by Jamie Hawke
Supers: Ex Heroes 5
Jamie Hawke
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Author Ramblings
Read Next
1
The supers of the Citadel surrounded us, watching us with high hopes. Murmurs of our exploits traveled through the crowd. I heard hints of their mentioning the Pyramids of Gurstrad, the saving of my mother, and of our journey to Junos and the battle at Supralines. Their tight-fitting superhero clothes—some in robes—made it hard not to focus on where we were and why we were here.
This was the center of superhero activity, the force that stood between evil and good. And here we were already becoming the stuff of legend.
My gaze was hard to pull away from Charm and the timid-looking super with long, pointy ears, blue hair and glowing antennae who had just kissed her. Laurel, Charm had called the stranger. When I did manage to look away, my eyes roamed the others for any sign of my brother. None of the faces looked familiar, yet, and the crowd was making me restless, nervous.
A metallic grinding sounded behind the crowd, which parted in response. Through the gap I could see a tall, black building that, oddly, reminded me of a tulip. The chatter rose as the silver-inlaid doors opened and a woman with short dark hair emerged. There was no doubt in my mind that this was Lamb. It was something about the way she looked at me, about the interest in her eyes. Her identity was confirmed a moment later when her voice came from my suit, saying, “Ignore the crowd. Come quick.”
I shared a confused look with my team. It wasn’t just my ladies, consisting now of Charm, Twitch, Gale, Shimmer, Andromida, and a beautiful android called Aegriss. No, we’d come with the other teams we’d picked up on Abaddon. Letha was standing arm-in-arm with the man called Rand and her green monster, Darnell. Trunk had the most playful group, it seemed. Even here they weren’t shy, pressed up against him, whispering something in his ear as if nobody else was around or could tell it was clearly sexual. Did it ever stop for him? At least he’d put on an Abaddon uniform again, although he clearly couldn’t wait to get out of it.
Ezra stood tall, looking every bit the man of the law he seemed to want to be, but had an uneasy look in his eyes. For too long, he’d unwittingly served the wrong side as a bounty hunter. He’d come with his own very interesting team, the craziest of whom was Cheri. She had already started introducing herself to a couple of the nearest members of the crowd, telling them she was one of the founding members of the Psychobitches. There were others we’d come with as well, nearly two dozen in all. I glanced back at Lamb, uncertainly.
She nodded. “All of you.”
I nodded, waving the group over and telling them to follow me. I glanced over at Charm and hesitated. Gale noticed and grinned, showing a gust of wind at the back of Charm’s head so that her pink hair whipped about her fox ears.
She spun, saw where we were headed, and grabbed her old friend Laurel by the hand, dragging her toward us.
“Laurel’s coming,” Charm announced.
“Am I?” Laurel asked.
Aegriss frowned at the newcomer. “Sorry, who is this?”
Laurel gave Aegriss an amused smile, but then turned to Ezra and frowned.
“She’s kinda reading his thoughts,” Cheri hissed.
“Something she does.” Charm shrugged. Then turned to look at Lamb, going wide-eyed. She turned as if to walk away but stopped when Laurel took her by the hand.
“It’s going to be okay,” Lamb said. “We have so much to catch up on, so much to… set right.”
“Set right?” I asked, and when she merely nodded, I frowned. “A bit cryptic, no?”
Charm was too nervous to reply to that, so I let it go.
Aegriss cleared her throat and stepped forward, apparently programmed to be a bit protective. Or was it part of how her A.I. was adjusting? I couldn’t be sure, but either way she had to step up next to her, motioning that it was okay.
“Laurel, why don’t you join us? You two can fill us in while we walk.”
“Sure,” Laurel replied, but turned to Charm and waited for her nod.
As we went, I heard her mention what a long time it’d been, and how she’d missed her so much, waiting for this day. What had I stumbled into? Suddenly it hit me—her time at Supralines. Could this have been one of the friends Charm had briefly mentioned? Judging by the way they were holding hands, fingers massaging each other, they had been somewhat more than friends.
“And he is…?” Laurel whispered, the words barely hitting my ears above the crowd.
“That’s… complicated,” Charm replied. My next step almost caused me to stumble, but I caught myself before anyone noticed, I hoped.
Complicated? I had to imagine she was just waiting to tell the woman once we were out of this crowd.
“Mind telling us what’s going on?” Trunk asked, catching up to me. I was surprised to see him without his ladies, and he shrugged, noticing my expression. “Hey, even I need a break sometimes. So?”
“This is Lamb,” I said, indicating her as we approached, only a few more paces. “She’s going to tell us exactly what’s going on.”
“Lamb.” He frowned, hesitated, then laughed. “Hey, they call me ‘Trunk,’ who’m I to judge?”
“And that’s not your real name?” I replied, not hiding the sarcasm.
He grinned, wagging a finger my way. “No, and I’ll never tell you what it is, either.”
“Antonio,” Lamb said, stepping up to greet us. The others had backed off, many turning to watch us.
