“What are you saying? It knows who I am?”
More probable it knows you are the threat. We cannot cycle the mass driver any faster than twenty seconds. Even if we land on the horizon, I do not think we will have time to fire before the drone can fire back.
I dodge more incoming fire while the team continues to whittle away at the tracks. Most of the turrets track me, a few go after Glacier, but they completely ignore Fleet. Almost like they can’t see him. In fact, as far as I can tell, Fleet and Domino haven’t taken any fire…
“Kate, you up for something crazy?”
“Always. What do you have in mind?”
“Port to me.” I no sooner finish the words then I feel her weight on my back. Epic shifts the main backplate aside and a handle locks into place for her to hold on. If she’s traveling on my back my speed is limited to two hundred. Which is more than enough for dodging.
“Amelia, what are you doing?”
“Epic, give her the sword.” The thunk of detaching metal vibrates through the suit. Kate is the only person, besides me, who can wield it. After our little infiltration of Cat-7, I realized she could use it better than me. I try not to let that bother me… at least too much. Kate’s one of those people who’s just naturally talented at virtually everything she does.
“I’m gonna do a fly by, port to the right ‘T’ and hack away at it. Got it?”
“Hack away? Is that the technical term?”
“Everyone’s a critic,” I mutter. “Hang on!” Up we go, straight up at two hundred miles an hour. This is going to be tricky. “Cut thrust!” The suit isn’t aerodynamic in the least, it also weighs five hundred pounds (plus Kate’s one-sixty). My climb speed drops rapidly, reaching zero in seconds. Kate teleports away with a pop and I kick the thrusters back in as the turrets fire away at me. I hope those plasma guns are limited in range as the green balls of death flyby me. Kate carried her momentum with her when she ports, so I can’t exactly drop her off at a hundred miles an hour.
Epic opens a screen for me, showing Kate’s progress. She’s hacking away for all its worth at the arm of the ‘T’. The sword cuts through the material like butter, thank God. I was starting to wonder if I had anything that could hurt it.
“Epic, make a note, let’s make a pair of swords for Kate.”
Note made.
Piling on the G’s, I push the suit into tight, high speed turns in an effort to dodge attacks and keep it off balance. An idea hits me, “Epic, can you run the math on an Arrow strike?”
I do not advise that course of action?
“Why?”
The drone is traveling along the transmission lines for the power plant. An Arrow strike would decimate the lines and cause the same kind of havoc destroying the plant would.
“Dang-it. So much for my bright ideas. You have anything?”
Other than wearing it down, no. In seven minutes it will be in range of the plant. We do not have much time.
I just don’t have another gun to throw at it. I thought for sure my mass driver would do the trick. I just need a little time to deploy it. Time the drone won’t give me.
“Arsenal,” TK says over the comms, “Glacier is about spent and not doing a whole lot. Evac her and let me go on the offensive.”
She’s not wrong. The drones speed has only dropped a half mile an hour since we attacked. But right now I can’t know what kind of effect TK’s powers will have on it. She’s not nearly strong enough to rend the metal or cause significant structural damage.
“Negative, it’s about to hit Fleet’s barricade and—” I don’t finish the sentence as the drone suddenly grinds to a halt. All the weapons swivel toward the power stations.
It appears we were wrong about the range.
“Ah, crap.”
A bright star of light falls from the sky, burning past us so fast I can only vaguely make out the feminine form within, and creates an afterimage in my vision I have to blink away.
“What’s that?” Fleet asks.
My mind kicks into gear as the drone fires its remaining twenty-nine plasma turrets on one concentrated point.
“Kate, get off it!” I shout.
The horizon lights up like a nuclear blast but just as quick vanishes. I’m as surprised as the drone when there are no secondary explosions. My mind catches up with what I’m seeing. “Was that Aeon?”
A concentrated beam of fire a hundred times as bright as the plasma weapons and as hot as the sun cuts through the sky from the power station to the drone.
“Fleet, evac!”
The beam slices through the drone, cutting it neatly in half from base to top. Then it explodes.
9
I’m not sure what I feel first. Numb, or pain. Maybe both? “Epic?” No response. I can’t see anything, my HUD’s dark and the faceplate has polarized to the max.
“Epic?” I cough out his name. My lungs hurt. Light flashes in my eyes as the HUD emerges in sections as each piece of the armor runs a system check before turning green.
I apologize Amelia. I required a moment to reboot.
“What happened?” The faceplate de-polarizes and I can see for myself. The burning wreckage of the drone, a half mile away at least, erupts in a fountain of flame and molten metal. The area around it is devastated. The ground blackened and cracked. There is a perfect circle of vaporized particles out to a hundred feet.
Kate! “Epic where is the—”
All team members accounted for and are relatively injury free. You, however, have a broken rib. I have immobilized the torso to prevent further injury.
The sky lights up and a translucent star of energy lands beside me. Her feet only ‘touch’ the ground in the sense they are even with it. But not so much as a mote of dust is affected by her passing. I’ve only ever seen her on TV. Aeon. Like Glacier, Aeon is an elemental. However, where Glacier’s powers are based on an earthly element, Aeon isn’t. She’s pure energy. Whichever kind she wants to be.
