Copyright © 2017 Jeffery H. Haskell
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced without the express, written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission contact the author at: www.JefferyHHaskell.com
Cover illustration and design by www.VividCovers.com
In my life, I have been young and foolish. This is for everyone who ever helped me, but I was to dumb to thank them. Thank you!
Amelia is stubborn, eccentric, and absolutely the best friend I’ve ever had. You ask why I risked everything to save her? Because no matter the risk, that woman is a treasure to mankind and I would be as guilty as the people who took her if I hadn’t tried. I miss her every day. Every day.
—Excerpt from Studio 50’s interview with Kate Petrenelli AKA Domino, founding member of The Protectors.
M
y hands won’t move. I’m telling them to, but they won’t budge. Just sit there, white knuckling the wheels on my chair while I stare at the black and white tile floor. If I take my hands off the wheels they’ll shake and I don’t want anyone to see me freaking out. Well, anyone other than Kate, who patiently waits for me while I have my panic attack.
“Amelia, it’s going to be okay. Really. Dr. Grace is one of the best. She assures me your parents are making good progress. Remember, they asked to see you.”
I nod. She makes perfect sense in the way she always does. Breathe Amelia, just breathe. It’s one of the lessons taught while I learned to come to grips with my paraplegia. Panic attacks do me no favors. Despite my decent shape and the exercise I do get, there are inherent dangers in being paralyzed and I work extra hard to avoid the pitfalls of paraplegia.
“Kate… what if they don’t remember who I am?” I look to her for help. Kate Petrenelli could’ve modeled for a living if she wanted to, hell with her powers she could do anything, and she chose to fight crime. She’s finally ditched her disguise and now wears her straight black hair just past her shoulders. Her green eyes stare at me behind the very fashionable glasses I had custom-made for her. They let her ‘talk’ to Epic whenever she needs to. The rest of her outfit is as tasteful and well-put-together as I could expect. Stylish white blouse, a cardigan throw, and a flowing skirt that dropped down to her ankles and a pair of four-inch heels I would love to wear.
I had a dark blue turtleneck and jeans, though, with the temperature outside below 40 degrees, I opted for a thick wool blanket over my legs. The only thing out of the ordinary is my very bulky hi-tech-looking wheelchair. Of course, it isn’t a wheelchair, it’s my Mark III armor. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time redesigning the wheel, it ended up being more of a Mark 2.5, but with enough changes, I decided to go with the III designator.
“Amelia, this isn’t about them miraculously fully recovering. It’s a process. One you are holding back because you don’t want to see them.” She holds up her hand to forestall my complaint. “Believe me, I understand how painful it is. But you are holding it back. They need to see you, they need to try and reforge those neural pathways.”
I nod; I hate it when she’s right.
“Can you push? I don’t think I can keep my hands from shaking.”
With a grin, she steps behind me. Despite its appearance, the suit is actually quite light. Even if it wasn’t, Kate would put an Olympic weightlifter to shame.
“Have you decided where you want to go for your birthday? Where I come from, twenty-one is a big deal.”
I shake my head. “I don’t celebrate birthdays.” The only one I remember is my 6th, the one we had just before we left for California. I don’t need a yearly reminder of what I’ve lost. I have it daily.
“That’s too bad because we are celebrating.”
I don’t respond, I don’t want to force the issue right now. I’ll just weasel out of it when the time comes. I hear her giggle and realize she can probably feel exactly what I’m thinking.
We move in silence as she pushes me through the first floor. Like most hospitals, and I have visited my fair share, the smell of antiseptic is heavy in the air. Doctors and nurses scurry about here and there. She pushes me over to the elevator banks and we wait as the light blinks at us.
“Any word from Carlos?” she asks.
I shake my head, “Only that he received an offer to learn guitar from some famous person in Spain. His family said he packed up and left overnight about three days after the incident. Nothing since. I’ve emailed him a couple of times but no joy.”
“He’s 20, in Spain and he plays guitar… use your imagination as to why he could be… occupied.”
“Why Katherine Petrenelli, are you jealous?”
I turn to see her face and sure enough, there was a hint of red on her cheeks.
“Not jealous, per se, just… I get overly used to being the most popular girl in the room. It can be… disconcerting when I’m ignored.” She waves her hand in the air dismissively, “Oh, I know I should be thankful but part of me… well part of me likes the attention,” she said with a sigh. “The bad part of me.”
“Well, I’m sure he’s having a good time and thinking about you every minute. You or Monica, I’m not sure which.”
Kate smiles and pushes me into the elevator. The building stretched up thirty floors and my parents were close to the top for security reasons. Once in, we fish out our ID and show it to the camera. The elevator had an ECM suite to rival my own, I should know, I designed it for them. No one trying to access the 29th floor could do so using mind control, I made sure.
We ride up in silence. I really didn’t want to stay away but the part of me that was still a scared little girl curled up in my mind and cringed at the thought of losing her parents… again.
Kate’s reassuring hand squeezes my shoulder. The warmth of her feelings flows through our link and the edge of my panic vanishes.
I can do this.
