by Mathy, Scott
“That was so fucking stupid,” he said, instantly remorseful for bringing her with.
Her convulsing facial features created a weak smile. Her lips tried to form words, but no sound came out.
He shook his head, “Save your energy. I’m getting you back to the Doc’s lab. She’ll get you back in one piece. I promise.”
She soundlessly mouthed something again, her expression fading. Her eyes closed, the lines in her face pulsing dimly.
Dwight prayed her life support held while he panicked to think of a way out of the office. On the other side of the room, the two Powers seemed evenly matched. Bernard delivered an uppercut that launched Counsel toward the ceiling. The villain righted himself in midair, rotating to hover a dozen feet above Bernard. He floated for a moment before surging down like a missile. The kick plunged the giant into the marble, leaving a crater around his broken body. The shockwave of the impact shattered the remaining glass surrounding the office.
Dwight’s frantic search for an escape led him to the empty frame looking out on the front drive of StarPoint. Below, the park stretched into the city beyond. His struggle to find a way down was cut short by Counsel slamming into his back, launching him out of the tower. He tumbled into the air, arcing as gravity finally overpowered the force of Counsel’s blow. Dwight plummeted, wrapping himself around his partner’s decapitated head. The peace of inevitably overtook him. He stopped struggling, instead focusing on the sound of the wind rushing past him. He closed his eyes, accepting the end.
The noise suddenly ceased, his body jerking to a stop. He threw open his eyes, finding a stream of black hair obstructing his vision. He felt familiar hands supporting his arms, his legs swinging free as he uncurled himself. Linda’s voice greeted his return to the struggles of the living, “You’re a fucking idiot.”
The numbness in his body consumed him as they soared over the city, flying away into the afternoon sky as the seething master of StarPoint watched them go.
FIVE
Dwight directed Linda to the Doc’s lab. As they soared through the sky, he kept watch on the mechanical head he carried. Glitch’s power lines pulsed in their steady rhythm. Her eyes remained closed. He hoped it was some sort of power-saving mode to keep her brain alive. The freezing winds stung at his face, but he did his best to ignore them, all of his thoughts set to the task of processing Counsel’s plans.
Linda swung her path into the rows of the dock’s warehouses, gently setting Dwight and his charge down near the building. She spun around in the air, landing next to her ex-husband. Dwight rushed to the call-box, pressing the button repeatedly.
A second later, Ellis threw the door open, seizing the head from Dwight’s grasp as the door clanged off the side of the warehouse. She sprinted away with it, shouting commands at Alice as she ran for her workstation. Alice raced after her creator, grabbing tools as she went. Dwight followed wordlessly, doing his best to stay out of the way. The android wheeled in a cart lined with radiant power cores. Ellis quickly chose one of the smaller units, placing it at the center of her workspace, next to Glitch’s head. She grabbed a handful of cables from the cart, swapping between placing them, making adjustments, and fixing them in place with a soldering iron.
The last connection created a cascade of sparks, causing Ellis to leap back. Glitch’s eyes flickered rapidly, then slowly opened. Her disheveled blonde hair was coated in black fluid, her synthetic skin grimy and wet from her body’s destruction. She glanced around at the gathered crowd. Her mouth moved, attempting to speak. No sound came out, her voice systems having resided in her crushed neck.
Ellis sighed with relief, “I’ll get something working so you can talk. Just relax here.”
“I could entertain her with a selection of off-key musical performances,” the toaster offered.
Ellis walked way, taking the malicious appliance with her. Alice, Linda, and Dwight stood around the workstation. Dwight kneeled down to meet Glitch’s eyesight. “I’ll let Ian know you’re alright.” He struggled to find the words for the task, “Glitch, I’m so sorry.”
Her expression softened. She mouthed what he read as, “It’s alright.”
“It’s not,” he replied, running his hands over his temples, “I wasn’t ready for any of this; you could have died. We lost Bernard.”
“Wulf beat Bernard?” Ellis returned from exiling Nemo to the supply closet.
