The Prospects (Book 2): Nothing Poorer Than Gods (21 page)

“It’s weird how that happened. I don’t think you want to become friends with the Simian Squad. They eat each other’s fleas. Look, it's this simple. Boasting is cruel, and heroes aren’t cruel.”

The elevator doors opened. Alex immediately went to the hole in the foundation wall. “What happened here?”

“That was me,” said Pinwheel. “I was sad about Pete, and I made a laser. It burned my hands.”

“You made a laser at the bridge too,” said Knockout Rose. “It saved my life.”

“I summoned the grief I felt for Pete because I didn't want to lose you too.”

“That’s sweet, Steve. Thanks.”

“It’s weird. I used to control my light the same way I controlled my acting, with conscious thought about how it looked to the audience. This laser, it’s like it shot out from what I felt deep-down.”

Alex poked the hole’s sides. “A smooth burn through cinderblock. That take a lot of energy. Also, sorry I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about Pete. I got caught up in all the other drama around here.”

“Me too,” said Knockout Rose. “Pete was terrific.”

“When this is over,” said Alex, “we’ll have a memorial service for him.”

Emily’s voice came from the hallway. “Alex?”

Alex clenched his teeth. “I have nothing to say to you.”

Emily came out with Calvin toddling behind her. “But I have something to say to you.”

Alex walked past her to his old bedroom. “There’s no time. The city’s under attack.” He closed the door.

“Please. Don't yell. It upsets Calvin.”

Pinwheel extended his arms. “I can take him somewhere quiet.” He created a light show between his two spread hands. Calvin giggled and followed him out.

“Alex, I’m sorry,” said Emily. “You were gone so long so many times, with all the supervillain gang investigations and special training and when Candilyn answered the phone I thought …”

“I stayed faithful.”

“I know, I was wrong. And you risked your life to save the world so many times.”

“I didn’t do it for the world, I did it for you. Now this shitsack world is all I have left.”

Alex opened the door. He wore the combat armor of a MAB agent: a blue smartfabric skinsuit under a black bulletproof vest; a helmet with a clear visor; kneepads; boots; and a bandolier of red shotgun shells.

“I can’t make this about you,” said Emily. “It’s my fault. I f wanted to end the marriage until I talked to Trista.”

Alex froze. “Trista?”

“It was at the hospital last month. She said you loved me, that your love was the strongest she’s ever seen in all the minds she’s been in. At that moment, I changed my mind.”

“You already cheated on me by then, and you did again afterwards.” He picked up the shotgun and a box of shells.

“Are you going to kill people?”

“I’m loading it with pepper rounds. Nonlethal but incapacitating.”

“Whatever. Listen, the guy, I … I was lonely. I broke it off with him after talking to Trista. I thought everything would be different, but when you didn’t come back for two nights …”

“Two nights ago, I helped the survivors of a massacre. Last night, I almost died.” Alex slung the shotgun over his shoulder and strapped his gun belt on. “That’s all the excuses I have.”

Emily looked down. “I only thought about you not being around. But when you outwitted that four-eyed monster, that was amazing.”

“I shouldn’t have let you near him. I put you in danger.” He put on the helmet and lowered the visor. “Maybe you are better off without me.”

“Wait,” Emily called after him as he returned to the elevator, “One more thing, please.”

Alex kept walking until Knockout Rose stood in front of him. “Agent, it may not be my place to get involved, but you shouldn’t let it end like this.”

“You’re right,” said Alex, “it’s not your place. Move.”

Knockout Rose stepped aside.

“Look, Alex,” a tear streamed down Emily’s cheek. “You know how hard my parents’ divorce was on me. They set me against each of them and it … I don’t want Calvin to go through that. I screwed up, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make this right.”

Alex left without another word.

Knockout Rose followed him up the stairs.  “I thought you said heroes aren’t cruel.”

“That was as kind as I could be.”

“But it’s …”

“Stay out of this.”

Knockout Rose spoke calmly. “You became friends with Trista after what she did and stayed with the New York Guardians despite the secrets they kept. I don’t see why you can’t forgive Emily too.”

“It’s complicated. All my relationships are complicated.”

“Kayleigh,” said Pinwheel, “some things a man has to work out for himself.”

Alex turned his shotgun’s safety off. “I’ve never been happier to rush into battle. Stay close and don’t do anything that won’t get us closer to the hospital.”

