Young Sentinels (Wearing the Cape) (Volume 3) (39 page)

“Step lively, everyone,” he said to the kids with them. Juvies? He’d broken into Detroit Supermax to get a bunch of
kids
?

They scrambled onto the platform, watching me, and I couldn’t
move
. There was no resistance — there wasn’t
anything
. Pellegrini watched me with interest, like I was an experiment he found fascinating. He was the Ascendant, the LO Stadium Killer, he
had
to be, and I. Couldn’t.
Move.

“Thank you for returning Eric,” Pellegrini said as Twist deposited the big guy on the platform. The old man smiled almost regretfully. “And I‘m sorry we can’t take you with us; certainly, you are one my grandest achievements. It’s a pity your brothers and sisters proved so unstable — ”

Nox launched himself from my shoulder, a blur in the air turning into solid and pissed-off doll. Pellegrini had time to reflexively flinch before Nox was on him, swarming up his suit-front. I felt a warm, fragrant wind that could only be Chakra pass through me from head to toe, driving out the numbness as she set me free.

Redback’s eyes widened as I leaped, and then my claws were around his neck and I threw him to the floor, bounced him twice, heaved him at Twist, and lunged for the platform.

“Get us out of here!” Twist shouted while Pellegrini screamed and clutched at Nox as the doll went for his face. Silver light flared and Nox dropped to the platform, Pellegrini kicked him away as Twist wrapped his cables around Redback and then the room went
weird
, like I was looking at a funhouse infinity illusion. The platform rocketed away without moving an inch, and then it was gone like it had never been there at all.

Astra

“Sikes is keeping the doors open,” David observed.

“I shouldn’t have told him when to close up.” Another mistake, and I made myself not cringe; a Platoon, John Sikes had been to hundreds more of these dances than I had. “Give Galatea permission to launch the instant the hot zone is clear, and please get me Superintendent Redmond.” David had seen more dances, too, and I was trying to micromanage.

“Galatea launches at discretion, get Big Red. On it, boss.”

I watched the screens. Megaton was holding the green on Columbia and away from the Dome, and with such a wide arc of advance, the tide sweeping around the edges of his defense was flowing slowly enough that it looked like all the supporting capes would be able to get the last of the civilians out of the park as long as they had somewhere to run
to
.

“I’ve got the superintendent, boss. No video this time.”

“Thank you. Hello, sir. We are going to attempt a solution to the Green Man momentarily. However, the park is still being evacuated; will you be able to keep the overpasses open?”

“
We have designated escape lanes, Astra, but will close them when the Green Man reaches the tracks. The CAI teams are standing by in support
.”

I nodded, remembered he couldn’t see me. “Thank you. We’ll — ” The thermal overlay on the main screen went white. The Dome sat on stabilizers and we
still
felt the shock. “Goodbye!”
Seriously? Goodbye?

Around me, the background noise of a dozen exchanges cut as we all watched the screens. The images came back, but a white cloud completely obscured the aerial view of the harbor. The Dome view showed the wall of green had frozen all along the arc of Megaton’s burn and the grounds west of us.

“Shelly?”

“
Still here, dropped the full load on him. We’ll know in a ... oh come
on
!
”

The green tide stirred into motion again, and I felt dizzy as my skin went cold. Failed. We’d failed.

Okay, we blew it. So deal.

“Dispatch, Ozma. Ozma, please assist Sikes and Tom to lead all guests downstairs. David, please send all nonessential personnel below as well.” The whole Dome was tough, but the lower levels could be sealed to ride out a nuclear strike. I tuned out the scraping and shuffling as half of the dispatchers handed off their tasks to CPD counterparts downtown and left their stations. My mind spun through useless options while my mouth switched to autopilot.

“Dispatch, all fliers to continue clearing the park and assist surrounding evac. Dispatch, Megaton. Megaton, how long can you hold the Green Man off the Dome?”

What could we do that we weren’t doing? Could the CPD hold the line? What was I
missing
?

Megaton sounded like he’d been doing sprints. “
I have no freaking idea. What happened?
” David reconfigured the screen in front of me.

“The blast wasn’t hot enough,” I said, voice steady. “Heat density fell just short of the threshold needed to cook the soup.”

