Supers - Ex Heroes 3

by Jamie Hawke

  We charged on and were intercepted by more supers. Having seen them in the color displays meant we knew they were there and were ready for them, and with a combination of lightning strikes and badassery, quickly tore through them.

  But we knew what came next, and weren’t sure how the strange robot would present itself to us. It had attacked them, but the pyramid seemed to be helping us. Did that mean the robot would move aside and let us through?

  An eerie darkness disturbed only by a silver glow around the edges of the room greeted us. We moved forward without a problem, but halfway across started hearing a scraping sound. There was more, coming from our left first, and then our right. A figure started to form in front of us. Cables and pieces of metal were coming together, moving around to our sides and overhead, pushing us in tight so that the robot was our only destination. It looked almost human in construct, though the way it hung there and moved made me think of a spider crossed with a marionette.

  My heartbeat thumped in my toes, rising and echoing, it seemed to me, throughout the room. The robot lingered, looking at each of us in turn as its eyes turned red. Without warning, it lunged—right over our heads and at a supervillain who’d apparently not been killed off and was trying to catch us from the rear.

  “Go,” a raspy voice said, almost as if it were created by the hissing of electricity.

  As it choked off the super, engulfing him in metal—with a crunching and seeping of blood—one light escaped, blue and wispy, floating through the walls.

  Judging by what came next it had been some sort of alarm to show where we were.

  “ALL SUPERS!” the voice of Daos echoed through the pyramid. “CONVERGE!”

  We charged into the next hallway, turning left, all of us wanting to be far away from that main alarm point before the supervillains arrived. Entering a lower room that was more like a prison with cells along the sides and all, we met a group of four supervillains, a fifth following close behind.

  My group met them, throwing attacks left and right, but one of them made it through to Andromida. She fired her blaster at him, but he simply waved the shot aside with a sort of blue energy shield that emerged from his forearm. In a split-second he was at her side, pointed teeth revealed as he went to bite her.

  She wasn’t the kind to take any shit though, and slammed him right in the throat with the knife-edge of her hand. Before he could recover, I was on him with a kick to the leg and then a knee to the face strong enough to get a cracking sound and blood, and then he was on the ground as Andromida and I stomped the shit out of him. Could I have used powers? Sure, but I was inspired by her last takedown, and this felt damn good.

  “Try to fuck with my ladies,” I shouted as I stomped him good in the mouth, strong enough to break those pointed teeth. “Try biting this, motherfucker.” One more stomp and his jaw caved in. He might’ve been dead at that point, but I didn’t have time to find out—Charm let out a yelp as a short fucker pulled on her tail, raising a hand with blades emitting from his forearm like he was going to cut it off.

  No time to be proud here, powers it was. I shot through the ground, coming up to grab him from behind and pull his arm into his face before he knew what was happening. Blades stuck in his cheek, he shouted bloody murder and spun on me with his other hand. Charm was there though, tail now free, and caught him with claws in the eyes. She shredded him to pieces as I pushed back and stumbled onto my ass. From there I was able to see Shimmer create a golem that scared the next one right into the path of a shot from Twitch’s blaster, and he was down.

  “Before more arrive,” Twitch had her screen up, gesturing to the hallway on our left. “She was leading us in there.”

  But as we ran, the walls started to move, the ceiling opened up, and more supers came charging in.

  “You weren’t supposed to make it this far,” Daos said, voice resonating through the walls even though he wasn’t there, and then they charged.

  “Get to that passage!” Twitch said, alternating between shooting, throwing up shields, and giving us stat boosts.

  “Trying to clear a path,” I replied as a blast from my tempest hit three supervillains. Only one of them fell, though, as the other two had shields that took the damage. Another super charged me, and when I released again, he absorbed the energy, glowing spikes bursting through his arms and shoulders with electricity flowing through them.

  Creepy.

