GHOSTS OF THE PAST, OMENS OF THE FUTURE

Part II

By Desmond Reddick

Morale was grim. The six heroes comprising the modern Liberty Legion surrounded the ornate Atlantean ceremonial table in the conference room of Time’s Tower. Clearly there was no rest for the wicked or the virtuous as they were not even able to land the plane after the debacle on Gladius before being drawn into a battle with mutant terrorists.

A pink view screen of Kalahian design materialized in midair above the centre of the table. It appeared to be a two-dimensional image, but it was the same for every member around the table. Not even Bruce could explain it. He only knew how to use it.

A familiar face popped up on the view screen: a well-dressed young man with reddish brown hair and a sly smile.

“Guy Thierrault.” Bruce Dickson, de facto leader of the Liberty Legion, wore his Thin Man costume with the mask pulled off and hanging off the back of his neck. “A Canadian citizen and former member of the anti-Nationalist group ULTIMATUM. There are rumors that he operated as Flag-Smasher, their leader, for an undisclosed amount of time. As you can see, he’s traded his tights for Hugo Boss.”

“ULTIMATUM?” Dania, the Red Raven was making her way through the V-Battalion’s files on super-powered threats with Challenger’s access codes, but she hadn’t made it down to “U” yet.

“Underground Liberated Totally Intergrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind,” the Challenger said without uncrossing his arms. He was the only one of them not resting on the table in front of him.

“They are a terrorist group? Anarchists?” Valentina’s confusion was written all over her face. For one so powerful in her Iron Cross armor, there was a clear vulnerability to her out of armor.

“Quite the opposite, actually.” Elton Morrow, the Blue Diamond, stood as he spoke. “They’re quite staunchly anti-Nationalist and are pushing for a world government. I recall them being a front for the Red Skull for a period.”

“True,” Thin Man continued, “but they aren’t the first group to be used by someone furthering their own agenda regardless of whether they agree politically or not. The question is: why is an anti-Nationalist paramilitary group rounding up super-villains for the U.S. government?”

“I’ll ask around and see if any of the V-Battalion knows what’s going on.” Challenger spoke up. He was drumming the arms of his chair. It was clear that he wanted out of the meeting room and into some action.

“Great. I already have some irons in the fire as well. Just try to keep it hush hush. There are some government assets on Vanguard II that might be best steered clear from.” Thin Man touched the small “x” in the bottom corner of the levitating holographic view screen to close the image and signal the end of the meeting at the same time as the emergency siren sparked to life.

The view screen popped back into existence, expanded and dialled into what looked like the security camera feed of the lobby of an office building. The image was fuzzy and black and white but there was no mistaking the hulking metallic body crashing through the thick cement columns. The potted plants and empty furniture looked strangely quaint with the large humanoid stomping around the place. A few people ran towards the revolving door, giving the thing a wide berth. It turned to see them run and let loose a blast at the back of one of them, a man in a suit. With the humanoid’s back to the camera, one couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the blast came from its eyes. The man in the suit, hit dead centre by the force blast, was propelled through the air and crashed into the wall beside the front door of the building.

At the moment of impact, the camera shook for a second and was overcome by black smoke before the feed dropped out and static filled the image. “Roxxon Corporate Headquarters: 7 minutes ago” popped up on the view screen before it dematerialized.

“That’s only six blocks away!” Blue Diamond said, leaping to his feet.

“Good luck, friends.” Valentina stood with the rest of the team. “I have to stay and figure out how to get my armor working again.”

Bruce pulled the Thin Man mask down over his face before engaging the building’s Kalahian subspace technology with his mind and teleporting the other members of the team down to street level.

“Let’s go, Legion!”

Valentina only just crossed through the threshold of the workshop she shared with Challenger when a gust of wind announced the arrival of Mongoose.

“Hello, Grace.”

“Hi Val, need a hand?”

“Are you not field-ready yet?” Valentina had a feeling of coldness towards Grace. Something about her irked the gypsy. She didn’t like being mean, but she always had a sense of intuition about people that had yet to be proven wrong.

