by Tom Andry
"Define 'concerned'?"
"You think the fever is dangerous?"
"As I said, I can find no physiological cause for the fever. Sensor records indicated it has been slowly increasing over the last four hours."
"Explain."
"If her fever continues increasing at the present rate, she'll be in the danger zone in twelve hours, start permanent brain damage in eighteen, and will most likely be brain dead in twenty-four. My files suggest a course of analgesics and constant monitoring by a healthcare professional."
I choked back an exclamation. I set down Nineteen and helped her dry her hands and face. She looked at me, head tilted to the side, apparent concern on her face. She reached up a hand and touched my temple.
A wave of pleasure washed over me unlike anything I'd ever experienced. My hands clenched, my mouth dropped open, and my eyes rolled back into my head. Every nerve was alight with pleasure. My body shook as waves of ecstasy washed over me. I could barely think through it. Somehow I managed to find Nineteen's hand and pulled it away, breaking the contact. I'd seen her do that before. To Tay.
God. The depravity of the man.
Again Nineteen tilted her head to one side in confusion and a slight hint of a pupil faded before I fully realized it was there. Her hand again started to rise toward my face. I grabbed it in my own, slowly lowering it.
"You don't need to do that." I looked into her eyes as best I could without pupils to focus on, "Do you understand? I'm here for you. You're not here for me."
She blinked a few times as if she were processing my words. I hoped that if she didn't understand my actual words, she'd at least get my intent from my emotions or whatever she could read of my thoughts. It was all I could hope for.
"Bob," again the voice in my head.
"Yes?" I asked irritably.
"Nissa is approaching the door. You have designated this room's status as Restricted. She has the clearance to open the door."
"Clearance revoked," I hissed. "Tell her...them...I'm on my way out."
I turned and made my way to the closet, stripping off my white shirt as I did so. I needed a shower. I felt sticky and disgusting. But there was no time. I wasn't sure how advanced the security system was, but I doubted it could keep out Gale if she really wanted in. For that matter, I wasn't sure it could keep out Nissa. I scowled.
Nissa.
I still felt numb. Part of me thought that pushing her away last night was a reaction to what I'd seen. Shock maybe. But I didn't feel like I was in shock. I didn't feel numb to anyone else. I glanced over to the bathroom. Nineteen turned the corner, watching me intently. Could this be her doing? Could she be manipulating my mind? My emotions? It was clear she wasn't in control of her power. With a fever, who knows what could be going on?
On a whim, I spun and entered the bathroom. I slapped some toothpaste on a brush and gave my mouth a quick once over. It was forceful enough to draw blood. I needed to calm down. I spit, rinsed and stared at myself for a moment. I had a fugitive girl in my bedroom. A child no less. I had an assistant who had lied to me about her power. I had a friend in the hospital and another - acquaintance I supposed I should now call him - that might have been to blame.
And all of it was behind that door.
I stood up, shirtless and sleep tossed. My hair was sticking up at odd angles and it didn't look like I'd slept at all. All the better. I turned to find Nineteen staring at me from the doorway. I jerked back in surprise. I'd been living alone for a long time. But more than that, those eyes were disconcerting.
"Nineteen," I suddenly felt stupid using the number designation Tay had given her. It was impersonal. Demeaning. I wanted to give her a name but the first one that popped into my mind made my chest tighten to the point that I felt I might pass out. I forced a few breaths until the spots receded from my eyes. By the time I regained my composure, I could hear the banging on my door.
"Bob? You tell that mechanical asshole to let me in. Now!"
I cringed. Gale never was one for patience. At least, not since the divorce. "Coming! Just freshening up." I bent down and grabbed Nineteen by the shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes, "I need you to stay out of sight. No one can know you're here. Do you understand?" She gave no sign that she did, but I had to believe. I stood and practically ran to the door to the drumming of a fist on the other side. I glanced back at the bathroom and ensured that Nineteen was out of sight. I whispered, "Listen, keep an eye on her."
"Define."
