“Come on people, let’s go,” he said heavily, turning back to his team. “Camille, around back. White Knight, you’re with me. Be on your toes, people - we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
Blue Star waited impatiently while White Knight sliced through the door’s locks with a combination of the suit’s lasers and blades. Finally the door opened.
“Step aside,” said Blue Star, ready to lead the way into the house.
“No, I lead,” said White Knight. “I’m the one who’s got superior sensors, remember?”
“I’ve got bomb sensors in the tactical suit,” countered Blue Star. He really didn’t want Gabrielle going in first.
“You’re wasting time,” said Dr. Sterling. “I’m linked into White Knight’s sensors, so he leads. Blue Star, you haven’t activated your NCB sensor pod properly.”
Blue Star fumbled with the small box attached to the armored vest he was wearing over his costume, while also trying to keep up with White Knight, who was climbing up the high staircase into the house.
“I’d like to have a word with whoever designed the controls for this thing,” he grumbled.
“That would be me,” said Dr. Sterling dryly. “I originally designed it for DSA, but ours is the upgraded version that was too expensive for widespread deployment. You still probably won’t have time to get out when you trigger a bomb, but at least we’ll know what it was that killed you.”
“Not very reassuring,” muttered Blue Star.
“Plus Starfish is a team member, so he knows all of our hardware,” added White Knight, who slowed at the top of the stairs.
“True,” agreed Dr. Sterling, “but I always have a few surprises that are only known to yours truly.”
Blue Star caught up and looked around the room. Fish tanks and lava lamps dominated the décor and there was a shattered window near the ceiling where a breeze came into the room. Blue Star doubted he could have thrown himself out of that window like Seawolf had. One of his worst fears was losing his ability to fly. Being dependent solely on one’s legs was so limiting.
“So any guesses what pushed him over the edge?” White Knight asked. “I can’t imagine he was always this deranged.”
“No clue,” said Blue Star, who had been wondering the same thing himself. “Starfish is smart, but he’s prone to sloppy mistakes. I watched footage of the team when I first came on; he rarely avoids an attack. He might enjoy getting injured and healing the damage. I knew a mutant like that once: injuries gave him a natural high. That sort of addiction to pain can really get you out of touch with reality.”
“But out of touch enough to turn on your own team?” White Knight forced open a door that led farther into the house. Inside was a dining room with an old table covered with papers, CDs, and two laptops, and which was divided from the kitchen by a high counter. There were piles of dirty dishes in the kitchen.
“He should have designed a kelp-monster housecleaner before anything else,” said Blue Star as he moved into the room after checking that his sensor signaled all-clear.
White Knight whispered. “I’m detecting a heat signature, man-sized, on the other side of the south wall. Should I open fire?”
“Negative, it could be a hostage,” said Dr. Sterling. “It must be a thin wall though, so don’t use the door, go through the wall. Blue Star, make a hole.”
Blue Star unleashed a concentrated burst of ice against the wall, which held for a moment before blowing apart. White Knight ran past him into the next room, where standing watch was a man-sized creature that looked like a walking starfish covered in writhing seaweed.
“Holy shit!” said White Knight. “What the hell is that?”
“One of my children,” intoned a voice from an intercom in the room. “Welcome to my house warming party, Gabrielle and Jacob!”
The floor beneath White Knight exploded and the entire power armor suit dropped out of sight into the darkness below. Blue Star let loose a flurry of snow and ice that ripped into Starfish’s pet, punching holes into the creature and causing it to recoil back towards the edge of the pit. Blue Star could see that the thing was healing up the damage almost as soon as it was inflicted. He slammed through the blasted wall and into the creature whose two fishlike eyes blinked in alarm as both of them fell through the hole in the floor, down, down, into the water below.
Camille swooped behind the house to the docks below. There was a crescent moon out and the water sparkled as she landed. Two motorboats were tied up at the dock.
“Starfish has a motor yacht that was built by Blue Moon Shipyards to his specifications a few years ago,” Dr. Sterling informed her over the headset. “It’s called the Relentless Dreamer. Any sign of it?”
