by Drew Hayes
While those three grouped up, Austin at last found his feet and wandered into the heart of the apartment. Taking a small glass and filling it with water, he paused next to Tori. “I thought you might like to know, your friend fought very well. His team not only passed the evaluation, they did so while putting on a fine show.”
“Glad to hear it. So, you’re not jealous?” Tori asked.
“Oh, I am incredibly envious,” Austin corrected. “Also a bit resentful, if we’re being honest. It’s hard not to feel like this is all wrong. We’re fighting the way we were trained by one of history’s greatest superheroes and are being told we’re wrong at nearly every turn. Meanwhile, the team closely associated with a traitor keeps finding success and acclaim. I understand they weren’t part of Apollo’s scheme, but I hope you can see why that would be frustrating for my people. They really are doing the best they can every time. That’s why it hurts so much to keep feeling like failures.”
Years ago, months ago, she’d have tossed those words aside, assuming them to be pure fiction. The trouble was, being around the capes this much had shown Tori a truth she couldn’t fully ignore: some of them were sincere. Not all, probably not even most, but a few were doing the job because they truly wanted to make the world better, safer, for the normal people who lived in it. She’d seen an everyday programmer lay down his life for others multiple times, simply because he had enough strength to try. Hell, she’d looked into the eyes of Lodestar and seen only true concern behind them. Tori didn’t know Austin or Agent Quantum well enough to have a clue if he was in that club or not, but she had a hunch. Enough to throw him a line. Whether he took it or not would determine how much of his demeanor was playing the part versus his true ambitions.
“I mean, there’s a solution here, if you’re serious. You really want to get better at this job, to see what the differences in your tactics are? Go ask Cyber Geek if you can tag along with his team for a few nights.”
While the idea wasn’t rejected immediately, Austin’s face creased in visible concern. “There’s merit to that idea, granted, but I’m afraid it might be too late. Our teams haven’t gotten off to the greatest start; I fear such a request from me would seem like teasing, at best, or setting them up for some sort of trick, at worst.”
Beverly and Chloe had gotten out the stack of board games and were beginning the discussion. Seeing several strategy options that would have them playing for half the night in the mix, Tori realized she needed to weigh in on this choice, and soon. Hitting the fridge for one more beer, she paused briefly by Austin’s side.
“Convince Cyber Geek you’re coming to him sincerely, and he’ll agree to the pairing, bad blood or not. He cares more about the people you’re protecting than the politics of the AHC. Make him believe you want to be better capes and he won’t be able to turn you away.”
Austin nodded. “Thank you. I’ll think on that.” From the way his eyes kept swinging back over to Beverly’s side of the room, Tori doubted he’d get much critical contemplation accomplished that evening. She’d done her part, though, so with a clear conscience, she attacked the group choosing the night’s diversion.
“Chloe, put that ten-hour strategy game down, and no one gets hurt!”
Chapter 52
Monday morning brought with it an unexpected message. It wasn’t as though Tori hadn’t kept in contact with Lance and Warren—Pest Control and Glyph, as they were known in the guild. They’d touched base during the guild’s downtime, making sure all the rookies were laying low and staying safe. They’d both fallen silent in recent weeks; the new guild opening marked the chance to start working again, and no doubt the pair were busy with their own lives.
That’s what made Lance’s unexpected invitation to a meeting so out of the blue. The implication was clear, obviously. Some kind of guild business. Maybe Lance needed tech consulting, wanted air surveillance to monitor a location, or he was looking for backup on a job. The wide range of possibilities poked at Tori’s curiosity. Besides, there was also the inevitable truth that she needed money, and if it was a job, guild work paid extremely well.
Designing and building a new product line was going to be expensive. She could foist the funding onto Indigo, except there was no way to do that without also cutting them in on a greater share of the profits. While Tori had made peace with the need for a corporate alliance, that didn’t mean she wanted to hand over any more power or leverage than necessary. As much as possible, she would be the driving force of her creations. She wasn’t quite sure that would be enough to motivate her to brave another museum heist, but it was worth taking the meeting. There was always the option to say no, if the offer didn’t sound like her scene.
A crisp knock on her bedroom door came a few moments before Beverly’s voice. “Saw some photographers creeping along the west side of the building, and Chloe is already getting ready for work. You might want to take the back door today.”
It took all of Tori’s control not to let out a groan that was audible from the street. Stupid photographers still hanging around. She wanted to be done with them, except the attention was still necessary for her long-term plans. Besides, it wasn’t like she had a way to get rid of them. None that wouldn’t involve guild tactics, anyway.
Beverly hit the door once again, softer this time. “You get a text from Lance?”
“Sure did. Meeting tonight?”
“That’s the one,” Beverly’s voice confirmed. “Up for it?”
Tori’s mind flashed to her Hephaestus suit, sitting down in the lab. She hadn’t gotten to take it out for more than a few hours at the guild’s relaunch, a pitiful amount of field-testing time. Even aside from that, part of her missed the feel of her tech encompassing her entirely. Tori enjoyed being Hephaestus, perhaps more than she let herself realize initially. If she wanted to suit up again, the guild was where she’d find her best opportunities.
