Supers - Ex Heroes 4 Read online

  “Can we catch them?” Shimmer asked.

  “Not in that ship versus ours,” I answered. “And they’re going to have a huge head start.”

  Everyone shared a look of worry, but then it got worse. The screen brightened, grabbing our attention. A burst of light hit and then was gone… and so was the ship. We stared at the screen for a moment, realizing it was over. After I’d killed Plague, Muerta had made it very clear to me where she’d be going. When I managed to remember to breathe, I spoke into my comms. “Andromida, she’s gone. But we know where to find her—in her assault of Earth.”

  Andromida was moving back our way, slower than when she’d been in the chase. We hesitated, knowing she’d only take a few seconds to reach us.

  “The phaser?” Shimmer asked Charm.

  “You had a connection with her, which seemed… odd,” I agreed.

  Charm nodded. “It’s a blur in spots, the memory… but I recall her from my time at Supralines.”

  “Your memory acting like that, plus what Ezra said,” I shook my head, then gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Should we be worried?”

  “Worry when my head is detached and little alien spiders are crawling through my corpse. Until then, never.”

  We all turned as a new passage opened up just then, diving back as Andromida almost went right past us, the metal twisting around her. At the same time, Aegriss let us know they’d located the chamber where they believed the upper echelons of the station would be.

  “We finish this job, then move to intercept her,” Andromida stated.

  I stood tall, pulling up Aegriss’s location for everyone to see. “At least we know we have help at the Citadel.”

  “But maybe not a way to make it back in time,” Andromida said. “Don’t forget, my portals can only get us so far. I can only use them where there are already portals in existence, or where I’ve already been before to set one up.”

  “Then we’ll have to hope someone at the Citadel has a better option, or at least faster, better ships to send us back in.”

  Andromida looked pissed, but stood there, waiting to hear our plan. “Or a portal to Earth.”

  “That would be faster,” I admitted. “I’m actually surprised you’re handling this so well.”

  She grimaced. “Corny as it is, I have you all. It’s… I don’t know, it’s less about vengeance at this point, and more about seeing that she and all the other evil ones like her are stopped.”

  The floor suddenly shifted, creaking sounds echoing through the station.

  “And you already lost your shit a bit down there, I’m guessing?” Twitch had her arms up, stabilizing herself.

  Andromida shrugged. “That too.”

  I laughed then waved them on, following my mini-map. “Let’s get this over with then, before the floor gives out completely.”

  “And before any more of these fuckers get away,” Charm added, darting out in front with her tail moving from side to side. For a moment, I almost thought I saw a second tail, which made me stumble, but when I looked again, there was only the one. Must’ve been a trick of the lighting. I pushed on, ready to try out these new skills some more.

  23

  We all converged on a set of wide doors that were unlike anything that should’ve been on a place like this. Aegriss worked her skills and had them open in no time. We barged in to find a giant of a man seated on what looked like a throne, screens floating around his head as he watched the destruction of his station.

  “So… you’ve come for me, now.” With a swipe of his hand, the screens were gone.

  “Mine.” Letha staked her claim on him as she stepped forward and pulled a blade with one hand, a blaster with the other. Andromida took a step forward, but Letha turned to her, eyes icy cold. “Listen, you’ve had your revenge, in one form or another. But I need answers.”

  “Answers?” the giant man repeated. Now I could see he wasn’t exactly a man, it just looked like that because of the metal armor he was wearing, eyes peering out from slits, dark purple robes hanging from his back and over his torso.

  We all knew he would answer for his crimes, then be put to rest.

  Letha took another step toward him, finger shaking on the side of her blaster. “Thing is, I met a man on Paradise Planet 14… That led me to many places, Abaddon even. Now… Well, now I’m here.”

  He stood up and took a step toward her, so that he had one foot on the stairs, peering her way intently. “You’re her then, aren’t you?” He laughed. “The one she sent away.”

  Letha shook her head. “She?”

