The Bible speaks of how the walls of the city of Jericho were brought down by the Israelite army marching around it while blowing trumpets. And here I stood, wanting to tear these walls down, yet completely trumpetless. Maybe that part of the Bible was just a fairy tale, anyway. Along with the part that talks about the meek inheriting the Earth.
The second and most important thing that was different in the Situation Room now was the fact that Neha was here. She looked pretty much as she did in the video Mechano had sent me, fury in her eyes and all, except her bruises did not look as fresh. My relief at seeing her alive mingled with a fresh surge of white hot anger at the Sentinels.
Seer, Millennium, and Mechano stood in front of their conference table. Neha, still bound, stood next to them. The same gold metal I had seen in the video was around her mouth, hands, and feet, preventing her from speaking or walking. Mechano in his nearly seven feet tall robot body towered over the rest of them. His hand was on top of Neha’s raven-haired head, as a father might place his hand on his child’s head. The major difference here was that, unlike a father, Mechano could squash Neha like a bug simply by pressing down on her with his super strong body. The tacit threat of his hand resting on her was not lost on me.
I wore the green and black of my Kinetic suit. Avatar’s red cape was in my hand. I had just walked in, having been led through the mansion by Millennium’s glowing ball much as before, only this time I had been brought on a more direct route. I stood far across the large room from the four, not willing to get any closer. I was grateful that the presence of the Omega weapon fouled up Seer’s precognition. It was beyond annoying dealing with an opponent who knew what you were going to do before you did it. I wondered, not for the first time, if the Sentinels had allowed me to escape them the last time so I could retrieve the Omega weapon.
“It is not too late for you to change your mind and join us, Mr. Conley,” Mechano said. “You still are the Omega. Together, we can do great things. We can protect the world. If you are sincere this time about joining us, we can forget about all the unpleasantness that has transpired between us.”
My eyes darted over to Neha’s bruised face before returning to Mechano. I would say the gall of Mechano’s offer amazed me, but frankly my amazement fuses had all been blown a while ago. I said, “Let’s recap. You killed my father, killed a bunch of innocent bystanders, tried to kill me, and you kidnapped and hurt Smoke. Join you? I’ll pass. You’ve lost touch with reality by living in that tin can for too long if you actually think I’d even consider throwing in my lot with you.”
“Well you cannot blame a Hero for trying.” Mechano’s voice was disgustingly cheerful. He sounded like he thought the Sentinels were very much in the driver’s seat. “All right then, let us get down to business. Give us the Omega weapon, and then we will give you your friend.”
I shook my head. “No. You give me Smoke first, then you get the weapon.”
“I am afraid I must insist.” His huge hand resting on top of Neha’s head shifted slightly. Neha’s eyes met mine. She was unafraid. I was proud of her. The anger instead of fear I saw in her eyes for her captors strengthened my resolve.
“I said no,” I said firmly. “If I give you the weapon first, you’re liable to keep both it and her. I have no confidence in your good faith. I wonder why. Once you give me her, then—and only then—I will give you the cape. You have my word I will give it to you. Unlike you, my word actually means something. If you won’t do as I say, I’ll fly right back out of here with it. And good luck trying to stop me from leaving and trying to wrest the weapon away from me. You and I both know you would have your hands full taking the weapon by force. If you felt comfortable simply taking it from me, you would have already done so instead of using Smoke to get leverage over me.”
Mechano took a moment to respond.
“Do you really expect me to believe you would see your friend die over a simple matter of who goes first?” Curiosity mingled with surprise in his voice.
“I’m past caring about whether you believe it or not. But that’s how it is, and how it’s going to be if you want the weapon.”
The room fell quiet for several long moments. Mechano’s hand still lay on the crown of Neha’s head. I had the feeling Mechano wanted to kill her just to show me I couldn’t dictate terms to him. He wasn’t used to that. He was accustomed to telling people what to do rather than the other way around. I was dead serious, though. I was tired of being pushed around. And there was no way I was going to risk losing both the weapon and Neha. I knew Neha well enough to know she was willing to die for a good cause. Despite the fact she had worn her cape only a tiny fraction of the time the Sentinels had, she was already more of a Hero than they would ever be.
