The Guardians Omnibus

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  The senator scoffed. “Secret organizations? Seriously? Do you think this is a comic book world?”

  “The organization has been identified as The Order and it is responsible for the technology that created the superhumans.”

  She’s been doing her homework. I hope DHS doesn’t get pissed about her public revelation. Still, this will give all the conspiracy theorists a lot to blog about.

  The senator rolled his eyes and pulled off the microphone. “This interview is done.”

  Oh, you’re a member of The Order, aren’t you?

  Quinn glanced at his father and saw tears running down Daddio’s face. “Are you okay?” he asked, turning to face his dad. Behind him, Camilla and Paula debriefed about the interview and Quinn heard them reassuring the public about Blue Spekter’s loyalty to truth and justice.

  Daddio shook his head. “No. I hate that you have to do this…stuff. You should be doing normal teenage things.”

  “Are you ever going to be okay with this?” Quinn asked. “With me being Blue Spekter?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Daddio asked incredulously. “I am a parent, I’ll never be okay with you risking your life, super powers or not. One day, if you have children of your own, you will understand this feeling of helplessness in my heart. Your children are supposed to grow up and as a parent, you want to support them and help them reach their dreams so they can have better lives than you did. You want to see them succeed in every way. But you were out there saving the world from nuclear disaster. How the hell do Tim and I do our jobs as your parents?”

  I don’t know how to answer that. Oh, wait…

  “By doing what you did the other night before the party, Daddio. Just because I’m a superhero doesn’t mean I know everything. I’ll be seventeen in a couple weeks and I still need my dads to be my dads, you know?”

  Daddio wiped his eyes. “It’s nice to hear you say that.”

  “Clark Kent still needed his mom. Bruce Wayne grieved his parents. You’re not useless, Daddio. I need you just like they needed their parents.”

  “Well, you’re stuck with us, kiddo,” Daddio said, smiling.

  He smiled back at his dad. “Great, because I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  ❖

  Victor

  Defeated once more, Victor landed next to the front door of the Androscoggin facility and powered down his glowing eyes and body. The mercenary guards stared at him and nodded without saying anything.

  Flustered and fuming inside, Victor ignored the men and entered the facility, peeling back the black cowl from his head. Once inside, he walked to the main area of the second largest building that had been converted to a fitness and combat training center. Ira Hinders and other specialists like him took the recently created super humans and put them through the paces of using their skills, all with the primary goal of destroying Quinn McAlester for good.

  If these men were ready, there’s no way Quinn would have stopped me today.

  He walked to the locker room to shower and peeled off his black shirt.

  And now, there’s this new superhero…where the hell did she come from? Was there a third person at Rangeley with the boys that we missed? Is that Quinn’s girlfriend? No, wait, he has a boyfriend. Is that the girl Blake wanted to date? Was she at the campground with them, too? Is she a family friend? A relative? Why didn’t we know about her?

  The hot water ran over Victor’s nude body, soothing his muscles as they quickly regenerated from the day’s battle.

  Did we wrongly assume there were only two teenagers who were zapped at Rangeley over Labor Day Weekend? What if she survived and escaped our knowledge all this time, secretly training with Quinn? Why didn’t Blake say anything about her? How did she hide from all the security footage? I saw it myself…there were only two boys.

  Victor rubbed his temples in frustration. Questions and ideas passed through his mind as he tried to understand the origin of the super woman who easily rescued the submarine from his clutches and worked with Quinn. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come up with a logical explanation.

  What if she wasn’t created with Quinn and Blake? What if she was created at some other point in time…

  Victor’s mind and body snapped to attention as his mind connected the dots.

  Maybe she was created with the first run of Project Genesis back in the 1960s. Somehow…she survived…and hid her entire existence from us.

  But why?

  What could she possibly gain by hiding from The Order? She’s a miracle of science that should have been celebrated…

  Unless no one knew she survived…

  Which means she chose to hide her existence because…because…

  He tapped his right temple several times as he came up with a plausible explanation.

  Because she knew what the experimentation was for and wanted no part of it…or wanted to ensure the project would fail. She hid her transformed nature from The Order so they’d kill the project after numerous failed attempts…and when every attempt seemingly produced a catastrophic death like we’ve experienced, The Order became frustrated, terminated the project, and allocated its funds elsewhere.

  She was…is…a coward who lacks vision.

  That begs the question…how many more secret superhumans are out there, lurking in the shadows?

  She surprised me, but she didn’t surprise Quinn. Perhaps she came forward sometime after Quinn and Blake were revealed to the world…but is she alone? Is she the sole survivor of the first iteration of Project Genesis?

  More importantly, did Mother Superior know there was a successful attempt? Is that why she was so hellbent on capturing the boys in autumn once she learned they survived the ordeal?

  That’s what it is, isn’t it?

  Once I discovered Mother Superior’s true plans back over Labor Day weekend when all this started, I knew Blake would have to help me eliminate her, so I played the double-agent and worked my ass off.

  Victor turned the water off, grabbed his towel, and began drying himself.

