New Olympus Saga (Book 2): Doomsday Duet

by C. J. Carella

  “A crazy alien Neo killed everyone in his home planet? Are you sure there were no survivors?” John asked.

  “I have no doubt, John. By the time I left, I was certain.” There clearly was more to the story than Cassius was saying, but he had already shared a lot more than John had hoped for. Even though Cassius’ account had been fairly terse, it was nearly dawn already.

  “That matches what Christine Dark told me,” he said. During pauses in Cassius’ story, John had shared some of what he’d learned from the girl from another reality.

  “And all the dead worlds I saw are collateral damage of this war?” Cassius considered John’s tale. “While I was a guest of the Genocide, I saw things…” He trailed off and his expression became haunted with bad memories. “But it doesn’t matter. Neolympians destroyed at least half of the fallen civilizations I found. If our powers are a gift from some elder race, it’s less of a gift than a trap.”

  “Or a test,” John replied. “Either we learn to live with those powers, or we die like those others. And maybe some of those dead worlds weren’t destroyed but merely left behind: Christine told me the truly advanced races eventually leave their native planets and head towards the center of their local galaxy. It would be hard to tell an abandoned world from one that was destroyed, I’d think, especially if enough time had passed.”

  “Perhaps.” Cassius looked dubious. John couldn’t blame him. He’d been burdened by his discoveries for so long that even hope instilled suspicion in him. “Looking back, though, I think the state of a few of the worlds I visited could be explained by some form of voluntary migration. Perhaps extinction is not inevitable. Perhaps. I would like to speak with the girl myself.”

  “You will. She’s… she’s something else, Cassius. Funny and a little awkward, but she has a lot of heart, and her abilities are amazing; she learned how to enter my mind just by watching the Dreamer do it. I think she could become the most powerful of us all. The traitor within the Legion brought her to our world because she has some sort of special connection to the Source, something beyond what us ‘normal’ parahumans have.”

  “Yes, the Gifts of Shiva,” Cassius said. “Of course, if that power corrupts her, she could become a deadly threat, just like the entity I met. The alien later told me about a contamination, a dark force that needed to be eradicated. What happens if she becomes tainted with it?”

  “We won’t let it come to that.”

  “If it does come to that, will you do what needs to be done, John? Even if it has to be done to that funny, awkward girl you like so much?”

  “We won’t let it come to that,” John repeated, a little less certainly. He could not accept the idea that he might have to hurt Christine, the girl who had saved him from madness and worse. It wouldn’t come to that, he told himself firmly.

  It was John’s turn to tell Cassius everything that had happened. His old friend listened in silence, without interrupting or asking questions. “Well, we’ve shared our little campfire stories, Cassius. Do you believe mine?”

  “I believe you have been under some form of mental attack,” Cassius said. “And the girl’s story does dovetail with the things I experienced during my trip. I don’t think you’re lying.” He sighed. “Yes, John, I believe you. I will help you deal with the Legion.”

  John felt as if the weight of the world had come off his shoulders. “Thank you. With you by my side, we can convince the Legion I’m not insane.”

  “Unless they think I’m also mad as a loon. God knows I’ve given them reason to. We might as well try, anyway, since they have pinpointed your location already.”

  That was worrisome but not at all surprising. The information John had willingly shared with the Parahuman Registry made it easy for psychic searchers to locate him. When he had been around Christine, her innate ability to avoid detection had protected him, but he’d been away from her for several hours now. “It took them longer than I thought. Of course, finding me, and figuring out how to deal with me are two different kettles of fish.”

  “I am picking up radio chatter from police and emergency channels,” Cassius said. He still had his Legion-issued cochlear implant, which enabled him to interface with just about every communication system in the world. “So far, they are setting up a perimeter around us and waiting for reinforcements to arrive. The Southern Justiciars are on their way, but since they are based in Atlanta it’s going to take them a while to get here. None of the local Neos are powerful enough to be anything but an annoyance, so they are keeping their distance for now. The Legion has been alerted and is mobilizing.”

