Winning Choice: “Vanish and take them down from the shadows.”
Recap: After a huge battle with the FBI and two giant men who apparently had been somehow modified with super-strength, a very tired Brandon returned to Ryan's apartment. There he told Ryan, Susan, and Tyler that he now realized how they had to work from here on out.
I tell them, “I’m going vanish and take them down from the shadows. The public doesn’t need a hero or a disrupter. In fact, they don’t need to know about this at all right now. It would be too dangerous and just put more innocents in the line of fire. No, I’ll do this entirely underground, striking at the people in power pulling their world apart. I’ll be invisible until I strike, then I’ll go back to being a nightmare. I’ll reduce their plans to rubble around their feet, and only then will I show it to the world.”
They all stare at me a moment, and I wonder if I scared them. I kind of hope I did. If they want out, now the is the time. Probably the last time.
Tyler breaks out into a huge grin. “We… are going to kick some butt!”
Susan smacks him in the shoulder. “This isn’t a game, you know. Not anymore.”
I look her square in the eye. “I’ve been looking for my kidnapped wife and trying to find the people who experimented on me like a lab animal. They took away everything I had. This has never been a game for me.” She looks away.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she says. “We know what the stakes are.”
“Do you realize what happens if we’re caught?” I ask them. “They’ll throw us in a prison so deep we’ll never see the sun again. That’s assuming they let us live at all.”
"We've never really talked about how we met," Susan says. "The three of us, I mean." She gestures to Ryan and Tyler. "It's not as pretty as you might think."
Ryan frowns, and Tyler shifts uneasily. “‘Pretty’ sure isn’t the word I’d choose,” Tyler says.
"The point is that we would all be in plenty of trouble even without you," says Susan. “We’re not a bunch of wide-eyed, clueless kids.”
Ryan thumbs back over his shoulder towards the humming and beeping pile of computers on the table. “That stuff was at least a national security threat long before you showed up. I have no idea what it would be considered now."
“You know what it is? It’s power,” says Susan. “It’s a pipeline of information we can use to take their secrets and turn them around. We can take them apart!”
Ryan rubs his forehead, pacing a bit around the small living room. “It’s the ‘them’ part that worries me a bit,” he says. “Who are they, exactly? Some mad scientists? A shadowy company? The FBI? The NSA? The whole danged government?” He stops pacing and points at me. “And maybe a whole bunch of other people with super powers like him?”
“I don’t know,” I tell them. “I wish I did.”
Tyler nods. “That’s why this is so important! They’re the ones playing games, not us. And we can change the rules. We’ll see who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. That’s what I love about comics. Besides all the powers and crazy gadgets, you know who is on which team.”
“The world isn’t that easy,” Ryan tells him.
“But it could be!” Tyler says with an excited look in his eye.
I want to say more but bite my tongue. They need to sort this out for themselves, and with what we’re about to do there’s no turning back. I grab a new jacket and shirt from the table, as mine are a mess.
“It doesn’t matter who is behind it,” says Susan. “Nobody should have that kind of power over someone else.”
“So how far does this go?,” Ryan asks. “Are you talking about overthrowing the government here? That scares the hell out of me, I ain’t gonna lie.”
“I don’t know how far it goes,” I tell them. “And I’m scared, too, but that fear isn’t going to stop me.”
“Whatever we do, we’re going to need a new headquarters,” says Susan.
“I’ve got the perfect place!” says Tyler.
“Not a cave,” I say.
Tyler rolls his eyes. “Please, I’m not an idiot. I wasn’t going to say a cave. This city has a bedrock base under it. There are no caves for hundreds of miles that would work. I really do have another spot scouted out. We are using way too much power here lately with all the computers. Someone is bound to notice.”
“Maybe they think you’re growing pot,” I suggest. Tyler snorts.
“There’s also the mysterious figure flying out of our window every so often,” says Susan. “That’s going to attract attention eventually, too.”
“Maybe they think we’re growing magical pot,” says Tyler. He turns to the bank of computers and gear. “We could also use some time to really improve this stuff. Most of it we’ve been cobbling together as we go, and we have a lot of-“ He stops. Freezes, actually. He does it so suddenly we all stop cold as well.
