The Prospects (19 page)

“Oh, so your first step in world conquest is a nasty plague that turns people into filters to get rid of the microorganisms you don’t like, and an immature form of that germ gave Lady Amazing her powers,” said Asura. “That glowing machine must be maturing it. Fascinating, really. Now tell me how your software works.”

The Skreaks turned their backs again. Asura couldn’t get their attention again. He left the room.

Ujimushi followed him out and removed his mask. His finely-boned face registered complete horror. “How could they do that to her?”

“Couldn’t happen to a more deserving lady.”

“They’re going to turn us into that. Every human. I’ll tell the Shade Blades. We’ll kill them.”

“They don’t have a fart’s chance in a hurricane with their stupid swords. The Skreaks have impregnable suits and particle blasters. If I get the exoskeleton working, I’ll come back and blow the alien scum away like Agent Exo did many times. That is, of course, if you ninjidiots let me have the exoskeleton.”

“But how will you fix the suit? The Skreaks didn’t tell you how their programs work.”

“There’s one more person who will help. Tag along if you must.”

After a quick stop in the restroom to wash off his face and mask, Ujimushi joined Asura at the elevator. They didn’t say a word until the elevator opened on Doctor Von Dyme’s floor.

Asura and Ujimushi followed the map on his wrist-mounted tablet to the lab containing Mecha-Menta. The Idea Man, an old man with a silver ponytail dressed like a professor who shops at a thrift store, was sitting at the computer.

Mind Dame knelt at his side. She smirked when Asura walked in.

“Trista,” said Asura. “Long time, no see you in slut-suit.”

Mind Dame walked to him with her hips swaying and her lipstick-coated lips smirking. She locked eyes with Asura. He felt a cold tingling sensation under his skull.

“Interesting,” said the Idea Man. “He’s a self-proclaimed genius.”

Asura began, “Yeah, I …”

“I can help you with the Skreaks. Despite their advanced technology, their minds are shockingly easy to read. It’ll only take a minute to decipher their software language, and then we can work together to foil their plans.”

“Great. I knew you’d be smart enough to help.”

“But first, could you hack into this computer? Usually I just pluck the passwords from the owners, but since we couldn’t locate Doctor Von Dyme ...”

“No problem.” Asura sat down by the computer and typed furiously. The monitor flashed through several screens as he unlocked secret after secret of the computer’s operation. Each thing he learned immediately went into the Idea Man’s mind.

“You and I are very much alike,” said the Idea Man. “We have the potential to change the world, yet those who judge our value based only on what we do for them stop at nothing to make us their slaves. Those who can be great have an obligation to be it, and the rest should be in their service. Their value should be judged by how they help us. ”

“I agree.”

“I shape my life with a single absolute, that the world is here for anyone who can take it. I challenged the masses content with brutish, short, nasty lives, so they sentenced me to boredom. For that, I will reward them with enlightenment.”

Asura tapped a few more keys. “Mecha-Menta is open and accessible.”

A loud scraping noise echoed through the hallway.

“Good. I will make the Skreaks debug the exoskeleton. I will also rewrite the Shade Blades’ minds so they will refund the money they took from you and Le Parrain’s so he won’t notice your robbery. And if you do one more thing for me, I will also give you Trista.”

“For how long?”

Trista grinded her hips against his. “For as long as you want.”

The scraping got louder. Rock Jock came into the room. He dragged the neurotransmitter antenna behind him.

“I need you to connect the neurotransmitter to Mecha-Menta and the building’s electric system. These machines combined will give me the power I once needed a team of psychics to generate over a global range. You’ll find the tools and parts in the next room. You will also have oral control of Rock Jock and Ujimushi. They’ll do anything you ask.”

Asura took off his trench coat. “Can I have oral control of Trista too?”

Mind Dame drew Asura’s face close to hers. “Business before pleasure.” She playfully pushed him away.

Asura had Rock Jock and Ujimushi bring over the tools and equipment. He feverishly connected cables to Mecha-Menta and the neurotransmitter. He only stopped to glance at Mind Dame as she posed seductively. He was sweaty and breathing hard before he did the final check to make sure everything worked.

