Hero Stalker

Part Seventy

Be sure to check out the extra part I posted on Monday!

Cypher pulled out his staff and slammed it into a henchman's neck. Before anyone could react, he drove the tip of the staff into the ground and swung his body upwards, kicking another henchman in the head.

Simon growled. Femme squeezed her eyes shut. A shot rang out. "No!" I shouted. Then Simon dropped, blood pouring from his chest. Dan ran towards the stage, his gun in hand, and stepped between the henchmen and the crowd. The mayor's bodyguards threw themselves over Hollis. Screams filled the air.

Femme unloaded every knock-out needle in her wrist brace into the forth man on the stage. Cypher twisted a gun out of the fifth man's hands and hit him across the face with it, sending his helmet flying. Both men collapsed.

"Give me that!" Slasher wrenched the gun from Cypher as the henchmen on the roof took aim. His shot took one in the chest. Another shot rang out and the second henchman fell. Commander Ayer lowered his own gun.

In a few seconds, they'd taken out every henchman in the square. Cypher had immobilized three. If we escaped Harpy's plot with our lives, I'd swallow my pride and ask him to spar with me. I desperately needed those skills.

I climbed up onto the stage as slowly as I could, terrified of slipping into superspeed without noticing. People sobbed and shouted behind me. Cameras snapped and phones rang. Annabelle stood completely still for the first time I could remember.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered to Femme.

"Remain calm and follow police instructions!" she shouted into the microphone. "Do not attempt to leave the square! The bomb squad is on the way!"

"What the hell is going on here?" Mayor Hollis pulled himself onto the stage. His puffy face burned red. Sweat dripped from his mustache.

"Please remain calm." Femme said.

He shook a finger at her. "Do you know who I am?"

Femme fired a needle into his shoulder. Hollis's eyes rolled backwards. He stumbled into the arms of his bodyguards. Screams rolled through the crowd.

"Just a minor tranquilizer, Bayton. The mayor was having a panic attack. Commander Ayer, the floor is yours." She handed the mike to Ayer, grabbed my arm, and waved the rest of the Centurions over. "Huddle!"

"Will we give him what he wants?" I whispered. The Christian in me said I should sacrifice myself for my friends, but I'd never get those words out of my mouth.

"When hell freezes over," Femme swore.

"That's my psi-meter he's rigged up," Cypher hissed. "He stole it from the Tower. How the hell did he get in?"

Slasher sucked in his cheeks. "I'd focus on how the hell we get him out, first. What's the maximum range of a psi-meter?"

"Two hundred yards, normally. Since I made that one, five hundred. But if they've got pressure sensors in those houses, you're not getting out without using your powers or blowing us all to pieces."

"There's a way," Femme said. Slasher nodded, pulled a remote from his belt, and pressed a single button.

Dan pushed his way into the huddle and broke it apart. His face glowed red, but his brown eyes were cold. "What are you going to do about this?"

"We have to get back to the Tower," I said. "He has Peregrine."

"There's five hundred people caught in a deathtrap here!" he yelled at me. "Don't they take precedent?"

I stared out at the crowd. Kids clung to their parents. Teenage girls cried. An older man pulled back a boy who was trying to climb up a house. Not two minutes ago, I'd sworn to protect them with my life. Instead, I'd built a screen that had allowed Harpy to bring his weapon into the square. Every man, woman, and child could die terribly. Including Dan and Annabelle. Because I'd fucked up.

"I'll stay here and keep things calm," Femme told Slasher. "Cypher will disarm the weapon."

"There's no way I can do that without using my powers!" Cypher protested.

"No way in hell are you letting that guy anywhere near that machine!" Dan hissed. "He slips up and we're all history!"

Femme narrowed her eyes. "He's spent days studying this device. He's our best chance. You, Detective Silver, will go with our combat operatives to the Tower."

"What?" Dan said. My head spun. "Why the hell would I go now?"

"Because the crowd's looking at you like you're some kind of hero," Femme said. "If they see me knock out another one of their heroes, they're going to stop listening to me and riot. Besides, you saved my life. Shadowcat, give him a grappling gun."

I glanced up at the rooftops. Fresh wire lined their tops, glinting in the sun. "Grappling might still trigger explosions. That wire—"

"I'm not telling you to hook the buildings." Moving so fast I could have sworn she had superspeed herself, Femme planted a kiss on Slasher's cheek. "Hook the jet."

An engine hummed in the distance. A blue-grey dot shot towards the square, growing larger every second. He'd remotely engaged the autopilot.

I passed Dan a grappling gun. "Aim for the tail. The top button shoots, the second reels, the third releases."

"Best damn villain I've seen in years," Slasher muttered, holding his battered grappling gun aloft as he turned red. Femme had left a big lipstick smear on his cheek.

The jet shot over the square. Three hooks flew to meet it.

My line jerked taut, pulling me off my feet and up into the air. I braced myself to slam into Old Town Hall. Instead, the jet banked upwards so sharply I nearly swung into the turbines.

Wind threatened to rip the gun from my hands. I held on for my life as the streets flashed past below me. Sirens wailed. People screamed. Red lights flashed through the tangled streets. The hour would vanish before the bomb squad even arrived. Harpy had chosen the perfect target.

My radio crackled. "Water landing," Slasher told me. The jet leveled out over Washington Harbor, nearly swinging me into a crane as it did. A container ship shot past under my feet. Men on the deck waved and shouted at us. Sharp salt air filled my nose.

"Now!" I shouted the second we hung over open water. My fingers pressed the release switch. The plane fell away. I arched into a dive.