Chapter Twenty Four

Hero's Call: Chapter Twenty Four

A cold air was blowing in off of Lake Erie and cutting through the streets of Cleveland like a razor blade. As November slowly faded into history, it took the last vestiges of mild autumn weather with it. A thick bank of dreary gray clouds hung over the city like a sheet of sullied cotton. Although it didn’t often snow that early in the year, the cloud cover seemed to be threatening just that. Most of Cleveland’s citizens flagrantly called the bluff of Mother Nature and moved about the sidewalks as if the clouds weren’t even there. She would bide her time, waiting to strike until the moment was absolutely perfect. Revenge would be sweet.

Brooke Radcliff pulled her mini-van onto Public Square from Ontario Street. Milo was seated in the passenger with Bill and Calliope in the middle bench seat. For being a Saturday, there was very little traffic which Brooke couldn’t help but be thankful for. Driving in the city made her a nervous wreck. Add a little heavy traffic and she could barely function. She didn’t make a habit of going to the city for that very reason. Once a month, though, she would drive the hour and a half to make drop off a donation of clothes or canned goods at the Old Stone Church. It was her way of giving back to those less fortunate. She liked to make a day of it for Milo and his friends, usually taking them to lunch and then the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the Great Lakes Science Center after dropping off her donation.

She pulled the beige mini-van into an empty parking space that was nearly on the next block over from the Old Stone Church and killed the engine.

“This won’t take long kids,” she told her passengers. “You can come with me if you’d like or you can wait here.”

The three teenagers looked at each other briefly and Milo turned to his mother.

“We’ll wait here,” he told her.

She nodded and swung open the car door after making sure there were no cars coming. She walked around to the back of the van and opened the back hatch. A large cardboard box filled with clothes no one in her family would wear anymore either because Milo had already grown out of them or they were drastically out of date. Just before she shut the door and leave Milo and his friends alone, four police cars with sirens blaring came tearing around the corner of West Roadway onto Public Square. They zipped past the mini-van and came screeching to a halt a block and half away in front Society Center. Brooke, Milo, and his friends watched in awe as the officers climbed out of their vehicles and sheltered themselves on the opposite side of the car from the skyscraper, guns drawn.

Brooke looked at the scene with concern knitting her brow. “Do not get out of the car,” she said sternly, looking directly at Milo. “I’ll be back shortly.”

She shut the back door of the mini-van and quickly made her way back down the sidewalk toward Old Stone Church. It wasn’t until she disappeared inside the church that any of them spoke.

“Don’t even think about it, Milo,” Cali said flatly.

“What?” he asked as if he didn’t know what she was referring to.

“Your mom said stay here,” she retorted. “We’re staying here.”

“I wasn’t…” he began, but stopped at the look on his friend’s face. “Okay, fine. I was just going to get a closer look at what was going on. We’ll just head down, see what’s up, and head back. No harm done.”

“I don’t know, Milo,” Bill cut in. “It looks pretty serious. Maybe we should just stay where we are.”

Milo turned around in his seat and faced front. “Fine. You guys are no fun.”

He reached over and rolled his window down a crack if for no other reason than to have something to do. He quickly rolled it up and then back down again. He kept rolling the window up and down slightly for a moment without even thinking about it and how it might irritate the two people in the backseat. He’d never admit it, but Milo was pouting just a little bit. He never liked it when both of his friends sided against on something. It just never particularly seemed fair. What harm could there be in checking out what was going on? They’d stay at a safe distance. What could possibly be dangerous about doing something like that?

“Can you believe what’s going on?” a voice said outside the car. Milo stopped fiddling with the window, leaving it open just a crack so he could hear.

“I know,” another voice said. “Do you want to go watch?”

A couple was walking by on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of Society Center. The woman’s arm was linked with the man’s as the moved away from the scene behind them.

“You want to watch?” the woman asked. “It’s a hostage situation. Why would you want to watch something like that?”

