by J. A. Giunta
Allison moved forward and held out her hands, preparing to light up the dark hallway.
“Hold on!” Zeta commanded. “Two civilians approaching.”
“Damn!” Allie swung her hands up at the last moment and let loose her fire against the outside of the building, scorching the brick expanse of the façade.
A dark-haired boy stepped out of the dark hallway. He glanced at them, eyeing their uniforms, trembling with fear, yet shielding a younger kid with his body. His face was taut.
“It’s okay,” Ember told them. “We won’t hurt you.”
“Yeah,” Allison said, a little shakily. “We’re the good guys.”
“You need to get your sister back behind the blockades, though.” Ember grabbed Allie by the elbow and stepped back, clearing the way.
“Thanks.” The boy nodded, grabbed the little girl’s hand, and together they ran for the barricades.
“You okay, Flare?”
Allison gave her a blank stare, then blinked in recognition of her handle. “I’m good. Thanks, um, Flux.” She rolled her head and shook her hands out. “Let’s do this.”
Ember thought about all the times she’d lost control of her magic. It sucked to lose it like that, but Allie hadn’t hurt anyone. No scorched bystanders, unlike some of Ember’s worst mishaps. She let the heat rise in her palms, just enough to prove to herself that she’d gained some control.
“Ember,” Zeta’s low voice warned. Ember let the heat subside. For their own reasons, the powers they worked for didn’t want anyone knowing about her magic. Or her family’s status, either. “Yeah, yeah,” Ember grumbled. “Secret weapon.”
“What?” Allison tilted her head. “We have a secret weapon?” She rubbed at her wrist through her black suit, pulling at the orange-colored trim.
“Yeah.” Ember grinned at her. “Us.” She led the way into the dark hallway, eyes adjusting rapidly to the dimness.
A stairway rose on their left. A locked door was the only other access in the back stairwell. “I hope you had a good breakfast, Flare.”
“Only three thousand calories.” Flare quipped. “Wouldn’t want to be sluggish my first day on the job.”
Ember could hear the tension in Flare’s voice, betraying the lightness of her comments.
“Charly?” Flare asked. “What floor?”
“Second floor northeast corner, moving this way.”
“Status on the rest of the hostiles?” Ember disliked the word, it dehumanized the other Affected, even those who weren’t a serious threat. Until cornered, she reminded herself. Then, hostile was pretty much the perfect term.
“Three still outside, currently engaged with Keys and Aegis. Two in the building to the south. Tinker and Remedy are already on their way up for them.”
A loud crash tore through the building, followed by the sound of something slamming hard into the pavement outside. “Make that one.”
“That’s only seven,” Ember said, doing the math.
“We’ve temporarily lost track of the other one.” Charly said, a worried tone in her voice. “It’s possible he warped.”
“A space shifter?” Flare gripped the handrail tight enough to crush and Ember heard the hollow metal collapsing under the intense pressure. A shifter could warp out of their dimension and warp back in. They could show up just about anywhere, with little or no warning. “Sentinel or renegade?”
“Unknown.”
“Great.” Ember peered up the stairs. Above, light filtered in through a dirty window. “Charly? Zeta? How much warning will we get before a shift.”
“Uncertain.” Hearing them speak in unison, the way Tara and Seanna used to, was both eerie and reassuring.
“Even better. Tell us as soon as he pops up on your sensors. We need to take these two down before we have a third on us.”
They leaped up the stairs and reached the landing just as a nebulous figure came through the wall.
“Flux, beside you!”
“Morph,” Charly said. “Stams scores mainly ones. But with the ability to move through solid objects.”
“On it,” Ember said and reached out for Morph’s wrist. The Super had to remain in a gaseous state until her entire body had passed through an obstacle.
Morph screamed in pain as Ember gripped her pale skin, one foot caught inside the wall. Ember grimaced. “Don’t be such a baby. It’ll heal once I let you go.”
