by Drew Hayes
“Apollo did say they’d been captured,” Kilo pointed out.
“I’ll believe that shit when I see the video, and maybe not even then.” Johnny scanned the crowd, noting that Tunnel Vision had stepped into the room. “Any chance we can just get out of here before they come knocking on our door?”
“We are unable to break through space,” said the female half of Tunnel Vision. “There are several dampening devices and magical wards, not unlike what we use here, that are blocking all attempts at creating portals.”
“Saw that coming,” Arcanicus muttered darkly. “This whole thing is a trap. The only way we avoid springing it is by lying down and letting them arrest us. If there’s no resistance, then we can beat the hell out of this in court. Their evidence is fake and we’ve got good lawyers. By the time this is over, we’ll be suing the AHC for slander and wrongful arrest.”
“Smart plan,” Johnny agreed. “But unfortunately, it looks like it’s not on the table.” He pointed to the screen, where more Endless Blitz duplicates appeared to be outside the guild, along with a few other actual members.
At that, Balaam’s face suddenly appeared, constant glitches giving away that he was breaking in to the feed. He gazed out at them with his red eyes tucked away behind the red mask he hadn’t actually worn in years.
“We refuse to go quietly! We will destroy the so-called superheroes even if it takes every breath in our bodies. We shall neither surrender nor quit until we are dead. Today is the uprising. Today our guild of villains will take back the world from the terror of the AHC. No quarter will be given. Come and get us if you think you can!”
“I am going to rip his tongue out through his asshole,” Scryanthos said. Around her, several members of the magical division nodded their agreement. As the mutinous murmurs died away, the room’s occupants took note of how few members of the guild were present. Several members could be seen on screen, attacking the capes that were gathered outside. Glyph was, mercifully, not among them. He was standing near one of the walls, trying to look as invisible as possible, with Pest Control at his side doing his best to offer comfort.
“Much as we all want to stomp Balaam’s balls into pudding, right now there’s a bigger issue at hand,” Thuggernaut told them. “After that little speech and the attack being mounted outside, they are going to come in here ready to kill. We can still try to surrender, but I’m not sure they’ll listen.”
His words were met with several seconds of silence as every villain present tried to figure out what the best path forward was. No one wanted to speak; the wrong words could tip them into a bad decision, one that would cost everyone in the room their freedom, if not their lives.
Johnny Three Dicks was exempt from such concerns.
“I don’t know about you lot, but I didn’t get into this racket because I fancied the idea of dying on my knees. Since it seems like avoiding a fight is off the table, what’s say we at least try and fight smart? They might be out for blood, but that actually gives us an advantage. The whole nation, probably the world, is watching by now. So if the capes go in for the kill but we only aim for incapacitation that might get people wondering about just who the bad guys really are. Plus, if we can hold out long enough, hopefully the higher-ups will sort this out.”
“That’s a pretty damn big long shot, Johnny,” Arcanicus said.
“No argument here. And if anyone has a better idea, please step forward and lay it down before us. I’m offering the best I’ve got, but I’m certainly open to other options.” Johnny stood, looking around at a sea of blank faces before speaking again. “Well then, since it seems like my bad idea is the only one we’ve got, let’s snap to it. If we wait until they get inside, there won’t be cameras, and once that happens, all bets are off. At least out there, they have to act like proper capes.”
Thuggernaut shook his head as the crowd filed out of the room, walking up slowly to his best friend in the entire guild. “Only you, Johnny. Only you could make slugging it out with the capes in public seem like the logical choice.”
“We’re well past the point where logic has anything to offer. At this time, our choices are struggle or die quietly.” Johnny patted Thuggernaut on his massive bicep. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been quiet while doing anything. I certainly don’t plan on starting now.”