“Fuck!” Trunk said, and shrugged. “But to everyone here, it’s Trunk.”
“Of course.” She winked, then turned to address the audience. “Allow me to introduce the second son of Apollo. Breaker.”
Polite applause and wide smiles met her announcement. More than I’d expected.
“As you can imagine, his brother… and others,” she gave me a knowing smile, and I assumed she meant my mother, “will be excited to see him too. After he’s been debriefed, I’m sure he’d like to get to know some of you, fill us all in on what’s been happening, and who knows, maybe show off a skill or two?”
The crowd cheered at that. Lamb guided me to the massive doors she’d emerged from.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” I noted, following her.
She paused and tilted her head. “You’ll have to fill us in. We’ve been a bit preoccupied.” At that, though, she turned to see Charm and Laurel, and smiled wide. “I see you two have found each other.”
“I’m—I’m sorry,” Laurel said. “I shouldn’t have read your thoughts to know she was here, but… When Charm entered, there was no way I could hold back.”
“Completely understood.” Lamb motioned them onward. “Charm, I assume you have your memories back, then.”
Charm froze, the rest going on except for her, me, Laurel, and Lamb. The look of instant regret on Lamb’s face was priceless.
“I’m sorry?” Charm’s left ear twitched, something I hadn’t noticed it do before.
“Perhaps we’d best speak at the forward command.” Lamb motioned to the ramp. This time I was confused.
“We just got here,” I said. “What do you mean, forward c
ommand?”
Lamb sighed. “It’s where your brother is. Leading the first stage of the battle to get rid of the Nihilist ships. Along with the others.”
“You can’t just drop something and look all guilty and then expect me to wait while we fly—” Charm started.
Laurel put a hand on her arm and whispered something in her ear. Charm calmed.
“Trust me, you’ll find out soon enough.” Lamb nodded gratefully at Laurel. “Plus, you’ll soon see that it’s not exactly a long journey. It’s almost instantaneous, actually.” With a look my way, she added, “As is returning, should you choose that route.”
I considered it, looking up at the ships there, the small explosions we could occasionally make out, and frowned. “Charm?”
She pursed her lips, looking mad at Lamb, but with a glance at Laurel again, then me, she nodded. A glance at Andromida told me the blue lady’s mind was somewhere else, something I’d be sure to ask about, but knew this wasn’t the time. Offering a confident smile, I then turned and nodded. Together, we entered through the tall, silver-inlaid doors, very much looking forward to getting the answers we wanted.
2
The building was a large one with plenty of room to spare. The bulk of my group were being led into the main docking bay, where smaller fighter craft were arranged. Apparently, this was a staging point, but it was more than that, I noticed—tall statues rose all around, some of them looking very lifelike. The walls of the place had no base, but simply rose out of the ground.
“One of your mother’s creations.” Lamb gestured at the building. “Since her return, she’s been quite instrumental in the redevelopment of the Citadel.”
I nodded, taking it all in with excitement. Next, my eyes scanned the small crowd moving about the ships, preparing them for war, I imagined. “My mother…?”
“Soon enough,” Lamb replied, but then indicated upward.
My eyes continued to roam, and I was soon very aware of the fact that I still didn’t see Drew anywhere. I did, however, spot something quite interesting—a glowing, golden pyramid-shaped object, seemingly floating in the middle of this room and on top of a dais of crystals. Or maybe it was more than one pyramid. It was hard to tell with all these people in here.
“Come,” Lamb gestured, leading us toward the crystals and the dais.
“What is it?” I asked.
“That,” Lamb explained, “is how we’re fighting them.”
“And proof that we can win this battle after all,” another voice said, this one very deep and weathered. Light shone around the crystal, brighter than it had before, and a figure stepped out from it as though he’d come through a gateway. A glance at his armor showed signs of combat in the form of scratches and dents, but his face was that of an old man, visibly scarred on one side.
He stood there, tall and confident, until his eyes landed on Andromida. For a moment he stared, confused it seemed. She let out a yelp, then ran to him.
“I thought…” she wrapped her arms around him. We all glanced around in confusion, even Lamb. “I thought you were dead.”
“And I, you,” the old man said. “I don’t understand… The reports all said—”
“And they told me you—”
Neither could finish, both hugging again. Finally, the old man stepped back and looked at us all with pride before turning to Lamb. “Lamb, everyone, I’d like you to meet my daughter.”
“Hadrian?” I asked, in awe at finally being able to put a face to the name.
Andromida turned to me, smiling. “Yes, this is my father.”
Here I’d been expecting to find my brother. Instead, Andromida and her father were being reunited.
“Come, everyone. Are you ready to see what we’re up against?” Hadrian asked.
“I’d like to know what the fuck is going on, first of all,” Cheri spoke up, and several others among us nodded, muttering in agreement.
