The Prospects (Book 2): Nothing Poorer Than Gods (2 page)

“Why I leave?”

“Some find this place boring,” said Noah. “A few were banished because they couldn’t leave their violent ways behind them. I had to kick out a couple who were too lazy to work.”

“Work?”

“Take some time to relax, but eventually we’d like you to help out. There are many jobs to be done here.”

Gary said, “We’ll find something you like. You can help me harvest sunflowers. Or help Ruby raise rabbits.”

Pig-Girl crossed her legs. “Potty?”

“The outhouse is down the hill from the barn.” Noah took a candle from his pocket and held it in front of his forehead. One extra eye glowed red and fire flicked from the wick. “If you need anything, I’ll be in the next room. Gary, show her the way.”

Pig-Girl said, “Noah, you not bad man.”

Noah smiled softly. “Thank you, but many people outside of this safe place don’t agree.” He closed the door to his room.

Pig-Girl went outside. At the base of the windmill, Joey sat in a lean-to and listened to a baseball game on the radio.

Joey sprang up on his reptilian legs and waved to Pig-Girl. “I have something for you.” He extended his hand.

Pig-Girl took the tiny brown-and-white cylinder from him and sniffed it cautiously.

“It’s a Tootsie Roll.”

Pig-Girl put it in her mouth and chewed. “Good.”

Gary said, “You should take the wrapper off first.”

Joey asked, “Will you stay?”

“Stay.”

“I’m glad. We need more kids around here.”

“But if you’re like the other live ones, you won’t be a kid for long,” said Gary. “I swear he aged five years since spring.”

“Why they make us?” asked Pig-Girl.

“What the companies wanted us to be doesn’t matter,” said Joey. “We have our own lives here. We can be free and happy.”

Gary pointed down the hill. “There’s the outhouse. Can you find your way back?”

Pig-Girl nodded.

“I’m on guard duty tonight, so don’t be surprised if you see me fly past the window.” Gary went into the barn and came out with a .22 rifle slung over his shoulder. His wings vibrated quickly enough to lift him a few feet off of the ground.

Pig-Girl went into the outhouse, set her Barbie on the wood and took its head off. A metal cylinder rolled out. She spat the Tootsie Roll wrapper into the hole, took the top off of the cylinder, put it in her ear, and spoke in a nasal South Boston accent into the exposed end.

“I made contact with the live one. Repeat, I made contact. Sending coordinates.” She pressed a button on the other side.

Through the piece in her ear a tinny voice said, “It took you long enough.”

“I hit all the places I thought he’d go. No luck. I figured he’d be lonely. I quit hiding.”

“So you stopped tracking to get tracked down. Not exactly subtle.”

“It worked.” Pig-Girl ran a finger along her snout. “I wanted to get this job over with. Putting my mind into this ugly thing is your cruelest jokes yet.”

“You should’ve been more careful with your original body.”

“Very funny. You know how Sergeant Hammer ruined it. But at least it didn’t have a pig snout.”

“The porcine-augmented body has hyper-reflexes, a superior sense of smell, acute hearing, and low-light vision. It is designed for tracking missions.”

“And you put me in a female one because you’re an asshole.”

“It’s somehow worse when bad things happen to girls.”

“You better make me like I was again.”

“The clone of your old body is almost ready for a mind transplant. You still have to go through months of physical therapy before it’ll feel like yours again, not to mention the casual illness you’ll get as it adjusts to common viruses and …”

“Yeah, I went through all that as Pig-Girl.”

“Are you ready to eliminate the immature velociraptor-augmented live one?”

“Wait on that. He’s on a farm with a lot of other freaks.”

“How much information did he share?”

“They know about Alerion and Griffin Industries.”

“Then they all must die.”

“That seems extreme.”

“When did you get a conscious?”

“I’m just saying, there’s twenty of them. It’ll be a lot of cleanup.”

“We can’t take any risks. The future of our great nation is at stake.”

“You keep saying that. I don’t know what you mean.”

“You don’t have to. Follow my orders if you want a new body like your old one. How did they find out so much?”

“There’s another live-one. A dog-face who’s been here for about two years. Ring any bells?”

“There was canine-augmented we presumed incinerated in Newark.”

“Who screwed up?”

“Let me retrieve the file. Oh, it was Puca. I paid her for a job not done.”

“She’s a slob. No finesse.”

“But she throws bombs with passion.”

