Carrie Vaughn - Dreams of the Golden Age

She clicked off and handed the phone back to Anna.

“What was that about?” Anna said, baffled. Ms. Baker knew about them? About everything? But how …

“You kids think you’re the only ones keeping secrets. Let’s go downstairs and meet your friends.”

“What secret is Ms. Baker keeping?”

“Not mine to tell. Bethy, are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” the younger girl said. “I’ve tapped into a couple of video feeds around Horizon Tower. I think I can tell you what’s going on, at least on the street. I’m trying to see if I can hack into any cameras on the inside.”

“Good girl. We’ll be back soon. Anna, I assume you have a suit or costume of some kind? Grab it before we leave.”

“Okay.”

“Grandma, Anna—be careful.” Bethy’s voice was stark, and Anna pursed her lips.

“Yeah. We will.”

On the elevator ride down, Suzanne snapped her fingers a few times. When she did, sparks flashed above her hand, and on the last snap a torchlike flame burst to life and burned for a moment before fading away.

“I’m really out of practice,” she admitted. “I may not be much help if this gets rough.”

“I’m really glad you’re here,” Anna said. “Thanks.”

“Family tradition. Your grandfather would be loving this.”

“Loving that Mom got kidnapped?”

“Maybe not that part. But he always loved showing her kidnappers exactly how he felt about it.” Her smile was almost gleeful.

Anna fielded a couple more calls by the time they reached the lobby. Sam was driving Teddy over, and Teia and Lew were on the way—with their mother. Teia wouldn’t say how she felt about that. Probably because Ms. Baker was driving the car. Anna didn’t have a chance to ask or find out about their side of that conversation. Time enough to discuss that later.

Outside, the day was overcast, and on the sidewalk and wide off-street drive that marked the front of West Plaza, the late afternoon rush-hour crowds were walking past like everything was normal, which seemed terribly wrong to Anna. That hole where her mother should have been still gaped. People in suits left the building, moving down the sidewalk, picking up cars from valet parking. Taxis sped by. She tapped her foot and looked at her grandmother, wondering how she could be so relaxed.

She was about to say something when she spotted an odd pair striding around the corner and crossing West Plaza’s front drive, right toward them. A man and a woman, they were athletic, muscular like sprinters, and their sleek black skin suits showed off their powerful figures. The woman had black hair clipped up off her neck and sharp, glaring features. The man was thuggish, intense.

“Grandma…” Anna murmured, touching Suzanne’s arm.

The pair looked, walked, acted like superheroes, but Anna didn’t recognize them. They didn’t wear masks. Anna and her grandmother seemed to be their targets.

The man kept his gaze on Suzanne while the woman focused on Anna.

“Anna West-Mentis?” she said.

“Who the hell are you?” Anna replied. Then Anna recognized her, mostly from her hair and the shape of her face—the woman from the video who’d snatched her mother.

“God, she’s just like her mother,” the man muttered.

“I need you to come with me,” the woman said, reaching for Anna as if she would just go along with her.

“Excuse me, can I help you with something?” Suzanne said in a falsely pleasant voice, pulling Anna back, stepping deftly in front of her.

The woman glowered at Suzanne. “Please get out of the way.”

“Do you know who I am?” Suzanne shot back.

“She said to get out of the way,” the man growled, grabbing Suzanne by the arm and yanking.

So no, they didn’t know who Suzanne was.

She grabbed him back, clutching the arm he’d wrapped around her to immobilize her—then she glowed. Her form seemed to waver as heat radiated off her skin. The cuffs of her blouse started to smolder. Her captor was sweating, his face reddening and his teeth gritting in pain. Suzanne—Spark—must have been boiling him. Finally, he cried out, and Spark wrenched away from him.

In the meantime, the woman grabbed Anna, who slammed a heel on the woman’s instep. Turned out to be harder in practice than in theory—Anna’s foot mostly slid off the woman’s armored boot. But the woman hissed, and her grip loosened. Anna dropped her weight and yanked herself away.

Teia, Teddy, and the others were close, their cars nearing West Plaza’s block. She and Grandma had to hold out only a few more seconds.

“Anna, get over here,” Spark commanded, gesturing for Anna to get behind her. The fire starter wasn’t wearing her flameproof skin suit, and the sleeves of her blouse smoked and flared as the fibers caught fire from the heat. She stood braced, one arm outstretched, prepared for battle.

Her opponent in black opened her mouth and let loose with … it wasn’t a scream, it wasn’t even sound, but Anna could feel a powerful burst of energy rippling through the air in a focused beam, directly toward them. Some kind of hypersonic projection. Her ears rattled with it. She clapped her hands over her head and doubled over.

Around them, people screamed and car windows shattered. Suzanne hunched over Anna to protect her.

The man, the sonic woman’s partner, picked Suzanne up and threw her. Lifted her clear off the ground, swung her, and let go, so that she sailed across the tiled plaza, hit the ground, rolled, and lay still.

Anna screamed. The man came for her next. “We said, we need you to come with us.” He reached for her.

She was preparing to run when bolts of energy sizzled across the drive, slamming into concrete before finding their mark. They hit the thug and bowled him over. One streaked a burned scorch mark across his cheek. Before the sonic blast woman could open her mouth again, Sam’s next round knocked her over. The two black-suited villains seemed drunk for a moment, studying their limbs and brushing themselves off as they stood back up, taking defensive positions against the new assailants.

Sam’s car had swung into the driveway, jumped halfway up the curb, and both front stood doors open. The engine was still running. Sam hadn’t even gotten all the way out but stood reaching over the door, ready to blast another round. He was in full costume—jacket, mask, and all—and would have looked great if he wasn’t standing next to his beater sedan. But really, he did look great, like he meant business. He flexed his hands and sent another round of glowing laser blasts, which caused his targets to dodge and scatter.

Anna couldn’t see Teddy, but she didn’t expect to.

The two unknown supers bent their heads together in conversation, took a brief look at Sam, then fled.

As soon as they turned their backs, Anna raced to her grandmother. Tom was with her, arm around her shoulder, helping her sit up. She was holding her head, and her roan hair was tangled around her shoulders.

“Grandma!” Anna stumbled to the ground next to her.

“God, I haven’t taken a hit like that in a long time.”

“Are you okay?” Anna said, her voice tinny with panic. She was afraid to touch Suzanne; the sleeves of her blouse were hanging in scorched tatters.

“Ma’am, I’ll call an ambulance—”

“No, I’m sure that’s not necessary—” But when she tried to stand, she hissed, her face contorting in pain, her body gone rigid. “Oh, dear.”

Tom was already talking on his cell phone.

“Grandma?”

“Anna, it’s going to be okay,” Suzanne said, squeezing her arm. “The rest of you need to get to Horizon Tower to save your mother. We don’t know how many superhumans they have or what all they can do—warn Bethy, warn Arthur. Tom will take care of me, you all get going.” Her gaze darted up, and Anna realized they were surrounded, not just by Sam and a now-visible Teddy but also by Teia, Lew, and their mother, who must have just arrived.