Masks Seventeen: Part Nine

by

Rodford Edmiston

Normally, the Secretary of the Interior wouldn't even attend such a meeting, much less be in charge of it. The man from Homeland Security wondered vaguely about this, but was so smugly self-assured that he figured it was about time he got recognition for his hard work. Special Agent Mark Sorensen settled himself confidently - if a bit early - into a chair at the small conference table and waited.
Only minutes later Secretary Adam Thomlinson entered the meeting room, a pair of Secret Service personnel accompanying him. He nodded to Sorensen and sat at the head of the table, the two men standing behind him to either side.

"Good morning, Special Agent Sorensen," said the Secretary. "How are you doing?"

"Just fine, sir," said Sorensen, smiling and nodding.

"Excellent. I understand you organized and led a mission to search for and capture a reported dangerous superhuman at the Kemper Prep School two days ago."

"Yes, sir," said Sorensen. So, this was about that incident. Well, he might not have captured the rogue but he definitely scared the freak away! There had been no more reports of super activity at the school since his operation.

"So, to review, your agency received a report of a superhuman causing problems at the school, and you were assigned to investigate."

"Yes, sir," said Sorensen, proudly. "I gathered my team and responded promptly. There were difficulties with the facility staff - some were completely ignorant of the dangerous situation in their own school and I think some were actively shielding the super - but we solved the problem."

That might have been an exaggeration, but Sorensen wasn't one to let any opportunity to blow his own horn pass without doing some tooting.

"The police report says they responded to a complaint from the principal that there were unknown armed men in the school, threatening teachers and students."

"Which is why I said some of the staff were actively aiding the rogue super," said Sorensen, a bit of anger showing through. "We clearly identified ourselves to everyone we encountered so they did, indeed, know who we were. The principal still called the police on us. The time wasted dealing with them allowed the rogue to escape."

"The police report states that they ordered you to leave and you refused to comply until they threatened you with arrest."

"Well, they would, wouldn't they," said Sorensen, airily.

"Are you aware that my grandson attends that school?" said the Secretary of the Interior.

"No, sir, I was not," said Sorensen, smugly. "I'm glad to know I was able to protect a member of your family from that rogue super, though."

"The boy your people tried to kidnap is my grandson, you moron! He had an argument with another student, who swatted him in revenge!"

"Wh... what?!" said Sorensen, thought processes derailed by this sudden accusation. "No, the report was..."

"Didn't you think it odd that Homeland Security was called for a student causing a problem, rather than the school handling it themselves or calling the police?"

"A super was involved! Of course they called us! We're the ones best trained and equipped to deal with supers!"

"You had no warrant. You had no authorization from school authorities. All you had was a teenage boy calling an anonymous tip line with a vague complaint. Homeland Security is also by no measure the most qualified federal agency to handle rogue supers!"

"We were doing our job!" shouted Sorensen, furious, still not sure what was going on. "I was defending this country and those innocent children from attack by a rogue super!"

"You're under arrest!" snapped Secretary Thomlinson. "For bringing firearms onto school property without legal authorization, for terroristic threatening, for refusal to comply with police officers..."

"You can't arrest me! I work for..."

"He's not the one arresting you," said a new voice. A deep, female voice.

Sorensen looked around and saw several people in costume entering the room from a side door.

"What is this?!" said Sorensen, jumping to his feet, suddenly and obviously terrified.

"You committed a crime against a super," said Brade. "For that you get arrested by the super cops. The ones who should have been called to deal with a super causing problems. There are other LEO agencies with charges against you, as well, but they'll have to get in line."

"I don't recognize your authority!" shouted Sorensen, frantically fumbling around inside his jacket. "As a badge-carrying agent for Homeland Security, responding to a reported super terrorist attack, I am immune from arrest and prosecution!"

"That's not what the law says," said Secretary Thomlinson. "Or are you going to claim you can rewrite that to your whim?"

Sorensen looked around at the Secret Service agents who had escorted him here. Whom he considered brothers in arms in the fight for all that was right and proper.

"Are you going to let them railroad me like this?!"

"Far as I'm concerned," said one of the dark-suited men, "someone who attacks a school should be locked up for life."

"I have a teenage cousin who's a super," said another, his glare visible through is sunglasses.

"Traitors!" screamed Sorensen.

