Seven Wonders (32 page)

  "Let's fly."

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Their original plan – such as it was – had been foiled, not by the Seven Wonders, but by his own woolly thinking.
Think
, then act. Have a plan. Consider the possibilities. Do not let emotion rule the mind.

  Think.

  Conroy had already begun to recover, out here in the open and the fresh air, away from the radioactive glow of the Nuclear Forge. But he didn't struggle as they flew. He was learning; Tony had all the power −
his
powers − and falling from this height would be certain death.

  Not that Tony would ever let him go. Oh no. Unable to drop the Citadel of Wonders on him, Tony had settled on something far easier. But in a way, the simplicity of it would send an even stronger message, not just to the Seven Wonders but to the whole city. Execution, in public. In fact, right on the corner of Busiek and Carey – the Moore– Reppion Plaza, the busiest shopping strip in San Ventura, packed on a sunny Saturday in summer.

  Tony heard Aurora's call but ignored it, not looking back. To gather his thoughts, Tony had headed east, to the outskirts of San Ventura and had begun an orbit of the city limits. Their destination was only a couple of miles from the superheroic headquarters, but Tony wanted a moment to think and decide and be sure he was right. He paused in the air high out to the west over the coast, then angled down towards the broad pedestrian mall of Lafferty Boulevard and powered forward, carrying his helpless victim with him.

  People stopped, and stared, and pointed. Some smiled, enjoying what they thought was a bout of superpowered aerobatics, seeing only a fluttering cloak and lithe, costumed forms, not recognizing the black on black on black of the Cowl from this distance, nor the nondescript black armor and white cross of Paragon, a new hero they'd never even met.

  As Tony got closer, some shouted, and some ran as people recognized the costume. San Ventura had a population of nearly two million. All knew what their resident supervillain looked like. Some had seen him in the flesh. A few had felt his power and witnessed his crimes at close range.

  Tony smiled, and to ensure maximum attention he dived low over the ground, scattering shoppers and tourists before arcing up into the cloudless sky, catching the top of the curve in a graceful pause, then plunging down again. He hit the ground in a dramatic pose, deliberately so, causing the flashy pavement of the shopping street to crack with a gunshot report. Tony threw Conroy to one side; the former supervillain rolled to a stop and remained still.

  Tony had taken too long with the display. Aurora stood on the street, a hundred yards from him, SMART towering behind. They'd been waiting.

  The crowd had transformed − half had fled to nearby shops or whisked children away as they raced for parking lots, taxi ranks, anything to get away. The remainder were too foolhardy or too curious − or both − or those unable to distinguish superheroic street theater from real warfare. The crowd naturally moved into a huge circle around the superheroes and supervillain. There was sporadic applause and hoots from the more carefree members of the public.

  Aurora and SMART didn't make any attempt to get any closer. Tony suspected they were enjoying the spectacle as well. And then it occurred to him: this is what superheroes do, and
especially
what superheroes in San Ventura do. True, the Seven Wonders hadn't taken down a supervillain since Green Tiger, the last supervillain but one who took a swift one-two from Sand Cat before being thrown out into the bay with a single swipe of the Dragon Star's powerstaff. But they'd done it to ordinary criminals. Powered, superpowered, unpowered. It didn't matter. It was all theater to them. Just like this. This was what they wanted. Tony spit onto the sidewalk and was sure he saw Aurora's permanent smirk twitch just a little higher.

  The leader of the superheroes moved his hand to his belt and pressed a button. His voice was loud, just enough for most of the crowd to hear and for the rest to ask friends and strangers what the mighty man had said. Tony was right. Aurora's smirk was now an arrogant, lip-curling smile.

  "Seven Wonders, unite!"

  With the sound of a low-flying jet, a silver flash streaked just over the heads of the crowd, making a circuit of the shopping plaza before materializing just behind Aurora's shoulder. Linear's silver suit shone in the sun. From out of that sun, the Dragon Star and Bluebell descended together, each with one shapely leg bent upwards in an arrival that was clearly choreographed and much rehearsed.

  A murmur rumbled through one side of the crowd, which turned to shouts of surprise as a giant cat made of blue smoke leapt clear over their heads and into the arena, an armored Grecian warrior brandishing a huge hammer skywards riding the creature's back. As soon as the spirit cat touched down, Hephaestus leapt to the ground and Sand Cat spun in mid-air, transforming into her human warrior form.

  As the Seven Wonders faced Tony in Moore–Reppion Plaza, Tony's confidence slipped. He wanted to back away… but he remembered Jeannie's defiance in the face of huge odds, and held his stance, fists closed. Shit. This was exactly what they wanted. He'd fallen right into their trap.

