Champion said, “Harmony, do an audit of this business, and get some drones in to scan this clown’s inventory.”
The man’s face turned red, but he seemed to think better of saying what he obviously wanted to say, and he stormed off toward the office.
Champion added, “And keep an eye on him. Inform the police if you find irregularities.”
Harmony said, “Working on it.”
The vote had been taken. We’d be replacing the military, police, fire, and all those things, but it hadn’t happened yet. It hadn’t even been a full month yet since that day, but it felt like forever given all the changes in my life.
We found the stairs down pretty quickly, right next to a freight elevator, and the basement was rather vast. It was filled with pallets of non-descript boxes without labels, nothing but a barcode sticker on the sides. Yeah, that wasn’t suspicious or anything.
The walls were white concrete and looked like a typical foundation wall, with white concrete floor. The place was unfinished. We circled the entire basement, searching the walls for some indication of a tunnel entrance, door, or something. Then we searched all the inner aisles, and still came up empty. If the door was in there, it was well hidden.
Of course it was well hidden, if it wasn’t then Harmony’s drones would’ve found it.
“What if it’s below one of the pallets? A trapdoor. A highly shielded one, that can’t be found by scanners.”
More than possible, for a mad scientist. If it wasn’t shielded, then Harmony would’ve found it. I also suspected the mad scientist had cameras in here, to watch his entrance, and our arrival will have spooked him. Nothing we could do about it though, the one good thing was we were pretty sure he didn’t have teleporting technology, or he wouldn’t need a secret entrance.
I slipped a flat shield under a pallet, then expanded it. The pallet raised a few feet, then lowered after I looked under it, and I hit the next palette.
Champion snickered, and he started using his super strength to do the same in another direction.
With my luck I figured it would be the last palette we checked, but then Champion snorted and called my name. I walked over and looked where he was looking, at the large and round load bearing column in the middle of the room. It took me a minute to see what he was seeing, there was a very thin line in the shape of a door. It was so hard to make out, because the column was pockmarked and scratched in a lot of places.
He started to run his hands along it, looking for the trigger to open the door, when it exploded.
Boom!
He went flying back, as cement exploded and was sent out in small pieces like a shotgun blast. But my shield held, and his toughness would’ve probably absorbed the damage anyway. We were blinded momentarily by the swirling cement dust, which my shields were keeping out so that we didn’t breathe it in.
The dust settled to reveal a shaft leading down, but we had another problem. The basement ceiling was groaning without that support pedestal. Clearly, the mad scientist wanted to bury the entrance under the warehouse’s rubble, and I’d eat my boots if he didn’t have a second entrance he could escape from.
A second explosion went off, and the ceiling shattered bringing tons of concrete, boxes and pallets, and other stuff down on our heads. I used the pressure of it, enhanced it, and pulverized any cement that touched the shield around Champion and I. When the dust settled, we were standing in a very clean and perfectly rounded hole in the center of the basement, surrounded by cement, rebar, and destroyed merchandise.
Champion growled, “Being buried in tons of rubble would’ve been annoying, did I mention you’re a good partner? Let’s go,” and he flew down the shaft, with me right on his tail.
Champion ran into a rounded hatch, and just powered through it with a punch, and then we were in a tunnel with a small rounded platform that must’ve been an elevator. He was obviously pissed, and he flew down the tunnel without pause with me on his tail.
Boom!
The tunnel exploded around us, and it started to collapse. My shield kept us from being crushed, or from choking on cement dust, but we were stuck several hundred feet under the ground and completely surrounded by dirt and cement.
I snickered.
“This guy is has taken the cliché too far, with the self-destructs.”
The world blinked, and we were in the command center.
Harmony said, “Standby, turned on active scanning. I’ll teleport you into his lair momentarily.”
Champion frowned, “Why didn’t we do that first?”
Harmony replied, “I feared if the bug drone went active, the supervillain would find it before I had enough data to teleport you. That point is now moot since it’s our only chance.”
The world blinked again, and we were inside a laboratory with lots of gear and machines I didn’t recognize. On one side there were couches, lots of monitors and computers, as well as stacks of money and a bag. That must’ve been the payout.
There was no one there, and he must’ve left the money behind because he couldn’t determine where the bug was that had led us here. There was however an open door, which led into yet another tunnel. I was first that time, as I flew down it with Champion on my tail. This idiot wasn’t going to get away, not after trying to blow me up three different times.
The tunnel sloped downward, and when we got to the end I pulled the lever on the wall, and a cement door ground open. We went through, and when the door closed it looked almost seamless. We were in yet another tunnel, this one filled with pipes, small for electric, and large for water.
“Crap, are we in the city’s infrastructure tunnels?” I asked.
Harmony replied, “Affirmative, which was both clever and stupid of him to use for an emergency escape path. The city’s tunnels are under surveillance. Stand by while I search the recent history.”
