Fall of Heroes (21 page)

22
THE FATE OF STERLING CITY

T
hey soared over the trees and paths and lawns of Victory Park. The air dried out Alex's eyes as he tried to catch sight of his mother. She had to be somewhere near them. The tunnel underground was all but caved in after Barrage's explosion, and Photon certainly wasn't going to be flying her anywhere. They had to find her before she made it to a vehicle and had a chance to escape. This would be their only chance. If they didn't catch her now, Alex had no doubt that the next time he saw her she'd be putting some other plot into motion. It would be too late.

Kirbie began to dive, causing Alex's body to jerk back. Her avian eyes had spotted Shade, who ran toward the edge of the park, almost to the street. Alex focused on his mother as they drew closer, preparing to stop her dead in her tracks.

Shade must have sensed they were there. She turned and fired several shots from a laser pistol over her shoulder at them. Caught off guard, Kirbie swooped and twisted, making sure the shots missed Alex, but a stray bolt hit one of her wings and sent the two of them tumbling down side by side. Alex lost his telekinetic focus on Shade as his body was torn from Kirbie's grip, and he found himself falling very quickly to the ground below. He covered his head and pushed at the earth with his thoughts, landing with a relatively soft thud on the grass.

Kirbie alighted beside him, changing back to her human form.

“You all right?”

Alex nodded, already on his feet, moving in the direction they'd been flying. “We have to get her. If she disappears into the city, we'll never be able to find her.”

They sprinted wordlessly through the park and out onto the street, where Shade began to fire at them once more.

“Now who's running, huh?” Kirbie shouted as they chased after her, weaving to avoid shots from her laser pistol. “There's nowhere for you to go.”

Alex tried to wrap his thoughts around his mother's feet, but with the fall and her lasers and the slight ringing in his head from her previous psychic attack, he was having trouble focusing on the fast-moving woman. Instead he brought everything he could down around her. She leaped over streetlamps that he sent sweeping toward her, and dodged trash cans.

“Why, dear, it's like you're not even really
trying
to hit me,” she shouted over her shoulder as she jumped on and then over a flying park bench.

They reached a grassy section of land, where Shade turned and stopped. Her eyes flashed, and Alex heard Kirbie make a strange noise behind him. He turned to see her frozen, though her eyes were wide.

“I can't move my—,” she started, but something small and black exploded in the grass in front of her, causing her to fly through the air. She landed in the bushes clear on the other side of the street at an entrance to Victory Park.

“Kirbie!” Alex shouted.

“I'm okay,” she yelled back, but as she tried to stand, she stumbled forward, one of her legs giving out.

“I swear that girl has nine lives,” Shade said with contempt. “I wonder what number we're on now.”

“You . . . ,” Alex muttered, clenching his fists.

“Oh, come now, son. It was only a concussion grenade. The only weapon I had left. Perhaps I should just shut down her brain and—”

Alex shot his hands forward, hitting his mother with a bolt of telekinetic energy that sent her flying onto the steps of the building behind her. She let out a groan as she landed on the cement, and Alex pulled the laser pistol from her hand, tossing it far from her reach.

Shade let out a small, angry laugh.

“Of course we'd end up here.”

For the first time, Alex realized where they were. Shade was getting to her feet on the steps of Silver Bank, where he'd failed to open a vault door weeks before and had then saved the life of a Junior Ranger. Where the unraveling of all the things he knew to be true and right began.

Alex felt a small tug at his thoughts. It was something that would have gone unnoticed to anyone who hadn't grown up with a telepath for a parent. He immediately let his powers flare up around his mind, imagining it in a powerful blue box of energy, one that his mother could never break through.

“Don't worry,” Shade said. Her voice was tinged with defeat, but Alex wasn't about to let his guard down. “I honestly just wanted to know what you were thinking. Do you realize what's so amazing about that imaginary blue box you keep your secrets hidden away in?”

Alex stayed silent. He'd never really thought much about it. It was a simple use of his powers, something he'd done many times before. But he didn't know how it worked, really. Just that it
did
.

