by Hayes, Drew
“Not one fucking step or I’ll shatter you.” Alice was glaring, only looking away for brief instants to make sure she wasn’t being surrounded.
“Whoa, calm the hell down.” Sean Pendleton put his arms up, trying to calm Alice. “Oh… right. You’re not sure I’m really me.” He was staring at Shelby, visibly restraining himself from moving closer. “Fine, I guess this is as good a teaching moment as any. How do you discern if I’m the real Professor Pendleton or not?”
Steadying herself, Alice thought it through. This wasn’t some unforeseen possibility; it was a situation she’d been trained for. “First, show me your power. Three seconds of it, no more.”
“Good start,” Sean said. He shifted in form, turning to a cloud of fog for precisely three seconds before reforming. “That all?”
“No. Powers can be duplicated as easily as faces when dealing with mimics, so next I want you to tell me something only the real Professor Pendleton would know.”
“Shit, take your pick. You went dream-diving to find out your mother’s situation, taking Nick and Mary with you twice this year. You aced last year’s Subtlety final by pairing with Will Murray and tricking the rest of the class. You spent near days on end in the Blonk after finding out what Charles did to Shelby. You cheated on your tailing exam by–”
“Fine, that’s enough.” Alice waited, thinking it through. “A powerful enough telepath might have been able to get all that, but the odds of a mimic stealing Professor Pendleton’s image and finding a telepath to scour his mind in the brief time since I left Lander are staggeringly low. It’s far more likely that you’re the real thing, although that still doesn’t explain how you’re here.”
Lowering his arms at last, Sean started forward, eyes on Shelby. “I called in some favors. As soon as I realized what Nick was doing, I knew it would be a shitshow. So I had a few friends with tracking and teleportation abilities lend a hand.”
“And you knew to track me how?”
“I didn’t. I was tracking Shelby. Once she was out of that bunker, my friend got a lock on her. After that, it was just a matter of hopscotch-teleporting behind and waiting for you to stop.” Finally reaching Alice’s side, Sean laid a gentle hand on Shelby’s forehead, pushing the blonde hair from her face as his eyes grew moist. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting, hoping to see her again. Once I found out about the attack, I knew my only job was going to be looking after her.”
The soft crunch of a lone footstep behind them was the only warning before the voice. “An excellent idea; unfortunately, you weren’t the only one to have it.” Professor Blake Hill was now standing near them, expression inscrutable as he stared at his lost sister, half-brother, and fearsome niece.
“I suppose it was to be expected. Family does tend to think alike.”
313.
In the utter bedlam, Vince had managed to slip into the crowd a few times. Tracking Globe as he was carried through chaos was a harder task than keeping watch on a big floating platform, but unfortunately without that platform to draw attention there were suddenly a lot more unoccupied eyes scanning to find him. There was no plan; Vince had long ago passed what little amount of forethought he’d put into the situation. He only knew two things at this point: Globe was the best chance he had of getting everyone out safely, and Camille might be the only person present with both the ability and willingness to put Globe back on his feet. Finding her was paramount.
Risking another jump, Vince went airborne briefly, searching the area for any telltale signs of Camille – a series of downed guards, a white uniform on a small body darting about, Thomas hunched near the ground while another student held his neck…
That last one wasn’t hypothetical: it was the exact scene Vince’s gaze fell upon just before his descent began. Wasting no time, he barreled forward, barely dodging a few fists and feeling some unseen attack slice his leg. The wound wasn’t crippling, thankfully, it only felt like it was. Bad as it hurt, it had nothing on living for days with body nearly consumed with burns, so Vince was easily able to push the discomfort to the side as he charged for all he was worth.
Finally, he broke through a pair of guards with a well-placed electrical blast and came to a staggering stop next to Camille and a newly-healed Thomas, who was already rubbing his neck where her hands had been. It wasn’t until this exact moment that Vince realized he was nearly out of breath; he’d been in a dead sprint since the moment he grabbed Globe off the platform.
