Sentinels

by Darius Brasher

  I had just entered Neha when it slipped out of my other, supposedly smarter, head.

  “I love you,” I moaned, caught up in the heat of the moment.

  Neha’s body froze up like a cadaver’s. She stared up at me. I stopped mid-thrust.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Well, I did mean it, but I didn’t mean to say it,” I said, mortified and flustered. “Not now. I was waiting for the right time. I guess the cat’s out of the bag. There’s a pussy joke in there somewhere. If Isaac were here, I bet he’d find it. The joke, not your vagina. Not that I’m saying it’s hard to find. It’s not like it’s tiny.” Neha stared at me silently, her face inscrutable. Oh God, make me stop. I sputtered, “I’m not saying it’s huge, either. Goldilocks would say it’s just right. Not that I’m implying we should invite another woman into bed with us. I don’t even know someone named Goldilocks. What kind of nosy creep goes around eating strangers’ food and sleeping in their beds, anyway? Unless you want to. Invite another woman, I mean. I’ve never done anything like that before, but I guess I’d be up to try it if that’s what you’re into. ‘Up to try it.’ Now there’s a Freudian slip.”

  Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! my mind shrieked at me. I bit down on my lip. I had just been about to joke that I couldn’t stand Freud and his motherfucking complex. How come I could face a supervillain without gibbering like an idiot, but make me tell a woman how I felt about her and suddenly I was a nervous, prattling teen again?

  Faint moonlight trickled in from the window, letting me see Neha’s wide brown eyes and lithe naked body despite the otherwise dark room. “I don’t know what to say,” she said. Born in India, she still had a hint of an accent.

  Time seemed as frozen as my heart.

  “How about, ‘I love you too, Theo. I want to be with you. We should have some beautiful biracial babies together’?”

  “I do love you. As a friend. As a best friend. But not like that.”

  “Do you let all your friends put their penises inside of you?”

  “That’s not fair, and you know it.”

  I pulled out of her. I collapsed onto the other side of the bed. I stared up at the dark ceiling.

  “So that’s all I am to you, then? Just a best friend with benefits? Isaac’s your best friend too. Does he get the same special benefits, or are you saving him up until you’re bored with me?”

  “I know your feelings are hurt, and I’m sorry about that, but that’s no reason to be mean. What do you want me to do, lie to you?”

  The ceiling started to move, shimmering in my tears. I got up. I started to put my clothes back on.

  “You know why I wanted to become a Hero,” Neha said. She sat up in bed. “To stop my father Doctor Alchemy from trying to conquer the world. Until I do that, I don’t have time for a relationship. With you, or anyone else.”

  The fact she was so calm and I most definitely was not calm really pissed me off.

  I said, “Before the Trials you said you wouldn’t even consider a relationship until after the Trials were over. Now they are. And you’re singing the same old song. You’re just making excuses. You don’t feel about me the way I feel about you. That’s fine. But don’t pretend like it’s something other than what it is.” My fingers fumbled clumsily with my pants.

  Neha sighed.

  “Theo, I’m the first person you slept with. As far as I know, I’m the only person you’ve slept with. I wonder if maybe you’re confusing love with lust and physical intimacy. It’s easy to do.”

  A hot tear dripped off my cheek and onto the floor. “You’re entitled to feel the way you feel. But don’t you dare try to tell me how I feel.” It was hard to not yell the words. Why couldn’t I get these damned pants on?

  “Theo, I was going to tell you this later, but I guess I should now: I’m moving to Chicago. I’m taking a job as the chief of security for Willow Wilde.”

  Stunned, my jaw dropped, as did my pants. “The reality TV celebrity? But you hate her. You always say that people like her with no talent or skill getting rich is a symptom of how screwed up society is.”

  “She’ll pay me a lot. She thinks having a licensed Hero, even a new one like me, as her head of security will add to her fame. I can’t say she’s wrong. I need the money. Defeating someone like Dad isn’t going to be cheap. I’m not rich like the Old Man. I don’t plan to work for Willow for long. Just long enough to get the money I need.”

