by Jamie Hawke
“You… are the Shadow Mystic?”
She frowned, but nodded.
“My father sent us,” Andromida said.
“Oh?” the Shadow Mystic raised an eyebrow. “And your father should impress me because—
“Hadrian,” Andromida cut in. “We’ve had too much shit to sit around discussing this with you. So either you’re the great hero he said you were, or you’re wasting our time. Which is it?”
The Shadow Mystic arched an eyebrow, but then smiled. “Hadrian sent you, and you’re… his daughter. I’m… relieved.”
“Relieved?” I asked.
She nodded. “Not only did I not think I’d ever see real people again, but family? Even less expected.”
“I’m not following, Shadow Mystic,” Andromida said.
“Call me Sam. And Hadrian was… like a father to me.” For some reason her eyes conveyed deeper meaning to those words.
“But we’re not actually related?” Andromida asked.
“It’s complicated,” Sam replied. “The quick version is… we share ancient ancestors, at least.”
None of us had expected this.
“You’re on my ship,” Sam explained, gesturing to the metal room. “I brought you the moment I sensed you all breaking out of the wall.”
“The wave of light, you mean?” Twitch asked.
Sam grinned. “A protective wall of my design, one I learned to create with a very powerful application of my skills. It almost killed me, but it’s held the enemy back for—”
“No, it hasn’t,” Andromida interrupted. “They’ve made it through.”
“The enemy?” Sam replied with a frown. “No, that’s not possible.”
“Tell that to Hadrian. He says not only did they make it through, but you’re the only one who stands a chance of truly helping to push them back.”
With a curt nod, Sam motioned us to follow.
“And our ship?” Shimmer asked.
Sam waved her hand, then hit an invisible button in the air, so that half the room turned into a display of one side of the exterior of her ship along with another space ship—our ship from the Citadel. It seemed to be attached to hers. At the same time, an awareness hit me, one that instantly told me Aegriss was awake again.
Our new friend glanced over at me, as if sensing that. “Everything’s as it was, now. Once you were down, I brought you on board and set this up, to find out who you are. Had you failed my test, you’d all have been put out of your misery and sent to float through space for eternity.”
“Well… lucky us.”
She smiled and gave us a very serious nod. “Let’s see if we can escape this place then, shall we?”
12
Sam opened a door to the room, one that slid out from what had seemed a wall moments before. She had just made it to the door before I managed, “Excuse me. ‘See’ if we can escape?”
“What, you thought you’d find me and we’d be able to waltz right out of here?” Sam chuckled. “Maybe the world back there has become too easy, but in my day, that’s not how it was.”
“Your day…?” Twitch frowned, but on checking over one of her pink screens, her eyes went wide. “Oh, wow… you’re old.”
“Hey now.” Sam motioned us forward. “You coming?”
We all shared a look of concern, but then went with her, stepping out into a ship with long halls. As we walked, we passed a training room with weapons, weights, and mats.
“I was born a long time ago,” Sam explained, “but this—whatever this is—acts as a sort of time bubble, meaning I’m really not much older than any of you, if at all. That said,” she paused to nod at Andromida, “our kind live quite long lives, as you’d have seen with Hadrian. I’m only half, so…”
“Oh, me too,” Andromida said.
“Yeah?”
“He’s my dad, but my mom was this Tier One super, good with fertility and all that.”
Sam smiled at that. “Sweet. My mom was a human, I mean, a normal Earther, I guess you’d say. But man, she was in no way ‘normal.’ The most badass Marine you’d ever meet, no contest.”
Her smile faltered, eyes moving off, staring into the distance. Of course, her mom would be long dead by now, if my understanding of Sam was accurate.
Trying to get back to our predicament, I asked, “And this whole escape plan?”
“Right.” Sam straightened up, ready to take command. “To keep the rift closed, I had to ensure safeties were put in place, in case I turned.”
“Turned?” Shimmer asked.
“Yeah, like if the enemy happened to take over my brain and use me for evil. That kind of stuff.”
“And to be clear… how do we know that isn’t the case right now?” Charm asked.
Sam chuckled. “Same way I know you all are really sent by Hadrian, and on my side.”
“Which is?”
“Faith. Hope. Dumb blindness…” Sam shrugged. “Maybe it’s that I want it to be true, because being stuck here for hundreds of years—even if it’s really seemed like much less—is driving me insane.”
“Right….” Charm turned to me and mouthed, ‘already there,’ which caused me to snicker, considering who was calling whom insane.
“You’ll just leave the place unguarded then?” Gale asked.
“The energy shield will remain,” Sam explained. “But from what you’ve said, it hasn’t been perfect. Let’s fix that. You… have a way to return? Once we escape, I mean?”
Andromida raised a finger. “That would be on me.”
“Great, then let’s see what we can do here, shall we?” She led us to the docking port, where we were able to open an airlock from her ship to ours. “Stay close, right? And… have you ever fought a dragon before?”
“I’ve kind of been a dragon,” I said, trying to process her question.
At her look of confusion, Shimmer explained, “Illusion.”
