by Stan Lee
“Did you learn anything at all?” he asked.
Josie cleared her throat. “I got some readings on the subject’s Zodiac power. Pig’s power, I mean.” She paused. “The techs can use that to help us shield our equipment from it, better, in the future.”
“Josie,” he said, “you know you’ve always been one of my best agents.”
She swallowed.
“If you were me,” Maxwell continued, “what would you do?”
She swallowed again, opened her eyes. “Give me one more chance,” she said. “I can be in America in five hours.”
“No. I’ve already dispatched another agent to deal with that situation.”
“Oh.”
“Report back to me here. We’ll talk then.”
She knew the look on his face. When Maxwell’s mind was made up, there was no arguing, no reasoning with him. He was like a force of nature, a storm blowing across the land.
She nodded.
Maxwell plucked the machine gun out of its stand. “Some of us are like bullets, Josie,” he said. “And some of us are guns.”
He stroked the gun again, as if it were a cat. Then he held it up and aimed, squinting through the site.
“And I,” he added, “am the finger on the trigger.”
Steven Lee stared at the dark, closed-down fast-food counter. The steam tables sat empty; the sign reading YUMMI NOODLES was dark. The big plastic panda over the cash register was missing one ear.
“So this is America,” said Liam.
Steven shrugged. The big food court had clearly seen better days: Half the tables had been taken out, and all the counters on this side of the room were shut down. Some of the hanging lights were dark, and a few of them were missing bulbs.
On the other side of the court, a few burger and pizza vendors were still open for business. Clusters of ten- to thirteen-year-old kids sat at tables around them, gossiping and giggling.
“Elton, Indiana,” Liam continued. “You grew up in a place like this, right mate?”
Steven frowned. He thought of his hometown, back in Pennsylvania. He remembered the mall where he used to hang out—where he’d seen so many superhero movies. That mall had a YUMMI NOODLES counter, too, and it was probably lit up and selling food right now. He felt suddenly homesick.
“It’s not quite like this,” Steven replied.
“Ah, right. The economic woes of the American Midwest.” Liam nodded. “I read about it in The Economist.”
Steven studied the kids across the big room, trying not to make it look like he was staring.
“You think she’s here?” Liam continued, reading his thoughts.
“I don’t know,” Steven replied. “But we’ve gotta find her.”
“You will. You found me, right?”
Jasmine walked up, frowning. She moved awkwardly, studying a small electronic device in one hand while juggling a smelly fast-food box in the other.
Steven laughed. “The great and graceful Dragon,” he said.
She shot him a deadly look. “I don’t know how to work this overgrown remote.” She shook the electronic device, and a couple of chicken nuggets flopped out of her box onto the floor.
Liam pointed at the fallen nuggets. “Do ye know what’s in those things?”
Jasmine looked up, embarrassed. “I like ’em,” she said.
Steven looked over her shoulder at the tracking device. Its screen showed a rough schematic of the food court, with a winking, vibrating “Z” wobbling from side to side.
“Is that her?” he asked, pointing to the “Z”.
“I think so. But I can’t localize the EM reading well enough to tell if she’s in the food court, or somewhere else in this mall.”
“I don’t think there’s much else open in this mall,” Liam said.
“I wish Carlos were here.” Jasmine shook the device in the air, as if that would fix it. “Too bad we had to split up.”
But Steven had stopped listening. His attention had been caught by a small girl, sitting alone at a table near the pizza counter. She was a year or two younger than Steven, waifish, and blond, in black leggings and a loose shirt. She sat hunched over a slice of pizza, wolfing it down as if she thought someone would come and take it away from her.
“That’s her,” Steven said. “I recognize her from her picture.”
Jasmine looked over at the girl and nodded. She shook the electronic device again and then, with a snort of disgust, threw it into a trash can. Then she rushed over and fished it out again, hurriedly wiping spaghetti off of it.
“Carlos doesn’t like me throwing out his toys,” she explained. When she saw Steven’s and Liam’s amused expressions, she stuffed a few chicken nuggets in her mouth. “Shuff upf,” Jasmine added.