The doors open into a sterile room with metallic ink painted on the walls. A lonesome stainless steel tray with two necklaces sit alone in the middle of the otherwise empty white room. We place them over our necks and a white LED flashes on, letting the staff know the ECM was active and working.
Kate could still use her powers to some degree, pheromones, and touch, but she couldn’t read anyone’s emotions or influence them without touch. She pauses for a second, stumbling to the side and holding her head as if a huge headache had just cold cocked her.
Wheeling over, I lean down to look up at her, “You okay?”
“Okay… I,” she looks around, eyes unfocused as if she can’t quite see her surroundings. “Good lord, Amelia… can you make me one of these?” She holds up the necklace. The ones Mars Corp made for the hospital ran on a rechargeable battery; they were good for two hours, tops.
“Of course, I should have thought about that. Yeah, and I can make it look like however you want and,” I lower my voice to a hush, “Power it with something a tad more energetic.”
She nods emphatically. “Please. I’d forgotten what it was like to be alone in my own head.”
I grin, I love doing things for her and this would certainly take the cake. “Okay, let’s go in.”
The doors open and the security guards behind it, also wearing the amulets, check our ID one more time. Kate pushes me down the sterile hallway, past a desk and several rooms. The feel was that of a hotel more than a hospital here, which made sense considering how long-term some of the patients were.
“Any thoughts about the Presidents offer to form a team?” She asks as we follow the orderly.
“Epic and I ran the numbers and we’re
just not sure. We both think it’s a good idea but the two biggest obstacles are finding people we can trust and… well, me.”
“You?” I could hear the surprise in her voice.
“They want me to lead it; they won’t trust anyone else to take charge. I’m no leader Kate, you know this.”
She clears her throat, “Amelia Lockheart I know no such thing! You moved into the Diamondbacks and practically took over in a day. You’re a natural born leader.”
No, I wasn’t but there was no arguing with her. Making suggestions to the Diamondbacks was one thing, being the full-on leader of a superhero team was something else entirely. I wanted to do it, but I also maybe thought I should solve this solo. After all, Pythia said I caused the destruction of mankind. What if this is how I do it? What if creating a team and then failing at leading them caused us to fail at some crucial moment and then we all died?
I shake my head, this is a trap. A trap I’ve been caught in for months. Ever since I sent Ericsson off into space. Every move I make could bring us closer to extinction. Not moving could bring us closer. I hunch my shoulders and rub my face, my chest tight with the fear of it all and from meeting my parents. I needed a second.
I signal for Kate to stop.
“No,” she says.
“What do you mean, no? I can transform this chair and—”
“Amelia, breathe and listen. You’re meeting your parents, put the rest of the stuff out of your mind for one second and just enjoy this.”
Either she hit me with her ‘calm down’ whammy or her words just made sense, either way, I calm down.
“Okay, let’s do this thing.”
The orderly gestures for us to continue, smiling at Kate with the largest grin possible. He also has his gut sucked in. It’s a good thing I’m not the envious type. Even with her active powers dampened, she’s still the hottest woman in the room.
The cafeteria lay beyond the double doors, a large spacious room with massive bay windows facing west to let in as much of the natural light as possible. They also came with a magnificent view of Puget Sound. The hospital crowded a hill west of Woodland Park Zoo with at least a few hundred feet of elevation, giving us a fantastic view of the entire Sound.
“I could eat lunch here every day! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much water in one place,” I say.
“It rains a lot here,” Kate says dismissively.
“Kate, so good to see you,” Doctor Grace says as she approaches. The doctor has a svelte figure, dark features, and even darker hair. If I had to guess I’d say she hailed from India, or her parents did. I tried to guess her age, but I’m terrible at it and she didn’t look much older than me.
“Dr. Grace—”
“Rashi, please.”
“Rashi,” Kate continues. “Are they ready?”
I didn’t want to look past her; didn’t want to see them. Fourteen years I spent looking for them and now I’m terrified of how they will look at me. I wipe my sweaty hands on the blanket in the hopes that they will stop.
“They are, and eager, if not excited to see your friend. This way,” she said, turning.
There they were.
My fear vanishes for a heartbeat. Mom and Dad, sitting at a table, laughing over a shared joke. His hair is shorter than when I saw him last. Mom’s longer. Her hair is as black as my own and when I see her face it’s like looking into a mirror. I’ve let my own hair grow out in the last few months to just below my shoulders.
They’re laughing and I so badly want to join them.
“Go on,” Kate says, gesturing toward them, “I need to confer with the good doctor.”
With a deep breath for strength, I push forward. Dad stops as he sees me, gently tapping Mom’s hand. She turns and her dark brown eyes widen at the sight of me.
I move the next ten feet in silence before coming to a rest at the table. They have some food, a burger, and fries in front of my dad and a salad for Mom. They must’ve just finished eating since about half the food is left on the plate.
“Hi,” I say.
They both smile, glancing at each other then me; I can tell they don’t know what to say, neither do I.
“Hi, yourself. You’re Amelia, right?” Dad says.
I shake my head, biting my lips in a supreme effort to hold back tears.
