Down with the Queen

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Warden, we’ve got an emergency!” Galvanic Action snapped, his voice coming through the earbud clearly and startling her out of the relative boredom of her patrol. “Two DC titans just hit the east side of Union City, we need you to go delay them! Sky Defender is already airborne; you just need to try to limit the damage they can do until he gets there.”

  “Oh, crap! Can we not catch a single break?” Warden replied, instantly turning in the direction of Union City and accelerating to full speed, her thoughts racing. “Just titans, though? No Legionnaires or any of their other people?”

  “We don’t know,” Galvanic replied grimly. “The cop who spotted them barely got out his report before going off the air, we don’t know if he made it or not.”

  “Crap,” Warden exclaimed, taking a deep breath as she tried to accelerate more, adding, “I really, really wish that I could figure out how to control this teleportation. It’d make it easier to respond to things like this.”

  “You could’ve asked Insight, you know. You met her,” Galvanic Action pointed out.

  “It was Lilith’s payment and appointment. Besides, I didn’t think about it. I’ve only managed to teleport twice so far,” Warden retorted, and her stomach sank as Union City came into sight. She could see flashes of light and hear the sounds of explosions in the distance, along with the sound of sirens. “I can hear them now, Galvanic, and it sounds bad.”

  “Right, I’ll let you go. Sky Defender should be… two minutes behind you,” Galvanic Action replied soberly. “Remember, titans are powerful, but you can hold them off. Just limit their damage, alright?”

  “I’ve got this, Galvanic,” Warden said, readying herself for combat.

  As she came into sight of the battlefield, she flinched, seeing a half-dozen cars were on fire, while a field to the east of the city was in flames as well. The titans were towering over surrounding vehicles, firing with near-impunity as the occasional bullet ricocheted off their armor. All the police were doing was drawing the attention of the massive robots and focusing their fire on themselves, but that was on purpose, Warden knew. Every time one of them took a shot they immediately relocated, trying to keep the line of fire away from the homes lining the street. It was brave, but incredibly dangerous as well.

  More interesting to her was the fact she didn’t see any of Destruction Corps’s usual ground soldiers, often called Legionnaires, nor were any of their other leaders present. It was just the war bots, which was unusual, but better than the alternative.

  Swooping down toward the robots, Warden ensured that the nearest airport wouldn’t be in the line of fire as she concentrated magic in each of her hands, condensing it into golden blades. Knowing Destruction Corps, the first attack would likely be the only chance she had to do significant damage to the robots, so she wanted to make it count.

  As she closed within about two hundred feet, the first of the robots began to turn toward her, and as it did she thrust out her hands, launching the blades at each of them and aiming for the joints of their cannon arms. As she attacked, Warden called out. “Over here, scrap heaps! Pick on someone in your own weight class, why don’t you?”

  The blade bounced off the target, which was farther away, without effect, but the other spell managed to sink into the cannon’s arm socket of the nearby bot, which lurched slightly as its head turned toward her. A series of beeps sounded, then a harsh electronic voice spoke. “Heroine detected, identity: Warden. Initiate counterstrike.”

  “Ah, crap,” Warden muttered, unhappy that the machine had actually recognized her. In her experience, that was never a good sign. Its cannon tried to point at her but was slightly off-kilter, sparks and grinding sounds coming from its shoulder. The other robot was aiming much more easily, which was definitely not a good thing, so she focused her magic into a barrier and prayed that these were normal titans, not the occasional special ones that their mad creator occasionally built.

  Each of the titans fired on her, unleashing brilliant blasts of golden energy. The closer beam missed, but Warden grunted as the one hit her shield. While she repelled the beam easily, it was stronger than it should have been, which definitely worried her. These were the special type of titan, which meant they’d take more power to block then she’d prefer. At least the police had stopped drawing the fire of the robots, which reduced her worries for the moment.

  That moment ended when panels on the shoulders of each of the robots hissed open. Warden paled as she saw the missile pods inside the panels, swearing under her breath as she abandoned a simple heavy shield and rocketed upward. Titans didn’t normally have internal missile pods.

