by Drew Hayes
It was time to start seriously leveling up Cyber Geek. That was the only way Donald could look his injured team in the eyes again.
* * *
“Current estimates show we can have one of the backup headquarters functional in five weeks, fully operational in ten,” Xelas said.
Wade nodded thoughtfully. This was not a meeting, per se, in that none of the other councilors were present. It was more like a summary of the actions before them, conducted by the two people who would actually have to put in much of the work to see things done. While Wade appreciated the need for the rest of the council in large decisions, the minutiae of rebuilding was better left to swift decision-makers rather than a committee.
“Let’s go for the ten. Might as well welcome everyone back to a proper home,” Wade said. “Speaking of, where are we on tracking everyone down?”
“Almost everyone has checked in after they scattered, as per protocol.” Xelas skimmed her mental memory banks, seeing who was still unaccounted for. “We’re missing a few of the ones that have been confirmed as traitors and some with allegiances unknown. Want me to get people hunting?”
“No, let’s wait a little longer.” Wade drummed his fingers on the back of the couch, staring out at the city from his luxury penthouse perched high in the sky. An array of papers was spread out on the coffee table before him, only a fraction of the paperwork and issues currently facing him. It was why he’d been stuck in the office for days, having to rely on Xelas as his eyes and ears. She sat in a nearby chair, unfettered by anything as mundane as pages cluttering her immediate area. Wade technically had the digital option as well, but he’d long ago found that having something tactile to sort through helped him think.
“Some might need more time to get safe and check in, and for those who never do, we can offer hunting them as jobs when the guild reopens its doors. There are several members I prefer to have occupied whenever possible, and that’s a task which is unlikely to raise any AHC alarms. Speaking of traitors, how’s the magic division adjusting to their new councilor?”
“The division is fine,” Xelas said. “Arcanicus damn near founded that division, so everyone is good having him lead. He, on the other hand, keeps nagging me about finding a new councilor, saying he’s too old for the job. I can bully him along for a while longer, but it’s not a permanent solution.”
“None of the options before us are,” Wade replied. “Tell him it’s just until the guild is running properly again and we can have a proper election. After that, we’ll coerce him into keeping the job by other means, but it should buy us a couple of months. By the time he really wants to quit, hopefully a successor will have revealed themselves. Moving on, have our incarcerated guild members been freed?”
“There was a lot of hemming and hawing along with more than a few tails and wiretaps after they left, but yes, the AHC has been forced to drop all charges on the ones they captured.” Xelas tapped her fingers together, replaying the press conferences in her head at lightning speeds. “They weren’t happy about it, though. We should probably keep a low profile, at least for a while.”
“That won’t be a problem.” Wade rose from his couch and walked to the window, peering out at the evening sun shining over Ridge City. “With no guild, our people will keep their heads down on their own. Even once we’re reformed, I plan to stay off the AHC’s radar. It occurred to me that perhaps we’ve been doing our civic duty a bit too freely, keeping the worst of the scum off the streets and letting them snatch up the easy pickings. Now that the AHC has been publicly weakened and the shadowy guild of rumor publicly exposed, I have a feeling we’ll see a big upturn in meta-human crime, and that’s not including all the criminals who escaped from Rookstone. Sooner or later, they’ll realize that having one spider in the house kills a lot of the lesser insects.”
“You want to wait until they ask us to work?” Xelas said.
“Ask? No, nothing that easy.” Wade turned from the window and walked back to his couch, picking up a pile of papers. “I want them to beg for us to take up arms again. Until then, we focus on only doing smart jobs and keeping ourselves safe. Without a guild to keep peace in the underworld, this planet is about to get a lot more dangerous.”
* * *
The force of nature that was Penelope slammed into Ivan’s legs. She wrapped him in a small hug even as her yell of “Uncle Ivan!” was muffled by the fabric of his pants around the knees.
Ivan smiled and gave her a few small pats before turning his attention to Helen, who stood a few feet back. She was lovely, of course, though personally, Ivan preferred it when she was further aged into womanhood. Even without the glow of Lodestar, she was still nineteen again, no older than the day she was struck. It would be her age forever, or at least until she managed to completely stop calling on her power.
“Glad to see you as you,” she said, giving him a strong hug. While they hadn’t met on the battlefield, she’d no doubt seen the news and read the reports of what he’d done while out of control. Deep down, part of Ivan had expected her to be waiting as Lodestar, ready to ambush him and drag him back to Rookstone.
“Glad to be me,” Ivan replied. He finally extricated himself from Penelope and Helen, and then reached into his back pocket. “And that reminds me, I brought gifts. One for you, Penelope, and a matching one for your mommy.” Ivan plunked a small necklace into Penelope’s hands, enjoying the sight as her eyes grew wide with wonder before handing a larger version to Helen.
“Thank you, Uncle Ivan!”
“Why don’t you go try it on in the bathroom, and then you can come show us how you look?” Helen suggested. The words were barely out of her mouth before Penelope was off like a shot, moving at the speed only metas and children could manage. With her daughter gone, Helen’s face turned skeptical as she looked at Ivan. “Spill it, what are these?”
