The Fall of Awesome

Chapter Five



Kevinwalked onto the terrace as the explosion swept past the door. He sawSpeed-girl with her arms around Incredi-Girl amid the destroyed potsand charred leaves. The terrace was damaged further down, a largehole in the railing and floor. The Tower itself had shrugged off theblast. The two women were looking very surprised to be alive.

Kevinwalked over. The two looked at each other then looked at him. Hereached out and took the amulet in one hand, the movement bringinghim close to Incredi-Girl.

“Knowingwhat I know, I would not have left you defenseless.” He glancedaround the garden. “I will admit some personal shame at whathappened though. I should have had more warning.”

Mysticappeared from behind him. Speed-girl jumped then looked a littlesheepish.

Mysticlooked closely at the amulet. “A rather powerful charm, don’t youthink?” There was a larger question in her voice. Whywould Incredi-Girl need so much protection?

Aloud screeching noise came from the doorway and Freedom slid throughit, stopping well short of the edge with practiced ease. Awesome,flying along the ceiling, followed and landed towards thenon-destroyed corner. LL and Angel were next, the first hovering outover the edge and scanning the sky while Angel moved next to Mystic,his wings out somewhat protectively.

“Whathappened?” Freedom asked.

“Bombardier.”Kevin replied. “He is fleeing,” a finger pointed down and throughthe building, moving slightly as it tracked the villain’s progress.“I’m wondering why the wards I set up around Incredi-Girl failedto give more warning, but a better question for you is why thebuilding’s alarms failed, and have in fact still failed, to sound.”


Freedom’sarmored head swiveled back to the door. From the smirk on Awesome’sface Freedom was saying words that he wasn’t letting through thearmor’s speakers. Kevin saw Incredi-Girl’s forehead wrinkle, butsaid nothing.

“Well,while you brains deal with that stuff, I’ll go and pick upBomb-boy.” Awesome started to rise.

“Stop.”Kevin said. It wasn’t shouted, or even particularly loud, butAwesome dropped back to the floor. “Why don’t you stay here,since the Tower’s defenses are apparently down. It has been a whilesince I have earned my membership to the Super Squad and perhaps thecity should know I’m back. I will deal with Bombardier.”

Incredi-girlopened her mouth to say something but Kevin was already gone.

TheBombardier had dropped as fast as he could, worried the flight packwould not be able to slow him if he dropped too fast. He hadn’tworked out how fast it could go but speed seemed important now. Hefelt he would have a better chance among the buildings. He needed tobe lower.

Allthe way to the shelter of the first skyscraper he expected to feelIncredi-Girls hands grab him, or perhaps some of the CaptainAwesome’s heat vision, disabling the flight pack. Perhaps he shouldgo lower? He needed to get further from the Tower first. Too low andhe wouldn’t be able to go as fast.

Herounded a building to get something between him and the Tower. Itprobably didn’t matter, but he felt better. The explosion was over.One of his children, it’s whole life lived and he hadn’t seen anyof it. If he had stayed they would have had him now. It stillsaddened him. He flew a little lower.


Aroundanother building and there was a man just standing in midair like hewas waiting for a light to change. He was also in Bombardier’spath. The flight pack brought him to a halt. The man smiled.

“Whatmade you attack Incredi-Girl? Seems a risky thing to do.” He asked.

Bombardierwas a confused. He didn’t know this man. Was he a hero? Some newindependent who happened to see what Bombardier had just done? Or wasthis the new villain? The videos had been shaky. It was hard to saywhat he looked like. The man just stood there, waiting for an answer.

“Shewas there. She was going to see me. I didn’t want her to catch me.”Bombardier realized he was shaking. He was terrified. Of this man? “Ididn’t want to go back to jail. They don’t let me watch mychildren there.” He had to stifle a sob. “I just wanted to watchmy children grow on the Tower, I was just going to plant seeds towatch them grow and there she was. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Theman nodded.

