I try not to look back. I almost succeed.
52
In full stealth mode, the MKII is all but invisible. If I stay under three hundred feet and keep my speed at a few hundred miles an hour nothing can detect our passage. Which is exactly what I do as I head East toward my old neighborhood. I never sold the house; I had planned on giving it away. Of course, that is the first place they’ll look, so there is no point in going. However, a few houses down should be safe, for a while at least.
Epic goes over the lowdown for me while we fly to Carlos’ house. No casualties, though the Brigade is seriously hurt. Currently, the news is blaming me for the explosion saying I was working on an unauthorized reactor experiment. They’re right, I did cause it and not just the arrow. My investigation into Cat-7 and the Cabal is what brought the Brigade down on us. I shouldn’t have been surprised when they did it legally. Whoever is behind this mess is certainly forward thinking. I feel like they’re just out of my grasp. Regardless, they’re close to an end game. They wouldn’t be making moves like this if they weren’t.
I pull up the footage of the aftermath of our fight. The news has a spectacular shot of a very naked Behemoth crawling out of the crater my arrow made. I didn’t think it would kill her, but damn she’s tough. The rest of the team was rushed to the local hospital. The Governor is on TV demanding to know why the federal team was in Arizona without her permission. Interesting.
I have Epic check the hospital, I can’t risk calling in case they’re watching communications. Pierre and Luke doing fine. Good thing too, if Luke was hurt badly or killed… I don’t even want to think of that.
Our destination is ahead.
“Thanks, buddy, land us in his backyard.”
I come down in the sandy yard full of discarded toys and sun-bleached lawn furniture. The suit’s propulsion doesn’t make any noise but there is a plume of dust when I hit the ground.
I text Carlos.
In your backyard. Come out.
What?
Come outside and bring a Coke.
A minute later I’m awkwardly leaning against the side of the house with my faceplate up. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until I asked him to bring a drink. It isn’t easy to put anything in my mouth, the helmet wraps around my chin and face to make sure an impact doesn’t spin the armor around. However, Carlos is very thoughtful and brought a straw.
“I saw the news, damn, niña, was that your satellite or did you build a nuclear weapon into the suit?”
I snort, trying to swallow the soda before it goes out my nose. “Funny, no it’s the satellite. Kind of an emergency backup if I ever had to destroy something down to the foundation.”
“Can you use it again or is it a one-shot?”
“Assuming Cat-7 hasn’t pinpointed the orbit, and I won’t know until tomorrow, I can use it again. Right now Artemis is in stealth mode, folded up to make herself smaller. On top of that, I used the latest infrared and radar absorbent paint to keep her invisible. I did a lot of math to make sure her orbit wouldn’t put anything in danger up there nor would she collide with the twenty-thousand something pieces of debris floating around.”
He smiles taking a pull from his own Coke. “Well, you surely did it. I take it this means you know who’s behind all this?” He asks with a wave of his hands.
“Not yet, I mean, I know what. But I don’t have a name yet. I’m close though.”
“Too bad there isn’t a directory, like a Facebook for bad guys—”
A directory… of course there’s a directory. “Carlos, you’re a genius!” He looks nervously at the house when I shout.
“How so?”
“I can’t go into it, but I promise you I couldn’t have figured it out without your help.”
“Is there anything I can do? I don’t have powers and I’m not a super spy or anything. But if I can help…” He’s sweet to ask and I wish there was… wait there is.
“Can you go to Maricopa County General, check on Luke, Pierre, and Monica?” His stature perks up at the mention of the ice queen. “Let them know I’m alright and I’ll contact them as soon as I can. Let Luke know…” I want to say more but I just don’t know what I would tell Luke.
Carlos puts his hand on my shoulder, “It’s okay, I’ll tell him.”
“Thanks, amigo, I appreciate it. Close faceplate.” I hand him the Coke as the suit pressurizes.
“Amelia, will I see you again?”
“I sure hope so. If not, you’ve been a good friend—”
“None of that. You owe me a rematch on Halo, so you better make it through this.” I can see in his eyes what his Hispanic upbringing won’t let him say.
I step back off the porch, lock up and blast off.
There is a warrant out for your arrest, publicly now. A Parker alert has been issued in all fifty states plus Puerto Rico. You have even made it to the top of the FBI’s most wanted list. Well done.
“They want to stop me and since they have total control of the government they will use any means necessary. That’s okay though, because Carlos gave me an idea.”
May I inquire as to your brilliant plan?
“We can’t extract Shai-Hulud because they’ll shut him down before we could get anything useful, right?”
That is correct.
“However, if we were in physical contact with a network hub he had access to…”
Then we could transfer the data far quicker than they could counter. Excellent thought. The only problem is we do not know where a data center is.
“Don’t we, though?”
Portland?
“Portland. Seriously, you never actually thought they would build those awesome underground bases for state militias, right? There had to be another reason. I think they’re the network. They have teleporters, total access to the teams, heck they could have telepaths down there at any given moment playing ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ on people and no one would ever know. We break in, steal the info, and get out. If we do it now, they shouldn’t even have time to prepare for us.”
