I slammed into the ship above. It felt like driving a speeding car into a wall. Thanks to my force field, I did not turn into smeared Theo on the ship’s hull. Rather, I bounced off it like a smashed tennis ball.
As I hoped it would, the spaceship on my tail followed my flight path. It collided with the other ship I had just bounced off. There was a terrific crunching sound. The ships exploded. A shockwave hit me like a brick wall. I fell out of the sky. My tattered cape fluttering around me like the broken wings of a falling bird.
Seconds later, I crashed through the roof of an already damaged mid-rise building. I tore through its floors like a bullet through a house of cards. I hit the bottom floor like a dropped bomb. The floor cratered around me.
Debris fell around and on me. I lay in the crater’s center like a dead fish. Like a dead fish, but I was not in fact dead. Though I felt like a half-gutted catfish, I had managed to keep my force field up all this while. It had prevented me from turning into Theo-flavored pâté. I was playing possum, hoping the V’Loths would think the collision and explosion had killed me and they didn’t need to pursue me further. I needed breathing room to take stock of the overall strategic situation before the V’Loths exterminated every one of us Metas on the scene.
I closed my eyes and raised my hands a little. Using all the energy I had absorbed from my impact with the V’Loth ship and the collisions since then to boost my normal telekinetic touch range, I used my powers to survey the massive battle raging outside. The Metas I sensed were far fewer than the ones I had initially shown up here with. I prayed one of the survivors was Neha. I shoved thoughts of her aside. If something wasn’t done soon, there would be no survivors. First things first.
Since killing the queen was the key to ending this whole thing, I used my powers to look for any sign of her in the chaos swirling around me outside. My touch couldn’t penetrate the ships’ hulls, but maybe I could figure out what ship she was in simply from how it behaved. I figured that someone as important as she was in the V’Loth hierarchy would not be in a ship that directly engaged in combat.
Minutes that seemed like eternity passed. Finally I thought I’d found what I was looking for. A V’Loth ship was on the periphery of the main battle, accompanied by a small phalanx of other ships that moved when it moved. It was the only V’Loth ship behaving this way. There was no way I would have spotted the pattern of its movements with the naked eye due to all the smoke and chaos swirling about outside. This had to be her.
But what to do with my newfound knowledge? My powers had no direct effect on the spaceships. What was I supposed to do to the queen? Wag my finger at her and give her a piece of my mind? There were probably Heroes still alive who had offensive powers that could pierce the hull of the V’Loth queen’s ship. Laser Lass, for example, probably could. I feared that by the time I found one in all the confusion outside, it would likely be too late.
A flash of inspiration hit me. My powers could not directly affect the V’Loth queen’s ship. But, my personal force field still worked when I collided with the ships. I could use my body itself as a weapon.
My mind locked onto what just had to be the V’Loth queen’s ship. With my force field around me, I zoomed up, back through the floors I had crashed through before. In seconds, I had cleared the building. Choking smoke swirled around me. I rose straight up like a rocket, hoping the V’Loths would be so busy with the remaining Heroes that they wouldn’t notice me.
In moments, I was so high up in the sky, the smoke from the burning city thinned and then cleared. I glanced down as I continued to shoot straight up. The city got smaller and smaller underneath me. Soon the dark smoke rising from it made it look like a scabbed-over wound on the landscape. No V’Loths were in hot pursuit of me. Seconds later, the blue of the sky changed, deepening to shades of violet and purple. The blackness of space appeared overhead.
I slowed to a stop. It was freezing this high up. The air was thin. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen and warmth trapped in my force field to sustain me for now.
I took a quick moment to savor the view. Even at a time like this, I got a lump in my throat at the beauty of the world. My world. For a moment, I had second thoughts about what I was about to do. I didn’t want to die. If Neha was already dead, I didn’t want James to finish growing up as an orphan. Sure, his Uncle Isaac would take care of him. Isaac, though he was not James’ biological uncle and in fact not blood at all, was my brother in all the ways that mattered. Other than James, Isaac was the only non-Meta who knew Neha and I were Heroes. Though I knew Isaac would take good care of James, an honorary uncle was no substitute for an actual father.
