The Division Read online

  “Don’t you sass me, boy. I fought Nazis.”

  He laughed. “Doc, I know you’re only 43.”

  “You’ve never heard of time travel?”

  Socket was really glad he’d invited her to join the team.

  “Are you sure you don’t want any champagne?” Liberty hefted her own glass.

  “Not when I’m on duty.” Valor tugged at the collar of his suit. He was still breaking in his Division uniform. It lacked the comfort of his everyday costume and was stiff around the neck and armpits. If it wasn’t made from the specially modified fabric Socket’s company had come up with, Valor would have torn it to bits already, just by throwing a punch.

  She leaned close, and Valor caught a whiff of lavender perfume. The rumors about them were just that, but Valor liked the gossip. He smiled and tried to look like he welcomed her nearness.

  Liberty’s lips were warm against his ear. “You take things so seriously. It’s a rush, Valor, not a vocation. Try to have a little fun.” With a wink she moved away, slipping back into the crowd only to be surrounded by admirers.

  Valor waved to Liberty, although he doubted she even noticed. Like always, she left her mark and then disappeared. His skin was tingling where her lips had touched. Maybe in another lifetime he’d consider asking her out, if he were a different person without a secret to hide. Then again it might be pretty hard to date someone when he didn’t even know her real name. It wasn’t like he had a decent track record with normal relationships anyway. Most girls could tell he was holding something back, and it wasn’t always his secret identity.

  He scanned the throng of people, looking for Socket and found him chatting with Doc. Socket cleaned up nicely in his tux. For once, his blond hair wasn’t sticking up in all directions, although there was still that bit in the back that couldn’t be tamed. The dark color of his jacket made Socket’s blue eyes pop, so they almost blazed from across the room. Socket looked really good, and the thought discomfited Valor enough to turn his gaze back to the mob.

  Valor checked for the other members of his team, trying to get into the habit even when they weren’t out in the field. Dash and Jester stood with their heads together, while Mace chatted with a group of women in glittering evening gowns. Tiana was easy to spot, standing head and shoulders above everyone else. She glowered at the waiter who offered her a drink, and Valor would have been worried except that seemed to be her default expression.

  “Gosh, Captain Valor, I’ve always wanted to meet a real live superhero.”

  Valor burst into laughter. He hadn’t even heard Socket approach. “Captain? Where did you come up with that one?” It was weird to stand so far apart and pretend he didn’t know his best friend.

  “Have you forgotten our senior year of high school?” Socket gestured with his glass of champagne, toward an alcove where they could chat with some privacy.

  Valor followed his lead and appreciated the moment out of the crowd. “At least it was better than Kid Valor.” There had been a time when he’d read a few too many comic books, and he’d wanted to be just like the heroes on the colored pages. Hell, he still wanted to be like those characters he idolized—only without the goofy names. “You always remember the embarrassing bits, don’t you?”

  “It’s my job to keep you humble.”

  Well, someone had to. If Valor relied on his fans, he’d consider himself a god by this point. Good thing he had Socket to keep him grounded. “I thought the intro went well.”

  Socket made a face. “We could have used a publicist.”

  “Relax. The important thing is that we’re ready to tackle those attacks.” They still had no idea of the purpose behind the drones or what the hell was on the other side of those portals.

  “We’ll be ready when everyone listens to what I tell them. We can close portals much more quickly that way.” Socket sounded cranky.

  Valor shook his head. “Remember we aren’t a team, yet. We’re just some heroes who work together.”

  “Look at you, all full of wisdom.” Socket brought his glass to his lips, making a face at the taste.

  “Why are you even pretending to drink that?” Valor lowered his voice. Socket hated alcohol, even though he still bought the beer that Valor liked whenever they hung out. Valor had seen what drinking had done to Socket’s mom, and he’d been the one to give Socket a place to go when it all got to be too much.

  Before Socket could answer, Valor’s ear piece buzzed, and then the automated voice of Socket’s computer spoke: “Alert. Portal detected. Olympic Park. Atlanta, Georgia.” He knew Socket had set up the warning system, but this was the first time they’d heard it go off.

  Socket touched his ear. “Fuck.”

  Two months ago a portal had opened in Paris, and the drones had devastated the city. They didn’t have a lot of time. This was what The Division was prepared for.

  “Valor, you and Dash go now. The rest of you get to the roof. The chopper will be waiting.” Socket made his way out of the crowd.

  Valor rose in the air, ignoring the awed looks of the crowd below. “Sorry for having to leave so early, folks. There’s a portal open out there, and we have to stop it.” He flashed the “V” salute before kicking off toward the ceiling. Then he followed Dash’s lead and sped out of the ballroom.

  Chapter 2

  On Tuesday, Paterson became the latest in a series of east coast cities to come under attack from the killer robots that have been devastating the planet for the past six months. Luckily, the arrival of the superhero Valor stopped the bots from getting too far.

  The portal appeared over Sixth Street, and local police managed to evacuate the area before anyone was hurt. But once again they were ineffective against the drones. If it weren’t for the arrival of Valor, the entire city might have been devastated, much like Paris earlier this year.

