by Stan Lee
“Can’t see Josie at all,” Malik grumbled.
As they made their way down, Steven’s sense of discovery grew stronger. We’re close, he thought. This is the place. The power is here, somewhere.
The tunnel began to widen. “Finally!” Nicky said. “I was tired of smellin’ you guys’ armpits.”
Malik gestured for Nicky to be quiet. The passageway veered sideways, almost leveling out. When it grew large enough, Steven climbed down next to Malik and Nicky. He could see light just ahead, where the tunnel ended.
They crept up to the lip, looked down—and froze. The chamber was smaller than the one above: barely three meters high, with fluorescent lights mounted on the ceiling. Luminescent blue stones lined the walls.
Josie stood below, her back to them, hands raised in defeat—facing a virtual wall of Maxwell’s Vanguard agents, all in full body armor and protective helmets. Their glowing energy rifles were raised and pointed at the hole in the wall where Steven’s team had appeared. Malik hissed in a breath.
“Come on down,” the lead soldier said. “Slowly.”
“Affirmative,” he said. “Shielded.”
Steven felt the soldiers’ eyes on him, even through their opaque helmets. He looked around, frantic, at the chamber below. Door-sized entryways were arrayed along the walls, but there was no way Josie—or the rest of them—could reach one before the soldiers picked them off.
I’m the leader, he thought. I have to figure out what to do—
“I’m surrenderin’,” Nicky said. “Unless you got a better plan.”
Steven shook his head.
Nicky slipped down out of the passageway, followed by a reluctant Malik. As he watched them, Steven remembered the Tigers’ warning: Do not seek out the power.
Looks like we don’t need to worry about that anymore, he thought.
He raised his hands and dropped to the floor, the Vanguard energy rifles tracking his every move.
A BOLT OF ENERGY sizzled past, two centimeters above Roxanne’s head. She flinched, assumed a defensive stance, and opened her mouth to cry out.
Nothing. No Zodiac power, no sonic assault—just a strangled noise, deep down in her throat.
A second bolt grazed her cheek. Jasmine grabbed Roxanne by the shoulder and pulled her down behind the rocky barrier.
“Use your brain,” Jasmine said, “not your instincts!”
Roxanne felt sheepish. She rubbed at the warm spot on her cheek.
Her team was pinned down in a small corridor, deep inside the volcano. They’d just rounded a bend when a trio of energy cannons came jutting out of the wall, aimed straight at them. Fortunately, the floor in that area had been broken up into large chunks of debris, presumably by some previous earthquake or magma flow. They’d barely managed to dive behind a rocky shelf, low to the ground, before the firing began.
Now they were trapped. They couldn’t move forward without being tagged by the energy guns. If they turned around and went back, the whole mission would be for nothing.
Roxanne risked a quick peek over the barrier. She couldn’t see very far; the corridor curved ahead, just past the weapons mounted on the wall. She ducked back down as another beam flared out.
“Is there, uh, someone firing those guns?” she asked.
“Doubtful,” Duane replied. “This area is controlled by the complex’s computer system.”
Roxanne turned back to look at him. Duane sat cross-legged on the uneven ground, his dreadlocks concealed beneath his mission cap. As he tapped furiously at a small tablet, a network of circuitry snaked and wove its way across the screen. Security/password windows flashed open and closed.
“So this is Maxwell’s automatic intruder-defense mechanism,” Roxanne said, watching the beams flash by overhead.
“Not Maxwell,” Jasmine said. “Not anymore. He’s just the Dragon now.”
Roxanne turned to Duane. “Can you deactivate those guns?”
“That is my intention.”
Jasmine looked around. She seemed confused, distracted. Her eyes locked on to a large backpack lying on the floor next to Duane. Staying low, she crawled along the floor to grab it, her long ponytail whipping back and forth.
Roxanne watched, frowning. Jasmine was the founder, first leader, and former most powerful member of the Zodiac team. But lately, ever since Maxwell had stolen the last of the shared Dragon power for himself, she’d seemed stressed. Post-traumatic stress disorder, Roxanne thought. The Dragon is the most potent of the Zodiac powers—and Jasmine held it inside her for almost a year. What would that much power do to a person?
