Heroes Without, Monsters Within

by Sheryl Nantus

  Hunter’s attention remained on the laptop tablet. His fingers moved over the screen, expanding and shrinking the various windows.

  He put the tablet down beside him and pulled out the uniform.

  My heart skipped a beat as he smoothed out the wrinkles in the black leather.

  “You’ve got a camera there as well,” Jessie chirped. “But I wouldn’t turn it on unless you like those pictures of never-ending corridors and stairs and such that go on into infinity.”

  Hunter stood up and looked at me, holding the tablet in front of him like a shield. “I’ll stay on the plane, promise. I can’t do a good job from way back here. I need to be close to you and the rest of the team.” His eyes met mine, soft and accepting. “Thanks for not cutting me out, Jo. It’s not what May would have wanted.” The tone switched to professional. “Now what?”

  I closed my eyes, breaking the connection. It was unfair of him to bring her up. It was unfair of May to lay that responsibility on me.

  On the other hand, no one ever told me life was fair.

  “Jo?” Hunter repeated.

  I opened my eyes to see them all staring at me, waiting to see how I’d respond to Hunter’s question.

  “Jo? Now what?”

  Chapter Eight

  “Now I need some me time.” I spun on my heel and headed for the stairs. “I’ll be on the roof if you need me. Let’s concentrate right now on how to draw these punks out and beat their asses. Dig into those files, crank up your imaginations and figure out how to put these two down for the count.” I stopped at the doorframe. “Nothing’s too far-fetched to suggest. Nothing. We’ve got a deadline, so all options are open to us.”

  I ran up the stairs and pushed the door open. The bright sun blasted into my eyes for a second, compounding the low throb behind my eyes until I got used to it.

  The previous indentation in the gravel from my last meditation effort was still there, so I settled into it, letting the stone pebbles grind into the leather pants. I wasn’t worried about getting them dirty.

  I closed my eyes and headed for my quiet place. A safe, quiet place where I could just be and not be at the same time.

  “He’s right, you know.” In my mind’s eye Mike settled down beside me, his long dark legs folding under him. He was wearing black shorts and a white T-shirt. “You might be the leader of the team, but you need some help. Don’t be getting all bitchy ’cause Jessie figured out how to make it work.”

  “I have to stop hallucinating,” I mumbled. Below us a streetcar screeched to a halt, the metal-on-metal screams setting off a chain reaction of car horns.

  “It’s inner perspective.” He held up a finger. “Jessie means well. Besides, you know what Hunter’s going to do if you leave him here?”

  “He’s going to drive Jessie and David crazy.”

  “Exactly. And, despite what you may want to forget, he is a Guardian. He took May into the field plenty of times and stayed behind the curtain.”

  “But that was for show,” I retorted. “This is life and death. We’re not doing a choreographed dance. If we lose this next fight, we might be under the Agency’s thumb again.” I shuddered, visualizing Outrager rubbing his hands with glee as he paraded the team underground into one of the Agency bases. Or worse, going on the run for the rest of our lives, terrified and afraid of being captured.

  “True. So why handicap yourself by holding him back?” Mike’s low voice rumbled in my ear. “Let him do what he does best—command and control. May trusted him. You need to do the same. Trust your training. Trust your Guardian.”

  I reached out in my mind, touching the calmness and drawing it into me. “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Something tickled my right ear. Something that was definitely not Mike.

  I opened my eyes. Hunter sat beside me, his index finger running along my right earlobe. His legs stuck out in front of him, close enough to kick pebbles over the edge.

  “Okay?” he repeated.

  The headache grew smaller and dissipated, leaving a slight void behind my eyes. “I’m cool with you coming out with us. As long as you stay in the plane and don’t get on the battlefield.” I closed my eyes again. “We need someone in a neutral position to give status reports and orders. I can’t do that if I’m blasting Lamarr into next Tuesday. Just don’t… Just don’t…” I whispered. “Just don’t get killed and leave me.”

