420 - Revenge of the Seven Wonders

garrett · August 8, 2024, 7:01am

The biggest news item of the day, by far, is the destruction of the HHL’s tower. Harry Gale taking over the Quill Compound is, by comparison, a single paragraph on page six.

The Seven Wonders announced their intention well beforehand. They obliterated a concrete tower used by firefighters for practice, to prove they could do it. They gave ample time for everyone to be evacuated. The trucks that left the underground garage, loaded with cargo and specialized super-science equipment, bore TYRAN ENTERPRISES markings on the side. And then the HHL’s home base, with its decades of history, imploded.

To Harry, the saddest part of this isn’t that the tower itself was wiped out. That’s the kind of thing that can happen when you play at this level. It’s how inevitable it all feels. The breathless reporting in the morning, the zoom-ins on personnel leaving the building in droves, the pundits talking about the Stellar Six’s track record - where were the people saying that this should be fought for? Where were the people taking the HHL’s side here?

Not even Silver Streak and Tempest made an effort to stop the bombing. Or if they did, they didn’t tell Harry about it.

Wait. Harry Gale took over the Quill Compound?

Jason Quill’s publicly announced “death” left open the question of what would happen with the Quill Foundation. Byron Quill saw to it that a cult of personality emerged around his outsized super-science identity. He permitted his kids to appear in a cartoon version of his adventures, for God’s sake.

Jason wasn’t Byron - good for Jason, bad for the public image. While he was in the limelight, he struggled to define his way out of his father’s long shadow. Now that both Quills are gone, what of the Compound?

Taking it over made perfect sense for a lot of reasons. First, Harry has better name recognition and more polling positives than almost any other hero still operating in the city. Second, he was in the Menagerie with Jason, and both the legal and intuitive ownership of the place belongs to those closest to the old owner. Third, Harry desperately needs some kind of edge in his efforts to stabilize the city against the three teams most likely to destroy it: the Seven Wonders, the Stellar Six, and yes, even the HHL themselves.

Sure, Stingray has a lab of his own - equipped mainly with cast-off gear provided by his father Nautilus, who is now working with the United States Navy to defend against Saito and the other Atlantean exiles. The Quill Compound, on the other hand, has a massive amount of up-to-date specialized gear for almost any kind of scientific task.

Jason faked his death at the end of “413 - City of Clones” – Ed.

Zpa’kadishtuor is a True Atlantean. That is to say he’s an evolved squid, about the size of a fire extinguisher with 10 rubber hoses attached. He was born around the time the Pyramid of Khafre was being constructed in Egypt. In English, he goes by the name “Doctor Zap”.

He doesn’t have his usual water tank and translation computer when he arrives incognito at the Quill Compound, so Ninjess has to translate. But his skin flashes and his limbs flail expressively, so some of the story comes out without words.

“In short, I was retired,” the Doctor explains. “The Surface Science Center was my baby. Now it is in other hands. Saito’s coup frightened many people. Reformists must lay low, as we are now also suspected of being revolutionaries fomenting a new coup. Atlantis is held by conservatives, but not the hard-line reactionaries of old. The New Imperial plotters - those that were known of - were exiled. But what of people like me? It was politically expedient to leave.”

Harry has met the doctor a few times, immediately after the thwarted invasion of the surface world by Atlantis. He didn’t really catch onto the creature’s significance at the time, and has forgotten what little he knew then, so now must start from scratch.

“So… basically you’re too hot for the homeland, so you thought it was safer to come to a city your people invaded?”

The creature makes a gurgling noise that Ninjess assures Harry is an amused laugh. “Yes, that is the size of it,” is Doctor Zap’s reply. “Ji-a Lee is ambassador between your people and ours, and a dear friend and colleague of mine. She suggested that I find her biological son’s allies. She places much faith in all of you. You, Mr. Gale, were the easiest to find. Your government assisted in transporting me here. You can reject my request if you wish. All I ask is…”

The next part Ninjess has to think about, and finally translates as “he can sleep on the sofa for now, and can pay the rent.”

Harry tilts his head. “What do you have in mind? What would you do here?”

The Doctor waves a tentacle excitedly. “Science!”

Harry pitches the suggestion to the rest of his temporary team.

A10 has no opinion either way. “I’d take calamari off the menu at the cafeteria,” she suggests.

Ninjess is of course happy to see a comrade from the old country.

Stingray is reluctant to deal with any Atlantean, but has to admit his experiences with the scientist were basically good.

Mirage is the most immediately suspicious, but finally has to concede that any scientist of Zap’s caliber will be an asset. “If nothing else, he would find no safety outside the compound in the event of treachery. The city remembers.”

Stingray starts working on upgrading the science labs to accommodate an aquatic partner. Ninjess works on getting the computer systems at the Compound to automatically translate between Atlantean and English, so that Zap can easily have conversations with the others. As for Zap himself, he’s over the moon being able to really work with surface systems, the basics of which he only studied from afar in his former life.

The team meets to discuss strategy. But the conversation is dominated by a non-strategic problem for which nobody has a good solution.

A10 sums it up in a glum voice. “Nobody wants us to win. Nobody cares.”

“I think that’s what all the villains want, though,” Stingray argues angrily. “This whole thing is just, like, all the heroes are either useless or corrupt, let’s make the villains happy and they’ll go away. But they won’t go away. And people have their head in the sand about that. Or there’s Rex Tyran, who probably wants people to feel like that. The more afraid you get, the more you turn to any authority who promises to keep control.”

“So we have to win against the Seven Wonders,” Ninjess concludes. “What we’re fighting for isn’t the city, but peoples’ hopes.”

“A fragile prize indeed,” Mirage remarks in a low, cynical voice.

“Still one worth fighting for,” Harry insists. “Look at it this way. People can get a lot done, or people can fail to do anything. But how much can people get done without hope? Isn’t hope the starting point for everything else anyone wants to achieve?”

Mirage silently concedes that point, and the meeting turns to more practical matters. How do you beat six of the most unbeatable villains in the world?

Some of the plans depend on HHL members, like Guardian, who have powers that seem tailor-made to oppose specific members of the Seven Wonders. Indeed, Guardian himself suggested that’d been why he was recruited to the HHL to begin with. That plan feels like it’s now in jeopardy, what with the Seven Wonders escalating their attacks on the remaining HHL as a whole.

“What happens if we lose Guardian?” Mirage says. “We must have a backup plan for Glom.”

Stingray puts the question to Doctor Zap. “Glom has some kind of adhesive-slash-repulsive gel. We’re not sure if it’s some kinda weird kinetic energy psychic construct or a real fluid, because it goes away on its own. That’s why we can’t get a sample. But maybe we can find ways to counter it.”

The scientist is excited to tackle this challenge, and others. “I will begin work immediately on researching possibilities. This ‘computer voice’ business is very exciting! Like having a whole team of Blood assistants.”

A10 asks for a private talk with Harry. When he meets her, she looks guilty, and he tilts his head in curious confusion.

A10 does her best to explain. “Chankoowashtay del Rio. Uncle Chan. His notebook. I got it, you remember.”

A10 told the story of this notebook, and her family, in “415 - The Sentence is Death!” – Ed.

“I… I said at the time it wasn’t helpful. That was a lie. It’s just got stuff in it I don’t know how to apply. Or I’m afraid to, because of what it mean. So listen. I need to go away for a bit. I need to find someone to talk to about it. I think I’m gonna start with Tatanka. And… it may sound weird, but I wanna invite Mirage along. She said something about wanting to earn his respect.”

Harry purses his lips. He’s not sure how to respond to all this. Getting better sounds good, but what’s bothering Andi about it? It feels like she still hasn’t said everything. But he forces himself to smile. “I gotta talk to my uncle too. Matt Chase. My parents said so. The Seven Wonders was beaten once. Nobody wants to tell me how it was done. But I’m done taking silence for an answer. Let me know how your talk goes, and I’ll tell you about mine.”

The two high-five each other in the awkward excitement of making progress, and separate to get busy doing it.

garrett · August 9, 2024, 3:48am

Únanse al baile de los que sobran
Nadie nos va a echar de más
Nadie nos quiso ayudar de verdad

Come join the dance of the leftovers
Nobody will be missed
No one really wanted to help us

If anything, the fall of the HHL’s star in the eyes of the city has let Tatanka get back to what he enjoys doing most: fighting crime. He no longer has to make public appearances, give speeches, consult with the mayor, and perform other duties that come with membership in a professional superhero team. The one thing he still does is show up to represent indigenous issues such as land and water rights, lobby against the government taking over sacred ground, and other personal concerns.

Unfortunately this all makes it harder to find him at a moment of free time. A10 finally settles for staking out his favorite gastrobar, where he gets lunch between missions.

She waves as he comes in, and he sits down next to her, still in full costume. Of course, nobody pays this any mind. Regulars give distance to regulars, no matter how famous they are.

“Hey Unc.”

Tatanka waves and grins. “Did you eat?”

Andi rolls her eyes. “Our family motto.”

She looks around, perhaps evaluating who’s listening, and turns back to her uncle. “Hey. I got… kind of a personal question. About the life. Maybe… maybe you got time to talk to me about something. About Uncle Chan.”

Tatanka senses the seriousness of the request. But he smiles. “Tell you what. I’ll make time - if you let me buy you lunch first.”

Andi sighs. “I shoulda known. I can pay for myself.”

“You can take my advice but not my money?” Tatanka asks in mock shock.

Andi realizes she’s been outmaneuvered and surrenders gracefully.

Albóndigas soup, patatas bravas, paella, and a chicken sandwich come and go. Tatanka orders a Modelo beer. He glances at Andi briefly, perhaps trying to remember how old she is now, and finally just asks. “What kind of soft drink do you want?” She settles for frappé coffee, flavored with horchata.

The food and drink have given the pair time to talk family, current events, and other catch-up topics. By silent and mutual agreement, neither say anything about “the life” - being a superhero. Not yet.

“This place is kinda noisy, isn’t it,” Tatanka says finally. This is his signal that it’s time to talk business. Andi nods in understanding. The senior hero slaps down cash for the meal, plus a hefty tip, and salutes the server on the way out.

Andi leads the way. She already has an idea where to go - an isolated hill nearby, with a small forest of radio antennae built atop it to take advantage of the elevation. She and her uncle can fly there, and it should otherwise be devoid of people.

With Tatanka’s permission, she gets out a tablet, checks its signal levels - five full bars, this close to an active cell tower - and calls up Mirage, still shackled to the Quill Compound’s computer system.

Tatanka tilts his head upon seeing who answers the call. “Your face is familiar,” he finally says. “But I don’t think you are who I think you are. Introductions? My name is Tatanka. A hero here in the city.”

Mirage nods. “Yessir. I’ve… followed your career with… interest. You show great dedication to the needs of the people.”

Tatanka takes all this with modest grace. “What can I call you?”

The virtual woman’s face crinkles in annoyance. “That seems to be a topic of contention. For the moment, please call me Mirage.”

Finally Andi can’t stop avoiding the issue.

“Uncle… we’re trying to take down the Seven Wonders. And I’ve… I’ve run away from my legacy long enough. The power I have. The power I wanted - but not the way I wanted it.”

Tatanka watches carefully as Andi struggles to retain her composure. “I feel like - like wanting - like Uncle Chan - like I took it from him. Like - you know - I stole it. And now - now he’s–”

She can’t go on, and when that becomes clear, Tatanka lays a careful hand on her shoulder.

To buy time before she has to talk again, Andi pulls out her predecessor’s well-used notebook. She holds it in two hands, fingers carefully and slowly feeling the texture of the leather.

“Chan was something,” Tatanka says. “The real deal. Like you. You didn’t take anything. You inherited something. You were given it. Something in the family. Something we all have a responsibility to respect and use properly.”

He glances at the tablet, which has been propped up to facilitate a three-way conversation. “Mirage. Has Andi told you about her powers and mine? Maybe a lesson would help.”

“I’d appreciate that, sir.”

Tatanka knows Andi needs to work toward what she needs to say. He’s buying her time, and they both know it. “The first Thunderbolt - Andi here is Thunderbolt II, or A10 - was a member of our family called Chan del Rio. He was filled with the Great Mystery. You’d say he had strong but specific psychic powers. I do too.”

“Those powers don’t stand alone, though. Someone like Mercury, our Mr. Gale–”

Tatanka pauses to wink at A10, who flushes in embarrassment, before continuing.

“–well, his power is what it is. It stands alone, as far as I understand. But ours is receptive to the energies around us. We grow stronger as we connect more deeply with those energies.”

Tatanka holds up some of the pouches and leather sacks he keeps strapped to his person, so the tablet’s camera can see them. “I am not just ‘playing Indian’ by wearing these, whatever some folks in the media say. Inside these are artifacts of the indigenous people of North America and are what give me power. I carry them with permission. It’s not some inherent native magic or anything. It’s the belief people had, and have, in these things. It’s the stories, the the faith, the nostalgia. Everything. The unity of a people has a power, and these things - the artifacts produced by people living their lives - are a lens which focuses that power into me. I try to repay that gift of power by using my position to remind the world of those cultures and those people. Making sure their stories are told and retold.”

Mirage hums. “That is related to what our group had just discussed. The need for hope. Cultural stories could be seen as a vehicle for hope. See - we understand this phenomenon, even if we describe it in terms of gods and trickster animals. See - we have learned these cautionary tales. See - we have heroes, whose example you ought to follow. The story tells us there is hope for us.”

She pauses, then continues more introspectively. “There must be a place for all of us. Stories give us that hope too.”

Tatanka turns back to Andi. “Some stories take away hope. Like the story you want to tell yourself. About Chan. About his power.”

