She leapt up, graceful as ever, to the roof of a car and surveyed the fight. Titus held a gangster in each hand. He smashed them together. Their bodies sounded like melons dropping onto one another. Kate saw a huge bowie knife sticking out of Titus's shoulder, a half-dozen bullet wounds in his back. If she waited a moment longer, she'd see those holes seal up on their own.
Titus stopped, looked at her, and howled at the moon.
"Me too, kid," she said, and kicked another gangster in the face.
Subduing a single supervillain turned out to be harder than initially expected, Billy thought.
Distribution and Jane went toe-to-toe for a few punches before she tried grappling instead. Billy wished Jane came to that conclusion earlier, however, as, with each pavement-cracking punch she threw at him, Distribution's suit seemed even more capable of throwing them back at her.
Of course, when Jane latched onto Distribution's wrist to try to take him down, she was completely, utterly, and annoyingly in the way of Billy's ability to send light blasts at the bad guy.
"How about a little help here?" Jane said, through gritted teeth. Distribution gripped her cape and attempted to shake her loose.
"Hang on," Billy said.
He pointed his finger like a gun and shot a light blast at Distribution's armor. Unfortunately, the spot he hit turned brighter for a moment, and then Distribution let go of Jane's cape and pointed right back at Billy. He wasn't able to see the concussive blast Distribution kicked back his way which sent him sprawling into a nearby car, denting the door permanently shut.
It appears his suit can absorb the concussive nature of our light beams, Dude said.
"No kidding."
"Are you talking to me?" Jane yelled.
"What?"
Distribution picked Jane up off the ground and tossed her at Billy. Both heroes tumbled. Billy was amazed at her solidity. It felt like getting hit with a marble statue.
"Hey Dude?"
I would not recommend another round of light blasts.
"I wasn't going to suggest that."
"It's really weird when you talk to your alien out loud," Jane said. Her cape flopped over her head and covered her face. She yanked it away.
"Dude, is there a way we can figure out where his power source is?"
"It's us hitting him, Billy," Jane said. She jumped to her feet and flew back at Distribution, striking him with a spear tackle that would have made a professional football player proud.
His power source is incoming kinetic energy. We know this already, Billy.
"Yeah, but it has to be stored somewhere, right? Is there a battery or something? A . . . thingy where the juice flows through?"
A thingy?
"You know what I — "
Without warning, Dude took control of Billy's eyes. Everything took on a sharp, blue-lit tinge, becoming crystal clear. Billy — or Straylight? — saw the energy flowing across the surface of Distribution's armor like trails of light. Up and down his arms, across his back, straight down to his finger tips as he threw another punch at Jane. It took a few moments — and letting Jane block a few more punches — before Billy saw a pattern.
"Got it!"
"Are you talking to me or him?" Jane yelled. She tried to kick Distribution in the groin, but the gangster turned his knee in time, winced a bit, then smiled as the additional kinetic energy surged into the suit.
"You're not good at this, are you," Distribution said.
"Hey Jane, can you hold him still for a minute?"
Jane looked Billy dead in the eyes.
"Are you kidding?"
Distribution threw a haymaker just then which once again sent her crashing into Billy.
"Holy crap, how much do you weigh?"
"Ask me that again, Billy, and see what I do to you."
Jane, relentless, got back up on her feet.
Billy grabbed her wrist.
"'Look," he said, quietly. "He's got a central hub for the energy the suit collects. Did you see that panel on the small of his back?"
"Yeah."
"I can try to blast it or something. If you can help me get a clear shot — "
Jane looked down at him and smirked.
"I got this," she said. "Distract him for a minute."
"Distract him?"
Kate wasn't watching the fight, but she knew Billy and Jane faced more trouble with the head thug than she and Titus were having with his peons. Most of them lay on the ground nursing broken bones. Just a few remained, all of whom had no inclination to save their boss. Titus closed in on one of the lingering gangsters, who extended a beast of a gun out in front of him. Little good it would do him.
"I'm not gonna let you kill me," the gangster said.
Kate wondered if she missed something in the fight, if Titus had gone too far. She hadn't seen any corpses, just a lot of injuries.
The gangster stared at the wolf for a moment, then looked at his gun, then back at Titus. And, quicker than Kate would have given him credit for, the gangster turned the gun on her and fired.
And fired.
And fired again.
The bullets hit her body armor like a kick from a horse. The wind knocked out of her lungs immediately. One bullet struck a hip and her leg went numb — the armor held, she thought, but down she fell, the shock of the impact knocking her over. That might have saved her life, though, as the last bullet — the one that almost hit her head — slammed into a shoulder, sending a flair of pain down her right arm.
And then she rolled on the ground. She couldn't lift herself back up in time to see what Titus did to the gangster for shooting her, but she heard it. It sounded like wet paper being torn to shreds.
Billy launched himself at Distribution in a cloud of white light. Instead of repeating Jane's tackle, though, he threw fistfuls of alien energy at the gangster's face. He wasn't sure if the suit would protect Distribution or not, but it certainly seemed like Distribution himself wasn't convinced it would either, because he kept ducking left and right to avoid the beams. They weren't hard to dodge; Billy didn't really want them to land anyway.
