First War (Minimum Wage Sidekick Book 6)

by Lucas Flint

  Leaning against the cage itself, however, was a man I had never seen before. He was shorter than the Necromantress by a few inches or so, but he looked no less threatening than she. He wore a red mask with devil horns rising from its forehead and carried a pitchfork in his hands, just like stereotypical depictions of Satan usually show. He wore crimson and black armor; it wasn’t quite a power suit, like Iron Angel’s, but it definitely looked like it would protect him from most attacks. I wondered if it would protect him from my eye beams. I hoped I was not about to find out.

  As Ursa and the skull-masked vigilante approached the cage, the man in the devil costume—who I assumed was Doctor Devil—pushed him off the cage and walked over to those two. As for the Necromantress, she still held her wine glass, but was now eying the approaching vigilantes like a cat about to pounce on a mouse.

  “Ursa, Skull,” said Doctor Devil. His voice sounded strange, slightly metallic, as if he was speaking through some kind of voice modulator built into his mask. “Has Beams arrived yet?”

  Ursa shook his head. “No, sir. We have not seen any sign of the boy yet.”

  Doctor Devil scowled. “And the back door scouts have not reported seeing him yet, either. This is not good.”

  “The Necromantress says not to worry, Doctor,” said the Necromantress, who sounded far more relaxed than Doctor Devil; she almost sounded like she was enjoying herself. “The Necromantress knows the boy very well. Unlike many of your enemies, he’s a real hero, and no real hero would ever resist the temptation to confront the villains deep in the heart of their lair, especially in order to save a friend.”

  Doctor Devil turned to face the Necromantress. “What if you’re wrong? There’s no guarantee that the boy might risk his life, especially since he’s all by myself. Most sidekicks are just kids, kids who have no right being on the streets fighting criminals. He’s probably run away by now, I bet.”

  The Necromantress stood up and walked over to Doctor Devil. I had forgotten just how tall she was; she practically towered over the three vigilantes. She walked in a rather sultry way, swinging her hips back and forth. I looked at the vigilantes; Doctor Devil and Skull were watching her rather raptly, while Ursa looked uncomfortable, perhaps because he was still thinking of his and Skull’s earlier conversation about her.

  “Doctor, Doctor, Doctor,” said the Necromantress. The usual insanity in her voice was gone; instead, she spoke in a sweet and sensual way, which sounded odd coming from her lips. “Why would you ever doubt the Necromantress? She has not lied to you so far, has she?”

  “I … I suppose not,” said Doctor Devil, who sounded slightly distracted. “Still, the boy—”

  “Will show up,” said the Necromantress. She stopped in front of Doctor Devil and looked down at him; now that they stood before each other, I realized that Doctor Devil was just the right height to look at her chest if he looked at her directly. She rested a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up at her quickly. “It’s been a little over an hour. We gave him two, didn’t we? There’s no need to abandon the plan so soon.”

  “I … uh, you’re right,” said Doctor Devil. Even with his back to me, I could tell that he was probably looking at her with some desire. “Yes, of course. The boy would do anything to save Rubberman and the others, wouldn’t he?”

  “Of course,” said the Necromantress. “That is just what the Necromantress told you. You need only wait.”

  Doctor Devil nodded, looking slightly dazed, but then Ursa suddenly said, “And what if he doesn’t? What if he never shows up? What if you’re wrong?”

  There it was. When the Necromantress looked over at Ursa, I caught a glimpse of the insane, frothing at the mouth woman who had been attempting to create an army of the dead under the Old Albertson Mansion a month and a half ago now.

  To his credit, Ursa didn’t stand down. He was, however, shivering slightly, enough that the Necromantress likely noticed.

  “What did you say?” said the Necromantress. Her voice was still mostly sane, though there was an obvious undercurrent of insanity running just below the surface.

  “I said, what if you’re wrong?” said Ursa. His voice trembled slightly. “What if, after the deadline passes, the brat doesn’t show? What then?”

