The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (11 page)

Chapter 22:

The Rescue

      Billy and Solar waited above the darkened enemy base, watching for Whispering's team to get into position.
The idea was for the werewolves to be ready to jump in and pull Broadstreet out of the facility while Billy and Solar made a big show of attacking, hoping that the guards would assume the two fliers were the real rescue team.

      From this high up, Billy could see exactly how much destruction had befallen the City. Entire neighborhoods were gone. He tried not to think about what happened to his parents over the years in this timeline.

      "Is the whole world like this?" Billy asked.

      "Parts of it," Solar said. "Anywhere the people tried to take a stand, though, bad things happened. And worse, the more chaotic things got, the worse folks were to each other in general. People do terrible things during bad times."

      "Well that's depressing," Billy said.

     
And unfortunately true,
Dude said
. This isn't unique to this timeline, Billy Case.

      I know, Billy thought.

     
Don't let it discourage you,
Dude said.

      How do you stop it from discouraging you? Billy thought. I've only been at this a year or so and I'm already seeing that people are pretty much awful to each other all the time. You've been flying around inside other hosts for lifetimes. Don't you ever feel like it's a waste of time?

     
Sometimes,
Dude said, his tone different from usual, more conversational, less authoritarian.
But there is always someone who deserves rescuing. There is always some good thing worth doing, despite all the bad.

      And that keeps you going, Billy thought.

     
Yes
, Dude said.
I also have no body, so my activity options are limited.

      Very funny, Dude, Billy thought.

      "Talking to your alien?" Solar said, smiling, but not taking her eyes off the base below them.

      "We're discussing the foibles of human nature," Billy said.

     
You didn't even know what foibles were until Emily used the word last week
, Dude said.
Don't get cute.

      "Well . . . humans have a lot of foibles to discuss," Solar said. She gestured at the base. "You ready to roll?"

      "Absolutely."

      "Be careful," Solar said. "These people are used to dealing with super-powered fighters. They'll be ready for us, even if we should catch them off-guard."

      "I'm always careful," Billy said.

     
You're never careful,
Dude muttered.

      Their enemies were holed up in a converted bank. Solar had suggested that they selected that particular building because it was more defensible than some of the other neighboring abandoned Waterfront District buildings, and the vaults inside could be used for any number of security purposes, including as a jail cell for Broadstreet—if he were still alive.

      Solar and Billy began their attack run, both allowing their brightest powers—hers the yellow-gold of sunlight, his the bluish white energy signature Dude provided—to illuminate.

      Solar struck first, crashing through the roof of the bank like a meteor and smashing concrete with a deafening bang. Billy followed, zapping enemy fighters with concussive blasts from his hands.

      One of the men raised a weapon that looked like a cross between a rifle and a very big plastic squirt gun. He fired, and Billy instinctually dodged the blast, though he could barely see it—the weapon didn't fire a bullet, or even a laser, but something colorless and shimmering, like hot air flickering off blacktop.

      Behind him, the bolt clipped an old telephone pole, knocking it over as if swatted by a giant hand.

      "Up!" Solar yelled, and she and Billy launched back into the air, dodging more fire from their enemies.

      "What are they firing at us?" Billy yelled.

      "Gravity guns," Solar said. "Don't let them hit you. They're not lethal to people like us but—"

      Before Solar could finish, Billy took a gravity gun blast to the chest, sending him spinning off into the sky. It felt like getting kicked by a large herd animal, he thought, though the protective shielding Dude's powers provided took the brunt of the blast. Billy caught his breath and flew back, catching up as Solar swooped and swerved to avoid weapon-fire.

      From this vantage point, Billy saw Whispering's werewolf fighters climbing swiftly through the gaping hole in the ceiling Solar had created, tossing enemy soldiers aside and smashing their rifles. He witnessed one younger werewolf take a shot to the back and fall over. Alarmed, Billy rocketed down, hit the soldier with a hammering blow of white light, and put his hand on the dazed werewolf. One of the fallen wolf's comrades scooped him up over his shoulder to carry him to safety.

      "We can't get the door open," Billy heard someone say. He followed the voices to find a pair of werewolves trying to get into a vault, thwarted by the massive metal door.

      "Let me try," Billy said.