Steven led the way over to the girl. When she spotted them, a look of panic crossed her face. She looked up and around, frantically. She seemed to be checking the exits.
“Don’t be scared,” Steven said quickly. “We’re, uh. We’re from…I mean, we’re like…we’re here because…”
The girl stared at him with big eyes.
He stopped, helpless, and turned to Jasmine. “How do I explain this?”
Jasmine thrust the box of nuggets against Steven’s stomach. He grabbed them in surprise. They smelled awful.
“Kim,” Jasmine said. “Your name is Kim Hansen, right?”
The girl said nothing. She didn’t even move.
“Something’s happened to you, hasn’t it?” Jasmine continued. “A bright light flashed down out of the sky, and after that you just had this strange power. Right?”
Kim’s eyes widened, just slightly.
Jasmine gestured around. “I’m Jasmine,” she said. “This is Steven, and Liam. We’re like you—we’ve all been given Zodiac powers. I kind of asked for them, but they didn’t.”
“They’re kind of cool, though,” Liam said, smiling. “My powers, I mean.” He picked up a heavy plastic tray off the trash can and bashed himself over the head with it. The tray cracked in half, leaving no mark on his forehead. “See?”
Kim watched his every move. But still she made no sound.
“We want to help you,” Steven said. “Thing is, there’s people who might want to hurt you. They’re probably on their way right now.”
He felt Jasmine’s intense gaze, and immediately knew what she was thinking: Big mistake. Don’t scare her!
Slowly, Kim rose to her feet. Her eyes still looked frightened. But when she spoke, her voice was more confident than Steven had expected.
“Nobody can catch me,” she said.
Then she turned away, took a single step—and vanished with a soft poof.
Steven gasped. He stared at the empty air where the girl had been just a moment before. Beside him, Liam stood watching too, his mouth open in shock.
“Ah,” Jasmine said. She brushed tomato sauce off of the Zodiac tracker device. “Did I mention we think she may be a teleporter?”
THE TRACKER WOULDN’T turn on again. Steven and Jasmine laid it down on a food court table and unscrewed its cover. Steven grabbed a few plastic knives from a counter, and then the two of them spent five minutes scraping Russian dressing and something that looked like pepperoni out of its circuitry.
“Don’t drop this in the trash again, okay?” Steven said.
Liam cleared his throat. “I’m not sayin’ I’ve got second thoughts about joining up with you lot,” he said, “but I think yer methods could use some fine-tuning.”
“Carlos is the tech expert,” Jasmine said. She held up a sizable chunk of meatball on the end of her knife, then tossed it aside.
Snapping the cover closed, she shook the device, and clicked a button. The screen flickered to life, showing a street map of Elton, Indiana. The familiar “Z,” for Zodiac, winked on.
“Got her,” Jasmine said.
The screen flashed static and died.
“Maybe,” she added.
Fifteen minutes later, they stood in the small downtown se
ction of Elton. Like the food court, it seemed to have fallen on hard times. An old market stood vacant. A handwritten sign on the barbershop said OPEN TUESDAYS ONLY.
The only businesses that seemed to be healthy were a convenience store and a bank. With their bright, modern signs, they looked like alien ships that had landed from another planet.
“She’s here someplace,” Jasmine said, shaking the tracker. Its screen flickered on and off.
Steven looked around. A few people hustled down the street, carrying prescriptions and grocery bags. The old buildings seemed to tilt a little to the side, weighed down with age.
Steven felt an odd sadness wash over him. This whole town seemed so…tired. What would it be like to grow up here? he wondered.
“Steven,” Liam said quietly.
He looked up. Liam cocked his head toward the bank, a couple doors down. At the edge of the parking lot, the girl—Kim—sat perched on a fire hydrant, staring off into the distance.
“Hey,” Steven called softly.
Kim turned sharply toward them. Her eyes were wide, haunted.
Then she leapt off the hydrant and went poof.
