by Drew Hayes
“Well, Hephaestus, my name is Medley. You might not have heard of me yet—I’m new to the Alliance of Heroic Champions—but I’ll give you the basics: I never give up, I never back down, and I never let my prey go once it’s within reach. Now, I’ve been taking it easy on you, despite the fact that you tried to light me up like a sparkler, but that’s about to change. You’re decently strong, which means I can’t capture you by holding so much back. If you’d like to surrender, I’ll happily accept. Otherwise, whatever injuries you get are your own fault.” Medley stopped circling, that long tail of his extended out behind him. So far, he’d been using it like a bat, smacking her around with it, but they were both keenly aware of the sharp stinger resting at its tip. He wasn’t bluffing. Medley was a living weapon, and as it stood, she had no hope of beating him.
If not for a whisper in her communicator, Hephaestus might have given up all hope of keeping her suit and fled. Instead, she grinned beneath the concealment of her black helmet. As quickly and covertly as she could, Hephaestus began redirecting her suit’s power, cranking up the temperature as she did to supplement its waning batteries.
“Sorry, Medley, but I’m not really much of a fighter. We just came to relieve the museum of a few of its less-appreciated exhibits, and with that done, I don’t see the need to slug it out with you.”
Medley flexed his claws and lowered his stance, the fur on his back standing on end. “From where I stand, you don’t have a lot of—HEY!”
As Medley spoke, Hephaestus spun on her heel and sprinted off across the parking lot, almost all of the suit’s power cranking through her legs, fleeing as fast as her mechanically enhanced feet would carry her. Thanks to the helmet’s rear camera, she could see Medley finally snap to what was happening and begin to give chase. Quick as she was, he was faster, and the gap she’d bought with her surprise began to narrow inch by inch. Still, she poured on the effort, running for all she was worth.
“Where do you think you can go?” Medley roared from behind her. “We’re in downtown Dash City, and the police are on their way. There’s nowhere to... to run.”
His words slurred as he veered to the side—only for a split second, but enough to confirm the drugs were pumping again. It would give Hephaestus a very narrow window of opportunity, one she planned to use as quickly as possible. Sooner or later, he’d shake the chemicals completely, and if she was still around when that happened, everything would go right to shit.
Quietly, she whispered a few words into her communicator, and then turned her head a few inches back to yell at Medley. “Well, good thing for me that I’m not planning on running away!”
“You plan to fight me after all?” Medley was steadying himself out; in moments, he’d be gaining ground again.
“Fuck that shit. I just meant why run when you can fly!” Giving her suit’s power one last burst of juice, she sank down on both feet and pushed off, leaping as high into the air as she could possibly manage. It wasn’t that high; she barely cleared five feet off the ground, even with all the power she’d poured into her suit’s muscles. Thankfully, it was just high enough for a pair of white-scaled claws to grab her outstretched arms and carry her up into the sky.
Below, Medley was coming down from his own leap, clearly meant to catch Hephaestus before she could get away. Whether it was the drugs, the gap, or the surprise, he’d come up short, and with every beat of Bahamut’s wings, they were carried farther and farther out of his range.
“I am really, really glad you came back to check on me,” Hephaestus said.
“You read the rules: one of us goes down, we all go down,” Bahamut replied. “Besides, I had a feeling you’d get yourself in too deep.”
“Judgment later, escape now.”
“About that. I’ve got really good hearing like this, and I can make out the sounds of helicopters coming this way.” Bahamut gestured with her head. “Three at least, and gaining on us fast.”
“Cops?”
“Or reporters. Doesn’t matter. Neither will let us out of their sight. And while I’ve got a ward to help conceal me, you don’t,” Bahamut informed her.
“Shitcrap. I don’t suppose you could outrun them?”
“Normally, maybe. But that suit isn’t exactly light. You’re weighing me down a lot, which means they’ll probably be able to catch up.” Bahamut banked hard to the left, giving Hephaestus an unimpeded view of the city below. She could see flashing lights converging on the museum, expecting to find a group of robbers neatly captured. The AHC wasn’t going to like that any of them escaped, and if they had any shot of catching her and Bahamut, they’d take it.
