Tekgrrl (34 page)

“You…talk…too…much,” I managed.

The door to the chamber opened. Fantazia stood there, a hand at her side, blood running down her black dress to drip on the floor. It was making a puddle at her feet. “Mindy,
aumento la tua potenza di mille volte.”

Power hummed through me. Fantazia had worked her magic, my brain was no longer going to liquefy in my skull and it now burned with power. It leaked off of me and into the nearby machinery, short-circuiting everything and setting it on fire. Dunvyn actually jumped.

Once again, I focused all of my thoughts; every emotion, every feeling inside I channeled into one blast directed at him.

I’ll do to you what you threatened to do to me.

Dunvyn grabbed his head and started screaming. It was a bloodcurdling scream and it went on what seemed like forever. It seemed like it would never stop until I went insane.

I reached out, then, feeling not only his mind but every Vyqang in the attack force, and maybe even others. I poured his pain and anguish into every one of them. It felt like my mind would split apart from the strain of it all, and their screams were terrifying. But I reminded myself that they had come to do far worse.

Dunvyn staggered and fell. I looked down at the shell he had become, limply writhing in agony. “It didn’t have to be like this. You could have just left,” I whispered.

Fantazia stumbled up to me, looking weak and in pain. “You need to finish it.”

I looked down into Dunvyn’s eyes, eyes that were eerily like mine. I saw a man who looked like a twisted version of my father. Dunvyn was a creature who had come to destroy the Earth and everything on it. He was the leader of an evil people, sprung from my DNA. But there was one crucial difference between us. I wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer.

“He’s not going to hurt anyone anymore,” I said. “He’ll probably not even be able to feed himself after this.” The ship rocked again. “And I don’t think this ship will take many more hits from the Kalybri. Let’s go.”

Fantazia sighed. “As much as I appreciate your youthful optimism…” She picked up a nearby Vyqang dagger and without so much as an eyeblink plunged it into Dunvyn’s chest. He shuddered, his breathing went shallow and then stopped. The light died in his eyes.

I stared at the Reincarnist’s daughter in horror. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“When you live as long as I have, you learn that sometimes you’ve got to get your hands dirty to make sure they won’t come back for you,” she said. “This is one of those moments.”

I stood and stared for a moment, caught by inexplicable grief. He had been evil, but I couldn’t deny that he had been a part of me.

Fantazia grabbed my arm. “Come on.”

I regained control of myself. “Wait. Along a similar vein…” I reached out with my mind as far as I could, far into the deepest reaches of space. I felt other Vyqang waiting. If I pushed just hard enough, I could reach them, I could tell them:

Your…leader…is…dead.

Each word was torn out of me. I felt blood start running out my nose and knew I was using too much power after a fight that had already taken too much out of me. But thinking of Luke and Paul, Lainey and Wesley and their baby and the EHJ and my parents, and all the rest of the people I loved or had vowed to protect:
The Earth…is protected. We will not take any attacks lightly. Do…not…bother…us…again.

“You’re burning out,” Fantazia shrieked, shaking me. “You’re going to kill yourself. Stop!”

My head felt strange. I sank back in Fantazia’s arms, knowing all of my energy was drained.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” she said, dragging me back the way we came. I lunged for my belt of gadgets that lay forgotten on the floor and didn’t think I’d be able to right myself; my head was really that messed up. I was beginning to wonder if I had some permanent brain damage from that fight. From the way Fantazia was breathing, I could tell she was in distress, too.

“W-where’s Luke?” I managed. “Is he dead?”

“I patched him up as best as I could, but we’ve got to get back now before this ship gets blown up by either the Kalybri or the Earth military.” She helped me past the bodies of the dead guards and collapsed next to one of them. No, not one of them; Luke. I was relieved to see he was still breathing.

“I used up too much power boosting yours,” Fantazia admitted. “I don’t think I can transport all three of us to the ground.”

I reached into one of my pouches and fished out three small patch devices. I slapped one onto each of our bodies, pushed tiny buttons on them to set coordinates. “These are transporters. Boost the power to them and we should make it,” I said.

“I’m not a techno mage.”

She was right, but it was our only chance. I wanted to get back to Paul and the world. “Just do it, Fantazia!”

“All right!”

As she spoke words in Italian, I took one of her hands and then Luke’s. “Pray to God this works,” I muttered.

“If it works, I’ll start praying to him again,” Fantazia replied.

I clicked the button. My world was torn apart.

I woke to the noise of machines beeping and my head pounding, which is not exactly the way anyone wants to wake up. I tried to raise my head and look around, but felt like a sledgehammer had struck me between the eyes. I groaned and raised a hand to my forehead.

“You’re awake!”

“I’m kind of wishing I weren’t,” I said, trying to rise up to see Paul, who reached over and took my hand. “How long was I out?”

“A few days. Your parents have been here almost constantly, worried sick. I just convinced them to go home and get some sleep.”

My parents? That was a fence I was going to have to work on mending. They had never forgiven themselves for what had happened to me, I realized, and had done what they could at the time to help. All those feelings of rebellion I’d aimed at them…Well, I’d now seen firsthand how much pain could be caused by a child seeking to destroy everything you believe in. My parents and I needed to sit down and work through the problems of the past. It wouldn’t be easy, but we could do it. I had faith.

“They’re going to be thrilled I hooked up with a scientist,” I laughed, sitting up in bed. But I could now see him sitting next to me, in a chair drawn up to one of the beds in the EHJ infirmary. And that wasn’t the only thing I noticed. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”

Paul wasn’t sitting in a chair; he was in a wheelchair. He had one arm and one leg in multiple bandages and slings. That whole side was pretty much bandages.

