Secret Origins

by James Riley

  Mr. Black jumped forward, grabbing Nobody’s featureless shoulders and staring him in his nonface. “You can’t harm this girl. I won’t let you!”

  Nobody pushed Mr. Black off of him, throwing the writer back into the wall hard enough to crumple him to the floor. “First of all, I believe we’re past the point where you control what I do,” Nobody said, sounding calm, though Owen realized it’d be hard to tell otherwise, given that he didn’t have a face. “Second, I have no intention of harming Bethany. She has a great power, and therefore someone needs to take responsibility for it. That someone shall be me.” He shook his featureless head. “Unfortunately, her father has been indulging her, traveling with her into various books. I cannot allow that to continue, so I will have to remove him from the situation.”

  Mr. Black just stared at Nobody from the floor, breathing slowly. “You’re a monster.”

  Nobody clenched what would have been his fists for a moment, then released them. “Am I?” he asked. “You certainly created me to be one. But I’ve rewritten myself, Mason. I’ve become far more than you ever intended. Now I make my own decisions, and I can become whoever I wish. And I wish to be good. I will be the hero that my world needs. And I will protect it against people like you.”

  “Do not hurt him,” Mr. Black said. “Please! He’s done nothing wrong.”

  “He’s a symptom of everything that’s wrong!” Nobody shouted, and banged his fist down on the table, which exploded into pieces. “The fictional and nonfictional should not meet. They are meant to be separate, completely ignorant of the other. And yet, your world controls mine. And now a man from my world has linked the two worlds even more closely through his daughter. Don’t you see? My world must be free!”

  “You can’t just separate them,” Mr. Black said. “How would you even start?”

  Nobody bent down, moving so close that Mr. Black turned his head away. “I think I understand how it’s working,” Nobody said quietly. “These portals result from rips between the worlds. I’ve closed many in these past five years: the mirror and rabbit holes leading to Wonderland, the wardrobe to Narnia. And others have been closed by wise fictionals like the Witch of the East in Oz. But I must know how to write like you before I can find the rest of these portals and close them. And above all, I must ensure that Twilight’s daughter does not create further rifts due to her very existence. She must not continue her journeys into the fictional world.”

  “You said she’s one of these portals,” Black said. “So what, eventually you’re going to close her too?”

  Nobody didn’t respond, and instead turned away. “This is your final chance, Mason. Teach me how you write, that I might save both of our worlds.”

  Black took a deep breath and slowly pushed himself to his feet. “No,” he said.

  Owen swallowed hard and reached out to turn the page.

  Then he felt a tap on his shoulder.

  “Reading anything good?” asked Nobody.

  CHAPTER 38

  The supervillains drew in closer, surrounding Bethany, Charm, Gwen, and the banana, as well as the still unconscious Kid Twilight.

  “If you go after him, he’ll find out where we are,” said a large man with the head of a baby, aiming what looked like a bottle filled with formula at them. “And Babyface ain’t taking that kind of chance.” He began to sniffle, then started sucking on a pacifier while giving them threatening looks.

  “This city just irritates me on so many levels,” Charm said, aiming her ray guns at him in response. “Are you going to sleep gas them all or what?”

  Bethany backed away from the villains, ready to do just that . . . but then she had a crazy thought, one that she couldn’t even be sure was hers. It was insane and wouldn’t ever work, but she’d just come up with a plan on how to take down the Dark. Had it come from Owen? He’d been the one after her to think things through for the last few months. Or was her nonfictional side just tired of her being risky? Either way, she now had a plan, and knew exactly what they needed to do.

  “Gwen?” she said. “You know that superpower of yours we talked about on the way here? I need you to use it on them. We’re going to need the villains.”

  Gwen’s entire face brightened, and she saluted. Bethany saluted back, grinning in spite of the situation as Gwen moved to stand in front of the others.

  “Hello!” she said, beaming.

  The supervillains all stopped advancing, many of them looking a bit surprised by this approach. “. . . Hi?” one said from the back.

