The Negative Man: Act 1

by Jeremy Croston

  His head snapped up. “At the heist was there any mention of The Negative Man?”

  Here we go again. “No, no mention of him at all. Though Hearts did receive a message at the bank when he broke up my potential murder.”

  This was all DL needed to fuel even more conspiracies. “What was Hearts’ motivation was in saving your life is beyond me, but I would bet my entire fortune that the message he received came from The Negative Man.”

  “Or Spades, we know he’s the leader of The Aces.”

  DL didn’t like it when I got all logical on him. To be honest, his paranoia and obsession with The Negative Man was starting to cloud his judgment. Even before Diamonds mentioned his name, he’d been starting to get weird on me. I wouldn’t deny that he wasn’t out there biding his time, but The Aces were the more immediate and pressing threat to us and the city.

  He slammed his fist on the table. “Never forget Jericho! The Negative Man is and will always be the true threat until he’s dead! You just don’t understand everything he’s done to me, to this city…”

  Granted, I started working at Wonder-Tech weeks after The Negative Man horrors, but I was still living here. “I know that I wasn’t here, at Wonder-Tech, but I still called Pacific Station home. I know how long his reign of terror lasted, I saw the effects on the city DL.”

  “You’re right and I apologize.” That tired look was starting to overcome the angry, defiant DL I was used to. “Being The Dark Lion, it’s taken so much out of me. I never thought all these years after I first put on the cowl that I’d still be needed.”

  “What’re you saying? You’re not giving up on us already?”

  “Never give up, but my time as a super is coming to an end. But before that happens, The Dark Lion has one last task to accomplish and that’s to kill The Negative Man. With the fall of him, a new generation can take my place.”

  The thought of DL calling it a career disturbed my greatly. John Wonderton had proved to be one of the strongest people I’d ever come across in my life. “Get those thoughts out of your head, including The Negative Man. You have a responsibility to the people of Pacific Station to end the threat of The Aces whether you like it or not!”

  “I know and you’re right, as always.” He looked at his watch. “Go home Jericho, it’s been a long day for you. We’ll pick this back up when we both don’t feel like shit.”

  He was right; it’d been a long day indeed and rest would be most welcome. I got up to leave, giving DL a pat on the back on my way out. I hoped the hero the city needed would find himself in the morning after a decent night’s sleep.

  I made it to my car and found my way home. The streets were practically deserted on this Friday night. Once safely in my apartment, I microwaved some pizza and got myself comfortable on the couch. DL’s little breakdown in the office had put a bad taste in my mouth. After all we’d done together to bring this city back from the terror it suffered…

  No, if he wanted to retire, that was his personal choice. I came across this lifestyle by coincidence and this could be my way out. I had my own life to think about, my own goals and aspirations that had been put on hold. It’d been so long that I gave thought to the things I’d hoped to do. I wasn’t about to bail on DL, not yet, but if he was willing to give up this life, I wasn’t going to talk him out of it.

  I turned on the TV and flipped the channels. The only thing anyone wanted to talk about was the attack of Pacific National today. Giving up and watching, it was weird to see an event I was part of from this vantage point. As the anchors were talking, I noticed the camera zoomed in on Heather in the background. About two seconds later, the camera zoomed back out, causing the screen to go an inverted color scheme of white and black. Only one man ever had that calling card.

  The anchors began freaking out. “Julie did you see that?”

  “Yes Tom, I did! Could this mean what I think it means?”

  “I think it does. The Negative Man, long thought to be dead, has shown up twice in as many days! Folks, please stay tuned to this rapidly developing story!”

  No sooner did the anchor Tom spit out those words did my phone light up. Checking the caller ID, DL was already on top of this. Answering, “I swear, I had no idea he was there today!”

  “I know you didn’t Jericho. He’s out there, taunting me at every turn. He’s back and it’s time to declare war on him and the villains he operates through.”

