Alycia rides next to Emma, and both are only several seconds away from the suddenly disrupted convoy.
Alycia can feel Emma’s hesitation. The way she tightens her grip on the handlebars of her bike. The way those handlebars waver, as she considers whether to veer off or keep going. The way she lowers her head, as though trying to avert her gaze from a sight she would not wish to see.
“Do what you want, Firebrand,” Alycia says over the radio. “That was always the deal.”
That catalyzes Emma, who jerks the wheel of her bike and begins riding away at high speed. “I can’t do it,” is all she says, her voice breaking.
Alycia takes a long breath. It would have been better to have Firebrand along, though she’d never admit that aloud. But… she understands. Her own father isn’t physically here, but he is somehow present nevertheless.
The team discussed ROE - Rules of Engagement. Don’t open fire against live targets except to return fire. Avoid revealing the team’s true identity to anyone, primarily the members of the convoy.
They never got quite as far as what to do when one supervillain tries to recover another one. And Alycia now has to admit the reason. Nobody wants Tyran to have them. Nobody wants them free. And as long as the convoy was able to get to Atlanta safely, that wasn’t a thing they had to worry about.
In this scenario, there are no good answers. She curses everyone, most vehemently herself, for secretly allowing that hope to override the coldly rational need to confront that fact.
This is what she promised herself when she was fighting Pyrrhus last year in Antarctica, in the heart of the very base they now occupy for themselves. Find a way to save those embroiled in conflict.
This encounter happened in “230 - A New Hope” – Ed.
One villain or another will get their hands on Father Freak and the other imprisoned villains. Unless the team breaks their own rules, and then somehow prevails against a veteran villain who very likely came with backup.
John and Jason pull up to the site. The vehicle that toppled wasn’t the pilot truck. It was the actual tractor hauling the first of several stasis pods. The pilot truck itself, with its WIDE LOAD sign and amber lights, must have taken off to perform its job - warn people - without risking being embroiled in whatever was to come next here.
There is a high wall, made of heavy boulders that have been jammed together and affixed with mortar, that has somehow sprouted up across the highway. The pair can hear gunfire and shouting and other sounds of fighting behind it.
Leaning against the rock wall on the near side is a big, bald, muscular motherfucker. He’s covered in tattoos. This must be Mr. Big.
Jason and John remember the briefing. “They aren’t tattoos,” Emma had told them. “They’re gadgets. Weapons. Vehicles. Anything and everything he could need, shrunk down to tiny size. Every black dot on his skin is something he can use.”
Mr. Big sees them pull up, and exhales loudly. “Put your cameras away and beat it. This ain’t for tourists.”
His casual dismissal fades quickly, as he picks up on something - neither man knows what, not at first - and pushes off the wall. He walks toward the pair, still dressed in their motorcycle leathers and face-concealing helmets. “What are you two? Power Rangers Putties?”
The questioning look gives way to a big grin. “Nah. It ain’t that. Both of you got somethin’ right near the Casimir frontier, don’cha. But it’s not the same.”
“And you–” the villain turns to Jason. “You’re hiding the most.”
Jason, definitely convinced that a fight is about to commence, hops off his bike, and goes for his gun. And then it happens.
Things explode up and out of him - all around him. Suddenly much of the road is filled with what look like semi-transparent gelatin capsules, each one containing some kind of weird twisting slime monster.
“The fuck?!” yelps John.
Jason recognizes what happened immediately. “My nanobots. He made them big.”
He raises his gun.
Mr. Big shakes his head with a sly grin. “Not now, Jason, you’re be ridiculous,” he says, quoting a popular fan-made meme that had emerged from “The Adventures of Jason Quill” - Jason’s animated adventures.
John gets off his bike as well. He doesn’t go for the gun. He starts walking.
Mr. Big turns to look at him. “You’d probably explode from the inside if I did that trick on you. Don’t recommend it.”
He addresses both of them. “Reckon I know who you two are now. So is she with you gang, causing her usual mess?”
“Who knows?” says Jason noncommittally. But if there’s not going to be a fight immediately, and his identity is already known, he can at least ask. “You gonna hurt the airmen back there?”
Mr. Big turns to look at and past the rock wall he’s summoned. “Nah. You hear that?”
The two men listen. And it’s what they don’t hear that troubles them. The gunfire has died down.
The villain shakes his head. “I know what you’re thinkin’. It ain’t that. My buds Pell Mel and the Sinister Salamander are disarming and restraining 'em. Couple more folks are tackling the superhero response that’s no doubt inbound. Taking charge of the pods is my job. Nobody gets hurt unless they invite it.”
He tilts his head. “So. Whatcha gonna do about that?”
Alycia pulls up and around the rock wall on her own bike. “It’s as he says,” she reports, having just passed the rest of the convoy. “One speedster disarming the convoy’s defenders. One binding them.”
