The Negative Man: Act 1

by Jeremy Croston

  He created another large barb, this one sword like. “Don’t tell me you’re getting stage fright over there?”

  No, there was no time to care what people thought of or saw me as. The man across from me was the enemy and he needed to be put down. I met his sword with a fist and his barb shattered under the pressure of the punch. Two more straight lefts to his head left him battered once again. Not taking any chances, I kicked him in the ribs and once more on the nose.

  With blood pouring out, he looked up with a smile. “Beating on me again? We all know you don’t have what it takes to do the job.” He spit out some of the blood. “Prisons can’t hold me and when I get out, I plan to do so much worse. Just think of all the fun I can have with the ladies of North Terrace.”

  I snapped. The thought of him doing anything worse than what he had done sent me over the edge. I grabbed him once again and with a heave, tossed him over the rooftop towards the ground below. It was the only way The Crimson Mask would never hurt anyone again.

  **5 Years Later**

  “Well Wonder Man, I can’t believe you did it.”

  The launch day of the Jupiter XM phone had been a huge success. Wonder-Tech, the company I started from the ground up, was now a player. “PJ, I told you coming with me would be a success.”

  The two of us left North Terrace shortly after the death of The Crimson Mask. I found a home in Pacific Station to start my own tech company and PJ came along for fun, said hadn’t paid him back yet. His wife’s family made sure they were well off. His business acumen wasn’t great, but I was glad not to start this adventure alone.

  I was about to walk out and give the press a statement about the success of the phone when he stopped me. “Maybe with the business up and running, we can start our other line of work again.”

  The Prowler had been retired since the day I left North Terrace. “I’m not sure I’m ready to take that burden on again.”

  He smiled, aware that I knew he had taken up the vigilante role again. “Well whenever you’re ready, I’ll be waiting. Crime doesn’t stop just because we do.”

  Maybe one day I’d use my powers again when the city really needed me. Until then, I’d bide my time knowing that even in my greatest moments, my biggest regret still haunted me. Wayne had been right all those years ago; I wasn’t a hero, I was a coward.

  City of Chaos

  Chapter 1 –

  Wednesday Night; Computer Lab

  My name’s Jericho Staley. I moved to Pacific Station a few years back to get my Master’s degree. It was culture shock to me, because back east, we didn’t have many super powered people. Those that were out and about weren’t tolerated. Not like out here.

  Two weeks after my arrival, a nasty piece of work the press called The Negative Man showed up and wreaked havoc. The PSPD were helpless to do anything. He blew up sensitive targets at will, destabilizing the city and the infrastructure. The city’s leadership was reduced to making public statements that inspired no hope in the people. Go figure, politicians making things worse.

  Our villain got his name from a very odd situation; every time someone took a picture of “The Negative Man” to identify him, the photo showed up as a negative. Scientists from all over studied the effects of his attacks and came to the conclusion he could manipulate polarity. In layman’s terms, this bad, bad man could charge or discharge the electricity in the air through atoms. I’m a computer nerd and the explanation still baffles me. Just trust me that when he attacked something, it wasn’t good.

  The original protectors of Pacific Station, five supers who kept the streets clean and for the most part safe, were wiped out immediately. Without hesitation, The Negative Man killed them all. Sometimes he did it very publicly and sometimes with no fanfare. It took him less than a week to rid the city of his biggest obstacles.

  Legions of other heroes came to Pacific Station and tried to stop him; each one ending up dead, insane, or broken beyond repair. In little less than a month, most of the super population of the west coast was decimated. Along with their failures, the overall feel of Pacific Station tanked. We’d reached the critical point.

  Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your view of vigilantes, someone showed up to take him on. “The Dark Lion,” another nickname the press forced down our throats, came to the defense of the city. Behind the hooded cowl he wore was a pair of yellow eyes that would make a grown man wet themselves. With agility, speed, and power like no mere mortal should possess, he battled The Negative Man for the fate of the city. Unlike previous heroes, The Dark Lion fought just as angry and dirty as The Negative Man.

