Superhero by Night Omnibus

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  They jerked me up to my toes. Out of reflex I dropped my pistol and reached for the rope around my throat, trying to slip a finger under it. It wasn’t very thick—more like a silk climbing rope. I scratched at my neck and kicked out with my feet, trying to free myself.

  “Are you sure we should kill her? What if we used her to escape?” a man with an Asian accent asked from behind.

  A cruel smile spread on the woman’s face. “She’s the enemy. It was after she escaped that everything went to hell. We may have lost all our research but if we kill her then at least we have something to show for it.”

  Between the pain-stick she jammed into me and the rope around my throat choking me out, it was hard to think.

  I’d learned enough, though; none of these people were innocent. Shadow stepping was second nature to me. I vanished from one spot and stepped out twenty feet down the hall.

  I dropped to a knee, rubbing my throat as I desperately inhaled as much air as I could.

  The two men holding me up fell backward, crashing into the concrete in a jumble as they no longer had a weight to counterbalance them.

  “What? Where did she go?” the woman asked in a shriek.

  I faced them, powers flaring to life, lighting up the dark hall in a blue nimbus as I marched toward her. “I’m right here.”

  She turned and jabbed the pain-stick at me like a knife. I batted it aside, then slapped her across the face. She went down like a chump, crumpling to the ground.

  Walking past her, I kneeled down and retrieved my pistol and aimed it.

  “No! she made us—”

  “I don’t care.” I fired three rounds into him, then another three into his friend.

  “You murderer,” she gasped from behind me. I watched as she scrambled for the pain-stick. I stepped past her and kicked it away in one swift motion. The damage from their impromptu lynching had already healed and I knelt in front of her, resting the pistol on my thigh.

  “Who are you?” I asked in my supernatural Wraith voice.

  She glared up at me. Almost willing me to kill her. “I’m not telling you—”

  My hand flew through the air, slapping her across the face. She tumbled to the side landing on her back and sobbing from the pain.

  They had come out of a side hall and I wanted to check it out. I was fairly certain she wasn’t going anywhere; just in case, though, I popped her in the knee. The bullet broke her knee cap and she screamed as she held the wound, trying to stem the flow of blood.

  “Oh quit your whining. You won’t bleed out for at least an hour.”

  Ignoring her sobs, I walked through the doorway they’d come through. Inside was a panic-room of sorts. Working computers, monitors, food, the whole shebang. Including a satellite cell phone. Excellent. I’d get to that momentarily.

  A notebook with the words “Emergency Procedures” hung next to the door. I perused it quickly before looking around further.

  “What happened here?” I asked. “How did your beasts get loose?”

  “Why should I tell you anything?” she spat out between clenched teeth.

  “Doc, you’re asking the wrong questions. What you need to ask yourself is, ‘would you rather I killed you, or have one of your creations eat you alive,’” I said over my shoulder as I tried to find some shred of information as to what the hell they were doing here.

  She gasped, her breathing jumping into overdrive. “No, you wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t! You’re one of those heroes, you have rules.”

  I laughed. “Ask your two friends there about my rules,” I said as I tossed the book aside. I turned to face her, walking right up and kneeling next to her and placing my gun against her temple.

  “You wouldn’t!” she insisted without looking at her two dead subordinates.

  “What? Leave you to die the way you left all your victims? Doc, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. They’re hunting me, so I’m sure they will be down here soon enough.”

  “Don’t kill me, please!” Her face crumbled and I had her. She would do anything to live. She was a coward at heart. “My work is too important, please!” Truth.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Spice leaning against the wall. She shrugged when our eyes met.

  “What are you people doing here?” I asked.

  “Trying to save the human race. Don’t you get it? This is important work!” Tears flowed down her face as she spoke, stopping to wince every she moved too much.

  “Uh-huh. You’re saving people by kidnapping innocent women and experimenting on them. Please tell me more about your humanitarian efforts,” I said with sarcasm so thick it could be gravy in Canada.

