Fortunately, my brain fog lifted right as the portal demanded the password for the second time. I quickly recited the Hero’s Oath, stumbling over the words a little in my haste: “No cave so dark, no pit so deep, will hide evil from my arm’s sweep. Those who sow darkness soon shall reap, for in the pursuit of justice, I will never sleep.”
“Password accepted. Please stand by for transport,” spoke the computer voice. It suddenly felt like there were bugs crawling on me, as if I had stuck both feet into an anthill and the ants were swarming all over. Despite the fact I knew to expect this too, reflex made me glance at my body, looking to see what made me itch. There was nothing to see of course. Well, on my body, at least. The walls of the portal soundlessly melted, like I had been dosed with LSD and reality was dissolving around me. I felt nauseous.
Soon after the portal’s walls had started melting, they suddenly snapped back into place, as if the melting had been nothing more than a figment of my imagination. The nausea ended and the crawling bug sensation stopped.
The opening I had entered the portal through slid open again. Instead of the dark interior of the storage unit and Isaac being revealed, Isaac was gone and the area outside the portal was well-lit.
“Welcome to The Mountain, Hero,” the portal’s voice said. “When you wish to return to Astor City, simply step inside again. Enjoy your visit.”
Feeling like Captain Kirk who had just used the Enterprise’s transporters to beam down to an alien planet, I stepped out of the portal. Unlike Kirk, I was not confronted by an alien landscape and scantily clad Orion slave girls I would inevitably have sex with. Unfortunately. Rather, I was confronted with a massive cavern composed of grey rock marbled with veins of white and gold. The veins of white luminesced, making the cavern as bright as Las Vegas at noon. The cavern was so big, I felt like an ant by comparison.
The portal I had just stepped out of was sunk into the rock face of the cavern. The rock face was curved, extending high above and to either side of me. The only gap in the rock face was far off to the right. Over there was a big hole, like the entrance to a massive cave. The hole was about the size of an opening to an airplane hangar. Through that huge gap was a breathtaking view down on clouds and snowcapped mountains of varying heights. The mountain range extended out for as far as I could see.
The Mountain was in the middle of the Himalayas according to Truman, who had determined that using GPS the second and last time he had visited here. Thanks to the portal’s matter transport technology, I had traveled over seven thousand miles in the blink of an eye. Transporters were another technology Mechano had invented. Unlike most of Mechano’s other tech which he had commercialized, the existence of transporters was a tightly guarded secret only members of the Guild knew about, much like the Guild’s space station. Politicians would lose their minds if they knew Heroes withheld from the public technology that would revolutionize travel in a way the world had not seen since the introduction of the airplane. This was the first time I had ever used a transporter, though I knew Isaac had used one at least once before, when he and Neha accompanied the Old Man on a mission into space when we had been Apprentices.
As I watched, the air at the gap showing the mountain range shimmered momentarily, tinged with blue, before becoming perfectly clear and transparent again. It was indicative of the force field which kept out the harsh cold and elements of the outside. The cavern was as warm and comfortable as my house’s living room. More comfortable, actually, since the cavern was so much bigger; the cavern had more square footage than our entire house did. Force field projectors like the ones here that kept the elements out were also Mechano’s inventions according to Truman. As much as I hated to admit it, I had to give the devil his due: Mechano really was a latter-day Edison. It was a shame he was a Machiavellian murderous maniac in addition to one of the greatest technological geniuses of all time.
Isaac came out of the portal. He stood next to me. The cavern was completely silent, so much so that the only thing I could hear was us breathing. With our mouths agape in wonder, we stood transfixed and looked around.
Directly ahead of us on the other side of the cavern was a curved computer monitor that was somehow suspended from the rock wall. It was massive. It clearly would tower over us if we stood directly in front of it. It was even wider than it was tall. It was angled slightly downward, toward the smooth stone that served as The Mountain’s floor. Directly below the monitor was a long, curved, waist-high computer panel that looked like something on the bridge of a navy vessel a hundred years in the future. A single large black chair rested at the focus of the parabola formed by the curved computer monitor.
