by Drew Hayes
It had been a fine bit of entertainment, one of the best dimensions he’d watched so far. The cleanup was never as interesting anyway, so he was glad most of the ones capable of doing it were dead. Perhaps this dimension would take new, interesting turns that he’d yet to witness. It wasn’t likely, though. While every dimension in the multiverse was unique, some had more pronounced differences than others. Here, the alterations were minimal, and that was reflected in how the event had played out.
Even now, half a country away from where they were desperately hunting down the monster who’d unleashed living hell upon the world, Nexus knew how things were unspooling. By sundown they would catch up to their quarry, Lodestar leading the pack. The woman would be half-insane by this point, so lost in grief that she could scarcely function through the blind, drowning anger. Nexus would be there for the next battle, the one that cracked the earth and ushered in decades of despair; however, until then, he was content to simply stroll through the aftermath. One had to get a good appreciation for all that went into a show. The buildup and the fallout were almost as important as the spectacles themselves.
Still, this was merely a placeholder, something to fritter away the time while he waited for the next main event to begin. This dimension was like so many others—no unique people who might sway or shift the tide of battle, no factors that made things deliciously unpredictable. It was like watching a rerun of the same show he’d seen a hundred times. No matter how much he might enjoy it, it lacked the thrill of the unknown.
It was better than nothing, though. And anyway, by his observation, it would be a few days at most until the dimension with Quorum hit this junction. All the pieces were in play and moving into position; once the first move was made, chaos would be on its heels, and Nexus would be waiting to take in the show.
Until then, he’d keep busy by taking in the usual sights. And it was always fun to watch that final battle, anyway. No matter how many times he saw it, there was just something special about that fight. The brutality, the emotion, the regret, the pain... so rarely in life did fate force an encounter on par with the one that would happen at sunset. While Nexus couldn’t wait to see how the other dimension fared, this would do for now.
He truly never tired of watching Lodestar kill Fornax, after all.
Chapter 74
Tori didn’t wake up in her guild quarters until halfway through Saturday, the night of celebration and mingling with her other guild-mates having taken a heavy toll. After a late breakfast, long shower, and a few minutes spent in fire-form to shake off the remnants of a hangover, she got down to business.
Logging in to her bank account, Tori found that she had indeed been credited her share from the museum heist, minus about twenty grand. Interestingly, a memo in the deposit line showed the money coming from Vendallia Industries as a bonus with the notation of “Lab expenses deducted.” Doctor Mechaniacal had warned her that the tech she’d used to build her suit would eventually have to be paid for, so the deduction made sense. Either way, a hundred and thirty grand could still buy her all the components she needed to fully refine her suit.
Before that, however, there were pragmatic issues to deal with. Closing the tab with her banking information, Tori began to hunt through local apartment listings. Hephaestus might be able to bunk at the guild, but Tori Rivas was going to need a place to stay if she wanted to keep selling her cover. Besides, much as she liked the guild, having somewhere to call her own seemed prudent. Though, as she skimmed through the pricey listings, it became evident that she couldn’t afford any of the really good spots on her own. Well, she could if she used her thief money, but the whole point of an apartment in the real world was that it needed to be a place Tori the administrative assistant could afford. Hephaestus, however, would need a lot of space, plus security, since she wouldn’t have Ivan’s basement to use as a lab anymore. Those requirements weren’t satisfied by the salary she pulled down at Vendallia.
How the hell did normal people find decent places to live? Well, the obvious answer was that most people weren’t concealing the fact that they were meta-humans aligned with a secret organization of supervillains. That opened up options like roommates, who would split the rent and lower costs.
Tori tapped absentmindedly on the side of her computer, a new idea flitting through her head. Shutting the machine off, she threw on a slightly less decrepit t-shirt and a pair of jeans in place of her sweats and left her room. Three doors over, she knocked firmly until the door opened to reveal an awake, albeit not quite alert, Beverly.
“Do you ever sleep?” Beverly asked, pulling open her door the rest of the way.
“It’s past noon, get over it,” Tori said. She sauntered in, shut the door behind her, and whipped around to face her tired friend, too excited to bother with subtlety. “Where do you live?”
“For the love of... are you trying to get metaphysical before I’ve even had a bowl of cereal?” Beverly walked over to her cupboard. She yanked out a small pack of sugar-frosted non-nutrition, tossed its contents in a bowl, grabbed a milk jug from her mini-fridge, and filled the bowl nearly to the brim.
“No, I meant literally,” Tori explained. “When you’re not here, where do you live?”
“I did live with my family,” Beverly replied. “Though I don’t think that’s going to fly anymore. We’re mending bridges, but once a family member turns into a monster and nearly tramples half the people in the house, they’re not exactly welcome to come strolling back through the front door.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” Tori said. “You’d literally just been turned. No one has good control at that point.”
“Which is why I’m forgiven,” Beverly told her. “All the same, I scared the living hell out of them. Even if we both know I’ve got a better handle on this now, they might have a hard time believing me. To them, this is all impossible to understand, you know? Besides, I’d been thinking of moving out at the end of the year anyway. Getting dragon powers is as good a reason to take that plunge as any.”
