The Suns of Liberty: Legion: A Superhero Novel (39 page)

The
Sikorsky zoomed across the twilight amber Pennsylvania sky. Somewhere in front
of them Revolution and Helius were making their way to the compound. Lantern
estimated they’d be getting their just about now.

     According to media reports, the area was surrounded by
Council Guard. The skeleton crew of local Philly Minutemen had made contact
with Lantern. They were holding off their assault until they received their
orders—and backup. Most of the Minutemen volunteers had flooded into Boston and now had no way to get back to Philly in time.

     Lantern peered behind him, and he could see the faint
lights of the helo that trailed them. Another Stealthhawk. Bailey had done well
at Hanscom. Far behind that was a squadron of five Sikorsky Super Stallions.
Enough to carry an army of three hundred of the most elite Minutemen back to COR.
This was the entire air armada of the Resistance. Unfortunately, there was no
way to effectively shield them all.  X-Ray was going to see them eventually.
And probably sooner rather than later.

“It’s
been one hour now, Dr. Gibbons. I told you what would happen if you stalled
me,” Tarleton spat.

     “And I told you, I don’t have that info on me. I have
to get it.” Leslie nodded toward Ray, who was back in the Hall now. “You, Mr. X-Ray,
you and your folks hacked into our system and triggered the failsafe. Now the
system is fried.  So, what am I supposed to do?” Leslie said.

     “That’s your problem, isn’t it?” Tarleton barked.

The
Council Guard had gone outside to set up a perimeter around the area. News
media had begun to descend. Every Media Corp affiliate in the area, along with
the national network, had arrived to cover the event, which had now leaked
across the Internet.

     Back inside the Hall of Chambers, Tarleton was
protected by the members of the Legion. Most of whom were getting bored.

     Tarleton pointed to Fang. “Go get one of them, I don’t
care which, and bring them out.”

     “Pleeeeeese, let me kill somebody,” Fiddler whispered
to Arbor.

     “That’s not really up to me right now, is it,
sweetheart?” Arbor whispered back.

     Arbor saw Scarlett and Spectral give each other a
look. They were standing back away from the main group, by themselves. Scarlett
seemed to nod to the android. But then she saw Arbor gazing at her and she
locked eyes with him. Her lips turned up into a menacing grin. She turned
toward Tarleton. “Let me do it,” she said.

     Tarleton shrugged. “Always wanted to see your work. Go
ahead.”

     Fang brought out the representative from Texas. He
walked under his own volition, but his wide eyes betrayed the terror he was
feeling.

     Scarlett stalked toward the man and raised her arm.
The rep looked absolutely horrified. “Don’t worry,” she said. “This won’t
hurt...” And just then the man felt her neurological grip. His body contorted,
and his face scrunched in agony.

     “...as much as you think.”

     The man dropped to his knees.

     “You see, what I do is send out a signal that makes
your body think it’s been poisoned. The technical term is accelerated endogenous
neurotoxin effect. My father got the idea after he was bitten by a Black Mamba
in East Africa. He came back to the States and started experimenting with
rattlesnake venom.”

     The man convulsed and dropped to the floor. His mouth
foamed; sweat covered his face.

     “So, basically, your body thinks you’ve been dosed
with a massive amount of snake venom and is killing itself.” Scarlett waved her
hand again at the man, and his convulsions stopped. Everything stopped. “I lied
about the pain, didn’t I?”

     The man lay motionless on the floor.

     “Mr. Tarleton, would you like Spectral to take this
man out of the room? I’m afraid he could start to smell rather quickly. An
unfortunate side effect.”

     Tarleton was grinning ear to ear. He nodded. “Good
work, Rage. Your reputation is obviously well deserved.”

     Spectral strode over and without an ounce of emotion
lifted the man into his arms and marched out of the chamber.

CHAPTER 40

S
ophia’s
blasters rocketed them across the city.

     They crossed over the train tracks, following Germantown Av enue, far below. Sophia had veered around the city to avoid the direct route
from Boston that she knew the Legion and the Council Guard would be expecting
them to take.

     “Local Traffic, this is the General. We are a go,”
Revolution said into his com to the fifty-some Minutemen who had stayed behind
in Philly and were now ready to assist in the first phase of the assault.

     Dead ahead, Revolution scoped in with his telescopic
visors to The Green Dragon Tavern, which served as the top floor and cover for
The Hall of Chambers below. Patrolling Council Guard stood out against the
black roof of the building. The large exhaust vents from its days as a power
station jutted high into the sky, dwarfing the roving Guards as they scanned
the street below.

     The sun was setting behind the duo as they flew. The
dying of the day cast a golden shroud over the city. The night would be windy,
but the sky was clear.

     Below them, Fairhill Cemetery passed as Sophia broke
from following the avenue and flew over the light industrial section of the
city. She banked right slightly, and the duo saw Norris Square pass below them.

     From the press reports, the Guard had closed off all
traffic around the Tavern from the Delaware Expressway on back to the river.
Ahead of them they could see a deserted I-95 and the expressway, now devoid of
traffic.

     “Okay, the rendezvous point is clear. Give me cover
and give me a door if you can.”

     “Got it,” she said.

     And dropped him.

     His scarlet cape snapped rigid into the glider, and he
rode the strong wind as he watched Sophia rocket ahead. Her cobalt boot-jets
blasting across the gold-tinted sky.

