Epilogue

The blasts sent Freedom flipping end over end to crash down in to Atlas. The room shook like an earthquake and debris rained in as the door exploded inwards. The rapid spreading of the charges continued for several more seconds. Moments later, debris fell and the remaining foundation settled, but all was calm.

And Freedom realized he was still alive.

Unfortunately, so was Atlas.

Atlas lay on his side beneath Freedom. His leg was twisted unnaturally, obviously broken. Blood flowed freely from a large gash on his forehead. Freedom could feel the glass and rock imbedded in his back, but he shrugged it off. Time to worry about that later.

Freedom rolled off his foe and against what remained of the wall. He looked around the room. Debris filled the entryway; an entire building’s worth Freedom was sure. He could see no other egress, and he doubted any would have survived the explosion anyway.

Atlas looked up at me. “I told you we should not meet again, Mr. Patton. Do you remember?”

“New York. I remember. You threatened my friends.”

Atlas nodded. “That I did. You caused a lot of problems for the organization back then. I thought I moved past that when I came to this pathetic little stretch of the country. These backwoods yokels ate up everything I fed them. It was far too easy. The World could have been my rise to glory. My shot to take the organization as my own.”

“The organization?”

Atlas chuckled, forcing more blood from his head wound. “Need to know, Mr. Patton. And you most definitely do not need to know.”

“I should have ended this in New York and saved countless lives. You and your World.”

“You truly are a fool. The World is mine, but the organization is far greater than that. The World was merely my shot at the next echelon, but alas, it was not to be.”

“What are you saying?”

“What I am saying, Mr. Patton, is that I am only just a mere cog in a much, much larger machine. This entire attack will only be the opening shot. The organization will survive and prosper and bring about its own order from the chaos.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Believe what you will, Mr. Patton. I did not lie to you in New York. I do not see a need to start now.”

“I’m sick of your games. Give me the details to shut down the field. Because I will get out of this hole, I will take out the field, and I promise you, I will destroy your precious organization.”

Atlas reached in to his suit coat. Freedom raised his Glock, ready to fire.

“Calm yourself, Mr. Patton. If I wanted to fight you, I would have done so before I blew the roof out from over us.” He pulled a PDA from his pocket. “Take this. It holds a copy of both my fingerprint and retina scan data. I’m sure the ACTION techs can make it work to open the gates to the field’s control room.”

“You’re just going to give it to me?”

“It doesn’t matter. The World has failed. Why put on a charade otherwise? I concede my defeat. But rest assured, Mr. Patton, that the organization will see you pay for this.”

“Enough with your damn cryptic comments! Tell me about this organization before I use my last ounce of strength to kick the ever-loving hell out of you!”

Atlas laughed. “Do you think the organization would leave me here to fall in to ACTION’s hands? Don’t let your foolish show so, Mr. Patton. My ride should be arriving anytime now.”

“What are you talking about, Atlas. You’re trapped in this whole the same as I am, until we either die or they dig us out.”

“I don’t think so. The time was set for fifteen minutes and that should just about be up.”

“Stop talking gibberish! I want—”

A sudden glow filled the room. It faded nearly instantly, and in its place stood a man in garish blue armor.”

“It’s about time, Transmit,” Atlas said. “Get me out of here.”

Transmit turned the cold, blank visage of his face mask towards Freedom for just a moment. “Him?”

“Leave him. If we’re lucky he will suffocate, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“You got it.” Transmit helped Atlas upright. Atlas leaned against the teleporter and smiled at Freedom.

“Goodbye, Mr. Patton. I trust this time we truly won’t meet again.”

Transmit activated his power and in another flash Atlas and he vanished. Freedom was alone beneath tons of rocks with rescue workers who knows how far away.

Finally, he thought. Time for a rest.

*****

Twenty-two hours later, the ACTION rescue workers finally made it to Freedom Patton’s alcove within the ruined building. They found him sleeping peacefully among the rubble.

A few minutes later, he stood beside several of the ACTION agents and enjoyed a lunch of bologna sandwiches, potato chips, and bottled water.

Joseph Edward Tilby, senior covert agent for the Agency for Counter-Terrorism: Infiltration, Observation, and Negation, found him there as he finished up the last of his water. The first agent on the scene, Tilby now found himself in charge of the command post.

He patted Freedom on the back. “Good work, Freedom. I never thought I would say this, but thank you, sir. You’ve done your country proud.”

“I’m just living up to the name, Tilby, but thanks.”

“There’s someone else over in the command post that has been waiting to talk to you for a day now. I think she wants to thank you for saving her life.”

Freedom nodded. “I’ll go talk to her.”

“Do that, Freedom. And don’t forget to mention it was actually me that rescued her the first time.”

“You’re going to take all the credit with the government for this one anyone, Tilby. Give me at least one girl’s vision to shine just a little bit in.”

“Whatever, Patton. Good luck to you.”

Freedom left Tilby to join his fellow agents in lunch as he headed towards the mobile command post and a meeting with one Annabelle Montalvo.

*****

“—and that’s pretty much the story.”

Annabelle sat for a moment with a stunned expression. Freedom knew his recounting of the past week’s events, from her mother’s death to the defeat of Atlas, would be a lot to take in. Especially after the ordeal she went through in Atlas’s hands.

“So Mom’s really gone,” she said. “And Richie too. Oh, God.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

“I’m sorry,” Freedom said. “But we’ve got Richie’s bastard father in custody and the World is destroyed. We can at least rest easy that they won’t have died in vain.”