To the right of the computer panel were several headless mannequins. On each was mounted a copy of the iconic costume Avatar had always worn that was famous and instantly recognized the world over: blood red gloves, matching red shin-high boots, and a grey bodysuit with a utility belt around its waist. The utility belt’s color matched that of the gloves and the boots. A bright red “A” was on the center of the chest of the bodysuit. A cape matching the red of the “A” was around the neck of each mannequin. Mechano had said Avatar wore the Omega weapon in the form of a cape. Could one of these capes be it?
Suspended from the cavern’s ceiling and on display throughout the cavern were various artifacts. As a big admirer of Avatar’s who had followed his adventures ever since I had been old enough to know the difference between a licensed Hero and a hero sandwich, I knew they were mementos from Avatar’s exploits over the years: the gigantic robot exoskeleton Doctor Diabolical had used to level the White House and the United States Capitol in 1971 before Avatar had subdued him; the torch from the Statue of Liberty, destroyed in 1985 by the Rogue Black Plague when he threw the statue at Avatar; the originally normal-sized but now man-sized glass tumbler that Magnifier had tried to brain the British Prime Minister with in 1982; and remnants of the V’Loth alien mothership Omega Man had destroyed in 1966 when he, Avatar, and a bunch of other Heroes attacked the alien fleet hovering in the skies of Baltimore. There were many other artifacts from Avatar’s adventures here, some of which I did not even recognize.
After gawking in silence for a bit, Isaac and I looked at each other. His eyes were wide.
“You have a lair!” he said with wonder. “I’m jealous. I always wanted a lair.”
“I don’t have a lair,” I protested. “Avatar had a lair.”
“Avatar had a lair. Avatar was the Omega. Avatar is dead. Now you are the Omega. Therefore, you have a lair.”
“I’m not sure I agree with your logic, but we’ll argue about syllogisms later. Right now, the sooner we find the Omega weapon—assuming it’s even here—the better.”
“While we look, give some thought as to changing your lair’s name from The Mountain. It’s too Game of Thronesy.”
With Isaac following in my wake, I strode across the cavern to the mannequins adorned with Avatar costumes. Despite the fact the rock floor was so shiny and smooth it looked like it had been polished, it was not at all slippery. My shoes had no problem with traction.
We stood in front of the broad-chested costumed mannequins. Each of the five mannequins had on seemingly identical costumes. Just looking at them, nothing seemed remarkable about the capes on each headless figure. Well, other than the fact they had belonged to one of the world’s greatest Heroes. These costumes and everything else in the cavern really belonged in a museum where admirers of Avatar could see them instead of them gathering dust here. If I got out of this fix with the Sentinels with my neck intact, I would make sure everything here got a good home.
But, first things first. Holding my breath nervously, I reached toward the cape on the first mannequin. My hands were clammy. I was anxious. I had no idea what would happen when the Omega weapon came into contact with the host of the Omega spirit. Whatever did happen, I expected it to be something dramatic.
My fingers met the cape’s fabric.
Nothing happened.
More nothing happened.
“Maybe you need to say ‘Shazam!’ or ‘It’s clobberin’ time,’” Isaac suggested.
“You’re not helping,” I said. “Maybe this cape isn’t the right one. Or, maybe it needs to be worn to be activated.” I pulled the cape off the mannequin, undoing the heavy grey metal clasp which held it together around the neck. I draped it around myself, redoing the clasp to secure the cape. The cape’s fabric was so heavy I could feel the weight of it on my shoulders. As Avatar had been much taller and broader than I, the cape dragged on the ground and enveloped me like a robe.
Now that the cape was on me, I again waited expectantly. And again, nothing happened. Other than me feeling like a grave robber for wearing a dead Hero’s cape, that is.
Isaac eyed me critically. “You look like a trick-or-treater who can’t afford a costume other than a bedsheet.”
