Age of Power 1: Legacy (39 page)

Ian
blinked and shook his head. “But why would she…oh my God. It was a
distraction.”

I
gave a nod. The others just looked on confused by our comments. The good
‘Doctor’ never told them about Yasmine’s trail. I said, “A false trail. She
knew you were on to her, so she laid out this trail to follow. How many people
did you send to Dubai?”

Ian
sighed, “Half the investigative FBI team. The rest are here, or dead. She
convinced me to send most of the people I had, to get me as alone as she
could.”

I
leaned towards him, and whispered, “I told you, she’s after you. And she’s been
after you since you blunted her probes into Ryan Tech. Now, do you believe me?”

Ian
groaned. “You’re right. We thought we had stopped her in Dubai. But it’s was
just a ploy to get to me more easily. Oh damn, she really played me hard.

Turning
to the agent nearest him, Ian said, “Case, is there another way of out? If we
try to go up there now, they’ll mow us down. And I am certain they’re searching
for me. I know too much that they don’t want the government to have.”

Oh,
good lie. Though, it’s close enough for the truth. To all of them, Ian still
looked like Dane Eisenhawk. Why I didn’t see him that way, I still didn’t know.
But it also wasn’t as though I could reveal the truth. Especially when that
sort of confusion could get us all killed.

As
the others discussed where to go next, I made sure that the smoke from Kular’s
acid form wasn’t getting worse. Fortunately, ‘she’ looked to be simply pooling
on the floor. The smoke still closed in, though, sliding across the floor. We
couldn’t stand around forever here. And if Kular had been in contact with Yasmine
at the time, it wouldn’t be long before
she
—

I
turned to the group. “We have to get to the helicopter. And we have to do it
fast. Yasmine will send those guys down this way sooner rather than later.
They’re just up there now looking for stragglers, I’m sure of it.”

I
looked at Ian. “I’m thinking that she wants to deal with you directly,
Eisenhawk. And you’ll be the last person they try to kill. I may not like you,
but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them take you.”

Perez
said, “Forget it 
amigo
. We can’t get to the helicopter as long as
those bastards are up on the first floor. We might be able to take the mercs,
but that Uber-Nazi would fry us.”

I
let my breath out slowly. “I’ll deal with them. I distract them, and you move
out.”

Ian
stared at me as he said, “What? Do you really think you can take on that many?
Are you insane? Once they see you, they’ll radio for reinforcements!”

I
glanced back down the hall. Tendrils of smoke were still slowly flowing this
way. Time was short. Looking back to Ian, I said, “Not much choice, man.
Any suggestions?
Not to bust your illusions or anything, but
right now, I am the only one who can match the super psycho up there.”

Ian
winced at my comment about illusions, but only said, “You’re not as strong as
they are, Vaughn. They’ve used their abilities without any of the reluctance
you’ve shown. But you
’ve been attacked
more than they
have been, individually. So your body can take higher stress than they can.”

I
nodded. That was a good bit of logic. I
had been smacked
around a fair bit. But, “Why would that be?”

Ian
cocked his head slightly as he said, “That is the way that the magnesium now
works in your cells. The more you use your power, the more your body utilizes
the element to keep it from blowing apart due to the stress of generating such
high levels of power. It also works the same way when you take physical
damage.”

I
nodded. “So it keeps me from going 
boom, 
and it’s like an
energy drink—like Red Bull. It’s full of caffeine, vitamin B, and sugary
goodness to not only get me going, but now with added metal to reinforce my
cell walls. Cool!”

I
was joking, but Ian said, “No, you fool. It acts as armor 
and
 fuel.
The more you get hurt, the more you heal, and the faster it gets used. But use
your powers for too long, and the magnesium burns out in the same way. Frankly,
if you attempt to use your power while you're healing, you could die. It’s a
balance you can’t possibly maintain!”

Pointing
behind me, he went on. “That alone may have pushed you past your limit. But
you’re so high on adrenaline right now that you wouldn’t feel it until it was
too late. Think about this, Vaughn. The way your body tries to utilize
magnesium now is a massive weakness in combat.”

Great.
And this guy was giving that information to
people that nearly obliterated humanity. Whispering, I leaned in and said,
“Seriously, Ian, are you really sure that you want them to know anything like
that about the Empowered? Think about that before you hand over any information
about us to your people.”

