Time and Chance

by Jeff Mariotte

  The elements were within her.

  She would command them.

  With a silent cry Sarah felt her power surround her like a cocoon, pushing away the corruption of this terrible place. She willed herself upward, driving herself against the hands and the earth and the teeth-filled slug-like things that sought to make her one of them—and burst from the sands!

  She rose into the sky, coughing, shaking, spiraling dizzily. A fiery shape appeared before her.

  "Bobby?"

  Yet even as she spoke her friend's name, she knew it wasn't him.

  The burning man turned nightmare black, becoming a terrible void. For an instant, his form flickered and took the shape of the doorway she had seen in the distance.

  "I am the gateway," he said. "But I am not for you."

  The man changed shape once more, becoming a thing that might have been human, or perhaps a scorpion, and reached for her.

  Caitlin ran.

  Hundreds of tiny devices scuttled after her. Walls expanded outward and withdrew, as if they were breathing. Steel arms with grasping claws materialized from their reaches.

  A figure appeared before her and Caitlin struck at it.

  Her fist went straight through the figure and she nearly stumbled. Turning, she heard a familiar voice behind her.

  "Caitlin, it's me. Cipher."

  She saw him materialize. "I thought you were staying behind, you said—"

  Cipher reached for a pair of the mechanical arms that clawed at him and yanked them out of the walls. He used them to beat at the collection of hungry, snapping little machines that sped their way, on wheels, tracks, and mechanical feet.

  "What's going on here?" Caitlin asked, joining the fray.

  "Wager having a little fun, what else?" Cipher said. "You have a love of science. Technology. You think of yourself as a brain while others view you as little more than a body. Wager looked into your soul when we fought. He's seen into all of us. It gets him off, killing us with what we love. Corrupting it."

  Before them, the machines backed away and began to leap at one another. They formed three distinct figures, one larger than the other two.

  With hissing mechanical voices that were otherwise perfect replications, Joe Monteleone's wife and children held out their arms and called for him to join them…

  Roxy wandered through the halls of a vast, deserted lab. The place looked eerily familiar, reminding her of the facility where she had been changed into something more than human.

  She hated being here alone. One moment, she had been with her friends, ready to take on the monster that had nearly killed them all once before. Then—she was here.

  Nothing had happened to her. No bogeymen had leaped out and attacked her. There was nothing here but dust, the smell of old, spilled chemicals, and a palpable feeling of dread.

  She wanted to be anywhere but here.

  Footsteps came from a corridor directly ahead. She stopped, wondering if she should take cover.

  No.

  Whatever the threat, she would face it full on.

  A shadow crept forward, and a figure became clear. Short. Hulking.

  "Grunge!" Roxy yelled, her arms open wide.

  He leveled a gun at her. His chest was torn open. Bleeding. She saw now that he was on the verge of staggering.

  "Sorry, babe," Grunge said. "You don't get me twice the same way."

  His finger tightened on the trigger of the weapon he held.

  He fired.

  * * *

  Bobby was on the ground, fighting a handful of creatures that were part-human, part-slug, and part-piranha, when Sarah had burst from the earth. He had called to her as she spun high into the air and confronted the mysterious figure that had appeared. Was it Wager? Another of his agents? Or simply another monstrosity pulled forth from his twisted mind?

  Bobby felt the heat of the blighted earth. He drew on it, and felt his body burst into flames. The monsters he fought drew back, and he sailed into the air to help the woman he cared most about in the world.

  Sarah was grappling with the dark, shifting form. It was an amorphous thing, a void whose borders remained constant for no more than a few seconds at a time. Always it looked something like a man, but with other aspects blurring its form.

  It was darkness.

  Bobby was the light. He flew through it and the creature wailed as its body was dispersed. Sarah fell back and away, spinning and countering her fall before she struck the ground or came near the mutated creatures below.

  "He said he was the doorway, but not for us," Sarah said. "How are we going to get out of here?"

  Bobby wished he had an answer. He had been the one to lead them to this place. To insist that they come.