  “My name is EarthGirl,” Gwen said. “Where I come from, I call myself a detective, because I like to help people and solve crimes.”

  “She sounds like a hero. Get her!” a giant panda with evil eyebrows shouted.

  “Sleeping gas,” Charm said in a singsong voice, but Bethany shook her head.

  “At home, I have superpowers,” Gwen said. “But here, I can only fly because of this jet pack.” She turned it on and rose a few feet into the air, then dropped back to the ground.

  “Lame!” shouted a villain who looked like a troll from fairy tales. “Laaaaaa—”

  Charm shot the troll in the chest, and he immediately crumpled to the ground. “He’s only stunned,” she yelled over the angry shouts of the assembled supervillains. “But the next one who interrupts her or insults my tech gets a full-strength blast.”

  “Thanks, Charm,” Gwen said, flashing her a smile before turning back to the villains. “I know you’re all scared of the Dark. I get it. I am too. His shadows turn you into something you’re not, and you lose control over yourself. How can we fight that? What can we do against him?”

  “Run!” shouted a man wearing a lot of dark gray lightning bolts and runner’s shorts.

  “Hide!” shouted a woman that Bethany couldn’t see until she moved slightly, and, like a chameleon, her colors shifted to camouflage her with the villains around her.

  “You’re right,” Gwen said, nodding. “Those plans do make the most sense. Because none of us are heroes here, right? We’re not the ones who do what society thinks we should do. We break rules, we don’t follow them!”

  A ragged cheer went up around the crowd. “Fight the power!” one shouted.

  “And sure, the Dark will probably find us, wherever we run or hide,” Gwen said, shrugging slightly as she began to pace in front of the villains. “I think we all know that’s a given. Because he’s one of us too. He doesn’t live by the rules. He makes his own, and doesn’t let anyone break them. Not us, not those without powers. Not even the superheroes.”

  This time, no one shouted.

  “You know, I saw a bit of this city today,” Gwen said, pointing toward the door. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Really? Which part did you see?” Jailbird asked, making a disgusted face.

  “All of it,” Gwen told him. “I got to see it from the air, and it sparkled like a diamond from high above. And I could see it that way because I can fly!” She rose back into the air, just hovering a few feet above the ground. “Do you remember what it’s like to fly just because you could? Or read someone’s mind for the first time?” This she addressed to the man with the crystal ball on his head. “Or jump higher than anyone else?” she asked a man wearing enormous springs on his feet. “We started out doing these things because we wanted to break the rules, but not society’s laws. We wanted to break our own rules, the ones telling us our limits! And weren’t your most passionate conflicts against anyone who tried to control you, tell you what you could or couldn’t do?”

  “Yeah, like the Flying Duck!” someone shouted.

  The rest of the villains murmured in agreement. Apparently the Flying Duck got around.

  “I know that if anyone tried to keep me from flying, I’d fight back,” Gwen said, rising higher in the air. “There’s no way I’d run or hide from that. I’d stand up and face them. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe in violence—”

  “Lame,” the troll groaned fro
m the floor, but this time someone stomped on him before Charm could stun him again.

  “Because I’d rather find common ground with people,” Gwen continued as she rose higher. “And I’m guessing the thing that you and I have most in common is that we’re not going to let anyone hold us down. Am I right?”

  This time the cheer was more forceful. Bethany noticed Kid Twilight slowly sitting up, and she prepared to knock him back out if necessary. But he didn’t seem to want to stop things. Instead, he actually seemed to be listening to Gwen.

  “The Dark controls this city, I know,” Gwen said, sinking back down, though not touching the ground. “And he’d like you to think that there’s nothing you can do about that. After all, you don’t want to hurt anyone. You just want to be free to be who you are.”

  “I hate when people get hurt,” said a ten-foot-tall demonic creature in the back. “I just want to DJ. Why won’t the world just leave me to it?”

