Shades of Gray - By Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge Page 0,65
never been hard, this was the first time that it was … easy. She stepped onto the black disc. “I’ll start with Grid 6, maybe see if I can pick up Colossal Man’s trail.”
Grid 6: the Old Chicago district.
Oh cipio.
Jet paused on the Shadow floater, remembering a teenage girl standing outside of Everyman headquarters, shouting at her to go save the world somewhere else. But before the shouting, the girl had pressed something into Jet’s hand, and she’d whispered …
Not “oh cipio,” Jet realized with a start. O.C.P.O. The Old Chicago Post Office, in Grid 6.
That was when the pinging sounded—a distress call. Jet hovered in the air as Meteorite grabbed headphones. “Triangulating location,” the Ops controller said, sliding the headset in place. “Speakers on. Ops. Go.”
Over a burst of static, Iridium’s voice, high-pitched, on the verge of panic. “Hey, heroes,” Iri shouted, “we’re in a situation here. We need backup, like, right now!”
“Hey, Jettikins is awake!” Iri let out a strained laugh. “You remember the thing you fought in the sewer? Well, apparently a dozen of its closest friends and family have all gone the sewer-mutant route, because they’re right here!”
Jet’s stomach knotted as she remembered the feeling of Lynda Kidder’s malformed fist slamming into her, how the monstrous creature had nearly killed her … and how she’d accidentally killed Kidder in self-defense.
And that had been one mutant. Now Iri was facing a dozen of them? She shouted, “Retreat! Callie, get out of there!”
Iridium, desperate: “Sort of surrounded here. Taser’s and my light show’s holding them back, sort of, but I don’t know how long!”
“Can you get in the air? Get out of range?”
“His hover’s on the other side of the mutants, and last I checked, neither of us can fly!”
“Got them,” Meteorite said, and gave Jet the coordinates. Barely five minutes as the crow flew. Jet would be there in two. Already soaring toward the door, she shouted, “On my way!”
“Bring the fucking cavalry with you!” There might have been more, but Jet was already out of hearing range.
Zooming over old Wrigley Field, Jet tapped on her earpiece for Ops. “Call in everyone. We need all of us on this.”
“But Hornblower’s taking down Jezebel, and Steele’s—”
“Meteorite,” Jet snapped, “pull them out! This is bigger than chasing after rogues and rabids.”
“But—”
“Sheila,” Jet said over the rush of wind, “they’re civilians. They’ve been injected with Moore’s Everyman serum, probably under duress. We need everyone on this. Now.”
Meteorite cursed, colorfully and loudly. Then she said, “On it. Go.”
Jet went.
Air stung Jet as she flew faster than ever before. Her face was raw from windburn as she crouched on her floater, practically hugging the Shadow to lower wind resistance. She had to get to Iri and Taser, fast.
Before the dying started.
She heard the shouting before she saw Iri. The other woman’s clear voice was raised in a defiant battle cry that would have impressed Screamer. But the Lighter herself was lost amid a closing circle of hulking monstrosities—vaguely humanoid creatures stuffed into tattered business suits and jeans and the remnants of shirts and jackets, all of the monsters reaching out with massive hands.
In the center, Iridium and Taser stood back-to-back, their hands alight—hers with Light strobes, his with electricity. Iri launched more strobes, hitting three creatures square in their chests … but all that did was make the things stagger back. It didn’t burn them, didn’t seem to even hurt them. Ditto Taser’s electric blasts. He hammered two more mutants, but if getting shocked did anything more than push them back a pace or two, it was impossible to tell.
Jet zoomed down, her arms extended. Concentrating furiously, she sent a portion of her power under the rogue’s and merc’s feet, pooling beneath them to form a new floater. “Iridium, Taser! Hold on to each other!”
“Fuck, that’s cold!” Iridium sent out a flurry of strobes, then extinguished the light over her hands and grabbed onto Taser’s waist. He let loose a burst of power, illuminating the air in front of him with white-blue light and heat as he planted his feet wide and bent his knees for balance.
Bracing herself against her own floater, Jet called the other Shadow disc to her. It trembled, then with a mighty heave it launched upward. Iri and Taser scrambled to keep their footing as Jet lifted them out of reach of the mutants. Once the three of them were on the roof, she released the Shadow, calling it back inside herself.