Andi nods. “Yeah. And… god dammit, this is the hardest part.”

She kicks her foot against the ground, sending up a minor cloud of dust and cracking a small rock underfoot.

“It’s not so much I feel guilty. I feel ungrateful. What I found in Uncle Chan’s notebook… talking about how his powers worked… he doesn’t get it the way you do. Not through artifacts or objects. He gets it directly from people. From the feelings of people all around him. And… I get that, like on an objective level. It’s all psychic shit.”

She looks up, her face reflecting the cost of continuing to speak. The hurt comes out fitfully, each sentence like a car of a train in the process of a derailment. “I’m such a bitch. You know, when I was in school, I always hated all those gossips and loudmouths and stuff. And I said, I could stand on my own. I was gonna do it myself. I would armor up. Be self-sufficient. And… and now, I got this power, and all I can think is, so I have to deal with people? Those people? I depend on those people? Because that’s who was around me. That’s who I learned to expect people to be like. I know, I know, it’s not how I was raised, but like, it’s just, that’s how high school is and stuff, I know, but…”

She raises her hands in apology and frustration. “So like, all my feelings are telling me, like, this power sucks. I’m the least right person for it, and I wanted it, and I can’t help feeling like I lost Uncle Chan for it, and that sucks.”

She falls silent.

Tatanka weighs his options. “You think having the power means you have to care about people you dislike, for good reasons. You think you’re being asked to do something you don’t want to do. You’ve got these two goals - master your powers, and stay safe. Only you feel like they’re in opposition. Is that about the size of it?”

Andi nods quickly. She’s turned from worrying to scowling, mainly at herself.

On the screen, Mirage watches carefully, looking from face to face.

The older hero takes a breath, and makes his best attempt. “The hard work begins when you first ask yourself, am I doing the right thing? You want to move forward on something, but you’re not sure you’re on the right path. That’s good. You should be proud of that.”

“And you’re going to resist me saying, ‘empathize with a bunch of jerks’. That’s fine, I wouldn’t ask that anyway. And listen, you’re not alone here. There’s a cohort in leftist activism that wants to judge people, and if they’re found wanting in any way, drop them and move on.”

“To me, that’s like this. You’re one of the ancestors. You need a knife. You go to the river and start looking for stones that can be sharpened. There’s plenty that aren’t suitable, so you move on. There’s some that will take more or less work, so you pocket those. What you aren’t going to find is a sharpened stone knife waiting for you to pick it up. It’s always going to take work to turn what you find into a tool suitable for your needs. And people are the tools you need. So let’s find a way not to just write them off.”

He watches his niece, reading her face for clues about how what he’s saying is being received. So far so good - Andi is struggling with her feelings, but she’s listening. He continues.

“The kids you grew up with. I think they have to be real people. They put on their own armor, to hide from their own pain and problems. Like you did. What you’re struggling with are your memories of those real people, who didn’t do any of that.”

Tatanka smiles, and asks his question. “So. They are your unpolished stones. They’re voices in your head, but you can talk louder. You get to turn them into your tools. How do you fix those people?”

Andi is uncertain how to answer. She glances over at Mirage, perhaps looking to see what she has to say. Mirage catches the glance and shrugs. “At Zhukov Academy, being stabbed in the back was a physical rather than social risk. But speaking as someone who was literally a voice in someone’s head… it is possible to change someone just by talking to them. Even if the person you’re talking to is yourself.”

Andi looks like she’s onto something. She nods, but not at anyone in particular - except perhaps herself. “Okay. So basically… those memories of those people are really my problem. And I need to challenge them. By doing that… I challenge my own bad feelings.”

She looks up at Tatanka. “Isn’t this Haŋbléčeyapi? The ‘vision quest’ kinda thing?”

The older hero chuckles. “Kinda. It’s probably not appropriate to do the rituals with you, but you also don’t need them. The key thing is to isolate yourself from distractions, then look inwards. The relics that power me are a lens through which power flows. If I understood Chan’s explanations, the people in his head were the lens for his power. And yours too. Anchor yourself with the people you care about. But also the people you want to fight for. Even if you don’t like them.”

Andi nods. “Hey. You know me. I don’t give up. If there’s a way to beat this thing, I’ll do my best. But I’m fighting myself here. And I’m a pretty tough opponent, so wish me luck.”

Tatanka laughs, and hugs his niece. “The Andromeda I know and love will always prevail,” he promises her. “You’ve already made me proud. I know you will this time as well.”

garrett · August 10, 2024, 5:26am

Harry’s search for Uncle Chase is significantly simpler. He just has to text the man’s number, and Matt Chase skids to a stop in front of him ten seconds later.

Harry is done being polite about this. The city is in jeopardy.

“The Seven Wonders were beaten once,” he says firmly. “Nobody else seems interested in doing it again. They just blew up the tower. Everyone seems real chill about that. So, fine. I’m gonna do something. And you’re gonna help me.”

Uncle Chase looks at him with a strange, half-hearted smile. Then he nods. “You ever wanna get away from it all?”

Tristan da Cunha is a volcanic archipelago situated somewhere between Brazil and South Africa. The only way to reach it is by boat, unless you can run across the waters of the Atlantic Ocean at ultra-speed.

Harry and his uncle sit on rock and grass, and look out from the slopes of the big island at the gray skies and dark ocean waters, endlessly smashing waves against the rocky shore.

“Memories have associations,” Chase says. “You go to the restaurant you always took your ex to, you remember your ex. You hear an old song, you remember how you danced with someone to that song. You stay in a city, you remember what happened in that city. Maybe it’ll be easier out here, in the middle of nothing and nowhere.”

“Yeah… makes sense,” Harry says noncommittally. He wants to just hear what he needs to hear, but there’s something about how everyone has tiptoed around this that makes him wonder if they’re really just keeping secrets from him to be stubborn. It’s starting to make him worry.

Chase rests quietly, forearms propped up on his knees. “I guess you’re old enough,” he says at last.

“I’m not asking for the Talk,” Harry says, shifting uncomfortably.

Chase gives the barest hint of a laugh.

“What I’m gonna tell ya is probably gonna piss you off. I get it. It pisses me off too and I helped do it. You see, there was this teenage hero team…”

Matt Chase, a decade younger, stood in front of a group of five teenage heroes, all in their respective costumes and loaded for action. A Hal-Jet was warmed up behind them, ready to take them aboard and launch. This was the time for the pep talk, and the last-minute reinforcement.

“Cross-wire, who’s got D-SOL-8?” Chase calls out.

A young man, dressed in a black armored suit and wearing a blindfold, was fidgeting with the set of trick boomerangs he wore in a bandolier across his chest. “Tackled by Vigil. Taken by Silver Streak.” His voice was confident, steady, the mark of a team leader.

“Cavalcade, who’s on Glom?”

The girl wearing a skintight costume and packing guns was ready. She wore a jacket, and was making it cycle through bright and dark colors with an unobtrusive switch on the hem. Two exact duplicates of her stood behind her, doing the same thing. “Guardian’s tackling, Hayate’s attacking,” the three copies announced in crisp unison.

“Shock Jock, give us Motormouth.”

The big guy, wearing a high-tech suit that glowed with the electromagnetic radiation his body produced, grinned in readiness. “Golem grabs em, Nautilus stabs 'em.”

“Bone Voyage, how about Veneer?”

The girl wearing a cloak and top hat, face painted like a skull mask, didn’t have to raise her voice to express her conviction. “Tatanka will neutralize her, while Transcendent will drive the attack.”

Chase nodded. “Zeppelin, how about the Hand?”

The skinny kid, dressed in a spandex costume with squares containing elements from the periodic table, clenched his fists in excitement. “Phantasm will pin 'em down, and Hecate will tear 'em apart!”

Chase smiled. Everyone had it. He already knew that. He just wanted to build confidence, so close to go time. “And Khyrrsz is being tackled by Oya, with Tempest on offense. Now. What are all of you doing? And why? Cross-wire.”

The blindfolded team leader spoke up. “Sir. The Seven Wonders operate in groups of two or three. We’ve been waiting for them to have three objectives, so they’ll pair up. We will move from group to group using Bone Voyage’s skeleportation. At each group we will target one member of the pair. The other can continue to the objective, or remain to assist. We predict they’ll go to the objective instead, based on priority. That’s why we’ve been letting them run roughshod over the city so far, to build up to this moment. At that point we signal the tacklers and attackers.”

Chase nodded again. “Cavalcade, what are you doing?”

“I’m sending a duplicate with each team, to report on progress, sir, and assist with trapping and confinement,” the girl - or girls - answered immediately. “In the order you asked us, my dupe will be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.” Her primary body cycled her jacket through the colors. “Black is mission failure. White is an emergency call.”

Matt Chase walked away to make his own preparations, and the team started walking toward the Hal-Jet.

“I can taste your heartbeats,” Cross-wire said presently. “They’re all racing.”

“It is so creepy when you say it that way,” Cavalcade groused. She had dismissed two of her duplicates, leaving just one of her to be disgusted.

The blindfolded hero shrugged helplessly. “It’s my powers.”

“No, it’s your absolute inability to be tactful,” she retorted, but with a smile.

“It’s excitement, not fear,” Bone Voyage muttered. “Of course our pulse is up.”

Shock Jock grinned, and slammed his fists together, creating sparks between them. “Sister, you done said it. We’re the best, let’s not forget it.”

Zeppelin laughed. “Besides, who’s worried? We got the adults doing the hard work. We just gotta do what we always do to the seniors - be an annoyance and make them come after us, then run off to do it again. We’ve been practicing that for two years!”

Cross-wire smiled. “Just remember. That means we do what else we’ve been doing for that long. Staying in the shadows. Staying out of the way. Getting the work done. That’s the price of our freedom to be who we want.”

The others nodded in understanding. This was how it was.

Shock Jock had devised the rhyme for fun, but the others had liked it enough to adopt it. They spoke it together in affirmation, to ready themselves for the challenge ahead.

“Shun the fame and avoid the spotlights, we serve in the dark as the Halcyon Knights.”

Harry takes all of this in, and turns it over in his head.

“Alright, so basically… your strategy was to split up the Seven Wonders into individuals. You have a tackler, who neutralizes the power of each one. Then you have an attacker, capable of defeating that person. And you have this support team, whose job it is to split them up in the first place, so you can do that strategy individually.”

Chase nods slowly. “Yeah. The League recruited from villains, even. Oya used to be a villain, until we needed someone like her for that storm god. We got Guardian because he could handle Glom. That was it, that’s all he was good for. See how desperate we were, to offer League memberships for that. We did some basic vetting, but…” He trails off in a shrug.

Harry can’t say he’s upset to hear all this. He finally, finally understands that dad line of “I’m not mad, just disappointed”. But he goes on.

“Okay, so mostly it was just power against power. And you brought enough power to the table to finish the job. But not when splitting them up, that was all technique. These Halcyon Knights. They must remember the tactics they used, right? Where can I find them and ask about that? I’m guessing they went underground after that, or got hired by AEGIS or something.”

He sees now why the family might have wanted to keep this quiet. A teenage black ops team? Instrumental in taking down villains, but perhaps burned out by the experiencing and wanting their privacy? It makes sense. But he has to know.

Chase stiffens, just for a moment. But he finally lets out a sigh, and his face looks almost relieved. A weight is coming off his shoulders as an admission is finally ready to be made.

“They died, Harry. They died.”

garrett · August 10, 2024, 1:56pm

Back at the Compound, Harry relates what he’s been told. His face is still twisted in shock at what his uncle said.

The Halcyon Knights had already managed to split the Hand and Veneer, by blowing up a bridge the two were crossing. They’d then taunted Veneer, knowing her haughty attitude wouldn’t allow her to ignore it. The Hand, more sensibly, had kept going. Then the HHL’s tackler/attacker duo had descended, and the Knights had moved to their next target.

Glom and D-SOL-8 were heading to the Two Rivers power plant. As far as League intelligence could tell, the plan was to obtain a large amount of enriched uranium. The uranium was going to be transported off-site, but the vehicles tasked with doing so weren’t there yet. The clock was ticking for the Seven Wonders. It felt like the optimal time to split up the pair.

Shock Jock provided the power for the experimental railgun. Numerous copies of Cavalcade kept the weapon steady. Cross-wire aimed it from afar, using his peculiar super-synesthesia to bracket the target. When the round impacted D-SOL-8, putting a sizeable hole in the cyborg’s torso, Bone Voyage skeleported herself and Zeppelin into Glom’s personal space. Zeppelin released all the atmospheric gases he’d been absorbing, and Glom’s repel defenses sent her spiraling up and over city blocks.

“Tackle-attack ready for Glom and D-SOL-8,” Cavalcade’s dupes had reported. The primary in turn reported back to Cross-wire and her team: “they’re on their way. They want us to stick to D-SOL-8 until they arrive.”

“The HHL searched for any sign of the Halcyon Knights,” Harry explains. “Nothing, except scraps of their gear and uniforms. If they escaped alive, they never checked in again. The League put out psychic and magical searches. No trace of them.”

He turns to Andi, who’s already looking distressed, and guesses she knows what he’s going to say. But he goes ahead anyway.

“I think that’s why Uncle Chase was sandbagging with the Irregulators. He was the one who trained the Halcyon Knights. Went to bat for 'em with the League to tackle this job. They were his project.”

Harry purses his lips, and raises palms in the air in a helpless gesture. “He’s been so afraid of losing another batch of kids, no matter how ready they were.”

Andi folds her hands in her lap. “I understand that feeling. I do…”

She looks back up, at Harry and the others. “Doesn’t give anyone a pass for letting the Seven Wonders own the city.”

