Chapter 10

An afternoon of concentration had yielded nothing on Defiance. Cori sat in lotus position on the floor of her bedroom and continued to project her mind, attempting to sift through the thoughts of thousands of people at a time without disturbing any of them.

In many ways, the experience was similar to diving to the bottom of a pool and holding her breath. She would concentrate, telepathically send her thoughts out, shift through as many minds as she could, brushing against them ever so gently. When too many thoughts touched her mind, she’d have trouble sorting and discerning them. It would feel like she was drowning, so she’d come up for air and open her eyes.

A picture of Melbourne hung on her wall, or rather the Puffing Billy Steam Railroad, outside of Melbourne. Nightstar had once asked her why she didn’t have a picture of the Sydney Opera House on a wall or Uluru if she wanted something to remember Australia. She had finally purchased and framed a picture of the Sydney Opera House and put it on the opposite wall.

The truth was that though she had spent a lot of her life growing up in Australia, she was an American. Her father had gotten worried that one day his enemies might find out that he had a daughter, so he had spirited her off to Australia. She learned later that she had almost grown up in New Zealand instead, but apparently as a toddler had gotten very excited when she saw a kangaroo at the zoo.

Little Cori liked kangaroos, therefore, she had to grow up in Australia.

However, she had her US citizenship and had certainly spent a lot of her time in the States growing up at her dad’s house in San Francisco. She had always wanted to go to university at Stanford or Berkeley. Being a child genius, she had attended both by age 16. Now, all she had of Australia was a slight accent that she cultivated and the occasional “G’Day”.

She wondered if she sounded more like an American steakhouse commercial than an Aussie.

The picture of the railroad caught her eye again. It wasn’t really a picture of Melbourne or beautiful Victoria (because she would have chosen the beaches), but it was a picture about her father taking her to celebrate a day about a kid’s tank engine and riding on the train with his little girl. She loved her dad, and she missed him.

She was thinking about calling him and waking him in the middle of the night, when Starlight contacted her on the communicator.

“Rigel, I have received a strange message. Could you please come to the monitor room?”

“No worries, Starlight. On my way.”

She found herself wondering if Starlight was misinterpreting a news broadcast or possibly a mockumentary. She imagined that it would be hard to be an alien surrounded by modern American media sources.

Strangely, she decided that Starlight was growing on her.

When she reached the Monitor Room, she said, “So, Starlight, what is it?”

“That,” he said simply and robotically, pointing at a large monitor screen with the image of a playing card showing on it… the Ace of Spades.

“It appears to be a malfunction. I am unable to remove the image.”

Rigel felt her blood run cold.

A soft male voice spoke, “Hello, Rigel.”

“Fascinating,” stated Starlight. “The auditory message was timed with your arrival.”

“I don’t think it was timed, Starlight… G’Day? Is this the Ace of Spades?”

There was silence for a second.

“Such a poor question from such a brilliant mind. I suspect that you had quite the experience with our friend, Carlos,” said the voice.

Rigel tried to mentally contact Starlight, but she didn’t seem to be able to link with him. His alien thoughts were too strange for her. She wondered if he might be a robot of some sort or at least, some type of artificial being. She reached out to Nightstar.

“Nightstar,” she thought, “the Ace of Spades is talking to me in the Monitor Room. Make sure the team is ready.”

“Sure, JR was helping me with some engineering issues with the Night Cycle. We’ll contact Rockslide and Protector,” he thought back.

“Not Protector,” she responded. “Doctor’s orders for Alex.”

“I hope this will be the first of many talks for us, Rigel,” said the Ace of Spades. “But you need to leave soon.”

“What? Why do I need to leave?” she asked.

“Oh, I think you are going to want to visit your friend Daniel Hunter before Defiance gets to him. After all, maybe he’s me. Oh, but as Daniel says ‘The Ace of Spades doesn’t exist’, so I suppose you can ignore this warning if you’d like to… Cori. Goodbye.”

“Wait!” Cori said, but the image on the screen fell backwards and began spinning, flipping and growing smaller until it became a point of light in the center of the monitor. A second later and Doppler radar scans from the Megalopolis airport appeared on the screen.

“Excellent,” said Starlight. “I was hoping that a flying villain, such as Defiance, might display on your Terran radar systems.”

Rigel was barely listening. She knew Daniel. She could reach him telepathically. “Daniel!” she shouted.

