Chapter 19
Juno
Osbourne watched the levels on her controls tick beyond their limit as Anne’s
power levels escalated. Florence and Clark looked up at the eye, the three of
them and the equipment sitting in the middle of the street by a condemned red masonry
building. The area of activity crept toward the rest of the city, taking up any
debris that wasn’t laid in foundation on its outer perimeter. Water, cars,
twirling power lines dependent on their connections and large chunks of
building in the epicenter were gobbled up. The vortex was getting stronger.
“Florence,
I have no idea how to handle this. I have no idea how she can for that matter.
Anne’s’ power is miles off the charts.” Juno said, her nasal voice whining.
Florence nodded.
“Is it possible that her vortex can grow large
enough to eat the planet?”
Juno flipped her lengthy braid across her
shoulder.
“No, Anne would die in the process. Even then,
the power would need to go somewhere, and the inhabitants of the earth would
feel the psychic effect of a dead little girl for years to come, provided that we
survive, that is.”
Florence nodded.
“Can we get anyone near her and subdue her?” Clark
asked.
Juno shook her head.
“We already lost our current EnWol, and any further
hope of more EnWol with it. I’ve kept any ancillary metas from approaching the
vortex so that we don’t lose more lives. As of now, Dogpatch is quarantined.”
Florence wrinkled her nose.
“This game is all about risk; that’s how it
goes. We just need to find the right way to take advantage of the situation and
act on it.”
Levan came up from behind them.
“I’m risky, I’m heroic and expendable. I could
go up and save the little girl from the dastardly vortex.”
“She’s causing the vortex.” Juno said without
looking up at him.
Levan’s brow furrowed.
“Excuse me? That can’t be right.”
Juno nodded.
“I know. It violates the laws of conservation
and mass. She shouldn’t be able to do this.”
Levan held his hands up and chortled.
“Okay, look, I know that, Juno, you are the
smartest person in the land…”
“Who other?”
“…but that can’t be right. I don’t know
anything about physics, but if Hollywood
has taught me anything, it’s that that vortex should be bigger.” He pointed at
the swirling mass above him. In the context of a Hollywood movie, it was very
small.
Clark shook his head and Florence hid her face
to moan.
Levan pulled on his spandex as if he were
wearing suspenders.
“In any case, I can still rescue that girl up
there. Perhaps that’s just what she needs to end this storm; a hero with good
PR.” He rocked on the balls of his feet.
Clark walked up.
“Levan, don’t. Lora and Sarra are gone. We
don’t want you to go either.”
“No please. Levan don’t. Listen to the
veteran.” Juno said. There was no emotion in her voice.
Levan ignored Clark.
“It is too late my lady, Osbourne, for my
decision is made. I shall, nay; I might rescue the little girl from her own
peril.”
Juno rolled her eyes and mouthed the word
‘might.’
“No, don’t. The world needs you and your
special sarcasm detecting abilities.”
“What?” Levan asked and then flew away without
regards for an answer.
Florence shot off and left as quickly as Levan
did. Juno quietly got back to her readings, adjusting them to compensate for
hitting the maximum levels. Clark crossed his arms and glared at Juno. She shot
a glance at him.
“I’m not sure if his use of the word expendable
back there was deliberate or not.” Juno muttered.
“Why did you have to feed him?” Clark asked.
Juno held her thumb and index finger close
together.
“He gets his egging on from a pea. He hardly
needed my help, Clark. Without me, it would have just delayed the inevitable.”
Clark pursed his lips, defeated.
“That may be so…”
Florence readied her arm to catch Levan. The
gap closed in between them and she threw. Her arm sailed past Levan, and then
it was violently pulled on by the vortex. She gasped and pulled it back,
thankful that she did not lose it. She wiggled her fingers and watched Levan
approach Anne. He seemed unaffected by the vortex. Watched as parts of her body
bubbled in and out like a lava lamp; the vortex was teasing a craving for EnWol
silver.
Florence curled her lip and looked up at
Levan. His hair remained motionless as he hovered in front of Anne. Levan was
being his ‘heroic’ self, apparently unaffected by the vortexes pull. Florence
decided to leave him be. She flew back to her husband and Juno.
