Fall of Heroes (22 page)

“Yeah,” Kyle said, “But it turns out we kind of ruined it by showing up at the museum and picking a fight with Cloak.”

“Oh yeah. I guess we did.”

“Besides,” Amp said, “everyone wants to celebrate the return of the
real
Rangers of Justice.”

They chatted for a while. Gage bought the Junior Rangers popcorn as thanks for the coats, and Alex bought Misty popcorn because Gage hadn't. Finally the music stopped, and the crowd burst into applause as the police commissioner took the stage.

“Good evening,” he said. “And welcome to Sterling City's first Winter Fest.”

Everyone cheered.

“Now, I know I'm not the person all of you are here to see, but I want to take a moment to acknowledge something. You'll notice that many of the people you'd usually see standing up here with me are absent. It is the utmost priority of the city government to flush out all remaining officials with ties to the Cloak Society. Many of them simply disappeared following Cloak's defeat in Victory Park, but I assure you that those who remain will be discovered.”

There was a smattering of applause across the crowd.

“But you can read about that later. Without further ado, I'd like to hand things over to our special guests.”

The Rangers of Justice were an awe-inspiring sight as they climbed the side stairs onto the stage. A golden cape hung from Lone Star's shoulders. Light glinted in his eyes and glowed around his palms as he waved to the crowd. Behind him, Photon grinned. Lux's hair shone with an unnatural brightness, as if there was a strand of light for every hair on her head. Their powers were returning. Slowly, but returning nonetheless.

It took several minutes for the crowd's excitement to die down enough for Lone Star to speak.

“Thank you, Commissioner, and good evening, citizens of Sterling City and beyond.” His voice was rich and low. “There are many changes in our future. Historians will look back at this period of time and judge us based on what we do or do not learn from the Cloak Society's rise and fall. The very question of
how
the Rangers of Justice fit into this city—even this world—needs to be examined, and subjected to some sort of regulation.”

“You're our protectors! Our superheroes!” someone shouted from the crowd. Others joined in, until Lone Star was thumping on the end of the microphone, trying to calm everyone down.

“We have been called those things many times,” Lone Star continued. “But it wasn't me, or Lux, or even Photon who you have to thank for Cloak's defeat.” He raised his palm, and a light spread out from it, falling on Alex and the others. The people around them stepped away, forming a circle around them. “These eight heroes are the reason any of us are here today. Even when I thought all hope was lost, they persevered. Where there was nothing but darkness, they believed in the light.”

Their golden pins shone. Alex was caught off guard by the sudden attention and tensed up. He'd never actually been in the spotlight before—had hardly ever been out in
public
without some ulterior motive. His eyes widened and mouth fell open a bit.

“Smile, Alex,” Kirbie said, pushing his shoulder. “You look terrified.”

The Junior Rangers all stood with perfect posture, their smiles wide and their chins up. Bug was beaming, but he looked down sheepishly. Gage was unfazed, and Misty grinned from ear to ear. She performed a small curtsy. Alex's eyes met Mallory's. The girl seemed hesitant, but after looking at each other for a moment, her lips curled up in a big smile.

“These are your true heroes,” Lone Star said from the stage. “These are the people who rescued us. And every day that we live from now on, we owe in part to them. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the future of Sterling City.”

In the crowd, someone started clapping, and then suddenly there was a roar of applause, followed by shouts and cheers. Alex looked up at Lone Star, who grinned back at him, applauding along with everyone else. He felt his cheeks burn as he smiled, and the sound of the crowd washed over him.

 

After the speech, Alex and the others were swarmed with well-wishers and reporters. Everyone wanted to know their names, their powers, where they'd come from, and what they were going to do next. All of them were quite overwhelmed, and with Lone Star's blessing and a little help from Misty, they snuck away from the street festival and ended up on the steps of the Sterling City Library, catching their breath.

“I think I talked to more people tonight than in the rest of my life combined,” Alex said.

“You really didn't do much talking.” Amp had a joking grin. “It was more ‘staring straight ahead and nodding.' We're really going to have to work on your public speaking skills.”

“Some of us weren't trained to be TV-ready,” Mallory said. “But you've probably got a point.”

“We should get hair and makeup people!” Misty said.

“How's life underground going?” Kirbie asked. “It's weird not seeing you guys every waking moment.”

“It's great to have my own room again.” Mallory turned to Misty. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Misty said. “You snore.”

“That's totally a lie.”

“It's nice to be back in my workshop,” Gage said.

“I have to admit, though, it's a little . . .” Mallory struggled for the right word.

“Boring?” Amp suggested.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“All I wanted when we were trying to defeat Cloak was to be worry free,” Alex said. “But now that I'm not fighting for my life half the time, I feel kind of lazy. Or at least like my powers are getting rusty.”

“We should start training together again,” Amp said. “We've barely scratched the surface of how we can work together.”

“Too bad we've scared every wannabe villain out of town for now,” Kirbie said. “I could use a good fight.”

There was a moment of silence before Alex spoke again.

“Hey, Kyle. Have they made any progress trying to find Legion?”

Kyle shrugged.

“Not really. I mean, I hear the police have gotten a few tips and stuff, but they haven't really turned up anything.” He paused for a beat, and his eyes grew a little wider. “But
I
could definitely look into it and see if anything stuck out to me.”

“We should probably follow up on any leads the police checked out,” Bug added. “In case we see something they missed.”

