by Drew Hayes
Ivan stared down at the cape’s surly face and his thick, knotted muscles. No doubt he was a tough fighter, one who had a lot of confidence. But he was still young; he hadn’t been around for the glory days of villainy before the guild started purging the biggest threats before they could reach him.
Leaning slightly down to emphasize the height difference between them, Ivan lowered his voice and let out a whisper that was almost a hiss.
“You have never met a monster like me.”
* * *
The last of the magic finally gave way, and Rust Tooth set a clawed foot onto Ivan Gerhardt’s lawn. It had taken almost ten minutes to punch a hole in the defenses, and in that time, he’d seen several of the neighbors peeking out through their windows. The black trench coat covering Rust Tooth’s body did a poor job of concealing the beast inside, and the long tail poking out the bottom certainly didn’t help matters. Even if they didn’t know what he was doing, someone—likely a few of them—had definitely called the cops by now. That was fine; Balaam had told him not to bother with stealth. In fact, the more people that saw him, the better. The police would be tied up by the AHC’s defense test, and even if they made it before he left, it would just be more bodies on the pile.
Rust Tooth tore off his coat as he ran toward the house. He wanted to be seen in his full, terrifying glory. He wanted the rookie to look upon the face of her death and despair. She was a disciple of a whipped dog, the sort of weak-minded person who’d dragged the guild down from what it could have been. He was going to enjoy tearing her apart, sending a message to everyone who thought villains should live on the sidelines. The front door loomed before him, but with no more magic to get in the way, it might as well have already been made of splinters. And that’s what Rust Tooth turned it into as he barreled through.
He’d barely gotten a step inside before a half-dozen small pings echoed off his torso. Looking down, Rust Tooth saw a cluster of needles, all bent or snapped in half, which had fallen at his feet. Across the room, slowly lowering her left arm, was Pseudonym’s apprentice. She was dressed in her armor again, but Balaam had already given Rust Tooth plenty of warning about that. It might be useful, but the girl was no Doctor Mechaniacal. Her suit couldn’t stand up to a barrage of attack from a meta-human like him. Especially since she wasn’t able to hurt him back.
“I know you.” The voice wasn’t feminine as it crackled through the dark helmet, but Rust Tooth knew it was her inside. “I’ve seen you at the guild. You were at the membership ceremony on Friday. Why in the hell are you attacking Pseudonym’s house?”
Rust Tooth was almost, almost, tempted to try and play at subterfuge. Tell her that Pseudonym had been attacked and that no one had a way inside, so he was sent to warn her. But he quickly realized anyone smart enough to build a meta-suit would probably see though any story he could whip together. Besides, he wanted her to die knowing what was happening, the fate her teacher had earned for her.
“My name is Rust Tooth, and I’m here because the guild is experiencing a change in management,” Rust Tooth told her. “And as part of that, we’re taking care of anyone who might cause problems under the new regime. Since you’re the apprentice of that dog, you’re being put down too.”
“Hoo boy, I really want to believe you’re joking, but if you’re breaking in here, I guess you can’t be,” she said. “Are you stupid? I mean, really, really stupid? Some morons in the guild decided to try and stage a coup, and you volunteered to piss off Pseudonym? Your best case scenario here—and I mean utter best case—is killing me and getting away, at which point, he will murder the living shit out of you for it.”
“Pseudonym isn’t Fornax,” Rust Tooth growled. He wanted to crush all her hopes before he crushed her body. It wasn’t practical, but it was villainous, and by the gods, it felt so good to finally be a real villain again. “Not anymore. He’s gotten soft. Grown weak. While he might still have the power, he’s no longer unassailable. He created his own vulnerabilities.”
There was a moment of near silence, the only sound in the house the settling of a few bits of debris raining down from the shattered doorframe. While Rust Tooth couldn’t see her face through the helmet, he could imagine the shock and terror filling her eyes as she realized that her precious teacher wasn’t coming to save her. Soon there would be whimpering, and then begging, and only then would he get the full satisfaction of killing her as she cried for her life.
