Superhero Universe: Tesseracts Nineteen (16 page)

She had no idea how she got home. But there was a full card of chits stuffed in her pocket when she checked. Dethy had given her a tip. He’d probably also called her a cab.

She wasn’t feeling any of the euphoria from yesterday. Her head hurt and her back and neck were stiff. At some point, her new blond hair extensions had been pulled out. She fed a chit into the autoslot to prevent the TinHeads from bashing down her door, then pulled off her clothes with her eyes shut and stepped into the shower.

The hot water stung her skin. Swearing, Nikki shut it off and peeled open her eyes to stare at the mirrored interior of the shower. Patches of her skin had turned black; darkness had spread around her neck and under her chin, where she had sprayed the perfume. Nauseated, she rubbed at her chest to get the lump in her throat to settle. She felt a rush of warmth flow from the stone at her heart through the area of her blackened skin. The dark spots didn’t fade, but suddenly they hurt a little less. She quickly finished her morning routine and sprayed over the spots with makeup.

She got a few offers on her way to see Father Mike, which she politely declined with waves and kisses, hoping she wouldn’t regret it five months from now. Having a choice felt good. Mike wasn’t home, so she headed for the downtown soup kitchens, wanting to pass along the chit card she’d mentally promised him, and to thank him for standing by her for so very long, even when she hardly ever followed his advice.

Downtown was closed off by numerous police transports, which forced small vehicles and pedestrians to take the skyroute. Nikki jostled along with the crowd and was shoved aside by an excited group of teenagers headed in the opposite direction. She turned her head as they passed, amused that they seemed to buy their clothes at the same place as DethKode. They were talking loudly.

“They said he was with a superhooker. They’re looking for her now.”

“Who said?”

“The cops.”

“Are they sure he’s dead?”

“Not just dead, decimated.”

“Lies. He can’t be dead. His defenses wouldn’t let some chick kill him.”

Nikki tried to stop, but the press of the crowd wouldn’t let her. She finally managed to push her way to the edge of the skyroute and looked out toward Hawthorne Mansion. Ambulances surrounded the doorway, but she could see the paramedics dragging something out the front door. She stepped back into the flow of people and pushed her way into the nearest coffee shop. The media feed showed DethKode looking like he’d been dead for fifty years. He was a crumbly, brown skeleton, recognizable only by his hair, clothes, and the silver gothic cross sunken into his chest. The feed flipped to a view of the destroyed interior of the mansion, which looked like someone had taken a quantum hull shredder to it. The police handout of the suspect showed a blurry security still of Nikki in her blond extensions and blue bodysuit, describing her as an ubervillain who’d taken out the biggest supervillain in the colony.

Nikki swallowed hard, glad she was no longer a blonde or even long-haired and that she’d chosen to wear red today. No longer daring to go to the soup kitchens, she paid for a transport home and texted Father Mike that she needed to talk to him when he got in. She sat for a long while with her head in her hands, unable to make sense of what had happened. She probably wouldn’t have moved from that position if someone hadn’t decided to break into her apartment.

“Alice, get lost!” She picked up one of her shoes and threw it at the intruder who’d picked her lock. Awesome Alice — another fallen superhero junkie superwhore — ducked and came in anyway.

“You’ve got some. Why don’t you share? Bitch!”

“I have not.” She wasn’t about to give
any
chits to Alice.

“How’d you afford this, then?” she held up the bottle of perfume.

“When did you take that? Did you break in before?”

“Of course I did. I have to because you never share.”

“Neither do you.” Nikki sat back down on the bed, feeling too exhausted to chase Alice out. She’d leave when she was done being annoying. Tomorrow, Nikki was changing the locks.

“So where’d you get it?” Awesome Alice moved over to the mirror and threw her hair back over her shoulder in preparation to spray her neck with the perfume.

“None of your damn business.”

Alice sprayed her neck liberally with the bottle, then set to primping herself in the mirror.

“Oh wow,” she said after a few moments.

“You’re not that hot,” Nikki replied.

“No, I mean, what’s in that bottle? Did you spike it with something? I feel … so … like I’m high or something.”

“Good for you.”

