Superluminary

by Olivia Rising

  Goodbye world order, she mused, mindlessly tapping the phone against the side of her good knee. The ping of an incoming message pulled her attention back to the small screen.

  Woo! So glad you’re OK, Grumpyface!!! Let’s have ice cream when you get home. Wake me up if I’m sleeping!!! XOX.

  Chris smiled at the screen as another ping chimed. She expected a follow-up text from Emily, but was surprised to see Athena as the sender’s name. Her heart sped up and her eyes flicked over the message, searching for the one person she had inquired about earlier in the afternoon.

  Christina, I can tell you that your friend Ryan is at Elmhurst Hospital. He suffered minor injuries and should be released within a couple of days.

  Chris re-read the text before closing her eyes, enjoying the feeling of relief that washed over her. Her eyes popped open at the sound of another incoming text message.

  Would you like someone to let him know that you asked about him?

  She exhaled. Ryan wasn’t part of her life anymore, not really, and that was probably for the best. Right? She pecked out four words with her thumb.

  Please don’t tell him.

  After pressing the send button, she let the phone drop into her lap and faced the window as the plane took off.

  ***

  The Wardens’ reunion in the foyer of their San Francisco headquarters didn’t involve conversation. But after the stress of the past hours, Chris was grateful for the quiet. She wondered how sticking to Nora 24/7 would play out with a sprained ankle, a broken arm, and a crutch, but thankfully, she didn’t need to walk far. The three Wardens rode the elevator to their private quarters in joint silence, watching each other’s gloomy expressions.

  Nora spoke up when they almost reached the top floor. “You’re turning into a real hero, you know. If you’re not careful, you’re gonna save the world by accident.” She grinned at Chris.

  Or is it irony? Chris wondered. Given her current injuries, she wasn’t sure how much use her hyperspeed could be.

  “Yeah,” Peter agreed. “You were such a badass that I didn’t even get to do much this time.”

  Chris didn’t know how to respond. She could have pointed out that he didn’t do much last time, either, but that would have been mean and not exactly true. He had helped her to diffuse the situation in the Canadian diner, hadn’t he? And he stayed with Emily in the cabin to make sure she was okay.

  Which counted for more than my lame attempt at challenging the bogeyman.

  When the elevator doors slid open, the three teenage Wardens were met with an excited, jittery Emily. The young Empath awaited them in costume, her small fists pressed up against either side of her jaw with theatrical anticipation.

  Her mouth formed a small o as she spotted Chris’s crutch. “Hey, now you’re a Grumpyface Peg Leg!”

  Chris reached out to pull the girl’s werekitten mask down over her face. “Hey, munchkin. Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” When Emily rushed to hug her, Chris pinned her crutch under her armpit to squeeze the girl in return. “Good to see you, too.”

  “Sugar intoxication!” Peter quipped.

  Kid darted over to hug him, too, before doing the same with Nora.

  “Hey, watch it, Kid!” he said, laughing. “Don’t squeeze so hard. I really need a bathroom break.”

  “Me, too,” Chris muttered.

  “Thank the good Lord we have two bathrooms,” Nora was happy to point out. “Or else O would outrun you for sure, Peg Leg.”

  “Me? Never,” Peter countered. “But I’d be more than happy to help you into the shower if you ever need some assistance.” He darted past with a smirk on his lips, narrowly avoiding a shoulder punch from Chris.

  Twenty minutes and a much-needed cigarette later, Chris had managed to get reasonably clean and had changed into a comfortable pair of sweat pants and a tank top. When she emerged from her room, the others were already in the television corner with boxes of take-out Chinese and cheap wooden chopsticks in their hands. The fragrant mix of sweet and tangy made her mouth water.

  She hobbled over. “Hey, is that lemon duck I smell?”

  Emily nodded. “Yep! Your favorite, Grumpyface. I got them to deliver it while you were getting changed.”

