Runaways

by Christopher Golden

  “True, true,” Molly said, nodding sagely.

  “Um, guys…” Chase began. “Not to interrupt the Molly-rocks fest back there, but…Whirlwind.”

  “Sorry?” Karolina said.

  Keeping his hands on the controls, Chase tilted his head toward a screen in front, where the surveillance feed from the museum kept rolling, live but in silence.

  Nico leaned forward and stared at the feed. Sure enough, on the grainy live feed she saw a figure she recognized from countless news stories. Whirlwind—human tornado, notorious criminal, had fought the Avengers and other heroes what seemed like a thousand times. He’d been part of previous lineups of the Masters of Evil.

  “Still want to do this?” Karolina asked.

  “Like Molly says, we don’t have a choice,” Nico replied.

  “Let’s go, then. All in. Even if we can buy some time, maybe catch one of them—”

  “Well,” Molly said, “I didn’t stay up all night just to be a frickin’ spectator.”

  Chase cleared his throat. He maneuvered the Leapfrog, guiding them to the right, and they came to rest on top of a building with a neon billboard gleaming overhead.

  “We’re here,” he said. “Let’s move. And let’s try not to die.”

  Gert sat in the main cavern of the Hostel, nursing a green tea and her hurt feelings. She knew it was stupid—the logic of leaving her behind had been inarguable. But it was three o’clock in the morning and her whole body wanted to be sleeping. At first she had wished that she’d been able to go with them, but with every stretch and yawn and every rub of her itchy eyes, her irritation faded. At this point, she was almost happy to have been left behind.

  She’d been drinking her tea and listening to the audio from the mission. Chase had set it up so that they could get the surveillance feed from the Pride’s tech on-screen in the Leapfrog, but he’d also set up communications between the Frog and the Hostel. Gert had listened but tried not to butt in—she figured they’d probably forgotten she was even listening, which was fine with her. She was there as backup. If things went really badly—badly enough that they were willing to give up everything, including their freedom—she knew how to get in touch with the Avengers. The last time, Captain America had basically betrayed them. He’d thought he was doing what was right, she knew that. But adults often screwed kids over while thinking it was for their own good. They’d ended up in the foster care system, and Gert had no intention of risking a repeat of that unless the worst happened.

  As she listened, Chase landed the Leapfrog. She heard him suggest to the others that they try not to die, and she opened her mouth to chime in, but something stopped her. Frowning, she looked at the computer showing the surveillance feed from the museum. Whirlwind had come out onto the front steps, but now she watched him twist into a green-and-white mini-tornado and he swept back inside, followed by Sunstroke, leaving only the blue-armored guy outside. Something about all of this didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t put her finger on precisely what was bothering her.

  I don’t know why the Losers of Evil want to rob a museum, Molly had said. It’s, like, the twenty-first century. Who does that?

  Gert sipped her green tea, pondering. After a moment she set it down, slid the chair over to the other computer array, and called up a satellite map of the neighborhood around the museum. Block by block, she zoomed in enough that the program began to identify the restaurants and businesses and landmarks there.

  She clicked on the microphone. “Hey, guys? Has anyone actually seen the Crimson Cowl?”

  No answer.

  Gert turned to stare at the surveillance monitor. “Guys?”

  On the screen, Molly had arrived at the bottom of the museum’s front steps. The guy in the blue armor shifted and cocked his head, obviously tracking her, wondering what the hell a little girl was doing out on the street at three a.m.

  Molly started up the steps.

  The armored guy didn’t look a thing like Iron Man. Molly had met Iron Man, and though she’d seen pictures and video of him in a bunch of different versions of his armor, you could always tell it was him. The color scheme gave him away—well, that and something else, a kind of design sense that Molly had learned to recognize. Tony Stark might not always be in the suit, but the suit would always be Tony Stark, almost like he’d put his signature on it. Like an autograph, Molly thought, as she took another step.

  “Guys,” Gert said in her ear. Molly ignored her. Now wasn’t the time.

