The Guardians Omnibus

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  Victor coiled his hand back but Blake found the strength to push through Victor’s oppressive power and caught Victor’s fist in his hand.

  “You used me!” Blake yelled, heating his hand and squeezing as hard as he could.

  Victor winced. “You came willingly, but now it’s clear you’ll only get in my way—so like a rabid dog, you need to be put down. After all, it’s now up to me to deal with the enemies of The Order.”

  Victor pulled his hand back away from Blake’s grasp and slammed it into Blake’s face.

  Blake grunted with pain. Then, Victor howled with pain and violently rolled away from Blake, who immediately felt the telekinetic grasp release.

  Finally.

  Marines had approached and fired their TaseBolts, careful to target out Victor and not Blake. Victor angrily retaliated and ripped a few marines apart in the process.

  ❖

  Quinn

  Blue Spekter dashed across the grounds and leapt at the yellow goon.

  He’ll hurt more people if I don’t stop him right now.

  The man grimaced and raised his hands to catch Blue Spekter, but Blue Spekter fooled him by performing a midair somersault over the man’s head at the last minute. Spinning around as he landed and using his power of flight to lunge at the man, he tackled the yellow guy to the ground, dragged him across the campus away from the prison, over the rocky shoreline, took a deep breath, then plunged into the raging river.

  If I can’t breathe underwater, then neither can you.

  He rapidly dove to the depths the river, holding onto the man who squirmed and wriggled in his arms. When the riptide grabbed them, they were pulled out to sea between rocks and plants near the riverbed. Bubbles escaped the man’s mouth as he struggled to break out of Blue Spekter’s stronger grasp.

  You guys are strong, but you’re inexperienced with your powers and how to use them. I guess I have Blake to thank for that. I wish there was another way, but until we have a prison to hold you…I don’t want to do this…but I have to end this.

  He put his hand over the man’s face and froze the water around his hand, then hesitated.

  Do I really want to do this again? This isn’t the kind of sacrifice I thought I would have to make…the kind where I become a necessary evil to restore the good. If I don’t do this…I know how this will play out, and it won’t be good.

  Blue Spekter flash-froze the water around the man’s face, then filled the man’s nostrils, mouth, and lungs with frozen water, suffocating him. When the man’s head and neck was encapsulated in a frozen ball of ice, Blue Spekter ascended through the rushing waters with the limp body and flew back to Seavey Island where Blake and Victor were blasting each other with fire.

  Blue Spekter landed in front of a group of marines with the limp body of yellow goon. “I don’t know if he’s dead or unconscious, so keep your weapons trained on him in case he wakes up.”

  Blue Spekter turned toward Victor, ready to dash toward him and give him the beating he deserved. Blake was tumbling away from Victor on the ground, but he recovered and jumped to his feet. A moment later, the yellow goon’s proximity faded from his mind.

  So, he’s dead…

  “I’ll kill you, Blue Spekter!” Victor roared. With rage burning in his red eyes, Victor put his hands in front of him and discharged an energy beam at Blue Spekter.

  “No!” Blake screamed, jumping into the beam’s path.

  Shit, can he channel energy already?

  Blake took the brunt of the destructive beam and his body spun and flipped through the air until he crashed into the ground, leaving a clearing of snow behind him. Blake came to rest, his body black and smoky from whatever Victor had hit him with.

  “Playtime’s over, Blake.” Victor snarled. “You’ve served your purpose.”

  Oh, no you don’t.

  Blue Spekter charged at Victor, but he was telekinetically knocked to the ground by a single look from Victor’s angry, red eyes. Caught off guard, he shook his head, rolled over, and pushed himself to his feet as a group of marines to his right took aim at Victor and fired, but the man telekinetically grabbed Blake’s weakened body and moved him in front of the oncoming beams. Blake screamed as his body convulsed, taking the brunt of the electrical attack.

  “Stop firing!” Blue Spekter yelled out, and the marines complied.

