“Put it on speaker,” I whispered.
As soon as she did, my girlfriend set the phone down on the coffee table so we could all hear Clifford.
“Hey, I can’t talk long,” the kid said, “but I wanted to warn you before they call me back in there.”
“Warn me about what?” Elizabeth asked.
“That the Wardens are coming,” Clifford said.
“Right now?” my girlfriend demanded.
“No, not right away,” Clifford replied. “They’ve been arguing about timing, but all they’ve been able to agree on so far is that they have to go to Grayville because of… well, you know.”
“The Maniac?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yeah, we heard about the bridges and everything almost right after it happened,” the Warden kid said.
“Word really travels fast,” Norma muttered.
“So what are they waiting for?” Dynamo asked. “A written invitation from the Shadow Knight? Because in case they missed that little bit of
news, he’s dead.”
“No, that’s not it at all,” Clifford said. “They’re just waiting on money from the mayor before they go to Grayville.”
“You mean they’re waiting on money before they come help the innocent civilians of Grayville who have been trapped here by a bloodthirsty psychopath?” Elizabeth growled.
“Um… yeah?” Clifford replied.
“Of course, it’s about money,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
After all, that was the only thing the Wardens gave a shit about. Well, that and how many likes and views they got on their goddamn Supergram accounts. The more followers they got, the more sponsorship deals they could receive, and all of that just meant more money.
Not that I had anything against money, since I happened to be a self-made billionaire. But I didn’t go around and pretend to be all good and noble like the Wardens did, and I also killed the supervillains that I caught so they couldn’t go out and kill civilians again, so the whole cycle would then just start over.
“They will eventually go to Grayville one way or another,” the Warden kid continued. “Even if the mayor won’t fund their trip, they’ll still
end up going. There’s too much of a chance for them to, uh, help people, so they can’t just stand by and let the Maniac kill a whole city.”
“Well, they could definitely help evacuate people,” Dynamo said, “so if they want to--”
“Oh, sorry!” Clifford interrupted. “I didn’t call just to tell you that they’re coming to Grayville. I called to say that when the Wardens do come, Optimo has already said that we’re going to round up you and Miles and the floaty chick… and basically anyone else associated with Miles.”
“What the fuck?” My superpowered girlfriend jumped to her feet like she could take a swing at Optimo right there, but then she sank back down onto the couch.
“Are you serious?” Penumbra asked. “This is the floaty chick, by the way. Is Optimo really more concerned about Miles than he is about the fucking Maniac?”
“Yeah…” Clifford trailed off. “That’s why I called. It doesn’t make sense, not when you and Miles have been doing so much to help Grayville.
I don’t know if you really have to kill everybody when you could just arrest them, but… I don’t know. I don’t think that means we should lock you up.”
“Okay,” Elizabeth sighed. “Thanks for letting me know, Clifford. I know that couldn’t have been an easy decision.”
“Well, I couldn’t just--” Clifford paused. “Shit, I gotta go.”
“Let us know if you find out anything else about when they’re coming, okay?” my girlfriend asked.
“Yep, talk later,” Clifford said and then immediately hung up.
“Fuck,” Norma said. “Well, that certainly complicates things.”
“Eh, we were on a timeline anyway,” I said with a shrug. “Now there’s just two factors that we don’t know enough about. One, when the Maniac’s plan will take effect. And two, when the Wardens will come to Grayville.”
“Shouldn’t we be worried about that?” Elizabeth asked.
“You’re welcome to worry about it if it makes you feel better,” I laughed, “but that won’t really help us, and it doesn’t really change our plans.”
“And our plans are….” Penumbra trailed off. “What, exactly?”
“To stop and kill the Maniac before the Wardens come and before the Maniac can carry out his plan,” Aileen chimed in.
“And since we don’t know when either of those things are going to happen, at least not yet,” Elizabeth said, “I guess the idea is to just do everything as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, sooner rather than later sounds good,” Norma said. “How long do you think we’ve got, Miles? If you had to guess.”
“Well, think about it this way,” I said. “Who do we need to be more concerned about, the Wardens or Maniac?”
“Um,” Penumbra said, “well, since the Maniac likes to, you know, crucify people and shit, I’d probably have to say that we should be more concerned about him.”
“Plus, the worst thing that the Wardens would do is just to throw us into jail, and even then, Miles’ lawyers would get us out in a heartbeat,”
Norma said.
“Definitely,” I said. “One of the perks of being a billionaire.”
“One of many,” Elizabeth said with a smirk.
“By the way, what Norma said is probably true for the rest of us,” I said, “but I don’t know if you would be quite so lucky, Elizabeth.
Remember the deal that Shadow Knight made with Optimo? Before we offed him, of course.”
“Yeah, that Slade was going to hand me over to Optimo like some sort of fucking prize,” Dynamo growled. “Bastard.”
“So while the rest of us might get tossed into jail, I can’t guarantee the same fate for you,” I said. “Optimo might have something else in
mind.”
“What a dick,” Norma sighed.
