Blackjack Villain (25 page)

The missing man was Mirage. I know I had devoted most of my research to Apogee, but I was aware of his power repertoire and his strategies. In addition to being able to cloud the minds of others with his namesake tricks, he liked to start a fight invisible spending his time obfuscating others and concealing his companions. One of his favorite tricks was called the Mirror Image. He would bounce illusions of his teammates all over the place, standing in front of you one second and behind you the next. Before you knew it, someone was pounding your face from a totally different direction.

He was also a healer, and his secondary job would be to keep the others alive and kicking despite our best efforts. Mirage was the first man to find and drop, but he happened to be invisible.

Not only were we outnumbered, but their powers seemed to work against us very well. They had enough brawny guys to keep us busy, and a few tactical guys to sit back and take us down. Their plan was to have Epic, Apogee and Superdynamic keeping us occupied, while Atmosphero and Gamma Demon used their ranged powers to drop us.

And it was up to me to ruin their plan. I was responsible for clearing areas with my explosive, concussive and gas arrows. I had to do something to stop them from mowing over us. Zundergrub could probably beat FTL one on one, but he’d have three people in his face at the start of the fight. I doubted even his secret yellow imp could help him there. Cool could make life impossible for Superdynamic, but I didn’t think he could beat him outright. Maybe frustrate him with his speed, get a good lick or two in, but no more. Haha had no chance against Epic. Knowing he was fighting a robot, Epic wouldn’t restrain himself, using his strength to rip the rabbit apart as soon as he got hands on him. Haha was full of surprises, and maybe he’d use the plasma cannon that almost ripped me in two. I could still feel that pain and the slab of dried black goo on my stomach. But Haha wouldn’t open up with the big guns. It wasn’t his style. He would start with his sword and wait until later, until he could think of a good line.

Cool walked closer to Apogee, but not too close to draw her ire, “Hot damn, baby. You got it all going on.”

She ignored him, her attention devoted to me.

“I’m not kidding,” he continued, patting his bat. “Have you ever done the Spider or the Golden Gate? You look flexible enough.”

Her eyes flared, leaving me for a moment and regarding the man with a ferocious glare.

“Enough!” Superdynamic shot in.

“Hey, I’m working on something here. Get in fucking line,” Cool snapped at him. “What about the Mexican Horseshoe? We’d need three hookers, a bottle of corn syrup, a sack of flour, a socket wrench and a donkey with a ski mask. But trust me when I tell you it’s-“

“You shit,” Apogee said, losing her cool and took a step forward, but Superdynamic jumped in front of her, not wanting the fight to start on our terms.

“I said leave the lady alone, asshole!”

Cool stepped back, smiling. That was his way, to get people off guard with his rude banter. Get them off their game, to make a mistake, then to strike when they least expected it. We had to watch him, and follow his lead. It was weird, but I was starting to get comfortable with the group, to know their tricks.

I looked over at Epic, who was watching us with a smug smile on his face, standing in perfect “hero” pose. He had nothing to fear from us, in fact, he could probably beat our group all by himself. Epic was more concerned with a few news cameras among the crowd and he was content with letting Superdynamic manage the situation.

“You pricks have one chance, and one chance only,” Superdynamic said. “Surrender and you won’t get beat down. We got the numbers, we got the power. And you know this.”

“And if we do not surrender?” Mr. Haha said.

“It’ll hurt,” Epic said.

“But you won’t like it,” Superdynamic added. “So what’s it going to be?”

Dr. Zundergrub actually laughed. Haha, standing next to me, got into his ready stance, with his free left hand pointing at Epic in taunting fashion. The huge superhero actually waved to the crowd.

“Ok, fine. Fuck it,” Cool said, tossing aside his bat. “I don’t want any more of this shit.”

He walked forward with his hands up, crossing the gap between their group and ours.

“Cool Hand, you betraying bastard!” Zundergrub roared, showing more emotion than I had ever seen. “I will kill you for this!” The doctor took a half-step forward, about to unleash his yellow imp at Cool Hand, but FTL matched his move, checking Zundergrub.

