Vanguard: The Complete Second Season: A Superhero Serial (Vanguard: The Collected Seasons Book 2) (30 page)

The boy’s nose wrinkled.
“And you think you can stop us?”

“You can’t control me, or my team.”

“We don’t have to. Your team will fall soon. They can’t fight all of us, not forever. And from here we will go to other camps like this one. Bring more into our hive. Expand further and further out.”

Paragon reached out for the boy, but her hand just passed through him. The boy giggled in response.

“You have no power here. We may not be able to control you, but we are stronger than you.”

“No, not quite.”

The addition of a third voice drew the boy’s attention. J’Karra stood near them, holding her bow with the string drawn and a psionic arrow notched. She fixed her cat-like eyes on him in a hard stare, then released the string. The arrow penetrated the boy, becoming lodged in his chest. He turned back to Paragon, staring at the arrow as he did. His head rose and he had fear in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,”
said Paragon. She held up her hands and her eyes pulsed with golden energy. The boy cried out, feeling her power flow through him. The rest of the Collective stood behind him in silence, just staring blankly as the center of their hive was torn apart by Paragon’s psionic powers.

“I will take them with me!”
he screamed.

“No!” shouted Paragon, opening her eyes and now back on the battlefield. She looked down at J’Karra in horror, but the alien woman said nothing. The voices of the Collective rang out again, but this time they were not as unified. There were cries of terror as their minds went completely blank and they fell dead.

Paragon dropped from the sky. Before she struck the ground, Sentinel flew up to her, catching her in mid-air and landing with her in his arms. He laid her gently down on the ground, looking at her face, which was fixed in a horrified expression.

“What the hell just happened?” asked Wraith.

“Paragon used her abilities against the Collective, shutting down the source of the hive mind,” said J’Karra. “But he wouldn’t go quietly. He took as many of his victims with him as he could, destroying their minds in the process.”

“What about Gunsmith?” asked Sharkskin.

“He’s okay, I just got confirmation from Zen,” said Sentinel. “But how?”

“The Collective couldn’t take all of them with him. Some will survive. My theory is the recent additions hadn’t formed a strong enough bond yet,” said J’Karra.

“And what about her?” asked Shift.

J’Karra looked into Paragon’s face and Shift could have sworn she briefly saw something that resembled compassion cross her alien features. But then it was gone just as fast.
 

“She was connected with the Collective when the backlash occurred,” said J’Karra.

“What does that mean?” asked Shift, kneeling down beside Paragon and laying a gentle hand on her forehead.
 

“She will be fine, the initial shock has just temporarily incapacitated her,” said J’Karra.
 

“Guys, we got another problem,” said Sharkskin, looking around the battlefield. “Azarov’s gone.”

“Goddammit, must’ve slipped out when they started falling,” said Wraith.

“Should we go after him?” asked Sentinel.

“How you gonna find him, kid?” asked Wraith. “He’s not a special, remember?”

Sentinel looked up at Sharkskin. “Can you pick up his scent?”

Sharkskin shook his head. “Nothing.” He noticed J’Karra turning to go. “Hey, hold on!”

J’Karra paused and glanced over her shoulder. “Our work here is done. I thank you for your assistance, but now I must return to my mission.”

She broke into a sprint and ran off into the distance. Sentinel stood up, watching her go. “I can try and follow her.”

“For what? Helping us?” asked Wraith. “Let her go. Whoever she is, we’ll probably run into her again.” He looked up at the Icarus, which was in the process of descending. “Besides, we’ve got our own problems to worry about.”

EPILOGUE

Abram Zukov entered his office and closed the door behind him. He sat behind his desk and turned. The glass window of the Olympus space station gazed out at the Earth. But then the window darkened and images of five men and women appeared on the screen. They were representatives of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. But the faces remained darkened and the voices distorted. The only identifying information came in the form of the flag of the nation they represented at the bottom-center of their respective screens.

“We have a problem, Director,” said the representative of the United States. “There’s been a situation in North Korea.”