“Camille… please… heal… him.” Not the elegant explanation detailing the complexities of the situation Vince might have wanted to provide, but to be fair, even with lungs full of air he probably wouldn’t have been able to spit everything out.
Her surprise at seeing him suddenly appear turned to stone-faced resolve as she noticed the man Vince was holding. “That’s Globe, isn’t it? Vince, I’m not sure that’s a smart idea. I know you still see him as a good man, but he is a criminal. All of this… his attack is the one that started it. And he is incredibly dangerous. What you’re asking might even be a crime itself.” Camille paused, looking over to Thomas with an unspoken question, receiving a brief nod as the only reply.
She leaned down, hand drawing near until it was only inches from Globe’s forehead. “But if being in actual battle last year taught us anything, it’s the importance of trusting and relying on our team – or our class in this case. So really make sure you know what you’re doing, be certain you’ve thought it through as a Hero, not a son, and then make a call. We trust you, I trust you, just like you trusted me to be open to the idea. Make sure this is the right choice for everyone.”
A shout went up from nearby, and a large cluster of body-armored clad people headed in their direction. Almost at the same time, Camille caught sight of some costumes shifting toward their direction as well. While Vince had done the best job he could in getting Globe away from attention, among this many Supers it had always been an impossible task.
Vince heard them too, but he tried to put the sounds out of mind for the moment. Instead, he focused on Camille’s question: was this really the best thing for all of them? The way Alice broke everything down, it seemed as though Graham DeSoto was open to the idea of Globe not being a villain. If Vince brought Globe to Graham right now, he could turn him over. Once arrested, Globe would no longer have to be afraid of the Heroes, and would only be under threat from guards. The Heroes might even be obligated to get him clear or keep him safe. But that scenario depended on a lot of guesswork, with countless factors that could go wrong. And taking Globe off the field would place the attention of the guards squarely on the Heroes, putting more of them at risk as the fight intensified. Bringing Globe back, however, only added one more Hero to the battlefield. Assuming all of it was true, that Vince hadn’t been duped again and his father really was the man Vince thought, would he be enough to make a difference? There was no telling. No matter what he did, Vince was guessing, betting on futures that may or may not come to pass.
With no way to think his way through this, Vince decided to take the advice of Jeremiah, the Hero he’d chosen to learn under: he got out of his own way and simply listened to his intuition. And on that front, there was no conflict or uncertainty.
“This is a rough situation. A lot of good people are in danger, and I’m not sure what’s going to get it settled short of massive death. I can’t promise you that this will fix everything. The most I can say is that I think if anyone, anywhere, can get us to a better solution, it’s Globe. I can’t make a case for it, I don’t have the facts to say why. All I can tell you is that whenever he was in my life, I always knew things would be okay. When he showed up, it was like the world worked the way it was supposed to, if only for a little while. I know that’s crazy, I know it’s personal affection getting mixed up with tactics. But if I have to bet on what gets us through this, I’d put all I had on this man every single time.”
“It isn’t crazy, Vince.” Thomas had moved position, he now had
his back to them as he faced the people converging on their location. “That’s how people are supposed to feel when they see a Hero arrive on the scene. Camille, I’m not sure how long I can give you. Against this many, I may not last more than a few seconds. So make sure and use those seconds well.”
Clapping his hands together, Thomas summoned a dome of orange energy over them. He wasn’t Globe – he couldn’t fend off all those attacks for very long, if at all. But he was still fighting to claim the title of Hero, and that meant giving everything he had to what was right, even if all he had could do nothing more than steal a few extra moments for his friends.
Not wasting time, Camille put her hand on Globe’s forehead. “He’s got a hell of a concussion, but I’ll heal that last. No sense waking him before he’s ready. I can’t fix the arm, unfortunately. The most I could do would be to heal the wound where it was cut, and that’s if it was fresh. You need someone stronger than me for regeneration.”