  “Why, your sister, of course.”

  “My sister… is dead,” Letha said, but her voice was scratchy, hesitant, as if she was suddenly realizing this wasn’t the case. “Isn’t she…?” With a glance my way, Letha looked confused, frowning. “I don’t… the memory, I mean… I don’t remember fully.”

  “They stole your memories from you, poor child.” The giant took another step toward her, arms spread. “But I will give them back to you, in the form of a story I once heard. There was a family, rich beyond belief. So rich, in fact, that they owned one of the largest military fleets in all of the galaxy. Even bought out much of the government military, if the rumors are to be believed—and they should be.”

  “What are you talking about?” Letha asked, while I shared a very inquisitive look with Charm. Where was all this going?

  “That family had a daughter, you see… and named her Taleh. Taleh Mershett. Then they had another daughter, years later, one who, when learning of Taleh’s role as eldest and therefore heir to the fortune, became jealous. You know how it goes. Hatred, blah blah, blah, pays off the right people to send sister to get a memory mod, told her name isn’t Taleh anymore, but Letha, and—”

  “Sent to Planet Kill, believing I was from the slums, that my family had been killed.” Letha stood there for a moment, her legs shaking. I thought she was about to buckle and took a step forward, but Trunk held out a hand, motioning for me to stay back.

  Letha was strong, and stood her ground. Hell, she was Taleh Mershett, a name everyone knew throughout the galaxy, even me. It had been a tragedy, when the princess—yes, they’d called her that on the news, though technically she wasn’t royalty—had gone missing. A body had been discovered a week later, and authorities claimed it was hers.

  Apparently, people in certain circles believed otherwise.

  “Now you have a choice, dear girl.” The man extended his hand. “Come with me, start a rebellion and move against your sister. Or die here with this scum.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “I know enough to have heard of the infamous Killart, the man behind the Orion Corp. military complex. You had a hand in it, and that you’re as likely to backstab me and turn me over for more money, or simply kill me to be done with it. I don’t need any more friends, I have plenty.”

  The giant, Killart, stood like that a moment longer, then laughed. “Suit yourself.”

  He came flying down those steps. This was the first time I really got a chance to see Letha in all her glory. She was ready, ducking and then rolling in the opposite direction, coming up shooting and stabbing. Then the rest of us were in, getting to work on this son of a bitch.

  Of course, his armor wasn’t all metal. He had shields but on top of that, he was a supra tech user. When Erupa tried her shadow strike on him, he had a thorn shield that acted to throw energy spikes back at her, blasting her into the back wall. Ezra’s shots were perfectly placed but ricocheted off the purple energy walls that popped up each time.

  “Fuck this tin can,” Andromida spat, not truly appreciating the meaning of those words, I supposed. She flung herself at him, pulling at his metal armor, but as would be expected, he had a counter to her, too. As the force hit him it redoubled and came back at her, so that she was flung back screaming as her skin peeled.

  I quickly used Redemption and targeted it at her, so that his next power came and went, healing her. A glance
over showed Erupa was up and attacking again, this time attempting to get shots in. The hybrids and the rest of our crew were working in shots when and where there was an opening, but mostly guarding the doors and returning fire when others arrived to try and intervene.

  Twitch propped us up, working to amp our skills as much as she could, but even with my new skills, nothing seemed to be working.

  Killart spun and shot lightning to match Gale’s, but then Shimmer was in front of him. The lightning hit, and she fell, bursting into flame.

  A wave of shock hit me! It was enough to even cause him to pause. That’s when the real Shimmer appeared behind him, leaping onto his back as Charm gave her a boost. She grabbed onto his helmet and the cloak, pulling and finding a seam, while Charm dodged away before turning to come back at him. She sucked in breath and her hair momentarily grew stripes of red and blue. Then she attacked with that glowing white on her claws, the strange colored bubbles floating around her with each strike.

  They were actually doing it! Those strikes were getting in! Whatever Charm had learned from Lamb in that room was working.