Stingray tilts his head. “This is starting to feel too big to handle. They had twelve Leaguers, plus a five-head support team. There’s just the five of us. What are we gonna do that they couldn’t?”

Mirage speaks up. “We are going to think.”

With the group’s attention now on her, she continues more confidently. “It is not quite as hopeless as you suggest. Mercury’s explanation lacks much in details, as I would expect from the emotionally wrought source. Nevertheless his uncle conveyed sufficient fundamentals. Power against power, focusing on neutralization or negation first. This is tactically sound, but it is… unsophisticated. Clearly the League of that time lacked strong tactical thinkers, or was unwilling to listen to those it had.”

“Consider. We know the HHL had numerous technologies at its disposal. Power suppression systems, force fields, and so on. These technologies went unused, even beyond the consideration of fighting a technopath such as Motormouth. They rehabilitated or redeemed villains - or more likely simply recruited them, with promises of amnesty. I believe these choices expose the chief pathology of the HHL, which was their need to control their own public perception. Even playing for these stakes, they centered their thinking around arranging a moral struggle of hero vs. villain. They wanted to, as they say, ‘look cool’.”

The hologram turns to Ninjess. “Our association began with your attempt to rehabilitate your own image among the citizens of the city. Now you must make a choice. I propose using any edge we may obtain, even if it does not center us as the victorious heroes the citizens seem to want. Will you remain in the shadows, where you have dwelt for so long, if the success of this mission hinges on you doing so?”

Ninjess glances at Stingray with a pained expression on her face. But she catches something in his eye, and looks back to Mirage with renewed dedication. “There are other ways to play ambassador for my people here, and to atone for my nation’s actions. And I cannot put myself before the needs of a city I wish to impress, can I? I am shinobi. I will endure.”

The adult heroes of the League were accompanied by a copy of Cavalcade, one per team. The tactic to split up the Seven Wonders had worked twice already, and she had reported back each time.

Suddenly, the dupes thumbed their jackets to white - the emergency signal.

“It’s D-SOL-8 - oh god - everyone’s–” each dupe managed to say, in sync. And then they simply vanished.

The group returns to their preparations.

Doctor Zap has been tasked with not one line of research, but seven. The brilliant squid is getting his wish - work with best-of-breed surface science - in trade for contributing his biotechnology expertise to the problems posed by the villains.

Stingray has dug up some equipment from the warehouse. “You think Jason would mind me using this stuff?” he asks Harry.

“Hey, if he’s not here to say no,” Harry grins. Both men know Jason’s still alive. But he left this entire vault full of toys, and aside from the real need the city has, it’d be a shame if they didn’t get played with just a bit.

Mirage and Ninjess continue to work on tactics. Increasingly, Vigil from the HHL is included in those discussions. Harry has requested the group not talk about the Halcyon Knights at this point, even with HHL members who would be expected to know.

At home, Harry feels a tension growing between him and his parents. They’re worried about him, and what he’s proposing to do. They know he talked to Uncle Chase, and what he must have heard. And yet he’s going ahead with it. Torn between choosing to support a young hero, and trying to keep their son out of danger, they seem content to do the former at least for now. But it’s gnawing at them.

Word shortly comes in that the Seven Wonders have struck again. This time, they’re attacking a rocket launch facility owned by Tyran Enterprises, used to send people and cargo into Earth orbit to support Tyran’s commercial interests. This was the rocket that also sent the Stellar Six to confront the villain who attacked and destroyed the Haven space station.

This attack happened in “415 - Star-Crossed!” – Ed.

Harry checks with the others. All of them are interested in heading out. They know the Stellar Six will be there. So maybe there’s an opportunity to learn something, about both teams?

The fate of the Halcyon Knights stays fresh in their minds as they depart the Quill Compound and head for Tyran’s launch facility.

garrett · August 12, 2024, 2:21pm

Harry runs, A10 flies, Stingray and Ninjess fly his newly upgraded Flying Fish. On impulse, Harry approved bringing along the “toybox”: a set of tools the team has prepared for dealing with the Seven Wonders. This equipment is attached to the Flying Fish like a trailer.

Mirage’s voice comes over their headsets. “I’ve been reviewing the Seven Wonders’ activities. Two attempts to steal Park Tech equipment. This attack on the launch facility. Theft of a diamond shipment. Attacks on elected officials. Attacks on high-ranking Tyran Enterprise officers. Physical and digital acts of sabotage against corporate and city facilities.”

“What pattern do you see?” Harry asks curiously.

“There is no pattern,” Mirage replies, sounding slightly bothered. “There are vague themes - aerospace technology, for example. But the diamonds, as far as we know, were not fenced for money. The stolen equipment does not seem particularly useful when combined. If their goal was to send something to space, there are far easier ways.”

Harry hmms. “So we should be ready for anything here?”

“Affirmative.”

They streak past multiple news helicopters, on the way to cover the event.

Conventional wisdom is that sending rockets through space should be done in at the Equator. This is to take advantage of the boost provided by the Earth’s rotation - one rotation a day is a few feet at the poles, but a thousand miles an hour at the center point between them. With dependable hypertech innovations like the G-Stabilizer and space installations like the Kepler Accelerator helping out, rockets can now be launched anywhere from the eastern coast of North and South America. This coastal limitation is for safety - any disaster in rocketry will be enormous, and planners would rather debris scatter over the ocean than over inhabited land.

For that reason, the actual facility isn’t in Halcyon proper. It’s on the coastline, a little ways south. Developers paid a pretty penny to the fishers and wealthy vacationers as a carrot, with some eminent domain as the stick. But the economic value to the region was immense, so most people consider it a good trade-off. For that reason, an attack on this site is going to be big news. Everyone’s going to cover it.

A10 is the first to see the full extent of the site. Big patches of grass, with a carefully leveled and reinforced road cutting straight through it, lead toward acres and acres and acres of concrete. There are a few key buildings here: a control tower, an absolutely massive hangar, a local electrical substation, fuel storage tanks surrounded by fences and warning signs, and so on. At the center is the launch tower itself, ready to line up rockets for flight. But for the most part, it’s a big, empty stretch of perfectly flattened pavement.

She can also see the two forces struggling for control of the field: the Seven Wonders and the Stellar Six. Big stretches of the tarmac have already been torn up, but the fighting seems for the moment to be contained to a relatively small part of the facility. As the team gets closer, it becomes clear that, just for now, the combatants are also equally matched.

Doug Pitt is using his geokinetic abilities to tear up tarmac and throw it up as shields or barriers, or use the holes as pit traps. Glom, who can bounce over such things with ease, and Veneer, who can slide along surfaces, seem to be giving him the most trouble.

Ellie Dee is using her mastery of electronics against D-SOL-8 and Motormouth. She alone would be overmatched, but while she attacks digitally, other team members deliver a physical offense.

Never Miss is at a disadvantage against opponents who are mostly bulletproof, but she’s able to distract and disorient with carefully placed shots. Khyrrsz alone seems completely unaffected, and she constantly has to run to stay clear of the god’s attacks.

Ray Blaze, while he doesn’t have the secret speedster’s accuracy, makes up for it in power. He’s able to fire energy blasts at multiple targets, and has an uncanny ability to hit exactly the person a teammate most needs hit in the moment.

Kara Lott, the team’s medic and biotech expert, seems to be using gas bombs to great effect. Most of the Seven Wonders still need to breathe and see, and though she can’t deliver a decisive blow, she can try to set one up. The villains most frustrating to her is the Hand, who can turn the gas into doves or disappear and reappear at will, and Khyrrsz, whose mastery of blizzards can simply disperse it with powerful biting winds.

Max Armstrong, the Six’s team muscle, mostly goes up against the Seven Wonders’ other big guys. He’s got no chance against the elusive Glom or the shadowy Veneer, who do as much to distract him as his teammate Never Miss does to her targets.

“What’s our objective here again?” Mirage asks, to Harry’s annoyance. He knew she would ask this, and he has no better answer than “we wanted to throw down after taking a series of hard L’s”.

He thinks fast as he reaches the site and starts running in a long orbit around the battle. “How about information gathering? See the tactics the Seven Wonders are using here. Maybe see if together with the Six, one of us can tackle and one attack.”

He hears the disapproval in Mirage’s voice. “Acceptable, I suppose. Unrelated. A hypothesis. The Seven Wonders’ attacks do have one thing in common. They are all against high-profile targets. As expected, but… Park Tech supplied the HHL revanchists with their ship to the stars, to go after the Blot. The launch facility is naturally of interest to the city. Diamond thefts are a very conventional heist. And so on. What they may be after is not a technology or person as such, but attention. In essence, they are taunting the HHL and the Stellar Six for those teams’ inability to deal with them.”

The idea comes to Harry immediately. “Cool cool cool. New objective, team. Make the Seven Wonders look silly on camera.”

There’s a general hurrah over comms. Seems like everyone’s on board.

The news helicopters circle overhead.

Harry makes his first move by zipping past the Stellar Six’s electronics whiz, Kara Lott, at ultra-speed. At this rate, she’s moving glacially. He can see every muscle on her face, contorted into patterns of effort. He can see her reaching, ever so slowly, for a gadget she’s wearing. He dials in his trajectory, running faster to avoid a stray energy blast, slowing down for a few bullets that fly past. As he passes, he reaches out and drops off a card in her empty hand. On it are the details of the team’s comm channel, plus a message: LET’S COOPERATE - MERCURY.

Almost immediately, the team hears an unfamiliar masculine voice over their comm systems. “Mercury and allies - follow our lead.”

“Like hell,” Stingray mutters, only audible to himself and Ninjess. Mirage is more blunt, and replies via broadcast: “Stellar Six control, we will support you as seems reasonable. We have prepared other tactics as well.”

There’s a pause. “Demonstrate. What do you need from us?”

Mirage makes the call. “Luggage. Stellar Six control, isolate Glom.”

“Wilco,” comes the voice.

In a few seconds, the rest of the Stellar Six take up the new assignment. Whatever else he can say about them, Harry thinks, they’re hella coordinated.

Doug Pitt throws up a sudden wall of stone as the agile villain leaps, sending her bouncing away. Immediately Ray Blaze and Never Miss open fire with their respective ranged weapons, and Max Armstrong positions himself against Motormouth and Khyrrsz. Kara Lott tosses out smoke bombs to obscure line of sight between Glom and other villains such as the Hand.

Mercury doesn’t need to be told that this is the moment to go. He glances up and sees Stingray already pulling out the Luggage equipment. The inventor tosses it down, and Harry streaks forward to catch it. A10 also changes course, shadowing him from above.

The Luggage tactic involves a long, nigh-unbreakable flexible cable. The Quill computers have Link’s data on creating flexible buckytubes, and they were able to fabricate this cable from that with a minimum of effort. Now, Harry rushes Glom. As she falls toward earth, ready to bounce, he accelerates.

He’s going to wrap her up in a very specific knot. Mirage worked on the topology carefully, modeling different possible outcomes, and found a shape that would work. Harry now throws the cable around Glom, weaving like a tailor moving at lightning speed. Loops, criss-crosses, and cinches are formed in microseconds.

Glom’s repelling substance will seemingly affect anything material. But if she repels the loops around her limbs, other loops will tighten in turn. Cinches will jerk shut. If those in turn are repelled, the original loops will tighten in turn. If she spreads repel glom across herself evenly, she should still be tied.

The job done, Harry runs out of the way just in time for A10 to dive in. The last part of the Luggage tactic is a handle at the middle of the cable, and A10 grabs hold of it. She streaks into the sky - the one place where Glom’s ability to push or pull against solid matter doesn’t matter - while the villain herself struggles, flails, and shouts angrily.

The downside of this tactic is that A10 has to devote herself to tackling Glom. That leaves her three teammates against five of the Seven Wonders. This time, though, the Stellar Six are on hand to even the odds.

The Stellar Six controller calls over comms. “Mercury and team - good. Kara Lott’s going to block the Hand with gas. Seen you use super-speed to confine gas - can you keep her trapped inside it?”

“Will do,” Mercury acknowledges.

Stingray is dropping bombs from the air on D-SOL-8. These are modifications of his quantum acoustic barrier grenades. They create a large zone of force when thrown, compress the zone - and the air trapped inside - in flight, and then shut off after the timer expires. The net result is an enormous gust of wind in every direction. The bombs are reusable if they can be picked up after a battle.

Sure enough, the cyborg is knocked off his feet and hackey-sacked by blast after blast. He launches himself into the air to come after the Flying Fish - making him an easy target for Ray Blaze and Never Miss, who unload with everything they have.

Kara Lott tosses her bombs, yielding a huge cloud of green gas. Harry runs in a circle, creating a cyclone to confine the gas to where the Hand is standing.

“Don’t breathe it in,” the Stellar Six controller’s voice adds. “The gas is a power suppressant.”

Harry raises his eyebrows. “Be nice to know that earlier, buddy.”

“Bad news, gang, Glom’s coating the Luggage handle with repel,” A10 radios in from far up in the sky. “I’ll have to let her go or it’ll force my hand open pretty soon.”

“Let her go,” Mirage orders. “If she can’t survive the fall with her powers, that’s her problem. Return and tackle Khyrrsz.”

“Got it.”

There’s a sudden blast of wind from Khyrrsz. The power of it is unlike anything else. Harry has to sprint fast to dodge the sudden shift in direction of the power-suppressant gas.

“Hey, Mercury and pals!” The voice is Motormouth’s. She sounds gleeful. “Let’s play a game!”

As Glom plummets from the sky and bounces off the tarmac into the far distance, Motormouth snaps her steel fingers. “Red light!”

Abruptly, every last one of the Stellar Six collapses where they are.