“That box doesn't exist,” his mother said. “It's fueled by your powers, sure. But it's imaginary. You can't keep your brain locked up. There's no way to wrap your entire mind in telekinetic power without killing yourself. What keeps me out is your
belief
that I can't get in. That's all.”

Alex glanced to the side. Kirbie was still struggling to stand.

“You know, your father was still fighting back there when I left. He could be
dead
now. Don't you care about that?”

“Of course I do,” Alex said. “And if you were worried about him, why did you leave?”

“To survive,” Shade answered immediately, her voice growing harsher. “To carry on our mission.”

“Just turn yourself in, Mother. Please. I'm asking you as your son, not your enemy.”

“So we're back to this stalemate?” she asked. “They can't keep me locked up. There's no place that can hold me. They'd never even
get
me to a facility if they had one. Their minds would be mine. I'm more powerful than any other person on this planet, Alex.” She shook her head. “Except for you, right? So it's
your
choice. Are you going to end me here and now, or let me walk free across this earth? Because I guarantee if you do that, you have not seen the last of me. The Cloak Society lives on. It's in my blood. It's in
your
blood. We will lurk in the shadows until you have all but forgotten about us, and
that
is when we will strike. We have rebuilt ourselves before, and in Phantom's name I swear we will do it again.”

Alex's mother glowed a brilliant blue in his vision. He held her there, a fragile body, as pure energy streamed out of his eyes. He lifted her, almost subconsciously, off the ground, until she floated a few feet in the air. She was right.

His thoughts tightened around her.

Shade winced, staring back at him. She smiled, then closed her eyes and tilted her head back, raising her face to the sun.

Alex let her go. She dropped to the stairs with a thud.

“You'd like that, wouldn't you?” Alex asked softly. “For me to kill you. To prove that I was the weapon you'd raised me to be. It'd be like some sort of final proof you were right. But I won't give you that satisfaction.”

Shade let out a grunt, staring up at him with narrowed eyes. Her words dripped with pure spite. “So, what
are
you going to do, son?”

“Nothing,” a baritone voice said.

Alex turned to find Lone Star behind him, the Umbra Gun in his hands. There was a deep electronic sound as he fired the weapon.

Shade's eyes went silver as she scrambled to her feet, but it was too late. The bolt of dark energy hit her in the chest and began to spread over her body. She reached out to Alex and managed to take a few steps toward him before the oily black seized her legs. As she stared at her son, her eyes faded back to normal. Human.

“For the glory,” she said, her voice betraying the smallest hint of a tremble as the darkness rose over the sides of her head, framing her face.

“Hail Cloak,” Alex whispered instinctively, his eyes wide.

And then his mother was nothing but a silhouette that melted onto the ground and scattered into the dark corners of Silver Bank and the shrubs and his own shadow.

Alex didn't move. He felt as though he couldn't, as if some force was keeping him frozen in place. He stared at the spot where his mother had just been standing. There were only steps there now. They were the same steps he'd stood on during his first mission when he'd proudly proclaimed himself to be Alexander Knight, fourth-generation member of the Cloak Society—a moment that now seemed like it had happened long ago, or in some sort of waking dream.

His body shivered. It was an unexpected sensation, since he wasn't particularly cold. It was simply that he didn't know what else to do, couldn't even figure out how he was supposed to think. More than anything, he suddenly felt lost.

Lone Star stepped next to him. He stood beside Alex for what seemed like a long time before finally speaking.

“I'm sorry, Alex. If you have to hate someone for what just happened, you can hate
me
. But know that your mother's fate rests on my conscience, not yours.”

Alex couldn't speak. He turned to look for Kirbie. She was standing with one foot twisted awkwardly to the side as she leaned on Misty, whose hair was wild and sticking out in every direction.

“Is everyone okay?” Alex asked. His voice was wobbly and parched. “My father?”

“For the most part, everyone's fine,” Lone Star said. “A little battered and bruised. We have Volt. Barrage is in the Gloom. I think the Legion boy got away. Everyone else is captured. We lost Zip. Bug's pretty inconsolable right now, but Mallory and Kyle are with him.”