“We’ve received word from them that a research facility was attacked by none other than Vanguard,” said the Chinese representative.
 

Zukov folded his hands and laid them in his lap. “That sounds most unfortunate, Councilman.”

“What do you have to say on this matter, Director?” asked the Russian representative.

“I would say that Vanguard was disbanded following the Red Fist incident,” said Zukov.
 

“You made some inquiries into North Korea recently, isn’t that true, Director?” asked the French representative.
 

Zukov nodded. “Following Director Callus’ disappearance, we decrypted some files indicating a connection between him and North Korea in regards to an illegal human experimentation project. But my attempts to investigate further were blocked.”

“With good reason,” said the Chinese representative. “We cannot have Cerberus accusing other nations of foul play with such flimsy evidence.”

“And if you had any role in assisting Vanguard in this act, that would pose a liability,” said the United Kingdom representative. “Cerberus is prohibited from employing specials.”

“Except in certain circumstances,” said Zukov. “I should also remind all of you that human experimentation, particularly as it pertains to specials, is a violation of international law. And Cerberus’ mandate is to stop those who would conduct such experiments.”

“Tread carefully, Zukov,” said the Russian representative. “Do not forget that you are only an interim director at the moment.”

The images faded and the glass returned to normal, allowing Zukov to once more look out at the planet. He turned his chair back to the desk and sighed. He believed that bringing in Vanguard was necessary and from what he’d heard of their progress, they’d succeeded. But he now worried if he could continue this arrangement without the Security Council becoming suspicious or discover what he was up to.

***

Jim heard a knock at the infirmary door and he looked up from his book. “Come in.”
 

Anita stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Jim smiled at her and set the paperback down in his lap. She glanced at the cover and saw a colorful illustration on the front.

“What are you reading?”

“Don’t laugh,” said Jim, holding up the book cover so she could inspect it. The artwork resembled a comic book and featured characters dressed in colorful costumes. A logo across the top read
The Sentinels
. Anita smirked a little.

“Don’t get to see enough superhero action in real life, you need it for entertainment, too?”

“Koji gave it to me,” said Jim. “It’s pretty good.”

“How are you doing?”
 

“Better than you’d expect,” said Jim.
 

“No side effects after what…what I did?”

Jim shook his head. “Zen thinks that because I was unconscious when you took down the Collective, that somehow helped me get through it without any problem. So aside from a headache, I’m doing okay.”

“Then why are you still in here?”

“Zen’s just being paranoid, wanted to make sure I’m a hundred percent before letting me out.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

Anita looked away, her eyes focused on the floor. Jim reached a hand out for hers. “Hey, you okay?”

She shook her head and pulled away, turning her back to him. “Those people…they died because of me. Because I couldn’t stop the Collective without killing him.”

Jim gave a sigh. “Anita, look. I was part of the Collective for a brief period. I know what it’s like to be trapped inside that thing. And I can tell you this—the entire time I was possessed by him, forced to carry out his will, I was conscious of all of it. The one thought that kept running through my mind is that I wanted to die. Trust me, you did them a favor by releasing them.”

“Doesn’t really make it any easier.”

“Yeah, I guess not. But if you wanna talk about it, I’ve got some experience with this kind of thing. Being an ex-soldier and all.”

Anita shook her head. “Sorry, I think I just have to be alone.”

She left the infirmary and walked through the connecting tunnel to the main Atlas base. After taking the elevator down to the living quarters, Anita returned to her room. She wasn’t ready to go back home, not yet, so she’d decided to remain at the Atlas for now.
 

Once inside her room, Anita closed the door and locked it behind her. She pushed her back against the door and shut her eyes, taking a deep breath. All she wanted to do was turn back the clock and forget this had ever happened.

But then there was a flash and Anita saw something else in her memories. But no, not her memories. She saw the stars and a giant spaceship hovering above a planet. She watched as she emerged from a small craft, meeting another. An alien who had similar features to J’Karra, but was a man.
 