“It’s burning! It’s itching!”

“I didn’t tell you to put it on. You’re probably allergic”

“You bitch! You deliberately planted that because you knew I’d steal it! Why didn’t you just leave me some chits?” Awesome Alice ran out of the door, not stopping to slam it shut behind her.

Nikki thought,
And why would I leave you chits?
She got up and had almost closed the door when a terrified scream echoed from the hallway.
It’s just Alice raising a fuss
, she thought, but more voices started up, and someone shouted to call the cops— a useless gesture; in this colony they existed solely to protect and serve the supervillains in charge. Nikki cautiously stepped into the hallway.

She could see what was left of Alice. Her neck had withered to a brown, brittle stump, and her head had snapped off and rolled into the far corner until it rested by the mailboxes, leaving behind a gooey dark streak.

Nikki backed away, stumbling into her apartment; she quietly closed and locked the door. On her dresser sat the bottle of perfume. Moving over to the mirror, she pulled the scarf from her neck and rubbed off the makeup. Only dull red patches remained and they were shrinking. She picked up the perfume, smelled it, then tasted it. Numbness spread across her tongue, but it wasn’t like any narcotic she’d ever done before. Why hadn’t it killed her? As if in answer, warmth flowed from the yellow stone in her chest.

The euphoria kicked in quickly this time, shooting through her brain like electric heroin. All she could think about was the bottle of perfume, all her hands would reach for even as she tried to resist.
Damn
, but she wanted more of it. Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she pointed the atomizer at her throat and squeezed the bulb. The fine mist dampened her skin, feeling cold for a few seconds, the euphoria escalating as she breathed it in.

Things eventually got really cold— and painful. Nikki opened her eyes and found herself on the bed, shivering. The light from her small window had changed from sunlight to streetlamps and she felt simultaneously ravenous and nauseated.

Father Mike must have gotten her message, because he was here now, a freaked-out expression on his face. Nikki lost it then, her shivering becoming full-body convulsions. Her hands were grey claw things that lashed out at Father Mike. Terrifying growling noises erupted from somewhere. Her throat? Father Mike pushed her down and wound rope around something — maybe her — as he kept repeating the same thing: “Anima Christi, sanctifica me. Corpus Christi, salve me. Sanguis Christi, inebria me. Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. Passio Christi, conforta me. O bone Iesu, exaudi me.”

The words triggered a deep, throbbing pain in chest, close to her heart. No, it wasn’t the words. Father Mike was using the incantation to channel his superpowers— the powers he’d vowed never to use again. The pain writhed around inside her like a snake until it finally erupted through her chest. The shivering subsided and her body felt like it was shrinking, or deflating.

“Dear God! Finally!” Father Mike left her for a moment to fetch some washcloths. Nikki rolled over and tried to sit up, but found it hurt too much. One of her wrists really was tied to the bed. She looked down, shocked to see that her skin had been lacerated. Her chest hurt, and something hard was rolling around in her shirt. She pressed a hand against it, seeing the yellow stone she had swallowed drop from her bodice. It landed in her palm, covered in blood. Nikki peeked down her shirt and saw the thing had forced its way right through her skin. She quickly closed her fingers over it as Father Mike returned with the cloths and gently began to wipe the mess off her face and clean her wounds.

“What happened?” she rasped at him, although she already knew; the stone and perfume had given her superpowers.

Mike looked shaken, pale, and weepy. He wouldn’t make eye contact as he carefully cut through the rope around her wrist.

“You were saying
things
, Nikki. It was not your voice. I don’t know exactly… what…” He started crying. Nikki stared at him in amazement, forgetting her pain long enough to sit up and put an arm around him. She looked around the room, dismayed to see that it looked as if someone had taken a laser cutter to the walls— just like at Hawthorne Mansion. Father Mike shuddered in her arms.

“Hey…” she said to him softly.

“You were doing things … I don’t know … what…”

She looked down at herself again. “I did this?”

Father Mike nodded, trying to get his sobs under control.

“Ugh, I’m so sorry, Mike. I took some really bad drugs. It was stupid of me. I just— I need to not make such bad choices.”

