In my conflicted admiration for the man, that was one of the big sticking points. Once he was safely locked away in Black Lagoon, I began putting together what I could of his past, especially his time as my dad’s sidekick. Jericho was many things – dangerous, cunning, hyper-intelligent, and the list went on. As Becky said, even in his diminished state he was more than capable and a skilled foe. This was the icing on the cake for the argument of how dangerous Victory was.
Phil beeped, trying to politely bring the attention back over to his screen. “I tell you guys, there’s not a damn thing listed about Morales possible vice president selection,” he said bitterly. “Talk about a ghost, there’s only tiny part clues here and there. All I could gather was he’s someone with a lot of pull back east and that he might be military.”
I shook my head. None of that meant anything to me. “I guess we’ll be finding out tomorrow just like everyone else.” I hated not knowing what the variables were. “Either way, we’re on Victory’s dime currently, as distasteful as that is.”
At some point over the next hour Becky and I dozed off at different times. Sleep was an enemy that you couldn’t keep fighting and expect to win. I was having an oddly pleasant dream about going fishing with my dad when I felt someone shake me out of it. “Is everything okay?” I asked, still groggy.
“Phil’s got something and it’s bad.”
Becky’s concern knocked the sleep out of me and I pulled myself up to see what Phil had. “Oh, that’s not good.” It was a traffic camera out in front of gl-O-bal. Jericho was face to face with some sort of… creature? “Phil, what’s happening?”
The camera closed down to about a third of the screen while Phil’s face reappeared. “That monster is all six of Victory’s mutated freaks combined into one.”
Becky’s face summed it up rather poetically. The mixture and horror and disgust were exactly what I was feeling. “My God, how is that even possible?”
Phil answered quickly, “Zed Wilson. I successfully identified him and the stories out of Red Rock are awful. He and his brothers had the power to successfully merge together.”
“What happened to his brothers?”
“Killed when a super suicide bomber attacked them. Zed was reported dead, too.”
Of course he was; just another cover up that allowed Victory to take supers and work them into his plan with no one being the wiser to it. Even with all of this new information, it was hard to watch what was unfolding on the screen. The combined super six pointed what looked to be a shoulder mounted cannon at Jericho and fired. Somehow, someway, Jericho managed to block the shots and survive.
“He’s going to get killed,” Becky uttered softly.
She was right. This thing was a pure killing machine. I reached over and pressed the button that led to the secret area my dad had installed years ago for his Dark Lion business. I didn’t use it often, but when I was in need of a quick change from Kyle Wonderton to The Morning Lynx, it was handy. Moments later, I was ready to go.
“Kyle, are you sure about this?”
It was Phil, not Becky, who asked. Becky, for her part, looked sick. “I know what I’m doing. If I sat here and let him die, would I really be a hero worth anything? No.” I focused on the screen one last time. Jericho was surviving, but barely. That was a testament to his abilities. “This is my city and Victory and his goons need to be reminded of that.”
****
I moved as fast as my enhanced reflexes would let me. There was no fear in causing the Stormfall as Jericho was down on one knee. He had nothing else to give. My arms wrapped around his shoulders and we were pulled away just as the killing shot blasted the pavement where he’d been kneeling. Cheers went up as bystanders watching the showdown between The Negative Man and this thing were thrilled at my arrival.
He was wearing a mask, so all I could see were his eyes. “Never expected you to show up.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a hero if I let you die, huh?”
It was a tall task for him to get back to his feet. The battle had taken just about everything out of him, like I surmised as I was watching. “I can’t hurt him. Heather’s part of this nightmare.”
Jericho remembered. In one statement, everything about what I’d seen made sense. He’d been on defense purposefully; he was looking for a way to free his love. “What do we know about Zed’s power, Phil?” I asked into my comm.
“Hang on!”
There wasn’t much time to hang on. The combo super was just about on us and it began to taunt us, its voice an odd mix of six different pitches. “The Morning Lynx; this makes everything so much easier.”
