Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion

by Elaine Levine

  “What the living hell is that?” Kit asked.

  “It is the head of a monster. We fight these things all the time. Liege has a Legion of fighters spread around the world, and all of them are seeing more and more of these things.”

  “But what is it?” Ace asked.

  “It is a mutant, like me. But its engineering resulted in a different outcome. These were once human. Their genes have been crossed with various animals, resulting in this méli-mélo of biologics.”

  Bastion returned to his seat, then projected an image of a deviant into the center of the room. It was transparent—an illusion only, but the effect was ghastly. The thing slowly moved in a circle.

  “They sometimes look like this. Sometimes a little different, sometimes a lot different. We’ve been collecting samples from them—their heads, their blood. We need to find the scientists in the Omni program who know what’s going on with these, where they are being made, who is driving that program. It has to be stopped. They are vicious killing machines. They have no capacity to think for themselves. Instead, they are assigned a handler who runs them like puppets.”

  Bastion ended the illusion and looked around the room. Selena knew each of her team was as stricken as she’d been when Liege first showed the monsters to her.

  “If we cannot keep these things hidden, then we will not be able to keep our own mutations hidden. And if they become known, then all human systems that exist now, all law and order, all societal norms, will end.” Bastion looked at Owen. “This is why I had to take my time and be certain that you could be trusted.”

  “You want us to get into bed with you after showing us a hologram and a movie prop.” Kit chuckled. “Good one.”

  Selena couldn’t blame him. Rejecting this version of reality was so much easier than accepting that it might be true. But not for her—she’d been living it for the last few months. She’d experienced firsthand things that made no sense, like Bastion’s appearing and disappearing, trances, and telepathic communications.

  “We’ve seen what the mutations have done to Addy,” Owen said. The fact that his wife had almost died from the changes forced on her still haunted him and the team.

  “But those changes seem to be going away,” Kit said.

  Bastion nodded. “They are ending. What was done to her is leaving her system. My team lead believes her mutations were temporary. They were an attempt to terminate her. There is much we don’t know. We must have access to the researchers who do.” He nodded at the wrapped head defrosting on the coffee table. “These beings changed Liege’s woman.”

  Summer was changed? “In what way?” Selena asked.

  “They delivered some type of nanos into a wound they carved on her arm,” Bastion said. “The Omnis may be on the verge of using these creatures for widespread damage to human populations.”

  Owen looked at Kit. “We’ve seen some of what these mutations can do. The Ratcliffs have reversed their age. My dad too. There is something real going on. I don’t know that I believe in monsters, but if one thing is possible, then the other may be as well.”

  “But how do we know this Legion is on our side of this conflict?” Blade asked. “He wants a meeting that we all attend. Great way to wipe us out.”

  Kit and Owen appeared to have the same concern. “Bastion, we’ll consider your request,” Kit said. “But we need some time to discuss it.”

  “I understand,” Bastion said.

  “We’ll let you know our answer,” Owen said.

  “I’m sure you will.”

  “Time to go, bro,” Max said, starting toward him. He managed to take two steps before he was locked in place.

  “I am not leaving until I have your answer,” Bastion said. “And you should know, acquiescence is your only option. You do not want Liege to come here to resolve this.”

  “I said no tricks,” Owen said quietly.

  “Ensuring your safety is not a trick.”

  Owen’s cold eyes went a shade cooler. “Threatening us is.”

  “Oh, for God’s sakes,” Selena said. “Enough with the chest thumping. We have no choice but to accept. I’ve met his team. I trust them.”

  “And yet he threatens us with Liege,” Owen said.

  Selena met his angry eyes. “There’s a pressing need to make this meeting happen. I’ve seen what he wants to show you. You need to see it too.”

  “Selena,” Val said, “I mean no disrespect when I ask—how do we know you haven’t been compromised? You’ve been connected to Bastion for months.”

