Vanguard: The Complete Second Season: A Superhero Serial (Vanguard: The Collected Seasons Book 2) (31 page)

The two Gunsmiths who remained in the air flew away from the dragon, opening fire on it. It didn’t seem to deter the creature at all and after it squeezed the Gunsmith it held until he fell unconscious, the dragon turned its attention to the other two targets.

Chronos’ HUD picked up movement from above. He looked to the source, expecting to see another Gunsmith. What he saw instead was a winged figure against the moon. It dove down and Chronos could see it was a woman with long talons for fingers. The strange woman sliced into the jetpack of one Gunsmith, causing him to fly out of control.
 

The woman touched the ground, but only for an instant before she sprung back up. The final Gunsmith opened fire on her, but she was fast and agile, easily dodging the blasts. She sliced upward, tearing into the Gunsmith’s armor. She tore it to shreds, leaving almost no trace of his protection and then dropped the injured figure to the ground.

Chronos held his staff at the ready as the dragon and the lion both circled him, eyeing him carefully. But the winged woman landed beside him and then the creatures backed off.
 

“Stop scaring him, Ink,” said the woman.

Chronos picked up new movement and saw another young woman approach. She had long hair pulled behind her head. Her arms were bare and the lion and dragon flew towards her, shrinking as they did and affixed themselves to empty spots on her arms. Once they did, they changed into normal tattoos.

“You’re no fun,” said Ink. She came closer and Chronos noticed that every inch of her exposed skin was covered with tattoos. He imagined there were more beneath the skintight costume she wore, too.

The woman with the wings also had markings on her face and dark hair tied in a bun. She transformed before Chronos’ eyes, her fingers becoming normal and the wings receding into her back.
 

“I’m Talon,” she said, then pointed to her tattooed companion. “That’s Ink.”

“What are you doing out at this time?” asked Ink. “Practically begging to be nabbed by a Gunsmith patrol. And where’d you get that tech? Never seen anything like it.”

“My name’s Chronos,” he said. “I’m—well, it’s kind of a long story.”

“We’ll get you to shelter and you can tell us there,” said Talon.

“Why are you helping me?” asked Chronos. “You don’t know anything about me.”

Talon scoffed. “Despite what the Kotharians want you to believe, specials aren’t out to exterminate humans. We’re trying to fight for the freedom of the planet.”

Chronos looked between the pair. They were young, only teenagers. “Just the two of you?”

Ink and Talon exchanged a look and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” asked Chronos.

Ink pointed to a badge of some kind pinned to her chest. It was a stylized V breaking out of an oval. “What, you never heard of Vanguard?”

CHAPTER 2

Present Day

The Kotharian warrior called J’Karra sat in her ship. The seat was reclined and the ship had managed to tap into something the people of this world called the Internet. It was a limitless storehouse of knowledge and information about this world and its people. Ever since J’Karra had left the place called North Korea, she began researching this planet.

She didn’t know how many hours she had been at this. But a prime focus for her were the beings she encountered in North Korea. As a group, they called themselves Vanguard. Finding information on them was J’Karra’s major focus.

J’Karra watched videos of public battles Vanguard had engaged in with other super-powered individuals. There was a battle in a place called Chicago with a man dressed in blue and white, who had superhuman strength and invulnerability. He called himself the Exemplar and J’Karra found other videos of him also protecting people. It made her wonder just why Vanguard would be fighting him when both were working to help others.

There was another video of them battling a woman in white who could control the very air. The video named her as Zephyr and the description said it was a battle in Central Park. And like Exemplar, there were other videos of Zephyr. Mostly made by her, speaking directly to the camera and talking about revolutions.

The third and final battle was in Las Vegas and involved a glowing man called Lucent. This one seemed the most bloodthirsty of all of them. Whereas J’Karra could get the sense from the actions of Zephyr and the Exemplar that they believed they were doing the right thing—Lucent seemed to only want to cause destruction.