“His kids.” It wasn’t a whimper at all; in fact, Rust Tooth was shocked at how much fury managed to make it through the garbling of her helmet. “You’re threatening Ivan’s kids. God. Damn. You people are fucking idiots. Do you have any idea what will happen if you hurt them?”
“I think you should be more concerned about yourself, little apprentice.” She wasn’t playing along, and it was beginning to take some of the fun out of this for Rust Tooth. If she wasn’t going to give him a satisfying, weepy death, then he’d just hurry things along. Maybe one of the neighbors would be a bit more compliant.
“You’re the one that should be worried. You should be praying to every god you know that I kill you, because it’s the only way you’re getting spared from Ivan’s wrath. And one more thing...”
In a single motion, she hunched forward, and with a flare from behind her, she barreled into Rust Tooth’s chest, arms crossed in an X formation in front of her to strike as many ribs as possible.
The force of the impact sent Rust Tooth flying back into a wall, which buckled under his weight. She didn’t let up as they crashed, slamming a fist into his right ribs and then flexing the fingers on her left hand. From the tip of each came a two-inch, focused flame burning white-hot.
“I’m not an apprentice anymore. The name’s Hephaestus, motherfucker.” With that, she jammed her miniature torches right into Rust Tooth’s face.
Chapter 78
“And as soon as the authorization goes through... and look, there it is. Everything is officially in motion,” Apollo announced, pointing to a light on the screen that had switched from red to green. “We’ve set all the defense systems to activate but left in the lower-tier override.” Without that stipulation, it would require three members of the Champions’ Congress to deactivate the system, but this way, either he or Quorum could do it once the test was done.
The two of them were in the deepest layer of the AHC’s sub-basement where the terminals that oversaw the security system were housed. It had taken over an hour and both of their authorizations, but they’d finally gotten everything properly set up for a test of the base’s defenses. Quorum typed a few more bits of code on his keyboard, then hit enter and stood up from his terminal.
“Only forty-five minutes until the system turns on,” he announced. “Do you need to do any more checks with the teams?”
“No, I’ve left everything in the hands of our operators,” Apollo replied. “We can’t count on any one superhero taking the lead during an attack; what if every member of the Congress is already in the field? Better to drill them using the operators to coordinate, just like we’d have to in a real attack.”
“Then all that’s left is for us to get out of here.” Quorum moved for the door, and Apollo was only a few steps behind. They passed a variety of instruments, some confiscated off of criminals and mildly dangerous (the truly restricted ones were tucked behind yet another layer of security), others little more than clutter that had been moved down here for convenience.
Beyond the various devices, just before the elevator they’d ridden down, were a set of three cells. These were the original holding areas constructed before an entire floor was created specifically as a makeshift, temporary prison. Each was empty, as the AHC only used its cells to hold prisoners while proper facilities were established, but they were a sight to behold. Forged from a composition of metals Professor Quantum refused to share details on, all of them were lined with a myriad of runes designed to dampen magical powers, wired to disable anyone who tried to break free, ancho
red to stop all teleportation or space tunneling, and strong enough to withstand attacks from anyone short of Lodestar.
Apollo paused in front of one, looking into the well-lit depths, wondering just how many villains had been tossed into it over the years. Not enough, he knew that much for certain. There was a whole guild that deserved to have seen the inside of these rooms. It was a shame that they’d been retired, but as the AHC grew, so did its needs. Besides, it didn’t make a lot of sense to store criminals in the same room as the security system, no matter how good the cells were. Only Professor Quantum had that level of arrogance, and it hadn’t taken long for Quorum and Lodestar to convince him of the error once they’d joined on. Apollo knew that and a thousand other tidbits of history about the organization he’d just reached the top of. He’d studied the AHC’s history tirelessly because he genuinely loved what it did and what it stood for. That was what made learning about the blind eye they turned toward the guild all the more infuriating.
