The Tower (22 page)

Finally, she let me go and sat back a little. “I've always wanted to be part of your life, too,” I told her. This wasn't puppy love anymore—it never was.

“There's something else you should know,” she began.

“What?”

“Can't tell you, have to show you. Just stay there and don't move.” With that, she arose, walked to the center of the room and turned her back to me. Her mask came off first and then her bodysuit. In the dim light I could see the beauty of her form and in spite of my illness this would
definitely
make me feel a whole lot better. Oh, man, this was it—it was finally going to happen…!

…and then my ardor turned to horror as her body began to melt, her skin sloughing off…no…changing to a metallic sheen…God, no…legs and torso fusing into an irregular trunk-like shape…all of this happening in seconds…oh God,
NO
!!…arms splitting, becoming branch-like, metallic-looking tendrils sprouting from them. Her height remained the same, but she was no longer human.

Holy shit!
This was as good a time to swear as any.

My girlfriend had become a tree. Number three had just come down the pike.

Her limbs—the branches—started shaking gently and that bell-like sound emanated from them. The sound I'd heard on my first night here, the sound that happened every night at midnight. One branch reached out for me, hesitated, withdrew. I was too shocked at first to move and then…I ran; bolted out of the room, stumbled blindly down the corridor past other Ultras who looked at me with surprised expressions on their faces. I didn't look at them, didn't look at anything except at the doors of the lift which were straight ahead.
Get out, get out, GET OUT!
That thought kept screaming through my mind as I entered the elevator and blindly pressed buttons to take me away from all this. I ended up on the Containment Deck. There were ten cells there, each capable of holding up to seven criminals at a time. When I'd been given the grand tour on my first few days on the Tower, I'd seen them once, very briefly. They were all unused, or so I thought.

I sat down with my back against the cold metal wall and tried to control my breathing. This couldn't be happening, it wasn't possible. What could I do now? I couldn't trust anyone, couldn't run and couldn't hide.

A faint chime sounded from the end of the corridor. Fearful that someone had spotted me, I quietly crept down the row of cells. At the far end, I heard a rustling, then another chiming sound.

No
….

Looking inside, there on a plastic mat, were eight little metallic trees in a circle, branches all entwined protectively, as if they'd sensed an intruder coming. I could only stand and stare at the…

“What are you doing here?!” Whirling around, Miracle Mistress was facing me, blue eyes colder than ice and an expression of rage on her face. Her arm whipped out and caught me by the throat, lifting me off the ground and keeping me aloft. I put my hands on her arm to try and pry myself from her grasp but that was like trying to bend steel. Even with my diminished strength I was still stronger than most people but I was no match for her.

“No…no, nothing,” I choked out. “They're…”

“Yes, they're children,” she answered. She dropped me, and I fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. “You've frightened them.” She opened the cell door and knelt down, extended her arm. It quickly morphed into a branch, and she stroked the head of each “child.”

Jesus Christ Almighty; she was one of them, too! They all were!
I'd had enough, started to leave, had to get out of here, be somewhere by myself, think of what to do next. “Where are you going?” Deanna asked. She didn't even bother turning her head. That stopped me. I sat down, suddenly weary.

“I don't know. Away?” My throat hurt, but everything inside me hurt even more. Like an evil miracle, it dawned on me that I'd been living with a bunch of aliens, and suddenly the thought that I'd almost made love for the first time to…

I vomited, threw everything up that I'd eaten that morning and things that I hadn't, kept emptying myself until there was nothing more to retch out. After heaving out my guts, I just lay on the floor, weeping slightly, wondering how my version of Heaven had gone all to Hell. No answers, just questions, visions, feelings of incredible hurt, betrayal, and pain—mostly betrayal.

Deanna, arm normal now, closed the cell softly and came over with a look of compassion on her face. She watched me for a few seconds, and then bent over to hoist me to my feet. So numb was I that I didn't even recoil from her touch. “The children have had quite a shock,” she said gently. “You too, I imagine.”

That had to be the understatement of the century. “It's not every day you see something like this.” Shock was moving into acceptance, but it was the hardest thing I'd had to do in a long time. There was a sink in the room. I washed the foul taste out of my mouth, cleaned off my face and we left the Containment Cell area and headed up to Deck #6. It was dark there, save for the night lights. I stopped for a second and Deanna allowed me that little time to think and everything came in a confused rush to my mind.

All my ideas of them being into world domination went out the window. They weren't fascists or evil people or super-villains who'd donned the clothes of the heroes and they weren't trying to conquer the world or serve humanity up on a plate. I'd fallen for the oldest cliché in comic-book history: The aliens had taken over and I'd been too damn stupid to see it. In a universe of clichés, it had to be this one. Why me? Deanna interrupted my thoughts, touching my arm gently and pulling me over to a door.

“Bill, the other members are here,” she said, and, producing a small disc from her belt, opened the door marked “Skree.” Inside, there were two large trees, limbs gently entwined around each other. A faint rustling of bells could be heard. Was this what I thought it was…?

Oh, this was just wrong!
I backed out of the room, leaned against the wall for support. The door closed. “Skree and Lancer, I presume.”

She nodded. “All of our kind lives on Decks #4 through #7. That's the reason the humans don't come here and aren't allowed to mix with us, except for the duties on board.”

“So why did you put me here?”

She shrugged gently. “There really were no other rooms available and since you're an alien as well, we were hoping that the newness of the Tower, the experiences, the friendships we thought you'd make, all those things, we thought they'd take your mind off the reality of the situation. And I…we…were just hoping you wouldn't find out; we were wrong.” Her voice had softened. “Did I hurt you in the Cell area?”

