The Suns of Liberty: Legion: A Superhero Novel Page 5

  In her mind she could see it all. The street the girl was speaking of, the house. She could travel inside, map out the rooms, see where she needed to go. She spotted the girl’s sister, along with many others, in the house. Drugs, guns, trash everywhere. The place was wretched.

  In one room, a young tattooed man was handcuffed to a steel pipe that had been built into a concrete wall undoubtedly for the purpose of holding someone indefinitely. He was naked and looked to have been beaten unconscious.

  Fiona snapped back. “I see her.”

  The girl squealed in delight and Arcadia shot Fiona a knowing grin.

  Fiona did not grin back.

  “There’s not much time. I need to go now,” Fiona said just as Becky interrupted the group.

  “Fiona, its Elders again. The town council has met. They voted to sue if we don’t move the Palace,” Becky said.

  “So let them. We’ve just as much right to be here as they do.”

  And with that—flash!—she was gone. In fact, by the time Becky finished letting out her sigh of frustration, Fiona was already in Cleveland.

  CHAPTER 7

  The house in Cleveland was in an older neighborhood that had once been an upper-middle-class section of town. Now it was old and dilapidated. The house itself was a classic two-story A-frame, with a big porch and a swing. Or at least what used to be a swing. It had long since broken from its chains, and the rotting carcass was left crumbling on the porch.

  Fiona had materialized, glowing in the chartreuse power of the Fire Fly, on the front walk that led to the stairs. If anyone noticed her, they made no fuss. She marched to the front door and passed through.

  A millisecond before she moved her molecules through the door, she disappeared. It was so fast it appeared she just passed through, like a ghost. But in order for her to pass through solid objects, she had to phase into the end of the luminescent spectrum that corresponded to x-radiation. The kind of light that is invisible to the human eye. It had taken her a while to get the hang of it. Windows and the places visible light could go were still so much easier. But she was getting better at the ghost thing.

  On the other side of the door she materialized but remained invisible. She passed through the small entryway and hung a left through the front living area, into a long hallway. She passed the concrete room where the naked man was chained to the wall. And finally she got to the back den where three members of the gang were hanging out and Kimberly Connors was being held.

  The three were taking turns playing video games, smoking pot, and watching the girl. One was fat, one was tall, and one was just plain ugly. None of them looked like guys you’d want to bring home to mom. They all had shaved heads, and a swastika flag hung on one wall right next to an old flag of the Confederacy.

  The very sight of it boiled anger through Fiona’s mind. She had no tolerance for intolerance.

  Fiona strolled into the room and flashed to life in front of them.

  “Oh shit!” the tallest one yelled. All three lunged for their pistols. From the terrified expressions on their faces, they knew exactly who she was and probably what she was capable of.

  Well, some of what I’m capable of, she thought.

  “Let the girl go,” Fiona said. “Or I will boil your eyeballs in your brains.” Wow. That was impressive. And on the fly too. Anger can make you pretty creative, she thought.

  The three moved as one. They all simultaneously moved their pistols to aim at Kimberly’s head.

  Didn’t see that coming. Who knew these potheads would have discipline and coordination?

  “Fuck you, man! You can’t take us all down. I heard you move at the speed of sound or some shit, right? But not with all three of us you can’t.”

  “Yeah,” added the fat one .“You might stop one of us, but you ain’t stopping us all.”

  Time for new tactics. “I really like what you’ve done with the place. What style were you going for? Early dipshit?”

  The three geniuses glanced at each other, confused, and then the taller of the three blinked and his face turned red. He started to speak but Fiona cut him off.

  “I tell you what, since this is my birthday and I’m feeling generous, I’m gonna give you three fine gentlemen a break.”

  And with that she was gone.

  “Don’t fucking move!” the tall one breathed to the others. “Not ‘til we know the bitch has gone.” Kimberly just whimpered. The first sound she had made since Fiona had entered the house.

