by Drew Hayes
“Risk comes with the turf of being a PEERS,” Hexcellent replied. “But you’re sort of skipping over a big detail, aren’t you? Self-defense is one thing; what you’re describing sounds a lot more like picking a fight, and that’s Hero work. Giant bunny or no, I’m not a Hero, remember?”
“No, you’re not,” Titan agreed. “But this work is messy, and it’s far from the first time that a Super who had what we needed wasn’t wearing a mask. The DVA has protocol for this kind of situation, and with Brewster’s predicament, you weren’t hard to sell them on. The technical term is Temporarily Authorized Hero Asset, and it means you can fight the good fight until the current threat is neutralized.”
“And if I screw up?” Hexcellent had seen what happened to Heroes who made serious mistakes; the DVA wasn’t shy about letting the public watch the trials. It was important to show that these enhanced beings charged with people’s safety were held accountable. That was part of why people were comfortable trusting Heroes.
“Then that’s on me as the one that authorized you.” Titan set a hand on her shoulder, his massive palm almost engulfing her whole upper arm. “But you won’t screw up. If you decide to fight, I know you’re going to kick that thing’s ass.”
“And what makes you so certain?” Hexcellent shot back, wishing she had as much confidence as he did.
“Because I know you. Because I’ve seen you work. And because the first time we trained together, your immediate instinct was to try and show up me, a Hero renowned for his strength.” Titan smiled down at her. “Half of this job is just having the guts to wade into dangerous, impossible situations and try to fight them back to salvageable. Guts are something you’ve got a lot of. Guts and a giant fire-breathing rabbit.”
“He breathes fire now?” Hexcellent glanced up at Hopcules, as if expecting an explanation, but only received the same endless stare looking back at her. Shit, she’d never given him eyelids, had she?
“Oh good, that’s news for you, too. We were wondering how that bunny didn’t burn your house down,” Zone said.
“He can do a hell of a lot, and so can you, but only if you want to.” Titan dug into his pocket and pulled out a small silver device. “This was dropped off along with your healer. It will connect you with all the other Heroes out there trying to save this city. Take it, and until that last mech is beaten, you’re one of us.”
Hexcellent reached out, her fingers with their chipped black nail polish wrapping around the device and carefully lifting it from Titan’s hand. The dream she’d had as a child, the one she’d pissed away with years of bad decisions, seemed to glow in the gizmo’s metallic depths. She was never going to be a real Hero, and she’d made peace with that a long time ago. But if she couldn’t grab hold of her dream, she would still settle for grazing her fingers against it.
“Tell me how this thing works, Titan. It sounds like we’ve got some robot ass to kick.”
112.
“Hooooly shiiiiit!”
Hexcellent’s scream was drowned out by the thunderous boom of Hopcules landing on the street below and launching himself upward once more, leaving only a giant footprint behind. She stood nestled between his neck and shoulder, while Titan and the rest of her team clung to the top of Hopcules’s armor a few feet away. Her words seemed to sum up everyone’s sentiment; there was no carnival ride in the world that could simulate riding on the shoulders of a giant rabbit as it hopped through town.
With no teleporter on hand capable of moving a twenty-story bunny, there was only one way to get to the final mech’s location. Several Heroes had already evacuated a path. Others were driving the mech toward them in an effort to minimize how much damage was done. Word came down from Dispatch, the strange woman relaying everything through the new comm Hexcellent had shoved in her ear, that they were converging on a spot that had already been halfway leveled fighting an earlier mech. Better to rebuild one section of town than two.
Nearby, Gale and Topsy floated alongside Hopcules, her powers keeping the two of them aloft. Though they’d been offered the chance to ride on the rabbit’s shoulder, the two Heroes had declined. Hexcellent wasn’t sure if it was out of pride or prudence, and she didn’t really care. They were free to miss out; all the more room for her and her team.
“Hexcellent, you’ve reached the rendezvous point.”