Hadrian laughed. “There’s a long story for you in that, but the simple version is we thought we were defeated. We made great sacrifices, and now, thanks in large part to Breaker and his brother, Drew, we’ve been making great strides to free the Citadel of this alien menace, to see that the Nihilists and the supervillains they’re working with are removed from the equation.”
“How?” I asked.
He smiled at me. “It’s easier if I show you.”
With a nod from me, he grinned and held out a hand toward the pyramid, though the gesture seemed more for show. Light burst from it, engulfing us. When it was gone, we weren’t where we’d been. We were on a clear platform high above, the Citadel far below us. The place was littered with some sort of metal tent-like structures made of the same material I’d seen on the way in, with that curved blown glass look about it. The whole thing was encased in a protective bubble. Hovering around us were several ships unlike anything I’d ever seen before, curved with one side like a blade.
“Welcome to the front lines.” Hadrian indicated the tent-like structures off to our right that seemed to grow out of the ground. I imagined they were my mother’s creation. “First, we must talk. There’s a bar there,” he indicated another to our left, “where the rest of you can grab a water and relax while I have a word with Breaker and Laurel.”
“Water?” Cheri scoffed. “Did you say a bar or a trough?”
Lamb chuckled. “He’s only messing with you. Go for the whiskey. It’s made following old Earth instructions. Imported from the planet Inton.”
“No shit?” Cheri nodded, impressed, and nudged Charm. “Don’t worry, girl, we’ll take good care of you.”
Charm laughed, shrugging my way and giving Laurel a look of ‘what can I do?’ before walking off with the rest of them to the ‘bar.’
I looked around, noticing the way the ground sloped and then came to an end like a large frisbee, one of several, that now I saw were holding the energy field at bay that protected the Citadel. At least, that’s what it looked like we were on.
As they entered, I noticed a woman with pink hair step up to them, wrapping her arms around Charm and laughing.
“Is my brother there, too?”
“He’ll be back shortly,” Hadrian explained. “Threed there is on his team, but stayed behind from the latest mission, along with Lamb here.”
“I’m technically on the same team as Drew,” Lamb said, and I could tell by the look in her eyes that it was more than just being teammates, the dog. “But we stayed back as the welcoming committee. Plus we like to mix up the teams, at least for these missions. Better to train up all the groups, until everyone is equally familiar with the enemy and we can make a large-scale assault.”
I walked with the two of them and Laurel, very confused. We stopped outside one of the tents when Hadrian held up a hand.
“What’s this about?” I asked.
Hadrian turned his good eye to Laurel, then back to me. “Charm has been through a lot. But it’s more than that. I want to make sure you feel the whole team is really the best for you. Make sure you know what you’re getting into. See if you want to make any changes.”
“You mean if I want to swap out any of the team?” I laughed, certain he was joking. When it was clear he wasn’t, I shook my head. “They’re perfect. Charm especially.”
“Laurel, can you tell him what you’ve been able to see?” Lamb asked.
Laurel breathed deep, then let it out. “My powers allow some entry into the mind. Not necessarily reading thoughts, but in other ways. With Charm, the use of her powers can be confusing—she might be slightly unclear on what’s reality in her past and what was made up. Even if things change… she might have some confusion.”
“We didn’t intend for this, but…” Hadrian folded his arms. “None of us are perfect. All we can say is that we’d like you to keep an eye on her, with Laurel’s help. If there’s anything that raises a red flag, she’ll need help.”
“I don’t… No, I don’t believe you,” I protested. “I mean, maybe you believe
what you’re saying, but like I said, Charm’s perfect.”
“Agreed,” Laurel said. “But it’s for her health that we have to watch out. You’re not the only one here who cares for her.”
I wanted to ask more about that, but Hadrian held up a hand again. “She’s not the only one we thought warranted a conversation.”
“Who else?” I asked.
“I trust your judgment,” Hadrian replied. “You were put in a strenuous environment and could’ve just as easily died as made it this far. But you are here. Now we need to know, in order to make it to the next step, are these women going to be there through thick and thin?” Before I could protest, he added, “Hear me out. Gale was with the Citadel, but—”
“No,” I interrupted him. “I know their stories. Enough to go on, anyway, and whatever I don’t know yet is fine, because I know they’ll tell me when the time is right. One thing I’ve constantly made clear is that it’s not what we’ve done in the past but what we’re about to do that matters. For that, I trust them all with my life.” I hesitated. “Well, I don’t know about Aegriss, but… she seems to be harmless.”
Hadrian allowed a smile. “The android? Yes, I had Lamb look into her—literally. I’d say she’s devoted, and her programming has it fixed this way. With her, you should be fine.”
“Then I’m good.”
“In that case….” He motioned, and I turned to watch as the doors of the largest war tent opened.
Out stepped a sight for sore eyes—my brother! Drew had on his space armor, but it looked like it had evolved since we’d last seen each other. It was bulkier now with extra defenses and holstered weapons. He still had his head shaved, and at the moment his eyes were glowing a light gold. He looked every bit the god our father was rumored to be.