Age of Power 1: Legacy

by Jon Davis

  I could only continue to stare at him as I took it in. I said, “First Yasmine’s group and their insane costumes, and now you?”

  He looked down and looking wounded, he said, “Hey! She stole my designs! I found a guy who designs outfits for anyone who has the money. These clothes have heavy impact plates inside the lining to help, for when you spill in a bike race. I ordered all this days ago, before I ever came to Riverlite. You know, just in case.”

  I looked at BJ, taking in his words and his silly suit. Finally, I said, “I hate you. I hate you with all the power of a thousand dying suns.”

  The redheaded goofball smirked. “You’re just jealous because you didn’t think of it first, geek.”

  I opened my mouth, closed it, and then said, “No…no, not really. Seriously, no, not jealous. Not after what’s been going on.”

  He just shrugged, knowingly. I ignored it and went on. “Tell me this isn’t a rescue attempt.”

  BJ rolled his eyes. He said, “Are you kidding? No way would we go after the government! We like hiding!”

  I blinked. “Then why are you here?”

  BJ shrugged. “Riverlite’s police lost all communications with Ryan Tech. I was with my dad when it happened. While he started organizing a response team, I decided to come out here to see if you needed help. I did sort of start this with Yasmine, after all.”

  I nodded. Wait… “Your Dad knows?”

  BJ coughed and turned a slight shade of pink. “Um, yeah. Dana going outside with the nurse got him a bit suspicious. Then he saw some raw footage of the hospital records that showed you, me, and Angela sneaking out. I kind of had to tell him something.”

  I glanced back at the building and nodded to myself. “Well, at least he didn’t—”

  I stopped talking suddenly when he gave me a quizzical glance. “He…?”

  I turned away, muttering, “Nothing.”

  “What’s going on, Vaughn?” BJ muttered. I didn’t answer him. I definitely didn’t want to be the one to tell him about Ian Devonshire. Not right now, in any case.

  Before BJ asked more, screams came from the east, near the highway. We both stared that way. I swallowed with fear. Things weren’t going well for the good guys. I couldn’t see much, but I could see columns of smoke and hear gunshots going off like crazy. And screams.

  I said, “Great, go out there and fight, or make sure everyone got out. I just sent off a group of people with Eisenhawk. They’re making for a helicopter. You see any more of Yasmine’s people coming this way?”

  BJ said, “No, I used side and back roads all the way here. There’s a whole bunch of soldiers dead on the farm road, though, just to the west of here. That wasn’t fun to see, but other than that, it looks like the bigger fight is out near the highway.”

  I nodded. I looked past him and saw the handlebars of a silver and black KTM motorcycle. “Wow, you took that in this cold? I’m impressed!”

  BJ chuckled. “It’s not that cold. And it belongs to Dana, not me. So let’s not get it wrecked, please.”

  I nodded. She would kill me if I brought BJ into this. But, to tell the truth, I needed help. Now.

  I said, “Okay, what exactly is your power? Tell me it’s more than just mental shielding.”

  He grinned impishly. “Relax, Son'x. I can hold my own. What are we going to—meep!”

  I jerked my head around to see Reich stalking towards us from the grove of trees, his eyes were glowing red. “Seriously? Glowing eyes? I thought that was just comic book stuff.”

  “Vaughn! Scream at him, now!” BJ yelled loudly enough to jar me back to reality. I put two fingers between my lips and blew out a high-pitched whistle, pouring energy into the sound as much as I could.

  That stopped him. Shuddering, Reich came to a sudden halt, and then his eyes dimmed. He fell to his knees and then flat onto his face—unconscious. BJ and I both caught our breath as Reich’s form wavered and shrank from a stereotypical tall, blond Aryan-type man to a scrawny-looking punk with a mohawk and a swastika tattoo on his shoulder. He was completely naked now. The costume had been a part of the shape-change. Incredible.

  I gestured to him as I asked, “So, anyone you know?”

  Looking bemused, BJ shrugged and said, “Uh, dude, not into the BDSM Nazi crowd…oh! You mean from the conclave. Nope, never saw him, but it was all virtual reality, and everyone was wearing an online avatar. There were a lot of masks and costumes.”