His
eyes widened, but I ignored him as I said more loudly, “Okay, I guess I have to
deal. If you guys try to shoot your way out, it’s only going to bring in more
mercs or Yasmine’s
Empowered
. I can do the distraction
thing, but while I do this, where will you go once I clear them out?”

Perez
said, “The loading bay has a door at the end of the main hallway on the ground
floor. You clear those bastards out, and we can go. But, come on man, we can go
with you and provide backup.”

I
looked at him, the two surviving soldiers, and the last of the FBI agents. It
would make sense to have this be a full-on assault, at least while Ian got out.

I
shook my head. “No. I’m going to have to use my powers. If I have to cut loose,
I could end up liquefying your brains. I just don’t have the control.”

Perez
looked at me, taking me in. Here I was, a normal-looking guy in jeans, planning
to go
full-on
against professional killers. He was
impressed, I guess, because he reached down to his leg and pulled a gun from an
ankle holster. Handing it to me, he said, “You’ve got a great voice, dude, but
seriously, guns work! Be ready to use the thing!”

“Smart-ass
soldiers, next!” I said in retort, and then I grabbed the gun. He was right, if
I lost focus or burned out my power, they’d kill me in a second. The gun was a
last resort, but it could save my life.

“You
know how to use a gun?” Ian asked.

I
snorted slightly and checked the safety, checked the rounds, and clicked one
into the chamber. Slipping it in the small of my back, I said, “I grew up in
Iowa. I hunted with my best friend for years. His brother taught us how to
shoot when we were eight. It’s the Midwest. Of course I know how to use a gun!”

Stupid
foreigners
, I quipped silently.

Before
anyone could say anything more, I ran through the stairwell door and headed
up. 
Yay!
No pressure!

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Jogging
up the stairs, I could hear someone talking. 
“I told you, Reich! The
sub-basement is down this way! Now come on! Yasmine wants everyone in this
building dead!”

I
moved faster.

Slamming
through the door, I ran down a small hall and turned the corner, where I
barreled into three men holding rifles.
The first guy I saw
had washed-out blond hair and was sporting a ponytail.
I shoulder-slammed him into a wall headfirst.
The next guy I
elbowed across the jaw. Turning, I saw the third man just as he was bringing up
his rifle to fire.

He
started to yell, and stopped as he realized that he couldn’t hear his own
voice. I just grinned and slammed into him with a full body tackle. He was big—
really big
. I lucked out when he fell back and his head
hit the floor. I let out a breath of relief. He’d been distracted by what I’d
done.

On
the way up the stairs, I had an idea. I took a chance on the impulsive thought
that I could dampen sound. In short, it worked. But I wasn’t done yet. I jumped
up as fast as I could when I saw the flash of a hunter green costume out of the
corner of my eye.
The Nazi wannabe who called himself Reich.

Reich
was dressed in a dark green spandex costume with a black and white swastika
symbol on his chest. I saw him coming around a corner. I wasted no time to
attack. I screamed at him with a tightly focused bolt of sonic energy. To my
surprise, no sound came out of my mouth. But Reich suddenly went flying back at
a high speed.

I
could only watch, dumbfounded, as Reich smashed through glass partitions,
destroy a reception desk and shatter the tempered glass of the building’s
doublewide entrance doors. Flying out of the building, he ended up crashing
into the grove of trees in front of the entrance. He made a nice dent in the
largest tree and slid to the ground, out of sight.

I
grunted in surprise. Somehow, I’d accelerated Reich to sonic speed. I really
needed to get a handle on this stuff. Slowly, I relaxed. Once I did, sound came
back to the room. I could hear shattered glass tinkling to the ground
throughout the area. I looked around at the damage.

I
sighed, and I muttered to myself. “Oh yeah, I’m just getting used to the
devastating power thing, ain’t I? Oh wait, no, I’m not.”

Unfortunately,
while it devastated Reich, it didn’t seem to touch the others I’d put down. The
soundless burst of power had been that focused. At that moment, someone behind
me yelled, and guns started firing. I ducked around the same corner I’d seen
Reich come from. Concrete and plaster flew into the air as bullets ripped into
the floor and walls.

Then
the guns went silent as three distinct shots went off. I heard the thuds of
bodies hitting the floor. I hesitated for a few seconds,
then
I heard. “Yo,
coming
dude? They’re dead. You can come
out.”

I
looked around the corner to see Perez standing there with a gun in his hand. He
was holding his right ear and wincing in pain, but still, he was smiling.

