Chapter 2: Math and Morning Routines

VRAAAMMM!

"Whoa! Jesus Christ!"

"Good morning officer. What's the situation?"

The police officer took a moment to compose himself, still startled from the superhero's sudden appearance. Quantum Knight crouched on top of the police car, poised and ready for action. "Um ... Thanks for coming. From what we're hearing, this is more along your lines." He pointed to the building across the street. "We have a hostage situation in there. Two people have gotten out. Don't know how many are still inside."

"How many perps are we talking about?"

"Just one, but they say he's heavily armed. He's not negotiating." He nodded towards a couple civilians surrounded by a few policemen. "We don't know who he is yet, but we have some people who might be able to ID him."

"What kind of guns does he have?"

The policeman shook his head. "Not guns. Arms. And apparently a tail."

Quantum Knight stared at the policeman for a moment, and jumped off the car. As she strode towards the civilians, she summoned a tablet computer. "Pull your men back, and call for sniper support." She opened a database of images, and approached the two women who were being cared for by the police. The women were shaking and terrified, and stared at the hero with trepidation. "Good morning. I'm Quantum Knight. I understand you've had a scare."

The women nodded.

"You're safe now. Can you tell me what happened?"

One of the women shook her head. "I don't know what happened. All I know is that there was suddenly a lot of screaming, and this ... thing ... He was throwing people and things around. And there were explosions."

"Lightning" added the other woman. "I saw lightning."

<FFFF-T-T-T-T-T> A stream of bodies in blue and purple appeared and vanished, leaving one behind. It was Multiplex. He nodded to Quantum Knight and waited.

Quantum Knight glanced at the multiple man and turned her attention back to the witnesses. "What did he look like?"

The woman shuddered. "It was some monster. He had these huge ... arms, or wings or something."

The other woman added "Like a robot."

Quantum Knight nodded and selected an image on her computer. She turned it to the women. "Did he look like this?"

They nodded. "Yeah. That's him."

The hero turned the image to Multiplex. She allowed herself a sigh. Multiplex nodded. The computer vanished back to The Singularity. "It's Armory. Come on." she said to her partner. She turned back to the women. "You were lucky to get out alive."

As the two heroes marched back, Quantum Knight barked orders to the police. "Set up a perimeter! I want snipers and a chase helicopter. He tends to run pretty fast when he takes off. Get the people out of the neighboring buildings. I don't know what he's planning, but it's usually destructive. I'll take him out, and 'Plex will get the hostages out."

As the two heroes passed the police line and approached the building, Quantum Knight studied the mirrored windows of the structure. Mulitplex started speaking. "^I Armory's Could ^am M.O. he ^researching is be ^him testing studying ^now.superheroes. Joseph? ^He Electrical Perhaps ^may fields we ^be interfere should ^interested with take ⁱⁿ my advantage ^me. powers. of..."

"Do you know what I really want to know right now?" Quantum Knight interrupted his overlapping streams. They stopped in the middle of the street. "Why the hell aren't you returning my phone calls?"

Multiplex blinked at her. "Can we talk about this later?"

"No! I threw myself at you, and so far this is the first time I've seen you so much as blink. It's not like you're too busy! You have an infinite number of bodies. Surely you can spare one to give me a call."

"This is not the time to talk about this."

"Then when is? Look, you may have all the time and opportunities in the world, but me, I'm limited. I've only got one body, one life. I have to make choices. If you're interested, let me know! And if you're not, LET ME KNOW!"

"We have hostages to rescue."

Quantum Knight poked Multiplex in the chest. "They're not the only ones being held hostage right now." She turned and stormed towards the office building. "Glad I've got a supervillain to deal with," she muttered under her breath. "Could kill someone right now." A katana appeared in her hand, and she teleported inside past the glass doors into the foyer. Multiplex jogged up and followed her inside the building.

The foyer was a total disaster, with destroyed desks, splintered wood, scattered papers, and piles of dirt from overturned plants strewn about chaotically. The walls were scorched and torn. Quantum Knight stretched her senses, and glanced at the security cameras. "He's probably linked into the security system already, and knows that we're here. Reconnaissance!"

Multiplex nodded and zipped off in a stream of bodies, leaving one behind. Quantum Knight waited. "Ground floor is clean," he reported. "But we have a problem. There are four stairwells, and he's seriously damaged each one."

