We knew the Nemesis would not stop at the world of our hosts. We knew they would wipe the blood from their lips and hunt again, looking for another meal, for another world to rend limb from limb. For the Nemesis is always hungry. They never stop moving. They never stop eating.
We went to the stars to find worlds bountiful enough, beautiful enough, alive enough to attract the monstrous attention of our Nemesis. We found these worlds, and we waited. We became the watchers on the wall. We found new homes and turned our eyes forever skyward. Waiting for the day the monsters found us.
"What about the hosts you left with?" Titus asked.
Many didn't make it. We were young then, and unsure of how to survive in space. For many, the host worlds we found were uninhabitable. Still others died at the hands of natives, afraid of outlanders invading their pre-spaceflight worlds.
"Are there any left of those original hosts?" Jane asked.
They are all gone now. I have not seen one in millennia. Such great and noble warriors.
"All the flying elephants are dead," Billy interjected. "That's horrible."
Please stop editorializing, Billy, Straylight said.
"Sorry. Keep going."
In our escape we learned much of ourselves. Of our ability to turn ordinary beings into heroes. Our ability to travel at the speed of light. We discovered in ourselves a talent for war. Of this we are not proud. But we have saved worlds. We've lost worlds as well. More than we've won. And we have learned much about our Nemesis, their tactics, their hunger. We have learned that they send advanced scouts to new planets, and we have rooted them out and destroyed them.
"Here?"Kate said.
Not in your lifetimes, Straylight said. But long ago. My partner and I destroyed agents of our enemies on Earth more than once.
"Where is your partner?" Kate asked. "We've heard the name more than once. Horizon. Where did he go?"
Straylight was silent a long time.
Billy felt the eyes of his friends on him, waiting, and the worry and sadness in his symbiotic companion as well.
"Where did he go, Dude?" Billy said.
My partner went looking for another world to save, Straylight said. We were here together a very long time. We watched the rise of mankind. We watched and we waited. And we saw what Earthlings could be like.
"He gave up on us," Titus said.
Again, Dude was silent. But this time, Billy waited patiently for his partner to be ready to speak.
Horizon believed perhaps there was a world more worthy of saving, Straylight said.
No one spoke.
Emily rubbed imaginary smudges from her fingernails; Jane studied her shoes. Doc looked away, his face pained with memory. Billy knew, through Dude's shared memories, that Doc had been friends with Horizon. He wondered what they witnessed together that made the other Luminae so determined to give up on all of them.
"What about you?" Billy said. "What did you think? Why did you stay?"
Because, Straylight said, I love your world so very much. And I do think it's worth saving.
"Well then," Jane said, and as always, her voice set the tone. She filled the room with hope. "We're in agreement about that. Let's figure out what we need to do to save our world."
* * *
Billy looked back and forth between all of his friends and allies, drained by the story; he felt an inexplicable sadness, a sense of loss and melancholy he could not put into words.
I'm sorry for everything you've been through, Dude, he thought.
But if I hadn't been through all of this, Dude said. I would never have known you, Billy Case.
Now you're just buttering me up because you're about to ask me to go on a suicide mission with you, Billy thought.
Then he experienced that surreal sensation in the back of his mind that he knew meant Dude was laughing.
"So what's our next move?" Titus asked through the monitor.
"I'm going to go play tag with an alien parasite armada," Billy said. "I have no idea what you guys are going to do."
"First of all, we're going to make sure they don't have any sleeper agents that are already here on Earth," Doc said. "I know Straylight and Horizon have been vigilant about finding their scouts, but we also realize they've been here before. They may have some allies on Earth relaying information to them."
"We could start by figuring out who has the capability to send a signal deep off-world," Emily said.
"How do you even do that?" Billy said.
"I have some ideas," Emily said.
"Okay," Doc said. "You and Titus will work on pulling together a list."
"Me?" Titus said.
"Like it or not, you two are our science brains, " Doc said. "Pull together some leads and we'll split up to investigate."
"What are the rest of us going to be doing?" Jane said.
"We're dramatically short on defenses," Doc said. "I'll pay a visit to the Department of What and see if they've got anything in the vaults we can use. Maybe Henry's been tinkering on something new."
"I'll come with you," Jane said.
"No," Doc said. "Right now, we've got two, maybe three of us who are capable of doing some real damage in outer space. I'm not counting myself, either, because magic isn't nearly as effective off world as it is on Earth."
"You want me to start recruiting?" Jane said.
"Kate and you both know some people who might come in handy if the Nemesis fleet reaches Earth," Doc said. "There's a fair chance we can't stop them before they get here. We need to be prepared to fight."
"What about the press?" Jane said.
"You think you can keep your pet reporter on a leash?" Kate said through the telephone. "Because if we can't stop them in time, having someone who can help us get the word out to the civilian world in a trustworthy way might save some lives."
"I can prep Broadstreet," Jane said. "He'll listen if I tell him we shouldn't start a panic."
"Then we have our assignments," Doc said. "Neal?"
"I will alert all of you if I detect any anomalous signals from off-world, Designation: Doc Silence," the AI said.
"Be careful out there, everyone," Jane said.
