by Jason Krate
She had escaped being a slave to a metahuman freak, only to end up as a slave to a metahuman freak.
No good deed ever goes unpunished in this world.
* * *
Baron Knight had to admit, in post-apocalyptic Brightmoon City, he had never figured that the public library would still be standing.
So imagine his surprise when he found out that not only was it still standing, but it was also apparently the living space of the information broker known as "The Guru".
Apparently according to Rachel Addison, this man was responsible for helping the citizens of this city take what was left after the Great War, and rebuild civilization the best way that they could….until the Deathborne Siblings came and ruined everything that is.
The trains, the vehicles being driven by Horses and dogs, agriculture fields of foods in the city's parks, methods of purifying water…all of those had come from the guidance of "The Guru".
When the Deathborne Siblings took over, the Guru's services were appropriated primarily for their own uses…but according the Rachel Addison, The Guru still lent his services to the oppressed people in need if they came knocking on his door.
Which was exactly what Baron Knight was counting on after getting the rundown on who "The Guru" was on the way here from Bone Breakers lair.
"You'd best let me do the talking Metahuman" Rachel Addison said, "You might scare Delilah off and I would like to get away from you as soon as possible. You get the information you want and you'll let me go?"
"I make no promises" Baron Knight answered.
"Then neither do I" Rachel Addison snapped, and then she punched Baron Knight in the stomach and made a run for it.
"Nice try" Baron Knight said, coughing, "Now get back here and open the door!"
To Rachel's horror, she soon found herself unwillingly walking back to the door and she knocked on the door.
She hated this Metahuman, she really hated him and his ungodly control over her mind and body.
* * *
Once she had knocked on the door, the two of them then heard the sound of footsteps approaching the main entrance door of the public Library.
The door then creaked open, and a woman about 70 years of age emerged with a shot gun in hand.
"Rachel?" the woman said in surprise, "Back so soon? We gave you the batch of purified water and the Tomato plant. You said that was all you needed."
"It was…" Rachel said with a scowl towards Baron Knight, "I'm not here for myself, I've got someone here who wants to talk to your husband, Delilah."
Deliah then looked to the side and saw Baron Knight, and to Baron Knight's amazement he saw recognition in her eyes.
"You? But…." Delilah said amazed, "He said you were dead."
"Who did?" Baron Knight asked in surprise. Who could possibly know him?
Everyone who knew him was dead or had been dead a long time ago.
"My Husband…" Delilah said, and then she opened up the door "Come in, if you are alive and back…then maybe this nightmare is about to end. Come in….he'll be just as surprised to see you as you will be to see him I'd wager."
"Come on, Whore" Baron Knight said to Rachel
"Stop calling me that!" Rachel snapped.
"Make me" Baron Knight countered, "It's not MY fault I can smell how "dirty" you are down there."
"If you keep this up, and I will make sure that my dirty shoe will go up your ass so hard it will knock your teeth out of your dirty foul metahuman mouth, Meta!" Rachel threatened.
"You can try, Whore" Baron Knight said, unmoved by her threat.
Rachel and Baron Knight followed Delilah up the stairs and into what had once been the "Law and Government" section of the public Library.
"Incredible" Baron Knight said as he looked at all the books that were still on the shelf and had been used enough that they hadn't gone to ruin since the last time he had seen this place 60 years ago, "I would have figured this whole place would have been gutted and the shelves and books used for firewood during the aftermath of the Grim Destruction."
"My husband was a big fan of literature, a college professor in his youth. He may have had a…well…less than humble beginning, but despite his morally questionable youth he abhorred book burning. He believed all knowledge was sacred, and that to burn it was a reflection of humanity's basest form of being. To survive, one needs to be knowledgeable about how the world works and how it used to work…this is what allowed him to become "The Guru" in this ruined world that the world has become. It was important back then; this library will one day become important again someday..."
At the end of the room, near a roaring fireplace (must have gotten the wood from the forest outside that once was the Moonlight walk Park) and in an easy chair, working on something with a piece of charcoal taken from previously used firewood was…..
Baron Knight couldn't believe it….and neither could the black skinned old man in the easy chair when he looked up to see who his wife was talking to and had brought before him.
It was one of his archenemies.
Professor Mordechai Moran.
The Mastermind.
* * *
"I know honey" Delilah said to the ink black skinned bald man, "I was just as surprised as you, he looks exactly like you had described him when you told me about your past life."
"Mastermind" Baron Knight said in contempt upon seeing one of his old archenemy's standing before him, somehow still alive from the massacre years ago "Why the hell aren't you dead?"
"Nice to see you too Baron Knight" Mastermind responded curtly, with a dry sarcastic smirk "I see the years have been as kind to you as they have been to me and everyone else since the Great War."
