The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything

by Phillion, Matthew

  "Hey, Finnigan," Titus said, calling the older werewolf over.

  "Yeah, kid."

  "I have to ask—in the future, do I lose the ability to revert to human form?" he said. "Did something happen? We haven't seen . . . me . . . other than as a werewolf so far. It's freaking me out."

  "You haven't figured that out yet, lad?" Finnigan said. He looked up to where the Dancer had been standing, but she'd moved on.

  Titus frowned.

  "Maybe I was hoping for something less dramatic."

  Finnigan made a huffing sound, not quite a laugh, and not meant to be humorous.

  "The fighting changed you," Finnigan said. "We lost people. Good people, good werewolves. There's been a lot of tragedy the past two decades. Recent years, as we started to lose, there's been even more."

  "We haven't seen future-Kate talk to anyone," Titus said.

  "That's because future-Kate barely speaks to anyone," Finnigan said. "And it's been a long time since she stopped conversing with your future self."

  Titus kicked a hunk of detritus at his feet.

  "I think . . ." Finnigan said. "I think at first he was just using it as a disguise. What do you see when you look at him?"

  "I see a monster."

  "Right. Just a big beast covered in scars. But you and I know how to read emotions in other wolves. Regular people don't. They simply see monsters."

  "And so he's wearing the wolf as a mask?" Titus said.

  "Yeah. Your girl just stopped talking to anyone, shut the whole world out. And you know by then, after everything we'd lost, he needed her. She was his other half. Something that helped the world make sense."

  Titus grimaced and tried to locate the Dancer out among the ruins of the junkyard, but didn't see her anywhere.

  "I don't like it," Titus said.

  "Why's that?" the older wolf said.

  "I'd . . . like to think I'm better than that. That I wouldn't let having my heart broken make me feel like I had to hide myself behind a monster's mask."

  Finnigan grinned widely.

  "What?" Titus asked.

  "Keep that," he said.

  "Keep what?"

  "Keep that truth in your heart, Titus," Finnigan said. "Because it is okay to love, and it is okay to feel loss, but don't ever let it consume you. Don't ever let sadness steal you from the world."

  "I don't want to lose her," Titus said.

  "Of course."

  "But I don't want to lose myself either."

  "And that's okay," Finnigan said.

  Titus started at the red-headed werewolf, then shook his head.

  "I miss you, Finnigan. You know I never saw you again, after I left to help my friends."

  "Am I dead?"

  "No. Not that I know of."

  "Then you better think about rectifying that when you get home. I'm sure I'm very disappointed," Finnigan said.

  They both laughed, and Titus realized how long it had been since he left the others there in the forest so far north of the border, how he'd not found them yet, and wondered if perhaps he was just meant to never see any of his small pack again. And then Finnigan put a hand gently on his shoulder.

  "I'll tell you true, lad, I miss you too," he said. "Hasn't been the same since everything went wrong. Made you a stronger warrior, sure, but . . . I miss my friend. We were great friends before the sadness buried you."

  Titus nodded, put his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt. He tossed a glance over his shoulder and saw Jane staring at him, eyes wide and haunted. He sometimes forgot she had superhuman hearing that was almost as strong as his own. Had she heard every word? Probably. But it didn't bother him. There was no one other than Jane—not even Kate—Titus knew who could be trusted with a story like this. She simply had no malice in her heart.

  Then he caught a look of shock on Jane's face and turned to see Kate running at them at full speed.

  "You find it?" Titus said.

  "You'll want to see this," Kate said.

  The group retraced her path to find the car, definitely in an unmistakable shade of green, waiting for them, untouched. But it was also clear looking at the ground that others had been this way. Varied footprints in the grimy mud hinted that before or after Broadstreet made the drop, another group had visited. Had they already retrieved the data Broadstreet left for them? Or had they set up a ruse long before the reporter had arrived?

  "It's got to be a trap," Kate said. "I can't tell how long ago they were here, but someone was looking for the drop."

