by Kirk Twyman
“I think the champions . . . the true champions . . . of this planet have spoken, Frank,” he said. “You have no friends here, Watcher. Your time is over. It is our time now. You attack one of us, you attack all of us. So what will—”
Orra didn’t get to finish his sentence as a blast of alien blood burst from his chest. I wasn’t going to give him the chance to talk. I pulled the trigger, and in doing so fired the first shot of the war between Supers and humans. But as Orra fell to my feet, I had much bigger concerns on my mind.
I turned to the assembled Supers. They looked on in shock. The inhuman mob thought Orra was in control of the situation. They were wrong, and now their champion lay bleeding at my feet. But I knew the silence was just the calm before the storm. I looked them in the eye. I searched through the square jaws and bulging biceps until I found that asshole Supreme Strength. I looked him in the eye. He squirmed and started to back away, but Mucus Man was blocking his exit, so he was trapped.
“Come on then,” I said as the multitude of Supers fell upon me.
The Last Watcher vs.
The Enlightened
It was fitting that, as the last Watcher, I had just declared war on the Supers I spent my life studying. Now I would die at their hands. Of course, that wasn’t exactly Plan A.
The Enlightened swarmed over the fallen Orra as I backed away. They must have seen that I was starting to head towards the exit because of barrage of iridescent light hurtled towards me. I dodged the energy blast, which careened into the nearby wall, sending pieces of hard wood splintering into the night sky.
I may have been cornered but I was not helpless. I reached into my pocket and pulled out another Cyro-Capsule, tossing it into the mass of costumed Supers in front of me. Most of the Enlightened had the good sense to scatter when they saw the ice grenade coming.
Most but not all.
I saw two of the Supers – Sonic and Beamer – looking on like deer in the heads lights as the Cyro-Capsule shattered right at their feet. Their spandex-covered bodies now glistened with ice as they were frozen in place. I pulled out my power pistol and fired two rounds into the human ice sculptured, which exploded on impact.
Two Supers dead.
Two heroes dead.
By my hand.
I put the thoughts as far back into my mind as I could. These weren’t heroes any more. Not if they were siding with Orra. Not if they are standing with a tyrant who stood on the brink of world domination. Besides, there are dozens more of Enlightened to deal with. But I shouldn’t have been watching them.
I should have been watching Orra.
The alien conqueror had risen to his feet and loosed an energy blast squarely at me. While I was able to dodge the frantic barrage of angry Supers, I had little chance of getting out of the way of this massive beam. In an instant I was lifted off my feet and sent careening through the air. I collided with the second-floor window of the headquarters. I flew headlong into a conference room, with only a long wooden table to break my fall.
My head spun from the impact, as a warm coat of fresh blood layered down my face. I didn’t know how many ribs I had broken, and I didn’t want to think about the shape of my vertebrae after that impact. I heard a flutter of air as I looked to see Orra hovering just outside the Frank-shaped hole in the conference room windows. He grinned maliciously, ready to go in for the kill. But he didn’t realize I still had a few rounds in the chamber after I unloaded on the Sonic and Beam-sicles below. The moment he moved towards the conference room, I took aim with my power pistol, sending him tumbling out of the second story window.
It wasn’t shaping out to be a good day for Orra, and if I did my job right, it would be his last.
I hopped to the hole in the glass pane and stood before the remaining Enlightened. I could see Orra regaining his feet from the blast. The Enlightened looked on with awestruck wonder. I could hear them speaking among themselves.
“How is he still alive after that blast?”
“I’ve seen Orra melt tanks with those blasts,” another stated. “How’s this guy still walking around?”
“This is your last chance!” I yelled to the assembled Supers. “Walk away. Leave Orra to me and that will be the end of it. But if you come for me, you won’t be coming out of this base.”
I drew back into the shelter of the base. The chances the Enlightened would give up pursuit – especially after I popped two of their pals – was probably a thousand to one, but I had to try. My theatrics would sow doubt and dissension throughout their ranks.
