As they enter the command-and-control node, Mirage can sense the betrayal.
D-SOL-8 has cut off the VPN tunnel she used to reach this part of the net. Her route home to the Quill compound computers is gone, leaving her stranded in an unknown stretch of cyberspace.
Vigil can sense it as well. “What is your game?” he demands coldly of Motormouth.
The technopath just laughs. “Security. We can’t risk the Grasscutters following any of our trails back. Besides, we’re not your friends any more than you’re ours. Now are we gonna stop them or not?”
Mirage grits her teeth and files this away in the back of her mind - a revenge that will be taken later. For now, there’s a critical decision to be made.
“Stopping this node provides maximum safety. Tracing the Grasscutters to their real source requires all of us, and requires the node stay intact - inviting further attacks.”
“Agreed,” Vigil concedes.
Mirage composes herself. What would - she - Alycia Chin? This Alycia, or the Alycia Jason knows - what is the right thing to do?
Go after the Grasscutters.
“Shut down the node,” she tells the others. She doesn’t know why she said it. It feels - wrong. But isn’t it the ‘heroic’ thing to do? Err on the side of safety?
It takes little effort to force the compromised computer to start shutting down. But this should prevent further attacks from the Grasscutters for the moment.
With their space destroyed, Mirage and the others begin to fall away from each other, back into the darkness.
She can feel Vigil extending her a lifeline, and she takes it - uncertain of how she’ll get back to the Quill Compound’s system, uncertain of the HHL hero’s motives, uncertain of everything.
She finds herself looking out of a webcam, into the face of a familiar looking man. This is Wayland Bryce, reclusive multi-billionaire on the West Coast. Is this Vigil?
“You’re a technopath too?” she asks, out of the computer’s speakers.
Wayland laughs bitterly. “No. You could say that at an early age, I was - visited - by the entity who is, the thing my family trapped in the corporate computer systems. A being from a place where our information is their matter.”
He leans back in his chair. “It wanted freedom. My agoraphobia keeps me isolated at home. It wanted something I did not, and vice versa. We became partners. I became a hero. Through it, I am everywhere.”
“This is quite a revelation to who you know I must be,” Mirage observes, deeply suspicious. “What have I done to merit such trust?”
Wayland nods in acknowledgement of the feeling behind the question. “I make you aware of my arrangement for my own reasons,” he says. “For now, let us just say that I have need of someone whose caution matches my own. I am not asking for your trust. Quite the opposite. I am consciously inviting your suspicion.”
“Interesting.” Mirage turns the possibilities over and over in her mind. “What now?”
“Now, we send you back home. If Mr. Quill were to discover you gone, I imagine your working relationship would be strained.”
He knows far too much, Mirage growls silently.
Motormouth and D-SOL-8 got away before she even suspected they were planning their escape.
Clearly, she must become a better digital warrior to survive this new world.
“Very well. Send me back.”
Tatanka has the god’s attention, and is able to deflect their Blizzard Blade. Ray Blaze’s beam attacks still aren’t doing much other than pissing off the giant divinity, but given the destruction they could be wreaking if not distracted, perhaps that’s enough.
The brawl has already broken through three floors of the studio building. Stingray and Harry have to hop off bits of rubble, lower themselves down on dangling cords, and make a few careful leaps to reach the ledge where A10 is laying. The building shudders a few times during the effort, reminding the two young men of the toll the battle has taken on it.
Harry kneels and conducts a brief, intense inspection. A10 isn’t too badly hurt. The Blizzard Blade lacerated her nigh-invulnerable skin, but didn’t cut deep into any tissue. She’s unconscious, probably due to the force of the hit.
Harry’s eyes dart up, examining the path they took on the way down, then around. “We’ll have to take the stairs,” he comments.
“I’ll carry her,” Harry announces. “You be ready to use that force field thingie in case of collapse, okay?”
Stingray takes a tense breath, and nods. “Alright.”
