Lovesick Gods

by Amanda Meuwissen

  Offering his own melodramatic eye-roll, Priestly didn’t try to hide his disappointment when Mal stared back at him unwilling to budge. “Fine. Better get to the main event, then, if I don’t get any pre-show. Follow me.”

  He stood from his chair and led them further into the back past another curtain. Mal had never been so deep into the shop before. He’d always assumed the last hidden area was reserved for more volatile equipment. He wasn’t wrong. Two black cuffs like the one he’d seen Priestly working on earlier sat on a table waiting for them, as well as—surprisingly enough—a vase of flowers. But in the corner was what looked to be…well. Mal couldn’t help himself, because the only thing that sprang to mind was—

  “If you’re expecting me to say ‘Beam me up, Scotty’, I’m sorry to say I’m a little attached to my molecules staying where they are.”

  Priestly shot Mal a look between aggravated and impressed, which tended to be the kid’s default expression when it came to him. Mal didn’t mind, as long as the impressed part remained true. “Not a transporter, Captain. Or something out of the Goldblum version of The Fly. It just looks like that because I had to build something that would be insulated against both heat and cold. Kind of difficult to test out intense waves of temperature without ruining something in the shop unless I have a containment field.

  “Keep your cuff on and you’ll stay safe in the eye of the storm; stay put in the containment box and I won’t have to worry about freezer burn. So.” He looked between them. “Who wants to go first?”

  “Me,” Mal said before Dom could offer. Snatching up one of the cuffs from the table, he entered the containment box. “You mentioned it wasn’t necessary to bring eyewear.”

  “I have new sets for both of you for the occasion. Nothing else should be needed since the field projects away from you.”

  “Should?”

  Priestly handed Mal a pair of goggles from a hook on the side of the box that looked nearly identical to his current ones. “Notice the lack of a door,” he said indicating the narrow slit Mal had used to slip inside, then knocked on the clear containment wall. “Electromagnetic waves are more effective than plastic. This is just backup.”

  “Aren’t electromagnetic waves part of Zeus’s powers?” Mal tilted his head after securing the goggles over his eyes.

  “Technically, but that would only interfere if he used his lightning to project his own field. Trust me, he will not see this coming. Button on the inside of the wrist when you’re ready,” Priestly nodded, then pressed a button of his own on the side of the box, surrounding Mal with a quiet hum.

  Gently feeling along the interior of the cuff, Mal detected a small switch. At a glance, Zeus wouldn’t notice anything amiss until he felt the first blast of the cold field. Mal flipped the device on.

  Instantly, he felt the change in his hands as if the cuff was causing his powers to manifest, but no sign of ice started to coat his skin. The subtle chill through his palms and up his arms was familiar, but while Mal didn’t feel cold anywhere else on his body, he could see the effects.

  Through the new goggles, he saw a projection like a computer-generated overlay, ice blue and swirling like mist. Reaching only as far as the edges of the containment box, it surrounded him in a perfect circle.

  Mal reached out slowly toward the ring of cold, stopping when he felt a definite drop in temperature. Pulling his hand back, he grinned at Priestly through the glass.

  “Just you wait,” Priestly said as he strode over to the table with the other cuff and pulled a long-stemmed violet-colored flower from the vase.

  “I can’t see shit,” Dom complained.

  “I can,” Mal said, touching his free hand to the goggles. “Augmented reality?”

  “For now it’ll only show you the radius of the cold field. And the weather report if you adjust the right lens.”

  Mal did so and on the edges of the goggles he could see the temperature displayed, along with a brief description of the weather outside. He snorted.

  “Eventually,” Priestly spoke on, “I can add distance tracking, maps, whatever you want, but for now the features are minimal. Now watch.” He stood before the slit in the containment box and held out the flower until it passed into the path of the cold field. Only Mal could see the swirling blue, but all of them watched as the flower began to stiffen and build with frost as if Mal had used his powers directly.

  “Oh Priestly, you deserve a special bonus for this,” Mal said.

