That’s what I told myself.
THE GUN EMITTED A BEAM OF BABY PINK LIGHT
Soft and ridiculous: a color even ten-year-old Kimberley would have thought was too Hello Kitty. It enveloped the screaming Lilith in its pastel embrace, then blinked out.
Lilith’s fists didn’t stop moving. They just started passing through Aria’s body.
“Ooo-kaaaay,” I said. “Did not expect that.”
Lilith had become intangible. It was actually a brilliant way of neutralizing an opponent. Lilith could no longer hurt us, yet she wasn’t damaged herself. In her crazed condition, she didn’t even realize what had happened. Her fists kept flying, moving faster than before but without effect.
Nice. And eminently defensible in court. You could even turn the gun on yourself, become intangible, and run. Preferably through a wall, so your enemies couldn’t follow.
Aria said, “I’ve got to get me one of those.” She rose shakily to her feet, with Lilith still hammering ineffectually at her.
“I could probably build one,” Ninety-Nine said. “Just let me see how it works.”
She tried to take the pistol. I backed away. “Do not dissect the wonder-gun.”
As I ducked out of Ninety-Nine’s reach, I noticed an LED display on the back of the weapon, just above where my hand held the pistol butt. If I’d had normal vision, I would have seen it immediately; the display was designed to be seen from the shooter’s point of view. But my Spark-o-Vision had centered itself near the garage’s ceiling, as if I hadn’t wanted to be inside my own head when I pulled the trigger.
Huh.
THE LED READ 23
A second later 22. Then 21.
I said, “Twenty seconds till she rematerializes. Ideas?”
“Keep shooting as needed,” Ninety-Nine suggested. “Eventually, she’ll get the shakes and self-destruct.”
“In the meantime,” Dakini said, “I’ll keep working on her mind. I can do it, even when she’s in this form. I think I’m making progress.”
“Keep your eye on the timer!” Aria said, pointing at the gun. “I don’t want her solidifying when her fists are inside me.”
I said, “Three … two … one…”
Aria leapt backward. Lilith closed the gap a moment later, her fists suddenly making solid contact with Aria’s force field until I pulled the trigger again.
“Your reflexes are slow,” Aria complained. “Just FYI, it hurts like hell when she hits my force field.”
I made a grumpy face, then handed the pistol to Ninety-Nine. “You’re faster than I am. But do not take the gun apart.”
“Not right now,” Ninety-Nine said.
I glared at her.
“As I was saying,” Dakini said, “I’m making progress on Lilith’s mind. I’ve augmented her obsession with hitting Aria. That’s why she hasn’t tried the eye thing again. I’ve got her totally fixated on punching. Apart from that, her psyche is hard to penetrate. If I find some vulnerability, I’ll try to whittle her down.”
“You whittle,” I said. I pointed to Ninety-Nine. “You shoot.” I pointed to Aria. “You be the obsession. I’ll see if I can deal with loose ends.”
“Like what?” Aria asked.
“Peeling Diamond out of his armor before he wakes up. And—”
The rift gave a thunderous whomp as it jerked smaller.
“And,” I said, “making sure nobody is near the rift when it closes.”
“Yeah,” Aria said, looking at the rift through the hole in the garage’s wall. “Let’s not be here anymore.”
She headed out of the garage and away from the rift. Lilith followed, still pounding with her insubstantial fists. Ninety-Nine and Dakini trailed behind.
I SHRANK AND FLEW BACK TOWARD DIAMOND
He lay sprawled where he’d landed. The stump of his damaged arm was exposed burnt flesh, but the rest of his armor was intact.
The armor was glowing. It had gone dark when he’d first crashed down, but obviously it had rebooted and was attempting self-repair. Damn.
I had no idea if Diamond or his battle suit could see me, but I had to assume the worst. His suit would have all kinds of sensors—maybe ones that could pick me out no matter how small I got. The sensors might not be working yet. After a reboot, the first systems to be powered up would be damage control and life support. Defending against insect-sized threats would be farther down the list.
But anti-shrinker defenses would wake up eventually. I had to reach Diamond before his suit erected a force field or something else that would complicate my life. I flew straight at him, shrank a bit more, then entered a burn hole in his arm.
