Seven Wonders

by Christopher, Adam

  The air was a dangerous place, being the domain of the strongest of the Seven Wonders. Tony only had time to turn around his axis before blue and red globes of searing energy struck him, spinning him around in the air. Aurora and Bluebell slowly floated towards him, side by side and arms outstretched, Aurora's aura pulsing with each blast and Bluebell's blue and white suit shimmering like water as it channeled her psychic energy into an electrical attack. Tony tumbled in the air but remained aloft, crying out in agony, but he soon realized that the Cowl's suit and cloak did much to mitigate the attack. Summoning his strength, he darted upwards a few yards and with a yell threw white plasma at the husband and wife supercouple. He missed, but Aurora and Bluebell separated and ceased their own attack. On the street below the plasma exploded, throwing several members of the public into the air.

  Ah… that was it. Cause havoc, attack the public. Give them reason to hate the Seven Wonders and to fear him, the Justiciar… the new Cowl.

  Tony flew down towards the nearest edge of the crowd. Among the screaming and running people he picked an attractive teenage girl, plucking her skyward by the wrist. As she cried out he flew directly upwards.

  She was good-looking, and young − maybe seventeen or eighteen, just on the side that any men watching the TV news would not feel too guilty lusting over. Tony allowed himself a smile as he pulled her up alongside him so they were face to face as they sped upwards.

  The girl's eyes were wide but she didn't make a sound. Her mouth twitched a little as she looked around and down, seeing the ever-increasing drop between her and the city. Her eyes finally met Tony's, and seeing the black half-mask – the mask made famous by another man – in close up, she drew a breath to scream.

  Tony jerked his head forward, catching her with a kiss before she cried out. She struggled a little, but at this height and being held as she was, there was little she could do. Tony finally broke it off, smiling even wider. Then at one hundred feet he dropped her, and then she screamed. She'd be fine, as he knew a superhero would catch her, but he'd be feared, and the standing of the Seven Wonders would drop a little as the city saw they couldn't control such an unpredictable foe.

  As soon as the girl was clear, the Dragon Star materialized in the sky behind Tony's back. Tony was standing in the air, arms folded, cloak flapping around him, watching his hostage plummet. Immediately, the Dragon Star brought the end of her powerstaff to bear on Tony's back and unleashed a whip crack of energy so fierce it threw her back thirty feet in the air. She recovered, spinning the momentum out and regaining direction, swinging the powerstaff in front of her like a cutlass and sling-shotting a second energy blast. By now Tony was already tumbling towards the ground; the second shot was also on target, throwing him up and away slightly, before he returned to a downwards path, stunned and unable to control his flight. As he turned over in the air, the plaza appeared above his head and he saw his hostage caught not in the air by Aurora or Bluebell, but at ground level by Conroy.

  Geoff Conroy the supervillain, the traitor. Geoff Conroy the motherfucking sell-out. The girl seemed to be unconscious and Conroy drew her carefully to the ground as Sand Cat pounded towards him to help. Then Tony's vision went black and red and he carved a trench into the road with his head. When he stopped he lay still, smoke curling from his borrowed costume.

  The Dragon Star blinked out of the sky and onto the road as Aurora and Bluebell descended slowly, arms outstretched to cover the prone form of their enemy. Hephaestus and SMART were already at the edge of the trench, poised for a renewed attack, while Linear buzzed around the crowd, helping with the injured. The sound of police and ambulance sirens filled the air.

  Tony remained unmoving. Hephaestus looked up at Aurora, who nodded to Bluebell. His wife returned the gesture and delicately hopped into the trench, walking with confidence up to the unconscious supervillain. Satisfied that he was out for the count, she squatted over his chest and placed one hand on his forehead and the other on her own, mirroring the finger position exactly. She closed her eyes, trying to scan his mind, gather data on his strengths, weaknesses and motivation. To assess how deep his level of unconsciousness was and, perhaps most important of all, to discover the source of his powers.

  At the edge of the plaza, Conroy and Sand Cat were talking to the now-revived hostage, tearfully reunited with her friends in the crowd. Looking around, Aurora saw a sea of camera phones pointed in every direction − most at him and the churned-up road, ones closer to Conroy and Sand Cat recording their actions. A few people seemed to be smiling, perhaps having recognized the supposedly missing Geoffrey Conroy, delighted in the discovery that he was really a superhero. Leaving his wife to her business, Aurora motioned the Dragon Star and Hephaestus over, indicating the audience. They both nodded and split up, walking to opposite sides of the crowd, beginning the lengthy process of moving people along.

  "Aurora." Bluebell's eyes were still closed, but her forehead was creased in confusion. "There's something wrong here. This man… his powers… they're not… they're not, well, real." She shook her head to herself, and screwing her eyes tighter she probed Tony's mind at a deeper level. Aurora joined her in the trench, standing with arms folded and with Tony's hooded head between his booted feet.

  "Explain?"

  Bluebell shushed him, then her expression changed, almost as though she were surprised. "Oh," she said.

