“It’s okay, Niña. I get it. You’re hurting, you’re angry, and you feel powerless. For you, the first two are something you’re used to, but the third... you’ve never had to face a no-win scenario before and you had to... you have to, with Luke. I’m really sorry. Really. I wish he could come back,” Carlos says.
I want to say something back. Anything really, but my jaw won’t open. I sigh, feeling deflated.
“Anger never does me any favors,” I say.
“It doesn’t do anyone favors. It just poisons everything,” he says as he kneels next to me. “It will be okay, Amelia, in time, it will.”
I lean toward him and he wraps in a big hug. “I know Carlos, I just...”
The hug is nice, and it really helps. He gives me a peck on the cheek and his best smile.
“I’ll come back I a few days and it will just be for Call of Duty, ‘kay?”
“Kay,” I say, wiping my eyes. It feels good to talk to him again. Like a friend. I need this. I tend to seal myself up when I’m hurting, go it alone, and I don’t need to. I guess I have to learn that lesson over and over again.
He reaches for his spear then freezes. “Amelia, get inside—”
TWENTY-ONE
A burst of light forms behind him as a disk-shaped energy field materializes horizontally on the uneven ground ten feet away. It starts on the ground and raises up. As it ascends people materialize along the way: four of them, in full body costumes that cover even their face. When the disk is finished, we’re faced with the European super team, Safety Force.
“Protector, by order of the Council, you are under custody and you are coming with us, dead or alive.” Epic tags the man in the blue and white costume with a moon-shaped mask as ‘Moon-Watch.’
“Did you just threaten him?” I ask, flabbergasted. “And what the hell are you doing in America. You have no authority here,” I yell at them, wheeling past Carlos as I speak.
Moon-Watch takes a step back and looks at his team. Epic kindly tags all of them for me, with their names plus a brief description of their known powers.
I’m also curious how they knew to come here.
“Who are you?” Fille Magnifique asks.
“I’m the woman who is going to kick your sorry ass off of her property if you don’t leave now,” I tell them. They don’t know who I am? How is that possible unless... they didn’t know where they were going when they started the teleport. How can they teleport blind?
Behind me, Carlos sighs. I know he’s thinking about running. He really doesn’t like to fight. Me? I’m itching for a fight. A bunch of fascist thugs showing up on my doorstep is just what I need.
Moon-Watch chuckles and crosses his arms. “The EU Council has authority with any of its partner states. We don’t need permission to take custody of a target under order of the Council.”
“Custody? I’m not sure where you learned vocabulary, but here in the USA when you take someone against their will, we call that arresting them. And to do that, you need a warrant. Which you don’t have because you have no authority in the United States. You think because you have a treaty with the US, that gives you permission to come over here, trespass on my land, and arrest my friend?” I ask them.
Technically it is public land.
“They don’t know that,” I whisper.
The French woman puts a hand on Moon-Watch’s shoulder. “Forgive us. When we started the transit, we knew not where we were going. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we have the autorité to ‘arrest’ him. The EU commission on Superhumans has come to the agreement that the Protector represents a threat to the EU people and therefore must either quit, come under control of the commission, or spend the rest of his life in a prison. It’s up to him,” she says pointing at Carlos.
“This is stupid,” I say. “The Protector helps people. He doesn’t involve himself in governmental affairs. This is a blatant attempt to put him under the thumb of a bunch of fascists power mongers.”
“Amelia,” Carlos says, warning me.
“What? It’s true. It’s like another Holy Roman Empire over there. How dare you come to American and try this BS here. This is the land of the free, home of the brave. Your government can kiss my—”
“AMELIA,” Carlos interrupts. “Really, it’s okay. They’ve been after me for a while now. Lucky for them, I’m not supposed to fight.”
“Lucky for you,” Moon-Watch retorts. “You’re dishonorable sneak attack caught us by surprise. You won’t be that lucky again.”
Carlos moves like lightning, lifting his spear and hurling it into the skies. I expect the Safety Force to react, but they don’t. A second later, I understand why. The spear hits the ground next to Carlos.
“How did you do that?” he asks looking at the spear then the Safety Force.
“I can open portals, Protector,” Fille Magnifique says. “Last time, I wasn’t aware of how your spear worked. Now I am. You can’t run. Please surrender. Remove your armor and come with us. It will be easier on you if you do.”
I look to Carlos, then to the Safety Force.
“You’re not seriously considering this, are you?” I ask him.
“I don’t have a lot of choice, Niña. I’m... under orders not to hurt any of them. You-know-who says it will play into our enemies’ hands. If I can’t run, then I’m going to have to surrender and let everything play out.”
“You can’t... you know what will happen once they...” I almost spill the beans about his armor, but I clamp my mouth shut. Carlos is tough, he’s a soldier. But without his armor he’s only human. I don’t think for one second that it’s magic armor. But... he has no superpowers without it.
This isn’t like Tessa, though. Sure, I could hire lawyers, but the EU has very different laws about people with superhuman abilities. There isn’t even a guarantee of trial. They could just send him to prison and be done with it.