     Revolution dove. He scoped in on the grassy opening of
Penn Treaty Park that extended just to the right of the compound as he
approached it. A line of trees, walkways, and a small parking lot connected to
the park were immediately to the right of the compound. But after that it
opened up into a grassy field.

     Council Guardsmen were congregated there, so in many
ways it made little sense as a landing spot. But his landings were not exactly
picture perfect anyway. The grassy opening would be softer than the steel and
concrete of the building.

     And this way he could take out a good number of Guards
in his crash-landing. If you’ve got to crash, might as well make it count.

Meanwhile,
Sophia climbed. She was flying high above the compound, circling, hoping that
at this distance the Guard on the ground couldn’t see her. The only one who had
a good chance of spotting her visually was the Spectral android, and
he/it/whatever seemed to be inside the compound.

     She watched Revolution as he approached and timed her
own descent so that the two of them would more or less arrive together.

     More or less.

     Sophia rocketed down. Full blast on her propulsors.
The compound grew in her vision, and Lantern’s digi-sphere viewer blinked to
life, outlining each Council Guardsmen in digital red in her visors. Normally,
this was an enormous help to her—to all of them.

     This time, not so much.

     Below her was a sea of digital red. They were
everywhere. But the Revolution was fast approaching and she wanted to pave the
way. There was no time left.

     She powered the bracelets. They glowed with cobalt
power. Finally, the Guardsmen on the ground noticed her.

     And opened fire.

     So did she.

     Dodging and weaving the gunfire from the street,
Sophia blasted the exposed Guardsmen. She showed no mercy. The beams of energy
that hit them ripped them apart where they stood. Fusion energy against fragile
skin, brittle bone, gelatinous organ.

     No contest.

     The Earth opened from the force of her blasts and the
Guardsmen scattered. She shot over the right side of the building and blasted a
path through the Guardsmen assembled there.

     Bullets clanged off her armor, and she felt the cold
stings redden her skin. A few months ago a barrage like that might have killed
her, but now, thanks to Leslie’s team’s upgrades, they would only leave
bruises.

     And just as soon as the Guards focused their attention
on her and rose to fire back, the Minutemen, now having taken up positions
behind cars, buildings, anywhere they could find cover, opened fire.

     More Guards fell. A call came up among their rank to
fall back—and for backup.

Revolution
fell. His cape was fully extended, like a red parasail. He readied his cylinder
grenades. In his visors, he too could see the Guardsmen in digital red, thanks
to Lantern. As soon as they turned to fend off Sophia’s brutal attack, he let
loose the cylinders. They shot out from the ports in his forearms, spinning
into the line of Guards taking cover from Sophia’s aerial assault.

     The Guards rose to fire back at her, and the fifty
hiding Minutemen sprang to life, broke from cover, and let loose their rounds,
taking further toll on the Council Guard. And just at the moment that they
found cover from the Minutemen guns, Revolution’s cylinders spun into their
ranks.

     The grenades struck ground and exploded. Earth, mud,
rock, and bodies were flung into the air.  And now he had a landing strip, if
you could call it that. He let the cape relax and he dropped.

     Just before he made landfall he saw a group of Guards
fill in the empty space below him, raise their rifles, and open fire.

     Revolution hit them like they were bowling pins as the
bullets they were firing pinged off his armor and ricocheted into their own
numbers.  He smashed into the ground and tore a muddy trench into the green
grass. The impact jolted through his legs.

    
That hurt.

     Revolution peered ahead and saw an army of Guard
sprinting toward him through the trees that lined the edge of the park and the
compound. He rose, shook off the pain.

     And charged them.

Inside
the compound, Spectral heard the first explosion. The android’s advanced
parabolic hearing scanned the outer perimeter of the compound.
assault has begun. The Suns of Liberty are most likely here.>

     Just then, Ray’s RDSD lit up. “Spectral’s right.” 

     “It’s time for you to go,” Arbor said to Tarleton.
“Spectral, Rage. Help him down and kill anything that gets in your way,” Arbor
barked.

     Tarleton and the duo lowered themselves down the
gaping hole in the center of the room. Leslie did her best to peer down as they
went. The Aquifer was COR’s secret entrance, yet in all these years she’d never
considered that an attack might come through the Aquifer itself.

     Leslie could see the bow of a large, flat submarine
that the Guard had obviously arrived in. Much larger than the mini-subs that
were anchored off to the sides.  Spectral was helping Tarleton and Scarlett
down the hole. But rather than entering the hatch of the sub that was just
below the hole, she could hear them trotting down the concrete walkways that
ran along both sides of the underground chamber room, meaning there was at
least one more of those subs down there. 
Just how big was this attack
force?

     “All right, let’s get out there,” Arbor said to his
team.

     Fiddler smiled at Fang. “Finally, I get to kill
somebody!”

     And at that very moment, the lights all across the
chamber blinked and Ray’s RDSD went crazy. His eyes saucered. “Holy shit! We’ve
just been hacked!” Ray said.

     “Hacked?” Arbor yelled. “By who!”

     “It’s a virus,” Ray said, and in that moment, Ray’s
jaw dropped. He gasped something inaudible and gazed up at Arbor. “Saratoga,” he gulped.

CHAPTER 41

S
ophia
circled back for another run. She could see the Revolution landing in the park.
Earth exploded beneath his heels and then he started firing his grenades,
charging into the thick of the Guards.

     She took note of a second squadron up on the roof.

     She dove.

     The bracelets charged, and like an atomic bird of prey
she swooped down, firing the energy beams into the helpless Guardsmen. In one
pass she took down a third of them.