  The two’s final clash happened at Waves Park, in the heart of downtown. At the end of the twelve round slugfest, neither had the upper hand, but The Negative Man fled for unknown reasons. The Dark Lion went to chase him down, but his injuries kept him from getting very far. Two years later and no one has heard or seen The Negative Man. It’s like he was never here.

  Without the threat of a villain, you’d think things would go back to normal. They didn’t. Others took up The Negative Man’s absence. The worst was a group recently formed; four villains to be exact. Naming themselves “The Aces” (each one has a call sign, Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds); they formed a gang and went to work. Murder, kidnapping, drugs – you name it, they do it.

  None of this should even concern me, but I had the bad luck of discovering my boss was The Dark Lion. Suffice to say when I found this out, I was sucked into this world whether I liked it or not. John Wonderton, CEO at Wonder-Tech, gave me two choices - join his crusade as his behind the scenes eyes or lose my job and disappear from the world. I chose the former.

  Currently, we were in pursuit of two vans containing gang members who stole servers from Wonder-Tech. Diamonds, one of The Aces was running the job. Those servers were the heartbeat of our R&D Division and contained information of different weapons we were developing for the government. If The Aces got their hands on the specs, we’d be in trouble.

  “DL, the two vans are stopped at the light at Eighty-Six and MLK. According to the x-ray scans, the one on the right has the stolen servers. The one on the left I guess is being driven by Diamonds.”

  Static hit my ear. When would he figure out how to use the new earpiece? “Got it Jericho. Is Massacre en route?”

  Massacre was another super vigilante, who in my opinion was useless. His head was bulletproof, and along with super strength, you might as well have called him The Torpedo. “Yeah, he checked in two minutes ago. He’s headed north on MLK. He’ll be there a few minutes after you.”

  I turned away from the computer and looked towards the big screen television. From the comfort of my hidden lab and on a seventy-two inch LED TV, I’d be able to see everything. DL was hopping rooftops to get to the two vans and the traffic below was none the wiser to his location. Two more jumps and the vans came into view.

  I’d hacked into the city traffic control and the lights wouldn’t be turning green anytime soon. “You got all the time in the world DL. Those guys are stuck.”

  “Good to hear Jericho. I’m going in.”

  His comm cut off and from the video feed, I could see him jump off the roof and land hard on the left hand van. DL had no interest in recovering the lost servers. He was after Diamonds.

  Punching the roof until a hole formed, he reached down and pulled out two different thugs, tossing them away like yesterday’s trash. Bullets were flying from inside the van, going through the roof, but DL’s agility was unparalleled. On his third attempt, he pulled out his target and leapt from the roof on to the street.

  Wearing a red diamond mask, the villain was pushed hard into the street. I thought I heard something shatter, but I might’ve been wrong. DL ripped off the mask, revealing a young man with dirty blonde hair. Diamonds showed no respect and hocked a big old, disgusting loogie into DL’s face.

  Wiping the spit away, “You’ve lost scum bag. After I put you in the ground, the rest of your little frat
party will be joining you.”

  Diamonds surprised DL with a kick to the gut. The force was pretty great too. Rolling to his feet, “The Dark Lion, as dumb as advertised.”

  DL wasn’t in the mood to banter. He leapt at Diamonds and unleashed his patented spin kick, right to the jaw. The young blonde gangster twisted awkwardly before dropping to a knee. Color me surprised that the kick didn’t knock him unconscious. He pulled himself back into a standing position and just smiled. “Hmm, I thought that would’ve hurt more.”

  “What’s your power then kid? Being a human punching bag?” DL jumped again, this time bringing his fist down to the top of his head.

  I’d felt just a small portion of DL’s powers during the dreaded sparring sessions, and the impact of these blows should’ve killed this kid. Again though, he stumbled a bit back but wasn’t seriously hurt. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying the pain.