Bombardierpulled a seed and threw it at him. It was a small one since they wereso close. It hit the man and grew. He saw the reflection off thebuildings around them. Little white flashes as people took pictures.He smiled. It was a small explosion but it should be enough to…

Theblast cleared, too fast. Like flower pedals ripped away in the wind.The man was still there. He wasn’t even singed. Even Awesome wouldhave been singed. Who was this man? Bombardier wanted to flee but hewas frozen, terrified, unable to move.


“Well,thank you for answering my question but I am afraid I can’t let yougo.” The man pulled a small crystal from his pocket and held it fora moment, looking thoughtfully at it. “Normally I would simply lockyou up and leave you but I know from past experience that isn’t howSuper City likes to deal with this sort of thing. Too bad, Isuppose.” He pointed the crystal at Bombardier and everything wentblack.

Incredi-Girlclosed her mouth. There wasn’t anyone to talk to. Mystic waslooking at her thoughtfully. That was a converstation they were goingto have to have. She looked at Awesome, who was staring angrily inthe direction Kevin had been pointing before disappearing Probablytrying to find the Bombardier himself and take off. She was reluctantto admit her loss of powers in front of him but supposed he wouldhave to know sooner or later. Maybe they would take her off the team.She had never known any other life on this Earth and her old life wasso long ago she barely remembered it.

Andyet, for a moment, she thought she heard Freedom swear in his armor.That was probably just her imagination. She knew him well enough toknow he was swearing and her mind filled it in.

Still.

“Okaypeople.” Freedom spoke up. “LL and Awesome, start checking theexterior sensors to see if they were damaged or removed. I’ll headback to the control room to see if there was a software issue orRuler did something to the network while he was in the building.”He paused, helmet sort of pointed at Mystic. She was from theGuardians. Super City was having a host of it’s own problems. Hecouldn’t tell her to do anything.



Mysticspoke up, not taking her eyes off Incredi-Girl. “Angel will provideair surveillance and I will establish warning wards in the area thatwill alert me or Kevin to potential threats.”

“Howcome Angel is air cover? I’m faster and stronger.” Awesome said.He had apparently given up on looking for Bombardier. Or perhaps he’dseen Kevin had already caught him.

Freedomdidn’t turn around. “Because you should know the location of allthe sensors and he doesn’t.”

Incredi-Girlknew where they were. It was part of the monthly briefing. WhenAwesome showed up at all he rarely paid attention. It was clear hehad only a vague idea where they were.

“Irecall most of the locations from my time here.” Angel said. He hadalso caught the look on Awesome’s face. “Though I cannot fly asclose to the building as others.”

“Good,it’s settled then.” Awesome said, and took off straight up.

LLwatched him for a minute, looked at Freedom and shrugged. “I’lltake the downwind sides of the building, Angel will have an easiertime with turbulence,” and he drifted away.

Aftera long look at Mystic and a light touch on her shoulder Angel turnedand leapt off the edge of the terrace, reappearing after a moment,wings fully extended as he banked away.

Mystictook a step back, adding space between her and Incredi-Girl while notgetting any closer to Speed-girl or Freedom. The aura of restrainedpower Kevin carried with him where-ever he went seemed to gather andsettle on her. “You will now explain what has happened withIncredi-Girl.”


Speed-girlwas between Mystic and Incredi-Girl in an instant, unsure what wasabout to happen but aware Mystic had just become very dangerous.Speed-girl didn’t know many specifics about her powers. The canewas magic. She had other magical items. She was with the Guardiansand it hadn’t really ever occurred to Speed-girl to catalogMystic’s powers. Besides, she was a hero, why the suddenthreatening air?

“Relax,everyone.” Freedom said. His face plate swung open and it was clearfrom his face he didn’t like what he was about to say.

