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Chapter 03
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Outside of the safety barricade around the Paragon Power Plant, news crews gathered at first light; even if that first light was a guard lighting up a cigarette.

They found and practically bombarded Diamond Grace when she arrived on the scene. Their questions were numerous and difficult to pick out, but Diamond Grace answered what she could while making her way to the barricade.

“We heard you were assigned this mission last night; what took you so long to come down here?” “Miss Diamond Grace, how will you succeed where others have failed?” “What do you think you’ll find in there?”

“The seventh time is the charm,” said Diamond Grace. “And I am blessed, because I’m going in, but not truly alone. Now excuse me, I have a city to save.”

The reporters called after her, but she kept going, passing the guards and the barricade. They handed her a reader and a radiation suit just in case, they told her. She never once asked what it was for. Instead, she nodded and carried on.

Once she got inside, Diamond Grace took a deep breath. Dealing with reporters was more harrowing than she had ever imagined. Now was the moment of truth. She pulled out a handful of tiny devices, each shaped like a disc and the size of her thumb, and got to work applying them to a wall.

They were arranged in an ovular shape long enough to compensate most men that she knew back home in Arizona, if this indeed worked like a doorway like Mortar Mage said it would.

She activated the two-way earphone she was wearing, and spoke, “Knock-knock, come on in.”

A second later, she heard Mortar’s voice through the earpiece, “Roger that. Stand clear, and thanks for the invite.”

The wall between the discs glowed a number of colors including silver and violet. Adamast Cross and Ohm Wire stepped through the wall, challenging everything that Jackie believed for the majority of her life. The glowing stopped, but Diamond Grace was assured that they could contact the outside world at any time as long as the discs were in place.

“Is this everyone?” she asked.

Walter’s voice answered through the earpiece, “Mortar and I are monitoring the situation from here. Everyone else is asleep or at work. That just leaves the three of you, ladies.”

“Ohm Wire’s visor can record video for us,” explained Mortar. “However, these broadcasts will push the amount of power that this connection takes, so we’ll have to keep it down until you spot something for us to analyze. The last thing we need is to create an unstable rift in the middle of a power plant that is already suffering mysterious issues.”

“This thing could do that?” the new heroine inquired.

“It shouldn’t, given the calculations I made and doubled down on, but I’m obligated to list potential warnings or concerns ever since a few harmless incidents.”

“Harmless incidents. Really?”

With a ring of the doorbell, Walter entered the foyer to open the front entrance. He had asked Warren about having a butler or maid around for things like this, given only the size of the house, but Warren told him that the place was already . . . crowded, for a lack of a better word.

He grasped the knob, twisted, and pulled it back. Walter was greeted by a woman’s backside as she began to tug on a trunk twice her size.

“Long time no see, Walter,” said Mai. She stopped a moment so that she and Walter could exchange casual pecks on each cheek. “I was starting to wonder if I’d ever catch you.”

“Yes, I heard that you were storing some things in the attic. Cleaning house?”

“I’m selling it. It’s been years since . . . you know, and I need to move on. It’s amazing that I haven’t set fire to the place yet. This morning, I was vacuuming my daughter’s room when I ended up staring at the poster on her wall for a half hour, reminiscing about the past. So, that’s going up with the rest of our collection of hero memorabilia at least until I’ve settled into my new place. I had thought about a storage unit, but that’s asking for trouble in a city like ours.”

“Right, I suppose it’s hard to sell a house when you’re staring at a single wall the entire time. Harder still when Judy provided us all with so many memories. Listen, we’re actually in the middle of something big right now, but if you want I can help you get your things up the stairs.”

“I think I can manage,” Mai said, still moving with her trunk in hand.

“Are you sure?”

“I only packed what I could carry.”

Never mind the fact that the trunk looked like it would still have been heavy if it was empty. What did Mai have in there, one of Warren’s gravity reduction devices?

Walter said, “Well, let me know if you change your mind, or if you just want a cup of coffee or tea. By all means, drop by to say hi. I’m sure everyone would like that.”

He left her for the kitchen to grab a cup for himself. It was going to be a while before Walter had the chance to sleep. Maybe he should pick up power naps like Jeff. No, he had no idea how his friend had managed it so well for so long, and Walter wasn’t about to try it.

Dear, oh dear.