She found other things connected to Vanguard from there. The destruction of some sort of white house by an organization called the Red Fist. Vanguard disappearing without a trace. The formation of an agency called Cerberus. And a name that was attached to these beings of incredible power—specials.

J’Karra rubbed her chin in confusion. Why were there all these separate nation-states at odds with each other? Why was this planet being destroyed by the humans? Why were the humans battling each other? There was no sense of brotherhood or cooperation like with the Kotharians.
 

But more surprising were these specials. J’Karra knew from her time in North Korea that the Chaknaar was most-likely responsible for their creation. And yet with her people, the Chaknaar only grants psionic abilities. These humans though—specials—they’ve been given a variety of powers. Something about their DNA has caused them to mutate in strange ways.

Even more bizarre was how few of them there were. Judging from the readings she took on Earth’s moon, the Chaknaar would have engulfed the entire planet. Yet only a small percentage displayed these wondrous abilities.
 

The ship’s computer flashed an alert. It detected a transmission. “Display,” she said and the ship acquiesced. It was a video transmission of a Kotharian captain.
 

“Our exploration of the neighboring galaxies has not yielded anything worth note until now. This planet, Earth, appears to have a similar environment to Kothar, and a species that is somewhat compatible with our own. We plan to investigate further but—what? By the Matriarch, we are under attack! They’ve discovered us, they’ve—!”

The transmission ended there. J’Karra’s mouth was open in shock. She checked the date on the transmission and found that it was almost seventy years old. But how was it still broadcasting?

“Trace the source,” she said.

The computer returned with an error message. She repeated, “Computer, trace the source of the transmission.”

Again, an error message was returned. “Scan records of this Internet. Find any information that correlates with the date of the transmission.”

Information appeared all across the canopy of J’Karra’s ship. One particular headline in something called the
Roswell Daily Record
read, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region.” There was more information connected to this. Denials from government agencies about the “flying saucer” and other information hinting at a cover-up of the true origin.

“Is it possible?” asked J’Karra. “Could the humans have shot down a Kotharian research vessel?”

She needed answers. J’Karra searched out information on this “United States” and found that the head of the government was something called a “President” and that he resided in a “white house” in a place called Washington.
 

“Set course for this Washington,” said J’Karra. “I believe this President and I need to have a talk.”

CHAPTER 3

Howard McCabe felt at home in his old laboratory. It had been close to a year since he was able to set foot inside Atlas, the base that housed the team of specials called Vanguard. And he was glad to be back. Most of the work he was doing now on studying specials came directly out of his initial contact as an advisor to Vanguard.

But that was when Vanguard was a secret project initiated by the late President Curtis Hayworth. With Hayworth dead, his successor, Dennis Lawson, had terminated the program. Felt it was too risky given the international community’s consensus on prohibiting nations from using specials for their own purposes.
 

Anita Jordan lay on a gurney beside McCabe. As the geneticist typed away at the keyboard, an apparatus lowered from the ceiling, flashing a green light across Anita’s body. She closed her eyes as it passed over her.
 

As the light moved, a display of Anita’s body appeared on the screen. McCabe focused in on the brain, looking for any irregularities. He rubbed his gray beard as he contemplated the results.

Anita sat up from the gurney and looked at McCabe. “So what’s the verdict?”

McCabe hit a few keys and brought up a scan of Anita’s brain from before. “Well, one thing’s for certain, your mind’s definitely showing increased activity. That could be a result of your powers growing.” He looked away from the computer and focused on her. “How are you feeling? Any headaches like you experienced in the past?”

Anita shook her head. “Nothing. I feel fine, actually. All things considered.”

McCabe gave a solemn nod and lowered his eyes. “Leo told me what happened in North Korea. You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

Anita held up her hand. “Please, don’t. It’s not a topic I feel like revisiting.”

“That’s fine.” McCabe turned away from the computer, sliding his chair closer to Anita. “I’m not going to push you. But I just want you to know that we’re here for you if you need anything.”

Anita gave a half-hearted smile. “I appreciate it. But right now, I’m more interested in
how
I was able to do it.”

