Shades of Gray (27 page)

Then it returned, making Luster grind his teeth. “Angelica!” he shouted. “Call to him!”

“What?” she screamed.

“Hal!” Luster shouted. “He heard you! Call him!”

Angelica just stared at him as the New York Squadron closed in again.

CHAPTER 34

ANGELICA

If Icarus had known how dangerous these creatures were, he’d have aborted them in their mother’s wombs and destroyed his research.

—From the journal of Martin Moore, entry #127

H
e heard you,” Luster shouted again, then ducked to avoid a muscleman’s oversized fist. “When you cried out before, Hypnotic heard you! He’ll hear you again. Call him!”

Angelica delivered a roundhouse kick to a woman in green. “How’s he supposed to hear me in all this?” It was so loud with all the fighting, she could barely hear herself think.

“He’s a nutter, but he’s still mad about you! Do it!”

Angelica thought Luster was certifiable, but she did as her teammate commanded. “Hal,” she cried out, her voice muted by the sounds of battle around her. “It’s me, Holly! Let me talk to you!”

The attacking Squadron halted, suddenly turned off.

Okay. That’s creepy.
She, Luster, and Night fell into a holding pattern: loose circle, back-to-back-to-back, arms and legs in ready positions. She breathed heavily through her nose, forced her heartbeat to slow. Around them, seven of the New York Squadron stood immobile.

“Holly.” Hal’s voice echoed all around, from everywhere and nowhere. Points for Holly that she didn’t flinch. “How lovely of you to visit.”

“Hypnotic!” Luster shouted. “Quit pissing around and get your arse down here! You’ve a lot to answer for—”

A flash of light, blinding and brilliant. Angelica, her back to Luster and Night, caught it only peripherally. She threw her arm over her eyes, pivoted away. Waited a heartbeat, two, three.

Realized that Luster was no longer shouting.

She lowered her arm and slowly turned to face the others. Luster and Night both were standing utterly still, their arms hanging loosely by their sides.

Oh Christo.

“That’s better,” Hal said. “He’s always had a mouth on him, hasn’t he?”

She swallowed thickly, told herself not to be afraid. This was Hal. Hal wouldn’t hurt her.

A small voice wormed inside her brain, saying,
But Doctor Hypnotic killed more than fifty people. He hurt your husband. He just took down your teammates without even blinking.

So she’d have to appeal to Hal, not to Hypnotic.

“Hal,” she said, her voice surprisingly clear, “what have you done with Blackout?”

“Is that the only reason you came to see me? To get your husband back?” He clucked his tongue. “Holly. I’m hurt.”

“No you’re not.”

“You’re right,” he murmured in her ear. “I’m lonely.”

She stiffened, refused to turn around. “There are better ways to make friends and influence people, Hal.”

His hands on her shoulders. “Oh, I don’t know. I think I’m pretty good at influencing people.”

“You’ve been hurting innocents.”

“Mmm. Yes. Killing them too.” His lips on her neck.

“Do you hear the words you’re saying, Hal? Do you understand what you’ve done?”

“Not really my fault, the killing part. I’ve just been so depressed. I guess I’ve been projecting.” His tongue darted between his lips, licking. Stroking her wetly.

She clenched her teeth to keep from reacting. “Hal, you have to stop. Turn yourself in before you hurt anyone else.” Like George—where was George?

Laughter peppered against her skin. “Who should I turn myself in to, Holly? Corp?”

“Of course. Dr. Moore will help you, make you well again—”

“Who do you think hurt me the most?” Another kiss, feather soft. “Who do you think took you away from me?”

“No one took me away, Hal. I fell in love. It just happened.”

More laughter, bitter now. “It’s what he told you to do.”

A pause, as Holly felt the world stop. She choked out, “What are you—”

His fingers dug inside her left ear, pulled out her comlink. He held it in front of her face.

“This, Holly. This has been controlling you, you and everyone else, ever since they put it in your ear.” His fingers opened, and the device fell to the ground. She heard him stomp on it, grind it to junk.

She swallowed thickly. “Hal … I fell in love with George before Corp gave out the comlinks.”

