Reagan guides Tim through an enormous hall, one of many, until they reach a metal door with a touchpad panel by it. She puts in a passcode, places her thumb on it, lets it scan her face, and then it opens, revealing more doors that lead to sets of staircases and an elevator.

  “How come no tech people are ever worried about earthquakes in California?” Tim says as they enter the elevator.

  “Because we have the technology to make it nigh a non issue. Invented by Becca obviously,” Raegan swoons. “We’re implementing it into the whole city, every city, just in case.”

  “Like the secret police state stuff?” Tim raises an eyebrow.

  As much as he likes Raegan, the Orwell stuff still rubs him the wrong way.

  “Did you know we had to underbid on that to get the contract?” She asks.

  “Lance might’ve told me that but I don’t remember to be honest.”

  She nods, “It was going to happen no matter what, legally too. Politicians do love sneaking things into bills after all. Believe me Tim, it wasn’t a contract we wanted, but we knew the safest hands are our own.”

  “I doubt the government never uses it for nefarious ends.”

  “They definitely do, but it’d be worse if one of the other companies built it. It’d either have… subpar security, or, be abused. The only other company that could provide the quality we do, is the Williams, and as great a family as they are... Well, they can be a bit too pragmatic for my taste.”

  “I’ll remember that for if I ever run into them.”

  “I’m sure you will.”

  The elevator slows to a halt and opens up to an enormous laboratory that reminds him of a sci-fi mechanics hangar. A row of empty spaces line each wall, each space surrounded by platforms with adjustable heights. Mechanical arms and a bunch of other stuff Tim doesn’t particularly care about sit on each one by computers with screens displaying strings of numbers.

  “Needs more CRISPRs.” Tim says, passing by one of the few occupied spots, a ruined mech, covered in scorch marks and missing an arm, goes through an automated repair system.

  “I’m not a geneticist.” Becca calls out, standing on a bridge further into the lab.

  Tim frowns, spotting a bong in one of her hands, a lighter in the other. She snorts at him, and takes a rip, before shoving the lighter in oil stained pockets.

  “Toss me your wristband.” She calls out.

  Tim hesitates, but then spots Lance as he walks onto the bridge. He gives Tim a nod, and he relents.

  Becca comes nowhere near catching it, it bouncing off her hand and onto the ground, then rolls off the bridge and lands at Tim’s and Raegan’s level. She bursts out laughing, taking a seat and dangling her legs off the edge as she wheezes.

  Raegan must catch the face Tim’s making, and sets a hand on his shoulder.

  “It's the only thing that’s been able to help with her anxiety.”

  “I figured.” Tim still frowns. “Why do you need my wristband?”

  “To make you something cool.”

  Tim huffs, picks up the wristband, then dead leaps onto the bridge in front of her.

  “If you’re trying to show off, I already said you have the wrong equipment.” She snorts and gets up.

  “Just take the wristband.” Tim holds it out for her.

  “Gimme gimme.” She holds out her hand.

  Tim drops it into her palm, it bounces off, and falls back down.

  “Oops.”

  Tim’s eye twitches, and he repeats the task.

  They make their way into a different room, an entire wall dedicated to enormous wires all hooked up to different mechanisms, one of which Becca places the wristband on. Tim flinches as lights pop up all over the room, floating, screen shaped holograms with data scrolling down them.

  “What, didn’t see any holpads at your precious Arch?” Becca flutters her eyelashes at Tim and plops into an office chair, swiping her hand through the air to bring the holograms to her. “Fuck Lance, how the hell did you crack into this with scavenged tech?”

  “A trick I’m not sure I want to share.” Lance stands behind her, looking to each panel.

  “You know science is about collaboration.” Becca looks up at him.

  “I will share when we are less pressed for time.”

  “Pressed for time?” Tim raises an eyebrow.

  “The national guard has been mobilized to deal with Tesla,” Raegan says. “Even with all the erased footage, his recent actions have been too public.”

  “They’ll get torn apart.” Tim runs his hand through his hair. “I have to bust Tesla’s armor before they find him.”

  “And before we leave on our business trip.” Becca spins in her chair, “And I take all my cool stuff with me.”

  “Glad you’re taking this seriously.” Tim frowns.

  “Says the quipster.” She glances to a data stream, and then makes another holopad appear, sizing it up to be the same height as Tim. “Interesting.”

