Fall of Heroes (16 page)

“Here.” Alex tossed a small USB drive onto the commissioner's desk. The commissioner raised an eyebrow. “That's proof that there's a link between the Cloak Society and the New Rangers.”

“All right, kid, you've got my attention. What's on it?”

“Surveillance footage. On that drive you'll find all sorts of video showing known members of the Cloak Society and the New Rangers hanging out together. Buying
groceries
together. Pictures, too. It should be enough to convince your officers.”

“Maybe,” the man said, raising an eyebrow.

Alex wrapped his thoughts around one of the photos in his pocket and pushed it up in front of the man's face. The commissioner looked surprised, then quickly scowled.

“The Beta Team,” Alex said. “Cloak's junior squad. You'll recognize me
and
Titan, but you know the girl with black hair, too. Julie. Titan's sister. She stayed underground to serve as one of the city's villains. You've got a video of her appearance when Cloak crashed the Rangers memorial a few weeks ago, right? You'll see that she is who I say she is. And I'm sure you've already noticed that we're all wearing Cloak Society uniforms. Even Titan.”

“I've read the police reports for the incident at Silver Bank in September,” Carla said. “Officers cleared the area, but more than one of them reported seeing a blond boy from a distance who had the ability to rip a fire hydrant out of the ground. Sound like anyone you know?”

“There was some cell phone footage taken of that bank incident that was never released to the public,” the commissioner said. His voice was soft but his eyes were growing wide. “Didn't want to cause a panic or anything like that. I'm betting if I watch it now
looking
for Titan, I can find him.”

“He'd probably be hard to miss,” Alex said. “He likes to be the center of attention.”

“Could we get a copy of that cell phone video?” Carla asked.

“I'll have someone deliver it to your office first thing in the morning.” The commissioner's face went hard. “Can you do it? Beat them, that is? I've been in the same room as Shade and Volt. You can sense they're powerful. Predatory even.”

“I believe we can,” Lone Star said.

“We have to,” Alex said. “Or the city will be theirs. And that's just the beginning.”

The commissioner shook his head and rubbed his temples again, closing his eyes.

“I can have officers for you. When is this going down?”

“Tomorrow,” Lone Star said.

“Well,” the commissioner said with a slight smirk, “I guess I'd better start making the arrangements.”

18
ACTION FIGURES

“Y
ou know what's kind of strange?” Alex asked. “I think this is the first normal house I've ever been in.”

He flicked a piece of popcorn up into the air. From across a coffee table, Bug's eyes flashed and Zip raced through the room, snatching it in her legs.

“That's super weird,” Bug said. Zip tossed the morsel into a nearby trash can and landed on his head, watching for the next piece of food.

They sat on the floor in the upstairs den at Carla's house. None of them had been able to sleep after returning from the police station, and so they passed the time together, trying to think about anything except the battle ahead of them. They'd gone through tomorrow's plans over and over again, until they were etched into their thoughts. Now Alex just wanted to not think, to not worry about consequences or outcomes. From the way his teammates acted, he was sure they felt the same way. Gage and Kyle played chess as Kirbie flipped mindlessly through a stack of comic books. Misty and Mallory were downstairs somewhere. Amp paced around, sat for a few seconds, and then resumed pacing.

“What was your room at the underground base like?” Bug asked.

“Small.” Alex flicked another piece of popcorn, this time directing it around the room with his thoughts. Zip followed after it. “Well, at least it felt small.”

“My workshop was practically the size of this house, though,” Gage chimed in. He moved a piece across the board. “Checkmate.”

“Ugh,” Kyle said. “That's three wins for you. I think I'm done.”

“Don't give up now. You're actually much better than most players I've gone up against. You even managed to capture one of my bishops.”

“What about you?” Alex asked Bug.

The boy hadn't volunteered much information about his life before he'd shown up at the lake house other than that he doubted anyone really missed him. Bug was quiet for a few seconds, and then shrugged. “I spent most of my time outside, so my room was really big.” He smiled, eyes flashing. “Think fast. Zip's on to you.”

Alex flicked his finger, and the popcorn Zip was trailing broke into two pieces, jetting off in opposite directions.

“Hey,” Bug said. “No fair.”

