XGeneration (Book 6): Greatest Good

by Brad Magnarella

  A murmur went up among the small assembly. The Witch’s gaze cut from them back to Shadow. Was the shifter attempting to cast doubt on her power, her ability to lead, or was there something more to her claim?

  “How would you know this?” she asked, straining to hold the strands of web together.

  “I have my sources.”

  More murmurs.

  “No, I would have known,” the Witch said, her dismissive tone masking a deepening uncertainty. “Now, back to the matter at hand…”

  Shadow moved catlike through those seated until she was standing a few feet away. The Witch withdrew her head into deeper darkness, not wanting anyone to see the blood dripping from the corners of her eyes and down the valleys of her cheeks. Least of all Shadow.

  “You continue down that axis,” Shadow said, “and you’ll be sending us to our deaths.”

  Now it was the Witch’s turn to laugh. “Who will they trust, I wonder? Someone who allowed Reginald Perry to escape and was nearly felled by a pathetic mortal? Or their leader, one whose abilities have shaped and maintained the balance of world powers since the Second Great War? Who has given everyone here life and wealth beyond their dreams? My vision, my dear, is beyond scrutiny.”

  She felt the threads in the room strengthen around her. Shadow must have sensed it, too.

  “Beyond question?” she challenged. “Weren’t you the one who told me there were futures in which Reginald might be useful, that you would warn me if he attempted to abet the Champions? Where do you think he is now? And yet, I received no warning. Beyond question, my ass.”

  The threads wobbled again and began to thin.

  “Tell me about this source, then,” the Witch scoffed. “Tell us all.”

  Shadow crossed her arms. “Why don’t you tell them yourself, Miss See All Know All?”

  The Witch slitted her eyes toward Shadow, but all that appeared in her red vision were those alternate futures—one portending catastrophic failure, the other the restoration of balance. They blotted out all else. Had the girl planted them? Her future as Scale leader hinged on the answer.

  Then and there, the Witch made up her mind.

  “I see what I need to see,” she replied. “I see what concerns the fates of nations and the lives of billions. That is the work of the Scale. I have learned to filter out distractions. They are like flecks of sand in the eye. If that upsets you, you are free to leave. You don’t appear in any condition to assist us anyway.”

  Before Shadow could land her blow, Titan shot a hand forward and seized her wrist.

  “Hey, hey,” he said, “easy there.”

  As Titan drew Shadow back, the Witch allowed a smile to stretch her stained lips. Her opponent had shown her true face: petty and power hungry. One who would resort to violence against the leader to get her way. The Witch felt the power in the room rush back around her, fortifying the web and her central position. She pushed a little more energy into it to be absolutely certain, not minding the scraping pain in the backs of her eyes this time.

  Shadow’s own eyes stared knives at her. At last, she spun from Titan’s embrace and stormed from the room.

  Such is the Scale’s burden, the Witch thought philosophically. Sacrificing one for the many.

  “Now,” she said, dabbing her bleeding eyes, “to the world-saving task before us.”

  40

  Sunday, January 5, 1986

  12:14 p.m.

  A smoke smelling of charcoal and roasting hotdogs blew warm past Scott’s face before drifting over the Grove’s playground equipment and merging with the gray cloud cover. Scott looked from Reginald, who was disguised as Director Kilmer and bent over the grill with a pair of greasy tongs, to the rest of the Champions, bundled in jackets and sitting in lawn chairs.

  It wasn’t exactly cookout weather, but if it worked to lure the Scale in, they could all consider it a success.

  Scott took another nibble off the end of his hotdog, wondering how much longer he would have to nurse it. He forced it down his dry throat, chasing it with a swallow of Coke.

  How’s it looking? he asked Janis, who was sitting to his left. She was linked up to the rest of them, as well as Agent Dutch, who was watching from one of the houses surrounding the field.

  Quiet so far, she answered. Wait…

  Scott looked over to where her brow was laddering down over darkening eyes.