“
We’ve got nothing else?
How much heat do you need? I think I can bring it
.”

I blinked.

A lot of people have asked “How could you do that?” Well, I was pissed off and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Malcolm Scott, aka Megaton.

You’d think I’d started speaking in Martian. Astra made me repeat myself — and I didn’t sound less crazy the second time — then told me to stand by. Yeah, like I was going anywhere; I felt like one big high-pressure hose, drawing whatever it was from wherever it came from to turn the ground in front of me into Hell’s furnace. Tuning it hotter meant I wasn’t just blasting the freaking mutant green wave back, I was throwing its burning bits into the green behind the front as I tracked my blasts up and down the line.

But I was already starting to feel hollowed out, whatever that meant.

“
Megaton
,” Astra finally came back. “
Galatea says your tests haven’t found your limits yet but the numbers look good. But —
”

“But I can’t get myself there while I’m pulling up the juice, and it’s going to have to be one big bang. You’ll have to drop me on it.”

“
Yes. You don’t have to do this
.”

“This is
our
freaking town — I’m sick of the Green Man’s shit and he doesn’t get to play here anymore.”

“...
Galatea will deliver you to the target, Megaton, and drop on your word. Good luck
.”

My helmet ear-guards and my own blasting kept me from hearing Galatea until she was right on top of me. She cut her boot jets, landing like a cat (and I really had to learn how to do that).

“
Ready?
” she shouted, hands out. I looked back at the Dome to check the doors were sealed, stopped blasting, and we locked arms. She launched, and I found myself flying
backwards
over the waves of green as she took us to the harbor.

“
You know that you’re completely insane, right?
”

“Really?” I worked on not letting go — my gloves helped me grip her silver chrome arms — and started pulling juice. How much could I pull and store? “I’d be in class right now except for this green freak, so just drop me when I say when and bug out.”

As we swung out over the harbor I remembered the bus, the sick feeling that made me want to beat my head against a wall to stop the memories, to do anything to make it not happen. Mom hanging up on me, leaving Dad and me because I might hurt Sydney. The Green Man had wrecked my family and I poured on the hate, feeling the hot pressure build until it burned like nuclear fire under my skin and I clenched my teeth with the strain of holding it in.
More
.

Below us the boats against the harbor wall were tilted crazy angles beneath strangling green climbers, blackened and scarred by Galatea’s attempt, and the still steaming water rolled with thick slime. The green screaming
face
looking up at me had to be my imagination, but it worked for me. Galatea brought us in low, which was a mistake — a vine shot up to grab my ankle and she almost torched me when our sudden stop jerked her around.
Now
it was paying attention to us?
Too late, sucker
.

“Get out now!” I yelled, and now she was the crazy one — she held on.

“
When you’re ready, unless you can breathe pea soup!
”

The climbing vine thickened, squeezing like a python. Now? Now? The vine wrapped around my waist, pulling us down while Galatea tried to cook it with her rocket exhaust without flaming me. It started burning, but instead of letting go it twisted upward, climbing my arms, and locked us together.

Oh, shit
.

She looked down at me, a smile quirking her shiny blue robot face. “
Now?
”

“Now. Payback’s a bitch.”

She cut her rockets and we dropped into the soup.

Astra

“Shelly!” I screamed when they fell. In the thinning steam cloud, she’d placed them perfectly; they dropped into the middle of the bay, the center of the Green Man’s cauldron of life.

Megaton
exploded
, a flash that lit the room and whited out the screens. I blinked repeatedly, eyes full of after-image.
This
time the green went berserk, thrashing against the Dome.

“
The doors are buckling,
” Sykes reported from the atrium.

“The CPD has fired the overpasses,” David said without looking up from his screen.

“Is the park clear?” I whispered.

“Crash says yes.”

“Dispatch, Safire. Safire, we are feeding you GPS tracking on Megaton’s helmet. Please retrieve Megaton from Monroe Bay soonest, he may need medical attention.”

“
Get Megaton, on it. Astra, what the hell was
that?”

“Megaton. Hurry, please. David? Green Man status? Expansion rate?”

“Zero.”

“What?”

