by Jamie Hawke
She frowned. “Before that.”
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for more. I didn’t really know much about her life before that, and our brief time on Junos interacting with those at Supralines led me to believe I didn’t know the full picture of her time there, either.
Evading the question, she moved over to Andromida. Twitch made eye contact with me in a way that said to let it go, so I did, for now. All of these ladies were special to me, so knowing that any of them might be purposefully hiding something hurt. I laughed at the thought, realizing this was occupying more mindspace than some crazy supervillain killing force, earning me a confused look from Shimmer and Gale.
“What?” the latter asked, hands ready to shoot out with her powers if more trouble came along.
“It’s nothing,” I said, looking over each of them and the way their tight hero outfits clung to their curves. Gale was especially curvy, the danger of the moment still pumping through me and giving me an amped up sense of wanting to live every moment.
On top of that, though, I realized I didn’t really know any of these ladies as well as I’d have liked. And they didn’t know me so well, either. We were close to my home, so maybe it wouldn’t be so insane to consider heading over to Earth and showing them around, once this was over? A man could dream.
Regardless, I promised myself right there to find more time for each of them. Not just to fuck, though there’d be plenty of that, but to actually find out who they were, what they cared about… what excited them about life.
“He’s got that horny look going on, doesn’t he?” Gale whispered to Shimmer.
“Same look he had first time I realized he wanted to fuck me,” Shimmer replied, glancing around with a bit of worry still, always vigilant, but allowing enough playfulness in to wink my way.
“I’m not trying to get down right here and now,” I defended myself. “But I can honestly say there’s not a situation in hell I can think about that would ever make me forget how sexy you all are.”
Gale grinned and ran a hand across my abs as she passed to join the others. “Moving on, big guy. Focus.”
Shimmer walked by too, adding a bit of extra sway to her hips as she moved. Damn, if it weren’t for the blood and possible death at any moment, I could’ve actually gone right then and there.
Funny how, not long ago, the threat of death would’ve terrified me. Back at the factory on Earth, I never thought of myself as anything special. Now I was on my way to becoming an Elder at the Citadel and, if I could have my fun along the way, a Space Paladin. I grinned at the thought, catching up with them and seeing Twitch at the back.
They’d mocked me when I first brought up the Space Paladin idea, but I was serious. Pulling up my screens while we walked and relying on the ladies to keep their eyes open, I scanned over my skills and landed on the Heavenly Light one.
“Hey, Twitch,” I said, and she glanced over. “About the Space Paladin thing….”
“On that again?” she asked with a grin. “Hey, I think it’s kinda hot. Be my knight in shining armor.”
“I’m glad you think so. I was wondering, with your reprogramming ways… could you work with what Lamb left me in terms of upgrading and whatnot? I mean, make it more of a paladin thing, with skills like a paladin would have?”
“Huh.” She watched the others leading the way, pausing with me to quickly scan a screen. “Looks like I can make changes, and she even left in doors to make it easy. What exactly would a paladin have?”
I racked my mind for old games and how it worked, and quickly explained how paladins were all about being holy, working with heavenly skills, stuff like blessings, holy conviction, salvation, stuff like that. Before I was done she interrupted and said she got it, then made quick adjustments and licked her tongue.
“Damn, I’m good,” she said, turning to see that the others were far ahead now. “Check it out, but let’s get moving before we’re left behind.”
“Thanks,” I said, agreeing and jogging along with her to catch up, but checking my screen at the same time. “Holy shit, you’re amazing.”
“Ah, holy shit—I forgot to include that one.” She winked, continuing on.
I laughed. “Not sure I’d want to use it too often.”
The skills she had included, though, sounded awesome. I had a whole new window of a skill tree that worked with the various powers I held from my interactions with my ladies. It included some pretty cool-sounding ones, including one on the next level called Redemption. I’d have to check them all out, but right now I needed to remember to stay focused.
I put away my screens when we reached the others, but another shout in the distance, then one closer, reminded me to have the scanner up. Good timing, too, because a name appeared for a brief moment, then was gone—Muerta.
And then it was there again, closer… and then gone.
“She’s moving in on us,” I said, indicating the direction. “Muerta.”
The others turned toward the wall. Andromida glanced around, searching for cameras or anyone watching, and then used her powers to peel the metal seams apart.
“Wrong,” she told me. “We’re going for her.”
3
Andromida was practically bubbling with excitement as she moved forward, tearing walls apart in complete disregard of what we’d discussed about not using our powers unless absolutely necessary. I opened my mouth to say something, but thought better of it.
“What can you do, huh?” Shimmer chuckled beside me.
“We’re a bunch of superheroes who were supervillains, or who the hell knows really,” Gale turned and sent a blast of ice at a trio of inmates with guns who’d stood up from the other side of a gap in the wall, ready to attack. Their fingers froze on their guns, barrels cracking off. “You can’t expect us to be the rule-abiding type.”
“But what about when I’m an Elder?” I protested, seeing more inmates pop up and, before they could fire, hitting them with enough tempest energy to knock them unconscious but not dead, I hoped, considering the topic at hand. “Come on, we’re going to have to be more moral, then. More… cautious, at least?”