There was a creak from the staircase, and Alex turned to see Mallory. She held her hands out in front of her. The tip of each finger was decorated with gobs of blue and white and gold.

“What happened to you?” Alex asked.

“Misty,” Mallory said. “And Rangers of Justice nail art. Or at least it was supposed to be.”

“Oh, no, no, no.” Kirbie shook her head. She jumped up and ushered the other girl away. “Let's find you some nail polish remover.”

“I think it was her first time. I should've realized I was in trouble when she wanted to test it out on me.”

The two of them disappeared into the bathroom just as Misty put herself together in the middle of the room.

“All right, Kirbie,” she said. “It's your lucky day. I—Hey, where'd she go?”

“I think you may have claimed your only victim for tonight,” Amp said, taking a seat where Kirbie had been and leafing through a few comics.

“I need a new opponent if you'd like me to teach you how to play chess,” Gage suggested.

“I'm
not
spending the night before tomorrow learning to play
chess
, thanks,” Misty said, throwing herself onto the couch.

“I'm telling you,” Carla's voice came from the stairs, “he's a superfan. He's got stuff I didn't even know
existed
until the internet. I'm guessing half of it wasn't even licensed.”

Carla, Lux, and Lone Star came up. They nodded hello to the others as they crossed the den to an adjoining bedroom, the one that Alex had found himself in following the groundbreaking ceremony.

“I thought we had a legal team that kept stuff like that from happening,” Lux said.

“If so, you need a
better
one.”

Alex leaned back to get a better view, watching as Lone Star stepped into the bedroom, staring at the poster of himself framed on the wall. On the bookshelf, there were all kinds of Rangers of Justice trinkets. Action figures, mugs, postcards, a model of Justice Tower—it was practically a shrine to the Rangers.

Lone Star stood very still just a few steps inside. Finally he spoke.

“I thought you never told him that I'm . . . that his
uncle
is Lone Star.”

“I didn't,” Carla said. “In fact, I made it a point to hardly ever mention the Rangers at all. He came to this on his own. And he's not the only one. Most of his friends are the same way. He's ten years old and the Rangers are practically his world. He was inconsolable the day Justice Tower fell.”

Alex and the others began to move closer to the doorway, trying to listen in on the conversation. Misty was the only one of them who gave up on stealth altogether, sticking her head halfway into the bedroom.

Lux walked over to the bookshelf. As her fingers slid over the edge of a Rangers lunch box, a smile appeared on her face, at first small and sad and then growing into a full-on grin. It faded quickly as she picked up a stuffed doll in her likeness.

“This thing is hideous,” she said. “I definitely never signed off on this. Look, this doll is wearing high-heeled boots. How would you fight crime in high-heeled boots?”

“You know, the people haven't abandoned you. You just have to remind them of who you are, and what you stand for,” Carla said. “I don't want to see toys of Shade and Titan in my son's hands.”

“You won't,” Lone Star said. “We'll make sure of it. We have to.”

Alex looked over at Amp, who grinned.

“Now come back downstairs,” Carla said. As she turned to the door, Misty sublimated, disappearing. “If you're addressing the world tomorrow, we need to clean you up a bit first. You look like you've been trapped in another plane of existence for a month.”

Lone Star smirked and made for the stairs. Carla and Lux followed.

“When we're done with Cloak, we can go after those toy makers,” he said.

“The true villains,” Lux agreed.

When the adults were halfway down to the first floor, Misty put herself back together in the bedroom, looking for the doll Lux had been talking about. Alex could hear her shuffling things around on the shelves as Mallory and Kirbie joined him back at the table, smelling of rubbing alcohol and laughing about something Alex hadn't heard.

“After tomorrow, do you think we'll get our own action figures?” Misty called into the den where the others were gathered.

“I don't know how they'd show off your powers,” Mallory said. “Or mine. Or Alex's for that matter.”

“Kirbie could have interchanging parts,” Bug said. “A wolf head and claws. I don't know how they'd do the bird, though.”

“The ingenious Gage,” Kyle said, “featuring a lab coat full of Gassers. Superbrain not included.”

“Yours could come with a seed packet,” Gage suggested.

“Amp's could have a speaker in its chest!” Misty said.

