I stumble backward until I fall on my butt, then roll onto my back.
“Close faceplate!” I shout at Epic. He’s a half-second ahead of me, bringing down the shield and switching to combat mode.
How could I be so stupid! Of course, she has some kind of mental powers. “Full power ECM. Spin up the particle beam. If I have to, I’ll cut her in half,” I growl as I regain my footing.
The LED lights cut out, plunging the cavern into darkness, hopefully confusing her.
“Wait,” she says as her form becomes visible in the green light of night vision. “I meant no harm. I simply needed to see who I was dealing with. I’m sorry, I had no idea. The destruction you have wreaked across the galaxy would make Ares proud.”
Ares? Pythia said the same thing... “Who are you?” I say in my synthesized voice.
She pulls the hood off her head, revealing long black hair that flows like it’s under water.
“I am Nemesis the Inescapable, goddess of retribution and the last Olympian on Earth. I’ve waited two thousand years for this moment, Amelia Lockheart. I do not wish you harm, but I will kill you if I have to.”
“Oh,” I say. “Is that all.”
TWENTY
BOULDER (TIA)
Tia came to with cold, smelly water washing over her chest and waist. Some of it splashed her face, and the putrid smell about killed her. She rolled over, wanting to vomit, but managed to choke back her gag long enough to regain her feet and look up.
Up through the hole she had made in the street she could see dark sky. That meant a couple of hours had gone by, at least.
What happened? Massacre! During the fight he must have jumped to Tessa, but... but twelve hours hadn’t passed? How?
She shook her head. It didn’t matter, not really. If he had Tessa, then he could succeed in killing pretty much everyone—even Lux if he caught her unaware—as unbelievable as that seemed. She needed to warn Milton but her goggles were knocked off when she fell through the street.
Lucky for her, Tessa didn’t realize that Tia’s powers required effort to hold back. One of the pitfalls of her childhood was sleeping—until she learned to control her powers enough to prevent it. However, she still massed up when knocked unconscious. Thankfully the sewer had rock underneath it or she could have awoken in real trouble— or not at all if she sank too far into the Earth.
She raised a hand to her face, trying to hide from the stench, but it was pervasive. She patted her head and couldn’t find her goggles. Looking down at the water with a sigh of disgust, she kneeled down and felt around the bottom.
The cold, disgusting water soaked her sleeves, and every time something slimy slipped past her fingers she let out a string of Portuguese curses. Finally, she grasped the elastic band and pulled them out. Shaking them off several times then using the collar of her costume to wipe them off, she put them over her eyes and pulled the strap tight.
Please be waterproof.
“Tia, I’m glad you are okay,” Milton’s English accent was a relief to hear.
“Graças a Deus! Milton, I need help. The assassin we were tracking, he’s in Tessa.”
“Oh dear,” came his reply.
“Milton...”
“She contacted me an hour ago. She told me you two had separated and she was going to try and get to the team another way... I suggested she allow herself to be arrested and then I could arrange for her to be in the same building as Tony, Monica, Teddy, and Lux.”
“Tell me you haven’t done that already?” Tia asked.
“I’m afraid they transferred her fifteen minutes ago.”
Tia swore again. Activating the night vision mode she looked both ways, trying to see if one had an advantage over the other. She couldn’t tell.
“Milton, I need to get there, and I mean right now.”
“I’m working on it. One moment, mum.”
Tia hated this. She had no idea how to force Massacre out of a body, or how he was able to jump bodies so soon. She’d fought him twice in the past and each time he had required twelve hours between jumps.
Unless... her head shot up. Oh no. It had to be. The mad wizard that she, Kate, and Amelia had fought could alter people’s powers, enhance them. What if he did that for Massacre? What if he did that for a bunch of villains and that was why things were heating up? With Amelia’s own government coming after her and so many villains attacking at once...
“I have it, mum. Go north... your right. Five hundred feet to an access tunnel. You’re in the sub-sewer, so be prepared for a climb.”