  “Now you die!” Victor shouted. With speed and fury, he plunged his hot, glowing hand into Blake’s weakened back and it broke through his ribcage, shattering the bones. Blake screamed as several sickening cracks and pops reached Blue Spekter’s ears.

  Blue Spekter winced in horror at the smashing sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh. “Blake!” he roared, charging at Victor again, but it was too late. The fingers of Victor’s hand, now sticking out of Blake chest, curled inward and then jerked out of Blake’s body cavity.

  Blake screamed with a sickening gurgle, stumbled forward, and turned slightly as Victor pulled out his beating heart. He fell silent, looked at the gaping hole in his chest, and then stared at the bloody organ in Victor’s hand. A moment later, he collapsed to the ground.

  “No!” Blue Spekter roared, terrified at the brutal murder he had witnessed.

  “You kill my guys, I kill yours. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Victor dropped Blake’s heart on the ground and sneered at Blue Spekter. “Now, it’s your turn to die, idiot hero.”

  “I’m much stronger than you are, Victor…you’ll never defeat me tonight.”

  Victor levitated several feet and hovered. “It doesn’t matter if my powers can’t defeat yours, you little brat, because I know what your true weakness is. It’s only a matter of time before I take you out!”

  “Not on my watch!” Blue Spekter shouted. He brought his hands up in front of him and summoned all the orgone energy he could. The air around him began to shake and the ground rumbled with anticipation.

  Multiple beams of white-hot energy blasted over Blue Spekter’s head and caught Victor in the chest. Blue Spekter stopped drawing orgone from his surroundings and ducked.

  Holy crap!

  Victor wailed in anguish and dropped to the ground as twenty or more marines opened fire on the red devil. Electricity arced and flowed over Victor’s body.

  Blue Spekter backed off and looked behind him for a familiar face. Agent Hartman waved at him, so he dashed to the man. “What do I do?” Blue Spekter asked. “I’ve already killed two people tonight and…”

  Agent Hartman grabbed Blue Spekter by the shoulders and shook him. “Son, this is war, not a crime scene. That crazy man killed Blake and he’ll do the same to you. It is either kill, or be killed. I’m afraid you have no other choice but to put him down. Think of all the lives that are in danger so long as that man lives.”

  Blue Spekter sighed. “Fine. When I get close, your men need to stop firing.”

  “I’ll take care of that.”

  Blue Spekter jumped into the air and flew toward Victor.

  “All units cease fire,” Blue Spekter heard Agent Hartman shout.

  Victor lay on the ground, his face bitter with pain. When he saw Blue Spekter approaching, he grimaced and stared at him.

  All of a sudden, Blue Spekter found himself falling through emptiness.

  What the hell?

  His body unexpectedly slammed into something hard and cold and he rolled through invisible snow.

  Aw crap, he’s using that perception trick on me.

  When he came to a stop, reality returned and Blue Spekter found himself alone on the ground. Victor’s proximity faded from his mind, which meant Victor knew how to mask his presence or was truly gone from the area.

  Oh no you don’t.

  Blue Spekter leapt to where he had last seen Victor and reached for him with outstretched arms, but he caught nothing except a face-full of snow and dirt when he plowed into the ground.

  He coughed and spat dirt from his mouth, then sat up. The marines ran toward him, their weapons trained on
him.

  “Where did he go?” Blue Spekter yelled.

  “Put your hands on your head right now!” one of the marines shouted.

  What on earth?

  “Hey, where did he go?” Blue Spekter yelled back.

  “Victor, you will put your hands on your head immediately!” the marine shouted.

  Blue Spekter spun around but didn’t see Victor. His super hearing caught the click of a trigger being pulled. He turned to face the marines and extended his hand toward the beam of energy that lanced toward him. The beam connected with his hand and Blue Spekter simply absorbed it.

  They think I’m Victor…he’s screwing with their perceptions as well…but it’s only the marines closest to me position.

  “All units, stand down!” Agent Hartman’s voice screamed through the marine’s shoulder mounted radios.

  The marine stopped firing and blinked, appearing confused at what they had done. The others with him seemed flummoxed as well.

