by Drew Hayes
She stowed the orb, unexpected hospitality dispelling her more murderous thoughts. Perhaps there was a reason he’d survived on the inside beyond just his talent, or maybe he simply had good manners. Regardless, Lozora wasn’t going to turn down food on a trip she’d have to make anyway. Especially considering the crap her current employer kept around.
“Keep up the good work, Cobblord. I’d like it if all my visits could go this pleasantly. Saves me from having to lap up the blood.”
“Tori! Ren just had an awesome idea. Their team has next Saturday afternoon off—what do you say we all go mini-golfing?” Chloe’s enthusiasm was exuberant, even as Ren’s face made it clear this was more a casual suggestion than a vetted plan. Nice as the night had gone, Tori was glad she had an actual excuse for the outing, one that would cover her even if they tried to change around the times.
“No can do, I’m gone all next weekend, remember?” Only once those words were out of her mouth did Tori note the curious stares and realize exactly what that excuse was.
It was Ike who posed the question; the people she actually knew were polite enough to let it slide. “Weekend long trip? You didn’t strike me as the music festival type, but as long I’m out of costume, sounds like a good time.”
Embarrassing as the truth would be for a villain to admit, she took a small amount of pleasure in dashing whatever delusions Ike had spun for himself. At least only Beverly and Chloe would see the full humor in the situation, and they were already up to speed. “My uncle is a Starscout cluster leader, and I pitch in to help. The End of Summer Shindig is some big camping event, so I’ll be in the woods battling bugs and filth.”
“Add in some hallucinogens, and it’s still pretty close to a music festival.” Ike’s reply was largely lost in the clamor of words amidst Tori’s explanation. It wasn’t the organization that stuck out to them, rather the one who’d founded it.
“You know, now that I think about it, it’s kind of weird we don’t do work with the Starscouts,” Ellie said. “If Lodestar asked, there’d be no shortage of capes who’d volunteer.”
Tori shook her head. “Separate entities, by Lodestar’s own design. She didn’t want the kids becoming targets used for drawing in capes, or the organization to be too connected to the AHC, in case someone got the idea to use it as a recruiting pool. Some capes do volunteer, but on their own, not under the AHC banner.” This much hadn’t been leftover memories from childhood, rather a bit of knowledge absorbed from Helen, who enjoyed sprinkling historical tidbits through the meetings. She evidently had a passion for history, at least where the Starscouts were concerned.
“Guess that means we won’t be able to follow you up there and make wolf noises. Shame, I’ve got a decent howl.” Ike tilted his head back, as if to give a display, but thought better of it when he caught the death-glare in Ellie’s eyes.
Austin, on the other hand, appeared genuinely concerned. He rubbed his chin, his eyes never fully leaving Tori. “Are you sure that’s safe? Out in the woods, away from society? Seems like the kind of place well suited to another attempt on your life.”
Out in the woods, away from witnesses and police, Tori would be far more dangerous than she was masquerading through mundane life. Powers and tech could be used freely in that situation—none of which she could very well tell Austin. “Look, before you get the bright idea to send a tail along, this is a huge event. Clusters from all over the state meet up. I’m not saying we’re immune to meta-attacks, nowhere can boast that, but I’m pretty sure there’s a few security measures in place, given that there’s tons of kids hanging around up there.”
That was without even mentioning Ivan, who was more than enough on his own, and could be motivated to truly horrific levels if anything put Beth in danger.
“Attacking Lodestar’s charity organization seems like an especially dumb move,” Donald added. “There’s no way she doesn’t keep some tabs on it.”
A robust, far-from-demure laugh escaped from Ellie’s lips. “Sorry, I just imagined some idiots showing up, thinking all they had to deal with there were children, and finding Lodestar waiting for them instead.”
A ripple of chuckles and shudders rolled through the revelers as they all pictured the hypothetical scenario for the half-second necessary to see its inevitable conclusion. Even Austin looked more relaxed, perhaps realizing he’d been overly concerned. “That is a pretty amusing mental image. Doesn’t even really matter who the challenger is.”
