Unfortunately, she didn’t notice the man watching her from a car near the street. There were enough people watching her that one more wasn’t really notable.
Downtown, Paragon City
The day was going well in Paragon City. The worst traffic had subsided with rush hour well past, but even so there were many cars on the street, with the occasional airborne car whizzing overhead, and a handful of bikers went pedaling past in bike lanes. People walked along the sidewalks, chatting with one another, while signs blazed with advertisements.
Then a thunderous report split the air, shattering windows on a nearby building, and people flinched as a flying police cruiser came in for a crash landing, smoke trailing from its rear half. Moments later, loud, mocking laughter echoed through the streets. The figure in black armor stomped out of an alleyway, shrouded in a mist of shadows, and those nearby froze for only a moment, then fled as he aimed the cannon on his arm at the fallen cruiser.
“Come, heroes! Come and try to stop me, for the harbinger of your doom is here!” Black Harbinger announced disdainfully, firing at the police car again, just as a pair of cops managed to throw themselves free. The bolt of energy pierced deep into the vehicle, sparking a fire, and the two scrambled away as it started burning, then exploded, raining shrapnel over the area.
Sirens began wailing throughout the area, and civilians fled as Black Harbinger began firing his cannon seemingly at random, punching holes in the ground, vehicles, and buildings as he laughed maniacally.
Guardian Compound, Paragon City
“Black Harbinger is downtown!” Decarin called out through the base speakers, the frantic note to his voice and its content snapping Archon out of her contemplation of the puzzle she’d been putting together. “He’s attacking everything in sight!”
“Damn it, I knew it’d been too quiet lately!” Spark snarled instantly, just as Archon was standing. “I can be out the door in thirty seconds!”
“Two minutes,” Archon chimed in, shrugging off her clothing quickly, which fortunately was designed to come off easily, and headed for her armor. “Don’t get hurt, Spark.”
“Believe me, getting used as a baseball bat was no fun, I don’t want to do that again!” Spark assured her. “I’ll distract him.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m waiting on a reply from Shade, but he’s probably going to be a minute before he responds. Unless he sees the news,” Decarin said grimly. “I’m also putting out the news to all the teams in the area, so they can either stay the hell away or come help out. This is going to be rough.”
“Agreed,” Archon said, her lips pressing together tightly as she considered the situation. The biggest problem was that while she could take all the punishment that Black Harbinger could unleash, she wasn’t strong enough to hurt him, and she couldn’t restrain him, either. She’d need someone else for that, which would make this incredibly unpleasant. With that in mind, she added. “If you’d let Lilith know that I’d appreciate it if she stayed out of the area? Without her armor, I don’t think that she can participate safely.”
“I’ll let her know,” Decarin promised.
“Good! I’m on my way!” Spark chimed in, and then she was gone.
Archon continued putting on her armor, and as she did so, she had to wonder what had drawn Black Harbinger to Paragon City this time. He frequently reveled in destruction for its own sake, but sometimes he had a secondary purpose, and that made her incredibly nervous.
She just hoped they figured it out in time to stop the madman.
Chapter 41
Monday, November 3rd, 2031
Iver, England
“Please tell me that you’re joking,” Rachel said, almost swaying in place, despite having tried to prepare for this possibility. “There aren’t any more changes she made?”
Madison glowered at her for a few moments, then spoke tartly. “Why would I joke about this? Do you think I wanted to make the two of you unhappy? Of course I didn’t! I’ve gone through your mind thoroughly, and unless she hid the changes incredibly well, which is hardly impossible, I’ve dealt with all of them. Which means how you feel now is real.”
“Fuck,” Gina muttered, pausing for a few seconds, then said. “I thought that this would make things easier… but now I just feel like shit.”
Gina had her head resting on the back of a chair, rather than looking at either of them, and Rachel wondered if she should follow her example. She resisted the urge, as she rather wanted to swear at someone.
That morning Madison had finally finished with Gina, which had been… troubling, to say the least. She hadn’t found any signs that Shadowmind had convinced Gina not to cleanse herself after they’d broken into her mind, which had chagrined Gina quite a bit, but there was plenty of time left in the day, so she’d dragged Rachel in to finish with her as well. That had taken the remainder of the day, and now… now they were both in shock.
Neither had fallen out of love with Lilith after going through all of that. They’d spent months away, only to find that not only had Shadowmind been screwing around in their heads for over a year, mostly changing little things they hadn’t even noticed, or combing through their memories, but she’d also lied about putting them together with Lilith. At least, nothing they’d been able to find in their memories indicated that she had, and now… now Rachel had to wonder what in the world they were supposed to do.
“You aren’t the only one,” Rachel said at last, rubbing her forehead with one hand, and wistfully remembering how she thought that this would solve all their problems. It wasn’t that easy, though, and she wished that she hadn’t fallen into the trap of thinking it would be. It made everything worse when it didn’t work out the way she wanted it to.
