Time and Chance

by Jeff Mariotte

  Finally, Joe said, "They're dead, Bobby. My wife. My son and daughter. Dead."

  Bobby shuddered. He had been prepared for anything but this. He couldn't help himself, he turned to face Mr. Joe.

  The man had changed—but his eyes were the same. Tired and wounded. Yet alive, burning with urgency. That had been one of the qualities that had arrested Bobby's attention about Mr. Joe in the beginning. Here was this homeless man who was bent, but not broken. He had the look of someone who was waiting for something, watching for an opportunity to begin again.

  That opportunity had come, and God help him, Joe Monteleone had taken it.

  "No, that's not right," Bobby said. "I saw them. Me and Sarah, we went to the Regent looking for you—"

  "Bobby," Joe said softly.

  It stopped him. It was all he needed to hear. The pain in Joe Monteleone's voice left no room for mistakes. What the man said was true, whether Bobby wanted to believe it or not.

  "I did it all for them," Joe said. He struggled to get the words out, his voice choked with emotion. "Then Wager decided…"

  Bobby didn't have to hear the rest. He'd been through his share of double-crosses. He understood.

  "There's blood on my hands," Joe said. "Some of it was almost yours. But you and your friends got away. Thank God."

  Bobby knew that at least a part of him should be angry at this man. Mr. Joe had been weak. He had left his family when all they wanted was to be with him. He had decided without ever asking them what was most important to them. And he had done a thing that had ultimately led to the deaths of those he cared most about.

  It was that last thing that staved off his anger. There was nothing he could say or do that could punish Mr. Joe worse than what he had done himself. What mattered was here and now.

  "What do you want?" Bobby asked.

  "Wager. Dead. But I can't do it alone."

  Bobby shook his head. "We're not killers."

  "I didn't say you were. Listen, I know where he is. I know how to get to him. What I need is help breaking through his defenses. You and your friends, you can take me there. I'll do the rest."

  Bobby's mind was swimming. He felt a fury that nearly made him burst into flames. He wanted Joe's family avenged. He wanted Wager stopped.

  But not like this.

  He looked back to the obelisk, putting his hand onto its carved surface to steady himself. Then he saw something—odd. Several of the hieroglyphics had been chiseled to form words in English:

  EAT AT JOE'S

  Bobby almost laughed. He couldn't help it. Laugh or scream, his only options.

  "You think this is funny?" Joe Monteleone asked. His shoulders tensed.

  "No," Bobby said, looking away from the obelisk for an instant. "No, it's just—"

  When he looked back, the hieroglyphics were Egyptian symbols once more. He stared at them in confusion.

  "What is it?" Joe asked, his tone completely changed. "What did you see?"

  "The—the letters changed," Bobby said. "For a second it said—"

  Joe grabbed Bobby's arm and hauled him back. "He's here."

  The obelisk shimmered. Caitlin and the others broke from cover. A door appeared in the face of the needle, a darkness deeper than any mystery, weightier than death.

  Figures stepped out.

  The first was a muscle-bound giant. Wager. Suzanne Sawyer and the men Joe had fought at his wife's town-house followed.

  Bobby looked to Joe, wondering for only a second if this had been another trap all along. But the man's startled expression told him all he needed to know.

  "You bastard," Joe said, staring at die grinning man who led the procession. "You bastard!"

  Joe launched himself at Wager—and fell through the man. He tumbled to the ground on the other side of his maker and struck the now solid obelisk once more.

  "Don't flatter yourself to think that we're the same," Wager said. "The serum affected me far differently than it did you. My power is all power. To have my will done in all things. My dreams, your nightmares."

  Bloody hands burst up from the ground, grasping at Joe Monteleone. A woman's hands. The hands of children. He screamed in terror and scrambled away.

  The hands disappeared. Joe tried to strike at another of Wager's operatives, but his hand became intangible the moment before he could land a blow.

  "You can't harm us," Wager said. "I told you that you were a thing of little or no importance. Now it's true. I willed it to be so and now it is."

  Bobby understood what was happening, though he could only barely believe it. Wager was somehow controlling Mr. Joe's powers, making it impossible for the man to harm any of them.