“What is it?” came the return thought.

“Defiance is coming. Get your suit on. Now! We are on our way.”

“I’m at the Top of the World restaurant on the Megalopolis Tower having a late lunch/early dinner.”

“And I know you have your suit in your briefcase. Go. You don’t have much time,” she thought.

Telekinetically, she hit the alarm. Setting her communicator on full broadcast, she announced, “This is Rigel. Protector to the Monitor Room. Everyone else to the Freedom Flyer. Hurry!”

As she ran to the Freedom Flyer, she contacted the Megalopolis police. “This is Rigel of Freedom Squad, please evacuate the Top of the World restaurant. We have reason to believe that a team of super-villains is about to attack.”

As the team got into the Freedom Flyer, a terrible thought struck her. What if they were being set up and the real attack was coming to Freedom Squad Headquarters?

“Here we go. Hang on!” shouted Ion and they launched.

They soared across the city. “Using the hovering engines so we don’t crash into any skyscrapers,” announced Ion.

Nightstar activated his psychic blade. “So, how do we know there’s an attack coming?”

“The Ace of Spades informed Rigel of the attack on Daniel Hunter,” stated Starlight.

“Who’s Daniel Hunter?” asked Ion, as he made a left turn past a bank.

“He’s Poltergeist,” said Rigel.

Nightstar stood up.

“Nightstar,” said Starlight, “I wish to advise you, old chum, that you should remain seated while the Freedom Flyer is in motion and wear your seatbelt. I understand that they may be inconvenient or uncomfortable but they are one of the greatest safety inventions in the modern era.”

“Thanks, Starlight,” said Nightstar nonchalantly. “I figured it was the conversation with the Ace of Spades. Cori, how do we know that we aren’t being manipulated?”

Rigel stood up to face Nightstar. “We don’t, but how can I take that chance, Nightstar?”

“Excuse me, Rigel, but as I advised Nightstar…”

“Not now, Starlight,” said Rigel and Nightstar in unison.

Nightstar adjusted his mirrorshades. “Okay, we are about to engage in battle on top of the highest building in the United States.”

“My apologies, Nightstar,” said Starlight, “but both the Willis Tower Building in Chicago and One World Trade Center in New York are considered higher…”

“Understood, Starlight. Nightstar, what are you thinking?” Rigel asked.

“If they are after Daniel, we need to get him out and let them know about it. You locate him mentally, project the location to me telepathically, and I’ll teleport in, grab him and get out. I’ll head to the roof so the bad guys can see me. It won’t do us any good if the villains think he’s inside the restaurant. In the meantime, Cori, since only you, Starlight and Ion… wait, Ion, do you fly?”

“Only Freedom Flyers,” he said. “I can’t fly.”

“Right,” said Nightstar. “Everyone else, land in the… park I guess. I want to avoid as much collateral damage as possible. I should be able to teleport that far, though it will be a strain. Cori, make sure Daniel knows I’m coming too.”

“Talk time is over,” said Ion. “I’m hovering outside the restaurant.” Ion waved through the front windshield.

“Ion, waving is illogical. The windshield is tinted,” said Starlight.

Rigel sent out her thoughts to Daniel, explaining the plan as quickly as she could. He was in the men’s room trying to get his costume on. She projected the location to Nightstar, who wasted no time cutting a hole in reality with his psychic blade. In a flash of yellow and red light, he vanished.

“Don’t say anything, Rigel. I’m heading to the park,” said Ion.

Rockslide made a rumbling noise that sounded distinctly like a groan.

As Ion banked the Freedom Flyer, Rigel nearly lost her balance for a second. She telekinetically caught herself and levitated off the floor.

“Again, I recommend seatbelts,” stated Starlight.

Rigel shook her head as she watched the green of the park fill the windshield. She telepathically projected. “Nightstar, you will let me know what’s going on and if you and Daniel get into the least bit of trouble.”

“Will do,” responded Nightstar. “I’ve got him. We are outside. He’s getting his power packs activated, and I’m waving this brightly colored psychic sword of mine around and making it flash rainbow colors. Defiance is bound to see us.”

Cori felt a sudden chill. Something bad was about to happen. Nightstar sensed it as well.

“Something bad is about to happen,” thought Nightstar.

Rigel felt a sudden jolt.

A very dated picture of Rigel 🙂