Welcome to a supervillain’s bloodstream.
I STARTED BACTERIUM-SIZED AND SHRANK DOWN TO A VIRUS, THEN EVEN SMALLER
I approached a red corpuscle that in my eyes looked as big as a football stadium. I slid inside its outer membrane and let it carry me through veins and arteries, like a submarine shooting through the circulation system. Long chain molecules inside the corpuscle hurtled past me on unknown errands. If I survived this, I’d have to find a way to show it all to Jools. She didn’t excel at classwork, but she genuinely loved biology.
Think about that later. Dealing with Diamond was Job Number One.
I scaled up my Spark-o-Vision and scanned what his armor was doing. Not much to see: Everywhere I looked, computer circuitry had to be processing like mad, but all I saw were faint glows of power doing nothing visible. Intravenous feeds ran from the armor into Diamond’s body, pumping him full of chemicals. I had no idea what the chemicals were doing; presumably stabilizing his health and waking him up.
So what to do? I wanted to prevent the man from hurting my friends. I could grow big inside him and rip him apart, but I preferred to use that as a threat rather than actually doing it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t threaten him if he couldn’t hear me.
Hmm.
Using my comm ring, I transmitted, «Diamond, what are the odds you’ve hacked into the Inventor’s comm system?»
No answer.
«You’re a Mad Genius, Diamond. Hacking is what you do. As Adam Popigai, you’ve been in Ontario for months. In that time, I bet you applied yourself to tapping the local Spark chat line.»
No answer.
«I’m inside you, Diamond. In your bloodstream. If you don’t respond, I’ll have to find other ways to communicate. Invasive ways.»
A chuckle, strained but clear. I had to admire the drugs his suit was pumping out. If he could laugh in his condition, the painkillers must be awesome.
«You’d be Zircon, correct?» Diamond’s voice sounded exactly like the prerecorded soliloquy.
«That’s me,» I said. «Right now, I’m»—I did a quick scan—«running through the lining of your large intestine. I think. Studying Gray’s Anatomy is on my to-do list.»
«Skip the book,» Diamond said. «I recommend dissecting the real thing. Preferably a living subject. More fun that way.»
«You realize I could kill you at any time, right? Saying things like that doesn’t improve your chance of survival.»
«Ah, I’m just doing PR,» he replied. «I have to maintain my reputation. After tonight’s fiasco, my rep will take a hit.»
«You certainly aren’t going to get thirty thousand new Sparks. Or three hundred thousand corpses. Not even superpowered rats and gulls.»
«You surely don’t think you destroyed all the vermin,» Diamond said. «They’re survivors. Super-survivors. And Dark versus Light still applies. All those super-rats and gulls will feel compelled to attack Darklings. So this project hasn’t been a total waste.»
«Why do you hate Darklings so much?»
Diamond didn’t respond right away. After a long pause, he said, «My dear Zircon, are you familiar with Rapa Nui? More commonly called Easter Island? The place with those giant stone heads?»
«I’ve seen pictures.»
«Then you know the island once supported a prosperous culture. So prosperous, they could aff
ord to spend time and resources on erecting big stone heads instead of day-to-day subsistence. But eventually things went to hell. You know why?»
I said, «They used up all the trees. Chopped them down until nothing was left, and the environment collapsed. Nearly everyone died.»
«Ha!» Diamond sounded triumphant. «That’s the morality tale everyone likes to believe. What really happened had nothing to do with morality. Some boat arrived with rats on board, and the rats got loose on the island. They ate the seeds and seedlings of every damn plant they found. The humans probably realized what was happening and tried to wipe out the rats before it was too late. But like I said, rats are survivors. They destroyed the ecology, and took the island with them.»
I said, «Why are you telling me this?»
«Because Darklings are society’s rats. They’ll keep eating till everything’s gone. They won’t stop, they won’t slow down, they won’t hear the word ‘no.’ They’ll keep eating-eating-eating till the world goes to hell.»
«Darklings are intelligent,» I said. «They can understand the consequences of their actions.»
«They can, but they never bother. They assume the consequences will fall on someone else. They think they’re too special to end up dirty and starving.»
