So Not a Hero (5 page)

Mark finally stopped screaming in pain and glared up at me in anger. “You fucking freak whore! You broke my goddamned hand.”

I lashed out and snatched Mark by his shirt and hefted him over my head as if he were nothing more than a child’s toy. His arms and legs flailed around as I lowered him until our noses were inches apart. “I should tear one of your arms off. Or better yet,” I whispered as a smile stretched across my face, “maybe I’ll tear your dick off instead. Good luck raping those coeds without it.” I grabbed his crotch with my other hand.

So much for walking the straight and narrow. I probably should have just walked away when trouble came.

The wild limb motions ceased as the seriousness of my threat sank into his Neanderthal brain. “P-please,” he whimpered. “Please don’t hurt me.”

As easily as I’d torn a piece off his car, divesting him of his manhood wouldn’t even be a challenge. “Is that what they said to you? Did they beg you to stop? I bet they did. They begged just like you’re doing now. And you didn’t stop, did you?” I gave his package a hard squeeze. “So why should I?”

“Karen, don’t.” Derek’s voice cut through the silence and my anger. “Don’t let this moment define you.”

I whipped my head over to him, staring. “What did you just say?”

Everyone turned to look at the older man. He sighed and rubbed at the grey stubble peppering his dark skin. “I said that the moment should never define you.”

I felt my mouth hang open and I released my captive. Mark landed on the asphalt with a thud and a groan before he rolled onto his back and resumed tenderly holding his hand. The sobs that came from his huddled form stabbed me in the chest and I slumped to the side, further denting the remains of the Camaro as I pushed it a few feet along the pavement. The reality of just how close I’d come to crossing a line in my life slammed into me.

His friends took immediate advantage of the change in the situation. Two of them pulled Mark to his feet and headed away from the warehouse as fast as they could manage. A third boy followed after them, pointing in the direction of the more civilized part of town.

The redhead walked over to me and stood there looking down at me. I gave him a half-glance before looking at the people I’d shared a meal with only hours before. All of them had the same fearful expression on their faces. It was a sharp contrast from the pleased amazement they’d shown when I crushed the pipe. I guess it’s one thing to imagine someone going all Hulk on your behalf and another when it actually happens. Witnessing some guy nearly get ripped apart takes the magic out of the show.

“Thank you,” the boy said softly, “for not hurting him.”

I refused to look at him, too afraid of the fury rising back up. “He’s a punk and a rapist.”

“It’s not like that. Mark just got a little carried away–”

“I don’t care.” I said, clenching my jaw tightly. I risked turning my eyes on him. “There is no excuse you can use that will make what he’s done okay. The best thing you can do, if you’re really his friend, is make sure he never does it again.” I grabbed the slab behind me and pulled myself to my feet, leaving a hand-shaped dent in the metal. “If not …” I pointed at the car.

The boy nodded and walked past me after his friends. “It won’t.” I turned to watch him leave, waiting until he vanished in the darkness before turning back to the group. They were huddled around Derek, whispering and occasionally glancing in my direction. I sighed and walked past them back into the warehouse.

I headed towards my stuff and rolled up my blankets, shoving them into the backpack. I added the jacket I’d been using for a pillow and the Spidey clock.

“Leaving?” Derek said as he came up behind me.

“I don’t want to be here when the EAPF show up. Besides, I figured I’d save you the trouble of throwing me out.”

“No one’s throwing you out, Karen. And I think you don’t need to worry about the police. Not yet. If those punks have the slightest bit of sense, they’ll sober up before reporting this.”

I looked up at him and then across the room to where the others sat watching me. “You’re telling me that they don’t want me to go? After I nearly killed a boy in front of them.”

“You didn’t, though. That’s what they saw. They saw an angry, powerful young woman restrain herself from badly harming someone who more than deserved it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If you didn’t kill some punk who’s hurt women the way you’ve been hurt, why would they think that you would hurt them?”

“Who are you? I mean, I’ve been feeling like I know you from somewhere. Then you said something I hadn’t heard in a long time. How did you know telling me about defining the moment would get my attention?”

Derek frowned and sat down next to me. “He said that to you. Several times. Didn’t he?”

“Yes. It was like a philosophy he tried driving into my head.” I sighed. “You worked for Martin?”

He nodded. “Yes. Doctor Maniac and I went way back. Almost ten years.”

“So you knew who I was earlier. When I was asking to stay?”

“Yes.”

“Then why the show of thinking it over?”

He gestured at the others. “It wasn’t a show, Karen. These people are my responsibility and I had to make sure that you were safe.” Derek tapped his temple. “I’m Enhanced Mental. I can look at someone and tell if they’re being honest or not. Helps to figure out potential threats.”

I nodded. “Martin told me once that he had someone who vetted people. It was you, wasn’t it? How come I never actually met you?”

“Martin didn’t keep many secrets from you, Karen. I was one of the few.”

“Does he know you’re here?” I looked around the warehouse. “Living on the street, practically.”

“I’m sure he does. The man is meticulous about keeping tabs on people. Of course, I haven’t actually seen him in about a year.” He leaned back, resting against a crate. “When you got locked up in the Max, it really messed him up. Then he heard you gave them information to get parole and he totally lost it.” He chuckled softly. “While he was dealing with that, I decided to take off.”

“Oh.” I looked at the fire. The flames were barely dancing above the glowing coals. “I didn’t think about how he’d take it. I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I just needed some … concessions to go with my parole and information on his operation is the price they charged.”

“I can understand that, girl. I think the Doc did too. Eventually. What I don’t get is how you ended up with him in the first place. You never seemed like that type of girl.”

