So Not a Hero (32 page)

“That’s the other thing,” He said with a small laugh, “Not only can I manipulate Enhanced abilities, I can also transfer them to others.” He held up one hand, fingers spread wide. A crackling aura of ionized plasma formed around his hand, bathing it in a white glow. The sheath wasn’t as sharp and uniform as Darla’s, but it was otherwise identical.

“You stole Darla’s plasma power.” The implications of this new information became downright terrifying.

“Copied it, actually. And a few others as well.” He glanced at his hand as he turned it back and forth, examining the energized particles. “I didn’t see any reason why all the time I spent scanning everyone while testing their powers should go to waste.”

I thought about those sessions. The way he’d encouraged everyone to push themselves to the limit. All while his machines examined and measured and deciphered. I pointed at finger at him. “That’s how you found out I was a transgenic.”

He nodded. “I was completely shocked, too. I mean, every file the EAPF had on you listed your strength as Class Four. When you measured Class Five during the testing, I realized that your Enhancement had changed to make you stronger. It nearly knocked me on the floor.”

I nodded and started towards him. “This time, Daniel, it won’t be a nearly.” I figured if he started throwing plasma blasts, his inexperience would grant me enough time to crack his skull like a pecan. Curiously, he stood there and waited until I’d grabbed him with one hand and pulled back the other. Then he made his play.

“Come on, Karen. You don’t
really
want to do this, do you?”

The touch in my head surged back. With a vengeance. Instead of stroking and nudging my thoughts, those fingers scrapped along my cerebral cortex. Pushing things into new and unfamiliar formations.

“Yes … no.” I fought against the confusion. My memories sought out Martin’s face and focused on it. “I guess not.” My punching arm lowered, raised back into the ready position, and then lowered again.

You know you would be better off working with me and not against me, right?”

I shook my head and told him that he was crazy. Except the shake was more nod-like and instead of saying crazy, I said, “You’re … right.” I tried to listen to Martin’s voice and remember what he’d taught me.

“What the hell is going on?” Kurt’s voice came from the open doorway.

Daniel and I turned at the same time to see the detective standing there, pistol aimed at Daniel. “Karen, step away from him.”

“Detective Braddock,” Daniel sneered. “Don’t you think you should put that gun—”

The weapon barked once and Daniel jerked under my grip. My head, slowly becoming clearer, turned to see a hole in the shoulder of his uniform. The flesh beneath was completely unscathed. When I looked back up to his face, the bastard winked. “Copied her invulnerability as well.” His eyes turned hard and he leaned closer. “The good detective should pay for that, don’t you agree?”

I stared at him for a few moments and then released him, turning back to face Kurt. I walked over the doorway slowly and frowned a little. Kurt kept his weapon trained on Daniel, but his eyes swung over to look into mine.

"I'm really sorry about this," I said. I smiled a little, hoping to convey that everything was going to be okay, and that he needed to trust that I knew what I was doing. However, I think my expression wasn't nearly as clear as I'd hoped, because his brow wrinkled in confusion and his mouth turned down into a frown.

"Karen, what are you doing?"

I punched him in the stomach, folding him over. The pistol in his hand came loose and clattered on the floor. Then I shoved him backwards, through the open door, and into the hallway. He hit the far wall with a dull thud and slid down it, unconscious.

Daniel walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go have some real fun.”

CHAPTER 21: SO NOT A VILLAIN

I stared silently at Kurt’s unconscious form and felt Daniel lean in to whisper in my ear.

“I would have you kill him. But I’m not really sure what that would do to your psyche.” His fingers played along the back of my neck. “So, why don’t we forget about the detective and be on our way?” The tendrils in my mind screamed that Daniel’s suggestion was a great one and I should accept it and obey.

“Okay,” I said, turning to face him. “Where are we going?”

“Well, Greg will be back soon, most likely with multiple law enforcement agents. I don’t think they would be able to do much to stand in our way. However, I’m eager to put the next part of my plan in motion.” He kept his hand on my neck. “Exciting, isn’t it?”

No, I tried to think, exciting would be mashing your face in. Instead, I nodded slowly and followed him as he guided us down the hallway towards the private lift that went up to the hangar. Inside its tight confines, the aura of agreeability intensified. I kept my gaze straight ahead to keep from looking directly at Daniel. I knew deep down, on a base level, he was using Richard’s ability to control me.

The Martin in my head kept insisting that I fight to break free from Daniel’s influence.

“The Legion has a warehouse near Lake Norman,” he said. “I think it might be a good place for us to lay low until the chaos settles down.”

“Sounds perfect,” I said without turning my head. The fact that it did sound perfect itched at me like a tick under the fur. I clenched my jaw and tried to focus.

The doors opened, revealing the hangar and the haphazardly parked hovercraft. Normally, it would have been waiting within the square of red lights around the landing pad. This time, it was turned slightly, and the front strut was well past the marked area. Richard must have suspected something was wrong when he and Darla had returned from the hospital and set the ship down without his usual preciseness.

