Authors: Kevin Hardman
Chapter 23
My role, under Tango Foxtrot, was to conduct patrols. It wasn’t a duty I was particularly keen on, but we all have to do our part. Fortunately, being a speedster, I could zip through all of my designated areas in practically no time. Moreover, since I only had to go through my assigned zones once an hour, I actually had a lot of free time, which I chose to spend in Command Central with Electra.
Practically speaking, Command Central was the control room for Alpha League HQ. Filled to capacity with computers, monitors, and all sorts of equipment, it was nominally the hub of all League information and activity. From here, automatic defenses could be turned on, you could access cameras to see various areas on the grounds, you could contact units in the field, etc. (Of course, Mouse could do the same and more from his lab, but that was apparently one of the perks of leadership.)
Electra and two others were on duty in the room, studiously watching the monitors and cameras while checking in with all the teens to make sure that nobody was slacking off. In between patrols, I leaned back in a computer chair not far from Electra, feet plopped up on a nearby desk. Outside the room, Dynamo and his team were on standby, simply waiting for the word to swing into action.
Electra gave me a slightly exasperated look, but didn’t say anything. I suppose she could have ordered me out, but I hadn’t really done anything and had been completely silent for the most part. (Plus, I think she wanted to show that she could lead without being distracted in any way by me.) In essence, it was looking like it would be a long, boring night.
All of that abruptly changed, however, about twenty minutes after Mouse’s departure. That’s when one of the others in Command Central — a girl called Audible Annie — noticed something on one of the monitors.
“Look at this,” she said, pointing towards one of the monitors in front of her. “There’s some kind of weird haze showing up.”
Electra and the other person assigned to Command Central — a guy called Auger — stepped over to take a look.
“Maybe it’s a camera malfunction,” Auger said.
At this point I joined them, looking over Annie’s shoulder. The picture displayed on the screen appeared to be that of a place undergoing construction. There was a large open area surrounded by high walls, with a non-working fountain in the center. I recognized it as a portion of HQ being contemplated as an interior courtyard. Ultimately, if those plans were approved, it would have benches, flowers, etc. — in essence, a small park.
I also saw something else that was familiar to me: a shimmering incandescence (apparently the “haze” Audible Annie had mentioned) that I had just encountered the night before with my father.
“Get everybody down there now!” I screamed. “We’re about to be attacked!”
Chapter 24
In retrospect, calling it an attack was being generous — and paying a compliment — to our adversaries. After sounding the alarm, I had teleported myself, Auger, Electra, and the fourth response team to the courtyard where the shimmering had been spotted. We had barely arrived when the incandescence vanished and we found ourselves facing a group of invaders.
There were about twenty-five of them, all decked out in balaclavas and body armor, and carrying laser weapons. The two sides stared at each other for a moment, and then — almost in unison — everyone screamed and it was on.
Dynamo charged at the center of their ranks, immediately drawing their fire. If their lasers had any effect on him, I didn’t see it, because he rammed through them without hesitation, knocking men aside like tenpins.
Electra fired an arc of electricity at one guy’s weapon, making it explode in a shower of sparks. The force of the blast blew the man backwards, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
On my part, I phased and then went through the enemy’s lines, teleporting any weapons I saw into a basement storage area that the Alpha League maintained for firearms.
Likewise, all of the other super teens present put their powers to work taking out the bad guys. Surprisingly, our attackers seemed to have no supers of their own with them. Long story short, without their weapons and facing superior firepower, our assailants were seriously outclassed. We mopped the floor with them, and the whole thing was over in just a few minutes, with most of the bad guys unconscious and the remainder on their knees with their hands behind their heads, fingers interlocked.
All of us teens looked at one another, smiling and probably thinking the same thing: that we had seriously spanked the bad guys. Giddy with adrenaline, one or two teens even started to chuckle. A few others joined them. Then the chuckles turned into snickering. A few seconds later, all of us were laughing (although still keeping an eye on our prisoners).
In retrospect, I probably should have teleported the bad guys to holding cells, a number of which we actually have at League HQ. However, the other teens were absolutely euphoric about the win we’d just had, and it didn’t seem completely inappropriate to let them have a little emotional release (okay, it was probably more like gloating) in front of the guys who had just attacked us.
It wasn’t until a few seconds later, when I ceased laughing long enough to catch my breath, that I heard a high-pitched beeping. A multitude of beeps actually, although they were sounding off almost in sync.
I sobered instantly. It was the same sound I’d heard the previous night when the three supervillains—
“Everybody back!” I screamed, looking towards the guys we had just beaten to a pulp. Sure enough, each of them had one of the black bands around his wrist, with a crystal flashing crimson.
There was no laughter now from the other teens. Heeding my warning, they had backed away. A few seconds later, as I expected, the shimmering appeared and surrounded our assailants. And then they were gone. All of the other teens looked stunned.
“What just happened?” Auger asked with naked incredulity.
“They got away, obviously,” Dynamo answered, somewhat angrily.
“How?” Auger asked.
“That’s the sixty-four-dollar question, my friend,” I said.
Having seen this scenario play out before, I hadn’t been caught totally by surprise. Most of the others, however, just stared dumbly at the area where all the bad guys had been just a minute ago. Their escape wasn’t due to anything that we had done wrong (in fact, there probably wasn’t anything we could have done to prevent it, even if I
had
teleported them to a holding cell), but I could feel disappointment, a sense a failure, and similar emotions rising up in the others. I was on the verge of offering some words of encouragement — maybe let them know that even Alpha Prime hadn’t been able to prevent the same thing from happening to him — when someone spoke from the doorway that led from the courtyard to the building.