  Wager turned to Bobby and the others. "Come now, children, it's time to play."

  Bobby shrugged off his trenchcoat and allowed the fires to consume him. His teammates flanked him.

  "Oh, good," Wager said. "The traditional superhero battle. I've been reading about these since I was a child. And there were so many things I was wondering about…"

  Caitlin tapped Roxy on the back. Bobby watched as she edged around to the far left, placing herself across from the muscular blonde woman.

  "Right—this is the line of scrimmage part of things," Wager said. "Four of us, five of you, six if you count poor Cipher, everyone pairs off looking for a dance partner."

  Caitlin stepped forward.

  Wager giggled. "The fearless leader. I want you for my very own."

  "Take them down," Caitlin said.

  Bobby raised his hand but before he could make a move, he felt his flames leap out of him, unbidden. They made a wide sweep, torching the group. He gasped as he saw them all burst into fire, screaming and wailing as they twitched and fell upon the ground.

  "Bobby!" Sarah screamed. She leaped into the air and frantically summoned winds and rain that doused the fiery, dying bodies.

  Caitlin and the others stared at him. He looked down at the fires still in his hand.

  "I didn't," he said. "I didn't!"

  "I'll get help," Sarah said, watching Bobby with a look of stark disbelief. Sadness and anger played across her beautiful features. And sorrow.

  The four figures on the ground had stopped moving. They were grotesque, charred husks.

  They were dead.

  "I didn't…" Bobby repeated.

  "Dude, the fire came out of your hand," Grunge said.

  "What are we gonna do?" Roxy said. "It's not supposed to be like this! It's never been like this!"

  Bobby watched as Mr. Joe stood up slowly. He looked at the bodies with a desperate look of hope, disappointment, and fear.

  "Withdraw your flames," Caitlin said.

  Nodding, Bobby tried to pull them back.

  Nothing happened.

  Caitlin looked worried. "Bobby, I know you didn't mean to—"

  "It just happened, I didn't do it!" Bobby yelled. This was a nightmare!

  "Go get Sarah," Caitlin said. She was visibly shaken. "We'll phone 911. Something. I dunno. Mr. Lynch'll help us fix things. He'll know what to do."

  "People will be coming soon," Grunge said. "They're gonna see!"

  Bobby refused to believe this. He hadn't willed the flames upon his opponents. This was one of his greatest fears.

  He was a murderer…

  "Let 'em come," Bobby said, falling to the ground. "You guys go. Let 'em come…"

  The others were silent. Were they considering his offer? Or simply too stunned to respond?

  He didn't even look their way.

  "This can't be right," Joe Monteleone said. "Wager's playing with us. This isn't real."

  Roxy covered her mouth and looked away. "It sure smells real…"

  Bobby felt hope rise up within him. Could this be an illusion? Was it possible that Wager was playing games with them?

  He waited for the bodies to rise.

  Waited.

  Then all four of their opponents were standing in place once more, unscathed. Wager grinned.

 
Sarah suddenly winked into existence beside Bobby, her eyes wide with disorientation.

  "That's one of the things I wondered about in these battles," he said. "You children have all this power. How can you know exactly how hard to strike, how much power to use, the amount of heat your opponents can take? It would be so easy to cross the line, to snap someone's neck or burn them to cinders. And how would that feel? Would some part of you like it? What would you do? The odds were 98 percent that in another 55 seconds at least one of you would have turned on the little fire-starter and suggested letting him take the blame. But—"

  Caitlin surged forward, smashing her fist into Wager's face.

  He kept grinning.

  She pummeled him, beating on him until she was barely able to stand. No one else moved. Bobby tried, but he was frozen in place!

  Finally, Caitlin stumbled back.

  "Whatever you give will find countless ways back to you," Wager said.

  Caitlin screamed as a volley of invisible blows landed on her, first on her jaw, then upon every area of the body in which she had struck Wager. Bruises and welts appeared. She fell back as blood spilled from her mouth and she collapsed.

  Wager picked her up by the throat and examined her.

  He stared deeply into her eyes and spoke to her. But his words were garbled. Bobby couldn't understand them.

  Wager wished for this conversation to be private, Bobby realized.

  How can we fight this guy? Bobby wondered. What can we do?

