Post by baddius on Oct 24, 2017 18:58:44 GMT -5
Ok. here goes. I am writing a superhero story but I have no idea whether anything I am writing is coherent or entertaining or understandable. As an author, I am blind to my own flaws as well as my own assets, so I always assume everything I write is pure condensed awesome with the sneaking suspicion that it actually sucks and everyone is laughing at me behind my back. That being said, I am going to post this sample of my work, albeit a long sample. Please provide ANY feedback. I know the rules of the thread say only constructive criticism, but, honestly, even telling it "It sucks and you are a failure of a human being for writing this garbage" at least tells me I am doing SOMETHING wrong. So here it is...
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The first thing Keith noticed was the light. It was bright. He could tell this before he even had opened his eyes. Pressed against his back was a slab of cold metal, or, more accurately, he was lying on a steel table. He opened his eyes and could see nothing other than the spotlights hovering above him.
Where was he?
His last memory was of chaos and confusion, then calm. He had been in the new Guild Headquarters, hadn’t he? He couldn’t remember exactly. There was an alarm blaring. Gunfire. Screams. Explosions. The Guild had been attacked. By the National Guard. It did not make sense. The Government and the Guild had an understanding: The Guild dealt with the supervillains that civilians simply could not handle and the government let them operate as they chose. Why would they attack each other?
Code Janus. He remembered. The Guild had received a warning.
“The US Government Has Been Compromised by Supervillains. The President is Sending Troops to Kill You. Resist or Die.”
The warning came from an unknown source and Guild techs had begun to trace it when the first missile struck the tower. Distress signals pinged in from all tower locations - not just in the United States, but every location worldwide. It was a global assault.
They resisted. Well, many of them did. The Guild quickly discovered that night just how many of their loyal members weren’t so loyal after all; they were only in it for the money or were simply cowards. They resisted and they died. Keith saw the deaths of too many of his comrades in the chaos that followed. Rubber Lad, Speedie, Captain Fusion, Magenta, Silver Streak, Lady Liberty, Shark Girl… All of them were dead now. Their sacrifices might not have been in vain, for the Guild was winning the skirmish, having sent the National Guard into defensive positions around the perimeter they had set up with their equipment. They were winning… until She arrived – Mindwraith.
No one had seen Mindwraith for 23 years. The maniacal mistress of mind control had simply vanished into thin air following an attempted takeover of a nuclear silo in rural Nebraska. Everyone had assumed her to be dead, but there she was walking confidently amongst the government agents and federal troops. There was no defense against the power she wielded.
Her command to surrender was overpowering and Keith felt himself kneeling on the ground, hands raised into the air. The troops rushed forward into the tower compound. As one passed, Keith could make out the logo on his shoulders. Not the US Flag as he expected, but a depiction of the sun, eclipsed by the moon. They were not National Guard after all. Gunshots rang through the air as the other remaining Heroes were shot execution style one by one. Keith waited with trepidation for his turn, but it never came. Instead, he felt the sharp jab of a needle in his neck and then nothing.
So here he was now. Where was he?
He tried to sit, but found that he was held down by something around his torso. Confused, he went to move his hands, but found they, too, were bound. He kicked out, but his feet were also strapped tightly to the table. The straps dug tightly into his wrists and ankles. Panicking, he struggled briefly against his bonds, but found they only cut into his skin tightly. It was then that he realized he couldn’t even feel his hands or feet at all. He turned his head to the right and saw a folding table set up next to him, with an array of sharp, bloody instruments laid out on a tray. He had been captured. Keith took a few breaths to steel himself.
“Subject is conscious beep boop,” said a high-pitched voice behind him. It almost sounded like a child’s voice warped by a synthesizer. Keith twisted his head to the left and strained to catch a glance at his captors, but could see nothing. “Permission to begin enhanced interrogation, my queen?”
“No need for such extreme measures, Radon,” replied a woman’s voice. She sounded calm, almost bored. “I am sure our guest here has been trained to resist such disdainful techniques, anyways. Besides, would I want to hurt my own family?”
Family? Keith had no family. His mother and father had been killed the very same day the guild fell. The news reported that they tried to use their powers against government agents who had come to serve a warrant for their arrest, but that was a lie. His parents had lost their powers eight months ago during their incarceration by the villain known as Dr. Baddius Syntax. That was another thing. He technically had a brother who was still living, but, after everything he did, Baddius was dead to him.
The table suddenly flipped into a vertical position. Keith was looking at a tall, beautiful woman wearing a skintight black spandex leotard with no marking of any kind along with knee-high stiletto boots. He skin had a flawless alabaster tone and blemish-free complexion. Her full, raven hair flowed gracefully almost to her ankles. She wore no makeup that Keith could see other than black nail polish and lipstick. She had a perfect hourglass figure and wore a kind smile on her face, barely showing perfect pearly teeth. She was beautiful – even Keith could tell this, and yet she seemed familiar somehow. These thoughts were pushed aside as Keith felt a strange calm wash over him. It didn’t matter who she was. This woman would never hurt him, she never would think of it.
“Oh, Keith,” the woman addressed him, her icy voice sharply contrasting with the strange kind vibe Keith was getting from her. “I do hope my associates have not been too unkind to you. I got here as soon as I learned of what happened. This has all been a terrible mistake, you see. My employees here have mistakenly come to the conclusion that you are our enemy, but I know better. The truth could not been any further, in fact. You are, as all other superhumans, my ally. So, I apologize for the dreadful treatment you have endured. This simply will not do!”
Keith was filled with gratitude toward the woman, though he did not quite know why. It was obviously true that these binding were unnecessary. He could never hurt this woman who so clearly radiates kindness.
“Radon,” she addressed the man behind the table, “please undo my brother’s bindings, now.”
Brother?
“Yes, my queen,” replied the child-like voice.
The bonds around his ankle and wrists loosened instantly, then the strap around his torso unsnapped a few seconds later. Keith dropped and tried to keep his balance, but fell on his hands and knees on the ground instead. For a moment the world tilted and swirled. He was weaker than he thought. He took a few deep breaths, trying to muster the strength to rise, when a metallic hand lowered into his field of view.
The hand appeared to be some type of advanced prosthetic, with five articulate fingers, until Keith looked up and saw that it was attached to a long metal arm consisting of interlocking metal rings. The arm itself was attached to what Keith could only describe as a robot. The robot’s body was a grey cylinder and it had two arms and two legs, all of which were composed of the same interlocking rings as the arm. The creature itself was only 3 or four feet tall.
The robot looked at him and smiled with a face that was simply a rough, pixilated approximation of a human face as would be presented by 1980s computer technology. Stranger still, it was floating in the air above the torso of the robot where a human head would be. The mouth wobbled like a sound-wave synthesizer on recording equipment when it spoke.
“Beep. Do you require assistance, Mr. Keith Michael Syntax?”
The creature spoke with a child-liked voice. This had to be the one who was out of sight while Keith was tied down. This had to be Radon.
Radon did not wait for a response and grabbed Keith by the arm, lifting him to his feet with a strength that seemed impossible for something its size and nearly pulling his arm out of his socket.
“If you would excuse me, my services are required elsewhere. I have other subjects to attend to and experiments to perform. Beep Boop.”
The robot then turned away from Keith and walked over to a large steel door with a keypad set into the wall next to it. Too quickly for Keith to even see what it was doing, the robot pressed a succession of buttons, its hand a blur. The door beeped and slid open. A brightly lit hallway lay beyond the door, but Keith could only see it for a moment before the door slid shut again, after the robot walked through.
Keith briefly looked around the room. He was in a laboratory of some type, with various computers and other scientific machinery scattered throughout. The door Radon left through seemed to be the only exit. Keith glanced behind him. He had been strapped to what looked like a steel surgical table. He had been bound with what appeared to be fine red-stained steel wires.