Tia shed her ruined jacket. It was water logged and ripped and would only slow her down. She took off at a run. Focusing on her mass and doing her best to force some of it away to lighten her even more and allow her to move and climb faster.
It wasn’t easy. She’d told Amelia she could float if need be, but it was ten times as exhausting as piling on the mass. She reached the ladder, leaping up six feet to hit near the top. The slimy surfaces were hard to hold, and she scrambled for the rungs
Sweat beaded on her forehead as she reached the top. The manhole wouldn’t budge.
“Dammit.” She let go of the faucet inside of her. Instantly her mass increased back to normal. A weariness washed over her. She shook her head; now wasn’t the time to allow exhaustion to stop her. Lives were at stake, her friends’ lives.
“No,” she said out loud. With a grunt she increased her mass three-fold, giving herself the strength she needed. She hit the manhole with her shoulder, sending the iron disk flying through the air.
She pulled herself out of the hole and sat on the street for a second. “Milton, I need to get to the Federal building as fast as possible. Where is it?”
A red, 4-door Toyota Prius turned the corner a hundred feet away and flashed its lights as it came to a stop next to her.
The window rolled down and a young man with shoulder-length sandy blonde hair and a scraggly beard smiled at her from the driver side of the car.
“Hey babe, you wouldn’t happen to be Cat, would you?”
“Si, and I prefer ‘Tia’ to ‘Cat’, if you please.”
He smiled a lopsided grin. “Sure babe, whatever you say. As beautiful as you are, I’ll call you whatever you want, as long as I get to call you,” he said with a grin. Clearly the young man had vision problems. She was covered in muck from the sewer; he couldn’t possibly think she was beautiful.
“Mum? The driver is Johan—he works for me. There is a change of clothes in the backseat and he will take you to the Federal building... are you sure that is wise?”
“Yes, Milton. Massacre doesn’t have much finesse.” She pulled herself to her feet, wavering as she walked to the car. “He’ll likely go right to his targets and kill them the first chance he can.” The rear door was smaller than the front, but Tia wasn’t large; she had no problem fitting in. The backseat was cramped and included two Walmart bags.
“Sorry about the Wally-world clothes. Milt told me to hurry and that was the closest store.”
She shook her head. “Don’t apologize. I appreciate your haste.” She glanced around, confused for a moment. There really wasn’t anywhere to change and she didn’t fancy stripping naked in front of Johan.
“Uh, there’s a sheet in one of the bags. Milt-o-matic suggested it to preserve your modesty. I think that’s how he put it.”
She muttered her thanks to the AI in her native Portuguese as she pulled the sheet from its bag and threw it over her head.
“You from Portugal?” Johan asked as the electric car moved.
It surprised her that he would recognize what language she had spoken. “No. Argentina. My parents emigrated from Brazil when I was very young. I am just a visitor here in the states.” Tia found the car’s motion disconcerting, since she couldn’t see where they were going.
“Groovy,” he said as he pulled a u-turn. “I don’t speak it as well as my other languages, but I keep meaning to work on it. Maybe when this is all over you and
I can have dinner and you can teach me what I don’t know?”
Tia froze, her costume unzipped to her waist. Was the man with the surfer accent asking her out on a date? She decided to deflect. “Uh, how many languages do you speak?” She finished pulling the zipper all the way down and shimmying out of the top. It stuck to her skin like she had worked out in it—she didn’t even want to think about what was in it...
He chuckled. “Fifty-seven... well, sixty, but the last three aren’t really spoken anymore so I can’t really say I speak them, I just know them.”
Tia blanched, shaking her head. “How do you keep all those languages straight in your head? I speak four and find it hard sometimes. I’m always switching between Portuguese, Spanish, and English. German is pretty easy to keep separate, through.” Inside the second bag was a box of green tea scented baby wipes. She closed her eyes and muttered a prayer to God for Milton. The baby wipes did the job of removing the muck and much of the smell. She shed the last of her costume from around her feet and stuffed it into the white kitchen trash bag Milton’s assistant also brought.
