Ex-Cape | Book 2 | Ex-Cape From A Small Town

by Wentzel, Daniel

  He was already halfway up the ladder. “I won’t let you pay me because it would be weird. This will just take a moment, and it’ll be fine.”

  Lydia called over to Molly. “What do you think about some of these for Holly’s wedding?”

  “The blue one on your left is nice,” Molly replied as she started toward her mother.

  “Oh, it’s gorgeous, but I don’t think so.” Lydia lifted the hanger and held it up for Molly to see. Even holding the hanger above her head, the dress was touching the floor next to Lydia. This was a common problem for Molly and her mother. They were both short enough that fashion just didn’t suit them. Molly remembered more than one occasion where “capri pants” had simply become “pants” for her.

  “You’re right. I think only the bride is supposed to have a train.”

  Heather eyed the garment professionally. “We could try to hem it up, but that’s a bit extreme for a hem.”

  Lydia chuckled. “Or I could just look at dresses that might fit me.”

  She reached over to put the dress back where it had come from but managed to step on the excessive skirt. It tripped her up, and Lydia had to catch herself on the dress rack to keep from falling. This pushed the rack a few inches over, and right into the ladder where Anthony was working.

  Anthony yelped and the lightbulb fell from his hands, shattering on the floor. It was followed by the crack of the wooden ladder hitting the floor.

  “Anthony!” Heather dashed from behind the counter.

  Molly’s concern went to her mother first, but Lydia quickly regained her balance and said, “I’m all right.”

  Lydia and Molly turned their attention to the ground by the ladder to see how badly Anthony was hurt. Except he wasn’t there.

  Anthony was floating about four feet off the ground.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Anthony Archer was The Aerialist.

  The Aerialist had bulletproof skin, had murdered Stomper, and fired a high-powered rifle at children. He was now in the same room as Molly’s mother.

  Anthony held his hands out, soliciting calm as he slowly returned to the ground. Mostly he focused on Heather, who was staring in wide-eyed astonishment. “Okay. Umm. I guess I owe you an explana—”

  It was all the time Molly had needed. Since he wasn’t paying her any attention, it had been easy to put his arm in a lock and kick the back of his knees out from under him.

  He was strong, inhumanly strong as she soon discovered. Hustle hadn’t mentioned The Aerialist having superhuman strength, but she’d been prepared for it as a possibility. Against most other opponents, he’d have had no problem breaking the grip, but Molly had trained with men and women who could juggle freight trains. She wrenched his arm almost out of its socket, giving him absolutely no way to use that strength. He bellowed in pain and shock, but she did not relent. She planted her foot on his back and gave a firm shove. He was on his stomach a second, his arm uselessly captured behind him.

  “Mom! Get out of here and call the police.”

  “Molly, wait.” Heather took a step forward.

  “Not a chance.” Molly’s voice was hardened steel. “He shot a rifle at children, Heather.”

  “That wasn’t me.” Anthony’s breath was shallow. He was in a lot of pain, which was not at all surprising.

  “It couldn’t have been, Molly.”

  Molly locked eyes with Lydia, who had conspicuously not run when she’d been told to. They were going to have a chat about that.

  “This is the man who took over caring for that boy in the park. It couldn’t have been him who shot the rifle.”

  It took Molly a moment to process the words, not because she was slow to understand them, but because she knew she had to get this right. If there was any possibility her mother could be wrong, she’d never have a chance to surprise Anthony again. He was dangerous, and he was still in the same room as Molly’s mother and best friend.

  But no, she’d seen him watching the man with the rifle fly away when she’d gone to get him. She released his arm and stepped off his back.

  “Ow,” he said as he rolled over to his side and cradled his shoulder in his other hand. “Okay, so I see why you’ve been teaching Bri martial arts.”

  “No jokes. No banter. You need to tell us what’s going on. I thought you were The Aerialist since you could fly.”