  Anything else I could have said disappeared into a blur as I found myself falling backwards, a pair of strong arms wrapping around me and a set of warm lips pressing against mine with an aching demand that I matched.

  “I’ll never leave you,” Hunter replied.

  I laid back with a sigh, letting him tug down the jacket zipper and nibble along my jaw and down my neck. He nipped at my exposed skin, starting up a flood of goose bumps.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this out here,” I protested. “The tabloids are going to have a field day.”

  “Where do you want to go?” he murmured. His hands slipped free and moved to my waist, fingers pushing the leather jacket apart and yanking my shirt up. “London? Paris? Las Vegas again?”

  “I want…” I gasped as his fingers brushed against bare skin. “Damn you, I can’t think.”

  Hunter chuckled. “I fail to see how that’s a problem.”

  My heels dug into the gravel, looking to get some traction as I shifted under him, a delicious heat surging through my body. His hands slid up to cup my breasts as I ran my hand along his bare back, jumping over the gauze bandage to feel tight, hot muscles.

  His sigh made me even dizzier. My left heel slipped along the rooftop, scattering gravel everywhere.

  An idea sprung into my mind. Half-formed and mewing like a kitten caught in a rainstorm, but an idea.

  I pushed Hunter’s hands away and sat up, panting as I caught my breath. He frowned at me, kneeling on the rooftop.

  “I do something wrong?” The concerned look on his face made me love him even more.

  “No. You did something right.” I scrambled to my feet and brushed the gravel off my butt. “You just helped me figure out how to beat them.”

  I headed for the stairs.

  “Don’t talk to me about beating,” I heard from behind me. He sounded a little ticked off. He’d live with it; I’d make it up to him later.

  Or we’d both be dead or on our way to an Agency prison and it wouldn’t matter.

  I jumped down the steps two at a time, landing in the loft with a loud crash. My knees protested, the sharp pains signaling I wasn’t as young as I thought I was.

  Jessie gawked from his computer. Steve and Peter were at the workout area, this time with Steve swinging some massive barbells with both hands while Peter did sit-ups, both wearing track pants and T-shirts. David poked his head around from the kitchen, wiping his hands with a dishtowel.

  “Where’s Lamarr’s file?” With my flushed face I must have looked like a madwoman.

  “Here.” Jessie reached under his computer to one of the precariously stacked piles of paper near his feet.

  “Thanks.” I grabbed the thick folder and scrambled to the couch and the coffee table. The file flew open, the stapled papers holding onto the thin cardboard by a thread as I threw it down in front of me.

  “What’s going on?” David asked.

  “I think I’ve just figured out Lamarr’s weakness.” I sat down and flipped through the pages. “Where’s the section about how he uses his powers? How he sees it?”

  The other members of the team gathered around me with confused looks galore. Hunter sat beside me, still breathing hard.

  “Here.” He took the file and turned to a blue-bordered page.

  I scanned the printed words, the small kernel of hope heating up inside me.

  “Lamarr’s power, his ability to manipulate the earth, he has to put a field around the hunk of whatever and then manipulate it.” I held up my hand, sending sparks from finger to finger.

  “Right,” Peter said, moving to
sit on the edge of the chair. He wiped his sweaty forehead on one shirt sleeve.

  “Sure. It’s sort of how you work yours,” Hunter added, looking less pissed and more curious with every second. “You pull the waves from each object. He’s got to surround the object and then move it. It takes a bit of concentration, as you know, but that’s how he tosses a rock.”

  “And if there’s a lot of objects for him to control? Like, say, gravel or sand?” I turned up the sole of my running shoe and plucked a single pebble from one of the rubber treads. “If he’s got to dig through these to get down to the bedrock to get something large and heavy, would that be tough?”

  The growing grin on Hunter’s face told me the answer. “He’d still be able to toss stuff at you, but it’d be a lot of work. He’d have to concentrate on keeping a field around each object, even if he just pushed it to one side to get to the bigger pieces. Sort of like running in water, a lot more work to get somewhere.” A puzzled look replaced the smile. “What are you thinking?”

