by Drew Hayes
“You think?” Tori said, eyes wide as she sat next to Chloe on the couch. “Not only is Doctor Mechaniacal streaming a live feed of their assault on the Wrexwren, motherfucking Fornax just walked on-screen. What the living shit are they up to?”
Beverly kept her eyes on the street, watching the way the people flowed. Less than half an hour prior, a new link had appeared all over the internet, popping up on major sites as well as social media. The stream kicked on with a spaceship like four tied-together balls showing up on screen, and from there, the viewership had only begun to soar. Enough that it was strange so many people apparently had business around their building when there was a live invasion-attempt to watch.
“Show of force. When the AHC came for us, we lost some cred. Being hauled out into the street like that, losing our anonymity—it made us seem weak. I’d guess that’s why the rules are getting pushed more. The Council wants to turn that trend around.” Beverly craned her head, still focused on the street as she spoke.
“Got it.” A dark joy spread across Tori’s face. “We’re going to remind them that the secrecy and systems were never the reason they should be afraid of us. Can’t imagine a better messenger for that job.”
There was a loud crunching sound as Chloe helped herself to a handful of popcorn. “At this point, anyone fighting for the same planet where I live is good with me. Go Team Earth!”
No question about it: Beverly was seeing more groups massed up as they walked by. Whatever was going on, it was escalating. Technically, there were several other buildings, other apartments, that this trouble could be addressed toward. If only that damned intuition would let her believe it.
“Tori, I know what we said about waiting until the aliens moved, but you might want to at least get in costume, if not your full suit.”
To her credit, Tori’s response held no hesitation. “On it. What’s up?” She was already moving toward her room, where both outfits were waiting.
Beverly moved the curtains slightly aside, noting the way a select few of the walking masses reacted. Some of them had noticed, which meant they were watching her right back. “Not sure yet, just looks like trouble.”
“Here I thought we rookies were going to miss out on all the fun.” Tori slammed the door behind her, hurrying to change.
Lozora was learning it was hard to control a collection of individuals; they were far less cohesive than an actual group. Unfortunately, when one was hiring freelance violence, package deals were harder to come by. That was why her employer had procured a great deal of individual talent—more than really felt necessary to scare a few metas. Most of them were competent, mercifully, even if it had required hours of dressing to make them passable for normal civilians.
It was important to get the timing right. They had to strike during the initial wave, when chaos would be the highest. Even their long-laid preparations—the blocking technology in place, the teams ready to cause distractions elsewhere—would only work during the right window of opportunity. Move too soon, and too many capes could be brought in for assistance. They needed to wait until resources were at their limit before the trap would be ready. All of the work that had been done—drawing in the aliens, testing the equipment, even tipping off the guild to move Fornax off of Earth—everything was in service to this singular goal. Lozora didn’t care about the outcome in a personal sense. This was her employer’s grudge entirely; her motivation was largely monetary.
Although, it would be a lie to say she was in it for the cash alone. After seeing what her fellow villains had begun, their sad little clubhouse with its long list of rules, the idea of setting a counter-example appealed to her greatly. This was a chance to remind the world what true villains looked like.
Killing several capes would be the perfect way to drive such a message home.
More high-pitched notes, laughter, coming from the Wrexwren. Zerle Salvrin made one motion, and the noise came to an instant halt. He was a commander in total control of his ship; there was no question about that.
“This is your choice? Be certain. Once he dies, your only hope is lost. Pick someone strong, and do not mistake the crew you have encountered as a sample of what you are to face.” Zerle Salvrin drew himself up to full height, which was quite impressive, and stretched those spiked limbs out. “I have endured many battles, forged my strength in the deadly terrains of untold planets. You do not fathom the danger I represent.”
Another round of laughter—only this time, it wasn’t the Wrexwren. Xelas, showing the reason Doctor Mechaniacal had likely brought her along, was leaning on a wall, letting out peals of howling laughter. “Oh my god, you have to stop. I’m going to pee, and I don’t even do that.”