  And then, to my surprise, that second tail I’d thought I’d imagined earlier was there, flashing out with her first, both of them moving with her as if in a dance.

  Shimmer, still riding Killart’s back, drew a rifle from her shoulder and started blasting as if she were on a mech and shooting into it. I was throwing attacks—we all were—giving him everything we had. A blast hit and she went flying, hitting the floor, but when she came up she was holding a plate of something that looked like glowing jewels, some shattered.

  Killart collapsed to one knee. Charm leaped up, swiping through all his assorted shields. I imagined part of this new power she’d acquired was ignoring superpowered defenses, similar to how it had worked with the wall and whatever that Reina character had done to her. Now her strikes were denting his helmet. I came in, figuring that if I struck at the exact same time my powers might get through, too. I figured that those crystals or jewels, whatever they were that Shimmer had grabbed from him, were the source of his supra tech, although he might be drawing from other sources, too.

  I ran and jumped, drawing on my Heavenly Blast. This time I tried concentrating it with a closed fist. It appeared there, glowing as it shot forth toward his head with a brilliantly glowing white bolt. It struck and he stumbled back, then I landed with another, this one at point-blank range going g, cutting his head clean off.

  Or… his helmet, apparently. A face was still there, eyes glaring at me—until it glitched out, then returned.

  “A fucking hologram,” I spat and turned, searching the room.

  “On it,” Aegriss shouted, then pointed to the back wall.

  Andromida threw out her hands and the wall peeled away to reveal a man in a sort of virtual reality getup. He quickly threw the helmet off, standing to turn on us, glaring. His mouth fell open. He stood there… and then fainted.

  Taking a step closer, it was clear he was not much older than me, if at all.

  “This is their CEO?” I looked around at the others. “And he’d been controlling that thing… here?”

  “Imagine a whole army of those.” Gale shook her head at the thought.

  “Do we… kill him?” I looked first to Andromida, then to Letha.

  Letha took a deep breath. “We have a destination in mind?”

  “We do. We’re all going to the Citadel, if you’ll come. It’s in the universe where the supers are. Like a governmental seat of superheroes, I guess?”

  “Close enough,” Gale said.

  Letha nodded, considering this. “We bring him along for questioning. He was scared shitless at the sight of us coming up against the real him. He’ll talk, and we can find out what sort of forces we’re dealing with.”

  “Maybe more about the nature of this relationship they had with Ranger, and the whole thing with the Nihilists, too,” I added.

  Darnell picked the man up, threw him over his shoulder, and turned to us with a grunt.

  An explosion sounded, reminding us there was still a battle raging. Return fire from some of our other new friends told us it was time to move.

  “Back to the ships!” I shouted.

  “We’ll leave the rest of them?” Ezra asked, hand on his pistol.

  “Aegriss, Twitch, and I can do what needs to be done.”

  And with that, we moved out, the three of us working code and setting up certain parts of the Orion complex to blow when we were ready. Internally it was already in the process of frying, it was just the physical now.

  We charged back to the ships, most of the enemy catching on that their leader was gone. I still sent a message, as I’d done when leaving Abaddon. This time my message was simple—run. They were part of an evil corporation, and they either needed to put as much distance between the corporation and themselves as they could, or be ready to face the consequences.

  The ships were waiting for us. Soon we were off, flying away from this hellhole and very anxious to be on our way.

  “I’m back.” The voice from my suit spoke as I stood on the ship’s bridge, watching our departure, the Orion Corp complex growing smaller.

  “Lamb?” I blinked in confusion.

  “We can get you back here now, if you can create a portal. We can intercept it, save you some time, but—”

  “How?” Andromida glared at my chest, where the voice seemed to be coming from.

  “Set a portal to close by your ships, and let us know the map coordinates for it. It’ll help us pinpoint where to look for your portal energy that much faster. We’ll intercept you and bring you through to the Citadel.”

