The man’s eyes flashed with power and Helion sensed ice forming around him. The man grinned wickedly as hundreds of ice spears formed in the air around Helion and then converged around him, jabbing him with needle like points that wouldn’t break. Helion winced at the sharp pricks he felt all over his body.
Then, the cold ice spears became charged with electricity. Helion howled with pain and attempted to jump back, but the sharpened tips pressing into his back held him fast.
“Victor said we didn’t do well against electricity. Now I understand what he means.”
Helion glared at the super villain and ignited his body with fury and flame. The resulting incendiary explosion vaporized the ice and freed Helion from the man’s assault. The momentary distraction was all it took for his adversary to leap from the hole and slam his fist into Helion’s gut and jaw. Orange sparks exploded in the air between them each time the man struck Helion.
Blue and white electricity arced over the villain’s body, arms, and fists as he repeatedly punched Helion, the force of his blows pushing Helion higher and higher into the air.
“Apparently Blue Spekter is the only one of us immune to electrical attacks, which means you’re shit out of luck, buddy.”
Helion found the strength to back away from the man’s charged punches and he increased the distance between them. “Maybe, but you’ll find I’m full of surprises.”
“Do your worst, kid,” the super villain sneered, taunting him.
Helion reached out with his mind and ensnared the unsuspecting villain in a telekinetic vice grip. Then, he squeezed. Bones snapped and popped and the evil man gasped for air. Helion extended his right arm, pulled the man toward him, and wrapped his fingers around the man’s neck.
The man’s arteries and veins turned black and his skin grew ashen as Helion drained the man’s life force. Helion pulled the man in close and whispered to him. “I’ve never done this to completion. I’m interested to see what happens. People like you need to be stopped no matter what Blue Spekter says.”
The villain desperately swatted at Helion’s arm, but his strength failed him. Helion watched the man’s skin become gaunt and tighten across his face, skull, and neck as he drained the man beyond what he had accomplished in the past.
A moment later, Helion found himself standing in the middle of a sunny meadow covered in yellow daffodils that swayed in the summer’s breeze. Instead of holding a dying man, he held a bunch of daffodils.
What the hell? How did I get here?
He looked around, dazed and confused, but all he saw were rolling hills and more flowers. He dropped the daffodils to the ground.
Aw, shit. It’s a trick, you idiot. This has to be one of his superpowers.
An electrified foot from a midair roundhouse kick slammed into the side of his face and sent him spinning through the air. The summer meadow faded and the harsh reality of cold winter and a pile of stone and concrete rubble from the destroyed prison rose to meet him as he fell and crashed into the ground. Snow and slush sprayed out around him as he grunted.
Ow.
The man appeared out of nowhere and pinned Helion to the ground. “I’d kill you myself but Victor told us to bring you in alive. I guess he wants the pleasure of finishing off the traitorous protégé all to himself.”
“It’s too bad he’ll never get the chance,” Helion shouted, superheating his body.
His attacker grinned and counterattacked by dousing him with a torrent of water.
I expected that one…Quinn’s done to me twice now. Time to test the limits of this suit.
Helion yelled and summoned more heat than he had manifested in a long time. The onslaught of water became steam several feet from where Helion lay and the snow around him for twenty feet evaporated within seconds.
“Holy shit!” the villain shouted, flinching at the oppressive heat suddenly blasting his face and body.
Helion used the moment of weakness to his advantage and grabbed the man’s wrists with hands three times as hot as lava.
The man screamed as Helion’s hands melted through his suit, skin, and bones. A moment later, Helion’s exposed skin became fiery flame as he transmuted into living flame.
Oh…my…gosh…
Helion glanced at his hand for a moment and then reached for the man and pulled him close, wrapping his arms around the helpless villain.
“I’m sorry it has to end this way,” Helion shouted.
“Blake, don’t!” Catamount shouted somewhere to his right.
The man’s screams abruptly ceased when the combustive force of Helion’s heat and fire powers overwhelmed the man and reduced him to a puff of smokey ash. Then, the vaporized dust of the man was carried off with the wind.
Helion stared at his transmuted hands and watched Catamount land next to him.
“When did you learn to do that?” Catamount asked.
“I have no idea. I just…did it.”
“You killed him,” Catamount said, her voice flat.
Are you disappointed or okay with it?
“He needed to be stopped,” Helion said, his voice defensive. “You know damn well they won’t stop if we don’t destroy them. If they’re like Dark Flame, they have chips in their head and we have no idea of what they’re capable of.”
“I agree,” she responded.
Blake powered down his flames and his body returned to normal skin and bone. Though his suit looked a little singed in some places, it held up much better than his old purple tights would have. They would have left him nude.
A sonic boom reverberated around them. Helion looked east and watched Blue Spekter tackle the purple villain and disappear behind Kittery Point as they crashed into the ocean.
“Do you think he needs help?”
