Silver's Magistracy

[csyphrett]

I got an idea for some stories from the boards. I thought I would share the work in progress. I am not the greatest writer, and this will need some proofreading after, but I hope you enjoy.

 

CES

1

Jerry Silver looked into the mirror, wondering how he had gotten himself into this situation. He had assumed authority over a group of independents who had been betrayed by the powers that be. It was a second chance for them, and himself.

 

The problem was he wasn't ready to look after a group of people. He could barely hold himself together, and everyday the pain coursing through him got worse. He didn't have long to live. This could be his last chance to leave a legacy of good in the world after some of the mistakes he had made.

 

He couldn't just throw that away.

 

Jerry ran some water in his hands, and splashed it on his face. He wiped the water off with a towel. He took one last look at his face, trying to form a scowl instead of the worried look he had. He wanted to project confidence in himself and his new associates.

 

Jerry stepped out of the bathroom, and headed to the small meeting room that had been set up close to his office/quarters. The rest of the team should already be there. They all had their own interests so this was probably going to be as brief as he could make it so they could get back to it.

 

Jerry pushed opened the door, still working on his scowl of authority as he went to his chair. All of them were there, talking about personal business. That was good. They were getting to know each other a little better. That would make things easier when it was time to operate in the field.

 

John Public and the Maker were in one corner, his gray, almost drab suit contrasting with her silver and black armor and blank helmet. The Chemist sat already, leaning back in his chair. Heavy sunglasses covered the upper half of his almost square face. He wore a dark blue overall with some kind of symbol on it. Jerry didn't know what the symbol was, or represented, only that it looked different every time he looked at it. Quick watched the news monitor, arms folded under her breasts. Her crash helmet sat in front of her place at the table. The lovers, Phaeton and Luna, were deep in each other's embrace, transfixed by their shared gaze.

 

"Hello everybody," Jerry said as he sat down. "How do you like the place so far?"

 

"It's almost too big," said the Maker. "We have floors of empty space, underequipped labs, and a small hospital with no supplies. I have a complete work-up on file."

 

"That's why you're in charge of the project," said Jerry. "How is everything else going?"

 

"We have clearance from the United Nations to secure the building in international waters," said Public, taking his seat. "The Chemist supplied the land to build on so we have a little country of our own."

 

"That was easy enough to do," said the Chemist. "A little manipulation of exterior forces to gather loose material into bedrock. Long Island was happy enough to allow me the use of their facilities."

 

"This place is a large target for anyone who wants to come after us," said Luna. "It's stationary, and out in the middle of nowhere. It's in plain view to the horizon. One missile is all it would take."

 

"Our defenses can take it," said the Maker.

 

"I wanted our headquarters away from people," said Jerry. "That way we can cut loose without worrying about anyone caught in the crossfire."

 

"That really doesn't make me feel better," said Luna.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

2

 

"Take it easy, hon," said Phaeton. "We all know you have been working on a training area that can take our powers. Maybe it isn't a whole building, but we know you are feeling at loose ends waiting for the equipment tests."

 

"It's taking forever," said Luna. "I don't think the prototype I have will stand up to any one of us much less all of us combined in one area."

 

"We have a problem," said Quick, helmet covering her head with a pop of sound. Her attention was back on the news channel she had been watching when the meeting had been called.

 

A building in New York City had collapsed. Some kind of bomb had been detonated, razing the building to the ground. Out of the smoke and rubble, black aircraft strafed the surrounding edifices with square lasers. Shattered glass rolled down in a deadly silver cloud. Black armored soldiers began setting up equipment in a rush.

 

"Six other cities are reporting the same thing," said Quick.

 

Silver stared for a moment in shock. He didn't know what to do for that long second. Then the freeze passed as his mind decided what had to be done.

 

"Find out if anyone is responding to this, Maker, and where," Silver said. "We're taking the Shift to any cities that have no metahumans already responding. We don't want to overlap our efforts. Let's go."

 

Quick had vanished from the room, a slight pop marking her passage through the air. The rest of the group moved slower, but not much slower. Equipment checks went on as they piled into the teleporter room that they had liberated from the group they had replaced. Maker had worked out a way to boost the power to reach anywhere in the world from the middle of the Atlantic where the M building sat.

 

"The CORPS, The School, and the Lizard and the Odd Squad have sent word that they are moving in their home cities," reported Maker. "That takes care of New York, Washington, and Chicago. We are left with Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, and Santa Fe."

 

"Santa Fe?," said Luna. "What the crap do they want in Santa Fe?"

 

"Does that matter?," said Maker.

 

"Phaeton, take Santa Fe," said Silver, cutting off any more discussion. "Luna and Maker, take LA. John and Quick, take Atlanta. Chemist, you with me at Dallas. First priority is defense of lives, then intelligence. Let's do this."

