A Twist of Destiny Bk. 02

The impact didn't necessarily hurt me, but it definitely caught me by surprise. Leviathan had created a diversion while Tank hit me with the whammy. I should've seen that one coming and felt, more than anything, the sting of embarrassment at having been caught so badly unprepared. I flexed my arms, causing the car to disintegrate all around me. As it started to fall back towards the earth in several pieces, I quickly fired energy pulses at the bits of metal and debris until all of it was turned to harmless dust. Certain that the demolished vehicle would pose no threat to any civilians, I turned my attention back to the battle scene, high in the air. With my long-range vision, I could see the rest of The Guardians regrouping. I leaned into the wind to pick up speed and then 'ported directly over them.

Leviathan was helping Aventine disentangle herself from the twisted street post while Tank lumbered towards Mahmoud with the obvious intention of taking possession of him. Gathering up all of my speed, I flew straight down towards Tank and body-slammed him hard. With a loud crunch, he suddenly found himself partially buried into the sidewalk, momentarily made immobile and somewhat dazed.

Levi and Aventine both heard the sound of my attack and simultaneously assaulted me. Aventine's solar beams, in concentrated form, can't necessarily damage me, but they definitely pack a punch that hurts like hell, like being hit with a Taser for a split-second. Leviathan's water attacks, similarly, can leave me with a pounding headache without doing any physical harm. I found myself wrapped up in a morass of water and stabbing energy as the pair threw everything they had at me in an effort to disorient me. It worked almost too well, for the very quarry we were "fighting" over was so close to the conflagration swirling around me that he was getting drenched, too, and I was too confused to get him a safe distance away from it.

This whole battle had been unscripted and entirely improvised. It was something new to us, too, because we'd never really fought against each other before. We all knew each others' strengths and weaknesses, but exploiting them was difficult because we knew each other so well. And while the others could throw everything they had at me with full force without worrying about causing me harm, I had to use "kid gloves" on them. Leviathan, for instance, could heal quickly but he wasn't invulnerable- a weakness that he made up for with his ability to phase-shift through anything, even energy pulse; Aventine could move much faster than she could think and was, therefore, prone to outpacing her opponents unintentionally; and Tank, while extremely strong and powerful, was the slowest of us all.

Feeling frustrated by the onslaught of my "former" teammates, I balled myself up tightly and then sort of exploded with a single, horrendously powerful telekinetic pulse that was pushed out in all directions. Water went flying everywhere, Mahmoud slid across the sidewalk wildly and my two attackers toppled off their feet in surprise while glass windows all along the Vegas Strip shattered and cars bounced on their tires. Aventine took flight to the air in order to keep her feet off the ground (she tended to work better from up there) while Levi phased himself through the asphalt and slipped under the ground. Tank, for his part, weathered my output fairly well and had even become dislodged from his makeshift prison of concrete. Once he was able to move his arms, he wormed his way out of the pit and crawled onto his feet.

"ENOUGH!" Tank bawled, tilted his head downward and then charged at me like a raging bull. Even though he was the slowest, he was by no means slow. He sped down the sidwalk and bulldozed into me at full force, throwing all of his considerable body weight and kinetic energy into the attack. I, of course, was knocked completely off my feet and found myself embedded in the side of a building behind me, which rumbled with the impact of my body hitting it.

I was in an awkward position then, my back pressed against several tons of mortar and concrete while my feet were splayed out in front of me, like I'd taken a seat inside the wall as though it had been built up around me. Tank stopped his charge and turned to walk towards me. My hands, however, were still free, so I fired off two big energy bolts at the behemoth. I'm sure that it didn't tickle the big lout, but he didn't budge. Again I blasted him, using even more power than before, and he finally howled in pain and crumpled to his feet. When I was sure that he was down for a few precious moments, I dislodged myself from the wall I'd been slammed into and scanned the area for Aventine and Leviathan.

Leviathan was just rising back up out of the street, this time sort of "floating" on a very large column of water. Aventine simply floated in the air high above us and looked down at me coldly.