“Whatever, we found the raptor-legged boy and the dog-face she missed. And there’s an old supervillain running things. Quad-Clops.”

“No one’s seen him in years. Are you sure?”

“Gee, maybe it’s some other four-eyed freak who says he used to be a supervillain.”

“Don’t be sarcastic. Quad-Clops is not exactly America’s most wanted, but he’ll make a good addition to my army, whether he wants to or not.”

“Give me a couple of days to explore the site and see if anyone else could be useful. I’ll note the places of attack and how to cut off any routes for escape. We should be able to wipe them out in minutes.”

“What about witnesses and clean-up?”

“This place is so far from civilization only buzzards will find the bodies. But I’ll need the top team’s help, particularly Sirin for air support, Flayer for close work, and Slick Shadow to catch the runaways. And send Malone. He’s a crackshot.”

“I’ll send Puca as well to make up for her mistake. Are the live ones and their protectors armed?”

“They have at least one gun.” Pig-Girl pulled a long thin knife from her Barbie. “I got a blade, that’s it.”

“But you killed dozens of people with blades.”

“In my old body, I …”

Pig-Girl’s ears twitched when she heard footsteps. She reassembled the cylinder and stuck it, along with the knife, back into the Barbie.

A woman’s voice outside the outhouse said, “Is someone in there?”

Pig-Girl got out quickly. In the candlelight she saw a husky woman. When she stepped closer, Pig-Girl saw her dark-red leathery skin and oversized head supported by a neck brace with a cage of supports attached to her forehead.

“Hello,” she said with a pleasant smile. “You must be Pig-Girl. I’m Marcia.”

Pig-Girl kept her distance from Marcia.

“Are you hurt? I’m a nurse.”

“No hurt.”

“What about Barbie? I can give her a check-up.”

“No touch,” said Pig-Girl with a hint of a South Boston accent.

Metahuman Affairs Bureau Special Agent Alex O’Farrell sat in the back of a helicopter flying over the choppy Atlantic Ocean and talked into his smartphone.

“I have to tell you, honey, this new commute beats taking the train.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” said Emily. “Are you ready to go back to work?”

“I had a month to recuperate. I had fun with Calvin, but Stormhead wants to get the ball rolling again. Someone’s got to make sure America’s premiere superhero team follows the law.”

“Remind Stormhead that if you wake up in a hospital again, so will he.”

Alex laughed. “He’s more afraid of you than of any supervillain. But don’t worry. The exoskeleton is gone. I’m a suit-and-tie guy now, like every other Metahuman Affairs Bureau agent. No more charging into battle for me.”

“You’ll still work with those kids, right?”

“I hated training the Prospects at first, but it felt great seeing Deon and Jenny overcome their weaknesses. Kayleigh and Steve have potential, and they said good things about Pete, so …”

“And talk to Trista about the phone calls.”

“I will.”

Alex looked out the window and saw an island on the horizon. As the helicopter drew closer Alex saw the forested hills beneath bare mountains, the expanse of flat grass with an airfield cutting through the middle, and a few white buildings near the golden beach.

“I see Griffin Island,” said Alex.

“I can’t believe they kept a whole island hidden from you.”

“Well, it’s not really an island, it’s a hollow man-made floating structure with soil and rocks on top. The Japanese built it during World War Two as a camouflaged base. Sergeant Hammer and his Spike Soldiers killed everyone on board but couldn’t sink it. The thing floated around abandoned until Doctor Hellgrun used it to clone an army of squid-men.”

“Why did he do that?”

“Who knows? He was insane. New York’s other big superhero team, the Scientific Six, took care of him. Jim Griffin used his business connections to acquire it as maritime salvage. That island will be the New York Guardians’ headquarters while Griffin Tower is repaired and inspected by the MAB.”

Alex heard Calvin cry. Emily said, “I have to go. Diaper emergency.”

“Love you.” He hung up.

The man in a denim jacket and cowboy hat sitting next to Alex said in a thick Texan drawl, “Good to see you two got back together.”

“I feel the same about you and your arm, Bart.”

“Yeah, got it reattached real fast.” Bart wiggled his fingers. “I called in a favor from by buddy Chak. You know him?”

“Short Canadian, scrappy as hell, says he’s a loner but is always with someone?”

“That’s him. He gave me a few pints of his healing-factor-powered blood in exchange for a nomination to be a New York Guardian. Harry infused it into my veins, and the skin came together so well I don’t even have a scar.”

