Chapter 7

Friday, December 21^st, 8:03 PM

Vickie knew she loved Maggie more than anything in the world. She knew it the first time she laid eyes on her in the 8th grade; her heart literally ached when Maggie wasn't in the room. Yet she couldn't figure out why she kept doing this to her. She didn't want to hurt her, but something would come over her when she saw a certain girl or guy and she couldn't help it. She had to go out with them. And Maggie never complained, not since the first time anyway. She even went out on her own dates. Still, Vickie always felt like she was betraying her. Heaving a sigh, Vickie shook her head and tried to pay better attention to the road.

"You okay?" Maggie asked from the passenger seat, shifting slightly so she could better see Vickie's troubled profile.

"Oh yeah, it's just..." she started but strange flashes in the night sky caught her attention. "Holy shit!"

Maggie leaned forward and her jaw dropped, mirroring Vickie's expression. The sky was alight with meteors and a strange, shimmering curtain of energy floating between the falling stars. Maggie was transfixed by the sight. She had never heard of anything like this happening anywhere near the Midwest. She felt like she could stare at it for days and never tire of the sight, but Vickie's startled, "FUCK!" and the squealing of the tires broke her reverie with sudden heart pounding terror as the beat up old Honda skidded to a stop bare inches from the taillights of the car in front of them.

"Oh my GAWD, I almost killed us!" Vickie half sobbed, half screamed as she stared at Maggie with tears and terror filling her eyes.

Maggie smiled at her, moving as if to pat her leg when the car seemed to explode around them. Vickie was slammed forward, her chest colliding with the steering wheel and her forehead bouncing off the windshield to leave a blood covered spider web fracture in the glass. She didn't care how badly she was hurt, and she knew it was bad, as long as Maggie was okay. Maggie was at that moment trying to orient herself when the rear window exploded inward and a body flew into the car, landing in her lap and causing her to scream in agony as something tore into her left thigh.

Vickie tried to help her best friend and lover, but her sudden movement made her head spin and consciousness fled with shocking swiftness as she collapsed on top of the man between them. The sudden flop of dead weight on the man caused whatever was in Maggie's leg to shift and the fresh explosion of pain sent her into the blackness of unconsciousness as well.

Friday April 17th, 3:03 PM

Zeke was bored. It had been hours since the woman called Knitter had placed her hands on the girl's head and started humming. He tried to get a look at the mysterious French woman, but her shroud covered her from head to toe. He had started to call Shelley, to let her know he was okay, but the thin young man who stood no more than six inches from Knitter at all times had glared until the cellphone was off and back in his pocket.

There was a spot on one wall where Zeke could feel the bass from the club through the wall, so that's where he leaned and bobbed his head in time to the thumping beat. He didn't notice that May had started tapping her foot in time with his head bobbing. No one noticed. They were all too focused on Knitter's hands covering May's ears.

May had felt little tendrils as they slid into her ear canal and probed along the damage caused by Railgun, but they didn't stop there. She could see the thin red tendrils as they crept down her face, probing at every cut, scratch and bruise. She knew when each injury had healed by the slight relief of relaxed muscles and the sudden absence of pain. She had been sitting perfectly still for hours, which wasn't uncommon for her, but the chair was hard and she didn't like the tingling feeling of her legs falling asleep.

Pressure had slowly built in her ears until it was almost unbearable and she was unprepared for the painful pop as she swallowed. Blinking rapidly she finally noticed everything sounded normal, no longer distorted and far away.

"How does it feel?" She turned toward the deep voice and found Blake squatting beside her chair, his eyebrows raised in query.

May worked her jaw several times before answering, "A lot better."

"That's great." Blake smiled, seeming genuinely pleased by her recovery. Heaving a sigh, a frown creased his forehead, as he asked the question she knew was coming. "Who hired you to come after my daughters?"

"Bokor hired Paul." May couldn't meet Blake's eyes, looking down at her feet rather than facing the man whose children she had almost kidnapped.

"Where do you fit in all this?" Jimmy asked as he leaned over Blake's shoulder, fixing her with eyes that danced with an inner fire. She had seen him several times since Paul liked to hang out in similar circles as the fire-controlling super glaring at her now.