      The wolves backed away, and Billy grabbed hold of the door's massive handle and pulled, drawing deep on the reserve power Dude gave him. The door creaked, then buckled, and hinges cracked and split. He pulled again and the entire wall started to crumble.

      "Kid, Solar needs you outside," another werewolf said.

      Billy glanced back at his handiwork and nodded. I might have a career option robbing banks when we get back to our timeline, he thought.

     
No, you really don't,
Dude said, his voice disapproving.

      Billy launched back into the sky, leaving the team of werewolves to finish pulling the door open. He saw Solar dodging blasts from a group of enemy fighters, and before they realized he was present, Billy knocked all three out with concussive shots. He joined Solar in the air where she continued to draw enemy fire.

      Airborne again, Billy saw the wolves making a retreat, one carrying the injured werewolf. Whispering himself hauled the prone body of Broadstreet. Billy had never seen Titus running at full speed from the sky before, and watching his friend's future self and his allies tear through the city streets on those powerful monstrous legs amazed him. Inhumanly fast, they leapt over abandoned cars as if they were just pebbles in the road.

      Then Billy heard a whooping noise and watched a group of vehicles take off after the pack.

      "Hoverbikes?" Billy said.

      "Gravity bikes," Solar said. "Running on the same technology the guns do."

      "We taking them off Whispering's tail?" Billy said.

      "With prejudice," Solar said, dive-bombing toward the street.

      Solar flew alongside one of the vehicles and walloped it on the back-end with one flaming fist, sending the flying machine spinning out of control to crash into a vacant building.

      Billy joined in, having less luck catching his target, shooting beaming blasts but having each shot dodged by the quick spider-like vehicle. Billy flew in closer, felt Dude kick up the power of their flight, and took aim. Another light strike crashed into the vehicle's rear engine, and the flying machine flipped and smashed into the street.

      Solar caught a third, ripping it apart with her bare hands, pulling the pilot out and tossing him almost gently to the ground before pushing the gravity vehicle into the crumbling pavement. Billy swooped under a fourth. The hammering weight of its gravity-based engine push him back and almost knocked him out of the air. Alarmed, he fired with both hands, and the flying cart bounced and spun into the sky, out of control, exploding into the second-story windows of an old brick office building.

      Ahead, Billy saw the final gravity bike closing in on the wolves. He tightened his fists and flew faster, hoping to catch up in time. Solar soared next to him, burning so bright he felt the heat of her powers against his skin through his protective force fields. He knew neither of them were going to make it in time. Twin guns dropped from the bottom of the vehicle and took aim at the werewolves.

      That's when he saw old Titus Whispering turn around and face the machine.

      The scarred version of Titus tossed the prone body to one of the other werewolves, almost casually. The younger wolf caught their ally in his arms like a baby and continued to run at top speed. Whispering changed direction and dashed back at the speeding machine, head on, massive claws gripping the pavement, crackling it like paper.

      Whispering leapt into the air, slammed down onto the front of the bike, causing its chassis to drag along the ground with enough friction to spark. The guns ripped free, becoming airborne, useless. Whispering bounded off as the machine flipped entirely, crumpling in the street. The older wolf stomped up to the machine and dragged the pilot out with one huge clawed hand.

      Billy, close enough now,  heard the gravelly voice of his friend's future self filled with dark anger.

      "This is our mercy. Tell your friends," Whispering said.

      Billy saw blood start to stain the man's shirt as Whispering held him aloft.

      "You tell them I had your heart mere inches from my claws and I let you live."

      The pilot's eyes rolled back in his head, and Whispering dropped him like a broken toy on the ground.

      Solar landed beside Billy. They both approached Whispering slowly. Even after all these years, Billy noted, nobody's quite sure if he's in control as a werewolf. Amazing.

      "How did Broadstreet look?" the elder Solar said.

      "We should get home," Whispering said, ignoring her question. Then he turned and bounded after his pack.

      "What does that mean?" Billy said.

      "You know him," Solar said, a sadness creeping into her voice. "What does it mean when your Titus won't answer a question?"

      Billy nodded, a knot in his stomach, and flew full speed back toward the makeshift base.

Chapter 23:

The Drop

      Titus had never been to the City's dump before, and it didn't occur to him until the "stealth" team arrived there just how badly it reeked, even at the end of the world.
"Nobody warns you that having super-senses means things that smell horrible stink a thousand times worse," he said, mostly to himself.