I pushed the selfish thought to the side as soon as I had it. I would not have the heart to look my son in the eye ever again if I turned tail now and ran. There were worse fates than death.
My resolve hardened. Even at this vast distance, I still had a lock on the V’Loth mothership with my powers. With my force field still around me, I started to fly back down to Baltimore. The queen’s spaceship was centered in my mind’s eye like a bull’s-eye.
Faster, faster, and faster I dropped. Gravity helped me achieve a velocity I never would have been able to reach with just my powers. My experience bouncing off the V’Loth spaceship earlier had taught me that I and my powers alone couldn’t pierce the tough, otherworldly metal of the V’Loths’ ships. But maybe, with gravity helping me fly exponentially faster, I could pierce the hull of the V’Loth queen’s ship and kill her. Kill the queen, save the world.
Whether I succeeded or failed, I was under no illusion that I would survive this. The physics of the situation were clear. Force equaled mass times acceleration. Though my mass was relatively small, the speed I was traveling was immense. I would hit the queen’s ship with enormous force. My powers wouldn’t be enough to shield me from the monstrous forces at play. If the impact with the V’Loth ship didn’t kill me, the impact with the ground an instant later surely would.
I still didn’t want to die. But better for me to die than for another kid like Vaughn to die. The world was full of kids like Vaughn and my son James. It was my job to protect them.
Almost there. I was vaguely aware of the ship I shot toward scrambling to get out of the way. Its escorts moved to block my path. Mute evidence my target was the correct one. I adjusted my course a tad. The ships weren’t moving fast enough to stop me. It was too late for my target to avoid me. Too late for her. If I weren’t concentrating so fiercely, I might have smiled.
My last thought was of James and Neha. Collectively and separately, they were my everything. I had lived a good life. I had loved, and been loved. Who could ask for anything more?
I hit the V’Loth queen’s ship like a bullet hitting a watermelon.
23
So this is what Heaven is like, I thought. Pretty dark. You’d think there would be better lighting. Why wouldn’t a god who created the sun, moon, and all the stars spring for some fluorescents? Oh well. At least the joint’s quiet. I’m glad to see all that stuff about harps, hymn singing, and non-stop hosannaing is made up bullsh—uh, malarkey. Most people can’t stand that stuff on Earth. Why in the world would a loving god make it such a prominent part of the afterlife?
I had opened my eyes moments before. I was lying down, flat on my back on a hard, waist-high platform. There were no lights other than two torches which guttered and hissed. They were mounted in torch holders attached to bluish-gray brick walls that looked like they belonged in a medieval castle. The walls were tall, swallowed by the darkness above. If there was a ceiling, it was somewhere high above, far from the reach of the sputtering torches’ light. The light from the torches dimly illuminated only a small part of the area I was in. The air was foggy and thick. There was a hint of incense in the air, far more pleasant than the acrid smoke smell I had just left behind in Baltimore.
The afterlife isn’t so bad, I decided as I stared up into dark nothingness. Boring though, if this was all there was to it. Maybe so
me harp music wouldn’t be so bad after all, to break up the monotony of the silence. I really wished I knew if I had succeeded in killing the V’Loth queen. If she had been killed, I wondered if the world would know I was the one who had done it. Not that I sought acclaim. Nevertheless, I had to admit that Kinetic Kills Queen made for a nice headline. Maybe Mr. Langley would use it in the digital edition of the Astor City Times, or something similar. He had a flair for coming up with punchy headlines.
I blinked, suddenly confused. Wait. How had I just been fighting the V’Loths in Baltimore in 1966? I wasn’t even alive back then. Omega Man had killed the V’Loth queen, not me. Neha and I weren’t married. She wasn’t even in love with me. And we certainly didn’t have a teenaged son named after my Dad.
