New Olympus Saga (Book 4): The Ragnarok Alternative (18 page)

Freedom Island, Caribbean Sea, July 19, 2014

This is it
.

All in all, Daedalus Smith enjoyed his last death better than the previous one. He’d been put down like a dog during that demise, with no chance to do anything but whine a little before the end.

Now, he did his level best to take some of the other bastards with him.

Like he’d told the evil bitch, his current Myrmidon suit was second rate at best. Pitiful muscle augmentation, barely-adequate armor plating, pathetic force fields. Its only saving grace was the Outsider energy generator he’d built into it: its disruptor beams were death on Neolympians. That might be enough.

He recovered from the girl’s surprise attack in time to see Ultimate heading straight for him. Johnny still held a grudge over Daedalus’ previous escapades. The big lug never had much of a sense of humor. Killing him would be a pleasure.

Daedalus unleashed a torrent of Outsider energy towards Ultimate. The beams of sickening purple-black force reached towards John – and hit an electromagnetic field surrounding him, dissipating harmlessly.

God damn it!

Someone had figured out a countermeasure for his doomsday weapon. He should have kept up with the literature, he thought as he dodged John’s relentless attacks. No use trying to get into fisticuffs with the big guy; he would rip open the suit as if it was made of cardboard. The only silver lining he could see around this particular thunderhead was that the anti-Outsider protective field was short-lived: his suit’s sensors calculated its protection would only last thirty to forty-five seconds under current exposure levels, less if Daedalus amped things up.

Time to amp things up.

He poured it on, and John, intent on reaching his tormentor, didn’t notice his portable electromagnetic field failing until he got hit. Daedalus grinned as the Invincible Man convulsed in agony. Even better, the Taint inside of the big lug was feeding on the dark energy; Johnny might actually end up switching teams and turn the last stand into an actual win. Maybe…

A burst of plasma beams hit the Myrmidon from behind, raising the temperature inside the suit to a very uncomfortable hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Daedalus’ plans and hopes shriveled and died even as he screamed in anger and pain.

Brass Man had joined in the fun.

Gritting his teeth against the agony of being slowly roasted alive, Daedalus fired off a wide blast of Outsider energy, catching both Boy Scouts. Brass Man’s defenses held up under the attack, but Ultimate dropped limply towards the ocean below. Daedalus sent a brace of mini-missiles after him, hoping to finish him off, but Brass Man intercepted the volley with an energy shield.

Too bad
. He’d almost killed Ultimate. But he’d failed, and he’d literally shot off his wad.

The new and improved Doc Slaughter battered the Myrmidon suit with a variety of weapons, including some sort of gravity-based tidal-force generator that overloaded all his defensive systems. Daedalus felt his body being pulled apart like taffy.

“Fuck you, Slaughter,” he managed to say as he activated a self-destruct switch in a last-ditch try to get himself a date for Hell.

And that was that.

Hidden Facility, Delaware, July 20, 2014

MUNNIN DEVICE ACTIVATED

DOWNLOADING

She woke up, cold and aching all over, feeling frail and much too human. Only the grating presence of her Masters kept the illusion of normalcy at bay.

Well, that didn’t work
.

All her Neo powers, gone. Her henchman, gone, since there’d only been once Munnin Device available. All she had left was the Taint of the Outsiders, flooding into her, transforming and stripping her of every last vestige of humanity. The injection of toxic energies had several nasty side effects. Entire nerve clusters in her body died. Half of her face went numb all of a sudden. At first, she wanted to scream, but the impulse soon faded, along with everything but a desire to inflict suffering on everyone around her.

You may call me Christine Night from now on
, she thought to no one in particular as a lopsided grimace formed in a face that was half dead, half burning in endless agony.

Wait till they get a load of me
.

Freedom Island, July 19, 2014

“The media is going to have a field day with all this soap opera shit,” the Faerie Godfather said.

“At least we’ll get a few good issues of
Legion Comics
out of it,” Ali said with a smirk. Might as well laugh about it. Better than sob into her pillow. The simple fact was that her personal humiliation had already become Hypernet fodder, along with all the other scandals of the last twenty-four hours. Nothing she could do about it, other than ride the wave to shore, pick herself up, and move on.