Alex nodded. “What about Amp?”

“He's got a few bad burns, but he'll be fine.” Lone Star reached a hand out to put on Alex's shoulder. “Lux and a few police officers are taking him to the hospital just in case. Gage went with them. I think his arm needs to be looked at again. What can I do for you?”

“I'm ready to go home,” Alex said. It was the first thing that came to his mind.

“Of course,” Lone Star said. “Where do you mean?”

Alex looked up at the man and exhaled a short laugh through his nose.

“I have no idea.”

EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER

A
lex Knight stared at his father. Volt sat across from him, behind a thick layer of bulletproof glass. In the background was a small wooden bed and table piled high with books and journals. The room itself was covered in black rubber tiles. The man who could conduct and control electricity had been rendered powerless by a few materials from a hardware store.

Neither of the two spoke for what felt to Alex like a very long time. He couldn't get over how different his father looked with several weeks' worth of beard on his face. The whiskers made him look warmer somehow.

Finally Volt broke the silence.

“Has there been any word about your mother?” His voice was piped in through speakers hidden somewhere in the walls.

Alex hesitated at first, unsure whether this was something he was allowed to tell his father. But there was nothing, really, that Volt could do with the information, and deep down, Alex didn't want him having to wonder about his wife's fate.

“No,” he said. “But we can get into the Gloom now that Gage and Photon have reverse engineered the Umbra Gun. We've been in contact with Amp's parents, so we've got eyes on the inside.”

“You mean they're still alive in the Gloom after all these years?”

“Not
very
alive, from what I hear,” Alex said. “They're scouring the Gloom looking for Mom. So far they haven't found any trace of her. Or Barrage. They've got Ghost locked away inside there somewhere, though. There's been talk of sending a team inside, but . . .”

His voice trailed off. Volt nodded.

“It would be dangerous. Not worth the risk.”

“I'm sure she's all right,” Alex said. He hoped this was true, despite everything that had happened. “She's not exactly someone who gives up.”

“I have no doubt that she's plotting her way back into this world right now.” Volt smiled to himself, looking at the floor. It was a sad look, one that Alex couldn't easily interpret. “The Gloom must be a nightmare for her. Old enemies as wardens. An entire world to rule, but no one to rule over. It's quite the prison.”

Alex stared hard at his father. There was a question that had been lingering in the back of his mind for some time now, but it wasn't one that he knew how to ask. He wasn't even sure he really wanted to know the answer. His eyebrows drew together, crinkling his forehead. Volt took notice.

“What is it, son?”

“I just . . . Obviously Mother used her powers to control people and get her way. She told me that she did it to other Cloak members sometimes. Pushed them one way or the other. Is it possible her powers were influencing people around her even when she didn't know she was doing it?”

“Are you asking because you want a free pass for the first twelve years of your life?”

“No,” Alex said, meeting his father's eyes. “I'm asking because I want to know if she was controlling you all this time.”

Confusion flashed on Volt's face before being replaced by a small grin. His eyes looked almost proud.

“Son,” Volt said slowly, “does it matter, really? What's done is done. The Cloak Society as it existed for generations is no more. Even if I
wanted
to blame my actions on your mother's powers, how could I do that knowing that you were able to break away from her influence? Not only hers—the influence of all of us. How weak would that make me look?”

Alex wasn't sure what to make of that answer.

“I'll let you know if we find her,” he said. With that he rose from the uncomfortable metal chair he'd been sitting in and made his way to the door. Just before he reached it, Volt spoke again.

“When did she tell you that? About using her powers against the High Council sometimes.”

“Not too long ago,” Alex said. “I was sitting in the same room you're in now. Only I was cuffed to a metal chair.”

Volt started to say something several times, then stopped. Finally he sighed.

“I hope that in the end, you find some of what we taught you to be worthwhile.”

Alex was still, searching his father's face, trying to crack it. He knocked on the metal door twice. It slid open with a slight
whoosh
, and he left.