How do you suggest we get in? You vaporized the Arizona entrance.
Vaporized… yes I did. I can’t help but smile at the thought.
“There are four bases that we know of, Portland, Montana, Florida, and DC… but every state militia has an entrance.”
Montana is out unless you are planning to attack the UltraMax. So is DC.
“Florida is too far away, that leaves just Portland. Since I don’t want to fly to Seattle that leaves only one other team.”
Which is the team with the highest probability of having their asses kicked by you…
“Bingo, California it is. Set a course, keep stealth mode on.”
Course set. Stealth mode directive still in play.
“Engage!”
53
Los Angeles is almost due west of us. We fly low over the Joshua Tree national forest, then Palm Dessert. I have to keep it under three hundred feet, which limits me to sub-sonic speeds. Which is still pretty darn fast. Five hundred miles an hour and we’re past Riverside and looking at the outskirts of L.A. and it isn’t even two in the morning yet.
“I’m gonna need a rest after this. Do you have our mobile lab going yet?”
Almost. Should be ready by the time we return to Phoenix.
It isn’t anything fancy, just a semi-truck with everything I need to take off and put on the armor. Plus a bed, food, spare clothing and a medkit. I had it set up as a contingency but I don’t actually know how it works. I let Epic do the legwork. This way if anyone was able to read my mind they wouldn’t know where it was or anything about it other than the fact that I had one.
We turn south as LA approaches; I want to skirt LAX. Risking a collision with a jumbo jet isn’t worth the extra time I would save.
The So-Cal team has their base on the water in Long Beach. I just hope not too many of them are home this time of night.
“Can you remotely connect to their
computer?”
I’ve been trying. They have a very effective DMZ. I will need physical contact.
“That’s the plan.”
California’s official team HQ is a ten-story ode to modern architecture. Shiny, mirror-like windows, curving walls, and lots of round corners dominate the surface. The roof is our best bet with its open-air helipad and elevator.
“Once we pop up to land on the roof we’re likely going to be on their sensors. Bear that in mind.”
Affirmative.
“Here we go.” The building rushes up at me, the city behind reflecting off the mirror like windows. I kill the jets as we pass the eighth floor and let momentum carry us the remaining distance to land on the helipad with a crunch. I’ve taken two steps when a rush of air and a familiar blur of speed materializes in front of me.
I’ve only ever met him once, but even if Kate didn’t hate this guy I wouldn’t like him. Maybe if he didn’t have overly tanned skin with shoulder length stark white hair I wouldn’t think he was a douche, but with his cocksure grin, I just want to punch him in the face.
“Arsenal. The rest of the team is on the way. We were alerted to your presence the moment you landed. Surrender and we’ll go easy on you,” he says with false swagger.
“You do know I just single-handedly whooped the Brigade and sent them packing with their tail between their legs, right?”
His costume is a ridiculous green and brown leotard which looks more designed to show off his physique then actually protect him.
“The Brigade is all for show. We’re the real deal.” He slaps his hands together. A wall of force erupts from him passing harmlessly over me. When the air disturbance ends there are three of him standing shoulder to shoulder. Well, two standing, one floating a foot off the ground.
Reminder: our only less-than-lethal option is the IP Cannons.
“I’m warning you guys, I don’t have a lot of time here. There’s a lunatic with mind control powers and he’s trying to take over the world. All I need is five minutes access to the Portland base and I can find out who he is.”
“What? So you can blow up Portland like you did Phoenix?” The flying one asks.
“Fine, be that way.” I hold my hands out, palms up, and he hesitates. The sandpaper staccato of my cannons rips through the air. The speedster vanishes and the strong one leaps into the blast to take it. He twitches and drops to one knee, but doesn’t go down.
Even if we proceed to lethal options, it is likely they will delay us long enough for the rest of the team to arrive.
Flying-guy zooms into the sky at incredible speeds. He has to have a certain level of invulnerability to turn that sharp at speed.
“If we plugged into their buildings network could you use that to activate the quantum teleporter?”
Do you even need to ask?
“Call Kate,” I say as I take to the skies. The jig is up, so I cut stealth mode bringing full power to the shields. Triple Threat clearly trains hard. He works as a team, trying to contain me. Speedy hurls about a thousand marbles at me constantly keeping the barrage up from a hundred different angles to distract me. Flyboy has a cudgel made of a stiff metal. He zooms in close, swinging for the fences each time. The second I stop moving Strongman throws a hundred pound weight at me with the force of a bullet.
Connecting to her cell.
I let out a double blast, narrow beam at maximum power. Strongman drops like a stone this time, the second weight he was about to throw at me rolls aside like a discarded beach ball.
“Amelia?” Kate’s melodic voice sounds in my ear.
“Kate, I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” I say as I spin to put my arm up and ward off the cudgel.
“You didn’t drag me into anything, this was already happening. I’m sorry about Phoenix, I wish I—”
“Listen, no time for that right now. I’m trying to break into the Portland underground. I’m in LA and I could use some help.”
