Chapter 64:
The dancer
Titus found Kate in a part of the Tower he'd never been to before, a sizably open room with one wall covered by tall windows looking out into the clouds. A mirror ran along another wall, and in front of that mirror, a barre had been recently added near waist level.
Kate stood in front of the mirror in casual dance attire, performing barre exercises. From plié, to relevé, to demi pointe, graceful movement to graceful movement, at odds with the scars on her bare arms and legs, her hair was pulled back severely and revealed the deeply striated muscles of her shoulders and neck.
She stepped away from the barre and stretched into an arabesque, used the bar to feel out the movement. She caught him watching her in the mirror, made just a split second's eye contact, and continued to dance.
"Come in," Kate said, her voice barely strained by the efforts of the dance. She looked displeased with herself.
"I've never seen you dance," Titus said, approaching.
"I wouldn't call this dancing," Kate said. "My form is terrible. I'm stiff. Ungraceful. Horrendous."
"It all seemed beautiful to me," Titus said.
Kate glared at him.
"But what do I know? I'm a werewolf," Titus said. "You let Sam fix the burn on your leg?"
"He said he needed the practice," Kate said. "I didn't care about the scar, but he asked."
"That's good," Titus said. "That you let him. He's feeling lost."
Kate returned to the barre and continued to dance as they spoke.
"Why are you dancing?" Titus said.
"The stupid alien," Kate said.
"What?"
"Dude. Billy's alien," Kate said. "He asked how long it has been since I danced."
"How long has it been?" Titus said.
Kate shook her head.
"A lifetime," she said.
"And you missed it?" Titus said.
"More than I'd known," Kate said. "But I'm terrible. It's gone. All those years of striving for perfection and I'm dancing like a kindergartner now."
"But does dancing still make you happy?"
"Titus," Kate said. "Dancing was the only thing that ever made me happy."
The werewolf nodded.
He sat down on the floor near the windows and stayed silent as Kate finished her routine. He was ready to give up and leave when she finally stopped, picked up a bottle of water, and got down beside him. She radiated heat, and Titus could feel her warmth through his clothes.
"I need to be better," she said.
"You're out of practice," Titus said.
"Not just with this," Kate said, stretching as she spoke. "I've made a lot of mistakes lately. Big mistakes. I need to be better. Smarter."
"Okay," Titus said.
Kate paused, breathed in sharply, let out a hissing breath. He could feel her discomfort in her body language.
"I'm better when you're here," Kate said.
Titus said nothing, just looked at her, waiting. Giving her time to speak her mind.
"I can't ask you to stay," Kate said.
"But I will," Titus said.
"You shouldn't stay if you don't want to," Kate said.
Titus shook his head.
"I'll stay, Kate," he said.
"Did you find what you were looking for out there?" Kate asked. "While you were gone. What did you find?"
"I found my place in the universe," Titus said. "You and me . . . we're on the outside looking in. We're the shaman on the hill. We're both on the outside looking in."
"I'm not a shaman," Kate said.
Titus shrugged.
"Maybe not," he said. "But you're there just outside the lines, keeping people safe. It's what we're meant to do."
"You've become very strange, Titus Whispering," Kate said.
"Like being a werewolf wasn't weird enough," Titus said.
Sensing Kate had checked out a little bit, become lost in her own thoughts, Titus started to stand. Before he could move away, she caught his wrist, her grip incredibly strong.
"Why are you staying, Titus?" she asked. "If you're on the outside looking in. Why stay?"
Titus smiled. He studied her face, took in the hard lines of her cheekbones, the sharpness of her eyes, the way sweat clung to the hair of her temples, the ever-serious line of her mouth. Individually, everything about her was designed to push him away. It was what Kate had done to everyone her entire life. But here in front of him, she was just Kate, his friend, his partner.
"You're my dancing," Titus said.
He broke free of her grip, her long, thin fingers loosening around his wrist. Kate just stared at Titus as he rose to his full height.
"I'll see you at Jane's meeting," Titus said. "You shouldn't stop dancing."
He walked away, leaving Kate sitting silent and staring on the floor of the studio.
Chapter 65:
Clandestine
It felt strange to be back in this reality, Doc Silence thought, the hum of cars hissed along a highway overpass overhead as he stood outside an old, abandoned warehouse. The sounds were all familiar, the scents as well, but each reality felt different, they smelled different, they wrapped themselves around you in dissimilar ways, as disparate as seawater was to lake water was to bathwater. Things in common, yet so little alike.