“No, it’s not that at all. Challenger doesn’t want me beating them there. Which is kind of hard for me, you understand.” Grace had a sweet smile, Valentina had to admit it. “I thought I could lay out your tools for you in a half second or so if you wanted.”

“Thanks. But I only need a few right now.”

“No problem. I should probably head. Let me know if you ever need any help with fixing stuff up, or even if you want to redesign your suit. I’m good at that stuff.”

“Why would I redesign the suit?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Kind of weird to wear a Nazi suit of armor these days isn’t it? Shoot! Gotta go!”

Mongoose disappeared, causing Valentina’s hair to whip in front of her face. Thoughts of the kindest man she ever knew ran through her mind as she processed Grace’s far from graceful words. She stifled back tears as she pulled her hair into a ponytail and got to work.

Black smoke billowed through the streets. It poured around the street corner, obscuring their vision before the Liberty Legion could even see the Roxxon Building. Siren’s from fire engines roared through the late afternoon as police were already setting up a barricade half a block in either direction.

Dania swooped low to the ground and hovered while flapping her wings vigorously. The resulting gusts of wind push the smoke aside as the rest of the team, fronted by Thin Man, walked through the clearing. Fire poured out of the front door of the office building and people waved from broken windows floors above.

The team advanced until–

BA-BOOM!

There was a vacuum of air sucking in the very atmosphere the city provided. The noise sounded more like God gasping than anything else. And, for a pregnant moment, time was suspended.

Then, like the toys of a petulant child, the Liberty Legion were thrown back from the blast.

Dania’s wings pressed against her body as she crashed into the bank across the street. The windows shattered at the same time as the blast, thankfully leaving nothing to impede her trajectory to the cold tile floor. She felt ribs crack as she abruptly came to rest against a wooden island where deposit and withdrawal slips are filled out. The slips, broken glass and burning debris from across the street, floating through the air like some terrible snow globe.

The Thin Man, who had been stretching his body through subspace in a long line towards the Roxxon Building, was thrown back like a ribbon in the wind landing in a pile on the side of the road.

Challenger rolled back with the blast and managed to avoid flying debris. He landed safely, face down on the pavement, but the explosion turned over a Camry, pinning his leg to the ground after it flipped over.

Blue Diamond, who had gone into diamond form in an instinctual moment of self-preservation, was unfazed. The debris bounced off of him as he stood resolute. The flames colored his body a bright orange.

Mongoose was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn.” Ralston spoke into his phone. He had people in his employ whose very job it was to keep him in the loop. Tons of them. “Thank you.”

He knew the inevitable was going to happen; he didn’t expect it to happen so soon. Since Seattle, the superhero community has had far fewer public battles. Superhuman activity in itself was becoming more insular, it seemed. And though he fought alongside Captain America and others in the Second World War as one of the Howling Commandoes, “Rebel” Ralston knew that times had changed. New heroes were popping up everywhere and wanton destruction was a by-product of that.

There had been both mutant and blanket superhuman registration acts before, and he wasn’t sure that that was the right direction to take at this point. But there needed to be some consequences. Being held accountable was as good as any idea he’d heard.

Ralston dialled the command number that patched him in to the Vanguard II communication grid.

“Field team!” He barked into the phone. “Pentagon order 6.12 has been activated. Orders being patched through. Watch your backs out there.”

He slowly pressed the button to hang up his phone.

Sometimes, he thought, you just have to let the pieces fall where they may.

It took a minute, but Thin Man reconstituted his body and stood. The streets were in a state of bedlam. Sirens screamed but the heat from the Roxxon Building was keeping the firefighters away. It looked like the bottom three floors were completely blown out. This was big. They needed to mount a rescue. First, he needed a moment to place his team.

Dania stood directly beside him, clutching the left side of her body and Mongoose was already at work funnelling smoke up into the air. Well, at least he assumed that the yellow and black blur circling the area out front of the building was Mongoose.

“A hand over here!”

The voice was barely audible over the howling of the fire and wailing of the sirens. Thin Man saw that Challenger was pinned under a car to his left. He and Red Raven took off in a limping sprint and each had grabbed a part of the car’s roof before another word was spoken.

