by Drew Hayes
There was a massive amount of gear crammed into a single space, all of it incredibly dense. With a glance, she could recognize some of the components, yet far more were totally unfamiliar, or bore only the slightest resemblance to tech she was familiar with. Her hands, not even flesh at the moment, itched to tear it apart, see how it worked, what she could add to her own designs. The thunder of slithering following her down the hall made it clear that wasn’t happening, much to her chagrin.
Raising a hand to roast the tech, she had a brief second thought. No reason to leave evidence if she didn’t have to. Instead, she moved deeper into the room, her fluid form unbothered by the lack of space. In seconds, the pursuers had arrived, trying to force their way through the door all at once.
“Hey, you nasty shits. I’m right here. Maybe you can manage to hit a standing target.”
The taunting probably didn’t affect them—it just felt natural as Tori waved, drawing their attention. Sure enough, sprays of pink rained down. Instantly, Tori dropped back, falling behind one of the massive electronic towers. Sizzling met her ears as the goo began to tear through intricate systems and equipment. Working carefully, she began to solidify part of herself, shoving the equipment around until she’d made a small area in the back where a human could fit.
Sitting down to present as tiny a target as possible, Tori turned back to human form. Her arm was fine, but her back and legs still stung. More time was needed to regenerate fully, it seemed. While she’d still prefer that to being human and vulnerable, there was no choice. If the AHC was going to be swooping in as fast as Ivan expected, she couldn’t very well be showing powers when they arrived.
More hissing, more noises, and Tori noticed the creatures were making progress. They’d cleared out a section near the front and were slowly pushing their way toward the back where Tori was holed up. The tower in front of her took several fresh sprays, and she began to wonder if it would even last long enough for help to arrive.
Her heart pounded. This was crazy. She couldn’t sit and wait. She had to move, had to get free. They were getting closer. It was just a matter of time until they—
Tori shrieked as the tower blocking her from the rest of the room vanished, almost summoning fire on instinct. But this was no dimensional monster coming to melt her flesh. They didn’t even have hands, so they couldn’t effortlessly lift a huge piece of electronic equipment like it was nothing, and they certainly didn’t glow.
Looking up, Tori found herself gazing into one of the AHC’s greatest heroes and legends, the one superhero her teacher seemed to respect, as well as fear.
“L-Lodestar?”
“That’s right, Tori. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” She reached out a hand, and Tori took it without thinking.
In what felt like a blink, they were in the air, Tori effortlessly cradled in Lodestar’s arms. From this high up, she could see the rainbow of capes arriving on the scene. Part of her wondered if Ivan had escaped in time, but she realized that there would be far more excitement if anyone spotted Fornax here. Adrenaline fading, the toll of a sleepless night and regenerating several wounds finally hit Tori full force.
She passed out before Lodestar had even gotten them out of Michigan.
Chapter 33
Every channel was talking about the rescue, some praising the AHC for recovering Tori safely, others wondering why it took so long. The destruction at the scene raised minimal eyebrows, as identical anchors with the same plastic smiles repeated the most salient point of that event: Nexus had been there. After so many decades of his presence, the public had accepted that they lived with one more form of natural disaster than they used to. No one was especially happy about it, but just like hurricanes and earthquakes, their feelings weren’t a factor in the equation.
The pale, bald man sitting alone in his lab watched the screens. It would have been better if no one had gotten involved; he’d wanted to see how long his invention could keep the capes guessing on its own. That was an ideal test, something in a controlled environment; he’d run too many of those. Field data was essential, and until it had crapped out, his system had sent back quite a useful amount. If nothing else, he now knew his devices could buy at least twelve hours.
All in all, a successful beta-trial. The only hiccup had been those idiots kidnapping someone from the guild. While not a member himself, this man knew of them quite well. A bit too blunt for his tastes, they tended to be more chainsaw than scalpel, yet that didn’t mean they could be ignored. That was the thing about blunt objects: they often hit quite hard. Another factor to keep track of, though he wasn’t worried. There had been more elaborate schemes in the past, albeit not many; this was well within his capabilities.
Behind him, an odd, lumpy device began to chirp and squeal, soft lights cascading across its surface. Turning away from the television, his slender fingers ran across the mechanism, drawing out more horrifying noises. Perfect timing. With phase one wrapping up, he needed to turn his sights onto what came next.
Neither the guild nor the AHC had any idea what they were truly in for.
Tori sat in a conference room, coffee and chips in front of her, trying to stay calm. So far, things had gone smoothly. Lodestar saved Tori, bringing her to the AHC, where a doctor was waiting to check her over. Dr. Miraculous didn’t have the most professional name; however, she’d quickly inspired competence. Professional, observant, and with an impeccable bedside manner. After some thinking, Tori put it together. Of course the AHC’s doctor was good at helping people coming fresh from traumatic situations—that would be almost exclusively what she dealt with.
Afterward, Tori had been offered a shower and fresh clothes, which she accepted. There was no reason she could come up with to explain why she would rather stay in her dirty ensemble. While the jeans and shoes were fine, Tori was slightly less thrilled about the “Ridge City Loves the AHC” t-shirt they’d provided. This felt like the sort of thing the rest of the guild wouldn’t let go of if they caught sight of it... not that she didn’t have bigger concerns at the moment.
