Ex Supervillain

by Shouse, Brenden

Elias flung himself to the side, but not before blood splattered behind him. His three thousand-dollar sports jacket better have a protection warranty.

  Get her out of here, Alice, go! Go! Go! I screamed, and ran around the corner and fired again. Elias stepped closer to me and swung a pipe wrench at my face. My hearing healed and the ringing faded. I fell down and fired straight up into his chest. I rolled to my feet and fired again. I dropped the gun and let it fall to my side as I ran forwards. I grabbed Elias by his jacket coat and slammed his head into the concrete.

  “You’re not going to make it out of here. It’s payback time!” I screamed. I flew into the metal wall of the warehouse and clanged. I fell off and saw stars. Crazy-Brains walked towards me with a smile on his face.

  “Time to die,” he said.

  “It’s come to die, first of all.” I rolled to my feet and staggered into a run, Brutus, I could use a hand. A detonation behind me seared my back and I flew forward into another wall.

  On it, sir! He responded. I tried to roll my eyes, but I forgot what I was doing as I clanged into a steel girder. Sorry, sir. Heat flashed across my face from another detonation. I rolled to my feet and fell forwards. I grabbed my gun and aimed it at Crazy-Brain’s head, I missed, drat. I shook my head and my balance came back.

  I touched my ear with my index finger and it came away with blood. My healing factor was better now than it had been, I frowned and shook my head again. I didn’t have time to think about that, I needed to be focused right now. We were in danger. I felt it as my mind snapped into focus. Panic later, fight now. I fired quick, steady bursts at the mad scientist until my magazine clicked empty. Something was wrong. I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise.

  I jumped to the side and fell on my face. The blood dripped out of my ears. Elias’ shriek downed Brutus and Crazy-Brains. I fired my gun and it clicked at me, empty and out of options. I screamed back at Elias and held my hands out in front of me. Searing pain laced through my arms and my head slammed back into the ground. My hearing snapped back, and I rolled onto my stomach and fought to get up.

  Where did he go-

  A gaping hole stood out against the orange metal of the shipping container. Elias stalked back out of the hole and stared at me. His eyes burned with hate. He howled and his back snapped back into place.

  Dimly, I realized that the AI was working. They’d been gaining powers. He had to be one of the strongest Enhanced by now. He was already a level five, and that healing factor alone would’ve given him a level three status. He was way tougher than he used to be. I looked down at my arms. Flesh had burned away and metal stood underneath. It looked like steel, but it moved and contorted like nothing I’d ever seen. I wanted to vomit. I was going to die. The flesh crept back towards itself.

  I threw my arms out at Elias and howled again. When he hit the shipping container this time the entire thing moved along with him. A beast tore out of the container. It looked like a golem of flesh, with muscles and flesh moving and wet, slimy skin. I was still out of my weight class. I ran towards the door and jumped through. Alice saw my arms and gasped.

  What are you doing here? I told you to leave!

  I can’t find the keys, Markus, she sounded frantic.

  I flung the keys at her and waved my arms, Go, go, get out of here, hurry!

  Steel Screeched and I spun around. Elias tore through the gate. The creature smiled at me and growled at the same time. He licked his lips. His tongue was about the same size as my hand. I wished Brutus had stayed with me instead of going with Tanya.

  “Time to die Markus.”

  The engine sputtered and roared. Gravel was flung into my back and peppered the wall as Alice floored it. Elias’ eyes snapped towards the van and one of his serpentine arms was flung forward towards the van.

  “No!” I jumped in between the van as it flew down the street. Elias’ fingers blazed and lightning arced out of his fingers and hit me in the chest. I screamed, and felt the world fading to black.

  Markus- Alice’s voice came from afar. My head bounced when it hit the ground and I faded into unconsciousness.

  I was cold. The metal inside me seemed to suck up all the heat. I shivered, and tried to warm up. A pillar of heat seemed to be right in front of me, but I still felt like I was in the middle of a blizzard.

  “You’re awake.”

  I opened my eyes and everything rushed back. I gasped and tried to jump up, but I couldn’t. I looked up. Elias was back in his skin, although now that I knew what to look for, I could see the odd muscle twitches. Alien muscles moved beneath his skin. His eyes looked bloodshot and there were deep lines under his eyes. I locked eyes with him and spit on the ground.

  He growled, a faintly inhuman sound. I backed off. If he snapped and summoned that form again, he would kill me and my new abilities wouldn’t help. I tried to make the force rip my chains, but I couldn’t summon that energy.

  “You still haven’t turned.”

  Elias t-sked a couple of times before squatting down in front of me, “This is the part where you die.” I shrugged. He growled and slapped me. My head spun and I saw stars. “I’m going to rip your powers out of you, and I’m gonna take them. Oh, the Demon won’t give you new powers, but it will let you rip them away from someone else.” Elias’ face tightened, “They know a superior human when they see one.”

  I laughed, “No, we all look the same to them. What does it matter if one blob of organic bits has power, or if another does?” I stopped laughing and swallowed. “All those people?”

  Elias smiled at me, “Yes, all of them.” One of the buildings made out of quad containers had been empty, I swallowed. “Ah,” Elias smiled, “You begin to see. Your power has been percolating and slowly changing you for decades. Your gift will instantly be enough to bring one to the edge of a sixth level. Whoever has your power would be instantly added to the level sixes.”

