Dreadnought (Nemesis, #1)

by April Daniels

But I feel whole. Really, completely whole. Strip away everything: my house, my stuff, my family. Strip away the Legion, and Calamity, and my secret identity. Everything. What’s left? What’s left are the things I can count on. I have my body, my powers, and my freedom. Maybe that will be enough. It will have to be. For the first time in my life, I am completely in charge of myself.

If you asked me what I’m preparing for, why I’m concerned about being spotted, I wouldn’t be able to give you an answer. It just feels like the right thing to do. The smart thing. I’ve got to be smart now, and cautious, all the time. There’s nothing to fall back on anymore.

With a trembling hand, I put my thumb on the one that sets the suit to Dreadnought’s colors, and I push it in until it clicks. The camo pattern swirls and fades away to solid dark blue and clean, glittering white.

“Get everyone to the shelters, and keep trying to get through to the Legion.” I turn and step away to get space to take off. “Tell them Dreadnought wants backup downtown.”

The green one shoots me in the face with an autocannon.

But it flies only in one direction, which is not a problem I can relate to.

These guys need to be as scared and confused as I am, and achieve to that, I need to hit them where it hurts. I need to split them up and hunt them down one at a time.

I take a shaking breath to steady myself long enough to speak. “Yeah, that’s all of them, I think, and now I’m crying for no reason.”

The cop smiles faintly. “That’s the adrenaline. It happens to everyone.” She squeezes the mic on her shoulder and mutters some code words back to the other police officers.

Calamity’s arm drops back down to her side like the gun is suddenly too heavy for her. “Sorry, Danny,” she says in the Sarah voice. She’s lying in a hospital bed, shirt removed but her whole chest wrapped in soft white bandages. Her arm is gone at the shoulder—no stump, no nothing, just gone. A square of gauze is taped over her left eye, and her face hangs slack with weariness. “Thought you were another one of those things. Nice colors.”

“Why would a robot be a nicotine addict?” I look at the ceiling. “Doc, what’s going on?”

“I’m an android. I—oh. Oh, Danny, I’m so sorry. I didn’t…I thought there was more time.” “Doc, what’s going on?”

I was there when she killed the third Dreadnought last month, but the second Dreadnought was killed by a kaiju, not a person. Which means she as much as told me who she is. Not a supervillain, but the supervillain. “Oh, shit.”

lowers the gun, says something in reply, and leaves. “Carapace and Valkyrja are confirmed KIA. Magma probably is, too. Chlorophyll is immune to poison, but likely won’t survive much longer without medical aid. Graywytch is in a protective circle, but if she were able to leave her zone of safety she would have done so by now.” “No.” It’s not true. This is a trick, a lie, some kind of test. It’s not true. It’s not true. “It happened, Danny. The Legion is gone.”

Sarah perks up. “Wait, what kind of reactor is it?” Doc Impossible sounds nonplussed. “Supercritical light water fission, why?” “Then it’s got to have a coolant loop, right? I can’t imagine you could fit even that in the secured zone.”

Danny—” Sarah stops, smiles. “Dreadnought goes in and wrecks Utopia’s day.”

“I ain’t dead yet,” snarls Calamity. “Point me to some explosives, I mean to return a favor.”

“Why does an android need to smoke?” “Addiction.ini,” says Doc Impossible. “What?” “I thought…I thought maybe an addiction would make me more human,” she says. “Like I could be what I wanted to be. Not what she made me. But I was wrong.”

“Dreadnought?” Calamity asks. “Yeah?” “Best of luck.” I smile. The world’s about to end, but somehow she doesn’t seem worried. I don’t know what I’d do without her. “See you on the other side, Calamity.”

“Very good, Danielle,” says Utopia. “You almost made it.” She shoots me again.

I’m not going to die on my first day of freedom. There. That thread is linked to the others around it. I can see the other half of it, see where it tore apart and began to unravel. A strange focus comes over me, and I just…grab them. I grab the threads and I yank them together— —a spurt of blood— —a flash of new pain— —and the snapped thread leaps back together, like magnets.

“It hurts,” I say. “I’m scared.” Two lies, both true.

We’re all going to leave our bodies behind and live in a simulated environment of my own design. Virtual reality of the purest sort, indistinguishable from the physical world except there will be no crime. No hunger. No death.”

“A utopia.” I clench as a particularly nasty spasm takes me, and then relax, gasping and full of cold, spiky aches.

“It’s not ego if you can back it up, dear. In a few minutes, I’m going to be deity, and you will be my first priestess. Even if I have to edit your personality to fit.”

“But tell you what, I’ll fight ya for it.”

The world goes to streaks around me and then she’s stumbling back against the railing, my fist inches deep in her chest, gripped around the glowing azure speck hanging between her lungs. It’s heavier in my hand than I expected. We lock eyes. Utopia’s face twists with the kind of fury that kills people.

I smash her arms. I break her legs. And then… …and then it’s over.

I’ve won. My body begins to unclench, and little jags of pain run through me. Wounds and injuries hurrying to make their report. But I’ve won. The relief is overwhelming. I tap my earbud radio. “All right, Doc. I saved the world. Can I get some food now?”

Valkyrja is dead. So is Carapace. Magma is alive, barely, and eight paramedics strain themselves to heave him up onto a creaking gurney and rush him out of the building. He’ll be flown to Hawaii and dunked in a volcano to recuperate. Doc tells me he’ll be up and about in a month or so. Chlorophyll is alive, too, but brain damaged.

His sister Aloe is on her way to take custody of him, which might get a little interesting when she arrives, what with being a supervillain on parole and everything.

Healing by yanking on the lattice isn’t something I’ll ever do for fun.

I’m Dreadnought now. No takebacks. Might as well get on with it.

I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to see her until she showed up, but now she has, and everything seems brighter. “You did it,” she says. “We did it.” I gesture at the pizza box and mumble around an enormous bite something to the effect that she can have some of she wants. She takes a slice and picks at it.

“I lost my arm, Danny,” says Sarah. Her voice shakes. “What am I going to do without my arm?” “Keep saving the world, I imagine.” Calamity doesn’t cry, and that’s why I look the other way just now. So she can keep saying that, like it was true.

Doc holds up a phone. “Also, your parents have been calling nonstop. Do you wanna talk to them?” Again, I hear the door slamming behind me. Time to slam one right back. “Fuck no.”

Anyhow, have you considered getting a lawyer? Restraining orders can be so embarrassing…”

“My name is Danielle Tozer. I’m Dreadnought.”

“I want people to know that even with the Legion out of action for the time being, they still have someone looking out for them. I’ve lived in New Port all my life, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m transgender, and a lesbian, and I’m not ashamed of that.”

Because I’m Dreadnought. And I think maybe I could be a good person.