by Nick Svolos
My chest pumped up with pride. “Yeah, I know. We saved the city.”
She laughed and gave my arm a little bump. I winced. She’d helped pop my shoulder back into place, but it was still a bit sore. “Not that. Hell, we do that every week. I’m talking about this.” She swept her hand around, taking in the scene. “You beat the entire ERD. My dear, sweet, mild-mannered boyfriend turns out to be some sort of incredible badass.” She shook her lovely head in amazement. “Seriously, Reuben, I’m in awe.”
I looked down at the wrappers. “Yeah. I think I might have gone a little crazy today.”
“Well, it’s my kind of crazy.”
“No, it isn’t. Remember back when this all started? When I didn’t want to keep these powers?”
“Yeah.” Her mood dampened a bit. “You were worried about what it might do to you.”
“Well, now we know.” I nodded at the wrecked helicopter. “The guy who flew that thing is in the hospital tonight. I gave the command that made it happen. He wasn’t part of this—just a glorified chauffeur. One ERD man got burned to death, and two more are in the burn ward. The Wobbler’s probably going to be using a colostomy bag for the rest of his life.” I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. “And that’s not the worst of it.”
“It’s not?”
“No. There was a chance that Alvarado would call my bluff. I couldn’t take that risk. So, I didn’t bluff. I had a henchman move one of the devices to Alvarado’s house. Made sure his family was there. Made sure he couldn’t pull a fast one without killing his wife and kid.” Now that I was saying it aloud, it suddenly felt real. I shuddered as what I’d done sank in on me. “God help me, I planted nerve gas in a residential neighborhood.”
“My God,” Herculene gasped. “I…oh, my God.” She went silent, leaving me to wait for the other shoe to drop. I didn’t know whether she’d dump me or knock me out and drag me over to the cops. I just knew I wouldn’t blame her either way. I deserved both.
“There wasn’t any other way, was there?” she said after a while. “Alvarado could’ve just ignored you. Sent the ERD after us or just set the gas off right then and there. Right in our faces.”
“That’s the way I figured it. I needed hostages. And now, I gotta live with that.”
She rubbed my shoulder. “I understand. We’ll get through it. Together, okay?”
I put my hand over hers. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.”
“Well, if nothing else, at least now I know where that last one came from. Thought it was odd that they’d put one so far from the freeway. Wait. How’d the coordinates for that house end up in the spreadsheet?”
“Archangel. The press boxes have directional mikes, so I set them up so she could listen in. Once she decided we didn’t need the device anymore, she added the location to your list.”
“Gonna have to have a chat with that sneaky computer.” She shook her head and smiled. “If it makes any difference, I don’t think I could have found another solution. Not one that would work, anyway. They pushed us so far. I’m just sorry this landed on you. You know, I knew something was up with you when we were downtown. You were, like, a different person.”
“I know. It’s not the kind of person I want to be.” I paused, tried to think of a way to say what was on my mind. “When I finally realized what Sinfonie meant—that it would take a villain to sort this mess out—everything became so simple. Easy. Once you toss morality out the window, well, it’s liberating. It’s a kind of freedom I didn’t even know existed. I embraced it, and it allowed me to do this.” I looked around at the wreckage. “I’ve always believed that freedom’s worth any price. But this was different. It comes at a different sort of cost.”
“I’m sorry, babe. I should have listened better. Maybe I was just being selfish. I wanted to share this part of my life with you.”
“Don’t be. The choices I made were mine, and I stand by ‘em. Helping you and the team was the right thing to do, and it’s been a blast. It’s just … this has to end.”
“What do you mean? Sounds like you’re planning to do something.” Her voice had a tone of trepidation. “I can see you’re hurting over this, but please, Reuben, don’t do anything rash.”
“Not rash. Overdue. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to have Doctor Austin remove these powers.”
She exhaled out of relief. “Oh, God, that’s it. I thought you were gonna do something stupid.”
