Age of Power 1: Legacy (40 page)

Bleh
, I have an evil imagination.

Taking
in a deep breath, I pointed at the administration building. Slowly, we made our
way toward the tank, using it as a defensive cover in case we
were seen
. Seeing no reaction from the building, we made our
way to the side and jogged around the corner to the front doors. I did my best
to ignore the burning vehicles and bodies strewn about, in the parking lot. As
horrible as it was, I had to focus on the living. Tapping into my super
hearing, I could hear someone swearing about missing computer files and
threatening someone. I smiled grimly. Ian hadn’t been lying.

I
listened some more and held up three fingers to indicate how many I could hear.
Given what was going on out by the highway, I took a guess that we wouldn’t
have Yasmine coming after us. Perversely, I found myself smiling. Gods
help
me,
I was actually beginning to have fun. I was
nuts, all right. Either that, or all the stuff I’d been through over the last
few months had darkened my sense of humor.

Slowly,
we made our way inside. Crouching, we stayed down below the vertical windows on
the inside doors. That was a waste of time. Both of us yelled with surprise as
a long steel blade slashed through the doors as if they were butter.

A
foot kicked out what was left of the doors as we pulled back. I looked up to
see someone with long black hair holding the sword, ready to attack. Aside from
the usual black and gray suit Yasmine’s crew wore, he had a mask on that
covered the lower part of his face, leaving his black eyes exposed as he glared
at us with hatred.

Laughing
with malicious glee, he said, “Oh good, fresh blood. I was getting bored!”

The
katana began to glow with a black light as our attacker began to lift it over
his head for a strike. I started to let loose a scream when BJ shouted some
sort of a karate-type cry and moved in between us. I yelled for him to stop
just as our attacker brought the sword down toward BJ’s head.

Before
it hit, BJ brought up his arms, loose, easy, and liquid, and simply blocked the
katana’s downward arc. I heard a buzzing sound and saw BJ gritting his teeth as
the air wavered around him. It then tightened into a dark-blue field of light.
Now, that’s what I’d call a shield. Cool.

He
glanced over and said, “Go. Take the other one. Nightsword is mine!”

I
muttered, “Nightsword? Oh, come on! You just had to come up with all
these stupid hero and villain
names?
I’m really
beginning to detest you now!”

He
gave me a vicious looking grin and laughed. Grumbling, I scuttled past both of
them. Nightsword started to maneuver toward me. BJ grin widened as he moved to
block him. They glared at each other. Then they began to fight in earnest. I
scooted inside that much faster.

I
moved into a lobby filled with debris. They had destroyed the front desk. The
walls had gaping holes in them. And each hole was large enough to climb through
into the rooms beyond. I heard someone whimper over the sounds of the
fighting going on behind me. I looked over and saw one of Yasmine’s costumed
friends standing above some guy on the floor who was wearing a white lab coat.
I knew this straggler from his whimper.

The
Empowered growled at him, and snapped at him. “Stop whining, you remnant! Tell
me where the data on the Empowered is, or I’ll turn your blood to solid ice!”

The
jerk kicked the scientist, Alexi Cherenkov, in the stomach. Without thinking, I
yelled.
“Hey, stupid!
They already dumped the
computers. You just wasted your time coming here! Why don’t you—”

Something
hit me and pain wracked my shoulder as I flew into the wall. Turned by whatever
slammed into me, I slumped to the floor half bent over with my face rubbed raw
from hitting the wall. Groaning, I fought against the pain and turned back to
face my attacker. The Empowered was now ignoring Alexi and grinning at me with
a joy on his face that bordered on sheer insanity. I saw frost forming around
his hands. On the ground between us were shattered pieces of ice. He had formed
it so fast that it had acted like a battering ram to shove me into the wall.

“Name’s Cryo.
 
