The Zodiac Legacy: Convergence

by Stan Lee

“Rrrrrraaaaaaabit,” he said.

  Then he lashed out, kicking and swiping. Startled, Steven lost his grip, tumbling to the ground. Liam fell, too, and Dog took off at a run. He bounded over the hill, incredibly fast, and disappeared into the trees beyond.

  Jasmine dropped softly to the ground, her power fading around her. “Pretty soon, they’re gonna stop scaring so easily,” she said.

  Steven shook his head, dazed. The Tiger power was beginning to fade, too. He stumbled over to Jasmine and said, “Can you track him?”

  She picked up the tracker—or what was left of it. Its guts were exposed, the circuitry smashed. A single puff of smoke hissed out of it.

  “I think he trampled it on his way out,” she said sadly.

  Liam stood up calmly, dusting himself off. “Like I said: needs some fine-tuning.” He looked completely unfazed, as if he’d just woken up and taken a stroll outside.

  “Hey,” Steven said. “Where’s…”

  But even as he spoke, he knew the answer to his question. Kim was gone again—along with the remaining locals, who’d fled from the odd sight of superpowered combat in their quiet, rundown park.

  “Didn’t even see her go poof that time,” Liam said, arching an eyebrow.

  Steven clenched his fists in frustration. “We’re never gonna get her to sit still.”

  Jasmine walked up and laid a hand on his shoulder. There was a thoughtful look in her eyes.

  “Maybe we need a new strategy,” she said.

  “WE DON’T KNOW where she is,” Kim’s mother said. “We don’t usually know.”

  Her husband coughed.

  Feeling uncomfortable, Steven shifted on the creaky armchair. A bit of stuffing puffed out into the air.

  Kim’s parents sat together on their couch, staring at a small TV. Like everything else in the house, the TV was about ten to fifteen years old. The coffee table was littered with soda and beer cans.

  Kim’s mother looked over at Steven. “Do you know where Kimmy might be?” she asked.

  Jasmine scuttled her folding chair up next to Steven’s, and held up the broken tracker. “Not anymore,” she said.

  Steven glanced out the window. Night was just beginning to fall. Jasmine had already called back to headquarters, to Carlos, who had returned there with the newly recruited Pig. Carlos had consulted his own, more powerful Zodiac sensing equipment, and confirmed Jasmine’s hunch: Dog was no longer in the Elton area.

  Steven turned back to Kim’s parents, who were both engrossed in the muted TV program again. “I’ve seen this episode before,” Mr. Hansen said. “It’s funny.”

  “You, uh, you used to work at the eraser factory, right, Mrs. Hansen?” he asked.

  “That was him.” Kim’s mother jabbed an elbow at her husband.

  Mr. Hansen coughed again. “Too much rubber in the lungs,” he said.

  “Where are my manners?” Mrs. Hansen said. “Can I get you people anything?”

  Steven looked at the cans on the coffee table. “How about some water?”

  Without looking up, Mr. Hansen tossed him a can of cola.

  Jasmine frowned. “Mrs. Hansen,” she said, “have you noticed anything…odd about your daughter lately? Any strange, uh, abilities or behavior?”

  “I told you, we don’t see her much anymore.” A flicker of fear crossed Mrs. Hansen’s face. “Is she into drugs?”

  “No, ma’am,” Jasmine replied. “I’m pretty sure she’s not into drugs.”

  “She’s scared,” Mr. Hansen said. “She’s always been scared of everything.”

  “We love her,” Mrs. Hansen said. “But the truth is…well, there’s nothing for her here. You’ve seen this town; it’s dying.”

  Suddenly Steven felt an irresistible urge to flee. Kim’s parents were right: This place was just so sad. He understood, now, how Kim felt—why she kept running away, bolting and jumping and poofing off into thin air.

  He thought back to the places where they’d seen Kim: the mall, the town center, the school, the public park. Where could she be now? Where would a girl like that go?

  Liam walked into the room, followed by the sound of a toilet flushing. “I dunno where the girl is,” he said, as if reading Steven’s mind. “But I think we oughta get her out of here.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Steven said softly.