I stopped at the bottom of the ramp and looked at Daniel. The fact that he now seemed to be larger than life and overflowing with delicious appeal caused my breath to hitch in my lungs. I curled the hand furthest from him into a hard fist, squeezing my fingers to near the breaking point.

“Is something wrong, Karen?” he asked as he walked back down to stand next to me. Several beads of perspiration adorned his forehead.

“Can you fly this thing?” I kept my voice demure and compliant.

He studied me for a moment and then laughed. “Of course I can. I was the one who built it.” Another pulse emanated from him and he reached out to pat me on the ass. “Climb on in, beautiful. Time’s wasting.”

I smiled and closed my eyes as I walked up the ramp, part of me bristling from the unwanted touch. The Martin in my head was talking, but his words kept getting drowned out by the soothing vibrations coming from Daniel’s hijacked power. It was like being in close proximity to two radio stations sharing the same frequency.

Once aboard, I went to sit in my usual seat in the back. However, Daniel had other ideas.

“You can sit in Greg’s seat, Karen. He’ll not be using it ever again.” A slamming wave rolled across my mind. “Right?”

I nodded. “Right,” I said as I sat down and fastened my seatbelt. Despite the forced smile, I was drowning under a flood of manipulated feelings. Struggling for air and freedom.

Daniel hummed softly as he flicked the switches to bring the hovercraft to life. The instrument panel cycled through the pre-flight sequence and the hatch closed with a clink and a hiss. I watched him for a moment and then realized what was different about him. Other than the obvious traits of psychosis and evil.

He was confident. There was no hesitation in his actions, no pause in his decision-making. The nervous tics, the stutter, the blushing. All gone. He performed and behaved exactly like someone who had no worries or doubt. Someone who fully believed in himself without question.

And was trying to force me to do the same.

Clarity about Richard washed over me and I saw past the surface. No wonder he’d never seemed the least bit embarrassed about his actions. His power wouldn’t let him. He affected others as a matter of choice. It had been the only thing that had kept me from busting his head open from Day One. But he was also a victim. He believed he was right all the time. About everything.

Now Daniel had that same confidence, only jacked up to eleven.

Daniel pulled on the stick and the ship lifted gracefully off the pad and up through the open ceiling doors. “Off we go,” he said, giving me a smug grin.

“You know they’ll come after us,” I said as we climbed into the clear, blue Carolina sky. “Greg, the EAPF, Defense Incorporated, and others.” I couldn’t tell if I was appealing to him to reconsider whatever he had planned or expressing concern for his well-being. The confusion of it all scrambled my thoughts.

“Oh, I think they’re going to be too busy to worry about tracking us down. At least for a while.” He looked at me and winked. I responded by wanting to smash his face in and cover him with kisses simultaneously. Thankfully, I did neither.

We continued to rise until the city fell below us and the tallest buildings downtown were the size of toy models. I thought we might keep going until we reached orbit. Instead, after we’d reached a considerable height, Daniel pressed a button, and the craft shifted into hover mode.

“What’s going on?” I asked, leaning forward to look out the cockpit window. The ground seemed really far away.

“We’re going to kill two birds with one stone.” He held up his arm, displaying the genome-manipulation device on his wrist like a game show model highlighting the featured prize. “I’m going to channel this through the sonic emitter on the ship. It will blanket the city with random frequency modulations.”

I blinked and looked from him to the metropolis below. “Won’t that make everyone’s Enhancements go haywire?” I looked back. “Those that don’t become Slips will have their powers mutated into a different expression.”

He nodded and smiled, tapping on the end of his nose with a fingertip. “Exactly. Some will find their abilities increased exponentially. Most will find them flaring out of control.” He cackled—actually cackled—and rubbed his hands together. “The pandemonium will be worse than it was on Activation Day.”

“Why?” His vendetta against rest of the team I could follow. But to do something like that to a city of six million? Not even Martin would be that evil.

“Well, it’ll send a message that I am a power to be reckoned with. Plus, with your ex-boyfriend, Doctor Maniac, one of those afflicted, I’ll be the only one who can fix an Enhanced’s abilities. And I will, for a modest price of course.”

He smiled and turned a knob on the side of the device. The lights running along the unit on his arm turned a brilliant green and began to blink. “Normally, I’d have to scan someone and make alterations to their genome that way. However, if I set the modulation to rotating, it will randomize the effects.”

“Please, don’t.” It was the first time I’d been able to consider countering his plans. Head Martin had become a fraction of a percent louder than Daniel’s influence and I felt the tendrils in my mind receding. Even as bad as he had been and the things he’d done, I wanted to give him a final chance to do the heroic thing. “This isn’t you. You’re a hero.”

He pulled a thick cable free from under the console panel and screwed it into the device on his arm. “Actually, I’m not. I’ve always been superior to everyone else, but to attempt to do something physical before now would have been stupid and suicidal. Now I have the power to make everyone bow down and accept that I am their better.” A little spark jumped from the end of the cable on the last turn, making Daniel flinch.