"You two know each other?" Rachel asked in surprise.
"Yeah…sixty years ago he used to be one of the most dangerous metahuman criminals in the city" Baron Knight answered, "he used his mind control powers and technology to do horrible crimes. He played life or death games with people and the city to judge whether or not the 'modern day Gomorrah' deserved to continue to exist or be destroyed."
Mastermind winced, and to Baron Knight's surprise he saw what looked like "regret" in his old enemy's eyes "Yes…yes I did use my powers and skills in terrible ways and I was a terrible criminal. But please try to understand that a near death experience and the world collapsing into what it is now can change a man. I've been using my technology and my knowledge to help others…"
"So you are the Ink Black Skinned ally of the Deathborne siblings with mind control powers that I've heard off" Baron Knight deduced, "Are they one of those people you've "helped" as well?"
"No, he's not" Delilah insisted, "I see you've heard of our little problem here. Those two sadistic siblings and their metahuman crew came in here and took the place by storm before anyone even knew they were in the city or had overthrown the original lord of the city."
"And they did it by way of mentally pushing the people of the city and the guards in the tower into letting them in…by making them not able to see them. Their minds were clouded so that they couldn't see them or their armies enter until it was too late. A little trick both of us have tried before with hypnotism."
"I see…" Rachel said with contempt, "So you both were cut from the same cloth, you mind controlled people like puppets. I see old habits don't change for old mongrels."
"Used to" Mastermind corrected, "I used to be able to use my powers easily, but after 'judgement Day' thanks to Baron Knight I have had to use my old 'Hypno-Signal' tech to compensate…and that even barely works in our world's current environment."
"Right, I neutered your power back in the tower…you couldn't be the hypnotist metahuman working with them." Baron Knight then paused, and looked at Masterminds wife, and then back at Mastermind, "So…the other Mastermind like metahuman helping the Deathborne Siblings. It's your child? What did you do Mastermind? Hypnotize her with your tech into giving you a child?"
"He didn't hypnotise me" Delilah said
in her husband's defense, sitting down beside him on his chairs left arm.
"It's alright my love" Mastermind assured her, "He has every right to assume that. The last time we met, it was under different circumstances. I did a lot of terrible things as 'Mastermind'…"
"You once accepted a commission to make modified Walkman devices to hypnotize children to be rounded up by your client's men and sold as sex slaves for money to fund another one of your sadistic 'Judgement' games for Brightmoon cities populace." Baron Knight said sharply.
"Yes I did." Mastermind nodded in dismay, "And I tried my best to raise my son to be wiser with my power than I was, obviously I failed. The temptation to play with minds is too strong, and he always hated being told what to do and having no one do exactly what he told them to do. He ran away from home ten years ago, lied to us that he was going to Technoforce to help the people out like were were…we foolishly bought his lie and we haven't seen him since….We thought he had been killed by the marauders that roam the territory between towns and cities. Until about a few months ago that is when he showed up here to force us into giving our services to the Deathborne Siblings only. It's probably my punishment from god that my son Reginald turned out like this."
"That's all he ever does isn't it?" Baron Knight rolled his eyes, "So your son got your power AND an "I can do what I want because I say so and people do what I tell them" mindset once the power activated. Wonderful."
"He's in charge of the Deathborne Siblings rule, as a sort of co-ruler, the man behind the man and woman of Brightmoon City's new hierarchy" Delilah explained further, "we never should have let him go."
"What about the electricity, I assume he had something to do with its return in Brightmoon City" Baron Knight assumed.
"Indeed" Mastermind agreed, "I don't know how he did it. My little boy turned out to be quite the secretive little mastermind. I'd be proud of him if he wasn't using his powers and knowledge like how I used to."
"You know what?" Baron Knight said apathetically, "I really don't care about your family problems. I'm here to find the Sadistic Five…or should I say…the Sadistic Four."
"What do you mean?" Mastermind asked, surprised by the tone in Baron Knight's voice when he reduced the number of the band of metahuman killers that everyone in the city feared almost as much as the Deathborne Siblings.
"You're a smart man Mordechai; you'll figure it out" Baron Knight responded, dodging his old enemy's question "now their powers I already know about. What I want to know is WHERE….TO…FIND…THEM. Now tell me where to find them, or I'll finish what I started with that leg of yours back in the old world."
Baron Knight then drew his Shadow Gun, and Rachel and Delilah both grew fearful upon seeing the gun was now aiming at Mastermind's left leg…which was a stump, indicating that amputation had been performed on it a long time ago.
But Rachel soon realized that it wasn't amputation that had taken this old metahuman freaks leg.
* * *
Mastermind didn't even flinch, and narrowed his eyes as he looked at Baron Knight with curiosity…and a bit of concern.
