Full Metal Superhero (Book 6): Explosive Arsenal

by Haskell, Jeffery H.

  That does make me feel a little better. It’s irrational, I know, to be afraid like this. I can’t kick my legs, though, and the thought of drowning sends shivers up my spine.

  “Stop,” she says with a grin. “You’re going to freak me out. Now, come on and enjoy the sun a little. You never go out in it.”

  I relent. “Fine. Don’t take your hands off the handles, though,” I tell her.

  She pushes me up onto the upper deck. The whole yacht has been converted for a person with my particular disability to use. Railings in the bathrooms, ramps instead of stairs—even the ramp up to the front deck is designed for wheelchairs.

  I’m wearing a plain white t-shirt and shorts. I’m not a huge fan of shorts because my legs aren’t my best feature, but Kate made me. Everyone else is running around in shorts or bikinis. The salt air smells weird in comparison to the dry air I’m used to.

  “If we’re going to look like rich tourists playing around on a yacht, then we have to look like rich tourists playing around on a yacht,” Kate tells me while she pushes me past Lux. The alien is in heaven here. She often refers to her home as “The People of the Light.” I never quite understood what that means, and I’ve never asked her to lie down on the table so I could scan her. She’s done so much for us—I haven’t wanted her to feel unwelcome. After all, she doesn’t have to be here. Her home is recovering, her people rebuilding—she could be with them. Instead, here she is trying to help us. Right now, though, she looks like she’s one step away from needing privacy, lying on the deck in her barely-there bikini absorbing the light like a plant.

  Tony is doing his level best to impress her with card tricks. She doesn’t seem to notice though. Despite his powers enhanced build and his hands so fast he can catch all 52 cards before they hit the deck.

  Tessa is up in the wheelhouse dressed in cutoffs and a rainbow-colored tube top with her feet up on the railing. When I look up at her she waves with the hand holding a beer. Monica is in human form, on the prow hanging out with Carlos—they’re chatting about something, but I don’t catch most of it until Kate rolls us up.

  “All I’m saying is, be honest with the guy and he’ll come around,” Carlos says just as we arrive.

  “Thanks, Carlos,” Monica says leaning against him. “I’m glad we stayed friends.

  “Me too,” he says.

  Looking at Carlos in his board shorts, with that absolute ripped physique, then at Monica, Lux, Tessa and finally Tony, and knowing what Kate looks like... I’m starting to feel way out of place. It’s not that I’m surrounded by gorgeous people, but the way their bodies have adapted to their powers... I’ve never wanted superpowers before but now... I kind of wish I could have them long enough to be whole again.

  “Stop it,” Kate whisper to me. “Self-pity tastes almost as bad as envy on you.”

  I nod. “Sorry. A moment of weakness.”

  Monica stands up, stretching in her one-piece suit. Her belt looks oddly out of place around her trim waist while she’s wearing a swimsuit, but there’s no escaping the adornment for her. Without it she’s a ice-cicle.

  “I’m gonna go check on Tia and get some food,” she says with a smile.

  Carlos stares at the sea as she walks away, leaving the three of us. Poor Tia is seasick. Despite living next to the ocean most her life she doesn’t actually ever go out on it. We’d gotten a half hour out when she became violently ill. Thankfully, the yacht came stocked with Dramamine.

  “What’s the plan?” Carlos asks without looking up.

  I glance over at Kate, who takes a step to stand beside me, hand on hip as she looks out at the horizon. I reach down and put the parking brake on both my wheels and then grab the railing.

  “It’s fine. Go ahead,” I tell her.

  “I thought I was the empath?” she asks with a grin. She let’s go of my chair and slides her shapely legs under the railing to sit next to Carlos, both of them dangling their feet over the side of the boat. He glances at her as she sits next to him, a sly smile spreading on his face.

  “The plan is, today we run recon. I’ve got Epic maneuvering Artemis into position to look down at the island. We have a couple of really powerful cameras ready to snap picks as we go by, and one high-altitude drone doing a flyby.”

  Carlos chuckles. “Jeez, Niña, you sound like a spy thriller,” he says.

