Chapter 26
I stood dazed in The Spine as managers shouted out possible titans, ruling them out one by one.
“It’s the world devouring serpent!”
“No way it would have come up from the sea and circled around before approaching the city. The warning is on the west side of the city.”
“What else would make such a track?”
Kim clapped her hands twice, and the whole room quieted down. She was wringing the metal railing before her. “Beatrix, can you pull up imagery from Fortress’ last fight twenty-five years ago?”
“Boss?” Beatrix frowned. “What for?”
“Just do it,” Kim barked, anger seeping into her voice.
The entire room was quietly watching her.
My jaw clenched. She recognized the blast pattern.
The left of the three large monitors came up with a similar cut out of the earth, starting just at the edge of the city.
“Compare the two,” Kim demanded.
We all watched silently as numbers and green lines arrayed themselves over the two images, and the analysts below typed furiously to run the program.
The grid lines stopped and flashed.
Beatrix leaned over her keyboard, looking intently at the information presented. “We have a ninety-seven percent match. The angle is different, and there is room for error depending on the body composition difference between Fortress and the unknown in the latest.”
“Give it to me straight,” Kim demanded.
Beatrix let out a long pause. “But it is highly likely to be the same.”
Kim put her head in her hands. “Turn off the goddamn titan alarms.”
“What?”
Kim ran her hands through her fiery hair. Her eyes were shaking. “Turn off the titan alarms. It isn’t a titan.”
Beatrix cleared her throat. “There’s something else you might want to see.”
The Director was less than amused, but paused, waiting for her to continue.
“The energy readings around the area…” Beatrix pointed at the screen. Where she pointed, there were oscillating graphs. “…they match the warehouse with Omnigirl.”
Kim’s eyes went wide, and the railing in front of her snapped in half as fire flickered off her hair. “For fuck’s sake. Please tell me this is a joke, B.”
We all knew Beatrix wasn’t joking. Kim did, too.
“Sorry, Director. That’s what the data says.”
Kim held her head with one hand covering an eye. The other shook with very real fear. “Turn off the alarms and bring in all the top hero teams. We need an emergency meeting.”
Beatrix spun back around to her station, more than happy to get back to work and not face Kim right now.
The managers murmured among themselves.
I felt distant, cold, and dispassionate as Kim reacted to my power. But anything would have to wait. I would hear her out. She had earned that much from me with what I’d seen so far.
Heroes started filing into The Spine and joining their managers.
Stella and Melody joined me. Both squeezed my hands as they looked up and recognized the field where we’d been.
“The image on the right is what triggered the titan warning. The other needs some explaining,” Kim announced.
Melody suddenly had my hand in a vice grip while Stella leaned into me, trying discreetly to support me.
The door to The Spine closed, and Kim took a deep breath.
“Beatrix, seal The Spine.”
The head analyst paused for a moment before triggering thick shielded doors down on every entrance. Meanwhile, a familiar hum filled the air.
“We are sealed. Nothing in here is getting out,” Beatrix said slowly.
“Don’t worry everyone, I just needed absolute privacy for what I’m about to say.” Kim took a deep breath, steadying herself on the ruined remnants of the railing.
“First, I need to disclose the problem with Omnigirl.” She looked up at each of the managers. “Omnigirl may have just killed us all.”
There were gasps from the managers and heroes.
“We had detected that Omnigirl was roughing up men in the city, and it culminated when she tried to abduct two men.”
There were hisses from the managers, and I couldn’t help but watch Rocksolid to see his reaction. If he knew about her side dealings, he was an incredible actor.
“We had been monitoring her and were able to swoop in to stop her before things went too far.” Kim let out a sigh of relief. “Unfortunately, one of the two men captured was able to incapacitate Omnigirl, her manager, and escape before we arrived.”
I did everything I could not to let out a sigh of relief. The story of a second man captured by Omnigirl had now taken root.
Rocksolid raised his hand. “The person I fought in the medical ward was the same?”
“We believe that is extremely likely,” Kim answered before pointing at the two screens. “He is also the super that created these two blasts.”
Rocksolid’s brow rose, awe painting his face. “That’s…” His brow pressed down. “That’s the date Fortress died.” He suddenly pointed an accusing finger at the second image up on the screens.