  “We probably should go elsewhere before they get here. If things go awry, we don’t want to be anywhere near a populated areas.”

  “Yes. I’m going to say goodbye to Javier, and then we can go. I’ll be right back.”

  Cassius vanished in a flash of golden light. His old friend had changed, John thought. The old Janus had been warmer, more relaxed. Now he was tense, surly, depressed. Cassius hadn’t delved on the details of his years of captivity, but they had well and truly scarred him. Could John count on him? If he couldn’t, he was in big trouble. Cassius was one of the handful of people on Earth John wasn’t sure he could take in a straight fight.

  He’ll be all right, John decided as Janus reappeared a few minutes later. He was wearing his half-yellow, half-purple costume, with the integral face mask that covered the upper half of his face. Even with the mask on, Cassius’ unhappiness was evident in his face. “Javier is not taking things well,” he reported. “It appears I’m no longer welcome in his home.”

  “His loss,” John said. It had taken him a while to abandon his old-fashioned prejudices, but he had taken Cassius’ love life in stride for many years now. Not perfectly, he admitted to himself, but better than many people in the Legion. Then again, Cassius himself was still not fully comfortable with himself; otherwise, why had he kept his nature hidden from the general public? None of your business, John told himself.

  Cassius took John along when he teleported this time. There was the usual unsettling interval during which John found himself somewhere outside reality. It was less unpleasant than the jaunts with the Lurker, but only slightly so. They emerged somewhere in a rocky desert.

  “Nevada,” Cassius explained. “Near a military weapon-testing facility, and far away from any major population center. Just in case.”

  “Just in case. Well, might as well call Kenneth and have the Legion meet us here.”

  It was about damn time for a reckoning.

  Face-Off

  Lake of the Woods, Ontario, March 16, 2013

  We took the day off, and it started out pretty damn well.

  Christine and I left the bedroom and came down for lunch sometime around noon. Condor and Kestrel were already up. Condor raised an eyebrow when he saw us arrive together, but said nothing besides a belated ‘Good morning.’ Kestrel smiled but kept quiet. I’d heard her and Christine have a conversation in the morning, even though I hadn’t quite made out what they said to each other. Something had been slammed against a wall, hard, and I had to resist the urge to rush out and find out what the hell was going on. I waited to see if the slam was the beginning of a brawl, but the conversation resumed after that, so whatever happened was resolved peacefully; Christine hadn’t said anything about it. I could respect that. Maybe she’d knocked some sense into Kestrel. Somebody ought to.

  We ate lunch and watched the news in mostly companionable silence. Neither Christine nor I were much for what she called PDAs, so we kept our hands off each other while eating. The big news of the day remained Ultimate’s alleged murder of Dr. Cohen. Everybody and his brother had an opinion about that, from anti-Neo activists demanding Ultimate’s arrest, or even his summary execution, to Neo groupies in rubber Ultimate masks demonstrating outside police stations and city halls around the country with ‘Free Ultimate’ placards in their hands, which I thought was a bit premature since Ultimate was still in the wind. The
usual suspects had turned the situation into a fucking circus, in other words.

  “I hope he’s okay,” Christine said, and I was in such a good mood her concern for Mr. High and Mighty didn’t bother me one bit.

  “No news is good news in this case,” I told her. “It means Janus didn’t turn him in, and if he’s got Janus on his side, he’s pretty much untouchable.” I hoped so. If someone could take down the two most powerful supers in the US without making a noticeable splash, then we were fucked anyway. I kept those thoughts to myself. I was trying to keep up a nice, positive attitude.

  “Face is right,” Condor confirmed. “Hopefully the two of them will deal with the Legion’s problems and unmask the traitor or traitors. If they do that, then we’ll have all the help we need.”

  I wasn’t counting on that, but what the hell, maybe things would get fixed without my having to lift a finger for a change. “So maybe we should wait and see what happens before we do anything,” I suggested. “No point in going back to New York and dangling Christine under the noses of the Russian mob if Ultimate and Janus can save the day.” Normally the idea of waiting for one of the self-righteous super-pricks to get things done would grate on me. I wasn’t feeling very normal right now.