      Kate didn't acknowledge the statement at all, walking on the outskirts of the group looking for trouble. Jessie, the new Straylight, snorted under her breath.

      It was Finnigan, of course, who offered sympathy. "I wish I could tell you it gets easier, lad, but it never does," he said instead.

      "So stay away from public bathrooms and garbage dumps is what you're telling me," Titus said.

      "Among other things," Finnigan said.

      Annie, walking beside Jane at the back of the group, hustled to catch up.

      "Why the dump?" she asked.

      "For the drop?" Finnigan said. "Because it's not far from the Waterfront District where our spy was located. And really, who looks for something in a dump?"

      "Did he ever risk getting discovered, though?" Jane said. "Nobody really ever goes to a place like this on purpose either."

      "He was good about not being followed," Jessie said. "But who knows? There's probably a trap waiting for us."

      "There's always a trap," Titus said with a sigh.

      He looked up to see Kate standing in silhouette on top of a pile of rusted cars. Like some sort of guardian statue, silent and motionless, watching the horizon, she pointed.

      Titus followed her gesture.

      They were looking for a specific car, an old hatchback of a particularly aggressive shade of green that had been designated as the drop point for information from Broadstreet. Titus wished he'd been more involved with the reporter back in their home timeline. Knowing his scent, even in a junkyard, would help him track the location of the car easier. Jessie and Finnigan had some idea where they were going, but the place was enormous and had fallen into even more chaos after fighting began in the City.

      "Hey, Finnigan," Titus said, calling the older werewolf over.

      "Yeah, kid."

      "I have to ask—in the future, do I lose the ability to revert to human form?" he said. "Did something happen? We haven't seen . . . me . . . other than as a werewolf so far. It's freaking me out."

      "You haven't figured that out yet, lad?" Finnigan said. He looked up to where the Dancer had been standing, but she'd moved on.

      Titus frowned.

      "Maybe I was hoping for something less dramatic."

      Finnigan made a huffing sound, not quite a laugh, and not meant to be humorous.

      "The fighting changed you," Finnigan said. "We lost people. Good people, good werewolves. There's been a lot of tragedy the past two decades. Recent years, as we started to lose, there's been even more."

      "We haven't seen future-Kate talk to anyone," Titus said.

      "That's because future-Kate barely speaks to anyone," Finnigan said. "And it's been a long time since she stopped conversing with your future self."

      Titus kicked a hunk of detritus at his feet.

      "I think . . ." Finnigan said. "I think at first he was just using it as a disguise. What do you see when you look at him?"

      "I see a monster."

      "Right. Just a big beast covered in scars. But you and I know how to read emotions in other wolves. Regular people don't. They simply see monsters."

      "And so he's wearing the wolf as a mask?" Titus said.

      "Yeah. Your girl just stopped talking to anyone, shut the whole world out. And you know by then, after everything we'd lost, he needed her. She was his other half. Something that helped the world make sense."

      Titus grimaced and tried to locate the Dancer out among the ruins of the junkyard, but didn't see her anywhere.

      "I don't like it," Titus said.

      "Why's that?" the older wolf said.

      "I'd . . . like to think I'm better than that. That I wouldn't let having my heart broken make me feel like I had to hide myself behind a monster's mask."

      Finnigan grinned widely.

      "What?" Titus asked.

      "Keep that," he said.

      "Keep what?"

      "Keep that truth in your heart, Titus," Finnigan said. "Because it is okay to love, and it is okay to feel loss, but don't ever let it consume you. Don't ever let sadness steal you from the world."

      "I don't want to lose her," Titus said.

      "Of course."

      "But I don't want to lose myself either."

      "And that's okay," Finnigan said.

      Titus started at the red-headed werewolf, then shook his head.

      "I miss you, Finnigan. You know I never saw you again, after I left to help my friends."

      "Am I dead?"

      "No. Not that I know of."

      "Then you better think about rectifying that when you get home. I'm sure I'm very disappointed," Finnigan said.

      They both laughed, and Titus realized how long it had been since he left the others there in the forest so far north of the border, how he'd not found them yet, and wondered if perhaps he was just meant to never see any of his small pack again. And then Finnigan put a hand gently on his shoulder.

