“Can you contact the Arizona AG and find out?”
“I have a few channels. It might take me a day or so. I’d have to go in person…”
“Kate, you need your life back. It isn’t fair them prosecuting you for what I did.”
She shakes her head, “Both of us or no deal. Besides, that can wait until we figure out what to do next.”
“Epic, when we were fighting the Brigade, you recorded everything on Artemis, right?”
Who exactly do you think I am?
“Right,” I chuckle, “Can you replay and give me the energy signatures and magneto scans if we have them?”
An idea forms, a glimmer of a plan really. It hinges on if he recorded the right info…
When we were fighting it really felt like the battle took forever but to see it now… it lasted less than three minutes.
“Damn,” Kate says under her breath when Behemoth slaps her hands together, “I’m both sorry I missed it and not sorry.”
“I’m just glad everyone’s okay. Luke heals fast and Pierre was able to put himself in some kind of magic coma to enhance his healing. No one died, it’s a win,” I say as I watch the sky light up from the impact of the Arrow.
“You put a weapon in space… isn’t that illegal?”
“I’m not a country, I can do whatever I like in space. Epic, play back the last part from my armor and from orbit, scans side by side please and half speed.”
He does.
“What are you looking for?”
“Remember the thing about Tesla waves?”
Just as the Arrow hits Behemoth’s magnetic signature goes off the charts. As if her powers are responding to the threat by amping up.
“Yeah?”
“I think I can find Behemoth using them. If she’s with Mariposa and they are with Ericsson…”
“Then we’re in business!”
“Yes we are. Epic, task Artemis to look for her magnetic signature. Now that we know what to look for we should be able to find her. I don’t think it would work with any other super. She’s just incredibly powerful so her magnetic field is commensurate.”
Reconfiguring… scanning. Oh no.
“That isn’t good,” I say.
I’m detecting her magnetic signature, as well as the power source of over ten-thousand of their security bots, in a warehouse located a half mile from the White House.
“The White House?” Kate asks. I hear the incredulity in her voice. If they’re in DC…
“Epic, locate every world leader with super-powered assets along with-”
There is a conference in DC hosted by the United States. I believe Luke was there with the governor. Over thirty heads of state are in various cities on the east coast. Now that I know what to look for I am picking up over a hundred-thousand security bots. I am reclassifying them as ‘warbots’. Amelia, I think—
“I know,” I say. I can’t believe it, but I know.
“Know what?”
“The only reason he would want the armor would be to make the warbots unstoppable. The only reason for that would be he plans a coup de’tat… against the world and it’s happening right now.”
“But he didn’t get it which means…”
“Arsenal is the only unstoppable armor. Let’s hope we’re in time and it’s enough. I need to suit up. We need to get the word out. Epic?”
Standing by.
“Alert every team, every government agency, tap into the EBS if you have to. Initiate ‘Firefly’ protocol.”
Confirmation of Firefly protocol required.
“Confirmed.”
“Okay all the Star Wars and Star Trek references I get, but what about Firefly fits here?”
“You can’t stop the signal, Kate. Epic always operates from the position of staying invisible. I just authorized him to get the word out no matter what.” She rolls her eyes as I wheel into position.
“Amelia, maybe you should call your parents…”
I shake my head. They don’t remember me anyways and I can’t afford to let those emotions in right now.
“I can’t, Kate. Not right now. I need you to get to the Arizona AG and try and make him understand what is about to happen. He won’t believe you… Hell, I can barely believe it, but you have to try.”
“On it. Good luck.” She reaches out and squeezes my shoulder. I snake a hand up and put it on hers and hold her there for a moment.
“Thank you for being my friend.”
She smiles and vanishes.
“Epic… initiate!”
57
Even at our top speed of Mach 4 it will still take too long, a whole forty-two minutes…
“Epic, we don’t have that kind of time. How’s the warning going?”
I have almost cracked the EBS network. I hacked homeland and put them on ‘high alert’. However, it is difficult to give them an exact threat to defend against. They are already on alert because of the visiting dignitaries. Amelia, even if every agent turns out to be on our side, the probability of success is low. Even a ‘best outcome’ is likely to result in significant civilian casualties and fatalities among foreign dignitaries.
“I think we need to go sub-orbital on this. Do the math, I feel the need for speed.” The Emdrive kicks in full power and Phoenix shrinks followed by Arizona. The sky above dims and the stars come out as the altimeter passes eighty-thousand feet. Epic puts a path on the HUD showing me where to go and how fast. The altimeter switches from feet to miles as we blow past sixteen.
We have now exceeded the SR-71’s flight record.
While the top speed in the atmo is limited by how much heat builds up around the suit after I break the sound barrier, I won’t have that limitation when I slip the atmospheric bounds.
At thirty miles the atmo starts thinning and my speed shoots up. The HUD automatically switches from MPH to Miles Per Second. I let out a whoop. Four-point-nine miles per second and we hit a hundred miles up in less than two minutes.
