The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet (6 page)

Chapter
7:

Little
gods

The sky above the City filled with
clouds, rain threatening to fall, like a glass of water resting on the edge of
a table. A cool wind blew in from the East, the sort of wind that has purpose,
a personality, a reason to be. The air itself had a tense, busy sensation to
it, that electrical hum before a thunderstorm. And because of all these signs,
Jane knew her friend had come to town.

      Jane didn't fly to the park,
choosing instead to walk on foot, dressed in civilian clothes, one of Emily's
knit hats hiding her flame-like hair. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of
her jacket and watched the ordinary people stride by. Ordinary people. The
humanity Jane needed to protect. They had no idea the threats that came their
way every single day, the ones the Indestructibles, or the Department, or
someone else diverted or defended them against or were sometimes sidestepped by
simple, unadulterated luck. Like meteors hurtling by in space, we dodge
terrible events all the time, Jane thought, and turned her eyes skyward.

      We're not escaping the next one,
are we? I just hope we're ready.

      And speaking of ready: sitting on
a nearby park bench, Valerie Snow looked nearly human.

      Valerie, the girl the Children of
the Elder Star had merged with a sentient hurricane and called "Project
Valkyrie," had met with Jane and the others sporadically the past few
months as she learned to control her powers. She talked with Billy a bit at
first, thinking that perhaps his relationship with Dude would be a good
starting point for building a connection with the living, breathing storm that
now shared Val's body. But they soon found that not to be the case. The storm
was a feral thing, acting and reacting on a wild, emotional level, the polar
opposite of Dude's cool, detached demeanor. The Straylight entity acted as a
calming, rational force on Billy's human fallibility; Valerie, instead, had to
be that calming factor for the wild creature she now shared a life with.

      It was not a battle she always
won, but today, sitting on a park bench in a dress Jane gave her a few weeks
before, a large summer hat covering her sky-blue hair, Valerie looked under
control. Today, she was winning.

      Jane sat down next to her and
smiled. "How are you?" she said.

      "Feeling almost human today,"
Val said. Her skin pure white, but uneven, changed colors like clouds, with
wisps of silver and gray mottling through. Her appearance shifted with her
mood. When they first met, she'd been dark gray like a thundercloud, lightning
dancing across her skin in violet ripples. The air around her always indicated
her mood, too, be it fury or fear, sadness or peace. Jane wondered what
overcast and breezy meant.

      "Have you done that thing we
talked about?" Jane asked.

      "I can't," Val said. "I've
flown over my parents' house a few times, I've creeped through their windows,
but I'm… I'm not ready for them to see me like this."

      Jane put her hand on the back of
Valerie's, trying to reassure her.

      "I want to tell you that someday
this will all be normal, but…" Jane said.

      "I know. I'm beginning to be
okay with that. With not being normal," Val said.

      "Where are you staying?"

      "There's a lighthouse. An
abandoned lighthouse. I stay there sometimes," Val said. "I don't
sleep much anymore, so I have trouble staying still. I think that's the thing
that feels the most strange. Not flying, not controlling the weather, but… not
being able to sit still anymore."

      "I wish we knew more about
what they did to you, so we could help," Jane said.

      Val shook her head softly.

      "It's okay. I'm figuring
things out on my own," Val said.

      "Well, you know you'll always
have a home with us," Jane said.

      Val tinkered nervously with her
oversized hat.

      "I don't think I'm ready to
live like a normal person just yet," Val said.

      "Trust me, none of us are
normal," Jane said.

      "That's not exactly it,"
Val said. "I mean… I don't feel right indoors anymore. It makes me feel
cut off. I feel trapped."

      "That makes sense, you know,"
Jane said.

      Val nodded, almost to herself.

      "I suppose it does," she
said.

      A light rain began to fall. Jane
turned up her collar. Val looked at her apologetically.

      "Sorry," she said.

      "It's okay," Jane said. "So
I have something to ask you."

      "Of course," Val said. "Anything."

      "Something bad is coming our
way. We're hoping we can stop it before it becomes a problem, but if it does….
We could use your help again."