  Oh my gosh, it all makes sense now. This might explain why the Rangeley reactor panels were mis-located as Arik and Miguel believed; if people caught wind of The Order’s true intentions, the moral idiots of the day might have done whatever they could to delay or inhibit progress. Poor results, terrible orgone conversion, and no successful human trials led to the inevitable shutdown of the project. If I had known this, I would have acted much sooner.

  It seems my plans to double-cross The Order were even more well-founded than I realized. Now, I must be the one to restore order to the organization and triple our creation rate. We’re going to need more willing test subjects…some won’t survive, but that’s the cost of business.

  I’ll have Dr. Madison ready another group for conversion as soon as possible…but I won’t share this new development with her because I’m sure she chipped me. I fear she’s becoming discontented with the progress we’re making and may be losing her way.

  ❖

  Blake

  Blake inhaled sharply and sat up. He looked around, unsure of his surroundings.

  “Something wrong, babe?” a familiar voice asked.

  “Huh?” Blake looked to his right and met the eyes of his friend, Ravone. He was lying with her in a red tent. Its rain flaps and air vents were open, and a warm summer’s breeze passed through the tent as they napped together.

  “Did you have another bad dream?”

  Blake furled his eyebrows in confusion. Another bad dream? What is she talking about?

  “Where are we?” Oh my gosh, did we just… He looked down at his body and saw he wore only a pair of boxer shorts. Ravone sat comfortably in her underwear and a bra as well.

  Holy crap, you’re like, my sister!

  “Woods Lake Campground in Rangeley, Maine.”

  Oh no, anywhere but here. “What are we doing here?” he asked, his voice filled with alarm.

  “Camping, like we’ve been doing for the las
t several weekends.”

  “But it’s…Christmas time.”

  Ravone laughed. “No, it’s not, it’s the middle of July.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Wow, that must’ve been one hell of a dream.” She reached over and took his hand in hers. “It’s all right, hun, I’ve got you.”

  Hun? Oh my gosh, we are together, or dating, or sleeping together…Why don’t I know what’s going on?

  “Where is Quinn?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I feel like you should be in a relationship with him instead of me. It’s always Quinn this and Quinn that.”

  Blake frowned and looked at her.

  “Well, it’s true. He always comes up at the most inopportune moments. Like sex. Are you sure you don’t want to bang him instead of me?”

  Blake shook his head. “I’m sure. We’re best friends, that’s all.”

  “Well, you know I would understand if you had an attraction to him. It’s quite normal these days for people to identify as bisexual….”

  “I am not interested in Quinn like that,” Blake snapped, glaring at her. “But I appreciate your understanding.”

  “Sorry, geez.”

  Blake pushed himself to his feet, pulled on a pair of gym shorts, then stepped out of the tent and looked around the campground. He recognized the trees and the campsite where he and the McAlesters camped over Labor Day. If I remember it, that must be in the past, right? So, am I in the future?

  “I’ll be right back,” he said. Then, he jogged away from their campsite and attempted to use super speed to run into the woods and find the bunker, but he only ran fast like a normal human.

  What the hell? Where are my powers?

  5-6 | Resolved Interference

  Quinn

  “ALL RIGHT, THINK ABOUT WHAT I taught you,” Ana Maria said.

  Quinn nodded, lowered his center of gravity, and focused.

  The two superhumans trained in the abandoned warehouse again, and Ana Maria was talking him through the next level of channeling orgone energy into an offensive blast.

  “Remember, breathe, focus, and…”

  Quinn’s blue-glowing eyes flashed and a powerful beam of energy lanced out from his eyes and seared the air as it crossed the room to Ana Maria.

  Caught off guard, she raised her hands defensively and summoned an invisible shield, but his energy blast passed right through her shield and connected with her right shoulder. She grunted with surprise and spun around, knocked back by the force of the blast.

  Oops…

  Quinn stopped blasting her and ran to her, worried he had injured her. They both looked at the burnt skin of her right shoulder, where the fabric of her leather jacket had disintegrated and was smoking.

  “Have you been holding back?” she asked, wincing as she eyed her shoulder with disbelief.

  Quinn shrugged. “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘holding back.’”

  Ana Maria winced again as her shoulder made scratching sounds as it healed from the burn Quinn inflicted. She nodded. “Uh-huh. Let’s try that again. Go back to your mark.”

  Quinn walked back twenty paces and turned around.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” she said summoning a powerful force field to protect herself.

  Quinn focused and summoned his power, feeling the sensation of energy coursing through his body in a new, more powerful way. This time, he felt the power surge not only to his eyes, but to his hands as well.

  Oh wow.

  He took a deep breath, lunged forward on his left leg, and aimed his hands at Ana Maria. He yelled as four streams of blue orgone energy leapt from his eyes and hands and flew across the room to Ana Maria. The concentrated blue beams of orgone energy passed through her force field and she used super speed to dodge the dangerous blasts.

  Quinn stopped and looked at his hands.

  “Holy crap!” he exclaimed. “That’s never happened before.”

  She looked at him with concern. “I’ve never channeled orgone energy from my hands before,” she said. “How did you do that?