The heroes began murmuring, some pulling out devices to double check that information. Others gasped. Overall, the vibe was very much that of a group with pitchforks and torches.
The words ‘vile monster’ were repeated several times among the crowd. I tried not to let it trigger me. I didn’t understand how everybody managed to remember those words from the news stations.
I worked to keep my emotions in check, but I desperately wanted to hit something.
It was only Stella and Melody that kept me grounded as old memories tried to creep up from the dark reaches of my mind.
“Everyone, quiet down.” Kim was fraying at the edges. Fire flickered around her. “We don’t know anything about this super.”
It didn’t escape me that she didn’t use the word ‘villain’.
“Should anyone encounter this super, your orders are to evacuate and call me. I am the only person that should engage this super. Am I understood?” Fire flared around her, letting shadows play over her face.
Rocksolid punched his fists together. “No, I’ll handle them.”
“You will not, or I will have you buried in a grave. Omnigirl attacked this super who hasn’t made an appearance since Fortress. Think, people. They’ve been in hiding, lying low.” She shot a glance at me.
I thought for a second she was talking about me, but then I realized she was giving me credit for the theory. “That’s our best guess,” I agreed.
Several of the premiere heroes spoke out.
“We should avenge Fortress! He was the world’s hero.”
“Yeah,” came a rallying cry from the rest of the heroes.
“Shut up. Think for a goddamn second.” Kim was rattled. “If there was really some terrible villain that killed Fortress, then where is he? Where did he go? He never appeared again before now. If you would all stop just repeating the lines from the nightly news and really think about it, it doesn’t make sense.”
Kim clenched her jaw and confirmed with Beatrix. “We have no military assets here, do we?”
Beatrix shook her head, pausing before typing on the keyboard again and giving Kim a thumbs up.
“Listen up. I need you all to quiet down.” She let out a slow breath. “It’s time for a story of how I got funding for the BSH, and what really happened on the day Fortress died.”
The room quieted quickly, and I found myself leaning forward. I was curious to hear her side of the story.
Kim moved, sitting on the edge of her desk with everyone watching. “It started two weeks before his death. Back then, the military ran the show, not us.”
She shook her head. “A call came through of a highly dangerous villain with the ability to poison the city. They found traces in a well that appeared to be a test, and they believed him to be a threat to the entire city.”
There was an appreciative inhale from the crowd.
“Of course, they pulled Fortress in for the job. They gave him the address and told him to go in hot. His orders were to knock the building down on top of them.”
The present heroes looked upset at that tactic, but Kim just shrugged.
“That’s how it was back then; we are better now. Following his orders, Fortress went in, smashing down the warehouse.” Kim let out a tired sigh that felt like it had been locked up for far too long. “What we didn’t know was that the warehouse had been converted to a nursery recently. The place was full of kids, no villain in sight.”
Beatrix knew exactly what happened. “It was the wrong address.”
Kim shot her a little finger gun. “Got it in one. Fortress managed to save fifteen of the little buggers, but eight died.”
The crowd in The Spine was absolutely silent at her words. There was a chill in the air as everyone realized they had been lied to about Fortress’ last days.
“I tried to tell the leaders that Fortress was in a terrible mental state after that. He needed a break and to get some help. Do you know what they did?” she asked a rhetorical question.
No one spoke, waiting for her to continue. Even I hadn’t known this part.
She air quoted, “They thought ‘keeping him busy’ would solve it. Fast forward two weeks, and he’s chasing down Mirage, a villain capable of making real life illusions. Put all of that together, and you have an absolutely unacceptable situation.”
“He lost it,” someone said before she could continue.
Kim nodded slowly. “Yeah. Full on, lost it. Mirage started throwing illusions of heroes at him. Fortress made a mess of the area, and we were all called in to help.”
There was a terrible shadow that fell over Kim’s face. “But by then he couldn’t tell the difference between Mirage’s illusions and the real heroes. It was a complete cluster fuck.”
Rocksolid raised his hand again. “Then who killed him?”
“Just some kid,” Kim said quickly. “A kid that had just come into his powers after watching Fortress in that state.” She took yet another deep breath, about to tell my story.
But I didn’t need her to. I remembered it like it was yesterday. That day had been burned into my mind.
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