Doctor Mechaniacal kept to the more professional approach. Reading a species without faces wasn’t easy, but the way some arms crossed and bodies shifted, they didn’t seem to be fans of mockery when it was turned around. “Our selection is adequately strong.”
“Very well then, we formally accept your challenge.” Zerle Salvrin tapped one button on a nearby console, and suddenly, the ship rumbled slightly. “Should you defeat me, the invasion will be halted.”
A long pause filled the silence of the ship, until Doctor Mechaniacal finally piped up. “Are you waiting for us to cry out in surprise? Something like, ‘Oh no, they’re going to attack until you win, splitting your focus during the bout,’ or other tripe? Happy to disappoint, but we counted on that from the start. Before Lodestar stopped us, humanity had a real passion for making war. The ships are impressive and the discipline is respected, but you’re nowhere near humans when it comes to the mindset of combat.”
That earned some low pitches from the assembled Wrexwren, but Zerle Salvrin sounded unmoved. “All you have shown me so far is your talent for empty boasting. Come, Fornax. Let us see what the defender of Earth is capable of delivering. Your attendants may wait here, out of the way.”
“One moment.” Doctor Mechaniacal reached into a suit compartment and produced three small orbs. Each one glowed and quickly flitted out of his hand, hovering in the air, taking up a gentle orbit around Fornax. “I presume there are no objections to broadcasting the bout? Since you expect to win, it will be an excellent way to break the spirits of those watching below.”
“Or be a source of inspiration if I fall. A transparent effort, but I will win, so it matters not.”
It was a very good thing no one could see Wade’s actual smile. It would have given away the game right then and there. “Your grace is greatly appreciated.”
That earned him a short, shrill tone with no translation, probably akin to a grunt. Zerle Salvrin left the room with Fornax in tow, walking him along a stretch of various paths and routes, all of which were recorded and mapped by Doctor Mechaniacal as the cameras followed. It required fiddling with lots of settings and unseen screens, so to an outsider, he might have appeared to be pawing at empty air. Even if it left him looking silly at times, Doctor Mechaniacal still preferred this to display screens others could see, largely for situations precisely like this one.
While Fornax was being led away, he made a few motions not related to any camera work. No, these had more to do with the ship’s systems as a whole, and the remote access module Xelas had planted on their way in. It had taken a lot of work and every ounce of extraterrestrial tech information they could get a hold of, but as the connection established, Doctor Mechaniacal felt a deep satisfaction ripple through his bones. There was truly nothing like the feel of a plan coming together.
Access was only the first step, however. There was still quite a bit of work to do before the real scheme could kick in. Until then, Fornax, and Earth as a whole, were just going to have to endure.
Against the dark backdrop of space, it was easy to spot the hundreds of smaller ships alighting out of the fleet, their first wave of attack heading for the surface. Lodestar wanted to turn back, to knock them all from the sky before they could ever touch down, but she had much bigger concerns. The Sc
ralthor, as Zerle Salvrin had called it, still looked mostly like a dark patch of space to Lodestar, but with every passing moment, she was catching more and more details.
Huge was an understatement. This thing could have easily tossed a comet without thinking twice. Its motions were like living ink on a map of the stars—it was more emptiness than being. Leading it by some distance, she spotted a pair of Wrexwren ships, spitting out small sprays of what appeared to be glowing liquid. Bait, meant to lure it closer to its targets. This close, there couldn’t be much more guidance needed. Not for a creature that had evolved to eat stars. Most predators had means of finding their prey.
In earlier days, Lodestar would have been awash in self-doubt, wondering if she had the necessary power to defeat this threat. Having enough strength was no longer a fear she held, but wielding that power appropriately was another matter. For all she knew, this was a sentient, thinking creature that had merely been led to destruction by the Wrexwren. Just because something looked scary didn’t make it evil. Using the kind of power it would take to stop the Scralthor came with risks; she’d much rather convince it to change course.
