It had been the first time I realized I was into women. Not that my interest in men faded in the least, but it was like I was making up for lost time. I found many women to join me in bed after that.

  I sent another pulse, and this time got more powers, but not the one we were looking for. At a shake of my head, Glaze said, “Maybe there’s a better way to narrow down the search?”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “You don’t pay much attention when Dad rambles, do you? Know how the cells on the Citadel are organized? The most dangerous ones will be farther down. Each floor is divided by power types. So if we’re looking for pretty intense powers…” Glaze looked at the floor.

  “That’s right. We’re going to have to descend.”

  What followed was several levels of us sneaking and checking, then sneaking again and rechecking. More than once we thought a security cam or guard would be our tails, but no alarm sounded and soon we were on the floor where I sensed a power that seemed to be the one we were looking for.

  I leaned out at the corner of a blue metal corridor, an echo shooting out to search for powers. Finally, I turned back to the other two. “This is her. Fourth cell on the left.”

  “Glaze, I’m going to need your help here,” I said, and nodded for him to go ahead.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You have your mom’s acidic powers, no? That should get us through the door.”

  Glaze narrowed his eyes, then ran a hand through his green hair. He glanced from me to Amira, then back the way we came.

  “Dude, you can’t back out now,” Amira said.

  “This is too much,” he argued. “I was cool with going along with it, but now you want me to be the one to physically open the door to a high-tier supervillain? You’re both nuts!”

  “Quiet,” I said, then eyed Amira with desperation. “Got any better ideas?”

  She shrugged my way before glaring at Glaze. After a few seconds, she said, “Whip it out.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll suck you dry. Even swallow—if you do this for us.”

  He guffawed, but then clearly seemed to be considering this.

  “You can’t be serious,” I muttered, turning away in case he actually went for the deal. Over my shoulder, I added, “Is this for real?”

  A punch hit my shoulder. I spun to see Amira with her finger in my face. “No, are you insane? I’m not putting his shriveled dick in my mouth just so you can fulfill some prophecy. I was trying to make a point!”

  “That point being?” I rubbed my arm, pain coursing through my shoulder.

  “That he’s right. This is all so ridiculous. You’re asking a lot of us. You not only were going to let your brother break out a supervillain, but…” She cast a disgusted look at his crotch. “You know…”

  “For the record, not shriveled,” he said, then shook his head and let out a sigh. “But I’ll do it.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, excitement rising.

  “You’re right. We came this far, and the ends justify the means. If this saves lives, we kind of have to.” He smiled at Amira. “And if you getting on your knees saves lives—”

  “Not gonna happen,” she replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.

  “Worth a try.” He adjusted his crotch, likely aroused by the idea of what she had sarcastically proposed. I couldn’t blame him. He walked past, pulling out a glove that glowed green with the acid he was about to use.

  We rounded the corner and froze at the sight of a guard staring right at us.

  “You kids shouldn’t be down here,” the woman said, voice muffled by the suit of armor she wore.

  Only one move here—I lunged, diving sideways and shouting, “Lightning!”

  Glaze cursed but moved quickly enough, baton drawn and connecting with a stun that threw the guard back and to the floor. As bursts of electricity rose up from the woman and she twitched, a stench like burnt flesh hit my nostrils. When she finally stopped moving, I nearly gagged. Most of the smell was contained to her armor, but not enough.

  “You… killed her,” Amira said, wide eyed.

  Glaze just stared at the baton in his hands. Finally, he dropped it. I pushed the horror aside and stepped in to pick up the baton, gesturing to the fourth door on the left.

  “We’re… walking a thin line here,” Amira said.

  “No,” Glaze finally managed. “We crossed the line. Oh, fuck… fuck-fuck-fuck!”

  “Pull yourself together. It’s done!” I hissed, then stepped up and slapped him before he could say another word. “It sucks. None of us want that, but it’s time to move quickly, or all this was for nothing.”

  “Sis—”

  “Do you want to end up behind one of these doors? No, so fucking move!”