  Can everyone hear me? she asked. All right, Dutch is reporting strange activity on the perimeter, brief outages in the detection field around the neighborhood. No visual confirmation yet, but I’m going to check it out.

  As the air around Scott moved with Janis’s energy, his stomach clenched. He set his paper plate of half-eaten hotdog in the grass beside him. It was them. He didn’t have Janis’s powers, but he could feel it viscerally: Techie had just hacked the detection field and the Scale were coming through.

  Scott scooted his right foot back until his heel touched something round. All of their chairs were draped with towels to conceal their helmets, which they’d hidden underneath. In simulation exercises, they’d donned them, snapped them to their battery packs, and secured them to their suits in just under ten seconds. Shedding their outerwear had taken another five.

  But Scott’s hands hadn’t been shaking then.

  The wind whistled. Fat dripped and sizzled on the grill.

  I don’t see anything, Janis reported back moments later, but we need to remain on alert. Something feels … off.

  To maintain the illusion of a casual outing, they talked aimlessly about nothing, Reginald-as-Kilmer looking over his shoulder to ask who was ready for another frank. The table beside him was lined with jars and bottles of condiments and drinks. On the underside and out of sight, Reginald had attached a small cache of military-grade weapons.

  They had prepared, Scott reminded himself. They were ready. He laced his anxious fingers over his stomach.

  What did you mean by off? he asked Janis.

  As I was looking around, I just had this feeling that something was happening beyond my…

  The thought trailed off as her eyes moved from one side to the other.

  “Did you feel that?” she whispered.

  “What?” Scott’s breath went still.

  “There it is again.”

  That time, Scott did feel something. A subtle force vibrating through him, like vertigo. Soon, the chains on the swing set began to squeak, the teeter-totters to rattle. Condiment jars clinked into one another. Tyler and Margaret looked around with widening eyes. Reginald-as-Kilmer lowered the tongs.

  All right everyone, Scott said, I think it’s time we suited—

  The field in which they were sitting buckled and came apart. Geysers of earth blew skyward. One spouted in front of Scott, knocking him backwards. Janis disappeared from his view. Clods of earth rained down on Scott’s body like solid punches and knocked his glasses off.

  What the hell?

  Squinting, he pawed the churning ground. Past his toppled chair, he encountered his helmet. Good. The new visor had been built to his prescription. He seized the helmet in both hands and pulled it over his head. Dirt thunked against it. He got a hold of the battery cable but couldn’t get it to insert into his suit. Never mind his shaking hands—the whole world was coming apart.

  With the next up-burst of earth, Scott was knocked onto his other side. And now the ground was sucking at his legs, swallowing him vertically. He clawed madly as the cool pressure reached his midsection. His view was reduced to a storm of earthen clods shooting up and down. The Champions had set up the ambush but had somehow become ambushed themselves.

  Beyond the storm, on the far side of the field, he made out three approaching figures, one of them huge and hulking.

  A large clod broke over his visor, blinding him.

  Janis! he called as he sank to his shoulders.

  When the ground exploded up, Janis was caught off guard. Flipped over. A large stone, freshly unearthed, drove into her gut.
All of her air expelled in a grunt. When she tried to reclaim that air, nothing happened. She curled onto her side where she landed and struggled to breathe, panic rising inside her.

  The ground opened beneath her and began pulling her under. She pushed with her legs.

  Janis! Scott cried in her head.

  Before she could respond, a wave of earth covered her. It filled her ears and eye sockets and entered her mouth. As she tried to spit out the mean texture and metallic taste, a crumb trickled into the back of her throat. Janis retch-coughed.

  That seemed to jump start her breathing.

  As she shook her head, someone gripped her elbow and pulled. Earth spilled from her hair and outerwear as she broke from the ground. Using her telekinetic abilities, she lifted herself the rest of the way and erected a shield. Earth spattered around her, and now something else.

  Bullets.

  Three heavy rounds exploded into her shield, requiring all of her energy to repel.