He abruptly yanked his hand from his jacket. Everyone tensed, expecting him to draw a gun. Instead, there was a sickly, greenish flash from the device he produced. Sorensen triumphantly jumped to his feet.

"Now let's see you do anything, you freaks!"

Three different super-fast individuals grabbed him before he could move, one of them Brade herself, towering over him as she removed the neutralizer from his hand.

"What?!" Sorensen shrieked.

"Counter devices," said Brade, calmly. "They're standard issue these days to LEO supers, since so many criminals have illegal access to neutralizers. Which includes you, since you weren't authorized to have that."

"As if we would have let you escape, even if that had worked," said the first Secret Service Agent, angrily.

Sorensen was dragged away, ranting and screaming threats. Brade remained, at the invitation of the Secretary sitting in the recently vacated chair.

"Now we just need to get the rest of those involved before news of his arrest leaks," said Thomlinson. He looked older and tireder, now that his anger was fading.

"The FBI, the US Marshall's Service and the Bureau of Special Resources are all working on that," said Brade, confidently. "All of them keeping things hush-hush, need to know. Even most of those performing the operations will not know their target or the reason until just before the arrests."

"Good," said the Secretary, a bit of the anger back. He gave Brade a long, evaluating gaze. "I've never been known as someone particularly pro-super, but I have a well-deserved reputation as being anti-bigot. I like to think I would have called you in even it wasn't my grandson who was targeted by those bastards."

"I think school security and certain members of the teaching staff - as well as some of the students, from what I know of the incident - all deserve praise," said Brade. "They didn't just blindly do what the men with the badges breaking into their school yelled, but got their charges to safety and called school security. They kept that squad bottled up until the police arrived, despite threats and brandished automatic weapons."

"They didn't verify with the staff," said Thomlinson, shaking his head and looking astounded. "They just barged in like terrorists themselves - even breaking open a secure door - and started yelling orders and threats. So far, no-one can even verify the call which brought them there - much less identify the source - beyond it coming from a pay phone in the main building's lobby. Though when I contacted my grandson to make sure he was unharmed he had a good guess as to who and what caused the situation."

"Well, it ended with nothing worse for the innocent and those who defended them than some anxious moments," said Brade, nodding.

"Let's hope that continues to be the result for such actions," said the Secretary, fervently. "I will say that such events are far more rare now than during the Thurlin administration."

"Much rarer. From what we're seeing, that improvement is a continuing trend."

"Thank God," said the Secretary.

* * *

The meeting was quite subdued, which was the rule at this institution. The manager of the senior center was accustomed to dealing with haggard, desperate and emotionally overwrought men and women. Such a state was to be expected. Few were eager to admit their parent to this facility. Yet the majority knew it was necessary.

"I hate to do this but I just can't handle her any more," said Mr. Diddlebach. "She's just living more and more in the past, forgetting that she's not a youngster now. During the invasion it was all I could do to keep her from running out to help! Mother is just so much stronger than me..."

"I beg your pardon?" said the administrator, jolted back to full attention by that last bit.

"You do know she's a super?" said Howard, with a sinking feeling. "During the Forties and early Fifties she put on a costume and called herself Loop Lass, since she could fly. Silly name, but those were different times."

He stared at the administrator, daring him to reject his mother at this stage, after all he'd done to get her in here.

"Mr. Diddlebach... we don't have the facilities..."

"The person I spoke to on the phone stated without reservation that you could handle supers. You, yourself, assured me you had the personnel, equipment and training to handle any senior, not fifteen minutes ago."

"Not supers!" said the administrator, looking and sounding desperate. "I honestly have to say that it never occurred to me that supers could ever become seniors!"

"She published her memoirs in the late Fifties," said Howard, irritated. "There was a movie about her in the Sixties! How did you not know..."

"That's all ancient history!"

Howard was momentarily stunned at the realization that the head of a senior care facility knew nothing about the time during which many of his tenants had been young and active. He shook his head and got back to business.

"If you don't carry through on our contract I'll sue,"
said Howard, tone low and deadly. "Even if you don't have super-specific training and equipment, what you have is far better than what I have. You can get what's needed a lot easier than I can, as well. I want her properly taken care of!"