“I’ve got an idea,” Hephaestus said.
“Is it a good idea?”
“Holy shit, no. But it might work.”
Bahamut let out the sort of sigh that said she’d known the answer to her question when it was asked and was just hoping to be proven wrong. “Guess that will have to do.”
“Glad to hear you’re on board. Lift me up higher so I can get a hold on your stomach. After that, we have to adjust your grip. And for the love of all that’s precious in the world, keep your damn tail lifted.”
Bahamut complied, pulling Hephaestus up against her scaled stomach, at which point the armored woman began instructing her on exactly where her claws should be. By the time the maneuver was done, they were clinging tightly to each other in an interspecies hug that was uncomfortable but sustainable for both of them.
“Now, when I say three, you hold on to me for all you’re worth and keep your wings steady. Aim for somewhere deserted. I’ll get us enough of a head start that we can land and call Tunnel Vision before anyone tracks us.”
“How the hell will you... wait, are you kidding me?” Bahamut’s head peered down at Hephaestus, confirming that yes, dragons can look panicked under the right circumstances.
“One.”
“This is not safer than trying to hide from the helicopters!” Bahamut yelled. She jerked her head upward. With what was coming, the last thing she needed was to not see in front of them.
“Never said it was!” Hephaestus agreed. Despite the danger they were still in, she couldn’t shake a feeling of excitement as the world rushed along below them and the semi-distant beat of helicopters could be heard on the wind. “Two!”
“I want it on the record that I deeply regret coming back to save you.”
“So noted,” Hephaestus said. “Three!”
With that, she activated her suit’s thrusters, pouring every last ounce of power she had into them. While it wasn’t enough to get her into the air, it could sure as shit add a kick to Bahamut’s flying speed. The ground went from a rush to a blur as the white dragon with a stomach seemingly ablaze raced through the sky.
* * *
“This is why I love rookies! A rocket dragon. A fucking rocket dragon! Have we ever had that before?” Xelas looked around the room, waiting to see if anyone could supply an answer to her clearly very important question. Either no one could or they didn’t care; the heavy atmosphere had been lifted right along with Hephaestus as the final two apprentices made their escape.
Arachno Bro and Thuggernaut were both out of their seats celebrating, and even Balaam looked like he’d cracked a half-smile when word came up that Glyph had safely returned with Pest Control. Even the other council members seemed cheery. Not only had the rookies managed to avoid capture, but they’d put on a hell of a show while doing it. Videos from this were definitely going to be edited together for the Christmas party, where it would be all the more entertaining because everyone knew it turned out all right.
Amid the cheer, Ivan made his way around the table to where Doctor Mechaniacal was seated, watching with the others as a dragon with thrusters on its stomach burned through the night sky. Ivan leaned over to make certain his words wouldn’t be overheard. Though they’d been carefully chosen, the context could change if others heard him uttering them.
“Fighting three of the newest capes on
their final trial. Seems like a hell of a steep obstacle to climb over.”
“I already know where you’re going with this, and you can save the implications.” Doctor Mechaniacal turned slightly in his chair so he could whisper back to Ivan. “My original plan was to have Tunnel Vision tell them the shack had been compromised when they tried to use it, forcing them to hunt in unfamiliar territory for a secure location to transport from, test how resourceful they could be when they had to think on the fly. Which, given what we’ve seen tonight, is a question I’d say was thoroughly answered. Believe me, I would never throw more at these apprentices than I thought they could handle.”
“So they just had bad luck?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” Doctor Mechaniacal replied. “For them to have been caught at such an innocuous task, it seems a fair wager that the AHC was waiting for them. If our uneasy peace has begun to wane, then tonight will have much further-reaching implications than just the capes’ awareness of our newest recruits. But that can wait for later.”
