Vanguard: Seasons 1-3: A Superhero Adventure

by Percival Constantine

  “I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt,” he said. “Tried to convince everyone that you weren’t the same guy in Chicago. But then you go and pull something like this. Just what the hell did you think you were doing?”

  “I’m doing what’s necessary to protect our people,” said the Exemplar. “But it seems like you’re only interested in covering your own ass!”

  He flew at Sharkskin, who stood his ground. The two men each threw punches, their fists slamming into each other. Sharkskin made an attempt to claw at the Exemplar’s side, but he easily dodged.

  The Exemplar flew around Sharkskin and struck him from behind. He brought his arms under Sharkskin’s and clasped his hands together behind the Vanguardian’s neck.

  “You think you know me, what kind of person I am?” asked the Exemplar. “Well, I also know you. I know you’re a decent person and I know that somewhere, deep down, you don’t trust Cerberus. You’re too smart for that.”

  “Oh, just shut the hell up already!” Sharkskin jumped back, slamming the Exemplar into one of the tanks and his grip came loose. Sharkskin turned and drove his fists into his enemy’s face, one after another. “We’ve done this dance too many times! And I’m sick and tired of having to beat some sense into that thick skull of yours!”

  The Exemplar grabbed Sharkskin’s hand and held it firm. Sharkskin tried to pull away, except the Exemplar’s grip was too strong. He pulled and Sharkskin screamed, but those cries were drowned out by the crack of the bone breaking.

  “I’ve gone easy on all of you for far too long.”

  The Exemplar grabbed Sharkskin and lifted him up, then threw him across the base into one of the buildings. He hovered above the ground, looking as the remainder of the team surrounded him.

  “You want to betray our kind? That’s your business. But I’m done playing games. I’m going to kill anyone who gets in my way.” A smile spread across his lips as he looked down at his enemies. “So, who wants to go first?”

  A blur of red and white streaked across the sky. Something strong hit the Exemplar from above and he fell to the ground. He sat up and raised a hand to his lip, surprised to see blood staining his white glove.

  The sound of an impact came from behind him. The Exemplar turned and could see who struck him. She stood across from him, her arms akimbo, the wind catching the red and white cape she wore.

  “Be a gentleman, King.” Paragon smiled. “Ladies first.”

  CHAPTER 10

  The Cerberus aircrafts were loosely based on the designs of the Icarus. But while they had many of the same capabilities and were faster than most others in existence, they still couldn’t quite match the speed of Zenith’s design. The Cerberus jet came to a hover over an isolated, mountainous area in the middle of the country and slowly lowered to the ground.

  Shift and Thorne stepped off the plane via ramp and looked around the area. Thorne looked at the tablet in his hands, which showed their position and the location of their target.

  “This way,” he said, pointing west.

  They walked across the rocky terrain, following the directions through the tracking app. Then they saw they weren’t alone.

  “Up there,” said Shift.

  Atop a plateau sat a beautiful, young woman. Her dark hair flowing with the wind, sitting cross-legged on the ground. She held her open palms out over the ground and kept her eyes shut.

  “That’s her.”

  “Let’s go,” said Thorne.

  Shift moved in front of him and blocked his path. “Maybe I should talk to her alone.”

  “You sure about that?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the plateau. “Remember, humans destroyed her home.”

  “I thought you said we could trust her?”

  “I did. I don’t think she’d hurt you, but I also don’t think she’d be very comfortable with you there.”

  “Okay, do what you have to.”

  Shift offered a smile of gratitude and turned away from him. The plateau was attached to a slope that led down to Shift’s level. She walked up the natural incline until her shadow fell over the young woman.

  “You’re in my light, Shift.”

  “How’d you know it was me?” asked Shift.

  The woman opened her eyes and smiled. “The earth told me, of course.”

  “How are you, Tuwa?”

  Tuwa slowly waved her hands a little, energy moving from her fingertips and into the ground. Tiny weeds broke through the rocky soil, spreading green along the brown surface.

