The Indestructibles

by Matthew Phillion

  "No way," Emily said.

  Then the boy, the monster, picked up an entire car and hurled it into the closest building.

  The car exploded in a fireball, leaving a crater where the wall once was.

  "I should — " Jane said.

  "Let me take this one," Titus said.

  "You sure?" Jane asked.

  "He's just a bully," Titus said. "I know how to handle them. Go stop the firestarter."

  He winked at Jane.

  She was so surprised by the smile on his face her jaw dropped.

  "What?" Titus said. "I've been looking for someone my size to tangle with for weeks. Good luck, guys."

  "What about me? Should I help?" Emily said.

  "I want to hold you back in reserve. This looks intentional," Doc said. "If there's a third incident, you'll need to jump in."

  "Got it," Emily said.

  "Where's Kate?" Billy asked, adjusting his mask.

  "On patrol again," Titus said. "She's running out of people to punch."

  "Emily, try to get her on the radio," Doc said. "Everyone else, off you go."

  "Tell her I'm fighting a he-man monster downtown but I've got it completely under control and don't need backup," Titus said, walking out of the command center.

  "How's that supposed to help find her?" Emily asked.

  "Trust me, that's pretty much guaranteed to bring her running downtown," he said, then loped down the hallway and out of sight.

  Chapter 37:

  The girl of fire

  Jane and Billy rocketed cross-country faster than any aircraft could have taken them. They flew above the cloud cover to let Jane soak up more solar energy; the altitude made her feel immortal and super-powered, and when she saw the streak of blue-white light Billy left in his wake, she produced fire from her hands and left her own red-gold trail beside his.

  "I feel like a hero," Billy said, grinning at Jane, who smiled back.

  "Race you," she said, and burst ahead like a shuttle launch.

  They're smiles disappeared when they dropped closer to the surface and learned how far the fire had spread. Miles of devastation, trees like burning skeletons stretching for the sky, smoke black and gray darkening the air.

  "What a nightmare," Jane said.

  "We've got to find her," Billy said.

  She motioned toward a single point on the horizon; it burned brighter and more out of control than the others. The forest fire looked natural, but in this one place, it boiled over into something fluid, an elemental nightmare of fire.

  Dude, will I choke on all this smoke? Billy asked.

  Our shields will clean the air for you. The same way I explained how they would protect you underwater, the alien said.

  You promise? Billy said.

  If one of us should have trust issues about the other, should not it be the other way around? Dude said.

  Point taken, Billy said, and swooped in to ground level.

  Beside him, Jane swatted a few dead trees out of the air, sending up swarms of ash and embers. At the top of a ridge in front of them, the burning figure of the girl of fire walked, her back facing them.

  "Hey!" Jane yelled.

  The figure turned. Even at this distance, Billy could see the pain that registered on her face. She looked confused, terrified and raised her hands as if to say stop, but gouts of fire poured from her palms and rolled down her arms. A serpentine swath of flame rushed down the sloping hill towards them. Billy and Jane leaped in opposite directions to get out of the way.

  Can't help it, can she? Billy thought.

  She does not appear to be in control of her abilities, Dude said.

  Billy watched Jane charge the girl of fire, letting the snakelike river of flames wash over her like water. He looked on with alarm when he saw her cape catch fire in a few spots, but the futuristic material of their uniforms seemed to retard the flames and they sputtered out quickly.

  Jane reached the crest of the hill and tried to grab the girl, but a massive tree, burning hot enough Billy saw its glowing red insides, toppled, knocking Jane to the ground and sending her rolling back down the hill.

  Billy took off, flying over the broken and burning trees littering the path to the top of the hill. The girl focused her attention on him, the tendrils of fire lashed upward and washed over Billy.

  "Hot! Dude this is hot! You promised!"

  I said you would be able to breath, Dude said. I did not say you were in an air-conditioned force field.

  "It hurts!"

  Then you should try moving out of her line of fire, Billy Case, the alien said.

  I can't see, Dude!

  Stay calm and fly up.

  Billy, in a rare moment of humility, listened. Or, tried to listen. Up, however, was more difficult to figure out when he was half-blinded by the blast of flames, and so he took off fast at more of a forty-five degree angle, smashed into a tree trunk and knocked himself silly. He fell, crash landing only a few feet away from the girl.

  She peered into his eyes. Her face contorted with pain. When she spoke, her mouth was more the absence of fire than anything real or alive.

  "I can't stop it," she said. "Help me. Can't stop this from happening."

  "I'm — I'm here to help," Billy said.

  "Please," the girl said. "Everything burns . . . "

  Dude, what am I supposed to do, Billy asked.

  The alien was quiet. Billy could almost hear him thinking.

  Dude? I need help. I can't — how do I extinguish her?

  Lethal force.

  What? No. No way, Dude. I can't. You won't let me.

  I have stopped you from using excessive force when it was inappropriate and childish, Billy Case, the alien said. This might be the only way to stop her. I see no way to help her shut down her powers.

  I don't want to.

  I am open to suggestions, Billy.

  Jane, covered head to toe in soot and char marks, clambered up the hill to crouch beside Billy.