"He completely destroyed the stairwells?"

Multiplex concentrated. "Not completely. Some sections are still good, but..." He started pointing in different directions. "North-east first to second is good. South-west second to third good. North-west third to fourth good..."

"Damn. Most likely the elevators are shot or booby-trapped. He's made a gauntlet. An obstacle course. He's going to force the hostages to run the length of the building floors, wasting time trying to find stairs between floors." She ran to the North-East stairwell. "And this building has mirrored windows. I can't teleport in from above." She pushed opened the door. Torn steel, tiles, and concrete littered the surviving stairs. She could see above them several stories of destroyed stairs; large ripped sections hanging precariously from the walls, dripping with dust, and threatening to fall at any moment. She looked past all the debris to the top floor, and picked a spot.

"Can you get up there?" she asked Multiplex.

"Easily."

VRAAMM! Quantum Knight appeared at the top of the stairwell, and held on to the torn handrail that was still attached to the wall, and used it to cling to the wall. Below her, Multiplex made several "jumps", summoning clones above him and dispelling them beneath him. The clones jumped from broken platforms to intact handrails, until he reached her. She kicked the door open, and Multiplex sent a swarm of clones running inside. She jumped in after, protected by the wall of bodies.

The upper floor was unfurnished, and mostly empty, and as she tumbled and spun, Quantum Knight took stock of the situation. Towards the middle of the floor were a crowd of roughly thirty civilians, sitting on the floor, terrified. Cameras and sensors were scattered about the room, each connected to a floating object, a drone robot, at least a dozen of them.

A giggling, cackling laugh echoed in the room, and Armory stepped out from behind a pillar. "Quantum Knight! And Multiplex! Didn't I luck out!" he chuckled. He was a massive figure of what used to be a man. Over seven feet tall, he was covered and embedded with mechanical parts, electronics, armored plates, gears, hydraulics, and power cables. Scarred flesh appeared in breaks between pieces, and one eye glowed green with an internal L.E.D. From his back protruded three extra appendages; two massive multi-function mechanical arms which poised for combat like two scorpion claws, and a single long silver prehensile tail capped with an energy emitter and spikes. Electrical arcs rippled over the tail.

The cyborg slumped forward, taking heavy steps as he walked, burdened with all the extra weight of his armor and weaponry. Quantum Knight recognized the walk as a ruse. She knew he was fast, superhumanly fast, and strong enough to give Bullwhip a run for his money.

"Let them go, Armory! They're not the ones you want, and we both know that," Quantum Knight ordered.

He laughed mirthfully, and twin blades extended from his wing-arms. "And you think you know what it is I want?"

She summoned her battle staff and tossed it to Multiplex. Then she pulled her second katana and crouched. "It doesn't matter what you want. You're not getting it."

Armory crouched down as well. His tail lashed out, sparkling with energy, and his wing-arms clawed huge rips in the floor. "Then I'll take something else!"

He roared and leaped towards her, blades slashing and fresh claws extending from his hands. He was on her in seconds, hurling himself at an astounding speed. But Quantum Knight was faster, and she actually teleported into the midst of his arms and blades for a fraction of a second, kicking him in the face, and then tunneling above him for a second attack. The tail whipped towards her, and she back flipped past it, dodging electrical arcs and whirling blades. Armory laughed gleefully as he swiped enormous jagged blades towards her. She caught them with her katana and teleported around him again, slicing and goading the superhero away from the civilians.

Multiplex ran in a dozen directions, mostly towards the civilians, but some ran towards the various drones. Each drone was buzzing and hovering, each emitting its own unique tone, and electrical arcs rippled over them. The drones all collectively reacted to the sudden attacking, and they started moving towards the center, towards the civilians. Multiplex surrounded them with bodies, leaving an opening towards the nearest stairwell that was still intact at this level. "THIS WAY! GO!" he shouted in several voices.

The drones attacked, emitting bolts of electricity. Mutliplex screamed in pain as some of his bodies were hit by the arcs of lightning, and they fell. He sent a new wave of clones out, but as soon as he came close to one his powers faltered. The electrical fields interfered, and the dark matter wouldn't hold the patterns. The one clone with Quantum Knight's battle-staff yelled and swung it at a drone, smashing it in one shot, while other clones started herding the people out towards the stairs.