  He came at me and swung, and if not for my advanced speed I would’ve been toast. I traveled through the ground to come out on the other side of him and was about to kick, when more spikes emerged just where my blow would land. Bad idea, so instead I pulled out my blaster and shot him in the back of the head.

  Apparently he could only absorb powers because that dropped him dead. Another super was at my back, his hands on me, and a crippling blast of energy went through my body so that I fell to my knees, unable to move. I started falling forward, realizing my nose was going to hit first, but Andromida came in for the save, eyeing me critically as she held me, and Charm finished the guy off. Charm turned to see me in the other lady’s arms and frowned.

  In my defense, I was paralyzed.

  “I got him,” Charm said, and heaved me up with a breath of red. It worked like a shot of adrenaline and I was able to move again, though everything was stiff.

  “Get moving!” Gale said as she and Twitch moved to create an exit—her with gusts of wind that deflected attacks, Twitch with shields for those that made it through.

  We were running, and suddenly the attacks began hitting the opposite wall. The gang of supervillains followed a moment later, charging down the opposite corridor. I blinked, confused, then turned to Shimmer. She gave me a proud smile and helped Charm get me through.

  “I got it,” I said after a few more steps. My legs were feeling almost back to their full strength. The last thing I wanted was to meet another group of enemies looking like I couldn’t even stand.

  Walls moved and we were entering new room after new room, watching the metal close behind us. It all made me feel like I was in a madhouse at a carnival, but with the excitement of knowing my life could end at any moment.

  Finally, it stopped as we stumbled through an opening at the end of a long corridor.

  The room we now found ourselves in was small but breathtaking. Unlike the metallic crazy-house we’d just come through, this room had ornate gold carvings of pyramids and supers, and of lush landscapes that looked nothing like the arid scenery outside. Glowing gems decorated the metal beams above, and one in the middle of the ceiling shone blue.

  Light from all over the room seemed to go in one direction, I now realized, as if streams connected the source: what at first I took to be a gilded image. But as my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized that the figure’s golden clothes were not part of the wall behind and that it was, in fact, Daos standing there, glaring.

  At the sight of him, Andromida roared. It was crazy, a woman roaring like that, but it’s the only way I could describe what I heard. She stepped forward and a pulse went out from her, rippling through the metal, and when she was done, her skin and eyes were blue again, her hands clenched into fists, eyes boring into her former mentor.

  She was back.

  15

  “How the fuck did you all make it this far?” Daos cried, fear seeping through his voice. His eyes roamed over each of us, stopping on me. “Trust me, you’ll never leave this place.” He stepped forward, the light following him, and stared down his nose at me. “Ranger’s going to love this.”

  “And you’re going to love this,” Andromida said, thrusting out her hands so that again the metal rippled, red arms appearing from the shadows, reaching out.

  Daos clapped his hands together, light buzzing around him, and then it shot out at us like a thousand buzzing insects of pain. Whatever he’d been outside, this place changed him. But Andromida had changed too, going from a version of herself that had no powers and now had them back again. It was like
new life had been breathed into her.

  And with my recently renewed powers, I was able to transform the light—all I had to do was focus on using the illusion to temporarily transform it to snow, and Gale was able to manipulate it so that it was thrown right back at him. Andromida was there a moment later, those red arms emerging from the light and grabbing hold of him as she slammed her fist into his face. Then she thrust up and metal shot out toward him. But he turned it around, manipulating the metal so that instead of harming him it cut through the red arms.

  Andromida fell back with a yelp and Daos rose from the ground. At that moment his two bodyguards returned.

  “Ranger is incoming, my lord,” one of them said, eyeing us.

  We were in a bit of a stalemate, it seemed. His light couldn’t do much against us, but Andromida was our strongest, and her powers had originated here. Anything she threw at him, I was guessing based on what I’d just seen, could be turned right back around and used against us.