  The Necromantress did not answer at first. She stood there, her hands still caressing Doctor Devil’s shoulders, as if considering Ursa’s question. I half-expected her to start shouting at Ursa for daring to question the wisdom of the Necromantress; heck, she might even cast a spell and turn him into a zombie or something.

  Instead, the Necromantress simply said, “Then Dennis will die and it will all be his fault.”

  As soon as the Necromantress said that, I tensed. I still didn’t see Rubberman in the cage with the other superheroes and sidekicks, but at this point, I had to assume that they had him somewhere. That meant they could carry out their plan without trouble if they wanted, which meant I had little time left. It was now or never, and now was always the best time to act.

  But I hesitated. As much as I wanted to reveal myself and confront the Necromantress and the vigilantes, I realized that it might make more sense to try to rescue Myster and the other heroes first. If I could break them out of that cage, then I would be able to beat the Necromantress and her allies quite easily. Because I was still invisible, it wouldn’t be very difficult for me to sneak around and—

  My mind was interrupted by a small beeping sound coming from my invisibility watch. At first, I thought I must have accidentally set a timer for something, but then I remembered that Cyberkid had warned me that the watch would start beeping when its effect was about to end.

  Just as I realized that, the beeping stopped and I became visible. As soon as I turned visible, the Necromantress’s eyes darted in my direction and widened in surprise for a moment before a smirk of satisfaction appeared on her lips.

  “He’s here,” said the Necromantress. She pointed at me suddenly. “Right there.”

  Doctor Devil, Ursa, and Skull whirled around to see me. I stepped backwards, but then stopped because I had nowhere to run to. So I held up my fists and stood my ground, though I wasn’t sure I could take on all four of these guys at once.

  “Huh?” said Ursa, staring at me with blank surprise. “How did you get in? We didn’t see you even approach the building from the outside.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Doctor Devil, waving off Ursa’s questions with his hand. He looked at me with a psychotic smirk of his own. “What matters is that you’re here, boy. I’ve seen pictures and videos of you on the Internet, but this is the first time I’ve seen you in person. You’re quite short.”

  “So are you,” I said, without thinking about it. “Then again, I guess everyone looks short next to the Necromantress, huh?”

  Doctor Devil’s smirk turned into a scowl. “I was told you had a smart mouth, but I didn’t realize you had a stupid mouth, too. Or do you want me to shove my pitchfork down your throat? It probably won’t fit your mouth very well, but I’ve never let that stop me from killing fake heroes like you before.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that the guy who calls himself Doctor Devil has any right to call other people ‘fake heroes,’” I said. “Or are you a Satanist and believe that Satan was the first hero or something?”

  “It’s just a—” Doctor Devil closed his mouth, took a deep breath, and then said, in a calmer voice, “I see what you’re doing, kid. You use trash talk to make your opponent lose their cool and behave irrationally. It’s a technique I used against criminals and villains back when I was a licensed hero myself. It’s very basic, but at the same time, very effective, which is why so many heroes—fake or otherwise—use it.”

  “I don’t care if you know all about my tactics,” I said. “I’m here to rescue Rubberman, not banter with idiots like you. Where is he? I don’t see him in that cage.”

  The Necromantress suddenly threw back her head and laughed. It was a high, mad laugh, like a witch cack
ling. It even disturbed Doctor Devil, Ursa, and Skull. Ursa, in particular, looked like he wanted to run and hide, though he didn’t move from where he stood.

  “What’s so funny?” I demanded as the Necromantress continued to laugh. “I was told that Rubberman was here. Where is he?”

  The Necromantress eventually stopped laughing, though it looked like it required a great effort on her part to control her laughter. She covered her mouth, giggling every now and then, as she looked over at me, the corners of her mad grin visible from behind her hand.

  “The Necromantress must apologize,” she said, the madness in her voice more obvious now. “But she just didn’t expect you to take such a silly phone call so seriously.”

  “What do you mean?” I said. “The phone call said—”

  “The Necromantress knows what the phone call said,” said the Necromantress. She lowered her hand, revealing her crazy grin. “But it was false.”