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  “After you left Arcadia, Cerberus came for us,” said Tuwa.

  “Yeah, I know about that,” said Shift. “And the breakout.”

  “Well, once I returned to the States, I went back to my family for a while. Now I’ve been out here for about a month. Just trying to find my place, practice using my powers.” She motioned to the small bit of green she’d created. “No matter the circumstances, life just needs a little push to break through.”

  “Looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

  Tuwa frowned. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you aren’t here just to see how I’ve been doing.”

  “You’re right. I need your help,” said Shift.

  The energy dissipated and Tuwa rose from the ground. She turned to face Shift. “What is it?”

  “It’s Callum.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Shift tilted her head to the side. “You mean you haven’t heard?”

  Tuwa gestured to the desolate landscape. “Look around. No TV, no Internet connection, no one around for miles. I’m not exactly keeping up.”

  “What happened to him when Cerberus attacked Arcadia?”

  “The Ferryman tried to use his portals to transport as many people away as he could. Cal was one of them. But the rest of us were caught,” said Tuwa. “The Ferryman and I escaped Cerberus together when your teammates freed us. He went missing after that. But I don’t know what happened to Cal or where he is. I haven’t seen or heard from him since the attack.”

  “He stayed quiet for a while, but now he’s back,” said Shift. “And it looks like he’s gone back to the man he was in Chicago.”

  Tuwa shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t do that. Not again.”

  “It’s because of Arcadia. He’s taken a Cerberus base hostage and he’s demanded that the organization be dissolved—”

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  Shift blinked. “Let me finish. He said if Cerberus isn’t dissolved, he’ll start killing the hostages.”

  Tuwa turned her back and faced the edge of the plateau. Shift stepped closer.

  “Look, I know you’re upset—”

  “Upset?” Tuwa spun on her. “You don’t know what it was like. To have those people show up, destroy our homes, strip us of our powers. They put us in cages so small, we could barely move. They treated us like animals!”

  “Yeah, and that was wrong,” said Shift. “The man responsible for all that, he was exposed. By the same people who set you free—my people. Cerberus is under new management. Vanguard is even working with them now. Working together to go after the real threats—both human and special.”

  Tuwa turned away, hugging herself as she lowered her head. Shift circled around so she stood in front of the young woman.

  “You know this isn’t the way. Remember what you told Callum in Arcadia? That you have to be better than the humans?”

  Tuwa sighed. “You weren’t there. You can’t know what it was like.”

  “So you’ve gotten to the point where you’d led innocent people die?” asked Shift. “How does that make you any better than the people who destroyed your home?”

  She gave Tuwa time to respond, but the young special said nothing, just kept staring at the small patch of green on the surface of the plateau. Shift shook her head and began to descend the slope.

&n
bsp; “Fine, forget it. But you should know that killing those people won’t stop Cerberus. The only thing the Exemplar will accomplish is making things worse for the rest of us.”

  Shift angrily walked back the path she came and found Thorne waiting just where she’d left him. He gave her a look of confusion.

  “Where’s your friend?”

  Shift shook her head. “Looks like we’re in this alone.”

  Thorne placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “I thought she’d be willing to listen to reason, to stop him from making a mistake.”

  “From what I know, seems she’s been through a lot herself. I’m disappointed but can’t say I’m surprised.”

  “Yeah, I g—”

  “Wait!”

  They heard a voice from behind. Thorne and Shift turned in the direction it came from and saw Tuwa running towards them. She stopped in front of them and took a moment to catch her breath.

  “If I help you, what will happen to Cal?”

  “He’ll have to face the consequences for his actions,” said Thorne.

  “But there will be a trial, right?” asked Tuwa. “You won’t just lock him up in some blacksite or kill him?”

  “I’ll personally see to it he’s treated fairly.” Thorne offered his hand. “You have my word.”