“Well... except Fornax.” Like a conversational sniper, Irene killed the light mood with a single phrase. She noticed the sudden deflation as the collective shoulders sagged, but showed no remorse. “What? He held his own with Lodestar back in the day, and now we know he was never really dead. Maybe you managed to avoid seeing any video from the Ridge City Riots, but I watched him smack around Apollo like a cat playing with a mouse. Even the Champions’ Congress has enemies on their level.”
“Been trying hard not to think about that,” Ike admitted. “Though I do have to wonder, where do you hide Fornax for over a decade? Space, right? Had to be space. He’d have torn up any city they let him loose in.”
Tori suddenly found herself extremely uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, and worse, she had absolutely no way to signal that without provoking suspicion. None she could think of, at any rate. She shot a brief glance to Beverly, who met the gaze yet said nothing. She’d help where she could, but neither of them was steering this ship.
“Maybe he went civilian,” Chloe suggested. “Turned it all around and started living a normal life.” For a brief moment, Tori thought she felt her heart actually stop, until she noticed the amused faces on almost all of the capes’ faces.
“We would classify that as unlikely.” Ren kept his tone as gentle as possible, but there was no getting around the disagreement. “Someone as destructive as Fornax keeping control on his own is probably impossible; if he could have fit in with society, he’d have done that from the start.”
No, he wouldn’t, because he never had the chance. He spent eighteen years being forced to kill the only people he knew, then was saddled with a destructive force from another plane before ever setting foot in “society.” The man they thought of as some wild monster was in fact the most controlled person Tori had ever met. Not that she could tell them that, or any of the other insights into who that villain they knew only by name really was. It was strange; even though the assumptions were helping Tori and Ivan keep their secrets, it still pissed her off that they were being made. These people thought they knew their enemies, but they didn’t have the first fucking idea what was really going on.
For a moment, she’d been able to forget what the actual dynamic of the evening was. It had been pleasant, pretending they were just a bunch of young people hanging out and having fun. But that was an illusion, one she couldn’t afford to get lost in. This was eight capes hanging out with the two villains who’d slipped their clutches one night prior. If any of them knew who she really was, all their friendliness would evaporate instantly.
Tori had to remember those lines, keep them firmly in mind. One day, if her secret was ever exposed, these capes would probably become her fiercest enemies, feeling betrayed by her deception. She wouldn’t even begrudge them that, the enmity would be well deserved. Still, Tori would be better off if she started distancing herself from them once the bodyguard work was over. In all honesty, she knew she should do the same with Donald, as well.
Alliances were one thing, but the longer she had to keep all these lies in place, the more Tori suspected that capes and villains simply couldn’t be friends.
Chapter 67
“At 1:07 a.m., local time, the first alerts were triggered. After I arrived on the scene and began a preliminary investigation, it took less than ten minutes to confirm what we were looking at: extraterrestrials, moving en masse toward our planet. Given the size and number of ships, there can be no question that this is meant to be an invading force. I’ve a
sked Cresscriss to sit in and offer his expertise, where applicable.”
For once, Lodestar didn’t mind Professor Quantum’s brusque nature. Given what this Monday morning meeting was about, she was glad to quickly cut to the heart of the matter. They’d known more encounters were possible but hadn’t been expecting any after the Grzzniltan forces went fleeing to the stars.
On a large TV screen, several grainy images appeared, showcasing a vast army of ships with a strange, twisting design, like someone had tried to make a spaceship modeled after a particularly gnarly knot.
“Wrexwren,” Cresscriss muttered. Two of his six eyes closed for a long breath as his fingers pressed against the blue skin of his skulltip. “A species whose culture is based predominantly on war and conquest. Since they are part of a loose affiliation of spacefaring peoples, the Wrexwren direct those tendencies toward planets that have yet to reach the stars and attain such protections.”