Dwight quickly explained, “Not Wulf. Wulf’s gone. It’s been Counsel the whole time. He’s insane, planning on wiping out the Powers.”
“I thought you were looking for a council, as in multiple people. Illuminati-type conspiracy?”
“Nope, it’s worse. Counsel is one person: a Super-Referee, another me.”
Ellis held her palms out to the increasingly frustrated hitman, “Calm down, you’ll figure it out. Just approach it like he’s any other Power.”
“He isn’t, though!” Dwight pushed over the cart, scattering the power cores across the lab. “How the hell do I fight against myself with hundreds – maybe thousands – of years more experience!? He’s the strongest absorber I’ve ever seen. He was tougher than Bernard, faster than Glitch. Even when they weren’t in the room, he was stealing powers, adding to his strength. The closer Bernard got, the more powerful he was. He could even…” Dwight trailed off, replaying the fight in his head.
Dwight rushed over to his ex-wife, carefully avoiding tripping over the volatile batteries strewn about the floor. “Linda, how long were you outside before you caught me?”
“Only a few seconds, ten or twenty tops. I did one loop of the building before the windows exploded. You were falling by the time I came back around the front.”
He thought about the moment Bernard knocked Counsel into the air, the abrupt change in his fighting, the moment he gained the ability to fly. “I’ve got it!” he exclaimed suddenly.
“The money to replace the sensitive equipment you just threw across my laboratory?” Ellis asked angrily as she watched Alice collect the units.
“No,” Dwight corrected, immediately regretting his earlier outburst, “His powers, I think I understand them.” He pointed at Linda, “Up until Linda arrived, he was fast, he was strong, but he wasn’t flying. If he could, he would have gone after Glitch’s arm.”
“Speaking of,” Ellis interrupted, pulling the limb from a nearby station, “this shattered my window. I thought something must have happened, so at least you gave me some warning.”
“Holy shit,” he marveled at Glitch, still resting on the table in front of them, “you got it back here.”
Ellis presented her creation to Dwight, “Sure; I linked the arm rocket’s guidance to her brain when I built that unit. I thought it would be a neat defense tool, but I guess it works as an emergency delivery system as well. Gave me quite a fright when it flew into my kitchen.”
Dwight followed the path from the broken window to the fist-sized dent in the refrigerator door. Taking the arm from the Doc, Dwight carefully pulled the fingers back, revealing the whole leaves, crumpled but intact in her robotic palm. “He’ll do anything to get these back.”
Linda eyed the precious sample, “Why? What’s so special about some plants?” She reached out for them, but Dwight pulled them away, protecting them from the Cape.
“These enhance the abilities of any Power that uses them. They’re actually grown from the bodies of dead Powers; it’s what he was doing with your people. He’s been harvesting them for decades, maybe longer, having Wulf – me – kill anyone that wasn’t following the rules to build his farm.”
Linda looked repulsed, “That’s disgusting. And you helped with this!?”
He stared at the product of his work, “I guess I did.” He passed the leaves to Alice, “But I’m done. I need to kill him, and I think I have a chance.”
Alice gingerly removed the leaves from Dwight’s prosthetic hand, placing them in a Petri dish, “I’ll run some tests on these. Unlike the dead ones you brought before, I shou
ld be able to get some data from a live sample.”
“Dwight, you already saw what he can do,” Linda looked down at Glitch’s quiet stare, “He took down Goliath; you’re not going to be able to fight that.”
“Sure I can; I need him alone, though. Don’t you get it? He couldn’t fly until you got there. He lost that ability the second we got too far away. He didn’t kill Bernard because his power is useful to him. He’s got more range than any absorber I’ve ever seen, but he’s got limits.”
“In New Haven, that’s going to be difficult, especially if he already captured your idiot partner.” She crossed her arms over her chest, “The entire Alpha Guard is standing by after I reported your little mission.”
Dwight froze, “You what?”