  Quinn’s hands trembled as he looked at them with awe. “I felt the power there and it seemed natural.”

  “Interesting. What are you feeling?”

  “Overall? I’m in shock but I think what I did is pretty cool.”

  “Hmm. How about more generally, like what is the situation about Victor and Blake’s death causing you to feel?”

  Quinn’s shoulders slumped. “Sadness and desperation,” he replied. “If we can’t stop him, I don’t know what’s going to happen to the world.”

  “I see,” she said. She walked toward him, her heels click-clacking on the concrete floor. “Perhaps the world is too much for you to handle right now. Focus on stopping Victor instead and let that be our goal for the day. If you take on the world and its problems, it will seem too daunting and every time you fail, you will only feel more like a failure.”

  Quinn sighed “I understand. I guess it’s hard to separate what Victor could do if we don’t stop him.”

  She nodded. “I understand. But the greatest wartime generals understand they have to get through a number of smaller battles to achieve victory; the same goes for you. On a different note, I’m curious to know if your emotional state has boosted this power. My shields are quite strong…at least I think they are. Since you practiced and strengthened your shield, my energy beams no longer penetrate your shields, but yours pass through mine with ease. So, how come Victor is able to slow you down or have any affect on you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve seen you fight. If Victor punches you, you get tossed back like a mere human, or as if you were fighting Blake, who is your equal in power. The crane thing he did to you when he pulled the Thunderchild out of the water? That shouldn’t have happened. He was focused on the submarine, yet he snared you with cable and made you his bitch.”

  Quinn winced. Huh, she never swears.

  “The power levels you’re demonstrating with me suggest you should be quite immovable to him, perhaps even me as well.”

  “But he’s another super being. Why wouldn’t I be susceptible to…”

  Ana Maria snapped her fingers. “Aha, I see. So, you expect he will be able to defeat you, and therefore he defeats you.”

  “I guess?”

  Ana Maria shook her head. “Mind over matter. Quinn, if you believe he can defeat you, you will be defeated every single time. If you recognize that you are a much stronger superhuman than he is, you increase your chances of winning every time.”

  “But…”

  Ana Maria interjected.

  “No buts, Quinn. Victor just got his powers. Remember how weak and confused you were when your powers first manifested?”

  “Yeah, but he seems to have really strong powers…”

  Ana Maria cut him off again. “He has the advantage of knowledge that came from observing you and working directly with Blake. That means he was able to train hard in order to accelerate his development. We’re doing the same thing, but you are light years ahead of him and I’m sure I’m light years ahead of you, though some of your powers put mine to shame.”

  “What would happen if my energy beam hits him directly?”

  She looked at her right shoulder. “You saw what your beams did to me. Those beams are lethal, so you would probably burn him away, which I suspect is the only way we can be killed.”

  “That’s not true,” Quinn said tilting his head and looking at her with disappointment.

  “True, Blake is alive, yet he is not alive. It’s unclear if he will recover. But if you incinerate a superhero’s cells, I’m not sure how they could regenerate from ash. Now, let’s get back to training. Give it everything you’ve got this time, and more.”

  “But I’ll hurt you,” Quinn protested.

  “I’m not made of cardboard, so don’t worry about that. If you worry about hurting your enemy, you’ll never defeat Victor.”

  An
a Maria swiped her hands in front of her, and Quinn saw the distortion effect of a powerful invisible shield appear in front of her. She swiped her hands a second time and Quinn saw a second shield appear.

  “Cool, I didn’t even know we could do that.”

  “Neither did I until I discovered it twenty years ago,” she said, smiling. “Practice is everything. The more you practice, the more you learn to control and enhance your superpowers.”

  “Like this?” He raised his right arm and pointed his open hand at her. Then, he frosted the air around the shields and the water condensed and froze on it, making the shield visible.

  She smiled, “Neat trick, now blast me.”

  “Okay,” he said. Then, he stepped back, focused and summoned orgone from within and without, and lunged forward and extended his arms. He blasted Ana Maria’s shields with four intense beams of searing hot blue energy. The outer shield buckled in seconds and faded. Then, the second shield flashed as it took the brunt of the power.

  “That’s enough…” Anna Maria shouted, but Quinn’s eye beams penetrated her second shield and slammed into her stomach and sternum. She grunted as her body flew back thirty feet, thrown by the force of Quinn’s oppressive power.

  Quinn immediately stopped his attack and ran after her with super speed. He gasped when he saw the damage he inflicted. Her clothing had burned away where the beams had made contact, and the skin and muscle had disintegrated. Quinn could see her rib cage, the bottom of her lungs, and her stomach.

  “Oh my gosh,” he exclaimed. He immediately felt nauseous and covered his mouth in shock.

  Though she lay flat on her back, she smiled. “You’re definitely holding back. You’re much stronger than you think you are.” Her body crackled and popped as her skin and tissues repaired themselves.

  Quinn watched her body heal. “That’s so gross.”

  She chuckled. When her abdominal muscles and skin had healed, he extended his hand and she took it. He pulled her to her feet and they nodded at one another.