“It’s funny what you consider easier.”
It swiped its sword arm, as if to warm up. “I look forward to removing the final two obstacles. The one true power will be most pleased.”
There was no fooling me with that one true power crap. “You can tell your boss that I’m coming for him once I put you down.” I was hoping that statement would be true; come on Phil! “This is your last chance to surrender peacefully.”
Jericho seemed to be snickering behind me, doubting my ability to talk this thing down. He was right, naturally. The only response I got was a potshot from the shoulder gun. It wasn’t even close to damaging or being able to hit me. No, it was just a warning.
Then the news I needed came across. “The Fatal Five, as Zed and his brothers were known as, had one weakness once combined. A single, concussive attack to the midsection would break them apart. Based on the readings I’m getting from this thing, the force needed to disrupt has probably quadrupled.””
“Phil, are you asking me to do what I think you are?”
“An attack like you used against Jericho three and a half years ago would do that trick.”
It might do the trick, but it’d also unleash the Stormfall again. As Dr. Cooper once said, some supers were never meant to exist. Still, “Tell me there’s another way…”
His silence was all that was needed. “Jericho, can you keep up? I’ve got a plan, but it’s a bad one.”
Chapter 30 –
Thursday Morning; Crosby Airfield
When Kyle asked me if I could keep up, being used as bait to bring this thing to the outskirts of Crosby Airfield wasn’t what I had in mind. Old memories of being chased by another Titan through the streets of Pacific Station became fresh as I did everything in my power to stay alive. If I survived this, I was going to kill him.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that I needed a better way to do this. With that damn sword Blade created, merging into a power line was out of the question. So I went the old fashioned way, I stole a motorcycle that was parked out front of a diner and hot-wired it with a little negative magic. But even on this sweet Ninja Double-X Prototype I jacked, Titan-Zed just took to the air. We had ourselves a good old fashioned high speed chase.
Two things were in my favor. First, it was a very cloudy morning which kept sunlight to a minimum. Second, I knew the streets of Pacific Station better than Zed, who seemed to be the controller of the six of them in this merged form. I was able to create some separation by doing some hard turns down streets I was familiar with that he wouldn’t have known. Even with all that effort, he was right behind me, looming at all times.
He almost got me as we exited the city and got out on to the major highway. The morning commute was building and I tried to weasel in between two cars as I merged on to it, but one jerk tried to cut me off. Zed took advantage and fired a cluster of energy blasts. It took a swerve into the median and a heavy crank on the brake to avoid it. For the dirt bag who tried to run me off the road, he was blown into a great many pieces.
This got the attention of most of the cars. People soon began to park and try their very best to get out of the way. As I bobbed and weaved between the vehicles, Zed was using me as his own personal shooting gallery. The number of cars and trucks that were destroyed was quite impressive from all of his misfires.
When I got t
o my exit, I floored it. Crosby Airfield was out in the middle of nowhere. It was a straight shot off the highway to it, so I opened the bike up to full throttle. I heard Zed also match me with the roar of the jets attached to them. This was going to be close.
As we entered the airfield, Titan-Zed overtook me and landed right in my path. I had to time it right to avoid him, so I slid the motorcycle to the ground and braced myself for a lot of pain. Landing hard on the dusty road, I rolled away, losing my mask in the process. When I finally came to a stop, I just didn’t want to get up. There was pain, so much pain. If this was the end, I was going out on a hell of a note.
Titan-Zed looked down at its fallen foe. “Heather expresses her regret in this, Jericho. I just thought you’d like to know before you died.”
Hmph, Zed wouldn’t get any amusement from me. If I couldn’t talk to her directly, I wasn’t going to grovel to this idiot. Whatever Kyle had been planning, it was a damn shame I was going to miss it.
Or was I? There was a buzz in the air; I knew this feeling. “No you fool!”
