Return to Hades, Part 2
To the lair ...
Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.
No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.
Previously: Alyssa overheard some guy thinking about breaking into Doctor Hades’s former lair. She informed Ken, and then—even though her Silver Stranger days are ostensibly behind her—insisted on joining him to investigate.
Part 2
The demand caught Ken off guard. And it was a demand. Alyssa hadn’t intended that.
“Are you sure?” Yeah, she’s sure.
If Alyssa still had her teleporting watch, she’d already be at the old self-storage facility, the former lair of Doctor Hades, and not still standing outside the martial arts school a few doors down from her dental office.
“If someone is sneaking in there tonight,” she said, “there are all sorts of places he can hide once he sees you flying overhead. But he can’t hide from me.”
Ken couldn’t refute that, but he did worry about Alyssa’s safety, even though he knew she could take care of herself. He also worried about her telepathy, the main issue being how much self-control she had or had not cultivated—an apprehension Alyssa was justifying as she overheard the thoughts tumbling out of his head. But Ken did like the idea of having a friend by his side.
She’d probably just take a cab there. Better she’s with me. “Then let’s go.”
“Actually, this way,” Alyssa said, pointing to Apollo Family Dentistry. “You can change here.”
Ken looked at the still-sunny sky and agreed. Alyssa pulled out her keys as they hustled to the dental office.
The rest of the staff had already gone home for the day, leaving the office eerily dim and quiet. The absence of people transformed the utterly ordinary establishment into a forbidden realm where the normal rules ceased to apply. It was even weirder for Ken, who had only ever visited here as a patient.
“You sure we’re alone?” A stupid question to ask a telepath, he immediately realized.
“Yeah, did a quick scan. You can drop your bag in my room and change in the restroom.”
“What about you?”
Alyssa kept a change of clothes handy, but she knew Ken wasn’t just referring to her scrubs. The Silver Stranger’s costume hung in a display case at Terrific Hall, and she had no intention of ever putting it on again. The goal tonight was to be a friend, not a stranger.
“I’ll figure something out. Go get changed.”
Ken dropped his bag in a corner of a room normally devoted to the cleaning of teeth, and he pulled out his Mr. Amazing costume.
“I’ll be quick.” He looked around, lost. “Uh, where—?”
Alyssa pointed out the restroom, and Ken hurried over, still half-expecting someone to walk in on them. He never did like breaking the rules.
Alyssa shut herself in the treatment room and switched into a T-shirt and jeans as she considered what to do about her face. The office had plenty of surgical masks and protective eye gear. That would have to do.
Opening the door, she found Ken striding down the hallway, fully covered in the gray of Mr. Amazing. The mask restored some of his confidence, though he still couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
“You ready?” he asked, checking over his shoulder, like a kid afraid someone would catch him doing something naughty.
Alyssa nodded, mask and goggles in hand. “Yeah. You got the window?”
He did. Ken gestured, and the small window unlocked and slid up, as if possessed. After Alyssa confirmed no one was outside, a gentle pressure surrounded her, barely noticeable, and her feet lifted off the floor. She floated through the opening, and it was easy to pretend she was flying under her own power, at least until she touched down on the alleyway pavement. The taste of flight ended far too soon. She craved more.
Alyssa looked at the clear sky, realizing she was about to get more. She understood, intellectually, that Ken would be doing all the work. Nevertheless, she was moments away from soaring. Her resting frown was no match for the anticipation. She put the surgical mask on before her defenses failed.
Ken hopped down beside her, telekinetically closing and locking the window behind him. “Let me know if I’m holding on too tight.”
They floated off the ground and ascended past the roof. Alyssa, behind the safe barrier of the surgical mask, permitted a smile to form. Though he couldn’t see it, Ken suspected the smile’s existence, and it tempted him to show off.
He needs this, Alyssa thought.
“Doing okay?” Ken asked as they climbed higher still.
“Doing great,” she said, slipping her goggles on—she definitely didn’t want to drop those from up here. “Don’t hold back on my account.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
The wind whipped past as Ken propelled them forward.
Alyssa lowered her mask to breathe in the fresh, invigorating air. Her eyes widened to absorb the rooftop views, then strained to glimpse the tiny cars and people further below.
This experience used to be impossible. Pinkney had almost rendered it impossible again. And Alyssa had helped him. It made so much sense at the time. Parts of it still made sense.
Ken turned to check on her. Alyssa pulled her mask back up a second too late. He noticed the change in expression, noticed how even as they flew, the corners of her lips succumbed to gravity. Ken took pride in having generated any smile at all, knowing that Alyssa was not one to smile lightly. But he refused to surrender just yet.
He concentrated, and they accelerated across the reddening sky. Alyssa laughed as the wind walloped her in the face. For a second, she was afraid that the goggles might slip off and hit someone below, as if Ken would ever let that happen.