      "You know, when you freed me,
I thought I was destined to be the villain forever," Valerie said. "I
thought they'd made me into something evil. That they'd made me into a weapon."

      "And we've asked you to be a
weapon once already," Jane said. "I'm sorry for that."

      "No," Val said, raising
her face to the air, letting rain splash against her skin, which had deepened
to a pale gray. "When Kate asked me to help free you from the prison, she
gave me a chance to be a hero instead of a villain. To be better."

      "I think you've always had it
in you to be a hero," Jane said.

      Val vigorously shook her head no.

      "I never would've been a hero
if this hadn't happened to me. At best I would have been ordinary. At worst I
would've been a statistic. In some weird way, everything I went through at the
hands of those people made me better than I ever could have been."

      "You don't have to help us if
you're afraid," Jane said.

      Valerie stood up, spinning on one
foot, playing in the rain she'd made fall from the sky. It gleamed on her bare
shoulders.

      "This is what we were all
made for, Jane," she said. "We're like little gods. The weather
elemental, the goddess of the sun. And we're here to keep our tiny world safe
from harm. This is what those terrible people gave me, and this is what you and
your friends have taught me."

      Jane watched her dancing, barefoot
in the park grass, her lonely friend, this elemental being with no home. She
remembered how they almost had to kill her, to put her down to save thousands
of lives. And here she was, a being with the power of a hurricane, dancing in
the rain and prepared to go to war beside them.

      "How will I know when you
need me?" Val asked.

      Again, Jane looked to the sky. She
could feel the rain soaking her knit cap.

      "We won't have to tell you,"
Jane said. "Everyone will know when it happens."

Chapter
8:

Up,
up, and away

Billy stood on the landing platform of
the section the Indestrucibles thought of as the "docking bay" and
entrance for the Tower, an open area littered with hoverbikes, technology and
hardware none of them really understood, and the clutter where Kate spent time
tinkering and personalizing her own equipment. He was alone, except, of course,
for Dude, and stared up into the growing darkness of the evening sky.

      "I have absolutely no concept
how big space is," Billy said.

     
No one really does,
Dude
said.

      "Have you ever been to the
edge of it? Does it end somewhere?"

     
Rumor has it there's an end
point somewhere, but I don't know anyone who's laid eyes on it,
Dude said.
And
I've known beings who have ranged very far.

      "Not like we're going that
far, are we?" Billy said.

      I fear we're not even leaving your
solar system.

      "What do you mean, fear?"

      If we don't leave your solar
system, it means the Nemesis is very, very close,
Dude said.

      "Great."

      Billy walked up to the very
outskirts of the landing platform, looked down at the City below, something
that used to give him vertigo. Sure, just when I get used to flying, we go into
space. New vertigo. Vertigo 2.0.

      "So let's break down the
ground rules here. You give me the ability to breathe in space."

     
Not exactly.  

      "Not exactly?" Billy
said, his voice cracking.

      Not exactly. I remove the need for
you to breathe in space. The shielding I generate also provides you with enough
of the necessary airborne elements you need to maintain respiratory function.

      "I have no idea what you just
said," Billy said.

     
I give you the ability to
breathe in space,
Dude said, resigned.

      "And all the other stuff that
happens in movies. My head won't blow up? I won't freeze to death in three
seconds?"

      Dude sighed in Billy's head, which
always meant he was at his wit's end.

      Imagine that, being connected to
me, you have as part of your actual body the best spacesuit ever invented.
Personalized to your biological needs. This is what I do for my host. I grant
the same ability to live in the vacuum of space I myself have.

      "Great. Next question: What
happens if someone hits us with a null gun and we separate?"

     
You probably die,
Dude
said.

      "Dude!"

     
Would you rather I lie to you?

      "Yes," Billy said. "Yes,
in fact, I would prefer you lie to me about stuff like that."

     
In that case, don't worry about
anything if we get hit with a null gun. You'll be dead before the surprise
actually reaches your brain.

      "I hate you sometimes,"
Billy said.

