Targets: Part 12

As telepathic contact ended, I became aware of the world around me again.

Haley had taken my hand, and in a quiet voice said, “Can we go over there?” She nodded toward a spot away from the main table where we’d been sitting.

With Sean standing behind our chairs, I could guess why.

“Sure,” I said.

We got up, and walked away from the table, stopping next to a display case containing the black uniform of some Nazi super agent. The jacket’s sleeves ended in massive metal gauntlets, matching a grey, metal helmet that would have covered the entire face.

I couldn’t remember the agent’s name, how the League got the uniform, or why they put it up on display.

But anyway, we stood there, and I might have tried to hug her, but we were both in costume and I didn’t want to take off my own mask.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said.

“I don’t want me to go either, but Ray’s going to start killing people if I don’t.”

“I know, but wait for Lee to get here. Travis talked to him before you got down the tunnel, and he’s coming.”

Over at the main table, Travis and Cassie were still on the phones. Hopefully they’d managed to talk to everybody. We’d need as much help as we could get.

“Lee works on his own schedule,” I said. “I’m not going to count on him showing up within the time limit, and even if he does he might just act to protect Rachel and I. If I’m here when he arrives, he doesn’t have to do anything. If I’m out there with your parents, saving me might save them.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she didn’t say anything at first, but then, “I’m following you.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Ray said he’d planned for all of us, and he might have just been bluffing, but I kind of believe him.”

“You don’t stand a chance alone.”

“I was thinking about having Rachel follow along. I’m pretty sure we blew up his defenses against her when we blew up the Impregnator.”

“No, I’m not letting you go alone. Ray won’t notice me. I’m good at sneaking around.”

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but stopped. She really was. So was Travis. Their grandfather, the original Night Wolf, had been too.

While I turned things around in my head, trying to come up with reasons for her to stay here, I noticed another conversation.

Sean, Jaclyn, Lucas, Camille, Julie, and Sydney stood in a circle near the main table. Travis had put down the phone and started walking around the table toward them.

Sean was talking and he wasn’t exactly quiet.

“So what are we going to do? Is the Rocket leaving or what? Because if he’s not, I’m not going to sit here while Ray kills my mom like he did my dad, something the League wasn’t any help in stopping by the way.”

“Listen, idiot,” Lucas said, “did they, or didn’t they just save your ass?”

Sean raised his hand, pointing a finger at Lucas as he talked;. “You shut up. I put up with a lot of your shit because your dad was bankrolling us, but he’s not anymore, so if you don’t want me to beat the crap out of you, be quiet.”

Lucas dropped his jaw in something that wasn’t quite a grin. “You think you can?”

Sydney’s face looked reddish, like she might be just about to cry, or had just stopped.

“Sean, this isn’t going to help.”

“No,” Jaclyn said, “it’s not. You two need to calm down. I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re not going to sit here and let people die.”

“Yeah,” Sean said, “tell that to my dad.”

Camille folded her arms across her chest. “You’re not the only person who lost someone when he died.”

Sean turned to stare at her, shouting, “That’s bullshit. He wouldn’t do that.”

“Time to stop this,” Jaclyn said.

I wondered what else could pop up before I left.

As if to demonstrate, a high pitched beep came across the room’s speakers.

Near the table, Cassie said, “Now what?”

She clicked away at the keyboard, and Alex’s voice filled the room. “Rocket, we’re here. Where should we land?”

19 thoughts on “Targets: Part 12”

  1. Three arrive at such a convenient time I’m thinking it’s actually a cunning ploy to get the League to rely on these supposed allies Executioner supposedly hasn’t prepared for in their plans only to have the Three pull a spectacular face to heel turn revealing they’ve been bought by Syndicate L!
    (Hmm, I wonder if that was enough wild guesswork conspiracy theorizing or if I should also include the part where it’s all a giant plan to steal and reforge Evil Beatnik’s ring for Ray, who is actually the son of the original…)

  2. What I want to know is who put the hit out on Nick. I hope Jim has a really juicy plot twist or ringer in there for that one.