"Last chance, NightShade," she said coldly. "Give it up."

"Would you?" I asked rhetorically.

Leviathan's column of water tilted away from him and swayed until it was directly beneath Aventine. I had no idea what they were planning, but my instincts were telling me that it was time to leave very soon. Sixty meters in the air, Aventine started to turn in place. She was spinning, at first, at a rate of about one hundred revolutions per second, but her speed increased exponentially until she was little more than a blur. The water below her started to swirl and twist in the wake of concentric air patterns that were being created by her spinning. Slowly she started to tilt, spinning faster and faster with each passing second, and Leviathan released his control of the water. In an instant all hell started to break loose as the water lost its cylindrical shape and began to whirl wildly in the street just below Aventine. They'd created a micro-hurricane and Aventine was about to unleash it on me. Very bright, I must admit!

Seeing that the situation was about to become chaotic, I decided to cut loose from the battle. I 'ported over to the bewildered Mahmoud al Fahnir, placed a hand on his shoulder and then 'ported both of us to the nearest Federal Penitentiary I could think of.

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"Aventine! Mark Wallen with NBC News Three," the reporter shouted as Aventine helped Tank back to his feet. "What just happened here? It's only been a week since NightShade left the team and the President named him Homeland Police Chief. Are The Guardians and NightShade enemies now?"

Aventine, once she was sure that Tank could stand on his own two feet, spun around to regard the reporter with fury clearly evident on her face. "What just happened is that we had a jurisdictional disagreement!"

"Where does that leave the team's relationship with NightShade?" Wallen asked.

"That's a question for the decision-makers," Aventine said darkly. "But he's definitely off my Christmas card list."

"Well," the reporter opined, "at least you were able to repel him as a team-"

Aventine cut the reporter off angrily. "Are you blind?! We didn't repel him, you idiot! He left. With our objective in hand, I might add. Look, I've seen NightShade at work and I can tell you, right here and now, that he just cleaned our clocks! We threw everything we had at him and it didn't even slow him down. Don't you get it? He was playing with us!"

Wallen seemed taken aback by that bit of news but he quickly recovered. "Well, if you have to engage him again, what are you going to do next time?"

Tank and Leviathan stepped up behind Aventine and both looked very grim as she answered, "Pray that we're luckier than we were today."

"Luckier?"

Aventine shook her head in disbelief at how obtuse the reporter was. "He can sense our actions a split-second before we even commit to them. I know that he wasn't using that ability today because we actually managed to get in a few good hits. And that means he was toying with us. Without a lot of luck on our side, something to work in our favor, we don't stand a chance against him. No one does. The only way to stop him is with something that he can't see coming, something random. Like luck." She fixed the reporter with a blank look. "You wouldn't happen to know of any super-humanly lucky people out there, would you?"

"Uhm. NightShade just won the lottery. It doesn't get much luckier than that."

Aventine nodded grimly. "Then all we can hope to do is slow him down."

"What about... them?" Wallen asked as he pointed upwards to the sky.

Aventine glanced up and then looked back at him with a slow shake of her head. "They haven't said anything to us since they arrived, Mark. What makes you think they'd get interested now? No. This isn't their problem; it's ours. And we'll solve it one way or another."

"With luck," Wallen added. Aventine, Tank and Leviathan all turned around and started to clean up the mess created by the fight. The interview was obviously over.

It was all pretty much downhill from there. And, yeah, the news services ate it up like it was candy. Every major news network was busy like little bees, analyzing and detailing every tiny thing we did in our battle. Speculations began to arise over who was right and what would happen as a result of the battle- everyone was confused, which is precisely what we'd hoped for.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Loose Ends

"We got Hanson," General Hannis told me over the phone. I had to make weekly calls to check in with the team, to make sure that everything was going according to plan. The general told me that, a few days beforehand, Hanson had tentatively tossed his hat in the ring to join the team, but it had taken some gentle manipulation to convince him that he wasn't going to be harmed. As it turned out, Hanson was far from schizophrenic or mentally imbalanced in any way. Apparently The Process had indeed caused a temporary psychotic break in him, but it wasn't severe enough to stick. He simply needed to adjust to the change and accept it. He told us that, when he walked out of the facility in Belgium, he was so dazed and confused that he simply had no clue what he was doing, that he'd pretty much just moved on instinct and not much else for the first few days out on his own. Once he realized his predicament, however, he got nervous and decided that his best option was to lay low and try to disappear. He didn't want any attention or problems.

