Two Percent Power (Book 2): Spilled Milk

by Brian Manning

  Voices from downstairs filled the awkward silence, and Sean thanked the gods of bickering for their intervention. The rest of the team arrived in several smaller groups and soon all sat at various positions in the conference room. Everyone wore their regular street clothes, but several of the heroes carried a bag with any gear that they might need.

  Nolan was the last to show up. He failed to hide his limp, but no one pointed it out. The swelling of his face was still visible, but he suffered no serious, or permanent injuries in his battle against the monstrous tag team.

  Crystal stood and put a hand on his shoulder. “Nice to see you up and about, kid.” She guided him to her seat and walked to the unoccupied end of the table.

  “I’m guessing no one got a hold of Patrick to let him know we were going to discuss this?” Crystal look around the room, then let her eyes settle on Troy.

  “He hasn’t returned any of my calls or text messages,” Graham said.

  She maintained eye contact with Troy. “Broadband, can you bring up the footage from the bank robbery three days ago?”

  He mumbled his affirmation and clicked a few keys on his laptop. The new flatscreen display in the office lit up.

  “Thanks for bringing that in, by the way,” Graham said to Bryson.

  “I was getting eye strain looking at Troy’s tiny computer screen,” Bryson said. He turned to Stringfellow. “Just don’t shoot this one, alright?”

  Stringfellow shrugged and gave his best “I don’t know what you’re talking about” face.

  The video showed a large primary view with four smaller windows underneath. The main window was the security footage from the front of the bank. It alternated between two different vantage points. The four smaller windows were the various body camera feeds from the others on the team.

  “I put this footage together so we would be able to get a feel for how Armageddon engages their foes in battle,” Troy said. “The bottom row is all footage from your body cameras, depending on who had the best angles at the time.”

  Crystal and Sean walked up, standing on either side of the screen.

  “Can you bring this one to the main window?” Sean asked, pointing to the window showing his body camera footage. “We know there are at least ten, maybe twenty of these fanatics dosed up with XGH.” He pointed to a thick looking Brotherhood member on the screen.

  “There’s one less now,” Graham said, as the video showed the aftermath of Sean’s sidekick dislocating the big man’s knee.

  Sean continued. “By now there could be triple that number. We don’t know. All we do know is that there is a lot of that XGH stuff out there, and we need to find as much as we can, and cut off their supply.”

  “According to Troy and Trevor’s earlier research, Warhead and Ground Zero have actual super abilities, and no longer require doses of the experimental growth hormone,” Crystal said. “But if we can prevent Armageddon from bringing more of these enhanced fanatics, we stand a chance of pulling this off.”

  “They still outnumber us by a great deal,” Sean said. “Their numbers are close to surpassing the Visionaries at their peak if they haven’t done so already. We absolutely need to back the city’s law enforcement on this. It’s not a matter of swooping in to save the day.”

  “Hey, Troy, rewind the security cam feed and bring it back up.” Graham walked closer to the screen.

  The grainy, low-resolution image showed Warhead leaping up, planting both feet onto Ground Zero’s chest, then kicking off and launching himself at the STF armored personnel carrier.

  “The Missile Launcher,” Graham mumbled.

  “The what?” Abby asked.

  “It’s the Missile Launcher. One of Armageddon’s finishers when they wrestled in the WWO. It looks much more ferocious than it did in the ring, though.”

  “Well, they have powers now.” Stringfellow ran a finger along the feather fletching of one of his arrows.

  “Formidable powers,” Sean said. “It looks like Warhead is using his power to generate a kinetic energy field, along with Ground Zero’s ability to absorb and redirect that energy. They’ve effectively doubled the power.”

  “They’ve been a tag team longer than a couple of you have been alive,” Graham said, looking at Abby and Genevieve. “I would imagine their teamwork is pretty polished by now.”

  “We need to step up our teamwork, then,” Crystal said.