  I planned on moving to Astor City to go after Mechano once I found a job there. Isaac had already lined up a job there as an illustrator. Though we had never explicitly talked about it, I had just assumed Neha would come with us. The three of us had been inseparable ever since the Academy.

  “How long have you known about this?” I demanded.

  “I interviewed with her a few months ago. She told me then the job was mine if I passed the Trials.”

  “Months ago,” I repeated, flabbergasted. “And you’re just telling me this now?”

  “I know I should have said something before. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m closer to you and Isaac than I’ve ever been to anyone before. Telling you I was planning on leaving would make it all too real. Besides, there was no guarantee I would pass the Trials. You know how high the failure rate is.”

  My pants were pooled around my ankles. I stepped out of them and kicked them against the wall. The belt buckle left a dent in the wall. Who needed pants anyway? If Isaac or the Old Man saw me half-naked when I left Neha’s room, I dared them to say something about it. I was in the mood to punch somebody.

  I said, “So you’ve known you were leaving for months, yet you kept quiet about it and continued to fuck me anyway? God forbid you stop getting your jollies before you start partying with Willow. I guess you thought you needed to keep your privates loosened up for all those studs you’ll be hooking up with alongside Willow. Just call me Theo, The Human Dildo. Sure, he’s got feelings, but as long as he gets you off, who cares?”

  “It’s not like that.” Neha was crying now. It was only the third time I’d ever seen her cry in three years. Good. I was glad I had made her cry. Misery loved company.

  As I had forgotten all about sex, I was startled to see I was still erect and ready for action. It just went to show that mini-me had a mind of its own. I looked down at myself in disgust. Even my own body was betraying me. “I’ll go tell Isaac it’s his turn up at bat. Maybe darker meat will be more to your liking. Maybe you’ll decide he’s good enough for you. Obviously I’m not.”

  “Theo, don’t leave like this. Let’s—” But, it was too late. I had already slammed her door behind myself. It sounded like a cannon going off in the otherwise quiet mansion. Bottomless, with my bobbing privates pointing the way, I stomped off to my old room.

  That had been the last time I had spoken to Neha. She tried to talk to me in the days that followed my blowup in her room, but I ignored her like she wasn’t there. I knew I was being childish, but I could not seem to help myself.

  Later, once she moved to Chicago, Neha had called, texted, and emailed me. Literally not a week went by that she didn’t contact me. Her calls I let go to voicemail. I deleted them without listening to them. Her texts and emails I deleted, unread. At first it was hurt and anger that made me do this. Later, stubbornness. Later still, just inertia and habit. She communicated with Isaac almost daily, though. Early on, after we had moved to Astor City, Isaac had tried to intervene on Neha’s behalf with me. He said me refusing to talk to her was stupid and breaking her heart. I told him to mind his own goddamned business. It was the biggest fight we ever had. Afterwards, he did not bring her up much.

  * * *

  In the back of my mind, I had thought I would reconcile with Neha eventually. When the Sentinels kidnapped her, I feared I would never get the chance to patch things up and apologize for acting like a royal jackass. But now, flying back toward Astor City with Neha underneath me again, I had my chance. A second chance.

  Though the memo
ries I had of our marriage and son where but fragments of an Omega spirit-induced dream, I just knew I could make that dream a reality. Since acquiring the Omega weapon, I had learned that nothing was impossible. Surely matters of the heart were no different.

  I knew Neha still didn’t love me. Not the way I wanted her to, at least. She had been clear about that months ago. That was the past. I had been a different person then. Now, I would make Neha love me. I would find a way. I was the Omega. I had moved the immovable neutronium spear, captured Hannah’s killer, tricked the Sentinels, and liberated Neha. I could do anything.

  How to begin? I had so much I wanted to say. I didn’t know how to say any of it. It did not matter. I was positively giddy being with Neha again, even under these circumstances.

  I looked down at her. I felt myself grinning like an idiot. “So, how’s everything since I last saw you? Anything interesting happen lately?”

  “Mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmm,” was all Neha could say through her metal gag.