  When is the government going to admit that these robots are a serious threat? A force needs to be marshaled to fight them. If there is no action taken, we will continue to be at the mercy of people in silly costumes.

  Holly Hutton

  —Hutton News Service

  The drones had hit Paris before Socket had an alert system in place, so by the time Valor had gotten there he’d been too late to stop the bots from devastating the city. Even now, he remembered the smell as he’d flown over blown out buildings—that of burned rubber and flesh. He’d joined the other heroes in picking up the pieces and rescuing survivors from the fires that raged through the streets.

  Finding the drones had proved to be much harder once the portal had closed, but he would not let that happen again. This time they had advance warning. The Division would keep the people of Atlanta safe. They had to.

  Valor ducked into the tailwind and willed himself to go faster, catching the currents to propel himself. Normally he took pleasure in flying—the way the air buffeted his skin and how the Earth looked so tiny beneath him. Now panic beat in his chest at the thought of not getting there in time. The chopper would be an hour behind him at least, and Dash was probably already there. Socket had better get on inventing some teleportation device, because Valor couldn’t stand this. His powers were a gift, but they were a useless gift if he couldn’t get there to use them.

  The portal shimmered in the distance, looking almost beautiful if it didn’t herald the arrival of the deadly drones. Valor banked around a tall, cylindrical glass tower and dove down towards the bots still pouring out of the damn thing, the wind blasting his cheeks. He got in front of the police cars surrounding the park. Laser blasts from the drone weapons deflected off his chest, and each hit felt like someone bouncing tennis balls off of his body.

  Valor couldn’t take all the hits. A few got away from him and sent one of the police cars flying, with shards of glass sprinkling down like rain. The cops crouching behind it dove for cover, shouting at each other.

  Damn it, they shouldn’t be here.

  The officers were just ordinary people. They didn’t have the abilities to take on these things. Valor couldn’t get them away and defend the city at the same time.

  “Dash, clear the area of civilians.” Socket’s voice came over their earpieces. Just hearing him calmed Valor. They were going to save these people. Everything was under control. Socket wouldn’t let anything go wrong. “Valor, start crushing drones. The chopper is on its way with the others.”

  “You really need to work on finding someone who can teleport.” Valor shifted in mid-air, moving from the defensive to offense. He disengaged his flight power between one heartbeat and the next to drop down, picking up speed as he landed on a hovering drone. He felt the metal buckle and break underneath his feet, with sparks tickling him as the circuitry tore and twisted.

  “Still trying to find one who’ll work for peanuts.”

  Valor laughed as he slammed his fist into another drone, its protective shell crumbling around his fist and scraping his knuckles. He pulled back and shook it out, knowing the skin would knit itself back together before he even threw the next punch. Something hit him from behind, sending him freefalling toward the ground. Catching himself just before hitting the concrete, Valor spun in midair and kicked out at a drone shooting lasers in his direction.

  Dash zipped by, so fast she was nothing more than a blur. Finally she stopped just below him, in the middle of a fountain where children had been playing just moments before. “I got everyone out of the park!”

  “Good job, kid.” Valor grunted in response as he tossed a disabled drone at several others. The chopper couldn’t get here soon enough.

  The portal shimmered and he realized neither he nor Dash had grabbed a pulse bomb to shut it.

  Damn it!

  “Socket, I hope…” he trailed off when a figure leaped out of the portal—
a human-shaped figure.

  The man tumbled like a circus performer, rotating in the sky to land on top of one of the drones. His chest was bare except for a harness that crisscrossed his abdomen. He stretched his arms back and pulled two long rods from the harness. With a flick of his wrists, beams of lightning emerged, forming wicked blades.

  “What the hell? Socket, are you getting this?”

  The newcomer rode the drone like a horse, jumping to slice at other drones, leaving them nothing but shattered shells that fell to the ground. Then he flipped and cut through the drone he was riding on, timing his fall just in time to land on another one.

  “I am, and I’ve got no fucking clue who he is.” Socket sounded angry. “Running searches now on the hero database.”

  “Not going to begrudge the help.” Valor went back into the fray, slamming drones down and out of his way until he could get closer to the new arrival. “Hey!” he called. “Maybe we can work together?”

  The guy turned to face him, still wielding those sparking weapons. Valor felt his heart stutter and he stopped in midair, the wind curving around him.

  This stranger had Socket’s face.

  Socket stared at the image on the screen from Valor’s uniform-cam, his head pounding from the too-sweet champagne. Finishing off the entire glass had been a bad idea. He didn’t drink, ever. Now he had to worry about being impaired when he had to be with it. He damn well knew better. Socket had learned those lessons the hard way.

  “Yeah, I’m getting this, Val.”

  They didn’t know much about the dimension on the other side of the portals, but Socket had never expected this kind of Star Trek shit. Were there duplicates of the rest of The Division too? How come they hadn’t come through the portals before now? “Bring him here.” Socket wanted to see his double up close and personal.

  “We need to get this portal shut, first.” Valor provided the voice of reason. If Socket hadn’t downed the champagne, he might be able to concentrate a bit better now.