“Did you get the answers you were looking for?” Photon asked. His fingers flew over an electronic screen in his hands, though he was looking at Alex.

“I don't know,” Alex said. “I think so.”

They stood in the lowest level of what had once been the Cloak Society's secret underground base, home to the High Council's apartments, the formal dining room where Alex had taken countless meals, and a handful of maximum-
security cells. Now the entire level was a prison, the base's brig. His father still lived there, but in a cell. Novo was held in a huge pressurized glass chamber in Phantom's former quarters.

The world was still trying to figure out how to react to the crimes of the Cloak Society. The footage Alex and his team put together and sent out had played over and over again on the news, which had helped people understand why the New Rangers suddenly disappeared, but had opened up an unending slew of questions. Until someone figured out what to do with the supervillains, they'd remain there, on the bottom floor of the place they had once called home. Photon served as their jailor and temporary overseer of the underground base. He'd taken Shade and Volt's old apartment as his own and cut off all unauthorized access to the bottom level.

“Gage's design for Volt's cell was genius in its simplicity. I believe he said he was inspired by a room the Omegas had designed for Amp.”

“Yeah, except with acoustic tiles instead of rubber.”

“He hasn't been any trouble.” Photon nodded his head toward another door. “Not like those two.”

Barrage's old apartment had been reinforced with titanium plating. Now it was home to his children, Julie and Titan, until other arrangements could be made.

“How are his injuries?” Alex asked, gesturing toward the door. “Last time I looked in, he was still a little . . . gross.”

“Much better,” Photon said. “Have a look for yourself if you like.”

Alex lifted a hatch on the door and peered in through a rectangle of thick glass.

Titan sat on a couch, staring at a television. His skin was pale pink and smooth, and he had no eyebrows that Alex could see. The hair on his head grew unevenly in blond patches. When he noticed Alex, his face contorted. He was off the couch in an instant, hurtling toward him. When he got within a few yards of the door, he was jerked backward, tumbling over the couch and into the back wall.

“The magnetic field's holding,” Alex said, looking at Photon.

“He won't be getting anywhere close to the door unless I allow him to.”

When Alex turned back, Julie was standing in front of the small window. Her black hair was twisted out in several directions, her eyes and smile wild. She said nothing but dragged one clawed finger back and forth across the metal door. A screeching sound filled the air.

“That
noise
,” Titan yelled from somewhere at the back of the room. “I'm so sick of that stupid noise.”

“All right,” Alex said, letting the hatch slam shut. “I'm ready to go back up.”

“Back to your room, or to the first floor?” Photon asked as they stepped into the elevator.

“First floor. We're all meeting in Gage's workshop before we head out.”

After the battle with the New Rangers, Alex and his fellow Cloak defects were left in a strange position. As members of Cloak, they'd always had the High Council to direct them. In the days after Justice Tower, their goals had been clear, even when they didn't know what action to take. Rescue the Rangers. Defeat Cloak. But no more. So while Lone Star, Lux, Bug, and the Junior Rangers moved into hotel rooms and regrouped, drawing up plans for a new headquarters, Alex, Mallory, Gage, and Misty went back to the underground base to help oversee everything that was happening in their former home.

City officials took in the Gammas. The remaining Unibands were arrested. Many of them claimed to have never been willing servants of Cloak—that Shade had turned them into mindless drones—but there was really no way to know for sure. Carla and her team in the city would be spending months just trying to figure out if it was even possible to put them all on trial—though they'd already begun proceedings against Misty's mother, who police had captured as she attempted to flee town. Between that and trying to help out all the people Cloak had detained or flat-out kidnapped during their short reign, her office was overwhelmed. The Tutor was the only person whose processing had been easy. As someone with the power to never forget a single thing he'd read, he made a deal to go on record with an oral history of the Cloak Society. In return, he was promised that the rest of his life, though lived under constant scrutiny, would be spent somewhere comfortable and full of books.