“I’velost my powers.” Incredi-Girl said, beating him too it. Mystic’seyes narrowed. “Something Ruler did,” Incredi-Girl continued. “I,we, don’t know if its permanent or even how he did it. Kevinsuggested I spend some time out here before the briefing but hedidn’t tell me it started. I would have come back in, not that Ican do much at the moment.”

Mysticlooked at her for another moment. Then nodded. “I wonder,” shesaid, then stopped. “I will need to go and establish the wards. Ibeleive Kevin will be back in a moment.” And she was gone.

“Howdo they do that?” Speed-girl asked.

“Magic,of course.” Kevin said. Everyone turned. He was near the crater inthe terrace looking down through the hole. He turned to look ateveryone and flashed a large grin at Speed-girl. “But I think youknew that.”

“Bombardier?”Incredi-Girl asked. She knew Kevin was sometimes more…permanent…thanSuper City liked when he stopped a villain.


Kevinreached into a pocket and pulled out a crystal. It had a faint greenlight inside, barely visible in the sunlight. “He is in here andcan be let out at any time. I think he rather enjoys it more thanjail since he gets to watch explosions over and over. I wonder ifthey will let me put him back. Probably not.” The crystal went backinto his pocket. He looked around at the wreckage. “It will need alittle more than fresh paint, I think.”

“Whatdid you learn?” Freedom asked.

“Bombardierwas merely planning to plant explosives on the exterior of thebuilding. He stumbled across Incredi-Girl then decided to attack her.The wards were set to go off for that threat but since he hadn’tbeen planning on attacking her until a millisecond before he didthere was little warning. Now, what about the building?”

“Angeland LL are preforming a sweep. Mystic said she was going to set upwards to warn us, well you and her, if something like this starts tohappen again.”

“AndAwesome?” Kevin asked, then looked up. “Ah. Perhaps we shouldhave moved in doors.”

Awesomewas hovering over the Tower. He could see the whole of Super Cityfrom here but he could also hear what was being said on the terrace.So the alien bitch had lost her powers, huh? That explained why Kevinhad shown up. Without her powers she was just another one of thoseblond bimbos he picked up in the clubs, flew to a tall buildingsomewhere for their business, and then dropped off. She didn’tbelong on the team but with Kevin here she couldn’t be kicked off.



Ofcourse, it wasn’t that simple. She was still an alien and Awesomehad to admit she was a smoking hot one. Even without her powers shewas a good public relations move for him. Now that she didn’t haveher powers and risked being kicked out of the Tower maybe she wouldsee she needed Awesome’s help. He knew what price he was going toask for it.

No,that was why she had called Kevin, her little pencil neck boyfriendwho had probably never even kissed a girl before that alien freak.Awesome didn’t like him, but there was no doubting the little punkhad serious power. That seemed seriously unfair. Wasn’t he, CaptainAwesome, the greatest hero on the planet? Kevin, or whatever heroname he was going to use this time, never flew into space to smash anasteroid. Dammit, even the alien freak couldn’t do that.

Helet his eyes sweep over the city. There were fires here and there.Emergency services were working on them. He could count six battlesbetween heroes and villains. Awesome figured he could have thevillains stopped and the fires out in about five minutes ofconcentrated work, but it was important to let the little peoplehandle the things they could while he kept an eye out for biggerthings.

LLand Angel were still flitting around the Tower and a few nearbybuildings. What the hell had gotten into LL? He used to be cool butlately he was starting to get all pissy and whiny Maybe the guy wastalking to Roger too much. The old fart really needed to retire. IfFreedom left and LL got his head out of his ass then the team wouldrock. Linda would realize she needed a real man and not some nerd andAwesome could arrange LL and Speed-girl hooking up. She wasn’t allthat bad looking and a tiger in bed. Probably more than LL couldhandle, but whatever.

Awesomeraised his eyes to scan the sky, not that anyone would be stupidenough to sneak up on him.


Andthere was Ruler, 50 feet behind him and a little higher. Awesome gotready to smash into the little jerk but the villain raised a hand.

“Weshould talk.”