  Chris was too tired to wonder how Emily knew her favorite food. She must have mentioned it before, or part of the girl’s Empath superpower was also sensing food cravings. Either way, it was a sweet gesture.

  “Well, thanks,” she said. Looking around at the group, she pointedly added, “I mean it.”

  Peter motioned to an empty armchair. “You’re our guest of honor. The throne is yours tonight.”

  “Thanks.” She accepted an unopened carton of Chinese food from Nora’s outstretched hand before settling into the comfy chair and digging into the carton of rice, sesame paste, and lemon duck. She closed her eyes as she swallowed her first bite. Disregarding the fact that the world had gone to hell in a hand basket today, she actually felt content. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt that way.

  After a few mouthfuls, she opened her eyes to see that everyone was staring at her. More than that, they were gawking.

  “What’s going on?” she demanded, her mouth full of lotus leaf rice. “Do I have something on my face?”

  Nobody responded, but Nora’s grin grew until it was wide as a Cheshire cat’s smile. Peter looked as if he’d seen a pink elephant fly past the window. She almost turned around to look for it.

  “You’re actually smiling!” Emily squealed.

  Chris’s face flushed with self-consciousness.

  “Do you know how cute you look when you smile?” Peter asked her. “Aw, no. Don’t stop.”

  “You spoiled it,” Emily playfully accused him. “If you hadn’t said anything, maybe she’d still be smiling tomorrow and I could have remembered her as Smileyface Peg Leg.”

  “What do you mean, remember me?” Chris asked, although she already knew the answer.

  The girl’s gaze was on the carpeting. “Mr. Turner said they’re gonna send me home tomorrow. He said things are getting too dangerous for a kid.”

  Chris scooped up some lemon duck with her chopsticks to hide her expression. Truth be told, much as she would miss the kid, she was glad for the news. The girl should have never been recruited into the team in the first place. Hero work was too dangerous for a nine-year-old.

  Her relief was tainted by a wistful sting somewhere close to her heart. Emily had been the one who supported her from her very first day here, back when Chris felt choked by her new life. The child’s presence helped her get settled and adapt to the team structure, something she always struggled with. Glancing aside to Peter and Nora, she felt confident that she would pull through even when Emily was no longer a member of the Wardens.

  “Don’t worry. You guys will be just fine without me,” the girl said, clearly reading Chris’s thoughts.

  Chris nodded, thankful for the show of trust.

  “Tomorrow?” Peter said incredulously. “That’s not much notice for us to get used to the idea.” He breathed out a sigh. “But I guess it’s for the best.”

  “You’ll have a better life at home,” Nora agreed. “Going to school with your little friends and all that.”

  Emily had a faraway look in her eyes. “I’m not sure I can even be normal anymore.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Chris said emphatically, echoing Emily’s own words back to her. “Besides, I bet it’ll be a nice change to not have to listen to older people’s emotions all day.”

  “Yeah. Having to be cute so adults don’t give me their emotional poop sucks after a while.” The little girl’s words hung heavily in the air as she made a face.

  Sorry about all that, Chris thought, remembering the various crises Emily had helped her through. But thanks for always being there.

  Nora cleared her throat. “It’s not like we’re never going to see each other again. We can send text messages and stuff.”

  “And phone calls,”
Emily piped up. “And speaking of—hey, Chris, did you call your parents yet?”

  Chris appreciated how the Empath had asked her instead of poking around in her head. “Yeah, actually, I did. I talked to my mom this morning.”

  “And?” Peter prompted. “What did she say?”

  Be a good girl, Christina.

  She shoveled another morsel of sticky rice into her mouth. “Nothing much,” she mumbled, desperate to change the subject. She still wasn’t sure how she would continue with her parents. But she would do it somehow, that much she had decided.

  “Hey, can we turn the news on for a bit?” Emily picked up the remote and turned the TV to the news channel, switching to a female news anchor’s voice.

  “…villains hijacked the live transmission to deliver a message of their own….”