  “Well, I do like to be prepared. I searched for maps of the island, but apparently, there are a lot of little, uncharted islands around here, and this is one of them. Weird, seeing as how Google has mapped the entire surface of the Earth—or at least it feels like it.”

  “Today is just fun in the sun. I can dig it,” Kate says with a wink at Carlos—who suddenly looks very interested in a bird flying overhead. I can see the blush creeping up his neck though.

  “I think I’m going to go back inside. You all have fun,” I say. Kate starts to stand but I wave her back down. “I’ll manage.”

  I unlock the breaks and spin around. The yacht is designed around wheelchair accessibility; the decks are flat, with grip to prevent me from sliding off. I should be fine. Tell that to my heart, which feels like it’s trying to burst from my chest.

  Once back inside I let out my breath and inhale three times as deep as I can to calm down. I roll down a ramp to the little communications hub I installed and check to make sure everything is working.

  “Amelia, next time you need my help, tell me if there is a boat involved first,” Tia says as I enter the room. She is seated and cradling a bucket, having just thrown up. The acrid scent of stomach acid hangs in the air and I’m glad I’m not one of those people who vomits because someone else did. Tessa stands silently behind her, patting her back and holding her hair.

  “Feel better?” Tessa asks.

  “Strangely, I do.”

  “I’m gonna head back up, boss lady, have fun with your geek accessories,” Tessa says as she sashays past me.

  I stick my tongue out at her as she leaves. “She must really like you, to be down here. Tessa isn’t known for her niceness,” I say as I wheel over to the gear I have set up.

  “She seems sweet to me. We have similar interests in music.” She puts the bucket down and scoots over to where I am turning on the surveillance gear. She helped me pick it out since she has the most knowledge on the subject... part of being a cop.

  “All right, let’s see what we can see,” I mutter. I flip the master switch and all the gear comes to life with an electronic whine. There are three monitors and they all flare to life. The one on the far right shows me Artemis’ path; the countdown clock shows one hour until she’s in position. The other two monitors are the mechanical version of Lockheed floating in the breeze a mile above the island, and the cameras mounted to the flying bridge of the Unreal.

  “Wow. How do you do all this?” Tia asks, spreading her hands out to show she’s speaking about the equipment. “I mean, you have your own satellite?”

  I feel my cheeks heat and I have a desire to hide my face. I guess it never came up when we were trapped in Buenos Aires. She must have assumed I was working for someone.

  “I kind of am a... uh.” I don’t know how to say it.

  She is a billionaire, Catia. There is very little her money cannot buy.

  “No,” she says shaking her head. “He’s joking, right?”

  “No, he isn’t. I, uh, he, has made some substantial investments with seed money I made. For the last five years, he’s been playing the stock market, making me, or Mars Tech Global, more and more money. At this point it’s self-sustaining but he likes seeing how much more he can make.

  My goal is to make Amelia the first woman to be the wealthiest person on the planet.

  “Epic!” I yell. I had no idea that’s what he was trying to do. Even with all the government tech contracts for the super-teams, Mars Tech wasn’t making that much money. “How come this is the first I’m hearing of this goal?”

  I knew you would say ‘no,’ so I did not ask
.

  “I swear he’s sticking his tongue out at me,” I say to Tia.

  She grins back at me. “It’s hard to believe he’s a computer. He talks like a person,” she says.

  “He is a person, just not a human being. Epic is truly autonomous. His own person in every respect,” I say proudly. I haven’t had to order Epic to do anything, ever. He works with me, not for me.

  “Now what?” Tia asks pointing at the monitors.

  “Now we go for a little joy ride past the island and then turn around, come back and go for a swim,” I tell her as I program in the course. Once I’m satisfied, I have Epic announce it to the team just to make sure no one has chosen this moment to jump overboard. Once everyone’s accounted for, the boat zooms off with a roar of diesel engines.

  Two hours later I’m back on the top deck, lying down this time. My chair sits folded up next to me and somehow... SOMEHOW, Kate has talked me into putting on a bathing suit and soaking up some sun. I’d be more concerned about missing something, but to be honest, that’s what the recording equipment is for. Right now I can just look at the island with my MK I eyeballs and use my special glasses to zoom in on points of interest.