In a moment, a lizard-like being leaps to the top of the wall from the other side. It’s quadrupedal, and it seems to be partially on fire - for example, the frill and dewlap of many lizard species isn’t material here, but rather a halo of flame around the being’s head.
It peers down, sees Mr. Big, and whistles. “They’re ressstrained. You’re up.”
It takes in the trio of Alycia, Jason, and John. “Ssshall I dissspose of these?”
Big smiles, and waves his hand. “Nah, I got it.”
As an afterthought, he touches a part of his skin, and a cigar case flashes into full size in his hand. He extracts a cigar, and holds it up. “Can ya gimme a light while you’re here, Sally?”
“Wasssssteful of my talentssssss,” the lizard hisses, but it sounds somehow affectionate. The lizard breathes, a very tight and controlled stream of flame, and the end of the cigar lights up. Mr. Big puts the stogey between his lips, puts the cigar case away the way it came, and puffs.
“Well,” he says with a smile. “I take it y’all didn’t have a plan for me.”
Alycia looks at the others, then back to Mr. Big. She dismounts her bike as well, and walks toward Jason and John as she speaks.
“You were expected, actually. The difficulty you present is one of policy. It’s not in society’s interest to have free supervillains. Nor is having them in Tyran custody. The original strategy of having them in supervised confinement is the least worst alternative.”
Mr. Big’s smile grows thin and cunning. “Policy is dictated by the dominant force in any given situation. Presently, that’s myself and my associates. I don’t see the three of you posing a realistic challenge to that position.”
Alycia takes in the scattered nanobots, unable to move or function under their own weight at macroscales. This guy took out Jason Quill’s most potent weapon in one move, and he was probably the person with the most versatile power on scene at the moment. She hates to admit it, but he may have a point.
“We can negotiate,” she says.
Mr. Big actually laughs at that. “With what leverage? You have only one thing I might care about, and if you think to threaten her, no force on earth will keep you safe from my vengeance.”
Alycia shakes her head quickly. She’s more appalled by the idea of harming a teammate than by Mr. Big’s threat. “None of us would do anything of the sort to - your protégé.”
“Good.” Mr. Big pauses, and looks around. “Anyway, where is she?”
Alycia hesitates. “She is… she’s safe, and making her own decisions. She is, as you have advised, ‘doing whatever the fuck she wants’.”
She doesn’t want to give away a confidence. Doing so might have gained some sympathy from the man. But not enough to justify the violation of trust it would require.
Mr. Big nods. “Good. And… hey, how about that tall blonde girl she was with? They still dating?”
“We are,” comes Nono’s voice over the radio. “Tell him.”
Alcyia smiles. “They are. The ‘tall blonde girl’ authorized me to relay that much.”
Mr. Big takes this in, nodding amiably as any parent would when they get good news about their child. “Too bad. I was hoping if I ever ran into you folks, I’d get to tangle with her.”
Alycia tries to process that. “May I ask why?”
The man grins. “Well, I trained her. Taught her what I knew, tried to put her on a path where she could become what she wanted. And I’d like to see what that is, yannow? I wanna see what she’s grown into.”
There’s silence.
Over the radio, a voice comes. It’s quiet. “Tell him… Tell him I’m on my way. Tell him… I am gonna kick his fucking ass…”
Alycia swallows the nothing that’s developed into something inside her throat. She looks up, and smiles behind her helmet. “She says she is on her way. To kick your ass.”
“Fucking ass,” comes Emma’s voice more angrily.
“I have been corrected,” Alycia announces. “Fucking ass.”
Mr. Big smiles, and puffs on his cigar. “Looking forward to it.”
Two minutes later, Emma pulls up and hops off the bike. She strides defiantly toward Mr. Big, and takes off her helmet so the two of them can look face to face.
“Hey kid,” says the veteran villain.
“You said not to call you boss. You said I graduated. So, hey, Mr. Big I guess,” Emma says, scowling. “That also means no ‘kid’. I am Firebrand.”
Mr. Big nods, accepting the correction with grace. “Firebrand. Glad to see you’re doing good.”
Emma shrugs, and looks away, over at her team. “Yeah. I’m doin’ good.”
“So what’s this I hear about an ass-kicking?”
Emma straightens up, and looks back. “You and me. For the convoy’s captured villains. I win, you let the Air Force go. You win, you do whatever. I mean you were gonna anyway. But this way you get to see what I can do. And maybe if it’s worth it, you compensate me for that.”
Mr. Big considers, then takes the cigar out of his mouth and holds it between two fingers. “Father Freak’s non-negotiable. I can’t let him down. The others? I can live without 'em.”
Emma glances at Alycia.
Somehow, we gained some kind of leverage against a foe we can’t beat, she thinks. And she nods her approval.
Emma sees the nod, and turns back to her former mentor. “I’ve got some shit you’ve never seen before. Think you’re ready for me?”
Mr. Big grins. “You know me. Go Big or go home.”