Dispatch’s voice brought her back to reality. She looked down and noticed a cluster of brightly-colored costumes dotting the ground. The Heroes that were waiting for them. For her. There was a moment as Hexcellent began to rise from Hopcules’s shoulder that she genuinely thought it was her joy lifting her up. Then she felt the swirling wind and realized that it was Gale transporting her team to the ground.
Even as she was losing altitude, Hexcellent could see the mech, which was only a few blocks away. It was moving slowly and steadily as the other Heroes drove it toward her. She wasn’t sure if it had noticed Hopcules or not, but as soon as she got the order, she’d make sure it couldn’t pay attention to anything else.
“You know, I have seen some crazy shit in my days. Really, truly insane stuff. And this doesn’t take the cake. . . but it’s still pretty impressive.”
The man speaking had his head tilted back as he took in Hopcules. Of all the people waiting for her, he looked the least like a Hero, wearing a simple outfit that was mostly notable for the large array of pockets. Eventually he turned from the bunny to the woman who summoned it, making his way over to Hexcellent and taking her hand.
“Pleasure to meet you, Hexcellent. I’m Jeremiah, and yes, that’s my Hero name. You probably recognize most of the group from the news, but I keep a lower profile.”
Jeremiah was right; as a Brewster resident, Hexcellent was quite familiar with Aether and Deadlift, to say nothing of Birdsman, Spring, Granite, and Misdirection, the rest of Elemental Fury. There were other Heroes as well, ones she’d seen on the news in other towns, Heroes who didn’t call Brewster home. As she scanned them, another face caught her eye, one that lacked a mask yet was familiar all the same.
“Isn’t that the fucking disintegration guy? Why isn’t he in jail?”
“I have a name,” the man muttered. He was wearing a white jumpsuit, standard issue to mark Supers in prison, and rubbing his wrists where handcuff marks could still be seen. “It’s Eli, and I’m here for the same reason you are.”
“You can summon a giant fire-breathing rabbit?” Hexcellent asked.
“He’s here because he’s got a talent we need,” Titan explained, cutting off the conversation before it spiraled into a barrage of insults. “Jeremiah had him pulled out of jail to lend a hand in exchange for a reduced sentence. The armor on these mechs is tough, and Eli can get people in without having to punch through it.”
“But you can punch through it,” Hexcellent pointed out.
“Given the size of these things, having just one Hero search for the signal relay would take too long.” As Jeremiah spoke, he began pulling what looked like cell phones with extra wires attached from his pockets and handing them to the various Heroes. “One of my teammates whipped these up in the last hour; hopefully they’ll be able to find the device that’s receiving the master signal. We’re going to split up and cover as much ground inside the thing as possible. Aether and I will be paired up, so if anyone gets a hit on their detector, contact us and I’ll head over to jam in the tracking device.”
Jeremiah paused in front of Titan, only a few of the boxes left in his hands. “Since we don’t want to do so much damage inside that the mech melts down, I’d prefer to have our more. . . destructive. . . members help the rabbit keep it busy. You okay with taking distraction duty?”
“I was going to demand it,” Titan replied. “No way in hell I’m leaving Hexcellent on her own.”
“This is pretty fucking far from being on my own,” she said, jerking a thumb at the bunny whose shadow was looming over all of them.
“Still, these big ones are tough. I’m watching your back,
so make peace with it.”
“Titan really fits in better in the line of fire anyway,” Jeremiah seconded. “And hey, at least it will make for good footage.” He nodded to a nearby rooftop, where a news crew could just be made out pointing their cameras over the side. Now that she was looking, Hexcellent caught sight of another crew a block away, and a few more a street over from them.
“Wow, that is ballsy,” Hexcellent said.
Jeremiah clucked his tongue. “Not every Super goes into our line of work. They’ve probably all got a way to protect themselves or vanish if the need arises. Even if they don’t, I’m not turning them away. After all this destruction, we’ll need some good footage of the Heroes fighting back the threat.”
