by Drew Hayes
Unfortunately, his whole team being busy meant there was no one to back him up as the sledgehammer lady raced in, swinging wildly and moving too quickly for Cyber Geek to line up a shot. He backpedaled, wishing that the armor didn’t cover his computer so he could yank out a melee weapon, trying to think of a countermeasure. Working as a team had gotten him too accustomed to having Medley to cover the close-range fighting, and now he was paying the price for his lack of strategy.
Backpedaling without looking was a dangerous method, and soon Cyber Geek’s luck ran out. He clipped a curb and went sprawling onto his back. Sledgehammer lady didn’t even hesitate. She sprang forward with her weapon raised overhead to deliver the coup de grace. That hammer was still overhead as a swarm of what looked like the demonic forefathers of wasps swarmed her face. The little beasts stung her across the neck as they landed. Her scream—half fury, half panic—lit through the street as she swung wildly at them, but sledgehammers weren’t meant to act as bug-swatters. On the third attempt to knock the bugs away, she banged her own temple and went down hard. Cyber Geek was pretty sure she was still breathing, but he wasn’t certain. For a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of light near her neck, then the bugs shifted, blocking his view, and when they cleared again, it was gone.
“Come on, get up.” A hand appeared over him, and he grabbed it without thinking. To his surprise, it was not the mask of a fellow AHC member that he saw as he rose, but rather the purple and black costume of one of the guild members that had come pouring out from their base. On reflex, Cyber Geek raised his blaster, and the villain quickly put his hands in the air.
“Whoa, whoa, hang on. We just saved you.”
“We?” Cyber Geek asked, quickly searching the area.
“Yeah, we.” This voice came from a man in a strange white costume that totally obscured his face, as if the swarm of buzzing monster wasps circling him didn’t do a good enough job of that. “I’m Pest Control, and the guy you’re holding a gun on is Glyph. And yes, we’re villains of the guild you showed up to bust today, but can we all agree that for the moment we have bigger concerns?”
Pest Control wasn’t wrong, no matter how much the insects buzzing around him made Cyber Geek’s stomach roil. Whatever the situation might have been before, the sudden flood of meta-criminals represented a threat to both sides. Maybe the guild had attacked the city and the AHC—though at this point, Cyber Geek was beginning to suspect there might be more going on than he’d been told—but they definitely hadn’t been as ferocious as the metas attacking now. More than once, at least before the gangs showed up, he’d seen them go for the knockout rather than the kill, a sentiment their new enemies didn’t share.
Still, they were self-admitted villains, which meant he couldn’t trust them.
“Maybe there are,” Cyber Geek admitted. “But if I take you two down, that’s one less problem to worry about.”
“Sure, maybe,” Pest Control said. “Or maybe we came and found you for a reason. That gun of yours is pretty powerful, you know. Everyone saw the news footage of your fight in the club. It’s from Blaster Brahs, isn’t it?”
“You play?” That really wasn’t an appropriate response, but under Cyber Geek’s costume, Donald’s reactions were too well-ingrained and hard to shake.
“All the time. Big fan.” Pest Control nodded to the blaster still aimed at Glyph. “And assuming you’ve leveled that bad boy up enough, there should be a function to break through energy barriers. You have to use it on the final level to infiltrate the Nega-Brah’s compound.”
“I... you’re right.” Cyber Geek felt the tumblers fall into place as he gazed at the weapon.
“We think you might be able to punch through the barrier and get Quorum.” Glyph slowly lowered his hands, careful to keep them in sight the whole time. “And if you’re willing to try, we’ll help you get there.”
“You expect me to believe that you want one of the strongest superheroes in the world set free in the middle of a fight between our organizations?” Donald asked.
“I expect you to believe that we don’t want to fucking die,” Pest Control snapped back. “And for that to happen, we need some heavy hitters to come deal with these punks. Not to mention Fornax, who looks like he’s out for blood and doesn’t care whose he gets. We might be criminals, but we’re still people, and that means survival ranks way higher on our list of priorities than pride, pissing matches, or possible imprisonment.”
Cyber Geek weighed the options in his mind. There was a chance, however small, that his gun might be able to carve a hole in the AHC’s shield. But to even get to it, they’d have to get through the AHC’s countermeasures, defenses specifically designed to stop a meta-human attack. Even if they made it through, the odds of the gun working were still a long shot. Just because it was strong enough to break the barrier in the game didn’t mean the AHC’s shield wasn’t way stronger. The smart move was to lie low, keep picking off the gang metas one by one, and slowly retake control of the streets.
Except that, even if they succeeded, there would be a huge loss of life for civilians, capes, and guild members alike. Against numbers like this, everyone would end up attending a funeral. Quorum might be able to turn that around. Cyber Geek didn’t know how, but the man was a legend for a reason. They needed him, which meant, long shot or not, dangerous or not, it was his duty to try and bust Quorum out.
“Fine,” Cyber Geek said at last. “But I don’t know you two, and I certainly don’t trust you, so we’re getting my team first. If it looks like you’re planning a double-cross at any point, we won’t hesitate to put you down.”
“Get your people,” Glyph said. “We’ve got nothing to gain from treachery, which means you’re as safe as you can be with us.”