  “You’re as blind as you are stupid. One life doesn’t matter when we’re talking about the extinction of the human race! Everyone you know, dead. All your family, dead—”

  I jammed the gun against her eye hard enough to make her scream. “They’re already dead; your precious organization killed them. You can’t walk all over people and kill, kidnap, and threaten whoever you want without consequences. And that’s what I am—the consequence.”

  She sniffed, her shoulders shaking in silent sobs. “It’s important,” she muttered again.

  I sighed. As much as I wanted to just plug her and finish this, I needed to know what they were doing here.

  “Don’t move,” I said. I stood up and took a second to make sure there were no beasts coming my way. I stretched my senses as far as I could and heard nothing. Good.

  I went back in the room and picked up the satellite phone, it worked just like a normal cell. I dialed Krisan’s number from memory and waited for her to pick up.

  “Hello?” she said carefully.

  “Go for Wraith,” I said with a smile.

  “Oh my God, Madi! Where have you been! I’ve been going nuts trying to find you.”

  It was nice to know she cared.

  “How long?” I asked.

  “Two days. You don’t know?” she asked.

  “No. Can you do your thing with… one sec.” I walked briskly back to the doc who had decided to cowgirl up and try for the pain-stick. I popped her in the other knee. Her screams echoed down the hall long after the gunshot faded.

  “What are you doing?” Krisan asked.

  “Making a point. Do your thing with this phone and see what you can find. I’m in some kind of genetics lab. I need to burn this place to the ground. ‘Kay?”

  She paused for a second. The line hadn’t died—I could still hear her breathing. “Kris?”

  “Yeah,” she said in a whisper. “I’m on it... Madi? Are you okay?”

  “Never better,” I said before placing the phone down next to the computer station in the room. She’s linked via Bluetooth before; wi-fi should be a cakewalk.

  “Now,” I said turning back to the crying doctor. “Where were we?”

  “Please,” she sobbed, “please!”

  “I bet that is what every single girl you murdered said, right before you fed them to those beasts. Now, be succinct—you don’t have many joints left for me to shoot. What are you doing here?”

  Either because of the pain or shock, she slumped, her spirit broken. “I’m a Doctor of genetics. We’re trying to make a better human, one who can survive the coming calamity,” she said. Her body started to shake as shock set in.

  “Calamity?”

  She looked up at me. “Yes, you fool. The human race is doomed. We’re all going to die now—my work with alien DNA was all the hope we had.”

  Alien DNA? I let out a laugh, unable to hide my incredulity. “What? You mean those things that attacked a few years ago? I’ve heard people say that was nothing more than an elaborate hoax. Are you saying they were real?”

  She nodded as best she could. “The Th’un... they came to strip mine our world, but that idiot girl...” her eyes closed.

  “Doc,” I said tapping her temple with the gun. “What does this have to do with killing these girls?”

  “Making
... better... people...”

  And I thought ISO-1 was the worst? At least they were in it for the money. This whack-job experimented on innocent people trying to give them superpowers, turn them into monsters? All for some imagined catastrophe?

  I stood up, deciding that enough was enough. I kept my promise. My last round finished the job.

  “Kris? You there?” I asked as I picked up the Sat phone.

  “Yeah, my God Madi, this place... I found the video of what they did to you, to the other women... oh God.” The phone on her end fell and I heard her run to the bathroom and retch.

  I couldn’t blame her. They weren’t even sure who I was and they cut off my arm to find out if I had superpowers. They fed those poor, terrified girls to monsters just to see what would happen.

  I was all out of sympathy.

  “Thank you,” Spice said from the behind me. I turned around to see what she meant. She was standing over the doctor. “I should have had more faith in you.”

  “What are you babbling about, now?”

  She smiled down at the body of the doctor. “You didn’t even ask me for anything.”

