Maybe no one had known about Scribe and Allison, but they should have. Someone should have seen them coming and going. Or maybe a medical report should have popped up, made it public knowledge that she was pregnant. Sure, we were in incredible physical shape, but a bulging uterus can only be hidden for so long from everyone's view.
That had been bothering me, but I hadn't been able to put it to words. As the others spoke with Kharmia, I let my mind wander on the subject. A secret pregnancy. A leader in disgrace. And, last but not least, a superhero who had been one of the frontliners against the first Kipas to land on our planet.
Had something happened to her in the field? Maybe she'd delivered incredibly early, but I'd sworn that Emma wasn't a premature kid. Maybe she'd been wearing lose clothing? But I'd been there, too. I'd been right there beside her, fighting for truth, justice, and the Yarborough way of life. All of us had.
And then I remembered something.
It was something I wasn't supposed to remember, I was pretty certain of that, because there was a sudden shrieking agony through my skull. The Kipas had hit us with something, some kind of blast that had blown up the street around us. It'd been bright enough that I was certain the sun had been put out; but it hadn't ended there.
I rubbed a hand over the back of my head. There was nothing there, but hadn't I cut my head wide open that day? Hadn't they had to shave it to stitch up the wound, leaving a bump and a scar?
Where was the scar?
I grabbed Nishelle and pulled her close, looking at the back of her neck. She blinked at me and frowned over her shoulder. "Strikes?"
"Hang on a second."
I parted her hair, what wasn't tied to her braids, and looked. There was no scar there, either. In the midst of the fight, Ember had gotten thrown into a car. She'd been impaled on a windshield wiper and nearly died on the way to the hospital. Of course, she'd made it or she wouldn't be sitting in front of me.
Was she?
My mind began to slide down a dark, deep tunnel that promised horrors at the end. I pulled away from her and gently held my head between my hands, trying to sort it all out. Had the Kipas killed us? Was this some sort of purgatory? Or another level of the Dream?
Or had they healed us? Had they made us stronger than we were before? No, I'd always been able to do what I'd done; ever since I'd reached maturity. But the idea that the blast had done... something. That wasn't too far outside the box. That wasn't crazy.
Was it?
"Cassie?" Edwin asked, worry in his voice.
I shivered. "I'm okay. Really. It's just. I don't think I'm supposed to remember that blast. Do any of you remember it? When the Kipas first got here? We were all out on the street, trying to support the cops and the military as we were invaded by freaking aliens. And then... then..."
"And then?" Adam asked.
I looked up at him and swallowed. "They attacked the building. They killed a bunch of our older superheroes."
He nodded. "They killed all of us. And then they brought us back, as far as I can tell."
"They... they what?" My voice felt faint, confused. I'd died?
A screaming alarm burst out overhead, making me jump right out of my skin and out of my train of thought. Fucking alarms.
Chris looked up at the ceiling. "That alarm's only used for one thing." He looked at us and shook his head. "You're not armed and you're in no shape to fight. Stay here. We'll be back in no time and we'll bring Logan so we can get into strategy."
"What's the alarm used for?" I asked at a whisper.
But I knew the answer before he said it. They'd heard me talking about them. They knew where I was, where we all were, and they were coming for us.
Starseer pulled on his mask, sighed, and headed for the door. "Kipas."
Chapter 12
Like hell we were going to stay shut up in the safety of an Alliance building when there was a fight going on outside.
Most of us had our suits. Edwin rushed off to the techie warehouse downstairs, lights in his eyes. I watched as Cassie tugged on her suit and wolf-whistled at her, completely unashamed. She rolled her eyes and flipped me off, pulling her hair back into a tight tail and tucking it up beneath her hood.
As I watched, most of the girls did that. Izzy's hair still wasn't long enough to worry about, but now that I thought of it? I couldn't think of many superheroines who didn't have their manes out of the way while they worked.
"What's up with that?" I asked.
Lexi frowned at me. "What's up with what?"
"Almost all of you pull your hair up or hide it away. Even Ember does, and hers is mostly fake."
Nishelle scowled. "Say that again and I'll roast you right here, right now."
I shrugged and looked back to Lexi, who struggled with an answer. Finally, Izzy walked over and pushed me back on my ass. "I cut mine short so I wouldn't have to do that. But yeah. It's a handhold if you wear it long. The guys do the same stuff. Didn't you notice the white guy with the Thomaston group? He had his all done up in a big twisty knot at the back of his head."
"I just thought Whirlwind was trying to make a fashion statement," I said, beaming at her.
Before she could punch me, Cassie-slash-Strikeout came over and pulled out her favorite lipstick, adding a splash of red to her look that coordinated well with her suit. "Stop causing trouble or you won't get to play with the nice aliens. That may or may not have killed and resurrected us a very long time ago."
"You want answers on that directly from them?" I asked.
She shook her head. "As far as I know, all attempts to communicate with them have failed. Why would that change now? We need to get down there and help them. They volunteered to help us."
