Heroes Without, Monsters Within

by Sheryl Nantus

  Lamarr wasn’t wearing any sort of eyewear and wasn’t so lucky. He grimaced and took a step back, instinctively lifting his hands off the ground to cover his eyes as the stone shrapnel flew every which way. Rachael reacted the same way and threw her arms in front of her face with a soft cry. She stumbled to one side, away from her captor.

  “Bingo.” Hunter’s word echoed in my ear. “Now go get him. Divide and conquer. Peter’s fine, don’t worry about him. Expect reinforcements as soon as he gets ’em on the march.”

  I jumped out in front of Steve and let loose with a double blast from both hands, hitting Lamarr dead center in the chest. Rachael screamed and stepped away, placing a good distance between her and the rogue. I walked forward, planning to put my boots to his head and end this fast. If I could knock him out before he could recover from the shock, it’d be a home run and we’d be feasting in Vegas tonight.

  Except he wasn’t on the ground curled up in a fetal position, twitching and gagging on his own lips.

  Lamarr rolled onto his knees and laughed, his pink tongue licking his lips as he leered at me. He shook his head, lifting his index finger and waving it at me in a classic no, no move.

  “Not this time, girlie.” He staggered to his feet and sneered. “Now it’s my turn.”

  The bastard had just shrugged off my best shot as if I’d tossed confetti at him.

  “Okay, Hunter,” I exhaled, my heart racing. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  “Fly.” It was a command, not a suggestion. I made a mental note to discuss Hunter’s tone in the field later.

  I leapt into the air, gaining altitude as fast as I could. If I could get around him, behind him, I’d be able to…

  Push him into a puddle. Toss pebbles at him. Maybe grab his wallet.

  I hovered overhead, confused and lost. I’d never been in a situation like this where my powers were useless.

  It sucked.

  Big time.

  So much for leading the Protectors.

  Lamarr laughed again as Steve ran towards him. The mammoth steelworker let out a bear-like growl as he threw his arms open to grab the rogue.

  “He’s got something in that jacket, something that’s disrupting your attacks,” Hunter said. “Jessie, you hearing this?”

  “Affirmative,” the calming voice answered. “I’m working on a solution right now.”

  Lamarr turned his back on Steve and made a motion towards Rachael, twitching one finger. She paused a second before stretching out her arms and making an upward motion.

  A burst of air swung up under Lamarr, the sand spurting out from under his feet. The super blasted skyward before Steve could reach him, leaving the strongman skidding through the dirt.

  I channeled everything I had into my hands again, the tingling over my skin growing to the point that I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Still, it wouldn’t make a whit of difference if it didn’t affect him. I might as well be slapping him with a bouquet of roses.

  I leapt up, saving my energy for later. There was nothing else I could do.

  Of course, Lamarr falling to the ground like a ton of bricks might solve the problem for me. I moved to one side and watched as he reached the apex of Rachael’s toss, the bastard continuing to smirk. His face was still flushed, but he wasn’t sweating anymore.

  And he was nowhere near me. There was a good twenty feet between us, and I didn’t see how he planned to either reach me or land safely.

  He tapped the right strap of his backpack twice. The canvas sack fell away from him like a snake shedding its skin.

  Except instead of a new skin, the super snake had a new jet pack. The twin rocket motors roared to life as he leant to one side and angled himself at me with a scream of glee.

  I froze in place, spellbound by the image of a flightless idiot flying. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen jet packs before, lots of supers and Guardians had used them. I just hadn’t expected to see one here.

  Especially since GroundPounder had never been assigned one.

  “Move it,” Hunter barked in my ear. “Move it, get it in gear, Jo. Get away from him.”

  I snapped out of my coma in time to shift to the left enough to let him shoot by me, his hands outstretched. I yanked my foot around and out of the way at the last possible moment to avoid his long slender fingers clawing at me.

  The jet pack coughed black smoke as he spun around in a dizzying sharp turn and headed towards me. He let out a roar and charged again, a maniacal look on his face.

  “Need. Ideas. Now,” I huffed as I flew out over the buildings, Lamarr in hot pursuit.