  "I feel like I'm inhaling mud," she said.

  "Do you have a plan?" Please have a plan, he thought.

  "I'm fire proof. I could grab her and try to bring her up into the atmosphere. Maybe if we get her off the ground . . . "

  "What if she needs to breathe like a regular human, Jane? Won't that suffocate her?"

  "I don't know," she said.

  "It will. If flames can't survive up there, neither can a person," he said.

  "Billy," Jane said. "We're miles from a town. The way this inferno is spreading we could be looking at hundreds of lives at risk. We have to do something."

  Dude?

  You have my support, whatever you decide, Billy Case.

  "Yeah, we have to do something," Billy said.

  He felt a swell of energy in his left hand as he prepared a blast of light to strike at the girl. He looked her directly in the eyes.

  "I'm so very sorry," he said.

  "You're going to — no you're not!" Jane said.

  She whacked Billy's arm and the blast he'd prepared went skittering off through the burning forest, leaving ash and embers scattering like fireflies.

  "I don't know what else to do!" he said.

  "Let me try — " Jane started, but the girl of fire interrupted her.

  "I know what I have to do," she said.

  Her voice had a hollowness, an echo, a sadness that stabbed Billy in the chest.

  "No! Wait! Let us try to help!" he said.

  The air grew hotter, suffocating. The hot ground burned the soles of his feet.

  The girl shook her head.

  "There's only one way this ends," she said. "Step back."

  "What are you doing?" yelled Jane.

  She shook her hands in helpless frustration.

  What are we going to do, Dude? Billy asked.

  I think we should do as she says, Billy Case.

  "I don't want to do as she says, I want to help her!" Billy yelled. Jane looked at him, unsure if he was talking to her or t
o the voices in his own head.

  The girl stared from Billy to Jane and then back again.

  "I'm sorry. Tell everyone hurt by me that I'm so sorry."

  And then she started to get brighter. From orange to pale yellow, from yellow to white. She transformed to an inverted silhouette, a being of pure light.

  "Jane! I can't see you! We have to get back!"

  He felt Jane's small and impossibly strong hand grip his arm. Together they took flight. Billy tried to fly east, away and toward home, but Jane flew straight up, above the flames above the intensity of the growing heat.

  Below them, an explosion erupted so powerful it interrupted their flight, propelling them higher up into the air, a wave of superheated pressure sent them sprawling. Jane relinquished her death grip on Billy's arm. He watched as she regained control of her flight and let himself tumble a minute until the air itself felt more stable and he was able to circle around.

  The ground deteriorated into a blackened dead zone. Trees here and there still flickered with loose flames, but for the most part, the explosion seemed to have knocked out the fire itself, whether through the force of the blast or simply by devouring all available oxygen.

  "It's all gone, Dude," Billy said. "Everything once living down there is gone."

  I'm sorry, Billy Case.

  "Yeah," Billy said. "Hey Jane?"

  But when he looked up, Jane had disappeared, her fiery wake a long streak in the distance. She left him there alone.

  Chapter 38:

  Rumble

  Once Titus left the Tower, following the rampaging villain was easy.

  The kid, who Titus had begun thinking of as "the bully," had smashed, thrown, or flipped over every vehicle in his path for three city blocks. Fires broke out in several places, and, cartoonishly, one hydrant had been smashed off its moorings, sending water spraying thirty feet in the air. Fortunately, the civilians along his path seemed to have taken the hint and ran away. The streets were all but deserted.

  Titus spotted the bully a block away, and slipped out of his shoes. He stuffed his hands into the oversized hooded sweatshirt he'd taken to wearing and walked up behind him, careful to avoid stepping on the broken glass that seemed to be scattered everywhere.

  The bully picked up two smaller cars and smashed them together like a pair of cymbals.

  Then Titus cleared his throat. "I bet you were the kid who destroyed other kids' toys at recess, too," he said.

  He dropped both cars onto their wheels, shocks squeaking in unison as they bounced back into place.

  "I haven't thrown a human yet," the bully said. "Wonder how far I can fling you?"

  His voice was thick, stupid, as if vocal cords and tongue worked too hard to form words. The contraption on the bully's chest continued to pump some sort of chemical into his body.

  "Like to see you try," Titus said.

  The wolf snarled in the back of his mind. Hang on, old boy, Titus thought. One more minute and we get to have our fun.

  "Who are you? The Karate Kid?"

  "Nah. Name's Titus."

  "Titus?"

  "Yeah. And I'm really looking forward to tearing you apart."

  The bully flexed his hands, his massive, deformed fingers looking like a set of vice grips. He took one step forward.

  Then Titus let the wolf come out to play.

  The rippling tore through him, a screaming pain of bones thickening and stretching. Muscles expanded and howled into new, alien shapes. His fingers screeched when claws grew and hardened. The tendons and bones in his face clicked and snapped as his jaws extended, and massive canines sunk into place.

  And then he roared.

  "What the f — " the bully started to exclaim.

  But Titus was already in motion.