  “All?” Gale spoke tentatively, and I could tell she wasn’t the only one doubting whether she’d be welcome there.

  “Yes, Gale. You, Ezra, Twitch, everyone,” Lamb’s voice replied. “Trust us, it’s time for you all to come back.” She paused. “I must go now. Please, do hurry. Can I count on you?” “We’ll be there,” I said, and Andromida nodded.

  As we entered our ships, Andromida telling everyone the plan, how to follow us close and stay that way until we were on the other side of the portal, Aegriss stepped next to me on the ship, took my hand, and kissed it. I wasn’t sure what to do with that, but smiled, thanked her, and then turned to watch as we departed the Orion Corp military complex.

  Explosions went off, rumbling from the inner depths of the station, and then we were shooting off into space, watching as chunks of the place started breaking off and floating away. It was over, for now. At least that part of it. Letha had her journey, she knew who she was now, and in that sense the movement against the types like Orion Corp was just beginning. They were hardly the only ones involved here.

  “So, this is really happening.” I took my seat, staring out at space as we turned and the brightness of Andromida’s portal formed. “Can she… I mean, would Muerta really go after Earth like that?”

  “You made this personal,” Gale said. “If anyone hurt one of you, any of you, I’d go to the ends of the universe to see you avenged. You can count on that.”

  “Meaning… yes.” Charm wrapped her arms around me, looking up at my face with worry. “I’m sorry.”

  I put an arm around her, accepting Twitch’s hand as she offered it, and attempted a smile. “Hey, at least we put a stop to her here. Kind of.”

  “But it’s not the end of Orion,” Aegriss pointed out. “Their leadership’s still out there. More operations like that which existed on Abaddon.”

  “You’re right,” I admitted. “And we’re going to take care of that… but not alone. We need help.”

  “So it’s time, then?” Gale asked, face going pale.

  I nodded. “We need to get back to the Citadel.”

  The portal flashed open and took us, along with the other ships, flashing us back into the Oram system, to the legendary Citadel I’d heard so much about. I imagined my mother would’ve made it by now, as well. While we couldn’t stay long,
I looked forward to getting another chance to get to know her. My heart was racing, my mind spinning with thoughts of what it would be like—and what awaited us.

  Epilogue

  The light started to fade and then our ship jolted, as if pulled through a tunnel, and then we were in the Oram system, the Citadel directly in front of us. It’s metal and curving glass, if that’s what it was, glimmered in the light of a sun to our right. I couldn’t be sure what anything here was, where any number of materials might exist that I wasn’t aware of.

  As we descended, we each took breaks to quickly eat, then rinse with the help of Gale’s powers. I would’ve loved the chance to catch up on sleep, but I couldn’t even shut my eyes to rest them, I was so excited and enraptured with this sight.

  Twitch and Aegriss worked out a return path, keeping track of the portal location so that, when it was time, we could return and make our way to Earth, and wherever else the Nihilists and Muerta might be attacking.

  When we were finally approaching the Citadel, several ships came out to meet us. Strange bursts of light on the other side of the Citadel piqued my curiosity. I went to the bridge and asked what was happening.

  “Welcome, Breaker,” a familiar female voice said.

  Where had I heard that voice before?

  “Lamb?”

  “That’s right,” her voice came through the comms, but no video yet. “Your brother’s here, and will be more than thrilled to see you.”

  My breath caught in my throat and I had to remember to breathe. “I… I look forward to it.”

  She laughed. “Come on, stay close and you won’t have to worry about the war.”

  “War?”

  “The fighting you see over there. We’ve found a way to take out Nihilist ships, even when they’re in their between stage. Hurry now, we’ll tell you all about it when we’ve convened the council.”

  I gave Twitch an impressed look. This all sounded so formal, so promising. Much more organized than we’d been expecting, and I was filled to the brim with anticipation. We came in for a landing. There were so many supers here—all of them here to see our arrival—that I felt my head spinning. Large crowds had never been my thing.