"You know, I always figured it'd be professionals who came after me when this finally happened," Distribution said.
Up close, Billy noticed how young he was — the gangster couldn't be more than mid-twenties, not all that much older than the rest of the team. "Instead I get the teeny bopper brigade. This is disappointing."
And suddenly there was the smell of burning air, and Jane was standing behind Distribution with her hands on fire. She reached for the power core on the back of his suit, grabbed hold of it and didn't let go. The odor of warm air was overwhelmed and replaced by the stench of burning electronics.
"I think we're doing just fine," she said. And then she punched him in the face.
This time, he fell down.
Then Titus howled.
"Crap," Billy said.
Jane grabbed Distribution by the collar of his power suit and flew toward her teammates.
By the time Kate rose to a sitting position — there was no blood, the armor held, but things ached and throbbed under it and she knew they'd be bruises that would hurt for weeks — Titus was gone. She traced the trail of destruction where he'd headed — knocked over street lamps, claw marks across car doors, storefront windows smashed.
Jane landed beside her. She tucked the super-crook under her arm like a football. Billy followed close behind.
"What happened?" he asked.
I wasn't good enough, Kate thought.
"I got shot. And Titus went berserk."
"Berserk?" Billy again.
"The work he's been doing with Doc . . . wasn't enough. I think when he saw one of us get hurt he lost control. He's — "
"I'm on it," said Jane. She dropped Distribution to the pavement and threw back her cape, ready to fly off after the werewolf.
Kate grabbed Jane's boot and then struggled to her feet.
"No," she said.
"But he's
a menace like this. I can — "
"I've got this," Kate said.
Jane tried to stare her down. It didn't work.
Kate looked at Billy.
"No argument from me," he said. "If you can soothe the savage beast, go for it."
Kate ran. Or, more accurately, limped aggressively, but she was moving, and each step got easier, as did ignoring the dull hum of pain down her right leg left from the gunshot. Titus howled again and the ensuing adrenaline boost chased away a little more pain. Soon, she was actually running.
You don't need super powers, she said to herself. You just need to be better.
Titus hadn't traveled too far — she found him cornering another of Distribution's goons in a parking lot, slowly advancing on him, jaws slavering, claws skittering across the pavement. Kate heard a deep hiss with each breath.
"Titus," Kate said.
The wolf ignored her.
"Titus, look at me."
A pause. Then the wolf turned. And for the first time, Kate felt truly afraid of him. She'd watched him in action and in the training room back at the tower, but she'd always been able to find the quiet kid behind the wolf mask somewhere. Now, though, the monster was in charge, red-rimmed eyes and huge white teeth. The better to eat you with.
"What's the matter with you," Kate said, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. Stay level. Stay cool. Be better.
The wolf stared at her. Through her.
"I'm okay, y'know," she said. "Look."
She held her arms out at her sides.
"In one piece. Right? . . . You can cut it out now."
The wolf crept toward her. And the gangster behind him took the opportunity to run like hell; in this case, she figured, that was okay.
The wolf reached out to her, slowly, with one massive, clawed hand. He rested one talon on the shoulder where she'd been shot, the touch incongruously gentle, those huge, golden eyes staring, slowly taking in the damaged armor.
The wolf dropped his clawed hand. And, as rapidly as he had changed before, slithered back into another shape, fur and claws disappearing so quickly as if they'd never been there in the first place. Titus stood before her, human again, in his ridiculous bike shorts, and smiled weakly.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said, before falling over.
It was only then that Kate noticed the knife he'd been stabbed with earlier still stuck out of his back.
Chapter 9:
Interlude, the storm
She remembered her mother.
Tearing across the South Pacific, rain so powerful mortal eyes could not tell the difference between sea and sky. The way the waves rose like colossi across the surface, behemoths to wash away ships and structures. Those same waves crumbling buildings, huts and skyscrapers alike, evaporating all living things in her path.
Her mother had been beautiful.
But storms have short life spans, and soon she was gone, leaving her daughter behind, to find her own way, to raise her own hell.
Until they found her.
Now it was the daughter who tore across the night sky, opening the clouds, hiding the stars. She felt chained, though, prohibited, something held her back. In the center of her being she sensed it, a weight, a tiny voice, a desperate cry.
The voice spoke to her. It asked for help.
It pleaded for her to stop.
Chapter 10:
Leadership
I still don't understand why you didn't let me go," Emily said.
Jane had her back to the younger girl as she argued with Doc — well, Emily ranted and Doc calmly addressed her concerns, so it couldn't really qualify as an argument, but Emily could argue enough for two people.
Titus lay face down on a bed in the recovery room; Jane watched his skin knit itself back together again.
"Emily, what did I tell you about Distribution's power suit?"
"That it has something something with kinetic whatevers and then it blammo whammo stuffs."