  “I am.” He confirmed. “I… I was. At the bar, at the debate, and that kid with the scooter. That was all me, but then that other guy showed up and started shooting at the kids.”

  “Do you know who he was?”

  He shook his head. “No. As far as I know I was the only one the experiment worked on.”

  “Experiment?” Heather’s voice was unnaturally high.

  He closed his eyes and blew out a breath. “It was in the army. They were trying to recreate what happened to Major Maximum. It was me and nine other guys. Seven of them got too sick after the initial treatments to continue, and of the three of us who did, I was the only one who showed any positive reaction.”

  “You have Major Maximum’s powers?”

  He looked over at his shoulder. “Yeah, not so much. I can fly, obviously, and I have some enhanced strength, but I’ve got none of his invulnerability. If I tried to punch through concrete, I might break the concrete, but I’d definitely shatter my arms. They can’t replicate the experiment where he got his powers, but they keep trying. Four of the men in my group died, and apparently it was the lowest mortality rate of any group they tried this on. I threatened to go public, and I managed to make it a credible enough threat that they agreed to leave me alone as long as I don’t try to expose them to the press.”

  “Who else knows your identity?”

  “Bri and Aunt Alyss. Alyss nearly fell off her horse, and I caught her in midair. It’s why Bri’s so mad at me now. She wanted to be my sidekick or something, and I gave up the costume.”

  This explained so much about how Bri had gotten her mother to allow her to go spy on The Aerialist, not to mention Bri’s shock when she heard about the gunshots.

  He turned to Heather, and as he slowly got to his feet, he said, “I’m sorry. I should have told you, but when that other guy showed up and I realized I couldn’t prove it wasn’t me, I guess I decided my superhero career was already over.”

  Heather still stood with her mouth agape. She took in some shallow breaths, then swallowed. Faster than Molly had ever seen her friend move, Heather launched herself across the room and nearly tackled Anthony in an embrace.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for, and I also want to remind you: You saved my life.” She grabbed his face and kissed him several times.

  Molly decided to give them some space. She stepped away to another part of the store, and found herself pacing.

  “What is it?” asked Lydia.

  “Trying to think it through. If Tony — Anthony wasn’t the one who shot Stomper then who did?”

  “Someone who can fly.”

  Molly winced. “Yes, but that narrows the field less than you might think. It didn’t necessarily even have to be a shape-shifter with the mask and all. Though now that I think of it, the voice was spot-on perfect. So we’ve got someone who can fly, has bulletproof skin, knows how to fight with superheroes…” She paused trying to think what else she knew.

  “Maybe someone with a history of impersonating other people?” suggested Lydia.

  Molly’s eyes popped wide open. “Mom, you’re a genius.” She rushed up to her mother and gave Lydia a tight hug.

  “What’s going on?” asked Anthony.

  “You two keep smooching, I think I just cracked the case, and I need to call Detective Cedar.”

  Evidently, Heather’s lips weren’t enough of a distraction. “Wait, what?! You can’t! You can’t tell him I’m The Aerialist.”

  “I’m not. I’m telling him who’s not The Aerialist.”

  Heather scrunched up her eyebrows. “I think that only made sense in your head.”
/>
  “Ms. Martin, please. If anyone finds out my—”

  “Anthony!” She had to shout to cut him off. She totally didn’t have time for this. With a quick step forward, she stuck out her hand like she was meeting him for the first time. “Molly Martin. Retired superhero for about five years now. I used to go by Etherya. I’m the one who can walk through walls. Bri knows this if you want to confirm it with her. Now, please believe me; your secret is safe, but I really need to make this call right now.”

  He had reflexively taken her hand, and, just to drive home her point, she ghosted and passed her hand through his. Then she solidified, pulled out her phone, and turned her back on him to make the call.

  “Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.” she said as the phone rang the fourth time. It went to his voicemail instead. “Sean, I can’t tell you how I know this, but The Aerialist who shot Stomper wasn’t the same Aerialist who was at the debates. Someone was impersonating him, and I’m about seventy percent certain that somebody was Robodroid. It explains the bulletproof skin, and a few other things. Oh crap! That also means the neural disruptors you have are absolutely useless. He doesn’t have a nervous system at all. Sean, please call me. Let me know you got this message.”