“Negative,” replied Camille. “So he’s either no longer here or wants us to think he’s no longer here. Beginning search pattern.”
Camille headed for the boathouse at the beginning of the dock where stairs went up the cliff to the house above. She figured she’d check for easy aboveground entrances before delving underwater. Like most flyers, she hated water; it was a rare breed of super that could both fly and swim comfortably.
“We have contact,” announced Dr. Sterling over the headset. “A mutated creature has been encountered in the house and Starfish has announced his presence in voice at least, but White Knight and Blue Star have fallen down into the cliff. You need to find the escape route.”
“It’s probably underwater,” said Camille gloomily. “Then again, so were they…” She turned towards several misshapen aquatic creatures that were lumbering out of the water onto the dock. “Annie, looks like I’ve made contact too. Get a look at these things!” They had faces like eels and kelp-like bodies with massive crab pinchers. “Let’s see what they can handle.” She blasted the upper body off one, but it appeared to be quickly regenerating the damage and more were climbing up on the dock. “Annie, there’s a lot of them…”
“It looks like 12 total,” said Dr. Sterling over the headset. “According to Seawolf, their regeneration ability consumes their own body mass. So if you hit them enough, they will keep getting smaller and weaker.”
“Great,” muttered Camille as she stepped up and hit one with her fist, sending it flying back into one of the moored motorboats. “A battle of attrition. I might need backup here.”
“The WPPD are almost there, but do what you can to slow these things down. We don’t want them to get loose and breed,” responded Dr. Sterling. “At the very least…” The headset fell silent.
“Annie?” said Camille, tapping on the headset. “Are you there?”
There was no response; she’d lost communications with Ops. This was serious. Either there was a localized jamming field or HQ was under attack.
“Shit,” said Camille. Before she could process the situation, another creature, this one covered in sea anemones, surfaced by the dock where she was standing and grabbed a hold of her legs. As she prepared to blast it, the thing used its pinchers to rip through her reinforced ultimesh suit and start injecting a paralyzing poison. Camille shrieked and took to flight with her last conscious thought. She didn’t even feel the impact of her head slamming into the hillside when the poison took over and she plummeted to the ground.
Chapter 39
12:20 a.m., Saturday, August 3rd, 2013
Ops, WPS Headquarters
West Pacific, CA
“Why doesn’t White Knight ever have to sit out?” asked Cosmic Kid as he paced around the crisis center at HQ, watching Dr. Sterling slide around in a rolling chair as she managed a suite of computers and video monitors numerous enough to rival most space command centers. She had a massive operations staff, but none of them were stationed in this inner room, which was bound by glass walls through which she could see them executing the orders that she called out over the many intercom and phone channels that linked to her headset.
“Yes on Truthfinder but no on Nightprowler,” Dr. Sterling said, apparently talking to someone else. Cosmi
c Kid wasn’t going to be deterred.
“My regenerative immune system means that I need almost no sleep, so I’m hardly ever tired, even in the middle of the night like now,” he continued. He knew he was whining, but he didn’t care. Everyone else was about to storm Starfish’s house and here he was sitting out, like some minor cabinet Secretary stuck in the White House on State of the Union day.
“Someone has to sit out,” said Dr. Sterling, “and today you’re the lucky one.” She usually sounded bored when defending her orders, but tonight she was almost giddy. “That is confirmed, 8643 Coastline Drive,” she said into her headset. “Remember, Starfish is not to be engaged. Consider yourself lucky, Cosmic - tonight you’re in the cat bird seat.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He stared at her incredulously. “I know the protocol - if a team member goes rogue, it’s the responsibility of the rest of the team to bring him in. And I’m a full member of the team! You can’t bench me like some rookie when I’m needed in the field.”
“Bitterness doesn’t suit you,” observed Dr. Sterling, tapping on the communications panel that controlled which feeds were routing through her headset. “Which is why everyone is going to be suiting up in full tactical gear with air tanks, bomb sensors, and reinforced armor,” she said. “The van is fully loaded, so use it. Yes, we will need medical teams standing by. Everything should function fine.”