 

Phaeton stepped on the pad, blinking away in a storm of motes. Then the rest of the Magistrates loaded into the glowing storm, vanishing to their duty on the main land.

 

Phaeton reappeared high over New Mexico. Mountains and desert stretched out below, but what drew his attention was the small army of black armored soldiers working inside the wreckage of a building that had been blown up on arrival. Several squads fired at the assembled law enforcement to keep them away from their work area.

 

"Time to do my thing," Phaeton said, as he turned his fall into glowing flight.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

3

 

Luna and Maker reassembled a few feet away from the police barricade. Lasers snapped by their heads as the SWAT teams returned the fire with their H&Ks and Mossbergs. Several policemen were already down, dead or dying from energy bolts to the face, or through their bulletproof vests.

 

"See if you can get their attention," said Maker. "I'll work out something we can use en masse."

 

"I'll get their attention all right," said Luna.

 

The lithe female brushed her short silver hair back from her face as she charged through the debris left by the attack. She used the piles of broken concrete as springboards to cover the distance faster than straight running. The first soldier to see her fired three shots before she smashed open his face plate with a booted foot. His friend didn't have a chance to turn before he was sent headfirst into the cracked front of the building next to the one that had been demolished when the black clad soldiers had arrived.

 

Maker broadcast a cease fire on the police net as she formed a cross hair over her eye from her helmet's substance. She pointed her hand, letting her arm form a rifle as she took aim on one of the soldiers that was spraying the area in fear. A dart snapped clear of the metal barrel. It hit the armor with a sharp ring. Information fueled the shaping factories inside her armor. That brought a rare smile to the sharp featured woman underneath featureless helmet.

 

"Get ready, Luna," said Maker. "You are about to have naked bad guys everywhere."

 

"Go, girl," said the lady fighter, using one man who had strayed too close to her hands as a club against his fellows.

 

Maker changed the shape of her arm rifle, letting shells form full of the special cargo she had programmed. She began to fire the cannons along the front of the improvised barricade, releasing a swarm of mechanical bugs into the air. The robotic insects went after the armored invaders with a vengeance. The black shells came apart under the unexpected attack.

 

Laughter filled Maker's radio as she took stock of the changed situation. Her bugs had even went after the arms and the machinery of the invaders. She hadn't programmed an extended life for the tiny machines but their eating rate wouldn't leave much for her to study.

 

"I eat lobsters for lunch," Luna said, slamming a suddenly disarmed soldier into the ground with a perfectly executed throw. "You guys are so crushed."

 

"I think we can make some arrests, ladies and gentlemen," Maker told the bewildered policemen. "Let's go before my colleague breaks all of their bones."

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

4

 

Jerry Silver looked around the devastated area. He wasn't standing too far from Daly Plaza. The Chemist stood by his side, hand holding his sunglasses to his face. The man looked green from the trip over.

 

Jerry didn't feel that good himself.

 

"How do you want to handle this?," Silver asked.

 

"Let's combine our powers," said the Chemist. "Then I can extract any useful information from one of our captives."

 

"Anything to get this over with as fast as possible," said Jerry.

 

"Always in a rush," said the Chemist.

 

Jerry ignored the comment, taking aim with his forefinger. Lightning sparked to life around his hand. He felt a hand on his shoulder, glanced at the Chemist's strange script hovering where they touched. The magician nodded. Silver turned his attention to the siege, letting the lightning build. He released it at the rubble barricade.

 

The electricity divided as it flew across the intervening space. First it was just two bolts forking from the same branch, then suddenly it was a horizontal tree expanding in the enclosed area that had kept the police from assaulting the invaders.

 

Jerry cut the current, letting his hand drop. It would have been just as easy to slag the area into a molten pool. Instead he had live prisoners thanks to the Chemist's formulae. It also meant that the magician would know everything about these intruders as soon as he created the right script to employ.

 

He hoped the others were having as easy a time as he was as he joined police and Texas Rangers rushing to secure prisoners before they awoke from the strike he had dropped on them. He had a feeling that the military would be taking over this situation soon enough. That meant he had to get his answers before they tried to shut him down.

 

The Magistracy didn't have the privilege of ignoring US law just because they were operating on a global scale. So once the Army, or whomever it would be, took over, he would have to wait for the DOD to give him answers to his questions.

 

That could take years if someone who didn't like Jerry personally wound up in charge of the whole thing.

 

Jerry picked up one of the smoking armored shells and dragged his prisoner from behind the unmanned barrier. The Chemist walked over slowly, numbers playing in the air above his hands.

 

"Do what you can," Jerry said.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

5

John Public cracked his knuckles as he walked toward the entrenched soldiers in the wreckage of a building near the Fulton County courthouse. In a city this size, everyone was filling him with speed and power. That was what made him John Public, and that was what made him smile.

