Villains' Code | Book 2 | Bones of the Past Read online

  Bones of the Past

  Villains’ Code: Book 2

  Drew Hayes

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Epilogue

  Other Novels by Drew Hayes

  About the Author

  Bones of the Past

  Villains’ Code: Book #2

  Copyright © 2020 by Andrew Hayes

  All Rights Reserved.

  Edited by Erin Cooley ([email protected]) and Kisa Whipkey (http://kisawhipkey.com)

  Cover by A.M. Ruggs

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

  Acknowledgments

  This novel is dedicated to my Star Puncher

  Special thanks to my incredible beta readers for their irreplaceable help, especially on a book as long as this one. Shout-out to Bill Hammond, TheSFReader, E Ramos E, Amanda, and Priscilla Yuen.

  Prologue

  “Would you hurry up already? I’m not missing this because you couldn’t be bothered to leave the lab. Chloe and I will go up to the roof without you.”

  Tori let out a long, exasperated breath and cursed her past self’s naiveté. When she’d been setting up her new lab, tucked away in what was supposed to be three underground personal parking garages (which had undergone serious reconstruction and retrofitting) beneath her apartment building, the idea of an intercom had seemed like a stroke of brilliance. This way, Chloe and Beverly could easily reach her if something important came up without having to run down and potentially alert Tori’s security system. Only after everything was put in place did it occur to her that perhaps she should have put in a function to mute them when the need arose.

  Dropping her tools onto her workbench, Tori walked over to the intercom and held down the formerly white button, stained now with grease and oil from the weeks she’d spent toiling away down in her lair. “I’m almost done. Chill the hell out. It’s not even supposed to start until nine.”

  “That’s an estimate, and you know it. Nobody can be sure exactly when they’ll arrive.”

  Personally, Tori had her doubts about such a statement. While it was true that the local news had been reporting on the impending phenomenon for the last two weeks—ever since someone at the Alliance of Heroic Champions first noticed the anomaly—many people had actually known about it several days prior to the announcement. Doctor Mechaniacal had sent out an email to all the scattered guild members, which self-deleted immediately after being read, cautioning them to the impending threat. Well, perhaps less cautioning, and more telling them to make sure to stay out of whatever it was that went down. There were more than a few Guild of Villainous Reformation members who couldn’t resist a good slugfest, and this sure as hell had the potential to be one. Still, no one—at least no one still with the guild after Balaam’s uprising—was going to disobey a direct order from Doctor Mechaniacal. He’d given the alert, and the arrival time, well before the capes had even admitted to knowing anything was going on. If he said they’d get here at nine, Tori was inclined to believe him.

  “Give me five more minutes. I’m working on something special.” Tori released the button and turned her attention back to her current project. For once, it wasn’t the pieces of a red and black meta-suit splayed out on the giant workstation she’d set up in her first few days here. That was an ongoing project, one that would never truly be completed, though she had managed to finish an overhaul and upgrade along with all the repairs it had needed after the city-wide brawl. No, for now, her attention was on three sets of what had once been welder’s goggles, though they were barely recognizable as such under all the gadgetry and tech Tori had added to them.

  Much as Beverly might complain, she’d see it was a worthwhile use of time when Tori brought the ocular bad boys back to the apartment. These sorts of shows didn’t come along very often, and she wanted to see every last detail. Besides, this project had made for a nice diversion,
something to take her mind off what was coming.

  Exciting as the night’s festivities would be, they had nothing on what was coming over the weekend. Now that was something to be on time for.

  Much as Ivan would have preferred to be with his children, Janet and her husband Juan had taken them out of the city, a decision that Ivan wholeheartedly endorsed. He had ample confidence in the AHC, especially now that Lodestar was once more at her post, but that didn’t mean things still couldn’t go sideways without warning. Better his children be far from the danger, somewhere away from all the chaos and madness of things to come. It had been hard enough to accept his youngest, Beth, acquiring meta-human abilities; the last thing he needed was her brother Rick ending up in the same boat.

  Instead of watching the show at his townhouse—a poor replacement for the suburban home that was still being rebuilt—Ivan had taken advantage of his decades-old friendship with a billionaire and decided to watch from Wade Wyatt’s downtown penthouse. This was partially because Wade always kept high-end food a mere phone call away, but also due to a lingering sense of worry. If something bad did happen, he’d prefer to have his old friend, Doctor Mechaniacal, at his side. Between the two of them, they could easily make the difference in a fight, should the need arise. While it was hardly an ideal situation, especially for a pair of semi-retired supervillains, the fact remained that they lived on this planet just as much as everyone else. A threat to Earth was a threat to their home, and they were not men who took such dangers kindly.

  “Ivan, please calm down. I can see you gripping the armrest of that chair. Any moment now you’ll snap it clean off, and it was made custom for this apartment.” Wade dropped down next to Ivan, staring out one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrapped around his entire penthouse. They, like Wade himself, were deceptive in appearance. Each was fitted with a wide array of technological marvels, allowing them to zoom like a lens, go dark, serve as television screens, withstand a rocket launcher, and probably do all manner of other tricks Ivan had yet to witness.

  As for Wade, he seemed as unworried as usual, relaxing in khakis and a polo, his thinning copper hair unstyled. The gentle smile Wade wore almost hid the brilliance of the mind behind it, that of the genius inventor who had won infamy as Doctor Mechaniacal, the man in the meta-suit that was powerful enough to challenge all but the strongest of capes. That was a long time ago, however. Nowadays, he was merely a billionaire tech mogul who led a secret guild of villains who worked smarter than the common criminal.

