A shriek rent the sea as blood spilled into the black waters. Janis felt herself being cast from the plane, back to the field of battle in the Grove. She blinked her eyes open and checked to ensure the shield was still intact. It was.
With the Witch’s shriek ringing in her ears, Janis followed the pain back to the source, the person.
She hesitated and then double-checked.
I’ll be damned…
What? Scott said. Success?
No, Janis replied. She anticipated me like you thought she might. She locked me out. But she just gave away her physical location, and guess what? She’s in the freaking neighborhood behind ours.
41
Scott’s mind reeled from the revelation.
You mean…? He darted a look behind them. Beyond the houses at the back of the Grove, Scott could make out a scatter of rooftops among the trees. At that very moment, any one of them could be sheltering the Witch.
Look, I blinded her, Janis said, but I’m not sure for how long. I can’t access her vision, so I need to find her, put her out of action. She glanced over the field of battle. But let’s try and clean things up a little first. Should be a fairer fight now.
Tyler’s voice entered the conversation. I’m ready to go back out. Just give me the word.
Janis nodded. I’ve got you blurred. You’re clear.
Tyler became indistinct, and Scott had to strain to keep track of his movement. Tyler flanked the mass of earth creatures to the left and stopped. The air began popping with electrical energy. Tyler discharged it at once. The force radiated as a bright flash of light with him at its core.
The army of creatures stiffened briefly, as though in surprise at the charge shooting through them, before crumbling to the earth.
“Yes!” Scott cried, pumping a fist.
He pivoted to where the three Scale members were suddenly visible again. Titan was shouting something at Shockwave, who was holding his palms up in confusion. It was all Scott could do to keep from beating his chest in triumph.
The Scale no longer had the benefit of the Witch’s powers to coordinate them. As Minion worked to resurrect her fallen creatures, Scott realized they were without something else, either.
Tyler, take Minion! he shouted. I’ve got Shockwave!
Scott’s pulse shot the length of his laser and landed against the side of Shockwave’s head. Both legs kicked out to the side as he went airborne. He disappeared in the tall grass behind the other two and fell still.
Minion went down with a zap, the earth she had begun to resurrect into animate mounds falling, too.
Their protective fields, Scott explained. When Tyler released his energy, it had the effect of an electromagnetic pulse. It shorted them out.
We still have Mr. Indestructible to deal with, Margaret said.
As if on cue, Titan turned from his fallen teammates and squeezed off a barrage of rifle fire.
Reginald fired back, the bullets zinging off Titan’s plated suit.
Is his transceiver still operational? Janis asked.
Scott felt toward him. Yeah, it’s inside his helmet, he replied. And I can’t get to it.
I can feel the Witch’s presence again, Janis said. She’s recovering her sight.
Go, Scott said. We’ll handle Titan.
Janis looked from her teammates to Titan. It was going to be a heck of a battle as it was, but next to unwinnable as long as the Witch was sharing her clairvoyant insights with him.
All right, she said, but here…
She concentrated into the ground that only a minute before had been attacking her shield. With a forceful gesture of her arms, hundreds of pounds of earth piled up into a rounded, ten-foot-high wall. Janis shaped crenels and openings for her teammates to fire through, then gave Tyler a suggestion.
He put his hands to the barrier and ran a white-hot electrical current through it. The sand throughout the soil glazed and hardened, transforming the wall into something formidable. Energy flooded into Janis as she allowed the wall to replace her psychic shield.
As soon as I take her out, I’ll be back, she said.
She glanced around at her teammates, already firing through the new barrier—even Margaret, who Reginald had armed with a laser pistol.
Keeping the wall between her and Titan, Janis took off running, then leaned forward until her feet were no longer touching the ground. She pushed more and more energy into her flight. Horizontal now, she arced over the Grove’s rearmost houses, whose backyard fences formed a barricade against the adjoining neighborhood.
Janis blurred herself as she landed on a residential street, running to keep up with her momentum. Fifty yards ahead, to her left, a hard-packed dirt road disappeared into a copse of trees.
That’s where the scream came from.
She rounded the corner, running under her own power now. As breaths boomed in and out of her chest, she felt good, she felt strong. The tide was finally turning in their favor. Ahead, a house began to take form through the trees. She slowed to a jog. It was an old plantation-style home with columns along the front porch and a balcony on the second level. It appeared in good upkeep, and why not? Like the command and control center in Oakwood, the owners didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves.
One neighborhood away, Janis marveled again.
She gave the location to her teammates, who sounded as though they were still pitched in battle.
Gunfire nailed her shield.
Janis honed in on the shooters. With a thought, she grabbed and yanked them from the upper-story windows. Four goons in black appeared through the shattering glass, arms and legs flailing. Bones fractured as the ground pummeled them. Not slowing, Janis snapped and scattered their weapons.
She took the front-porch steps two at a time, shooting a pair of psionic blasts through the door.
Thunks sounded as the men on the other side collapsed.
