So Not a Hero (30 page)

I wiped at my eyes and bounced to my feet, ignoring the soreness left over from battling Colossal. “How is she?”

Martin shrugged. “She’ll live, if the idiots operating on her are halfway competent.”

“She’s solid?” Greg asked.

“Yes,” Martin said. “She’s back to her corporeal state. Now, if you'll excuse me. I must be going.” His eyes found mine and a look I didn’t like appeared on his face. “Things to do, you know.”

“Thank you,” I said. It pained me to show him any gratitude, but I could swallow my pride—hell, I’d have swallowed a dump truck—to save Alexis’ life.

Martin nodded and took three steps towards the stairs before stopping and looking back at us. “I am curious, though. Why call me for help? Why not just have your resident genius do it?”

“He said he couldn’t,” I answered.

An amused laugh escaped from between Martin’s lips. “Really? Because, it was just a matter of tuning the force field generator on the chamber to her particular phased frequency. Then her molecules just stacked themselves back together as easily as Legos. Simple really.”

“How was he supposed to know the correct frequency to use?” Greg asked.

Martin shrugged. “I would assume he would just use the Enhanced bio-sequencer. It wouldn’t have taken him ten minutes to perform the scan and then make the adjustment to the force field’s parameters.”

“Power Brain doesn’t have the sequencer,” I said. However, I could hear the doubt saturating my own voice.

“Of course he does,” Doctor Maniac stated matter-of-factly. “After all, he was the one who hired the Legion of Bedlam to steal it.”

CHAPTER 20: THE EVIL YOU DIDN’T KNOW

I grabbed the front of Martin’s jacket and lifted him off the ground. “What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel couldn’t be the mastermind behind the university theft and the directed attacks on me. Unless he was the ultimate actor and had faked his amorous feelings.

“Karen, put him down.” Greg waited until I complied before turning his attention towards Martin. “How can you be so sure that it’s Power Brain who hired the Legion?” he asked. I did notice that one of his hands had formed a tight fist. The wrong answer would probably result in Martin getting punched through a wall.

“Princess Snow told me,” Martin replied in a completely casual tone of voice. We might have been discussing the weather. If he was concerned with being confronted with two, angry heroes with super strength, he didn’t show it. “Perhaps that is a little misleading.” He smiled at us and steeped his fingers together. “I interrogated the information from her.”

My stomach dropped. “Is she okay?” Not that I really gave a damn about Princess Snow. As far as villains went, she was in the Worst Top Ten. However, I’d seen firsthand on many occasions how Martin’s interrogation sessions could go. The hero in me couldn’t help but be a little concerned.

“She held out longer than I expected. Apparently she has some romantic attraction to your colleague. That, in addition to the money, provided additional incentive to keep his identity a secret. In the end, I managed to get all of the juicy details straight from her formerly-ruby lips.” His grin turned dangerous enough to give a shark pause. “As for her being okay? Well, she’ll be fine. As long as she doesn’t spend too much time anywhere the temperature is above freezing.”

I brought my hand up and pointed at him. “You tweaked her genes,” I said, throwing the accusation at him. “You altered her Enhancement.”

“Of course I did, darling,” he said. “It’s what I do.”

“And Princess Snow told you that Power Brain had hired her to steal the sequencer?” Greg still sounded as if he didn’t believe it. “What does he want?”

“Power,” Martin said. “Specifically, my power. He wants to have the ability to control and alter another Enhanced’s abilities.”

I was having a hard time believing what was coming out of Martin’s mouth. He seemed to be very nonchalant about someone having the ability to do what he could do. Hell, I knew of three Enhanced that he’d had killed for possessing powers that sort of slightly resembled his own. “And the sequencer will give him that ability?”

Martin shook his head. “Not by itself. Alone, it merely analyzes the Enhanced genome. Identifies what gene controls a specific power and things of that nature. In order to manipulate things, he would need a biological sample from someone with a transgenic Activation factor.”

“A what?” Greg looked ready to either race back to the tower to find out if Daniel really was our mystery bad guy, or else he was still contemplating punching Martin.

Martin rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to spew his considerable knowledge upon us, but I beat him to the punch. “The Activation factor is the hardwired blueprints for an Enhancement,” I blurted. “It’s why plasma blasts are the same in theory, but expressed in different ways. The Activation factor tells the Enhancement how to perform.”

