by Drew Hayes
“Lodestar will save us, if it comes to that. In fact, I bet she’s already on the case.”
Sort of like if a bull and a mountain lion interbred, was Tori’s first thought. Gray, stone-like skin coated the lithe body as it strolled across the grass, with stretches of green foliage filling in the various joints. Each leg ended in a paw with claws the size of kitchen knives. The head included a snout with irregular, sharp teeth, and a pair of small horns better used for a quick slice than a full goring. Considering that even on all fours it nearly came up to her hip, this thing was hauling some heft around, too, no matter how graceful those steps appeared.
In a split second, Tori had to make the first of many choices. Assume it was aggressive and come out swinging, or wait to see if they roused this thing’s particular appetite. Were she in a real jungle, the latter option would have been more appealing—avoiding conflict wherever possible was generally a smart call. Except they weren’t in the actual world, with animals that moved as instinct and nature guided. They were in a giant crafted maze, filled with things solely here to kill them. One way or another, this creature would be Tori’s enemy. Waiting around for a fair fight was some stupid cape bullshit.
No sooner had it stepped fully out of the trees than Tori struck, darting in from the side and kicking it full force in what would be the ribs on a real animal. In mix of good and bad news, she visibly made an impact, eliciting a sharp yelp from her target. Unfortunately, the throbbing pain in her foot made it clear that damage hadn’t only flowed one way. Until she could shift her foot to fire form, Tori was looking at fractured, if not broken, toes.
That might have been worth the trade, had her target been suitably driven off. Instead, she appeared to have only provoked it; snout dipping low as it angled those horns toward her. Tori readied herself to dodge, hoping there would be a chance to strike in the counter. What she was utterly unprepared for was the axe kick Helen dropped onto the beast’s back. Unlike Tori’s attack, this drew far more than a yelp—stone shattered as it crumpled down slightly.
“Remember when I said we had to table your question? This is me untabling it.” Helen didn’t let up, scooping an arm under her opponent’s mid-section and flipping it onto its injured back, causing more damage in the process. “While I don’t really broadcast it, the truth is, I’m a meta-human. That’s how Ivan and I know each other.” She threw one elbow to the chest of her downed enemy, causing it to stop stirring. “Normal as I look, my body is physically fine-tuned to peak human condition. Meaning I can hit hard and well, when the need arises.”
Much as that opened up more questions than it answered, Tori did feel her hopes for survival increase substantially. If Helen had even some baseline physical abilities, it would make caring for her easier. That was the hope, at least, until the trees rustled and four more of the bullpanthers stepped into view.
Against this many, there was no time to think, especially as one charged right for Helen. Tori moved on pure instinct, fully giving herself over to the fight. As the bullpanther drew near, it opened its mouth, like it planned to chew off a piece of Helen. With only a passing thought of Deacon, Tori jammed her arm into its open mouth, fist already turning into fire. It was clear that getting out of this meant using all her tools, fire abilities included. Knowing that she was with a fellow meta-human, Tori barely even registered that she’d decided to let this secret out before she was blasting the monster full of flames.
The blaze did little to the stone, obviously. However, the foliage growing in the cracks and joints immediately caught fire. As it did, the bullpanther slowed, wobbling slightly, before starting to come apart. So the greenery was the glue keeping these things together. Tori set a grim smile to her face as she pulled her hand free, leaving the still-smoking husk behind.
“There’s a chance I might have a secret of my own.”
Helen was already shifting position, covering Tori’s other side. “Well then, what’s say we give these things a proper introduction to ourselves. I could use a good stretch.”
In spite of how mad the situation was, Tori barely suppressed a morose chuckle at the approaching creatures. It wasn’t often she had targets to truly let loose on. Perhaps she’d manage to have a little fun before this ordeal was over.
