Ron raised his hand and interrupted him. “Blake, when we first spoke in the lab and Quinn showed me how he could manipulate water, I didn’t need a super power to sense how excited you both were at the prospect of becoming superheroes. I saw then how excited Quinn was and how cautious you were. You saw Quinn accidentally do things and struggle with the realities of cause and effect, of collateral damage. At the same time, he encouraged you to develop your powers.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I just wish I could change what I did.”
“Well, unless time travel or some other kind of manipulation is in your arsenal, that’s not going to happen. You gotta stop being hung up on the past and move forward. Is that what’s getting in the way of your superhero dream?”
“Not sure I’m the one with the superhero dream, remember? That was all Quinn. But, if I had one, then yeah…my regrets and my horrible actions…they’re in my way. The way you said it, it’s like you think everyone’s going to forget what I did.”
Ron chuckled. “The world thinks Dark Flame is dead, but for those who know, they won’t forget for a while. However, when they see the good in you when you fight on the side of truth and justice. And Blake?”
“Yeah?”
“When it comes to Quinn and Blake, or Blue Spekter and Helion, you two need each other. Victor sought to deprive you of that revelation; of all that you could accomplish together; of a friendship that defined and will define you both in ways you cannot yet realize.”
That sounds familiar.
“Is that from Star Trek?” Blake asked, rolling his eyes.
“Um, yeah, kinda…Spock Prime speaking to his younger self. But that’s not important. What is important is Quinn doesn’t want a sidekick just as much as you don’t want to be his sidekick.”
“Thank goodness.”
“While you both show leadership potential, he is the founder and leader of the Guardians. You need to follow him and work as his partner.”
Blake groaned.
“No, it’s good. The military, Ana Maria, the cyber reconnaissance team—they all listen to Blue Spekter. They offer feedback and suggestions—and Quinn listens—but the kid is an amazing leader. He’s not going to take the glory and make you his subordinate. He wants to fight with his best friend at his side, shoulder to shoulder, not one step behind or ahead.”
Blake smiled. “Really?”
“Absolutely. So, let me ask you one more time. What is your superhero goal, Helion?”
Blake looked at the dusty cement floor and gathered his thoughts. “I used to think it was about punishing the people who were evading justice. I’m not convinced that’s wrong, but the way I went about it…killing all those people…I realize there’s a better way, most of the time.
“Most of the time?
“Even Superman killed Zod when he had to in Man of Steel.”
Ron pursued his lips and remained silent.
“Don’t worry, I’m not looking for an excuse to kill people. What you want to hear is that I want to be just like Quinn, but I don’t. Sometimes dark justice is necessary. Mace Windu understood that when he tried to execute Darth Sidious. That said…I know my talents will be best served by working with the Guardians to save people from maniacal criminals and super villains. But like I said, sometimes the bad guys have to be taken out by whatever means necessary when the system fails.”
“Quinn had to make that difficult decision twice when Victor attacked the prison just after Quinn destroyed the chip in your head. Victor’s two superhumans didn’t return with him.”
Oh shit, that’s right.
Ron continued. “Whatever you do, don’t give the public or the government a reason to turn against you. You see what’s going down to stop Victor…the same was being planned for you. You’d be fortunate if they don’t associate Helion with a reincarnation of Dark Flame, but now you’re another superhuman. People will question what’s really going on.”
Blake nodded. “Yeah, I know. And I know they don’t trust me.”
“Can you blame them?”
He shook his head. “Not really.”
Blake noticed the warehouse had become quiet. Quinn and Ana Maria were on the other side, sipping water from bottles and chatting. “I guess they’re done.”
“Wanna join them?”
“Sure,” Blake said. They pushed themselves up from the cool cement floor and walked across the warehouse. “Are you gonna tell Quinn?”
“Secrets don’t bode well in this line of work. Quinn considers me his mentor, and I am humbled by that. I hope you would at least consider my opinions and suggestions. They come from a good place and they are meant to see you thrive, not control you.”
“Like Victor did.”
“Exactly. There’s no chip in your head telling you what to do any more. Choose your path wisely, Helion.”
When they reached Quinn and Anna Maria, Quinn spoke up. “I’m starving, wanna get a late breakfast?”
“Yeah, I’d love to,” Blake replied.
“I’m glad you have an appetite, considering everything that’s going on,” Ron said.
Quinn nodded. “I have to keep my mind distracted so my emotions don’t implode my heart. Besides, there’s nothing I can do right now. Sitting around worrying won’t do anyone any good.”
“Wanna go to Colby’s?” Blake asked.
Quinn nodded. “Do you even have to ask?”
“Is this invitation for all of us?” Ana Maria asked.
Quinn smiled. “Of course. Let’s go!”
❖
Quinn
As they ate breakfast, Quinn’s phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked the screen. The call was from Captain David Prett.
Quinn slid to answer and put the phone to his ear. “Hi, what’s up?”
“We found him!” David replied.
“Found who?” Quinn’s breath caught in his throat.
“Nightmare. Victor. Whatever you want to call him. We found his secret base of operations, at least what we think is the current one.”