She was obviously able to carry on multiple conversations at once, which was impressive; however, Cosmic Kid knew that he shouldn’t be bothering her at a time like this. Dr. Sterling never changed her mind and it was too late now anyway; the team was about to engage and needed her full attention. He stopped pacing and watched the main holographic map, which was displaying the area around Starfish’s house. The interior floor plan was limited to only the rooms that Seawolf had been able to describe. They were going in blind.
“Three is what you’ve got,” Dr. Sterling was saying. “This is why we practice multiple numbers for deployments. A team leader should be able to work with whatever he’s handed.”
Cosmic Kid figured she was talking to Blue Star who obviously wanted him in the field. Cosmic Kid felt touched. He and the old guy really had forged a bond this Season. He was relieved that his disastrous first day on the team hadn’t meant anything in the long run.
Dr. Sterling pushed a button on the communications panel and said, “let her in”, apparently to one of the staff members on the other side of the glass wall who quickly got up and left the room. Then she continued with Blue Star. “And if this is an ambush or distraction? We’d have the whole team committed and no spare. One super always sits out. Tonight it’s Cosmic Kid. WPPD is gathering up a tactical team for support and should be with you all in 20 minutes. You’re wasting time.”
Cosmic Kid frowned. Rules like having a spare sitting out shouldn’t be religiously followed in a case in which the team was already perilously short-handed. Having him sit out could mean the difference between life and death for the three members of the team preparing to enter Starfish’s house of horrors.
“I got here as fast as I could Annie,” said a female voice. Cosmic Kid turned to see a woman entering the room, wearing a jet black suit, definitely ultimesh, and a full face mask that just showed her eyes. Judging by her voice, she was probably in her early 20s.
“Excellent, right on time,” said Dr. Sterling to her with a smile. “Everything is coming together, hopefully it’ll be enough.” She glanced up at the holographic map and rolled her chair over to another panel, where she pushed several more buttons. “You’re wasting time. I’m linked into White Knight’s sensors, so he leads. Blue Star, you haven’t activated your NCB sensor pod properly.”
A moment later, a monitor next to the holographic map began to display live feed of someone climbing the steps into Starfish’s house. “That would be me,” Dr. Sterling said. “I originally designed it for DSA, but ours is the upgraded version that was too expensive for widespread deployment. You still probably won’t have time to get out when you trigger a bomb, but at least we’ll know what it was that killed you.”
The young woman in the black suit broke in eagerly. “Have you really figured it out?”
“I think I finally have,” said Dr. Sterling with a satisfied smile, continuing to push buttons on the communications panel. “Starfish - right under my nose the whole time.”
“Starfish!” the young woman exclaimed. “Annie, that’s disastrous!”
“True,” agreed Dr. Sterling, “but I always have a few surprises that are only known to yours truly.” She pushed another button. “Starfish has a motor yacht that was built by Blue Moon Shipyards to his specifications a few years ago. It’s called the Relentless Dreamer. Any sign of it?”
Cosmic Kid tried to focus; he was having trouble following everything that was going on. He walked over to the young woman, “Hi, I’m Cosmic Kid.”
“Midnight,” she said, shaking his hand.
“Ah yes, I forgot you two haven’t worked together before,” Dr. Sterling said. “We should be close now. Negative, it could be a hostage. It must be a thin wall though, so don’t use the door, go through the wall. Blue Star, make a hole.”
Cosmic Kid spun around and saw on the monitor that White Knight had detected a heat signature on the opposite side of the kitchen wall. The picture went fuzzy for a moment as snow and ice filled the screen. White Knight jumped through the hole and the monitor was filled with a man-sized creature that looked like a walking starfish covered in writhing seaweed.
“What the hell is that?” exclaimed Cosmic Kid.
“One of my children,” boomed a male voice from another monitor in the room. “Welcome to my house warming party, Gabrielle and Jacob!”
