by Jamie Hawke
“Damn,” she said, then nodded. “Sonar, that’s what he goes by. We’ve met before.”
Sonar tried to talk but couldn’t, so simply flipped her the finger. The other man entered then, followed by the remaining two supers from the hallway.
Not good, but I figured we could handle them. Twitch made an attempt at creating holes in the floor again, but one of the supers held out a hand and grinned. Nothing happened. I frowned, checked his info again, and noted this was the one with speed, but there was something else—the notes section. Dammit, I had been skimming and hadn’t paid attention—he could nullify nearby powers.
That could actually be a very useful power for me to have, I realized. If only there was a way to take it from him. My guess was that, while he blocked her powers, others nearby were blocked too. Taking advantage of the moment, I charged the strong one.
He grinned, thinking that nothing I did to him would mean shit, but the other guy’s expression showed he’d seen his mistake too late. My punch to his face nearly dropped the tough guy, my knee to his chest and then an elbow to the back of the head finished him.
“How the fuck?” the other said, but then Charm took him out with a breath that made him stumble back like he was drunk, then collapse to his ass before falling asleep.
At this point, there was only the fast one and Sonar left, but Sonar was apparently a coward when he didn’t have much help because he took off running.
The fast guy, in spite of his speed, made a slow retreat. He kept his hand up, canceling out powers, and moved away from us cautiously. As soon as he was out of sight, Charm turned to Twitch with a look that showed she was pissed, then simply shook her head.
“This way,” she said, guiding us to the wall where she’d been when we entered. “It’s a door, but I can’t…” She turned to Twitch. “What the hell, girl? You’re going to run off like that every time you have an emotional spike?”
“It’s okay,” I started, but Charm silenced me with a look.
“I get it,” Twitch said. “I was a bitch, a psychopath. There was no reason to leave like that, but can we get through this door and then discuss it.”
“No, Twitch,” Charm replied. “We could’ve died, you could’ve left us to our deaths and then what? You’d just go on with your merry life and not give two shits?”
“How many ways can I say I’m sorry?”
“Try a few more.”
“Ladies, I happen to agree with the whole get through the door part,” I said with a glance back, sure I’d heard sounds of people shouting, coming closer.
Twitch turned to the door and tried her screens, but nothing worked, meanwhile Charm kept going on about how irresponsible Twitch’s behavior had been, right up to the point when the doors opened.
On the other side stood a huge man, his orange outfit like Twitch’s and Charm’s, only his was busting out at the seams because of his muscles. A woman came up from behind, almost as big as him. “Big-boned,” the women from back home had always said, and this seemed to apply to her. Yet, there was a definite sexiness to her, the way she carried herself with confidence and power, her dark skin reminding me of perfectly sculptured chocolate. She wore her hair out, and I mean out—it stuck out at least two feet in every direction, but she didn’t give a fuck.
“I told you I heard someone say Twitch,” the woman said, smacking the man on the ass. “What the fuck you take so long getting here for, they could’ve gotten killed.”
“Bitch—” the guy said, but she slapped him hard on the face this time.
“You’d best watch that tone.”
He grinned, held his hand to his face where she’d slapped him, and then wrapped his arm around her, before kissing her on the cheek. Finally, he turned to us and said, “Enter, please. And when I say please, I mean right the fuck now, unless you want to deal with the rest of that goon squad about to come running over here any second.”
He was right. The voices were loud now, along with screeching of metal. We all stepped in and he closed the door behind us. As soon as it closed, metal moved like gears, locking the door in place, and then new layers slid in, covering the door.
“Whatever bickering you had left to do,” the woman said, “it can wait.” She turned to Twitch, frowning, and said, “Something fly into your ass?”
Twitch was staring at her with confusion. “I—I’m saying sorry a lot today, apparently. But I’m sorry. You’re Plasma… right? I mean, I know you are, it’s just that I’d always heard you and the Big Guy hated each other.”
Plasma grinned. “He’s an asshole.”
“And she’s a bitch,” the Big Guy replied, pulling back in case she tried to slap him, but she only grinned.
“Guilty,” she said. “We did hate each other, but our mutual hatred for Ranger and all things related to him far outweighed our own hatred, and when all this shit started going down, we partnered together to say ‘fuck him.’”
“No shit?” Twitch still looked amazed.
“Wait,” I said, unable to contain my excitement. This was working out perfectly. “Sorry in interrupt, but… to be clear, you are fighting against Ranger?”
“Well, kinda,” Plasma said. “See, he’d have had this prison already if not for us. We’ve gone and foiled one of the biggest parts of his plan, by taking the ship’s A.I. offline.”
“Problem is,” the Big Guy added, “we have to hold it. You know me, Twitch. I prefer to stay neutral, but throw Ranger in the mix? Hell no. Still, wish I didn’t have to be so involved. Speaking of which,” he turned to me and Charm, “who’re they?”
“They,” Charm said, not holding back on the attitude, “are the new Elders, saviors of this whole galaxy, and—”
“Charm!” I said, then turned frowning. “None of that’s true. We’re just stragglers. Others like you who don’t want to see a world where Ranger wins.”