  Tuwa looked uncertainly at the hand, not sure if she could trust this man. But she didn’t have much choice. If she did nothing, she was afraid that Callum might not make it through the day. She accepted his handshake.

  CHAPTER 11

  “I’d heard you turned over a new leaf,” said Paragon. “What a shame to see that you’ve now gone back to terrorizing innocent people.”

  The Exemplar stared at her with rage burning in his eyes. He sprung from his spot, his flight carrying her towards him.“You. Know. Nothing!” He punctuated each word with a blow, ending on an uppercut delivered to Paragon’s jaw. She was thrown back through the wall of one of the buildings.

  The Exemplar hovered towards the building, but before he reached it, there was an explosion in front of him. He was struck from behind and thrown forward before being hit by energy blasts.

  He stood and turned, slamming his fist against the ground. The tremors caused Gunsmith to lose his balance. The Exemplar flew at him and tore into his armor’s chest-plate, the exposed wiring sparking. He tossed Gunsmith to the side as if he were insignificant.

  Zenith dove from the sky and unleashed a barrage of energy blasts. The Exemplar flew at him with rapid speed, crashing into the robot. Zenith’s cannons reverted back to hands—at close range, melee was preferable to his long-distance weapons.

  The Exemplar charged his fists with his superheated energy. Each blow that struck Zenith’s chassis hit not only with force, but with heat as well. Even through his hard shell, the punches were causing damage to his internal circuitry.

  A stream of ebon energy flowed into the Exemplar from the ground. He released his hold on Zenith and froze in mid-air, every muscle in his body tensing. The Exemplar opened his mouth in a silent scream, and the voices of Lily and Henry grew so loud and so frequent that it became like white noise. He couldn’t distinguish between them, but he could just feel their admonishment and their disapproval.

  “That’s right,” said Wraith, his hand extended with the energy flowing from his palm. “Suck it in, asshole.”

  The Exemplar opened his eyes and stared down at Wraith. Blasts like fire were unleashed from his pupils and Wraith had to break the connection so he could open a portal in front of himself to avoid the blast. The energy went right through the portal and then emerged from another that opened right in front of the Exemplar’s face.

  “See how you like it,” said Wraith.

  The Exemplar shook his head and then he heard something coming from below. He turned and saw Paragon had burst through the roof of the barracks and she held a weapon in her hands. She raised the weapon over her shoulder and pulled the trigger.

  The RPG fired a rocket that hit the Exemplar square in his chest, the explosion completely engulfing him. Paragon dropped the launcher and took to the air. Just as the smoke dissipated, she saw the Exemplar, his clothes in tatters but otherwise fine. She barreled into him with both fists.

  Without giving him another chance to strike, Paragon grappled with him in the air. She wrapped her fingers around his head and closed her eyes. “Okay, King. Let’s see what you’re afraid of.”

  Ever since the battle with J’Karra, Paragon had been practicing the use of her newfound telepathic powers. It wasn’t an exact science, but if she concentrated, she found she could push her way into the minds of others. And that’s what she did now with the Exemplar.

  “You can hear me, can’t you, Callum?” she said, her voice echoing inside the Exemplar’s mind. “I’ve learned some new tricks since the last time we tussled. And now I can see everything you’ve tried to keep hidden.”

  The Exemplar screamed, but Paragon pushed on. She could sense all the rage he was feeling. The inadequacy. She saw the disapproving faces of Henry King and Lily Marsh, belittling him. Constantly tearing him down. Chipping away at him piece by piece until he felt like he was nothing.

  “So what it all comes down to is you’re just a mass of insecurities, striking back at the world,” said Paragon. “It’s all pretty pathetic.”

  The Exemplar’s face contorted in anger. “Pathetic? I’ll show you pathetic!”

  He grabbed her shoulders and slammed his head against hers. It broke the connection and Paragon pulled back. She furiously shook her head, trying to clear the pain and the disorientation. But another blow ended that and she fell from the sky with only Zenith to catch her in mid-air.

