by Stan Lee
“Puzzle it out later. Right now, we better move.” Jasmine gestured back down at the hole leading to the strange underground chamber. “Maxwell’s weakened, but he’s got at least two Vanguard squadrons down there with him. He’ll be after us in minutes.”
“Steven!”
Steven whirled around. He squinted at the museum buildings, at the crowd held back from the site of the explosions. In that crowd, he recognized a small figure wearing an orange sweater.
“Harani!” he called.
“Steven,” Jasmine said. “We’ve got an exit route. But it’s gotta be now.”
Harani reached out toward him. A policeman held up a hand, holding her back; she stared helplessly, her hand outstretched. Gathered around her, Steven could see Ryan, Mr. Singh, and the other kids. People he’d known all his life.
His old life.
Jasmine raised a hand and projected a thin beam of Dragon light at the woods. A small path became visible, leading through the orchids and gum trees. When she turned back to Steven, her expression was unusually gentle.
“Say good-bye,” she said.
Steven cast a glance at the sky. The faint afterimage of Zodiac energy was just fading. He looked back over at Harani, at her puzzled, questioning face.
Good-bye, he mouthed.
Then he drew in a deep breath and turned to follow Jasmine and Carlos into the unknown.
JASMINE LED THEM swiftly through the forest, past orchids, palm trees, and gum trees. She projected her Dragon energy in tiny bursts to illuminate the path—but with a shock, Steven realized he didn’t even need the light. He could see everything with perfect clarity, even in darkness.
“Wait till you see our headquarters,” Jasmine said. “It’s no luxury hotel, but I think you’ll be impressed.”
Steven smiled. With every stride, he felt stronger, more triumphant. I did it, he thought. I got us out! Never mind that I don’t really know where I got us out of….
Abruptly, the trees thinned out and the path widened out onto a beach. A battered freighter vessel sat anchored only a few yards offshore. It was heavily loaded down with multicolored shipping containers, and it listed slightly to one side.
Frowning, Steven turned to Jasmine. “Your headquarters is an old cargo ship?”
She stared at him, deadpan. “You don’t like it?”
Carlos just shook his head.
Jasmine burst into laughter. “Sorry, kid. I’m just messing with you. This isn’t really home—just transportation.”
“Oh.”
He stood staring for a moment, until Jasmine clapped him hard on the back. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s hit the high seas.”
Jasmine led them aboard and handed a big pile of local currency to the captain. He nodded and ushered them down a narrow passageway via a ladder. As they climbed below, Steven could hear the captain issuing orders to get underway.
As soon as they were belowdecks, Carlos seemed to grow agitated. He led the way to a heavy metal door and shouldered it open.
“Take it easy, man,” Jasmine said. “We’re in no hurry now.”
“I am,” Carlos replied.
Steven looked around the large, cluttered room. Its walls and low ceilings were made of metal, studded with bolts up and down the sides. A stack of crates sat in one corner, marked with Chinese lettering. There were no windows, and one wall was covered in printed pictures and various clippings.
Carlos hurried to one corner of the room. A worn swivel chair sat before a tangle of computer equipment: tables, keyboards, CRT screens, server arrays. Some of the components seemed very old. Carlos seated himself in the chair and started tapping on a dirty keyboard.
Steven pointed. “Is that some ancient Mac?”
Jasmine smiled. “If it still works, Carlos can find a use for it.”
“Could you two talk quietly?” Carlos asked, his eyes darting from one screen to another. “I have to figure out a way to track that runaway Zodiac energy before its trail fades. Which, with this ancient setup, is going to be a bit tricky.”
“Sorry,” Jasmine said. She walked up behind Carlos and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take the kid to the other side of the room, give him some…what?”
Carlos had swiveled around and was staring at her. His expression was blank, as if he were struggling to process something.
Then he stood up and hugged her, hard. Jasmine jumped, startled.
“I thought you were going to die,” Carlos whispered. He burrowed his head into her shoulder.
