He sprinted forward, allowing just a touch of flight power to push him forward over the roof and towards the Cowl. He moved quickly, too quickly for the Cowl it seemed, who hunched over ready to take the impact force. Tony's shoulder connected with the Cowl's lower abdomen, forcing the air from the villain and causing a cracking sound so loud Tony thought they'd stepped onto another glass ceiling. It was like the bank all over again; remembering what had happened on their first encounter, Tony cleared his mind and concentrated on what he was doing.
Tony kept up the pressure, pushing the Cowl across the roof and impacting the cinder block outhouse of an emergency stairwell exit. The wall buckled inwards, but stayed intact, and Tony bounced back, ready to block the Cowl's attack.
Nothing. Tony tiptoed like a boxer for a moment, then relaxed his posture. The Cowl tried to pull himself from the wall, and eventually succeeded but not without quite some effort. Disengaged from the split concrete, the Cowl toppled onto one knee and breathed heavily, sucking the hot night air. Tony thought he heard a nasty popping sound with each gasp and he could see his quarry was favoring one arm as he supported himself in a crouch.
Tony saw his opportunity. Somehow he'd hit harder than he intended and had incapacitated the Cowl, even for just a minute. This was more than the Seven Wonders had ever managed. He was more powerful than them, this proved it.
Well, holy shit and praise Mary.
Tony grabbed the Cowl's hood and yanked him to his feet. Immediately the Cowl twisted and threw an awkward punch towards him, but Tony ducked to one side and the fist flew past his face and into only empty air. The Cowl grunted with the effort and the arm fell loosely back to his side.
Tony lifted the Cowl's face to his own. The Cowl laughed, showing a mouth full of blood. Tony's heart raced at the sight, but caught up in the moment he chose not to dwell on the level of violence he was inflicting. He let go of the Cowl, who sagged on his feet before Tony punched once, twice, three times, and ended with a kick that sent the Cowl tumbling over and off the roof, down into the street below. A second later he heard the villain hit the pavement, and then he heard running, booted feet. The red and blue lights continued to flash. The police were on the scene. They must have had reports about the chase and had swept in.
Well, good. He'd done it. He'd taught the Cowl a lesson and had dropped him right in the lap of the police. He straightened up and dusted the rest of the brickwork from his costume. Time to introduce himself to the SVPD, but rather than walk and jump, he flew upwards and backwards, keeping out of sight of the street below, then once he'd reached what felt like an appropriately impressive height, he flew forwards and descended vertically with his arms folded, as he'd seen Aurora and the other flight-capable members of the Seven Wonders do many times. There was something to be said for making the right entrance.
He touched down, looked around, and realized his mistake. The blue and red light hadn't been flickering at all, it had been steady: the red halo of Aurora, the blue glow of the Dragon Star. Tony had landed behind the Cowl, who lay in a crumpled heap on the ground.
On the other side of the supervillain, the Seven Wonders stood in an arrow formation, Aurora at the head, flanked to his left by the Dragon Star, Bluebell and Linear, and to his right by Sand Cat, Hephaestus and SMART. Bluebell and Linear looked surprised, Sand Cat angry. The Dragon Star lifted her huge golden staff in one hand and floated about six inches off the ground, her wide hood and white clock swirling behind her in some invisible field streaming off her weapon.
Tony stared. Holy shit. What had he been thinking? The Seven Wonders were, well, superhuman.
Aurora stood with arms folded. He stared at Tony, white eyes unreadable but his aura pulsing scarlet in what, to Tony, looked like a decidedly pissed-off way. The Cowl's words came back to him and he suddenly felt very small and in a lot of trouble. Superheroes were regulated, and he wasn't a member of the Seven Wonders.
Bluebell stepped forward, breaking the superhero formation to kneel beside the Cowl's prone form. The supervillain stirred, pushing himself up from the ground. He saw Bluebell looking down at him, and smiled to show his injuries. Bluebell's eyes widened at the sight of his bloody mouth, and she looked first at Tony, then back at Aurora.
Oh shit. Tony puffed his chest out but it was more to make himself feel better. He could escape, get away, live to fight another day. The Seven Wonders now had the Cowl in custody, and they surely couldn't deny the opportunity to lock him up and recover whatever it was he'd dumped on the roof before he'd jumped on his pursuer. His job was done, for now, and maybe later he'd approach the superteam and introduce himself properly, in better, more controlled circumstances. Yes, that was a good idea, now that he had shown his mettle. He was well disguised in the costume Jeannie had made for him, so they couldn't find him in his civilian identity. Up, up and away, no problem.
Aurora started to speak but Tony was already half a mile away and didn't catch all of it. He ground his teeth in concentration, shooting straight up as fast as possible. After five minutes he looked down, and didn't see any glowing superheroes following him. He was high in the stratosphere, where it was freezing and the air was thin. But he wasn't making that mistake again, either. He stopped his flight, relaxed, and let gravity pull him back towards San Ventura.
Bluebell rejoined the Seven Wonders, and none moved for a while. The Cowl pushed himself into a sitting position and spat blood onto the pavement.
