to lead the team of guards to get me. But he did this really great thing. He said, ‘I don’t know if you’re awake in there or completely lost. I’m still working on it and you’re different, and they might get rid of me before I get good at it anyway. But if you’re in there, I’m gonna leave you with one thing to remember.’ And he showed me a clue he’d written. On his hand.”

  Zoe knew Jamie couldn’t see her, and she probably remained far out of reach for them to connect minds and memories. But she hoped what she felt came through in her voice.

  “You see? They keep setting us against each other. And we keep deciding that we’re better off as friends.” She laughed, because at this point, what else was there to do? “Even when I do wind up starting coolant leaks.”

  “The machine you tore out from the wall.”

  “Just my luck, right?”

  “Zoe.” A tremble carried his voice across the radio. “I knew that was me on the rooftop. I just didn’t understand how—”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I know you were trying to protect me. What’s that thing Chesterton told you? I read it in your memory the other night.” Zoe bit into her lip before forming a smile that no one could see. “I think it was ‘Extraordinary comes in many forms.’”

  Steam escaped from the pipeline above, creating a thick humidity that mixed with the flying dust to form a thick muck on everything. The dim emergency lighting made it hard to see what was breaking and what was already broken, though when she stood up, a surge rippled through her body.

  “I thought about that. It stuck with me as soon as I saw it in your memories. Because it’s us. Extraordinary comes in many forms. Not just you, not just me. But us.”

  “Zoe, you’re worrying me.”

  “Together,” she said, stumbling forward, “we’re extraordinary.” Blood clung to the black leather of the Throwing Star suit as she wiped off the trail from the gunshot. Underneath, it smeared across her exposed skin, but no more came out. “I just wish my family knew that. My real family. The ones that did something to push me to visit Telos.”

  Zoe bent her knees, tensed and ready to launch upward. Her arms extended, palms down.

  She was ready.

  “We’ll find them. And tell them. We’ll make a plan,” Jamie said.

  She shot all the way to the top of the room, and as she descended, her hands flared out, bringing her to a gentle float until she held her position directly in front of the control panel and its row of screens and lights. She looked back at the blocked path out, going back to her calculation about what needed to be cleared and how fast.

  I
t was simple. She needed to bend that metal door wide enough to break through. Five seconds, Kaftan said. Just five seconds.

  Well, maybe she’d be wrong. Maybe it was, like, thirty seconds. Kaftan was a bit of an asshole, and assholes tended to be wrong most of the time anyway.

  “You and your plans, Jamie. Remember, we make terrible plans.”

  Her fingers gripped the switch next to the electronic display.

  “Hey, I never told you the catchphrase I was practicing. For when I caught you.”

  It flipped with a thunk, all the lights and remaining displays fading away one by one. Zoe waited, watching as each shut system fell into dark silence from right to left.

  “Remember how I was considering the name Shuriken?” No reply came over the headset, just a static pop. “So when I caught you, I was gonna say, ‘You thought you could escape but you Shuri-can’t.’ Get it?”

  The emergency red lighting dimmed, disappearing into darkness. “Zoe, that’s terrible,” Jamie said, his voice dry.

  All around her, sounds whirred down to nothing, leaving only silence even to her extraordinary hearing.

  “No, Jamie. It’s cool.”

  That was it. Power would cycle back to the city.

  Five seconds.

  She pushed back and vaulted, angling herself toward the blockade exit. Her body throttled forward, but halfway down to the path, she lost her grip, air becoming simply air, and she fell into the pit with all of the force of a regular human. Her shoulder slammed into the floor, momentum carrying her into a roll, but her mind stayed active, aware, telling her to push forward.

  Four seconds.

  The delayed feel of impact kicked in, a shockwave tearing at her legs and arms as she tried to stand up. She ran, or tried to, but her knees buckled and she fell flat on her face.

  Three seconds.

  Her body refused to agree when she tried standing. Legs gave out, failing to work in sync or even support weight. Belly down, she clawed against the debris, pulling herself forward and then upward. A sharp jab followed by warmth radiated from her shoulder, and it took an actual glance down to realize that the gunshot had started bleeding again.