The small fleet of Associated Press camera drones that could always be found orbiting Freedom Island had filmed the super-battle in loving detail. The raw footage would be released to the world in half an hour or so. A short edited version had just been released by GNN, garnering its best ratings for the network since the Genocide War. The Legion Council had about fifteen minutes to release a statement and get in front of the mess. Hell of a thing to have to deal with when your bruises from said super-battle were still healing, but that was why they got paid the big bucks.

“We are all in agreement on the veracity of Christine Dark’s preliminary report,” Doc said. None of the other Councilors disagreed. “Very well, then. We will include it in our statement, reveal the existence of Christine’s evil counterpart, and explain how she caused the crisis that led to the battle over the Island and her ultimate destruction.”

“They are going to ask what we intend to do about Ultimate’s violation of the Legion’s Morals Code,” Tigresa said.

“Which is the next item in the agenda,” Ali said. “I propose public censure and a month’s suspension, followed by a year’s mandatory counseling. Concurrent with constant monitoring to ensure he is cleansed of any Outsider Taint.”

“That’s what Larry got when he fessed up, other than the Outsider monitoring part,” Artemis said. “I think it’s fitting.”

“I disagree. I think it is a mere spank on the wrist!” General Xu said.

“Slap on the wrist,” Fox Ghost corrected him.

“My meaning is clear. After all the scandals of the past two years, this cannot stand. I propose we suspend him for one year. Bar him from any position of authority, for five years. Probation for ten. Counseling for the foreseeable future.”

“Seems a little extreme,” Fox Ghost said.

“I disagree,” Musashi countered. “One of our most powerful members, a hundred year-old man, was seduced and manipulated by a girl barely out of adolescence, with nearly catastrophic consequences. Those are all signs he never fully recovered from his earlier mental difficulties.”

“Time is of the essence, so let’s put the two proposals to a vote,” Adam said.

They did. Xu’s motion won, five votes to three. Ali, Olivia and Fox Ghost voted against. Everyone else voted for. Including Adam.

“Motion carried. We will announce our decision during the press conference. I nominate Artemis as our spokesperson.”

That motion carried unanimously. Olivia would be a fitting ringmaster for the ensuing media circus, Ali thought.

She followed Olivia on her way to the media room. Having a few prominent Legionnaires backing her up would look good for the cameras. They’d already corralled up Sun Knight and a couple other photogenic heroes to act as background color.

“I’m surprised Adam went along with this,” Olivia said on the elevator ride down.

“He’s been exposed to that Outsider crap himself; the Lurker half of him, that is,” Ali said. “Drove him literally insane. I can understand why he’s being cautious. John hasn’t been himself for a long time now. I should have known, if I hadn’t been acting like a smitten schoolgirl.”

“We all thought he’d recovered,” Olivia said.

“You all weren’t sleeping with him.”

“Let’s forget about blame for now, Ali. There’s plenty to go around, and none of it will change what happened.”

The elevator doors opened into the main atrium. A throng of reporters was waiting for them, kept at bay only by two lines of velvet ropes and a handful of discreetly-positioned Legionnaires.

“We’ll talk more after dealing with the general public,” Olivia promised her.

Nothing you say is going to make me feel any better
, Ali thought.

Freedom Island, Caribbean Sea, July 20, 2014

Duped again. Made a fool of. Again
.

“Stop with the anger and self-loathing, okay?” Christine said. “Or do you want to turn into the Ultimate Mister Night?”

“I’m sorry,” John said. He’d always considered those who wallowed in self-pity to be useless whiners, and here he was, puling like a child who’d just discovered life wasn’t fair.

“Just try to relax. Don’t dwell on the negative crap. We dodged a big bullet. Massive. You don’t know how bad my evil twin was. I’d never thought I’d be glad someone was dead, especially someone who shared every last bit of my DNA, but I am. Glad. That she’s dead. The bitch.”

“The important thing now is to undo all the damage she’s done,” Adam said, looking up briefly from the monitors filling much of the examining room. “I’m still picking up large levels of Taint in John’s aura.”

“I know. I can see them, like tiny little tumors. She really did a number on you, John. And Daedalus’ parting blasts didn’t help. Normally the disruptors just hurt or kill you, but in this case they acted like fertilizer on the seedlings in your aura. The d-bag. But most of the damage was Dark Christine’s doing. The bitch.”

For a few brief days he’d been happy again. Now those moments of joy had turned to ashes in his mouth.

“John, please. The Outsider stuff feeds on just those kinds of feelings.”

