Koji and Erin turned and saw the Exemplar approach them with Tuwa and the Ferryman by his side. Their former enemy offered them a warm smile. “You both have a place here in Arcadia. It can be a home for you, too.”
Koji stepped forward and slapped the Exemplar’s shoulder. “No offense, but I’ve had enough of your hospitality, King.”
The Exemplar allowed a snicker to escape his lips. “I can understand that. Hopefully one day, we can meet without being taken prisoner or fighting each other.”
“I’d like that.” The two men shook hands.
Tuwa addressed Erin. “What about you?”
“I’m going to go home,” said Erin.
“Arcadia can be your home, Shift. A place where you can be yourself,” said the Exemplar.
Erin took one final look at the view of the island then shook her head. “Thanks but I should go.”
“Back into hiding?” asked the Ferryman.
“For now,” she said. “Things won’t be this way forever. Specials only just appeared. Give it time, people will get used to us. And until then, it’s not like I can’t control my appearance.”
“Too bad others don’t have that option,” said Tuwa.
Erin laid her hand on Tuwa’s shoulder. “That’s what you guys are for.” She faced the Exemplar next. “What’s going to happen with Animus and Fenris?”
“We’ll put them on trial. If they’re found guilty, they’ll be punished fairly,” said the Exemplar.
“And the rest of the Pack?” asked Koji.
“Probably the angriest of anyone on the island,” said the Exemplar. “They were manipulated by Animus, same as me. But they’re good men.”
“One more thing,” said Koji, stepping closer to the Exemplar. “Keep your house in order, buddy. Don’t make me come back here to straighten you out again.”
The Exemplar grinned. “Do you really think you could beat me in an all-out fight?”
Koji shrugged. “Stay on your best behavior and we won’t have to find out.”
Tuwa sidled up to the Exemplar and smiled at Koji. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep him in line.”
The Ferryman held out his hand and a large portal opened on the hill to another place. He looked at his passengers. “Ready?”
Koji looked at his companion and after giving Tuwa a parting hug, Erin came up beside her former teammate. The two of them exited through the portal, departing from Arcadia and returning back to the world of the normal humans.
***
Erin and Koji stood in the lobby of the Honolulu International Airport. Erin had assumed her human form, a backpack hanging from her shoulders. She just finished her check-in procedure and now they stood in front of the security gate.
“So was it everything you expected?” he asked. “Being back among other specials?”
She shook her head. “Wasn’t what I expected at all. I thought maybe I was missing something, being around my mom and my old friends. But now I’m thinking it wasn’t just the fact that their genes are different. The people on Arcadia, they weren’t any different from the people in Madison. There was this girl I met that first night. Because we were with Vanguard, she thought we were evil. That we were out to capture or kill every single special. I guess that people anywhere are scared of what they don’t know.”
Koji scoffed. “I coulda told you that and saved us a lot of trouble. And I wouldn’t have a massive kink in my shoulders from throwing down with Exemplar. Twice.”
“Yeah, but do you really think I would’ve listened to you?”
Koji laughed. “Not in a million years. But next time, how about you do the fighting?”
Erin looked down at the floor and Koji put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I was just kidding around. You know that, right? I mean, are you okay?”
“It’s not that… I think I just miss being around the rest of the team,” she said. “I mean, we just got Dom and Zen back and then almost immediately, we’re shut down and Thorne is killed. And we still don’t know why he died or who’s responsible. I want to get some answers from someone, but there’s no one to ask.”
“Yeah, I know.” Koji hugged Erin. “I miss ‘em, too. And we’ll figure out what happened to Thorne. Somehow.”
Erin broke the embrace and looked up into his eyes. “You think we’ll ever see them again?”
Koji shrugged. “A few months ago, we were on a space station stopping a madman with a giant laser. I’m pretty sure anything’s possible.”
Erin chuckled and hugged him again. “I’m gonna miss you.”
“Yeah, me too.” He held her tight for a few seconds before they separated. “But next time you come visit me, we’re just gonna have fun, okay? No more adventures.”
“But where’s the fun in that?” asked Erin with a smile.
Koji laughed again and pointed at the security gate. “Get the hell outta here, Hastings.”
***
Victoria Hastings unlocked the door of her Madison home and pushed it open, dragging a rolling suitcase behind her. She pushed the suitcase up against the wall and closed the door behind her, hanging the keys from a hook by the door.
“Erin, you here?”
She took off her jacket and hung it in the closet. Victoria moved to the foot of the stairs and shouted up to the second floor. “Erin?”
No response came and Victoria shrugged. She picked up her suitcase and started to carry it up the steps, struggling a little with its weight. Then suddenly, the load was lightened. Victoria looked down and saw Erin standing a few steps lower, helping her lift the suitcase.
“Hey Mom,” she said. “Sorry, I kinda zoned out for a minute.”
Victoria smiled at her daughter. “It’s okay, honey.”
“Need a hand?”
Victoria nodded and the two carried the suitcase up to the second floor. Once they reached the landing, Erin helped her set the suitcase down and Victoria pulled it into her bedroom, standing it up against the wall. She sat on the bed and looked at her daughter.
