“Of course,” he purred.
The soothing words didn’t work on my frayed nerves.
I stepped up and poked the Agency rep in the chest, hard. “Before. Not after, not during. If I see anyone getting hurt in some cockamamie attempt to get you good ratings, I will take it out of your hide.” I locked eyes with Outrager. “Anyone. Super or civilian.”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing before taking a step backwards. This wasn’t Surf, the compliant superhero he’d watched for years, play-fighting whoever the Agency threw out.
This was Jo Tanis, and I was a goddamn force of nature, as Hunter said.
“Jo. May I?” I turned to see Peter at my side, bowing as if asking for a dance, his hand outstretched towards me. Behind him, Rachael maneuvered Steve and Harris closer to her in preflight mode.
“A true gentleman.” I tapped Hunter’s shoulder. “Start the timer. And I want plenty of chips and salsa when I get back. I think I’ll be in a hot-and-spicy mood.”
Before he could answer I took Peter’s hand and rose skyward.
Rachael made a series of gestures with her hands, lifting herself, Steve and Harris, a chirp of surprise coming from Harris as the wind eddies drew them up.
We went up over the bus, over Outrager and Hunter, until we hovered in the treetops, still hidden.
“Everyone online?” I called through the link. “Jessie, Hunter?”
“All good,” Jessie answered first. “I’ve got you on satellite tracking. Your target is to the north. Ah, I mean, straight ahead of you.”
“Nothing from Dykovski,” Hunter said. “Go in low and slow.”
I stuck my tongue to my cheek, holding back my response. Peter chortled beside me and squeezed my hand with a sassy wink.
“I won’t say it if you won’t,” he quipped.
I laughed and returned the squeeze. “Pervert.”
“Look who I’m hanging out with. Can you blame me?” he replied as we moved.
We skimmed the tops of the trees, the evergreens brushing against the bottoms of my runners as we advanced on the bunker. I saw the clearing long before we got too close, the carved-out half-circle in the trees screaming for attention. It was an isolated spot only accessible to flying supers and Guardians, an excellent place to hide out from the media and repair or rest up either before or after a battle.
“Still nothing on the radar,” Hunter said.
“There’s no way to hack into the Agency cameras there?” I regretted the words the second I said them.
“I’m not a hacker,” Jessie protested again. “However, I checked for a feed from the cache already. If there are cameras, he’s cut the lines or smashed them all. He’s not going to give us eyes inside. If I could do that, I’d have found you faster,” he mumbled.
“No problem, Jessie. I keep forgetting you do have your limits,” I joked back, trying to cheer him up.
“Well, not many of them,” he replied, his tone rising.
“Outrager confirms the cameras are dead.” Hunter chuckled. “He’s not happy.”
“He can go in and dig up the tapes later. I have no doubt those are in secure boxes Dykovski wouldn’t have been able to destroy.” I waved Rachael and the other men to hang back as Peter and I approached the flat square bunker.
It looked from above like any other cold-war relic, the fat grey concrete cube with a single door lying in the middle of a vacant crescent, the trees stripped away.
“Can you get any eyes on the ground?” I asked Peter. “Anything?”
He blinked once, his gaze moving to the horizon. “Got some small folk nearby. They’re saying it’s been noisy underground, very shaky. Don’t like the smell, oily and stinky.”
“Oily?” I frowned. “I can see the suit being a bit messy, but there’s no reason for there to be oil lying around. We didn’t damage the armor.”
“Jo, we’ve got movement,” Hunter snapped.
“Where?” I spun us in a slow circle, rotating clockwise. The door remained shut, the ground solid and unyielding. Peter’s grip grew tighter as we twirled, more painful by the second. “Hunter, talk to me.”
“One, two…fuck!” he shouted. “Jessie, are you getting this?”
“Getting what? Getting what?” I yelled.
“Three, four, where are they coming from?” Jessie’s panicked tone startled me.
Peter jerked my hand. “Put me down, Jo. Give you two free hands and I can get us some ground support.”
