Young Sentinels (Wearing the Cape) (Volume 3) (41 page)

She nodded. “Woke up in the Teatime Anarchist’s computer as soon as the signal from Galatea was completely lost. Well, it took me a little while to really wake up. Then I had to catch up on everything since last spring. Good to know the neural link in your head is still working. Hold on.” She disappeared and the TV behind her turned on to show her grinning face.
Now
Shelly got it.

“Better?” New Shelly asked from the TV. “Hey, me.”

I nodded, still trying to breathe right, but Shelly almost shrieked.

“Better? Seriously?
Seriously?
”

“Hey! No harm no foul! Remember the bio-seed we sent Hope to give to Mom and then chickened out on? Gulp it down, give it a few months to wind itself into your new meat-brain and bang! We’re connected again.”

My mouth dropped open so far Mom would have objected. Then the giggles started and I couldn’t stop.

“Hope? Hope?” Eyes closed, I wasn’t sure which Shelly was talking.

I’d made
two of them
.

“Personally, I’d rather leave other people alone. But when someone comes round and bothers your neighbors, you’ve got to put your boots on.”

John Chandler
, Atlas: The Last Interview.

“Could anyone
be
more of a cowboy?”

Hope Corrigan
, Notes from A Life.

The team got back three hours after they left, flying in over the ruined and wild forest that had been Grant Park. The Green Man had gone south almost as far as Roosevelt, trying to get around Superintendent Redmond’s fire line and into the Loop, but focusing on the Dome had kept him from crossing Jackson north of us. All the heroes in Chicago couldn’t have stopped him, but the CPD had held him long enough.

I handed Dispatch duty back to Blackstone the second I could, left Shelly to fight with herself (Chakra could referee), and flew out to help find and deliver everyone hurt to the designated aid stations. There’d been a few traffic accidents in the evacuation, mostly fender-benders, and injuries, people falling or being accidentally pushed down in stairwells and other tight spaces, but most people had helped each other.

I felt
great
; I’d forgotten how fast my powers let me bounce back from physical trauma. After flying hurt citizens around, I joined Watchman and Variforce to help clear around the Dome — the green had come within an inch of breaking through into the atrium before Megaton went off — until Blackstone sent me to represent the team at the press-conference staged by the mayor’s office just before sunset.

I got to stand beside Superintendent Redmond and behind the mayor at the podium hastily set up on Congress Plaza. The frozen tide of green half-covering the battered Atlas Memorial just across the Congress Parkway bridges made a dramatic backdrop as the mayor thanked the CPD and all the heroes for saving the city; no details yet, just getting word out that the Green Man was dead (at least we hoped so and the city was willing to take our word for it so things could get back to normal). “
Hope?
” Shelly — which one? — whispered in my ear after the mayor read his short speech and started taking questions. “
Blackstone would like to see you in his office as soon as you can get away
.”

My stomach sank, but I kept the smile on and shook hands with Big Red and the mayor (the newsies got some nice shots) before flying away.

Blackstone sat reading reports and watching a narrow-brimmed fedora sitting on the corner of his desk next to a megaphone. He smiled when I stepped through the open door.

“Astra,” he greeted me cheerfully. “Good job today, my dear. We’re going into an after-action meeting before we stand down tonight — not in depth, just catching everybody up — and I want you on my left at the table. It’s a leadership thing, and we need to — ”

“I —
no
.”

I
never
interrupt, and he stopped, looked at me. He frowned.

“And you need to sit down. Careful of the hat.”

“What?” I sat and tucked up my costume skirt, wondering what he was talking about. He gave me a tired smile.

“Ozma assures me that tomorrow at sunrise it is going to turn back into a rather obnoxious protest leader, but I can’t help feeling that if I bump it... You would think I’d be used to magic by now, but neither mine nor Chakra’s is quite so
physically
spectacular. Do you have a problem with sitting at the front, my dear?”

“
Why?
After I screwed up so bad? You left me on watch and — The Green Man — I was all over the place! And Shelly...”

“I’ve watched the recordings, and you appeared to be quite on top of it.”

“I didn’t do anything but follow the book! If it wasn’t for Megaton, the Green Man would have eaten the city!”

Blackstone put his hands together and regarded me over steepled fingers.

“Rule number one of winning, my dear, is to avoid fighting a stronger enemy. Rule number two is, when you
do
fight, avoid losing so badly that there won’t be a rematch. The Green Man always picked the time, place, and objective, and if the entire team had been on hand this time, we
might
have been able to contain him again. I am convinced that he coordinated with the Wreckers to insure that we could
not
be here today.

“Perhaps I should not have gone to Detroit, today, but like you I believed that the Crew was involved, which meant we would likely face another communications blackout, which meant Chakra and I needed to be on the spot.”

I slumped. “So I didn’t even help you there, either — you already knew.”

“I’d already seen the possibility, but that
is
my job. And I considered the possibility that the Green Man would attack while we were absent, because that’s also my job. I’m afraid you are going to have to live with having been the Sentinel in charge of the successful defense of the city. I’m sure the blow to your reputation will be considerable.”