      "I love when you talk out
loud to Dude and you think nobody's listening," Emily said, emerging from
the interior of the Tower. Frustrated by the progress of her replacement Fourth
Doctor scarf, she'd begun testing out different signature items, and tonight
she wore one of her hand-made Jayne Cobb wool hats over her neon-blue hair.

      "Hey, Em," Billy said.

      "You're leaving right now,
aren't you?" Emily. "You sneaky git."

      "Well, I was going to, but
clearly you're going to rat me out," Billy said.

      Emily walked up to the edge of the
platform as well, dangling one foot over, fearless.

      "I want to come with you,"
she said.

      "You can't," Billy said.

      "One: we don't know that for
sure, and Two: yeah, I know. I'm kind of jealous, y'know," Emily said.

      "Of scouting out an invading
army of aliens."

      "No, man, you get to do what
I've wanted to do since I was three years old," Emily said. "I want
to just…"

      She waved her hand vaguely at the
empty sky above them.

      "Go where no man has gone
before. Up, up and away. Into a galaxy far, far away. Take me out to the black,
tell 'em I ain't coming back," Emily said, the last part sing-songy.

      "Now you're singing theme
songs," Billy said.

      "I'm serious, though,"
Emily said. "This world is such a drag, man. Why do you think I do the
things I do? I'm bored. I want to be out there."

      "Maybe you'll get your
chance."

      "Y'think?" Emily said. "Maybe
someday, right? We save this stupid, mean, boring world, we make sure it's
okay, and then you and me and Dude and Watson, we can find ourselves a
Corellian stock light freighter and go travel the star lanes?"

      Billy stared at Em for a moment,
watching as she playfully stepped off the platform and floated herself back
onto it repeatedly.

      "I can't tell if you're being
serious or not," Billy said.

      Emily looked up at him, a huge,
almost feral grin on her face.

      "C'mon, Billy Case, you know
you want to go explore the universe. Meet yourself an alien princess from a far
away world. I'll learn how to duel with a laser sword. It'll be awesome."

      "You're a space cadet,
Entropy Emily."  

      "I prefer the term 'starship
captain,'" she said. "Look, just come home safe, okay?"

      "I will."

      "Tell Dude I told him he
needs to take care of you."

     
I heard her,
Dude said.

      "He heard you," Billy
said.

      "Good." Emily took her
hat off and stuffed it on Billy's head instead. "It's dangerous to go
alone. Take this."

      "You said the same thing to
Annie when she left," Billy said.

      "Well, the same logic
applies," Emily said. "Now you're a meme."

      "How do I look?" Billy
said. "I know the answer to this ques—"

      "Man walks down the street in
that hat, people understand he's afraid of nothing."

      "I knew you were going to say
that," Billy said.

      "It's a cunning hat."

      "Be safe when I'm gone, Em."

      "Don't die, Billy Case."

      "I won't," Billy said.

      "Watson will be so mad at you
if you don't come home."

      "I'll keep that in mind."

      Billy looked once more into the
sky, held his hands loosely at his sides.

      "Up, up, and away, huh, Dude?"

     
'To infinity, and beyond,'
the
alien said.

      "Did you just make a
Toy
Story
joke, Dude?"

     
I did. Why are you so
surprised?

      Billy laughed, his first real
laughter in as long as he could remember.

      "No reason," He said. "Okay.
Here we go. 'To infinity, and beyond.'"

      Billy Case rose into the air, fast
as a rocket, swifter than a shooting star, a streak of white and blue light
darting heavenward. The world grew tiny below him, his friends, his family, the
Earth itself, a tiny marble adrift in eternity. He watched his world shrink
into a bauble, something blue and beautiful he could put in his pocket, the
galaxy expanding around him in infinite blackness. A blanket of stars enveloped
him, the sun bright and hopeful in the distance. The moon was a nickel spinning
in shadows. He looked out into the blackness of space, into the void, and the
silence of it, the vacancy, made his heart beat faster and faster.

      I've never known what it feels
like to be truly alone until now, Billy thought.

     
But you're not, my friend,
Dude said.
I'll be right here with you.

      And together, boy and alien,
heroes and partners, flew like an arrow into the darkness, in search of an
armada.