I paused for a second, studying the unchanging scene around us.
“I’ll be okay,” Peter said. “Let me go.”
I pulled back a few feet, away from the clearing, and sank through the trees. A low hum filled the air, a mechanical rhythm like a thousand steampunk hummingbirds looking for a place to feed. It drowned out any other sounds of the forest, covering the scene with an eerie blanket of sound.
I cocked my head to one side. There was something familiar to the noise, but I couldn’t place it, something poking at the back of my memories.
Peter let go of my hand a few feet above the forest floor and dropped down on one knee in the dry pine needles covering the ground. He stood, gave me a thumbs-up and ran off into the trees.
“Peter’s on his own, and I’m gaining altitude. Give me something, boys.” I moved back up into the open air and slid sideways towards the bunker.
Rachael hovered nearby with Steve and Harris. Loose leaves and pine needles spun around them as they waited.
Harris flapped his hands from side to side, unsure how to deal with this new mode of transportation while Steve crossed his arms in front of him, cool and collected. Rachael looked at the two men, her forehead furrowed.
“Okay. We’ve got multiple targets emerging from openings near the bunker,” Hunter barked. “Get ready for anything.”
“What openings?” I snapped.
“Emergency exits, air vents, something along those lines.” The words tumbled out in a rush. “Not through the front door, it’s not Dykovski. Too small, not the armor.”
Something shot out from under me, up into the sky with a metallic flash and a scream. I charged after it, not sure what I was chasing.
“I’ve got one.” It was too small to be a suit or even a human. My heart lurched into my throat. “Please tell me it’s not a fucking missile.” My imagination conjured up the image of a rocket strike on a nearby town, the mushroom clouds rising over Kensington Grove in a nightmarish future. “Please tell me it’s not a missile.”
“What the hell are they?” Hunter demanded. “What the fuck is in this cache?”
“You’re asking me?” I yelled, advancing on the mysterious object. It continued going up, straight up, not changing course to arc towards a distant city, puffing out a white trail of smoke.
“Not you. Outrager.” There was a scuffling on the line, shouting in the background and a mysterious thumping noise. “Jessie, take over. I’m out for a second.”
I wanted to stop in midair, ask what the hell was going on or better yet, turn and burn back towards the bus to see what Hunter was dealing with, but I couldn’t. Instead I gritted my teeth and kicked my throttle to full, hurtling through the air as fast as I could to get close enough to identify the object. If nothing else, I could identify it and let the military deal with the missile—I wasn’t about to disarm it in the middle of the sky.
Finally it came into sight, the shuddering image taking on a familiar shape. My chest ached with the effort of reaching it, but I relaxed, letting some of the fear go.
“Hunter,” I shouted. “I’ve got a visual on it. It’s a bloody robot.” I spun around, viewing the metal creation from below, verifying the spheroid. “It’s from the mad-scientist battle.”
“The what of the who?” Rachael said over the link.
The automated globe stuttered and slowed, allowing me to catch up with it. It tilted over until the cyclopean eye spotted me.
Steve broke in. “A brawl they had about two years ago,
bunch of fake crazy scientists sending their ’bots to take on a bunch of alphas. Stupid show.”
I pulled to the left as a bright green light shot out of the orb. The beam zipped past me, missing by a foot or more. “Stupid or not, these babies have active lasers. And they’re not afraid to use them on us. Slow, but they’ll scorch your skin if they hit you. I don’t know if they’ve got a lethal setting on them or not, but treat them like they do.”
Jessie interrupted, a slight tremble in his voice. “Okay, there’s four of these things on the move. One’s already on Jo, and Rachael’s about to get three more.”
“Am I that special?” Peter interrupted. “Not that I’m complaining, ’cause I’m still trying to get us some help down here.”
“There were only four,” Jessie answered. “Guess they’re going for the big boys.”
“Oh snap.” Peter laughed. “I owe you for that one.”
“Can we get confirmation on just the lasers?” I zigzagged, dodging the small laser blasts. Inhale, exhale—I kept my breathing even and calm, just like Mike had taught me. “No missiles, no death darts, anything else?”