Chapter 81
It took all of Beverly’s self-control not to use her dragon powers and knock people aside as she raced to Ridge City Grinders. Smoke was billowing from a nearby explosion and hordes of civilians were racing away from the drones sweeping the air and firing off shots at random. Once, she glimpsed someone in a costume going after a cape, but they were gone before she had a chance to consider stepping in. That was probably for the best; while she might be anonymous, there had to be more than a few capes on the lookout for a giant dragon creature.
Finally, she made it to the coffee shop, only to find the door locked as she pressed against it. Beverly was debating whether or not to force the thing open when Chloe appeared from behind the counter. She raced forward, unlocked the door, yanked Beverly through, then slammed it shut and flicked the lock again. Before anyone could notice the two women standing behind the glass, Chloe grabbed Beverly and dragged her beneath a booth.
Chloe let out a long sigh of relief after a full minute of silence had passed. “Sorry about that. I heard news reports about shops being looted in the chaos, so I had to lock this place down. I figure as long they don’t see anyone worth mugging inside, a coffee shop isn’t going to be too high up on the list of potential robbery targets.”
“I’m glad you stayed safe,” Beverly replied. “Things are getting nuts out there. I haven’t checked the news since I left my car, but I heard a few more explosions.”
“They’re happening all over the place,” Chloe told her. “The cops keep looking for bombs, but so far there’s no luck finding any. Yet things keep exploding. And now the Alliance of Heroic Champions have found some sort of secret guild in the middle of the city that they’re trying to attack.”
“Right, secret guild,” Beverly said. She’d almost forgotten that while Chloe knew about her and Tori’s powers, they’d kept her in the dark about their association with other criminals. “Any news on that?”
“There’s a bunch of superheroes surrounding their headquarters. They gave them the chance to give up, but some villain that’s been gone for a while—Balaam, or something, the news said—appeared and said they’d all go down fighting. Only a few have come out so far, though... um, are you okay?”
Chloe’s concern came from the fact that Beverly’s hands had turned to claws, and that she was currently snapping apart the base of the table they were hiding under. At Chloe’s words, Beverly realized what she was doing and forced herself to regain control. “I’m fine, sorry. Just... just really upset about this whole situation.”
“It is nuts,” Chloe agreed. “Why the hell would someone try to take on the AHC?”
“My guess is that they wouldn’t,” Beverly said. “Things aren’t always the way they seem, you know? This is probably a game being played by someone way up the food chain.”
“I just want it to pass by quickly.” Chloe looked around the coffee shop as if she were waiting for the ceiling to come crashing down. “At least we’re nowhere near the actual fighting.”
“For now. In this sort of situation, with the capes all busy and the city in chaos, I have a feeling the streets are going to be really dangerous for a while,” Beverly said. “After all, the guild might be a concentration of meta-human criminals, but it’s not like they’re the only game in town.”
Less than ten seconds after Beverly’s warning, they heard the sound of shattering glass. It was, mercifully, not from the front door of Ridge City Grinders, but it was close. Beverly peeked out from behind the cushioned cover of the booth to see a gang of three people unloading the contents of a pawn shop across the street. Two were clearly metas from their size and inhuman featur
es, while the third looked normal save for the odd outfit that adorned her. From the busted shop doors extending down the street, it appeared they were making their way down the road, stealing at their leisure.
And sooner or later, they were going to reach the coffee shop where she and Chloe were hiding.
* * *
It was a testament to her restraint and her years of abstaining from more spectacular displays that the mug of tea in Helen’s hand wasn’t shattered into shards on the floor. Nevertheless, her grip was tight as she watched the chaos playing out on the news, trying desperately to call headquarters and Ivan alternately, receiving no response. She got so desperate that she even tried Vernon, only to be told that he was on his island in the middle of a very dangerous experiment and couldn’t be disturbed. So she went back to calling the other two, dialing them over and over, each time failing to connect.
“Why is everyone fighting, Mommy?” Penelope looked up from her drawings to the news footage that Helen only just now realized wasn’t entirely appropriate for a girl her age. She stared with wonder at the people in colorful costumes slugging it out in the streets of downtown.