Jasmine pulled away from him and grasped his shoulders. She looked straight into his eyes and smiled.
“Never gonna happen,” she said.
Suddenly Steven felt like an intruder.
“Get back to work,” Jasmine continued, her voice suddenly soft. “Nobody likes a lazy genius.”
Carlos flashed her a quick, uncertain smile. Then he whirled back around and started tapping at keys again.
Jasmine cocked her head at Steven and started across the room. He followed, almost stumbling as the ship lurched in the water. The hum of engines rose up all around them.
“This tub may not look like much,” Jasmine said, “but it’ll get us out of China. Like I said, we don’t have Maxwell’s resources. We have to get by on stealth.”
As the boat moved through the water, Steven felt his stomach start to churn. He turned to Jasmine, frowning. “Can I ask you some questions?”
“Why not?” Jasmine replied, plopping down on a large metal canister that looked like it might be housing something toxic. “It’s not like I’m exhausted or bruised or anything.” She pulled off a boot and flexed her sore foot in the air.
“Who are you people?” Steven asked. “How do you know so much about this Maxwell guy? And, uh, if you knew he was gonna try and grab all that power, why didn’t you stop him sooner?”
“That’s a lot of questions,” she said. “But they all have the same answer: bad timing.”
Steven watched her, waiting.
“We keep tabs of Maxwell,” she continued. “But he covers his tracks well. I was in India, following up a false lead, when I got a frantic text from Carlos. He said to come to the museum, where he’d set up a job for me under a fake name.” She frowned and turned to call across the room. “‘Jumanne’?”
“First thing I could think of,” Carlos said. He didn’t look up from his work.
“So I get there, and for three days, no word. Maxwell had Carlos closeted underground, setting up the Convergence. We told you about that.”
Steven nodded.
“I thought Carlos was dead. When I heard Maxwell screaming, it was kind of a relief.”
“I heard that too,” Steven said. “That’s why I followed you.”
Jasmine stared at him and a slow smile came over her face. “Tiger ears,” she said. “That’s cute.”
He turned away, embarrassed. When he turned back, her expression was different.
“Actually,” she said, “you showing up was quite a coincidence.”
With a shock, he realized that she didn’t trust him completely—any more than he trusted her. Does she think I’m working with Maxwell?
Jasmine waved her hand, seeming to dismiss the idea. “We didn’t have time to coordinate the plan,” she continued. She reached into her pack and pulled out a metal sphere, like the ones she’d thrown at the shipan back in the museum. “And I didn’t manage to get these grenades charged fast enough.”
“Not your fault,” Carlos called. “I designed the grenades. And I wanted to sabotage the Convergence sooner from the stage, but Maxwell’s other techs would have noticed right away.”
Jasmine stared sadly at the grenade for a moment. Its light glowed a very dull red. It slipped out of her hands and rattled to the floor.
Steven watched, nervous, as the ship tipped to one side. The grenade rolled past him, into a corner.
“That one never worked right anyway,” Jasmine said.
“I still…I d
on’t understand.” Steven shook his head. “You and me—we were each hit by one of the Zodiac beams. Maxwell must have been hit by…what? Four or five of them?”
“Six, I think,” Jasmine said.
“Seven,” Carlos called. “Definitely seven. Counting the Dragon, which struck you both.”
Jasmine smirked. “Are you doing any work at all over there?”
Carlos walked over to join them, carrying a handheld analyzer device. “Actually, I’ve managed to establish a very slow data link with headquarters,” he said. “They’re helping me track the Zodiac energy.”
“Can we talk to them?” Jasmine asked.
“It’s text-only right now.”
“Where’s headquarters?” Steven asked.
“Greenland,” Jasmine said, turning back to face him. “So, yes, Maxwell made contact with, and absorbed, seven of the twelve Zodiac powers. But there’s a catch. The only one of those powers he can control—the only one that belongs inside him—is the Dragon.”
“What about the rest?”
