“This isn’t what happened,” she said.
“Oh, but it is,” said M’Lak. “Now you know what you need to do, Shift. You know that you have to finish the job. Finish what you started with Wraith and McCabe all those years ago.”
“Dom…? Dr. McCabe…?”
Erin fell to her knees, the memories flooding back. She recalled the shackles opening and M’Lak leading her from the cell. Showing her where the exit was. He gave her a final message. And Erin did as she was ordered.
McCabe was the first. He was so surprised when her tentacles wrapped around his throat and choked the life from his body. Then came Wraith. His neck, she snapped. And when she did it, she wore Anita’s face.
Erin’s eyes widened. “My god…all this time…it was me… Not Anita…me…”
She looked up and saw M’Lak standing over her. He smiled down at her and extended a hand. Erin cautiously took it and allowed him to help her stand. He stared at her, his eyes continuing to burn.
“Yes, Erin. It was you. Conditioning so deep, not even the Analyst could detect it. You’ve been my mole in Vanguard ever since. I’ve kept you dormant in the intervening years, but recent events saw it necessary to activate your conditioning once more.”
Erin furiously shook her head. “No! I won’t do it! Not again!”
“You already have. How do you think we knew of your planned assault on Proximo? Of Ellis’ spying? Or the location of the Icarus? Or about Chronos? You provided the answers, Erin. You are my mole.”
Erin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When the elevator reached its destination and the doors opened, Erin stepped out. But now, she wore the form of Jim Ellis.
She proceeded through the storage facility at the lowest level of the Icarus. Towards a stasis pod that sat motionless in the center of the room. Erin stared through the clear energy field and saw the sleek, featureless face of the being called the Codex. There was something in it that she felt a connection to. Either because this thing once housed her friend or because they were both pawns of M’Lak.
Inside her mind, Erin screamed out. Tried everything to stop herself from what she was about to do. But the effort was completely useless. It was like she was outside herself, watching someone else perform these actions.
The first step was to open the pod. A control panel on the side enabled her to do that. The access codes were present inside her mind, provided by her puppet-master. Erin entered the codes and the energy field lowered.
But the Codex remained still. Erin circled around the pod until once more, she stood facing it. She opened her mouth—or rather, Jim Ellis did. And when she spoke, it was in a language she had never known before.
The Kotharian speech. The Codex would only be activated when M’Lak was ready. So only one who understood the secret words of the Kotharian race would be able to awaken the beast.
Erin spoke those words, giving a long speech in a hushed whisper. The tone had to be exactly right. The words felt wrong sliding off her tongue—unnatural. But they apparently were doing the job.
The Codex’s fingers twitched. Just slightly. Then again, even more. The legs moved, one rising up slowly. The Codex stuck his foot out of the stasis pod and set it down on the ground, testing the strength. When he was confident, he stepped out with his other foot, emerging completely from the pod.
Even while she was in Jim’s form, Erin was still a good deal shorter than the Codex. The construct towered over her and she could only assume he was staring down at her. But without eyes, it was hard to tell for certain.
The Codex’s arms changed. On his left, the fingers merged into the hand and then the rest of the appendage as the arm formed into a giant blade. His right fingers spread apart and tensed, elongating and tapering off into razor-sharp talons.
Both weapons were raised and poised to strike. The Codex stared into Erin’s face, as if it would kill her right then and there. Except he didn’t—something held him back from following through on his mission.
His hands changed again, returning to their default state. The Codex turned away from Erin and walked towards the elevator. He clasped his hands together and they merged into a thin object that could easily slide through the place where the doors met. Both hands shifted again and hooked onto the edges of the doors. The Codex pulled his arms apart and the doors struggled against his strength.
Eventually they gave, the doors opening wide for him. The Codex stepped into the elevator and looked up at the ceiling. He crouched, an aura of energy forming under his feet. That same energy shot him right through the ceiling and up the elevator shaft.