  In so many ways, it really was up to him.

  He reached out with his slowly evolving psychic powers and felt a presence that informed this entire region.

  And suddenly, he knew the answer. "It's not about getting out, Sarah. It's about getting further in…"

  Grunge wasn't sure why he flinched at the last second and let his shot go wide. This wasn't Roxy. It was another drone. Or illusion. Or whatever the hell Wager was sending against him.

  Yet—he just couldn't do it. Even after she had nearly killed him, even knowing what he did, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her.

  The young woman before him quaked and nearly burst into tears. She looked at the seared wall beside her. Then she looked over his shoulder, at the teenagers he had rescued after he had disarmed the fake Roxy and drove her off.

  She raised her hands. "Look out! Grunge, look—"

  They struck him down from behind. He was in his human form, his body rapidly healing, but still weakened from the trauma of being shot. The sheer number of his attackers and the ferocity of their attack was too much for him. He struck the floor hard and heard inhuman wails and high shrieks of laughter. The second he felt their skin he knew they weren't human any longer. They had already been turned.

  Then—the biting, stabbing mass lifted from him. He rolled onto his back and saw creatures that were now only partially human striking the walls and ceiling.

  "They're kids, just kids, like us!" Grunge said. But he wondered—was that true? Was there even a chance of it?

  He turned back to Roxy, the weapon still in his hand. He aimed it at her as he got to his feet.

  "How do I know it's you?" he asked. "How am I supposed to trust you or anything here?"

  Roxy's hands lowered. Her shoulders slumped. "Grunge, I…"

  Two words escaped her lips. He only barely heard them, as they were little more than a whisper. For a very long time, he would question if she had really spoken those words at all.

  But he sensed in his heart that the young woman before him was Roxy, and that the love she felt for him, however she meant it, was real.

  He felt it, too.

  Grunge lowered the weapon and held out his hand. Roxy raced ahead and took his hand, stopping short of hugging him when she saw his still healing wound.

  "If none of this is real," she said, her lips reaching toward his. "If that's true, then we can do anything here. Anything."

  He nodded, and an instant before their lips met, they were—elsewhere.

  Caitlin watched as Cipher's resolve faltered and nearly collapsed. He stared at the mechanical amalgam that had taken the shape of his wife and children and spoke to him with their voices.

  "Daddy's a secret agent. A superhero," Joe Jr. said. "He won't let anything happen to us. Not again."

  "I love you, sweetheart," the woman said. "More than anything in the world. You know that."

  The girl looked away. "Daddy, you won't hurt us. You won't, will you?"

  Caitlin considered what Cipher had told her. "It's the past. You can let it trap you or you can make it a part of you and move ahead. The choice is up to you."

  Cipher looked over his shoulder at her. "See?" he said. "You're not all brain or body. It's your heart that knows…"

  He
stepped forward and the robotic creatures broke apart and swarmed him. At the last instant he became intangible, then, when he and the mechanical killers shared the same space, he took on flesh and form.

  Cipher screamed as his body and blood merged with the technology, drawing it deep inside, swallowing it whole.

  Then it was over.

  "Time to end this," Cipher said. He took Caitlin's hand, and the mechanical, sterile setting vanished.

  Bobby saw the shadow being slowly reforming as he floated near Sarah. "Wager's a part of all of this. It's reality. It's illusion."

  "It's whatever we allow it to be," Sarah said, beginning to understand.

  "Whatever we want it to be. His will—or ours."

  The shadow creature leaped for them. This time, they did not fight it. They let it overwhelm them. It seemed surprised, then tried to pull away. But it was too late.

  "You are the doorway," Sarah said. "And you are for us."

  The barren landscape faded. Bobby and Sarah found themselves in a small room with Caitlin, Cipher, Grunge, and Roxy.

  Wager stood before them. "Welcome to my private place," he said. "My most holy of holies. Enjoy what you see."

  The madman grinned. "It's the last sight any of you will ever have…"

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I'd like to say this'll be a piece of cake," Bobby said. "But I'd be full of it."