"Somethings changed in you Knight….." Mastermind correctly deduced, "You've never been this angry before…you're angrier than you were during our last battle on "Judgement Day". You seem like a man who now has nothing but revenge left in his life to motivate him to continue to exist."
"Once again you're right on top of things Mastermind" Baron Knight scowled, "Now I'm going to count to three…"
"No need Baron Knight" Mastermind assured him, "You may not be in the same business you were before, but you're return and want for revenge for whatever you reason for it is just might be what the doctor ordered for this city. See that map of the city, bring it over here Delilah."
Delilah did as she was asked, and picked up a map of post-apocalyptic Brightmoon City and brought it over to where her husband, Baron Knight and Rachel Addison was standing.
"Now I know you have a photographic memory, so pay attention" Mastermind said as he picked up the piece of charcoaled wood he had been using to write earlier with and marked key areas on the map, "since I assume that you've already "met" Bone-Breaker, I'll show you where to find the rest of them…and How to find them as well. I've been studying them for a while, there is a resistance movement in the city if you can believe it, and they are trying to find a way to take back the city from the Deathborne Siblings. I've been helping them whatever way I can. We believe that if we can catch the Deathborne Siblings off guard we might have a chance. That is why I have been monitoring their robot battle-Mech and tank patrols, the areas where their soldier's patrol, places perfect to set traps and ambush's…"
"Spare me the "Star Wars" resistance crap" Baron Knight snapped, slamming his hand down upon the chair's right arm, "Where can I find them?"
"Well Silencer and Mourne are…shall we say…an "item set". They don't go anywhere without the other. One of their favorite local haunts is the park outside across the street. They like to go there to do some hunting, or to get crazy and do the Adam and Eve mambo." Mastermind explained, "So that's where you're best place to find them will be at this time of night. I'd be careful though, wolves from the old zoo have made a den for themselves in the center of the park. There is a reason why people who cut through that parkway avoid the zoo area and go in armed to the teeth…we…uh…sometimes use the wolves as food around here."
"Everyone uses the animal life as food" Baron Knight said annoyed, "Walmart went out with the power, people had to get off their assess and catch or grow their own food, and wolves don't frighten me…I frighten wolves."
"Okay, now Pyros and Mason are a different story" Mastermind continued, "Mason goes around collecting the various taxes that the Deathborne Siblings and our wayward son impose on the populace of what was once the Far Side Slums. That place still has some old relics and surprises from when it was the worst area of the city, the gangland fiefdom of Brightmoon. So I recommend you watch where you go, there are markers that the resistance uses to identify danger areas. If you see a red chalk line, avoid that area. One of the places he likes to pump for tax money is the old St. Adam's church located here. And Pyros, he owns the industrial district…and that is the one place we all are afraid of."
"Why is that?" Baron Knight asked.
"That is the site that the people who cross the Deathborne siblings or don't pay the taxes are sent…and never seen again. I've heard rumors from the resistance that that spot is the place where the Deathborne siblings do the execution of those people who get sent there. They use some kind of chemical pit to…" Mastermind was suddenly interrupted by Baron Knight abrupt turning around and walking away.
"Don't you want to hear the rest?" Mastermind asked, surprised at Baron Knights actions.
"No. You told me what I wanted to know" Baron Knight answered, but then he paused in his tracks and looked back at Mastermind cautiously, "But I can't help but question why you gave me this information so willingly…what's the catch?"
"In exchange for this information, I ask that if you run into my son, and chances are you will. Don't kill him, but bring him right back here so I can use this on him." Mastermind then held up a strange electronic looking device, "It's a neural inhibitor. I made it out of scraps I've found here and there from barters I've made with the city's people. They give me Junk to tinker with in exchange for my services instead of just pebbles since I'm the only one who knows how to make electronic junk worth something again. If I put this on my son's head, it will render his powers nullified. On second thought, take it with you. It might come in handy."
Mastermind then tossed the device across the room towards Baron Knight who caught it with just one hand.
"I make no promises" Baron Knight responded to this request given to him by his redeemed foe, "if you're son had a hand in the massacre of Lost Hallowing. He will share their fate!"
He then turned and began to leave, and Rachel against her will due to Baron Knight's post hypnotic hold on h
er followed after him when he beckoned her to follow.
But as she followed her slave driver down the hallway, she couldn't help but think about what she had been present to overhear back in that room.
This guy…what did "The Guru" call him?
Baron Knight?
Who was he that the freak back in the room knew him so well when he used to be a monster like the sadistic five or the Deathborne Siblings?
And why was he trying to find the Sadistic Five and what did it have to do with their massacre of Lost Hallowing?
And more importantly, why would a metahuman demon like him give a damn about all of that?
Baron Knight then stopped in his path in the middle of the hallway and then he shot out his hand towards the hallway's adjacent wall.