“Even if Chak is a good bloodbank, I won’t second the nomination for him to join the team. The guy is annoying. He chases anything in a skirt and talks like a Charles Bukowski character.”

“Ah, come on. I didn’t say a word when that chubby Asian girl became a New York Guardian.”

“What, you don’t like Gale Force?”

“I had to do a lot more than she did to get here.”

“You were in the hospital when she helped me retake Griffin Tower.”

“If she’s a team player, I’ll shut up.” Bart looked out the window as the helicopter descended. “I could look at that all day.”

“You’ve seen one beach, you’ve seen them all.”

“No, on the beach.”

A statuesque redheaded woman wearing a sports bra and tight shorts struck a yoga pose on the sand.

“Good,” said Alex. “I know who to talk to first.”

“You know her?”

Alex climbed out of the plane and headed for the beach. Bart followed closely.

“Kayleigh, good to see you again.”

She smiled. “Agent O’Farrell. Nice suit.”

Alex straightened his tie. “How’s life on the island?”

Bart nudged Alex. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Bart, Kayleigh.”

“I’m better known as Arbalest, the word’s best crossbowman,” said Bart.

“I’m Knockout Rose.”

“From the Young Sentinels? Love your costume. Tightest I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m not a Young Sentinel anymore, and I made a new costume. Anyway, it’s great here.”

Alex asked, “What’s it like living with Trista?”

“She’s a great roommate.”

“Glad to hear it.” Alex unlocked his tablet. “I got the results from last week’s tests.”

Kayleigh’s face fell. “They weren’t good, were they?”

“Why do you say that?”

“I only made past a few levels on each test before wiping out.”

“A normal person wipes out at the first level on those tests. You scored above average in all areas.”

“Really? Even fighting?”

“That was your best score.”

“That lady mopped the floor with me. Literally.”

“You lasted longer against an Olympic-level judo practitioner than most people. But you didn’t get ultra-athlete or genius levels in any area.”

“So I’m only above-average at everything. Does that mean I’m cut from the team?”

“If I said yes, would you leave peacefully?”

“You know I wouldn’t.”

Alex closed the tablet. “The tests don’t measure why you’re a Prospect.”

Bart said, “Wait, she’s a Prospect?”

Alex ignored him. “Last month, you knocked out two Shade Blades, Big Bad Roy, and Asura.”

“I helped with Big Bad Roy,” said Kayleigh, “and Asura was a wimp.”

“And you stayed by Jenny’s side when the Micro-Sapiens came down from the roof. Deon and all of the MAB agents ran away.”

“You know, I’m a test-confirmed ultra-athlete,” said Bart. “You want to work out together?”

“Agent O’Farrell is my trainer,” said Kayleigh.

“He couldn’t pass the ultra-athlete test,” said Bart.

“But he’s not creepy.”

Bart recoiled.

“That’s what I’m talking about, Kayleigh,” said Alex. “If you don’t give up, I won’t give up on you.”

When they were far from Kayleigh, Arbalest said, “I didn’t think you were a sucker for a big rack.”

“That’s all I saw the first time I met her. Then I saw how brave she was in the face of danger and how loyal she was to her team.”

“So what’s she going to do? Pose until the villains drool to death?”

“We’re not remaking old ideas. The point of the Prospects is to develop new types of heroes.”

“Bullshit. She’s the kind of person we rescue.”

“Let’s give her time.”

Alex parted ways with Bart and went into a square white building on the edge of the beach. Inside, Steve punched a heavy bag while the stone-skinned Pete bench-pressed a fully loaded free-weight rack.

“Agent O’Farrell.” Steve rubbed the sweaty buzz cut that replaced the teased hair he had a month before. “Check out what Sunray from the Miami Magics taught me.” Steve clasped his hands together and pointed both index fingers. A beam of light shot from his hands. Smoke rose from the spot where they hit. “If I think real angry thoughts, I can focus my photokinetic energy to make a laser.”

Alex flipped through the tablet. “According to the tests, not a strong one.”

“Well, I can light a villain’s cigarette, maybe give him lung cancer.”

“Keep working on it. Pete, welcome to the Prospects.”

Pete extended a giant stone-covered hand. “Thank you for accepting me.”

“Kayleigh and Steve recommended you. They didn’t do the same for Stardancer.”

“If you knew her you wouldn’t recommend her either. We like Cantrip, or Ira, but we agreed we can’t count on him to do anything right.”