Thin Man and Red Raven strained and grunted from the weight as none of them were powerhouses, but the lift wasn’t too hard. Thin Man thought about using subspace to transport Challenger out of there but worried that all that weight might cause him to leave his friend’s leg behind.

Challenger rolled out from under the Camry and his two saviors were able to drop it immediately.

“You okay, Dania?” Thin Man was half concern and half strategy.

“As your people say: I will live.” She was as close to sunshine in her words as she could be, but her face and posture betrayed someone who was going through immense pain. She was white as a sheet, even more so set against the deep red of her costume, and sweating bullets.

“Can you fly?”

“I will do all I can to assist.”

“Great! Challenger, where’s Elton?”

“I saw him walk in the front door in diamond form.” Challenger stood on unsure feet, favoring his undamaged leg.

“Alright, then.” Thin Man took a breath and looked over at Mongoose. “Let her do her thing, with Iron Cross out of the picture, Blue Diamond’s the only heavy hitter we’ve got. And judging by the damage done already, we wouldn’t last too long against whoever this is. Dania and I will go to the upper levels and search for survivors. Challenger, you aid emergency crews with the survivors and keep an eye out. If Elton fails in there, you’ll need to divert the threat away from bystanders.”

Blue Diamond was thankful for his new diamond form capabilities even if the way he got them was bittersweet. He hadn’t felt the full force of the heat before turning – and he couldn’t feel anything in diamond form – but he was sure that it would be too much for him even in his enhanced human form.

There wasn’t a thing in the lobby that wasn’t on fire, with one exception. The man, the thing that stepped out of the flames was only slightly taller than Blue Diamond, but it was three times as wide. Its hulking metal form reflected the flames more than Elton. A grotesque human-like face peered out of the middle of a huge humpbacked upper body.

“You are an interesting looking human, aren’t you?” the voice sounded grizzled and computerized at the same time, like Jeff Bridges doing an impression of Stephen Hawking. “When I am finished with you, I will break pieces off of you and use them to focus lasers. It will be as close to immortality you will ever be able to achieve!”

“Buster,” Blue Diamond said, “you clearly don’t know who I am. Otherwise, you would know that when you are done with me, you’ll wish you stayed home this morning.”

“Buffoon! Accept your rightful place underneath my boot heel! I am Quasimodo! I am your doom!”

The hand came faster than Elton could react, wrapping its large fingers around his chest. In the blink of an eye, Blue Diamond was hoisted in the air and smashed through the tiles and into the concrete below.

KKKRRRNCH!

Blue Diamond couldn’t feel the pain, but he felt the impact. Before long, the battle would be taken to the underground parking lot if this kept up. He made a knife edge with his hand and punched it into the joint where Quasimodo’s arm met his shoulder. The diamond fingertips punctured Quasimodo’s steel skin; Elton pushed harder.

The circuitry inside the shoulder was dense but mutable. Blue Diamond closed his fist around a collection of wires and what appeared to be a ball joint, and ripped them out. The wires strained as he pulled them tight for a second and, with a heartier yank, he tore them free from the tear in the steel.

“Human filth!” Quasimodo screamed. “My Destruct-Eye has tamed better than you!”

And with that, Elton was in the middle of wondering what a ‘Destruct-Eye’ was when a beam flashed from Quasimodo’s over-sized ghoulish eye and exploded on impact into Blue Diamond’s chest.

The concussion sent shockwaves through the room, throwing debris through the air and Blue Diamond back into the cement wall. The force buried his diamond form into an Elton-shaped impression in the wall. His head swimming, Blue Diamond was barely able to note how much he felt the blast before Quasimodo shortened the distance between them and punched him square in the face with his good arm.

Blue Diamond heard the cement crunching around his head. When he opened his eyes again, Quasimodo was right in front of him. The robot, or whatever he was, clutched his own deadened arm again. Between Quasimodo’s massive fingers, Blue Diamond could see the wires knitting themselves back together inside the deep wound in the punctured steel. Quasimodo removed his hand to give Elton a better look at the steel skin now beginning to mend.