  This wasn’t good enough. She needed to know for certain someone had gotten the message. Maybe Sean had gone home to catch some zees. It wasn’t likely, but it did explain why he wasn’t picking up.

  Still, there were cops watching over the evidence rooms armed with weapons that would end up being no more effective than water pistols. Sean would have been her first choice, but she had to get the word out to them.

  It took just a moment to look up the phone number for the State Police. Molly felt herself tensing as the phone rang a few more times than it should have.

  “State Police, this is Officer Winslow.”

  “Hi, my name is Molly Martin. I’ve been acting as a consultant with Detective Sergeant Cedar. I need to speak to him or someone on his taskforce. It’s urgent.”

  “I’m sorry, miss. I don’t know a Detective Sergeant Cedar. What location is he at?”

  Molly felt her stomach drop. “The one near Capetown. Isn’t that the number I dialed?”

  “Uh, well, it looks like you did. It got forwarded to my office for some reason. Let me try to patch you back there.”

  The tension in Molly’s shoulders was unbearable. She had to force herself to breathe as moments ticked by. Finally, Officer Winslow came back on the line.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Martin. I can’t get through. No one’s picking up, and I’m seeing on my computer there’s some kind of incident at that location. Might be a fire alarm got tripped or something like that.”

  Molly did say “Thank you” before she hung up, but it was so quiet, he probably didn’t hear it. Sure, the “incident” could be unrelated to the planned ambush at the evidence room, but she wasn’t prepared to risk Sean’s life over it.

  This was a time to call in the cavalry.

  She pulled her keys from her pocket and tossed them to her mother. “Go to the car and meet Fathi and Wulfric. Give them the keys and tell them to hurry. I’ll call them to let them know what’s going on.”

  Lydia nodded and moved faster than Molly would have expected.

  “What is going on?” Anthony asked.

  It was a good question, but before she took the time to fill him in, she needed one of her own questions answered.

  “Do you have your mask?”

  ✽✽✽

  “Who is this Robodroid?”

  It was awkward answering questions while being carried through the air. On the other hand, he was giving her a ride to the station. Anthony had run out to his car and pulled a backpack out of the trunk. In the time it had taken him to grab it and to change in Heather’s dressing room, Molly had called Damselfly and Hustle, telling the latter to let Grim know as well if he happened to be nearby. Her explanations had been terse, but she’d gotten across all the important details.

  She’d grabbed a scarf from Heather’s display, wrapped it around her head to mask her face, and promised to pay for it later. As Molly and Anthony walked into the alleyway to conceal their exit, Molly spotted Heather’s facial expression. That level of anxiety meant she owed her best friend for more than the scarf.

  “There was a crime boss who wanted to live forever, so he transferred his brainwaves into a robot body. It wasn’t a complete success, and we wound up with an artificial intelligence with the memories and moral compass of a mafia don. Then he started absorbing the brainwaves of rival crime bosses. They make some kind of strange amalgam of a personality. It’s a weird combo, half-mobster, half-robot, but it works for him. The Defender Squad’s never managed to take him out of action for more than a few months at a time.”

  “So how do we stop him?”

  “We don’t. If anyone asks you, and I sincerely hope they don’t, I’m just using you to get me there as soon as possible so I can tell Sean if he doesn’t already know. Assuming Robodroid is there when we show up, what you do about it is all on you.”

  “You’re not going to fight him?”

  Molly didn’t even try to look him in the eye. “If he comes at me directly, I’ll defend myself. If there’s any way for me to use my powers to help save lives, I’ll do it and screw my secret identity. But no, I’m not in this to catch Robodroid. That’s an act of vigilantism which will cost me… a lot.”

