Thrusts of Justice (Chooseomatic Books), page 25
After collapsing for a few hours in a crappy motel, you find yourself at Crexidyne corporate headquarters just after dawn. The plan is simple: you’re wearing your powered-down suit underneath a big overcoat, and as soon as you locate Moretti, you’ll switch the power on, grab him, leap out a window, and use the suit’s built-in hang glider to coast straight to Nancy’s hideout before any Cosmic Guardians even know to look for you. It’ll all be terribly exciting. Potentially deadly if anyone catches you in the act, but exciting nonetheless.
You’re surprised to find a woman working so early at the reception desk on Moretti’s floor. And according to her phone conversation, Moretti is in as well. “I’m sorry,” she says to whoever is on the other line, “Mr. Moretti has a 7:30 meeting with Standards and Practices. He’ll be unavailable until late this afternoon.” Well, that’s better than the the photocopy repairman ruse you had planned. You march in and introduce yourself as the new junior executive from Standards and Practices, whatever that is.
“Right,” the receptionist says with an exaggerated wink. “Standards and Practices.” She winks again, and giggles. “I can’t believe we get to go on a real spaceship! Whoops.” She makes a zippering-her-lips motion and winks awkwardly several more times. “Go right in! Mr. Moretti will see you right away!”
Okay, that was weird. You assume his office is the big one at the end of the hall, and find a thin, completely average-looking man in a tweed jacket poring over a tablet computer there.
He looks up at you. “My god, what the hell are you doing in here?”
Crap. “Um, Standards and Practices?”
“I can see you’re wearing a big, stupid costume under your coat,” he says, tapping at his screen and scrolling though a list he finds there. “Which one are you supposed to be? Are you with the D.C. contingent? Dammit, if you’re with group A, you should be on site already.”
This is it — you should switch on your equipment and grab him. His questions have caught you off guard, though. Clearly he thinks you’re someone else. Perhaps you should play along for a while and find out where this goes.
▶ If you jump him and put your original plan into action, click here for page 207.
▶ If you wait and pump him for information using guile and cleverness, click here for page 92.
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Magnifica refuses to accompany you, so you make your way toward D.C. alone. You research your opponents en route — the Turtle is strong but slow, so you don’t think you’ll have much trouble outmaneuvering him. Doctor Diabolus has control over the weak-minded, but you’re pretty sure your brain will make the cut. The real threat is Lightning Queen, who has electrical powers and a notoriously volatile disposition. You’ll need to use your suit’s cloaking device to sneak up on her and take her out as quickly as possible.
By the time you reach the city, however, additional villains have joined their ranks. You didn’t count on that, or on the fact that even though he can’t mind-control you, Diabolus can sense your presence, cloaked or otherwise. He calls out your position when you’ve only just started sneaking, and before you know it you’re dog-piled by half a dozen thugs in identical brown leather armor. They pin you down and start tearing away your gear — soon your cloaking device is ripped from your utility belt and you flicker into view.
“It’s Nightwatchman!” all your attackers say in unison.
A howl echoes out over the city streets, and a figure in black rushes you. You recognize him as Axemaster, which is weird, because you thought he was in a maximum security prison, serving a number of consecutive life sentences after being brought to justice by…
Oh. Yeah, he’s nursing a bit of a grudge, and has been meticulously planning his revenge on Nightwatchman for years. If anything, he’s even angrier that he didn’t get to execute the first six stages of his plan. He makes up for it though, by executing the final stage with extra enthusiasm.
THE END
299
You see Megawatt transform into blinding yellow light, and his space suit falls through his body to the floor. You’re spared the obligatory evil laugh, since you can no longer hear him through the helmet’s audio system. “Ox!” you say. “I have an idea, but I need you to hold them off!”
Cosmic Guardians are still piling into the hangar as you speak. “Yeah, okay,” Ox shoots back. “Hurry up, though. I usually pass out pretty quick once he starts with the brain torture thing.”