"I do what I'm told," she whispered, tears suddenly welling up and making his face blurry. "I have to do what he says."

"Okay." Blake surged to his feet, almost knocking Jimmy off his. In the second it took to stand he was no longer Blake Wallens. May had watched the change and still couldn't quite describe what she had seen. She had lived in fear for as long as she could remember, knowing that Paul might get tired of her at any time, but the way Blastwave loomed made her almost sorry for her brother and Bokor. Almost.

"Pardonne moi, monsieur Blastwave," Knitter spoke from several feet away, her guard placed directly between his employer and the five super beings. "I do believe there is the matter of my payment."

"How much?" Blastwave's voice rumbled deep in his chest, reminding May of her father's voice. The thought brought a sad smile to her face and angry tears to her eyes.

"I have plenty of money, monsieur Blastwave, what I need are favors." The last word came out as more of a purr than an actual word. Zeke came off the wall and wandered over to Blastwave in a relaxed way that fooled no one. "You owe me three favors. No questions asked."

"And if we disagree?" Jimmy growled, stepping up beside Blastwave, heat starting to radiate from him.

"Then Counterstrike will be displeased." Knitter placed her delicate hand on her bodyguard's shoulder and he tensed, a malicious grin spreading across his face.

"Okay." Blastwave nodded and Counterstrike tossed a cellphone to him.

"When that rings, you answer it." Knitter stated as she turned her back on Blastwave's group and walked away, with Counterstrike still smirking as he followed.

"Shit, Master Blaster, I hope it was worth it!"

"It was, Zeke. Now I have to go kill Stanley."

Friday, 4:12 PM

Allen was feeling pretty good about the modifications to his rig, though it was more an armored suit now. He wouldn't be able to get it on nearly as fast as the harness rig, but the feather light ultra-dense armor plating and new defensive features would go a long way toward making up the difference. He was extremely grateful to Blake's father-in-law, Antanas Matulis, for the heavy discount on the parts he had needed. The cost had still taken every dollar he had, and a high interest loan, but it was still cheaper than getting the parts anywhere else.

Even with the lightweight armor, the new suit design would be way too heavy for Allen's slight frame. Deciding it was time to upgrade his game meant he would have to build a complete exoskeleton to support the new hardware. Powering the suit wasn't going to be a problem. When he left MIT he had taken three dime sized chunks of Element U, each weighing almost one ounce. Three years after it first appeared on Earth, along with the first mutations, and scientists worldwide still couldn't identify what it was or where it came from, hence the designations Element U, Unknown Element and UE.

After the meteor shower UE began appearing all over the world alongside various ores. Miners would walk into the tunnels they had left only to find the blue white glow of UE peppered throughout the walls and floors. Refineries would discover chunks of the crystalline material mixed in with shipments of iron, tin, copper, coal, gold and silver where none had been before.

As far as anyone could tell the new element was harmless. No known harmful radiation could be detected and no adverse effects due to long term exposure had been recorded in the last three years. The only thing known about UE with any certainty was that it produced energy that could easily be harnessed. One pound of the raw quartz like material had the potential to power all of New York and New Jersey for approximately one year.

Allen had discovered, completely by accident, that UE had another property that no scientist or government had released to the public. The material would slowly recharge itself over time. During the testing of his prototype rig, Allen had thought UE was a limitless source of power and had used it as such until he had completely drained one chunk. Angry at himself for his recklessness, he threw the chunk of crystal at a wall where it went through the thin sheetrock and forgot about it.

Weeks later, a power outage left him sitting in his darkened workroom with a faint blue white light coming from the small hole left by his tantrum. After ripping out the flimsy sheetrock he found the discarded chunk of crystal sitting where it had fallen, glowing brightly. A week of testing its power output revealed it had replenished every bit of depleted energy.

Allen's work was interrupted by one of the burner phones he and Blake used. Hitting the speaker button he continued to solder wires to the new circuit boards for his new suit. "What's up?"

"What is happening, O Gun of the Rail?" Allen didn't recognize the voice and the paranoia Blake had been trying to instill in him filled him with sudden adrenaline. "Now don't freak, the Big B told me to call you and let you know that we're at Ghede's Den and he is about to lay the mother of all smack downs on Bokor for going after the girls."