  Condor shrugged. “I guess waiting for a day or so couldn’t hurt. This place is secluded, and Christine’s ability to avoid detection seems to be working fine once again.”

  “We could all use a bit of R&R,” Kestrel agreed. I guess I wasn’t the only one acting abnormally that day. Maybe being tortured half to death had mellowed her some, or Christine had managed to charm her. Or maybe she wanted to give us just enough rope to hang ourselves, and watch us crash and burn for her amusement. That wouldn’t surprise me. I knew life wasn’t a movie: a kiss and some great sex weren’t a guarantee for a happy ending. My night with Christine had been amazing, but we were still two strangers who’d been through a high-pressure situation and ended up together almost out of self-defense. Give her a chance to get to know the real me, and she’d probably run away screaming. Positive attitude, I told myself. I’m positive things ain’t gonna end well. Fuck. I was second-guessing myself like a character in a romance comic.

  “R&R sounds good,” Christine said; she smiled at me, and damn me if her smile didn’t make me feel all positive and shit. “The woods look pretty nice. Maybe we can take a walk by the lake?”

  My dates usually involved loud night clubs and copious amounts of alcohol followed by furious sweaty sex, all occurring late at night. A morning walk in the woods with a nice girl might make for an interesting change of pace. I almost suggested we go back to bed instead, but I realized I didn’t want to just have sex with Christine. “Sounds like a plan.”

  * * *

  The lake was pretty nice in the daylight.

  Condor had given us a rough layout of the property. We had a lot of empty forest to ourselves, but I still made a face just in case we ran into a civilian. I didn’t want to make last night’s face for some reason, so I went for Tony, the wannabe mobster who usually prowled Little Italy trolling for gossip. Tony belonged in these woods about as much as I did, so it was a fitting face somehow.

  It was pretty cold by the lake, and she was just wearing a long t-shirt and underwear, so I offered Christine my jacket. She shook her head. “I want to try the biofeedback trick again,” she said.

  I grinned at her. “Go for it. If you set yourself on fire, I’ll just toss you into the lake.”

  “Whatever,” she replied, grinning back. “I think I know what I was doing wrong. It’s all about the Source. I can access it a little bit faster than you can.”

  “Sure, if by ‘a little’ you mean a couple of orders of magnitude,” I said.

  “Keep it up. I like a guy who can drop ‘orders of magnitude’ into casual conversation.”

  “If it’s a casual conversation about Neo powers, I’ll get as techie as you want. I was a bit of a Neo nerd long before I became a Neo. I even collected trading cards of all the big-name heroes, complete with full sets of stats on the back.” My favorite card had been the Lurker’s; it featured one of the few pictures someone had ever taken of the vigilante in his full costume, cloak and gas mask. Meeting him in person hadn’t been as great as I’d expected, unfortunately, mainly because the guy had gone batshit crazy and become infected with some otherworldly force. So much for my childhood idol. Of course, Christine’s disappointment had been worse, what with the batshit crazy guy being her father.

  “Well, let’s see what happens. I hope my trading card nickname doesn’t turn out to be Self-Immolation Lass.” She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and concentrated. All joking aside, I watched her carefully.

  She didn’t burst into flames. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and grinned. “Hey, I think I got it now!” She was a little flushed, but other than that she looked fine.

  After a few seconds I could feel heat emanating from her. “Still a little too much,” I said, getting ready to toss her into the lake.

  “Yeah, I noticed. I’m starting to sweat. Self-inflicted hot flashes, yay.”

  “You’re too pretty to sweat. You’re starting to glow a little, that’s all.”

  “So what’s the stuff running down my face? Unicorn tears? Hold on, I’m trying to cool down.” I felt the heat dying down. Damn, but she was good. Her control over her powers was incredible for someone who’d only known about them for a couple of days.

