Super World

by Lawrence Ambrose

  A DARE medical team of augmented healers, which included Terry Mayes and his father, would be stationed at L.A. Airport, one of designated rendezvous sites.

  "Be aware that this situation could go ballistic in a moment's notice," Mort Anderson cautioned them. "If things get out of control, your first priority is the safety of the team. Two fallback rendezvous points are listed. We here will make the determination to retreat to those locations. We will also make the call for backup forces, if we decide they're necessary. Your job is to get in there and neutralize the leadership. We have nice little arrest forms you can serve on them to keep up legal appearances, but the odds of compliance are slight. At the first sign of aggression you must be prepared to employ lethal force."

  He paused. "Read your mission paper and then I'll take questions. You'll deploy at Edward's Air Force Base in three hours."

  THE C-130 Hercules deposited the forty-seven members of Team One at Edwards Air Force Base one hundred miles northeast of their target. A close-mouthed and grim-faced unit of Marines shepherded them aboard ten fully loaded armored vehicles and they set out for L.A. with Blackhawk and Apache helicopters chattering in the air above them. The Team had done absolutely no training with military units, and the unease over the alliance showed in the tense silence and nervous glances. Captain Joe Hilliard, in charge of the Marines, did have a few words for Jamie, who sat with him in the lead MRAP. He had her activate her comm so everyone else would hear.

  "If you get in trouble or injured, Commander Shepherd" – Jamie felt a small jolt at being addressed by her formal rank for the first time – "and you can't get to either L.A. Air Force Base or our base in Pasadena, just find any place clear of the conflict and we will send a team to pick you up."

  "We'll do that, Captain Hilliard. Thank you."

  The convoy of MRAPs and helicopters stopped five miles out from the presumed Los Diablos Marrones headquarters. Team One would make its way on foot or in the air, depending on their abilities. It was two A.M., the night a hazy mix of city lights and the half-moon.

  "Good luck, Commander," said Captain Hilliard.

  "Thanks. I have a feeling we could use some."

  "Thank you for saving our country's ass down in Washington."

  He offered his hand. Jamie shook it with the lightest touch. If it hurt, his face didn't show it.

  As per the mission plan, Jamie and the other flyers took to the air, while their earthbound comrades jogged through the neighborhoods and streets below. Twelve of the team was "flight-capable," including Tilda "Fast time," Kyle Hunt (third or fourth in telekinetic strength with a strange ability to put people to sleep), and Barry Apple ("Beam"), making up for his lack of telekinetic power with a deadly particle beam he could bring forth from his hands. Some team members had begun referring to Jamie as "the Shepherd" despite her best efforts to quash that.

  Jeremy – "Blur" – led the ground team, joined by Greg "Incredible Hulk" Horner, Jay Utrecht the teleporter ("Telly"), Belinda James ("Hot Girl") and Jake Culler, who had no nickname but Jamie called him "Badass Wannabe" in her mind. Jamie judged the balance of power between the two groups to be roughly equal. The ground teams made up for her unit's advantage of aerial maneuverability, a higher percentage of telekinetic power - and perhaps a more lethal arsenal as a percentage – with sheer strength, superior foot speed and mental quickness, and massive telekinetic firepower.

  Despite being on foot, the ground team covered the five miles in a blistering five minutes, moving so fast and with such purpose that the few bystanders they encountered slipped quickly out of their way into the shadows. Perhaps one of them would call ahead to warn the Los Diablos Marrones, but even so the gang wouldn't have much time to prepare.

  "Your target buildings are directly below and ahead," Mort Anderson's soft Midwestern drawl filled Jamie and everyone else's earpieces. "Jamie, enter through the roof. Jeremy, the front door. Our theory is that Rodriquez and his top cronies are near the top. Go slow – one step at a time. Watch your six. We're not on a time-schedule here."

  "Understood," said Jamie – echoed by Jeremy below.

  "Jamie!" Tildie's voice crackled urgently in her earpiece. "Move right! Move right!"

