Ex Supervillain

by Shouse, Brenden

  I squeezed her tighter, “It’ll be okay.”

  “No,” she shook her head. “No, it won’t be. We’re going to get ourselves killed, and worse, if we succeed, then what happens?” I bit my lip. She had a point, but part of me, the part that felt hot every time I so much as thought about his name, wanted to snap at her. “He’s gonna kill us, and if he doesn’t, then the crime wave that’ll hit the city will be so much worse than it is right now.”

  I shook my head, “No, it won’t be. Plus,” I said after a moment, “It’ll give you a lot of room to expand.” The elevator doors opened, and we stepped out into the hallway.

  Alice shrugged, “Expansion isn’t important. I want to come home and have something to come home to.”

  I didn’t know what to do. Elias was calm and cool. He didn’t allow shootouts, and when they happened, they weren’t his fault. He kept his business in-house and didn’t let it spill out into the day to day lives of the citizens of Newopolis.

  “We will do whatever it takes to make it, Alice. We’ll destroy him and anyone who stands in our way.”

  “Our way or your way?” She asked quietly. I stopped. Alice didn’t. She walked a couple of steps farther before she stopped and turned to face me. “Markus, I’m worried that his trick pushed your buttons just the way he wanted.” I raised one eyebrow. “I mean other than giving “daddy’s boy” back to the cops.”

  She knocked on the door, and it opened, before walking in. I signed and followed her. She might have a point. Part of me, a big part of me, didn’t want to agree, but something was going on. If I lost control, Tanya would be in an even worse position. I walked into the apartment. This safe house was nicer than all of the other ones put together. I cocked my head at Alice.

  She shrugged, “I was hoping we wouldn’t use so many of my safe houses and my associate’s safe houses. I started with the junkiest ones, and we’ve steadily moved up the ladder.” So, this place wasn’t a safe house; it was a guest house for potential business partners that were visiting Newopolis.

  Brutus and Jonathan stared at Alexander as globs of red wine slurped out of the bottle. The floating wine morphed into a perfect sphere and floated over to the wine glasses sitting on the coffee table by where the three of them sat. The globs of wine floated successively quicker. As each blob dropped towards the glass, it swirled around like a tiny red dust devil. Alice nodded appreciatively. He was aerating the wine in the same second as he was showing off just how skillful he was with his Enhancement. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the fridge. I wasn’t a wine person, and considering how lucky we’d been with cops finding us, I wasn’t taking that risk.

  I opened the fridge and frowned, “Alice?”

  “What?”

  “Do you have any normal water?”

  “As opposed to what? Fancy water?”

  “They’re fancy names.”

  Brutus cleared his throat, “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of someone making fancy water. Do you think they have a secret recipe, sir?”

  I rolled my eyes, “Ha, ha, ha.” All of them started snickering, and I shoved down my bout of irritation. I bit my lip and picked some kind of sparkling water. I made my way back down to the couch, “Playtime is over, we need to plan the operation for tonight.”

  Alexander picked up his glass and swirled the wine, “Whatever you say, boss.” I stared at him, unblinking until he nodded. Alice sat on the other side of the loveseat. I wanted to hug her and kiss her. Part of me wanted to scoot closer until we were touching. Would she be okay with that? I felt a headache coming on. I was too old for this.

  “Gun deal, down on the fourth second. What do you all think?” I asked. Alice looked at me out of the corner of her eye. The rest of them traded glances, and Alexander took a long swig of his wine.

  Jonathan leaned back against the couch, “It’s a trap.”

  I frowned, “Thank you, Admiral Akbar.”

  Jonathan smirked, “You know, no one watches those old movies anymore.”

  I sniffed, “They should require students to watch them in high school.”

  “Eh,” Alexander shrugged, “The prequels were better.” Alice pretended to struggle to hold me back.

  I did my best fake offended voice, “Demmy, sir.” Alexander cocked his head at me. “No,” I shook my head, “It’s not a Star Wars reference. It’s from a book that was widely under-appreciated when it came out.”

  “When did it come out?”

  I shrugged, “Back when people rode horses and used typewriters.” Jonathan shuddered, and everyone chucked.