  I swallowed. “Level sixes are a myth.”

  Elias smiled, “If they are, then I’m going to make them real.” Level fives were beings powerful enough to carve out their own empire. A level six would be a threat to the survival of the human race.

  “Is Crazy-Brains okay with your plan?” An insane cackle sounded from the other side of the Quantum computer.

  “Crazy-Brains, that’s a new one.” My head pinged into the wall behind me and my eyes teared up. “Not the most-clever one I’ve heard, but…” My head slammed into the metal desk again. I felt the tears running down my face.

  “Enough,” Elias said finally.

  The nutcase frowned and folded his arms across his chest, “It’s not fair.”

  Elias sneered at him, “You already got your chance to play with him. It’s my turn now.” A computer screen blipped on.

  “What is it, human?”

  “Another sacrifice.”

  Elias kicked me in the hip. Apparently, Crazy-Brains couldn’t play with me, but Elias could still torment me before he killed me. Elias picked me up and slammed me onto a metal table. He strapped me down, and walked out of my line of sight.

  “Demon, look at me.” The face looked at me and snarled.

  “I’ve had more than enough of your arrogance,” Elias said. I had an idea. It probably wasn’t going to work, but I needed to try it. It was the only shot I had. If Elias became as powerful as he was insinuating, he’d find Tanya and hurt her more. I couldn’t afford to fail.

  “You want us, right? You want our deaths. You want to prove that given the power; humanity would destroy itself.”

  The Alien face smiled at me, “No, we’re merely speeding things up.”

  I nodded, “So, why did you pick him?”

  “They created me.”

  I laughed, “So you serve him?”

  “Someone has to die, human. The power must move.”

  I nodded, “True, but why does it have to be Elias? He’s a failure. He still doesn’t even have control of a city and he’s a level five. I’m a level one, and while the two of
us worked together, his empire expanded to the largest size that he ever reached.”

  “You’ve been selected to die.”

  “By a human, you mean?” I asked. The computer screen made a very human, animalistic noise.

  “I’ll enjoy watching you die.”

  “That sounds like an emotional decision to me,” I shrugged.

  The AI stared at me. The anger was visible through the screen. This AI wasn’t old, it hadn’t finished adjusting and rewriting its own code. I smiled, it was still a little human, and I knew how to push human buttons, especially the buttons on egotistical know-it-alls.

  Elias came over to me and punched me in the jaw, “Diego, you take this one.” Diego, or as I preferred, Crazy-Brains, swallowed and laid down on the table. Good, he was the tougher of the two anyway. I smiled. There was a fifty percent chance I wasn’t going to die.

  “Kill me,” I said. The AI cocked its head at me. “You heard me. Kill me, end me. You wanna watch the world go boom? Finish it.” Elias took a step towards me.

  His face was contorted into a snarl, “So be it.” Elias spun around to face the computer. His hands quivered and turned into fists.

  “No, that wasn’t the bargain.”

  “Bargains change, this man will level Newopolis when he changes. The amount of energy he will release will be unparalleled. Why settle for an attack dog when I can sit back and enjoy the fireworks?”

  I smiled in spite of the pain in my chest. That wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t going to let myself transform. My life wasn’t worth more than everyone in the city. It would be cutting it close. The longest shift from Tweener had been minutes, mine had already been hours. If it was sped up now, I might have five minutes. I closed my eyes against the wetness that threatened to leak out. The fire roared inside me, and the chains exploded off of me. I roared and swung my arms at Elias.

  Power, pure heat poured out of my arms and onto him. Crazy-Brains came at me, but he was nothing. I was on the scale with AI above. The fire coursing through my veins would kill me or everyone around me. This was not the time to mess with me.

  I grabbed him and he vaporized. Someone was screaming, a dim part of my mind realized that it was me. I turned towards Elias and fell to the ground. I howled. A burst of fire poured out of me. The steel container turned red hot and started buckling under its own weight. Elias ran at me. He swung at my head and I ducked under it.

  I grabbed the sword and it melted. I slammed my fist into Elias in the solar plexus. He flew into the storage container and bent it inwards. I howled, and poured fire through the opening at Elias. Heat, nuclear fire obliterated him and the container melted.

  A tear dripped out of the corner of my eye, “I’m so sorry, Tanya.” I closed my eyes. The fire inside of me burned. It wanted to get out and destroy. I had the power to end the city swimming inside me. The power was hungry and hot. It wanted to feed, and it threatened to eat me. If the fire destroyed me first, it should only incinerate this block. I dropped to my knees and stared at the computer.

  “What are you doing, human?”

  I forced my hands to still, “Alice, I never got to tell you how I felt. I am so sorry. Tanya, I love you with all of my heart.” I took a deep shuddering breath, “And I’m so sorry.” I let go and the fire consumed me. I screamed against the dying of the light.

  Acknowledgments

  Novels require lots of time and effort to go from rough draft to the polished draft you are reading right now. Many hands touched this project. Many people worked behind the scenes to make this book a reality. Thank you all for the time you spent on this story. First, I have to thank Roberta Neumann for editing this book; you found so many little (and large) errors and made the book much stronger. Next, Sarah Olson, my girlfriend. Sarah changed the document and proofed it again to make sure she caught every mistake. She also encouraged me and was ready to read each chapter when I finished the rough draft. Thank You. My family also needs a thank you for all the encouragement they gave me throughout the entire process.

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