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Chapter 21
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She opened the door, hoping it wouldn’t creak. Judy saw the bed where their guest lay, and had a suspicious feeling about her. Five or six years ago, she would have sneaked in and poked the woman on the nose just to be sure. Sleeping people breathed differently from anyone who faked being asleep.

To their guest’s credit, it was slow and steady and easy to fool most people who didn’t know better. Judy had half a mind to say she invented that technique, but she doubted she was the first. She doubted either woman in that room would be the last, Monday be damned.

Judy smiled at her. As quietly as possible, she whispered, “I’ll be downstairs if you need me. Let me know if I can get you anything.”

The door closed almost as softly. Another whisper passed through it before the door was closed completely. “Water, thank you.”

Did Psi Wizard ever tell anyone he wasn’t a fan of mindscapes? He totally wasn’t.

Inside of his own mind, he found the edge of a beach to prepare himself while he stood with Mortar Mage and Psi Wizard on the backyard patio. He glanced a short ways into their mindscapes. Not enough to enter their thoughts and memories, but enough to establish a short-term link.

“Ready?” asked War Lagoon.

“I am when you two are,” Psi Wizard said.

He could see that War Lagoon was concentrating and calling forth a shadow. Shadows moved around their physical bodies, and then shifted back into place. War tried again and again as if trying to get it right.

A sphere of many dark colors appeared between their mindscapes. War Lagoon was doing it. Now the sphere was growing. Psi Wizard reached from within his own mindscape into those of his buddies. Once the sphere expanded past Psi Wizard’s sight, all three of them were floating somewhere that defied the rules of light and shadow.

There was no light source, but every detail was visible among all three men, as well as the dark clouds circling them from an immeasurable distance away.

Mortar Mage said, “When we’re done here, War, we need to talk about adding a few throw pillows. Maybe add one of those rugs with a cool pattern on it.”

“I’ll take it up with management,” War Lagoon said. “Let’s see if we can find them.”

“I think they found us.” He pointed in one direction, but there were a few like it.

Tall, unnaturally lanky figures with no discernible features emerged from the clouds. They were pitch black. Each and every one might have creeped out the average person, or make someone act out in fear, but Psi Wizard didn’t sense any amount of danger or malice from these figures. Gentle might have been a liberal term for what he sensed, as well.

With the water delivered, Judy was officially bored. She needed to go out, and no form of entertainment was going to play the salve. Years ago, she had sworn to be a hero because she was inspired to do so. Years ago, being a hero became as important as breath. Now, Judy could only guess how pathetic she looked while the upper half of her body was sprawled out against a table surface.

She examined her necklace with its two discs on either side the size of her thumbnails, and a rectangle in the middle. This one thing kept her health stable. It didn’t feel drained yet, but she looked over at the charging jar all the same.

Sure, her powers her slowly creeping back. Her friends were infuriatingly right to be worried about her going out. Yet, it didn’t help. She knew what she wanted to do. Judy knew what she needed to do. If only there was a way to overcharge the necklace, or something.

Judy exchanged another glance between her necklace and the jar. Then she had a sudden idea. It was a wicked idea. It was dangerous.

There was no way she wasn’t going to do it.

The shadow creatures had no visible mouths, and yet it didn’t stop them from speaking. One of their voices echoed:

“Welcome, Jeff of family Charleston, and friends. This is an unusual time.”

Another, deeper voice said, “What brings you to us, this day?”

War Lagoon, “It’s about a threat here in Paragon City. We came to see what you know of it.”

“We know only a fraction of what the seer has seen,” a third, feminine, but raspy voice said.

“Yeah, we already spoke with Halah. She told us that the world could end soon, and that the Vanquishiri are behind it.”

A fourth voice spoke out. By now, Psi Wizard could guess they would hear as many voices as there were of these Shadow Kin present, if not more. Their persistent lack of mouths made him uneasy.

Meanwhile, the fourth said, “The Vanquishiri Bahitians?”

“Yes, them,” Mortar Mage said.

“That cannot be, or it shouldn’t be.”

“Halah seemed to know they’re involved,” War Lagoon said.

“Forgive us, but as we said before, we only know a fraction of what the seer has seen. That some of the things she has foreseen has not driven her mad . . .” “. . . such as that Ninja Turtle movie . . .” “. . . is proof that we chose the right person for the job.”

All three men stood there full of questions, full of more words than existed in any language, but none of them spoke. Psi Wizard knew the other two felt as he did. Where could they possibly start with their questions?

“You appear to need our guidance on the Vanquishiri, and it would be our pleasure, and our shame, to tell you what we know of them,” said one voice.

Another said, “There was an age of three. It was a time when man created the Demon Thorn from their own bodies in an attempt to bypass the laws of magic no mortal body could contain. It was a time when we were born to guide all creatures toward the unknown. It was a time when one man took over his domain in the eternal realm.”