  “You don’t know.” Selena shrugged. “You have to take it on blind faith. Take the head to Doc Beck, if you want. Have him check it out. Or hold it here for the Ratcliffs. Jax and Nick should be informed about these things too.”

  “They can join our meeting,” Bastion offered. “If you refuse to trust me, we can split the meeting into two sessions, half of you at each. Jax and Nick can have a third meeting with us, when they are in town.” Bastion used his crutch to hoist himself to his feet. “I only care that you meet with us. Soon. Like yesterday.”

  Kit and Owen swapped looks. “When?” Kit asked.

  “Now. Tonight. Tomorrow. Selena and I will wait outside while you discuss this.”

  “Selena stays here,” Owen said.

  Bastion faced him. “Then I also stay here. I will not be separated from her again.”

  “You holding her hostage?” Owen asked. The room stilled.

  “No. He is not holding me hostage. Geez, Owen,” Selena said. “Get a grip.” She couldn’t explain what was happening between her and Bastion. Maybe Bastion couldn’t either. She just knew that when she was away from him, she had extreme anxiety. She wished Owen wouldn’t make a big deal of it.

  “So are you with them?” Owen asked. “Or us?”

  “Why is it either/or?” Selena answered. Owen didn’t move or speak, so she added, “My priorities haven’t changed.” The guys were sure edgy. There was no way she could calm their nerves. They needed to see what she’d seen so they could quit questioning her loyalty. “Look, we’ve delayed dinner. And I’m starving. I’ll eat in here with Bastion. Any chance someone could bring us a couple of plates?”

  “I gotcha covered,” Ace said.

  “I have a favor to ask,” Bastion said to Owen. “My friend is waiting for us. Could you make that three plates?”

  “Where is he?” Greer asked, flipping through screens on his phone.

  “I’m here,” Guerre said, revealing himself.

  “Ah. Bien,” Bastion said calmly, as if a man appearing out of nowhere was a common thing.

  The expressions of the team were unwelcoming. “How many more of you are here?” Kit asked Bastion.

  “No others. Only the two of us. This is my friend, Guerre.” Bastion introduced him, calling off the names of all the fighters in the room. “They are Selena’s people. They answer to Kit, and he to Owen. Guerre is our healer.”

  Guerre nodded. His eyes were somber. For some reason, perhaps because Bastion had broken the ice, the guys didn’t seem threatened by him. Or maybe Bastion was just too in-your-face for the team, and Guerre gave off a different vibe.

  “This is a lot to take in,” Owen said. He looked at Bastion. “How imminent is the threat you’re here to tell us about?”

  “It is not something that’s happening now, but it could come at any moment.” Bastion nodded at the monster head. “They have already been here. I’ve fought them three times while I was observing you. The night I confronted you was the worst. They were swarming the compound. It’s why I pushed so hard to find Selena.”

  “We’ve seen no evidence of these beings on the property,” Kit said. “No blood. No torn-up ground. Nothing on our cameras.”

  “Because my team and I shielded you from them and removed the evidence. I’d hoped that I would not need to expose you to this threat, but after the last encounter, I think my enemy has you in his sights. You will not be safe for long without us.”


  Owen nodded. “Then you two stay here tonight. In the morning, we’ll meet your team. Selena, bring them to dinner. No talk of monsters. I want to keep this from our families, if we can.”

  “Copy that,” she said.

  “What are we doing with that head?” Kit asked, staring at the melting blob.

  “Save it for the Ratcliffs,” Bastion said. “Or if the doctor you mentioned earlier is trusted, give it to him. We have dozens more. Sacrificing this one specimen won’t impact our research. But it can’t get out to civilians.”

  “Angel—put the head in the freezer in the kitchen downstairs,” Kit said. “I don’t want the kids to see it.”

  “Roger that,” Angel said. He picked up the head and put it back in the cooler, then disappeared into the hidden entrance to the bunker.

  Bastion released the freeze he had on Max as people started leaving. Max finished moving into Bastion’s space. They were similar in height and build. Before Max could escalate the situation, Selena wedged her shoulder between them.