Milo could see the man shrug but they had moved to far away for any of them to hear his answer. It wouldn’t have matter much anyway, as Milo had stopped listening. His mind was far away. A hostage situation. Milo had been near one or two other crises before, but he’d never felt like this. When that had happened, he was detached, nothing more than a curious on-looker. But now he felt different. Much, much different. His mind was focused on the people inside the skyscraper not more than two blocks away. He could almost see them, could almost hear their hearts beating. They were scared, he knew they were. Milo had no idea if all or any of them would make it out of their situation alive. What’s worse, he knew that was the exact thought going through their heads at the moment. It was too much to bear. He would do something. He had to do something. It was his duty.

“Cali,” he said softly.

“Okay, Milo,” she answered him before he could say more.

Milo turned in his seat and looked at her. Their eyes met and he knew in an instant that she felt the same way as he did. They’d do what they could together.

“Bill,” he said, turning to his other friend, “watch the car.”

Bill looked back at him in shock. “What? What are you going to do?”

“Whatever we have to,” answered Milo. “If my mom comes back before we do, tell her we ran into somewhere to use the bathroom.”

“Milo,” Bill pleaded, “I know you’re active, but you’ve hardly been trained. This is a hostage situation. It’s serious. Someone could get killed. Let the police handle it. It’s what they’re there for.”

Bill had never been one to try to be the voice of reason, especially when Calliope was involved, because he didn’t need to be. As such, his words fell on deaf ears. Milo threw open the passenger door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. Bill opened the sliding door of the van to try and protest, but Cali simply climbed past him and stepped out of the van next to Milo.

“Just stay here, Bill,” Milo said sternly. “We’ll back as quick as we can.”

Milo slid the door shut before Bill could say anything more. He watched his two friends trot at a brisk pace toward Society Center and the hostage situation that he was sure was escalating every minute.

 

“So how do you suggest we get inside the building?” Cali asked Milo. “I’m sure the police have every exit covered.”

They had come to a stop in front of Old Stone Church, eyeing the spectacle of news vans, police cars, and spectators as they all clamored to see what was going on inside the skyscraper.

“There’s an alley between Society Center and the building next to it,” he told her. “It’s blocked off by an iron fence so the cops won’t be watching it. It’s not a logical escape route. The problem is that the police perimeter stretches out past the alley. We won’t be able slip into the alley undetected from the ground. We’ll have to find another way in.”

“Well what do you want to do,” demanded Cali, “drop in from the sky?”

Milo knew it had been a joke, but it had given him an idea. He looked up into the sky and then around him furtively.

“Over here,” he said, and ran toward a nearby alley next to Old Stone Church without making sure that Calliope was actually following him. Milo quickly hopped the wrought iron gate that blocked off the alley. He apparently no longer cared that there were other people on the sidewalk that could see what he was doing. Cali hopped the gate after him.

“Are you trying to draw attention to us?” Cali hissed when her feet hit the cement.

“Look around, Cali,” said Milo shrugging. “Everyone is watching the bedlam. I could have pulled the wallet out of someone’s pocket and they wouldn’t even notice.”

Calliope looked back over her shoulder and noticed that Milo was right. Everyone on the sidewalk was now standing completely still, their gaze turned toward Society Center and the scene that was playing out in front of them. Not a single person seemed to have noticed that they sneaking onto private property. Milo led them further into the alley until he was sure they were out of eyesight, and then stopped, turning to Cali.

“What are we doing?” she asked him in confusion. “This is the wrong alley.”

“Thank you, captain obvious,” Milo joked. “There has to be an entrance on the roof. It’s the perfect entry point.”

“How is going into the church through the roof going to help us?” asked Cali.

Milo looked at her blankly. “For being the smart one, you sure are slow on the uptake.”

There was a moment of silence while Milo let Calliope think about what he had said. It took longer than he would have liked, but he cut her some slack as his idea was a little insane so her mind probably didn’t jump directly to it like his had. Finally, a look of comprehension crossed Cali’s face.

“Are you out of your mind?” she asked, incredulous.

Milo pretended to think about the question. “I don’t…think so.”

“No way,” she denied him. “What if I drop you? You’ll die.”

“So don’t drop me,” suggested Milo. “You know we have to do this, Cali. Unless you know some magical secret entrance to the building, it’s the only way we can get inside without being detected.”