  “Defender, these titans have integrated missile pods!” Warden warned, cringing as each of the machines started tracking her, and one of them launched a half-dozen micro-missiles in a swarm. “Since when did they have those?!”

  “Since Da Vinci decided that he wanted to build them that way, I assume,” Sky Defender replied. “Head north, Warden.”

  “Right!” Warden gasped, abruptly changing directions as the missiles streaked toward her. The missiles couldn’t turn as fast as Warden could, blazing past her before slowly arcing around to pursue her. Warden grunted again as a golden beam clipped her shield, swearing. She probably could take the missiles and beams to her full shield without a problem, but she’d really rather not risk it.

  “Drop fifty feet, now,” Sky Defender suddenly ordered and Warden didn’t even hesitate, cutting her flight for a moment and supercharging her shield as she let herself drop.

  The missiles were just beginning to turn toward her again when multiple beams of ruby light, each incredibly thin, lanced out from the north to hit the projectiles unerringly. Warden winced as the missiles exploded close enough to rock her shield, but quickly recovered as she saw Sky Defender rocketing toward her and smiled at the sight of the crimson-trimmed white armor.

  “Glad to see you, Defender! I really didn’t want to take all of those against my shield,” Warden told him, turning back to the titans as one took aim at Sky Defender. She brought up a barrier to block the blast, feeling much more confident now.

  “You could’ve taken them, though it wouldn’t have been pleasant from what I saw,” Sky Defender replied, his voice slightly muffled. “It looks like they’ve improved the yield of the missiles. Thank you, Warden. You take the damaged one, I’ll deal with the other. My defenses will take care of their missiles.”

  “You’re the expert. I’ll do what I can,” Warden agreed, taking a deep breath as she stared down at the two monstrous robots in the middle of the street.

  Sky Defender suddenly launched toward the undamaged robot like a meteor, his thrusters a brilliant white as he rocketed forward. The robot immediately fired its cannon and unleashed a spray of missiles toward Sky Defender in response. Warden had just begun descending toward her own opponent, which gave her a clear view as Sky Defender showed her why he was their top-rated team member outside the ocean.

  The man seemed to slide just barely out of the path of the energy beam, even as his lasers lanced outward to detonate the missiles as they left their launcher, the sudden explosions rocking the titan backward so it had to take a step back to stabilize itself. Unfortunately for the titan, the hero didn’t give it time to recover, not even pausing as he rammed into it at full speed, knocking the titan onto its back. Warden winced at the echoing crash of its impact, followed by the screech as Sky Defender punched a hole through the robot’s torso armor.

  Taking a page from her fellow hero, Warden put up a shield and charged straight at the titan, though her aim was slightly different than his. She couldn’t punch through its armor like Sky Defender, and she didn’t have the cannon which unleashed a brilliant white beam into the other machine’s interior, but she didn’t have to, not when she’d already managed to damage it.

  Despite its difficulties aiming, the titan managed to fire directly at her this time, helped by the fact she was flying directly toward where the arm met the torso. T
he blast exploded against her shield painfully, and Warden gasped but kept going through it, feeling the heat being shed even through the protective layers of the barrier, but an instant later she hit the titan with the sound of shrieking metal as she ripped the arm free of the socket, leaving it dangling uselessly.

  The titan instantly reached for Warden with its deadly other claw, but Warden wasn’t letting the impact phase her. Without the threat of the other titan potentially shooting her in the back, she grabbed onto the robot’s shoulder and threw up a barrier between the hand and herself, the claws sparking as they skated across its surface. Using the magic she’d been using to fly, Warden formed a blade made of magic over her right hand and shoved it deep into the socket of the gigantic machine, then let it explode.

  The blast hit Warden painfully and knocked her clean off of the titan. Shaking it off, she took flight a moment later, bracing herself as she brought up another barrier, only to stop as she blinked in surprise.