  "Give it up, Justiciar." Aurora's voice came loud and clear. The assembled spectators hushed into silence, heads turning from superhero to supervillain and back again. "There's seven of us, and one of you, and you can't win. It's time to answer to the city of San Ventura."

  Would it matter if he made the first move? Should he wait and see what happened? If they attacked first, would that give him the advantage? Tony wasn't sure. Last time he'd encountered the Seven Wonders he'd fled. Flight had been more important than fight. But now the fight had arrived. He kept quiet, deciding to wait for Aurora's move.

  It wasn't Aurora that acted first. Their actions were synchronized, each member of the superteam so in tune with the others that any movement one of them made was matched and complemented by the others.

  Linear dissolved into a silver blur as he charged forward, while the Dragon Star ascended vertically and let out a rapid-fire barrage of energy bolts from the glowing end of her powerstaff. Tony dodged these easily, swinging to the left, directly into Linear's path. The speedster collected Tony with a Mach 1 punch to the cheek, sending him flying out of the plaza and through two nearby parked cars and the glass front of a shop. People scattered and screamed, but overall the crowd just buckled before reforming in a slightly larger circle to watch the fight.

  Linear stood in the center of the boulevard, the Dragon Star alighting next to him and firing another dozen bolts into the wrecked shop front. Behind them, Aurora, Bluebell and SMART were airborne, hovering ten feet above the paving. After the Dragon Star lowered her staff, the only sound for half a minute was the bleating of car alarms and the chiming tinkle of broken glass falling. Aurora lowered himself to the ground and wound up his aura to a bright crimson glow.

  Tony exited the shop at speed, diving head first towards the heroes. Knowing Aurora to be the most difficult opponent, he flicked himself towards Sand Cat, aiming for her head. Sand Cat saw this and transformed with a roar into her animal form, catching Tony in mid-flight. The pair were dragged backwards, wrestling for control. Despite her smoky, translucent appearance, Sand Cat remained a solid object, and grabbing the mane-like hair on the back of her cat form's neck, Tony managed to flip the hero onto her back, and then scooped her up by her two front paws and swung her across the road where she collided with spectators, toppling them like skittles.

  Hephaestus yelled and, hammer high, charged at Tony. Tony met the hammer blow with his forearm, but the impact forced him to his knees, where a blast of blue laser from SMART's main gun arm caught him full in the side. Tony staggered sideways, only just blocking Hephaestus' second hammer blow with his other arm. Allowing the Greek's momentum to carry him awkwardly backwards, Tony rolled out and up onto his feet, swinging outward with his left leg as soon as he had purchase. His boot connected with Hephaestus' side, knocking the superhero a dozen yards away. Tony heard SMART adjust its aim, and just as the robot fired a second laser blast Tony shot upwards in flight, leaving the shot to create a smoking hole in the ground where he had been standing.

  The air was a dangerous place, being the domain of the strongest of the Seven Wonders. Tony only had time to turn around his axis before blue and red globes of searing energy struck him, spinning him around in the air. Aurora and Bluebell slowly floated towards him, side by side and arms outstretched, Aurora's aura pulsing with each blast and Bluebell's blue and white suit shimmering like water as it channeled her psychic energy into an electrical attack. Tony tumbled in the air but remained aloft, crying out in agony, but he soon realized that the Cowl's suit and cloak did much to mitigate the attack. Summoning his strength, he darted upwards a few yards and with a yell threw white plasma at the husband and wife supercouple. He missed, but Aurora and Bluebell separated and ceased their own attack. On the street below the plasma exploded, throwing several members of the public into the air.

  
Ah
… that was it. Cause havoc, attack the public. Give them reason to hate the Seven Wonders and to fear him, the Justiciar… the new Cowl.

  Tony flew down towards the nearest edge of the crowd. Among the screaming and running people he picked an attractive teenage girl, plucking her skyward by the wrist. As she cried out he flew directly upwards.

  She was good-looking, and young − maybe seventeen or eighteen, just on the side that any men watching the TV news would not feel too guilty lusting over. Tony allowed himself a smile as he pulled her up alongside him so they were face to face as they sped upwards.

  The girl's eyes were wide but she didn't make a sound. Her mouth twitched a little as she looked around and down, seeing the ever-increasing drop between her and the city. Her eyes finally met Tony's, and seeing the black half-mask – the mask made famous by another man – in close up, she drew a breath to scream.