“They... it’s a show, honey. The superheroes are putting on a show, a play about what the fights they used to have were like.” Helen watched as the peace she’d helped forge, albeit indirectly, unraveled on the screen before her. Deep down, she’d always known this day would come, hadn’t she? When she first told Ivan about her unexpected, supposedly impossible, surprise and he made that impossible promise, she’d known it was all borrowed time.
“Mommy, are you okay?” Penelope was staring up at her. Helen realized that her vision was clouded by tears on the verge of spilling.
“I’m fine,” Helen lied, one more falsehood to add to the pile she’d already had to tell her daughter. “But Mommy just remembered she has an errand to run. I’m going to call Miss Teresa and see if she’ll come over and play with you.”
It would take at least half an hour for their elderly neighbor to arrive, time in which the situation could go from perilous to near apocalyptic. But part of her was grateful for the delay. Despite her brave words to Ivan, she wasn’t quite ready to give up this peaceful existence yet. Part of her hoped that somehow, in the time they waited for the babysitter, things would change. Ivan would make them change. All this time, he’d been a guard dog in the shadows, protecting the world’s peace even if no one knew it. Asking for more, even hoping for it, was selfish and Helen knew that.
But humans are selfish creatures, so she watched the screen, barely blinking, and allowed herself to hope all the same.
* * *
Attacking a school was probably pretty easy for a meta-human, at least one with her armory and level of technical sophistication. What was much harder, however, was breaking in to a school, triggering the alarms, and forcing an evacuation all without getting someone hurt in the chaos. Hephaestus sure as hell didn’t want the death or injury of kids on her hands, to say nothing of what the guild would do if they found out. So as she burst through the door, burning the sprinklers to set off a fire-alarm, and then trying to steer the kids to the closest exit, she made certain to keep an eye on the children streaming away from her.
“Go! Move! Haul some ass!” At this point, she’d just accepted that dialogue was not her strong point, but as long as she growled the words out, her voice changers made them sound low and menacing, which was enough to get people moving.
From behind, her display showed movement, as a gym teacher in blue shorts that uncomfortably lived up to their name tried to sneak up on her with a fire axe. Hephaestus admired his courage, if not his fashion choices, but she couldn’t really afford to take a blow to the back. Whirling around, she snatched the axe from his hands just as he lifted it overhead and snapped it at the hilt.
“Are you fucking stupid?” Her voice sounded even harsher than usual. The man paled for a moment but refused to back down. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone; I’m trying to get you all out. There are bombs somewhere in here, and you all need to move.”
“Jesus, why didn’t you just tell us?” the gym teacher demanded.
“Because then you would have asked me an idiotic question like that instead of getting the fuck out of here!” Hephaestus grabbed his shoulder and shoved him toward the students that were racing out the door. Though she was doing her best to keep an eye on them as they went, she’d yet to see either Rick or Beth. That was to be expected; this was only one exit in a pretty large school.
Taking flight, careful to keep her thrusters aimed away from the students, she zipped over their heads, checking classrooms for any stragglers along the way.
There were a lot of bad things about living in a town notorious for producing capes and the resultant, though infrequent bouts, between meta-humans. However, one upside was that people took their evacuation protocol seriously. No stragglers lingered; no teachers had decided to ignore the alarm as though it were a mere interruption of their lessons. People were booking it out the doors, moving all the faster when they saw a black and red meta-suit flying over their heads. From the shrieks and pointing, Hephaestus had a hunch that more than a few stories would get exaggerated. If the news didn’t ultimately depict her as gobbling the heads of schoolchildren as she soared above them, she’d call it a win.
Fast as they were moving, none of them had Rick or Beth’s face, and the longer she searched, the more worried Hephaestus grew. Granted, they might have slipped by her, gotten outside through an exit she wasn’t watching. If so, then fantastic. But she didn’t trust herself to go check until she was one hundred percent certain that the building was clear. If she missed them, if they got stuck, Ivan would never forgive her. And she wasn’t sure that she would forgive herself.
