Evil Genius 5

by Jacobs, Logan

  “Or you could just finish tracing his last broadcast,” the black-haired superheroine said, “and we could track him down from there.”

  “I have almost completed the tracking,” Aileen replied, “but there is no guarantee that he is still there. It would be much easier if we simply put a tracker on you and let him take you.”

  “I get what you’re saying,” Penumbra spoke up, “but I think it’s way too dangerous. We might not be able to get there in time, and the Maniac could kill her as soon as he captured her.”

  “Or worse,” Elizabeth muttered.

  “Yeah, I’m actually gonna have to agree with Elizabeth and Veronica on this one,” I said with a wink at Penumbra. “It might make sense objectively, but it’s too dangerous, and I won’t put Elizabeth into that kind of danger.”

  “Then how do you propose to take care of the Maniac?” Aileen asked through the speakers.

  “We’ll just have to stop him in twelve hours instead of eighteen,” I said with a shrug.

  “Or maybe sooner,” Penumbra said. “It’s possible that when he doesn’t capture Dynamo in the next six hours, he might get so pissed off that he just activates the gas early.”

  “That’s a definite possibility,” I said. “The Maniac has a real temper problem, so he might throw a tantrum when he doesn’t get his way, but even if he does, that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.”

  “I guess so,” Norma murmured, “but…”

  “Oh, Norma, don’t tell me that you agree with Aileen!” Elizabeth said.

  “Sorry, Dynamo,” my mousy assistant said, “but, um… well, it does kinda make sense when you think about it.”

  “How could that possibly make sense?” my girlfriend demanded.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but just think about it,” Norma said. “The Maniac will be over-the-moon excited when he captures you, and he won’t be able to resist gloating to Miles first thing, so he won’t touch you at first.”

  “Isn’t that comforting?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

  “And while he’s bragging to Miles, we’ll be right behind you,”

  Norma continued, “and we’ll bust in and save you before he even finishes

  his phone call.”

  “But there’s, like, a hundred different things that could go wrong,”

  Penumbra said. “And apparently, the Maniac can see what’s going to happen in the future a few seconds ahead of time, so--”

  “So the worst thing that would happen is that he would figure out we were about to break in just a few seconds before we actually did,” Norma said. “And that wouldn’t be enough time for him to do anything to you.”

  “I don’t know,” Elizabeth said. “I understand what you’re saying, and of course, I want us to have more time to figure out how to stop the gas, but… I just think there are too many unknown factors.”

  “Now hold on,” I said. “I know I just said that it’s too dangerous, but… well, Norma and Aileen have made some good points. Think about it.

  If the Maniac captures you, then we can show up right after he does and stop him before he can even trigger the gas attack. Then we wouldn’t even need the extra time.”

  “That assumes that he would actually tell you anything about how to stop it,” Penumbra said. “What if he has the gas on, uh, a timer or something?”

  “Or what if he just refuses to tell you anything?” Elizabeth added.

  “I don’t think that would be the case,” I said. “Norma’s right. The Maniac really likes to brag, so there’s a good chance that he would tell you his whole plan before he even called me.”

  “Well, you would be able to tell if he was lying, right?” Penumbra asked.

  “Yeah, that is one of my powers,” Elizabeth said, “but--”

  “And if I outfitted you with an earpiece that he couldn’t detect, then we could listen in to everything he said,” I told her, “and we would know exactly when we needed to move in to get you.”

  “You could even help lead him to the topic,” Norma said. “If you said the right things, then he wouldn’t be able to resist telling you all his evil plans.”

  “And then we’d know the specifics of his plan, plus how to stop it,” I agreed, “and we’d come get you before he could even lay a finger on you.”

  “Fuck me,” Elizabeth groaned. “I’m glad you all feel so confident about this when I’m the one who has to actually do it.”

  “Listen, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” I said. “We have other options.”

  “Like what?” my girlfriend sighed.

  “Once Aileen traces the signal of the last broadcast, we can follow it and see if we can pick up the Maniac’s trail from there,” I said, “and we’ll just keep working on an antidote for the gas, while we also try to figure out how the Maniac’s going to release it.”

  “But there are just as many unknown factors with that plan,”

  Elizabeth said. “And at least if I go with the Maniac, then… fuck, I can’t believe I’m gonna say this.”

  “Are you really gonna do it?” Penumbra whispered.

  “Yeah,” Elizabeth sighed again. “I’m gonna do it. I don’t really give a shit about the mayor, since he’s obviously a spineless coward who decided to take a helicopter out of here while his citizens all die, but…”

  “But you’re thinking about their families, right?” Penumbra asked.

  “The families of the mayor and the city council members?”

  “Not just them,” the black-haired superheroine said. “It’s everybody in Grayville. Sure, I don’t want the Maniac to kill everybody on that chopper, but I definitely can’t let all the citizens of Grayville die when there might be something that I can do to help.”

  “It is also our best chance to find the Maniac, so he does not simply trigger the gas and then escape,” Aileen said through the speakers.

  “Well, if it’s the best shot we have at stopping the gas, then I’m in,”

  Elizabeth said.

