Even more crazy, unless I was seeing things, Charm had a second tail!

  They were taking care of it, but I had to do my part to see this over. Whatever part of me that felt completely betrayed by Orion Corp. craved it. As Shimmer shot her massive rifle point-blank at Killart, I attempted a mental attack to stop him from blocking it.

  Only, I couldn’t find anything there. Strange, unless… I searched the nearby area, and indeed found an aura that spoke of confidence and aggression. Changing my attack, I tried to get into its mind. A moment later, a blast hit Killart that sent Shimmer flying. When she came up, she had a plate of shattered, glowing jewels, and Killart was on one knee.

  Breaker moved in to strike the fallen being with Charm and Shimmer, none of them realizing that this wasn’t the real thing. Only I seemed to know. I targeted the real one and watched as the face before the rest of them glitched out for a moment, giving it away.

  “A fucking hologram,” Breaker said, eyes searching the room.

  I pushed out, projecting the location of the enemy as best I could.

  “On it,” Aegriss shouted, then pointed to the back wall. Had she picked up my image? I couldn’t tell.

  While my team and I sent another volley of counter-fire down the halls, finishing off the last of the would-be attackers, Andromida pulled the metal wall away to reveal a man in a sort of virtual reality getup. The helmet was off in a second, his mouth open as he shot up, staring.

  Then the fucker fainted.

  “This is their CEO?” Breaker looked around at the others. “And he’d been controlling that thing… here?”

  “Imagine a whole army of those.” Gale shook her head at the thought.

  “Do we… kill him?”

  Letha took a deep breath. “We have a destination in mind?”

  “We do. We’re all going to the Citadel, if you’ll come. It’s in the universe where the supers are. Like a governmental seat of superheroes, I guess?”

  “Close enough,” Gale said.

  Letha nodded, considering this. “We bring him along for questioning. He was scared shitless at the sight of us coming up against the real him. He’ll talk, and we can find out what sort of forces we’re dealing with.”

  “Maybe more about the nature of this relationship they had with Ranger, and the whole thing with the Nihilists, too,” Breaker added.

  Darnell picked the man up, threw him over his shoulder, and turned with a grunt. Explosions reminded me that the battle wasn’t over, and a few of Trunk’s fighters returned fire.

  “Back to the ships!” Breaker commanded.

  “We’ll leave the rest of them?” I asked, hand on my pistol and ready to finish the enemy off.

  “Aegriss, Twitch, and I can do what needs to be done,” Breaker said, indicating the way back to the ships, as best I could figure it.

  We moved out, back to the ships as Breaker sent a message for all to run who didn’t want to be aligned with Orion Corp., as he started a self-destruct sequence for the station.

  I shared Cheri’s excited grin, knowing we had done it, that we weren’t only successful in taking out the top Orion Corp. assholes, but we were in with Breaker and the others. The Citadel would have to welcome us with open arms.

  Mer was waiting for us at the ship, not quite feeling comfortable on her land legs or with the act of shifting yet. Soon we were strapped in, preparing to fly off.

  “Good news,” Andromida said, appearing on the screen. “The Citadel will bring us through. Prepare to enter a gate and be done with this mess.”

  “Works for me,” I said, watching Cheri as her face lit up with excitement at the explosions that started to rock the station. It was adorable how much she got off on this stuff. Soon, we were flying off with the rest of our little fleet, leaving all that behind.

  Orion Corp. wasn’t completely destroyed but this had been a good blow against them. The first in a big domino chain, I hoped. But that bounty hunter from the old days… Seeing Maji here had been unsettling, and I had a feeling that wasn’t the last I would see of the fucker.

  Next stop—the Citadel.

  99

  I refused to slouch before these supers of the Citadel, refused to show them one ounce of doubt in myself. While I had served the other side, in a roundabout way, that didn’t make me any less of a hero now than any of them. Not in my mind.