  “What the fuck?” the marine who had fired at him shouted. “Sorry for shooting you, man. I thought you were…him.”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s a new trick. Apparently, he can mess with our perception.”

  “Where did he go?” the marine asked.

  “He’s gone. I think he used that little perception trick to cover his escape,” Blue Spekter replied.

  “Dammit.”

  Blake.

  Quinn dashed between the marines and slid on his knees when he arrived at the side of his best friend’s body. Blake’s skin appeared dehydrated and had become cracked and ashen in color. A dark, sickly looking black gash of dried blood and torn flesh ripped across his chest and his abs.

  “Blake!” he cried out. Please, not again.

  The gaping wound in his chest and back had not closed, nor did it show signs of healing. His heart was motionless on the ground next to him.

  Quinn cradled Blake’s torn, lifeless body and wept once more at the death of his best friend.

  4-23 | The Boot is on the Other Foot

  Quinn

  BLUE SPEKTER PICKED UP BLAKE’S lifeless body in his arms and stood. A medic on site quietly picked up Blake’s heart, placed it into a cold-storage bag, and followed behind him as they silently walked across the grounds to the command and medical units near the baseball field. What was once a loud battle zone full of marines shouting, TaseBolt energy, and four superheroes battling it out had become eerily silent except for the sound of the river and heavy machinery on the shipyard side of the island.

  After placing Blake on the gurney again, Blue Spekter walked to the river’s edge to be alone. His emotions bubbled up and his shoulders shook as tears forced their way out of his eyes. He squatted, then sat on the ground, wrapping his arms around his knees. He cried alone, the nearby marines and medics unsure of how to console him.

  Ana Maria shifted to the visible spectrum in front of him and startled nearby marines, who aimed their TaseBolts at her. He immediately sensed her presence in his mind.

  “Where were you?” Quinn yelled, as tears streamed down his face. “Blake would be alive if you had helped me.”

  Ana Maria shook her head. “I told you, I can’t risk it.”

  “That’s bullshit!” he snarled, jumping to his feet. “If you’ve been paying attention then you already know The Order restarted Project Genesis. You told me so yourself. Victor showed up with two super-powered goons. You have nothing to hide anymore because they already figured out how to make superhumans. Who knows how many other super thugs Victor is training right now?”

  She swallowed, looked down at the ground, then shook her head.

  Quinn continued chastising her. “My friend is dead because you were too scared to help me. So, if you’re not going to help me, I don’t need you on the team. I’ll figure out how to stop Victor without you,” he snapped.

  “Quinn, I…”

  “Save it,” Quinn interjected, raising a hand to silence her. “You’ve been a big help, but you need to wake up, Ana Maria, because it’s not 1965 anymore. Tonight, the world has changed and you’re too stuck in the past to see it. Our worst nightmares are in motion. It’s not about preventing The Order from making more of us, it’s about stopping the super humans they’ve already made.”

  Blue Spekter pushed himself to his feet, flashed with brilliant blue light, lifted off, and flew upriver from Seavey Island to the apex of the Piscataqua River Bridge to be alone.

  ❖

  Quinn landed on the painted green metal of the massive arch bridge and pulled his cell phone out of his waistband. Miraculously, it was still in one piece. He scrolled through a number of missed text messages, including one from Keegan, who asked him to swing by after he was done battling the forces of evil because he would not be able to sleep without knowing if he was safe or not.

  He smiled and read through a few messages from his dads. He thumbed a message back telling them he was okay and that he would be swinging by Keegan’s house to check on him before heading home. He deliberately omitted an update about Blake because it was still too emotional for him to think about.

  A text message from Keegan arrived, telling him he was not at home but at Quinn’s house with his dads and that he should come straight home when he finished saving the world.

  Wow, he’s really changed his tune.

  Quinn pocketed his phone, swan-dived off the bridge, and rocketed toward home. As he flew over his neighborhood, he changed direction at the last second and dove toward the earth, landing in the backyard of his home. Then, he let himself into the house and made his way to the living room where his dads and Keegan were sitting.