Alex punched some numbers into the keypad near the elevator. Two rows of machine guns popped out of the walls and pointed at the front doors of Griffin Tower. Steel sheets fell over the windows. Red laser beams crisscrossed the hallways and the barriers behind every hole big enough to be an entrance.

“Let’s hope this multi-million security system is worth it.” Alex opened the front doors.

Outside, it was pandemonium. Flashing blue-and-red lights from an upside-down police car showed citizens running in all directions. Echoes of gunshots and explosions replaced the normal bustling noise of traffic. Superheroes flew under their own power or with jetpacks to have dogfights with villains and monsters between the skyscrapers.

Alex looked behind him. Knockout Rose’s raised fists trembled as quickly as Pinwheel’s legs.

A wall of steel lowered behind them to seal Griffin Tower’s front entrance.

The Handler wiped blood from his broken nose and swore. He wanted to chase Venusta and Portia down, but revenge wasn’t worth risking the massive project he spent years coordinating. There would be time to get those two later. He had a war to complete. But the indignity of being thrashed by a savage nobody hurt worse than his bruises.

He licked his split lips and stepped over the bodies of his security men. Using clones saved money, but their stupidity made them useless when something unprecedented, like Venusta’s attack his facility, happen. But she and Portia were gone. They were no longer a threat. He had to ignore the pain and forget the humiliation. There would be time to hunt them down later.

The Handler made it into the room with the monitors. He had to enlarge the screens’ fonts to read the words through his double-vision.

One intercepted phone call to Griffin Tower, Agent O’Farrell’s phone. He played the audio track and heard Stormhead relay the address for Satell Enterprises to Alex.

“They’re coming here.” He picked up his phone and pressed a speed-dial button. “Flayer, where are you?

“Outside Lincoln Tunnel.”

“Did you see the New York Guardians?”

“I passed a weirdo on a purple motorcycle in the westbound lanes. He had a crossbow.”

“Good. Change of plans. Occupy Griffin Tower. Trash it and kill everyone inside. I want their destroyed home on my monitors when they try to arrest me.”

“Eh? Remember how that building covered itself with steel plates last month? How am I supposed to get in?”

“Think of something.” He hung up and pressed another button. “Puca, did you distribute your passengers to their location?”

“Right as rain ah did. It took tahme tah git …”

“English, Colleen.”

Puca coughed. “God ah feel bloody awful. But I did it. Ah got dem scattered to each point.”

“We need chaos to cover the first wave. Plant some bombs.”

He looked over the monitors. The news channels had metahuman battles. From Boston to Philadephia, minor villains faced local heroes in the streets, in the air, and around major landmarks.

“Superheroes, always trying to save the day.” The Handler spat. “Goethe said it best. ‘I know of nothing poorer under the sun than you, gods! You barely sustain your majesty with sacrificial offerings and exhalated prayers and would wither, were not children and beggars hopeful fools.'”

Alex, Knockout Rose, and Pinwheel made it one block before running into a villain, a hulking brute in a furry suit with a mask that was practically the whole head of his namesake animal.

“It’s Wildebeest,” said Alex. “Typical stock-heavy superthug. It's been a while since anyone saw him.” He raised his shotgun. Before he fired, Pinwheel released a flash of light that hit Alex.

“Damn it, Steve!” Alex rubbed his eyes.

Knockout Rose dropped to one knee, straightened her arm, and released a jet of capsaicin spray. Wildebeest charged through the cloud without slowing down. She barely rolled away.

Pinwheel shoved Alex aside but couldn’t dodge Wildebeest’s grabbing hands. The brute grabbed Pinwheel’s jacket and lifted him straight up.

Alex blinked. He still couldn’t see.

Knockout Rose punched Wildebeest’s lower back repeatedly. The electricity in her gloves didn’t get through his hide-suit.

Pinwheel wriggled furiously enough to rip his jacket. He wriggled more furiously when Wildebeast raised him high. He was in for a painful bone-crushing body slam on a New York street, but couldn’t get free.

Wildebeest put his arms back. In the split second before he snapped them forward, an African-American midget in a purple-and-yellow leotard jumped across the street. Her gold-tipped braids made a halo when she landed a solid punch in Wildebeest’s breadbasket.