I stretched my arms over my head and let them fall back over my shoulders, folding across them and gave her a pointed look. I had no idea why we were waiting and she was the one who was clearly in charge of it all. She frowned at me for a second then sighed and headed out the door, the others in hot pursuit.
Well, maybe not so hot. The whole situation didn't feel as terrifying, as ramping up,as when it was our city on the line. Call me an asshole, I guess. I cared, but I didn't know these streets or these people and they weren't really mine to protect. It didn't seem like that was the general idea for most of the Alliance, and that was weird to me. I'd spent years thinking they hadn't wanted us to participate in their superhero games, but it seemed more and more that it was probably Scribe telling them to go fuck themselves.
There was a wonderful light rail that looped the city around itself and throughout it. We took a moment to work out the schedule posted just outside the Alliance building, then walked up the platform to wait on the train. The chittering shriek of a Kipa shattered the silence around us and made my skin crawl.
"Sounds like it's about six blocks that way," Nishelle said, jerking her thumb in the direction of the noise. "We could probably just run it faster."
Lexi scowled at her. "You people never like to arrive in style. There is something to be said for being fashionably late."
"Fashionably late gets people killed. I swear, you and Izzy are the stupidest-"
"Ladies," Nate sighed. "If you don't mind? The rail is coming right now. A run takes effort out of all of us. It's better to wait for public transport, hitch a ride, and get over there in good shape."
The girls glared at each other as the little monorail-type-thingy parked itself in front of us. We clambered on and I scooped Cassie up and over next to me. She grabbed the pole I had my hands on and raised her brows at me.
"You feel okay about leaving Edwin back there by himself?" I whispered as the train's doors dinged shut and the capsule-like beast started its trek.
She didn't meet my eyes. "He made his choice. As far as we know, Thomaston is on the level. I don't think Logan would be mad enough at us throwing in with his people to do something to Edwin."
That hadn't been what I'd meant but it was something to consider. Was anyone out there worth trust
ing? Hell, there were people in the train with me that I didn't trust further than I could throw them; or maybe less, I could theoretically chuck Lexi a damn long way if I really wanted to.
I entertained myself with that thought for a moment before I shooed it away. It was awfully dark, especially for me, but some tiny bit of that felt so good. She was such a pain in the ass.
"We'll just have to hope," I said as the rail came to a stop and the doors dinged open again.
A Kipa smashed through the track in front of us. Thank God it was a normal-sized one, not one of the enormous freaks that had smashed my new car to pieces. A pang struck me at the memory of the car I'd owned for a whole 48 hours, but I put it away for later. I pushed Cassie out the door as another Kipa flew toward the capsule we were in. She flew onto the platform. The others pitched out after her, leaving only Nate and I inside when the Kipa hit the thing.
It teetered, threatening to splatter us all over the ground. I grabbed him and shot into the air just before it tipped off the tracks and hurled to the ground below. I only made it twenty feet up before the nosebleed hit me. He pinched my nostrils shut as we landed, my skull threatening to explode. Nate fell out of my arms and I hit my knees on the surviving platform.
"Creed?" Izzy's voice was strained, terrified, in my ears. I felt her shake my shoulders, but there was nothing I could do to help calm her down. It was all I could do to keep kneeling straight up.
Someone pulled her away. "Easy," Nate said. "He's just hurt. Give him a few minutes and he'll be ready to party. Shaking him around like that isn't going to make it any better."
"But he's bleeding. He's bleeding so bad. What did you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything. He's been like this for a while. I think it's something to do with an inflammatory issue. We'll get it looked at when everything calms down, but it should be as simple as a prescription or two."
My chin tipped up at that and the blood poured down the back of my throat. It was horrible, disgusting, and I was so tired of it happening. If Nate was right and a pill or two would take care of it, I was all for it. I just couldn't manage to say that without spitting crimson all over everyone at the moment.
A local superhero screamed out there on the battlefield. Lightning white adrenaline poured through me, almost at the same level that I assumed Cassie felt it. I shook it away. I wouldn't do anyone any good if I went out there like a Blitzer.
But Cassie did. She hurtled off the platform, Nishelle right behind her. Lexi went behind the both of them, already keyed up. Izzy tutted. "We should be out there as a group. That's the rational thing to do. Running off like that-"
"Is as brave as it is dumb. I know, Melody. I know," Nate said, looking down at me. "How long do you need to recover, Creed?"
I spit a bit of blood onto the platform and swallowed. The taste was less metallic but there was still more than I wanted in my throat. "Let's go. I'll heal on the way and we can't let the girls get trampled."
Nate gave me a measured look, something that said he knew I was full of shit, but he didn't try to fight me on it. Instead, we set off at... well, a very quick walk. You still have to be able to breathe to move and when you're just awash in a nosebleed like I had, oxygen doesn't come to you very easily.