Catamount shook her head. “I don’t think so. I observed your attacker and the man Blue Spekter is dealing with. While they are strong and skilled fighters, they were recently created and I can tell they haven’t integrated their abilities. They rely on brute force to overwhelm you and the use of their powers seems mechanical, like they’re flipping switches about what they want to do. This prevents them from responding quickly to your attacks. However, the needle-nose ice spears your attacker managed to create were rather ingenious.”
Yeah, not the first time ice has been my demise.
“I dunno, the orange guy seemed to think about what he was doing.”
The corner of Catamount’s mouth curled upward. “I know. It’s difficult to explain. You have the advantage of experience on your side. They have rapid superpowers training with Victor and former military experience to draw from. It’s just different.”
“Okay.”
Helion sensed Blue Spekter and the purple enemy approaching. “What on earth?”
Helion saw his best friend flying toward them, carrying the villain suspended by the man’s wrists. Though Helion could sense the purple man as well, the feeling was faint.
“The man is unconscious,” Catamount observed.
A moment later, Blue Spekter dropped the man on the ground in front of them.
Blake stepped froward and ignited his hands. “We have to kill him. Rip him apart and burn the pieces.”
“Whoa, easy, dude,” Blue Spekter said, frowning at him. “We need answers, first.”
“He won’t talk,” Blake said. “When he regains consciousness, he’ll attack us. We can’t bring him back to the base.”
“We’re not going to, but we’re also not going to stay here. We need to get him somewhere no one can see us.”
Catamount looked out to sea. “The Isle of Shoals. Visibility is low today. We’ll be protected from landlocked prying eyes and satellites.”
Blue Spekter nodded. “Where’s your guy?”
Helion pursed his lips. “Um…”
“He won’t be troubling us any longer,” Catamount said, coming to Helion’s defense.
Blue Spekter’s face fell flat as he looked around the island. “Okay, so where�
��s the body?”
Helion cleared his throat and explained what happened with the orange villain. When he finished, he waited for his best friend to chide him.
Instead, the superhero replied with, “I understand. I had to make that decision twice. It’s really awesome you can become living flame, too.”
Whoa! He didn’t berate me.
“And you’re gonna have to make it again,” the purple villain exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. “You should have listened to your friend.”
The man coiled his arm back and then blasted Blue Spekter with some kind of telekinetic punch or push that caught him off guard and sent him flying.
Oh, no, you don’t.
Helion raised his right arm and tightened his fist, simultaneously grabbing and crushing the man’s ribcage with his telekinetic vice grips.
The man grunted with anguish and then grimaced at Helion. A moment later, Helion found himself standing in a church parking lot.
Not again. I can still sense you in my mind and I can feel my hold on your body…I didn’t notice that before. This confusion thing seems to be their last chance defense tactic.
Helion squeezed harder and several windshields around him shattered. “Stop it right now or this won’t end well for you.”
“Allow me,” the disembodied voice of Catamount said. Helion acquiesced and released the man. A moment later, the parking lot disappeared and Seavey Island returned.
“You might want to step back,” Catamount said as she lowered her center of gravity, adopted a fighting stance, and raised her open hands, fingers like claws, at the man’s head.
Unsure of what she was about to do, Helion did as she suggested and stepped back.
“Tell us where Victor is,” Catamount said.
“Never,” the man exclaimed. He pulled his arms back and pushed them forward. Blake sensed him blast Catamount with a powerful, telekinetic push.
She didn’t flinch.
Wow.
Instead, the man grabbed his head and fell to his knees. Catamount raised her hands and aimed them at the man’s head.
Helion sensed a strange disorientation in his mind. It was as if the world around him was shaking and moving of its own accord like the random, distorted images of a vibrating kaleidoscope. He immediately felt sick and stepped back.
Blue Spekter flew back and Helion waved at him with exaggerated arm gestures that suggested he should avoid landing near Catamount or the purple villain.
“I won’t talk,” the man shouted as he fell to his knees and grabbed the sides of his head.
“What are you doing to him?” Blue Spekter asked.
“Attempting to break his resolve,” Catamount said.
“By doing what, exactly?” Blue Spekter stepped closer to the villain but stopped and grabbed the sides of his head with surprise. “Oh my gosh, what is that?” A moment later, he recovered and lowered his hands. “That’s nasty.”
How did Quinn just…shake that off?
Helion stepped closer but the powerful distortion field oppressed him too much and he immediately backed away.
The man grunted. “I’ll never talk,” the man shouted as he swayed back and forth on his knees. “The Order will see to your destruction,” he hissed. His face twisted with anguish as he struggled under the oppressive power that abused his mind.
“I don’t think so,” Catamount said. A moment later, the man shrieked and then fell face-first into the snowy ground. “He’ll be out for a while.”
“What do we do with him?”
“It’s time to end him,” Helion said.
“We’re not killers of defenseless people,” Blue Spekter argued, swiping his hand across his chest.
“He is too dangerous to be kept alive,” Helion argued. “They all are. You said yourself that if you couldn’t have saved me, you would have had to put me down. What makes him any different?”
“There has to be another way,” Blue Spekter protested.