  Perhaps things hadn’t changed as much as Ivan thought.

  “Sorry.” Ivan released his grip on the armrest; there were finger indents still visible in the leather. “The timing just has me worried. We’ve kept our heads down for months, and now, suddenly, days before we’re about to put things back in order, this happens. The timing just seems... suspicious.”

  “Come on, Ivan. You’ve been around long enough to know how these things go,” Wade replied. “Where meta-humans are concerned, events and forces tend to pile together. Confluences are the best example, but they’re far from the only one. Hell, it happens to regular people, too. Where do you think the saying ‘when it rains, it pours’ comes from?”

  “I still don’t like it.” Ivan reached over to the table and helped himself to a handful of grilled shrimp. Wade had called up quite a spread for just the two of them. Then again, given how much Ivan had stress-eaten already, he might have gotten the exact right amount of food. That was Wade—brilliant and calculating, down to the last detail. Oddly, that thought made Ivan feel better. If the smartest person he knew wasn’t worried about tonight, then maybe it was okay to relax.

  “What you don’t like is being on the sidelines,” Wade told him. “Tori pulled you back in, and now you’re hankering to throw some punches and make your strength known. Even if you know you aren’t needed, you’d still prefer to be active than to watch from a luxury suite.”

  Much as Ivan wanted to deny that possibility, he couldn’t. Wade was right. He’d gone back into battle, had remembered what it was like to be his full self for the first time in years, and now he was having to shake the craving all over again, like a relapsing addict.

  “There’s nothing to worry about. The AHC is doing a full-court press, a real show of force. After Apollo’s attempted revolt and the ensuing fight with us, they’re all over this sort of PR opportunity.” Wade reached out and helped himself to a crab cake from the pile on a nearby table. “And even if that weren’t true, Lodestar is going to be there. Do I really need to remind you that she’s more than enough to handle nearly any threat? Add in Professor Quantum being back and Quorum getting off the sidelines, and the fight almost seems unfair.”

  Those three, the Champions’ Congress, overseers of the AHC, were indeed a team that was not to be tested. Ivan knew it well; he’d experienced it firsthand. All the same, he’d feel much better when this evening was said and done.

  Until then, he tried to force himself to relax and focus on the food.

  “—and that about wraps things up!”

  Though he groaned inwardly, Cyber Geek merely smiled for the cameras as Hat Trick posed next to the would-be muggers, bound now in the multicolored scarves she’d summoned from her sleeves. Hat Trick—Lucy, when she was out of costume—was kind, dedicated, brave, and trustworthy. Cyber Geek—Donald, when he didn’t have to dress up like the superhero he still sometimes felt he wasn’t—valued her as a teammate and liked her as a friend. However, she was an adamant fan of putting puns in her banter, and no amount of gentle coaching or careful suggestion would deter her from making those quips.

  At least there weren’t many reporters out tonight. They, like most of Ridge City, were busy covering the much-bigger news: eyes to the sky, waiting with bated breath to see how things played out. For his part, Donald would have loved to be watching things unfold with the rest of the citizens. But he wasn’t a citizen. He was Cyber Geek, superhero of the Alliance of Heroic Champions, and that meant there was work to be done.

  With all the big names and powerful capes occupied by the impending event, it had fallen to the newer recruits to make sure the streets stayed safe tonight. More than a few crooks had gotten the idea to take advantage of the distraction and pull off some capers. Already Cyber Geek and Hat Trick had foiled three muggings, two robberies, and a drunken man trying to make love to a post box. Medley and Cold Shoulder, the other two members of their team also known as Ren and Irene when out of costume, were a few blocks over, busting up a bar brawl. That wouldn’t take long; one look at Medley and everyone sober enough to process fear would stop short. A living chimera composed of over a half dozen animals, including a tiger-like head, scales, fur, claws, and a sharp tail, Medley was a walking reminder that natural human defenses weren’t at the top of the food chain. Cold Shoulder, with her ice powers, was equally dangerous, though she didn’t look it. Cyber Geek pitied the poor bastard who tried to take a swing at her; Cold Shoulder was a big fan of shock and awe.

  Originally, they’d planned to work the night as a team, but the need for capes had forced them to split off and spread themselves thin. Cyber Geek was shocked at how much crime there was; he’d lived in Ridge City all his life and had thought of it as one of the safest towns in existence. Maybe it was the excitement—or the fear—about what was coming. Maybe the whispers he’d heard in the AHC halls were true, and that guild they’d fought had kept the low-level crooks too scared to cause much trouble. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter; not tonight. What counted was keeping people safe, just like the stronger capes would be doing in the sky.

  Still, it was a pity. If he’d been given the choice, been allowed to exist as Donald rather than Cyber Geek for the evening, he might have tried to watch things unfold with Tori. They hadn’t gotten to talk much over the last few weeks, with Donald getting more responsibility from the AHC and Tori being promoted out of her intern-level work. Keeping connections with normal people was more difficult than he’
d expected, but he wanted to keep trying all the same. Important as Cyber Geek was, he couldn’t let Donald fade away completely.

  Static buzzed in his ear communicators as new orders came in. Someone was trying to break into an antiques store ten blocks away. Hat Trick nodded—she’d heard the same thing he had—and, with a quick throw of her arm, sent another multicolored scarf shooting out from her sleeve. The fabric wrapped itself around a nearby building’s ledge and just like that, she was off, swinging through the air. There were plenty of people who’d have thought finding an enchanted starter magician’s kit made for a lame power, but Hat Trick had managed to prove she could be just as useful as someone like Medley, even if she lacked the brute force.