  “Okay, back to the topic at hand, please,” Alice frowned.

  Jonathan sighed, “As I said, it’s a trap.”

  Brutus rubbed his five o’ clock shadow and frowned, “I don’t know. Why would Elias give Erik back to us just to tell us where to go next?”

  I shook my head, “No, he didn’t. He’s a chess player. He tries to come out on top regardless of the situation. If Erik was right and we attacked the warehouse and won, then great. If he didn’t, then we’d be back at the negotiating table, or so he thought, and we’d know about the next trap he had ready for us.”

  Jonathan rubbed his temples, “That sounds awfully convoluted.” I looked at Alice.

  She shrugged, “Elias was always clever, he always thought he was so much smarter than the rest of us. He loves making situations where even if he loses, he still wins.”

  “I think we all like those.”

  “True,” Alice frowned, “but no one I’ve ever met is as good at it.”

  “We’ve beat Elias before,” I reminded her.

  Alice shook her head and bit her lip, “No, he decided that leaving was the best option. He was planning on regrouping and getting ready for our assault.”

  I cleared my throat, “We’re still hurting him, but not as much as we were thinking.”

  Jonathan cocked his head, “Oh?”

  Brutus nodded, “There should’ve been a lot more drugs there.”

  I nodded, “Exactly. Plus, the tank was a dead giveaway.”

  “So,” Jonathan rubbed his face with his hand, “You’re saying that every time we hit a target, it’s not hurting Elias that bad and that we’re walking into a trap every single time?”

  “Basically.”

  Alexander shrugged, “I don’t care. We’ve done fine this far. We’ll start hitting him where it hurts eventually.”

  I took a swing of my water. Calling the sugary, flavored crap that I drank water is an incredibly generous statement. It was horrible. It was absolutely horrifying. I sputtered, and everyone stopped talking to stare at me while I coughed.

  “Are you okay?”

  I looked at Alice, “Who drinks this crap?”

  She smiled, “People with taste.”

  “Don’t you mean without taste? Holy crap that stuff is just. . . ick.” I sat up. “This event is a trap, but not the way you’re expecting.” Alexander went back to swirling his wine. Seriously how could someone who drinks something so fattening have abs? Not that I’m jealous or anything. I rubbed my eyes, “It’s a trap because two armed groups will be there. There will likely be several other Enhanced there. It’s a trap because they all know we’re coming. When we win, it’ll hurt Elias, badly.”

  Jonathan held out his hand and stared at his palm. Two faded green dice made out of light bounced around in his hand. They flickered and buzzed when they hit each other. I frowned. I didn’t know if that meant he was tired or what. They hadn’t looked like that the other day.

  Jonathan looked up at Alice, “We’ve still got time to sleep, right?”

  Alice looked over at me before speaking, “We’ve got time, but we need to iron out most of the details before we go.”

  Brutus sat up, he hadn’t touched his wine, “Sir, I worry that we’re making a tactical error. Usually, raids like this are weeks in the making. We’ve got less than thirty-six hours to plan this operation, get some sleep, and get into position.”


  I leaned back and frowned, “Go on.” I could see where this was headed, and it wasn’t headed in a direction I was liking.

  “Well,” Brutus began, “Maybe we get this op, maybe we get the next one too without any casualties. I am just worried that if we keep pushing at this rate, we’re going to make a tactical error that gets more people killed. We’ve already lost Brittany.” Alexander looked down at his hands.

  “I see what you’re saying, but this op will likely let us put Elias away for good.”

  Brutus shook his head, “Sir, he’s planning this, we might cost him a fortune, but he is getting away. If he’s still going through with this, then he must have a healer on staff. He can come back at us almost immediately.” I frowned, I’d thought through all of this already, but he was right, and I didn’t like where that line of thought was taking me.

  “We’re going to pull this off. We’ve survived several operations that went sideways together and,” I gestured towards Alice, “we have our healer.” Alice turned to me and frowned. I held her gaze and didn’t blink. She shook her head. She’s staying out of it. I tried to take another sip of satan’s water and started coughing again.

