Forging Hephaestus

by Drew Hayes

  Still, Ivan planned to catch him when he came home tonight. Rebellion had risks, and getting caught came with consequences. He couldn’t stay on top of his son all the time, not if he wanted Rick to learn how to live on his own, but Ivan knew too well the problems that came for those without limits. Occasionally catching and grounding him would remind his son that there were rules in his life, curfew included, and breaking them still had consequences.

  A video of the daring rescue from a few days prior cycled across the television screen. The various news outlets had been playing the fight footage ad nauseam, no doubt at the AHC’s urging. While none of the old guard went in much for that sort of promotion, it was common knowledge that the founding three were getting more and more hands-off as time wore on. The media relations team was likely almost completely comprised of younger, more ambitious capes, eager to make their organization seem like the gold standard in superpowered heroics.

  Technically, none of the original three needed to step away from their leading roles. Quorum’s age was slowed down to a point where it was nearly irrelevant, Professor Quantum seemed to have found a way to permanently lock his appearance to that of a late forty-something, and Lodestar... well, Ivan understood why she’d let her position in the organization diminish. Life was often cruel in its little tricks, offering gifts with price tags not understood until long after they’d been accepted. Not that she’d ever really been given a choice. Lodestar’s power was thrust upon her. She wasn’t like the hungry ones who’d sought it out. She wasn’t like Ivan.

  Ivan’s mind turned, as it had ceaselessly since the weekend’s inception, back to his apprentice and the trial she was undergoing. Tori had been doing well when he left Xelas’s room, having paired up with Beverly to fight the silver-cored robots. She was a smart woman and had made finding a place to hide top priority. There was little chance she’d be caught unaware once the gold-cored machines were released, and even if she was, at least she had backup. Beverly seemed to be an exceptional meta herself, and Ivan had implicit trust in Thuggernaut’s guiding hand. The two of them together could likely overcome a gold just as they were, albeit not without some injuries. If they managed to make use of the supplemental supplies in their caches, they’d be able to pull it off without issue.

  Though, Ivan still planned to look in on them again tomorrow after Janet picked up the kids. It was simply good form for her teacher to be waiting when the trial was done, after all.

  Chapter 23

  “You know, in spite of the green scales and leathery skin, I’m not actually a purse, right?” Beverly slung the makeshift sling and its bulky contents around her shoulder and fastened it in place as best she could. It still bounced and rustled when she moved, but at least it seemed to stay on her.

  “I’d love to help out, but since neither the scroll nor the robot parts were made of morphing materials, they won’t turn to fire with me. That means if I’m carrying I either stay totally human—and therefore useless—or go into fire-form and drop or burn everything I’ve got.” To illustrate the point, Tori switched to the incarnation of living flame and ran her hand along the cave wall, leaving a scorch mark behind.

  “Guess they gave you a uniform made of the morph stuff,” Beverly said, taking note for the first time that Tori’s clothes changed with her. “Makes sense. Mine’s made to shrink and expand as needed. Too bad it didn’t come with a backpack.” She adjusted the sling once more, and the two women stepped from the safety of their cave into the early morning sunlight.

  “We going after more silvers today?” Beverly asked, her eyes already beginning to shift into the white iris of her flying dragon-form.

  “Or whatever is out there. Given the explosions we heard last night, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone fought their first gold. Maybe even platinum. Can’t afford to fall behind.”

  “Especially not since we have to split our winnings.” Beverly’s skin lightened as scales appeared from its formerly smooth depths. “I’ll do the usual circle around, see what’s visible, and then come back so we can start moving toward our target.”

  “Perfect. Meet you on top of that mesa.” Tori pointed upward to one of the many patches of raised land surrounding them and then began to push off the ground using controlled blasts of flame. After discovering the new technique on the prior day, she’d become determined to get as much practice as possible while safely away from civilization. While flight didn’t come as easily for her as it clearly did for Beverly, there was still a primal thrill in ignoring the limits of gravity and soaring, or carefully bobbing, through the air. One day, she’d make a meta-suit that would slice across the sky, but this would do until then.

  Beverly nodded, finishing the transformation. Her white dragon-form was as large as the others, though in place of her arms, a pair of massive, leathery wings extended from her torso. With one kick from her mighty hind legs, she leapt into the sky, quickly pulling herself higher with a few powerful flaps. In seconds, she’d risen high enough that Tori had trouble distinguishing her fellow apprentice from the white clouds.

  Turning her attention to her own ascent, Tori slowly rose upward toward the predetermined mesa, so intent on keeping stabilized that she didn’t even notice the wasp, clearly not indigenous to the area, that buzzed by and abruptly stopped as soon as it saw her.

  * * *

  He’d found her. Not just a fellow apprentice, which would have been good enough, but the only one to advocate working together. She was some ways out—it would take him an hour or so to reach her—but at least he had a location. The wasp would stay on her, and he could adjust his course as she moved. While there was no denying this was a long shot, it was still a shot. And he’d take what he could get.

