Fear the Empire

by Jaron Lee Knuth

  She was draped over Maksim's body, trying to use her broken arms to pull his mangled hands toward her as she wept uncontrollably.

  “You have to do this. You have to-”

  “Carmen... no...” with every word, the giant man coughed blood, thick and black.

  “You have to. There's no other choice.”

  “I can't. I won't. I would... never hurt you.”

  She fell against his chest, beating her fist against him. “You stupid, stupid man. I love you so much.”

  His body suddenly surged upward as he inhaled loudly, like water gurgling in a massive cavern. Then he fell back, his body lifeless.

  “No!” Carmen screamed into the air. “Don't leave me! Take me with you!”

  Andre knelt down next to her, his hands reached around her, and he pulled her body close to his in a desperate embrace. She felt hot, like a fever was coursing through her veins, but she was breathing, and that was all that mattered to him.

  When she let out a small cough, Andre pulled away from the hug and looked into her eyes, which were barely fluttering open. It took her a few seconds to make sense of what she was looking at, but when she did, her eyes grew large with shock.

  “Andre? What are you... How are you...”

  Andre chuckled. “That's a longer story than we have time for. We need to get out of here.”

  He started to lift her off the ground, but she pushed him away and said, “No! I have to stop him.”

  Andre glanced over his shoulder, back to the disfigured Zharkovian boy covered in ash and blood, then looked back at Carmen. “You can't be serious, Carmen. We don't stand a chance against that kid.”

  Carmen shook her head, refusing to hear Andre's words. “He killed Maksim. He killed them all. He's not going to stop until he's killed everyone. He's going to-”

  “Okay. Okay.” Andre said, seeing the panic building in her eyes. “Maybe if I sneak up on him, I might have a chance to-”

  “No!” Carmen yelled, the panic bursting from her eyes. “You can't... You aren't strong enough.”

  Andre smirked. “Things have changed, Carmen.”

  Before she could say anything else, Andre jumped to his feet and took off running, directly at Yuri. He crossed the distance in seconds yet again, but this time, when he drew close, he launched himself into the air, and dropped down onto Yuri. His fist drove directly into the top of the boy's skull, hammering him into the ground. The impact knocked the cameraman backward, but he scrambled to his feet and continued to shoot as Andre kept battering his fists into the boy.

  He used every ounce of strength he could muster from his super power, forcing his strongest blows into the boy's face. He kept beating Yuri's tiny, heat-scarred body, over and over again, for what seemed like minutes, until his arms slowed from sheer exhaustion. When the barrage of violence let up, Andre saw the boy smiling back at him.

  With a single punch from his tiny fist, Andre was launched into the sky, the clouds rushing past him and the oxygen escaping from his lungs. Just as the stars drew closer, the gravity of the earth took hold of him and pulled him back. His body rushed through the atmosphere, plummeting back toward the ash and fire below him, then crashed into the ground with an explosive impact.

  When the dust and debris cleared, Andre was staring back up at Yuri, who stood triumphantly over him. Andre tried to move, to lift his pained arms and legs, and keep fighting, but Yuri lifted one leg and brought it down hard onto Andre's spine. There was a snap as his bones turned to dust under the impact. The pain exploded in his body, then evaporated as all sense of feeling left his lower half. His brain kept trying to make his legs move, to jump to his feet, to defend himself, but nothing happened. His arms scraped at the dirt as he tried to drag himself away from the boy.

  Yuri let out a chuckle at the sight of his attacker's desperation and said, “Pathetic.”

  Yuri walked back toward the cameraman that was still capturing everything. The boy looked annoyed by the distraction, but regained his composure as he neared the camera and continued delivering his speech.

  “You see?” he said, lifting his arms as if to present the scorched earth around him. “There is nothing that can stop me. No Super Power of Mass Destruction can possibly match my own. Your only choice... is to fear me.”

  Andre clutched the ground and pulled himself over the edge of the crater, toward Carmen. His shattered legs dragged behind him in the dirt, leaving a trail of smeared blood from the crater. He could feel his life draining from him, like a timer spinning down to zero. He knew there were only minutes left, perhaps seconds, and yet all he wanted to do was look into Carmen's eyes one more time. With each pull of his body, he grew weaker, but his super strength kept urging him forward until he laid next to her, staring up at the burning walls of the Grand Citadel, watching the ash fall down around them.

  “Carmen?” he said, his voice coming out of his mouth like a raspy whisper.

  “I'm here,” she whimpered, her voice feigning strength in the face of hopelessness.

  He tried to think of what to say next, what words he wanted to leave her with before he died, but all that came out was, “I'm sorry.”

  “There's nothing to be sorry about, Andre.”

  “I should have been stronger. I should have been here for you sooner. I tried... to be good enough.”

  “Don't say that. You were always enough.”

  “I wish I could have done more...” Andre said. “I wish I could have stopped him. It would have felt nice... to be a hero. Just once. I wish I could have saved you.”

  Carmen looked past him, at the small boy who was just then finishing his speech. He was telling the world he would come for them, he would murder their entire families if they didn't bow down to his will, and he said it all through a childish giggle.