  “Okay, now I’m just comfortable,” she said, and wiped some unicorn tears off her forehead. “And I think that if I practice a little, I can set things on fire instead of myself. It’s just a matter of accessing the Spooky Energy and making it do things. Most Neos just do that instinctively, I think, but I’m beginning to see how you can learn to control it consciously. That’s pretty neat. And a little scary, come to think of it. I could easily get carried away and go full-on Jean Grey. Mad ginger destroys planet. Oh, that would really suck.” She stopped and turned to me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Just enjoying the sights and sounds,” I said. She was pretty irresistible when she went off on a rant.

  “Can you bring back last night’s face? I feel like making out but I don’t want to feel all promiscuous and stuff.”

  “A one-face woman? I can deal with that,” I replied, and complied.

  I kissed her and held her, and after a bit she started getting hot the old fashioned way. She wrapped her legs around my waist. I carried her in my arms as we kissed and put some trees between us and the lake, just in case any boaters came by. After that, it was pants off and hands-on time. I felt her breath, warm and heavy as she panted next to me. I held one of her legs up as we joined together standing up. We did that for a while, then rolled on the cold earth and ended up with her sitting bestride me, her red hair shining in the early afternoon light as she rode me, a steady delicious rhythm, her eyes closed, her mouth open wide in the biggest smile I’d seen on her.

  All in all, it was a great day. It didn’t last, of course.

  Christine Dark

  Lake of the Woods, Ontario, March 16, 2013

  Christine got dressed in a hurry, not that she’d been wearing much to begin with, just an oversized t-shirt, red lace panties she’d taken from Condor’s closet, and some flip flops. She still couldn’t believe she’d gotten naked and done it outdoors. Even more unbelievably, she had actually enjoyed herself instead of being too busy fighting off a panic attack to appreciate the moment, which would have been her normal reaction to the mere idea of having sex outdoors, let alone the actual act. She could hardly recognize herself lately; she’d turned into a sexual warrior princess. Her battle cry should be something like ‘By the Quivering Quim of Quetzalcoatl!’ which had a nice ring to it except for the fact that Quetzalcoatl was a dude, if she remembered her Mesoamerican mythology correctly, and thus wouldn’t have a quim, which was a nice Victorian term for vaj. Oh, well.

  Mark watched her putting her clothes back
on with the same interest and appreciation he’d shown when she’d taken them off. She had to hand it to him: he made no attempt to hide how much he liked the way she looked. Her last two boyfriends had always made her feel vaguely unattractive and as if they were lowering their standards just by being with her. Not directly, they were too smart for that, the d-bags. They did it with backhanded compliments and ambiguous comments, little things that kept her off-balance and insecure. Mark just honestly ogled her and his compliments were pretty darn direct; a bit on the lewd side, perhaps, but not backhanded at all.

  And, come to think about it, she felt like she had toned up quite a bit in the past couple of days. “Hey, peeping Tom,” she said to Mark. “Have I gotten more muscles lately? I only ask because you saw me when I was only wearing a hospital gown back when I first showed up here, so you should be able to tell if I’ve changed since then.”

  “Well, I didn’t really check you out back then, besides making sure you weren’t hurt. It wouldn’t have been appropriate. But from what I remember, yes, you’ve gained a little more muscle definition. Most Neos do. Don’t ask me how and I won’t try to make shit up to impress you.”

  “I’m already pretty impressed, you know,” she said, and he smiled at her. She felt pretty happy right this second, too. Happy and lazy and wishing this was all there was, just the two of them and the birds and the bees. “So Neos don’t have to work out and they still get to look all ripped and stuff? I’d be so hating on them if I wasn’t one.”

  “Enjoy the perks, ‘cause we get plenty of shit to go with them.”

  “I know. I’m enjoying them, honest. It’s just there is so much stuff, happening so fast, and I still have so many questions.”

  “Ask away.”

  “Okay, this isn’t really a question, more of an experiment.” She turned her Christine-vision on and Mark became a humanoid figure made of swirling lights of many colors. The tree he was leaning on glowed with its own palette, different in hue and intensity but just as lively in its own tree-ish way. “I think I can see your connection to the Source. I think I can change it.”