  “You’ve tried and failed to stop me,” said the Exemplar. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but you leave me no choice. Every one of you will die today.”

  Green tentacles wrapped around the Exemplar’s body and he was pulled down from the air. Shift stood there and tried to keep a firm grip on him with her tentacles. But it was the woman who stood by her side that caused the Exemplar to stop struggling.

  “Tuwa?”

  “What are you doing, Cal?” asked Tuwa, stepping closer to him. “Haven’t we been here before?”

  “It’s not my fault!” Callum cast his eyes to the side, where he saw Henry and Lily staring him down. “It’s them!”

  Tuwa followed his glance. She cautiously looked back at him, concern evident in her eyes. “Cal, there’s nobody there.”

  “I had to do it,” said Callum. “Do you think I wanted this? They forced my hand. Took everything from us!”

  “They came after us because they were afraid of us. Afraid of you.” Tuwa stepped forward and gently placed a hand on his cheek. “And look at what you’ve done. You’ve played right into their hands. Shown the world that we’re something they should fear. You’re proving them right.”

  Callum struggled against Shift’s grip, but just as she pulled her tentacles away, Tuwa commanded the ground to rise up, encasing him within, leaving only his face visible.

  “Stop this. You need help,” said Tuwa. “And I’ll be right there by your side. But you can’t keep doing this. You can’t be the example they use to convince the world that we deserve to be locked away.”

  Callum strained against the rocky formation and cracks began to appear in it. It was a short matter for it to break apart completely, freeing him from his prison. But he didn’t move to strike Tuwa or anyone else, nor did he attempt to fly away. When Sentinel approached him with an inhibitor disc, Callum allowed it to be placed on his person.

  CHAPTER 12

  Upon the Icarus’ arrival at the Island, Cerberus soldiers surrounded the craft, their weapons drawn and ready to fire. The rear hatch opened and the Exemplar stepped off, his hands and feet shackled together, the inhibitor disc on his chest blinking to indicate that he was indeed powerless. Gunsmith and Paragon stood on either side and escorted him, with the guards following, inside.

&nb
sp; Due to the injuries they suffered in the battle, Sharkskin and Sentinel returned to the Atlas with Thorne. The rest of the team, along with Tuwa, disembarked from the Icarus and followed the prisoner inside. Tuwa couldn’t help nervous glances around the large ship, remembering the last time she was here as a prisoner herself.

  McCabe met them inside and led them to the elevator down to the maximum security level. He opened one of the cells and Gunsmith walked the Exemplar into his new him. Gunsmith removed the shackles from the prisoner and exited.

  A command entered on the keypad by McCabe lowered the translucent door. The Exemplar stood up to the door and stared through it. Tuwa moved closer, looking at him through the glass.

  “It will be okay,” she said.

  “He’ll be treated fairly here,” said McCabe, offering a half-hearted smile to the young woman. “This place has come under new management since you were unlawfully imprisoned here.”

  “I’ll help you however I can,” said Tuwa, still staring into the cell.

  The Exemplar stared back at her and then broke the gaze. “I’m a little tired. I think I should get some rest.”

  McCabe nodded and entered another command on the keypad. The glass turned opaque, shutting off Exemplar from the rest of the group. Tuwa turned away, shaking her head.

  “You’ll get your trial,” said Gunsmith. “And I promise it’ll be fair.”

  “And I can trust you?” asked Tuwa, giving a look over her shoulder.

  Shift moved beside the young special and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “Hey Tuwa, maybe we should go wait in the Icarus.”

  Tuwa didn’t protest as Shift led her into the elevator. The doors closed and the rest of the team exchanged looks among each other.

  “Hate to say it, but she’s got a point,” said Wraith. “I’m no fan of flyboy, but what makes anyone think this trial will be anything less than a circus?”

  “Only other option is to do nothing, keep him locked up for the rest of his life without ever charging him,” said Paragon. “And that can’t be how we deal with other specials.”