  “It explains some things.” Lance glances at it before turning to another screen.

  “Raises more questions though, you said the suit was exposed to the same explosion?”

  “I did.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Can you guys share with the class?” Tim sighs.

  “Sorry, yes.” Lance nods. “Your body's physiology is more altered than we thought, there’s nigh no electricity present in it.”

  “What? Then how is my brain sending signals to the rest of my body?” Tim walks through the holopad to start reading the data stream.

  “Same way Tesla couldn’t just shut off my mech when I saved you.” Becca scoots besides him. “A different kind of energy is firing around inside of you.”

  So that flash of silver before Tim passed out was Becca in the mech. Damn it, he was hoping it was Lance, Becca seems the type to hold this over his head for the rest of his life.

  More importantly though, the fact that his body doesn’t run on electricity is a nuclear payload of a bombshell. How does any of that work? His biological processes must work entirely differently from anyone, everyone else now. It shouldn’t be surprising, not with what he’s capable of, not with his green blood, but there’s something almost... dehumanizing about it? He can already turn into so many different species, is his base form human at all? He’s not exactly an existential person, but that’s definitely a crisis he’s going to need to find time to unpack.

  “So, you use the same energy to power your new mechs?” Tim asks.

  Becca shakes her head, “Nope! I’ve never seen this energy before, the energy I use is Cosmic, trademark pending.”

  “Cosmic? Like it's out in space?”

  “Sure, but I call it that cause it's catchy.” She spins again, “You ever see someone get powers? See that purple and silver flash?”

  “Once from a street cam. It's how Tesla can survive using his tech.”

  “Well, that’s cosmic energy.” Becca smiles smugly.

  “Her work with it is quite remarkable.” Lance says. “She’s discovered how to harness it, and invented hardware architecture to properly utilize it.”

  “What do you say, paleontologist, want an exposition dump on the good stuff?” She smiles.

  “Don’t we not have time for this?” Tim answers, though honestly, he is curious. As much as he doesn’t care about the mechanical aspects, he does care about the mechanics of an energy that gives people superpowers.

  “Don’t worry rock licker, I can multitask.” She gets up and presses her finger to a seemingly random part of a wall. It opens, and reveals an enormous 3D printer. She gives it a smack, and starts drawing on yet more holopads produced from it. “Like this bad boy? Never go anywhere without it. It's loaded up with most known elements on Earth, and a few that only I know about, and own.” She winks. “The Williams invented these back in the late 80’s, but thanks to Cosmic energy I miniaturized it.”

  “This is miniaturized?” Tim raises an eyebrow.

  “You’re supposed to be impressed.”

  “I can turn into dinosaurs, a 3D printer doesn’t really wow me.” He shrugs.

  “Bah.” She waves him off as the machine springs to life, beginning to create something in a large, glass case. “Anyways, Cosmic energy.”

  “Does it work anything like mine?”

  “Sshhh, I don’t know anything about yours yet, we’re talking about mine.”

  “Kay, if it's so great why doesn’t everything you build use it?”

  “Rare, hard to find, difficult to keep large amounts safely. If I was to put all that I’ve collected together, according to some simulations I’ve ran, the radiation it’d create would be able to escape through any known material, and well, it gives people powers. The sims predict it could cause mass mutations.”

  “That’s... weird. Why doesn’t it still penetrate—”

  Becca snickers and Tim rolls his eyes.

  “Why doesn’t it still escape when it's in smaller amounts?”

  “Beats me.” Becca shrugs, “you know science bone man, just because we know how to work something, doesn’t mean we know all the mechanics behind it. I discovered Cosmic energy about three years ago, when I was thirteen or fourteen, it's basically a whole new field. There’s still a lot to discover about it, the whys and hows of the way it works, still a work in progress. But! Even in the small, safe amounts, it's easily the most powerful energy source on the planet.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Right, makes sense if it gives people superpowers.”

  “Yuh, now, do you know how we use electricity?”

  “More or less, it's about controlling the flow of electrons using conductors and insulators.”

  “Right, luckily Cosmic works with some similar principles. It has, in a sense, conductors, and I’ve discovered two so far, ones you’ll like.”

  Tim raises an eyebrow at that.

  “One is DNA, the other is more esoteric, sentient thought.”

