The Negative Man_Twilight Days

by Jeremy Croston

  Our conversation and dance were interrupted by the lady we’d first met, Katja, when we came in. “Destiny, someone wants to see you.”

  This seemed to scare her. “Is it him” she quickly added. “I should’ve told you, but you came in here full bluster and pizzazz, I got a bit sidetracked.”

  “Who are we talking about?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing, Jericho.”

  “Oh, it’s a lot of things,” Katja told me, truthfully.

  I wanted some real answers. “I’m The Negative Man. If I’m not the scariest guy in this place, I want to know who is.”

  Katja pointed to a black door at the far end of Bug Tooth Tony’s. “The boss, that’s the scariest guy here.”

  The thought of that made me laugh. “Let me guess, his name is Bug Tooth Tony?”

  Both women shook their heads affirmative and I walked right on by. About halfway on my journey to Tony’s office, I was stopped and taken to another dimension.

  “This was the only way I could think of to stop you.”

  Stop me? “All I was going to do was show old Tony who the meanest guy in here was. I didn’t think that’d be a problem.”

  She twisted her heel on the interdimensional ground. “What if I told you Tony was my brother. Would that at least get you to listen to me.”

  I didn’t see that plot twist coming. “Your brother? You come to a bar run by your brother?”

  “He’s never usually here. Tony normally is out doing God knows what with the Chicos Veneno. On the off chance he is,” she went on, “Katja normally warns me. I guess I was too caught up in the success of tonight to think it through.”

  “That doesn’t really tell me why you still come here.”

  She sighed. “It reminds me of the better times, when we first moved to this country and we opened this place up. Somewhere, I still have a soft spot for the man he used to be, before we became powered.”

  I was very curious to find out how she got her powers, but it didn’t feel like the right time to talk it over. “Okay, so we go back, and then what?”

  “I go face the music for my decisions. You don’t have to protect me.”

  There were a lot of things I was. Being able to step aside when a beautiful woman needed my help, yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. “You brought me here, I’m not leaving you high and dry.”

  Destiny sort of smiled and before you could blink, we were back in the middle of the bar. “You see that man by the door?” she asked.

  How could anyone miss him? He was the size of a small mountain. “Yeah, what about him?”

  “That’s Tony’s enforcer, Hernando. He’s not going to let you by, I hope you know.”

  That may have deterred anyone else, but it wasn’t going to be a problem for me. “I’m a skilled negotiator, let’s go.”

  The two of us made our way back, every eye in the place glued to what we were doing. It was almost as if everyone assumed this moment would happen from the time we walked in. As we got close, Hernando stepped in front of me. He placed his hand on my chest and grunted.

  Wrong move. I grabbed his arm with my real hand and gave him just a taste of my true power. His eyes rolled up into his head and the large man crumpled to the ground just seconds after touching me. Dead silence filled the once boisterous bar one more time.

  “Did you kill him?” Destiny asked quietly.

  “No, he’s alive.” I had no reason to whisper. “He just learned a very valuable lesson.”

  I stepped over Hernando’s body and placed my hand on the black door’s tarnished doorknob. I motioned for Destiny to come along.

  “After you, my lady.”

  Chapter 19 –

  Early Tuesday Morning; Bug Tooth Tony’s

  Behind a very large—too large for the room in my opinion—oak desk, sat a man that wouldn’t even set off any alarms if you saw him in a back alleyway. He was shorter, Mediterranean if I had to guess, and more than likely related in some way to Destiny. Brother and sister, perhaps?

  “Good to see you again, Constance,” the man welcomed her. His eyes twitched, just enough to bring attention to the motion.

  “I wish I could say the same, Tony.”

  Oh yeah, definitely brother and sister. Just the way they talked to each other gave off that dynamic. “And Jericho Staley, a pleasure to meet you.”