  Janis broadened her shield to encompass her teammates. She rotated in a hover.

  Smoke scattered where the grill had toppled. Reginald, who had freed her, was on his knees in his natural form, pulling weapons from the underside of the upended table. He must have been over a slab of rock, because the ground beneath him, though shaking, hadn’t opened up. Janis found the others in various states of interment. Scott was the only one who had managed to get his helmet on. Tyler and Margaret were mired to their necks. She pulled them free and onto the solid ground where Reginald was belly-crawling forward and taking aim.

  Is everyone all right? she asked.

  She shot Margaret and Tyler their helmets, then excavated her own. Janis donned it and squinted through the still-erupting field.

  There, Scott said, coming up beside her and pointing.

  The three figures looked as though they had approached from the street and then stopped beneath the giant live oak.

  How did they get in undetected? Janis asked. And where are the rest of them?

  They came up through that hole, Scott said, showing her. In addition to creating terrestrial disturbances, Shockwave’s powers must enable him to burrow through the ground.

  The one who Janis guessed to be Shockwave shot his thin arms forward. The field buckled and spewed out more dirt. Another figure, a rotund teenaged girl, stood nearby. Minion, Janis guessed. The final figure, though kneeling, was as tall as the other two. Titan. He bowed his helmeted head to a rifle and fired three more shots.

  Janis grunted with each impact.

  To maintain a sufficient shield, she wasn’t going to be able to go on the offensive. No telekinetic attacks or mind blasts. Probably the idea. But the others could. Scott was thinking the same.

  Spread formation, he called. Like we practiced.

  I’ll keep everyone covered, Janis said.

  But as Scott, Tyler, and Margaret began to move out, something new was happening. The upchurned ground was rising into eight-foot-high mounds. Thick arms and legs sprouted from them. Then squat heads. Beyond the mounds, Janis could see Minion’s mouth moving.

  The front line of earth creatures, a solid six of them, lumbered into a charge. More took form behind them.

  Scott concentrated and nailed the lead creature with a pulse, blowing its right arm off at the shoulder. A hole yawned in its head and issued a deep moan that seemed to express pain. But still it came, its left arm rising into a fist.

  What in holy hell?

  Reginald, who was prone behind the downed grill, unloaded a burst of automatic fire. Dirt puffed out at the creature’s knees. The rest of its body broke off and collapsed to the ground.

  The creature moaned again as it began dragging itself forward.

  From beyond the army of nightmare creatures, more rifle fire nailed Janis’s shield.

  This time, answering fire came from the surrounding houses. Dutch and the other agents had opened up. The original plan had been to wait for all of the Scale members to arrive before commencing the full ambush, lest the Scale recognize the fake cookout for what it was and beat a retreat. But Scott knew the plan had gone off track the moment Shockwave’s earthquake caught them by surprise. They were fighting for their lives now. There was no holding back.

  The three Scale members are protected, came Dutch’s voice. Some sort of magnetic field.

  My shots aren’t getting through, either, Reginald reported.

  The front line of creatures met the shield and began hammering it with their fists. In his rapport with Janis, Scott could feel the force of each blow thudding to her core. A moment later, one of the houses that bordered the field erupted in a wave of bricks, wood panels, and shattered glass.

  Janis felt the death of the three agents—battered and crushed by debris. A fourth was severely injured. Dutch ordered his remaining men to retreat from the other houses, posthaste.

  She looked to where Scott, Tyler, and Reginald were hitting the earth creatures with everything they had. Margaret stood before the psychic shield, trying to order the creatures down, but they were automatons with only one will to obey—Minion’s. Margaret’s powers were useless against them.

  Meanwhile, it was all Janis could do to keep the shield in place. She grunted against another burst of gun fire and took a step backward.

  Ungh!