“Yes, yes, you’re both shocked, horrified, and feeling as guilty as all get-out. Now you need to decide what you’re going to do. You can’t hide here forever. I have other things to do rather than play host to the pair of you,” Madison said, reaching over to pour herself another mug of tea, then admitted. “Though you’ve been good company. Most guests seem able to burn water, the useless buggers.”
“Well, that’s good, at least,” Gina said, raising her head at last. Rachel thought she saw tears in her friend’s eyes, but she didn’t comment on them, not as Gina looked at her. “What do you think? Should we call her and tell her what we’ve learned?”
“That… is probably a good idea. Though as early as it is, there…” Rachel began, pulling out her phone and looking at it. She ran through the math quickly and scowled. It was around ten in the morning in Paragon City, if she was doing her math right, and she had no idea what Lilith was doing these days. They’d seen the news about her and Archon at the Halloween party in Paragon City, which had been like a hammer blow to her chest. Archon never dated, as far as Rachel knew, and regret was twisting her stomach into knots.
“It isn’t that early, but we don’t want to interrupt anything, either,” Gina said at last, letting out a sigh, and glanced at Madison before continuing. “How about we send her a text, asking if she’s available, and discuss what we want to say in the meantime?”
“That… seems like a reasonable idea,” Rachel replied after a moment, her nerves settling slightly. “Then we’re not just calling her out of the blue, and she has a chance to prepare herself for it, even if she isn’t sure what’s coming.”
“Good. But if you’re going to do that, go upstairs. I don’t want to hear any of the inevitable sniffling and crying,” Madison told them firmly, gently gesturing for them to leave. “Go on!”
“Fine, fine,” Rachel said, her anxiety easing as she met Gina’s gaze, and her friend smiled at her, a dimple showing due to how lopsided it was, and they started for the stairs.
As Rachel walked, she pulled up the last text she’d had with Lilith months before and started typing out her message. She hoped… no, Rachel didn’t dare hope. None of this was fair to Lilith.
Glendale Shopping Center, Glendale
“Pretty, ain’t she?” Silent Lightning said, glancing out the peephole in the side of the van.
“Sure, she’s pretty, but she’s smart, too. Smart’s bad,” Heavy Metal told him, shaking his head firmly. “If you want something pretty, you go for the dumb ones. Dumb enough they won’t try to backstab you, smart enough they know what’ll happen if they piss you off. Really smart girls are just trouble.”
Sabra rolled her eyes, as the comment told her everything she needed to know about the big man, if she hadn’t already figured him out. It explained why he’d been looking at her so distrustfully. Why he thought she was stupid enough to betray them with an explosive collar around her neck was beyond her, but she wasn’t going to protest.
“What about downtown?” Sabra asked, looking at the minion who had his phone out.
“Not yet,” the man said absently. “He hasn’t done anything big enough to be a distraction, yet.”
“Damn it. I hate waiting,” Heavy Metal groused, and Sabra rolled her eyes again.
Lilith almost jumped as she felt her phone buzz again, and she looked down, half-expecting another message from Decarin. His last one had been terse, and she hated that he’d felt the need to warn her not to come. If she had her armor… oh, who was she kidding? A battle between Class S heroes wasn’t something she could get involved in, and Lilith wished she was able to boost Archon and Emily. The handful of reports she’d gotten already worried her. Then she saw who the message was from, and Lilith paused, slowing down slightly in her surprise.
“Rachel?” Lilith murmured, blinking. The bit of the message she could see in the preview didn’t tell her enough, so she unlocked her phone and opened the message, both concern and a tiny bit of hope rising in her.
Lilith, we’ve finished our treatment. Things are complicated, but we don’t want to talk about them via text. Could you let us know when you’re available to call?
The text was simple, and Lilith wasn’t sure whether she should be worried or excited to have received it. It felt like it’d been an eternity since the two women had left, and she felt a swirl of emotions, some of which were pleasant, but also a trickle of fear as well. What if this was going to devastate her life again?
“No. I will not be a coward,” Lilith told herself softly, ignoring the odd look a woman nearby gave her.
She typed out her reply, letting them know they could call her when they liked, as she had just finished shopping. Then she put her phone away, wondering how long it would be before they called her.
Downtown, Paragon City
Archon’s sword hit the entropic blade Black Harbinger wielded, the concrete beneath his feet cracking under the impact, but both her flaming blade and his sword held effortlessly, neither of them so much as trembling.
Spark dodged behind him as their blades clashed, taking advantage of the opening to unleash multiple blasts of electricity into him, then yelped and flipped away as the black energy surrounding him lashed out at her.
The next moment Archon swore internally as his cannon, which had been tracking Astral Core a moment before, snapped back toward her, and she quickly twisted out of the way, disengaging her blade before he could fire. While he might not be able to hurt her badly, that didn’t mean she should take stupid risks.
“Come now, angel, don’t tell me that you’re so weak that you can’t knock me from my feet. I believed you might be a challenge!” Black Harbinger said, his tone mocking.
“You’re nothing but a coward who wants to destroy everything!” Archon retorted, anger boiling within her, but she tamped it down hard. She couldn’t afford to let herself lose her temper.