I glanced at Neha. Her eyes met mine. There was no fear there. Just the same anger and frustration that had been there before. And perhaps a hint of pride toward me. Maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part.
Finally, Mechano took his hand from Neha’s head. I let go of the breath I had not even realized I had been holding.
“I must admit, Mr. Conley, that the longer I know you, the more I am impressed by you. It is indeed a shame you will not come to your senses and join us,” Mechano said. “We will do it your way. Take her.”
I lifted a hand. Neha rose from the floor, a couple of inches up in the air. I levitated her toward me. As I did so, I scanned the gold metal that bound her, alert for any hint of an explosive. Based on the bomb the blonde had planted on me inside the bank in Washington, D.C. and the bomb Brown Recluse had planted during the Trials, Mechano seemed to have an affinity for trying to blow people up. I would not be caught off guard again.
Though I did not recognize the metal, it did not appear to be an explosive. Nor did I detect wiring or any other indications of an explosive.
I landed Neha by my side. I caught a whiff of her distinctive smell, a smell I had dreamed about all these months apart from her. A lump formed in my throat. I wanted to hug her, but it was foolish to take my focus off the Sentinels for an instant. “Are you all right?” I murmured to her.
She still couldn’t speak, of course, with the metal gag in and around her mouth. Instead, Neha rolled her eyes at me, as if to say I’ve been abducted, beaten, bound, and held captive. What do you think? Yeah, it was a pretty stupid question. In my defense, I wasn’t used to dealing with hostage situations. I hoped they never came up so frequently that I would get a chance to get used to them.
Now that I had Neha, I floated Avatar’s cape across the room to Mechano. He plucked it out of the air. He stretched it out in front of himself. The red glow of his rectangular eye increased slightly, presumably as he scanned it.
“This appears to be an ordinary cape. You could have gotten this from anywhere,” he concluded. “Millennium?” Mechano handed the cape to him. Millennium slowly waved a single gauntleted hand over the cape. As he did so, dim sparks flew off his hand, as if it were a sparkler.
“This is indeed Avatar’s cape,” Millennium said. It was the first time I had ever heard his voice. It had a rustling quality to it, as if he spoke while dead leaves were rubbed together. “Avatar’s karmic signature is quite distinct.”
“How do we activate the weapon’s power?” Mechano asked impatiently.
“Unclear,” Millennium said in his otherworldly voice. “That will require further study.”
I had no intention of sticking around for all that. “I’ve upheld my end of the bargain,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
“Of course, Mr. Conley,” Mechano said. “We are not the unscrupulous monsters you seem to think we are. A deal is a deal. You and your friend are free to go.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. However, there was no way I was going to wind all the way back through the mansion with Neha in tow, looking over my shoulder the whole time. So instead, with a force field around both myself and Neha, I shot up into the air. I burst through the hole in the ceiling of the Situation Room and throu
gh the reconstruction above it.
In seconds, we were outside the mansion and in the night air. I took off toward Astor City. The wind rushed past us. I scanned the air around and behind us with my powers. There were no threats I could detect. It appeared the Sentinels were letting us go.
I didn’t trust it. This had been way too easy.
Despite a little voice whispering misgivings in my ear, I was so giddy I felt almost drunk. I had gotten away with tricking the Sentinels. I had not been stupid enough to hand the Omega weapon over, of course. The Sentinels had done too much to me and the people I cared about for me to think they could be trusted, either to uphold our deal to turn over Neha or to have possession of the Omega weapon. I had given the Sentinels my word that I would give them Avatar’s cape. That was exactly what I had done—I had given them one of Avatar’s capes from the mannequins in The Mountain. Though I had not technically broken my word, I had still pulled a fast one. Dad, who had taught me that without his honor a man was nothing, normally would not have approved of me playing fast and loose with my word. In this case, I thought he’d understand.
