The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything

by Phillion, Matthew

  "You're just friends."

  "We're not just friends. I'd commit murder if anyone ever hurt him, don't get me wrong. He's my bro. I'd do anything for him. But the idea of us being a thing is hilarious. We're not even like brother and sister. We're buds. Bert and Ernie are more romantic than us."

  "I really hoped we were through with weird conversations today," Jane said.

  "Yeah no, we're not done by a long shot," Emily said. "So now that the myth that is Billy and Emily is out of the way . . . what are you thinking of the whole thing?"

  Jane threw her hands up.

  "Is it weird that in this timeline I clearly fell in love with Billy and in our timeline I have absolutely no romantic thoughts even remotely having to do with him?"

  "I don't think that's weird at all," Emily said. "I think I'm getting the hang of this timeline thing. Butterfly effect. One little thing changes, everything changes with it."

  "I like him," Jane said. "No, I love him, the same way I love you and Titus and Doc and even Kate, you're my family. I'd throw the moon into the sun for any one of you."

  "But you don't think of him as someone you'd like to snog."

  "So much so that the image actually just grossed me out a little bit," Jane said.

  "Plus you have Broadstreet," Emily said.

  "Him either," Jane said. "Em, I just don't think about it at all. It's not important to me. I have more significant things to freak myself out about."

  "Not even like, movie stars?"

  "I'm not a robot," Jane said. "Can I tell you something serious and not have you make fun of me?"

  "I make no promises," Emily said.

  "Come on."

  "I'll try."

  Jane sighed.

  "All I do is worry," Jane said. "That's it. I worry. All day. About you guys. About Doc. About the Children of the Elder Star. About catching Megalodon or about if I should have killed Plague or not. I worry about climate change. I worry about my parents, and if I'll be there if they need me when they get older."

  "Dude, you should try thinking about boys a little bit, it might help you out."

  "Em."

  "Or girls. Both. Whatever. That's cool too. Whatever you need to do."

  "Em, seriously."

  "This is me deflecting because the idea that you're awake at night worrying about all of us is making me sad and I don't want to process it."

  "It's okay," Jane said.

  "No, it's not," Emily said. "You're a teenager. You shouldn't be... whatever, married to your work."

  Jane smiled and put an arm around Emily, who headbutted her shoulder affectionately.

  "So you don't think the Billy thing is too weird?" Jane said.

  "Oh, completely," Emily said. "But only because I think he's not in your league. He's my best friend and even I think you're too good for him."

  "You really are the meanest friend in the world," Jane said.

  "It's my job, and you all love me for it," Emily said.

  Chapter 19:

  The Straylights

  A gray dawn rose on the outskirts of the City, and Billy Case was still awake. He hadn't slept all night, and at this point even Dude was annoyed with him.

  You realize the only time I rest is when you sleep, the alien said.

  Dude, I consider you a combination of my soul mate, my Jiminy Cricket, and my dad, Billy thought. I could really use a little bit of friendly consolation here.

  Heroes die, Billy Case, the alien said. Some day you'll die too. You can only hope that you do so with dignity and grace.

  I'd rather live cowardly forever, Billy thought.

  No you wouldn't, Dude said. I would never have picked you if you wanted that.

  "Tell me you slept last night," the new Straylight, Jessie, said as she walked into Billy's room uninvited. She was young, Billy noted, just a bit older than he had been when Dude first found him, and she swaggered not unlike himself. Dude must prefer people who fake an outward sense of confidence, Billy thought.

  "Not even a little bit," Billy said.

  "Because you're still freaking out about being dead," Jessie said.

  "Everyone keeps acting like I shouldn't be messed up by this," Billy said.

  Jessie shrugged in a way Billy found vaguely annoying until he realized he shrugged in a very similar way almost all the time.

  "Y'know, everyone talks about you like you were some kind of amazing hero," Jessie said. She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "I figured you'd be . . . cooler. Bigger. Tougher. Not such a wuss."