  “Welp,” Jonathan slapped his hands against his knees, “I am going to go get some shuteye.” The rest got up and joined him, leaving Alice and me alone on the couch.

  “What if we’re hurt and need a healer?”

  Alice frowned and shrugged. “I’ll have her brought back here.”

  “What if you’re the one who’s hurt?” I asked.

  Alice coughed, “I’ll take care of it.”

  I rolled my eyes, “Someone else needs to know where she is just in case one of us gets hurt.”

  Alice met my eyes, “Is that so? What if Elias grabs you and makes you talk?”

  I sighed, “I’m not going to give up a child.”

  Alice’s face turned red, and her eyes hardened, “What about them?” She stood up and stretched. “Anyways, I’m going to head to bed as well. This conversation isn’t over.”

  I sat in the darkness and thought over our plan.

  It had been a long day. We’d rearmed ourselves and talked over our strategy while making tiny changes to our plan. We had even spied out the territory where the gun deal was going to go down and found the perfect spot. Alexander muttered under his breath. The graffiti next to us was a very gratuitous, the creator of that piece of street art was an expert in human anatomy. Jonathan looked queasy. Brutus frowned, and Alice glared at me.

  “What?” I threw my hands up, “This is the best spot.” Alice folded her arms across her chest and glared at me. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, do you think I asked them to paint that everywhere?”

  Jonathan chuckled, “Pete’s sake?”

  “Zip it, Goldilocks.”

  “Whatever you say, grandpa.”

  Snickers erupted from the back of the car. I rolled my eyes and rested my head against the window. A laugh was good; everyone’s nerves were strung tight, and sitting in a car for three hours could also make someone a little stir crazy. I looked out at the site again. I was going to get Elias this time. Oh, he was going to be hot when he got the news, he probably already had the information about where his son was.

  The drug deal was going to go down in a ramshackle part of town. There was a junkyard full of cars that varied from colorful to made of rust. The bridge of one of the main streets ran overhead. The edge of the water in the channel was only a dozen or so feet back from where the junkyard sat.

  Alice sipped her coffee, “Nice place.”

  “You say that just about every fifteen minutes,” I frowned. She shrugged and sipped her coffee loudly. Seriously no one drinks coffee like that unless they’re trying to be obnoxious. “Alexander?” I asked.

  “Yup?”

  “Check and see if anyone’s here yet.”

  “No,” Alice cocked her head at me, “we wait.” I leaned back in my seat. I wanted to slam my head into the steering wheel, but I might’ve set the horn off on accident, and then we might have visitors before we were ready. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

  It was almost time to mess up the party. Alice sat next to me. Everyone else had already headed for their positions. Alexander was on the footpath of the bridge overhead, Brutus hid down by the cars inside of one, and Jonathan was walking around less than a block away. The tension swelled inside me. As soon as we got going, I wouldn’t be so worried, and something would shift, and I would be calm again. I’d always hated the waiting part before the mission started; it had always been my least favorite. Trucks partially obscured my view. There was a U-Haul truck, seriously Elias, seriously? That was most certainly where the guns were, but why would be put them in there?

  I’ll bet no one stops U-Haul trucks.

  I looked over at Alice. She thumped her index finger against her temple, right. I wasn’t the only person sharing headspace right now. Part of each of us boiled over an into the other people in the mind-meld. I needed to focus. I felt so relieved that Alice wanted to oversee this mission. I didn’t think I was in the state of mind to make the right calls, not since—

  Are you ready? Alice asked.

  I nodded, Uh, huh.

  Are you really ready? I took a deep breath and held it. I turned to Alice and nodded. She bit her lip, Is everyone in position?

  A chorus of affirmatives rolled in. I gave my assent again as well. I was so happy we didn’t need to rely on other forms of communication. An Enhanced mind-meld was unbreakable, hopefully. They relied somehow upon quantum entanglement thingies, and because of that, no one could block or listen in on our conversations. Sometimes, I still found it fun to mock the old radio protocols.

  Come in, Cocoa Puff, I repeat, come in, Cocoa Puff.

  Alice seemed annoyed, Markus, I told you I don’t like that nickname.

  Roger that, Cocoa Puff, over. Alice looked at me and frowned and gave me her best, “we are not amused,” face. Yes?