  "You are anyway," Grunge said. "But in this case, I have to agree with you."

  "Doesn't matter," Caitlin countered. "We need to take him down."

  "I'm ready," Cipher added.

  At those words, Wager laughed. Bobby had heard his laugh on the way in, echoing through the empty rooms of the brownstones that surrounded his inner sanctum. But seeing him, immense arms at his sides, fists the size of New Jersey on his hips, head thrown back—that was different. Terrifying. He was reminded of how easily he'd defeated them before. Wager's laugh sounded more like furious thunder than anything resembling mirth or joy.

  Bobby stared at him for a moment, concentrating, trying to get a mental lock on the man. Or what used to be a man. He was still developing his mental powers, and could never quite tell what was going to work.

  Nothing. It was as if the guy was either not human, or Wager's own mental abilities so far exceeded Bobby's that he was able to block Bobby's attempts.

  Bobby hurled a plasma blast directly at him.

  "What are we waiting for?" he asked as he threw it.

  Wager raised a hand, almost casually. The ball of flaming glanced off his fingertips.

  The wall it flew into exploded. Behind it, some of Wager's troops stood, open-mouthed.

  "Right result, wrong target," Roxy pointed out helpfully.

  Bobby tossed her a scowl. "Like I don't know."

  "I'm only saying."

  "Impressive display," Wager said. "Got anything else, or is that the best of it? I had calculated at least a seventy-three percent chance that you'd come up with some new tactics to use against me this time."

  "Oh, that's just a beginning," Sarah replied. She raised her hands over her head. A fierce wind whipped up around her, blowing her long black hair forward. In her hands she gathered a massive lightning bolt, which she threw, Zeus-like, at Wager's chest.

  Again, Wager flapped his hands dismissively at the bolt. It whipped past him, smashing into the bank of video and computer monitors at his desk. Sparks shot to the room's low ceiling, and a small flame began to flicker inside the ruined electronics.

  "A little better," Wager said. "My turn now."

  With that, he glanced at the flaming pile of video wreckage. Almost at once, it began to change. Almost like a spilled liquid, the bits and pieces of it flowed together. The mass of the whole equipment bank expanded, pushing against another wall, punching through it. The team watched as it took on a definite shape.

  In less than a minute, a dragon stood before them. Its head, twenty feet high, tore through the ceiling above, raining plaster down into the small room Wager had occupied. Its tail was in yet another room. Scales of shiny black plastic covered its length. It stood on powerful hind legs that ended in reptilian feet and claws made of shards of glass that had once been monitor screens. With its front legs, it pawed at the air as if anxious to be loosed on them. Its eyes were unbroken monitors, glowing with phosphoresence.

  "Okay," Roxy said. "Superfreaky, but we can deal."

  "We can?" Grunge asked. "I mean, sure we can." He reached down, touching the stone floor, and let his molecules take on its hardness. "Ready now."

  Amazing, Caitlin thought, watching the dragon form. She'd seen him do this before, but that didn't help defray the sense of awe. It's almost as if he has the power to reshape reality, she thought.

  No, never mind the "almost."

  Cipher pushed his way to the front of the team. "I'll take this one," he insisted.

  "Be my guest," Grunge said.

  "Careful, Mr. Joe," Bobby warned.

  But Cipher wasn't listening to them. He had taken three steps toward the dragon. His entire will was focused on the beast, and the dragon eyed him through squared-off eyes, glass teeth gnashing together. Cipher held out his right hand, and a long sword appeared in it. He extended his left and a shield was there.

  "He's not the only one who can play like that," Cipher said. To a vastly lesser extent, he thought. But here goes. He raised the sword to swing at the dragon.

  But the great beast reared back its head, then thrust its neck forward. Its mouth fell open and a great jet of— well, something—blasted out like a fountain of flame. Cipher raised his shield instinctively, and the stuff bounced from its surface, flowing around him. As it hit the ground, it sizzled and melted like snow on a hot plate, but Caitlin could see what it was—random letters and numbers.