The "battle" between me and The Guardians, though, was hard for him to miss. He had no ill will against anyone for his new lot in life and realized that I posed a potentially serious threat if I ever did go off the deep end, so he had contacted The Guardians via their official website (along with several thousand other "applicants") and explained his situation in as oblique a manner as he could. He was careful to not come right out and mention PROJECT: SERAPH or anything else, but made it clear that he was our "person of interest." He'd signed the email with his name, which was immediately noticed by our search filters on the email servers. From there it was just a lot of fine details until he finally came back in.

"So what do we do with him now?" I asked the general.

Hannis sighed deeply. "Well, we can't, in good conscience, put him back on ice. Even though 'luck' is a pretty useful ability to have in direct combat, we've decided to keep him on the team as a sort of advisor." The general chuckled lightly. "He wants his codename to be 'Hermes', who was-"

"The Greek god of luck. Yes, sir. Were there any other useful abilities that manifested in him?"

"Some, yes," he replied. "Advanced healing, some minor E.M. manipulation, empathy and a tendency towards precognition."

"A tendency?" I asked. "What does that mean, sir?"

"It means that he can predict the outcome of any given situation. Simple things, like a coin toss, he can predict with 100% certainty every time. Complex events, like sports games or battles, are a bit vaguer for him because of all of the variables involved- he can determine the victor but he can't tell you how things will go or what will happen. I can envision certain scenarios where that kind of talent is useful, but I won't put him out in the battlefield with the rest of the team unless it's a truly extraordinary situation. Unfortunately, his ability to influence random chance is limited only to his personal choices. He can't exert any influence on other people, things or events."

"Interesting," I said. "I think you're right in keeping him out of the field, sir, but that ability in particular seems very useful."

"I didn't say we'd keep him out of the field," General Hannis returned. "I said we'd keep him off the battlefield. As an intel-gatherer he'd be fantastic. There's one ability that I didn't mention yet, which makes him especially useful in gaining intelligence: he can project illusions into the minds of others, make them see what he wants them to see. Doctor Lamb believes that it's tied in with his E.M. talent."

"Are you sure you can trust him, sir?"

"Not yet, no, but that's something we aim to figure out soon. Our biggest challenge, right now, though, is what to do about you."

"Well, sir, I thought that I'd just come back and join the team. That was the plan, wasn't it?"

"Ostensibly, yes, but the matter of the lottery winnings has gotten us into a sort of bind. At first, it was a boon, since it helped give a credible reason for separating you from the team and drawing Hanson in, but the President has been getting pressure to keep you working as a solo act."

"I wasn't aware, sir, that the President could be pressured into making any sort of Executive military decision."

There was a wistful sigh at the other end. "I fucking hate politics."

"Heard, understood and acknowledged, sir. Is there anything I can do to help things along?"

"Unfortunately, no. The other problem is our friends in the sky. We finally got official word from them. Just as we suspected, they were watching The Guardians closely and observing how we dealt with the Hanson Problem. While they have expressed satisfaction with how we handled things, they aren't completely certain that we should be left alone. They want to see The Guardians in person. Like an interview."

"Ah," I said sagaciously. "And now we come down to the quick of it. The President wants me back on the team so that we can all go as a unified front, but my being detached right now is holding things up."

"Exactly. His legal advisors are still weeks away from coming up with any kind of solid consensus on how to get you back on the team, but we're not inclined to keep our Friends waiting for that long."