“I couldn’t just let three dead recruits go unreported,” she said haughtily. “I brought it to Adams. He may be a megalomaniacal dick, but at least he cares about his company’s interests.”
Terror filled every thought in Dwight’s mind, “That’s what Counsel wants! Open war, an excuse to cull the number of Powers. He’s trying to remove as many of you as possible, and this will be the catalyst.”
Zhu descended the catwalk stairs, “Why would he want that?”
“He said there’s an even more powerful cosmic force that wipes out worlds when the concentration of Powers becomes too great. It’s why he…” Dwight paused, debating whether to tell Void the truth, “Why he destroyed your world.”
Zhu stared at Dwight, the swirling vortex spinning more quickly with each second.
Dwight tried to calm the old Cape, “Void, he has a creature with him, the source of the plague. Best guess is he uses her to annihilate any world he’s done with, to prevent whatever it is from growing stronger. The last world he did it to was yours.”
Zhu shoved him aside, heading toward the exit. Dwight rushed to intercept him, standing directly in his path. “Knolls,” Zhu growled, determination in his gaze.
“Hear me out,” he pleaded, “I just need more time to work out a real plan. We’ll get him back for everything, I promise, just don’t do anything rash.”
“That’s a hell of a request coming from you. I swore, if I ever found out who or what caused the plague, I’d personally carry it straight to hell. Now you’re telling me it’s another damned Referee that’s lost his fucking mind.”
“I know, Zhu. I’m so fucking sorry, but we can’t just go after him. He’s too much right now.” He held out his hands, attempting to bar the enraged Power’s exit.
“Maybe for you,” he scoffed.
The next thing Dwight knew, he was falling, as if the floor had disappeared under his feet. He caught the edge of the purple ring, watching himself falling through the portal. The second portal opened a few feet behind and a dozen feet above where the first one opened. He landed hard on the ground behind Zhu, collapsing on his side in pain, the air knocked from his lungs.
“Dwight!” Linda shouted, rushing to his side.
Zhu stormed out of the warehouse, slamming the door behind him. Dwight rolled on his back, trying to catch his breath. Linda glared at the exit.
“Don’t,” Dwight coughed, “He’ll cool off. Just needs time.”
His ex-wife looked more upset than he’d ever seen her, even at the lowest points of their failed marriage, “He could have killed you.”
He accepted her aid to his feet, “If he was actually trying to, that portal would have been a mile up, or in a dimension made of glass and fire, not ten feet off the ground. He just wanted to prove a point.”
“And that was?” she continued shaking with protective anger.
“That he might be strong enough. Even if Counsel can copy abilities, his anomaly is something else; it takes practice to use. Maybe Void can fight him.”
He felt her muscles relax, “He could have just said so.”
“I’ll get over it. Hardly the worst thing to happen today.” They both looked over to Glitch, waiting silently on the lab table.
“I could go after him,” Linda offered, “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
As much as he wanted to accept that offer, he knew she was needed elsewhere. They left the lab, stopping in the middle of the lane between the Doc’s lab and Lia’s sanctum, “No, I need you near Adams. Tell him about Counsel, about the End. Maybe the threat of total annihilation will stop your new boss from declaring war. We can’t do anything until I figure out how to deal with Counsel.”
“Fine,” she agreed abruptly before taking off.
His ex gone, Dwight headed into the artificial landscape. As he entered, Lia’s voice greeted him from the living room, “I’m glad Glitch is okay, but you really need to be more careful.”
He sighed, realizing that she already knew everything he could tell her. His ribs and shoulder stung, his muscles ached, and the day’s existential crisis had left him with the mother of all headaches. Still, he kicked off his boots and stepped into the living room, finding Lia sitting in her massive recliner, a mountain of blankets wrapped around her. Only her bald head poked through the pile.
“Dwight,” she started, “I touched his mind when he took the helmet off. Every time I got close, he pushed back, like he was feeding off of me. If I held on too long, I could feel him reading me back. He’s completely dedicated to his fight, one-hundred-percent sure he’s saving the universe alone. Whatever is out there, he’s terrified of it. You should be, too.”