  “Don’t let him get you,” Hunter snapped. “If he pulls you down to the ground, you’re done for.”

  “I figured that one out on my own, thanks,” I snapped back. “Need more suggestions.”

  “Still working on it,” Jessie interrupted.

  “Uh, could use a little help with the girl,” Steve rumbled over the link. It sounded like he was in the middle of a windstorm. “Guess my charm wasn’t enough.”

  “I’m on it,” Peter responded. “Just another few minutes, dude. Got reinforcements on the way.” His voice was strained and high-pitched, as if he’d been inhaling helium.

  “Peter, are you okay?” I gasped as I whipped down an alleyway between two rickety wooden buildings. I let out a yelp as something brushed against my pants, but a fast glance down showed nothing but a deep gouge in the leather, courtesy of a stray nail sticking out of the wood.

  Either that or Lamarr needed a manicure really badly.

  “Just got the wind knocked out of me,” Peter replied with a sheepish tone. “Anchor yourself on something, Steve—help’s coming.”

  “That would be good.” Steve’s voice sounded more and more strained. “Because I’m about to go into fucking orbit. She’s still too scared to talk to us. She just keeps crying and sobbing.”

  I circled around with Lamarr still too close for comfort on my heels, the super making every twist and turn with uncanny accuracy. He’d been practicing with that thing, and I wondered again where he’d gotten it from.

  Or whose body he’d scavenged it from. Either way, he would’ve needed a teacher, and that pretty well proved the existence of a third super.

  Great. As if we didn’t have enough trouble on our hands.

  “Hunter, Jessie—scan the area for anyone else. Anyone else at all.” My stomach did a flip-flop as I spun around again. “If there’s a third rogue here, he’s got to be nearby, watching or helping or doing something. Let’s see if we can smoke him out. Heat scans, whatever. Peter, if you can multitask, send someone sniffing out the nearest humans.”

  I cut my speed to nothing then lashed out with my right foot as he plowed forward. My boot smashed into Lamarr’s forehead, leaving a dirty, sandy tread.

  “Get the fuck away from me,” I shouted, my panic level rising. Separating the two rogue supers fulfilled at least part one of my plan.

  Part two, however, didn’t entail having Lamarr strangle me in midair.

  I spun around, preparing to shoot again with both hands at full strength. At the last second I dropped my hands just a fraction from my usual center-torso shot.

  I knew it wouldn’t hurt him, but that wasn’t the point. He hadn’t been flying for as long as I had and didn’t have the experience or know the tricks Mike taught me when no one was looking.

  Physics came through for the win. The blast hit him below the belt, right in the family jewels, punching the smile off his face and replacing it with honest-to-goodness shock and pain.

  I never said I was a lady.

  He spun head over heels, arms flailing as he tried to reorient himself, cursing all the way. I kicked my throttle up to full again, taking advantage of his confusion to gain ground.

  “Could use some help as to how he’s shrugging my shots off,” I yelped into the link as I zipped around another corner. “And, you know, how to beat it.”

  “Working on it,” Jessie and H
unter responded at the same time.

  “Work faster.” I came into the original clearing to find Steve almost at the same height as I was—twenty feet above the ground. Clutching to the top of a battered old telephone pole, he bounced around in the center of a small tornado. I winced at seeing his hands, covered with blood, scrabbling to keep hold.

  I put on the brakes to avoid slamming into him or the vortex, painfully aware Lamarr was right behind me. Flattening myself against the nearest building allowed me to avoid being sucked in, but the winds buffeting me rose. I wouldn’t be able to hold onto the wall for long.

  Lamarr cursed as he flew through the vortex, barely missing Steve. He shot through the other side and down a side street, waving his hands in front of him as he brushed off sand, dirt, cleaned the bugs from his teeth. I’d managed to confuse him with my last attack, but I wouldn’t get that lucky again.

  He’d be back soon enough. We only had a few minutes to split the two rogues up permanently.

  I looked down at Rachael Hammond.

  Rachael stood off to one side next to an old empty water barrel, staring up at Steve with an intense glare, her eyes focused and intense. Her hands waved in the air in pseudo tai-chi movements, the slow maneuvers a direct contrast to the wind whirling around Steve and threatening to pull me in. Tears ran down her face as she sucked in deep breaths, choking and crying at the same time.