Keith gingerly rubbed his wrist and pulled his hand away to find it covered with blood. The sensation was returning to his hands and now he could feel the pain. It hit him with a surprising intensity. The wires that had bound him had actually cut into him. He could already feel his skin knitting back together, now that the wires were removed. If not for his healing ability, he would already be dead.
“Regeneration,” the woman said with a hint of marvel in her voice, “you sure are full of surprises, brother.”
Keith started. He had somehow forgotten the woman was there. He looked over at her, confused. Something was wrong. He knew he should be afraid, but he also felt with all his being that he needed to trust this woman. He needed answers. Now.
“Excuse me, miss –“
“Please, call me Christine.”
“Ok then. Christine, who the hell are you and why am I here instead of lying in some unmarked mass grave somewhere with the rest of my team?”
The wo- Christine frowned and her eyes briefly flashed with anger. Keith knew he shouldn’t have questioned her authority, immediately. However, a moment later, the look was gone or perhaps it had never been there at all. How could such a kind woman possibly be angry?
“The answer is simple: you are here because I need you on my side. You might have noticed that the world went to hell. Villains have taken over the governments of our world and, without the Guild, they now stand completely opposed! Entire cities are burning and everyone even suspected of being affiliated with the guild are being rounded up and killed. You are here because, well, you are the rightful leader of the Guild – our only hope.
“You see, all is not lost. Our father and mother foresaw a time like this and they had a solution. They created the Apocalypse Protocol to be activated in the event that the Guild had been compromised and its members hunted like animals. I am not sure what this Protocol does, but Father told me it contained enough power to protect the Guild, and even the entire world, in our darkest hour.
“The Protocol is hidden deep within the programming of the secret identity database. All we need is the access code. As Deputy Guild Leader, your code should work to activate the Apocalypse Protocol. It’s not too late. We can still save the Guild. We can still save the world together.”
Keith immediately knew he should help. No. That wasn’t right. He was suspicious! Nothing Christine said made sense, except it all did. But he had never heard of the Apocalypse Protocol, which Father surely would have told him about, unless he just didn’t trust him. Moreover, the databases had already been wiped, per Keith’s own command. Maybe he shouldn’t have given that command. No! The databases were wiped clean to prevent anyone from recovering the Guild archive of secret identities and using it for evil. He was justified in giving that order, but now, there was nothing left to recover even if he gave her his passcode. That, of course, meant it was safe to give her his passcode anyways but now there was a chance the Protocol had been wiped out with it! Keith didn’t know what to do. Should he trust Christine? His heart said yes but his instincts told him something was off and possibly very wrong.
“How do I know you are telling the truth? Why should I trust you?”
Keith had blurted it out without even thinking. He was being silly, of course. Christine obviously had his best interest in mind; especially if Father trusted her enough to give her this information.
“My dear, Keith. You don’t really have a choice, now do you?”
“What?”
“You either give me the passcode, or the world is doomed. Who knows what these villains have planned? Now, come on, brother. Don’t be shy. We don’t have much time.”
Keith knew he was being silly, but something kept nagging at him. He couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Ok. The passcode… It’s… The passcode is –“
Keith stopped mid-sentence. Something just occurred to him.
“Wait. Why do you keep calling me brother?”
“Brother? Isn’t it obvious? I am your long lost sister. Don’t you recognize me?”
His sister was dead. Keith knew this was true. He heard the story hundreds of times from Father and Mother. His big sister died when she was 18, before he was even born. The limousine taking her back to her house from Senior Prom was in an accident. The driver had been drinking. The limo went off the bridge. Someone had spiked the punch bowl at Prom. Christine drank some. Christine couldn’t swim. She was unconscious. She drowned. Christine drowned! Divers recovered her body the following morning. There was an open-casket funeral the following week. The entire school had attended. This couldn’t be Christine, no matter how much Keith wanted to believe it. But, why would she lie about something like that. Who was this woman?
Keith looked at the woman carefully. He had seen her before somewhere. Was it possible? Could this simply be his mind seeing the obvious – that they were related? Is that where he knew her from. No. That wasn’t possible. That wasn’t how memory worked. So where had he seen this woman before?
Suddenly, Keith knew. He had seen the woman before. He had seen her on the video footage from Baddius’s Citadel on that night eight months ago. He had watched that footage over and over. That day Mother and Father lost their superpowers and Baddius blew up an entire city. He had held the entire state of North Dakota hostage for two months before suddenly giving up. By then it was too late, exposure to that green light of his had taken Mother and Father’s powers from them. The Guild was never the same.
But that woman was behind him from the moment his parents were captured. That same woman, also on camera in Serena Williams’ office the night of the massacre at Eclipse Corp. That woman, who was now standing in front of him, claiming to be his sister. That woman who wanted access codes to the Guild Database. That woman… What had the news called her? Keith said it out loud without even meaning to.
“Madame Evil,” It was barely a whisper.
“Please, I thought I told you to call me-“
She would not finish her sentence! Keith was already moving, his super speed pulsing, racing at 6,000 mph to close the gap between them. He wouldn’t even be visible. He raised his fist and slammed it right… where her face had been nanoseconds before. Confused, he went right through where she had been standing.
“-Christine. I really do hate that dull, uninspired name the media gave to me.”
She finished the sentence, now standing several feet to Keith’s right, smirking at him. Shit. Keith kicked out, but she vanished once more. She reappeared behind him. Keith turned and jabbed his elbow at her, but, again, she was gone. Keith looked around the room frantically. Where had she gone?
“Really now? Was that your best? It’s adorable, but woefully inadequate. My advice to you is just give in before you get hurt, brother.” Her voice seemed to be coming from all directions at once. She reappeared at the far wall of the room.
“Just stop delaying the inevitable and give me the code, Keith. We can forget this all even happened.”
Keith charged forward and slammed his fist into the wall where her head had been. His hand smashed into the reinforced steel behind the thin drywall. His knuckles shattered and fingers broke. Keith howled in pain, but, already, he could feel his regeneration ability kick in. Madame Evil reappeared in the center of the room.
“Just give up, already. Honestly, brother, you’re embarrassing yourself.”
Keith took another swing at Madame Evil, but, inevitably, she side-stepped at the last second, tripping Keith in the process and sending him sprawling.
“This is your last chance, Keith. Enough with the shenanigans.”
Keith kicked the examination table up into the air, jumped into the air, grabbed the table in mid-air and swung it as fast and hard as could as he descended. Madame Evil held up her hand defensively in front of her face as the table connected. The impact sent shockwaves down the metal, numbing Keith’s hands. Finally! He hit her!
The table had crumpled like tissue paper, folding in half where it had hit her hand. The top half of the table was smashed into her head, dented into a bust of her head like a golf club wrapping around Wile E Coyote in that old cartoon. The table then suddenly dropped to the ground.
“That’s enough,” she said from behind him. Keith barely had time to turn around as a powerful force gripped him around his torso, crushing his ribs. He was lifted into the air and turned to face Madame Evil.
“I gave you your chance to do this the easy way. This is your FINAL warning. Give me the access code or suffer the consequences.” The force on his body tightened to the point that the breath was pressed out of him.
“Fuck you” Keith mouthed to Madame Evil. He would get satisfaction knowing that he was going to his grave without giving in. The world turned red around him as blood vessels burst in his eyes from the enormous pressure. As everything began to blur, Keith’s only regret was he never got to tell his parents about Kevin.
Suddenly the pressure was removed. Keith reflexively inhaled and immediately started coughing up blood. He was sure his ribs were broken but he could already feel his regeneration kicking back in. He would live. Keith wondered if that would be a good thing. He wouldn’t wonder for long.
“Tell me the code.”
“Never.”
Keith was suddenly flung across the room and into the wall. He felt a crushing force on him again but it relented for a moment. Then he was dragged across the wall, directly into the computer equipment. Keith smashed into the various electronics over and over. He could feel his bones breaking. He could feel his skin splitting. He could feel the surge of electricity coursing through his body. For several minutes, his entire existence was pain. Then it stopped and he was tossed to the ground in a crumpled heap. Again, his healing power began repairing the damage. The bitch wasn’t going to let him die.
