I almost couldn’t hear Su-Bin telling me about the protest over the hum of a hundred thousand bees buzzing and the shouts of five super-powered children at the Honey Hive’s door. But from what I could hear, it had gone shockingly well. “We showed up, protested for an hour, and left. Easy peasy,” Su-Bin said.
“That’s great.” My hand was cupped over my phone’s receiver so she couldn’t hear the whining kids or Honeycomb’s attempts to hold them back. Kaiju Kid had recognized The Agent, and now we were under siege in Honeycomb’s hideout. “So, when do I need to follow up on my part of the agreement?”
“You’re not going to try to worm your way out of it?” Su-Bin asked. She sounded a little disbelieving.
“No. I said I’d do it. If you don’t have a time, how about mid-March? This will all be over one way or another by then, and if we win, maybe people will be ready to think about the future.”
Su-Bin went quiet. “Mid-March. That works, unless there’s a window for you to do it sooner. I’ll keep an eye out for one, and I’ll send you what the national wing is thinking for the Accords so you can know what you’re agreeing to. We can negotiate the details later.”
“I’d appreciate that. The fight’s not over. I have to go help interrogate a top-tier villain now, but I’ll be in touch when I have some time.”
“Understood.” Su-Bin paused again, then continued. “Annie, be careful. You’ve been a good friend, even if you lied. I’m not sure if I want to continue that friendship yet, but if you get hurt or killed, I won’t have that option, so don’t do that to me.”
“Okay.” It should have hurt that she wasn’t sure, but all I could feel was relief—that she was safe, and that she wanted anything to do with me after my year-and-a-half-long lie. “Talk to you later.”
“Make him take a nap!” Milkbar yelled from the door as I—finally—rolled my Drama roll.
[50 Drama Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[Rank-Up! Science has Rules? 1 > Science has Rules? 2: Weapons and armor last longer before physics reasserts itself.]
I ignored the pint-sized strongman and slipped back inside. Honeycomb and Vigilant Vow could manage the kids—or their parents could. What mattered to me were the four supers sitting inside Honeycomb’s hive with The Agent.
Mrs. N was there, as were Dr. Jackson and Fursona. I’d expected them, and even though none of them looked happy about the unconscious villain flopped in a hexagon-shaped chair in the corner, they didn’t look murderous.
Brick House did, though.
I was legitimately terrified in a way I hadn’t even been when the supervillain’s hand was on my shoulder. He’d looked angry then, but the amount of hate pouring off of him now? If it weren’t for The Narrator, The Agent would probably be in a dozen pieces right now.
“So, no, we’re not killing him,” Dr. Jackson said, “even if he deserves it. He’s a prisoner, and most of us are heroes. We need information, though, and he has that. So feel free to intimidate him—“
Brick House cracked his knuckles. “Yes!”
“—without hurting him,” she finished.
“No!”
“Mrs. N, would you wake him up?” Dr. Jackson said, ignoring the hulking supervillain’s protests.
“And then The Agent was awake,” The Narrator said.
= = = = =
The Agent glared at me through blackened, swollen eyes. “I’m still…willing to cut a deal, Understudy. How about this one—“
“I’ve got a deal for you!” Brick House shouted in his face. “How about you tell us everything you know, and I don’t tear you limb from limb? You know I can do it—you’ve got my power contracted—so think it over. Take your time. Three! Two! One!”
Dr. Jackson interrupted, a hand on the big man’s shoulder. “There’s no way for you to worm your way out of this. We’d prefer you cooperate because it’ll look better for you when they’re deciding which part of Almhurst to stick you in.”
“You think you’re going to win this? Listen, Catherine, the odds are still stacked against you, and no amount of cooperation is going to change that, so no, I’m going to clam up. You’re heroes, and you won’t let your trained gorilla rip me apart with those kids nearby, so I’m totally fine. And if Mrs. N tries any of her tricks—
“And then The Agent wanted to talk instead of argue,” Mrs. N interrupted.
----------------------------------------
It felt...wrong…to watch The Agent spill his guts onto the Honey Hive’s floor—metaphorically, though Brick House wished it’d be literal. He obviously didn’t want to, but Mrs. N’s power wasn’t mind control, and it wasn’t hurting him. It was just…narrating what was happening, and everyone went along with it. I’d never seen it used like this—at least, not by Mrs. N. This felt less like her and more like Fanfic. It churned my stomach; this was vil shit.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
But it was effective.
He told us everything. How he’d killed Thornberry and taken their place as a producer for the Network. How he’d been in a power struggle with Rocko—Rocko!—for weeks, and how he’d all but won. How he effectively owned the Network now, how they moved to his orders, and about their meetings, goals, and how fragile their grip on Earth really was. That the Greater Ilneat Prosperity Community wouldn’t intervene in this conflict.
But most importantly, he told us one crucial bit of information.
“The Thornberry emergency teleport works anywhere, but it’ll only move one person to the Network’s cruiser at a time. But there is a better way in. It’s in the Hot Zone, in one of the studio building’s conference rooms, and if you use it, you could get four or five superheroes into space all at once,” he said, glaring at The Narrator.
Behind him, Brick House ground his teeth, fury pouring off of him in waves.
“Which building?” I asked.
“I could show you on a map, but none of them are named.”
“Good enough,” Mrs. N said. “Do you know what their ship’s defenses are like?”