“I’ll try.” He wasn’t wearing the ring that protected him from her empathic senses, of course. She needed full access to his emotional state, to help cleanse him from what her evil counterpart had done to him. He felt naked; worse than naked. His shame and anger were in full display in front of her. And his hatred, too. At this moment, he hated her.
None of this would have happened if you’d never come to this world
.

The hurt in her eyes told him she’d sensed the sentiment, if not the exact words.

“Maybe I deserved that,” she said, concentrating on her work. “After this is over, I’ll transfer to another team. California, or Asia. Whatever. But let’s get you healed up, John. At least now I have the skills and the raw power to remove the infection without doing too much damage. I’m going to try and remove it all in one sitting, but I can’t promise I’ll be able to do it. I still haven’t finished with Cassius.”

“I spoke to him while I waited for you. He mentioned you weren’t willing to do what was necessary to speed up the process.” It wasn’t meant to be an accusation, but came out as one.

“I wasn’t willing to mutilate his soul,” Christine said. “I still don’t know enough about the whole ‘mind-soul construct’ as Uncle Adam likes to call it. It definitely is linked to your personality, memories, access to the Source for us Neos, and all kinds of other stuff. If I rush things, I could destroy his mind, or strip him of his powers, or turn him into a sociopath. So yeah, I’m not willing to take the chance unless there’s no other choice. Slow and steady, that’s the ticket. It took me about fourteen days to cleanse myself, back on Earth FUBAR. Now that I have lots more energy available, I may get it done faster. On the other hand, it was easier to fix myself, mostly because I had a better handle of what parts of my soul to cut away. Uncle Adam suggested a few new techniques to move things along, and you get to be our personal guinea pig.”

“Glad to be of help,” John said.

“And you actually meant that. Only ten percent sarcasm, give or take. It’s got a nasty emotional signature, by the way. Sarcasm. It’s like biting down on tin foil, a mixture of cynicism and disappointment with a thin film of humor on top. Not my fave.”

John let her ramble on without comment. She was working as she talked, the chatter helping steady her while her psychic scalpels removed the Taint from John’s aura. She was trying to minimize the damage, but every few seconds he felt bursts of intense agony, a mixture of physical and emotional pain that was sheer torture. He forced himself to stay still.

“Eighty-eight percent,” Adam said. “That’s better than I’d expected.”

“If it’s not a hundred percent, it’s crap,” Christine said, biting her lower lip as she concentrated. “It’ll just grow back every time he feels bad about something.”

John clenched his teeth when a fresh burst of pain ran through his body; he made no overt signs, but she sensed it, of course.

“No. No!” Christine said.

“Ninety-one percent, but your accuracy and efficiency are declining sharply. To continue before you rest is foolish, Christine. I told you total success was unlikely.”

“And you were right. I…” She stepped away from the chair where John had been sitting for the procedure. “I need a break.”

She all but ran from the room, leaving John and Adam behind.

“She thought she could fix all the damage in one session,” Adam said. “And she tried, for all that it left her exposed to all your hostile emotions. You have no idea how much pain you inflicted on her.”

Adam sounded a lot less like cool and collected Doc Slaughter and a lot more like the murderous vigilante who made up half of who he was.

“I didn’t mean to,” John said.

“You need to get over it, John. Let’s face it, you were never worthy of her.”

“And Face-Off is?”

“More so than you. The fact is, you’ve gotten used to getting your own way for far too long. Linda’s death was the most traumatic thing you’ve experienced in half a century, and it almost destroyed you. You became a melancholy shadow of yourself, and Daedalus took advantage of it. You almost ended up dead, insane or a puppet as a result. And Christine’s alternate self did the same thing yet again. And you still can’t seem to deal with it.”

John began to shout a heated reply but checked himself. Adam was right in every particular.

“You are right. I’m still wallowing in self-pity. About Christine. About my suspension from the Legion. It’s downright pathetic, isn’t it?”

Adam didn’t say anything.

“There is only one thing to do,” John said. “I’ll go join Cassius in the Sanctuary. The same security systems meant to contain him will work on me, and we can keep each other company until Christine and you figure out a way to disinfect us.”

“That’s probably for the best.”

“I’ll be on my way, then. Please tell Christine I’m sorry. And Ali.”

“I’m sure you’ll be seeing them both very soon, John. We won’t turn our backs on you. Remember that.”

The truth of that statement only made him feel more ashamed of himself.