The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything

by Phillion, Matthew

  "Does it bother anyone else that they're keeping future-Emily in the bottom of our old base?" Jane asked out loud. "It just . . . it strains logic for me."

  Annie shook her head, laughing just a bit.

  "The universe has a sense of humor, Jane," Annie said. "I've been in more timelines than I can remember. Traveled across diverse alternate realities. Places where things are backwards or strange or just completely different. And you know what I've found?"

  "That it would be a lot easier if you owned a Tardis?" Emily said.

  "No, that when a place is important, it's always important," Annie said. "There are locations in our world where significant things happen. Where the events that change everything always seem to occur. Doc told you, the Tower wasn't built on that spot by accident. The founders understood it was a nexus of the strange."

  "So what you're telling us is, if we ever find ourselves in another post-apocalyptic alternate future, the problem is probably in our basement," Emily said.

  "That's not exactly what I said, but it is annoyingly close," Annie said. "Metaphorically speaking."

  "Where else is like this?" Jane said.

  Annie smiled broadly.

  "You want a tour of the weird world? Let's get through this first and I'll take you on a road trip," she said.

  "I love road trips," Emily said.

  She caught Jane frowning.

  "What? I'm carry-on sized and also I can make hauling luggage easy. You want me on your road trips. I'm a boon." Emily listed to one side and bumped into the wall of the sewer tunnel, having trouble staying on her feet. She caught Jane staring and sneered. "What? I got something on my face?"

  "You're walking weird, Em," Jane said.

  "These boots pinch."

  "That's not what I meant," she said.

  "You feeling okay, Emily?" Solar asked.

  "I'm feeling fine. Y'know, I tell Jane she's a mother hen, but you guys are really proving me—"

  Emily was caught off mid-sentence by an uncontrollable urge to walk face first into the wall. "What the deuce!" she yelled. "I bit my lip!"

  Solar rushed to the wall, moving Emily away from the spot where her face collided with the masonry.

  "Just a wall," she said.

  "What do you say, Emily? Do you feel like you're being pulled in that direction?" Annie said.

  "Nope. I feel perfectly normal," Emily said, walking away, taking a hard ninety degree turn, and smacking face first once again. "How many times am I gonna bite my lip! I hate this wall!"

  "So move it out of your way," Jane said.

  Emily looked back at her and smiled.

  "Like in the prison?"

  "In the prison?" Solar said.

  "They got arrested a few months back," Annie said.

  "We got arrested in your timeline?" Solar said.

  "I wouldn't exactly say it was arrested," Jane said. "More like involuntary incarceration."

  "So arrested," Solar said.

  "Totes arrested," Emily said. "I got a bunch of ugly tattoos and did pushups in my cell."

  "We had a couch and a TV in our cell," Jane said.

  "But it wasn't high def," Emily said. "Practically hard time."

  "Move the wall, Emily," Jane said.

  "You're not the boss of me," Emily said. "I don't know why I have to keep reiterating this to everyone." Nevertheless, Emily held up her hands, forming a bubble of float and enveloping the wall in front of her.

  "Gentle, Emily," Jane said.

  "You think I'm not going to be gentle moving a wall that might be holding the ceiling up above us?"

  "I seem to recall you inventing a variation of the bubble of float called a wall of slam," Jane said.

  "Y'know, you incorrectly use something called a wall of slam one time and nobody forgives you for it," Emily said.

  "Because the wall of slam directly led to our incarceration, if you remember," she said.

  "Whatever. I'm moving this wall out of the way," she said.

  "With your mouth?" Annie said.

  "Et tu, Brute?" Emily said.

  "Oh don't try to make me feel bad by quoting Shakespeare," Annie said. "I've met him."

  Emily stopped everything and just stared at Annie, slack-jawed.

  "Shut. Up." Emily said.

  Annie pointed at herself. "Time traveler. Remember?"

  "If we survive this, can we make a list of people I'm allowed to meet?" Emily said.

  "That's a terrible idea," Jane said.

