CHAPTER 39
IRIDIUM
There’s no one more dangerous than a criminal with a grudge … except for an extrahuman with a grudge.
Lancer to his third-year students in Advanced Street Fighting
Jet’s face, what little Iridium could see under her cowl, was whiter than the skin of a drowned corpse and her lips had a ring of blue around them. Blood trickled from her nose, and Iridium gritted her teeth when she saw Jet’s skin-suit was ripped and bloodied across the abdomen.
She stuck out her hand. Maybe this didn’t have to turn into a fight. If she was lucky, Jet was too concussed to remember she even saw her. “The sewer mutant really did a number on you.”
Jet made like she would take Iri’s hand, and then scissored her legs out. Iridium fell backward, landing in the slough and on the concrete at the bottom, water made icy by Jet’s shadows soaking the back of her unikilt. “Christo!” she shouted. “You bitch!”
“You had something to do with this,” Jet hissed. She braced one gauntlet against the tunnel wall and pulled herself up, protecting her left side. The blood from her nose flowed more freely with the effort. “You set me up.”
Iridium rotated her head to Taser. “A little help?”
“All this water is going to fry my circuits, darlin’,” he said, leaning down over the fallen mutant—from Iridium’s quick look, the thing seemed like a grotesquely muscled corporate type, complete with pearl necklace straining against a huge, corded neck and a permawave that was the latest style. “I think you’re on your own with the nutso hero.”
“Swell,” said Iridium, jumping up to face Jet.
“You and Everyman set me up,” Jet barked. “You think I’m stupid, Iridium?”
“No,” said Iridium, drawing out the syllable, “but right now you are acting a little crazy, Joan.”
“Don’t call me Joan!” Creepers of Shadow writhed around Jet’s feet, and Iridium created four strobes in front of her to keep them back. They hissed, nothing but toothy little mouths made of darkness.
“Fine,” said Iridium. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re rambling about nothing, Jet. How hard did you hit your head, anyway?”
“Holy Jehovah,” Taser said. “Is this Lynda Kidder?”
Jet made a noise halfway between a laugh and a sob. “Pretending like you don’t know, Iridium? That’s cute. But it won’t work. Not after this.”
She swung at Iridium, a movement far slower than Jet usually managed, and Iridium ducked and blocked, letting the blow bounce off her forearm.
“Stop it,” she warned Jet. “I’m not down here for you. You … why are you down here, anyway?”
“As if you didn’t know,” Jet hissed. “How could you? How could you be working with Everyman?”
Her words shocked Iridium enough that Jet landed a solid blow to her face, snapping her head back. Iridium spat blood and pulled her unikilt aside at the neck, exposing the white line on her breastbone.
“Bitch, does this scar make you think I’d ever work with Everyman?”
“Scum always floats together eventually,” Jet snarled, sending a creeper across the space between them. Iridium fried it with a light beam and Jet grunted, swaying on her feet.
“Catchy,” said Iridium. “The banter writer who came up with that must be so proud. Now stop it, Jet. You’re hurt, and I’m not keen on beating up invalids.”
“So pithy,” Jet said. She attacked Iridium again, a basic combo that they learned their first year of field training, but Iridium didn’t fight back, just deflected, because where was the fun or point of hitting someone who should be on an ambulance hover headed to the hospital?
“Damn it, Jet, knock it off!”
“Always so superior,” Jet growled. “Thought you were so much smarter than me!”
She hit Iridium in the gut, and Iridium let her, then grabbed Jet’s fist and twisted her right arm into a restraining hold. The only way out of that would be for Jet to break her arm to wriggle free. “I am smarter than you, Jet, especially now. I’m not going to warn you again. Let’s talk about this.”
Jet thrashed against her, the water around their feet turning black with creepers. Iridium sent light refracting through the water to scare them off.
With a grunt, Jet twisted violently, and a crack echoed in the tunnel as she pulled free. She didn’t seem to notice her newly broken arm.
She’s really lost it, Iridium thought, grabbing Jet in a bear hug to stop the small woman from hurting herself even more. Blackout all over again. “Jet, stop!”
Then she cried out as Jet slammed her head backward into Iridum’s nose. Iridium felt the give, the hot rush of blood, and pain exploded like supernovas in front of her eyes. She released Jet to clasp both hands over her nose.
“Who’s the genius now?” Jet panted, raising her broken arm. “You may not be so pretty after this, Iri. But hey … at least you’ll still be smart.” She slid into her textbook stance, Shadows growing around her.
Iridium tried to focus on a way to end the fight through the pain. Jet had fought dirty, and she’d gotten her. What a time for Joannie to finally grow some balls.
“Hey,” Taser remarked conversationally, from where he’d been ministering to the fallen mutant. “Kidder’s dead.”
Jet slackened, her hands dropping and her eyes behind her goggles going wide. She turned to face Taser. “What?”
Iridium spun-kicked, her foot connecting with Jet’s jaw. Jet crashed into the wall and slid down it. She landed in a heap, and didn’t move.
“Yikes,” Taser said. “Remind me never to whack your nose.”
“You, I’d just kill,” Iridium said. She bent over Jet, pushing her goggles aside with her fingers to peer into Jet’s eyes. “Joan?”
Jet’s jaw was swelling into a ball-shaped bruise where Iridium’s kick had made contact. She muttered something unintelligible.
“That’s enough,” Iridium said. “Stop fighting me.”
Jet whispered, “Leave me … ’lone.”
“No. You have to stop this.”
Jet tried to sit up, and Iridium pushed her back down.
“Joannie, you’re hurt. Bad. Is heroing worth tearing yourself apart?”
Jet’s mouth set in hateful lines, and Iridium felt like she’d been headbutted all over again. Whenever Jet reminded her that she hated Iridium, that she believed Corp’s lies, it started Iridium’s memories and her own hate all over again. “I’ll die if it means I stop you,” she rasped. “All of you rabids.”
Iridium felt the air chill again and saw the creepers Jet had formed behind her back grow into a Shadow tree. “Have it your way.” She sighed, and hit Jet across the face.
Jet’s head snapped back, and she fell against the wall.
“Come on,” Iridium said to Taser, standing up. “We gotta move.”
“She’s barely awake,” said Taser. “You smacked her good.”
“Yeah, but if she managed to signal Ops before she and I danced, in about two minutes her backup is going to be here.” She stared at Jet’s crumpled form. “I’ve had my fill of Corp lackeys for the day.”
“We’ll split up, meet at the downtown junction,” he said. “It’ll be faster than trying to evade the heroes and the Undergoths together.”
“One hour,” said Iridium. “If you’re not there, I’m going to assume you’re dead.”
“Likewise,” said Taser, turning and jogging down the tunnel past Jet.
Iridium gave her fallen friend one last look, then started running.