“Stupid? Me? Why, whatever do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Turn yourself in. Get all noble and write a mea culpa article that would ruin your life. I mean, you do have a track record.”
I laughed. “Oh, you wound me, fair maiden.”
She joined my laughter with her own. “All in love, my gentle, Quixotic knight.” When we calmed down she added, “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of you.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. You’ve looked into the abyss and found the strength to walk away. Strength like that is very rare. Special.” She shot me The Look. “It’s also kinda hot.”
A tingle worked its way through my body, and I took a quick look around at the scene. It looked like everything was under control. We wouldn’t be missed. “Well, we should probably do something about that.”
She strengthened The Look with a grin. “Race ya home?”
XVIII
Helen laid her book aside and took my hand. “How ya feel, hon?”
I shook off the last vestiges of slumber and took in my surroundings. I was in a hospital room. There was an IV tube sticking out of my hand, and it took me a second to remember why.
Oh, yeah.
It was over. My powers were gone. I sank back into the pillow. “Okay, I guess. A bit weak. How long was I out?”
“Not long. Forty-five minutes or so.”
A nurse popped her head inside the door. “Ah, you’re up.” She went to work taking my vitals. “Everything looks good. Sit tight, and I’ll get the doctor.”
“Did you feel anything?” Helen asked when the nurse left the room. “It was quite a light show.”
“Not a thing,” I replied. “All in all, I’d recommend this over the way I had to do it the first time.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, when Doughboy and I stole the Force gizmos, we forgot to grab the neural anesthetic from Dr. Schadenfreude's lab. Had to white-knuckle my way through it. Man, that sucked.”
I winced at the memory of writhing on the filthy floor of a North Korean prison cell. “Sucked” was putting it mildly. Once injected into my spine, the nanobots worked their way into my bone marrow, spliced the superhuman bits of Ultiman’s DNA into my stem cells, and then regenerated my entire body. It was designed to be done under anesthesia, and for good reason—being awake while my body consumed and replaced every cell was a kind of agony I wouldn’t wish on my least favorite politician, even if he was a supervillain. I was glad to have been spared that on the return trip.
Fortunately, when I asked Doctor Austin to conduct the procedure, he insisted on doing it in a properly equipped medical facility, and Los Angeles’ California Hospital was just such a place. I thought he had an ulterior motive. The team erased the villain’s data to keep it out of the government’s hands, and Schadenfreude wasn’t inclined to reveal his secrets. This was the last dose; Austin’s last chance to see how it worked.
Doctor Austin entered the room with Doctor Rivera, the attending physician. Rivera checked me out, put me through some exercises and reviewed the data, but even though he couldn’t find anything wrong with me, he still insisted on holding me overnight for observation. Apparently, he wouldn’t be satisfied until I grew a third arm, turned purple, or manifested some other equally horrible mutation. I protested, and Doctor Austin eventually talked Rivera into cutting it to four hours.
I was trapped by hospital bureaucracy, a foe I couldn’t hope to beat.
So, Helen and I watched a movie, and when the nurses grudgingly realized I wa
sn’t going to turn into some kind of B-movie monster, they removed my IV and allowed me to get up and walk around a bit. It was weird at first. I felt so weak, and I found myself walking funny. After eight months of walking like the floor was made of parchment, it took a bit of adjustment.
We strolled down to Cindy’s room. We found her sitting up in her bed, chatting with Mentalia as some morning show played quietly on the TV. “Hey, look who’s here.” Her face lit up as we walked into the room. “How’s the lowly normal?”
“Tired, weak as a kitten, and happy as a clam,” I grinned, plopping into an empty chair and regretting it immediately. The spot between my shoulder blades where they attached the Force gizmo barked to remind me that my days of near-invulnerability were over.
“Well, you don’t look any worse for wear and tear,” Mentalia observed.
“Oh, I’m fine. I’m more interested in our star patient. How’re you?”
“Good.” Cindy wiggled her toes. “See? Should be on my feet tomorrow. Then, I just have to figure out how to bust out of this joint.”