When the neurotransmitter began charging, he tugged the fishnet mesh around Mind Dame’s hips. “You, me, now.”

“Very good,” said the Idea Man as Ujimushi and Rock Jock stood by his side and Asura led Mind Dame to the door. “I’ll leave you with the words of Aesop. ‘Expect no reward when serving the wicked, and be glad if you escape with your life.’”

Mind Dame shoved Asura through the door and slammed it behind him.

Asura was alone in the hallway.

He felt like his brain was released from a vise. He reached into his pocket. His smartphone was gone. He was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, and had no idea how many hours had passed.

“Hey!” he pounded on the door. “What about the Skreaks?”

No response.

“The Shade Blades are going to kill me.”

Again, nothing.

“Can I at least get screwed?”

The door opened a crack. Mind Dame smirked. “You already are.” She slammed the door.

“That’s it,” Asura said. He walked back to the elevator and pressed the ground level button. “If they treat me like this after I saved their lives, they deserve to die.”

There were no customers in Uncle Joey’s 24-Hour Pizza at a quarter past twelve. No one but the old man behind the counter saw Alex and Pinwheel enter, followed by Jenny and Knockout Rose. Half of Knockout Rose’s left leg was a mess of scrapes and tattered paint from Sergeant Hammer throwing her on the sidewalk.

Alex walked to the counter. “Four Cokes and your first aid kit.”

The old man said, “My what?”

Alex slapped a fifty dollar bill on the counter. “It’s an emergency.” He put a twenty dollar bill on top of it. “And your biggest T-shirt.”

Jenny led Knockout Rose to the ladies’ room. Alex handed her the restaurant’s first aid kit and an XXL T-shirt before she closed the door.

Pinwheel sat at a table near a TV. The news showed Griffin Tower surrounded by MAB agents and the NYPD.

The clerk put four cups of Coke on the table. “Hey, you in the costume. They put out a call for all superheroes. Why aren’t you down there?”

“I’m not a hero,” said Pinwheel. “I’m an actor. Have you ever heard of the Young Sentinels?”

“What is that, a show? I hope it’s a comedy. That’s the ugliest costume I’ve ever seen.”

Pinwheel looked at himself. “It’s worse than the sandwich costume I wore at my last gig.” He peeled his mask off. “Hell, Kayleigh’s right. I can’t even stick up for my friends. I’m as far from a hero as a guy can get.”

Alex said, “The tradition is if we take our masks off, we go by our real names.”

“Why?”

“To remember we’re not heroes anymore.”

“Oh, like method acting. Fair enough. I’m Steve.”

“How did you end up here?

“All I’ve ever wanted to do is act. I starred in every school and church play, got a degree in theater, kept and still take classes. I went to literally a thousand auditions, and I say literally because I counted them. My biggest role before becoming Pinwheel? Guy in the background of a herpes commercial. I wouldn’t have gotten this job if not for I didn’t have the amazing superpower of creating little flashes of light.”

A spinning ball of light appeared and fizzled.

“There are thousands of people without big powers,” said Alex, “and billions like me who don’t have any.”

“My powers won’t get me Hamlet, but it got me the role of homosexual superhero sidekick. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with being gay if that’ what you are, but I have to put up with the dumbest fans slinging slurs while giving male groupies the slip. ”

They watched the television as it replayed a scene from earlier that night when a NYPD helicopter got close to the steel-encased Griffin Tower. A stream of tiny robots lashed out from the Micro-Sapiens like a swirling tentacle. With one swipe it severed the chopper’s tail and arced back to the roof of the skyscraper.

“That robot-cloud-thing does that to anything that comes to close to the building,” said the clerk. “It even dive-bombed some cars that got too close.”

Alex said, “Inside there’s the Idea Man, who wants to enslave humanity, the Skreaks, who want to eradicate humanity, the sneaky Shade Blades, the greedy Iron Pirates, and Le Parrain, who’s enjoying every minute of the New York Guardian’s humiliation. I have no idea why the Micro-Sapiens are protecting them, but that robot-swarm is crazier than the guy who made it, so I won’t even guess.”

“And the big guy who ran downstairs before you came up.”

“Big Bad Roy. He likes destruction and not much else.”