“How? Did you learn how to identify orgone energy concentrations in the satellite imagery?”
“No. Military scouts surveying potential locations across New England spotted a red glowing man flying around. When we compared the location against the satellite images, we confirmed orgone energy at the location.”
“Great, where is it?”
“Listen, Hartman and Potter want you to come in first. I’ve been expressly forbidden from telling you the location until you’re sitting in the briefing room.”
“What? Why?” Quinn snapped.
“They don’t want you rushing up there without a plan and getting yourself killed. So, get here as superhumanly fast as you can.”
“Dammit.”
“I know, Quinn. I’m sorry. Trinity is about to call Ana Maria and Tara is reaching out to Blake as well.”
“I’m with them both.” You’re actually bringing him in for this?
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, per Hartman’s orders. You want…all three of us?”
“Hey, you’re going to need all the help you can get. Besides, Blake proved helpful and not harmful on New Year’s Eve, right?”
“Right. Okay, we’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Quinn pocketed his phone and shared the news with Ron, Ana Maria, and Blake. Moments later, they were on their way to Hangar 227.
5-15 | Misdirections
Quinn
WHEN THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPENED at the operations level of the secret base beneath Hangar 227, Quinn jogged across the walkway to the large, glass-walled conference room on the other side of the space. Behind him, Ron, Blake, and Ana Maria quickstepped to keep up. To save time, Quinn had grabbed his mentor in the alley behind Starbucks and flew—while invisible—with him to the hangar at Pease with Blake and Ana Maria in tow.
“So, where are they?” Quinn asked as he entered the conference room where the agents, several officers, and a
nalysts were working with computers and maps of New England. David was there as well.
“Zealand, New Hampshire,” Agent Hartman responded. He pointed to one of the maps closest to Quinn.
Quinn frowned and studied the map. “Where the heck is that?”
“More like, where was Zealand. It was a logging town built around 1880, but it was abandoned sometime after 1890 when a forest fire destroyed the usable timber and the logging company—and its two railroad stations—were no longer sustainable.”
“You’re telling me Victor’s hiding out in an abandoned town in the middle of the White Mountains? Like in a real ghost town sort of place?”
“Exactly.”
Quinn looked at the map again, but the satellite imagery didn’t have labels to help him get his bearings. “Where is…was it?”
Agent Potter leaned forward and pointed with a capped Sharpie pen at some circled areas on the map. “In the vicinity of the Zealand Campground on Route 302; due west of the Bretton Woods Ski Area.”
Quinn immediately recognized the repeated swaths of missing trees as a ski area on a mountain.
I know exactly where Bretton Woods is…
“How did you find him?” Ana Maria asked. “And was there more than one flying man?”
“It was an accident. We have personnel placing surveillance equipment at the top of every skiing mountain in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The chair lifts provide the fastest and safest means for our people to carry equipment up the mountains during this time of year. The team installing equipment on the summit of West Mountain spotted a red glowing man flying in the valley to the west. When we compared the location against the satellite images, we confirmed orgone energy at the location.”
‘So, there’s a reactor core there?”
“We’re not sure. To answer your second question, only Victor has been seen flying around.”
“Okay, then let’s go.”
“Wait…”
“No, my dads and boyfriend are being held prisoner there by Nightmare and he’s going to execute one of them. They’re probably freezing to death. I’m going to save them right now.”
“Don’t you see this is exactly what Nightmare wants? He wants you to fly up there in an emotionally compromised state so he can capture or kill you. It’s clearly a trap.”
“Then I’m going to do the only thing I can.”
“What’s that?”
“Spring the trap.” Quinn turned and walked toward the elevator. He glanced over his shoulder at Blake and Ana Maria. “You guys got my back or are you gonna stay here and do nothing?”
Blake smiled and jogged after Quinn. Ana Maria glanced at Agent Hartman, who sighed with disappointment and gestured for her to leave.
Good. Victor won’t know what hit him.
❖
Flying at twice the speed of sound was second nature for Blue Spekter, but abruptly stopping in midair in less than a second without warning Helion or Catamount proved amusing when they overshot his location and circled around.
From twenty-thousand feet up, Quinn studied the snow-covered terrain below. The satellite imagery was taken during the summer months when the trees were green and boulders and cliffs were easily recognizable. Now, everything was white and indiscernible.
The only clue to Victor’s—and his dads and Keegan’s—location was the familiar curve in Route 302 and the strange, ninety-degree river bend in the Ammonoosuc River.
When Blake and Ana Maria joined him, he pointed at the ground below. “We’re gonna have to fly around and find it. It’s gotta be down there somewhere.”
“If the maps are right, we’ll sense the orgone energy. That will help us. If we split up but remain visible to each other, we’ll cover more ground.” Ana Maria tapped her ear, indicating they should turn on their ear comms. “Stay in touch and report anything. No unnecessary heroics, understood?”
Blake nodded.
Quinn nodded. “Let’s go find my dads and Keegan.”
Thirty frustrating minutes passed as the trio crisscrossed over the woods in search of anything that resembled a bunker or an entrance to a secret base. Near what they thought was the abandoned Zealand town, there were no footsteps or disruptions in the snow except for the tracks of deer, moose, and other small woodland creatures like bunnies.