“Oddly, that I believe.” Cyber Geek began to turn toward Medley, but his conscience got the better of him. “You know that there are dozens of traps and countermeasures activated that are specifically designed to keep us from reaching the AHC headquarters, right? Even if you don’t turn traitor, I can’t guarantee your safety.”
“That’s fine.” Glyph looked around at the fighting and madness that surrounded them and shook his head. “No, it’s more than fine. It’s as it should be. My teacher is the one who caused all this. If anyone should risk their life to stop him, it ought to be me.”
“Thinking about redemption?” Cyber Geek asked.
Glyph chuckled and exchanged a quick look with Pest Control before responding. “Nothing that noble. No, Balaam is a traitor to our guild, so I want to see his plan fall apart, even if it costs my life, for one pure and simple reason: spite.”
Chapter 85
Wade Wyatt watched as chaos bloomed through the streets like filthy roses, blood spilling as meta fought meta and everything was hurled into disarray. The monitors all around him showed feeds not just from the news but also from private networks and security cameras, some not known of by anyone but himself.
He could see Stasis and Gork, trapped in their shared house by a combination of a giant metal wall and mystical wards. He could see Morgana, limping over the scattered pieces of Erinite, her own body bruised and battered. He could see Xelas, though that was almost always true in one way or another. He could see Balaam wading into battle with his minions, turning his magic against former allies and friends.
And Wade could see Fornax, darting between buildings at breakneck speed, trying to shatter the bones of Apollo in his bloody grip. Ivan had never been this far gone before. Not in the old days when he was slugging it out with capes for fun, not when he and Lodestar had their final battle, not even when they went against Orion for the fate of the world. All of those times, Ivan had been the one in control, using his power as a tool rather than being ruled by it. This was the first time he’d ever lost that control, and the world might be in genuine peril for it.
It was, all-around, a pretty solid plan; Wade had to give Balaam credit for that. No matter who won the brawl in the end, the capes woul
d be weakened and have a nice public black eye, and the guild would be so crippled by losing so many members that Balaam could easily reshape it to his design. With an AHC on the mend and a large amount of meta-humans under his control, Balaam could set about wreaking true havoc, maybe even succeed in his goal of taking over a country or two.
Of course, there had been flaws in his calculations as well, the largest of which was assuming Wade would be so easy to kill. He also hadn’t counted on how hard it would be to take out the rest of the council. While driving Ivan insane was a good touch, the fact that his children were alive meant he might be able to come back around. Balaam also hadn’t quite accounted for the possibility that both the guild and the AHC knew that traitors dwelled within their ranks, nor that both organizations had given them rope for the express purpose of hanging themselves. Plus, there was the giant hidden trump card he hadn’t taken into consideration, though for that, he could hardly be blamed. After all, even in the guild, only Wade and Ivan knew what had really happened to Lodestar.
Wade picked up the phone and dialed a number, hoping she wasn’t screening her calls. Until he’d seen Hephaestus emerge from that school, it had seemed like the only way to bring Fornax down would be with force. Now, however, there was another possibility rocketing through the sky toward him. If there was even the slightest chance they could bring him back around peacefully, if Ivan could regain control, then it was a risk worth taking. Eliminating Fornax would make the battle much easier, but gaining Ivan could turn the tides on a dime, especially once the rest of the council made it onto the game board.
The phone rang several times before finally going to voicemail. Wade tried twice more then considered the matter settled. It was inevitable that she would move when she saw what was happening to Ridge City. He’d hoped to catch her in time, but it seemed it was too late.
All he could do for Ivan now was hope that his apprentice was fast enough. Even if she didn’t know it, Hephaestus was in a race, one for Ivan’s sanity, soul, and perhaps even life. From his chair, however, there was nothing Wade could do to help her, so he turned his attention to the factors he could influence.
“I think just about every card has now been played,” he murmured, checking the screens one last time. It wouldn’t do to go to all this trouble and only purge a few of the disloyal members in his guild. He’d specifically waited until every other component was in motion so that he could handle this house-cleaning with only a few sweeps of the broom.
Behind him, moving seemingly on its own, the Doctor Mechaniacal suit came to life, walking calmly to the sole tunnel that led above ground, the only way in and out of Wade’s secret bunker. The downside to meta-suits, which he hadn’t realized in his youth, was that one actually had to be inside them, and that meant losing a battle meant capture or death. It was far more efficient to simply infuse his brain with nano-transmitters and remotely control the suit from somewhere safe. Heck, he’d even gotten the programs so efficient that he could run several bots at once, a convenient way to handle all the work expected of him.
“First, I think we’ll get Morgana into play,” he said, carefully plotting through the possibilities. “She’ll make short work of Balaam’s troops and give the guild a morale boost. In the meantime, would you mind getting Gork and Stasis free?”
“No problem,” Xelas replied. On camera, she stood over the broken remains of Stalwart Iron, whose voice was relaying the orders. “But I’m a little pissed you didn’t tell me Stalwart Iron was one of yours.”
“If I had, you might have held back,” Wade replied. “And Stalwart Iron is much too valuable a mole to lose. Assuming they bother rebuilding him, I mean.”