“That’s what all the machinery was for,” Carlos said. He perched on a crate, still staring at his analyzer. “Maxwell planned to absorb the power of all twelve Zodiac signs into himself temporarily. That would kill a normal person—we all warned him about that. But he was sure he could handle it.
“Right now, he’s probably carrying out the next phase of his plan. That involves taking that energy and transferring it out of his body into his own agents. One agent for each sign: Horse, Dog, Monkey, Ox, Rat, and Snake.”
Jasmine suddenly stood, walking toward Carlos’s makeshift work station. Steven trailed behind her, seeing various photos, notes, and threads pinned to the wall.
“You really have been watching Maxwell for a long time,” Steven said.
“He’s got an intricate network,” Carlos explained, rising. “We don’t even know all the people who belong to the Vanguard.”
“Not to sound like a broken record, but we do know what powers he has, and what powers are left,” Jasmine said. “Maxwell and I share the Dragon power.” She gestured at Steven. “And you’re the Tiger. That leaves…wait, my mother taught me this. Ram, Pig, Rabbit, and Rooster.” She turned to Carlos. “Those powers—those are the beams that flashed out in the wild, right? Will they just dissipate?”
“I don’t think so.” Carlos tapped at the analyzer. “It looks like they’re seeking out their own hosts.”
“People out in the world somewhere, suddenly finding themselves filled with power they can’t understand.” Jasmine leaned forward, staring at Steven. “Like you. But without us there to guide them.”
“Not only that,” Carlos said, “but Maxwell will be looking for them, too. He wants that power.”
“This is a big change in our mission,” Jasmine said, turning to Carlos. “Before, all we needed to do was stop Maxwell. Now there are gonna be more people out there like the kid here, and we’re the only ones who can help them.” She let out a big, deliberate sigh. “Like it or not, we’re about to start a recruitment drive.”
Steven nodded, letting the idea sink in. “We’ve gotta find them.”
Carlos gave him a slightly irritated glance. “I’m working on it.”
Jasmine cocked her head at Steven. “You said we. Does that mean you’re in? You’re with us?”
“I…” He paused. “I think so. But…I know Maxwell is a war contractor and all. But is he that bad? Why do you care so much about him? What’s he going to do with this power, anyway?”
“Anything and everything he wants,” Jasmine said.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Jasmine looked at Carlos. Carlos sat back down on his crate; something in his eyes sent a shiver up Steven’s spine.
“It was pretty bad,” Jasmine said, “for the city of Lystria.”
“You mentioned that before,” Steven said. “What’s Lystria? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Well, don’t go looking for it on a map.”
“What?” Steven asked. “What happened?”
Jasmine flashed Carlos a worried look. Carlos sucked in a deep breath and lowered the analyzer. When he spoke again, his voice was raspy, intense.
“Maxwell was a successful war contractor,” Carlos said. “He’d fought in several high-profile and low-profile conflicts, and made a lot of money doing it. But he got tired of taking orders. So he decided to start his own company.”
“Vanguard,” Steven said.
“Vanguard. Their first big job was in a city called Lystria, where rebels had seized some of the government buildings. Maxwell’s guys were supposed to get in there, eliminate the rebels, and get out.
“But they botched the job. The rebellion turned into a war, and the war turned very messy. Some of the Vanguard agents were captured by rebels.
“That put Maxwell in a bad spot. Very soon, Vanguard’s involvement in Lystria would become public knowledge. That would mean the end of Maxwell’s new company, and his employers would be pretty unhappy too. See, he wasn’t just working for the local government. There were some shadowy business interests involved, too—people who are not used to failing, at anything.”
“It was even possible Maxwell himself could have been brought up on international war-crimes charges,” Jasmine added.
“At the time,” Carlos continued, “I was working for an American company. We specialized in transporting dangerous chemical and biological substances. Maxwell contacted us: he wanted a very specific combination of materials. My bosses gave it to him, and the next thing we knew…”
Carlos trailed off, turning away.