Zed, thinking I was talking to him, seemed perplexed. “The man about to die calling his killer a fool? That’s a first.”
I wasn’t talking to him. I was talking to Kyle, not that he could hear me. How far away did he go to get a head start? A mile or two? The vibrations in the air told me what his plan all along had been; he was going to actually unleash the full power of the Stormfall! Didn’t he remember what barely clipping me had created? If he connected on this attack, it was basically saying okay to detonating an atomic bomb.
There was nothing I could do. Titan-Zed put a foot on me, keeping me in place. All I could do is watch in horror as Kyle broke the sound barrier just moments before impact. I closed my eyes, not wanting to witness this kid killing himself. That damn fool!
There was an impact, but it wasn’t Kyle hitting Titan-Zed at full speed. It was Kyle being slammed to the ground. Somehow, someway, that monstrosity had plucked him out in mid-attack and crushed him into the ground beside me. His face said it all. “Victory,” I’m sure that awful pun was intended, “is ours.”
He lifted his sword up, the sharp point of the sword threatening quite a bit of bodily harm. Just as he brought it down towards me, Titan-Zed stopped partway down. “Erin,” he called. “What are you doing?”
Erin’s voice emerged. “Something I should’ve done a long time ago!” The center of Titan-Zed’s chest began blinking quickly.
As the internal struggle took over with the six of them, I grabbed Kyle’s arm. We ran as fast as we could before the bomb went off. Even with the head start, we were caught up in the blast and hurtled forward.
****
Only a minute or two had passed from the blast, but it seemed like time had stood still. Kyle was beside me, groaning, so he was alive. Across the field, there were bodies scattered. Zed was dead, his body in two pieces, as gruesome as that sounded. Erin and Heather were off to one side; I was unsure if they were dead or not. To the other side were Blade and Wraith. They were most certainly gone as Blade’s head was missing from sight and Wraith’s body was impaled on his sword.
The last body, Kim Krummel was missing. Had he been vaporized in the blast?
Erin began to move. Heather was quick to follow him. I ran over, leaving Kyle by himself. Sorry Kyle, Heather came first. As I got there, Heather was swaying back and forth. I steadied her, keeping her upright. “You’re okay. Everything’s okay now.”
She was completely disoriented. “What happened? How are we all separated?”
“I don’t know. The large red orb in the chest of that thing started blinking and KABOOM!” I pointed all around us. “As you can see, you two are a bit luckier than the rest.”
“That wasn’t luck, Jericho.” Erin was grunting as he got up. “I protected the two of us. The rest, hell if I cared what happened to those psychos.”
Heather pushed away from me. “He’s still in my mind.” She clinched the side of her head. “He wants me to kill both of you. Especially you, Erin. He’s dubbed you a traitor.”
I tried to get close to her again and she backed away. “I can’t fight off the instincts forever, Jericho. I’m sorry.” She unhooked a phone bomb and lobbed it in the air towards Kyle. Damnit, as prone as he was, that wasn’t the way for the kid to go. Using a quick blast, I destroyed the phone before it got close to him.
There must’ve been more juice in that cell phone bomb than prior ones. The blast knocked me down, as well as Erin. Kyle was safe, at least. Getting up, I looked around only to see Heather running the opposite direction.
That was all the time she needed. A black car pulled up along the street and Heather got in. It was heartbreaking to watch her not even look back as she got in and they pulled away. I was just left there standing with Erin.
I jabbed him in the chest with my index finger. “How the hell are you free of his control?”
“General Davy Whisnant gave me a neural blocker that in short bursts would help break his control. When I betrayed them, he pulled away his mental juju.”
I began kicking the dirt, having a temper-tantrum like a five year old. “This isn’t fair!” I yelled into the sky. Whatever energy I had built up I let loose. Arcs of negative energy lashed out, hitting the control tower and the airplanes that had been left out. When my power was exhausted, it was my turn to drop. “I need to get her back.”
