by Simon Archer
Leaving him to finish up with Rose, I turned toward Kristen as Malik tried to throw what seemed like the whole building at me. I caught it, of course, but I wasn’t properly braced. While it didn’t hurt my invulnerable body, the force of it was enough to send me stumbling backward.
“Can you get him off the ground?” I asked as I nodded to his feet. My muscles strained with effort, and sweat started to run down my face as the geomancer pushed me back inch by inch.
“Right! That’s how he controls the ground,” Kristen said and then her hands twisted in an intricate motion I didn’t understand. An instant later, the rebar within the surrounding walls exploded outward. Malik had half a second to try to react, but that was pretty hard to do when he had to use all his energy to keep me pinned down.
Needless to say, the rebar hit him like the proverbial sack of bricks before wrapping him up tightly. Then with a flick of her wrists, Kristen used her mastery of magnetism to hoist him into the air and left him hanging there like she was a wicked widow tangling prey in her web.
“Rose is down,” Matt said as he dropped the lifeless villainess at his feet.
“I’ll tie her up too,” Kristen said as she repeated the process on Rose, just to be safe.
“That just leaves--”
My words were cut off as Diamond came crashing through the ceiling. He slammed into the ground between the three of us with enough force to crater the ground and send even me stumbling back from the shockwave.
He didn’t seem hurt, though, and he was already climbing to his feet by the time I’d recovered.
“Well, that’ll wake ya up,” he said as he popped his neck with his fist. Then he looked at me. “Thing is, ya won’t catch me like that again.” He raised his hands in a fighting stance. “I know aikido. Gonna use your strength against you and shit.”
“Well, it’s three on one.” I shrugged as I gestured to Kristen. “And even if that wasn’t the case, Kristen is really good at bondage.” I nodded to where she’d strung up his partners. “You should really give up now.”
“And miss out on all the fun--”
His words were cut off as his eyes rolled up in the back of his head, and he slowly slumped forward on his knees. Then, as he collapsed to the ground in front of us, I saw Kara standing behind him with what looked like a popgun in hand. It even had the big old “POW” flag extended.
“Told you I had a solution for the Diamond problem,” she said as she patted the weapon.
I pulled the drill gun from my waistband and held it up. “Yeah, I took it, remember?”
“Oh!” Kara replied. “I wondered where that went. I didn’t hear you take it. But… when you left, I had an epiphany, a non-lethal option. See, most neuro-stunner class energy weapons don’t work on him because of his inorganic compounds and--”
“I don’t need to know why it works, just that it did,” I soothed as I tucked the drill away. It might come in handy later in the battle.
She blushed a little. “I’m just sorry it took so long to build it from the rubble and get here. I’m not all that strong, you know.”
“Nonsense,” I said as I smiled at my Moon. “You’re my strength.”
“Aww…” she said as she walked over to me and gave me a hug.
“I thought you were deaf?” Kristen asked as she looked over at Kara.
“I am, kinda, sorta.” She showed us her ears, and there was some kinda blue gemstone device in her earlobe that reminded me of a really steampunk looking earring. “These are compensating for that.”
“Yep, she’s a keeper,” Kristen said with a laugh. “She did that during a siege. Imagine what she could make in a cave full of terrorists. She’d probably whip up an entire super suit or something.”
“More like come up with a way to harness clean energy that could power the world,” I said with a laugh.
“Not to ruin the moment,” Matt said as he moved toward us. “But what about Switch? She could be anywhere, and your timer’s ticking, Nick. You’re the only one of us that can match her.”
“That’s true,” I said as I tried to listen for her with my super hearing while scanning the place with my enhanced vision. Only, neither really got me anywhere. “I need to get higher up to get a good look at things before my power wears off.”
“I could try using a frequency scanner maybe and seeing if I can figure out where she is,” Kara offered. “But I need to be on the roof for that.”
