Confessions of a D-List Supervillain (7 page)

“Who are ... I don’t feel so ...” he doesn’t finish, but manages to power puke all over my suit.

“That’s it, get it all out and go guard Aphrodite. Make damn sure no one gets close to her! I’ve gotta go protect Andy.”

• • •

Days later, the infirmary is full and the corridors are littered with the walking wounded suffering withdrawal from a drug they can’t remember. Everyone has lost the last three months of their memories except for me, Stacy, Andydroid, and a few busted Cyber Dudes. We were even forced to zap Holly and Keisha after they were reinfected.

Stacy hasn’t left that throne except to eat and go to the bathroom in two days. I stop by to see her, as often as I can. When she isn’t speed dialing through the area codes and making international calls, she’s broadcasting thoughts of happiness and peace to areas already cleansed of the vermin. I wouldn’t want to pay the Olympic-sized phone bill they’re going to have after this. They’re supposed to be getting her some damn help any day now. She’s been working her ass off for them as it is.

Naturally, being one of the few fully functional supers, I’m already on riot duty and putting out fires all over WashingtonDC and the surrounding area. Every few hours, I feel Stacy’s empathic wave pass over and everyone is calm for a short time and then the shit starts up all over again. It’s worse than any war zone imaginable.

By the end of the first week, I’m almost convinced that we should have just let the bugs win. If it wasn’t for Stacy, I’d go back to my base and hide out until all this was over.

Landing, I go to pickup fresh powercells and start connecting them. There’s a crowd out front, so I go in through the roof entrance. Andy nods to me and waves. Most of the other heroes are uneasy in my presence, unsure of what to make of me. The still convalescing Poseidon is especially wary after learning that his stint in the infirmary was at my hands.

“If it isn’t my favorite dispatcher, how are things, Andy?”

The remarkably human-looking mechanical being hooked to the telecom board blinks several times, processing hundreds of phone calls. “It’s not good out there, Cal, but you know that better than I do. They’re mindwiping St. Louis, Kansas City, and the Dallas/Fort Worth area today, but we’re still behind schedule. Entire cities are burning.”

“Yeah, people figured out how to cut out the bug glands and extract the drug from them. Now they are fighting over the dead bugs as well. That’s only made things worse. What’s with the crowd?”

“The President is giving his first speech and trying to do what he can. Are you not supposed to be
en route
to the riots in Richmond?”

“Low on energy,” I answer looking at the big screen and see the gaunt and tired face of our President. There’s Stacy right next to him and next to her is ... Ultraweapon.

“My fellow Americans and citizens of the world, we are climbing out of the abyss. Every hour brings us closer to putting this dark time behind us. We are diligently working to get more the memory erasing units out to all the countries. One hundred units alone today left for Europe and another two hundred are heading to Asia. Three additional empaths are now on duty and our heroes are providing around the clock infusions of positive energy. Things will get better! These are surely our darkest days, but the light of hope is on the horizon.”

I tune the stuffed shirt out. Considering my felon status, I couldn’t have voted for him even if I wanted. Instead, I’m staring at how close Ultraweapon is standing to Stacy.

“... and I’d like to thank the people up here who were directly responsible for our salvation from science gone awry.”

“What the hell?”

Everyone in the command center makes an effort to avoid looking in my direction.

“Screw it! I’m going out there!”

Zeus and Apollo stand up and move in my way. The lord of lightning says, “You’re not going anywhere. You’re supposed to be in Richmond anyway.”

I flip my mini-gun around and spin the barrels making my intentions clear. Hermes shouts, “No one do anything! I’ll be right back!”

From the corner of my eye, I spot Hermes speed into the screen and whisper into Athena’s ear. They immediately exit stage left. The hothead and the lightning rod look ready to rumble and I’m quickly getting into a mood to oblige.

Andy’s head swivels a full one hundred and eighty degrees and says, “May I request that this fight not occur so close to the fragile equipment of the communications center.”

Crenshaw storms into the room and shouts, “Stringel! Stand down!”

“You’re on thin ice, Crenshaw. Choose your words carefully.”

“Look, be happy you’re getting a pardon and a paycheck. You want someone to blame, I made the call.”

“Why?”

“I see no reason to act like we’re buddies. Here’s the deal – the world is still recovering and it needs the reassurance that the heroes were looking out for them.”

