The Secret War

by Matt Myklusch

  “There’s no escape,” Oblivia said. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

  “I’m afraid I have to if I want to go on living,” Obscuro replied. “My continued survival is quite important to me. That is the reason behind all of this, you know. It’s also why I brought them.”

  “Them?” Oblivia asked.

  The Rogue Secreteer clapped his hands, and a legion of supervillains stepped out of the mist on the ridge walls, taking up positions in the places the Secreteers had just vacated. Obscuro was no longer outnumbered and over-matched. If anything, he’d just outwitted his pursuers, luring them down to his level on the riverbank while his henchmen took the high ground above them.

  “I’d like you to meet some of the people I’ve been forced to associate with as of late,” Obscuro told his fellow Secreteers. “I know it’s nothing to be proud of, but I’ve had to make certain sacrifices to avoid being sacrificed myself. I’m ready to leave this world, Oblivia, but not the way you have in mind.”

  Jack, Skerren, and Allegra stared on, aghast at the stunning turn of events.

  “Supercriminals,” Allegra said. “There’s so many of them.”

  “He must have been selling secrets for a while now,” Jack whispered.

  “That would explain the crime wave,” Skerren agreed. “And look who’s here,” he added. “Some old friends.” Skerren pointed out Pain, Fugazi, and Backstab among the throng of supervillains that had emerged on the scene. Jack looked over the rest of the superpowered felons, noting some former Peacemakers and straight-up bad guys there as well. Jack saw Tiki Man, Albatross, Celsius, Arsenal, Fist, Battlecry, and Onyx, just to name a few. They were all heavy hitters. The one villain he did not see was Lorem Ipsum.

  Despite the sudden evening of the odds, Oblivia remained undaunted when Obscuro’s mob emerged from the fog. One fierce look from her was all it took to make the villains closest to her step back. “You’ve been expecting us,” she said to Obscuro.

  “I knew you’d come calling sooner or later,” Obscuro admitted. “As a precaution I’ve altered the memories of a few clients here and there. The way they remember things, their job is to protect me. They think they’re part of my gang.” Obscuro shrugged. “I suppose in a way that’s true now, isn’t it?”

  “It won’t save you,” Oblivia replied.

  Obscuro flipped back up onto the stone bridge and raised his hand in a bring-it-on motion toward Oblivia. “Do your worst,” he said.

  Oblivia and her Secreteers did exactly that. They attacked with artful deception and a complete lack of mercy, wielding bats, clubs, and staffs. Hidden safely behind the thorn bushes, Jack, Skerren, and Allegra watched eruptions of smoke run through the gorge in waves as Secreteers vanished and then reappeared, blind-siding their enemies over and over. They moved like ninja ghosts, striking hard and fading away fast, only to reappear again moments later in clouds of smoke, attacking from new angles.

  Obscuro and his supervillain cronies met the Secreteers blow for blow. Obscuro’s brainwashed allies returned fire with a diverse array of creative violence. Onyx, the giant black stone man, swung away with his large, powerful fists. Keystone, who had the power to break his enemies into hundreds of equal-size pieces with a single touch, was dismantling every Secreteer he could get his hands on. Tiki Man, a tribal shaman wearing a large wooden mask and grass skirt, was throwing cursed weapons at the Secreteers from a satchel he carried over his shoulder. His bag of tricks seemed positively bottomless, and dozens of other villains were there, every one of them attacking with equal ferocity.

  Jack didn’t know what to do next. Everything was happening so fast. “Now what?” he asked the others. “If we help the Secreteers, we make it easier for them to kill Obscuro. If we help Obscuro …” Jack shook his head. “What are we going to do, fight alongside supervillains? We can’t do that.”

  “Maybe we’re better off sitting this one out,” Allegra said. “Take our chances with whoever’s left standing.”

  Skerren shook his head. “I’ve got unfinished business with some of the villains down there. I’m not sitting anything out. This is what we train for.”

  Jack thought about that for a second. Skerren was right again. “I say we help the Secreteers,” he said. “Maybe if we help them, they’ll help us.”

  “If we go in there now, we’re just as likely to get attacked by one side as the other,” Allegra said.

  “We can’t just stand by and do nothing,” Skerren said.