  And Fiona heard it of course, because by now she was standing right behind the three thugs. Invisible.

  She held out her hands and fired a beam from each. From her right hand, where she had more control, she split the beam so that it penetrated the backs of two of the thugs. With her left, she sent a single, more powerful beam into the heart of the taller, more mouthy asshole.

  And then she turned up the heat. And materialized.

  Not only did the beams burn instantaneous holes in the three men’s chest, but they were also focused on the three guns the thugs held. To get the angle right for all three, it took a great deal of concentration. The effect was to incinerate the guns the instant she incinerated their hearts. That way, even if the men’s reflex reaction in their death throes was to squeeze their triggers, the guns would be burned to oblivion before they could do it.

  Blood, tissue, and other gore exploded from the gaping holes left in the men’s chests and from their severed wrists, which were burned away along with their weapons. It sloshed all over Kimberly, who screamed in mortal terror. She collapsed to the floor and scampered toward the corner of the room, terrified even of Fiona.

  “I’m the Fire Fly, Kimberly. Your sister sent me here to save you. You’re okay now.”

  Kimberly peered up at Fiona through her blood-stained face and meekly breathed, “Really?”

  “Really.” Fiona looked down at the thugs, blood pooling around their bodies. “Becky’s not going to be happy about this. But I think they look better that way, don’t you?” Fiona frowned at the gory corpses. “And its light speed, dumb ass. I move at light speed.”

  Kimberly started to cry again.

  “Be right back.”

  She flashed into the room with the young man. He was badly hurt, and she saw fresh wounds that were still bleeding. Fiona instantly cauterized all his cuts, which also brought him back to consciousness.

  She’d seen enough gang signs in Boston to know a gang-related tattoo when she saw one. The Resistance had been obsessed with tracking them, convinced the gangs in Boston worked for the Freedom Council. Many gangs used colors, others used body art. In Boston they tended to use both. “You in a gang, Romeo?” Fiona asked him.

  “No.”

  Fiona narrowed her eyes.

  “I mean, yeah,” he said, bowing his head.

  She looked down between his legs. “Cold in here, huh, big fella?”

  “Yeah.”

  It was, actually. The concrete trapped the morning’s coolness, or they were pumping air in there on purpose to torment the poor guy.

  “Well, I’m letting you out and letting you live on one condition. You tell your boys that they had better protect that girl in the other room and her family. If you don’t, if I hear anything has happened to any of them, I’ll come back here and do to you all what I’ve done to those racist assholes in the other room.” Fiona peered right down into his eyes. “You feel me?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I feel ya,” he grunted.

  Fiona burned away his cuffs.

  She retreated back into the den where Kimberly was still curled into the corner. “Come on, honey. It’s time to get you to your sister.”

  Fiona led her outside, where a few folks had now gathered. It seemed her arrival had drawn some attention, after all. “All right, I need you not to move a muscle, okay?”

  Kimberly nervously nodded her head.

  “Don’t be afraid, this will just last a second.” Fiona squinted and reconsidered. “Maybe it’s bes
t you just close your eyes. Don’t move a muscle,” she repeated. Her hands flew up and she opened her palms wide. Beams of light shot out and a wide field of light surrounded Kimberly on all sides.

  Flash!

  “Okay, you can open them now.”

  They were standing in the middle of the Palace at Lake Tahoe.

  It had taken exactly one second.

  Kimberley was completely thrown, not sure what she was seeing.

  But her sister, Kristen, saw her immediately, and tears began to stream down her cheeks. She squealed her sister’s name and rushed toward her, and in the same moment that Kimberly realized who it was, Kristen had her in a bear hug.

  “Oh, thank you! Thank you!” Kristen cried, smiling at Fiona through her tears. “How bad are you hurt?” Kristen asked her sister, releasing her from the death grip, trying to see where all the blood was coming from.

  “No, it’s not my blood.”

  ‘Whose blood is it?” came an accusatory question from behind them.

  Becky.

  “They resisted,” said Fiona, defiantly.

