Barry Nicklaus looked down at his metal hands. He flexed the fingers as he examined

them. The face still failed to emote what he felt inside. He stretched, and then did

some jumping jacks.

“What do you think?,” asked Marty. His arms was crossed. Ten years had come and

gone, and he was still boy who had wanted to be a hero and avenge the hurt and

wronged. Barry shrugged as best he could with the metal body.

“What do we do now?,” asked Corona. She snapped her fingers. A flame hovered

over her hand.

“That’s up to you,” said Marty. He looked at them. “Barry’s back. He can run the

Scouts again. Everything looks like we’ve settled things for Watson and his forces.”

“I’m not running the Scouts, Marty,” said Barry. The voice box needed to be adjusted.

He could do that when he had a tool set and some privacy. “I think you should do it.

You have a great set of people here. They can take over protecting the future.”

“What?,” said Marty. “I’m not a leader. I don’t think I can handle that.”

“Don’t be absurd, Marty,” said Barry. “They all followed you into action. You

pointed them at the problem and they solved it. I think you should at least consider

it. The five of you can do a lot of good if you wanted to stay together.”

“We are experts,” said Ren. “And we have the records to expose a network of

corruption across the globe. I think that is worth working on other mysteries that need

solutions.”

“I’m not a hero,” said Cog. “Things worked out so I could help, but I would rather be

at home in my tunnels.”

“I’m in,” said Corona. “It was a little scary there for a minute, but we pulled it off and

wrapped everything up in a bow. I didn’t see us doing that badly dealing with the

problem.”

“Will stay,” said Finch. She leaned on her staff.

“Camp has been empty for the last few years,” said Marty. “We’ll have to clean it out

and make it livable again.”

“That’s not much of a problem,” said Corona.

“Exercise,” said Finch.

“Sounds like a plan,” said Marty. “If you ladies will go with Barry, Ren and I will

take the evidence over to the ranger station. That’ll start the ball rolling on getting all

of these people arrested and tried. Then we’ll take Cog back home.”

“I’m all for that,” said Cog. “Please don’t mention me when you do turn these

criminals in. I want to go back to the simple job checking infrastructure and fixing

breaks and other things underground”.

“We will drive you home before we head back to Camp,” said Marty. “Thanks for

switching brains for Barry.”

“It was a simple job like I said,” said Cog. “I’m sure Watson doesn’t like his new

body, or the fact that he has no chance of getting out serving some jail time.”

“It’ll be fine.” Marty smiled. He felt like that was the first smile in a long time. “Let’s

get out of here. The rangers can sort everything out with the FBI over who wants this

case. We might even be on the news.”

“No,” said Finch. “You.”

“Only me on the news?” Marty indicated himself with both hands on his chest.

“Yes,” said Finch. She smiled a little.

“All right,” said Marty. “I’ll see what I can do. Shall we go?”

“What about the monkey?,” asked Corona. “We should try to pick it up before we

head out of here.”

“How are we going to do that?,” asked Ren. “It knows the park, and doesn’t want us

staying here any more than we want to stay. He’s smart. He’ll probably have a hideout

that he knows much better than we do.”

“So we let him roam around until we can come back up here and take him down,”

said Marty. “As long as he stays in the park and doesn’t cause too many problems,

I’m willing to let him slide.”

“Anything else?,” asked Marty. He looked at the new Hazard Scouts. He felt giddy

inside. “Let’s break up and get things done. The faster we get who we do have into

custody, the better I’ll like it.”

“How are we getting to this camp?,” asked Corona.

“Barry will know where it is,” said Marty. “Just head north until you start seeing

signs to Pine Mountain. He’ll put you on the right path from there.”

“All right,” said Corona. “It looks like I’m driving.” She headed toward where one

of the trucks had been abandoned by ordinary security forces. Barry and Finch

followed at a slower pace.

“All right, Ren,” said Marty. “We need the Scout Van. We’ll load Watson and Cortez

and take them in. Then we can drop Cog off in Chicago. It should be okay.”

“What about the soldiers here in the woods?” Ren gestured at the trees around them.

“They’re someone else’s problems now that we have the prime troublemaker in our

grasp,” said Marty. “All we have to do is get him to the rangers, give them the

location of the secret headquarters, and guard our two brains until someone in the

government can straighten things out.”