  "Okay," Jane said. "I'll go for the car."

  "No," Kate said. You hang back. If it's booby-trapped you need to be ready to defend me."

  "Defend you?"

  "Everyone else here has powers. I'll go to the car so the rest of you can be prepared to act," Kate said.

  "I'll walk with you," Annie said.

  "Why?" Kate said.

  "Because I can control time, you grumpy little thing," Annie said. "I might be able to buy us a few seconds if we need it."

  The time-traveler and the vigilante tried to stare each other down, but finally Kate relented and nodded. They approached the car together. Finnigan and Titus transformed into their werewolf forms without a sound. Nearby, Jane and Jessie started to power up.

  Kate popped the trunk.

  Nothing happened.

  She reached inside while Annie stood watch.

  When Kate stood up, she held in her hand a small data drive, not unlike the sort of basic thumb drive Titus was used to seeing. She raised it slowly.

  Everyone relaxed.

  Then the wreckage on either side of the green car shifted, and, like something out of a science fiction movie, two mechanical spiders the size of delivery vans stood up and grasped for Kate and Annie.

  Everything unfolded in a blur of slowed time and explosive violence. The robots, spindle-legged and ugly, erupted in motion. Annie threw out her arms instinctively, and Titus could feel the way she tugged on time, somewhere between an undertow and outright vertigo. Kate hunched into an attack position, but before she could move, Jane burst into the sky, crashing through the heart of one of the robots in a streak of flame and screeching metal.

  Titus and Finnigan launched into motion, not moving to attack but rather to grab hold of their two vulnerable companions below the monstrous robots. Titus scooped Kate up in one arm, felt her tense, sensed her fury at not being allowed to fight. I'll apologize later, Titus thought, but she has the data drive, she doesn't get to play hero this time. Finnigan did the same for Annie, both werewolves shielding their allies with their own bodies, knowing their supernatural healing would better be able to take a slash from those long, spidery, clawed legs.

  The sky lit up. Titus recognized the unique glow of a Straylight blast, and Jessie was in the air, fighting alongside Jane, the two women dismantling the multi-legged robots easily.

  Titus put Kate down only to feel her kick off him, using his now-massive chest as a springboard. He watched as she crashed into the first of a half-dozen armed men, all wearing mottled gray uniforms. Kate lashed out, kicking one in the face, taking the futuristic rifle out of his hand and using it to smash a second man on the neck. Titus joined in, not quite sure how Kate already recognized these men as their enemy but trusting her instinct, and used his supernatural strength to toss the men around like ragdolls. Finnigan was beside him seconds later, and the three made short work of the ambush, leaving the uniformed men battered on the ground.

  Kate held one, still conscious, by the shirt.

  "How did you know we were coming?" she said.

  The man hesitated, then stuttered and stumbled over his own words.

  Kate viciously slammed him into the muddy ground.

  Jane landed between Kate and Titus and looked up at the sky. "We should get out of here before reinforcements arrive," she said.

  "We can take them!" Jessie said. "I want to fight."

  Annie waved them off.

  "Can and should aren't the sam
e. We got what we came for."

  "And trust me," Finnigan said, reverting to his human form. "Sometimes the things they send next are a lot more dangerous than the first round."

  Chapter 24:

  Victory and loss

  I didn't travel all the way into the future to hang out in a school," Emily said. Leto, was waiting by the front door for their friends and allies to return, so Emily followed her, mostly because Old and Even Meaner Kate was the only other real option for company at that moment and Emily wanted none of that noise.

  So they stood in the front foyer of the community college building, Leto gazing at the horizon like she could hear the others coming, or perhaps she possessed a psychic bond or something, Emily couldn't be sure. What she did know was that she was bored and there was a dramatic lack of anything to do here, including ways to get into trouble. No Internet, no TV, nobody to taunt—not for lack of trying, as she'd been pestering Leto for hours—no music, nothing.