  “Peter, where are you?” I rasped as sand flew into my mouth. There was a silence on the link, just long enough to make me wonder if he’d run into Lamarr. Or our mysterious third man.

  “I’m right here, below you and to the left.”

  A hand motioned to me from the doorway of the house below me. He’d kept to the shadows and used the terrain.

  Dang, I felt like a proud mama.

  “Get ready for a rough landing, dude. Any second now,” Peter purred with pride.

  A heart-wrenching scream came from Rachael. She jumped around, brushing her hands against herself and screeching the entire while. Both hands went to her head, twisting her long blonde hair into knots as she leapt from one foot to the other.

  The whirlwind died down to nothing within seconds, depositing Steve in an undignified landing on his ass. A shock wave of dirt went out from under him.

  “Whuf,” he grunted. His hands flew behind him for balance as he shook his head, the goggle lenses catching the sunlight and bouncing it up at me.

  “What did you do?” I still couldn’t see anything wrong with Rachael, who was now scratching all over herself. Angry red gouges spread on her bare arms as she clawed at every part of her body. She dropped and rolled around in the dirt, her hands scrabbling and scraping any spot she could reach.

  “Ants. Fire ants, to be precise.” Peter sounded more than a little smug. “Nasty biting creatures, but it’ll keep her busy for the time being.”

  “Good idea.” I looked behind me to see Lamarr charging towards me at the same altitude, the jet pack belching dark smoke. “Don’t let her hurt herself, please. Start up negotiations and see if you can get her to calm down and switch sides. I gotta go.”

  I pushed myself away from the wall, my aching bones protesting, and kicked it into top gear.

  Lamarr glanced down at the young woman writhing on the ground. He didn’t even slow down but let out a string of curses that would make a sailor blush.

  I took advantage of the distraction to zip around a corner, grateful the goggles shielded my eyes from the harsh Nevada sun. Pinning my arms down by my side helped me gain a bit of speed, but there was no way I could keep running and dodging through the town. The jet pack could run for a few more hours—I knew I couldn’t. Lamarr could easily turn his attention to Peter and Steve at any second. I only hoped he hated me enough to keep chasing me.

  “We’ve got her under control. Peter called off the ants. They did a good job on her arms…” there was a note of concern in Steve’s voice, “…so she’s pretty upset, but she’s not fighting anymore. How are you going to deal with Lamarr?”

  “I’ll figure that out. Or my Guardian will,” I snapped.

  “Okay,” Hunter interrupted. “He’s got to have something on him that’s allowing him to dump your charges. Lightning interrupter or something in his clothing, whatever.”

  I dropped close to the ground, close enough to drag my fingers through the light sand. “Thank you, Mr. Science. And aside from stripping him naked, which makes me want to throw up, how do I beat it?”

  “You can’t.”

  I thought my heart was about to explode. “What?”

  “Look, trust me on this. First, charge up. Get that suit doing what it’s supposed to be doing, pull every bit of electromagnetic energy that you can into your body.”

  The way Hunter said it, it almost sounded sexy. Which to me was a clear indication that I was, in fact, losing my mind.

  Something brushed my ankle. I didn’t dare look. Instead I pushed my speed to the max, snapping full vertical to get out of the town. At this speed there was no way I could maneuver around the old buildings, and the last thing I needed was to crash into and through any of them. The jacket might provide some protection, but I’d end up grounded, as Hunter said. I couldn’t play that game with Lamarr.

  “Jo, listen to me,” Hunter said. “I want you to concentrate on pushing away all the light waves from your body.”

  “What?” I was well above the town now, working a spiral pattern that kept me gaining altitude. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Lamarr. He was closing on me with each turn, mimicking the old dogfights Mike and I had watched on the History channel. Son of a bitch had been trained on how to deal with flying supers.

  “Jo, trust me. You can do it. I know you can.” His voice changed, dropping to a low, husky tone. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be going into a meditative state or getting aroused. “Focus on the light waves, you can see them. Now just brush them away from your body like dust. Just shrug them off.”

