Maximus: #1 (Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad)

by Madison Stevens

  Selena blinked. “I remember the news mentioning something about that, but I hadn’t thought about it when I met Maximus.” She gasped. “I’m not telling you anything, you Phoenix Corps mercenary.”

  Doctor Quinen’s thin eyebrows rose. “Oh, you’re a well-informed one, I see. They did employ me for a while, but they are spent as an organization, dead, really. They were always a means to an end, seeking nothing more than muscle, but I can’t complain about the money they gave me.” He gestured toward two crates on a forklift positioned near the back of one of the trucks. “Admittedly, the last of their funds are being used to support my temporary research facility here, but alas, your… boyfriend and his associates have ruined that with their undue pressure.” He wagged a finger. “At first I was surprised. I’d expected more circumspection from the hybrids. That one, of all of them, should have known. Even if he hadn’t taken out my guards with ease, I know my own work well. It’s better work than anything the Horatius Group could come up with.”

  “Oh, you’re a smart one, aren’t you?”

  Selena licked her lips. Trying to run was pointless with the goon behind her, even if she could somehow get away from him, but she’d noticed something the doctor must have, too. There had been a flurry of gunfire, but it’d stopped. If the hybrids were dead or wounded, she would have expected guards to come in and report. Doctor Quinen didn’t seem to care at all about the idea of his creations coming in with guns. As far as she could see, he had one thug. That didn’t scream excellent anti-hybrid defenses. He must have had something else planned.

  She groaned. “You son of a bitch.”

  Doctor Quinen let out a quiet chuckle. “You’re angrier now, my dear? Whyever for?”

  “Because I’ve figured it out,” she spat. “I figured you out.”

  “And what have you figured out?”

  Selena glared at him. “You knew it was too late once you saw Maximus in the forest. You knew you couldn’t run. You knew your little game was up, and so you needed leverage.”

  “Leverage?” Doctor Quinen tilted his head, a curious look on his face.

  “You needed a hostage to protect you from Maximus.”

  “Hostage?” Doctor Quinen shook his head. “Hostages only complicate things. Abducting you was a calculated risk that increased my chance of detection. You’re not here as a hostage.”

  “Then what?” Selena swallowed and bit her lip. “You plan to kill me?”

  “Not unless absolutely necessary. It’s so difficult to get a proper specimen these days, you see.” Doctor Quinen peered at her with an intensity that made her shiver. “The Group were looking through a keyhole, seeing the light of true potential, but not the entire shape of the source. The Phoenix Corps were nothing but idiots who wanted extra muscle, but they all stumbled around the truth. But now, freed of them both, my research can begin again. Genetic sequences and data are one thing, but there’s nothing like a good live subject.”

  “Y-you’re going to experiment on me?” Selena’s voice quaked.

  “You have to understand, my dear. My new employers. No, not employers. My new partners. They understand the true potential. Most of them are true scientists and visionaries. They understand we can’t get what we need by looking through the keyhole. We have to smash open the door and bathe in the light itself.” Doctor Quinen sucked in a shuddered breath. “Creating tools to rent to criminals and dictators isn’t the goal of this work and spending too much time sunk in reverence for things long gone is pointless. We will bring the future in a way the Phoenix Corps or Horatius Group could have never understood.”

  Selena shook her head. “I don’t understand. What does any of this have to do with me? I’m just a woman who met some hybrids.”

  “The hybrids have spent so much time hunting the Corps and the Group, they’ve left themselves blind to other threats. I’m close now, so close.” Doctor Quinen smiled. “It’s hard, though. Vestals end up drawn to hybrids if they’re nearby, but facing the hybrids risked exposing my partners, risked exposing Ouroboros. But I don’t understand.”

  “Ouroboros? You replaced one old-fashioned name with a new one?” Selena rolled her eyes.

  “It’s more a statement of vision than a reference to a specific mythos in this case.” His smile vanished. “You’re useful because of your Vestal nature. Maximus was the first of the twelve to be modified based on my special research. Those alterations should have eliminated their compatibility with Vestals. You shouldn’t have been drawn to him nor him to you.”

