“Any time now…”
There are only a few hundred gigabytes of data. Ten more seconds. Done. I can work on putting the sectors back together after we leave, but Amelia?
“Yeah?
They haven’t admitted a new student since Mr. Kana’s death.
“Maybe they can’t find a strong enough telepath to ride shepherd on the kids?”
Their public record shows them admitting over a hundred empaths and at least twenty telepaths in the intervening years. I can find no internal records of them living here.
“What the hell?”
This stinks to high heaven. A school for mental powers with no students and a telepath behind it all. Is Mr. Kana really dead? Could he be behind it all, somehow faked his death? That doesn’t make sense, though. He died five years ago. My parents went missing long before that.
The door slides open as I walk back in. Kate is standing, leaning over the desk with her finger in Mrs. Mistry’s face.
Contaminated atmo detected, switching to internals.
She must really have the juice amped up. They’re both screaming at each other. I’ve never seen Kate so angry.
“You know damn well no mugger killed him. What is the school hiding?”
“I’m afraid you’ve exceeded your welcome, Domino. Take your guest and leave.”
Yeah, that isn’t going to happen.
“Where are all the students?” I ask.
Kate turns to look at me then her eyes unfocus the way they do when she’s doing her thing.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Mrs. Mistry replies.
Kate’s head snaps around, “You’re lying. You can’t lie to me. What is she talking about?”
The headmistress opens her mouth to reply then stops, abruptly sitting.
“Why aren’t there any students on campus?” Kate demands.
“More importantly, why have you publicly admitted students for the last five years but have none of them here? Where did they all go?” I add.
She looks back and forth between the two of us. I can see in her eyes she’s afraid. I’m no empath but I know what fear looks like, I’ve seen it on my own face enough times.
“Listen, you have to understand,” she says, patting down her jacket before reaching over to her desk and opening a drawer, “There isn’t a lot I can do. I have no—”
She pulls out a large black semi-automatic pistol, places the barrel to her head and pulls the trigger.
The explosion of sound is deafening in the small room. My audio synthesizers protect me but Kate is left holding her ears. Glass shatters above us followed by a scream and then a person plummets past her office window to land on the sidewalk.
There are gunshots and other sounds of chaos on the campus. I’m not sure what is going on.
“Kate, everyone on campus is committing suicide, we have to leave!”
Her eyes go wide, “Perry?” She runs to the window and vanishes. Her friend, right. If everyone here is programmed to kill themselves if too many questions are asked, then I can only imagine what comes next.
The State Police are en route. I just picked up their signal. A Parker alert has been issued for the school. Two superhumans are rampaging, killing the staff. The Nightwatch is also on the way, ETA three minutes. I think this is a setup, Amelia. Whoever is behind this was waiting for us.
The Nightwatch? New York’s super team. If California’s team is a joke then they are the exact opposite. We can’t tangle with them and something tells me we won’t get the chance to explain our side of the situation.
“Epic, Ghost Protocol, wipe everything down.”
Two things happen. A canister of aerosolized bleach explodes from my shoulder compartment wiping out any trace Kate was ever here. Then, Epic does his best to wipe all the camera feeds and any other electronic evidence of our visit.
Once outside, I survey the massacre. I only find three bodies, but my thermal readings aren’t promising. Kate appears next to me, holding an unconscious Perry. He’s bleeding from a grievous head wound. It looks like the bullet creased his head. She must’ve gotten to him at the last possible second.
“When I took the gun away from him he started pounding his head against a brick wall. Who would do this?”
“The same person who took my parents. Can you get him to Seattle? Admit him to the hospital? I get the feeling when he wakes up he will just keep trying.”
“Good call. Want me to come back for you?”
“No, I’ll fly back. I need some time to think anyway. Meet you back home.”
She nods and vanishes.
Thirty seconds.
“Stealth mode, lock up and lift off.”