  I drew a deep breath. “Okay. In three, two, one…”

  The world around me went black. No shadows, no shades of darkness, nothing but black.

  I screamed, not caring if Lamarr could hear me or not.

  “Hunter.” I flailed around in the air, unable to tell if I was flying towards the sun or about to plow into the hard Nevada dirt. “I’m blind. I just blinded myself.”

  “Listen to me,” he murmured in my ear, no shock or surprise in his voice. “Put your hands down at your sides and listen to me. Listen to me. Turn to your left, just a fraction.”

  The words were almost washed out by the loud pounding of my heart. I pushed down my rising panic and followed his instructions.

  “Okay, you’re level again. Now focus on what I’m saying. I’m tracking you using the GPS sewn into your jacket. The camera’s useless to me right now because you’re invisible. I’m pulling you around to the town. Lamarr can’t see you unless you start yelling again, so please don’t do that,” he purred. I knew it was an attempt to calm me down, but instead it was pissing me right off.

  “Invisible? Then why can’t I see?” I snapped.

  “Because you reflected all the light away from you. He can’t see you, but you can’t see either. It’s a science thing.” He sounded almost amused.

  I relaxed, forcing the panic down. “I never did well in science.”

  “It’s a first for me too, Jo.” Hunter chuckled. “Popped two cherries at once.”

  I smiled in spite of the circumstances.

  “Smartass.” I felt the surge of power start to weaken in spots, small leaks dotting my arms and legs. I concentrated and filled in the holes. “So why can I do this now? Would have been great to have this in New York City or in Toronto.”

  “Jessie and I figured that the mesh in the suit would magnify your resources, give you enough power to do this. It was only a theory before now.”

  “Hunter,” I warned. “This isn’t a fucking testing scenario. Steve and Peter are still down there, and with
out me to hunt, Lamarr’s going to go after them. And Rachael.” I suddenly realized the silence on the link from the other two members of my team. “Steve? Peter?”

  “We’re fine, but we’ve got a problem.” Steve’s gruff response shot my anxiety level up into the danger zone. “Little critters took Rachael out of the fight. But she’s upset. Very upset. You got to listen, Jo, you got to listen to what she’s telling us. Jessie and Hunter too.”

  “We’re listening.” I tried to sound calm, although flying blind wasn’t something I’d ever get used to. Or intended to.

  Hunter interrupted, “Jo, cut your speed just a bit. Good. Lamarr’s still searching for you. We’ve got a few more minutes before he heads back, I figure.”

  “Listen to me.” There was an urgency in Steve’s voice that chilled my blood. “She says the guy calling the shots, the Controller, he says he can turn the plugs back on. He can detonate the plugs, Jo. He can detonate our plugs.” The last words came out in a panicked rush.

  My concentration faltered for a second, and I almost fell out of the air. Hunter must have noticed it on his computer because he yelped like I’d bitten a sensitive part of his anatomy.

  “Jo. Focus.”

  “Right.” I snapped back into my game mind but felt sicker than ever. “Jessie, check it out. Scan for anything, everything around us. I asked about life signs. Expand that to include all radio frequencies, everything you can think of and more. Show me that genius mind of yours.”

  “On it.” The crisp response calmed me somewhat.

  “He’s bluffing, Steve. Trying to scare her and us.” I tried to sound casual, as if we were discussing hockey draft picks. “I mean, what better way to keep her under control?”

  “Yeah,” Steve mumbled. He didn’t sound convinced.

  “Just keep her talking and see what else you can find out. Specifically, what’s up with Lamarr’s jacket. I need to beat this bastard down soon.”

  A second later I heard a grunt on the line. Not a oh, good—David’s made tea grunt. More of a what the fuck grunt.

  “Jessie?”

  “Still negative on finding anyone, so if he’s there, he’s got some sort of shielding around him. Not impossible—these satellites have their limitations. But there’s…” His voice faltered. “There’s a series of pulses running up and down the frequencies. Nothing random about it, it’s an intentional search. If he gets a return signal from any of your plugs, he’ll know your specific numbers and be able to ping it.”