  “Let’s see what I can do from up here before we rush into anything,” Jack said. The inventions he’d brought with him might have been gone, but there were plenty of supervillains down there with powers he could mess with just by thinking about it. “Just give me a minute,” Jack said, looking over the battlefield for a target.

  First came Albatross, the living tank. Jack remapped his weapons systems to target supervillains instead of Secreteers. A few people in the battle down below seemed surprised when one of Albatross’s missiles crashed into Pain, but the Secreteers didn’t miss a beat. They stopped attacking Albatross straightaway. As long as he was taking out his own teammates, they were happy to let him do it. Next came Fist and Battlecry, two more Peacemakers who had gone bad. Jack used his powers to short out the controls on Battlecry’s sonic weaponry, causing him to blast his allies. After that, Jack took control of Fist’s oversize bionic arm and made him punch himself in the face a few times.

  Unfortunately, the more Jack used his powers, the more obvious it became that there was a hidden player on the battlefield. Arsenal, a supersoldier-mercenary who carried every sort of weapon imaginable, furrowed his brow when one of his laser guns misfired. He switched to a new weapon and looked around, curious. When that one didn’t work, he threw it away and went for another.

  Jack enjoyed frustrating Arsenal’s efforts as he grabbed gun after gun. The man was an infamous assassin, rotten to the very marrow of his spine, and Jack was thrilled to be using what he’d learned in class on him. Jack had learned loads about machines and weapons over the past year. He was a force to be reckoned with, using his powers to save the Secreteers’ lives, but he wasn’t paying attention to the little details. He realized too late that as Arsenal fired each new weapon, trying to shoot Secreteers, he wasn’t really aiming. Arsenal was looking around the forest each time he pulled the trigger.

  “Jack …,” Allegra began. “Something’s wrong. He’s not looking where he’s shooting.”

  “Who, Arsenal?” Jack asked, only half paying attention. “Good. That means he’s not hitting anybody.”

  “No, Jack,” Allegra said. “It means he’s not looking at his targets. He’s looking—”

  “For us,” Skerren said as Arsenal turned and focused on the three of them.

  “Down!” Allegra yelled as Arsenal took out throwing knives, something Jack couldn’t manipulate with his powers, and threw them with deadly accuracy. She morphed into a shield, blocking the daggers.

  “There!” Arsenal called out, pointing up at the thorn bush that Jack, Skerren, and Allegra were no longer hidden behind. The battle ground to a halt for a split second as all eyes turned to look up at the children.

  “Get them!” Obscuro screamed at his minions.

  “You heard the man,” Arsenal shouted. “Get the kids! We’re gonna need hostages if we want to get out of here!”

  With that, the entire focus of the fight turned from the Rogue Secreteer to Jack, Skerren, and Allegra. Bursts of smoke blasted out of the ground all around Jack and his friends as the Secreteers rushed to them. One of them grabbed Jack off his feet and pulled him close. “What are you doing here?” she screamed. “I told you we were going to handle this!” Beneath the shadows of her hood, Jack could see it was Hypnova. Oblivia appeared at her side almost immediately.

  “What’s he doing here?” the matriarch demanded. “Did they follow you?” It wasn’t so much a question as it was an accusation. Oblivia gave Hypnova the kind of look that cou
ld turn a person inside out. It was clear to Jack that he’d put Hypnova in a bad spot. A really bad spot. She set him back down without another word. The villains converged on them, looking for hostages. Pain grabbed through a liquefied Allegra while Skerren dodged Keystone’s probing fingers.

  Jack wasn’t so lucky. He was snatched up by Arsenal while Hypnova was busy pushing back against his cohorts. Jack fought back as the heavily armed mercenary tried to carry him off, but it was no use struggling—at least not physically. Arsenal had the clear advantage in size. Luckily, even though Arsenal wasn’t using his tech-based weapons against Jack, he was still carrying them. With a thought, Jack blew up the stores of ammunition and explosives in Arsenal’s belt. Flames shot out of Arsenal’s waist as little compartments blew up one after the other. He scrambled to take his belt off, and Jack squirmed free. Before Arsenal could recover, Jack activated a cartridge of knockout gas the mercenary had loaded into a wrist cannon and pushed Arsenal’s hand up toward his own face.