  “Andre, I don't need you to save me. I need you to save the world.”

  Andre blinked his eyes, trying to see through his fading vision, his cloudy mind confused by her words.

  Carmen peered back into his eyes with a seriousness that he had never seen before and said, “I need you to kill me.”

  Andre assumed his head was playing tricks on him. Perhaps hallucinations were haunting his last moments alive. He closed his eyes and tried to push past them, to see and hear reality, but when he opened his eyes again, she was staring at him with the same intensity.

  “What are you...”

  “There's only one reason that kid hasn't killed me. He's afraid of me. He's afraid of my power. The same power my father had. The same power that killed a Zharkov all those years ago.”

  The reality of what she was asking suddenly struck him. The star inside of her was the last weapon they had. It could either fade away with her life, or he could tear it wide open.

  He looked down at her pregnant belly and said, “Carmen, no... I can't...”

  “Yes, you can! There's no other choice right now. This isn't about right and wrong. This is about stopping that boy. No matter what. We're both dying, Andre. There's no stopping that. Either we die whimpering in the dirt, or we take him out with us.”

  He looked at the woman he had always loved, whether he had done so well or not, and felt tears roll down his cheeks, his eyes swelling with pain.

  “You have to do this, Andre. For me. Right now. You're the only one. Be the hero.”

  She may have been urging him past the conflict in his mind and his heart, but he also knew that she was lying to him.

  He knew the truth.

  She was the hero.

  “Do it!” she screamed, her eyes burning red with power.

  He shifted his weight, lifted his arms toward her, and cupped her head in his hands.

  “I love you, Carmen.”

  The red, burning light in her eyes seemed to twinkle for a moment as she smiled back at him and said, “I love you too, Andre.”

  His thumbs pushed into her skull, and with the last effort of strength he could muster, he tore the woman he loved in two.
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br />   35

  LUCY

  “NO!”

  She screamed at the television as a glowing ball of red light erupted from the spot where Carmen and Andre laid. It was nearly instantaneous as it flashed from a spark to a sphere that encompassed everything, swallowing the world around it. The cameraman let out a single curse word right before the light burned through the Zharkovian boy standing in front of him and then the feed was lost. Static filled the screen for a second before the channel returned to the newscasters in the studio.

  “No,” she tried to scream again, but it came out in a whimper that turned into weeping.

  Connor rushed to her, throwing his arms around her and holding her as close as he could.

  “It's okay,” he said, more out of habit than true belief. “Maybe... maybe they're okay. Maybe she can control it or...”

  He let his voice trail off, realizing that perhaps he shouldn't try to convince her to keep hope alive. Even he couldn't think of a possible outcome that didn't include her friends being disintegrated. Instead, he kept quiet and held her as the newscasters prattled on, trying to make sense of what they just saw.

  “Of course, we can't... we can't be sure of anything at this point. But speculation does lead one to believe that what we just witnessed was a nuclear blast from Carmen Zharkov's body, just like the world suffered from her father, Plasmax.”

  “It does seem that way. We are trying to contact officials that may have been near the blast zone, but so far we are receiving no responses.”

  “If that girl possessed a SPMD anywhere near the level of her father, we might be looking at another catastrophic disaster.”

  “We could be talking about the entire Western Fatherlands. The number of lives lost...”

  “I hate to speculate numbers here, but we're talking millions.”

  “But if Yuri Zharkov was caught in that blast and was disintegrated like the rest of the surrounding area, she may have actually saved lives.”

  “Millions of people just died.”

  “I know, I'm just saying-”

  “I'm sorry, but we need to go now to an expert in SPMDs from the Academy of Super Powers who may have some insight into this event...”

  Connor pushed the mute button on the TV and threw the remote across the room. He let out a groan of annoyance and returned to holding Lucy. She pushed him away, suddenly feeling her anger boiling past her sadness.

  “What was Carmen thinking?” she yelled, standing up from the couch and pacing around the room. “There had to be another way. She killed them all, Connor. Not only our friends, but like... all those innocent people caught in the blast, too. And herself. And her baby.”

  She punched a wall and then gripped onto her own belly tightly. Connor stood up from the couch, but kept his distance.

  “They were desperate, Lucy. Maybe they had no other choice.”

  “There's always a choice,” she growled, balling up her fist to punch something again.

  Connor moved closer to her and set his hand on her tensed arm. He gently lowered her fist and gave her a concerned smile.

  “Sometimes none of the choices are good. Sometimes you just have to act.”

  Lucy glanced back at the screen as the channel played the video of the explosion on a loop. A stream of words scrolled across the bottom of the screen that read things like: Who is the Imperator now? - Is this the end of the Empire? - Where is Zana Zharkov?

  Lucy sat down on the floor, drained of energy. She wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep, hoping she might wake up from the nightmare.

  “Is this ever going to end?”

  “Is what going to end?” Connor asked.

  “This! All of this. Wars and empires and Super Powers of Mass Destruction killing people. Is there any way to actually win? To like... make the world better?” She took a breath and held her belly even tighter as she asked, “What kind of world are we bringing our child into?”