  Despite their preparedness, the Champions were pinned. And while Minion and Titan were keeping them on the defensive, Shockwave was turning his powers on the agents. Another wave of destruction shot from his outstretched arms, and Janis watched a second house billow out, then fly to pieces. She erected a shield to protect a group of fleeing agents until they were clear of the raining debris. The effort sent a wedge of glass down the center of her head.

  Have to turn this around, she thought through the pain. Now.

  The shield’s limiting me, Tyler said. Let me clear, and I’ll flank them. Gonna send a charge through the whole damn field, hopefully disrupt whatever bond is holding those things together.

  But… Janis started to say.

  We don’t have a choice, Scott cut in. There are more of those things coming, and we can’t break them apart fast enough. They’re taking their toll on you.

  Tyler’s determined eyes met hers. I’ll be all right.

  Janis had been tapped into the planning parts of her teammates’ minds, opening holes in her shield for them to fire through. Now she allowed Tyler a hole large enough to pass through. To let him know he was clear, she gave him a gentle push and whispered for him to be careful.

  He took off running over the torn ground. Several creatures broke from the pack and veered toward him.

  Janis staggered as more exploding rounds impacted the shield.

  At least they’re staying focused on me, she thought, channeling more energy into the defensive wall.

  But that wasn’t true anymore. Above the heads of the creatures, she saw Shockwave turn suddenly from the houses and toward where Tyler was pulling atmospheric electricity to himself. Like an elegant dancer, Shockwave moved his hands past his body and then extended them outward. There was nothing elegant about what happened next. As the creatures in the wave’s path blew apart, Janis tried to get up a shield.

  Tyler!

  Too late. The wave met him like a Mack Truck. He was launched backward, landing in a flopping roll that propelled him several more yards. Before the earth creatures could descend on him, Janis looped him with threads of space and dragged him back behind her shield.

  Tyler, are you okay?!

  A moan sounded in her head. Other than my insides feeling like scrambled eggs? He pushed himself into a side sit and shook his helmeted head. Thank God for these suits.

  Relieved, Janis turned back to the field, where, for every fallen creature, two more seemed to rise in its place. She peered beyond them to the three Scale members. Shockwave hadn’t even seen Tyler make his initial move, but he had anticipated it nonetheless. Which meant someone was coordinating their actions. Someone with clairvoyant abilities
.

  The Witch is alerting her team through transceivers in their ears, Scott said, picking up on Janis’s thoughts. I’ve tried to disable them, but I can’t get past their magnetic fields.

  I need to go to the source, Janis said.

  Be careful. Scott paused to blast a hole through another earth creature. She might be anticipating that, too.

  Janis gave a psychic nod, but what choice was there? She didn’t know how much longer she could maintain the shield. The earth creatures had it surrounded now, their collective force a great and growing pressure against her.

  It has to be now.

  She pushed more energy into her shield and then slid away. She swam to that black sea where time felt nonexistent and yet absolute. She followed the odor of disemboweled fish, stronger now. She found the eyes—almond-shaped and glowing, their corneas veined with blood.

  Janis took a moment to center herself before attempting to align with the Witch’s vision. But there was no mind-bending sense of inversion this time. Janis was still treading energetic water she could not read.

  She tried again, concentrating more energy into the effort. The door to the Witch’s vision wouldn’t budge. Janis was locked out. Somehow, the Witch knew, or at least suspected, what she had done the last time. The Witch had sent the Scale anyway, just in case—but on her terms, not based on the images Janis had implanted. So far, her terms were winning.

  When Janis tried a third time, a familiar pain split the center of her head. She was pushing her limits. And with the psychic circuit breakers Mrs. Fern had installed, Janis knew that one more push like that would shut her down. She would return to her body at the same time her telekinetic shield collapsed, leaving the other Champions vulnerable to the Scale and the hoard of creatures.

  She felt the rude rub of psychic laughter.

  Oh, yeah, Janis thought, anger boiling inside her. Think that’s funny.

  With as much energy as she could safely summon, she fashioned a pair of psychic harpoons and launched them at the mocking red eyes.