"Sir, if it comes down to it, I don't mind going as a de facto team member. Let Aventine represent us. I can sit in the background and let her deal with them. I'm not all that diplomatic, anyway."

There was another wistful sigh. "They asked for you specifically, David. They want to see all of The Guardians, but you, in particular, have gotten their attention."

That alarmed me a bit. "Sir?"

"Let's face facts here, David. You're the strongest member of the team. In most human cultures, the strongest person usually leads from the front. Evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense that they'd want to meet you. As a private citizen, I can't order you to do this. All I can do is ask. The decision is yours to make."

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"You have to go," my wife said bluntly. "For one thing, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For another, the general is right: as the literally most powerful human being on the planet, your presence commands a certain amount of respect."

"I understand that, honey," I said as I and my whole family sat around the kitchen table to discuss the matter, "but my gut is telling me to be very wary of this. Something doesn't feel right."

"Dad," Holly said, "trust me when I say that this is perfectly the right way to go. Mom's right: you have to go."

"Are you saying that as my daughter or as a time-traveler?"

"Both, I guess. As your daughter, I can't think of a better example of our species than you, even without your powers. As someone who's been given knowledge of the future, though, I'd say that you not going could have disastrous effects."

I chewed on that and nodded grimly. "It's not a ringing endorsement, but if you put it that way, I guess I don't have a choice. I don't argue with the weather."

"Do you know why they want to meet you, Dad?" Darren asked. For most family conversations my step-son is usually quiet and content to listen, but as he's gotten older he occasionally puts his two cents in.

I shook my head. "I haven't got a clue, son. Maybe they just want to inspect me and make sure that my genetic code is up to snuff."

"I don't think that's it," Darren mused softly. "I think you're right to be nervous about going, but I think Mom and Holly are right, too. I don't really want to risk losing you, but... well... I'm proud that you're my dad, no matter what happens."

I smiled warmly at the boy. After I'd given him a taste of what the alien DNA can do to a human being, he'd thinned out and become a lot stronger. His spine was more erect and even though his core personality hadn't really changed, he'd come to be a lot more confident in himself. "Thanks, son. That means a lot to me. Actually, it means a lot more than you can ever know. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you guys. You're my family. If they want to experiment on me or hurt me in some way, maybe take me away from you, I wouldn't be able to take care of you as much as you take care of me."

"Some, in more ways than others," Darren quipped wryly. He hadn't made it any secret that he wanted to become involved with our sexual trysts as a family but was definitely annoyed that we wouldn't let him in until he turned eighteen. Everyone ignored the comment as though it hadn't been said.

"All I can tell you, Dad," Holly said gently, "is that we won't be quit of you anytime soon. It'll be challenging but not all doom-and-gloom."

"There! See?" Kathy cut in. "Straight from the time-traveler-daughter's mouth! If anyone would know about how things will turn out, it'll be her."

"Okay," I said hesitantly. "I'll call General Hannis tomorrow and tell him my decision. I'll go. Now... on to other pressing matters."

My wife arched a surprised eyebrow at me. "There's more?"

I nodded soberly. "Speaking of General Hannis, he knows about Holly's ability. And yours. He knows about everything."

There was a stillness that fell over the table for several long seconds while my son, daughter and wife digested this news. Finally Holly broke the silence. "When you say 'everything', do you mean-?"

"I mean everything. The sex, getting your future self pregnant, your ability to travel through time... apparently a future version of me went back and told them the whole story. I don't know why, but I thought you should know."

"Jesus Christ!" Kathy exhaled. "Are we... are we in some sort of trouble?"

"That's the weird part," I answered. "We're not in any kind of trouble. He mentioned it like he'd mention knowing that I was at the grocery store yesterday. He personally doesn't approve but he's made it clear that no one is going to interfere with us. At first I thought it was because exposing me meant that PROJECT: SERAPH would suffer, but I'm getting the impression now that they simply, flat-out don't care. Actually, I think it's part of the whole project."

"In what way?" my wife asked.