  This was getting deep, fast. “Declare war? What exactly are you saying?”

  His laughter was borderline insane. “Exactly what I said. He’s obviously using The Aces and we can’t find them. Using logic, we go to the lowest common denominator and that’d be the thugs they hire for their jobs. Then we can track.”

  The one thing we’d always agreed upon was to leave ordinary humans to the cops. Getting involved with low lives with no powers was taboo. “DL, if you go after them, there’s no telling what the repercussions will be.”

  “Repercussions be damned. I know what’s good for this city, even if the people living here don’t!”

  I was getting uncomfortable with this. “DL, let’s just think about this…”

  “Jericho, we sacrifice the few to save the many.” And with that last declaration, he hung up.

  Chapter 8 –

  Saturday Morning; Oceanside Café

  The breeze off the Pacific Ocean felt good. There weren’t many people out yet this early on Saturday, so I could enjoy the one good thing about this time of day. Darla Bannister, the owner of the Oceanside Café, would make me specialty egg sandwiches with so few customers around.

  The egg, filled with peppers, onions, and cheese, was sitting on a sesame bagel, covered with bacon and another piece of cheddar cheese. As I was enjoying this heaven on earth, “As good as last time?”

  Darla was one of my best friends, maybe only friend if we’re being honest. I didn’t really socialize much. The older lady had taken a shine to me when I first arrived to Pacific Station and used her café as my favorite study hangout. Between the egg sandwiches and the coffee, there was no better place. “Excellent as always!”

  Her red/grey hair shined in the morning sun. I would bets lots of DL’s money she was quite the man killer back in the day. “I don’t go to all this trouble for just anyone you know? Plus I think you earned a second sandwich after what you did yesterday.”

  “Oh, you heard about that did you?”

  “It was all over the news Jericho! One would have to be under a rock not to know what happened!” She gave me an almost motherly glance. “Plus what that woman said about you, it was really wonderful to hear.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about. “Come again?”

  “Channel 11 interviewed a Heather Adams, I think that was the name. She said how brave you were in the face of everything.” She grabbed a remote from her apron. “I recorded it; here let me turn it on.”

  I’d been watching the news on Channel 7, that’s why I missed it. Sure enough Heather was talking to a reporter later in the evening, detailing the attack. Then she got to me. “My co-worker, Jericho Staley, he tried to reach into his pocket and grab his phone to call the police. One of the gunmen noticed and I thought for sure he was going to die. But his quick thinking and cool wit kept us all alive.”

  The interview ended there and went back to the station. The lady newscaster finished up with, “Powerful stuff from today’s robbery at Pacific National. Bank officials have yet to release what items were taken along with the stolen cash…” Darla turned it off and put back on the morning sports show.

  “You could’ve been killed!”

  I was on my last big mouthful of my breakfast sandwich, so I really couldn’t respond too well. I tried to muffle out a rebuttal, but it fell on deaf ears. Darla just shook her head and headed back inside to the kitchen. Secretly I was hoping it was to make that second sandwich she had mentioned.

  I took a sip of coffee and opened up my email on my phone. I was going thro
ugh them when I heard a chair close being dragged against the concrete below. Looking up, Heather Adams was in front of me and taking a seat. With a sly grin, (or at least I hoped so), “Stalking me now?”

  With a serious look, she brushed off my joke. “The Negative Man was there yesterday! At the bank!”

  Why was she yelling so early in the morning? “I know. I saw what happened on the news last night.”

  Grasping my hands with hers, “Then you should be taking this so much more seriously!”

  “I take it very seriously, but I also know the city is in good hands with The Dark Lion and Massacre,” I had to fight back my cringe with that lie, “out there. This is superhero stuff, well above my pay grade.” It really was. DL owed me a raise…

  The tension started to disappear and a small smile formed. “Yeah, I guess you have a point. But knowing he was so close, it just has me on edge.” I hadn’t noticed the paper in her hand, probably due to the tight white work out shirt she was wearing. Setting it on the table, “Did you see this morning’s headline?”