“That sounds too easy,” said Ren.

“It’s the best I can do,” said Marty. “We could give them to the rangers, but can the

rangers hold them?”

“I don’t know,” said Ren. “What do you think, Cog?”

“We should get rid of them while they are at our mercy,” said Cog. “That way there

is no future problem for us to solve.”

“I like that approach myself,” said Marty. “No one would miss either one of these

clowns.”

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“We’re not doing that,” said Ren. “We’re going to hold ourselves to a higher

standard.”

“I guess that’s okay,” said Marty. He looked at Cog. The cyborg moved its many

tentacles in a way that might be construed as a shrug.

“Let’s turn these two in,” said Ren. “I can get my certificate and start my own agency

with their successful capture.”

“This is not getting me back to Chicago,” said Cog. “I have infrastructure I have to

protect.”

“I guess we can’t argue with that,” said Marty. He tried not to smile.

“Exactly,” said Cog.

“Let me bring back the Scout van,” said Ren. “We can get going.”

“That’s what I have been saying,” said Marty.

Ren pulled a bottle out of his bag. He uncorked it and placed it on the ground. The

Scout van expanded out of the bottle like a balloon being inflated. It bounced on its

tires.

Marty walked to the side door. He opened the van for Cog and Ren. Cog grabbed the

two reduced tanks and carried them into the van. He settled in the back. Ren stepped

in and sat in the shotgun seat.

“Trouble,” said Marty. “It looks like we sent the others ahead too soon.”

“Let’s get out of here,” said Ren. He checked the mirror on his side. “We got what we

wanted. There’s no point staying around if we don’t have to do that.”

A small group of vehicles drifted from the treeline. Weapons mounted on the back of

the trucks sparked. Bullets hit the van as Marty hit the gas. He ducked against the

onslaught even though there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Where are these guys coming from?,” asked Marty. He tried to stay on the trail. He

watched the mirror while trying to keep an eye on the road.

“They must be the remains of Mercer’s troops.” Ren grimaced at his own mirror.

“They probably gathered together after what Corona did.”

“How fast can we run from them?,” asked Cog. “They will shoot us when they catch

up to us.”

“They got to catch us first,” said Marty. “That isn’t going to happen.”

The dashboard sparked. The engine died. The van slowly rolled to a stop.

“What just happened?,” asked Marty. “Everything is dead.”

“One of them has to have a magnetic gun,” said Cog. “He shut down the electrical

systems so they can catch up with us.”

“How do we fix that in the next minute before they catch up with us?,” asked Marty.

“I don’t think I can,” said Cog. He flowed to the side door. “Hit the engine hood

release. I’ll do what I can.”

Marty pulled the switch. He got out of the van and ran up front where the hood was.

He opened it with a thumb of the hook. He tried to ignore the bullets snapping around

him as he showed Cog where to work.

“There doesn’t look like anything I can do without spare parts,” said Cog. “Some of

this is burned up.”

“What can you do?,” asked Marty. The pursuit was halfway there. The longer it took

to get the van running, the easier it would be to shoot them.

“Give me a moment to think,” said Cog. His tentacles reached into the engine space.

He pulled some things out, put some things in. He seemed calm, but it was hard to

read a blank face with two lights for eyes.

“Try it now,” said Cog. “Let’s see if it will run until we can get more parts for it.”

Marty ran back to his seat. He reached in and turned the key. The engine coughed to

life.

Cog closed the hood and scrambled to get back in the van. Marty climbed into the

driver’s seat. He hit the gas. The vehicle crawled forward. He pressed the gas pedal

to the floor. Twenty miles an hour seemed to be the fastest he could go.

“We’re not getting away at this speed,” said Marty. “Any suggestions?”

“Abandon the van,” said Cog.

“Let me talk to it,” said Ren. “Maybe I can hypnotize it into doing what we want.”

“Better do it quick,” said Marty. “We’re running out of time.”

Ren started talking to the dashboard. Lights turned on as the van started shutting

down again. Suddenly the indicators went off. The old thing jumped ahead, rolling

as fast as a race car toward help and civilization.

“Oh, yeah,” said Marty. “This is great. What did you say?”