“No. As far as they’re concerned, I’m an Ilneat. None of their security systems activate when I’m around, and I haven’t cared enough to ask them about it. If you were to put me through to Rocko or someone, I’d be happy to ask, though,” The Agent said, voice smooth and snake-like.
“No, that’s okay. And then the Agent took a nap,” Mrs. N said.
= = = = =
The Agent snored on his wax throne as Brick House bound him to it. “Honeycomb can lock him in place when I’m done, but you’re gonna let me do this.”
“We sure are,” I said. I had no sympathy for the beaten, bound, and utterly defeated villain; he’d long ago stopped being even remotely heroic in my book, and his long, rambling confession had only solidified that. He’d been planning this for years? For a decade? And, for all intents and purposes, he’d won? It was almost unbelievable, but I forced myself to believe it.
“Brick House, if you’d take over guarding the door, that would be appreciated,” Dr. Jackson said. She looked tired—no, exhausted. “We don’t want one of the kids getting in there and being manipulated. Or worse, having a tantrum and killing The Agent.”
“Why not?” Brick House grumbled, but he stomped over to take Honeycomb’s place as we left the Honey Hive.
Mrs. N took us back to her office; as the three of us jammed ourselves into plastic chairs, she collapsed into her own. “Thoughts?”
“None of that can be used in a court of law, can it?” Dr. Jackson asked.
“No.” Mrs. N took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. “But we’re a little beyond that at this point, aren’t we? More importantly, we need to figure out whether to chase the Ilneats into space, and if we do, who’s going.”
“We’ll do it,” Bianca said immediately from inside her fursuit.
I blinked. “We’ll go to space?”
“Absolutely. Mrs. N, you said you wanted to help us find a path to victory. This is it. The Ilneats go to their cruiser whenever they feel threatened. If they have time, they do a full evacuation. That’s what they did when Golden Goose got murdered. But if they don’t, they emergency teleport. This is our best chance to checkmate the Network—just like Mindstorm was trying to do, but without all the information.”
I nodded slowly. “And you think that since we took The Agent off the battlefield down here, we have a window to make something happen?”
“Yes,” Bee said. She pointed up at the sky. “It’s like soccer, okay? If someone on the other team gets a red card, they get kicked out, and they have to play a man down. You don’t ignore that advantage. You push—hard. That’s how you win. Right now, the Pro-Ilneat supers’ keeper’s out of the game, and we can see the goal clearly.”
“So, we go for it, then? Who’s going? The Agent said only five people,” I said.
“You and me are in,” Bee said immediately. “And we need Lady Lockless at least as far as the teleporter in the Hot Zone. So that leaves two.”
“I’d say Dr. Jackson and Mays,” Mrs. N said, “but they’ll be useless up there. You need someone who can handle themselves against the Ilneats. They’re going to ignore most of your powers, but if you punch them in the face, they’ll still fold.”
“I fought Iron Fist last year after he kidnapped an Ilneat, and they didn’t disappear,” I said. “And Iron Fist could still grab him and carry them around.”
“Must’ve felt pretty safe, then, if they chose to stick around,” Mrs. N said. “But once you’re up there, the Ilneats won’t have anywhere to go. Hopefully.”
I thought about it. We needed someone like Iron Fist—and we had access to a villain every bit as big and tough as the metal-fisted super. “What about Brick House?”
“No, he’s staying here. I’m not letting that monster out of his cage until I’m sure he won’t tear the whole ship apart the moment he gets there. And I’ll never be sure about that.”
Who else could we ask? Did we even know where anyone was? Gourmet was around, maybe, and so was Theseus, but they’d both just gotten destroyed by Stella-Lunar, and they might not want to get back out there and fight. I sent them both a quick text, though, just in case.
None of the Pro-Earth major leaguers were available. The Anti-Nap League wouldn’t work, either, and even though the Playpen Patrol was ridiculously strong, neither Mrs. N nor their parents would let us borrow Milkbar and Kaiju Kid.
“There’s gotta be a plan that could work,” Bee said, taking off her fursuit’s head. “Where’s the whiteboard?”
----------------------------------------
In the end, we came up with something simple.
That seemed to be working the best so far.
Mrs. N was on the phone talking to her sister about letting five of us through the door in the Tokyexico Council of Heroes tower. If Fanfic was willing, we’d try the stealth approach until we got caught. Then, Dr. Mays would lock down any heroes who came to fight us, and Jackson would…make them not fight us anymore.
That’d be enough to get Fursona, Lady Lockless, Gourmet, and Theseus—if they showed up—and myself to the teleporter. And from there, we’d…
We’d…
“We’ll think of something,” I said. All of us were stuck on that last part. We didn’t know what was inside the space cruiser. Sure, we had a good idea of what it looked like, but The Agent hadn’t seen any of its defenses. We’d be going in blind—assuming we made it that far.
The two of us would…I wasn’t sure. Find Rocko? Try to destroy the ship? It was all way too up in the air, and as good as improvisation was, sometimes, I needed a script to stick to. Keeping Lady Lockless safe was a definite, but beyond that, there were a lot of options. Probably too many.
“Yeah. We just need to know what we’re up against. I’ll backpack up all the suits, and…I’ll probably start out as Eagle-Sona, because that costume’s the stealthiest I’ve got,” Bee said.
“Sure,” I said. “So, tomorrow morning, as early as possible?”
“We’ll end this then,” Bee said. “For a better world. It’s time.”