Corpies (Super Powereds Spinoff Book 1) (62 page)

It turned out that the ravine was deeper than he’d perceived from the sky, a narrow slice in the land that felt like two walls looming over them. Thankfully, Hero gear didn’t lose signal easily. Jeremiah began trekking across the rocky terrain, following the guidance of his unseen team. The more Titan watched Modus Operandi accomplish, the more curious he was about the other members. It wasn’t unheard of for Subtlety Heroes to buck the spotlight, but a whole team represented by one Hero seemed peculiar. Then again, they were bound to be making all manner of enemies, given how efficient they were, and Subtlety Heroes often weren’t known for their combat skills. Maybe putting up one lone giant target to go after made sense, assuming Jeremiah could handle the burden.

“We’re getting close,” Jeremiah called, waving for them to follow. “The signal is coming from nearby, and my team says this is the most likely point to have an entrance. If we don’t find one, then I’m going to need Aether to do some intangible recon through the rock, and then Titan can bust open-”

Before Jeremiah could finish his plan, he took one step too far, and what seemed to be nothing more than a clump of rocks suddenly sprang to life. It whirred and clicked, whipping around and locking the barrel of its laser gun directly on Jeremiah. Titan started running as soon as he saw the motion, but he wasn’t nearly fast enough. The sound of a high-pitched whine filled the air, then a flash of red shot from the barrel. After that, there was only Titan’s thundering footsteps and the soft slump of a body hitting the ground.

The hole in Jeremiah’s chest where his heart should be was still smoking, the horrid smell of roasting flesh wafting through the air.

118.

The gun was nothing more than scrap metal after two of Titan’s blows, both of which were far stronger than were strictly necessary. Though he hadn’t yet turned to make the confirmation, he knew what he’d witnessed while dashing over. Jeremiah was dead. Whatever enhanced endurance he might have had wasn’t enough to withstand the laser blast. A hole in the chest was enough to kill pretty much anything, even a Super.

With the remains of the laser throwing off sparks, Titan turned to find the others clustered around Jeremiah, whose blood was soaking into the rocks. No doubt about it: he was dead, likely had been before he hit the ground. Aether’s face was pale, and Deadlift seemed to be sniffling under his mask; the poor kid probably hadn’t lost too many friends in the field yet. Much as Titan wanted to mourn the loss of a comrade—a loss hitting Titan harder than he’d expected—Jeremiah’s death meant nothing if they didn’t finished the job.

“We need to-” Titan’s words died on his tongue as Jeremiah’s pooling blood suddenly halted, then began to flow back into his blown apart torso. As it did, the burned out chunks of flesh lengthened and bones regrew. The whole process took perhaps five seconds, but when it was done, Jeremiah’s body bore no sign of any injury whatsoever. If that alone wasn’t disturbing enough, the sound of a rough cough escaped the fallen Hero’s lips, and he shook his head as if coming out of a long nap.

“
What the fuck
!” Aether screeched, turning insubstantial and leaping backward. Even for people who dealt with superhuman abilities, someone coming back from the dead was a bit much. Gale and Deadlift both took defensive postures as well; bracing for attack was their default reaction in strange situations.

“Sorry about that,” Jeremiah said, voice as calm as if he hadn’t just had his heart hollowed out seconds earlier. “Little inconvenient, I know, but at least now we know to be on guard for traps.”

“You were dead.” Titan looked around for any proof of the injury, splatters of blood or flecks of bone, yet there was no sign of it aside from the hole in Jeremiah’s shirt. Even the blood stains on the rocks were gone. “This. . . this is impossible. What you just did goes way beyond regeneration. This is time manipulation.”

“Come on, if I was the first Super to travel through time, you don’t think I’d work on a slightly grander scale than running a team of Subtlety Heroes?” Jeremiah slowly pulled himself to his feet and gestured over to the broken wreckage of the gun that had slain him. “Besides, if I never got shot, then you never would have beaten that device halfway to electronic hell. Appreciate that, by the way.”