Not to mention, she was sick of playing helpless. Between the car thrown at her head and the kidnapping, Tori had been affecting the role of mundane civilian too much for her liking. It was time to be powerful again. It was time to be Hephaestus.
“Why not? Could be fun.”
It had been a hell of a weekend. Passing the evaluation was a high point, obviously, but the celebration with his team that followed had been a darn good time as well. Sans costumes, they’d gone out to a nice dinner in celebration, then followed things up with a downright horrific session of karaoke, in which they learned Irene was a shockingly talented soprano and Lucy could clear half a room with the first ten notes of a song. Ren always stuck to something country, low and simple. He’d gotten much better at speaking with his altered tongue since the change, but he still avoided anything that demanded rapid linguistic skills. As for Donald, he’d picked an old favorite that was more talk-singing than actual music, but it was on the list, so he’d considered it fair game.
One unexpected cherry had come Sunday night: a text from Tori about wanting to grab lunch and catch up soon. After weeks of working to be better at his job, and an objective evaluation that said his team was doing well, Donald found he could easily justify taking some time off to see her. Important as being a superhero was, it couldn’t make up the entirety of his life. That wasn’t healthy for any profession, not even capes.
The text was still on his mind as he walked down the AHC’s halls Monday morning. With breakfast at his back, Donald planned to do some serious gaming today. The evaluation had reminded him of a tool Cyber Geek was going to eventually need: flight. Suit thrusters were fine for short distances, but sooner or later, they’d face an airborne opponent. When that day arrived, he was the only team member with the versatility to meet them in the sky. It was just a matter of seeing which flight systems translated well into the real world, and which left him spinning out.
He was so lost in thought about zipping through the sky that Donald almost didn’t hear the voice calling for him until it was practically on his heels. In his defense, though, h
e only tended to think of himself as “Cyber Geek” while in costume.
Turning, he found Agent Quantum, sans the usual tagalongs, approaching. Not the best surprise possible, but at least Agent Quantum always conducted himself like a professional.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to run you down,” Agent Quantum said once he finally arrived. “But I saw you leaving the cafeteria and thought it might be serendipity. I wanted to speak with you, in private, when you have a moment.”
Initially, Donald was torn. The New Science Sentries hadn’t exactly gone out of their way to get on his team’s good side. If anything, they’d been downright antagonistic. With a long day of work ahead, a very real part of Donald wanted to politely brush him off, sticking to the schedule that he’d planned. That inclination only lasted the micro-seconds necessary to remember where, precisely, he was standing.
They were in the hall of the Alliance of Heroic Champions, not some shitty office condo in downtown. This wasn’t a corporate cog job where what they did had little to no effect on the world. Whatever else might be going on, they were both superheroes, and if Agent Quantum was willing to extend an olive branch, then Cyber Geek should at least hear him out.
“We’re not far from my room, if you want to follow me. I’ve got some free time until my next task.”
A tension that was extremely easy to miss left Agent Quantum’s shoulders as he nodded, a wary smile on his face. Together, they started down the hall once more, though this time walking together, rather than one trailing the other.
Ivan was waiting at his desk when Tori came in. He knew she’d be heading over, because he was the one who’d scheduled a meeting to start their week. As much as Ivan wanted to put the weekend out of his head, he couldn’t, and not just because the look on Rick’s face haunted him constantly. There were other implications to that discussion, ones that his former apprentice needed to know. The odds of the situation coming into play were minimal, but one didn’t work in a field of the miraculous without learning to plan for the impossible, to say nothing of the unlikely.
She was surprisingly prompt, arriving a full three minutes before they were due to start. As Tori walked in with a mug of coffee in hand, Ivan gave a short, pointed look at the door. Kicking it with her foot mid-stroll, Tori knocked it closed, after which Ivan hit unseen buttons hidden somewhere on the desk. One day, she’d really love to tear into these walls and see how much obfuscating tech Wade had woven through the building.
“What’s up? This about Lance’s text this morning?”
That was news to Ivan, so he shook his head. “Something more personal.” He waited while she got comfortable in her seat. No, that wasn’t quite right. Ivan wasn’t necessarily waiting so much as he was unsure of how to proceed. This was a big topic to bite off, especially given the potential ramifications. Ultimately, Ivan decided to push through bluntly. If nothing else, he and Tori both appreciated someone cutting to the heart of a matter.
“This weekend, Rick began to ask me questions about my past. He’s figured out that my old stories don’t line up, and as of now, knows that I am both a meta-human and a murderer, though my true identity has yet to be revealed.”
A parade of expressions ran across Tori’s face as she struggled to find fitting words to offer. In the end, she settled on glum. “That really blows.” Not especially eloquent, but sincere all the same.
“It very much does,” Ivan agreed. “However, that alone would be my burden to bear. The larger issue is that in Rick’s digging, he uncovered our purported genealogical connection. Given that it conflicted with the story he knew of my heritage, the detail stuck out to him. While I’ve tried hard to impart upon him that this is my secret, and stays between us, he is a sixteen-year-old, with all the rash decision-making that comes with the age. Worse, he’s got his mother’s smarts, meaning he might actually be effective at digging where he shouldn’t. There is a chance he’ll reach out to you, given what he’s grappling with and the connection he now knows we share.”
