Comes Great Responsibility

by Chuck Kienzle

  To be honest, none of us might survive the coming battle, I thought.

  “What about the flying saucer?” Tenneth asked Tiki Topia.

  “At the moment, it's AI is willing to talk. It is prohibited to share any of the ship's technology, but it will allow us to use it. The ship can generate a inter-dimensional portal,” Tiki Topia said.

  “Then we can rescue John,” I said.

  “Not quite yet. The AI requires authorization and we are not authorized.. I am still working on it,” Tiki Topia said.

  “If we survive the coming battle, keep on it. For now, we have at best forty-eight hours. The surrounding areas are being evacuated and all non-essential personnel will, also, leave. I have called in the most powerful assets the Agency can access and I have been assured by Ms Tarlock that we have access to Saifullah's resources. The UN and national armed forces are out our command,” Tenneth said.

  The Director looked at Valla Grein and said,” We need Mr. Jacobs' help.”

  “I promised myself that I would never use my power to help killing,” she said.

  “Right now it looks like the best of bad choices,” I said.

  The healer bowed her head, looked at me and said,” I hope you are correct.”

  An hour later I met with Mandisa and Malko in the cafeteria. Valla Grein had gone to her assigned quarters where Arjun had waited for her. He still wanted to protect her. I hoped he could not change her mind. We were the only people in the cafeteria, most of the headquarters' staff had been evacuated. The two seemed to enjoy their printed sandwiches. My hamburger was as good as non-printed fast food burgers, which is not saying much. They drank spice tea. I enjoyed my black coffee.

  “I can 'see' her. She is almost through and seems both very happy and very angry,” Mandisa said.

  Malko slammed his hand down of the table, a bit too hard, and said,” That is how she always is. She is always angry and is only happy when she is about to destroy.”

  “Do you think that there is any chance she might listen to me? After all, we are sisters,” I said.

  “She can not be reasoned with. If you don't attack her as soon as she comes through the portal, she

  she will see it as a trick. Attempts of discussion will be seen as a delaying tactic. Our only hope is to use all the forces available against her,” Malko said through the mini-speaker attached to his translator.

  “You agree?” I said to Mandisa.

  She looked down at the table and then raised her head enough for me to see her eyes.

  “I have seen what she has done before. I have seen her kill innocents, including children. She has no mercy in her heart. Neither can we,” she said.

  I knew that was true. A nullifier unit had been placed at the projected portal opening, in hopes of catching her when she came through the portal. The remaining Visitor's experts were not hopeful the unit would survive the portal opening, that is why nulls were not stationed by the portals. If that failed, we would just hit her with everything we had.

  “What do you think our chances are?” I said.

  Malko gave me a sad smile and said,” She faced forces, at least, as formidable was what you can gather. She always survived.”

  “I was told she should be weakened when she comes through the portal,” I said.

  “That will not last long,” Malko said.

  The next morning Valla Grein, Malko, Polly Nash, Malko and I were in Jacobs' cell. Two guards had just strapped his arms and legs to a solid steel chair that I had brought in. I weighed over three thousand pounds. It would not hold him after her full powers were restored, but it would hold him for the few seconds it took to reactivate the nullifier collar around his neck. The room's nullifier field was shut down to allow the healer to do her work.

  “Valla Green, it is good to see you again, and you too Malko,” Jacobs said.

  “I doubt that,” Malko said.

  “You seem very happy,” I said.

  “Wouldn't you be if your full powers were about to be restored. Oh, I forgot, you voluntarily gave yours up. Quite dumb of you, don't you think,” Jacobs said.

  He could not resist trying to get under my skin.

  “The deal is that you help us against The Destroyer and, if you survive, we send you back to your Earth,” I said.

  “And, if I just fly away?” he said.

  “You won't. When you escaped to this world, you ran away and that has eaten at you for twenty-years. This is your chance to prove yourself, to yourself,” Nash said.

