by Stan Lee
Or from inside the earth.
He looked down, a bit distracted, and almost twisted his ankle on the landing. The Tiger growled inside, a warning. Pay attention, it seemed to say. You have the power again, but you’re not invincible. Stay alert.
That’s how the Tiger survives.
As he approached the dark section of tiles, a grinding noise filled the air. Steven slowed, eyeing the expanse ahead. He shifted his feet more slowly, traveling across the tiles almost by instinct—as if he were treading water against a slow-moving tide.
The tiles ahead were black, polished as dark as newly laid pavement. At first they seemed stationary, a static surface, unlike the moving field beneath Steven’s feet. As he watched, the grinding grew louder and the black tiles began to move. But their pattern was completely different. Instead of slipping over and under each other, the tiles slid away from each other in pairs, revealing a hundred gaps leading to the level below.
The tiles halted, along with the grinding sound. Steven drew closer. The holes varied greatly in size. Some were barely big enough to drop a bucket through, while others were elevator-sized.
Grimacing, he leaned forward and stared down one of the larger holes. Hot air wafted up, accompanied by a thick sulfur smell. But all he could see was blackness.
The tiles began to grind again—and to move. The gaps began to close.
“Oh, well,” he said, and jumped.
The air in the chamber was heavy, humid and warm. The fall was farther than he had expected. He twisted midair, reaching out again with all fours. The Tiger, he knew, always landed on its feet.
He caught sight of another group of tiles below. These ones were jagged, with rough pitted surfaces and broken rocks sticking up at odd angles. He leaned forward, reached out his hand, grabbed hold—and yelled in surprise.
The tile was hot.
He pushed off the rock, vaulted over a large boulder, and landed on his feet. The rock beneath him was warm, but his boots shielded him from the heat. He couldn’t see far; the lighting was dim, the air suffused with smoke. He heard a distant noise like crunching rock. But the source was out of view, even to his Tiger eyes.
Another tile, even more uneven and jagged, was lurching toward the one he stood on. One couldn’t really call them tiles, he realized. They were more like flattened boulders, rattling around on some unknown surface. And that surface was very warm. The magma, the molten rock of the volcano, couldn’t be far beneath his feet. He didn’t want to think about that.
Steven braced himself and waited for the tiles to slide past each other. He looked around, considering options. A third tile approached from the side—
The three tiles collided with a massive crash, their surfaces splintering. Steven flew into the air, swatting away chunks of stone with both hands. He cried out as a rocky shard grazed his neck.
He executed a midair somersault and glanced down. Two more boulder tiles met, shattering the smaller one into three even smaller pieces. Those pieces began to move independently, sliding and lurching toward other rocks. One of them struck yet another, sending softball-sized chunks flying.
Okay, he thought. Now this is a security measure.
He landed on a large rock, then leaped up again just as it made impact with another one, like a ship hitting an iceberg. He leaped and danced, avoiding shrapnel, trying to get a better view of the entire chamber. I’m running blind, he thought. No HUDset and I can’t see twenty feet in front of me. This should be level echo…but how do I find Kim?
Then, as he jumped up again, he saw it: a wall, just ahead. A narrow walkway with no railing curved around it, only half a meter or so above the level of the chaotic rock tiles. The wall was lined with doors labeled with large numbers: 1, 2, 3—
Three, he thought. Beta said Kim was in holding cell three!
Another collision knocked him off his feet. He swore, stumbled, and regained his footing. Ahead, one of the tiles was moving toward the wall. He jumped for it, his legs pumping comically in the air. He touched down, leaped back up, and stumbled onto the landing. He staggered, grabbed for the floor, and barely managed to avoid falling back onto the moving rock path.
He leaned against the wall, catching his breath. Below, the rocks continued to churn and slam together, spitting slate and basalt into the hot-sulfur air.
How do they work? he wondered. Do they just keep breaking down into smaller and smaller chunks? Or does the machinery, the unknown tech of the Dragon, replenish the surface with fresh boulders?