Hephaestus was doubling back at the end of a hallway when she caught sight of a dark-haired boy ducking out of sight in a classroom. With no time to waste, she landed and bashed through the door, not unlike the way Rust Tooth had entered Ivan’s home. A split second later, a Bunsen burner clattered harmlessly off her helmet, followed by a beaker and a textbook. The aim was solid, though the power wasn’t near enough to break through her armor. Glancing about, Hephaestus came to a pair of rapid realizations. She was on the familiar ground of a science classroom, and the boy pelting her with objects was Rick.
“Stay back!” He chunked a set of test tubes at her, which Hephaestus nimbly sidestepped.
“Fine, just get out,” she screamed back at him. “Can you not hear the alarms, dipshit?”
That took him by surprise; evidently, he’d been anticipating an attack, not angry advice. The chemistry book he gripped remained in his hand rather than soaring through the air like the many projectiles before. He blinked rapidly as he reevaluated the situation, showing a level of calm that Hephaestus was surprisingly impressed by. Not many people would have the presence of mind to take in changes on the fly like that; instead, they’d stick to panic. But he was Ivan’s son, after all.
“Aren’t you here to hurt us?” Rick demanded.
“No, I’m trying to get you all out before the bastard with the bombs lights this place up.” Hephaestus paused, really considering his words, and realized what she’d missed in the first scan of the room. “What do you mean, ‘us’?”
A groan from behind a table answered Hephaestus’s question before Rick could. She dashed over to confirm her suspicions. He moved right along with her, putting himself between her and the curled up form of Beth, who was lying on the ground. She didn’t seem to be injured, at least by the cursory analysis Hephaestus could perform, but that was not the biggest issue at hand.
Silver spikes were pulsing out of Beth’s skin, appearing and vanishing, leaving no trace or scar when they slipped out of sight. Some were straight and sharp, others curved and serrated, but all seemed deadly and malleable, like they were formed from quicksilver.
“How long?” Hephaestus looked from Beth to Rick and grabbed the young man by the collar of his shirt. �
��How long has your sister been a meta-human?”
“I don’t know!” Rick tried to slap her hand away, but unlike Beth, he was mundane and therefore lacked the strength to move one as strong as Hephaestus. “The alarms went off, I ran to find her, and I saw her stumbling in here. By the time I got in, she was like this.”
“I got scared,” Beth murmured from her prone position on the floor. “It... they come when I’m scared.”
“So this has happened before.” Hephaestus let Rick down and kneeled over Beth. The blades lengthened and pointed toward her, so she scooted a few inches back. “Listen, I’m here to help you. I need to get you both out of here.”
“Fuck that. We’re not going anywhere with some crazy meta.” Rick planted himself between her and Beth with what little space there was. The kid might not be making the smartest tactical decisions, but he was doing his best to shield his little sister. That part Hephaestus sort of admired. But they didn’t have time for it. She needed them out, right now. Who knew when the bombs could go?
It seemed like there was only one option; she just hoped Ivan could think of a good lie to explain how he’d known her. Hephaestus reached up and grabbed the latches on each side of her helmet. She was just about to press them in when a small hand landed on her arm, tugging it away from the helmet.
“We’ll go,” Beth said, pulling herself up using Hephaestus’s body for leverage. “If you say we need to go, then we will.”
“We don’t know who this guy is,” Rick pointed out.
“But he could have attacked us, or grabbed us, and he didn’t,” Beth replied. “I lost my secret today, Rick. I can’t take away someone else’s.” As she spoke, the blades seemed to be getting shorter, springing out from her body less frequently. No doubt they reacted to her state of mind, which meant she was in for a long road ahead to get proper control, but at least she had the right father to get her the help she would need.