“Jeremiah, we all just watched you die. Regeneration can’t fix death. Do you really expect us to just let this pass with no explanation?” Gale’s eyes were narrowed, her emotions torn between relief and uncertainty of what to make of such a display.

“At the very least, we need to know how much damage you can come back from before we go any further.” Deadlift thrust a thumb down the ravine, where logic said there were no doubt more traps lying in wait for them. “Not to be a dick about it, but knowing what actually kills you tells us who we should prioritize helping if things turn to shit without warning.”

Jeremiah turned the argument around a few times before evidently landing on agreement with the point. “Very well, but I’m only giving you all the cursory overview. As a Subtlety Hero, I know far too well how important it is to have a few secrets kept close to the vest, especially about weaknesses. The long and short of it is that my body doesn’t regenerate, technically. It’s more apt to say that I lock my physical form in at a certain time, and my ability maintains that status quo no matter what happens.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Aether had largely recovered from her outburst, though she was still giving Jeremiah a wary eye as he explained. No one, least of all Jeremiah, blamed her for the caution. Seeing a corpse pull itself back together was unsettling on a lot of levels.

“It means I pick a day when I’m exactly where I want to be. Fit, strong, energetic, and without any aches or pains. Then I activate my power. And until I turn it off, that’s my body, regardless of outside forces like giant robots or laser cannons-”

“Or time?” It was Titan who interrupted, realizing exactly what Jeremiah was describing. Immortality. Maybe not perfect: if he was keeping secrets then there was bound to be a flaw or two in the ability.
No
power was unbeatable. Yet if he really did lock his body like he was describing, it meant aging wasn’t something he had to fear.

The wide grin on Jeremiah’s face answered before he formed the first syllable of his glib reply. “I haven’t had enough years to say for certain yet, but by all accounts going forward, I’m going to look extremely good for my age, whatever that might be. Though at the rate I’m mowing through uniforms, I’ll have a huge clothing bill and a lot of unpleasant death memories.”

“Wait, do you remember dying from the laser?” Gale asked.

“I remember everything that happens to me before the power gets triggered,” Jeremiah told her. “That’s the drawback to my ability; I can recall every single time my life has ended, and let me tell you, those memories are not sunshine and rainbows. Still, it’s the gift I have, so I make the most of it.”

“And it sounds like a hell of a good one, but I think it’s about time we started using
my
power.” Titan turned toward the direction the laser gun had sprung up from. “Everyone, stay here. I’m going to see if there are any more traps waiting.”

He began jogging forward, through the ravine’s narrow walls. Within the first few steps, another gun burst forth from the rocks, firing directly at Titan’s torso. The burning energy hit his already-exposed flesh. It fizzled uselessly just before Titan returned the blow, his force leaving only shattered scrap behind. A few more feet and another gun appeared, quickly meeting the same fate. Further in and an explosion from the ground tried to blow off his leg, succeeding only in tearing up his boot. Titan continued on, undeterred. Seeing a friend die, even if only for a few moments, had been just the kick in the ass he needed to remind him of his role in situations like this. It had been a long time since Titan was doing real Hero work, but with each step forward, it was coming back to him. His place was at the front, taking on every attack the enemy could throw, making sure his team stayed safe.

Titan would stand against the full assault, and only when it was spent would he call the others to follow. That was what it meant to be a team’s shield.

119.

As it turned out, they didn’t need Aether to search the walls for an entrance. The traps and devices Titan was charging through, while no doubt designed to keep unwanted guests from ever getting near the hidden base, served in this case as a trail of breadcrumbs leading the team of Heroes right to the door. True, it looked like nothing more than a ravine wall marking a natural end to their journey, but with one punch from Titan, before any of the others could arrive to suggest a more nuanced entrance, the reinforced door blew backward in shards, revealing a softly-lit, smooth metal hallway leading deeper underground.

“Well, there goes any element of surprise we might have had,” Jeremiah noted as he, Gale, Aether, and Deadlift emerged from the wake of Titan’s destruction.

