“Yeah. Give me a sec; I’ll let Spirit know that we’re pretty much there,” Warden replied, hitting the key on her communicator and speaking. “Spirit, we’re at the edge of Vallejo bordering the mountains now. Are the other two about in position?”
“Good job, Warden. Black Comet has been waiting on-station for a few minutes, and Sky Defender is almost to his target location as well,” Ocean Spirit replied, her voice brisk. “Go ahead and get started; we should be good at this point.”
“Roger that. We’ll begin our investigation now,” Warden agreed, glancing at Morgan and nodding. “Let’s go. Keep an eye out, though… these guys make me nervous.”
“You and me both. I’ve had enough near-death experiences for years, thank you very much,” Morgan said with feeling, nodding as she began flying into the mountains alongside Warden, keeping an eye out for trouble.
Downtown, San Francisco
“Defender, Morgan and Warden are confirmed to be beginning their search outside Vallejo,” Ocean Spirit said, her voice tiny as Sky Defender floated some distance away from the building where Lilith Carpenter lived. The active camouflage would be destroyed when he fired, but it allowed him to get close without warning anyone. He watched her through the mirrored windows, sitting at a desk and working on her computer. “Hypergizmo just activated the teleportation jammer; you’re clear to subdue Lilith and take her into custody.”
Sky Defender’s eyes flicked up to the icon that showed where the Seajet was hovering, the aircraft practically invisible with its own camouflage. His scanners showed the activation of the jammer, and he nodded, fear and indecision boiling within his stomach, but he replied quickly. “Roger that, Spirit. I’m ready to go in.”
Just as he was about to move forward, a memory crashed to the forefront of Sky Defender’s mind, one which he’d been trying to suppress ever since he’d realized what Lilith was. A memory of how, early in his career, he’d encountered Shadowmind, but without his shields. How, with an offhand comment and sneer, she’d forced him to crash-land directly into a nearby junkyard and compelled him to almost completely destroy his armor with his own hands; his life’s work. She’d nearly forced him to kill himself as well, but he’d managed to resist that compulsion, if only just. The abject humiliation and fear the situation had created was what had made him change his identity and focus on building the mental shields into his armor. But even though he knew the shields were strong, as he looked at Lilith, he swallowed hard, and made a decision, raising his arm. He wasn’t going to risk the potential catastrophe of Shadowmind targeting him with her full power.
“Spirit? I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind,” Sky Defender said, taking a deep breath as the targeting reticle appeared in his HUD. “She’s too dangerous to subdue, and the government agreed. I’m taking her out.”
“What? Defender, don’t do thi—” Spirit began, but it was too late. The reticle had settled onto the back of Lilith’s head.
Without hesitation, Sky Defender fired a maximum-power laser.
Chapter 15
Friday, January 4th, 2031
Lilith’s Condo
Glancing up, Lilith’s eyes went huge as she saw the three-inch hole punched through what remained of her monitor, through the painting of Morgan, and into the wall beyond that. The sight of the smoking hole made her freeze for an instant, but the voice was having none of that. In the distance, she heard an unpleasant sound, like that of metal shrieking against metal.
Despite wondering who in the hell the voice was, Lilith didn’t hesitate, throwing herself to the left abruptly. At the same time, there was a sizzling sound and a spike of pain clipped her side, radiating through her body. Lilith kept going, lunging toward the kitchen as she glanced out the window and her eyes went wide in shock, blurting out, “Oh, crap!”
Outside the now-breached window, Lilith could see the distinctive outline of Sky Defender’s white and red armor a fair distance off. More pertinently, she could see the glow of where a laser cannon along his arm had fired at her.
As she darted across the room, more shots were fired, one of them causing the table to collapse with a crash as it lost a leg. Lilith hissed in pain, almost collapsing as there was another brief flash of agony from her calf and she almost collapsed like the table had, barely managing to roll around the corner. The corner was part of her safe room, so the shots being fired were at least briefly not a concern, and Lilith gasped, panting as she looked down and saw the savage burn seared into her leg. If her head had been hit initially, she didn’t want to think about the results.
Shaking off her shock, Lilith staggered down the hall and into the closet, gasping out, “Situation F, Emergency Lockdown!”
Instantly, the room lit up with crimson lights as the door slammed shut and the light around the door vanished as metal plates slammed home. A few moments later, Circe’s voice sounded quietly, oddly flatly. “Safe room activated. Warning, connection to network has been disrupted. Teleportation disruption detected. Energy fire detected.”
“Amber, I presume?” Lilith asked. “This is unexpected; I thought you were disabled by the government.”