Steve growled, “Confirming that we’ve got three headed for Rachael, Harris and myself. Updates to follow.”
“Whups. Get ready, Peter, you’re getting your own special friend,” Jessie said. “Must be the initial test model. Going through the forest, keeping low.”
“Can we at least keep the number correct? Are there four or five or ten thousand? Are they only attacking us or are they spreading out and heading for civilians?” I increased my speed, charging up as I got level with the ’bot. As the lone eye turned towards me, I fired with both hands, sending a lethal electrical charge into the fat globe.
It gave off a loud chirp and shut down, sparks flying out as it plummeted to the ground.
“Only the five, Jo. Only the five.” Jessie sounded apologetic. Mentally I kicked myself for being too hard on him. This was exactly the type of thing I needed Hunter for.
“It’s cool. Just stay frosty. You’re doing a good job.” I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of one glove as I angled myself towards the ground.
“My update. Just fried my bogey,” I shouted as I dove, picking up speed as I followed the bot down. “They’re distractions, the robots are just distractions. Keep an eye out for Dykovski. He might try to slip away with all this commotion. Jessie, sing out if you see him on the radar. He’s not getting by us this easily.”
Peter cut in. “I’ve got one of them here setting fire to the grass—he’s not focusing on me at all. I’m sending in the little creatures to see if they can wheedle their way inside and short-circuit something.”
I followed the inert sphere all the way down, watching it slam into the ground and disintegrate. It took another second for me to land beside the small crater. Sparks flew out of the metal corpse, starting up a slew of tiny fires where they landed.
I ran around the debris and stomped on the eager orange and red beasts, kicking dirt over them. I trampled the last ember down, coughing as the grey haze spread over my feet.
“Bastard. He’s using them to set fire to the forest either to cover his escape or to try and trap us. Sound off, everyone.” I broke into a jog towards where I’d last seen Rachael, Steve and Harris, not flying to save my energy. “And, Hunter, please feel free to get your ass back in the command chair. Love ya to death, Jessie, but I need my main man something awful.”
Hunter came back on the line. “Glad to know you missed me.”
“Are you okay?” I almost tripped over a downed tree trunk, catching myself at the last minute.
“Just had to do a little housecleaning.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, here’s the deal. Those things are automatically keyed to go one-on-one with any supers in the area. There’s only four of them, thank goodness.”
“Actually, five. And we got that much figured out, loverboy.” I skidded into another clearing, a cloud of dust announcing my arrival. “Now tell me where Dykovski is.”
“He’s just left the bunker and is turning and burning for your location. Get airborne, Jo. He doesn’t have a lot of flight time left in that suit, but you don’t want to start on the bottom.”
“You never complained before.” I looked up to see one robot being torn apart by the whirlwind occupying the area, loose grass and leaves whipping around in a vicious circle as Rachael hovered below the tops of the trees.
The orb wobbled and spun around, captured by the tsunami-strength winds ripping and tearing at every exposed surface. It bobbled like a cork caught in a whirlpool, and I could swear I heard a distorted electronic scream.
She laughed, weaving another pattern with her hands to finish the dismembering. The metal shredded into hundreds of pieces and fell away, the ultimate fixer-upper.
I nodded my approval. “Good work. Make sure the damned thing doesn’t set the forest on fire. When you finish, please go meet up with Peter and see if he needs a hand getting around. Steve, Harris, what’s going on?” I flew over Rachael as she dropped towards the burning robot, her lips moving as she communicated with Peter on a private channel.
I moved higher, doing lazy circles, spiraling higher and out farther with each turn. “Remember, the robots are only the pregame show, folks.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew what was going on. “Hunter, where’s Outrager?”
“He’s busy right now.” There was smugness in his voice, a mixture of rage and relief.
“Busy doing what?”
“Nursing a broken nose, at the very least. I don’t like surprises.” His voice shifted from calm to commanding in a split-second. “To your west, Jo. Get ready. Behind you.”