He shook his head and thought: Kim. Two doors rose before him, both with solid opaque surfaces. The one to his left read 2, the right one 3. He whirled to the right and banged on the door.
“Kim!” he called. “Are you in there?”
No answer.
“Kim!”
He studied the door. It was made of wood, with a hinge that swung inward. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem very thick. He lunged forward, striking it with his shoulder. The door buckled slightly but didn’t open.
He started back across the moving boulders, grimacing. Maybe with a running start…
He ran and jumped along the boulders, then turned back toward the door labeled 3. He glanced down and saw a small globule of molten rock bubble up between two tiles. As soon as he noticed it, it simmered back down and vanished.
That’s not good, he thought.
He started running, building speed. He leaped up and shot forward, soaring over the walkway, and slammed his shoulder into the door again.
“Ow,” he said.
He stumbled back, rubbing his arm. The door had a small vertical crack along the wood grain, but it was still sealed.
He gasped for breath. Gotta try again, he thought. I can’t quit now!
The third time he crashed into the door, it felt as if his shoulder would break. The fourth time he almost passed out. Only one thing kept him going: the thought of Kim, youngest of the Zodiacs, held captive in that boiling magma trap far beneath the earth.
The fifth time, the hinges snapped and the door buckled inward. Steven rolled and tumbled. He rose catlike to his feet, all his senses on high alert.
His heart sank. The cell was small and neat, with white walls marked with the Vanguard symbol. A screened-off bathroom area in the back, a simple cot with bedclothes, a washbasin and soap. On a small conveyor belt near the wall, a tray of food sat half-eaten.
But no Kim. After all that effort, she wasn’t even there.
Behind him, the rocks crashed and split apart. Below his feet, molten rock roiled and rumbled at the command of unseen machinery. And in the little cell beneath the earth, Steven Lee hung his head in despair.
STEVEN HAD NO IDEA what to do. He’d gone halfway around the world, led the mission, risked the lives of the whole expanded Zodiac team. He’d braved the tunnels of Mount Merapi, regained his powers, and fought his way across a bizarre rocky obstacle course. He’d bashed down a door, nearly breaking his shoulder in the process.
All to find Kim.
For Steven, it had always been about her. And she wasn’t there. Wherever she might be, whatever the Dragon had done with her, she wasn’t in that cell.
He stepped out onto the walkway and stared at the number 3, painted on the loose-hanging door. The soldier, Beta—could she have lied about the cell? he wondered. Maybe she just wanted to lure me down here….
He clenched his fists and looked out over the sea of moving rocks. He felt frustrated, more helpless than ever before. The Dragon, he thought. This is all part of his—its—plan. Where is he? What has he done with Kim? What are his plans for all of us?
Two rocks collided. Steven’s neck hairs pricked up—but not at the crashing noise. The Tiger had heard something else, a softer sound drowned out by the collision below. A soft poof.
“Hey,” said someone with a familiar voice.
He whirled around, not daring to hope. Kim stood against the wall, smiling. Her blonde hair was in need of a trim; her head was cocked in that cute
way she had.
She looked wonderful. For a moment he just stared at her.
“What?” she asked. She raised a hand to her cheek. “Is there something on my face?”
He wailed loudly, dropped to his knees, and started to cry.
“Hey.” She stepped closer and laid a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s okay!”
Steven struggled for breath. He wanted to hug her, to talk, to ask her a million questions. But he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stop crying.
“I’m fine,” she said, sinking to her knees in front of him. “I’m good! They treated me okay…even gave me pizza when I asked for it. Side note: Indonesian pizza kind of sucks.”
He laughed and looked up at her. Kim’s eyes were as big and kind as ever, but something was different about her. She looked older, more grown-up. I haven’t seen her for weeks, he realized. This ordeal…what has it done to her?
“They took away my powers,” she continued. “Maxwell and that creepy girl, Mince. Then they locked me up here. It got pretty lonely.”
He smiled and sniffled. “I bet.”
