Before the attack began, Auntie Chen finally named the abandoned city that she remade into her laboratory: The Library of Chen. Her laborers were hard at work to prepare the Library for the newcomers it would receive today, along with tidying the place up in general.
The prisoners had been languishing under the grip of Tartarus. It would take time to adjust their magic to a stabilized state; afterward, many would be transferred to settlements and shelters around this world and the next.
While the public is not given full information about the prisoners detained in Tartarus, Chen had access to details that gave her some idea of what to expect: public arrest and extradition records, statistical occurrences of mutant abilities, and, most importantly, medical supplies bought from Chen Laboratories.
“Wait, you’re that Chen?” asked Todd.
“Yes, I’m that Chen.”
“Aren’t you like a gazillionaire? What are you doing trying to take over the world, you already have it made.”
“How rude. Can’t I simply want to help people out of the goodness of my heart? If my leadership is best to bring health and prosperity to humanity, then so be it.”
“Ah, don’t be so humble my dear,” said Delsin as he held her waist, “you have the riches and servants of a queen, you deserve the kingdom of one, too.” She smiled and rubbed his cheek with a free hand.
“You’re so right. I really am the best, so I deserve the best.”
“With Uncle away, you’re going to milk this out to the last drop, huh?” interrupted Iron Angel as he landed, “so what’s the hold up anyway? The boys and girls are ready to go. You’re pumped too, right Todd?” Auntie Chen shooed away Delsin.
“The plan was to have Philip and Anthony make a distraction on the base so that our infiltrators could extract what we need. However, there are some hang-ups, still within my margin of error of course. First off, it seems that The Pantheon is going through with the conference. We’ll evacuate the conference even if it takes away from our objectives. Second, they have spread themselves out. Max, your brother, and, most importantly, Hannah, are missing. It's good that your brother might be out of the line of fire. Hannah, however, is a threat that can pounce on my immortals.”
“Your immortals?” chuckled Angel.
“Yes, my immortals. I know, I know, our Uncle is the Immortal. Let’s focus on what’s important here. Where was I, oh yes, not knowing Hannah’s location is a problem. Wherever she is we’ll have to move my forces to the other location. We can’t do that if she arrives when we’re bogged down. Underdog and WhiteOut are also missing from the roster. Garrick himself is at his little conference and Aaliyah is at the vigil. Aaliyah is inconsequential, but keeping Garrick away from that office of his may be tricky. Nothing else will matter if we can’t get those schematics. I’m going to transfer some extra units to the Olympus mission. The rest of you will just have to sit tight.”
Delsin, Philip, Anthony, Lady Teumess, and a handful of geared-up Immortals were going to Olympus. The majority of the forces would go on the Tartarus mission, with Four-Leaf and Todd included. If anything went wrong, Angel’s team could provide backup to either location. As soon as they hack into the mainframe, Auntie Chen would receive the layout for Tartarus along with details on all the prisoners there.
For now, Angel brought Todd over to the waiting area where large mirrors would be used to transport people and equipment. Chen could use any reflective material as a portal, but mirrors were her aesthetic.
“Are you sure you don’t want to wear the gargoyle flesh, it might get dangerous,” asked Angel.
“I’m just going to be in the bathroom most of the time. If shooting starts, I can bail quickly. It’ll be better if someone else has it.”
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“What about a moniker? All the cool kids have one. Honestly, it feels weird just calling you by your first name. Todd the Terrorist just doesn’t have a ring to it.”
“Philip and Delsin don’t. And we’re not terrorists,” Todd tapped the patch on his bulletproof vest, “we’re soon to be lawful combatants taking up our disagreements with our… disputant.”
“Philip and Delsin don’t 'cause they’re lame. You’re the guy who's gonna burn down the world for us remember? You’ve got to have a cool name to put to that. Like… Agni, that’s a fire god right?”
“That’s not incorrect but…” Todd thought for a second, “how about Srenika.”
“Wass dat?”
“To give you the short version: the Buddha believed that the soul was destroyed and created in the cycle of rebirth, like a fire that is extinguished. Srenika believed that the soul was eternal outside of the temporary mortal vessel. Even if I ‘burn down the world‘ I don’t want everything to be gone; I just want to show people that things don’t have to be the way they are.”
“Oooooh. I’m sure you know what you’re talking about but I got my own team to get ready so later.” Angel flew away which left Todd with Four-Leaf and Anthony.
“I guess he just expected me to make a pun or something that sounds cool. Like Fire Punch or Sunspot. Or maybe something silly like calling this little monster Anthony.”
“I chose the name Anthony,“ said Anthony.
“He can talk!?”
“I am communicating telepathically through Little Birdie. Anthony is my Terran name.“
“That’s right. You guys had a home before but only Uncle is allowed to see it right now. What’s it like?” asked Four-Leaf.
“Where I come from, your name is attached to the mountain of bodies you pile. But our master wiped away the mountains, and so my name and my past are lost, the same as many here. But Angel is right, I should go be with my team.”
Anthony spread his bloody wings and lept across concrete roofs and walls. This probably wasn’t the time for small talk.
----------------------------------------
Max fed Kenny water because he was too exhausted to move. His muscles ached as acid burnt him inside out. Hannah was a different kind of exhausted, the kind of adrenaline rush that sends the wind through veins to make your whole body lighter, as she stood there with a satisfied smile in between her huffs and pants.
They had, against Max’s better judgment, chased an ermine into the mountains. Max had lagged behind as he carried their supplies and the drone had followed.
Max called the drone to tell it that they were done. He called to the drone again. He gave the drone a command code to bring it closer, then showed his fingerprints to identify himself. This would allow for the emergency line to be used. Still no response.
He told Hannah, mid-swig of her water, to get to Olympus immediately and find Garrick. She dumped the rest of the bottle on her face, smacked her cheeks, squatted, and bolted into the sky with a peal that shook the mountains. Max sat with Kenny. From that seat, they could see Olympus in the distance.
“Shouldn’t we… shouldn’t we go with her,” Kenny struggled to breathe out.
“When I watched the airforce rain hell on a target I felt two things: I wondered why I was there, and I was relieved that the fight was over. Just sit tight, and let the little lady handle it.”
They watched a mound of dirt grow into a statue the size of the main office. It punched the air one moment only to lose that hand the next. Then it lost the whole forearm. Then the other arm got cut off. The head got frozen and shattered. Then a bunch of explosions went off. Finally, out of nowhere, that dirt titan fell apart.
“See, it’s fine. You’re training to be able to do that one day, but you're not there yet. Let those muscles rest,” said Max.
Minutes later, the entire main office building exploded.
“We’re going to head further up the mountain.”
“Huh?! It looks like serious stuff is going on down there! Shouldn’t we—” Kenny shifted, but a cramp restrained his movement with pain that caused him to grunt as he clutched his oblique. Max pulled Kenny up to support him.
“We need to focus on what we can do, especially in a situation like this. You can’t do anything right now, so I’ll do what I can.”
Kenny was too dizzy to even speak as Max dragged him along. Kenny looked over his shoulder and saw the plume of smoke that rose from Olympus get farther and farther away.