Nova’s head hurt all night, even in his dreams. Everything around him was tilting and moving. Waves of nausea washed through his body. He called out for help in his dreams, to no avail. Suddenly, a loud siren blared, and he was shaken hard. Both the shaking and the siren grew so intense that he woke up just in time to roll out of bed.
Holding the side of his bed, he realized that both the sound and the tremors weren’t part of his dream. His entire room was rattling apart.
“Computer...oh..my head.” The swimming feeling in his head remained as well.
“Alert! Alert! Stabilizers compromised! Planetary Entry Imminent!”
Nova looked out the window of his room and realized that the stars moving weren’t just part of his strange hangover, the station was crashing. “Computer!”
“Alert! Alert!” The computer continued the warning while not responding to his direct order.
“I have to get to Operations.” Nova gripped the wall to get to his feet. The doors to his room wouldn’t open, so he used the emergency lever to force them open and then stumbled out into the hall.
Running into walls and falling over several times, Nova staggered down the corridor toward central deck. Just before he stepped out into the mess hall, he almost fell over a body laying in the middle of the corridor.
“Dr. Henderson!” He came down and felt her neck. She was still alive. Still in her party dress, she hadn’t made it far from the cocktail evening.
Pushing ahead, he walked out to the party from the night before. Tables were strewn with people laying across them, or on the floor. No one had left from the party, and they were all completely out, even EB.
“What... what the hell… happened?” He struggled and then realized the only person not present. “Gar?” He pressed his comm, “Gar... come in.” nothing but fuzz. “Gar, if you can hear me, get to Operations!”
Unsure if Gar would get that, or if anyone else on the station was moving, he struggled onward.
Nova fell out of the lift and hit the deck of the Operations center. The computers were all spitting that fuzzy noise while the robot controllers were frozen in place. The primary screen at the front of the room had all the windows in the same garbled situation, save one.
“What...is going on?” Nova saw that the only working monitor had a rotating feed on it, cycling through the various cameras on the station.
“Alert! Atmospheric Entry in seven minutes! Solar shields unresponsive!”
Nova crawled his way over to a computer station and shoved the non-working robot over. “The back up...computer...is still operating. I have to reboot the station.” It was an arduous process fighting through this haze in his head and the constant need to vomit welling in his stomach, but he had no choice.
Finally, a screen came on with a working image. A voice said, “rebooting system.” Nova almost relaxed at that when the screen glitched, flickered, and a warning sigh filled it for a moment, then fuzz. “No... this... this can’t happen.” Then it dawned on him, “a virus… someone has put a virus in our system.”
“Bravo.” A new voice entered the room, followed by a slow clap.
Nova turned and found Arx strolling down the steps at the side of the room. “You... what... what have you done?”
“Not much, really. Dr. Osteen designed most of this. He planted it in the computer chips he replaced on those anti-morphon guns. All I had to do was make sure they got plugged into your mainframe. Once they infected your computers, it was only a matter of time before this station lost the ability to stay in orbit.”
Nova struggled for a moment as his stomach lurched. Then he growled out, “Osteen...you’re working with that madman!”
“Why, yes, I am. He isn’t mad, he’s a genius. He enhanced my powers in ways no one else would. I’m now the most powerful superhero Earth will ever know. Which will come in handy once BADGE is disgraced and most of its heroes are toast.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Arx laughed as he walked down the stairs toward the main floor. “Oh, you see, my contribution to this master plan was the idea of how to destroy BADGE with a little bad publicity. Publicity is sorta my gig being a megastar. I had him leave the cameras working. Then, he devised that additive I put in the drinks. After this station crashes, we’ll edit the camera footage, show how everyone here got sauced on booze, and then crashed the station. BADGE will be gone and people will have no one to look to for salvation from their enemies... and in I step. No longer just a cinematic hero, but a genuine hero.”
Nova said, “this is about fame! You posturing idiot! You… you are going to murder all these… people for… fame?”
Arx flew up and grabbed Nova by the neck, “I was the biggest celebrity on Earth! EVERYONE worshiped me as the superhero! Then your people come along and save the day again and again. My box office numbers are tanking. Who wants to pay to see a fake hero when you can turn on the news and watch the real deal. Well, I’m just taking out the competition and upping my game.”
Nova choked out, “you’re mad.”
Arx threw him against the floor. “No, I’m just doing what we do best in Hollywood. Look out for number one. Now, if you don’t mind, this station is about to make a big splash and I need to look good for the sappy interviews I’m gonna give. Don’t worry, I’ll say all kinds of nice things about you at your funeral. I might even…”
A stone fist nailed Arx in the face and he flew over the computers and against a far wall.
Gar helped Nova to his feet, “Are you okay?”
“No, but… I will be. Glad you got my message.”
“I didn’t get a message from you?”
“Who told you to come?”
Arx lifted in the air, red beams coming from his eyes hit Gar and slammed him into a wall. “YOU DAMNED ROCK! I’LL PULVERIZE YOU!”
A blue beam of energy hit Arx and he crashed into the front monitors. Sparks and shattered glass showering him as he hit the ground.
Arx stood and readied to fight, however a dozen more heroes appeared. “What... how?”
Quark flew down. “I’m an agent of BADGE. My comm unit was alerted to a crisis. I made a few calls. You really didn’t plan this well enough. That video feed you tapped, we can access that from any BADGE facility. I’ve seen everything you were doing.”
Just then the computer announced, “gaining altitude! Stabilizers activating.”
Quark said, “oh, and that would be about five dozen heroes putting us back into orbit. Nice try, but your game is finished.”
Arx laughed, “oh, really. Well, if I kill all of you now, I can still bury this place on the planet and…”
“And nothing.” The Closer said. “I piped this signal to all the media stations. I wanted the world to see who was behind this. You scared a lot of people down there.”
“The world was WATCHING!” Arx yelled.
Nova said, “how’s that… for bad publicity?”
Arx looked around at the appearing superheroes. “So, you want a fight? I’ve been given powers beyond anyone here, ANYONE! I’ll prove that. I’ll have my fame, my glory, even if I have to become the villain!” He flew straight up, smashing through the station and out into space.
“What... what is he doing?” Nova wavered as Gar held him steady.
The lone working screen suddenly changed to a close-up image of Arx. It was the official League Wars broadcasting system. “Hey planet Earth! So, you seen me at my worse. Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. I’m calling out all the heroes. Come up to the League Wars arena and just try to stop me. I’m gonna beat all your stupid heroes and look good doing it. Oh, and heroes, if you don’t meet my challenge, you’ll face me over a nice big city. It’s here or we level a metro area... your choice. ARX OUT!” The camera was smashed in his hands, ending the signal.
Nova said, “looks like... we have to do something. Heroes…” he fought to give his order.
Gar pressed the button on his comm, “Heroes, report to the Orbital Arena. Take down Arx!”
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