Should that fail, then force would be resorted to—hopefully just enough to scare it away before she had to get serious. So many steps to get through, and all while the Earth was fighting off an invasion. At least they weren’t unprepared for it. If the Wrexwren thought her planet had put all of its eggs into the dueling basket, they were in for a sun-eating-sized shock of their own.
Across the world, skies burned with the glow of alien ships breaking through the atmosphere. For some, they came out of clouds, ruining a blue-sky day. Others saw their strange curves descending under moonlight. Citizens of all walks of life, in nearly every country, felt the tight clamp of fear bind their chests as the invaders landed around the globe. That terror drove some inward, deeper into their safehouses and bunkers to ride out the storm. For a different sort, rage was hot on fear’s tracks, a fury borne from the fact that some interloping bastards would come try take this planet.
Wrexwren ships began to touch down; the first reports were already hitting the internet. The crews emerged clad in a foam-like exterior that was evidently their spacesuit, swinging strangely shaped objects that soon proved to be dangerous weapons. For a terrible moment, it felt like a true invasion, as though the aliens might get a foothold it would be impossible to drive them out of.
Lozora cared for none of that. Her orders were simple on this front. Now that the Wrexwren were beginning to move, the AHC was reacting. The digital feed scanner showed her capes suddenly popping up in all corners of the Earth. The Wrexwren invasion had officially, finally, kicked off. With their giant smokescreen in place, it was time to get to work on their actual objective.
“Listen up, everyone. I want to be crystal clear on this: the goal is to make them afraid. Corpses do not help us. Unconscious bodies, do not help us. Mutilated leftovers... well, that one is probably circumstantial, but we are not going to risk it.” Lozora looked at her crew, the hodgepodge of miscreants her employer had managed to recruit. She’d have liked some heavy hitters, even one other Rookstone escapee, more for their experience than power. Half of this lot looked like they’d start slicing and never look back once they had a target.
“To put as fine a point on this as I can, anyone who breaks that rule can expect to have a long session with me, and Mr. Worthington, when this is over.”
Even the hardest of faces blanched at that. There was an aura to the man, a coldness that went deeper than any she’d seen before. It wasn’t that he was strong—that was common enough in the meta-human world. It was that he had an unmistakable mix of ruthlessness and competence. Encountering someone who claimed they would do anything to see their goals met wasn’t a total rarity, but meeting someone who actually seemed capable of following through on such schemes was another matter. Her employer was such a man, and she was quite curious to see how one of his plans looked when it came to fruition.
After months of work and laying low, she was starting to feel like a proper criminal again. An excellent sign, since the day was only just getting started. Lozora gave one last look at the building, then back to her stitched-together crew.
“Remember: above all, we want them scared. Afraid for their very lives. So terrified, in fact, that they’re even willing to call the capes for help.” Once the real targets showed up, that was when things would get interesting.
With a nod, Lozora dismissed her crew, and they moved toward the building as one. No more need for skulking about, hiding, or subtlety. At long last, it was time for a fight.
Chapter 104
“They’re coming.” This time, it was Tori who gave the report, though only barely. Between the full mask and costume, along with nearly every piece of her meta-suit, she was as close to being Hephaestus as possible without fully making the switch. Sitting at her side rested her helmet, waiting for the moment when it was donned.
On her laptop, she could see the crowd moving through the remote camera feeds they’d set up. With limited time to work in, most of their preparations had been focused on expanding their information-gathering capabilities. A few traps were waiting as well, but they’d all been built with the intention of halting robbers, or perhaps a few rogue aliens. As things stood, they were facing dozens of enemies, and with their civilian disguises falling away, it looked like at least some had experience with violence.
“Best guess on what they want?” Beverly had also changed, her usual flair for fashion replaced by the thick armor that would shift with Bahamut’s various dragon forms.