  “I can’t. Sorry. Though I’m flattered, now’s not the best time for that sort of thing. Maybe later, when we’re in private. I can understand your anxiousness to see me naked again, though. You’re not the first woman to fall under my body’s spell. You know what they say: ‘Once you’ve had a taste of Theodore, you’re always looking for more.’”

  “Mmmm, mmm, mmmm, mmmmmm!” she said, more insistently this time. He eyes flicked down to her metal gag, then back up at me.

  “Sorry, I didn’t quite get that last part. You’ll have to speak up. On second thought, I take that back. Don’t speak up. The quiet’s kind of peaceful.” I was so relieved I had gotten Neha out of the clutches of the Sentinels. I couldn’t keep from grinning. “You know what? I think I like you better this way.”

  Neha was staring daggers at me now. She looked like she wanted to hurt me almost as much as she wanted to hurt the Sentinels.

  Intoxicated with relief and happiness, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. Neha had been wrong months before. What I felt was no brain chemistry trick, no side effect of mere horniness for the only woman I had slept with. I did love Neha. And I would find a way to make her love me.

  Ungagging her seemed a good first step toward that. I’d had enough fun teasing her. I reached out with my powers to probe the gag around and in Neha’s mouth. Careful to avoid hurting her, I applied telekinetic pressure, breaking the metal in several places.

  My enhanced powers detected the quick flash of an energy surge from the metal manacles binding her hands and ankles together. I instinctively raised my personal shield. It was the same sort of automatic reflex that makes you pull your hand away from a hot stove.

  The manacles exploded. Night became day. Neha and I were engulfed by a huge fireball that expanded like an exploding supernova.

  If it hadn’t been for my Omega weapon enhanced powers, I never would have survived the explosion. Since Mechano believed I had given up the Omega weapon, he undoubtedly thought the explosion would get rid of me once and for all.

  He was wrong. I survived. Not only did I survive, but I flew away from the explosion without so much as a singed eyebrow. Physically, I was fine.

  Emotionally, it was an altogether different matter.

  Given even a tiny amount of more time, I know could have done something. But there had been no time. There had been but a sliver of a fraction of a second between the metal’s energy surge and the explosion. Enough time for my reflexes to kick in and protect me.

  Not enough time to protect Neha.

  The blast vaporized her. Not even her ashes were left behind. Believe me, I looked.

  I had not even told her I was sorry.

  For everything.

  CHAPTER 27

  I slammed to a stop. The hard floor of the Situation Room cracked and cratered under me. I had already sliced through Sentinels Mansion like a bullet through paper after first swatting away the missiles and smaller projectiles the mansion’s now active defenses had lobbed at me.

  Taken by surprise by my sudden appearance in the room, it took a moment for the startled Sentinels to react. I targeted Millennium first. As an Omega-level Meta whose powers I did not fully understand, he posed the greatest threat. He raised his hands toward me, his fingers dancing in the air. With a downward flick of my wrist, an invisible force field exploded down like a guillotine, ripping through both of Millennium’s wrists. Blood spurted, sweet-smelling and an inhuman sapphire blue.

  Millennium screamed. The peculiar rustling sound of his voice mingled with a banshee’s wail as his hands went flying, amputated from his arms far more neatly than any surgeon’s knife ever could. The gauntleted hands dropped like dead fish, plopping on the metal floor with a wet thump. Magical math: No hands equaled no spells.

  With a dismissive wave of my other hand, Millennium went flying. His arms and legs flailed. His back and head hit a wall with a sickening crunch. I let him slide to the floor. He lay there on his back twitching, like a stepped-on cockroach, with ichor oozing out of his wrists.

  Seer was on the move. She flew up toward the hole I had punched through the ceiling earlier. A rat fleeing a sinking ship. Though my suit blocked her precognition, you didn’t need a crystal ball to see she and Mechano were no match for me in the Omega suit now that Millennium was out of commission.

  I raised my hand slightly. I closed it, using my powers to grab and hold Seer like a fly in a clenched fist. She resisted me with her own telekinesis. Her efforts were like a child trying to break the hold of a bodybuilder. The temptation to squeeze harder and reduce her body to so much jelly was strong.