  He speared the bully across the middle, pushing him into a telephone pole, the post snapped under their combined weight. Titus howled when the bully grabbed a fistful of fur. He clamped his jaws down onto the bully's shoulder, but released when he received a return punch in the gut. Those vice-like hands grabbed hold of the werewolf and tossed him down the street. Titus was able to right himself mid-air and land on all fours; the claws on his toes tore canyons in the blacktop. He roared another challenge, and the bully ran at him, twice the size of a professional football linebacker. Titus prepared for the impact and rolled with it; his ribs cracked, and he used the opportunity to dig his claws into the bully's back.

  Together, they slammed into a storefront, glass shards ripped their skin to shreds. Titus backhanded the bully across the face with one hand and steadied himself with the other. The bully landed a solid punch to the werewolf's face and the skin above Titus's eye split. Blood began to pour. They circled each other like old wrestlers.

  Titus felt more in control of the wolf than he ever had before, relying on the monster's instincts but holding him back from making impulsive decisions. He couldn't fight every movement, though, and the werewolf lashed out with a clawed hand at the bully's face. The bully countered by grabbing Titus's wrist and holding it tight; he slammed his free hand into the werewolf's elbow. Titus felt bones snap brutally. Just as quickly, though, he felt the cool, strange sensation of those same bones mending instantly, knitting back together, realigning with tendon and muscle.

  Titus reached out with his oversized free hand and wrapped his long, clawed fingers around the bully's head as if palming a basketball. He dug his claws in and dragged the bully out into the street again, feeling skin tear under the points of his fingertips. Once in the street, the grip on his wrist loosened. He squeezed tighter around the bully's head.

  Then, the world went white and filled with a high-pitched ringing sound. The bully had pounded both fists into the sides of the werewolf's head. Titus released the grip on his opponent's head and yipped in pain when the bully threw a hard punch into his solar plexus.

  Never looking up, Titus grabbed him by both legs and dug his claws in, planting into the oversized muscles there. The bully headbutted him, but they both reeled from that blow; like a drunken boxer, he landed a few feeble punches on wolf's muzzled face, and Titus lashed out with equally weak attacks across his enemy's face and chest. The bully tried another combination of punches, but Titus latched onto his forearm with his jaws; his attempts to yank his arm free were hurting more than helping, and when he punched the werewolf in the face to try to force him to let go, the bully only did more harm to himself, pushing the wolf's teeth in deeper and causing him to pull away again reflexively. He raised one foot and kicked Titus square in the chest. The blow forced Titus to loosen his bite, but when they separated, the bully's arm hung weak and loose with pain.

  The bully pounded the palm of his good hand into the disc on his chest. The gadget came alive, pumping more of the mystery fluid into his body. Cuts and tears across his body were visibly healing, not unlike Titus's own.

  "You got this one, kid," a voice said above them.

  Titus rolled his weary yellow eyes up to see Kate in full battle gear standing on a second story ledge above them. She grinned demonically. "You know what to do."

  Titus charged.

  The bully, reinvigorated, pounded away at the werewolf's body with fists like stone. Titus felt more bones breaking, an entire tooth chipped in half in his jaw and grew back instantly. The rain of punches to his face left him half blind, but with a horrible, feral energy he pushed forward, leaving a railroad of lacerations across the bully's arms and upper body.

  Then, the werewolf's claws clenched around the device on the bully's chest. Titus pulled.

  The mystery substance sprayed in the air like arterial blood, a bizarre, blue-black fluid thick enough to be syrup. Where the contraption once rested lay a set of surgical scars, ports for plugs and tubes, the burn marks of a fresh injury. The bully writhed not in pain but in frustration and visibly began to lessen in size, muscles fluidly shrinking; his face became less apelike, more human. He collapsed to his knees. Panting, he stared up at Titus.

  "
You bastard," the bully said. "You took my toy away."

  Titus, still in full werewolf shape, sniffed the contraption once and then threw it aside like a piece of rotting fruit.

  Kate quietly snatched up the discarded machine and looped it awkwardly on her belt.

  "You better kill me," the boy said.

  Even with his power source gone, his injuries were healing, slower but steady, sealing up as if they never happened.

  "What do you say, big guy?" Kate said.

  She stood shoulder to shoulder with Titus, looking delicate beside the massive werewolf. The wolf's lips pulled back from his teeth as if to growl, but then those teeth began to recede, the fur disappeared, ears shrunk down to human shape. A moment later Titus — still in his strange yoga pants and a bloody but mostly whole hooded sweatshirt — stood there instead, breathing heavily, his own cuts and bruises fading as if in time lapsed photography.

  "That was a lot of fun," Titus said. "We should do it again some time."

  Chapter 39:

  Working out differences

  Titus found Doc and Emily on the observation deck of the training room. Below them, what appeared to be a continuation of Titus's brawl was taking place between Jane and Billy.

  He limped over to the window and watched Jane hit Billy hard enough to send him flying into, and nearly through, one of the walls. They both looked like they'd been left on an outdoor charcoal grill much too long, their costumes charred black, faces covered in greasy gray soot.

  "What's happening down there?"

  "Fight!" Emily said. "Isn't it awesome?"

  Titus raised an eyebrow at Doc, who observed the brawl passively, the combatants reflected in his red glasses.

  "We're fighting each other now?" Titus said.