by Zack Archer
A thrill of transgression gripped me. I’d just been threatened by one of the galaxy’s worst supervillains, a bully if there ever was one, and threw it right back in his face!
“Now you know how it feels!” I shouted, stumbling, fighting to get the hell outta Dodge before The Showstopper could pulp me with one of his cyclones.
“YOU’RE A DEAD MAN!” I heard Madcap scream as the wind picked up. I grabbed the now-metallic Mr. Chops, my rucksack, and flew forward, galloping toward what I assumed would be the safety of a side corridor.
The wind began howling like a pack of wolves, and I could feel my body being lifted up off the ground.
Seconds before I was sucked back toward the brothers, a figure lurched out of the corridor.
It was Aurora.
She was breathing heavily, carrying some kind of ginormous rocket launcher, and she looked supremely pissed.
I stared at her and then she screamed, “GET DOWN!”
And then all hell broke loose.
19
“I SAID GET DOWN!” Aurora repeated.
I covered my head and dove forward, sliding between her legs as she fired her rocket launcher. The report from her weapon echoed off the walls, and I elbowed myself up to see the missile she’d fired corkscrewing through the air.
It slammed into the far wall, obliterating it, tearing down the waterfall.
This disoriented Madcap and The Showstopper for a moment.
Then Aurora held up her hand. Her eyes filmed over with white, and she summoned another ball of blue light out of thin air and flung it like a baseball—
WHAM!
Madcap created a yellow forcefield that vaporized the energy ball. There was a look on
the faces of the two brothers, a glimmer of recognition. I could sense that there was history between Aurora and them.
Madcap favored us with a dark smile and a contemptuous look. “YOU’RE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT US, BITCH!”
“Maybe not by myself,” I heard Aurora mutter. She turned her gaze on me. “Give me
your hand, Quincy!”
I watched in horror as The Showstopper energized his cyclone, the air and smoky debris turned into a churning twister that quickly gained girth and density, an expanding funnel that was sucking up everything in its path.
We had seconds to react, maybe less.
“GIVE ME YOUR HAND!” Aurora yelled. “WE NEED TO CALL FORTH A STARQUAKE!”
I grabbed hold, and the moment my fingers touched hers, there was a cloud of friction sparks. A powerful pulse of energy locked us in place, and then Aurora torqued us sideways so that we could unleash a bolt of blue lightning.
I realized at that moment that Aurora and I had something together. I could engineer powers on my own, but when combined with whatever Aurora had, I was infinitely more powerful. I was Quincy X. Fletcher on steroids and HGH!
The lightning we birthed arced forward, stretching from the ground to the ceiling—
Time out.
I’m going to pause here for a moment to savor the memory because ever since I was a little kid, getting my ass kicked because I was different, I hoped and prayed that someday I’d acquire the power to change my situation.
Well, I finally had.
Atlas and the others had been right all along.
I was special.
I did possess unique powers that were finally being realized in Fiasco Heights, and I knew at that moment, standing next to Aurora, that I’d never let another bully (or supervillain), fuck with me ever again.
Okay, I got that off my chest, so let’s cut back to the action—
BOOM!
The ceiling burst apart with a concussive blast.
Section of the floors above came crashing down.
Holy shit, we’d done it!
We’d combined our forces and blasted the friggin’ building apart!
Aurora grabbed my hand and pulled me back as smoke and the detritus of the explosion obscured visibility, blocking the cyclone for a few precious seconds, buying us some time.
In the resulting chaos, we made a hasty exit through a nearby hallway, praying that we’d able to put some distance between the brothers and us. I asked where Lyric was, and Aurora said she was injured but would be fine, and then her fingers wrapped around my hand like a boa constrictor. “We leave you alone for forty minutes and this is what happens?! Atlas told you not to expose yourself!”
If only you knew, I thought.
“Yeah, well, we were taking a break from training,” I replied.
“You were naked back there weren’t you?”
“How did you—”
“I’ve got the metascreen, so answer the question!”
“It was really warm and the humidity levels near the pool are super high and—”
“You were fucking Lyric, weren’t you?”
I blushed. “Well, I suppose roughly you could say that.”
“Why roughly?”
“Because when you smooth it out, we were hitting the skins like John Bonham at a drum
factory.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“We were getting our freak on and—”
Suddenly, Aurora picked me up and pinned me against the wall. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she screamed, spittle flecking the corners of her lovely mouth.
“What?!”
“You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”
“They can’t kill me, Aurora! You said so yourself, I’ve got the feats and the ability to—” “Don’t be a fool,” she said, lowering me to the ground. “We’re not gods. Each of us has a weakness, Quincy.”
I hadn’t really about that, but I guess it made perfect sense. Nobody, not even a superhero, is indestructible.
“What’s mine?” I asked.
“Didn’t you see what we just did together? You’re a force-multiplier, which means you’re vulnerable when alone, but almost impossible to defeat when operating in tandem with somebody like me.”
“Cool, so that means we’re a team now, right? A…dynamic duo?”
She quirked an eyebrow and opened her mouth to respond when—
A light grew, flashing from somewhere behind us, and I looked back as a ball of energy hurled by one of the brothers hammered into the hallway’s wall, the shockwave launching us forward.