She looked at Billy last. "And you. Don't leave without saying goodbye."
Chapter 6:
Building a better Emily
Doc Silence materialized outside the front door of the Labyrinth, the superhuman prison that had been used to hold some of the Indestructibles last year, which had since become the de facto central office for the Department of What. The Department—the international task force in charge of monitoring and working alongside superhumans—had cleaned up its act since that time, in no small part through the leadership of Doc's friends and allies. Formerly retired agent Sam Barren had returned to limited service as an advisor, and Doc's old teammate, Henry "Coldwall" Winter, had been named director in charge of getting the agency back on its feet.
Why they'd chosen the Labyrinth to be their home office, Doc didn't quite understand, except, perhaps, because it was close to the City. Or maybe because it was familiar—Henry had been locked up here against his will for years by a rogue element of the Department and presumed dead by everyone he knew. Perhaps it felt more like home than anywhere else to the former hero.
Doc approached the front doors, the massive gateway opened up with a mechanical hum, and Sam Barren waited for him just inside, whip-thin and still sporting the best silver moustache Doc had ever seen.
"I hope you're here to talk about whatever crash-landed the other night," Sam said. "We know you took it into your possession immediately."
"And you knew we'd call on you as soon as it was safe," Doc said.
"Safe's a relative word. You going to fill us in?"
"And ask for your help," Doc said.
"Now I'm really worried," Sam said. "Come on inside."
* * *
Sam led Doc to a small conference room, where Henry Winter, looking older than he should be but still dapper in a tailor
ed suit, waited for him. Henry stood up to greet his old friend, leaning heavily on a cane.
"You ever going to tell me what happened on that little excursion you and the kids went on?" Henry said, referring to their recent time travel adventure. None of them had really spoken about the specifics upon returning. It had been an ugly future and one they'd hoped to avoid repeating.
"Maybe someday," Doc said out loud. Probably never, he thought. Nobody needs to know all the details about how their world could die. "Different problem this time. We've got ourselves an alien invasion on the way."
"You realize I have to say the word 'again,' right?" Henry said.
"This is the big one," Doc said. "You know that thing Straylight and Horizon always warned us about? The one they were sent here to watch for?"
Henry's face wrinkled into a deep frown. Their former teammates had never given them a full account of what their enemies were capable of, but they all knew whatever it was, it was worse than anything they'd faced before.
"And we're short one Luminae," Henry said. "Screw Horizon for bailing on us. Judgmental son of a…"
"We're short staffed in a lot of ways," Doc said. "Only Billy and Jane are really capable of fighting in outer space. We're going to need help. Got anything kicking around we should be looking at?"
"Actually…" Henry said, pressing a button on the intercom docket on the center of the table. "Send Doctor Bohr in please."
"So our little preemptive recruitment idea is actually bearing some fruit," Doc said.
"You were right. He's a genius," Henry said, sitting down. "Some of his ideas are wonky, but with the right guidance and motivation, he's a real outside the box thinker. We're getting good work from him. He has something to show you, actually."
Sam sat down as well, grunting like the old man he was as he settled in.
"We have some old gear in storage," Sam said. "Space suits. Ray guns. Stuff we've confiscated over the years."
"Did you just really say ray guns?" Henry said.
"What, that's what they are. Buck Rogers junk."
Henry laughed, shaking his head.
"We really don't have a lot for deep space. We didn't have the brain power, and we never stole the right stuff to reverse engineer," he said.
Doc joined the other men sitting down and rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses.
"I'm thinking about talking with his highness about coming out of retirement to help if we can't stop them," Doc said.
The smile left Henry's face.
"Not that jerk," he said. "Not to mention there's no way he'll help."
Doc held his hands up in a vague gesture of frustration.
"I don't have much choice, Henry," he said. "And also… you know the one thing he couldn't resist is a challenge. This would be right up his alley."
"No it wouldn't," Henry said. "He might just tell you to sink or swim without him."
"There's no harm in asking," Doc said.
"There's harm. You actually have to talk to that—" Henry said.
"Are we talking about the big guy?" Sam said.
"Yeah," Doc said.
"Y'know," Sam said, leaning back. "He was always nice to me."
"Then you talk to him," Henry said. "I'm not."
"Yes you are," Doc said. "We're both going."
"Why," Henry said.
"Because I'll need you there to corroborate a few facts."
"He'll believe you if you say there's an alien invasion coming," Henry said. "Whether that properly motivates him to come out of his little monastery of selfishness or not is debatable."
"I might need you there to verify some familial information for me," Doc said.
Henry stared at him for a long, hard second, caught off guard and clearly curious. Before he could speak, the conference room door opened and in walked Keaton Bohr.
The scientist looked healthier than the last time Doc had seen him—in an alternate future the scientist had unintentionally helped to destroy. Without telling Henry and Sam the specifics, Doc and the Indestructibles had told the agents to recruit him. The other option was to kill him, but despite Doc's fury towards the man for the choices he made in another timeline, he was, in fact, still innocent here. And he was as brilliant as they said he was. Giving him a job with the Department was a better alternative than locking him up or murdering him in cold blood.