“It’s fine. He’s had one arm for all the time I’ve known him and it’s never slowed him down.” Vince hadn’t even noticed the fake arm fall away when Globe was knocked unconscious; his entire mind had been set on the task of finding Camille.
The orange dome around them began to shake, and Thomas fell to a knee, hands still glowing and held aloft. When he spoke, it was with gritted teeth and unshakable determination. “They’re not… holding… back.”
No, they wouldn’t be. The guards didn’t care that Globe was in the care of students, and the Heroes might not even know. They were attacking full-force because for all they knew he was still a dangerous criminal, one with a staggering amount of power. More attacks came, cracks appearing in the orange dome. They healed quickly, but at a glance it was obvious that Thomas couldn’t keep the pace up much longer. Once that barrier went down, there would be nothing to protect them from the onslaught. Their only hope now was Globe. Since he’d gotten them into this, it only seemed fitting that Vince put his money, or rather his body, where his mouth was.
“Thomas, open a hole. Just long enough for me to slip through. I’m going to take some of the pressure off you.” Carefully setting Globe’s head down, making sure Camille’s hand never lost contact, Vince rose from the ground.
Before he could go, Camille grabbed his leg with her free hand. “I know you well enough to realize that nothing I say will stop you from doing something this stupid, so at least be careful out there. Those people aren’t students, and the Heroes might not even know you’re on their side. Healers can do a lot, but we can’t fix death.”
“I’ll be careful,” Vince assured her. “I’m not charging in blind or putting myself needlessly at risk. We have to hold the line here, otherwise we’re all in serious danger. I’m not trying to beat everyone; I just have to buy enough time for you to fix Globe. Keep everyone away from a single target.” He smiled, sudden and unexpected despite the dire situation. “At least I’ve gotten to practice it once before.”
“You aren’t brainwashed this time, though.”
“Don’t have to be. Last time, Nick showed me an illusion of someone I loved and wanted to protect, but I’ve already got more than one right here.” Taking a deep breath, Vince approached the edge of the orange barrier, giving a quick gesture to Thomas that he was ready.
“Sooner or later, the world is going to have to learn not to fuck with the people I love. Might as well be today.”
314.
“I want to be very clear about this up front, I will kill you if you try and take her from me.” Alice tightened her grip on Shelby, even as she turned slightly to keep her mother’s body out of Blake Hill’s line of sight.
For his part, Blake didn’t seem as intimidated as she hoped. “Will you? Those are big words, Alice, but killing isn’t as easy as the Sims make it seem. You think that the first life you take can be that of someone who helped train you, guide you, and is in fact family? I’m not so convinced. Whether you realize it or not, you take after Shelby. She was cursed with much too kind of a heart to do something like that, a curse she passed on to you.”
“What about me, Blake? Think I won’t see it through?” Sean Pendleton was moving too, situating himself between his half-brother and his niece. Turning into fog wouldn’t do much to protect Alice or Shelby from Blake’s power, but at the very least it would give him another target to focus on. That might prove to be enough, if it came to that.
“Oh no, I have no doubt you’ll kill me, with cause or without. I’m surprised you made it through this many years of teaching together without putting poison in my coffee.” Blake was relaxed, much too at ease for a situation like this.
“I owed Blaine a favor, and paying him back by killing another professor would have been a dick move. Self-defense, on the other hand, is a whole other matter.”
Things were rapidly building toward a fight, and while Alice was ready to throw down if needed, that would put her mother at risk. “Let’s try and talk about this for a second. The only thing we all agree on is we want Shelby to be safe, right? We’re all after the same goal for her, in which case we don’t need to go after one another’s throats. In fact, it would stupidly put her at risk for nothing more than the sake of old grudges and whose fault it is that we reached this point. I’ve got news for you both: I’ve seen what happened, I know the whole story, and I can say with total certainty that it doesn’t fucking matter who deserves the blame for her condition. It was a bad situation, and a hard call was made. Rather than waste more of her life pissing and bickering, why don’t we focus on getting her somewhere safe until she can be cured?”