 

All eyes were on the tall man in the gray business suit as he strode from the police lines. None noticed the slimmer, shorter woman in red and green before she was wreaking havoc among the black armored troopers with her speed.

 

John leaped into action, not fast enough to keep up with Quick, not really trying. There was a small force present for the amount of destruction caused by their arrival. The speedster could deal with them on her own. Her velocity would give her blows an impact that could stun a rhino. Ordinary men in armor wouldn't have a chance.

 

John wanted one of them to question, just as he knew the others would be trying to do the same thing at their own crime scenes. A soldier tried aiming a rifle at the man in the suit. The lobster was surprised when he couldn't line up on the average looking man, even more surprised when the firearm came apart in his hands as green and red lightning passed by. Public grabbed the man's faceplate, holding his eyes with eyes darkening to a pitch black.

 

"Let me have it," said John, sifting through the man's memories in a matter of seconds. When he was done, he used a piece of rebar from the pile of debris to tie the man up.

 

John examined the battlefield as he put the stolen thoughts aside so he could help finish the job. Quick had forced the remnants of the intruding army into an enclosed area they had blocked off to keep her at a distance so they could shoot at her without allowing her great speed to let her get close enough to them. She ducked the multiple bubbles of energy patiently.

 

Their ammunition would run out long before she was tired of the practice in control of her powers.

 

John knew they couldn't wait that long. He picked up a giant piece of concrete and swung it high overhead. He flung it at the makeshift wall holding the last of the black armored troops. He aimed high to avoid killing them if he could.

 

Accidents happened but he would rather not intentionally kill someone if he didn't have to.

 

The projectile smashed against the barrier, breaking it with a wide gap. Soldiers, the ones not lucky enough to get out of the way, were blasted aside. Broken bones were the least of their problems. The survivors watched in horror as the man in the gray suit picked up another wrecking ball with which to crush them. They surrendered, letting their weapons drop to the ground, empty hands reaching for the sky.

 

"That worked better than I expected," John said, waiting for Atlanta's defenders to secure the prisoners before letting his hammer drop to the ground.

 

"We still have a lot of survivors to look for once we have those nitwits cleared out," said Quick.

 

John nodded in silent agreement. This was going to be something that would carry well into the night. That would have to wait until they stopped the hostile force involved.

 

"This is the Chemist," said the familiar voice, echoing in John's mind. Quick's wince made it obvious that she had heard the same mental transmission. "Be on the look out for this man."

 

Information flooded their minds as the magician beamed what he had taken from his own prisoner to them. John responded with the knowledge that the general sought by Jerry Silver wasn't present among those he had helped capture. None of the prisoners knew where their commander actually was, but knew he had planned to arrive with the their reserve, and mobile base headquarters

[hooligan x]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

Good read! Keep them coming.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

Good read! Keep them coming.

 

Thanks, H. I am about halfway through. All I need is the gang getting back together, confrontation with the villain, and the epilogue.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

6

 

The other heroes that had responded to the emergency received a notice on who to look for while they were protecting their cities from the black shells.

 

The Persian's CORPS had been able to punch a hole through the forces in New York, using his computer brain to devise counters to the holding action that had been fought to slow his team down. His biggest asset was his giant minotaur comrade, Cowboy, who led the way with fists the size of cars.

 

The rest had spread out behind Cowboy's rush.

 

The School was the unofficial handle for the Presidential Task Force on Metahuman Threats. Both of their squads had reacted on the threat to Washington, DC, in record time. The Watcher and Pointer had used a pincer from the members of their teams. They were still clearing the scene when the mental notice came through.

 

The Lizard had got to his staging area behind the wheel of a CPD police car. He had just started when the Odd Squad led by Missileer arrived. Backed by the city's unofficial protectors, the reptile hero policeman battered through the first two lines before he was pinned down by lasers. The Mighty Mite and The Flag Waver had to bail him out as they tried to round up the lobsters.

 

Most of the heroes reported a negative back through the temporary link established by the Chemist.

 

"We have a negative from everyone but the ladies, and Phaeton," said the Chemist. "There is still a lot of clean up involved before they know for sure."

 

Jerry Silver nodded, smoking a cigarette quietly. Phaeton hadn't reported since the Shift from their building. They had to hurry things up. The attacks were a symptom, and not the disease itself.

 

"I want John Public and Quick to tour the other sites," Jerry said. "I want these soldiers to be shut down, and the local authorities to start rescue work as soon as possible. Tell Maker and Luna to meet us outside of Santa Fe. Maybe someone there will tell us what exactly is going on."

 

"I see what you mean," said the Chemist. "Let me relay the message."

 

Jerry waited patiently until the Chemist nodded that things were in motion. Quick and John Public would speed things up considerably. Public would also be good in rescue work once he was on the scenes.

 

He would be able to point where crews needed to excavate to help anyone trapped in the rubble by the collapsed buildings.