  "Do you play chess?" Emily asked, finally. She'd reached that point. Chess with strangers. Better than nothing, she supposed.

  Leto held up a hand. Emily noticed how long the werewolf's fingers were in her human form. And then, of course, she couldn't stop looking at them. Don't look at her weird long fingers, Emily told herself. Don't do it. Don't stare. Stop. Stop looking.

  "So you have really long fingers," Emily blurted out.

  "The others are close," Leto said, ignoring her.

  The first to return were the information retrieval team, approaching on foot to be inconspicuous. They had clearly encountered trouble based on the burn marks and tears on their costumes, but everyone was walking, and nobody seemed hurt.

  "How'd it go?" Emily asked.

  "Giant robot spiders," Titus said, flanked by Finnigan and sounding a little winded.

  "Robot spiders?" Emily asked.

  "Seriously," Jessie, the replacement Billy, said.

  Emily liked and hated the new girl at the same time. Nobody should take Billy's place, she thought, but hey, if someone has to take over as Straylight, Jessie actually seemed like she might be fun.

  "I love giant robot spiders," Emily said. "Why'd you leave me behind? This might be the only time in my entire life I get to see them and you've ruined it."

  Jane—our Jane, Emily thought, the younger—brought up the rear and shook her head.

  "I have a terrible feeling we're going to see more of those creatures at some point," Jane said. "We handled them okay though."

  "Too okay," Finnigan said.

  "That fight was over exceedingly fast," Titus agreed. "Have you fought those things before?"

  "The robots they use are always different," Jessie said. "We think they've got someone who tinkers with them, because they change after every fight, improve a little bit, get better to take us on."

  "And those were not up to the caliber of the last few versions," Finnigan said.

  "So what do you think?" Jane asked. "That they were a distraction?"

  "We'll know soon enough," Leto said, returning to the front door again. "The others are coming. Something's wrong."

  Jane and Jessie bolted out the door immediately, rushing to meet the incoming team.

  Emily looked around, then punched Titus in the arm.

  "Where's Kate?"

  Titus turned to Finnigan, back to Emily, then almost started for the door. He stopped, though, when the others arrived, and realized not everyone was able to walk in under their own power.

  Finnigan hustled to help a wounded werewolf, now transformed to human form, carry one of their own in.

  "He'll live," the newcomer said about the fallen comrade. "Help me get him to a bed."

  Older-Titus walked in next, side by side with Solar, who held another man in her arms. His body, limp and ragged, was covered in old bloodstains. She hurried past Emily, heading toward the room the group used as a medical area.

  Titus put a hand on Emily's shoulder.

  "I've got to go find Kate. Stay put, keep an eye out," he said.

  "You're not the boss of—" she started to say, but Titus left at a full run. "Me."

  Billy sauntered in next. He smiled at Emily, his eyes wild and tired.

  "Bad things, Em."

  "Bad things?"

  Billy gestured to where Solar had scampered off.

  "I think we're too late," he said. "Did the others get what they needed?"

  "They got something," Emily said. "No idea what it is."

  "Well, let's hope this was worth it," Billy said.

  Their Jane grabbed both Billy and Emily by the arm and pulled them along. "Broadstreet's dying," she said.

  Chapter 25:

  Sacrifice

  The room was quiet as their ally lay slowly dying.

  Jane watched Solar hold the man's hand. He breathed raggedly. She looked over poor Broadstreet's body, the cuts and burn marks. He'd been tortured extensively. Unspeakable injuries marred his face. Still, he smiled at Solar who was holding his hand.

  "Did you get the package?" Broadstreet said, his voice a harsh rasp.

  "The others did," Jane heard herself say. "You did well, Jon."

  "I just hope . . ."

  "It will help, Jon. And you're going to be here to see that it does," Solar said.

  "No I won't," he said.

  Broadstreet smiled. It was pained, but also radiant, a smile of true happiness. Jane felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. Annie. The pink-haired woman gripped the Jane of the past tightly as they both watched the future unfold before them.

