“Where are they all running to?” Penumbra asked.
“Anywhere but here,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t know where they think they’re safe, unless they have an underground bunker hidden somewhere.
Didn’t they just see the same explosions that we did?”
“Maybe they didn’t believe it,” Norma said. “They might think it was fake footage.”
“They should know the Maniac better than to think that he would just fake something like that,” I said. “But we might as well double-check that.
Aileen--”
“I have already tapped into the security cameras closest to the bridges and reviewed the footage from the last few minutes,” my robotic assistant interrupted. “The bridges are destroyed.”
“So the Maniac really wasn’t kidding,” Penumbra whispered. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but…”
“Shit, this is bad,” Elizabeth said from the front passenger seat.
I glanced over at my girlfriend and saw that she had a death grip on the door handle, so all the muscles in her arm stood out as she tightened and released her grasp on the door. She looked like she wanted to punch somebody, but since the Maniac hadn’t bothered to show up in person yet, she had to take her aggression out on something else.
“You’re gonna rip that thing off if you keep squeezing it that hard,” I said.
Elizabeth immediately released her grip, but the handle was already crumpled.
“Oops,” she winced.
I couldn’t blame her for it. As I turned onto the next road where Aileen directed me, I saw that the citizens of Grayville were doing exactly what the Maniac had expected them to. Minus the whole part about how they would rip each others’ skin off, but I figured that was more of a grand finale act than an opening number.
No one had actually started to loot any stores yet, but that was surely only just a matter of time. Instead, people ran for their cars or just ran down the street like their feet would somehow propel them across the Ashen River even if their cars couldn’t.
Two cars rammed into each other up ahead in their eagerness to drive… well, somewhere else, since it wasn’t like they could really go anywhere except in circles around the city. Both drivers jumped out of their cars and started to yell at each other, so they completely missed the third car as it headed right for them.
They must have heard the squeal of the tires at the last second because both drivers dove out of the way just in time, but their cars didn’t fare so well. The third driver ploughed through both of them and then just kept going like nothing had happened.
“Take the next right,” Aileen said.
“Ooh, yeah, let’s leave this mess behind us,” Penumbra said.
“There are more traffic accidents up ahead,” Aileen said, “but I will guide you around the worst of them.”
“Well, isn’t that sweet?” I smirked.
“Don’t they know that this is exactly what the Maniac wanted?”
Elizabeth demanded. “For everyone to panic and look out for only themselves? Don’t they know that now when he carries out the rest of the plan, they’ll all be too divided to stand up to him?”
“Oh, I don’t think they got that far along in their thoughts,” I said. “I think they heard what the Maniac said, watched the bridges blow up, and then just went primal.”
“It just doesn’t make sense.” Elizabeth frowned and blew a stray wave of black hair out of her face.
“Not everyone can be as selfless as you,” I teased her. “Most people only think about themselves, not anybody else around them.”
“So, do we have any ideas about what the Maniac meant?” Norma asked. “You know, about his whole plan of mass chaos and destruction and everything.”
“It must be some sort of mind control,” I said, “or else some kind of poison. That’s the only thing that could affect an entire population.”
“Maybe he found some nanobots of his own?” Penumbra asked.
“No, the Maniac wouldn’t just copy something that Mayhem did first,” I said. “He would never do something that had already been done before, especially not in his own city.”
“He does like a spectacle,” Norma agreed. “So that means mind-control nanobots are probably out.”
“Take the next left,” Aileen chimed in.
“Isn’t this where we turn right to go to the mansion?” Penumbra asked.
“That road is currently occupied by news vans who are all rushing to the scene of the bridge,” the AI system replied. “A left turn will allow you to go around and arrive home faster.”
I followed my AI system’s instructions, but I could guess the rest of the route that I was supposed to take. It would only take a few extra
minutes, and it would be worth it if I could avoid the rush of news vans who were all headed to see what Aileen had already confirmed for me.
“We’ll talk about it more at home,” I said.
“Yeah, I’ll definitely feel safer behind all of Norma’s security measures,” Penumbra said.
“That’s one way to put it,” Elizabeth laughed. “Didn’t you just put in a guillotine based on Norma’s designs?”
“Well, that’s really just a last line of defense,” my mousy assistant said with a little blush.
“A very dramatic one,” I teased.
When I finally pulled into the driveway of my Grayville mansion, I glanced around the lawn like the Maniac might pop out from behind the bushes, but everything was just as we had left it. I’d known that it would be, thanks to Aileen’s monitoring and all of Norma’s security measures, but I knew that he had a personal vendetta against me, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had tried a more personal attack.
Then again, the Maniac might be unhinged, but he also wouldn’t just lash out without a plan. So even though he hadn’t struck at me personally yet, it had to be just a matter of time before he did.
I suddenly wondered if the timing of the Maniac’s broadcasted message was just a coincidence, or if he had somehow been watching our fight in the park, so he could wait until we were all finished, just to be sure that we got his message.
“Miles?” my girlfriend asked. “Something wrong?”