Father Mike peered at her through his tear-stained goggles, clearly struggling to accept a rational explanation, as it now seemed to Nikki that he’d been trying to exorcise her. He was teetering, wanting to believe it was just a really bad trip.

“I got some money, you know? I wanted to celebrate. I just shouldn’t have. Here, look. These are for you.” She dug the cards out of her pockets and pressed one into his hand. He stared at it like it was some disgusting dead thing and held it out to her, shaking his head.

“It’s okay, Mike, I won’t do it again. I promise. I only had one dose, and it’s gone now, really, it’s okay. Thank you so much for taking care of me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

She hugged him close, and he let her, finally relaxing with a heavy sigh.

“Please,
never
do that again.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

After a while he pulled away from her seeming embarrassed at having been less than fatherly.

“Well, I’m glad you’re all right. I guess I’ll be going. I’m a bit tired.” He fiddled with the card of chits she’d given him. “I don’t want to take these…”

“But you need them,” Nikki said gently. “It’s okay to take them. If it’s okay for you to keep giving to everyone else, why isn’t it okay for someone to give something to you?”

“Right. Thank you.” He smiled weakly. “You rest, then. I’ll let myself out.”

Nikki lay back with the yellow stone clutched in her fist, staring at the ceiling as she listened to Father Mike’s footsteps fade. She unbuttoned her shirt and looked at the hole in her chest. It looked like a gunshot wound but only oozed feebly. The stone must have still been healing her, even on its way out.

She dozed fitfully for days, only getting up to feed chits into the autoslot, or take a few bites of supplibars. The yellow stone and perfume bottle sat on her dresser. Throwing them away would probably not be safe. She put the bottle in the shower, thinking if she diluted it enough, maybe it couldn’t hurt anyone— or she might end up poisoning the entire colony.

A slow knocking sounded at her door, sending chills up Nikki’s spine. Opening the door a crack, she saw Rodeo Rick leering at her, but now he wore all dark blue, and seemed much more in control of himself. He stood calmly with his hands behind his back, and none of his idiotic laughter. He had combed his hair and slicked it back, corporate-style. She pulled the door open a bit farther and leaned against it.

“Hello,” she said.

“I see the stone’s come out on its own. I’m sorry about your face. If the stone had stayed where it was supposed to, it would have protected you.”

“It’s all right,” she replied, not wanting to mention Father Mike.

“Here’s the rest of what I promised you.” He held out to her six more cards of chits.

“Thank you.” She took the cards and started to close the door, but he put out a hand to stop her. He was a lot stronger than Nikki expected. He looked completely different— still crazy but much more dangerous.

“I’ll have my stone and perfume back,” he said and pushed his way inside. Nikki backed up, trying to think if she had anything she could use as a weapon hidden in her apartment.
Only the metal pipe, hidden under the bed.
She mourned her long-lost superpowers.

“Hey, what was that stuff, anyway?” she asked.

“Exactly what you needed to get the job done. And it was nicely done, I must say.” Rodeo Rick picked up the stone from her dresser, contemplating it as he rubbed it with his fingers. He pursed his lips with a hint of a smile and turned toward her. “Father Mike? Is he your friend who removed this from you?”

“What are you talking about? It came out of my chest and was sitting there when I woke up.”

“Oh, I very much doubt that. You see, this stone is subject to control.
My
control. I’m the only one who gets to decide where this goes, and where it stays. Or doesn’t stay. You understand? And
I
control the person who swallows it.” He tapped the air with the stone as he spoke. “I
paid
you,” he reminded her. “But
Father Mike
removed my control over you, and that interfered with my
business
. So it seems I now have a problem with your friend Father Mike.”

Nikki shook her head. “He didn’t do anything!”

“Sure he did. He made you get hurt. All of that would have healed,” he gestured toward Nikki’s body with the hand that held the stone, “if he’d left this where it was supposed to be.”

She tried to shut down her fear and turn on the charm. Whether as a superhero or as a hooker, she’d faced men who’d terrified her a hundred times before.
This wasn’t any different
, she told herself.

“Hey, that doesn’t matter,” she said, trying to smile. “We don’t need to worry about that.”