Less than three seconds later a path appeared, and Champion disappeared in a blur using his super speed instead of flight. I was right behind him, but since I couldn’t keep up on foot I was flying. It was a huge rush, and my heart was pounding. Nothing wilder than flying at just under Mach speed in a series of twisting and turning tunnels filled with fragile things like gas lines, electrical lines, and water mains.
It happened really fast when we caught up to him, before he could reach a surface access junction. My shield absorbed a small pulse of dimensional energy, and then the bastard was laid out on the floor. Champion had taken him down with one judicious punch that knocked him out.
We very carefully stripped him of all devices.
Champion said, “Teleport us to level five,” as he tossed the mad scientist over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
The world blinked, and we appeared in a long hallway of reinforced concrete and steel cells designed to hold supervillains until trial. They also had suppression fields in place, so energy supers couldn’t escape either.
Janna smirked, “What took you so long?”
Damned speedsters.
Solar Wind said, “Good job. We got ours in lockup already, about to head back out.”
Janna giggled at my glare, it totally bounced off of her, then the two of them disappeared.
Champion tossed him in a cell, and turned to me, “Lunch?”
I nodded, “Absolutely.”
I was famished, after holding back three explosions.
Chapter Fifteen
Jonathan said, “Got a minute, Wynn?”
I frowned.
He was actually looking at my eyes again. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and he was quite attractive. He was also one of the younger of the experienced heroes, only five years older than I was at twenty-three. Too bad he was a creeper, any attraction I might’ve felt at his looks in the beginning was long gone.
Jonathan said, “In private, it’s important.”
Champion said, “Make it quick, we’re due back out there in five.”
I’d rather not, but he looked sincere, and like it or not he w
as part of the team. I had to work with him. I got up and followed him out of the dining area and into one of the conference rooms, my face was a mask of non-emotion as he turned to look at me.
“What is it?”
He pointed at his watch, and I frowned, but went ahead and shielded his and mine as well as the mic pickups in the room so Harmony couldn’t hear. It felt wrong, but there was something compelling in his eyes that told me to do it.
“Your mother is death’s mistress, isn’t she?” he half bluntly asked and half accused.
I felt my stomach tighten, and I frowned at him.
“What?” I said brilliantly, while I started to sweat. Damn, I was a really bad liar. It was a miracle Janna hadn’t figure it out yet, but I think that was credited to our very long history together, and her knowing my mom in her Belladonna disguise for years. She was very intuitive, but even intuitive people missed the obvious on occasion.
He said, “I thought so. I’ve been wondering since you got here.”
I wasn’t getting any creepy vibes, and he was acting almost normal. In fact, he usually did act like a normal person, whenever we were talking. It was just we hadn’t talked all that often.
I frowned, as something occurred to me.
“Is that why you’re always staring at me?”
He blushed, “I didn’t think you’d notice that. I tried to avoid eye contact, but yes.”
I almost snapped at him then, asking if his proof was somehow related to my tits, but then the alternate explanation occurred.
Oh, so he was trying to be subtle, and that’s why he’d been staring at my tits, and appearing to be perving on Stacey and Janna too, because he didn’t want to get caught staring at me and was avoiding eye contact? That put a whole new light on things, maybe he wasn’t a creeper after all? Just… really bad at subtle, like most men.
“You’d make a terrible spy, your attempt at subtlety made things… worse.”
He looked confused by that, and I was almost sure I’d misjudged him at that point.
I said, “Just… trust me. A spy you are not.”
He frowned, “So, back to the point?”
I shrugged, “What point? What do you plan to do about it, if I was, which is kind of absurd. Our powers are nothing alike, and there’s a lot of cute blonde’s in the city.”
Both true, but neither a true denial.
He shook his head, “That’s not uncommon between first and second generation, it’s like the first generation wasn’t quite… done. Plus, limited reactive and projective shields would explain all her powers, much better than all the other theories I’ve heard over the years.”
“What’s your point?” I asked again.
He looked flustered for a second, then said, “I just thought that’d be cool.”
I sighed, “If it was true, it’d be a secret best left alone, don’t you think?”
He nodded, “I’m a big fan, she’s the one that inspired me to get into this business. I won’t tell. I just… needed to know.”
Yeah, that was good news, but I still felt a little sick over it. The circle of trust was getting way too large to maintain a secret. My mom, her team, and me was all that had known. My sibs would find out, but not until they were older and mature enough to understand the gravity of keeping that secret. Now Solar Wind and Kinetic knew, it was worrying.
I bit my lip, “Good to know. Me too.”
He let out a startled laugh, not sure why he was surprised by that.
I waved, “Duty calls.”
He nodded, “See you later.”
I walked out, not entirely sure what just happened. It was obvious though, that I’d have to re-evaluate my first impression of Jonathan.
It was later that night after our double shift, when we were all called into the command center, save those on patrol.
CNN was on one of the main screens. The terrorist was making another live statement, and his hated visage was currently being shown as he talked in that intensely creepy way. He was so sure it was the right thing, it disgusted me. The man was a monster, and I struggled to keep my temper under control.