  “I-I…” Selena shook her head. It couldn’t be true. Yes, she’d fallen for Maximus quickly, but it’s not like she’d fallen in love with him at first sight. Love and lust weren’t the same thing. “I’m not a Vestal.”

  Doctor Quinen wrinkled his nose. “Even that name is something I’ve let the Horatius Group infect my mind with, but yes, my dear, you most certainly are. I had my associate take a blood sample while you were unconscious and run it through a custom test before I woke you up.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a vial containing a bluish liquid. “This confirms it.” He sighed. “If only I could get my hands on samples from the entire planet, it’d be easy to screen for Vestals. Or at least easier. I can tell you’ve already bonded with him. The reaction might have been too faint otherwise based on my current assay.”

  “B-but…” Selena slumped. “I’m a Vestal? Really?”

  “Obviously.” Doctor Quinen gave her a condescending look. “Though that doesn’t say much for your intelligence. This is where things become frustrating, despite your potential usefulness.”

  “What?”

  “I was attempting to maximize the power of individual hybrids without the use of certain rare materials the Group was monopolizing.” Doctor Quinen flung his arms up in disgust. “It’ll be difficult to make hybrids again without those materials. I’m unsure if the government has them, or the hybrids have gotten their hands on them, but it doesn’t matter. Ouroboros understands that relying on limited resources and ancient barely understood lore isn’t the path forward. We’re advancing a different way with different techniques. We’re relying on true science and leaving all superstition and ancient artifacts behind. And that’s what I was doing with Maximus and the others, enhancing their individual power by understanding the usefulness of variability.”

  “Huh?” Selena shook her head. “I don’t understand you.”

  “Their link to their Vestals limits them, as it limits all hybrids in a way.” The old doctor looked disgusted. “Yes, certain potential can be unlocked after bonding, but it’s limited and unreliable, something seen very rarely. My experiments were about bringing that variability to the surface, partially by removing the necessity of the Vestal, but I’ve been following the progress of my subjects as much as possible given my current woes. Even now as they come for me, they rely on weapons.” He shook his head. “They aren’t living up to their potential. Disappointing.”

  “Then you do know they’re here, and you do know they’re probably surrounding this place as we speak.”

  The thug holding her loosened his grip. “Uh, Doc, maybe we should get out of here.” He withered under a glare from Doctor Quinen.

  He’s just an old man. This guy could knock him out with his pinky. Is he that scary?

  “It’s time to end this farce.” Doctor Quinen glanced to the side. “I already know you’re there, Maximus. Come in and disappoint me yet again.”

  Loud thumping followed before Maximus, CJ, Cornelius, and Tiberius appeared from behind crates, their rifles pointed at Doctor Quinen and the thug.

  Maximus smiled at the doctor. “You’re as arrogant as ever, Quinen, but thanks for the free intel.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Gunfire sounded outside, rattling the walls and windows. Maximus barely noticed, instead staring at Selena. He couldn’t believe what he’d overheard, but Quinen had no reason to lie at this point. A lot of things suddenly made sense.

  Maxim
us and Selena had been drawn to each other from the beginning, and it might not have been the all-consuming connection the Luna Lodge hybrids described, but it was not something he wanted to give up. It was something between human love and hybrid bonding. He didn’t have a word for it, and he didn’t care.

  “Taking fire,” Zephyrus reported over comms. “They came out of nowhere.”

  “Same here,” Thaddeus sent. “We’re holding them but watch yourself. We won’t be able to reinforce you until we finish locking these guys down.”

  Maximus wasn’t too arrogant to ignore the convenient timing. “If you didn’t take my men down immediately after the ambush, you’re not going to win, Quinen.”

  The doctor laughed. “Of course not. My men outside are likely going to die, but they are being well-paid for their services and risk. But then again, I don’t think you pity them.”

  Maximus growled at the thug. “Let the woman, go. Now.”

  The thug squared his shoulders and kept a tight grip on Selena. “You think you’re big shit, mutt?” He pulled out a gun and put it to her head. “You make one move toward me, and I blow her brains out.”

