Forging Hephaestus (Villains' Code Book 1)

by Drew Hayes

  “You can if you really want to. My apologies for holding you up,” Ivan said. He watched as she bolted over to the wall, but before she could trigger the door, he spoke again. “I just thought I’d tell you that we’re both going to have next week off from the office.”

  “Waaaait, who the what now?” Tori’s hand paused halfway to the door’s opening device, unable to continue forward. “Why are we off? People knew we were getting transported to a place with fancy metas as doctors.”

  Ivan set the kitchen towel on the living room table and took a seat. Though he made no gestures and said nothing, seconds later Tori walked over to join him. Now that she knew there would be more time to work, her curiosity was winning out over her drive to jump into the basement.

  “Yes, we will make much faster recoveries than anyone would expect without meta involvement,” Ivan assured her. “However, particularly in situations like the ones you and I found ourselves in, a weekend is too short a time to return to work. Assuming our physical injuries could be healed that quickly, which is suspect for people as unimportant as we are supposed to be, there’s also the mental health issue. We were both attacked. I was shot, and you had your ribs broken. As the nice, normal office workers we’re supposed to be, don’t you think we might need a little bit of time to emotionally process all of that?”

  “Right... I sort of forget we’re not supposed to be badasses,” Tori admitted.

  “It’s the kind of small detail that on its own might slip by unnoticed, but if enough of its kind accumulate, someone could put things together.” Ivan gently tapped the table, making sure he had his apprentice’s attention. “When you’re on your own, if you choose to keep this civilian identity, that sort of attention to detail will help you last a lot longer.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” There was no sarcasm in her tone; after fighting so hard to retain her secret only days before, she’d begun to realize how important her mundane life was. It was a place to get away from the madness of the guild, something that gave her perspective on the world and how things were supposed to work. Among people with tremendous power and flexible morality, it was easy to lose sight of what things were like in the real world. “So, what’s the story, anyway? Are we spending the week in the loony bin?”

  “We’re undergoing counseling, which will continue after we return to work,” Ivan told her. “The guild will falsify all the necessary paperwork and doctor’s notes, which no one will question because right now, the management views us as both heroes and potential lawsuits.”

  Tori leaned back in her chair, not quite so far that she risked tipping but enough to stretch her tired back. “That’s so nice of them, considering I got shot in the arm four times.”

  “To be fair, you did that to yourself,” Ivan reminded her.

  “Yeah, well, Chloe’s power isn’t the easiest to work with. Speaking of, can I go check on her at some point? I know you said she’s okay, but given how much she helped, I feel like I owe her a face-to-face.”

  “Chloe is doing well, though she’s actually going to be taking the week off and getting some counseling, too, just to make certain she’s all right,” Ivan said. “And don’t worry; we’re footing the bill for her treatment as well. You can check in on her next week, when you’re both supposed to be back at work.”

  “Guess that will help sell the story all the more.” Tori rose from the table, waiting for Ivan to stop her. When nothing came, she turned toward the wall, mind already intent on the basement. “You’re really good at keeping up the act, I have to say. One day, I’m going to get you tell me why you really decided to hang up the costume and go mundane.”

  “Was the offer of freedom coupled with the fact that the world was ending not a believable reason?” Ivan asked.

  “Back then, sure, but we’ve been at this for a while now. I’ve gotten to know you pretty well, and you’re a stubborn guy. For you to have completely turned over a new leaf, to commit as hard to this as you did, I know there’s something else at play.”

  For the second time that night, Tori was nearly to the basement entrance when Ivan’s words stopped her dead in her tracks.

  “I’ll trade you.”

  “Trade me what?”

  “The truth. The whole story of why I took the offer, why I adhered to the Orion Protocol. In exchange, I want you to tell me why you’re so dead-set on living the way you have. With a brain like yours, you could have gotten a job at any tech company in the world. With powers like yours, there was never any need for a meta-suit. Yet you keep on pushing, taking the hardest path possible. So I’m up for a trade, if you’re amenable to the terms.”

  Ivan sat still at the table, patiently waiting for a reply. He wasn’t pressuring her or forcing her hand, merely making an offer: tit-for-tat, information for information.

  “Seems to me like you’re asking for more than you’re offering.” Tori turned around slowly, locking eyes with her teacher. “I think I can fill in a lot of the gaps for myself on your story; all I’m seeking is details. You, on the other hand, are asking for some pretty personal shit.”

  “Is this you saying no?”

  “This is me saying sweeten the pot,” Tori replied. “A trade is only fair if it’s equal.”

  Ivan turned this over in his head a few times, debating on what he was willing to offer to know his apprentice’s secrets. He’d found out much on his own through research, but there was a large difference between reading a file and hearing a person tell a story. So much more could be learned from the latter that the two were hardly even worth comparing. Of course, that was just as true for him as it was for her, which meant he had to be careful how much of his own past he gave away.

  “I will tell you the root of my power,” Ivan said. “Not the story of how I acquired it or any useful details regarding how it works, however. Truthfully, this will leave you with more questions than answers, but it’s still something precious few people know. If that isn’t good enough, then I suppose we don’t have a deal.”