  My blood ran cold as I realized what she meant.

  Chapter 31

  Distantly I heard Krisan calling my name. She was far away, and the horror show that was me was right here. I told her I wouldn’t do it. I told her that I wasn’t a monster, not her puppet...

  Then I went and tortured the doctor to death. Slowly, painfully, just the way Spice asked me too.

  “Madi! For the love of… tell me you’re okay! I’m freaking out over here,” Krisan yelled from the other side of the phone.

  I looked down at the sat phone I held. Distantly it registered. Krisan was my friend, my ally. Spice once suggested I kill her. Would I? I looked back to the doctor’s corpse then to the phone... can she make me do things or... or... am I really the monster I pretend I’m not?

  The moment of doubt passed and I reasserted myself, my commitment. The doctor worked for ISO-1. She was a terrible human being who deserved every second of pain, if not more. I did the world a favor. Spice is just... she’s messing with me is all.

  I think.

  “Kris? Sorry, I was... distracted. Tell me what you got.” I can hear her hyperventilating on the other end and it takes her a second to slow her breathing down to the point where she can talk.

  “I can see that I’m going to need to lay off coffee when I’m around you. God. Like I need a panic attack every five minutes!”

  I smiled. “That’s me, a caffeine replacement. Now, what have you found?”

  “I did a cursory dive and pulled some footage. Their computer system is a mess. How did you know I would be able to access it like a phone?” she asked.

  “Lucky guess. Can you go back in, pull out whatever is available?”

  “Sure, just hang tight for a second... I’m going—” mid-sentence her voice changed from Krisan to a computer-generated version of it in the room’s speaker system. “—this is so weird. I can see their computers, files, emails, it’s like I’m physically in the system,” she said over the PA.

  She went silent for a moment. Then the computers in the room flashed to life, lock screens vanished and she was in.

  “Oh my God, I just walked through their security, Madi. WALKED! It’s like it wasn’t even there. If I can do this with these highly encrypted files, imagine what— oh, hello? What are you doing...” the PA went dead. No static, no sound, just nothing.

  “Krisan?” I said into the phone. The line was still connected, I could hear her breathing. “Kris?”

  Now it was my turn to freak out. I paced the room, waiting for her to respond. When she didn’t I went to the computers and hit a few buttons. I was never very good with them. These were custom made with an operating system I didn’t recognize. Certainly not Windows.

  All I could do was wait.

  I didn’t have to wait long. Growling echoed down the hall from the way I’d come.

  Frag. They found me. Had to happen sooner or later.

  “Listen, Kris, I don’t know if you can hear me,” I said into the sat phone but I’m about to have company. I don’t think disconnecting will hurt you but I’m going to do it.”

  I hung up the phone. The computer systems screen went red then died and all the power shut off.

  The bad news was no more grenades. Just my pistol to deal with this. And my powers—couldn’t forget them.

  The rope.

  I slipped out the door and snatched up the smooth silk rope they tried to strangle me with. It was a good ten feet long. I ran my fingers over it, expanding the loop to accommodate the beast’s much wider neck.

  All the dead bodies would hide my scent, even with its superior sense of smell. It wasn’t hard to find a handhold in the maze of pipes above and pull up into them. I hooked each foot over a pipe and used my elbows to keep me up there so I was hanging parallel with the floor and six feet up. If not for the Wraith power, I’d strain to stay up there. As it was, I could bench press a bull; keeping myself suspended was nearly effortless.

  I heard the scraping of its claws, followed by the sharp snort of it breathing. Then, I saw it; dark brown fur with streaks of black on it’s back. It was half again as big as any of the others I’d seen. Muscles rippled up and down it like water. I started to doubt choking it out would be an option, even with the rope.

  The crunch of breaking bones told me it was now or never as it began feeding. It would be the most vulnerable for the few minutes it ate. I just didn’t want to think about what it was feeding on.

