Don't Be a Hero: A Superhero Novel (50 page)

The clouds began swirling above Sam, and gales buffeted the civilians. That’d be Ms Typhoon, standing on an apartment balcony six blocks away. The distance between Sam and his hostages grew larger and smaller and larger again as he played tug-of-war with the storm winds assailing him. They might just do this.

Wallace pulled back the slide on his rifle, checked the round in the chamber, and glanced at her. “However this goes….”

“Don’t go getting sappy on me, Wallace.”

More lights flashed across the sky. More heroes moving to engage. Sam howled, and another hero flickered and burned out like a failed rocket launch. But five more hostages got free in the arms of flying superheroes. Little by little, they were dismantling his human shield.

Sam caught an energy beam in the side and went careening through the supports of a billboard advertising disposable razors, his civilians trailing behind him. For a long moment the billboard swayed one way and then the other, as if it wasn’t sure whether to fall or not. Then the support finally gave. Instinctively, Niobe plotted the trajectory of the falling debris, and her eyes fell on the fleeing civilians below. Her stomach knotted again.

The billboard fell, and the civilians below screamed. But before it hit the street, the billboard slowed and came to a stop in mid-air. A shower of dust rained down. Slowly, the billboard rose again and flew back towards Sam. Brightlance fired another energy beam through a mass of fibres. A dozen hostages began to fall. The billboard glowed blue and changed direction again.
Dancer
. The billboard zipped beneath the falling hostages, catching them like a fielder in cricket.

Dancer drifted above the rooftop ahead of Niobe, her blue bodysuit nearly invisible against the night. She looked tiny, and Niobe couldn’t help but think once again about how young she was.
Almost as young as Sam.

Wallace put out his right hand. “Fight well, vigilante.” He grunted. “Spook.”

Niobe made to shake his hand, then realised she’d put out her own mangled stump. He grinned at her and switched hands. His grip was strong.

“Fight well, Senior Sergeant.”

A dozen bits of masonry the size of cars floated into the air around Dancer, then the tiny telekinetic hurled them across the sky. At the same time, Sam’s remaining hostages glowed blue and parted like the Red Sea. Sam was too busy trying to shoot lightning at Gabby to see the rocks coming. The first one hit his back, while the others swirled around him to slam into him from all directions.

Deep in the pit of her stomach, she felt every blow.

Sam screamed, and the sonic boom was so powerful that Niobe had to take a step back. The boulders exploded into dust. His head swept around, ignoring the chaingun rounds that continued to pepper him. Niobe saw his gaze fall on Dancer.

“Move, girl,” Niobe whispered.

Dancer swam through the air towards Niobe and Wallace like she was doing backstroke, throwing up more debris and the broken husks of cars as she went. Every time Sam got close, she hurled something else at him, slowing him just enough for her to escape the range of his fists or his lightning. And all the while, Gabby and the other fliers snatched more civilians away from him.

“Here we go,” Wallace said. He moved to his position on the side of the rooftop and raised his rifle, but Niobe’s legs weren’t moving. She watched Sam throw aside one attack after another. She’d thought this was possible, but look at him. Even if they got all the hostages away, he was more powerful than all these heroes put together. Did she really think she could stop him?
Bloody hell, why couldn’t I have been faster? It never should have come to this.

“Spook!” Wallace called. “Get in position, damn it.”

Dancer slipped by overhead. She spun in the air, gave Niobe a wave, and threw one last boulder at Sam. She was close enough to hear him grunt as he swatted it away.

He’s so thin
. She could see his ribs pressed against his metal skin. She could even make out the scabs peeking out of the cracks around his ears and mouth. The mind-control strings left his fingers like cotton unravelling from a shirt, moving where he moved. But it was his eyes that drove ice down her spine. They were pale, mad, filled with rage and sorrow. The worst bit was she could still see the same scared boy deep inside them. Some part of the real Sam still existed. And she wondered if that was the most dangerous part.

