Yesterday's Heroes (Consortium of Chaos Book 1) (2 page)

Wyatt carefully backed through the
door into the hallways and rounded the corner to deposit the bomb nearby on a
table in one of the reinforced bomb-proof rooms.  They were designed so that
the building wouldn’t suffer any structural damage if a bomb went off in the room;
just the person trying to defuse it.  He gingerly removed the top panel on the
device, careful not to dislodge any of the wires… 

Only to find that inside was simply
what appeared to be the electronic mechanism from some sort of… toy?  There was
a spark and an electronic voice sounded from the circuit panel and echoed in the
confines of the small room.  “
For FREEDOM!”

Wyatt frowned.  That voice sounded
like…him?  How very strange.  What the hell was
that
about?  He shrugged
and strolled back towards the cell block.  Lord knew what Poacher would do to
the girl if Wyatt wasn’t there to protect her.

He briefly considered what lies he
could tell her to make it sound like he had managed to heroically defuse the
bomb with one second left on the timer or something, thus saving them all. 
But, decided against it.  Dishonesty wasn’t really his thing.  …
Although
…now
that he thought about it,
technically
, even though it wasn’t
actually
a bomb, he HAD defused it before it exploded hadn’t he?  It wouldn’t really be
LYING exactly…

He opened the door to the holding
cell bay.  “Well ma’am, it turns out that the “bomb” was actually…”

He stopped speaking as he realized
that the room was now completely empty.  The cell door hung open and there was
no sign of Guard Malkin or Poacher.

Wyatt’s face fell in horror.

Oh, God!  Poacher had kidnapped her. 
This… this was a nightmare.  That poor sweet girl.  She didn’t deserve to be
stuck with villains.  She was so innocent.  She was probably already dead!

He dashed to the elevator and
smashed the button for the Command Room level, then impatiently tapped his foot
until the doors opened again.  He’d find Peter, track down Poacher, save the
girl and then…

Peter spoke instantly as the doors of
the elevator opened on the Command Room level, he didn’t even bothering to look
up from his paper as he lounged at the command table.  “She’s fine.  Chillax,
bro.”

Wyatt scowled, but still felt a
rush of relief for some reason at hearing that the girl was still unharmed.  “You
sure?”

His brother chuckled like that was
funny.  “I’m
always
sure.”  He turned the page of his paper.  “Sorry. 
You’re not going to get a great showdown with the villain to save the girl
today.”

Wyatt sank down into one of the
command chairs and glanced over at his brother.  “Well… that’s good.  I’m
glad.  Where is she then?  Shouldn’t we be going after them, anyway?”

Peter shrugged.  “She’s around. 
There’s no need to chase them down though; you’ll run into them again
someday.”  He handed him some folders.  “Here, have some paperwork.  That’ll
take your mind off of the girl you’re suddenly stalking.”

He began absently looking over the
completely mundane documents, finding it very hard to focus on anything but the
girl.  He scowled at his brother.  “I think there’s just a
little
difference between trying to help a girl that’s been kidnapped, and
stalking
her…”  He frowned down at an entry.  “…And it looks like doing either will be
hard for the foreseeable future, as I’ve apparently been transferred out of the
cell block, and assigned to doing
more
public relations work for The Architect’s
company.”  He looked up from the paperwork and glanced across the table at his
brother.  “Why don’t we ever get to DO anything anymore?  Why do I have to
waste my time helping him make a profit, when there are REAL problems out there
I could be helping with?”

Peter shrugged.  “Maybe you’ll get
lucky and your dream girl will be a guard there too.  Something tells me that
girl could end up President of that company one day...”

Wyatt thought about her for a
moment….her curvy body…  “No…no, I still think I should go after them, right
now.  Just in case Poacher tries to hurt her.”  He ran a hand through his hair. 
“I mean, you’re SURE that she’s going to be okay, right?”

Peter made an annoyed sound.  “Come
on, man!”  He started chuckling.  “How can you POSSIBLY be whipped by a girl
you met ONCE for five minutes?  Have some
dignity!
”

“I’m not whipped…I’m just worried.”

“She’s
fine
.  You go after
her now, and everything’s going to get all screwed up.  I know she’s made you
all impatient, but you need to relax for a little while longer, okay?”   

