Vanguard: The Complete Second Season: A Superhero Serial (Vanguard: The Collected Seasons Book 2) (33 page)

Wraith and Gunsmith both retaliated on Paragon’s behalf, Wraith releasing ebon blasts and Gunsmith firing his teleforce blasters. Zenith and Sentinel joined in the attacks, too. J’Karra somersaulted around the blasts, and when she had an opening, she fired an arrow first at Gunsmith as he was the easiest to hit. He fell to a fate similar to Paragon’s.

The next arrow was intended for Wraith, but he vanished in a portal and reappeared behind J’Karra. She swung her bow and struck him in the jaw, then grabbed him, using him as a shield. Zenith and Sentinel accidentally struck him and Wraith cried out in pain.

While the rest of the group kept J’Karra busy, Shift’s tentacles reached out for Lawson, wrapping around his legs and pulling him behind the Resolute Desk. Sharkskin pulled some of the downed agents out of harm’s way as well. With Zenith and Sentinel attacking J’Karra with everything they had, any attempt for Sharkskin to jump in and use his strength would only end up getting himself injured.

Once they were clear, Sharkskin picked up one of the chairs in the Oval Office and hurled it at J’Karra. She jumped to stay clear of it and ducked behind one of the couches. When she lunged up again, she fired a psionic arrow. It struck Sentinel and he paused for a moment, looking down at his body. But then he quickly recovered by raising his hand and firing off another energy blast from the palm of his gauntlet.

“Already had someone mess with my mind once, not gonna happen again!” he said.

Zenith hit his thrusters and shot his robotic body at J’Karra. He grabbed her, blowing through a few walls before separating by unleashing a pulse from his cannon at close range. While Zenith stopped, J’Karra went through a few more walls before she finally landed in the foyer of the White House.

Zenith came after her, with Sentinel soon hovering beside him. Both Shift and Sharkskin quickly joined them, following the path Zenith had left. J’Karra struggled to get to her feet, looking at her four opponents. Shift and Sharkskin she could take out with her powers, but Zenith and apparently Sentinel were both immune. Although she was confident that she could keep up a defense for now, she was beginning to feel the effects of exhaustion. If she continued on like this, she would make a mistake or one of the their downed teammates would recover.
 

Besides, she got what she needed to know from Lawson. Continuing to battle Vanguard was just a waste of time. She would deal with them at a later date, after she completed her mission.

J’Karra activated a button on her gauntlet and a blue energy field surrounded her entire body. It swirled faster and brighter until she completely vanished and the energy dissipated into nothing.
 

“What the hell was that?” asked Sharkskin.

“She appears to have teleported,” said Zenith. He turned his head. “And now her craft is departing from the area.”

“Gotta go after her!” Sentinel activated his jetpack and blew through the White House ceiling. He saw J’Karra’s craft rising off the ground and flying off into the sky. Sentinel pushed his jetpack to the maximum, trying to keep up with her. But J’Karra’s plane moved too quickly and once she activated stealth mode, she vanished completely from sight and from his sensors.

CHAPTER 6

After J’Karra’s departure, the team regrouped. The President had them all brought down to the White House Situation Room, along with Ramsey and an escort of Secret Service agents.
 

“This is unacceptable,” said Ramsey. “They have no business being down here, Mr. President.”

“Y’know, a ‘thank you for saving our butts’ wouldn’t hurt,” said Sharkskin.

“‘Thank you’?” asked Ramsey.

“You’re welcome,” said Sharkskin with a smile, ignoring the intonation. “See, was that so hard?”

That only angered the Secretary even more. “I’m certainly
not
going to thank you—you freaks! It’s probably because of you that we were attacked by that psychopath!”

“Joe, please. You’re not helping,” said Lawson.

Ramsey turned to the President, pointing at the group. “They’re a security risk! They shouldn’t even be here! We pulled the plug on their operation because we knew how dangerous it was to keep them around!”

“With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, shut the hell up,” said Gunsmith. “We received word that the White House was being attacked and we came to do the same thing we’ve always done—save lives.”

Ramsey narrowed his eyes. “Tell that to Curtis Hayworth.”

