by Stan Lee
Roxanne greeted Steven, shivering. “So?”
Steven shrugged. “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.”
“And we have to be outside to receive the signal?” Liam asked.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Steven struggled to keep his anger in check. “They’re probably just making me suffer some more. All my life, they’ve been trying to toughen me up. I’m sick of it.”
He turned away. I’m worried, he realized. Not just about Mom and Dad, and not just about the Dragon. What is Jasmine going through, inside Carlos’s mind? Will she ever get out again?
“Mate,” Liam said.
Steven turned to see Liam glowing, the Ram power projected above him. Roxanne joined them, and Steven felt the Tiger reach out. He sensed Roxanne’s fire, Liam’s resilience. In the snow, against the wind, the three Zodiac avatars joined together, flickering like tiny flames in the cold.
“Keeps us a little warmer.” Roxanne shrugged. “All this power…it’s gotta be good for something.”
Steven smiled, grateful.
The sound of Mr. Lee clearing his throat cut through the icy air. Steven turned to see him watching them, an impatient expression on his face.
“It’s time,” Mrs. Lee said.
A moment later they all stood gathered around the satellite receptor. A large round lens protruded from one side, glowing bright. Great, Steven thought, home projection studio. Where’s the screen?
The lens flashed once. A cubed hologram appeared, over two meters long on each side, glowing above the snow.
Oh. No screen.
A three-dimensional cloud of static hovered in the air. It resolved into a peaceful vista: a narrow city, no more than four or five blocks wide, bordered by clear blue water. A highway ran through the middle of town, cutting the rows of one- and two-story buildings in half. The high spire of a church rose in the background, framed against distant, snow-topped mountains.
A location stamp appeared over the image:
AKUTAN ISLAND
ALASKA, U.S.
“Alaska,” Liam said. “Another notorious cold spot. Did ye bring us outside to make us feel like we were there?”
The image panned down. The camera shook, tipping sideways more than once. It swooped past the highway, over the few cars headed through the city. The sea loomed ahead, choppy and seemingly endless.
“This was shot from a helicopter,” Mrs. Lee explained.
“What was?” Steven asked. “A tourist video for Bleakville, USA?”
Then he saw it. A white spot in the water about a kilometer offshore. Churning, whirling, bubbling.
Liam frowned. “Is that a whirlpool?”
The bubbles grew larger, more agitated. The water seemed to rise, forming a spout that shot into the air. A hiss of steam accompanied it, darkening and thickening into a column of smoke.
People in heavy coats gathered on the beach, pointing and whispering.
With a flash of wings, the Dragon shot into view. Water exploded all around, rising in the creature’s wake and flying from its wings, like bathwater from a shaking dog’s ears. The people shrank back, shouting in fear.
The Dragon’s first breath of fire left the beach a charred, blackened ruin.
“Mon dieu,” Roxanne said softly.
The beast reared back and roared in triumph. Its body snaked around, its bat-like wings flapping wide. It seemed to fill the sky, blotting out the sun.
“Aye,” Liam said, “That’s the Dragon, all right.”
“Maxwell’s Dragon,” Steven added.
“Watch,” Mrs. Lee said.
In the hologram, the Dragon seemed to pause in the air. It turned one way, then the other. Then it looked down at the city and its eyes flared red.
The view lurched abruptly, veering to point down at the land. On the central highway, a group of men and women in army fatigues had gathered quickly in the middle of the road. They aimed weapons up at the Dragon: handguns, grenades, even a semiautomatic machine gun.
They never fired a shot. The Dragon just leaned down, opened its mouth, and swept fire across them. The people fell, screaming, and died. A small explosion marked the machine gun’s destruction.
“It’s a slaughter,” Roxanne said grimly.
“Look,” Duane said. “Look what’s happening.”
The Dragon wheeled in the air—and as it did, it seemed to morph and change. Its wings shrank and shriveled, becoming sharp claws. Its many teeth came together, sharpening into a few longer, deadlier fangs.