“Tell me the code.”
“Fuck off you-“
Keith didn’t quite get to finish the rest of his vulgar sentence. He was flung against the wall, his body spread eagle. The pressure on him intensified and he did not think it could get worse. Then he felt an intense burning in his right wrist. Heat ignited in his left wrist. Then heat exploded in his left foot, then his right. Despite his healing ability mending the damage as fast as it could, the burning would not go away. Keith turned his head to see what was wrong and was horrified. A white-hot glowing shard of metal was impaled through his wrist, pinning him to the wall like a sort of deranged version of the crucifix.
Keith felt an intense pain shoot through his body. His muscles convulsed and pain radiated through every cell of his existence. He bit through his tongue. He soiled himself. He screamed incoherently in agony. His entire existence was pain. Pain consumed everything. Then, blessedly, it stopped.
Madame Evil was standing below him, her head up to his chest. Despite everything Keith had gone through and despite the state of the room, she still looked immaculate. She let out a chuckle.
“You are a stubborn one, I will give you that. But enough with the games, Keith. If you don’t give me what I need, I am going to have to get serious.”
Keith stared icily at the bitch. If he were able to he would have spat on her. As it was he was sure everyone bone in his body was broken. He was missing teeth. His skin was burnt all over. He was in no condition to do anything, let a lot give the defiant speech he wanted to give. But he still tried.
“Do yer vorse, biss.”
Madame Evil made an amused face.
“Very well. I will.”
The metal rods pinning him to the wall were ripped out and Keith crumpled to the ground with a wet thud. He felt a strange warm sensation spreading throughout his limbs and felt an unbelievable peace. He could hear his bones violently snapping back into place and a strange slithering sound but it was distant and he could not feel anything other than the serene warmth. After a minute the warmth faded and the world returned to him. He felt… nothing. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was broken.
Keith raised his head in surprise. He looked over at his hand and could see it was fully healed, as if nothing had ever happened. Was all this some kind of test after all? Why else would she heal him? Or was she just going to do it all over again. Keith shuddered at the thought.
“SIT,” Madame Evil commanded. The word echoed through his head and Keith was filled with a familiar sensation – mind control. His body rose of its own accord and walked calmly over to a chair that had not been there a moment ago. He sat in the chair, placing his arms on the armrests. Cuffs folded onto his arms and then his ankles, securing him in place. A final leather strap went across his head, holding it up.
“You might be willing to sacrifice yourself for your cause, Keith, and I admire that. But I cannot allow you to just die without you giving me the code. So now, I am going to do as you said and do my worst. This first one is on YOU and we will see if you change your mind.
What was she talking about? Keith had no idea and did not want to find out. Madame Evil snapped her fingers and a screen lowered from a recessed chamber in the ceiling. It looked like a large flat-screen television. It had a camera embedded in the base below the screen. When it fully lowered, it flickered on, showing Keith a plain white room with five people standing in it against the wall and a sixth person sitting in a chair, facing the five. No. The five weren’t standing. They were shackled to the wall. Keith felt a pit open in his stomach. He recognized the prisoners - Amy Adams, Susan Strong, Luke Ringo, Michael Desmond, and David Freedman. They were all tower leaders, like himself. Keith did not recognize the man sitting in the chair.
“Keith. I am sure you recognize your comrades here. You may, by now, have an idea as to what they are going in that room, but allow me to enlighten you should you be dense enough to not comprehend your situation. Like you, these five were captured alive when my forces raided your towers. Like you, these five were interrogated by me. Unlike you, however, these five proved to have no valuable information. Right not they cannot see you, but will be able to hear everything we say. I suggest you think carefully now if you value their lives.
“Also, I am sure you are familiar with Cecil Green. Wave for the camera Cecil.”
The man in the chair waved.
“If you are unfamiliar with Cecil here it’s most likely because you know him by his street name: Death, of the Four Horsemen. Cecil here has volunteered his services here to me today to pay off a debt he owes me for a certain liberation from incarceration I gave him. He is most likely bored out of his mind. Let’s give him something to do, now, shall we.”
“Wait… Please don’t”
“Now, now, Keith. I already told you. This first one is on you. You need to learn what the consequences for being so careless are.”
“Cecil,” she called out in a sing-song voice, “Kill the black one.”
The man in the chair rose and pivoted toward David Freedman. David was the leader of the Chicago Tower and possessed both super-strength and invulnerability to punctures, lacerations and blunt trauma. He had a wife and twin boys back home. They were only 3 months old.
David must have been drugged because all he did was stare blankly ahead as Cecil raised his hand and pointed his index finger at him. As soon as the finger was level with David’s heart, it happened. There was a white flash from the index finger and David went limp, like a marionette with its cords cut.
The reaction from the other prisoners was immediate. Susan screamed. Amy cried out. Luke struggled against his bonds. Michael was screaming profanity at Cecil. They all stopped when Madame Evil spoke.
“May I have your attention, please? You all know who I am. I know who you are. Your friend is now dead and you want to know why. Well, you can pin the blame squarely on your glorious leader here. I tried to be reasonable with him, but Keith here has decided to be difficult. He has information I want and, unless he give it to me, well, starting in 10 seconds, one of you is going to die every 10 seconds. Good luck. Cecil, begin.”
Cecil began to raise his hand toward Susan, who was now sobbing incoherently. Susan was the leader of one of the three New York City towers, the one in Queens. Her powers were super speed, flight and control of wind. The locals knew her as Streak. She had no family that Keith knew of, but he hadn’t really gotten to know her that well. She had always come off as too quirky for him to get to know. Now he wish he had.
“Please… Don’t do this. They’re innocent. They did nothing to you.”
“All you have to do is give me the code, Keith. It’s as simple as that and you can save your remaining four-“
There was a flash and Susan slumped over.
“I mean three friends.”
Cecil turned toward Michael. Michael was the leader of the Denver tower and had immunity to fire control of fire and control of temperature and was known as Pyrio. He was the same age as Keith. In fact, the two had dated briefly in high school. That was years ago. Michael, like Susan, had no real family to leave behind. He did, however, have seven cats whom he named after these short bearded men from an old movie. Keith closed his eyes to block out was he knew was going to happen, but Michael wasn’t going to let it go that easily.
“C’mon, man Keith. Please. You know me, man,” Michael was pleading, “Me and you go way back. This isn’t cool man. Do something. Just, Just… C’mon. FU-“He was suddenly cut short.
“Three down, two to go. It’s not too late.”
Cecil turned to face Luke. Luke was the co-leader of the Toronto tower up until 3 days before the raids. Keith did not even know what his powers were due to his recent promotion into the leader position. The leader of Toronto had killed himself, like all the other precognitives. Luke just stared at Cecil as the villain raised his hand. When it was level with his heart, Luke turned toward the camera and it was like he was staring right at Keith.
“Don’t tell her a damn thing, leader. For the greater good!”
There was a flash as Luke finished his recitation of the Heroes Guild motto. His lifeless body slumped forward in its bindings.
“And then there was one.”
Cecil turned toward Amy. Unlike the others, she had no superpowers. Amy was a gadgeteer, using self-made devices to fight crime instead of powers. She was known as Nightstalker. Amy was the one Keith was dreading most. It was not just her life Keith would be throwing away here if he let this pass. Amy was one month pregnant.
“Keith!” Amy called out, “Just give her whatever the fuck she wants, please. What are you holding back for anyways? Honor? Loyalty? Fuck that. The guild is finished. It’s done! Why are you sacrificing my life…? My child’s life for some useless fucking Code of honor that no one followed in the first place! ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING COWARD!”
“I’m sorry, Amy. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. Icanticanticanticanticanticant.”