Take a chill pill
,
pal
. Take a lot
of ‘em!” the Empowered said, and then he laughed. With both hands, he whipped
out bursts of ice. Despite the pain, I had to move, or several large balls of
crystal blue ice would crush my head. I escaped his attack only by inches as
the ice shattered into shards all around me.

Yet
more ice followed, and I couldn’t get my concentration focused enough to stop
his attack. I had just thought of using the gun Perez had given me when I
realized that it wasn’t where I’d put it. But, just then, Cryo stopped. He
looked at me with a wide grin on his face. “Now that I’ve warmed up Son’x,
looks like I’ll—”

I
screamed.

To
my annoyance, he reacted as fast as I had screamed. A wall of ice formed
between us. My yell hit it, and cracks appeared along the entire thing even as
it continued forming. I realized that we were fighting to see what would lose
out first, his ice formations, or my scream.

So,
of course, I ran out of breath, and the damn wall was still standing, solid as a
rock. Then, with a wave of his hand, the wall fell to pieces. He threw me a
smug smile that I wanted to crush. He began building up another attack.

It
gave me a second to recover, and I managed to stop another burst of ice coming
at my face with a short scream. With each burst of icy slush hitting me, I
realized that this was going to kill me if I didn’t change tactics. But before
I could do such a thing, a very cold ice ram hit my chest, hard. I flew back
into the wall and once more slid to the floor. My chest was numb from the deep
cold. Cryo started laughing.

His
hands began frosting as he said, “Trust me, Son’x, this will be a heart
freezing moment for you! I promise
,
you won’t thaw for
a thousand years!”

I
muttered, “Enough with the ‘supers’ monikers…this isn’t 
The Incredibles
!
Ow…”

I
tried, but I couldn’t concentrate enough to fight back. His last attack hurt
too much. Cryo took his time building up another freezing charge around his
hands. Pure malice showed in his eyes. He had no problem with killing me.

Then,
to our mutual surprise, BJ and Nightsword came smashing through what
was left of the doors. I saw that Nightsword was disarmed, and now they were in
fighting hand-to-hand combat. Or they were dancing; it was hard to tell.

No,
this was combat, all right; it’s just that it was so fluid that the two
fighters were in perfect sync with every move and counter-move. They did their
deadly dance across the floor until they stood fighting between the two of us.
Using the moment to recover, I slowly got to my feet. BJ and Nightsword shifted
around, trying hard to take each other out with kicks and punches, feinting and
shifting to a swing or a jab.

Against
normal humans, I could tell that their speed alone would put someone down
permanently. But BJ and Nightsword matched each other’s every move perfectly.
Watching long enough, I noticed that they never touched each other beyond mild
taps. It was strangely mesmerizing. Cryo growled wordlessly, though. He had to
stop with his attacks while Nightsword and BJ fought. Impatience of youth and
all that, I guess.

After
their fight continued, though, I muttered, “Get a gym, already!”

Finally,
the two moved their fighting into the hallway past the reception area. They
continued fighting until they turned the corner and moved out of sight. The
sounds of punches and kicks and grunts went on while Cryo and I looked at each
other. Oddly enough, we chuckled.

He
said, “They had a thing in the conclave.”

Then
his hands flared blue-white with frost. He said, “Oh well, time to kill you!”

He
lashed out with pure cold. And, once more, I was blocking defensively. As much
as I tried, I just couldn’t get past his icy defense enough to take him down.
Worse, the air turned misty from ice particles as everything frosted up. I could
hear crackling and ice snapping from the sheer drop in temperature. Out of the
corner of my eye, I saw Alexi on the ground, shivering violently, frost forming
on his lab jacket.

Cryo
didn’t care. This madman was going to take the whole place out to get to me,
and I had only seconds to think of a way out. As I looked around, I saw that
Nightsword’s weapon was lying in the front entry area, the hilt pointing in my
direction. A desperate gamble came to mind.

Moving
fast, I made as though I was trying to escape to the outside. Cryo
laughed and yelled, “It’s winter! You’ll freeze faster out there! But hey,
you’ll at least make a great ice sculpture on the front lawn!”