  “Ehhh,” I replied. “I think it is our best shot, but I don’t like—”

  “Then you better come up with a damn good earpiece for me, Miles,”

  my beautiful girlfriend said. “I’ll do it, but only as long as all of you are right behind me, so you can bust in there the moment I say the safeword.”

  “What’s the safeword?” Norma asked.

  “How about ‘get me the fuck out of here,’ unless that’s a little too on the nose,” Elizabeth scoffed.

  “Okay,” I said. “If you’re sure about this, then let’s make some plans for exactly how we’re going to do this, so we can keep you as safe as possible the whole time.”

  I glanced at my mousy assistant and jerked my head toward the kitchen, and she immediately seemed to understand what I wanted. She was almost as good as Aileen when it came to knowing precisely what I needed.

  It was a helpful skill in an assistant, but it was even more helpful in a member of my team.

  “I think a plan like that calls for snacks,” Norma said as she nodded in response. “Penumbra, don’t you want to help me?”

  “Well, I kinda wanted to--” the blonde began.

  “Penumbra, come help me,” Norma cut her off, and this time, there was a surprising amount of authority in my assistant’s mousy little voice.

  “Yep, okay,” the levitation specialist said.

  As soon as Norma and Penumbra disappeared into the kitchen, I grabbed my girlfriend’s hand and moved us both toward the couch again.

  She pulled her legs up into a cross-legged position in front of me and then just placed both her hands into mine.

  “I know it makes sense,” Elizabeth murmured, “and I want to do everything I can to help save Grayville, but… it’s just still scary, you know?”

  “I know,” I said and squeezed her hands. “But do you really think I’d ever let that bastard hurt you?”

  “No,” the beautiful superheroine replied as she shook her head. “I kno
w you wouldn’t.”

  “I won’t let him,” I said.

  “Okay,” Elizabeth said and then took a deep breath. “Tell me what I need to do.”

  That was one of the things I loved about Elizabeth. She really was the conscience of our team when it came to civilians, but when it came to

  dealing with the bad guys, my superpowered girlfriend was all fucking business.

  “So it needs to be a convincing capture,” I said. “You’ll have to put up a little bit of a fight so that the Maniac really thinks that he’s captured you on his own, not because you want him to capture you.”

  “That’ll take some good acting on my part,” Elizabeth said, “but I think I can handle it.”

  “And once he does capture you, you need to lay low and not provoke him as much as possible,” I said. “I want the Maniac to think that you’re weaker than you actually are, so when we need you to fight your way out, you’ll be able to escape.”

  “But you’ll be coming to get me, right?” my girlfriend demanded.

  “Yeah, but a little help from you will make things easier,” I said. “So here’s how it will go. Aileen will trace his last broadcast to his most recent hideout, and you’ll go to that area like you’re just there to deal with some supervillain who was spotted at that location.”

  “And we’ll just assume that the Maniac will still be around and that he’ll see me?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I think that’s a safe assumption,” I said. “Besides, even if the Maniac isn’t there, one of his henchmen will definitely report back to him

  that you’re in the area, especially if you beat up any bad guys that you run across.”

  “How are you so sure that there will be bad guys?” the black-haired superheroine asked. “We don’t even know the location of the last broadcast.”

  “Well, sweetheart,” I said with a smirk, “the Maniac isn’t exactly known to set up shop anywhere less than some place totally filthy and crime-ridden.”

  “I guess that’s supposed to be part of his charm,” Elizabeth muttered.

  “Okay, so I go to the area and wait until the Maniac figures out that I’m there. Then what?”

  “Then whenever he comes to capture you,” I said, “do your best to fight against him. But he probably has a plan for how to deal with you since you’re stronger and faster, plus you can regenerate, so I doubt it’ll be a fair fight.”

  “Yeah, I figured that,” Elizabeth sighed.

  “But if you can kill him, go for it,” I said. “I’d love if he told you all about information on the gas and how he plans to release it and everything, but there’s no guarantee that he’d ever tell you anything, anyway.”

  “Well, if I can’t kill him, and he does capture me,” my girlfriend said,

  “then I’ll at least see if I can’t get him to talk after that. But if that happens, then… well, then what do we do if he doesn’t talk?”

  “Then we come in and get you, and we find different ways to make him talk,” I said. “But I think he’ll be more than happy to brag about his plans to you.”

  “Okay,” my girlfriend sighed. “Then what will the rest of you be doing while I’m in there with him? Other than listening in to make sure that he doesn’t fucking try anything.”

  “As soon as we know anything about his plans to release the gas, I’ll have someone work on stopping that,” I said, “and then the rest of us will be close enough that we can come in to get you and the Maniac as soon as the time is right.”

  “And then we kill him,” Elizabeth said. “Right?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “Violently.”

  “Shit, I really can’t believe I’m about to do this,” Elizabeth said, “but I can’t see any way around it. It’s our best chance of catching the Maniac and finding out how he plans to release the gas, so… yeah, let’s do it.”

  “You’ll be connected to us with an earpiece and a tracking device the whole time,” I told her, “so we’ll be able to tell exactly where he takes you,

  and we’ll be able to hear everything that he says, too.”