  “Get me Lamarr on the link,” I said to Jessie.

  “You want me to put you on the old link frequency? Unencrypted? Open to any super who’s listening?” he asked. “Wide open?”

  “Yep, hook me up worldwide. I’ve got the perfect place to meet and defeat these two. Now I just need to get them there.” I stood up and turned, colliding with Hunter who had done the same. He caught me, swinging me around and back on my feet. His grin was tempered with a bit of frustration.

  “You know where to call them out?”

  “I know where to beat them down.” I laughed, the void in my brain replaced by a giddy sense of destiny. “I know the perfect place.”

  Jessie shrugged but kept working the keyboard.

  David walked towards us, wiping his hands. “Is this wise? You’re not fully recovered from your last fight and the one before that.” He gestured towards my side where my ribs had taken a thumping from the alien attack. On cue, they throbbed. “You need more time to rest.” He nodded at Hunter. “And I don’t even need to say anything about you.”

  I shook my head. “I’d love to have another week off for everyone to heal up, but we’ve got to do this now. We can’t wait until the deadline passes and the Agency comes for our asses, we’ve got to get this fight set up on our terms. And win.” I pulled away from Hunter, rewarding him with a fast kiss. “We’re heading for Nevada. Pack the sunscreen.”

  “Nevada? As in Las Vegas again?” Peter stretched out for a towel and wiped his face. “I just got used to being in this time zone.”

  “The entire state?” Jessie hit a key. The big-screen television lit up, displaying a web page. It flipped around to show a satellite image of the area around Vegas. “What am I looking for here?”

  “That.” I tapped one small section of the screen with a finger. “He’s going to come because he thinks he can beat us on his terms.”

  “Which he will,” Hunter interjected, “unless you have something up your sleeve that’s going to render his powers moot. As in fighting in a lake.” He peered at the screen. “Which you seem to have avoided with your decision.” The skepticism in his voice grew with each word.

  “Nevada is one huge earth-twister’s heaven,” Jessie protested. “What makes that spot any different from the Strip or anywhere else?”

  “Trust me on this. It’s different. I’ll explain as soon as I get this set up with the little bastard.” I looked at Jessie. “Are we live yet?”

  “Say the word and I’ll put you back online. I can’t guarantee that he’ll be listening, but I can’t say he won’t be.” His finger hovered over a single key.

  I nodded. “Do it. Everyone stay quiet, please.”

  Jessie’s finger tapped the Q button.

  “Hey, Brian. You out there, you pussy?” I laughed. “I gotta tell you, that was a nice stunt there in Vegas. Even if you had to have a girl save your ass.”

  There was a clicking noise in my ear. Once, twice. More than just static.

  “Guess it’s not hard to tell who’s wearing the pants in your team, eh? Maybe I should have been talking to Rachael instead of you, let her decide what you two do. Seems she’s the one who has the real power in this team-up. Got more balls than you and not afraid to use ’em.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” I could hear his teeth grinding between every word. That or he was eating iron filings for a snack.

  “Look, you want to do this smackdown, then let’s do this right. You, me, my boys, your boss and your girl get together for one final fight.”

  “I don’t got any boss.”

  I didn’t need any speech analysis to tell he was lying.

  “Then it’s just us,” I continued. “What do you say? Feel like a straight-up fight instead of sneaking around like a little girl who just wet her panties?”

  “Why should we do this?” Lamarr asked. “We can just sit back and collect our money soon enough. We don’t need to fight you guys again.”

  Bastard had more brains than I gave him credit for. But I knew his type, full of piss and pride.

  “Because you know you’ve always wanted to win a fight, Lamarr. All those years screwing around in the B-list fights, all those battles you had to throw ’cause the good guys always won, and you got stuck on the shit list with no girls, no parties, no nothing but a clean pair of underwear at the end of the day and a pat on the ass from your Guardian.”

  The answering growl told me I was on the right track.

