by J. A. Giunta
Lee blinked.
“That was actually pretty damn impressive. I’m sorry for what I said.”
“Aww, it’s okay.” Her expression had softened and her fear drained away. All his energy had been focused on duplicating cells within her. “You didn’t know,” she said and reached a hand out to his bloodied shirt. “Are you hurt?”
As Lee had hoped, she was behaving like Emily had while under his influence. He’d have to keep her within his sensory bubble to maintain control, but it was better than fighting every Super on their way out. He just needed more time to sway the others.
Lee wasn’t entirely sure why Tammy’s power had gotten stronger after she died, but he had his suspicions. It was as if her death or his cells had broken down some inner barrier or inhibitions. Whatever it was that had brought her closer to full potential, he was hoping for the same results here.
“I’m Cheryl,” she said and hooked her left arm in his, while still controlling the vortex of earthen debris in her other hand. Together they started walking out of the cell. “So what do you do?”
“I’m a healer,” Lee said, a bit embarrassed by her affection, especially when Allison shot him an accusing look.
“What did you to her?” Allison demanded.
The walls of fire flared to either side in time with her anger.
“It’s just a side effect,” Lee explained. “I’m not really doing anything. This is just how my power works.”
Ice swept through from the right and caught Allison on her thigh. It cut through her uniform and left a nasty gash. She growled at the pain and used both hands to shoot a stream of flame down the corridor. A scream and panicked scurrying ensued.
Allison glared at Lee. “Did you do that us? To me?”
As much as it hurt him, Lee understood. His power was at the very least an invasion and at worst? He didn’t want to think about it, would never have used it for that.
“I wouldn’t,” was all he said and swallowed hard. He liked Allison. Not the same way he liked Jen, but she’d become more than just one of his sister’s friends. “Besides,” he added, “every time your power flares, it counteracts mine. Just like Ember’s cancels mine out. I couldn’t if I wanted to. Not that I would. I—I just would never do that. Not to you.”
Allison let out a breath. “Okay.” Her voice and sense grew apologetic. “I just—”
“No,” Lee said. “You don’t have to explain. I totally get it.”
Cheryl leaned her head against his shoulder, with eyes closed and a happy smile.
“What do we do now?” Allison asked.
Aside from the crackle of her flames, it had gotten quiet. Lee sensed the others had calmed under his influence and drew closer.
“You can let the walls drop,” Lee said. “They’re on our side now.”
He wasn’t sure if there was a limit to how many he could influence at once, but each person he added seemed to shorten his sensory bubble. As much as he wanted their help, it would’ve been difficult to bring them all to face Jim’s team. Instead, he took the time to find out their powers and why they were down in Omicron to begin with.
Of the twelve, six were violent. Lee had no doubts about where they would’ve ended up. Jim was probably counting on the chaos they’d cause. Lee couldn’t risk losing control of them, so he left them paralyzed in their cells.
“Lee,” Anna’s voice came through his earbud. “Are you there?”
He put a hand to his ear, saw Allison do the same.
“Yes, I’m here,” he said. “Anna, what’s happening?”
“Everything’s a mess,” she replied, “but Kevin managed to regain control of a command subsystem. Now we’re all working with him to take back the other systems.”
Will came on the line.
“Comms are back,” he said, “but Jim’s team hit the armory. They’ve remotely set free every Super in confinement. Luckily, Abyss has safety protocols for this situation. It’s on lockdown. The only way to open those cells now is with a manual override. The three he sent are probably just now realizing they need me, or pieces of me, to do it. He’s got two more headed for the Reliquary. There are hundreds of dangerous artifacts stored in that section, and I can’t get a hold of anyone in Pandora.”
“What the hell,” Lee said. “Don’t you have any good news?”
Will said, “They’ll be coming for me. Soon.”
“That’s the good news?”
“Absolutely,” Will replied. “I have a plan. I need you to get to the Delta training room. We’ll meet you there.”
“If their tech could do all this,” Lee said, “they’re probably listening in.”
“I’m counting on it.”
Lee asked, “What about Ember? She was with me a few minutes ago, and then she vanished. Is my mother here?”
“Yes. It’s difficult to tell,” Will said, “with damaged sensors and the chaos around that area, but we think she’s in the Nexus chamber. Both covens are most likely there trying to help.”
“They need me, then,” Lee said, worried for Ember, “to be a conduit or whatever. They can’t use the Nexus without me. It’ll kill them!”
“No,” Will said, his voice steady as ever. “I need you at Delta. Remember what I said earlier?”
Lee let out a frustrated growl.
“We’re on our way,” he said. To Allison and the seven other Supers, he added, “Let’s go.”
They headed for the elevator. Once they were inside, the doors closed, and it began to move at an accelerated rate. Lee sensed frantic movement on each floor as they rose, people running or fighting, prone bodies either dead or in dire need of healing.
An explosion erupted a good distance overhead. They came to a grinding halt, as the elevator cables snapped, and safety brakes locked into place. Everyone lost their balance, but only two had fallen over. The lights changed from white to red, casting an eerie pall. Lee helped them both to their feet.
“We need to get those doors opened,” he said.