  He moved like a zombie, but moved nonetheless. A second later, he had the acid moving along the edge of the door. When he was done, the door fell off with a heavy clang.

  Within was a woman lying on a bed, raising her head to look at us. Her eyes were wild with swirling green and blue, her hair was a mess, and she wore a black jumpsuit.

  “Who…?” she started, but I didn’t give her a chance to say more or use her powers on us. I lunged forward with Glaze’s baton, thrusting. The electricity shot out, but had been mostly used up apparently, as now it only hit with a light zap. She threw herself to the floor, rolling to avoid another strike, while Glaze lunged at my side.

  The woman attempted to rise, but Glaze landed on her and replicated his limbs. A second later, he had four arms and four legs wrapped around this woman. Amira lunged forward, thumbs thrust into the woman’s eyes. A scream emitted from the woman’s lungs, and I sensed that she was connecting with something out there. I needed to act fast.

  “Do you have it?” I asked Amira.

  “Almost.”

  “We need to move now!” I shouted.

  “ALMOST!”

  Tensed up, chest thudding, I knew there was no time.

  “Done!” Amira shouted, reeling back and away from us. Reaching out to the woman in Glaze’s grip, I activated the other part of my powerset, the one that caused mixing of powers, and shifted her powers to Glaze.

  He grunted in annoyance as his extra limbs disappeared, while six arms grew from the woman. Then Glaze’s eyes swirled like hers. He let out a sob, tears falling from his eyes, and said, “Get me out of here! He knows we’re coming…”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “The man you’re after,” the woman said between breaths, and I looked to see blood streaming from her eyes as she apparently tried to use her powers but found them not working properly.

  “How do you know about him?” I asked.

  “Fool, how exactly do you think my powers work? Or are you so stupid you don’t even know who it is you’re breaking free?”

  A hint of a smile showed on the woman’s face, but it didn’t last long—not after my boot connected with her pretty nose, and not after it crashed down on her again and again. One good edge of my boot to her throat cut off her air, and as Glaze shoved her off and pushed himself away in surprise, I knelt and slid my knife from its sheath, ending the woman.

  “We aren’t breaking you free,” I said, wiping the blood on my blade onto her jumpsuit.

  “What the fuck?” Glaze muttered.

  “She was too dangerous. We couldn’t just free her and hope to put her back.”

  Amira put a hand to her mouth, looking at me like I was a monster. But I stood, nodded back the way we’d come, and started walking.

  “Shouldn’t we tell Breaker, so that he and the Berserkers can go hunt down this fucker?” Glaze asked as he caught up to me, Amira not far behind.

  I shook my head, not even looking at him after such a stupid comment.

  “But…”

  “Do you want to fulfill the prophecy or not?” I asked, finally spinning on him, this time to put a finger in his face. My nostrils flared, chest rising and falling rapidly. “Because this is our path. It’s not Breaker’s, it’s not our dad’s… it is OURS.”

  His eyes were wide, but after a couple of seconds, he said, “Fine. Yes. We do it your way.”

  Lowering my finger, I gave him a nod. We would have to sneak back out, and quickly. This was going to come back to bite us in the asses, but at least we had a path to follow.

  I continued back to the ship with him and Amira in tow. She had her path, and now all we needed to do was submerge her in water and let her superpowers work their magic, then hope we could find a way to actually get the Cosmic Connector away from Ragnor without getting ourselves killed.

  CHAPTER 23: BREAKER

  Alien Planet

  The first halls inside of the fortress were empty, so I had to wonder if this was even the right place. I glanced at Charm and found her rattled, likely from the guilt she still felt about her role in Kai’s disappearance. How the hell was I going to get through to her that it wasn’t her fault? She’d messed up by holding onto such vital information for so long, but I would never blame her or hold something like this against her.

  “Anything look familiar?” I asked as we walked through the outer halls, working our way in.

