SIDE STORY – DOMINOES 1

Euclidia stepped back from the ring of metal, pressing her hands together and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. The signal had gone through, and she felt everything was in the right place. All the settings were where they needed to be. The tech that Gravy Train had helped her build simulated the gravitational fields she needed to make the whole thing work. Her portals were always temporary - constructs that had to be dismissed or she would overload herself. This combination of her instinctual knowledge and her friend’s ability would change that. 

“We’re about to change the world, boys!” she said delightedly and rubbed her hands together.  She pointed towards one of the techs without looking. “Parker! Drum roll!”

The tech hopped to his feet and started drumming on one of the secure cabinets behind him. She nodded along with it, grinning ear-to-ear. This was her puzzle, her great mystery.  Another mind-bender to solve crossed off the list. If only there weren’t a bunch of dude-bros in combat gear killing the vibe. She shot the squad of Pandora soldiers a sidelong look and rolled her eyes before pulling her phone out of her pocket. She swiped once and checked the connection. 

“Readings look good! Hit it!”

WOOM … WOOM … WOOM WOOM WOOM

The circular ring of metal began to hum. The field of energy around it caused a few bits of dust and debris on the ground to start rising into the air. She took a deep breath and sensed the target location. Calculations darted through her brain that she had poured over for months. She drew both hands back as mana drew into her body. She stepped forward and pushed. 

Light.

A tiny pin-prick of light.

A single, glowing mote that slowly began to expand into a whirlpool from the center of the ring. She shifted her weight and controlled it, forcing it up and around. Right now she still had to be the one to create the portal. But if this works… She licked her lips as the first brush of the watery energy crashed against the outer ring and two things happened. First, the portal finished forming. Second, she and everyone else in the room were thrown back by a wave of concussive force. She hit the ground painfully and blinked a few times, groaning once before barking out a laugh. She sat up fast and stared.

Her eyes went wide, and she tried to sense the portal as an extension of herself. 

Nothing, she thought as awe filled her chest. She got to her feet and walked towards it. I don’t feel a damn thing. Holy shit. She stood in front of the whirling mass and put her hand on the outer ring before gasping and quickly reaching into her pocket. She fished out a yo-yo and hurriedly slipped the loop over her finger. No one spoke as she did a few tricks, walking the dog, around the world, and then… she sent it through the portal before snapping back.

The yo-yo returned, and she held it over her head. “It works!” she shouted. “We have a stable portal!”

Cheers, thrown papers, laughter, and hugs went around the room as her team celebrated. She put her hands on her hips. “This is the future,” she thumbed her nose. “You villains thought we heroes responded fast before. Now we are everywhere.” She turned to her team. “Somebody get me a tank and mask. I’m going in.”

One of the soldiers frowned. “Miss, I don’t recommend you go there. We have no idea what’s on the other side. Also, we don’t have air tanks.”

“Then you better get some and hurry after me, buzz-killington, because I’m going to the Backrooms,” she declared as a tech hurried over with a small, waist-strap air tank attached to a mask. She pulled it over her head and turned it on, taking a few breaths and checking the seal. She shot a thumbs-up towards everyone, and before the grumpy gus could say any more, she darted through the portal.

It wasn’t like her usual portals. The sensation of movement and covering distance didn’t come. There was no temporal pause that felt like time both had and hadn’t passed. Instead, she just felt solid ground beneath her feet. It was so jarring she nearly stumbled forward before catching herself and looking up. “Woah…”

A bridge made of rainbows. A city floating over a void. It was beyond anything she could ever have imagined. She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair, snapping her fingers and going through a full cycle of stims before she got a hold of herself. Only training managed to break her fixation on the incredible view and turn her attention to the equipment set up around the platform she was standing on.

What the-?

“Euclidia.”

She whirled before her eyes crossed, the barrel of a gun pressed against her temple. She blinked and looked past it towards the man with metal skin that seemed to ripple as he breathed. His eyes swirled with an eerie teal-blue that slowly shifted to red. He had no lips, only a skull-like face with white teeth against the dark gray metal of his flesh. She shifted once, and he pulled the hammer back. 

“I wouldn’t move.” His words sounded like it came from a thousand different tiny speakers. It made him sound cold and mechanical. “My reflexes are faster than your portals.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Who the hell are you?”