“It’s alright,” I laughed. “We’d never let him get that far, anyway. My point is that if we take out the Maniac first, then the Wardens would have no reason to come to Grayville, and they definitely couldn’t just waltz in and arrest the people who just saved all the citizens here.”
“Besides, the Wardens would probably wait until about half the city was dead before they came anyway,” Norma said. “That way, there could be plenty of coverage about how bad the situation was, and then they could swoop in and save the day.”
“It wasn’t that long ago that I would have said you were crazy for thinking that,” Penumbra said, “but now I know you’re right. They don’t care about any collateral damage, as long as they look good for the cameras.”
“Yep,” I said with a grin at the fact that I had won all these women over to my point of view, “but like I said, we won’t have to worry about them yet, as long as we take out the Maniac first.”
“But how are we supposed to do that when we don’t know when he’s gonna strike?” Penumbra asked. “Or where? Or how?”
“I’m so glad you asked,” I snickered. “The good thing about the Maniac is that just because we don’t know what his superpower is, that doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about him.”
“Well, we know he likes to put on a show when he kills,” Norma said, “so it’ll definitely be something big.”
“Right, and we also know that he likes to play games,” I said. “So, he won’t carry out his plan until he makes sure that we know more about it.”
“What do you mean?” Penumbra asked.
“The Maniac will give us just enough information that we’ll know what’s going to happen,” I said, “but not enough that we would be able to do anything about it or that we’d be able to stop it. Or at least, that’s what he’ll think.”
“I guess he does like to taunt his enemies before he actually kills them,” the blonde heroine said. “So it makes sense that he would want us to know a little more
about his plan before he actually carries it out.”
“So what, we just have to wait around until that asshole contacts us?”
Elizabeth demanded. “You know it’s not really my style just to wait around.”
“I know,” I said with a smile, “but don’t worry. I have a feeling we won’t have to wait very long at all.”
“Will you contact Beacon about any of this?” Aileen asked.
“Yeah, we should give him a call just so he has a head’s up about everything that’s happening,” I said.
“Do you think we’ll need him?” Penumbra asked.
“It can’t hurt to have him as a back-up,” I said. “He’s probably so busy with Slade Industries--”
“Soon to be a subsidiary of Nelson Enterprises,” Aileen interrupted,
“once the last of the paperwork goes through.”
“Right, so he probably has his hands full with that, but I’m sure he’d like to know what’s going on,” I said, “especially since I’m sure he’s seen the news by now.”
I pulled out my phone, called Beacon, and put it on speaker. It only rang once before the young superhero answered.
“Miles!” Beacon said. “I’m so glad to hear from you! I just got out of a meeting, and it’s all over the TV.”
“You’re being careful, aren’t you?” Penumbra demanded. “You’re watching your surroundings and everything? I don’t want the Maniac to do anything to you since you’re not with the rest of us.”
“I’m being careful, yes,” Beacon said. “I’ve taken every precaution since Miles killed Shadow Knight because… well, for this reason. You said
the Maniac would come after us at some point, Miles.”
“And apparently, that time is now,” Elizabeth said.
“What do you need me to do?” Beacon asked. “I can come to the mansion if you need me now, or I can--”
“No, you’re fine where you are,” I said. “How are things going with the company?”
“It’s overwhelming, but it’s good,” Beacon replied. “Julien has been a really big help, and we’ve just about sorted through the mess that Slade left behind.”
“And the investors?” I asked.
“We’re starting to restore their confidence in us,” the young superhero said, “especially since they got word that you bought the company. Your success with your own company has been very reassuring to them.”
“Good, that’s what I thought,” I said with a smirk. “I’m glad Julien has been helpful.”
“Definitely,” Beacon said. “He knows so much about Slade’s business and just running a business in general, so he’s really been a life-saver. I actually think I might start to get the hang of all this.”
“I wouldn’t have handed control of the company over to you if I didn’t think you could handle it,” I said, “so it’s good that you’ve started to feel that way yourself.”
“So you don’t need me?” Beacon asked, but he sounded a little disappointed.
“Right now, I need you to be Adrian who runs Nelson Enterprises,” I said, “but if I need you to be Beacon, then I’ll let you know. Just make sure you always keep your phone on you.”
“I will, I promise,” Beacon said. “I’m around whenever you guys need me, so just let me know how I can help.”
“We will,” I said. “Talk soon.”
After I ended the call, I leaned back on the couch and thought for a minute. Penumbra and Norma had started to talk about Beacon, Aileen stared off into space as her consciousness ran a dozen different programs at once, and Elizabeth seemed lost in her own thoughts, so it gave me a chance to plan for a moment.
I firmly believed that the Maniac would contact us soon, since otherwise, there was no point to this little game of his. It would be much less satisfying for him to win if he was the only one who knew the rules, and I knew that for him, the anticipation was almost better than the climax.
But while we waited to learn more about the Maniac’s plans against Grayville, I needed to prioritize our preparations to deal with him. I had more work than I knew what to do with in the basement, so it was really just a matter of triage to decide what could wait and what needed immediate attention.