  She nodded, watching as Laurel sent her little light familiar off to scout ahead of us. Meanwhile, Aegriss scanned for electric signals or anything she could find to hack into.

  At a look from me, she said, “Only getting garbled comms. I can’t translate them yet but will keep trying.”

  “Keep trying, and see if you can locate Kai.”

  “I’m trying a mental search, seeing if I can find his thoughts,” Laurel said, while at her side Harp was a the ready and behind her Harp stood ready and Muerta was a few steps back with Aegriss, checking for other ways around or any enemies coming from the rear.

  Shimmer waved her big fucking gun, or BFG, around, scanning for trouble. “Do you know what we’re looking for?”

  “There was a room where they were building the metal fox armor,” Charm replied. “But I have no idea if that’s where they would have taken Kai.”

  “Tell us what they were doing, exactly,” Leticia said.

  “Best guess from what I saw, they’d figured out a way to siphon powers from supers, and funneled them into the armor. Maybe to the people themselves? I’m not sure.”

  “No shit?” Andromida warped the metal of a wall nearby to create an opening for us to pass through. “Like the pyramids…”

  I glanced back at Twitch, noting her irritation—she could have made that opening by manipulating the code of reality and avoided the screeching of metal that accompanied Andromida’s method, but too late now.

  “It matches the plan,” Leticia said. “I mean, back then there had been talk of something of this scale, but we were a long way off.”

  “Talk among you and… those we saw?” I asked.

  Leticia cocked her head, but then turned to Death Girl and received a nod. “I suppose you would have, yes. There is much to discuss if they are involved, but it can wait.”

  “Agreed,” I replied. “For now, we focus on the sarcophagi and finding my son.”

  “Your mom would be interested in all of this power-stealing tech,” Gale said to me. “I mean, after we saved her from something so similar.”

  “My guess is that she and my dad are off fighting their own battles,” I replied with a grumble, still annoyed that they hadn’t agreed to join us or serve at the Citadel. Some supers simply didn’t want to fall under the structure that Hadrian had set up. I got that. What I didn’t get was how, after not seeing their kids for so long, they could just be on their way again. Drew never seemed to care, having put more stock in our Earth parents, but I couldn’t help the fact that it got under my skin.

  “I don’t get it—where the fuck is everyone?” Muerta glanced around, eyes glowing gold and clearly ready to blow some shit up.

  “Don’t do anything that would give our position away,” I noted, glancing Andromida’s way as well to see if she got the message.

  “Forget that,” Andromida countered. “We’re looking for them, but I’d be just as happy to have them come to us. Either way, we’ll slaughter them.”

  “After getting answers.”

  “Maybe it’s some sort of cult shit and we’re going to find them in a room with ancient magic and lava,” Charm pondered. “Like, they’re going to sacrifice him because he’s a virgin and all that.”

  “Hmm, I’m thinking I shouldn’t have shown you the Temple of Doom movie. Still giving you nightmares?”

  “And I’m thinking Charm is out of touch if she thinks Kai’s a virgin,” Gale said with a chuckle.

  I shook my head, then shrugged. “You know what? You’re right, Andromida. Let’s see if we can bring these fuckers to us. Let’s make some noise.”

  “You’re serious?” Andromida asked, a grin on her blue-purple lips.

  “Tear this place a new asshole.”

  She didn’t hesitate, and even as Twitch started to protest, Andromida shot off, tearing through walls and leaving a path in her wake.

  “Time for some fun!” Muerta added, and a second later debris from the torn metal was glowing gold and flying through the air, exploding against other walls.

  “Shit, Breaker,” Twitch said, coming to my side as she created an energy shield to protect us from the blasts. “The days of subtlety are behind us, I see.”

  “I’m done being cautious,” I replied. “Spread out, but not too far—find any sign of them you can, and if any one of us finds trouble, alert the others. We’ll converge on your location.”

  “Deal!” Shimmer shouted, joining Gale to sprint off through one of Andromida’s tunnels.