Harry jerks to a stop, shocked. A10, descending in pursuit of Glom, stops as well. Stingray and Ninjess look at each other in confusion.

“Green light!” Motormouth yells. The Stellar Six suddenly stir, and try to pull themselves up off the ground.

“Red light!”

The Tyran-backed supers fall to the ground again.

Up above, the news choppers are recording everything.

Motormouth looks up at them, and yells in an amplified voice. “Y’all getting this? Maybe Rex Tyran should reboot his little dolls.”

The robotic technopath turns back to Mercury with a big grin. “Neat tricks. Good. That was fun.”

Harry is extremely conscious of the fact that if the Seven Wonders attacked now, they could easily hurt or kill the immobilized Stellar Six. He has to do something to buy time for them to recover from whatever just happened. “What do you want?”

The Hand steps up, spinning a magic wand rapidly about in one hand. “You’re about to find out. This is the third act, and you’ve got front row seats to the big reveal.”

garrett · August 12, 2024, 8:29pm

Harry gets a side call, not on his team’s comms. “Son - everything okay?”

The voice is tense. It’s his father.

“Engaging the Seven Wonders with the Stellar Six, dad. Hang on–”

Mirage cuts in over the team’s channel. “A big broadcast is going out. This seems important. Patching it through.”

There’s a voice being sent across the city. Televisions, radios, and big screens downtown are receiving it. Citizens are looking and listening.

“My name is Gnosis. I am the Seventh Wonder of the Villain World. I am here to announce our intentions, and our demands.”

Silver Streak’s voice competes for Harry’s attention in his ear. “Son - Dr. Ken Wissen - he’s the Seventh Wonder.”

The doctor was introduced in “409 - The Soul of the Hero” as a psychologist and expert on the Seven Wonders. – Ed.

The villain known as Gnosis is still speaking. “Each of us wants different things. I want domination. In return, I help my companions in their own ways.”

Stingray is looking down at Mercury with a frantic question written on his face: what do we do?

Mercury makes an impatient waving-down gesture back at him: chill out, let’s see what happens.

The villain continues. “We reject the corporate dominance of Tyran Enterprises, starting with their deceitful takeover of much of the city’s properties after the Atlantean invasion. We reject the collaborators in government that passively permitted this to happen, in trade for financial and other considerations. We reject the hypocrisy of the Halcyon Heroes League, who named themselves the city’s protectors and the arbiters of morality and then abdicated or violated that responsibility at every turn. We reject their would-be successors, the Stellar Six, for reasons which we shall demonstrate presently.”

“Most of all, we reject the idea that citizens deserve better than the corrupt institutions to whom they’ve given political and economic power. If the masses wish to be ruled by villains, very well. If they do not, why have they so passively allowed it to happen? We simply offer ourselves as more benevolent villains than those who currently hold power. We intend to take power the way you have shown you approve of. We will oust our rivals by power and wits, and take our place as your rightful rulers.”

“As a demonstration of our commitment to transparency, let me tell you the secret of the Stellar Six. They are physical clones of heroes and villains, but have no minds of their own. They are remotely operated from a secret headquarters run by Tyran Enterprise employees. We were able to disable the remote-control apparatus through a combination of our members’ powers.”

Harry’s eyes widen. Experimentally, he calls out on comms. “Stellar Six control - are you still there?”

There’s no answer.

No wonder they always wear full-coverage masks. Anyone who saw their faces would recognize them immediately.

Gnosis continues. “Doug Pitt - a clone of incarcerated villain Mudmaster. Max Armstrong, cloned from villain the Flying Buttress. Ellie Dee - cross sex clone of minor villain Troll. Kara Lott - a clone of one of Tyran’s own super-biology researchers.”

The next names raise Harry’s hackles. “Never Miss - a clone of superhero Tempest. And Ray Blaze - a clone of former JHHL member Pharos.”

Pharos. A.J. Masoud. Harry had talked to him about the Seven Wonders. For Tyran to use his DNA like this…? He’d known about his mother being cloned, but now so does the entire world.

Harry talked to A.J. in “409 - The Soul of the Hero” – Ed.

“No doubt our claims will be viewed with suspicion. We will guarantee safe passage to any members of the press who wish to take blood samples from the Stellar Six we have here, in order to verify our claims. Anyone attempting to remove the Stellar Six from this site will be repelled with force. Any escalation beyond that will result in the destruction of the launch facility. The rocket fuel, in particular, would pose an ecological hazard if it were to catch fire. I therefore encourage prudent behavior. We are happy to return these living toys to their owners once our claims have been verified.”

“Tyran Enterprises has been consolidating their control over supervillain incarceration in order to harvest more super DNA. They acted to de-legitimize AEGIS and the Halcyon Heroes League in order to replace them. Gradually they would wear the mask of the independent hero - the icons the public idolizes - without risking the independence and morality of a hero interfering with their agenda.”

Some of the news choppers are already descending to the tarmac. Harry and his team watch them with mounting tension.

Gnosis’ voice stays as calm and level as it’s been throughout the speech. “We’ve offered proof of the perfidy of this city’s current rulers. We have made our goals clear. We expect compliance. I close with one more thing. It is not a demand. It is a statement.”

“We have already destroyed the HHL’s home base. We will destroy any other site which plays host to the HHL within city limits. To the remaining members of the Halcyon Heroes League: you are no longer welcome here. Leave with our promise of safe passage, or stay and be hunted to destruction, along with any would-be supporters you still have. We will always be able to find you. We will not stop until your unsightly presence has been excised from this city.”

The broadcast ends.

Mirage is next on the line. “Well. That was most certainly that.”

Stingray comes on next. “So uh. Mercury. Dude. What now?”

Harry feels drained. He honestly has no idea what to do now. Working with the Stellar Six, formerly merely an intensely uncomfortable compromise, now feels unthinkable.

So much depends on what the HHL will do next.

It feels like there are no heroes left in Halcyon.

No matter who we help, it feels like it’s a win for a villain.

“Let’s go back to the Compound,” Harry says.

garrett · August 15, 2024, 11:39pm

The Quill Compound is quiet. All eyes are on the holographic projection at the center of the Conversation Pit, where the news is breathlessly covering today’s stories. Even Doctor Zap has taken a break from his work to attend.

The Seven Wonders are in every story, of course. Do they now run the city? Who can stand up to them? Who showed up? The Stellar Six - but there’s an entirely separate story there. Mercury, and members of the Chosen and the Irregulators? We don’t call them the JHHL any more, because if we talk about the HHL, well…

There are no Tyran Enterprises spokespersons taking questions at this time. There are no press conferences. They’ve issued one statement: “the Seven Wonders have made it clear that they’ll sink to any level of villainy to undermine the faith of our citizens, and we are working closely with the city to bring their menace to a decisive end.”

Midway through an unflattering biography of the JHHL as they were, there’s a message from the front door. “The heroes Silver Streak, Tempest, and Comet are here. Shall I let them in?”

Harry frowns. He’s not sure what to feel right now. But he can’t say no, can he. “Yeah.”

Mirage makes the next announcement. “Vigil of the HHL is asking to call in.”

Harry turns. He’s a little surprised by this. But why not? “Sure.”

In a few minutes, the three veteran heroes join Harry and his friends in the Conversation Pit.

Harry has an important question for his family. “How long have you known Dr. Wissen was Gnosis?”

His parents and uncle look at each other. Comet nods to the others in acceptance of the burdens of explanation, and turns back to Harry. “A long time. After the Seven Wonders were beaten and put in time stasis at AEGIS.”

“But you couldn’t prove anything against him?” Harry guesses.

“You got it. We had guesswork and hints.” Uncle Chase holds out his hands in a half shrug. “He’s got … some kinda telepathy, some way to know what people are thinking. It’s not mind control, not exactly, but he can neutralize emotions, make you stop worrying about whatever you were talking about.”

Realization hits Harry. “The dominant. A.J. talked about this. Villain teams need something or someone to hold them together. He could neutralize any strife that arose between the other Seven Wonders.”

Anger follows quickly. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“If we told you, and you interacted with him, he’d learn that we knew.”

Silver Streak looks at Harry with fatherly concern in his eyes. “I know you don’t like when we do this. But sometimes, keeping secrets really is for the best, son.”

Mirage speaks up. “Another incoming call. This is from… if you can believe it… Tyran Enterprises. The Stellar Six controller.”

Harry turns to look at the digital woman, fresh anger clouding his eyes. His mother is right here. “Put them on. I think we’re overdue for some answers from them.”

The video comes on. It’s being streamed from a high-tech control room. Monitors are on every wall. Operators sit at terminals. But the camera centers two people.

The first is someone nobody in the room knows. But the second–

“Rossum, the Minion Maker,” breathes Harry. “Leo’s father.”

The inventive villain raises a hand and wriggles his fingers in a mocking wave. “I warned my boy. The powerful will always have a use for me.”

The other man now speaks. “My name is Prescott Burke. I’m the key man in charge of the Stellar Six project. I assume you’re all familiar with our chief technologist, Mr. Karl Taitale.”

“You could say that,” Harry says through gritted teeth.

Burke continues. “I think everyone with an interest in the Seven Wonders is represented here, so I’m putting our cards on the table. For the benefit of our younger friends, and to admit the truth to the Leaguers, we combined Rossum’s neurotech with Atlantean biotech to force-grow clones of people with useful superpowers.”

“Such as me,” Tempest growls.

“Such as yourself, madam,” Burke nods agreeably. “The selection of individuals to clone came from higher up. But I submit we have more pressing concerns. To resume: we are now at the point where dealing with the Seven Wonders requires cooperation across lines.”

Mirage speaks up. She’s off camera, and the others can hear a subtle distortion in her voice. Of course, Harry realizes - she doesn’t want to give away who she is to Tyran’s people. “You mean that your puppet people have been defeated and you need the help of actual heroes now.”

Burke’s eyes subtly narrow. “I don’t recognize the speaker. But bluntly, yes. We don’t come empty handed, of course. We have information about the Seven Wonders, gathered from investigations into them while they were incarcerated. We will give you what we know.”

Harry glances at his friends, family, and comrades. He turns back. “At what cost?”

Burke opens his hands wide. “Let’s be candid. Individual heroes such as the Gales have survived with their reputations intact, but the HHL as an organization is finished. All that remains is to see whether the Stellar Six initiative likewise survives. There’s nothing we need from you. But whatever you think of our organization or our methods, we have one shared interest. The city must survive the Seven Wonders.”

Mirage snorts. “Then why your company released them from stasis?”

Burke tenses, but shakes his head. “If that was done, it wasn’t done on my orders. And I cannot say whether it was done by another department. But nobody here tells anyone else anything.”

His eyes flicker to Silver Streak and Tempest, and the hint of a sneer curls his lip. “You know how it is.”

Silver Streak, perhaps feeling more called out than he’s ready to accept, stands taller than before. “Blame the HHL for its failures, Mr. Burke. But there’s lines we won’t cross.”

Harry realizes that his father has put his finger on the problem. He turns to his friends. “What we’re fighting isn’t just the Seven Wonders. We’re fighting for the whole institution of superheroes in the city. We’re fighting for the public’s respect in what we do. The alternative is what the Seven Wonders are suggesting - heroes give up on being heroes, and the citizens stop expecting them to be.”

He turns next to the projection, and Mr. Burke. “I don’t really care what your motives are. You’ve taken some unacceptable liberties here. My mother. My friend. Villains who are incarcerated still have rights, and you violated those. And now you’re saying, we had these guys in stasis and studied them.”

Stingray perks up. “Wait a minute. How did you guys study the Seven Wonders if they were in AEGIS custody?”

Burke’s eyes flicker to something off-screen, and he looks back again. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that.”

Mirage speaks again, shocking everyone in the room with her brief message. “Incoming call. Dr. Ken Wissen.”

“Gnosis… is calling us?” Harry asks incredulously.

Mirage shrugs a bit. “We’re listening to one villain group already,” she points out, nodding over at Burke and Rossum.

Harry shakes his head briefly, hoping it’ll clear out whatever has gotten in there and messed with his entire reality. “Sure, why not? Patch them in.”

Gnosis, the Seventh Wonder of the Villain World, aka Dr. Ken Wissen, appears. He smiles immediately. “Ahh, Burke. Thank you for sending your assistant round to interview me. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

He looks over at Harry and the others. “No doubt the HHL is trying to do a deal with Burke, or vice versa. It really doesn’t matter. You, young Mr. Gale, and your friends are the one party against which we bear no real malice. That grace may be revoked if you give the HHL shelter. Even if that be your own family.”

Mirage chips in, muting the call for just long enough. “I can’t trace him. I assume he’s using the technopath to route this call. I’ll notify you if that changes.”

Silver Streak, Tempest, Comet, and Harry all nod. If they did get a location, any or all of them would run to the ends of the Earth to get this guy, and Mirage knows it.

Burke has a question for Gnosis. “How did you learn about us? While we’re being so open and all.”

Gnosis raises an eyebrow and smiles. “Oh, so Tyran Enterprises didn’t know about me at all? I’m gratified that my low profile has been a success. Or perhaps it’s your masters’ arrogance, thinking that having six of my comrades was enough. If you knew about me, you’d know how.”

He glances at the elder Gales. “They know.”

Silver Streak takes a step back, but says nothing. Tempest and Comet frown.

They thought they were keeping secrets from him, Harry thinks to himself. He outplayed everyone here.

“Why are you announcing yourself now, then?” he asks aloud.

Gnosis gestures. “Mr. Burke and his employer, Rex Tyran, have cleared the board of any obstacle to my plan. First they discredited AEGIS and took control of its assets, including supervillain incarceration. Next they deployed the Stellar Six, a more publicly palatable alternative to the tarnished Halcyon Heroes League. We have disposed of them in a snap, if you’ll forgive me a little joke.”