  I didn’t trust this Tony. Even though family was standing across the room, the man had an unsettling look. For someone who gave off no markers of being dangerous, or worth the effort to be even remotely afraid, something about him made all the panic buttons go off. He was so ordinary and unassuming that it was actually unsettling.

  Plus, there was something about his twitching eyes that made me think of a killer.

  I pretended I had no idea who he was. “It’s good to meet you… Tony, Destiny said?”

  “Ahhh, using that name the old man gave you, I see.” The old man had to have been Ellison. “Do you still believe you are destined for some sort of savior role? That, what does he call himself? Volkkenkrüger? Yeah, that’s it. You still think he is some sort of God?”

  Tension instantly shot into the room. Destiny looked quite irritated at her brother openly questioning Ellison and his status. Oh my, she was a true believer in the man. “Volkkenkrüger has given me more than our family ever did, Tony. If you had any smarts about you, you’d be with us right now.”

  “Any smarts? I run this little town and have the power of one of the nastiest gangs in the southwest behind me. No, Constance, you are the fool.”

  No, my eyes had to be playing tricks on me. As Tony smiled after the word fool, I saw something small, black shoot across his teeth. It was there and then it was gone. I thought about his nickname for a second and nearly found myself in a position to vomit.

  Tony and Destiny weren’t paying any attention to me. Good thing, neither saw my face getting pale at the thought of bugs being in Tony’s mouth. “Are we going to keep doing this dance over and over again, Tony? Or can we be civil and drop it?”

  Bug Tooth snapped his fingers. The door behind us opened and a very large man walked in. Your typical biker guy, he was dressed in head to toe leather with a vest that sported the Chicos Veneno name as well as a picture of a snake eating its own tail. This was the kind of guy you didn’t want to meet in a back alley.

  “You remember Hugo, don’t you, Constance?”

  “Hugo, it had nothing to do with you, I swear.”

  I’d had enough of all of this. “Would someone mind filling me in?” I asked.

  Tony smirked one more time and again, I thought I saw a bug run across his pearly whites. “Constance didn’t tell you, Jericho? She was supposed to marry Hugo here as part of the deal for me running the show around here, Ojos de Serpiente. Unfortunately, my sister decided she’d be better off with some crazy old man.”

  “That crazy old man is my father.” Hey, I didn’t necessarily care for what Ellison had done to me or what he was planning to do, but no one got to talk about him like that.

  It was at that moment Tony realized just how deep he was digging himself. “Then you know family matters are personal. You can walk away and let me and my sister work things out.”

  The dim lights in the room began to flicker. “Destiny is coming with me.”

  “Her name is Constance.”

  “Destiny, disappear!”

  She nodded at me and vanished into her own little dimension. Hugo tried to catch her, but he was way too slow. I kicked him in the back of the knee and pushed him to the floor. I wasn’t going to kill these guys, at least not yet.

  Negative charges were in both hands. “I came here tonight for a drink and to celebrate with a co-worker a job well done today. You idiots had to go and mess that up.”

  “Hugo, leave.”

  I took my foot off the big man and he hustled out of there. I’m pretty sure in his mind, no woman was worth this effort or aggravation.

  Tony stood up, his full height b
eing a few inches shorter than mine. “A lot of people are afraid of The Negative Man, but I’m not.”

  “You should be.” I sent one of the charges towards him, not lethal, but enough to put him on his ass. That’s when he opened his mouth and a swarm of insects came out. Thousands upon thousands of tiny black insects formed a wall as fast as my energy darted across the room. The charge didn’t even penetrate the shield of creepy crawlies. This had to have been the most repulsive and effective superpower I’d ever dealt with.

  As soon as the threat was over, the bugs retreated back into his mouth. “The name Bug Tooth Tony is there for a reason.”

  “I bet it’s hard to get a girlfriend.”

  He ignored my taunt. “When my sister and I came to this country when we were little, people warned us that being different was a curse. Constance, her powers were pretty easy to hide. Mine on the other hand,” he said as he opened his mouth. “Mine were a bit trickier.”

