The Prospects

by Daniel Halayko

  “She’s still bleeding,” said Goldstone. “I used all the QuikClot.”

  They were almost at the stairs when Bad Roy’s chainsaw roared to life again. Arbalest was about to shoot again when the blade came down on his elbow. His forearm fell to the floor, his hand still clutching the crossbow.

  Blood spurted from the stump. Arbalest was too stunned to do anything but stare.

  Alex pulled Candilyn into the stairway. “Goldstreak, help him.”

  Goldstreak was at Arbalest’s side in under a second. Bad Roy swung at him twice.

  The speedster dodged the blade by inches while wrapping a tourniquet around Arbalest’s arm stump.

  Alex rolled and raised his gun. He fired several shots at the center of Big Bad Roy’s chest. The brute stumbled back.

  Big Bad Roy didn’t seem too concerned about the bullet holes in his chest. He raised his chainsaw, let out a war cry, and lunged at Alex.

  Jenny looked up. The air got cold.

  Alex rolled to the right as an arctic cold burst of wind slammed into Big Bad Roy. He grabbed Arbalest’s severed forearm and pulled it free from the crossbow.

  “That did not just happen,” said Arbalest. “This has to be a nightmare. They’re not all here at once.”

  Alex put his shoulder under Arbalest’s stump and raised it. “Stay with me.”

  Goldstreak cradled Candilyn. “She’s going into shock.”

  Jenny doubled-over and grabbed her head. “That wind, too much too soon.”

  Alex took Jenny’s hand and led her up the stairs.

  Griffin Tower’s lobby was a warzone. Cyborg Iron Pirates fired rattling machine guns alongside the gray-rubber-covered stumpy Skreaks with their laser rifles at Lady Amazing and Professor Photon. Men in tailored blue suits and red ties, trademarks of Le Parrain’s henchmen, streamed through the front doors with automatic pistols drawn. The Bone Terror, a hulking monstrosity covered in constantly regenerating bony spines, swung Rock Jock around by one foot.

  On the other side of the lobby Alex saw the distinct white shirts of Griffin Industries’ security officers taking cover behind the receptionist’s desk.

  “This way!” He led the others on a semi-circular path around the gunfire and the Bone Terror. He almost reached the desk when he saw an old man behind it who wasn’t in a uniform. Instead, he wore a rumpled tweed suit that looked like it came from a thrift store.

  He turned to Alex. So did the security guards. They aimed their pistols.

  Alex recognized him before he felt the sensation of icepicks forming in his brain.

  It was the Idea Man.

  The security guards opened fire. Lady Amazing jumped in front of their bullets, which bounced off of her invulnerable body. “Alex, get out of here!”

  She knocked several of Le Parrain’s henchmen aside before a Skreak fired a huge glob of yellow slime from a handheld cannon. The slime covered the heroine. She fell struggling against it.

  “Agent O’Farrell!” Even Pinwheel’s scream had a nasal lisp. “Sarge abandoned us!”

  Alex shouldered Arbalest through the panicking Young Sentinels. “Follow me.”

  The Shade Blades ran up the stairway. Cantrip threw several playing cards at them. A few ninjas stumbled back with playing cards sticking out of their bodysuits. One responded by swinging a chain around the young magician’s feet. He fell as the others ran after Alex.

  Nothing was between them and the corridor leading to the fire exit. “Let’s go.”

  Alex kicked the door open and got Arbalest and Jenny out. The lights came back on and the alarms started blaring as Goldstreak carried Candilyn out.

  “She’s not breathing,” he said.

  Knockout Rose and Pinwheel made it out. Stardancer was about to step outside when steel sheets fell over the doors and windows, including the fire exit.

  “No!” Knockout Rose punched the steel sheet with her boxing glove. "Open this!"

  “Where’s Cantrip?” said Pinwheel.

  “Now the emergency barriers work,” said Alex. He pulled out his phone. “And I have full bars again.”

  A loud droning hum drowned out all other sounds from the city.

  Alex looked up. Against the skyline he saw a silver cloud with a rough humanoid shape fly far above the streets. It landed on the roof of Griffin Tower and spread out in a swirling mass of tiny robots.

