Apex (7 page)

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I don’t even remember making the decision.”

“I’m just messing with you, kid. It turned out to be the right decision anyway. Now I know I can’t be hurt, just like my wife can’t be hurt.”

The doctor asked, “What do you mean
by that?”

“I got blasted with chunks of that stump, flying at me like bullets, and none of them injured me or even hurt when they hit me.
”

“Huh. How about you guys?” the doctor asked Jack and his friends. “I know Jack’s skin can’t be punctured, but are you all indestructible too?”

They all shrugged their shoulders and looked around at each other.

Molly shook her head. “That sucks. I thought I had two unique powers but I guess being indestructible is a pedestrian ability around here.”

“You’re still as strong as an ox.”

She huffed
and said humorously, “I guess my superhero name could be Ox-lady then.”

Jack stifled a chuckle. It was funny that she felt left out be
cause she wasn’t freakish enough; that she felt weird because she was too normal.

But Molly’s mention of superheroes did beg the question: What were they supposed to do with their strange powers?

At the edge of the Kuiper Belt

Commander Davok yawned and stretched. “How many population centers does this planet have?”

“Quite a few. I’ve already programmed enough Mowers. Once they’ve done their thing, the troops should make easy work of
them.”

“Just make sure you go overboard with the Mowers. I’d prefer to send my men in after the humans are mostly all dead.”

Fillo nodded curtly. “The men will be itching for action the second they come out of stasis though, sir.”

“I don’t care what the men want. They need to care
about what I want. I’ve lost too many troops to put them in any more danger.”

“This planet poses no threat, but I understand your reticence. This was supposed to be
a simple, even boring mission. How could we know that each planet would fight back?” The second in command said it only to appease his commander. He firmly believed that they should let the troops have some fun or else they’d go nuts. The troops signed on to this mission for the chance to slaughter aliens, not to be held back while their gutless commander worried about politics.

“Command has a lot to answer for.”

Fillo nodded but he knew why the commander was so nervous about the outcome of the mission. This was grunt work and he’d been assigned to it specifically because command thought very little of him as a commander. When he reported the casualties sustained during the mission, he’d be reprimanded. And it was apparent that he was trying to build a case against command before they could build one against him. But that was a fool’s errand. You just don’t go up against high command. But it was one of the reasons he was regarded as inferior. He couldn’t take ownership of his own failures.

The mission was a crop turning task to plow the apex indigenous species’ under so they could colonize new worlds across the galaxy. It had been done several times in the past by equally dimwitted commander
s and yet they’d all come back victorious with few casualties under their belts. This mission was odd in that their prey fought back fiercely, but command wouldn’t care to hear excuses.

He said, “We could break out the battle suits, sir. Then the men will get a fight but be protected at the same time.”
He was referring to the mechanical suits they had in storage.

“How many do we have?”

“A couple dozen.”

Davok
laced his fingers as he thought. Then he shook his head. “It’ll look weak on my part to use the suits.”

“It’s always an option.”

“It’s overkill. Let’s make it our last option and only if things go to hell. This is only a class D planet. We should be able to plow right through them.”

The second in command
, Fillo, walked away. If it was going to be so easy then why use so many Mowers? The Mowers were a coward’s way to deal with a threat. The suits weren’t too far removed.

The men were getting sick and tired of their gutless commander taking away all of their
potential kills just to save face.

His disgruntled men would take their fury out on the poor Earthlings that survived the Mower deployments. It would be a bloodbath.

Costumes

Molly was hard at work on her antique sewing machine. She’d put two trays of chocolate chip cookies in the oven just a few minutes ago and the smell was making everyone but the doctor salivate.

Scott was drinking a cup of hot coffee that was about half filled with sugar and Melanie was eating hard candy out of a dusty dish. The candy looked like it had been manufactured sometime before the great depression, but that hardly fazed her.

Jack felt the urge to gorge himself on sugar too but he was fighting it, if only because the surge of powers within him that sugary foods invoked still frightened him a bit.

Scott asked Dan what his wife was making on her sewing machine.

Dan shot a quick glance Molly’s way to be sure she wasn’t paying attention and then in a whispered tone, he said, “She’s making costumes for all of us.”

Scott
rolled his eyes and said, “I don’t think any of us will wear a costume.”

Jack overheard them and whispered, “No offense, but I don’t want to wear tights with my underwear over them. I think we’re good just the way we are.”

Dan glared at them. There was enough menace in that stare to make them both wish they could take back whatever it was that upset him. “She’s been hard at work on those all damn day. She thought you’d appreciate it.”

“Oh, we do. It’s just that it’s not really our style,” Jack offered hopefully.

“Well it is now. You’d better not upset my wife, especially after we’ve been so hospitable.”

Scott adapted quickly. “I want mine to be red with black highlights. I want a skull and crossbones on the chest too.”

Dan said, “You’ll get whatever it is she makes for you. You’d better feign some appreciation when she gives it to you or you’ll have me to deal with.”

Melanie sidled over now. “I want a yellow one, if she has the fabric.”

Just then, Molly turned around on her little bench and eyed them all suspiciously. “What the hell are you guys talking about?”

Jack lied, “We were hoping you could take those cookies out.”

“No problem, dear. They’re just about done anyway.”

Jack whispered to Dan, “I want a lightning bolt on mine.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“And a mask.”

“Of course.”

