Lilith's Shadow Omnibus: Volume 2, page 67
“About that,” Morgan said, smiling tautly as the jet banked hard, pressing them downward in the process. “It took a lot of work to get through the wards, but unless there’s something nasty at work, it shouldn’t be a decoy, and—”
“Not a decoy!” Decarin yelped as the jet suddenly began to move more rapidly. “We’ve got missiles and cannons!”
“Ah, hell,” Warden said, swallowing hard, and she put up a shield around the jet. She hoped Lilith was in a safe place.
Final Countdown Redoubt, Kansas
With a flick, Lilith activated the jamming, then hit another button to lock it on, even as she quickly programmed in the new flight plan for the missile. She was trying to find the controls for the automated defenses as well, but they weren’t immediately accessible. Then she didn’t have time to worry about it, as Sabra snapped out a word, and a teal barrier of light sprang into existence just in time to block a blast of entropic energy.
“Lilith, we have no more time. We must leave,” Sabra said, her voice taut. “I cannot hold him for long.”
“You have no time at all!” Black Harbinger boomed angrily. “Now you die!”
Lilith glanced back to see the villain in the doorway, his cannon charging for a second shot, and Lilith swallowed hard, flipping a couple of last options, then hit the initiate button before jumping to the side, dragging Sabra with her, which prompted a quiet yelp.
The next bolt of energy blasted straight through the fading shield and slammed into the console, which erupted in sparks, at the same time lights began flashing and the holographic display went dead. An instant later there was a popping sound, then water began raining from the fire suppression system, along with a foul, rusty stench that made Lilith gag internally, and rust-colored spots appeared on her shirt where it hit.
“Time to go!” Lilith said, trying to ignore the smell as she raced for the door to the silo, which was opening in front of her, even as red warning lights flashed. “Let’s move!”
“I believe that is what I was saying,” Sabra agreed, throwing up another shield just in time to block the next shot from the villain. “Did you open the hatch? Will we have time to disable your… bomb?”
“Don’t need to disable it. What we need is to get out of here, quickly.” Lilith replied, hitting the flashing red button on the next door.
She waited impatiently for layers of hardened steel to slide out of the way, revealing a wide, incredibly deep pit with a missile in it. About twenty feet above her, a hatch was slowly rising, and she heard warning sirens wailing in the pit, as well as the sounds of weapons firing above. A wire mesh ramp led out to the missile, and Lilith stepped onto it, looking back at Sabra as another shot of black energy splashed off her shield. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a ladder she could see.
“What did you do?” Sabra demanded, backing out onto the ramp as well.
“Flying would be good!” Lilith replied, looking up and frantically judging whether she could climb the wall. Maybe, she decided after an instant. It’d be close, but she might be able to climb the walls in time. Getting out of the blast radius would be difficult, though. “Not unless you want to die.”
“I desire an explanation,” Sabra said, weaving another spell quickly, then Lilith found herself lifting off the walkway and floating upward at a remarkable speed. “You have not explained what you were doing.”
“You think you can flee? Fools!” Black Harbinger bellowed, racing out onto the ramp, and Lilith winced.
“Not as much as he is. Any second and—” Lilith muttered, then fell silent as the door slammed shut behind him, then the ramp dropped out from under his feet.
Black Harbinger fell nearly a hundred feet to the ground, and Lilith saw him briefly illuminated as the engines on the missile flared, and she wondered if it was going to launch early.
“What was that?” Sabra asked, her voice almost unnaturally calm.
“I set the missile to launch.” Lilith said, glancing down as they emerged from the clamshell door to see empty fields around them, save for the weeds surrounding the hatch and concrete. “It’s going to go into orbit in, oh… a minute? I really don’t want to be close when it goes up, those engines burn hot.”
“…That wasn’t part of the plan you explained!” Sabra exclaimed, darting to the side more quickly, dragging Lilith with her through the air. Lilith could also see the boxy shapes of turrets and missile launchers firing at something to the north all around the launch site, and she hoped that whoever it was wouldn’t get shot down.