“I said it was better than anything on the road, and we would get it some gas and an

oil change as soon as we reach a town,” said Ren. “It’s resolved to help us, but if

something happens, that might be the end for it and us.”

“If they hit us with another of the magnetic gun pulses, that will damage the engine

beyond my limited ability to repair it,” said Cog from the back.

Marty glanced at the mirror. They had put some distance between them and the

pursuit. Smoke drifted from the back of the van. It couldn’t keep rolling at the speed

they were going. The engine would explode.

“We’re going to try stop those guys from following us,” said Marty. “We need to get

that breathing space so we can alert the authorities.”

“What do you plan to do?,” asked Ren.

“I’m going to set some of them on fire and stall them until we hit a road,” said Marty.

“Take the wheel for a moment.”

Ren reached across as Marty opened his door again. The Scout leaned out of his door.

He summoned his dragon again. The beast unfurled from his hand like a banner in a

high wind. It spread its wings and headed back the way they came.

Marty pulled himself back into his seat. He took the wheel after closing the door. Ren

settled back in his seat.

“Hopefully that will buy us time until we can get help from the authorities,” said

Marty.

An access road cut across their path. Marty turned the van east along the road. He

looked back in the mirror. A cloud of smoke was in the air. He hoped the dragon

didn’t set the forest on fire.

That was something else he didn’t need to have on his conscience.

“You’re dragon is coming back,” said Ren. “It looks wounded.”

“It did what we needed it to do,” said Marty. He rolled down his window. He held out

his hand. The dragon unraveled to fit back in the unknown spaces from where he

drew it.

Marty rolled up his window. He eyed the road ahead. If they hadn’t turned on

something random, it should lead them to an exit eventually. Then they could drop

this mess in the laps of the government.

“What would you do?,” said Marty. “It looks like we made a clean getaway. What

would you do to stop us?”

“I would try to get ahead of us somehow,” said Ren. “Then I would spring an ambush

and take Watson back.”

“How could they do that?,” asked Marty. “Didn’t we shoot down their only

helicopter?”

“We don’t know what kind of resources were invested in that base,” said Ren. “We

could be looking at twice as many men looking for us than we thought from what we

saw inside the place.”

“So we might have to run a gauntlet before we meet the rangers,” said Marty. “I’m

not looking forward to that.”

“The superhumans might join the fight,” said Ren. “We only wounded some of them.

They might try to get back in the game to deal with us.”

“The only one left is the monkey,” said Marty. “I don’t think he wants to take us on.

We pretty much have trained him to run from us.”

“We still don’t know what happened to the teleporter, or if the gadget guy is still able

to fight,” said Ren. “The girl should still be sleeping things off.”

“So we might only have Mercer’s crowd to worry about,” said Marty. “If we can stay

ahead of them, we might be able to stalemate Mercer. At least, we can avoid giving

his boss back.”

“We’ll still have to prove we have Cortez and Watson in the back of the van,” said

Ren. “Then we have to prove they did anything bad. That’s going to be a high bar to

clear if we are being chased across the country.”

“I have to agree,” said Marty. “We might be better off arranging a trade.”

“No,” said Ren. “Once they have Watson back, they’ll go back to trying to sabotage

their competition and kidnaping powers to add to their arsenal. The last thing we

should do is give him back.”

“So our options are to escape, and make this public,” said Marty. “Or get killed trying

to do that.”

“Essentially that’s what it is,” said Ren. “Letting Watson go back to his people would

allow him to escape and go back to his villainy. The government can’t seize all of his

properties.”

“We would be better off getting rid of him,” said Cog. “I like that. It’s simple and

easy to do.”

“We can’t kill him while he is a prisoner,” said Marty.

“Why?,” asked Cog

“Because the good guys don’t kill just because it’s expedient,” said Marty. “It’s

upholding a standard.”

“Stupid standard,” said Cog.

“It looks like we are on the right track,” said Ren. “The sign ahead says the main

entrance is a few miles ahead.”

“I can’t put the hammer down any more than what I’m doing,” said Marty.

A horde of monkeys filled the road ahead of the van. Marty noted that rocket

launchers were being passed from paw to paw. He looked for a path around the mob.

“Get ready to bail,” said Marty. He got out of the seat, and ran to the side door.

“We’re not getting through that.”

The monkeys started shooting.