  “What the hell is that?” asked Kayleigh.

  “The Micro-Sapiens,” said Alex. “A swarm of vicious tiny robots. Harry’s worst creation has come home.”

  “Where are the cops?” said Pinwheel.

  “You two,” Alex said, “help us.”

  “Our friends are stuck in there,” said Knockout Rose.

  “Ours are dying out here,” said Goldstreak.

  Knockout Rose ripped off her boxing gloves, took Candilyn’s legs and ran down the street with Goldstreak. Pinwheel took Jenny’s hand and followed.

  “I see rings around every light,” said Jenny. “My head hurts so much.”

  Arbalest gasped, “Alex ….”

  Alex lifted him a little higher. “I’ll get you through this.”

  “Alex, I …”

  “They’ll reattach your arm. Stay strong.”

  “Alex, shut up. Listen. There’s a key inside my glove.”

  Alex reached for Arbalest’s left hand.

  “No, the other one.”

  Alex held out the severed forearm. Inside the wrist he found a tiny key with circuits on the teeth.

  “After you drop me off, go to three-fifty-seven West Street. The door’s boarded up. Find a way in. There’s a purple arrow behind the counter. Do the opposite of what it says.”

  “Stay with me,” Alex said. “You’re talking crazy.”

  “Tell Jim my vote for Plan Failsafe is yes.”

  “Tell Jim what?”

  A siren drowned out Arbalest’s reply. Alex waved down the police car.

  “Is that Arbalest?” asked the officer.

  Alex flashed his MAB badge. “Hospital.” He put Arbalest and his severed arm in the backseat.

  The police car did a U-turn. Alex pulled out his smartphone and called the MAB. A convoy of cars full of agents, vans carrying supplies, and helicopters were on their way to put Griffin Tower under siege by the time he reached the hospital.

  Goldstreak leaned against the wall outside the emergency entrance. He had his head buried in his elbow. Blood dripped down his metallic suit.

  Alex asked, “How’s Candilyn?”

  Goldstreak lowered his arms. Tears made shiny streaks on his cheeks. “Dead on arrival.”

  Alex sighed. “Deon, we did the best we could.”

  “That’s all you got to say? I couldn’t save her. Your training wasn’t worth shit.”

  “Those bullets must have hit her heart. It was more than her healing factor could handle. The best doctors in the world couldn’t …”

  “If we can’t save people, why are we doing this?”

  “We save who we can.”

  Goldstreak ripped off his mask. “Screw it, and screw you.”

  “Deon, this happens to all medics. I lost my first patient.”

  “But this was Candilyn. She and I, we …”

  “I know you two had a fling.”

  “Go to hell.” Deon ran away. His golden streak disappeared into the city lights.

  Knockout Rose and Pinwheel waited inside the hospital.

  “How’s Jenny?” he asked.

  “She’s getting a CAT scan,” said Pinwheel.

  “I don’t know what to say about the other girl,” said Knockout Rose. “I ran as fast as I could, but the boy in a gold suit kept telling me to go faster.”

  “How did your team get involved in this?”

  “Sarge took us on patrol through Greenwich Village,” said Knockout Rose.

  “You know, Sarge is nothing like he is in the comics,” said Pinwheel.

  “He was mean to us.” Knockout Rose squinted. “There’s s
omething familiar about you, agent.”

  “Last time we met, I wore an exoskeleton.”

  “You’re Agent Exo?”

  “Goodbye secret identity,” said Pinwheel. “Someone is out of the phone booth.”

  “What happened at Greenwich Village?” asked Alex.

  “Well, Sarge said the Shade Blades plotted to rob some galleries,” said Pinwheel. “Our job was to look like we were heroes, but he said that with much more sarcasm and rancor than I can muster.”

  “Nothing happened,” said Knockout Rose. “Sarge said it was a bad tip and made us walk all the way back to the tower.”

  “We weren’t back long before the Bone Terror attacked,” said Pinwheel. “Poor Rock Jock. He held that beast back as long as he could.”

  An orderly pushed Jenny in a wheelchair down the hallway.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I still have a headache, but my brain is fine. How’s Candilyn?”