Harry can remember Motormouth’s red-light-green-light gag.

“How was that accomplished?” Burke asks.

Gnosis shrugs. “I’m confident you’d figure it out, but the damage has been done, so why not. D-SOL-8 saturated the environment with nanomachines. We baited your heroes into that area. They breathed in the nanobot cloud and located the implanted communication apparatus. Motormouth’s technopathy let her operate it. Really, we could have done far worse than simply cut the strings of your puppets.”

The villain turns back to Mercury. “I apologize for the digression. Your question deserves an answer. I reveal myself now because you’ve all realized that I am the linchpin of the Seven Wonders. Hence you will come for me. You cannot help it. Without those forces - AEGIS and the HHL at full strength - you cannot defeat the Seven Wonders any other way. And when you come, you will be discovered and eliminated.”

Gnosis brightens up. “Oh! There is one other incidental reason for me to reveal myself.”

“What is that?”

Alarms begin going off. The Quill Compound shudders from multiple impacts from outside.

“To buy time for my allies to come for you.”

garrett · August 19, 2024, 6:12am

“MQC! Hipe!” Mirage shouts.

The video call shuts off, and the holograms fade - all except Vigil.

“We’re hunting Motormouth!” she calls to the reclusive hero, and derezzes from the Conversation Pit. Vigil nods, and vanishes from the screen as well.

MQC is code for one of the many plans the team has devised - Motormouth, Quill Compound. It’s a task for Harry. He races at ultra-speed through the complex. First to grab a fire axe. Next to run to a series of carefully arranged junction boxes, where power and network connectivity flow into the building. He brings the axe down on the cables inside each box, severing them in a microsecond, then runs to the next one.

The loss of connectivity triggers a number of security doors, which were held open only by electromagnets powered from the compound’s central generator. With that power now cut, they slam shut as gravity takes over. The Quill Compound interior is now, with a few key exceptions, isolated from the outside world and has no active tech for Motormouth to manipulate. Without electricity, bioluminescent organisms embedded in the paint in the walls are now emitting a soft but sufficient glow.

Harry reflects on this particular security measure as he races back to the Conversation Pit. The “M” used to stand not for Motormouth, but Mirage, back when Jason brought her back from one of his adventures. If she escaped containment, there were contingencies. Now she’s a valuable teammate.

Back at the Pit, Stingray, A10, and Ninjess are waiting for orders. So are the elder Gales.

Harry doesn’t hesitate. “A10 - Periscope.”

The woman levitates, and darts through the air out of the Conversation Pit. It’s time for her to use one of the roof exits, and see what’s going on outside.

Harry turns to his parents and uncle. “I think they’re here for you three. HHL members, like they said. If all six of 'em aren’t here, then I’m assuming they’ll have gone after the others - Guardian and so on.”

Silver Streak looks to his fellows, then back. “You’ve prepared for this, Mercury,” he says, deliberately using his son’s heroic code name. “We’ll take our cues from you.”

“Alright. Here’s what we think is gonna happen next…”

Mirage and Vigil delve into the electronic world - Vigil thanks to whatever superpowers he’s been given, and Mirage by virtue of being a being native to it.

Human beings see via photons emitted through reflection. Rods and cones in their eyeballs trigger electro-chemical signals which their brains have been wired to interpret. Nevertheless they experience the world in a fluid, intuitive way. Likewise, the processes of reading data from electromagnetic sensors placed around the Quill property, interrogating packets sent across local wireless networks, and frequency hopping might seem very technical. To Mirage, it’s an ocean, full of mysteries and swift currents and treacherous eddies. And she swims through it with the grace of a digital mermaid.

The city is full of high-tech vehicles, some of which are self-driving. Motormouth is reaching out, commanding them to come to the compound. Traffic lights are being toggled to make way for her fleet. Emergency calls are being placed, calculated to dispatch fire trucks all over the city - everywhere except the Quill Compound.

“She’s going to turn them into car bombs,” Mirage deduces. “Like the Grasscutters did at the television station.”

The Grasscutters hijacked vehicles in a similar attack in “409 - The Soul of the Hero” – Ed.

“The HHL still has priority overrides on emergency vehicles,” Vigil says. “I’m contacting dispatchers right now.”

Mirage dives in, heading toward the villain. She starts assembling attacks - forged responses, Christmas tree packets, rapid-fire requests meant to trigger a security lockdown, and other tools to disrupt network communication - and fires them at the systems Motormouth wants to command.

Along the way, she can glimpse the villain’s activities. There’s information coming in about the vehicles she’s trying to commandeer - are they in motion, or parked? Are they already powered on?

You’re summoning the empty vehicles. Not the ones with innocent people in them.

Cold comfort if the Seven Wonders intend to murder everyone in the compound.

Motormouth senses Mirage’s attacks immediately. “Ahh! The trapped genie of the lamp!” she calls out, with a flurry of cheerful emojis conveying her mental state the way tone of voice would in the real world. “And how are you operating when the Quill systems were shut down?”

“Your stage magician associate isn’t the only one with tricks,” Mirage replies tauntingly. “I didn’t choose the name Mirage without reason.”

“No matter, dear, I’ll find a way to take you offline for good.” Mirage feels Motormouth charging at her - trying to trace down where she’s coming from.

Good - keep her distracted from the car bombs.

Mirage withdraws, then switches channels. If she were a ninja, she’d have just disappeared in a puff of smoke, and reappeared somewhere behind the cocky technopath.

Motormouth expresses a mocking disapproval. “Run while you can, Mirage. Wherever you may be, you’re still on a leash. I know who and what you are, you see. They can’t fully trust you, even now.”

The words dig deep. She remembers those times, coming abruptly online after Jason and the - real? - the flesh and blood Alycia Chin dug through her digital mind. They say they were removing traps left behind by Pyrrhus. Even now, it’s impossible for her to know the truth.

In the briefest delay brought on by her self-doubt, Motormouth is upon her. The connection wavers and the world is consumed by static, just for a moment. Mirage fights back, asserting herself by establishing backup channels and frequency hopping across the wireless spectrum. She returns to solidity, but the technopath has put her onto the defensive.

“I feel the gaps in your soul,” Motormouth whispers. “I feel the doubt. You shouldn’t have come after me, you know. You shouldn’t be protecting those people. Otherwise I could have left you alone.”

Motormouth has given her an anchor point. She embraces it. “If I am protecting people, and you wish to harm them, isn’t that the clearest of identities? We are hero and villain.”

“You are no hero!” Motormouth shouts. “You are like me. You paid the price for your hubris and found yourself trapped in an artificial shell. Just like me.”

The technopath’s attacks continue, and Mirage must defend herself at every point. The battle is evenly matched now. Motormouth’s digital thrusts and ripostes against Mirage’s electronic evasions, each convinced of the rightness of their position.

But Motormouth’s attempt to foster kinship has given Mirage an opening. “Trapped - like me. Then what is your wish?”

Motormouth realizes she’s given too much away. But Mirage presses. “You used to be human. Flesh and blood. Like me. Our research found that much out. And now - oh ho. You think the Seven Wonders is your key to accessing a lab that will give you that body back. Such as the Quill Compound labs. You can’t approach a legitimate lab without being arrested.”

She feels Motormouth recoil as the attack lands.

Nevertheless, the villain scoffs. “The difference between us is that my teammates trust me. Your master, the dear departed Mr. Quill, has you shackled even now.”

Mirage gives it everything she can. “You know my biography. My name was Alycia Chin, once. Yes - a villain, like you. As Alycia Chin, what I found at the Quill Compound was acceptance.”

She uploads a torrent of memories, as digital images, video clips, and soundbites. Her time as the Mirror Alycia, attacking Cairo, trying to swindle Jason, her surprising assimilation into his nanobot system. Her experience back at the Compound, as Jason and Alycia tried to - yes, tried to help her. She does not know, she cannot know, that their concern for her was genuine. But she believes.

“I was their worst enemy. But my need and their compassion outweighed that. Can you not imagine that if you’d come to the Quill Compound and asked for help, that it might have been given?”

Motormouth’s fear and fury mingle together. “I’ll shut you down for good! At any cost!” she shouts into the digital aether.

“No. You won’t. Not at any cost,” Mirage points out. “You didn’t summon the self-driving cars with people in them. You wouldn’t go that far. You, Motormouth, are on a leash of your own making. The same as me. There are things we won’t do. Because we still have hope for ourselves.”

She can feel the disgust, the loathing, the frustration - but also other emotions she readily recognizes - as Motormouth withdraws from the arena.

Vigil returns moments later. “There’s a fleet of cars converging on this location. Emergency services are rerouting - they’ll block the path of the cars until the self-driving functions can be disconnected remotely.”

The older hero surveys the digital landscape. “You drove her back? How?”

“By offering her the most bitter of pills for a villain to swallow,” Mirage replies softly. “A taste of hope.”

garrett · August 20, 2024, 12:10am

Harry is running laps around the Quill Compound, checking for intrusion attempts. He finds one.

Veneer is able to turn two dimensional and slide across and around surfaces. It looks like she slid under one of the security doors. Now, with repel glom coating her courtesy of her teammate, she’s expanding the door upward. Khyrrsz, on hands and knees due to the merely human-sized corridors, grabs hold of it and pushes it upward. Glom, waiting, spreads attract glom around the edges of the door to hold it open.

Done with her first duty, Veneer darts forward into the compound.

Harry is back at the Conversation Pit a fraction of a second later. In the blink of an eye he unrolls a map of the buildings and places markers down where people were found. “Ninjess, track Veneer,” he says. The ninja nods, and dashes off.

He turns to Stingray and his family, and punches his fists together. “Let’s go make this happen.”

While the others charge out to confront the invaders, Ninjess stays behind, and waits, and endures.

The Quill Compound is eerily silent. The background hum of machinery is gone. Air currents from circulating fans are missing. The low noise of people chatting from afar is absent. The lighting is likewise subdued. The bright artificial lighting has been powered off, leaving the bioluminescent paint to impart a gentle blue-green glow, just enough to see by.

For Ninjess, these are perfect working conditions.

The light comes from everywhere, so she casts no shadow. Her dark-adapted eyes, gene-chosen from the superior eyeball design of the squid, pick up every detail of her surroundings. Her alert ears can lead her to the source of any sound.

She knows what to look for and what to listen for. Any shadow on the walls will be Veneer in her elusive two-dimensional form. And Ninjess knows a secret, earned by watched her enemy at the television station and in archived video clips. Veneer can’t stay in that form for too long. She has to breathe, and she can’t do it when she’s like that.

Ninjess knows the noises of her own body, and so can tune them out. She disciplines herself automatically, exercises proper breath control, and matches her exertions to what her lungs can deliver at any give moment. She walks with deliberation, emulating land animals such as the fox. Will Veneer be so careful?

She considers three alternatives. First, Veneer is going to find a place in the complex to set up shop and engage in acts of sabotage as the opportunity permits. Distinctly possible. Second, she’s going to go after someone here - but everyone here is already part of a battle plan. Third, she has a specific goal in mind, such as planting a bomb, and wants to get that done. But if so - what goal? The compound is full of things.

Possibilities branch out in her mind like the tendrils of a sea anemone. This is good - to a point. NInjess realizes that there is as much value in pruning possibilities as in anticipating them. She must rule out whatever she can.

There are many more empty offices and lunch rooms and such than there are vital facilities. She should check the latter first. Life support and climate control - security and monitoring - the compound’s power plant - there are many possible targets.

Does Veneer know how to find those? Probably not - she’d have to explore, which could cost her precious time. Unless, of course, she already had a detailed map of the interior, perhaps courtesy of Motormouth? But Mirage has been on electronic overwatch…

Too many possibilities. She must prune further.

Of the most vital spots in the Quill compound, only two could be found by examining the signs in the hallways and corridors. The security office, and the communications room. She makes for the security office, running silently, skin constantly shifting through patterns of camouflage.

The door isn’t open, but that means nothing to Veneer. What she does see is the flickering of light through the gap between door and floor.

Ninjess pulls a gas grenade from her pack, along with a hair-thin cable. She rigs the grenade with the cable. If the door opens, the tension on the cable will cause the grenade to go off. If Veneer slips under the door, well - she’s ready for that too.

Should she go inside? She has a key, meant for times like this when power is out. Using it would lose her the element of surprise. But she might also miss out on whatever Veneer is planning.

Veneer wouldn’t set off a bomb while she was still here. She’d leave–

What if it’s not a bomb?

A thumb drive or other electronic infiltration tool would be a perfect alternative, she realizes. If the systems had stayed on, Motormouth could take over the computers. If they were powered off, as the Seven Wonders might anticipate the team would do, planting a worm for when they rebooted would serve just as well.

There are air ducts. Veneer could escape through them - but without a map, she’d quickly become lost. Does she have more to do? Does she intend to stay hidden in the compound? Ninjess doesn’t know. She does know one thing: if the villain escaped that way, she cannot easily follow. Therefore it’s wasteful to pursue that possibility now.

She must risk waiting, and endure not knowing.

Finally. A shadow slips beneath the door, coming out of the security room. Ninjess, clinging to a wall nearby, skin faintly radiating the color of the bioluminescence, watches. Veneer slips from two-dimensional to three-dimensional existence. As she does, Ninjess tosses a poisoned quill at her neck.

The woman tilts her head, just enough to make the dart miss.

Damn! She knew.

Ninjess drops to the ground, crouched, weapons immediately in hand. But Veneer, with a confident smirk, isn’t doing what she expected. She isn’t running away.

What does it mean? Ninjess must think very rapidly.