  “Nice,” Arcadia laughed and held up a high five to Fiona, who returned it as carefully as she could, still glowing in her own power. She didn’t want to rip her friend’s arm off, after all. Especially with Becky watching.

  “This is not a game, girls.”

  Arcadia shot Becky a look that said she was the biggest prude on the planet and that she just didn’t get it. There was also a bit of fuck off in the look.

  “Can we not do this here?” Fiona said, nodding toward the two weeping sisters.

  Becky’s eyes shot past Fiona, and it was in that very instant that something tweaked Fiona’s consciousness. It was like a memory that flashed for a second, or an image from a dream recalled and then forgotten just as fast.

  Fiona shook her head.

  Had she heard something? She listened, but Becky was squawking. She squinted, tried to concentrate. Something was wrong, but what the hell was it?

  “Fiona!” Becky finally barked. And the girl peered up at her, confusion clearly mapped across her face. “Are you okay, honey?” Becky said in a softer tone, recognizing a look on Fiona’s face she’d seen before..

  “Yeah, uh, what were you saying?”

  Becky motioned behind her and Fiona turned. “They wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  It was Fred Elders, mayor of South Lake Tahoe, flanked by two state troopers from the CHP. “Ms. Fletcher,” Elders said as politely as he could, but his impatience was clear in his voice, “I can’t hold off any longer. The city council voted to take legal action if you don’t move this encampment. Now, you’re on city property here, and this commune, or whatever you call it, is chasing away all the tourists.”

  “What do you call those,” Fiona asked him, motioning to the thousands camped out below them.

  “They don’t spend any money. It’s hurting our bottom line. Our town lives and dies on tourist dollars, and if I can’t get you to move, then the state’s gonna have to do it. Now, you don’t want that kind of trouble.”

  One of the state troopers beside Elders nodded, “Nope, you sure don’t.”

  But Fiona wasn’t listening. The sound was back. Or was it a memory? She still couldn’t tell. But something was wrong. And as she concentrated on what it was, a solitary chill of light and energy ran down her spine. A feeling of complete and total dread like she had never felt washed over her.

  She lifted her burning eyes to Elders. And the old man wilted. The power that radiated off the girl was immense. It grabbed every molecule in the air and suffocated them.

  “Uh...okay, now. We can talk about this. I’m not threatening you, now. You know that, right? We just want to talk, that’s all.”

  “Something’s wrong,” Fiona said finally, looking past Elders, past the troopers.

  “Oh, no,” Becky said. “I hate it when she says that.”

  Lieutenant Commander Veronica Soto was locked on.

  “I have missile lock and am preparing to fire on target...now.” She said over her throat mike.

  Her B-12 Stealth fighter was blasting across the California Central Valley.

  She flipped up the cover on the launch console and pressed the red button.

  “Roger that, Commander,” came back the reply from Edwards AFB.

  Below her, the missile bay doors opened and the GBU-65/B dropped from its holders. The weapon ignited and shot through the sky, seeking out its target ahead.

  Veronica checked her lipstick in the small mirror she had attached to her dashboard instrument panel and smiled. Perfect. “Bird’s away.”

  The missile zoomed ahead at breathtaking speed. It disappeared over the horizon. Veronica watched it on her radar.

  “Two minutes to impact,” she told the boys at Edwards.

  Fiona flashed away.

  She reappeared a quarter of a mile away and a thousand feet above the encampment. She still wasn’t sure what she was looking for. But the feel of it was wrong, threatening. She scanned the sky. Nothing.

  She scanned the lake. Calm and normal.

  Her awareness of the luminescent spectrum wasn’t all knowing. She could sense things, feel them. But on a broad scale. The details were elusive. She wondered if she would get better over time, or if like sight and hearing, it simply was what it was.

  Her eyes probed skyward again. Then she saw it. Moving fast, unmistakable. The missile had to be as long as a city bus. Impossibly long for something moving so fast. As it got closer, Fiona could see it was as long as two city buses.