* * *

The alarms were loud, raucous and superfluous. The explosions, shrieks of volcanic gas streaming from fissures in the sides of the volcano and the even more chilling shrieks of demonic creatures swarming out of the ground at various locations around the flank of the non-volcanic mountain housing the Pine base were far more than enough to let everyone on the island - and for a considerable distance out to sea - know something was very wrong.

There were nearly two dozen special guests staying on the island this night. As well, many staff who usually commuted to the island were here, in various guest cottages. One of those was Template. Who, upon hearing those horrendous sounds, had quickly dressed and joined a group of others outside the school's administration building. From there they could not only hear the problem, but see it.

"Exactly at local Midnight, of course!" she screamed, partly out of anger and partly to be heard.

"Why aren't the demons coming out of the volcano?!" yelled Lori Savage. "Why make other holes?"

"They're not fire demons," shouted Dr. Piano. "For which we can be thankful."

"I don't care what kind of demons they are," said Template. "I just want to know how to stop them!"

"All those I am seeing are subject to mundane forces. They may be tougher than normal humans but they can still be killed by old-fashioned brute force!"

"That's all I need to hear!" said Eagle.

Template started to join him and the others rushing to the attack, but Dr. Piano caught her arm.

"These are merely the phalanx, the forerunners. Their master will be along shortly."

"Great," said Template, quietly enough for her words to be lost in the clamor. Her posture and expression made her mood clear, however.

Part Ten

The eastern horizon was just beginning to show light when the master of the demon army finally arrived. Whether it was surprised to find nearly all its troops destroyed the defenders couldn't tell. They were too desperately busy trying to finish the last of the invaders pouring down the slope, so they could reach and stop the other demons which were working to bring their master over.

All through the night a corps of lesser demons had labored to widen the largest of the cracks in the ground, which was at the base of Pine mountain, below the landing field. Those defending the island - and possibly the entire world - included mystics, teachers, security staff, the entire UN military contingent on the island, multiple powerful elves summoned by the Prince of Speed and dozens of volunteer supers from around the globe. They had fought valiantly, and to the largest part successfully, to reach that one fissure and stop the work. In vain.

As if being birthed by the Earth itself, the demon squeezed through the crevice its few remaining servants had managed to sufficiently widen barely before the defenders could reach them. At the sight of this new threat the defenders reflexively pulled back and took stock.

"Well, there go the workers," said Template, tiredly, as the new arrival simply trod upon the lesser creatures serving it, which had prostrated themselves before it.

The thing - like its predecessors - was humanoid, and in fact looked more human than most of them. The pointed ears, horns and fangs were actually minor differences when compared to the blood-red skin and spade-tipped tail. Many almost laughed at the thing's stereotypical appearance. Almost. It seemed to be either naked but not anatomically correct, or wearing something which was not discernible.

Students had been ordered to hopefully safe locations, and nearly all the non-legacy young men and women had eagerly obeyed. Though some had needed to actually see one of the demons to be properly motivated.

However, nearly all those students with family in the business were insisting on helping. They kept evading attempts to keep them away from danger and turning up, often in the most dangerous locations, many of them in costume. The non-combatant staff for the most part managed to direct their efforts to protecting the other students and aiding the injured. Still, a few persistently engaged in direct combat. Some were surprisingly effective. A few were already out of the fight.

The great demon scowled as it looked around, surveying the situation. Hundreds of demon bodies, volcanic chaos nearby, scores of humans and some elves. It made a rumbling sound which might have been a mostly subsonic "Harrumph!" and began walking down the mountain, each stride carrying it nearly a block. It seemed at most annoyed by the attacks of the defenders swarming around it.

"I hit that thing right in the face with a concentrated dose of conotoxins and it hardly blinked!" said the Alchemist, sounding panicked.

At least the noise level was a bit lower, now.

"That is a creature of dark magic," shouted Ettienne. "It does not follow the rules of normal biology. Try salt!"

Perhaps it was the very variety of attempts against it, but the master demon began to slow. It was now obviously annoyed. It turned its attention to the gnats harassing it and they began fighting for their lives.

Eve Hind found an exhausted Dr. Piano and pulled him into a sheltered spot so she could be heard, rather than try to attract his attention through his mental defenses.

"What does it want?" said the mentalist.

"Right now, to look around," said the mystic, frowning as he tried to gather his thoughts. "To survey the area, find targets, locate a place to make into a stronghold."

"Then why is it heading away from the Pine base and towards the school?!"

