Fallout (Lois Lane)

by Gwenda Bond

  So I decided on a course of action. I would get into the lab, but not quite yet. I wanted a better idea of what was happening once the Warheads arrived there. And if my luck didn’t screw things up, what I had in mind would be enough evidence to convince Perry why the retraction request had been made. Enough to save the Scoop.

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll bug them.”

  “With killer bees, or . . . ?” Devin trailed off.

  “No, not with killer bees.” I rolled my eyes. “With a small unlikely-to-be-detected sound-and-heat-signature-capturing device. A bug. I figure Anavi will be the easiest to slip one onto. She always carries her backpack. If we do it first thing Monday morning, we should have enough for Perry by the end of the day. I’ll be the responsible party and take the heat if someone has to, so don’t worry about getting caught.”

  Assuming we wouldn’t get enough information from this method, I was working up a plan B . . . or was it a plan C? But the rest of them really didn’t need to be involved in that. I had learned my lesson, though probably not the one Butler intended: don’t get people in trouble if you want them to be your friends.

  The plan, plan A, my original plan when I arrived in Metropolis—well, that was toast. My dad and I would have to work something else out. Because I had no choice but to get in trouble. To not fit in. To make enemies and rock the boat so hard it might capsize with me in it.

  No choice but to do what was right.

  “A bug.” James was shaking his head, the old disbelief back. “Where would you get one?”

  Just when I was feeling like James might be all right. “Doubting me? Have a little faith. I’ll bring it to school.”

  I happened to know that Dad had a stockpile of all sorts of handy tools in a locked cabinet in his office. Finding the key would be a challenge, but I was up for it. And once I did I’d have access to all kinds of things, like the latest generation of listening devices and spy gear.

  I focused on Maddy. “You think you’re up to helping me plant the bug?”

  “Oh, yes, definitely,” Maddy answered instantly. “Are there videos I can watch to get ready? Research I can do?”

  “You’ll be a natural,” I said.

  “You better be right about this,” James said. “Because if we don’t nail Butler, this is all over.” He swept a hand around us, indicating the office.

  “It’s so sweet of you to act like you care about that,” I said.

  I didn’t miss how James’s attention gravitated to his shoes, as if they were fascinating objects he’d never seen before. That was interesting.

  “What do we do now?” Devin asked. “Please don’t say ‘nothing.’ I don’t want to just sit around all weekend.”

  Right. SmallvilleGuy was waiting. “Now you and I are going into the game. A . . . friend tipped me off that something’s happening in there. We should probably be careful when we go in.”

  “I’m a King,” Devin said. “I don’t do caution.”

  “Your secret is out,” I said.

  “They don’t play, so they don’t even know what that means,” Devin countered with a grin. But I didn’t miss his worried glance over at James.

  Would James recognize his holoset? There was a little red dot on one side, but it seemed like it had come that way.

  I rummaged in my bag and pulled it out, sat down in my chair and slipped it over my ear. My shoulder ached with phantom pain like when I’d been shot. Devin already had his holoset on, but hadn’t powered up yet.

  Maddy said, “We just sit here and watch you guys? Boring.”

  James’s eyes narrowed, and he said, “Or I could ask Lois for my holoset back and go in with Devin instead.”

  Devin and I exchanged a guilty look. “I need to do this,” I said, “and I was just borrowing it.” Devin didn’t say anything, so I went on. “And Devin said you’ve never even used it since he set it up. Is that true?”

  James nodded, annoyed again.

  I said, “And you’d be playing as an elvish princess named Lo.”

  James blinked. I thought for a second he’d take me up on it to be testy. But he said, “Go on, use it.”

  “Um . . . thanks?” I was tentative. Thanking James felt weird. But he didn’t even exert himself to toss back a “you’re welcome,” so I wouldn’t be doing it again anytime soon.

  Devin reached up to tap the button on his holoset, but waited with his finger poised. “Ready?” he asked.

  I nodded, and we pressed our holosets on at the same time. I started, “Remember, be care—”

  But as the gamescape replaced the dim Morgue, the words died in my throat.

  Worlds War Three was on fire. I felt the ground tremble, then shake, under my still-bare elf feet.

  I looked frantically around to find Devin, and there he was, a few feet away from me. Wearing a royal purple tunic with chainmail and plate armor, and an ornate, if tastefully small, crown. He stood, regally gaping.

  I gaped too. It wasn’t the whole world that was burning.

  It was only Devin’s kingdom.

  His castle lay in ruins, flames licking from the openings along the tower walls, and much of the rest nothing but rubble. The proud flag that bore Devin’s likeness had been ripped and burned almost to shreds. I could barely make out his image on it.

  All that was left was an impression of his silhouette, like he was a ghost.

  A hand touched my arm, and Devin stopped staring and sprang into motion. He drew a long sword from a sheath covered in scrolled metalwork. It was augmented with a gun barrel on top of the blade.

  “Stop right there!” he ordered, leveling the sword gun at the newcomer.

  Devin made a kingly presence, defending his castle and me.

  Unfortunately he was pointing his sword-gun at SmallvilleGuy, who wasn’t the source of the devastation.