“You’re still not helping.”
I took the cape off, put it back on the mannequin, and went through the same process with the next cape. And then the next one, the next one, and the next one. With each attempt resulting in nothing happening, I felt increasingly frustrated and foolish, like a ghost hunter looking for a ghost in a haunted house that probably wasn’t even haunted.
“So much for hiding the Omega weapon in plain sight,” I said as I pulled the last cape off.
“Assuming it’s in the form of a cape. Assuming it’s here. And, assuming it really exists and wasn’t made up by the Sentinels to send you on a wild goose chase for reasons we don’t understand.”
“Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine and optimism today.”
“Being told that the guy you routinely crush in chess, Civilization, and Call of Duty is possessed by some eternal, world-saving incubus makes me skeptical. Call me crazy.”
I put the cape back on the last mannequin. I was plenty skeptical myself, but that did not mean I would stop looking for a way to fight back against the Sentinels. “C’mon,” I said, moving away from the mannequins, “there are plenty of other places to look before we throw in the towel.”
Isaac followed. “Since the capes are apparently a no-go, what should we be looking for? Something in a case that reads ‘Break glass in the event of the Sentinels trying to kill you?’”
“Heck if I know. I’m hoping we’ll know it when we see it.”
We started to systematically search the contents of The Mountain. It was hard to shake the feeling we were doing something profane by going through a dead man’s things. I felt like a tour guide as I told Isaac what each item represented in the history of Avatar’s adventures. Though Isaac knew of Avatar—who didn’t?—he was not the Avatar fanboy that I was.
The first thing we ran across that stumped me as to what it was was in the far corner of the cavern from where we came through the portal at. It was a cube-shaped enclosure made of thick, almost transparent glass on four of its sides. Its back wall and floor were the cavern’s rock face. The enclosure was big enough to comfortably contain several people. It was completely empty. Its only opening was a door-shaped hole in one of the cube’s clear sides. A gold-colored round switch that looked like a dimmer switch was mounted on the enclosure by the door.
I tapped experimentally on a clear wall of the enclosure with a knuckle. It felt as solid as a rock. “Could this thing be it?” I asked.
“What do I look like, the Omega whisperer?” Isaac said. “Hell if I know.”
Feeling like a guinea pig with a death wish, I stepped into the enclosure through its door. Nothing happened. I felt the same as I always did, except for more frustrated. So much nothing was happening, I would have been more surprised had something happened.
“You want me to hit the switch?” Isaac asked from the other side of the enclosure.
I sighed in resignation. I steeled myself. “Sure. If this thing happens to be a gas chamber, I bequeath to you what little remains in my bank account.”
“I’ll try to not spend it all in one place. Here goes.” Isaac pressed down on the switch.
This time, something actually did happen: the door I had walked through soundlessly shrank in on itself and then disappeared, like an ameba twisting itself into a different shape. The opening I had stepped through was now filled with the same nearly transparent material that surrounded me. I immediately felt different, and not in a good way. The slight burning sensation I had felt in my hands ever since my powers first manifested was gone. I had grown so accustomed to the feeling over the years that its absence was very disconcerting. I felt naked and vulnerable, as if I had been stripped of my clothes in the middle of a crowd of people. I had experienced this feeling only once before, during the Trials when Hacker’s powers and mine had been nullified on the planet Hephaestus.
I lifted my hands slightly and tried to pick myself off the ground with my powers. I did not budge. What had become as second nature to me as breathing now felt impossible.
“Can you hear me?” I said to Isaac, trying to keep the panic of being without my powers out of my voice. I would have given my left nut to be rid of my powers when I first got them. What a difference a few years could make.
“Clear as a bell,” he said, the look on his face indicating he was surprised as I was that he could hear me through the thick but nearly transparent walls. It was as if thin air rather than the thick material separated us.
“I think being in here has shut my powers off. Hit the switch again.”
