Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition (33 page)

Jason was still down there, somewhere below her. Tears leaked from her eyes to freeze on the inside of her goggles. She’d never see him again, never make love with him again. She hoped he wouldn’t see her fall. It would tear him apart. He was such a sweet boy.

An image of his face drifted past her eyes with such clarity that she gasped.
Hallucinating already
, she thought.
At least I’ll have a lovely view on the way down
. She somehow managed to turn onto her back. That way she didn’t have to see the ground as it rushed up toward her. It felt almost like the air buoyed her up, like she floated on seawater. The dark spots in her vision annoyed her, though, and she shook her head a little to clear them. Most of them vanished except for one. At first she thought it was the remains of the Destroyer suit as it tumbled after her, but then she realized it was getting closer. She wondered what could fall faster than her.

As it got closer, she realized it wasn’t falling, it was diving. It was the
Bettie
, screaming down in a vertical power dive.
What a beautiful sight
, Sally thought,
but this must be what a bug sees right before it hits the windshield
. As the
Bettie
drew even with her, she could see into the cockpit where Ace had shed her flight helmet, her black hair matted with sweat. The jet drifted further down until Sally couldn’t see it anymore. She felt the wash of heat from its engines for a moment. Then silence surrounded her—even the noise of the air rushing past her dulled to almost nothing.

Something blocked the sunlight, seeming to swallow her. She bumped against something firm and unyielding and screamed. Instead of a bone-shattering impact, it wasn’t any harder than if she’d fallen off a bed. The whistling in her ears stopped. Suddenly she realized where she’d landed. Ace had somehow managed to fly beneath her and had gotten her to fall right into the rear airlock.

“
Hang on
,” Ace called over the speakers. “
No time to wait for you to get into restraints
.” The engines shrieked in protest as Ace fed them as much fuel as they could take and then some. The
Bettie
began to heave over and pull out of the dive into a spiraling turn that shed momentum.

Sally’s vision blurred and everything went fuzzy-red as blood pooled in her head. She felt a jarring impact and the next thing she knew, Ace knelt beside her inside the airlock.

“Holy shit,” said the diminutive pilot. “I didn’t know if that was going to work or not. I need a raise.”

Then Jason was there. He held her in his arms and everything was better. She struggled to pull her goggles and breath mask off with fingers that throbbed from near-frostbite. He tore his own mask off and then he kissed her and held her as if he might never let her go again.

They heard a loud crash outside the plane. Ace jumped and looked out a porthole. “Just the remains of the Destroyer suit.”

“He still… got away,” said Sally in a voice hoarse from the cold.

“Well, he’ll have to build a new suit now. That’ll take some time at least,” said Jason.

“The reactor?” Sally’s entire body tingled in an unpleasant way. She suspected she looked like one big bruise from burst capillaries.

“Blueshift is working on it. Stratocaster is helping him. The rest of them are just kind of pushing buttons and pulling levers as he tells them to,” said Jason. “They say they’re going to get it shut down before… before it’s too late.”

“Of course they say that,” said Sally, whose vision started to tunnel and spin. “They’re superheroes.”

She heard Jason’s voice from a long way off as she drifted into unconsciousness. “So are you, babe. So are you.”

Epilogue

I, (insert name), having been appointed a member of Just Cause under the conditions indicated in this document, do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear that I will use every power at my disposal to protect those who need protection, to aid those who need assistance, and to bring to justice those who require it; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the position on which I am about to enter, so help me God.

-
The Just Cause Appointment Acceptance and Oath of Office
 

March, 2004

Denver, Colorado

Four memorial services took place for the heroes who fell in the battle.

In spite of his lost past, Jay Road had touched many lives in the few years he had been part of the Just Cause organization. His girlfriend came out from Kansas City and sat in the front row, her head bowed in sadness over the man she’d only barely begun to know.

Eric Lu, Forcestar, was mourned by his parents and two younger brothers. His father cried more than the rest of them combined.

Trix and Esther were awarded honorary memberships in Just Cause for their valiant efforts in service to their country. The Lucky Seven would be six for many months before they found someone who could fill the void Trix left behind. The members of Divine Right sequestered themselves, and prayed for guidance in their time of loss.

None of Stacey’s injuries were life-threatening, and all healed fully under Grace Devereaux’s watchful eyes.

Only Jack returned to the site of the compound before Guatemalan authorities—a phrase that he delighted in ridiculing—took over. He spent a week sifting through the entire compound, searching for any evidence of Heinrich Kaiser or his grand scheme of conquest. He returned empty-handed, his normally cheerful demeanor subdued.

“He’s out there somewhere,” he said. “I’ll bet anything you like we haven’t seen the last of that man or his evil plans.”

Nobody took his bet.

Juice took considerable time in conference with the Director of Homeland Security. Part of the time was spent in debriefing and explanations of what went wrong. Any time people died during involvement in government operations, someone took the heat, and the obvious culpability lay with Juice, who had planned the entire operation. The Director relented because by some miracle the events had avoided attention from the mainstream press and only made a small blip on the internet news community.

The rest of Juice’s discussions certainly involved the future of Just Cause. The team of seven had been whittled down to five in just over thirty hours. The Director talked about the possibility of recombining the Second Team with Just Cause, but Juice argued against it. A larger team was unwieldy and made a bigger target.
Well then
, the Director said,
why not transfer someone from the Second Team to fill out your ranks? Name your selection and it’s done
. Juice was against that idea as well. The Second Team held a good balance of powers and personalities. To break it up would only serve to weaken it.

Juice did want a new member as part of his team; someone who had been instrumental in dealing with both the Antimatter Woman crisis and the Guatemalan incident. The Director approved and signed a waiver.