Pinwheel rolled free.

When Wildebeest doubled-over, the woman followed through with a solid right hook. “I always win against big game.”

Alex blinked the spots from his eyes. “Atomic Annie. Thanks for coming through.”

Atomic Annie waved a purple-gloved fist while Knockout Rose helped Pinwheel back to his feet. “Your boy was in a jam, and I didn’t want him to become jelly.”

Alex raised his shotgun.

Atomic Annie raised her hands. “Geez! That joke sucked, but you don’t have to …”

Alex fired over Atomic Annie’s head. A spray of intense pepper hit Wildebeest’s face. The force from stunned Wildebeest. Then the burning sensation set in. His bellow echoed through the streets when he ran away.

“Nice shootin’, Tex,” said Atomic Annie. “Next time, use your words.”

“We have to get to New York-Presbyterian. How about an escort?”

“Sure, an escort mission, nothing’s more fun than that. So can I ask you a few dozen questions, like why a MAB agent is hanging out with Young Sentinels and why you’re going to the hospital in anything but an ambulance and where the New York Guardians are and …?”

Alex pointed down the street. A man in brass goggles and a flowing leather coat soared between buildings with a winged jetpack that pumped steam contrails. He fired a bell-ended rifle at two policemen, who took cover behind their car.

“You fought that guy before, right?”

“Ah, yeah,” said Atomic Annie. “That’s Steamfly. One of Count Clockwork’s goons. Stupid Victorian-retro punks.”

Pinwheel threw off his torn jacket, put his hands together, and extended his index fingers. A laser beam shot out. He adjusted his hands to make it hit Steamfly’s goggles.

Steamfly reflexively turned his head. The jetpack veered with him.

The police officers noticed he wasn’t shooting. They popped up from behind cover and opened fire. Steamfly twitched each time his armor sparkled. One bullet hit his jetpack's rocket. It sputtered a thick cloud as he careened through a building's flat-glass window.

“Seriously?” said Atomic Annie. “I bounced like a pinball from building to building the last time I fought that chump. I could’ve taken him down with a laser pointer?”

“Surprised you didn’t think of it,” said Pinwheel.

They ran down the street. Alex was so focused on the road ahead he didn’t notice a man with huge coiled boots and a helmet with black goat horns land in front of him.

“Klipspringer,” shouted Atomic Annie. “He jumps and that’s it.”

Klipspringer grabbed Alex’s shotgun. The two of them wrestled for control before Knockout Rose uppercutted him. Alex had no trouble ripping the shotgun free from Klipspringer’s unconscious hands.

“Thanks.” Alex flipped Klipspringer over, pulled his arms behind his back, and handcuffed him. He handed Knockout Rose a zip tie. “Tie his boots together.”

Knockout Rose slipped the cuffs through the straps in Klipspringer’s boots. “These are adjustable. Hey, can I have these?”

“Let Doctor Von Dyme figure out how they work, and they’re yours.”

“Forget it. I don’t want to talk to him again.”

Alex yanked Klipspringer up. “Then why do you hang out in his lab?”

“You’re not the only one with complicated relationships.”

They dragged Klipspringer to the bullet-ridden police car where Pinwheel crouched.

Atomic Annie said, “It looks like a straight shot to the …”

Shouts of “Run!” from the police officers drowned out his words. Alex saw the headlights of a truck coming straight for the police car. He grabbed Pinwheel and Knockout Rose and pulled them away from the collision.

“Did anyone get the license number?” said Atomic Annie.

The truck crashed into the steel plate over Griffin Tower’s front entrance with enough force to bend it. The driver got out. Metal whips shot out from under his coat’s sleeves and ripped the truck’s back door open.

“Damn it,” said Alex, “Emily and Calvin are in there.”

“Should we turn back?” asked Pinwheel.

Alex watched a motley crew of villains and monsters pour out of the truck.

“There are a few times more of them than there are of us,” said Atomic Annie. “Weren’t you going somewhere else?”

Alex grit his teeth. “To the hospital. Fast.”

“But, Agent, what about your family?” asked Knockout Rose.

“We can’t take on that many villains. We must stop the Handler. Besides, Griffin Tower has a security system. And Jenny.”

As soon as he said that, the sounds of the mounted machine guns firing echoed through the streets.