“We didn’t have time to dispose of it properly! Besides, what was I supposed to do with fissionable material? It isn’t like it’s safe to touch!” Lilith protested.
“If you were speaking in Sumerian, I would understand more than I do now,” Sabra snapped, swooping in toward the ground. “Now, what are we going to do?”
Lilith was about to reply, but that was when she heard a rumble from the silo, and instead she covered her ears and hoped that it’d be enough. Sabra hesitated, then followed her example.
Black Harbinger swore loudly as he dragged himself to his feet, fuming but thankful he didn’t feel pain, even if his ears were ringing. The fall had been startling, and he looked up, noting that the two women were out of his sight, but he’d be able to deal with them soon. He looked for the door he knew was nearby, and stepped over to it… then realized it was brighter than he’d expected. His ears also hadn’t stopped ringing. Instead something was rumbling. A sense of foreboding washed over him, and he turned around.
Behind him was the missile, and as he watched, the nozzles flared to full power, and his eyes widened.
“Ah, fuck,” Black Harbinger muttered, right before the world erupted in fire.
The Internet
Everyone paused as data began rolling in, though a few of them didn’t notice quite as quickly. It was Argus who reacted first, even as Circe was processing data from her satellites.
“What the hell, who launched a nuke? That site was decommissioned!” Argus protested, immediately abandoning the field of battle as the AI scrambled to alert… well everyone that he needed to. “This shouldn’t be happening!”
Circe backed off, internally smiling to herself as she zoomed in on the footage of the area which she’d gotten from the last thirty seconds or so. It wasn’t high-resolution, but it didn’t need to be, not when it was enough to make out the woman wearing dark pants, a light shirt that might be button-down, and with dark hair who flew out of the silo along with a woman in gold. The latter looked a bit like the woman who’d helped abduct Lilith to begin with, and Circe smiled more, glancing north to where a jet was dodging and shooting down missiles, yet it’d also just disgorged a variety of heroes, one of which had wings.
“Well, this should be interesting.” Circe murmured, and powered up the weapon systems on the satellite which would be in range for the longest. She had her orders, and she’d take pleasure in ruining Omega Code’s day. Almost as a side note, she retreated from the battlefield as well. It was no longer necessary.
Kansas Airspace
“Did he just launch a missile? Please tell me Omega Code didn’t just launch a missile,” Spark asked plaintively.
“Sure looks like it, and we’re not in position to intercept before it’s out of range,” Decarin replied grimly. “Now, could someone deal with those turrets? I’m running out of flares, the point defense systems are starting to overheat, and the shields have seen better days.”
“Working on it!” Warden called out in response, growling under her breath. “There’s a lot of those things!”
“I’d rather noticed,” Decarin retorted, and Shade sighed over the comms.
Morgan was being quiet, Warden noticed, but that didn’t surprise her. Her friend was likely trying to home in on Lilith.
Final Countdown Redoubt, Kansas
“Damn it, not my nuke!” Omega Code protested, watching the missile’s trajectory in anguished disbelief. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to get my hands on the materials for that? The government tracks every gram of radioactive material in the country!”
No one responded to his complaints, and once again Omega Code fumed about his lack of an audience. Black Harbinger wasn’t responding to his messages, the nuke got rid of his primary method of destroying the base, and the attackers were potent enough that his minions wouldn’t be able to do much more than annoy them. They’d probably just surrender. That being the case, it was all up to Omega Code to win the day, and he couldn’t even trigger the seismic inducers.
“Fine. If the dramatic approach won’t work, we’ll go with the really dramatic approach.” Omega Code said at last, and pressed the button next to the teleportation trigger.
The cage around him slid inward to secure Omega Code, then it rushed south to the second silo, though this one didn’t contain a missile, and he grinned. “They shall rue the day they faced Omega Code in battle!”