Calliope thought about her friend’s words for a moment. There really was no way around it.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Don’t squirm.”

Milo smiled slyly. “Up, up and away, huh, Cali?”

“Shut up.”

Milo held his arms straight out away from his body. Cali closed her eyes and concentrated on leaving the ground. Seconds later, she was hovering three inches above the cement. She hooked her arms under Milo’s and lifted them both into the air. It was the first time she’d ever tried to carry someone when flying, so the ascent was a little bumpy as she adjusted to Milo’s extra weight. Moments after leaving the ground, Cali and Milo were rising above the roof of Old Stone Church and into the open Cleveland air. When she decided that they were high enough to clear the church roof, Cali steered them toward Society Center, gaining altitude as she went.

Milo looked down to see the ground getting further and further away from him. “You know,” he commented, “I think I’m going to just go ahead and keep my eyes closed until we get to the top, if you don’t mind.”

“It’s probably better if you don’t talk,” Cali agreed. “Kind of messes with my concentration.”

Milo got the hint. Keep talking and you’re probably taking the express open-air elevator to the ground floor. He closed his eyes and put his trust in one of his oldest friends in the world. With his eyes closed, the sensation of hanging motionless in the air was actually quite liberating. He felt completely free despite the fact that his movement was in no way under his control. He felt a momentary pang of jealousy that Cali could experience the sensation whenever she wanted.

“I’m setting down,” she yelled out over the rushing wind.

Milo couldn’t help but notice how short the trip had been. Not more than a minute or two could have passed since they had lifted off from the other side of the street. Milo felt his feet set down on solid ground and the support of Cali’s arms under his disappear. He dropped his arms to his side and opened his eyes. He expected to see a nice wide platform with a maintenance entrance they could enter through. Instead, he found himself on a ledge just large enough for he and Cali stand on. The only thing in front of them was the side of the building and the windows that looked onto a massive office.

“I didn’t see any doors,” Cali said in explanation. “I figured we could just break a window.”

Milo stepped up to one of the windows and cupped his hands around his eyes so he could see inside better. The office inside could have fit several cars inside comfortably. There was an intricately carved desk just on the other side of the window. A balding man was sitting at the desk going over paperwork. He apparently had no idea what was going on in the lobby of his building. Daniel knocked on the window loudly, causing the man to practically leap out of his chair and stumble across the desk. He wheeled around to the window, a look of terror on his face.

“Is there an entrance around here somewhere,” Milo shouted, but the man just shook his head. He didn’t understand. Milo turned to Cali. “The windows are probably shatterproof this high up. Think you can break them?”

Cali shrugged. “I can try.”

Milo stepped away from the window as Cali stepped up to it and squared off. She looked at the man inside who was still trying to work out how two teenagers had gotten outside his window on the 57^th floor and motioned for him to move out of the way. The man obliged her happily, scrambling away from the window and into a corner of the room. Cali pulled a fist back and put all the power she could muster into the swing. With muted crunch, the window exploded inward. The air outside the window was sucked into office. Cali, caught off guard by the reaction, was pulled into the office with the wind. She slammed onto the top of the desk and bounced to the opposite side. When she stood, Milo was gingerly stepping through the now shattered window.

“Good work,” he told her. He turned to the man cowering in the corner. “Which way to the elevator?” The man took one hand off the top of his head and point toward the door to the office. “Thanks.”

Milo started toward the door, but Cali stopped him.

“Wait,” she said quietly. Milo turned back to her. “Shouldn’t we cover our face or something? You know, secret identities or something.”

Milo thought for a moment. “Good point,” he said, walking over to the man in the corner. “Hey, man. Do you happen to have any masks or anything? Something we can cover our faces with?”

“Milo, he’s not going to �"” Cali started, but stopped short when she saw the man point to his desk. Intrigued, she stepped around the desk and began rifling through the drawers. The bottom drawer of the desk was filled with masquerade masks. Cali lifted one out and inspected it. It was a decorated with peacock feather and big enough to cover the entire top half of her face.

“Holy crap,” Milo said crassly. “I didn’t think he’d actually have anything. I was just asking as a joke.”

