Hero Status

by Kristen Brand

  I tried to cross the room and immediately regretted it. People bumped and jostled me, and I couldn’t get a good look at anything. Plus, there was no telling who was getting a good look at me. Women in lingerie danced inside cages, and the DJ had an enormous fake death ray that shot colored lasers into the crowd. The beat of the bass vibrated my chest like a second heart. Cameras were everywhere, the party being filmed by MTV or some other channel. This room was too public; Dr. Sweet would set up somewhere out of the way. But this was where the attack would fall, because the Idols were here.

  I spotted them in front of the stage, in a restricted VIP area guarded by several bouncers. They were easy to find, still being in costume. They had to wear their uniforms whenever they made an appearance for publicity, even if that appearance tarnished the good name of superheroes everywhere.

  Starbright was strutting down the runway in the center of the area to the appreciative cheers of surrounding males. Her modeling career may have been behind her, but the cameras still swerved to follow her every move. G-Force was dancing, sandwiched between two women who could have been models based on looks alone. The man knew how to dance, but he still looked ridiculous in his outfit. Speaking of ridiculous, Mr. Tomorrow was knocking back shots at a table surrounded by excited groupies. I thought about going up and telling him Starla Strauss was planning on using mind-control to make him her love slave, but I doubted he would believe me. And even if he did, it wasn’t like he’d be any actual help.

  Then I saw Freezefire. I’d completely forgotten—Ruby had said she was making him go clubbing with the Idols for publicity. He sat at a table not far from Mr. Tomorrow, his arms crossed, his expression clearly saying, “I do not want to be here,” but the beer goggles on the men and women around him must have kept them from seeing it, or else they just didn’t care. I turned away on the off chance he’d look up and spot my face in the crowd. He wasn’t going to be happy to see me after our run-in this afternoon. Had word reached him that I would be here? It couldn’t have. Otherwise, he’d be surveying the room alertly instead of staring darkly into an untouched drink.

  There was nothing else to learn here. I had to search the rest of the building. I’d knock down every door from janitor closets to VIP lounges if I had to. The second floor had a balcony looking down onto the main room. If I needed to check on the Idols again, that would be a better place to do it from. Plenty of people had the same idea and were watching the dance floor from a more comfortable spot. How many of them were DSA agents? Had they already spotted me?

  I pushed my way through the throng of sweaty bodies, desperately trying to get to the stairs. I felt like a drowning man struggling to reach a boat that was being taken away by the current. As I looked to the balcony above, the DSA and all other thoughts fell from my mind like scattered coins across the floor. There she was.

  Val.

  The balcony had private booths separated from the public area by high walls, and VIPs looked on from above like kings and queens. One of them was Val. It was her face, cold and expressionless. I was sure of it.

  No. I couldn’t be sure. Someone could be using my desperation to find her to slip illusions into my mind. I reined in my wild emotions and concentrated on “The Song that Gets on Everybody’s Nerves.” When I’d cycled through it twice and Val’s image hadn’t wavered, I knew it had to be her.

  The pounding of my heart eclipsed even the beat of the music rattling my chest. My cane quavered in my unsteady grip, and I struggled to take deep breaths and calm myself. Val’s face was like a pale moon in a dark sky. From below, I could just make out the top of her lacy black camisole, her suit jacket having been stripped. Some sort of strange hat was on her head, but the distance and poor lighting prevented me from seeing exactly what it was.

  Because it wasn’t a hat. It was a smaller, sleeker version of that helmet Dr. Sweet had used on that telekinetic child all those years ago. It must have been. Otherwise she would have seen me, reacted in some way.

  I almost knocked a guy over in my rush to get to her. If the machine was already on her, Dr. Sweet could start at any second. I had to get upstairs.

  Calm down, Del Toro. I wasn’t a rookie and couldn’t afford to make any stupid mistakes. I had to hurry, but I also had to think. The crowd was like an obstacle course, but I kept moving forward. The flashing lights, pounding music, and smell of alcohol flooded my senses. All I had seen was Val, but it was a good bet Dr. Sweet was in the same booth in order to monitor the equipment he was using to control her. Starla… She’d be somewhere else. This was all about her, and she’d be the actress on center stage. Dr. Sweet and Val were the behind-the-scenes crew.