  “She must be talking about Liverpool,” Peter mused.

  “Yeah.” Chris slipped her fortune cookie into his food carton before turning her attention back to the screen.

  “Experts have confirmed that this broadcast may be viewed without risk of harmful side effects, but they also gave a warning that the contents of the message cannot be confirmed by scientific data,” the newscaster read in her steely voice. “Please be aware that the following excerpts from the recording are classified as criminal propaganda, intended to sow dissent within the international community.”

  No shit. Why else would villains hijack a TV studio to broadcast their own message?

  “If you want more information or wish to partake in a discussion with other viewers, please visit our website,” the anchor droned while a web URL scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

  Chris scooped another piece of duck into her mouth, her eyes never leaving the screen as the propaganda clip began to roll.

  To her surprise the person who appeared on screen wasn’t a masked criminal with a distorted voice-over, but a sturdy, red-haired woman who had to be in her late twenties. By all accounts she appeared both normal and unafraid of sharing her identity with the world.

  “Hello, world.” The woman leveled her eyes at the camera with a steady gaze. “My name’s Teresa Mullen, and I’m talking to you today out of my own free will.”

  She’s telling us her name? Is this a trick or something?

  Chris watched the screen, searching for the clue she might have overlooked. There wasn’t much to see apart from the woman’s ruddy face and an empty corner where two white walls met behind her.

  “On the third of April this year, my Evolved nephew and I disappeared off the grid to save his life,” The woman’s Irish-accented voice continued. She paused, wringing her hands in front of her jeans overall. “He was only thirteen.”

  Chris’s eyes darted to Emily. She sympathized with the idea of not wanting to see a kid, any kid, on the Covenant’s hit list.

  Peter sat up in his seat. “The fuck? She’s one of the European disappeared!”

  “Maybe she knows your girlfriend, Dancer,” Emily teased.

  “Shh, you guys,” Nora cut in. “This is serious.”

  “We had no choice but to disappear because my nephew had a power surge.” The self-proclaimed Teresa Mullen stepped closer to the camera. “He never wanted this, but it happened. The Covenant would have killed him even though he doesn’t have any offensive power.”

  “Why the hell would she admit that on live TV?” Peter wondered aloud.

  It was true. Such an admission was dangerous—especially since the whole Shanti incident.

  The image on the TV screen flickered, indicating a cut, and the red-haired woman had changed position with her arms now crossed over the front of her overall. Chris leaned in close to the TV screen to hear what she had to say next.

  “The feedback theory is wrong,” Teresa pronounced, her voice firm. “New power surges only happen when other Evolved die. So killing all of us just makes things worse.” The image of the red-haired woman disappeared, replaced by a shot of the slim ANBE newscaster whose wide eyes and slightly parted lips left little doubt as to how disconcerted she was.

  It took the anchor less than a second to gather herself. “ANBE News continues to follow this story and will present new facts as they become available,” she said, her voice once again monotone and professional. “Remember to check out our website….”

  Chris peered down into her half-empty takeout carton, noticing that she wasn’t all that hungry anymore. She put her chopsticks back on the table. “There must be a full version of that video online. I’d actually like to see it.”

  “Me, too,” Nora said.

  Emily switched channels. “Maybe a different network will play it.”

  Everyone stopped in their tracks once they saw the footage on the next channel. Most likely taken from a helicopter, it showed a bird’s-eye view of the destroyed UNEOA headquarters building in New York.

  “Oh, Lord have mercy,” Nora whimpered.

  Chris had no words as she watched the crumbling, blackened remnants of the office tower. There was at least a two-block radius of destruction surrounding the destroyed building.

  “…clear evidence that the villain threat can no longer be contained,” a voice-over declared. “While governments worldwide draw up emergency action plans, anxious civilians in major cities around the world are raiding stores and hiding in bomb shelters. Countless schools in New York are closed for the time being…”

  Chris suppressed a shudder. And this is before they even know about Legion.