Alex found Gage and Mallory in the first-floor workshop. The inventor's arm was still in a cast, signed by all of his teammates from the battle in Victory Park. Misty had decorated the signatures. Alex's sparkled with blue marker. Small yellow flowers surrounded Kyle's. Lone Star's shimmered with gold glitter.

“Your painting's gone,” Alex said, nodding to the blank wall above Gage's workstation.

“The Rembrandt?” Gage asked. “Technically it was my father's, but yes. They took it out this morning. Apparently it actually belonged to a museum in Boston. I think half the Tutor's library has already been claimed by various institutions and private collectors across the globe. We've accidentally created quite a stir in the art world.”

“Apparently being stolen by Cloak made them even bigger collector's pieces,” Mallory said. “People are so weird.”

Alex looked around. “Do I need to go pull Misty away from the TV again?”

“That reminds me,” Gage said. “We're not actually
paying
for that satellite feed right now. I should talk to Photon about getting us an account or something. I'm guessing it would be frowned upon if he found out we were stealing television.”

“She's down there changing,” Mallory said. “We went shopping with the Junior Rangers this afternoon while you were going through stuff in the War Room.” She took a white box off one of Gage's workbenches and held it out to him. “Here. This is for you.”

Alex looked a little confused but took the box and lifted the lid off with his thoughts. He dug through a few layers of tissue paper before pulling out a navy peacoat. On the right chest pocket was a small golden pin in the shape of a starburst.

“The Rangers had them made for us,” Mallory explained. “We all got one.” She pointed to a stool by Gage's workstation, where two more coats had been tossed.

Alex smiled and slipped it on. It fit perfectly.

“I don't suppose it's bulletproof or has protective plating in it like the trench coats do,” he said.

“You can just
enjoy
the present, Alex.” Mallory shook her head. “You don't have to go into battle wearing it.”

“I can always see about reinforcing them later, if you like,” Gage added.

Misty appeared beside Alex. She wore a dark sweater and jeans under her Ranger-supplied peacoat, with a giant purple-and-gray-plaid scarf tied around her neck. A shiny silver headband held her hair back. She looked up at Alex expectantly.

“You look really nice, Misty,” he said.

She seemed to be satisfied by this answer, and only then noticed that he had on his peacoat as well.

“Look!” she said, pointing at his gold starburst. “We're twinsies!”

“Oh, good. Everyone's here,” Photon said as the doors to Gage's workshop slid open. “We should get going if we don't want to be late.”

“It's a pity there are so many of us,” Gage said, grabbing his new coat and tossing Mallory hers. “I'd like to ride in one of the Italian sports cars before they're taken away.”

Photon raised an eyebrow.

“If you want, I can take you out in one tomorrow,” he offered. “We can have a little joyride to take a break from cataloging the armory. I admit that I've been wanting to get behind the wheel of a few of these machines while they're still here.”

“YES!” Gage blurted out immediately. He composed himself a bit before adding, “I mean, if we have the time.”

“If all the cars are going, pretty soon Misty will be our only way of getting around again,” Alex said as he followed the others into the garage, which connected to the surface through a long underground tunnel.

“I am
not
your taxi,” Misty said. She let out an exaggerated sigh. “We're going to have to have a serious talk about misting privileges sometime soon.”

 

Tremendous crowds milled about the arts district north of Victory Park. They stopped at pop-up shops and sipped hot cider. Music played from speakers dotting every block. Chatter filled the air. After pulling into a reserved parking spot, Photon left to find Lone Star, and Alex's group met up with Kirbie, Kyle, Amp, and Bug near the front of a stage. Everyone was wearing their new coats.

“They all fit!” Kirbie said.

“These are
amazing
,” Misty said.

“They're great, right?” Kyle asked, looking down at the golden starburst over his heart.

“Definitely,” Alex agreed. He pointed to the canvas tote bag Kirbie had over her shoulder. “What's in the bag?”

“It's in case I want to get some souvenirs or something,” she said. “It's a
celebration
, Alex.”

She nodded up to a banner at the top of the stage that read
WINTER FEST
.

“Didn't the city just have a street fair last month?” Mallory asked. “A
Fall
Festival?”