The last thing I remembered before I had inexplicably found myself fighting the V’Loths was searching for the Omega weapon with Isaac. I had touched the cape hidden under the neutronium spear. Then I suddenly found myself in the skies over Baltimore, with my head full of memories of a life that wasn’t really mine. Also, I had been injured badly before I had touched the cape. Yet I seemed to be perfectly fine now.
What the hell was going on?
I sat up. I was shocked to find that I was suddenly standing. I didn’t remember getting to my feet. The hard platform I had just been lying on was gone, as if it had never existed.
Starting just a few feet in front of me were lined up two rows of chairs. They faced each other across a narrow aisle. The rows of chairs extended far off into the distance, well past the dim illumination affording by the torches. Each chair was occupied. Despite the dim light, I recognized some of the seated men and women. Avatar and Omega Man sat in full costume in opposing chairs closest to me. There were a couple of other people sitting here I knew from historical pictures. Most I did not. And yet I somehow knew, without knowing how I knew, that each person here had been a vessel for the Omega spirit.
Everyone in the chairs had their heads turned, facing me. I felt the weight of countless eyes. It was though they peered straight into my soul.
“You have proven yourself worthy of wielding the Omega weapon,” they all said at once, filling the room with thousands of voices. Their words came through as clear as a bell despite what I thought would be a babel of noise from so many people speaking simultaneously. “The Omega weapon and the Omega spirit will once again be combined in one host, as is only meet. We chose wisely when we imbued you with our spirit.”
If I didn’t already know about the Omega spirit, I would have thought I was on a bad acid trip.
“Are you all the Omega spirit?” I asked.
“We are,” returned the countless voices.
Then it hit me. My fight against the V’Loths, my marriage to Neha, having a son with her . . . none of it had been real. Well, there were aspects of it that had actually happened back in 1966. Trying to use the telepathic 13-year-old Vaughn to take down the V’Loths had really occurred, as had Vaughn’s death when he was transported to Baltimore. A bunch of Heroes dying had really happened too, as had Mechano designing a futuristic communications system that was jammed by the V’Loths. But my own involvement in the battle with the V’Loths was a complete fantasy. Real historical events from the 20th century had been mixed with people from my life in the 21st century to create an immersive illusion, like a virtual reality construct that had seemed one hundred percent real.
It had all been a test to see if I was worthy of wielding the Omega weapon. First the Lotus-induced fantasy during the Trials where my parents were still alive and I had a girlfriend who loved me, now this fantasy where I was happily married to Neha with a son. Why were my dream worlds always so much better than my real world? I was heartily sick of people testing me and my resolve. I thought I had left tests behind when I completed the Trials.
“Life is a test, Theodore. You should know that by now,” the voices of the Omega spirit said, as if they had read my mind. Maybe mind reading was as common as breathing here. Wherever here was.
“We are in your subconscious,” the voices said in answer to my unspoken thought. “Your struggle against the V’Loths played out entirely in your mind. Your corporeal body still lies on the floor of The Mountain.”
“So you’re saying I’m talking to myself right now?”
“In a fashion. You are us, and we are you,” the Omega spirit said. “Now it is time for you to return to your world. Darkness unlike the world has ever known approaches. The world will need the protection of the Omega like never before. Go forth and serve it wisely.”
The room and all the figures it contained began to fall apart and disappear, like a house of Legos rapidly torn apart piece by piece.
“Wait!” I cried out. “I have so many questions. Why me? Why did you choose me for the Omega spirit?”
“Because despite your flaws, youth, inexperience, lapses in judgment, spotty pre-Heroic education—”
“I hope something positive is coming sometime soon,” I interjected. Sometimes I couldn’t help myself.
“Despite all those things, you try to do the right thing. The trying is all.” The countless faces smiled at me fondly. “Besides, why not you?”
Before I could ask the Omega spirit exactly what darkness was approaching and what in blazes I was supposed to do about it, the seated figures and the room winked out of existence. I floated alone in an inky black void.
My eyes snapped open like my eyelids had been yanked on. I lay face up on the hard rock floor of The Mountain. Who knew being a Hero would entail so much being flat on your back? You would think Heroing would be more restful than it was.
