The Ascension: A Super Human Clash (12 page)

ABBY HAD SNAPPED the bolts on the shutters of an old, abandoned warehouse, and now she and Thunder were hiding inside.

“What can you hear?” she asked. “Is it safe to leave yet?”

“Not yet. They're not going to give up easily.”

“We can't wait here forever. They'll check this place eventually.”

“I know, but I'll hear them coming. So…this Daedalus guy,” Thunder asked. “What do we know about him?”

“Not a lot. That sergeant thought
I
was him—which tells me that they don't know much about him either. He said that Daedalus killed a hundred thousand people in Anchorage. Is that true?”

James told her what he'd learned of the Alaskan tragedy, that Daedalus had been accused of planting the bomb that had almost destroyed the entire state.

By the time he was finished, Abby was shaking her head. “That's insane…. No one would do something like that! And for what? What did Daedalus expect to get out of it?”

“I asked Faith about that. She didn't know. She said that after it happened, the whole world went a bit crazy. All the most powerful superheroes—and some of the villains, apparently—were in Anchorage trying to stop Daedalus when the bomb was triggered. Krodin was the only survivor. The problem is, if the Praetorians don't know much about Daedalus, how are
we
going to find him?” He shrugged. “I don't even know how we're going to get out of Midway.”

“I've been thinking about that…. We could steal one of their hovercraft,” Abby suggested.

“Raptors, they're called. Same problem. I can barely drive a car—I don't think I could control one of those things.”

“What's your name?” Abby suddenly asked.

“Thunder.”

“No, you dope. Your
real
name.”

He bit his lip. “Um…”

“Back to that again, are we? Look, what's the big deal? We live in the same town, so we're bound to run into each other from time to time. Anyway, you know
my
real name.”

“That's because you don't have a superhero name.”

“Whatever. So who are you?”

“Look, see, the thing is…if you know my real name and say you get captured and tortured, then you might tell them my name, and next thing I know the bad guys are storming into my house while I'm asleep.”

“Huh. Listen, pal, if I get captured and tortured and I find out you're asleep and not out there trying to save me, I
will
tell them your name.”

He paused for a few seconds. “All right. My name is James Klaus.”

Abby smiled. “OK then. That wasn't so hard, was it? Hey, wait a second…. You live in Maple Towers…. Is your sister called Shiho?”

James's eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

“She goes to school with two of my brothers. And my big sister used to babysit you and your sister. You would have been about ten.”

His shoulders sagged. “Vienna, right? I remember her, but I don't think I ever knew her last name. Vienna de Luyando. Wow.”

“Good wow or bad wow?”

“Just a surprised wow. How old is your sister now?”

“Too old for
you
, Jimmy. She's nineteen. Besides, you've got competition—I think Paragon likes her.”

“I'm not interested in your sister. I was just asking. And my name's not Jimmy. It's James.” He suddenly raised his head and looked around. “They're calling off the search, for now.” He listened for a moment. “They're setting up a cordon around the whole town—they've blocked off all the roads. And they've got the cameras—they're putting the town on full alert…. It's not going to be easy to find a way out with all the cameras.”

“We can go across the rooftops,” Abby said. “The cameras are only watching the streets.”

“Maybe
you
can go across the rooftops, but I can't. I mean, I think I'm in pretty good condition, but I don't have your enhanced strength and speed.”

“Maybe you can use your shock wave trick to float or something like that. It saved you from a pretty nasty fall earlier.”

James nodded slowly. “Yeah, maybe….” He walked out into the center of the room, and Abby saw a look of concentration form on his face. “Let's see….”

The warehouse floor suddenly trembled, and Abby jumped up. “What was that?”

“That was me. I'll try again. It could be just a matter of finding the right frequency.”

“If you say so.”

The floor trembled again, but this time it was much less noticeable.

James laughed. “It's working!”

Abby walked toward him. “I don't see…” And then she noticed that his feet were no longer quite touching the ground. “Oh wow!”

“Good wow or bad wow?”

“The best kind. That is way cool. Go higher!”

He rose into the air until Abby was able to walk right under him. “I'm creating a layer of continuous shock waves all over my body….”

“I can't hear anything.”

“I know. The frequency is too low for human hearing. Probably scaring the heck out of all the cats and dogs in the area, though.”