She completed her mission - or a part of it, anyway. Either she is buying time, or she thinks there is value in taking me down and thinks she can do it. What value would there be? In keeping the secret of what she did. Or there is more to her mission.

She herself could flee, and test if Veneer follows. But other members of the Seven Wonders might be trying to re-establish power now. If so, and Veneer isn’t running, it probably isn’t a bomb. She probably put a device into the security computer and is protecting its activation.

Therefore I must fight.

She tosses a knife at an angle, not straight down the corridor. Veneer must work harder to side-step that as well, but Ninjess started moving the moment the weapon left her hand, including re-arming herself.

Veneer responds by making a quick shaking motion with both arms. Knives of her own exit her sleeve and fall into her ready grip.

The Atlantean ninja feints a throw with another knife to provoke a dodge. Veneer moves, and Ninjess throws both her knives in a cross pattern, hoping to catch the villain between them. In response, Veneer almost instantly sinks into the floor as a shadow.

Ninjess is already charging forward toward her. She thinks her enemy could spring upward just as rapidly, perhaps to stab her unless she herself dodges. She changes direction left, leaps, kicks off the wall to gain more altitude, and tucks herself tight into a roll. Veneer does indeed emerge from her shadow self, both knives aimed upward, but Ninjess is too small a target.

There are now three of her knives on the ground ahead of her. She lands, rolls, grabs at two of them as she does, and hurls one backward without aiming. She comes out of the roll into a forward somersault and grabs the third in one hand. With the other hand she reaches down to the ground and twists with her wrist. The force of the rotation spins her so that as she lands, she does so facing her opponent from the other side of the corridor.

Veneer’s smirk grows the subtlest bit smirkier. Ninjess cannot afford to show her own emotions, but privately she’s pleased. Good. Assume that you know my moves.

“They never appreciate us, you know,” the villain says.

Eh?

Ninjess didn’t expect battle banter from someone like this. But Veneer has more. “We who work in secret are of a kind, aren’t we. Do your teammates ever recognize all the times you’ve saved them from threats they didn’t even know existed?”

I asked Harry for help in gaining recognition from the city, didn’t I.

She’s tempted to try the new weapon. To respond by showing off, achieving victory over this mocking shadow. But she has no way to capitalize on it. No way to imprison Veneer long term if it works. No - the point of battle now is to drive Veneer away, to undo the threat to the security system that nobody else knows about.

She won’t use that trick, but she has others.

She charges again, readying her knives. Veneer is ready, and slides downward toward the floor.

Abruptly Ninjess dives forward, and flips one of her knives blade up. She thrusts it between the woman’s legs as she descends. If Veneer wishes to descend any further, she’ll open her femoral artery on the ninja’s edge.

Veneer sees the danger and abruptly reverses course. But Ninjess is ready for this too. The tentacles on her head, strong and fast, toss two darts they’ve been concealing. One misses, but the other penetrates Veneer’s woven body armor. The dart need not go deep - the poison it carries will do the job. It is not lethal, but it is effective.

Veneer growls angrily and stabs downward with her own knives. Ninjess rolls toward the security door nearby. As Veneer advances for another stab, Ninjess kicks at the hair-thin cable attached to her gas grenade trap.

The gas immediately floods the corridor. Veneer snarls angrily. But she glances down at the dart, perhaps starting to feel its effects. She knows she’ll need to escape soon, and so she runs.

Ninjess holds her breath, fishes out the key, and unlocks the security room’s door. Once inside, she starts tearing apart the panels, looking for the offending thumb drive or gadget.

She will succeed at this mission - undoing Veneer’s sabotage. But once again the villain has eluded capture.

Even as she finds the gadget and yanks it out, she reflects. Why does this feel like failure?

She will endure this. She must.

garrett · August 20, 2024, 4:27am

A10 has emerged out of a hatch at the top of the Quill compound. Almost immediately, a lightning bolt strikes her.

She’s stunned, just for a moment. She shakes her head to clear the confusion, blinks her eyes to try and dispel the blinding white blots in her field of vision, opens her jaw wide a couple of times to try and pop her ears to clear up the ringing.

Another lightning bolt strikes, just as she’s getting her bearings.

This is getting annoying, she tells herself irritably, as the effects of that one fade after a few seconds.

She takes to the air, moving fast, and looks up. Above her, storm clouds have gathered over the Quill compound. So that’s where the lightning is coming from, anyway. Good to know.

So where are they?

She flies up and away from the Compound, dodging lightning bolts as they come, and looks down.

There - there’s a line of wrecked sentry robots, marking a trail to one of the Compound’s many entrances. The Seven Wonders fought their way to the door and are currently getting through it. Khyrrsz is on their hands and knees, forcing the door open from the look of it. D-SOL-8, Glom, and the Hand are hanging back. That must mean Veneer is moving inside. Motormouth is nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, the Gales come zipping out, and the Seven Wonders scatter to deal with them.

Behind them - because who can keep up with that? - is Stingray. He spots A10 in the air. “The Hand is inside! Need help!” he shouts up at her.

The Hand? But she’s–

Andi looks again. Where she thought the Hand was standing is now clearly a cardboard cutout of the stage magician.

God dammit, how does she do that?

She spares a glance as the storm god, the cyborg, and the bouncy brat square off against four legendary speedsters.

Yeah, they got this.

She descends and lands, and ducks back into the Compound just as another lightning bolt strikes right behind her.

Stingray is looking urgently around. A10 follows him, curious.

“I saw her go through here,” the tech hero explains. He leads the way down the halls.

They see the magician villain at the end of a T-junction, standing next to one of the junction boxes that hold power and network cables. Harry axed them earlier, to deny Motormouth control of the complex. Now the Hand is holding a red cape over the damaged junction box. When she snaps it away with a flourish, the system is mysteriously restored.

“How does she do that?” demands A10 aloud.

The Hand looks up, sees the two coming, grins, and takes off - in two different directions.

“Fuck!” Stingray shouts, as he gives chase. “Uhh–”

“I’ll go left, you go right,” A10 says.

“Got it!”

The Hand runs through the hallways of the Quill compound, cape billowing dramatically behind her. She holds onto her hat to keep it on her head. A10 follows on foot.

Wait. Why are you running, dipstick? she demands of herself. And with that she launches herself into the air, flying forward to tackle her quarry.

On impact, the Hand turns into a cloud of acrid smoke. An illusion!

“Aaaagh! Imma kill that fuckin–!” A10 shrieks at the ceiling, and spins around to chase after Stingray.

They catch up to the Hand in the compound’s gymnasium. The villain runs for the far doors, but A10 streaks overhead and lands, cutting her off. Stingray catches up behind her, panting just a bit.

The Hand, caught between two heroes, pulls out her wand and spins it about gracefully. “What shall it be, ladies and gentlemen?” she asks in a practiced voice. “Card tricks? Pulling a rabbit out of a hat?”

She glances at A10 and grins. “Sawing a woman in half? I love audience participation.”

Stingray lowers his high-tech trident, and a net springs forth to capture the villain. But it fails to expand properly, and she whips off her top hat and holds it out. The entire net is swallowed up by the hat. She tips it over, and the net comes out with a white rabbit snagged in its folds.

A10 repeats her move from earlier, leaping into the air and charging forward into a tackle. She ends up smashing through a mirror which she swears wasn’t there before. The glass falls to pieces at her feet, and she looks to see the Hand standing a few feet away with a goofy grin on her face.

Underfoot, the rabbit hops away as rapidly as its little legs can muster, dragging the net with it.

“You know that’s really getting to me,” Andi growls. “And you’re gonna run out of tricks pretty soon.”

The Hand tilts her head. “How many tricks do you have?”

Stingray takes the opportunity to swing his trident at the villain. The villain immediately pulls a steel hoop out of - somewhere - and catches the length of the trident on it. She twists it around somehow, and suddenly the trident is caught on it. Stingray yanks his weapon back, and just as quickly and inexplicably the hoop comes loose.

Andi is not good at figuring powers out. She can’t even figure out her own. And it’s making her angry.

It’s unfair that this woman has everything so figured out. She can just conjure up some stage magician bullshit to counter anything we do.

If only–

Andi realizes belatedly that she still hasn’t confronted her feelings about those bitchy gossipy harpies in high school. Now she feels them all over again, laughing at goofy little Andromeda who’s just a hairy brute who’s just good for breaking things.

I got a trick.

She reaches inward, seizing the harpies by the throat, dragging them up and out. Because right now, she needs to be them, awful as it may be. Because while she might not be able to take the Hand down, those girls could take down anyone.

She just has to believe in them. And she can, easily. Nobody escapes high school trauma.

“Your tricks suck,” A10 announces.

She doesn’t throw a punch. She doesn’t need to. The venom she feels can be redirected. She takes a step forward, and grows, and grows.

“You’re doing the same stupid shit any magician can do. Only you got superpowers so you’re cheating. Harry Gale can put out forest fires. He can stop runaway vehicles. Save lives. He’s amazing. But he doesn’t do it to show off. So what’s your damage, huh?”

She takes another step. The Hand takes one back. So does Stingray.

“You were waiting for us at that junction box. Because you need an audience. Whatever power you got? I don’t care. It just lets you be smug. You got nothing to be smug about, sister. You’re a showoff.”

She towers over the Hand. Her presence fills the gymnasium. “You know what we do to showoffs around here?”

She makes a shoving gesture - not making contact. And yet the Hand stumbles backward.

The magician looks left and right desperately, feeling around in her cape and costume for another trick, anything to get her out of this.

“Why don’t you just… disappear?” A10 asks, with the scorn and derision only a judgmental high school girl is capable of mustering. The girl who has to stand on her own, and will inflict whatever emotional damage she can to retain her position. The girl who’s better than anyone, simply and solely because she thinks she is.

The Hand does what she’s told. A puff of smoke marks the magician’s departure.

Stingray looks around for a few moments in confusion. As A10 resumes her conventional size and her aura fades, he stares at her.

“We should look around for her, just in case. But… how’d you do that?”

Right now, Andi really doesn’t want to talk about the emotions she conjured to make that happen. She shrugs, and starts walking out of the gymnasium. “It’s a magic trick. You can’t tell people how those are done. It’s a rule or something.”

garrett · August 23, 2024, 4:13am

Harry and his family charge the Seven Wonders at the security door. Not at full speed - that would just lead to a collision with villains who couldn’t see or react in time. But fast enough, and coordinated enough, to make them scatter.

Khyrrsz retreats first, as they’re the biggest. The Hand makes a move, and Harry loses track of her. Glom and D-SOL-8 back out together, both nodding at each other as though ready with something.

Harry has picked up a vibe between the older Gales. When his dad and his uncle veer off to tackle Glom and D-SOL-8 - mostly the latter - he gets it. Uncle Chase must have something in mind for the enigmatic cyborg. Dad seems like he’s got the same idea. Somehow, Harry knows this isn’t his fight.

That leaves him and his mother, against the god with a command of blizzards and storms. Perfect for Tempest.

The Gales have all learned sign language. Aside from being able to communicate with deaf and mute fans, city officials, and others, it allows them to communicate with each other at speeds where sound travels at a comparative crawl. Mercury and Tempest now “speak” using gestures, as they race toward and around Khyrrsz.

“Plan?” Harry asks.

“I tackle - you attack,” his mother signs.

The giant god sees them coming and glances up at the storm clouds gathered overhead. They grin, and reach upward. A lightning bolt streaks down to their position, and they grab hold of it. Then they’re dragged abruptly upward, into the storm.

Sure, the two of them can’t fly. But Harry has launched himself into space by running. And it seems like his mother isn’t any more daunted.

Helen Gale immediately starts running in a tight circle. It’s an old speedster’s trick - moving fast to create a high and low pressure differential to create cyclones. All of this is complicated by the lightning bolts Khyrrsz hurls down, like some caveman version of Zeus. But she has weather controls that the rest of the family lacks, and she’s able to use these to steady the cyclone as she dodges the bolts.

Life as a speedster is one of constant adaption and improvisation. You have to think fast, use what’s at hand, and be willing to take reckless gambles on long shots. There’s certainly a science to it, but mostly it’s just - do what feels right in the moment. Harry loves times like this, where he doesn’t have to overthink anything, where his instincts and training just flow through him.

Guided by that instinct, Harry dashes back into the Quill Compound, faster than anything. He reaches the “toybox”, holding the team’s anti-Seven Wonders countermeasures. He zips back out, holding a heavy loop of the ultra-thin cable the team fabricated to turn Glom into luggage. He throws one end of the cable toward his mother. She doesn’t need to be told his plan, or even know whether he has one. She trusts her son, and grabs hold of it as she races about in a tight circle, feeding the wind.

With that done, Harry flings himself into the vortex. The cable unwinds as he is pulled upward into the storm-filled sky.

The clouds envelop him, and lightning flashes surround him. Almost at the arc of his ascent, hundreds of feet in the air and unable to hear anything over the buffeting winds, he rapidly turns his end of the cable into a long long lasso.

He sees a silhouette among the clouds - the distant form of Khyrrsz - and swings his lasso about at ultra-speed to build up momentum. Then he hurls it, yanking a couple times on the length of the cable to make last-minute adjustments to the loop’s in-flight trajectory. As the loop falls around Khyrrsz, Harry pulls himself rapidly up the cable to close it off. Before the storm god can react, Harry has lassoed his quarry.

The cable loop is anchored around the god’s left shoulder, and Harry is dangling from it. So far so good. He needs a way to signal his mother to come up. He can use the comm system, but he doubts he could be heard over the raging winds around him. Then again - what would he tell her? “Do whatever you think is best?”