Chapter 79
Between Helen’s fists and Tori’s flames, the remaining three bullpanthers presented minimal challenge. Tori roasted the first, cooking off all the flora acting as its sinew, while Helen directed another’s charge into a tree, its horn catching on the bark. She used the opening to kick its body mercilessly, until it crumpled down into a heap of rubble. The last one didn’t attempt to flee—one more small reminder to Tori that they weren’t dealing with sentient creatures, merely automated defenses.
Almost offhandedly, she torched it, wondering what tricks she’d use on the first enemy they encountered without such an obvious weakness. Assuming the challenges only got stronger, she’d probably have to deal with a few full-stone opponents, at the least. On the plus side, Tori was no longer on her own for combat.
Watching Helen move was a little disconcerting. Most meta-humans with physical augmentation leaned on that trait too hard, rather than training up their actual skills. They were easily marked by their simplistic styles and grandiose movements. Not Helen. She was quick, efficient, and brutal. There was no mistaking this for some newly turned meta who’d taken a few self-defense courses. Helen had experience. A lot of it, if Tori trusted her instincts—something she was hesitant on for the moment. Helen had slipped this secret past Tori without tripping so much as a single suspicion, after all.
With the last enemy downed, Helen wiped hair from her eyes, eventually giving up and digging around in her pockets for a band to hold it back. “Nice moves! I’d make a ‘hot stuff’ joke, but I doubt I can come up with anything you haven’t heard already. Still, pretty impressive fighting.”
“I was going to say the same to you.” Now that she’d stopped her assault, Helen looked perfectly mundane again. Tori could almost have deluded herself into thinking the whole thing imagined, if not for the rocky remains surrounding them. “You sure don’t move like a reporter or business owner.”
“Talking is fine, but we should move as we do it. Ticking clock of our supplies, plus the mazes get uppity if you stay in one place too long. A labyrinth is meant to be experienced. All the systems are designed to push people toward participating.”
No sooner had Tori learned this new fact than her mind leapt across the canyon to where Ivan and the kids would be hunkered down. It wasn’t the threats overtaking him that concerned her—no automated trap was strong enough to kill Fornax. What worried Tori was how efficiently Ivan could fight while hiding his secret. Between keeping Beth safe and getting to continue being Ivan, Tori knew without question which it was that he would pick, just like she knew losing that part of himself would hurt for the rest of his life.
More importantly, however, Tori caught on to something else. “Hang on. So the labyrinth pushes harder on people who try not to play along, which you already knew. And you’re still not worried in the slightest about those kids?”
This was as close as Tori dared to push, and even that was honestly overstepping. Her only saving detail was that she hadn’t actually said his name. She watched as Helen pondered the question, turning it around mentally, before finally allowing a gentle smile to land upon her face.
“Yes, Tori, it’s okay. I know who he is. I know what he can do. And I know he will use every ounce of that power to defend those children. Because a person is more than their reputation, more than their past, more than the facts others might think they know. But most of all, because Beth is there watching. He will never let himself fall short when his children’s eyes are upon him. With her present, I’m not sure he’d lose to anyone, even Lodestar.”
Relief cascaded through Tori as the weight of Ivan’s secret fell away. With as much as they had to deal with already, the simple act of being able to genuine
ly discuss the situation felt like a huge leap forward. Now that her powers were revealed and Ivan’s identity acknowledged, Tori could finally put her energy fully into beating this labyrinth, rather than doing so with one hand and her fire abilities tied behind her back.
“That is great to hear, but word to the wise, I wouldn’t drop the Lodestar line around Ivan. ‘Nobody beats Lodestar’ is practically his unofficial motto.” Tori heard something like a snorted snicker slip out of Helen’s mouth, but when she turned back, the bespectacled woman wore a totally neutral expression.
“You can’t blame him too much for that. If you were the best at something for years and years, then met the only other person who could actually challenge you, even if they eventually won, it would be hard not to admit their talent. After all, to belittle that person’s skill is to belittle everyone below them, as well.” Helen held up a finger, and they came to a sudden halt. She stood like that for a moment, then nodded to the left, taking them along a slightly rougher path of the forest.