“I’ll try scenting her out while you two do that,” Matt said as he looked at us. “Kristen, watch my back?”
“Yeah,” Kristen said as she looked at me. “Good luck.”
With that, they hurried off, leaving Kara and me there.
“Come on,” I held my hand out to her. “Let’s get you to the roof where you’ll be able to do your tech-genius thing.”
As she came close to me, I wrapped a hand around her waist and pulled her close. Then I flew through the Diamond-shaped hole in the ceiling.
A moment later, I set Kara down on the roof.
“Okay, you do your thing, and I’ll do mine,” I said, and when my Moon nodded to me, I leapt into the air.
Only, there was too much going on. Even from here, it quickly became obvious that while Diamond, Rose, and Malik had come to deal with us, there were numerous other villains around. And everything was going crazy.
I tried to tune it out, to fight the urge to rush in and help, but it was hard. Still, I knew the other heroes could do what needed to be done. Assuming, of course, the portals filling the field with villainous reinforcements stopped showing up.
That meant I had to find Switch.
Only everything was too chaotic. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t pick her out in the chaos, hear the sound of her particular heartbeat over the raging battle going on all around us. And thanks to her stupid stealth armor, I couldn’t see her either. It made sense of course. She’d known I would be here, so of course she’d be combating my super senses, just as she had Matt’s wolf-like sense of smell when she acted as Malik’s lookout.
That’s when it hit me, and before I knew it, I was closing my eyes. Admittedly, it was hard to find my way back to Teneheim given all that was going on, but I tried anyway. And I found it strange because of my powers. When I reached the zen that I needed to, it felt entirely different. In my mind’s eye, all that was there was a soft golden light, followed by the signature heartbeat that belonged solely to Switch. I continued to seek her out, guided by her unique rhythm.
And then I stopped. I could see Switch through the midst of the battle. She was also fighting, which is what made my stomach lurch and my eyes to snap open when I had a lock on her.
My father was in trouble.
21
“I’ve got her,” I told Kara, though I didn’t say anything else. There was no time to lose. I had to get to Switch and fast. I knew my old man could hold his own, but this was personal. For the entire semester, Switch had been manipulating the strings at the hands of someone higher than her, mostly like Mother, and all for a grade on what this villain school was calling a final exam. It was abhorrent.
I left Kara on the roof. She was relatively safe up there, and she had enough tech nearby that she could reconfigure into weapons and defenses. Plus, there weren’t any battles taking place near her. Even if there was, I knew she was up to the task. Even being deaf didn’t stop her from kicking ass and taking names.
Ash and fire burned and smoldered as I flew overhead as fast as I could. I saw Triton facing off against a number of the ghouls alongside City Master, and Kristen and Matt had run into a few as well. A good baker’s dozen of Adelaides were scattered across the fighting, aiding the heroes with more raw power, attending to the injured, or getting other students to safety.
I still didn’t fully understand much about the ghouls or where they had come from other than Switch having unleashed them at some point, but I was sure to keep my eye out now that I knew they were practically invisible. Of course, I could s
ee them with my enhanced eyesight, but when I wasn’t powered, it was going to be an issue. I could help but ask myself: What all had Carter learned with these things spying on us? How much did they know about us?
I followed my newfound senses to Switch on the far edge of the Valcav campus, giving Lord Inferno a run for his money. My dad was fast, always had been when it came to fighting with fire, but Switch was still faster. If I hadn’t been fully powered, I wouldn’t have been able to follow her movements as she dipped in and out of portals like something out of an old cartoon, only there was nothing comedic about this situation.
As soon as I began my descent, even at my fastest, Switch’s mind was just fast enough to snap a portal up in my way, sending me zooming through one of them to God’s knew where, but I didn’t panic. I didn’t even stop to figure out where she wanted to send me as I blasted myself into full reverse, backtracking through the portal a fraction of a second before she closed it. She clearly hadn’t been expecting that, and I took that moment of surprise to swing my fist hard towards her.