“Noble a sentiment as that is, it’s not an option yet.” Blake was still standing in the same space, but his footing had changed, as though he were bracing for something. Whether he was getting ready to counter an attack he expected or send one himself was a mystery Alice couldn’t crack yet. “Bad news, I’m afraid. While your version of the procedure is the best we’ve seen, and certainly appears to be holding stable, there’s no guarantee it will last. Others have failed before you. Until we are truly sure the process will work, we can’t risk subjecting Shelby to it. There have been too many false starts over the years, and she’s too delicate to endure another failure.”
Information was currency. That was an idea Professor Pendleton had drilled into Alice’s head time and time again. Information was precious, vital, and could be spent in times when paper money had no value whatsoever. It should never be given away without purpose; one had to look at it the same way they viewed spending their limited funds. In this particular case, Alice was doing just that as she realized there might be a way to buy a peaceful resolution by spending some of her most precious information.
“It does work. We know for sure, and Shelby is the one who told us.” Alice adjusted her grip on her mother, making sure she was tucked away and secure. If Alice had to make a break for it, she couldn’t afford to be slowed in any way. “Mom is still having visions; I’m betting you already know that. What you might not realize is that she’s seeing how the world will be impacted by Powereds becoming Supers, all the different paths we might go down. Thing is, in none of them does the procedure stop working. She only sees the potential futures, right? The likeliest ones? Well, there is no future in which we go back to being Powereds. We have the cure. We can bring her back.”
“Charles had the cure, and I doubt even that’s true anymore.” Despite his words, Blake looked a bit surprised by the news. Whether he believed Alice or not was another matter, but she was certainly telling him a tempting tale.
“We’ve got all of his data,” Sean said. “Already loaded it into the HCP computers and sent it to the DVA. Maybe this was how it always happened: we found out the secret of turning Powereds to Supers, gave it to the government, and in doing so released the procedure to the world. She’s telling the truth, Blake. Shelby’s salvation is at hand. The only thing keeping her from it is you.”
The three of them stood quietly, the only sound aside
from their breath was the wind blowing through the clearing. At long last, Blake took a lone, symbolic step backward. “That would all be lovely, if I could trust you. The trouble is, I’m dealing with professional liars telling me exactly what I want to hear. I’m sure you can appreciate how that leaves me with a healthy amount of skepticism. The reasonable course would be to turn her over to me until you can prove your story, but I can already tell from the looks in your eyes that you won’t agree to that. I will admit that Alice is right about one thing: none of us wants to see Shelby hurt. For that reason, I’m going to propose a compromise: Alice can take Shelby and fly away. Sean, you and I will settle things between us, and whoever is left standing will be free to track her down again.”
“Are you out of your mind? I’m not going to–”
“Alice, go.” Sean popped his knuckles, then his neck as he put a touch of distance between himself and Blake. “He doesn’t trust me, and now he thinks I’ve turned you against him. This is something I have to deal with – something I was always going to have to deal with. You two are more important than either of us. Get Shelby clear, and trust that I’ll be the one to find you again. Last I checked, you’re still my student, and that’s an order.”
“When I catch up, we can talk over our options,” Blake added. “Without this one whispering in your ear, I hope you’ll be more open to reason.”
She looked between them, mouth opening more than once to protest, but each time Alice looked down to Shelby instead. With her training, it was almost too easy to tell that this was going to be a fight one way or the other. Right now, the most she could do was get Shelby clear. All these years training, all that work and pain and effort, and here she was, having to run away yet again. It was galling, infuriating, and part of her wanted to rebel. To stay, no matter what it cost. That was ego talking, however, and she recognized wounded pride no matter the mask it tried to wear. Alice had a job to do, a person to protect, and she had to see it through regardless of what path it required.