  “So we cut off the XGH supply, wait for the juiced up fanatics to deflate a little. By then we can let the cops thin the herd, and finally, roll in and take out those two muscle heads.” Abby hopped up onto the edge of the table and sat, crossing her legs. “Sounds pretty straight-forward to me. Unless I’m missing something.”

  Crystal looked over to Troy and gave small, almost imperceptible nod.

  “This came up on police scanners late last night,” Troy said. He unplugged his headphones from his laptop.

  The audio clip was a frantic voice, shouting for backup. It was tough to discern any specific details, until the end when the voice shouted, “It’s a prison break! Black Lake compromised!”

  “What’s Black Lake?” Abby asked. “Although I get the feeling I don’t want to know.”

  “Black Lake is, was a classified off-site facility. A private prison designed to detain superhuman inmates,” Bryson said. “It was scheduled to start housing guests later this year, but events from 9 months or so have stepped up their timetable.”

  “Is that where they’re keeping Sight?” Abby asked.

  “It was where they were keeping him,” Bryson said. “Until last night when Armageddon crashed the gates and released the masks Black Lake held.”

  “So all the supervillains are out?” Abby asked.

  “Everyone except the Jack Hammer,” Troy said. He clicked around, pulling up the information for which he was looking. “You did a number on that guy. Broke and dislocated his ankle. You snapped a few bones in his foot as well. After some reconstructive surgery and rehab, the last report I found was about his extradition to New Jersey. He’s in one of their super-criminal detention facilities now.”

  Abby twirled an unenthusiastic finger in the air. “Woo hoo. One down, a hundred to go.”

  “It could be worse,” Sean said. “They could be storming our headquarters right now.”

  The front door opened as if obeying his verbal cue. An uneasy tension washed over the team. Crystal, Bryson, and Graham were the first out the door.

  “They’re here!” Graham shouted back to the others.

  Crystal darted down the stairs as Bryson pulled the short barreled shotgun from his thigh.

  “Whoa, whoa. I’m not here to fight you guys.” The man said. He dropped to his knees wincing and held his hands up in surrender.

  Crystal reached him in seconds. “What are you doing here?” Her lips pulled back in a snarl.

  “I’m here to help you take out Armageddon.” He looked up.

  “Battlelord?” Graham’s mouth fell agape.

  CHAPTER

  28

  Nathan sat in a chair downstairs. With the current condition of his knees, there was no way he would have been able to make it up to the office. Speetah called Black Paralysis, Boost, Manerpillar, and Striker to join her. She sent the others home, just in case this was a setup.

  “How did you find us?” She asked.

  “I’ve been looking for you since last night,” Nathan said. “After I left Black Lake, I knew you guys operated in a central location. I stood on several corners with no luck. It was difficult getting around.” He rubbed the soreness out of his knees.

  “That doesn’t answer her question,” Black Paralysis said.

  Nathan looked up and nodded. “I just about gave up when I spotted a van that stood out from a mile away. I know I’ve seen it before, and I was pretty sure it was one of you guys.”

  Speetah looked at Manerpillar. He turned his eyes away.

  “I knew that box of crayons was going to screw us over one of these
days,” Striker said. “It’s like a visual air horn, calling everyone over.”

  “I’m sorry, guys,” Manerpillar said. “I just wanted to express myself. Besides, I can’t afford to paint it.”

  “Alright, enough,” Speetah said. She turned back to Nathan. “So you tailed him back here?”

  “Yeah. The cab driver said he doesn’t follow cars like that, but as soon as he saw the van, he made an exception.”

  Everyone looked at Manny, who shrugged and shook his head.

  “The cabbie dropped me off a block from here when we saw the van pull in,” Nathan said. “I just walked around until I found out where you went.”

  “But I pulled into the building,” Manerpillar said. “There’s no way you can see it through the steel door.”

  “I didn’t have to. This was the only place you could have parked it, so I took a chance.”

  “And walked right into the lion’s den,” Boost said.

  “Something like that,” Nathan said. He could tell that the heroes around him were on edge with his presence.