  We walked away from our ships, most of the crowd staring at Breaker, but plenty enough looking our way to make me nervous. This wasn’t just the center of what the supers stood for, it had, until recently, been the staging ground for all manner of attacks and defense, as well as the home for such elders as the famous Xin. I looked down at the Citadel essence-based shin and arm guards we had donned back on Abaddon, the ones that allowed us to level up. Would these supers let us keep them, once they found out what we wore?

  Letha glanced my way with a nod, her emotional aura like, ‘Isn’t this crazy?’ and I nodded back, wide-eyed and stiff.

  “Hey, there,” Cheri said to an extremely buff woman who was looking our way. “Founding member of the Psychobitches. Name’s Cheri.”

  “A pleasure,” the woman said, nodding and eyeing me briefly with curiosity before moving on.

  Cheri grinned, introducing herself in almost the same way to a man. When she had introduced herself like that to a fourth super, Erupa put a hand on her shoulder and asked, “What’re you doing?”

  “What’s it sound like?” Cheri grinned. “Making sure everyone here knows the Psychobitches name, and knows I helped found the team. Gotta get ourselves in their minds, you know? Make an impression.

  I then saw that Breaker was speaking with a woman who had short, black hair, and she was motioning for us to follow her.

  “That’s Lamb,” Cheri said, indicating her. “The one who made our armor, kind of.”

  “How do you know?” I asked. “Oh, right. The voices.”

  Cheri chuckled, shaking her head. “Overheard it, actually.”

  I grinned sheepishly.

  Lamb beckoned to us and said, “All of you.”

  I guessed that meant we were to follow, and since I was way out of my depth and trying to fit in here, I nodded and did so. Charm was talking to someone excitedly, a girl with large eyes, pointy ears, and blue hair with what looked like antennae sticking out of her head, but then the two of them noticed us moving forward and they both joined us.

  “Laurel’s coming,” Charm said, pulling over the blue-haired lady.

  “Am I?” Laurel eyed us all in a very penetrating way, and her aura spoke of knowing us, even though this was our first time of meeting.

  “Sorry, who is this?” Aegriss asked.

  I was intrigued by the fact that I read emotions coming from the android, and not for the first time. That didn’t exactly make sense, considering her robotic nature, so it made me pause and consider her.

  When I blinked, I realized that Laurel was staring at me. I returned the stare, only then noticing that the green of her eyes— more turquoise than green—left no room for white. And there was an interesting aspect to her aura that I picked up on immediately. Not directed at me, naturally, but love. Toward Charm? Love, and something else—sorrow, mixed with confusion. There was a past between those two, and it was a complicated one.

  “She’s kinda reading his thoughts,” Cheri hissed, and that threw me. Was I reading Laurel’s emotions as she read my thoughts? An odd loop, that concept.

  “Something she does,” Charm replied.

  Laurel nodded at me, offered a smile, but then turned as Charm started to walk off. While they spoke with Lamb briefly, I turned to Cheri and whispered, “That was weird.”

  “Lilly says to leave those two alone.” Cheri frowned at Laurel, who had taken Charm’s hand. “A history, for sure.”

  “Complicated.”

  We started walking again, them in the lead with my team hanging back slightly. Mer was there with us, giving me shy smiles whenever I glanced her way, and I had to laugh once at the way she was acting like a young woman who’d just had her first kiss. It was adorable, and totally unbelievable for someone with her looks.

  Tink and Erupa were both taking the quiet stranger approach to this place, and could almost be mistaken for my bodyguards if nobody knew any better. Then again, in a way they kind of were, and me theirs.

  When we were at a good stopping point away from the ships, Breaker said, “This is Lamb. She’s going to tell us exactly what’s going on.”

  “Lamb.” Trunk laughed. “Hey, they call me ‘Trunk,’ who’m I to judge?”

  “Why’s he called that?” Mer asked quietly, to which Cheri placed her forearm at her crotch and extended the rest, letting it swing like an elephant’s trunk. Mer blushed, glanced my way, and said, “Oh, dear.”

  “Oh dear, is right,” one of the ladies who we’d seen traveling with Trunk said, and grinned. “It’s a blessing and a curse, trust me.”

