by J. A. Giunta
After introductions, everyone started to choose rooms. Ember looked at Allison and pointed to the room across from hers. “That way we can see each other, even if the doors are shut,” she murmured.
Allison nodded and stepped into the room as the others sorted themselves out.
One glance at Lee told her he wasn’t particularly happy with his new neighbor. Well, it wasn’t her problem. Allison was okay. Lee was where she could keep an eye on him. And there seemed to be fewer ghosts on this level. At least, she hadn’t seen as many since she’d been assigned to the pod. All in all, as far as Ember was concerned, things were finally looking up.
Eleven
Sat, Sep 24, 1:57pm
- Lee -
Lee finished the last of his homework, logged off and went to clean up. His room in the pod, like the other five, had been expanded to include a bathroom and shower. He preferred to study with the privacy setting on, so the glass that served as a door was clouded a frosty gray. Otherwise, the room looked much the same as when he’d first arrived, though his bed finally had a pillow and blanket.
He had books, a music player and headphones, a gaming console with a few titles and a decent laptop—but no access to the internet or a phone. He hadn’t left the facility in thirty days, hadn’t been able to call or message Jen. His tutors and trainers, the doctors and therapists, the only people outside his team he’d spoken to for the past month, all worked for Cerberus.
Then again, so did Lee.
Once the paperwork had been finished, the contracts and nondisclosure agreements, which had to be signed by both he and his mother, Lee had become a Cerberus employee. More precisely, he worked as a contractor for Verge Technologies, one of the agency’s more profitable covers. His salary was a hundred grand, but it went into a trust until he turned eighteen. His mother, who he’d refused to see for the signing, had insisted on it. Until then, he was given a weekly allowance on a card, to spend at Requisitions—a sort of supply center, with a quartermaster—and on the handful of vending machines in the cafeteria.
The team’s day typically began with a morning brief, led by Agent Taylor, to discuss and keep them updated with what was happening in the world and their city. There were four other teams, not including the Bullet Squad, with ninety-two known Supers still at large. That was just in Sungrove, one of the smallest cities in California. Others had less, some much more. Small town Supers who drew attention were quickly dealt with, either brought into quarantine or snatched up by other Supers—criminal gangs out for power and profit or wannabe heroes in homemade costume.
The vigilantes Cerberus brought in were strongly encouraged to join, pardoned of their crimes if they hadn’t murdered anyone or done anything too extreme. Killers, however, were sent to a secret prison, though Lee suspected every city had its own Bullet Squad. The few taken in who refused to join were set loose and closely monitored, faced with prosecution if they ever used their powers.
After the morning brief, they each went to continued education, a one-on-one with a series of tutors that rotated through the team. Rigorous exercise and basic combat training followed, along with sessions to explore and hone their powers. At the end of the day, they met individually with a psychiatrist, though to his knowledge no one was taking any medication.
“You still have time,” Anna said in his ear. She knew better than to tell him exactly how much.
Lee had sensed the others leave for combat training a full three minutes ago. He was out of his room and on the way, when he saw Will already waiting in the elevator.
“Time to talk?” he asked.
“I’ll be late for CT,” Lee replied. “If you want to deal with Kate, that’s on you.”
“Already spoke with her.” The elevator door closed, and they began to move. “I’ve got something I want to show you.”
“Any word on when we’ll get our cell phones back?” The elevator slowed to a stop and started to move east. “And since when do these things go sideways?”
Will’s mouth turned up in a half-smile. “Not all of them do. Just this one. And I brought it up at committee this morning, about the phones. Waiting on word back from the Director.”
When they stopped and the doors opened, they stood before a grand circular room, of marble and lined floors, a domed ceiling filled with runic carvings. Lee tried to step out, and it seemed the air pushed back. It felt like walking through soft water, so full of power and charge that it was even difficult to breathe.
“Ley lines,” Will explained over the constant thrum of vibrations and indicated the lined floors. “This is the Nexus chamber, the exact point where all ley lines meet.”
The closer Lee got to the center, the harder it was to think, let alone talk.
Will said, “There’s only one other place like it, on the other side of the planet.”
“Why am I here?” Lee asked, though he already knew the answer.
He’d known for a while Cerberus had its own coven. It’d only been a matter of time before they asked him to be their conduit. The real question was why had it taken them so long to ask?
“You already know we have witches on site,” Will replied and brought Lee away from the center, so they could talk more easily. “Ember told you as much. She thinks we’re trying to supplant your family, access the Nexus without them.”
“Aren’t you?” Lee didn’t sense any deception, had never heard Will tell a lie, but then the best lies were always half-truths.
“Of course not. We’ve been gathering witches,” he said, “from broken covens across the country. It’s no secret your family line is dying out. Nature of the business. We needed a plan for when it all goes south.”
“Still doesn’t answer my question,” Lee said. “Why am I here?”
Will looked out into the room, seemed truly awed by its power.
“I wanted you to see it,” he said, “to see what it is we’re protecting. When your father died, the last living Macconal conduit, your family agreed to let us help protect the Nexus. We built this entire facility around it.”