"Oh, I don't know. Just watch her. If she looks like she's going to get into trouble, let me know."
"Define 'trouble'."
"Hell. I don't know. Just...lock the door behind me. Don't open it until I leave or everyone else does. If I leave with them, let her out. Try to feed her."
"Illogical. I have no arms."
"Whatever. Do your best."
"Define 'best'."
I shook with frustration, "Will you be more useful when this 'installation' is complete?"
"Presumably. I have no way of knowing."
"Let's hope so. How much longer?"
"Unclear. At the current processing rate the estimate is four hours though the estimate has fluctuated from thirty minutes to twenty-two hours."
"Oh, you're a peach you are."
"Define 'peach'."
"Just shut up and open the door."
The door slid open to a gust of wind buffeting through like someone had opened a window during a hurricane. In front of me was not only Gale, but Rod as well. In the kitchen, behind them, Nissa, dressed rather ridiculously in my t-shirt and shorts, was preparing coffee, trying hard not to meet my eyes. Somehow, her mohawk remained erect - an effect I now suspected was an expression of her power. Something I should have noticed before. Down her right arm was the remainder of the tattoo I'd noted the night before. Green and scaly, it wrapped around her arm and terminated at her wrist. It was strange. Now that I had a clearer view, I realized it wasn't a tattoo so much as some sort of skin discoloration. It didn't have a form or design like a tattoo, but it definitely seemed like it should have. It was obviously something she was embarrassed by since she'd gone to such great lengths to hide it.
The same black cloth that Gale was wearing when we busted the terrorists was floating around her angrily. It was ripped and torn in places and whipped and snapped like a towel fight in a boy's locker room. Her eyes smoldered. Rod was in his full costume including his facemask, though that was probably more for Nissa's benefit than mine. Both of them looked worse for wear with dirt, tears, and abrasions marring their heroic profiles. Gale looked tired. Rod looked like a dick. A huge, master race-looking dill hole. But maybe that was just me.
"Jesus, Bob. You couldn't even put on a shirt?"
"Ja. What were you doing all that time?" Rod sneered in his light German accent.
"Flossing. Dental health is very important to me." I looked at Gale, "You know how I hate cavities."
Gale turned and floated over to the couch, settling down on it like a cloud on a power line. "I know no such thing." The cloth snapping with each word.
I walked past Rod toward Nissa and the kitchen, a smile painted on my face, "Is that for me? Rod, do you want a cup? Gale?"
Nissa handed me a cup, her eyes downturned, "Bob. I have to go."
"Go?"
Gale added quietly from the couch behind me, "Bob. We have a plan and I'm afraid you're not going to like it."
I took the cup from Nissa who managed to look up at me with a weak smile, but she didn't meet my eyes. Next to where Nissa was making our coffees was her vinyl outfit from the night before, neatly folded. I frowned, my brow tight. I turned to find Rod behind me. He must have followed me to the kitchen. His impressive size practically covered me in shadow.
Rod's smile was all teeth, "Ja. Not that you can do anything about it. Tippy."
# # #
Chapter 17
"You're going to get her killed, you know that, right?" I practically yelled at
my ex-wife. Gale floated around the apartment as I stalked after her, my coffee sloshing. Her eyes had dark circles under them, which I could only see because she'd removed her eye mask.
"It's not up to you, Bob, you've got no say in this," Gale's hands were up, though I knew she had no intention of surrendering.
Rod's rumbling laugh from his position in the kitchen next to Nissa wasn't helping my mood, "Vat's the matter, Bob," he chuckled, "afraid to do your own paperwork?"
I ignored the German, "You weren't there, Gale, you don't know how it went down. And Rod, you can suck it, master race."
Rod bristled, but Gale interceded before he could reply, "Force, stop helping. Bob, we've got statements from all the witnesses. They all line up. Nissa even agrees. She stopped him."
"Bullshit."
"Bob, there are parts of this story you don't know."
"I know a hell of a lot more than you do. Nissa was down. She was unconscious. And he left. Okay? That's how it happened."