“I’d like to say I’m just that good, you know? But naah, I’m an F1 interpreter. As powers go it isn’t even that great.”
Once all her clothes were off, including her underthings, and she was finished wiping off as much as she could, she held the full trash bag out from under the sheet. Johan took it without looking back and tossed it on the floor of the passenger seat.
“What is an ‘F1 interpreter?” she asked. Milton had bought all athletic clothes, which was great considering the wear and tear she tended to put on things.
“If I’m exposed to a language long enough, I can understand it. Once I understand it, I can speak it. Takes about three weeks for full fluency. There are some downsides, though,” the driver said.
Tia dressed as fast as she could; the boyshorts and sports bra went on easily, followed by the yoga pants and short sleeved blue Under Armour shirt with their logo and name emblazoned across her breasts. On top of that she put on the hoody and zipped it up, then a pair of thin, loose fitting draw string pants. Lastly, a pair of flip-flops.
She pulled the sheet off, used it to wipe her hair one more time, it wasn’t particularly long, and dumped the sheet on the floor before climbing over the center and sliding into the passenger seat. Once buckled in, she picked up the bag and tossed that behind her as well.
“What downside?” she asked. She looked over when he didn’t answer; he was staring at her with his mouth open. “Johan?”
“Y—yeah?”
“The road.”
“Right!” He turned back to watch where he was going, just in time to avoid swerving into the other lane.
“Downside?” she asked with a smile. It was nice to make a man stare every once in a while—even if she could punch a tank, she still liked to have men think of her as beautiful.
“Uh, downside. It takes me about a month to stop talking in whatever language I’m learning, which makes me useless in field work. I also have to be in proximity to the person speaking. Which sucks, because otherwise I could learn every language ever from YouTube. But noooooo,” he said with a smile.
“You sold me Johan. When this is over, we’ll have dinner.”
He did a double take, looking her up and down then back to the road, then back to her. “What?”
“I said, when this is over, we’ll have dinner,” she said with a knowing smile. Then, she pointed at the next corner. “This is our stop.”
TWENTY-ONE
She did, in fact, not “have it.” It turned out no one at the US embassy passed Milton’s trust algorithm. The entire facility scored less than 50% on his checks and he couldn’t recommend they contact anyone at the facility or stay at their current position. Kate could leave whenever she wanted, but the twenty women they rescued were stuck. She could only teleport a few at a time and in any case she had no anchor to teleport back to since Carlos left. She certainly couldn’t teleport all twenty at once... the most she had ever done was three, and that left her feeling it the next morning. Twenty could kill her. Or worse, kill all of them.
If only Carlos hadn’t left. No, he didn’t leave; you drove him off with your stupid, childish emotions. Besides, Rome is under his direct protection... he had to go.
She couldn’t disagree with that. Nor could she understand it. No one had complete control of their autonomous reactions, but she hadn’t had to say anything. She could’ve just bit her tongue and moved on.
Nope, you’ve got to be stupid, in the middle of a freaking mission.
She shook her head, chuckling. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her. The ex-spy and experienced hero losing her cool while the ex-unemployed gamer and newbie kept his.
If he would acknowledge her presence she wouldn’t be so damn mad. Again, no. He acted like there was nothing between them. Then he would flirt with her again, then act like there was nothing between them. It was all so damn frustrating.
She kicked a rock into the wall and the small piece shattered on impact. This was her mess and she was going to have to clean it up.
She walked back to the entrance and called for Major Nelson. He came out of the shadows, shielding his eyes from the bright Mexican sun.
“You two are quite the team,” he said.
“Can you search the bodies and see what you can find? Maybe I missed something. Then pick up a gun you like and hop in the truck with the girls.
Glancing around at the women milling about and the three remaining vehicles she knew what she had to do.
“Okay, everyone back in the truck.”