However, if Fille were unconscious, the odds are her portal would vanish. What are they going to do? Press charges against me? They’re here illegally to begin with. If they take Carlos it won’t even matter if I file a complaint with my government, because what’s done is done.
No. I’m not going to let them take him. I reach for my cup holder.
“You have five seconds to leave before I open a can of whoop ass on you,” I tell them.
“Amelia...” Carlos warns me.
“Is this some kind of false American bravado?” Moon-Watch asks.
“No,” I say. “It’s an actual can.” I hold it up for him to see.
In Vegas I had about twenty minutes of combat before the problems started. I should be able to handle these fools in that time.
The Brit, Union, chuckles.
“I’ve had enough of this,” Moon-Watch says. He steps forward, his face glowing.
I pop the tab on the can. The pressurized aluminum shell explodes, encasing me in goo and nanites. They consume everything: my chair, my clothes, some of the ground underneath me.
The whole process takes three seconds; when it’s done, I’m kneeling on the red mesa ground with one fist on the ground, looking up at the Safety Force.
“Now do you know who I am?” I can see by the way they step back, that they do.
Twenty-TWO
Irish Spring hits me like a train. I slam into the top of the mesa with enough force to rattle my teeth. She’s on me in a second, pounding my chest with fists like hammers. I grab her wrists to keep them from hitting me again.
“How did you know I’d survive a blow like that?” I ask her as I struggle to my feet.
“Who cares?” she asks back.
Is that how this is? When I go after someone, I measure my attacks; killing is never my first option. But I guess these people do things differently. However, I don’t want to kill them, even if they don’t care about hurting me.
Carlos has his shield up, deflecting blasts from Moon-Watch, while Union tries to find a weak point, punching him in the stomach or ches
t whenever he is open. The English ‘hero’ has a cast on one arm, with spittle flying out of his mouth and in an abject rage—I wonder if Carlos is responsible for that?
One of the things this suit does well is give me strength in spades. I’d have to check, but I’m probably an F4. I can’t move as fast as Carlos because that would require a whole host of changes in my brain and perception. Strength, though, is just physics. She pushes against my grip trying to get her hands on the suit.
“Carlos,” I yell. “Shield check!”
When I had the alien armor, he did that to me and it hurt like hell.
I let her push my arms down enough to let her think she’s winning, then I step back, twist, and hurl her bodily. She screams as she’s suddenly flies past me. Carlos steps back, spins, and slams his shield right into her face. The clang is loud enough that Epic engages the sound dampeners to protect my hearing.
She hits the ground and doesn’t get back up.
“Holy crap,” Union says, stepping back.
“Epic, is she alive?”
Affirmative. Her vitals are subdued but she is still alive. Elementals are extremely hard to kill. I am sure she will recover in a few hours. Based on public information, she is considered the strongest member of their team.
“Ha,” I say out loud. The pause in the fight only lasts a second before Moon-Watch decides to turn on me, firing his white laser in my direction. I lift off, kicking in the Emdrives, shooting up as his energy beam obliterates the ground where I stood a second before.
I’m up a hundred feet and banking around. He can’t follow me fast enough; the beam keeps missing me by a few feet.
Fille Magnifique... isn’t engaging. She’s just sitting back waving her hands in the air... she almost looks like she’s pretending to keep the portal open.
“Carlos, can you handle them for a moment?”
“I’m doing all I can not to hurt them,” he says back. “Handling them isn’t the problem.”
I zoom around, aim right at her, but throw the brakes on full power until she’s between me and Moon-Watch. He won’t blast her to get at me.
“Mag, get out of the way,” he yells at her, swiping his hand across to emphasize his point.
I grab her shoulders and spin her around to face me, holding her in place. “I know fake when I see it. You could engage, but you’re not. Why?” I ask her.
“You lie, American, I’m doing everything I can to fulfill my duty,” she replies. She tilts her head down at her chest, indicating something is there. Epic scans her for EMI and spots a small camera on her suit, along with a number of other systems.
“Time for a chat,” I say. I hit the Emdrive and we both hurtle away from her team. “Epic, engage ECM.”
Engaged. Her signal is blocked. You should be able to talk freely.
We come to a stop half a mile away and I let her go. A disk of energy materializes at her feet for her to stand on.
“I’ve jammed the signal; no one can hear or see us. You want to tell me what is really going on?” I ask her.
“Oui.”
That means ‘yes.’
A chuckle escapes my lips. “Thanks buddy,” I tell Epic.
“There is something going on. The Protector has always been a problem for the EU, but because of how popular he is with the people, Italy and Greece in particular, they’ve never tried to go after him,” she says. She glances behind her to make sure her team is otherwise occupied. Moon-Watch circles Carlos, firing his beams at him to no avail. His anger keeping him attacking the Protector instead of helping his teammate.
“Why go after him at all? He does nothing but help people.”
She nods. “I know. Why do you think I’m talking to you? A political shift has occurred in Europe. After the Red Wizard broadcast his manifesto while destroying Buenos Aires, there are some who think supers should be in jail or public service.”
