Earthbreaker

by Robert Jeschonek

  “You bet your ass I will.” Briar grinned, shot me a wink, and darted out the door for good this time.

  Leaving me standing there, feeling smaller than any woman with a planet for a soul had any right to.

  28

  A few minutes after Briar left, there was another knock at the front door. Before anyone could answer it, the handle turned, and the door slammed inward.

  Everyone’s gaze flew there at the same time as “Caravan” played on the chime. My breath caught in my throat, and I think everyone else’s did, too. Was the attack beginning already? We’d thought we’d have more time. Why didn’t we lock the damn door?

  Then, I saw a familiar face and relaxed. What F.B.I. Agent Frank Wagner was doing there at 6:15 in the morning, I didn’t know, but at least he wasn’t a rampaging, possessed Landkind.

  “I thought I heard a party going on in here!” Frank chuckled as he let himself in. “But why weren’t we invited?”

  “Maybe they just assumed we’d crash it.” Agent Judy Lewis followed him in, grinning and waving a little too merrily for that time of the morning. “In which case, mission accomplished!”

  “What’s up, you guys?” Immediately, I thought of the battle plan on the whiteboard and the guns all over the place, though it was probably too late to worry about all that now. At least the plan wasn’t complete; I’d left off one last resort move that I was keeping to myself.

  I pushed forward, hoping I could block the view and ease them back outside...to no avail. Frank and Judy stood squarely in the doorway and wouldn’t budge.

  “Actually,” said Frank, “we were on our way to breakfast, and I thought I’d try one more time to recruit you into federal law enforcement. Though lookie here.” He nodded beyond my right shoulder at the whiteboard and guns. “I guess maybe I’ve been barking up the wrong tree here.”

  My stomach twisted. This was just the kind of complication we didn’t need right now, with the attack about to happen.

  “We’re into role-playing games,” I said, hoping that might be enough to deflect them.

  “And guns.” Frank smirked.

  “They’re all registered,” said Roy. “We’re not breaking any laws.”

  Frank shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” He glanced at Judy.

  “Not one damn bit,” said Judy. “When the shit comes down, you’d do just as well with a bunch of squirt guns and cream pies.”

  A sharp chill shot through my body. A terrible realization crashed into me like an ocean wave I hadn’t seen coming.

  “But there is one thing that might work,” Judy said slyly. “If you turn yourself in and come with us right now, I think the whole shit-show could be avoided. What do you think, Frank?”

  “Sure, why not?” Frank clapped his hands together, then spread them wide. “I’d say that could work out to everyone’s advantage.”

  Again, a chill swept through me. Everyone in the room seemed to understand, too, as they were all stone-cold quiet and hanging on every word.

  “I see.” In retrospect, none of this should have been a surprise. Agent Frank had been lurking around for days, trying to “recruit” me. Phaola had told us the federal government was behind the Landkind takeover scheme. Didn’t it make perfect sense that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the plot to seize control of the world, of me?

  “So what do you say, Gaia?” asked Frank. “Shall we bring you aboard Project Terralyze and avoid the unpleasantness?”

  Agent Judy nodded encouragingly. “It really is the smart play here, Gaia. I mean, you don’t want to see all your friends pay the price for your stubbornness, do you?”

  “Besides, you’ll be serving your country.” Frank smiled and reached for a handshake. “So what do you say? Want to help defend innocent Americans from terrorist threats to our democracy?”

  I thought for a long moment, considering my options. The safety of my friends mattered most to me, but I doubted they’d be any safer if Terralyze managed to hollow out my mind and exert control over the world.

  What if I killed their point people, the F.B.I. agents, right there in my office? I was sure I could do it, but I couldn’t imagine that would stop the rest of their forces from attacking.

  That left one other option, the same one we’d been preparing all night to take, whatever the outcome.

  “If I were you, fighting back wouldn’t be my first choice,” said Frank, as if he could read my mind. “That one over there? With the raging energy blasts?” He pointed at Ashanti. “We’ve got a small army of people with that level of firepower on the way here as we speak.”