  “What are you doing out here, kid?” the blue-armored man asked, his voice sounding tinny over whatever speaker the armor used.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” Molly told him, still walking. Another step. “You guys made a lot of noise.”

  The blue-armored man glanced back at the hole he and his pals had smashed or burned through the face of the museum. He was confused, and Molly knew that was good. If he thought she was homeless and they’d woken her up, it would slow him down. Just like it would slow him down just to be looking at the face of an innocent-seeming young girl. Molly knew she appeared harmless. It was half the reason she always wore one of the knit hats she loved. Tonight, her hat was the orange-red of fox fur, complete with fox ears. Karolina had bought it for her just a couple of weeks ago in a Salvation Army store.

  Gert’s voice came over the comms again, more urgently this time. “Guys, is anyone even listening? Do any of you have eyes on the Crimson Cowl? Has anyone seen her?”

  Eyes on, Molly thought. Gert had been watching too many action movies. She giggled to herself, and didn’t try to hide it.

  “Look, kid,” the blue-armored man said. “You should go, okay? The cops will be here any minute. It could get messy. Find somewhere to hide.”

  Molly kept walking. “That’s actually kinda sweet, you being worried about me. What’s your name, mister?”

  The guy started down toward her. “Blue Steel. But seriously, kid, you need to—”

  “That’s not very original,” Molly told him. “I mean, there’s no way Tony Stark hasn’t used that for something, right?”

  “What do I care? I didn’t come up with…” He sighed loud enough that it was audible over the armor’s speaker. “Look, kid, you’re not listening.”

  Molly wanted to get closer, but she felt the night get suddenly warm and then saw movement just past Blue Steel. Through the ruined doors, she saw Sunstroke approaching. Any second, he’d step outside. Any second, he’d spot her.

  “I don’t feel so good,” she said. Purposely, she stumbled and fell to her hands and knees on the steps.

  “Damn it,” Blue Steel muttered.

  Molly felt kind of bad as he bent to check on her. He might be one of the Losers of Evil, but he seemed like he might be sort of a nice guy when he wasn’t busy being a criminal.

  “Kid? Kid, you okay?” he said as he reached for her.

  Molly punched him in the chest so hard that the armor crumpled and sparked. He let out a grunt of pain and staggered backward, but by then she was up. The trick to being an eleven-year-old girl with super strength was finding your center of balance. She picked up Blue Steel like he was made of Nerf.

  “You’re pretty trusting for a bad guy,” she said.

  Sunstroke stepped out the door, took in the moment, and turned to shout back inside. Molly hurled Blue Steel at him. The armored man crashed through the already ruined entrance, smashing it further and colliding with Sunstroke, and the two of them went sprawling hard into the museum’s foyer.

  “Two down,” she said, knowing the others would hear her over the little earpiece communication devices Chase had rustled up inside the Hostel. “No idea how many—”

  Gert’s voice cut in again. “Is nobody listening to me? Hello?”

  Then Nico. “Um, Gert, we’re a little busy.”

  “Being kept busy, I think.”

  Molly was glad the bad guys couldn’t hear them.

  Inside the museum foyer, Blue Steel had started to rise, but slowly. Sun
stroke stayed down, and the armored guy nudged him, started to swear. Molly took a couple of steps closer to them. If Sunstroke was down, she could take Blue Steel no problem.

  “Talk fast, sweetie,” Chase said on comms. “What are you saying?”

  Molly heard tires squealing and engines roaring. She turned around and her eyes widened as police cars began to skid to a halt in the street in front of the museum, lights flashing. She and her friends had hoped to take the Losers down before the cops got there. Police meant guns, guns meant bullets. Ordinary cops had no chance to capture the Masters of Evil, but it was their job to try. The other problem was that Molly and most of the Runaways were still underage and…well, runaways. Not that the police were going to pay much attention to them right now—at least, not until they started using their powers.

  She heard Nico in her ear again. “This is going to get very messy, very fast.”

  “Is it ever any other way with us?” Karolina asked.

  But they didn’t know the half of it, because Molly turned to see Blue Steel rising to his feet just inside the museum.