We tumbled like quarters in a washing machine down a decline and into an open chamber with twenty-foot ceilings.
The wind was knocked out of me for several seconds. I reached for Aurora, who was already pushing herself up.
Banners of smoke filled the chamber, and in the silty light, I saw the outline of men with weapons.
Fodder.
The gang members, the supervillain grunts that I’d seen earlier when Aurora had killed
the Phantasm.
There were dozens of them spilling down the hallway, rushing to finish us off.
The first three Fodder through the door held up white rods, aiming them at us like rifles. Aurora and I crouched defensively, ready for anything when—
WHUNK! WHUNK! WHUNK!
Long slivers of wood flew into the men’s chests.
The Fodder dropped their weapons and pawed at their chests, which blossomed red.
I pivoted to see Splinter, Kaptain Khaos, and Liberty!
“Reinforcements have arrived,” Splinter said, flinging another handful of splinters at the
attacking Fodder.
Before I could thank them, more Fodder appeared and attacked.
Tongues of orange flame leaped from the end of the white rods, the Fodder firing what
looked like darts at us.
Aurora danced between the incoming darts, bobbing and weaving with the body-balance of a trained gymnast. I was awestruck by her, and it wasn’t just her physical beauty or exquisite body. It was her sheer…physicality. Her intensity. Whatever she did was powerful and precise, with no wasted effort. Coming from a planet that was increasingly populated b
y slackers, I simultaneously lusted after and admired the hell out of Aurora.
She went on the attack, operating like a femme-fatale killing machine, doing the splits as a dart snapped past her head, then conjured a blossom of energy that she shaped into a ball and tossed like a grenade—
BOOM!
The energy ball exploded, spraying debris everywhere, knocking the Fodder down like tenpins.
Splinter was alongside her, flinging corrosive sap at our attackers.
I watched the sap spatter against one of the Fodder’s visors and begin eating through the material as the man fought to pry the visor off of his face, screaming in agony, the sap eating through his flesh and bones.
More Fodder appeared, a company without number, and I decided to get in on the action.
I shot forward and flung my arms out, focusing as I’d never focused before.
The air shimmered and seemed to catch fire, and then I brought my arms forward, slinging a wall of energy at the Fodder that knocked them back.
In seconds, Liberty was alongside me, pulling her swords out, ready to go to work.
One of the Fodder lunged at Liberty, who dropped low and punted the unlucky bastard in the groin. The man fell onto his back, and Liberty planted her feet on the attacker’s torso, launching herself forward, six feet into the air.
Sailing forward, she swung her blades so hard that they seemed to split the air. There was a blur of silver, and the necks of two other Fodder were sliced wide open.
I spotted another of the attackers aiming at Liberty with his white rod.
I screamed, but she didn’t hear me over the sounds of the battle.
Conjuring up a ball of energy, I threw it across the chamber at the same instant the Fodder fired his weapon.
The dart from the Fodder’s weapon ricocheted off the energy I’d created, saving Liberty from getting whacked.
She spotted this and turned, enraged, and hurled one of her swords so that it flew across the field of battle and—
THWACK!
Stuck into the Fodder’s chest, impaling him against the far wall.
I cheered, pumping my fist, feeling invincible, bullet-proof when—
Something whacked into my arm and spun me to the ground.
I looked down to see a hole in my shirt near my elbow which was splotched crimson.
One of the darts fired by a Fodder had scooped out a section of flesh.
My heart lurched.
Crap.
I’d been shot.
20
Aurora spotted me lying on the ground, my arm spurting red. She knelt next to me.
“Now do you understand why your weakness is operating alone?”
I nodded as she clutched my arm, staunching the flow of blood. “This is also why you need to wear the singlet and mask,” she said, helping me up, summoning a forcefield which protected us against the curtain of incoming darts.
She bent a loop of pure energy and tied it around my arm near my elbow like a tourniquet.
The bleeding stopped.
“You’ll be fine,” she said under her breath. “Besides, chicks dig scars.”
“I owe you one,” I said.
“You owe me a million,” she replied with a wink. “Especially now that we don’t have time to go back and grab the wave sleds and the rest of our gear.”
Sensing that there were too many enemies to defeat, Kaptain Khaos shouted for us to retreat. “BACK! GET THE FUCK BACK!”
I watched the Kaptain extend his hands and create a tremor, shaking the space with an ominous rumble.
Sections of the walls and ceilings tumbled down.
“Let’s go!” Aurora shouted.
The Kaptain looked over. “Time to retreat in full?!”
“It’s not a retreat!” Aurora shouted back. “We’re advancing in another direction!”
We gathered up our gear and beat a hasty retreat down another corridor as the chamber collapsed behind us, blocking the Fodder from pursuing us.
I was psyched, pumping my fist. “Ha! We’re good!” I shouted. “We beat those bastards!”
The others were less-enthusiastic.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
Aurora’s eyes closed. “Can you hear it?”
For once in my life I couldn’t hear anything.
“They’re coming aren’t they?” Splinter asked.