Steven shook his head. Liam looked down the street, searching for the girl. Jasmine shook the analyzer, trying to get its screen to stay on.
“This is gonna be a long day,” she said.
They tracked Kim next to the high school, a thick building made of faded orange brick. It was Saturday, so no classes were in session. They slipped in through an unlocked door and started creeping down the hallway.
“There’s usually a few janitors around on weekends,” Steven whispered. “Watch out for them.”
“Mate,” Liam replied patiently, “we all went to high school.”
They sneaked around the gymnasium, past a line of lockers with chipped paint. One of them had been bashed in. The few windows set into the walls were fogged and dirty.
Jasmine turned sharply, pointing. “What’s that?”
Steven looked, just in time to see a large figure dart past a junction in the corridor. He got a quick glimpse of yellow hair, and then the figure disappeared around a bend.
“What?” Jasmine asked. “Was that her?”
“I don’t think so.” Steven frowned. “It looked bigger.”
Then they rounded a bend, and there was Kim. She stood before a door labeled BAND ROOM, trying to jimmy the lock open with a pin. She turned, startled.
“Okay,” Steven said, holding out a hand. “Just listen. HeyjustlistenwhateveryoudoDON’TGOPOOF—”
Poof.
Liam shook his head. “Gone again.”
But Jasmine turned sharply to look behind them. “Who’s that?”
Steven whirled around. Again, he caught a glimpse of the yellow-haired figure, dashing out of sight around a corner.
The three of them took off after it. They ran around a corner, then another, and a third. “This place is like a hedge maze,” Liam said. “Guess that makes sense for a rabbit.”
“Either of you get a good look?” Jasmine asked.
“I think it was a guy,” Steven said. “And he had a lot of hair—”
They rounded a final bend and nearly collided with a heavyset man standing in the middle of the hall. The man wore a gray jumpsuit, held a mop and pail, and had a huge, unruly black beard exploding from his chin and cheeks.
“You’re not s’posed to be here,” he said.
Steven grimaced. “I told you. Janitors.”
Jasmine frowned. “Is that him? The man we were chasing?”
Liam cocked his head, examining the janitor. “He doesn’t look like he can run very fast.”
“Maybe not.” The man shook his mop threateningly. “But I know how to use this.”
Steven watched Liam carefully for a moment, suddenly worried. He knew Jasmine was thinking the same thing he was: Liam likes to fight.
But Liam just smiled. “No need for violence, mate.” He took a step back, holding up his hands, an amused look on his face. “We just stopped in to pick up me, uh, math book. From me locker, you know. On our way out now.”
Kim’s next stop was a public park, a few miles away. The park was quiet, with just a few couples sitting together at benches. Jasmine motioned to Liam and Steven, and together they crouched behind a low hill.
“I think she’s over there,” Jasmine whispered, pointing over unmown grass to the far side of the hill. “But we can’t just walk up to her. She’ll teleport away again.”
“She’s fast, all right,” Liam agreed.
Steven crept up to the top of the hill, flattening down on his stomach in the grass. On the other side, a few feet below, he could see a playground, its new-looking furnishings already overgrown with weeds. Kim sat on a plastic cartoon snail anchored to the ground by a thick metal spring. She was rocking back and forth, and she hadn’t noticed them yet.
Steven shinnied backward down the hill to rejoin Liam and Jasmine.
“I’ve got an idea,” he whispered. “I don’t think this girl can just poof away when she’s standing, or sitting down. Every time she’s done it, she’s been running or jumping.”
Jasmine frowned at the tracker, then shrugged. “Could be. That would fit with the Rabbit.”
Liam frowned. “So what are you saying, mate? We need to grab her or something?” He shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of attacking a little girl.”
“We just need to get her to listen for a minute,” Steven replied. “Follow me.”
He took off at a run, bounding over the hill. Jasmine shrugged and followed, with Liam bringing up the rear.
Then someone, or something, howled out loud. Steven turned—just in time to see a mass of fur slam into Liam from behind, knocking him to the ground.