  Whatever Wager was saying, his words were having an effect. Caitlin's eyes grew wide and moist. She swallowed hard, shuddering, desperately attempting to look away from the madman.

  "Upsetting, isn't it?" Wager said, his words comprehensible again. "For one person to know another so well? And just by the evidence of the senses. Senses you should not deny, little one." He sighed. "You have one chance. Take it."

  He dropped Caitlin. She snatched a weapon from the belt of the blonde-haired woman. A silver blade.

  Caitlin, no! Bobby screamed in his mind. But he couldn't speak. Couldn't move. All he could do was watch as she rammed the blade into Wager's side with both hands—then fell over, the color draining from her face as a bloody wound appeared in her own side.

  Wager frowned. "Hmmm. I still have questions and curiosities, but I also have something of a need to indulge myself with physicality. The rest of you, come, enjoy yourselves, I wish to experience that free-for-all battle scene that I've read about so many times!"

  Bobby felt the paralysis that had gripped him suddenly disappear. He gritted his teeth and loosed a plasma bolt at the closest of Wager's soldiers, a man with long blond hair and hands that had elongated into talons.

  The man took the blast and smiled.

  Meanwhile, Roxy had loosed her powers upon Suzanne Sawyer, increasing the woman's gravity tenfold. She sweated as she trudged forward and struggled to raise her hand, but her eyes glowed with delight.

  "A pretty one, aren't you?" Suzanne said. "I want to hear you scream…"

  A dozen paces away from Roxy, Grunge had thrown himself against Mike, the human brick wall who had repelled Cipher. The man threw open his arms and caught Grunge in a powerful embrace.

  Then he began to squeeze.

  Bobby saw all of this, but could do little to help. The blond guy was on him, his raking talons slicing the air before him. Flames completely engulfed Bobby once more and he tried to fly, but the man grabbed his ankle and hurled him to the ground. Opening his mouth, he loosed a freezing cold that put out Bobby's flames and left him shuddering on the ground.

  "Bobby!" someone yelled.

  It was Sarah. Bobby saw her flying toward him to help, then suddenly her sailing form was jerked away.

  Wager!

  Bobby's field of vision was then consumed by the blond man and his flashing talons. He rolled to avoid them, and spun to deliver a kick to the man's face, driving him back.

  He "flamed on" once more and leaped into the sky.

  From above, he could see Sarah and Wager. The muscle-bound goon had his arms crossed over his massive chest. Sarah was before him on one bent knee, struggling against his will. An odd aura surrounded her, a gray, lifeless void that seemed to cut her off from the earth and the elements.

  He was torturing her!

  A scream came off to his left. He looked over and saw Roxy fall as Suzanne Sawyer loosed a steady stream of dark energies at her. Bobby made a strafing run, delivering a series of explosive plasma bursts at the tall platinum-haired woman. Sawyer's concentration was broken, and shards of a large stone shot up and struck her in the skull. She staggered back, giving Roxy time to go on the offensive.

  Caitlin was still down. And Mr. Joe wandered through the battlefield, helpless, a screaming, impotent wraith.

  Wager glanced up at Bobby. "This could become public quite easily, couldn't it? Then the fun would be over too soon."

  He gestured and the ground shook. Four more stone obelisks, each the exact size and shape of Cleopatra's Needle, rose from the earth. They struck upward describing a five-pointed star, and lightning coupled with walls of shimmering energy reached out between them, creating a shining veil that hid their battle from the world. A dome reached over them, translucent, but hazy.

  No one could see in or out of the field Wager had created.

  And no one could escape.

  Bobby saw strange symbols in the energy walls. Ancient ankhs. Hieroglyphs. And vistas of another time and place. Egypt itself.

  Had Wager taken them out of their own space-time continuum simply to contain their battle? Would a legion of mummies and animal-headed men with god-like powers next appear to challenge them?

  Someone tapped Bobby on the shoulder. He was two stories above the ground.

  He turned to see Talon.

  "You think you're the only one who can fly?" his enemy said. Then his claws struck out and all Bobby saw was a bloodred haze as pain lanced through him and he fell to the ground.