You spot what looks like a computer access panel on the wall. A group of Guardians rushes to intercept you, so you form a thick bubble of goo around yourself and the console, willing it to harden. You put your palm up to the mechanism, and let the goo flow into it. Is there anything in there? Computer?
Meanwhile, you can hear Ox’s trash talk through your helmet’s speaker as he singlehandedly takes on the horde. “That’s right! You want some more of that? Aauuugh! Crap! He’s inside my — eeeeeaaaaargh!”
You’d better hurry this up. Computer! Respond!
ACKNOWLEDGED. You’re in! Your cosmic space goo must be working as a kind of psychic conductor. INSTRUCTIONS?
You’re interrupted by more screaming. “He’s in my head! I can hear him laughing while he friggin’ zaps me — eeeeeeeaaaagh!” Your shell is keeping the Guardians at bay, but if Megawatt comes for you, it’s all over. Self-destruct! you command.
SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL NOT FOUND.
It was worth a shot. What else? Can you send the ship somewhere else? Change destination!
NEW TARGET INSTRUCTIONS?
Anywhere! Jupiter! you think.
TARGET UNKNOWN. COORDINATES?
You certainly don’t know the coordinates of Jupiter off the top of your head. The sun! The star at the center of the original target’s orbit!
TARGET UNKNOWN. COORDINATES?
This isn’t working. Ox is just screaming now, without any of the intermittent banter. List known coordinates!
The computer spits out a string of numerals and letters, which mean nothing to you. Set target to farthest known coordinate!
TARGET RESET TO FATHERWORLD. TIME TO ARRIVAL: 65,000 YEARS AT LIGHT SPEED. JUMPING TO LIGHT SPEED IN TWO POINT FOUR MINUTES.
Light speed? Can you travel any faster than that?
NOTHING TRAVELS FASTER THAN LIGHT SPEED. JUMPING TO LIGHT SPEED IN TWO POINT THREE-TWO MINUTES.
You did it! You soften the top of your shell and poke out your head. The Guardians — several dozen of them now — have given up trying to get to you and are hovering in a wide arc around Ox and Megawatt. A scattering of armored body parts around Ox’s feet make a pretty good case for giving him a wide berth. While you’ve been messing with the computer, his screams have ebbed to a soft, constant whimper.
“Ox, the ship’s jumping to light speed! We have two minutes to get out of here!”
Your friend is on his knees, with Megawatt’s noncorporeal hands phasing right into his head. “Heh,” Ox chuckles softly. “You hear that, you bastard? You lost.” He stumbles to his feet. You’re not sure he understands that you really don’t have time for the whole bloody-but-unbowed schtick. Megawatt holds his ground, shifting his hands to keep them in Ox’s brain.
“Nnnng. That hurts, all right.” He takes a step forward, his body overlapping Megawatt’s torso slightly. “Owwwwww. Yeah, you told me already. Made out of pure energy. You know what I’m made out of?” He takes another step, and Megawatt disappears entirely into Ox’s hulking frame.
“Pure kicking your ass.” Ox lets out a bellow that threatens to short out the speaker in your helmet. Megawatt’s form goes hurling out of his, reverting to flesh and bone before it hits the wall on the far side of the hangar. Unconscious, he takes a breath of alien air and immediately begins to swell up and turn a splotchy white. That brown gas is some toxic stuff, you think.
Which reminds you. “Ox, we have to get out of here. The ship is leaving!”
He gasps, gesturing timidly at the Cosmic Guardians. “Won’t they just reprogram it to come right back?” You didn’t think of that. If this ship truly has the power to destroy your entire world, you can’t risk leaving your enemies alone on it. But you could stay on board to clean up shop, and if light speed is a universal constant, any Guardans left on Earth could never travel any faster than you to catch up. They couldn’t even call ahead, because if nothing travels faster than light, you’d arrive before the communication did. By the same token, though, you could never risk turning the ship around, or even slowing it down, because they could be right on your tail. It’s a one-way, 65,000-year trip.