The skin sample from Harpy, for example, could wait to be examined, because as much as I wanted to know what material the spikes were made of, it wasn’t essential that I figure it out before we fought the Maniac. It could be a nice bonus, but even Aileen figured it out while we were doing something else, it would take time to replicate it and find the best way to use it in my own super suits. So until we knew exactly how much time we had, that might have to be put on the backburner.
Then there were all our different methods of transportation and the upgrades that I needed to finish with those. There was Norma’s plane-glider that we had stolen the plans for from Dan Slade, but I had wanted to replicate it into a bigger model. I had taken plenty of material from the Shadow Knight’s wrecked vehicles, so I should be able to recycle it into something new and better, and the first thing that had come to mind was a plane-glider that could hold four people.
Sure, Penumbra could fly herself pretty much anywhere, just like she could lighten our mass and float us right along with her. But I always
wanted to be prepared just in case she was ever injured or knocked unconscious, and I figured that it was pretty much impossible to have too many planes.
I had completed the model itself during the last week, but at the moment, it still didn’t have any kind of firepower. It could carry four of us, but if we wanted to shoot at all, then we would have to use our own weapons instead of any kind of weapons on the plane itself. So that was definitely something that I wanted to spend some time with.
But most of all, there were half a dozen improvements to all of our suits that I had in mind, and I would really like a chance to work on those at some point before we went up against the Maniac. I wanted to work on our masks to try to incorporate some kind of mesh against any future gas attacks, so we wouldn’t be knocked out the way that Shadow Knight had been able to knock out Dynamo during our fight.
Of course, our masks were just one thing that I wanted to improve, but there was plenty of other shit to keep me busy. I technically had wrist blades installed in my gauntlets, but the pressure sensitivity wasn’t quite right, so I really had to press down if I wanted to activate them. And in the middle of a fight, it would be much easier if I could just punch somebody and let the wrist blades flip out with the pressure for a little extra damage.
Actually, maybe I should make the blades come out of the knuckles of my gloves, or I could just make them come out of both places to make sure that I had all of my bases covered.
“Creator,” Aileen purred into my ear as she bent over the couch beside me, “I detect another breach in the security cameras by the lake.”
“Shit,” I said. “He really didn’t waste any time, did he?”
“I’ve just gotten word of some breaking news,” the red-haired reporter on TV said. “It seems that… oh, my god, it seems that someone has kidnapped all those aboard a yacht who were just out for a party, and now…
no, no ransom demands have been made, but authorities expect that this may turn into a standard hostage situation. No word on who is responsible yet, although…”
“Oh, I’ve got an idea of who’s responsible,” I said. “Looks like the Maniac has decided to start his little game with us sooner rather than later.”
Chapter 3
Of course, the Maniac had chosen a fucking yacht to take hostage.
After all, Dan Slade’s yacht had been one of his prized possessions, and since the Maniac was obsessed with all things related to Dan Slade and the Shadow Knight, it really wasn’t a surprise that he had chosen a yacht to make his first contact with us.
“Pull up the security camera footage from by the lake on one of the screens,” I told Aileen. “I want to see if the Maniac has left us any clues that he’s behind this, or if we’re
just supposed to assume he is and then show up.”
“Right away, Creator,” Aileen said in her low, sultry tone.
I wasn’t particularly thrilled at the fact that we were about to have to save a bunch of rich assholes who had just inherited their money like Dan Slade. They were the types who only really knew how to spend money instead of make it, because unlike me, they had never had to earn anything a day in their lives.
The TV screen directly in front of me switched over to the security camera feed by the lake, so I turned my attention to it while I also kept one eye on the red-haired reporter on one of the other screens.
If I had any doubts that the Maniac was behind all of this, those doubts immediately vanished when I saw the security camera feed. The camera itself was at the end of the dock, and right away, I could see that the feed had been tampered with, just like Aileen had said.
For the most part, the footage just showed a few empty yachts left at the dock, so I guessed the hostage yacht must already be out on the lake.
But every few seconds, the footage turned to static, and then the feed switched to a dark warehouse. No one was in the warehouse, at least not that we could see, but on the wall, there was a message scrawled in dark red paint.
Let’s play a game.
The security feed stayed on the warehouse wall just long enough for me to read the message, and then it switched back to the yachts at the dock.
It continued to switch back and forth, and when I felt certain that there wasn’t any other message for me, I turned my attention back to the screen with the red-haired reporter.
“With us now is the mother of one of the partiers on the yacht,” the female reporter said. “Ma’am, do you have any message that you would like to convey to the kidnappers, whoever they are?”
“P-please,” the mother stammered. “Please, you don’t have to do this.
We’re already scared, and we don’t know what’s going to happen with the Maniac, so please, just let my daughter come home, so we can spend a little time together before… well, if this is the end, then please… please, just let everyone go.”
“Ah, fuck,” I groaned. “She’s laying it on a little thick, don’t you think?”
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