“I can put my arm back on. You can’t. So play safe!” Quasimodo laughed. His voice changed to mimic a more effeminate robotic sound. His time spent with his consciousness ported into a Stark satellite allowed him to intercept all information coming in and out of the communication device. He saw a lot of TV. That particular Public Service Announcement was something he always got a laugh out of.

Elton, though, was too old to have watched Saturday morning cartoons. Even if he wasn’t in a complete daze, he wouldn’t have known what Quasimodo was talking about. He opened his heavy diamond eyelids to see Quasimodo fire another powerful blast at his chest.

Thin Man brought his body back to a normal state – after the latest two survivors used him as a slide to escape the ninth floor – to rest for a moment. He had transported the first several batches of Roxxon employees through subspace, but he found that after a few teleports, he was far too weakened to continue. It was a struggle just to stretch at that point.

Dania was still up on the higher levels of the building. When she brought another group of survivors to the roof for a helicopter rescue he would wave her down and ask her to do a quick count. When they started, there were scores of people waving from broken office windows and now there didn’t appear to be anyone in trouble.

Thin Man was about to call out to Challenger for a Situation Report when another, shorter explosion filled his eardrums. Out of the side of the building, through a new hole in the wall, Elton tumbled to the street, little more than a diamond encrusted crash test dummy.

Thankfully, he didn’t revert to human form, until his body came sliding to a rest on the paved, debris-strewn street. The sound his diamond body made squealing against the asphalt reverberated in the back of Thin Man’s head.

Cement from the wall of the building burst out in small chunks as a great metallic foot came crashing through. Out stepped Quasimodo into the chaotic street. His heavy feet cracked the pavement below, sending small fissures spider-webbing out in every direction.

“Shit.” Thin Man said it matter-of-factly at first. “Shitshitshit!”

“Get these people out of here!” Challenger screamed to the police behind the barricade. The boys in blue went to work herding the survivors and observers away and around the corner.

Quasimodo turned to look at Thin Man, and Challenger behind him, and spoke, “There are far too many of your type in this city. Let’s thin the herd, shall we?”

He laughed heartily as he let loose another blast from his eye that hit the pavement in front of Thin Man. Perhaps the thing knew that he could survive a direct blast, because the wave of rubble that had once been the street washed up and covered him, pinning him underneath hundreds of pounds of debris.

Seeing this, from the 27th floor, Red Raven hurtled towards Quasimodo with her spear pointed forward. She was silent as the wind whistling around her synthetic wings would allow, but Quasimodo was still able to take her out of the sky with a heavy punch. He showed amazing speed for his size. But Dania couldn’t take the time to think about that. She tried to lift herself off of the ground with shaking arms but passed out from the pain before she could make any progress.

Challenger, bad leg and all, stood poised, prepared to take on the steel maniac. He was outgunned and the last of his team around. Mongoose was nowhere to be seen; he had to take him on alone.

A loud hissing permeated the air and the smoke from the still raging fires was pushed outward. After the smoke waved over Thin Man and Challenger, they were able to see a large hovercar. They both recognized it as V-Battalion armoured flying transport, Challenger more than Thin Man, seeing as he helped design it.

A rectangular hole in the bottom of the craft opened with one sliding door and several costumed heroes dropped out. The first, a red and blue clad young version of Bruce’s former teammate Patriot, landed on Quasimodo’s shoulders. He began to pound on Quasimodo’s head and neck, stopping only to hold on while Quasimodo tried to shake him off. Bruce, still watching from underneath the pile of rubble, couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Patriot was growing with each blow he delivered, the veins on his neck throbbed and bulged in reverie.

A shadow fell from the ship, faster than even Red Raven flew, and solidified into a super-dense human right before connecting with Quasimodo’s chest. He bounced off, skittering to the ground over thirty feet away. Quasimodo was unaffected. The Phantom Bullet, as his teammates called him, got to his feet and helped the police and emergency workers corral bystanders that were only feet away from him.

The next man on the ground was an old friend of many Legionnaires, The Fin. He looked less silly than he did in the old days, but he was no older thanks to the magical cutlass he wielded. And that was exactly what they needed, especially if the sword still cut through anything like the back of the box said.