  With all his strength, Tony rocketed upwards, catching Bluebell under the jaw with a punch strong enough to melt stone. As she was thrown upwards, he followed a quarter of a second later with a plasma bolt, narrow and focused. Bluebell was flung out of the trench; Aurora staggered backwards and blinked, looking up just in time to see her fly through the upper stories of a nearby office block. The building shook with the impact and most of the floors she hit concertinaed downwards, smashing nearly all of the windows in the whole building. The crowd gasped and pointed; Sand Cat instinctively swirled into her animal form as the Dragon Star flew into the wreckage after Bluebell. Aurora's pause was only momentary, but enough time for Tony to turn just ten feet in the air and slam down on the superhero at twice the speed of sound. The ground exploded as Aurora and Tony disappeared five feet into the road's foundations. For a second the crowd stood silent, then gasped as the road split again in a brilliant red flash as Aurora and Tony rose back into the air, locked together in face-to-face combat. Aurora's fists glowed red as he fed them energy from his aura, and there was a gunshot crack as each blow landed or was blocked by Tony. Tony's strength and speed matched his adversary's, and the pair twisted like cats as they gained height, engaged in an aerial version of a bar-room brawl.

  In the square below, the other members of the Seven Wonders were kept equally busy. The Dragon Star had still not returned from the damaged building with Bluebell, and Sand Cat had pounded off to their aid. Conroy and Hephaestus were busy among the crowd, assisting the police and ambulance services that had arrived to deal with the many injured and the few unfortunates who had been killed by Tony's actions. Linear raced among the crowd, collecting the injured and the dead.

  SMART stood near the great gouge in the road, optics within its white domed head trained on the fight between Aurora and Tony. The pair had stopped gaining altitude and were now mixing superpowered fists with energy blasts, circling the arena formed by the shopping precinct as they battled.

  SMART considered for a moment, calculating probability factors and power requirements. The hypothesis was sound, and the logic of the decision flawless. SMART fired the rockets in its feet and slowly lifted itself into the fray on cushions of blue flame.

  If Tony noticed, he didn't pay much attention as the giant white robot hovered nearby, bouncing in the air as the rockets fought to compensate for its immense tonnage and the force of gravity. Unleashing a volley of small, fast, white plasma bolts, Tony yelled in anger and charged towards Aurora. The superhero's aura flickered yellow at the edges and expanded outwards slightly as he swept forward, arms outstretched.
Tony took Aurora square in the chest, but the aura flared again and with another dynamite hook, Tony somersaulted backwards. Towards SMART.

  SMART rotated twenty-two degrees east, and raised its left arm ninety degrees. The mighty fist at the end of it twisted and retracted into the arm, a spring-like metal coil sliding forward into its place. As Tony came into range, SMART jetted forward at a slow walking pace, stretching the arm with the coil ahead of it. The coil sparked blue. Tony regained his flight balance and turned upright just as the coil came in contact with his back.

  There was a wet sound, an organic crunch, and the air around SMART was shot through with blue ozone. Tony stiffened, back arched, and fell silently to the ground twenty feet below. He hit the ground with his neck at an odd angle, and for the second time that day did not move. SMART's feet jets fizzed blue and it sank down to the road. The crowd watching went quiet.

  Aurora reached the ground before SMART did, alighting next to Tony's body. His aura faded almost to nothing as he knelt by the body.

  "Aurora?" Bluebell called out as she returned to the plaza, carried in an energy bubble projected by the Dragon Star's powerstaff. She was bleeding from a cut above her eye, and held her side awkwardly. Aurora glanced up as they arrived but did not stand.

  Linear and Conroy broke off from the crowd and headed to the crater in the road. Something was different this time. Hephaestus' giant robot had descended very slowly and was the last to set down. Conroy squeezed himself into the silent circle. All were looking down at Tony. He tapped Linear's elbow discreetly.

  "What's going on? Is the jackass down or what?"

  Linear turned to Conroy, his face a smooth silver curve that shone in the sunlight. Paragon could hear the superhero breathing underneath it. Then Linear looked away.

  Aurora stood. For the first time, the smile was gone. Even the empty white eyes of the mask seemed now to impart an emotion, the same registered by the slack jaw. Paragon glanced at the circle of heroes. All stared blankly, in shock.

  "What? What's going on?"

  It was Linear who spoke, his voice weak.

  "He's dead. The Justiciar is dead, and we killed him."

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Sam's stomach flipped as the world pulled itself back together, black and white digital squares coalescing before her eyes until she could see the room she was in. She felt the floor rise up to meet the soles of her feet with a kick, and she bent double at the shock. She felt a hand on her back, and looked up to see Joe standing upright but loosening his tie and breathing deeply.

  She knew what the odd sensation was, having been through it once before when the entire SVPD building had been sent to Australia. Teleporting just sucked.

  They stood in a glass atrium, a smaller version of the entrance to the Citadel of Wonders in San Ventura. But through the twisted, elegantly fractured crystal shard windows, it wasn't the streets of a busy city on view. Sam stood up and felt immediately dizzy. She could hear Joe's breath catch in his throat as he worked his jaw to say something, but no words came out. He just looked out of the transparent walls of the atrium with wide-eyed surprise.

  They were on the moon.