  I picked it up and right there in big, bold words ‘City of Chaos’ was front and center. Underneath was a picture of the hysteria outside the bank. The story detailed the heist and at the bottom in a small picture caption was a fuzzy photo of Hearts. You could see the sack of cash in one hand and a small box in the other.

  The headline reminded me of my conversation with DL the previous night. “Maybe you and the paper are right. Maybe not enough people, like me, are taking this as seriously as we should.”

  “What’s with the sudden change?”

  DL’s words were itching the back of my skull. “It’s obvious The Aces have put the city back on edge again. What if it gets worse before it gets better?”

  She took the paper back. “I hope The Dark Lion doesn’t let it come to that.”

  “It’s almost as if he needs to declare war on The Aces.”

  ****

  The door to the café opened and Darla came out with two sandwiches in hand. We stopped talking about this sad and depressing topic as she approached. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Heather. “You’re the girl from the interview!” Heather nodded. “It’s about damn time Jericho brought a date with him here!”

  As Darla dropped the sandwiches in front of us, Heather was flabbergasted. “This thing is huge!”

  “This is his second one.” Darla shook her head. “I don’t know where he puts them.”

  I patted my stomach. “High metabolism I guess. I must burn off a lot of calories somehow.”

  Darla mumbled something that sounded awfully close to being a computer nerd joke as she walked back inside. More customers were starting to show up as it got closer to nine a.m.

  I could tell Heather wanted to go back to the whole villain topic, but I changed it before she could. Spring training was in the air and it turned out both of us were passionate about baseball. Contrary to DL’s skeptical nature at my baseball analogy, I liked the game a lot. Well, I liked the hotdogs, the beer, and the atmosphere the games brought in. As a transplant, I’d quickly given up my team from back east and became a diehard Pacific Station Flash fan. Heather, the lucky dog, was a season ticket holder.

  “My ex got them for us a few years back, but then I found him cheating on me. I left and took the tickets with me.”

  Who in their right mind would cheat on her? “I don’t blame you. You could probably sell the other one and make some pretty good cash in the process.”

  She gave me a weird look. “Sell it? I was really hoping to give it to someone who enjoyed baseball as much as I did. Someone who was more, worthy, of my attentions…”

  “That’s really cool of you! Hopefully you find someone before the opener. Isn’t in a few weeks?”

  She slapped her hand on her forehead. “My God you’re stupid. Cute, but definitely stupid.” Then it hit me like a freight train. “Jericho, I want you to go with me.”

  “Oh… well then… I’d love to!”

  “See was that so hard?” I shook my head no. “Well as much fun, and frustrating as this has been, I have a lot to catch up on from yesterday. I’m heading over to Wonder-Tech for a bit. Call you later?”

  “That’d be great!” She got up and I couldn’t help notice how the black yoga pants she had on hugged her every curve so nicely. She caught me staring at her ass and winked. Flipping her sunglasses on, she headed off down the street towards her car. Someone pinch me, hot girls like that aren’t supposed to be interested in guys like me.

  I couldn’t dwell on that fact, I had a lot to get done too. I paid the bill and gave Darla a quick wave on the way out. I stopped by my car and grabbed my tablet and sunglasses. The glare of the sun was really getting to me again. With my equipment in hand, I headed down to my little hidden alcove that overlooked the beach. The city provided free Wi-Fi and I enjoyed people watching as I worked.

  With my tablet, I could securely access the Wonder-Tech mainframe remotely. I’d built a firewall set up to make sure no one could infiltrate, even over an unsecured network like the city’s Wi-Fi. With this in hand, I could work from where ever I wanted.

  While I was doing a quick inventory on DL’s equipment, a large shadow overtook me. “Is this spot taken?”

  Looking up, I saw the wide frame of PJ Douglas, aka Massacre. “No, it’s just me this morning.”