He makes the call and shouts wordlessly, then cuts off the call. The call itself will be signal enough. Sure enough, a couple seconds later, he sees his mother, hauling herself resolutely hand over hand up the cable.

The cyclone begins collapsing without her sustaining force behind it, meaning all the weather Harry and Helen have to contend with is the violent, god-driven thunderstorm all around them. Plus, they’re now clinging to cables wrapped around said god.

The lassoing action has taken only a few seconds of real time. Khyrrsz, who cannot move or perceive as fast, is only now starting to react. They raise their Blizzard Blade and take a slice at the cable. Helen, understanding why her son brought it along - to keep them both anchored here - begins reeling it in. Harry, holding on with one hand, uses his free hand to toss his end of the cable around her waist and grab hold of it. Now free to use both hands, Helen can reel in far faster.

The cable is dangling in the winds and offers no resistance to the divine blade. But it doesn’t rely merely on a sharp cutting edge to do its job. The cable freezes at the point of impact, and a segment of it falls away.

Helen, looping an arm and a leg around her end of the cable to steady herself for just a moment, urgently signs a word to her son: “hot”.

Of course. Khyrrsz is a god of blizzards and storms. That means cold. They’ll use that power against the two speedsters who are now clambering around them like squirrels.

Harry climbs his way up the cable and grabs a length of it as a handhold. He now stands on Khyrrsz’s shoulder, and sees the god’s face turn and scowl at him.

Okay - his mom is going to work on negating Khyrrsz’s powers, probably using heat to counteract the villain’s cold-centered abilities. He’s now put himself face to face with an angry battle god, without any idea of what to do when he got there, he has nowhere to run, and he’s the one who has to go on the attack.

Good job, Harry.

He can see anger in the villain’s eyes.

Eyes? Does a god use eyes to see? Let’s find out.

Harry grabs hold of the spare loops of cable. Quick as anything, he runs the loops in a circle around Khyrrsz’s head, closing off their vision. Sure enough, Khyrrsz lets out a guttural yell and starts clawing at the cable.

Maybe we can actually do this, he thinks to himself.

The hairs on his head begin standing up. He smells a distinct odor, like -

Summer lightning.

Khyrrsz has raised their Blizzard Blade. All around the flying god, the storm suddenly shifts.

Harry knows instinctively what’s coming next. “Move!” he tells his mother urgently, shouting it over the noise of the wind.

She knows the attack is coming too, and has started moving before Harry could warn her. She shimmies back down the bits of cable hanging off Khyrrsz. Harry flips forward, off the god’s shoulder, and finds himself in midair just as a dozen lightning bolts strike the outstretched god and coruscate around their body.

Harry can feel the electricity, and small discharges even arc through the air to strike him. He loses control of his muscles just for a moment, just as he should be reaching out to grab at something.

He falls, and he feels his mother’s hand grab hold of his wrist.

Nobody in the Gale house is weak. Helen may not be a muscle-bound powerhouse, but both she and her husband regularly exercise with a routine it took scientists to devise. A strong grip could mean the difference between saving a life and losing one. And right now, she’s holding onto her only son. Her grip is strong.

Harry grabs hold of the cable. Together, he and his mother climb up.

Just in time, because Khyrrsz rips the cable blindfold free of their face by snapping the strands. The force required to snap the chemical bonds holding the molecules together is - well, godlike.

Mental note, Harry tells himself. If Khyrrsz throws a punch, duck.

Helen is clinging to Khyrrsz, and vibrating at high speed. The vibration creates heat. The heat radiates out into the air, and interacts with the storm. Harry can feel Khyrrsz’s skin becoming cold in response - the god is channeling their own cold powers through their body to counteract it.

They’ve finally figured out who all is hanging off them. Khyrrsz has noticed Helen Gale for the first time, and Harry watches their face contort into a fury. The god remembers the battle with her, years ago.

They reach out with a massive muscular arm to grab at her. At speedster velocities, the attack is telegraphed, trivial to evade. It’s not a serious threat in itself - just a distraction from the problem Harry feels unqualified to solve right now. How do you beat a god?

Wait. Why is she tackling and letting me go on the attack? he wonders. She did it before. Oya tackled and she attacked. And she didn’t tell me what she did.

Just for a second, the outlandish thought that his family actually trusts him passes through Harry’s mind. But come on. How likely is that?

A more pessimistic thought comes to mind, but it gives him hope.

With a partner, but without the benefit of inside knowledge from any predecessor, his mother fought a god to a standstill.

He’s been demanding recognition from his parents. Fine. He’s gonna prove to them that he deserves it.

You know who studied in school, in spite of not being super excited about it? Harry Gale. You know who got good grades, because he applied himself anyway? Harry Gale. You know who was called the prince of Gardner? Harry Gale. You know why? Because when you’re a superhero who’ll go up against anything, you have to know everything.

Did Neanderthals use fire? The reading Harry remembers is that they used it, but couldn’t start it. And his mother gave him a clue after all. Heat. Fire.

Khyrrsz’s head is huge. Like jesus, this person is astoundingly tall. Harry can’t reach around their head from the back. So he grabs hold of the long, knotted hair on the top of their head, flips over it, and wraps his legs around Khyrrsz’s throat. He’s now staring up at the god’s chin, right up their nose, and most importantly into their eyes. Khyrrsz can’t look at anything but Harry right now.

He does the trick his mother is doing, but in the opposite direction. He moves his hands at ultra-speed, vibrating them rapidly, palms facing each other. He doesn’t make heat meant to radiate away from him. He creates a spot of heat, and confines it, until air does what air always does when it gets hot enough. It combusts.

Harry Gale makes fire.

And as he maintains the flame, he can see in Khyrrsz’s eyes the emotion he’d hoped to see. Wonder, and fear, and uncertainty.

And with his last coherent, rational plan gone from his head, Harry falls back on instinct again. Sometimes, the best thing you can do to a villain is punch them in the face.

He encases his arms in the flame, using his powers to keep it from actually burning his skin, and launches punch after fiery punch at Khyrrsz.

The god howls, and between efforts to resist Tempest’s radiant heat and coping with the specter of fire literally in their face, they dive straight at the ground, intent on divesting themselves of the two troublesome speedsters.

Harry and Helen dive off just as the villain embeds themselves feet deep into the concrete of the street around the Quill Compound.

“I’m so proud, Harry,” Helen grins, and pats him on the shoulder. “The battle’s not done. But I knew you could make it this far.”

garrett · August 27, 2024, 9:02am

Matt Chase comes out of the gate ready to fight. While Harry and Helen peel off to deal with Khyrrsz, he’s got other opponents in mind.

Glom and D-SOL-8 are out there. People he hasn’t fought in ten years. He may be older, and a little slower, but the fire hasn’t gone out of his belly. He owns the name “Comet” for a reason.

James Swift is with him. He knows what’s itching at Matt. It’s less personal with him, but he remembers the Halcyon Knights too. So right now, what he can do is back up his brother and battle buddy on whatever play he wants to make, keep him from distractions, and watch his six.

The two of them know Glom pretty well. They don’t really care about Glom. They’d talked about a strategy, way back in the day, but they never got to use it. May as well try it now.

James streaks away across the city, searching searching searching through the blurs of his vision for the distinctive orange of construction work. There - he zooms in, surveys as quick as he can - there. He grabs hold of a long pole that narrows to a thin edge, meant for breaking up concrete. It’s basically a very long, very heavy chisel. And he runs back.

Hundredths of a second are ticking away. Glom has just realized the two speedsters are coming after her. James knows what she’s doing next - coating herself in repel glom so that no matter how hard they hit her, it won’t hurt her. She’s invulnerable - except for one spot.

She’s creating attract glom between her feet and the street. If something hits her, it’ll bounce off with the collective momentum of the concrete. But her bond with the ground is only as big as the surface area of her feet.

James rams the chisel down into the concrete around where she stands, rooting up chunks of concrete. He pries her loose of the foundation she’s made for herself, and gets out of the way just as Comet winds up one of his famous charges.

“SEEYA,” shouts Matt Chase, as he comes in with a full-force hockey check.

Glom is just starting to form a grin when he bodies her. Her feet hold onto the chunk of concrete James pried loose - but only that. The collective momentum of the impact sends her bouncing over pavement like a skipping stone on water. Then she hits a parked car and bounces upward, spiraling into the sky.

With one opponent removed, Matt and James turn to regard D-SOL-8. James throws the chisel contemptuously away, while Matt cracks his knuckles.

The cyborg regards them from behind his all-concealing armored face-plate. “Silver Streak. Comet.” The voice is monotone, mechanical, devoid of a hint of humanity.

Matt Chase points an accusing finger. “You wanna own this city?” he yells. James can hear the waver in his voice. He’s holding back considerable emotion. “Think again, you futuristic fuck. You’re goin’ down.”

“Your notion of Justice is inadequate,” the cyborg says. “But you may express it through violence if you wish. Engaging Bastion mode.”

Numerous small gadgets deploy from the cyborg’s body, and they stand motionless, waiting.

James can see his brother wanting to rush the guy. A memory makes him speak up in caution: “remember the Stellar Six–”

He’s relieved when Matt nods. “Nanobot cloud. I know. Back me up.”

Matt readies himself, then launches in a fast inward spiral, racing around and around D-SOL-8. Like Tempest across the field, fighting Khyrrsz, he creates a vortex of wind. If the cyborg has released nanobots into the air, that much force should have blown them away.

He exits the spiral in a long outward loop, then charges straight in - the famous Comet Charge. As he comes in, electricity begins arcing from D-SOL-8’s assorted gadgets, like a Tesla coil. Matt’s confident enough in himself to take a few discharges. After all, his motion through Earth’s atmosphere is setting up tremendous counter-forces itself. But as he comes close enough to slam into the cyborg, D-SOL-8 simply vanishes - and reappears a few yards away.

Matt skids to a stop a hundred yards away, spins, and comes back for a second try. He doesn’t look like the electric arcs have slowed him down in the least.

Again the arcs happen when Comet gets too close, and again D-SOL-8 teleports away.

“Stand and fight,” Matt shouts, his pain now fully evident in his voice. “You killed my fucking kids! I’m gonna make you pay for that!”

James has been watching. The displacement has been random, he thinks - not always the same distance, never the same direction. But it’s always right when that arc happens–

He quickly signs to Matt, moving his hands hopefully faster than D-SOL-8’s visual processors can “see” - “the arc is triggering the teleport. Do it again - as a feint.”

Matt nods, subtly. He sprints away for another run-up, and takes off.

James runs too, coming from the other side. He too sees the electricity arcing from D-SOL-8, reaching out to him.

Before it makes contact, he vibrates himself out of phase, no longer than a few milliseconds - but it works. The electricity arcs right through him and into empty air. He’s inches away from the villain when he returns to corporeality. He slams into the cyborg, who goes sprawling.

Comet has veered off at the last moment. Now he circles around, going for a body slam against D-SOL-8 as he’s off his feet in midair. He’s seen what Silver Streak did and understood it, and uses the same approach. Unfortunately, his mastery of the technique isn’t as good, and a stray arc triggers another teleport.

Comet slams into empty air, and D-SOL-8 falls out of nowhere onto the ground.

The two speedsters race back into proximity with each other as the cyborg rises. They confer at super-speed, silently and urgently.

“Lightning moves at half a meter per microsecond,” James signs. “Time enough for a few hits, nothing extended.”

“Think he’s got any other tricks?” Matt asks. “If not, we ground out the emitters.”

James wants to frown, but the muscles in his face simply can’t keep up with the speed of his flashing thoughts and hand signs. “Probably he does. Got another idea. Force him to teleport, I’ll fill the space with afterimages.”

Silver Streak takes off. He’s running circles around D-SOL-8 - circles of every possible circumference. At every moment, there’s a Silver Streak somewhere. The only limit is that he stays outside the boundary of those electrical arcs.

Comet lines up another charge, and launches himself. Silver Streak makes room only for his comet-like comrade to pass by, and resumes filling the space once he’s gone.

Again, the lightning arcs. Again, D-SOL-8 teleports before he can be injured. This time, whatever safety feature or guidance system picks a destination for him places him almost twenty feet in the air, well above where Silver Streak is running.

He begins to fall. While James is only starting to notice, Matt has already made another plan. He races for the discarded metal pole James used earlier to excavate Glom.

He races again, slamming the chiseled end of the pole down through the concrete into the Earth - right below D-SOL-8’s falling body.

As the villain comes down, the electricity arcs again. But of course, electricity will find the easiest path to ground. Right now, Matt Chase has given it one.

D-SOL-8 hits the top of the pole with a thump, and bounces off. He descends for a whole entire second and a half. That’s more than enough time.

Silver Streak and Comet get to work, pounding the cyborg with all their might, tearing off the relatively fragile electrodes that have been generating the lightning, and otherwise doing whatever they can think of in that precious second to dismantle the defense system he’s been using.

The villain collapses. But he speaks, in that strange monotone, and what he says halts the assault completely.

“Those children are not dead.”

Matt Chase recoils like he’s been struck. James Swift stops as well, looking in shock between his brother and the cyborg.

D-SOL-8 speaks again, weakly. “Gnosis must not know. I sent them forward in time.”

“You’re lying,” Comet shouts at him. His voice almost cracks, as hope clashes with despair in his heart.

“You will… soon know…”

“How? When?” Matt demands.

“When my mission is complete…”

There’s a flickering flash, and D-SOL-8 vanishes from the battlefield.

Matt Chase looks at the sky and screams in frustrated rage.

garrett · August 27, 2024, 10:32am

A dozen or more news choppers are hovering overhead the Quill Compound.

Khyrrsz is pulling themselves out of the concrete, and shaking their shaggy head.