“Checking out the old handiwork?” Quorum asked, stepping to Apollo’s side.
“They’re still pretty impressive,” Apollo said. “I bet we could use them, if we really had to.”
“Those would be desperate times,” Quorum replied. “You think we skimped on the protocol for the outer defenses? Since these aren’t sanctioned for use, they haven’t been checked over in decades.”
“Actually, they just got a tune-up yesterday.” Without any more warning than that, Apollo grabbed Quorum by the shoulder and gave him a powerful shove. It would have thrown most people right into the wall at the back of the cell and likely turned them to pulp in the process, but Quorum was barely inside before he killed his momentum and spun around.
It was too little, too late, however, as a barrier of energy now separated him from Apollo, the elevator, and the outside world as a whole.
To Apollo’s surprise, Quorum seemed unfazed by the sudden twist in their situation. He merely studied the inside of the cell with a quizzical expression then looked at Apollo. “Interesting.”
“Interesting? I have to admit, I was expecting a little bit more of a reaction,” Apollo said.
“Apollo, I have the minds of over a thousand people inside me; at least of few of them are better liars than you. I’ve known for over a year you had some plan of betrayal in the works, I just didn’t think it would be this simple,” Quorum replied. “If your goal is to keep me penned up in here and lock the rest of the Congress out of the system, I should tell you upfront that it won’t work. And unless you made serious modifications to the cells, there’s nothing lethal inside, which means that if you want to kill me, you’ll have to come do it by hand.”
The threat hung in the air, the old superhero and the young cape separated only by a barrier that not even they were powerful enough to break through. Rather than rising to it, Apollo merely shook his head in disappointment.
“I’m not going to kill you, Quorum. I just need to keep you out of the way for a few hours. I don’t want to take over the AHC; I want to fix its biggest mistake. Your generation grew old and lazy. You let a nest of vipers live in your city, giving them leeway because they killed smaller rats and hid in the shadows. When this is all over, you can try to kick me out of the Congress, but it might not be that easy. Think long and hard while you’re down here: do you want to be one of the brave superheroes that reacted to a heinous attack by a guild of shadow villains, or will you tell everyone that you ignored their presence until I locked you down here and forced the issue? Whichever story you choose, Quorum, I’ll back. All you have to do is live with the consequences.”
Apollo pressed the button to call the elevator, turning his back to Quorum and the cell. The older cape stared at him, remembering when Apollo had first come in, shining with determination and the desire to make the world a better place. Those traits were still there, but they’d been corrupted, warped by time and ambition. He’d seen it happen before, and each instance was a genuine tragedy.
“Do you know why I promoted you, even though I was certain you had some sort of betrayal up your sleeve?” Quorum asked.
“Because I was too essential to lose?” Apollo said. A ding filled the room as the elevator opened. Apollo stepped inside.
“No,” Quorum replied. “It’s because I’ve found that the best way to expose traitors is to give them a chance to strike. Once the fangs are bared, there’s no more deception. Today, I’ll roust every one of you from the Alliance.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Apollo said, just as the doors began to slide closed once more. “But forgive me for not waiting. There’s a guild of villains that’s about to start a war with us.”
* * *
Up until a few minutes prior, Hephaestus would have described the battle with Medley as one of her life’s toughest fights. One that, in truth, she hadn’t managed to win, but only escape, thanks to Bahamut’s help. That bar that Medley had set, however, was rapidly being surpassed as Rust Tooth smashed her idea of what a tough battle was to pieces, along with Ivan’s dinner table as he hurled her through it.
She rolled with the attack, coming up on her feet just in time to dodge a swipe from his giant claws. Medley’s claws had been sharp and deadly, true, but they were also relatively small. Rust Tooth may as well have glued steak knives to his fingers as he effortlessly cut through the floor where Hephaestus’s foot had been only a second before. Every bit of him was covered in that greasy, stained metal, including the giant tail that whipped around and caught her in the side as she dodged. She smashed into the kitchen and collided with the refrigerator.