  “Sir?” the other said, and then Daos pounced. He actually transformed mid-leap, cloak falling back from his head and revealing cat ears similar to Charm’s foxy ones. Claws spread, he took Andromida by the throat and tried to tear her larynx out. But then something strange happened. A red light flowed out from one of the jewels in the beams above, filling Andromida.

  “NO!” Daos shouted, trying to clinch but unable to.

  I had no idea what was happening but used that moment of distraction to attack. I sent a tempest chain of electricity through the two guards, being careful not to hit Daos since he was in contact with Andromida. Gale and Shimmer charged the man, while Charm went for his guards.

  Despite the guards being armed with their deadly blue glow sticks, my ladies were kicking some serious ass. As one of them struck Charm she caught him with her claws, while Gale sent a blast of wind to knock him off balance. The blue stick went flying, and Shimmer turned, catching it, continuing her motion to strike at Daos with it. He flew back as he was blasted with an explosion of energy, and she grinned.

  “Badass!” Shimmer said, switching out to take over from me with the other guard.

  Putting all I had into it, I charged Daos, transforming like I’d done before with the illusion charm, only this time I decided to go for a dragon shifter. Imagine how excited I was when it seemed that I’d grown horned wings out of my back and claws from my fingertips. I wasn’t a full dragon, but I increased to almost twice my size, armor expanding with me, and then I crashed into him so that we slammed into the wall behind and went plowing right through it! Apparently, it wasn’t metal like most of this place, as evidenced by the way it shattered into blue light cubes and then faded away.

  Behind us, the ladies had finished off one guard and I saw that the other was already on the ground.

  As we regained our footing, the bar on my display went to zero. I couldn’t hold illusions like this for too long, and they went even faster, apparently, when combined with Twitch’s power that made it a reality. Something I’d have to focus on when leveling up for sure—although that meant prolonging the acid rain skill even longer. Dragon would win out every time.

  It was for the best that the power was gone, anyway, because Andromida charged in and she was clearly out for blood.

  She didn’t even bother with her powers. Like when she’d been without, she charged the man with fists ready. He was so confused by it, he didn’t even know what to do. As she hit him with a good punch across the jaw and then an uppercut, Daos stumbled back and growled.

  He came at her with his burst of light, but she was already moving in for another strike. With a well-performed takedown, she had him on the ground and kneed him in the crotch as she rolled up and slammed an elbow in his face, then had him in a chokehold.

  The others came in behind, ready to join in, but I held up a hand to tell them to let her have it. Daos called on the light again, but even as it hit her, she pulled tighter so that the light fell back as he lost focus. His body started to twitch, but I couldn’t look away. The light strobed in and out with his movements and then vanished into the nearby precious stones, his body limp.

  “With my powers back,” Andromida said, a not-so-nice sneer taking over, “I have no need for this bastard. Since he’s as guilty as the rest of them...”

  She stood, turned to us, and closed her eyes as red streamed back out from several rubies, moved around her feet and then went to the corpse. They became the arms we’d seen so many times before. The arms grabbed him, pulling him into a hole in the wall that opened just for him, slamming shut behind.

  A glance around caused my eyes to go wide. “All of this, metal moving the way it does, the red arms of light… it’s all very similar to your powers,” I said to Andromida.

  “Exactly,” she said. “They were grooming me to take over, at the time. And I did… at first, losing my mind… The only other super who would be capable of making it work was fighting against them. From what I understand, after I escaped they captured and enslaved her, forcing her to work with Daos to control the light and manipulate the pyramid. If it were just me, two people would’ve been needed—that is, if I’d agreed to serve them. As you’ve seen, I did not.”

  I turned to Charm and noticed a look in her eyes I wasn’t used to. “Is it weird that he… you know…?”

  “The ears?” She shook her head, but then thought about it. “Maybe? It’s not very often we come across each other, especially since most that end up looking like me go over to the villain side of it all. Being bullied and all… some people choose that path.”