  Doctor Quinen frowned. “You will do no such thing. A specimen has fallen into my lap, and I won’t have it damaged before research is conducted.”

  “Don’t you get it, Doc? We’re surrounded.” The thug’s nostrils flared. “These mutts will kill us. We need the bitch as a hostage.”

  The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve valued your loyalty, though not your mind. I will handle the hybrids. You just make sure the girl remains unharmed.”

  “Don’t worry, Selena,” Maximus said. “I’ll save you.”

  She smiled warmly. “I know you will.”

  The hybrids spread out, everyone keeping their guns at the ready. They were all good shots, but even if they hit the thug in the head, he might still pull the trigger and kill Selena. The lack of fear on Quinen’s face disconcerted Maximus. An old man with little combat training couldn’t take on a well-trained human, let alone a hybrid. He’d openly stated he didn’t want Selena hurt, so she obviously wasn’t intended as his shield.

  Maximus’s heart thundered. A constant growl came out. He needed to save Selena, and if he needed to tear Quinen and his lackey apart to do it, he would.

  “Surrender, Quinen,” Maximus said, his voice low and full of deadly promise. “We’re not going to kill you. You’re going to fix what you did, and then you can spend some time in prison after that.”

  The doctor laughed. “Fix what I did? Why would I do that? If anything, I need to finish what I started. Your partial link to the Vestals is obviously responsible for you not living up to your true potential, but with time and full access to both you and a Vestal, I can accomplish what was intended.”

  “You think this is a negotiation?” Maximus shouted. “You have one choice, Quinen. You surrender, or you die. If the woman so much as bleeds, you die.”

  “I’m tired of this shit,” the thug said. He shoved Selena forward and bolted toward a side door. CJ started off him but stopped at Maximus’s raised palm.

  “Let him go. He’s nothing.” Maximus turned toward Quinen with a lip-curling sneer. “Now it’s just you and four hybrids. Not a great day to be you.”

  Selena blinked and ran toward the hybrids. She moved behind Maximus before flipping off Quinen. “Told you, asshole.”

  The doctor folded his arms and furrowed his brow. He looked more annoyed than concerned. There was nothing like fear in his face at all. Outside, the gunfire frequency decreased.

  “Ouroboros has all the relevant data,” Quinen said. “And the equipment can be replaced. I think even you hybrids aren’t as necessary anymore. I really only need the woman.” He made a come-here gesture with his palm. “Give me her and leave. I won’t destroy you only because of some misplaced affection for what were once my greatest creations, but don’t try my patience.”

  Cornelius barked out a laugh. “You’re one old human. We don’t even need our guns to win.”

  “You should ask yourself, hybrid, why I’m so confident when I have no one else here.”

  “It’s not confidence,” Maximus said. “It’s arrogance.”

  Tiberius and CJ nodded their agreement with their leader’s statement. They took careful steps forward, slowly moving to encircle Quinen, but no one took their guns off him. Maximus felt the same as the rest. There was something else here, something beyond arrogance. He hoped for a bluff, but his instincts told him otherwise.

  “You aren’t in charge anymore,” he said. “We’re in charge.”

  Quinen folded his hands behind his back with amused tight smile. A purple glow bathed his eyes.

  “What the hell?” Maximus shouted.

  The other three hybrids jumped back but didn’t fire. They exchanged quick looks before refocusing on Quinen. Glowing amber eyes marked hybrids. Glowing red eyes could mark Glycons. From what Titus had told Maximus, green and blue were other possibilities depending on the type of hybrid, but no one had ever seen purple.

  “What are you?” Selena asked, her voice full of wonder. “Who are you?”

  The purple glow spread all over Quinen’s body. He lifted his gnarled hands. “Not a reverential supplicant of the past. I am the future.”

  Maximus scoffed. “You’re some asshole who started experimenting on himself because you ran out of hybrids to mess with.”

  “That’s it, though, isn’t it?” Quinen wiggled his fingers. “What’s the point of making creatures more powerful than myself? The goal of the Group and the Corps were the same, power, but they were foolish and let sentiment and fear misguide them. I’ve not made the same mistake. Ouroboros hasn’t made the same mistake. We were careful where the Group was sloppy. We might be far younger than them, but we’ve learned from their mistakes.”