Wyatt absently began twirling in
his padded yellow swivel chair which was bolted to the floor.  .  Even the
CHAIRS here were stifling and uncomfortable.  He didn’t want to sit still.  He
wanted to go find that girl.  “It’s not JUST because of the girl, no matter
what you’re thinking over there.”  His brother looked unconvinced, and Wyatt
scowled at him.  “It’s really not…Or maybe it is…I don’t know.  In either case,
it’s just… You ever find yourself wishing for something to happen?  Like for
someone to blow something up or rob a bank? 
Anything.
  Just so we’d
have something to
do
?  I’m bored out of my mind just sitting here
waiting.  We’ve been trapped in here for days, and the rest of the team is
driving me
crazy. 
And that’s when they’re actually around, which they
NEVER are.  Honest to God; when they brought Poacher in, I was almost
happy
to see him, just because I’d finally have something to do.  THAT’S how bad it
is here.”

Peter glanced at him over his
newspaper.  “Well, you’ll be happy then, because today is a big day.”

Wyatt was interested now.  His
brother was born already knowing everything he would ever know.  Every person
he would ever meet, every place he’d ever see, every fight he’d ever have.  All
of it.  It was a remarkably useful superpower, in that Peter always knew what
was going to happen, because he already
remembered
it happening.

“Really?  What?”

Peter shook his head.  “Sorry. 
Can’t say.  It’ll be an eventful day though, don’t worry.  One for the record
books.”

Wyatt scowled.  “You know, you
could be a little more forthcoming with information.  It might be nice to have
a warning, once in a while.”

Peter shook his head.  “I can’t
warn you, because I
didn’t
warn you.  It gets complicated, I know, but
try to follow along.  I don’t remember warning you, so I can’t.”

Wyatt sighed.  “Not even a vague
hint?  I’m
dying
here!”

Peter laughed.  It was an odd
laugh, like he found Wyatt’s choice of words amusing.  “No, you’re not.  You my
friend, have a destiny.  And today is the start of that.”

Wyatt rested his head on the table. 

Destiny?  What the hell did that
mean?  Destiny.  So far, Wyatt’s destiny consisted of wasting his time here. 
All his life he had been the youngest child of the two most popular superheroes
of their generation.  Oh God, everyone just
loved
them.  His whole life
had been spent in the spotlight.  He was “Fabricator,” a superhero dedicated
to… whatever it was that superheroes were supposed to be dedicated to.  Mainly,
it seemed to be a dedication to sitting around and being bored out of his mind. 

The situation was made all the
worse by the fact that Peter had given their TV to some couple who lived in an
apartment over an electronics store down on 3rd and Weston.  He said that they
needed it more than he did, and that one day Wyatt would thank him for it. 
Wyatt seriously doubted that.  He LIKED that TV and now he had nothing to do
but sit around and notice how boring this place was.

He and his brother Peter, or
“Continuum” as his parents decided Pete should be called, were forced into this
life.  Not that Wyatt HATED the life of a superhero.  It had its advantages,
and was occasionally fun.  When they were younger, he and Peter had once single
handedly stopped a plot to blow up the Churchill building.  They saved
thousands of people, and they did it on their own.  Years later, when his
parents got themselves lost forever in space…  That still sounded stupid even to
him, and he knew that it was a factually accurate statement of what had happened
to them…  That left openings on the main Freedom Squad roster.  The big
leagues.  So, along with their friend Kristine AKA “The Vegan”, they were
called up from doing their own thing, and they took their place at the table. 

That was almost ten years ago
though, and lately Wyatt was starting to feel like it was a different lifetime. 
Now that they were part of the main team, things were more complicated.  They
had to listen to other people’s orders, and act when they said to act.  Someone
else was deciding who the villains were, and Wyatt still wasn’t used to it. 
The lines were blurring, and Wyatt didn’t like that.  Sometimes it felt like
being part of a super powered army or political force, rather than a group of
people trying to help the world.  The Freedom Squad had always controlled his
career
,
but sometimes he could see that they had always been in charge of his
life
as
well.  He did not feel comfortable with that realization.

Plus, it was also… lonely.  The
rest of the team was seldom around, and when they were, they weren’t really
that much fun to hang out with.  Most of them were kind of… jerks.  Wyatt spent
the majority of his time trying to be around them, just so he had something to
do, while simultaneously trying to escape them, because he didn’t like them.