Soon, someone would walk in this room and try to coax a story out of her. What she said next, or didn’t say, would determine how successful the rescue truly was. It was only a good one if the whole guild got out clean. Tori couldn’t let them down, especially after they’d shown up to save her. Setting her resolve, Tori was braced for any lawyer or interrogation specialist to step through the door.
She was somewhat less prepared when the glowing form of Lodestar strolled in, however, nearly choking on a chip. There was something about her, a sense of power that announced itself even as she humbly walked over to the table with a gentle smile. It didn’t escape Tori’s notice, even through her starstruck shock, that Lodestar shut and locked the doors.
In a way, Lodestar seemed stranger here than she had in the warehouse. Seeing Lodestar mid-rescue, busting through a skeezy lair—that felt right. Watching her amble through a conference room was bizarre, like seeing a T-Rex napping in a park. Or Fornax working in an office, she reminded herself. Tori had seen past the curtain; she knew the legends were more than their reputations or powers. Still, that was easier to remember when the reputations weren’t quite so looming.
“Tori, if you’re up to it, there are some questions I have to ask you.” She took a seat, her inherent glow lighting up the chair’s dark material. “However, before you answer, there’s something that needs to be said. I know you don’t want to talk to us, and I know why.”
Having been prepared for hours of probing, verbal bait, and linguistic trickery, Tori felt dumbfounded as Lodestar dropped that kind of bomb so casually on the table. Was she bluffing? No; Ivan had warned Tori that anyone on the Champions’ Congress could be clued in on her secret.
“That puts us in something of a pickle, you see,” Lodestar continued. “There are questions it is vital you answer. Pieces of information that will help us strengthen our detection abilities and figure out how this gang blocked us. I can’t
risk you lying about anything and tainting that intel. Whatever else we might disagree on, I think we’re together on one point: neither of us wants to see this happen to someone else.”
Tori’s hand tightened into a fist involuntarily. Finally out of danger, she was starting to process everything that had happened, a rush of emotions, many of them anger-adjacent, whirling up at merely the thought of her ordeal. The legendary cape had hit the money there: Tori definitely didn’t want to see anyone else experience this.
“Here’s how I’d like to proceed,” Lodestar continued. “We both know there are things about your life that you’re not comfortable sharing with me. Today, they are irrelevant. You were stolen off the street against your will. I’m not here to treat you like a criminal. If, in the course of this debriefing, we hit one of those areas, just stay silent. That’s fine. It’s a right the legal system offers even to those under arrest, which you are not. All I ask is that you not lie to me. Whatever you say to me, make it the truth. Can you work with that, Tori?”
When Ivan told her Lodestar was both more predictable and more dangerous for her lack of subtlety, it hadn’t exactly made sense to Tori, but there had been larger issues demanding her attention at the time. Now, sitting across this table from her, Tori understood. Lodestar was, despite her insane power, disarming. There was something in the gentleness of her tone, the sincere concern in her eyes, that made Tori feel inherently safe. A great quality during a rescue, less optimal for an interrogation. Nevertheless, this was happening, and Tori couldn’t repress her own curiosity about the living legend.
“I think I can live with that. Do you mind if I ask you a few, too, as we go?”
“Of course. I’m sure you’ve got so much you must be wondering about. But may we start with your version of what happened? Studies show that the sooner we do these, the more accurate the recollection tends to be.” From a hidden pocket on her costume, Lodestar produced a small device. She set it on the table, pushing a button and getting a red light.
Interesting. So she’d left the first part of their talk off the record. Tori mulled that over as she began her tale. The kidnapping part she skimmed through, seeing as that had apparently been on the news. Most of what she relayed was factual, going through the way she’d been treated by her kidnappers, her bathroom arrangement, and so on. It wasn’t until she got to Nexus that Lodestar looked worried, though she said nothing, allowing Tori to continue spinning her yarn. Only in the last bit of the chronology did Tori have to skip some details, recounting her wild run from the monsters without mentioning she’d been living fire at the time. The tech room, Tori relayed as best she could, mentally pulling up the way the machines had been interconnected. Much as she’d have loved to take them apart herself, the acid had done too good a job. If Professor Quantum could get information out of that rubble, he deserved it.
“You’ve been through quite the ordeal,” Lodestar said at last. “Not many people would have kept such a cool head on them during that kind of situation.”
“Benefits of having practice. I saw the importance of staying calm during the attack on my office a few months ago.” Tori had kept that one locked and loaded, an explanation for her competence and a reminder that one of their own was her friend.
Lodestar nodded. “Yes, I just finished speaking with Cyber Geek, actually. He wanted to be in here, you know, but I felt it was best to keep things private until we had a better idea of your condition. Plus—” Her eyes darted to the recorder for a split second “—he hasn’t had training for this yet, and we wanted to be sure to collect your testimony as soon as possible. I have more questions about the computer room where I found you, but why don’t we take a brief pause so you can rest your voice.”
