Strike 3: The Returning Sunrise

by Charlie Wood

  Tobin stared at the ceiling, listening to his mother walk down the stairs.

  What would she think? he thought to himself. What would she think, if she knew who really created the dome? Would she ever talk to him again? Would anyone ever talk to him again?

  ***

  After yet another useless night of trying to sleep, Tobin used his portal pistol to transport himself out of his bedroom and into the Museum of the Heroes. After walking through the museum’s quiet main exhibit area, he took the elevator down to the holding area, where he knew he could find the museum’s lone prisoner.

  At the very end of the holding area, in the last cell on the left, Jonathan Ashmore, the pale man in the purple suit, was laying on his bed with his arms behind his head, staring out the tiny window across from him. Hearing the door to the holding area open, he sat up and looked down the hall.

  “Well, look who it is. What the hell are you doing out here so late?”

  Tobin pulled up a metal chair and sat down next to the cell. “I need to talk to you. I need you to tell me everything you know about that night.”

  Jonathan snickered. “Again? How many times are we gonna go over this?”

  “I just need to know more. I need to understand. What happened, and what you did. And why Vincent wanted you to do it.”

  “You wanna know about the night I activated your powers?”

  “Yes.”

  Jonathan sighed. “We’ve already gone over this so many times, kid, I don’t know what else I can say other than what I—”

  “Just start talking.”

  Jonathan shook his head. “Okay. Pushy little bugger, aren’t you. All right.” He thought a moment. “About a year ago, Vincent came to me and asked me if I would help him with his plan—his plan to invade Earth. I said sure, what the hell, why not. What did I care about your stupid little world anyway? Plus, I knew Vincent could help me. I knew he’d give me just about anything I wanted, if I helped him. I knew he was capable of providing me with what I needed.”

  “Which was help for your mom.”

  “Yes. Because she was sick. With the same disease I have. And if helping him take over a world I knew nothing about meant saving her? I didn’t care. All I knew was that it was gonna help my mom. I didn’t care what it was gonna do to a bunch of alien beings I was never gonna meet in my life.”

  Jonathan stared at the ceiling, thinking.

  “So, I agreed to help him. I cooked up that scheme, where I kidnapped that woman in the bookstore in your hometown. And by doing that—by putting an innocent life in danger in a situation where you believed you were the only one who could help her—I knew it would activate your powers.”

  “Which is what Vincent wanted all along.”

  “Yes. Your powers were in you, always. It just took a little push to get them out. If it wasn’t for Vincent, they probably never woulda developed. They almost definitely wouldn’t have. But Vincent made sure they did.”

  “And his plan was to then train me to become the Daybreaker.”

  “Yes. The only reason you have your powers is because Vincent wanted you to have them. After your powers were activated that night, I was supposed to bring you to Vincent. But that didn’t happen, because you beat the crap out of me and broke my back and almost killed me.”

  Tobin smirked. “Well, you deserved it.”

  Jonathan chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, I know I did, believe me. But I didn’t care, as long as it was gonna help my mom.”

  Tobin stared at the floor, running over everything Jonathan had told him.

  “I want you to know, Tobin,” Jonathan said, “no matter if you’re gonna believe me or not, but I know I never shoulda gotten involved in this. I know that. I didn’t even really know what I was doing. But I should have known better. I should have known that son of a bremshaw Vincent wasn’t gonna help me. And then I got my sister involved, and put her in danger, and now the whole universe has gone to hell, and it’s basically all my fault.”

  Tobin looked up at Jonathan. The pale man looked sick to his stomach.

  “And now look at me,” Jonathan said. “I’m pouring my damn heart out to one of the people that put me in here.”

  Tobin laughed. “You’re lucky you have information I need, or no one would be talking to you at all.”

  Jonathan nodded. “Just know, Tobin, that this isn’t the type of thing that I do. I do bad stuff, but...not this bad.”

  Tobin stood up and walked down the hall. But before he reached the exit, he turned around.

  “If you had been able to take me to Vincent that night,” Tobin asked, “after you activated my powers, if things had gone the way Vincent wanted them to, what would have happened next? What’s happening in Boston now? Was that always the plan?”

  “Pretty much,” Jonathan said. “You were gonna be his number one weapon, Tobin. You were gonna be the tool that scared everyone and allowed him to do everything he always wanted. You were gonna be the tool that allowed him to take over the Earth. Now, it’s actually happening, and who knows what the hell is going on in that skyscraper.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Welcome, everyone, to the first meeting of the New Capricious Council.”

  The red-giant Rigel stood at the front of the conference room on the top floor of the Trident skyscraper and looked out at the gathering of people sitting at the long mahogany table in the center of the room. Along with Rigel’s grey-masked partner Nova, there were five other super-villains (and one former superhero) waiting to listen to Rigel’s presentation.

  “Vincent came to you all many years ago—for some of you around this table, it was decades ago—and he told you of his vision. Of what the universe should be, of what Capricious could be, and how we could make our world better. And though he is now gone, today we have fulfilled that vision. Today, we have fulfilled Vincent’s dream. The city of Boston, Massachusetts is gone, and it has been replaced with what we know life should be.”