She walked around him, looking up. “You know what I'm thinking? Maybe it's not so much that you control sound. Maybe your powers allow you to manipulate the
air
. Without air there's no sound, right?”

“Hey…” James drifted back down a little. “You could be on to something there.”

Abby grinned. “See? Not just a pretty face!” She retrieved her bow and quiver from the floor. “Ready to go?”

“I'm not sure I'm up to actually flying just yet.”

“Only one way to find out.” Abby walked back to the shutters.

“All clear?”

“Not yet…. Hold on a second.”

In the distance she heard a rapid series of gunshots followed by screaming.

James smiled. “That's got their attention. They're moving away to investigate…. Good. I reckon we've got a few minutes.”

“Nice work.” Abby pulled up the shutters to about two feet off the ground, then dropped down and rolled out. James followed a moment later, then pulled the shutters down again.

At the side of the warehouse was an old Dumpster. Holding an arrow in each hand, Abby took a short run, jumped onto the lid of the Dumpster, and leaped as high as she could. Using the arrows as pitons she quickly scrambled up to the edge of the sloping roof, where she found Thunder already waiting for her.

He was floating upright in midair and gently drifting in the slight breeze. “I'm getting the hang of this, I think.”

“Can you make yourself go forward as well as up and down?”

James zoomed toward her, a little too quickly. He crashed into Abby and almost knocked her off the roof. She had to wrap her arms around him to keep from falling. “Whoa, sorry!”

Abby released him and stepped back. “Um…if we're all done with our awkward moment?”

He nodded. “Let's go.”

She ran along the edge of the roof, jumped down onto the next building, and vaulted over an old chimney stack. All the while, James drifted silently alongside her.

“I've thought of a superhero name for you,” he said. “You're pretty fast, so how about calling yourself Lightning?”

“Thunder and Lightning? Oh please!”

“What's wrong with that? It's perfect!”

“It's lame. And it makes me sound like your sidekick. If anything, you're
my
sidekick.”

 

Roz jumped back, away from the sound of the voice.

Her back slammed into the pillar and she jumped again. “Who's there?”

The sound of breathing came again, echoing around the pitch-black station, its source impossible to pinpoint. Then the voice said, “Takes time to get useta th' dark, don't it?”

There was a loud scratching sound, then a match flared and Roz flinched at the sudden brightness.

The match was applied to a candle, then tossed to the ground, and in the flickering light Roz saw that the candle was in the small, grime-covered hand of a girl who couldn't have been more than eight years old. Her hair was long and matted with dirt. She was barefoot, wearing only a stained and frayed summer dress that was clearly too small for her.

“Who are you?” Roz asked.

The girl frowned. “Seein' as you in my place, I th' one askin' th' questions, yeah?”

“You're right, sorry. My name's Roz.”

“I dint ask yet.”

“OK…”

“Dint say you could talk, neither.” The ragged girl stepped closer, holding the candle up to Roz's face. “What you want?”

“I need to get out of the city.”

The girl nodded, wet her lips, then ran the back of her free hand over her mouth, wiping away some of the dirt. “You not one a th' bad fellas up there?”

“No. They're the ones I'm trying to escape from.”

The girl nodded again, then turned away, walking with a slight limp. Roz watched her flickering silhouette shrink down the litter-strewn tunnel.

The girl reached a branch in the tunnels and stopped. Without looking around, she called, “Well? You comin' or not?”

Roz moved away from the wall and caught up with the girl. “Where are you taking me?”

“First, we go see th' others an' then I'm-a take you to th' link tunnel.”

Roz suppressed a shudder.
This is the creepiest thing ever.
“How long have you been down here?”

“Since always.”

“What's your name?”

“Victoria.”

They passed through a large hole that had been cut into a set of metal railings, and out onto the platform.

“How many people are down here?” Roz asked.

“You stupid or somethin'?
All
of us are down here.” The girl turned left, heading toward the end of the platform.

“Yeah, but how
many
is that?”

“Dunno. I only ever see my mom an' my dad an' my brother.” Victoria walked to the edge of the platform, set the candle down, then swung over the edge and down onto the tracks. “What you say your name is?”

“Roz.” She jumped down next to Victoria and followed her into the tunnel. “How far?”