  A few of the bugs flew out again and began to circle his head. “What are those things?”

  “Our dad, he liked his bugs. In fact, that’s why he went to Greece, on a research study. There he met our mom and they fell in love.”

  “I didn’t ask for a romance story, I wanted to know about the bugs.” Was I this over the top when people asked me questions about my powers or motives?

  This was the second time he chose to brush aside my sarcasm. “When our mom got pregnant, they decided to settle down outside of Athens. Our dad could keep working on his grant and our mom’s family could take care of us. That was until one day, the explosion happened.”

  Of course, the one true way to get powers if you weren’t born with them was to be exposed to some sort of disaster, whether it was nuclear or otherwise. “I’ve never heard of anything in Greece.”

  “Of course, you wouldn’t have,” he spat.

  “You seem to be keen on telling this story, so by all means, please continue,” I goaded him on.

  His frustration with my attitude finally showed. “What would you understand? As a toddler, playing with my dad’s specimens and my whole life changes. That’s what happens when careless governments never tell their people that they’re experimenting with warheads.”

  “I understand more than you’d ever know,” I said softly.

  “My sister, she needs to honor her obligations. I don’t care who this Volkkenkrüger is, my man. I want my sister to do her part in keeping my empire alive.”

  “And if that’s not what she wants?”

  “We all do stuff we don’t want to.”

  Destiny blinked back into the office. “Tony, wait.”

  I knew she hadn’t been able to hear when she left; this had to be calculated decision to come back. It was evident as she took everything in and nobody had destroyed anything yet. “You’re not fighting each other?”

  “Not yet,” we both said in unison.

  “Tony, we can talk this out reasonably, like adults. We aren’t kids.”

  He cracked his knuckles and rolled up the sleeves of his plain black button-down. “Your boyfriend here thinks you have a say in Eubank family affairs. When we made our deal, you promised me you’d honor it.”

  “Tony, I was only fifteen. I wanted to come here more than anything. How can you hold that against me?” she asked. Destiny was on the brink of tears.

  Her impassioned plea did nothing to dent the emotionless man in front of us. “These boys here, they see it as a weakness that I can’t control my little sister. That ends tonight.”

  I really didn’t like what he was implying. “Are you going to kill your own sister if she doesn’t comply?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I have it good here. No one’s going to take that from me.”

  “You’re a desperate man, Bug Tooth. Let me tell you, there’s more important things in the world than being an overlord. Trust me, I know.” My thoughts drifted to Heather. If only I’d done things differently, my girl would still be here.

  “Maybe I am.” He opened his mouth and more bugs joined the ones circling his head. “Or maybe I’m not a weakling like you. I have what I want and I’m going to fight to keep it.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Destiny disappeared, a frown had formed on her face. She knew what was about to happen.

  “I’m glad your sister won’t have to witness this,” I said, seriously.

  “She’s seen me kill before,” he answered.

  “But she’s never had to see you die before.”

  That’s when the Stormfall channeled throughout my entire body.

  I didn’t know it yet, but this would be the toughest fight I’d ever have to deal with.

  Chapter 20 –

  Early Tuesday Morning; Bug Tooth Tony’s

  “I never did answer your question.”

  Bugs—thousands of bugs—were flying all around the room. Sure, my electricity didn’t harm them, but it also was strong enough to keep them from getting too close to me. It was the ultimate stalemate. So, I hoped he forgave me for not really knowing which question he’d chosen to gloss over.

  I blocked another round of bugs from getting their little bodies on me. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t care, to be honest.”

  Oh, that never stopped a villain. I should know. “Right before the warhead went off, with all of its dirty little secrets, a tick from my father’s collection wandered onto me. I had no idea. When the waves of chemical mixtures from the warhead flooded our villa, the tick and I became symbiotic. Ever since, my body has been the breeding ground for my friends; a hive, if you will.”