“It's okay,” I answered. Actually, it wasn't, she'd almost broken my neck.

“I'm sorry that you had to see this.”

“What
are
you?” I was still confused, hurt and angry, and I wanted answers.

A hand fell on my shoulder, turned me around. It was Avenger.

“Come with me,” was all he said.

* * *

In the Hangar Bay, he entered his name on the computer and then mine. Before we boarded, he gave MM a nod and told her, “See to the children, have them moved to the Arbor Room.” Deanna gave me a small smile before leaving.

It didn't help.

Fifteen minutes later, we landed on Pleasure World. During the flight, he'd given me a quick shot of the serum, but not a word was said. He landed on the tarmac, opened the rear hatch and we disembarked.

I took a look around. It wasn't a resort, just a large, forest-like area. A bright artificial sun and trees: Firs, pines, maple trees, tall grass as far as the eye could see. No swimming pools, no large building complexes. In fact, there was only one fairly small building near the landing strip. The rest was just forest.

Over there…in the distance, something about two hundred yards away, large and gray. Avenger motioned me forward and as we grew nearer, I could see it all. No…I saw it, shock to the system setting in, a rush of emotion, knew it added up, didn't want to believe it, but there it was.

It was a tombstone. Alongside it was another unmarked grave and a blank headstone as well. I could only stare at the inscription on the larger one:

And too many more names to count.

I turned my head away to hide my tears. This place was a graveyard, built to hold and hide the remains of the greatest heroes in the universe. That's where they'd been all along.

“Why?!” My voice choked out the question, it was too awful to think of them there.

“I'm sorry,” said Avenger.

“What are you?” I asked again, tears suddenly streaming down my face. At this moment, I was five years old again, crying like a child whose favorite toy has just been broken. Everything I'd thought about them, everything I'd believed in, it had all just gone up in smoke the minute I saw Oriana change into what she was.

“We're exactly what you wanted us to be,” he answered gravely, looking directly at me, “nothing more and nothing less.”

That remark set me off. All this time I'd believed what they stood for, who they were. I'd trusted them with my life, with my secrets, my personal hopes and dreams; I thought of them as my friends and confidants. I'd dreamed of being one of them and was proud of working alongside them and now, now they'd used me, wound me up and then revealed themselves in the worst way possible which to me was the ultimate in betrayal. Why had they done this?!

Shaking with rage, I yelled, “You lied to me, you
LIED
! All the time it was a
LIE
!!” I wanted to smash him right then and there for what he'd done to me, what they'd
all
done to me.

He shook his head. “No, it wasn't a lie, it was an illusion, and maybe a little self-deception on your part,” he responded. “Answer me: In your world, when do you stop reading those things you call comic books?”

I was still shaking, but forced myself to calm down, think rationally. “I don't know, maybe mid-teens or so, maybe younger.”

“Why?”

The question had been asked very simply, and I knew that he knew the reason. And finally I understood, even though the thirteen year-old in me didn't want to let go. “We grow up.” And that was it in a nutshell; wise as he was, this alien knew me better than I knew myself.

“Yes, you grow up. You mature.” He sat down and regarded me, his eyes, this time, full of wisdom and understanding. “You find other things of value, things which are more important: Friends, school, work and romantic relationships, and eventually for most, family. Everything has its place with the passage of time. Is that not so?”

He was right. “Yeah, it is.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. I still couldn't make myself believe that this was all true, but it was. I could say nothing, just waited for him to continue.

Avenger stood up, looked off in the distance for a second, sat down again. “When you first came here you were young, sick and dying, full of fear. Now, you're not. Is that an illusion?”

“No.”

He continued, looking at me. “You've made friends with just about everyone on board, learned many things about work and education, you've learned about love, the way your species defines it. Is that also an illusion?”

“No. I grew up a little.”

He nodded. “Maybe it's better that way. I don't know if it really is better, perhaps it's just the way things go for your race. And all this time we were here, watching over you, protecting you…”

“Protecting me?!” I interrupted. “You mean all those fights and chases on the surface, the trouble that went down, the boxing match with Evans…all of that was just ‘arranged' for me? And Oriana, was she ‘arranged' for me, too?”

“No!” he said sharply. “It wasn't, and neither was she. When you first came here you were too weak; it was necessary to aid you with our medical treatment, protect you so that you'd have the chance to grow and learn, but it had nothing to do with what you accomplished after you'd reached the age you are now.”

His voice took on a different tone now, not really that of a parent to a child, it was more like a mentor telling his protégé that it was time to move on. “The battles on Earth, the training, the friendships you made, the fight with Evans, all those things that have happened for the better, they all came about when you found it within yourself to make the leap from young adolescent to adulthood, and that was done in a very short time. I think your people have a saying: “It was all you.”

He paused a bit, and then continued. “Believing in us and what we did helped you in your early stages here, belief in yourself did the rest. Along the way, you came to realize that not only were we not what you expected, but also that other things took precedence. That is the way of all things for our kind…and yours.”

And then I finally, finally realized something. All the time I'd been there I'd been maturing, even though I wasn't overtly aware of it. Intellectually, I now realized that I'd outgrown my childhood awe of these heroes, replaced with the full adult way of looking at them, not as superheroes out to save the world, but as beings from another galaxy here for some unknown reason. Faced with the truth, I now realized that letting go of my childhood dreams wasn't so difficult or so bad after all.

Collecting my thoughts, I asked: “Are there more here?”

In answer, he arose and led the way further into the forest to another equally large monument. This one held the remains of the super-villains, he explained: Goliathon, Max Menace, Dr. Disturbance, and many others.

“I come here from time to time to pay my respects to them,” he said. “We all do.”