Peter turned the page of his
newspaper and smiled.  “Oh look, your new little ‘bomber’ friend Harlot made
the paper again.  Remember her?  Gosh, last time we saw her, she was still a gawky
teenager.  Bet she looks different
now
.”  He took on a thoughtful
expression.  “Why, I bet she could walk
right
up to us and we’d probably
have NO idea it was her.  No idea at all.”  He turned the page around so that
Wyatt could see.  “Third time this month she’s made the paper though.  Frankly,
I’m surprised you haven’t read any of the articles, or even looked at the
pictures.  She’s on a roll.  I think she’s really perfecting her skills; it’s a
pleasure to watch an artist master her craft.”

Wyatt leaned forward to get a
better look at the mug shot of the young dark haired woman.  Then, he winced. 
Goddammit.  He
KNEW
that guard looked familiar.  Surprisingly, the news
that she was evil made him feel depressed, but not altogether surprised.  The
cute ones were never his fans.  He should have known better.  She must have
been laughing at him the entire time.  Oh, she must have thought it was just
the funniest thing in the world that he was trying to flirt.  He leaned back in
his chair, feeling crushed for some reason.  Dammit.

“You could have TOLD me that she
was the guard, Pete, and not let me make a COMPLETE jackass out of myself. 
Once again, a WARNING would have been nice.”

His brother laughed.  “Oh, now where
would the fun in that be?”

Wyatt shook his head at his
brother’s characteristic strange sense of humor and pointed at the paper.  “Well,
what’d the Commodore have her steal this time?  Don’t see her out and about
that much, especially not the past few years.  It must have been either a very
special
job or an incredibly
unimportant
one for them to let her do it.”

Peter looked at the article again. 
“Says she stole some Incan treasures from a museum in Brooklyn; the
Cuzco Capybara
. 
It’s made of gold and gemstones.  Pretty.”

Wyatt scoffed.  “I swear to God,
that’s all she ever does; steal stuff and free criminals.  When all is said and
done, that bitch will have freed the devil himself from hell and will have
stolen everything but her own
gravestone
.”  He took a sip of his coffee,
his depression turning into anger.  “
SHE’S
who we should be locking up,
man.  One of these days, the Commodore’s going to realize that he should take
her off the bench and put her in the game more, and then we’re
all
in
trouble. 
Next time
, she won’t just sneak in here to get that idiot
Poacher out, she’ll also cut our throats and steal our wallets while she’s at
it.  Maybe a bridge or a mountain range too.”

Peter laughed.  “Girl’s got moxie. 
I like her.”

Wyatt rolled his eyes.  “You just
like the way her ass looks in that skin tight black leather bodysuit she wears.”

Peter nodded.  “Absolutely.  I’m
not dead yet, you know.  And don’t you even
pretend
that you haven’t
noticed that too.  The little minx has got more curves than a county road laid
out by a drunken, blind road crew, and you know it.  Or was I
imagining
you having eye sex with her down there in the holding cell?”

Wyatt laughed at his brother’s idiotic
metaphor.  “Whatever.  Stacked or not, she’s evil.”

Peter started reading the paper
again.  “Yeah, she’s totally evil… but hot as hell.”  He nodded.  “Yep.  Guy
that lands her is one lucky SOB.”

Wyatt started to flip through the
police communication channels in an effort to find something to do.  Maybe
someone had a report on where Poacher and Harlot might be headed.  “’Guy’? 
Singular? 
Please
.  More like ‘hockey team’ or ‘small nation of men’.”

Peter turned the page.  “I don’t
know, man.  She looks like a
nice
girl to me.”

Wyatt scoffed.  “Nice?  Dude, her
name is ‘Harlot’ and she’s a
super-villain
.  In what alternate reality
does that classify as ‘nice’?”

Peter laughed.  “Oh, you’d be
surprised.  Besides, sometimes life forces us to do things that…”

Wyatt rolled his eyes.  “I swear to
God, if you’re going to give me one of your talks about morality again, I might
throw up.  Listen, there are heroes and there are villains, and there’s very
little gray area there.   She is a villain, ergo, she is
villainous
.  As
in:
not a nice person.
  She’s the person who
hurts
nice people,
and she should be arrested and thrown in jail without trial forever.  Her name
means ‘whore’ for god’s sake, what does that tell you about her?”