Ihave Epic put us on a ballistic course back to Phoenix. I need time to think so we keep it just above Mach Two. According to the clock, it will take a little under an hour and a half to get home. That’s fine with me. There’s so much to process I don’t even know where to begin. Not to mention the fact that I’m exhausted.
Either someone has been killing telepaths and empaths or making them disappear, one or the other. Knowing our enemy is one gives me a couple of theories about what has happened to them, right at the top is competition. Maybe when a telepath is strong enough they can sense others? The way Kate sparred with Sam Sykes, her powers were stronger so she won.
Why maintain the school then? Why not just have… well, I’m stupid.
“Epic, search for everyone who has publicly gone to the school since Mr. Kana’s death. Are they anywhere else?”
Negative. Once they go to the school their public record vanishes. Amelia, upon further research I’m not sure anyone telepath would have sufficient strength for this. Even if he or she were capable of remote control… There were hundreds of students. Each with family and friends. None of them have ever been reported missing or so much as a 911 call made. This would require many telepaths to perform this level of alteration.
“You’re saying we’re not dealing with one rogue telepath but several… great. How many would it take to do this efficiently?”
At least twenty. All F4 or F5. With a high probability that there are more than that.
“Are there that many on record?”
Negative. As Kate said, there are not many F5 telepaths. Mr. Kana was one, Mariposa of the Brigade is another. There are four others in the entire world. A half dozen F4’s and thirty-one F3’s.
“I don’t suppose it’s possible that almost the entire world’s population of telepaths are in some kind of secret society? We already know whoever’s masterminding this wants world domination. And according to Pythia, that’s exactly what they will get.”
The Oracle said she saw two futures. One where we cause the end and one that is despotism and slavery. While one telepath could conceivably hold the world together, a group of them could do it easily. While there is most certainly one person in charge it would appear that we are—
“We’re fighting an army, great.”
It would seem so.
“An army of telepaths who control one of the largest companies in the world, have their hands in multiple supervillains and are bent on world domination. This isn’t 1938, Epic. Who wants to control the world anymore?”
I don’t have enough data to suggest motive.
“Me neither,” I sigh.
The lights of Kansas City pass below. The interactive map pings the halfway point.
“Okay, I’m going to try and sleep, wake me up when we need to start our approach.”
Closing my eyes, I try to push out all the terrible visions of the future. Pythia said there wasn’t a future if I continued my crusade, as she called it. Not that humanity would be hurt, but simply had no future. This is the stuff of nightmares and sleep doesn’t come.
Five minutes out. I’m contacting Phoenix ATC for clearance. Carlos left you a message that he has returned home and will see you tomorrow. Luke is waiting for you at HQ with dinner. Kate made it to Seattle safe and sound. She is staying
there for a day to make sure her friend is okay. ATC has given us clearance, follow the yellow brick road.
A yellow path highlights on my HUD with speed and maneuvering directions, when to slow down, and when to turn. The thrusters cut and gravity takes over with the occasional assist from my stabilizers. No need to fight momentum when wind resistance and friction do the work for me.
Once I’m down under three hundred feet I use direct thrust and slow down even more. Phoenix flashes under me in a colorful chorus of lights and sounds. I’m not a huge fan of going out in the city at night. From this high up, though, it’s breathtaking.
Coming up on—Amelia—we have guests. I’m sorry I didn’t see them sooner, they must have been jamming.
My HUD clears of the ATC directions and shows the HQ. On the other side of the parking lot is a familiar looking VTOL. The Brigade is loitering around beneath the wing while Captain Freedom and Luke speak a few feet away. Epic tags everyone with identifiers.
Freedom, the hockey-mask-wearing super soldier. Torque, forcefield generation. Comanche, directed energy beams. Mariposa… flight and telepathy. Behemoth, invulnerability, and strength.
A hundred feet out I spot their escort, six bipedal robots painted with army camo each with a plasma gun for an arm.