  “Why were you looking for us?” Speetah asked, with a suspicious look on her face.

  “Armageddon is out of control,” he answered.

  “We kind of got that already,” Striker said.

  “Why were you with them?” Speetah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Nathan said. He dropped his eyes to the floor and rubbed one of his knees. “I had nothing left to give, so the WWO showed me the door, in favor of fresh talent.”

  “And you figured you would just stick it to the parent corporation?” Black Paralysis asked.

  “They threw me to the curb as soon as I couldn’t make any more money for them,” Nathan said. A new fire was in his eyes. “The fans all but forgot about me.”

  “I didn’t,” Boost said. “When you left the sport, I was bummed out. The new era of the supers was a blatant attempt to cash in on a trend. Your departure was the beginning of the end of a great era.”

  A small smile pulled at Nathan’s mouth. “Thanks, kid. But memories don’t pay the bills. They surely don’t put my body back together. That was what the BoA offered.”

  “XGH,” Speetah said. “Is that how you were able to do what you did at the bank? Absorb all those bullets?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is that what we’re up against with this new crew of XGH soldiers?” Striker asked. “There’s no way we can take on an army of supers.”

  “The stuff they got now is potent,” Nathan said. “But not as pure as the stuff Armageddon got for me around the end of my WWO days.”

  “They’ve been taking XGH that long?” Speetah asked.

  “Yeah they probably took it for close to five years,” Boost said. “It was tough to keep up with the influx of super-powered wrestlers every week.”

  “Kid’s right on the money. It was a chance to extend my career a bit longer. There are some residual effects, but without it, I crash hard.” Nathan rubbed his cheek and chin. “The new stuff gives me a nice little pick me up, but it’s nowhere near as long lasting.”

  “We’re going to need as much information as you can give us about this new supply of XGH,” Speetah said. “How fast does it take effect on the fanatics using it?”

  “Fanatics? Is that what you’re calling them?” Nathan asked. “Funny, I used the same term. Armageddon didn’t take too kindly to me insulting their fans like that.” He chuckled.

  “The XGH? What can you tell us?” Speetah prodded again.

  “This is a lighter formula. I don’t know how to explain it. I’m not a chemist.”

  “We don’t need that level of information,” Black Paralysis said. “Just some hard numbers.”

  “It kicks in a lot faster. That’s for sure. It burns out of your system quicker too. As I mentioned, it doesn’t have the same intense effect, but it kick starts any lingering benefits I had from before.”

  “So it’s awakening latent super abilities?” Speetah tilted her head.

  “No. So far only Tex and Hoss got those perks.”

  “Tex and Hoss?” Striker asked.

  “Warhead and Ground Zero,” Boost said. “That’s their real names. Or at least the names they used in the WWO when they weren’t in character.”

  “Yeah,” Nathan said. “They’ve been using the stuff since it was cooked up in a bubbling cauldron in a castle dungeon somewhere. Who knows what else was in it back then? They’re the only ones that got any powers from the XGH.”

  “I guess that’s good for us,” Striker said. “The thought of facing a couple of dozen sasquatches is a little too much to process. No offense, sir.”

  Nathan waved off the imagined slight. “I wouldn’t want to face those odds either.”

  “How long do the effects last?” Speetah asked, staying on topic.

  Nathan was aware of the tingling and shooting pains in his joints. He could barely sit upright with the spasms waiting to kick off in his lower back. It had been just shy of twelve hours since his last hit.

  “Less than a day. Ten, twelve hours at most. The crash is hard too.”

  “If we can choke off the supply, we may be able to organize a plan of attack to take,” Striker said. “Take advantage of the Brotherhood of Armageddon when their super soldiers are crashing.”

  “Do you know where they get their supply from?” Speetah asked.

  “I don’t know where the source is outside the city, but I was overseeing the three primary distribution hubs. I know where they store the XGH, and I know what their plans are.”

  “Now we’re getting down to brass tacks,” Black Paralysis said.

  “Tell us,” Speetah said.