  Keegan saw him first. “Babe!”

  Quinn’s dads jumped up and ran to him, each one visibly relieved to see he was okay. After Quinn reassured his dads he was unscathed, Daddio looked at him with concerning his eyes. “You’ve had one hell of a night. Keegan told us what happened at his house and on the Memorial Bridge. What happened to Blake after you saved Keegan??” Daddio asked.

  Emotions welled up behind Quinn’s eyes and caught in his throat. He looked down at the distressed blue pattern in the carpet. “I did it; I actually saved him. I electrocuted the back of his head and disintegrated the chip, but I incinerated the back of his head in the process. I thought I killed him. Somehow, he was able to heal and he came back. He fought alongside me when super-Victor arrived with two evil super humans. Somehow, Victor figured out how to replicate the accident that created us. And then…I…”

  He started crying. “I had to kill the two evil super people. And then Blake jumped in front of Victor’s assault and that’s when…Victor…ripped Blake’s heart out of his chest and killed him.” His fathers gasped at the revelation and Quinn broke down and fell into his father’s arms.

  “Holy shit,” Keegan whispered. “Blake is dead?”

  “Oh, my brave boy, I’m so sorry,” Daddio said, as his shoulders shook with emotion as he and Dad consoled their son. Quinn heard words and confusion as his dads and Keegan talked around him, but only Daddio’s words reached his ears. “We understand you had to kill two monsters to save the world. That’s a big deal we understand. If you hadn’t done that, they would be terrorizing the world as we speak.”

  Quinn nodded in his father’s embrace, but he didn’t find much comfort in his father’s words. What happens when you disagree with one of my decisions or I make a really big mistake?

  Several minutes later, Quinn pushed himself up and realized that somehow he and his dads had managed to sit on the couch. He wiped his eyes and looked at Keegan, who sat alone on the couch next to them. “I’m so sorry, I wanted to tell you everything, but when you kept talking about Blue Spekter the way you did, I became so afraid you would hate me and want nothing to do with me…and I was right.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for anything,” Keegan replied, scooting his butt to the edge of the couch. “I was the idiot, and my mother and father made sure I knew it tonight. So did my grandm
other, especially after the story that came out tonight. Talk about a Hanukkah to remember.”

  “But…”

  “No buts, I was serious about what I said when I kissed you tonight.”

  “A kiss?” Dad asked. “Huh, you left that part out of the story.” A whimsical expression danced on his face.

  Keegan smiled and shrugged. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”

  They shared a laugh together, and then Quinn relaxed on the couch between his dads and walked them through the painful experience of battling and saving Blake, and then his crazy battle with Victor and his two super goons.

  “I can’t believe you flew to space,” Daddio said, astounded.

  “That must have been so cool, to see the curved earth like that,” Keegan added.

  “You’re probably the only human being to see the earth from that perspective without an atmospheric suit or a spacecraft,” Dad said.

  Quinn shrugged. “I just wish I didn’t have to toss someone into space. It’s clear that us super beings can inflict mortal wounds upon each other…even death.”

  “Maybe that’s Mother Nature’s way of providing checks and balances—and to prevent evil super heroes from dominating the planet.”

  “Will there be a funeral?” Keegan asked. Quinn and his dads looked at him, and Keegan sank bank in the couch. “I mean, for Blake…”

  “I have no idea. His body is in the hands of the government now. Who knows what they’ll do with him.”

  They sat silently for a moment, but Quinn knew what everyone was thinking. They’ll dissect him and try to figure out how the orgone reacted and changed his body to have super powers.

  “Not to change the subject, but I’m going to, but um, does this mean you two are…um…” Dad stopped, frowning at his own awkwardness. Daddio lightly slapped him on the shoulder

  Quinn and Keegan looked at one another. Keegan smiled, which forced a grin to spread across Quinn’s face.

  “I need to go shower,” Quinn said. Then, he looked at Keegan. “Can we talk after?”