  I looked at him and commented, “Oh, BJ…did you have to have this superhero riff going on? I mean, really?”

  BJ shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, you had to be there.”

  I raised a hand to stop his talking. Listening, I zeroed in on the sound of talking coming from the administration building. I looked at BJ and whispered, “Someone’s in there. Did you bring Angela? She could pop in and take a look.”

  BJ’s face tightened into a grimace. He shook his head and said, “She saw the cops and jaunted. I don’t know where she is. I haven’t seen her since they took you. I’m hoping she’s looking for help or trying to get a hold of Parry.”

  I sighed. So it was two against Yasmine’s forces. Well, up until Alan brought in any number of recruits that Yasmine commanded him to. Oh, this was going to be a short campaign. I had no doubt about it. I could see it now in my mind’s eye. “Hi! I’m target zero, would you care to dance?” WHAM! THUD! Dead Vaughn!

  Bleh, I have an evil imagination.

  Taking in a deep breath, I pointed at the administration building. Slowly, we made our way toward the tank, using it as a defensive cover in case we were seen. Seeing no reaction from the building, we made our way to the side and jogged around the corner to the front doors. I did my best to ignore the burning vehicles and bodies strewn about, in the parking lot. As horrible as it was, I had to focus on the living. Tapping into my super hearing, I could hear someone swearing about missing computer files and threatening someone. I smiled grimly. Ian hadn’t been lying.

  I listened some more and held up three fingers to indicate how many I could hear. Given what was going on out by the highway, I took a guess that we wouldn’t have Yasmine coming after us. Perversely, I found myself smiling. Gods help me, I was actually beginning to have fun. I was nuts, all right. Either that, or all the stuff I’d been through over the last few months had darkened my sense of humor.

  Slowly, we made our way inside. Crouching, we stayed down below the vertical windows on the inside doors. That was a waste of time. Both of us yelled with surprise as a long steel blade slashed through the doors as if they were butter.

  A foot kicked out what was left of the doors as we pulled back. I looked up to see someone with long black hair holding the sword, ready to attack. Aside from the usual black and gray suit Yasmine’s crew wore, he had a mask on that covered the lower part of his face, leaving his black eyes exposed as he glared at us with hatred.

  Laughing with malicious glee, he said, “Oh good, fresh blood. I was getting bored!”

  The katana began to glow with a black light as our attacker began to lift it over his head for a strike. I started to let loose a scream when BJ shouted some sort of a karate-type cry and moved in between us. I yelled for him to stop just as our attacker brought the sword down toward BJ’s head.

  Before it hit, BJ brought up his arms, loose, easy, and liquid, and simply blocked the katana’s downward arc. I heard a buzzing sound and saw BJ gritting his teeth as the air wavered around him. It then tightened into a dark-blue field of light. Now, that’s what I’d call a shield. Cool.

  He glanced over and said, “Go. Take the other one. Nightsword is mine!”

  I muttered, “Nightsword? Oh, come on! You just had to come up with all these stupid hero and villain names? I’m really beginning to detest you now!”

  He gave me a vicious looking grin and laughed. Grumbling, I scuttled past both of them. Nightsword started to maneuver toward me. BJ grin widened as he moved to block him. They glared at each other. Then they began to figh
t in earnest. I scooted inside that much faster.

  I moved into a lobby filled with debris. They had destroyed the front desk. The walls had gaping holes in them. And each hole was large enough to climb through into the rooms beyond. I heard someone whimper over the sounds of the fighting going on behind me. I looked over and saw one of Yasmine’s costumed friends standing above some guy on the floor who was wearing a white lab coat. I knew this straggler from his whimper.

  The Empowered growled at him, and snapped at him. “Stop whining, you remnant! Tell me where the data on the Empowered is, or I’ll turn your blood to solid ice!”