  Socket leaned forward, pulling up the satellite on one of his monitors. “Chopper is almost there with the spare pulse bombs. Keep taking down the drones.” There shouldn’t have been another portal opening so soon. Socket had expected more time after they’d managed to close the one that opened earlier today. Maybe this attack was in response to that success. Their unknown enemy would want to know what had happened.

  The newcomer was damn good at destroying drones. Socket focused all of the cameras to watch his duplicate. He moved like some movie action hero—his body flipping through the air to execute moves that would have made Jackie Chan jealous. Drones fells before his electrified blades. When his alternate stopped long enough to be more than a blur in motion, Socket noticed his bare chest and ripped body.

  Bastard was built. Clearly he was not sitting behind a computer and directing things wherever he came from.

  He also seemed more than familiar with kicking drone ass, so he must fight them on a regular basis. Maybe they’d finally get a chance to find out why the portals were opening and what the hell the drones wanted.

  Socket watched in silence as the chopper arrived and Mace used his telekinesis to float the bomb through the damaged drones and underneath the portal. He sent the engage command and there was a flash before the portal disappeared. No new drones emerged, and the rest of the team easily put down the few left. The new guy dropped to the ground, breathing heavily as Valor and the others approached.

  “I want to talk to him, Val.” Socket said over their private connection.

  “I know. Trust me,” Val murmured, before striding forward with his hand outstretched.

  Socket knew if anyone would convince an alternate version of himself, it would be Valor.

  “Hi there.” Valor smiled his best grin. He didn’t want this guy to think they were his enemies. “They call me Valor. Nice work back there. I’ve never seen weapons like yours.”

  The guy who wore Socket’s face stared at him with narrowed eyes and a tightly clenched jaw. He took his time straightening up from his crouch, as if still anticipating a threat. “You look like someone I know, but you’re not him, are you?”

  Valor shook his head. Apparently he had a double himself, over there, wherever there was. The possibilities excited him—an entire universe with duplicate versions of all of them? That was the kind of thing he loved back in his comic book reading days. “And you look like a friend of mine. What should we call you?”

  “Peter. That’s my name.” It would be easy for Valor to think of him as Peter since he never called Socket by his first name. Socket had been just “Socket” since they were both teenagers, and Valor had misunderstood how his powers worked. Peter looked at the rest of The Division, who’d gathered behind Valor. “And you all are?”

  Maybe he’d better introduce the rest of the team. Valor did so quickly, ending with, “We call ourselves The Division. Together our purpose is to fight these bots, close the portals, and protect the world.” He resisted the urge to throw in his “V” salute. There weren’t any reporters with cameras to capture it, and it wouldn’t mean anything to Peter.

  “Then we are allies.” Peter seemed uncertain even as he said it. Now that they were close up, Valor could see the scars on Peter’s torso, the one on his chin, and the tattoos that spiraled on his upper arms. He wouldn’t be mistaking this guy for Socket any time soon, even with the similar facial features.

  “I’m glad you think so, because someone sure has to tell us what the hell these things want.” Valor kicked a still glowing metal carcass. He misjudged his strength, and it went sailing into the air a good twenty feet. “Will you come back to our base? There’s someone you really need to meet.”

  Peter looked back at where the portal used to be. His eyes narrowed, and his lips pressed together tightly. “I suppose I should.”

  This was so fucking absurd. Peter had come through the portal expecting literally anything, and what he found were a couple of idiots playing comic-book heroes. Of course they ate Peter’s sob story right up. His bastard of a master had been right about that much.

  The biggest shock had been recognizing the face beneath the mask of the one calling himself Valor. Peter didn’t need to see more than the line of jaw and the perfect pout of the lips to recognize Mitch Michaels. For a brief second, Peter thought he might not have gone anywhere at all, that this whole “trip” through the portal had been just another Overseer mindfuck.

  But fucking Michaels couldn’t fly, and he wasn’t strong enough to take apart a drone scout with his bare hands. Even more telling, he didn’t babble on like Valor, so earnest in describing his team and how they had come together to fight the portal robots.

  Peter eyed each of them in the tight confines of the helicopter they’d boarded. He made note of the woman who could throw lightning from her fingertips—the Overseers had footage of her. He could only guess at what the others could do. The two youngest, who looked barely out of their teens, sat in the back and whispered to each other, probably about Peter. If they hadn’t been on the team long, they might be easier to pump for information.

  The woman with the purple skin he found the most interesting, mainly because Peter didn’t know what to make of her. When Valor had introduced everyone, she had merely nodded at him. She was the only one not strapped in to a seat, as if she knew the futility of it. Tiana looked like she would not be easy to crack, but Peter couldn’t help his fascination. No aliens like her had ever come to his world.

  “So we’ve figured out how to close the portals, but we still don’t have any idea why the drones are coming through…”

  The easiest target would be this version of fucking Michaels. Valor might be all smiles and heroic poses, but he couldn’t be too different. Peter knew just how to manipulate Mitch Michaels.

  “They’re looking for another dimension to conquer.” Peter offered a bit of the truth, just as he’d been told.