Annabelle nodded through her tears. “Thank you, Mr. Patton. Can I just have a couple minutes to digest all this?”

“Sure, and it’s Freedom.” He gave Annabelle a pat on her shoulder and walked out of the bank that ACTION used as its command center. He headed down the street, towards the hotel they commandeered as a rest area. He knew he had a few days of tedious government interviews ahead of him, but at this point it didn’t matter.

He did what he set out to do: find Annabelle Montalvo. He felt the restless spirits of Richie Williams and Jeannie Cruz lift from the vortex in the back of his head. Two more spirits ready to rest in peace.

*****

One week later

Inside the Little King restaurant in downtown Cedar Rapids, Freedom Patton sat across from Tilby and Iniri. To his left, Annabelle Montalvo munched loudly on a ham and cheese sandwich as Tilby spoke.

“ACTION agents have rounded up most of the World’s field operatives, although working all the small town citizenry involved could still take months. But the World is well and surely dead. Disaster diverted, and thought the fine folks at the Pentagon will never admit it, we owe it to the four of us sitting at the table here tonight.”

“So that’s it,” Freedom said. He glanced over to Annabelle. “I set out to help a girl and ended up bringing down a group of power-mad domestic terrorists. Not bad for a week’s work.”

He looked to Tilby. “So what’s next for you, oh agent of ACTION? Going undercover as a janitor next?”

Tilby shook his head. “I’ve been appointed Deputy Director, Undercover Operations. I’ll be heading to Langley after my three weeks paid vacation ends.”

“Moving up in the world,” Freedom said. “We’ll see how well you can handle being a desk jockey though.”

Tilby laughed. “After this clusterfuck, pardon my French, I will take it.”

Freedom turned to Iniri. “How ‘bout you, tall, dark, and smoking hot?”

Iniri gave Tilby an awkward glance before she answered. “Well, Freedom, I had hoped to break it to you a little more gently, but I will be going to Langley as well. They want me to acclimate Neanderthal to the modern world, and they think my empathic powers may be helpful with the three epsilons we took captive in Hudson.

“And, well, before that, I’m sort of going with Tilby on his vacation.”

“Well, well, well,” Freedom said. “You sly dog, Tilby. How’d you manage to steal my girl right out from under me?”

“You snooze you lose, Patton. You should know that by now.” He looked at Iniri as he placed his hand on hers. “But seriously, I think we just realized we were both missing something in our lives and we saw that in each other. Either that or all the adrenaline made us both way too horny for are own good.”

“Ew, ew, ew,” Annabelle chimed in. “Don’t need all the info on the old people sex.”

“Old? I’ll have you know I’m only twenty-seven,” Iniri said. “And I haven’t been your girl, Freedom Patton, in a long, long time. You made sure of that in New York as I recall.”

“Ooh, sounds like some juicy dirt,” Annabelle said. “Tell us more.”

“That’s enough of that,” Freedom said. “You’re not getting a lick more information about me from that one, Ms. Montalvo.”

“My lips are sealed,” Iniri said.

“Whatever,” Annabelle said.

“Whatever, indeed.” Freedom looked to Iniri then to Tilby and finally Annabelle. “We’ve heard from the two supposed geezers across the table. What do you have planned, Annabelle.”

She looked around the table at her new friends for a few moments as she finished masticating her most recent bite of ham and cheese.

“Well, yeah, I was thinking I would go with you, Freedom.”

Everyone around the table stared at her in shock.

“You got ACTION ready to give you a full scholarship and a career in whatever field you want with them, and you would rather go with me? You sure that experiment didn’t effect your brain?”

Annabelle nodded. “Look, despite everything that happened I have to believe God gave me these powers for a reason. A reason—no offense, Mr. Tilby—far past being just another government agent, super powered or otherwise. I figure the best way to find it and get some kind of training in the process, is to hang with the only metahero I know.

“Thanks for the glowing recommendation,” Freedom said. “You thought this over and are sure of it?”

Annabelle nodded.

Freedom turned to Tilby. “Well, Mr. Agent of ACTION. What do you say?”

“Well, technically I should run you both in for unregistered metahuman activity outside the designated quadrants. But unofficially I wish you both all the luck in the world.”

“All right then,” Freedom said. “I guess you got a mentor, Kid.”

“Not kid,” Annabelle said. “From now on call me Libertad.”

Freedom smiled as he stood up. “All right, Libertad it is. Ready for your first lesson?”

“Sure.”

Freedom laughed. “Let’s get going then. Remember, always leave the fed to pay for the lunch.” He casually saluted Tilby. “I’ll see you around, Ed. And you take good care of your girl or you’ll hear from me.”

“Take care, Freedom.”

Freedom leaned down and kissed Iniri square on the lips. “Just a little some thing to remember me by. Give me a ring if you get tired of the old codger here.”

“I’m not going to make that mistake again, Freedom. Just promise you won’t do anything to stupid or dangerous, especially with Annabelle.”

“Libertad,” Annabelle corrected.

“I can’t promise we’ll never walk in to trouble, but I will make sure nothing happens to her. You have my word.”

Iniri hugged her former lover before she let him stand back upright.

Freedom looked to Annabel—Libertad, he reminded himself. “You ready to go?”

“Whenever you are.”

“Good. It looks like the adventure’s just begun.”