That would answer the question on Mariposa. We should assume the Brigade is under the control of our antagonist and act accordingly.
“Roger that, buddy. However, I don’t want to see the team get hurt… let’s see what is what. Just to be on the safe side let’s put ECM to max.”
I land hard a few feet from Luke, sending up a plume of dust. Mr. Perfect, Fleet, and Glacier are in costume and hanging back, which speaks volumes for this visit.
I glance at Mariposa, she’s fluttering around by the aircraft behind her team, she doesn’t take her eyes off me while I walk toward Freedom.
Our Faraday cage is catching interference.
I see it, the metallic ink on the outside of the armor glitters like diamonds in a spotlight. So much for this being a friendly visit.
“Captain Freedom, good to see you again,” I say as I stand next to Luke. My boyfriend doesn’t look happy. He flashes a worried glance at me as I speak.
“Arsenal, I’m afraid we’re going to need you to come with us. Please take off the armor and…”
I hold up my hand. “Hold up the horses there skipper. I’m not going anywhere with anyone and I’m certainly not going to take off my armor. Care to explain what this is about?”
Then, to Epic, “Broad spectrum ECM, let’s make sure she doesn’t take control of our friends.”
As if he were completely prepared he pulls out a tablet and holds it up for me. The video playing is shaky and grainy at best. It shows a building, the one from Boston, and a dark figure crashing into the roof. After several enhancements the dark figure takes form and it could be me. I know it is, but they don’t.
Then the image shifts to New York. It shows me and Kate entering the school then the next shot is of us leaving, her with Perry and me by myself. The screen shifts showing eleven bodies in various states of death.
“We’re arresting you for the destruction of private property and the suspected murder of eleven people. Not to mention the kidnapping of a security guard. If tell us where Domino is, this would go easier on you.”
I’m the dumbest smart person in the world. I was so fixated on stopping whoever’s behind this, I didn’t think about them being ready for me legally. They couldn’t get their grubby hands on my armor illegally so they just waited and watched for me to step outside the law. They must have hidden cameras in New York, knowing I would go there. And then I dragged Kate into it. Epic warned me it was a setup, I should have taken more precautions.
Awesome.
“Listen, Freedom, there is a perfectly innocent explanation for this, I—”
“This is you, not some trick?” Luke asks The hurt on his face is plain. My heart constricts in my chest. As if I didn’t have enough going on.
“Luke, I found a lead to who took my parents.”
“That’s great but why didn’t you tell me?”
“Every piece of evidence,” and I say this to both of them while glancing at the butterfly-winged woman thirty feet away, “Suggests there is a telepath behind it. If I told you anything they would be able to read your thoughts and without knowing who it was…”
Luke nods, I can see he understands when he puts his hand on my shoulder.
“That aside, you broke the law, Arsenal. I need you to take off the armor and come with me,” Freedom says again.
“You know I can’t do that. In here I’m safe, once it’s off, there’s nothing stopping Fluttershy over there from controlling me the way her boss controlled my parents.”
That makes him pause. She reacts, even though she doesn’t have super hearing. She must be riding shotgun in his mind and then I know the jig is up.
Freedom takes a swing at Luke. His powers kick in and he steps back a heartbeat before it connects.
“Diamondbacks, protect Arsenal!” Luke shouts.
We are seriously outgunned.
“Thrusters, we need distance,” I yell. Epic tags everyone as we climb. The one I’m most worried about is—
Alarms scream as we slam into the ground. My HUD blares red as outside pressure increases ten-fold.
Localized gravity increase.
“Fleet, take out Torque. Mr. Perfect, engage Mariposa, keep her off balance so she can’t use her mind control powers.”
I’m guessing it’s probably hard enough for her to maintain control of her own team let alone break through the ECM to take over mine.
“On it,” Fleet says.
“As you wish,” Mr. Perfect replies.