“You okay?” Her voice sounds distorted like she’s talking through a radio.
“Yeah, thank you for—”
“Whatever. You’re just lucky I was here to save your sorry ass.”
“Uh, excuse me?” I’m a little stunned at the anger I’m sensing from her.
“You let Sydney die. And now here you are, not even a real super, trying to stop these things. He said you were smart and that I should appreciate that. But as far as I can tell, you’re just a pretender in a toy. Sydney was a real hero, not you.”
Before I can disagree with her she vanishes in a flash. Her words hit me like a ten-ton hammer. I fall back into the dirt letting my head rest on the inside of my suit. Sydney was a hero. He died defending me and the rest of the world from a maniac. If he’d been here… he would have smashed that drone to smithereens.
Amelia, I am detecting distress. Are you okay?
“No. Call Kate, let her know I need a pickup. Then get the jet ready, we’re going home.”
An hour later the Emjet slows to a hover above the landing pad. It was a very quiet trip home. We failed. If not for Aeon we would be going the way of Russia. They had to nuke their drone to stop it, but not before it destroyed their largest nuclear reactor. The German super team Das Boot, managed to take out theirs but at the cost of two of their team members. Japan’s Team Valkyrie had the best success, bringing down their drone in under ten minutes. In total only one drone succeeded. But that didn’t mean there weren’t going to be more. And if this is any indication, they would learn from their mistakes.
I had to take the armor off for The Doctor to look at me. He wrapped my ribs and sat close for the whole trip home. I was exhausted, but at least comfortable.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Kate asks as the team disembarks.
“Nothing you don’t already know.”
“All in all I thought it went well,” she says with false cheer.
“If not for Aeon we would have lost.”
“So? We tried, sometim
es Amelia, you can’t win. You go left, you go right, it doesn’t matter. If you let every failure bog you down… What?”
I shake my head. “That wasn’t a failure, Kate. It was a disaster! We might as well have flung harsh language for all the good we did.”
“That’s not true. Your sword worked well. Glacier may not have slowed it down but I think if she were to ice up other parts we might have more success.”
“Are you saying I should learn from this and move on?” I ask. I know it sounds stupid. Of course, that is what I should do. Why then, do I feel like a five-pound bag of sand sits squarely on my chest? Of course, it isn’t all the failure.
She looks at me for a moment and I feel like her green eyes penetrate into my very soul. Cocking her head to the side she sighs. “It wasn’t your fault, Amelia. He knew the risks. You didn’t make him jump into the fight with Behemoth.”
As usual, she’s right. But her being right doesn’t change the way I feel. Sydney died, and even Aeon can see it was my fault. That is what is really bothering me. Yes, we lost and I’m sure we can do better. But what Aeon said… it was my fault he died and no amount of ‘he made his own decisions’ changes the fact that I ignored Pythia and pushed forward on my own. And because of that Sydney died.
“Come on, Luke is waiting for you and seeing him always cheers you up.” The sentence is barely out of her mouth before she stops cold to look at me. Even if I wasn’t already feeling awful, I’d feel worse. Luke hasn’t really spoken to me in two weeks, not since our argument. I keep meaning to call him but every time I try, my hand freezes. What do I tell him? I’m not sorry I didn’t want to go out but… I don’t know.
“What happened and why didn’t you tell me?”
“We’ve been busy. With training, and orienting the new team then this… I just… he…” I don’t know where to start. I try to wheel off the plane but each movement makes my rib hurt. Kate takes the handles and pushes me to the private elevator and then in when it arrives. Once the doors shut she looks at me in the mirror surface, waiting patiently. I bet she never has any problems figuring out what she’s feeling.
When the doors downstairs open she spends a few minutes collecting a few things for me, a blanket, soda, and then whips together a ham and cheese sandwich. All the while letting me sort through what I’m feeling. What am I feeling? Panic. Panic at the thought of losing Luke. He’s my first real boyfriend. He’s the only guy I’ve ever kissed. We’ve been through a lot as a team and I don’t want that to go away either but… I think about that day. What happened? I got so mad at him pushing me, far more angry than I should have. Then I panicked and didn’t say anything as he left, all because… oh.
“Figure it out have we?” She asks from the couch. She’s lounging with her feet over the arm and a beer in hand. I nod. “Good. Now tell me.”
“You’re an empath, don’t you already know?”
“Amelia, you of all people should know that nothing is ever known, only suspected. You need to say it more than I need to hear it. Why did you two argue?”
“He wanted to go out. He said he had plans and I was so tired from our trip I just wanted to stay in and when… I panicked.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean when he started pushing me toward the door I had a straight up panic attack. I didn’t realize it ‘till just now but… I freaked out at the thought of leaving.”
“Why? We’d just come back. It isn’t like you never leave your lab.”
I do leave the lab, but not the building… something is nagging at me. I wish emotions were as easy as science. Half the time I don’t even know what I’m feeling.
“I don’t know. I just know I screwed it up with him.”
Kate bursts out laughing, which turns into a snort as beer goes up her nose. “Oh honey, you’re precious. Amelia, you had a fight. It isn’t the end of the world. Get your butt over to him and apologize and all will be well. Besides, tomorrow’s your birthday, he has to forgive you, birthday rules.”