I take a deep breath. The Earth is beautiful from up here. The icy black of space above and the blue gem below. I could seriously get used to this. The HUD shows me DC’s local time. Just after five pm. Hard to believe that only twenty-four hours has passed since I came back from New York. At least I caught some sleep and food.
Congratulations, Amelia. You are the first person to achieve astronaut status without the aid of a shuttle or superpowers.
I’ve always wanted to do this. I just wish I could spend a few minutes enjoying it.
“Epic, have the truck start heading east, you never know if we’ll need it when this is done.”
Roger. Do you have plans on how to deal with Behemoth?”
“No,” I sigh, “Not without killing her. I suppose I’m justified at this point but… I don’t like it.”
I am glad you do not. You would not be the little girl who created me if you did.
It’s suddenly very tight in the armor. Epic is my friend, he’s my family. I’ve had him almost as long as I’ve been on my own.
“Epic, whatever happens tonight I want… need… two things from you.”
Go ahead.
“I want you to know how important you are to me. Thank you, for everything.”
Of course. You are my creator and my friend.
“Second, you survive. If something happens and the armor is—breached… you survive. Understood?”
Understood.
“Okay, let’s go be heroes.”
The drive goes full power and I shoot through space at a crazy velocity without atmospheric drag. My eyes bug when we hit ten miles per second. Damn, if I had the capacity to load more air and maybe some food we could make a trip to the moon.
“Epic make a note, let’s look at setting foot on the moon!”
Note made. Even I would think that was awesome.
“I know right?” I can’t help but shout for joy as we burn through the upper atmosphere. My faceplate optics polarize as heat build-up creates a light too
bright for human eyes.
We are going to perform a flip… hold on to your lunch.
“Oh boy,” I manage to gurgle as we execute the maneuver. I pull my knees up as he cuts the thrust and I roll forward. Once I’m falling feet first I extend them again—slowly—and he locks the suit up and fires thrusters.
We are unable to communicate with the ground for the next two minutes. When we emerge we will be dead center over DC.
“Roger that.”
The countdown pops up on the HUD and I start sweating. Not because of the heat, but because what is about to happen. Ericsson jump-started his plans because of me. Logically I know he’s off balance. He’s reacting, not acting. Which means he wasn’t fully ready to move on the government.
Still… thousands of warbots. Who knows what heroes and villains they have on their side and even then… I still have to go into this with the intent to kill Behemoth.
It is war, Amelia.
“You a mind reader now?”
No. But I am thinking it too. Communications blackout passes in five…four…three…
The optics depolarize, allowing me to see again. We’re a hundred thousand feet up and everything seems so small.
Amelia, brace for—
The sky lights up and for a heartbeat my optics stay open nearly blinding me before going dark again.
“What was that?”
Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon. If we were not shielded against a nuclear EMP we would be falling dead. However, I have lost comms with everyone. The greater DC area is devoid of power.
He isn’t exaggerating. There’s a massive black hole looming below us where a city full of lights stood a few seconds before. No traffic, no buildings, no beacons.
“Any aircraft in the area?”
Thankfully all aircraft have been diverted for security reasons.
A flash of light catches my eye. I can see it now that we’re only a few thousand feet up. Thousands of camouflaged warbots marching through the city. Occasional bursts of green light flare through the night as they open up with their plasma weapons.
The majority of the fire is happening at the Capitol building and the White House.
“Unlock,” I order. Arms forward, we shoot off toward Pennsylvania Ave. Congress may or may not be in session, but there are lots of congress members. There’s only one president and while I may not have voted for him… he’s the symbol of our country. If Ericsson manages to kill him then it will be that much harder to stop his evil plans.
“Go full ECM, give me a scan of the area. Bring up Artemis and have her for backup. Once comms are re-established try and coordinate this mess as best you can. Break whatever laws you have too.”
Understood. I have located Behemoth. She is engaged US Marshals and Secret Service meta-human teams at the white house.
“I see it.” I don’t normally curse but I want to right now. It’s a frigging disaster. Part of the White House is burning. Overturned armored fighting vehicles and a hundred bodies litter the lawn.
“Full power to everything, unlock the safeties on the Particle Beams and go auto on the grenade launcher.” The HUD flashes as it switches to angry red. Weapons status, shields, and power levels all become easier to read.
I’m not set up to fight a war. Fifteen grenades against thousands of warbots isn’t even a contest, more like a slaughter—mine.
They spot me at a few hundred feet. Fifty mechanical heads turn at once raising their weapons to fire.
I cut power to the boots and fall right at them. I hear the puff-puff-puff of the grenade launcher lighting up targets. No pods or bean bags today, nothing but HE. The explosions rip through their metallic hides, setting off a series of secondaries as whatever powers them reacts badly to the explosions.
I hit the ground a hundred feet from where Behemoth is pounding the tar out of a woman I don’t know. The US Marshal I met a while back, Bricklayer, ineffectively punches Behemoth from behind trying to force her to release the agent. There is a volume of small and medium arms fire as pistols, smgs, and heavy machine guns fire from every window pouring down lead on the army of warbots. I can only thank God and Epic that Ericsson never figured out how to replicate my armor.