He
gestured and ice formed from the frame of the door inward. I dove across the
marble floor, taking advantage of the ice to slide toward the sword. Reaching
it, I grabbed the katana and twisted myself around, kicking off one side of the
doorway to whip the katana out of my hand like a throwing knife. I hoped that
it would distract him long enough to let me get outside and have more room to
fight.

To
my horror, that wasn’t what happened. I didn’t realize how well balanced the
katana was. Cryo stopped firing ice when the sword impaled his left shoulder
and threw him into the wall behind him. He struggled for a few seconds, looked
at me, and collapsed, skewered against the wall. Blood poured from the wound. I
had hit a major artery in my throw.

I
blinked and swallowed. I tried telling myself that this had been a life and
death thing. I’d killed already when I’d stopped Reich and his mercenary crew.
Damn it, I’d killed Nathan and his buds.

But
this was much more up close and personal. Inside my mind, a small part of my
childhood whimpered. They weren’t supposed to die. And I had to tell it that,
yeah, they did die, and this wasn’t a game. Fuck.

Moving
away from the now-dead Cryo, Alexi slowly came toward me on hands and knees. I
reached down to help him stand. He hesitated for a moment, but with a tentative
smile, he reached out to take my hand. He said something that I couldn’t begin
to understand. Something in Russian, I guess.

Smartly,
I asked, “Huh, what?”

In
English, he said, “I said thank you. Now, could you tell me how the hell we can
get out of here?”

Before
I could figure that out, a cry of anger distracted us, along with a
sudden 
thud
. Seconds later, Nightsword flew out from the hallway to
land in an unconscious heap near the entrance. BJ followed behind him and came
up to us, grinning ferociously. He was so exhilarated I had to chuckle. My smile
carried no humor in it, though.

“Done
with your friend?” I asked. BJ’s smile widened, his bright white teeth showing.
Then it faltered at my look. He looked confused for a moment until he noticed
Cryo.

Wincing,
he said with a sigh, “Ow, sorry. Damn.”

I
ignored him and looked at Alexi. I said, “They want the information about the
tests you’ve been doing. Look, I don’t have time to explain, but if you have
that info—especially in your head—you need to get out of here.”

Alexi
was shorter and thinner than I was. He had dark hair and dark eyes that
showed strongly against the pallor of his skin. And he looked even more like a
ghost after I told him that. A moment later, he nodded vigorously.

He
said, “Yes, you are right! I can escape through the back of the building;
there is a path through the woods. I wish I had never come back to get my
papers! They did not matter anyway. Some damn computer virus had already
destroyed everything! Even the video recordings of your attack at the hospital
are gone!”

Huh.
Ian had it planned out. Good. BJ and I glanced at the man, and there was
confusion in the redhead’s expression. With a shrug, I said, “Someone had a
failsafe. This attack probably triggered it. Guess nobody is getting the
information on the Empowered.”

BJ
groaned and said, “Don’t tell me—the so called ‘New Men?’ You still think
they’re connected?”

I
made a chopping motion and stared at him. He shut up. The last thing we needed
was someone like Alexi discovering there were natural born psychics with an
agenda of their own. I also didn’t want BJ finding out that Dana’s ex-boyfriend
had been the one behind some of it. And I really didn’t have time to worry
about this. Right now, it was just a bad distraction.

I
looked away from BJ, and, ironically, I found the gun I could have used a few
minutes before. Cryo's first ice attack had knocked it from where I had had it
at the small of my back. Now it was lying right near the doors we came in.

I
went over, picked it up, and slipped it back into place. Looking at Alexi, I
told him about the escape plan the Feds had and sent him off down the hall,
where he said a back door led out to the same access road they’d be using.
Hopefully he’d be in time to make his flight. If not, well, we’d deal.

Sighing,
I said to BJ, “Come on, we have to slow Yasmine and her mercenaries down to
give Alexi a chance to escape.”