  "You get us through this, Emily, and I'll help you at least see, in person, one historical figure of your choice."

  "This is amazing," Emily said. "I am so meeting Simone de Beauvoir."

  "I. Wait. What?" Solar said.

  Jane just shrugged.

  "I can't say I saw that coming, but I don't usually see anything Em says coming anymore," Jane said.

  Emily once again prepared herself to move the wall, arms outstretched, crafting a very specifically sized bubble of float.

  "Maybe we'll get lucky and Jean-Paul Sartre will be there too," Emily said. "Two for one."

  She pulled at the empty air with her hands. The wall moved, sliding and buckling in a perfect sphere. Emily clenched her fists and dragged again, and a section of wall broke free and collapsed, leaving the area around it intact.

  "I'm holding you to that," Emily said.

  Annie threw her hands up. "A promise is a promise," she said.

  "Everyone," Solar said, her voice now tense.

  Jane followed her gaze through the makeshift tunnel that Emily just created and spied what her future self was staring at.

  "Oh no," she said. "This is so much worse than we imagined."

  Chapter 49:

  A crowded sky

  Billy skimmed in next to one of the giant robots, so close he could smell the vapors of mechanical heat escaping from it, like a car that had been running in the hot sun too long. The monstrosity stepped back, faster than seemed possible, yet couldn't pivot quickly enough to take a swing at him.

  Billy fired a blast of white energy at the robot's armpit simply to antagonize him.

  You are enjoying this too much, Dude said.

  I was dispatched here to be a human target, Billy thought. Everybody wants to hurt me when I'm having too much fun.

  I will not argue with that, Dude said. But do not be reckless.

  Billy dodged a gravity-gun blast easily, twisting in the air and swinging back around for a strafing run. He fired a string of bolts from his hands into the robot's face.

  And try to remember, because we have discussed this more times than I can count, robots do not have brains, Dude said. Hitting them in the head is not the same as doing so to a living creature. Their motor functions are usually controlled in the chest.

  I'm shooting a robot in the face with light-beams, and you're asking me to be logical about this? Billy thought. Cut me some slack, Dude.

  He risked a glance over at Jessie, who played a similar cat and mouse game with the other robot.

  She caught his look and tilted her chin at him. "Change partners?" she said into her earpiece.

  "Why not?" Billy said.

  They crossed paths mid-air so fast they almost broke the sound barrier, the atmosphere around them ripping at the molecular level.

  Jessie's robot, bulkier than the one Billy had been taunting, wore heavier armor plating, but responded in slower movements. It acted more aggressively, though, as if possessing a shorter temper when dealing with irritants like flying humans, and swatted at Billy with greater frequency and more accuracy.

  There's some fight in this one, Billy thought.

  It is a robot, Dude said. They only have as much fight in them as they are programmed to have.

  Tell that to Optimus Prime, Billy said.

  Ordinarily the pop references you and Emily throw around are lost on me, but that one I know, Dude said.

  Well, he is a classic, Billy thought.

  He caught a flash of move
ment out of the corner of his eye and saw Jessie land on the robot's shoulder and throw a barrage of blasts at the mechanical creature's ear, causing its huge metal arms to flailed helplessly, like a grown man trying to swat a bee.

  Billy glanced around at the barren landscape of the fallen city, looking at crumbling and forgotten buildings. He got an idea.

  "Hey Jessie?"

  "What, flyboy?"

  "This whole area has been evacuated, right?" Billy asked.

  What are you thinking about? Dude said.

  Hush, Billy thought. You can read my mind. Figure it out.

  "There hasn't been anyone living here in a long time," Jessie said. "Most people got out of the City years ago."

  "Good. I've got an idea," Billy said. "Cover me."

  "I don't 'cover' you," Jessie said. "Unless you're planning on doing something awesome?"

  "Everything I do is awesome," Billy said.

  "Fine," Jessie said.

  He flew straight up, blasting off like a rocket, turning in a wide arc above both robots as the pair of machines reached out for him clumsily. Swinging back around at full speed, he came roaring back, low to the ground, almost skimming the crumbling pavement.