  Diamonds reached into his coat and pulled out a metal baton. He tried to double tap DL’s knees, but missed with both blows. Leaving himself open, he took a nasty uppercut to the jaw. As his head snapped back, a tooth went flying into the street. It landed next to an older man who was watching the fight and he fell back at the sight.

  DL delivered another snap jab to the kid’s face, breaking his nose. Even as blood poured out, Diamonds didn’t stop. Using the baton, he actually landed a solid shot to DL’s neck.

  “DL?! Are you okay?”

  Gritting his teeth, “Yeah, I’m fine! This punk is starting to piss me off!”

  “Who’re you talking to Lion? Got another helper on the way?”

  I wasn’t the help he should’ve been worried about. A loud crash into the van to the right was all we needed to hear to announce that Massacre was on scene. “Damnit DL! He’s destroyed the servers!”

  No one cared what I thought. Even as the main reason to take these thugs on was going up in smoke and fire, DL only had eyes for Diamonds. He rushed the punk again and rammed his shoulder into his stomach. He kept going until he drove his opponent into a car. Pinned against the metal door, Diamonds was at the Lion’s mercy.

  A knee to the midsection, two punches to the face, and finishing with a left hook to the side of the face, Diamonds finally collapsed to the ground. Even as beaten as he was, he still continued to laugh at my boss. “Don’t count this as a victory! I was just...” he coughed up some blood, “a decoy.”

  DL dropped down to his prey. “Why should I believe that?”

  “Like I said before, we all know how stupid and hot headed you are!”

  Angry, DL lashed out and kicked Diamonds across the face. I could hear his face breaking from where I was seated. “You have two heartbeats to tell me everything!”

  “Piss off!” More blood came up as Diamonds laid there in the middle of the street. Massacre was walking over from the wreckage he caused. Onlookers were gathering around to see what DL was going to do next. “Let everyone see just how pathetic you are!”

  DL’s rage was coming to a boiling point. Under the hood, you could see his yellow eyes, from the special infrared goggles I designed for him, glazing over. “Don’t make me hurt you anymore…”

  Diamonds must’ve known his life was over, one way or the other. He just kept laughing at DL and Massacre. “Nothing you can do to me will stop him from coming.”

  In one swift motion, DL grabbed Diamonds and lifted him to his full arm’s length. “Stop who from coming?!”

  “The Negative Man will rise again!”

  Diamonds never stopped laughing, even as DL snapped his neck. In a fit of extreme anger, he tossed the dead gang member’s body into the brick wall of the bank about a hundred feet away…

  Chapter 2 –

  Thursday Morning; Alameda Apartment Complex

  I turned my television on in the morning to the local news. It seemed they were in the middle of live, late breaking news already. “I’m sure the Pacific Station Electric Authority will have more for us on the power surges and random outages citywide. Thanks the latest down at the power plant.”

  The camera changed from one angle to another of the news host, Brandon Howard. “But the news you all want to hear about is the fight between The Ace Diamonds and The Dark Lion. We’re going downtown where correspondent Geri Paisley is on hand with Police Chief Grimes.”

  The screen flashed right to PSPD Chief Harvey Grimes talking about the disturbance the night before. Geri was in the process of grilling him about the activities the night before. “So you’re okay with The Dark Lion killing one of The Aces? Shouldn’t he be arrested for murder?”

  Grimes voice was like a growl from a large bear. A very angry bear that was interrupted from hibernating. “Murder? The man did us a public service! If he puts those other three assholes six feet under, I’ll personally give him the key to the city!”

  Murmurs broke out amongst the reporters. Paisley asked a pretty shocking follow up. “Let me get this straight? You’re okay with The Dark Lion, or any of the other super powered vigilantes killing criminals? What about due process?”

  “When will you prissy idiots understand?” He slammed his hand on the podium. “These super powered criminals have declared war on Pacific Station! For all we know The Negative Man’s behind this! The only place these criminals can’t hurt us is with their dead bodies in wood boxes!”