Rust Tooth was strong, tough, armored, armed, and clearly accustomed to combat, yet none of those were what made the situation so problematic. No, the issue was that the son of a bitch seemed almost impervious to fire. Her miniature torches had barely gotten more than a twitch out of him before he shoved her away and began a counterattack. Whatever meta-condition he’d gotten, it was one that had a lot of resistance to heat, which was no doubt part of why he’d been tasked with eliminating her.
Hephaestus pulled herself up warily, eyes on Rust Tooth as he watched her from the doorway of the kitchen with that predatory smile. While she was mostly incorporeal inside her suit and therefore not getting hurt, the suit itself was taking a beating. She’d designed it specifically to resist the type of bludgeoning damage he was doling out, but if Rust Tooth caught her with one of those claws, her meta-suit would be down at least one limb. And that might be a worthwhile sacrifice to win the fight if she were not now keenly aware that killing her was only one small part of something much bigger. Whatever was happening, she wanted all her tools available for it. But now that she knew Ivan’s kids were in danger, she also knew that they couldn’t afford for her to draw out this fight much longer.
Or rather, the world might not be able to afford it.
“Thinking about running?” Rust Tooth snickered. He’d mistaken her pause for fear and was gloating in it. “I know you can hop out of that suit whenever you want, turn into fire and scamper away. I know everything about you.”
So, he knew she had an escape trump card but was unbothered by it. No doubt he had some sort of countermeasure planned; he had to, given how expertly he’d dispatched Ivan’s wards with his arcane toolset. Even only catching the last few minutes of the break-in, Tori had to admit he’d come prepared. Perfectly prepared, in fact. He might be one of the best candidates in the guild to kill her, given his powers, and he’d brought accessories to overcome his lack of magical skill. Every move she’d made, he’d been ready for. Someone had made a plan specifically to murder her, and they knew every tool or trick she might bust out to turn the tides because she’d put them all on display during her apprenticeship.
Except... there might be one they hadn’t counted on.
Hephaestus flexed the gauntlet on her right hand, diverting power and starting the charge. Who else knew about the concentrated beam attack? It had been broken during the robbery, and she hadn’t bee
n able to bring any inventions into the desert trial. That left Ivan, Xelas, and Doctor Mechaniacal. Ivan would never have done something like this—if he wanted to kill her, then he’d be the one to do it—and if either of the others were traitors, then she was probably dead anyway. Ending this fight would take a high-stakes gamble, and after everything her guild training had put her through, she was oddly comfortable with that fact.
Patience wearing thin, Rust Tooth rushed through the doorway to the kitchen, his giant shoulders shattering the drywall on either side. With the beam’s charging taking most of her power, Hephaestus wouldn’t be able to stand many more direct hits. It was time to engage in the better part of valor. Sparing enough power to engage her flight function for only an instant, Hephaestus leapt through the air, right over Rust Tooth’s shoulder, and came down on both feet in the living room. The maneuver caught him by surprise, but as she turned around to gauge his position, she realized that he was unfortunately quick to recover.
In three giant steps, he was back on her, but out here in the living room, she at least had a little room to maneuver. Every attack seemed to be only millimeters away from connecting; her suit was sluggish with almost all her power diverted to the beam. Rust Tooth was toying with her, taking his time to enjoy the kill, otherwise he could have easily turned her suit to scrap. Even that had evidently lost its luster, though. Rust Tooth threw a shoulder into her, knocking her roughly into the stone fireplace. Before she could recover, his tail swept her legs, and in an instant the massive beast had her pinned down by the shoulders.
“I’m disappointed,” he growled, his putrid breath washing over the front of her helmet. “I’d expected more from the disciple of Fornax.”
As carefully as she could, Hephaestus turned her right hand over, angling her palm so that it was directly facing Rust Tooth’s stomach. With those giant hands on her suit’s shoulders, she didn’t have much maneuverability, but on the upside, it was hard to miss at point blank range.