“That’s a different Dragon,” Roxanne said. “It looks more like the one that used to appear when Jasmine used her power.”
“They are all the same Dragon,” Mrs. Lee said. “Now that the creature has assumed full control of Maxwell’s physical form, it exists in all its manifestations at once.”
The Dragon swung low, its wings flapping over the church. It exhaled again, almost casually, and the church spire lit up like a candle. People fled from the building, running in terror.
“I don’t want to watch this,” Duane said.
Bit by bit, roaring and raging, the Dragon laid the town to waste. It swooped down, set a clutch of buildings on fire, then wafted sunward to survey its handiwork. It rose above the mountains, whirled, and flew low, like a World War II gun plane, spitting fire along the length of the highway.
The Dragon changed again. Its skin became steel, its joints and contours angular, machine-like. Its fangs sparked like open circuits. As a bolt of electricity issued from its mouth, Steven realized where he’d seen that Dragon before.
On the wheel inside the mindscape. This is yet another version of the Dragon—the one Carlos knows.
The slaughter continued. Liam and Roxanne winced repeatedly. Duane turned his back on the hologram.
But Mr. and Mrs. Lee kept their eyes on the image, resolute and firm. Steven forced himself to do the same. If they can take it, so can I.
The city lay in ruins, a burning scar along the coastline. Shards of highway lay at odd angles; the church’s severed cross jutted up from the blackened beach. A plume of smoke rose from the mountains, as if nature were echoing the cataclysm in the town.
The image swung down to reveal a figure standing on the beach. An Aleut fisherman, dressed in a hoodie, cap, overalls, and yellow gloves. He stood in the ruins, staring up at the death image in the sky.
The only person left alive.
The Dragon paused above him. As the man stared at it, the creature began to shift and morph again. Its fangs grew even longer, its body stout and dark. Red eyes narrowed to dots of white; thick fur spread across its body. Its snakelike tail widened into a fin, like the tail of a walrus.
The Dragon rained down fire, engulfing the man. Then, incredibly fast, it swung its head up to look straight into the camera. For just a moment, Steven could make out a human figure at the heart of the beast: a familiar, muscular form.
Maxwell. Or his body, at least.
The Dragon opened its mouth again. The image shook and started to swing away. The creature’s breath flared red and yellow, and the hologram turned to static.
Mrs. Lee reached out and snapped off the machine.
For a moment everyone just stood, completely silent. Steven felt numb. He couldn’t even feel the cold anymore.
“The cameraman,” Mr. Lee said, “did not survive.”
“That footage was taken two days ago,” Mrs. Lee said. “It has been successfully withheld from the general public. But if the Dragon strikes again, in a more populated area, such censorship will not be practical.”
“When,” Mr. Lee corrected. “Not if.”
“There’ll be panic,” Liam rumbled. “Mass panic.”
“Also death,” Roxanne said.
“Yes,” Mr. Lee said. “Much death.”
“Cheery,” Steven observed. “So what do we do?”
“We can provide expertise and specialized equipment,” Mrs. Lee replied. “But we cannot predict where the Dragon will strike next. We
had hoped that your group, with its experience in detection of the Zodiac powers, might be able to track the creature.”
The stakes were high—possibly as high as the survival of the human race. But as Steven watched his parents, he couldn’t help thinking: They only visit me when they want something.
They all turned at a rattling noise. The hidden garage door to the base was opening, forming a hole in the ice wall. Dafari, the African computer scientist, appeared in the doorway and ran toward them.
“Mister Pig,” he said, holding out a tablet to Duane. “I have collated the data from the Indonesian volcano. I am forced to admit: you may have been right.”
Mr. Lee frowned. “Indonesian volcano?”
“Dad,” Steven began, “we’ve been trying to find the Dragon for weeks now. But we’re a little shorthanded—”
“Steven. I do not wish to offend you.” Mr. Lee held up a hand. “But this is a matter of large-scale strategic planning. Certainly there are older people here, better suited to these matters? The founders of this base…the people who recruited you?”