The first monitor flashed white with an explosion and the sound of ice shards and then the camera appeared to be falling. The monitor streaked green and white, and went dark.
“We have contact,” Dr. Sterling announced. “A mutated creature has been encountered in the house and Starfish has announced his presence in voice at least, but White Knight and Blue Star have fallen down into the cliff. You need to find the escape route. Confirm status of medics en route,” she added, pressing another button.
“He’s not there, is he?” said Midnight, with a growing excitement in her voice.
“Nope,” said Dr. Sterling with a grin. “I don’t think he is. He’s got a hell of a lot of pets though,” she added, her smile fading a little. Another monitor came on now, showing a group of misshapen aquatic creatures lumbering out of the water onto a dock bathed in moonlight. They were horrific creatures that had faces like eels and kelp-like bodies with massive crab pinchers and Cosmic Kid saw Camille unleash a barrage of energy at one; the injuries quickly regenerated.
“It looks like 12 total,” said Dr. Sterling. “According to Seawolf, their regeneration ability consumes their own body mass. So if you hit them enough, they will keep getting smaller and weaker. Blue Star, can you confirm your status? White Knight’s suit sensors went dead on impact with the water - it looked like an electrical surge.”
“If Starfish isn’t there, where is he?” demanded Cosmic Kid. He was getting pissed that Dr. Sterling and this Midnight girl seemed so pleased when the team was getting demolished.
“The WPPD are almost there, but do what you can to slow these things down. We don’t want them to get loose and breed,” responded Dr. Sterling. “At the very least… ” The lights and monitors in the room flickered, and then the room went dark.
“What the hell?” yelled Cosmic Kid.
“Switching to emergency generators,” said Dr. Sterling, calmly sliding across the room in the dark and flipping a red handle underneath a table. She swung around in her seat and looked at the two of them in the blue glow of emergency lighting as a few of the monitors came back on. “Welcome to Operation Checkmate,” she said with another truly twisted smile.
“What the hell is happening?” demanded Cosmic Kid again. “The t
eam is getting run over and we’ve just lost power!”
“Very observant,” said Dr. Sterling dryly. “Midnight, I’ve got a gift for you.” She swung her chair over to the side and used her thumbprint to unlock a metal drawer, from which she pulled a heavy pistol that she tossed at the young woman.
“It’s from the Kill Safe,” she told Midnight. “Depleted uranium bullets.”
Cosmic Kid looked back and forth between both women as if they’d gone insane. “What’s a Kill Safe?” he asked.
“A special vault that only Annie and Dr. Hodges have access to,” answered Midnight, examining the gun appreciatively. “It has specialized weapons in it, each designed to target the greatest weaknesses of each team member, in case one of you goes rogue. Like now.”
“In which case you hand it out to a vigilante?” Cosmic Kid was stunned. “Does Blue Star know about this?”
Dr. Sterling glanced at her HoloBerry, which was blinking red for a lack of wireless signal. “No, he does not. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Starfish blew up the Bayside Boardwalk, killing Mr. Awesome and Meltdown. Starfish is Mr. Darwin. Starfish is trying to destroy West Pacific Supers. And the three of us are going to stop him.”
“Starfish blew up the Boardwalk and controls the Infinite Circle?” Cosmic Kid felt like his head was about to explode. “When did you figure all of this out?”
“About three hours ago,” Dr. Sterling said calmly. “Midnight, the Whisperer is outside. Go let him in.”
Midnight nodded and walked out. Flashing red lights in the adjoining rooms were signaling staff to go to emergency locations and Cosmic Kid could see people running out to safe rooms.
“Now listen to me,” said Dr. Sterling, turning to Cosmic Kid. “We’re only going to have one clear shot at this and we have to get it right. So you do what I say when I say it and no hesitation, understood? I’ve got everything covered.”
“Oh, that makes me feel so much better,” said Cosmic Kid. “Can you at least explain why you trust vigilantes more than the team?”
West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide Page 39