Staring,
I said, “Idiot! I told you I couldn’t control it that well!”

Perez
shrugged. He said, “Man, I’ve heard worse at rock concerts.”

I
looked down at the three mercenaries and said, “Nice shot.”

Perez
snorted. I learned to shoot when I was young too, 
mi amigo
. Now
let’s get the hell out of here before any more nuts show up!”

The
other men came up as fast as they could and joined us in the hallway. With
Perez in front, they started down the hall towards the loading docks.

I
turned to head out the front to make sure that Reich was unconscious. The last
thing anyone needed was
him
pulling a surprise attack
or warning his friends. But I stopped when Ian called out to me. “You’re going
to try to stop them, aren’t you?

I
turned and glared at him. “Someone has to. Yasmine is going to rip this place
apart to make sure all the information on the Empowered never makes it out of
here. And she won’t stop looking for the Noumenonii.”

“She’s
too late to get the information, I already erased it. We’re very good at what
we do, Vaughn. As for her hunting us, well, we aren’t exactly worried after all
these years. We’ve become experts at hiding,” Ian said.

I
growled.
“Really?
Do you think they could’ve hidden
from that big ass rock they sent at Earth? It would have destroyed the
Noumenonii too! The whole planet would’ve been wrecked!”

Ian
hesitated and then said, “No, we were safe. In any case, it won’t happen again.
The circumstances that brought it about have changed. So, for now, Earth is
safe.”

I
cocked my head, giving him a skeptical look. 
“Really?
 Gosh,
I’m just so happy to hear that. You’re all still monsters, Ian. I’ll be sure to
let Dana know how deep your love for her was.”

Ian
looked away. Then, visibly swallowing, he looked back at me and said, “You’re
wrong. We aren’t all monsters, Vaughn. More was happening than I can explain.
And Alex was one of us. Was he a monster?”

I
said, “From the sounds of things, Alex barely knew about you guys. His mom made
sure of that.”

Ian
gave me a smile that had no humor in it. He said, “You may be right on that
point. She was a very powerful precognitive.”

I
stared at him for a moment. Precognition was the ability to tell the future. I
said, “Do you mean to tell me that she saw this—all of this—coming? You’re
kidding!”

Perez
yelled for Ian and me. Ian turned and raised a hand to him as he continued
looking at me.

He
said, “Think on that, Vaughn. Alex could have been following a path that his
mother set for him. You should stay safe. Stay alive. You may be more important
than you can possibly imagine.”

I
gave him a cocky grin and said, “Trust me, what could go wrong?”

He
got a pained look and then laughed softly.

He
said, “Good luck.”

Ian
went to join Perez, and I ran as fast as I could out the front door. To my
surprise, the tall spandex Nazi was coming toward me at the same time. I didn’t
waste my time with small talk. I just told him to stick it—at around a volume
of two hundred. Okay, I exaggerate. But he flew back into the large tree again.
He didn’t get up.

My
eyes widened in fear when I heard a voice with a familiar light tenor from
behind the tree. 
“Meep!”

I
stared at the grove of trees, praying that I hadn’t just heard what I did.
Hoping against hope, I called out, “BJ?”

Please
don’t be BJ. Please don’t be BJ…don’t be BJ…

BJ
came around the tree and waved at me. I sighed. Dana was so going to kill
me.

I
ran up to him and said, “What in the hell are you doing here? And—dear gods,
what are you wearing?”

He
had on leathers. Dark red with white highlights, the white formed a ‘V’ down
the front center of the jacket. White stripes continued down the side of the
pants to the dark red boots. They matched the dark red fingerless gloves, which
had a white rectangular patch on the back of each glove.

I
could only continue to stare at him as I took it in. I said, “First Yasmine’s
group and their insane costumes, and now you?”

He
looked down and looking wounded, he said, “Hey! She stole my designs! I found a
guy who designs outfits for anyone who has the money. These clothes have heavy
impact plates inside the lining to help, for when you spill in a bike race. I
ordered all this days ago, before I ever came to Riverlite. You know, just in
case.”

I
looked at BJ, taking in his words and his silly suit. Finally, I said, “I hate
you. I hate you with all the power of a thousand dying suns.”

The
redheaded goofball smirked. “You’re just jealous because you didn’t think of it
first, geek.”

I
opened my mouth, closed it, and then said, “No…no, not really.
Seriously, no, not jealous.
Not after what’s been going on.”