Piano's eyes widened with sudden revelation.

"I... It's attracted to the innocence and naïve sexual energies of the students."

"Can we divert it to a less populated area?"

"Yes! Let me confer with my colleagues."

In short order the mystics and mages had the giant marching up a deep gully towards the volcano, following a false trail. This allowed the island's defenders to better concentrate and coordinate both their attacks and their attempts at containment. The demon seemed only annoyed by the former and was just beginning to notice the latter. However, with each effect used, with each spell cast, the defenders were learning what would work.

Template flew high above the scene, feeling lost. She saw a lone figure - the leader of the elf contingent - standing on a rocky knoll. He was contemplating the side of the volcano and did not look pleased. She flew down beside him.

"Any suggestions on what I can do to stop this thing?" said Template.

"Unless you could somehow bathe the creature in molten lava, nothing," said the elf, his tone dismissive.

"Of course I can do that!" said Template, hotly. "If you're sure that will help, I can punch a hole in the side of the mountain just uphill of the thing. That valley would keep the lava away from people and buildings, so that would solve two problems at once by keeping it from erupting out at random from battle damage!"

"Oh..." said the elf, startled. "Uhm, yes. I forgot the physical... brutality you superhumans are capable of. Proceed."

Template scowled, but leapt into the air without saying anything. Once on her way she called security.

"You're going to do what?!" said Lori Savage, once quickly briefed.

"I want you to check with the geologists to make sure this won't cause more trouble than it'll solve."

Lori was in the security center of the Pine Base, directing things. She didn't like being so isolated from the situation, but the resources here - especially the communication capacity - more than made up for that. She personally contacted Dr. Halvargardsen and made her request.

While that was going on, Template made a quick stop at her cabin to retrieve her portable cannon. This was an improved model replacing the one Energex had destroyed. She was already charging it as she flew out the door.

"The geologists are checking their maps and images from the drones," said Lori. "They say not to make the hole more than two meters across. Otherwise the whole slope could come down. Oh, and they'll have exactly where to shoot in a few minutes."

"It better not be more than a few," said Template, as she hovered high above the battle site, cape flapping in the breeze off the nearby ocean. "That thing just turned around and is heading back down. It's moving faster, now, and it isn't stopping. It's like Gaunt heading for Las Vegas but with added Satan."

With real-time guidance from the geologists, Template flew into position. Meanwhile, Lori made sure that all those actively fighting the thing knew they would have to be ready to move to either side of the valley quickly, and had a way to do so.

"Remember," said Othar, his voice sounding strangely detached in Template's ear, "you need a steady beam, not a blast. You'll have to judge the output based on the actual results, so start easy!"

"Got it," said Template, taking careful aim and using the weapon's active smart guidance to lock on target. "Firing now."

In the gully downstream from the target the demon was puzzled by the gnats suddenly pulling back. It thought at first they were fleeing, but then it heard a noise behind it. Turning, it saw a flying figure attacking the side of the mountain. The demon was now even more puzzled. These creatures were behaving so strangely... Then it felt a low rumble through its feet, and realized the danger.

The demon turned to its left and hurried up the side of the rocky gash... only to run into both a barrier and active attacks. For some reason the gnats' efforts were now more effective than before. It turned to the right, but there encountered the same problem. It turned to head down the gully, and encountered yet another barrier. The rumbling grew stronger, and there was a burst of heat and sound behind it. The demon made the mistake of looking back.

Bright yellow molten rock fountained out a hole partway up from the valley floor and flew in an arc to splash against the far wall. Most of it then flowed down the wall onto the floor of the valley and towards the demon.

The demon screamed a sound which might have come from a tortured steam engine. It seemed more surprised and angry than anything else.

It frantically tried working some magic against the barrier to its left, but the mystics, mages and elves were watching for that. Though exhausted from the long battle, they weren't about to stop now, with victory literally in sight.

The giant stopped whatever it was attempting and instead cast a barrier between itself and the rapidly approaching lava. Template, finished with her drilling, turned her weapon towards it and waited, charging. Just before the molten rock reached the barrier she fired, collapsing it.

The thing looked at her, sending a chill through her soul. Right before the lava swept over it.