  The jerk kicked the scientist, Alexi Cherenkov, in the stomach. Without thinking, I yelled. “Hey, stupid! They already dumped the computers. You just wasted your time coming here! Why don’t you—”

  Something hit me and pain wracked my shoulder as I flew into the wall. Turned by whatever slammed into me, I slumped to the floor half bent over with my face rubbed raw from hitting the wall. Groaning, I fought against the pain and turned back to face my attacker. The Empowered was now ignoring Alexi and grinning at me with a joy on his face that bordered on sheer insanity. I saw frost forming around his hands. On the ground between us were shattered pieces of ice. He had formed it so fast that it had acted like a battering ram to shove me into the wall.

  “Name’s Cryo. Take a chill pill, pal. Take a lot of ‘em!” the Empowered said, and then he laughed. With both hands, he whipped out bursts of ice. Despite the pain, I had to move, or several large balls of crystal blue ice would crush my head. I escaped his attack only by inches as the ice shattered into shards all around me.

  Yet more ice followed, and I couldn’t get my concentration focused enough to stop his attack. I had just thought of using the gun Perez had given me when I realized that it wasn’t where I’d put it. But, just then, Cryo stopped. He looked at me with a wide grin on his face. “Now that I’ve warmed up Son’x, looks like I’ll—”

  I screamed.

  To my annoyance, he reacted as fast as I had screamed. A wall of ice formed between us. My yell hit it, and cracks appeared along the entire thing even as it continued forming. I realized that we were fighting to see what would lose out first, his ice formations, or my scream.

  So, of course, I ran out of breath, and the damn wall was still standing, solid as a rock. Then, with a wave of his hand, the wall fell to pieces. He threw me a smug smile that I wanted to crush. He began building up another attack.

  It gave me a second to recover, and I managed to stop another burst of ice coming at my face with a short scream. With each burst of icy slush hitting me, I realized that this was going to kill me if I didn’t change tactics. But before I could do such a thing, a very cold ice ram hit my chest, hard. I flew back into the wall and once more slid to the floor. My chest was numb from the deep cold. Cryo started laughing.

  His hands began frosting as he said, “Trust me, Son’x, this will be a heart freezing moment for you! I promise, you won’t thaw for a thousand years!”

  I muttered, “Enough with the ‘supers’ monikers…this isn’t The Incredibles! Ow…”

  I tried, but I couldn’t concentrate enough to fight back. His last attack hurt too much. Cryo took his time building up another freezing charge around his hands. Pure malice showed in his eyes. He had no problem with killing me.

  Then, to our mutual surprise, BJ and Nightsword came smashing through what was left of the doors. I saw that Nightsword was disarmed, and now they were in fighting hand-to-hand combat. Or they were dancing; it was hard to tell.

  No, this was combat, all right; it’s just that it was so fluid that the two fighters were in perfect sync with every move and counter-move. They did their deadly dance across the floor until they stood fighting between the two of us. Using the moment to recover, I slowly got to my feet. BJ and Nightsword shifted around, trying hard to take each other out with kicks and punches, feinting and shifting to a swing or a jab.

  Against normal humans, I could tell that their speed alone would put someone down permanently. But BJ and Nightsword matched each other’s every move perfectly. Watching long enough, I noticed that they never touched each other beyond mild taps. It was strangely mesmerizing. Cryo growled wordlessly, though. He had to stop with his attacks while Nightsword and BJ fought. Impatience of youth and all that, I guess.

  After their fight continued, though, I muttered, “Get a gym, already!”

  Finally, the two moved their fighting into the hallway past the reception area. They continued fighting until they turned the corner and moved out of sight. The sounds of punches and kicks and grunts went on while Cryo and I looked at each other. Oddly enough, we chuckled.

  He said, “They had a thing in the conclave.”

  Then his hands flared blue-white with frost. He said, “Oh well, time to kill you!”

  He lashed out with pure cold. And, once more, I was blocking defensively. As much as I tried, I just couldn’t get past his icy defense enough to take him down. Worse, the air turned misty from ice particles as everything frosted up. I could hear crackling and ice snapping from the sheer drop in temperature. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alexi on the ground, shivering violently, frost forming on his lab jacket.

  Cryo didn’t care. This madman was going to take the whole place out to get to me, and I had only seconds to think of a way out. As I looked around, I saw that Nightsword’s weapon was lying in the front entry area, the hilt pointing in my direction. A desperate gamble came to mind.