“Holly, you don’t remember what they did to you. But I do. They controlled me, forced me to bring you to them. And then they cut open your mind.”

Holly wanted to faint. She wanted to scream at him to shut up, that he was lying to her, but …

… but a tiny voice whispered that he was telling the truth.

“They made you his sex toy, and all I could do was watch. And now they made you his broodmare. You’ve got his whelp inside of you, all because they decided a child would distract Blackout, would let them better control him.
His
child,” Hal growled, “growing in you, all on the whim of Dr. Moore.”

Holly couldn’t breathe.

“Even before they took you, they were controlling you, controlling us. All of us, with Dr. Moore’s drugs. The Runners put them everywhere. In your food. In your drink. They were in you whenever we made love.”

Too much. It was all too much. He had to be lying to her. Because if he was telling the truth, her entire life was a sham. “Stop it, Hal.”

“I killed Dr. Moore first. Slowly. I made him see just how evil he really was. He dug out his own eyes.”

“Stop it!”

“Don’t you see, Holly? He made you stop loving me. He made you go to the Shadow.”

George.

“The world is a better place without him. I’m just sorry his brother escaped. I had something special planned for little Martin.” He chuckled wetly.

Fear on her tongue, now, thick and sour. “Please. Hal. Where’s George?”

Both hands back on her shoulders, pressing lightly. “We talked.”

She whispered, “What did you do to him?”

A pause, then the massaging continued. “He’s just sleeping, Holly. If I’d killed him, that would have hurt you. I’d never hurt you. I love you.”

Holly closed her eyes, made the decision that would haunt her for the rest of her days. “Hal,” she said, a small purr in her voice. “I knew you’d save me.” Then she turned around, pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him deeply, allowed herself to remember just how much she once had loved being with him, how he’d made her feel.

He responded, opening wide.

When the kiss ended, she looked up into his dark eyes and smiled. “I love you too.”

Doctor Hypnotic let out an ecstatic roar, then he embraced the woman he loved.

Holly kissed him again, memorizing the feel of him on her lips, taking in his scent until she felt giddy.

And then she kneed him in the balls.

CHAPTER 35

NIGHT

One common trait in Mental powers: Too much exposure leaves the recipient fragmented—sometimes, permanently.

—From the journal of Martin Moore, entry #8

N
ight blinked, then blinked again. He’d been in a world of darkness—a world of the Dark—and he had been worshipped as a god. No sun; no spotlight; no heroes or villains or humans begging to be saved from themselves. Just Night, and the strongest—the most worthy—of the extrahumans.

And the Shadow, of course. Everything belonged to the Shadow.

That hadn’t been real.

But, oh Jehovah, how he wanted it to be real. Even now, he could hear the whispers, the Shadow voices urging him to make it real, to turn that delectable vision into a window of the world. A better world. A dark world.

It wasn’t real.

But it could be.

He shook his head to clear it. And then he saw Luster next to him, rubbing his head and … blushing?

“I’m going to kill that bastard,” Bradford muttered.

Who …?

Hypnotic.

Night spun to the left, and there was Angelica …

… kissing Hypnotic? Madness. She had to be under his control.

Night snarled and summoned the Shadow, ready to take them both down if necessary—but then Angelica slammed her knee into Hypnotic’s crotch. And she hit him again, and again: balls and chin and gut, slamming her fists and her knees and her feet into him, again and again. She was screaming like a madwoman every time her skin connected with his.

And Hypnotic let her. He didn’t raise a hand to stop her. Didn’t use his Mental power to mesmerize her.

Hypnotic loved her, Night realized. And it was love that betrayed him and defeated him.

Poetic. And that was also why Night never allowed himself to fall in love; inevitably, it would end poorly, either in tears or blood or both. Better to be alone and be certain than to be in love and risk everything.

“What …?” That was Blackout, pulling himself up from the floor. “Holly?”

As Blackout ran over to his shrieking wife, Night took a quick count of the people in the room, most of them snapping out of Hypnotic’s spell. The extrahumans—their New York compatriots—were coming around, but most of the civilians whom Hypnotic had used were still down for the count from when Night had smothered them in Shadow. At least they were still alive.