Of course. They have no way of knowing that Chronos, the Titan of myth, was behind Rafael, and that his goal was exactly that—to turn humanity against supers to pave the way for his undisputed return to rule the Earth... minus humanity of course.
“That’s insane. Does the EU really think they can control Carl—the Protector?”
She shakes her head. “No. They...” she looks back again. “The rest of my team doesn’t know I know this, mostly because I have powers the EU isn’t aware of. I would like to keep it that way, oui?”
“You’ve trusted me this far,” I assure her.
She nods. “They hope he will kill one of us while we try to question him. The commission believes if he did, then they could bring in the big guns.”
The big guns? Well, crap. “How did you know where to find him?”
“What?”
“How did you know he would be here?” I ask again annoyed that I have to repeat myself.
“The same way we found his hideout in Greece. An anonymous message with GPS coordinates. I can teleport anywhere in the world if I can see it. We used a satellite to track the coordinates and get real-time footage. We had no idea you would be here when we initiated the transport.”
“ARC,” I say.
It would fit. They are doing their level best to slow you down.
“Who?” she asks.
“You’re being played, Fille. There is an organization called ARC. They’re trying to stop me from finding the Th’un ships that are still on Earth. This has nothing to do with the Protector other than he’s my friend. You need to call your team off and speak to your superiors.”
“Are you sure?” she asks.
“You have no reason to trust me,” I say, “but think of this; if he were really a bad person you would all be dead. Because, believe me when I say this, he’s holding back. Way back.”
She looks over her shoulder again and watches as Carlos deflects another energy beam while slapping Union with a backhand that drives the man into the ground. Since we left the fight, he has managed to move it away from the unconscious elemental to keep her from taking a blow meant for him.
“Oui. He is, isn’t he? Thank you, Arsenal. We owe you one.”
She waves her hands in the air and energy circles, like the one under her, form under her teammates. As they rise up the team vanishes, along with the massive portal above my base.
That was well done, Amelia. Brains over brawn any day.
“Oh, I really wanted to pummel them, but the new suit...”
I fly back down and land next to Carlos. He looks as bewildered as the Safety Force probably did under their masks as they were forcefully teleported out.
“How?” he asks.
“It’s ARC. They’re playing the EU, trying to keep me distracted while they search for the Th’un ships. But I’m done playing their game. It’s time to go on the offensive.”
His spear flies through the air to slap against his outstretched hand. “What’s the plan?”
“I have two goals, and these jerks from ARC are keeping me from both. I’m going to find those ships if Epic has to hack every government database in the world. Then I’m going to bring Tia back. After that, ARC is dead. I’m going to tear their whole flipping house down.”
Twenty-THREE
I have the results of my search.
I’m in my lab working on a frequency modulator for Artemis. If I can adapt the satellite’s communications array to search the Earth for the sub-atomic frequency of Th’un metal then I can locate any that is left.
“Lay it on me, Mr. Wizard,” I say as pick up my Coke up and take a sip.
With the help of your mom, I was able to zero in on the likely location of a remaining Th’un ship.
I sit upright; I didn’t expect a whole ship. “Where?”
That is the problem. You will still need to modify Artemis to scan for it.
“Why?”
It is somewhere in the South China Sea. There is no way to just go there and look for it. We will need exact coordinates to have a hope in electron-hell of finding it.
“The South China Sea?”
Yes. Deep beneath, to be exact. Apparently, after they gave Rafael the contract to dispose of all the ships they located one that had previously been unknown. The UN decided to sink it in the South China Sea to keep anyone from accessing it. China is very militant about their jurisdiction, and while there are submersibles that can get to that depth, they require massive support ships. Not something they could hide from the Chinese government.
“Isn’t the depth like eighteen thousand feet in places?”
Yes.
“I bet if we modified an Emjet, gave it a couple of extra kinetic manipulators and extended its atmo mix to be pressure friendly, it would operate just fine as a sub.”
Indeed.
“Do it. I’ll finish this gizmo, we’ll fly it up to Artemis, and then we are on our way to China!”
It looks like we are going swimming.
An ice-cold rush passes through me. “What did you say?” I ask.
That we are going swimming?
I shake my head in disbelief. How? How in the heck does she do that?
“Epic, that’s what Pythia’s message said. ‘Take QUACKERS when we go swimming.’ That means wherever the ships are, Tia is!” Excitement replaces the cold and I am absolutely giddy. Ironically, I don’t doubt Pythia is right. She’s always right, I just don’t trust her motives. Not for a second.
“Every time I get close to something, ARC interferes. Not this time. Call Kate, have her look after my parents and initiate our plan. Then prep the Emjet for underwater activity.”
On it.
It only takes me a few more minutes to finish the frequency modulator for Artemis. I’m shaking with excitement when I roll over to the door. I put the device on the shelf then grab a can and pop the tab. In seconds I am in space armor and ready to go. If I am going to keep using these things, I need to fine-tune them… or add another section of my base for wheelchair storage. When the nanites are done forming the armor, my chair, clothes, and part of the floor are gone.
Arsenal Reloaded (Full Metal Superhero Book 8) Page 12