  It took a precious instant to register that Tilda was doing her prediction thing. No sign of threats below. Tildie was already one hundred yards away. In a flash, Jamie joined her – as did about half of her team.

  The column of fire that roared up from the building below was as thick as a railway train. Jamie could feel the heat even from sixty or seventy yards away - like a campfire a few feet from her. About half of her team – the half that hadn't moved – vanished. Someone screamed.

  "Shit, shit, shit!" Tildie cried.

  Figures were rising from the building. Lightning cracked the air, forking downward. The figures fell into darkness.

  A thin beam of blue-white light buzzed downward, puncturing the roof below with a hot knife in butter hiss. Barry Apple.

  "Hold on," Jamie whispered, her voice choking. Thousands of times stronger than a normal person and she couldn't push words through her mouth.

  "Should we go in?" Barry Apple's voice, raspy with excitement.

  "No. Stay back. I'm going down first."

  Jamie descended to the roof in a flash. She didn't want to think of how many of her people had just been killed. She wanted to keep the rest safe, even if that meant going ballistic on whoever was attacking them.

  She hit the roof with a lack of focus, her feet punching a few inches into its metal plating. A single figure stood facing her about thirty yards away. Just a glimpse before he disappeared behind a circle of fire. It took an instant before she realized that circle of fire was the forefront of an advancing column of flame. She stopped it maybe ten yards from her. The heat still blasted her face – enough to set her supposedly heat-resistant clothes on fire. She willed the flames to die, and they did.

  Lightning crackled down, striking the spot where the figure had been. Barry Apple's "particle beam" followed, stabbing the roof in various spots. Telekinetic forces were at play in fields of the night. Jamie couldn't see them, but she could hear the roof rending and breaking apart in places.

  "Are you okay?" Tilda asked, setting down beside her.

  "Fine. How about you guys?"

  "Those of us who are left. We were just hit by telekinetics. Dazed me for a second. But then we pushed back."

  Determination and something approaching anger pushed through the grief in Tildie's voice. Jamie felt the sting of an accusation that wasn't there.

  "You need to keep moving forward before they can regroup," said Mort. "Lead the way, Commander. And don't forget to identify yourself and offer surrender if they give you a chance."

  "Roger that." She smiled. Just like they said in the movies.

  She popped out of her imprint in the roof. Voices from the ground team echoed in her ears. Jeremy was shouting: "DARE Interdiction and Enforcement! Get down! Get down!"

  "Jeremy? What's happening down there?"

  "We're moving through the halls, taking the stairs. No resistance so far. People are moving out of our way. Families and children here – "

  The building shook. Jamie felt the energy pulse before she heard the explosion. Or explosions. The sound of shattering glass. A lot of shattering glass – like her grandmother's entire crystal collection hitting the floor.

  "People are jumping – and flying – out!" cried Tildie.

  Jamie flew up, high enough to see all sides of the building. Below, hundreds of people were leaping out the windows. A few rose – most fell.

  "Jeremy...?"

  "Hey..." He coughed. "Met some resistance. Don't know if it was conventional explosives or something else. One second we're in the stairwell, the next..."

  "Where are you?"

  "On the ground. I saw a flash and jumped sideways. Went through the outer wall and down. A big chunk of the building is missing. Don't know about the others."

  A "flock" of
five or six people flew away from the building headed south. Los Diablos people fleeing? Could one of them be Rodriquez?

  "Sir," she spoke to Mort Anderson, "I've got some augmented people fleeing in the air. I'm going after them."

  "Do it."

  "I'm with you," said Tildie, appearing at her side.

  Jamie hesitated. She really wanted some company, but the price could be too steep.

  "No. Stay here, support the ground team...wherever they are. Help transport the wounded."

  "Yes, sir. I mean, ma'am."

  Jamie gave her a dry glance before rocketing after the fleeing people. She looked back once to see a beam of reddish-yellow light flash up from the building, but it struck only sky. Tildie was dive-bombing the area where the beam had originated, flashing lightning with one hand while waving her team along with the other.

  Jamie focused on the six people ahead of her. Her plan was simple: force them to the ground and hold them there. No need to catch up – she was plenty close enough to bring them down.