  Instead of continuing to attack her, the lenses of the titan had gone dark, its arm frozen in mid-grasp at where she’d been hanging from it. Smoke was slowly seeping out of the seams of the machine’s torso, and as she watched, it began to slowly topple over with a crash.

  “Excellent job, Warden. I knew you could do it,” Sky Defender said approvingly, standing atop his own victim, whose chest section had half-melted under the energy he’d unleashed inside it.

  “At least one of us was confident. I was afraid they’d do more damage… though it’s bad enough as it is,” Warden replied, glancing up and down the street in concern.

  The damage to the street was obvious, with snapped or burning trees down several blocks and the wreckage of at least a dozen cars that Warden could see. The injured were far more concerning, though, and her heart spasmed as she saw several bodies in the open.

  “Let’s rescue those who we can,” Sky Defender replied grimly. “I’m not detecting any more titans or members of Destruction Corps in the area, so that’s the most we can do for the moment.”

  “Agreed,” Warden replied, and took flight toward the nearest of the fallen, hoping that the woman could be saved.

  Ocean Shield HQ, San Francisco

  “What do you mean, LANCE isn’t going to send a team out here?” Sky Defender demanded, his voice unusually angry, at least in Warden’s opinion. “If they can’t get a team out here when we had a pair of Destruction Corps titans hit us, what damned use are they?”

  “I’m not any happier than you, Defender, and at least partially because I actually could’ve been some use against those monsters!” Galvanic Action replied sharply, shaking his head angrily. “Hyper, could you explain for him?”

  “LANCE claims that they’re not taking our situation lightly, and that they carefully considered their intelligence reports before making their decision,” Hypergizmo said, the thin man raising his glasses to rub his nose as he explained. “They’re not saying they won’t assist; in fact, they’ve gone to full alert and have one of their hyperjets ready to send out a reaction team if Destruction Corps hits us again. I know that means that they’re half an hour out at best, but it’s what they’re willing to do. Apparently, Destruction Corps managed to hit a train in Wyoming while this was going on, one which was carrying some extremely advanced tech and valuables. As LANCE was in the process of responding to the attack on us, they’re afraid that our communications may be compromised, or that it was a distraction. Either way it’s bad news, and the entire western United States is their responsibility.”

  “I find it somewhat hard to feel much sympathy for their position when the distraction led to seven people dead. If it hadn’t been for Officer Andrews, we could be looking at dozens or hundreds of deaths! As it is, he’s going to be lucky if he lives at all,” Warden said, shaking her head firmly. “Not that I don’t understand why LANCE is making the decision they are. They’re not the people who live here, though.”

  “It’s damned stupid, if you ask me,” Sky Defender said, seeming to take a moment to collect himself before he continued, his voice relatively cold now. “You realize that in half an hour we could lose most of one of the surrounding cities if Destruction Corps came after us full force, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Defender, I’m well aware, as is Spirit. The problem is that we don’t see what we can do about it!” Galvanic Action explained, pacing back and forth through the room. “I’ve talked to several other teams, but they can’t afford to abandon their own responsibilities on a possible additional assault. I wish that we could afford to set up a teleportation network like many villains do, but no one likes the idea of what would happen if one of the villainous organizations managed to break into a hero’s base with one, and from what I’ve heard the power costs are ridiculous.”

  “They are. Most villains only get away with it because of their blithe disregard for government regulations and the other potential problems that crop up with them,” Hypergizmo agreed, sighing. “Besides that, they aren’t easy to maintain. A good AI can manage it, but not many people are willing to trust them. Either they’re fully sentient, and thus corruptible, or they’re sub-sentient and the sum of their programming, so a single mistake or hacker and the teleporter isn’t safe anymore. Heck, I’m a fairly good inventor, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think I’d trust myself to maintain a teleporter.”

  “Look, talking about the things we can’t do isn’t going to do us any good,” Warden interjected, scowling at them. “What can we do? I hadn’t heard anything about Destruction Corps being in the city, not since Black Harbinger and the others have been in the area. Could they be behind the assault by Dreamer, Megawatt, and their compatriots?”