  At a half mile in the distance, it doesn’t look like we're interested in the island. After all, at a half mile, it is impossible to see details with the naked eye. Of course, the people with the naked eyes don’t have Epic.

  “I have to say, that’s the weirdest looking island I’ve ever seen,” Carlos says, sitting next to me and slathering on sunscreen like he owns stock in the company.

  I know what he means. It’s like a big lump of tree-covered dirt with a near vertical shoreline. Even if we wanted to dock, we couldn’t. The island has no beach—it just goes down to the water and stops.

  Someone screams as they run past me, and I realize it’s Fleet doing his best impression of a cannonball as he leaps off the side of the boat to splash into the water. The rest of the team are already swimming around—even Monica. I was worried she wouldn’t be able to swim because her body temperature is so much lower than everyone else’s, and she has a tendency to freeze everything that comes into contact with her skin for too long. I sigh. The belt isn’t perfect, but it works.

  “Regardless,” I finally reply to Carlos, “I doubt we’ll be assaulting it from the ocean. We’re going to have to fly in on the Emjet and do a combat drop.”

  “Well, you’ll have to,” he says with a grin. “I’ll just drop in my usual way.”

  “Show-off,” I mutter.

  He shrugs. “All those years I spent hanging out with you... I never dreamed this could happen,” he says with a far-off look. “All the things I’ve seen. It’s hard to go home and see my family, you know? They don’t really get me anymore. Not, that they ever really did,” he says. There is regret in his voice and I can empathize. I have a little bit of that too.

  “Hey, you always have me, and Kate, and everyone else who loves you. I know it’s not the same, believe me, I know...” I let it hang. Regret and guilt make terrible companions—and any second Kate is going to pop in and scold me, I can tell.

  “Niña, I... I don’t...” he stumbles, trying to say something. I’m not Kate; I can’t read people the way she can. All I can do is my best to be open and honest.

  “Carlos, whatever you want to say, it’s okay. We’re friends, we’ll always be friends. You won’t offend me.”

  He nods with his trademark sly smile. “That’s why I love you, Amelia, you’re always so understanding.”

  I shrug and give him a smile. “I know—one of my many admirable qualities, like humility.” I hold a serious expression just long enough for it to be funny.

  When he’s done laughing he gets that faraway look again. “I sure hope this works. It would be nice to focus on Luke again and maybe have a shot at retrieving Pythia.”

  “You two are still going to go through with it?”

  He nods. “If Mr. Parker agrees, I don’t see why not. From Delphi, we can go back, grab her, and return lickety-split. Hell, she probably knows were coming and will be waiting with her bags packed,” he says.

  “Are you sure about that? I mean, are you sure she’ll be there?” I try not to sound skeptical, but it’s hard not to.

  Carlos shrugs. “I don’t know what else to tell you, Amelia, to make you believe... other than this: Trust me.”

  I nod, “ I do. I really do. I just... you know the scientist in me doesn’t believe anything without hard data.”

  Amelia, Artemis is in orbit and there is something you need to see, all of you.

  Whatever the heck it is... it isn’t good.

  “I don’t understand this science bull,” Tessa says. We’re huddled around a large monitor in the day cabin, on the first deck where the meals are served. If the yacht had a crew this is where they would be.

  I have to admit, I kinda wish I didn’t either. “It means Mr. Strungel has a rocket and he’s preparing to launch something.”

  “You can tell that from a couple of orange splotches on a photo?” Tessa asks.

  I nod. “Heat blooms are very specific. A rocket in pre-launch doesn’t look anything like a generator or a power plant. We have seventy years of footage to compare,” I say by way of explanation. “Bottom line, whatever Strungel is up to, it’s not good.” I finish speaking, looking around the room at the team so they know I’m serious.

  My best guess for his plans is that he has his own satellite, possibly based on Artemis. Building a rocket, computer systems, and everything else he would need to launch into space would cost millions, if not more. It would explain why he aided Rafael and why he used his advanced tech to rob western banks.