"You're OverPowered, aren't you?" Blake had told him about some of the superpowered criminals in the city. He had mostly good things to say about the eyesore called OverPowered.

"That I am and I have to say it totally warms the cockles of my heart that the Blast has seen fit to speak of my humble personage!" Allen sat quietly blinking. Blake hadn't been kidding when he said OverPowered should have called himself OverTheTop. "Dude, we need to TOTALLY hit the clubs together! I'm sure Feet has a friend or two that would be down for a little RailGun action. You pickin' up what I'm put down here?"

"Umm ... yeah..."

"Fucking awesome, man! So if you wanna roll up and see how this party plays out you know where to find us and I'll call you about hoppin' some bars later!" Allen's mouth was open to reply, but the line went dead before he could get his brain to create an appropriate reply.

Staring at the phone for a few long minutes, Allen shook his head and started gathering up his gear. With everything ready he glanced one more time at the monitor to see Blake's brother still passed out on the floor.

Friday, 4:41 PM

"That's it!" Maggie growled in frustration. She was surrounded by dozens of superbeing reports from around the world, "There isn't a single report on this Ghoul guy."

"Nothingatall?" Vickie was similarly surrounded only more frustrated. Crumpling reports into balls, she was launching them at high speed toward the nearby trash can.

"No! I can't even find a report of anything CLOSE to this guy."

"Thenhe'sanewborn?" Vickie looked incredulous. "Thatcan'tberight, newbornsaren'tthatpowerful!"

"Maybe he's just been hid..." The unexpected sound of the ear piercing air raid siren scared Maggie. There had been no warning, no texts, no calls. Nothing except the emergency siren. Maggie stared at Vickie in shock. The only time they heard the siren was during tests, but this wasn't a scheduled test.

Vickie was gone before Maggie could get to her feet and dash down the research hallways to the nearest elevator. She was about to take the stairs when the elevator opened to reveal Barbara and Gerald looking as impatient as Maggie felt. She quickly jumped in the compartment. No one spoke until the elevator deposited them on what was commonly called the Control Floor. Once the doors opened Maggie followed the senior agents to the main control room.

Over two dozen people stared at a bank of HD plasma screens fifteen feet high and twenty feet long, their placement so precise that it was nearly impossible to tell it was more than a dozen screens. Stretched across all those screens was a single news channel airing live footage of what Maggie could only describe as a warzone.

" ... right, Bill. The building on fire is a popular fetish club called Ghede's Den." The reporter's voice was hard to hear over the wind as he leaned out of the helicopter, looking down on the combat below him. "We have several spotters trying to identify the supers involved, Bill! Wait, wait! I'm getting reports now. Give me a moment to get this down. Okay, Bill, we have confirmed that Blastwave, Ugnis, Uisce, OverPowered, Ore, Ogre, Baller and Caustic are among the battling supers. Several of these supers, Blastwave and OverPowered come to mind, have only been classified as Class 3 Super Criminals, that means they have never used their powers for this level of devastation. Others, like Ogre and Baller, were placed on the Class 4 Super Villain list almost immediately due to the high death toll and incredible amount of property damage they have inflicted all over the country."

"Whtthefuckishappening?" Vickie's eyes were glued to the screens, unable to tear her gaze from the superpowered battle.

"We have a unique opportunity." Warden spoke from the doorway and everyone turned to face him. "Full tactical deployment. We will contain as many of them as we can. Go."

Warden turned on his heels and left the room, leaving everyone standing there gaping after him. Finally Barbara Thomelst started barking orders and ten minutes later, four helicopters and nine transport trucks were en route to the site of conflict.

Maggie stared at the weapons in her hands. Like all Bulwark agents she was well trained in their use, but she much preferred to rely on her powers. At least she knew she wouldn't accidentally kill someone with her power. Well, she was pretty sure she wouldn't kill anyone with her power.

Friday, 4:29 PM

Gabe stared at the chessboard intently. He could have moved his knight and put Stanley's king into checkmate, but he learned long ago that the boss always wins. Gabriel had loved chess ever since he received his first set at age six. It was the only nice thing his drunken father had ever done for him. As soon as his own son could move the pieces Gabe started teaching him to play.