The trio met up over the Zealand Campground, hovering roughly one-thousand feet in the air.
“Maybe it was a false alarm,” Ana Maria said.
“Or maybe he’s toying with us,” Blake suggested.
“They’ve got to be here,” Quinn protested.
“Quinn,” Ana Maria said. “I don’t detect any unusual amount of orgone in the air and I don’t sense any other superhumans around us.”
“Me either,” Quinn said reluctantly.
“So, what do you want to do?” Blake asked.
“I’m not giving up on them,” Quinn said with determination. “Let’s widen our search and see what we can find.”
Blake and Anna Maria looked at each other and nodded. “All right, we’ll give it another hour,” Ana Maria said.
“Thank you,” Quinn replied. “If you don’t mind, Blake, you search over there. Ana Maria, you search that way, and I’ll search this area. Meet back here or signal if you find something, anything.” Quinn assigned them the new areas so they wouldn’t fly over ground they had already explored.
“Let’s do this,” Blake exclaimed, clapping his hands once. The trio separated and flew in the directions Quinn had pointed out.
Twenty minutes later, their ear comms crackled to life and Agent Hartman’s voice spoke in their ears. “Hartman to Blue Spekter, come in please.”
“I am here, Agent Hartman. Go ahead.”
“How is the search going?”
Quinn sighed. “We haven’t found anything yet.”
“I don’t think you will.”
“Why is that?”
“We just received updated satellite imagery and the area shows no signs of recent orgone activity.”
“But the previous image did,” Quinn said. “Besides, your men saw a glowing red man in the sky.”
“As we are new at detecting and interpreting this energy from satellites, it may have been a false read. When you look at the raw numbers behind what the satellite images showed, the readings are inconsistent with other areas of known orgone activity. As for seeing Nightmare fly across the sky, it’s entirely possible he passed through but wasn’t stationed or based in the area. That was an assumption on our part that took on a momentary reality when the data seemed to match the scout’s observations.”
“Dammit,” Quinn said.
“I’m sorry, Quinn. We will find your family and boyfriend, I promise. But in the meantime, we need you to come home right away.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Two super villains are attacking Portsmouth…specifically, the Naval Prison. Though the facility is empty, we feel they may be ensuring the absolute destruction of all materials and data related to The Order. So far, they have shown no interest in attacking Hangar 227 which means they may not know about our current location. Although no one is in direct danger at the moment, there’s nothing stopping the super villains from going after the nuclear submarines in port.”
“We’re on our way,” Blake responded in Quinn’s ear comm.
Quinn glared at his best friend, but his face relaxed when he realized Blake was right. They’re not here, we’re just wasting time and people need our help.
The three superheroes met up over the campground, ascended to ten thousand feet, then rocketed to Portsmouth.
❖
Blake
Damn, he’s fast.
Despite how fast he willed himself to fly, Helion couldn’t keep up with Blue Spekter. Catamount flew beside him, but he wasn’t sure if she did that out of sympathy or a lack of ability.
She’s been around much longer than Blue Spekter and I have, so she should be able to do anything better tha
n us, right?
As they approached Portsmouth, Helion saw two colored streaks flying erratically over the harbor and through the naval prison.
“I’ll take the purple guy,” Blue Spekter said in their ear comms.
“And I’ll take the orange guy,” Helion responded. Funny, he kinda looks like Dark Flame did when I glowed that color of orange.
Catamount chimed in next. “Be careful, boys. I’ll watch for any other super villains and cover you should you need assistance.”
Helion watched Blue Spekter accelerate. Several bursts of water vapor erupted around Blue Spekter’s body as he broke Mach 3 and collided with the unsuspecting purple fellow. Blue and purple fireworks exploded between them. The speed and strength of Blue Spekter’s impact with the purple guy tossed the man miles out to sea.
Holy crap, he can do that?
Blue Spekter pursued his target, but Helion focused his attention on the orange super villain and made a bee-line for him. I need to strike before he knows what’s going on.
At the last second, the orange guy spun around and spotted Helion, but it was too late. Instead of tossing the man out to sea you like Blue Spekter had done, Helion ascended slightly and then pounced on the man in midair and slammed him into the frozen ground beneath them. Orange sparks signaled their collision and Helion drove his elbow and forearm into the surprised man’s throat.
“Where is Victor?” Helion snarled. He used his telekinesis to pin the man’s arms and legs to the ground.
The stunned man grimaced and tried to push Helion away, but Helion pressed his arm harder against the man’s Adam’s apple.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” the man coughed out, hacking under the intense pressure Helion exerted against him.
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you!”
The man’s eyes widened with fear, and rightly so. Helion scowled and used his telekinesis to pull away the snow and dirt from beneath them. A fountain of debris spread the dirt and snow around them, covering the nearby snow drifts. Boulders and old, broken pieces of reinforced concrete flew through the air as Helion dug the hole deeper, intending to bury the man alive. Within seconds, Helion pressed the man deeper into the hole and jumped back as he slammed large rocks and chunks of concrete on top of the now angry orange man.
The Guardians Omnibus Page 113