“I’m sorry you can’t go home, but on a selfish level, I’m sort of not. See, I had an idea. What if you and I—” Tori spread her arms to draw out the moment, then clapped her hands together and finished the proposal “—become roommates! We can split the rent, help each other with cover identities, and since we’re both guild members, we don’t have to hide our extracurricular activities.”
“Mmm.” It was hard to tell whether Beverly’s reaction a result of the idea or her breakfast; either way, she munched through a few more spoonfuls without saying anything. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” she began, “but aren’t you the sort that needs a lot of space? I may not know a lot about tech stuff, but I saw you work when we were in the desert. You spread out everywhere. I like you, I do; I just don’t know that I want to live with someone who dominates the living room so they can build mechanical dolphins with grappling hooks for noses.”
“Not really what I do, but also not the worst idea for aquatic warfare,” Tori said, making a mental note for future projects. “Anyway, we’d have to get a space for me to use as a lab, but I promise not to let it spill into communal areas. This place is supposed to be a cover for us anyway, remember? Tori the office-worker can’t very well have advanced machinery littering the house.”
“I guess that’s true,” Beverly agreed. She tilted back her bowl and shoveled down the rest of her breakfast, slurping her milk as she went. “Okay, I’ll take a look with you and see if there’s anything that fits what we’d need. Did you check and see if the guild has special deals or places set aside for us to rent? Maybe with a hidden lab already built in?”
“I... no, it never occurred to me. Do you think the guild really would have stuff like that?” Tori asked.
“Given everything I’ve seen, nothing would surprise me,” Beverly replied. After a moment’s consideration, she added, “Okay, that’s probably not true in the slightest, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they had some sort of real
estate connection. How about you find out if that’s a thing while I take a shower?”
“Sounds good.” Tori headed for the door but stopped just before her hand landed on the knob. “An actual shower, right? Not slipping back into bed as soon as I leave the room?”
There was a very notable delay before Beverly let out a long sigh of defeat. “Fine, just the shower. I’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll be back in twenty-one,” Tori said, and just like that, she was out the door.
* * *
“And lastly, I’d like to bring up our defense system,” Apollo said. His pen ran to the last item on the bulleted list, copies of which were supposedly in front of every other member of the Champions’ Congress. Quorum, at least, could be seen following along, but with the remote terminals Lodestar and Professor Quantum were using, it was impossible to tell. Though the detached, bored tone in Professor Quantum’s voice did give Apollo an indication of his distraction.
“The system was just upgraded last year,” Professor Quantum said. No doubt if challenged he could probably have given the exact date and time of said upgrade, along with all the steps he’d taken to complete the task. Even at half-attention, he presented more brainpower than some state populations combined.
“Yes, it was,” Apollo agreed. “However, there hasn’t been a full-scale test of the lockdown protocol in over five years. According to the AHC’s protocol we’re supposed to do them annually.”
“Those things are... sort of a pain,” Lodestar admitted, the symbol flickering at her brief pause. “No matter how many times we tell people we’re doing a drill, they always panic when the AHC is suddenly covered by a giant glowing energy-dome, to say nothing of all the guns and defenses that pop out. Everyone assumes Ridge City’s greatest heroes are under attack, and we have to spend the next few days sweeping up all the chaos that ensues.”
“A pain or not, you three saw the importance in making sure our people had a safe place to recover and shelter when the need arose,” Apollo pointed out. “As it stands now, we’re way out of compliance. If you’d like to amend the protocol, then by all means, let’s put a motion on the floor. Otherwise, I can have a drill ready to proceed on Tuesday.”
“So soon?” Quorum said. “Those take a while to coordinate with all the emergency response agencies.”
“I wouldn’t have brought it up if I hadn’t already laid the groundwork,” Apollo assured him. “I can task our newest members with canvasing the area and ensuring the people know it’s a drill. That will get them some face time with the public as well as keep things under control. All the necessary agencies have been contacted and are waiting for final confirmation of our plans. We can knock it out in a couple of hours and be good for another year. Or we can change the protocol, if anyone wants to—”
“Just run the damn thing,” Professor Quantum said. “If it gets choppy, all the better to train the rookies. Though, it’s a waste of time; my designs and technology are both flawless.”
“Says the guy who blew the city’s power grid the first time we tried to turn the system on,” Lodestar reminded him. “Apollo is right. Five years of tinkering needs to be tested before we depend on it. Use the full lockdown-mode and make sure everything is running well. And try to keep the peace, please.”
“Rest assured, everyone will be completely informed and I will have teams on standby,” Apollo said. And he would too, because he really had reached out to all the proper agencies and told them that there would be a test occurring at AHC headquarters.
After all, doing these drills required purposely tripping a lot of AHC alarms, and he’d hate for rescue workers to mistakenly show up for an emergency that wasn’t happening. Why, he’d hate it almost as much as he’d hate for Lodestar or Professor Quantum to show up for an attack that actually was happening. When the alarms sounded and the barriers rose, both of them would take it for nothing more than the practice session they’d been briefed on, effectively removing them from the game board.
They were too powerful, too careful. For this plan to work, there would have to be a wake of destruction, the sort that made the citizens demand an appropriate response from their superheroes.