  "You're about to do something really stupid, aren't you?" Jessie said.

  "No," Billy said.

  Yes, Dude said.

  When he came within range, Billy fired with both hands, pouring on a damaging explosion of white light into the back of the leaner robot's knee. Pistons and gyros broke loose, metal split and cracked, and the great lumbering machine began to topple.

  "Fall down go boom!" Jessie yelled, laughing.

  The robot, its body language almost human in its confusion, fell backward. Arms spinning comically, descent out of control, it collapsed into the broken frame of an old skyscraper. Concrete chunks and metal support materials fell, pounding and cracking its carapace.

  "I love my job," Billy said.

  Jessie laughed into her headset. "I honestly can't tell if you doing that means you're amazing or a complete and utter jerk for enjoying it so much," she said.

  "Can't I be both?"

  I would lean toward the latter, Dude said.

  "I think you can be both," Jessie said. "What do you want to do about the last one?"

  Billy turned his attention to the more heavyset robot, which had begun a lumbering approach toward them.

  "Who controls these things, anyway? They don't have pilots," Billy said. "Emily would be so disappointed they don't have pilots. She's always wanted a Gundam of her own."

  "We think they have remote pilots somewhere," Jessie said. "Never found them. Just as well, means we can destroy these things without feeling bad."

  The heavy robot's shoulder opened up and a sizeable cannon projected out and locked in, perched beside its head. Something looked vaguely familiar about the design.

  "Head's up, big gun's out now," Billy said. "We should be able to just—"

  Then the weapon fired, and Billy knew exactly where he'd seen it before. Red-yellow light tore across the sky, the air humming with alien energy. The last time he saw a weapon that used that kind of ammunition, it tore Dude entirely from his body.

  "Look out!" Billy said. "Don't let it hit you!"

  He dodged another blast of red-yellow energy, passing so close it twisted his stomach into knots. He could still feel the tearing sensation that he experienced when Dude's powers had been yanked from his very cells.

  "I got this. Our shields can take a hit from something that big, don't worry about it," Jessie said.

  She hasn't seen one of these weapons before, Billy thought.

  We have to destroy it, now, Dude said.

  On it, Billy thought.

  "Jessie, these aren't ordinary lasers, don't let it touch you!"

  "I said I've got this!" she said.

  Billy rocketed toward Jessie, trying to reach her in time, but as fast as he was, she buzzed through the sky like a jet fighter, moving too quickly to catch.

  One of the red-yellow blasts smashed into her. Billy saw her body in silhouette, black on gold, and then watched as the white-blue essence of her alien powers fell away like an inverted shadow, a glimmer of light.

  "Jane! We need backup! Jessie's down, they've got null guns. Jessie's been hit!" Billy screamed into his earpiece, hoping Jane or Solar were able to hear him. He watched Jessie's limp body fall from the sky. Not dying on my watch, Billy vowed, dodging another red-yellow burst of light and turning up the speed. Need a little help here Dude, he thought, and there it was, an influx of speed, power surging through him when he raced to catch Jessie as she fell.

  He grabbed hold of both of her wrists and arced back up into the sky. Got you, he thought, I got you, as he sensed another blast sizzle past his skin. Not again, Billy thought, not again not again not again . . .

  He saw the white light, that had just seconds before been powering Jessie's flight, flying in a circular pattern a few hundred feet above them.

  "What's he doing, Dude?" Billy said out loud.

  I believe I am looking for a new temporary host, Dude said. I don't know why I have not traveled to one of the others until Jessie's cells are able to reabsorb the powers.

  I'm sure either Kate is available, Billy thought, looking for a safe place to put Jessie down.

  She stirred in his grasp, then looked up. "What the hell just happened to me?" Jessie said. Her eyes opened wide. "Where is he? Where's my partner? Straylight? Talk to me! Where are you!"