My right hand clutched the cape that had been hidden in the cavity under the neutronium spear. I faintly heard a moan. It came from me. I tried to stop, but couldn’t. Moaning seemed the right thing to do right now. I had felt no pain in the room I had spoken to the Omega spirit in. I felt plenty now. All the pain I had been in from my encounter with the Sentinels and me overextending myself to move the neutronium spear was back with a vengeance.
Isaac knelt over me. His face was streaked with tears. It showed anguish mixed with astonishment. His eyes were red. He said, “You touched the cape a few minutes ago, and passed out. Then, you stopped breathing. I did CPR, but you wouldn’t revive. I thought you were dead.”
“Death would be a mercy,” I croaked weakly. I was joking, yet it wasn’t far from the truth. How was I supposed to protect the world from some sort of encroaching darkness in this condition? I doubted I could protect it from an anemic butterfly feeling like this.
Isaac’s eyes left my face and got very wide, like he was watching a dog stand upright and start to recite poetry. “What in the world is happening?”
I tilted my aching head to see what he stared at. Avatar’s cape was moving, writhing like a snake. It seeped slowly into my hand, like water being soaked up by a thirsty sponge.
“I think this is supposed to happen,” I said, not even knowing myself how I knew that. I was strangely calm despite the fact a long piece of fabric burrowed into me like a worm into an apple.
My hand tingled. Then my arm. Then my entire body as the cape entered me. Soon its fabric had entirely disappeared. I burst into flames, as if I had been doused in gasoline and lit.
“Jesus!” Isaac exclaimed. He jumped back in shock. He shimmered slightly and leveled his arms at me, no doubt planning to drench me using one of his water-generating forms.
“No!” I said sharply. “I’m fine.”
I was more than fine. The fire didn’t hurt at all. If anything, it was pleasant, like soaking in a hot bath after an exhausting day. My clothes burned off me as I watched in wonder. Their ashes floated heavenward like motes of disturbed dust.
The flames abruptly extinguished themselves. Now I was as naked as a newborn baby. But not only that. I was as healthy as a newborn too. All the burning and discoloration of my skin caused by Mechano’s attack were gone, along with all my aches, pains, and injuries. My hearing and vision
were back to normal. My cracked teeth were healed. I felt good enough to wrestle a bear. I would have even been willing to give the bear the first swipe at me.
Choose, something deep inside of me whispered. It was the same combination of countless voices I had spoken to earlier. I heard them not with my ears, but with the essence of my being. That sounds strange because it was. And yet, at the same time, it seemed the most natural thing in the world.
I instinctually knew what the voices meant. They wanted me to choose how the Omega weapon would manifest for me. King Arthur had the sword Excalibur, Rama had his bow Pinaka, Beowulf had his sword Nægling. Toting a sword, a bow, or a similar weapon did not seem appropriate in the modern world, however. I was not Robin Hood or one of his Merry Men.
Omega Man had the clasp that secured his cape around his neck. Avatar had the cape I had just absorbed. Something more along the lines of how those Heroes had manifested the Omega weapon seemed more sensible than wielding an actual weapon like King Arthur or Beowulf had.
I made my decision. In response, the surface of my skin began to feel ticklish, as if a giant feather rubbed lightly against me. Dark blue specks swam up from inside of me to the surface of my skin. There they rapidly expanded, like numerous pools of spilled blue ink. They connected with each other, coating all of my naked body like a second skin from the neck down. Then they thickened and hardened, forming a flexible but incredibly strong body armor. A ghost white omega symbol crystallized on my chest.
I knew the importance of symbols thanks to my studies at the Academy. That was why I had made my new costume look this way. I had picked blue because psychological studies indicated that someone wearing it was viewed as trustworthy and dependable. It was no accident that police departments often clothed their officers in blue. I had picked the omega symbol for the obvious reason: I was the Omega. Cassandra and the Sentinels had told me that before. Now I knew it with every fiber of my being.
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