“So, how was your week? Anything exciting?”
Erin bit her lower lip, her eyes glancing off to the side. “No, not really. Pretty boring, actually.”
“Well, that’s good. Mine was hell,” she said. “Worst conference ever. And don’t get me started on the woman they sat me next to on the flight back.”
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
Erin took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her form changed right before Victoria’s eyes, going from the blond, white girl she had raised and into the hairless, green figure that now stood in front of her. Victoria had a momentary gasp, but Erin opened her wide, yellow eyes and fixed them on her mother.
“I know this weirds you out. And I get it. But…” Erin held out her arms and looked down at her body. “This is who I am now. And it’s something you’re going to have to get used to.”
Victoria set her wringing hands in her lap. “But you can look like anyone you want.”
“I know. And I know you want me to look like I used to. And I still will, when I go out in public.” Erin sighed. “But I need you to accept that I’ve changed. And I can’t just hide that all the time. I need a place where I can be myself. If you can’t accept that, then…”
Her voice trailed off and Victoria’s eyes widened. “Then what?”
Erin took another deep breath and exhaled quickly. “Don’t make me choose between who you want me to be and who I really am. Just…don’t.”
Victoria opened her mouth, voiceless for a moment. “I-I don’t know if it’s that simple.”
“I’m not the person I was before. And not just because of how I look. I mean the things I’ve been through. You can’t expect me to just forget about everything that’s happened to me in the past year. You can’t expect me to go back to the way things were because it’s not going to happen.”
Erin turned her back on her mother and walked towards the bedroom door. “Please, just think about it.”
Victoria stood fro
m the bed. “Erin, wait…”
Erin stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
Victoria managed a smile. “How about we order a pizza and watch a movie?”
Erin smiled back. “Sounds great.”
She left the bedroom and walked to her own room. Erin closed the door behind her and walked over to her desk. A framed picture sat there. All the members of Vanguard lined up together. Not in costume, but just lounging around during one of their brief moments of downtime.
Maybe her mother wouldn’t be able to accept everything Erin had been through. But today was a start. And Erin believed that in time, things could work out.
EPILOGUE
The shuttle entered the Earth’s atmosphere, lowering its altitude but remaining above the clouds. Inside the cabin, the plane’s strike team prepared their equipment. The leader, a woman with long, red hair, checked her weapons and activated the powered suit she wore. For an instant, she vanished from sight, then flickered into view again.
“Blindside here, check is complete,” she said.
Another woman with black hair stretched out her fingers, electricity arcing from between the tips. “Spark is set.”
A thin cloud of cold air surrounded a man dressed from head to toe in white armor with glowing blue LED lights. “Coldsnap ready.”
A heavy footfall signaled another member of the team, who was decked out in an exoskeleton that was almost like a tank. “Bruiser online.”
The final member of the team was dressed all in black and wore a pair of goggles with red lenses. He said nothing, but an orange forcefield surrounded his body and he gave a nod.
“And Zero’s set as well,” said Blindside. She moved closer to the cockpit and the pilot. “What’s our ETA?”
“We’re approaching the drop.”
Blindside returned to her team. “Okay, you all know the drill. Everything up until now has basically been a practice run for this. We’re talking about an island full of specials. So be ready for anything. But don’t forget, the Director wants them alive. Make sure you’ve got plenty of sedatives on hand, there are some real big fish out there. We all on the same page?”
Her teammates gave nods of confirmation and Blindside smiled beneath her helmet. “Good. Remember, we’re especially after the big fish. The Exemplar is down there somewhere and the Director wants him most of all. Anyone who bags him is pretty much guaranteed a commendation.”
“We’re above the drop!” said the pilot.
“You heard him, Hellhounds,” said Blindside. “Good hunting.”
The team moved to the back of the plane and a rear hatch opened. They ran down the ramp and jumped, falling towards the island of Arcadia. The shuttle pulled away, and on its black wings was a symbol. A red circle with a black silhouette of a three-headed hound.
To be continued…
#7 - THE EXPERTS
CHAPTER 1
Arcadia, a small island located in the south Pacific. To most of the world, the island was believed to be uninhabited. But that was because the people who settled there wanted it that way. Arcadia, in truth, was far more than a simple island. Founded by Callum King, the special who called himself the Exemplar, Arcadia served as a haven for others like him. With the aid of his followers, he’d managed to create this island sanctuary where his people could live free of persecution.
Unfortunately, such secrets rarely stay buried long.
In the night skies high above the island, a supersonic, stealth aircraft streaked above the clouds. The craft’s rear hatch opened and five people jumped from it, plummeting down towards the island below.
April Roque was the team leader and she was also the first to jump. The HUD flashed over her goggles, displaying her current altitude. When it began flashing, that was the signal. Roque extended her arms and legs, a fabric extending from the sides of her armor and forming a glider that caught the wind. She didn’t have to look back at her team to know they’d done the same.
They glided down towards the island, landing in the water off the coast of Arcadia. The masks and helmets they wore were equipped with rebreathers allowing them to remain underwater for extended periods of time. They all swam in different directions, seeking out other parts of the island to make their landfall.