“Ah. No, this one is real. It’s sort of the guardian I set up—a gift from an old friend. Good news is, even if we win, it won’t die. Sort of a spiritual power I set up on it, so that it basically re-spawns in that time bubble.”
“This place is soooo weird,” Gale said.
“Now you know how I felt when I first arrived on that prison ship,” I replied.
Twitch laughed, but Charm nodded as if finally getting it.
“The key is to find out how they’ve gotten past her, and then do the same ourselves,” Sam explained. “Seal up the breach, get out and expel anyone who made it through…”
“Or kill them,” Andromida said. “Seems the easier route.”
Sam nodded, then scrunched up her face. “Some of them… not so much.”
“Oh…”
That put a look of worry on most of their faces, and I imagined mine was no different. The idea that an enemy would be easier expelled into some strange portal place like this rather than simply being killed had to mean they were very powerful indeed.
We all turned to see Aegriss joining us. I could tell from Sam’s turn of her head that she hadn’t been expecting this. To her credit, she simply nodded, then turned back to me.
“What exactly are we going up against, here?” I asked.
“On the other side?” She took a deep breath, remembering. “Let’s just say we’ll hope the worst of the worst hasn’t made it through. On the simple side, half-spider robotic people who can control minds, death-like beings who are unmatched with blades and can zip around like the wind, and… the list goes on. Maybe it’s better if we just find out what we’re up against when we get there, and I can tell you what I know of them… if they are ones I know anything about.”
“So there are some you wouldn’t?” Shimmer asked.
Sam nodded. “I’ve faced my fair share of them, but from what I understand only a portion of the true enemy made it through. They came at us with an arsenal that certainly could’ve wiped out Earth, and came damn close, but we pushed them back. Miraculously.”
�
��I’m feeling very motivated right now.” Gale’s eyes were wide. “Thanks for the pick-me-up pep talk.”
Sam chuckled, shaking her head, then gestured to our ship. “You want to feel confident? Go play laser tag. This isn’t Tacoma, this is… Actually, I don’t know what to call this place.”
“Laser tag?” Aegriss asked, and then her eyes shifted. “Oh, I’m seeing records of some old game that was for young teens—”
“It was for whoever wanted to have fun,” I countered, having played my fair share at this retro place that opened up for a couple years when I’d just entered the workforce.
“Point being, we might all die,” Sam said. “No use sugar-coating it.”
Aegriss nodded. Of course the android would find sense in that.
“I like this gal,” Charm said with a grin. “I mean, I don’t like the idea of dying, but hell, we’re here to be fucking superheroes. Might as well live up to it or die trying.”
“Sure, but let’s avoid the dying part if possible.” I looked at my team, my breath catching at the thought of losing any of them. “I plan on having you all at my side the day I become an Elder.”
“Hold up.” Sam looked at me with a new interest. “They’re making you an Elder?”
“That’s the plan.”
“They wanted to have the ceremony for him before he left,” Twitch said, proudly. “But he insisted on finishing this first.”
Sam gave me a nod. “Much respect. Similar situation with me, actually.”
“You were going to be an Elder?” I was impressed now, too. I knew she was some badass warrior, but Hadrian hadn’t filled us in on all the details.
“Hey, if we survive this, maybe we both will be.” Again, she motioned to our ship. “But for now, we have a dragon to fight, and at least one galaxy to save.”
“Saving a galaxy can be exhausting.” I winked.
Sam just nodded. “Once you’re in your ship, stay docked. I’ll get us to the barrier point, where basically it’ll be a mind-fuck again, like you all experienced and had to work your way out of just now, but when it’s over we’ll be back on the ships, into the point where I believe we’ll be able to see where the breach is. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” I said. “How do we fight a dragon?”
She laughed. “Same way you fight anything else. Swords and guns… and for all of you, superpowers. But how do you win a fight against a dragon? That’s the real question, isn’t it? Corny as it sounds, teamwork and sacrifice—hence the setup. I don’t believe the enemy capable of this, which is why I’m certain they found a work-around.”
“Roger that,” Gale said. “We’ll do our best.”
“Damn well better be enough.”
“Wait…” Twitch was looking at Sam with confusion and sorrow. “If it requires all that to pass… you…?”
“I never planned on leaving,” Sam said. “I was the guardian, in place to ensure all of this continued to run as it should. Hey, don’t pity me though—to me, it’s only seemed like a year or two has passed… give or take.”
We all took that in silence. I certainly couldn’t see how being somewhere for hundreds of years or more and losing everyone you cared about, being all by yourself, could be manageable, even if it felt like much less time.
Sam considered Twitch, and was the one to break the silence. “Your screens…?”
“Altering reality, in a sense,” Twitch explained, and when Sam asked about the rest of our powers, Twitch explained. But when it came to me, Sam frowned and cleared her throat.
“Wait a sec. Twitch, if you can alter reality, or whatever—program your surroundings—and Breaker can kind of adapt other supers’ powers into his own…” Sam looked at me, pensively, then shrugged before turning back to Twitch. “Couldn’t you try altering people’s powers? Maybe give yourself some of these other supers’ powers?”