They swerved up as Ken threw them into a wide, high-speed loop. Alyssa yelled out like she was riding the best roller coaster ever built, never mind that the tracks were telekinetic.
Leveling off, Ken slowed down and pulled in closer to Alyssa. He wanted to take her hand but knew better. Flying alongside her, giving her this experience, was privilege enough.
He briefly wondered why they had never done this before, but then he remembered where they were headed. He pulled away and spent the rest of the flight thinking about what he’d say to the trespasser, how he’d talk sense into this young man. From there, his thoughts veered back to his college friends and their New Mount Olympus resort where uniquely talented individuals wasted away in isolation.
They passed over a suburban neighborhood, then followed a road that wound through the city’s outskirts and brought them to the self-storage facility. A dense buffer of trees spared drivers the eyesore and ensured the privacy that Pinkney had sought, privacy he was willing to kill for. Pinkney had felt only the faintest remorse for murdering the business owner, a deed he rationalized as one small step on the path to saving the world. If any doubts ever arose, Alyssa never got to hear them—not after he developed telepathic shielding, a pair of golden coins that he wore on his head to keep her out of it.
Ken and Alyssa landed on a long strip of pavement between rows of shuttered garages.
“You hear anything?” he asked quietly.
Alyssa shook her head. “No one here but us.”
Ken relaxed a bit as he went to work. The locks posed no obstacle to him. The nearest garage flew open at his mental command, revealing an empty unit. He stepped inside, paying extra attention to the shadows, but he found no movement nor any evidence of illicit activities.
He repeated the process in the next unit as Alyssa lingered outside. The place looked the same as she remembered. She had lifted off into outer space from this very facility. Her eyes scanned the pavement, searching for the spot that had served as her launchpad. Pinkney’s launchpad, rather. She was just along for the ride.
“I’m surprised you wanted to tag along,” Ken said. “I thought you preferred staying behind the scenes.”
Alyssa gave a small shrug. “Never promised I wouldn’t fall off the wagon once in a while.”
“You’re welcome to anytime.” A kind smile formed under the mask.
“Can’t have four members in the Terrific Trio. Are you even still using that name?”
“Doesn’t feel right without Fantastic Man.” Might feel right with you, though. “And it’s not like Carey even needs us.”
Ken opened a unit that had a hole in the ceiling, scorch marks on the ground, and bloodstains on the wall. Pinkney had killed a woman here—a dangerous criminal with a bizarre, dangerous power, but still a person. Alyssa had witnessed the murder and failed to stop it. Ken had arrived a moment later, and the image of Valerie Volke’s dead body was seared into his mind as much as it was into Alyssa’s. Subsequent events were similarly vivid.
Alyssa pulled the mask down over her chin. Familiar chemical and mechanical scents lingered in the air, reminding her of who the Silver Stranger used to be and what she had helped enable.
“Carey’s useful if some gigantic monster attacks,” Alyssa said. “But he doesn’t know people. He’s all book smarts and no common sense. You and Miranda, you helped set me straight. And when this guy shows up, wanting to take some really dumb risk to give himself powers, you’ll set him straight. That’s a job for Mr. Amazing.”
Ken held far too much tension in his jaw. “I wonder if the mask is doing more harm than good, though. There’s got to be a better way of going about all of this. The Terrific Trio was never going to be enough.”
“You can’t blame yourself for …” Alyssa remembered that Ken hadn’t mentioned his college friends and wayward student, not out loud. “… Valerie. I sometimes blame myself for what happened to her, too, but—”
“That’s not what you were about to say.” The words strained through his teeth. He took a sharp breath. “What can’t I blame myself for?”
Alyssa wished she had her own full-face mask to hide behind. She used to, but the volto mask hung on display with the rest of her old costume.
“I’m sorry,” she said, breathing heavier now. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop.”
“But you did.”
“I did because your brain is very loud, and I happened to hear something that made me concerned.” Her chest tightened and burned. She panted like she had sprinted a mile. “So yes, I gave in to temptation and poked around. Sorry!”
“So why did you want to come here?”
Alyssa sucked in another long, unsatisfying breath. “You seemed like you could use a friend.”
Ken’s chest rose and fell rapidly. Too rapidly. “Then act like one.”
Alyssa was gasping for air now. Ken as well. He pulled his mask halfway up to free his mouth and nose, but he continued to struggle.
“The air …” he said. It was basically a question.
Alyssa heard no other minds in the facility, but it was undeniable now—the air was thinning.
Someone’s here, Ken thought, eyes darting around in search of this person, a person Alyssa was so certain wasn’t present.
Her eyes blurred as her knees weakened. At the far end of the pavement stood a young man not much older than herself. His dark hair hung a bit too long, every bit as unkempt as his scraggly beard. A gaunt frame accentuated his bitter eyes.
He cradled a busted lockbox in his arms, and a pair of golden coins glinted above his ears.