“You sonnuva—” Wraith made a movement for Ramsey, but Paragon stepped in front of him and placed a firm hand on his chest. “You’re the one responsible for that!”

“Don’t,” said Paragon.
 

“You see? Wild accusations!” said Ramsey, having backed as far away from the team so he was standing in the corner. “We can’t trust these people, Mr. President. We ordered them to disband and yet here they are, back together. And with a new member, no less!” He pointed at Sentinel. “Plus, did you see how they arrived? They still have the Icarus, which should be in the possession of Cerberus! In fact…” Ramsey reached into his jacket and pulled out his cell phone. “I’m going to put in a call to them right now. Get a team down here to obtain these rogue specials.”

Sharkskin crossed the distance between him and Ramsey in a flash. He took the phone and squeezed it in his hand. The glass cracked and the phone crumpled under his strength. He dropped it on the floor, now a hunk of useless plastic and metal.

“Oops,” he said. “Sorry about that. These new phones are so damn fragile.”

Ramsey stared at his phone in shock. He looked up at Sharkskin with anger burning in his eyes. But Sharkskin just flashed him a large smile. Although with the rows of razor-sharp teeth in his mouth, the gesture couldn’t help but be intimidating.

“This has gone on long enough,” said Lawson. He looked at the small cadre of agents. “Please remove the Secretary from the room.”

Ramsey did a double-take on the President, his voice stammering a bit as he asked, “What?”

“You heard me,” said Lawson, his voice calm yet stern. “All you’re doing is escalating the situation. So I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I think he is,” said Wraith. “So why don’t you get the hell out?”

Two agents flanked Ramsey, taking hold of his arms. He roughly pulled away, glaring at everyone in the room. “I can do it myself.”

Once the agents left with Ramsey in tow, the door was shut behind them. Lawson gave a sigh and sat down at the head of the table. He motioned to the other chairs and the Vanguardians all took a seat for themselves, with Koji having to change back to his human form in order to sit comfortably.

Lawson clasped his hands and laid them on the table, his eyes studying each of the specials who sat around him. “To say I have a lot of questions would be a gross understatement. I ordered Operation: Vanguard shut down. So how is it I’m staring at Vanguard right now?”

“Mr. President, I believe I can answer that,” said Zenith. “You ordered an end to government support of Vanguard. We chose on our own to re-assemble, operating independently of the government of the United States or any other nation.”

“The Icarus is government property,” said Lawson.

“Actually no, it is not,” said Zenith. “I built and designed the Icarus myself. Most of the funds invested in its construction came from my own, private accounts.”

This drew some confused stares from Zenith’s teammates. “Your private accounts?” asked Shift.

Zenith nodded. “Decades ago, I began investing in the stock market. The Icarus and the Atlas-F ICBM silo that our base was constructed out of were purchased by me in order to avoid any connection to the Hayworth administration. It is true that some of the equipment located inside is owned by the government, but I am willing to provide recompense.”

Lawson leaned back in his chair and scoffed. “You clever son of a bitch. I’d be lying if I told you all that things have been better with you gone. But we’ve still got the problem of you essentially acting as a vigilante organization.”

“That’s what Cerberus is for,” said Gunsmith. “As you’re already aware, sir, I work for that agency. I can act as a liaison between Cerberus and Vanguard to ensure we aren’t exceeding our mandate.”

“I appreciate that. Ramsey won’t be happy about it, but that’s his problem,” said Lawson.

“That’s something else we need to discuss, sir,” said Gunsmith. “We have reason to believe that the Secretary may have been working with the Red Fist.”

“Now hold on just a second,” said Lawson, his body tensing up. “Ramsey may be a pain in my ass, but that’s a pretty serious accusation. You’re basically saying he was an accessory to the murder of some of the most powerful people in this country,
including
the President of the United States. So you’d better have some serious proof to back up such a serious charge.”

“How about the fact that he’s still alive when everyone else in the Cabinet was torched?” asked Wraith.
 

“Excuse me?”

“Sir, my teammate’s unfortunate choice of words aside, he has a point,” said Paragon. “Ramsey was conveniently at the Pentagon when the Khagan attacked.”

“Moreover, my exoskeleton technology was obtained and replicated by the Red Fist,” said Gunsmith. “The only people who had access to that tech were myself, Colonel Thorne, Zenith, President Hayworth, and Secretary Ramsey.”

