“Curious. That world is similar to our own, yet different in such important ways.”
“You didn’t ask him about me, did you?” Mizzy asked.
“No. Why? Should I have?”
She yawned. “I dunno. Maybe I’m, like, some kinda super-awesome ninja thing over there.”
“I’d say you were a super-awesome ninja thing today,” Abraham said. “You performed that mission well.”
She blushed, taking a drink of her cocoa.
“A world with no Calamity,” Abraham said. “But what does that—” His mobile started buzzing. He frowned, looking at it. “I do not know this number.” He turned it around toward me.
“Knighthawk,” I said. “Answer it.”
He did so, lifting it to his ear, then moved it away as Knighthawk started talking loudly. Abraham lowered the phone. “He is excited about something,” he said.
“Obviously,” Mizzy said. “Speaker that sucker.”
Abraham pressed the requisite buttons. Knighthawk’s face appeared on the mobile and his voice projected into the room.
“—can’t believe the balls on that woman. What happened to David’s mobile? Did he get it vaporized? I haven’t been able to track the thing for hours.”
I pulled mine out. It had survived the fight, barely—with a cracked screen and a ripped-off back, battery gone.
“It…has seen better days,” Abraham said.
“He really needs to be more careful,” Knighthawk said. “Those things aren’t free.”
“I know,” I said. “You made us pay for them.”
“Heh,” Knighthawk said. He was shockingly, even annoyingly, chipper. “I’ll send you a replacement on the house after this, kid.”
“This?” I asked.
“Regalia’s data,” he said. “It’s incredible. Haven’t you been reading it?”
“The data?” I said. “Knighthawk, that was on Tia’s…mobile. You copied it?”
“Of course I copied it,” he said. “You think I built a nationwide network of data links for fun? Well, it is fun. But that’s because I get to read people’s mail.”
“Send us a complete dump,” Abraham said.
Knighthawk fell silent.
“Knighthawk?” I said. “You’re not—”
“Hush,” he said. “I’m not ditching you. I just got another call.” He swore sharply. “One second.”
Silence. The three of us regarded one another, uncertain. If Knighthawk had grabbed that data, then perhaps the mission wasn’t a complete write-off.
He came back a few minutes later. “Well, hell,” he said. “That was Jonathan.”
“Prof?” I said.
“Yeah. Demanded that I track you. I don’t know how he figured out I can do that. I’ve always told him I can’t.”
“And?” Mizzy asked.
“I sent him to the other side of the city,” Knighthawk replied. “Nowhere near you guys. Which means that once he’s done with you, he’s basically guaranteed to come murder me. I should have turned you idiots away at my door.”
“Um…thank you?” Mizzy said.
“I’m sending you a copy of Regalia’s plans,” Knighthawk said. “Keep in mind that it references a few photos that aren’t in the folder. That’s not because I’m holding out on you; it’s because the mobile died before finishing the full download of the files. Tell Tia she did great though.”
“Tia got shot,” I said, subdued. “He killed her.”
The line fell silent again, though I heard Knighthawk breathe out after a short time. “Calamity,” he whispered. “I never thought he’d go that far. I mean, I knew he would…but Tia?”
“I don’t think he meant to,” I said. “He turned his goons loose on us, and she ended up dead.”
“Your transfer is working,” Abraham said, holding up his mobile. “Does this data explain what Prof is doing here?”
“Sure does,” Knighthawk said, growing excited again. “He—”
“He’s here for Larcener,” I broke in. “He’s here to make a motivator from Larcener’s assumer abilities, then use that to absorb Calamity’s powers—all of them—thereby becoming the ultimate Epic.”
Mizzy blinked in shock, and Abraham looked up at me.
“Oh,” Knighthawk said. “So you did read the data?”
“No,” I said. “It just makes sense.” The pieces were falling into place. “That’s why Regalia brought Obliteration to Babilar, isn’t it? She could have come up with a hundred different ways to threaten the city and force Prof to use his powers. But she invited him because she wanted to make a motivator out of his destruction powers to hide what she was really doing.”
“Making a teleporter,” Knighthawk said. “So she could get to Calamity, once she had Larcener’s abilities. But she died before putting her plan into motion, so Prof is doing it instead. Sharp guess, kid. You’ve been holding out on me; you’re nowhere near as stupid as you act. As a side note, I’m abandoning my base here. Manny is already carting me to the jeep. I’m not going to hang around here when the most dangerous Epic in the world can likely teleport anywhere he wants in an eyeblink.”
“He’d alert Obliteration if he did that,” I said. “Part of the reason for the bomb in Babilar was to keep Obliteration from knowing that his powers were being stolen.”
“Still leaving, at least until Jonathan cools off from my little goose chase.”
“Knighthawk,” Abraham said. “We need your harmsway. We have wounded.”
“Tough,” he said
. “It’s the only one I’ve got right now. I love you guys—well, I don’t actively dislike you guys—but my skin is more important than yours.”
“And if I could give you something to make another one?” I asked, digging in my pocket. I pulled out the tissue sample container and held it up. Abraham obligingly turned his mobile around to give Knighthawk a view.
“Is that…,” Knighthawk’s voice said.
“Yes. From Prof.”
“Everyone else get out of the room. I want to talk to the kid alone.”
Abraham raised an eyebrow at me, and I nodded. Reluctantly, Abraham handed me his mobile, and he and Mizzy left. I slumped back against the wall, looking at Knighthawk’s face on the screen of the mobile. His own mobile seemed to be secured before him with some kind of device he wore around his neck, as Manny carried him through one of his tunnels.
“You did it,” Knighthawk said softly. “How? His forcefields should have protected him from harm.”
“Megan reached into an alternate dimension,” I said, “and pulled out a version of Prof. Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“His daughter,” I said. “His and Tia’s, I think. She had his same powers, Knighthawk. And…” I took a deep breath. “And that’s his weakness. His powers. At least, so Tia claimed.”
“Hmm…,” he said. “Makes sense, knowing Jonathan. Odd that his daughter has his powers. Children of Epics here have been born without powers. Anyway, she got past his abilities?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I managed to blow a chunk of skin off him and bag it for you.”
“Man,” Knighthawk said, “we are really asking for it here, you realize. If he knows you have that…”
“He does.”
Knighthawk shook his head, rueful. “Well, if I’m going to get murdered, might as well let an old friend do it. I’ll send you that harmsway via drone, but you send me back that sample. Deal?”
“Deal, with one condition.”
“Which is?”
“We need a way to fight Prof,” I said. “And make him face his powers.”
“Have your pet Epic summon another version of him.”
“No. It didn’t work; we were able to bypass his powers, but he didn’t turn. I need to try something else.”