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

coming. Public safety. Emergency management. Disaster teams. And then
do it in your voice," he said. "Because people will listen to you. We'll
catch up, but it's going to need to come from you."
          "From us?" Jane said. "The
team?"
          Broadstreet laughed.
          "No. From you. I know you don't
like to admit it, but you're the one we trust, Solar," he said. "If
the worst happens, we're not gonna want to hear it from a werewolf, or a sociopath
in some mask, or from a kid who glows, or a blue-haired teenager who talks way
too much. People are going to look to a full-fledged hero when something
catastrophic occurs, and congratulations, kid—that means you."
          "You know how I said I worry
about everything and you said I shouldn't?" Jane said.
          "I just made it a lot worse,
didn't I?" Broadstreet said.
          "Yep."
          "Sorry," he said.
          And together, they watched the
river drift by in silent reflection and concern of things far beyond their
control.
         

 
     
     
    Chapter
11:
    A
bit of Bedlam
         
         
    Kate and Titus stepped out onto the roof
of a tall, aging apartment building on the edge of the City, the sort of place
young professionals cram themselves into right after college graduation. Too
grungy to be suburban, too far from the action of the downtown to be high-end,
the type of complex ordinary people rent because they have nowhere else to go.
Kate still kept a space like this on the other side of town, a bolt hole for
when she needed to get away from the team, little more than a bed and a closet
full of old clothes. Something that was hers and no one else's.
          Today, though, they were here on
team business, to meet someone who was the furthest thing from the ordinary residents
one might find walking around the City. Bedlam, the cyborg who they'd rescued
from the Children of the Elder Star long ago, had agreed to meet them here, far
from the bustle of the city. She insisted on a rooftop rendezvous because she
wanted to see the sky.
          Kate gazed at Bedlam and
understood why she preferred locations like this. There were very few places
someone like Bedlam could stand under an open sky and not draw attention to
herself. Her appearance had changed somewhat since their last meeting—she'd
helped Kate and Titus spring the rest of the Indestructibles from the Labyrinth
prison months before—and she'd been clearly upgrading her cybernetics.
          Still, she was a strange sight to
behold. Both legs cybernetic replacements from the knee down, powerful
machinery that had been slightly streamlined from before, appearing less
blatantly robotic from a distance. Bedlam wasn't embarrassed about them,
though. She stood waiting for them in a short black skirt, as if daring the
world to stare at her mechanical legs.
          An entire arm was cybernetic from
the shoulder down. At one time clunky and almost unfinished in appearance, with
hydraulic parts visible and uncovered, it had since been rebuilt to more
closely resemble human musculature, though it still gleamed silver and black, and
motors became audible when she moved. Her other arm was robotic below the
elbow, but that piece had always been the most elegantly crafted, smooth and
silver and nearly human to look at.
          When she smiled at the Kate and
Titus, the Dancer found herself, as always, taken aback more by the cyborg's
face than by her limbs. Her left eye and the area around it had been replaced
by cybernetics, running smoothly down her cheek, with her jaw reinforced with
metallic parts as well. The transformative work performed on her made it
completely impossible for Bedlam to pass for fully human in public. She didn't
do much to improve that, either—not only did she proudly keep her legs bare,
she wore a tank top with the British flag emblazoned on it, leaving both arms
completely visible. Her neon mohawk was gone, but she still shaved her hair