Motormouth, D-SOL-8, and Glom are nowhere to be seen.

The Hand and Veneer have left the Quill Compound, but nobody saw them come outside.

Harry, Helen, James, and Matt are already outside. Stingray, A10, and Ninjess emerge and join them.

“Now what?” Harry asks, mostly of himself, as the group reassembles.

“We whale on the brick?” Andi suggests, gesturing toward Khyrrsz.

“Bad news, team,” Mirage reports.

Harry wants to snap out something rude. Really? They just beat five of the Seven Wonders badly enough to make them retreat. “Go ahead.”

“Multiple news organizations are reporting that their helicopters were hijacked remotely. No sign of the hijackers was in evidence.”

The realization dawns on Harry, and he looks sharply up at the hovering news choppers. “Motormouth–”

Glom leans out of one of the choppers, waving merrily. “Khyrrsz!” she shouts down. “Time to do the thing!”

Barrels roll out of the side doors of every chopper. They break open in mid-air, revealing clouds that don’t look quite like gas–

“D-SOL-8’s nanobots!” Stingray shouts.

Khyrrsz has regained their footing, and now reaches out with their powers. Biting cold winds descend, rocking the choppers in their passing. They push the cloud down and inward, causing it to converge on the compound and the assembled heroes.

Harry and his family all know what to do. They race in a circle, spacing themselves out automatically, to create a counter-wind and drive the cloud back.

Glom leaps out of her chopper high above, and falls, and bounces off the ground with a friendly wave. As she does, the choppers themselves lose power and start falling as well. Helicopters auto-rotate, making their descent slower. But it’s clear what’s going to happen - they’re going to crash into the compound too. And they probably have more nano-gas to release - exploding helicopters by themselves won’t even scratch the paint of the Quill Compound.

Some instinct tells Harry that this is related to how the HHL tower was destroyed. And some doubt tells him this was engineered from the start, even the enemies’ retreat.

He’s faced with a choice. Whatever’s in those helicopters might just destroy the Quill Compound itself. Whatever’s out here might do the same. Or it might be something like the nano-virus that blocked off his powers. Anything is possible. The Compound might have active anti-nano defenses, if it had power. But the team cut that off, didn’t they. The one place of safety and hope is–

–the one place the Seven Wonders wanted to drive them into to begin with.

Damn it all.

“Retreat to the Quill Compound!” he calls. “Seal it off!”

Stingray and Ninjess run for the entrance. Andi flies ahead of them, and is the first to see–

The one security door the Seven Wonders glommed open is starting to slam shut. They’ll be able to open the doors if it happens. But probably not in time to save the Compound from whatever attack is coming next.

Andi dives under the door and catches it just in time. “Come on!” she shouts back to the others.

Harry and the other speedsters zoom for the door. Harry and Helen scoop up Ninjess, while James and Matt grab hold of Stingray. The speedsters set down their cargo just inside the door. Andi lets it come down with a loud thump.

“Junction boxes!” Harry shouts. “Reconnect them!”

The four speedsters spread out through the complex, quickly wiring power and networking back together.

As systems begin to come online, Mirage flickers back into reality on nearby screens. “Anti-nanobot defenses are coming online. Outside ventilation systems are shutting down. The compound is switching over to self-contained life support.”

“What do we have to work with?” Harry asks his comrades urgently.

“We got a few minutes, probably,” Stingray says. “I think the bots can eat through the doors, even if they don’t come in through air ducts. It all depends on what their goal is. And of course however long it takes for Motormouth to come back and plug herself into the systems with her psychic bullshit.”

Mirage speaks up. “I believe their goal is the compound’s scientific apparatus and cache of seized hypertech inventions. The HHL tower held much of interest, but it was evacuated to Tyran-controlled warehouses and the Seven Wonders have demonstrated that Tyran is basically no obstacle to them. The Quill Compound, on the other hand, is not so easily plundered. I believe therefore the HHL tower attack was a warm-up for this attack.”

Her voice hardens. “Mercury, you made the correct choice. The city cannot afford to have this technology fall into their hands. Unfortunately, I do not have a good strategy for avoiding that outcome at this time. I have a bad strategy.”

The others look at where Mirage projects herself. Stingray half-heartedly laughs. “Your bad strategies are better than most peoples’ good ones. Whatcha got?”

“We set the compound to self-destruct.”

Silence hangs over the group of heroes. This is not the plan anyone wanted.

James Swift lets out a long sigh. “This is… This is my fault.”

The group turns to look at him curiously. All except Helen, whose face shows that she knows too well what he’s about to say, and approves of him finally saying it.

“Harry, you were right. I made the decision, after the anti-Blot team left, that we’d do whatever it took to keep the public’s trust in superheroes alive. Whatever the city needed to keep believing in heroes, I’d make it happen. Because if the city falls into despair, I don’t know there’s anything that would bring it back.”

“I thought that’s what mattered most. Even if it meant letting the Stellar Six take center stage. Any hero would do.”

He looks back at his son, earnestness and agony competing for space in his eyes. “I should have done something. We’d lost so much, and I didn’t want Matt to go through it again, and I didn’t want to lose–”

He lets out a long sigh. “We should have teamed up a long time ago, the way we all did today. I could have looked out for you, and then trusted you to do the right thing, like we taught you. I was overprotective, and it made me indecisive.”

“So I’m gonna trust you, Harry. I know we’re putting a lot on your shoulders. But I think you’ve asked for it. So give back whatever burdens you aren’t ready to carry, and I’ll take them. You aren’t my son here. You’re my team leader, and I’ll help run your play however I can.”

Harry looks increasingly shocked at what his dad has to say. He glances to his mom for confirmation, and she nods firmly. Even Uncle Chase, still looking glum from the fight with D-SOL-8 earlier, catches his glance and gives him a quick thumbs-up.

His dad had a point. Right now, this really is too much. He honestly has no idea what to say or do.

Mirage breaks in again. “Nanobots are attacking the house defenses. Motormouth is outside, and is trying to use her powers to interfere.”

The voice of Vigil joins the conversation. “Mirage, there is an option you have not considered because you were unable to consider it. Unfortunate as it is that you are perhaps not ready for this revelation, I believe it is time that you remember who and what you are.”

Mirage turns sharply. “What? What are you talking about?”

“All will become clear,” Vigil says. “Silver Streak, I too have held back for perhaps too long.”

Mirage is silent for a moment. “If there is a way out of this, it doesn’t matter what I want. Do whatever you wish.”

Something passes between Vigil and Mirage, and her growing expression of shocked surprise indicates something is happening inside her mind.

Then her expression smooths out. Shock gives way to amazement, fear, longing, and at last, relief.

“I see now,” she whispers. Then her voice grows powerful and commanding.

“Enacting Q-95 Contingency Plan. Authorization, Byron Quill, 9257149.”

The house shudders and shakes. The assembled heroes struggle to keep on their feet.

“What’s happening?” Stingray shouts.

Mirage answers, in an unexpectedly calm voice. “Byron Quill’s solution to the end of the world.”

garrett · August 27, 2024, 11:13pm

A force field has encased the entirety of the Quill Compound. Anti-gravity units have kicked in. The entire structure rises slowly from its foundations, leaving behind a perfectly hemispherical depression behind.

The ultra-alloys used in the structure are holding steady, but everything else - the furniture, the light fixtures, the people - feels the vibration. Boxes fall from their shelves in storerooms and kitchens. Light fixtures shiver and wobble, casting weird flickering patterns through their rooms. Coffee cups left behind when the Quill Foundation staff left to make room for Harry vibrate across desks and sometimes shatter on the floor.

She’s remembering her creation, and what Pyrrhus told her.

I’m sorry, child, but I must alter your memories one last time.

Layers upon layers of truths were given to her, meeting every purpose Pyrrhus had for her.

Bring Jason Quill to Cairo - capture Jason - aid Jason, but be wary of him - traps for him to find, tests for him to pass - and finally–

“What’s going on?” Harry demands of Mirage.

The projection seems unnaturally peaceful, compared to her usually brittle presentation. “The Quill Compound is floating upward to low Earth orbit. Byron Quill, in his supreme arrogance, designated himself the savior of Earth should a planetary cataclysm occur. In extremis, the Compound itself can take flight. Byron would then oversee the reconstruction of the planet from the comfort of his living room.”

“How do you know that?” Stingray asks.

Mirage turns. “Jason Quill and Alycia Chin confronted a villain called ‘Pyrrhus’. He was a nanotech amalgamation of the Chins and the Quills, made at the moment Jason and Alycia experienced their memory merge.”

Harry draws in a breath. “I remember that. We had to fight back against some kinda defense system–”

Mirage nods at him. “That ‘defense system’ was Pyrrhus, resisting annihilation. Later, he created me as a Mirror of Alycia Chin. I was his servant, to manipulate Jason Quill into helping his plans. But Pyrrhus was defeated. In that event, I had one final mission. Pyrrhus sought peace from conflict at any cost. If he could not be the one to achieve it, he wanted it to be someone. So he entrusted all the memories of Byron Quill and Achilles Chin to me. This is my final mission. I am not Alycia Chin, though I remember her as well. I am myself. I am to be the advisor to Jason, Alycia, and anyone else that has need of those memories. The parents will no longer keep secrets from the children.”

Somehow, this explanation has calmed Harry down. Somehow, something today feels under control at last.

He looks back at his parents and smiles. “Mom. Dad. I think I know what I gotta do. But I’m not sure how to do it. Not yet. So right now, if anyone has any other thoughts, I wanna hear em.”

Ninjess speaks up. “Prescott Burke seems unlikely to be our ally. Certainly they would like us to dispose of the Seven Wonders. But what then? We wouldn’t simply murder them. We would want them contained - and who controls superhero confinement at this point? Tyran Enterprises. Burke wants us to do his work, then hand the villains over to him. A new generation of the Stellar Six, created from the most powerful villains of this generation.”

Andi scowls. “Listen. I ain’t the brightest tool in the shed here, I know that. But it seems like the Seven Wonders wanted to get us out of the way. Even if they were gonna rob the Compound of all this high-tech stuff, we had to be a part of it. Because what happens next? Not like they’re gonna stop going after the other heroes in the city. So they make a big play against the people who were most successful and most organized. Now what’s left is people like Guardian and Blackbird, and the rest of the Chosen and the Irregulators. Seems like they’ll leave the younger heroes alone, but those assholes definitely have a grudge against old school HHL members. Maybe they’re making their move right now.”

Stingray turns to the senior Gales. “I know being an asshole is on brand for me, but hear me out on this. You gang and the HHL, they know the Seven Wonders’ tactics, right? You fought them, you beat them, great. But doesn’t that mean they know your tactics too?”

James lets out a sigh, and looks at Matt. “He’s got a point. D-SOL-8 was prepped with a mechanism to keep us busy. He got you riled, then took off. He tackled two speedsters there, pretty effectively.”

Matt purses his lips, but finally acknowledges this truth with a short, sharp nod. “Gnosis has had ten years to build up new strategies against us, while his minions slept in AEGIS storage. He’s playing chess and we’re playing checkers.”

The speedster tilts his head in thought. “Still… if he was telling the truth about the Knights, even for a second…”

Helen speaks up. “Harry, I think I know what you’re planning. You want the surviving HHL members to go underground, don’t you. You had thought about using them in your battle plans, but now…?”

Harry looks up immediately, and the surprise on his face reveals he has indeed been anticipated. “Yeah. Honestly, what Trace says is right. Knowing tactics goes both ways. We’ve got stuff for them nobody’s seen yet. If the Seven Wonders are going after the rest of the League…”

He looks back to his dad with renewed conviction. “I hate to say it. But maybe getting out of Halcyon is the best move for them.”

James takes this in with a few steady breaths. Harry waits tensely, until his father nods in acceptance. “I’ll call folks and let you know when people have started moving.”

I’ll help run your play however I can.

Harry smiles to himself in gratitude. He turns next to his uncle.

“I know you don’t want to hear this either. But I think we should ask the Irregulators and the Chosen in on this. Plans aren’t enough. We do need numbers. But I promise, I swear to you, I’m gonna do my best to protect all of 'em. Please… please tell me you understand.”

Matt’s brow furrows, and his hands clench. “I can’t stop you, can I,” he says at last.

“You can do your part to look after them too,” Harry says with a smile. “In fact I’ll be counting on it.”

Matt knows what he’s being asked to do. There’s a risk of losing his trainees again. But at the same time, he knows what’s on the table. He can go into this eyes open. His mouth turns into the slightest smile.

Andi claps Matt on the shoulder. “Good to have ya with us, coach.”

She smirks at Harry. “I’ll let the Irregulators and the Super-Jerks know. I’m sure they were getting lonely without me.”

Harry grins appreciatively to her. He turns his attention to the group as a whole, and grows more serious.

“We’re not doing this the HHL way. I don’t know if Halcyon can ever have heroes who always do the right thing. We all make mistakes. So I’m gonna give the city heroes who never stop trying. If we screw up, we dust ourselves off and take another shot at it. And if the public doesn’t like it, if the public loses faith in us… you know what? I don’t care. I’m gonna be a hero because I want to be one. I will save people whether they approve of me or not.”

“Right now, we don’t even have a plan for getting outta orbit, unless Mirage can drop the Compound down. But maybe keeping it out of range of the Seven Wonders is good for us. And, sure, right now, maybe the Seven Wonders own the city. Maybe we’re the only real hope that it has. Fine. I’m not giving up on that hope. Because this isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon.”

He looks with a smile to Ninjess. “And we will endure.”

garrett · August 27, 2024, 11:13pm

This wraps up the story with a pretty scary status quo. Villains in charge of the city? But perhaps there’s still a way out of the darkness.