  It probably wasn’t the best time to point out that I’d met her in a supervillain prison, so instead I nodded in understanding.

  “What is this room?” I asked, taking in my surroundings, stopping at the sight of a large, black sarcophagus.

  “The starting point,” Andromida said, walking along the wall and tracing the carvings with her fingers. “I remember being here once before, but in a state of terror. I vowed then I’d never feel like that again.”

  “But we still haven’t found any signs of the Tier Ones, or their supra tech,” Gale pointed out. “How are a bunch of carvings and pretty stones going to help us?”

  Andromida stopped at the side of the sarcophagus, eyes closed, head bent. “With this.”

  Suddenly, she knelt at its side and pushed against the lid. I wasn’t sure what she was doing and definitely didn’t want to find a dead body in there, but helped regardless. The lid came off to reveal a super lying in there, wires and cables connected to her arms and neck. She looked up at us with eyes of pure white, thrashing and shouting, lashing out with the wires connected to her and light shooting out in every direction. She froze suddenly, the light coming to a stillness over our heads. In it, images appeared. We could see the top of the pyramid, the sky with clouds floating past, and then… something broke through the clouds. A ship, followed by more ships.

  “Ranger has arrived,” she hissed and then collapsed.

  We pulled her from the box, the wires and cables coming off easily, only leaving marks where they seemed to have connected, but not fully penetrated, her body.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “Don’t you see it?” Twitch replied. “Her face… it’s the same one we saw in the wall. This is the woman who needed help, and who was, I assume, helping us.”

  “Through this device,” Gale added, walking along the edge of the sarcophagus. “Somehow, being in here lets you control the pyramid.”

  “So why not have Daos just plug himself in?” I asked.

  “I’m guessing it’s less about control, and more about becoming one with the pyramid,” Twitch said, scanning it, and then Gale. She frowned, then repeated the process, only this time scanning me after the box. “That explains why she was able to fight back, at least. She must’ve sensed your presence, must’ve known it was you somehow.”

  I shook my head in confusion.

  “Your mother, Breaker,” Charm said, as she
knelt on the floor holding the newly-released woman on her lap. “Right?”

  Twitch nodded.

  “No way…” I turned to the woman and knelt beside her. “Mom?”

  The woman—my mom!—turned to me, her eyes barely fluttering open and then closing again. Her lips twitched, and then she muttered, “We have to leave… we must…”

  “How?” I asked.

  Her brow furrowed, her nose scrunched, and then her eyes burst open. No longer all white, but brown, like looking in the mirror, those eyes. “We have to destroy the pyramid, but first… defeat Ranger. Get rid of them, end this place… Break free.”

  When Twitch spoke the words, I already knew what needed to be done. “You’re the only one, Breaker. You have to go in.”

  “You’ve seen what it did to her,” I pointed out. “Me getting in there means getting out will be that much more difficult.”

  “Not necessarily,” Andromida argued. “She’s been at this a long time and is likely weakened by that. You’ll do what needs to be done, but have us out here fighting for you, helping you. If we work together, with one of us here to release you at the right time, we can pull this off.”

  The ‘maybe’ part was in her eyes, but I left it alone.

  “I’ll do it,” I said, and took a deep breath to build up my courage.

  Andromida nodded. “Thank you. Twitch, the key to the powers of the Tier Ones is here, but you’ll have to use your powers to figure out a way to reverse it. We need to take the stolen powers with us in case we meet those who they belong to.”

  “You think they’re still alive, out there somewhere?” Twitch asked.

  Andromida didn’t answer, but instead said, “See what you can do. The rest of us will do our best to hold off the enemy with our boy here.”

  It was decided. As I stepped in, the lights moved around me like glittering snow, all converging on my chest and then spreading out. I lowered myself inside and the cables and wires took me, becoming one with me… and then I was in. Images of tunnels and various rooms flashed before me, grew into my conscious, and then it was done. I was one with the pyramid.