 

Jerry, the Chemist, and Phaeton would have to handle things on their own. They had the powers and the skills. All they needed was information.

 

And he knew where to get that information.

 

"Shift network activate," Jerry said into his communicator. "Chemist and Silver need transport to Phaeton's area of operations."

 

A white beam surrounded the two Magistrates. They vanished with it as it withdrew from earth to a satellite in orbit above the planet. A second later, the beam touched two more satellites, then plunged to the New Mexico desert.

 

"There has to be a better way of travel than that," the Chemist said as soon as he could feel his mouth moving.

 

"No time," said Jerry, taking in the scene, grimacing at what he saw.

 

The invading lobsters had been able to set up a lot more of their equipment than they had in the other cities. A force dome surrounded their landing site. Additionally this group had brought armored vehicles and artillery to deal with the local populace.

 

Jerry didn't see Phaeton. He tried the other's com, frowning at the lack of response.

 

"This looks like trouble," he said.

 

"Shall we punch a hole in the dome?," the Chemist asked, looking better with the passing of his nausea. "I think we can do that with our powers."

 

"Give the others a head's up first," said Jerry. "This could be messier than we thought."

 

The Chemist nodded. It was only a second's work to send what he could see through the comlink into the Magistracy's minds. That would help the others to plan a way in if he and Jerry were taken.

 

He didn't want to think what would happen when Luna arrived and they hadn't found Phaeton.

 

"Let's go talk to the big boss man," said Jerry, moving forward cautiously.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

7

Jerry and the Chemist walked to the boundary wall. It was semitransparent and impermeable. Armored vehicles resembling small tanks faced outward to stop anything breaching the protective dome. Black armored soldiers herded civilians into container boxes. Women went in gold ones, men in black.

 

"That does not bode well," said the Chemist.

 

"Don't get started," said Jerry. "I don't see Phaeton anywhere."

 

"They didn't take him prisoner with those laser rifles," said the Chemist. "If they took him prisoner."

 

"What did I just say?," said Jerry. "Let's concentrate on this dome. We need to get through it to get at them and stop those metal boxes from going wherever they're going."

 

"A problem that is easily resolved," said the Chemist.

 

The magician knelt, drawing in the packed dirt beside the light wall. His symbol opened a tunnel under the barrier, the other end forming just inside the wall. He stood, gesturing with one hand.

 

"Shut down the wall, and free the civilians," Jerry said. "I'll provide a distraction. Let me know when you're done."

 

The Chemist nodded. He already had some ideas on how to do it if he could get close to one of the captives.

 

"Let's go," said Jerry. "Be careful."

 

You don't have to tell me the last, thought the Chemist as he followed his friend into trouble one more time. Careful is the first thing the world teaches you.

 

Jerry pointed at one of the generators projecting the force wall. A bolt of lighting leaped from his index finger. The black box blew apart in show of sparks and black plastic. A section of the dome flickered out before it reset.

 

The soldiers pointed at Jerry, some even firing weapons as they ran at him.

 

"It looks like I got their attention," Jerry said, electricity dancing in his eyes. "Go do your thing."

 

The Chemist dodged to the left, calling a symbol of swords to his hand. The fiery blade turned into a spear that he flung into one of the working generators close at hand. The spear raced through the system until it found a central core. Then it blew up. The force wall quietly collapsed.

 

Jerry smiled. Now all he had to do was keep everyone looking at him. He raised both hands, deciding to move toward a central staging area. That would be where the big cheese would be overseeing things. Lightning raced from his fingers as he swept his arms back and forth in half moons.

 

The lobsters ducked for cover to escape the pyrotechnics being hurled their way. Some didn't make it and were blown threw the air, electronics blown out by the current running through them.

 

"Heeeere's Jerry," Silver said as he aimed at a small tank, and cut loose.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

8

The Maker knew that she was expected to drop everything and let John and Quick look for survivors. Their powers were perfect for this type of rescue work.

 

She also knew she wouldn't.

 

Her ability to make anything she wanted was also useful in this type of work. All she needed was a moment to design the item, so her factory could turn it out. The first thing she needed was a life force scanner to help her locate any survivors from where the building collapsed.

 

"We have to go," said Luna, breaking her chain of thought.

 

"Go ahead without me," Maker said. "You're a better combatant than I am. I'm a better search and rescue worker."

 

"Jerry won't be happy," said Luna. "We're supposed to be the Musketeers. All for one, one for all."

 

"I won't leave people to die if I can save them," said the engineer, smiling as the new feature came on line with a blink of green. "I'll hook up with John and Quick. That'll speed things up immensely."

 

"I know better than to argue," said Luna. "Do what you got to do."

 

"Kick butt," said Maker, smiling at herself. There were very few times she had a chance to practice tough talk. It was one of the few things she wasn't good doing.

