The Negative Man: Act 1

by Jeremy Croston

  We were bobbing and weaving in traffic, getting closer to my apartment. “Well I can’t call in today, there’s a meeting that my boss assigned to me, but how about tomorrow? We can go do something fun.”

  With the promise of something fun on tap for tomorrow, Heather dropped me off at home and continued on her way to work. Part of me was ready to crash for the day, catch up on all the sleep I missed, but I also felt the need to walk some more. The morning was still cool, as it was the night before, but the breeze coming off the ocean was very nice.

  So I did, I kept walking around the area. I didn’t really have anywhere in particular to go, so I was a bit surprised when I ended up at the place PJ and I came to a few days earlier. I was even more shocked to see a large man hiding beneath a blanket, pushed up against the edge of the patio.

  No one else was around, so without thinking, I reached down and grabbed the blanket and yanked it off. Huddled in a broken mass was the sobbing form as Massacre. Blood from the innocent people he killed still stained the front of his costume, red streaks against the dark green and yellow material.

  His head whipped around, eyes bloodshot and he reeked of booze. “Jericho? What’re you doing here?”

  He didn’t know I had infiltrated The Aces, had no clue that I witnessed his epic failure. “I could be asking you the same question PJ. You stink of booze and are covered in blood.”

  Pushing himself up (an incredible feat for a man of his size and his current condition), “Don’t ask questions you don’t need the answers too.” Roughly pushing me aside, “Don’t tell anyone you saw me here.”

  I couldn’t just let him go. Bluffing, “I heard on the news what happened.”

  He turned around fast, much quicker than someone who was as hungover as he was should. “Don’t say another word! You weren’t there and don’t know what happened!”

  “They say you were drunk, that you single handedly ruined DL’s chances of capturing The Aces! How close to the truth is that?”

  He gave me a hard push, one that sent me crashing into the wall behind me. Nothing broke, but I felt the brick and it didn’t give any cushion as I hit it. Looking up, I could see him looking down at his hands, appalled and scared at what he just did to me. Without even asking if I was okay, he bolted out of the hidden alcove.

  I got up and went after him. He wasn’t running at full speed and I was able to keep up with him. He turned out on to Sunset, and by this time people were pointing and screaming at him. I guess the news really did report everything this morning.

  As I closed in, one of those electronic billboards started flashing and crackling. Electricity jumped from it and hit Massacre, sending him into the streets. The image on the billboard changed from the car dealer advertisement to…

  “It’s The Negative Man!” A man yelled it out for everyone to hear.

  In the street it was chaos. Cars had collided with each other, crowds of onlookers were forming. I remained just out of sight, close enough to the billboard, yet tucked away in the shadows on a few of the buildings.

  The image was distorted, like an old TV with bad reception. His black eyes took in no one else except Massacre. His electronic voice hollered down at the fallen super. “Massacre, you are a disgrace. For your failures, I judge you guilty.”

  There was no way Massacre was getting up after the electric blast he took. Sure he was impervious to a lot, but The Negative Man was a whole other animal. Everyone in the street was stopped, watching in horror at the scene unfolding.

  Then, without warning another blast shot from the billboard, vaporizing Massacre, leaving behind only the ashes of what was his body.

  Chapter 19 –

  Sunday Morning; Beach

  It’d been a week and a half since the death of Massacre. In that time, the only thing on the tip of everyone’s tongue was The Negative Man. No matter which station you turned to, someone was giving an opinion on the man who once terrorized Pacific Station.

  However, the strange part to all of this was some were hailing him as a hero. One TV pundit claimed he was the new face of right and we should welcome him back to Pacific Station with open arms. Whenever someone questioned him, reminding him of the atrocities that occurred not that long ago, he responded with the fact a ‘good guy’ like Massacre just killed innocents too.

  To me, The Negative Man was the past, a shadow that had great length to it. Spades called an Aces meeting two days after Massacre’s murder to proclaim that with The Negative Man returning, things would be even greater for us. None of the other three even questioned how I knew to get to the secret base. Maybe Spades planned all along for me to find out the location through the first job. If I had let them down, he could’ve just killed me and no one would’ve been the wiser to it.