“Yeah,” Dwight agreed, taking a seat next to her. He noticed the two cups of tea set beside the chairs. “I understand exactly how he feels; he is me, after all. Just an older, more powerful version of me.”
She reached for the tea, “I don’t know if you can do this. Your mind and body aren’t what they were before the overdose.”
“What do you mean?”
She hesitated to take a sip, “I mean I’ve been constantly working to keep you stable since you got back. You haven’t noticed there’ve been no hallucinations?”
In truth, the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. He’d been so occupied with all the troubles in the city that the absence of the phantom Bernard wasn’t a concern. “I guess not,” he said, taking his own cup.
“You’re not well, Dwight. A normal person isn’t meant to handle this type of pressure. The knowledge of one’s place in an infinite multiverse of possibilities is enough to drive most people insane. I’ve done all I can to help keep you together, but it hasn’t been easy.”
His thoughts turned inward, finding the telltale signs of Lia’s psychic touch on his emotions. Part of him wanted to be outraged at the manipulation, though he understood her intentions. This was Lia’s way of protecting him, her contribution in his war. “Thank you,” he said quietly, “for all you’re doing, but I can’t give up yet.”
“I know,” Lia agreed remorsefully.
He finished his drink, returning the cup carefully to the table before standing. He didn’t bother to say goodbye, knowing full well that she’d be there, at the corner of his thoughts, watching him. He texted Linda as he left the sanctuary, the last rays of sunlight fading away as the cold of the winter night set in. A string of responses vibrated in his pocket. He ignored them; whatever she had to say, she wouldn’t sway him from his objective. Unfortunately, there was one stop that he needed to make first, one task too great to ignore.
He got on the bus, watching the blocks pass by while trying to find the words for his former roommate. His search produced nothing by the time the bus reached the palatial condominium. The same doorman stood watch at the entrance. Dwight felt his own ire building.
“I’m going up,” he stated clearly to the guard’s judgmental glance.
He crossed his arms, moving to block the entrance, “Is Mr. Green expecting you?”
Dwight’s thoughts turned to violence: how easy it would be to use his shock pads to make the doorman sorry he ever got in his way. He’d taken down gods compared to this simple building’s rent-a-cop. In all likeliness, he could even
bring down the pair seated at the desk inside without raising an alarm. He’d snuck into black sites, and infiltrated StarPoint on more than one occasion. Breaking into Ian’s new living space would be a joke to a professional of even his caliber. Instead, he used his exhausted voice with the man whose only trespass was doing his job.
“I need to talk with Ian. Shouldn’t be long,” he said quietly, struggling to bring up the words.
The guard drew a baton from his jacket, unfolding it threateningly at his side, “Buddy, if he wanted you here, he would have called down.”
Dwight fought the urge to rip the weapon from the man’s hand, concentrating on the meditation techniques he’d learned from the Arbiter. “It’s about Ms. Park. Something happened to her. I want to tell him in person. Please,” he pleaded.
That got to the larger man. He closed the baton, exchanging it for a radio. He called Ian’s unit. The response came in only a few seconds, though it was too quiet for Dwight to make out. The doorman waited, listening to Ian’s voice through his earpiece. Finally, he replied, “Mr. Knolls is downstairs. He says he needs to speak to you about something important.”
The man stepped aside, leading Dwight into the revolving door and past the security station. This time, the guards stayed seated, watching them pass. The doorman left him at the elevator, clearly concerned, but unwilling to ask more. If Dwight couldn’t think of what to say to a concerned stranger, he had no idea what he was going to tell Ian.
Ian’s door was open as he rounded the corner of the hallway. The slight man stood waiting, filling the space as best he could. It was apparent from the state of his hair and anxious expression that Glitch’s absence had been noticed.
“Dwight!” he exclaimed as soon as the hitman rounded the corner, “She’s gone. We had a fight about her going on patrol today, and she’s gone. We had dinner plans over an hour ago. She always calls if she’s running late.”