The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet by Matthew Phillion Page A

worst I
would've been a statistic. In some weird way, everything I went through at the
hands of those people made me better than I ever could have been."
          "You don't have to help us if
you're afraid," Jane said.
          Valerie stood up, spinning on one
foot, playing in the rain she'd made fall from the sky. It gleamed on her bare
shoulders.
          "This is what we were all
made for, Jane," she said. "We're like little gods. The weather
elemental, the goddess of the sun. And we're here to keep our tiny world safe
from harm. This is what those terrible people gave me, and this is what you and
your friends have taught me."
          Jane watched her dancing, barefoot
in the park grass, her lonely friend, this elemental being with no home. She
remembered how they almost had to kill her, to put her down to save thousands
of lives. And here she was, a being with the power of a hurricane, dancing in
the rain and prepared to go to war beside them.
          "How will I know when you
need me?" Val asked.
          Again, Jane looked to the sky. She
could feel the rain soaking her knit cap.
          "We won't have to tell you,"
Jane said. "Everyone will know when it happens."
         

 
    Chapter
8:
    Up,
up, and away
         
         
    Billy stood on the landing platform of
the section the Indestrucibles thought of as the "docking bay" and
entrance for the Tower, an open area littered with hoverbikes, technology and
hardware none of them really understood, and the clutter where Kate spent time
tinkering and personalizing her own equipment. He was alone, except, of course,
for Dude, and stared up into the growing darkness of the evening sky.
          "I have absolutely no concept
how big space is," Billy said.
          No one really does, Dude
said.
          "Have you ever been to the
edge of it? Does it end somewhere?"
          Rumor has it there's an end
point somewhere, but I don't know anyone who's laid eyes on it, Dude said. And
I've known beings who have ranged very far.
          "Not like we're going that
far, are we?" Billy said.
          I fear we're not even leaving your
solar system.
          "What do you mean, fear?"
          If we don't leave your solar
system, it means the Nemesis is very, very close, Dude said.
          "Great."
          Billy walked up to the very
outskirts of the landing platform, looked down at the City below, something
that used to give him vertigo. Sure, just when I get used to flying, we go into
space. New vertigo. Vertigo 2.0.
          "So let's break down the
ground rules here. You give me the ability to breathe in space."
          Not exactly.  
          "Not exactly?" Billy
said, his voice cracking.
          Not exactly. I remove the need for
you to breathe in space. The shielding I generate also provides you with enough
of the necessary airborne elements you need to maintain respiratory function.
          "I have no idea what you just
said," Billy said.
          I give you the ability to
breathe in space, Dude said, resigned.
          "And all the other stuff that
happens in movies. My head won't blow up? I won't freeze to death in three
seconds?"
          Dude sighed in Billy's head, which
always meant he was at his wit's end.
          Imagine that, being connected to
me, you have as part of your actual body the best spacesuit ever invented.
Personalized to your biological needs. This is what I do for my host. I grant
the same ability to live in the vacuum of space I myself have.
          "Great. Next question: What
happens if someone hits us with a null gun and we separate?"
          You probably die, Dude
said.
          "Dude!"
          Would you rather I lie to you?
          "Yes," Billy said. "Yes,
in fact, I would prefer you lie to me about stuff like that."
          In that case, don't worry about
anything if we get hit with a null gun. You'll be dead before the