  "It'll be okay. You're temporarily—whoa," Billy said, rocking unsteadily as he dodged another blast from the robot's shoulder-mounted cannon. "I gotta put you down. He'll come back, that gun just separates you for a bit."

  "Why do you know this?" Jessie yelled. Her voice cracked.

  Billy felt awful for her, knowing how strange, how alien, how lonely it was to be alone in your own head after all that time. He found a sturdy building and put Jessie down gently. Her feet gave out, so Billy helped her sit then prepared to fly.

  "Don't leave me here," Jessie said. "I—I feel sick."

  "It'll pass," Billy said. "Don't—don't panic, I'll be back."

  He could hear the robot's rumbling footsteps headed their way.

  "I can't stay here, I have to lead him away from you," Billy said. "I'll be back."

  "You don't need to—" Jessie said, but Billy was airborne again, doing his best as the ammo from the null gun approached faster and closer.

  It's like he's becoming a better marksman, Billy thought.

  Robots can learn, Dude said.

  Billy chanced another look at the sky where Dude's future self had been hovering. The alien was gone.

  "Looks like you went to find another victim," Billy said, and then, out of nowhere, he felt something slam into his body like a kick to the heart. I'm hit, he thought, I'm going to fall, I'm going to die . .

  Then the power crashed over him like a tidal wave. More strength than he'd ever possessed, his skin electric with it, every sense hitting him with painful clarity. I can see molecules moving, Billy thought. What happened?

  My future self chose the best host it could find, Dude said. We are no longer alone.

  Soon the memories hit him, and the entire world stopped making sense.

  Chapter 50:

  Photo album

  at the end of the world

  In a world full of destruction, the den of the White Shadow felt like a hallowed museum. Family portraits hung on the wall—not just of one family, but many. A shrine preserved, honoring what had been lost, a gallery of strangers guarding darkened hallways, a photo album marking the end of the world.

  Titus led the way, both old and young, in full-fledged werewolf forms, a pair of tracking hounds on a hunt. Kate had stopped the older one earlier, as he walked inside, her future self long gone.

  "She didn't want to be followed," she'd told the scarred werewolf.

  Whispering paused to look at the balcony where Kate's future self had stood
moments before and then turned to leave. He gazed at the now empty terrace with a silent, heartbreaking longing.

  "She'll do what she will. She always has," Whispering said, and he spoke no more of it.

  That definitive reaction, Whispering's silent resignation, haunted younger-Kate as they searched inside the Shadow's lair. At first it appeared undignified and pathetic, a lapdog anxiously waiting for its human to come home when everyone but the dog realized that would never happen. But there were those human eyes, the human eyes she knew and cared about, waiting for an answer that would never arrive from a person Kate herself hoped she'd never become. In this timeline, Titus becomes a hero and I become a ghost, she thought. What an awful thing to be. Both futures tragic and replete with pain.

  Titus, her Titus, pulled her aside within the house of mystery.

  "Where did she go?" he asked.

  "I don't know," Kate said, avoiding eye contact. Sometimes I swear all I do is avoid looking him in the eye, she thought. I don't know how we're even able to carry on a conversation.

  "Where do you think she went?" Titus asked. He leaned forward, in human form now, and Kate found herself thrown off by how delicate his features were, the alien contrast between his elfish human face and the monstrous maw of the werewolf.

  "How should I know?" Kate asked, growing impatient.

  Titus watched his future self prowl ahead, pushing open a darkened doorway with the blunt end of his spear.

  "Because you are her and she is you," Titus said. "They're not us, but yet they are. Where would you go?"

  "I'd go to find revenge, or I'd go to die," Kate said.

  Titus frowned.

  "You wanted the truth. She's looking for redemption, and you can only find redemption two ways."

  "There are other ways," Titus said.

  Always with the optimism, Kate thought. How is it that we're friends? We're friends because he loves you, she thought to herself. And he comes as close as you've ever gotten to caring deeply about anything in this world. Even in this terrible place, he enkindles hope enough for both of us. The monster hopes, the dancer despairs.