This time, Tori’s face was more guarded. She nodded along in understanding, giving away little more than that. “I get it. He found a rabbit hole, poked his head in, and is trying to figure out if he wants to see how far down it really goes. Since I’m the only person he knows who isn’t a parent that’s connected, there’s a chance he’ll try to approach me for more information.”
A pause as something familiar peered out from behind Tori’s guard. Fear. Of course fear. Always fear. In this case, Ivan certainly couldn’t hold it against her. This was fear he’d specifically imparted. He had no one to blame but himself.
“Given the protectiveness you feel toward your kids, I’m not looking to cross any lines here. If you want me to tell him to hit the bricks, I will. If you want me to try to soften the edges of what he’s going to learn, I’ll do my best, but let’s be honest, I might do more harm than good there. Point is, I’m following your lead.”
“I appreciate that.” Ivan looked down at his desk, where several pictures of his children through the years were featured. His eyes went to the youngest picture of Rick, still so small, riding on his father’s shoulders without a care in the world. For all the tremendous power Ivan could tap into, he’d have happily cast it aside to live in that day, that moment, once more. Sadly, not even Fornax could fight the forward march of time. Rick was no longer a little boy he could easily carry around. He was less than two years from the age Ivan had been when he became Fornax. In no time, Rick would be his own man, and when that day came, he was better served by being as informed as possible.
Finally turning from his photos, Ivan met Tori’s uncertain gaze. “Tell him anything he wants to know, assuming you’re comfortable sharing. The only exceptions are the guild, and my true identity. The first for obvious reasons, the second because I feel I should be the one to handle that reveal. It will be... difficult.”
“If he asks me if I’ve ever seen you kill?”
“You’d be perfectly in your rights to tell him that, yes, you have. Several people,” Ivan said. “At this point, Rick doesn’t trust much of what his mother or I say, and not without some reason. I’d rather him have an information source he believes than spare him truths he seems bound to eventually uncover. All of that is assuming he approaches you, which may very well not happen. I simply didn’t want you to be caught unaware.”
Tori took a long sip from her coffee mug, mulling the words over. “I appreciate the heads up, and I’ll give some thought to how much I want to divulge if he does make a move.”
“I think that’s the best strategy, for the moment.” Ivan was about to dismiss her, except a rogue glance to his calendar reminded him that there was one more matter of business to attend. “Before you go, remember that this week’s Starscout meeting is bumped to tomorrow due to a district field trip. Kids should still be tuckered even when they get back, so we’ll be putting the extra time to use. Got to prepare for the End of Summer Shindig next week, meaning there’s always work to do.”
“Almost forgot about those.” To Ivan’s surprise, Tori actually appeared happy about the change. “Sounds nice, a little normalcy after weeks of the insane. Plus, bonus, I actually got to meet Lodestar during the kidnapping. That should make a fun story for the kids, right?”
In his mind’s eye, Ivan could already imagine the looks Helen would be shooting as Tori regaled the kids with tales of meeting their organization’s founder. Annoying as they would be, he could just as easily imagine the wide-eyed joy of the children getting to hear that tale, Beth included. In the end, Starscouts was about the kids, and Tori was right. They would absolutely eat that story up.
“A fine idea. But word to the wise: bring throat lozenges. Giving a tale like that to children their age, you’re going to find yourself with quite a few requests for encores.”
Chapter 53
“You want to team up?” Donald had the screen on his TV glowing, and the special receiver booted up. It connected to the computer system wired into
his body, loading a screen with dozens of games, all of which were constantly running in the background. Professor Quantum might not be as personable as Donald expected, but the tech he built absolutely lived up to the reputation. Comparing this to the wrist unit he’d been wielding initially was night and day.
“I wish I was asking for a team-up,” Agent Quantum replied. “That would be a much easier sell to my people. But there’s no sense in doing this unless we tackle it properly, which means accepting the truth. I don’t want to team up. I want you to let us shadow you for a few nights. It’s become increasingly clear that our training didn’t prepare us as well as we expected for this job. We’re doing the new drills, listening to the response tactics, it’s just not clicking. My hope is that watching another team up close will show us where it is we’re falling short. It’s the best way to improve.”
Making a snap decision, Donald chose a two-player game, grabbing a spare controller from the charging dock by the television. He tossed it into Agent Quantum’s hands, who stared at the device with a scrunched-up expression that looked quite out of place on his handsome face. “Might as well train while we talk. I’m leveling up a flight pack from Rocket Rangers. You’re the support ship, the blue cursor. Press the bottom button to shoot anything that isn’t me.”
The starting screen loaded, showing a nondescript avatar in leather clothing with a patchwork attempt at a jetpack strapped to their back. Rocket Rangers wasn’t the fastest way to gain access to flight, but since the system was built around buying new models and upgrades, it would theoretically allow for a large amount of customization. Any gear Cyber Geek couldn’t properly control was too risky to bring into the field. Better to work toward a tool he could fine-tune than grab something easy and less reliable.