I could have told Derek that he didn’t have the slightest idea what type of girl I was. But then again, if he’d been around the entire time I was with Martin, he probably did have an idea. I shrugged, not taking my eyes off the fire. “I don’t know. I guess I was young and reckless and Martin seemed to care. Mix all that together with first love and stupid choices are usually the result.”

He laughed softly and I turned to stare at him. After what I’d shown my temper of being capable of, he still had the guts to mock me and my feelings. Then I realized that there wasn’t any malice in the sound. Just … amusement. He noticed my expression and nodded. “Sounds like every blues song ever written. Only thing that would make it more cliché is if you went back to him.”

I shook my head. “To Martin? No, I’m positive that that’s not going to happen. There’s been … too much.”

Derek smiled and reached out to pat me softly on the shoulder. “Well, I hope he has the decency to leave you alone, then.”

I canted my head to the side, looking at him. “What about you? You seem like a decent, caring person. I followed him because I was in love. What would make someone like you purposefully side with Doctor Maniac?”

Derek sighed. “I owed him.”

“For what?”

“I used to be married. Years ago. My wife Activated a few years after our wedding.”

“You were both Enhanced?”

“No. She was a Slip.”

I looked away, unable to respond.

When someone went through Activation, several sequences of their genetic makeup morphed into a configuration that could absorb the cosmic energy constantly bombarding the Earth and use it to fuel the new Enhancements. For most, that same alteration to their DNA granted them an immunity to their abilities. Fire generators, for example, gained a resistance to the effects of flames.

However, about .01% had a seriously negative reaction to the sudden influx of energy and that protection against themselves didn’t come with the rest of the package. In which case, the fire manipulator from the previous example? Well, they better invest in some asbestos underwear and a shitload of aloe, because every time they conjured a flame, they’re were going to get burned.

These poor people were known as “Slips”. It’s short for “slip-up” and isn’t the most politically correct term. Even if it was pretty accurate.

I finally dared to ask. “What was her power?”

“Entropy Acceleration.”

“Oh god.” I put my hand over my mouth. Anytime someone had the ability to control the way things—or people—aged, it never ended well.

Derek nodded. “Happened while she was at work. Her boss was berating her for not catching
his
mistake and she thought she was going to get fired. He put his hand on her shoulder and … poof. Poor guy went from being an early thirties up-and-coming hotshot to a senile, octogenarian in the span of a half hour.”

“I guess the EAPF showed up?”

“Yeah. But there were witnesses, so they didn’t press charges. They were going to detain her, but something got messed up in the paperwork and they let her go. It was a few weeks later that I noticed her hair was going gray.”

“Her Slip Effect,” I said. “Let me guess, Martin showed up and offered to help?”

“Yes. The doctors, the EAPF, no one was able to help Susanna. Except Martin.”

I nodded. If there was anyone on the planet that understood Enhanced physiology better than Doctor Maniac, I’d never heard of them. “He fix her?”

“Yeah. He helped her get some control over her Enhancement and even managed to roll back some of the years she’d put on herself.”

“All out of the goodness of his heart.” I sneered. Martin never gave away his services.

“He didn’t ask for anything in return. Not at the time.” He gave a little shrug. “After she passed, he came to the funeral, offered his condolences, and asked me for a little favor.”

“That’s how he operates, Derek. We both know that.” Martin had an uncanny knack for finding an Enhanced in need. The ones with particular abilities would eventually be recruited into the organization.

“Now. I’ve seen him do it enough after I joined that I understand his methods.” His dark brown eyes fixed on me. “But he gave me a few more good years with my wife, so I decided to help.”

“But why stay? He did something for you and you did him something in return. Why stay with someone you knew was so … evil?” I hated the cliché taste of the word. When there were people running around the planet with abilities straight out of comic books, evil took on a whole new meaning.

“To preserve the peace.” I must have made a face because he continued to explain. “There were plenty of people who wanted to join Martin’s group. Many of them had aspirations of toppling him and taking control. We both know that wouldn’t have worked, but the attempted coup could have been bad for the general populace.”

I snapped my fingers. “So you weeded out the ones who had devious intentions against him?”

“Exactly. Then he brought you into the fold. Depressed, lost, and broken. I could see the good in your heart, buried under the anger and hate. So I told him that he couldn’t trust you.” He patted me on the leg. “Karen, I tried to get him to leave you be.”

“You did?”

He nodded. “After I was through with my spiel, Marin put his arm around my shoulders and told me that there was something special in you. Something he’d been looking for a long time. And if I ever lied to him again, I would be months in dying.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

“So I stayed in the shadows and did my best to keep you from going so far you couldn’t come back. Then the EAPF had you and before Martin could start to work out a plan to rescue you, you’d been shipped off to the Max.”

I didn’t say anything. It wouldn’t do any good to tell him that my expedient transfer to the most secure prison on the planet had been my own doing. Less chance of Martin finding out why that way. I trusted Derek. I just didn’t
trust
him.

So,” he said as he stood up and looked down at me. “What are you going to do? Going to resurrect Crushette and do your own thing?”

I shook my head. That last thing I think I could ever do would be to put on that costume again. Crushette had been taken away in dura-steel shackles. As far as I was concerned, once she’d gone into the Max, she’d never seen the light of day again. “No. No more Crushette.”

“What then?”

I sighed and looked back to the fire. “Maybe I’ll give the other side of the street a try.”

“Be a hero?”

“Yeah. You know, if I can keep from thrashing Norms. I kind of ran into Mister Manpower this afternoon and helped him take down Nite-Star and his group.”