Erin walked towards the stairwell and entered it, quietly climbing the stairs. When she reached the next level, she approached the door and saw an apparition of M’Lak standing and staring at her. He had a grim smile on his face.
“Well done, Erin. Well done indeed.”
The apparition vanished. Erin blinked, her body returning to its normal state. And she gasped. She had no memory of what had just happened, but there was no denying the sense of dread she felt in the pit of her stomach.
CHAPTER 6
Chronos laughed. And that laugh drew Cassie away from her workstation, moving over to the bench where he was busy with his armor. She stared at him through the thick lenses of her glasses, waiting impatiently for him to say what caused that reaction.
“Well?”
“I think I’ve got it figured out!” He stood from the table and the components of the armor rose with him, affixing themselves to his body. “But there’s really only one way to find out, isn’t there?”
Cassie took a step back, but her eyes never wavered from Chronos’ form. Swirling, blue energy surrounded every inch of his body, appearing around him in waves. And then, he vanished.
She blinked. “Chronos…?”
Almost as soon as she called his name, he reappeared in a flash of light. Chronos reached up and removed his helmet, smiling at her, his eyes wide with excitement. “Did you see it?”
“I don’t get it,” said Cassie. “All you did was teleport. We’ve got that technology already.”
Chronos smirked. “No, I didn’t teleport. I jumped a few seconds into the future.”
Cassie stood and approached the time-traveller. She studied the armor from head to toe and a smile began to grow on her lips. “You did it!”
“I think so.”
“Does this mean you can jump back in time, too? Like, twenty years back?”
“Not yet, the circuits still need to build up more of a charge with the tachyon generator. Once that’s ready though, I’ll be able to jump as far back—or forward—as I like. Then I can finally get back to my mission.”
“This is amazing!” Cassie started to run back to her workstation. “We have to contact the others, let them know that—”
Her voice was quickly drowned out by the sound of a klaxon. Cassie turned to look at Chronos, her face drained of color. She ran to the console and sat in front of it, entering commands as fast as her fingers could move to bring up the source.
“What is it?” asked Chronos as he came up behind her. “Did Cerberus find us again?”
“No…” she mumbled. “It’s from inside.”
Cassie brought up the surveillance feed from the lower levels. Both her and Chronos watched on the screen as the Codex moved from the stasis pod and broke through the elevator.
“Oh my god… It’s out…”
At those words, a deafening, thunderous sound rang through the workshop. Both Chronos and Cassie were thrown from her workstation by the force. They hit the ground and quickly looked to the source.
A cloud of dust hung in the air. Flames had formed from some of the destroyed equipment and the automated fire suppression system activated, sprinklers drenching the entire room in water.
Chronos rose to his feet and saw the water running down the form of a figure near a giant hole in the floor. The featureless face was like a mirror that Chronos could see his own reflectio
n in.
“Cassie…” Chronos held out his hand and the gauntlet fed his baton into it. In a half-second, it telescoped to its staff-length and the tip crackled with orange energy. “Call the others.”
Cassie scrambled to her feet to get back to her workstation. The Codex lunged for her, but Chronos blasted him with the staff. The Codex turned to face the more immediate threat and charged into him.
The Codex’s strength was unreal, powerful enough that he could slam Chronos right through the workshop’s wall. They crashed into the infirmary in the next room and Chronos was thrown across, landing on one of the gurneys. The doctors and nurses all backed away, watching in shock and horror.
Chronos looked at them and shouted, “Get out!”
They made a dash for the door. Before the Codex could make any move on them, Chronos lifted one of the gurneys and threw it at his enemy. The Codex just looked up at it, his face splitting open at the middle and a burst of crimson energy firing from the center. The mattress and sheets erupted in flames and fell to the ground.
Chronos raised his staff and fired several blasts from the tip. As the energy projectiles reached their target, the Codex’s body shifted around them, forming holes so they could harmlessly pass through him. He reached out his arm and it extended across the distance between the two.