“Nothing I can’t figure out,” I said with a shrug.
I turned the engine off, grabbed my helmet where I had set it down between Elizabeth and me, and then hopped out of the van. My muscles groaned as I walked up the front steps, but it was nothing that a stiff drink couldn’t fix.
Before I could even open the door, Aileen opened it for me. We hadn’t quite perfected her skin yet, but she wore the latest version on top of her chrome body, so when she opened the door, my robotic assistant looked like every man and woman’s wet dream.
Her pale skin was accented by her warm blue eyes and dirty blonde hair, and as she fluttered her long eyelashes at me, I let my gaze wander down past her full breasts to her impossibly slender waist before her chrome under-body flared back out into broad hips.
Of course, Aileen hadn’t put on actual clothes to greet us at the door, so instead, she only wore black lingerie and a loose silk robe that didn’t
really conceal much of anything.
“Remind me to talk to you about some clothes,” I laughed.
“I understand the human custom of clothing, Creator,” Aileen replied as she let us into the mansion. “But I also understand that the sight of me in these clothes would please you the most, so that is why I wore only them and nothing else.”
“Well, you’re not wrong about that,” I said with a grin, and then I followed the women past the foyer into the main living room of the mansion.
All the screens that we had set up in the living room were turned on, but by now, the Maniac’s hacked feed had disappeared, and instead, it was just one breaking news headline after another. Most of the channels just showed news anchors at their desks, but a few field reporters had managed against all the traffic and actually arrived at the site of some of t
he bombed bridges.
“Thanks for getting all of this pulled up,” I told Aileen.
“The Maniac released his control over the channels after the third bridge exploded, so I knew that you would want to see the news as soon as you came inside,” my robotic assistant replied. “I have also begun to
prepare snacks, since you should all be hungry after your exertions in the park.”
“Hell, yes,” Norma said. “I’ll come help you finish up.”
As Aileen and Norma headed into the kitchen, I set my helmet down on the coffee table and then sank down into the couch. I wanted to change out of my suit and get cleaned up, but at the moment, I was more interested in what I could learn from the news coverage about the Maniac’s latest plot.
Penumbra and Elizabeth followed my lead, so they didn’t bother to change clothes and instead just both sat down on either side of me.
Elizabeth sat so close that her hip pressed up against mine, and when I stretched my arms out to rest them along the back of the couch, Penumbra took the opportunity to nestle a little closer to me, too.
“We are still waiting on a statement from the mayor,” a sweaty anchor said on one channel, “but so far, no one has been able to track him down. Some have speculated that he might already have left Grayville, but…”
“Eh, switch the speaker to the next channel,” I called.
Even though her body was still in the kitchen, Aileen switched the sound input to the next station. That was just one of the things that I loved so much about my AI system. Her consciousness wasn’t limited to a
physical body, and that was why she always seemed to be everywhere at once. Her mind was technically stored in the servers of my Cellar back in Pinnacle City, but she was backed up across several clouds, and she could multitask however many items that I needed her to.
“As you can see, the bridge has been entirely destroyed,” a field reporter said as he gestured to the exploded bridge behind him. “Experts believe it was the work of at least one bomb, if not--”
“No shit,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Why is everyone so fucking dumb? Next.”
“There have already been reports of increased supervillain attacks,” a red-haired reporter said on the next station. “Just this afternoon, Harpy and Vulture terrorized crowds who were out to enjoy a rare sunny day here in Grayville, but reports are now coming in that both those supervillains may be dead.”
“Keep the sound on this one,” I called.
“Do you think anybody saw us?” Penumbra asked as she pressed her hip more against mine.
“I hope not,” Elizabeth said, and she placed a firm hand on my thigh.
My girlfriend wasn’t exactly the jealous type, but she still liked everyone to know that she was mine first, so they would all have to get in
line behind her. If it made her feel better, then I sure as hell didn’t mind if she wanted to stroke her hand up the inside of my leg, even if I was still in my super suit.
“You hope… not?” Penumbra asked.
“We’re already on the Maniac’s radar,” Dynamo replied, “so it’s probably best if we don’t draw any more attention to ourselves than we have to.”
“That’s a fair point,” I said, “but I have to disagree with you on that one.”
“Oh, really?” Elizabeth arched one of her jet-black eyebrows at me, and when she fixed me with her turquoise stare, I thought that I might actually change my mind for a second.
“Yeah, really,” I finally said. “Like you said, the Maniac already has a target on our backs because of what we did to the Shadow Knight, so there’s no point in trying to stay hidden. Sure, we can keep some tricks up our sleeves, but we’re not just going to hide out in our mansion.”
“I definitely didn’t say that we should hide out,” Elizabeth huffed. “I just thought we might not want our faces plastered all over the news.”
“Witnesses say that four figures were seen fleeing from the park just a few minutes ago,” the redhead on the screen continued, “and a bystander
found Harpy and Vulture in the park just afterwards, along with the supervillain Swallow a little further away, but when they were found, all three villains were already dead.”