  The Council was trying to kill her!

  As if.

  Her mind flashed to Becky. A lump burned in her throat as she thought of her hurt. No, that was not going to happen.

  She teleported right in front of the missile. The bomb itself was only about the size of a person. Its vicious fire trail was what had made it appear to be so long. Fiona had never seen such a weapon up close and in action.

  She lifted both arms, brought her hands together, and blasted the missile with the most powerful beam of energy she could muster. She would take no chances. She wanted to incinerate the thing, midair.

  She didn’t.

  Below, Becky, Arcadia, Elders, and the others had run out to see what the commotion was. When Fiona had teleported, some in the throng had spotted her floating far above them in the clear California sky. That started a rumble in the crowd as everyone looked up. Then they saw the smoke trail of the missile. The rumble of the crowd grew into a roar.

  The brilliant beam of light shot out from Fiona’s hands. From the ground, the beam’s flash was like a long mirror reflecting sunlight for split second, high above.

  The flash came first.

  It was like the sun exploding across the sky.

  Then sound. A deep, ominous BOOM. They could feel it in the pits of their chests.

  For Fiona, it consumed her world. Fire, heat, and unbridled energy swirled around her. For the first time in her life as the Fire Fly she had met a conventional weapon that could hurt her.

  The shockwave blasted her across the sky. The bomb hadn’t burned up like she’d expected. It had exploded right in her face. The fire and heat was but a mere irritation, but the shockwave hit her full force She had not been prepared for it, and as she reeled, she knew that the only chance she had of saving Becky, of saving the others, was to absorb the explosive power of the detonation.

  It all happened in the course of single second. Fiona blasted her energy across the sky, creating a massive shield against the deadly energy. But the blast was simply colossal. It pushed her even as she absorbed it into her body. There was simply too much of it. She closed her eyes and pushed back. And to her absolute horror she realized that she was falling not just out of the sky but out of consciousness.

  Fiona splashed into the waters of the lake, sending an almighty gout of water and foam high into the air.

  The shockwave hit next. She had lost consciousness only for a
second. And she flew out of the waves as water geysered again—at the speed of light. She held out her palms and built the massive wall of energy for a second time. She literally held the power of the blast in the palms of her hands. She pushed with all her might away from the shore, away from the Palace and her throngs of followers. Away from Becky and Arcadia and the Connors girls. The energy of the blast shot off in the other direction. And then, as a reflex, she teleported back to the Palace. And collapsed.

  Darkness. She dreamed of darkness. Stars spread out above her, and the great glorious colors of the Milky Way galaxy beckoned her. She wanted to follow them, to go to them. To seek them out and discover the secrets of the universe. It seemed that all she had to do was will it and she would be there.

  But a voice was breaking the black. A voice she knew. A voice she loved. A voice she needed to return to.

  Fiona opened her eyes. And she heard Becky scream her name once more. But her head was throbbing and all she could hear was an awful hiss. Fiona shook her head, tried to get the water out of her ears or whatever was making the god-awful noise.

  Fiona spun to her feet—and realized that she was in human form. And completely naked in front of the Connors girls, Arcadia, and worst of all, old man Elders and the two troopers. The mayor had the good sense to look away. But the troopers were getting an eyeful. Wonderful.

  She transformed back into the Fire Fly. And scowled at the troopers.

  The sound was still ringing in her ears.

  “Fiona, the wave!” Becky yelled at her, pointing to the lake.

  “Ms. Fletcher, please, you have to stop it.”

  “What—“ Fiona turned to look out toward the lake and saw what they were talking about.

  The hissing sound. An enormous wave had pulled the water on their side of Tahoe way out, and now what could only be described as a massive tsunami was headed toward the other side. Toward South Lake Tahoe. She’d protected her little enclave, but now the wave threatened the very people who wanted to take her home from her.

  Fiona scoffed. “I’m not such an irritation now, huh?”