  "Tell you what, you travel through time and find out you died horribly and then we can talk," Billy said.

  It's strange, being this close to another host, Dude said.

  Stop talking, I'm sparring, Billy said.

  Ask her if it's really me she's hosting. I can't tell. My ability to read her Luminae isn't quite right.

  What do you mean, not quite right? Billy thought.

  I can't explain it. It's a connection we share. It's how we find each other. It doesn't feel normal.

  "You don't know if you died horribly. Nobody's told you how you died. Also it's rude to have a conversation with your symbiotic alien in front of a stranger," Jessie said.

  "We're hosting the same symbiotic alien. We're practically the same person," Billy said. "How did I die, anyway?"

  "You really want to know?" Jessie said.

  "'Want' is a bit of a stretch, but I'm curious."

  Jessie peered out the doorway into the hall to see if anyone else was around.

  "I'm sure I'm breaking some kind of time travel rule by telling you, but who cares," she said. "You died trying to put California back together again."

  "Well that sounds absolutely horrible."

  "Well, I didn't see it. I was just a kid," Jessie said. "But the way Jane tells it, you tried to fight against the force pulling California into the ocean, hoping to buy people enough time to evacuate. I've seen footage. You lit up the sky like a star."

  "Did I look cool?"

  Jessie snorted.

  "You really aren't very heroic, are you?" Jessie said. "But yeah, a human comet pushing against the coastline as helicopters were falling from the sky trying to get footage of you . . . it was pretty boss."

  "I don't get it," Billy said. "Wouldn't I have just fallen into the ocean? What killed me?"

  If she's telling the truth, I did, Dude said.

  "Oh, I can't wait to hear this explanation," Billy said.

  Jessie shot him a quizzical look.

  "Dude says he killed me himself."

  I did not say that, Dude said. Take it back and explain it to her before you frighten her.

  "Dude said I just scared you by saying that," Billy said.

  "He's saying the same thing inside my head. Also he says you were a really unpleasant young man before you grew up," Jessie said.

  "I was. I am," Billy said. "Dude, how'd you kill me?"

  The human physiology can only withstand so much of the power my species can share, Dude said. I am very careful how much I give you access to. Used carefully, I can extend your lifespan and keep you alive. But like an overworked engine, I can burn you out if I'm not careful. If I ever let you use too much of my power, you'd evaporate like parchment in a flame.

  "That is . . . horrifying," Billy said.

  "What?" Jessie said.

  "You don't want to know," Billy said.

  "I don't believe you," she said.

  "So did I save many people? In the end?"

  "In the end? I don't know. Probably not," Jessie said. "The other force, the thing tearing the earth apart, was too powerful. There was only so much you could do. But people remembered that, y'know? They remembered the man who burned away trying to save them. Straylight, the boy who became a star."

  "I always wanted to be a star," Billy said. "Just more, like, movie star, not an exploding cosmic anomaly."

  "It's not a bad way to go," Jessie said. "And anyway, a few hours later, I hear th
is weird voice talking in my head, and it's your alien, telling me he needs a new hero. And I said, hey, maybe I'll be brave enough to do something that stupid some day."

  "Sorry I let you down," Billy said. "I know I'm not what most people would want in a superhero."

  "You're new yet," Jessie said. "Got plenty of time to prove me wrong."

  They heard a knock at the door, and Titus, the younger version of the werewolf, let himself in.

  "What the hell happened to you?" Titus said, looking at Billy.

  "No beauty sleep," he said. "What's up?"

  "News from the frontlines," Titus said. "Old me and Solar want us all to meet down in the war room."

  "Well then," Billy said. "Let's go be heroes."

  Chapter 20:

  The spy

  Jane stood in front of a monitor hooked up to what her older self had explained was the remnants of Neal's computer system from the Tower. She was afraid to ask the elder Solar what happened to the Tower and why Neal was now a set of boxes plugged into an improvised power supply, but she figured that was a question for another time.