A slow clap from Martin set my teeth on edge and the pleased smirk on his face made me want to hurt him. “Bravo, my love. You were paying attention in class.”

“Where was the transgenic portion come into it?” Greg asked.

Martin smiled. “There are a handful of Enhanced who have an Activation factor that is more … fluid, if you will. They might originally express their powers in one manner, but their abilities could spontaneously change the way they function. Or they might even change Enhancements altogether.” His eyes swung over to mine and his smile widened.

I didn’t like where this spiel was going, but couldn’t stop myself from chasing the White Rabbit down the hole. “What type of biological sample would Daniel need?”

Martin shrugged. “Anything with a significant amount of DNA in it. Hair might work. Skin would be better.” His eyes sparkled as his gaze drifted up to just above my eyes. “Blood, however, would be the best.”

“Blood …” I reached up slowly and felt the bandage on my forehead. Tank’s voice came back to the front of my mind—“supposed to make you bleed”—and the image of Daniel standing in this very hallway, holding a stained hospital towel exploded into HiDef brilliance. I blinked and looked at Greg. “Oh, shit.”

“You didn’t let him get a sample of your blood, did you?” Martin asked and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “I taught you better than that.”

Greg’s head turned in my direction. “You’re a transgenic Enhanced?”

Martin looked at me and smiled. “I knew she was something special from the very first moment I met her.” He reached out to attempt to stroke my cheek the way he’d done countless times through the years.

I slapped his hand away and looked at Greg. “We have to get back to the tower and stop Daniel.”

“The rest of the team is there now,” he said. Then he reached up and tapped on his ear several times. I didn’t like the worried look he threw my way. “My comm’s not working,” he said as his eyes met mine. And for the first time, I saw Mister Manpower, beacon of all that is powerful and good, show fear.

I tried mine. “The system’s down. Shit, if Darla and Richard told him that Doctor Maniac was here …”

“Then he probably suspects we’ve been told about his treachery.”

He gave me a nod and stepped back, giving us a free path to the stairwell. “See you soon, my love. Good luck with your wayward associate.”

Greg and I ran down the stairs as fast as we could. I slammed into the door without so much as pausing. Sarah was leaning against the side of Martin’s car, staring up at the sky, when we burst through the door. She jumped and a fiery halo formed around her head. She glanced past us to the empty doorway and her orange eyes flared brightly.

I held up my hand and jerked my thumb back over my shoulder. “He’s fine. No one touched him.” I turned to Greg and grabbed him into a scooping hold. “We don’t have time to get there at your pace. Hold on.” I took off sprinting down the sidewalk towards our headquarters, praying that Martin was wrong.

And that—if he was right—we weren’t too late.

It had taken Richard approximately four minutes to fly the hovercraft from the Paulus Building to the Commerce District. Queens Memorial was another two miles further from the tower. Carrying Greg in my arms, I managed to get us from the rear of the hospital to the front door of our headquarters in less than three.

Greg tapped my arm as we shot up the sidewalk towards the front doors. “Karen, slow down! Slow down!” he yelled.

I pulled back and dug in my boots, skidding to a stop right before we blew past the entrance. He climbed out of my arms and put his hand on the handle, looking back at me.

“We don’t know anything other than communications are out.” He frowned, fixing me with a stare. “So let’s not start off by punching anyone’s head off.”

I nodded my head. “I’ll do my best, okay?”

Inside, the eerie stillness set my nerves on edge. We walked over to the desk in the center of the room and found Joelle unconscious on the floor behind it. Her six arms were splayed around her body, as if she’d been knocked backwards as she’d been knocked out. Greg knelt beside her and placed two fingers against her neck.

“Steady pulse,” he said as he looked up at me. “Whoever did this went out of their way to make sure she wasn’t hurt.”

“We know who did this, Greg.” I pointed at the camera on the wall nearby. “And I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts, he’s watching us right now.”

“If you’re right, he’s going to pay dearly,” Greg said as he stood up and marched over to the elevator, not giving the camera a second look. His determined jaw would have been blasted in high def on the monitors upstairs. If Daniel had any sense at all, the look would have frightened him. It was the expression of a man on a mission to hurt someone.

I think we were both stunned when the elevator doors slid open with a ding. It was as if we were being invited up to witness the sinister plot firsthand. I arched a brow at the older hero and tilted my head towards the lift’s opening.