  Maximus pointed his rifle at Quinen’s leg. “Don’t think I won’t hurt you if necessary.”

  “Hurt me?” Quinen shook his leg. “You can’t hurt me, failure. I’m already so far past your kind. I will admit some of these advances were the result of serendipity, but the others were the result of my partners being careful and preparing. More importantly, I know a fundamental truth the Group should have accepted.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “The potential is in everyone.” Purple lines of energy flowed and danced over Quinen’s body. His eyes were ablaze, the bright light obscuring much of his face. “The hybrids were an unnecessary detour, a mistake that distracted us for far too long.”

  “Just shut him up already, Maximus,” Cornelius shouted. “This guy’s getting on my nerves.”

  Maximus narrowed his eyes. Selena was behind him, and it was four hybrids versus one glowing old man. It was intimidation, nothing more. If Quinen was half as tough as he claimed, he would have put the hybrids down from the start. Being able to make a light show wasn’t the same thing as being powerful.

  “Enough.” Maximus scoffed and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He reached into a pouch to grab out a pair of zip ties. “Put your hands behind your back.”

  Quinen thrust out his arm. A wave of purple energy blasted from it and struck the hybrids. It was like being hit by a truck. Maximus and the others flew back and crashed hard into crates, cracking them. Selena dived out of the way avoiding Maximus’s body, missing it by inches.

  Maximus tried to get to his feet, but his vision swam. His stomach protested. Every muscle in his body was on fire. Getting hit by a truck wasn’t the right metaphor. No, it was like he’d been hit by a truck covered in lightning.

  He managed to crane his neck toward Selena. She lay there on her stomach, wide-eyed, staring at Quinen, trembling. Maximus didn’t want to imagine what might have happened if she’d not been standing right behind him when the wave hit.

  “Do you understand now?” Quinen asked, walking forward still cloaked in the purple energy. “I’m beyond you. I’m the beginning of humanity’s future. I’m imperfect of co
urse and require further fine-tuning, but I wanted to give you a taste of why I don’t need you. I must insist on taking the girl, though.”

  Maximus grimaced and fought against the pain suffusing his body. CJ, Tiberius, and Cornelius all lay unconscious. He reached for a pistol holstered around his belt and pulled it out, his hand shaking.

  There was no time to worry about aiming. He had to save Selena. Three quick trigger pulls. Three bullets. They bounced off Quinen, falling to the ground crushed as if they’d struck a dense metal wall. The pain grew too much, and he dropped the gun.

  Quinen wagged a finger. “Did you really think it’d be that easy?” He marched over to Maximus and leaned over with a look of disappointment. “I’ll admit to a certain fondness for you and the others. A weakness, for sure, but until recently, you were my greatest work. It might be unfair to say you were a detour. I wouldn’t have achieved this superiority without my work on you and the others, and I believe if the special twelve of you had lived up to your full potential, you would be pleased with what I did.”

  “Go to hell,” Maximus managed through his clenched teeth. “You’re insane.”

  “Why?” Quinen straightened and shrugged. “I set out to achieve power, and I have. I’m insane because some sacrifices were made along the way? What a narrow-minded view.”

  Several gunshots sounded. They were much closer than most of the gunfire from before.

  “I don’t fear you failures.” Quinen strolled past Maximus toward Selena.

  She scurried backward, but he yanked out a dart gun from a jacket pocket and fired it into her shoulder.

  “Ow,” Selena cried, rubbing her shoulder.

  Quinen shrugged. “Unfortunately, being more powerful doesn’t mean having all powers. Alas.”

  Her eyes fluttered. “W-w…” She groaned, blinking. “I can’t move.”

  “Don’t worry, my dear. Soon, this whole thing will be over.” Quinen scooped Selena up, the purple light moving to surround her.

  “Let go of her, you son of a bitch,” Maximus shouted. He managed to stand despite the pain and swayed. “I’ll gut you for touching her.”