  Poking his head out from under the shelf of rock where he’d taken cover, Lance slowly pulled himself up from the dirt. His leg hurt even more than it had last night, and the rest of his body had begun to add its own lyrics to the symphony of pain. Taking that kind of tumble, even with his swarm to slow his fall, had left Lance with more injuries than he’d realized. It was an important issue, one that warranted dealing with… something he fully intended to do as soon as the trial was over. Until then, he would soldier on. If anything, it would just make his eventual triumph all the more impressive.

  The thought of coming out on top in spite of his bruised and battered body was all that gave Lance the strength to push himself forward. The crutch of bugs was back in place, its individual denizens more numerous than before thanks to a few hours of summoning under the cover of night. Lance hobbled forward, cutting a brisker pace than the day before, eyes set on the sunrise. Soon he’d reach Tori and hopefully be able to make a case for teaming up. If he was lucky, she’d have seen the robot he fought already; that thing made the case all on its own. Either way, he’d feel better once he wasn’t out in the open, alone.

  Lance just had to hope the robot didn’t find him before then.

  * * *

  Tori barely made it onto the mesa before she heard a roar rip through the sky. Glancing upward, she caught sight of Beverly tucked into a dive, careening toward the mesa at breakneck speed. There was a moment of total, unmediated confusion as she watched her partner on what seemed like a death dive for no reason. Then, from behind the cover of a cloud, the robot came into view.

  It was smaller than the silver-cored ones, but slightly larger than Beverly in her current form. Unlike the others, however, this one was human-shaped. As Tori watched, it raised its right hand at the fleeing dragon, releasing a bolt of red energy directly at her. Beverly, operating on what had to be sheer instinct by this point, tucked her wings and rolled, avoiding the blast by mere inches. The red bolt tore through a nearby mesa, causing a massive explosion and showering the whole area in fragments of broken rock.

  That was a hell of a weapon. This was no nonlethal armament like the silver’s sonic cannon. It was meant to kill, albeit messily. And if that’s the tool it was opening with, Tori had to assume there wa
s more powerful gear stashed away in its metal body.

  Beverly skidded to a stop on top of the mesa, her powerful claws leaving deep grooves in the rock as she killed the momentum from her dive. Before she’d even fully stopped her scales began changing from pearly white to an emerald green, wings vanishing in exchange for thick, muscular arms. Reaching up with one newly-altered appendage, Beverly sliced through the knot on the makeshift sling, sending it tumbling to the ground with a rattling thud. Swiveling her reptilian head toward Tori, Beverly spoke—the first time she’d done so in a dragon-form since they met.

  “It’s strong.” Beverly’s voice was harsh and rough, like a rattlesnake who’d managed to evolve vocal cords.

  “I can see that.” Tori watched the robot descend, both of its arms raised and ready to fire, no doubt waiting for the opportune shot. “Can you buy me enough time to use my gun?”

  “Use it fast.” She whipped her head back around, keeping a watchful eye on the robot as it landed across the mesa, its arms still raised. Without another word, the green dragon-woman barreled forward, racing toward the mechanical opponent that had chased her out of the sky.

  Before she’d even made it three steps, the robot fired off a bolt of focused blue energy from its left hand that crackled as it cut through the air. Beverly wasn’t entirely able to get out of this one’s way, and she roared in pain as it burned through part of her bicep. As much as it hurt, she kept right on barreling forward, refusing to be stopped so easily. Green blood dripped from her arm as she rushed to close the gap.

  While Beverly charged, Tori shifted back to human-form and hurriedly dug through the sling on the ground. During her evening of turning salvaged parts into workable electronics, Tori had imagined the adversaries she might use her inventions on when the sun rose. In her mind, though, the situation hadn’t been quite so desperate nor had it come so soon. But what her imagination had failed to anticipate in terms of setting, it had certainly accounted for regarding necessary power. Jerking her invention free of the sling, Tori turned just in time to see Beverly getting into range for a melee attack.

  As the powerful green monster tore across the mesa’s rock surface, the metallic humanoid watched her come. It squeezed off one more blue energy shot, which Beverly managed to dodge. It quickly became clear that this was not a fight that would take place over a long range; Beverly fully intended to use those powerful claws and muscles against the robot’s comparatively slender form. Just as she was one step away from paying back the damage she’d taken, her metallic opponent leapt upward, taking flight and putting itself completely out of her range.

  “Right idea,” Tori muttered, carefully drawing a bead on her now-floating target. “Wrong opponents.” She pulled the barely-fastened trigger and the entire apparatus she had braced against her shoulder began to vibrate. With enough time and parts, she could have built in stabilizers to get rid of the device’s shaking, but those were luxuries not afforded to her. Instead, Tori grit her teeth and kept her aim, refusing to lose this chance. There was no guarantee they’d get another.

  The reason Tori had wanted to go after the silver-cored robots wasn’t just because of their size. She’d wanted a sonic cannon of her own from the instant one knocked her all the way back to being human. Of course, the ones inside the bots were too big for her to carry, let alone wield. That was why she’d spent the night piecing together a version that was smaller, light enough that even she could utilize it. Of course, with a bit of ingenuity and four robots’ worth of parts to work with, Tori had done more than just shrink the cannons. She’d also cranked up their output.