  “Devin, this is my friend,” I choked out through the growing haze of smoke that surrounded us. Funny how my throat was so easily convinced it was real. “He’s not responsible.”

  Devin hesitated a second before lowering the sword. “He’s the one who told you about this? Asked us to meet him?”

  SmallvilleGuy came closer, not intimidated by the monarch who’d threatened him, though in the game he was a gawky alien who should have been. He reached up to resettle his rectangular glasses, a tiny giveaway that maybe he was nervous beneath his cool. “That’s me. And I’m the one who was with her the other night when we ran interference with the Warheads. Good call on making her elvish royalty.”

  I felt like I should be blushing, and then realized with horror that my elvish princess cheeks might be reddening. “Did you see who did this? It was them, wasn’t it?”

  Because who else would have? And it was more evidence they might turn on Devin next.

  It was as if SmallvilleGuy read my mind and saw the concerns there.

  “Yes, they were single-minded about it,” SmallvilleGuy said. “Eyes only for Devin’s property, even when other characters showed up to loot the ruins.”

  “They’d have to be, to manage this in such a short amount of time,” Devin said, and the words were fainter than when he’d spoken before. Shell-shocked, like he was beginning to understand the extent of the destruction.

  “It wasn’t like anything I thought possible in here. They were so much stronger, working in better coordination with each other than the other night, even,” SmallvilleGuy said. “I did manage to talk one of your dragons into chasing them off. That’s where the fire came from.”

  Devin squinted, no doubt reading SmallvilleGuy’s stats.

  Good luck. You’ll never figure out who he is.

  “Since when can friendly aliens talk to dragons?” Devin asked.

  SmallvilleGuy rubbed his chin, looking embarrassed. “Since one found a cache of uber-secret cheat codes buried i
n threads on a private developer forum for game architects and workers.”

  I knew what that meant. He’d managed to do some more research. His friend from the boards had come through. Nice. “You find anything else usefully cheat-y?”

  “Just more of the same type of . . . thing we talked about the other night. R&D project rumors.”

  Devin wasn’t paying attention to us, though. He was wandering toward the remains of his castle. SmallvilleGuy and I trailed after him more slowly.

  My cheeks still felt warm and I decided it must be from the fact that everything around us was on fire. Yes, that was it. Definitely.

  SmallvilleGuy was my friend. We were just friends.

  “So I guess they’re talking to you again? That’s a good sign,” he said. “I’m glad you have backup out there. The Warheads . . . they really were in rare form when I saw them. And there’s something else. I hate to be the one to tell you. But did you happen to see Anavi today?”

  “She was with them, wasn’t she? I know already. They got to her. I saw her with them this morning. I failed her, and I think we both know who’s likely to be next.”

  We gazed at the wreck in front of us. Devin stood in front of the tower, his head craned back to take in the flag, his posture resounding with defeat.

  “They were strong and they’ll be back,” SmallvilleGuy said. “I doubt Daisy can hold them off for long.”

  “Daisy?” I asked.

  “The dragon. She did say Devin didn’t like other people to know he named her that, so maybe keep it to yourself.”

  I found that I was smiling at him, without even intending to. Despite the fact that the world was literally burning around us and everything was awful. I couldn’t help it.

  “I’m a vault,” I said. “What other secrets do you have?”

  I regretted it as soon as the words left my lips, knew he’d misinterpreted them by the way his expression changed. A subtle closing down and shutting me out. The graphics in this game were too good, sometimes.

  Did he look like that every night when I asked who he was?

  “That’s not what I meant,” I said, but my smile was gone. “Anything else about our bad guys?”

  “Oh,” he said, kicking aside a piece of rubble. “TheInventor, my buddy I told you about, vouched to get me registered on that private site for developers so I could see any relevant discussions—lucky for me they didn’t require the same kind of proof you did. He pointed me to some chatter about a project at Advanced Research Labs, a study of team dynamics and how to enhance them using real-sim technology.”

  “Signs point to Project Hydra,” I said.

  “Seems likely. The results so far are getting high marks from the boss, but one of the researcher guys actually running it came from the game company and was talking about it with some of his former co-workers from there on the site. All in vague terms, but it was clear that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He won’t say why out in the open though. I did gather that their boss has the research team gearing up for a presentation soon to some sort of potential buyer. I still don’t know exactly what it is.” He paused. “Lois, are you going after them alone?”

  My heart kicked in my chest, and I felt ridiculous again.

  “I won’t do anything I don’t have to.”

  It was the best I could do.

  “Fair enough,” he said. “Though I guess this means you’re giving up on staying out of trouble.”

  I stopped walking. We were almost to Devin, and he was looking for a clear path into the wreckage.

  I turned to SmallvilleGuy. “What can I say? Every time I try to walk away, I run right into it instead.”

  But he would see through that, wouldn’t he? Me playing it off like it didn’t bother me.

  Yes, he would. He did.

  “Lois, you haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “I know. I think this is just who I am. I’m never going to fit in anywhere. I’ll always be . . . different.”

  “Is that so bad?” he asked.