  “Not a word about the heroes,” Peter observed. “Guess we’re out of the picture.”

  Nora rolled her eyes at him. “You and your hero complex.”

  Chris almost snorted. “You thought we’d be on the news? Compared to the Covenant, we’re just kids in costumes. Besides, with this as the outcome”—she gestured to the screen—“do you really want to be associated with today’s events?”

  “I just don’t want to wait around until Mr. Turner tells us to jump,” Peter explained. “I want to help, you know?”

  Chris felt her expression soften. She knew, she understood. It must have been frustrating for the other Wardens to have to sit around for the past year, basically doing nothing.

  But that’s going to change.

  She wasn’t sure yet how she could pull that off without getting herself and Nora into trouble, but she was confident she would figure something out. She would be damned if she just sat around this apartment all day, scratching her butt while the world crumbled around her. She only had to make sure Nora wouldn’t suffer any consequences for their actions.

  “They’re not literally going to handcuff you two together, are they?” Emily asked, looking between Chris and Nora. So much for the girl staying out of her head.

  “Sure hope not,” Nora joked dryly. “But it’s not like I’ll slow our Mascot down. Can’t do any big leaps with that peg leg of yours.”

  “If you have to stay together, you guys better be nice to each other,” Emily declared with a stern face. “You have to eat ice cream together and stuff.”

  Peter flashed a wide grin. “That’s not a bad idea. Can you bring me some?”

  “Maybe,” Chris said. “But I have more important things to do first.”

  She scratched her face, thinking. First she needed to figure out how to keep her promise about Nora, not to mention working out how to better control the side effects of her danger sense before they got her killed.

  “What are you going to do about Mr. Turner?” Peter asked her. “I mean, if you think he’ll even listen to you.”

  “He’ll have to,” Chris mused. “Shit’s hitting the fan and with Barrier long dead, Sanctuary disappeared, and Saint in a coma, I’m the only Guardian they’ve got left. They’ll have to give me some leeway, right?”

  I’m the only Guardian they’ve got left. Her own words tripped something in her brain, and she realized something she hadn’t been aware of until just now.

  She wasn’t afraid of the authorities anymore.


  6.7 Emergence

  San Francisco, USA

  Wednesday, the 13th of June, 2012

  09:15 a.m.

  The next morning the Wardens lined up in the front foyer of their headquarters building, watching through the floor-to-ceiling windows as Emily scampered off to the black government limousine which would take her home. Chris didn’t know if she was sad or relieved to see the girl go. Sure, it was nice to know that Emily wasn’t going to be in any life-threatening situations. But damn, having her around really brightened the mood around this place.

  “I’m going to miss that little rug rat,” Peter said, somber.

  The Wardens had just finished an official farewell sendoff for the girl in the building’s main meeting room. A few dozen UNEOA staff members and city officials had been there to say their goodbyes to Emily, America’s sweetheart. No doubt she would be missed.

  I just wish I’d had a chance to say a proper goodbye. Chris hated how the farewell party had turned into yet another PR stunt, complete with photo ops and official speeches. At least the staff was sensitive enough to leave the three remaining Wardens alone for now.

  “And then there were three,” Nora said.

  “Do you think that limo’s armored?” Peter asked.

  Beyond the windows, a chauffeur walked around the side of the black limousine to open the door. Emily’s parents spilled out, almost knocking the man over in their excitement to greet their daughter. Chris wished she could remember the last time she hugged her own dad.

  “Probably,” she replied. “Locked up tight as Fort Knox, too. They’ve called in the army, haven’t they?”

  The fact that America’s elite soldiers were assigned to protect off-duty superheroes was kind of ironic, but she didn’t go so far as to call it unnecessary. If a team of well-prepared villains had the opportunity to strike first, things could get ugly fast. This wasn’t like the movies where the good guys never got killed. When superpowers were involved, surprise attacks could determine the outcome of a fight in seconds.