Chapter 95
Wednesday, November 5th, 2031
Final Countdown Redoubt, Kansas
One moment Lilith was trying to regain her hearing and feel a bit less like a boiled lobster, and the next… well, the next she saw a winged figure ram through a hail of energy bolts and cut a turret in two, then lash out with a blast of flames that cooked off the missiles in another turret. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Archon, and her mouth opened, then she froze in place as a glittering shield of blue-streaked gold appeared in the distance, which then threw dozens of magical blades at the nearby turrets. Not all of them did much damage, but she’d recognize that magic anywhere.
Then came a burst of purple magic, followed by shadows, and Lilith’s heart felt like it was up in her throat, almost feeling dizzy as she swayed in place. Then Sabra yelped.
“Unhand me, you—ah!” Sabra gasped, and Lilith spun just in time to see Spark twist one of the mage’s arms behind her back, and her pistol was crackling with electricity as she pressed it against the woman.
“Oh, no you don’t! You helped kidnap Lilith.” Spark spat, but she didn’t fire, glancing at Lilith as she smiled in excitement and worry. “Lil, you okay? I’ve been worried sick, and we’ve been trying to find you ever since you went missing! I thought we might be too late, and both Morgan and Warden showed up, then an Atlantis guy, who couldn’t help find you, and—”
“Spark?” Lilith interrupted, holding up a finger, and the woman went silent so suddenly that Lilith worried she might damage her teeth. Once she was quiet, Lilith continued. “Please unhand Sabra, she helped me escape.”
“Oh, good! Sorry, but you helped kidnap her,” Spark said, letting go of Sabra and taking a step backward. Sabra rose, flinching as one of the explosions drew closer.
“I had little choice in the matter,” The Atlantean replied severely. “Your approach complicated our escape, as you raised the alarm when we had not done so.”
“Oh, um, sorry? I guess now we need to deal with Omega Code and that missile. I hope someone can intercept it before it hits anything important.” Spark said, glancing upward, then they all flinched as one of the nearby turrets exploded when Shade blocked a missile from being able to launch.
“Not a concern. I set it to go orbital,” Lilith replied quickly. “I was trying to get it out of Omega Code’s hands, and that was the fastest way I could think of.”
“You did? You’re brilliant!” Spark cheered, and Lilith smiled, opening her mouth… then the next moment Spark was kissing her, and Lilith’s thoughts devolved into a jumbled mess, which was only amplified by the jolt of electricity which coursed through her, stiffening her body for an instant before she shrugged it off. Spark backed off almost at the same time, blushing furiously as she spoke. “Sorry, sorry, forgot I don’t have the inhibitor. Let’s get you out of here so we can—”
A rumble to the south interrupted, along with what sounded to Lilith like music. They turned… and Lilith couldn’t help gawking.
An enormous figure as tall as the silo was deep stood south of them on top of a different silo, nearly a hundred and twenty feet tall, and it was in the shape of a human, though it lacked a head. Black armor with radiation symbols sheathed the figure, and there were numerous cannons bristling across its surface. It was the source of the music, which sounded to her pained ears like… death metal? She thought that was it, and Lilith winced.
“Heroes, is it? I call this Code Black, and it shall be your doom!” Omega Code boomed over the speakers, while the figure took a single step forward, the titanic foot sinking deep into the soil. “None shall be able to challenge me, and they shall fear once I—”
Archon slammed into the figure like a golden meteor, though the shields kept her sword from scarring the armor.
“Damn it, why does everyone interrupt perfectly good monologues?” Omega Code roared in frustration. “Fine, then die!”
The mech swatted Archon away, and Lilith’s eyes went wide as she saw numerous cannons glow. She looked away just in time, as the weapons opened fire all at once to form a single incredibly powerful beam of energy.
The blast cut across the sky like a blade, leaving an afterimage in Lilith’s vision, and she blinked it away, then paled as she saw Archon on the ground, her armor scorched and with sections burnt away, while many of her feathers were blackened. Even the heroine appeared to have been injured in the blast, though she dragged herself to her feet. Fear rippled through Lilith, and she reached for the others internally, desperately hoping that she’d be able to help.
