by Matt Cowper
A yellow beam blindsided Waverush. He was sent to the end of the block, then rolled like a tumbleweed until he collided with a city bus.
I turned, and there was Big-Eyed Baldwin standing in the middle of the street, yellow energy streaming from his eyes.
“Baldwin?!” I said. “You’re in on this too?”
“Why so surprised?” he said. “Netmaster’s the boss. He pays me well. If some superhero junkie gets killed in the course of events, I ain’t gonna bawl.”
“I don’t believe it,” I said. More pieces clicked together in my mind. “You’re the mystery man, the Man in Black – aren’t you? You met with Gale Force. You gave Squirrel that bomb.”
“Yup, that’s right,” Baldwin said. “Netmaster needed someone to run his errands. I don’t mind doing that – long as I get paid.
“You’re just as corrupt as him,” I said. “Did you ever think about—”
“I’m a realist, Johnny,” he said. “What was I supposed to do, turn him in to the police and lose my lucrative position? Then what? A black man from Bootheel with no college degree ends up flipping burgers or mopping floors. No thanks.” His eyes pulsed. “Nothing personal, Johnny – I just gotta do what’s right for me.”
Felicia and I dove to the sidewalk as an eye-beam blasted the car I’d been standing on. It exploded, sending up a plume of black smoke and covering us in hot debris. Before I could recover, a hand was at my throat, and Netmaster lifted me up and dangled me in the air. I couldn’t do anything but cough and glare at his cracked blue visor.
“I’m going to choke you until you’re unconscious,” he said. “Just give in, and it’ll be over quickly.”
“Do not give in!” Dak roared. “We must persevere!”
“We’re out…of luck…big guy. Can’t…budge…him.”
“Let him go!” Felicia again went on the assault, but her flurry didn’t cause Netmaster to move a single finger from my throat.
“Still fighting, even though your cause is hopeless,” he said. “You’re a true superhero.” He clenched his free hand. “Unfortunately for you, I’ve developed a program that analyzes fighting styles. I’ve been tracking your moves since this brawl began. I know that, after you land this next kick” – Felicia’s foot glanced off his arm – “you’ll be here.”
He spun his arm to his side, catching Felicia in her arm. She screamed, and her arm twisted at an unnatural angle. She collapsed, holding it and groaning through clenched teeth; I saw bone protruding from her elbow.
I tried to yell something out, but since Netmaster was still crushing my gullet, it came out as a gurgle. But although I couldn’t speak, rage was swelling within me. I felt a white-hot surge of power flow through my God Arm.
“Baldwin?” Netmaster said. “Knock her out, please.”
Baldwin, who had been walking towards us, stopped about five feet from Felicia. “Sorry, darling. Again, it ain’t personal.”
I grabbed Netmaster’s hand and tried to extricate myself one last time, but then the sound of a gunshot ripped through the air. Skull fragments and brains splattered onto my jacket and Netmaster’s armor. Baldwin twirled around, like he was drunk, and looked at us. The yellow energy dissipated from his eyes. He fell in a heap, and didn’t move again.
“Baldwin!” Netmaster screamed. He dropped me and picked up his fallen friend. I scrambled away from him, trying to get air into my depleted lungs. “He’s dead. Who…who did this?”
“Me, of course.” Deathrain stood by a burst fire hydrant, one of her pistols smoking. “Forgot about me, didn’t you?”
“You…you bitch,” Netmaster said.
“You aren’t just fighting good guys,” Deathrain said. “You’re also fighting an assassin. And assassins, you may have heard, don’t mind killing people.”
Netmaster placed Baldwin’s body gently onto the pavement and closed his eyes with a large metal finger. He stood up and faced Deathrain.
“Gonna cry, little baby?” Deathrain said. “If you do, how about removing that visor, so I can see your pathetic tears?”
“No, I’m not gonna cry,” Netmaster said. “Baldwin was a friend, but I’ve already lost more than one friend today.” He raised his arm and a long, razor-sharp blade extended from the back of his hand. “I was trying not to use lethal force, but you’ve upped the ante. I’m gonna slice the flesh from your body until you’re nothing but a skeleton. I’d like to see you heal from that.”