  “I don’t know what the hell you are, kid,” the armored guy said, “but you shouldn’t have done that. In fact, if you’re smart, you’ll run like hell right now. Sunstroke’s got a broken arm, I think. The boss is gonna be pissed—”

  Molly wanted to laugh and say something cool, but the police were shouting and drawing their guns. Blue Steel thrust out his left hand and shot an energy blast from his palm that made a police car explode, and Molly knew she was a liability for the police, that they’d hesitate to shoot with her on the stairs. Not that shooting would help much against a guy in armor tech.

  “No!” she snapped, and started up toward Blue Steel again.

  He held out both hands. “Kid, I will blast you all the way to Vegas if you don’t back off.”

  Gunshots rang out. Molly ducked out of instinct, annoyed that the cops hadn’t held their fire. Nico and Gert and Karolina and Chase were all shouting over their comms, trying to tell her what to do—and Molly had started to get very sick of people telling her what to do.

  A wave of heat rolled over her. She looked up and saw Sunstroke stepping out through the ruined museum entrance, cradling his broken arm. But then he stepped aside and she saw the green-and-white blur rushing from deep inside the museum. Whirlwind’s arms and head and shoulders emerged from the tornado of his powers and he burst out through the entrance.

  “Karolina, go!” Molly shouted.

  The laser blast seemed to come from nowhere. It hit Whirlwind in the back, smashed him to the steps, but he was up in a heartbeat.

  “Oh, crap,” Karolina said, her voice a little frightened over the comms.

  Then Whirlwind blasted after her and Karolina took off, streaking across the still-dark sky. Leaving Molly on the steps between the cops and two pissed-off Masters of Evil. Most of the time she didn’t feel like a little kid, but in that moment, she felt very small.

  “Nico?” Molly called, hoping she’d be heard. “Nico!”

  “Karolina!”

  She heard her name over the comms, but only barely. Molly and Gert were both calling for Nico simultaneously. Chase kept asking if he should move in with the Leapfrog. Karolina was very happy in that moment that Nico was supposed to be in charge and not her, but right now Nico was shouting her name and Whirlwind was on her tail.

  “Karolina!”

  “What? I’m airborne!”

  She zipped left, then straight up. Whirlwind couldn’t change direction as sharply as she did, but he was so fast that it didn’t matter. She felt the wind at her back as she zipped right, then left, then straight over the top of a building and down the other side, gaining distance. Just a bit, but she knew it wouldn’t buy her much time.

  “Listen to me, you’ve got to get back to Molly. Get her out of there.”

  “I’m kinda trying not to die!”

  “If you don’t get back there fast, Molly’s gonna be the dead one.”

  Karolina felt her heart skip a beat. No way. Nothing was going to happen to Molly. She felt the wind behind her, reached out an arm and blasted out an office window, then turned and flew inside, zipping along corridors and blowing open doors. Whirlwind followed. Walls exploded from the force of the air raging around him, but he couldn’t maneuver the way she could. A door blew off its hinges behind her and nearly clipped her, but she dodged just in time, burst through a long glass window-wall of a conference room, and then smashed outside again, angry with herself for the damage but desperate to live and to save Molly.

  She raced across the sky, banked above the hotel they’d landed on. From behind the neon billboard, the Leapfrog began firing its laser cannons at Whirlwind, just like she’d hoped.

  “Way to go, Chase!” she shouted.

  “Bought you a second. Just get Molly!”

  Karolina poured on the speed, swept down from the sky in an arc that put her right between the cops and the Masters of Evil.

  “Mol, shut your eyes!” she called.

  Then she lit up the night with pastel fireworks, painting the sky and the buildings with brilliant colors. The cops shielded their eyes, many of them taking cover, none of them able to shoot while the glare momentarily blinded them. Karolina landed on the steps just a few feet from Molly, who raced toward her and leaped into her arms. Nearer to the entrance of the museum, Sunstroke was cursing loudly and covering his eyes, but Blue Steel only watched the two girls, and Karolina realized his armor must be shielding his eyes from the brightness. He could see them perfectly, but he was making no effort to stop them. After a second, he seemed to remember he ought to be reacting and turned away, halfheartedly raising a hand as if he needed to cover his eyes.

