Red Fox Action Log 48 Cont:

  I had a dilemma. See, I had to keep Atlas busy, else he’d harass Bronze Boy, who I imagined would be the key to getting us out of this alive. On the other hand, my invisibility power was the one thing keeping my head on my shoulders.

  Atlas’s opening swings were with big sweeping, closed-fist haymakers. I’d stay visible just long enough to duck in and kick, then duck out and disappear.

  Then he opened his hands, and tried to grab me, searching the air with cumbersome, paddle-like swipes. Each displaced a huge amount of air.

  I didn’t know what to do. I had to get a kick up at his head, but I couldn’t maneuver behind or beside him for an easy shot because of the narrow hall. I popped a compartment in my belt open, and fished out small, round pepper gas canisters.

  I threw them into his face. The capsules exploded into green mist. I backpedaled to stay out of the way. He clawed at his helmet, eventually tearing it off, rather than deal with the irritant.

  I tried to duck past him, but he grabbed me by the back of the neck with a flailing paw, and threw me down the hall. I tried to get my feet under me, but couldn’t quite manage, smashing the back of my head against the tile.

  I wasn’t sure how long I was out, maybe half a second, maybe 2, but by the time my vision cleared he was over me. He had my arm in both hands, and a boot on my chest.

  He began to pull.

  I felt something tear. I screamed.

  “No!” yelled Bronze Boy. She flew down the hall.

  Fire belched from her feet. The fluorescents flashed across the shiny bronze. This was a real Superhero. This was a legend made flesh.

  Her raised gauntlet flashed a beam of light right into Atlas’s chest. He staggered back, and she clocked him with a punch that sent him sprawling.

  I tried to sit up but the pain was too much. Something was very wrong with my arm. I couldn’t put weight on it. I put my back against the wall.

  Atlas stood.

  “Alright big boy,” Twitch said, “you’re playing with a real Superhero now.”

  “Super, Journeyman, you all got a button on the temple,” he replied, crushing his fist into his hand. “You all fall.”

  “Sounds like someone that’s never met a real Superhero. Bring it!”

  Atlas roared, bringing a huge haymaker in that I could spot as a clear setup for a counterpunch. Bronze Boy wasn’t playing his game. She flew up over the haymaker, and hooked her arm around his neck. Her feet sent a long line of flame down the hall as she drove him into the wall.

  Atlas managed to stay standing and drove several punches into her armored gut. Bronze Boy flew back, and held her arm out. A swirling array of runes spun around her hand, then a massive beam of light took Atlas off his feet, and blasted him into the wall hard enough to knock out bricks and send cracks spidering.

  He fell on his face, out cold.

  Twitch stepped out of the suit. That was strange. It opened up like a blooming flower. She ran to me.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “No. Grab the zip ties from my belt. He’s probably gonna be up sooner than you think.”

  She nodded, grabbed the zip ties for his feet and hands, just barely able to get them around his massive bulk, and pushed them tight. She then dropped a magic chain around his waist for good measure.

  “How long can you keep the chain there?” I asked, gasping through the pain.

  “An hour at least.”

  “Good,” I said.

  “I think I can heal that wound.”

  “Please do, before I pass out.”

  Wendel ran out with a sling, and reset my arm. Twitch sent a bright surge of what I assumed was magical energy through my shoulder. The pain subsided, but I knew I should keep the arm up for as long as I could.

  “How does that work?” I asked.

  “Your arm is healed,” she said, “but it only works on injuries from the last couple of minutes. And even then, I’m borrowing from your lifeforce to do it.”

  “You just take a day from me?” I asked.

  “Relax,” Wendel said. “More like a couple hours. Great for a quick patchup in the field. but not the same kind of lasting healing as, say, Sparklefingers.”

  “Awesome,” I said, letting them help me up. “So why are they here? Do they want Bronze Boy?” I asked, glancing at the suit of armor left open like a chinese takeout container made into a plate.

  “Bronze Boy has always been here,” Wendel said. “That’s not much of a secret. Why would they choose now to attack?”

  “Maybe it’s something else?” I offered.

  Wendel and Twitch gave each other a look.

  “What?” I prodded.

  “I mean,” Twitch said, “It could be anything in this museum, really. Half the artifacts here could power a Supervillain if they fell in the wrong hands.”

  “Then why isn’t there more security?”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Well,” Twitch answered, “there is me, for one. Most people wouldn’t have the balls to take on Bronze Boy. There is also the fact that most of it isn’t on display, or known to be here. Secrecy is our greatest security.”

  “If you had to guess, what’s the most dangerous?”

  “Well, not counting The Outsider,” Wendel said, referring to the corpse of the 20 foot tall robot on display in building 2, “I’m not really —”

  Wendel was cut off by a look from Twitch.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We were just sent an artifact from our sister museum in Osaka,” Wendel said. “Some debris from a dig there. They think it could be another remnant from a fight with Shadowstone.”

  I ran to the backroom. Twitch followed. On foot, which was probably a mistake.

  Tendrils of dark energy wrapped around me, and I was paralyzed. So was Twitch. Wendel had enough time to grab a fire extinguisher, and spray it in the corner. The side of a female figure became visible.

  Her arm moved, casting a spell. His hands moved in response, attempting to counter it — too late. Then, he locked up too, as tendrils wrapped around him.

  Amulet exited invisibility, and brushed at her shoulder which was covered in foam.