  “Moving on,” Erupa said, wrapping her arm in mine.

  The others had kept on, but now Lamb turned to the crowd gathered on one side and addressed the audience. “Allow me to introduce the second son of Apollo. Breaker.” Some applause followed, and she went on. “As you can imagine, his brother… and others, will be excited to see him, too. After he’s been debriefed, I’m sure he’d like to get to know some of you, fill us all in on what’s been happening, and who knows, maybe show off a skill or two?”

  The crowd cheered at that. Lamb guided him to the massive doors she had emerged from. Meanwhile, I was left looking out over the crowd, wondering who these supers were who had gathered to essentially serve under Breaker and his brother, it sounded like.

  “Where’s our fancy introduction?” Cheri noted, a bit louder than I would have liked. At least nobody seemed to notice. Then, as the others went through the doors, she held up her hands to those supers still looking our way and said, “Let me introduce the leader of the Psychobitches—Ezra the Lawbringer! Sheriff of the land.”

  Murmurs and confusion followed. I felt my posture start to give.

  “Isn’t bitches a term used for women?” a man asked, looking perplexed.

  Cheri chuckled. “Only if you’re a little bitch, yourself.”

  The guy frowned, apparently debating whether he should be offended by that.

  “Thanks, Cheri,” I said, taking her by the arm and guiding her and the others to catch up with Breaker. “They’ll get to know us in time. Don’t worry.”

  She kissed my cheek, ignoring the eye-roll from Erupa. We caught up with Lamb and the others as she told Breaker that, at this moment, his brother was fighting to get rid of Nihilist ships that had been plaguing the Citadel, and Cheri filled me in on what her voices were telling her. They could be quite useful, knowing so much more than she would if she had just been reading minds, as reading minds often only looked at current thoughts of the target.

  “The Nihilist invasion seems to have caused major shifts in the makeup of the Citadel,” Cheri explained. “Former Elders are gone, part of it dealing with a sacrifice to set up barriers and repel the large force, while also finding replacements. That led to Breaker and Drew being involved, among others. What if… what if you could be one of these Elders someday?”

  I scoffed. “What? No, I wouldn’t want it.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Tell me, does the title Elder come with a law enforcement badge?”

  She frowned. “As far as I know, there’s not much higher in that regard.”

  “Nah, you’re talking politicians,” I countered. “For me, it’s about being on the ground, where the action is.”

  “You can’t seriously think that once Breaker becomes an Elder, he’ll just sit around making decisions and holding conferences all day.”

  My mouth opened as if to respond, but I had no answer to that. She made a valid point, but still, something about it wouldn’t feel right to me. I wasn’t Elder material. Not yet, anyway.

  “Let them do theirs,” I shook my head, indicating my chest and the word ‘Police’ as I added, “I’ll do mine.”

  Breaker glanced back our way, nodded as if on cue, and then led the way through the massive, silver-inlaid doors.

  100

  Our group entered a large room with fighter craft on one side, statues surrounding us in a semi-circle. Grand, towering statues of past men and women—the gods. Lamb was telling us about how they were fighting the Nihilists, how the strange beings were traveling to our galaxy via a system that somehow left them partly here, partly in another dimension, or something like that. I was always the type to not care about that stuff. Tell me who did wrong and consider them taken care of.

  What did catch my attention was when the large crystal things lit up and a figure stepped out, talking about winning the battle with the devices that he had just traveled on.

  “Who’s that?” I asked Cheri, who was frowning.

  “Lilly says he’s the one,” she replied.

  “The one…?”

  “Hadrian himself.”

  I stared, impressed, having heard conflicting stories on all sides of morality when related to this man. When listening to the tales from bounty worlds, he was the scourge of space, the worst piece of shit to ever sail a ship. Then get out to most of the other worlds, and they looked up to him like a god. The Citadel was their Mount Olympus, this guy their Zeus. I fucking loved his getup—a scarred-over eye offset by shiny red armor and a gold cape. The fucking balls on that guy to go around like that.

