"Screw you. I'm not going to die in here. I'm not!"
Jane approached him, held her arms out. She saw that, despite his attitude, despite his anger, he was young, younger even than her, not much older than Emily.
"Come here," she said again.
Hyde walked into her arms.
Jane hugged him. This close, she could hear the beeping timer of the bomb. Faster. Faster. Faster.
The corridor filled with flames. Lights flickered. Then, Billy's body slammed against the wall with a thump. The concussive blast rattled Jane, knocked her off her feet, but didn't break her skin. Hyde didn't utter a whimper. He was there, and then Jane's arms were empty.
She heard limping footsteps behind her, and felt Billy's hand on her shoulder.
"Jane," he said.
She stayed seated on the floor, shaking her head.
"This has to stop."
"Come here."
"I can't let this keep happening."
"Jane."
"What?"
Billy was one big bruise with lips split and an eye swollen shut — as if he'd spent the afternoon in the boxing ring. He spoke in a tiny voice, almost a whisper. "I really could use a hug right now."
She climbed to her feet and wrapped her arms around him.
Jane felt the raised bruises and lacerations on his back from the second blast. And there they stayed until Doc opened the doors and the others returned for them, two blackened, shadowed figures who had witnessed more death in one day than either had seen their entire, brief, lives.
Chapter 42:
Control issues
Somewhere over the Atlantic, Valerie Snow was angry.
The other entity, the storm, was angry too — Valerie could decipher its mood by the hail and lightning thrashing up the ocean surface. She'd given up trying to reason with it, yet that didn't stop her from spending hours talking out loud to the other thing. The chatter was meant to keep herself sane. She no longer hoped for a response.
For no immediately apparent reason, the storm tugged itself quickly in a different direction. They fought over where they wanted to go sometimes; now, the storm seemed to resent that Valerie could push for control when she wanted to, but it exhausted her to try to maintain that much influence over the weather's movement, so she usually abandoned her efforts.
She wondered what caught the storm's attention. Weary, she closed her eyes, wishing she could rest. The drifting fogginess of sleep started to cast itself over Valerie.
And then she could see what the storm saw.
Overwhelming, at first; she had no idea what had happened or why she was able to view something she shouldn't be seeing with her eyes closed. In the beginning, she thought it was a dream, but then she knew — she was envisioning a wide, panoramic vista of the ocean just outside the clouds. She could see for miles.
"Is this what you see?" she asked. "Is this your vision of the world?"
Then, on the horizon, she spied what caught the storm's attention. Like a rabid animal, the entity latched onto anything it could strike out at, and Valerie knew what the storm wanted: a massive shipping vessel, like a floating brick, chugged along in the distance.
The storm moved incredibly fast, too fast for Valerie to try to wrestle control from it again. They pounced, predatorily, onto the watercraft, swarming it with fog, hammering it with rain and wind.
"Stop it!" she yelled. "Why are you doing this?"
She heard the boat creaking and straining against the tempest. When she closed her eyes, she could zoom in on the decks to see the crew rushing around, hear their panicked voices in the wind.
"They weren't doing anything!" Valerie screamed. "Leave them alone!"
The vessel rocked on powerful waves generated by the storm. Huge swells threatened to tip it onto its side. Foam roared over the decks like avalanches.
Valerie gritted her teeth and wrestled for control. She tried pulling the storm with her, but the entity fought back. For every few feet she dragged them away from the ship, the entity pulled it back with equal force.
She watched in horror as the ship began to tip. Valerie held out her hand, a pathetic attempt to will the boat not to capsize. To her surprise, an intense gust of wind followed her gesture, shoving the boat in the opposite direction. The ship rocked back into an upright position.
This caused the tempest to roar in frustration at her actions. Valerie smiled, thinking she'd finally taken back more control from the creature. Then she saw the lighting. One, two, three lightning strikes in quick succession lacerated the ship, then more, blue lances of light and sulfur bursting onto the vessel's frame.
Desperate to stop the destruction, Valerie tried to force the storm to move, hoping, if nothing else, she could provide the ship with enough time to recover from the strikes. But she was worn-out, too weakened by the fight already, to be the victor in this test of wills. Exhausted, horrified, and furiously angry, all she could do was watch as the-container ship began to sink.
"This has to stop," she said.
And the storm drifted away to find some other victim to unleash its anger on.
Chapter 43:
The plea
Billy found Bedlam walking down a deserted stretch of highway, still wrapped in an oversized coat that hid her cyborg features.
She wasn't hard to find; one of Dude's alien powers, apparently, was the ability to identify and track unique energy signatures, which, Dude told Billy, was exactly what Bedlam's cyborg nature gave off.
Billy landed twenty feet away; he kept his hands away from his body.
"Hey," he said.
"You've got to stop following me. I'm gonna get a restraining order."
"You going to hit me?"
"Looks like someone beat me to it," Bedlam said. "What happened?"
Billy still had trouble seeing out of his right eye because of the swelling. Dude's powers allowed him to heal at a faster rate than regular humans could, but it'd be a few days before he didn't look like he'd just lost a boxing match.