After taking a couple random turns throughout the HQ, I finally stopped to catch my breath. I took inventory of my gear. I unbuttoned my shirt to ensure my body armor was still intact. My trusty trench coat was a special material that absorbed most forms of energy – including the kinetic energy of my fall. But taking a head-on blast from Orra had weakened its usefulness. Aside from the armor, I also had three more magazines for my power pistol and a handful of Cyro-Capsules. I was running low.
But they didn’t know that.
As far as they knew, I was the Devil himself come to collect. That was the one positive of Orra’s Watcher hate-speech. It had conferred me with a larger-than-life threat level that hung heavily in the Supers’ minds, despite the fact that they themselves were the largest lifeforms on the planet.
Heavy footsteps pounded down the hallway. I could hear Orra and the Enlightened coming. And though I couldn’t see them, I was pretty sure they weren’t waving a white flag.
Still, my little act had rattled them. I could hear them chattering among themselves, frightened and weary.
“The bastard knows everything about us and we barely know a thing about him!” One of the Supers said with fear tinging her voice. “Is he even human?”
“Trust me, he’s human,” Orra said. “He’s just a human with a bag of tricks up his sleeve. Take that bag away and he’ll break like the rest of them.”
I descended further into the base. Orra was right about me having a bag of tricks. But I also had their bag of tricks at my disposal as well, since I was in their base now. I scanned the doors of the base searching for supplies. I paid a visit to their medical bay where I stocked up on painkillers. I also grabbed a laser scalpel. Some of the Enlightened had steel-hard skin, which made operating on them a pain, hence the laser scalpel. It wasn’t very powerful, but it would do the job. I also stopped by their training depot and picked up some concussion grenades. They were used in training exercise and designed to do little more than pack a wallop during training. Even if they were just non-lethal, they could be helpful in distracting the Enlightened when I needed a few seconds.
I pressed myself against the door and listened for the Enlightened. They were traveling in a big group. I figured they would split up to cover more ground soon. And while they did split up, it wasn’t for the purpose I had hoped for.
“Find his kid. You know what to do next,” I heard Orra’s deep voice. My breath hung in my mouth as my heart started racing.
“Look, I’m all for ending the Watcher,” I heard a voice speak up. It was Solok, a sun-powered bank robber. “But families? That’s a line even we don’t cross.”
“Ahhh yes, the crook with an honor code, is it?” Orra said.
“You need me and my crew, Orra,” Solok shot back. “That means we do things our way.”
“Are you sure I can’t change your mind?” Orra said.
“Not unless—” Solok started, but I heard the tell-tale sound of Orra’s ray-beams followed by audible gasps from the Enlightened. The all-too-familiar smell of burnt flesh permeated down the hallway.
“I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to them,” Orra said as I heard a body hit the floor. “Find me the kids. All of them. We need leverage. And Frank has plenty he cares about.”
My heart was still racing, but I had to calm down. I couldn’t do anything to help Patricia, Frank or Kerry if I was dead. I had to survive first if I was going to be in any shape to help an
yone.
I backtracked a couple corridors. One advantage I had over Orra and most of the Enlightened was I knew this base like the back of my hand. Blaze consulted me when he built it. I knew every nook and cranny, and I received updates on every renovation and change to the original blueprints.
As Orra and his team marched on, I found Solok’s corpse where Orra had left him, with a smoldering crater where his chest should have been. His face was still tight smirk of defiance. How sad was that the only one who stood up to Orra was actually a Supervillain?
I checked Solok’s body for equipment. He didn’t have much I could use, given his innate solar powers, but he did carry two back-up fragmentation grenades. I grinned as the plan started to take shape within my mind.
“Frank!” Orra yelled. “I know you’ve been listening in this whole time. Give up now and I’ll only take an arm and a leg. Otherwise I’ll take two each . . . from your family. And that’s just for starters.”
“And you don’t even want to know what I’ll do to that ninja buddy of yours,” Orra added.