  “Hey,” Mrs. Hansen said. Something in her voice made Steven turn sharply toward her.

  “Yes, Mrs. Hansen?” he asked.

  “If you do find Kim,” Mrs. Hansen continued. “Just tell her…I mean…”

  “Tell her we’re sorry,” Mr. Hansen said, looking away. “Sorry we couldn’t give her a better life.”

  Mrs. Hansen stared at Steven with pained eyes, then nodded.

  When he turned away, the two of them had turned back to the TV. They laughed softly at something, their hands gently touching each other’s knees.

  “So that’s it,” Liam said. “We’re goin’ after her, right?”

  Jasmine looked around at the house for a long, uncomfortable moment. When she turned to Steven, her eyes were very serious.

  “No,” she said. “Not ‘we.’”

  By the time Steven got back to the mall, it was just closing for the night. He hid beside an escalator and waited until the lights went out. After the security guard walked past, he leapt, Tiger-like, up the stairs to the food court.

  There she is, he thought. Just like I thought.

  Kim sat alone at a table in the dark, gobbling down a slice of pizza. She ate quickly, looking around furtively between bites. She looked almost exactly the way she had when he’d first seen her, except this time the pizza was probably stolen.

  “I knew you’d be here,” he said softly. “You’ve gotta eat, right?”

  She whirled around, but before she could vanish, he held up a hand. “Don’t!” he said, keeping his voice low. “It’s just me—nobody else. Promise.”

  He took a step forward, then stopped. They stared at each other for a moment, separated by twelve feet of empty mall.

  “You’re glowing,” she said.

  Steven looked around in surprise. Without realizing it, he’d let the Tiger out. He concentrated, willing the Zodiac energy to fade.

  “I want to tell you something,” Steven said. “When I was, uh, when I was five, I asked my father for a Lego set. It was a really nice one, tied in to the first Steel Mongoose movie. It had his headquarters, his beach house, even his high-tech base on the moon.

  “My parents, they have their own company—they make a lot of money. Even back then, I knew they could afford the Lego set. But my dad just stared at me like I was a beggar on the street. I’ll never forget what he said: ‘When you earn it.’”

  Kim watched him carefully. She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t quite look like she was going to poof away anymore, either.

  “You’ve got other problems,” he continued. “So do Jasmine and Liam, the people I came here with. There’s others, too—this girl called Roxanne. She’s, uh, something.

  “The thing is: We’ve all got this ancient energy inside us. It’s called the Zodiac, and for some reason, it chose us to wield its power. It comes from these pools of liquid in Hong Kong—there was a whole ritual there, and everything blew up. I’ve been traveling around with Jasmine ever since, recruiting people like you.”

  Suddenly Kim ducked down under her table. Steven looked around, heard the guard’s footsteps, and flattened himself against a column. The guard’s flashlight played against the floor, and for a moment it seemed as if he was going to spot them. But he just shrugged and walked off again.

  Kim stood up. She took a bite of pizza and flashed Steven a quick, playful smile.

  Steven cocked his head at her. “Your parents said you were scared of everything,” he said. “But that’s not really it, is it?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You’re just good at running away,” he finished.

  “There’s a lot of things to run a
way from,” she said quietly.

  “More than you know.” Steven sighed. “That big hairy guy, today? He was after you, not us. He works for a guy named Maxwell, who’s very, very bad news. Maxwell set up the whole Zodiac powers thing, and I guess he’s got a whole bunch of Zodiac agents working for him now.”

  “Dog,” Kim said, thoughtfully. “He’s a Dog, from the Chinese Zodiac. And I’m a Rabbit?”

  “The Rabbit,” Steven said.

  She studied him for a moment. “You must be the Tiger.”

  “The big glowing cat over my head, before. Did that give me away?”

  A smile tickled at the corner of her lips. Then she turned serious again. “So you’re saying I should go with you before this Maxwell dude comes after me again?”

  “That’s one reason. Jasmine and Carlos—you haven’t met him yet, but he’s this really smart genius guy—they can also train you, teach you how to use your power. And frankly…no offense, but…” He gestured around. “…it doesn’t look like you’ve got a lot to stay here for.”