  Alex shook his head.

  “Oh, no, is she …”

  “Ninjas fight dirty.”

  Jenny stood and hugged Alex in silence for a moment. “For all her faults, she was one of us,” she said. “Where’s Trista?”

  “She sacrificed herself for you.”

  “Vijay?”

  “Still in there.”

  “Deon?”

  “Ran away.”

  Jenny broke the embrace. “We’re all that’s left of the Prospects?”

  “And we’re all that’s left of the Young Sentinels,” said Pinwheel.

  Knockout Rose watched a breaking news report on the television in the waiting room. “The tower is surrounded by MAB agents.”

  “I called them,” said Alex. “No one will get in or out.”

  “That doesn’t do our friends much good,” said Knockout Rose. “They’re trapped with those monsters.”

  “What do we do?” asked Jenny.

  Alex looked at the key Arbalest gave him. “Apparently Mister Griffin has something called Plan Failsafe.”

  “What’s that?” asked Jenny.

  “I have no idea. All I have is an address.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I don’t turn twenty-one for ten days. Until then, I won’t stop trying to be a superhero.”

  “Jenny, if we’re still alive in ten days I’ll buy you a beer.”

  “I’m coming too,” said Knockout Rose.

  “No you’re not,” said Pinwheel as he pinched Knockout Rose’s shoulder. He peeled a strip of red and revealed skin underneath.

  She slapped his hand. “What did you do that for?”

  “I pinched you because you’re dreaming, Kayleigh. You’re not a superhero, you’re an actress covered in paint.”

  “Your suit is paint?” said Jenny.

  “Well, it’s thick paint.” She stood with her hands at her side, apparently unconcerned at how everyone was looking her over.

  Pinwheel peeled a long strip from Knockout Rose’s hip. “See? That’s the thong line. That and the shoes are all she’s wearing.”

  “Stop it, Steve!” She shoved him as he peeled a strip off her arm.

  “I just want to bring you back to reality.”

  “You mean the reality where you abandon your friends?”

  “Is this about us not asking you to go to LA?”

  “No, this is about Pete being trapped in Griffin Tower.”

  “There’s nothing I can do for him. Getting killed sure won’t help.”

  “So you only acted like his friend, like how you act like a campy gay man because our manager wanted a token homosexual?”

  The nasal lisp disappeared from the southern accent. “That’s my point. We’re not heroes, we’re phonies. We fight choreographed battles against stuntmen. This, right now, is real. End scene. Break character. We’re done here.”

  Alex gestured towards the door. Jenny nodded and followed him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Knockout Rose shivered. “This neighborhood is scary.”

  “It’s no place for a naked girl to be at night.” Pinwheel peeled a strip of paint off her back.

  “Stop doing that.”

  Alex whispered to Jenny, “I can’t believe they followed us across Manhattan.”

  “Agent O’Farrell,” said Knockout Rose, “I’m not going to abandon my friends.”

  “Let the real heroes handle this,” said Pinwheel.

  “So we should do nothing?”

  “Sometimes nothing is the best thing to do.”

  “Fine. Go. You and Pete were going to ditch me before this happened. Now you’re going to ditch Pete.”

  “We should stay out of the real heroes’ way while they save the day.”

  “We need to help any way we can.”

  “Oh come on. Remember what Stardancer said when Jenny applied? Do you want to help someone like that?”

  Jenny turned around. “What did she say?”

  Knockout Rose and Pinwheel looked at each other awkwardly.

  “I don’t want to repeat it,” said Pinwheel.

  “Tell me.”

  “She said you look like someone who eats more Chinese food after getting hungry again an hour later.”

  Jenny shook her head and turned back.

  “I told her she was rude,” said Knockout Rose.

  Pinwheel said, “You also said having Jenny on the team would make you look thinner, which is why you voted for her.”

  Jenny spun around, her face tight with anger. The air got cold. Litter and dust rose in the wind.

  Alex grab Jenny’s shoulder. “Stop.”

  The wind died quickly.

  Jenny said, “My teammate died tonight. I don’t need any shit from a couple of morons.”

