(The Push Chronicles (Book 2): Indefatigable (20 page)

"Well now, I wouldn't, uh, put it quite like that, Mr. Epic," the captain added.  "While she's, uh, appreciative of all of this, the Mayor is still pretty set that she doesn't want the Crusaders as a fixture of, uh, the city."  He glanced at all of us, then back at the Crusaders.  Was the Mayor trying to start the Battle of Washington part two right now?  I glanced sidelong at the team, then across the divide at Archer.  The bowman seemed uncomfortable at best.

"I see."  Epic folded his hands behind his back as he hovered there, silent for a few moments.  "I had hoped that, in light of all that had transpired, that she would see the error of that judgment."  He took a deep breath, letting it out in a slow sigh.  Eric's expression, even to me, was unreadable.  "If that is her wish, that we will abide by it."

"Please don't-" Braxton began to plead.  "Wait, what did you say?"  I had to admit, I wasn't sure I was hearing him correctly either.  Maybe that flashbang had caused some permanent hearing loss.

"There is no need for additional bloodshed today."  I was more wary now than I had been, but everyone else there seemed greatly relieved.  Epic turned away from Braxton and began to hover down towards the street.  The rest fell in line, save for the Argent Archer.  He seemed frozen, as if his armor had locked up, but I didn't think that was the case.  He turned his visor towards us, as if he wanted to speak.

"Archer!"  Epic's voice was deep, resonant, commanding.  "It is time to go."

"No."  Archer turned back to his lord.  "You don't mean to go.  This cowardly act, I cannot be a party to -"

Archer was blown off of his feet by a single intense blast of white energy.  He tumbled hard and landed in a barely moving heap, smashed against the wall of the Capitol.

"Join your new friends then, my noble Archer, in the dust of history."

I didn't wait for the rest of the incoming monologue as I moved.  Everyone else would gape and listen, making it the perfect time to strike.  Even so, by the time I had crossed the space between Epic and myself, a dozen glowing white portals opened up.  Epic had decided that he preferred the way of the conqueror more than the way of the diplomat as a dozen Crusaders, with more on the way, poured out.

"I declare that this city is under the domain of the Crusaders!"

Chapter 22 Epic

I had the distinct satisfaction of driving a stiff left uppercut right into Eric's smug mouth right after he said that.  I grit my teeth as his invulnerable shell sent vibrations up my arm, but unlike every other time I had hit Epic, I knew what I was doing now.  Instead of breaking my bones and then passing through, the discomfort faded fast, then I pushed hard, busting Eric's lip and sending his head rocketing back.  Eric might have summoned enough Crusaders to take over the city twice over, but I'd be damned if he was going to get away with it scot-free.

Wavelength, as fast acting as the light she manipulated, let loose a rainbow wave of energy in defense of her leader.  Maybe it was instinct, or perhaps Eric hadn't been totally forthright with his Crusaders about my true nature.  It didn't matter either way, as the blast of multicolored light accomplished nothing but giving me a mild sunburn on my exposed face.  Battalion, apparently all too eager to start the invasion, swung the two massive Pushtech rifles he wielded in my direction, only to be flash-frozen in a slab of ice.

"Keep them off of Indy, folks," Extinguisher called out over the com, already sending a spray of jagged ice shards into the bulk of the Crusaders.  "She takes Epic, it's game over for them, no matter how many of us they take out."  It didn't surprise me one bit that the only response to that suicidal order was for each and every one of my family to call out targets.  All the more reason to take out three months of pent-up aggression on the man that caused all of this.

Covering his bleeding mouth with one hand, Epic swatted at me with all of his insane might.  It was a crude swing that would have been a joke if not for the man throwing it.  I bobbed under the blow, my hair flying from the tremendous wind it left in its wake.  The problem with fighting a flying opponent with any tactical sense was that their three dimensional movement, much as Epic was starting to hover back and up away from me.  Before he could pick up speed, I threw myself at him.  All I needed was to get a solid hold on the real Eric.

The demigod put on a burst of speed but somehow I managed a grip on his left ankle.  That's when he blasted straight up.  While whatever physics-defying means Epic used to fly seemed to protect me to a degree as well, I was still jerked painfully down, every joint screaming in pain.  There were only moments before I would slip free and fall.

I screamed and pulled, finding the strength to throw my dangling legs up at Epic's ascending body.  His body was not my precise target.  When taking on a god, I figured it was alright to fight dirty as the tips of my boots smashed into Eric's crotch.  Unfortunately, I couldn't properly slow then push the strike through his invulnerable skin.  The backlash rattled my body and shook my weakened right hand free.  The good news is that the sudden low blow arrested Epic's ascent before we reached an airless void that would kill me instantly, assuming that was his intent.  I frankly wasn't sure at this point.  The bad news is that I was only holding on by one weakening hand.