“What is-“ Susan asks, but Tyler holds up a finger to silence her. He leans into the workbench with his ear cocked. After a moment he lifts one black box from off the top of another and sets it off to the side. The cables connecting all the boxes on that table are a like a pile of techno-spaghetti. How they can tell what’s doing what is a complete mystery.
Tyler turns a dial on the newly exposed box and an erratic beeping comes out. The box looks like a stereo equalizer and has red lights flashing all across the front. The beeping sounds like any other beep those things make to me, but Ryan suddenly looks confused.
“What is that?” asks Susan, beating my question by a half-second.
“That’s the chatter monitor,” Ryan says, rushing across the room to one of the boxes on the table. “It looks for secure radio transmissions going on nearby, like the police or something. We can’t always hear what they’re saying, but we can tell that they’re talking nearby. It should give us a warning if there’s something or someone heading our way.” He studies the display and adjusts some of the dials.
This seems like a poor place to stop sharing information with the rest of us. “Well,” I ask. “Is there?”
“I didn’t finish calibrating it,” he says. “That could just be random wifi signals. Here, this should do it.” He flips a switch.
The beeps turn into an almost solid tone!
“Oh hell,” says Ryan.
“We’ve got company,” says Susan. “Lots of it!”
I peek out the curtains, and my eyes race to adjust to the darkness. It’s coming up on midnight, so the streets below don’t have much traffic but aren’t totally empty. At first I don’t see anything strange, then I spot a few shapes peeking around corners and a large vehicle blocking a street approaching the building. I’m still tired from my earlier battle, but my heart begins to pound.
“They’re down there,” I tell them. “Can’t tell how many or what they’re up to. We need to get out of here, pronto.”
“We can’t just leave all this gear!” says Ryan. “You know how hard it was to get the first time around.”
He’s right. If we’re going underground, it may make raids for new tech supplies a lot trickier to carry off.
“How much can you carry?” I ask.
“We can carry the most important stuff,” Tyler says. “Ryan, grab the backpacks, duffel bags, anything you’ve got!”
Ryan races around the apartment, pulling out bags of every kind and tossing them to the table. Susan starts unplugging the gear. They’re going to need time.
“I’m going to give you a distraction while you get out of here,” I tell them, picking up a new helmet from the floor. We are going to have to restock my outfit parts after this, or maybe design something a little more durable.
“Wait!” yells Susan. “It’s not just us. If they’re planning to charge in here, this building is full of people. Families and stuff.”
She’s right, especially at this time of night. “What about the fire alarm?” I ask. “That should get everyone out of here, and also help you slip away in the confusion.”
Susan shakes her head. “A lot of people ignore alarms unless they smell smoke. They don’t want to be bothered for a drill or a prank at this time of night.”
I secure my helmet. Even though my head doesn’t need the protection, there’s something about it that makes me feel stronger. Like a knight suiting up in his armor.
“I’ll kill the power. That’ll get them moving!” says Tyler.
“To the whole building?” I ask. “From here?”
Tyler grins at me like a kid caught stealing a cookie. “You think we hack into the NSA computers and never bothered to hack into our own building systems?”
These guys scare me sometimes. I’m glad they’re on my side.
He grabs a keyboard and starts typing. The main power goes out, and the building goes dark. A light appears under the front door from the hallway. The emergency exit lights just kicked on.
All their computer gear still whizzes along, providing the only light in the apartment. “Battery backup,” says Susan, anticipating my question. Tyler types a bit more and stabs the Enter key with a flourish.
The fire alarm goes off.
“Nice work,” I tell them, pulling open the drapes and pushing open the window behind it. “Grab all you can and get to… wait, where are we going to meet?”
Down in the street, spotlights switch on aimed at the building.
“We’ll find you,” says Tyler. “Just go.”
I nod, not because I have any idea how they think they’re going to do that, but because we’re out of time to discuss it.
“Good luck,” I tell them, and leap out the window.
The spotlights are not focused on our windowf and are just illuminating the front of the building. I take advantage of the darkness and fly straight down the front of the building, hugging the wall, until I reach the second floor. The building is eerily dark, and I hear the fire alarm calling out from every floor as I pass. Confused people are already streaming out into the street, some clutching possessions they were afraid to lose in the imaginary fire.