He
just shrugged, knowingly. I ignored it and went on. “Tell me this isn’t a
rescue attempt.”

BJ
rolled his eyes. He said, “Are you kidding? No way would we go after the
government! We like hiding!”

I
blinked. “Then why are you here?”

BJ
shrugged. “Riverlite’s police lost all communications with Ryan Tech. I was
with my dad when it happened. While he started organizing a response team, I
decided to come out here to see if you needed help. I did sort of start this
with Yasmine, after all.”

I
nodded. Wait… “Your Dad knows?”

BJ
coughed and turned a slight shade of pink.
“Um, yeah.
Dana going outside with the nurse got him a bit suspicious. Then he saw some
raw footage of the hospital records that showed
you, me, and
Angela sneaking out
. I kind of had to tell him something.”

I
glanced back at the building and nodded to myself. “Well, at least he didn’t—”

I
stopped talking suddenly when he gave me a quizzical glance. “He…?”

I
turned away, muttering, “Nothing.”

“What’s
going on, Vaughn?” BJ muttered. I didn’t answer him. I definitely didn’t want
to be the one to tell him about Ian Devonshire. Not right now, in any case.

Before
BJ asked more, screams came from the east, near the highway. We both stared
that way. I swallowed with fear. Things weren’t going well for the good guys. I
couldn’t see much, but I could see columns of smoke and hear gunshots going off
like crazy.
And screams.

I
said, “Great, go out there and fight, or make sure everyone got out. I just
sent off a group of people with Eisenhawk. They’re making for a helicopter. You
see any more of Yasmine’s people coming this way?”

BJ
said, “No, I used side and back roads all the way here. There’s a whole bunch
of soldiers dead on the farm road, though, just to the west of here. That
wasn’t fun to see, but other than that, it looks like the bigger fight is out
near the highway.”

I
nodded. I looked past him and saw the handlebars of a silver and black KTM
motorcycle. “Wow, you took that in this cold? I’m impressed!”

BJ
chuckled. “It’s not that cold. And it belongs to Dana, not me. So let’s not get
it wrecked, please.”

I
nodded. She would kill me if I brought BJ into this. But, to tell the truth, I
needed help. 
Now.

I
said, “Okay, what exactly is your power? Tell me it’s more than just mental
shielding.”

He
grinned impishly. “Relax, Son'x. I can hold my own. What are we going to—
meep
!”

I jerked my head around to see Reich stalking towards us from
the grove of trees
,
his eyes were glowing red
.
“Seriously?
Glowing eyes?
I
thought that was just comic book stuff.”

“Vaughn!
Scream at him, now!” BJ yelled loudly enough to jar me back to reality. I put
two fingers between my lips and blew out a high-pitched whistle, pouring energy
into the sound as much as I could.

That stopped
him. Shuddering, Reich came to a sudden halt, and then his eyes dimmed. He fell
to his knees and then flat onto his face—unconscious. BJ and I both caught our
breath as Reich’s form wavered and shrank from a stereotypical tall, blond
Aryan-type man to a scrawny-looking punk with a
mohawk
and a swastika tattoo on his shoulder. He was completely naked now. The costume
had been a part of the shape-change.
Incredible.

I
gestured to him as I asked, “So, anyone you know?”

Looking
bemused, BJ shrugged and said, “Uh, dude, not into the BDSM Nazi crowd…oh! You
mean from the conclave. Nope, never saw him, but it was all virtual reality,
and everyone was wearing an online avatar. There were a lot of masks
and costumes.”

I
looked at him and commented, “Oh, BJ…did you have to have this superhero riff
going on? I mean, really?”

BJ
shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, you had to be there.”

I
raised a hand to stop his talking. Listening, I zeroed in on the sound of
talking coming from the administration building. I looked at BJ and whispered,
“Someone’s in there. Did you bring Angela? She could pop in and take a look.”

BJ’s
face tightened into a grimace. He shook his head and said, “She saw the cops
and jaunted. I don’t know where she is. I haven’t seen her since they took you.
I’m hoping she’s looking for help or trying to get a hold of Parry.”

I
sighed. So it was two against Yasmine’s forces. Well, up until Alan brought in
any number of recruits that Yasmine commanded him to. Oh, this was going to be
a short campaign. I had no doubt about it. I could see it now in my mind’s
eye. 
“Hi! I’m target zero, would you care to dance?” WHAM! 
THUD!
 
Dead Vaughn!