  “But why not just sell your tech on the open market?” Tia asks. “If you can make money off of it, then he can make money off of it. Wouldn’t criminals pay any amount to have access to power armor and giant robots?” Tia asks.

  It’s a good question and one I don’t have an answer to. We don’t know enough about Strungel’s motives to speculate. Which is what I tell them.

  “Right now, we know he’s here, we know whatever he’s planning is bad for the world. Rafael, Strungel, The Armory... Luke—” I have to stop for a second to keep from choking up. Kate gives me a reassuring nod. I press my fingers against my eyes for a second before I continue. “They’re all domino's in a chain. Whatever is controlling Luke has orchestrated this whole thing. If Strungel is launching a satellite, it will be like Artemis—or a hundred times worse. I won’t—can’t—let my tech be used to wipe out a city. It’s bad enough he used it to kill those idiots on the PNW team.”

  A round of nods and mutters of agreement reassure me they’re all on board. Not that I had any real doubt.

  “We haven’t spotted a way onto the island, and clearly there are no structures on it. He must have dug down and relied on the prodigious jungle growth to hide his entrance. I was planning on doing an airdrop with the Emjet, but we’re out of time. We have to move, and soon. Epic will pilot the boat right up to the cliffside, where TK will lift Monica up. Lux, you fly up with Tia. Fleet, you should be able to run up just fine, and Domino can teleport anyone who needs extra help. Once on the island...” I bring up the picture of where the heat bloom is registering. “We head for here. Carlos, this is where you come in. Land right here and open that sucker up like Fleet eating a gallon of ice cream.”

  “Hey,” Tony hollers. “That hurts, right here,” he says, miming a knife going into his heart. The rest of the team chuckles and I get an approving nod from Kate.

  “Listen, this is going to be dangerous. He’s tried to kill me with the Armory, and he did kill most of the PNW team. Don’t take any chances. Defend yourself by any means necessary, okay?”

  A chorus of ‘yes’ and ‘roger’ greets me and it ’s reassuring. We usually face bad guys, but not every use of powers is a deadly force type of situation. A reminder that this is, won’t go amiss.

  “Any questions?” Kate asks. There aren�
�t any.

  “Good,” I say. “Okay people, time to work for a living. Suit up!”

  I didn’t build the boat; there’s no special mechanism for me to suit up with. My plan had been to return to the Emjet and suit up there. However, this is why Epic and I came up with the stable quantum room—so we wouldn’t be trapped somewhere without the armor.

  Once everyone has cleared out, I slide out of my chair onto the floor, lift up my sleeve, and activate the portal. The white square opens beneath me and I fall right into the hammock-like netting, bouncing for a moment or two before the gateway closes behind me. The interior of Quantum space is eerily quiet. No sounds—not even air moving. The structure we built in here has its own atmosphere, power, and supplies. I could also use it as an emergency shelter if I needed too.

  I hang in the hammock for a moment, letting the quiet stillness wash over me. I wish Luke was here and I didn’t have to do any of this. I love being Arsenal, but I’m so tired of the constant battle. It feels like I stop one madman and no sooner than I get out of the armor another has taken their place. For a moment, weariness grips me. What am I doing? I’m just a girl in a wheelchair and this... this is all so much.

  Amelia? Are you okay?

  I smile. He knows me so well. “Yeah buddy, just... thinking.”

  That is a dangerous statement from you. May I suggest you not, “overthink,” as Kate would say.

  “She would say that, wouldn’t she?”

  I believe she has on many occasions.

  I can’t help but grin. “You always know what to say... Okay, Epic... Initiate!”

  Air rushes by me as I blast up through the sky. Nothing beats the exhilaration of flying. If I had to trade all of this for one power, it would need to be flight. Well— flight and invulnerability.

  The island is two thousand feet across and almost two-thirds of that wide. It has a funny oblong shape where the North end is a cliff and the South end flows down into a slope. Too steep to climb, but not a cliff. Ocean to top, it’s covered in jungle so thick I can’t see the ground.