Two guys pulled from either side, revealed they were between floors. With help, one by one, they each climbed out to the upper level. Lee was last to be pulled free.
Red lights flashed down the white corridor. Bodies were all about, more than a dozen toppled over and already dead. All of them were human. Encased in hardening foam, either shot or bludgeoned, none had died from powers.
“This wasn’t done by Supers,” Lee said. “These people were killed by XTU. Or at least XTU gear.”
“It’s like that all over,” Anna said. “There are rogue units taking advantage of the situation. We think either Jim Armand or Alice Quinn is trying to take over the agency.”
“The two from the police station?” Lee asked.
“They could be colluding,” Anna continued. “Quinn has direct oversight of the Bullet Squad, while Armand is Deputy Executive Director of Abyss.”
Lee sighed. “That’s just great. Who the hell can we trust?”
“No one,” Allison said, and her hands flared with fire.
“Take the next left,” Anna said. “There’s a security stairwell just ahead. I can open the panel from here, but I don’t know for how long. Whoever hacked the system is still in the server room.”
“Be ready,” Lee said and led the group down the hall. He sensed four on the left and two on the right where the corridor ended in another hallway. “You three,” he said to Cheryl and two guys roughly his age. One could generate and manipulate water, mostly ice, and the other was Body Mastery, like Lee, but focused on physical combat. “Two around the corner,” he said and pointed right. To the rest, he added, “Four on the left. None of them Super.”
They rounded both corners and engaged. Shards of ice whistled down the right, as the second Super closed with the officers and brought them down with a sideways kick to one and punch
to the other. A whirlwind of dirt and metal flecks scoured exposed flesh. Neither officer had a chance to fire off a round.
At the same time, powers raged to the left. Fire went out in streamers, along the wall and twisting down. One officer was lifted off his feet by an ankle, sprayed foam in every direction and was thrown into another. Palm-sized discs of yellow light struck the floor, ricocheted against the right wall and sent the other two officers reeling back. Shots went off in quick succession, rose up in an arc and tore holes in the ceiling.
A second officer with a foam rifle rolled over and fired. The stream bent at the last second, as it struck a curved barrier of green energy, but foam splashed off to the sides. Two on Lee’s left were caught at the shoulder and leg, held fast to the wall and floor in a struggle to get away. A third stepped in foam on accident. It bubbled out and up, spread into the pant leg and touched skin.
Allison lunged forward and scorched the officer with a blast. The rifle steamed, went wide, but a spatter caught her arm. She swung to throw it off and got her arm stuck to the wall when the foam suddenly expanded.
She cursed, and like the others, pulled in vain to break free. Short of cutting off her arm or a section of wall, the only way to break down the foam was with a chemical solution. XTU officers carried small canisters of it on their belts, but these four weren’t really XTU. They didn’t have tactical armor or utility gear, just weapons from the armory.
“You have to keep going,” Allison said to Lee. “There’s no time to find counteragent.”
Lee said, “I can’t just leave you here.” He looked at the other three caught in foam. What would happen once he was out of range? Even if they couldn’t get free, they could still attack Allison. “I won’t.”
“Listen to me,” she said, and her expression turned hard. “You do what it takes. That’s what you do. If anyone can find a way to stop them, it’s you.” She grabbed hold of him by the shirt and pulled him close for an unexpected kiss. It was brief, barely a moment, but he found himself wanting more. Allison shoved him away. “Now. Go kick their asses.”
Lee paralyzed the trapped Supers to be safe but didn’t think there was enough time to affect the six officers. Instead he picked up the foam rifle and stuck them to the floor as well.
He led Cheryl and the remaining three of their group further down the corridor.
“Stop,” Anna said. A door-shaped panel in the right wall slid open and aside. As they entered, she added, “You need to head up fourteen levels. Be careful, there’s been activity in the stairwell.”
The panel slid closed behind them.
By the time they hurried up past four floors, Lee sensed two Supers enter his sensory bubble from below. They were ten levels down and gaining.
“Two Supers coming up from behind,” he stopped and said to the two who’d taken out the officers in the right hall. “I need you to slow them down.”
They gave resolute nods and readied for a fight.
Cheryl might have paired better with the ice thrower if there was more room, but the Body Mastery fighter would do most of the slowing. Energy fields would have been a better pairing with him, but Lee wanted that power along for defense. He had no idea what else was between him and the training room.
Three more floors, and the four clashed. He didn’t have to tell the two with him to ignore it and keep going. They didn’t even slow at the screams and sounds of fighting. Lee was their only concern.
The security panel slid aside as they reached their goal. Another advantage of being an alien hybrid Super, as hard as they’d run, none of them were winded or even tired.
Two men were waiting with guns drawn. They wore black suits with bulletproof vests and didn’t immediately fire. Lee held up both hands.
“We’re the good guys,” he said. “I swear.”
The agents fired single shots simultaneously to either side of Lee. Each struck in the eye, Cheryl and the other Super went down.
Lee rushed forward and grabbed hold of both guns before they could take aim at him.
“They’re not ours!” Anna warned. “Quick, head right! Run!”