“Jasmine?” Roxanne asked. “You okay?”
Jasmine peered inside the backpack, then hurriedly zipped it shut. She shook her head, dismissing Roxanne’s question. “Our first priority is to protect Duane,” she said. “He’s the only one who can get us inside.”
“Even without his powers?”
“Duane was a master hacker long before we got our powers.”
Roxanne clenched her fists. Without her Rooster power, she felt helpless, useless. I am definitely quitting, she thought. As soon as this is over. I’ve said it before, but this time I mean it.
Another beam stabbed the air overhead. Assuming we survive, of course.
“Priority two,” Jasmine continued, hefting the backpack. “Keep this safe.”
“You gonna tell me what’s in there?”
Jasmine gave her a strange look. “It’s a weapon.”
An energy beam burned straight into the front of their protective rock shelf. The barrier sizzled, melting slightly, but it held. The beam switched off just as another one seared by over their heads.
“Couple more shots like that,” Roxanne said, “and we won’t have a hiding place left.”
“Duane?”
“Working on it. Maxwell’s—the Dragon’s firewalls are formidable.” Duane’s fingers were a blur over the tablet. “I am not sure if I can do this.”
Whoa, Roxanne thought. He never admits that.
“Looks like this might be up to us,” Jasmine said.
Roxanne stared at her, incredulous. “Without our powers?”
Before Jasmine could answer, the energy barrage abruptly halted. The cannons’ hum faded to silence as the weapons retracted soundlessly into the corridor wall.
Duane moved to join them. “Booyah!” he exclaimed.
“Duane?” Roxanne asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t ever say ‘booyah’ again.”
Jasmine rose to her feet, shrugging the pack onto her back, and stepped over the barrier. Cautiously, Roxanne followed her. They moved forward, keeping their eyes on the wall where the energy guns had emerged.
“Dead as disco,” Roxanne said. “Good work, smart man.”
Duane grinned. He leaned in close and whispered in Roxanne’s ear: “Booyah.”
“Come on, you two,” Jasmine said. “We’re not safe yet.”
As the corridor wound downward, its walls turned smooth. Roxanne followed her friends across the jagged floor, squeezing through narrow passages. They stopped at a crossroads, where the corridor branched off in two directions.
Jasmine ran a hand along her brow. “It’s getting hotter.”
“There’s magma—molten rock—a hundred meters below us,” Duane said, studying his tablet. “Also some very strange electromagnetic readings.”
“Is this volcano going to erupt?” Roxanne felt a stab of panic. “I was assured this mission would be eruption-free.”
“There were no signs of subduction premission,” Duane replied. “However, the erratic nature of the Zodiac powers, combined with the inherent uncertainty of plate tectonics, dictated that certain precautions be observed.”
Roxanne gave Jasmine a helpless, questioning look.
“The area around the mountain is being evacuated, just in case,” Jasmine translated. “But we didn’t detect any signs that the volcano was becoming active.”
“I don’t see any
now, either,” Duane said, frowning. “But I’ve also never seen this energy pattern before.”
Roxanne looked from the left branch of the corridor to the right. “Too bad Steven’s got the only fancy headset on the team.” She pointed at Duane’s tablet. “Does that thing tell you which way we should go?”
“This way,” Jasmine said, before Duane could reply.
Roxanne and Duane exchanged puzzled glances. But Jasmine was already heading down the left passageway.
“Have you noticed,” Roxanne whispered, “she’s been doing that all along?”
“Choosing our route as if she knows where we’re going?” Duane frowned. “Yes.”
There was a crunching noise up ahead. Roxanne led the way around a bend, with Duane right behind. Jasmine was on her knees, clutching her head. They rushed over to her.
“Easy,” Roxanne said, sitting Jasmine up against the wall. “What’s going on with you, anyway?”
“It’s like…there’s this weird knowledge in my head,” Jasmine said. “I’ve never been here before, and we don’t exactly have a map of the volcano. But I know exactly which corridors to take.”
