This may need a tad setting up. This was a rejected story written for the upcoming Beta City anthology from Library of Science Fiction. The anthology is a persistent world with stories written by many authors. In this world, the alien forces of the Gehanna have invaded Beta City seeking some kind of machine. The details of what they were searching for were not disclosed, so you will have to read the book to find out.
Despite the rejection, I am very proud of this story, as it features the character of Sonia Spears, a dear friend of mine that passed away 6 months ago, and as such the story is dedicated to her. The characters of Mike, Needles and System are based on the rest of the group of friends that I had during that time in my life. System is based on David Brownfield and Needles on David "Scooter" Butler. Keep in mind the personalities and actions do not reflect the people per se, as Needles is used as a villain simply as a story mechanic.
I decided to post this simply as a memorial to Sonia, as the story was written specifically for the anthology, it is unlikely that I will find a home for it, aside from here.
Traitors In The Field
By Mike Mitchell
The call had gone out like a red hot knife through cold molasses, searing itself in Michael’s psyche. After the fall of Cape Bay to the invading Gehanna forces, Cape Bay’s heroes scattered to the four winds. Some seeking safety, some seeking another battle to fight, many were captured and killed or rounded up into containment camps. Until this point, no concerted effort had been launched to organize the super powers of earth into a unified fighting force, but the invasion had been swift, catching the world off guard.
Then came the call. It was rumored that some of Earth’s most powerful super powers had started forming small pockets of resistance, but now, some super power with psychic abilities so strong it could reach other super powers over long distances slammed itself into Michael’s mind calling for anyone who could hear the message to form up in the sewers of Beta City, the gleaming, sprawling metropolis that had seemed to become the beacon of the invasion. For some reason the alien forces, calling themselves The Gehanna, had concentrated on Beta City overrunning it first and foremost, setting up their base of operations in the central most part of the city.
Unlike the majority of the powers that answered the call, Michael and Sonia weren’t born with their powers. Their abilities were the result of alien interference when Michael’s father, a Xeno-Archaeologist, sent Michael a stone gauntlet found in the deep jungles of Ecuador. The gauntlet was of alien origin, and Michael’s father had been murdered for it by General Daniel Parks, a disguised Thallusian, the race that had built the gauntlet. Parks was searching for it when the gauntlet melded itself into Michael’s arms, turning itself into a powerful weapon and giving Michael access to “Chuck”, a psychic projection that only he could see. Chuck was a memory ingram that contained the collected knowledge of the Thallusian race. After Sonia was given her telepathic and telekinetic powers by General Parks, she could see and interact with Chuck also, but at the cost of her altered and sometimes unstable DNA at the tinkering of Parks.
That was one year ago, almost to the day. Michael had hoped he had seen the last of the aliens, but this invasion had made him acutely aware of just how big of a target earth had on its back. Right now, Michael found himself, Sonia and two other Super Powers, Needles and System, deep in the sewers of Beta City, directly beneath a prison camp where the Gehanna had taken their human prisoners.
As it was explained to Michael, Needles, who had more piercings and tattoos than a carnival sideshow act, could bring his tattoos to life under his mental control and fling small needles, tipped with a paralytic poison, from his fingertips. Needles seemed like your average punker type. Small framed, spiky hair and a bad attitude.
System on the other hand was well built, almost like a gang banger. System could project massive blasts of concussive sound in the bass range. Rumor going around the resistance camp was that System had managed to find that elusive “Brown Note”.
“So what do they call you”, System whispered to Michael.
“Friends call me Mike”, Michael said, knowing what system meant.
“No, son… your Powers name”?
“Oh, well”, Michael stammered. “I’ve kind of been leaning towards Shadow Stalker, but that’s not set in stone just yet.”
“You’ll work on it. Nice look you got goin on, man. Very retro”, system said, looking at Michael.
“Thanks… It kind of came with the powers”. Michael didn’t get to choose the look, instead the gauntlet had read Micheal's psyche and chosen a look that best suited his personality. Black fedora, black suit, black trench coat and mask, though the tie he wore was white.
“Ah’rite. Someone tell me why the shit we’re wasting our time out here trying to save these normies when the real fight is to the south of us at the front line of them alien shitheads”, Needles asked, almost spitting the word “Normies” onto the grime encrusted walls of the sewer.
“Because we need these ‘Normies’. Frankly we need every able bodied person we can get our hands on to fight back, powered or not”, Michael shot back. “The fight to the south is a diversion anyway to draw the main troops there while the three groups of Powers, each with a teleporter, gets these people out of these camps and to safety”.
“If you have a problem with the mission, or the people we are here to free, you can either leave, or I shut down your motor cortex and leave you to drool in the piss water you’re standing in”, Sonia said, staring daggers at Needles.
“Look, Chica, I’ve seen what these people can do. I volunteered for this mission and I’m seeing it through, for now, but when this is all over and we’ve gone back to life as usual, they’ll go back to hating us again. To killing us again.”
Sonia stared at Needles, hatred and anger flaring across every muscle in his face. But there was fear and Sonia heard Needles say in his mind, “like my brother”.
“Okay kids, shake your dicks, this pissing contest is over”, Michael said to Sonia and Needles.
Needles just glanced at Michael and shrugged, raising his hands in surrender, a tattoo raised off his shoulder, a small French-man waiving a white flag.