 

Luna smiled, then ordered the shift to move her across the country in a flash of white.

 

Maker decided that the easiest way to do things was to locate each victim buried by whatever had collapsed the buildings when the lobsters arrived. Then she could move them to a designated area. That should be easy enough to do with her new scanner and a bit of help from her factory.

 

She had a squad of policemen and rescue workers secure a square area that she could move the living victims. The police would have to dig out the dead the old fashioned way. She didn't like it, but she only had time for the living until the crisis was over.

 

While her impromptu assistants went into action, she programmed another swarm similar to the one that had come and gone with the lobsters' equipment. She used the scanner as a lock as she fired the packets into the collapsed rubble. She was quietly amazed that anyone was alive under the wreckage that had been pushed out from ground zero.

 

Maker's creations had three purposes. The first was to locate and find any living victims for transport to the hospital area. Then they would teleport those found to the cleared area to be checked by EMTs. The last thing the machines would do is heal whatever wound they encountered.

 

Then she could move on to the next wrecked area to help those others trapped in the small war zones. That would invariably speed up any search and rescue so the real threat could be dealt with as soon as possible.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

9

 

Luna appeared in Santa Fe in a shaft of white light. She took in the scene with a sniff. She shook her head as she started walking forward. She smiled slightly.

 

Jerry was pinned down behind the hulk of a tank. Electricity was his life's blood but other forms of energy would cut him like any normal person. Lightning sparked from his hand as Luna entered the cleared circle where the lobsters had set up.

 

Laser fire ripped the air as Luna walked forward. She moved through their pattern without thinking. This was her element more than any other member of the Magistracy. She barely exerted herself to put the first man in her way on his back with a cracked visor and a busted face below that. The second man fired his rifle to the overheating point but fell within arm's reach of her first victim before the weapon blew up in his face.

 

The lobsters tried to concentrate their fire on her moving form. Some of them were panicking, firing as fast as possible. Most of them had forgotten the one superhuman they had pinned down to try and deal with the one that was charging into their ranks.

 

That was a mistake.

 

Jerry Silver started taking careful aim with his lightning, and firing bolt after bolt into the armored troops as fast as possible. He was pleased with the flying bodies until they started shooting back at him with their laser rifles.

 

That didn't stop Luna. Her attention was on a central bunker near where the entry point had been established. In her mind, the commanders of the invaders should be there, trying to stop her with orders. Laser fire was something she sidestepped as she advanced. Any of the lobsters that got too close received a fist to the face, dropping him, or her, to the ground with a minimum of expended effort.

 

Jerry Silver moved away from cover, using his power to snipe as he went. He didn't know where Maker was, but at least they were finally getting some kind of handle on things. Now that Luna was providing a distraction, all he had to do was find Phaeton and hook up with the Chemist.

 

How hard could that be?

 

"I think I freed everyone here," the Chemist's voice said in Jerry's head. "Some of the people have been sent wherever these soldiers came from. That includes Phaeton."

 

"Please tell me you're kidding," said Jerry, blazing away at a group of lobsters trying to use a still working tank as cover. "Luna is here if you haven't noticed those guys dropping out there."

 

"I saw her," said the Chemist. "She'll be inside their command center in another moment. I'll be right behind her, and we can end this part of our counter. We'll still have to go after the ones we couldn't rescue here. I'll let you break the news."

 

"You suck," said Jerry, amping up his attack so that the tank glowed bright red for a moment before shutting down in a cloud of smoke. The invaders scattered under the concentrated assault as bright ribbons danced everywhere.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

Phaeton tested the manacles on his wrists. He was less than pleased with the sudden shock he had received. He grimaced, knowing that he had set himself up for this.

 

He had flown down from his sky drop on a trail of fire, absorbing the laser fire directed at him. Then they had gotten wise and gassed him with something. He had crashed into the desert. He hadn't felt a thing then, but trapped in a small cubicle, he felt some aches and pains. At least they weren't keeping the cell full of knockout gas to keep him under.

 

His captors must want to talk to him when he woke up.

 

Phaeton wanted to talk to them but not in terms of an interrogation.

 

A small light was enclosed in the ceiling. Some kind of shield protected it from being smashed by a prisoner with the reach to do that. Phaeton wasn't interested in smashing it. He was interested in using it.

 

He concentrated on it, hating the way everything went fuzzy. That meant that he was still almost out of it. He focused on the light, a trivial thing to do when you were locked in a dungeon. One hand slipped through the manacle around that wrist, then painful moments later, the other hand faded into a partial sunbeam that passed through the other metal bracelet.

 

That was better.

 

Phaeton went to the door, glad that it was a solid thing and not some type of energy. A small porthole of glass protected a cover for observers to look through. He could see light creeping through seams around the small metal door. That meant he could get out without too many theatrics.