The Codex’s fingers wrapped around Chronos’ staff. Chronos took hold of his weapon with both hands and braced his feet, engaged in a tug-of-war with this creature. But his strength was too great and Chronos nearly tumbled forward as the staff was torn from his hands.
When the Codex’s arm retracted completely, he studied the staff in curiosity. Then he tossed it aside, evidently feeling like it wasn’t of any value to him. The Codex extended his arms once more, and streams of electricity arced from his fingertips.
Chronos held up his hand, generating a forcefield around his body. The electricity couldn’t penetrate the orange shield, but Chronos did have to struggle to keep it raised.
The electricity stopped. Chronos looked up and lowered his shield. He saw that Sharkskin had tackled the Codex from behind and now wrestled with the robot construct.
The Codex managed to quickly get the upper hand, his body becoming a kind of liquid metal that could avoid Sharkskin’s fists and jaws. Sharkskin was now punching the ground and the Codex reformed, standing over him.
Just as Sharkskin turned, the Codex grabbed him by his throat and raised him into the air. The face parted open again and another powerful, crimson blast fired. The Codex released Sharkskin just as it struck and the blast shot the veteran Vanguardian through the ceiling.
The Codex jumped through the hole he’d made, landing in the center of the cafeteria. As soon as he stood, he was struck from behind by a table. The Codex was stunned and turned as Sharkskin threw another table. With a wave of his hand, the Codex summoned up a gust of wind that tossed the table from his path.
Sharkskin’s black eyes widened as the Codex’s form changed, becoming almost a mirror image of his own shark form. The Codex jumped and Sharkskin did as well. As they approached in the air, Sharkskin grabbed the Codex and flipped him so he struck the ground. Sharkskin roared as he drove his fists against the Codex’s head.
The Codex’s body melted, its silvery, liquid-like surface flowing over Sharkskin’s body. Sharkskin stood and tried to shake it off, but it seemed like a wasted effort. He screamed as the metallic substance covered every inch of his skin.
Sharkskin couldn’t see, but he could hear voices. The voices of his teammates calling out to him. “Get it off! Get it off!”
He was bombarded by energy blasts coming from just outside the cafeteria. Gunsmith and Cache stood there, firing upon him. After a few moments of that, the silvery substance flowed free from Sharkskin’s body and the Vanguardian fell to his knees.
Gunsmith walked into the cafeteria slowly, keeping his blasters trained on the silver puddle. Cache was by his side, his fists clenched with crimson energy swirling around both them and being emitted from his eyes.
“Did we kill it?” asked Cache.
“Judging from what we’ve heard of this thing, my guess would be no,” said Gunsmith.
The puddle rose, forming into a humanoid shape. But it didn’t become the same, featureless form they were used to. Instead, it became something familiar. A robot man with glowing LEDs all over his body. He looked at Gunsmith with something that the former soldier swore resembled recognition and concern.
“Jim…” He reached a hand out.
Gunsmith lowered his weapon, staring at the robot in surprise. He’d known what the Codex was made from. But hearing that voice again, seeing his old friend standing in front of him…it was enough to shake his resolve.
“Zenith?”
Cache stood in front of Gunsmith, just as the Codex’s eyes burned with solar energy. Cache absorbed the energy into his body, channeling it into his muscles. His size even increased as well and when he opened his eyes, they burned with raw power.
A powerful blow knocked the Codex through the cafeteria wall. Cache turned to address Gunsmith. “Stay on the ball, okay?”
Gunsmith felt the urge to stand up for himself, but he knew Cache was right. He said nothing and instead nodded his understanding. Cache’s face softened and he pointed at Sharkskin.
“Go check on Koji. I’ll keep this bastard busy.” And as Cache went after the Codex, he concentrated on transmitting his thoughts. “We gotta get the rest of the team mobilized. But I think we’ll need some more help than that.”
“I sense your plan,” came the Analyst’s response. “Are you certain we can trust him?”