  “Does that mean I can name my price?”

  “Within reason.”

  Priestly smirked as he pulled the flower back. “There’s a thin dial above the switch. Left pushes the radius further out, right brings it in. It’ll never get closer to you than where it is now, but the outward radius should be able to reach a full city block.”

  Mal felt for the dial. He tested it and watched the circle of cold press against the containment box, unable to escape, then dialed it in and saw how it bowed toward him without getting closer. He couldn’t wait to see how Zeus dealt with his new upgrade.

  But that thought brought with it a sudden frown Mal couldn’t banish. Flipping the switch off, he exited the chamber. “The strength of the field is still lower than the lowest blast of my powers, correct?”

  “You could give a normal person some serious frostbite if untreated for too long, but Zeus should be slowed more than injured. Non-lethal just like you asked for.”

  Mal tried to shake off the relief he felt at knowing the amplifiers wouldn’t hurt his nemesis, but his emotions remained tangled, spoiling his good mood.

  “With Helios’s too.” Gesturing for Dom to take Mal’s place, Priestly handed the pyro a new version of the welder’s mask she sported in combat.

  Her normal costume was a white tank top, with tan cargo pants and red suspenders like some mockery of a fireman. Like most Fire people, she didn’t overheat easily but preferred to be sparsely covered. Dropping her thin jacket outside the containment box, she was left in black leggings and a baggy, sleeveless red top that hung to her knees and complemented the streak of red in her hair.

  Dom went through the same process Mal had and grinned wildly at the augmented reality, especially when Priestly held the frozen flower inside the box again and it wilted like melting wax.

  “You’ll also be able to see each other’s radius bubbles so you don’t accidentally...well, for lack of a better term…cross the streams.” He looked far too annoyed with himself for that reference.

  “What happens if they do cross?”

  “Depends on several variables. Most likely it’ll create mist or a light snow. Worst case scenario there might be a slight…explosion.”

  Mal’s eyes widened, while Dom chuckled in excitement. “Don’t cross the cold and heat fields. Got it.”

  “Remember,” Priestly said, “amplifiers basically collect a portion of your powers like a battery and store it to be able to produce the cuffs’ effects. If you get winded or too injured to use your powers normally, the cuffs can be used as a backup to channel a few normal blasts of ice or fire. Try not to rely on that though.

  “And here are the comms you requested.” Priestly pulled a set of three earpieces from a drawer in the table, handing one to Dom and two to Mal for himself and Lucy. “Additional microphones are built into the eyewear. So,” he leaned back against the table as Mal and Dom inspected their gear, “do I get to listen in like Zeus’s team does?”

  Mal humored him with a smile. “Do I get to know where those flowers came from? Or do you always use camellias when field testing?”

  Priestly crossed his arms, lips pursed and unrelenting. “Nana Andrews. Don’t change the subject.”

  Considering the good work the kid had done, Mal decided not to push—for now. “Apologies, Hart, not this time, but there may come a day when we’ll need you. Can we set these up to signal you if ne
cessary?”

  “Already done.”

  Of course it was. Mal glanced at Dom. Even with the earpiece she hadn’t been too keen on originally, she looked like a thief in a bank vault—positively gleeful. When Mal’s crew was happy, he was happy. “Let’s talk about that bonus, Hart. You earned it.”

  Chapter 16

  Patrol was slow, but Danny didn’t mind as much as he expected. At least Ludgate hadn’t hit any new targets yet. There was time. And if the Elemental did hit somewhere soon, that was just new data to analyze on the path to catching him.

  Danny finished another pass of the street he’d pinpointed as the most likely location for Ludgate to surface. He even occasionally waved to the plainclothes officers he passed. It was almost pleasant, aside from the scenery growing stale.

  “You should head home, Lynn,” he said over the comms, stopping in a narrow alley barely wide enough to fit through but that kept him out of sight from the street. “I’ll give it another half-hour, then do the same. There’s always tomorrow, right?”

