Chương 74: Moving

Augustus stepped through the portal into the estate's living room. Through the wraparound glass walls, late afternoon light painted the mountains gold. Two hours until the Doorman arrived. Alexander was busy at work in the station's workshop, leaving the move to them. He found Annie in the kitchen, organizing supplies into boxes while the scale-shimmered alien watched with interest.

"We should start packing," Augustus said.

"Essential things first." Annie looked up at him, and her expression shifted.

"You okay? You look..." She tilted her head back to meet his eyes, barely coming up to his chest.

"What's wrong?"

"Just worried about my father." The words came out flat.

"The Queen's people are collecting him. He would have been leverage otherwise." Annie's eyes widened.

"Shit. Is he—""Safe. Should be." Augustus turned away.

"She was quick to send a concierge for him."

"Parents are complicated," Annie said quietly. She reached up and patted his arm awkwardly.

"He'll be okay. The Queen's people are pros, right? Plus, she likes you!" Augustus nodded, touched despite the gesture's awkwardness.

"Can you handle getting our guests ready?"

"On it." Annie spun away, already clapping her hands.

"Henchmen! Moving time! Pack only important things!" Did she just call the aliens henchmen? Augustus shook his head and headed upstairs to find Talia. Annie stood in the center of the living room, seven-plus pairs of alien eyes watching her with varying levels of comprehension.

"Okay, remember how we're moving? Now's the time. Two hours to pack everything important." The translator scrolled as the blue-gilled alien trilled.

"Define important?"

"Stuff you need! Stuff that matters! Things you can't leave behind!" The aliens exchanged looks. The rock-skinned one rumbled something that translated as "Understanding unclear."

"Like... if the place was on fire, what would you grab first?" Immediate comprehension dawned. The gilled alien went straight for Chilli's cage.

"Pretty bird!" Chilli squawked.

"Chilli pretty!"

"Most important," the blue-gilled alien announced solemnly. The rock-skinned alien moved to the holo system, massive fingers surprisingly delicate as he tried to figure out how to disconnect it.

"Must preserve Earth's greatest cultural achievement." The multi-limbed alien simply grabbed the entire couch, hoisting it overhead with four tendril-arms while using the others to gather cushions and blankets.

"That's not—" Annie started, then stopped, thinking of her own couch-hauling actions.

"Actually, yeah, we probably need somewhere to sit. Good job, Hench-three." The crystalline one had gone to a kitchen drawer and was carefully wrapping each piece of Augustus's favorite silverware individually. Another was gathering food from the kitchen. The scaled one was shoving an entire shelf of books into a bag that looked a bit too small. Annie watched the chaos unfold with a growing grin. Her henchmen were weird, but they were trying.

Talia sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor, eyes closed, the golden vial resting in her lap. She'd been building the concept in her mind for an hour now. Manifestation. Making the intangible tangible. Two knocks interrupted her meditation.

"Come in." Augustus entered.

"Two hours until pickup. Alexander's staying at the station to work on equipment. We need to pack." Her eyes opened slowly.

"Smart. We can handle this while he prepares what we need." She rose in one fluid motion, securing the vial in an inner pocket. Her gaze swept the room, pausing at the two hard drives on the desk with her computer setup. Miller's tablet beside them. She gathered them quickly, then stopped.

"I don't have anything else," she whispered as something hollow crept into her voice. The room was almost military in its sparseness. Bed, desk, chair. The equipment they'd gathered. Nothing personal. Nothing that said Talia Kim lived here. Without intending it, a memory surfaced. In perfect clarity, of course. The curse of having an eidetic memory combined with the powers of her Memory Palace.

"Talia! What is this? B-plus?" The woman's accent was thick, words clipped with disappointment. She held the test results like evidence of a crime.

"I'm sorry, Mother. I'll do better—""Better? You should be perfect! What will Mrs. Chen think? Her daughter, always A's. You embarrass me!" Talia stood in her childhood room. Violin in the corner. Piano against the wall. Exercise mat rolled neatly. Shelves lined with trophies, certificates, medals. Everything a successful child should have. Except toys. No stuffed animals. No posters. No books that weren't educational. Nothing that suggested a child lived there at all. Royal Road is the home of this novel.

Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Practice piano two hours, then violin. No dinner until perfect." Ten years old, and already knowing that she would never be enough. Talia blinked, returning to the present. Augustus hadn't moved, giving her space.

"We should go," she said, pushing down the unpleasant emotions with practiced ease. He nodded.

"The others are probably destroying the house trying to pack. Annie started calling them henchmen." A ghost of a smile crossed her face.

"Of course she has." Two hours later, a knock echoed across the living room. Augustus approached the front door, aware that through the wraparound glass walls, their entire bizarre assembly was visible. The Doorman stood outside, leather jacket and gold rings catching the light, his expression sliding from professional to stunned as he took in the scene. The multi-limbed alien, still holding the couch overhead with various bags hanging from other arms, attempted to hide by stepping behind his furniture.

The couch, held horizontally, left his feet and head perfectly visible on either side. The Doorman's mouth opened, closed, opened again.

"Boss lady didn't mention the, uh..." He gestured vaguely.

"Exotic guests."

"Recent additions," Augustus said.

"Aight. Well." The Doorman recovered his composure with visible effort.

"Yous all ready?" Augustus turned, surveying the chaos. Annie with two bags and Chilli's cage under the control of the blue-gilled hench-alien. Talia with her small collection of hard drives and tablet. Six more aliens with their various 'important' items, including the one still unsuccessfully hiding behind furniture. The unconscious Syltharian on a makeshift stretcher. He started to nod, then stopped.