"Fine," Gale threw up her arms in exasperation, "so what's your explanation?"
My eyes darted back and forth as I tried to come up with a convincing lie. Could I tell them about Nineteen? What would they do? Nissa could vouch for her power. But then what? Would they use her as a weapon? Kill her out of hand, justifying it as putting her out of her misery or maybe by saying that she could hurt someone? Would they turn her over to one of the surviving super scientists? I couldn't risk it.
"I...don't know." I finally replied, haltingly, "But I know it wasn't her."
Gale shook her head.
"There's more," a quiet voice from the kitchen.
The room went quiet.
I slowly turned to Nissa who looked like she wanted to crawl into the coffee cup she was holding. Even with only two words spoken, I could hear the change in her voice. It wasn't the professional voice she used on the phone; it wasn't the friendly, carefree voice she used with me. It was different. A bit of both with a sprinkling of something new. And I didn't like it.
"And that is?" I prompted, although it seemed, from the expressions on the faces of the supers, I was the only one in the room who needed to ask.
"I..." Nissa looked over at Gale, a question in her eyes, "we can't tell you. But we can lure him out and together we can stop him."
"Oh, this is complete crap," I groused.
"Don't be mad, Bob," Gale interjected. "It's your own fault."
My mouth dropped open, "My fault? How do you figure?"
"You can't be trusted," Rod sneered. "Some things are need-to-know, and you don't."
"She's not even a real super!" I waved at Nissa, "She told me she never used her powers like that before."
"We're going to train her. And others. We're rounding up everyone we can," Gale said.
"To tackle the super that took out everyone - everything - at the games? Real great plan."
"But this time we'll have him. We'll be ready," Rod muttered.
"No one's talking to you, Rod."
He scowled at me. I'd been scowled at by the best. Rod didn't even rate in the top twenty.
"Let the adults talk," I turned back to Gale. "You don't know the first thing about this guy."
"We know who he is," Rod smirked.
That took some of the wind out of my sails, "What?"
"Ja, he's Hero."
"You guys have a funny way of delineating a hero."
"No," Gale replied, her eyes down, "not a hero. He is Hero. The Hero."
My mouth fell open slowly. Hero. He was the first real super. He was strong, fast, he could fly - all the traditional powers. I'd never seen him shoot fire or anything, but he was practically invulnerable. Rod was constantly trying to live up to the guy's reputation. He'd been off the scene for years. Long before Gale had even revealed her powers.
"I thought he retired?" I demanded.
"That's the story," Gale sat on the couch. "You wouldn't know this, but when you are accepted into The Bulwark, you're given some very specific, and very secret, instructions. One of them is to look out for Hero."
"Look out for?"
"He didn't retire," Nissa interjected, "he left," her voice was terse.
Gale nodded, "We don't exactly know why," she glanced at Rod and Nissa, "but at the end, he sort of went a little..."
"Homicidal?" I interjected.
"Depressed. He didn't know how to deal with it. He was the best. He'd been put on such a pedestal. He could do anything, save anyone."
"Yeah, and he didn't need his girlfriend to carry him around," I added, nodding at Rod. He snarled at me.
"He started getting metaphysical. Talking about the origins of supers. There were reports from some of the other Bulwark members that he was sounding odd, but they just wrote it off. He was Hero after all. After he disappeared, they found a journal, a manifesto. It was hundreds of pages of ramblings. At first it was a diary. After that, his journal got...weird."
"How so?"
"At first, it was fine. Just wondering about why supers have powers. But then it got stranger. Talking about how we're from angels or aliens or inter-dimensional beings. He decided to find out. So he left."
"And went where? To heaven to ask God?"
"Honestly, we don't know. He just flew away. We didn't even know he was leaving. He simply flew out into space. Even before...the Tournament," she had a hard time getting out the word, "there weren't many who could follow him. Back then, there was no one. So, we were told to look out for him. That he might return someday. When he didn't return after the first few years, they figured he'd died out there."