“Why do they have to say that we were fleeing?” Norma grumbled as she carried in a plate of sandwiches and finger-foods. “That makes it sound like we’re guilty of something.”
“Reporters always think that everybody is guilty until proven otherwise,” I said as I reached for a roast beef sandwich on two thick slices of sourdough bread. “And half the time, they believe you’re guilty even if you can prove otherwise.”
“I’m getting reports of another supervillain on a rampage now,” the redhead said as she tilted her head to the side as she listened to the voice in her earpiece. “It looks like it might be… hold on, there seems to be some confusion… is it just looters, or is it a villain?”
Aileen strolled back into the room with a mountain of pasta in one hand and a stack of plates in her other hand.
“You didn’t think the sandwiches were enough?” I laughed.
“I had extra time,” Aileen said, “and there were plenty of ingredients.”
“I’ll take some of that,” Penumbra said. “I’m starving.”
As all the women except for Aileen loaded down their plates with food, I took another bite of my sandwich and leaned forward to hear what the redhead was trying to say.
“Apologies for the mixed information,” the reporter said. “We’ve got a lot of confusion on the lines right now, but there does in fact seem to be a supervillain downtown who has so far torched two city streets and is now on his way toward another. However, there are also reports that looters have already begun to…”
“I wonder what the Maniac’s time frame is,” I said as I tuned out the rest of the reporter’s words. “He obviously wants people to panic, but I have a feeling that he wants them to really feel their desperation before he actually carries out whatever his plan is.”
“But he has to know that he can’t wait too long, right?” Norma asked through a mouthful of pasta. “Because if he waits too long, we’ll be able to stop him.”
“Oh, we’ll be able to stop him either way,” I said. “The only question is how many civilians are going to die in the meantime.”
“That guy really gives me the creeps,” Penumbra said with a shudder.
“He’s just so pale and pointy and like, I don’t know… he’s just creepy!”
“Well, he does really like to crucify his victims,” I said, “or peel their flesh off, so yeah, I think creepy is probably an appropriate word.”
“I don’t know how the Shadow Knight ever defended him,” the slender blonde said. “Like, he totally had the chance to kill him before, and he never did. He was just too protective of whatever sick game they liked to play with each other.”
“And that’s exactly why the Maniac kept killing all of Slade’s Silver Squires,” Elizabeth growled. “None of them had to die, but Slade was too obsessed with the Maniac to ever put a stop to it.”
“Sooner or later, the Maniac will figure out that I only play by my own rules,” I said with a shrug. “In fact, I’m pretty sure that he already knows that.”
“What do you mean?” Norma asked as she set her plate of pasta down.
“We were talking about it earlier,” I said. “How coordinated the attacks have seemed lately, how unusual it is for Harpy and Vulture to work together, all that sort of thing. Plus, there’s also the little fun fact that the Maniac waited until we left the park to broadcast his warning.”
“So you think… what, that he’s… watching us or something?”
Penumbra’s pale blue eyes widened.
“And that he’s behind all the recent supervillain attacks?” Norma asked. “That would make sense, I guess.”
“I think he’s definitely given some encouragement in that department,” I said. “And yes, I do think he’s probably been watching us
because if he can hack into the TV feed for every channel, then he can probably use the CCTV cameras around the city to watch us.”
“Like I said,” Penumbra muttered. “Creepy.”
“He knows we killed Shadow Knight, and now he wants to try to get us to dance to his little tune,” I said.
“Fat chance,” Elizabeth growled. “I’d like to see him try to take all of us on at once.”
“I know we want to kill him as soon as possible,” I said, “just like I know we need to figure out what his plan is and what his timeline for it is, but if there’s one thing that we do know about the Maniac, he isn’t stupid, and he definitely isn’t unprepared.”
If I had mentioned how we would kill a supervillain even just a few weeks ago, I might have been met with a roomful of confused or even angry expressions. But the last few weeks in Grayville had done a lot to change Elizabeth and Penumbra’s ideas about justice, so now they saw things the same way that I did.
Aileen had always agreed with me from the very beginning, but then, I had designed her brain, so even though her mind continued to evolve organically, she would always agree with me whenever it came to an argument or a decision because really, I had designed her to be a perfect complement to myself.
“Did the Shadow Knight ever talk about what the Maniac’s superpower was?” Norma asked Penumbra.
“He never really trusted me enough to talk about anything like that,”
the blonde superheroine said with a shrug. “So if he knew what the Maniac’s power was, he never told me.”
“What do you mean by ‘if’ he knew?” I demanded.
Before Penumbra could answer, Elizabeth’s phone rang. She dug it out of her suit, glanced at the number, and then looked up at me with a little wrinkle between her two dark eyebrows.
“It’s Clifford,” my girlfriend said.
“The Warden dog?” I snickered.
“The Warden who can shapeshift into a dog, yes,” Elizabeth said with a roll of her eyes.
“Go ahead and answer,” I said. “I’m curious if he’s calling about official Warden business or not.”
Elizabeth nodded and held the phone up to her ear.
“This is Dynamo,” she said as her posture straightened on the couch.
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