  Arsenal went down, and Jack jumped back into the melee. Skerren was fully in it, slicing away at Backstab, doing his best to take her in a rematch. Allegra was wrapping her arms around Onyx’s legs, tripping him up while the Secreteers pounced on him in ever-increasing numbers. Not wanting to miss out on the action, Jack looked around for something to hit, and he found it in Tiki Man, who was throwing fire from his satchel down onto the Secreteers on the riverbank. Jack ran up and jumped off a rock, launching himself into Tiki Man’s back and knocking him over the edge. Jack landed squarely on his feet and looked down with pride at the sight of Tiki Man jumping into the river, trying to escape the very flames that he himself had thrown. When Jack looked up, he saw Hypnova staring down at him with a disapproving look.

  “I know you didn’t want our help,” Jack began. “But you have to admit, we are making a difference. Maybe you guys can pay back the favor when we’re done.”

  Just then a barrage of rapid-fire smoke blasts blinded Jack, and the next thing he knew, he saw Obscuro holding Skerren and Allegra up by their necks.

  “There’ll be payback,” Hypnova said to Jack with a bitter edge in her voice. “You can count on it.”

  “This ends now!” Obscuro shouted. Skerren dropped his swords at his feet. He looked like he didn’t recognize what they were. Allegra looked dazed as well. It appeared that Obscuro now had his ticket out of the glen.

  “No!” Jack shouted. “What did you do to them?”

  “Nothing yet,” Obscuro said. “So far I’ve only made them forget how to use their powers. I’m walking out of here, Oblivia. Either that or I’ll wipe their minds clean forever.”

  “How do you know I wasn’t going to do that myself?” Oblivia asked. “I’ve done far worse things to punish interlopers for nosing into our affairs. These children are not my concern, and they are not my responsibility. You are.”

  “Oblivia!” Jack shouted. “You can’t let him do it. They’re my friends!”

  A few tense seconds passed in silence. It was a high-stakes standoff, but Oblivia blinked first. Obscuro almost seemed to be smiling underneath his mask. “Nice try,” he told his former leader. “But you won’t sacrifice innocents. No matter how stupid they were to interfere.”

  Oblivia said nothing. Jack realized Obscuro was speaking the truth, and he was at least partially relieved, but his friends weren’t out of the woods yet. If anything, they were going in deeper than ever. Obscuro backed away slowly, and then rushed off into the mist, taking Skerren and Allegra with him.

  .

  CHAPTER

  12

  The Days of No Tomorrow

  Forced to let Obscuro go, Oblivia and the other Secreteers quickly turned their attention to the supervillains in the area, hoping to at least prevent their escape. Jack, on the other hand, was still intently focused on the rogue who had disappeared into the murky haze with his friends.

  “No,” Jack said through gritted teeth. “Not again.” He darted into the woods after his friends. He had gotten them into this mess, and he was determined to get them out of it. He couldn’t lose them, too … not like he’d lost Jazen.

  Jack ran through the fog, trying to follow the sound of Obscuro and his friends. Jack heard them nearby and could see a muted light moving through the shimmering fog up ahead. He realized it was coming from Obscuro’s glowing eyes, shining in the haze. The glittering light in the faded olive vapors left an illuminated trail for Jack to follow. He ran hard after it, plowing through pricker bushes and blindly rushing across uneven terrain. Eventually he caught up to Obscuro, just as he was about to escape into a cave near the end of the river. The entrance was camouflaged by thick ivy and weeds. Jack found the Rogue Secreteer pushing the cave’s leafy cover to one side.

  “Obscuro!” Jack called out as he sprang out of the brush and back onto the river’s edge. The Secreteer stopped and looked back to find Jack running up behind him. Jack stopped a few feet away from Obscuro and put his hands up in the air. “I’m alone,” he said in between gasps of air. “Please … let them go.”

  Obscuro studied Jack for a moment. “Jack Blank,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

  Jack, still catching his breath, didn’t answer right away, but he thought the answer should have been obvious. “I need to talk to you,” he said, gasping. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to sell your secrets or run away. We haven’t lost yet. We can still stop the Rüstov.”