“We can and we will.” Kyle was behind me. “Pull yourself together, Jericho.” He walked around and offered me a hand up. “He’s on the ropes. Let’s put him down for good.”
Dungeon Bay Research Facility –
Project: Titan-Six
**Ronald Victory**
Cintron successfully grabbed Detonate from the airfield. To hell with this! How could things have gotten so far out of control? And where was Whisnant when I needed him? The only person I found at the facility was that worm Presley. When I asked where Whisnant had gone, he hadn’t a clue.
The main question that lingered was how Erin broke away from his commands to activate the self-destruct mode that I put in as a failsafe. He’d always fought the hardest against my power, but even he had never been able to break free. Or had he? My arrogance at my own power and control couldn’t be overlooked.
An hour later, Miguel walked into the observation room with his tablet out and looking panicked. “Sir, I had no idea about this.”
“What are you talking about?” I snapped. I grabbed the tablet from his hand and fury leaked out of every pore. “That two faced, no good, son of a bitch!” I slung the tablet across the room, letting it crack and shatter as it hit the solid, four inches of glass that separated us from the floor below. “Whisnant’s taking Morales’ place!”
I didn’t read the article, but it was clear Miguel had done so. “According to sources, Whisnant has long been a supporter of Angela Morales, secretly donating time and dollars to her campaign. I don’t know how we missed it, sir.”
I’d grown complacent around the general, thinking he was truly my biggest supporter and benefactor. I’d been duped and he would pay. “There’s nothing left to do except prepare for the debate. On the biggest stage, I need to thoroughly discredit him and destroy his ambitions. Then, afterwards…” It was implied what had to be done.
Leaving Miguel in the observation room, I walked as fast as I could to the laboratory a few levels below. Dr. Presley was already there, making sure our experiment was comfortable. “How is he doing, doctor?”
Presley had the annoying habit of nodding his head too many times. “He’s stable, the first round of injections bonding well with his system. I foresee this being our biggest success to date, mmm kay.”
The readings coming off the monitors hooked to the man were impressive, far outstripping even Erin Cieslik. Just thinking about that traitor made my blood boil. “Can we do something to ensure that my commands cannot be overridden?”
Presley smiled for a second. “I just might have what you need, Sec
retary Victory. It’s highly unstable, but it is a chemical compound I’ve devised based on how people’s minds interact with your control.” He pulled the vial out of his cooling chamber. “As I said, highly unstable, but what better way to test it than with our perfect candidate right here.”
This had been the perfect candidate so far. I was hesitant to allow Presley to screw it up with some untested chemical compound that could have disastrous effects. No, I couldn’t think like that. If I wanted the country to go along with my registration plans, I needed an enforcer the supers would fear above all others.
Presley won me over. “Yes, yes,” I mumbled. “Go ahead. It would give me great joy to give Adam Morales the command to kill his wife and there wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone could do about it.”
There was an instant, painful reaction on Adam’s face as the needle entered his temple into his brain. It was only a shame it’d be another couple of months before he was ready for field testing.
Chapter 31 –
Friday Morning; St. James Cathedral
I hadn’t been sure why Rich was dragging me to Father Reigart’s church, but it became painfully clear the moment we passed through the old wooden doors into the sanctuary. The group of people sitting in the pews was telling. Kyle Wonderton, Becky Walker, Erin Cieslik, a detective I didn’t know, the good Father himself, along with Wade and Andy.
“If this is a damn intervention,” I started.
“I assure you, Jericho, it isn’t.” Father Reigart, the damn guy was so honest and believable. “I think you know just about everyone here, except maybe for Parker Lattimore. Trust me; he was just as shocked as you when he entered.” The blonde haired cop looked very out of place. “It also took a lot of convincing for him not to try and arrest just about everyone in this room, too.”
The Negative Man_Legends Can Die Page 19