Roxanne frowned. “Something left behind by the Dragon? When you held its power?”
“I don’t think so. This wasn’t a Dragon base back then.” Jasmine shook her head. “I’m all right. Duane, have you managed to…Duane?”
Duane didn’t answer. He was wiping his hand against the wall, which—Roxanne noticed—looked different in that branch of the corridor. It was white and almost featureless, a stark contrast to the unfinished rock they’d seen so far in the volcano.
“Duane?” Roxanne called.
He lowered his hand, revealing a shallow pattern in the surface of the wall. It bore a carved symbol, a stylized representation of a character from some ancient language: the brand of the Vanguard Company, Maxwell’s paramilitary organization.
“Well, that’s proof, I guess,” Roxanne said. “This is definitely…” Duane was staring at her. “What?”
Without a word, Duane lifted his tablet and pulled up a video. He turned it to face Roxanne and Jasmine.
The screen came alive with the image of Kim, the former Rabbit—the youngest member of the Zodiac team. She looked scared and tired. She stared out at them with wide eyes.
“Guys,” Kim said. “Help—”
The screen went black.
Roxanne nodded. That was the two-second message they’d received from Kim, who’d been missing for the past seven weeks. Duane had traced the signal to Indonesia, then narrowed the location to the mountain.
“We’ve seen that,” Jasmine said. “It’s why we’re here—”
“Watch it again,” Duane said.
He hit the replay icon. “Guys,” Kim said again. “Help—”
Roxanne sighed impatiently. “Duane. What?”
“Look at the wall.”
She leaned forward. As the clip played a third time, she noticed: the wall behind Kim was white, just like the walls in the corridor. Duane paused the video and pinched the screen, magnifying the image. He panned the image past Kim’s frightened face. There, barely visible, was the same stylized Vanguard symbol embossed on the wall.
“Whoa,” Roxanne said. “Jackpot—”
A sharp pain stabbed her neck. She cried out and staggered against the wall, then dropped to her knees. A fog, a dark haze, seemed to creep over her.
“Don’t move, guys,” said someone with a familiar voice. “For reals.”
Roxanne tried to turn her head. It didn’t want to move. Jasmine and Duane took up positions in front of her, shielding her from the attacker. She peered around their legs.
“Mince,” Roxanne gasped.
The girl called Mince, Vanguard’s teenage genius scientist, stood blocking the corridor. Her cruel face swirled before Roxanne’s eyes.
With the last of her strength, Roxanne reached up to her neck and pulled out a tiny needle-thin dart. Drugged, she thought, tossing it away. She drugged me!
“He said you’d come,” Mince said, “looking for your little Rabbit.”
Roxanne struggled to stay conscious. Mince, she saw, wore multifinger rings on both hands. Metallic swirls linked her fingers together, and each knuckle was studded with a sharp metal dart—just like the one that had struck Roxanne.
Roxanne felt her consciousness fading. Useless, she thought again. Without my powers, I’m just a target for every psycho that wants to kill us. I should have quit the team earlier….That would have been better for everyone.
Jasmine glared at Mince. “What have you done?” she asked, gesturing at Roxanne. “What’s going to happen to her?”
Mince held up her hands. Her rings displayed a pair of words in block letters, linking the knuckle darts together. The left hand read LIVE and the right one DIE.
“Could be one,” Mince said, smirking. “Could be the other.”
Jasmine said something in reply, but the words seemed to fade into the air. Roxanne barely noticed Duane’s hand on her forehead, warm and comforting. “Sorry,” she said to him. “Sorry I…failed….”
Then the drug caught up with her and she fell into darkness.
STEVEN COUNTED the soldiers: nine—no, ten. They stood in a perfect semicircle, their shoulders almost touching. Visored helmets concealed their eyes; their energy weapons all glowed the same shade of red in the blue-lit cavern.
They look like clones, he thought. Or ants. Robots, maybe, each one identically programmed and tested.
“Hey, guys,” he said, moving forward to stand next to Josie. “You, uh, seen the new Star Wars yet?”