  Finnigan tinkered with the keyboard and cursed. "I never know how to work this bloody thing," he said.

  A younger werewolf, a dark-haired male in human form, pushed Finnigan out of the way and tapped away.

  The elder Solar paced back and forth in the front of the room, a large classroom that had been arranged as a makeshift communications suite. Whispering, the older Titus, sat calmly in a creaky office chair, still in full-on werewolf form, flanked by Leto, the elegant werewolf who seemed to be his advisor. The others trickled in after that. Kate took up residence in the back of the room, sulking. Emily sat near her, mocking the Dancer's sullen body language. Doc and Annie arrived, speaking in hushed tones. Finally Billy and his future counterpart, Jessie, walked in, followed by the Titus.

  "Is everybody here?" Solar said.

  "All those who will be," Whispering said, his voice rumbling.

  Solar gestured to the monitor.

  Jane mimicked Solar's body language, then both women leaned forward on the back of a chair to watch the screen flicker to life.

  Jane hardly recognized the face on camera when she saw it. The beard had grown in, lines around his eyes added gravity to his features, but she knew that face.

  "Broadstreet," Jane said.

  Solar looked at her.

  "You know Broadstreet in your timeline?" her older self asked.

  Jane nodded.

  "He's a reporter," she said. "A friend."

  "Well here, he's our man on the inside," Solar said. "He's infiltrated the enemy's organization, pretending to be one of them."

  "What do you mean by organization?" Billy asked. "I'm still fuzzy on this. I thought the bad guys were destroying the world. Do they have a great retirement package or something?"

  "Someone will always want to join in on destroying the world," Kate said quietly from the back of the room.

  Solar nodded.

  "Remember, when our enemies started, they were on our side," she said. "They went after the same enemies we did. They were better at it, in many ways. These were the people who destroyed the Children of the Elder Star."

  "They portrayed themselves as ruthless heroes," Whispering said. "A lot of people signed on. They had a global presence."

  "How can there still be followers now?" Titus said.

  "Belief is a hard thing to shake," Leto said softly.

  The heroes occupying the room instantly turned their attention to her. Jane wondered if she'd taught Whispering how to do that, or if it was some sort of trait werewolves develop as they grew older. "Many of these men and women dedicated their lives to this cause years ago. It's difficult to admit when you've made a mistake, that you've wasted your life."

  "So they just keep trying to see it through to the end?" Billy said.

  "Nihilism is easier than admitting you're wrong," Emily said.

  Attention spun to her now, but in a completely different tone—not with the reverence everyone showed Leto or Whispering, but rather shock at her response.

  "What?" Emily said.

  "Nihilism?" Billy said.

  "The rejection of all moralism, and the belief that life is meaningless," Emily said. "Seriously, Billy, did you not read any of the books I've given you this year?"

  "Regardless of why they're still working with the enemy organization, we have a situation," Solar said. "Jon Broadstreet was able to get a message out to us this morning. Neal has only now been able to decode it. Neal?"

  "Designation: Solar. There are two of you present in this room. How would you like me to address you?"

  Jane smiled at the tone of Neal's voice. Twenty years into the future and the AI sounded exactly the same.

  "It doesn't matter, Neal. Call her Jane for now. But play the video," Solar said.

  Broadstreet's image came to life.

  ". . . key information on the leadership of the enemy," Broadstreet said. ". . . finally got a name for you. Details on their power source. Need you to retrieve the information from the Jupiter dead drop . . . "

  "Pause it," Solar said. She turned to Doc and Jane. "All these years, the leaders of this group have been a mystery to us. We've never seen them in public. They work through envoys who are given only enough information to complete the tasks assigned to them. We know there's a core cadre at the top, but who they are and what their motivations are have been entirely concealed. It's remarkable. Keep playing, Neal."

  ". . . definitely think they're onto me," Broadstreet said. "I'm stationed . . . the Waterfront District outpost. Going to try to extricate myself within the next 12 hours, but if you don't hear from me, good luck. Do not send extraction team, not worth the fallout. Please make the dead drop your priority."