“There doesn’t appear to be anyone in here,” said Diamond Grace. She walked with the others toward the middle, but what they were could hardly be called a line. They ventured closer and closer to the plant’s reactor, but there was no sign of life.

Not even a decorative plant, or a cockroach.

Ohm Wire said, “My visor’s only picking up heightened amounts of radiation.”

“Only?” said Adamast Cross.

“It’s not lethal if we don’t stay here long. At least, that’s what my informant tells me.”

“Your informant is contacting you through your visor?”

“It’s either that or my phone. Somehow, I don’t think we’d get good service in here.”

The two siblings glanced and nodded at one another, and the trek continued down the corridors. It took a little more than five minutes before they reached the door to the reactor. The door was ajar.

“Ohm Wire?” said Adamast Cross.

“It’s the same.” Ohm Wire didn’t sound too sure of herself, or maybe she was confused. “The readings in there are just like the corridors we’ve been walking in. Something else, too.”

“Something else?” asked Mortar over their earpieces. “What do you mean? Oh. Oh wow, that’s interesting. They’re all the wrong kind of waves. So that means the radiation in there isn’t coming from the reactor. Tell your informant they have a good eye.”

“She says thanks, Mortar. Will this radiation hurt us?”

“If you’re out of there in the next ten minutes, and someone treats you with some basic medicine, then you won’t suffer long-term effects. Still, be careful.”

Adamast pinched her brow then. “She’s already gone in. Well, I guess we better fo—“

Ohm Wire shrieked. In a panic, Adamast Cross ran in after her, and then Diamond Grace followed. Diamond Grace wasted no time spotting the source of the other heroine’s reaction. There was a flaming, glowing, skeletal figure melded with the reactor.

The figure moved his head, and spoke: “It’s been a while, Ohm Wire. I see you’ve brought some friends.”

“Who is this?” Diamond Grace asked.

“The name, young lady, is Ghost Fracture. I was the leader of Nightmare’s Militia, or Soldiers; it was all the same. Ohm Wire here was one of my brightest recruits. Oh, we had such fun doing what was right in the islands forgotten by law. Didn’t we?”

“And now look at you. Payment for a sinner?” After Diamond Grace said that, her sister muttered her name. Her first name, in front of this villain!

“Something like that. I suppose this was a long time coming before I was caught and punished for breaking away. They don’t forgive runaways, even ones like me who were supposed to have died. Especially when we cause trouble for their return.”

“Whose return?” asked Ohm Wire.

Mortar Mage watched the computer screen intently with Walter looking over his shoulder. He had the next computer console digging up everything it could on Ghost Fracture and Nightmare’s Militia. He was sure he’d heard a good deal about them before, but references for himself and others never hurt.

Ohm Wire asked, “Whose return?”

Ghost Fracture said, “The Vanquishiri Bahitians.”

“No. No, no, no.” Mortar repeated himself with growing fear and fury. It wasn’t possible.

“They’re raising soldiers from your dead, using only the parts they can salvage from one of their rituals. I rejected their first ritual to have one of them inside me, and my soul survived. Then they used a second to torture my soul and strip me of all bindings to my flesh so that I might become one of their soldiers. I got away because I was one of the lucky ones. I was the only lucky one. Imagine what they’ll do to every person who came here before you.”

“No!” Mortar slid everything off of one table in a rage. “You tell him that’s impossible. You tell that man we couldn’t be standing if it was.” He barely heard, and promptly ignored, Walter whispering his name.

“So then they found me. Made an example of me so they could lure their victims. They are here, and we can do nothing other than hope our deaths will be the end.”

“Tell him!”

“Calm down, Mortar.” Walter rested a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down.”

Mortar Mage shoved the hand away, and stormed out of the mansion. He had to go somewhere. He had to be sure.

Ohm Wire rubbed her ear after all of the shouting.

Adamast Cross said, “So, how do we undo all of this? How do we save you and fix the plant’s reactor?”

“You don’t.” Ghost Fracture was nothing if not frank, and maybe a little creepy.

“See, that’s not going to work for us. We need to save the world. It’s kinda what we do.”

“Then save it. But, in order to do so, you will have to finish me. Then, and only then, will your city stand a chance to live another day.”

Everyone moved uneasily who was able to move. Not only was killing difficult, but it was considered a major violation of being a hero. There was no news media recording this, unless the mysterious hacker was accounted for, but that didn’t make the idea of taking a life seem any less wrong.