  I asked him if he had spoken to The Negative Man before starting his streak of crime. Spades laughed off the question and said no, that The Aces were only throwing out his name in the hopes to get The Dark Lion worked up. I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him it worked. He was still healing from his broken arm.

  DL didn’t take Massacre’s death very well. He basically locked himself in his office at Wonder-Tech and worked nonstop. Even after returning to work, he wouldn’t even see me. I didn’t think he knew I was there when Massacre was killed, but I knew his revenge towards The Negative Man would be at an all-time high.

  The sun was barely over the ocean and the waves were brushing up against my feet. I hadn’t slept much since that day, and I was sure my face showed it. I had my darkest sunglasses on, to keep everything hidden.

  My phone buzzed again. Thinking it was Heather checking in to make sure I was doing alright, I popped it open. It wasn’t the beautiful lawyer; it was my boss. The message was simple yet clear – call me ASAP. I stared at it for a few minutes before actually thinking about what to do.

  Before I could decide, another text came across. Like mirror images of each other, this one came from Owen Walker. The message, a bit longer and less hostile – we’ve got a job tonight, be ready Diamonds. This would be my second time running with them.

  I dialed DL’s number. It rang twice before his gruff voice answered. “I didn’t know if you’d call me or not.”

  “Curiosity got the better of me.” That was somewhat true. “Plus just seconds after you texted me, Spades did too. We gotta job tonight.”

  It was almost as if he didn’t care. “We need to talk about The Negative Man. I can’t let Massacre’s death be in vain.”

  “Didn’t you hear me?” I wasn’t about to let this go. “I’m doing another job with The Aces tonight. Will you be there for back up?”

  “Listen to me!” I pulled the phone away from my ear. “The Aces will eventually crumble away and no one will remember them. The Negative Man, he’s been biding his time, waiting for us to crack and he’s showing his true intentions. First the deputy mayor, now my oldest friend…”

  It seemed this was going to be a wasted call. “In case you forgot, I’m still tasked with infiltrating The Aces and I’m doing a damn good job of it. If you get over your pity party and feel like helping, I’d appreciate it.” And with that, I hung up the phone.

  Maybe it was about time to give up on The Dark Lion. Maybe I’d given up on the idea that this city could be cleaned up. I don’t really know. All I could say for sure was Jericho Staley never did a job half assed and I wasn’t about to start now. There was more than one way to bring order to the city and I would find it.

  I spent the rest of the day kicking around the boardwalk. On Sundays, a lot of the vendors would be more willing to wheel and deal, so I was able to score a couple of hot dogs, a funnel cake, and a large soda for less than five bucks. All and all, a winning day if you asked me.

  I still had a few hours to kill, so I called up Heather and told her to pick a place for dinner and I’d meet her there. She sounded thrilled at the prospect and told me to give her ten minutes to figure it out. I was walking back in my apartment when she called back
. “The Casa de la Cervezas.”

  “You want to go to The Beer House? Never would’ve guessed that one.”

  Her light laugh was pleasing to the ear. “Some girls like fancy and others like sports and beer. Consider me the latter.”

  The plan was to meet in thirty, so I hopped in the shower and got dressed. The Beer House wasn’t big on formal attire, so I found a clean pair of jeans and a nice button down that had my old college from back east’s logo on it. All ready to go, I made my way through Pacific Station for a normal dinner before moonlighting as an undercover vigilante.

  Heather wasn’t there when I arrived so I got us a table in between the bar section and the dining room. It was the perfect place, as we were close enough to the TV’s for her, yet far enough away where we wouldn’t have to yell to talk.

  I was drinking a rather hoppy pilsner when she walked in. Every man in the place stopped to watch her walk in. And trust me, they were more than surprised that she stopped at my table and kissed me. I think she liked defying the odds and made a little show of it.

  I pulled out her chair and the world went back to normal. “I hope you don’t mind I ordered a drink to keep my nerves going strong.”