“And one corpie.” Bubble Bubble’s voice wasn’t particularly loud, but it still managed to catch the attention of everyone nearby.
“The term is Privately Employed Emergency Response Super,” Gale corrected.
“God damn right it is,” Titan agreed.
“And we are thankful to have her, but time is running short.”
Jeremiah finished doling out the boxes and turned to address everyone, effortlessly commanding their attention. Part of Hexcellent wondered how she’d never heard of him before; between the good looks and leadership skills, it seemed like Jeremiah would have a bit of notoriety.
“When the mech arrives, everyone is either on hunting or containment duty,” he continued. “You know your team by whether or not there’s a jerry-rigged phone in your hand. Gale, we need you to use Eli to erode the armor before coming in to join us so that there are plenty of easy entrances. Everyone else: get in, scan the equipment, and pray those damn things work. Those of you on the outside, contain the damage as much as possible, but try not to break the mech too bad. Remember, we’re going to be inside the thing; not to mention that if you bust it beyond a certain point, everything useful inside will self-destruct, signal relay included. Also watch out for the smaller bots. They’re sticking near it and we can’t shut them down until we trace the signal. Other than that, have fun, and maybe try to put on a good show. The cameras are watching.”
“Did he just actually tell us to have fun?” Hexcellent tried to keep her voice at a whisper only Titan and her team could hear, but from the snickers of a few nearby Heroes, it seemed to have carried farther than intended.
“Jeremiah is trying to keep the mood light. Going into battle tense doesn’t help anyone,” Titan told her. “Now, let’s have Gale get you back on the bunny before the mech arrives. People are going to be counting on you to guide Hopcules and buy time for the Heroes to do their work.”
“All while news cameras watch on, ready to judge every mistake I make. But no pressure, right?”
“Look at the upside,” Titan said. “If we make it through this, that rabbit is marketable as hell. You’ll have Hopcules plushies in stores by Christmas.”
113.
As an agent and friend to a wide variety of Heroes, Lenny could have pulled any number of strings to be among the first people to be evacuated from Brewster. He hadn’t bothered contacting any of his active Heroes, though, and instead called in a quick favor from a retired former client. The ones on duty had better things to do than worry about him. A quick teleport later and he was in his mountain home, a place he’d bought in hopes of spending time away from the job, focusing just on himself in the seclusion of nature.
The wide-screen television above the gas fireplace, wired up to a complete satellite package, betrayed his failure in disconnecting from the world. In fact, Lenny barely got any use from his cabin unless something threatened the town he was in and he needed a quick place to lie low. Sometimes he loaned it out to clients that needed to hide out from the press for a while as well. It was spacious enough to house four comfortably, or six in a pinch, and despite his intention of roughing it, Lenny had stocked the place with cushy furniture and high-end electronics, to say nothing of the booze. In a way, the cabin had served its purpose, though. He’d bought it for soul-searching, and what he’d uncovered was that he was not a man who wanted to disconnect from the job. He was the job, and he was happiest when he was knee-deep in it.
At the moment, he was juggling two phone calls, a half-dozen news streams on his laptop, and a live television feed of the fight in Brewster. The footage was grainy and far off, which was a damn shame; otherwise something like this would easily make the national reels for a week, minimum. Still, it was close enough that he could just make out the big robot being pushed through town, drawing nearer to another massive form with each step. The angle was shit; a skyscraper he didn’t remember seeing before was blocking out everything save for the tips of a pair of ears. But Lenny was plugged in; he knew what was lurking behind the building, as well as how many of his clients were about to go take the last mech bastard on.
“Yeah, you heard me,” Lenny snapped, his energy much higher than the weary clerk on the phone. “Ten thousand of the old Titan shirts. Well then, update the damn material, but keep the look as vintage as possible. Trust me, you’re going to want to get ahead of this one.”