“We’ve heard only a few things about you, Dr. Grace feels it’s important we get to know you, she thinks it will help us re-establish our memories,” Mom says. “Can you tell us about yourself? I know this is hard for you,” she glances at Dad, “Us too. We thought…”
He takes her hand, “We thought we were doing good work for so long and then— well you know,” he says with a shrug. “We want to remember you, we really do. We always wanted a child but we thought we couldn’t have one.” They both glance down when he speaks. As hard as it is for me, it has to be just as hard for them.
I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t formulate any words for a moment. What do I tell them? About the accident? About living with her brother? I decide to go with that.
“Well, after the accident I went to live with your brother, he took care of me. I was only six so I didn’t really understand what was going on. I guess there was something of a ‘reverse’ custody fight.”
Mom’s smile falters and I can tell she doesn’t remember anything. A quick glance at Dad says the same thing. They’re hollow behind their eyes. No memories of me or their life.
I grab my wheels to turn around when a crack of thunder shakes the windows. A dark shadow spreads out over the bay and engulfs the hospital.
“Amelia?” Kate asks from behind me. I push over to the window.
“Some kind of atmospheric disruption?”
The clouds over the bay thin, lighting up as a massive heat source barrels through them. A meteorite splits the sky in a massive fireball before crashing into the bay with a massive explosion. A wall of water a hundred feet high forms in an instant as the shockwave spreads out. Someone screams behind me.
I roll myself backward, “Epic, initiate!” I barely have time to speak before the shockwave is one us. The chair jerks into place, ejecting the wheels and standing me up at the same time. The armor reconfigures, sliding around to engulf me. The helmet flips over in parts before the kinetic emitters lock the whole thing in place. The suit hisses with pressurization when the shockwave hits the windows, blowing them out with a bang. Glass shards explode inward, sending thousands of razor-sharp daggers forth to shred my parents and everyone else in the room.
Power surges through the suit, snapping the kinetic shields to life. Epic, thank God, is faster than me and throws them out wide, straining the circuits to protect as many people as he can.
The majority of the glass falls harmlessly to the ground.
Thankfully only a few dozen people are in the dining hall. Kate rapid ports people to the hallway, away from the windows.
“Open faceplate,” I tell Epic. The mirrored section slides up into the helmet. “Mom, Dad, I have to go, you should be safe here,” I look to the Doctor who nods.
“We have bomb shelter for emergencies,” Dr. Grace says.
“I… it was nice to see you,” I say. I can’t seem to bring myself to ‘I love you’. I do, in the way that I love the idea of my parents. But those people, the ones who I spent so long looking for… they might as well be dead.
The faceplate slams shut as I spin, running for the window. I shatter glass as I jump through the already broken window.
“Epic, sitrep?”
A meteorite has hit the Puget Sound.
“You think?”
Comms traffic is going crazy. No one saw it or knew about it as far as I can tell. I am checking Seattle ATC for data—one moment.
Thrusters hum as we pour on the speed and I’m flying over the harbor in seconds from five hundred feet up. The new armor is handling fabulously. I have all my weapons, minus my sword, plus my new main gun, code name: SDF-1.
But something isn’t
right. I zoom over to where the meteor hit and take a flyby. The water churns from the displacement and there are waves… they’re just not large waves.
Amelia, Sea-Tac ATC confirms what I thought. They did not see it on their air traffic radar. It came in stealth. I also do not believe it struck the water at terminal velocity. Kate is calling.
“On screen,” I tell him.
“I’ve got your parents to the bomb shelter and the rest of the hospital is evacuating. Where do you want me?”
I’m still processing what Epic told me. If it didn’t come in at terminal velocity it isn’t natural. Can they be here already? It’s only been a few months.
“Kate, get to the waterfront, coordinate with the police. We need it evacuated and I mean ASAP.”
“I don’t see any waves, what’s going on?”
Other than Luke, Kate is the only other person who knows what Ericsson told me.
“They’re here.”
“What do you mean ‘they’? Like alien-they?”
“Get to the waterfront, get it clear.”
“I’m on it.” I hear her swear before she cuts the line, not something she does often. I really needed more time to plan this. I’ve only just finished the MK III armor.
Amelia, I suggest we gain some altitude and orbit the area.
Right. I pull up, switching our ECM to full power. “Fire up Artemis, just in case. I’d hate to shoot an Arrow at a populated city but we might not have a choice.”
Affirmative, Artemis is tracking, orbital thrusters firing, remembering the Alamo.
I open my mouth to speak when the suit jerks hard right, eliciting a grunt from me. The Emdrive punches me in the gut and our airspeed shoots past five hundred miles per hour in three seconds.
Sorry, the alien craft shot out of the water below us.
“What?” I shake my head, trying to clear the fog from the sudden g-forces. I take back control, pulling a long turn and then I see it.
“Epic, why isn’t it showing up on the HUD?”
I cannot see it. I only knew it was ‘there’ because of the sudden displacement of millions of gallons of water.
Full Metal Superhero Book 3_Inescapable Arsenal Page 1