Charm went pouncing past me, catching someone who’d just dropped from an opening in the ceiling above. She smashed his head into the wall and then turned to me, frowning. “Morals? Is this the best time to be talking morals?”
“I’m just saying—”
I was interrupted by an explosion that would have sent Andromida flying back into us, but she melded the metal into a wall, combining it with the blue light of a shield that formed around her. A second later the debris was flying away, piercing armed inmates and slamming into the far wall.
A veil of darkness passed over us and Shimmer fell to one knee, but Twitch was on it instantly, buffering her with those screens.
“Andromida, move!” I shouted, and used my Heavenly Light, hoping I’d be able to control it and not take her powers away like I had at the Pyramids of Gurstrad. Her skin shifted away from blue and for a moment she turned to me with terror and hatred written clear on her face, but then Gale hit her with a gust of wind that, apparently, thrust her out of my range.
The blue instantly returned, and Andromida was tearing through nearby walls with her powers, screaming, “I know you’re here, bitch! Show yourself!”
Maybe it would’ve been better if I had taken her powers. This was getting completely out of hand. But at least now we were headed toward the back of the compound, away from where most of the fighting would be going on.
I scanned and saw Muerta pop up to our left, so I charged that way, shouting for Andromida to follow me. We needed to take her out, so I had to hope Twitch had the situation with Shimmer under control. A quick glance back showed Gale at the woman’s side, both standing and starting to move my way, so I let out a sigh of relief.
Before the screen could vanish, I shot out with my tempest ability into the darkness of mangled metal and tunnels beyond. Fuck it, right? Anyone here was either an enemy o
r a likely enemy, I figured. Shouts sounded, a couple of thuds, and then a body came flying at me.
I threw myself to the side and nearly stumbled at the sight—it wasn’t my doing, that was for damn sure. The eyes were gone, flesh looking like it had been eaten off, and streaming gold smoke trailed it. When the body hit the wall behind me, it exploded in gold light that threw me to the ground and caused Charm, who I now saw had been right behind me, to slam into the opposite wall.
Andromida went tearing past us in a streak of blue. I pushed myself up, pissed. “Fuck this,” I said, slamming my hand into the metal wall to use my travel power. The metal engulfed me, throwing me forward so that everything was a flash. I came out at the first sense of a living presence.
My tempest was already forming, my shifting power pushing me into semi-dragon form. Yeah, I was going for intimidation, strength, and everything I could throw at the enemy. Only, she wasn’t there.
Andromida spun on me, ready to attack, then turned again while cursing after she saw it was me. My scanner went up and I turned too, looking for any sign of Muerta, but none came. Andromida tore off to our left, continuing in the direction we’d been going as the others caught up with me.
“No sign of her,” I shouted above the noise of the previous room collapsing in on itself.
“Spread out?” Shimmer asked and turned, creating windows out of the nearby walls. It was insane, suddenly being able to see through the walls like that, catching glimpses of strange medical chairs and equipment likely used to punish or test the inmates held here. There weren’t many people nearby. The few we caught glimpses of farther off were either fighting or in hiding. No one noticed us except for one who startled as the window appeared, only to have it vanish as Shimmer let them all go, restoring the metal walls to their previous state.
“Holy hell. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“So can you,” she replied. “It’s not as easy for me to manifest the illusion into reality, but to a degree, it’s possible.”
Since my suit had a built-in ability to scan supers—one of many things Lamb designed it to do—I didn’t think the window idea would be too necessary, but one never knew.
I let the dragon shifter power and tempest ball fade, noting the way Gale was looking at me like she didn’t know me at all. “After Andromida, then,” I suggested, and took off running.
We were racing through halls, turning corners and shooting at any randoms who fired at us first. Occasionally we’d come across a super whose powers would kick in when close enough to us—just enough time to try and attack us, only to be taken down a second or two before the attack could manifest.
There was no question we were kicking ass, but there was one big problem. There hadn’t been a sign of Muerta in too long now. My experience bar was rising, slowly and steadily, so I had to appreciate this place for the grinding aspect but could see the desperation and frustration in Andromida’s eyes when we caught up with her.
“Which way?” Charm asked, brandishing her claws. “I want to rip open some motherfuckers.”
It wasn’t until then that I noticed the blood already streaked across her forearms and dripping from those claws. Damn, sometimes I forgot she could be a bit ruthless. That’s what happens when you meet the woman of your dreams in a supervillain prison, I guess.
“We need to move away from here,” Twitch said, looking at her screens and then gesturing for us to follow her. “Stop all this fighting with the inmates, so we can concentrate on tracking down Muerta.”
“Agreed,” Andromida said, although she clearly had an itch to go back out and simply tear the whole place apart.
I couldn’t blame her.
We followed Twitch through a couple of doors and up some stairs, relocating to a room at the edge of the asylum that had a view outside. She gestured us away from the doorway into the main corridor although she stayed next to it, setting up screens along the wall that hovered and remained in place. It was like having our own security room. She was hacking into the various feeds of the planet, giving us the ability to see different angles of the building, along with outside shots and some inside from the others nearby.