"Is this it?"
Aurora unfolded his arms.
"You're hurt."
"It'll heal. But it's Blackbird. She's hurt and she's not like me. I need to get her back to… to my facility."
Bluebell glanced at her husband, who nodded and refolded his arms.
"Where is she?"
"I left her on the roof."
"Then go," said Aurora. "We will meet again."
Following their leader, The Seven Wonders jetted skywards, leaving the Cowl bleeding in the alley.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Bluebell paused. The sharp clicking grew in volume and the doors to the conference room slid open. The Dragon Star padded in, her footfalls silent but her powerstaff ringing loudly against the hard floor of the Citadel. The five other heroes assembled at the elliptical table watched their colleague walk in and take her designated chair, a few nodding in acknowledgment before returning their attention to Bluebell.
The Dragon Star sat stiffly, staff making one final clack before being held upright and still. She glanced up, and saw that Aurora's attention wasn't on his wife, it was on her. But the white eyes and set expression – the famous, odd smile, half grim determination, half arrogant condescension − made his face impossible to read.
Bluebell resumed the briefing, placing the thumb and forefinger of one hand against her forehead and her short, spiky blonde hair. She rose maybe six inches from the floor as the air above the center of the conference table shifted and blurred as the event replay was resumed.
"There!" An empty conference chair was left rocking as Linear blinked into existence on the opposite side of the table to where he had just been sitting. His silver-clad form melted into a shiny blur as he spun around the table several times, examining the three-dimensional replay from several angles.
"What do your eyes tell you, speedster?" Hephaestus now, stroking his ringlet beard with a massive hand, his chair creaking as he leaned his bulk back into it. All eyes moved between the Greek god and the slightly fuzzy outline of Linear, who was buzzing with excitement.
All eyes except Aurora. The Dragon Star tilted her head down slightly, letting the peak of her hood cut the top of his face from her own view. She didn't like the attention.
Did he know something?
Linear's form solidified as he slowed down and he pointed at the playback. "Back one-fifteenth of a second, Bluebell. One-fifteenth more… There it is."
Hephaestus harrumphed theatrically.
"There what is?"
Linear pointed at the paus
ed image. The image changed depending on the angle, so each of the Seven Wonders seated around the table saw a slightly different aspect. Overall, the image most showed the interior of a small city bank. There were several people standing around a semicircle, civilians flanked by what looked like soldiers in black combat uniform, faces obscured by respirators. In the center of the image was a blur, one wide black smudge that seemed to taper to sharp points on either side of a more solid center. Next to this, an elongated blue and white translucent smear, almost like a double exposure. The different perspectives around the room showed the same frozen moment, intersected with walls, furniture and other objects that obscured the three-dimensional psychic scan. Bluebell's eyes narrowed and she rose a few inches higher, bending one blue and white spandex-clad leg behind her at the knee as she concentrated. The image shimmered and the focus seemed to sharpen.
The inference was clear. It was the same man calling himself the Justiciar, the man who had engaged the Cowl in the rooftop battle and, it seemed, got the better of the supervillain.
"He has superspeed. We know." Aurora's statement sounded final, but Linear shook his head. His body vibrated a little in excitement.
"No, no, no. It's not just superspeed. He can access the Slipstream. Look at the image. This is just when the Slipstream is punched. See that?"
He pointed to the blue and white smear, tracing a finger along two white threads that were slightly more opaque than the rest of the blurry form. "The Slipstream. Trust me, I see it every day."
"Observation noted but incorrect. Slipstream access limited to two individuals."
Everyone's attention moved to SMART. Its creator, Hephaestus, sat up and looked at the white domed head of the robotic superhero. Towering over the others, even when seated, the robot's head rotated, the two rectangular red eyes scanning the faces of everyone in the room, the supercomputer buried deep under the armor plating analyzing all expressions and responses. Hephaestus waited until the robot's head turned to face him before issuing his command.
"Explain statement."
Aurora raised a hand, the hazy glow of the plasma that constantly surrounded him catching everyone's attention admirably. "No, SMART's observation is correct but the deduction is false."
"Exactly!" Linear cocked a finger at Aurora. "Whoever this guy is, he can access the Slipstream. That makes him both dangerous and unusual."
Bluebell returned to the ground and sat at the conference table, allowing the bank raid recording to continue at normal speed. The black blur and the blue and white smear vanished, then the soldiers apparently lost interest in their hostages and lowered their weapons. A man in a gray suit was grabbed by one of the soldiers and dragging along with them as they left the bank foyer and headed into the back office behind the teller counters. The psychic recording changed perspectives, looking back into the teller area from the office. Through the doorway, the civilians could be seen, looking around in shock. Of the uniformed raiders there was no sign.
"Mass teleport. Effective but illogical. The Cowl's methodology never fails to fascinate." Aurora stroked his chin.