  I wanted to move, but a sliver of fear kept me frozen in place. What if I just waited? It would move on... or finish its meal and then come looking for me once I was the only thing to smell.

  Right.

  Time to work for a living.

  I dropped. Hitting its back square on I looped the rope around its neck in one smooth motion. I did the same thing to it that they did to me, except I held on. The beast went nuts, bucking and jumping as I pulled the rope tight.

  I knew I wouldn’t be able to hang on long, and tied a knot to keep it choking him. He flung himself backward, smashing me into a pair of steam pipes.

  Three hundred degree water vapor sprayed out engulfing me. I screamed and he let out a guttural roar of agony as the hot water flash fried us.

  I ducked, rolling on my shoulder in an attempt to get away from the pain. I managed to come out on the other side of him. Standing up, I shuffled to the wall and leaned against it, gritting my teeth as I waited for the pain to pass. Skin sluffed off me like dirty water. I had to bang my head against the brick to think through the pain. At least for the moment, the steam separated us.

  My hands healed first. I pulled the pistol out and backed up. I had room to move down here and—

  Standing up on his hind legs, he raked long claws down his neck, slicing his skin and the rope in one smooth move. Strands of rope fell uselessly to the ground and his skin healed almost as fast as the rope fell.

  He roared and charged through the steam, shaking loose his own peeling skin like a dog shedding water after a rainstorm.

  “I’m in so much trouble.” I fired into his open mouth as he advanced and it just pissed him off. The slide locked back. Out of bullets.

  “Come on then,” I yelled. When he charged forward I shadow stepped behind him and his head slammed into the concrete wall where I had stood—it shook from the impact.

  I ran. It would take him a few seconds to recover and I needed a plan. And running wasn’t a plan. Each of these beasts had powers, strength, speed, invulnerability, but not all of them were exactly the same. This one regenerated—fast from what I could tell.

  A terrible plan formed in my mind. “Spice?” I yelled out as I took a corner. I heard him charging after me; he’d recovered much faster than I figured he would. She didn’t respond but I knew she could hear me. “You better fragging heal me!” I said as I ran.

  It was a crappy plan, b
ut it was all I had. The pipes that ran along the ceiling were labeled: water, hot water, and gas. Not to mention the PVC conduit with the electrical cables in it.

  I made it back to the little safe room, carefully navigating the floor, making sure I didn’t slip on the blood. I grabbed the door frame and flung myself inside. The computer system had rebooted, but all the lights were still off. Which was good for me.

  They had a big heavy door for their safe room. It took a second for me to get it moving, but once I did, it swung shut with relative ease.

  And not a second too soon.

  He hit it like a bulldozer, knocking me back from the impact. Little cracks formed on the concrete walls that held the door in place. The sat-phone was where I left it. I hit re-dial and heard it ring between the blows the beast rained down on the door. It wouldn’t hold much longer.

  “Go for me,” Kris said. She sounded dazed, confused, and unsure.

  “Krisan, I need you to get back in the system and keep the power from turning off.”

  “Madi, they have some kind of virus, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s why their security failed and why the creatures were let loose. But it’s not just a virus, it spoke to me, knew me... I can’t go back in there.”

  The safe room door groaned and bent as he hit it with his shoulder. “Kris, I need the power to stay on or I’m dead. I don’t care what HAL 9000 said to you. Get it done.” I tossed the phone aside and braced myself.

  The door exploded from its moorings. I had a split second to make the step, moving between shadows just before the door would have crushed me.

  It was ready for me. As I appeared behind him a clawed hand snapped out and grabbed me by the neck. Razor sharp talons cut through my skin and sunk deep into my shoulders. He shook me like a rag doll and threw me against the far wall by the door. Which was pretty much where I wanted to go anyway.

  I went limp as I hit the wall, sliding down to land in a crumpled heap, spitting up a pint of blood in the process. He huffed, lumbering toward me, a low growl reverberating from his snout.