by Jamie Hawke
Of course! I hit the minus next to Metallica, disgusted at myself for ever sticking it in her ass, wishing desperately for a bath. At that moment, I had to focus on my priorities—but soon. I wanted to wash the taint of her from my body, but for the moment would be satisfied with simply removing her powers.
The old skills returned, with the additional paths still open but without the metal aspect. I couldn’t wait to see what that meant. How well did metal conduct electricity? I grinned at the thought, forming my tempest, and staring Chains in the eyes as it lashed out, sending a bolt of lightning straight up the chains she had me in. The lightning connected with her, my suit protecting me from its effects. For a moment she shook, convulsing, eyes smoking, and then her head fucking exploded like a squirrel in the microwave.
I hadn’t exactly expected that, and neither had Metallica or Drakonis. Both stared in horror, and that moment allowed Gale to hit the latter with a gust of wind while Tidal appeared at her side, adding water to the mix. His fire extinguished, but instead of returning to normal as I’d expected, the effect of their powers was to leave his head a smoldering skull. This was my chance—he was staggering back, flames beginning to start back up, and then I formed my tempest, forcing all of its might onto this upper tier super. I knew he wasn’t easily taken down, so I gave it my all, and it showed. The blast of lightning hit him, then wrapped around and hit him again, pushing him up into the air before wrapping around and hitting him yet again.
He fought it, head finally bursting into flames again, but then it was too much and the lighting burst out from within, sending fragments of his burning skull to scatter across the room, similar to how it had happened with Chains. I was starting to believe that maybe there was something special about me after all. I also made a note to never use this power in a room I wanted to keep clean of gore and brains.
With him gone, that left Metallica. Since I was free, I spun on her and unleashed my storm of swords. Only, I’d forgotten that it had changed back to hidden travel. Instead of sending a wave of blades her way from the metal floor, I moved through the metal, appearing in front of her. We made eye contact, her eyes widened, and I punched her in the nose.
I really hated hitting a woman, but she was evil.
“Shield’s down, then?” Charm said as she appeared, grinned, and joined in the piñata bash. Her strikes held nothing back, and I sent a lightning chain attack through the robots, rendering them inoperable.
Gale joined in, pounding Metallica with kicks and punches, while I turned to help the others fend off the attack from the rear. My shots of electricity took them down five and six at a time, while my super ladies did their damage. It was clear, however, that we were greatly outmatched.
To make it worse, the A.I. figure was back, flecking along the walls, face then appearing over us in the roof, laughing as turrets came out of the walls.
“Fall back!” Twitch shouted, and she appeared floating over us, pink screens all around her. Her fingers were blurs along her screens, and the A.I.’s laughter became screams as she was pushed back, fading, and then reappeared below with the enemies. With a flip of her fingers, then quickly moving along the screens, Twitch sent up a pink wall between us and the enemy. The A.I. surged against the wall but slammed into it. She couldn’t pass! Barrage after barrage of attacks came, but nothing got through.
When I glanced down again, Metallica was a bloody mess. The two ladies stopped their attack long enough for me to walk up, shake my head, and prepare to finish it.
“One more time, for old time’s sake,” Metallica said, grinning up at me with her bloodied mouth. She was missing several teeth, others were broken. One eye was half shut. Even if this hadn’t been the case, the offer wouldn’t have been the least bit tempting, even when she reached down and tried to lower her pants. “It’s your super weakness, you know that. The source of your powers, yes, but also your weakness.” She reached a hand down her pants, smile spreading. “So come on, big boy. One… last… time.”
As much as I wanted to deliver the final blow, someone else deserved it more. I turned to Charm, nodded, and walked off. The shriek from Metallica was cut off a moment later, and then my friend and lover joined me at the doors to the next room, her claws dripping in blood.
“You all were having a party and didn’t invite me?” Gale asked, stepping up to join us.
Twitch landed at her side, nodding. “Crashers are welcome when they save our lives like that.”
“You all could’ve handled it.”
“Maybe,” I admit. “Maybe not. You’re with us now, and that’s what counts.” I hesitated, turning back to Charm. “Or… is she? Your call.”
Charm grinned, blew me a kiss, and said, “Let’s finish this.”
The four of us moved as one, approaching the final doors. We were more than ready to take down the man we’d set out to find and steal powers from. Not much time was left, but we’d made it.
21
What we found within was nothing like what we expected. The man was hiding behind a tall chair, the display panels and more of this ship behind him. The screen showed that we appeared to be stationary, which made sense with Ranger coming and all.
“Get back,” the man said, but his voice conveyed his fear.
A quick scan, and I laughed. “You don’t have any other powers,” I said. “Other than what allowed you to restore powers to everyone else on this ship… you have nothing.”
The man’s eyes went wide and he took a step back, tripping over himself and landing on his ass.
“Wh-what’re you going to do to me?”
Twitch stepped forward, motioning to Charm, and then grabbed the man, turned him over, and Charm reached for his pants to reveal his ass. I stared in shock.
“What the fuck?” the man shouted, and I took a step away.
“Got you,” Charm said with a chuckle, then spun the man back around and pinned him to the ground with Twitch’s help.