“Even if it’s a lie?”

“Damn straight! They don’t need to know that the only reason we’re free is because some petty crook was too scared to get out of his armor and got lucky.”

“So this is how the hero gig works. The guy who caused all this gets lauded for the greater good and the guy who fixed it gets a knife in the back!”

“Just hold up your end of the deal, Stringel. You’ll get your money and a pardon. Then, you can get the hell out.”

Somehow, her words fail to have a calming effect. The only thing that stops me from cutting loose is Stacy walking into the room with Ultraweapon.

Her eyes immediately light up. At least someone’s happy to see me, “Cal! You’re here! I thought you were in Richmond.”

“That’s where they wanted me.”

Her gaze shifts between Athena and the armored warrior standing next to her. “I see we’ve been busy making backroom deals, while I’ve been stuck on that damn throne.”

“Stacy, be reasonable...”

“What’s this all about?”  The Love Goddess cuts to the chase.

Ultraweapon points at me and says, “You’re serious about this clown?”

“Yes. I realize that you’re missing the last three months of memories, but I’m not. Here’s the short version. We broke up. It was mostly your fault. I’ve moved on. Deal with it. The person I’m really disappointed in here is you, Holly. Seriously, what are you thinking?”

I put a few things together and my mouth starts working before I have the full picture.

“It’s Patterson. He’s not going to play nice with the rebuild unless he gets the girl. That’s why I was sent on my merry way. You know what? I just thought of something, how long was it after you two broke up did billionaire boy and his wondersuit go after the Overlord’s base? I'll bet my pardon that Patterson was trying to prove something to Aphrodite.”

Suddenly, I feel like less of an obsessive dickweed. He’s way out of my league when it comes to that. His mask hides his expression, but I know the truth.

Athena says, “It’s nothing of the sort.”

“Sure it isn’t.”  I fire back.  

Several things happen in the next instant. Stacy turns on Athena and they both start shouting. Ares steps in carrying a pallet of freshly constructed Mindwipers. He sets them down to rubberneck at the blossoming catfight and Ultraweapon grabs one. Time freezes as I shout for Stacy to look out, but I’m too slow.

The aura hits her and fades. Ares grabs Patterson’s wrist, yanks the device out of it, and pins him to the wall.

Stacy looks all around. “What’s going on? Why am I in this getup? Holy shit! What happened to my hair?”

Athena immediately rounds on Ultraweapon. “Patterson! What the hell did you do that for?”

From inside his high-tech mask, he cackles, “If I can’t have her, I’m sure as hell not going to let some cheap knock-off have her! I never lose! Do you hear me?”

I barely hear him; I’m still staring at Aphrodite. She’s not Stacy anymore, or at least
my Stacy
. I start forward, but Athena, Zeus, and Apollo jump on me to hold me back.

“Let me go!”  In close quarters, all his gadgets are practically worthless. I've already learned that lesson.

Ultraweapon taunts me even though he’s still firmly in the War God’s grasp, “Sure let him go. The chump thinks he can take me.”

Athena slaps her hand over my helmet force blaster. “Stringel, let it go! Stand down! Not in here, dammit! Ares, get that piece of shit out of my headquarters. Patterson, you get your slimy ass back to the west coast. You want to play power games with your company? We’ll make sure the press gets wind of your involvement in this whole mess.”

Patterson shakes off the Olympian’s hold and addresses us. “You don’t want to go there, Holly. There might be consequences. Enough! I’m going. I said, I’m going! Stringel, anytime you want to bring that sorry excuse for a suit out my way, I’ll be happy to kick your ass, punk.”

“You’ll never see me coming, bastard.”  I hiss.

He walks away laughing. “In your dreams, knock-off.”

They keep holding me until he’s gone. Athena finally says, “We’re going to let you go now. No funny business. No flying off the handle, if you still want that pardon. You get me?”

“I get you, but I want an explanation, bitch.”

She starts to look angry, but then holds up her palms. “Okay, you deserve one. He begged me for another chance with her and we go back a ways.”

“And you didn’t approve of me.”

She doesn’t bother denying it, “That too, but I’d never have backed him if I knew he’d do that to Stacy.”