Wallace opened fire. The sound cracked her reverie, and when she blinked, everything was clear.

She darted across the rooftop for the centre of the lighted area, glancing behind her as she went. Wallace’s shots were on target, but Sam didn’t even look at him. Niobe slowed. Her heart thumped as she took in the glowing eyes staring back at her.

“Shit,” she said. “Wallace, I think he recognises—”

Sam’s scream knocked her back several feet. She stumbled, rolled, and got back to her feet. Her hat skittered away across the rooftop, but she didn’t stop for it. She had to get him on the ground. That was her only chance. A burst of gunfire skimmed over her head so close she swore she could feel the air sizzle.

“Get down!” Wallace shouted. She caught a glimpse of him charging in her direction, rifle blazing.

Then something exploded in the air behind her. She knew she was on the ground when pain blazed through her teeth. A whistle screamed in her ears. She tried to move, but her limbs weren’t getting the message. Groaning, she tried to make her eyes focus on the figure standing in the garden in front of her.

Sam’s feet were trampling a clump of lilies. His metal skin was dented and scorched and his breath came in short, measured movements. He was fatigued, but even dazed she knew damn well he still had enough energy to wipe this whole city off the planet if he chose.

She grasped at the tile walkway. Something in the back of her mind was screaming at her to act, but she couldn’t remember what to do. Nausea rolled through her in waves. A hollow noise tried to fight through the ringing in her ears.

—
I know you.

Sam’s mouth wasn’t moving, but she could hear him speak. His head hung limply to the side, but he was looking at her, she knew.

—
I remember. You tried to save me. I killed your friend. And I tried to kill you. But I want to save you. I don’t know. I don’t remember anymore.

“Sam….” It came out as a croak. He wasn’t making any sense.

—
It’s okay. You won’t be alone now.

The remaining civilians floated above, staring down at her with blank eyes.

Sam raised his hand and pointed a finger at her. A fibre crept towards her. She watched it with a sort of detached fascination.

Three loud cracks rattled through her brain. Sparks bounced off Sam’s metal skin and his head snapped around.

“Get up!” someone shouted through water a million miles away.

I can’t. I can’t breathe.

Another burst of gunfire. “Get up and fight!”

A squat figure dived to the side, avoiding a blast of lightning. His face was lit up by the flash of his rifle. Wallace. But his bullets did nothing to Sam. The armoured boy stepped off the trampled garden and into the beams of the spotlights, his weight cracking the tiles beneath his feet.

His feet
. He was on the ground. She remembered. She wrapped her good hand around a thin tree trunk and pulled herself up.

“I could do with a fucking hand here, hero!” Wallace shouted. Sam brought his fist back, his snarl fixed on the cape copper.

She tried to leap, but it was more of a lurch. It was enough. She slipped her stump out of the sling and wrapped her arms around Sam’s icy torso, tightening the fingers of her left hand around the edges of his steel plates. Beneath the glare of the spotlights, she pulled him into a tight embrace, like her mum did to her on her first day of school.

Then she dragged him into the shadow with her.

The spotlights burned like scalding water. The shadow wasn’t smooth and flat this time; it bubbled and boiled with movement. A shape screamed beneath her, flailing, drowning. She held her breath. The clock started in her head. Three minutes.

The black shape scrambled beneath her. She clung tight, dragging him back into the fire of the spotlight beam with her. She was half-blind, burning all over. The shape pulled away from the tile walkway, like a screaming face pressed against the surface of a black plastic bag. His mouth gulped like a fish, but there was no air in the shadow. She grabbed hold of his head and pushed him back down, flattening him against the tile. Somewhere, she thought she could make out Wallace shouting.

Thirty seconds gone.
I can’t take it
. Every photon pierced her like a dagger. She could feel Sam’s agony as well. Something was melding between them, their shadows mixing. Stray thoughts intruded on her own, and they were full of panic. Images of blood and torture ran through her head, the sound of Doll Face giggling and the stench of fear. Her consciousness flitted across the barrier between their two minds at will, tipping one way and then the other. And all the while, she drowned in a burning sea.