Isaac did so. As if by magic, the door dilated open again. The burning in my hands resumed. I levitated slightly off the ground. I was relieved my powers were back. I was so used to them, the thought of losing them was like losing an arm or a leg.
I used my telekinetic touch to probe the enclosure’s clear material. Whatever it was made of, it was dense, denser than even the solid rock that was the cube’s floor and back wall. I doubted a jackhammer could even scratch the clear material.
“You know what I think this is?” I said. “I think it’s a Metahuman holding cell.”
“You mean Avatar had his own personal mini-MetaHold? I don’t know whether to be impressed or appalled. How often do you suppose he used this thing on somebody?”
“I have no idea. If he kept someone in here, I’m guessing he didn’t do it for long. There’s obviously no toilet, running water, or food in here.”
After playing around with the enclosure for a while, we determined that fresh air got inside it even when the door was closed, though we couldn’t figure out how. Pressing and depressing the switch turned the Metahuman dampening field inside the enclosure on and off; turning the knob of the switch controlled the size of the door, from it being a tiny fist-sized opening to it being a full-sized door. But, as interesting as the enclosure and how its technology might work was, fooling around with it was not bringing us closer to finding the Omega weapon. We moved on to examine other items in the cavern.
“What the heck is this thing?” Isaac demanded in front of one of them. “It looks like the Washington Monument’s biracial little brother.”
“This?” I said absentmindedly, my concentration on where I would hide a cape if I were Avatar. By this time, we had searched most of the cavern. Maybe we’d try the remains of the V’Loth mothership next, which was suspended from the cavern’s ceiling from struts directly above us. “This is the neutronium spear Star Czar threw at Avatar years ago.” Isaac was right—the object did look more like an obelisk like the Washington Monument than like the spear Star Czar had called it. Dull black in color, its point came up to about as high as my chin. Its base, which rested flat on the cavern’s smooth rock floor, was slightly bigger than an extra-large pizza box.
“Neutronium?” Isaac frowned. “What’s that?”
If I hadn’t been so distracted with thoughts of the Omega weapon, I would have been more smug about knowing something Isaac didn’t. He had graduated from the Academy second in our class, right behind Neha. He usually schooled me on thin
gs, not vice versa. “It’s composed solely of neutrons. Highly dense and once thought to only exist inside of neutron stars, it’s the heaviest substance known to man. Avatar with his Omega-level super strength was said to be the only person who could pick this neutronium spear up. Well, other than Star Czar, but that’s just because his powers allowed him to create and control neutronium. Since Star Czar is as dead as Avatar, I imagine the neutronium spear will sit here undisturbed for millennia until the earth swallows this mountain again.” I pointed upward impatiently. “We’re wasting time. Come on, let’s check inside the V’Loth spaceship.”
I launched myself into the air, coming to a stop abreast the gaping hole in the side of the V’Loth mothership. Isaac joined me in the form of a large golden-hued eagle that glowed faintly. His wings beat powerfully in the air as he hovered next to me. I did not know what this creature was, but I did not have the encyclopedic knowledge of mythological creatures Isaac did.
The original V’Loth mothership had been smashed to pieces when Omega Man had killed the alien queen inside. The pieces that remained of it had been assembled together up here like a giant jigsaw puzzle, with the pieces held in place by thick cables that extended from the cavern’s ceiling. About the length of an eighteen-wheeled truck, the spaceship looked like a stereotypical UFO, as if a giant silver pie pan had been flipped over and welded on top of another one. Scientists speculated that this iconic UFO shape was associated with aliens even before the V’Loths’ arrival in the 1960s because the V’Loths had visited Earth before at some point in man’s distant history. I didn’t have any thoughts on the subject. I was a Hero, not an astrobiologist. Between botching the situation with Hannah and my apparent inability to find the Omega weapon, I had not been doing such a hot job of merely being a Hero lately. I had no business speculating on the origins of the UFO trope. I needed to stay in my lane.
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