“But just, like, an hour ago, my powers came back. Just like that!” She snapped her fingers. “So I took a chance and teleported out here.”
He nodded, still gasping for breath. The air seemed even hotter than before. Just beyond the walkway, magma simmered up from beneath the rocks, giving off little bubbling noises.
“I’m okay.” She reached out and touched him on the cheek, staring at him with those earnest eyes. “Really.”
He burst into tears again.
“Hey. Hey!” The sharpness in her tone made him look up. “We’re gonna get out of here. Right? And when this is all over, when Maxwell’s just a bad memory and the Dragon slinks its whipped tail back into some Peter Jackson movie, we’re gonna go someplace. Just you and me.”
“By ourselves?” He smiled. “We’re just kids.”
“We’re awesome kids. With mad powers.” She smiled back. “You told me about that safari park, right? Near where you grew up?”
He nodded. “Wild Adventure.”
“We’re gonna go to Wild Adventure. We’re gonna watch the animals and go on rides and eat popcorn till we burst. And we’re not gonna think about volcanoes or supervillains or parents or Zodiac powers or anything. We’re just gonna be us.”
“That sounds…” He trailed off.
She threw up her hands. “What? Do I have like a ginormous zit or something?”
“I just never thought I’d see you again.”
She bit her lip. “You had to say that….”
Then she was crying and he was comforting her. He leaned in close, reached out a hand to wipe away her tears. She grabbed his hand, held it tight, and stared into his eyes.
She tilted her head up. Her lips were parted, ready to meet his. He moved in closer for…for…
…for our first kiss.
A bubble of magma the size of a medicine ball burst up between two boulder tiles, less than half a meter from the walkway. Steven and Kim flinched, shrinking back against the wall. As the bubble died back down, they both laughed in embarrassment.
“So much for that moment,” he said.
She nodded. “Another one we owe Maxwell.”
“He, uh, he might not be Maxwell anymore. But later for that.”
He looked over the edge of the walkway. The rocks seemed to be moving faster now, crashing and rebounding off each other like bumper cars. Magma seeped up between them like red-hot rain pooled in sidewalk cracks.
“We’ve gotta get out of here,” he continued. “Did I mention the volcano is erupting?”
“I had a bad feeling. But I was trying to stay positive.” She gestured down the walkway, which vanished into darkness thirty meters or so away. “I’ve been scouting around….This platform just dead-ends into a wall on both sides. There’re more cells, but they’re all empty.”
“There might be a way out on the other side of the cells.”
“Yeah. But I can’t teleport unless I know what’s on the other side, remember?”
“And the other walls are too far away.” He gazed out grimly over the crashing boulders, tossed on a rising sea of molten rock. “We’ll have to go back the way I came. It’s gonna be tricky….That lava stuff wasn’t so angry-melty when I came in.”
“That’s how a volcano works, right? Pressure building up until it explodes?”
Another magma bubble burst in the air. “I guess,” he said.
“We can do it. Remember the drills we did? Using our powers together?”
He smiled at her. “I’m a little rusty.”
“Some leader!” She punched his shoulder playfully. “Follow me.”
She grabbed him around the waist. He leaned in and took hold of her the same way. She felt good, warm and tense under his arm.
“Okay,” she said. “Jump.”
Together they leaped over the walkway’s edge. Kim’s Zodiac avatar, the Rabbit, appeared over her head, bounding from side to side. Steven’s Tiger rose to join her, clawing the thick air. He looked down at the rocky mass and grimaced.
As Kim squeezed her eyes shut, the world vanished with a soft poof. They reappeared in midair, higher than before. He looked back: the wall was now thirty meters or more away, barely visible in the dim light.
Kim squeezed him tight. “Your turn!” she said.
He looked down. A large rock was moving, grinding against a few others; two magma fountains splashed up on opposite sides of it. Steven reached out with both legs and his free hand, bringing them both down to a safe landing.
Less than two seconds had passed since Kim’s teleport move.