“Particle beams, sustained fire!”
Arms straight out from my shoulders, wrist down, they fire. Hyper-accelerated silicon spews out at near light speed. Epic shows me where to aim as I rush forward, decapitating and decimating everything the beams touch. Metal slags as the beams pass through countless warbots.
The world lights up and I’m upside down, flying through the air. My teeth rattle when I hit the cratered concrete walkway just outside the White House.
Close proximity plasma detonation. Amelia, get up!
Right! I roll over and kick in the jets. Two warbots come from behind the flipped over AFV and I tear right through them.
“How’s Bricklayer?”
He is incapable of slowing her down.
I risk a glance at the field and I cringe. My stomach threatens me but I bear down on it. The poor woman is dead. Her body beaten to an unrecognizable pulp. As I watch, Behemoth puts Bricklayer through an armored vehicle. I don’t know if he’s getting back up.
We need to engage her. She is the single most powerful super in America, possibly the world. Amelia, I know you did not want to set out to kill her, but I have run the numbers. The only way to stop her is to kill her.
He’s right. I’ve killed before but only accidentally. “Unlock the sword.” The blade clicks free as I pull it around. The particle beams might pierce her hide but they would take time. She survived an orbital strike not twenty-four hours ago. No, it’s this or nothing. I swing a few times to loosen up my arm. I can’t imagine this is going to be easy.
“Epic, we’ll need maximum weight when I swing.”
Roger.
I run at her. There are moments I wish I could feel what it is like to run, to flex my toes in the carpet, to really move my legs and not just have actuators moving them for me while responding to my nervous system. Maybe one day, not today.
I raise the sword up over my head and leap into the air. The Emdrive kicks in adding extra oomph.
Behemoth has Bricklayer’s neck in one massive hand. She’s holding him up like he’s made of paper. His face is a mass of bruises and blood. She tosses him aside and spins around to face me a half second before I bring the blade down on her.
God forgive me.
The sword hits her forearm and I slam into the ground—the blade bites a half inch into flesh and comes to a halt against bone. She screams, whipping her arm aside, dragging me with her since my hands are kinetically locked to the sword. The blade tears free from her flesh and I tumble end over end through the side lawn to come to rest against a wall.
It did not work.
“You think?” Oh, man, she’s pissed. Blood flows freely down her arm. Epic had to let the sword go while we tumbled so it didn’t cut me. I search for it and try to stand at the same time. The ground shakes as she stomps her way toward me.
No time for the sword, I flip my arms up, wrist down and fire both Particle Beams. Light flashes as they burn through the air to her. She screams as the silicon particles smash into her, instantly burning through her costume but splashing off her skin.
“I can’t believe your stupid sword cut me!” She hurls a chunk of concrete through the air. I shift the beams to shatter it into a million pieces. She plows through the dust and slams one giant fist against me.
Amelia…
“Five more minutes,” I mutter. Then the pain hits and I sputter to life coughing up blood on my HUD.
Move!
Everything hurts, I have no idea where I am but I can’t argue with his advice. I trigger the jets and I’m up in the air a half second before an AFV crashes into the ground where I was a moment before. She knocked me through a corner of the building and I only came to rest against a concrete pillar.
“Epic, I don’t know what to do. I
can avoid dying by keeping her at a distance but I can’t stop her. The second she figures this out she’s going to resume her mission.”
Down!
I cut the jets as two plasma balls explode above me.
“Comms back yet?”
For us. Not for anyone else.
“I should have made Artemis an actual comsat.” I hit the ground, staggering a few feet before I regain my balance. My chest is on fire and it hurts to breathe. Everything hurts.
Amelia, you require medical attention.
“Where is she?”
She just ripped the door off the White House and is proceeding to the elevator leading to the underground bunker. She figured it out fast.
If I recall right that bunker can take a near direct hit from a nuke.
“Epic broadcast what you can from Artemis. I know she’s not commercially connected but figure something out! We need backup.”
What are you going to do?
“Improvise.”
It only takes a second to get back around the front. The devastation is incomprehensible. Behemoth simply ignores everything and everyone as she pounds her way through reinforced steel security doors. I land at the entrance and follow her in.
Two agents in black coats with shotguns turn on me and I raise my hands, “One of the good guys.”
“The fact that you aren’t killing us already makes me believe you. Can you stop her?” He points to Behemoth.
“I’m not sure. You guys should run, she’s about to come this way in a hurry.” They scatter and I’m glad. I’d come to terms with killing her when I thought I could. Now, I’m desperately trying to figure out a way to do it. The sword should have lopped off her arm. Nothing is that indestructible, not against a one molecule thick blade. It should’ve worked.
Arms forward, wrist down, I light off the particle beams. They strike her dead center in the back. I can see smoke rising as her outfit vaporizes followed by her skin blackening. She turns, snarling at me through a mask of rage.
“You? I am going to peel you out of that tin can and bathe in your blood!”
Warning lights on my HUD tell me the particle beams are in danger of over-heating.
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 31