“Don’t forget the Bone Terror. That thing, damn.”

“Honestly, I feel bad for him.”

Steve choked on his Coke. “But you beat him up a few years ago. I saw it on Youtube. It was epic. Every time he threw you down, you got back up and kept fighting. By the end of it, your exoskeleton was in pieces but you kept fighting until he stopped.”

“The Bone Terror is a guy with an out-of-control healing factor. He can’t stop generating new muscles and bone tissue, which I’m told puts him in extreme agony. He fights until he’s exhausted enough to pass out, then he ends up in a holding facility in a medically induced coma until someone screws up or breaks him out.”

“I can’t be sympathetic. He’s a monster.”

“He’s a man with no control over what he is. If there was a way to save him or take him out of his misery, I’d do it.”

“Then why did you beat him up?”

“Because the rest of the New York Guardians wanted me to die.”

Before Steve could ask what he meant, Jenny and Knockout Rose came to the table. Knockout Rose had no more paint on her. She wore the T-shirt like a minidress and Alex’s hooded sweatshirt wrapped around her waist like a skirt. Her right leg had band-aids and gauze taped over the worst scrapes.

Pinwheel said, “Agent O’Farrell says if you take off your mask, you have to go by your real name, Kayleigh.”

Kayleigh sat next to Alex. “Thanks for everything. I’ll pay you back.”

“How?” said Pinwheel. “After our room, meals, and expenses are deducted, our paychecks don’t even have a dollar sign.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Alex.

“Did you talk to our manager?” asked Kayleigh.

“Mister Griffin did. Apparently your friends are insured, so he’s better off if they die.”

“I wish that was something he wouldn’t say,” said Steve.

“How could he be so mean?” said Kayleigh.

“When has he ever been nice?” said Steve. “He makes you paint yourself and pretend it’s a costume.”

“Why do you do that?” asked Jenny.

“Well, I’m a MAW.”

“A what?” said Alex.

“A model, actress, whatever. I waited tables and walked dogs to pay my share of the rent on an efficiency I shared with two crazy girls before I got this job. Our manager said since I didn’t have superpowers, I had to use what I had. I work hard to keep my body fit for modeling jobs and I’m used to walking around in public mostly naked, so I got a bed at Sentinel Mansion.”

Alex said, “Sentinel Mansion isn't really a mansion, isn’t it?”

“It's a small brownstone, and I have to share a room with Jackie, or Stardancer. She’s worse than both of my last two roommates combined.”

“I know,” Steve said. “She’s a haughty, racist, ignorant gold-digger. But the comic book says we’re BFFs, so every show I play her sassy gay sidekick.”

“She still doesn’t deserve to be trapped with those villains,” said Kayleigh.

“You should feel worse for them. Agent O’Farrell, do you know what it’s like to work with someone so vile?”

“I worked with Sergeant Hammer.”

Steve nodded. “Point.”

“I thought you’d complain more about Rock Jock.”

“Pete?” said Steve. “He’s my best friend. He only acts rude in-character, and he bases it on the people who bullied him before he grew a stone skin.”

“What about Cantrip the magician?”

“Ira’s nice,” said Kayleigh, “but way too anxious. He couldn’t do a birthday party without flubbing a trick.”

“What happened to Sergeant Hammer?” asked Jenny.

“He went back down the elevator.”

“Are they going to rescue everyone?” said Kayleigh.

“I doubt it. That tower is covered in steel. No one can get out, and the Micro-Sapiens are making sure no one gets in.”

“But you said heroes rescue people,” said Kayleigh.

“I don’t know anything about heroes anymore.”

“I don’t understand the villains’ plan,” said Steve. “They broke into a building they can’t leave.”

“How did the Shade Blades get in?” said Jenny. “They would’ve passed us if they came in through the ground floor, and we didn’t see them until we reached the sub-level stairway.”

Alex shrugged. “Ninjas are like cockroaches, annoying pest who find a way into everything and scurry from light.”

“But if they got in, there must be an underground passage.”

Alex shrugged.

“If we could get in, we could rescue our teammates and theirs,” said Jenny.

“If we got in, we’d have to fight all of the New York Guardians' worst enemies at once. It’d be suicide.”

