Yesterday's Heroes (Consortium of Chaos Book 1) (27 page)

That one event had sealed his
status as “hero” in her mind.  She came from a family of people who respected
that kind of stubborn belief in following their own ideals, no matter what
anyone else said.  Most of their ideals were
clearly
wrong, but that was
beside the point.  Her whole life, she had been told that heroes were cowards,
but that single act was the bravest thing she had ever seen, and it changed her
life.  True, the Buslatanian prince turned out to be a selfish
asshole
,
but that was beside the point too.  Wyatt had given him the chance to become
what he wanted to be, and it wasn’t his fault the guy apparently wanted to be a
total jerk.  Self-determination wasn’t about the final destination, it was
about the
journey
.  You should have the right to chart your own course. 
Where you ended up was up to you.

So, for the last 19 years of her
life, she had studied the heroes.  But none of them could hold a candle to
Wyatt.  It wasn’t his powers or being a Cape that made him a special, it was
what was inside.  As such, she knew beyond all shadow of a doubt that he was up
to something here, and that working with the Consortium hadn’t been a trick. 
He quite simply wouldn’t do that.  It was below him.

Badger’s eyebrows rose.  “You mean
YOU sent her to the museum?  Why would you do that?”

Wyatt rolled his eyes.  “Use your
head, Randy.  LOOK at her!  Tell me she isn’t the sexiest thing you’ve ever
seen.”

Badger nodded.  “I….I see what you
mean.  Yeah.  Yeah, that was a good plan.”

Wyatt nodded.  “Thank you.  I try.”

She opened her mouth to yell at him
to just kill the bastard and get it over with, but he cut her off.  “I fear our
friend
is about to have an outburst, Randy.  Please be so kind as to
silence her.  We want her to have plenty of screams left for
later.
”

The other man laughed, pressed a
button and a new shield formed around where she was standing.  She screamed at
him, anyway, but she could tell that he could no longer hear her.  She could
still hear HIM though, which was weird.  She used the distraction to start
picking the lock on her cuffs.

Wyatt casually took off his
overcoat.  “So…you have more experience with this than I do, Randall.  How do
we go about it?  Which of us goes first?  Personally, I’m of the opinion that
since I’m the one who arranged this little…
encounter…
I should be the one
who gets first crack at making sure she lives up to her name.  Especially since
I doubt she’ll be in
any
condition to keep me company after
you’re
done with her.”

Badger’s eyes narrowed.  Wyatt had
obviously overplayed his hand.  “Bullshit.  You were never one to play my game. 
Always the fucking Boy Scout.  You’re not going ANYWHERE until I know why
you’re REALLY here.”  He pressed another button and the table Wyatt was sitting
at was similarly encased.  “I don’t believe you for a SECOND.  I’ll get to you
as soon as I’m done with her.  I think you’ll find that that shield will
withstand even YOUR powers.”

Wyatt might be a fine actor, but he
was a terrible liar.  No one could
possibly
believe that he had somehow
turned into a rapist overnight.  He really should have known better, and come
up with some other excuse for taking her out of here without a fight.  For some
reason, Wyatt was always thinking that people would believe he was a bad person,
though.  She didn’t understand why he always seemed to think of himself that
way.  In his mind, he was apparently a terrible man, so he assumed others would
think so too.  But it never worked.  It didn’t work with the C of C, and it
wasn’t working now.  He was simply too good a person to ever sink to
depravity.  He could lie to himself all he wanted, but he wasn’t evil.  

Nope.  He should have come up with
a better lie in this situation.  …She’d really have to get Traitor to give him
a crash course in dishonesty.  Assuming Badger didn’t kill them both right now……and
that she ever got around to
freeing
Traitor from police custody.  Arnold
Benedix was the world’s best liar.  Hell, he once escaped a courthouse holding
cell by somehow convincing the guards that he was the judge assigned to his
case, despite the fact that he was in handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit at the
time.  A few hours of Arn’s instructions, and Wyatt could have told Badger he
was the TV repairman and that she was a broken flat-screen, and the lunatic
would have helped him load her into the van.

Wyatt sighed.  “There’s really no
need to be so disagreeable.  I think we can reach an understanding without
there being a confrontation about this.”