"Wait. Wait. And you know he's Hero how? How can you be sure?"
Gale closed her lips, eyes down.
Dammit. Supers and their secrets.
"This is pointless," Rod grumbled. We've got to get going."
"Rod," Gale turned to him, her voice stern. "Why don't you wait outside?"
"But..."
Gale just stared at him. Finally, he shook his head and stood, not meeting my eyes. The door at the end of the hall hissed closed before Gale turned back to me.
"I'm sorry, Bob. You know I'd tell you everything if I could."
"There is an incoming call," a computerized male voice sounded in my head. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I covered it with a fake cough. "Would you like to take it?" I shook my head almost imperceptibly. This new security system was going to take some getting used to.
I muttered, "He's right, you know."
"Force?" Gale's eyebrow rose.
"It is pointless. She didn't defeat him before, and she can't now."
Gale exhaled audibly, "You're just being difficult. I know you want to protect her, but..."
"But nothing!" I exploded. "I want this guy put down as much as you do. He's insane." I glanced over at Nissa, "Whatever he was is gone. What's left is a big sack of crazy with the power to kill everyone on this planet from what I saw. You weren't there, Gale. He took out the most powerful illusionist I've ever seen. Hell, the most powerful I've ever even heard about. Pitting you, Rod, and Nissa against that is insanity."
"We think Nissa might have some sort of resistance to his power."
"What?" my voice cracked with incredulity.
"No one else has been able to resist him for any length of time. She is either stronger than you think or her power is just particularly good against his."
"Not from what I saw," I muttered. I started to pace, resuming my search for rationales that would change their minds, "But how will you get him to come to you? It isn't exactly like you can ring the dinner bell and he'll come running."
"That's exactly what we'll do."
"Huh?"
"We're starting a marketing campaign. It'll be designed to attract more supers, but it should lead The Raven right to us."
"Seriously. That's your plan."
"As it is, yes."
"That's crap, Gale, and you know it."
"It isn't. Plus, we know who we're dealing with now."
&
nbsp; "And you're sure it's Hero?”
Gale thought for a moment, deciding. She took a breath, "We're sure. It's his power. Have you noticed how he holds his hands out?" I nodded, "Everyone thinks that Hero was just naturally strong and invulnerable." She shook her head, "That's partially true, but not all of it. On top of his natural powers, he's an energy siphon. He uses the energy around him to fuel his own power. That's why he's so hard to beat. He uses your own power against you. Adds it to his own. He hid that through all his theatrics."
Hero was one of the first supers and he did have a habit of posing in his red, white, and blue spandex outfit. When I was a young, I thought it was cool, but it started a trend. Supers spending as much time posing and monologuing as fighting. Not to mention the spandex thing. Now that I knew he did it to cover stealing his opponents' energy, it took on a whole new meaning. I thought back to the coverage of the Tournament, Ted's simulation, and to the club. At the club he'd held his hand out a number of times. The metal man had faltered. I'd chalked that up to him tiring, but maybe it was The Raven siphoning energy. And had he reacted differently when he'd done the same to Nissa? I couldn't remember. It was all so fast.
"There's other evidence too. It's him, Bob; we're sure."
I turned to Gale who had moved to the couch, "Don't go up against that madman."
"I have to," she answered quietly. The cloth around her slowed and settled.
I sat next to her on the couch, "You can't be serious. What can you do? You control air. He obviously doesn't need to breathe. You can't suffocate him or drop him from a high building. At best, you can keep his fire off you and the others until he walks up and tears your head off."
Gale's eyes were pained when they met mine, "I've got to do something, Bob. If we don't stop him, we're all dead anyhow."
"So hide. Run away. Wait until he decides to go on another, decades-long, search for little green men, and then come back."
Gale's head dropped, "You don't understand. I didn't mean we're all dead," she spun her finger around the room. "We're all dead," her finger now only swung between her and Nissa.
"I don't get it."
"Supers. He's only killing supers."
I laughed, "You're joking. He killed thousands of tippys at the Tournament."