A new figure appeared on screen just as the mech cleared the last row of buildings and approached the waiting ambush. It was huge by most scales, though compared to the robot it looked like a normal-sized bird. Lenny hadn’t seen that one in quite a while. The screen shook as the news crew started moving, getting closer than was safe or prudent to the ensuing battle. Lenny hoped they stayed cautious, but he also hoped they didn’t turn back. This was going to be solid gold.
“Go ahead and make sure all the Birdsman merch is stocked up as well, especially his bird plushies. Looks like he’s going to be getting some screen time, too.”
* * *
“Told you I had one more!” Birdsman yelled the barb at Titan from atop his final summon, a stone-colored bird with at least a twenty-five-foot wingspan. The creature looked like a statue come to life. With every flap, rubble flew from its wings. Despite appearing as though it weighed somewhere in the ton region, it effortlessly climbed higher into the sky, moving closer to the mech. The robot turned to face the bird, giving Gale and Eli the chance to start disintegrating holes in its hull.
“Ranged distraction team, we are go! Get in there and draw fire.” Jeremiah’s voice echoed through the area; he barely even needed the comms to give orders. “All of our melee people—and this includes Hexcellent and Hopcules—you hold back until we’re inside. We don’t need to dodge your bunny while trying to break in.”
“Yeah, about that, why isn’t it already attacking us?” Hexcellent asked, her voice nervous but determined. Seeing as she was currently standing on Hopcules’s shoulder, braced for whatever attack the mech might throw, it was a fair and relevant question.
“This is Misdirection; I was told to keep you hidden until it was show time.” The illusion-wielding Hero walked over from the group to stand near Titan and Hopcules. “We thought it might attack something as big as you, and like Jeremiah said, that could be problematic while the Heroes are breaking in. Plus, this gives you the element of surprise.”
“How in the hell did you hide something this big?” Hexcellent asked, beating Titan to the question by only a few seconds.
“I’m not on a team like Elemental Fury for nothing,” Misdirection replied. “I conjured a fake skyscraper around you. Around most of us, actually. As far as anyone more than fifty feet away can tell, this is just a building. Should let us keep the mech from knowing how much we’re working with.”
There was a crunch from behind, and Titan turned to find Granite standing nearby. Several feet farther away and he caught a glimpse of Galvanize, who was jogging over. “Our illusionist is top notch,” Granite said. “With her, we never have to tip our hand on the battlefield.”
“Mr. Granite,” Galvanize said, breaking in. “Spring told me that you were looking-”
“Just Granite, and heck yeah I was looking for you. Heard you’ve been going around juicing everyone up, thought
I might get in on that. I mean, I’m strong, but. . .” Granite nodded to the mech, which was currently being peppered with disintegration holes along with energy blasts from other Heroes while a dozen costumed figures raced to slip inside its torso. “That thing is probably stronger.”
“I don’t actually make you stronger, though,” Galvanize explained. “I just bring you to the best you can possibly be.”
“Still better than nothing,” Granite said. “I have to be on top of my game, otherwise Birdsman and Roc-Steady are going to get all the attention.”
“He named that thing Rocksteady?” Titan asked, momentarily dumbfounded.
“R-O-C, like the giant mythical bird. Also it’s a pun since it’s stone. And no, none of us has any idea how it can fly.” Granite finished the explanation and looked at Galvanize, who simply took a step closer to the shifter currently composed of rocks and did what he’d been asked.
“Do your best.”
Granite stiffened at the words then stretched his limbs carefully, testing their movements with the boost surging through him. “Not bad at all. I can tell I haven’t broken any barriers, but I feel. . . good. Like I’m on top of my game. Titan, you getting in on this?”
“Eighty percent of the Heroes have infiltrated the mech’s torso,” Dispatch said, quietly speaking in their ears. “Melee distraction team, be ready. You’ll be called as soon as the percentage passes ninety-five.”
“Titan prefers to reach his pinnacle without help,” Galvanize replied, unaware of the orders being issued across the comms.