Almost Infamous: A Supervillain Novel (35 page)

I did know my history. I could see exactly where they were going with this.

“You want to start another War on Villainy.”

“That’s the plan. Though our marketing guys are thinking the Second War on Villainy pops better. We thought we might be able to spin the Amber City gig that way after you went nuclear, but President Perez had a cooler head and calmed down the masses. Can you believe she actually talked the Protectors out of initiating worldwide martial law? Once she’s gone, all the other powers, the Soviets, the Brits, Lemuria, Atlantis… they’ll all be afraid to lose what they’ve got, and they’ll come to us. They will call upon us to restore peace and order, and it will all be because of you.”

That was a part of it, yeah. It also meant even more hardcore cracking down on supers, rights would disappear, hell, they might even institute a draft for all supers.

Or they might just disappear any and all they think could be threats before they actually are threatening. Just like last time, people, not even villains, would fight back, and just like last time thousands, maybe even millions would die.

Worst of all, everyone would blame
us
.

This was the heroes’ big plan, and we were their pawns.

I didn’t like being used to kill people. I liked being a pawn even less.

Pawns were meant to be sacrificed.

“Now I can’t stress enough how important it is to not fuck this mission up. I know not all of you have killed before, and that might seem scary, but it’s necessary for ensuring humanity’s future. So, what do you think, Apex Strike? Do you think your team is up for this?” Adam said, flashing his million-dollar smile.

He meant this to be a cheeky exchange before leaving, and I wasn’t going to disappoint him. “Yeah, we got this one, Helios.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said, starting to turn off the projectors. “As usual, you’ll find mission briefing details in your tablets. We’ve set up the Tri-Hole access you’re gonna use for the mission in the Green Room, but if you feel like using it for a little joyriding beforehand, well, we might be able to turn a blind eye. It’s cruder than what you’re used to. Had to use some older tech to make it look like you guys found your own way with a teleporter, but it’ll work. Until then, study, keep in shape, and have fun!”

Flashing us one last wink and smile, he turned off his projector.

“Well that was a waste of fucking time,” Carnivore growled, standing up. “Coulda just sent us a text with all that…”

For a second it looked like he was going to hang around, but thankfully he left the room. The rest of us just sat there in silence.

Spasm and I locked eyes. He smiled, a little nervous.

“So, this sound as fucked to all of you as it does to me?” he asked. I looked at Trojan Fox. She pressed a few buttons on her tablet.

“Creeper signals are quiet, for a few minutes at least,” she said.

“Worse,” Ghost Girl said to Spasm.

He rubbed a hand through his short, black hair. “I mean, I was all right with playing—”

“You hate them too, right?” I said to him.

“Of course,” he said.

“Do you want to help us do something about it?” Trojan Fox asked.

Spasm looked around at all of us, probably wondering if this was some kind of trap.

“Like what?” he asked, cautious.

“Can we trust him?” I asked Ghost Girl. Her eyes flashed. She nodded.

Trojan Fox began, “We’re dropping out of Kayfabe. We’re going to deactivate our Creepers, and I’m gonna readjust the island’s shield to keep the heroes from getting through. The island’s got enough resources to keep us healthy for years, and once I can figure out how to alter the Tri-Hole access they allowed us, we’re going to free our friends in the Tower and ourselves once and for all.”

“And what about the assassination?” Nevermore asked.

Trojan Fox shrugged. “We don’t do it.”

“That’s not good enough,” I said.

“What, you getting patriotic on us here?” Trojan Fox asked wryly.

“No, but…”

I steeled myself up to argue with her, which was never easy, but she didn’t know Adam and the other heroes like I did. She’d always kept them at arm’s length. I’d let them in.

“They’ve put too much work into this. There’s no way they’re going to back out, even if we do. They might do it themselves and find some way of blaming it on us, or they’ll half-ass something from some of the other Kayfabe kids they’ve got in the Tower. One way or another, they
will
do this.”

A year ago, I’d have never thought of doing anything this crazy, but looking at these people and thinking back on how they’d all changed my life, I made myself say it.

“Guys,
we
have to stop the heroes’ evil plot.”

“Why us?” Nevermore asked.

“Because we’re the only ones that can.”

“Like it’s just that easy?” Spasm asked.

“It won’t be, no, but we can do it, I think. You can get all your Kayfabe files together quick, right?” I asked Trojan Fox.

“Of course.”

“Good, because I think I got an idea.”

Everyone looked to me. So this was it, the moment when I’d have to step up and really become the leader.

“It’s got two parts. And the first is me stepping down as leader.”

I didn’t get quite the uproar I’d hoped for, but they did seem surprised, at least.

“I’ve been a real shitty leader. I let Ad—
Helios
get in my head. He made me think that he was a real friend, and that you were just the people I hung out with when I didn’t have anything else to do. I thought because they made me leader, and because I was so famous, that I was the best leader this team could have, but I was wrong. Real leaders speak
for
their team. Real leaders don’t let their team get hurt. That’s why I nominate Trojan Fox to be our new leader.”

I wish I had a picture of her face then, because she was never this surprised. “Wait—”

“Seconded,” Ghost Girl said, raising her hand. Nevermore, Geode, and even Spasm were quick to raise their hands after.

“I hate you,” she said.

“Get in line,” I shot back. I was relieved. A great weight was taken off my shoulders (and put on hers, sure, but she could handle weight a lot better than I could), and I was fairly certain that this was the smartest thing I had ever done in my life.

I continued, “But I think you’re going to like the second part of my plan, because for once, I don’t think it’s that terrible…”

It actually was that terrible, at first at least, but once Trojan Fox and Spasm put their tactical knowledge together, it immediately started to improve.