I fly across the street, over the heads of a few confused spectators watching the mysterious power outage. I want to see what I’m up against. I keep out of the spotlights, and quickly get close to the nearest of the vehicles. It’s an armored SWAT car. More like a tank, actually, just without a big turret. Several agents stand around the vehicle, automatic weapons in their hands, watching the building.
One agent is talking on his headset, trying to figure out who killed the lights in the building and if it is part of their operation. I float above them in the darkness for a moment. People never look up, especially when they’re out in the open. There’s just never anything there. Well, now I’m up there, and I hope before too long people like this learn they had better start watching the sky.
I start with the lights.
I land on the roof of the armored assault vehicle as quietly as I can, then rip the three spotlights from their mounting. The agents spin, raising their rifles, but all they see is a shadowy outline in the darkness.
“Good evening, gentlemen!”, I say and they open fire. I immediately regret my corny greeting. I need to come up with some better banter if I want to be imposing.
The bullets pack a punch, but aren’t as bad as what the FBI was hitting me with. They’re enough to start tearing up my jacket again, though. I’m going to have to find a stronger outfit or I’ll be working full time just to keep myself stocked in new uniforms.
Or I suppose I could not just stand there and get shot.
I leap to the ground near one of the agents too fast for him to react. Bending the barrel of his automatic rifle down at a ninety degree angle, I rip it from his grasp. He yells in surprise and the other agents stop firing, not wanting to hit their friend. Moving between them like a blur, I bend each rifle in turn. Zip, zip, zip.
They’re all yelling into their headsets about needing backup, so I leave before it has a chance to arrive.
Spotlights from another SWAT vehicle are about a block away and just starting to turn in our direction. Running over at super-speed, I pass a group of agents and leap on top of the new vehicle. Not seeing a reason to change my strategy, I pull out all the lights on the top of the vehicle, then leap back down and destroy the guns of the nearby agents. It’s all over in a moment, but something isn’t quite right.
Whoever is driving the SWAT vehicle turns and tries to run me over. I dart to the side and smash the wheels. They’re solid metal and guide the tread that this tank-thing rolls on. Without the wheels on its left side about all the thing can do is turn in small, grindy circles.
The other agents back away from me, drawing their pistols, and I realize what has been bothering me. When the FBI showed up they seemed to know what I was capable of. Rifles and pistols? These guys don’t. I’d be expecting rocket launchers or something if they were trying to capture me. No, they didn’t come for me at all. They’re probably just here for Tyler, Ryan, and Susan. Maybe they thought the FBI would have taken me down earlier, or maybe they just weren’t told what they were getting into.
Well, it’s about time something ended up easier than expected.
And no sooner does that thought cross my mind than a thunderous explosion reaches my ears. Stunned, I look up as a bright, billowing cloud of orange flame erupts from the apartment building on Ryan’s floor! The agents look just as stunned as me, and we all gape for a moment at the strange picture of the brilliant fire against the dark building.
Then a second explosion tears through the building and it shocks me out of my confusion. I move.
Streaking up towards their floor, falling glass and debris bounces off my helmet. The window I’d just flown out of a few minutes ago is gone and so is their apartment. Actually, about half the floor seems to be gone and a raging fire is in its place. I can’t see a thing inside.
Reaching out to the fire I try to absorb the heat like I did with the gasoline fire, but it is way too intense. I feel it burning inside me and stop. Could I burn out the nanobots that way? Not a good thing to test at the moment.
With luck they are all out of the apartment already, but I float in to check, trying to keep away from the flames roaring across the walls and ceiling. Nobody replies to my calls. Some of the computer gear is burning in fragments around the room but I can’t tell how much.
The doorway out to the hall is blown in, as are most of the interior walls. It’s hard to be sure with things crumbling fast all around me, but it looks like the blast came from farther in the building. Maybe from out in the hallway or in another apartment. At least it wasn’t some stupid device of Tyler’s overloading.
I speed through the remains of the burning rooms, but there’s no sign of the team. In the hallway the heat is even more intense. No sprinklers are turning on so this building is in serious trouble.