There’s a moment of silence and I wonder for a second if I misjudged her. Maybe this was one step too far for someone who’d played by the Rules her whole life. Even if the Rules were a lie made up by evil people.
“I need thirty seconds. Please don’t be high up when I come in.”
“You got it,” I say. Thank God. Even with everything I’ve invented I’m just one person. Unless I want to start killing innocent people, I can’t do this alone.
“Epic, ETA on the rest of their team?”
LAX ATC has their hoverbikes two minutes out. However, that could change.
“As soon as Kate arrives, full ECM.” I land next to the door, switch to widespread and go to full auto on the cannons. The air fills with their roar as the energy creates a cone of ion pulses. It isn’t as effective when I use them this way. However the side effect is the ions in the air become saturated setting up a sort of temporary field. As long as I keep the energy pouring in it’s almost like a stun shield.
“Epic, full power to the kinetic shields and go wide angle. I want a large enough area to shield Kate.”
Got it.
The kinetic emitters reconfigure to their wedge shape with a hundred percent of the power facing forward to deflect the projectiles to the side. Flying-guy comes in hard and hits the stun field. Ionic energy zaps him out of the air like a bug. The speedy one is all that remains, he plays safe and continues to throw a thousand marbles a second. What makes it through the stun field simply falls flat as it hits the kinetic field.
There’s a pop behind me as Domino arrives. She’s in costume mask and all, wearing more weapons than I’ve ever seen her carry.
“Get the door,” I yell over my shoulder.
ECM to full. Broad-spectrum jamming has commenced.
I check the load out on my HUD. No ‘nades, but I have one EMP, two IR smoke canisters, flares, and all my lethals.
“Doors open.”
“Pop smoke.”
The cannister ejects from my bulky shoulders, exploding in a shower of purple smoke. I let up on the cannons and back in behind Kate. Once I’m through, I slide the door shut and spot weld it with a half second stream from my Particle Beam.
“What now?” she asks.
“You’ve been here before, where’s their entrance?”
“This way,” she says. Domino leaps down the stairs four at a time then crossing the stairwell, bouncing from one landing to the next, her feet never touching the stairs as she leapfrogs back and forth. Lucky for me the stairs are far enough apart that I can lower myself down the center by using enough thrust to slow the fall down to just ten feet per second.
The bottom floor comes up fast and the second I touch down Kate pops in front of me, mid-stride toward the elevator. By the time I catch up she has the control panel off and the wiring exposed.
“Can Epic override it?”
“He did before.” I reach in and grab a fistful of wires. No time for finesse.
Accessing restricted controls. The teleporter in Portland is online and connected. I’ve written a sub-routine to override their local controls.
The door ping their arrival as they slide open. In the elevator I go, Kate tries to crowd in behind me but I hold up my arm in place.
“Listen, right now you’re just wanted on suspicion. Those morons won’t be able to stick anything to you. If you come down you’re done for. You’ll be lucky just to go to jail.”
She shakes her head, “Regardless of if the government says I can or can’t, this is what I do, Arsenal. This is my job and I’m good at it. I stop the bad guys. Now, quit wasting time.”
She vanishes and reappears behind me pressing the ‘restricted access’ button that leads to the underground. The doors slide silently shut and the elevator hums as it descends.
“You know, at our trial, I’m gonna say I tried to stop you but you went crazy and forced me with your creepy mind powers.”
“That’s okay, I’ll turn states evidence and sing like a bird. I have a wonderful singing voice.”
I laugh, “I bet you do. Thank you, Kate.” I don’t look at her, I focus on the readings on the HUD. In case anything happened though, I needed her to know.
“Of course, what are besties for?” I smile and my heart sings. I’ve never had a friend like her. One who I could always count on no matter what.
The elevator shudders for a second and the odd sense of displacement that comes with quantum relocation passes over us.
“Here we go,” I say as the doors open.
54
The doors open to reveal the exact same scene I had when Luke brought me down here for breakfast. I don’t know why it’s disturbing. I guess my mind insists the doors should have opened in a different location. What if another lift had come at the same time? What would happen if two elevators tried to occupy the same space?
“Earth to Arsenal, come in?” Kate says, tapping me on the shoulder as she passes by.
“Right. Epic, which way?”
I am scanning the walls now. The nearest access point is in the offices used by the staff. Take the hallway off the east side of the restaurant.
Arms up to fire off the IP cannons at a seconds notice I march forward. Kate draws two slick black pistols holding them in front of her with her wrists crossed for stability.
“Where’d you learn to use a gun?”
“My dad was big into shooting; he’d even made the Army handgun team. We used to go the range together all the time,” she says.
“He sounds cool.”
“Sometimes, I think I appreciate him more now than I ever did as a kid. It’s hard when you can read everyone’s emotions. People often feel one thing and say another. At first it feels like a lie, but as I matured I realized the difference between those two things says more about a person than their words.”
A late night restaurant crew walks right in from the service entrance. Two of them freeze but the third turns and high tails it back the way she came.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Domino warns them with a wave of her pistol as we walk by. They throw their arms up. I don’t see the third and we don’t have time to look for her.
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 29