Reaching over, she tapped the recorder once, ending the red light’s blaze. “If you wanted to ask me questions of your own, this is probably the time.”
“You don’t want your answers on the record?”
“Tori, I have no idea what you’re about to ask. Some of what you might know is technically classified as Top Secret, though honestly, after the whole Apollo kerfuffle, I’m not sure where a lot of that stands. Point is, unless it’s germane to the kidnapping, it doesn’t need to be on that tape.”
That hadn’t occurred to Tori, but Ivan had made it clear the government was the one who set the villains free. Heck, even the tool they’d used for it, the Orion Protocol, had a clandestine-sounding name. Lodestar made a good point, though. They were working at an information disparity. Tori probably wasn’t going to change that, but she might be able to figure out what tidbits were off-limits.
Double-checking the recorder out of habit, Tori sat up a little straighter. “I guess my first question is what do you know?”
“A lot less than I can prove, which might as well be your organization’s motto,” Lodestar replied. “Pertaining to you, I know you’re a meta-human, I know you’re wading into very dangerous waters, and I know the man you call uncle has no blood relation to you. Though my understanding is he’s still been something of a mentor.”
Okay, so, as it turned out, Lodestar knew quite a damn bit. She’d even called him a mentor, was that word a coincidence? No, she was laying it out just like she had the entire time. At least Tori didn’t have to worry about slipping up and accidentally revealing too much. Outside of the rescue, anyway.
“I’ve got one for you now, and we can leave the recorder off,” Lodestar said. “The New Science Sentries told me what happened, that you learned their civilian identities. I’m sorry I have to ask this, but forewarned is very much forearmed in these cases. Did you tell the gang who they are?”
With some relief, Tori realized that this was one where she had nothing to hide. “Nope. We didn’t really get into much grilling. I mostly just kept pissing the head guy off until he stormed away. I haven’t told anyone their secret.”
That earned her a surprised look from Lodestar. “Anyone?”
“Not a soul. I like it when people respect my privacy, so I’d be an ass not to do the same.” Tori realized she was supposed to be asking questions, but the sudden enormity of the opportunity had struck her. This was someone who’d been around since the mid-eighties, had seen untold powers and threats. Someone who knew the guild leadership in ways Tori likely never would. There was so much to ask, yet her tongue found itself dazed with options. Scrambling for something to keep the talk moving, Tori fell back on a question that had nagged at her for quite some time.
“Why does my uncle trust you? I get why he respects you—as the only person to ever put him down, that gels with who he is. But you threw the man in jail, yet I’ve never heard him say a single bad word about Lodestar. The exact opposite, in fact. I know you helped talk him into the... work release program. I know you showed him that pic of his kid. But this is more than that. He trusts almost no one, yet has total faith in you.”
From her slightly glowing mouth, Lodestar let out a perfect whistle, like the start of a songbird’s symphony. “Wow, you really jump right into the complicated stuff, huh?” She leaned back in the chair, staring up at the ceiling and beyond, looking to a mental destination where Tori’s eyes couldn’t follow.
“Here’s the thing you have to understand about Ivan and me.” Evidently, Lodestar really had killed the recorder, as she was comfortable using real names. “For a good stretch of years, he and I were in our own power category. Both of us unbeatable, untouchable most of the time—until we met each other.”
There was a flicker in Lodestar’s eye, hinting at so much more than what was escaping her lips. Still, even the words were precious, so Tori listened closely.
“We were the strongest metas in the world. Back then, we didn’t even know for sure who was more powerful. The only ones we had to battle, to truly test ourselves against, were each other. For a long time, we kept up the dance; he knew how to stay off my radar, but we usually ended up in brief skirmishes. Until we finally had it out for keeps and discovered who the strongest rea
lly was.”
While it might have been Tori’s imagination, she thought Lodestar seemed almost sad about that. Perhaps she’d enjoyed the mystery, too.
“I can’t tell you why Ivan trusts me—that’s his choice. All I can say is that we know each other in a way you can only know someone you’ve fought against, and alongside. For years, we were among the few constants in one another’s lives. The crook I couldn’t catch, the cape he couldn’t beat. I’m not sure if that made us friends, nemeses, or a combination of the two, but it made us something. That would be my guess as to why Ivan trusts me as superhero. I hope it answers your question.”
“And then some,” Tori replied. “While also raising countless more. Not going to be greedy, though. That was a lot. We can do more debrief stuff.”
Lodestar lowered her eyes back to the table, focusing on the moment at hand. “Before we go down that road, there is one more thing I’d like to broach with you. Just something to consider. You have shown adaptability, intelligence, and resolve over and over, without factoring in your less savory efforts. This is the second incident you’ve publicly been in, and last time, you helped one of our most promising new members. Between your mind and your powers, you make a potent threat. The kind that could be dangerous, when properly nurtured. If you were any other person, I’d be making this offer, and I see no reason not to give you the same opportunity.”
Flaring up a tad brighter, Lodestar met Tori’s eyes, the full force of her gaze nearly causing the younger woman to blink. “Tori Rivas, have you given any thought toward using those talents for good? We could use someone with your abilities at the Alliance of Heroic Champions.”
Chapter 34