“This feels like the kind of force you’d see for guild business, except I can’t think of anyone we’ve pissed off enough to warrant the effort.” Tori paused, thinking things over. “Well, no one still around, or who has these kinds of resources.”
Clad in combat boots, thick pants, a flak jacket that Beverly had produced without explanation, and of course, holding her pink and black umbrella, Chloe was pacing around in the back, thinking hard. Her face was mostly covered by a wool balaclava, with a set of Tori’s telescope-goggles added to obscure her eyes, yet one could still make out the worried lines of her forehead if they searched carefully. “Maybe they’re friends of that gang who kidnapped you and got slaughtered?”
“Publicly, that was on Nexus. Privately, on the guild. Either way, I’d be a weird retribution target. Not impossible, though.” Something snagged in Tori’s brain, a memory from that dark time when she’d been taken against her will. “But that gang never wanted me in the first place. I was just bait, put in a trap to lure the New Science Sentries out, because they thought Tachyonic and I were an item.”
“Which many people online still do,” Beverly pointed out.
Finally, they’d hit an angle that had even the smallest bit of legs. Tori watched as strangers moved toward the building steadily, methodically, ensuring every exit was covered. The crowd didn’t even care how visible they now were. Definitely not the actions of people who were walking in expecting a fight. If she was right, that definitely meant they were here for Tori, not Hephaestus. What they would find, now that was a matter still to be decided.
Tapping carefully at a key with her gauntlet-covered hand, Tori cycled through the camera angles once more, getting a full sweep of the area. “Whether or not this is about the New Science Sentries, I don’t think they know who they’re coming for. Maybe they want to make enough commotion that Agent Quantum and the others show up; maybe they’re here to kill the whole building. The question is, what are we going to do? If there’s running to be done, this is our prime chance. They can show up to find an empty apartment.”
There was a look on Beverly’s face that Tori was starting to learn. It happened when they hit a point where her life and her nature were forced to be at odds with one another. The truth of the matter was, Beverly didn’t have the right disposition for villainy. She was too nice, too responsible—only her absolute hatred of the AHC had kept her
from viewing the other side as an option. As a result, Beverly was caught in a difficult situation: trying to live as a villain while still being true to the decent person she was.
“We aren’t the only ones who live here.” It was Chloe who put voice to the issue, briefly changing Beverly’s expression to one of relief. “What if they find us gone and burn the whole place down, or we’re not even the targets?”
“Besides, you really want those pieces of shit touching all your stuff?” Beverly added.
The smart move, the survivor’s move, was to leave now. Use Chloe’s power, get out of Ridge City, spend the invasion holed up in some backwater bar, watching it all play out on television. The villain’s move, on the other hand, would be to obliterate her would-be attackers, sending a message to all who tried next. Prey, or predator. Tori had fought like hell to claim the title of villain. It was time to start defining what that truly meant for her.
“We’re going to use Chloe’s power,” she announced. The faces of both her colleagues were momentarily disappointed, though the expression changed as soon as she wrapped one armored hand around her helmet. “We’re just going to use it a little differently than originally planned.”
As the Wrexwren landed, out came the orders: different parts of the city, suddenly flaring up with various issues. The more experienced superheroes were sent to handle the actual landing sites, while Cyber Geek and his team ran to clear rubble from the road. A nearby building had been clipped by a landing ship, causing a massive obstruction in the roadway.
Medley and Cold Shoulder teamed up to haul the debris, the latter in her giant ice-armor to make lifting easier. Hat Trick was directing traffic around them, and as for Cyber Geek himself, he was making use of Autom’s Eye from the latest Sneak Soldiers Semi-Solid game. In a franchise built around stealthing into various places and bases, there was no shortage of useful goodies to play around with, and this one was a real doozy, capable of floating through the air, scanning within set parameters, even feeding the images back into his eyeball display. Thanks to Autom’s Eye, he was able to note that there were no Wrexwren approaching their position, though the humans nearby were getting antsy.