The drones spread out, each targeting a different Multiplex clone, and fired blasts of lightning at the bodies. Mutiplex managed to smash another drone with the battle-staff, but a third drone took that body out by hitting the large steel rod with a bolt of lightning. Clones grabbed various objects in the room: tables, chairs, and wooden beams, and smashed the drones while others herded the civilians down to the floor below.

Armory was screaming and laughing maniacally as he pounced and fought Quantum Knight. She teleported, ducked, weaved, and managed to stab him a couple times, but nowhere fatal, and it only seemed to encourage or entertain him. "You're slipping, girl!" he goaded her as he ripped up a huge section of the floor and sent it flying towards her. "I was expecting a challenge, not a dance!"

Quantum Knight dodged the flying section of floor easily and teleported behind him, crouched tight. She kicked him with both feet, throwing him into the hole he just made. "I'm not here to entertain you," she said, flipping and landing. "And I know why you're in town! You're not getting close to him. He's under our protection."

She spun and saw that Multiplex had managed to take out all the drones on this level, and the last of the civilians had made it to the stairwell. Now that they were out of the way, she could cut loose. She spun her swords and dove on the villain.

Armory shrieked and jumped, smacking her aside and stabbing at her. She teleported, evading the killing stroke by milliseconds. He spun, found her, and laughed.

"What? You mean the Omega Boy?" He let out an insane giggle. "What makes you think I'm interested in him?"

Quantum Knight's jaw dropped.

He picked up a section of floor and hurled it towards a window, smashing it open. "I got everything I wanted, so I'll be leaving now. Multiplex, tell her the bad news."

One of the Multiplex clones which had just managed to recover was shaking in pain. "Quantum! The gauntlet! He's..."

Armory laughed crazily and cocked his head at Quantum Knight. "What? Did you think I kept all of my robots here on this floor? You better help your friends get out." And on that, the cyborg turned towards the smashed window and leaped out.

Quantum Knight ran towards the window. "Plex! Get them back up here, and take out the..."

"They starting fires!" Multiplex shouted.

"GOD DAMN IT!" she shouted, and she teleported to the stairwell, flipped down a story, and jumped into a war zone. The furnished office space was dark, and there were constant flashes of lightning and small fires burning in different areas. People were running and screaming, and Multiplex clones were still herding the people to the next stairwell. She clutched her katana' and picked out the nearest drone robot.

VRAMM! SLICE! SMASH! VRAMM! CRUNCH! VRAMM! SMASH! She teleported through the office, following the whining sounds of each drone robot and slicing them with her swords. It was a pattern that worked well, and she quickly cleared the floor of drones before moving down to the next floor down.

On the next floor down, the drones seemed to be hiding, but she could hear the whining sounds coming from each one. It was odd; each one hummed at a different frequency. Some were high, and others were low. The humming had no bearing on the size or capability of the robot, and she didn't care what it was all about. All she knew was that she could find them, and once she found them, they were gone.

The civilians followed carefully, being led by a team of Multiplex clones. Multiplex was putting out the fires above, and calmed and herded the civilians to safety as they worked their way down each floor of the building.

As they reached the second floor, the last floor with drones, Quantum Knight stood and listened with Multiplex. "I hear one more," she said, listening to a deep thrumming.

"Me too," he said, hearing a high-pitched whine. "Over there."

She shook her head. "No." She teleported and attacked, taking out a drone that hid behind a cubicle wall. "Got him!" she said. "Let's get them..."

"LOOK OUT!" Multiplex yelled.

A blast of lightning hit Quantum Knight from behind, and she collapsed against the cubicle wall. Multiplex ran up, and smashed the final drone with the battle staff. He dropped the staff and reached for her. "Please! Are you all right? Speak to me!"

"Ow!" she moaned. "That hurt. But I'm okay."

Multiplex sighed in relief. "Those things..." he said as he helped her up. "They aren't that powerful. It's like they were only designed to cause some serious pain, but not kill. What do you suppose he was up to?"

"Don't know. Let's just get these people out of here." Quantum Knight decided.

As the two heroes limped out of the building leading a large group of grateful civilians out of harm's way and into the care of paramedics and firefighters, several blocks away and under the city streets a mad cyborg ran gleefully through the sewage system, jumping and dancing in joy, and shrieking "Nine percent! Nine percent!"