He almost spat the word “special.” I said, «They’re not that bad—» but he cut me off.
«They are! They’re dead inside. They are literally and spiritually dead, killed by the Dark Conversion. They can’t change even if they want to. Which they don’t. They believe they’re the pinnacle of merit, and anyone who doesn’t aspire to be exactly like them is either jealous or stupid.»
«Okay,» I said placatingly, «okay.» His rant had the sound of someone ramping up to do something extreme, like a madman with a knife talking himself into a frenzy. I didn’t know what killing power his battle suit still possessed, but I didn’t want Diamond running amok in Waterloo. «One way or another,» I said, «this is over. Your rift is closing, and your cover is blown. Go back to Australia. Write this one off.»
«Or else you’ll kill me?» Diamond demanded. «If you had the balls, I’d be dead already. I’m a big bad supervillain, and if you don’t punch my ticket, I’ll keep murdering Darklings and innocent people. But you’d rather let people die than sully your conscience by killing me directly.»
«Which is why Zircon has friends to fill the gap,» a voice said.
Aria. Who apparently had been listening.
I’D KEPT MY POINT OF VIEW SMALL, WATCHING INSIDE DIAMOND’S BODY AS I TRAVELED THROUGH HIS BLOODSTREAM
Now I widened my perspective to see the outside world.
Aria hurtled toward Diamond and me, flying scary-fast. Lilith was right behind, flying just as fast and trying (in midair) to punch Aria into golden goo. Diamond started to say, “Sh–” but by the time the “—it” came out, both Aria and Lilith had arrived.
Aria jerked to a stop inside Diamond’s body, superimposed on him like a ghost. Ohh-kay. She was now the one who’d become insubstantial. Which meant …
Lilith lashed out, her fists as solid as granite, but much higher on the Mohs hardness scale. Harder even than diamond.
Heh.
With Aria incorporeal inside Diamond’s body, and positioned so Lilith still had a good clear view of her, Lilith’s super-hard punches slammed Diamond instead.
It would have made me laugh, except I was too busy banging around as the lightning-fast blows rocked Diamond’s body.
DIAMOND’S ARMOR SAVED HIM FROM BEING BASHED TO A PULP
But it didn’t prevent him rattling back and forth inside the armor like dice in a backgammon cup. I don’t know how Diamond’s head stayed clear enough to fight back against the pounding, but let’s chalk it up to superintelligence: His brain was all kinds of special. It had let him survive all those battles with Australian heroes. Even when a super-team attacked with everything they had, Diamond had managed to escape.
Wait. I had read about Diamond in Wikipedia. The article had mentioned how he always escaped. «Aria,» I transmitted, «he’s going to—»
«I know,» she said. «Ninety-Nine told me about his final defense. Get out of there!»
I shoved my way out of the blood cell I’d been riding and raced for the outside world. No time for finesse: Like that scene from Alien, I took the most direct route. I grew to the size of a pinhead, leaving a needle-sized trail as I clawed through the wall of Diamond’s large intestine, into the abdominal muscles, and on toward the epidermis. Even that “easy” route took time and effort. With my full normal strength, it was simple enough to stab my hands through every tissue I encountered. (My friend, the thumbtack principle.) But dragging myself forward was a gooey business, made more difficult by the tossing and turning of the ongoing fight.
Lilith punched, still obsessed with killing Aria. Diamond fought back, emptying his suit’s remaining arsenal into Lilith at pointblank range. Missiles. Napalm. Liquid nitrogen. When he released a stream of lava straight into her blackened eye, she began vibrating and strobing, but she didn’t even notice. Lilith kept hammering so hard and so fast, Diamond was vibrating almost as quickly as she was.
Any moment, I expected to see Diamond’s final defense: teleportation. Wikipedia said that a fail-safe device inside his armor could teleport Diamond’s body out of the battle suit and off to some unknown place of safety where he could recuperate. Meanwhile, the suit would remain behind, then explode with a force beyond any conventional explosive. It wasn’t a nuclear blast, but over the years, a dozen heroes had been killed by Diamond’s lethal getaway, including Sparks noted for super-toughness.