It began to rain, one of those lukewarm, misting rains the City was prone to. Doc turned up his collar but left his head uncovered. He missed natural rain. There had been places where the rain never stopped on the other side, but nothing like this, the lazy, misting rain of his own reality. Droplets formed on the lenses of his red glasses, which he ignored. It was too nice to be home to feel bothered by such little things.
A dark, gleaming car pulled up alongside him. The rear passenger door opened, and Henry Winter got out, cane first, struggling to pull himself to his feet with his one bad leg. Doc offered a hand, and Winter took it, giving the magician a dirty look.
"You have got to be enjoying this," Winter said.
"I'm enjoying the fact that my friend is back from the dead, you old scoundrel," Doc said.
"Same here. What kind of sloppy magician gets himself sucked into another reality?" Winter said.
Doc laughed.
"It's good to see you, Henry. You were missed."
The men looked at the warehouse behind them as Winter's car pulled away. Doc pushed open a chain link gate with a wave of his hand, and together they walked up to the front door. Doc opened this door without magic and walked inside, Winter closed it behind him. A single light shone down on the center of an empty concrete floor, weak streetlights spilled in from windows on the second story.
"Bunch of dead men walking around this place," a gravelly voice said from the shadows.
"How are you, Hawk?" Doc said.
The old vigilante stalked into the light, his scarred face uncovered.
"I let the old man talk me into plugging that hole in my side," the Alley Hawk said. "That's unnatural, what they did to him."
"I'll want to hear that full story later, Henry," Doc said.
"Of course," Winter said.
The three aging heroes stood together awkwardly for a moment, without saying a word.
"How the hell are any of us still walking around?" Winter said, finally.
Doc laughed. He pointed at Alley Hawk.
"Paranoia," Doc said. Then pointed at Winter. "Really dumb luck."
"And you?" Winter said.
"Magic."
"Of course," Winter said.
Again, an awkward silence. This time it was Doc who broke it.
"Thank you both for looking out for them," Doc said.
"They didn't need it," Winter said. "Where did you find them all? You found such . . . Doc, you found wonders."
"They are wonders," Doc said. "And they're alive in no small part because of you."
"No," Hawk said. "They're alive because of what you taught them, and they're alive because you picked kids who knew how to survive. You were always good at putting a team together, wizard."
"It's what wizards do," Doc said.
"I'll keep looking out," Winter said. "I'm not sure how permanent this directorship of the Department is, but I'll be your eyes in the sky, Doc. You know that."
"And I'll be the eyes on the ground," Hawk said. "I'd like to ask Dancer to help me bring in the Vermin King. He got away in the prison break."
"I'm sorry, Hawk," Doc said.
"Couldn't be helped," Hawk said. "That little monster and I have some unfinished business. But I'm getting slower, Doc. I can feel it. I could use someone like Dancer to watch my back."
"You've changed, Hawk."
The old gargoyle almost smiled.
"You don't live this long by refusing to adapt," he said.
Doc nodded.
"No sign of Horizon, I assume. Or Annie?" he said.
"Not that I've heard," Winter said. "And his lordship is still in orbit."
Doc exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
"He's still there," Doc said.
"First thing I checked when I got free," Winter said.
Doc shook his head.
"You'll keep an eye on that?"
"Always, Doc."
"Thanks."
"And what about you, Silence?" the Alley Hawk said. "What's your next move?"
'"Mine?" Doc said. "I think, for the first time in a long time . . . I honestly don't know, my friends. I'm just happy to be home."
Epilogue:
Anachronism
Five minutes," Jane said to the reporter.
Jon Broadstreet sat waiting for her in the same coffee shop they'd spoken to weeks before, where he'd warned her about Plague.
"You didn't promise me anything more than that," Broadstreet said. "Are you okay?"
"On the record or off?" Jane said. She sat down at the high top table Broadstreet had secured for them, and he slid a coffee to her.
"Off. Are you okay?"
"We're fine," Jane said. "Shaken up but fine."
Broadstreet took out a notepad, set a pen down on top of it.
"Solar, you don't have to do this," Broadstreet said. "It'll probably get me fired, but . . ."
"Just ask away," Jane said. "A promise is a promise."
The reporter took a deep breath.
"Okay. So: are you able to explain any of the recent events around the Labyrinth?"
"Unfortunately most of that is classified," Jane said. "I can say there was a misunderstanding between ourselves and a government agency. Changes have been made, and we'll be left alone going forward."
