Read Online Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition by Ian Thomas Healy - Free Book Online

earpiece as comfortably as possible beneath her tight-fitting cowl. Doublecharge showed her how to slip the magnetic plate inside her costume so the throat mic would sit outside it.
    “Once we get your costume up to Just Cause standards, the plate will be incorporated behind the fabric so you won’t have to feel it,” she said. “It’ll probably seem a little strange at first. We’re all tied into the same frequency so you can hear everyone and we can all hear you, including Ace.”
    “Assuming the network interference doesn’t knock these out too,” said Forcestar.
    “I’m an optimist,” said Doublecharge.
    “In that case, we’re all doomed,” said Jack under his breath.
    Juice continued, “Forcestar and Doublecharge, stay aerial and provide containment and ranged attacks if required. I will handle any brute physical needs. Jack and Sally, stay on the periphery and provide additional intelligence and support as needed.”
    Sally nodded as she tried to take it all in. She felt like her body was stuck in thick, hot glue while her mind raced in circles.
    “First priority is to contain any damage and protect any civilians threatened. Second priority is to remove the individual to a safe and secure location by whatever means necessary and to determine if the individual is in fact responsible for the power failure. Third priority is to secure the area and to ensure no additional threats remain. Finally, we provide whatever assistance we can to bring power back online.” Juice ticked off each point on his fingers.
    “ Two minutes to Medicine Bow, ” said Ace over the cabin speaker. “ No sign of the contact yet .”
    “Stand by,” said Juice. “Stacey, charge me up.”
    Doublecharge placed a hand crackling with electricity on Juice’s arm. He absorbed the power to fuel his strength and toughness. When he nodded at last, she stopped. The air inside the cabin smelled of ozone. Juice didn’t seem any different except for frequent pops of static electricity as the charge he’d absorbed slowly bled off. He would be powered up for about fifteen minutes before he would need to be topped off once more.
    “Stacey, Eric, get to the lock.”
    Doublecharge and Forcestar moved to the rear of the cabin and through a double-hinged door into a small chamber beyond.
    Jack swung the door shut and dogged it tight. “It’s an airlock,” he said to Sally. “It lets the fliers deploy without landing the plane.”
    “ One minute, ” said Ace. “ I have visual confirmation of the target. Humanoid, estimated height ten meters, radiating energy of some sort. ”
    “Bring us around to port. Give me one complete circle so I can see it. Stand by on the lock.”
    “ Trust me, sir, you can’t miss it .” Ace banked the Bettie hard on her right wing. Juice, Jack and Sally all pressed their faces against the windows to see. The figure was pudgy and devoid of details, like an unfinished clay model of a person. It glowed a bright yellow-green. Purple-white energy bands arced across its surface. A shapeless dark mass lurked at the center of the torso. The figure lurched through a stand of snow-covered trees, which exploded in clouds of steam from vaporized snow.
    “What is it?” Sally asked. “Is it a person?”
    Juice said, “It’s humanoid, at least. We’ll figure out details as we go. Right now it’s a threat and we have to treat it as such. Ace, open the lock, then bring us down.”
    Sally heard a thump from the rear of the plane. A moment later, Doublecharge and Forcestar cruised past the windows, she with electricity crackling around her and he surrounded by a blue energy nimbus.
    The Bettie ’s engines howled as Ace brought her down to hover at zero altitude. The bomb bay doors folded open, aligned to protect the heroes from the blast of the angled jet nozzles. “Go,” said Juice, and the heroes jumped to the steaming ground. Juice led Jack and Sally past the front of the plane. “Ace, get clear.” The pilot