 

At least Luna wouldn't have to rescue him. She was a little overprotective.

 

Phaeton grabbed the light emanating around the little sliding cover. He pulled himself through the glass and out into a featureless corridor. The lighting was a better here, and easier to use to charge up. He needed someone to talk to, and he was in a place that he could get a prisoner.

 

The only fly in the ointment was the camera peering down on him as he walked along. He waved at it as an alarm went off. He hoped his escape scared these people. He wanted a fight, but he wasn't going to let them gas him again.

 

He planned to be a harder victim to take down this time around.

 

Being hunted by men in armor took him back to the bad old days. It wasn't a pleasurable memory, but very few of his were. Luna had been there to watch his back. Hopefully she had taught him something along the way.

 

Otherwise this was going to be a short comeback for the good guys.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

11

 

Jerry Silver smoked his cigarette, thinking quietly. Things weren't exactly going as smooth as he thought they should but they had went as well as they could be made too due to circumstances.

 

His team had gathered in the destroyed zone in Santa Fe. He hadn't agreed with the Maker countering his order, but had to agree that it made sense and was something he should have thought of before asking her to leave whatever survivors to wait on Quick and John Public.

 

A weapons engineer that had designed the ultimate weapon, but tried to use it for nonviolent purposes seemed ironic to him.

 

They were all weird ducks as far as he could tell.

 

The Chemist had inherited an unknown amount of mystic knowledge based on the movement of elements, and parts of the world, to other means. He said there were three laws he had to obey, but Silver couldn't figure out what they were.

 

Quick had been struck by lightning during a disaster in a toxic waste dump. It was a miracle she survived, much less gained the ability to move as fast as she wanted. She was the team's best scout and information gatherer.

 

John Public had simply appeared on the street in New York. The city was his mother, its people his blood. The more people around him, the stronger, more skilled he was. He was also the most cheerful of them which tended to get on everyone else's nerves.

 

No one liked a Pollyanna twenty-four/seven.

 

Then Luna and the absent Phaeton had joined after surviving being experiments and living on the street. They were committed to each other in ways that Silver didn't, couldn't, understand. He had been around a long time, had even loved once, but knew that he would never feel for another person like these two felt for each other. It was like they were the opposite sides of the same coin.

 

Silver tossed his cigarette down, stubbing it out with the toe of his boot.

 

They had secured a prisoner to question, and the Chemist had ripped his mind apart with very little effort. They knew the whole scheme as far as he had known the scheme. It hadn't been a pretty picture.

 

"They wanted people to question and use for DNA testing, and to secure a beachhead," said Silver, condensing the information down to its bottom lines. "We have two goals: Get our people back, and destroy their technology. We don't know how many systems they have taken down already, and punishing them for that is out of our hands. Am I understood?"

 

"We're ready," said Public. "Let's get this show on the road."

 

"Phaeton had better be all right," Luna said.

 

"The other teams and the authorities are coming with our prisoners from the other cities," said Silver. "Let's go before we start getting bogged down in red tape."

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

12

 

Phaeton heard a shout ahead, decided that he had nothing better to do, and was feeling fighting fit at the moment. Maybe someone else had been pulled to this place with him. He walked around the corner, smiling slightly as a squad of the lobsters had problems with a crowd stuffed in a handful of cells. They were trying to drag a teenage girl from one of the cells, but had to keep the rest of the prisoners back by threatening them with their laser rifles.

 

"Can I be of some assistance?," Phaeton asked, floating now as he moved forward.

 

The lobsters who weren't trying to pull the girl from her fellow citizens, turned and fired their rifles at the man in yellow and orange. He guessed they hadn't got the memo yet on his capabilities. That was okay with the magistrate. It was an additional bit of energy to add to his stores.

 

The guards paused in their firing as the hero charged them faster than they could track him. Suddenly flaming fists sent the armored goons flying like bowling pins. The girl broke free of her captors as they faced the sudden rescuer. She got out of the way as the solar hero fired blasts from his hands, melting the armor slightly as the heat flung them against the wall.

 

"Let's see about getting you guys out of here," said Phaeton, searching the guards for keys to the cramped cells. "I'm sure my friends are on their way."

 

Moments later, the hero had the freed prisoners grouped behind him. Those that could use the rifles formed a protective ring around those that were unarmed. He had no idea why these people had been abducted. Judging by the methodology so far, it was safe to say some type of weird experiment was going to go on unless he did something.

 

First they had to get out the building alive, then Phaeton could worry about finding a way to get the kidnaped home to where they belonged. The others would be on the way sooner or later, so all he had to do was hold out until that eventually came to pass.

 

Naturally he was hoping more for a quick rescue than a long, drawn out battle in the streets followed by a last minute save when only he was left alive.

 

Either way he still had these civilians to look after until he could find them a place of refuge, then a ride back home. This was the part of the business he hated.