  “No, I think that’ll do. But you’re going first.” Tori walked past Ivan into the freshly cleaned kitchen and pulled a cold beer from the fridge. Much as she liked to be clear-headed when she worked, this sort of talk called for at least a little liquid fortification.

  “Only for the first part. My power, we save for last, otherwise you’ll want to ask me more questions instead of offering up your story,” Ivan countered, calling through the doorway.

  Halfway back, Tori stopped, reopened the fridge, and poured a tall glass of sweet tea for Ivan. He might want a little fortification of his own, after all. Gripping both drinks, Tori walked back into the living room, set the tea down in front of Ivan, and retook her seat.

  “I guess that’s fair,” Tori said at last.

  Ivan reached out and took hold of the glass, treating himself to a long sip of the cold beverage before he began to speak. “I’m sure you know Lodestar was the one who finally brought me in, got me locked away in Rookstone with the other criminal meta-humans. We fought several times, but I always managed to get away when she had the upper hand. I was convinced I could beat her if I only had the right strategy, could build up enough power. When the day of our last fight came, I gave it everything I could manage. All my power, all my strength, every tactic and trick I could conceive of, and it just flat-out wasn’t enough. She beat me, defeated me in a way I’d never experienced before. Now, much as that sounds like the start of a story of lifelong vengeance, it’s hard not to have some amount of respect for an opponent like that. I guess she felt the same way—there weren’t many metas who could challenge her—because even after hauling me off to jail, she would still visit from time to time.”

  “Wait, you and Lodestar hung out together?” Tori didn’t exactly doubt the story, but she was definitely having trouble wrapping her head around it.

  “Think of it more as community outreach. Lodestar believed that there was potential in me, that I could be more than a battle-thirsty
punk. Of course, she saw the good in everyone, so it wasn’t that surprising, but even now, I think she took a special interest in me. Maybe she really did see something, or maybe she just knew the day might come when she needed an ally like me. Anyway, once Orion turned into a cataclysmic threat, she was the one they sent to talk to me, to make me the offer.”

  “Damn. I was not expecting it to be friendship with Lodestar that turned you around.” Tori sipped at her beer, entranced by the story but keenly aware that her turn was fast approaching.

  “It wasn’t,” Ivan told her. “When Lodestar showed up that day, she didn’t come empty-handed. She brought along a picture of a baby, only a few months old at the time, and put it down on the table in front of me. I’d slept with a woman who had a thing for bad boys before Lodestar brought me in, and, well... I wasn’t making the best decisions back then, ideas about protection included. When Lodestar made the pitch, she didn’t lean on the part where I’d have a shot at freedom. Instead, she just showed me the picture and explained how things were. Orion was trying to destroy the world and every living creature on it. One of those creatures, as it turned out, was my son.”

  Ivan paused, looking down at the glass in his hand, drops of condensation running down the side, one at a time. “I don’t expect you to understand. Up until that moment, I don’t think I possibly could have either, but there’s something primal about being a parent. Something powerful. Suddenly, Orion wasn’t just some threat trying to wipe out existence. He was threatening my family, my blood. As soon as Lodestar showed me that photo, I knew I would charge the very gates of hell if it meant keeping that baby safe. That’s why I took the deal. That’s why I tried so hard to honor it, too. Even gave it an honest go with his mother, which is how his sister came about. We live in a strange, powerful, dangerous world. I decided I would be there to watch over my children, even if it meant setting aside the life I’d known until then. Fornax died the moment I knew I was a father, though I did borrow his name one last time to end Orion.”

  “Shit. I suspected it had something to do with your kids, but I didn’t imagine it went down quite like that,” Tori admitted. “Pretty shrewd of Lodestar to save her trump card until she needed it.”

  Ivan chuckled and shook his head. “Lodestar doesn’t think that way. She never told me about my son because she thought it would be cruel; I was in a place where I could never see him, never talk to him, never hug him. It wasn’t until there was a chance for my freedom that she decided to tell me.”

  “Guess that morality is why you just trusted she wasn’t making it all up,” Tori said.

  “That, and a few talents of my own.” Ivan took a draw from his tea and stared at Tori. He didn’t bother telling her that it was her turn; that much was obvious. Instead, he let her get her thoughts together and speak when she was ready.

  “My story isn’t as long or fancy as yours,” she said at last. “It’s just a hard life lesson I learned early on. My parents were both scientists—Dad a biologist and Mom a physicist. They worked hard, gave me a solid education from the day I was born, nurtured my mental talent as soon as they recognized it. Both of them had such high hopes for me. Then, one day there was an accident at the lab where they worked. Might have been a confluence, actually, since more than a few people left that day as metas. My parents weren’t among them.”

  The air around Tori shimmered softly as she spoke, and her grip on the beer bottle tightened. Ivan knew how hard she’d been working to gain control of her emotions affecting her powers, which made it all the more worrying to see the heat slipping out.