▶ You know what comes with great power? Yup. If you sacrifice yourself and stay on board to ensure the Earth’s survival, click here for page 140.
▶ What? You can’t leave the Earth behind! Think of the sandwiches! If you flee while you still can and hope for the best, click here for page 216.
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Dale has always been a bit too touchy-feely for your taste. But now you’re fighting dozens of Savage Cockroaches, and certainly you’ll need at least a pair of heroes to pull it off.
It’s rough going — Dale separates and you immediately lose him in the fracas. Cockroaches dogpile you, and for every one you blast with a bolt of blue energy, three more are doubling themselves into six right behind. You see a handful approach you dragging a big metal box with what looks like an emergency-room heart paddle attached to it. The whole scene is pretty unsettling. And it gets even more so when they start to talk.
“When I heard Cosmic Guardians were rounding us up, I paid a visit to my old buddy, Tinker,” the clones say. They don’t talk particularly loudly, but they all say it in unison (except for the two whose faces you’re currently smashing together). It’s creepy as hell. “He designed this for Übermind back in the ’90s. Let’s see if it still works!”
Cosmic Guardians are rounding who up? Also, what Cosmic Guardians? Before you can try your hand at banter, a Cockroach presses the paddle against your helmet and a massive electrical surge pulses through your body. You fall to the deck, your armor refusing to respond to your commands.
Übermind was the original Guardian’s arch nemesis, you recall, and was always concocting devious plans to destroy him. He might have done it, too, if Guardian didn’t have the entire Justice Squadron watching his back.
All you have, alas, is Commander Goo.
THE END
304
If Magnifica says you’re in trouble, you believe her. You switch on your cloaking device and your body shimmers, turning invisible — fortunately, you had some time to study before bed last night. You also know that your cloak transforms into a really spiffy hang glider, so you spread your wings and jump from the rooftop’s edge, gliding effortlessly down to the city streets. The invisibility tech burns through battery power like crazy, so you find an empty alleyway and switch it off. What now? You check your wristscreen and are surprised to find a short message on the display.
SHUT DOWN YOUR SYSTEMS.
What? Could that be Magnifica sending you a text? Crap — maybe the real Nightwatchman has found you! For all you know, though, Thorpe’s goons have tapped into your network. You’re not about to fall for that. Are you?
Before you have the chance to make the call, a huge figure descends into the alley in front of you. It’s the Cosmic Guardian! At least, you think it is — he’s enormous, at least twice the size of the hero you saw stop that meteor in Cleveland. And even more startling, you feel your boots and gauntlets decompress, expanding to their original size and losing the custom fit they’d formed around your extremities yesterday. You check your wristscreen and find it blank. It appears that your systems have made the decision to shut down without you.
The Guardian armor features any number of advanced weapons — shoulder missiles, energy blasts, high-powered plasma bolts. Your opponent doesn’t bother to use any of them. Instead, he reaches out with one hand and crushes your skull like a grape.
THE END
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“Thorpe’s not going anywhere,” you say. “Let’s go see if the citizens of Washington need our help.”
Magnifica flies you and Octavia to the city and deposits you on a rooftop to get a better look. “What the hell are they doing?” she asks.
You’re not sure. It doesn’t look like they’re stealing anything, or really even trying to hurt people. “They’re just kind of wrecking stuff,” you say. “Octavia, can you get a read on what they’re thinking?”
“It’s like they’re at work,” she says. “As if someone hired them to destroy some national monuments today.”
As you watch, several members of the Justice Squadron arrive on the scene. Instead of trying to stop the carnage, however, they start helping the villains destroy the Lincoln Memorial. That’s troubling.
You check for media reports on your gauntlet computer, and find that heroes and villains are teaming up all around the globe — Paris, Tokyo, Mumbai, and Mexico City are suffering similar fates. Even legendary foes La Legión de la Matanza and Los Vengedores Robotico have joined forces for mutual destruction. You don’t know what to make of it.