Dad, Steven thought, clenching his fists in anger. If Jasmine and Carlos were available, I wouldn’t be standing here having this stupid conversation with—
Poof. “RAMMY!”
They all whirled around. Kim had appeared outside the complex door, running and jumping through the air. She poofed away again, reappearing several meters closer to them, then repeated the action two more times.
Liam held up his hands. “Whoa, little bunny,” he said. “Not so—”
With a final poof, Kim appeared in the air right before Liam’s face. She reached out and grabbed him in a bear hug, laughing. Together they tumbled to the snow.
“Easy, girl!” Liam cried. “Good thing I can’t be hurt!”
“You big goof!” Kim wiped snow out of her face, still laughing. “I missed you like crazy!”
“Steven?” Mr. Lee said. “Time is not on our side. I suggest we take this up with—”
“Actually, Dad, the person to take it up with is me.”
Mr. Lee looked at him sharply.
“Very well.” Mr. Lee straightened his tie. “How do you suggest we proceed?”
Steven cast his eyes across the group. Duane and Dafari were conferring in low tones, pointing at the tablet in Duane’s hand. Roxanne helped Kim and Liam to their feet, brushing snow off their uniforms.
“I’ll let you know,” Steven said.
Mr. Lee cast a look at his wife. Together they stepped forward. “Steven,” Mrs. Lee said, “I suggest—”
“I’ll let you know,” Steven repeated, “after I consult with my team.”
As he turned away and strode toward the open door, Steven was sure of two things. First: his parents were eyeing him with astonishment. He’d never spoken to them like that in his life. He wasn’t sure he’d ever have the nerve to do it again, either.
The second thing he knew was that his team was right behind him. With Jasmine out of the picture, they would follow him anywhere.
Now all I have to do is be worthy of that trust.
“Classroom. Five minutes,” he said in his most commanding voice. “Core team only.”
“I TELL YOU, mon frère, we were inside a live volcano. Venting gas, hot magma, all of it. Very frightening.”
“Ha! For real, Rox: I’d rather have been there than cooling me heels in a Dublin lockup.”
Steven paused outside the door to the classroom, listening to the voices. It was good to have Liam back. His friendly manner had already lightened Roxanne’s and Kim’s moods.
“How did you get out of jail, anyway?”
“Ah, it ain’t much of a story, Kimmy. One minute I’m eatin’ beans out of a can, the next there’s a flash of light and bang! My powers are back.”
“So you just…rammed your way out?”
“Nah. At first I’m like, ‘Look out, brick wall, here I come!’ And then I remember, no no, Liam, yer in here because yer tryin’ to make up for yer past. Right? Tryin’ to do the right thing?”
“Also because the Irish authorities tracked you down, dude.”
“Aye, there was that.”
Steven took a deep breath. There were things he needed to tell his team, and advice he wanted to get from them. But there were also things he wasn’t ready to tell them yet.
Some burdens are mine and only mine.
“Anyway,” Liam continued, “I figured I’d just sit it out till my military trial. But it was a bit of a relief, I’ll tell ye, when this mysterious couple showed up with my release papers.”
Steven rounded the corner into the room. “That’s my folks,” he said. “Always where you need ’em.”
His three teammates had pulled up chairs in a circle in the center of the room. Desks lined the walls, equipped with computer screens.
“Yer sarcasm is not lost on me,” Liam said, a half smile on his face. “But I do owe the elder Lees a debt. I admit, though, when I first saw ’em, I thought I was bein’ enlisted in some sort of international spy organization.”
Steven dragged over another chair. “Where’s Duane?”
“Busy with Dafari,” Roxanne said. “They’re trying to see if any of his readings from the volcano match up with your parents’ data.”
“He said he’d join us soon,” Kim added.
“Right.” Steven rubbed his eyes; he suddenly felt tired. “Liam, you’ve missed a lot the last few weeks.”
“He missed a lot the last twenty-four hours,” Kim said, smiling.
“I think I need some catching up, too,” Roxanne said. “Steven, you haven’t told us what you saw inside the mind machine.”