I hope so.
10
I have to say, if there is one thing I love about the new building, it’s my lab! Tech so state of the art it doesn’t exist commercially. I have two quantum computers in tandem just for running numbers. Everything else is powered by a third quantum computer as well as a few more traditional servers. All buried fifty feet underground in a bunker that could take an oblique hit from a nuke. Add in the four workstations, numerous monitors showing updates on different projects, and every conceivable piece of scanning tech and I’m a happy camper.
Of course, with so many monitors the news is impossible to ignore. They aren’t being very kind. Some reporters stayed in the area and filmed the giant robot attacking Colorado. The President was on TV not ten minutes before asking people to stay calm and that his new Superhuman Initiative was dealing with it. Then the footage of us getting our butts handed to us comes on and yeah… not the best showing ever. I know he gave me carte blanch to do what I felt was needed. But am I?
Despite yesterdays setback I am trying to persevere. After all, today is my birthday and I have one helluva present for a friend. Of course, I’m assuming it works. I hope it works.
The door chimes. “Come,” I say as I wheel over to the vault. It’s not really a vault, just a box I built with the same material that makes up the suit. The biometric lock on top of Epic needing to open it should keep my experiments safe from thieves. I’m digging in it when I hear the door swoosh open and the temp in the room drops ten degrees in a heartbeat. I shiver involuntarily as I dig out my treasure.
Monica walks in with Kate at her side and Tessa right behind her. I didn’t realize they would all be coming, but maybe I caught them at the right time. If Kate is affected by Glacier’s cold aura she doesn’t show it. Tessa has a hoodie on with the worlds, I heart Arsenal. It takes me by surprise. Is she being sarcastic? I can’t tell, but it has to be sarcasm, right?
“Cute shirt.”
“You like it? I’m selling them on Amazon for thirty bucks a pop. They’re quite popular.”
I still can’t tell if she’s joking but I’m going to go with she’s just messing with me. The ice princess looks like she would rather be anywhere but here. Kate gives me the eyebrow. She must sense my excitement. I place the belt I’ve been working on over my lap and wheel to the largest monitor.
“Epic, play it for my guests.”
Affirmative, flashes on the screen before a diagram of Kate’s magnetic field appears.
“When I first started looking into your problem, Monica, I was intrigued. I read Cat-7’s notes on it and wasn’t impressed. They were never interested in finding a solution.” She clenches her fists hard. I figured they’d strung her along with promises of reversing what had happened to her. “All their research focused on weaponizing your abilities. When that didn’t work they sent you to us. Which, is actually the good news.”
“I don’t see how two years of my life wasted in a lab while being poked, prodded, and chiseled is good news.” Two years? I had no idea. Now I feel like a heel.
“No, that wasn’t and I am sorry for what you had to go through, truly.” That seems to make her feel a little better. I get an approving nod from Kate anyway. “The good news is they sent you to me. They were looking at you as a biology problem and I am not a biologist. I’m an engineer—”
“Among other things,” Kate interrupts.
“True. Here is a picture of a magneto scan I took of Kate a few months back. The yellow lines are her magnetic field. This is with her power at a minimal level, watch as she actively produces pheromones.” The lines thicken and brighten. Spreading out farther from her.
“Okay, pretty color show,” Monica says. I know she’s not happy about her situation. But how can she not see how cool this is?
“This is Behemoth when she was at rest,” another image pops up. Behemoth was much larger than Kate and her magnetic field was immense. Thick yellow lines nearly made her one solid color.
“I’m not following what this has to do with me?” Monica asks.
“Patience, young Jedi… this is you.” Her magneto scan I took two weeks ago pops up. It’s brighter than Kate’s but not nearly as powerful.
“Okay…”
I sigh. Kate flashes me a look and I smile. Not everyone geeks out on the science like me but… they should. “Here, let me demonstrate.”
“Amelia, just tell her.”
“Nope. The process is important. It’s the proof. I’m showing my work, quit hassling me,” I say with a smile. “Every living thing has an electromagnetic field. For a variety of reasons, electrical current, iron in our blood, tons of different things…” I raise an eyebrow and smile like she should now get it… blank eyes. “Fine,” I mutter. Wheeling over to her I hold out the belt, “Put this on.” Please, oh please work.
“This looks like a weight belt…” Monica says.
“It isn’t. Just put it on.” She wraps it around her waist and secures the Velcro straps in the front. “Listen, this is going to feel a little weird,” I tell her.
“How weird?”
“Well,” I say wheeling over to the keyboard that controls it, “Let’s just say I’m pretty sure you won’t die.”
“What? Wait a second!”
I hit the button, grinning ear to ear. There is no possibility of her dying. But I have no idea of how painful the process could be or if it will work. It should. But, like I always say, there’s a difference between thinking something is possible and building it.
She screams, not out of pain but surprise and halfway through her scream goes from sounding like an echo in a glacier to a human girl. She drops to her knees, naked as the day she was born, covered in steaming ice, and dripping water on my floor. It worked! Oh my God, it worked!
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