  I nodded to Twitch, who narrowed her eyes and then put her screens up, creating new openings for us to move through. Charm, to my relief, joined us. I always preferred to have her at my side during a fight. The same could be said for any of them, but it was especially true with her.

  Laurel, Harp, Leticia, and Death Girl went with Muerta.

  Walls vanished from our path, but when we came upon a staircase that led up to an area with tall windows above, Charm put a hand on Twitch’s shoulder.

  “Careful here,” Charm said. “We might want to run tests on their equipment when all of this is done.”

  I almost made a joke about her testing my equipment when this was all done, but I let the words die in my throat.

  “I’m actually picking up something,” Twitch replied, having to raise her voice to be heard over the distant screeching of metal and the boom of explosions.

  “Oh?” I scanned the area and saw several screens pop up, scattered about but in an oddly organized manner. The closest read:

  Name: Flintlock

  Powers: Beastmaster with Eagle familiar.

  Notes: Brought to modern times from the late 1800s, most likely as a result of the group termed the “Lost Pirates.”

  “Holy shit,” I said, then ran a hand over my mouth, wondering what this meant. During my journeys I’d come across a group of time travelers, some of whom were clearly pirates, but I wasn’t sure what to make of this.

  These were the same style as the sarcophagus-like boxes I’d rescued my mom from in the pyramid. As I approached, I knew exactly what that meant—whoever this Flintlock person was, they were siphoning his powers. A glance around revealed why the other names were showing up so organized—rows of these sarcophagi were lined up, all connected to their fucking power-stealing machine.

  Fuck me.

  I knelt, looked up at Twitch, and together we adjusted the code with our hacker skills to ensure the machine was paused and unlocked. With a grunt, I heaved it open. Within was a man with a shaved head and a beard sprinkled with gray. Sleeping on his chest was an eagle!

  “What in the world?” Twitch said.

  I leaned in and examined the man more closely. He was wearing a leather jacket and his hands rested against it, holding something—a golden medallion with an eagle emblazoned on it.

  Twitch gasped as she realized what this meant. “A Guardian! I’ve heard of them… superhuman abilities bestowed by ancient artifacts. Very powerful beings from myths and legends.”

  “No wonder the cult wanted to steal their powers,” Charm said with a shake of her head, then turned to the first as he started to wake.

  I joined her, not sure if this man would be friend or foe. “Sir, we have to get you out of here…”

  Charm had opened the next box and peered in. “What do you know?” she said, her voice filled with awe. “A second one!” She stepped back to reveal another sleeping figure, this one wearing a black hooded robe and gripping a staff with a strange symbol at its top—a sparrow or some kind of bird.

  We quickly made our way down the line of boxes, each revealing someone powerful underneath. There were Guardians from all walks of life, from different places and times—they had been summoned here and put into these boxes to have their powers stolen!

  With Twitch’s help, we managed to unlock the boxes one by one and carefully got each Guardian out before he or she woke up. We had made it about halfway down this line when we saw there were many more.

  A roar emerged from the first man, now very much awake. He stood, the eagle flapping up to circle around his head, then perch on his outstretched forearm. Its wings were tipped gold, as well as its beak.

  “You sons of bitches can’t take me alive,” he snarled, then reached for his hip only to find no gun or sword or whatever he’d been hoping to find. “My pistol! What’d you do with it!”

  “We’re not your enemy,” Twitch said, shooting me a ‘help me out here’ look.

  “So you say, but… we’ll see about that.”

  Before I could get out another word, he spread his arms and the eagle leaped for us, talons exposed, while the man’s jacket shot out behind him and seemed to engulf him before he leaped into the air and became a second eagle!

  “Whoa!” Charm muttered, stepping back from them and bracing herself. She let out a quick breath for calm, and then dodged out of the way.

  The eagle landed on me, causing a flash of energy to surge through my body. It wasn’t pain, but more like the sensation of being read. When it pulled back to spin in a flashy circle of brown with the shifter, I felt another shot of energy, and then the man was back in his human form.