I listen for a moment for yells from this floor, but there’s nothing. The stairway door is open and I head down. Two flights below the door is shut and people are pounding on the other side. Tearing it from the frame I throw it out of the way.
The hallway is thick with smoke, and the fire is spreading quickly. A crowd of people push past me into the stairs, rushing down as fast as they can. They’re so panicked from the fire I don’t think they even notice me or wonder how the door got opened.
I step aside and let them pass, making sure they all get down. One of the last people out, a young woman holding a t-shirt over her face, stops and looks at me. She points back down the hallway.
“There’s a family in the corner apartment. They’re pretty reclusive, and I don’t think anyone came out when the alarm went off. I think they’re stuck now.” She pauses, looking me up and down. “Are you a firefighter?” she asks.
“I am today,” I tell her. “Get out of here.”
She runs down the stairwell, and I speed to the end of the hallway. Fire is spreading everywhere and doing it quickly. One door at the end of the hall is shut. It’s weird how some habits get ingrained in us, because I have a momentary urge to stop and knock. Building on fire, lives at stake, and a little part of my brain says “you can’t just barge into someone’s home.” Well, I stuff a sock in that part of my brain, and compromise with a knock hard enough to smash a large hole into their apartment.
Smoke’s everywhere. It’s even starting to get to me. In the middle of the room two kids are huddled together on the floor against the couch. Terrified and coughing, they reach out to me through the haze. My eyes are watering, my lungs are burning, and flames are crawling along the outside wall of the apartment. I need to get them out of here.
“Are your parents here?” I ask. They shake their heads. I pick them up and they grip my neck desperately. If I fly them out through the window I’m worried they’ll get burned. I head back into the hallway. Unfortunately, the route to the stairwell is as bad as the apartment. The fire roars all around us and bits of the ceiling are collapsing.
There’s only one way down that I can see - the elevator shaft. I crouch near the elevator doors and tell the kids to let go. They don’t want to, and the girl squinches her eyes shut, tears running down her face, and holds on tighter.
“I’m going to need both hands for this,” I tell them. “Plus you’re going to get something really cool. Just trust me for ten seconds, okay. Can you do that?”
They nod and let go. I set them down and turn back to one of the doors.
I dig my fingers into the metal by the frame and peel the door open with a loud, grating, whine. The shaft is made for two elevators and both are stuck at different floors below us. They’ll be easy to get around.
I pick up the kids. “Hold on,” I tell them, and jump into the shaft.
They hold on, and by the time I kick open the door on the ground floor they are staring at me in amazement. I think they’ve forgotten entirely about the fire.
Outside the lobby of the building the firetrucks are arriving. Residents stream out of the stairwells, racing outside.
“Go find the firemen,” I tell the kids. “They will help you.” They let go and head out with the crowd, looking back over their shoulders at me as they go. Tyler, Ryan, and Susan aren’t anywhere I can see in the crowd. I hope they got out okay.
I clench my fists. Out beyond the firetrucks I see the shapes of the SWAT vehicles, still waiting. Whether they were behind this or not, they came for my friends, and someone torched a whole building of families to try and get at us.
Tyler was right, it would be nice to know who the good guys and the bad guys are. But I’ll sort that out, and once I do then someone will pay for this along with everything else.
Firefighters are making their way towards the building. This is their job now, and I’ll leave them to it.
Turning back into the building, I glide past the stream of people heading the other way. There’s a door down to the basement, and I take it. I’ll find my way out the back, or maybe down through the sewers.
Either way, I don’t want SWAT, the firefighters, or anyone else seeing me leave. Let them wonder what happened to me. I’ll just disappear.
But, as another rather determined individual once said… I’ll be back.
And that concludes the first book of “Power Shift!” What started out as a small experiment turned into something much, much bigger than I ever expected, and that’s thanks to all the support and voting I had from all of you along the way.
If you like this chapter, your Vote is much appreciated! And there is no choice on this chapter since it is the last one, but if you have any questions for me about the characters, the story, this process, or anything else, ask them in the comments below and I will try to answer all of them (unless they are about plot points that I don’t want to reveal quite yet.)
I’ve started sketching out the next book, and will be changing a few things to hopefully not make it take so long between chapters while still keeping all the voting in place. So make sure you’re Following me to get updates on when the next book starts.