“Oh yeah? What would it say?” Amp asked.

“Stop! In the name of justice!” Alex proclaimed, with exaggerated authority.

“No, no,” Mallory jumped in. “What'd you say when you used your powers against us for the first time? At the bank . . .”

Amp's eyes fell to the carpet. He tried to hide a smile.

“Boom.”

“Yes! That's it!”

“Boom!” Kirbie cried out with a grin. “I forgot you were trying to make that a thing. Your signature line.”

“It wasn't a line,” Amp said in feigned defense. “It was my special move.”

“What's this?” Misty asked. She stood in the doorway of the bedroom, holding a plastic case in her hands.

“Oh, whoa,” Kyle said, coming to her side. “That's the old Rangers of Justice video game!”

“Wait, what?” Mallory asked.

“Yeah. It's supposed to be really bad. I've never even seen a copy before. It came out a few years after Victory Park. I think it's a collectible item now. It's super rare.”

“The Rangers were totally embarrassed by it,” Amp added. “Lone Star hated it. Apparently some company took a bunch of sound bites from interviews and used them in the game without their knowing it. They had to stop selling it in stores.”

“How did I miss this when I was going through all their stuff earlier?” Misty asked, her face practically glowing with excitement. “Can we play this thing?”

“We should be able to,” Kyle said. “The console up here is backward compatible so it'll play older games.”

Misty was on the ground in front of the TV in an instant. As she tossed the case aside, Alex pulled it to his hands with his thoughts. The front and back were covered in cartoon images of Lone Star, Lux, and Photon battling a horde of dragons and robots.

“You've got to be kidding me,” Alex murmured.

Onscreen, an image of the three Rangers appeared, squared off and pixilated. The game had obviously been made for an older system. The graphics were so bad that if it hadn't been for the flashing “Rangers of Justice” title, Alex might not have been able to make out who the people on the television were supposed to be at all.

“Welcome, Rangers of Justice!” Lone Star's voice boomed from the speakers.

“Ahhh, turn it down!” Kyle whispered as the others searched for the remote. “I do
not
want Lone Star taking this before I get a chance to play.”

Misty pressed a few buttons, and then the game started up. It was a side-scroller, her player not one of the actual Rangers, but instead a generic male character dressed in blue and white.

“You don't even get to play as Lone Star or someone?” Alex asked. “Lame.”

“I didn't even get to pick between being a boy or girl,” Misty said. Her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth a bit as she mashed on the controller, taking out waves of opponents.

“Was that a lizard man who just attacked you?” Bug asked. Zip landed on his shoulder and stared ahead, as if she was watching the gameplay, too. “What's with these bad guys?”

“It wasn't originally supposed to be a Rangers game,” Kyle said. “That's how it came out so fast. The people who made it just changed the main characters' clothes and added in the opening credits and stuff. I've read a lot about this game. If we get to the castle, you fight Dracula and Frankenstein. I think it's level three.”

“Frankenstein's
monster
, actually,” Gage corrected.

“What
ever
.” Kyle shoved Gage's arm a little.

“Oh, I'm definitely making it to level three,” Misty said. “Hey, I think this is two-player. Who wants to beat up lizard men with me?”

Kyle joined in, and over the course of the next hour they all took turns swapping in and out, plowing through the enemies. Alex found that his real-life combat skills didn't exactly translate to the video-game world—his character kept falling into holes or vats of lava instead of taking out the enemies.

He'd passed on the controller by the time they got to the final level, some space station full of high-tech robots with jets in their feet and spinning blades for hands. The walls and floor were all a dull gray. The doors opened and closed with slight
fwoosh
noises. He couldn't help but be reminded of the underground base. As if on cue, new enemies showed up onscreen. They were all identical figures dressed from head to toe in black, with masks obscuring their faces. Alex half expected that the next person to appear on screen would be a digital version of his mother or father, a pixelated trench coat flowing out behind them. For a moment his heart jumped, and a tingling anxiety coursed through his veins.

That'll be us tomorrow,
he thought.
One last level.

The entire room cheered when Misty took out the final dark figure, paving the way for the big boss battle. Alex watched the enemy's body on the screen, lying on the blank gray floor. It blinked twice, and then disappeared. He shuddered.