"This is why I'm here, actually."
"You think this has enhanced your appearance and you're hoping I'll say yes this time if you ask for my number again?"
"No," Billy said.
His stomach fluttered a bit when she made the joke. Half of him was strangely curious about her and not the least bit put off by the chrome glinting on her face and hands; the other half had this terrible guilt about Jane, who had, one hug aside, mostly treated him like he was a dolt.
Bedlam threw her arms out to her sides, frustrated.
"You gonna stand there and stare at me all day? Or, do you wanna tell me why you're here?"
"This happened when one of your fellow, um, experiments, ah. Um."
"What!"
"Hyde's cortex bomb blew up. Pretty much in my face."
"Hyde?" Bedlam said.
"You didn't know each other's code names, did you?"
"No," she said. "I'm guessing he was one of the experiments with super strength they were playing with," Bedlam said. "Was he . . . a good guy?"
"Kind of a jerk actually," Billy said, shrugging. "But mostly he was just scared and, I don't know, trying to figure out where he fit in with all this stupid business. He thought he was a super villain and then they blew him up by remote control."
"Crap."
"Yeah," he said. "We think he was sent to try to test us out. They released a firestarter too, at the same time."
"Not the little blonde girl."
"I don't know," Billy said. "When we found her she was like, lava, like walking lava, y'know? But . . . "
"She's dead too?"
"Yeah," he said.
Bedlam flexed her fingers a few times.
Billy heard the soft whine of motors, the clicking of artificial joints.
"They just threw them away to see what you guys would do?"
"I think so," he said. "I don't know. Maybe they were . . . "
"Making room in their new lab," she said.
"Look," Billy said. "We've got this machine, I guess it's from the future or something, it can take the bomb out of your head. It takes hours, so you'd have to stay for a little while, we can't just pop it out like a car tire, but, y'know, if you wanted to get rid of it just in case."
"Why not just blow me up yourselves and get me out of the way?"
"We're trying to develop a no-blowing-up policy. It's been a little hard to implement but it's become part of our strategic plan."
"You make no sense, you know that?" Bedlam said. "Be honest. You're just doing this so I don't demolish a McDonalds somewhere and become the next news story."
"I know you think I'm a jackass. Pretty much everybody does, it's okay, that's cool. I'm used to it. But . . . When you're not headbutting me, I like you, and I think it'd suck if you blew up. So I'm just saying."
"You don't like me. Nobody does," she said.
"From one fellow misfit to another, Bedlam. We've got to stick together. If we don't like each other, who will?"
She laughed, a short, barking chuckle.
"Fine," she said. "I've got to take care of something first. Where can I text you when I'm done?"
"Did you just ask for my cell?" Billy asked.
"Don't push your luck, alien boy," Bedlam said. "Just tell me how to find you, and if I haven't blown up by then, I'll let your magical machine fix my brain."
Chapter 44:
On the defensive
The first thing Kate noticed was Billy's absence.
She'd been curious to see how well he'd recovered from the explosion; after he walked out of the holding area, it was pretty clear his alien force field was far from invulnerable. She also wanted to know what had transpired with the firestarter girl. Kate believed she could get the whole story out of Billy because of his tendency to run his mouth off. Jane hadn't said a word, she'd taken on a miserable, quiet air since the events of that day.
And, Kate couldn't hold it against her. They'd both experienced things they hadn't wanted to lately. Though she would never admit it out loud, she empathized with Jane.
Doc sat at the head of the debriefing room's table and tapped a few keys on a console embedded in the tabletop. A screen lit up behind him. The faces of the known experimental teenagers — two deceased, one crazy, and one a hypothetical living storm — appeared.
"Where's B — Straylight?" Emily asked, eyeballing the old man across the table.
After Hyde's death, Sam Barren decided to hang out — much to Doc's visible relief. Kate figured the responsibility of keeping five inexperienced heroes alive all by himself had begun to fray on his nerves.
"Went searching for Bedlam," Doc said. "He won't be back for a bit."
"He what?" Jane said, her voice sharp.
"Wants to try to bring her in again," Doc said. "She's in danger. If the Children of the Elder Star, or whoever is working for them, decide she's worth throwing at us, we should know where she is. And even if they don't, she's in jeopardy. They may decide to terminate her the same way they killed Hyde."
"More civilian deaths, too, if that happens," Titus said.
"But — did he volunteer?" Jane said.
"She'll talk to him," Doc said. "It's our best bet. He's in no shape to do much more than that anyway right now."
"If she attacks him he won't stand a chance, Doc," Jane said. "You should have sent someone with him."
"He'll be fine, Jane," Titus said. "Don't worry. She can't catch him if he decides to fly away."
Doc cleared his throat.
"Here's what we know," he said. "The Children have commissioned the creation of their own set of metahumans. Some have worked out better than others. All seem to be designed for maximum environmental destruction. Fire, weather, urban mayhem."
"Why kids, though?" Emily said. "I don't get it. Why kids?"
"Back in the old days," Sam began, "the Children would work with whatever they could get their hands on. Maybe they just thought these young test subjects would be more available. Or controllable. Perhaps they were less expensive."