Linear buzzed around the room before returning to his seat. Even sitting, he continued to vibrate. Bluebell waved her hand at him, already tired from controlling the psychic condition. Linear muttered and slowed his molecules down enough that his indistinct form wasn't so much of an eye strain for everyone, superpowered vision or not.
"There is a more important issue at stake, Aurora." Sand Cat's entry to the discussion drew everyone's instant attention; if she had something to say, you'd better be listening.
Sand Cat gestured to Bluebell, who wound the recording back through to the beginning, before the mystery speedster took out the Cowl. Image paused, she studied the scene carefully. The speedster was a young man with black hair and a floppy fringe, wearing a blue checked shirt and dark jeans. Mr Ordinary.
Sand Cat pointed, then turned to Aurora, and said nothing.
Aurora had drawn his hands to his face, clasped together with index fingers outstretched, tapping the triangle of mask that covered his nose. Then he stopped tapping and nodded.
"A new, unregistered human with powers. One who disguised himself last night but was apparently not so careful earlier."
Linear drummed his fingers on the table, then shook his head. "A new one was bound to appear, sooner or later."
Reaching behind his neck he grabbed at the back of his mask and pulled the skintight covering off. Unzipping the top of his tunic, he reached underneath and extracted a glasses case and, with almost painful slowness, opened it, took the thick-framed glasses out, and slid them onto his face. The Dragon Star watched as the old man's hands shook. It looked like he was almost due for another round of rejuvenation. Access to the Slipstream was a very rare power indeed, but the consequences were dire. Linear's accelerated metabolism had trapped the twenty-five-year-old hero in a body that was around fifty years older. Although the Dragon Star didn't quite understand the nuances of human society well enough to fathom the rationale, she knew that was why the star of college track and field had taken to wearing a mask with his costume. Superheroes were young and vigorous, not old and arthritic.
Sand Cat leaned forward, regaining the attention of the superteam.
"Forgive me if what I say is already known, but our words are flying in circles around themselves. Our problems are twofold. One, the Cowl has compromised all but one of the vaults, which means he knows what is hidden within each, even if we do not. Two, an unknown powered agency is operating in San Ventura, and he appears to be targeting the Cowl. We must protect the secrets hidden in the city, and we must prevent this newcomer from taking rash action. Both are critical."
SMART's head whirred to face Sand Cat, who raised an eyebrow as the machine-man commented. The Dragon Star watched in silence. She knew Sand Cat, who drew her powers from a supernatural source, was less impressed with artificial technology, even though SMART was a fully-fledged and independent member of the team. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bluebell's expression flicker as the psychic member of the team picked up on Sand Cat's unspoken opinion of the robot.
SMART's eyes flashed as it spoke. "Sand Cat's assessment is accurate. Recommendation one, immediate action to retrieve the final remaining vault; vault to be placed in protective custody within the Citadel of Wonders. Recommendation two, immediate action to disable or recruit unknown power agency."
Hephaestus frowned. The Dragon Star looked to Aurora, but again he seemed to be staring right at her. Not that it was possible to see exactly where his eyes were looking behind the opaque lenses of his mask.
Bluebell stood and gestured toward the recording. The image broke up momentarily, and when it reformed it had zoomed in, showing the speedster's face in close-up.
"Well, the second part should be no problem," she said. "There he is." Bluebell's forehead creased as the image rotated in space to give the best view of the man's face.
SMART beeped. "Subject file accessed from CIA internal database. Tony Prosdocimi, aged twenty-three years. Occupation: retail assistant, according to IRS records. Last known address accessed."
"Wait, wait." Linear's agitation caused him to buzz again, rattling the glasses perched on his nose and causing him to place two liver-spotted hands on the conference table to stabilize his chair. "Identification is easy, sure. But apprehension might be a little more difficult. We have no idea what his powers are − he's got superspeed and flight, and he did a number on the Cowl which suggests superstrength and some level of invulnerability. He might have energy powers. Or he might even be psychic." He tapped his temple and nodded at Bluebell. The superheroine nodded and turned to her husband.
"Linear's right. We need to take him in, but avoid collateral damage. He must know who we are, but if he's going up against the Cowl, chances are he'll listen to us. We're the good guys, after all."
"Agreed," said Aurora after a beat. "We need to account for all eventualities. Bluebell, Sand Cat, Linear: pa
y a visit to Mr Prosdocimi in the morning, put him to the test, see how he reacts and what he's got, and depending on the outcome, make him an offer. We want him fighting on our side."
Bluebell nodded, as did Sand Cat. The two stood together.
Aurora brought his gloved hands together in front of his face again in thought. The halo of fire over his head began to darken from a white-red to a deep orange.
"SMART, Hephaestus: calculate possible locations of the remaining vault, and work to protect it on-site, or to bring it into the Citadel."
"As my lord commands." Hephaestus stood and bowed, and picked his blacksmith's hammer from the table. He turned to leave, then paused.
"It would help if we knew what we had hidden, would it not? To know what the Cowl was trying to steal?"
Bluebell's eyes widened. The other heroes turned as one to Aurora, but their leader's expression was set in the enigmatic smirk.
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