“It's entirely possible they stumbled on some sort of Cloak safe house and didn't even realize it,” Mallory said.

“But we know how Cloak operates,” Alex said, standing up. “We can track Legion down. We've done it before and we can definitely do it again.”

“And who knows what's coming next?” Amp jumped to his feet. “Cloak probably accidentally inspired a whole new generation of supervillains. I mean, you said Shade mentioned that Cloak had people across the country, right? What if they band together? Even if they don't have superpowers, they'd still be a huge threat.”

“Plus, there's still the Guild of Daggers in New York,” Kirbie added with a grin.

“Tomorrow,” Kyle said. “No, tonight. I'll start looking into it tonight.”

“If you come to the underground base, I can help you hack into any of the files the police won't hand over to you,” Gage suggested.

“Gage,” Kyle said with a sigh, “that's definitely not at all legal.”

“Yeah, but it'll get Legion,” Misty said. “I mean, it's not going to hurt anyone if we look at a couple of things online, right?”

“We're going to have to have a really serious talk about superhero ethics,” Amp said, shaking his head.

“We'll come over tomorrow,” Kyle said, ignoring Amp. “I wish we had some sort of shuttle set up between the hotel and the underground base.”

“I could look into the possibility of rerouting the transportation system that currently leads to the safe house through the Gloom—,” Gage started.

“NO!” half of them shouted in unison.

“It was just a thought,” Gage murmured with a smirk.

“We can just build a
new
base,” Misty said. “With giant rooms and closets, and a swimming pool, and Kyle could have a big garden, and—”

“Whoa, whoa.” Amp cut her off, glancing at his watch. “Let's talk closets and pools tomorrow. Lone Star and the others are probably wondering where we are. We should get back.”

“Let's walk,” Kyle said as he and the others got up.

“But it's
so far
,” Misty said.

“It's like, five blocks at most,” Mallory corrected her.

“Come on, Misty,” Bug said. “I'll buy you a hot chocolate.”

The girl let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Okay, fine.”

They all started down the steps except for Kirbie, who grabbed Alex's coat sleeve and held him back.

“Do you have a second?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said. “I've got nothing but time.”

She reached into her tote bag and pulled out a small package wrapped in brown paper.

“Here.” She handed the bundle over to him.

“What is it?”

“You could probably just
open
it and find out.”

Alex stared at it, turning the package over in his hands. He took a few deep breaths, leaning on the meditation techniques Kirbie had taught him and the others on the lawn of the lake house. The blue tint faded from his vision. Whatever it was, he wanted to see it as clearly as possible. Carefully he tore open the wrapping. Inside was a uniform top. It was dark gray, with the familiar texture of a fabric woven with protective ballistic fibers. He unfurled it, holding it out in front of him with his powers. There was a hood connected to the back collar. On the chest was a small white starburst with a gleaming golden sword on top of it, right over where his heart would be.

“I had our uniform guy make it when we had the coats done,” Kirbie said. “It's just a prototype. I wanted to see what you thought before we made them for the rest of your team.”

“
My
team?” Alex asks.

“Your Knights.” She smoothed her blond hair back with one hand. “It's sort of based on an old Ranger uniform. Misty came up with ‘Knights' back at the lake house. We can change it if you want. Any of it.” She looked at him hopefully.

Alex took the uniform top in his hands. He stared at it, unsure of what to say.

“What are the Knights supposed to do?”

“Think of them as a special branch of the Rangers. The people who can do stuff behind the scenes while the Rangers of Justice are the public face. Like the kinds of things we were just talking about. Tracking down Legion.”

“This is . . . ,” Alex said, but he didn't have the words to explain how he was feeling, the drumming in his chest.

“I've talked with all the Rangers about it, and they're on board if you and the others are. Photon would technically oversee everything, but you'd be team leader.”

“He does seem to get along really well with Gage and the others.”

“The Rangers have sworn to protect Sterling City. That leaves a lot of places in need of heroes. Lone Star's specifically concerned about this Guild of Daggers in New York. What do you say? After we track down Legion, I say we start investigating who they are and what they're up to.”

“We?” Alex asked. “So you're a Knight too? I figured you'd all go back to just being Junior Rangers.”

“Are you kidding, Alex? After all this, of course I'm with you. We can operate out of the old Cloak compound, or the new Justice Tower—whatever you prefer,” Kirbie said, getting excited. “Whatever feels right for a home base.”

Home.

“We could do good in this world,” Kirbie said. Her eyes dropped to the ground. “Besides, we make a good team.”

Alex smiled at this. His eyes went down to the ground, too. His face suddenly felt hot.

“So? What do you say?”

Alex rubbed his fingers over the gold sword on the chest of the uniform top. He looked back up at Kirbie, who stared at him in anticipation.

“I say let's do it. This is perfect.”

She grinned. “We've got bright superhero futures ahead of us.”

“I hope so,” Alex said. “But if the rest of this uniform is made up of tights and spandex shorts, I'm changing my mind.”

He flashed her a smile. She laughed.

“You guys!” Misty shouted from halfway down the block. “What are you doing? Come on!”

“Your Knights,” Kirbie said, gesturing toward the others. She jogged to join them.

Alex stood by himself for a moment. The blue tint faded into his vision again, the world crackling around him. In that moment there was such a well of energy in him he was afraid his powers might cause him to explode. He exhaled slowly and smiled, then started down the steps. His teammates were waiting.

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