I looked and saw a man whose appearance was a complete enigma. He was dressed as though he had leaped from a nineteenth century Victorian painting, wearing dark trousers, a jabot, and an ulster coat. His face was covered with bizarre designs: ancient symbols, weird hieroglyphs, obscure characters. (And, although only his face was exposed, I knew that those strange emblems covered him from head to foot.)
It was Rune, the erstwhile magician of the Alpha League. As I watched, a small glob of blood formed near his temple and then trickled down the side of his face.
“A little help here, please,” he said. “I think I’ve been injured.”
Chapter 25
One of the other teens offered to help Rune back to his room. His wound didn’t appear serious, and he felt he could take care of it with his magic once he got back to his quarters. As he left, something odd occurred to me: I hadn’t actually seen Rune while we were fighting the bad guys.
Of course, that didn’t mean anything. He was a powerful magician; he could have been out there fighting invisibly and gotten hurt by friendly fire. He could have been hit by a ricochet of some sort. He could have been injured fighting somewhere else and come back here to convalesce. Or he might have just slipped in the shower. Who knows?
I teleported the rest of us back to Command Central. Once there, I found myself involuntarily stretching and yawning. It had been a long day; in fact, it was actually the
next
day.
Electra saw me yawning and put on her team leader hat, making a command decision: half of us were going to be allowed to sleep for two hours while the others stayed on duty. At the two-hour mark, we’d switch. Of course, she put me in the first group that was to get some rest.
Overall, it was a good decision on her part in that a lot of us were tired, but she didn’t actually have to do it for me. I have the ability to consciously control almost all of my bodily processes and functions. With a few tweaks, I’d be wide awake and able to go for days without sleep. I’d have to pay for it later, of course, when my body went back to normal, but that seemed like a fair trade.
Electra, however, had made a decision as team leader, and — if I were going to start acting like a team player — I needed to obey it. Therefore, I simply nodded and told her I’d be in the break room, which is where I teleported to a moment later.
Once there, I went to the pantry, looking for something to eat. I eventually settled on three cans of pineapples (which I quickly devoured) and then stretched out on a nearby sofa. I was asleep within seconds.
**************************************
I came to groggily, with rough hands shaking me.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Wake up.”
I opened my eyes and saw Mouse leaning over me.
“It’s about time,” he said. “I thought I was going to have to kiss you to get you awake.”
He stepped back a little as I swung my feet to the floor and sat up.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“About four hours, according to what Electra told me.”
“Four hours! I was supposed to switch—”
“Relax. The response teams started filing back in about an hour into your little power nap. That being the case, I told the other teens to stand down. I sent them all home.”
“Oh? Does that mean I can go home, too?”
“Not exactly. Can you take us to my lab?”
I nodded, and a second later we were there. Braintrust was nearby, fiddling with some device on a worktable.
“Hey, Jim,” she said.
I waved back, then turned to Mouse. “I’m going to use your bathroom to freshen up.”
“Knock yourself out,” he said. “There are extra toiletries under the counter.”
I nodded and teleported. Five minutes later, I was back, feeling somewhat more presentable after a shower and having gone through my usual morning routine. I’d even popped back home for a change of clothes. (I suppose I could have actually showered in my own bathroom rather than Mouse’s, but was afraid it might wake Mom and Gramps.)
“So, where are we?” I asked.
“About the same place we were yesterday,” BT replied.
“Well, that’s progress,” I said sarcastically.
Mouse sighed. “We’ve been trying to reverse-engineer this thing — figure out what kind of weapon they’re using by working backwards, starting at the scene.”
“No luck?” I asked.
“None whatsoever,” BT said. “It’s the same story as what you and Alpha Prime experienced. There’s no residue at any of the sites, no bomb remnants…nothing to give us a starting point. Usually there’s
some
thing.”
“Unfortunately,” Mouse said, “I think we’re up against a clock. I’m thinking that maybe there’s some type of indicator present after these explosives — if we can call them that — go off, but it dissipates right away. That’s where you come in.”
I thought about it for a moment. “You want me to immediately teleport you to the site the next time these guys blow something up.”
“Exactly,” Mouse said. “Maybe then I can pick up a trace of something before it vanishes — assuming I’m right.”
“Fine by me,” I said. “But you’ll have to deal with me hanging around all day.”
“What? You hanging out in my lab?” Mouse asked, feigning shock. “That’ll be a new experience.”
“Anyway,” I said, ignoring his attempt at humor, “do we have any clue yet what these people want? Why they’re doing all this?”
“Negatory,” Mouse said. “There was no threat before any of the stuff that happened last night, no demands, no nothing. I mean, just knowing what they were after would be a big help in trying to stop them. But I can’t make sense of their actions.”
“Like destroying the overpass,” I said.
“Yeah,” BT agreed. “It’s not clear how that benefited them. All they did was show up and fight you and Alpha Prime afterwards.”
Mouse’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Maybe that was the whole point.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “They just wanted to fight us?”
“Not you, specifically,” Mouse replied. “Your old man.”
“Yeah, that’s a career path with lots of potential — fighting the world’s greatest superhero,” I said. “My father’s invulnerable.”
“Well, yes and no,” BT said.