“Look, I spared the core; I’m not sure what more you want from me.” Xelas looked up at the camera in the boutique, one of the few things not turned to scrap, and gave a wave. “I’ll get Gork and Stasis. Have to say, though, trapping them in their own house was smart; neither of them can be hauled into a cell.”
“Balaam clearly put a large amount of thought into this plan,” Wade replied through Stalwart Iron.
“Yeah, just not enough to realize how stupid it was,” Xelas said. “After I grab those two, do we get to go bust some heads?”
“Probably, yes. But wait for exact coordinates of where you’re needed before heading in. How we respond from here depends largely on the way Fornax is handled.” Wade glanced at the screen once more. Hephaestus was approaching downtown; it would only be minutes until she tracked down Fornax and Apollo.
But minutes might be too long. Once Lodestar entered the battlefield, the fight was decided. All they could do was hope that whatever was holding her up continued to do so, for her sake as much as Ivan’s. At this point, killing Fornax might be the only way to stop him.
And while Lodestar would do it to protect the world from him, burying Ivan would break Helen’s heart. Especially if she was the one who put him in the ground.
* * *
The costume didn’t quite fit anymore. It was strange to see it pulled too tight in the wrong places. Before it had clung to her body perfectly. Of course it did: it had been made just for her, and Lodestar’s body never changed. Couldn’t change, in fact. But for the past seven years, Lodestar had been missing, and in her absence, Helen had grown in several places. She was going to miss the extra two inches of height she’d gained in her early twenties, and the way her waist was beginning to even out with her hips. When this was over, she’d need a new wardrobe. Thankfully, she’d boxed up all her old clothes and stored them in the attic. Part of her had always known this was inevitable, and she’d prepared for it as best she could.
Still, she had to hold back tears as she stared into the mirror, listening for the doorbell that would mark Miss Teresa’s arrival. It wasn’t just herself she was sad for. Helen was scared for Ivan, of whatever had turned him into the monster flying through town. She didn’t know how to stop him. At least... not without permanently stopping him. He’d warned her long ago that this day might come, that the monster inside could somehow break free. And he’d told her that if it ever came to that, he was trusting her to protect the rest of the world from him.
Because only she could.
Helen also feared for Penelope, how she would react to everything. She was such a sweet, impressionable little girl. Having a mommy who was a superhero wouldn’t bother her, but when she got older, and realized what the other part of Lodestar’s power meant... Penelope was a good person, but finding out one’s mother was immortal was a lot to lay at anyone’s feet.
Of all the fears that swam through her mind as she looked at herself in the mirror, only one surprised her. Helen was feeling doubt, of all things. She’d been out of the game for so long, and the situation in the streets was worsening by the second. Could she still do it? Could she still be that beacon for the world to rally around? Would they hate her for being absent so long? Was she so out of practice that she’d only make things worse?
Her hand tightened, and for an instant, Helen could feel the power lying just beneath her surface. It had been a constant struggle to push it down, to never call upon it even in surprise or terror. She could still remember the feeling though, the burning light that poured through her, the conviction, the invincibility. All it would take was a thought and she’d have that all again. While the other fears might come along with her, self-doubt was a worry only for Helen. As soon as she touched that power, it would fade away. Lodestar was far from perfect, but she knew her abilities and what she could accomplish. Which was, actually, damned near anything.
“Mommy, are you done changing?” Penelope called through the door.
“I... for now.” There was one change left, one shift that would alter their entire lives, but it wasn’t quite time for that yet. She threw on a robe and headed out the door, just missing the vibrations of her phone, abandoned and useless on her bed, as it rang with three calls from an unknown number. Miss Teresa would be here soon, and until she arrived, Helen was goin
g to enjoy the last moments she could with her daughter.
Once that doorbell rang, things would never be the same for her and Penelope ever again.
* * *
Getting downtown had been easy, assuming one didn’t count the time and effort that went into making a flying meta-suit, but within moments of arriving, Hephaestus realized that talking to Ivan would be far more difficult than she’d planned. He was leaping and teleporting around so quickly that he was more hallucination than person, taking swings at Apollo as the golden man raced around at speeds Hephaestus could barely track, let alone match. No sooner would she get close to them than both would barrel off, zipping to another section of town as she did her best to play catch up.
It wasn’t until the third time that she nearly intercepted Apollo, more by luck than skill, and saw him veer off that Hephaestus realized what was happening. Apollo was avoiding her on purpose. Not because he thought she was a threat—even her pride in the meta-suit wouldn’t indulge that self-delusion—but because he was trying to keep her safe. The cape, however much of a dick he might be, was dangling himself in front of Ivan like meat before a tiger, hoping that no one else would be felled by its claws. It was a noble, dangerous act that nearly smacked of redemption, but it was also keeping Ivan too mobile for her to try and talk to him.
Clearly, it was time for a change in strategy. Hephaestus began to chase Apollo once more, but as she did, she also poured as much power as she dared into the speaker on the front of her helmet. There was no way Ivan wouldn’t hear her, but that was all the better. The more he had to listen to, the more she might be able to reach him.