  Kim’s pizza was just a piece of crust now. She stared at it, thinking.

  “The Zodiacs…we’re all really different from each other,” Steven continued. “But we’ve got stuff in common, too.” He ticked off the members on his fingers. “Roxanne—Rooster—she needs training in her powers. Liam needed a change, to get away from his town, like I think you do too.

  “As for me…” He paused. “I know what it’s like when you can’t relate to your parents.”

  Steven looked down for a long moment, thinking about his mother and father. He thought of his grandfather, who’d raised him most of the time. The old man’s funeral was probably happening right now. He wiped away a tear, hoping Kim hadn’t seen.

  When he looked up, she was studying him again with that strange half-smile.

  “Did you rehearse that speech?” she asked. “Before you came here?”

  “Um,” he said.

  “How’d it come out? How would you say you did?”

  “Pretty good. About eighty, maybe eight-five percent the way I planned.” He smiled sheepishly. “Better than usual, for me.”

  “I’m in.” Kim swallowed the last of the pizza crust, then tossed away the plate. “Meet you outside?”

  “Great! But, uh…” He hesitated. “Did you pay for that pizza?”

  She smiled.

  Steven heard the guard’s footsteps again, and turned to warn Kim. She just lunged away and disappeared with a poof.

  Steven sighed. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a few bills—then stared at them in dismay. I haven’t used my wallet since I got the Zodiac power in Hong Kong, he realized. Jasmine’s been paying for everything!

  Steven shrugged and threw some bills down on the table. Hope they can exchange Chinese money.

  Suddenly he laughed. He felt lighter, he realized, as if a weight had been lifted from him. A wave of excitement washed over him. It took him a moment to figure out the reason:

  We’ve got a team now. A real team.

  The guard’s footsteps grew louder.

  Quick as a cat, Steven ran outside to meet up with his new teammate.

  MAXWELL SPREAD his arms, thrilling to the sudden release of Zodiac power. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense the Dragon form rising, snarling and raging and hissing fire. Its wings stretched wide, growing vast and thin, reaching out invisibly to blanket the entire world.

  Now came the crucial part. Maxwell had studied the Zodiac power, learned the ways it flowed and changed. He was not a scientist; he would never understand the ley lines, the electromagnetic flows that made up the power. But he could see it, locate it, track it across time and space.

  He forced all distractions out of his mind. There is no world, he thought. There is no self. There is only the qi—the flow, the life force, the vital energy of the Zodiac. That force has leaked out around the world, infused people who were never meant to host it. But none of them can hide from my eyes.

  The eyes of the Dragon.

  Maxwell saw the Earth as a pulsing globe, networked with veins across and beneath its surface. Deep in his trance, Maxwell could see them all. All the Zodiacs: his own agents, Horse and Dog and Monkey and Ox, and also Rat and Snake, the hidden stealth agents. He saw Jasmine’s group, too: Ram, Rooster, Pig, Rabbit, and, of course, Tiger. They pulsed like lights, like glowing nodes along the ley lines.

  But Maxwell wasn’t interested in any of them. He was looking for one light, and one only. The Dragon—the other Dragon. The pretender to his power.

  Where are you, Jasmine?

  Plunging deeper into the world-globe, he turned his attention to France. Josie—Horse—had tracked Jasmine there, less than forty-eight hours ago. Maxwell caught sight of Jasmine’s qi, and smiled. Now he could see its trail, shining brighter than all the others.

  He unfurled his vast energy-wings, reaching out to snare Jasmine. But he knew she’d already moved on. This was the recent past he was seeing, the wake left behind by her passage through the world.

  Maxwell dove into the ley lines, wings beating, churning against the ethereal tide. Following Jasmine’s qi.

  The trail led to Ireland. Again, Maxwell reached out—and again, she slipped from his grasp. He followed her, in a flash of light, to America, then watched as she dove back into the current once more.

  Maxwell smiled. This time, he knew where she was going. And this time—

  A clattering of chairs. A clearing of throats. The sound of many heartbeats, surrounding him.

  Maxwell opened his eyes. The trance was broken.

  “Boss,” Dog said. “You wanted to see us?”