“Cerberus bitch!” Morph shouted.
“It won’t hold her.” Flare bit her lip and raised her palms toward Morph.
“That’s why we have this.” Ember held up a small tube. “Stand back. We don’t want to get any of it on us.” She aimed the tube at Morph’s other foot, flipped the end cap off, and foam sprayed out, encasing the Super’s foot and leg up to the knee and trapping her to the floor. The blond woman spit a string of curses at them. Ember heard her mother’s voice shouting “language” in her head.
“That won’t hold her, if you’re not touching her,” Zeta said.
“Aw, crap!” Ember reached into a pocket and pulled out the prototype nullifier cuffs Kevin had given her. “Time to try these bad boys out for size. She slipped the cuffs onto Morph’s wrists before letting go. The Super cursed and struggled, but the cuffs and foam held her secure.
Way to go, Kevin, Ember thought,
“Unknown Affected approaching,” Charly said.
But before Ember could turn to face this new threat, a gale force struck her, knocking her sideways and into the far wall. She dropped the foam tube and it slammed into the wall beside her.
“Get away from her,” shouted the pudgy teenage boy, who had just come around the corner.
The wind beat at them. Flare gasped, stumbling backward down the stairs.
“Flare!” Ember shouted.
Air Mastery? As soon as Ember formed the thought, she felt the air being sucked from her lungs.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ember saw Flare keeping low and struggling to the top of the stairs, her mouth open as she tried in vain to suck in air. When she reached the landing, she fell to her knees, long curls falling over her face, and flung her hands out toward the kid. Fire streaked across the darkened space, striking the angry teen and setting his clothes alight. He yelped and fell to the floor, rolling to put out the flames.
The air rushed back into Ember’s lungs. She gasped and lunged forward, reaching for the boy’s arm, but when she got close, she found herself pushed away by some kind of barrier. The Super on the floor had quit rolling. His clothing and hair exuded a bitter smoke, but he was no longer on fire. He’d enveloped himself in a dead air space to quell the flames.
She filled her lungs and gritted her teeth. Pushing forward into the airless space, she grabbed him by the elbow and the pressure disappeared so fast, she almost fell on top of him. He struggled to escape, but Ember had a tight grip on him.
“Oh, crap,” Flare said, eying the smoldering teen. “That’s gotta hurt.” She pulled out a foam tube as Ember dragged the kid over to the wall. “You good, Flux?”
“Yeah.” Ember shook as she took in one healthy breath after another.
“Flux. Flare.” Brody’s voice broke in. “We need you out here on the double.”
“Normal communication channels,” Ember huffed. “Flux here. Aegis, we’re in the middle of something.”
“Drop it and get out here.” An explosion sounded through the comm-link, the aftershock rattling the building’s window.
“Right. Flux out.” Ember rolled her eyes at Flare. “Can you pin him?”
Flare pulled out a foam tube and broke the seal. Ember jumped back as the white liquid spurted out and onto the struggling Super.
“I’ll destroy you!” he screamed at them, as the foam coated his arms, sticking him fast to the wall.
“Out!” she ordered, shoving F
lare toward the stairs, as he pulled in the air around him, forming it into a wall and preparing to slam it into them. “Zeta, report the data and location on these two.”
“Done,” her handler replied.
Flare slid halfway down the stair rails and leaped over the side, landing in the bottom floor entryway as graceful as a cat. Ember thudded down behind her and together they rushed outside to join the fight.
When they reached the intersection, they found Aegis and Keys standing on opposite corners, as if waiting to cross the street. The dark cloud had settled, offering a clear view of the damages wreaked by the battling Supers. Crushed cars, bent light poles, and wildly tilting signal lights with tangles of arcing wires hanging from them that showered sparks down onto the street below. The street was pocked with fresh potholes and the nearby pavement was cracked and scorched.