“Gotta catch me first,” Deathrain said, twirling her pistol. “I’m not as quick as the cat – though it pains me to admit it – but I’m still pretty slippery.”
“I’ve already caught you,” he said. “I’m the one who hired you to kill Captain Neptune – or did you forget that in this fracas?”
“No, it’s fresh on my mind,” she said. “What’s your point?”
“I sent a drone down there to watch the assassination,” Netmaster said. “Wanted to make sure the job got done right. Of course, you failed – too bad. I got some good footage of the fight, though.”
A blue sphere extended from the center of his chest and displayed a hologram in the air in front of him. The scene was unmistakable: the jungle, Captain Neptune frothing at the mouth and hurling trees around like they were toothpicks, Deathrain emptying every weapon she had into him.
“No….” Deathrain whispered.
“You act tough,” Netmaster said, “but you’re still traumatized from that encounter, aren’t you? That’s why you came here to Z City: to try and put those demons to rest.” He pointed at the hologram. “Put them to rest, then. Beat me, if that makes you feel better.”
In the hologram, Neptune slammed Deathrain into the dark earth and started raining down bone-shattering punches onto her.
“I…I….” Deathrain said.
Neptune ripped off her shirt, then threw her into a giant tree.
“Stop it!” The present-day Deathrain fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands. Even though she was wearing a mask, I could hear her sobs.
Netmaster turned off the hologram and walked over to her. “Just like I thought. You can heal physical wounds, but you can’t mentally heal from that sordid little episode. You know why? Because it’s your fault he did that to you. You underestimated him, and you paid the price.” He looked at the long, sharp blade on his arm. “Maybe if you sought out professional help, you wouldn’t be the wreck you are. But that’s not how you operate – is it, oh master assassin?”
The blade ripped through her stomach, coming out her back covered in blood and guts. Deathrain didn’t scream; she just kept sobbing. Netmaster lifted her up and watched her for a few moments. Blood ran out of her as if from a faucet and pooled beneath her on the concrete.
“Deathrain!” I yelled. The ante had been upped, as Netmaster said. If I didn’t stop him, he really would kill her – and then he’d kill Felicia, who was still holding her mutilated arm, and then he’d kill me. I forgot about all my injuries; rage was now burning within me like a wildfire.
“This. Will. Not. Stand.” Dak’s voice came out as powerful and threatening as I’d ever heard it; Netmaster even started, and nearly dropped Deathrain.
“The irrelevant god speaks,” he said. “What’s next, Dak? Do you have some super-amazing destruction to hurl at me?”
“My chaotic lady will not suffer any longer!” Dak’s voice seemed to be almost tangible. “Your demise is nigh, traitor!”
“John Wagner,” he thought-spoke. “It is time for a fireball.”
“What? Are you sure? The last time you tried that….”
“I have never been more sure,” he rumbled. “Do you not feel it? Our rage is of one part. Nothing can stand against us.”
I did feel more powerful – more powerful than I’d even been when I punched Netmaster in the back. I was synchronized with Dak – perhaps for the first time. I looked down at my God Arm. It was black, with orange and red lines running through it, like igneous rock above a teeming lava flow.
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“Let us destroy,” I said.
Dak laughed in response – a deep laugh filled with the joy of battle and the rush of incredible power.
I raised my God Hand, and a fireball, orange and red with blue at its center, roared into Netmaster. The air shimmered from the heat, and sweat dripped into my eyes.
I thought I heard Netmaster laugh, but in a few moments he retracted the blade, dropped Deathrain to the ground, and turned fully towards me.
“That’s pretty hot,” he yelled, “but this armor can withstand the hottest temperatures on earth. I could dive into the earth’s core and come out unscathed.”
“Is that so?” Dak rumbled. “Can it resist temperatures not of this earth? Can it resist a fire as hot as the center of the sun?”
The fireball got thicker, brighter, and hotter. Sweat was running off me, and I could feel my skin roasting – but I didn’t stop. I gritted my teeth, and kept pouring it on.