“But he wasn’t the last,” Lee said amidst the turmoil of power pushing against him and emotion welling from within. “Not anymore.”
“They need your help with an important spell.” Will put a hand on his shoulder, a friendly if not fatherly gesture. “They’re offering to teach you, to be a conduit or whatever you want, go however far you want to take it.”
“I didn’t even know magic was real,” Lee complained, “until a month ago. If everyone was so afraid of what I might become, why would you want that?”
“You already have power,” Will said, “more than I think you realize. I’m not saying you should turn in your cape for a top hat. But the offer’s on the table, if you want to learn. They just need your help—”
Will put a hand to his earbud, brow furrowed slightly.
“What is it?” Lee asked.
“Activity downtown,” he replied, “by the plaza. Three hostiles and the Sentinels, already engaged. Suit up, and get to the hangar. The others will meet you there.” The elevator was still open and waiting. Lee got in, but Will didn’t. “Don’t worry. I’ll get the next one.”
Once the doors closed, Lee nearly fell over with how fast it took off and again when it changed direction.
“Team’s on the way,” Anna said, as Lee stumbled out of the elevator and toward his room. “How do you feel? Are you ready?”
He got inside, grabbed his suit from off a hook on the wall and began slipping a leg into the black combat onesie. It was a carbon fiber mesh, with some nanotech enhancements Kevin had cooked up in his workshop. It was rugged and comfortable, soft enough not to chafe, strong enough to withstand bullets. The team’s uniforms were all black with assigned color highlights. His had powder blue edging along the legs, arms and chest.
“Like I might be sick?” Lee repli
ed. “I’m nervous as hell.”
His hands shook as he zipped up the front. The Sentinels were good guys, people Lee secretly admired. That didn’t matter, though. His team’s job was to bring everyone in. When they landed in the field, there was no good or bad, only Affected who’d avoided the quarantine.
“I’ll be with you the whole time.”
Her voice did comfort him a little, but she wasn’t a physical person. All she could do was pass information through an earpiece. He was the one risking his life against other Supers. And for what? The ideal that all Affected should be working together for the betterment of mankind?
“Lee,” she said, “focus.”
He shook his head, as if that might clear away all the negative thoughts. Without a word, he ran back toward the elevator and was up in the hangar just as the rest of his team was boarding the helijet. He hurried up the ramp and buckled in next to Kevin.
“Glad you could join us,” Ember said over the rising whir of rotors and turbines, seated directly across from him. Allison was on her left, and of course Alexandra and Brody were together in the two seats to her right. Ember caught his disapproval and asked, “What?”
“Nothing.” He didn’t know which was worse, seeing the girl he was attracted to with another guy or actually feeling it come off her. Lee did his best to ignore them and turned to Kevin. “Our first mission. You pick a call sign?”
“Tinker,” he replied and grabbed hold of his straps as the ramp closed, and they lifted off.
“Isn’t that a verb?” Lee raised an eyebrow. “I mean, shouldn’t it be The Tinkerer?”
“Yeah,” Kevin said dryly, “that sounds better. What’s yours?”
Lee said, “Remedy.”
It reminded him of Jen and how much he wanted to talk to her.
“Isn’t that where they send the slow kids?”
“That’s remedial,” Lee said and glared back, saw the grin on Kevin’s face.
Everyone had stopped talking and joined in on the laugh at his expense. Lee would have paralyzed Kevin, if not for the strict rule against using powers on each other. He spent so long imagining ways around it that he ended up not saying anything and looking like he’d lost.
“He’s only joking,” Allison said, reached a foot across to bump Lee’s. “We all know you’re the smart one.”
Lee pulled his foot away and glanced at Alex while his cheeks burned. She and Brody had laughed then gone back to their conversation. It didn’t matter that Brody was a genuinely nice guy and potentially a good friend. It was hard to like him so long as he was after Alex.
He could sense the others were just as nervous and fighting to hide it in their own way. He’d never felt so scared before, not even at the police station. Despite all the practice and training, he felt unprepared, and he knew he wasn’t the only one. All their fears and anxiety only amplified his own.
“Don’t worry,” Kevin said and nudged him in the side. His suit was like Lee’s, the same material, all black, but edged in silver. “We got this.”
Lee only nodded.
His mind was racing, going over strategies and ways to counter the powers of those Cerberus had intelligence on. The Sentinels would fight back but wouldn’t try to kill them, or at least they hadn’t tried to kill anyone yet. His real concern was with the other three.
It was an easy label, but he tried not to think of the criminal Supers as villains. It made them sound worse than they really were. People just like him, trying to survive, they mostly stole money or things they needed. It was usually police who got hurt, cops who still hadn’t learned that bullets only pissed Supers off.
The xenohuman tactical units had met with some success, specially trained officers with amped up non-lethal measures, like stun guns and hardening foam. Their gadgets were made by Supers like Kevin, whose powers were technology based. Resources were scarce, though, and the XTU was spread thin.
The team was on its own.
The helijet touched down a block away from the fight. Brody was the first up and out of his seat, his black uniform edged in purple.