“Trust me, Orra,” I said loudly. “If you think I’m a handful, wait till you see my family.”
My voice was drawing in every one of the Enlightened – all fifteen of them by my guess. I knew they would be on me soon. Fortunately, I had used the opportunity to lay some traps for them. I just had to draw them in.
I made my way back to the conference room. I didn’t relish fighting the entire roster of the Enlightened. If there was one spot I could slip out undetected, it would be here. It was a long shot but I had to take it. Unfortunately, I returned to see the hole in the base was now frozen over. Which meant I was dealing with an Icer.
“He’s here!” a young woman screamed. I turned just in time to see a blue-haired young woman trying to put an ice spear through my chest. I managed to slide out of the way just in time then tossed a Cyro-Capsule at her feet. The Super known as Chilz brushed back her ocean-blue hair and laughed.
“Ice powers don’t work on ice powers, dumbass,” she jaunted.
“You sure about that?” I said as I stepped forward and pounded the icy ground with the heel of my shoe. It crackled and splintered in a jagged, lightning shaped trail that shattered at Chilz’s feet as she fell through the floor. Unfortunately, the conference room hung right over the garage, so there was no floor beneath her. After two stories, she hit the ground with a sickening thud.
“He’s here!” Another Super called. I headed to the floor, with my coat catching the blunt of another energy beam that left the coat tails shredded and scorched. I ran into the men’s bathroom, but not because I had business to take care of. Instead, it was all part of my plan.
I hid in the last stall on the left. I saw three Supers follow me in. Two were the Twins – two eerily identical blonde men with varying energy powers between them. On the other side of the mirrors walked Morpher, a orange-skinned shapeshifter. Twin One was searching the stalls for me.
“Fun fact,” he announced. “Did you know Blaze had these mirrors perfectly smoothed over to reflect energy?”
At the end of the mirrors, Twin One looked at his reflection and then let out a barrage of energy. Unfortunately, he wasn’t shooting at his reflection.
He was shooting at Twin Two.
He realized his error just as his other half careened into the adjacent stall, a smoking crater in his head. The Twins were always creepy, but they were never that bright.
“What have I done?” He agonized.
“Friendly fire,” I said, bursting out from the stalls to grab the back of his head. “Happens to the best of us.”
Without hesitation, I slammed Twin One’s forehead onto the porcelain sink below him. He fell to the ground with the once opal surface of the sink now coated in blood. I turned to face my next opponent, who was . . . me?
“Two can play at this game?” My own twin said with Morpher’s voice. His hands reached for me in a grapple. “Funny. Orra was really hoping you die by your own hand. Looks like I’m going to deliver.”
Shapeshifters. They always had a sick sense of humor. But Morpher’s fault was that he liked to gloat a lot.
“The only thing you’re going to deliver is the next stage of my plan,” I said as I jerked back long enough to deliver a kick to the stomach that sent him spiraling into the hallway . . . as me.
“Contact!” I heard the hero known as Sunbeam spout from down the hall.
“No, you idiots . . . it’s me!” Morpher-as-me yelled, but he was too late. Seconds later he was devoured by energy blasts. After a burst of light, his skeleton hit the ground. I watched with morbid curiosity as his bones continued to shift and contort even after all the flesh had been removed.
I exited the bathroom only to see Vigilantor spewing towards me, his power gloves engaged. I’d known this guy’s old man. He had a power suit complete with gloves that gave him one hell of a right hook. Unfortunately for him, he was still new at this. It didn’t take me too much effort to get him off-balance. A straight jab, a body shot then grabbing him and slamming him hard on the ground behind me, crashing into a Morpher’s remains, causing the sickening sound of bones crunching.
Sunbeam was a former military man with solar powers. He was a marksman with his solar beams, as I’d already seen him take out Morpher from a fair distance away. But even professionals made mistakes under the right circumstances. I lobbed a concussive grenade at him in mid-blast. It exploded. His instinctively tried to shield his face, but not before his solar beam had run its course. As a result, the solar beam landed right in his eyes as he howled in pain. I clobbered the now-blind Super in the head with my power pistol as he collapsed at my feet.