  Rolling onto his back, Bobby lifted his arms and focused all the energy he had left on Talon. A single controlled plasma burst of the highest intensity struck his flying, incoming assailant square in the chest. It drove him up and flung him to the wall of the dome, where the strange energies and odd images curled beneath the sky.

  Talon screamed—and disappeared.

  "Roxy!" Bobby yelled. "Roxy, did you see?"

  She had. Roxy gestured and Suzanne Sawyer suddenly flew upward, deprived of all gravity. She turned in midair and aimed her energies at the wall above, creating just enough force to keep her from vanishing into the matrix of energies Wager had willed into existence.

  "Yo, Bob-man, could use some help over here," Grunge said.

  Bobby looked over and saw that Grunge had turned a bright red, the vise-like grip of his assailant nearly crushing the life from him. Raising his hand, Bobby said, "Sorry, dude!"

  A final plasma bolt left him, striking Grunge square in the chest. It flung him and the dark-haired man back to the ground. The moment Grunge was able to make contact with the grass, he took on its molecular composition, easily wriggling out of Mark's hands, then turning into vines that encircled and began to squeeze Wager's operative.

  Bobby collapsed, spent.

  Yet—Wager still had Sarah! The giant was draining her, ripping the life essence from her!

  "Let the girl go," Joe Monteleone said.

  Wager glanced up as the wraith approached. "Cipher. What will you do if I say no? Will you speak with me harshly?"

  Cipher—and he was Cipher now, Bobby could see that, the running outfit was gone and his battle gear beneath was revealed—advanced on his maker.

  Cipher pulled back his hand and transformed it into a sledgehammer. He struck Wager hard enough to send the giant flying backward.

  Sarah fell back, the gray aura surrounding her instantly dissipating.

  Bobby surveyed the scene. Caitlin and Sarah were down. Roxy and Grunge occupied. It was up to him and Mr. Joe no
w. Only—Bobby was drained. It didn't matter. He picked up a rock and stumbled forward.

  As if sensing Bobby's thoughts, Cipher said, "Stay back!"

  Wager sat up slowly. He stroked his chin.

  "This is a satisfying feeling," Wager said. "Brute physical contact. Though I'm not sure how it's possible."

  "Whatever you give will find countless ways back to you," Cipher said. "This is for my family."

  Wager shuddered. "The percentages are not in favor of such a—"

  "Shut up!" Cipher said, advancing again. As Wager stood, Cipher turned his hands into swords and ran his maker through. Wager gasped and Cipher withdrew his sword hands.

  Then Wager straightened up and his wounds healed with a thought. He struck at Cipher, who fought back. The ground thundered and the shimmering walls of energy faltered as the titans battled. Their bodies shifted, mouths opening with jagged teeth, tendrils and tentacles erupting from their flesh, and they battered and bruised one another, but could do little more…

  Roxy cried out with effort and sent Suzanne Sawyer a mile through the air. Grunge backed off as the unconscious body of Wager's other operative collapsed at his feet. Then she went to her sister, who lay curled up on the ground, clutching her side.

  Bobby dropped the stone he carried and gathered Sarah up in his arms. Grunge stumbled over and helped Roxy with Caitlin.

  "We gotta get out of here," Roxy said.

  Bobby nodded. He knew this might be their only chance. But he couldn't leave Mr. Joe!

  Bobby felt a sudden ache in his head. His power—his other power, which came sparingly these days—had engaged. He could feel Mr. Joe in his mind.

  I'll hold him, Joe Monteleone whispered. Go!

  Though it nearly broke him, Bobby turned his back on his friend and helped the others leave the shadow of Cleopatra's Needle.

  They were at the very edge of the circle described by the five obelisks when a shadow rose up and fell upon them. Bobby looked back and saw Wager standing nearly as tall as the obelisk, Cipher crawling away in pain.

  "Oh, yes," Wager said. "All the classic elements. Sacrifice. Duty. Honor. Vengeance. And it all amounts to nothing. I could kill any of you with a thought. I could wish you out of existence, or turn back time and make it that you were never sired. But I choose to let you live. As heralds. Messengers. Let others of your kind know that I exist, and I will not be denied. I cannot be undone. I am the alpha and omega. I am your god!"