  "It's breathing information at him," she whispered, awestruck. "Pure data. Incredible."

  "Yes," Sarah breathed in her ear. "It's phenomenal. But don't let it distract you from what needs to be done."

  "Right," Caitlin agreed.

  Cipher pressed his counterattack, moving in under cover of his shield. He swung the great sword. Its broad blade bit into the beast's plastic scales, just above the front left leg. The thing let out a staticky wail. Encouraged, he yanked the sword away, and drove it forward again, point first this time. The tip buried itself in the dragon's chest. But before Cipher could take advantage of the wound, the thing's heavy tail whipped around and slammed into him, sending him flying into the room's only remaining wall.

  Caitlin chose that moment to make her move, while Wager was distracted by his dragon's battle. She slipped the hypodermic containing the Gen Factor antidote from its metal case and lunged at him.

  He held up a hand toward her, and she stopped as if running into an invisible wall. The hypodermic flew out of her hand, rolling into the corner behind the dragon.

  Cipher sat up, somewhat dazed by the impact with the dragon's tail. The thing's snout was lunging toward him, teeth snapping. He still clutched the shield, which he held out before him. The dragon's head rammed into it. The shock traveled up Cipher's arm, and he dropped the shield, but the dragon's attack was stopped.

  "We gotta help him, Bob-man," Grunge said. "Flame on."

  "Right," Bobby agreed. He'd been almost in a trance, watching the miraculous battle take place. But now he allowed his entire body to be covered in flames. Grunge reached a stone hand out to touch his friend's shoulder, and then let himself become flame too, matching Bobby's molecular structure.

  "Cool," Bobby said. "Let's go."

  Together, they charged the beast.

  Caitlin shook Roxy's arm. "Rox, the antidote," Caitlin said.

  At first, Roxy didn't know what her sister meant. She'd been too caught up in watching the dragon. But she followed Caitlin's pointing arm, and saw the hypodermic, still lodged in the corner behind where the dragon held its ground.

  "Gotcha," she said. She focused on it, lifting it from the ground and levitating it
well over the dragon's head. She moved it slowly, not wanting to attract Wager's attention to it.

  Or the dragon's, she thought. That thing swallows the needle, I'm sure not climbing into its guts to retrieve it.

  Bobby took to the air, and hit first, high up on the dragon's already-wounded chest. He flamed his way through the thing's hard plastic shell. The dragon screamed, its tail whipping this way and that as it tried to shake the burning invader loose.

  But Grunge caught the tail in his fiery grip. He was lifted off his feet by its writhing, then managed to find his footing. As Bobby cooked the dragon from within, Grunge twisted its tail, knocking it off-balance. Once it had fallen to the floor, Grunge worked his way up its body, hands and feet melting through its scales every time they touched. The monster bucked and curled from the pain, its deafening screams filling the building.

  Cipher joined them then, sword held tightly in both hands, shield forgotten. Grunge and Bobby had the thing down on its side. Its head, thrashing on its stalk-like neck, was just a couple of feet off the ground. He raised the sword over his head and brought it down. The steel flashed in Bobby's firelight before slicing cleanly into the neck. Plastic shattered; shards flew every which way. On the other side, the sword hit the stone floor.

  The dragon's head clattered to the floor right after.

  Its corpse gave one final shudder, and then it was still, bleeding wires and tubes and circuit boards out its stump.

  Cipher let the sword vanish, turning back to the ladies. Sarah and Roxy were watching, and Caitlin was hiding something in her hands.

  She had retrieved the hypodermic. There was still a chance to end this thing.

  He turned to Wager, expecting to see the man downhearted by the defeat of his dragon.

  Instead, Wager was smiling, rubbing his hands together.

  "Much better," he said. "There's my seventy percent in action. It's such a pleasure to see real teamwork. I was almost worried that when I achieved this level of being, there would be no one capable of testing me. You certainly weren't much of a danger last time we met. I'm glad to see you making some strides. Ultimately pointless, of course."