I wasn’t the only one who had the idea to capitalize on her momentary slip-up, as Dad launched himself at her, using a burst of hellfire like a jet engine. In desperation, she opened a portal behind her at the last moment and fell through it, with both of us right behind her.
We all slipped through that portal to the unknown, but this time was different. This time, I recognized where we were.
We were atop the volcano on Inferno Island. The unmistakable and all too familiar smell of sulfur wrought havoc on my nose and sweat beaded and dripped along my brow as well as the rest of my body. Though it was hard to see through the heat waves that rolled up from the crater, I could just make out the distant glint of Alexandria across the bay.
The blackened volcanic rock beneath my feet rumbled, and I looked hastily around for any sign of Switch or my father. I found them both several yards away from where I’d touched down still battling hard.
“Nicky!” my dad called over to me. “Where have you been? You’re missing out on all the fun!”
At that, I had to chuckle. His sarcasm knew no bounds, even when he was getting a faceful of Switch’s fists. What I didn’t understand was why he hadn’t summoned up his battlesuit and gone all out indiscriminately as he usually did. Did he actually care about the collateral damage at Valcav and here as well?
“Need some help?” I joked, but in all seriousness, I was livid. I was ready to put an end to Switch’s villainy once and for all.
“Nah, take a load off,” he insisted. “I can handle this.”
Now, that was a bold lie, even for him. I could tell, especially from the way Switch turned her full attention to me… and right before she shielded herself in a perfect sphere of blue portal energy. Shaking my head, I thought back to our bout in the World’s Finest and remembered how I beat her there: She needed a solid place to stand on. I honestly couldn’t believe she pulled the same trick twice, especially when she knew I could beat it. Without another word, I plunged into the volcanic stone, spinning like a drill to plow my way through to under the girl… but I was careful still.
Switch was just too smart to fall for the same trick twice.
I was right to be cautious because as I drilled upward, I met a blazing blue light in the middle of all the darkness. Before I plunged into it and likely ended up in deep space somewhere, I put on the brakes and launched myself back towards the surface in an arc. As soon as I broke into open air again, I could hear Switch’s echoing laughter as she seemed to be playing with Inferno, switching from punches up to cars and boulders portaled in above his head.
“This stealth armor is for more than staying sneaky, Gateon,” she taunted. “It’s also got an antigrav unit, just the thing for floating in the middle of my ball of doom here.” Switch let out a dismissive hiss. “Now, stay out of the way, Kidferno. Wait for your damn turn while I finish off your daddy!”
“As if some amateur like you could kill me,” Dad scoffed as he annihilated an oncoming dumpster with a giant blast of hellfire. “Sit back, Junior, and watch how your dad takes care of business.”
“I think you know better, Nicky,” Switch shot back along with a concrete slab the size of a parking lot. I intercepted it in a heartbeat, rocketing toward it in a blink of an eye to smash it to powder. Any remaining debris I repulsed away with a burst of force to keep it out of harm’s way. “You figured out the one and only way to beat me clean, and Mother took care of that one little problem for me. Face it, you and your daddy are out of luck this time.”
“You’re full of it, Switch,” Inferno shot back. “No villain is unbeatable, not when the greatest hero of the world is here… and his son, of course.”
While I appreciated Dad’s bluster and bravado here, but my mind was racing a thousand miles a minute, maybe more with my powers revving at high gear, and I didn’t see a clear way out. Switch had the almost perfect combination of powers to keep us at bay, and the only way out was to take her by surprise. That just wasn’t going to happen now, unless…
Idea!
“So, Switch, I know you get extra credit for every Valcav student and faculty that you kill,” I began, “but what about capturing us? I mean, Oliver, Brad, whatever his name is, sure wanted me during the World’s Finest.”