“That so,” the Big Guy asked Charm, totally ignoring me. “How do you figure that?”
She glanced at me this time at least before saying, “Well, okay, not me. Just him. He’s being helped by Xin and the others there, has a whole plan, and…”
“Dammit, Charm,” I said. “Maybe we don’t tell that to everyone? Point is,” I turned back to our new friends, “we could really use your help in all this.”
“That so?” The Big Guy frowned, though it softened when he turned to Twitch. “What’s this they’re going on about?”
“All true,” she said. “As crazy as that may be.”
Clanging sounded, but it was muffled as if distant, not something for us to worry about. Of course, that didn’t stop me from doing so.
“What’s to stop them from getting in?” I asked.
“A combination of our powers,” the big guy said, but gave me the look that told me he wasn’t about to explain more. After a second, though, he motioned to us and said, “Follow me.”
“You trust them?” Plasma asked.
He shook his head. “From what I hear of Twitch, I trust her.” To Twitch, he nodded respectfully. “You don’t belong in here, not by a longshot.”
“Thank you,” Twitch replied. “But… I’m not so sure.”
“You did what you had to do.”
“Which was?” Plasma asked. “Apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t know.”
Twitch looked from her to me, then groaned. “Let’s walk, and I’ll tell you the story.”
“Works for us,” the Big Guy said, and then started walking. As he did, the room we were in started to move like gears and shifting metal plates, until we were walking down a staircase. By my best guess, one of these two had some crazy powers that allowed them to manipulate the workings of the ship.
My wonderings ceased though, as Twitch started telling us her story.
10
The Elders have a network of supers who work for them,” Twitch explained, starting her story. “I was one of them at the highest tier of the Order of the Citadel, a general with an army under me. When I
was given the order to take care of a rebel planet—”
“Ulvan,” the Big Guy said, nodding.
“Yes.” Twitch glanced my way, slowing. “A planet of mostly non-supers, but recently riled up by the notorious supervillain known as Plague. She unleashed evils on them and blamed the Citadel and the Elders.”
“And when you went in,” I said, guessing at the rest, “too many died.”
“Not just too many… All.”
“What?”
She nodded, looking away now. “I didn’t mean it to happen that way. My powers, well, were slightly less predictable, and at the time I had several teammates who were quite powerful. One was an amplifier, a man who could increase a super’s powers up to a hundred times stronger. We didn’t know how this would affect my powers, but I was there, watching the fight and directing my captains where to lead their troops in turn, when it went bad. I was watching them get slaughtered, so pulled up my screens and pulled something together that would change the dynamic of it all, pull our enemies into a black hole, in a sense.”
“Oh, shit.” I knew where this was going, and shared a look with Charm, seeing her troubled expression. She knew this story, I could tell by the pain there.
“The amplification hit my powers too, morphing them, in a way,” Twitch continued. “I didn’t just create a black hole that would eat up our enemies. I essentially turned that entire piece of our galaxy—the planet, surrounding ships… all of it… into nothing.”
“Bloody, fucking hell,” Plasma said, stopping on the stops, turning to look back at her. “I own the fact that I’m a villain, or was. The people I’ve killed… the pointless death. But at most I can account for one or two-hundred deaths. You…”
“About three short of two-billion people died that day, according to the screens,” Twitch said in almost a whisper. She swiped the air, pulling up screens that showed the number, and line after line of people’s names and the information on them.
It was too much for me to begin to understand. How could I ever contemplate what she was going through, having caused this to happen? The self-hatred, doubt, and every negative emotion possible… it had to be the heaviest burden imaginable. Still, I shook my head, sure of the fact that it wasn’t her fault.
“You couldn’t have known,” I insisted. The others turned to me, staring, clearly less certain. “Come on,” I protested. “She had a job to do, and she did it to the best of her ability. Who partnered her up with the amplifier? Who made the call to send her army into a battle that she wasn’t going to win? These are decisions above her, decisions that put all this in place. Why is nobody pointing their fingers at that person?”
A silence followed, during which they all turned away, each of them lost in thought. Twitch peered up at me through her hair, which had fallen over her face—a veil, hiding her.
“It was I,” a voice said, and I started at the realization that Xin had spoken. “I stepped forward, too, and tried to argue the case. She wouldn’t have it, insisting to the Elders that it was her responsibility, that everyone had died because of her action. Too many of them agreed… too many of them revealed their true colors that day.”
“I…” Before saying another word, I glanced around, then said, “Xin spoke up, told me what happened.”
“They can all hear me now,” Xin said, his voice coming through as if he were right there with us. “I’m sorry, Twitch. If I were perfect, Ranger never would have made it this far. I am far from it, but all I can say now is… I’m sorry.”
She bit her lip, eyes wide, staring at me as if I were the one talking.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I stressed, taking her hand. “There was nothing you could’ve done in the matter.”
“He’s right,” Xin said. “In fact, your enemy there would’ve likely destroyed you, gone on to torture those people or used them as part of a greater force in the attack against the Citadel. What you did, it was reckless, destructive… but possibly necessary.”