“Perhaps the Grzzniltans passed them inaccurate information, painting us as an easy target? If they’ve got any enmity toward the Wrexwren, it would allow them to use us as a blunt instrument of vengeance,” Quorum suggested.
Cresscriss made a sound like a sparrow taking a shot of vodka. “Unlikely. The Grzzniltans prize survival, and large as this force is, that in no way represents the entirety of the Wrexwren armada. Such a deception would bring intense repercussions, but I suppose it is possible if there’s an angle we’ve yet to discover.”
“I don’t care about their motivations. We’ve established them to be hostile. Let’s engage the planetary defense cannons and be done with it. I’ve made great strides in improving them through the years—if we strike before they’re prepared, there is minimal chance any will survive.” No one in the room doubted that if they gave the okay, Professor Quantum would fire on the fleet before the hour was over. That was part of why it took the entire Champions’ Congress to activate them; it had been her and Quorum’s condition on allowing the weapons to be built.
“Before we blow potentially thousands of living beings into dust, how about we entertain the possibility that they’re coming here peacefully? Being from a war-faring species doesn’t change the fact that a sentient creature makes its own choices. Some choose to rebel against the reality they’re presented. Maybe this is a band of Wrexwren outcasts seeking a planet to live in peace upon.”
It wasn’t especially loud, said mostly under his breath, but she noted Quorum’s whisper: “That’s a lot of outcasts.”
Thankfully, Cresscriss came to her aid, in spite of what she felt ninety percent sure was a skeptical expression on his face.
“There is another option to preemptive destruction. The Wrexwren are also a people who take great pride in their strength. I have heard tales that they will settle these matters with a contest of warriors—the greatest of the planet against the strongest of their own. Should they be defeated, the invasion would be called off out of respect for any planet that could birth such a combatant. However, I have never engaged with them directly, so I cannot attest to the viability of such a tactic.”
A click from the remote in Professor Quantum’s hand brought up a new image, this one harder to puzzle out. At first, it looked like another angle with fewer ships, until Lodestar noticed all the darkness. Something was there, blotting out the stars that should be visible, yet it registered as nothing more than a hole in the photo, like the object had been torn out.
“There is another concern. They are hauling something with them, an object my scanners and cameras have thus far been unable to detect. Unless that is standard procedure for the Wrexwren people, we should prepare to be surprised. I doubt they would make this approach without something that gave them the idea of victory.”
Mysterious alien force approaching from the sky? It felt like a fight. In her gut, Lodestar knew where this was heading. Blasting, punching, hurting—she could already feel the cold of space pulling at her skin. But sometimes, on a few wonderful and cursedly rare occasions, she was wrong. Every now and then, things weren’t what they appeared, and it didn’t have to end in combat. She had to fight for those possibilities, especially because so few of the other capes even believed in them.
“Hail the ships,” Lodestar said. “Ask them their intent, and if it’s invasion, see if they’re open to that one-on-one option Cresscriss mentioned.”
“They could lie,” Professor Quantum pointed out.
“Good thing they’ll be talking to the smartest superhero in history, whose brilliance can easily sniff out such deceptions.” Lodestar thought about the first screen again and the sheer number of ships that had been approaching. If things did get bad, that was too many to take out safely. For the Wrexwrens’ sake, she dearly hoped they turned out to be anomalies.
Cresscriss cleared a vocal sack, a noise akin to pudding falling on a tile floor. “I’m not saying attack need be the first recourse; however, you should know that right now is the optimum time to strike. The ships appear to be prioritizing speed, meaning that power to their shields will be minimal. Once they know you’re alerted to their presence, that energy distribution will change. A shot fired preemptively would have the greatest chance of success.”
The words hung heavy in the room, quickly dispelled by a nonchalant wave from Quorum. “Doesn’t matter. ‘Shoot first’ is not the way superheroes work. Besides, more shields or fewer, it changes nothing. If they’re peaceful, we greet them; if not, we send them away.”