Doctor Mechaniacal stood from his chair, and as he rose, the rest of the room quieted. “My colleagues, Pseudonym has been kind enough to suggest that, given the harrowing nature of tonight’s trials, we move our observation to Sanctum. It would do well for the apprentices to see their mentors waiting for them when the trial is complete. A little solidarity as it were, after a trying evening.”
There were no objections, so the council and two mentors headed down the hallway, screens lighting up along the way so they could continue to monitor Hephaestus and Bahamut’s unorthodox flight.
* * *
“Why didn’t you step in?” Lady Shade stood with Apollo on top of the museum, concealing them both from the roving eyes of reporters and the cameras that were currently surrounding Medley and a still-unconscious Cold Shoulder. Apollo had snuck on to the scene after dropping off the new superheroes, bringing her along to keep them hidden as they watched it all play out. Yet, even as they watched the whole plan fell apart, Apollo hadn’t lifted a muscle, only silently observing while criminal after criminal escaped.
“If I’d jumped in and helped, what would that have accomplished? The new team would think we didn’t trust them enough to let them work without being watched, or worse, they’d get accustomed to having someone nearby to bail them out.” Apollo shook his head. “Yes, I could have handled the whole thing in moments, but they wouldn’t have learned from the experience. And if we want them to get better, then learning, especially through failure, is going to be key.”
“But you could still go run down the dragon,” Lady Shade suggested. “There’s enough media here that you can claim you were called in to clean up after them.”
“Why would I catch the dragon? I want those thieves to get away,” Apollo replied. “If our rookies can’t claim victory, I’d rather they suffer a complete, humiliating defeat. It works much better in the long run.”
“Because it gives them another chance to catch the villains?” Lady Shade asked.
“That, too. But mostly because tonight is going to eat at them: all the ways they failed, all the ways they were embarrassed and beaten. And over time, they’ll grow to hate these four thieves, blame them for it all. So much so that if the day ever comes that the chance for revenge is offered, they won’t think twice before jumping at it.” Apollo smiled as he looked down at Medley, who was doing his best to answer the reporters yet drowning spectacularly in their sea of questions.
“Tonight, they have learned to hate villains.”
* * *
It took half an hour to land, find a secluded park with an unoccupied bridge they could huddle under, and finally push down on their button to go home. Hephaestus was braced for a lot of things as the cement wall rippled and vanished to reveal their way back to the guild. Surely there would be yelling and scolding: not only had they failed to avoid attention, but they had in fact had somehow drawn a group of capes. She took solace in the knowledge that they’d stuck to the code. No matter what else went awry, no matter how many mistakes they made, that much was true, and she wrapped that truth around her like a suit of armor that wasn’t dented and beaten half to shit.
What she hadn’t been expecting was the wave of sound that slammed into her and Bahamut, now back in human-form, as they stepped into Sanctum. It wasn’t screaming or anger; in fact, it was cheering. All of the council was there, along with Tunnel Vision, Glyph, Pest Control, Arachno Bro, and Thuggernaut. Even Ivan, clad in his Pseudonym outfit, stood in the corner applauding. From the center of the crowd stepped Doctor Mechaniacal, covered head to toe in his own distinctive meta-suit.
“We wanted to be here to greet you both,” he announced, the cheers subduing but not dying at the sound of his voice, “because never has a group of apprentices faced such a challenge or handled it with such cool heads. You four did a remarkable job, protecting your score, looking out for each other, and making sure that none of your actions did more than embarrass the capes... and perhaps leave one with the scent of charred fur.”
Snickers and giggles came from the council. Doctor Mechaniacal continued. “Since Glyph and Pest Control returned first, we took the liberty of evaluating the paintings you brought back. Based on current black market prices, it was determined that your stolen art will net roughly six hundred thousand dollars—after the guild takes its cuts, of course. That means, my impressive apprentices, that you have all passed your final trial, showing that you can handle even the most unexpected of situations while still staying true to the guild’s code.”