We waited until the day the heroes wanted us to do the job. I felt like I was going to lose my mind most of that time, that the heroes would figure us out, that they would come in and kill us or just set off our Creepers, but they didn’t. Combine Trojan Fox’s attempts at dampening their signals with the fact that they couldn’t hear everything anyway and we were clear come game day, which was one hell of a relief.

Helios said they would take the Protectors’ Tri-Hole access down for ten minutes during the president’s speech for routine maintenance, which would be enough time for us to do our duty.

We wouldn’t, but that ten minutes would give us enough time to turn the world on its head for the better if we could pull it off.

When it was finally time, Trojan Fox called Nevermore, Ghost Girl, and me to her workshop.

Spasm and Geode joined us a few minutes later, carrying Carnivore over one of Geode’s massive shoulders.

“He’s out?” Trojan Fox said.

“Sleeping like a baby,” Spasm said.

“But he’s bleeding.”

Spasm shrugged. “What can I say, he’s an awkward carry, fell down the stairs a coupla times before I could knock him out proper.”

If she had a problem with this, she didn’t show it.

“What do we need
him
for, anyway?” Nevermore asked.

“Because I’d feel a lot more comfortable if we tried this on a guinea pig first, and I think he might have some in him somewhere.”

At her direction, Geode and I tied Carnivore to a workshop table with chains.

“Geode, hold him down, in case the chains aren’t enough,” Trojan Fox directed. “Spasm, keep him asleep, and numb.”

“Done.”

“Ghost Girl, how’s the Creeper?”

Ghost Girls eyes went gold. “Its living components are nervous. It’s trying to send a signal out, but your workshop’s walls are keeping it silent.”

“Good. Tell me if anything changes,” Trojan Fox said, waving her hands at Carnivore’s chest. “I’m going to neutralize its mechanical components. Then… then the
fun
begins. Nevermore, I need your bladed pendulum, perhaps half a meter high, just above his chest. And a raven.”

“No problem,” Nevermore said, projecting her tattoos and manipulating them to Trojan Fox’s specifications.

“Excellent. Now we’re going to want a horizontal incision, about eighteen centimeters wide, about ten centimeters below his sternum. Not too deep. And Apex Strike?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t pass out on me. Your job’s the most important.”

“I wasn’t gonna,” I said, mostly meaning it. I wanted this to work, but I was freaking out a little. If this was successful, it would soon be
me
on that table.

The pendulum swung lower and faster, cutting a wide, clean incision in Carnivore’s belly, his blood spattering the wall. Nevermore made the pendulum disappear after this, her raven hopping onto Carnivore’s stomach before diving its head into the incision. According to Trojan Fox, she couldn’t go in with any tools because the Creepers might sense them, and because Nevermore’s tattoos could be both real and not real simultaneously, they were our safest bet. They may have been the safest, but they weren’t the easiest to watch.

Don’t think about being on the table.

Don’t think about being on the table.

Don’t think about that raven in your guts—

The raven flapped and fought for purchase, digging and pulling at the bloody flesh. Finally it twitched, digging its feet into Carnivore’s stomach. Carnivore jerked violently.

“Got it,” Nevermore said, her body straining from the focus.

“His vitals are going through the roof and I can only do so much; you better get that little fucker out fast!” Spasm warned.

Nevermore focused even harder, giving the raven strength as it dug even deeper into Carnivore’s belly and ripped its bloody head free.

The Creeper in its beak was no larger than a salt shaker. Bloody and made of a small, dull metal, its six shaking, insect-like legs clamored to get back into Carnivore.

Trojan Fox smiled. “Well, that wasn’t so ba—”

The Creeper let out a piercing, shrieking call that nearly put us all on our knees, its body glowing a dull orange. Dozens of long, thin tendrils burst from it and thrashed back and forth, reaching for Carnivore. Popping arcs of electricity shot from it, shattering glass cases and burning the concrete walls.

“FUCK!” I cried out, ducking and covering my head.

Trojan Fox was at my side. “Dammit, Nevermore, toss the fucking Creeper!”

The raven flung the Creeper into an empty corner of the workshop.

Now it was my turn.

Focus.

The Creeper exploded into a million pieces on the floor. Something small, meaty, and wriggling fell out of its remains, but Geode crushed it under his foot.

The room was a mess, we’d all nearly died, but Carnivore was still alive, his body nearly perfectly fixed up by Spasm.

“All right,” Trojan Fox said. “One down, six to go. Who’s next?”

#Supervillainy101: The Shot Heard ’Round the World

It didn’t surprise anyone that Otis Shylock was the last of the major supervillains standing in 1993, though it did surprise many to see just how far he’d fallen. Once one of the leaders of the Villain’s Union, commanding an army of nearly two thousand supervillains bent on controlling all criminal activity on Earth, by 1993 the heavy losses faced during the War on Villainy left him with less than thirty villains and a small mountain stronghold in Chile to his name.

Seeking to end the War once and for all, the heroes all banded together for one last assault on Shylock’s forces on May 29, 1993. He vowed not to go down without a fight.

Though in his late seventies and not at the peak of his mind control powers, he and his diminishing army of loyalists fought off wave after wave of hero assault, killing and maiming dozens of the best heroes of the day. Still, with thousands of heroes against a handful of villains, the losses on Shylock’s side grew heavy. The heroes soon realized that they just needed to wait him out, surrounding the mountain and blaring out psych warfare mixed with messages encouraging the villains to quit over loudspeakers 24/7.

The details of what happened inside are sketchy, at best. What is known is that Shylock demanded that everyone fight to the last man, to make the heroes’ victory as hollow as possible. Not all the villains agreed, and a faction emerged intent on overthrowing Shylock and surrendering in exchange for leniency. A fight broke out, several villains were killed, and Otis Shylock took a single gunshot to the head.