  Then five of the flyers turned to face her. At first it was as if she'd run into a powerful headwind. Her progress slowed. Pressure built in her head and body, as if she'd suddenly entered a vacuum. Except vacuums didn't bother her any more.

  They're targeting me telekinetically! She pushed back – hard. It was like forcing water through a number of holes. Her telekinetic power, rather than repel theirs evenly, seemed to squeeze past, like blasts of water colliding and shoving through and around each other. But her blasts were apparently more powerful than theirs because suddenly the resistance disappeared and the five people plummeted – thankfully into an open field. Jamie encouraged their fall with a powerful push, planting them deep in the ground. She wasn't sure if they were alive or dead.

  The lone fleeing figure – a man, as she visually zoomed in on him - was now a speck on the horizon. He'd obviously picked up the pace. Jamie cranked up her speed, hoping to stay shy of burning up the rest of her clothes. But she wasn't gaining. Screw it. She accelerated toward him in an earth-blurring rush. Her uniform disappeared in flames. Ahead, the figure's clothing also ignited – a spark among the stars. She assumed it was just his clothing.

  She wasn't gaining nearly as fast as she had hoped. The figure angled upward, toward the stars. Only by zooming her vision to its max was she able to keep him in sight. The air thinned. Her natural breathing started to shut down. Damn, this person – Rodriquez? – was capable of spaceflight, too?

  Jamie pulled at him with her mind, felt a tenuous connection. Like hooking a big fish fifty yards away on a weak line. She started to reel him in –

  Something hit her from below. A punch in the chest and stomach - a massive shockwave from a silent explosion. For a second or two she heard only the muted hiss of air as the force swept her away. Only when her eyes snapped open did she realize she'd been unconscious. Someone hit her hard enough to knock her out?! It seemed unthinkable. But only, it seemed, because she didn't want to think it.

  She whirled around in search of her assailant. At first she saw nothing but clouds and blue water. Then a flash of movement caught her eye – a woman was hurtling up toward her, long black hair flying, close enough to see the fierce determination in her face. Jamie struck her with her mind, but other than a slight wobble, she seemed unaffected. Either Jamie was too weak or the woman was too strong.

  Her confidence sapped. Stoic resignation set in. What will be will be. She flew to meet the woman's charge.

  They collided. Jamie had no idea how fast – she doubted she was moving much more than one or two hundred miles per hour – but it felt like colliding with a Mac truck. Once again the skies grew grey and thin air whistled past her ears.

  When Jamie's head cleared, she saw no sign of the woman. Only a blue orb below. She guessed she was miles from their point of collision. It was humbling. And disturbing. Others out there could match her. Still, she was alive. And the woman had blindsided her. If Jamie had seen her first...

  She shook aside her ego and concentrated on clearing her head. She had failed to capture Rodriquez or whoever she'd been pursuing, but the battle could still be going on at the buildings. They might need her.

  She headed down, getting her bearings. It wasn't as easy as she would've thought, but by first identifying the west coast, then California, then southern California, she was able to home in on the sprawling metropolis of central Los Angeles and finally East Los Angeles. From there several bright fires guided her to her target.

  The building they'd attacked and three neighboring ones were lit up by fires on several floors. The central building looked like it had been hit by demolition balls or artillery fire – or maybe kicked by an angry giant with steel-tipped boots. Big chunks of it were missing. Smoke and flames spewed through the gaping holes.

  "Hello? Colonel Anderson?"

  She realized her comm mike and earpiece was missing. Along with most of her clothes. What little remained hung in charred tatters. So much for their "super-tough" uniforms made from the Starlite "miracle cloth."

  She circled the buildings. People were moving among the debris on the streets. A few muted shouts reached her ears. The usual police and fire sirens and paramedic vehicles were missing. This, she'd been told, was one of the "no government service" zones that had sprung up in so many big cities.