He bent down and pulled out a mask himself. It was covered with nothing but a deep green velvet. Seems fitting he thought, and slid the mask on. It covered the area around his eyes perfectly. He looked at Cali who had put on the peacock mask. It was a little garish for the occasion, but there weren’t much better options.

“Should we be worried about why these are in here?” he mused.

Calliope shook her head. “I don’t want to know.”

“Fair enough,” agreed Milo. “Let’s get downstairs.”

 

The leader of the small contingent of soldiers that had entered the lobby of Society Center and taken the entire building hostage with a bomb big enough to level the entire block was not having a great day. The police had the building surrounded. There were a dozen or some people cowering in fear of him and his men in the lobby. The detonator to the explosive device purchased on the black market was resting safely in the inside pocket of tailor made suit jacket. That was all according to plan, and had nothing to do with why he was having a bad day. No, he was having a bad day because, while everything was going according to plan, the breakfast he had picked up from the gas station was quickly turning on him. That was the last thing on earth he needed in the middle of a crisis situation.

“Everything okay, boss,” one of the nearby soldiers asked, seeing the discomfort on the leader’s face.

The leader gritted his teeth. “Fine. Everything is fine,” he choked out, fighting back vomit.

Everything was fine. All he had to do was keep repeating that, and he’d be able to keep himself together until the mission was over. Everything had gone smoothly. They had cut the lines of communication off from the tower. No calls or emails could go in or out. The only working phone in the entire fifty-seven story building was in the back right pocket of his perfectly pressed pants that matched his jacket perfectly. His men were in full tactical gear, as they were required to be for every mission. The only protection he was wearing was a bulletproof vest over a designer dress shirt. There was no reason he couldn’t look good even on a mission.

The satellite phone in his back pocket trilled out the ring of an incoming call. The leader fished the phone from him pocket and answered it.

“Have my demands been met?” he said into the phone, knowing exactly who was calling. Only one person currently had the number.

“We need just a little more time,” the hostage negotiator said. “They’re fueling the plane as we speak. It’s just going to take some time.”

The leader of the soldiers smirked. “I believe I said do not call me back until my demands are met and the plane is ready for takeoff. That’s a penalty stroke.” He marched across the lobby to where a young woman was crouched and yanked her to her feet by the hair on the back of her head. She shrieked in fear as the leader marched her to the center of the lobby where everyone inside and outside the building could clearly see them. He forced her to her knees in front of him and pulled his pistol from its holster.

“Don’t do it,” the hostage negotiator pleaded through the phone. “I can get you what you want, but you cannot harm any hostages. Just don’t do anything rash.”

“Correction,” the leader stated into the phone, “You’ll get me what I want or I will start harming hostages. Starting with this one.” He leveled the pistol with the back of the young woman’s head and pressed the barrel to the back of her head. “You have thirty seconds to tell me that my demands have been met and the plane is ready for takeoff or she dies. And do not lie to me or she dies. Thirty…twenty-nine…”

“Please,” the hostage negotiator begged. “Just give us fifteen more minutes.”

“Twenty-eight…twenty-seven…twenty-six…”

“What you’re asking is impossible,” said the negotiator. “Be reasonable.”

“Twenty-five…twenty-four…twenty-three…”

“Our sharpshooters have a clear shot,” the negotiator yelled. “All I have to do is give the word.”

“If they take that shot,” the leader reasoned, “then one of my men will shoot this woman anyway, and another will detonate the explosive device behind me, and we’ll all be heading to hell today. Twenty-two…twenty-one…twenty…”

That was when something unexpected happen. Before the leader could count off another second of his death clock, a sharp ping cut through the near silent lobby. In the instant that followed, time stood still. The leader, his men, even some of the hostages turned to the bank of elevators. It was impossible. The elevators had been disabled when the communications were cut off from the building. All of the elevators except one, the leader thought. The office on the top floor had a dedicated elevator that worked by key card only which was in the possession of the man who owned the office. The man would have to be completely mad to come down into the lobby in the middle of operation that he, himself had planned and hired the leader and his team for. He’d been given explicit instructions to stay up stairs until they had gotten clear of the building.

