Lair For Rent

by Skyler Grant

  “That or stay on fire,” Jules said.

  “Remind me to install an anti-incineration system,” Niles said, before joining Ox in the mud.

  That put out the fires at least.

  “I want to be good in a fight. This body is stupid,” Uma complained.

  “You really did get stronger though,” I said to Jules.

  “I fear it isn’t permanent. I think I can already feel it start to burn off,” Jules said. “I’m just not powerful enough to hold on to it, not yet.”

  That was unfortunate. It was nice having a warrior goddess on the team. Still, so long as she was one for the next few hours we’d make it work.

  46

  We left the hog buildings behind. I wondered if Mastermind had dropped us there on purpose. Really, it was a foolish question. He was Mastermind, and of course it had been on purpose.

  Perhaps he had wanted to see if we were capable enough? If we couldn’t handle some hog riders how could we cope against Patriot? There was probably some massively powerful weapon ready to raze our facility just in case we failed.

  We had passed the first test, now it was time to tackle the fight that mattered.

  Approaching our lair we encountered no resistance, but the doors were sealed. These were not the doors the complex had before, looking apparently decrepit on the outside and yet the armor plating was far more secure.

  The building was trying hard to look as abandoned as the ones surrounding it. Foolish Patriot, you’d never deceive anyone like us in that way.

  “I guess Patriot wants to discourage visitors,” I said.

  “Ox,” Ox said. “They are massive doors, but I am even more massive, comrades. If I must, perhaps I can charge through and breach the innermost sanctum in the pursuit of reclaiming our home with great happiness.”

  I really had to wonder how much of that was Ox, and how much just a bad translation algorithm.

  “I’m not so sure. That door is solid, really solid,” Niles said.

  “When I thought about upgrading them myself, I ran into the problem of what's worthwhile when there were nearby walls not as reinforced,” I said.

  Jules drew an arrow in a smooth motion and released it. It exploded on impact, bricks flying as the wall collapsed inward.

  “Well, that worked,” Niles said.

  It did, but that wasn’t the whole of it. As soon as the wall was breached the air was shimmering and a line of combat droids materialized.

  A hologram of an eye appeared before them.

  “You are no longer welcome here. While grateful for services rendered that only goes so far. Leave, now,” Patriot said.

  “This was our home. We just need a few things. It won’t take long,” I said.

  If we could get Patriot to let us in without a fight, it was all for the best.

  “Please,” Jules said, giving her best smile.

  “No,” Patriot said.

  Well, that was that.

  I didn’t even have to give the order. My crew was already in motion. Ox charged and combat drones scattered from the impact. Jules drew arrows with blinding speed, one arrow releasing arcs of electricity as it struck, and the next causing frost to spread.

  Niles scooped up Uma under one arm. I know that he didn’t have super speed, not really, but the ability to slow down time for short periods was almost the same thing. In an instant he was beyond the line of defense droids and in the building.

  “Keep with them,” I said, as I weaved around a droid that tried to tackle my drone.

  Jules rolled as the drones fired at her with some sort of laser weaponry. The shots left a line of molten stone behind. They were focusing fire on her and she took cover behind Ox, ducking out to deliver another arrow that caused the head of a droid to be encased in ice.

  Patriot called, “You are an interesting team, but only one of you is a largely offensive risk. And elemental arrows are easily countered with a bit of thought.”

  Jules' next shot was a spark arrow. It didn’t seem to even slow down the combat droid it hit.

  She fired a second in an instant. This one wasn’t elemental. Instead the tip was armor-penetrating. It tore a hole clear through the skull of the droid.

  Ox shielded her from fire as she made her way inside, his body soaking shot after shot. The laser beams were leaving his clothes in tatters, and they were powerful enough that the wiring of his strength enhancers was taking some hits. Still, his flesh was unharmed. When it came to being a human shield he really was good at it.

  The interior of our headquarters had been rearranged. Walls and passages were not where they should be. Perhaps it was an attempt to confuse me, but I still knew where everything was—not every room could be changed. My old server room, the transport room with the quantum pairing system, these were fixed points.

  Niles was busy protecting Uma, the teddy bear hiding behind one of his armored legs as he fired energy blasts at drones.

  I sent a pointer to his tactical display. “They’re already shielding against your blasts. Open us some doors. We’re not going through the halls Patriot set up.”

  Niles raised both arms and a massive surge of power gathered around his fists for a moment before blasting out to tear a huge passage through the walls.

  Ox charged down it, knocking aside a droid that materialized in his path.

  Did Patriot realize what we were up to yet? I could only guess not. Either that or its reserves of power really were tapped from Mastermind's antics.

  Our makeshift tunnel ended at a large spherical chamber, the door to the transit room in one corner. The room had been repainted, and statues of supers that I didn’t recognize now lined the walls.

  Blue light manifested in the center of the chamber, the most intense that I’d seen from Patriot. Lingering far longer than it had with any drones. When it vanished a man was standing there. Tight-fitting combat armor, a cape, all in the same colors as Patriot liked to display.