  But then, where was center stage? That was where it would all begin. And what experiment would Dr. Sweet be setting loose? No-Men? A person with special abilities who he’d captured and mutilated? Or would he use Val’s mind-control to force another supervillain to do the dirty work? There were just too many unknowns.

  My knee was already twinging in anticipation of climbing the stairs. I reached the bottom of them, waited for two girls in tube tops to get out of the way, and then started awkwardly up. If I could just get to the top before something terrible happened…

  Why was I on the right side of the stairs?

  It was a bigger deal than it sounded. My left knee was the injured one, which meant I held my cane with my right hand and should be gripping the bannister with my left. As counter-intuitive as it seemed, that was one of the first things they taught me in therapy. It would be easy enough to move to the other side, and it shouldn’t bother me so much, but…

  A man in ridiculously large sunglasses was coming down the stairs. He went around me—then swerved immediately back to the right side on the bottom three steps. Almost like he was avoiding something at the foot of the stairs that I couldn’t see…

  Oh no.

  I looked at the foot of the stairs and starting singing the song in my head. A second later, a No-Man wavered into existence.

  It was standing against the left wall, still as a statue. Holding tightly onto the song in my mind, I looked out over the main room.

  They were stationed along the walls like soldiers. There must have been at least a dozen of them, and no one could see them but me. Val was telepathically shielding their presence from the entire room. And there had to be hundreds of people in here. She couldn’t affect all their heads for long without hurting herself. How long had the No-Men been here?

  I had to put a stop to this. I managed two more steps before a man blocked my way. He was dressed in clubbing attire, but he had an earpiece.

  “David Del Toro, you’re under arrest. I’m going to need you to come with me.”

  “I'm going to have to respectfully decline.”

  Fighting on the steps would be tricky. I was stronger than the agent, but my balance wasn’t great. He could send me toppling down the staircase if I wasn’t careful. I braced myself.

  “Dave!”

  The shout came from the floor. Without taking my attention completely from the agent in front of me, I turned enough to see Julio push his way to the bottom of the stairs.

  Great.

  “Come down or I’ll take you down,” he said. He was standing right next to the No-Man without realizing it.

  “I can’t do that, Julio.”

  “Don’t make me fight you here. Innocent people could get hurt.”

  “They will get hurt unless I stop Dr. Sweet. He has my wife—right up there.” I pointed. “No-Men are telepathically hidden all throughout the room. They’re going to attack any second now if I don’t get to Sweet first. You have to trust me.”

  I put all the sincerity I could into the words. Around Julio, people were nudging their neighbors and pointing, coming to realize they might actually get to see a superhero arrest someone. I ignored them and met his eyes. I wished telepathy was part of his power-set, that he could read my mind and know I was telling the truth. I came here to fight a supervillain, not a frie
nd. And I didn’t have time to waste on another brawl. Every second was precious.

  “Please,” I said.

  His face was tight as he looked at me. You know me, I thought at him. I was your partner. I wouldn’t be doing this unless it was important.

  He shook his head firmly. “I can’t.”

  My gaze dropped from his eyes. If I’d asked him three years ago, his answer would have been different. If I’d asked him even yesterday, he still might have trusted me. I shouldn’t have fought him this afternoon. I shouldn’t have tried to resist arrest. But it was too late to change that now.

  His body shifted almost imperceptibly as he prepared for a fight. “Hands in the air. This is your last chance.”

  I tried to look like I was considering it, but in actuality, I was figuring out how I wanted to do this. There was Julio and the agent behind me, and probably more DSA agents in the wings, but I’d deal with them later. I was about to grab the agent behind me and throw him into Julio, taking them both out at once, when the situation changed.

  “Hey, Freeze, what’s goin’ on?”

  Oh Lord. What did they think they were doing?