  As the sonic blast tore through the air, a massive wall of vibration that slammed into the floating robot as it took aim at the dragon below, Tori was glad she’d given it all the stopping power she could. Even as their opponent seemed to lose control and fell toward the mesa once more, she didn’t trust it... she wouldn’t until the thing was torn into pieces and scattered through the sand.

  “Beverly!”

  Tori’s shout was all her partner needed; the dragon-woman was already reared back and ready to jump. The moment Tori screamed, Beverly leapt, meeting the humanoid in midair with an audible crunch. Her claws were tearing through its torso and her powerful jaws were crushing through its left shoulder before they even hit the ground. Whether this was payback or pragmatism was up for debate, but there could be no doubt it was effective. The two slammed into the rocky top of the mesa, sending a spray of dust and rock everywhere.

  While the adversaries fought, Tori dug through the sling once again. She pulled the smoking circuit board out of her makeshift sonic cannon and threw it to the ground. Overclocking the device came with a serious drawback: the internal system got fried after every shot. Since she’d had four robots to salvage from, she only had four chances to fire her cannon. Well, three, now.

  Slamming the second circuit board into position, Tori quickly aimed at the dissipating cloud of dust. Firing into the fray was only going to be a last ditch effort. Large as the blasts were, she’d definitely hit Beverly if another shot was needed, but that would be a far better fate for her than taking one of the robot’s explosive shots at point blank range.

  A wave of relief washed over Tori as the dust finally fell away to reveal Beverly, still in her green dragon-form, standing over what looked more like an upended bin of spare parts than the remains of an actual robot. In her claw, shining bright in the mid-morning sun, was a golden orb the same size as the lesser ones they’d already collected. Tori lowered her gun back to the ground and made her way across the mesa, intent on checking out the remains for herself.

  “You didn’t leave me much to work with, did you?” A few rogue sparks still crackled from the debris that had only moments ago been a deadly opponent, but there was little chance of it suddenly springing back to life and attacking them. Not unless it was built to self-repair or was actually made of far, far tinier robots all working together.

  “All that sonic blast did was stun it. Bastard was already getting its shit together when I attacked. Decided not to take any chances.” Beverly’s voice had lost its husky quality. Tori glanced over and found herself staring at the human version of her fellow apprentice, no worse for the wear despite her injuries.

  “Do you need me to look at your arm?” Tori offered.

  “It’s fine.” Beverly pulled back her sleeve to show a bare, unmarked bicep. “I told you, my green dragon is tough and can heal like nobody’s business. I’m just glad he didn’t get off another one of those red explosion shots while I was coming at him.”

  “I’ll have to look it over to be sure, but I’d wager it didn’t because it couldn’t. Attacks that strong take a lot of juice; it probably needed to recharge after the first shot.” Tori hunkered down in a squat and began sifting through the claw- and tooth-marked remains. “There’s other stuff in here, too. Shield system that it didn’t get to use thanks to the cannon, smaller weapons, even a few for melee. Keep watch while I pick through this.”

  “Think you’ll find something you can use?” Beverly asked.

  Tori shook her head. Even if there’d been time, Beverly had done too good a job turning her opponent into scrap. “Nothing physical, but if I’m lucky, I might see what little tricks this one was hiding. That way the next one won’t take us by surprise.”

  “Take your time, then.” Beverly’s eyes began to glow white as scales manifested over her body. “There’s bound to be a lot of those out there. I’d like to see how many we can take down.”

  * * *

  “And first kill on the golds goes to Thuggernaut’s apprentice, with Pseudonym’s getting a respectable assist,” Johnny announced. While he was still wearing a pinstriped suit, it was at least a different one than the day before.

  “An assist? What fight were you watching?” Xelas made a motion to the wall; one of the screens began to rewind until it was showing Tori’s blast once more. “Without that shot, dragon-girl had no chance of making the hi
t. If anything, Tori got the kill and Beverly got the assist.”

  “Tori’s contribution was invaluable, that’s why she gets an assist.” Johnny pulled out the laptop he’d brought along and made a few quick keystrokes, updating the betting pool along with how much he stood to make himself. This was a big one; almost no one had picked Beverly for the first kill of a gold-cored. “The one who spills the blood, or in this case circuits, gets the credit. You know it as well as I do.”

  “Johnny is right,” Gork said. Her voice was nearly as rough as her words were heavy. Gork’s people had a heavy emphasis on honor and protocol, which made her quite a stickler for the rules… or at least the ones she agreed to follow. When it came to matters of fairness, regarding both the letter and spirit of their rules, Gork was universally considered as impartial a judge as could be found in a guild full of criminals and outlaws. Had the AHC greeted Gork as a friend instead of assuming her people were a threat, they might have gained powerful allies beneath the Earth’s crust. Unfortunately, force had won over diplomacy, and Gork’s culture had very firm ideas about dealing with unwarranted aggression.

  “See, from the part-rock woman’s mouth herself.” Finishing his entry, Johnny slid the laptop back into the bag by his feet and turned his attention to the screens once more. “That said: it was one hell of an assist. Can’t believe the gal put together something like that out of spare parts in a single night.”