With another thought, Janis blew out the extensive bolting and arrived at the door with one leg raised. Her kick knocked it wide, and with her next step she was inside a foyer. A familiar, foul scent washed around her. She darted her gaze to the entranceways of large dark-lit rooms. A staircase rose to her left. Janis felt throughout the house. She needed to get to the Witch before she recovered her clairvoyance. Not only so the Witch wouldn’t be able to forecast her teammates’ moves on the battle field, but so she wouldn’t anticipate Janis’s moves, either.
More shots.
Janis felt her shield deflect the bullets. One man was running in from a room off to the right, the other from the left. Janis tapped into their momentum and sped them into one another.
She hit them both with mind blasts to make sure they would stay down.
Janis then turned and faced the wall beneath the staircase. She knocked twice and took in the hollow sound. With a telekinetic push, the hidden door gave way, slapping open onto a dark staircase. Beyond the foulness and dripping humidity, Janis felt a presence.
Like a predatory creature, the Witch was down there. Waiting.
Reinforcing her shield, Janis pattered into the darkness.
It’s no good, Scott thought to himself.
They were hitting Titan with everything and he was barely flinching. His body armor was grounding Tyler’s electricity and deflecting Scott’s laser blasts, as well as the barrage of fire coming from Reginald, Margaret, and Dutch’s reconstituted team. And Scott knew from briefings that any projectile that did get past Titan’s armor would stop at his super-dense skin.
It’s like I thought, came Reginald’s voice as he squeezed off two more shots. The visor on his helmet is tougher than granite. It’s not gonna let anything near that good eye of his.
I think our best shot is to get Margaret close enough to bend his will to hers, Scott said back.
Reginald tilted his head from the rifle sight. Any ideas how that’s gonna happen?
The look Margaret shot Scott through her visor asked the same question.
; Titan, who had been kneeling—alternately firing, reloading, and switching out weapons from a huge case beside him—rose now to his full height. And he was massive. Larger even than Jesse.
Believe he’s out of ammo, Reginald said.
Before Scott could cheer the development, Titan loped into a run, straight toward them. Dread exploded in Scott’s solar plexus. Their barrier had held up well to his fire, but the force of his fists would be another story. And Titan was wielding something that looked like a cattle prod.
Spread out, Scott said. Try to keep him off balance. Margaret, stay here until we call you.
Tyler rounded the barrier on the left side. Scott followed Reginald around the right.
Tyler was first to strike, hitting Titan’s helmet with a pair of energy balls. As the giant stumbled for balance, Scott aimed for his legs. The concussive-force blast caught Titan below the right knee. His booted leg kicked up behind him and he lost his grip on the prod. When Titan reached back to reclaim it, he plowed face first into the dirt.
Now! Scott called to Margaret.
She strode around the wall, much too slowly for Scott’s liking, to where Titan was pushing himself to his knees.
Titan felt for his dirt-caked visor.
“You will cease your attack this instant,” Margaret commanded in her big-sister tone.
Titan’s hand paused mid wipe.
“You will surrender to the Champions.”
His arm fell to his side.
“Now, place your hands behind your head, fingers laced.”
Scott realized too late that Titan was seizing the haft of the half-buried prod.
“How about I don’t,” Titan said, swinging the prod around. The end click-clacked to life, blue light buzzing between a pair of nodes. The end struck Margaret’s midsection. Her eyes had enough time to register the sudden shock before she was launched backwards through the air.
Titan rose to his feet, heaving with laughter.
“Anyone else want a taste?” His gaze landed on Reginald. “How ’bout you, Perry?”
Scott retreated to where Margaret had landed. Her body rose and fell with pained breaths.
More gunfire exploded. Scott looked up to find Reginald’s rifle spitting rounds as he backpedaled from Titan’s charge. In a pair of swift motions, Titan shocked the rifle from Reginald’s grasp and then seized him by the neck. Reginald’s legs kicked as he was lifted. Titan dropped the prod and squeezed Reginald’s helmet between a finger and thumb.
He’s going to crush his head, Scott thought. He landed a pulse against Titan’s helmet, but it had no more effect than the others. Dutch’s team had stopped firing, fearful of hitting Reginald.
Something cracked. Titan pinched Reginald’s helmet away like a shell from a pea.
Scott exhaled. His head was still intact. Reginald stopped kicking and stared straight into Titan’s visor. The lines of his dark face clenched, though not only from pain. Apparently, the two had a history.
“Aw, what’s wrong, Perry?” Titan asked with a chuckle. “Failed in your good deed?”
Reginald managed to get his mouth around two words: fuck you.
“Yeah, well same to you and yours,” Titan said. He brought a pointed finger to Reginald’s right eye. “I’m gonna end things, don’t you worry. But first, ever heard the old saying, ‘an eye for an eye’?”
Titan drew his finger back like a piston.
Janis lowered herself from the final step and onto a concrete floor. The psychic stench had become so overpowering that Janis felt like she was up to her thighs in fermented fish guts. She paused to get her bearings. Though the room was pitch black, the acoustics suggested space.
Janis reached into it. A basement the length and width of the house.
And across the room from her, a figure seated and watching.
“I’ve been expecting you.”
The voice was refined but dusty with age, as though speaking from another century.
“Oh, yeah?” Janis said.
She felt an urge to check on her teammates but stopped herself, sensing it was what the Witch wanted—for her to become distracted. Janis redoubled her concentration into her physical and psychic shields.