Badger laughed and sat down in the
chair opposite Wyatt across the table, the amber energy shield between them.  “HA! 
Confrontation?  The only confrontation that’s going to take place is my
confrontation with her cunt and then your ass.  First you get to watch, then
it’s
your
turn.”

Wyatt’s eyebrows rose in surprise. 
“Did you just threaten to rape me, Randall?”

The other man nodded.

Wyatt shrugged, his voice utterly
calm.  “Well…that’s certainly unexpected.  And you’re sure that there’s no way
I can talk you out of this course of action?”

The other man shook his head.  “That
bitch is
mine
.  By the time I’m done with her, there’ll be more of
MY
DNA in her than hers.  But don’t worry, I’ll save some for you too.  I’ve
wanted to teach you some
respect
for years now.”

Wyatt nodded, sounding resigned.  “Very
well.  You leave me no choice then.”

Badger braced himself as Wyatt
opened his briefcase and pulled out a letter.  He read whatever it said and
then pulled out a…
teddy bear? 
What the hell?

Badger looked at the small furry
plush animal sitting in front of him and relaxed.  “What the fuck is that? 
What is it?  Like a bomb or something?  Because that shield is strong enough to
deflect anything.”

Wyatt laughed.  “No, of course
not.  Don’t be silly.  It’s exactly what it appears to be.”  His evil smile spread. 
“It’s a
TEDDY BEAR.
”

The computer made a beeping sound
and Badger’s head whipped around to stare at it.  “VERBAL COMMAND PASSCODE
ACCEPTED: SHIELDS DEACTIVATED.”

Badger’s head turned back to the
table, but it was too late.  Wyatt had casually pulled a gun from the briefcase
and shot him twice in the face.  Badger toppled backwards out of the chair and
sprawled on the floor.

SHIT!

She popped the lock on her cuff and
rubbed her wrist as Wyatt calmly walked the table and put two more bullets into
Badgers’ head.  Then he bent down and took the man’s pulse.  Apparently unhappy
with the results, he put the gun in the man’s mouth and emptied it into his
brain until it clicked empty.

She stared at him a moment. 
“That’s uh…that’s a little bit of an overkill there, don’t you think Wyatt?  I
think he was dead before he hit the ground.”

He turned to look at her, his eyes more
intense than she’d ever seen them.  “Are you okay?  Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head, still feeling
dazed.  “No…no.  I’m fine.”  She smiled.  “…But I think he’s had it.  You can
probably stop shooting him now.”

Wyatt relaxed at hearing that she
was fine, and stared down at the body for a moment.   He tossed the gun aside
and started dragging the man towards one of the deep caverns on either side of
the computer area.  “You willing to bet your life on that?  Because I’ve known
this guy for years, and I don’t want to have to look over my shoulder for the
rest of my life waiting for him to try to get even.  I’ve seen him come back
when people thought he was dead too many times, and I’m going to make SURE the
asshole is dead before I leave.”  He paused.  “Plus, I hate rapists.  Especially
when it’s ME they’re threatening to rape.”  He dropped the man’s leg and glared
over at her.  “And next time, can you PLEASE just pay the quarter for the
parking meter?  Huh?  Because this is a
colossal
pain in the ass.”

She scoffed.  “VILLAINS don’t pay
to park.  It’s a matter of professional pride.”  She sniffed indignantly. 
“Besides, this all would have worked out FINE if you were a better liar.”  She
rolled her eyes.  “But oh no, you just had to try to turn yourself into some
kind of
sex fiend
.”  She pointed at the corpse.  “You really think he’s
not going to be able to see through that? 
REALLY!?!”
 She threw her
arms up and yelled at him; trying to accentuate a fact he so often overlooked. 
“You’re
FABRICATOR
, moron!  You’re a good guy! 
THE
good guy, in
my expert opinion!  Of
COURSE he’s going to know you’re lying!”

“Well, how did YOU know I was
lying!?!  I could be some kind of closeted psycho!  You don’t know!”

“Oh please.  You’re the most
dependable and honest guy I’ve ever met.  You can’t be a sex fiend even when
you’re TRYING to be one.  You’re about as scary as
yogurt
.  I didn’t
doubt you for a
second
.”

“Well, you should have.”

“YOU’RE the only one who ever
doubts you.  Everyone else is sure.  Besides, even if I
didn’t
know what
kind of man you are, you’re still the WORST liar I’ve ever seen.”