“Young Anne, I have arrived to rescue you and
relieve you of your misery.”
Anne’s face was ablaze in distress. Her eyes
were shut and she was trying to regulate her breathing. She shuddered out every
breath. She opened her eyes a crack and stared at him.
Levan grimaced behind his smile. He cleared
his throat, unsure of what to do beyond what he was taught about dealing with meta
children. Usually they had some degree of control over their powers.
“Well, young Anne, we should get going.” He
reached for her hand. Anne held her breath and mewled, trying to talk. She
found that her intangibility was failing her. Levan grabbed her hand with a
smile on his face, and then his expression went slack.
“Oh cheese…”
Levan felt Anne’s powers loop up his arm like
a flash of numbness and into his head. He saw flashes of Anne’s pain, her fire,
Morgan and Garner, Clive, and reserves of hope and trust buried away so that
she could recover from her torture. Levan’s head felt like it would split open.
He grabbed it and shouted.
Anne gasped, her headache gone in an instant.
She looked up at Levan and covered her mouth.
“Great Apple Trees, Mister, I’m sorry!”
Anne looked up at the eye of the vortex, its
power being shifted from her to Levan. The eye shrunk and inside, she saw the
unconscious forms of Pink Lemon, Crimson Cherry, The Electric Beaulieu, and cousin
Tench very slowly falling out of it.
Chapter 20
“What is this?”
“What’s going on?”
“Sarra? Is that you?”
“What?”
“Which one of you is Sarra?”
The four people saw only a dark void. They touched
the void, heard the void, and knew only both the void and their own thoughts.
Clive spoke up.
“Well, whatever happened, it’s a stark, and
bloody better change from the babes in toy land.”
“Well, I would rather be in toy land as a
person instead of fuckin’ …nothing!” Sarra yelled.
Color
faded in, a view from someone’s eyes. Yellow-gloved hands held onto a jar of
sand. Its contents moved like water.
“Oh no…” Clive said.
“Who’s this?” Tench asked.
“Me, who else, you tart? This is 1970…”
The younger Clive walked briskly through the
cave with Maximilian Doom by his side. He was swearing.
“How could the heroes have found Bronson?
We’re a mile underground!”
“I don’t know! He must have a beacon of some
kind.” Clive said.
Doom looked shocked.
“A beacon that can reveal our precise location
in the middle of England?”
They saw the younger Clive throw his arms up
in the air; Doom watched them, slightly panic-stricken.
“I don’t know; he’s a silly alien! Who knows
what sort of tricks the gob has. ”
Max snatched the jar of oddly fluid sand from
him.
“You be careful with this stuff! Bronson got
this stuff for us, and it’s going to be used properly.”
The younger Clive scoffed.
“Yeah, we tortured the bloke to death; why not have him give us the stuff?”
Doom gave him the jar and looked back in the
opposite direction. The hallway beyond had the sounds of crackling electricity and
cries of pain. Young Clive looked back and saw flashing lights around the
corner.
“That’s EnWol silver!” Tench blurted.
“What?” Lora and Sarra asked in unison.
“Look Clive,” Doom said. “You get that stuff
to Slade. I’ll go back and handle the situation with that Pink Lemon and
Crimson Cherry.” Young Clive watched Doom run off for a moment before hovering
down the corridor.
“Clive, what is this?” Tench asked with a tone
that suggested that he was disciplining a child. “You ingested the silver,
didn’t you?”
The current Clive did not answer.
“What will that do, Tench?” Lora asked.
“The mirror with the perfect shine reflects
the dim glare back tenfold,” the current Clive said.
The metaphor immediately clicked with Tench.
“…you
took too much.”
After
several minutes, the younger Clive slowed; the distant sounds of a fight were
only a vague suggestion. Young Clive checked to see if he was alone, and then
bent down to the ground with the sand.
“Oh Gaia, why did this have to come up?” The
current Clive bemoaned. “Of all the dinky memories in this plot, why this?”