  “You already got the girl, but I don’t mind some liquid encouragement.”

  I toasted to that. “So how have things been down in Legal? I know it’s been a weird week at Wonder-Tech.”

  She took a hit of my beer. “You have no idea. Jenkins is basically running without a leash down in R&D, so the number of bad patents coming across our desks is insane. I don’t know what’s gotten into Mr. Wonderton, but he better get his head outta his ass soon.”

  If she only knew the half of it. “I guess there’s a reason he’s like a billionaire and we’re just humble peasants.”

  The rest of the evening fell out of work talk and into a number of other topics from sports to music, to movies. Turns out Heather is a huge fan of Saturday morning cartoons and Kung-Fu movies. She also liked her beer, I mean really liked her beer. By the time we were done eating, she was gone.

  I helped her into my car. “I can drive…just fine!”

  After seeing what happened to a drunken Massacre, I wasn’t about to let her make any bad decisions. Not on my watch. “It’s okay, I’ll take you home. Tomorrow after work, we’ll come back by and pick up your car.”

  I think she said thank you and her head slumped against the passenger door. She was fast asleep by the time we got to her house and it was pretty easy to get her ready for bed. As much as I just wanted to lay down beside her, I knew it was time for business.

  When I arrived at the warehouse base, Clubs and Hearts were standing outside. I grabbed my mask from under the passenger seat and put it on. Neither man appeared to be dressed for a raid, heist, or any sort of job where trouble might be lurking. Clubs was wearing something close to business casual and Hearts had on jeans and a white t-shirt, covered up by a leather jacket.

  I grabbed my hooded jacket from my car. “What’s up guys? Anything good?”

  Trelewicz grumbled, “I hate when he’s secretive about a job. Said this one would be easy, no guns or powers necessary.”

  As if on cue, Spades opened the door leading to the warehouse. His arm was still in a sling, but like us, he was dressed down tonight. Khakis, a blue collared shirt, and a jacket were in stark contrast to the black mask on his face. “Good evening gentlemen.” He was almost giddy with excitement. “Who wants to earn some free money?”

  Chapter 20 –

  Early Monday Morning; gl-O-bal Labs

  “We’re robbing you?” I tried not to insult him.

  Spades put his good arm on my shoulder. “Think of this as a two front plan. First, this break in will lead the morning news, giving the public more reason to fear us. And second, it’ll give poor Owen Walker sympathy which will lead to a boost in sales! It’s a win-win.”

  I felt weird being in the lobby of a place we were about to rob with the CEO of said company leading the charge. No one else was here, as Spades had made the security schedule specifically with this job in mind. When the three of us still weren’t moving, he shooed us away. “Go on now, go steal stuff. And smash up some offices while you’re at it. I don’t use my insurance nearly enough.”

  So without further prodding, Hearts took to the lead and Cubs and I followed him. We got on the elevator and went up three floors to the accounting department. As we stepped on the elevator, “Accounting keeps the checks for purchases in the safe at the end of the hall. I figure the two of you can crack it while I go make a mess on the other side. Call me if you need anything.” With that, Hearts lumbered off with destruction in his eyes.

  Clubs and I walked down the hall towards the safe. “Can’t say this is exactly how I saw myself getting into gl-O-bal, am I right Phil?”

  He rolled his eyes behind his black mask. “I’ve learned not to question Spades, either as the crime boss or as a technical genius. I might be the one who can organically hack into systems, but his vision is out of this world.”

  A loud crashing sound told us Hearts had found his first target. “Yeah, the Mercury Five is an amazing piece of tech. If Wonderton and R&D,” I looked directly at him, “doesn’t come up with something close, Wonder-Tech might be in trouble.”

  “I have some ideas, but Legal keeps telling me they’re too insane. I mean, how are we to show the public progress if we don’t push the boundaries?”

  I wonder if these were the plans Heather had told me about earlier. I wanted to ask him, but we reached the safe. It was an electronic combination lock, probably something pretty easy to hack if you had powers like Clubs did. He wasted no time putting his hand on the lock and closing his eyes. I heard a few soft clicks and then a louder pop. The safe door cracked open.