“I’ll see you in hell, fucker.”
There was a flash and Amy went limp. With her mother dead, there would be no hope for the developing embryo contained within her womb. Tears streamed down Keith’s face. Her last words repeated themselves in his head over and over, unrelenting. The television screen switched off.
“Well, that was certainly entertaining,” Madame Evil said cheerily. If Keith could have gotten free, he would have tried to smash her face in, again. “It was very brave of you to sacrifice all those lives to protect a demolished institution and uphold its hypocritical values. Bravo Keith. I am impressed. I bet you thought I was done, but...”
Madame Evil gestured toward the screen, which switched back on. It was displaying multiple views in a split screen mode. There were hundreds of rooms, almost identical to the one it had been displaying moments before. Hundreds of rooms, each with 5 prisoners shackled to a wall.
“Really, I can keep this up all day before I run out of hostages.”
Keith felt the blood drain from his face. How long would he be able to endure this? A few minutes ago, Keith would have said the pain was the worst experience of his life. Now, he would give anything just to return to the simple world of pain.
“However, Keith. I think you’re juuuuuust about ready to break. So, allow me to bring in just one more very special hostage. Radon, bring in the VIP.”
The metal door in the wall opened with a hydraulic hiss and fog rolled into the room. All of this was being done OBVIOUSLY for the psychological effect, though Keith could not deny it was terrifying.
“Do you remember what Amy Adams had said to you about your Heroes Code? How no one listened to it anyways? Well, let me be the first to say that I know that YOU know what she said was true. You’ve been a very naughty boy.”
No….
“Section 12 of the Heroes Code states specifically, ‘A hero shall never burden himself with a physical or romantic relationship with any person who is not within the same power rank as himself. To do so would create an unnecessary and exploitable weakness that could be leveraged against the hero, should peril befall his love.’
NO!
“Well, Keith. With that in mind, let me introduce you to my next hostage, though you probably guessed as to who it is by now.”
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!
A metal cart on large wheels rolled slowly into the room, being pushed by Radon, whose digitized smile was now replaced with a cackling skull. There was a man in a green spandex outfit lying on the cart. His suit glittered and shimmered as it passed under the enormous light in the ceiling. On his head was a green helmet with a black visor obscuring his face. It was Geode, also known as Kevin Gatorman, also known as the love of Keith’s life.
Why was he here? Keith had specifically ordered him to flee to a safe place and hide until this blew over. Given his control of rocks and sediments, he could have literally just hidden in a hole in the ground, impossible to find. So, how had she found him? Oh god. What was she going to do to him? Keith knew he would tell her anything to protect Kevin.
Kevin groaned and turned his head toward Keith. “Keith… They got you too…”
“Kev… Look… I’m so sorry I… I should have been stronger…. I-“
“Shhh… It’s ok. Not your fault. I disobeyed your orders, Keith. Had to free the prisoners…”
“Oh god Kev. Why? They were villains. She would have just set them free herself.”
Keith knew this was false, but said it anyways, more to convince himself that he was right than anything else.
“Well, this has been a touching reunion, boys, but it’s time to go back to business. There’s still the little matter of the passcode that Keith owes me. We’ve already wasted so many of our resources trying to extract it from him. I was hoping you could prove to be a useful bargaining chip in our transaction.”
“The passcode? You need Keith’s passcode? And you think you are going to be able to use ME to coerce my boyfriend into giving it to you. Well, then. You’re just going to have to kill me, because I will NEVER forgive Keith if he does something that stupid and irresponsible.”
What?
Madame Evil smirked. “Very well.”
Kevin was yanked backward off the cart and slammed into the wall so hard the wall cracked, the air rushed out of his lungs with an audible “oof,” Keith could literally hear his boyfriend’s ribs cracking. Blood dribbled from his mouth when he opened it.
“Don’t…. tell her…. A fucking… thing”
This wasn’t happening! Kevin’s arms were pulled out from his sides, then his legs spread apart. The force continued pulling on his limbs, threatening to rip them out of his sockets. At the same time, Keith felt as if it were his heart being ripped asunder.
A glowing red rod materialized in the air in front of Madame Evil. It then flew into Kevin’s left wrist, then bent across the remainder of the wrist and into the wall. Another one appeared and flew into his right, doing the same thing. The process was repeated on his ankles. With each impact, Keith felt as though it was his heart being stabbed instead of his lover.
Blue lightening materialized in Madame Evil’s hand. It flew into Kevin and he convulsed violently. As the plasma played over him, it singed his hair. Keith realized this was the same thing she had been doing to him earlier. He knew how painful it was. Poor Kevin…
Keith was suddenly filled with horror as he came to a realization – Kevin had no healing ability. She was going to kill him!
She was going to kill the only person that Keith ever felt he could connect to. His parents had always been distant, with them saving the world and all, and Keith had never really had friends or lasting relationships. Then he met Kevin.
It was actually ironic that Kevin was one of the gentlest and sweetest people he knew, because Keith met him the day he arrested him for robbing a jewelry store. Kevin entered the supervillain rehabilitation program and went on the path to being a hero. He was assigned to be a sidekick to Providence Swift, Keith’s superhero persona. The two became friends quickly and were dating within a few months. They had been together for almost three years now. Keith had been seriously considering popping the question but never worked up the nerve.
And now he would never have the chance, because he was going to die. He was going to die and, for what? Why was Keith even protecting the passcode anyways? All it did was access the superhuman identity database and that had been erased. Even if she had the code, no harm could be done. All these thoughts flew across his mind as he watched the love of his life screaming and convulsing, nailed to a wall with searing-hot metal. He had to stop this. Kevin would understand.
“Stop!”
Madame Evil stopped.
“Look… Just… 6429983001497658. That’s the code. Just… Please… let him go.”
Madame Evil smiled broadly. “A deal is a deal, brother. Go on. Have your little boytoy.”
The metal pieces flew out of Kevin and he dropped at the same time the straps loosened on Keith. Keith was there to catch Kevin, his healing power flaring, before he could hit the ground.
“You… You fucking idiot…” Kevin mumbled as Keith cradled him, pouring as much healing energy as he could into his love.
“Shhh… Don’t worry, Kev. It’s gonna be ok. I… I couldn’t… I couldn’t let her take you from me. Besides, I wiped the databased when we were attacked. I don’t know why she wants the codes, but there is nothing to access.”
“Well, normally, that would be true,” came Madame Evil’s voice from across the room, where she was watching Radon typing rapidly on a laptop computer. “However, our dear brother, Baddius, disconnected one of them from the network 5 months ago when he destroyed the Potomac Tower. It turns out its hard-drives were still recoverable. I mean, the data IS 5 months out of date, but it’s more than we had, which was nothing.
“But… if it’s any consolation, you should know that you’re not actually responsible for the deaths of your friends. Your real friends were killed hours ago due to Radon’s… enthusiastic interrogation style. Upon facing danger to themselves and their loved ones, THEY didn’t immediately give up information that could extinguish all hope of stopping a… What did you call me… Oh yes – Maniac. The truth is the friends you saw Cecil killed on camera were just copies produced by an ability of mine”
“I apologize for the death of your friends Keith Michael Syntax,” The robot began, “but I was only programmed a few months ago and am still learning. How was I to know that humans failed to meet even the most basic durability standards?” The robot then changed tones “Wahoo! Database accessed!”
“And what do we have,” Madame Evil inquired.
“Looks like information on superhero and supervillain aliases, identities, homes, workplaces, families and known properties.”
“Hmmmm… This is going to be very useful in finding those holdouts. The information on the families is sure to be useful, though. Maybe we can find a way to persuade the more righteous of our enemies with that information.
“In the meantime, Radon, set our two lovebirds up in one of the guest rooms. Maybe the Lincoln Room. Yes. That one. They deserve it. After all, if not for their cooperation, the next stage of Phoenix would not be so easy.