"Irene!" he shouted above the roaring winds.  "You will not stop this!  You can not stop this!" The strain in his voice gave me a grim smile.  "Now, take my hand and end this foolishness.  I want you by my side, not under my heel."  He bent over in mid-hover, one herculean hand stretched out to me.  What choice did I have?  I took his hand.

That strong grip as Epic pulled me up towards his chest made for a great leverage point to drill another punch into his face.

"You end it, Eric!"  His head rocked back and swung to normal, only to meet my fist again.  "You're the one attacking my home, you're the one who betrayed my trust, you're the cause of all of this!"  No matter how powerful Epic was, Eric was a mortal man and those two hard punches dazed him.  His grip on my hand lessened and we both started to fall through space.  I didn't care, not one bit.  Grabbing his collar, I twisted us in mid-fall before rearing back another fist.   "Answer me, you bastard."

"You proved you can not protect this city yourself, what else would you have me do?  Can you not see your own failure?"  I growled and let my fist fly, but there was a pulse of white light and he was gone.  Teleported away, the coward!  That left me in a very real problem.  The Earth was rushing up to greet me at an alarming rate and one of the few things I didn't have in my utility bag was a parachute.

I had a brief flash of regret when Epic materialized right next to me.  Not regret for beating him up.  Regret that plowing into the Earth at terminal velocity would be less painful then what was about to come as he rocketed into me from the side.  There was no way to dodge, no amount of twisting in the air could have possibly helped.  All I could do was curl up into a ball and pray I didn't go splat when he hit me.

Pain rocketed through my body as he plowed into me.  If I had been a normal human, I would have been very very dead.  As it was, I was lucky that nothing was broken.  At the instant of the impact, another white flash heralded another teleport before I could retaliate in any fashion.

As I tumbled through the sky, now hurtling both down and sideways from the impact, I tried to focus past the pain and the churning in my stomach to find him, before he could strike again.  I could have called on one of the Five (Six now?) or Archer to help, but from the sounds on my com, they were barely staying alive themselves.

Epic appeared in a blink of an eye, one hand shooting out at inhuman speed.  Before I could block it, that hand was snug around my throat.  My stomach took another wild tumble as all of my momentum instantly dissipated, leaving me hanging as his hand tightened ever so slightly.

"This is the end of the games."  His voice was cold, hard now.  There was no Eric there, only Epic.  "I do love you.  I want to share the utopia I will create with you.  At the same time," he squeezed ever so much harder as I grabbed his wrist to try and relieve some of the pressure, "I have a greater duty to create that utopia.  I have run the numbers.  Your defiance can no longer be tolerated."  His gaze narrowed, filled with blinding white light.  "Will you stand down or will I snap your neck?  Healthy or crippled, you will sit by my side."  It was entirely possible that I had knocked Eric out and Epic had taken him over, just as Reaper had dominated poor Gerald Schuller.  The end result was scarily the same, but unlike Reaper, there wasn't an anti-psychotic cocktail I could inject into him to make the bad man go away.  I only saw one possibly out.

Before Epic decided to make that snap, I swung my legs up and scissored his arm as I squeezed Eric's wrist with all of my enhanced strength.  I was no where near as strong as a Pushed, but I was more than strong enough to break the bones in his wrist.  Epic's grip went limp as he roared with pain.

"There's my answer, Epic," I shouted.  "You take us down to the ground or I keep snapping bones."  It was no mock threat this time.  Maybe there still was a bit of Eric left, because I saw fear flash in the real eyes behind the god-like mask as he recognized that fact.  Just to speed the process along, I started to apply pressure on his elbow.  I only hoped that I was so closely grappled with him that he couldn't teleport without trying to take me along.

"Very well, woman."  Our speed and course angled downward.  "I would be careful of what you wish for, though.  Your allies are dangerous, but there is a reason why I have amassed such a large following."

"Spare me," I spat back.  "Seeing you like this should give them a pretty sobering look at their overall chances."  Eric scowled at me, trying to process a witty comeback through the pain.  In that regard, I was blessed.  Between my own abilities and these last three months of agony, pain was nothing, a construct of the mind easily overcome.  Still, Eric wasn't entirely wrong.  Unless they instantly rolled over, there was no way we could hold out this long.  We landed on top of an office building a good distance from the Capitol.

"This isn't the ground."

"I know."  Epic snapped his fingers and glowing portals shimmered in the air all round us.  I could hear hurtling metal in the distance.  It was if it was coming out of multiple tunnels all round us.   "I truly apologize for this, Irene, I wish there had been another way."