Shoving aside some thick branches, Helen held them in place long enough for Tori to slip through. “It’s totally okay if you don’t want to discuss it, but may I ask how you ended up with fire abilities? Some metas like the chance to open up, others not so much—completely your choice.”
With a grunt, Tori roughly tore back a shrub trying to dig its thorns into her legs. Her injured foot was throbbing more and more over time; soon, she’d start limping noticeably. Using fire was one thing, letting on that she could turn into it another. Then again, Helen already knew Ivan’s secret and the bulk of Tori’s: what did one more aspect matter? Especially compared to slowing down their trip when they were already on a pretty serious clock.
“Lab accident,” Tori replied, motioning for Helen to slow down. She pushed her way through the undergrowth until Tori could brace herself against a dense tree truck. Lifting her right foot, she made a mental note of thanks to the guild for providing a phase-shifting-friendly version of this uniform. “Was messing with something a bit out of my league, things went awry, and when the dust settled, I could do this.”
On cue, her entire lower leg shifted into living fire. As the nerve endings vanished, so did the ache, permitting Tori a long sigh of unexpected relief. That might have been hurting more than her brain wanted to admit. Only when the pain vanished could it be truly appreciated.
Helen was staring, fascinated by the transformation. “That’s interesting. Historically, every stable elemental phase-shift like that has been done with some aspect of magic; never seen one from a purely scientific-based source. Orion was the closest, but he had a little bit of everything.” She made no move to draw closer or examine the phenomena, yet her gaze also didn’t leave the burning appendage.
“Guess you can consider me a... trailblazer.”
Helen laughed, probably more out of politeness than actual humor. “That joke almost makes me wonder if you and Ivan aren’t actually related after all.”
Not wanting to dive back into anything around that topic, Tori opted for a rapid conversational redirect. “What about you? How did you get... super-strength, it looked like?”
“More maxed out, than super,” Helen corrected. “The maximum potential my genes held. Think of humanity like cars being made on an assembly line. There’s a plan for each, but some get put together better than others—usually just by luck of the draw. My body is the equivalent of someone building a custom car. Every detail has been polished, every efficiency achieved. Blood pumps increased oxygen, muscles recover more quickly. I’m flexible, fast, and so on. Basically every advantage my body had the potential for has been realized, and every weakness eliminated.”
That was a fascinating power all right, if limited in scale. Human boundaries meant Helen could never tangle with the true powers of the world, but day to day, her ability probably came in a lot handier than controlling flames. There was, however, one discrepancy that Tori couldn’t help noting as she returned her foot to physical form.
“Perfectly built, huh?”
“Well, the aesthetics are open to opinion. I’m not saying it straightened the bump in my nose or gave my hair effortless volume,” Helen said. “More functionally perfect.”
“Weird then, that someone with all those advantages would have subpar eyesight.” Tori reached up, tapping the side of her face where glasses would have rested, were she wearing them.
To her surprise, the revelation was greeted by an increase in cheer from Helen, who jiggled her own spectacles in response. “Could be a fashion choice. Can’t a gal accessorize?”
“Could be,” Tori agreed. “I guess I should ask you same thing you asked me: want to talk about where your powers came from?”
“I very much do not.” Helen managed to keep all the pleasantness still in her voice, while also instantly shutting down that line of conversation. “The experience was far from a happy one, not the sort of thing to get bogged down in when our plates are already so full.”
That more or less killed the discussion for the next few minutes. Instead, they focused on making headway through the brush. Overhead, the artificial sky was shifting, its false sun beginning to move toward the horizon. Odds were good that this place had some sort of day and night cycle, which probably meant things would get more dangerous once the sun fell. Tori had nothing to base that assumption on, yet it felt immediately right, the way these sorts of things were meant to work. Perhaps she was simply learning to think like a villain.
