"I call assault team!" Emily said.
"You should hang back," Doc chimed in. "Be ready to jump in if either team needs you, but right now, our best secret is that they don't know we have you here. You're our ace."
"Aces do not hang out by themselves at the clubhouse," Emily said petulantly.
"Em," Jane said.
"Fine," Emily said. "But if I see any type of trouble, I'm bubble of floating my butt out there and causing some mayhem."
"And what about you, Doc?" younger-Jane said. "The main attack?"
Doc shook his head.
"I have my own mission," he said. "Lady Natasha's never been dealt with, has she?"
"No," Whispering said. "After you were murdered, she went off the grid. We never had any trouble with her again."
"If I know anything about the Lady, it's that she hates feeling like she's been outdone," Doc said. "The second she knows I'm here there'll be a problem. I'm going to take her out of the game."
Jane stomped her foot.
"You're not going to disappear again!" she said. "I won't allow it. We lost you once; we're not losing you again."
Doc smiled wide and laughed.
"The benefit of that year I was trapped with the Lady in those other dimensions, Jane, is that I've got a much better idea of what she's capable of. And I half-expected her to betray me the entire time. I have all sorts of new ways to deal with her now, especially if she doesn't even know I'm alive. I've devised a better plan this time."
"I think you're lying," Jane said.
"Jane, I lost a year with all of you in one timeline and let myself get killed in another. I'm done toying with Lady Natasha Grey. Trust me on this."
Jane didn't, but she stopped arguing.
Doc visibly relaxed and turned his attention to the future versions of the team.
"Did you happen to save any of my things when you had to leave the Tower?" he said.
"We did," Solar said. "Leto knew more about what your belongings were, so . . ."
"I'll show you what we still have," Leto said.
"Good," Doc said. "Because I'm betting the Lady hasn't become any weaker these past twenty years. I'm going to need a few things to make sure only one of us is knocked out of play this time."
Chapter 21:
Wizards and werewolves
Doc Silence walked with Leto through the dust-covered halls of the school, the elegant werewolf led him to a vacant room where she'd stored the magician's effects. He marveled at how unchanged she was. They knew each other long ago, before the Indestructibles, when Doc Silence wandered the world, trying to figure out how it worked and how he might make it better.
Leto seemed to sense Doc's reverie and glanced back over her shoulder. She'd reverted to her human form, her face alien and angular and breathtakingly beautiful in ways Doc could never quite articulate. Leto looked like something from before humans were human, when immortal beings roamed the earth instead.
He felt shabby next to her.
"You're thinking," she said.
"I'm always thinking," Doc said. "Were you able to get your warrior out of Titus? Did you find what you needed in him?"
Leto shrugged one lean, muscled shoulder.
"Did you?" she asked. "You're the one who stole him from us."
"I didn't steal him. I gave him a chance to be a part of the world, instead of apart from it."
"Like yourself. You could have been a shaman on the edge of the village too, if you'd only been able to take a step back from it," Leto said.
"You miss too much there," Doc said. "The shaman on the hill can see the whole countryside, but can't smell it. Can't feel the warmth of humanity on his skin."
"So you took him from us."
"I believed you were all dead, Leto," Doc said. "And you did a fine job of making sure the world thought the same thing."
Leto grinned. A smile like moonlight, soft and bright, but cool. "Perhaps I was curious what a Whispering would become if he lived among humans instead," she said.
"It couldn't have turned out to be too much of a disappointment for you," Doc said. "You're here by his side at the end of the world."
Leto stopped by a doorway, the room dazzled with natural light from the outside.
"Whatever choices we made, we got a hero out of it," she said. "When a hero calls you, you stand by his side."
"We got a lot of heroes from this group," Doc said.
"We did."
Doc entered the room to discover much of his old gear still in one piece. Old travel cases, a large box that looked like a treasure chest from a pirate movie, a violin case that never contained a violin, a hatbox decades old. Doc opened a leather chest, the smell of magic and mothballs flooded his nose. He peeked over his shoulder at Leto.
"It's good to see you again, my friend," Doc said.
Now Leto's smile grew warm.
"What would the world do without wizards and werewolves?" she said.
"And some of us are both," Doc said. "Did you help them pack this stuff? Someone who knew their way around my trinkets had to. Everything worth keeping is still here."
"Titus asked for my help," Leto said. "I didn't want to touch your things, but I thought, better to make sure we know where they are than to have them out in the world."
Doc nodded. He removed a thin, blackened necklace from the case, a ruby vial hanging from it, and draped it over his neck. A leather cuff studded with cloudy gray stones went onto his wrist. He lifted a simple red sash, ran it once across his fingers, then wrapped it around his waist.
"Do you really know how to stop the Lady?" Leto said. "It's been twenty years since your death. She may have become even more powerful than before."
Doc upended a stitched leather pouch into the palm of his hand. A half-dozen rings fell out. He sifted through them, selecting one made of dark metal with reddish wood embedded in the band, another with a dark blue jewel. He put one ring on each hand, then added another to his left hand, a wide silver band cut with runes.