Diamond Grace said, “You understand what you’re asking, right?”

Ghost Fracture responded, “This is coming from a woman who came here to die herself. Oh, they know about you, and they expect you to run because they don’t care, or that you'll fall into their trap as you flee. They think themselves so high and mighty because they can sense people, and one of them even sees so far ahead. They think they have everything they need now, but they did not count on one thing. You have allies, dangerous ones who are difficult to predict. To me, this means they’ve already lost, but you must shut this core down and let me go.”

“God has a plan for us all. A time and place.”

“I no longer remember when my time was. It came, it went, and here I am ages later.”

“If I may interrupt,” said a woman’s voice over the earpiece.

“Who’s this?” Ohm Wire asked into it, even holding her ear and turning her head so that Ghost Fracture could see that she wasn’t talking to him.

“This is someone who knows a thing or two about taking a life, except, in my case it was out of bitter rage. For you, it will be like pulling the plug on someone who died already. I know it’s not much easier, but please, for the sake of the city and the millions of lives in it, do what he asks. Let a troubled man rest.”

“What about the heroes’ taboo?”

“It was put in place so we wouldn’t get carried away like I did six years ago, to keep us from turning villainous. It was put in place to protect people who only think in terms of black and white. This is one exception to the rule, as terrible as it might be. I would not wish this decision on anyone, but it stands before you. To this day I do not know if I’d have chosen any different.”

“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re Sw—“

“I’ve said too much already. Thank you for listening to me. Good bye, and good luck.”

Ohm Wire was stunned. A hero thought to have been long gone was on their frequency just as sure as there was a hacker on Ohm Wire’s visor. Were the hero and hacker the same person, or was the League just vulnerable? It raised too many questions for her to begin to tackle.

Meanwhile, Ghost Fracture continued to hover inside of the reactor’s edge. Ohm Wire and Adamast each took a number of lives in the past that the news media and law authorities never learned about, but circumstances were different then. They had no control over what they were doing. And the man who helped Ohm Wire start her career was suffering, primed to become unstable at any moment and blow a hole where the city now stood.

“How do we turn this thing off? How do we put you to rest?” Ohm Wire spoke with more calm than she ever knew she had in her.

Diamond Grace held onto her ice armor and grasped the handle on one of two levers. Her sister took the other, and Ohm Wire positioned herself near the turbines that siphoned the energy from the reactor.

“Ready when you are,” said Ohm Wire.

“On my mark,” Adamast said, more grim than Jackie had ever known her sibling to be. She wasn’t frightened, not angry – just carrying a heavy weight like it needed to be done and she was the person for the job.

Oh, dear sister, what demons have you faced?

“. . . Two . . . Three!” The siblings pushed against their respective levers, though Adamast Cross started first.

The lever resisted and vibrated as Diamond Grace pushed it, inch by inch, toward the ground. Flashes of light accompanied crashing sounds, and she saw waves of electricity flow through Ohm Wire. The turbines were discharging energy like Ghost Fracture said would happen even though they were shutting it down.

She kept pushing, feeling like the lever’s reach went far longer than it really did. She knew there was only another foot to go, but it might as well have been the full length of the room they were in.

But then that foot became inches, and inches became a finger’s width. Finally, the lever clicked into place.

Ohm Wire yelled and glowed from the sheer amount of energy she had in her. Adamast started toward her, but Ohm Wire held out a hand to stop her. Then the younger heroine ran out of the room.

Seconds later, Diamond Grace heard an explosion that sounded like an entire room made from glass had shattered in an instant.

Mai stood outside the door with her hand over her mouth. She was fighting her eyes’ urge to flood the hallway already, but hearing Adamast Cross and Walter shouting Ohm Wire’s moniker struck her in the chest.

She hoped against whatever odds there were. Ohm Wire was as old as her daughter would have been, and was a nice girl from what Mai could tell.

“I’m alright,” Ohm Wire’s voice struggled. “I had to find somewhere safe to release that energy.”

“Don’t worry me like that!” Adamast said, tears weighing down on her voice.

“We’re heroes, love. I can’t make any promises.”

Mai walked away then. She held her tears until she was in her car. Mai realized she would sob the entire drive home, but she didn’t care. She had already seen and heard too much to care.