  “Oh, that feels terrible. You don’t even want to know what kind of sore muscles you get from too long spent in energy sleep,” the man said, stretching out.

  Jules shot an arrow at his face and he caught it as an explosion detonated in his hand. It didn’t seem to bother him, glancing at his clenched fist for a moment before tossing the remnants of the arrow aside.

  “Sore, but not that stiff. I’m Constitution,” Constitution said.

  47

  Everybody stared at each other after Constitution introduced himself. This was the first biological that we’d seen Patriot deploy although it wasn’t completely a surprise that he might have some in storage.

  “And here I was hoping we’d get to meet Charisma instead,” Niles said.

  “Funny,” Constitution said, still stretching as he walked over and punched Niles in the chest with enough force to send him crashing against a nearby plinth. “I mean, there's something to my name. I’m sort of an immovable object, but the name is from the document—not how badass I am.”

  I scanned him so I had some idea what we were dealing with.

  Constitution

  Unregistered

  Patriot Squad

  Science

  Power Level: 70,000

  Abilities: Invincibility, Super Strength, Power Jumps, Lawyer

  Background: Constitution is one of the founding members of the Patriot Squad. A former politician with cancer, he was given the Patriot Serum and granted considerable powers at the cost of a vastly reduced lifespan over the human average.

  “Careful. I’m pretty sure that he’s an A-Class,” I said.

  “Straight A's and a degree with some pedigree. Really you should be honored you’re fighting me,” Constitution said, flashing a smile as one of Jules' arrows caught him in the face, wreathing his head for a moment in green gas.

  Jules rolled out of the way as Constitution approached her, in an instant crossing the distance with a mighty jump and landing a fist across her jaw that sent her to the floor.

  “So
what is the patriot serum?” I asked.

  Constitution said, “Used to be a secret, don’t see the point now. This universe of ours is a whole lot scarier than most think. There are forces out there that don’t just burn nations. They burn worlds, galaxies. The patriot serum is the answer, or at least the start of the answer.” He paused for a moment as he soaked a dozen blurred punches from Niles before hitting him with a backhanded blow that bounced Niles off the ceiling.

  “I’ve got bad news for you. You’re not that strong,” I said.

  Constitution got to my drone with a leap, grasping it with one hand and grinning into the camera. “I’m the first generation. They cut our funding, tried to wipe us out even as we warned them their end was coming. With time … with time we are going to do some incredible things. We’re going to build a utopia.”

  My drone was flung into Ox’s face with enough force to scramble my sensors for several long moments and to send Ox through a wall, a portion of the roof caving in.

  Warning

  Temporal Convergence Detected

  Divergence now at 1.31

  That was coming from my hardware. When I’d first downloaded myself into the sphere it seemed to think that the utopia had been stopped—Kid Chaos had gone back in time and prevented it. That divergence from his timeline was going down. Patriot had to be the cause. In awakening Patriot we’d changed things and my hardware was now taking note.

  I didn’t know what that meant, except that it meant something.

  The way things were going we weren’t going to win. I didn’t doubt that Mastermind was ready for our failure. The strongest weapons he possessed were no doubt pointed at this building willing to let go.

  With as much divergence still remaining probably meant Mastermind stood a fair chance of success if he opened fire. That wouldn’t help us at all though.

  “Perhaps we don’t have to be enemies,” Jules said, as she shakily got back to her feet. “You are new to this time, but there are organizations here, society. You can find a place to belong instead of trying to wipe the whole thing out.”

  Constitution leapt towards her once again and squeezed a hand around her throat, the other slamming into her abdomen and I could hear the crack of ribs. “When the fate of the world is at stake you don’t play nice. You win, and if you can’t win, you cheat until you can. We’re here now and the only real threats to us are gone.”

  I wondered. My sphere had seemed concerned about one other thing—I didn’t know what connection my Emmatech code had to Patriot and this utopia they were trying to build, but there was one ... somewhere.

  I opened a datalink and sent a log of this conversation to Emmatech.

  It didn’t arrive.

  A new voice came from the building speakers. “Well, this is just pathetic. Do you know what I did when my lair came under massive attack from a superior force? I blew the whole thing up and stole their ship. This guy would have already been in a testing labyrinth.”

  Constitution paused before slamming a fist into Jules’ face. A spray of blood flew as her nose shattered and he tossed her to the ground.

  With a rainbow shimmer a cookie materialized on the floor beside her. Jules reached out a shaking hand.

  “I don’t know who you are, but you have no idea who you’re dealing with. Clear off,” Constitution called loudly.

  “You’re a tiny little man from a pathetic little reality, but I’ve family here. They’re terrible, but they’re mine. Walter, stupid name, you should change it. I’m not going to fight your battles for you, I don’t have to. This little cadre is just a few of your friends. Next time bring the full army.”

  It was hard to explain what that voice felt like in the network system, this overpowering weight that displaced everything else. And whatever it was, it was gone.

  Jules was picking herself off the floor and all traces of her injuries were gone. So was the cookie. Our unexpected guest appeared to be a talented baker.

  “Well, now that it's just us again, let's finish this show,” Constitution said.