  “They just got sick. Bad sick. Like a meta-version of cancer. It ripped through them so fast. In only a couple of weeks, they were so filled with tumors... well, you get the idea. There were treatment options, of course. With all the metas in the world, there’s always someone who can fix what ails you, be it by spell or machine or just talent, but those options are impossibly expensive. And the company they worked for, the one who owned the lab that made them sick, refused to pay what it would have cost to save them. Said they’d signed non-liability agreements, that the lab wasn’t culpable. They just let my parents sit in that goddamned hospital room and rot away from the inside out.”

  Tori was crying now—not a full-on sob, but small, short-lived tears that evaporated before they were halfway down her face. Ivan had seen many tears throughout his life, and he knew enough to tell that these were not shed from grief, but from anger.

  “I sat there, watching them die by the hour. And in that time, I realized something important: my parents spent their lives working hard to help other people, and when the time for repayment came, those other people skipped out. I wasn’t going to go down that path. I would work for myself, make my own way in the world. I’d never be left on a bed, slowly dying because my fate ended up in some corporate asshole’s hands. That’s why I went out on my own. That’s why I decided it was better to scrounge and steal than indenture myself to anyone else.”

  “You have my condolences,” Ivan said simply. There was nothing else to tell her, nothing she didn’t already know. It was a tragedy. Had he been there at the time, he’d have done all he could to change it. But it was long over, and not even metas had the power to bring back the dead. “Is that also why you work so hard on the meta-suit? So you’ll be able to live under your own power?”

  “That was part of why I started,” Tori admitted. “I had to create inventions and that seemed like a good place to kick things off. But, to be honest, I think I really picked up the project as a memorial. My mother loved meta-suits. She believed they could bridge the gap between metas and humans. Everyone who has made one so far has kept the tech all to themselves, which means that if I manage to develop one that anyone can use, I’ll be able to launch a huge company and make my mother’s dream come true all at once. Double-whammy, you know?”

  “Two birds with one stone, indeed.” Ivan finished off his tea then rose to go get another glass. By the time he’d returned with a fresh beer that hadn’t been nearly boiled, Tori had regained her composure. She accepted the drink with a nod of thanks, taking a long draw before addressing her teacher.

  “So, did that satisfy you?”

  “It answered many of my questions, yes. And my story?”

  “Explained a lot about you,” Tori replied. “Though there is one part left unfulfilled. If both of the other parts are done, you owe me an origin story.”

  “No, I owe you only what the root of my power is,” Ivan corrected. “No story, no explanations, only the simple source of my meta-abilities.”

  “Yeah, I get it, more questions than answers; just get on with it already. I’d still like to squeeze in a little work tonight, if you don’t mind.”

  “Fair enough. My powers come from a magical source—which is no surprise—that I encountered in my youth. While the exact relationship I have with that source has altered tremendously since the beginning, I’d say things have been constant for the last several decades. Explaining that relationship though... how shall I phrase this?” Ivan drummed his fingers, took a drink from his tea, and finally found the right combination of words that suited his needs.

  “To put it as simply as possible: I ate a god.”

  Chapter 40

  “We’re not doing it tonight,” Morgana said, barely resisting the urge to slam her hand on the table. “That’s their first day, and it’s an imprudent way to start things off. They do need to get some actual field training in.”

  “Plus, it’s Monday,” Stasis added. Unlike Morgana, she wasn’t taking things too seriously, which was par for the course with how things went when they were both involved. Leaning back in her chair, feet on the table, Stasis might as well have been doing her nails, had she actually been able to do anything to them. Instead, she was skimming through a beat-up romance novel starring a swarthy Latin hero named Rodrigo. “There’s nothing worth doing on a Monday.”

  “Well, we can’t do it on the last day. Doc wil
l say they need to have a level head for their upcoming planning session,” Xelas shot back. Next to her, Gork laid a reassuring hand on her metal friend’s shoulder, a simple act that helped keep Xelas’s sharp tongue in check.

  “Training runs for two weeks,” Gork said in her slow, lumbering voice. “Let’s do it on the first Friday, the one coming up. It will be a nice break in the middle.”

  “Friday works for me,” Stasis said. “That’s when there’s shit actually worth doing.”

  “I can swing that, though I’m still not sure I should,” Morgana admitted.

  All four of the female councilors were gathered together in a meeting room that was technically only supposed to be used for official crime-planning purposes. Given their high position in the guild, though, they’d commandeered it for their own use without feeling guilty about it in the slightest. There were certain perks to being villains, after all.

  “Come on. It’ll be good for the apprentices, and for us,” Xelas said. “When was the last time the four of us all went out to tear up the town?”

  “Literally? That incident in Canada a few years back. Figuratively? I feel like it’s only been a little while.” Stasis leaned so far back that her center of gravity should have tipped the chair over, yet she remained supported. “Let’s see, I’d just won my second term on the council, which was... holy shit, it has been a while, hasn’t it?”

  “That’s what I’m saying!” Xelas thrust an arm in the air, a gesture either meant to rally the others around her or signal victory; no one was entirely sure which. “We go out in ones and twos on occasion, but we really need to do something together regularly. We’re on the council, we need to bond.”