“How far what?”

“How far to where we're going?” Roz saw a large rat sitting on the track watching them pass, and she suppressed another shudder. She'd always thought she quite liked rats, used to watch them scurry around from the top of the subway platforms. But she'd never been
this
close to one.

“All th' way from here,” Victoria said.

Roz raised her eyes.
It's like talking to a five-year-old!

“I know all th' tunnels an' where all th' food is an' th' water.”

“Victoria, where did you live before?”

“Inna house. Came down here with Mom an' Dad an' my brother 'cos Dad got in trouble with th' cops an' we hadda hide. He useta work on th' trains an' he knew about this place an' we live here ever since.”

A small doorway had been reset into the sidewall of the tunnel. Victoria pointed to the rusting metal door. “See th' sign? Says ‘Bad People Keep Out.' You ain't bad people, are you, Roz?”

“No, I'm one of the good ones.” Roz felt an almost overwhelming urge to wrap her arms around the girl and hug her: The sign on the door read, “Maintenance Area—Authorized Access Only.”

Victoria pulled the door open, and Roz winced at the sudden stench that washed over them. It smelled like the inside of a garbage can that had never been cleaned.

She covered her mouth and nose, and ducked her head as she followed Victoria through the door and into a wide, low-ceilinged room. The room wasn't more than fifteen feet square, and was ankle-deep in candy-bar wrappers, empty soda cans, and scraps of paper.

Against one wall, crudely wrapped in old blankets, were three slowly decaying human bodies.

“This is my mom an' my dad, an' that one's my brother,” Victoria said. “Ain't you gonna say hello?”

THREE YEARS ago…

Ten minutes before noon two EH101 transport copters touched down in the center of Fire Island, Alaska.

Krodin stood watch nearby as the passengers disembarked from the first copter. Leading them was a tall, slim young man wearing a blue costume, mask, and cape, with a large white
T
across his chest. Behind him was a slightly shorter man wearing an all-white costume, then a woman wearing a gray costume with green highlights. None of the three was more than twenty years old.

Following the woman was a large, strongly built man wearing steel mesh armor. His hands were cuffed in front of him and his legs were shackled.

The second copter's hatch opened, and an armed soldier jumped out. He turned back to face the hatch and raised his rifle. “Out. Now!”

A wet-looking, heavily scarred hand grabbed the edge of the hatch and the metal immediately began to smoke. Then the figure moved out of the copter's dark interior into the light and stepped onto the ground.

“Forward,” the soldier ordered, shouting to be heard over the roar of the copter's rotors. “Eight steps, then stop.”

The man did as he was ordered, and the soldier jumped back into the copter. Both copters' engines began to increase in pitch once more, but before they had even taken off, the dirt around the man's feet was smoldering and blackened.

Krodin walked up to the scarred man and stopped within arm's reach. “Dioxin. Named after a particularly nasty family of poisons. Your skin constantly seeps acidic venom. About the only thing impervious to it is gold.”

Dioxin nodded. “Right. Nice touch, lining the copter with gold plating. Must have set you back a few bucks.” He looked around. “What is this place?”

The other heroes approached, and the man with the
T
on his chest said, “It's where you're going to spend the rest of your life, Dioxin. An ordinary prison won't hold someone like you, or”—he gestured toward the man in the steel mesh armor—“The Shark.”

“Titan, right? I've heard of you. You're supposed to be pretty powerful.” He looked past Titan toward the others. “Quantum and Energy. Wow. All the big hitters are here. And this muscle-brained moron has to be the famous Krodin.”

“Look behind you,” Energy said.

Dioxin turned. There was a large steel bunker a hundred yards away.

“That's just the entrance,” Energy said. “The prison is underground. And you two are the last inmates.” She smiled. “We got you. Every single one of you.”

His chains clanking, The Shark shuffled forward. “Locking us all up in the one place. That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. Dioxin and I are practically invulnerable. Who else have you got here? The Slayer? Tungsten? Silver Leopard? The Chain Gang?”

“
All
of you,” Titan said. “Every known supervillain is now imprisoned on this island. And a few we
didn't
know about. Krodin even managed to find The Red Fury.”

Dioxin asked, “And what's to stop us from escaping? This is Fire Island, right?” He pointed to the east. “Anchorage is only three or four miles that way. You're putting some of the most powerful men and women on the planet in the one location. We'll break out.”