“A beast had been made to keep us in check, but it was too dangerous for the ones who made it, and they locked it away upon realizing their error. The Vanquishiri were of the gods, superpowered men and women who found a way to reach and dwell within the mortal realm. The other gods and their followers detested the death and discord wrought by a number within their many pantheons. The souls of this number were torn from their flesh and locked away in your world. Their followers could do little more than protect their prisons and hope for a day that their twisted masters would rise again.”

“There was a family who sought answers as to the means to defeat a carnal demon running rampant in the young Americas. A hunter in their employ—a man with electric powers—learned of the arcane device used to trap the souls of the Vanquishiri, because the hunter and his father found their way to us. We taught them how to contain and release that demon, but the lesson must have passed on to another, and then another.”

“The beast was made to keep us in check. We did not fight except to protect, though man has its habit of fearing what it does not understand. We were trapped while the other two fought over control of humanity, the demons and the followers of the Vanquishiri. When the demons were finally contained, save a few, the two avoided one another. The followers of the Vanquishiri stayed out of any place with a strong presence of the Circle. However, when the carnal demon was trapped inside of the device, one of the hunters was captured by the Circle.”

“So, you see, we aimed to help humanity and may be responsible for dooming it. If you say the Vanquishiri are involved, then they will have resorted to a twisted version of our means of containment and release. They will need bodies, fresh ones, to access their godly powers. They will do terrible, despicable things to the ones they cannot possess. They will torment the soul of whomever they possess until the body withers beyond the scope of their soul magic.”

Mortar Mage said, “They have taken the bodies of two criminals and of a friend of ours. Is there a way to remove them without harming the bodies? Or the original souls of their hosts?”

“No.”

“What if I told you one of those souls got away? What if I told you she is walking around in a highly unstable copy of her old body?”

“Then protect her new body.”

Warren’s workshop in the garage had many things. Judy knew most of what these things were because of her time in the base’s computer system. Now she foraged the racks and cabinets for everything she needed.

She set down the massive battery in the middle of the concrete floor, and hooked up a set of jumper cables. The switch wasn’t on yet. Good. The battery was at full power. Better.

Judy clamped the ends of the jumper cables to her hands. It stung a little. She looked at them real quick, and realized that using her hands to flip the switch might not have been a good idea. She might accidentally create a circuit and do more damage than this was worth. So she kicked off her socks and shoes. She reached for the switch with her toes.

“You can’t just tell us to give up like that,” Mortar Mage said.

A voice said, “It is the truth. When her old body is done, it could very well spell the end for her new one as well. We are sorry, but that is a function of life and death. It is a function that will restore itself when the time comes, if it comes. Cherish the time you have left with her.”

“She deserves better than this.”

“Everyone deserves better than the twisted machinations of the Vanquishiri. The only way to beat them is to contain them. Simply killing their current bodies will cause them to move on to the next, a poor random soul no one has control over. It will lose you what time you have left.”

Mortar screamed in frustration.

War Lagoon said, “Halah mentioned that the world could be ending in less than two days.”

“Hmm . . . Not the world; the universe. This darkness, greater than any shadow, goes beyond the confines of any one world. Everything leads to a single point. In that, we are sorry to say, cherish your time with everyone. Be thankful you have any time anew with your friend. If the Vanquishiri are behind it, your only chance is to do the unthinkable. You must make a terrible sacrifice.”

“How can we find them? How can we contain them?”

“They will come to you. Trap them. There isn’t enough time to find the tools you need to hold them our way. If you can find another to trap a soul, do it. Save the universe, for everyone’s sake.”

The final voice said, “We must part now. Let the light and shadow both see the dawn, hand-in-hand.”

Mortar Mage wanted to shout at them, but he watched as the clouds and Shadow Kin vanished. The trio of heroes stood in the backyard of the mansion again. Even if he had shouted at them, what could he say? What could he change?

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, and turned to enter the house with his pals. Mortar had a plan, or the making of one, but he had no idea how to break it to them.

They stopped after the door. Mortar lifted his head to see why. Their guest was sitting on a chair with a glass of water in one hand, and the letter in her other one. She regarded them with a dry writ to her eyes.

“Some show you put on back there.”

Psi Wizard shot open his mouth as if to speak, but the few lights and electronics present that were on during the day all flickered. Everyone was looking around curiously.

Mortar said, “Computer, where is Judy right now?”

Rather than a feminine voice, he heard one that sounded more like a generic tin can. “Judy Tanimoto is. Presently. In the garage.”

He ran when he heard it. He tuned out any shouts or footsteps that followed. He had to get to Judy and fast, fearing what she might do in there. He opened the door. There was a smell. He charged inside and stopped at the sight of fumes rising from a single body.