Roque activated her suit’s signature ability as her head broke the surface of the water. The suit was capable of bending light around itself, rendering the wearer completely invisible to the naked eye. It was the reason the leader of the Hellhounds had been given the codename of Blindside.
She stepped on the surface of the island. All the suits were equipped with HUDs that displayed not only the location of the rest of the team, but also data on other people nearby. Blindside activated night vision mode as she moved under the cover of darkness from the beach.
Blindside walked with soft footfalls, moving across the sand. Wooden steps from the beach led up to a level above and two young specials stood at the railing, their lips locked together. Blindside moved quietly up the steps and extended both her arms. From her gauntlets, small, round devices shot out and hit the targets. A charge went through them and the couple collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
A warning flashed over Blindside’s HUD and she spun just in time to see a lupine creature spring at her. She pulled back, but his claws swiped against her arm, scraping against the armor plating.
Before the wolf could attack again, he was tackled by a man in black, wearing a faceless mask with red goggles over his eyes. Ethan Weiss, better known by his codename, Zero.
Blindside had been on countless missions with the silent assassin, but his fighting skill never ceased to impress her. She watched as he grappled with the wolf-man, the orange forcefield generated by his suit protecting him from the worst of the special’s attacks. Zero threw the wolf off and got to his feet. Just as the special was about to go for another attack, Zero held out his arm and the forcefield extended into a pointed spike that impaled his foe.
Zero turned his head to Blindside. She knew his HUD could identify her clearly despite her invisibility and he tapped a finger to his covered nose. Blindside mentally chided herself for her overconfidence in her suit’s cloaking technology. For a special with enhanced senses, invisibility wouldn’t be much help.
Just as quickly as he arrived, Zero vanished from sight again. Blindside continued on her path, moving into the center of the town. She reached a hand to her covered ear and whispered, the mask’s comms capable of picking up her voice.
“Eyes on me, reading multiple targets,” she said, transmitting the data her suit was picking up to the rest of the team. “No sign of the big man.”
“Say the word, boss.” The voice came from Justin Pike. The suit he wore was built like a tank, which earned him the codename Bruiser.
“You’re the main event. Spark and Coldsnap, flank him. Zero, you and I keep up the search for the big man. He’s been missing ever since the Khagan event and Cerberus doesn’t want to miss this chance to get their hands on him.”
Blindside watched the specials who milled about the town square. There were only a few up and about at this time of night, which meant most were asleep in their homes. “Go!”
Hydraulic lifts shot Bruiser from his hiding spot and he crashed down in the center of town, creating a slight tremor on impact, with cracks appearing in the stone beneath his feet. He slammed his gauntlets together.
“Excuse me, could you spare a minute to talk about the lord?” he said with a grin beneath his helmet.
One of the specials came at him immediately, transforming into a wolf-like creature. Bruiser swatted him away like he was little more than a bug and the lupine special crashed into one of the stone homes. A tremor shook the ground and Bruiser was surprised by that. His scanners directed him to the source, a young Native American woman whose hand was laid against the ground, surrounded by a soft orange glow. Bruiser smiled when he spotted her.
“Really, lady? You think some little thing like you can
stand up to me?”
The woman called Tuwa raised her hand up and vines burst through the ground, wrapping around Bruiser’s arms and legs. He broke free from them with his great strength, but each time he did, more would rise to take their place.
Tuwa’s body convulsed with electricity, courtesy of Grace Eisner. With her armor’s ability to generate electricity, the Hellhound had earned the codename of Spark.
“I had her,” said Bruiser.
“How about we remember we’re supposed to be a team, Pike?” asked Spark.
The temperature in the area dropped several degrees and Hunter Dixon stepped onto the scene, clad in white armor with blue LED lights. “Codenames in the field, Spark.”
“Sorry, Coldsnap.”
With Tuwa down, the three went to work on the specials in the center of town. The specials tried to fight back, but many of them were unskilled in the use of their abilities and most only had some enhanced strength or agility. These were the ones that were easiest to dispatch with a few blows from Bruiser. Each downed special was fitted with the same inhibitor device used on the ones at the beach, preventing them from accessing their powers.
The battle wound down almost as quickly as it started. And then, Coldsnap threw his hands up and fired a cold blast, narrowly missing Spark. She flinched and was ready to jump on him, but when she looked over her shoulder where the blast went, she saw a frozen boulder lying on the ground.
Another flew directly at her and Spark held up her arms, electricity shooting from her fingertips and breaking the rock into a shower of tiny pebbles. Bruiser stepped closer to them, but he was thrown back without warning or any visible source.
“Telekinetic,” said Coldsnap.
Spark checked her HUD and scanned the area. She picked up some readings from inside one of the few buildings that remained standing. While pointing at it, she gave Bruiser a nod. He charged into the house, blowing a hole into the side with one fist.
A scream came from inside and Coldsnap and Spark quickly came to Bruiser’s side. Through the hole, they could see a young girl, no more than ten years old, huddled in a corner in the fetal position, sobbing.
Vanguard: The Complete Second Season: A Superhero Serial (Vanguard: The Collected Seasons Book 2) Page 9
