“Carla, Lux,” Lone Star said, “we need to speak in private. The rest of the team stays up here for now.”
“There’s the office over here,” Carla said. Then, after thinking about it for a beat: “Or we can go down to the basement. It might be a bit more private.”
“No offense, sir,” Alex said, “but you can’t call us your teammates if you’re going to shut us out of whatever you’re planning to do next.”
“I understand your concerns.”
“If you really understood, we wouldn’t have shown up to the groundbreaking like we did today,” Mallory said.
“They did try to warn us, Star,” Lux said.
“We did what we thought was best. You know that, Lux.”
Carla raised an eyebrow and turned to her brother. Lux frowned, but nodded. She turned to Alex and Kirbie and the others. “Just give us ten minutes to talk and we’ll be back. We won’t do anything without consulting with you all first.”
And with that, the three adults were gone.
“This is ridiculous,” Mallory said. “They’ve only been out of the Gloom for a day. There are months—years of background they need to know.”
“Lone Star said to trust him and—,” Kyle said.
“No,” Amp said, getting to his feet. “Mallory’s right. They may look at us as their junior team still, but we know way more about what’s happening right now than they do.” He made a beeline for the basement door in the hallway.
“They’re not going to be happy if they find out we’ve been spying on them.”
“We shouldn’t have to be spying,” Alex countered as the others followed Amp down the hall.
“Shhhh,” Amp said. “Everyone just shut up and let me do my thing. I need to concentrate.”
He placed his left hand on the door to the basement and held his right palm out toward the others. Voices from downstairs started to pour out of him, amplified.
“How bad is this, really?” Lone Star asked. “How are things looking from inside the government? Isn’t there anyone opposing the Rangers’ growing control?”
“In your entire tenure as a Ranger, did anyone ever come out and say they didn’t want you protecting the city?” Carla asked. “There are people against giving the Rangers so much power, sure, but they’re in the minority. And it’s not exactly an open topic of conversation. You get around enough people who are die-hard in favor of every suggestion and decree the Rangers are making and you start to feel like maybe they’re right.”
“It’s herd mentality,” Lux said. “They’ve got enough implants in the system to sway anyone who might be on the fence.”
“Wait . . . who heard what?” Misty asked on the first floor.
“No, herd,” Alex said. “Like you’d herd sheep or cows or something.”
“Cloak’s like a virus,” Kyle whispered. “It just keeps spreading.”
Carla started talking again.
“What’s their end goal? To take over the city? The country? World domination?”
“All of the above,” Lone Star said. “Maybe even more.”
“Don’t you have other superhero friends or something you can call in as backup?” Carla asked.
“No one who could take on Cloak. And I wouldn’t be surprised if half the ‘heroes’ we know about are now running around the city as Deputies. We don’t want to risk giving ourselves away.”
“Ah. Now there’s something that’s not going in their favor. All these ‘Deputies of Justice’ suddenly have rank over the actual police. I’ve been in contact with the commissioner. We haven’t spoken directly about the situation, but I can tell he’s not pleased with the way things are going. Neither are his men. If we had to, we could probably get some sort of police presence to back you.”
“That’s something that could totally help us,” Kyle said.
“It would certainly look good if we had the police on our side,” Gage agreed, adjusting his sling with a scowl. “We could use some kind of government agency backing us.”
Alex nodded. He didn’t want to put the police in harm’s way actually fighting Cloak, but there was surely some way that they could help him and the others out. If they could get the police on their side.
“What about the National Guard or FBI?” Lux asked. “Where are they?”
“They were here after Justice Tower fell,” Carla said. “Everyone was here. But when Dr. Photon showed up with his new teammates, suddenly all the agencies backed off. I think they thought it was a lucky break. No one was sure whose jurisdiction the Rangers and Cloak fell under to begin with. It’s not like any of them were trained to deal with supervillains. That’s always been your job.”
Alex could imagine the High Council congratulating one another upon hearing this statement. Their theories had been right. The Rangers had made the city weak in some ways. With them out of the equation, it had been so easy for Cloak to swoop in and take over.
Carla continued.
“Give it to me straight: if it came down to a fight, would you two be able to defeat Cloak and the New Rangers together?”
“Just the two of us against all of Cloak?” Lone Star asked. “There’s no way we could take them on. Not like we are now.”
“But we’ve got the Junior Rangers and the Cloak defects on our side, too,” Lux offered.
“They’re children,” Carla said. “I have two of my own their age. I don’t care what kind of powers they have or what they’ve been through to get here. They shouldn’t be put in danger. I’ve never approved of your use of children as soldiers.”
“They’re our teammates,” Lone Star said.
“I’m surprised they made it this far alive. In fact, I can’t believe someone didn’t step in and stop you the first time you unveiled Amp as your sidekick, much less formed an entire team of underage superheroes.”
“Their actions have saved countless lives.”
“And the others? The ones who were trained to murder and become, what, twelve-year-old dictators? You do realize that one of them killed their former teammate today. I imagine you won’t be so quick to defend them when it’s you they’ve turned on.”