  “They will slaughter this ragtag band of misfits you’ve cobbled together.” Judy sneered. “Excuse me, I meant to say suicidal misfits.”

  “Why throw their lives away like that?” asked Frank. “Why not just accept your fate and go with the flow?”

  “Free yourself of the responsibility,” said Judy. “Stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.” She chuckled.

  I thought about it another moment, then slowly shook my head. “Thanks, but no thanks. If you think I’d ever surrender the Earth to pathetic people like you, you’re sadly mistaken.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad.” Judy tipped her head to her left shoulder and pooched out her lower lip in feigned disappointment. “You’re forcing us to beat the living shit out of you.”

  “Have it your way, Gaia.” Grinning cruelly, Frank turned and waggled his fingers in a mocking wave at Ashanti. “You too, sweetheart. Just remember, we offered you the easy way out.”

  “The hard way is our favorite every time, though,” said Judy. “You’ll see!”

  “Later, gang!” said Frank as he backed out of the doorway.

  “Bye for now!” Judy followed him out and slammed the door behind them.

  That left the rest of us standing in the office, shell-shocked, in their wake.

  Finally, Minthe cleared her throat. “So I guess we’re about to save the world, huh?”

  I marched over to the door and locked it, then turned to face my crew. “Anyone who wants out, now’s the time. No one will think any less of you. If anything, we’ll feel relieved that you’ll be safe.”

  No one took me up on the offer. Every person in the room stood with shoulders squared and jaws clenched, looking defiant.

  “All right then.” I nodded. “Briar ought to have the streets evacuated and cordoned off by now. I’d say it’s time we got out and took up our positions.”

  “Agreed, Earth Angel. But first, a little sendoff.” Duke went to the electronic keyboard set up in the back corner of the room and switched it on. He then proceeded to play something I’d never heard him play before--a jazz piano version of a rock song that instantly got me psyched to go to war.

  “I didn’t know you knew any Queen songs, Duke,” I said.

  “There’s a time and a place for every piece of music, Earth Angel,” he said. “And if you ask me, this is the perfect moment for ‘We Are the Champions.’””

  29

  The skies were overcast when I stepped outside, blanketed with heavy gray clouds. The blue and red lights of local police cruisers flashed at either end of the street, which was otherwise empty of traffic. A light wind blew through the silence, carrying the strong smell of mineral-rich water all the way from Smoke Ring Lake.

  Briar waved from one of the cruisers, three blocks away, where he’d posted himself after finishing the evacuation. Knowing he was there boosted my spirits, though he had no powers. At least I’d equipped him with special diamond-skinned body armor that would hopefully protect him from whatever the Terralyzers threw at him.

  The other three unpowered humans among us also wore the special armor. Roy, who was slung with guns and ammo, jogged over to join Briar. Rusty, also kitted out like a walking arsenal, went the other direction, joining Deputy Jim Withers at the second vehicle.

  Ashanti and Phaola staked out positions midway between the office and either
end of the street. Mahoney, Minthe, and Nephelae clustered near the office, forming an inner ring of defense.

  As for me, I waited in the last place I wanted to be—smack in the middle of our defenses, surrounded by protectors. I’d let them talk me out of going straight to the front line, where I could be of the most use—though I wouldn’t stay back for long if the fight got ugly.

  And if worse came to worst, and I had to fall back on my secret plan, I’d be on a front line all my own.

  “When will they get here, I wonder?” asked Luna, who waited at my side, a last defense. If the enemy punched through this far, and my powers went on the fritz again, she’d try to fend off the attackers. She could also wake Blue Knob Mountain and Prince Gallitzin State Park, whom we’d carried from the back room to the front door area. We’d keep the two of them in reserve, since Veritas had said we should hesitate before waking them.

  “Soon, I hope,” I said. “I’d like to get this over with and get back to planning exotic tours for demigods and nymphs seeking eco-friendly adventure.”