  His face turned serious and he said,” I hate telepaths. Alright, I agree that I will help you defeat The Destroyer and you agree to send me home after we defeat her. Enough?” he said.

  I looked at Nash and she nodded. The healer walked around to the back of the chair, reached around and put her hands on either side of Jacobs' head. I stood in front of him and put my hands on top of his arms. I “saw” the psychic energy radiate from the healer's hands into Jacobs' head. I “looked” into his head and saw the brain damage being healed.

  Valla Grein pulled her hands away and said,” It is done.”

  I could “feel” Jacob's bio-field regenerate and then fade as the nullifier collar activated. He smiled at me and it gave me the chills. I hoped we were not making a mistake.

  I released his restraints and he stood up. He stretched and cracked his neck.

  He reached up and touched his collar and then said,” You know that as soon as this is turned off, I will rip if off.”

  “Of course, and the next thing you will do is either attack my sister or she will attack you. Your choice,” I said.

  He laughed and said,” I like you. You are a lot like your sister, a bit less blood thirsty, but, like your parents, always to the point. I will fight with you and we will defeat The Destroyer, and then I will go home.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  We just won't send you home with your full powers, I thought.

  Chapter 28 Monday, August 2, 12:31 PM, Mountain Daylight Time.

  I was outside the Intake Area in the back of the headquarters. I realized that I floated a foot off the ground, but I did not care. There was only a skeleton crew within the building, mostly security personnel. The city beyond was empty and all routes into it were blocked. A force field and a distortion field surrounded the building. That would protect those inside from The Destroyer's long range powers. It would be less effective against a physical attack by The Destroyer. The American and UN forces were on standby. They would hit my sister with, mostly, stand off missiles if we needed them. The Damocles Option was on the table, but I hoped it was not needed. If it was needed, I, along with most of us would probably be dead.

  “Artemis, are you ready?” I heard over my comm link.

  “Ready,” I said.

  I heard the responses from the arrayed forces. I stood near the building's distortion field. Malko and Jacobs were about a hundred yards to the left and right, respectively, from the portal site. Jacobs had crushed the wrist nullifier when it was turned off an hour ago. Nash had verified that he would do his part. Saifullah was in the air, cloaked by James Johnson and with his teleporter Onoi. Kelly Price was in reserve. She would have one shot. If it did not take The Destroyer down, my sister would certainly destroy her.

  The Destroyer was only a few minutes from breaking through. I could “see” her shadow where the portal had formed. The nullifier ring was in place and activated. Although it had been built as strong as possible, in the time we had, the experts gave it less than a ten percent chance of surviving her emergence and even less chance of affecting her enough to keep her from destroying it. Still, it might weaken her, just a bit.

  A blinding light shown from the portal and The Destroyer appeared in her naked glory. I felt a wave of heat, that I countered with cold. She had created a dome of heat that vaporized the nullifier unit and left the ground glowing. Malko, Jacobs and I hit her with our own pyrotechnic powers. She did not even bother to use her cryogenic powers to d
efend herself. Her bio-shield protected her. She shot into the air. That was our first objective, to get her away from the headquarters. A couple of miles away, Saifullah appeared in her path and slammed his fists down on her head. Amazingly, it did stop her. He flew out of her reach. Jacobs and I shot up. Malko's power level was too drained for him to help at that moment.

  We both slammed into her at the same moment. It felt like what a non-powered person must feel when they hit a brick wall. She was thrown away at several hundred miles an hour. She slammed into the waiting Saifullah. She stopped and he fell down toward the ground. He stopped his decent only a hundred feet above the ground. I scanned him and he did not have any permanent injuries, but his bio-shield was severally degraded. Her bio-shield was slightly degraded.

  The Destroyer went on the attack and launched herself at Jacobs. I intercepted her, unfortunately, she swung her arm out and batted me away. That hurt, but it delayed her just enough for Jacobs to be ready. He punched her in the head and she looked startled. She then hit him and he fell toward the ground stunned. She then looked at me and said,” On the ground.”