“You…what is this?!” Netmaster yelled. “Divert power to shields!”
A translucent shield appeared around him for a half-second, then it was engulfed. I could see the front of his armor melting. He held up his arms to try and protect his visor from the flame, but that only made them melt faster.
“Johnny, stop this!” Netmaster said. “You’re cooking me alive!”
“You want mercy now, after what you’ve done to us?!” I shouted. “After what you’ve done to Homer Bollinger?! To Julia Anderson?! To little Molly?!”
“There will be no mercy!” Dak rumbled. “You will be incinerated, Master of Net, and your ashes will scatter in the wind!”
“Johnny!” Netmaster said. “Please! My armor is compromised…oh, god, it hurts!” He let out a shriek that was barely human. “My skin is melting! Johnny! Please!”
It would be so easy to keep going, to reduce him to ashes, as Dak gloated. But I let out a breath, and the fireball diminished slightly.
“I don’t want to kill him, Dak,” I thought-spoke, “even now.”
“What?! Do my ephemeral ears hear rightly?”
“We’ve caused him enough pain. He’s going to MegaMax, where he won’t be able to access the Net. That will torture him more than anything we could do to him.”
The sound of pebbles rolling down a rocky hill as Dak considered. “Very well. We have proven our might. We will let the Master of Net keep his life, but only so that he can suffer more.”
I closed my God Hand, and the fireball was extinguished. The air felt practically frigid after the heat I’d just summoned. I sucked in a few breaths and examined my exposed skin; it felt like I’d given myself one nasty sunburn, and some hair and part of my eyebrows had burned off.
I walked over to my fallen adversary. His armor no longer looked sleek and imposing; it looked like a can that had been dropped into a campfire. Smoke drifted up from it, and some parts still glowed yellow and orange.
“Johnny,” Netmaster whispered. His visor was gone, and the face that looked up at me was covered in burns and soot. “Get me outta here.”
I brought my foot down onto his head, knocking him unconscious. His armor beeped weakly, then fell silent.
“Victory is ours!” Dak rumbled. “This feat will not be forgotten, though millennia may pass and worlds may crumble and reform!”
“Yeah, we’ve won,” I muttered, “but at what cost?”
Felicia was on her feet and moving towards me. I jogged over to her, wanting to hug her, but I held back – I didn’t want to hurt her arm. Instead I stepped beside her and wrapped my arm around her waist. She glanced down at my arm, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m sure an ambulance is on the way,” I said. “Just hang in there.”
Her whiskers twitched. “It’s not a mortal wound, Johnny. I’m in a lot of pain, but I’ll be fine.”
“I’m…I’m glad you’re OK.”
She smiled, and her tail tickled my cheek. “That’s…sweet. Are you OK? You look like you spent a day in a tanning bed.”
“Yeah, I’m cooked and dog-tired,” I said, “but I’ll live.”
“Good,” she said. She looked at my God Arm. “I didn’t think you could beat him on your own. That fireball…how did you do that?”
“I just…got really pissed off, I guess.”
“Was it not glorious?” Dak rumbled. “The pits of Hades do not spew greater heat. I know, because I visited that infernal place, centuries ago.”
“You’re not that old,” I said. “You were only created twenty-some years ago, when E.L.X. Slade started writing.”
“Do not try to tell me my birthdate, John Wagner,” Dak said. “I was razing medieval villages when you were still excreting in the absorbent garments you humans call diapers.”
Felicia grabbed my chin and twisted my head towards her. Her green cat-eyes locked onto mine. Dak’s delusional ramblings seemed light years away.
“You did good, Johnny,” she whispered.
Were we going to kiss, right here, right now? Did I want to kiss her? What about Deathrain?
I must have wanted to kiss her, and I must not have cared what Deathrain thought, because my lips were moving towards hers.
And the air rushed around us; it felt like a hurricane had suddenly formed. I readied my God Arm, thinking Netmaster had awoken and still had some fight left in him.
But the wind hadn’t been caused by Netmaster. It had been caused by the spandex-clad, goggled man standing in front of us in the Hero Pose: Light Racer.
“Are you in need of medical assistance, citizens?” he asked.