“Trap?” I asked.

He nodded. “Definitely.” Then he stepped inside and crossed his arms over his chest.

I followed and the doors of the car slid closed and the sensation of being pulled up to a bad place swam through me. Daniel was crazy-smart. And probably crazy-crazy to boot. If he had actually acquired the ability to alter an Enhanced genome, the amount of chaos he could create was unfathomable. Martin had always shown restraint, for the most part, in the application of his powers. A few positive tweaks for a job well done. Or a negative adjustment, if punishment was in order.

On the whole, however, he limited the use of his skills to those in our organization.

“If the world knew that an ability like mine existed,” he once told me as we lay in bed, “they would stop at nothing to find me and force me to do the unthinkable.” When I’d inquired to what that might be, he’d simply said, “The extinction of our kind, love. No more Enhanced.”

Now a former hero had that power at his fingertips. God only knew what he planned to do.

We stepped out into a foyer that looked exactly like it did earlier that morning. If there’d been a fight upon Awesome and Darla’s return to the tower, it hadn’t taken place here. I shuffled in front of Greg and glanced back over my shoulder.

“Let me go first,” I said. “Invulnerability and all that.”

Greg shook his head. “I’m the commanding member of the team, you know.”

“Okay. Then command me to take the lead.”

“Or else?” Despite the seriousness of the moment, I could see a hint of amusement in his eyes.

I shrugged and turned back to the doorway leading further into the building. “Then you can write me up for insubordination and … uh … take away my television privileges or something.” I looked over my shoulder at him. “Regardless, I’m going first.”

“We come out of this in one piece, I’ll worry about punishing you later.” He followed along behind me, stepping slowly and cautiously. I wondered if it felt as weird to be sneaking around our home for him as it did for me. I’d just gotten used to having someplace I didn’t have to be constantly on my guard. And here is was, looking for an enemy in the same place I hung my cape. Metaphorically speaking.

We found Rocket in the entertainment room.

The flyer was on his back in the middle of a heavily scorched rug. He was awake, but I doubted very seriously that he was aware. His eyes were wide to the point of comical and his lips trembled along with chattering teeth I could hear from five feet away. His arms were pulled tight against his chest, hands clasped together. His entire torso shook violently—8.9 on the Richter scale at least. But it was the sight of his legs that made me cover my mouth and gasp.

Behind me, Greg swallowed loud enough to be audible and whispered. “Damn. Robert …”

Rocket’s legs were a mess. The pants of his uniform, specifically designed to allow the quantum flame that provided him with thrust to pass through, sported charred holes in several places. The flesh peeking out was black, red, or pink, depending on where you looked. Most of his burns seemed to be second degree, but a few were well into third.

I waved my hand in front of his face, but Rocket’s eyes never stopped staring sightlessly ahead. The shivering and the loss of cognizance in his surroundings told me all I needed to know. I glanced at Greg. “He’s in shock.”

The hero nodded. “He needs medical attention as soon as possible,” Manpower said with a grimace. “Problem is, just about every ambulance is going to still be working the battle scene.”

I pointed to the quilt on the back of the sofa. “Wrap him in that and take him to the hospital. Flag down a cab or something.”

Greg shook his head. “You should do it. I’ll continue searching.” When I opened my mouth to argue, he held up one hand. “That’s an order, Karen. You help Robert and I’ll stop Daniel. And there’s nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise.”

“Greg, Daniel did this with the sequencer,” I said as I gestured at Rocket’s legs. “He turned Robert’s own power against him.”

Manpower nodded. “Which is why I’d feel better if you were safe.”

I shook my head. “I have a better chance of getting closer Daniel than you,” I whispered. When he gave me that teacher’s stare, I returned it with a dead-serious look of my own. “He’s in love with me. Did you know that? Or, if not love, then he’s got one big-ass crush.”

“And you think those feelings will keep him from using the sequencer on you?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Or might make him hesitate. A little opening is all I need.” I arched a brow at him. “Still think it’s a better idea that you stay and I go?”

“Yes.” He sighed. Then he slipped his arms under the injured flyer. “Though I have to admit you might have the advantage.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I’d actually won an argument with Mister Manpower. “I promise to be careful. While you’re out, you might want to call the EAPF and tell them the sitch.” I glanced towards the door leading into the briefing room and stood up. “I’m going to go knock some sense into someone.”