A moment later his cannon snapped up, and Archon barely reacted in time, one of her wings hitting the weapon hard enough to raise the barrel as it aligned with Shade, who’d just popped out from behind a car to cast a spell. Shade ducked and, combined with Archon’s quick reactions, the bolt of black energy went over him to punch a hole through a bank’s facade.
The battlefield was covered in wreckage already, as their battle had left craters and smashed vehicles over much of the area, while police had evacuated as many people as possible from the surroundings. Astral Core wasn’t helping as much as she had initially, as Archon hadn’t been quite quick enough to keep Black Harbinger from hitting her once, and the sword had left a bubbling black mark across the heroine’s torso.
Still, more heroes were arriving with every moment, and Archon lunged forward, attacking ferociously. The longer she could occupy him, the less likely he was to be able to do too much damage.
“Who is going to stop me? You? You haven’t even scratched my armor!” Black Harbinger told her derisively, matching her blow for blow, even as he tried to get a proper line of fire on the others. Archon was interfering, but with as many of them as there were, there was only so much she could do.
“Perhaps not, but I don’t have to be able to hurt you. I just need to slow you down,” Archon retorted, and she dropped low, attacking his legs this time. If she could drop him to the ground, that would make everything much easier.
Black Harbinger surprised her by jumping back at almost the same moment, making her wonder if he was weaker down below than she’d expected. He landed an instant later, laughing loudly.
“Slow me down? Let’s see if you dare, when the lives of your precious civilians are on the line!” Black Harbinger sneered, and Archon’s blood ran cold. She tensed, opening her mouth to reply, but at that moment an explosion rocked the street. Glass rained down on her in the wake of the blast wave, and Archon glanced back just in time for another explosion to go off, and fear ripped through Archon.
The explosions had torn a chunk from the side of a skyscraper, leaving several major structural supports exposed near the street, and as she watched, one of them was beginning to buckle. Archon had seen just enough damage like this before that she knew what that meant. If something didn’t support the building quickly, the entire skyscraper would topple… and while it was an office building, it’d fall right into a residential tower. That meant there weren’t any other options, and she reacted instantly.
“Spark, occupy him!” Archon ordered, and she launched herself off the ground at the building while the villain laughed.
He tried to shoot her in the back, but Shade successfully deflected the shot, then Spark was on Black Harbinger.
“I’ll do my best! Somebody reinforce the building!” Spark replied, her voice taut with fear, which Archon completely understood.
Moments later she shouldered one of the surviving supports that looked mostly intact, and Archon’s wings began to beat hard, straining to hold up the immense weight of the building long enough for someone to patch it. She saw several heroes change course toward her, and she hoped they’d be able to do the job.
Archon could survive the tower dropping on her without any real injuries, but most of the heroes couldn’t, especially not if Black Harbinger was shooting them.
This was a terrible situation.
Chapter 42
Monday, November 3rd, 2031
Glendale Shopping Center, Glendale
“That’s the signal,” the minion said, and Sabra’s eyebrows rose slightly, looking at the image of the teetering tower on the news.
“The signal is him trying to topple a building?” she asked skeptically, a little stunned by the idea.
The minion gave her an odd look, his eyebrows furrowing as he spoke. “How else is he supposed to guarantee the heroes are distracted?”
Sabra briefly considered responding, but she decided that the minion wouldn’t care that Black Harbinger rampaging in downtown seemed more than enough of a distraction to her. Instead, she looked at the other two and asked. “What about the target?”
“Walking out of the store now, with a big cart of stuff,” Silent Lightning said, shaking his head. “Damned waste, that’s what it is. I’ll bet it’s gonna get scattered over half the lot before we’re done.”
“Who cares? I want this j
ob done. I have a bar in mind and want to drink my fill,” Heavy Metal retorted, and Sabra swallowed her sigh. She might despise the primitive, but at least he was consistent.
“In that case, shall we get going?” Sabra suggested.
“Let’s,” Silent Lightning said, his grin almost shark-like.
Lilith’s phone rang when she was halfway to the car, and she slowed, shifting her hands on the cart’s handle so she could pull it out. The number was Rachel’s, and she couldn’t help a smile, even though hesitation also swirled through her. She had no idea why they were calling her, and it could be something good, or something absolutely terrible. The worst part was that she didn’t know which.
She didn’t have much time to decide what to do, though, so Lilith kept pushing her cart toward the car, keeping an eye out for oncoming vehicles as she did so. Some people weren’t safe drivers, and she didn’t want to become yet another statistic.
“Hello?” Lilith asked, answering the phone.
“Hey, Lil,” Gina’s voice was small, and the slight echo to her words told Lilith a bit, as did the tiny delay to her response.
“We’ve got you on speaker phone so we can both talk,” Rachel added, confirming Lilith’s suspicions, and her hopes rose incrementally as she realized that Rachel sounded nervous. That wasn’t common for her.
“I thought as much, with how Gina sounded,” Lilith replied, smiling thinly as she asked. “Have you heard about Black Harbinger being downtown?”
Queen's Journey (Lilith's Shadow Book 5) Page 27