“The Wrexwren are a powerful species. I would caution against underestimating them. You three would no doubt triumph against their soldiers; I’m not sure the rest of the AHC will fare as well.”
“Thank you, Cresscriss. Your information has been invaluable, and I’ll need your aid to be sure the Grzzniltan translators we constructed can work on Wrexwren language, as well. It seems we’ll be making contact soon.” Professor Quantum looked unhappy, but when wasn’t that the case? He was much too smart to have actually expected to shoot the lasers; Lodestar would bet he’d already started work on updating their translator. In spite of how much he could push the limits, Professor Quantum had been doing this job longer than anyone else, and had a keen grasp on the way things usually went.
“Since we know what we’re going to do, that leaves us with only one major item to get figured out.” Lodestar tapped a lightly glowing nail against the polished wood of the table. “First contact with an entire new section of the universe. What do we want to say?”
“Nice ass!”
Johnny Three Dicks smacked the oversized posterior of Thuggernaut as he arrived, earning an annoyed glare from much higher up. There was no remorse in his eyes as he dodged a half-hearted swipe for his skull. “What? I can’t take note that my buddy got some new pants?”
“Not the way most people would acknowledge that.” Stasis wandered into the room with a gigantic bag of chips in hand, pilfered from some unknown source. She paused, taking in Thuggernaut’s non-costumed form, giving a small nod of approval. “Outfit looks nice. Got something fancy going on?”
“Opera tickets,” Thuggernaut explained. “In a time zone where it’s nearly evening, for a show that starts worryingly soon. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long. I only popped by to see what the announcement was.”
He, Johnny, and most of the other gathered villains had all gotten the same message, albeit through different methods of communication. Magic metas were more easily reached via sending spells, whereas the tech ones were never too far from an encrypted email. For the more mundane metas like Thuggernaut, a special Indigo Technologies phone with enhanced security was enough to deliver simple messages of when to arrive. The real information was always doled out in person.
Without warning, the television of their breakroom flickered on, just as they knew every other screen throughout the guild had. Broadcasting these sorts of messages was out of the question, but closed-circuit wiring on their island made the dissemination of information far more efficient than gathering everyone in a s
ingle space. Safer, too.
Doctor Mechaniacal’s voice played as images flashed onto the screen: images of space, dotted by an abundance of twisted ships. “Recently, the guild has discovered an extraterrestrial force moving toward Earth. Based on information obtained from our own off-world sources, these are a people called the Wrexwren, a violent, warring culture who we should expect to arrive aggressively.”
The room they’d ended up in wasn’t especially full—perhaps five other villains milled about as the message played. Uniformly, they paid more attention to the screen with each passing word. Stasis, Johnny Three Dicks, and Thuggernaut were no exception. Idle curiosity warped into genuine interest; with that simple introduction, the guild was hanging on every one of Doctor Mechaniacal’s words.
“It is our estimation that the AHC will attempt to conduct a duel to halt the advance. We also expect the Wrexwrens to lie, cheat, or otherwise work around whatever agreement is struck. There is a high possibility that they will mount some type of terrestrial offensive, attempting to split the AHC’s focus between the sky and the ground.”
In another place, Stasis imagined the words would find a very different reaction. Fear, most likely, as even the most faithful among the capes would feel a trickle of terror at the idea of aliens attacking the planet again. Earth had triumphed over every past invasion, but the wins hadn’t all come easily. Anxiety could be reasonably expected, at the very least, worry over what would happen to one’s family or property; even in victory, these battles had a cost.
None of that was reflected in her fellow guild members, however. Greed, excitement, even outright bloodlust, those were the reactions of villains to this news. Because they understood what Doctor Mechaniacal was really saying. An invading force wasn’t just a threat to the planet, it was fair game to play with. For all the effort the capes put into keeping the world safe, they weren’t going to complain if aliens trying to conquer it suddenly started dying in droves. There would be ships to loot, weapons to gather, and no shortage of targets for all manner of built-up anger and aggression.