  Tony jerked his head forward, catching her with a kiss before she cried out. She struggled a little, but at this height and being held as she was, there was little she could do. Tony finally broke it off, smiling even wider. Then at one hundred feet he dropped her, and
then
she screamed. She'd be fine, as he knew a superhero would catch her, but he'd be feared, and the standing of the Seven Wonders would drop a little as the city saw they couldn't control such an unpredictable foe.

  As soon as the girl was clear, the Dragon Star materialized in the sky behind Tony's back. Tony was standing in the air, arms folded, cloak flapping around him, watching his hostage plummet. Immediately, the Dragon Star brought the end of her powerstaff to bear on Tony's back and unleashed a whip crack of energy so fierce it threw her back thirty feet in the air. She recovered, spinning the momentum out and regaining direction, swinging the powerstaff in front of her like a cutlass and sling-shotting a second energy blast. By now Tony was already tumbling towards the ground; the second shot was also on target, throwing him up and away slightly, before he returned to a downwards path, stunned and unable to control his flight. As he turned over in the air, the plaza appeared above his head and he saw his hostage caught not in the air by Aurora or Bluebell, but at ground level by Conroy.

  Geoff Conroy the supervillain, the traitor. Geoff Conroy the motherfucking sell-out. The girl seemed to be unconscious and Conroy drew her carefully to the ground as Sand Cat pounded towards him to help. Then Tony's vision went black and red and he carved a trench into the road with his head. When he stopped he lay still, smoke curling from his borrowed costume.

The Dragon Star blinked out of the sky and onto the road as Aurora and Bluebell descended slowly, arms outstretched to cover the prone form of their enemy. Hephaestus and SMART were already at the edge of the trench, poised for a renewed attack, while Linear buzzed around the crowd, helping with the injured. The sound of police and ambulance sirens filled the air.

  Tony remained unmoving. Hephaestus looked up at Aurora, who nodded to Bluebell. His wife returned the gesture and delicately hopped into the trench, walking with confidence up to the unconscious supervillain. Satisfied that he was out for the count, she squatted over his chest and placed one hand on his forehead and the other on her own, mirroring the finger position exactly. She closed her eyes, trying to scan his mind, gather data on his strengths, weaknesses and motivation. To assess how deep his level of unconsciousness was and, perhaps most important of all, to discover the source of his powers.

  At the edge of the plaza, Conroy and Sand Cat were talking to the now-revived hostage, tearfully reunited with her friends in the crowd. Looking around, Aurora saw a sea of camera phones pointed in every direction − most at him and the churned-up road, ones closer to Conroy and Sand Cat recording their actions. A few people seemed to be smiling, perhaps having recognized the supposedly missing Geoffrey Conroy, delighted in the discovery that he was really a superhero. Leaving his wife to her business, Aurora motioned the Dragon Star and Hephaestus over, indicating the audience. They both nodded and split up, walking to opposite sides of the crowd, beginning the lengthy process of moving people along.

  "Aurora." Bluebell's eyes were still closed, but her forehead was creased in confusion. "There's something wrong here. This man… his powers… they're not… they're not, well, real." She shook her head to herself, and screwing her eyes tighter she probed Tony's mind at a deeper level. Aurora joined her in the trench, standing with arms folded and with Tony's hooded head between his booted feet.

  "Explain?"

  Bluebell shushed him, then her expression changed, almost as though she were surprised. "Oh," she said.

  With all his strength, Tony rocketed upwards, catching Bluebell under the jaw with a punch strong enough to melt stone. As she was thrown upwards, he followed a quarter of a second later with a plasma bolt, narrow and focused. Bluebell was flung out of the trench; Aurora staggered backwards and blinked, looking up just in time to see her fly through the upper stories of a nearby office block. The building shook with the impact and most of the floors she hit concertinaed downwards, smashing nearly all of the windows in the whole building. The crowd gasped and pointed; Sand Cat instinctively swirled into her animal form as the Dragon Star flew into the wreckage after Bluebell. Aurora's pause was only momentary, but enough time for Tony to turn just ten feet in the air and slam down on the superhero at twice the speed of sound. The ground exploded as Aurora and Tony disappeared five feet into the road's foundations. For a second the crowd stood silent, then gasped as the road split again in a brilliant red flash as Aurora and Tony rose back into the air, locked together in face-to-face combat. Aurora's fists glowed red as he fed them energy from his aura, and there was a gunshot crack as each blow landed or was blocked by Tony. Tony's strength and speed matched his adversary's, and the pair twisted like cats as they gained height, engaged in an aerial version of a bar-room brawl.