  Just then, Duke emerged from the office, carrying a paper go-cup filled with steaming brew. “Last call for coffee,” he said, handing it over. “At least until you’re done kicking behind like the magnificent specimen you are.”

  “Thanks, Duke.” Gratefully, I inhaled the aroma from the pour spout on the black plastic lid, then had a sip.

  “Everybody ready?” Duke rolled up his sleeves.

  “As we’ll ever be,” I told him between sips. “Considering we don’t know exactly who or what will show up.”

  “A ‘small army,’” said Luna. “Whatever that means.”

  “I assure you both, it’s nothing we can’t handle,” said Duke. “Do not be intimidated by suggestions to the contrary.”

  “No matter what happens, sis,” said Luna, “I want you to know I love you. I’m sorry we were so distant for so long, but I’m glad we’re here together now.”

  Suddenly, a gunshot rang out from up the street, and the moment of sisterly bonding was broken. We all looked in the direction of the shot, toward Briar’s cruiser.

  Just as we did so, the cruiser came flying past in midair, upside-down.

  “Time’s up,” said Duke.

  The second cruiser shot up the street from the other direction, on its side, and collided with the first in a shattering crash just half a block away.

  Even as the smashed hulks of the cars dropped to the pavement in a heap of twisted metal with horns blaring, we edged out into the street for a better look at the action. Up the street, Briar and Roy fired round after round at a trio of floating attackers—even as bursts of brilliant white light flashed toward them from the attackers’ upraised hands. Thankfully, the bursts of light were deflected by the armor I’d provided, enabling Briar and Roy to stay on their feet and keep shooting.

  Down the street, a second trio of airborne invaders took fire from Deputy Withers and Rusty, seemingly without suffering a single impact. Then, as I watched, the woman at the head of the group of attackers shot a bolt of golden flame downward, and the ground shook violently, toppling both Withers and Rusty.

  Ashanti launched herself into the air and flew to help them, even as Phaola soared toward Briar and Roy. That left the middle of the street, the stretch in front of the office, wide open.

  But it didn’t stay that way for long. Seconds after it cleared, that patch of the street rumbled and buckled, then heaved upward and blew apart in a cloud of dust and debris.

  When the cloud cleared, I saw a single figure rising from the crater—a beautiful woman with brown hair streaming in all directions, haloed in pulsing red light.

  She was followed by a second figure—a bronze-skinned man encircled by swirls of glittering sand—and a third—a blue-skinned woman born aloft by a muddy waterspout.

  The three of them hung there a moment, their glowing eyes locked on me as if taking my measure. For my part, I already knew who they were—who their bodies had belonged to before Terralyze had possessed them, that is.

  “I know them all,” I told Luna and Duke. “The one in the middle is the Washington state volcano, Mount St. Helens. The man with the sand is the Mojave Desert. And the woman in the water is the Mississippi River.”

  “So they sent us the third string?” said Luna. “And here I was hoping for a challenge.”

  “Just remember who the boss is,” said Duke as he dug into his pockets (and through his earthen substance) for something he could use. “You are Mother Earth, and they are just babies compared to you.”

  “Babies under the control of novice assholes,” said Luna. “Let’s teach ‘em a lesson, big sis.”

  I stood for a long moment, staring at the figures who had risen from the hole in the street. I reached out with my mind, feeling for the power seething within the planet, ready to bend it to my will—and felt nothing.

  Panic whirled within me. If my link to the Earth was broken again, I’d be powerless before those heavy hitters’ assault.

  Heart hammering, I tried again, reaching desperately for some trace of the connection that would let me tap my greatest source of strength.

  This time, the connection blazed to life, and my body filled with the burning energy of an entire planet leaping to obey my commands.

  30

  I made it a point to strike first. Crouching, I touched the pavement and funneled my power into it, directing a quake at the three Terralyzers. I followed it fast with a shot of pure force that blew open a fissure from one side of the street to the other.