“Download that data, Radon and have your technicians sort through it. I want it done as quickly as possible, with a full report on my desk within the hour.”
“Yes, My Queen.”
“In the meantime, I am not to be bothered until your tasks are finished. After all,”
Madame Evil’s body morphed into a different shape. Keith realized he was looking at Susan Carter, current US President. “I have a country to run.”
What had he done?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing Keith noticed was the light. It was bright. He could tell this before he even had opened his eyes. Pressed against his back was a slab of cold metal, or, more accurately, he was lying on a steel table. He opened his eyes and could see nothing other than the spotlights hovering above him.
Where was he?
His last memory was of chaos and confusion, then calm. He had been in the new Guild Headquarters, hadn’t he? He couldn’t remember exactly. There was an alarm blaring. Gunfire. Screams. Explosions. The Guild had been attacked. By the National Guard. It did not make sense. The Government and the Guild had an understanding: The Guild dealt with the supervillains that civilians simply could not handle and the government let them operate as they chose. Why would they attack each other?
Code Janus. He remembered. The Guild had received a warning.
“The US Government Has Been Compromised by Supervillains. The President is Sending Troops to Kill You. Resist or Die.”
The warning came from an unknown source and Guild techs had begun to trace it when the first missile struck the tower. Distress signals pinged in from all tower locations - not just in the United States, but every location worldwide. It was a global assault.
They resisted. Well, many of them did. The Guild quickly discovered that night just how many of their loyal members weren’t so loyal after all; they were only in it for the money or were simply cowards. They resisted and they died. Keith saw the deaths of too many of his comrades in the chaos that followed. Rubber Lad, Speedie, Captain Fusion, Magenta, Silver Streak, Lady Liberty, Shark Girl… All of them were dead now. Their sacrifices might not have been in vain, for the Guild was winning the skirmish, having sent the National Guard into defensive positions around the perimeter they had set up with their equipment. They were winning… until She arrived – Mindwraith.
No one had seen Mindwraith for 23 years. The maniacal mistress of mind control had simply vanished into thin air following an attempted takeover of a nuclear silo in rural Nebraska. Everyone had assumed her to be dead, but there she was walking confidently amongst the government agents and federal troops. There was no defense against the power she wielded.
Her command to surrender was overpowering and Keith felt himself kneeling on the ground, hands raised into the air. The troops rushed forward into the tower compound. As one passed, Keith could make out the logo on his shoulders. Not the US Flag as he expected, but a depiction of the sun, eclipsed by the moon. They were not National Guard after all. Gunshots rang through the air as the other remaining Heroes were shot execution style one by one. Keith waited with trepidation for his turn, but it never came. Instead, he felt the sharp jab of a needle in his neck and then nothing.
So here he was now. Where was he?
He tried to sit, but found that he was held down by something around his torso. Confused, he went to move his hands, but found they, too, were bound. He kicked out, but his feet were also strapped tightly to the table. The straps dug tightly into his wrists and ankles. Panicking, he struggled briefly against his bonds, but found they only cut into his skin tightly. It was then that he realized he couldn’t even feel his hands or feet at all. He turned his head to the right and saw a folding table set up next to him, with an array of sharp, bloody instruments laid out on a tray. He had been captured. Keith took a few breaths to steel himself.
“Subject is conscious beep boop,” said a high-pitched voice behind him. It almost sounded like a child’s voice warped by a synthesizer. Keith twisted his head to the left and strained to catch a glance at his captors, but could see nothing. “Permission to begin enhanced interrogation, my queen?”
“No need for such extreme measures, Radon,” replied a woman’s voice. She sounded calm, almost bored. “I am sure our guest here has been trained to resist such disdainful techniques, anyways. Besides, would I want to hurt my own family?”
Family? Keith had no family. His mother and father had been killed the very same day the guild fell. The news reported that they tried to use their powers against government agents who had come to serve a warrant for their arrest, but that was a lie. His parents had lost their powers eight months ago during their incarceration by the villain known as Dr. Baddius Syntax. That was another thing. He technically had a brother who was still living, but, after everything he did, Baddius was dead to him.
The table suddenly flipped into a vertical position. Keith was looking at a tall, beautiful woman wearing a skintight black spandex leotard with no marking of any kind along with knee-high stiletto boots. He skin had a flawless alabaster tone and blemish-free complexion. Her full, raven hair flowed gracefully almost to her ankles. She wore no makeup that Keith could see other than black nail polish and lipstick. She had a perfect hourglass figure and wore a kind smile on her face, barely showing perfect pearly teeth. She was beautiful – even Keith could tell this, and yet she seemed familiar somehow. These thoughts were pushed aside as Keith felt a strange calm wash over him. It didn’t matter who she was. This woman would never hurt him, she never would think of it.
“Oh, Keith,” the woman addressed him, her icy voice sharply contrasting with the strange kind vibe Keith was getting from her. “I do hope my associates have not been too unkind to you. I got here as soon as I learned of what happened. This has all been a terrible mistake, you see. My employees here have mistakenly come to the conclusion that you are our enemy, but I know better. The truth could not been any further, in fact. You are, as all other superhumans, my ally. So, I apologize for the dreadful treatment you have endured. This simply will not do!”
Keith was filled with gratitude toward the woman, though he did not quite know why. It was obviously true that these binding were unnecessary. He could never hurt this woman who so clearly radiates kindness.
“Radon,” she addressed the man behind the table, “please undo my brother’s bindings, now.”
Brother?
“Yes, my queen,” replied the child-like voice.
The bonds around his ankle and wrists loosened instantly, then the strap around his torso unsnapped a few seconds later. Keith dropped and tried to keep his balance, but fell on his hands and knees on the ground instead. For a moment the world tilted and swirled. He was weaker than he thought. He took a few deep breaths, trying to muster the strength to rise, when a metallic hand lowered into his field of view.
The hand appeared to be some type of advanced prosthetic, with five articulate fingers, until Keith looked up and saw that it was attached to a long metal arm consisting of interlocking metal rings. The arm itself was attached to what Keith could only describe as a robot. The robot’s body was a grey cylinder and it had two arms and two legs, all of which were composed of the same interlocking rings as the arm. The creature itself was only 3 or four feet tall.
The robot looked at him and smiled with a face that was simply a rough, pixilated approximation of a human face as would be presented by 1980s computer technology. Stranger still, it was floating in the air above the torso of the robot where a human head would be. The mouth wobbled like a sound-wave synthesizer on recording equipment when it spoke.
“Beep. Do you require assistance, Mr. Keith Michael Syntax?”
The creature spoke with a child-liked voice. This had to be the one who was out of sight while Keith was tied down. This had to be Radon.
Radon did not wait for a response and grabbed Keith by the arm, lifting him to his feet with a strength that seemed impossible for something its size and nearly pulling his arm out of his socket.
“If you would excuse me, my services are required elsewhere. I have other subjects to attend to and experiments to perform. Beep Boop.”
The robot then turned away from Keith and walked over to a large steel door with a keypad set into the wall next to it. Too quickly for Keith to even see what it was doing, the robot pressed a succession of buttons, its hand a blur. The door beeped and slid open. A brightly lit hallway lay beyond the door, but Keith could only see it for a moment before the door slid shut again, after the robot walked through.
Keith briefly looked around the room. He was in a laboratory of some type, with various computers and other scientific machinery scattered throughout. The door Radon left through seemed to be the only exit. Keith glanced behind him. He had been strapped to what looked like a steel surgical table. He had been bound with what appeared to be fine red-stained steel wires.
Keith gingerly rubbed his wrist and pulled his hand away to find it covered with blood. The sensation was returning to his hands and now he could feel the pain. It hit him with a surprising intensity. The wires that had bound him had actually cut into him. He could already feel his skin knitting back together, now that the wires were removed. If not for his healing ability, he would already be dead.
“Regeneration,” the woman said with a hint of marvel in her voice, “you sure are full of surprises, brother.”