“I… that was mean.”
She shrugged.
“You kinda deserved it,” Twitch said.
I couldn’t argue that.
“What’s happening?” the man asked, voice still shaking.
Gale stepped forward and helped pin him down, while Charm took her claws and slashed open his palm first, then mine.
“A scientific experiment,” I told the guy, then thrust our hands together, holding his as if it were an arm wrestling contest. His eyes were wide as he tried to comprehend what was happening. It was taking too long, I thought, and started to doubt whether it would work at all.
Then the sensation hit me, like a gust of wind inside of my chest, pushing out in all directions, and I let it go. First the screens in front of Twitch flickered and went away, then the fires and other powers shooting at us ceased and all of the supers looked at us through the field with confusion and shock. Then they all broke into retreat.
A woman appeared in the crowd, one walking toward us with arms covered in blood, and only then did I see that it was the Blue Lady, without the blue. She stared at us, lifted one fist in salute, and then turned to follow the others. The pain that had haunted her all these years was, I had to assume, finally put to rest. She had her retribution.
“It’s working,” Charm said in barely a whisper.
“How…?” the man asked, but then Gale whacked him upside the head and he was out.
One of the supers in the other room behind the shield started laughing, and we went to the edge of what I now realized was a modified ship’s bridge, and stared out at them, confused.
“It’s too late!” the super said, pointing to the sky. Sure enough, some sort of portal was opening there, blackness surrounded by red, swirling light. “Ranger’s come, and he’ll kill you all!”
As if on cue, the portal flashed and a moment later a large man was moving through an opening above, then standing on the bridge of the ship with us. He was unlike the rest. While most of the supervillains on this prison ship looked like vil
lains, he was tall, majestic. His long, blonde hair fell around his shoulders, his face lit by gold tattoos, his pointed ears giving him an almost alien feel.
When he turned to look at me, I saw that his eyes, too, were gold. But they were far from godlike—his eyes told the story of hate and murder.
“What’s this?” he asked, looking at me and the others, surrounded by corpses and blood. His expression soured with disgust.
I started to open my mouth in response, but paused when I saw he wasn’t done.
“I’ll tell you what it is,” he said, walking over to look out at the others beyond the shield. “Failure. Failure of the highest magnitude. You are with me, but as promised, only those alive on the bridge when the time came would accompany me. I am very let down to see the rest of you are so weak… but ultimately weakness will only hurt in the war that is to come.”
At those words, he thrust out his hands. Explosions, people shrieking. I turned to see the display, which now showed parts of the ship, different views from within, as it broke apart, exploding and sending supers shooting out into space, where even they didn’t stand a chance.
A whimper sounded from our feet, and we glanced down to see the man whose power I’d taken via blood. He crawled back, away from Ranger, jaw shaking.
“And you,” Ranger said, stepping toward him. “You were supposed to lead my army, serve as my general. What a letdown.” Now his hand shot out and the man before him convulsed in pain, small popping sounds coming from within until his eyes went red and he was limp.
Ranger finally turned to the four of us, sniffed, and shook his head. “You don’t belong.”
I wanted to make a joke about a shower, about how it wasn’t my fault if he thought I stunk, but knew it wasn’t the time and he didn’t likely have a sense of humor. Instead, I simply shook my head, confirming that, no, we most certainly didn’t belong here. None of us.
His hand shot out my way now, but I was ready, somehow. With my own hands held out to face him, I pulled on my newest powers. There was no time to find out how or if they worked, but I knew I’d taken something from the now dead super when we’d mixed blood.
Whatever it was, it worked. Ranger stared at me in confusion, tried his trick again, and then he spun on Twitch. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but focused on not blocking her powers only.
She saw me nod and her hands were up in a flash, screens blaring, and then it was there in front of her, that dreaded black hole from her stories. It grew as Ranger stepped away from it. I was moving back too, unable to focus knowing what could happen now. We might all get sucked into that thing, wiped from existence.
“When you least suspect it, I’ll return for your lives,” Ranger said, glaring at her, then me. “What you’ve done here today, it’s only prolonged the inevitable. You will regret it.”
And then he stepped back, glanced my way, and shot into the sky. As he departed, more of the ship began exploding. The A.I. was there on the other side of the wall, screaming, and then shattered as more of the ship behind her exploded—apparently including whatever part of it had created or maintained her. It was clear the whole thing would soon be gone.
In front of us, the black hole was still there, still growing.
“I can’t control it!” Twitch shouted, looking around desperately as everything fell apart around us.
But I wasn’t looking around, I was staring into that black hole. Staring at what I thought I’d seen in there, a face, perhaps? A planet, people… and more.
“It’s not what it seems,” Xin’s voice came in, distant… faltering. “She… doesn’t understand her own powers. Your… brother needs you, and this is the key. GO!”
“Xin,” I replied, giving my companions a worried look. “Are you okay?”
“It’s ending for me, recruit,” Xin replied, barely audible over the explosions. “But you… your journey has just begun. You will be an Elder… I have… no… doubt.”