Aurora nodded. “The Snouts,” she whispered. “The Harbinger has sent them after us.”
Suddenly, the air was split by a whining sound followed by the rumble of an engine.
“THERE THEY ARE!” Splinter shouted.
I glimpsed two wave sleds zeroing in on us, slashing down the corridor off to our right. There were flashes of light and then—
Pyrotechnics exploded around us.
“Flash-bangs!” Aurora said. “They’re trying to disorient us!”
We ran in the other direction, and I could see now that our flight was by design. That is, Aurora knew exactly where to run, hide, and seek shelter. She pointed up to the right, and I saw a metal handhold which she latched onto, pulling it open to reveal a hideaway, a gap in the wall that we squirmed into.
The hideaway was no bigger than a closet, but it contained a metal ladder bolted onto the bulkhead leading down into a gloomy, recessed space.
We slammed the hideaway’s door shut and climbed down, dropping several feet into another compartment that we quickly crossed. Exiting yet another door, we flew through an auditorium-sized room, listening to the sounds of the sirens and a cascade of electronic chimes as—
BOOM!
A far wall exploded as the Snouts’ wave sleds glided in, hovering eight feet off the ground like some of those old-school Harrier jump jets. And beneath the sleds was a foot-detail of what looked to be incredibly life-like, human-sized drones.
“They got Synths with them!” Kaptain Khaos shouted.
The alien cops shouted over loudspeakers for us to throw up our hands and when we didn’t, they fired energized rounds that starred the floors and walls all around us.
Aurora slid to a stop and held up one of the glass grenades filled with amber liquid that I’d seen Lyric handling earlier. What she called Chernips.
She tossed the grenade to me. My gut tightened. “What do you want me to do with it?!”
“THROW IT!” Aurora yelled.
I turned and tossed the grenade which bounced off the ground, several feet up into the air before vanishing in a fireball that tore the front end of the first Snout wave sled clear off, sending the fiery wreckage bouncing off the far wall and then back at the second wave sled.
The impact caused the second machine to crumple and then slam down onto the ground where it folded up like a jackknife, the wreck sliding across the ground, coming to a stop a few feet away from us.
All of the cops, the Snouts, who were clad in black, flexible armor, were lying in heaps, either dead or unconscious along with the Synths that were sparking and twitching.
My heart stopped hammering long enough for me to take a few measured breaths. My eyes roamed back to Aurora and the others. “Is it too late to say, ‘I’m sorry?’”
Splinter nodded. “Yeah, that kinda ended when you killed all of them.”
Kaptain Khaos studied the wreckage. “Most of ‘em will live. And the rest were crooked anyway.”
“And there’s no time to worry about it,” Aurora said, pulling out her metascreen, swiping through a series of windows before stopping on what looked like a building schematic. She traced a series of yellow lines on it that were populated by various items, including what looked like the Morningstars, Fodder, and additional Snouts.
I watched her swipe through additional windows and sub-windows that showed some of the bad guys flying around on gliders, while others were running down the curved air walkways, presumably coming to confront us.
Aurora called back up the yellow lines and tapped and pinched the screen until a circuitous course around our enemies had
been plotted and overlaid on the schematic.
I pointed at the course. “What is that?”
“The escape route. Atlas created it for me.”
“How the hell did he know where the bad guys are?”
“That’s another of his feats,” Aurora said. “He’s a strategist.”
Kaptain Khaos nodded. “He’s got the ability to spot patterns, causes and effects—”
“The whole wings here and tsunami there kinda butterfly-effect thing,” Splinter added, tapping a finger against his head. “Where others see chaos, the big man sees connections, the ballet in the numbers.”
“Pattern recognition,” Aurora said, folding up the metascreen. “Now let’s get out of here.”
We did just that, following the escape route, running down through the underground city, passing through abandoned tunnels and across forgotten sub-basements and anterooms.
After running for what seemed like thirty minutes, we stopped to catch our breath on a landing that overlooked a maze of scaffolding rising up over what looked like a bottomless pit.
Atlas and Lyric were waiting for us.
I tossed a smile and a look at Lyric, who nodded but didn’t return the smile. She was too busy nursing a bandage around her neck, her left arm cocooned in a shiny, metal brace.
“Did they follow you?” Atlas asked.
“We had some problems with the Snouts,” Splinter said.
“But Quincy took care of them,” Liberty said.
I smiled. Atlas grew thin-lipped, turning his attention to me. “I have to admit, I had harbored some rather serious reservations about you before, Quincy.”
“And now?”
“They’ve been confirmed.”
My head dropped. “I fucked up.”
Atlas ignored this. “Not only did you confront the Snouts, but you let yourself be outed to the Morningstars. Who confronted you back at the showers?” he asked.
“Madcap and The Showstopper.”
“And yet somehow you survived,” Atlas remarked.
“I fooled them. I shot Madcap in the eyes with my perp spray before he could turn me into a statue.”
Atlas registered this. “What did they say to you? We need to know everything.”
“Not too much,” I answered, a little leery of revealing everything the brothers had mentioned to me, including all the digs against Atlas and the others. “They were mostly angry about the Caul.”