  Moving fast, I made as though I was trying to escape to the outside. Cryo laughed and yelled, “It’s winter! You’ll freeze faster out there! But hey, you’ll at least make a great ice sculpture on the front lawn!”

  He gestured and ice formed from the frame of the door inward. I dove across the marble floor, taking advantage of the ice to slide toward the sword. Reaching it, I grabbed the katana and twisted myself around, kicking off one side of the doorway to whip the katana out of my hand like a throwing knife. I hoped that it would distract him long enough to let me get outside and have more room to fight.

  To my horror, that wasn’t what happened. I didn’t realize how well balanced the katana was. Cryo stopped firing ice when the sword impaled his left shoulder and threw him into the wall behind him. He struggled for a few seconds, looked at me, and collapsed, skewered against the wall. Blood poured from the wound. I had hit a major artery in my throw.

  I blinked and swallowed. I tried telling myself that this had been a life and death thing. I’d killed already when I’d stopped Reich and his mercenary crew. Damn it, I’d killed Nathan and his buds.

  But this was much more up close and personal. Inside my mind, a small part of my childhood whimpered. They weren’t supposed to die. And I had to tell it that, yeah, they did die, and this wasn’t a game. Fuck.

  Moving away from the now-dead Cryo, Alexi slowly came toward me on hands and knees. I reached down to help him stand. He hesitated for a moment, but with a tentative smile, he reached out to take my hand. He said something that I couldn’t begin to understand. Something in Russian, I guess.

  Smartly, I asked, “Huh, what?”

  In English, he said, “I said thank you. Now, could you tell me how the hell we can get out of here?”

  Before I could figure that out, a cry of anger distracted us, along with a sudden thud. Seconds later, Nightsword flew out from the hallway to land in an unconscious heap near the entrance. BJ followed behind him and came up to us, grinning ferociously. He was so exhilarated I had to chuckle. My smile carried no humor in it, though.

  “Done with your friend?” I asked. BJ’s smile widened, his bright white teeth showing. Then it faltered at my look. He looked confused for a moment until he noticed Cryo.

  Wincing, he said with a sigh, “Ow, sorry. Damn.”

  I ignored him and looked at Alexi. I said, “They want the information about the tests you’ve been doing. Look, I don’t have time to explain, but if you have that info—especial
ly in your head—you need to get out of here.”

  Alexi was shorter and thinner than I was. He had dark hair and dark eyes that showed strongly against the pallor of his skin. And he looked even more like a ghost after I told him that. A moment later, he nodded vigorously.

  He said, “Yes, you are right! I can escape through the back of the building; there is a path through the woods. I wish I had never come back to get my papers! They did not matter anyway. Some damn computer virus had already destroyed everything! Even the video recordings of your attack at the hospital are gone!”

  Huh. Ian had it planned out. Good. BJ and I glanced at the man, and there was confusion in the redhead’s expression. With a shrug, I said, “Someone had a failsafe. This attack probably triggered it. Guess nobody is getting the information on the Empowered.”

  BJ groaned and said, “Don’t tell me—the so called ‘New Men?’ You still think they’re connected?”

  I made a chopping motion and stared at him. He shut up. The last thing we needed was someone like Alexi discovering there were natural born psychics with an agenda of their own. I also didn’t want BJ finding out that Dana’s ex-boyfriend had been the one behind some of it. And I really didn’t have time to worry about this. Right now, it was just a bad distraction.

  I looked away from BJ, and, ironically, I found the gun I could have used a few minutes before. Cryo's first ice attack had knocked it from where I had had it at the small of my back. Now it was lying right near the doors we came in.

  I went over, picked it up, and slipped it back into place. Looking at Alexi, I told him about the escape plan the Feds had and sent him off down the hall, where he said a back door led out to the same access road they’d be using. Hopefully he’d be in time to make his flight. If not, well, we’d deal.

  Sighing, I said to BJ, “Come on, we have to slow Yasmine and her mercenaries down to give Alexi a chance to escape.”

  “The two of us against a dozen or so crazies with guns and superpowers…are you insane?” BJ said. He sounded a bit incredulous at my words. He still followed me as I went towards the doors leading outside.