Twitch blinked, pulled up her screen to scan me, then turned, doing the same to Harp. After a second, she pulled up a second screen and cringed. “As smart as that sounds, and trust me, I felt like an idiot for a second having not thought of it before… it looks complicated. It could be risky.”
“Risky as in ‘lose your life’ risky,” I asked, “or as in…?”
“I don’t think that far.” Twitch was still focused on her screens. “But… I mean, it’d be altering my inner self, almost like changing my soul, you know? Think of it like a river that’s divided by large stones so that it leads off to various farms and villages. If I move around those stones, it changes direction. One farm might not be able to grow its crops anymore, a village not have drinking water…”
“You’re losing me,” Charm admitted.
“I’m saying I could cut off other powers, including my ability to alter code. If I’m not careful, anyway. Could end up stuck with whatever power I take—and even that might not be exactly what I wanted—or could even end up with no power whatsoever.”
“Right, might not be worth it,” Sam said.
“Except…” I pursed my lips in thought. “If I activated my coding again and the troubleshooter, maybe together we’d have a good shot?”
Twitch nodded. “I was considering that as an option. But you’re having so much fun with your current skill makeup.”
“I mean… if I had to delete some, or rearrange them, all I’d have to do to get back to where I am is put them back, and that’s easily doable, as long as…” I glanced back at Andromida, who’d given me the last bit of powers.
“As long as I’m down for a fuck?” Andromida asked, and then laughed. “Anytime you think you can handle this, you know it.”
I grinned and Charm laughed. “Breaker here’s starting to wonder if the team isn’t always on board to help him out? Come on, man, you’re hot shit.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to Twitch. “There you go. Hot shit. Nothing to worry about.”
She nodded, looking pensive again.
“No,” Laurel said, standing up suddenly.
“I was only wondering,” Twitch said, turning to her. “It’s not something I’d recommend.”
“Did I miss something?” I asked.
Laurel was glaring at Twitch. “She was considering the idea that you, too, could get powers in this way, without having to… to do what you do now to get the powers.”
“Oh!” Charm was glaring now, too. “Fuck that, Twitch. Don’t you dare.”
“I mean, it was just a thought,” Twitch argued. “Wouldn’t making sex just being about sex, not about this power juggling, make it more special?”
“Nah. This way it’s fun, like we’re recharging his batteries.” Charm came over and put an arm around me. “I like providing his extra voltage.”
Twitch looked at me, then nodded. “It’s an option, though. Or, could be. If I’m going to do this, I’d experiment on myself first. See if it even works.”
“But I’m really not sure it’s worth the risk.” I took Charm’s arm, gave her an affectionate squeeze, then walked over to Twitch, brushing her hair out of her face to kiss her on the forehead. “I love you how you are, okay? All of you. There’s no reason to take risks.”
“Until there is a reason,” Sam countered.
“Meaning?”
“All of that happy fun rainbow shit is good and all, until you have to sacrifice yourself for hundreds of years to ensure an enemy can’t get through—only to find out they did get through. We’re dealing with powers beyond your comprehension, and it might come down to Twitch here needing to up her game, to take it to the next level.”
I moved my hand down to Twitch’s hip, letting it rest there, and nodded. “If it comes to it, we’ll all do whatever it takes. But for now, we’re kicking ass just fine.”
“Agreed,” Twitch said, though there was no hiding the curiosity in her eyes. She wanted to experiment. But for now we would take the safer route.
After a moment, Twitch turned and led the way into our ship, ready to follow the plan.
13
“Of course I wasn’t.” I was instantly on guard.
“I’m pretty sure he winked,” Shimmer replied, grinning at Charm. The two of them were the only two behind me.
“Shimmer, not funny,” I stood in the doorway, not letting them pass until this was cleared up. “Charm will take this seriously. I want you both to know, I wasn’t flirting.”
“Would it really matter?” Gale asked, and I turned to see that she and Aegriss had lingered, while the others continued on to the bridge. “I mean, we keep bringing on new ladies.”
“At our say-so,” Charm said. “I don’t like the idea of him thinking he can just bring every chica he wants into the bed. That’s some bullshit.”
“Come on,” I countered, “it was you all with Aegriss and—”
“And what?” Aegriss said. “You weren’t wanting that at all?”
“Okay, I feel like I’m being ganged up on, and right now we’re supposed to be getting ready to fight a dragon, so…”
“Did you?” Twitch said. “Because let’s focus—Aegriss, yes. Sam, no.”
“Why?” Gale asked.
I actually hadn’t even been thinking about Sam in that way, but was curious about this sudden bout of possessiveness.
“She’s like… hundreds of years old, for one,” Charm said, then turned to Shimmer for help.
Shimmer shrugged. “Honestly, if a teammate’s a good teammate—”
“No, shut up, you get no more say.” Charm pouted, about to say more.
“To be clear, I can still hear you all,” Sam’s voice said, carrying through the ship.
“Oh, uh…” Charm literally facepalmed, then laughed. “You get it, right?”
“I do, and to be clear, again, I didn’t think he was flirting. And it would never happen.”
“What? Why? He’s not good enough for you?” Charm was looking at the walls and ceiling, not knowing where to talk to. It was kind of funny.