It also caused his control to falter.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“For what?”

“Misjudging you.” I turned and slammed my fist into the hovercraft’s control panel. The metal caved in under the blow and a whole parade’s worth of fireworks shot up through the hole.

Daniel whirled around to face me, and the cable hooked to his arm popped loose. His stunned gaze went to the ruined panel. “What are you doing?” he screamed. The whine of the ship’s alarms nearly drowned him out. For the first time since I’d learned about his treachery, he sounded afraid.

“I’m putting an end to this bullshit,” I snarled. His panic had caused him to fully release his influence, and I didn’t hesitate to go on the offensive. I leaned forward and grabbed each of his wrists in a hand. I squeezed the one wearing the sequencer and the metal crumpled and bent. The lights flashed angrily and electricity flew from the diodes. He jittered in his seat from the power feedback, and I felt my teeth rattle.

Then the device exploded, bathing us both in a blast of purple-yellow energy that threw us apart.

I fell back into my seat, snapping off one of the arm rests. Daniel fell to the floor, but quickly popped back to his feet. He glanced down at the mangled bit of metal and plastic on his wrist and then glared at me. “You’ve ruined everything!” he screamed, bringing up one hand. An aura of plasma formed at his elbows and rolled down to his hands, making the cockpit a good degree brighter.

He pointed and a super-heated ball of energy shot across the space between us. It struck me in the left shoulder and sent me flying backwards, through Alexis’ seat and up against the side of the ship. The titanium hull buckled and the alarm changed from a loud buzzing to a resounding scream. The horizon in the distance tilted slightly, and I got the feeling that we weren’t going to be airborne much longer.

“You’re as bad as the rest of them!” he yelled as he threw another plasma blast at me. I turned and let that one hit me in the back. The heat of it made me wince and when I turned back around, he was preparing another.

I lunged forward and managed to slam into him before he could release it. His arms flew over his head and the sphere of ionized gas punched another hole in the hovercraft’s controls. Another round of sparks, accompanied by flames, shot out of the instrument panel and the vehicle pitched violently to the side.

I stumbled backwards and hit the bulkhead again, this time right next to the hatch. Daniel glared at me, eyes brimming with uncontrolled fury. “Come over here,” he said. I braced myself to fight against his influence, but the feeling of having someone rifle through my mind never came. Either he was too pissed to effectively make me adore him, or else the power transfer had only been temporary.

He sneered and put both hands in front of him to create a miniature sun between them. It quickly swelled to beach ball size, and his curled lips formed a nefarious grin. “You could have been my queen,” he spat. “Too bad you decided to be stupid.”

I put my hand behind me, feeling for the emergency handle. “Daniel?” My fingers brushed over the bar and then wrapped tightly around it. I winked at my former teammate. “Why don’t you go fuck yourself?”

He screamed an unintelligible reply and threw the plasma ball at me right as I yanked the handle up. The hatch exploded off its hinges and the sudden depressurization sucked me through the opening before his attack could hit. The force of the ejection pushed me several yards away from the side of the ship, and I saw the doorway erupt in a blast of light and heat. Pieces of the hull came loose and shredded one of the engines. The craft banked away from me and went into a spiral descent. I wasn’t sure where Daniel and the ship were going to end up, but I figured it was going to have to be someone else’s problem.

I stared up at the sky as I fell. The coldness of the air shocked me, and the wind rushing past my ears sounded like a banshee. I didn’t want to look down and see the ground coming up to meet me. I’d never fallen from higher than a dozen stories since my Activation and I wasn’t at all sure that my invulnerability would withstand an impact from thousands of feet up. I spread my arms and legs and let gravity take me down.

I didn’t feel afraid, only sad. I wanted to have a chance to reconnect with my mom and share her remaining time with her. I wanted to be there when Alexis woke up so I could tell her how awesome I thought she was. I even thought about Rocket, and the fact that he would be yelling at me right now, if not for Daniel’s scheming. I let the sadness come and the peace that followed behind it.

When I saw the top of the American Bank Tower out of the corner of my eye, I knew the end was just ahead. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see the buildings zoomed by and said a quick prayer that I wouldn’t kill or injure anyone when I hit the ground.

Meteor Karen, coming in hot. Look out below, I thought and a little smile played on my lips. Goodbye, world.

I heard a woman scream and then there was only darkness.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

The repetitive beeping pulsed in rhythm with the bass thumping in my head. I wanted whatever it was to shut up so I could slip back down into the darkness where I didn’t have to think about devious ex-heroes or critically injured teammates. However, the intrusive noise showed no signs of quieting down, so I slowly peeled my eyes open and winced as the blazing lights overhead drove a lance of pain right through my skull.

“Well, look who’s decided to rejoin the living,” Martin said from nearby.

I groaned and lifted an arm to drape over my eyes before peeking around the crook of my elbow at my visitor. He stood by the widow, looking at me with that smug expression that used to get under my skin, even back when I was in love with him. He clasped his hands together behind his back and took a step forward.