  “False?” My heart fell. “What do you mean?”

  The Necromantress gestured at the huge cage in which the members of Heroes United sat. “The reason you don’t see Dennis inside that cage, young Beams, is because he’s not here. We don’t have him. This is a trap.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “A trap?” I was so shocked that I actually lowered my fists. “Wait, what?”

  The Necromantress folded her arms in front of her chest; whether intentionally or not, it emphasized her breasts. “You heard correctly. We set this trap in order to lure you out into the open, where we could more easily get our hands on you.”

  Doctor Devil nodded. “The Necromantress is correct. And I must say that it worked fabulously, much more so than I expected it to.”

  “Never doubt the Necromantress’ plans,” said the Necromantress, resting a hand on Doctor Devil’s shoulder. “For the Necromantress is wiser and smarter than she first appears. Wisdom and intelligence are a requirement in order to understand the dark arts which the Necromantress practices in the shadows, dark arts which even the Devil himself would not dare to mess with.”

  “Who cares about dark arts?” said Ursa. He punched his fist into his other hand. “Let’s just kill the kid already. I want to avenge Hindsight and Smoke Man.”

  “Soon, Ursa, soon,” said Doctor Devil. “I want to enjoy the brat’s obvious shock for a little while longer.”

  I heard a door opening behind me and looked over my shoulder. Two new vigilantes stood in the doorway, in this room’s only exit. I didn’t know their names, but one of them was dressed like a cowboy, while the other was wearing knight’s armor. The cowboy carried a gun, which he pointed at me, while the knight held a sword that looked more than capable of cutting through my flesh.

  I took a few steps forward to put some distance between myself and the two newcomers, but I didn’t go very far because I didn’t want to walk into the Necromantress and her group. I was now trapped between two different groups of vigilantes, and I didn’t think they would let me go if I asked nicely.

  “You look like you want to fight, kid,” said Doctor Devil. “If I may offer you a bit of advice, it is this: Don’t. Your death will be a lot more painful if you decide to go down fighting.”

  “Oh, please,” said Skull, who now sounded bloodthirsty. “Let the boy try to fight us. I heard he received training from the legendary Nightbolt himself. I’d like to see what kind of fight this kid can put up.”

  “And risk letting him defeat us?” said Doctor Devil. He shook his head. “No. If there’s one thing I learned from my experience as a superhero, it’s that you don’t give your opponents a ‘fair’ chance to defend themselves. Quite a few villains I fought met their ends by letting their lust for a challenge override their common sense.”

  “The Necromantress agrees,” said the Necromantress. “Besides, the Necromantress doesn’t care much for fighting. She prefers to kill her opponents directly, rather than engage in some drawn out conflict.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” said Ursa. “Let’s kill him. Even if he tries to put up a fight, we’ll beat him because he’s outnumbered.”

  Uh oh. I realized that Ursa had a point. My chances of beating all six of these people by myself was close to zero. Maybe if I could free Myster and the others, my chances of survival would increase, but at the moment I was not in any position to save them. I needed to figure out some other way to get out of this situation. I needed to stall for time, waiting for Cyberkid and the others to get here, and the best way to stall was to ask lots of questions.

  So I said, “Necromantress, what did you mean when you said that Rubberman isn’t here? Isn’t he in that cage with the other heroes?”

  The Necromantress shook her head. “No. You can see for yourself. All of the other superheroes and sidekicks are in there, but not Rubberman.”

  “Then does that mean he’s still out there?” I said hopefully. “Did he manage to escape the ambush at the factory?”

  The Necromantress chuckled. “No, he did not. He was captured along with all of the others. The Necromantress would have killed him herself, but her employer demanded that she give Dennis over to her for some reason.”

  Though the Necromantress did not say it, I realized that that meant that Rubberman was in the hands of Sasha Munroe at this very moment. He might have even been inside the Munroe Acquisitions headquarters building across the street. “Why did your employer want him? Is she going to kill him herself?”