  “Don’t poke the bear,” she said to Max.

  His angry eyes turned on her. “I am the bear.”

  She put her hand on his chest. “Not anymore.” Bastion drew her hand away. She pulled free, but quickly realized there was about a foot of space between her and Max that she didn’t remember putting there. She sent Bastion a warning glare. She hated being manipulated.

  Bastion shrugged the tense posturing off. “I’m not a bear either. I’m not even a man.”

  “No,” Max said. “You’re just a fly on the wall.”

  Bastion nodded. “This is true.”

  Max’s eyes narrowed. “How are the legs?”

  “Healing. How’s your head?”

  “Healing.”

  “Good.”

  Greer, who had stayed behind with Max, asked, “How did you get out of there? We looked for you, but you disappeared.”

  “Oui. My team and I made it appear that way to you while I dragged myself out of there.”

  “That’s a long way to crawl,” Greer said.

  “It was.”

  “How do you do what you do?” Max asked.

  Bastion tapped a finger to his forehead. “It is all mind games. Liege will tell you in the meeting tomorrow. There are things you must learn if you’re to fight in a world with mutants like us.” He looked at Greer. “I believe you had the same trainer we did: Santo.”

  Greer shut his eyes. Selena could tell he was shocked by that news. “How did you know?”

  “You and Ace share his DNA. He would not have left you untrained.”

  “Wait.” Greer said. “Was Santo changed?”

  “He was. It was early, early days for the technology. It did not work on him quite as he wished. It did not reverse his age.”

  “But it stopped his aging,” Greer said.

  “Oui.”

  “He’s dead, you know,” Greer said.

  Bastion’s brows rose. He didn’t hide the humor that washed through his face. “Is he?”

  Greer and Max exchanged glances, but said nothing more.

  Selena pivoted to follow everyone, but Bastion caught her. He wrapped an arm around her waist, spreading his fingers wide, making his big hand span the space between her hip and lower rib as he drew her back against him. He bent close to say, “You think I am the bear?”

  She could hear his smile in his voice. “I was trying to stop things from escalating. Max has no fear of battering a brick wall with his head. He’s not one to back down.”

  Bastion let out a low growl, clearly displeased that her concern was for Max, not him. “There is no competition between me or any on your team. I have you. I have won.”

  Selena shook her head. “You have not won me.” She pulled free and faced him. “Who says stuff like that, anyway?” Her eyes moved back and forth between Bastion and Guerre. “No weird stuff. No disappearing. No trancing. No wandering.”

  Bastion looked affronted. “My love…am I allowed to breathe?”

  Selena scoffed at that and put some space between her and him.

  When the room was empty, Bastion smiled at Guerre. It is a good day.

  Guerre shook his head. She’s not exactly falling at your feet.

  Her fate is sealed with mine.

  Doesn’t make her yours yet, Guerre said. Perhaps you should find the way into her heart.

  Bastion nodded sagely. It is a hard heart.

  No, it isn’t. The way to it is through her people. Protect them.

  Of course I will protect them. They are regulars.

  Don’t do it because it’s what we do. Do it because it matters to her. Her people are her heart.

  Selena popped her head back in the den. “Coming—or what?”

  Bastion grinned at her. “Bien sûr.”

  They stepped into the living room where everyone was gathered. Bastion faced Guerre, prepared to freeze everyone so they could finish their conversation.

  Don’t do it, Guerre warned him. What did I just tell you?

  Bastion glared at Guerre. I have never had to work at getting a woman before.

  That’s because you never had a female you cared about before.

  A boy came running across the room. “Captain Hook!”

  “Hello, Troy,” Bastion said, smiling as the kid took hold of his wrist.

  “See, Dad? I told you Captain Hook was here!”

  “Non. I am Bastion. Not Capitain Hook.” Bastion held his crutches under his arms and showed his hands. “I have no hook.”