“Fuck off, old man. I’ve had it with the super villain crap.”

The move surprised Superdynamic, who seemed unable to tell whether Cool Hand was being honest or not. He also had a dilemma of not having anything to restrain the surrendered villain. Cool walked up to Superdynamic and Epic, and dropped to one knee.

“No tricks,” Superdynamic said “or I’ll crack your head open.”

Cool Hand replied with a soft voice, meant only for the two heroes, but I managed to hear him say, “Nah, I’m through with all this crap. I’ll testify against them and everything.”

As Cool’s bat rolled on the ground, it circled around the handle towards me. I noticed there was something on the aluminum, something stuck to it like a ball of goop. It rolled up to me so that I had to stop it wig my boot, meaning to pick it up and toss it out of my way. When the bat touched my foot, I felt a surge of energy I had felt once before.

Cool had hasted me.

Everything moved slower, even the crowd and the helicopters above. It was hard to tell what was happening, but when Superdynamic reached for Cool, something happened to the hero. Realizing Cool had tricked him, he tried to shout a warning, but it was too late. Cool threw a temporal bubble at the two supers, freezing them like statues.

“So put a quarter in your ass, ‘cause you played yourself,” Cool said, standing. He did a funny hand dance in victory, despite standing so close to the rest of the unaffected Superbs. He looked back at me with a big smile, “Cool, huh?”

The Superb Seven were now five, and we had the advantage.

Apogee charged me as expected, crossing the distance to me in an instance and throwing a wide-sweeping haymaker that I easily dodged by rolling on the ground across from her.

The fight had started, but there were only three of us moving at any appreciable speed. I came up from the roll, giving the enemy formation one more glance and saw what I was looking for. If Mirage was invisible, he didn’t have to expend energy making the illusion affect his teammates as well. He only had to fool us. And if they could see him, his companions would space out in the initial team ‘spread.’ I had seen the same thing in Los Angeles. Heroes were predictable that way and everyone stood in formation.

There was only one place Mirage could be: a suspicious open spot between Gamma and Epic, on the far side of the Superb Seven’s arrangement. I drew and fired an arrow faster than I ever had before. I rolled away from an approaching Apogee along the ground as the concussion grenade exploded. On the edge of my peripheral vision, I saw a mass of white spandex and fabric flying backwards from the explosion as my aim was true.

Then Apogee appeared someplace else, a few feet laterally from where she was coming. Mirage’s displacement illusion had worn off.

And now we had even odds against the Superbs.

“That’s not playing fair,” I muttered, rolling on the ground away from her and drawing another arrow. She was almost on top of me, and would try to take my bow. This was probably my last arrow and I had to make it count.

“Get back here,” she roared, coming after me.

I drew my magnetic arrow ready and looked for FTL. The armored hero had changed his plan, ignoring Zundergrub and attacking Cool instead. He was thirty feet from me, but I pulled the string back to its maximum and fired off the arrow. It bounced off his armor, but the arrow payload exploded and sprayed his whole body with a powdered metal which turned his armor into a huge, incredibly powerful magnet.

The thunderclap was deafening, and a magnetic field erupted with a charge of lightning that crackled around FTL’s body, exerting astonishing forces that attracted every metal object to him.

It was so strong that my bow flew out of my hands. Superdynamic, frozen as he was, fell over and rolled across the floor he slammed against the armored hero. Cool’s bat, and all manner of metal objects; including random junk, change, guns from the Police officers, a bent light pole, a small car, and the entire contents of an electronics store’s front window and several news cameras flew into FTL. Even a news helicopter hovering above the scene was affected, crashing into a building as the pilot attempted to avoid the immense magnetic forces. Mr. Haha knew it was coming, so he gripped his sword tight, and fired off dozens of metallic tendrils into the concrete to anchor him. Unfortunately Gamma Demon and his special bands were unaffected.

A few seconds in, and we had the advantage.