“Even if we can’t, self-preservation’s a pretty powerful motivator. I figure he’ll side with us just so he can live through this.”
CHAPTER 7
Glenn Sawyer stood from his cot when he heard the sound of footsteps outside his cell. He approached the barrier as it went from opaque to translucent, and he was a little surprised to see the Khagan standing on the other side.
No, he had to remind himself. Not the Khagan, not anymore.
“Mr. Sawyer, we have a situation and we could use your assistance,” said the Analyst.
It was an odd sensation for Glenn. The voice was the Khagan’s, but the body language, the tone, they were all clearly very different. He took a cautious step closer. “What are you talking about?”
“The Codex has somehow been activated.”
Glenn scoffed. “Maybe the Khagan’s idea wasn’t so crazy after all?”
“No, it was. The two aren’t related,” said the Analyst. “The Khagan’s approach was a scorched earth one and that isn’t acceptable.”
“So what?”
“We don’t know how the Codex was activated, but he needs to be stopped. And Cache believes your abilities could prove quite useful in the battle. He trusts that you’re not opposed to helping us.”
“Just so we’re clear—you’re saying if I agree to help you fight the Codex, you’ll let me out of here? Get rid of this inhibitor?”
The Analyst nodded. “If you help us.”
“And after?”
“That’s something we’ll have to discuss if we survive.”
Glenn sighed and folded his arms across his chest. “How do I know this isn’t you playing with my mind?”
“The inhibitor prevents you from actively using your powers, but they’re still present. And the electromagnetic activity in your brain acts as a barrier to my abilities.”
“Fine, I’m in,” said Glenn. “But once this is over, we gotta have a talk about where we go from here.”
The Analyst stepped over to the control panel and the field lowered. Glenn first reached his hand out to be sure the barrier was gone. As it passed through the doorway easily, he jumped out into the corridor.
“Turn around.”
Glenn did as he was ordered and the Analyst moved behind him. He could hear the sound of whirring and felt some pressure on the back of his neck. Af
ter a moment, there was a beeping noise.
Almost instantly, Glenn felt the pull of the Earth’s electromagnetic forces. He could sense the energy coursing through him. Pulse was back.
***
By the time Ink and Talon made it to the cafeteria, they saw it was in shambles and Gunsmith was beside the fallen Sharkskin. Talon gasped at the sight of her father’s motionless body. Her wings sprouted from her back and allowed her to quickly cross the distance. She landed and knelt by Sharkskin’s side, reaching out to stroke his face.
“Dad!” She looked at Gunsmith for confirmation. “Is he…?”
“Just unconscious, he’ll be fine,” said Gunsmith.
“What the hell happened?” asked Ink.
“The Codex. He got out, somehow.”
“Damn!” Ink kicked a chair that had been knocked over.
Gunsmith turned his attention back to Talon. “Have you seen your mother?”
Talon furrowed her brow. “No, why?” Potential worst-case scenarios ran through her mind. “Do you think—?”
“Calm down, nothing like that. I’ve just been trying to reach her to tell her about Koji, but no luck.”
“So what’s the plan now?” asked Ink. “You’re the general, right? Used to lead Vanguard? You got a plan, don’t you?”
Gunsmith sighed. “Right now, Cache and Chronos are keeping him busy. But who knows how long that will last. This thing shrugged off my teleforce blasts like they were nothing. If what we know about the Codex is true, then it’s like fighting an army of specials.”
“We have to evacuate the Icarus,” said Talon. “Ellis, you have to find Cassie, tell her she needs to coordinate with our safehouses to provide some temporary housing.”
“That’s crazy, we could use those people here,” said Ink.
“They’re not fighters. Most of them are just kids with no idea how to use their powers. Some haven’t even developed powers yet.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Gunsmith slid his hands under Sharkskin’s body and slowly got to his feet, raising the large special up. “I’ll see about getting your dad some help while I’m at it.”
Vanguard: Season Four: A Superhero Adventure Page 18