I spun around to see Dykovski flying towards me, the power armor boots sputtering and coughing white smoke. He snarled at me, his face distorted with rage.
“Stupid freak. You’re not good enough to lick my boots,” he yelled.
“Good enough to kick your ass, douche bag. Trying to compensate for a small dick by having a big gun there?” I didn’t move, letting the iron bull continue his charge.
“Jo.” Hunter’s warning tone slapped my ears. “Don’t do this.”
“He’s only got a certain amount of fuel, right?” I flexed my fingers, feeling the power build inside my battered body. “I don’t want him flying out of this. If we burn, he burns with us.”
“Don’t say that,” Hunter roared. “Don’t you dare say that.”
Dykovski bore down on me. Spittle flew from his lips, the white foam coating his chin. “I’ll show them all how weak you are. Show them not to look up to anyone who’s not human. Show them not to put you on a pedestal.” His armor-clad fingers stretched out to grab me.
A short push of energy sent me skittering to one side, out of his reach.
“Show them how I kick your ass. I won’t let you hurt anyone ever again,” I called out as he raced by, the momentum carrying him a good distance from me before he put on the brakes and turned.
“Don’t play with him, Jo,” Hunter snarled. “Put him down and put him down fast. Save the revenge for later.”
“I’ve got a few minutes before he comes around. Peter, Steve, Harris,” I called out. “What’s going on?”
I watched Dykovski circle, the unwieldy battle armor an aerodynamic nightmare to fly. He might have been able to teach Lamarr how to do tricks with a jet pack, but he knew nothing about flying in power armor. It’d take him valuable minutes to make the return trip, unable to do sharp turns like I could.
“Just finished dealing with my dance partner.” Steve sounded slightly winded. “Damn, I think I broke a nail.”
Peter broke in. “We took out the last three. Mine got ants in his pants, Rachael got the second and Steve gave another one a bear hug as it went for Harris.” He stopped as a coughing fit overtook him. He cleared his throat and continued. “But we’ve got a helluva forest fire starting here. These things weren’t aiming for us so much as they were out t
o set fires. We’re trying to put them out, but the lasers ignited a lot of shit we can’t deal with. We’re moving to the clearing where the bunker is.”
“I’ve already alerted the Forest Service and they’re responding,” Jessie added. “Bet that fight rocked it for the cameras.”
“What cameras?” Rachael popped in.
“Agency satellites, I bet.” Jessie made a popping noise. “Grab the long-range shots of the ’bots going down and going straight to post-production.”
“Classic Agency show,” I muttered with my eyes on the horizon.
Something snapped and wrapped around me, binding my hands and legs together. I looked up to see Dykovski still a good distance from me, his right hand pointed at me. A long string ran from his wrist to the net now trapping me, the thick rope connecting us.
The net’s small fibers started to tighten. I wriggled, finding little give in the synthetic squares. A wave of claustrophobia swamped my mind even though I was high in the sky with nothing around me for miles and miles. My breathing became erratic as I tried to remember the briefing, remember how to deal with this damned net.
“Hunter, a little help here. I’m all tangled up.” I tried to sound calm, my pulse hammering in my ears. “Heading up, going to drag his ass around. See how he likes being yanked for a change.”
I pushed off with my feet against an invisible cushion as the net got tighter. Within a few seconds I felt the tug of the line, Dykovski a huge anchor at the other end. I pushed but couldn’t fly any higher.
“Damned suit’s heavier than it looks,” I wheezed. “Guess I’ll just have to twist and twirl for a bit, maybe tie his feet up with it and drag him down.”
“Jo—hold your breath. Hopefully it won’t hurt as much,” Hunter said.
“What?” I jerked my head down to see Dykovski grinning at me. “What?”
I’d totally forgotten Hunter’s briefing.
The electrical charge snapped through the line and over the net, shocking me in a perverse reversal of roles.
The one thought going through my mind, other than the irony of it all, was wondering if I could stay airborne as all my muscles went rigid.
Heroes Lost and Found Page 21