“Until there is a prison that can hold superhumans, there may be no other way,” Catamount said, her face grave.
Blue Spekter shook his head. “When Mother Superior captured me and Blake, she knew that passing an electrical current through Blake’s body would incapacitate him and she assumed it would incapacitate me as well, but it didn’t.”
“This guy can wield electricity,” Helion interjected, pointing at the unconscious villain.
“Oh.”
“That doesn’t mean he can control it,” Ana Maria suggested.
“So, what then?” Blue Spekter asked. “Are we going to ask the DHS to imprison him like The Order did with us? Besides, would that be torture? Is that weird, distorting power you have…technically torture?
“Would he hesitate to use it against us in a battle?”
“No, but morality is what separates us from them. If we stoop to their level whenever we want, we might as well join The Order right now. Unless we’re pushed to the edge or innocent peoples’ lives are in danger, we have to try everything we can to help them first.”
“So, do what you did to me,” Helion said.
“What?”
“Burn the micro bug out of his head.”
“Blake, that was a gamble,” Blue Spekter said, shaking his head.
“One that worked, if I remember correctly.”
Blue Spekter sighed. “I dunno.”
“Hartman to Blue Spekter, come in.” The agent’s voice crackled in their ear comms.
Blue Spekter tapped his ear comm and responded. “Go ahead.”
“We’re watching across the river. Is that villain dead or unconscious?”
“Unconscious,” Blue Spekter replied.
“Great. Marines have crossed onto the island and on their way with a modified set of handcuffs and a restraint collar. They pack a little juice and should interfere with the man’s ability to use his powers and restrain him.”
The sound of approaching vehicle engines confirmed what the agent said.
“Um, where did these new devices come from?” Blue Spekter asked. Helion sensed irritation in his friend’s voice.
“Research and Development, of course. They’re modified TaseBolt tech. Instead of discharging an arc of focused electricity against a target, they concentrate it on the prisoner…like a dog’s bark collar.”
“That sounds oddly familiar,” Helion said, shaking his head.
“It should, Helion.” Hartman flatly replied. “Dr. Madison suggested it and R&D worked up a prototype. She claims it is the perfect synthesis of something she worked on in the past with our latest tech.”
“We’ll be waiting, Blue Spekter out.” Then, he tapped his ear comm.
“Okay, that’s creepy,” Helion said. “The fact that they have what we were talking about?”
“It’s the only way to stop most of us, with the exception of you,” Catamount said, glancing at Blue Spekter. “It’s only natural DHS figured it out, too.”
“I’m not sure I like the government getting the upper hand.”
Catamount smiled. “It was fun being a superhero until super villains appeared, huh? The world must take steps to protect itself when you are unavailable.”
Blue Spekter’s shoulders dropped a little. “I know, you’re right. It’s too much for me to do alone.”
“You won’t have to do it alone,” she said. “I’ll be working with them and you too, by extension.”
“What do you mean?” Helion asked.
“They’ve offered me a position. You might call it a consultancy.”
“Just like that?” Blue Spekter asked. “You’re going to join the government when you hid from them after all these years?”
Two SUVs and an armored vehicle pulled up and a handful of marines egressed from each vehicle. Each one carried TaseBolts, but did not aim them at the heroes.
“Please secure the prisoner so we may approach without harm,” the marine captain called out.
Helion extended his right hand and pressed the
man down with a telekinetic field. “Consider it done, Captain.”
“I have not made up my mind yet,” Catamount answered. “But of the three of us, am I not the best suited to ensure the Guardians have the inside scoop to DHS operations when it comes to superhumans?”
“You mean, like…be a mole?”
The marines crossed the grounds and approached.
Catamount smiled. “Something like that, but a legitimate connection between the world as we know it and whatever the future sets before us. If we can’t bring Victor to justice, there’s no stopping him. The DHS is also concerned because The Order has already started changing its encryptions, which means the data we now have will become obsolete. If you think about how little we know, there could be hundreds of reactor cores across the country or the world. We’ll have our hands full for some time, but you also need to finish high school, go to college, have a normal life. Oh, and protect the world at the same time.”
“Still, I didn’t think you wanted to be so close to…anyone.”
“Believe me, I’d rather go back into hiding. But something you said stuck with me.”
“What was that?” Blue Spekter asked.
“With youthful brazenness, you challenged me by reminding me it wasn’t 1965 anymore and that I needed to wake up. The world had changed and I was too stuck in the past to see it. You were right, and I haven’t regretted stepping forward. I can’t imagine locking myself away in a corner tower of some medieval castle, knitting like an old maid and waiting for death. Besides, why should you two have all the fun?”
The marines handcuffed the villain and fitted his neck with the prototype power-nullifying collar. A wire extended from the back of the collar and connected to the center chains of the handcuffs. They switched it on and Blake heard a faint electric hum from the device.
Blue Spekter frowned. “I feel like there’s a lot of stuff going on around me but no one’s talking to me. How can I lead the Guardians if I don’t know what’s going on?”
The Guardians Omnibus Page 114