“Then why the fuck is she in prison?” Plasma said, voicing my own question.
“We have a long ways to go,” Xin said. “As a people, as an empire. I believe some of the Elders are corrupt, even now… I am struggling to find which ones might be bringing in their replacements only to turn them to evil in the process.”
“Evil’s a tough word,” the Big Guy said. “Remember who you’re talking to.”
“I believe in redemption, and both of you are on your way to earning it. All of you. But first, you must stop Ranger from achieving his goal here.” A pause followed, then Xin said, “I understand you have the A.I. at bay?”
“We can’t fully control the ship,” Plasma replied, glancing around, not really sure where to look when speaking to Xin. “We took her offline by trapping her in this area though. Containing her.”
“Until we figure out a larger plan, that will have to do,” Xin said. “That was smart thinking.”
A distant sound came through like the whistling of a thousand birds at once, and Xin’s voice sounded panicked as he said, “I must go. Please, trust my friends. Help them as much as you can.”
“We’ll talk,” Plasma said, and the Big Guy grunted in agreement.
“Kinda like the sheriff asking Billy the Kid to help fight off a bunch of pedophiles,” Charm said, grimacing. “See, I know a thing or two about Earth’s ancient history.”
“Not sure that ever happened,” I replied with a raise of my eyebrow. “But I get the image.”
“And it’s a hard one to say no to,” the Big Guy said, reaching the bottom of the stairs. “So here’s our position. We’re not about to side with Xin, as reformed as we are. Too many of our friends have fallen in the fight against him. We won’t take his side. That said, we’ll stand against his enemies because, in this case, they are indeed the worst of the worst.”
“True,” Plasma said, taking her man’s arm. “And here’s the thing—you all seem cool. We’re going to continue to contain the A.I., while you all go out there and find others resisting Ranger. We can give you some names, point you in the right direction, but that’s about it.”
“It’s more than we expected,” Twitch said, still shaken from having shared her story, “but exactly what I hoped for.”
“Good.” Plasma was smiling, but suddenly that smile faltered and the whole area went dark. When the lights came on again, the Big Guy was on his hands and knees, growling.
“They’ve brought reinforcements,” he said, looking up as he fought through the pain. “They’re getting through, they’re…” He let out a shout of agony, then stood and charged the pillar in the center of the room, placing both hands against it. A surge of energy went through it like a blue shock of electricity, then metal ground above.
“You can’t hold me forever,” a woman’s voice said, and then a face appeared just above him. “When they break through, I’ll rain down vengeance the type of which—”
She was cut off as he sent another jolt through.
“Give them the information they need, then get them out of here!” he shouted, and Plasma moved fast as a rabbit. She had us at a back door, telling us that this tunnel would take us to a series of ducts between the walls, where we could climb up to Subsection Delta.
“The Orange District?” Charm said, face going pale. “Everyone knows not to go there.”
“Orange…?” I asked, not knowing where to start.
“Where they keep the supervillains with elemental powers,” Plasma quickly explained, again gesturing us out of the door. “It’s where you’ll find Twista and Tidal, two who we know have been gathering a resistance.”
“And the others haven’t found them?” Twitch asked skeptically.
“How the fuck should I know?” Plasma said, physically pushing us out now. “Go, get out of here and find a way to make it happen. I have to deal with these assholes.”
As she turned, plasma formed around her and I pitied whoever she was going up against.
“We can help
,” I blurted out.
She laughed and said, “You’d only get in the way,” and then slammed the door.
11
Charging through yet another corridor, we soon found out that the area where the A.I. was being contained wasn’t getting attacked from just the front. Charm had taken the lead, as she was the fastest among us, and had just brought the conversation back to reprimanding Twitch for leaving when she turned the corner and then abruptly came scurrying back.
A bolt of electricity followed her, lighting up the hallway and singeing the metal on the far side of the corridor.
“Too many,” Charm said.
Twitch considered this for a moment, then turned and opened a hole in the wall.
“We’re going to run?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we be helping here?”
“You getting killed doesn’t help anyone,” Twitch answered, already pulling me through the hole.
“He’s right,” Charm answered, moving back to the corner. Heckling and more shots came, and then she dove through the hole too. As it closed, she turned to me and said, “And so is she.”
“Twitch can make a black hole or something, she can—” I started to protest, but Twitch grabbed me by the throat, her anger getting the best of her again.
“Didn’t you listen to anything back there?” she said, eyes inches from my own. “I try something crazy here, we all die. All.”
“And?” I said, being obstinate but not caring. “Maybe that’s for the best, considering the lowlifes housed here.”
She clenched her jaw, released me, and shook her head. “Don’t think I haven’t considered it… But no, the war is going to need us, and I believe there’re enough reformed villains here that might be willing to join the heroes—if they’ll have us.”
“Plus you’re here,” Charm said.
“You think I care about my life?” I protested.
“It doesn’t matter if you do or not.” She stepped up to me, her eyes narrowing, her chest heaving. “If you’re really supposed to become one of the Elders, you have to survive. You have to stop Ranger, and by Oram, I’m going to see that it happens.”