I had gambled the Sentinels would not be able to tell the difference between one of Avatar’s ordinary capes and the real Omega weapon until I had escaped with Neha. The costume I had on, though it appeared to be my old Kinetic costume, was in fact the Omega suit with its shape and color changed to replicate the Kinetic suit.
Even more important than retaining the Omega weapon, I had saved Neha. I held her in place right below me, with her facing me as we soared through the night air. Even with her face all bruised up, she was breathtaking. I loved her so much it was almost a physical ache. My heart raced. I was as nervous to be around her again as a teenager on his first date. This was the first time I had seen her in person since our falling-out shortly after the Trials.
It had just slipped out.
Now that the Trials were over and Isaac, Neha, and I temporarily stayed with the Old Man again in Chevy Chase, Maryland until we lined up what we were going to do with our new licenses, I had been waiting for the perfect time to tell Neha that I loved her and that I wanted us to be together. I didn’t think us having sex in Neha’s old room in Amazing Man’s mansion in the middle of the night constituted the perfect time. Then again, I could think of worse times. Like in the middle of being shot at by a supervillain, for example.
I had just entered Neha when it slipped out of my other, supposedly smarter, head.
“I love you,” I moaned, caught up in the heat of the moment.
Neha’s body froze up like a cadaver’s. She stared up at me. I stopped mid-thrust.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Well, I did mean it, but I didn’t mean to say it,” I said, mortified and flustered. “Not now. I was waiting for the right time. I guess the cat’s out of the bag. There’s a pussy joke in there somewhere. If Isaac were here, I bet he’d find it. The joke, not your vagina. Not that I’m saying it’s hard to find. It’s not like it’s tiny.” Neha stared at me silently, her face inscrutable. Oh God, make me stop. I sputtered, “I’m not saying it’s huge, either. Goldilocks would say it’s just right. Not that I’m implying we should invite another woman into bed with us. I don’t even know someone named Goldilocks. What kind of nosy creep goes around eating strangers’ food and sleeping in their beds, anyway? Unless you want to. Invite another woman, I mean. I’ve never done anything like that before, but I guess I’d be up to try it if that’s what you’re into. ‘Up to try it.’ Now there’s a Freudian slip.”
Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! my mind shrieked at me. I bit down on my lip. I had just been about to joke that I couldn’t stand Freud and his motherfucking complex. How come I could face a supervillain without gibbering like an idiot, but make me tell a woman how I felt about her and suddenly I was a nervous, prattling teen again?
Faint moonlight trickled in from the window, letting me see Neha’s wide brown eyes and lithe naked body despite the otherwise dark room. “I don’t know what to say,” she said. Born in India, she still had a hint of an accent.
Time seemed as frozen as my heart.
“How about, ‘I love you too, Theo. I want to be with you. We should have some beautiful biracial babies together’?”
“I do love you. As a friend. As a best friend. But not like that.”
“Do you let all your friends put their penises inside of you?”
“That’s not fair, and you know it.”
I pulled out of her. I collapsed onto the other side of the bed. I stared up at the dark ceiling.
“So that’s all I am to you, then? Just a best friend with benefits? Isaac’s your best friend too. Does he get the same special benefits, or are you saving him up until you’re bored with me?”
“I know your feelings are hurt, and I’m sorry about that, but that’s no reason to be mean. What do you want me to do, lie to you?”
The ceiling started to move, shimmering in my tears. I got up. I started to put my clothes back on.
“You know why I wanted to become a Hero,” Neha said. She sat up in bed. “To stop my father Doctor Alchemy from trying to conquer the world. Until I do that, I don’t have time for a relationship. With you, or anyone else.”
The fact she was so calm and I most definitely was not calm really pissed me off.
I said, “Before the Trials you said you wouldn’t even consider a relationship until after the Trials were over. Now they are. And you’re singing the same old song. You’re just making excuses. You don’t feel about me the way I feel about you. That’s fine. But don’t pretend like it’s something other than what it is.” My fingers fumbled clumsily with my pants.