  “Hang on,” she said.

  Molly wrapped her arms sleepily around her and Karolina took off, darting up and to the right, above and behind the museum, out of the line of fire. Her heart raced but she felt herself exhale, able to focus on the voices in her ear.

  “Nico,” Gert was saying. “Tall silver building right behind you? The one that says XandraWest?”

  “What about it?” Molly asked.

  Karolina landed on the museum roof and put her down. The two of them had turned to look at the silver building that stood like a dagger, stabbing the sky.

  “What is—” Nico began.

  “This whole thing’s a smokescreen,” Gert said. “The Crimson Cowl’s in there. You want to end this before those cops get killed, you’ve got to get to her.”

  “Gert,” Karolina said, “how do you know that? You’re not even here.”

  In the chilly, lonely cavern inside the new Hostel, Gert sat at the computer array and grinned to herself.

  “Something Molly said.”

  “Yeah! What’d I say?”

  “That nobody robs a museum in the twenty-first century. That might not be true, but the Masters of Evil aren’t going to steal a bunch of art that they’ll never be able to sell without being tracked down. Maybe a private collector, but…anyway, doesn’t matter. I started looking around the neighborhood to see what else was there. That building, XandraWest? It’s a research firm. They were contracted with the government to develop the ultimate data-mining tool, something called Skeleton Key, that would basically open any encrypted system. They wouldn’t have to hack anything, they could just…go right in.”

  “You think that’s what the Cowl wants?” Nico asked.

  “I could be totally off, but it makes sense. The last Cowl was Justine Hammer. There’s always been a tech element to whoever’s in that outfit. Now her goons are out there making a spectacle right across from that building, but there’s no sign of her? I think she’s sneaking around XandraWest, trying to find something really worth stealing.”

  Chase chimed in: “How do we find her? The building’s huge.”

  “That’s on you, Chase. Somewhere in the Pride’s files there’s one on the Cowl. Justine Hammer is dead. Point is…the cowl itself is technolog
y from Hammer or Stane Industries. Can you track it?”

  “I can try.”

  Nico swore. “Try fast, Chase. And pick me up on the way. I’m going in.”

  “Be careful!”

  “Will do,” Nico replied. “And Gert…good job.”

  Gert wanted to say something about making herself useful. Nico might be leader, but she wasn’t the only girl on the team capable of thinking on her feet.

  But before Gert could open her mouth again, an alarm started blaring in the cavern. She whipped around to stare at the computer array. One screen had switched over to security cameras inside the base. She stared at the split screen, searching for someone moving, for some sign that Allis or Zeke had started snooping around in the darkened corridors of the Hostel.

  A voice made her jump. “Is that noise all for me?”

  Gert spun again to find Zeke standing behind her, shirtless and too close.

  She hit him with a right cross that knocked him on his ass, blood streaming from his nose.

  Molly would have been proud.

  Nico’s mind spun. It felt like the seconds unfurling before her were a puzzle and she had to put the pieces together exactly right. Police officers were going to die. Her friends might die. Bullets were flying and she had no time to fix any mistakes she might make. Whatever she did next, she wouldn’t get a second chance before something went so wrong it couldn’t be made right.

  “Chase,” she said. “Make me a hole.”

  The Leapfrog perched on the roof of an office building adjacent to XandraWest. It swayed in the wind, but Nico trusted Chase not to let the Frog tumble. He shot her an anxious look.

  “You sure? We make that kinda noise, the Cowl will know we’re onto her. She’ll know you’re coming.”

  Nico smiled. “Definitely not sure. But I know this much—the Crimson Cowl, whoever she is right now, is going to be cocky as hell. Anyone willing to call themselves a Super Villain and arrogant enough to try to build a gang called the Masters of Evil…they don’t expect to have their plans trashed by a bunch of teenagers.”