“Thank you for the absolutely glowing, optimistic summary of my situation,” Lilith replied, hissing as she applied the burn patch to her leg, wincing as the cool liquid soaked into the divot seared into her leg. “Unfortunately, if the teleporter is jammed, there’s nothing I have that can get me out of here, and I know that those jammers shut down my phone, too! They aren’t precision instruments. What’s so important that you’re angry at being pulled away from it, anyway?”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” Lilith muttered, edging away from the door as she started to treat her other injury, the adrenaline starting to slow at last, and her hands beginning to shake as she worked, wondering if she was just delaying the inevitable.
Circe’s voice came again, still the emotionless fragment in the safe room. “Warning, energy fire incoming. Estimated time to breach is ten minutes.”
“Yep, just delaying the inevitable. Crap,” Lilith said, sitting back against the wall and wincing. Seconds later she heard the fire alarm begin to blare and the fire suppression system outside the room suddenly activated.
Howell Mountains, Vallejo
“What the hell?” Morgan exclaimed, faltering and falling about a yard as she felt a faint sense of pain, then felt it again.
“You… did you feel that too?” Warden asked, shaking her head as she came to a stop. “I just swear I f
elt pain. But not my pain.”
“That sounds like what I felt, too. But how… oh no, did something happen to Lilith?” Morgan asked, her eyes widening as she looked at her friend, whose sudden worry was obvious.
The only psychic link that Morgan knew they both had was to Lilith, and that was the main source of her worry, but Gina quickly spoke. “It’s also possible there could be an empath in the area projecting, too, but we’d better check what’s going on. It’s possible that someone attacked the city.”
“Right, just give me a second and—” Morgan began reaching for her comm, but it crackled to life first.
“Dammit, Defender, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hypergizmo demanded, his voice taut with stress. “You were supposed to capture her, not open fire in the middle of a building!”
Morgan froze just before hitting her comm, listening in disbelief as she stared at Warden, even as Sky Defender snarled his reply.
“She’s Shadowmind’s creation, or Shadowmind herself! She dodged just as I was about to hit her, and—wait, you just broadcast on the entire team channel, Hyper! You idiot!” the hero exclaimed angrily.
“Yeah, well you’re not supposed to be trying to kill anyone, you’re a hero!” Hypergizmo retorted, and Morgan took a deep breath before speaking.
“What are you doing?” Morgan demanded, her voice trembling as she took another heavy breath, feeling the pain down the link to Lilith. “Warden and I just felt a spike of pain from Lilith, and then we hear this? What’s going on?”
“You said it, Morgan! I’ve got no clue what the fuck’s happening,” Black Comet chimed in, sounding enraged. “I’ve been exploring these caves, and I hear something about Shadowmind?! What the hell?”
“Sky Defender discovered evidence that Lilith is Shadowmind’s last creation and pointed out that it’s quite possible that she transferred herself over to her new body before Crimson and Warden reached her. Coupled with recent events, we believed it best to bring her into custody to investigate the possibility. The best time to do that was while you two were away, Morgan. There’s too high of a chance that you’re under her mental control,” Ocean Spirit said, her voice tight. “Opening fire on her was not part of the plan.”
“Yes, she damned well is, but the only reason she’s been hiding it is because she’s got a death sentence hanging over her head in the form of the Reinfield Act!” Warden exclaimed. “They classified her as a bioweapon!”
“Well, if you wanted me to believe that, you should’ve told me when you found out!” Sky Defender retorted, his voice grim. “It’s too late now. I’ve got her trapped in a safe room, and by the time you get here, this will be over, one way or another!”
“That… that…” Warden said, looking like she’d been hit between the eyes with something heavy. She swallowed hard, then looked at Morgan. “Rach? What do we do?”
“What are you all talking about? You just kept something like that from us?” Crimson Bull demanded over the comm. “Screw waiting, I’m coming down there and gonna rip her out of that room and throw her out of the building!”
“That’s it.” Morgan said, her own rage overflowing at last as she hit her comm button and spoke, her voice icy. “Fine. You want to kill an innocent woman who had no choice in how she was created? Very well, but you’ll do it without my help. Consider this my official resignation, Spirit.”
As she spoke, she reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out her phone. The one good part about being several hundred feet off the ground was that she had a good signal, and as she hovered there, Morgan pulled up the number of her lawyer and sent him a text. ‘Carter, you’ll see a folder labeled Situation R that I sent you, for emergencies? Please open it and send the messages within to the stations listed.’
“And you can consider it mine, too!” Warden growled. “I have had it with this! I’m… I’m… ugh!”
“Morgan, don’t do—” Ocean Spirit began, but Morgan reached up and pulled her earbud out, dropping it into the forest with the comm itself.
Glancing at Warden, Morgan took a deep breath and then spoke grimly, putting her phone away. “Gina, do you think you can teleport?”
“Teleport? I only was able to do that twice now!” Gina replied, dumping her own comm. “How do you think I can do it again?”