  Maxwell blinked, looking around. This small chamber where he’d transferred the Zodiac power to his agents had been nearly stripped of its equipment. The two technicians fluttered around in the background, pulling out plugs and lugging computers away.

  Maxwell’s four assault-team agents stood at attention, facing him where he sat at the head of an old oak table. He cast his eyes across them, one at a time.

  Malik, the agent called Ox, was a strong, muscular bald man with thick muscles and a neatly trimmed beard. He’d always been calm in a crisis, and the Zodiac had given him an incredible reserve of physical strength. That would come in handy, Maxwell knew, in the days ahead.

  Dog had reverted to his less furry, human form, with only a normal shock of blond hair atop his fresh face. He bore some bruises from his recent battle in Indiana, but he stood at attention, ready for orders.

  Monkey—a tall, hunched man with unnaturally long arms—was a problem. He was already fidgeting, looking bored, popping little candies into his mouth with his elongated, prehensile fingers.

  And lastly: Horse. Josie stood completely still, the perfect soldier. Her jaw was clenched tightly as she stared at him, her face utterly composed. But Maxwell knew: She’s terrified. Twice now, she’s failed me. She thinks she knows what’s coming.

  She thinks she knows.

  “Well,” Maxwell said. “We’ve gotten off to a rocky start, haven’t we?”

  “Jasmine and Carlos have outmaneuvered us,” he said. “They now have all four of the lost powers. That’s a problem, one we’ll have to deal with.

  “But.”

  He paused dramatically. Ox cocked his head, expectant.

  Monkey belched.

  “I want you to remember three things,” Maxwell continued. “First: Jasmine’s recruits are no match for you in combat. You were all trained assault and infiltration operatives long before you had Zodiac powers. They’re just children.

  “Second: by assembling the new recruits in one place, Jasmine may actually have done us a favor.

  “And finally: the Zodiac power is new to all of us. We only learn by making mistakes.”

  He pointed a finger at Josie, and this time she flinched visibly. That made him smile.

  “Josie,” he said. “Horse. You were right. Putting you in the field with a normal, non-powered team w
as a mistake. Your methods are too different from theirs. Neither of you could operate effectively.”

  She looked up at him, confused.

  “I’m promoting you to field leader,” he continued. “I want you to take a new team—this team—to Jasmine’s headquarters in Greenland. I want you to work together, using all your powers, and bring their operation to its knees. But most of all, I want you to gather up the rest of the Zodiacs and bring them to me.”

  Josie blinked. She nodded, stunned.

  “You were right,” he repeated. “The Zodiacs should work together. Let’s make it happen.”

  “Yes, sir.” She saluted. “Th-thank you, sir.”

  “Don’t thank me, Josie.” He stared at her, his eyes steely. “I don’t choose tactics based on reward—or on punishment, either. This is a calculated, rational decision.”

  She nodded sharply. Then she motioned to the others and started leading them toward the exit. When they reached the door, she stopped.

  “Sir?” she said. “You’re absolutely right—we can handle the recruits. But what about Jasmine?”

  Maxwell closed his eyes, visualizing once again the worldwide network of Zodiac energy.

  “Leave her to me,” he said softly.

  Quietly, as if from a long way off, he heard the agents’ footfalls as they hurried out of the room. He smiled, savoring the peace and quiet.

  Then a crude grunting noise shattered the silence. Maxwell opened his eyes, annoyed. He turned to see the two techs, Maria and Fedor, struggling to unhook a jammed cable from one of the last pieces of computer equipment in the room.

  “Get. Out,” he said.

  They turned terrified eyes toward him, then fled.

  Finally Maxwell was alone. Soon, he thought, soon I’ll be back home, in Australia. He had real scientists there, brilliant minds working full time on the Zodiac project. Not these idiots he’d brought along to Hong Kong.

  A flash of rage passed through him. I didn’t think I needed scientists for the Convergence. I thought I had Carlos.

  Maxwell closed his eyes again, and again he saw Jasmine’s spoor. Her trail, the stolen Dragon energy, racing across the world. He followed its path through America, then out over the Atlantic Ocean, angling up to its destination in Greenland.