  "Shit." Sam was impressed with the view, but her mind had difficulty registering the fact that they'd been transported a quarter of a million miles in a fraction of a second. The last thing she remembered was manning the phones at the SVPD, her and Joe having been sent there by Bluebell not only for their own safety, but to help liaise with the SVPD and prepare the authorities for the potentially city-wide carnage that was likely to ensue as the superheroes fought Tony Prosdocimi, who seemed to have become the new Cowl.

  Sam had heard of the Apollo Fortress – everyone had – but she couldn't remember the last time it had been activated. But she guessed that whatever the reasons, they could not be good. Something must have gone wrong, badly.

  Sam registered Joe's sharp intake of breath behind her but it wasn't until he tapped her on the shoulder that she could drag herself from the view of the gray plains and craters outside. A maskless Linear shimmered into view, his outline blurry as he vibrated in agitation. He waved a hand in apology and returned to something more solid and less headache-inducing.

  "Detectives." He nodded in greeting and adjusted the thick spectacles on his nose. "This way, please." Turning, he led the pair to the main elevator.

  The ride was short, nothing like the two-minute journey back in the Citadel of Wonders. The Apollo Fortress was only a few stories high, a truncated version of the Citadel. The remote outpost had been an important surveillance point when the thousands of superheroes of the world were at war with the hundreds of supervillains. In those days, the small lunar base would have been swarming with capes from every country and jurisdiction. Now the base was quiet and still, although immaculate and polished as though it had never really been mothballed at all. The thought that maybe it never had crossed Sam's mind as the elevator swished open, Linear stepping forward and leading them into a conference room.

  This room was far less flashy than the Earth equivalent. The low, dark ceiling gave the room an urgency, an importance. Here the windows were flat glass instead of the artistically angled crystal; outside, the moon's horizon loomed uncannily close.

  Aurora rose from his position at the head of the table. There were five people seated before him: three of the superteam, Sand Cat, the Dragon Star and now Linear, and…

  Sam sucked in a breath. She'd thought, maybe, somehow, it had been a mistake, or a temporary reassignment, or some devilishly complex and cunning plan to get him to reveal his secrets and plans before handing him to the proper authorities for his trial and sentencing. In the confusion of the Justiciar's attack she'd managed to forget, temporarily at least, pushing it out of her mind as she'd dived in to help with the emergency. But surely…

  "He's still here?" Sam stared at San Ventura's most eligible bachelor and most wanted criminal. Conroy smiled, his high cheeks squeezing his eyes into tight lines.

  "Detectives," he said, but he hardly moved in his chair. It looked like he'd taken quiet a beating.

  Joe and Sam looked at each other. Seeing Sam was almost unable to speak, Joe addressed Aurora. "So you're serious about recruiting a murderer and terrorist for your little primary-color glee club?"

  Aurora shook his head and indicated for the pair to sit. He remained standing as he addressed them.

  "There will be time for explanations later. Detectives, I thank you for coming, although I know you had no choice in the matter. I trust your captain will understand your sudden absence." His smile crept upwards a little. "Or at least he will when I tell him."

  Sam closed her eyes, and focused on keeping calm. The Seven Wonders would explain everything. Aurora had said so.

  For the meantime, her disgust – and fear – of being in the same room as the Cowl melted into anger and frustration. There was no reason for her and Joe to be here. A secret meeting of the superheroes and her and Joe and an ex-supervillain, sitting at the table like he was an old friend. She and Joe had a job to do, with the destruction at the Moore–Reppion Plaza requiring all members of the SVPD to pitch in. Meanwhile the instigators of − the cause, the goddamned reason for – the whole mess zoom off to the fucking moon for a meeting, abducting her and her partner by teleport without the consent or knowledge of their captain. Teleport! It was abduction, pure and simple.

  But she held her tongue, deciding to bide her time and was glad that Bluebell wasn't in the room. She presumed that the psychic hero would be interrogating Blackbird, no doubt also brought to the moon. But instead, she asked: "What does this have to do with us? We have work to do."

  Aurora sat, but he seemed hesitant. Around the table, none of the heroes would meet each other's gaze. Instead they looked variously at the table, at the ceiling, out the window. Everywhere except at Aurora. The only one not distracted appeared to be Conroy. He sat in the middle of the superheroes, hands clasped on the table in front of him. He was waiting for someone
to speak, for Aurora to explain the situation, for the other heroes to put their word in. Sam tried not to look at him, but it was impossible, the urge too difficult to resist. Maybe, if she had a chance…

  "Where's SMART and Hephaestus? What happened to the Cowl II?" Joe said at last. At his words a ripple of movement shot around the table as the heroes first looked at Joe, then at Aurora.

  Aurora's heavy gloves pattered softly on the conference table. He seemed to be staring into the middle distance, but with eyes hidden behind the opaque white windows of his mask it was impossible to tell. That was the point, Sam remembered.

  Aurora seemed to sigh, and Sam noticed Conroy settle slightly in his own chair. Still nobody spoke. Joe and Sam exchanged a glance, and then both started a little as Conroy coughed to break the deathly silence and began talking quickly, almost afraid that he would be interrupted before finishing his piece.