Young Clive undid the cap and took out a
handful of sand. He let it go through his fingers back into its jar and grabbed
another handful.
“It’s so strange…” Young Clive said.
“Don’t do it…” Current Clive moaned.
Young
Clive looked up after hearing a distant click. He shrugged and looked back at
the gleaming sand.
“Couldn’t hurt.”
“Yes it could! Don’t!”
The
younger cupped his hands, and poured the sand into his mouth.
“What was I thinking? Stop! Stop! Stop!” The
current Clive pleaded.
“That was fifty times over the normal dosage, Clive.
That’s way, way too much.” Tench said.
“You
shut your gob!”
The younger smacked his lips.
“Oh bollocks, it’s like sugar, but worse!” He
wiped his mouth on the spandex sleeve.
“Hence, Pink Lemon.” Sarra said.
Young Clive caught sight of his hand, and
stopped cold when he saw his reflection in it. He looked at the back of his
hand and it started to melt. The younger Clive bolted to his feet and looked at
his body. His reflective hands dribbled from the sleeves and squeezed out from
the fabric. He melted to a heap on the floor before he could let out a panicked
scream. His vision spread to a one hundred and eighty degree dome. He tried to
move, but he simply jerked left to right, burying his yellow costume in himself.
“I stayed like that for four days… I wasn’t
sure whether I was dead or not…” Current Clive said. “Serves me right for doing
something stupid…”
“So why are you still evil? You could have
come to Florence
for help afterward.” Tench asked.
There was no reply. The younger Clive quivered,
unsure of how to deal with the change.
“Normally, the gauntlets would take a snapshot
of the person beforehand to help them keep their shape, but the sand itself
just seems to make a straight conversion to silver. That explains your dynamic
looks, Clive.” Tench said.
“You’re dead, ice man.” The current Clive did
not sound sure of himself.
From the other end of the hall, a figure
approached. He slowed at the puddle that was Clive and saw the jar of sand.
“Sergei Slade…” Tench said.
“Scary…” Sarra retorted.
He had a dark mane of hair and wore a silver
jacket.
“Dammit, he was probably killed. How did this
get unscrewed?”
“An idiot ruined her life with it, that’s
what,” the current Clive croaked.
Slade screwed the jar back on and left, the
younger Clive screaming for help without a sound to make.
“Clive, does Slade still have the EnWol sand?”
Tench asked.
“Max Doom died at the hands of the Steel Atom
here… his neck snapped when he was punched in the head…” Clive said. A great
remorse filled his voice.
“Does Slade still have the EnWol sand?” Tench
asked again.
There was no reply.
The full view of the corridor faded to black;
and the four were immediately spit out from the eye and back to San Francisco.
Chapter 21
Anne held her hair back in the wind,
scared for herself and the suffering Levan. If she was unable to subdue the
extra power when she had it, than what could she do with someone that had
literally absorbed it? Even worse, Anne felt obligated to do something since
her main caretaker had betrayed her, and she was the only one of her kind.
Levan was the “second.”
She looked down at the small camp in the
middle of the road on 20th Street. She could recognize Florence, Clark,
and Juno, a trio of her most intimidating authority figures. Anne was reluctant
to ask for help with her obligation because she was terrified that she had done
something unfathomably wrong.
Levan wailed again, bringing Anne out of her
train of thought. She looked around.
“Mister, I’m sorry!”
Levan jerked his head left to right, his face
flushed. Anne held her hand out, her mind reeling for an answer to this problem.
Nothing
was coming up…
…nothing
was coming up!
Anne
had no idea what to do. She knew that she would probably get in very deep
trouble for doing that to Levan, even if he had started it. With her fear
focused more toward the topical events instead of Morgan, Anne felt the hollow
pain of both terror and frustration ring through her tummy. It resonated up
through her chest and out the top. She started to cry.
Tench fell from the vortex. Neither Levan nor
Anne noticed him, but they were the first thing that he saw on exiting.
Is that Anne? Anne! Toyland! That makes a bit
more sense.
Anne
felt something large and wet brush her shoulder. She looked down to see Clive
falling to the earth. Anne looked up and gasped. Lora and Sarra trailed after
them, along with a surprise.