  The super-villains around the table applauded.

  “But,” Rigel continued, “we are not here to talk about the past. We are not here to talk about what we have accomplished. We are here to talk about the future.”

  Reaching forward, Rigel pressed a button on a small, circular device resting on the table in front of him. With a soft hum, the device projected a holographic map of the United States, which floated in the air and took up nearly the entire table. The giant map was made out of colorful light, and split into seven sections.

  “Our new world does not end in the city of Boston. No, the capital of Harrison is only the beginning of New Capricious. In only a few short weeks, the Dark Nebula around us will spread across the country, and the rest of our plan will be set in motion.”

  Rigel’s partner Nova stood up and pressed a button on a remote control in his gloved hand; the map hovering above the table suddenly changed—the image zoomed in on the northeast section of the United States.

  “The northeast will remain under the control of Rigel,” Nova began. “Harrison will be the capital of our new nation, with Rigel and the Daybreaker’s headquarters being here in this building. Rigel will rule over everything from Washington, D.C. and above, and I will rule over everything south of that, from Virginia down to the south coast of Florida.”

  Nova clicked the button on his remote again, and the map now zoomed in on the central part of the United States. It was split into three sections.

  “The middle of the landmass will be governed this way. Zaius Moldron, you will be in charge of this area, from Michigan to the western border of South Dakota.”

  Zaius Moldron—a nicely dressed man with the face of a chimpanzee, a body covered in blue-ish grey fur, and tiny glasses resting on his nose—nodded towards Nova, with his hands and their long fingernails folded on the table in front of him.

  Nova moved on to the next section of the map. “Ember and his team will be in charge of this area in the central section, while the south, from Oklahoma and Tennes
see down to Texas, will be the land of Songbird and her children.”

  The villains turned to the only female member of the group: a hypnotizingly beautiful, white-haired woman with cream-colored skin. She was twenty-eight years old and wearing a flowing, floor-length dress made out of glittering scales that reflected the light in all shades of the rainbow, like a prism. Surrounding her, floating around her neck and shoulders like wisps of fog, were several ghostly creatures with black eyes, crow-like beaks, and bodies that faded away like spirits as they glided through the air. The three-foot-long demons never left Songbird’s side (except when they needed to attack her enemies) and they were nearly always speaking to her in a hushed, bizarre language, as they circled her white hair and drifted in and out of her body.

  “In the west, there will be two sections,” Nova said. “The first will be governed by Greylock and will be—”

  At the end of the table, Greylock—a forty-ish man with a brown goatee and a glowing red eye—laughed and shook his head. The upper left of his face was completely made out of shining metal, as was his left hand, though it showed much more wear-and-tear and battle scars than his face.

  “This is all well and good,” Greylock said, stubbing out a cigar in an ash tray in front of him, “and I’m sure next you’re gonna tell us who is gonna be ruling over the west coast and then from there the rest of the world, but...where is he?”

  “Who?” Rigel asked.

  “The Daybreaker,” Greylock replied. “The one we’ve all come here to see.”

  “Yes,” Songbird said, in her wistful, melodic voice. “We’ve all been promised, since the days of Vincent, that we would one day meet the one who is going to lead us. But, unless I’m incorrect, I don’t think anyone here has even laid eyes on him.”

  “I haven’t,” Zaius Moldron said.

  “And I know I haven’t,” Ember agreed, with his fiery skin glowing like his namesake.

  “You will all meet him very soon,” Rigel said. “You must understand that he is very busy. He has a lot of planning and rules to delegate to Nova and I, and we are always listening to him—”

  “He’s very busy doing what?” Greylock asked. “You barely even mentioned him during your little presentation here. You said his headquarters will be here in this building, and then you went on to say that Rigel’s ruling the northeast, and Nova’s ruling the southeast. What is the Daybreaker ruling over?”

  “He is ruling over everything,” Rigel said, growing angry. “All of it. That is how it was always meant to be. While I may have my section of the new world, and you may have yours, it is all ruled over by him. We are all ruled over by him. I did not think I needed to mention that.”

  Zaius Moldron spoke carefully. “We all understand that, Rigel, we do. And we are all very excited—excited isn’t even the word—to see what is coming next. I know I speak for everyone when I say we are all honored to have been chosen by him to be one of the leaders of the new world. But...we would like to see him.”

  “We should see the one who is leading us,” Songbird agreed. “The one who is saving the universe. We would be grateful to hear his plan in his own words.”

  “You will, very soon,” Nova said, stepping to the center of the table. “It is just going to take a little more time before he is ready to see you. He has told us he will address you all when he is ready, and when the next phases of our plan are ready to be put into motion.”

  “Is he here?” Greylock asked. “Is he here in this building now?”

  “Yes,” Rigel said. “He is always here, always planning, always thinking about what is best for New Capricious. When we are finally able to share his vision with you—when he is ready to share it with you—the scope of his plan will be made known to you. It is a truly stunning re-creation of our home world.”

