by Pen
As the noise from the explosion ended, Null started shouting. First he screamed at David, “What was that? What WAS that?” When David didn’t reply, Null turned to the last moving Dreg, “Get out of my way!”
With a kind of frantic energy, Null started smashing into the pile of shattered pallets. Skeletal, partially shattered frames rolled sideways.
The only moving Dreg threw pieces of another sideways, helping, but not standing close to Null. Only one more rack to go and they’d be able run down the aisle.
David reached out with his mind, ripped a chunk of corrugated metal from the wall, rolled it up like a cigarette, and accelerated it with his mind. By the time it was within Null’s field and David could no longer touch it, it was moving as if it had been shot from a cannon.
It didn’t hit Null directly. It scraped the leg of a pallet rack and clipped Null’s shoulder as it expanded.
David could barely stand. He felt his legs beginning to go, but he ripped another section of metal from the wall, firing it at Null.
It didn’t make it, hitting the ground in front of the pile of racks. David went down to one leg.
Null stopped. “Out of gas?” He put his arms on the rack in front of him and pushed. Pieces of the rack and pieces of the racks that had smashed on top of fell over, clearing a path next to the wall.
Null laughed and turned his head back toward the Dreg, but it was too late. Larry burst through the door and the wall next to it in the Rhino suit.
A good two feet taller than the Dreg’s suit and twice as wide, the Rhino managed to be intimidating even with the Pizza Hut logo covering the right side of his suit’s gray abdomen.
Larry punched the Dreg with one hand, throwing him sideways, hitting the mass of broken pallet racks and lying there, unmoving.
By then, Null had cleared enough space to run. It didn’t matter. Larry caught up in two strides, grabbing him on the upper arm, raising him in the air, and smashing him against the concrete floor.
By the second time Null hit the ground, the mental static disappeared. David still felt tired, but it was so much easier to think that he felt that he could use his powers. Maybe.
Larry dropped Null and looked toward David. “You okay?”
Standing up, David said, “I think so. Does your suit have a phone or are we going to have to find a pay phone?”
Larry laughed. “I’ve got a phone. I’ll call the cops.”
A few minutes later, Larry said, “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
David knew. He’d overheard both ends of the conversation mentally. “What are you going to do about the Rhinomobile? Call a tow truck?”
Nodding, Larry said, “Pretty much. I figure I can have them bring it to Heroes’ League headquarters downtown and fix it there. It’s unused most of the time these days.”
Then Larry said, “You were going to tell me something earlier. What’s up?”
For a moment, he couldn’t think of it, and decided not to mention that when he told his fiancé the story later. “I’m getting married. I wanted to personally invite you instead of just sending an invitation.”
As they stood there in the warehouse, snow falling in through the holes in the wall, unconscious enemies lying on the floor amid bent and broken racks, it struck David that this was an odd place to ask.
Larry nodded, the horn on the helmet moving up and down. “Congratulations, man.”
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HEROES DON’T RETIRE
Nicholas Ahlhelm
“I live a life tinged by failure. My path is one that despite every success, I am doomed to far more mistakes, errors and disasters. None of them were as bad as the path I took with Annabelle. I was supposed to be a mentor to her. I helped her learn how to use her powers, but I also let her get too close. She was nineteen and near and it became all too easy. I betrayed the trust I placed in myself. It cost me a partner and a friend. Of all the terrible things that happened in that one summer in Ohio, losing Annabelle in my life was the worst.”
-excerpt from the private journals of Freedom Patton
The din of the music still thumped in Annie’s skull. She didn’t know whose house she was at. She didn’t know who threw the party for the dozens of college age men and women in attendance. She didn’t really care about any of those things. Tonight wasn’t about what was right and just and good. Tonight was about fun, the first fun she had in what felt like months.
Her current fun was named Jin. Or Jim. Or Jake. It didn’t really matter. He was a beautiful man, clearly as interested in her as she was in him. As they stumbled up the stairs of the massive house and into the first unoccupied room they could find, Annie knew she was in for a good night. Or at least for a good hour or two.
She yanked him into the room. It was lit only by a street light outside, but she could make out the empty bed and the usual contents of a bedroom: dressers, hampers, posters on the walls and so on. She wished she could stay focused solely on Jin, but her training was too ingrained in her. She had a perfect layout of the room in her head even as she kissed her new friend’s thin lips.
His hands were all over her body. He was a bit clumsy with his touch, but her focus was on his shirt. More specifically, removing it. Though he was skinny, his body was well-toned. He looked like a swimmer.
Maybe I can help him master a different kind of form.
He let go of her long enough for her to pull his shirt off. His hands found her body again as he pushed her back against the bed. Annie let herself fall backward. He was atop her a moment later, his lips on her neck. His hands slipped underneath her tank top.
She was getting impatient. Her hands found the button of his slacks. A second later, her hands were slipping across his boxer briefs.
She felt the phone vibrate in the back pocket of her jeans. A second later it started to ring.