—
Dying I’m dying.
Sam’s voice was half gibberish.
Dying burning crushing killing blood oh God blood everywhere. He’s inside my head again!

A minute gone. She could feel Sam trying to use his powers, but there was nothing here for him to get a hold on, and the lights made him weak. He clawed at her, trying to roll her away from the light with him. But here, she was stronger. She wrapped her shadow around a thousand tiny imperfections in the tile and held tight.

As their minds mixed, she sensed more presences.
The mind-control strings.
Still grappling with Sam, she followed the fibres to the edge of the shadow. It seemed like she was underwater, the strings piercing the surface and disappearing into the glare of the lights.
No more, Sam.
She focussed her energy, took hold of a handful of fibres, and tugged. Sam screamed as they snapped. She hoped that out there somewhere, Gabby and the others would catch the hostages before they fell.

Two minutes down. Sam’s movements were slowing. Even a tier zero meta needed oxygen. She could feel the life leeching from him, evaporating. It was nearly over. He was nearly gone.

But so was she. The lights were becoming faded halos. Her sense of grip on the tile was going numb. At least the burning was starting to fade. She kept cutting strings. Sam’s screams turned to whimpers. Pleading started to flow across the barrier between their minds, and heaviness clung to her heart. His thoughts were mad, disjointed, afraid, but without malice, like a wounded animal who didn’t yet realise it was dying. On the edge of consciousness, she could sense Wallace moving to the controls for the lights.
Not yet
. Her thoughts were sluggish.
I’ve nearly got him
. When Wallace turned the lights up to full, the fire would take them both. There would be nothing left.

—
No!
Sam’s thoughts intruded on her own.
I won’t be alone!

Without warning, a desperate fury erupted from Sam. He spun and struck her, gaining a fraction of solidity for a moment. Her grip slipped. He wriggled from under her.

Damn it.
She grabbed hold of the edge of his shadow and tried to hang onto the fluid shape. He tugged against her, the edge of him nearly outside the beam of the spotlights. She couldn’t let him go. She couldn’t. If he got free, she’d be too weak to try again. With the last of her strength, she pulled him back. His screams echoed inside her head.

She pulled him back into her embrace. She could sense the last of his energy leaving him. His struggles turned to feeble flailing.
It’s okay,
she told him.
It’s going to be okay now.

The movements grew slower, and slower still. Everything was dark. Then Sam’s shadow slumped, and he was still. The fire on her skin and in her lungs had faded. She was so tired.
I’ll just rest. Just for a moment.

“Three minutes, vigilante.” Wallace’s distant voice jerked her awake. “If you’re still alive, get the hell out now.”

Time. Through the darkness, she felt Wallace’s hand move to the controls.

She threw off the shadow like a heavy blanket. A moment later, the lights blazed. Her retinas burned. She turned away, her stump across her face. Every inch of her skin felt like it was scorched black. She could only manage a strangled grunt before she collapsed back onto the tiles. Something limp was resting on her belly. Sam. He was so quiet now. Like a little boy.

Her lungs sucked in the air greedily. She couldn’t tell if Sam was breathing. His metal armour had disappeared, and now he lay bloodied and pale and nearly naked, his eyes closed. The fibres had vanished. Dimly, she was aware of movement around her, of someone heavy landing next to her, and more brightly coloured figures floating overhead. But she could barely see them. She pulled Sam close, embracing him like a mother once more. And with her good arm wrapped around him, she drifted away.

Dawn bloomed over Neo-Auckland.

31: It Never Ends

Dr Atomic changed everything. The world was ready to collapse, unable to stand under its own weight. And then superheroes appeared and helped shoulder the burden. Whatever happens, society will never go back to the way it was before the heroes came. They are part of us now, inseparable. There is no “us” and no “them”. There is just humanity, and all the good and bad and horrible and beautiful things that come with it.

—Superheroes: A Retrospective