Omega Code’s voice rang out mockingly. “Hah, you’ll never be able to face Code Black! I am invinci—”
CirceNet, Location Variable
Circe took careful aim at her target, judging which munition to use carefully. She was startled by the sheer energy output she’d just detected and revised the projections of Omega Code’s threat level upward based on what she’d learned, but his new creation had one critical flaw. It was at the bottom of the gravity well.
So she fired.
Final Countdown Redoubt, Kansas
A bar of light reached out from the heavens, and Code Black’s shields flashed opaque, then shattered entirely, drowning out Omega Code’s words as an explosive wave of air hit Lilith so hard she was knocked from her feet. There was a sound she couldn’t quite identify, not through the ringing in her ears, and she fell on something soft in some places, yet not in others.
It took her a moment to realize she was on top of Sabra. It took a moment more for her to realize that the woman was glaring at her, and her cheeks were bright red. Then Lilith hastily pulled herself to her feet.
“Sorry, I… oh my,” Lilith said, distracted by the sight of the staggered mech, which was missing one of its shoulders and arms, and there was a deep, smoldering crater just in front of it.
She froze, and as she did so, she saw Morgan and Warden, both in their old outfits, along with Shade as they approached the mech, and Lilith debated for a bare instant, then looked over at Spark, who was dragging herself to her feet. Unfortunately they were all spread out, but there wasn’t much she could do about that, instead she made a decision, and hoped that it would work the way she wanted it to.
“Spark, could I have your comm?” Lilith asked.
“Huh?” Spark replied, looking at Lilith in confusion, at which Lilith realized that she was still recovering from the insane explosion from before.
Omega Code’s mech erupted with energy bolts that lanced out at Archon, Morgan, Shade, and Warden. Shields sprang up around them, glittering with Warden’s magic, and Morgan started weaving a powerful spell, much like the one which had defeated Black Harbinger so long before. Archon still seemed to be recovering, and Shade was throwing dozens of shadow-creatures at the mech, though each seemed to pop like a soap bubble when struck.
“Can I have your comm!” Lilith exclaimed more loudly, and Spark blinked, then nodded.
“Sure! Why do you want it?” Spark asked, quickly reaching up to pull out her earbud, which she offered to Lilith.
Taking it, Lilith didn’t reply in so many words, instead speaking quickly once she had it in her ear. “Can everyone hear me?”
“Lil! Are you okay?” Warden asked quickly, a frantic note in her voice. “Kinda bad timing, though!”
“Indeed,” Shade agreed grimly. Lilith didn’t hear a response from Morgan, but considering the spell she was in the middle of, that wasn’t unusual.
“I can hear you, yes,” Archon confirmed, her breathing labored. “That was unpleasant.”
“No duh,” Decarin muttered.
Relief rushed through Lilith, but she cleared her thoughts as she inhaled, preparing to speak as calmly as she could, as she reminded herself that they’d come to help her, to save her. That meant she could trust them, and that was what she fixed in her mind. She had to trust people implicitly to use her power, she’d been told that… yet Ivanova had indicated that might be wrong. So she tried to set it aside.
“I’m going to try to use my power to boost all of you, so please, try to trust me,” Lilith told them simply, inhaling before she added. “Giving the comm back to Spark, so don’t get yourselves killed. Please.”
Before they could reply, Lilith pulled the comm away from her ear and offered it to Spark, smiling wryly as she said. “Here you go.”
“You know I trust you, right?” Spark said, grinning as she took the comm and put it back in her ear, then yelped, dodging to the side as a stray bolt of energy came too close. “Gah, when did he manage to build something like that?”
“Presumably at the same time as the nuke,” Lilith replied dryly, a hint of warmth welling up inside her, and she inhaled, closing her eyes… then she murmured. “Here you go, everyone.”