Then she saw a beautiful woman wearing a robe, smiling down at her. Anita knew she was seeing J’Karra’s memories and looking upon the face of the Matriarch, the leader of the Kotharians. As the Matriarch spoke, it was in a language Anita couldn’t understand. But she could get a sense of what this was about.

Anita’s eyes opened wide with fear, her mouth agape. “Oh god…this is just the beginning…”

#10 - HARBINGER

CHAPTER 1

Twenty Years From Now

Times Square was not what Chronos had expected. It looked more like the Times Square of the era he grew up in, not the one he’d seen from photographs of this period. Ash filled the streets and the sky was dark. The brilliant lights that once illuminated this popular destination had been burned out. The monitors remained, but they only displayed slogans from the invaders, like SUBMIT, and information about how to report specials.

The young man was instantly attacked when he arrived by Kotharian scouts. His ally, the robot called the Progenitor, managed to lure them away. But now Chronos was alone, having taken refuge in a burned out apartment building. He bent his arm in front of him, the gauntlet projecting a holographic display. Chronos entered commands on the light-generated keyboard and a warning message flashed over the screen as well as the HUD on his visor.

CHRONAL EMITTER DAMAGED.

“Damn,” he cursed for what felt like the thousandth time since arriving. Without the chronal emitter in his suit working properly, there was no way for him to travel back in time to find out when the invasion began. He had to find a way to repair it, but he had no idea what sort of technology even existed in this era. Chronos feared he may be stuck here without a way to complete his mission or even return home.

Assuming his home even existed anymore.
 

His HUD indicated a warning. Chronos moved from the wall and looked through the broken glass down to the street below. There were humans patrolling the streets. Bald heads and clad in crimson armor with masks over the lower half of their faces and in their hands, they carried hi-tech assault rifles.
 

“Gunsmiths,” he muttered to himself. They were the foot soldiers of the Kotharians, humans who had agreed to turn themselves into weapons of the empire in exchange for the protection and well-being of their families. They were around in Chronos’ time as well.
 

One of them looked up. His eyes flashed blue and he alerted his partner. They both raised their rifles and opened fire, shooting blasts of energy at the window.

“Shit!” Chronos held up his hand, generating an orange barrier to shield himself from the blasts. He jumped from the window and components from his leg armor slid down, forming into a circular glider beneath his feet.
 

Chronos extended his hand and his gauntlet fed a small baton into his waiting palm. It quickly telescoped into a staff and Chronos aimed it at the two Gunsmiths, energy blasts firing from the tip.
 

The Gunsmiths leapt from the path, rolling on the ground and quickly moving into a crouch. They fired again and Chronos used the glider to dodge their blasts. His armor helped him predict where the blasts would strike, but with the short intervals, his response time could easily falter at any moment.
 

The glider receded into Chronos’ armor and he dove for one of the Gunsmiths. He swerved in the air to avoid the blasts and landed on his attacker. Chronos jumped back to his feet, striking the Gunsmith at the weak points of his armor with the staff. He struck the Gunsmith’s legs from behind, dropping him to the ground. Chronos held the staff above the Gunsmith’s face and fired at point-blank range, a smoking hole where his enemy’s head once was.

The second Gunsmith opened fire. Chronos spun, twirling his staff to keep the blasts at bay. He couldn’t find an opening to shoot back and had to resort to defense alone. With each blast Chronos deflected, the Gunsmith took another step forward. Chronos’ HUD alerted him to other units approaching.

“Damn…can’t end like this…” he muttered through gritted teeth.

The new Gunsmiths arrived via jetpack, a squad of three of them. They hovered above, aiming their weapons at Chronos. “You are in possession of unauthorized weaponry. Surrender now or be destroyed.”

Behind his visor, Chronos’ eyes widened in shock when he witnessed some sort of energy signature fly up behind one of the Gunsmiths, wrapping around him. The energy was a swirling, bright green and for some reason appeared to resemble a Chinese dragon.

The other Gunsmiths turned their attention to the new threat. The one who was on the ground with Chronos was attacked from behind by another energy creature, this one resembling a lion. Chronos watched in shock.