“You must think you are a rather clever child,” the Witch said. “Manipulating my poor vision like that.”
Janis didn’t answer this time. Instead, she strode forward.
“I can tell you things, you know,” the Witch said.
“Is that supposed to impress me?”
Janis focused her energies into the psionic blast that would take her out. As she tapped into the Witch’s brainstem, she felt the woman trying to influence her thoughts, much like Margaret could. Except the sensation felt forceful, almost desperate. Fingernails gouging for a hold.
It had no effect on Janis.
“Things that might spare you,” the Witch said quickly, her voice retreating. “Your family, your boyfriend.”
At mention of her loved ones, a cold rage filled Janis.
“Don’t you dare insinuate your putrid evil into my life.”
With a sweeping gesture, she tore away the dark blankets that covered the high windows around the basement. The light that shot through the dust suspensions, though dull, filled the basement with the brilliance of the sun.
The Witch shrieked. Janis froze where she stood.
The creature before her could hardly be called human. She was seated in a mobile chair, one similar in appearance to the contraption that had imprisoned the old man. Formidable metal, hanging bags of IV fluid. Except this contraption didn’t bind the arms and legs. The creature had no legs. The skirt of a wine red Victorian dress was tucked up under her seat.
When the Witch lowered a pair of bone-thin arms from her face, Janis saw she had no skull either. Something malignant had eaten it away, leaving a chewed black border along her brow and temples. Fluid oozed from a vein-webbed brain, clotting the wiry bursts of hair around her ears, merging into streams of blood that dripped like tears from her carnivorous eyes.
The Witch grabbed a stained towel and pressed it to her face.
“You’re too late!” she shrieked from behind the towel. “I’ve given the word! The transfer is underway! You’ve lost! You—”
Janis released the psionic blast. The Witch sagged in her chair.
Scott, can you hear me? Janis said. I’ve taken out the Witch, but she’s already given the transfer order. That’s why we didn’t see Techie. She has him on a computer somewhere, on standby. I don’t know how far along he is, but you’re going to have to head him off somehow.
“Janis?”
She stopped and turned at Scott’s voice. He was walking toward her, his helmet at his hip. Janis expanded her shield to encompass them both. He winced as he brushed a sweep of sweat-damp hair from his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
In the instant Janis realized it wasn’t Scott, a hard kick landed in her stomach. Already weakened by the stone that had caught her earlier, a pair of ribs cracked. The pain doubled her over, broke apart the energy she’d begun to gather. Another blow landed at the base of her neck. Through Janis’s visor, she saw the cement floor rushing toward her.
And then nothing.
42
Sweat gathered into beads and trickled down Scott’s cheeks as he watched Titan’s cocked arm.
If I’m off by even a millisecond…
At the moment the muscles inside Titan’s suit bunched, Scott released his pulse. It caught Titan in the elbow, knocking his arm off course. Reginald cocked his head to one side as Titan’s gouging finger shot past.
Titan whipped his head around, his visor fixing on Scott.
“You meddling piece of…”
Still clenching Reginald by the neck, Titan rumbled into a charge. Scott had delayed Reginald’s execution for the moment, he thought. Now he had to think about delaying his own.
He released another blast, this one hitting Tita
n in the chest. It didn’t slow him. Scott backpedaled. He needed to get the barrier back between them. He turned into a full run, only to be met by a solid wall.
Err—
He staggered back from the impact and wheeled in time to see one of Titan’s fists incoming. Scott threw himself flat. Titan’s blow disappeared into the earthen wall above him. Scott tried to scramble between his wide-set legs as the wall spilled down, but Titan’s hand closed around his ankles.
Blood rushed to Scott’s head as he was hoisted up.
And now Janis was speaking to him through the psychic linkup. She was telling him about an order being given, about Techie being on standby and Scott needing to head him off. But Scott didn’t catch it all. Her message was immediately followed by one from Dutch. He was giving a new order, sending someone in.
Please tell me it’s Jesse, Scott thought. Somehow. Someway.
“Not so tough without your girlfriend to protect you, huh?” Titan said, giving Scott a hard shake.
His ankle bones mashed together while his vision blurred apart. He felt like he was going to vomit inside his helmet.
“Let me take care of my old friend here,” Titan said. “Then it’ll be your turn, Sport.”
A cough sounded, followed by the distinct sound of someone choking.
Oh God, Reginald.
In the next moment, Scott was slamming into the ground. His turn, he guessed. But then he realized he’d been dropped, not slammed. He rolled to his side and peered up. Expecting to find Reginald wrung like Stretch Armstrong, he was surprised to see Titan holding his huge hands to his own throat. Reginald had been thrown off a short distance, but he was moving, still alive.
It was Titan who was choking.
Scott gained his feet and backed away. Reginald did the same.
Titan worked his fingers up under his helmet and tore it off. His one eye was large with panic, while his cheeks had taken on a dark red color, verging on purple. He flailed silently in Scott’s direction, then turned and did the same toward Reginald. He looked like a drowning man, trying to enlist help.
XGeneration (Book 6): Greatest Good Page 24