"Are you able to confirm or deny that you were incarcerated?"
"I can't, sorry," Jane said. She expected more protest from the reporter, but he changed gears instead.
"What about the kid people are calling 'Plague,'" Broadstreet said. "Are you able to elaborate on what happened there?"
"I can confirm that he's no longer a threat," Jane said. "And that he came across his powers through the same venue the problems we dealt with previously came from. It was a tragic event and we're glad there wasn't a greater loss of life."
"Solar, off the record — is the kid dead?"
Jane stared at Broadstreet for a long, silent moment.
"I'm sorry, forget I asked."
"He died in my arms," Jane said. "And he did so knowing that his death would save the lives of many others. He deserved better than he got in this life, Broadstreet. You can quote me on that."
"Okay," Broadstreet said. "Will recent events change anything about how the Indestructibles do business?"
"Yes," Jane said. "I can't get into specifics, but something like this can't happen without impacting the people involved."
Broadstreet smiled at her and put his pen down.
"My five minutes is up," he said.
"I'll give you one more if you need it," Jane said.
"Are you still on our side, Solar?" Broadstreet said. "The rumors I'm hearing . . . people wouldn't blame you if you weren't . . ."
"We are here to make a better world, Jon," Jane said. "Nothing is going to change that."
She stood up, adjusted her costume, and started to walk away.
"On that note, I have to go talk with my team," she said.
"One more question?" Broadstreet said, smiling broadly.
"Yeah?"
"Will you have dinner with me some time?" he said.
"I'm trying to save the world, Broadstreet. Who has time for dinner?"
She did take a moment to flash the reporter a quick wink before she left, leaping into the sky toward the Tower where it had returned to its orbit over the City.
* * *
Jane waited outside the command center door, listening to her friends. It was a beautiful sound, their voices, all together, talking over each other. Billy and Titus like brothers, the former pestering the latter about where he had gone in his travels, where he'd learned new methods of combat, and Titus giving Billy a hard time about adopting a dog smaller than the average house cat.
"Hey man, you left, and we needed a new resident furball," Billy said, which provoked Emily to re-tell the story about how Watson got his name and where Titus stood in the hierarchy of smartest Indestructibles, and how she and Billy almost blew up a bunch of eight year olds for torturing a puppy.
"I bet if I tried I could bubble of float them all the way to the moon," Emily said.
"You should have used your wall of slam on them," Billy said.
"Your wall of what?" Titus said.
"Oh wait til you see this," Emily said. "It's like gravity going sideways, it's awesome."
"She used it on the Distribution suits," Billy said.
Kate of all people, cackled loudly at that.
Jane smiled at the sound, the rarest sound in the Tower, Kate's laughter. I hope she finds some sort of joy some day, she thought.
"She didn't really do that," Kate said.
"I did," Emily said. "Look, nothing has ever been learned without trial and error."
"I'm almost afraid to ask," Kate said.
"The outcome was not what I was hoping for," Emily said.
Their attentions turned to discussing the still-absent Doc, wondering when they would hear more about where he was, what his return meant for them. Emily proclaimed that she always knew he'd come home, growing so animated Jane heard a coffee mug tip over and Watson start barking at full volume in response to Emily's increasingly loud voice.
"I missed this," Doc said softly.
Jane hadn't heard him walk up beside her. He leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets, looking down at her through his red glasses.
"There wasn't much of this while you were gone," Jane said. "We were a mess."
"But you're still here," he said.
Jane looked up at him.
"Will you take charge again, now that you're home?" Jane said. She hoped he would. Please Doc, don't leave this all on me.
"This is your team now, Jane," Doc said. "I'll back you up on anything you ever ask for, but this is your crew."
"What should I do next?" Jane said.
"You have a plan," Doc said. "I know you do."
"Is it the right plan?"
Doc gestured at the room full of waiting heroes.
"Why don't you go ask them," Doc said. "They'll keep you honest."
Jane nodded, straightened her shoulders, and walked in. The laughter died down immediately, but not the smiles. They looked not at her but to her, even more so than Doc, who followed her in like a shadow and took a seat not at the head of the table but to the left of Jane's chair.
This crew: Billy with a hand ruffling Emily's neon blue hair, Titus gently resting his fingertips on Kate's shoulder, and Kate, of all people, sitting down with the dog curled up comfortably in her lap — all of them — were her team.
"So what's next, chief?" Titus asked.
"Field trip!" Emily said. "I vote Disneyworld."
