The mutated enemy, now called Subject One, screamed as he rushed toward BlasterZone. The hero, with fire burning in his hands, held his strike just as Subject One reached him. With a well-placed swing, BlasterZone hit his foe in the gut, a jet of fire sending Subject One crashing through the wall of an abandoned building.
BlasterZone let out a heavy breath and fell to his knees. “Damn, that guy was hard to take down.”
The battle scattered heroes throughout Detroit’s city center. The battle with Subject Zero had worn out or seriously injured most of the heroes.
Captain Aqua asked, “Is he down?”
BlasterZone nodded, “I think so. He just... “
“YAAHHH! KILL ME!” the horrid pleading voice of Subject Zero boomed from inside the building.
“What the hell is it going to take?” BlasterZone tried to stand, but he was out of energy.
Captain Aqua said, “The egg power is fading.”
“Yeah, I can’t go another round.”
The wall of the building erupted in bricks and dust as Subject One crashed through it. He was bruised, bleeding, and his skin peeled off.
“My god. He’s falling apart.” Captain Aqua readied his powers.
BlasterZone stood. “I can help.”
“No, go, find a place that’s safe. I just powered up. I’ll try to finish him.”
“Good luck.”
Subject One rushed toward him. In his hand, he held a pipe he had torn from the wall of the building he had just crashed through. Captain Aqua summoned a great wave of water from the nearby river. The enhancement from EB’s egg felt amazing. The water moved with greater ease than normal, and he controlled so much more at once.
“KILL ME!” Subject One screeched as he swung the pipe at Captain Aqua.
Before the pipe made contact, the wave hit and pulled the enemy into a swirling vortex of water that spun in the air. The swirling vortex of water stole his pipe as he flailed. A hard crash threw him into the side of a building. When the water stopped flowing, Subject One fell to the ground. He seemed to struggle to gather his strength again.
Captain Aqua didn’t give him much time to recover. He summoned the water soaked into the ground and sent it back at Subject One, slamming him back into that wall. A torrent of solid water flowed endlessly at Subject One. He fought, struggled, and then his eyes rolled back as the torrent forced the air from his body.
Captain Aqua stopped the flow of the water and cautiously moved to see if the enemy was finally subdued.
When he reached the fallen body of the enemy, a horrible realization hit him. He knew this man. This was a trainee hero he had worked with once before, during the robot incident in Australia.
“My god, it’s David Millar.” He whispered.
David gasped and opened his eyes. He looked up, dire panic and pain in his face. “Please... kill me. I can’t... I can’t.. stop.” He reached for the pipe.
Captain Aqua pulled his hand back and a spike of ice formed from behind David and split him in the chest. The man’s pain ended as black blood trickled across the ground.
***
Gar shoved debris out of his path while Chase stepped over the burnt remains of Ren Tech HQ. BADGE agents, robots, and heroes had finally stopped the fires and were sifting through the ashes of what had been the most influential tech company on Earth.
Chase gasped and closed her eyes. “I found another one.”
Gar looked down at the charred remains of a random person.
Chase moved on. The lead BADGE agent on this case waited while a pair of robots cleared the path to the center of the complex. Chase approached her.
“Agent Jennifer?”
She turned and saluted, “Agent Chase. Good to see you. We haven’t found anything yet. Getting to Dr. Chorad’s office has been difficult.”
Chase said, “I’m sure he intended it to be that way.”
Gar stepped up and helped the robots by moving broken walls and discarding doors. Finally, Gar cleared a path to the cinders of what was once the garden surrounding Chorad’s opulent office.
Chase broke into a dash for the cracked door. She stopped suddenly just as her hand reached for the latch. “I... I can’t. If they are...”
Jennifer said, “Actually, it would be wise to send the robots in first, in case the structural damage is dangerous.”
Chase waited while the two robots entered the office. There was a tense, palpable moment of silence as everyone waited for the news.
“Agent Jennifer, life signs detected.” One robot announced.
Chase moved so quickly that she hardly recalled how she made it over the debris. The robot who spoke stood near a fallen beam that had two bodies under it.
Arx spoke in a weak voice, “Please... help... This hurts so much.”
Gar came in and wrapped his arms around the beam. The robots joined in and they could move it far enough for Chase and Jennifer to drag Justin and Arx out. Justin was non-responsive, while Arx was barely breathing.
Arx whispered, “I jumped... when I saw... the flash. I... tried to protect him. I ... I can take a hit. Please... is he alive?” Without a chance to answer him, Arx passed out.
Chase stood up, her heart racing, and her mind filled with loud thoughts.
“Life signs, negative. Life signs, negative. Life signs, minimal.” One robot was assessing the room with a bio-sensor.
Chase looked around and saw the others that had come with them. She knelt down and felt the chest of the young man with dragon scales. He was barely breathing. Ladyhawk was dead. A shard of wood protruded from her chest. The BADGE agent in the back was burnt beyond recognition.
Gar approached her. “Chase, shouldn’t we report to Nova?”
***
Nova stood in the hanger bay of the station as the med shuttle landed. Nurses and robots hurried in to carry the stretchers. They carried Arx out first, then Justin, and finally Dragonborn. Black cloth covered the remaining stretchers.
Chase stepped out and walked over to Nova with a solemn tear in her eyes. She hugged him. “How do you handle losing people? Ladyhawk was a student, a kid. Agent Benjamin didn’t deserve this.”
Nova said, “If we ever stop feeling pain from loss, then we lose the part of our soul that reminds us that life is worth saving. It will always hurt. I want it to hurt. I want it to burn a fuel in my spirit for justice.”
“Dr. Henderson said that Justin and Dragonborn might not make it.”
“They will.” Nova said. “I won’t let them die.”
“How?”
He looked her in the eye and then turned and left the room.
***
Nova stood before the grand monitor of Operations. EB, Gar, Chase, Torrik, and Quark stood with him. Smaller windows filled the monitors. Some showed the hovering spheres now high above the ground. Many others were watching the people of Earth, still transfixed by their Ren Wear.
“What do we do? If they turn everyone into monstrosities, like they did to David Millar, we can’t fight them all.”
“We will have little choice. But, I want another option. I want to know why someone is trying to restart Legion. I want to know who Dr. Chorad really is and how he managed all of this.”
EB said, “Every member of Legion was destroyed. I checked. BADGE records show that they are all gone. We confiscated or destroyed the tech they left behind. This can’t be leftover junk. This is something terribly new.”
Quark said, “It can’t be. I know what I felt. This is the old Legion. I know it.”
Torrik asked, “What happens next?”
Nova said, “We fight.” With no further explanation, he walked out of the room. He didn’t even give command to anyone else.
A long walk through a quiet, mourning station, Nova approached a man holding a weeping infant in his arms. The reflection of grief mirrored in the thick glass that separated the air from space. Stars twinkled before them as the world slowly shifted into view.
“Alex...” Nova whispered.
Through a strained voice, Alex said, “I just can’t imagine tomorrow without her.”
Nova took him by the shoulder in a comforting gesture. “We have to hope.”
“In what? This madman is ten steps ahead of us. He has my wife and is doing god-knows-what to her. Look what he did to David Millar? What if she returns to us as a villain? What if she begs me to end her life like David did? I couldn’t... I can’t...”
Nova said, “I have walked among the stars. I have fought gods and demons. I will find a way...I have to.... I have to.” Nova’s voice betrayed his fear and his determination.
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