  It was late, he was tired, and as long as he stayed positive, got enough sleep, and found time to see Cho later in the week, Ludgate avoiding capture was not going to keep him down.

  “Are you sure, Danny? Andre’s still working on your new suit. I don’t mind staying a little longer in case you get lucky.”

  Danny couldn’t actually hear Andre, but he imagined the CSI breaking into a snicker at Lynn using that particular phrasing. “Okay, but only until…” He trailed off as something caught the corner of his eye.

  There’d been a flicker of…well, something. He knew what the reflection of light throughout his city looked like—he couldn’t afford to be blinded by a stray ray of sunshine or a car’s headlights when he lightning jumped—but that wasn’t what he’d seen.

  “Hang on a minute. I might have something.”

  “Be careful, Danny.”

  Slowly, Danny peeked his head out into the adjoining alleyway. He couldn’t be sure which direction he’d seen that flicker, so he instinctively looked left first.

  “No…not yet,” a voice hissed from behind him.

  Danny whipped around, taking in the sight of a nicely dressed man backing away from him. He looked like he wasn’t quite at home wearing something so finely tailored, like maybe he was used to humbler means until very, very recently. Still, Danny recognized the man’s face right away.

  Ludgate.

  He praised his luck for all of two seconds before he reminded himself that it had taken days and a lot of hard work to narrow down a small enough search area that a chance encounter like this was even possible.

  Twitching forward, Danny held back from using his powers to intercept the thief. If he spooked Ludgate—a teleporter—he could ruin this chance entirely. Since the element of surprise was already lost, he had to keep the man occupied, catch him off guard somehow. Danny exited the alley with his hands held up in placation.

  “I just want to talk, Ludgate. Been looking for you. You’re a hard man to pin down.”

  “Ludgate?!” Lynn’s voice carried shrilly over the comms. “Andre!”

  Ludgate didn’t cease his backward momentum, but he also didn’t teleport away; good so far. “You run around the city, block by block, just hoping to stumble across me, Zeus?”

  He was stalling for time too. Danny kept his pace slow but his steps steady. “Being a hero requires some detective work. Don’t think this was all chance. If I lose you now, I’ll just find you again. Later tonight. Later this week. The next time you try to take something that doesn’t belong to you. Your success getting one over on me and this city won’t last. Better Elementals than you have tried.”

  The wider alley that Ludgate was backing down emptied onto the street. He’d already reached the mouth of it, but as he did, he stopped and tilted his head. “Detective work, huh? You know I’m an Elemental. Tell me, Zeus. What do you think I can do?”

  Lowering his hands, Danny came to a stop as well. He was five meters at most from Ludgate. One quick lightning jump forward and he could have him, but if he tried, he might just as easily lose him. “Seems pretty obvious given how you’ve accomplished your crimes so far.”

  “Keep him talking, Danny,” Andre came over the comms. “We’ve alerted the patrols in the area to your location. If he stays facing you, they might be able to tase him before he bamfs away.”

  Danny took another step forward. “Just give up, Ludgate. I—”

  “Ludgate,” he sneered, as if he found his own name distasteful. “All your enemies have more fitting monikers, don’t they, Zeus? Like Prometheus?”

  Again, Danny stopped. Four meters. “They do. Kind of how the game works in Olympus City. So tell me. What’s your name?”

  Ludgate squared his shoulders, head lowered just enough to glare at Danny from beneath the hood of his brow, his smile an ever widening gash. “Oh…you’ll find out soon.”

  Before Danny could act, Ludgate darted around the corner out of sight. Sparking with lightning, Danny took off after him. A chase he could win. Maybe Ludgate wasn’t a teleporter; maybe his powers only worked in the right conditions. But if he had to run, Danny so had this.

  Danny did not have this.

  He came out of his jump outside the alley, turned in the direction Ludgate had gone, and saw…nothing. Cars on the street. Other people along the sidewalks. But no Ludgate. A few of the plainclothes officers were headed toward him, but they were already too late.