"One moment." He jogged back inside as everyone watched, lifting the team's framed bounty posters from the wall. Their first real victory as a team. The moment they'd become more than just four people trying to survive. He grabbed a few more bags on his way back.

"Now we're ready." The Doorman turned, glanced over his shoulder at the assembled group, and muttered, "Gonna need a bigger door." He raised his hand, and reality split wider than usual, revealing not the typical doorway but something closer to a loading dock. Through it, ocean breeze and tropical warmth spilled into the Swiss mountain air.

"After yous," he said, gesturing grandly. One by one, they filed through. The alien still holding the couch had to angle it carefully. Chilli squawked complaints about the movement. The crystalline alien clinked softly with each step, arms full of wrapped silverware. Augustus went last, taking one final look at the estate that had been their sanctuary. The place where they'd become a team. Where they'd planned their strikes against Santiago Systems. Where they'd escaped to when reality broke.

Where they'd saved eight lives and taken on a debt they didn't fully understand. Then he stepped through, and the doorway closed behind him. Their new life was waiting on the other side. Star Titan sat on a reinforced equipment trunk in the middle of organized chaos. Around him, the Argentum prison's main staging area thrummed with activity. Mercenaries checked weapons and compared notes on Grimnir's known capabilities. Bounty hunters argued over territory rights for the upcoming hunt.

A handful of licensed heroes in gleaming costumes tried to maintain professional distance from the rougher crowd. Prison officers moved between them all, tablets in hand, managing the manhunt's logistics with experience. He'd delegated all of it hours ago. Let others handle the details while he sat here, a mountain of black armor and white cape in the eye of the storm, reading the same message for the fiftieth time. The tablet in his massive hands showed sketches drawn with disturbing accuracy.

His brother, Kyle, strapped to a containment frame inside a spherical chamber. Kyle's face twisted in unconscious agony, tubes running from his body to monitoring equipment. The kind of setup used for the most dangerous test subjects. But Kyle wasn't supposed to be a test subject. He was supposed to be dead. Star Titan scrolled to the next image. A viewing window, thick glass separating observers from the chamber. The sketches showed faces he recognized: Directors, researchers, and Gabriel Santiago himself.

All watching Kyle like he was an experiment. Attached audio transcripts made his jaw clench beneath his helmet. Grimnir must have obtained them during one of their raids against Santiago Systems.

"The subject's power makes him a living nuclear reactor. Uncontrolled fission at the cellular level. We've had to keep him sedated since awakening."

"Casualties?"

"Three researchers before we understood what was happening. Now he's stable, as long as the sedation continues."

"And his brother?"

"Believes Kyle died during the awakening process. Better that way. Can you imagine how Star Titan would react if he knew we've had his brother for two years?" Two years. A mercenary approached, clearing his throat.

"Sir? We've organized the search grid and—" Star Titan raised one hand without looking up. The mercenary retreated immediately. He thought about Fortress. They'd been friends once, before his teammate had become Skybreaker. Before he'd turned on Santiago Systems and killed hundreds in his rampage. Star Titan had never understood what drove him to it. What could make a hero become a villain overnight.

Sitting here, holding proof that Santiago had kept his brother imprisoned and tortured for two years while telling him Kyle was dead... Was this what Fortress had discovered? Some betrayal so fundamental it shattered his worldview? Star Titan forced himself to think it through methodically. Santiago Systems employed at least four other Tier 3 supers he knew of. Radiant alone could match him in raw power, but the man's abilities were far more versatile than his own.

Then there were the resources, the connections, the army of lesser superhumans Santiago could mobilize. He was approaching the peak of Tier 3, stronger than almost anyone on Earth. But almost wasn't everyone. And Santiago had been collecting powerful assets for years. Going after Kyle meant war with the company that had made him what he was. That had employed him for five years. That had trusted him with this manhunt. His finger traced his brother's face on the screen.

Kyle had been twenty-three when he'd volunteered for the process. Hoping to be like his older brother. Hoping to be a hero.

"Can you imagine how Star Titan would react if he knew?" Yes. He could imagine. Star Titan stood. The trunk groaned beneath him as his full weight shifted. Conversations died as everyone turned to look at the nearly seven-foot armored figure. He looked around the room slowly. Mercenaries. Bounty hunters. Heroes. All here to hunt four people who'd supposedly committed mass murder. But they claimed the real murderers had his brother hidden in a secret facility in France. Without a word, Star Titan ignited.

Plasma erupted from his hands and feet, the temperature spiking so fast that everyone scrambled back. He didn't aim down to fly up. He simply released power in all directions and let physics handle the rest. The ceiling exploded. Then the roof. Concrete and steel vaporized as he punched through three floors of prison infrastructure in a single second. He burst into the sky above Argentum, a star born from the building's crown. He hung there for a moment, orienting himself. France. Northeast.

Five and a half thousand miles. The plasma jets narrowed and intensified. The air began to scream around him as he accelerated. Faster. The prison fell away below. Faster. The city became a grid of lights. Faster still. The sky started to burn. Not from his plasma now, but from pure friction as he pushed past the sound barrier and kept going. Windows shattered below from the sonic boom. Car alarms screamed. Birds fell from the sky, stunned by the pressure wave. Star Titan didn't care.

Santiago Systems had his brother. And he was done being patient.