  And he waited for the answer, like it mattered to him too. Through his glasses, I saw that his eyes were blue. Kind and blue. These graphics were good, but were they accurate? Of course his skin wasn’t green outside the game, but were his eyes that same blue?

  I’d be more than okay with it, if they were.

  “No,” I said, finally, “I don’t guess it’s such a bad thing to be different.”

  His lips tilted up in a smile, a small one, like another secret between us. He was about to say something else, and I wanted to know what it was so badly I was afraid to breathe, afraid I might miss it. I leaned in toward him, so I could hear better, squinting against the smoke.

  But whatever it was got lost. His smile dropped away, and what he said instead was: “They’re back.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Anavi wasn’t just one of the pack. She was at the front of the loping formation. But even in here there wasn’t anything else to distinguish her from the rest. Gone were her camouflage and grenades with words on them—she was in black and armed beyond all reason, like the squadron arrayed around and behind her.

  An angry red dragon flew over their heads, screeching bloodiest murder. Missiles were mounted under the sprawl of her wings.

  That must be the famous Daisy.

  SmallvilleGuy called up to her. “Good girl, Daisy! Let them have it!”

  So much for keeping the name quiet.

  Devin stalked out of the crumbled arch that used to be the entrance to his castle. He wasn’t alone. He brought a small-in-number but large-in-size army with him.

  Two elephants, draped in robes printed with his silhouette, lifted their massive trunks to trumpet loud displeasure. Behind them came some sort of winged creatures, part eagle and part lion, with fearsome talons that hovered a few feet off the ground as their feathered wings beat to hold them aloft. Baby trolls—they were much smaller than the one Anavi had taken down, so I assumed these were babies—rode on top of the beasts and swung clubs or strung bows.

  “They didn’t find the hidden entrance to the mine tunnels beneath the tower,” Devin said. “That’s where I keep most of my troops.” He looked smug as the ground shook again, but this time under the weight of the feet of his soldiers.

  I would never understand all the ins and outs of this game.

  Daisy landed on Devin’s other side and breathed a fresh round of fire at the attackers.

  “The flying things that aren’t dragons are . . . ?” I asked.

  Devin blinked. “Oh, my griffins. Awesome, right?”

  The prospect of battle seemed to have revived him from his earlier defeat. For the moment.

  But the Warheads had gathered extra gear and munitions of their own while they were gone. A shimmering white force field popped into existence around them.

  “Enchanted ice barrier,” SmallvilleGuy said. “This is bad. It’s probably the only thing besides a fortified alien aircraft that your army can’t penetrate.”

  “Crap,” Devin said. “You’re right.”

  Devin waved his arm to indicate to his troops that they should retreat. The creatures milled around us, the dragon screeching in protest. But he was still their royal commander-in-chief. Devin raised his other arm and waved once more for them to go, and that did it.

  Even if they didn’t want to, the trolls fell back, taking their mounts with them. The elephants lumbered along last, one looking back and trumpeting a final threat.

  I realized something. When the Warheads had come after Anavi in the game, the only thing they bothered with was stealth and brute strength. There had been little finesse to the attack. But if they’d managed to bring the only weapon Devin couldn’t stand up to, that indicated a more, well, strategic kind of strategy.

  “They’re smarter, aren’t they?” I asked. “It must be b
ecause they have Anavi.”

  “Maybe,” SmallvilleGuy said, nodding. “More brainpower.”

  “They can share resources. Not brains,” Devin said. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but we need to get out of here. Retreat’s the only option for now.”

  It was clear that behind the ice barrier, the Warheads were prepping some sort of new weapons. Weapons that undoubtedly would hurt as bad as or worse than that screaming bullet wound to my shoulder the other day. SmallvilleGuy never had said if or where he’d been hit.

  Painful memory or not, I didn’t like the idea of fleeing the scene. “We can’t just let them win. If we leave your castle undefended, they’ll destroy it completely.”

  “We have to,” Devin said.

  The certainty in his voice killed me. I didn’t want him to give up so quickly. It was my fault this was happening. Mine and the Warheads and whoever had made them this way.

  “Any cheat codes?” I asked SmallvilleGuy.

  “I’m out of any that would help here.” He said it with regret. Like disappointing me was as much a disappointment to him as anything else could be.

  And that’s when I knew we were out of options. Officially.

  “Then we have to go,” I said. “If there’s no chance of winning. I don’t want to get shot again for kicks.”

  The Warheads’ ice barrier collapsed and Daisy breathed another round of fire. That bought the three of us a few final moments to close our eyes, ground back into our actual bodies, and reach up to turn off our holosets.

  The last thing I saw in the game was SmallvilleGuy, moving his body to shield mine from whatever the bad guys were about to lob our way, as he lifted his own hand to his ear—no doubt in and outside the game. Somehow I knew he wouldn’t stick around there once Devin and I were gone, and out of harm’s way.

  Back in the real world, it took a few moments—I couldn’t have said how many—to feel like I was here instead of there. The same seemed to be true for Devin. He blinked at me without quite focusing.

  Maddy laid her hands on my shoulders, giving me a little shake. “What was happening? We’re dying in here. We could only hear your sides of the conversation.”