“This ends now!” Orra said as he charged through the wall to grab me. I removed the ice spear from my coat. As Orra approach I thrust it deep into his shoulder, breaking free of it as the alien being cursed in pain. Orra tumbled back with his entire arm now freezing solid. As he fell, I stood over him again, just giving him a menacing look. I kicked his arm with all my might, shattering it and the Ice Spear like fragile glass. Orra howled in pain. I wish I could have inflicted more damage, but I had nothing on my person – including the power pistol or the Ice Spear – that would be strong enough to permanently put Orra down.
There was only one person for the job, and that wasn’t me.
I had to focus on getting out of here. Orra was down for the count. That cleared out the biggest obstacle in me getting out of here, getting to Orion and saving my family.
It wasn’t.
I headed into the assembly hall, knowing there was a back alley exit few knew about. Before I had taken two feet, I was unceremoniously lifted off of the ground and into the hands of a giant. The Great Expanse, a size-changing hero, squeezed me in his grasp. He was easily thirty feet tall, having taken advantage of the HQ’s vast ceiling to grown to an enormous size. I felt my armor buckle and shatter under his grip, along with any remaining ribs.
“You’re just the appetizer, Watcher. The main course is the world,” he said as he lifted me towards his open jaw.
“Bon appetite, bitch,” I said as I lugged my remaining concussion grenades right into his mouth.
I heard Great Expanse swallow. Even from outside his behemoth body, I heard the grenades explode from within his stomach, and no amount of antacids would clear up that damage. The massive man swooned before his feet gave out from under him, and he fell – taking me with him.
I didn’t fall far, however, as I was soon grabbed by Avant. The tech Super flew around the room at breakneck speeds as my insides started to feel as twisted at Great Expanse’s. I saw the hero’s rocket pack blasting a trail of smoke through the assembly room. He just had to keep it up until I lost consciousness.
I had other ideas.
“You know rocket packs never caught on,” I told Avant as I grabbed the laser scalpel. “Because their flammable as fuck.”
I squeezed the scalpel, sending a tight red laser beam burning into the
rocket pack. A tiny roll of smoke lifted from the pack, followed by a tiny flame, before it exploded, launching flames and shrapnel directly into Avant’s back. He dropped me as he crashed into the ground, a flaming heap. For my part, I did my best to duck and roll, but my body was too wrecked and old to be anything resembling graceful.
I had rolled my left ankle in the impact. It now strained and burned with every step. But I was still moving. The exit was in my sight, but I only limped a few yards before Vigilantor tackled me.
“You bastard! You made me kill Psionic Flare!” He said, tears streaming down from his black mask. I remembered the sound of bones breaking when I sent Vigilantor tumbling into another hero. It must have been Psionic Flare – and she must not have been so lucky.
It was then that I realized he was young. He wasn’t much older than Patricia. With Blaze out of the way, there was no one to mentor this new generation of heroes.
No one except Orra of course.
“Kid, I didn’t make you do anything,” I said weakly. “You stood with a tyrant.”
I used the distraction to get in closer. As he threw a a jab, I grabbed his arm and was able to get enough momentum to hip toss Vigilantor over my shoulder. But Supers were a young man’s game, and Vigilantor had that in spades. He effortlessly ducked and rolled the moment I slung him over his shoulder, regaining his balance quicker than anyone I’d seen. He returned the favor by flowing into my gut with his power gloves. I staggered back, coughing up blood. By this point, my armor coat was reduced too damaged to absorb damage.
“I’m going to make you pay!” Vigilantor said. “I’m going to make you . . . die!”
“Gotta work on your banter, son,” I said.
“I’m not your son!” He yelled, preparing for another blow. He was angry, too angry to see me reaching into my pocket to remove my final Cyro-Capsule. I sent it crashing at his feet. He slid on the ice, and this time, he didn’t recover gracefully.