  “If you have a notebook and a pen, I can give you the locations,” Nathan said. “I know the big plan is to take back the the original building that the Visionaries occupied.”

  “The Watchtower,” Boost said. “That’s not far from us at all.”

  “Too close for comfort,” Manerpillar said.

  “Then we make sure to stop them,” Striker said.

  “I kept hearing them talk about that building. I think there’s a parking lot underneath it. They want to transport the XGH in there one load at a time and get it set up for recruiting. They called it the Missile Silo.”

  “What’s with these megalomaniacs and their cheesy nicknames for their base of operations?” Speetah asked.

  “We’re sitting in the Justice Gym right now,” Boost said smirking at Striker.

  Manerpillar brought a notepad and pen to Nathan.

  “Things are starting to stack in our favor again,” Boost said.

  Speetah gave him a sideways glance, chewing her lower lip.

  “I don’t trust him,” Speetah said.

  “I do,” Boost said. “He’s on the level. Nathan isn’t the kind of guy to go back on his word.”

  “He’s mixed up with the wrong people,” Striker said. “Ask Stringfellow, Juliana, and Manny if he’s on the level.”

  “I think he’s telling the truth,” Manerpillar said. “Even at the warehouse, he didn’t come off as the type of guy that’s out to hurt us.”

  “Look at the bank footage again,” Boost said. “He was getting innocent people out of the way.”

  “He attacked the police,” Speetah said.

  “Not how I saw it. Nathan was helping the injured officers. The others opened fire on him.”

  “Still, this is a tricky situation,” Striker said. “We could be walking into a trap if we follow him to these XGH hubs.”

  Boost turned to face Bryson. “If that’s the case, why not just bring everyone and rush us here when we’re all vulnerable?”

  “He’s got a point,” Manerpillar said. “ Doesn’t make sense to bring us to a location prepared for battle, only to have the odds against us. It would make more sense to catch us off guard.”

  “Do those two steroid freaks seem all that intelligent to you two?” Speetah asked.

  “They broke Sight out of prison,
” Boost said. “He’s got to be running the show now.”

  “That guy is scary smart,” Manerpillar said.

  Crystal shifted her gaze back and forth at Boost and Manerpillar.

  “What do you think, Bryson?” she asked.

  “I mean, they make a strong argument. Why would you let your opponent prepare for war to ambush them?”

  “I’m not a tactical genius,” she said. “Maybe they’re trying to boost our confidence, only to have us lose all morale when things turn south.”

  “You make a strong argument as well,” Striker said. “But we need to look at the bigger picture. Cutting off the XGH is our chief goal, and we’ve got a good chance to pull it off.”

  “And from there, we move to the Watchtower once their super soldiers are out of play.” Boost crossed his arms over his chest.

  “They just sprang more supers out of Black Lake,” Speetah said. “That’s where they kept Man-vil.”

  “We beat them before,” Manerpillar said.

  “The numbers are in their favor.”

  “The numbers were in their favor last time as well,” Boost said. “Bryson and Juliana had just signed on, but now they’re with us full time. Plus we’ve got Stringfellow and Genevieve.”

  “Not to mention a little more cooperation with the police,” Manerpillar said.

  Speetah gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and tilted her head back. “I didn’t ask for this responsibility.”

  “Neither did Patrick,” Boost said.

  “Well he’s not here right now, so he’s hardly got a say in this,” she shot back.

  “You should cut him some slack,” Striker said. “It’s hard to breathe when you’re weighed down with all the worrying about your friends. Especially if you’re the ones making the calls that put them in danger.”

  “When things got tough, he bailed,” Speetah said. “He’s not here to make any decisions now. All of this just dropped into our lap, so we play the hand dealt.”

  “You’re right,” Striker said. “There’s no handbook or online training course to run a group of vigilantes. You can’t just look at motivational coaches’ speeches and learn this stuff.”

  “I just don’t know if we can put our trust into a man that stood with Armageddon not even 24 hours ago,” Speetah said.