  “The Necromantress does not know,” said the Necromantress. “The Necromantress was promised a chance to kill Dennis herself, so she assumes that her employer will hand Dennis over to her once she is done doing whatever it is she is doing to him. It is annoying, because the Necromantress thought she would get to kill Dennis once and for all earlier, but she will have to wait at least a few more minutes before she will be granted that privilege.”

  “In the meantime, we’re supposed to kill you,” said Doctor Devil. “We made up the story about killing Rubberman if you didn’t meet our deadline because we knew it would be an excellent way to make you come here. Looks like it worked.”

  I bit my lower lip. Damn it. I should have seen this coming, but it honestly had not occurred to me that Rubberman might not be here. It was good to know that Rubberman was still alive, but it wouldn’t do me any good if I was going to die. Then again, if the Necromantress was to be believed, Rubberman likely didn’t have very much longer before he was killed, either. That meant that I needed to get out of here somehow.

  But even if I did, that didn’t change the fact that the other members of Heroes United were still held prisoner. Rescuing Rubberman was important, but it seemed equally important to save these guys, too. If I freed them, they might even be able to help me save Rubberman.

  Yet even this was all irrelevant as long as I was trapped between the Necromantress and the Vigilante Legion. I could only stall for so long. Indeed, given how bloodthirsty the vigilantes appeared to be, I figured my stalling tactics were just about finished. I was tempted to call in for help, but I did not want the Necromantress or the vigilantes to suspect that I had help, at least not until it was too late for them to do anything about it.

  “Is the brat going to cry?” said Ursa with a chuckle. “Can’t tell with that visor of yours blocking your eyes, but you’ve gone awfully quiet now.”

  “Maybe he’ll start calling for mommy,” Skull said. “I’ve known lots of sidekicks that are brave when everything is fine, but then become blubbering wrecks as soon as they run into a real challenge. This brat will be no different.”

  My hands balled into fists. It was obvious at this point that I had to fight or die. There was no way I could beat all of these guys on my own, but at the same time, I couldn’t stall any longer for help to arrive. Therefore, I needed to free Myster and the others, which meant getting past the Necromantress, Doctor Devil, Skull, and Ursa.

  I closed my eyes and shot my lasers, which rebounded off my eyelids and hit my brain. Suddenly, energy flowed throu
gh my body and I felt like I could leap the Empire State Building, but right now, all I needed to be able to do was jump over these guys.

  My eyes flew open just as Ursa and Skull rushed toward me with their hands out. Without saying a word, I launched into the air toward the ceiling, going straight over Ursa and Skull’s heads. The two vigilantes came to a stop and stared up at me, dumbfounded, as I flew over them. They didn’t even try to stop me.

  But then Doctor Devil suddenly drew large, demonic wings from his back and flew up toward me. With no control over my trajectory, I flew straight toward Doctor Devil, who swung his pitchfork like a baseball bat and hit me with it just when I got within reach of his weapon.

  The blow sent me flying. I crashed into one of the dining tables on the left side of the room, which crumbled under the impact of my weight. For a moment, I was too dazed to get up until I saw Doctor Devil flying toward me with his pitchfork held before him like a spear.

  I rolled out of the way just as Doctor Devil crashed into the remains of the table, plunging his pitchfork directly into the floor where my head had been mere moments before. Getting to my feet, I fired a laser blast at Doctor Devil, but he dodged it and slashed at me with his pitchfork. The pitchfork’s tines cut through the chest of my costume. They didn’t leave more than a flesh wound, but the impact of the pitchfork nonetheless caused me to stumble backwards into another table, causing one of the empty wineglasses to fall over onto its side.

  Shaking my head, I looked up to see Doctor Devil pulling his pitchfork back in a clear sign that he was going to stab me. Desperate, I grabbed the fallen wineglass and hurled it at his face.

  The wineglass struck Doctor Devil’s mask and smashed into a million pieces. Doctor Devil cried out in pain and shock, grabbing at his mask’s eye holes, which seemed to be where some of the glass shards had entered. He even dropped his pitchfork, so I fired another laser at him, striking him in the chest and knocking him flat on his back.