The young Topspin and Goldfire set to helping the Liberty Legion immediately. The two of them together were able to clear the rubble off of Thin Man. Goldfire heated the asphalt to a liquid state and Topspin blew it away before it could burn the hero beneath.

“GO DOWN ASSHOLE!” Patriot screamed as he pummelled Quasimodo’s head. To try and protect himself, Quasimodo reached up with both hands to grab the raging superhero, leaving his steel belly exposed in the process.

Fin held his cutlass, crackling with power, to his right and swung quickly across the stomach of the robotic villain. At first, it appeared as if nothing had happened, then a rupture slowly opened, spilling circuitry out of the gaping hole. The metal screamed as it rent itself open.

A hand materialized out of the stomach, accompanied with a crackling sound that would have alerted Thin Man had he not been worrying about being melted along with the asphalt on top of him. The hand snapped with its thumb and middle finger and the crackling intensified, followed by a robotic scream. Patriot was barely able to hop off before Quasimodo crashed loudly to the ground. He would, however, have been fine if he hadn’t still been trying to smash the robot’s head.

Quasimodo, having fallen backwards, allowed the heroes to view the hero whose hand brought down the robot. A gorgeous blonde in a red jumpsuit complete with domino mask stood posing, one hand on her hip and the other in the air.

“Ta-da!” the new Blonde Phantom exclaimed. “What would you boys do without me?”

“Never mind that shit! Let’s get this piece of shit loaded into the transport and get out of here! Before I have to lose it on one of these assholes!” Patriot said, pointing a rigid finger protruding from a clenched fist menacingly at the conscious members of the Liberty Legion.

“Now hold on a god-damned minute!” The Thin Man was on his feet again, walking closer to the V-Battalion. “What the hell is this, Peter?!”

Peter Noble, the Fin, looked at Patriot.

“Cool down. The mission is complete.” He said to Patriot before he turned his attention to Thin Man. “Bruce, long time.”

“Yeah. Last I heard, you were back home. Who are your new playmates?”

Patriot growled.

“This,” The Fin continued, “is the new V-Battalion. There’s no need to be upset.”

“A bunch of kids dressed like my dead friends. Yeah, no need to be upset.” The Thin Man grit his teeth back at Patriot.

“I’m not the only one helping out legacy kids, Bruce.”

“Shit guys, well done!” Phantom Bullet, a young man in camo pants and a white shirt with a black bullet on it, stepped back into the fray.

“You watch your damned mouth kid! The man who wore that costume died wearing that costume. He was my friend, and he wouldn’t appreciate your trashy language. Have some respect!” Thin Man was reaching critical mass with his temper, and the Challenger could see that.

“Let’s dial it back for a second, fellas. Thanks for the assist, Fin. We needed it.” Challenger said stepping in between him and Thin Man.

“Clearly.” Patriot muttered.

Ignoring him, Challenger continued: “What can we do to help you guys here?”

“Stand down.” Fin was clearly not proud of what he was doing.

“What?!” Thin Man couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Stand down, Bruce. Collect your injured and go home. You’ve done enough damage here.” It was all Fin could do to get the words out.

Patriot grinned at the sentiment, but he said nothing to stir the pot.

“We’ll leave, Fin. It’s okay. I’ll come and clear things up later.” Challenger was feeling the anger too. Not as much as Thin Man clearly was, but being members of both teams put him in an awkward place. He knew that it might come to a head. Never had he thought it would happen so soon.

“Are you going to tell him, or should I?” Patriot had clearly calmed down. The veins on his neck sunk back down and his chest stopped heaving.

“Bill, don’t bother coming to the Vanguard.” Fin spoke solemnly but with purpose.

“What?”

“As long as you are affiliated with the Liberty Legion, you are officially relieved of duty and clearance with the V-Battalion. It’s been a pleasure serving with you.” Fin began addressing his teammates, directing them where to begin their relief efforts. Patriot was the only member of the V-Battalion smiling.

Challenger and Thin Man turned to see Mongoose trying to wake Blue Diamond. Red Raven still lay unconscious in the street. In the midst of the smoke, the mood, combined with the surrounding destruction, felt entirely apocalyptic.

“Well,” the Challenger began, “it could have been worse.”

NEXT: It gets worse.