Soon I Will Be Invincible Read Online Free PDF

but I didn’t remember these neighborhoods. There was no particular money in it or even superhero glamour, but I needed to be working. I was lucky to find that sniper thing.
    Damsel was just there one day when I got home, standing on the shag carpeting in front of the television. She gave me an appraising stare. I knew who she was, obviously, and apparently she knew me.
    “You must be Fatale.” She glowed a little. She was being projected here as a hologram, the superhero phone call. Her left foot wafted through a thrift-store coffee table—there hadn’t been much room to materialize. I wondered where the transmitter was.
    “Damsel?” I ducked a little to come inside.
    “I’m here to offer you an opportunity. Part of a group effort we’re putting together. If you’re willing, there’s a meeting coming up at the Manhattan facility. I understand you’re temporarily at liberty.”
    “Uh, right. Of course. Well of course I’m interested. And no, I’m not, uh, engaged right now.”
    “Excellent. Details will arrive by courier. We’ll expect you.” She winked out. Whatever level of technology they used, it was pretty far from anything you’d see on the street.
    I noticed she didn’t promise anything. And she didn’t use the word
team,
like the old Champions were. They’d been more like a family, even before Blackwolf and Damsel married. No one expected that to happen again. They wanted an available hero who could be a technician, like Galatea was, but they weren’t pretending it was going to be that relationship again.
    I could picture the conversation that led to my selection.
    “So who can we get? Somebody who does machines.”
    “Dreadstar?”
    “Eh.”
    “Calliope? Argonaut? The Breach?”
    Chorus of shouts: “Not the fucking Breach!”
    “Who, then? We’ve got no psychics, nobody technical…”
    “Please, just find somebody who’s not going to be a total disaster. Have the computer give us a list.”
    They’d looked at my schematics, and my references had checked out, and Damsel was dispatched. The official invitation came later in a heavy envelope of crisp, velvety paper. I was to report to their headquarters for the informational meeting two days later. They sent me a plane ticket along with. I’d never flown first-class before.
             
    Talking about CoreFire, they fall into old rhythms. They used to be a team—once; they did this for a living. They all seem rusty at first. Damsel’s just a part-time crime fighter now. For all her power, she spends more time fund-raising for groups like Amnesty International. Elphin has a line of beauty products. Mister Mystic works as a consultant, to an odd and exclusive clientele.
    “All right, say he’s missing. Now what?” Blackwolf’s natural charisma seems to make him cochair of this meeting.
    “Who saw him last?” Damsel asks.
    “I did.” Blackwolf answers her levelly. “He looked fine.” Blackwolf holds the distinction of being the only human ever to knock CoreFire unconscious. He still patrols in costume, part-time, but it’s mostly publicity for his corporate holdings.
    “He always looks fine,” says Feral. He’s one of the few heroes on this level still working the streets, still busting up drug deals and foiling muggers. “Damsel? I know you two kept in touch.”
    “I haven’t seen him in a year. When we took down Impossible together last time. He was on form. Untouchable as ever.”
    I follow the conversation, feeling useless. I’ve never met CoreFire. I’ve never even seen him in person.
    “He always had that vulnerability to magic. I saw an arrow go right into him one time. Some kind of magic arrow thing.”
    “A magic arrow is not an object you understand, Blackwolf,” Mister Mystic responds. “In my current pursuits, I seldom traffic in such things, but I will inquire.”
    “The forest realms say nothing,” Elphin offers wide-eyed, wings rustling.
    Damsel takes a deep breath.
    “Look, this is what