He ignored the pain of each bullet slamming into his middle and swung the guns inward. Both agents took a slug to the leg and cried out. Lee snatched handfuls of hair, smashed their heads together and pushed them over.
“How far?” he asked and ran down the hall. He’d been to Delta before but not from the stairwell. “I don’t recognize any of this.”
“Left,” Anna said.
He sensed two men and stopped, waited for them to pass.
“Is anyone on our side?” he asked in frustration. When the two men moved on, he rounded the corner and ran.
“It’s a big complex,” Anna said in way of explanation. “Cerberus is actually three separate divisions. We’ve had power struggles in the past but nothing like this.”
Two more corridors and a similar encounter with guards, Lee finally recognized where he was. The Delta training room was just ahead.
Anna said, “I have no proof, but I think Axial is behind this.”
“Discord,” Lee said as he approached the steel doors. Details in his mind were clicking into place, though he’d yet to fully work them out. “He wasn’t framed,” Lee conjectured. “He’s a mole. Maybe one of many.”
The doors slid open to either side and didn’t close once he’d entered.
“So it’s more than just revenge,” Anna said.
The training room was huge, a square the length of a football field. Will, Brody and Alexandra stood on the other side, and in the middle of the bare chamber were twelve open body bags. Realization of the plan hit Lee like a punch to the stomach. It all hinged on him.
Will said over comms, “We’ve been infiltrated.”
Lee reached the bodies and recognized two right away. It was Tammy and Daniel Sherwood, the brother and sister from the park. He didn’t know the others, but for one on the far left. That one would forever be etched in his memories.
It was Frank Culvers.
“Better hurry,” Brody said to Lee. “I can’t put up shields until you’re done.”
Alexandra started opening portals and gathering imps. She didn’t have to voice her feelings. Neither of them did. Lee could feel it from across the room. They would work to face this crisis, but they were no longer a team. He walked over to join them.
Lee looked out at the corpses. “You told me not to.”
“And now I’m telling you different,” Will said. “You’ve seen Jim’s power. He can bring down this entire complex on our heads if we don’t stop him. We can deal with the fallout later. For now, it’s one catastrophe at a time.”
“I won’t bring him back,” Lee said and began to gather his swarm over the corpses. “You can order me all you want. I won’t do it.”
“That’s just great,” Alexandra said with a humorless laugh. “Where was this conscience when you killed him?”
The air above the bodies swirled with the blue glow of a trillion motes, a cloud growing denser with every breath.
“I killed him,” Lee said and gritted his teeth with the effort, “for the same reason I won’t bring him back.”
Brody said, “I don’t think you get what’s coming. It’s not just a few dudes. It’s a freaking army.”
Lee directed the swarm of cells down into each body. All but Frank’s. It had taken nearly everything he had to bring Tammy’s body back to life in the alley that day. He was afraid he didn’t have what it would take for ten more. Not unless he had time—
Jim and nine other Supers stepped through the doors.
“Ah shit, man,” Brody said and took hold of Lee’s arm. Lee wasn’t even aware he was about to collapse. “Come on, come on.”
“Now,” Will said. The steel doors closed, and thick bars fell into place, locking it down. He came over to hel
p Lee stand. “Can you work through Brody’s shields?”
Sweat rolled off Lee’s nose as he gave a nod.
“Go get ‘em,” Alexandra said, and twenty demons scrabbled off.
Jim threw his arms wide and laughed, welcoming the tiny demons that rushed toward him. The others laughed as well and spread out, powers coming to life in a variety of colors.
Lee knew there wasn’t enough time, even with forced replication. The only way he saw left was to use his own body. He watched with a sort of numb fascination as the skin of his hands darkened and began to crack. Cells left him in a trail of motes, passed through Brody’s layered shields and joined with the eleven bodies.
“So cute!” Jim called out and vibrated a demon into paste. “I hope you brought more!”
The other nine stopped to deal with the imps, as Alexandra growled and summoned more. Jim kept walking past, showering the floor with the blood and exploded bits of any demon that got too close.
Alexandra had always said she was afraid to open too many portals, that she might not be able to control or keep tabs on more than a dozen. In the enclosed room, with their lives in danger, she’d lost all concern. Over a hundred demons rushed headlong to their death in an attempt to keep her from harm.
Will said, “Now would be a good time.”
“I’m trying,” Lee rasped.
Brody had broken off to focus on the shields. Will kept Lee on his feet, shouldering his weight.
Jim reached the body bags. “What do we have here? I didn’t know you were a collector!” He laughed and kicked Tammy’s foot. “Maybe I should start one of my own.”
Eleven pairs of ghostly blue eyes opened at once. The corpses sat up. Startled, Jim took a step back. They each turned their heads his way and began climbing to their feet.
“Huh,” Jim said. “That’s not good.”
Lee started to heal.
Will practically hugged him as he set Lee down against the wall. “I knew you could do it,” he said. “Just rest now. We got this.”
Lee looked out at the ensuing fight, but his attention was drawn to Will’s hand, where he had a thumb and forefinger to a button on either side of his watch. Another contingency, he assumed, either ready to blow the complex or maybe just this room. Is that why he had it sealed?