  “I’m sorry about your friend,” said Knockout Rose. “I ran as fast as we could to keep up with the boy in gold.”

  “Three-fifty-seven West Street.” Alex stopped in front of the recently shattered plywood boards in front of an abandoned graffiti-coated diner. “Whatever’s in here, someone beat us to it.” He drew his pistol.

  Jenny swirled her hands and made a small whirlwind. “We’ve come too far to turn back now.”

  “Pinwheel,” Alex said, “light.”

  “Leave me out of this.”

  Alex shook his head, pulled out a keychain LED light, and went inside.

  Inside the diner was nothing but a dusty floor with a few pieces of garbage strewn about and a couple of overturned tables.

  Knockout Rose crouched. “Footprints. They look like big Army boots.”

  Pinwheel moved the light over the trail of footprints. They stopped abruptly at a dustless square behind the counter.

  The four of them walked to the square. Jenny created a breeze to blow the dust aside.

  Alex ran his fingers along the lines forming a square in the floor.

  “What is it?” asked Knockout Rose.

  “No idea. Arbalest said something about a purple arrow on the floor.”

  Pinwheel made his light brighter as Jenny scattered more dust. Within a second they found the arrow. At the unpointed end was a small hole between the tiles.

  Alex reached in his pocket, pulled out the key Arbalest gave him, and stuck it in the hole. An elevator rose from the square.

  “This is so cool,” said Pinwheel. “I didn’t know the New York Guardians had a secret hideout.”

  “Neither did I,” said Alex, “and they should have told me either as an overseeing MAB agent or a member of the team.”

  There was only one button on the elevator.

  “Hey,” said Knockout Rose, “can we come too?”

  Alex looked at Jenny. She nodded.

  Alex took off his hoodie and handed it to Knockout Rose. “Cover yourself.”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” she said.

  “I’m not. It’s a small elevator, and we’re making one trip.”

  She put the hoodie on and zipped it up.

  A
ll four of them squeezed into the elevator. After a quick drop the doors opened again to reveal a gray concrete corridor lit by UV lights.

  Jim’s voice echoed down the corridor. “About time you got here, Bart.”

  Alex holstered his pistol. “It’s me.”

  “What the …? How did you …?”

  Alex walked down the corridor followed by the others. It ended in a circular chamber with a round computer table in the middle. Jim, Sergeant Hammer, and Stormhead sat around it.

  “What is this place?” asked Alex.

  “What happened to Arbalest?” asked Stormhead.

  “He’s in the hospital.” Alex held out the key. “He gave me this.”

  “Agent, did he relay a message?” asked Sergeant Hammer.

  “He said yes to Plan Failsafe.”

  Sergeant Hammer snatched the key from Alex’s hands. “That makes it a majority.”

  Stormhead frowned. “I still think it’s a horrible idea.”

  “What?” asked Alex. “What’s a horrible idea?”

  “Hey Sarge,” said Knockout Rose, “why did you abandon us?”

  Jim inserted Arbalest’s key into the computer and twisted it. “Stormhead, put in yours.”

  “You left us to die,” said Knockout Rose.

  Sergeant Hammer said, “Acceptable loss.”

  Jim extended an open hand to Stormhead. “Don’t pout. Majority rules. Three to one.”

  Stormhead handed another key to Jim.

  Jim inserted it into the computer and twisted it.

  “My friends are stuck in Griffin Tower with supervillains,” said Knockout Rose.

  “What is this place?” asked Alex.

  Jim slapped his cane against the concrete wall. “Enough! Everyone shut up. Ten minutes until Plan Failsafe is done. And, what incredible timing, that will be a few seconds after midnight.”

  “What’s Plan Failsafe?” asked Alex.

  “None of your business,” said Sergeant Hammer. “Get out and take the brats with you.”

  “No,” said Stormhead, “he deserves to know.”

  “He’s already seen and heard too much,” said Jim. “We either kill him or come clean, and too many people are already going to die tonight. Alex, send the kids upstairs.”

  Alex turned to Jenny, Knockout Rose, and Pinwheel. “You heard him. Go upstairs.”