"Here's the thing," Doc said, tucking a dirk with a bone handle into the sash around his waist. "I've always held back with her. I care about her. You know that. I've never considered her my enemy."
"Which no one in the magician community could ever quite understand," Leto said.
"You did though," Doc said.
"Werewolves have complicated relationships. Of course I understood," she said.
"Well, now there's no holding back," Doc said.
"What does that mean?" Leto asked.
"It means I know just as many secrets as Natasha does," Doc said. "And this time, I have no reason not to use them."
Chapter 22:
The Rescue
Billy and Solar waited above the darkened enemy base, watching for Whispering's team to get into position. The idea was for the werewolves to be ready to jump in and pull Broadstreet out of the facility while Billy and Solar made a big show of attacking, hoping that the guards would assume the two fliers were the real rescue team.
From this high up, Billy could see exactly how much destruction had befallen the City. Entire neighborhoods were gone. He tried not to think about what happened to his parents over the years in this timeline.
"Is the whole world like this?" Billy asked.
"Parts of it," Solar said. "Anywhere the people tried to take a stand, though, bad things happened. And worse, the more chaotic things got, the worse folks were to each other in general. People do terrible things during bad times."
"Well that's depressing," Billy said.
And unfortunately true, Dude said. This isn't unique to this timeline, Billy Case.
I know, Billy thought.
Don't let it discourage you, Dude said.
How do you stop it from discouraging you? Billy thought. I've only been at this a year or so and I'm already seeing that people are pretty much awful to each other all the time. You've been flying around inside other hosts for lifetimes. Don't you ever feel like it's a waste of tim
e?
Sometimes, Dude said, his tone different from usual, more conversational, less authoritarian. But there is always someone who deserves rescuing. There is always some good thing worth doing, despite all the bad.
And that keeps you going, Billy thought.
Yes, Dude said. I also have no body, so my activity options are limited.
Very funny, Dude, Billy thought.
"Talking to your alien?" Solar said, smiling, but not taking her eyes off the base below them.
"We're discussing the foibles of human nature," Billy said.
You didn't even know what foibles were until Emily used the word last week, Dude said. Don't get cute.
"Well . . . humans have a lot of foibles to discuss," Solar said. She gestured at the base. "You ready to roll?"
"Absolutely."
"Be careful," Solar said. "These people are used to dealing with super-powered fighters. They'll be ready for us, even if we should catch them off-guard."
"I'm always careful," Billy said.
You're never careful, Dude muttered.
Their enemies were holed up in a converted bank. Solar had suggested that they selected that particular building because it was more defensible than some of the other neighboring abandoned Waterfront District buildings, and the vaults inside could be used for any number of security purposes, including as a jail cell for Broadstreet—if he were still alive.
Solar and Billy began their attack run, both allowing their brightest powers—hers the yellow-gold of sunlight, his the bluish white energy signature Dude provided—to illuminate.
Solar struck first, crashing through the roof of the bank like a meteor and smashing concrete with a deafening bang. Billy followed, zapping enemy fighters with concussive blasts from his hands.
One of the men raised a weapon that looked like a cross between a rifle and a very big plastic squirt gun. He fired, and Billy instinctually dodged the blast, though he could barely see it—the weapon didn't fire a bullet, or even a laser, but something colorless and shimmering, like hot air flickering off blacktop.
Behind him, the bolt clipped an old telephone pole, knocking it over as if swatted by a giant hand.
"Up!" Solar yelled, and she and Billy launched back into the air, dodging more fire from their enemies.
"What are they firing at us?" Billy yelled.
"Gravity guns," Solar said. "Don't let them hit you. They're not lethal to people like us but—"
Before Solar could finish, Billy took a gravity gun blast to the chest, sending him spinning off into the sky. It felt like getting kicked by a large herd animal, he thought, though the protective shielding Dude's powers provided took the brunt of the blast. Billy caught his breath and flew back, catching up as Solar swooped and swerved to avoid weapon-fire.
From this vantage point, Billy saw Whispering's werewolf fighters climbing swiftly through the gaping hole in the ceiling Solar had created, tossing enemy soldiers aside and smashing their rifles. He witnessed one younger werewolf take a shot to the back and fall over. Alarmed, Billy rocketed down, hit the soldier with a hammering blow of white light, and put his hand on the dazed werewolf. One of the fallen wolf's comrades scooped him up over his shoulder to carry him to safety.
"We can't get the door open," Billy heard someone say. He followed the voices to find a pair of werewolves trying to get into a vault, thwarted by the massive metal door.
"Let me try," Billy said.
The wolves backed away, and Billy grabbed hold of the door's massive handle and pulled, drawing deep on the reserve power Dude gave him. The door creaked, then buckled, and hinges cracked and split. He pulled again and the entire wall started to crumble.
"Kid, Solar needs you outside," another werewolf said.
Billy glanced back at his handiwork and nodded. I might have a career option robbing banks when we get back to our timeline, he thought.
No, you really don't, Dude said, his voice disapproving.
Billy launched back into the sky, leaving the team of werewolves to finish pulling the door open. He saw Solar dodging blasts from a group of enemy fighters, and before they realized he was present, Billy knocked all three out with concussive shots. He joined Solar in the air where she continued to draw enemy fire.