“Everyone got pretty banged up. I’m one of the lucky ones. Simon and the rest of his team…not so much.”

I blanched. “They’re dead?”

He nodded. “Led an assault team against a group of the Vyqang. They may have died, but they died taking those Vyqang with them. They died brave heroes. A lot of people did. We succeeded. We saved the world.”

“But at a pretty high price.”

He nodded again. “But the Vyqang are gone, Mindy. We haven’t seen a trace of them even several solar systems away, and the Kalybri are checking even further. They’re going to stay in touch, they said. To keep us informed. You are to be their official contact.”

“Good. Is…” I cleared my throat, feeling unshed tears stick in my throat at the fate of our comrades in arms. “Is the rest of our team okay?”

“Kate pulled out some scary goddess powers no one even knew she had. Sent a bunch of the Vyqang screaming in terror.” He glanced pointedly at me. “I could have told you she could do that. Anyway, she wished us luck and said she’s really happy for us. I think she was being genuine. She’s gone to visit her ‘brothers and sisters’—the other gods and goddesses—to regroup.”

“I think the fact that we became serious took her a bit unawares.”

“Yeah, I think so too.” He squeezed my hand but looked unconcerned.

“Luke?”

“We patched him up. He’s still recovering in the hospital. He’s also talking about taking some time off—to recenter himself, he said.”

Poor Luke. I actually did feel bad for how emotionally messed up he was. “What about Fantazia?”

“She ran home to her pocket universe as soon as this was over. Wesley doesn’t seem too concerned, so I guess neither are the rest of us. But she’s an official reserve member of the Elite Hands of Justice now.” He frowned. “So is Cyrus, actually. We can’t get rid of him. He’s taken to hanging out at headquarters. Wesley doesn’t seem upset by it. Wesley came through relatively unscathed, and so did Selena.”

I studied Paul. “So, what happened with you?”

“The Vyqang shot off some sort of missile. The Kalybri called it a spear.”

I nodded and then winced. “I was on the ship that was getting ready to detonate it.”

“I think Cyrus’s program interfered with the trajectory, but it was still going crash into the Earth. Wesley was going to let the military blow it up, but I didn’t want to chance fallout radiation from their weapons. I led a team to fly up to the outer atmosphere to dismantle it just in time. It exploded, and we got hit with the shrapnel. My whole left side.”

“Babe, are you going to be okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, they dug out most of it.” Seeing the look on my face, he hurried on. “Don’t worry about me, Mindy. The doctors are saying there will be some scarring, but I’ll pull through. I’m indestructible!”

“Not unless you gained a new power while I was out,” I growled.

“Yeah, um, speaking of powers.” He looked worried. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but your telekinetic powers are gone. Fantazia told us what happened with Dunvyn and the telepathic message you sent to the rest of the Vyqang. I don’t want to scare you, but you did suffer a bit of brain damage in that fight. Sending that message further cemented it: You’ve burnt out all access to those powers.”

I tested. He was right. There was no power to tap. There was also nothing in there anymore, no more voice. No more Dunvyn. I couldn’t say I was sorry. How many of our heroes had died stopping his people from tearing apart our world?

“So, will I be okay?” I asked.

“We’ll run some tests now that you’re awake again, but we think it was just the section of your brain that had controlled those new powers. The section the aliens tinkered with.”

“So I’m probably just your average superintelligent girl now.”

“We’ll test to make sure…but probably.”

I sat up in bed. “So, Paul. We did it. We survived, not completely uninjured, but we survived! Now what are we going to do?”

“The team will rebuild. Yes, we’re short a few members, but we’ve also gained some reservists. We’ll try to get back out there as soon as possible, to reassure the people that we’re still around, making things safer. The government has apologized profusely, and Forrest has been named the new Presidential Secretary of Heroes, so he’ll be there to make sure things run smoothly on that end. Life will go on.”

“And what about us?” I pushed.

He smiled. “Well, I was thinking about that. There was some discussion before all of this about what we’d do after. Licenses were involved.”

“I’m still up for it if you are,” I said. My heart was pounding.

He leaned over to kiss me. “You bet I am.”

As I kissed him back, I realized he was right: Life did go on. We would mourn our fallen heroes and then we would get back to business, which was saving the world. It was all in a day’s work, and before we were healed up or prepared there would be another day’s work, another threat we’d have to face. That’s who we were: heroes. We saved people not for fame and fortune, but because it’s who we are. And if you can do it with the man you love at your side—as I now can—well, that’s a bonus.

And it’s as happy an ending as anyone can write.

“This highly engaging superhero tale is perfect for women. The titular character may be super powerful, but when it comes to the ways of love, she’s definitely relatable. This action romance gives readers an independent and very witty heroine who’s sure to please—not to mention the unique love triangle!”

—
Romantic Times BOOKreviews

“The story line is faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive….Fans who relish something different will want to read this engaging science fiction romance as teacher and pupil must first save Megolopolis before their hearts.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“
Phenomenal Girl 5
kept me up late turning pages. Kudos to debut author A. J. Menden for creating a fully realized superhero world with a well-rounded cast of characters complemented by a sharp-witted narrator that you can’t help but want to spend time with.”

—Julie Kenner, Bestselling Author of
Deja Demon

“All I can say is Wow!
Phenomenal Girl 5
is a stunning debut—a definite keeper.”

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“
Phenomenal Girl 5
moved me to tears and proves that good does triumph over evil. If you are looking for a book that thrills, has well-developed characters and a fascinating plot that keeps you guessing, this is it!”

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