“I told you, girl,” Mentalia replied, “we got you. As soon as the doc clears you, the whole team’ll be here to escort you to the Tower. Then, we do a little shell game and get you home before you know it. Don’t even trip.”
Cindy smiled her thanks, although I could see some uncertainty in her eyes. Trust issues were a survival trait in her world. She changed the subject, turning back to me. “I heard you shook the pillars of heaven and earth yesterday. Dish.”
So, I did, even though I knew she could lift the information out of my head with no effort at all. Maybe she just wanted to hear me tell the story in my own words. When I finished, she smiled. “I knew you’d be a great bad guy.”
“Heh, yeah. Heroes and Villains.”
She giggled. “Lord Moleman strikes again.”
Helen and Mentalia looked at the two of us like we’d been speaking in tongues. “Why do I feel like there’s a story here I’m not privy to?” Helen asked.
“It’s nothing. Just a game we used to play when we were kids.”
“Nothing?” Cindy disagreed. “Sounds to me like it saved your ass out there.”
“Okay,” Mentalia said with a laugh. “Now, I gotta hear this. What’s ‘Heroes and Villains’?”
“What, you guys didn’t play this growing up?” Cindy giggled, looking astonished.
Mentalia shook her head. “No. We were normal.”
Helen added, “Don’t look at me. I was a Barbie’s Dreamhouse girl.”
“Oh, wow, you need to see to these ladies’ education, Rube.” Cindy sat up a little higher and explained. “In Heroes and Villains, one kid takes on the role of villain and the others all try to thwart his evil scheme. Usually, it’s just an inverted game of tag that gives a bunch of seven-year-olds an excuse to run around and hit each other.” She smiled. “But not this guy. Oh, no. He’d have it all planned out.”
I hid my face behind my hand. “Cindy, I wish you wouldn’t.”
Helen shushed me, bidding Cindy to continue with a big grin on her face.
“Okay, so, he’d come up with these incredible scenarios full of dastardly traps, mind-control rays, you name it. And these weren’t the sort of things kids come up with, you know, suddenly making up invulnerability shields and such when they get ‘hit’. Reuben would have these three-by-five cards all written up, hidden around the yard. He’d lure us into them. Like, he’d get a kid to chase him behind a bush, the kid would find a card and read it. ‘You are caught in a giant spider’s web. It’s stronger than titanium and you can’t break free. The monstrous arachnid is coming to eat you! Hurry, call for help!’ We’d suddenly have to rescue the kid while little Rube scampered off to set up for his next victim.”
“Oh, my God, that’s adorable.” Helen laughed. “And you guys went along with it?”
“How could we not? It was too much fun. Eventually, he was the only guy we ever picked to be the villain, which suited him just fine.”
“So, he wanted to be the villain?” Mentalia eyed me with mock suspicion.
“I insisted on it.” Seeing we were already far past the point of my ever hearing the end of it, I figured I might as well enjoy it. I made my voice dark and threatening. “Outwitting those do-gooding fools was hardly a challenge, but it was better than subjecting my genius to their insipid attempts at villainy. They lacked my vision.”
The women burst into laughter, and Cindy clapped her hands, “He’s doing it! He used to monologue just like that. At the end, when he let us ‘defeat’ him, we’d wait just to hear it.”
Mentalia recovered enough composure to ask, “So, you’re saying he beat Bedlam by living out a childhood fantasy?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” I protested.
“I would,” Cindy said, her eyes sparkling. “You’ve been rehearsing for it since you were five.”
***
That night, I grilled steaks. Two big ribeyes for Helen and a smaller one for me. Now that I was a normal again, I’d have to cut way back on the calories if I didn’t want to balloon my way into a new wardrobe. I listened to the radio while I worked. The fallout from the evidence we’d gathered and the events surrounding it was just beginning to take shape but was already significant.