  The large man sat down. He was wearing a blue and orange jogging suit and sweating profusely. I’ve never dealt with Massacre outside of my interaction on the vigilante side. He pulled off his sunglasses, his eyes bloodshot. “We need to speak Jericho, confidentially.”

  I didn’t like this. “What’s wrong?”

  He pulled out his phone and handed it to me. “Play the current message.”

  I did as I was told and fired it up. The voice on the other end was chilling.

  ‘Massacre, we know who you are. If you don’t turn yourself in and give us the identity of The Dark Lion by midnight on Saturday, your family’s lives will be forfeit. Make the right decision and call this number back. When you hear the click, just ask for Spades.’

  Chapter 9 –

  Saturday Midmorning; Station Public Library

  Massacre and I were on the third floor. We picked this floor as it’s seldom used due to it being the place where the projectors and microfiche are kept. It was the perfect place, besides Wonder-Tech Tower, to go to discuss this. “How did The Aces discover your identity?”

  It was a rhetorical question, as we both knew he couldn’t respond. “That’s the million dollar question. Once we figure that out, we’ll have a starting point.”

  Time wasn’t on our side. I hooked his phone up to my tablet and hoped my tracer program could give us a clue on the phone that called him. No surprise, the phone came back as a burner with no GPS locator or sim card to hack into. “No dice PJ. Whoever Spades is, he knows what he’s doing. My encryption program ain’t going to cut it.”

  He took his phone back, his face turning a pale white color. “I either betray my best friend or let them kill my family. I feel like I could vomit.”

  I took out my phone. “I’m going to call John. We aren’t making any decisions until he’s in the loop, got it?”

  “We can’t involve…”

  “Listen carefully, we all knew being in this business could end disastrously. I know you and DL risk your lives every night to put scum away and I sit behind a computer. I also know exactly how the both of you think and react.”

  He didn’t say anything, just sat there as I continued to lecture him. “You are about to get your family and run. Do you think you can run far enough away from The Aces?” He shook his head no. “And are you willing to leave John behind and face the fallout of that action?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  I dialed DL’s number. “Then just sit there and shut up.”

  Massacre could rip me in half or crush all the bones in my body, so my stern tone wasn’t without risk. He took it like a man and sat down a
t one of the desks, creaking under his weight. With that settled, it was time to see how DL would take all of this.

  “Jericho, what’s with the early morning call?”

  I was a bit surprised he answered. I thought maybe he slept late on the weekends, preparing for a busy weekend rush of crime. “I have a few questions about quantum mechanics. Can you come down to the library and help me pick out a few books that would be worthwhile?”

  Quantum mechanics was code for shit was about to hit the fan. “Yeah, I was just finishing up a light breakfast. Give me a little bit to get ready and I’ll meet you on the third floor.”

  Thank God DL understands the urgency. If anyone hacked into the call, they would just assume we were two nerds trying to study on a Saturday. By keeping the sense of urgency to nil, no one would be able to assume anything from it. Hopefully it was all just inconsequential and no one would ever deduce John Wonderton and The Dark Lion was the same person. I respected the cape and the mission of getting Pacific Station under control too much.

  I let Massacre stew in silence. It’s not that I don’t like PJ Douglas, but in the world of heroes and vigilantes, he’s more a liability than anything. When you have no powers, you have to trust the people you associate with to protect your life at all costs. The Dark Lion I did. Massacre, well let’s just say it made me uneasy. If it wasn’t for his close relationship to The Dark Lion, he’d probably be down with the minor players chasing down jaywalkers.

  Fifteen minutes went by before DL showed up. The third floor was still abandoned, except for me and Massacre. DL pulled up a chair and leaned in. “How bad are we looking?”

  “Spades called Massacre. He either wants him to give you up or he’ll kill his family.”

  Massacre handed DL the phone and he listened to the message. By this time Massacre was barely hanging on. “I don’t know what to do John.”