  “I know,” Elizabeth said. “It’s a good plan, but… you just better not let anything fucking happen to me, Miles.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said and squeezed her hand again, “you have all of us on your side as backup, and that’s a hell of a lot more than the Maniac can say. We’ve got you covered.”

  “Alright, then I guess I had better get geared up,” Elizabeth said.

  “Um, well,” Norma said as she reappeared from the kitchen beside Penumbra, “how about some snacks first?”

  “Thanks, Norma, but I don’t really have much of an appetite right now,” my girlfriend replied.

  “She’s right, you know,” I said and then gestured for the other two women to come all the way back into the living room. “You really should try to put something in your stomach, since I’m not sure when we’ll eat again, and I want you to be as strong as possible when you face the Maniac.”

  “Besides, it might seem a little too suspicious if you immediately went out and got captured by the Maniac right after he called Miles,”

  Norma said. “It might be better to give it just a little bit of time first.”

  “Fine,” Elizabeth huffed. “What do you have?”

  “Oh, I’m glad you asked,” my mousy assistant said as she set down a tray of small individually baked trays of macaroni and cheese. “I was feeling like Southern food.”

  “Damn, how long were you in there?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Just long enough,” Norma replied with a smile. “I started all this earlier, and the timing just happened to work out well.”

  My assistant then scooted her tray over so that Penumbra could set hers down on the coffee table beside it, and the slender blonde put down a whole tray of roast beef, along with several sides of green beans, fried okra, and baked cornbread.

  “You know this doesn’t really fit the definition of snack food, don’t you?” I grinned. “This is more like Sunday dinner.”

  “Well, nobody says you have to eat it,” my mousy assistant said as she pushed her glasses up on her nose. “You’re welcome to have cereal or something if you don’t want this.”

  “Take it easy,” I laughed. “I never said that I didn’t want it. I’m just impressed with you.”

  “Oh,” Norma whispered. “Uhh… thanks.”

  “It was nice of you to make all this,” Elizabeth said. “Thank you.”

  “Well, you are about to go into the goddamn lion’s den,” Norma said with a shrug, “so you should at least have some good food first.”

  “I’ll eat what I can, but if I don’t finish, I’m sure it won’t be any reflection on your cooking,” my girlfriend said. “I just don’t have much of a stomach for food at the moment.”

  The four of us gathered around the coffee table and started to eat Norma’s Southern-style meal, and it tasted even better than it looked. I glanced over to see how my blue-eyed girlfriend’s appetite was, but even though she had been worried that she wouldn’t be able to eat anything, that clearly hadn’t been a problem.

  Elizabeth had put away a whole plate of her food, and she had gone back for a second helping of okra and green beans, so she must have realized that she was hungrier than she had thought. She would sure as hell be able to use that energy against the Maniac later, so I was glad that she had found her appetite.

  By the time we finished our late afternoon meal, I was feeling pretty damn good about our plan. It wasn’t one hundred percent a sure thing, but then again, nothing really was when it came to supervillains, especially ones like the Maniac. But as far as plans went, we had a solid one, and I really did think that based on what we knew at the moment, this would be our best chance to stop him.

  “Why don’t you two clean up?” I asked Norma and Penumbra when we were all done. “I’ll go ahead and take Elizabeth down to the basement to get all geared up, and you can both join us when you’re done.”


  “On it, boss,” Norma said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  After I brought my girlfriend down into the basement, the first thing I wanted to do was check in with Aileen. If my robotic assistant had come up with an antidote to the inhaled gas, then Elizabeth wouldn’t have to let herself be captured by the Maniac at all.

  Of course, I knew that Aileen would have already told me if she had come up with such a big development, but I still wanted to check, just in case. It was a good plan to send in Elizabeth, and she could certainly take care of herself, but I also would have been just as happy to keep her by my side the whole time we fought the Maniac.

  “I do not yet have an antidote, Creator,” Aileen said, after Elizabeth and I joined her at the containment chamber for the gas. “The atropine did nothing, so I have moved on to other neutralizing agents.”

  “Alright, well just keep it up and see what you can come up with,” I said. “What about the Maniac’s last broadcast? Were you able to trace it yet?”

  “Yes,” Aileen said as she turned her blue eyes up toward us. “I traced both his last broadcast, as well as his recent phone call to you.”

  “Really?” I grinned.

  “Yes, the phone call was more difficult at first,” the beautiful android replied, “but I was able to override the Maniac’s blocks and track it, anyway.”

  “Perfect, so where did those signals come from?” Elizabeth demanded. “Did they both come from the same location?”

  “No, but they were close to each other,” Aileen said. “And based on these two locations, plus the footage that we have of him already, I have created an algorithm to predict where he will be for the next two hours.”

  “Then we better get moving,” I said. “Where is he?”

  “He should be at the shipyard by the commercial docks,” my robotic assistant said. “There are numerous shipping containers and warehouses that he could be hiding in, so I cannot be more specific than that right now.”

  “That’s more than we knew before, so good work,” I said. “We’ll use the tracking device on Elizabeth to track him down to a more specific location there.”

  “And he won’t be able to find the tracking device, right?” Elizabeth asked.