Steven hesitated. He looked over at Roxanne, who gave him an encouraging nod. Straight across from him, Liam smiled his familiar easy smile. Kim touched Steven’s arm and scooted her chair forward a little.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” he said.
So he told them. He described the descent into the volcano, the decision to break the group into two teams. He talked about working with Malik, Josie, and Nicky, the trouble he’d had commanding them and the enormous help they’d been against their former Vanguard coworkers. He explained how he’d found the jiānyù behind a door guarded by an AI with Maxwell’s face.
“Maxwell-themed video doorbells?” Roxanne shook her head. “That’s not gonna catch on.”
He told them about the chase through the volcano, the HUDset, the bubbling pools of magma, and the weird, crashing slate boulders. But he skipped the part about his vision, the deadly choice the Tigers insisted he would face.
When he mentioned finding Kim, his voice broke a little.
“I escaped from my cell before he got there,” Kim explained, a playful look on her face. “But I let him think he rescued me.”
“Sorry I wasn’t there, kid,” Liam said. “Every day I thought about bustin’ my way out so I could help find you. It must have been awful.”
“It’s okay,” Kim said, touching Liam’s arm. “It was mostly lonely.”
“The squirt managed to get a brief video message out,” Roxanne said, smiling at Kim. “Led us right to her.”
“That was a total fluke. Mince left a comm unit in my cell by mistake. She came back and ripped it out of my hand before I got three words out.”
“Yer parents must be glad to see you,” Liam said. “How are they?”
“Okay, I think.” Kim frowned. “Dad seems better. But since the stroke, he has trouble finding words. When I arrived today, he couldn’t remember my name. That was hard.”
“They staying long?”
“Till we find Maxwell, I guess.”
Steven felt something, a vague idea, tickling at the edge of his consciousness. “In the volcano,” he said to Kim, “Mince used to visit you?”
“Only a couple times. Thank goodness.” Kim shivered. “That girl is creepy with a capital cree.”
“What about Maxwell? Did you see him at all?”
“Jus
t once, early on.” She looked troubled. “He was glowing, like he couldn’t turn the Zodiac power off anymore. He only said a few words, to Mince….I’m not even sure he knew I was there.”
“What did he say?”
Kim furrowed her brow. “It was something about…they talked about a secret project. Project Firebird? And they mentioned a name….It sounded like Huey Louie. His voice was all echoey. It was hard to understand.”
“Huey Louie,” Steven repeated. “Wait a minute…Hui Lu? Could that have been it?”
Kim shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Steven?” Liam asked. “What’s it mean?”
“I’m not sure. My grandfather…he used to try to teach me about Chinese mythology. I just wanted to watch superhero movies.” He paused, trying to remember. “But I remember a fable about Hui Lu….He was some kind of fire god. He kept all these birds, firebirds, a hundred or more of ’em. And when he set them loose, they rained down fire all across the land.”
“That might be a clue to the Dragon’s plans,” Roxanne said. “Let’s come back to it. Tell us about the mind trip?”
Steven nodded. He described the journey into Carlos’s mindscape, skipping over the deaths of the past Zodiacs. He described the wheel in the darkness and meeting up with Jasmine. That led to the giant hole in the desert and the arrival of…
“Maxwell,” Liam said. “For a guy who’s missing in action, he seems to pop up a lot.”
“What about Jasmine?” Roxanne asked.
Steven shrugged. “She either wants to stay in Carlos’s mind or she’s trapped there.” He noticed Roxanne staring intensely at him. “Why? What is it?”
“I don’t know. But back in the volcano, she said something about ‘weird knowledge in my head.’ I think she’s carrying around something…some secret.”
Steven looked away, thinking of his own secret. He only hesitated for a fraction of a second—but in that time, all their eyes turned to him. They know, he thought. They know me so well, they can sense I’m not telling them everything.
“Remember,” he said, changing the subject in a hurry. “We’re not really up against Maxwell anymore. Whatever the Dragon’s doing, it’s completely taken him over.”