"How many times are you going to try that before you realize it doesn't work," Billy said.
"As many times as it takes to get one of you people to agree with me," Emily said. "I want to go to Orlando."
Jane sat down.
"His name was Caleb," Jane said softly. "The boy. Plague. And just like Val, and Bedlam, and Hyde, and that poor girl whose name we never knew, Caleb was one of the Children of the Elder Star's experiments."
She touched a button on the table and the notes Kate recovered from the abandoned rig were projected on a wall hung monitor.
"I don't want this to happen again," Jane said. "There are more escaped experiments out there. We're going to find the others. We're going to find them and bring them home. If they can be saved, or cured, or even recruited so they have somewhere safe to go, we'll bring them in. And if they can't be stopped, if they're determined to put people in harm's way, we're going to stop them. We're going to be proactive."
"I like it," Billy said.
"I vote I don't have to help get the one they named Megalodon," Emily said.
"We'll see, Em," Jane said.
"I have a thing about sharks."
"We know, Em," Jane said.
"I really don't like them," Emily said.
"Em," Jane said.
"You want me to stop talking."
"Just for a minute."
Emily made a zipping motion with her fingers across her mouth and then threw the invisible key at Doc, who pretended to catch it. Emily applauded silently with joy at the sight of Doc playing along.
"So the first thing we should do — " Jane began, but she was cut off by a flickering image like a hologram hovering at the center of the table. The figure, a woman with metallic pink hair, an olive green tank-top emblazoned with a star, and tattoos running up and down both arms, appeared and disappeared several times before suddenly solidifying into a solid likeness. She wore red glasses, not unlike Doc's, and her combat boots clunked onto the desk with a heavy
thump
.
"Finally!" the woman said. "Doc! Where have you been, you jerk?"
Doc was on his feet so quickly he sent his chair spinning and crashing behind him.
"Annie?"
"She's real?" Billy, Emily, and Jane all said simultaneously.
"Who?" Titus said.
"Unbelievable," Kate said.
"Dude! What the heck, man!" Annie was yelling. She charged at Doc aggressively and Jane noticed for the first time that a pair of bizarre guns were slung low on her hips like an old gunslinger.
"Where have I been? Where have you been?" Doc said.
"I've been trying to get home, you nitwit!" Annie yelled. "Why haven't you been in the Tower!"
"I was in another dimension! Several! Several other dimensions!"
"You're my chrono-anchor, Gandalf! I couldn't find my way home if you weren't in this reality. No wonder I got stuck!"
"Did she just call Doc Gandalf?" Titus said.
"You can't just make a guy your chrono-anchor and not tell him!" Doc yelled back. "How was I supposed to know you needed me here to get home?"
"What the heck else was I supposed to use as my chrono-anchor?" Annie said.
"A rock?"
Annie jumped off the table and stood right in front of Doc, so close the two were reflected in each others' red-tinted lenses.
"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life," Emily said.
"You!" Annie said, pointing at Emily.
"I didn't do it!" Emily said, backing up immediately to hide behind Billy.
"Oh, Doc, you found her first," Annie said.
She stomped over to Emily, pulled her out from behind Billy, and smoothed the younger girl's blue hair.
Emily looked at Billy with growing alarm.
"Oh, this isn't creepy at all, nope," she said. "Billy? Help?"
Jane threw her arms up in the air.
"Doc?"
Doc seemed as confused as everyone else by Annie's sudden appearance. He took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and after returning the lenses to his face, put a hand on Annie's shoulder.
"This is Anachronism Annie," Doc said. "She's a time traveler."
"I prefer 'chronomancer,'" Annie said.
"She's a time traveler," Doc repeated. "And she's one of my oldest friends."
He pulled Annie away from Emily and put a hand on each of her shoulders.
"I thought you never wanted to come back," Doc said.
"Well clearly I was talking out my ear if I made you my anchor in time," Annie said. "But that's not why I came back."
"I think that's a burn, Doc," Emily said.
Everyone shushed Emily at once, including Doc. Emily made a wounded, mock-pouting face and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I just came from a different timeline, and Doc . . ." Annie said. "In that timeline, the biggest threat the planet has ever faced is that girl right there."
Everyone's eyes followed Annie's pointing finger directly to Emily.
"You've got to be kidding me," Kate said.
The silence stretched out for a long time, no one quite sure what to say or how to react. Finally, of course, it was Emily who spoke.
"Well in that case," she said. "I suggest you all start being a lot nicer to me."