  “I’ll have to get this dry cleaned,” she muttered.

  She wore a long maxi skirt down to her brown leather boots, and a white silk chiffon blouse. A belt held a long knife in a leather sheath. She’d managed to redo her whole makeup from the last I saw her. It was more pale, and gothy. An attempt to be more intimidating, I figured.

  She walked over to a cardboard box with kanji on it, and fished around. Her hand came out with a large purplish gem, maybe two or three centimeters long.

  Her smile broke across her face with delight and greed, like a kid finding their parents' secret stash of candy. A finger trailed her dark red lips, as if she were caught in imagining all the things she could do.

  She pocketed the gem, then took out the knife.

  “She told me to kill you all if I could manage it. But I don't really do that. We’re heroes. We’re doing the right thing. And if we’re really right, I don’t need to use this.”

  I could feel the rage bubble up in my chest, but I couldn’t speak.

  She replaced the knife in its sheath, then brought out the gem.

  “Now this… do you know what I can do with something like this? Not just make Shadowbats, but I could move buildings, could redirect rivers. I’ll be a real Superhero.”

  She walked to the hall, and turned back for one more jab.

  “And think about what you could do if you were with us, not against us?”

  She left. Several moments later, I don’t know how long, a roar of rage split the air. Red runes whirled around Twitch.

  She broke free, and stormed off into the hall. She came back wearing the suit.

  A wave of her hand, and Wendel and I were free.

  “Can you get her?” I asked.

  “Nah,” she replied, fuming. “No point now. She could be anywhere. The spell of revealing only works in confined spaces. I should have done it first thing. Atlas is gone too.”

  She cursed. I sat in an office chair. My arm throbbed with pain still.

  “I need to set up the barrier,” she said. “Nobody gets in or out until this is settled.”

  Runes swirled around her like crazy. Wendel started scribbling something down on a piece of paper, then held it up, the paper burning away and sending more red runes into the swirling funnel.

  I got a text.

  I pulled out my phone.

  I cursed. I really needed to find Amulet and Atlas; put them down for good. Who knew what they were doing. And if she escaped with the shard? We’d have two Archvillians to deal with, and our whole operation trying to get together a superteam could end up being nothing.

  I texted back.

  If I didn’t find Amulet — what people didn’t understand about this thing was that one single Archvillian could take on a whole team of Superheroes, because once you’ve decided that people’s lives don’t matter, your capacity for destruction can easily outstripe a hero’s ability to keep people safe. And that’s the mission. Not taking down the bad guys.

  A bad guy sets a building on fire — you go save those people first, every single time. That’s why this team was so important. It really takes a team.

  I shoved my phone in my pocket, and shrugged out of the sling. It would just have to be okay. I had somewhere I needed to be.

  Rage and adrenaline coursed through my body.

  I ran. At the stairs I shot my grapple without even looking, zipping up as fast as I could, then leaving it behind me.

  Every child should be free from fear. Every parent deserved to keep them safe.

  I didn’t even feel my aches. I was filled, overflowing, with purpose.

  Seven, no eight, shadowbats took turns slamming to the office door. It barely held together. Looked like they’d shot through it some before thinking better of it.

  The bats were stupid, didn’t know they could shatter the windows. The door splintered. The children screamed.

  I leapt into the air and caught a bat between the shoulders, slamming it into the floor. It exploded into black mist. Two more flew in from the entrance. I cursed.

  Then the bubble came down. A red dome of energy passed across the skylights, and landed over the front doors — a semi-permeable barrier. She’d said earlier that objects could pass but not creatures, human or magical.

  Good. All the threats were locked in here with me.

  I leapt into a flurry of kicks knocking bats back left and right. One swooped in digging claws into my back, lifting me into the air. I reached back and threw it into another. I tore something in my arm again.

  No biggie. Legs still worked fine.

  I leapt, kicking the bats to my left and right in a scissor kick, then landed and back peddled. I’d thinned their numbers down to six. That’s okay. I’d finish this in eight kicks.

  I do. I’d never moved so fast. Something in me pushed me, something in the fox serum made me move like I’d never moved before. My remaining arm was damn near useless, but I didn’t need it. Not for this.

  Dark mist clung to the floor, but already it began to dissipate.

  Sniffer Sleuth burst through, baton raised. I just nodded to him. He nodded back.

  I know we didn’t do this for glory, but I hope they’d seen what I’d just done, because it was sick as hell.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Fine. How are they?”

  He glanced back at the civilians.

  “They’re better now. What’s the sitrep?”

  “I’ll fill you in on the way,” I said. “We need to find Bronze Boy.”

  We ran together as I filled him in. We turned the corner and took the stairs up.

  The window in the stairwell that showed the courtyard of the museum was tinted red by the dome, and a swirling array of runes. I could see the city past it. A bird tried to fly through the dome, and exploded into a puff of feathers.

  I didn’t laugh. I texted Twitch that we were headed up to the second floor. We exited the stairs to the exhibits.

  The second floor was more dedicated to prewar heroes, knights and folklore and such. Suits of armor, and pikes, and arrows, and displays with mannequins wearing costumes lined the hall. In the middle, was a huge iron anvil. Sticking out the top was a long sword.

  Sir Cuthbert held the hilt of this sword, blue runes swirling around him.

  I knew this guy sucked.

  “Is that Excaliber?” Sleuth asked.