“Oh, now you show up,” I growled.
Light Racer looked at me; I could see something being displayed on his goggles. “John Cassius Wagner. I remember you from a few days ago. I logged the encounter.” He glanced around at the carnage. “It would seem trouble follows you, Mr. Wagner.”
“Must be why you keep showing up,” I said.
He wrinkled his nose, but turned his attention to Felicia instead of throwing out a rebuttal. “Miss, I now see you have suffered a serious arm injury. Allow me to carry you to the hospital. The nearest one is only ten blocks away. I can be there in 0.74 seconds.”
“No, we need to take care of things here first,” she replied. “I want to make sure Netmaster is taken into custody, and then there’s Deathrain and Waverush to—”
“Miss, I am an Elite,” Light Racer said, “and I can handle those details myself. You just focus on getting that arm taken care of.”
“I may not be an Elite,” she snarled, “but I am a superhero. I’m the Felicitous…er…the Fractious Feline. I’m registered in every superhuman database.”
Light Racer scrutinized his goggle display for a few moments. “Yes, I see you are.” He gave her the Hero Nod. “I’d like to thank you for stopping whoever this armored villain is. Although, I must say the property damage is excessive.”
“Why don’t you start cleaning up, then, and we’ll handle the rest?” she said firmly. Her tail snapped out like a whip, nearly hitting Light Racer in the chin.
The Elite again wrinkled his nose, but he didn’t protest. He disappeared, and air rushed around us. Rubble was moved into a pile in the center of the street, the broken fire hydrant was plugged, and glass was swept up. I couldn’t follow him as he worked; I could only see his afterimages.
“You told him,” I said.
“Superheroes can be irritating sometimes,” she said, “especially the top-tier ones.”
“Some of the lower-tier ones are just as exasperating,” I replied. “For example, there’s this one girl I know….”
“Oh, shut up,” she said. She slapped me with her tail, but she was grinning.
“John Wagner, there is far too much touching and moisty-eyed looks,” Dak rumbled, “and not enough bellowing. Let me emblazon our conquest in the sky in bold, black letters.”
“No, we’ve done enough,” I said. “You should be satiated for days, Dak. I don’t want to hear you complaining in a few hours that
you need to destroy, not after this.”
We walked over to Netmaster, who hadn’t stirred since I kicked him. I bent down to make sure he was still out of it.
“So this was all because of drugs?” Felicia said. “That’s…sad. All that talent, that intelligence…remember when we were in Alpha Guard, all the stuff Netmaster used to make for us? He could’ve done anything he wanted.”
“Just like Captain Neptune,” I said. “You know what they say about power corrupting.”
“Yeah, I do,” she said, “and that saying also applies to men with God Arms.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Are you going to lecture me now, of all times?”
“No, I’m not,” she said. “Just giving you a little reminder.” She looked around. “Where did Deathrain and Waverush go?”
I looked around too. Neither of them were in sight. I scanned the rooftops on both sides of the street, but there was nothing up there but birds.
“They’re both gone,” I said.
“This is a white mark on an otherwise tremendous occasion,” Dak rumbled. “We must begin searching for Rain of Death forthwith. I can no longer sense her, and that troubles me.”
“Dak, she was willing to shoot Befouler while I was still in the Net,” I said. “I would’ve died, and then who knows what would’ve happened to you? Do you really think she should be a part of our life?”
“I do. I burn for her.”
“Really? Then why did you call her Rain of Death just now, instead of Deathrain?”
“It…it was a slip of the god-tongue, nothing more.”
“No, you have doubts about her,” I said. “I can feel them.” I wrapped my arm around Felicia’s waist again. “We need to stick around, make sure Netmaster gets carted off to jail, and then we’ve gotta get Felicia to a hospital. That is, unless you want Light Racer to carry you there.”
She smirked. “Nah, I’ll hitch a ride in an ambulance – and I’d like it if you came along, too.”
“Sure,” I said, giving her a little squeeze. She brushed my lips with her tail in return.
We stood there, watching Light Racer’s afterimages, as cops, firemen, and paramedics started swarming onto the scene.