“You better move fast, lads, the big one’s getting pissed off,” comes Tatanka’s voice over their comms. He’s only a few floors up, but they can’t hear him over the sounds of Ray Blaze’s energy blasts and the rapid-fire gunplay of Never-Miss as she matches her bullets against the Hand’s hat tricks.
Harry has A10 over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and the pair are heading to the corner stairs, when there’s the sound of a powerful energy blast, and following it a sudden downward gust of intensely cold air. If Harry had to guess, Ray Blaze fired a powered-up shot and Khyrrsz retaliated.
Along with the air, though, comes a body - hitting rubble on the way down as it falls. Instinctively, Stingray leaps outward to catch it.
He lands on the other side with an unconscious Never-Miss in his arms.
“Bring her!” Harry declares. He radios up, just in case. “Tatanka, we got her.”
“Good lad. This battle’s lost - we’re leaving as soon as we can do so safely.”
It’s slow going. Harry isn’t used to this sort of thing - normal person speed. He’s not sure how he feels about it now. It’s so easy to just zoom ahead, get something done, move on to the next thing.
Secretly, he has fears that someday the world is going to freeze - that he’ll be stuck in hyper-accelerated mode forever, and be forced to live in a world of statues. His parents have assured him that it’s probably not going to happen. Well, Harry privately thinks his parents have been wrong about a few important things but he’s hopeful.
But this? Isn’t it just as bad to be stuck at, well, first gear?
It might be deadly, he thinks, as another shudder ripples through the building and he has to steady himself with a hand on the concrete wall.
They hear Vigil’s voice on comms. “Several cargo vehicles are converging on the station. They’re automatically operated Tyran Enterprises service vehicles. It’s possible the Grasscutters have overridden them and equipped them with bombs.”
“The civilians are out,” Tatanka replies. “Ray and I are retreating. Mercury, Stingray, status?”
“Third floor,” Stingray responds. “The Flying Fish won’t carry the four of us though.”
“I got Guardian and Ninjess safely out,” Blackbird reports. “I’ll come back for pickup.”
Only after they’re outside does Stingray set down Never-Miss. He worriedly looks over at Harry. “Hey, I don’t know if she’s breathing,” he reports.
There’s an easy way to tell, but Harry is reluctant. Removing another hero’s mask is one of those things that’s not done. It’s a peculiar violation, specific to a very small community of which he’s part.
But right now, it feels like necessity wins over propriety. To spare Stingray the need to do the deed, he reaches over and pulls the mask off.
Harry almost falls backward. Underneath Never-Miss’s full-coverage mask is his mother. Or rather, a younger version of his mother. This woman his his age, but it’s unmistakably her.
Stingray looks equally shocked, but lacking the personal connection to Tempest, he’s able to rally himself faster, and checks her breathing. He lets out a long sigh of relief. “Yeah, she’s breathing.”
“Thank god,” Harry whispers.
They hurriedly put the mask back on, both avoiding looking at the other to escape having to talk about what they just saw.
As they do, the woman regains consciousness.
In a moment, she realizes where she is, and must guess at what just happened. She rises, and dashes off like lightning, just like Tempest - a power she’s never exhibited before, at least in public.
Instinctively, Harry runs after her. The searing pain brings him to his knees almost immediately. This time it’s not just at the site on his neck where he felt the initial sting. He can feel it spreading, and doing so every time he uses his powers.
Blackbird descends from the sky, and looks around.
Harry hands A10 over. Before Blackbird can ask about their other passenger, Stingray shakes his head quickly. “She got out on her own,” he explains.
As the hero takes wing, Stingray calls for his own ride, the Flying Fish.
Harry hops on behind him. It feels weird, depending on someone else for transportation. But until he can figure out what got him, and how to reverse it, he may need to bum rides from his team.
The Flying Fish takes to the skies. Behind them, half a dozen robot trucks plow through chain link fence, unused sets, and prop and costume racks. A tremendous explosion sends out concussive shockwaves, and the legacy of KHLC is blotted out in the Grasscutters’ final attack.
But everyone is safe. And that’s what matters.
Harry closes his eyes in exhaustion.