 

Alarms went off to let Phaeton know his enemies were still on the job. Bulkheads began to fall from the ceiling to block exits, and keep the escapees pinned together for an easy gassing and recapture. It was a system that had worked well before there was someone who could melt plastic with a wave of his hand. One solar blast kept the fugitives moving through the trap, and toward freedom.

 

Let's see how much of a crinkle that puts in things, he thought, blasting three lobsters trying to spring a trap at a set of emergency stairs. Those weapons went to three more of the Santa Fe residents as the group moved into the stairwell.

 

"I'm going ahead," said Phaeton. "I want you guys to follow behind at a slower pace, and keep an eye on each other. There might be some heavy fighting once they realize how far we've got."

 

He took the time to weld the door shut before heading up the stairwell.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

13

Sgt. Bil Kees had been in the Dimensional Survey Force all of his life. He had encountered some of the deadliest things thought of on his travels across the multiverse for his world senate. It was the only way to earn a citizenship, and more privileges for his family.

 

That was why when the gate alarm sounded, he was the first man reaching for his rifle, giving orders to confront whomever had triggered the gate to the newly discovered dimension. He wasn't prepared for the man in shades stepping into existence, and pointing at one of the towers around the platform.

 

He really wasn't ready for the bolt of lightning that wrapped around that watchtower. He completely understood that the electricity had somehow leaped from the man's hand like an electric eel. The flash drove him under cover, even though the bolt had not been aimed in his direction.

 

Kees went to the door of his look out spot as heavy armor floated toward the gate. No one was standing up to that, even if he could throw lightning. This guy was a greasy spot.

 

Others appeared in the breach. They were a weird looking bunch of civilians. Kees took a bead on a figure in armor raising an arm. He was going to take one of them down no matter what they could do.

 

Suddenly a woman in a crash helmet was standing in front of him. He tried to readjust his aim to take this teleporter down. His rifle vanished as he swung it around. Then the butt of it smashed his visor to pieces. Kees fell back from the blow, knocked out from the swift blow.

 

The rest of the sentries fared no better than their sergeant. The woman seemed to dance with each of them with such flickering speed that they wound up hurting each other more than they ever touched her.

 

The strangers cleared an area around the gate area in a minute. The Survey Force had been rendered almost ineffective by a loss of equipment caused by some kind of cloud thrown over the battlefield, and the extraordinary talents displayed by the superhumans holding the open area.

 

"Do your thing, Chemist," Jerry Silver said. "We'll be right here when you get back."

 

"We'll do what we can," said the Chemist, taking Luna by the arm. They blinked out in a display of his spectral letters.

 

"A lot of people are coming to talk to us," said John Public. "I guess they don't like what we are doing here."

 

"I am only getting started," said Silver.

[csyphrett]

Re: Silver's Magistracy

 

14

Phaeton reached the top floor of the building in a few moments, even with taking the time to weld the doors shut to prevent a firefight in the stairwell. Well, at least to let his fellow escapees bottle up any opposition to their getting to the roof, and spotting a better place to hide while they were looking for a way home.

 

He didn't stop to consider that he might not be able to get home.

 

A floating letter drew his attention on the top floor landing. It split into two letters. Then it became a man and a woman. Phaeton smiled as the two arrivals resolved into familiar faces.

 

"I knew you would come," Phaeton said, wrapping himself around his lady for long moments.

 

"I hate to break up this joyful reunion," said the Chemist. "We must be returning to the gate area so we can go home. I doubt the others are having an easy time of it."

 

"I have some people with me," said Phaeton. "They're down below."

 

"The other missing people," said the Chemist. "I'll deal with them. You two go ahead and help the others."

 

Phaeton and Luna faded from sight as he invoked the letters he needed. He floated down the stairwell on another letter, controlling gravity. His grim features were well enough known that no one fired a shot at him as he landed in the abducted's midst.

 

"Is this everyone?," he asked quietly.

 

"Yep," said an old man, who resembled a piece of wood left in the sun too long, holding a stolen weapon. "They were going to start experimenting on us, but the guy in the yellow underwear stopped them first."

 

"Then let's send you to where my friends are waiting," said the Chemist, trying to smile. "Then we can send you home from there."

 

"We can stay and fight, Mister," said one of the younger men, dark hair falling down over a beaded necklace and the collar of the T-shirt he wore.

 

"We're not doing either," said the Chemist.

 

He raised his hand, writing a new reality into being with one of the third laws he was forced to use to focus his ability. A whirling ring of changing symbols formed around the crowd with the magician at the center. As each symbol vanished, so did one of the kidnaped until only the Chemist was left. Then he popped too.

 

The Dimensional Survey Force decided to use overwhelming force to terminate the strange threat to their home planet. When the world realigned around the Chemist, he found himself hunting cover as red lances sliced the air around him.