Airborne again, Billy saw the wolves making a retreat, one carrying the injured werewolf. Whispering himself hauled the prone body of Broadstreet. Billy had never seen Titus running at full speed from the sky before, and watching his friend's future self and his allies tear through the city streets on those powerful monstrous legs amazed him. Inhumanly fast, they leapt over abandoned cars as if they were just pebbles in the road.
Then Billy heard a whooping noise and watched a group of vehicles take off after the pack.
"Hoverbikes?" Billy said.
"Gravity bikes," Solar said. "Running on the same technology the guns do."
"We taking them off Whispering's tail?" Billy said.
"With prejudice," Solar said, dive-bombing toward the street.
Solar flew alongside one of the vehicles and walloped it on the back-end with one flaming fist, sending the flying machine spinning out of control to crash into a vacant building.
Billy joined in, having less luck catching his target, shooting beaming blasts but having each shot dodged by the quick spider-like vehicle. Billy flew in closer, felt Dude kick up the power of their flight, and took aim. Another light strike crashed into the vehicle's rear engine, and the flying machine flipped and smashed into the street.
Solar caught a third, ripping it apart with her bare hands, pulling the pilot out and tossing him almost gently to the ground before pushing the gravity vehicle into the crumbling pavement. Billy swooped under a fourth. The hammering weight of its gravity-based engine push him back and almost knocked him out of the air. Alarmed, he fired with both hands, and the flying cart bounced and spun into the sky, out of control, exploding into the second-story windows of an old brick office building.
Ahead, Billy saw the final gravity bike closing in on the wolves. He tightened his fists and flew faster, hoping to catch up in time. Solar soared next to him, burning so bright he felt the heat of her powers against his skin through his protective force fields. He knew neither of them were going to make it in time. Twin guns dropped from the bottom of the vehicle and took aim at the werewolves.
That's when he saw old Titus Whispering turn around and face the machine.
The scarred version of Titus tossed the prone body to one of the other werewolves, almost casually. The younger wolf caught their ally in his arms like a baby and continued to run at top speed. Whispering changed direction and dashed back at the speeding machine, head on, massive claws gripping the pavement, crackling it like paper.
Whispering leapt into the air, slammed down onto the front of the bike, causing its chassis to drag along the ground with enough friction to spark. The guns ripped free, becoming airborne, useless. Whispering bounded off as the machine flipped entirely, crumpling in the street. The older wolf stomped up to the machine and dragged the pilot out with one huge clawed hand.
Billy, close enough now, heard the gravelly voice of his friend's future self filled with dark anger.
"This is our mercy. Tell your friends," Whispering said.
Billy saw blood start to stain the man's shirt as Whispering held him aloft.
"You tell them I had your heart mere inches from my claws and I let you live."
The pilot's eyes rolled back in his head, and Whispering dropped him like a broken toy on the ground.
Solar landed beside Billy. They both approached Whispering slowly. Even after all these years, Billy noted, nobody's quite sure if he's in control as a werewolf. Amazing.
"How did Broadstreet look?" the elder Solar said.
"We should get home," Whispering said, ignoring her question. Then he turned and bounded after his pack.
"What does that mean?" Billy said.
"You know him," Solar said, a sadness creeping into her
voice. "What does it mean when your Titus won't answer a question?"
Billy nodded, a knot in his stomach, and flew full speed back toward the makeshift base.
Chapter 23:
The Drop
Titus had never been to the City's dump before, and it didn't occur to him until the "stealth" team arrived there just how badly it reeked, even at the end of the world. "Nobody warns you that having super-senses means things that smell horrible stink a thousand times worse," he said, mostly to himself.
Kate didn't acknowledge the statement at all, walking on the outskirts of the group looking for trouble. Jessie, the new Straylight, snorted under her breath.
It was Finnigan, of course, who offered sympathy. "I wish I could tell you it gets easier, lad, but it never does," he said instead.
"So stay away from public bathrooms and garbage dumps is what you're telling me," Titus said.
"Among other things," Finnigan said.
Annie, walking beside Jane at the back of the group, hustled to catch up.
"Why the dump?" she asked.
"For the drop?" Finnigan said. "Because it's not far from the Waterfront District where our spy was located. And really, who looks for something in a dump?"
"Did he ever risk getting discovered, though?" Jane said. "Nobody really ever goes to a place like this on purpose either."
"He was good about not being followed," Jessie said. "But who knows? There's probably a trap waiting for us."
"There's always a trap," Titus said with a sigh.
He looked up to see Kate standing in silhouette on top of a pile of rusted cars. Like some sort of guardian statue, silent and motionless, watching the horizon, she pointed.
Titus followed her gesture.
They were looking for a specific car, an old hatchback of a particularly aggressive shade of green that had been designated as the drop point for information from Broadstreet. Titus wished he'd been more involved with the reporter back in their home timeline. Knowing his scent, even in a junkyard, would help him track the location of the car easier. Jessie and Finnigan had some idea where they were going, but the place was enormous and had fallen into even more chaos after fighting began in the City.
The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything Page 10