“Hers is a shielding charm that Arcanicus whipped up,” Ivan said. “It will give her some protection if she’s attacked and set off a beacon if she’s put in real danger. I had him key it carefully to make sure some kid pushing her down on the swings wouldn’t set it off, so it reacts to the attacker’s power and intention. Also comes with a minor compulsion enchantment to make sure she always wants to wear it. My kids got similar presents yesterday.”
“And is mine a shield, too?” Helen chuckled at that; the mere idea of her needing protection magic was beyond laughable. So far as anyone knew, while Lodestar could be beaten, even knocked out, nothing had ever managed to permanently kill her.
“No, we know how magic works around you. Yours is just a piece of jewelry.” Ivan pulled another object from his pockets, a dark case that he handed offered to Helen. “These, however, are something special.”
Helen accepted the case and gently pushed it open, revealing a pair of thickly-rimmed glasses. “Oh my, these take me back. I haven’t worn a pair of glasses since the early days, when I was still worried about people connecting me with the glowing woman in the sky. Were you feeling nostalgic?” “A touch,” Ivan admitted, “but that pair is something Wade whipped up special. If you’d be willing to humor me for just a moment, please try them on.”
Helen looked a bit uncertain as she pulled the glasses from the case and slipped them onto her face. There was no distortion around her eyes, as the lenses were there purely for show. No part of Lodestar, or the woman who hosted her power, was weak or lacking. Once she was done getting the glasses into place, Ivan continued the explanation.
“Feel the small indentation on right side near the lens? Press it down for three seconds.”
Helen complied, and at the end of the third second, a shimmer surrounded her. When it cleared, he was once more staring at the Helen he’d known for the past few years, aged past that fateful day when she was nineteen years old. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and gasped, then whirled around to face Ivan.
“This is too much. A miniature holographic projector like this probably cost in the millions.”
“It’s fine, Ivan, I got the gist of what you were going for,” Helen said. “But I’m not sure I should accept this. I had a long talk with Penelope the night after the battle, and I’m not going to hide who I am from her anymore. She knows the truth now, and she’ll grow up with the mother she actually has rather than who I wanted to be.” She started to take the glasses off, but Ivan stopped her.
“I’m not telling you to wear them around Penelope, or when to wear them all. But the illusion might come in handy if you want to take a normal job again, or meet with her teachers, or do anything that revolves around not always looking nineteen. That’s why there’s an on/off switch. There’s also a dial on the bottom that will move your age up and down. It’s just a tool, one to help you have a small piece of the normal life you lost.”
“Thank you, Ivan.” Helen adjusted the glasses slightly then pressed the button again until the illusion vanished. “You know you don’t owe me this, though, don’t you? What happened wasn’t your fault. Sooner or later, I was always going to have to come back.”
“But if I hadn’t lost control, it might not have been so soon,” Ivan whispered, turning his face from hers.
“None of that, now. What you thought happened... I don’t know that I’d have behaved any better, and I don’t have that thing inside me. The AHC isn’t even trying to press charges for the murder of Blunderbuss. You were a victim of Apollo and Balaam, just like the rest of the city.” Helen gently took his face in her hands and turned it so that they were looking into each other’s eyes. “I wouldn’t lie to you about this. If I thought you were responsible, you know I’d have to bring you in. Trust me, Ivan. Trust my judgment and my actions. Don’t let this eat you up inside.”
“Even if I wanted to, I don’t have the luxury,” Ivan said. “Too many people counting on me, a meta-daughter not the least among them. That’s what the necklaces and glasses are, officially anyway. Thank you gifts for agreeing to teach Beth.”
“Then you really shouldn’t have. Even if you hadn’t done so much for us, I’d still consider it a pleasure,” Helen said. “Truthfully, it’s gotten me thinking that maybe the AHC needs to offer a more detached training system, something for meta-humans that want to get control but don’t necessarily want to be superheroes. Especially for younger people. Something funded and helped by the AHC but remaining legally unaffiliated, so that no one would need to worry about getting recruited.”
“Hey now, keep thinking like that and you’re going to dry up all the recruits from our pool,” Ivan told her.
Helen’s face turned serious, and she glanced down the hall to make certain Penelope hadn’t returned yet. “I know you’re kidding, but you need to understand that things have changed. You all got away with a lot of stuff while Professor Quantum and I were on our sabbaticals, but all that came to an end three days ago. Your internal revolution spilled onto the streets, and while I’ll own that some of ours helped cause it, that means we have to fix our system as well as yours.”
“With Lodestar back, I’m sure we’ll be needed less,” Ivan replied. “But don’t expect us to suddenly stop existing. If anything, what happened proved the need for our organization. You saw what happens when meta-criminals aren’t properly disciplined and the upstarts aren’t quelled. There’s a meta ecosystem, and we play a part in it whether the AHC likes it or not.”
The sound of Penelope’s feet racing back down the hall forced them to pull apart, only now realizing how close they’d allowed themselves to stand.