Widen the Net

General Parsons had had it up to his eyeballs with
Ault, Colorado. It was one of those towns so small and insignificant that it prided itself on its park cannon.

Everyone
in Ault was either a farmer or an antique dealer, and the antique shops were full of rusty crap that was too pitiful for even the most pathetic rummage sale in a real town. The lone gas station was almost perpetually unmanned, with rusted jalopies in the back that served as the attendant’s main focus each day as he tried in vain to salvage anything from them that might be worth something to someone.

The children all looked dusty and unruly. The parents all looked sleepy. It was enough to depress a person, except that the general was on a mission. He couldn’t afford to let this little stink-hole affect him.

By process of elimination, they’d discovered that if the kids had come back home, then they weren’t within the town proper. They were holed up somewhere on the outskirts, maybe hiding out in an old abandoned barn, or a farmhouse.

He was starting to doubt his intuition now though. What if they hadn’t come home at all? That boy had vanished, taking the others with him. They could’ve gone anywhere. Maybe they were in
Paris. Maybe they simply vanished from existence. There was no way to know, so the general went with his hunch. He could only hope he’d made the right call. Those punks were dangerous. They had to be put down before they hurt anyone.

He rounded his men up in a corner bar that stunk of puke and stale beer. Even at seven in the morning, there were a few occupied barstools. These were some diehard drunks. Then again, if he lived here, he’d probably escape through some type of medium too, even if it had to be alcohol.

“Alright men, we’re going to widen the search. I need to keep two of you stationed at either end of the road coming through this shit-hole. The rest will fan out to search the surrounding farmhouses, barns, silos, and chicken coops. Leave no stone unturned. Shoot to kill on sight.”

The grizzled old woman behind the bar gasped, but the general ignored her. “Move out.”

Suit up

Jack, Melanie, and Scott had all shared the spare room while the doc had taken the couch in the living room. Surprisingly, the teenagers had slept peacefully throughout the night.

Molly was flipping pancakes and Dan was making coffee when they walked into the kitchen.

On the table, there were three parcels wrapped in brown paper and twine. They knew what they were immediately.

Molly smiled and gave each of them a hug in turn. “Good morning, superheroes.”

Jack smirked. Maybe they weren’t exactly superheroes but they were most definitely superhuman.

Molly handed each of them a package and watched intently as they opened them. They all feigned delight at first, until the delight became real. The costumes weren’t as bad as they worried they might be.

Sure enough, Jack’s had a lightning bolt on the sleeve, and Melanie’s was a bright yellow. Scott’s didn’t have a skull and crossbones, but that didn’t seem to dampen his very real enthusiasm.

“Try them on. If they don’t fit right, I’ll alter them for you.”

They excitedly walked to the spare room.

Jack said, “You two go first. I’ll change when you’re done.”

Melanie gave him a quizzical look. “I’m not changing in front of Scott. I’ll go first.”

Jack didn’t know what to make of her statement. She closed the door behind her and Jack said to Scott, “I guess I just assumed you’d been naked together by now.”

Scott shrugged. “She wanted to wait.”

Jack said, “How long have you guys been dating?”

Scott looked at his feet. “Just a month or so.”

“Huh.
Well good for her.” He said it to tease Scott, but Scott wasn’t pleased.

“Yeah, good for her and bad for me.”

“Give it time, man. You found one of the good ones. Don’t give up because she won’t give in to your charms right away.”

Scott shrugged. He was getting annoyed now. It was clear that it was a touchy subject so Jack dropped it out of respect.

Scott whispered, “When we were in the silo the other night, right before the orb fell out of the sky, I broke up with her.”

Jack said incredulously, “Why?”

“I already wasted a lot of time waiting for her to come around. Plus, I’m going off to college in less than a year. Do you know how hard it is to maintain a long distance relationship?”

Jack saw through his crap. Scott wanted some ass right now, and Melanie wasn’t giving it up. He said, “I’m sorry to hear about the break-up.”

“Don’t be.”

When Melanie came out of the room,
the tension immediately evaporated. They both laughed at her. Her yellow body suit was far too big. The buckle around the waist made the fabric above it and below it bunch up, making her look dumpy. The sleeves were too loose and the legs too long.

She said, “Well at least it hides my new muscles.” Then she traipsed off to show Molly where the suit had to be taken in.

Jack couldn’t help but stare at her as she walked away. When he turned to Scott, Scott hit him on the shoulder and said, “Keep your eyes to yourself, Captain teleport.”

“I thought you broke it off.”

“I guess I did. Alright then, you can look.”

“I was going to anyway.”

Jack and Scott’s suits were no better than Melanie’s. But at least their oversized muscles stretched the fabric here and there, making them appear too intimidating to poke fun at.

Molly attached safety pins where each suit had to be taken in and then they all dressed in their civilian clothes again.

They gobbled up the now cold pancakes, with extra syrup and a layer of powdered sugar. Scott had a cup of coffee with Dan, and then the doc recommended that they try to hone their abilities once again. They divvied up the remaining couple of candy bars for the added sugar kick and then waited for it to saturate their bloodstreams.

Dan looked downright terrified as they waited. He knew he was a ticking time bomb just waiting to happen. Jack knew how he felt. Jack’s was the only ability that was impossible to explain. Somehow he was able to vanish from existence and then reappear elsewhere. He had no idea how he was doing it.