He looked up and saw another large boulder headed toward them. He twisted to the side, lifting Kim, and jumped. They landed on a third rock as the first two crashed into each other, sending rubble and magma flying.
Kim’s hand touched the flat rock. “Ow,” she said. “It’s hot!”
He smiled at her, squeezed her waist. “You ready to ’port again?”
She nodded and leaped upward, just as Steven’s Tiger sense stabbed an alarm through him. He turned and saw a tall column of magma—the biggest one so far—shooting up and arcing straight toward them. “Ki—”
Poof.
“—m!” he finished, looking around frantically in midair. The wall with the cells in it was gone, no longer visible in the gloom.
Again he sized up the grinding chaos below and landed safely. As he cast his Tiger sense around, seeking the next jumping point, Kim squeezed his hand.
“We still got it,” she said.
Three poofs later, they stood on a flat rock, staring up at a familiar ceiling. Light from the brighter chamber above streamed down through several dozen holes.
Kim gestured up at the holes. They were closing, becoming smaller, sealing up. “I can’t ’port us if they close. I don’t know what’s up there.”
“Just wait,” Steven said.
The holes slid shut, sealing off the chamber. He felt the burning-hot tile beneath their feet; molten rock bubbled and rose all around them. The rock tile tipped sideways, borne on the tide of the rising magma. He grabbed Kim and jumped, landing safely on an adjacent boulder.
Kim stumbled and looked down at the magma. “It’s getting angrier down there.” There was a slight tinge of panic in her voice. “Also meltier.”
He gestured upward, indicating the holes in the ceiling. They began to open again. “We’ve gotta time this right.”
She followed his gaze. Her big eyes scanned the sea of tiles, stopping on one of the larger openings. It stretched two meters wide, revealing a hint of the map-patterned ceiling of the chamber above.
“Now,” she said. They leaped together.
Steven held on tight. He caught a quick glimpse of molten rock blasting up, flowing over the surface of the rocks beneath. Magma sizzled and spat, eating away at the rock, melting it and washing it into the larger flow.
Poof—an
d then they were in the upper chamber, directly above the large hole. The edge, he realized, was a couple of meters away. He stretched out with his whole body, reached forward, and roared. As they started to fall, he grabbed the edge of the hole and brought them to a wrenching stop.
Kim hung on to him, looking down at the bubbling sea below. “It’s all angry-melty now!”
The hole is closing, too, he thought. But he didn’t say it aloud; he didn’t want to panic her any further. With a tremendous effort, he clawed his way forward and hoisted her up onto the surface.
Behind them, the hole slid shut with a clacking noise.
Kim leaned on him, breathing hard. “Those multiple jumps…take a lot out of me. Especially with somebody else along.”
“We’re halfway there.” He started forward, towing her behind, onto the next expanse of moving tiles. “This floor is much calmer: no melty, no angry, no crashing rocks.”
She grabbed on to his waist again. He led her across the floor, moving and dancing from one shifting tile to another. After the deadly boulders on level echo, it was a cinch.
“I don’t really know what this level is for.” He twisted sideways, moving expertly from one tile to another. “But the hard part is over….”
He felt it before he heard it: a blast of heat on his back. Kim turned in alarm, then jumped forward with a poof.
They landed thirty meters ahead and tumbled awkwardly to the tile floor. Steven pulled Kim to her feet, and together they stared back the way they’d come.
“Whoa,” Kim said.
A bright red river of molten rock bubbled up behind them—in the exact spot where they’d ’ported up to that level less than a minute before. The magma had erupted, forcing its way through the porous floor, eating away everything in its path. The sea of holes was gone.
Steven glanced down and shifted sideways to adjust to a new tile pattern. “Did I actually say, ‘The hard part is over’?”
“You say a lot of dumb things,” she replied.
The magma bubbled, rose higher. It began to flow outward, filling the chamber. One branching stream flowed toward them like the arm of an octopus. As it drew closer, sparks shot up from the space below the tiles. The humming in the background turned to a high whine; hidden circuits melted, dissolved, and exploded.