“Queen Alice,” Jane said, with more respect than Emily could have mustered. She put a hand to her chest earnestly. “We come to you for two reasons. My name is Solar, and this is Entropy Emily. We seek our friend, who came to your land not long ago, and we also bring news from home.”
“You look familiar,” Alice said. The advisor beside her, whom Emily assumed was this malevolent spirit they’d been warned about, was having none of it, arms folded across his chest firmly.
“We’re, ah, superheroes, back home,” Jane said. “You may have heard of us. The Indestructibles.”
“Also there are several coffee drinks named after us. Have you ever had an Entropy Emi-latte?”
“Enough,” Alice said. “You’ve intruded upon my kingdom, you’ve convinced my former friends to betray me by bringing you here… what do you want from me?”
“I’m going to be honest,” Jane said. “We came here hoping we could help you, but what we’ve seen out there in the town are people trapped in their own nightmares and fears. And as far as I’m concerned, they’re my priority. We’ve come to ask you to send those poor people home.”
Alice stood up, her body language a mimicry of adult defensiveness.
“How dare you talk about my subjects like that. They are where they belong! I’ve made a safe place for them here!”
“Nope, completely terrorized,” Emily said. “It’s pretty rough out there. People crying, freaking out… also you took the whole town with you.”
“I created this place,” Alice said.
“No, you teleported Westwick wholesale,” Emily said.
“You’re lying,” Alice said. Emily could hear a shift in Alice’s voice; she’d been playing at being royalty until just that moment, but there was a vein of self-doubt, of youthful innocence, just starting to break the surface there.
“Nope. It’s a parking lot. Whole thing’s gone,” Emily said.
“But your parents are still back there,” Jane said.
“My parents don’t need to be here,” Alice said. “They don’t need me. They have other things to worry about.”
“You should talk to them yourself,” Jane said. “I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.”
Alice turned her attention from Jane and Emily to her advisor, who had sat back passively watching the exchange.
“You said my subjects were happy,” she said.
“They are happy,” the man said. “You’re going to believe two outlanders over your most trusted ally?”
Alice looked down at Emily with a sneer, then turned her attention to the teddy bear. Her face softened.
“Are they really afraid, Teddy?” she said, all imperiousness in her tone gone.
The bear stepped forward, clearing his throat.
“Many never leave their homes, Queen Alice,” he said. “Some no longer speak to anyone. They see visions of things that scare them, or things they want to forget. You know I’d never lie to you.”
Emily felt a trembling beneath her feet. Not an earthquake, she thought. Something else. Getting louder and closer, too.
She was the first to notice, but then others began to pick up on the tremor. Guards looked at each other curiously; Silverhoof even seemed to become aware of it, glancing at Emily with a disconcertingly human expression of confusion and alarm.
And then, from a side corridor along the stage-left side of the throne room, a cadre of Alice’s uniformed guards came charging out of a smaller passageway, running for their lives.
“Monster!” one yelled.
“It’s teeth are as big as my arms!” another said.
“Werewolf! It’s a werewolf! Run!” said a third.
The guards already in the throne room gathered together, pointing pikes or swords at the now empty doorway. After a few seconds, a familiar face stepped calmly out.
“If you guys got to know him, you’d realize I’m the scarier one in this partnership,” Kate said, shaking her head with disdain.
Doc Silence emerged next, looking tired, hungry, and bemused, the shadow-man, Gloomly, by his side like an afterthought. Finally, a fully wolfed-out Titus appeared, ducking to avoid hitting his head on the frame of the door. Despite his monstrous form, Emily could see an almost offended look on his canine face, as if he were mildly wounded by strangers running from him in fear.
“The prisoner has escaped,” the man on the dais said, pointing at Doc. “And he’s brought monsters with him! Guards, seize him, now!”
Doc sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“We’ve got some things to talk about,” Doc said.
Chapter 52: Breakdown
Billy found Bedlam on the ground in the shattered house, one leg twitching, a trickle of blood running from the corner of her mouth. Her right cybernetic arm was hanging on by a thread, some wiring and twisted metal all that kept the limb attached at the elbow. He dropped down beside her and cradled her head in the crook of his elbow.
“Bedlam?” he said. “Please be okay, please be okay…”
“It pains me to say this,” Bedlam said, her voice strangely metallic, as if tinged with static. “But I think you were right about my plan.”
She opened her eyes. The biological eye was clear and alert; the artificial eye glowed dimly, then flickered and went out.
“Did you get him?” she asked.
“Not exactly,” Billy said. “What can I do right now? How can I help?”
Bedlam sighed, wincing in pain.
“Unless you’re an engineer, not much,” she said.
“Don’t you die on me,” Billy said.
Bedlam chuckled. Even her laugh seemed distorted.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” she said. “You want to know something funny? All the stuff I need to stay alive is still human.”
With her left arm, which shook slightly as it moved, she took Billy’s wrist and put his hand on her heart. He could feel it beating beneath his palm.
“Still ticking,” she said, smiling slightly.
“What’s broken?” Billy asked, trying to keep too much concern from his tone.
