Book 2: Chapter 91: Fight the Power (1/2)

Word spread fast, and soon students were streaming in from every direction as they heard about the spectacle building at the campus central library. College students were not known for their rationality, nor for their ability to evaluate risk, and they flocked to danger by the thousands. Phones were out and recording, an endless array of video evidence uploaded to cloud services or streamed live, all focused on a singular event.

Champion sat on a bench feeding pigeons.

It should be about this time, Echo mused, that the FATs will have realized where his haven had been placed. Assuming, of course, that they had a way to track the things once they'd been dragged back into the world. The didn't matter in this case; he had to assume the worst. Their location protected them. It had been tricky creating a haven inside a college dormitory, but the result was well worth it. Rather difficult to justify a FATs preferred level of force being unleashed within a college campus. Not with the city in the state that it was in. Austin was closer to full-scale rioting than any city had been in decades. The federal troops would have to act carefully, lest the city rise up against them.

Which was, of course, the entire point.

One brave student approached Echo, and he gave the young woman a winning smile. Champion had been good at those, and so Echo was no different. The girl blushed scarlet, but courageously moved within reach.

”Is it really you?” she asked, wide-eyed and breathless.

Echo nodded, and lied through his mentor's lips, ”It's really me.”

The girl did a little dance, suppressing a noise of shrill glee. She pulled out her phone and unlocked it, taking a few steps closer.

”Can I take a selfie with you?” she asked. Her eyes widened, and she waved the phone enthusiastically. ”Oh! You probably don't know what that is! I want to take a picture with you, using this—”

”I know what a selfie is,” Echo interrupted with a friendly grin. ”I've been doing my best to catch up. You may take a picture with me.”

The girl bounded over with a bright smile. She spun around, planting herself on the bench beside him and bringing up the camera app on her phone. She leaned backwards, pressing her back into his side and smiled into the camera. Echo dutifully leaned forward and smiled alongside her.

”Cheese,” they said as the moment was immortalized.

”Thanks!” the girl said brightly. ”I've basically just won at social media.”

”My pleasure,” Echo replied, checking his watch. It really should be any minute now. There were more than enough cameras on him. He glanced around, noting the girl's reckless courage had emboldened a handful of others, who were quickly approaching the 'harmless' hero. The more the better, really.

”So, what'cha doing here?” the girl asked, perfectly at ease on the bench beside him.

”Waiting.”

”Waiting on what?”

The campus villain alarm cut through the dull roar of the surrounding crowd. It ended the constant speculation faster than a gunshot, leaving a ringing silence in its wake.

”That,” Echo replied simply.

The students had certainly been conditioned well. The sound evoked an almost instinctive panic response, as they began to shuffle like uncertain herd animals, searching for a threat. But Echo had given them a target already, and they were young, curious, and reckless. All they needed was an excuse.

Champion was here, right out in the open, and he was harmless. Obviously there had been a mistake. Obviously, someone had seen the commotion, seen its focal point, and drawn all the wrong conclusions. Obviously, these young men and women knew better than whoever had set off that stupid alarm.

Echo remained seated. Passive, peaceful. Not a threat.

A handful of the smarter students began backing away. The crowd thinned, somewhat. Most remained. The girl beside Echo had barely even twitched at the siren and several of what he had to presume were her friends had arrived beside the bench. They crowded his seat, somehow seeming both hesitant yet eager, as they asked him a flurry of questions.

”Are you really Champion?”

”Did the government really experiment on you?”

”Are you seeing anyone?”

”Is Bastion seeing anyone?”

”Will you show off your powers?”

”Can I get your autograph?”

Echo let out a genial laugh, and answered their questions no matter how ridiculous. He was being recorded by hundreds of cameras, and there were probably nearing a thousand students packed into the large, open plaza in front of the campus library. Every second that passed without him murdering someone earned the trust of another rash teenager. They approached him by the dozens as he engaged in an impromptu interview, with ever more filtering in from the distance, despite the ringing sirens.

With every spoken word, with every answered question, he released the faintest traces of his stolen power. Not Champion's: he would never defile his former leader in that way. The power he had selected originated with Mr. Charleston's Roofme upgrade. The man had broken in the end, and he'd armed Echo with a crucial piece of his Champion disguise.