  I raised my voice to a shout. “I know I wasn’t an A-lister, but I’m as close as you’re going to get now. I took down a fucking alien invasion, I rode with Metal Mike.” I thumped my chest, grimacing as the ribs protested the machismo move. “You want to start your evil villain career off with a bang? Take me down in a fair fight. If you can.”

  There was a notable pause on the line during which I both held my breath and took another cup of hot tea from David.

  “So that’s what’s in it for me. What’s in it for you?” Lamarr snarled.

  I swallowed a mouthful of tea and pride. “Survival,” I replied. “If you walk away with that money, the Agency’s going to have control of my ass again, and I can’t live with that. I’d rather go down in a fight and die than have those bastards put me in a cage again.” I lowered my voice. “We may be on opposite sides, but you know what I’m talking about. And as one super to another—you owe it to me to at least give me a good death.”

  More deep breathing. I didn’t take my eyes off the cup in my hand, studying the white ceramic mug.

  “And your team, they’re good with this?”

  I looked up to see Steve and Peter staring at me. They both nodded in unison, a slow, united response.

  Hunter moved over to stand beside them. He shook his head, glaring at me.

  “We’re good with it. Winner takes all. You kill us, no one’s going to get in your way for that money. We take you out, we take you out. Game over.”

  “I can respect that,” Lamarr said. “So where do you want to do this?”

  I looked at Hunter. “There’s an old training facility about fifty miles north of Las Vegas. No civilians, no one holding back.”

  Dead silence. I licked my lips, hoping he’d take the bait. Or his boss would.

  “You mean Cherries ’n’ Lemons?”

  “Stupid Agency name, but yes. That’s it.” Stupid was putting it mildly.

  Another long minute of static. Hunter caught my eye and shook his head again, harder this time.

  “Sounds good. When?”

  “Give us six hours to get there by plane. I’m assuming you have your own transportation.”

  Lamarr laughed. “Yep, I’ll be riding the Rachael Express.” There was a noise on the line I couldn’t identify. Or didn’t want to. “You’ve got seven hours. Be there or we walk away and we never talk again. Make sure you’ve got your will made out, bitch. I’m going to ride your ass to Hell and back again. No Metal Mike around to save you now.”

  The
line went dead. I made a rolling motion with my hand to Jessie to cut the connection.

  I stayed silent for a few minutes while he worked on the keyboard, securing my link again. I wasn’t going to open my mouth until I was sure I was safe.

  Unfortunately that left the door open for everyone else.

  “You are not going to go out there and die.” David wagged his finger in my face, his face scarlet with rage. “I did not allow you to do all this to my bookstore so that you could throw your life away for the sin of pride.”

  “I’m not holding back on him. Or her. Not this time, not with no civilians around.” Steve cracked his knuckles, the gunshot sound echoing around the room. “I don’t care if he thinks he’s hot shit—I can beat his ass down and have enough left over to take her out.”

  Peter sat on the sofa and cradled his head in his arms.

  Hunter said nothing. He picked up his tablet and studied the screen, avoiding looking at me.

  Jessie gave one final bash on the keyboard with both thumbs. “Done. You are officially off the air.”

  “Okay.” I stretched my hands over my head, listening to the snap, crackle and pop of my spine. “Now can everyone shut the fuck up?”

  The four men froze in place. I twisted my neck from side to side and rolled my shoulders forward, just as Mike had taught me in our warm-up exercises. “We’ve got to be on a plane yesterday. Jessie, call the airport and tell the crew to be ready to go wheels-up as soon as we arrive. Steve, Peter—get your game faces on. Wear the new gear; no better time to try ’em out. David…” I turned towards the man, seeing a combination of fear and anger on his face.

  My heart broke, just a little bit. I’d done so much to this wonderful elderly man who, so many years ago, took pity on a woman down and out on her luck, offering her a job behind the counter at his bookstore.

  “I’ll need some snacks for the trip. May I please have some of that Montreal smoked meat on rye? I promise to replace it when we get back.” I looked at him. “When we all get back.”

  He relaxed a bit on the last sentence, running a hand over his chin. “Mustard, I assume?”