She didn’t immediately recognize the tone. It wasn’t any of the usual pop songs she used for her friends or allies. Instead, it sounded almost like an alarm, some kind of warning pulse from a science fiction show.
“Damn, damn, damn. I got to take this.”
She yanked the phone from her back pocket and hit the answer button. Jin’s lips were at the front of his chest as she brought the phone up to her ear.
“What is this? L33t, is that you?”
“Annabelle Montalvo, the Panopticon sees you. You are now on watch.”
She knew the call could come at any time. They warned her months ago when she first agreed to help the group should the need arise. But with thousands of agents across the globe, she hadn’t figured they would call her anytime soon.
She pushed Jin off of her. She saw the shock in his eyes as she pushed him away like he weighed little more than a ragdoll.
“Sorry, man. I’ll have to take a raincheck. Important call, like I said. But maybe next time, alright?”
Jin said nothing as Annie made her way out of the door. Once she was in the hall, she put the phone back to her ear.
“I’m on watch. Tell me where and what.”
* * *
Drake Cemetery wasn’t the kind of place she much liked to visit in the middle of the night. The graveyard was over a hundred years old and it was nestled in some of the worst neighborhoods on the west side of the city. She gave up on places like this when she stopped wearing a goofy costume and following a patriotic narcissist around the country. She didn’t much know nor care where Freedom Patton was right now, but it seemed clear the life he brought her into would not leave her alone.
Who am I kidding? I asked for this. I wanted this. No matter how much I like normal, I can’t completely let this shit go.
Annie only wished she knew what this shit was. The pulsing mass in the middle of an open plot seemed to absorb all light, forming a black mass with a deeply unnatural appearance. She kept her distance from it, unsure if it was a weapon or a naturally occurring phenomenon. She only had the limited description Sibyl provided her. She remembered the w
ords as they repeated in her head again and again: “An unknown mass of dark matter contained in some kind of energy cocoon. One wrong move and the dark matter could be released, potentially eradicating the entire planet instantly.”
She only wished the Panopticon could have made her first mission a wee bit easier. But as she approached, she found the two contacts she was told to expect.
She felt naked walking up to them without her Libertad costume. But though she might still want to act the hero on occasion, she couldn’t see herself ever putting on that rag again.
The younger man, a nerdy African American that couldn’t have been over twenty, was the first to look up from his tablet. “Are you Libertad? I expected a costume.”
She frowned at the use of her costumed name. “It was at the cleaners. And you are?”
“Tycho Francis Carr. My mom wanted me to be a scientist and she got it. This here is Ken Daly.” He nodded towards the other man,
Daly was also black, but lighter skinned than Carr. He was well over six feet in height, and filled out his shirt and jacket like no scientist she ever met before. Muscles like a pro wrestler bulged beneath a t-shirt that said “Keep calm and let the scientist handle it.” He only grunted at her as he continued to work on his own tablet. It was connected to some kind of scanning device, which he kept held out towards the dark matter form before him.
“Do you have any idea what that thing is, Carr?”
The young scientist nodded. “We’ve been scanning it on multiple wavelengths since we arrived. Doctor Daly has a wide-range spectrometer in use while I have satellite imagery of the subject.”
“Subject?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“There’s something alive in there.”
“Alive? How can you know? I thought no radiation went through dark matter. Isn’t that why they call it dark?”
“Oh, we’re not getting any readings off it. We’ve been watching it try to break free.”
A low rumble filled the park. The dark matter shifted as the ground shook beneath her feet. Annie kept her eyes on it, amazed as she watched the imprint of a hand push against the dark matter shell.
“Is it human?”
Carr only shrugged. Daly grunted again.
“I thought you were the greatest minds Panopticon could find.”
“I’ve been studying astrophysics since I graduated high school at twelve, but up until about an hour ago, dark matter was a theory, not a reality. We’re on whole new ground here. I’ve got no idea what to do with it, but it’s clearly pushing off enough energy to endanger anyone in the graveyard or within several hundred more yards. And I don’t know what to do with it. If we move it, we could burst the field. The explosion could blow up the entire city.”
“Could?”
“Or it could not explode at all. Like I said, new ground here.”
Annie studied Carr and Daly. For the first time, the other scientist’s eyes rose up to look at her. He was handsome, with a couple days’ stubble giving him a rugged appearance next to his muscles. She couldn’t believe this guy was some kind of genius scientist. What kind of parents bring a handsome super-smart body builder into the world? And how is he not swimming in women?
“Do you have anything to add, Daly?”
He shook his head. “We’ve got to get close to the thing, but neither Carr or I could do so without heavy burns. You’ve got some resistance to heat and cold, I understand?”
“Among other things.”
He pulled a device out of the satchel at his side. It looked like an egg timer with a foot-long spike extending out from its base. “If you can get close, we might be able to insert a probe into the center of the dark matter and get a look inside. But it could be dangerous. Even something as small as this penetrating the outer shell could release massive energies. The reinforced material would survive, but I can’t guarantee you or anyone in the park would.”
“Can you get the readings from a distance?”