  The crowd parted as the Idols swaggered up to us, and everyone nearby began to cheer like they were watching a football game. I grimaced. This was the last thing I needed right now.

  Julio clenched shut his eyes in a pained expression but then forced himself to smile at them. “Nothing important. I’ll take care of it.”

  “What do we have here?” Starbright asked, walking past him to get a better look at me.

  “This old guy giving you problems?” G-Force asked.

  Julio’s smile grew even tighter. “No. We were just about to arrest him. Then it’ll be boring procedural stuff. I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you guys get back to the bar?”

  “And disappoint our fans?” Mr. Tomorrow turned sweepingly toward the crowd and called out, “You all want to see the Idols in action?”

  They cheered.

  Mr. Tomorrow cupped his hand around his ear. “I can’t hear you!”

  They shouted wildly, clapping and jumping. I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. I needed to end this.

  “The people have spoken.” Mr. Tomorrow slapped Freezefire on the back and strode forward, Starbright and G-Force flanking him. They stopped at the foot of the stairs and gave me cocky—excuse me, heroic smiles. We were the center of attention now, and it felt odd not being in my White Knight costume. But then again, it was probably a good thing. I wasn’t going to disgrace the uniform by beating up the Idols in it on national television.

  “You gonna come quietly, or do we have to lay down the law?” Mr. Tomorrow asked, getting excited whoops from the audience.

  They were setting up a dramatic face-off, but I didn’t need one. G-Force posed the only threat to me. Five years ago, I would have held up fine under his gravity powers, but now, it would be murder on my knee.

  “Neither.”

  Change of plans. I grabbed the DSA agent behind me and threw him at G-Force. The Idol should have lowered gravity and sent the man sailing over his head, but his reactions were slowed by alcohol. The agent’s body crashed into him and sent them both to the floor.

  I briefly considered trying to make a run for it up the stairs, but I’d never make it in time. I had to take out at least Julio first. The cameras would have no doubt preferred me to stalk impressively toward the heroes, but they would have to settle for a slow hobble.

  Starbright’s hands began to glow with yellow light, piercing the darkness like glow-sticks. They formed little balls of energy in her palms, and she shot them at me.

  Against a normal person, they were probably painful. They probably could have caused minor burns from a close enough range. Against me? They barely even stung.

  I was almost at the bottom of the stairs. Starbright backed up, hurling her energy blasts at me faster and more desperately. She smacked into Freezefire, shrieked, and her next energy blast went wild and hit the wall mere feet from the No-Man’s head.

  I reached the bottom of the stairs, and Mr. Tomorrow swung at me.

  I blocked and hit him with an uppercut. He went down.

  The front of the crowd struggled to press backward, and I swore I could hear the hush even over the music. I could imagine the cameramen zooming in on me. Then Julio disentangled himself from Starbright, and I turned my attention back to the fight.

  The music stopped. Word of our brawl must have finally spread throughout the entire room. Murmured talk rose and fell like waves as people tried to figure out what was happening, and Julio and I both went still, eyeing each other warily.

  A woman screamed. It was a high-pitched, melodramatic thing, not worthy of an underpaid actress in a bad horror flick. Then spotlights—spotlights—lit up a spot on the balcony above.

  A No-Man held onto Starla Strauss’s arm and pressed a pistol to the side of her head. She screamed again, and just in case we’d somehow failed to realize she was in danger shouted, “Help me! Somebody help!”

  Mr. Tomorrow surged to his feet, not showing any ill effects from being punched. “I’ll save you, Starla!” He bypassed me completely and dashed up the stairs, his cape fanning out behind him.

  Heads in the crowd turned, looking back and forth between Mr. Tomorrow and Starla and the No-Man. They probably thought it was a publicity stunt, and one with bad acting, at that. Julio’s mouth was hanging open. I could have clocked him—I probably should have—but instead, I tried reason one last time.

  “It’s Dr. Sweet,” I said. “He’s—”

  The No-Man beside us stepped forward, and suddenly all hell broke loose.