McCabe took a breath. “Well, that’s a bit difficult to determine with any degree of certainty. Your powers
are
psionic in nature, though.”

“Yeah, but it’s just been a form of telekinesis, right?” asked Anita. “The forcefield around my body, my flight, my strength.”

“True, but telekinesis doesn’t rule out telepathic abilities.”

“But my telekinesis hasn’t even expanded. I still can’t lift things without physically touching them.”

“We’re in uncharted territory here with specials, there’s no way to say for certain how powers develop,” said McCabe. “Maybe it’s a result of your exposure to other psychics. A defense mechanism after what the Analyst did to you. Or maybe it was your encounter with the Collective or this J’Karra woman that unlocked these abilities.”

“I haven’t been able to use them since, though,” she said. “Whenever I try to read someone’s mind, I get nothing. It’s like—” She stopped herself and chuckled.

“What?” asked McCabe, not getting the joke.

“I was just going to say it’s like trying to fly,” she said.

“Sounds like you need some new analogies.”
 

Anita and McCabe looked to the door where the third voice came from. Jim Ellis, Vanguard’s field commander, stepped out of the elevator. He was clad in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and approached the pair.

“I hope you’re not giving her permission to slack off, Doc,” said Jim.

“Not at all. In fact, she’s the picture of health,” said McCabe, turning his gaze to Anita. “Provided she’s ready, I’d say she can go back in the field right away.”

Jim looked at her, too. Despite his comment about slacking off, his eyes showed genuine concern for his teammate. “What do you say?”

Anita stood from the gurney. “I’m ready whenever you guys are.”

“Good, because the old man wants everyone in the monitor room for a briefing,” said Jim.

“Watch it with the ‘old man’ cracks,” said McCabe.
 

Jim snickered. “Sorry, Doc. You’re more than welcome to join us, too. Might be able to give us some insight.”

“I appreciate the offer, but is that acceptable? I’m not officially part of this unit anymore.”

“This unit doesn’t officially exist anymore, so I don’t think we have a lot to worry about,” said Jim.

***

The entire team gathered around the round table in the monitor room. Colonel Leonard Thorne stood at the front of the group, with the robotic Zenith by his side. All the members of the team were dressed in regular street clothes. Anita, Jim, and McCabe were the last to arrive and they took the empty seats at the table.

“After everything that’s happened over the past few months, I thought it best to assess where we stand. Especially now that Atlas is up and running again,” said Thorne.
 

He and Zenith turned to the large monitor behind them. A grid appeared with various photographs on it. Each photograph was an enemy Vanguard had faced in the past.
 

“Both the Khagan and Lucent are accounted for. Cerberus has them both imprisoned,” said Zenith. The image of a white man with a Fu Manchu goatee and a glowing blue man both turned to black and white. “The others are still at large.”

“We can probably rule out Fuerte as a threat,” said Thorne. An image of a young Hispanic girl turned to black and white. “She only battled us while under the control of the Analyst and ever since we brought her in, Zukov said she’s been nothing but extremely cooperative. She’s been released and has returned to her studies.”

“Next, we have the Exemplar,” said Zenith. One of the images enlarged, this of a handsome man with short, dark hair and blue eyes.
 

“I don’t think we have to worry about him,” said Erin. “He helped Koji and me on Arcadia. Seems to be doing pretty well.”

“That was before,” said Jim. “When Callus was still in charge, he had Cerberus invade Arcadia. They took a number of prisoners but King wasn’t among them. According to reports, he managed to escape.”

“That could make him a threat,” said Thorne.

“The impression we got was that he was trying to get his life together, do something to help specials,” said Koji.

“This is a guy who nearly destroyed Chicago because his wife rejected him, he’s not exactly a model of stability,” said Dom. “Cerberus trashed his home. He’s going to want payback. And can’t say I blame him.”

“Me neither,” said Anita.
 

“Except it was Callus responsible for what happened to Arcadia and he’s gone,” said Jim. “If King goes after Cerberus, he’ll be punishing the wrong people.”