by Drew Hayes
Lodestar didn’t bother to correct Professor Quantum about the fact that, legally, that part wasn’t on the AHC. Mostly because it didn’t matter. Technically, the government had created the Orion protocol, a caveat in the law that allowed convicted villains their freedom if they assisted in stopping potentially world-ending threats, but the government wasn’t the face of keeping meta-human peace. That honor and burden had been thrust upon the Alliance of Heroic Champions, and they were the ones at the center of the scandal when the truth came out.
“On that note, I have an order of business to raise.” Professor Quantum stood as he spoke, a habit from the older days when there had been more spectacle and protocol to these meetings. Despite being the oldest meta-human in the room (in fact, Professor Quantum was the first known meta-human at all, as his experiment had allowed new elements into the world, altering the laws of science as they’d then been understood), he never looked older than a man in his early forties. Twin streaks of gray ran along the otherwise dark hair at his temples, and his glowing blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of spectacles that did far more than correct poor vision, which he didn’t have. As always, he wore the same outfit: a dark, tailored suit under a crisp white lab coat that floated out behind him.
“As you both know, earlier this week, my latest experiments arrived in Ridge City. Since we had the impending spaceship to deal with, I tabled the issue; however, now that the threat has passed, I’d like to discuss how we are going to manage their debut.”
“We’re not.” Lodestar’s reply was brisk and automatic. She set her shoulders, ready for Professor Quantum to fight her on the issue and unwilling to give ground. “We’ve already talked about this. No more debuts. No more managing every angle of a superhero’s career and cherry-picking the ones who get media attention. Everyone does the best job they can because it’s the right way to use our gifts. The people will love who they choose to love, and the rest will go to bed every night with the consolation prize of knowing they made the world a safer place.”
“That’s all well and good for some two-bit street urchin who gains the ability to chat with frogs or what have you, but you must realize we’re talking about the continuation of a legacy. I have spent years developing this team to be the perfect combination of assets, appeal, and abilities. You want me to just turn them loose in the streets without so much as even a press conference?” Professor Quantum was staring right back at her, which was no small feat. Lodestar might be the public face of the AHC, and doubtlessly one of the strongest meta-humans on Earth, but Professor Quantum wasn’t far behind her. He’d kept the peace and run his own superhero organization for decades before she came onto the scene.
“We didn’t have any sort of media push when we started, and all of us managed fine. If your next generation can’t do the same, are they really an improvement?” Lodestar was going after his pride, a tactic Quorum had seen her use many times in the past. It didn’t always work, but Professor Quantum’s ego was too large a target to miss completely.
“The world lacked constant media saturation when I began my work, and things were different even when you started. The internet was barely blooming, people weren’t under a constant barrage of information coming out of their handheld devices, televisions, and screens at every...” Professor Quantum trailed off, realizing he’d slipped off into a tangent. “Very well, Lodestar. Perhaps you’re right. Showing them special treatment could have a negative effect, make them seem pampered rather than deserving of their accolades. Does the Champions’ Congress have any objection to me turning them loose as soon as possible? If they are to be judged by their deeds, then I would like to permit them to begin work. Today. Within the hour, if possible.”
Lodestar threw a brief glance at Quorum, then nodded. “I don’t see any issue with that. Granted, they haven’t been formally vetted yet, but I’ve seen the footage from your island and shaken their hands. All four seem competent.”
It was an olive branch, a compromise. Rather than making them jump through hoops or formality like any other new cape would, Lodestar was permitting the team to head out into the field. So far as Quorum could tell, it seemed a fair halfway point, so he nodded his head as well.
But it didn’t escape his notice that Professor Quantum looked a bit smug as he retook his seat seconds later. While Quorum couldn’t be entirely sure, he was almost certain this was the outcome Professor Quantum had been aiming for all along.
Tori was five steps out of Ridge City Grinders, her arms weighed down by the enormous plastic bag full of carefully packed to-go cups, as well as her own entire eight-ounce cup of espresso, when the explosion rocked the street. It was only thanks to her training that she stayed physical, resisting the reflexive urge to turn into living fire. While all her clothing was made out of a special material that would shift with her, that wouldn’t do much to protect the coffee, and it certainly wouldn’t save her secret from the dozens of panicking witnesses yelling and running through the street. Officially speaking, Tori Rivas was a perfectly mundane and normal human being. Hephaestus was the only one with powers, and not even the capes knew what lurked beneath the suit’s metallic exterior.
As she backpedaled toward the sidewalk, her eyes scanned about, rapidly assessing the situation. Smoke was pouring out from a wall in one of the nearby buildings. If memory served, that place was a jewelry store. What kind of damn idiots were robbing a jewelry store in broad daylight in the same section of town where the Alliance of Heroic fucking Champions had their national headquarters? Tori shook her head, thankful yet again for the guild that had taken her in and shown her the proper way villains were meant to conduct themselves. This was the sort of thing that would get someone expelled from their organization in a very permanent fashion. Breaking the guild’s code was a zero-tolerance sin, one that came with punishment carried out by people on the same level as Ivan.