  Flying, mutated ticks? You had to be kidding me. That only made things more disgusting. “And your sister?”

  “She chose to disappear, as per her norm.”

  It seemed I wasn’t getting any more information on Destiny during this fight. That was fine; I needed to keep my focus entirely on Tony. I didn’t have my Negative Man suit or any of the gadgets Wilson made me. I was pretty well unprotected, except for my immense powers. These little bastards were resilient, but that didn’t mean they weren’t vulnerable somehow. I just needed to observe a bit more to find their weakness.

  On the other side of the door, I could hear the commotion of the bar. People were running for their lives. Word of our little encounter must have reached the patrons at some point. I didn’t blame them, there was no way this fight was staying in this back office much longer. In fact…

  I dispersed the equivalent of an EMP in Tony’s office. The computer and lights overheard sparked and caused him to duck for cover. The sparks provided me enough time to kick the door down and get into the bigger bar area. The last of the drinking bikers had just rushed out, leaving a lonely place with a rather catchy rock song playing. Tony followed shortly after.

  “The one thing the rumors always said about you was you’re an excellent tactician in battle. I’m glad to see they weren’t lies.”

  Tony, for everything else, was a rather well-spoken man. There was a great amount of intelligence across from me; I’d have to use everything I could think of to my advantage. “Flattery, while appreciated, doesn’t change the tune. How many fights against supers have you been in?” I asked.

  “Three.” Kudos to him for not over-exaggerating. “That doesn’t mean I’m at a disadvantage.”

  Maybe that was the case, but I wasn’t afraid to push any psychological boundaries. “Do you know how many supers I’ve faced and killed? Sometimes, just because, the bodies of those I’ve put into the ground try to taunt me in my sleep. What should be a nightmare for the living turns into hell for the dead.”

  That unnerved him. “Enough.” He tried to take back control of the situation, but it was too late. Poor Tony; he was the one used to being the intimidator. Too bad for him I was the one who threw that weight around.

  His ticks formed an arrow. A big, black, menacing arrow. On his command, the organic deadly weapon raced through the sky, ready to impale its target, me. I couldn’t even fathom
being killed by bugs. That would be a very sad, pathetic day indeed.

  I made an electron wedge around myself, forcing the bugs to split into two groups and go right by me. I’d already considered the boomerang effect, thanks to a fight a long time ago against a certain lackey of Ronald Victory’s. The wedge was twofold around me, so when the ticks regrouped and tried again, they missed. They returned back to Tony; some continued to orbit around him and other disappeared into his clothing.

  “I wonder… just how long can you keep conjuring magic tricks like that?” he asked.

  I couldn’t say I’d really been tested in years. In my prime, which I wasn’t that far removed from, I could battle for hours without fear of breaking down. Even as deadly and powerful as I was, immortality wasn’t one of my tricks. Was Tony turning the mind games around on me? Smart guy.

  His little friends formed a black ball above his head. “See, my ticks and I, we feed off each other’s energy. I can do this for as long as it takes.”

  Bug Tooth’s arm shot forward and the bug ball came at me like a grenade. Again, I had to go on the defensive and put up an energy shield to keep the ticks away. From what I knew about ticks, they were bloodsucking, disease carriers. The thought of a chemically enhanced one getting through and latching on seemed about as comforting as being in range of a plutonium core about to go critical.

  Huh, been there, too. I have crappy luck.

  Tony didn’t stop. Each time his ticks missed or I was able to deflect them, he just amped up another attack. I was holding my own, but his words wormed their way into my brain. What if I was running on a timer? I wasn’t sure if there’d come a time when the energy would fail to respond to my calling. That made it imperative to see what sort of pattern or weakness I could exploit.

  Ask and you shall receive. I finally saw the tic (no pun intended, womp womp) that I was looking for. Each time Bug Tooth prompted the ticks to attack, he whispered something as the swarm went by. He was almost good enough where I didn’t see the lip movement, but yes, it was there each time. That was something I could target.