“Mission accomplished,” I said, nodding to Aegriss. “I’ll let the others know where to find us.”

  “Roger that,” she replied, and using her map, led us out of there.

  9

  Breaker and team found us outside massive doors, which Aegriss had open in no time. They charged in first, us close behind to find them already squaring up against a man, if you could call him that. Tall, metal armor and various floating screens around him. Purple robes hung from his back and torso, and his eyes were like slits of light.

  He introduced himself as Killart, though I knew of him by reputation. All bounty hunters were familiar this top Orion Corp. leadership. Hey, they cut a large percentage of our checks, after all.

  Aggression registered from my right and I turned, ready for an attack, only to find Letha stepping forward as she pulled a blade out with one hand and a blaster with the other.

  “Mine,” she said. Andromida stepped out to stake her claim on the man’s life, but Letha stood her ground. “Listen, you’ve had your revenge, in one form or another. But I need answers.”

  “Answers?” Killart asked.

  Nervous anticipation rang out from Letha as she continued her approach. “Thing is, I met a man on Paradise Planet 14… That led me to many places, Abaddon even. Now… Well, now I’m here.”

  At those words, Killart stepped toward her, partway down the stairs. “You’re her then, aren’t you?” He laughed. “The one she sent away.”

  “She?”

  “Why, your sister, of course.”

  “My sister… is dead,” Letha said, doubt filling her aura. “Isn’t she…? I don’t… the memory, I mean… I don’t remember fully.”

  “They stole your memories from you, poor child. But I will give them back to you, in the form of a story I once heard. There was a family, rich beyond belief. So rich, in fact, that they owned one of the largest military fleets in all of the galaxy. Even bought out much of the government military, if the rumors are to be believed—and they should be.”

  “What are you talking about?” Letha asked.

  “That family had a daughter, you see… and named her Taleh. Taleh Mershett. Then they had another daughter, years later, one who, when learning of Taleh’s role as eldest and therefore heir to the fortune, became jealous. You know how it goes. Hatred, blah, blah, blah, pays off the right people to send sister to get a memory mod, told her name isn’t Taleh anymore, but Letha, and—”

  “Sent to Planet Kill, believing I was from the slums, that my family had been killed.” Letha’s emotions were all over the place, but one I sensed was winning—the one that demanded justice.

  Killart gestured to her, holding out his hand. “Now you have a choice, dear girl. Come with me, start a rebellion and move against your sister. Or die here with this scum.”

  Letha glared. “I know enough to have heard of the infamous Killart, the man behind the Orion Corp. military complex. You had a hand in it, and you’re as likely to backstab me and turn me over for more money, or simply kill me to be done with it. I don’t need any more friends, I have plenty.”

  After a moment, Killart laughed. “Suit yourself.”

  With a movement much faster than I would have expected from a being his size, he was down the steps and attacking while Letha dodged. She came up stabbing and shooting, while the rest of us surged forward to join the fight.

  Since he wasn’t the first supra-tech user we had been up against that day, it didn’t come as a surprise that he had various colored lights in his armor and his attacks and shields had a supernatural feel to them. One of my bullets hit and sent a burst of red back my way that would have caught me in the face if not for Erupa pulling me out of the way. She went for her shadow strike, but a thorn shield threw energy spikes at her and sent her flying into a wall. I tried more shots, hoping to get lucky, but they ricocheted off his purple energy walls.

  “This isn’t working,” I muttered to Cheri as she ran past me, her blaster aimed and sword raised over her shoulder.

  “But it’s fun!” she countered, releasing a round of shots that didn’t do shit.

  Tink tried her pixie dust on him, but it seemed to phase right through, hitting the ground with zero effect as he spun and countered attacks from Trunk and some of the hybrids. Andromida was hit hard but healed by Breaker.

  Shots sounded behind us, blocked by Twitch, and I grabbed Cheri by the shoulder.

  “We need to guard the doors,” I said, indicating the way the shots had come from. “Keep others out of here while Letha and Andromida get theirs.”

  “Roger-roger,” Cheri replied, and relayed the message to Tink and Erupa as I took cover at a doorway, firing back at a group of enemy soldiers who were trying to make their way to us. As we provided covering fire, I felt Shimmer’s aura scream with excitement and glanced over to see her pulling at the enemy’s cloak while Charm attacked. The latter was sucking in breaths, hair changing color, and suddenly her strange strikes were getting in, making contact!

  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.

  10

  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.

  11

  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.