You’ve got a more immediate problem, though. The collected group of superhumans in the streets below has been alerted to your presence, and it goes on the attack. Magnifica charges them, but this means there’s no one on hand to defend you or Octavia against the fleet Cosmic Guardians who immediately begin hurling plasma bolts at you from above.
It looks like you’ve managed to piss somebody off.
THE END
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With every single speck of life on the planet at stake, you can’t afford to take any chances. And even if there’s an innocent victim deep inside each of those enemy soldiers, an end to their long suffering can only be a blessing.
Even the ship’s less-complex artificial intelligence has a biological component to it, just like your armor — that’s what allows Octavia to link with its mind. They must not have telepathy on the alien homeworld, you think, because this seems way too easy. You tell the ship to skip the usual countdowns and warnings, and set two courses for opposite ends of the galaxy. The onboard computer is very excited about this prospect — it gets to take two trips! Making the decision to sacrifice the Guardians was tough, but if anything, you almost feel worse about the ship.
You configure your armor for the jump to lightspeed — and not a moment too soon, because the Cosmic Guard has arrived in force. At the last possible moment, you make your own jump. In a flash, everything goes white.
How long do you need to travel to avoid the blast? It’s light speed — any length of time should be more than enough. You put on the brakes and get your bearings. From this distance, the Earth is just a faint blue dot among a sea of stars. Did it work? Still curled up in her pod, you sense that Octavia is holding her breath. There’s only one way to find out, so you warp back to Earth.
At the coordinates where you left the alien ship, there’s just… nothing. You try opening a channel with the Guard, and get no response whatsoever. Octavia scans for brain activity, and gets the same result. Were they vaporized in the explosion? A spectral analysis of the area confirms it: microscopic debris, and plenty of it.
You did it! You totally saved the world.
Next stop: Washington, D.C. Mopping up a group of bargain-basement villains may be anticlimactic after stopping an alien invasion, but the work needs to be done. Once there, you discover that the Justice Squadron has beat you to it — Magnifico, Megawatt, and Skyhawk are already on the scene. Hold on a second. They seem to be helping the villains trash the place.
Is the whole damn Squadron in on this? Do they not know that their alien overlords have already been atomized? You drop Octavia off on the sidewalk and reconfigure your armor for full battle readiness.
This is going to be fun.
THE END
308
There must be another way! “I won’t do it,” you say, putting the trigger away.
The Ox stares at you, then throws Agent Moretti across the room and turns, bursting through the wall behind him. He manages to destroy three additional walls on his way out of the complex, and there are a number of injuries caused by collapsing masonry and bullets ricocheting off his impenetrable hide, but no fatalities. All in all, it’s not much of a rampage.
Moretti peels himself off the floor. He doesn’t look pleased. “Come with me,” he says. “There’s something I want to show you.”
You follow him into the power-dampening chamber. It’s strangely empty except for a table upon which you see a small glass ball. “The truth is, our power-dampening technology won’t even work on the Ox,” he says. “This entire mission was simply a test to see how you’d perform in the field.”
Suddenly something clamps onto your back and electricity surges through your armor. You lose control and fall to the floor in a heap. “A test which you failed,” Moretti adds.
You’re starting to wonder if he works for the United States government at all. You realize that he’s definitely better at luring people into that room than you are, though. Then his goons storm in and start trying to crack open your shell with steel crowbars and diamond-tipped drills.
They’re not particularly careful, and you don’t survive the experience.
THE END
309
Tachyon smiles, and closes his eyes. He doesn’t open them again.
Is that it? Is he off altering the past, or just back in his coma? You step into the hallway and find the hospital staff still glued to their news broadcasts. As you watch them, your vision starts to fade. Slowly, everything turns white. You don’t know much about the space-time continuum, but you’re guessing this is what happens when the timestream unravels.