#

In the three weeks since Guatemala, Sally’s bruising faded and she felt more or less back to her normal self. She and Jason spent a lot of time together since the incident. In fact, she spent more time in his room than she did in hers, which provided Jack and Sondra no end of amusement.

Sondra broke the news to her. “You’re on the team full-time, as of tomorrow morning if you want it,” she said over a cup of the tar she called coffee. It was unseasonably warm and she and Sally sat outside and enjoyed the spring-like temperatures and sunshine.

“You mean, officially?” Sally asked.

“The Director gave approval to waive your internship, based on your exemplary record to date.”

Sally gave a bitter laugh. “Exemplary record. I let Destroyer get away. Again.”

“Lots of people have ‘let’ Destroyer get away. He’s not an easy catch. However, in twenty-odd years, nobody’s peeled him out of his armor the way you did. He probably has a replacement suit, of course—he’s smart enough to do that—but if he doesn’t, it could be years before we see him again. And like the rest of us,” Sondra smiled, “he’s not getting any younger either.”

“I never thought of it like that.” Sally sipped on a mocha latte Jack had made especially for her.

“That’s what makes you such a great addition, Sally. You do what you must, every time without fail, and afterward you question whether you could have done it better. Constant self-improvement is the mark of a true hero.”

Sally turned away so Sondra wouldn’t see her blush.

“So do you want to go through with it?” Sondra swallowed down the last dregs of her drink and shook out her wings.

“Yeah. I really do,” said Sally. “All my life, I wanted to be in Just Cause.”

“Can’t say I blame you, especially with your heritage. Which brings up another point,” Sondra leaned back to turn her face toward the sun. “You do have a lot of history in your family. Your induction to the team is going to be a media event.”

“A media event?” The phrase made her feel a little queasy.

“Don’t worry,” Sondra patted her arm. “Jack’s handling it.”

Pure terror washed through Sally’s mind. “
Jack
’s handling it?” She put her head in her hands. “I’m so not ready for this.”

She was appointed in the auditorium where Just Cause had press conferences. When she peeked out from backstage at the packed audience, she almost bolted. She had thought there might be some of the heroes from other teams, plus her mother and grandmother. Instead, she stared out into a packed gallery, replete with journalists, heroes both current and retired, and what looked like the entire Hero Academy student population.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered to Sondra, who waited backstage with her.

“Why… got a little stage fright?” Sondra stepped around behind her and squeezed her shoulder muscles with strong hands.

“I… I just can’t. I get nervous… sick to my stomach.”

“Hey, if you gotta hurl,” said Harris, who managed the sound and lighting from a console nearby, “try and avoid the costume, you know? That stuff is a bitch to clean.”

Sally broke into helpless giggles. She clamped both hands over her mouth to keep from braying laughter. Onstage, Juice finished his speech of introduction and the audience began applauding.

“That’s your cue, sweetheart,” said Harris.

Sondra kissed her cheek. “You’ll be fine, now get moving.” She gave Sally an encouraging slap on the behind.

Sally took a hesitant step onto the stage proper, and the cheering rose to a feverish pitch. Despite the glare of the lights, she could see many familiar faces in the crowd. She drew strength from one in particular, a face with a sincere grin and a stubbly chin. Next to him sat Jack, who gave her a proud smile. She caught his eye and he winked and made kissy-lips at her. It almost made her break out in giggles again and she looked away from him lest she lose control of herself.

 Sally blinked under the spotlights as a hundred television cameras stared at her with glassy eyes.

Juice gave her a lot of glowing praise about her abilities and how capable she’d proven herself in such a short time. He said there was no question in his mind that someone of her exemplary caliber belonged as a member of the greatest superhero team in the world. She raised her right hand and repeated the Just Cause Oath of Service, during which a thousand flashbulbs popped from the audience. She managed to survive it without making any mistakes or cracking up, keeping her eyes locked on a spot on Juice’s chest.

When he finished leading her through the pledge, he shook her hand, followed by MetalBlade and the Homeland Security Director. Thunderous applause filled the room. The roaring in her ears almost prevented her from hearing Juice announce her officially as Just Cause’s newest member and ask her to say a few words to the audience.

Her perceptions shifted into high gear from her fear. She took several deep breaths to try to will herself back into normal time with everyone else. The podium seemed miles away, and the stage exit invitingly close. With a supreme force of effort, she turned and stepped up to the microphone.

“Uh,” she began, and hated herself for the weak beginning. “It’s a real honor to have been selected to be a part of Just Cause. I’m glad to have the opportunity to do my part…”

Suddenly she ran out of things to say and made the mistake of glancing at Jack. He crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue at her.

“And I want to… I want to…”
Think, dammit!
she yelled in her mind. Inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning.
Academy Awards
, she thought.
Just thank some people and get the hell off the stage
. “I want to thank my teammates for believing in me. I want to thank my mom and grandma for inspiring and teaching me to become who I am today. I want to thank the Hero Academy for training me, and the Lucky Seven for letting me train with them too.”
Running too long now
. “This is… what I wanted to do my whole life. I promise not to let you down. Thank you all.” More applause and cheers erupted as she walked off the stage.

The rest of the day seemed like a whirlwind even to a speedster like her. She met more people than she could possibly hope to remember. She answered hundreds or maybe thousands of questions from journalists representing everything from local newspapers to national tabloids and all media in between.

After what seemed like hours, she got a few precious minutes alone with Jason. “Welcome to the family, officially.” He kissed her.

“Mmm…” she said. “I think I’m going to like it here.”

“I’ve got something for you.”

“Oh?”

From his pocket, he removed a package wrapped in scarlet paper and tied with a bright yellow bow.

“What’s this?”

He grinned. “Open it.”

She tore open the paper. Inside she found her missing horseshoe. She held it up in wonder. “Where did you find it?”