Malik and Nicky moved up to flank him. The soldiers said nothing.
“Effects were banging,” Nicky offered.
The lead soldier raised a hand to his earpiece, as if he was receiving orders. Then the wall of soldiers parted and a pair of figures in civilian clothes stepped forward. The first was a small woman with sharp, hard features. The other, a man, was almost twice her size. They wore wraparound sunglasses and crisp matching black business suits.
Steven didn’t recognize them, but Josie clearly did. Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth curled into a sneer—the blank expression on her face turning to one of anger.
The dark-suited woman took in each of the group members in turn. She shrugged at Nicky, dismissing him, and laughed silently in Steven’s direction. Her gaze lingered on Malik for a moment.
Then she walked straight up to Josie and raised her sunglasses, revealing hard dark eyes.
“Josie,” the woman said. “The powerful Horse.”
The man laughed. “She don’t look so powerful now.”
Josie said nothing, but her hand closed into a fist.
“Beta,” Malik said to the woman. “And Alpha. Been a while.”
“Malik,” the woman—Beta—replied. “You were the first to walk out on the Dragon.”
“You mean Maxwell?” Steven looked around, mock casual. “He around?”
Alpha, the big Vanguard agent, laughed. “You ain’t asking the questions around here, shorty.” He gestured at the soldiers, who hadn’t moved a muscle.
Shorty, Steven thought. I’ll remember that, you big goon.
Beta smiled. “Here’s the thing,” she said, pacing back and forth dramatically. “Some of us actually believe in loyalty. Some of us don’t turn against our employer every time things get rough.”
“Maybe you don’t know how rough things can get,” Malik rumbled.
She ignored him. “That loyalty…that reliability, that sense of honor…sometimes it’s rewarded. And some of us manage it without magic powers.”
“I remember you!” Nicky stepped forward, frowning at Beta. “You used to work in Maxwell’s accounting department. You turned down my expense report a couple years ago.”
Beta shot him a withering look. “Fifty-five showings of Up is not a valid business expense.”
Nicky looked hurt. “I love that movie.”
“Look,�
�� Steven said. “We’re, uh, we’re sorry we stumbled into your mountain. Honest mistake, could happen to anyone. If you just wanna lower those guns, we’ll get out of your way and you can get on with, with, with whatever big-fun shooty party you’ve got going on here. Just give our apologies to Maxwell or the Dragon or whoever’s in charge here—”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Beta said, pulling a small energy weapon out of her suit pocket. “As for who’s in charge, that would be me.”
“You?” Josie asked.
She took a step forward. The soldiers all moved half a step closer, their weapons trained on her.
Beta motioned the soldiers back. She reached out to touch Josie’s chin. Josie’s eyes flared, but she didn’t move.
“Like I said, Maxwell rewards loyalty. He’s promoted me to director of this facility.”
“He gave me this cool gun,” Alpha said. He held up an energy rifle the size of a cannon.
Nicky nodded. “That is a big gun.”
Beta smiled at Josie, taunting her. “So while you’ve squandered your almighty Zodiac power and made nice with your enemies, we’ve done pretty well for ourselves. What do you think of that?”
Again, Josie was silent. Her eyes panned across the line of soldiers.
“This facility wasn’t in the old Vanguard files,” Malik said. “What is it?”
“It’s a holding center,” Beta replied. “And…well, other things, too.”
A holding center, Steven thought, his heart beating faster. Kim…
“What ‘other things’?” Malik asked. “Do you know what Maxwell is up to here?”
“We don’t ask a lotta questions,” Alpha replied. He pulled out a cloth and started polishing his gun’s barrel.
“Here’s a question,” Steven said. “Have you noticed anything weird about Maxwell lately? Does he seem like himself?”
“He’s been distant lately,” Beta replied. “But he’s Maxwell.”
“He gives me a gun like this,” Alpha said, “he can be as distant as he wants.”
“Here’s how this is going to go,” Beta said. “You’re all going to come with us to the holding cells. You, kid…”