  The fissure split the crater down the middle, dropping Mojave out of sight. Mount St. Helens and Mississippi were already aloft, though, and stayed that way.

  I followed the quake with a bombardment of rocks launched out of the fissure, leaping toward Mount St. Helens and Mississippi. Some made contact, pelting the women’s heads and upper bodies, but others were deflected by streams of lava from Mount St. Helens’ hands or jets of water from Mississippi’s.

  Mississippi turned the jets on me next, catching me by surprise and shoving me backward. Luckily, I had a friend who could turn Mississippi’s watery jets back against her with powers of his own.

  Mahoney, who had the power of the mighty Youghiogheny River behind him, twisted Mississippi’s jets around so they blasted her right in the face. She screamed and flopped over into the wave surging behind her, disappearing into the muddy foam.

  I quickly recovered from the impact of her attack, raising my arms to channel a blast of my own—but before I could let it go, Mount St. Helens threw both hands forward, unleashing a fireball of sizzling lava right at me.

  Mahoney raised a wall of water in its path, but the fireball seared through it in a cloud of steam. Digging through the pavement with my powers, I reached for a slab of granite under the street and tried bringing it up fast and hard—but my link to the rock flickered, and it wouldn’t budge.

  At the last second, though, the fireball dropped suddenly to the street as if it weighed at least a ton.

  Looking left, I saw Luna shoot me a quick nod, indicating she’d taken out the ball of lava with her power to manipulate weight and mass.

  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for a thank-you. More fireballs were racing toward us, plus raging dust devils spun out of the hands of Mojave, who’d reappeared from his fall in the crater.

  Concentrating hard, I made contact with the sand in the whirlwinds, striving to seize control. The sand resisted at first, then gave in, peeling away from the central force that propelled it. Instead of whipping the hell out of me and Luna, it curled back and swirled around Mojave’s head, peppering him with grit and jumping in his eyes.

  As for the fireballs, Luna dropped them as fast as they launched with crackling weight-control beams. They hissed when they hit, burning down through the pavement like acid through paper.

  “Fighting back is hopeless!” shouted Mount St. Helens. “We’re trained for combat! Sooner or later, we’ll take you down!” />
  None of us wasted our breath talking back. I reached for the granite slab again, nearly freeing it, as Luna threw her weight control at St. Helen’s, forcing her to hunch. Mahoney wheeled his arms in the air, shredding Mississippi’s wave and exposing the blue-skinned woman snarling inside.

  Even the nymphs took a stab at the pile-on. Nephelae conjured up a cloud of mist, seasoned with one of Minthe’s potent herbal powders, and sent it gliding toward Mount St. Helen’s. The cloud wafted right in her face, then suddenly thickened, forming a solid green block over her features.

  We had them on the ropes. Next, we had to knock them out and help our friends elsewhere on the street.

  “Make them sleep,” I told Luna. “Put them under.”

  Luna looked like she was straining. “Working on it, sis! There’s some kind of interference.”

  Just as she said it, a blast of flame roared down from above, barely missing us. Before I could get my bearings, another blast swept down from a different spot in the sky, and then another from somewhere else.

  Looking up as we scattered, I saw the source, just as I had that day out at Smoke Ring Lake. Three masses of dark cloud broke free from the blanket above us, glowing orange at one end with the promise of searing flame banked and ready to blast from within.

  The Terralyzers were pulling out all the stops. They’d brought along fire-breathing drones just in case the mind-controlled Landkind weren’t enough to overwhelm us.

  31

  One bolt of blistering flame after another lanced down from the cloud-drones, barely missing us as we ran for cover.

  My Highlander wasn’t as lucky as we were. It got torched when Luna, Duke, and I sheltered behind it, set ablaze from three different drones in three different directions.

  Furious, I reached for a slab of cement sidewalk with my power, wrenching it up out of the ground and hurling it at the nearest drone. The slab spun up and caught the drone square across the flamethrowing end, smashing it to bits.