* * *

Hours later and the exhausted defenders were still busy trying to clean up the messes left by the attack and the defense. Some were darkly joking they didn't know which had caused the most damage. One casualty was the geothermal plant, which had been heavily impacted by the lava flow. At least the volcano was quieting, now. The geologists had been concerned that the relief of pressure might cause an explosive release of gasses or even a caldera collapse. Fortunately, this lava was very thin, so that the gasses mostly just fizzed off, and powers and gadgets cooled the location of the hole once the demon was destroyed, stopping the flow. There were some landslides and a few lava bombs - which mostly hit where they did little damage - but the volcano had been far more ally than enemy.

"What do you mean this isn't the end of it?!" said Eve, not long after local Noon, as she met with the mystics, mages and elves.

"This was a powerful demon lieutenant," said Dr. Piano. "We believe he was only here to prepare the way for a true demon lord. Which will keep sending lieutenants until one either succeeds or the lord gets impatient and tries something else."

"We really need to find whoever is helping these things," said Lori, with feeling.

* * *

Pine Island wasn't the only place suffering from such problems. One of the afflicted locations was all too familiar to some members of the Assembly.

"I can't believe we're back at the same cave!" said Champion, a bit of an edge in her voice, as they exited their hopper onto the dark landscape.

"It is a place of mystical potency," said Sharma. "As well as a dimensional nexus. That is why the cultists chose it."

"So which way in? The tunnel in the side?"

"That would give the most direct access to the nexus proper."

Once again, Jade Eagle noted that the current Champion - the third distinct one - seemed to know things from early in the team's history, and spoke as if she had participated in some of them. Of course, if Paula really had been with the team as a security man back then, that could explain the mystery. Jade Eagle was growing increasingly certain it didn't.

They strode up the steep slope into the old tunnel, then more carefully along it.

"I don't like what I'm hearing in there," said Champion, quietly.

"I don't like what I'm mystically sensing," said Sharma, unconsciously rubbing her hands up and down her triceps. "Hold a moment; it's time to cast some protection spells."

That done, they resumed cautiously proceeding. Soon the others could hear what Champion had heard, and see light ahead. Not long after they could see small, shadowy figures, dancing and singing around the altar in the dimly-lit large chamber at the end of the tunnel. Very definitely non-human figures.

"I thought you folks purified that!" hissed Champion.

"We did. We couldn't permanently seal the rift, though. They are in the process of re-defiling it!"

"Then let's stop them," said Maciste, starting forward, fists balled.

The creatures turned out to be a bit more than human in speed, strength and resilience and there were a lot of them. Champion managed to deal with nearly half of them, while Maciste and Thunderer took care of most of the rest. Meanwhile, Jade Eagle guarded Sharma while she did... something at the altar. After several frantic minutes the last of the creatures was down, and the team's shaman was finished with her work.

"There. It is again blocked. Though, again, it is still there and could be forced back open."

"What if it were buried in rock?" said Champion, still breathing hard and holding a bandage over a nasty gash on her left forearm.

"Uhm, that might... well, enough rock would..."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" said Maciste, grinning.

His costume had a few tears - which was impressive enough considering how tough the material was - but he was uninjured. The others had escaped with minor injuries at most.

"Actually, let's get some demolition experts in here," said Champion, looking doubtfully around the chamber. "We could bring the whole hillside crashing down into the valley if we weren't careful. Maybe it would be better to just fill this with concrete."

"That would definitely do it," said Sharma, looking both impressed and wary.

* * *

Meanwhile, another team was having a similar adventure.

"Whew!" said Bowman, wiping his brow as he dropped onto a pile of structural steel members. "Okay, if that's the last of them we need to figure out how to keep any more from getting in here."

"Before we dispose of the bodies?" said Jet Jaguar, with a grimace of distaste.

"I know some people who will be glad to take those off our hands," said the Black Mask. He didn't elaborate and the others didn't ask.

"How do you seal a crack in space?" said Solange, as she frantically rubbed herself with hand cleaner from a dispenser on the side of the portajohn there in the construction area. Having the scantiest costume she had received the most exposure to the ichor the creatures seemed to be filled with. Industrial paper towels were next on her agenda.

"Grout?" said Bowman, scowling in thought. "No; concrete. We were planning to put a nice, thick, reinforced concrete floor in here, anyway. We'll just make it thicker and more reinforced."

"I remember that episode of Kolchak," said the Black Mask.