Bohr had a box in his hands when he walked in, looking around nervously.
"You're Doc Silence," he said. Doc forgot that they'd never actually met in this timeline, but Doc was a public figure, and an easily recognizable one at that.
"I am. How are you settling in, Doctor Bohr?" Doc said.
"You know I spent my whole life trying to invent things to make the world a better place and nobody would let me," he said. "I figured, I'm offered a job in the Department of What and I'll be, I don't know, making weapons of war and the like. And instead they've got me working on alternate energy sources. It's like I've found the dream job I never knew I wanted."
"Glad to hear that," Doc said.
"What's in the box?" Sam said.
Bohr set the box down on the conference room table nervously. He looked at Henry, who gestured for him to speak.
"I know we were under orders to not look too deeply at how the Indestructibles powers work," Bohr said.
Doc looked at Henry angrily. Henry held up one finger, gesturing for him to wait.
"I don't like where this is going," Doc said.
"Give it a second," Henry said.
Bohr pulled a glove out of the box, a mechanical gauntlet in bronze and black.
"But we were discussing how Entropy Emily doesn't have a way to defend herself during a fight," Bohr sad.
"I am really unhappy with how this is progressing," Doc said.
"Give it a chance, Doc," Henry said.
Bohr's eyes flitted nervously between Henry and Doc. Henry gestured for him to continue.
"All we've done is—do you remember Emily learning how to… what did she call it, Henry?"
"Her 'Wall of Slam,'" Henry said. "Do you remember that unfortunate incident?"
Doc almost laughed in spite of his anger. He'd specifically told them not to tinker with Emily's powers to avoid Bohr repeating the actions he took in the alternate timeline. Somehow he had reversed the gravitational powers Emily possessed, turning her into a bomb capable of tearing the whole world apart. Everyone—with the possible exception of Emily herself—knew that she had more power than any of her teammates if she ever learned how to use her abilities, but she was still young, and still very unpredictable, and Doc wanted her to learn how to use those powers on her own, not through scientific interference.
"She actually used them against suits the Department designed based on an item acquired during the Indestructibles' first public battle—the Distribution suit," Bohr said. "Kinetic energy stored, redistributed, and used as a weapon. So we got some crazy readings."
"What does this glove do," Doc said. "Simple words. Pretend I'm not smart."
"All these gloves do is let Emily aim her 'Wall of Slam' into a single place. A… punch," Bohr said.
"Does this drain her powers at all? Tap into her power source?"
"It just points the wall, Doc," Henry said. "It's just an idea."
Doc picked up the glove, turned it over in his hand, then placed it back on the table, frowning. He looked back and forth between Henry and Bohr. They were lying to him. He could feel it. Not about the gloves—which, he hated to admit, might be helpful if things got really bad—but something else. He decided not to call them on it. Not here and now. For the moment, they had bigger worries.
"We can talk about this later," Doc said. "For now, she doesn't use these. You and I both know she'll be a better hero if she doesn't have rely on technology to cheat, Henry."
"I agree," Henry said.
Doc turned to Sam.
"Will you make a list of toys you might have to help us? Not just in space. There's a good chan
ce these creatures actually make Earth fall. If they do…"
"We'll have all hands on deck," Sam said.
"I have a few more stops to make," Doc said. He looked at Henry one more time. "And you're coming with me to talk with the big guy later."
"If I have to," Henry said.
"I don't like him any more than you do," Doc said. "But at the end of the world, you can't be as picky about your friends."
Chapter 7:
Little gods
The sky above the City filled with clouds, rain threatening to fall, like a glass of water resting on the edge of a table. A cool wind blew in from the East, the sort of wind that has purpose, a personality, a reason to be. The air itself had a tense, busy sensation to it, that electrical hum before a thunderstorm. And because of all these signs, Jane knew her friend had come to town.
Jane didn't fly to the park, choosing instead to walk on foot, dressed in civilian clothes, one of Emily's knit hats hiding her flame-like hair. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket and watched the ordinary people stride by. Ordinary people. The humanity Jane needed to protect. They had no idea the threats that came their way every single day, the ones the Indestructibles, or the Department, or someone else diverted or defended them against or were sometimes sidestepped by simple, unadulterated luck. Like meteors hurtling by in space, we dodge terrible events all the time, Jane thought, and turned her eyes skyward.
We're not escaping the next one, are we? I just hope we're ready.
And speaking of ready: sitting on a nearby park bench, Valerie Snow looked nearly human.
Valerie, the girl the Children of the Elder Star had merged with a sentient hurricane and called "Project Valkyrie," had met with Jane and the others sporadically the past few months as she learned to control her powers. She talked with Billy a bit at first, thinking that perhaps his relationship with Dude would be a good starting point for building a connection with the living, breathing storm that now shared Val's body. But they soon found that not to be the case. The storm was a feral thing, acting and reacting on a wild, emotional level, the polar opposite of Dude's cool, detached demeanor. The Straylight entity acted as a calming, rational force on Billy's human fallibility; Valerie, instead, had to be that calming factor for the wild creature she now shared a life with.
Like A Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 Page 4