  I flicked the TV off, a bit shocked by how far Chief Grimes was willing to go. Any hopes of talking DL out of killing anymore of those villains just went out the door. Over the past few weeks, I’d been getting frustrated with his lethal force. I thought we were better than that. Getting ready, I hopped in my car and headed back to the office.

  I spent a majority of my time there. Between my regular nine to five IT job, most nights were spent behind the desk in John Wonderton’s secret lair. It was a hidden floor directly below his, separating the thirtieth floor from the twenty-ninth. Only the man upstairs knows how he got the permits for that without raising suspicion.

  The Wonder-Tech building was just on the edge of downtown. The glass monstrosity shined in the sunlight, hurting my eyes. I guess all those years looking at computer screens late into the night fried my eyes, making them incredibly sensitive. My polarized sunglasses were my saving grace.

  I dug into my pocket with my left hand and pulled out my keycard to get in. I nodded at the newest security guard (I never learned their names, they generally only lasted a week for some reason), and headed for the elevator. I was the only one close by, which was nice and I entered. Hitting the twenty-seventh floor, I leaned back ready to go up.

  A hand stuck in between the door and the incredibly beautiful Heather Adams sauntered in. I’m no slouch at five nine, but in her tall black heels, she was easily six foot. Her skirt barely covered her ass, and the white shirt she was wearing hugged her toned body. She’d been an all-conference softball player in college and remained in remarkable shape to this day.

  Playfully she hooked her finger around my sunglasses and pulled them off. “Jericho, I swear you cover up your eyes on purpose.” I’d known her almost since day one of starting here (we were hired two days apart) and I still wasn’t used to the attention she gave me.

  The fluorescent light of the elevator was harsh, irritating my eyes. “Forgive me, I’m like a mole. The light doesn’t agree with me much.”

  “Stop staring at computers all night and that won’t happen!” Her shoulder length brown hair with blonde highlights shuffled as she gave a small laugh. “I’ll never understand why Mr. Wonderton makes you work so hard and so late.”

  My hair was almost shoulder length too, but not nearly as attractive as hers. I tucked my black hair behind my ears. “We’re working on some pretty cool prototypes. Or we were until the servers got swiped last night.”

  “I heard about that this morning. Chief Grimes went off on a reporter about the whole thing! I couldn’t believe he okay’d the use of extreme force.”

  Before I could respond, the floor dinged. “Well this is where I
get off.”

  She flicked my nose. “I’ll be seeing you around Jericho, don’t you worry.”

  I got off the elevator confused. Heather always took an unnatural interest in me, but I was just a weird computer guy. The guy who greeted me off the elevator couldn’t help but notice too. “Adams talking to you again? I’m telling you, she’s got something for the dorky, brooding type.” He shook his head. “Why couldn’t it be me? She wastes her attention on you, I swear.”

  “Yeah, stopped the elevator to get on with me. A girl like, she’s probably just toying with me huh?”

  Mike Blackfield nodded knowingly. “Girls like her want to have nerds at their disposal. Flash us a smile or brush up against us and they think we’ll be at their beck and call.”

  “Aren’t we?”

  He laughed. “You’re damn right we are! What else do we have going for us?”

  I entered my office and clicked the shade button. Much better. With another click, the radio came on and I got down to work. I opened my email and saw DL sent me one already this morning.

  Jericho,

  Attached is a blood analysis from Diamonds. I want you to read it over and come up to my office later to go over your findings. As always, keep this between us. Also, can you get with Jenkins about the servers? I figured between the two of you there’s a chance we hadn’t lost everything.

  John W.

  Jenkins could wait, but the blood analysis was too tempting to put off. I opened the attachment and began reading what the Mass Spec came up with. Genetics weren’t my area of specialty, but I knew a bit more than DL did. Plus whatever I didn’t understand, I’d just use the Internet to figure out.

  I must’ve lost track of time because I heard a knock on my door. It was always open, but I think people were leery of me. You know, that creepy IT guy stereotype. Looking up, Heather Adams was back. She had a few files in her hands too. “Are you busy?”