  Val must have dropped the illusion hiding them, because Julio stared in shock. I pushed him out of the way as the No-Man lunged. Its swinging arms hit me instead and knocked me into the staircase. Fine wood cracked and splintered, and all around, people were screaming. I struggled to my feet and saw the No-Men cutting bloodily through the crowd.

  No.

  “Julio,” I shouted. “They’re No-Men with super-strength. Don’t hold back.”

  That was all he needed to know. He jumped to his feet and ran into the fray.

  “G-Force,” I barked.

  The man looked at me shakily from the floor.

  “Do whatever you can to slow them down, but keep your distance.” I looked at Starbright; she was staring open-mouthed in horror. “You. Crowd-control. Get everyone out of here and keep them from trampling each other.”

  Without waiting to see if they’d listen, I followed Julio. People ran in every direction, pushing and stepping over whoever was in their way. There were already casualties. The No-Men grabbed and smashed whoever was near. I couldn’t take it all in. It was a massacre.

  I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to hurry up the stairs after Mr. Tomorrow and get to Val. But saving her wouldn’t stop the No-Men. She was the only one in this building I loved; she was my world. Everything I’d done—the lines I’d crossed—it had all been for her. But I couldn’t rescue her and abandon all these people to be butchered. I just couldn’t.

  She would do it for me. Did that mean I didn’t love her enough?

  I’m sorry.

  I couldn’t think about it any longer. A No-Man was in range. I unscrewed the top of my cane, trusting Val to have it constructed from a metal that could withstand me wielding it. The No-Man grabbed the arm of a nearby man and crushed his bones in its grip with a sickening crunch. The man screamed. I raised the sword and hacked at the No-Man’s neck.

  Blood squirted everywhere. I wish I could say I decapitated it with a clean strike, but whatever Dr. Sweet had done to strengthen the No-Men’s bones was too successful. The blade hit its spine and stopped. But it disrupted the No-Man enough that it released the man, who fell to the floor and cradled his broken arm. I pulled the blade out of the No-Man’s neck with a grunt, and it stumbled. Then I swung again, and this time it cut through.

  The No-Man crumpled. I searched t
he chaos for my next target.

  Julio was nearby, and I could feel the heat in the air from his attack. The No-Man gunning for him slowed for a few steps and then collapsed. I was guessing he’d fried its brain. Julio could handle himself.

  Another No-Man wasn’t far off. I limped toward it, but with the sword unsheathed, my cane no longer had a handle, and it was slow going. In the time it took me to get there, it smashed a young woman’s skull.

  This was a battlefield. I had to disconnect my emotions. The horror could overcome me later.

  I reached the No-Man just in time for its elbow to hit me in the chest and knock me to the floor. The fall forced a puff of air out of my lungs, and I barely managed to hold onto the sword. I rolled and drove the butt of my cane into the No-Man’s ankle, dropping it. Before it could get back up, I cleaved off its head.

  I pushed myself up. It was hard to process the chaos of my surroundings, hard to lock onto anything through the mayhem of bodies, noise, and lights. Through a break in the crowd, I spotted another No-Man. Its movement was slow and labored, like it was fighting for every step. Then I saw G-Force staring it down from a spot against the wall. His powers weren’t strong enough to stop it completely, but he was slowing it down.

  I caught up with it easily and put my sword through its neck.

  It toppled, and I gave G-Force a nod. He swallowed and nodded back.

  We took down three more No-Men with the same pattern. There was a reason superheroes teamed up so often.

  By now, the room was less crowded. A lot of people had made it out. But some were still running, some hiding, some lying injured or dead on the floor. I ended up near Julio and shouted, “Can you handle the rest? I’m going after Dr. Sweet.”

  “Go!” he said.

  I crossed the room and limped as fast as I could up the stairs.

  I’d come down with Val or not at all.

  Chapter 16

  When I reached the top, I was winded, and the agony in my knee cut through the drugs. But I couldn’t afford to take a breather. I headed straight for the VIP booths.