“Sure,” Daly said. “But that doesn’t account for the danger.”
“Just get clear. I’ll get your probe in. Hopefully I’ll survive for you to tell me what’s in that thing.”
“Are you—?”
“Go on. We have no idea how long this thing will survive out here. Nor do we know how long whatever is inside there has to live. We’ve got to get them out and get some answers as to what the hell is going on here. And if that means I stab a probe into volatile material, so be it.”
Carr started to argue, but Daly shushed him. He walked up to her and handed her the probe. He gave her a weak smile, but she saw something behind his eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was fear, worry or something more benign, but she couldn’t help but feel a slight connection with the handsome stranger.
“Be careful. This isn’t worth your life or anyone else’s.”
“Let’s hope not,” Annie said. “Now go. I’ve got some stabbing to do.”
* * *
Annie felt every fear she could image as she walked towards the black mass. Daly and Carr were safely away, but she couldn’t help but imagine their worst case scenarios. Explosions, rampant destruction, an entire city destroyed.
At least I’ll be the first to go.
The cryptic thought was the closest she felt to comfort as she held the probe in hand. Even from only a few inches away, the mass seemed more like a field of emptiness. From here, it seemed small though. It was maybe five feet long, but a bit shorter in width and height.
Under the early morning light, she couldn’t help but feel unease as she lowered her hand towards it. Things seemed to grow hazy around it as it sucked in any light waves that struck it.
She looked at the probe. With the egg timer end clutched in her hand, she looked down at the long thin spike. She knew this would either give them the information they needed or end her with a spectacular fury.
Moment of truth.
With a deep breath, she drove the probe down into the dark matter. She felt the heat against her hand as the spike pierced the outside of the shell. She couldn’t remember the last time heat bothered her, but the burning sensation gave her visions of the mother she never met. She died in a fire and Annie wondered if she would be joining the woman in the afterlife in a few short seconds.
Instead, the probe seemed to pierce the outer shell with little trouble. It passed through the dark matter as if the substance was no tougher than a stick of margarine. A moment after she inserted it, the probe was in place. She pulled her hand free, still ready for death or destruction.
She picked up her phone and hit the speed dial. “I’ve inserted the probe, Sibyl. Tell the boys they can start the scan now.”
Sibyl’s voice came through the other end as it did the last time: slightly distorted but distinctly feminine. “Boys? Tycho Carr is a woman, Ms. Montalvo. Are you sure—?”
Her words faded from Annie’s ears as a loud hum suddenly blasted forth from around the probe. Annie watched as cracks burst out from around the probe, each looking like a long stream of light against the shell of dark matter. The hum grew louder as they spread across the shell.
As the light shot forth from inside the dark matter, it blinded Annie. She felt the heat against her skin again. Despite the pain, it wasn’t burning her, but she could see nothing. She never saw the source of the wave of force before it struck her in her chest and send her hurtling into the air.
She could only scream as she found herself several yards over the cemetery. Her vision returned in a field of spots just in time to show the ground rushing straight towards her face.
* * *
A tunnel of white light filled Annie’s vision.
I’m dead. This is what they talk about. I’m done.
“Who the hell are you?”
The world seemed to rush back into her vision. The light faded around her.
A woman, maybe a year or two younger than Annie, stood over her. She wore a pair of crims
on pants with a matching top connected to a mask over her eyes and nose. Her dyed light brown hair was disheveled. A sneer filled her face as she held up hands covered in heavy blue gauntlets. Her boots matched the gauntlets in color, though not in bulk. The costume looked familiar, but Annie couldn’t quite place where she knew it from.
The strange woman lowered both gauntlets, fists closed, towards Annie. “I asked you a question. Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Annie. Just calm down. We can—”
A wave of force drove Annie deeper into the dirt. She couldn’t see the wave outside of a slight distortion before it struck. It felt like her entire body wanted to come apart with the impact.
“What did you do to me?”
“I didn’t do anything. I—”
“Answer me. Why am I here? What did you do?”
The woman’s fury was obvious, but Annie had no idea what she was talking about. She needed time to think, and the other woman clearly wasn’t rational.
Annie slowly pushed herself upright. Despite her enhanced endurance, she still ached all over. She held a hand out, hoping the gesture was friendly and calming. “It’s alright. We’ll figure out what’s going on with you. Just let me talk to you.”
She took a slow step towards the other woman, but before she could take a second, she realized her mistake. The stranger aimed her gauntlets and unleashed another blast.
“Backoff!”
The force struck Annie square in the chest. She felt the air rush from her body. The blow knocked her back into the trench the previous blasts had already dug.
But even as she gasped for breath, the realization finally hit her. She did recognize this stranger. She saw the news stories about her out of Federation. She was a hero, famous in her own way.
Only she was supposed to be dead.
Annie slowly pulled herself upright. Her entire body ached. It was an unfamiliar feeling. Over the past two years, her body only grew more and more resistant to harm. It was rare she felt much pain at all outside of psychosomatic reactions to trauma.