“Do what to me? Why do I have the feeling I’m missing out on something?” Aphrodite asks and looks at the pallet of high tech weaponry. “What’s with all the Mindwipers? Oh great! I just got wiped didn’t I?”

Athena looks at her and then at me. “Stringel, go get something to eat in the break room. Someone else will cover Richmond. Andy, can you reroute WhirlWendy? I’ll bring Stacy up to speed and then come get you. For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”

The bitter anger is replaced with an empty numbness. A few of them have the decency to look ashamed. I walk away with a simple, “Whatever.”

• • •

I eat mechanically, not even bothering to appreciate the pun. Not to anyone’s surprise, Ares, Zeus, Apollo, and Poseidon all seem to have decided to get something to eat at the same time. Isn’t there a world in chaos out there? Holly might be “sorry,” but she obviously doesn’t trust me. I don’t blame her.

Andy was nice enough to contact me via the dispatch system right as I entered the cafeteria. His message was one of simple encouragement, “Should you opt to disassociate yourself with the Olympians, I would be interested in a possible team-up in the future. You have proven to be a valuable ally and, given your current capabilities, I would be reluctant to face you as an enemy on the battlefield.”

Andy is a stand-up kind of ... guy, so I told him I’d be interested as well. We’re part of the ever-shrinking club that knows the whole story. Suddenly, that seems more important than ever.

Forty-five minutes pass and Aphrodite, not Athena, walks in. She dismisses the rest of the Olympians and approaches. “Hi. Mind if I sit down?”

“It’s your base. I’m just ... well I don’t know what I’m doing.”

She smiles saying, “They’ve got someone to do that thing with the chair for the next few hours, so I’ve got a little time. I hear we were an item?”

“Yeah.”

“How long?”

“Only a few days.”

“Really, but you were ready to go toe to toe with Ultraweapon over me? Must’ve been intense.”

Unable to meet her eyes, I turn away and say, “It was for me.”

“I believe you. You’re not the kind of guy that I usually go for, but maybe that’s the point. Holly says that you’re responsible for my haircut.”

Letting out a hollow laugh, I shrug and say, “While you were detoxing from these bugs, I kept you prisoner. You weren’t terribly thrilled about it. I ended up putting a helmet on you to keep you from firing your psi-bolts. Unfortunately, your braids wouldn’t fit. You salvaged it after you got clean, but were still kind of angry with me for a few weeks.”

“I’ll bet I was. I also heard that you’re the reason the world got saved in the first place.”

I shake my head, trying to look anywhere but at her. “Well, if you can call around-the-clock riots, looting, and civilization on the brink being saved. It’s a mess out there.”

“So, what do you want to do, Cal? Are you going to keep working to get your pardon, or are you going to hightail it out of here after we finish eating?”

“I promised you I’d hang around and try to make an honest go of it. You may not remember, but I do.”

“Odds are, I probably will remember,” she says and pats the hand I’d removed the gauntlet from.

“Come again?”

“I’ve been hit by a Mindwiper before. For someone who isn’t a powerful psychic, the memories would be gone for good, but fortunately, I am a powerful psychic.”

“What does that mean?” I ask getting my hopes up.

She wrinkles her nose and replies, “Last time, they started coming back first in my dreams … bits and pieces at first. Eventually, they reassembled themselves into memories.”

“How long did it take?”

“A few months. It might take less this time, especially since I’ve been exposed to it before.”

“You’ve got some footage in your armor’s hard drive. That might help you remember sooner,” I offer trying not to sound downtrodden.

“I saw that in my room. Your handiwork? I’d assumed it was Lazarus.”

“You assumed a lot of things about him. Even if you don’t remember anything about us, don’t trust him. He’s no good for you.”

She opens her mouth and I expect to hear the Ultraweapon fangirl drivel she spouted when I first captured her. “From my recollection, we just broke up and I was pretty happy about it. It was getting to the point where I was just some kind of trophy to him. Plus, he just Mindwiped me. I’m unlikely to forget that anytime soon.”

“Unless he does it again,” I say.

“Nah, those things can’t go back any further than three months and the brain creates a resistance to them that gives an immunity for the next year or so.”

“Really?”  I say, already trying to figure out how to make myself immune to it when I’m outside my armor. If I modify one to just whack a couple of hours, but still generate the immunity, that could work. I’d need to analyze the beams wavelength and frequency first and then see how it could be jammed.