Emily raised her hand.
Sam smirked.
"Yes, dear."
"Do you think they were trying to make a bad version of us?" Emily said.
"It's not a weak theory, but I doubt it," Doc said. "They're not the type to mirror their enemies just for the sake of doing the same thing. It's always about getting the best end result. I think we should be more worried about why they're planning large-scale destruction than the age of their lab victims."
"I still believe they tried to make an evil version of us," Emily said.
"Noted," Doc said.
Sam chuckled in spite of himself.
"What about the homing device?" Titus asked.
"Probably safest to assume they know where you are, and will eventually plan something using that information," Sam said.
"That's reassuring," Titus said.
"Would you rather I lie?"
"Alarmingly brutal honesty is fine," Titus said.
Doc sat back in his chair, creaking against the leather of the seat cushions. "We need more information about what's happening on their end," he said. "I'm going to launch a little scouting expedition."
"I could do it," Kate offered. "Tell me where you need to go."
"This isn't the type of reconnaissance mission any of you will be able to perform," he said.
"You're gonna use astral projection," Emily said.
Everyone at the table turned to stare at her.
"What?" she said.
"You astound me," Doc said. "Yes. Close enough. I'm going to trace back those creatures that attacked our girl in the clouds and see who's controlling them. Solar, I'll need your help."
"I'm not projecting my astral anywhere," Jane said.
"Oh my gawd, Solar made a funny," Emily said. "Didn't think you had it in you!"
Even Doc laughed a little.
Kate watched his eyes. Although the glasses obscured his face, she knew he was exhausted.
"I need someone to watch over me in case anything tries to follow me back," he said. "You'll be safest if that happens."
Jane nodded. "Is it dangerous?"
"You'll be fine."
"I meant for you, Doc," she said. "Will you be in danger?"
He shrugged.
"Everything's a little dangerous," he said. "Nothing can go wrong if you're there to watch out for me, right?"
Jane offered a blank stare.
"Solar, come with me. Sam, you've got the run of the place, make yourself at home. The rest of you, keep an eye on the monitors — I have a feeling that the homing beacon situation is going to come back to bite us much faster than we're expecting."
Doc got up, started to leave, and let Jane fall in beside him. They strolled out, chatting softly. Titus and Emily left the room arguing about whether Billy would be in fighting shape by tomorrow morning.
"Give me a moment," Sam said to Kate.
"This code name stuff is garbage," she said. "If you're staying here, you should let us use our first names in front of you. You're being ridiculous."
"Probably right. Old habits die hard," he said. "But we have something else to talk about."
Sam lifted his rucksack off the floor and thumped it on the table. He unzipped it slowly and began rummaging around.
"You don't have any superpowers, do you. You're a regular person," he said.
"Thought you didn't want to know anything about us," she said.
"You don't have to tell me. I'm going to say what I have to say anyway," Sam said.
"I'm not a metahuman," Kate said. "Does that disqualify me or something?"
"Nope," Sam said. "It just means you're the best person to give these things to."
Sam began pulling out a set of gadgets from the rucksack. A duplicate of the scanner he'd used on Hyde, a slate gray utility harness, a pair of goggles, a small computer clearly built to be mounted on a wrist. The items kept coming. All small, portable, and not easily identifiable in function.
"What is all this?" she asked.
"When I raided the Division's equipment the day I got wind we were being shut down, I stole multiples of everything. Figured I might not have a second chance to get my hands on this tech again. I've been sitting on spare gear for a while now."
"Congratulations?"
"You're almost as unfriendly as the last guy I gave Division equipment to," Sam said. "With a little work you can be a complete misanthrope. You've almost nailed it."
"So now we're critiquing my heroic persona," she said.
"Yup. Do you want the spares, or not?"
"For what?"
"To make your own ice cream with," Sam said. "For crying out loud. I have a bioscanner, a voice identifier, a portable crime scene analysis kit . . . this thing, whatever this does . . . "
He picked up a device that looked like a squat pistol or taser. When Sam pulled the trigger, a small, hooked claw shot out and embedded into the wall opposite him, a thin cable led from claw to gun. He clicked the trigger again; the gadget was yanked from his hand and the cable withdrew, leaving the device stuck to the wall.
"Wow, I never tried that before," he said. "You want it? I can probably give you both of those, I'm not going to need them at my age."
Kate inspected the bag of tricks, seeing dozens of little devices that could be of use to her immediately, others that she could find a use for eventually, and still others that she couldn't even fathom their original purpose.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
The old man smiled at her.
"Because we're not all born with laser beams shooting out of our hands, or with magical healing abilities or invulnerabilities," he said. "Some of us just have guts to venture out into the world and try to make it a better place. And those folks need a leg up when they can get it."
"That's it?"
"That's it," Sam said. "I think you're brave as hell. It's the least I can do to lend you a hand."
Kate smiled in spite of herself.
"Okay, I'm sold," she said. "What does that circular thing do."
"I have no idea," Sam said, smirking. "What do you say we find out?"