Zodiac energy billowed out from Liam, forming the charging, horned Ram. He rolled along the ground, grappling with his assailant, and began to tumble down the hill toward the playground equipment.
Jasmine stopped, frowning at the tracker. “Unless this thing has too much tomato sauce in it,” she said, “that’s another Zodiac agent.”
Liam and his attacker rolled down into the playground, moving toward a jungle gym. Steven still couldn’t get a good look at the hairy man, but he watched as the man twisted around so Liam took the brunt of the impact.
Two people leapt up from a nearby bench. They took one look at the grappling duo and ran off.
Liam lay still on the ground about fifteen feet away. The hairy man stood up, towering over his body, and howled again.
Steven stared in shock. The man wasn’t just hairy—every inch of his body was covered with fur. Sharp, wolfish ears jutted up from the top of his head, and his bare feet were four times the size of a normal man’s. Both his hands and his feet were curled and ended in sharp, animal-like claws.
“What—” Steven paused. “Who is that?”
“At a guess?” Jasmine tapped at the analyzer. “I think it’s Dog. Another of Maxwell’s newly powered operatives.”
“But he’s so…so…” Steven held out his arms. “Tigers are hairy. Am I gonna grow fur, too?”
Jasmine stared at him. “That’s what you’re worried about right now?”
The hairy man—Dog—turned toward Steven. His lip curled into a cruel smile, and he let out a low, threatening growl.
Steven had a vision of Dog chasing after the girl, of leaping toward her and whisking her away to safety. “No,” Steven said, returning to reality. “Maybe later.”
Steven concentrated, allowing the Tiger power to rise up and around him. A halo of energy surrounded him. He turned to face Dog, and felt the Tiger rise to the challenge. Without meaning to, Steven growled in response.
Then he noticed the girl—Kim—standing nearby. Her eyes flashed from Dog to Steven, watching their faceoff. Dog turned toward her, and a hungry smile crossed his face.
Steven felt the ground shake a little. Liam was back on his feet, leaning his head down like a bull and charging toward Dog from behind.
Dog had underestimated Liam, Steven realized. A normal person would have been out cold after slamming that hard into the jungle gym—but nothing could harm Liam.
Steven and Liam tackled Dog at the same time from different sides. Liam’s head-butt struck Dog in the small of his back just as Steven grabbed the hairy agent’s neck, yanking him off his feet.
For a moment, Dog flailed in Steven’s grip. Then he jumped up, recovered his balance, and let out another howl. His thick paw reached out and swiped Steven’s stomach, knocking him away.
Steven reeled, and the Tiger cried out. He managed to stop his fall, reaching behind with one hand to touch the ground, and sprang back up again. Dog was raining down blows on Liam—who just stood still, smiling, his arms folded in front of him.
“Keep it up, mate,” Liam said. “Tire yourself out. You remind me of my Uncle William. Once he got an idea in his head, he’d never let it go. Once somebody told him tomatoes were really evil spirits, and he sat out in the garden five days straight waiting for ’em to show their true nature.”
Steven frowned. Liam told a lot of stories, and some of them sounded pretty doubtful.
The girl hadn’t poofed away this time, Steven noticed. She just stood at the edge of the playground, watching. Taking it all in.
Steven rushed forward and grabbed Dog again. They grappled, and Steven felt the Zodiac energy ebb and flow, sizzling through the air. His Tiger-form roared and snarled, trading blows with its enemy—
“Dog,” Jasmine said.
Steven, Dog, and Liam all froze as a blinding light washed over them. Slowly, as if with one mind, they turned toward the hill.
Jasmine hovered in the air, glowing with power. The hissing form of her Dragon whipped and swirled around her, swiping the air with sharp talons. It lit up the cloudy sky, glowing with unimaginable power.
Jasmine stared straight at Dog with glowing eyes. “Think you can chase the Dragon?” she asked.
Dog struggled in Steven’s and Liam’s grip. He looked from them over to Jasmine, and then toward the edge of the playground, at Kim. As Dog sniffed the air, that hungry look came over him again.