  “What? Why would—”

  She jumps out from her seat and covers Tim’s mouth. “Tsk tsk, I already said, still learning about it.”

  Tim shoves her hand away, “You are touchy.”

  Becca shrugs, and falls back into her seat, rolling backwards and bumping into the printer.

  “So, I made an inorganic equivalent of both too ‘trick’ how the Cosmic flows, powering my machines.”

  “Simple enough I guess.” Tim shrugs. He’s sure there’s far, far more that goes into it, like there is with paleontology, like there is with every science, but understanding the basics of how something so beyond his expertise is good enough for him.

  “I'm great at dumbing things down for people.” She sticks her tongue out at him.

  He glares and matches with his own tongue, causing her to start snickering.

  “Anyways!” She turns to the glass case. "I’m making you a suit, you’re welcome. Lance can grow you a new insulated one later, gross by the way.”

  “They aren’t real cells.” Lance says.

  “Still gross to think about, anyways, his will take time, this though? Insulated, strong, non-magnetic just in case Tesla manages to master more of the electro-magnetic spectrum in the last few hours.”

  “He won’t be able to exploit my weakness at all?” Tim puts a hand on the case as it starts to print a helmet.

  “For the most part, but there’s two problems. The whole,” Becca rolls her wrist, “tips of lightning can reach the surface temps of the sun thing, can’t do anything about that. Every time he hits you with that, it’ll tear away at the suit. Next, no fucking clue what happens to the stuff on you when you transform, I can’t account for it. When you’re a dinosaur, when you’re your strongest, you’ll still be vulnerable.”

  “I can make it work.” Tim nods. “Thank you.”

  “You can repay me by giving me that cute girl’s number.”

  Tim glares at her and she puts her hands up.

  “Holy shit, that really got under your skin huh?” She laughs, “Scary.”

  “I... sorry. I'm just protective of my friends.”

  “Just a friend then? Can I—”

  “I’ll throw you into the sun.”

  ***

  “It’ll be a while before we can see you again.” Raegan gives Tim a hug as Lance packs the new suit into a case. “We’re leaving for the East Coast in a few hours.”

  “Well, I'm sure you’ll know where to find us.” Tim hugs her back.

  “Speaking of, in case we ever need to meet, feel free to use the junkyard as a clubhouse.” Becca says. “We’re making it safe for you guys to root around in, closing it and starting a new one.”

  “Very useful, thank you Ms. Jones.” Lance shuts the back of the van and stands beside Tim.

  “Better get home now dino-guy, make sure that girl knows you’re ok, or I’ll steal her.” Becca winks.

  “You should have time to check in. Tesla hasn’t popped up yet.” Raegan says.

  Tim glares at Becca, then nods to Raegan, “Right, and we’re pretty sure we know where he’s going now.”

  “Arch.” Raegan nods.

  “Arch.”

  The ones who bought Silverline Electronics, the ones who laid off Doctor Nicholas Brown. While Tesla focused Eric at the convention center, he was definitely taking shots at Connor’s too. Knowing him, even if Connors had nothing to do with the layoffs, Tesla would go for the CEO anyways to make it as grand a show as possible.

  Right now Doctor Grant is held up at Arch tower, after Tim makes sure his friends know he’s alive, the plan is to head there and ambush Tesla before he arrives. Part of Tim thinks he should just head straight there, after all, helping to put Jane’s mind at ease helped lead to the fiasco at the docks.

  But this is different, it tears him up inside, but it's true. As helpful as his talk with Raegan was, as comforting as she is, he needs to see Jane. If this is the final showdown with Tesla, if he’s going to decide what kind of hero he’s going to be, he has to talk to her. He can’t let her think he might be dead, can’t let her get anywhere close to dealing with what Eric’s and Ophelia’s families are going to deal with tonight.

  It's selfish, but he needs his head in the game, so he has to.

  “Thank you for everything.” Tim says to both of the Jones. “If you ever need anything at all...”

  Becca opens her mouth, but Raegan covers it.

  “Don’t ruin the moment sweetie. You’re more than welcome Tim, we’ll see you when we get back.”

  “See you soon.” Tim waves and hops into the van.

  ***

  “Fuck! I was so worried.” Jane cries, squeezing Tim as hard as she can.

  Tim had found her at home, practically leaving burn marks in their room from her pacing.