There was no time to snap that arm.  I kicked off of him and madly scrambled away, just as six sedans, no doubt pulled from places all over the planet, hurtled out of the portals and smashed down where Epic was standing.  The tremendous impact sent a shockwave across the roof of the building, catching me in mid-scramble and throwing me perilously close to the ledge.  The spray of debris and wreckage shot out at every angle.  It was a muffler, of all things, that slammed into the back of my head.  My perception spun as my head shot forward from the impact.  If I wasn't immediately concussed, it was a miracle.  I tried to stop myself, but I continued to lurch forward.  Only letting myself fall down onto the roof saved me from a tumble over the edge.  The crumpled remains of the cars were shoved aside as Epic emerged from the twisted wreckage, unscathed.

"The mistake I have made in dealing with you, Indomitable, is that I have dealt with you too directly.  You can injure me and, while I may be able to hurt you with a punch or a kick, you've grown far more skilled than I have.  What I can do is simply throw the world you consider to be real at you."  He absently picked up the crumpled rear end of one of the cars in his good arm, like it was a piece of fluff.  "Like this."  He lobbed the entire rear end like a softball in my general direction.  I rolled barely out of the way as the mass of metal tore off a man-sized chunk of the roof.  "The whole world is my weapon and you can't dodge it forever."  To back up his threat, Epic gestured grandly and every piece of wreckage hovered up, surrounded by white light.  I could only curse under my breath and start running.

Twisted metal and shards of glass smashed around me as I ran, tumbled, and dodged.  The only hope in hell I had now was that Epic, Eric, whoever was in control would be so arrogant that he would toy with me for a while and make a stupid mistake.  Jumping off the roof to escape was a no-go; there was nothing even close enough in height to make that survivable.  I skidded to a halt as a car hood spiraled like a pizza cutter right in front of me, gouging up the roof.  Too close for comfort.

"What shall I use next, eh, Irene?  I could use this building.  I could use the people in it.  I could rip the Sun asunder if I needed to."  The air conditioning equipment and the satellite dishes ripped free of their moorings.  "I would do it all for Utopia."

"Utopia?" I turned on him.  Let him shred me to pieces, I would get my final say, by damn.   "Do you even know what that means?  The future you have talked about for the past three months isn't safe.  It isn't secure."  I pointed out across the sea of buildings, at the masses of people in them.  "You may have all the power in the universe to keep them under your thumb, but what does that make you, Eric?  Their tyrant, that's what.  Do you really think, Whiteout or not, they will accept that?"  Though I only barely registered it, he didn't eviscerate me or smash me between two cement trucks while I ranted at him.  "For Christ's sake, look at us!  What the hell are we doing, Eric?  We're trying to beat each other into a bloody pulp when not too long ago we were in love.  Remember our six month anniversary when we went to Dante's?  We could be there, now, dipping fondue, laughing and smiling.  Is this what you want?"  I pointed an accusatory finger at him.  "You made this happen and, even worse, you keep pushing it further and harder than it has to be."

"How do you know that, Irene?" Epic, unbowed, argued.  "There have been many places that opened their arms, happily I may add, to me and my Crusaders.  So many people live in fear and to allay that fear they want strength."  He stabbed a finger back at me.  "You have not provided that, so they continue to flock to me.  I am no tyrant; I am a savior.  As for the rest ... you are the one that is an outlier.  You are the one that refuses to accept the inevitability of reality."  He gestured widely around him.  "This is my world, Irene.  I made it with my mind and soul.  It may not be the perfection I envisioned, but it is mine.  I made a place in it for you but you refuse it."  Epic, now more Eric than godling, opened his arms out to me.  "Please, I beg you, take it.  End this now."

It was tempting.  He wasn't lying after all.  To be technical, I was the dinosaur, the base creature that refused to evolve.  Would everything have been better if I had never questioned, if I had just done what Eric had asked from the beginning?  I stood there, staring at the open arms, thought, and remembered.  Memory brought wisdom and wisdom brought action.

Even though Epic saw me move, he must have assumed I was coming to embrace him, even though my fists were clenched.  Whatever the reason, he made no move to defend himself as I ran up to him, through his open arms, and punched him hard in the stomach.  There was shock and surprise etched on the god's face as he folded like a house of cards.

"Maybe you're right, Eric," I growled as I kept attacking, grabbing him by the hair to drive his face into my knee.  "Maybe I am the hold-out."  Left and right, I snapped off two side kicks aimed at each of his kidneys.  "But you're wrong.  People come to you because they fear you."  He clutched his sides, howling in pain.  Epic's outer shell cushioned the blows somewhat, but every one struck the human inside.  I spun once, very risky but I had the advantage now, and belted a spinning back-fist right across his jaw.  I felt something crack as blood and a tooth flew out of Eric's mouth.  "Even if the entire world tells you something wrong is right, you put your foot down and you stand up for what's good and true."  Epic spun with the momentum of the impact as it broke another of my knuckles.  Small price to pay as he collapsed on his hands and knees.  Unlike me, Eric hadn't had to deal with the pain his Whiteout had caused.  I stood over him, looking down, feeling a strange mixture of triumph and pity.