Misty and Mallory shifted on their feet uncomfortably. Alex didn’t breathe. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Kirbie looked at him and shook her head to try to dispel the words from sinking in, but it was too late.
“We kind of saved her brother’s life,” Misty whispered. “Starla should be thanking us.”
“I trust them,” Lone Star said. “Every one of them. If you had any idea what they’ve been through the last month, you would too.”
“STOP IT!” Lux shouted. “Both of you. There’s a group of psychopaths posing as both the good guys and the bad guys right now. They’ve got the city in a vise. They have at least one Umbra Gun and claim to be able to make more. Now what are we going to do about it?”
There was silence for a few moments. In the first-floor hallway, everyone was growing restless.
Lone Star’s voice started to drift out of Amp’s hand again.
“The city has turned on us. We don’t have any powers. Maybe . . . maybe it’s time we start thinking about turning ourselves in.”
“What?” Lux asked.
“Victor . . . ,” Carla said.
“Maybe they’ll even just take me,” he continued. “Then they’ll have a full set of Rangers. I’m powerless. It’s not like I’ll do them much good other than speaking engagements and propaganda. It could buy you all some time.”
“He’s lost it,” Kirbie whispered.
But Alex didn’t think that was the case. It wasn’t so much giving up as it was desperation. He’d wondered plenty of times if handing himself over to his parents might help to save his friends and teammates. There was something very familiar to him about Lone Star’s hopelessness.
“There has to be another way,” Lux said.
“We can’t fight them,” Lone Star said. “I won’t watch any of those kids get banished to the Gloom. Or killed. I don’t even know which is worse. You heard what Novo said. You know what’s coming next, right? They’ll wage a fake war between Cloak and the Rangers. They’ll tear down this city to find us. This might be the only way we can protect people from being harmed.”
Huddled in the hallway, Alex and his teammates listened grimly. None of them spoke, but Kirbie walked away, back into the living room, where she paced back and forth. She disappeared for a few moments before returning, holding Alex’s trench coat.
“The Gloom Key was at the lake house, right?” she asked.
“It was,” Gage said. “I can’t say if it still is.”
“We need that device. If they have a real Umbra Gun, we need a way into the Gloom.”
“But Phantom’s energy left our bodies,” Mallory said. “Does the key even work anymore?”
“Gage, is there a chance the Gloom Key still works?” Kirbie asked.
“Of course,” Gage said. “There’s always a chance.”
Kirbie turned to Alex. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do,” Alex said, without having to think about the question at all.
“Good. Then let’s go.”
“My mother knows we’re a threat now. She’ll probably torture Photon until she’s pulled every secret from his head. Cloak might already know about the lake house.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of this?” Kirbie asked.
“No,” Alex said. “I just want you to know what we’re getting into.”
“Kirbie, no,” Kyle said.
“Lone Star might have given up, but I haven’t.” Kirbie headed toward the back door. “It’s night, the city’s under lockdown, and Misty can’t travel to and from the lake house in one trip. I can carry Alex. We’ll grab the Gloom Key and get out of there.”
Before anyone could talk her out of it, Kirbie was in the backyard, with her eyes to the sky.
“There’s even plenty of cloud cover.”
“This could be a trap,” Kyle said as he and the others followed her outside. “They could be waiting for you there.”
“I doubt it,” Alex said. “Cloak’s furious. They’ll want action. Even if they’ve already found the place, they wouldn’t sit around waiting for us. They wouldn’t even know how recently we used it as a base. We could have moved on weeks ago.”
“Wait,” Amp said, stepping forward. His voice was stern, authoritative. He tossed something to Alex. A communicator.
“Notify us the second anything goes weird,” he said as Alex slipped the device over his ear. “And get back as soon as you can.”
“Don’t worry,” Kirbie said. “I’ve been taken prisoner by Cloak twice. It’s not going to happen again.”
“Here.” Gage fished around in his coat pockets before pulling out the device he’d used to track Lone Star in the Gloom. He tapped on it a little clumsily, bracing it against the side of his sling. “I’ve set it to detect heat signatures, so you’re not going in there blind. You should be able to use it once you get within two hundred yards or so of the base.”
“Thanks, Gage.”
“Maps, notes, blueprints,” Amp said. “Whatever you can grab that might help us. And then you’re out of there.”
“Laser pistols. Gassers. Really anything from the garage would be great,” Gage added.
“It’s dangerous,” Kyle said.
“This is something we can actually do,” Kirbie said. “If we’re turning ourselves in, what’s the difference anyway? Do you want to become one of Shade’s brainwashed puppets? I won’t. I’ve had her in my head once, and I won’t let it happen again. I’m going to fight this until my last breath.”
“Just be careful, Kirbs.” Kyle offered a small smile. “I can’t believe you’re going to leave us to deal with telling Lone Star and Lux. You’d better go now, before they realize what’s happening.”
And with that, she was a golden bird, huge and majestic, her talons around Alex’s shoulders as they flew into the night.