“Let’s do this,” he said and hopped out. The team followed after. “From here on, I’m Aegis. Sound off.”
The entire intersection down the street from one sidewalk to the other was blanketed in a cloud of thick and unmoving black, like smoke that clung with tendrils to all it touched. Light flashed from within, brightened its upper edges, along with the distant pop of explosions, but there was no seeing in or through the dark mass.
“Flux,” Ember said. Edged in deep red, her uniform left her hands bare. She nervously clenched and opened them over and over.
Cerberus ranked all the Affected with a measure they called the STAMS Index—strength, toughness, agility, mind and speed—as a quick way to determine level of threat. Those with powers were further categorized with a classification and general rating.
Ember was listed as Energy Mastery Three. She could drain energy sources, including other Supers, which effectively nullified their powers.
A car was thrown over and across the darkness. It crashed into a building, destroying a large piece of the brickwork. A burst of glass followed, with the unrelenting noise of car alarms.
“Flare,” Allison said. Fire Mastery Two, her color was orange. She swallowed hard and kept looking at the chaos down the street.
While most rated between one and ten, there were some out there as high as fifteen, Supers with truly world-breaking abilities. Lee had tested as Body Mastery Three, barely a blip on the scale in comparison.
“Keys,” Alexandra said, her arms crossed and with confidence. Lee supposed if he could summon an army of demons to fight for him, he’d feel confident too.
Portal Mastery Two, her powers were the strangest out of the team. She could open doorways to anywhere, other worlds or dimensions, even realities, anywhere she could dream of. Unfortunately, the more specific she tried to be, the harder and more unlikely it was to work. When she’d first discovered her power, surrounded by armed police, she’d reached out and found a world filled with imp-like demons who worshipped her. They were now her go-to, both a defense and offense.
“And we already know Tinker,” Brody said. He gave a nod to Kevin, who was a Tech Mastery Four and could somehow shape new technology from existing parts without fully understanding just what he’d made. “And Remedy.”
Kevin punched him lightly in the arm, to show he’d only been kidding. Lee was too busy fighting down his fears, kept his focus on information he could use to their advantage and not on what might happen if they failed.
“We’ve got eight hostiles,” Brody said.
Energy Mastery Three, he could create energy fields in basic shapes but had a hard time moving them the bigger they were. Next to Lee and Ember, his would be the most useful at locking down targets. That meant…
“We’ll be splitting off into pairs.” Brody pointed at Alex. “You’re with me. Flux and Flare will go around the north side, Tinker and Remedy the south. Once we have them secured, XTU is standing by to take them in.”
“Wait,” Lee said, “they are? Why aren’t they helping? Is this really the time for a test?”
“Lee,” Anna said in his ear, “it’s not that simple.”
Brody only shrugged. “Just following orders, bro.” He looked to everyone else one at a time. “We good? Good. Let’s go.”
Brody and Alexandra left first, but before Lee could leave, Ember pulled him aside.
“Did you do anything to Allison?” she asked quietly, suspicious.
“What? No,” he replied, taken by surprise. He looked her way, considered it for a moment. The few cells he had in her were just a result of his sensory bubble. Whenever her power flared, it burned through every bit. “I couldn’t if I wanted to. Why, is she acting strange? She seems fine to me.
“No,” Ember sa
id and made a face like she wasn’t entirely sure. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”
“Whatever.”
Lee motioned to Kevin, and the two headed toward the black cloud.
“Keep to the buildings,” Anna said. “Your arrival drew attention, but no one’s moved to intercept.”
“What’s our plan?” Kevin asked. He had a tendency to talk when he was nervous. “You do have a plan, right? I mean, you always have a plan.”
Tinker, Lee corrected himself, not Kevin. Not here, in the field.
It was pointless, in a way, all the call signs, the designations or Super aliases, whatever they wanted to call it. The intention was to protect their anonymity, their families and friends, by keeping their identities a secret, but what did it matter, if they didn’t hide their faces too? Research and development was still working on masks and goggles, more to keep stray bullets away from their eyes than anything else, but that didn’t do them much good at the moment.
“The plan,” Lee said, sticking to cover as he moved, trying to get a sense of everyone in the immediate area, “is for you to distract them long enough for me to do my thing.”
Police had already blocked roads around the area and called for evacuation, while people would have run as far away as they could. It had become a standard operating procedure for the city. The only real protection was to not be where the trouble was. Barricading doors didn’t do much to stop a Super or the debris that was sure to fly once a fight started.
Still, Lee sensed a dozen people in the building next to him and half as many across the street. Three Supers were fighting inside the mass of black just ahead, threw bone-jarring punches at one another and shattered the street where they landed. From the profiles he’d studied, there was only a handful in Sungrove who could have created that darkness. By what he sensed of the guy and two girls inside, he was sure it was Oni. Mid-twenties, with a fondness for knives, she was a self-styled gang leader and a Dark Mastery Four.
Tinker was already dismantling an ATM, when Lee saw Aegis and Keys approach the dark from across the street.