Keith started. He had somehow forgotten the woman was there. He looked over at her, confused. Something was wrong. He knew he should be afraid, but he also felt with all his being that he needed to trust this woman. He needed answers. Now.
“Excuse me, miss –“
“Please, call me Christine.”
“Ok then. Christine, who the hell are you and why am I here instead of lying in some unmarked mass grave somewhere with the rest of my team?”
The wo- Christine frowned and her eyes briefly flashed with anger. Keith knew he shouldn’t have questioned her authority, immediately. However, a moment later, the look was gone or perhaps it had never been there at all. How could such a kind woman possibly be angry?
“The answer is simple: you are here because I need you on my side. You might have noticed that the world went to hell. Villains have taken over the governments of our world and, without the Guild, they now stand completely opposed! Entire cities are burning and everyone even suspected of being affiliated with the guild are being rounded up and killed. You are here because, well, you are the rightful leader of the Guild – our only hope.
“You see, all is not lost. Our father and mother foresaw a time like this and they had a solution. They created the Apocalypse Protocol to be activated in the event that the Guild had been compromised and its members hunted like animals. I am not sure what this Protocol does, but Father told me it contained enough power to protect the Guild, and even the entire world, in our darkest hour.
“The Protocol is hidden deep within the programming of the secret identity database. All we need is the access code. As Deputy Guild Leader, your code should work to activate the Apocalypse Protocol. It’s not too late. We can still save the Guild. We can still save the world together.”
Keith immediately knew he should help. No. That wasn’t right. He was suspicious! Nothing Christine said made sense, except it all did. But he had never heard of the Apocalypse Protocol, which Father surely would have told him about, unless he just didn’t trust him. Moreover, the databases had already been wiped, per Keith’s own command. Maybe he shouldn’t have given that command. No! The databases were wiped clean to prevent anyone from recovering the Guild archive of secret identities and using it for evil. He was justified in giving that order, but now, there was nothing left to recover even if he gave her his passcode. That, of course, meant it was safe to give her his passcode anyways but now there was a chance the Protocol had been wiped out with it! Keith didn’t know what to do. Should he trust Christine? His heart said yes but his instincts told him something was off and possibly very wrong.
“How do I know you are telling the truth? Why should I trust you?”
Keith had blurted it out without even thinking. He was being silly, of course. Christine obviously had his best interest in mind; especially if Father trusted her enough to give her this information.
“My dear, Keith. You don’t really have a choice, now do you?”
“What?”
“You either give me the passcode, or the world is doomed. Who knows what these villains have planned? Now, come on, brother. Don’t be shy. We don’t have much time.”
Keith knew he was being silly, but something kept nagging at him. He couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Ok. The passcode… It’s… The passcode is –“
Keith stopped mid-sentence. Something just occurred to him.
“Wait. Why do you keep calling me brother?”
“Brother? Isn’t it obvious? I am your long lost sister. Don’t you recognize me?”
His sister was dead. Keith knew this was true. He heard the story hundreds of times from Father and Mother. His big sister died when she was 18, before he was even born. The limousine taking her back to her house from Senior Prom was in an accident. The driver had been drinking. The limo went off the bridge. Someone had spiked the punch bowl at Prom. Christine drank some. Christine couldn’t swim. She was unconscious. She drowned. Christine drowned! Divers recovered her body the following morning. There was an open-casket funeral the following week. The entire school had attended. This couldn’t be Christine, no matter how much Keith wanted to believe it. But, why would she lie about something like that. Who was this woman?
Keith looked at the woman carefully. He had seen her before somewhere. Was it possible? Could this simply be his mind seeing the obvious – that they were related? Is that where he knew her from. No. That wasn’t possible. That wasn’t how memory worked. So where had he seen this woman before?
Suddenly, Keith knew. He had seen the woman before. He had seen her on the video footage from Baddius’s Citadel on that night eight months ago. He had watched that footage over and over. That day Mother and Father lost their superpowers and Baddius blew up an entire city. He had held the entire state of North Dakota hostage for two months before suddenly giving up. By then it was too late, exposure to that green light of his had taken Mother and Father’s powers from them. The Guild was never the same.
But that woman was behind him from the moment his parents were captured. That same woman, also on camera in Serena Williams’ office the night of the massacre at Eclipse Corp. That woman, who was now standing in front of him, claiming to be his sister. That woman who wanted access codes to the Guild Database. That woman… What had the news called her? Keith said it out loud without even meaning to.
“Madame Evil,” It was barely a whisper.
“Please, I thought I told you to call me-“
She would not finish her sentence! Keith was already moving, his super speed pulsing, racing at 6,000 mph to close the gap between them. He wouldn’t even be visible. He raised his fist and slammed it right… where her face had been nanoseconds before. Confused, he went right through where she had been standing.
“-Christine. I really do hate that dull, uninspired name the media gave to me.”
She finished the sentence, now standing several feet to Keith’s right, smirking at him. Shit. Keith kicked out, but she vanished once more. She reappeared behind him. Keith turned and jabbed his elbow at her, but, again, she was gone. Keith looked around the room frantically. Where had she gone?
“Really now? Was that your best? It’s adorable, but woefully inadequate. My advice to you is just give in before you get hurt, brother.” Her voice seemed to be coming from all directions at once. She reappeared at the far wall of the room.
“Just stop delaying the inevitable and give me the code, Keith. We can forget this all even happened.”
Keith charged forward and slammed his fist into the wall where her head had been. His hand smashed into the reinforced steel behind the thin drywall. His knuckles shattered and fingers broke. Keith howled in pain, but, already, he could feel his regeneration ability kick in. Madame Evil reappeared in the center of the room.
“Just give up, already. Honestly, brother, you’re embarrassing yourself.”
Keith took another swing at Madame Evil, but, inevitably, she side-stepped at the last second, tripping Keith in the process and sending him sprawling.
“This is your last chance, Keith. Enough with the shenanigans.”
Keith kicked the examination table up into the air, jumped into the air, grabbed the table in mid-air and swung it as fast and hard as could as he descended. Madame Evil held up her hand defensively in front of her face as the table connected. The impact sent shockwaves down the metal, numbing Keith’s hands. Finally! He hit her!
The table had crumpled like tissue paper, folding in half where it had hit her hand. The top half of the table was smashed into her head, dented into a bust of her head like a golf club wrapping around Wile E Coyote in that old cartoon. The table then suddenly dropped to the ground.
“That’s enough,” she said from behind him. Keith barely had time to turn around as a powerful force gripped him around his torso, crushing his ribs. He was lifted into the air and turned to face Madame Evil.
“I gave you your chance to do this the easy way. This is your FINAL warning. Give me the access code or suffer the consequences.” The force on his body tightened to the point that the breath was pressed out of him.
“Fuck you” Keith mouthed to Madame Evil. He would get satisfaction knowing that he was going to his grave without giving in. The world turned red around him as blood vessels burst in his eyes from the enormous pressure. As everything began to blur, Keith’s only regret was he never got to tell his parents about Kevin.
Suddenly the pressure was removed. Keith reflexively inhaled and immediately started coughing up blood. He was sure his ribs were broken but he could already feel his regeneration kicking back in. He would live. Keith wondered if that would be a good thing. He wouldn’t wonder for long.
“Tell me the code.”
“Never.”
Keith was suddenly flung across the room and into the wall. He felt a crushing force on him again but it relented for a moment. Then he was dragged across the wall, directly into the computer equipment. Keith smashed into the various electronics over and over. He could feel his bones breaking. He could feel his skin splitting. He could feel the surge of electricity coursing through his body. For several minutes, his entire existence was pain. Then it stopped and he was tossed to the ground in a crumpled heap. Again, his healing power began repairing the damage. The bitch wasn’t going to let him die.
“Tell me the code.”