  A shimmering red rift opened up and through it stepped Kleo and Partygurl. They weren’t alone.

  “Having a bash and you don’t invite me,” Partygurl said.

  “Nobody kicks a princess out of her castle, humble as it may be,” Kleo said.

  48

  “I didn’t expect either of you to assist,” I said.

  I was pleased to see them, but I’d gotten the impression that villains usually only came to each other's aid when there was either something to gain, or someone more powerful was compelling them.

  “This is our home too. You did a few good turns for each of us when you really didn’t have to. Besides, you’ll pay us back,” Kleo said.

  On that she was correct. A businessman honored his debts, and they’d just brought a rather small force to help us. Still, I’d find a way to properly thank them for it.

  “The forces of hell I understand. But why bring cheerleaders to a brawl?” Constitution asked.

  The small force was, in fact, a group of five girls in cheerleading outfits, the MU of Mastermind University emblazoned across the front and a flaming skull armband on one arm.

  “We’re the cheerleaders of doom and if you want a taste of our spirit, go right ahead,” one of the cheerleaders said.

  A quick dance routine had all of them surrounded by a reddish aura, then one of the girls extended a fist towards Constitution. A glowing red beam of force shot out and Constitution soared through the air to smash through some brickwork.

  Right, Partygurl had brought in some good reinforcements.

  “He’s an A-Class and I doubt you brought the firepower to defeat him, but if you can hold him down that would be great,” I said.

  “On it,” Kleo said, flaming demonic sigils appearing in the air near her and pelting down upon Constitution.

  There were blue shimmers in the air as Patriot brought in more combat drones.

  It made the combat chaotic. Disorganized. That was to our advantage.

  I opened a private comm line to Niles. “You wired most of the cameras on this floor. Think you can take them out?”

  “On it,” Niles said, flashing away from the fight.

  I wasn’t in control of those cameras anymore so it wouldn’t blind me—it would blind Patriot to anything it wasn't already seeing through their combat droids.

  In all the fighting, nobody was concerned with my drone.

  “Ride me,” I said to Uma.

  “Wow! I had no idea you felt that way. I mean, I’m totally flattered,” Uma said.

  “You know what I mean,” I said.

  “Fine,” Uma said, and climbed on.

  The room was wreathed in demonic flames, not that it seemed to bother combat droids that had adapted and were proceeding punch, stab, and shoot the demons responsible.

  Uma’s newly acquired teddy bear form mounted my drone and I got us away from the combat as fast as possible. The camera lights had gone dark. Niles had succeeded in taking them down.

  The corridors were a new maze to navigate. Still, I knew the way. The passages to get there were complex, but not impossible, and Patriot had only partially installed defenses. This place was a work in progress.

  I finally came to the familiar doors to the transit room and took us inside. A portal was active, shimmering with a golden glow. There was a figure in front of it.

  It was a woman with incredibly pale skin, black eyes and hair, and wearing a tattered black robe. She fired tendrils of darkness from her hand. It slammed my drone against the wall as Uma went sprawling.

  “I don’t think so,” the woman said.

  “Let me guess, Amendment? Liberty?” I asked.

  “Lady Justice. Not really anything to do with my powers, but the whole shadow manipulation thing kind of went with wearing black. Right, you don’t need my whole history.” Lady Justice shrugged.

  I didn’t, but if it kept her talking I was happy to engage her in conversat
ion. The main transit computer was across the room behind her. If I could provide a distraction Uma might be able to reach it unseen.

  “No, but I’m curious. Constitution didn’t seem like the talking type,” I said.

  Lady Justice rolled her eyes. “The man is a politician. He’ll talk your ear off if he wants something from you, although he’d rather just beat you down instead.”

  Lady Justice was keeping herself ready to fight, shadows roiling along her body like a dark mist.

  “You really on board with this? The whole … world conquering thing? I mean, it's pretty nice out there. Well, I mean, not nice, terrible really, but there are lots of coffee shops which you humans seem to enjoy,” I said.

  “Really?” Lady Justice asked. “Not a post-apocalyptic wasteland with like ... gangs covered in spikes and racing around in cars? We were told that was the most likely possibility.”

  What kind of world would that be? How does civilization fall yet the one piece of it we cling onto has proper auto maintenance and vehicle construction?

  “We have a local biker gang, but they're a group of hyper-evolved pigs. There are a lot of cars, really, but the rest of it doesn’t sound very accurate. Maybe you want to just sit this one out?” I asked.

  Uma had been creeping along the wall as we talked, moving slowly until at last she could reach out a paw and touch the transit console.

  The lights in the room flickered for a moment and the open portal went out.

  Lady Justice tapped at her earpiece, “Well, that is no good.”

  I told her, “We just cut off the portal network, which means Patriot has no means of communication with the surface. You can stay and do some whole valiant, last stand thing if you insist.”

  Lady Justice made a face. “Nah, Patriot will get out eventually. I should probably go wait until then.”

  It was in my interest to have her out of the way. Mastermind might like to interrogate her, but that just meant drawing this out longer.