Dad’s eyes grew wide in panic as he realized what I was saying, but I raised a calming hand and flashed him a wink. See, Switch still had one weakness: She couldn’t see us past her portal shield, so she didn’t see Lord Inferno’s grin as he caught on to the fact I was playing the student villain along.
“But, son,” he replied in melodramatic tones, “you can’t possibly surrender to a villain!” Honestly, Dad almost screwed the pooch right there, but at the same tie, he was Lord Inferno, one of the most melodramatic hero… villain… whatever you wanted to call him in the world. Him making overblown statements was kind of his thing.
“If it will save your life, Dad, I’d do it in a heartbeat.” I silently hovered closer and closer as I talked, to the edge of the portal field. I took it as a good sign that the onslaught of debris had stopped, though the portals overhead still swirled threateningly. “Am I worth more alive or dead to Carter Academy?”
I swore I could hear her low sigh through the roaring blue nothingness of Switch’s portals. “Damn you, Gateon. If I didn’t need to up my GPA after failing to take you out in the World’s Finest…” The sphere of portals started to part. “Good thing you heroes are so naïve. You actually keep your promises--”
The moment the sphere parted enough, I launched myself through in the blink of an eye.
“Sorry, but I didn’t promise you anything,” I told her cooly as I zipped behind her, catching her hovering form with one arm around her head and the other around her waist. I put just enough pressure to crack her armored collar, mindful not to choke her too hard but hard enough to let my anger be known.
“Unhand me, traitorous swine!” Switch screamed as she thrashed. The rest of her portals broke down as I squeezed a little tighter to make her gasp and lose concentration. “Or I’ll--”
“You leave him out of this!” Lord Inferno pronounced as he stalked forward to stand proudly and intimidatingly before her. “You want to get rid of me, fine, but my son has nothing to do with me.”
What?
“Dad?” I questioned. “What are you doing?”
“What I should have done from the beginning. I should have done everything I could to keep you from harm.” He locked eyes with me, and I felt my heart swell in my chest as his eyes softened just for me. “You should have become my priority, Nick. Instead, I got angry and spiteful, and I took it out on the world, on you.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I didn’t know what to say. I was flattered, I think. Shocked was another good adjective to use.
“This is all really touching,” Switch yawned, and I realized that she had stopped flailing about, “but I’m still here, and this declaration of fatherly love is too late.
You’re going to die today, Inferno, and I’m going to be the one that brings your tyranny to an end.”
I snorted. “Are you serious? Do you really think that you can break out of my hold? Even if you portal out, I’ll be right with you, and even then, I bet I can choke you out before you can summon one.”
“You can’t hold it forever,” Switch noted. “You could fly me away to the police station, but that won’t do you any good, will it? I’ll just escape, no jail can hold me, and this cycle will continue. Or you could kill me, and all of my secrets die with me.” She clicked her tongue. “So, I’ll make you a deal. You let me go, and I’ll let you live. You should be happy, Nicky. This asshole will be out of your life forever.”
I faltered. I knew what the right choice was, but was it really right? Yes, of course, saving Dad’s life was right, but so was sparing Switch as well. Good or bad, a life is a life, and I was no one to take anyone out of it, but at the same time, Switch had a point. What could stop her other than death or being put into some kind of permanent sleep or coma? At that point, being put into an endless sleep might as well be death, right?
Even Judgment wasn’t suited for that kind of calling, and he was literally a former judge.
“What is it going to be, Gateon?” Switch persisted. “We can stand up here all night if that makes you happy, but either way, someone is dying tonight, and it isn’t going to be me.”
“He might not have the evil in him to do it, but I sure as hell do.” With that, Lord Inferno produced a large fireball from the palms of his hands and took aim at Switch and me.
Switch cackled with absolute disbelief. “What are you going to do? Kill your own son, the only person left in the world who thinks that you’re worth anything?”
“I trust my son,” Inferno affirmed, “and I’ll do what it takes to make sure his memory is kept alive.”