“Fuck off you-“
Keith didn’t quite get to finish the rest of his vulgar sentence. He was flung against the wall, his body spread eagle. The pressure on him intensified and he did not think it could get worse. Then he felt an intense burning in his right wrist. Heat ignited in his left wrist. Then heat exploded in his left foot, then his right. Despite his healing ability mending the damage as fast as it could, the burning would not go away. Keith turned his head to see what was wrong and was horrified. A white-hot glowing shard of metal was impaled through his wrist, pinning him to the wall like a sort of deranged version of the crucifix.
Keith felt an intense pain shoot through his body. His muscles convulsed and pain radiated through every cell of his existence. He bit through his tongue. He soiled himself. He screamed incoherently in agony. His entire existence was pain. Pain consumed everything. Then, blessedly, it stopped.
Madame Evil was standing below him, her head up to his chest. Despite everything Keith had gone through and despite the state of the room, she still looked immaculate. She let out a chuckle.
“You are a stubborn one, I will give you that. But enough with the games, Keith. If you don’t give me what I need, I am going to have to get serious.”
Keith stared icily at the bitch. If he were able to he would have spat on her. As it was he was sure everyone bone in his body was broken. He was missing teeth. His skin was burnt all over. He was in no condition to do anything, let a lot give the defiant speech he wanted to give. But he still tried.
“Do yer vorse, biss.”
Madame Evil made an amused face.
“Very well. I will.”
The metal rods pinning him to the wall were ripped out and Keith crumpled to the ground with a wet thud. He felt a strange warm sensation spreading throughout his limbs and felt an unbelievable peace. He could hear his bones violently snapping back into place and a strange slithering sound but it was distant and he could not feel anything other than the serene warmth. After a minute the warmth faded and the world returned to him. He felt… nothing. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was broken.
Keith raised his head in surprise. He looked over at his hand and could see it was fully healed, as if nothing had ever happened. Was all this some kind of test after all? Why else would she heal him? Or was she just going to do it all over again. Keith shuddered at the thought.
“SIT,” Madame Evil commanded. The word echoed through his head and Keith was filled with a familiar sensation – mind control. His body rose of its own accord and walked calmly over to a chair that had not been there a moment ago. He sat in the chair, placing his arms on the armrests. Cuffs folded onto his arms and then his ankles, securing him in place. A final leather strap went across his head, holding it up.
“You might be willing to sacrifice yourself for your cause, Keith, and I admire that. But I cannot allow you to just die without you giving me the code. So now, I am going to do as you said and do my worst. This first one is on YOU and we will see if you change your mind.
What was she talking about? Keith had no idea and did not want to find out. Madame Evil snapped her fingers and a screen lowered from a recessed chamber in the ceiling. It looked like a large flat-screen television. It had a camera embedded in the base below the screen. When it fully lowered, it flickered on, showing Keith a plain white room with five people standing in it against the wall and a sixth person sitting in a chair, facing the five. No. The five weren’t standing. They were shackled to the wall. Keith felt a pit open in his stomach. He recognized the prisoners - Amy Adams, Susan Strong, Luke Ringo, Michael Desmond, and David Freedman. They were all tower leaders, like himself. Keith did not recognize the man sitting in the chair.
“Keith. I am sure you recognize your comrades here. You may, by now, have an idea as to what they are going in that room, but allow me to enlighten you should you be dense enough to not comprehend your situation. Like you, these five were captured alive when my forces raided your towers. Like you, these five were interrogated by me. Unlike you, however, these five proved to have no valuable information. Right not they cannot see you, but will be able to hear everything we say. I suggest you think carefully now if you value their lives.
“Also, I am sure you are familiar with Cecil Green. Wave for the camera Cecil.”
The man in the chair waved.
“If you are unfamiliar with Cecil here it’s most likely because you know him by his street name: Death, of the Four Horsemen. Cecil here has volunteered his services here to me today to pay off a debt he owes me for a certain liberation from incarceration I gave him. He is most likely bored out of his mind. Let’s give him something to do, now, shall we.”
“Wait… Please don’t”
“Now, now, Keith. I already told you. This first one is on you. You need to learn what the consequences for being so careless are.”
“Cecil,” she called out in a sing-song voice, “Kill the black one.”
The man in the chair rose and pivoted toward David Freedman. David was the leader of the Chicago Tower and possessed both super-strength and invulnerability to punctures, lacerations and blunt trauma. He had a wife and twin boys back home. They were only 3 months old.
David must have been drugged because all he did was stare blankly ahead as Cecil raised his hand and pointed his index finger at him. As soon as the finger was level with David’s heart, it happened. There was a white flash from the index finger and David went limp, like a marionette with its cords cut.
The reaction from the other prisoners was immediate. Susan screamed. Amy cried out. Luke struggled against his bonds. Michael was screaming profanity at Cecil. They all stopped when Madame Evil spoke.
“May I have your attention, please? You all know who I am. I know who you are. Your friend is now dead and you want to know why. Well, you can pin the blame squarely on your glorious leader here. I tried to be reasonable with him, but Keith here has decided to be difficult. He has information I want and, unless he give it to me, well, starting in 10 seconds, one of you is going to die every 10 seconds. Good luck. Cecil, begin.”
Cecil began to raise his hand toward Susan, who was now sobbing incoherently. Susan was the leader of one of the three New York City towers, the one in Queens. Her powers were super speed, flight and control of wind. The locals knew her as Streak. She had no family that Keith knew of, but he hadn’t really gotten to know her that well. She had always come off as too quirky for him to get to know. Now he wish he had.
“Please… Don’t do this. They’re innocent. They did nothing to you.”
“All you have to do is give me the code, Keith. It’s as simple as that and you can save your remaining four-“
There was a flash and Susan slumped over.
“I mean three friends.”
Cecil turned toward Michael. Michael was the leader of the Denver tower and had immunity to fire control of fire and control of temperature and was known as Pyrio. He was the same age as Keith. In fact, the two had dated briefly in high school. That was years ago. Michael, like Susan, had no real family to leave behind. He did, however, have seven cats whom he named after these short bearded men from an old movie. Keith closed his eyes to block out was he knew was going to happen, but Michael wasn’t going to let it go that easily.
“C’mon, man Keith. Please. You know me, man,” Michael was pleading, “Me and you go way back. This isn’t cool man. Do something. Just, Just… C’mon. FU-“He was suddenly cut short.
“Three down, two to go. It’s not too late.”
Cecil turned to face Luke. Luke was the co-leader of the Toronto tower up until 3 days before the raids. Keith did not even know what his powers were due to his recent promotion into the leader position. The leader of Toronto had killed himself, like all the other precognitives. Luke just stared at Cecil as the villain raised his hand. When it was level with his heart, Luke turned toward the camera and it was like he was staring right at Keith.
“Don’t tell her a damn thing, leader. For the greater good!”
There was a flash as Luke finished his recitation of the Heroes Guild motto. His lifeless body slumped forward in its bindings.
“And then there was one.”
Cecil turned toward Amy. Unlike the others, she had no superpowers. Amy was a gadgeteer, using self-made devices to fight crime instead of powers. She was known as Nightstalker. Amy was the one Keith was dreading most. It was not just her life Keith would be throwing away here if he let this pass. Amy was one month pregnant.
“Keith!” Amy called out, “Just give her whatever the fuck she wants, please. What are you holding back for anyways? Honor? Loyalty? Fuck that. The guild is finished. It’s done! Why are you sacrificing my life…? My child’s life for some useless fucking Code of honor that no one followed in the first place! ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING COWARD!”
“I’m sorry, Amy. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. Icanticanticanticanticanticant.”
“I’ll see you in hell, fucker.”
There was a flash and Amy went limp. With her mother dead, there would be no hope for the developing embryo contained within her womb. Tears streamed down Keith’s face. Her last words repeated themselves in his head over and over, unrelenting. The television screen switched off.