  "Pause it, Neal," Solar said. "When did we receive this message?"

  "Four hours ago," the young werewolf at the monitor said.

  "He could already be dead," Jane said.

  "Neal, call up the satellite view of the Waterfront District. See if there's been any combat in the past four hours," Solar said.

  "We're not going to let him die out there," Jane said.

  "We absolutely are not," Solar said.

  Whispering stood up slowly, taking command of the room.

  "I don't want to sacrifice Broadstreet any more than you do, but he's right. The information at the dead drop takes priority," the older werewolf said. "We can't risk losing that intel."

  "You're going to lose it anyway if he's captured, right?" younger-Titus said. "Won't they be able to find out where the drop is?"

  Titus's and Jane's older selves exchanged a grim look.

  "So these guys who used to be considered heroes torture people?" Billy said. "I'm feeling so much better about every bad decision I've ever made in comparison to this."

  "Sentimentality or not, you may have to rescue your insider," Annie said, finally joining the conversation.

  Jane noticed that the time traveler steered clear of participating in decision-making if she could, and wondered if Annie did so to avoid having too much influence on the events in the timeline. It would make sense for her to make that her habit, even if in this case it was entirely Annie's fault they were trying to change the course of the timeline at all.

  "You've basically doubled your superhero numbers in the past 24 hours, y'know," Emily said. "Mathematically, you could do, like, both. Things. At once. Am I wrong?"

  Solar smiled. "You're absolutely right," she said.

  "Two teams," Jane said.

  "How do you want to do this?" Solar said.

  "You're going to want to make a show of rescuing Broadstreet," Kate said.

  Kate's voice startled Jane. Dancer had been silent so far. "Even if you fail to rescue him, you want it to look like he's the mission. They may not know about your dead drop, but they probably know you had a man inside their organization. If they think he's got the information you need, they'll not go looking for the drop
and devote their forces to stopping your rescue."

  "You're a cold one, lass," Finnigan said, sounding halfway between impressed and terrified of Kate.

  "She's right," younger and older-Titus said simultaneously. The boy and the scarred werewolf exchanged glances; the older wolf nodded to his younger self to continue. "Send the big guns to rescue Broadstreet, and send a stealth team to get the drop."

  "But we don't want to risk running into trouble if they've already found the drop," Whispering said. "We'll want enough heavy hitters to go along in case there's trouble."

  "Do we want to risk them finding out you've got body doubles now?" Emily said.

  "No," Whispering said. "You're right. . . . Solar?"

  "I'll lead the team to rescue Broadstreet," Solar said.

  "And I'll bring in my werewolves for a ground assault," Whispering said. "Put on a show of it."

  "I want to go with you on the rescue," Jane said. "I can be more help there."

  "And we'll give our secret away if we're both there," Solar said. "You should go with the stealth team to back them up in case they need a big gun to step up."

  "Titus and Kate are used to quiet operations," younger-Jane said. "They can lead the drop run."

  "Finnigan, go with them as a guide. You know the area," Whispering said. The ginger wolf nodded. "Annie, will you go with them as well?"

  "Of course," Annie said.

  Billy and Jessie exchanged looks, then shrugged.

  Jane found their similar body language more alarming than she expected.

  "I'd like to go on the main assault so I can get a feel for what we'll be fighting," Billy said. "Dude tells me that if they're using sensors and the like to monitor us, my energy signature and Jessie's will be almost identical. They won't know until the fight's over that we're different."

  "Unless they're using their eyes, is all," Jessie said.

  "That works," Solar said. "And Jessie, you know our dead drop system, you'll be a bigger help with the stealth team. But please try to be stealthy this time."

  "I'm always stealthy," she said.

  "See? We're always stealthy," Billy said.

  Jane ran a frustrated hand through her hair.

  "What about Emily and Doc?" she said.