Doc paused for a moment, staring at Emily before speaking. "The suit absorbed kinetic energy. Why would we send someone who has control over gravitational fields, little fine control over her own powers yet, and a tendency to hurl cars at people into a fight against a villain who uses kinetic energy?"
"Jane throws cars too."
"But she throws cars on purpose. If you stop flinging them by accident, I'll let you go on the next mission."
Emily stormed off in a huff, her ridiculously long scarf trailing behind her. When it got caught in the door on the way out, she was forced to attempt her dramatic exit a second time; this took some of the impact away.
"I won't send her out with you until she's ready," Doc said, sitting down next to Jane.
"I'm not sure any of us are really ready," she said.
Doc put a hand on her shoulder.
"Would you believe me if I told you the old team never felt prepared? We saved the day for twenty years and never thought we knew what we were doing."
"I still think we're actually not all set."
"You did fine."
"We almost lost Titus."
Jane kept her eyes on Titus's bare back. It was amazing, the way his body healed itself, even when he wasn't the werewolf.
"He has a long life ahead of him," Doc said.
"Not if we keep almost getting him killed."
"I mean it. Unless someone puts a silver bullet in his heart, that kid will live three hundred years, easy. His species lives for ages."
Jane looked up at Doc.
"Why doesn't he know? Nobody told him?"
He shook his head.
"I will, soon. When he's more used to what he is. In the old days, another one of his kind would have found him and explained things, but they're all gone. The good ones are no longer here. The bad ones are still around, but they're different. A lot different."
Jane stood up, walked to Titus's bedside, and pulled the blankets up higher to cover his back. The werewolf stirred in his sleep. Dog dreams.
"You really expect me to lead these guys?" Jane asked.
She saw her own reflection in Doc's lenses. She looked like a kid in a Halloween costume, not a hero.
"What about Kate? She's better at this. Older. She was doing the whole crime fighter thing before any of us — "
"It's gotta be you, Jane. Kate's very good, and you should listen to her, because she sees the world in a very different way than you do, and you'll need that. But, you're the one they'll admire."
"Billy and Emily and Titus? Billy doesn't look up to anyone, and Emily doesn't even respect you!"
"The world, Jane." Doc smiled at her. "The world will look up to you."
She shrugged and turned back to Titus, sleeping and sedated on the bed. What the world thought of her didn't seem very important at that moment.
Chapter 11:
Gravity
They hovered twenty miles off the coast, over the Atlantic, and about fifty feet above the water. Jane led the way, flying with one arm forward as always, a mental trick Doc taught her when he first took her from the farm. She hoped to eventually not need it, and certainly understood her powers were not dependent upon pointing a fist in the direction she wanted to fly, but it helped her concentrate and, she had to admit, it did make her appear more heroic.
Jane, while not vain, didn't mind looking heroic when she flew.
Billy performed the usual routine, that effortless drifting flight surrounded by the blue-white light generated by his symbiotic alien companion. Jane was a bit jealous, it came so easily to him, like having a built in copilot with "Dude" coaching him at all times. But she also realized that Billy was more dependent on the alien than he wanted to be, and Jane was already more self-reliant than him, and that provided fine consolation.
Watching Emily "fly" was even greater consolation.
Emily flew only in the sense that she remained airborne; this flight resembled more of a high altitude tumble through the air. She spun and drifted, yet was bizarrely able to
keep pace with the others. To say it was a graceless endeavor would be an understatement. Rather, it was like watching someone in a particularly awkward freefall that never ended.
Finally, Jane put on the breaks; all three of them halted in mid-air. Emily stopped moving forward, but it took her a moment or two to cease drifting and spinning in place. Even then, she still moved awkwardly, pin-wheeling her arms when she started to tilt one way and the other. That ridiculous scarf had become entangled around her face during the journey and she yanked it away to reveal her absurd pair of steampunk goggles.
"You're a menace," Billy said.
He laughed, but it wasn't a mean laugh.
Jane had assumed Billy would act more like a bully, but he'd developed a fondness for Emily, and treated her kindly even when they traded verbal barbs. It was the only reason she invited him along on Emily's training flights because, in reality, Billy had little advice to offer.
"I'm not a menace. I'm the least menacing thing out here. I'm like a reject from the Cirque de Moliére," she said.
"Soleil," said Billy.
"Gesundheit," said Emily.
"Emily," Jane said. "How do you fly?"
"Badly."
"No. I mean, what are you doing, internally, to make yourself fly? Do you do anything specific? Focus on anything?"
"Pixie dust. I think about pixie dust."
"Stop it," Jane said. "I'm serious."
"I . . . " Emily said. Then she started listing to the left. Slowly, but distractingly, with that long scarf flowing straight down. "Crap."
"Let me help — "
"No, I got me, I got myself," Emily said.
Using the doggie paddle, Emily nearly corrected her slow descent to the left, but she overcompensated, causing her feet to rise up in the back. She bent at the waist; this did nothing to help, and then she twisted her body into a T shape.
"Downward facing dog. Plank pose . . . Name another."
Billy moved to help her, but Emily pointed at him threateningly.
The Indestructibles Page 5