“Well, that was certainly entertaining,” Madame Evil said cheerily. If Keith could have gotten free, he would have tried to smash her face in, again. “It was very brave of you to sacrifice all those lives to protect a demolished institution and uphold its hypocritical values. Bravo Keith. I am impressed. I bet you thought I was done, but...”
Madame Evil gestured toward the screen, which switched back on. It was displaying multiple views in a split screen mode. There were hundreds of rooms, almost identical to the one it had been displaying moments before. Hundreds of rooms, each with 5 prisoners shackled to a wall.
“Really, I can keep this up all day before I run out of hostages.”
Keith felt the blood drain from his face. How long would he be able to endure this? A few minutes ago, Keith would have said the pain was the worst experience of his life. Now, he would give anything just to return to the simple world of pain.
“However, Keith. I think you’re juuuuuust about ready to break. So, allow me to bring in just one more very special hostage. Radon, bring in the VIP.”
The metal door in the wall opened with a hydraulic hiss and fog rolled into the room. All of this was being done OBVIOUSLY for the psychological effect, though Keith could not deny it was terrifying.
“Do you remember what Amy Adams had said to you about your Heroes Code? How no one listened to it anyways? Well, let me be the first to say that I know that YOU know what she said was true. You’ve been a very naughty boy.”
No….
“Section 12 of the Heroes Code states specifically, ‘A hero shall never burden himself with a physical or romantic relationship with any person who is not within the same power rank as himself. To do so would create an unnecessary and exploitable weakness that could be leveraged against the hero, should peril befall his love.’
NO!
“Well, Keith. With that in mind, let me introduce you to my next hostage, though you probably guessed as to who it is by now.”
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!
A metal cart on large wheels rolled slowly into the room, being pushed by Radon, whose digitized smile was now replaced with a cackling skull. There was a man in a green spandex outfit lying on the cart. His suit glittered and shimmered as it passed under the enormous light in the ceiling. On his head was a green helmet with a black visor obscuring his face. It was Geode, also known as Kevin Gatorman, also known as the love of Keith’s life.
Why was he here? Keith had specifically ordered him to flee to a safe place and hide until this blew over. Given his control of rocks and sediments, he could have literally just hidden in a hole in the ground, impossible to find. So, how had she found him? Oh god. What was she going to do to him? Keith knew he would tell her anything to protect Kevin.
Kevin groaned and turned his head toward Keith. “Keith… They got you too…”
“Kev… Look… I’m so sorry I… I should have been stronger…. I-“
“Shhh… It’s ok. Not your fault. I disobeyed your orders, Keith. Had to free the prisoners…”
“Oh god Kev. Why? They were villains. She would have just set them free herself.”
Keith knew this was false, but said it anyways, more to convince himself that he was right than anything else.
“Well, this has been a touching reunion, boys, but it’s time to go back to business. There’s still the little matter of the passcode that Keith owes me. We’ve already wasted so many of our resources trying to extract it from him. I was hoping you could prove to be a useful bargaining chip in our transaction.”
“The passcode? You need Keith’s passcode? And you think you are going to be able to use ME to coerce my boyfriend into giving it to you. Well, then. You’re just going to have to kill me, because I will NEVER forgive Keith if he does something that stupid and irresponsible.”
What?
Madame Evil smirked. “Very well.”
Kevin was yanked backward off the cart and slammed into the wall so hard the wall cracked, the air rushed out of his lungs with an audible “oof,” Keith could literally hear his boyfriend’s ribs cracking. Blood dribbled from his mouth when he opened it.
“Don’t…. tell her…. A fucking… thing”
This wasn’t happening! Kevin’s arms were pulled out from his sides, then his legs spread apart. The force continued pulling on his limbs, threatening to rip them out of his sockets. At the same time, Keith felt as if it were his heart being ripped asunder.
A glowing red rod materialized in the air in front of Madame Evil. It then flew into Kevin’s left wrist, then bent across the remainder of the wrist and into the wall. Another one appeared and flew into his right, doing the same thing. The process was repeated on his ankles. With each impact, Keith felt as though it was his heart being stabbed instead of his lover.
Blue lightening materialized in Madame Evil’s hand. It flew into Kevin and he convulsed violently. As the plasma played over him, it singed his hair. Keith realized this was the same thing she had been doing to him earlier. He knew how painful it was. Poor Kevin…
Keith was suddenly filled with horror as he came to a realization – Kevin had no healing ability. She was going to kill him!
She was going to kill the only person that Keith ever felt he could connect to. His parents had always been distant, with them saving the world and all, and Keith had never really had friends or lasting relationships. Then he met Kevin.
It was actually ironic that Kevin was one of the gentlest and sweetest people he knew, because Keith met him the day he arrested him for robbing a jewelry store. Kevin entered the supervillain rehabilitation program and went on the path to being a hero. He was assigned to be a sidekick to Providence Swift, Keith’s superhero persona. The two became friends quickly and were dating within a few months. They had been together for almost three years now. Keith had been seriously considering popping the question but never worked up the nerve.
And now he would never have the chance, because he was going to die. He was going to die and, for what? Why was Keith even protecting the passcode anyways? All it did was access the superhuman identity database and that had been erased. Even if she had the code, no harm could be done. All these thoughts flew across his mind as he watched the love of his life screaming and convulsing, nailed to a wall with searing-hot metal. He had to stop this. Kevin would understand.
“Stop!”
Madame Evil stopped.
“Look… Just… 6429983001497658. That’s the code. Just… Please… let him go.”
Madame Evil smiled broadly. “A deal is a deal, brother. Go on. Have your little boytoy.”
The metal pieces flew out of Kevin and he dropped at the same time the straps loosened on Keith. Keith was there to catch Kevin, his healing power flaring, before he could hit the ground.
“You… You fucking idiot…” Kevin mumbled as Keith cradled him, pouring as much healing energy as he could into his love.
“Shhh… Don’t worry, Kev. It’s gonna be ok. I… I couldn’t… I couldn’t let her take you from me. Besides, I wiped the databased when we were attacked. I don’t know why she wants the codes, but there is nothing to access.”
“Well, normally, that would be true,” came Madame Evil’s voice from across the room, where she was watching Radon typing rapidly on a laptop computer. “However, our dear brother, Baddius, disconnected one of them from the network 5 months ago when he destroyed the Potomac Tower. It turns out its hard-drives were still recoverable. I mean, the data IS 5 months out of date, but it’s more than we had, which was nothing.
“But… if it’s any consolation, you should know that you’re not actually responsible for the deaths of your friends. Your real friends were killed hours ago due to Radon’s… enthusiastic interrogation style. Upon facing danger to themselves and their loved ones, THEY didn’t immediately give up information that could extinguish all hope of stopping a… What did you call me… Oh yes – Maniac. The truth is the friends you saw Cecil killed on camera were just copies produced by an ability of mine”
“I apologize for the death of your friends Keith Michael Syntax,” The robot began, “but I was only programmed a few months ago and am still learning. How was I to know that humans failed to meet even the most basic durability standards?” The robot then changed tones “Wahoo! Database accessed!”
“And what do we have,” Madame Evil inquired.
“Looks like information on superhero and supervillain aliases, identities, homes, workplaces, families and known properties.”
“Hmmmm… This is going to be very useful in finding those holdouts. The information on the families is sure to be useful, though. Maybe we can find a way to persuade the more righteous of our enemies with that information.
“In the meantime, Radon, set our two lovebirds up in one of the guest rooms. Maybe the Lincoln Room. Yes. That one. They deserve it. After all, if not for their cooperation, the next stage of Phoenix would not be so easy.
“Download that data, Radon and have your technicians sort through it. I want it done as quickly as possible, with a full report on my desk within the hour.”
“Yes, My Queen.”
“In the meantime, I am not to be bothered until your tasks are finished. After all,”
Madame Evil’s body morphed into a different shape. Keith realized he was looking at Susan Carter, current US President. “I have a country to run.”
What had he done?