  “I know, I’m sorry.” Tim sniffles.

  “What happened? We got separated and Lance said he’d go find you and—”

  Tim shakes his head, “I... saw Tesla, saw him kill people. I um. I’m sorry. I just left after that.”

  “Oh... I saw the news, they said who died and... you saw that? You saw Doctor—”

  Tim puts his hand up, this is already hard enough without hearing Ophelia’s name.

  Jane stays quiet, then moves behind him and rubs his back.

  “I’m sorry Tim, is there anything I can do?”

  Tim shakes his head, “This is enough.”

  “Come here.” Jane grabs his hand and sits on the bed, pulling him down and putting his head in her lap.

  He shouldn’t be letting this happen, even with Lance monitoring for Tesla, surely there isn’t time for this.

  He tries to get up, but his body goes slack the second Jane runs her fingers through his hair, her nails gently scraping against his scalp.

  “Jane, I have to—”

  “Shut up.” She frowns down at him. “Let me just take care of you ok? I love you and want you to be ok.”

  Tim opens up his mouth to relent, to agree, but his wristband starts to vibrate. He closes his eyes and enjoys Jane playing with his hair for a few more seconds, then grabs her hand.

  “I... have to go.”

  “What?”

  “I only stopped by to make sure you knew I’m ok.”

  “You aren’t though.”

  “You’re right, but,” He sighs, pain swelling up in his heart as a lie forms on his tongue. “Lance... needs my help, and it's important.” He stands up.

  “What? With what?”

  “I... it's more I need his help to be honest.”

  “What? Why didn’t you...” She shakes her head, “With what Tim?”

  He closes his eyes and opens the door, “Sorry, I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll... See you later.”

  ***

  Tim’s balances on the van’s roof as Lance speeds towards Arch tower, his Jones Suit folding around him like an Iron Man armor. As the helmet goes over his head, PK’s vision zooms in on Tesla, small chunks of wall falling under him as he scales to the side of the tower like King Kong.

  PK taps his foot on the van, and Lance hits the brakes, launching him into the air. He kicks behind him, the shockwave sending him diagonally up, right towards the top floor of the tower. Just as Tesla reaches it, raises his hand to smash the window into Doctor Connor’s office, Prehistoric Kid smashes into his back, sending them both through.

  PK kicks off Tesla as he slides across the ground, landing on top of Connor’s enormous, stone desk. Tesla recovers, raises his hand to fire, and PK flips the table up and braces behind it as the lightning strikes.

  “Saved your life twice in one day Doc.” PK glances.

  “Truly I’m in your debt, Prehistoric Kid.” He says, suspiciously calm.

  “Uh huh.”

  The table gives, and PK nudges Connor into his office chair and kicks him back as the great stone desk gives, breaking in two. PK takes both pieces and pushes his hands into them, bursts towards Tesla, and starts to use them as boxing gloves.

  Each jab and uppercut breaks the stone apart, until Tesla is able to back hand the last part away and punch PK in the chest, sending him back, then firing a lightning bolt. It hits his shoulder, melting it, but the residual electricity goes over the armor, charging it. His right arm opens up, revealing a small cannon le weapon, tipped with a T.Rex head.

  Tim snorts, he does not want to like Rebecca Jones, but the decoration is a nice surprise. He points and fires, a white beam of light hitting Tesla. He raises his hands to block the continuous stream, and PK presses.

  He jumps up an axe kicks the guard down, lands, jabs the suit twice in the knee, then uppercuts as it comes down. Tesla rises up from the force, then PK grabs his heel, slams him twice in the ground, then throws him at the broken window. Tesla flips and digs his fingers into the floor, stopping right before he goes into open air in a gorilla like stance.

  “Where did you get that armor?”

  “Used car tent sale.” Tim smiles, goes down low, and charges.

  The back of the armor opens up, shooting a volley of missiles that fly at Tesla. He raises his arm to block an explosion, only to find the projectiles attaching to his armor, each opening up pulling Tesla’s electrical field towards them.

  PK transforms into his Therizinosaurus, Tesla backsteps, but its claws still rake through his armor. The supervillain scratches at the dispersers, only for PK to take off one of his suits hands.

  Tesla curses, focusing on using his lightning to rip the devices off as he jumps out of the window, then sends lightning into another pane. It shatters, the shard flying towards Connors, until PK goes human and clears the air with a snap of his finger.