From the smoke, Tori saw five figures emerge, each clad in all black, wearing ski masks and carting large duffel bags. One person, much taller than the other four, was strapped down with at least a dozen bags: meta-human with augmented strength, obviously. Already Tori could hear the sirens of the police making their approach, but with a brute in the mix, these crooks would be more than the brass could handle.
While Tori had admittedly not always been the most dutiful or attentive apprentice, some of Ivan’s teachings had sunk in better than others. One of the most important lessons seemed quite relevant at the moment: if there were going to be capes in your vicinity, be somewhere else.
Lugging her bag of coffee—she would be damned if she was going to fill out the forms needed to use a company credit card and then lose the goods—Tori tried to head further up the sidewalk, back toward the office. It was tough at first, since she had to fight a terrified crowd, but they thinned out quickly. Most were hurrying inside nearby buildings, failing to realize that the structures they were trusting to keep them safe could easily be brought down on their heads by the wrong sort of meta. At least out in the open Tori had space to move.
She’d only gotten twenty feet away before the first cop car arrived; poor bastards must have been on patrol nearby. From the other end of the street came what looked like a retrofitted minibus, armored and strapped down with guns. As the crooks began loading their wares into the bus, the big guy dashed over to the police car. Tori’s breath caught in her throat. Escape was one thing; doing nothing while innocent people got killed was a whole other issue. Where the hell were the capes, anyway? This was their town, and they could sure as shit use the publicity.
Thankfully, the police were clearly veterans of living in Ridge City. As the hulking criminal wrapped his hands around the top of their patrol car and lifted it overhead, both officers popped the doors and leapt out, rolling to safety and coming up with their weapons drawn. One squeezed off a shot that hit their attacker in the left leg, tearing a hole in his pants but otherwise doing no damage.
What it did manage to do, however, was dra
w the brute’s attention. Even through the ski mask and at her distance, Tori could see the disdain in the meta-human’s eyes as he glared at the cop who’d shot him. Without so much as a glance over his shoulder, the muscular beast of a man tossed the police car behind him like an unrepentant litterbug throwing away a burger wrapper.
Though the shot might have been unaimed, it still had plenty of power. The car soared through the air, away from the bus with the other criminals, clearing the small crowd of civilians and tumbling down on a direct course for the ground.
Unfortunately, the spot of street it was hurtling toward was exactly where Tori was currently standing.
Chapter 2
The blast of wind was her only warning before Tori found herself suddenly hurtling through the air, cradled in a pair of lean, strong arms. A horrific cacophony of smashing metal and shattering concrete barely reached her ears over the sound of the wind, the car crumpling down in the spot where Tori had been standing. It was so close, she could still see her bag of coffees only a few feet away; apparently, it had slipped from her hand in the rescue.
While the impact wouldn’t have killed her—her fire form had an abundance of uses, and this occasion fit well within her wheelhouse—her savior had no way of knowing that. And, in truth, this did save her the complication of publicly using her powers. Just as Tori tried to twist and get a better look at her rescuer, the wind came to a sudden, unexpected halt.
The result of this unfortunate timing was that Tori found herself gazing upward at her helper right as they came to a stop in front of a small crowd of onlookers, most of whom had produced camera phones. To anyone viewing this from the outside, it no doubt appeared as though she was enraptured by this man, rather than trying to figure out what sort of facial features rested below the bright blue mask covering everything except his nostrils, eyes, and mouth. The mask clung so tight, it could almost have been mistaken for paint; there was no gap between the face and the covering.
“Sorry for the abrupt pickup, but I thought you’d prefer it to a total crash-and-burn.”
Not the smoothest line she’d ever heard, but for a cape new on the scene, it was decent. Actually, now that she was really looking, Tori realized that this fellow appeared much too put together for a cape she’d never seen before.
He was of average height, lean and muscular—no surprise, given that he’d just shown off super-speed. Brown hair and eyes were the only features the mask gave away, and the rest of his costume was strikingly similar to the facial accessory: blue material, thicker in some places than in others, along with a telltale notch or switch that betrayed functionality. There was also a thick bracer on one wrist—most likely control terminals for whatever hidden systems were at work. This cape wasn’t just rocking a costume: he had an outfit, something made specifically to help him fight crime. A stylized “T” was on his left pectoral, and Tori couldn’t help but feel like she’d seen all of this before. Not quite the same, but unmistakably similar.
“Oh no!” In front of Tori, a man’s eyes went wide as he looked back at the scene of the crime. She whipped her head around, jaw nearly dropping in surprise. One of the goons had lifted an automatic weapon and was starting to angle it toward the onlookers.
Holy shit. Were these people insane? Spraying down citizens might cause enough panic to cloak an escape, but the AHC would never stand for that kind of display of violence. And that was assuming they ever got the chance to lay a finger on these idiots. If anyone from the guild learned about this, they’d soak the earth in these idiots’ blood, then give them transfusions to make it last longer. This was Ridge City; even villains had friends and family here.
Thankfully, as visions of the worst flickered through Tori’s mind, the gun vanished from its owner’s hands. Seconds later, the weapon crashed heavily to the ground, shattering on impact.
“Ma’am, I need to set you down now. There’s still work to do.”