  Removing his hand, “That was pretty easy.”

  I pushed the door all the way open. Not only were the cashier’s checks and the rarely used traveler’s checks, but there was physical cash sitting there too. “Holy shit… this is a ton of money.”

  Clubs put his hands in the safe and started grabbing everything. “Come on Jericho! Isn’t it time you got yourself a new car?”

  I grabbed some money, not nearly as much as Clubs did, before we returned to the office area. Hearts had done quite a number to it. “This was quite enjoyable. You two ready to head down to R&D? I’m sure you’ll love all the tech down there.”

  We stepped back on the elevator and went down this time. We passed the ground floor and went three more levels down to B3. When the doors opened, “Hot damn.”

  I stepped off the elevator in total disbelief. The stuff just lying around here was amazing. Clubs ran over to the nearest workstation and picked up something that looked like a camera. “My God, is this a digital distortion camera?”

  “That it is. Spades came up with it in the hopes to catch a picture of The Negative Man.” Hearts puffed his chest out like it was his idea. “Hopefully it’ll do the opposite of what a regular camera does and we’ll know who he is.”

  A camera to capture The Negative Man’s identity? Who would be dumb enough to try that? “Something tells me he wouldn’t like that.”

  “Diamonds my young friend,” great he considered me a friend. “If we got a chance to talk to him, I know he’d support our cause and maybe even join it.”

  I wasn’t so sure, knowing what I did of him, but I kept my thoughts private. Instead, I walked over to another table and picked up a very futuristic looking gun. Seeing the cryo-chamber in it, “This is a freeze gun!”

  “Wrong, it is an elemental gun.” Hearts joined me at my table and pulled open a drawer. Inside were various chambers that looked like the cryo one in the gun currently. “You can replace the chamber with whatever element you wish to use. Red is the heat wave chamber, white is the wind cannon, and so forth.”

  I set it back down. A little voice in my mind told me that Spades wouldn’t want me running off with that. Clubs was having a field day though, libera
ting the tables with all sorts of stuff. To make it not look too suspicious, I picked up a Mercury Alpha tablet and a few sets of wireless headphones.

  There were plenty of other gadgets I had an interest in. The sheer amount of drones they were working on was insane. Some were small enough to fit in your pocket, while others were obviously being designed for military use. Again, the gl-O-bal R&D department was amazing.

  As we made our way back to the elevator, the building’s alarm went off. “That’s our signal to go!” Hearts hit the button for ground floor and we rocketed back up.

  Spades was waiting for us in the lobby. “Perfect timing gentlemen. I say we make ourselves scarce before anyone shows up.”

  We left and quickly made our way around back to the van. Police cars showed up just as we got out of view. As Hearts went to unlock the door, a shadow jumped down from the rooftop beside us.

  “Didn’t learn your lesson the first time Spades. I guess I’ll have to break your other arm.”

  Standing there like a lone sentinel in the night was The Dark Lion. Maybe I’d actually gotten through to him on the phone call. I couldn’t blow my cover, so I took a step towards him. “It’s four against one moron. We already know what you can do.”

  His gloved hand with the long nails flashed in the light. “I killed one Diamonds already; I can add a second to my collection.”

  Spades stepped in the middle of us. “There is no need for violence this fine evening, is there John?”

  I could see him bristle at being addressed by his real name. “Tell me why I shouldn’t finish the job? I’m quivering with excitement for whatever bullshit you’re about to tell me.”

  Spades didn’t say anything. Instead he pulled off his mask, revealing his public face, that of Owen Walker. “We’ve done nothing wrong here tonight. You can’t steal what’s already yours.”

  The Dark Lion followed suit. He pushed back his cowl and took off his infrared goggles. No longer was this about hiding their faces, no both men wanted to show their hatred for the other. “Owen Walker, you dirty piece of shit. Had I known it was you from the beginning, you wouldn’t be alive for this conversation.”