  I followed her down to the desert floor. We stood fifty feet apart.

  “You don't have to do this,” I said.

  She smiled and said,” Oh, little sister, we do. Our parents gave me up. They let the government experiment on me. Try to control me. You they sent away to be safe. I can't punish them. I can punish you,” she said in perfect English.

  “And yes, I learned your language. I always intended to come her after I eliminated the corruption on our world and end the corruption here,” she continued.

  I “saw” a cruise missile that was still below the horizon and we were the target. It had a tactical nuclear warhead. My sister shook her head and a mushroom cloud appeared over the horizon.

  “Naughty, naughty,” she said.

  She flew towards me and when we met I punched her with all my strength She did not move. She just let me hit her, again and again. It did have some effect,. Then she grabbed my neck and returned my punches. It was all I could do to keep my bio-shield up. Soon my energy reserves were almost gone.

  She put both of her hands around my neck and said,”The only way to truly kill a Warrior is to rip its head off.”

  She tightened her grip and my bio-shield was about to fail. Then my sister screamed as a gamma ray beam struck head. Her bio-shield around her head wavered. Jacobs and Malko landed behind her and the both grabbed and twister he head. I head he neck crack. The let go and she fell to the ground. I scanned her and, amazingly, she was still alive. From the flying saucer, Kelly Price and Ben Bronson floated down. They had hid in the cloaked saucer, from where Kelly had fired the the gamma ray beam.. When they landed, Ben levitated a nullifier collar and a wrist nullifiers to Malko who snapped the collar on my sister and the other nullifier on Jacobs wrist.

  I heard him scream,”NO!,” just I collapsed.

  I was in the middle of he desert. It was noon and I was hot and parched, something that never happened to me before. John stood about fifty feet way. He wore his uniform, but not his mask.

  “You won. Good. I did not think you had it in you,” he said.

  “You trained me,” I said.

  “Yes, but then you ran away. You are too soft for what is coming,” he said as he turned away.

  “What is coming?” I said.

  He turned his head and said,”The end. You will have one chance to stop it. Don't disappoint me again.”

  He lifted off into the sky. I watched as he shrank from sight. I knew that I would have to find him. I feared that I would have to fight him.

  I awoke a few hours later on a bed in the medical area of the headquarters. Valla Grein and Mandisa got out of their chairs and went over to my bed. They both smiled. I felt fine, do doubt to the healer's ministrations. My bio-shield was at less than half strength.

  “Who the hell authorized that nuclear strike!” I said.

  “The President,” Director Tenneth said from the room's doorway.

  “The Security Council gave him the authorization for one tactical nuclear strike within the U.S boarders,” he continued.

  “Was anyone killed?” I said.

  He walked over to the bed and said,” Fortunately, no. I told him that I was certain that you would want to talk with him about his decision and that I authorized you to do so.”

  I did not need the Director's authorization. I would speak to the President. And, despite my current feelings, I would avoid damage to the White House.

  “How is my sister?” I said.

  “Better than she has the right to be,” Mandisa said.

  “She is in a healing coma. Even under the effect of your nullifiers, she is healing. She should be fully healed within a day,”” the healer said.

  I then voiced the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room,” How long will the nullifiers will not be effective?”

  “That is the question?” Director Tenneth said.

  A weeks later, I stood in the cargo hold of the flying saucer. We were several million miles from the Earth, beyond that effect to locked inter-dimensional travel to only my birth world. There a portal to any number of time lines could be created. My sister and I stood by an escape pod used by near Earth orbiting stations.

  “So, this is goodbye,” she said.

  Over the past week, we talked. She was happy to talk about her life. She used our talks to justify her actions. She still hated her parents for abandoning her. She decided she did not hate me so much, since she realized that they abandoned me too. She did not know what name our parents would have given her. Because she was not created by the Hegemony, they gave her a name which translated into English was, The Destroyer. That, alone, gave me an insight into how she became who she was..