As his voice faded, I took a deep breath, knowing I had to do what he said. It was time to take a leap of faith.
“Trust me,” I said, and then grabbed their hands, Gale grabbing onto Charm’s. Everyone else was gone, having been killed or fled to other escape routes. With the three ladies at my side, I ran, leaping into the black hole.
22
If you’ve ever jumped into a black hole—or what seemed like an ever-expanding black hole but was actually some sort of portal to another galaxy or dimension—you’d know the terror that grips your heart, the pulling sensation from all directions as you’re catapulted through space. We were shot out into a desolate world, one with red sand and large domes of glass, one of which we were apparently inside of. Ships flew by overhead, and I had the feeling there was much more to it than the endless plains of red nothingness.
“It goes down,” Charm said, standing nearby.
“What? Going down?” I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Not right now… I need to rest.”
“No, goof,” she said, turning toward me now, but pointing past her feet, to something I couldn’t see. “This world, it’s built into the ground. Underneath.”
I stood, stumbling over to her side, and then stopped, arms flailing. Sure enough, there was a large dropoff just past her, one I could’ve easily fallen down. She reached over and steadied me, taking my arm in hers. A moment later, Twitch and Gale were there too, all staring down into it.
From what we could see, this was an opening for ships to fly down into, as far below we could see other ships unloading materials. Soldiers milled about, civilians moving to what looked like a village carved into the earth beneath.
“You know what this means,” Twitch said, excitedly. “All those people, the ones I thought I’d killed. They might not be dead, they’re like this, probably, in another galaxy or something like that.”
“I’m glad,” I said, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. The look in her eyes was heart-warming, like all of her troubles had been a wall of wax, now melted away.
“But others died… many today, to get us here,” Gale said, and I knew she was thinking of the friends she’d made on the prison ship, of the resistance.
“We’ll see that Ranger falls,” I told her. “For them.”
She gave me a look of appreciation, then turned, taking it all in. “This is all so… mind-blowing.”
“But what’s it have to do with my brother?” I asked.
“What?” Twitch looked at me like I was crazy. “Oh, Xin? Is he…?”
I listened, hoping for a response from Xin. None came. “No, but he said something at the last minute, said that my brother was here and needed my help.”
“Well then, looks like we have our next mission, before making our way back to the Citadel to find out if you’re an official Elder yet or not.”
“Right, that…”
“Guys,” Gale said, tugging on my shirt.
We all turned to see her staring up with her eyes wide, mouth hanging open. The dome was opening.
“Shit,” Charm said, glancing around, then focusing in on Twitch. “When it’s open and we’re exposed… Can your powers make it so we can breathe?”
Twitch’s eyes narrowed in concern as she pulled up her screens, flipping through them until she found the one she was looking for, scrolled down it, tapped it twice and then cocked her head. “Huh.”
“Huh, what?” I asked.
She pointed up, and said, “Wait for it…”
“Twitch!” Charm protested, watching as a second layer of the dome opened.
“Wait…”
Sure enough, the ship was through, moving toward the opening, and there were no problems.
“What’s happening?” Gale asked.
“The atmosphere is fine,” Twitch said. “In here, and out there.”
“Then the domes are for something else.”
“That’s the confusing part,” Twitch replied, but then her eyes went wide, staring past me. “Less confusing now.”
> I spun to see a massive sandworm plowing along the surface, red dust clouds forming behind it. It came alongside the dome and even tried to turn toward it, but waves of electricity rose up from the glass, pushing it away, and so the sandworm retreated.
“You don’t want to get caught out there with your pants down,” a voice said, and we all turned to see the ship hovering nearby, a rear door open and a man in a Marine suit staring at us. “Or pants up, I gather. You all need a lift down?”
I glanced at my friends, not seeing any reason to say no, and accepted the offer. Soon we were descending into the depths below, and once we landed the guy even pointed us to a tall building in the distance.
“Tell them Jackson sent you,” he said, then handed us a metal, circular chip. “Hand the man at the counter this. You’ll be fine.”
We expressed our thanks, then headed over. Everyone in this underground city seemed to be going about their normal lives, the outer edges of it lined with more of that dome-like glass. All manner of buildings were carved along the walls, but we were exhausted and just wanted to lie down and get some rest. The man at the tall building gave us no problems, showed us to what I termed a hotel room, and left us to it.
“This is so weird,” Gale said, glancing around. “Are they supers?”
I looked out the window and scanned a woman walking below, and saw that she indeed had powers. Hers was telepathy, and she glanced my way with a frown.
“Yes,” I said. “And don’t think about anything important for a few seconds, at least.”
They stared at me, waited, and then I shrugged.
“Don’t draw any attention to ourselves,” Twitch said. “Try not to think when telepaths are nearby, and… what am I forgetting?”
“Don’t forget to rest and eat,” Charm said, yawning.
“And maybe celebrate?” Gale said, looking at me, tentatively. That caught Charm’s attention, and her tail wagged as she moved over to me, pulling me by the hand to join them. Twitch didn’t seem as certain, but when Charm lifted my hand and put it up against Twitch’s crotch, the woman couldn’t help but smile.