“Right arm’s shot. Left arm, well,” she said, lifting it to show how it trembled as she moved. “Something’s not right there. There’s something going on with my right leg, it’s twitching. I think the left still works though.”
“Your eye is flickering,” Billy said.
“Oh that’s on the fritz,” she said. “What did he hit me with?”
“A house,” Billy said. “And magic, I guess.”
“A house,” Bedlam repeated. “Help me sit up, huh?”
Billy lifted her to a sitting position so she could rest against his chest. He could hear her grinding her teeth.
“This is so stupid,” she said, leaning more heavily on him than he was expecting.
Dude, can we read her vitals or anything? Billy thought.
Vaguely, Dude said. She appears to be stable. She needs medical attention, but she’ll live. I can’t tell you anything about the damage to her tech, though.
Good enough, Billy thought.
Then he heard the moaning and shuffling of feet.
“Funeral zombies,” Billy said.
He saw several shambling corpses emerge from the shadows just within the walls of the house. He fired off a light blast to see what it would do, and watched as the zombie slammed violently into a nearby wall and stopped moving.
“This is so morbid,” Billy thought, firing off several more shots. “Okay, I’m not really keen on mangling the corpses of peoples’ relatives. New plan.”
He scooped Bedlam up in his arms as gently as possible and flew straight up to where what remained of the second floor of the home still stood. He laid her down on a now-exposed twin bed, then blasted what was left of a staircase to stop the zombies from getting to them.
“Short term fix,” he said.
His plan was derailed, however, by the flapping of enormous, leathery wings.
“Please tell
me the flying thing didn’t just find us,” he said.
Bedlam looked past his shoulder, then grinned.
“It’s looking right at us.
Billy stood up and turned to face the creature. He could get a better look at it now—squat-bodied, with bat-like wings the flesh of which was creepily human, its entire bulbous torso covered in eyes and mouths. They all screeched in unison.
“And what am I supposed to do about you,” Billy said.
“It used to be people,” Bedlam said bitterly. “Put them out of their misery, Billy.”
“I don’t want to kill them if they can be saved,” Billy said.
“It’s too late,” Bedlam said. “Whatever that used to be, there’s no going back.”
The creature squealed at him again, raising its wings threateningly.
Billy leaned down and pressed his forehead against Bedlam’s.
“I’ll be right back,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, managing a brief flash of a smile.
Billy took off in a flash of brilliant light, crashing into the Frankenstein’s monster-like thing, knocking it back away from the house, and away from Bedlam. The creature lashed out with a tail he hadn’t noticed before, a grotesque limb ending with a bony tip. The pointed tip tore at his uniform, scraping along his ribcage. Billy couldn’t tell if he were more hurt or disgusted by the feeling.
Needing some distance, he hit the creature with blasts from both hands, knocking it away. The tail lashed out again, but this time he had the forethought to bring up the vibrant protective shield Dude empowered him to use, and the bone spike scratched against the shielding instead of opening Billy’s guts. He targeted the tail this time, hitting it with an energy bolt so powerful it separated the tail from the body, sending the appendage falling to the earth. The monster screamed with a dozen mouths in simultaneous cries of pain.
I’m going to have nightmares about this for months, Billy thought.
Someday you’ll have to see the gallery of creatures I encountered before I arrived on Earth, Dude said. This is nothing compared to the tendon rhinos of Lanzo IV…
Y’know what? I can live without ever seeing something called a tendon rhino, Billy thought. How about some ideas on how to destroy this thing?
I would assume basic biology would say that most of the important bits are in the torso, Dude said. But if you have a better idea, feel free to offer a suggestion.
Hit it in the bread basket, Billy thought. Fine, we’ll go with that.
Billy launched a few bolts of energy, but the massive flying creature proved to be shockingly nimble, dodging each bolt with surprising ease. Billy found himself in a dogfight with the monster, trying to stay out of range enough to get a decent shot off. Somehow, losing its tail had almost benefited the creature, its flight pattern now so unbalanced and irregular that Billy couldn’t predict where it would drift next.
“Oh, come on!” Billy said as he missed for the tenth time in a row. The creature bombed at him, and Billy found himself staring, horrified, at the gleaming bone of the nearest mouths as it gnashed its teeth.
More out of repulsion than combat, Billy threw a blast of energy side-armed at the creature, just trying to push it off-course and away from him.
Instead, the beam of light struck it dead center in its body.
The wings went limp, like wet rags. The bulky monstrosity began to plummet, no longer making any attempt to fly, falling to the earth like a garbage bag.
It did not hit the ground.
Instead, it became impaled on a barren tree, the thicker branches piercing the abomination’s torso, jutting out like spikes on the other side. Horrific ichor dripped down the branches, sizzling as it came into contact with the bark.
“That was not what I meant to do,” Billy said.
Intentional or not, it seems to have worked, Dude said.
Billy hovered above the body for a moment, waiting to see if it would arise to attack again, but it remained still, inert, and definitely deceased.