  A man in all-silver clothing with a record player and mixing board on his chest patted the demon on the shoulder, rubbing the record on his chest a few times in support.

  “And why shouldn’t you?” Gwen shouted, rising higher into the air. “That’s who you are. And no one can take that from you, not society, not the superheroes, and definitely not the Dark. Because when push comes to shove, we will stand up for ourselves, and for our city. Even for those people who don’t think much of us, because they deserve to be proven wrong!”

  “Yes!” the demonic creature shouted, banging his fist against the cavern wall and shaking the entire room.

  “The Dark thinks we’re worthless, but we’re going to show him that we’re not afraid of the Dark. The Dark should be afraid of us!”

  The assembled villains roared in agreement, stamping their feet as Gwen rose higher into the air, almost up to the ceiling.

  “My friends!” she said, raising her hands to them all. “Join us! We’ve come to free Jupiter City from the tyranny of the Dark, and bring light back to its people. And something tells me you’re the only ones who can help. Because we’re not scared of our shadows, are we?”

  “No!” the crowd shouted.

  “And we’re not going to just hide under our beds anymore, are we?”

  “No!” they shouted.

  “The Dark is in the Jupiter City Observatory!” Gwen shouted. “Now let’s get out there and show him that no one tells us what to do! No one gives us orders. And no one makes us follow the rules! We’re turning off the Dark, once and for all!”

  The assembled villains roared in approval and began chanting her name. Gwen dropped back to the ground, then gave Bethany a they’re all yours wave.

  “You’re going to get them all killed, you know,” Kid Twilight told Bethany as she took Gwen’s place.

  “No, I’m not,” she told him, and flashed him a smile. “See, I’ve got a plan.”

  CHAPTER 39

  Nobody!” Owen shouted, backing away from the featureless man as quickly as he could. “It’s not what it looks like. I wasn’t reading about you!”

  “Please, Owen,” Nobody said, gesturing for him to calm down. “Who do you think put you here?”

  “. . . Charm?”

  “Her experiment couldn’t send you here, not even by accident,” Nobody said, taking a step toward him. “I brought you here, and for this very reason. You had to see the truth.” He held out a hand. “Don’t you understand, Owen? The worlds need to be separate, and I showed you my story for one reason: to ask for your help.”

  Owen backed away, his hands up. “My help? With what?”

  “You don’t know the lengths I’ve gone to protect my people,” Nobody told him, raising a hand and sending the panels on the wall flying. “Bethany’s father discovered what I was doing, of course. He was quite the hero.”

  Was? Owen thought as the panels stopped on Nobody in Dr. Apathy’s lab, his hands on the machine that unlocked the portal.

  “I can’t let you do that,” said a word balloon from off-panel, and Bethany’s father appeared in the next panel, though not in his costume. He looked a bit older than last time Owen had seen him in the pages, maybe a little rounder at the edges, but still somehow intimidating.

  “You don’t even know who I am, Christian,” Nobody said without looking up.

  “Sure I do,” Mr. Sanderson told him. “When Mason Black went missing, I investigated, just like the old days. And what I found was a small-time crook with delusions of grandeur.”

  Nobody’s featureless face contorted in what could have been a smile. “If that helps you. I’m not doing this because of our history, Christian.”

  “You’re not doing it to protect the fictional world, either,” Mr. Sanderson said. “Seems like it’s doing just fine without you.”

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Nobody told him. “You’re blinded by love for your nonfictional wife. Her people control us, Christian. We must be free to live our own lives!”

  “They don’t,” Mr. Sanderson said, shaking his head. “You think Mason Black wrote me into his world? They’re just witnesses to what we do. Their imaginations are windows into our world. We’re living our stories, not theirs. And we always have been.”

  “You’re a blind fool,” Nobody told him, his hands still playing over the instruments. “Mason believed the same, yet I’ve followed in his footsteps and rewritten myself. I’ve even written stories myself, Christian. I didn’t create fictionals, of course. But I took characters from fairy tale worlds and rewrote their life stories, mixing them up. I did it just to see if I could, and it worked. How could I do that if writers weren’t in control?”