“But — ”

“Haven’t you wondered, my dear, why I’ve been loading you down with studies, why I brought Watchman on the team, why Watchman doesn’t split police-liaison duties with you now, why I’ve succumbed to Quin’s blandishments and allowed a junior team, why I let you choose our new Young Sentinels?”

I shook my head, stopped. What had Seven said?
Thinking five steps ahead is his job, and I’m pretty sure he’s always up to something.
The little hairs on the back of my neck felt electric, and my seat creaked before I loosened my grip.

“Why — What are you doing?”

He sighed, stood up. “Walk with me, Hope?”

He took me down to the Assembly Room, to the “trophy” wall with all its framed news clippings, magazine covers, publicity shots. He stopped in front of the oldest news photo of Atlas, in his cheesy first costume, the one that looked like Elvis Presley in a cape.

“You know,” Blackstone said quietly. “John was only a few months younger than you were when he had his own breakthrough. You’re not like him. John wandered up here from Texas, and Alex did what older brothers do — he knew a guy who knew a guy, and he got John a tryout job slinging bags around at the airport. Fresh from slinging hay bales on the ranch, he was all wiry muscle, restless energy, no idea what he wanted to do with his life besides see more of the world than Texas. But the Event — when he leaped into the sky and caught that plane — he knew what he was supposed to do with what he got, and
there
you’re exactly alike.”

He chuckled, surprising me.

“Took him a while to figure out
how
, though, and he thought the whole mask-and-cape thing was pretty ridiculous — especially since everyone knew who he was already. You’ve heard him talk about that, but it was Alex, the marketing and public relations expert, who convinced him that people would be less scared and the government would have a harder time locking up and experimenting on
superheroes
who had the public behind them. He still said he felt damned silly wearing the cape and answering to
Atlas
. But.”

Blackstone always looked a little sad when he talked about John, but when he turned away from the wall there was a twinkle in his eye. A ghost of a smile played on his lips.

“This morning, you were just Hope Corrigan, no powers, on the injured list. When I left you in charge, the first thing you did was change into costume, mask and all. Why? Everyone knows who you are now, and you weren’t flying off to save the day.”

“I — ” I had no idea. Why had I wasted time changing?

He nodded.

“The same thing happened to John. It became who he was, like a policeman’s badge or a soldier’s uniform. He became Atlas, and you’ve become Astra. It’s not just a name you wear, anymore, and your mask doesn’t hide you — it shows who you are. Your powers are back, and that is a very
good
thing. Chicago has its Astra back.” He turned back to the wall and tapped a glossy picture of me flying over the city, taken last fall. It had been shot from the ground looking up and it caught me against the sky, laughing as I flew, Atlas alert and watchful, higher in the sky above me.

“But powers aren’t enough, my dear, and strong as you are, you know you’re hardly invulnerable. Even if you were, you can’t be everywhere. You’re just one more Atlas-type. But so was Atlas, and we need you to
be
Atlas.”

Now I was
completely
lost. Virtual Shelly popped into existence beside me.

“He’s leveling you up, dummy,” she said, eyes rolling. Blackstone chuckled, touching his earbug before I asked.

“Shelly is correct, Hope. I’ve gotten you the toughest A Class trainer I could steal, and I
am
sorry for the bumps and bruises. I’ve made you
the
face of the Sentinels with our city’s law enforcement.” He smiled. “And since you don’t have the seniority or experience to be leading the team in the field yet, I’ve given you a starter team.”

Wait, what?

What what whaaaaaaaat?

I dropped into a conference chair, covered my eyes and tried to breathe normally.

“But I haven’t
done
anything, yet!”

Blackstone started
laughing
.

“Dear God, Hope.” He wiped his eyes. “What
haven’t
you done? Forgetting all the cape stuff,
I
am alive today because of you. I allow you to choose your team, and you give Shelly her life back! You have a way to go, but you are not the scared little girl I met last September, and even then you were stunningly brave.”

The smile dropped but the twinkle stayed in his eye.

“But you don’t have ten years to ‘level up,’ Hope. Shelly knows this. More Ultra-Class threats will appear, the political situation will get more precarious as the threat level rises, and we
need
Atlas. He was a national figure, the iconic cape, a symbol worth more political and public capital than all the rest of us combined. We don’t have him anymore, but he can have
heirs
.” He waved at the wall, all of it, first group shot to the Times Funeral Edition.

“The Sentinels are heirs. The Young Sentinels will be the next generation of heirs. And you are his principal heir. You can close your mouth; we’ve talked about legacies before. I’m not saying you’ve earned it, it just worked out that way.

“So go clean up, briefing in an hour. The Green Man may be gone, but there will be others. We need to find out what Dr. Pellegrini and the Wreckers want with a bunch of young supervillains. We’ve got to formally introduce the Young Sentinels to the city — not that they haven’t had a hell of an introduction already. And we’ve got the biggest cleanup job Chicago has seen since the Event. If you hurry, you may have time to see your family first, so get moving.”

“C’mon!” Shelly echoed, laughing. “Vulcan and I have worked up a new Galatea-shell I can telepilot for the meeting, too! Awesome Girl and Power Chick ride!” Blackstone’s deadpan, determinedly
serious
expression was too much, and I lost it completely to dissolve into helpless giggles.