  Obscuro looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone else lurking in the mist, and then released his hold on Skerren and Allegra. “No, Jack,” he said. “The Rüstov are the future. You of all people should know that. And you know they’ve already laid the groundwork for that future, deep within Empire City.”

  “The spyware virus,” Jack said. “I know all about it. It’s not invincible. There’s still hope.”

  “I wish I could believe that,” Obscuro replied.

  “It’s true,” Jack said. “You don’t know what I’m doing to stop it.”

  “What are you doing?” Obscuro asked. “It can’t be all that much if you’re out here chasing after me.”

  Jack swallowed hard. Obscuro had him there, but he wasn’t about to admit that. “I can beat them,” Jack said. “But I need your help. Please, tell me what you know. You have to give me a chance to shut down their virus.”

  “It’s not just the spyware virus that concerns me, Jack. It’s you. It’s the virus in you.”

  Jack was taken aback. “What?”

  “Surely you understand that the Rüstov will never let you go,” Obscuro told Jack. “They have more invested in you than you can possibly imagine.”

  “What are you talking about, let me go? They don’t have me.”

  “Don’t they?” Obscuro replied. “I knew about the spy-ware virus long before I saw what you had in your head, Jack. The virus is just the enemy’s plan. Over the years I’ve seen a thousand evil plots from a thousand supervillains. That’s not enough to make me do what I’m doing.”

  “Then why?” Jack asked.

  “Because of what the future holds,” Obscuro said. “After what I learned from you? About Revile?” The Rogue Secreteer shook his head as Jack drew in a sharp breath of air and looked over at Skerren and Allegra. Luckily, they were both still too dazed by the effect of Obscuro’s memory powers to overhear. “These are the days of no tomorrow,” Obscuro told Jack. “The war is already over. There’s nothing left to hope for. It’s destiny. It’s fate.”

  “I don’t believe in fate,” Jack said. “I make my own destiny.” The words came to Jack quickly; he didn’t even think about them. He had been telling himself that every day for a year now. Most days he even believed it.

  “Of course,” Obscuro said. “The future isn’t written yet. Your will is strong. You’re not going to succumb to the Rüstov inside you. Is that it?”

  “That’s right,” Jack said.

  “Let me ask you this,” Obscuro said as he motioned for Jack to come clos
er. Jack leaned in, and the Rogue Secreteer dropped his voice to a whisper. “Heard any voices lately?”

  Jack’s stomach dropped. “How do you know about that?”

  “I think I’ve made my point,” Obscuro answered. “I’m sorry, Jack, but I’m afraid you’re already lost. That means so are we. Please don’t think poorly of me. I didn’t create this situation; I just happen to be one of the few people who know enough to profit from it. My secrets are only worth something here in this place. I can’t sell earth-bound secrets out in space to people who don’t care to know them, and I can’t very well leave here with nothing. I’ve grown accustomed to a certain standard of living.” Obscuro motioned toward Skerren and Allegra, who were still in a daze. “Your friends are fine,” he said. “I was just doing what I had to in order to escape. We all do what we have to. You will too. There’s no avoiding this, Jack. You can’t fight the future.” Obscuro stopped to think, and then turned toward Jack. “Unless …”

  “Unless what?” Jack asked.

  “You could come with me.”

  Jack took a step back from the Rogue Secreteer in shock. “What?”

  “Come with me,” Obscuro repeated. “I could hide you from them. From the Rüstov. You know you’ll never be safe here. Not really. Come, Jack, now,” he said again, this time reaching his hand out toward Jack. “We don’t have much time.”

  Jack didn’t entertain Obscuro’s offer for a second. “I’m not running from them,” he said. “This is the first real home I ever had. I’m not leaving it because of the Rüstov.”

  “This is just a place, Jack,” Obscuro replied. “A home is where your family is.” The Rogue Secreteer leaned in close to Jack again. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t like to see your father again….”

  Jack froze. Obscuro’s words hit Jack like a bolt of lightning to the heart. His world completely stopped spinning. “What?” was all he could say.

  Obscuro turned his palms up. “I know a great many secrets, Jack Blank. There’s a whole universe out there … other worlds and more. There are things I could share with you, but you have to come with me.”