 

"Dropped us in the pot, youngster," said the old man, trying to fire the stolen rifle back at the lobsters. It fell apart with one trigger pull.

 

"I already said you're going home," said the Chemist. "I meant what I said."

 

Whole words wrapped around the small party of normal humans, who had scattered for cover when they found themselves in a war zone. The letters became one word, then one letter. When it was gone, only the Magistrates remained.

 

15

Jerry Silver threw thunderbolts at anything that looked like it was sizing him up. Phaeton flew through the air, absorbing laser fire while firing flaming bolts of his own. He was in a dogfight with several planes and flying armored troopers and leading them around. Luna and Quick had branched out, attacking the ground forces trying to encroach on the area that Silver wanted kept clear. The Chemist kept his writing to defensive walls to protect the Maker as she went about her business. Hurtling chunks of concrete and steel showed that John Public was enjoying the strength that so many people crammed into one space gave him.

 

"Are you ready, Maker?," Silver asked, blasting a tank that came too close. The thing shut down instantly, soldiers trying to get out of the hatches before something worse happened to them.

 

"Everything is set within reason," replied the engineer.

 

"Shut them down," ordered Silver.

 

Maker fired alternating packages from the arm cannon, aiming high so that the projectiles would break in mid air and spread out like smoke clouds. She used her visor to check impact points as she turned a full circle. Places that looked empty of her seeds took another round to make sure.

 

The programmed nanomachines in her bullets started on weapons, then information systems. The particular designs the Survey Force used gave her a key that she could use to take them apart piece by piece. The more the machines took apart, the more machines would be built and spread to attack more weapons.

 

The planet's military used common links that could be accessed from anywhere. Maker's infiltrators searched for and deleted anything and everything involved with the dimensional gates the DSF used to attack other worlds. Additionally the nanos would attack any free standing gate they encountered and reduce it to nothing.

 

"The virus has been loosed," Maker reported. "I don't know how long it will take before it spreads all over the planet, but it will make their world conquering days a lot tougher than what they were."

 

Silver lit a cigarette as he eyeballed the scene. One of the planes chasing Phaeton lost a cannon as it cut the air. Part of the fuselage went with it, causing the plane to wobble side to side. The solar hero caught the vehicle in a flaming grip. The other cannon dropped off, falling into a few pieces of debris.

 

"Time to give them the bad news," Silver said. "Hook me up, Maker."

 

Maker cut into the radio net she had perceived, hooking into her com so Silver could talk to the whole planet.

 

"Hello," said Jerry. "My name is Jerome Silver, and I represent the United Nations of my Earth. I regret to inform you that all of your weapons are shutting down and will be impossible to rebuild to any degree. Your gates will follow one by one. If you have any forces off planet, I suggest you get them back before you can't. I hope this has taught you that there's always someone bigger and tougher.

 

"Learn from it."

 

"Seal them off from our home, Chemist," said Jerry. "It's time for us to get out of here."

 

The team regrouped around the magician who breached the veil one more time before closing it for good. Santa Fe took shape around them as the prisoners from their side returned home.

 

Jerry sighed when he saw the people he would have to answer before he could get home for some rest.

 

"They could still come back," said Maker. "It might take them a while, but they could return."

 

"Let them," said Jerry. "As long as they do it on somebody else's watch."

 

epilogue

"Your condition is getting worse, not better, Jerry," said Doctor Ramon Perez. "I don't know how long you have left."

 

"That's nothing new," said Jerry, looking at the test results, trying to guess what they meant.

 

The Magistracy had hired Perez as their medical doctor since he was one of the experts in the field of metahuman biology. Jerry had known him for almost a decade before that, and respected his opinion.

 

"I am almost certain your powers are causing this," said Perez. "I need to run more tests to make sure."

 

"I am certain," said Jerry, buttoning his shirt over the scar tissue on his chest. "How long do I have?"

 

"I can't say," said the doctor. "Maybe it's time for you to retire and let the kids run the show for once."

 

"I would rather die first," said Jerry. "Just file the report. I'll try to take it easy from now on."

 

"We both know you're lying," said Perez. "You couldn't take it easy if your butt was glued to a chair somewhere."

 

"I promise on my honor as a gentleman that I will cut back on the use of powers, and spend hours out of my day glued to a chair," said Jerry, smiling.

 

"You've never been a gentleman either as far as I can tell," said Perez, writing a note on the medical chart. "I want you back here in one week for more tests. There's a chance that you will go into remission if you quit using your powers. That's something else that will have to be researched and recorded if you stand a chance of living."

 

"I'll pass," said Jerry. "I have too much to do than worry about personal problems right now."

 

Perez shook his head as his patient left the room, cigarette already in hand.

 

"Quit smoking too!," he called out.

 

"I'll put it on my list of things to do," said the cranky Silver, lighting up as he went.