“There’s also the teleforce tech the Khagan had me construct his laser out of,” said Sentinel. “That came from government sources.”

Lawson shook his head. “You make an interesting case, but it’s not enough to bring him up on charges.”

“Yes, we understand that, sir. It is why we’ve remained silent until now,” said Zenith. “But we ask that you maintain a close watch on him.”

“I can promise you that,” said Lawson. “Now, let’s get down to business. What the hell happened here today?”

“The woman who attacked you is named J’Karra,” said Zenith. “She claims to be from an alien race called the Kotharians. And what is more, she appears to be a special.”

Lawson shut his eyes and held up his hand. “Slow down. She’s a
special
?”

Shift’s eyes went from side to side as she processed Lawson’s comment. “You’re more surprised about the special part than the
alien
part?”

“She said something about taking back what’s hers,” said Paragon. “Do you have any idea what she meant?”

Lawson looked away, rubbing his chin. He was clearly considering whether or not to tell them what he knew. But finally, it was Zenith who did it for him. “He knows. We both do.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Sentinel.

“1947, Roswell, New Mexico,” said Zenith.

“What the hell are you doing?” asked Lawson, rising suddenly. “That’s classified information, how did you—”

Gunsmith rose and stared down the President. “Listen sir, if we’re going to stop J’Karra, we need to know what she’s after and where we can find her. We can’t do our jobs if we have no idea where she is. Now classified or not, if this information could lead us to her location, then we need to hear it.”

“Given that we are already aware of J’Karra’s alien origins, I would say it’s a little late for secrecy, Mr. President,” said Zenith.
 

“So aliens actually
did
crash in Roswell,” said Sentinel. “And the government
did
cover it up.”

“It was the Cold War, we weren’t sure if what we discovered was alien or some new Soviet technology,” said Lawson. “So yes, we took the wreckage and covered it up. Once we examined it, we discovered that the occupants were aliens. Orange-skinned aliens, in fact. With yellow hair.”

“Just like J’Karra,” said Paragon.

“The crew didn’t survive the crash, but we kept them on ice for study,” said Lawson. “And we had top scientists work on reverse-engineering the ship they arrived in.”

“The technology recovered from the crash has been a massive influence on the decades since. In fact, the Icarus would not be possible without technology salvaged from Roswell,” said Zenith.

“So she’s after the ship and its crew,” said Gunsmith. “Did you tell her where to find it?”

Lawson sighed. “Not exactly. She said she was going to pull the information from my mind. Then she did…something to me. That’s when you all arrived.”

“She read your mind,” said Paragon.
 

“She wasn’t really keen on sticking around,” said Shift. “Probably got what she needed.”

“So where is it?” asked Wraith, staring across the table at Lawson.

“Pretty much where you’d expect it to be,” said Lawson.

Wraith scoffed. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“You’d actually keep it there given all the rumors?” asked Sentinel.

“Who do you think spread many of those rumors in the first place?” asked Lawson. “It’s called hiding in plain sight. The story’s so ridiculous and most of the proponents so out there that most would write it off as nonsense.”

“I don’t get it,” said Shift. “What are you talking about?”

“Area 51,” said Gunsmith. “That’s where J’Karra is headed.”

CHAPTER 7

J’Karra’s craft exited stealth mode as she approached the massive military airfield near Groom Lake in Nevada. Her ship picked up radio transmissions, warning her that she was in restricted airspace, but J’Karra just ignored the warnings. She targeted the airfield and opened fire, the guns beneath her wings launching energy blasts at the guards on the ground.
 

Her ship’s computer warned her of an incoming attack. J’Karra rolled the plane to avoid the energy blast that nearly struck her tail. She looped around to see the attacker and she recognized the Icarus from the White House flying directly at her.

Teleforce guns below the Icarus started shooting at her plane. J’Karra’s craft was smaller and had less firepower, but it was also much faster and easier to maneuver. She dove to avoid the blasts and circled around to come up on the Icarus’ tail. J’Karra pulled the trigger on her guns and the Icarus struggled to steer clear of the shots. One of the wings was struck, but was otherwise undamaged.