“Zero. That last crush was it. It didn’t cross the tracks or break across the overpasses. Big Red’s fire wall held.”

“Thermal on the harbor?”

“Cooling fast — half the water in the harbor got turned to steam and it’s getting refilled with cold Lake Michigan water.” He wasn’t exaggerating; the cleared screens showed half the harbor wall was just
gone
. What bits of boat I could see were on fire, and rising smoke and steam was obscuring drone visuals completely. And all the thermals were headed down as heat dissipated.

I blinked, sat down before I fell. “Is this a win?”

“This is a win. I’m sending Crash for Galatea. She has an internal GPS unit and transmitter in her skull, and we’re pinging it. Location only, no response. Would you believe she’s in the middle of Buckingham Fountain?”

“Wait — ”

“
Hey,A,I’vegotShellyandshe’samess. Vulcanshowedmehowto detachherhead inanemergency andI’mbringingherin.
”

I couldn’t breathe, like someone had kicked me in the gut. Not Shell, not Shelly too. God couldn’t be that unfair.

“Affirmative, Crash,” I heard David say. “Vulcan will be waiting for you.” He took off his headset, swiveled to face me. “Astra, everybody’s where they should be and doing what they should be doing if the Green Man wakes up, but looking at the crater Megaton left, I’d say he’s compost. And I can reach you in the Pit.”

“But — ”

“Quote: ‘The Sentinel on watch may, on discretion, maintain oversight from anywhere in the Dome.’ End damn quote.”

I stared back at him, dizzy with the need to get to Shelly.

“Get out of here, Hope. We’ve got this.”

I swallowed. “Please give Superintendent Redmond my compliments.”

And I ran.

I hated the Pit, just being down there made my skin crawl, but I skidded through the door and into Vulcan’s main lab. Crash had come and gone before I got there, and only Vulcan and Galatea 1.0 stood at his bench, examining a sphere with bits of skull-plate sticking to it.

She’s modular. She’s modular. As long as her brain is fine, she’ll live
.

“Vulcan?” He looked up. He always looked like he’d forgotten to feed himself, and now his thin face was pinched.

“Astra. It’s all over? Crash didn’t say.”

“Yes. Shelly?”

“Her sphere is intact, but damaged.” He shook his head, disgustedly shoving away a bundle of cable leads. “She’s on independent power right now, her internal battery, but all of her input/output and power connections are gone, a combination of heat and feedback. With all sensory input cut ... she doesn’t know what happened or what’s happening.”

“You can replace the connections, right?”

“Not in time. Not soon enough to recharge the damaged battery. The polymorphic neural net that supports Shelly’s mind isn’t just a collection of molecule-sized physical circuits — it’s a carefully balanced field, really. The power that feeds the neural net has to be uninterrupted and modulated down to micro-current levels to sustain the field balance. When the battery dies...”

“Can’t you get her out of there?”

He ran long fingers through his nest of flyaway hair.

“Download a copy of her current field configuration? No. Not without cracking the sphere open completely, which will collapse the field. Her neural net will return to a blank slate. Once I fix her battery and bring back power, we can restore her from her sleeping quantum-mirror self copy, but since she can’t mirror her neural-net the way she did her original meat-brain, she hasn’t been able to do ‘backups.’ She’ll be the Shelly of last spring, when she first transferred herself into Galatea.”

I wiped my cheeks, nodded. “Okay. Okay. Thank you. I’ll need the lab to myself for a bit. Please.”

“Okay,” he echoed me. He wasn’t good with
human
stuff, and his face twitched through a couple of aborted replies. “I’ll leave Gal,” he finally said. I waited for the doors to seal behind him before I sank to the floor by the bench.

“Are you well?” Galatea 1.0 asked politely.

I nodded; if I didn’t, she’d call Dr. Beth. “She’s dying.”

“Vulcan is correct: she can be rebuilt.”

But she won’t remember our fight with
Villains Inc
.
Or Annabeth’s and Dane’s engagement party, or her friendly crush on Jamal, or her reunion with her mom. Or today
.
She’ll be Shelly 3.0
,
not the Shell who just saved the city
.

That Shell would be dead.

No. Not again.
I pulled myself to my feet.