He turned away from them and motioned to Glyph and Pest Control, who hurried over to stand by Hephaestus and Bahamut. Doctor Mechaniacal raised his arms to the four apprentices who stood beside him and turned his helmet slowly to look at everyone else in the room.
“My fellow councilors and guild-mates, the four villains beside me are no longer apprentices. Although we’ll need time to prepare the ceremony to induct them properly, with tonight’s success it is my pleasure to announce that they are full members in the Guild of Villainous Reformation!”
If the first round of cheers had been deafening, this one nearly knocked Hephaestus from her weary feet. Instead, she grabbed Bahamut’s hand and lifted their arms into the air. It had taken months of effort to finally reach this moment.
She was damn sure going to savor it.
Chapter 70
“One of our members was snagged by a flying dragon, one left her protective shell only to be brought down by drugs, and one let his prey escape by not paying enough attention to his surroundings. I won’t lie to you: this was not a good showing, and certainly not up to the caliber I’d expected from all of you.”
Cyber Geek, Medley, and Cold Shoulder all hung their heads as they sat across from Apollo, the older superhero staring at them patiently from his side of the desk. Medley and Cold Shoulder had required a trip to the AHC’s medical team to receive antidotes for the drugs injected into their systems, which meant they’d had plenty of time to stew in their failure before being called in to Apollo’s office. It was going better than they expected in the sense that no one had been kicked out of the AHC or busted back down to training. Then again, the meeting wasn’t over yet.
“With that said, some of these failures are more forgivable than others,” Apollo continued. “Our resident magical metas have confirmed there was heavy use of sorcery during your fight. As near as we can gather, the dragon had some sort of ward on it which made it difficult to notice. Given that none of your powers are magically based, it’s not surprising that you were susceptible to such charms. That makes the kidnapping of Cyber Geek and the escape of... what did you say the metal-suited one called himself again?”
“Hephaestus,” Medley replied, keeping his usual roar of a voice as meek as possible. It wasn’t a name he was going to forget soon, possibly ever.
“Yes. Cyber Geek getting snatched and the escape of Hephaestus are somewhat more forgivable since both involved a dragon enchante
d specifically to slip your attention. What is less understandable, however, is one of the AHC’s superheroes leaving the safety of her ice construct to attack a villain who’d already displayed a use of ranged darts, which good sense would tell you were drugged.” Apollo laid his hand on the after-action report, a summary of all three superheroes’ debriefings along with analysis of the footage from what cameras remained. His own observations were absent from the file, as, technically speaking, he hadn’t been there.
“With Cyber Geek already gone, if you hadn’t allowed yourself to be removed from the fight, Medley might have been able to subdue Hephaestus before the dragon arrived to carry him away.” Apollo’s eyes were locked on Cold Shoulder, who squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. There was no great defense springing to mind, no quick turn of wit that would exonerate her. Apollo was right. The results spoke for themselves. They’d all made mistakes.
“Respectfully, sir, the blame for that error falls on me.” Medley’s voice had just a bit more of its usual strength this time. All eyes looked to his stoic, tiger-like face. “I was the one who told Cold Shoulder to come freeze Hephaestus. I was the one who was supposed to have the criminal secured. She trusted me to be able to contain the threat when I implied I would, and I didn’t live up to that trust.”
“You had no way of knowing that guy was going to light you on fire,” Cold Shoulder said, so stunned by Medley’s declaration that she momentarily forgot how uncomfortable she was.
“Doesn’t matter. When I told you to leave the safety of the construct and freeze Hephaestus, I was assuring you safety. If I hadn’t let myself be distracted, I could have dodged the attack, which I should have at least somewhat expected. Overestimating myself and underestimating an opponent are both honest tactical mistakes. Trusting your teammate isn’t.”
Apollo considered the scene before him carefully, taking a gauge of the room and the emotions within it. After several seconds of hesitation, he allowed a small smile to grace his lips and gave a soft shake of his curly head. “Well, at least that’s one test you didn’t fail.”