* * *
Tori flipped through the files she had found on the car seat, skimming through them yet again for some hint at what was to come. After a weekend of apartment-hunting with Beverly (the guild, as it turned out, did have some real estate holdings, but they were limited in availability) and plotting out things like the cost of a new motorcycle and moving expenses, Tori had very nearly forgotten Ivan’s request to return to his place in her work clothes. She only remembered at the very last minute and raced around her room at the guild to get ready. When she stepped into the robot-piloted car, a little sweaty and unkempt but otherwise put together, she had found the stack of files waiting for her.
As far as she could tell, they were reports from Vendallia, ones she’d turned in to Ivan earlier in the week. Given that she was also dressed like a regular employee, Tori caught the scent of subterfuge and mentally readied herself to play the part of Ivan’s assistant once more. She wasn’t certain how this was a gift, but decided to see how it all shook out. Ivan never gave instructions without a reason. Tori’s curiosity was piqued.
The car whispered into the driveway just as Ivan emerged from the house. On his heels were two other figures. As soon as she saw them, Tori felt the blood in her veins run cold. She was flung back to her first day at Ivan’s house when he’d held up a picture of two people and made it clear that there was one line never to be crossed.
Before she could instruct the driver to whip the car around, the door opened and Ivan called out to her.
“Early as always, Miss Rivas.” Ivan quickly stepped forward and held out a hand to help her from the vehicle. She took it, struck dumb by the cheerfulness in his voice and the genuine smile on his face. “It’s all right, the others will be here soon. Please, let me take those.”
Ivan scooped the files out of Tori’s hands as the door shut behind her. Suddenly she was staring into two sets of unfamiliar eyes. The kids watched her every move like she was an unfamiliar dog off its leash, and Tori focused on doing her absolute best to make no movement that could even slightly be interpreted as threatening.
“I don’t believe you’ve ever met my children, have you?” Ivan motioned them forward, and both children inched closer to Tori. “Miss Rivas, this is Rick and Beth. Kids, this is Miss Rivas, she’s a friend and colleague from the office. She’s also a bit of an early bird, since the meeting doesn’t start for another half hour.”
At long last, Tori’s tongue found the courage to move. She nodded her head much too hard in agreement. “I’m so sorry about that, completely didn’t realize how far I’d missed the mark. If you’d like, I can come back.”
“Nonsense, your ride is already leaving,” Ivan said. And sure enough, the town car was pulling out of the driveway, headed off to wherever the guild sent it next. Hopefully not too far away, though, seeing as she had left a bag in the trunk. “Why don’t you go on in and make yourself comfortable while I drop my children off with their mother? I’m sure you’ll be fine on your own for a bit. I trust you.”
With those words, Tori finally understood what Ivan was trying to do. He was showing her the extent to which she’d earned his trust. He was introducing her to the only things in the world he truly loved, worried, and cared about. That was why he’d had her come home like this, so that there could be a pretext to introduce her to his children.
“I’ll try not to eat all of the food,” Tori said. She turned to Rick and Beth, taking each by the hand and giving a firm shake. “It’s nice to meet you both. Your father is kind of a stick-in-the-mud, but he’s not such a bad boss.”
Beth giggled. Rick tried to look interested without looking too interested, the paradox that was a teenage boy’s attempt to grasp the intangible quality known as ‘cool’. “Nice to meet you too,” Beth said, tone polite a
s she visibly considered each word before using it. Tori was hardly shocked to see that Ivan had drilled his kids in the importance of manners, even if the older one was resisting.
“Yeah, cool,” Rick mumbled. “I mean, it’s a pleasure.”
“Guess you got your eloquence from your dad,” Tori said. This time, Beth laughed outright, and Rick’s neck grew flushed. “Nothing wrong with that, though. They say when men of few words talk, everyone listens. And trust me, no one in the office ignores him when your father speaks.”
“That’s probably enough of that,” Ivan interjected. He started to herd the kids towards his car. “I need to get them home, and sooner or later, the rest of the staff will be showing up. Kids, say goodbye to Tori.”
“Bye, Tori,” Beth called, her voice somewhere between a yelp and a holler. She also waved as she walked, swinging both hands overhead with no sense of restraint. It was a little surprising to see such uninhibited friendliness in a girl her age—Tori recalled her and her peers losing the quality by the time they’d gotten as old as Beth. At the same time, it was heartwarming, especially in contrast to the stoic men in Beth’s family.
“Goodbye.” Rick’s voice was a touch more clear this time as he and his sister climbed into the back of Ivan’s car. Ivan shut the doors and turned to his former apprentice, the smile that his children had conjured not fading in the slightest.
“Nice kids,” Tori commented. She wasn’t sure what to make of all this, so instead of trying, she decided to just let Ivan take the lead.
“They are. Good, smart, and faithful to a fault.” Ivan looked at the car where his children were waiting. “It’s important to me that they’re familiar with the people I trust, just in case I ever have to use those people to send messages. They’ve known Wade almost since birth, and the woman you know as Morgana for the past five years. Seemed like it was time to widen that circle of trust just a bit.”