“Your research partner,” the man said cockily. “I really appreciated all the effort you put in trying to keep me out of Pandora’s computers. Who’s your new technopath?”

Her heart sank. “Technocrat.” Ishtar got here first!

His skeletal smile twisted upward. “Bingo. Thanks again for being such a good research partner. I was worried I wouldn’t get to test these before I gave them to the boss.”

“Test what?”

His gun snapped down, and a crack of sound filled the air. Pain exploded in her leg, and she dropped, clutching at it. He turned away and gestured. She huffed, forcing herself to move and look at what he was doing. There, from where she’d come out, was an ancient portal. The archway shimmered, light running through it, before the portal she’d gone through changed. She threw her hand out to stop him and… nothing. She gasped and looked at her hand.

He glanced back at her. “That should slow you down till I’m done,” he said with a laugh and stepped through. She gasped again and swallowed hard, putting everything on her arms as she tried to drag herself back through the portal. She’d either follow him or end up back home. Either way, she’d live long enough to get answers. Before she fainted, she heard shouts as soldiers ran to her aid.

–

The strike team moved.

Another patrol hero went down, the costumed moron pinned to the floor of the room as the team spread out. Two quiet pops of silenced gunfire, and the sound of a body hitting the ground followed as the patrol hero’s teammate was secured. The team leader stood up and gave a sharp gesture, the wood beneath the first hero curling upward before locking down and sealing with itself. The properties of the wood didn’t change, but that didn’t matter. This was about leverage and where the joints were made, after all.

“Carver, the other team is falling back. Captain York got his beating,” a voice said.

He looked up to see a trio of men in tactical armor and masks enter, carrying an unconscious hero between them. They tossed the woman to the ground next to the first. Behind them, a larger man in the same tactical gear they all wore dragged an unconscious man in handcuffs.

The first hero, Carver was pretty sure his name was Mister Fist or something - a stupid name in his opinion - shifted where he lay on the ground. He spotted his comrade next to him and tried to get up. “You assholes! You shot Spotter!”

What is with these first generation heroes and idiot codenames?

Carver snorted. “She’ll be fine, moron. It was a stun round. Instead of bitching, maybe think twice about calling yourself a so-called hero,” he snarled and kicked the guy in the head as a single slab of wood grew from the ground an inch from the other side. The snap shock knocked him out instantly. 

Carver turned to his group. “That's four patrol groups. Good job, guys.” 

A hiss sounded in his ear, and he tapped his earpiece. “Status of the villain you spotted?”

The voice on the other end chuckled. ”I’ve got him. I think this one will get us in.”

“Thanks for your help, Shrine.”

”Don’t thank me yet. Looks like a big name is on the move. Don’t get cocky. You’ll get your chance to prove what you can do, but not today.” Shrine said. ”Grab the other villain and get out of there. We’re on a schedule.”

“On it, sir.”

Another hiss. He tapped his ear again. “What?”

”Confirming. Bandit is heading your way.”

Carver frowned and turned to the others. He made a series of quick gestures, and two of their group hurried over to grab the man in cuffs, while the rest moved into position, pulling small devices out of bags and fixing them onto the walls. The two with the villain pulled their collars down before reaching into pouches on their belts and retrieved thin gold chains. They wrapped them around their own arms and the villains’ before their tattoos flashed, and they vanished.

Carver reached into his own pouch and pulled out the thin slabs of metal he’d been given. Each of them was embedded with a mana crystal and had a piece of tape with a name written on it. That’s when they heard the snickering sound. He looked down and saw black liquid spreading across the ground. He frowned and pushed down on the crystal before dropping it. A chemical smell filled the air followed by a flash of light. Something horrible shrieked and something hard slammed into Carver’s shoulder.

He spun and pointed his gun at the window the arrow had come through, opening fire as he moved back slowly to the solid wall behind him. The floor creaked beneath his feet, the plans of wood ready to change at a thought. Something hit the ground as the glare faded from Carver’s eyes, and the hooded figure of Bandit hopped to his feet. He moved like lightning, drawing a dark arrow out of nowhere on his bow.

The wood-paneled floor curled up and snapped around Bandit’s legs. He looked down just as Carver grabbed his collar and flicked open the detonator. “We see you, false heroes,” he snarled and pressed the trigger. The flashbangs went off as the Vigilantes vanished.