  Nothing.

  Obviously, I shrugged. There’s no other use for that face, that means you’re upset.

  Alice glared at me, It’s nothing.

  Are you sure about that?

  She nodded, Come in, Einstein, come in, Einstein. I cocked an eyebrow.

  I could feel Jonathan’s glee, You know, with the white hair and all.

  Oh, you’re both gonna get it now. Alice snorted. I glanced over and gave her my best hurt face. She cleared her throat and sipped her coffee again, loudly.

  Elias walked out from behind the semi. He was dressed in a suit with a maroon tie. His hands were clasped behind his back. I blinked. His strongest ability was his lightning, and that, as far as I’d seen anyway, could only come from his hands. That was a power move. He looked unconcerned with the sheer number of guns surrounding him. Alice choked and spat her drink back out.

  What? I asked.

  Him, do you know who that is? I looked back out. A man stepped in front of the other goons. He was covered head to toe in markings. They looked like they’d been scratched out instead of having been injected into him like typical tattoos. Uh, guys, we’ve got a problem here, Alice said finally.

  My eyes flicked back between Alice and the man, What is it?

  Wow, you were either really retired or really blind.

  I growled, Zip it coca puff, who is it?

  The destroyer, Alice bit her lip and looked up. Her eyes looked like huge saucers.

  Who is he? I repeated.

  You’ve never heard of him, seriously?

  What is he, a heavy?

  Alice blew out her breath, I’ll explain it, give us a minute.

  He can’t be worse than Elias.

  Alice shrugged, No, he’s lower level, but he’s a lot harder to kill. His skin is tough, like minotaur hide tough. He allegedly chucked a tank at the militia after it shot him in the chest. He is the reason there’s only one cartel in Mexico right now. I raised my eyebrows. This day just keeps getting better and better.

 
Does he have a weak spot? I asked.

  He hates polka music, she replied. I banged my head against the headrest.

  That’s helpful. If his skin is super strong, it wouldn’t be everywhere. His throat was probably vulnerable.

  You’ll just have to hit him in the mouth or eyes, Alexander shrugged.

  Great, I’ll just walk up and ask him to bite down on the end of my twelve gauge. Okay, people new plan. Alice, mind control Elias. Alexander, wreck stuff up, Jonathan, helped me with Mr. tough guy, and Brutus, kill everything that’s still moving. I grabbed my shotgun. I unhooked the grenades from my belt. If that guy had shrugged off a shot from a tank, then my grenades might as well have been from confetti.

  Markus, I heard Alice say. I looked up. You can beat him. He won’t be expecting Elias to be out of the fight.

  I shook my head; I still can’t believe that the gun deal we rob has a Mexican cartel head involved.

  Alice shrugged, There was no way for us to know.

  Variety is the spice of life, I muttered. I took a deep breath and opened the door. I slid out and crouched down. My boots crunched against the gravel. I stayed in the shadows and moved towards the overgrown chain-link fence that nearly obscured the view of inside the junkyard from where I was. They would have a harder time seeing me.

  I see you moving, Einstein, Alice snickered.

  I’m gonna get you, Cocoa Puff.

  You’re like a tree, all bark, and no bite. I stopped. Alice would be laughing at me. I crept forward again. The gravel was more packed down here, and my footfalls were almost entirely silent.

  I sighed, Oh, the things I put up with.

  Yeah, yeah, world’s smallest violin.

  I walked forward, still crouching towards the hole we’d cut in the fence earlier. I laid my guns down, one on the inside and one on the outside of the chain-link fence. I followed the twelve-gauge through the hole and pulled up my replacement P-90. Those guns were sweet. A shotgun would ruin your day, but a P-90 would ruin it consistently from substantially further away.

  I leaned against the wheel well of a rusted car. It was so smashed up I couldn’t tell what kind it was. I frowned. That sucked, no one should let a classic car sit and rot like that. I shook my head, mission first hobbies later. I pulled the strap for the shotgun over my shoulder and pulled out the P-90. The safety was off, and a round was chambered. Only an amateur would leave the safety on right now, but I can be very forgetful.