  “I seriously doubt it,” Sky Defender replied, shaking his head. “Destruction Corps has such extensive resources that they could’ve taken the Bayou Dream while it was in international waters easily, and without redirecting more than a tiny fraction of their people. The jobs in the city don’t fit their usual profile. They usually don’t hide who’s behind one of their attacks. They’re arrogant.”

  “All the information I’ve heard claims that Omega Code pulled out of the area after Black Harbinger’s failure, so we could just be dealing with another group moving in since he’s gone,” Galvanic Action explained, frowning. “The only saving grace is that if they’re going to hit us, they’re probably going to do it head-on. With their usual attitude… Hyper, how’re the HQ’s defenses holding up?”

  “A few of the defensive systems need a bit of maintenance that I was planning to get to after recalibrating the comm systems. Considering the situation with Blue Impulse, I was going to do that first,” Hypergizmo said, nodding. “The most vital of them is the inertial sump. With both it and the thermal sump active, we can take a hell of a lot of punishment before anyone can break in.”

  “Unless Spirit countermands me, I’d rather you performed the maintenance on those before worrying about the comm system,” Galvanic Action said, tapping the table nervously. “Any objections?”

  “No, that makes complete sense by me. It would be typical of Destruction Corps to try to destroy us first,” Sky Defender agreed. “That’d allow them to focus on the army and LANCE when they arrived.”

  “A horrible thought, but best to plan for the worst,” Warden agreed, sighing and shaking her head. “I really didn’t like their weapons.”

  “I don’t blame you at all,” Galvanic Action agreed, taking a deep breath and smiling. “At least we have you back. Our chances of being able to fight off an attack are much better with you on our side.”

  “I’m glad to be back, even if I’m not thrilled that we have another massive threat bearing down on us,” Warden replied dryly, shaking her head. “Still, we’re here, and they aren’t yet. That being said, I think it’s time for me to get some rest, if you don’t mind?”

  “Go ahead, both of you. Thanks for your work out there today,” Galvanic Action told Warden, smiling as he did so, and Warden nodded in return befor
e turning to head home.

  She was looking forward to seeing Lilith, even if it was going to be just as Lilith was getting started for the day. Night shifts sucked.

  Chapter 9

  Saturday, December 28th, 2030

  Coral Gardens, Maui

  Holding her breath, Claire dove beneath the surface again to take a closer look at the fish crowded around the anemones and coral. The brightly colored fish scattered at her approach but she admired them for a moment, smiling as best she could around her snorkel. Approaching the surface again, she blew the water from the top of the spout while she continued swimming, enjoying her time in the ocean.

  Even though it was the middle of winter, the water was surprisingly warm if you weren’t diving too deep, which meant Claire hadn’t been forced to put on a wetsuit. That’d likely be necessary for the dive she was planning for the next day, but for now Claire was enjoying just being a mundane and seeing the sights. She’d always enjoyed visiting Hawaii, and a faint part of her had been tempted to move to the islands years before. Alas, the cost of living was just too high for her taste, and the islands were too small for her comfort. Excellent to visit, but she was used to being able to drive to Los Angeles if she wanted to.

  A glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye caught Claire’s attention and she paused, blinking and smiling into the mouthpiece again as she caught sight of a huge, majestic figure mostly shrouded by the cloudy water. Seeing the humpback whale beginning to surface, Claire lifted her head from the water, watching the huge animal breach the surface.

  The sight was beautiful, and Claire found herself dawdling, happy that she’d chosen to come to Hawaii for her trip. She should head back to her resort soon, but there wasn’t any rush, not with a week and a half left to her vacation.

  Claire could just barely hear the sound of waves crashing against the beach, many of the sounds of the ocean muted by the vegetation surrounding the resort. It was quieter at the resort than the beach as well, with most of those on vacation being out during the middle of the day. Even better, it hadn’t seemed like anyone had recognized who she was at the beach, so all the attention she’d received was relatively mundane. It was rather refreshing, really.