  "I realize what they did to me, and I know you won't be able to fix it," Broadstreet said. "But I believe you won't let it go to waste. That's why I did all of this for you, Solar. You'll do what needs to be done."

  "We don't tolerate pessimism around here," Solar said. "Leto's going to fix you up."

  Jane found herself involuntarily walking forward; Annie's grip on her shoulder loosened and fell away. She picked up Broadstreet's other hand, Solar looked on. The flickering light from a swaying, old fixture beamed across his forehead and cheeks. Broadstreet's face was older than the one she remembered, lined with more worries, his beard gray-flecked, making him appear so much older than he was.

  "I remember that face," he said softly. "That's the one you wore when I first met you."

  "We're going to save this world, Jon," Jane said.

  "Now I know I'm dying," Broadstreet said. He tried to force a smile. "You know, once upon a time I was in love with you?"

  Jane's eyes flicked to her future self, who was staring right back at her, her mouth a stoic, pale line.

  "I didn't know that," Jane said.

  Solar patted Broadstreet's arm. "But I did," she said.

  "It didn't matter in the end," Broadstreet said. "It was only a little thing. Schoolboy crush. We were young and the world wasn't dying. That isn't why I did this though."

  "I know," both Janes said together.

  "I just hoped to leave the world better than I found it," Broadstreet said. "Just wanted to help people who could possibly make that happen. That's not a bad life, is it?"

  Jane's eyes welled up. You don't know this man, she thought, you don't know this future, you know nothing about him. He's a branch on the tree of the life of a boy you barely know in a timeline you may never return to. He's a stranger.

  "That's the best life anyone could strive for," she said, instead.

  Jane held this Broadstreet's hand, realizing she'd never even shaken hands with the young man she knew in her own timeline. Human beings can be so stupidly brave when we have to be, she thought. For reasons we never really understand.

  "You're a good man, Jon Broadstreet," Jane heard Solar say.

  He turned his head to her, the golden goddess Jane would someday become, and he smiled again, as if looking for the last time into the sun.

  His fingers loosened in hers, and Jane knew he was gone. She knew, she knew in her heart, that somewhere else, in another time, he would live anoth
er life, that this would never happen, but this man now lay dead on a table in front of her, and she felt her heart break just a little, another life she couldn't save, another end that should have been better. And she could see, across the table, the same emotions tearing her future self apart.

  Leto saved them. The strange woman gently took Broadstreet's hand away from them both each in turn, placed an old blanket over his body, and clicked off the overhead light. Somehow, in the darkened room, it felt less real.

  "I don't want to lose any more friends," Solar said. "I'm so tired of losing friends."

  "Then let's see what his life gave us," Jane said.

  Chapter 26:

  Never become that

  Kate found a vantage point across the dust-covered street so that she could watch the community college building in peace. She climbed up barricaded windows to the second story of an old storefront where once upon a time someone had lived over their own convenience store. The windows all smashed now, the food now spoiled or stolen. Kate hunched down near the ledge and listened. She closed her eyes, taking in all the sounds around her, listening for the voices of her allies, listening to the wind.

  Kate wondered what it would be like without sight.

  She heard Titus coming before she saw him. The boy, for all his predatory abilities when he transformed, was hopelessly clumsy as a human. He couldn't walk softly if his life depended on it but located her easily, though, which he always did. The dangers of being close friends with a tracker. They'll know where you are.

  Titus didn't ask if she was okay. He never did that anymore, and Kate understood it was because she never answered, never gave him a verbal insight into her mood or her emotions, and so he'd simply stopped asking and relied on his superhuman senses to detect her mood. Titus admitted as much to her, that he could hear her heartbeat, could determine by the speed of her breathing if she was upset. It would be difficult to lie to him. In some ways it made Kate furious, yet in others, it was comforting to know there was at least one person in the world she shouldn't bother wearing her mask around.