He rolled his eyes.  “I guess I
just don’t have your natural aptitude for subterfuge, Angel.  Maybe I should
have just told him my name was Guard Malkin…”

“Oh please, are you still on that?” 
She rolled her eyes in exasperation.  “
STILL!?!
  Get over it, man.  YOU’RE
the one who refused to continue making out with
ME
at the museum.  I
should be the one complaining about YOU leading
ME
on.”  She shook her
head.  “YOU’RE the one that’s the tease, man.  So shut it!”  She pointed at the
table.  “And did you really take time out of rescuing me, to
go buy a teddy
bear?
”

He shook his head, sadly.  “Wasn’t
my idea; take it up with Peter.  He always had a flair for the dramatic.”  He kicked
the body at his feet. “Badger’s a fucking sadist.  Guy would rape a tree if he
could get it to scream.”  He put the body on the overhang and bent down and
placed one of the funeral cards into Badger’s pocket.  He took off the man’s
utility belt.  “Another one for your trophy wall, Angel.  Careful it isn’t
booby-trapped though.”

He pulled a squirt bottle of
lighter fluid from his briefcase and emptied the contents onto the body in a
thin stream, then walked over to one of the weapons shelves and pulled down a
bandolier of Badger shaped grenades and wrapped it around the body.

She looked around the cave.  “Your
total idiocy almost ruining the moment notwithstanding, this place is AWESOME,
don’t you think?  I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see what it REALLY looked like.”  She
beamed.  “It looks just like the cartoon!  This is so cool!”

He stared at the body for a moment
longer, apparently thinking over his plan.  “Yes, thrilling.”

A long curved sword of telekinetic
energy appeared in his head and he brought it down on the man’s neck and
decapitated him.  He casually picked up the head, placed it on the man’s chest,
wrapped the bandolier over it, pulled a pin from one of the weapons, dropped a
match on his corpse so that it burst into flames and kicked him off the edge
and into the darkness.  Ten seconds later the body exploded and the cavern
rocked from the blast.  He watched the fire burn far below as the charred pieces
of the body continued falling into oblivion.  His evil smile grew.  “Let’s see
the brutal son-of-a-bitch come back from
THAT.
”

 She stared at him in shock.  “You
shot him ten times, decapitated him, burned him, blew him up and threw him into
a bottomless chasm.  I’d say he’s dead, yeah.”

Wyatt shook his head.  “Never much
liked him anyway.  On my seventh birthday, my parents invited him to the party
they threw…honestly, I think they just wanted to have a party for
themselves
,
but whatever.  I figured he was a billionaire so chances were that I’d get
something good, right?  But no.  Underwear.  And not just ANY underwear; I got little
briefs with his
picture
on them.  What kind of sick pervert gives a
seven year old boy a pair of underwear with his face smiling out from the
crouch and ass?  Sick.”

Her mouth fell open.  “He went to
your birthday parties?”

Wyatt nodded and walked away from
the edge of the chasm.  “Like I said, he was my godfather.  Soooooo glad I
didn’t have to go live with him.  A terrifying thought.”

She made a puzzled face.  “Hey, how
did you know what the verbal code was?”

He shrugged.  “One of the
advantages of being a hero is that the other heroes tell you things.  Badger
told Peter at some point, and Peter told me in a letter.”  His brow furrowed in
consideration for a moment.  “…You know, Cynic might be right, it’s not always
a wise decision to share information with other heroes, is it?  Sure came back
to bite Honey Badger, anyway.”

She shook her head and looked
around the room at Badger’s inner sanctum.  “Well, it serves him right.  What
an asshole.  I AM rather flattered he was going to rape me FIRST though. 
You’re a good looking guy, but I was his
number one
pick, remember that. 
Bet you’re totally jealous.”

He smiled.  “Well, everyone wants
to dance with the prettiest girl at the party.  The rest of us just get the
leftovers.”

She laughed.  “Thanks!  Should it
bother me that I think that was actually a sweet thing to say?”

Wyatt closed his briefcase.  “Yes. 
Yes it should.”  He grabbed his overcoat.  “Let’s just get out of here.”

She frowned.  “Oh, come on!  We
should look around first!”

He rolled his eyes.  “Yeah, let’s
not, huh?”

She sighed, absently grabbing
pieces from a spare Badger costume hanging on one of the walls.  “And how
precisely
did you plan on doing that?  Did you bring the car?”