  3. Oh good a teleporter, that just might be what they need to actually save a lot of people. Healer doesn’t hurt and neither does the clone person.

    Might just be enough to tip the scale from nuts to almost crazy.

  4. Enjoying the story! So yeah, where are they going to land? HQ just kind of imploded and I don’t suppose Nick wants them to land at Grandpa’s house…

    I’m totally focusing on the wrong thing again, aren’t I?

  5. A hit out on Nick? First guess is Syndicate L, second guess Prime’s Legion, third guess the Government, fourth guess is the dimension-traveling Space Machiavelli and his henchman Leonardo Da Vinci, and my last guess is that it’s an elaborate plot by Sean and Camille’s dad using voice-girl’s powers to have some poor sap die in his place and make everyone believe it was him who died, including Justice Fist, so that he can set the Legion, Ray, and the League against each other, knowing the League would protect the Fisters, which would weaken all three groups and allow Justice Fist to come to prominence by upstaging the League by taking down Ray and the Legion once and for all.

  6. I’m seeing some major chaos here, and an opportunity for Sean to learn what being a hero really means — if he can survive.

    Also, since Daniel may have indicated Sean as being the biggest threat around (remember that episode), there’s a distinct possibility that this whole thing could go seriously pear-shaped with Sean maxing out his powers, a la Johnny Storm’s Nova Blast. Remember, a strong enough magnetic field will generate powerful current in any conductive body that moves through it. That includes human bodies.

    Hg

    (Wow, PG, that’s kinda fun! Now I know why you do it.)

  7. Magnetic fields can do a lot. If he had the power, control, and range for it, Sean could pull down some satellites, airplanes, skyscrapers. He could blank the hard drives of the world. That’s especially chaotic if you remember that the vast majority of money exists purely in electronic form. Bam, he could wipe out credit card, loan, and debt data, destroy most of the world’s money, erase all digital intel and records of terrorists, aliens, superheroes, and supervillains, and screw up the world’s compasses. Stocks plummet, men with hidden files on their computers would wail in the streets, and we would be unable to read about the Legion of Nothing. It would be utter chaos!

    On the plus side of things, no Twitter, no Facebook, and no viruses.

    Not sure if bullets are subject to magnetics, but Sean could try to put up a highly magnetically repellant field around himself. Remember Magneto from the first X-Men movie?

  8. That’s not the worst a powerful enough magnetic projector/controller can do. If someone is powerful enough, they could annul the magnetic field of the earth over a region – and that region would then be bombarded by lethal cosmic radiation. šŸ™‚

  9. Yep, that cosmic radiation sure is a nasty one… Might get cancer and die in a couple of years from it.
    For quick results, my pick would be to use the magnetics to accelerate a lump of metal to a high velocity. A stapler hurled at the speed of a good baseball pitch will kill a person, an i-beam hurled at a notable fraction of c will destroy pretty much whatever it hits. Just adjust according to how much power he really has, it’s all good.

  10. Aye

    And yes, can’t forget the fact that magnets are the key components to gauss rifles. If tungsten is magnetic, he could even rip out some of those experimental Rod from God systems and bring a large tungsten rod hurtling from space.

    As for cosmic radiation…this IS a superhero story, remember?

    Gamma Radiation = Hulk
    Irradiated Spider = Spider-man
    Exposure to cosmic radiation via unauthorized spaceflight = Fantastic Four
    Parents exposed to radiation = Toro
    Gradual exposure to radiation = Radioactive Man

    I’d almost say he should do it, he’d be bound to wind up with a few hundred superpowered enemies to gang up on him.

  11. Great chapter, but I spotted a spelling error:
    ” If Iā€™m ought there with your parents, saving me might save them.ā€
    Should be out not ought.

  12. Great chapter, but I spotted a spelling error:
    ” If Iā€™m ought there with your parents, saving me might save them.ā€
    Should be out not ought.

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