The closest three women turned to her with shock on their faces. Kate sighed. She’d wrapped herself up in a little cocoon of her own emotions, forgetting her powers were working on overdrive. They were already agitated and worried and here she was adding anger and insecurity on top.
She closed her eyes for a moment, reaching into her brain for the place where she could tell her body what pheromones to exhibit. She found it and pushed out trust and safety. Then it was just a matter of walking through the crowd of women and drawing them closer to her. Once they were all circled about, the tension lifted from them, their spirits rose, and suddenly they were ready to go.
“I’m going to be honest with you. I have no way to get you all out of here,” she opened with.
“What kind of rescue is this?” Rachel asked.
Kate stifled her annoyance. In her mind, people shouldn’t complain when they are saved from slavery. “It’s not a rescue at all. I had no idea you were here, and to put it bluntly, even if I had known, you wouldn’t be why I was here. This outfit has gone after a friend of mine and I’m trying to find out why.”
“They call themselves ISO-1,” Rachel added. “I overheard a few of them talking when they thought I was asleep.”
Kate nodded. “Thank you. That’s good info I didn’t have. Milton,” she put her hand to her goggles, mostly to let the crowd know what she was doing.
“Yes, mum?”
“We have a name to go with some faces. Want to run it through your computer systems?” she asked, shooting a sideways glance at the crowd. Milton’s identity was secret for a reason. Only the costumed heroes in the Spire knew his real secret; that he was an AI created by an AI. The rest of the workers there all thought of him as an off-site manager. Since Amelia was so open about her disability, Kate allowed the rumor to spread that Milton was disabled as well and confined to his room. She was glad she had. The FBI would go nuts looking for Milton; meanwhile he was free to help her solve this case.
“I’ll have to get back to you, mum. I’ll compile a full briefing for you; it appears they are quite the criminal enterprise. However, Tia is on her own in Phoenix and needs my full attention at the moment. I’ll keep my eye on you, though. Shout out if you’re in trouble.”
“Thanks, Milton. Is everything okay?”
“No, mum. Tia has spotted a dangerous assassin and he’s going afte
r the team. I’m arranging for her and Tessa to meet and stop him.”
Kate’s eyes went wide. An assassin? She looked at the girls in need of rescue. If she left them here, they were as good as dead. She shook her head.
“Milton, good luck. I’d come help but…”
“Understood. Tia and Tessa can handle the situation in Phoenix. Good luck to you, as well,” the AI said before he disconnected.
Rachel held her hands out with her palms up while shrugging her shoulders. “Who’s Milton?”
“Overwatch,” she said without further explanation. “Okay, here is the situation, I know you’ve all been through a lot. You’re tired, scared, and want to go home. Does that about sum it up?” She said it with a grin, letting the women know she was on their side.
When they all nodded agreement she continued. “I won’t lie to you; you’re not out of the woods yet. But I have a plan. If any of you can fire weapons, take five minutes and scrounge up some guns. Everyone else, in the truck. We’re going to drive out of here just like they planned to do.”
Worry flashed across their collective faces.
“I know,” she said in her most calming voice. She rested her flesh hand on the nearest woman—a pretty raven-haired girl who looked about Amelia’s age. “It’s five hundred miles to the US border. That’s probably ten hours in that truck,” she said with a glance over her shoulder. “No air conditioning, minimal stops, and no food. I won’t force you to come with me and I won’t lie about your chances. If you think you’re better off here, you can stay.”
Kate didn’t really expect any of them to bail out; none looked that stupid. “Excellent. Grab a gun if you’re confident using one and hop in the truck... you,” she pointed at Rachel, “ride up front with me. The rest of you, this is Major Nelson, he can handle himself. He’ll ride in the back with you.”
The Major waved after climbing into the back of the truck. He’d found a shotgun and held it in one hand while offering the other to help the girls up.
Rachel nodded before running off to pick up a pump shotgun one of the fallen gang members had left behind.
Ancient Arsenal (Full Metal Superhero Book 7) Page 10