Neha sighed.
“Theo, I’m the first person you slept with. As far as I know, I’m the only person you’ve slept with. I wonder if maybe you’re confusing love with lust and physical intimacy. It’s easy to do.”
A hot tear dripped off my cheek and onto the floor. “You’re entitled to feel the way you feel. But don’t you dare try to tell me how I feel.” It was hard to not yell the words. Why couldn’t I get these damned pants on?
“Theo, I was going to tell you this later, but I guess I should now: I’m moving to Chicago. I’m taking a job as the chief of security for Willow Wilde.”
Stunned, my jaw dropped, as did my pants. “The reality TV celebrity? But you hate her. You always say that people like her with no talent or skill getting rich is a symptom of how screwed up society is.”
“She’ll pay me a lot. She thinks having a licensed Hero, even a new one like me, as her head of security will add to her fame. I can’t say she’s wrong. I need the money. Defeating someone like Dad isn’t going to be cheap. I’m not rich like the Old Man. I don’t plan to work for Willow for long. Just long enough to get the money I need.”
I planned on moving to Astor City to go after Mechano once I found a job there. Isaac had already lined up a job there as an illustrator. Though we had never explicitly talked about it, I had just assumed Neha would come with us. The three of us had been inseparable ever since the Academy.
“How long have you known about this?” I demanded.
“I interviewed with her a few months ago. She told me then the job was mine if I passed the Trials.”
“Months ago,” I repeated, flabbergasted. “And you’re just telling me this now?”
“I know I should have said something before. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m closer to you and Isaac than I’ve ever been to anyone before. Telling you I was planning on leaving would make it all too real. Besides, there was no guarantee I would pass the Trials. You know how high the failure rate is.”
My pants were pooled around my ankles. I stepped out of them and kicked them against the wall. The belt buckle left a dent in the wall. Who needed pants anyway? If Isaac or the Old Man saw me half-naked when I left Neha’s room, I dared them to say something about it. I was in the mood to punch somebody.
I said, “So you’ve known you were leavi
ng for months, yet you kept quiet about it and continued to fuck me anyway? God forbid you stop getting your jollies before you start partying with Willow. I guess you thought you needed to keep your privates loosened up for all those studs you’ll be hooking up with alongside Willow. Just call me Theo, The Human Dildo. Sure, he’s got feelings, but as long as he gets you off, who cares?”
“It’s not like that.” Neha was crying now. It was only the third time I’d ever seen her cry in three years. Good. I was glad I had made her cry. Misery loved company.
As I had forgotten all about sex, I was startled to see I was still erect and ready for action. It just went to show that mini-me had a mind of its own. I looked down at myself in disgust. Even my own body was betraying me. “I’ll go tell Isaac it’s his turn up at bat. Maybe darker meat will be more to your liking. Maybe you’ll decide he’s good enough for you. Obviously I’m not.”
“Theo, don’t leave like this. Let’s—” But, it was too late. I had already slammed her door behind myself. It sounded like a cannon going off in the otherwise quiet mansion. Bottomless, with my bobbing privates pointing the way, I stomped off to my old room.
That had been the last time I had spoken to Neha. She tried to talk to me in the days that followed my blowup in her room, but I ignored her like she wasn’t there. I knew I was being childish, but I could not seem to help myself.
Later, once she moved to Chicago, Neha had called, texted, and emailed me. Literally not a week went by that she didn’t contact me. Her calls I let go to voicemail. I deleted them without listening to them. Her texts and emails I deleted, unread. At first it was hurt and anger that made me do this. Later, stubbornness. Later still, just inertia and habit. She communicated with Isaac almost daily, though. Early on, after we had moved to Astor City, Isaac had tried to intervene on Neha’s behalf with me. He said me refusing to talk to her was stupid and breaking her heart. I told him to mind his own goddamned business. It was the biggest fight we ever had. Afterward, he did not bring her up much.
Omega Superhero Box Set Page 78