“I can’t protect you, Ivan. Not from the law. If you all slip out of line, you’ll be on your own.”
“That’s perfectly all right. We can protect ourselves,” Ivan assured her. “So if the AHC decides to make a real move, tell them to bring the best they’ve got. Wade has already prepared a slew of slander and harassment lawsuits based on what we endured this time around. The law cuts both ways.”
“Why do I put up with you again?”
“Because once two people have beaten the living hell out of one another then helped save the world together, there’s a bit of a bond there.” Ivan got in the last words as Penelope came rocketing around the corner, showing off her new piece of jewelry that she’d finally managed to get fastened around her neck.
Even if she hadn’t appeared, neither would have said the real reason they put up with one another. Some words were just too dangerous to speak, for the ones uttering them as much as the ones listening.
* * *
“What do you think?” Beverly spread her arms out, gesturing to the open-concept living room housed by brick walls and the kitchen that was almost as big as Ivan’s. From her vantage point in the doorway, Tori could already see into one of the bedrooms, which did look sizable and had more brick walls inside. It had taken several hours to get an appointment with the property manager, and Tori was half-convinced that Beverly had ended up employing threats, so she’d been expecting something amazing. This was... less than opulent.
“Well, I like the location; we’re in the heart of what’s left of downtown, so that will be cool when it’s fixed up,” Tori said, trying to be positive. “But it’s the fourth floor in a walk-up, which is going to get really old when we’re lugging in groceries. The warehouse decor isn’t bad… little more modern than I like, but I can deal. My main problem is that it’s really pricey, and even with a third bedroom to use as a lab, splitting the rent two ways might get taxing.”
“Oh, that third bedroom isn’t for you,” Beverly said. “But you do have a lab. This place has personal underground parking garages: surrounded by concrete, inaccessible except through the building, and up to spec for retrofitting with lab equipment. I ran it by the council, and they’re willing to purchase and renovate three of them to give you the space you need as part of our home-loss compensation.”
“That’s... actually a perfect fit for what I need.” She looked at the apartment with fresh eyes, imagining being able to escape to a new subterranean lair at the end of each day. Bonus: if the guild was paying for it, that meant they could have more cash for rent. But there was still no sense in spending money they didn’t have to. “Are there no two-bedrooms we can see for a cheaper rate?”
“Not many. This place took some damage, so space is limited,” Beverly explained. “Besides, I thought maybe we could put someone else in the third bedroom. Split rent and bills three ways, if you’re into it.”
“Who?”
“Chloe. Her place got pretty much torched in the fire. She’s been crashing with some friends, but it doesn’t sound comfortable. I mentioned I was apartment-hunting for us, so she asked me to keep an eye out for any studios that might be in her price range,” Beverly said. “This seemed like a better option all around.”
“Is she okay with our… affiliation?” Tori knew that Chloe was now informed about their membership in a guild of villains and that she’d evidently had taken the news well, but there was a big jump between acceptance and wanting to bunk with confirmed criminals.
“I floated the idea past her, no promises made, and she seemed excited about it.” Beverly walked over to the living area, looking out to see the bustling streets below them. “We can find another place if you want. It’s just that I’ve always lived with a lot of family nearby. Moving to the guild was scary, but there were always others around. I thought it might be nice to have three of us starting out together, sort of a support net in case we need it.”
Tori ducked into the nearest bedroom, checking out the size and closet space before noting the private bathroom. The next roo
m was roughly the same, as was the next. Though their shapes were a bit different, the sizes seemed consistent. Well, that was one fight they didn’t need to have, at least.
“A private attached bathroom for every occupant. That’s pretty swanky,” Tori said. “It looks like you put a lot of thought into this place, and they have a lab, so why the hell not? If nothing else, I know Chloe can make a good pot of coffee every morning. Just one thing, though, what’s the policy on renovations?”
“I thought you might ask that, so I checked,” Beverly said. “Upgrades are fine, as long as you don’t knock out any walls.”
“So much for the indoor tennis court, but I think I can make it work.” Tori wrapped her arm around Beverly’s shoulders and steered her toward the door. “Come on, let’s go try and terrify a property manager into giving us cheaper rent before we sign the lease.”
“See, this is why you need roommates,” Beverly said as they stepped through the door. “There’s nothing like teamwork for properly instilling fear in someone’s heart.”
* * *
Nexus stood on the roof of the building where Beverly and Tori were currently heading down the stairs. His attention was not on them but on the bustle of people moving through the streets of downtown: some cleaning, some commuting, some taking pictures for their online lives. It was a curious sight, which was why he bothered showing up for it.
This was not the first world where Fornax was stopped, the riots halted, and Balaam punished. But it had sustained far less damage than almost any other in the process. The AHC still stood, the guild was more than a cemetery, and Ridge City wasn’t razed to the ground. Many universes were reeling by this point, destined for years of struggle before any sense of peace reasserted itself. Of course, in the realities that did find their way onto this path, it wasn’t like the show was over.