Jasmine watched him with worried eyes. “Next thing we knew,” she resumed, “Lystria was gone. Maxwell unleashed a deadly bio-plague that killed off ninety percent of the population in less than a day. Then he torched the buildings and sent in snipers to finish off the survivors. Including some of his own people, whom he regarded as casualties of war.”
Steven was stunned. “He killed…hundreds of thousands of people…”
“The entire city,” Jasmine said. “Without even thinking twice.”
“All those people,” Steven repeated. “Just to protect his business?”
“He doesn’t like to be told what to do.”
“What about Lystria? Somebody must have noticed it was just gone? What about all those people, their relatives…?”
“Steven,” Jasmine said, “sometimes when a crime is so huge, so monstrous, nobody wants to admit it ever happened. Maxwell knew, after he did this, that no corporation or government would ever dare interfere with him again.”
“I’ve been to Lystria,” Carlos said, his voice dark as the grave. “It’s a charred hole in the desert. You wouldn’t believe it.”
Jasmine forced a smile. “Now do you understand why we’re doing this? Why we cannot let this man keep control of the Zodiac power?”
Slowly, Steven nodded.
“Good,” she said.
He looked up sharply. There was something in her voice now, some new edge. As he watched, Jasmine spread her arms. The Zodiac power began to shimmer and glow, rising up above her to form the lean, sharp-clawed form of the Dragon.
“Then maybe you’ll understand why I have to do this,” she said.
And she leapt at him, claws bared.
STEVEN SHRANK BACK instinctively. The Tiger’s reflexes kicked in, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. He watched, all his instincts sharp, as Jasmine flew through the air toward him, her Dragon form hissing and snarling in the air above her.
What is she doing? he wondered. Is she—was I wrong about Jasmine? Does she want me dead?
A snarl rose from deep inside him, from the Tiger itself. He swerved and bounded sideways like a cat, feeling his own power surround him like a protective suit. Then he straightened up again.
Jasmine pivoted gracefully in midair and turned to face him. When she grabbed his shoulders, he shivered. Her hands were like Dragon claws, burning like cold fire on
his skin.
He snarled and slashed a hand across her shoulder. The Tiger claws cut a shallow gash along her arm. A thin line of blood appeared, and Jasmine cried out.
Carlos glanced at the two of them, shook his head, and stepped away.
Jasmine backed away from Steven, her power flaring throughout the room. When she opened her mouth, fire spewed forth from the Dragon’s maw. Steven ducked low, barely managing to avoid the flame.
This is for real, he thought. She’s trying to kill me.
“Jasmine,” he said. “Why—”
She fixed her eyes on him, and the Dragon form turned to match her gaze. But she didn’t seem like the woman Steven had been talking with, just a few moments before. This was a deeper, more elemental force. For a moment, he felt it tickling at his brain, like an insect twitching at the base of his spine. Trying to get in.
What had she said, back in the Convergence room? The Dragon power is different.
Then Jasmine was moving again. She flew through the air, opening her mouth to spit fire again. Not fair, Steven thought. I can’t fly! He flipped sideways and flattened himself against a wall, watching as she swooped past him. The Dragon flame felt hot against his skin.
Steven saw his chance—or, rather, the Tiger did. In the split-second before Jasmine could turn to face him again, he charged. He ducked down low, ignoring the cold needles of Dragon-energy, and came up between her legs. He lifted her up and tossed her backward, over his shoulder.
Jasmine let out a surprised yelp and tumbled in midair. The Dragon power faded. She landed with a hard thump, out of sight, behind a pile of supply crates.
Steven prowled toward her, his senses still hyper-alert. He cast a quick glance around, looking for Carlos. The Tiger roared within him: another enemy? But Carlos had retreated to his equipment.
Steven looked down at his own hands. The Tiger energy glowed bright, suffusing him with power. He could sense every air current in the room, every faint smell of mold and machine oil. No intruder, no enemy, could possibly take him by surprise now.