Nearby, two Supers struggled within shoulder-high pillars of hardened foam cocoons, arms and hands caught within. “Hmmm,” Ember pointed. “They must have gotten the jumbo sized foamers. Would have been nice to encase Airhead a little tighter up there.”
Flare shrugged. “What’s up, Aegis? Thought you needed backup. We done or what?”
“Shut it and position for support.” He waved at them to take up spots on the other corners.
Ember glanced around them. “Flare, I think we may be expecting company.” She said as she moved to an empty corner.
“He’d have to be stu—” Her words cut off as something shimmered in front of her. She raised her hands too late to ward off the blow that caught her in the throat and went down on one knee, hands at her neck, as the shifter shimmered back out as quickly as he’d solidified.
“Dammit!” Ember shouted, stepping off the curb. “Try that with me, asshole!”
“Hold your position,” Aegis ordered. “And this time be ready.” His hands were up in a defensive pose.
Ember resisted the urge to flip him off. One thing they’d had drummed into them over and over this past few weeks was discipline and following commands. Right now, Brody was in charge, whether she liked it or not. Across the way, Allison had regained her feet and settled into a defensive stance. Ember, chest still tight from having had the air forcibly sucked from her, willed herself to be calm, her breathing evening out, as she watched for any flicker or change of light around her.
“Gotcha!” Brody’s triumphant shout carried across the intersection. The shifter shouted obscenities and pounded at the cylindrical energy field Brody had set around him. As the trapped Super struggled, the energy field closed in on him, pinning his arms in front, while foam rose up from the container Brody had somehow included within the boundaries of the trap.
“Oh,” Ember said, impressed with Brody’s tactics for the first time. “That’s how you made the foam go so far.”
“Clean up on aisle seven,” Aegis intoned into his comm-link. “Where are Remedy and Tinker Bell?”
“On our way.” Lee’s annoyed voice came over the comm. “We’ve got Discord. And his handle is Tinker.”
Ten seconds, Ember thought. Aegis managed to gain points and lose them all in less than ten seconds. Jerk.
“Flux? Flare?”
“We got Morph and some unknown airbender,” Flare told him. “Didn’t have time to catch a name.” She massaged her throat where the shifter had nailed her with his fist. “They’re tacked to the second floor of the northwest corner of that far building.” She pointed to where they’d left the two Supers.
“Status?” Aegis asked, speaking into his comm.
“No additional hostiles registering in the vicinity,” Ember heard in her ear. Zeta was doing her robo-voice again. She wondered if all the AIs went into computer mode like that, or if it was just hers.
Brody’s face looked like he’d just sucked an entire lemon dry. “Six out of eight. That’s a crappy seventy-five percent capture rate,” he said. “We suck.”
“Speak for yourself,” Ember grumbled, recalling the way she’d been unable to breathe.
Allison scratched at her wrist and said nothing.
Twelve
Mon, Oct 3, 10:24am
- Lee -
It had been over a week and three more missions, and it still didn’t sit right. Why that location, if for no other reason than to pick a fight with the Sentinels? Every other mission report he’d read had clear goals: money, goods, technology, territory or a grudge. Lee set aside his homework for the third time, an inkling tickling his brain that he just couldn’t ignore.
His STAMS were mostly ones, with the exception of Mind, which he rated a five. In regards to other Affected, a one meant he was average. Anything higher than a three was somewhat rare. What made Lee stand out in this regard was his ability to learn, to take in and process details. It was so acute that it enabled him to make leaps in logic without conscious thought, a sort of elevated intuition that bordered on precognition.
Lee couldn’t actually see or predict the future, but scenarios that played out in his head were a pretty close approximate. The only problem he’d run into was that he rarely had all the information needed to make a reliable prediction.
The best he could manage was a sound conjecture, and at worst, a hunch.
