The Legion of Nothing

Victor's mouth opened without saying anything. He closed it, sighed, but asked, "Do you think it's possible?"

I looked over at Cassie, who'd frowned but then started talking, "It depends. We'd need to make sure our birthing chamber has the right templates available. I'd say yes if we had the one you'd used. We all know what happened to that one, though."

Over the implant channel, Sean asked, "What happened?"

"It's not in working order," I said.

"You destroyed it?"

"Pretty much, but it's okay. We have a spare."

Sean's eyes widened, but he didn't ask more questions.

Victor looked around again, and I noticed a drop of sweat on his cheek. "I have to bring you soon. I'm taking too long. They're going to notice. They're going to ask me questions and I'll have to answer. Can you remove their commands from my head? If I have to live like this forever, I'll want you to kill me."

"I know. Future you told us to kill you before you started trying to kill us, but," I said, "releasing you from their control is something we can probably manage. I know someone with the same skills as a Dominator. She knows how to remove their work better than anyone on Earth."

"Here's what you do," Jaclyn said. "Bring us and disappear before they can tell you to do anything. Turn off your phone or whatever they use to call you and go. If it helps, think of another command they gave you and do that. You're not disobeying, you're fulfilling their request. Keep it up until this is all over, and then find us."

"Yes," Victor said.

Purple walls rose in a circle around us, followed by a flash. When the purple flash cleared, I had a feeling we weren't where we were supposed to appear. My first hint? Victor wasn't with us. I'd known that he could teleport people without going with them, but it hadn't occurred to me that he'd use it with us.

On the other hand, if you wanted to avoid being commanded to send yourself back in time to die, it wasn't a bad idea.

It gave me hope that we (mostly Vaughn and Jaclyn) had flipped him—well, until he got in earshot of a Dominator.

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Another clue that we'd flipped him was bigger, much bigger, and if I had more skill at telling stories, I probably would have put it first because that's what we noticed first.

Let's imagine a big room, specifically a long, underground room. Half of its gray concrete, and the walls are covered with equipment—tools, spare parts, hoses, cables, sheets of metal, and machines. The other half doesn't have a visible floor. The concrete floor turns into a ramp and extends into water. In the water are docks and four "submarines."

The quote marks come from the telltale outlines on the metal hulls that hinted they might be able to transform into other things—maybe even join up to become a giant robot, but more likely aircraft or hydroplanes.

One of the most relevant features of room from our point of view was one corner of the concrete portion where all the equipment had been removed, leaving only bare walls.

In a quarter circle facing the corner stood more guards in green tinged powered armor and people in colorful costumes, some of whom we recognized.

I had a feeling that Victor should have dropped us in the corner, putting us in front of an opening barrage that might have taken down one or more of us.

Instead, he'd placed us on the other side of the room—the dry other side, not the far end of the cave, the part with all the equipment, but not just equipment. Maybe twenty feet above us, something glowed. A quick look at it explained everything—windows.

Figures looked down from the room, whatever it was. Maybe the equivalent of a submarine base's control tower. I wasn't sure this place got enough traffic to need a "control" anything, but maybe it was an observation deck?

Anyway, Jody stood there, still in his silver Justice Fist suit. I didn't recognize any of the figures next to him, if only because Jody turned and they all dipped out of sight.

All the same, I felt a touch of what I'd felt when I'd first met Kee. If Magnus wasn't one of the figures above us, someone else had inherited a lot of Artificer potential.

I broadcast it via implant even as the group on the other end of the submarine base noticed the flash of purple and our appearance. Art and Zola noticed first, both of them fully monstered out—fangs, claws, toughened skin, and tight muscles. They leapt to the walls and began running toward us on all fours, claws gripping the concrete.

Sean shot upward as I said, "Jody and Magnus are there," bringing Dayton along with him.

Meanwhile, I'd recognized even more of the supers on the other side of the room. First off, everybody we'd fought in the Justice Fist tower—Amnesia Angel, Artemis, Power Burst, and Scream Eagle. Secondly, a few more supers, I didn't recognize, but I felt confident I'd noticed at least one of Cassie's father's clones. Thirdly, as I already mentioned, the True in powered armor, all of them turning in one coordinated motion that showed they'd adjusted and were about to continue where they'd left off.

It wasn't that easy for any of them. Vaughn summoned up a gust of wind that we all felt despite the distance, but it knocked most of our opposition over. Tools and spare parts flew off shelves, some hitting our opposition.

Torn between following Jody and Magnus and feeling like people needed me in this fight, I was relieved to hear Haley say, "Bloodmaiden, Rocket, go. We'll take them."

Rachel added, "I'll be here."

That was enough for me to decide I wasn't abandoning the group. I flew upward, seeing Amy following me.