  Next, I saw a side of the notorious Blue Lady I never could have imagined. She looked somewhere between weeping and laughing, then ran to throw her arms around Hadrian.

  “I thought you were dead,” she said.

  It took me a moment of watching this back and forth to realize she was his daughter, and then she confirmed it.

  “Come, everyone,” Hadrian motioned to the glowing crystals. “Are you ready to see what we’re up against?”

  “I’d like to know what the fuck is going on, first of all,” Cheri said, causing others nearby to mumble and nod.

  With a laugh, Hadrian said, “There’s a long story for you in that, but the simple version is we thought we were defeated. We made great sacrifices, and now, thanks in large part to Breaker and his brother, Drew, we’ve been making great strides to free the Citadel of this alien menace, to see that the Nihilists and the supervillains they’re working with are removed from the equation.”

  “How?” Breaker asked.

  “It’s easier if I show you.”

  I was about to protest, wanting to ask more questions, when he made some gesture toward the pyramid-shaped item and light shot out, engulfing us.

  When it was gone, we weren’t on the Citadel anymore. In fact, we were well above it, I saw through parts of the ground that were translucent. The rest of the ground was metal with metal domes, ships staged with protective shields. Shadows floated in the distance, which I took to be the enemy, although all auras from Hadrian and others I now sensed nearby spoke of confidence. This was the forward base, the point of attack against the Nihilists that had caused so many problems for the Citadel.

  “Go for the whiskey,” Lamb was telling Cheri, and I realized they were indicating one of the metal domes that was apparently operating as a bar. A pleasant surprise, to be sure. “It’s made following old Earth instructions. Imported from the planet Inton.”

  “No shit?” Cheri nodded, impressed, and nudged Charm. “Don’t worry, girl, we’ll take good care of you.”

  Charm laughed, shrugging my way and giving Laurel a look of ‘what can I do?’ before walking off with the rest of them to the ‘bar.’

  They walked off, but I turned to Lamb, clearing my throat.

  “Yes?” Lamb asked.

  “About the… well, we found some items back on Abaddon. Items that have been allowing us to level up, and I hear you—”

  “They’re exactly where they need to be,” she cut in.

  “Are you sure?”

  With a pleasant smile, she nodded. “Enjoy yourselves, Ezra. And welcome to the Citadel.”

  I was beaming with pride as she walked off, amazed that they were letting us keep the items we had found, which also meant the upgrades we had received. Possibly future upgrades, too.

  Breaker was interacting with others emotionally, embracing someone I took to be either his brother or father, so I figured I would leave them to it and headed for the bar after the ladies. Cheri had taken a seat with Charm and one who had been pointed out to me earlier as Threed, who was apparently on Drew’s team. I nodded to the rest of my team and told them to spread out, get to know the others.

  “I’d rather have a drink with you,” Tink said.

  “We’ll have plenty of chances for that,” I replied and kissed the back of her hand. “But right now, mingle and see what you can learn from these supers. The sooner we find a place to fit in here, the better.”

  “If we haven’t proven ourselves after what we just did…” Erupa scrunched her nose. “We’re fucked.”

  I laughed, nodding at that. “Not what I mean, though. We’re good, in with Breaker and them, I’m sure. But we don’t know what sort of role we’ll play here, how this works. Better to be informed.”

  “Sure, sure.” The two walked off, Mer in tow, and sat at a table with a few men, as if that was supposed to bother me. It didn’t, though, because I knew they weren’t about to abandon me like that. Just following my orders, I guess.

  Since they were putting themselves out there, I needed to do the same. Finding a spot at the bar, I ordered a whiskey and nodded to the two supers standing next to me. One was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, with thick muscles and chocolate brown eyes. He stood a good six inches taller than me, and if ever I had been the jealous type, I suppose I might have been jealous of this guy. The other one was much more of your average type, if not a bit eccentric, with a shaved head and beard, and thick glasses over his wide nose.