  “You should be glad. Your destination has no human life. It has no intelligent life,” I said.

  “Life that might corrupt itself. You know that I will find a way back to both your worlds and I will destroy all of the corruption,” she said.

  Yes, I understood that. I had tried to reason with her. I was a wasted effort. I was glad I met her. Despite her hatred of our parents, I learned a lot about them. They were caught between doing what they felt was right and what they knew was right. With here they chose wrong, with me they chose right.

  “Portal will open momentarily,” Tiki Topia's voice came over the ship's intercom.

  “Once you are through the portal, the nullifiers will shut down. With your full powers returned, you can push the escape pod from the inside to that universe's Earth. There is enough oxygen, water and food in the pod for the journey,” I said.

  “Are you sure you can trust this ship's AI? I may end up with a world full of people to kill,” she said.

  “Or one where they kill you,” I said.

  “I doubt that,” she said as she go into the pod.

  “I am glad I met you,” I said as I closed the pod door.

  After the door closed, I “heard” her say,” You all are fools.”

  The cargo hold depressurized, the gravity field died and the side of the ship opened. I pushed the pod out toward the waiting portal. I watched it go through and the portal closed. We were safe from her, at least for until she found a way back, which I hoped was never. The side of the ship closed, gravity and atmosphere were restored to the cargo hold. I walked to the exit to go the the control room. Our next destination was the Other Earth. It was time to find John.

  .

  Cast of Characters

  Apollo (aka John Doe): This world's analog for Superman. He was sent to this world for two reasons: One, determine if he would succumb to the Warrior madness. Two, infect the world with the power virus. He has become a bit jaded after his forty years as a hero.

  Abilola: Leader of the Southern Alliance Visitors from Apollo and Artemis's home world.

  Arjun: Companion to the healer Vala Grien who came with her from the Other Earth

  Artemis (aka Clariss
a Tarlock): This world's version of Supergirl. She was sent by her parents to this world so she could live free. Adopted by Doctor Charles Tarlock and his wife April. She gave up being a hero after her lover David Franklin died during the Cleveland Disaster.

  Bora: Northern Hegemony expert on powered physiology

  Bronson, Ben: Agent of the Agency who has telekinetic abilities. Husband of Kelly Price. Friend to Artemis.

  Darshika Agarwal: Leader of the group that controls the portal unit in central India.

  Destroyer, The: Sister of Artemis. She was raised by the Hegemony after it killed her parents. She is driven to eliminate all “corruption,” which means all genetically enhanced humans. She destroyed most of the population centers on her world.

  Doe, John: (See Apollo)

  Fifer, Jules: Agent of the Agency. A null that was killed in the attack on Apollo in Idaho.

  Forty-Five (AKA Ian Jacobs): The Warrior Forty-Five. The healer Valla Grein stripped him of his powers. He escaped with Toris Sirus to this world. He worked with her to build the portal units at Fort Greely, Alaska.

  Franklin, David: Agent of the Agency. He had powers similar, but weaker, than Artemis. He and Artemis were lovers before he was killed during the Cleveland Disaster. Artemis killed his murderer. The grief over his death and the guilt over the killing drove her to give up the role of Artemis.

  Franks, Milton: Doctor at the Agency.

  Hanford, Barbra: Telporter forced to work for “The Group”.

  Hernandez, Manuel: Chief Internal Security Officer for the Agency Headquarters. He has the ability to determine if someone not telling what they believe to be the truth.

  Jacobs, Ian: (see Forty-Five)

  Johnson, James: He the ability to be invisible to all detection. A member of the 'Blue Man's Group” that attacked Apollo. Currently on the Other Earth.

  Kabil: A member of the Southern Alliance Visitors. He is an expert on powered physiology.