I seriously didn’t want to test how much my zircon skin could withstand.
I CLAMBERED OUT THROUGH THE SURFACE OF DIAMOND’S SKIN
But I was still inside Diamond’s battle suit. The space between his flesh and his armor smelled strongly of Diamond’s spilled blood.
The only way out of the armor—at least the only one I knew about—was the hole by which I’d entered, where the battle suit’s arm had blown off. I grew as big as I could, given the clearance between the armor and Diamond; then I scrambled up his body like a cockroach, digging my fingers and toes into his flesh as I went. (Three cheers for experience climbing in the mountains around Banff!)
To see where I was going, I brought my vision back into my head rather than watching what happened outside. My first clue that something had changed was Aria shouting in my head, «Stay back!»
«Can’t,» I heard Ninety-Nine answer. «You turn solid in five … four … three … »
I shoved myself out of the hole in the armor just in time to see Aria rise high enough to get clear of Diamond’s body. Lilith rose with her, still punching. Aria’s force field offered some protection, but it had thinned to the width of a dime. Even worse, Diamond raised his remaining arm as soon as Aria left him. He clearly intended to shoot her with some weapon the instant she became solid.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I leapt toward his outstretched arm. As I jumped, I grew. By the time I reached my target, I was Max Zirc size and full weight.
I may not be big or heavy, but I caught Diamond by surprise. Besides, he’d taken a hell of a beating. Usually, his armor gave him superstrength, but after all the damage his suit had suffered, Diamond only possessed his own muscle power. Long story short: When I grabbed his arm, my weight dragged it most of the way down.
The attack he’d been aiming still fired, but it wasn’t pointing at Aria. It wasn’t pointing at anything. It did, however, have a targeting mechanism that apparently homed in on the nearest suitable victim. Unsurprisingly, Diamond had programmed it never to target him, so who was next closest?
Starts with Z.
I WAS HIT WITH HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRICITY
Lucky for me, I wasn’t grounded. I was shorter than Diamond, and with my two arms wrapped around his one, I dangled with my feet not touching the ground. So what was the path of least resistance for a few million vol
ts desperately eager to reach Earth?
Starts with D.
DIAMOND LIT UP LIKE THE TIME RICHARD TRIED TO REPAIR OUR TOASTER
I took a fraction of the shock myself, but only in my zircon arms.
Zircon isn’t a very good conductor.
Normally diamond is also a lousy conductor, but Diamond’s armor was special: super-hardened by Cape Tech and chock-full of electronic circuits. When the voltage zapped out at me, it fed straight back into Diamond’s suit and ran toward the ground, frying much of the circuitry as it went. The glow that surrounded the armor blinked out, and high-voltage current stopped shooting through me.
I was still alive.
As for Diamond, I didn’t know. But if the teleportation/explosion was going to happen, it would kick in any second. “Ninety-Nine!” I shouted. “Shoot me, then shoot yourself!”
She didn’t hesitate. In the time I’d been hanging off Diamond, Ninety-Nine had already shot Aria and restored her to safe intangibility. Now she turned the gun on me. The baby pink beam surrounded my body like a Halo. The world went instantly silent—being insubstantial, my ears no longer intercepted sound waves. My arms lost their grip on Diamond and I slid through his body, drifting gently downward. I felt nothing as my feet touched the ground, but my descent stopped anyway. I could think of no good rationale for that happening, so I decided it was magic.
Hurray for magic! I wasn’t going to keep sinking into the ground, then suddenly become solid when surrounded by buried garbage.
Meanwhile, Ninety-Nine turned the gun on herself. She pulled the trigger and became ephemeral. The pistol didn’t. It clattered to the ground.
«Well, crap,» Ninety-Nine transmitted. «But of course, it would have to be impervious to its own—»
FLASH
Diamond’s armor silently blew up.
FLASH
Lilith strobed out.
FLASH
The rift closed.
14
Diagenesis*
THE EXPLOSIONS WERE SILENT
Also hyper-amazingly bright to those of us at ground zero. But the crushing blasts of superheated air went straight through us without making the least impression on our eardrums.
All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault Page 37