The scene we arrived at was one of mixed chaos and heartbreak. Kharmia was already on the ground, bones visibly protruding from her arms and legs. Whirlwind was flat beneath a car; some Kipa had thrown it at him and he hadn't been able to cope with it. His dead, glassy eyes stared off into the distance and I just hoped wherever he went had given him some form of peace.
Because we sure as fuck weren't about to give it to those Kipas.
Forgetting the blood on my face, I broke into a run. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. I'll put it this way; the Kipas were so numerous that I couldn't count them at all at first glance and I didn't really want to. You'll have to use your imagination.
I shot into the first one and grabbed it by the neck. It tried to bite me but I didn't care. I jumped into the air with it, just a few feet, and used that momentum to smash it into the ground so hard that one of its eyes popped from its skull. Cassie came by and punted, its head popping right off and soaring into the air.
She was already covered in weird, blue Kipa blood. I frowned at her but she ignored me. A trio lined up to do some sort of energy blast and she leapt at the chance. Cassie hit them like a wrecking ball and I went to work, crushing what served as the ribcage for one and pinning down another to rip it apart.
Nate tore past as a riding-sized feline of some sort. Izzy held on to his mane and shrieked her rage out at an entire wave of Kipas, sending blood and guts everywhere as she vaporized their skin and did whatever-the-hell else she was up to. I knew my sister's powers well, but I hadn't seen them on display like that in a decade. And it wasn't like I was signing up to be her next test dummy.
Lexi was a spiral of death. She saved Starseer twice in a breath, the big idiot not aware of two Kipas that were creeping up on him while he dealt with one. It's always important for any superhero to know how to throw a punch; you never know when you'll be reduced to it. But for him? He couldn't hit much harder than most civilians. And that wasn't the best situation for him to be in.
I went to his side, scowling at Lexi but getting to work. Kipa after Kipa came at us and the three of us killed them over and over again. The bodies stood stacked high at our sides but there were constantly more pouring in from the sides of the street, crawling over buildings. Sweat stung my eyes and I swiped it away, my arm crimson and blue with my own blood and that of the weird, chitinous aliens that had plagued us for so many years.
They never showed up in droves like this. From what we'd seen over that time, we'd thought that they were territorial. Our studies indicated that they didn't create packs of more than ten or eleven, but what the fuck was this?
"Edwin?" I gasped, breaking another Kipa's neck.
There was a pause that made my heart stop. Had he been captured? Withheld from doing his job? If he had, we weren't going to be answered by the tech support Logan ran, I was sure of that. But after a moment, I heard something beautiful. "Yeah, Creed. We're here. You guys are being overrun. We're sending in support, just. We're trying to get clearance to do it. There's still civilians in that area."
"If there's civilians there, they're fucked," I panted. "How many are there?"
"Thousands."
His answer made my blood run cold even as I dodged the claws of another Kipa. "That's fucking impossible."
"Not if someone's controlling them. Think for a second. Who do we know that can write anything into existence? That can just poof, scribble a couple of notes and there it is?"
I glared as I worked. "He lost his powers."
"The only proof we have of that is him trying to write Cassie's powers back into existence and it not working. Who knows? You could say you'd lost yours and we wouldn't have any way to prove it. Maybe he wasn't even trying."
"You think he has control over the fucking aliens?" I growled, my head snapping to the side as one Kipa got free of the others and landed a swipe on me.
Edwin typed something. I could hear the keys clatter. "I think that it's entirely possible that he's a fucking problem. We already know he might be connected to them. What's wrong with assuming he has control over them? They don't do this, Adam. They just don't. Tens, maybe. The most we've ever seen was 25 that once at the football game." He paused, then chuckled. "Get everyone clear. They aren't going to like this."
"You said there're civilians left," I said, pushing my way through to Starseer again.
He snorted. "Nothing that will hurt them, but plenty that the Kipas won't like. Your sister's kicking ass, by the way."
"I saw. Get the word out?" I asked, grabbing Starseer's shoulder.
He glared at me but I pointed to the spot where my headset connected inside of my supersuit and pointed off into the distance. Lexi would be told by Edwin and if she wasn't, well, that
was just too bad. Starseer hesitated, but I grabbed him around the waist and pulled. He squirmed away but he obeyed. We ran for a nearby alley with Lexi, Nate, and Izzy following us.
From our hidey-hole, I could see Cassie, Nishelle, and the rest of the Thomaston crew carrying Kharmia into the safety of the alleyway across from us. The supersonic burst of jets crashed through the scene, flying too low to be piloted. There were too many laws in effect for that.
These had to be drones, the things that Edwin dreamt of having at his disposal. Let no one tell you that Edwin is fully sane; the guy would happily be some sort of evil doctor, tenting his fingers and stroking a white cat, if we let him. I like to think that Cassie, Nate, and I hold his feet firmly on the ground.
Allied: A Superhero Reverse Harem Romance (The PTB Alliance Book 3) Page 11