As she checked, I ran my troubleshooter skill, hoping it might show us something on her screens we wouldn’t otherwise have noticed. At one point it brought up a dark form, seemingly staring straight at the screen, but it was gone in a blink. I wasn’t sure I’d actually seen it to begin with.
“At least they won’t pay much attention to us,” I commented while looking at the rising smoke and blasted-open walls visible on the displays. “All this destruction we’ve caused will just seem like another piece of the pie.”
“Please don’t mention pie,” Charm groaned and threw herself into the corner. She sat there, tail wrapped around in front of herself so she could hold it like a pet. “Damn. I’d kill for a slice of lemon meringue. Not as good as carrot cake, but while we’re on the topic…”
“Let’s focus,” I said, feeling my stomach rumble.
“All the killing we’re going to have to do by the time we get off this planet,” Gale griped, “we better get a damn lot of pie.”
“On that note, I’m not giving up,” Andromida snarled, hands on the wall, glaring out through one of the windows.
“None of us are,” Twitch countered. “But we need something to go on, we need—”
“I’m going back out there. See what I can find. You’ll be here?”
Twitch frowned, looked at me for approval, then said, “Sure, for a few minutes. To catch our breath, come up with a strategy.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Try to be more discreet,” I said, but Andromida was already gone.
“So… strategy?” Shimmer asked. “Find allies, see what they know, who’s on her side, who might have seen her?”
“It’s too long-term,” Gale countered. “There’s the quick response, which Andromida is sure to take. If that works, she’ll be back with the woman’s head.”
“And if not?” I asked.
Twitch was at the window, watching the way Charm licked the back of her hand and used it to smooth out the hair around her fox ears.
“It’s pissing me off that I can’t get a good fix on her,” Twitch finally said, turning back to us. “Problem is, I imagine, the deal with this Quencher.”
“Ah, good point.” I turned to the door, a realization hitting me. “Which also means Andromida won’t be able to do much once she’s outside of our little bubble.”
“Except that some powers work. And I’m guessing Andromida’s history—her father’s side, specifically—means she might be immune to the Quencher in some ways.”
“Meaning, she might have some of Hadrian’s powers?” Charm asked, as if snapping out of some trance.
Twitch nodded. “Powers that aren’t of the same origin as the rest of ours, so might not be affected.”
Through a window, I noticed a flash of light in the sky, followed by silence. No guns were going off, no explosions rocking the compound.
Charm raised an eyebrow. Twitch went to the door with her blaster ready, and we waited.
“All rebels, all inhabitants of Abaddon Asylum, and all others who are not where you belong,” a voice rang out in the night, causing Gale to make a face while Shimmer ground her teeth. “Orion Corp sees this as a direct attack and has therefore deemed all further action an act of war. We realize, however, that some of you are our soldiers and will stand for the side of right. Therefore, here is the deal we offer—as enemies have been shooting down our drones, all we can offer is high level feeds for those back home, but this is a special edition of Abaddon for them tonight. It’s not just the Chaos Zone anymore!”
“They’ll fucking show the massacre here on T.V.,” I muttered. Not that it was below the producers, as they’d shown many similar special events in the show’s history. For viewers back home, this would just be one more special.
“For those of you wishing to say ‘fuck you�
� to Orion Corp,” the message continued, “well, here’s a big ‘fuck you’ back. For those of you loyal to or wishing to join Orion Corp, we have an opportunity! If you want to escape this place before we wreak havoc and kill off most of you, enslaving the rest, guess what?” The voice picked up in excitement. “You all get to kill the idiots and weaklings for us! Team up, form a posse or gang or whatever you want to call it, and end the rest these rebels—those who are to blame, who started this mess. Find them and bring us their heads, and we’ll see that you get off this planet alive. You’ll be the lucky few! And guess what? Thanks to our A.I. and advanced world-scanning system, we can monitor it all so that you too will have the chance to join our army! That’s right. You get enough kills in the next twenty-four hours and form the team that takes down the rebels, you will be able to leave from these coordinates. The clock has started. And remember—if they aren’t dead, nobody leaves!”
Flashes of green and red showed on the dark clouds above, then traces of the edge of fireworks.
“This is their plan?” I shook my head at the thought. “Instead of sending forces to deal with this, they fucking televise the whole thing while people kill each other off?”
“It’s twisted, but… wasn’t that expected?” Twitch shrugged. “Orion Corp backed Ranger. The way Muerta puts it, they basically turned her into what she is—a fact that in itself makes them sound pretty damn horrible.”
“She’s out to stop them, and aren’t we?” Twitch asked. “I mean, can’t we just—”
“No,” I cut in.
“Let her finish,” Gale chided me.
“She’s going to say we should let Muerta move against Orion. Let her do the dirty work of taking them out.” A glance at Charm confirmed everything I was saying.
“The problem with that being…?” Charm asked.
“It’s immoral,” Shimmer cut in. “Think it through. We need to take down Orion Corp, but that doesn’t mean everyone who works for the company is evil. It certainly doesn’t mean they should be killed, or slaughtered… or tortured, as we can imagine Muerta might do.”