  “You have no idea what you’re doing,” Christian told him, stepping forward. “You might have rewritten someone, but that doesn’t mean they’re yours in any way. It’s no different than if you mind-controlled someone, or blackmailed them. You might get them to act how you want, but the nonfictionals don’t have power over us. You have no one to blame for what you’re doing but yourself.”

  “Blame?” Nobody said. “I’ll happily accept that when the fictional world discovers what I’ve done for them. And they’ll see it all, even if I have to tell them the stories myself.”

  “You know I’m going to stop you.”

  Nobody laughed. “And how exactly will you do that, Christian? I’ve rewritten myself far beyond anything you could possibly handle, especially without your gadgets. You have no powers, after all. You’re just an ordinary man.”

  “You’re forgetting where you are,” Christian said, leaning against the wall casually. “We’re in Jupiter City. And here, in this world, heroes always win.”

  Nobody looked up at him for a moment. “Not everything is a cliché.” And with that, he pushed one final button.

  An electrical surge exploded out of the machine, sending Nobody flying against the wall. He crumpled to the ground, groaning.

  “Who needs gadgets when all it takes is a little forethought and setup?” Mr. Sanderson said, moving over to stand above Nobody, who seemed stunned. “I can’t allow you to do this, whoever you’ve become. These portals between the worlds are good things. The fictional and nonfictional benefit from each other. One is pure possibility, the other order and causality. The worlds need both to survive, and the portals—”

  “Oh, shut up,” Nobody said, and with a wave of his hand, the lab ripped open like a page. Nobody pushed himself through the rift, and the page immediately closed, leaving the lab empty but for Christian.

  “Huh,” Mr. Sanderson said, staring at the spot where Nobody had escaped. “Well, that’s new.”

  “My first setback,” Nobody told Owen, who was frantically wondering where he could run. “Christian was correct. In his world, the rule-breakers couldn’t win. It’s the one constant of all superhero comics. At least, it was until I rewrote the rules.” He paused. “Still, it meant I had to take steps to ensure he wasn’t in such a position again.”

  “What did you do?” Owen asked, trying to keep N
obody talking while he found something to use as a weapon. If nothing else, that last page had shown that Nobody could be surprised.

  “Don’t bother trying to escape,” Nobody said, killing his hopes immediately. “I brought you here, Owen, and you’ll stay here until I decide otherwise. But to answer your question . . .” He raised his hand, and the pages jumped a bit more.

  This time they showed a little girl’s birthday party.

  HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY, BETHANY! a large banner read.

  “Oh no,” Owen said, freezing in place.

  “The invitations did ask all guests not to bring books,” Nobody said, turning to watch the party unfold on the pages. “But sometimes you just find a perfect gift.”

  In one panel a small boy shyly handed Bethany’s mother a wrapped present, then ran off to another room in the next panel, yelling for his mother. As soon as he turned the corner, he immediately transformed into Nobody, then disappeared.

  “All it took was finding a story where the heroes didn’t win,” Nobody said. “I chose one about a boy who takes everything he can from a very giving tree, which kills it. If that’s not a villain winning, I don’t know what is.”

  Four-year-old Bethany, the other kids, and her father all popped into a meadow, with her father a short distance away from the rest. Her father’s eyes widened, and he went to grab Bethany’s hand, but instead ran right into Nobody.

  “Someone should have been more careful,” the Nobody in the comic said, and a page ripped open in the meadow. Nobody shoved Mr. Sanderson through before he could even react, then immediately slammed the page shut, sealing it away completely.

  A second later Nobody had morphed to look just like Bethany’s father, and he walked over to her four-year-old self.

  “You need to take everyone back, Beth,” he said. “Kids, grab hands, and Bethany will push you through.”

  “Okay,” Bethany said, grinning for her father. “Are you coming too?”