One of the soldiers moved to the elevator and leveled his gun at the door. The leader made a mental note to give the man a raise for thinking so quickly on his feet. Treat the man as a hostile or hostage. That would take the heat off of him even further. He couldn’t have planned it better himself. The elevator doors slid open after a moment that seemed like an eternity. The soldier went slack, a clear look of confusion plastered on his face.

“Hello,” a voice said merrily, and then the elevator exploded with a blinding green light.

 

“Holy crap,” Milo roared with excitement. “Did you see that?”

The soldier had been thrown back so hard by Milo’s concussive blast that he had left a sizeable dent in the elevator doors opposite them. He slid to the floor unconscious and limp.

Cali was about to admonish Milo for not taking the situation seriously when the exit of the elevator exploded in a barrage of automatic weapon fire. On pure instinct, Cali knocked Milo back into the corner and threw herself over him. She felt a bullet or two ricochet off the metal doors of the elevator and make contact with her skin. She was surprised to find that it felt little different than a bee sting. Finally the bullets stopped and Milo and Calliope could hear the empty clack of metal on the marble floors as the soldiers began reloading.

“My turn,” Cali said, standing up. She grabbed onto the hand rail that surrounded the elevator car and used it to bear her weight as she crouched herself against the wall. A second later, Cali shot out of the elevator car in a blur and banked hard to the right. The brief cry of a man’s voice before the unmistakable thud was all Milo had to hear to know that Cali had found her first target.

“Now or never,” Daniel said to himself. He threw caution to the wind and slid out of the elevator on his knees facing the same direction Calliope had flown. It only took him a split second to find a target of his own and unleash an optic blast. The soldier took the brunt of the blast and went skittering across the marble floor like a rubber ball on its last few bounces.

Milo looked up to find Cali high above the crowd of hostages and soldiers. She was framed perfectly against the glass of the entryway. There, in that moment, Milo knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Cali was a Hero through and through. Seconds later the remaining soldier wheeled their guns up at Cali and opened fire. They weren’t fast enough, as she dove for the ground, the bullets zipping past her and out the windows behind. She scooped up a nearby soldier and hurled him into another across the room. Both men were sent flying over a red sofa which subsequently landed on top of the prostrate forms.

“You going to join in on the fun?” Cali called out to Milo.

He answered by releasing an optic blast at the shins of a soldier near the entrance of the building. The concussive blast kicked the soldier’s legs out behind him hard and he crashed face first into the marble floor. The man remained there like a sack of potatoes, lifeless and lumpy. There were six guards left in full tactical gear and one man in a tailored suit with a bulletproof jacket, which Milo had to assume was the leader.

They had gotten the drop on men holding the building hostage, and it let them get a nice start on dwindling their numbers. They were trained soldiers, though, and the element of surprise didn’t last long. The leader started shouting orders to his men and the tide changed quickly. Three of the soldiers turned their guns on Milo while the rest focused on Cali. Milo scrambled for cover behind the reception desk as bullets whizzed past his head so close he could feel the wind buffeting his hair.

“A little hand here,” he shouted to the room, hoping Cali could hear him over the cacophony of automatic weapon fire. When the fire didn’t stop, Milo knew he was on his own. Cali was sure to have her hands full with the soldiers that were focused on taking her out. There was a brief pause in the fire in which Milo thought the soldiers were moving to reload. He lurched to his feet ready to take advantage of the reload time, but found that the soldiers were no longer focused on him, nor on Cali.

“Someone asked for a hand?” a new voice said. The whole lobby stood in silence as they drew their gaze down past the elevator banks. A young man was standing alone as if he belonged in a firefight unarmed and out in the open.

A moment of terror seized Milo as his eyes settled on Bill and then moved to the soldiers who were training their guns on the newcomer.

“No!” shouted Milo. An optic blast came unbidden, his instinct making the decision for him. The beam was big enough to send all three soldiers that were trying to kill Milo only moments before soaring across the lobby into a marble pillar, dust and rubble crashing down on them as they fell.

“Nice shot, Milo,” Bill called out, and began walking toward his friend.