  “But you do have peg legs,” Troy said.

  Bastion laughed. “That I do. For a while more, anyway.”

  “Will you read a bedtime story to us after you eat?” Troy asked.

  “No,” Owen said, answering for Bastion.

  “Alors, I cannot tonight,” Bastion said. “Perhaps another time.”

  “Promise?” Troy looked up at him, his brown eyes earnest.

  “I do.”

  Addy led the boy back over to stand with her and Owen. She gave Bastion a narrow-eyed glare, then sent the same look over to her husband.

  Bastion may have won a tense truce with the team of fighters, but their women were a whole different story.

  The two men who ran the household were adding three place settings to the far end of the table. Selena introduced Bastion and Guerre to her people. Even without all the children there, it was a large gathering…like a little village that all ate together. Bastion liked the familial feel of it.

  One of the pregnant women came over to them. Bastion remembered her name was Mandy. Her husband, Rocco—the polyglot—was close on her heels. “So are you from another team like ours?” she asked.

  “Oui. We are in Colorado. We wanted to meet up with your team and share what we’ve learned in our fight against the Omnis.”

  “Where in Colorado?” the other pregnant woman asked.

  “Northeast. Not far from Sterling. We have a large compound like this.”

  Addy put her hands on Troy’s shoulders. “But you were here, in the house.”

  “I was. A few times.”

  She sent Owen a worried look. “How did your systems not alert us?”

  “I disabled them,” Bastion said, taking the heat from Owen.

  “Bastion and his friends are mutants, like you were, like my dad,” Owen said.

  Addy gasped, the wheels of fear spinning into overdrive in her mind.

  “I’m surprised that we are just now hearing about you guys,” Greer’s woman, Remi, said.

  “Teams like ours tend to specialize,” Guerre said with a nod. “We naturally keep to ourselves.”

  Bastion could feel the warm vibe Guerre was emitting, easing everyone’s nerves, squelching the rising wave of civilian panic by sending a sense of peace and harmony throughout the gathering. They were such opposites, he and Guerre. The Legion’s healer was totally Zen, always seeking an even keel. Bastion, well, he would have loved a good fight before supper, then a few beer
s, then the feast that was already being set on the table. He looked at Selena, thinking that in a perfect world they’d end with a half-dozen rounds of fucking.

  He smiled at her. She narrowed her eyes.

  24

  Selena helped their housekeeper, Jim, and cook, Russ, put food away and clean up after the meal.

  Maybe she was hiding.

  Okay, she was absolutely hiding.

  It was overwhelming to think that Bastion was here, openly moving among them as he must have done every day during the long months he’d been spying on them.

  Jim dropped a plastic container, and Selena about jumped out of her skin. “My bad,” Jim said.

  Russ put an arm around her shoulders. “You know there’s an extra room at the guest house. You’re welcome to it as long as you like.”

  Selena sighed and leaned into him a bit. “That would just make everything more awkward. And it would only postpone the inevitable. Owen thinks I’m a Benedict Arnold.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Jim said. “He’s just trying to get a handle on what all of this means for the team and their families.”

  Selena nodded. “Bastion can’t be kept out of anything. He slips in like the wind. He would follow me to your place.”

  Russ’s face hardened. “We can deal with him.”

  Selena reached over and took Jim’s hand. “I love you guys. I’m so glad you’ve joined us. But I don’t need you or anyone to fight my battles, though a hug here or there sure wouldn’t hurt.”

  Both men gave her that hug, then all three resumed their kitchen duties.

  Bastion sighed. He’d hidden himself and stood off to one side. Selena’s energy was screaming—with nerves, fear, and a sorrow he couldn’t place. Though he’d observed her for many long weeks, he still knew so little about her. He closed his eyes and summoned a calming energy, filling himself with it before sending it her way, letting it wrap around her, fill her, soothe her.

  When he looked at her next, she was standing in front of the opened refrigerator door. He saw her sigh, take a deep breath, then square her shoulders.