  If it came down to losing her VAA protection or possibly losing Sean, that would be a different story altogether. She was hoping not to be in that situation.

  “Can you tell me if he has any weaknesses?”

  “All the usual weaknesses a robot has.”

  It took him a moment. “So, none?”

  “Pretty much. Strong electrical currents or electromagnetic pulses have shut him down in the past. He might be better insulated these days. Otherwise, whatever you would do if you were fighting a motorcycle that wanted to kill you.”

  They were approaching the police station, and Molly could see a small trail of smoke coming from inside. Anthony saw it at the same moment as she felt him speed up.

  He landed within sprinting distance of the main entrance. Multiple gunshots came from inside. Despite that, they both rushed toward the sound. Molly tore the scarf off and stuck it in her pocket as best she could. Right now was not the time to be seen wearing anything resembling a mask.

  She saw the fake Aerialist approaching the glass door from the other side. His clothing was torn to shreds with dozens of bullet holes. Despite this, he was moving with supreme unconcern. Another gunshot rang out, and she could just make out the ping it made as it ricocheted off him.

  If she knew Robodroid at all, the odds were good he would ignore her. He’d come here to steal the laptop. Unable to do so, he’d cut his losses and leave. There was no profit in staying, and while he certainly wouldn’t hesitate to kill police officers, he wouldn’t see a benefit to going out of his way to do it either.

  Anthony, however, was a complication. The whole point behind coming dressed as The Aerialist was so no one would suspect who Robodroid really was. Having the actual Aerialist on the scene messed up that plan.

  She was just about to warn Anthony that he’d likely be the next target when she noticed another, larger figure coming up behind Robodroid. The android heard him coming and turned, but not quite fast enough.

  It was not an elegant attack, but there was something to be said for a good, old fashioned shove. Sean hit Robodroid dead center-mass, and sent his opponent hurtling toward Molly. She ghosted instinctively, and was glad she did. When Robodroid hit the glass doors, they shattered outward.

  Robodroid hit the ground, and Sean was on him before he could rise. He’d gotten his hands on a police baton. If Molly had any doubt their opponent was Robodroid, that ended the moment Sean made contact. The sound produced was an impressive metallic clang.

  It was tactically a sound way to fight the android. Using the baton allowed Sean to
keep knocking Robodroid down and off balance where the small arms fire of the police had not. It was the difference between shooting a baseball and hitting it with a bat. Only one of those things could send it flying.

  Molly couldn’t see a win condition, though. Sean was relentless, keeping the robot from being able to even plan a counter attack. Sean didn’t worry about technique, focusing on putting his considerable power behind every swing. But could a police baton do real damage against a machine?

  Robodroid attempted to regain his footing once again. Molly noticed his neck and shoulders were unnaturally bent. Her eyes widened. Sean had hit him hard enough to seriously deform the metal, and he didn’t seem to be slowing down. Unfortunately, this meant he was in considerably more danger.

  The whole point in Robodroid pretending to be The Aerialist was to mask who was behind the theft. If Sean won, the police would figure that out quickly. So winning the fight had suddenly become much more important for Robodroid than concealing his identity. Weapons like the multiple guns he kept in his chest cavity were back on the table. Sean was moments away from an attack he couldn’t defend against.

  All of which became completely academic when Sean swung the baton once again, only to have it break in his hands.

  Molly had no idea what her plan was, but she rushed toward Sean. Part of her mind registered that she’d lost track of where Anthony had gone. Several police had made it out of the station. Their guns were drawn, but they did not fire. The desire not to hit Sean accidentally, combined with simple observations of how useless their firearms were kept them from pulling the trigger.

  Sean had hesitated, trying to figure out a plan B, and that had put him on the defensive. By rights, he probably shouldn’t have been able to block the first punch given that Robodroid was far stronger than a human. He barely managed to dodge the second strike. Sean tried for another shove, but he overextended, and Robodroid sent him crashing to the ground. He slid a full three feet on the macadam, and Molly almost tripped over him trying to join the fight.