“Everything I’ve heard about teleportation says that it requires either a link to the location, or for the person to be able to visualize and know where a location is relative to them,” Rachel said, shaking off her hero identity as she focused on her friend and the link to Lilith. “I don’t know how to do it… but it’s our only chance, Gina! Lilith is at the far end of the link, so reach for her! Take us to her if you can!”
“I… I can try,” Gina replied, gulping hard as she glanced around them, then flew over, grabbing Rachel’s hand. “Hold on; I’m going to try to take us to her!”
Through the lenses over Gina’s eyes, Rachel could see her friend close her eyes and begin concentrating. Moment after moment passed, and Rachel began to pray internally that her friend would be able to manage what she was trying.
Lilith’s Condo, San Francisco
Any embers of hope Lilith may have possessed were rapidly being quenched as the minutes passed. It was getting warm inside the safe house, which indicated that Sky Defender hadn’t given up. She flinched as something hit the wall hard, but the inertial dampener absorbed the attack. She was beginning to wonder if the delay the defenses provided was good or bad.
She wished that she could see Gina and Rachel again. To see the light dancing in Gina’s eyes as she teased Rachel, and Rachel’s sudden, decisive bits of revenge. The nights previous seemed so distant now, and she didn’t know if she’d ever see her friends again.
“Circe, adjust the inertial dampener’s settings. Release all stored energy into the safe room and its contents after structural integrity is breached,” Lilith ordered, wrapping her arms around her knees and pulling them close in the dim light.
“That is potentially fatal, Mistress Lilith. I recommend evacuation before initiating such measures. Do you wish for me to do so anyway?” the fragment of Circe asked.
Lilith’s arms tightened and she hissed in pain as the injured muscles in her side complained, then replied softly, “I’m certain. Do it, Circe.”
Elation and worry were entwined in Sky Defender’s mind. A part of him was delighted that his mental shields appeared to work, but another part of him was afraid that a deadly surprise awaited him.
“Defender—” Galvanic Action began speaking, but growling under his breath, Sky Defender muted their channel. It probably was just another protest that he should try to take Lilith alive.
“They aren’t stopping me, not now,” he said, hitting the wall of the room with a grunt. The strength of the metal was impressive, but it was starting to lose integrity. A couple more minutes, no more. Then they could fix Morgan and Warden, and everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be.
Howell Mountains, Vallejo
Rachel’s hopes were dimming as the seconds passed, no reaction coming from Gina save for her hand tightening ever so slightly around Rachel’s. Then, all of a sudden, azure light crackled and flashed around them and the world lurched slightly as Rachel vanished and appeared somewhere else, someplace dark and only lit by dim red lights, with Gina still holding her hand.
Lilith raised her head from where she huddled against the wall, blinking away tears, then smiled ever so slightly, her voice husky with emotion. “Well, this is a surprise. I thought I wouldn’t see you again. I think your team is trying to kill me.”
“They aren’t our team anymore,” Gina said flatly. “Sky Defender tried to kill you, and Crimson Bull was going to help. Come on; I want to try to get us out of here while I have even a faint grasp on how to teleport.”
“Are you… of course you’re sure,” Lilith said, slowly standing, wincing as she did so. “You know this will go to hell, right?”
“Of c
ourse it will. That’s why I drafted a number of emails for the media just in case. My lawyer should be sending them any minute,” Rachel said, hugging Lilith and nodding at Gina.
“Alright, let’s see if I can do this…” Gina murmured, hugging both of them. Moments later, another flash of light enveloped them, taking them away from the cell where Lilith had been trapped.
Chapter 16
Friday, January 4th, 2031
Lilith’s Condo
The walls of the safe room built into the condo had been much more durable than Sky Defender had expected them to be, and the fire suppression system hadn’t helped matters any. The water helped cool the metal of the room’s walls, and his laser couldn’t fire continuously. Still, his sense of grim euphoria grew as the wall began to lose integrity.
Ignoring the sirens from below, Sky Defender paused and hit the door of the room hard, feeling it start giving way this time. He was thankful he’d muted the rest of the team’s channel, considering how long the task had taken.
“What the hell is this metal?” Sky Defender demanded, ramming his shoulder into the door and grunting as it gave way a little more, only reluctantly deforming.
“Analysis uncertain. It appears to be a form of metal-ceramic compound, possibly with integrated inertial and thermal sumps,” his suit computer replied helpfully.
“Just lovely,” Sky Defender grunted, shoving his hand into the gap and slowly levering the door out of the way as the servos of his suit whined. He was a little startled to see that it looked like a mundane closet inside, save for the glowing red emergency lights and medical kit on the floor, but blinked in shock as he realized he didn’t see any sign of Lilith. “Where is she?”
Down with the Queen Page 15