Joey was back in his foul mood again when he returned to the apartment. He let Scrappy off his leash and the dog immediately ran over to his cage and attacked and killed Tricia's Mephisto Nastasia designer walking sandal, happily shaking it about. The boy kicked off his shoes, plopped on the couch, grabbed a throw pillow, and sulked. It was bad enough that the stupid photographer was still out there, but now he was all pissed off over the way Cindy tried to manipulate him.

He held onto the throw pillow and fumed. It was embarrassing. He actually liked her. She was sweet and nice, and the more he thought about her, the more he realized that she almost got to him. He wouldn't have fallen for her a couple years ago, but now that he liked girls, he felt he was slipping.

One thing caught his attention, other than the fact that she was pretty and sexy and had nice tits, and it was the thing she said about how everyone wants to talk about themselves. He reflected on it, and realized it was true. He did want to talk. And he knew that he had to be careful about who he talked to and what he said now that he was famous for having super powers and now that he knew superheroes outside of their costumes. But that still didn't change the fact that he wanted to talk.

Life was different. So much had changed in the past few weeks. And he wanted to tell...

He squeezed his eyes shut and drew strength. He knew who he wanted to talk to.

Joey reached over to his backpack and pulled out his brand new tablet computer. It was his birthday present, a state-of the art portable computer with triple-level encoding. It was a new issue to EarthGuard members, with extra protection to make it nearly impossible for a hacker to break into it. This meant that when he turned it on, he had to write in three pass-phrases to get it started. He pressed the power button, and heard the water turn on in Annie's bathroom. Annie was up, and would be out some time soon. He pulled out the stylus and got comfortable leaning back on the pillow.

The computer prompted him. Pass phrase number one?

He wrote the phrase "Give me strength." Tricia's favorite line. She had said that several times. So often she dreamed of being strong and powerful. He smiled as he remembered her saying that in the pizza parlor. That was the first time he had given her an ability.

Pass phrase number two?

"Artists erase mistakes." One of his favorite lines. He thought about how he said that to Desdemona. She was a demon, and it wouldn't have been a huge insult to her for anyone to call her a monster. But to just call her a mistake, reducing her to something so small and easily corrected, that was probably the worst insult anyone had ever given her.

Pass phrase number three?

"Take the stairs." He grinned, remembering Annie saying that in the hospital. She climbed stairs for the first time in eight years that day. He had originally tried to use her favorite phrase "Plagues of psoriasis", but could never remember how to spell that.

The familiar desktop and icons appeared, and Joey clicked on an icon, creating a new document. The text editor opened, and he chewed his lip.

He took a deep breath, and started to write.

Dear Dad,

I know you are never going to read this, but I like to think that you are reading it now. I want you to know that I am okay. I'm safe, and I'm being taken care of. There were times when I was angry with you, and times I didn't want to be a superhero, or for you to be one, but I never wanted you to die. I miss you, and I hope that if you are somewhere, you are happy.

Joey was tearing already. He shuddered and continued writing.

Joey rubbed his chest as he wrote. He could feel the scar through his shirt. He could still recall the sensation of a claw gouging into his chest, breaking his rib and puncturing his lung and heart.

I'm okay though. Tricia and all the superheroes here in DC saved me, and I got rid of her. I can do things with my powers I didn't know I could do, and I erased her. She's not coming back, but I still have dreams about her.

Joey swallowed and continued writing.

After the fight, Tricia and I stayed in the hospital for a while until we got better, and then later on we went on a trip. Tricia and Annie took me...

He shuddered and teared up for a moment.

... took me back home, to Pennsylvania. They found our house, and there's another family living there now. We got to meet them. They're nice, but somebody sold all of our stuff, and our house looks so different now with all this new stuff in it. But it still felt like home.

I got to see Sherrie again. She was really happy to see me. She misses you. She's doing okay. I think she wanted to marry you, but she's married to this lawyer now, and now she's going to have a baby. But it was good to see her again.

We saw my old school, and then...

Joey stopped. The tears flowed down his face as he remembered. He took a moment, and wiped his eyes.

... and then they bought a...

He took a shaking breath and teared up again.

... bought a tombstone for you, and put it next to Mom's.

He paused, remembering that day, sitting in the graveyard between his parent's tombstones. He wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve and took a calming breath. He decided he wanted to write about something else.

We then went up to New York. And we stayed with Annie's parents for a while.

Joey smiled through his tears.