Alex flipped through the tablet. “The test results show you’re strong enough to lift a car, but the sparring didn’t go well. The tester said you can’t land a punch on a moving target.”

“I’m not a tough guy.  I was a scrawny bookworm before my skin turned into organic stone.”

“The tests also showed you’re smart enough to get into Mensa, yet you didn’t get past the first level of fast-paced decision-making.”

“I know. I freeze up under stress.”

“And we end up in stressful situations all the time.” Alex closed the tablet. “We’ll find something you can do well. Do you guys know where Trista is?”

“Her cabin is two buildings down,” said Steve.

The wind picked up sharply when Alex left the gym. Against the sky he saw a heavyset woman in a bulbous helmet, flowing skirt, cape, and scarves fly in from the ocean and circle along the coastline. The air currents turned white as the circles got tighter.

Alex put on sunglasses and walked towards her.

The air got cold. She wobbled as she descended.

Alex grabbed her foot. “I got you, Gale Force. Come on down.”

Gale Force fell into Alex’s arms. She stood, took off the helmet and shook her long black hair with blue highlights. “Landing is the hardest part of flying. Thanks, Agent O’Farrell.”

“Call me Alex. I’m not your trainer anymore, I’m your teammate. How’s island life?”

“Great. I started on that book list you made for me. I’m halfway through the Art of War.”

“Excited about your first official New York Guardians meeting?”

“I hope I don’t do something stupid.”

“Keep a stiff upper-lip during the hazing.”

Gale Force gulped. “Hazing?”

“Nothing we do will be more embarrassing than that helmet.”

Gale Force wiped the helmet’s visor. “It keeps bugs out of my teeth.”

“Have you heard from Candilyn?”

“Not since she got on the train back to Poughkeepsie.”

“I called, mailed, e-mailed, nothing.”

“I didn’t even know she had an e-mail account.”

“It was an AOL address. She’s not exactly tech-savvy.”

“I don’t think she’s literate.”

“Regardless, I can’t blame her if she threw the costume away. She almost died.”

“Don’t feel too bad. Let’s face it, she’s mean and stupid.”

“I thought you were friends.”

“I stayed on her good side when we were stuck together in the basement of Griffin Tower. But I don’t have to deal with her anymore.”

“That explains why she wasn’t at your twenty-first birthday party.”

The wind picked up again.

“That’s not me,” said Gale Force.

Alex squinted against the glare off of the shiny metallic curved shape as it gracefully decelerated and only made a tiny cloud of dust when it landed.

When the thing stood, it looked less like a robot and more like a perfectly proportioned woman sculpted from polished gold. Its head was framed by a shiny sphere suggesting a bob haircut and its circular eyes glowed like burning sapphires.

Doctor Harry Von Dyme ran down the landing strip with his white lab coat flowing behind his Hawaiian shirt.

“What’s going on?” asked Alex.

“That’s Doctor Von Dyme’s new creation,” said Gale Force. “Remember when the Micro-Sapiens invaded Griffin Tower?”

“I can’t forget. I thought those things would tear me apart.”

“Doctor Von Dyme …”

“You can call him Harry, he’s your teammate too. Unless he’s in costume. Then he’s Professor Photon until he picks a new name.”

“Harry took control of them. He made them break themselves down to create one large robot. After that, he used Mecha-Menta to imprint the robot with his late wife’s brain patterns.”

“That thing has Mindy’s personality?”

The golden robot waved to Alex and said in a surprisingly soothing metallic voice, “Hello Agent O’Farrell. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Alex waved awkwardly. “Hi, uh …”

“You may call me Magna. We will discuss my candidacy as a member of New York Guardians this afternoon. I look forward to working with you.”

Magna walked away as Harry came towards them. “I know what you’re thinking, and I can guarantee this robot will remain under my control.”

“Creating a robot that doesn’t destroy everything in its path is an improvement for you,” said Alex. “I won’t vote to make that thing a member, though.”

“That ‘thing’ is super-strong, indestructible, self-repairing, emits vibration blasts, can fly at the speed of sound, and has x-ray, microscopic, and telescopic vision.”

“It’s also a machine, which means it could malfunction.”

“And humans are perfect?”

“Some less than others.”

Harry looked sidelong at Alex. “Is that a reference to my nervous breakdown?”

“I don’t want to bring that up. You’ve been more-or-less sane for the past year.”