  Jamie scanned the area for signs of her team in the slowly brightening twilight. If she could find someone with a comm, she could connect with everyone. Assuming there was anyone. She was tempted to amplify her "megaphone voice" – she could easily shout loud enough to shatter glass and be heard for miles around – but she wasn't sure who else might hear and come running or flying.

  As she cruised over the streets, people started noticing her. "Lady forgot her clothes!" some teenage boy shouted.

  Oh God. Jamie launched herself high and away from the buildings. The world might be burning but that wouldn't stop a teenage boy from gawking at her. Damned if she was going to continue her search for her people in the nude. Some basic dignity befitted her new rank, after all.

  Her keen eyes spotted what appeared to be a boutique clothing store a few streets down. Too early to be open – and it probably wasn't even doing business – but still worth a try, even if she had to break in like one of thieves DARE was fighting.

  Happily, no one was in the alley behind the store. The backdoor was hanging ajar. She slipped inside.

  The retail area had been stripped bare, but in the back workroom a few fragments of dresses flopped over the drafting tables. She located a pair of shorts – short shorts, naturally – missing a zipper and a top button, but it fit okay and she managed to hold it together with safety pins. She strapped a band of spandex over her chest with more safety pins.

  Jamie checked herself out on a cracked full-length mirror on the wall. She looked like a crack whore walking Sunset Strip at 11:30 P.M. After a house fire.

  Back at the buildings, she flew low through the smoke-filled air looking for anyone who could've been her friends amidst the rubble. Suddenly she noticed a small group of people huddled together on a nearby vacant field. Their clothing was shredded, but she spotted blue and red shards, and they didn't appear to be Hispanic. Was the thin woman with the dark hair Tildie? The broad-shouldered guy squatting on the ground the "Hulk" Greg Horner? Jamie shot over to them.

  The shell-shocked group barely responded when she landed in their midst. The Hulk glowered at her. Jake Culler's eyes studied her with contempt. Six or seven team members lay on the ground, either unconscious or dead or blinking uncomprehendingly at her. Only Tilda and Jeremy seemed happy to see her.

  "Where did you run off to?" Jake Culler growled. His gaze traveled up and down her body. "Found time to do some shopping, I see."

  "At Bimbos Are Us," Hulk snickered.

  "Give her a freaking break!" Tildie snapped. "Does she look like she was shopping?" She pointed out the blackened streaks running across her face and down the exposed parts of her
body. "What happened, Jamie? Did you catch those people?"

  "Not exactly. I took down four of them, but the one I was trying to catch – I think he might've been Rodriquez - got away."

  "He out-flew you?" Tilda sounded shocked.

  "Well, he had some help. This woman..." Jamie drew in a breath, battling an unexpected humiliation. "She came out of nowhere – hit me with something."

  "Latina?" asked Jeremy. "Long black hair? Looks like a Mexican Xena Warrior Princess?"

  "Figures you'd watch that," said Greg Horner/Hulk.

  "Yeah." Jamie let out her breath slowly. "That's her."

  "She's the reason we're luxuriating here in this field," said Jeremy. "She blew the shit out of us and the building."

  "The worst of those people," Tilda added. "She has some kind of explosive power, plus she's incredibly tough. I hit her twice with electrical blasts and it barely phased her."

  "If I coulda got close enough, I woulda phased her plenty." Horner brandished a large fist.

  "I wouldn't count on that," said Jeremy.

  "I tried to put her to sleep," said Kyle Hunt. "I think it might've slowed her a little, but it was hard to tell. Then she took off like she was late for an appointment."

  "She went head to head with you?" Tildie was staring in sad-eyed disbelief at Jamie, as if her idol had fallen tragically from grace.

  "Literally. We rammed each other. When I came to she was gone."

  "She knocked you out?" Tilda's sad-eyed shock reached another level.

  Jamie shrugged. "No one decreed that I'm the toughest augmented person on the planet."

  "Hear, hear," snorted Jake Culler.

  "But she didn't kill you," said Jeremy. "Maybe you knocked her out, too."

  "I don't know. I didn't see her afterward." Jamie adjusted her spandex top self-consciously under Culler and Korner's unrelenting stares. "So is this everyone?"