Night frowned, thinking of all the men and women who’d lost their lives to Hypnotic’s insanity. Thinking of how he himself was responsible for those deaths.

Thinking that he didn’t really care.

Night clenched his fist. He
had
to care. He was supposed to save humans, not allow them to be used as pawns, to be caught in the extrahuman cross fire.

Fifty-three people. That was how many Hypnotic had killed.

That was how many people Night had sent to their deaths when he whispered a lie to Hypnotic and gave him the medicine that would help him go free.

Fifty-three dead. And he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Christo, he didn’t care.

Someone was screaming.

No,
people
were screaming. Angelica, who was now wrapped in Blackout’s loving arms. The New Yorker strongman, Major Victory, who was punching through the walls. Another New Yorker, Bonfire, who was clawing at his eyes and bleeding fire.

And Night himself. He was screaming to prove that he cared, screaming to drown out the Shadow voices whispering in his mind, telling him that they would help him bring the darkness to the world.

A hand on his shoulder. “Night,” said Luster. “Rick. Come on, Rick. It’s done now. Our girl’s taken him down. It’s all right now.”

“No,” Night whispered, his voice raw. “It’s not.”

That was when Bonfire lit up like a dying sun, shrieking to the heavens as he burned away his flesh.

“Look out,” one of the New Yorkers yelled, “he’s going nova!”

Major Victory slammed his fists through another section of wall just as Bonfire went critical. The building groaned, and the walls seemed to tilt—and in a scream of metal and concrete, the whole place came down.

They all would have died if not for the New Yorker called Barricade. Her force field shielded them as the building crashed on top of them.

They made it out, and they tried to save the people—those normals whom Hypnotic had entranced—who’d been buried in the rubble. A handful got out. Most didn’t.

It was a long, silent ride home. Night stared out the window, his thoughts dark. If he noticed the Shadow licking at his eyes, he ignored it. When everything was dark, one Shadow was no more noticeable than another.

Back in New Chicago, Corp debriefed them. Angelica spoke for them, because Luster, Night, and Blackout claimed they didn’t remember much after they’d gone in after Hypnotic. Night wondered if they were lying. He could remember.

Even now, he could see that dark, dark world, and him as its god.

Angelica told a story of how they’d all fought bravely and how Hypnotic, defeated, played his last card: He controlled Bonfire’s mind and forced the man to blow up the building in a firebomb.

Corp bought it. Then they set up the press conference. This time, it was Luster who lied smoothly for the vids. The story had a happy ending: The traitorous villain, Doctor Hypnotic, would be tried by jury, and, assuming he was found guilty, he would be as Luster put it, “abso-bloody-lutely sentenced to life in Blackbird, medicated to the point of coma.” The media loved them.

Luster went home to his wife and child. Blackout and Angelica went home to console each other between the sheets.

Night learned the names of everyone who died in what the press had dubbed the Siege of Manhattan. The number was far greater than fifty-three. For a little while, he pretended that he cared about those deaths. And then the day came when he stopped pretending.

If anyone noticed the deeper chill in his voice, or the dark cast of his gaze, they didn’t say anything.

CHAPTER 36

TEAM ALPHA

Blackout showing renewed signs of decay. Decommissioning out of the question; Corp-Co too invested in its Siege of Manhattan celebrities. May require Therapy. Will continue observation.

—From the journal of Martin Moore, entry #170

T
he most innocent of things can lead to the most damning of consequences.

This particular game of telephone didn’t actually use phones or communicators or comlinks. It began a month after the Siege of Manhattan.

… Angelica, still horrified over what her old love had become, told Vixen what Doctor Hypnotic had confided to her—that Corp had forced her to fall in love with Blackout, and that the earpieces were tools to control their minds. Sheer lunacy, of course, but there were times when Angelica would catch herself thinking “What if …?” Vixen patted her hand and told Angelica that between the stress and the pregnancy, Angelica was not thinking too clearly, and everything would be better once she had the baby.