The gravity field lets up almost immediately. Rolling over, I see Fleet holding Torque with both hands as he spins in a circle fast enough to create a small tornado.
Comanche steps forward and fires off his twin ion beams. Tommy vanishes in a swirl of dust reappearing a few feet away to throw a rock at him. Torque sails off in the distance and I don’t envy his landing.
An ice blue hand reaches down to help me up.
“I don’t know you and I don’t know your team. But, do you really think you can help me?” Glacier asks.
“I do,” I say, as she pulls me up.
“Then I’m on your side, what do you want me to do?”
I glance around at the battle. Luke and Freedom are going toe-to-toe, Perfect is keeping Mariposa busy with his constructs, and Tommy has Torque down for the count leaving Comanche and Behemoth… who doesn’t seem to be doing anything? Just leaning against the plane as if she doesn’t have a care in the world.
“If Mariposa has a free second, she’ll mind control you. Keep her busy?”
Glacier grins and skates off behind Perfect before sending out jets of ice at the fluttering telepath.
Torque drags himself up from the truck that stopped his momentum. We can’t have that. Three bean bags hit him in the chest with the force of a car crash. He falls face down.
Comanche rakes his eyebeams across the field toward me.
“Floor it!”
Comanche and the four robots are firing wildly trying to score a hit. I know the plasma weapons will take me out, I’m not sure about Comanche’s ion beams though.
“Epic, find me a targeting solution for the four robots. We know a shot through the chest will finish them. Let’s set it up like pins.”
Affirmative.
Green balls of death fly through the air and I get the feeling the robots aren’t trying to kill me so much as keep me from fleeing.
Twin ion beams of white-hot fire flash through the sky. A sign explodes, followed by a car. I have to stay low or he’ll just flash over me. As long as he might hit his team he’ll be careful.
I fire off a couple of bean bags at Comanche but he just vaporizes them. I’m too far away for the IP Cannons and I don’t want to kill him. Maybe I can ta
ke out two birds with one stone.
Robots, hard left, plant and fire.
I do it. I come to a crashing halt. Lift my arms and the moment they line up Epic fires. The hyper-accelerated silicate rips through two of them setting off secondary explosions.
“Luke, King’s Gambit.” We have our own comms and he hears me. We’ve worked on moves before and this one is tricky. I leap into the air at full acceleration.
“Epic, ready the kinetic field…”
Ready.
I accelerate hard in the limited space available. He steps back from Freedom with a kick that lands on his chest. Reaching out to me, we lock hands and I slam feet first into the ground. Epic triggers my kinetic field to simulate a few thousand pounds so I have far more mass than normal and we spin. Using my momentum and Luke’s, we manage to one full rotation before I let go. Like a human missile, he flies right at Comanche.
The Brigade member held off his Ion Beams when I got close to Freedom and now he’s unprepared for the hit. Luke crashes with the force of a truck. I can hear bones breaking from here. But what can I do? The man’s powers are deadly. It’s either hurt him or kill him. Mind-controlled or not I don’t feel like murdering people who think they’re doing right.
A size twelve boot hits me in the head with staggering force.
“Freedom, listen. You’re being mind controlled. Mariposa isn’t on the side of justice here, she’s manipulating you.”
He shakes his head, “You’re the one on the wrong side, Arsenal. You just don’t know it yet. Behemoth, end this.”
“Epic, brace for—”
Behemoth grins as she pushes herself off the plane, arms out wide she leaps forward and slaps her hands together.
The thunderclap ripples before her, obliterating the ground and throwing everyone off their feet. The shock wave slams into Tommy, knocking him to the ground. Luke leaps in front of Glacier to take the brunt of it. Mr. Perfect slamms into a car crumpling like so much tissue paper. The remaining two robots explode as the shock ripples through the air.
The force wave rolls over me since we still had our kinetic field set to root us in the ground. When the dust clears only Tommy and I are still standing. Their team still has Freedom, Behemoth, and Mariposa.
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