“Okay then,” Billy said. He scanned the horizon to find King Tears and his menagerie. He saw that they had nearly reached the castle, having left Billy and Bedlam here to deal with the forces the magician left behind.
I hope the fairy warns Jane in time, Billy thought as he rocketed back to the house where he’d left Bedlam.
Her eyes were closed when he arrived. He landed lightly nearby and ran over to her.
“No, no, no,” Billy said.
“I’m still here,” Bedlam said without opening her eyes, her voice pained. “Should I be taking all of the panic in your voice as a sign you actually care about me?”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” Billy said, smiling as he knelt beside her. “We have to get to the castle to warn the others in case Galinda didn’t make it.”
“Just leave me here,” Bedlam said. “I’ll slow you down.”
“Not possible,” Billy said. “You’re talking to a guy who can get to Saturn and back in a week. We can sacrifice a few nanoseconds off my top speed. I’m not leaving you behind, kid.”
“If you insist,” Bedlam said, opening her one good eye and winking at him. “Just try not to jostle me. I’m delicate.”
“That is absolutely the first word that comes to mind when I think of you,” Billy said, laughing.
“Funny you should say that,” Bedlam said. “I think the same thing about you.”
Chapter 53: Monsters at the gates
Somehow, along the way, Andrew Keppler had convinced himself that there is an acceptable amount of evil necessary to get ahead.
King Tears was right. Keppler knew the company he worked for did terrible things. But somehow, at every turn, he was able to justify it—their actions were good for profits, they didn’t hurt that many people, if his company didn’t do it, someone else would, so why not be the one who profits? And while it started out with just business decisions, as he climbed the ladder, he knew they were involved in far worse. By the third year on the job, he was well-aware he worked for super-villains.
But it beat the alternative, he thought.
And now he walked beside literal monsters, in a twisted pocket dimension, guided by a power-hungry sorcerer seeking to enslave some sort of creature so he could siphon magic from it.
What scared Keppler more wasn’t the danger he was in. It was not the morality of what King Tears had done to his test subjects, twisting them into barbaric monsters. He found himself instead thinking about what his salary demands would be when they got back to the real world. King Tears was clearly a visionary, not a manager. He needed a right-hand man. Keppler was perfectly positioned for a job in the executive suite.
I’m excited at the prospect, he thought. I know I should be disgusted with myself, but instead, I’m just thinking about stock options and summer homes.
He didn’t have long to think more about his own flexible ethics before they arrived outside the castle, though. The drawbridge was up, but Keppler saw no guards, just poorly designed, impossible structure waiting to be invaded.
King Tears stopped at the edge of the moat and laughed as if entertained by the echo of his voice there.
“We’re nearly there, Mr. Keppler,” King Tears said. “I can feel it. The creature inside that castle will be the battery we need to power our empire.”
“Figure there’s more of those super-powered kids waiting for us there?” Keppler asked.
King Tears shrugged.
“Probably,” he said. “But they’re down two teammates. The Lady Dreamless is on another plane. The creature who created this plane doesn’t know what we’re here to do. It’ll all work out.”
“I don’t want to be the party pooper here, but have we done a full risk assessment of what the possible outcomes are here?” Keppler asked.
“Risk assessment,” King Tears said. “Life is risk, Keppler. Everything we do from the minute we fall out of the womb is risky. Have some guts. The reason you survived the purg
e of the Children of the Elder Star is because nobody thought you had the guts to be dangerous. Prove them wrong, would you?”
“You sound like my father,” Keppler said. “How do we get in there?”
“That’s more like it,” King Tears said. He gestured at the portcullis and called forward one of the grotesque juggernauts in his employ. “Pull it down.”
The flesh-monster reached out across the moat, easily crossing the distance with oversized arms. It grabbed hold of the top of the drawbridge and yanked once, twice, and on the third time, the bridge came unmoored, falling open with a massive bang.
King Tears turned to face his forces.
“Some of you can understand me. Others, well, I don’t particularly care that you don’t,” he said. He waved a hand at the remaining zombies in their suits and dresses. “You will attack the castle guards. They don’t have to live.”
The zombies groaned in unison and began shambling across the bridge onto the mouth of the portcullis. He turned his attention to the smaller of his creations, the ones still mostly human-sized, some still even looking mostly human in shape as well.
“You will deal with any of these little heroes we find inside. I don’t particularly care what you do to them. Just keep them away from me.”
He turned next to the remaining behemoths—the one that tore the gate open, and one other.
“You will assault the castle walls. Don’t tear it down,” King Tears said. “Just make some noise, my wonderful monsters. I want distraction.”
The two massive creatures shuffled off, shapeless and terrifying. Keppler couldn’t tell which end was up or where their bodies began or ended.
“And me?” Keppler said.
“Stick close, and watch,” King Tears said. “I want you to witness the ascension.”
Chapter 54: Betrayal
Kate knew they’d interrupted something with their noisy entrance to the throne room. What surprised her as she assessed the situation, was that Jane and Emily had managed to cause the young magician to have doubt in the being manipulating her.
The Indestructibles (Book 5): The Crimson Child Page 25