But Apogee was on me, and now that she realized what was happening, she unleashed a torrent of blows and strikes and that had me on the defensive. Her beautiful face had a grotesque veneer of rage and her fists were a blur. I rocked from side to side, stumbling back from her but the one time I was too slow, she struck my guard and sent me reeling like a missile through the window of the hotel, crashing into a throng of onlookers that had taken refuge in the lobby.

Using her super speed to reach me, she was back at me in a frenzy before I could get back on my feet. Apogee grabbed what remained of my cowl and steadied her hold to throw me with it. That’s when I did what I’ve never done before in my life, and hope to never, ever do again.

I hit a girl.

I didn’t hold back either, but luckily for her it was a clumsy, unbalanced back fist into her stomach. She still flew across the lobby, over the heads of dozens of screaming people, and disappeared into the concierge desk in an explosion of concrete and wood.

Outside, things were actually comical from my perspective. I could see the fight unfold in slow-motion. The only things moving at my speed were Cool Hand, and now FTL, who apparently had speed control as part of his repertoire. The magnet effect was fading, but it had given Cool a chance to run off. Covered in metal objects of all types, FTL was using all that junk as projectile weapons to throw at Cool.

Mr. Haha had scared off Atmosphero, who soared high to the skies, and away from the fight, so he now attacked Gamma Demon, but he fared poorly against the hero. Gamma Demon was firing red energy bolts from his bracers at Haha, forcing the rabbit into a defensive posture.

“I’m not through with you,” Apogee said, getting to her feet. She was covered in dust and debris, but otherwise unhurt.

“You need to calm down, lady,” I said to her. I meant to run outside, and give my companions a hand, beat Atmosphero’s ass once and for all, but I needed to deal with a more immediate problem.

She walked towards me, her head low and voice menacing. “I’ll calm down when you’re dead.”

“This place is full of innocent bystanders!” I yelled at her. “You’re gonna kill some of them, too!”

“Like you care.”

“I do,” I said, taking a few steps back. The folks inside the hotel weren’t stupid; they scrambled away to safety through every exit save the front door. But there was a woman with a broken leg, hobbling on her good leg, supported by a few hotel employees. I think I landed on her when Apogee threw me into the lobby. Apogee kept stalking closer, her fists tensed in white-knuckled ire, a lavender aura burning around them.

“God damn it, at least wait until they get her out of here!” I said, raising my hands to stop her and to Apogee’s credit, she did.

Two men picked up the injured woman, and dragged her away. “Crazy bitch!” she screamed at Apogee as she was led away.

Once the arena was clear, I looked back at my attacker and lowered my arms.

“How are you doing this?” Apogee asked.

“Cool Hand’s trick, not mine.”

“On the bat.”

I nodded.

“Very clever.”

“I want to say,” I stammered, “about your friend-“

“Shut up,” she snapped.

“Look, I had never-“

“I said shut up!” she said, following up with a nasty, and super-fast snap jab that knocked me back about ten feet. I crashed into a couch, flipping over and onto my stomach.

“Guess it’s easier if you hate,” I said as I got up, in time to catch her haymaker under my chin. The impact came under my jaw and I felt the blow deep in my bones. She must have unleashed her energy power, because I blacked out for a second. When I came to, Apogee was standing over me, digging me out of the rubble out of whatever I had crashed into. She straddled me and prepared to unleash her blows on me.

“Motherfucker,” she said, almost to tears. “This is for Barry.”

She threw her first punch, but I threw my left arm up and semi-blocked it. I moved in, grabbed her right armpit with my left hand and pulled her closer.

“Get the fuck off me!” she shouted, punching with her free left hand, but I took a few blows, dug my left arm under over and around her armpit, and blocked with my right until I could grab her right arm at her elbow.

“Chill out, woman!”

Apogee head butted me but she did it wrong and actually hurt herself, enraging further, and started trying to bite me. She had leverage on me, but I know she didn’t weigh all that much. All I had to do was pick her up and throw her across the room.