“What about the MAB agents? There’s an army of them around Griffin Tower.”

“They’re containing the villains. The superheroes created this mess, they can clean it up.”

“You’re going to sit here …”

Alex slammed his fist on the table. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. One week ago I had an exoskeleton, a family, and a team I trusted. All that is gone, and if I don’t tell the MAB how the New York Guardians withheld secret facilities from the government under my watch and resign immediately, I’ll be fired when they find out themselves. All I have left is ten bucks and this Coke.”

Alex sipped his Coke and continued. “I don’t see why you care, Jenny. You were going to quit in ten – wait, it’s past midnight – nine days anyway. Do it now. Don’t embarrass yourself like Steve and Kayleigh here.”

Steve looked down at his suit. “This is not how I saw my life turning out.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” said Kayleigh. “I work hard to look good in only paint.”

Jenny said, “We’re abandoning Lady Amazing, Trista ...”

“If anyone can survive in there, Lady Amazing can. And I don’t know what to think of Trista. She manipulated me so much I can’t think straight.”

“She sacrificed herself for me. Whatever she did in the past, I owe her.”

“We’re not heroes anymore. End of discussion.”

Everyone sat in uncomfortable silence. On the TV, the reporters interviewed the nervous reserve heroes who stood with the police outside of Griffin Tower.

Kayleigh shifted her leg. “There’s something in here.” She reached into Alex’s hoodie’s pocket and pulled out an antique black glass rosary.

Alex took it. “I’ll give this to Trista’s brother.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, but I still want to know,” said Jenny. “Who’s the father?”

“What do you mean?”

“Trista’s pregnant. There's no way it could be Vijay, they didn’t get along when things were good. Deon's not quiet about romance, and he didn't say anything about it.”

“Wait, you saw the pregnancy test stick too?”

“Yeah, but she didn't like either of those guys. You arrived too recently for the results to show because those tests take at least ten days to work. She couldn’t leave the tower because of her probation, so the only possibility is Sergeant Hammer, but I can’t imagine … but then, Candilyn said he got grabby …”

“Jenny, did you ever make eye contact with Trista when she wasn’t wearing the nullifer?”

“No. I was careful about that. The only time I was with her when she didn’t have the nullifier was when we went out for pizza after the riot, and I sat on the other corner on the same side. We couldn’t see each other past you.”

Alex’s put his last ten dollars on the table. “Get yourselves some slices. I have to make some calls.”

Alex went outside and called the MAB.

“Agent O’Farrell,” said the contact, “you said you were going to return to Griffin Tower after you contact with the remaining New York Guardians.”

“I need you to check some records first. There’s something I need to find out about one of the Guardians.”

“You’re their supervising agent. You should know more about them than anyone in the bureau.”

“I’m starting to realize there’s a lot I don’t know.”

“All I can do is look through records of complaints we received.”

“Look up the complaints against Sergeant Hammer.”

After a few quick keyboard clacks, the contact said, “There are lots of them. You filed quite a few.”

“It’s a formality. Someone makes a complaint, we open a case, and arrested villains are crybabies who swear they did nothing to warrant superhero intervention. Could you check if there are any complaints for sex offenses?”

“Against Sergeant Hammer? The American hero? Are you serious?”

“Yes. Check, please.”

A few more clacks. “I don’t think ... wait. There are five.”

“Who complained? I never saw a sex-related complaint against him.”

“Four are from before the teams were required to have an on-staff MAB agent. They were filed by Runaround Sue, Ms. Stress, Wyckedblade, and Lancette.”

“All deceased villainesses, except Wyckedblade. He was a killer-for-hire. What were the accusations?”

“Sexual assault and rape. They all died right after the investigations got underway. That’s why their claims were closed but not expunged.”

“There was one more. Who?”

“Demonia.”

“She’s dead. Her gang of Satanists kidnapped some kids. Sarge went in alone. I didn’t see what happened. He said he had to kill her to save a kid, none of the witnesses contradicted that. When did she file the claim?”

“Four days before her death. She called the bureau and claimed Sergeant Hammer sexually assaulted her.”

“I didn’t receive that complaint, and everything related to the team’s legal status should’ve come to me.”