      "I'll tell you true, lad, I miss you too," he said. "Hasn't been the same since everything went wrong. Made you a stronger warrior, sure, but . . . I miss my friend. We were great friends before the sadness buried you."

      Titus nodded, put his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt. He tossed a glance over his shoulder and saw Jane staring at him, eyes wide and haunted. He sometimes forgot she had superhuman hearing that was almost as strong as his own. Had she heard every word? Probably. But it didn't bother him. There was no one other than Jane—not even Kate—Titus knew who could be trusted with a story like this. She simply had no malice in her heart.

      Then he caught a look of shock on Jane's face and turned to see Kate running at them at full speed.

      "You find it?" Titus said.

      "You'll want to see this," Kate said.

      The group retraced her path to find the car, definitely in an unmistakable shade of green, waiting for them, untouched. But it was also clear looking at the ground that others had been this way. Varied footprints in the grimy mud hinted that before or after Broadstreet made the drop, another group had visited. Had they already retrieved the data Broadstreet left for them? Or had they set up a ruse long before the reporter had arrived?

      "It's got to be a trap," Kate said. "I can't tell how long ago they were here, but someone was looking for the drop."

      "Okay," Jane said. "I'll go for the car."

      "No," Kate said. You hang back. If it's booby-trapped you need to be ready to defend me."

      "Defend you?"

      "Everyone else here has powers. I'll go to the car so the rest of you can be prepared to act," Kate said.

      "I'll walk with you," Annie said.

      "Why?" Kate said.

      "Because I can control time, you grumpy little thing," Annie said. "I might be able to buy us a few seconds if we need it."

      The time-traveler and the vigilante tried to stare each other down, but finally Kate relented and nodded. They approached the car together. Finnigan and Titus transformed into their werewolf forms without a sound. Nearby, Jane and Jessie started to power up.

      Kate popped the trunk.

      Nothing happened.

      She reached inside while Annie stood watch.

      When Kate stood up, she held in her hand a small data drive, not unlike the sort of basic thumb drive Titus was used to seeing. She raised it slowly.

      Everyone relaxed.

      Then the wreckage on either side of the green car shifted, and, like something out of a science fiction movie, two mechanical spiders the size of delivery vans stood up and grasped for Kate and Annie.

      Everything unfolded in a blur of slowed time and explosive violence. The robots, spindle-legged and ugly, erupted in motion. Annie threw out her arms instinctively, and Titus could feel the way she tugged on time, somewhere between an undertow and outright vertigo. Kate hunched into an attack position, but before she could move, Jane burst into the sky, crashing through the heart of one of the robots in a streak of flame and screeching metal.

      Titus and Finnigan launched into motion, not moving to attack but rather to grab hold of their two vulnerable companions below the monstrous robots. Titus scooped Kate up in one arm, felt her tense, sensed her fury at not being allowed to fight. I'll apologize later, Titus thought, but she has the data drive, she doesn't get to play hero this time. Finnigan did the same for Annie, both werewolves shielding their allies with their own bodies, knowing their supernatural healing would better be able to take a slash from those long, spidery, clawed legs.

      The sky lit up. Titus recognized the unique glow of a Straylight blast, and Jessie was in the air, fighting alongside Jane, the two women dismantling the multi-legged robots easily.

      Titus put Kate down only to feel her kick off him, using his now-massive chest as a springboard. He watched as she crashed into the first of a half-dozen armed men, all wearing mottled gray uniforms. Kate lashed out, kicking one in the face, taking the futuristic rifle out of his hand and using it to smash a second man on the neck. Titus joined in, not quite sure how Kate already recognized these men as their enemy but trusting her instinct, and used his supernatural strength to toss the men around like ragdolls. Finnigan was beside him seconds later, and the three made short work of the ambush, leaving the uniformed men battered on the ground.

      Kate held one, still conscious, by the shirt.

      "How did you know we were coming?" she said.

      The man hesitated, then stuttered and stumbled over his own words.

      Kate viciously slammed him into the muddy ground.

      Jane landed between Kate and Titus and looked up at the sky. "We should get out of here before reinforcements arrive," she said.

      "We can take them!" Jessie said. "I want to fight."

      Annie waved them off.

      "Can and should aren't the same. We got what we came for."

      "And trust me," Finnigan said, reverting to his human form. "Sometimes the things they send next are a lot more dangerous than the first round."