“No, you won't,” Krodin said. “This facility is protected by a small but powerful cobalt bomb. You know what that is?”

“I do,” The Shark said. “Cobalt itself is relatively harmless, but its radioactive isotope—cobalt-60—is deadly. You're saying that if we try to escape, you'll detonate the bomb?”

Krodin said, “Exactly.”

Under his breath, Titan muttered to Krodin, “Jeez, man, you're not serious, are you? No, you can't be. Where'd you even get the money for all this?”

“The Helotry,” Krodin said. “An organization that…It's a long story. Let's just say they weren't short of funds.”

The Shark said, “You
can't
have a cobalt bomb, Krodin. I just figured it out. A hundred miles in that direction is Mount Redoubt. It's an active volcano. Any significant detonation here runs the risk of weakening the volcano to the point of eruption. If that happens, it'll spew millions of tons of radioactive dust into the upper atmosphere. Enough to irradiate a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere. That's not just a weapon of mass destruction—it's a weapon of
global
destruction.”

Titan took a step back from Krodin. “Whoa…What? Is that true?”

Krodin shook his head. “No. It's true that there's a cobalt bomb, but my people have done their homework—Mount Redoubt is safe from the explosion.” He beckoned for the other man and woman to come closer. “Titan, Energy, and Quantum. Three of the most powerful superhumans. Except that not one of you has done more than scratch the surface of your potential. Titan, you think you're just a strong guy who can fly.” He patted the hero on the shoulder. “If you
knew
what you were capable of doing…And Energy? You could extinguish the sun, if only you knew how. As for Quantum…” He smiled. “Come here.”

With a bemused look on his face, Quantum approached Krodin.

“You're my favorite, did you know that? Seriously. Your power is almost incomprehensible, even to me. But my friend Casey understands it. You think you're a master of speed. But what is speed, except distance over time? Those odd feelings you get, those visions that you haven't told anyone about?” Krodin grinned. “They are echoes from the future. With enough experience you will be able to control time itself.” He reached out his right hand and casually placed it on the back of Quantum's neck. “In some ways it's a shame that this is a trap.”

Energy frowned. “What?”

“It's a trap. All of your fellow superheroes—except those who are loyal to me—are also imprisoned within this island. You're all going die.” Before any of them could react, Krodin squeezed his right hand.

There was a loud
crack
, and Quantum's body dropped to the ground.

“Had to kill him first,” Krodin said. “Otherwise he'd be able to outrun the explosion.”

They attacked him immediately: Titan landed a powerful punch that knocked Krodin off his feet. Energy blasted him with high-frequency microwaves. Krodin snatched up Quantum's body and threw it at Energy, knocking her to the ground.

The Shark immediately leaped onto Krodin's back and locked his cuffed hands around his neck. “Dioxin—come on! Do your thing!”

Dioxin rushed forward, his acid-dripping hands outstretched, but Krodin jumped up and back, somersaulting backward over The Shark.

Unable to stop himself in time, Dioxin's hands pressed against The Shark's steel-mesh armor and instantly burned through.

Ignoring the other attacks, Krodin balled his hands into fists and slammed them against the sides of The Shark's head, then kicked the screaming villain's body at Dioxin as easily as if he were kicking a football. “So much for your legendary invulnerability.”

Titan crashed into Krodin's chest, grabbed hold of him, and tried to lift him into the air.

“Won't work,” Krodin said. “Remember last month when I asked you to fly me to Georgia? Anything you do to me will work only once.” He broke Titan's grip and threw him to the ground, then stamped down on his chest hard enough that they could hear the firecracker-like snapping of his ribs.

“You maniac!” Energy screamed. “I knew we couldn't trust you! This whole plan was just to get us in one place?”

Krodin looked at her. “Correct. But you're too late. The bomb is real. I've got plans, and you people are just going to get in the way. So for the greater good of the human race you all have to die.”

Titan rolled to the side and used the back of his glove to wipe the blood from his mouth. “We'll stop you, Krodin. Whatever it takes. And we'll find the bomb.”

“No, you won't,” Krodin said. “You don't have enough time.”

Energy stared at him. “How long—”

The sky turned white.