  “I lost him,” Danny grit out. “Wait…” The only other thing he could see was the shop windows lining the street. Then again, he thought he’d seen something flicker.

  That had to be Ludgate’s signature! The sign that he was using his powers!

  Following the flicker at a brisk walk, Danny ignored the pedestrians who stopped to point and stare at him, some even pulling out their cell phones to record. He hoped he gave them a good show, something for a better headline than ZEUS FAILS TO CAPTURE THIEF.

  Maybe Ludgate could only teleport so far. Maybe he could phase through matter.

  “Dude, is he Kitty Pryding this shit?” Andre echoed his thoughts.

  “I don’t know, but I’m not giving up yet.” Danny jumped to the end of the street and turned around. There. Another flicker, leading down the next street.

  On a whim, Danny jumped to the end of that block and waited. He backed up, trying to hide himself in the shadows, which would have been much easier if his stealth suit had been ready.

  There was a closer flicker in the windows of a nearby shop as Danny readied himself to lightning jump once more and catch Ludgate the moment he saw him, but then…

  Nothing.

  Danny waited. Waited. Eventually, he peeked out of the shadows unsure which direction to look next.

  “Still haven’t figured it out yet, eh, Zeus?” a voice said from behind him.

  Danny whirled around, reaching out to grab Ludgate with both hands, only to grasp nothing but air. Staring at his own baffled and angry expression in the dark windows of the store he’d been hidden in front of, he pressed a hand to the glass. Was Ludgate on the other side, mocking him? Was he one-dimensional? Was he invisible like Andre had first guessed?

  A shimmer of the deepest, darkest black made Danny recoil and shake his head to clear it. Of course there would be black. There were shadows everywhere. But for a moment…for a moment, he’d thought maybe—

  “This is more fun than I expected, Zeus!” Ludgate called from the next street over, down yet another alley, far enough away that he had to yell. Danny didn’t know how the man was doing this, but he was done playing.

  Jumping after Ludgate, he reached the corner at the exact moment the other man finished darting around it. There was no way—

  But as Danny got there, the alley was empty.

  He slammed a fist into the brick of t
he building. Determined, turning in a slow circle, he walked cautiously down the alley. “A little help, guys? I can’t track him. It doesn’t seem like he’s teleporting, but I can’t—” Danny oofed as he was pushed so hard from behind he nearly face-planted into the wall. He spun around, only to be met by a closed door on the opposing building with nothing but a small square window that revealed dark interior.

  “Andre.” Danny clenched his fists.

  “I’ve got nothing, Danny! Your trackers show no sign of powers being used in that area other than your own.”

  “He’s been using his powers the entire time!”

  “Not according to the sensors!” Andre yelled back. “Wherever he goes when he disappears, it must be blocking the signal.”

  Seething now, Danny’s hands started to ache with the tightness of his fists. He turned in a circle faster and faster as he moved further down the alleyway. “Coward!” he cried.

  “Danny, just stay calm,” Lynn said, “we’ll—”

  “See you soon, Zeus.”

  Danny spun around with a swinging punch, twirling so fast without anything to slow his motion that he nearly toppled over. Nothing. Not a damn thing but the corner of the alley and a dirty dome mirror mounted on the wall.

  “Ludgate!” he screamed, punching the wall again, harder than before, causing an eruption of powder from the dried mortar.

  Lynn and Andre talked at him, but he couldn’t make out the words as he huffed and shook with his anger. Nothing changed. Nothing ever changed. He still wanted to pummel the brick until his knuckles bled. Or until he made some lowlife bleed.

  Touching a hand to his comms, Danny spat out, “He’s gone. Give me something else.”

  “Huh?” Andre sputtered.

  “What do you mean, Danny?”

  “Something else! Anything. Someone I can…stop.”

  Silence answered him.

  “I need something to show for tonight!” Danny slammed his palm into the brick. “Something to believe this isn’t all for nothing.”

  “Danny…” Lynn said softly. “I don’t think that’s a good—”