After half an hour of silent trekking, they broke through a cluster of trees to find something new. More stones, though these weren’t moving—for the moment. Overgrown by what looked to be decades of grass and weeds stood a stone arch, leading into what would have been matching stone walls, if not for the broken sections causing sizable gaps. Further along, the breaks grew less frequent, as the structure appeared to lead to a large building made of the same material. While there was more forest along the edges, Tori felt confident that between them, they could cut a path around the side.
“Pretty sure we can skip this, if we work at it.”
“I’m almost certain you’re right, except we can’t.” Helen pointed to the huge obstacle, the place their route had obviously been leading toward. “Remember, this is a game. Don’t play along, and things get more complicated. Angering the maze just risks making our own job harder, or causing surprises for Ivan and the others.”
The part of Tori that had always been drawn to discovery and invention, the piece of her that compelled the breaking down of various electronics to see how they worked, rebelled at such an idea. Her mind burned, seeing opportunities for efficiency and being denied them. Tori wanted to rip this place down to the screws until she understood the mechanics behind every blade of grass and puff of wind. Instead, she swallowed her annoyance and looked at the path laid out for her, the one she was trapped on.
“Any idea what will be inside?” If she couldn’t go at this her own way, Tori would have to settle for being as forewarned as possible.
“Could be a fight, a puzzle, a trap, a test, or an empty building just to mess with us. Probably not that last one—I don’t feel especially lucky today—but it shouldn’t be too bad. Escalating challenges and all that.”
Tori couldn’t believe her own feet as they walked through the stone arch, plodding down the path to an obvious trap. “Walking into a dangerous situation with no idea what we’re facing and with innocent people counting on our success. You know, this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to being a cape, thank goodness.”
“It does seem to be a calling that isn’t for everyone.” Helen paused, running a hand along the stone wall briefly, like she was checking for something. Whatever it was went unfound; she resumed their pilgrimage after a few moments. “Although, you might be more inclined to it than you realize. In my experience, there does tend to be a common trait that all capes share.”
“Corny taste in code names?”
Helen had to visibly bit
e back a chuckle at that. “Not quite. The inability to stand idly by. Capes are the sort of people who see an event they can’t stand happening and do something about it. Even if they might not be powerful enough, even if they don’t know the people involved. The ones who can act, and do—that’s the pool of people I’d look to for future superheroes. And you definitely don’t strike me as someone to linger on the sidelines when she’s compelled to action.”
“Maybe so, but there’s no way you’ll catch me in one of those ridiculous outfits.” As far as counters went, it wasn’t an especially strong one, mostly because Helen was right. The only thing she’d missed was that there was another avenue for those who wanted to shape the world into something better. Not all of those willing to act went to the side of the capes. The makings of a superhero and a villain were only a few details apart.
From the building, both women heard a loud noise rise up, like the sound of something very heavy thudding onto the ground. Exchanging a single look, they lowered their stances, hunkering down behind the walls for as much cover as they would allow. Now that they knew there was potential company, they silently made their way along the broken stone hallway, toward the unseen challenge awaiting them inside.
Chapter 80
Beth turned out to be a big help, as she was just about the only sharp element present in the camp, outside of a few rogue pocket knives. Her silver blades sliced effortlessly through the pseudo-trees, ringless interiors exposed as they cut cleanly in twain. For the larger denizens of the forest, Beth focused on shearing away branches, stretching her mercurial slithering weapons several feet up.
Despite Wade running analyses and the AHC teaching her control, there were still no clues about Beth’s power. What it was, precisely, or where it had come from, no one had any notion. They weren’t even sure what that silvery metal was composed of. So far, there had yet to be so much as a single fleck of residue to examine. The only way to test the blades would be in person, and Ivan hadn’t yet figured out a way to slip a guild examination by Beth. Sweet and trusting though she was, every now and then, the girl had a habit of noticing more than one might expect.