Backdraft was talking a blue streak to the district attorney, divulging information on the ERD program that, thanks to leaks to the press, sparked mounting pressure to shut the program down for good. In Washington, politicians scrambled to schedule hearings, propose legislation, and most importantly, get their faces in front of the ever-hungry eyes of the Beltway media.
LaBlanc and Dawson shared credit for the bust. Captain Stand-In’s role in the whole mess went down in the books as a helpful citizen. Strangely enough, any paperwork bearing the name “Reuben Conway” had gone missing. Go figure. Fedor and Damon got a little salty about me being cut out of the story, but I couldn’t have been happier. The sooner everyone forgot about me, the sooner I could get back to work.
Plus, nobody seemed interested in pressing charges against me or my alter-ego. I’d forgo a little glory for a deal like that any day.
Ratna had gotten her first solo byline. That day’s edition of the Beacon had sold out, and Harry bumped her up to full-time reporter. Though I felt happy for her, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d have to bring my game up a couple notches. I had competition now.
Noblesse Oblige finally tracked down Le Amplifier and Greyshade was catching a red-eye to LA. I’d finagled myself the task of picking him up at LAX the next morning and, hopefully, his arrival would mean Patty Blackburn was spending the last of her nights sleeping under the orange rays of a Kunai field. I figured I’d also use the opportunity to get a quick interview with him while we fought our way through downtown traffic. If Greyshade turned out to be talkative, I even had a longer route planned.
I wasn’t kidding about stepping up my game.
Speaking of which, it was time to step things up another notch, albeit in a different milieu. A long-overdue task needed my attention. I put the steaks on a plate and walked back into Helen’s condo.
“Mmm, that smell,” she said over the salad she was working on. “Wanna pour the wine?”
“On it.” A couple of butterflies teleported into my stomach and started fluttering around. I let them have their fun. This wouldn’t be the same without them.
We dished up and tore through our meal, talking about the sorts of things two friends and lovers talk about. Everything and nothing. I waited until we were done washing up the dishes afterward before idly asking, “Say, you still got that thing I gave you?”
“What, the case? The one with the thumbprint reader?” I nodded, and she disappeared into the bedroom.
A moment later, she returned with the device. “What is it, anyway? More evidence for the cops?”
“Naw.” I took it and turned it over. “It’s something I picked up last year, before the Schadenfreude thing. Been carryin
g it around ever since.” The butterflies went into a crazed, flapping dance in my gut. “I wanted to give it to you back then, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not while I was running around with another man’s powers.”
I handed the case back to her. “There’s only one thumbprint that’ll open it, and it isn’t mine.”
She looked at the silver box and back to me. “I don’t get it. What’s that got to do with anything?” She put her thumb on the reader, and with a quiet click, the case popped open.
I dropped to one knee, smiling at the reflected sparkle of a diamond dancing in her eyes.
***
“So, what’d she say?” my dad asked.
“What do you think I said?” Helen answered for me as she sat down and passed out the beers she’d retrieved. She rested her head on my shoulder and held up her hand to let the diamond ring on her finger catch the sunlight. “I said ‘Yes.’”
Pop chuckled, adjusting the trim on his line. “About damn time.”
We’d pried him away from his ranch on the pretext of an afternoon of fishing on Swan Lake to share the news. The sun beat down on the lake, but we’d found a shady spot near the water, baited our hooks, and waited for the catfish to get hungry.
He gave me a proud punch on the arm. “What took ya so long?”
“Oh, he had some crazy notion I’d lose interest in him once he gave up his powers,” Helen said. “If I didn’t love him so much, I’d beat him to death for stringing me along.”
“Ah, that’s my boy for ya. Always overthinkin’ things.” He looked at Helen. “Didja tell your folks yet?”
She groaned. “No, not yet.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Why not?”
“It’s … complicated.” She sighed. “They aren’t too wild about Reuben.”
“Oh?” Dad said. “What’s wrong with my boy? Other than his lack of common sense, tendency to piss off the wrong people, and general knack for gettin’ into trouble, he ain’t so bad.”
Helen chuckled. “You’re preaching to the choir.”