Well, that was embarrassing. True to form, Tori had gotten so lost in her curiosity that she’d forgotten her surroundings, including the fact that she was still hanging on to the super-speed guy who’d helped her out. In the rush of speed, clinging to him had seemed natural, though now she realized it likely appeared quite different to the onlookers.
With as much dignity as she could muster, Tori freed herself from the blue-clad mystery cape, who vanished in a blur. He reappeared over by the criminals, where Tori could now see three figures wearing what seemed to be matching outfits standing just outside of proper view. Either this was the fashion-coincidence of a lifetime, or they had an entire team of capes here to help out. Despite their technically being on opposite sides, Tori was happy to see them. This was the sort of chaotic mess that neither organization approved of.
“Hey there, folks. Have no fear about the voice coming out of your phones and nearby speakers. Just one of my many tricks, and the reason they call me Presto. No, not the fast one who just saved that lady. His name is Tachyonic, master of speed and time. Watch him go—isn’t he something?”
True to the voice’s promise, Tachyonic zipped around one of the would-be robbers, easily knocking him over. With that kind of speed, everyone except the strong-meta should be already captured. This wasn’t just about foiling a crime, then. Someone was throwing themselves a debut.
From the decked-out minibus, the sound of machinery engaging could be heard. Evidently, these robbers had come expecting resistance. It was significantly less likely they had been prepared for the beam of energy that carved neatly through the entire bus, cutting the section with the engine off from the rest of the vehicle entirely. Out of this divide stepped a woman whose costume matched Tachyonic’s, though Tori noted that this one had a noticeably more revealing cut, emphasized all the more by the woman’s figure.
“That bombshell is Plasmodia. Keep your distance, fellas. Anything that hot is bound to burn, and if her looks don’t do it, then her power to conjure, shape, and direct raw plasma energy absolutely will.”
The voice was starting to wear on her nerves. If escape had been at all possible, Tori would have been running for it. Unfortunately, between the fight to her fore and the giant crowd to her rear, there was no easily slipping away. Especially after being saved by Tachyonic. She could feel the stares and whispers, which only made it worse. Moving would trigger their attention. Her best shot was to wait until the capes won, then make a break for it in the ensuing celebration.
Big-meta wasn’t too keen on seeing the bus get destroyed, it turned out. He slammed a mighty boot into the street and blasted forward, plainly intending to lay out Plasmodia. Rookie mistake, at a glance. After she’d sliced through reinforced metal with ease, this idiot should assume she could cut him, too. He’d know that, if he’d gotten proper guild training, just like he’d know to never make a big move in a situation like this.
The whole thing was a play. These capes were way too strong for this level of incident; they had the entire thing in total control. Which meant the only reason no one had touched the big, obviously-criminal meta was that they were leaving it for some remaining unnamed member of the team.
Sure enough, as the lumbering crook drew close, another person in a blue costume struck. This one was blond, taller and more muscular than Tachyonic by a wide margin, though not quite so huge that he gave himself away as a meta. From a size perspective, the criminal meta had the advantage. That was one more important lesson taught by the guild, however: size meant little in the world of super-human abilities.
With unexpected grace, the new cape caught his opponent mid-charge, executed a perfect flip, driving him into the ground, and then punched. Once. That was all it took to make the hulking crook go limp. Not a small feat, given the strength that robber had demonstrated. Whoever the new guy was, he definitely had power to spare.
“And that, my wonderful audience, is our leader. The inheritor to history’s greatest superhero, the man who will usher in a new age of peace and justice. I give you, the one, the only... Ag
ent Quantum!”
For the most part, the crowd had rolled with this incident pretty well. Outside of the moments when they’d felt directly threatened, the scene was more interesting than scary once the capes arrived. To many Ridge City citizens, this was old hat; it happened every time a new bunch of metas popped up. At that announcement, however, the entire crowd went silent in shock. Just in time, as it turned out, because the voice on their speakers was rising.
“That is right, folks. You are the fortunate few who can look back upon your life and say that you—yes, you—were there the day the New Science Sentries appeared to save the world. All right, team, time for the Big Finish!”
A final form clad in blue appeared, as if from nowhere. This one was covered head-to-toe in the material, not so much as an eyehole breaking the surface. Presto had appeared at last, and with a wave of his hands, the blue form made two of the criminals vanish. They reappeared fifty feet up, screaming as they dropped before disappearing five feet from the ground, only to once more pop out fifty feet up. Tachyonic zipped around, tying up all the remaining bodies, while Plasmodia yanked out the minibus driver and tossed him over for Tachyonic to wrap up. Once Agent Quantum was sure the big meta was down and bound, he leapt up, snaring both crooks falling from the sky in a single arm before settling them carefully down as they begged to be cuffed. If neither man started the day with a fear of heights, they would certainly have one now.
“Thank you, citizens of Ridge City!” Presto’s voice echoed from the speakers, nearly beaten out by people’s cheering. As they yelled, Tori felt the crowd loosen. She quietly moved toward the sidewalk, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the onlookers. She wasn’t quite quick enough to escape the rest of Presto’s spiel, though.