Alex forced himself to turn. He ran towards the hospital so quickly Pinwheel, Knockout Rose, and Atomic Annie struggled to keep pace with him. He raised his shotgun and shot pepper at any villain who got within range. The blowback – and the nagging feeling that he abandoned his family to their doom - made tears stream down his cheeks.

He ducked behind a parked car across the street from the hospital. Four human-dinosaur hybrids stood in front of the hospital’s entrance. They roared aggressively at the police officers on all sides of them.

“It's the Dino-Tribe,” said Alex. “A bunch of scientists who injected themselves with mutagenic dinosaur DNA. They ended up with walnut-sized brains so they can’t change back.

“Knockout Rose, punch out the velicoraptor-looking one. Watch out for his claws. Pinwheel, hit the iguana-looking one with a long tail. Be careful you don’t flash-blind any of us. Atomic Annie, can you handle the triceratops-man?”

“That’s a styracosaurus, but yeah, no problem.”

“Great. I’ll take T-Rex.”

Knockout Rose looked at the capsaicin capsules on her wrist. “I don’t think pepper will work on reptiles. They don’t have the same pain receptors as humans.”

Alex and Pinwheel looked at Knockout Rose strangely.

“I took chemistry classes,” she said.

“Thanks for the tip.” Alex loaded lead slugs into his shotgun. “Let’s move.”

Alex slid over the car’s hood and opened fire on the tyrannosaurus-man. Each shot made an explosion of red, a small explosion in its thick-red skin compared to the thing’s bulk.

Knockout Rose ran at the velociraptor-man. She would have landed a devastating punch if it didn’t see her coming. It hopped and threw a spinning kick. Its large claws gave her a quick flashback of Slick Shadow slashing her face. She raised her gloves and ducked.

Atomic Annie vaulted over the car and tackled the styracosaurus-man’s horned head crest. She planned to knock it off-balance by making it top-heavy. Instead, the creature spread his legs to brace himself and swung his head. Only Atomic Annie’s enhanced strength kept her from flying off

Pinwheel contorted his fingers to direct his flash attack straightforward. The light blinded the long-tailed iguana-man, who spun and whipped his tail in all directions. Pinwheel didn’t dare to get any closer.

Alex aimed higher. The tyrannosaurus-man lunged. He jumped back and unwittingly swung his shotgun to the side. It went off in his hands. The slug hit the iguana-man in the hip. He fell with a piercing shriek.

The styracosaurus-man threw Atomic Annie off his bony shield with one strong swing. She flew through the air spinning. All four limbs landed superhuman-strong hits on the velociraptor-man before she ran into him. The impact was enough to break most of his bones while leaving the super-dense superheroine unharmed.

Knockout Rose jumped away from the falling velociraptor-man. She bumped into the dizzy styracosaurus-man. She spun and punched the back of its head with enough force and electricity to send it face-first onto the street.

The tyrannosaurus-man lunged at Alex again. Pinwheel put his hands together and let his fear and rage shoot out of his hands in the form of a powerful laser. The beam hit the tyrannosaurus man’s nose and took off a chunk of his mouth. Dagger-sized teeth vanished instantly. The creature stood stunned for a few seconds before falling unconscious.

Alex stepped back and looked over the defeated Dino-Tribe.

Pinwheel blew his smoking bandages. “Hotter than a meteor.”

Knockout Rose turned off her gloves. “Extinct again.”

“We kicked Jurassic ass,” said Atomic Annie.

Alex slung the shotgun over his shoulder, pulled out his MAB badge, and shouted to the police, “Get these things into the hospital.”

Atomic Annie pulled a phone from her boot and checked her text messages. “Hate to break up the party, but the Harlem Knights needs help.” She ran towards Centre Street.

One of the cops pointed at Pinwheel. “Hey, aren’t you a Young Sentinel?”

“I was.”

“Your former team is on the other side of the hospital. They’re getting slaughtered.”

“I told their manager to keep them off the street,” said Alex.

“Agent, please,” said Pinwheel, “I lost Pete. I can’t lose any more friends.”

“I thought you didn’t like them,” said Alex.

“But they don’t deserve to die,” said Knockout Rose.

“Heroes don’t choose who they save,” said Pinwheel.

“Then go.” Alex put his badge against the hospital’s front entrance. “Whatever happens, stay alive.”