  He winks at Connors and then pokes his head out, looking up and seeing Tesla scramble towards the tower’s huge lighting rod. Further past him, in the sky, dark clouds form, distant thunder already sundering the air.

  “Great.” PK rolls his eyes and transforms into a Megalania, the giant Komodo Dragon crawling up after the mad scientist.

  Tesla reaches the tip of the lighting rod as PK reaches its base, and he holds out his hand, flashes of light igniting in the clouds and raining bolts into the gauntlet.

  PK quickly shifts to human as the lightning rod surges with power, and aims his laser. He fires, hitting Tesla in the feet and knocking him off the spire, but the madman twists around as he plummets, firing the gathered energy directly at PK.

  It hits him center mass, burning away his armor, bolts flying out and striking the tip of the tower above him. PK forces himself out of the beam, pieces of his new suit falling off of him and clattering onto the tower’s roof.

  He looks at his exposed chest, then the lightning rod, and jumps off, transforming into his Therizinsaurus and slashing through it. He becomes human and kicks backward, the shockwave sending him into the spire as it falls. He grabs a hold of it and points it down, the lightning Tesla fires each being redirected to its point.

  Tesla curses and takes control of his electricity, but PK throws the spire at him, bursting through the sound barrier and the torso of Tesla mech with a crack.

  They land in a courtyard with a boom, sending grass and shrapnel through the air. PK tunes his senses onto Tesla as he lands, hearing him rip the spike from his suit. He turned his shoulder, still armored, towards the dust, a lightning bolt parting it and crashing into him.

  PK shrugs the slag off of him and charges, firing the last of his missiles at Tesla. He sends out branches of lighting towards them, blasting them from the sky, sending them smoldering to the ground, and PK grins as he reaches his enemy.

  He transforms into a compy and hops at Tesla, who bats away the last missile, and then Tim climbs into the hole made from the lightning rod.

  “What are you doing!?” Tesla yells, reaching for PK, who responds by transforming.

  Tim’s Gastonia split Tesla's suit in half, sending him to the ground and sliding on his back. He hears the electrical field fail, turns human and back flips off the falling legs, landing on the suit’s chest.

  He punches his arms in and rips it in two, revealing the old man within. Doctor Nicholas Brown looks on, eyes wide, taking one of his hands from his controls and raising it up.

  “Wait! Wait!” He calls out as PK raises his fist.

  Tim stops, narrowing his eyes, looking into Tesla’s. He searches for anything worth not throwing the final punch, and then, the suit's arm grabs him. Every ounce of power left in the suit pours into Tim, melting away the last of Becca’s armor, sending molten metal down into his eyes.

  His cells scream, the air in his lungs burn away, the sight of the bright orange metal flicks in and out as he goes in and out of consciousness, and then all at one, it stops.

  Tim wipes the metal from his face and rips off the arm, throwing it behind him, and then his elbow cracks the sound barrier as his arm snaps to deliver the final blow. His fist comes down, despite his powers urging him to stop, to aim differently, to unball his fist.

  His conversation with Raegan torrents through his mind as it overclocks. Should he do this? Should he kill Tesla? He’s a murderer, but he’s left other murderers alive, lives with murderers in his home. He’s let worse live, worse with less potential to do good.

  Why? A gunshot echoes in his ears, not physically here, but in a memory, the same old memory from when he saw Eric’s corpse. Then, a recent one.

  Good job.

  The punch misses by centimeters, sending a shockwave into a bronze statue of a DNA sequence, toppling it. Tim rubs his face, and hears Tesla grit his teeth.

  “You think this is over!? You think you can deny me my full vengeance, my retribution! I am Doctor Tesla! Mast of the Electromagnetic Spectrum! And I—”

  Tim smacks him in the neck with two fingers out, forcing the old man into unconsciousness. He falls on his knees, still on the chest of the mech, and tries to catch his breath. Thunder booms from the clouds of above, sirens blare in the distance, and rain begins to pour down.

  Tim rolls his neck, his shoulder and begins to stand, but then freezes. Freezes, because he feels like prey. Another sonic boom, jaws wrap around the back of his neck and carry him off of Tesla. The jaws start to crackle, crackle like a taser, and Tim convulses, and passes out.