He pulled up all the internal files he could find about buildings in that area or people who worked there. One caught his eye. It was across the street from where he’d taken down Discord, an office building with unusual security. Further digging allowed him a leap, a potential that linked and formed even more jumps in his mind. By the blueprints, wiring, security and energy needs, he realized the basement housed a central internet hub for the city.
Encrypted or not, all information through Sungrove went in and out of those servers.
“Anna,” he asked, “did Oni have a tech with her?”
“Tobias Hilderman,” she replied, “goes by the alias Boost. He’s a Tech Mastery Two, hardware upgrades mostly, with no sign of innovation.”
Lee pulled up the file.
“Was anything found on either of them?” As fast as he typed, it still felt like his fingers couldn’t keep up. What really slowed him, the rapid opening of new files and following potential leads, were the flashing red errors stating lack of security clearance. “Any computer parts? Or any tech at all during the sweep?”
“No, nothing.”
That meant whatever they brought had either been destroyed during the fight or installed. He was betting on the latter.
Anna was quiet while Lee’s mind raced with all the variables, all the possibilities that kept narrowing down to one.
“You think she tampered with the hub,” Anna said.
So there is a hub there, Lee thought and smiled.
“Why, though?” Anna asked. “To bring down or hold ransom communications? Steal encrypted data?”
“Our identities,” Lee said more than guessed, as pieces and mini-scenarios fell into place. “Not Cerberus, specifically, but all the Supers here in Sungrove, the ones who haven’t been quarantined. That’s why their motive didn’t make sense. They were hired. Someone outside the agency is looking to recruit.”
“A team has been dispatched,” Anna said, “to sweep the entire building again.”
“It’s probably too late,” Lee said and sat back in his chair, “but at least we have her team in custody. Once we find it, we can use the tech Boost created to track down whoever hired them.” Still, something bothered him. For the ninth time that morning, he checked again. “Did the Sentinels decide if they want to join us? I’ve been watching for release reports but haven’t seen one come up yet.”
“Starshine, Rime, Brute and Caller,” Anna replied, “are scheduled to be released Wednesday morning.”
Lee frowned. “What about Discord?”
“I’m not allowed to access that information for you.”
“Seriously? You’re going
to tell me it’s classified?” Lee fumed, ready to slam both hands down on his keyboard. He already knew what had happened, though he couldn’t pinpoint what set of details had led to the assumption. “Get Will on the screen. I want to talk to him, now.”
A few moments passed before a soft beep on the wall monitor indicated a connection, and Will appeared. He was seated at his desk, still working as he spoke.
“What’s on your mind, Lee?”
“Did you authorize it?” he asked heatedly. “Did you put Discord on the Bullet Squad?”
Will stopped working and looked up, his usual mild expression unchanged.
“You’re not cleared for this conversation,” Will said.
Lee tried to remain calm and failed.
“Then clear me.”
Will typed with one hand. “Done,” he said, and files began to appear on Lee’s computer. “I’m sorry. I really am. But given the evidence, I had no choice.”
There were pictures of a bloody crime scene, a teen girl brutally murdered in a Westside loft. Lee scanned the police report, a copy of the lease, the medical examiner’s findings, but he went even further, began pulling up all he could on the building and its tenants. It took only a few moments to follow his intuition, to show the building was corporate housing, that Jeremy Stillman, Discord, didn’t live there.
“Here,” Lee said and sent the files to Will’s screen, “look at these records. The wounds don’t fully coincide with his power. The date of this lease was edited after we brought him in. Every tenant works for the same shell corporation, and there are no utility bills in his name or change of address at the post office. He was either set up to take the fall for this murder, in relation to tampering with the communications hub, maybe to get him out of the way, or someone inside Cerberus needed a plausible excuse to put a bullet in his brain.” Lee stopped ranting long enough to look Will in the eye. “Which is it?”
Will’s brow furrowed slightly. “I don’t know. But I can promise I’ll find out.”
Anna spoke through the room’s speakers. “Will, the corporation. It’s one of Axial’s.”