“Bill, what in the hell are you doing here?” Milo demanded. “I told you to stay in the car.”

“I can help you guys,” he argued and motioned to the unconscious guards that Milo had just put down. “See?”

“Okay,” the leader of the soldiers interjected. “Play time’s over boys.”

Time ground to a halt as both Bill and Milo turned to the man as he leveled his pistol at Milo’s heart.

“Get down,” Bill shouted, but Milo barely heard him. He saw the man pull the hammer back on the gun and squeeze the trigger. Fire burst from the end of the barrel and Milo could almost see the bullet’s path as it tore through the air toward his chest. This is it, he thought, I’m going to die before I even had a chance to begin. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

But the impact that came wasn’t anything like what he thought a gunshot would feel like. It was much broader and sent tremors of pain across his entire body. Instead of being thrown back like he should have been, Milo toppled to the ground sideways, and hit the ground with something heavy on top of him. In an instant he realized what had happened and panic took him. Bill, he thought wildly, oh God, not Bill. He doesn’t have powers. He’s not active. Not Bill.

The weight was lifted from his body and Milo propped himself up on his elbows to see if the unthinkable had truly happened. Instead of finding his old friend Bill the same way he had left him in the car although with the possible addition of a bullet wound, Milo was looking at a robot in Bill’s clothes; it even had Bill’s hair and kind of looked like him too. Milo shook his daze off and realized that he wasn’t looking at a robot or cyborg. He was looking at Bill, his best friend. His normal, somewhat pale skin had been replaced with a shiny metal that glinted in what little sunlight shone through the windows.

The new change had also come as a shock to Bill. He stood in place looking at himself in complete awe. He wiggled his fingers and shook his feet as if trying to confirm that it was still really him and he hadn’t been taken over by some evil robot bent on the destruction and replacement of the human race.

“Sweet Jesus,” Milo whispered.

Bill looked down at Milo and shook his head in agreement. At the moment, it was all he could think to do.

“Are you guys just going to stand there and gawk at each other all day,” Cali’s voice rang through the lobby, “or would you like to help me finish this thing up?”

Bill pulled Milo to his feet and they both turned to Cali. The lobby had been completely destroyed. It didn’t appear that there was a single surface that hadn’t been riddle with bullets. All of the soldiers were now incapacitated and Calliope was floating with the leader of the group in one hand just high enough off the ground so he couldn’t get his footing. She had a hold of him by the back of his suit jacket and he hung limply like a defeated kitten being carried away by its mother for a bath.

“Now,” Milo said mockingly, pointing to the bomb that had somehow escaped the carnage of the battle, “How do we shut this thing off?”

“It can’t be shut off,” the leader spat. “I alone have the detonator that controls the device. You may have defeated my men, but I will happily take you all down with me.”

He reached for the detonator with one hand, but the motion caused him to slip out of his jacket halfway. Still determined to kill the lot of them, he bent his other arm to remain in the air and near the detonator.

“Milo,” Cali said, dangling the man like a dead yo-yo, “hay bales.”

Milo smiled with wicked delight as Cali spun the man around and hurled him into the air away from her. His momentum tore the sleeve off the jacket but Cali kept her grip on the rest. Just as the leader of the soldier’s reached the apex of his arc, Milo release a short burst from his eyes and the man went crashing through the windows in the front of the building and landed like a bag of flour on the soft, fertile grass across the street. Even the officers outside turned to watch him crash to the earth.

They’d done it. They’d stopped their first criminal.

“Holy crap, man,” Milo said to Bill, hugging him in his excitement. “You activated. And you have freaking cool powers. How did you even get in here?”

Bill shrugged. “Found a way in through the sewers when I saw you guys flying over.”

“You went into the sewers?” asked Milo, disgusted. “Dude, gross.”

Bill pushed him playfully.

“Well I couldn’t come through the front do �"”

“Guys,” Cali cut in. “We should get out of here. She pointed to the front entrance to show them that the police had recovered from seeing a man fly out of the building and were now flooding towards the entrance.

“Good idea,” Milo agreed. “Bill, show us where that sewer exit is.”

Bill smiled. “With pleasure.”