Chapter Nine

Regrouping

"Get in there!"

Iron Claw pushed Doctor Kuchar inside a large room full of holding cells. He jumped forward to loom over the doctor, stabbing his claws into the metal floor just above his shoulder. "You told me that Benito Santori was dead! What was he doing there?"

Before Doctor Kuchar could answer, Leon interrupted. "Um, excuse me . . . sir?" he asked, stepping cautiously into the room.

"What?" Iron Claw snapped.

Leon looked anxious and pressed back against the wall. "What . . . was that back there?" he asked. "Who is Benito Santori?"

Iron Claw stared at his henchman for a moment before deciding to humor him. "Benito Santori was our very first human test subject for Doctor Kuchar's cybernetic enhancements. Quite possibly the most powerful one ever made, but his enhancements proved unstable, and one day he overheated during a training exercise and spontaneously combusted, nearly taking half the compound with him. At least, that's what I was told, wasn't it, Doctor?"

Doctor Kuchar glared up at him. "The war with the Black Cross was starting," he said. "The government wanted to use him as a weapon, and he wanted no part in it. I let him go and faked his death, because I knew there were men like you who would never let him rest otherwise."

Iron Claw snarled. "Men like me," he repeated. He swept his claw downward, severing the doctor's left arm in one swift motion.

"Aagh!" the doctor cried out in pain. Iron Claw hefted him up and threw him into one of the cells.

"You can bleed out and die in there for all I care," he sneered. "As for me, I have more important things to attend to." He reached inside his robe and withdrew the Shine, glowing warmly in his grasp. He could still hear the faint whistling in his ears, but now it was calming, soothing, as if rewarding him for his efforts in retaking it. "I have you," he reassured it.

"Come," he said, turning his attention to Leon and his henchmen. "We have an army to restore."

They left the room, leaving Doctor Kuchar to slump against the wall.

Back on the beach, Benton looked over the ruins of what had once been a paradise. "I'm sorry," he told Santori, standing beside him.

Santori shrugged. "I'm sure you are," he said after a minute. "But it doesn't really change the outcome, does it?"

He stepped forward, hefting a giant log singlehandedly and setting it back up. Benton tried to say something more, but finding nothing sufficient, he closed his mouth and turned away.

The Sky Ace was pretty much unsalvageable. Luckily, their ranger pods had survived the crash, as had their personal vehicles, but the lab was totaled, meaning they'd have to get all the way back to base before they'd have a chance of restoring the others' powers. If they could.

Benton entered what remained of the lab to find Karen, Rio, Yoselin, and Princess holding a shivering Algernon, all standing around Gordon's pod, who was currently being preserved inside it. Benton couldn't help but notice they all looked a bit disheartened. "He doing alright?"

Karen glanced back at Benton, her fingers touching the small, spade-shaped window on the front. "Yeah, he should be fine," she said. "So long as we can get him back to the lab and restore him."

Benton looked down at the disk drive in his hand. "I have the formula for the cure, at least," he said. "I'm no Doctor Kuchar, but I . . . I think I can synthesize more."

Rio glanced at the disk, rubbing his arm where he had a large purple bruise. He looked out through the hole in the side of the ship at the destroyed beach beyond. "Maybe you were right, Davies," he said. "Maybe the world is better off without our enhancements."

Benton followed his gaze, his eyes falling on a blackened crater with a few chunks of wood and some singed umbrella fabric sticking out of it. "I . . . don't know about all that," he said.

His team looked up at him in surprise.

Benton shrugged. "Seems to me," he said, "guys like Ivan are going to do stuff like this no matter what kind of weapon they have. If people like us weren't around, who'd stop them from doing this to the rest of the world?"

He looked down at his hand, clenching and feeling the enormous strength flowing through it once again. "Doctor Kuchar wanted these enhancements to make the world a better place," he continued, "not to be used as a weapon. Santori out there, he may be closest to living Kuchar's dream. He may not be a weapon. But . . . it doesn't seem to me like he's doing a lot to make the world better either."

Benton took off his newsboy hat and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Maybe I am just a weapon," he said. "But maybe I can use that to help make the world a better place until I don't need to be anymore."

Karen and Rio stared up at him before looking at each other. Karen slapped her knees and got to her feet. "Well, I certainly don't have an argument."

Rio stared out at the beach again before turning to look at his girlfriend and his sister, both of whom nodded at him supportively. He let out a long breath and got to his feet too. "I guess I don't either," he said. He glanced at the four pods, then down at the blue card in his hand. "Do you think our vehicles can tow those, or do we have to call in the tank?"

Benton considered for a second. "I think we can manage it."

The team spent the next twenty minutes getting everything ready to go, attaching the pods to the backs of their vehicles, and assigning Princess and Yoselin to drive Gordon's. Just before they were about to leave, Benton peeked back in on the destroyed lab to find a full syringe of glowing white liquid and a note where there hadn't been anything before. He flipped the note open to find a simple message.

"In case you needed more." Signed with a rainbow.

Benton smiled a little and pocketed the note and syringe, heading back out to the bay.

"Ready to go?" Karen asked, sitting behind the wheel of her old-timey buggy.

"Yep," Benton said, mounting his motorbike. "Let's do this."

The team started up their vehicles and sped off into the trees at blinding speed.