“I’d hoped for better, but at least my plans met with partial success. The true human race is assured to continue on our world. We must continue to fight back, and to claim our world from the aberrations that call themselves new humans. They are abominations, and not human at all. Unfortunately, the diseased and unnatural DNA is dominant, I would encourage any humans that wish to fight, to consider any cross mating to be nothing short of treason against the human race. Such traitors should be dealt with severely.
“I also proved weeks ago, the supers can be fought successfully, or most of them at any rate. Dimensional weapons are effective, and they were only outlawed because the aberrations fear them, but every true human has a right to defend themselves, their race, and their world.
“So, build weapons, marry and procreate with other humans, and fight for our race’s survival. We can still win, but I can’t do it alone. At the very least, with what I’ve accomplished, the human race will live on indefinitely as almost a seventh of the population. Not a bad start, from the starting position of guaranteed extinction.”
He made a regretful face, “I do regret the deaths that were necessary, but our world, our race, and our future in this universe is on the line. No price is too high to pay in pursuit of this goal.”
Evil son of a bitch. He’d used children to spread his DNA modifying virus, the man was a psychopath, and evil. He was also a fool, the dominant DNA homo-potens would eventually win out, even if it took hundreds of generations to slowly breed out the old humanity. He’d slaughtered six hundred million for nothing more than a delaying action, that would ultimately make no difference at all to the eventual extinction of homo-sapiens.
He continued in a stony voice, with a cold look on his face, “Make no mistake, we’re in a fight for our very survival.”
Harmony broke in, “Got him, he had an A.I. disguising him, and the trace itself was difficult with over two thousand hops and strong firewalls, but it was no match for the rest of us,” and the screen froze, shimmered, and the man’s true appearance came through. A moment later, a name appeared on the screen below him.
Doctor Grayson of the local CDC office just southeast of the city, situated between Manhattan and Excelsior. He was sixty-three years old but looked fit and hale. He looked… normal, like he could be anyone’s neighbor.
I knew better of course, evil never looked evil, they acted evil. But given the horrific scope of the man’s crimes, it seemed like there should be some outward sign of it in his appearance. It felt wrong that there wasn’t one.
He’d inherited millions from his parent’s, came from old money. He had a long history of helping others through charity, including going through medical school and dedicating his life to curing diseases.
Obviously, what happened when the first super quickened had driven him off the rails. He’d had plenty of money to bankroll labs, and as a CDC doctor he had access to medicines and reviewing hospitals, which is probably how he was able to plan and execute fouling the immunization shots without getting caught. Probably under the guise of an inspection, though it would take time for all the details to be discovered.
Doctor Grayson grimaced, and said, “I must leave you now that the abominations have revealed my true self to the world.”
Then his face kind of panicked, and he yelled, “Get me out of here!”
It was petty, but I enjoyed his panic.
A calm male voice responded, “Teleport systems offline, our systems have been compromised.”
Harmony noted, “Damned right they have,” and it was the most emotion I’d ever heard in her monotone voice, “It was foolish of him to do a live transmission. We’re currently tracing down all of his hidden assets, including the production site where he created the virus.”
Solar Wind smirked, “Let’s go pick him up, he deserves a nice public execution, don’t you think? N
o mistakes.”
Harmony said, “Police have been dispatched.”
Well damn, that was unsatisfying. I really wanted to do unheroic things to the monster, but technically he was human, and it was still the police’s jurisdiction to take him in. The biggest monster in history, but he was human, and they could handle it. I reminded myself I’d saved a lot of lives in the city thanks to my powers, but it only helped a little.
Solar Wind sighed, “Fine. Keep an eye on him though. Let’s… get back to work.”
He tried to run, but the CDC building had so many drones around it by then that a molecule couldn’t have left the building without notice. He was picked up before he could get to his car.
It felt, wrong, surreal, and almost anticlimactic after what the man had done, but the police carted him off in the back of a police vehicle.
The world cried out for his death.
I kind of wanted him to suffer first, but that was a darkness on my soul, one I tried to shake off as we went back to our duties. I hoped that his pleas and speech would go unheeded by all, but I knew better than that. Out of seven billion or so people, there were bound to a be a few that would see him as a martyr.
Still, hopefully none with his resources, medical knowledge, and access.
Life went on, and the world in general hoped that this was the last big horror in the evolution of humanity to a new species. Over the next two weeks, we had six more teams join us. Two of them transfers from other cities, and another four teams formed from people my age that had passed the liberty course in other cities, but those cities hadn’t had any openings.
It wasn’t long before we had actual full days off, and we were only on one eight hour shift a day. Solar Wind had changed from four six-hour shifts to three eight-hour ones, with more people it just made sense to do it that way. Technically, we’d been on two twelve-hour shifts, but they were split up part of the time into two six-hour shifts in a day, which is why she’d structured it that way.
Lady Aegis: Origins of Supers: Book Two Page 14