  Instead, I flung her toward Sentry. The metal tentacles extending from Sentry’s control panel rose to greet her, the helmet they were attached to ripping away at my mental command. The now free tentacles writhed like something alive. They enfolded Seer in an octopus’ embrace. A crossed wire here, a short circuit there, and the tentacles became electrified. Seer screamed. Her body danced in the tentacles’ embrace like someone gripping an electrified fence.

  I broke more wires deep within Sentry’s innards. The electricity arcing through the tentacles shut off. Seer went limp. Unconscious, but alive.

  Neutralizing Seer and Millennium took only a few seconds. Though they were no angels, I had saved the worst for last.

  I turned my attention to Mechano. He stood far across the room, next to the Sentinels’ heptagonal conference table. Avatar’s red cape was spread out on it.

  “You killed her,” I said. The words came out in a hiss. Fury, cold and implacable, fueled me.

  Mechano’s single eye regarded me emotionlessly.

  “You brought this on yourself. This cape is not the Omega weapon. It is a fake. You lied to us.”

  “You didn’t know that when you planted those bombs on her. You planned on killing both of us the whole time. You wanted there to be no witnesses to what you had done. Dead men tell no tales to the Guild. When did you plan to kill Myth and Truman? Tonight? Tomorrow?”

  I started to walk toward Mechano. His eye flashed red. A beam of powerful energy hit me in the center of my chest. I had a force field up, of course. Through it I absorbed the energy of Mechano’s beam. My own eyes burned. Beams of Mechano’s redirected energy shot out of them. They sheared off his right arm, right where a normal person’s bicep would connect with his shoulder. The arm hit the floor with a clang. Thick grey lubricant sprayed everywhere. The arm bent and unbent, the fingers twitching.

  Another beam from Mechano hit my chest, this one a different energy and frequency than before. It made no difference. I absorbed this energy too. My eyes blazed. My eye beams cut off Mechano’s left leg where it connected to his hip. Still advancing on Mechano, I shoved my hand forward, like I was pushing a door open. Mechano’s one-legged heavy body fell backwards. He hit the floor with a force that made the entire room rattle. His detached left leg, still standing upright, spurted lubricant like a geyser. The stuff smelled like burning rubber.

  Hobbled, st
ill on his back, Mechano tried to skitter away. He crawled clumsily backward with his remaining limbs. His metallic body screeched against the floor. Energy blasted out of my eyes again. Right leg, gone. Left arm, gone. Lubricant gushed everywhere.

  Mechano was now as immobilized as a dying beetle that had been flipped on its back.

  I stood directly over Mechano. He looked up at me. He made no effort to blast me again. He no doubt realized the futility of it. In the parts of his shiny torso that weren’t soiled with lubricant, I saw a reflection of myself. My eyes blazed bright yellow with barely suppressed energy. I felt no satisfaction in having the man behind Neha’s and my father’s death prostrate at my feet. Other than a block of icy fury that chilled the pit of my stomach, I felt nothing at all. The world seemed tasteless and grey. Nothing I could do to Mechano would bring either of them back.

  Then, the strangest thing happened.

  Mechano started to laugh.

  It started as a chuckle. Then it became a belly laugh. It quickly transitioned to a full-throated, knee-slapping laugh, like that of a man who had seen something so incredibly funny that he could not control himself.

  I waited until Mechano’s laughter played itself out. When it had, I said, “You think this is funny?”

  “This is not,” Mechano said, “but you are.” Amusement was still in his voice. “Standing there like an avenging angel, looking like you’re about to smite a sinner. I must admit that for a second I was worried. I thought almost a hundred and fifty years of towering technological achievements were about to come to an abrupt end. But then I remembered who the man standing over me is. The man your father taught you to be. The man we Heroes trained you to be. You are not going to kill me. It is not who you are.”

  I knew what he was doing. He was appealing to my better nature, to manipulate me into not damaging him further. Just as he and the Sentinels had manipulated me and the people I cared about for years.