  Before Connor could offer any response, the lights in the room turned red and an alarm wailed through the lair. Lucy looked up at him with panic, wanting him to explain what was happening, but he looked just as confused.

  “Linus?” she called out. “What's going on?”

  “That would be the intruder alert.”

  “There's an intruder?”

  “Yes,” the computer voice answered in a calm, droll voice. “It would appear we are being raided.”

  Connor rushed to the doorway as Lucy climbed to her feet to follow. He held out his hand to stop her.

  “Stay here. I'll see what's going on.”

  She gave him an annoyed smirk and said, “You don't seriously think that's going to happen, do you?”

  Connor opened his mouth to object, then let out a sigh. He peered out into the hallway, then waved at her to follow him. They kept to the walls, sliding down the hallway toward the nearest armory, but when they turned a corner, they heard an explosion in the distance.

  “Who would be raiding us? Who even knows we're here?”

  Connor shrugged and said, “Who knows what kind of enemies Andre made when he was running around as a supervillain?”

  Connor saw the pain in Lucy's eyes at the mere mention of her friend and added, “We made enemies too. All I'm saying is it could be anyone.”

  They pushed forward, even when they heard the rattle of automatic gunfire from just a few halls down. When they reached the armory, Lucy ducked in the door and Connor stood guard. Lucy made quick decisions regarding which weapons to grab, stuffing a pistol into the back of her sweatpants and slinging an assault rifle over her shoulder. Finally, she grabbed a small submachine gun and stepped behind Connor. He was about to step back out into the hallway when she grabbed onto his arm.

  “Wait,” she whispered. “I think I see someone.”

  Lucy was peering through the walls using her x-ray vision and saw a squad of soldiers form a line, readying themselves to spin around the edge of the hall. They were all wearing black, with their faces covered by gas masks, and the flag of the American Republic on their right shoulder. They moved with practiced precision, keeping in tight formations with every angle covered by their weapons. When the first few rows of soldiers had come around the corner, she watched as her former teammates, Stonewall and Blackout, marched behind them.

  “Shadow Department,” she blurted out at a hushed volume.

  Connor didn't hesitate. He stepped out and unleashed a gust of wind that knocked the first row of soldiers off their feet. His hands swirled as he tried to summon clouds in the underground lair, but Lucy saw the second row of soldiers raise their weapons. Her submachine gun was already pointed at them, her eyes already zoomed in on them, as she unleashed bursts of bullets that knocked the guns from their hands. Their legs were next, aiming directly at the thinnest parts of their bulletproof armor. Soldiers fell like dominoes before Stonewall lifted his hands, raising a force field in front of them.

  Connor rolled back into the armory doorway as he shouted to Lucy, “I can't get anything formed down here to use lightning. There isn't enough moisture in the air.”

  “Dehumidifiers working at 100%,” Linus offered.

  “My bullets aren't going to penetrate that force field either,” Lucy said, ignoring the computer's facts.

  “What do we do?” Connor said, slamming the armory door shut.

  “Linus! Is there like... another way out of this room?”

  “Of course! That is, if you shrink to a few inches tall and escape through the ventilation system. Otherwise, I believe you are trapped.”

  Lucy's gaze shot around the room, searching the racks of weapons that lined the walls, but they were standard military armaments. Even if she were put in a position where she felt the need to take lives, nothing was going to work in the close quarters. The grenades that laid in a box were just as likely to hurt one of them as any of their attackers. Same went for the RPG and flamethrower. Before she could even start to strategize anything else, she saw the sheet of darkn
ess come flowing into the room from under the door.

  “Blackout.”

  Connor backed away when he heard the name of her former teammate, knowing enough from the few stories she had told him about their mission. He grabbed onto her hand and they backed against the far wall.

  “This is it, isn't it?” she asked, looking up at Connor through the tears forming in her eyes.

  “You don't give up,” he said. “Not now. Not ever. You hear me? You never give up.”

  “Connor...” she said his name with complete and utter sadness, wanting to feel encouraged by his words, but also wanting to spend their last few moments together in a state of reality, not delusional hopefulness.

  When the blanket of darkness fell over them, she buried her head into his chest. She knew she could change her vision so she could see through the darkness and watch the soldiers enter the room, but she didn't want that. She only wanted to fill her senses with Connor's strong arms wrapped around her, the smell of his shirt filling her nose, and the sound of his heart beating in his chest, faster and faster.

  Her escape into Connor was cut short when she felt the hands of the soldiers rip them apart, and then place manacles around her wrists with a click into place, pinning her arms behind her back.

  She heard Stonewall say, “We got'em,” just as the blackness recessed.

  She opened her eyes to see a clear, glass walking cane clicking against the tiled floor.

  “I'd be remiss if I didn't actually acknowledge how well you did, Retina. You gave us quite the chase, I must say. I even had moments of doubt, wondering if I would ever catch you. But here we are.”

  Lucy eyes flashed to the infrared spectrum so that she could see her old mentor, Spook, leaning against the glass cane. She could see his smile, and she wished she could cut it from his face.

  “How are the knees?” she asked with a grin.

  His smile disappeared, which made her happier than she imagined it would. If she could cause him pain, she would take it.