  “Okay,” Zaius said, holding up his palms. “As long as we will be able to meet him soon, I think we can all agree and keep waiting. You just must understand we are very eager to see him for ourselves.”

  “I understand that,” Rigel said. “But know that everything will happen in time. The Daybreaker has told me that he has a plan for everyone, and that includes when he will meet with you in person. Now, if there are no more questions, we will continue on with—”

  “I have a question,” Greylock said, puffing on a new cigar. “Who the hell is this guy?”

  Greylock pointed to the person sitting next to him; it was a short, normal-looking man in his early forties, with a bald head, rectangular glasses, and ears that stuck out from his face. He was wearing a sharp dark suit and light blue tie, but appeared nervous—sweating and not moving in his chair.

  “I don’t remember ever seeing him in any of the information sent to us,” Greylock said.

  “Yes,” Songbird added. “My children tell me he is not of our world.”

  “He’s not? Then what world is he from?”

  “He is from Earth.”

  Greylock spun toward Rigel. “Excuse me?”

  “This is Daniel Melfi,” Rigel explained. “He is the current governor of the area of Earth known as Rhode Island.”

  “Then what the hell is he doing here?” Greylock asked. “Why do we have a guy from Earth here with us, listening to all of this?”

  “Daniel is one of the current leaders of the United States,” Rigel said. “He is also now the only being behind the walls of the Dark Nebula who is not from Capricious. Daniel has come to us and offered to help us make the transition from the old ruling government of the United States to our new ruling government.”

  “And we need an Earthling to do that?” Zaius asked. “We need someone who is not one of us behind these walls?”

  “Yes,” Nova replied. “As Vincent always wanted, this transition from the old world to the new world must be as peaceful and as without bloodshed as possible. The people of this world are going to be afraid of us. They already are afraid of us, because of the Dark Nebula around Boston. We need to show them we are not here to eliminate them—not the majority of them, anyway. The people here need to accept us as their new rulers. And Daniel is going to help us with that.”

  “Daniel, why don’t you stand up and say a few words?” Rigel said, motioning to Daniel.

  Daniel stood up, clearing his throat. Beads of sweat grew on his forehead.

  “Well, first of all, let me start by saying how honored I am to be allowed to be a part of this. And I understand the hesitancy from some of you about me being here, but let me assure you that I am one of you, even if I am not from your world. I believe in the same things as all of you. This world—my world, Earth—is broken. And it needs to be fixed. That’s why I became a politician, to help fix my world.”

  Greylock smirked. “You’ve done a hell of a job. How many wars are going on in the world right now? I kinda lost count.”

  The group of villains laughed.

  “I know, you’re right,” Daniel said, holding his hands up. “You’re exactly right. My colleagues and I have failed spectacularly. That is why I went through the trouble of contacting Rigel and Nova. That is why I want to be a part of this. There needs to be a contact between the people who run this country now in Washington, and the New Capricious Council. And I am thrilled—I am humbled beyond belief—to be that person. As I said, I completely understand anyone being uncomfortable with me being from Earth and being the current governor of Rhode Island, so if anyone has any questions—any questions at all—I would be more than happy to answer each and every one of them after this meeting.”

  Still sweating, Daniel nodded to Rigel, and then sat down.

  “Thank you, Daniel,” Rigel said. “Governor Melfi is going to be an integral part of this leadership team—this transition team—and to have him available to deliver our message to his colleagues in Washington is going to result in us having to eliminate only who we need to, as Vincent always envisioned. Now, with your questions answered, we will continue on with what the Daybreaker has allowed us to tell you at this time.”


  ***

  After the meeting, Nova walked with Rigel down the hall, away from the conference room.

  “They are growing impatient, Rigel.”

  “I know. But he is not ready.”

  “I don’t know how much longer we are going to be able to tell the council that. We promised them they would be able—”

  Rigel stopped and turned to Nova.

  “I don’t care what they were promised. He is not ready. He has told me—he has told the both of us—that he is not ready to meet them yet. They will meet him when he is ready.”

  Nova stepped toward Rigel, speaking in an angry whisper. “You know why he isn’t ready to meet them yet. Why are you talking to me like I’m one of them, like I’m one of the ones who doesn’t know? He’s not ready to meet them yet because he is still so confused. So uncontrollable, so volatile. And rumors within the council are starting to spread.”

  “What kind of rumors?”

  “Rumors that he’s not under our control—that he’s making decisions rashly, and that we are following him blindly. Or that he’s not making decisions at all, and we are the ones doing all the ruling. And you know why those rumors are spreading—because they are true. If the council knew what was happening, if they knew what you were truly doing with the Daybreaker, who knows what would happen. I told you we rushed him into the process too early, and now we—”

  “Um, excuse me?”

  Rigel and Nova turned to see Governor Melfi standing in front of them.

  “Hi, Rigel, hi, Nova,” he said, the fear evident in his voice. “Hello. I just thought I would ask you a few questions. If you have time.”

  Rigel stared at him. “Go.”

  “I was just thinking—I want to say again how honored I am that you’ve let me be a part of this, and I’m so excited for what’s next. But…I couldn’t help but notice some impatience in there.”