Anne
took Levan’s hand and pulled him away.
“Come
on, come on, please. This things gonna barf!”
Anne said. Levan didn’t register as Anne led him away.
“Flo, the gale force has slowed tenfold since
Levan took over and that gave us our missing heroes; all are alive and whole.”
Juno yelled.
Florence
straightened her posture and grew another two feet in the process.
A light blinked on the console.
“We also have rubble and all kinds of crap
being ejected along with them. I just hope that you got everyone out of there
unharmed.”
Florence and Clark exchanged glances.
Tench and Lora were disoriented to the point
where they were convinced that the cloud was the ground and the ocean was the
sky. They were unable to figure out why the world was spinning as they tumbled.
Florence
and Clark exchanged glances. Florence nodded.
“I’ll
grab Tench, you worry about Lora.” She said. Clark nodded and the two shot off
like lightning.
Lora was starting to realize that the ocean
was not, in fact the sky. She saw Clark fly up alongside her. He looked up to
see the rubble pour from the vortex. Clark swore. He matched Lora’s velocity to
prevent her neck from being broken by the whiplash. Lora felt herself being
grabbed before she could conjure up a greeting. Clark arced above the remains
and Lora’s stomach dropped along with the rest of the junk that the vortex had
sucked up.
Lora didn’t feel saved. She felt sicker than
she did coming out of the eye. The two heroes were brought back to Juno.
Clive had relived the moment where he became
far, far more EnWol than EnWol. He barely cared about where he was. He lost his
shape and fell to Dogpatch, splashing to the ground not a few feet from Morgan
where the old, decrepit test building had once been. He was rained upon by the
former structures turned to sand.
Sarra did not recover until she landed. She
could not make out anything coherent as she fell, swearing along the way. She
hit with a wet splat and went everywhere, her body spreading out and then
retracting back to a familiar shape, upside down and in the middle of a rogue
I-beam. She saw her predicament, and then the rain of rubble that landed nearby
her. She started to run, but she was pummeled before she had a chance to
escape. Sarra felt dust cover her and shrapnel pierce her as a deafening roar
from the impact filled her ears.
As the dust settled, Sarra was thankful that
she was only coated in small flecks and that she was still out in the open as
opposed to being buried under the fallen debris; smaller rocks had just bounced
right off of her. She looked up and saw how her body had been split by the
piece of steel. She removed herself from it, creating a hole similar to
bubblegum being stretched three ways too far. She stood up to dust herself off
and reform.
Clark put Lora down, to which she leaned on
him for support.
“Oh, cheese and macaroni, but do I feel
hurfy…” Lora said. She hiccupped.
“Three G’s will do that, you’ll be fine.” Clark
said.
Florence landed, depositing Tench. He broke
off and pretended that his own g-forces had not affected him.
“Okay, what’s going on?” He stumbled across to
lean on Juno’s console.
“Hey,
that’s sensitive stuff.” Juno said brushed him away. Tench almost fell back
when Lora rushed up to him.
“Oh Andy!” Lora latched herself onto him, and
Tench dropped his formal attitude. His face flushed.
“I’m worried about Anne up there.” Florence said. “She hasn’t
come down.”
“A… Anne? My little cousin?” Tench sputtered. He
couldn’t think straight. Lora broke her hug. Florence glanced at Tench and
nodded, a curt smile gracing her lips from his handling of received affection.
Tench cleared his throat.
“I… I knew that, I saw her as I fell. What
happened?”
“We’re not sure in the slightest.” Juno said.
Tench nodded.
“I can tell you that Clive Ogden is involved.
He was sucked up with us.”
Everyone looked at Tench, suddenly very
interested.
“What would Clive Ogden want with Anne
Redford? How could he even over saturate Anne’s powers anyway?” Clark asked.
No one had a good answer.
Lora stepped up.
“Where is Clive then? Gee, and Sarra too?”
If you would like the whole book, a souvenir of the experience, check it out at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87111
If you would like the whole book, a souvenir of the experience, check it out at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87111
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