“Okay, this is how its going to go down” Michael said, reaching his arm out which began to bubble and change as the Gauntlet raised itself out of Michael's flesh and formed a technological and biological machine that went up his forearm. It was silver white with a black control panel on the lower forearm, connected to a black box on the top of the hand via a thick conduit. Of course this is only what the gauntlet wanted to look like in conjunction with Michael's outfit.
“Chuck, display map of the prison camp above us” Michael said as a holographic projection of the camp burst forth from the gauntlet.
“There ya go Mikey boy” Chuck said, materializing out of nowhere alongside the map, his short gray frame visible only to Michael and Sonia.
System turned to Needles as if to ask ‘who the hell is he talking to’. Needles simply shrugged.
“Okay, I will Shadow Step us in here,” Michael said, pointing to the western portion of the camp. “Sonia and Needles, you need to take out the guards that will certainly be patrolling the area. Do it quietly, we don’t want to alert anyone until System,” Michael said, looking at System “You have the most important job. I need you to take out the floodlights; I need shadows and darkness to teleport. When that happens, everyone in the camp will know we are here and it’s going to be up to you three to keep the guards off me until I can get to the prisoners and shadow step them out. I’ve never taken this many people at once, and frankly I don’t know if I can do it in one shot. Once the prisoners are out, I come back for you. Everyone got it”?
The group nodded, almost in unison
Michael held out his arm and the group grabbed hold. He flicked out his will into the darkness and with a tug; they were all pulled through the shadows. The world faded for the briefest of moments before returning with a splash against their senses.
System and Needles staggered for a moment, the Shadow Step took a bit of getting used too, but they recovered quickly.
A surprised shout came from the left as Needles spun to see who it was. Two guards were running at them, guns raised, each towering over the quartet by a good two feet. Full face masks and battle armor hid their features except for the long flowing dreadlock like tentacles coming from the back of their heads.
Needles launched himself at them, thrusting his arms outward as two giant tattoo snakes leaped into the air and slithered with an unnatural speed at the first of the guards as he send a volley of the poison tipped needles at the second guard. The needles hit home in the soft flesh of the alien’s neck, dropping him to the ground instantly.
The snakes took a second longer, but reached their target, tackling him to the ground and wrapping themselves around him, biting any open spot they could find. His bones, assuming they were bones as human science knew it, cracked under the pressure.
A blast landed at the feet of Michael and System, coming from above them. They looked up to see the same kind of guards in the light towers.
“Sonia”, Michael shouted, pointing up towards the shots.
Sonia reached out with her mind and pulled, hard, on the forms of the guards, toppling them over the guard tower, shutting off their brains as they fell. She wasn’t a woman without pity, and she didn’t know if these things felt pain like we did.
Michael nodded to System, who immediately found the nearest light tower and launched a barrage of concussive sound, destroying the light and any glass near it.
Michael threw himself into gear, breaking across the compound at full run, dodging a laser blast. The guard was quickly taken down by Sonia. Michael didn’t stop to thank her, he didn’t need to. She knew.
Michael reached a shadow and was about to lunge into it when several cloaked warships appeared in the sky above them, training their lights downward across the compound. The shouts of surprise and despair filled the air, coming from the cage full of humans. The ships blasters visibly trained on the group as a psychic scream pierced through Michael's mind.
Michael turned to see Sonia slump to the ground clutching her neck, several long, thin needles protruding from between her fingers, unable to move.
System spun, gripping his head from Sonia’s unintentional barrage and launched a blast at Needles who flew back against the nearest storage shed.
One of the ships opened fire on system, blasting him square in the chest; a red stain began to appear on his shirt.
“You son of a bitch, WHY”, Michael yelled, about to blast Needles himself.
“Because we made him a better deal”, came a voice behind Michael that chilled him to the bone. General Parks, still disguised as a human, stood behind him, a gun of alien design trained against his back.
“These humans you want to save… these ‘Normies’… They killed my brother because he had powers”, Needles said breathlessly, gaining his footing from Systems blast and standing again.
“Humans, such weak piles of meat, but somehow, so useful”, Parks spat.
“You're dead… I fucking killed you!” Michael snarled.
“Thalussians are a little more durable than humans.”
Mike stiffened his arm, ready to attack, the mission gone from his mind.
“Ah ah ah… I wouldn’t do that if I were you” Parks said, training his gun at Sonia’s still form.
Michael hesitated momentarily and lowered his arm.
“Good. Now, we talk like civilized species.” Parks said, raising his arm to his mouth. “Destroy the cage” he said into a communicator.
The lead ship’s guns turned and blasted a ray so intense it left nothing but a smoldering crater. The blast was so powerful, so close that it knocked Parks and the guards off balance. Michael took this opportunity to blast Parks in the shoulder.
Parks fell back, wounded, as Michael ran off towards System, ready to pull him and Sonia to a place where he could Shadow Step them out.
System smiled and launched a blast that rung Michael’s ears, but caught Needles who had been creeping up behind Michael, the snake dangling off his arm disappeared as Needles lost consciousness.
“Go, get her… I got this”, System said, blood dripping from the side of his mouth.
Michael nodded, took his hand and looked in his eyes for a moment, then sped off towards Sonia.
System began to shake as the ground rumbled, he had never used his power like this before and would never again as he sent himself into overload.
Michael reached Sonia and covered them both in his coat, casting them both into darkness. The pile of human and coat emptied as Michael Shadow Stepped them out of the compound and away from the impending blast zone.
System gave the ships the finger and mouthed ‘Eat Me’ as he exploded in a shock wave that destroyed everything around him, leaving the prison a wasteland of smoke and debris.