“Between the cannons, mines, and laser grids, I have a feeling anyone in here already knew we were coming,” Titan replied, words purposely absent anything resembling an apology. “If I can’t surprise an enemy, I prefer to let them know I mean business, and nothing says I wipe my ass with your security quite like punching a door off its hinges.”

“Actually, it looks like this didn’t have hinges. It rose up to let people in, making it all the harder to knock down.” Deadlift had walked to the doorway and was staring into the ruined mechanism of the entrance. “Quite a functional design. I mean, under different circumstances.”

“Since time is now officially not on our side, how about we get going with this?” Gale suggested. “Jeremiah, do those voices in your head happen to have any insight on where the signal is coming from? Or are we flying blind from this point on?”

“Hey, they got us here, didn’t they?” Jeremiah bristled a touch, more bothered by the barb than by his death only a few moments prior. “And no, I don’t have direct lock on where we need to go. They can play hot and cold using my location and the signal strength, but this place is too deep and well-shielded to get the signal’s exact coordinates. Besides, the machine sending the orders and the Super who built it aren’t guaranteed to be in the same position, and we need to stop the latter more than the former.”

“Then it looks like we’re splitting up.” Aether had gone intangible and walked down the hallway unbeknownst to the rest of them until she came sauntering back up. “Thought I’d do a bit of recon while you bickered about plans. The hallway splits off in three directions from here. If we’re hunting two separate targets then it seems like we’ve got to cover all the branches to be safe.”

“Safe would be moving as a team down each one until we’d searched them all,” Titan pointed out.

“But that gives our Super better odds of escaping,” Gale countered. “Aether is right: we need to scour the base as quickly as possible. Five doesn’t split up evenly, so we’ll pair off as needed. Deadlift, you’re a rookie, no offense, which means I’ll feel better seeing you with someone who knows what they’re doing. Go with Titan. Since Jeremiah is apparently unkillable, but lacks much in terms of offense, he and Aether should be able to skirt past any obstacles they encounter. I’ll take on my path solo.”

“Shouldn’t Titan go solo?” Deadlift suggested. “He’s the one who would be in the least danger of getting hurt or captured.”

“Gale can take care of herself just as well as I can,” Titan said quickly, hoping to cut Gale off before she tore into the relatively new Hero. “She leads a team into dangerous situations all the time, and her power is suited to offense and defense. What she can’t do is shield someone else as easily as I can. You’re with me because if things go bad, I’ll hopefully be able to take the brunt of whatever gets thrown at us.”

“Make sure to stay behind him.” Jeremiah patted Deadlift softly on the back. “Unlike me, your insides probably don’t put themselves back together once they see daylight.”

Titan didn’t bother adding any agreement to Jeremiah’s words. The image of his corpse splayed out on the ground was still fresh in all their minds, a perfect reminder of where one misstep in situations like these could lead. Instead, he headed down the hallway, once again taking his position ahead of the others. Unlike his trek through the ravine, Titan’s heavy footsteps didn’t trigger any cannons or traps; only echoes met him as he plunged deeper into the hidden base. Soon he arrived at the split Aether had described, three hallways branching off from the one he’d descended. Rather than waste more time debating, Titan merely looked back to make sure Deadlift was following and walked right up the one in the middle.

From behind, Titan heard Deadlift’s hurried steps as he ran to catch up, while Gale, Jeremiah, and Aether all went to either side of them. Without knowing where any of this led, it was impossible to say who was on the fastest path, or the most dangerous. Though, Titan did have a hunch or two.

“Is there a reason you picked the middle hall?” Deadlift asked, speaking up to be heard from the several feet behind Titan where he was trailing. “It’s fine if it’s random, but since I’ve been so strongly reminded of my rookie status, I thought I might as well ask so I could learn something.”

A few more heavy steps, and Titan caught sight of a bend in the hall. It might have been his imagination, but it seemed like a different source of light than the gently glowing bulbs along the wall was shining from around the corner.