by Ben Bequer
I don’t know why, but at that exact moment, it all hit me. Maybe it was the post-fight exhaustion, or the breathless euphoria of having beaten the Superbs. Or perhaps it was Apogee’s mention of his wife and children, knowing the turmoil my family went through after my father’s death.
I couldn’t pin a reason for my delayed reaction to it. I knew the moment it happened, the instant Pulsewave fell over that he was dead. I knew his power set and it didn’t include anything to save him from the seventy story fall. And at that moment, I had felt remorse.
It could have been a combination of wanting to fit in with the others, fear of being considered weak and maybe even because I liked that Influx had been impressed with me “popping my cherry” on a super.
But the truth was that I hadn’t cared much about Pulsewave’s death until this moment. I hadn’t thought about it except when others brought it up. Yet now, facing a person struck by the tragedy and confronted by the fear that Pulsewave’s children would have to endure a fate similar to mine, I felt ashamed.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to say.
She grabbed me by my shirt and slammed me back in the car.
“That’s a start.”
Then Apogee’s eyes glazed over and her grip failed. Without her holding me, I almost slipped down to the floor, but I propped myself against the smashed car. She was frozen, almost as if under the effect of Cool’s temporal bubbles, but she stepped back to avoid me as I stumbled forward, which was strange.
“You alright?” I asked her but her face was blank.
I saw a figure appear from the haze and approach. It was Zundergrub. His eyes flashed an intermittent pulse of darkness and light. He came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder as his eye effect faded. Apogee was motionless.
“What’s wrong with your face?” Zundergrub asked, recoiling from my unsettling appearance. I couldn’t feel much, but I could imagine the swelling and crusted blood all over my face. Even the green cuddly imp he held cringed away from me. The doctor stroked it absentmindedly, as one would cat or lap dog.
I shook my head. “Hell, I thought you were on the rocket and gone.”
He smiled, “I wanted to finish off that FTL fellow but he’s drawn my yellow impling away.”
“The yellow monster thing?”
“At the very least it’s giving us a distraction. More supers have arrived while you were off. In fact, Cool Hand escaping with the rocket was a good thing, as most flew off after him. Can you even walk?”
“I’ve got nothing, Zee. Get yourself out of here if you can.”
Apogee blinked a few times, but made no move to attack.
“Nonsense,” he spat. “You save him,” Zundergrub motioned to Apogee and she immediately grabbed my arm and slung it over her shoulder.
“What’d you do to her?”
Again, Zundergrub flashed a malicious smile but Apogee moved off, supporting my weight in her arms, and in a moment the doctor was obscured by the smoke. We crossed the street, towards Penn Station, about a half a block towards Madison Square Garden, and passed Epic.
He was still in the same spot, frozen.
Part Three
GO DOWN EASY
Chapter 13
We wound our way through the wrecked cars and smashed stores down W 34th street, with Apogee half carrying me. I wanted to rest, lie down and forget about everything, but she dragged me towards Penn Station. Down 8th Avenue I could catch a glimpse of Zundergrub’s overgrown yellow monster fighting multiple supers on the other side of Madison Square Garden, about two blocks away. It was on fire and down on one knee, receiving punishment from a host of superheroes, soon to fall, but it had served its purpose well by drawing attention away from us.
We crossed a street so obscured with smoke, dust and floating debris that I was totally disoriented. Apogee brought us beneath a storefront overhang and we paused a moment as a super ran by. I couldn’t recognize him, but he knew Apogee.
“You alright?” he asked her not really noticing me.
She nodded.
In the condition I was in, I was in serious trouble if Apogee decided then to turn me in, or if Zundergrub’s powers faded.
“They’re starting a med center outside of the Garden,” he told her, thinking I was some injured bystander she was saving. “About a block that way.”
Apogee and I continued down the street and reached Penn Station, avoiding an overturned burning car and a few panicked civilians. The smoke was thicker here for some reason, obscuring our vision as we got to the stairs leading down. Standing in front of the smashed glass doors to Penn Station was another super keeping people from heading down the stairs.
“Keep moving folks,” he told some folks who were right in front of us. “Station’s closed and the trains aren’t running.”
I had heard of this guy and I knew he was a lightweight. He had a killer costume, though, with bright red, white and blue, and an impressive cape. Those suits didn’t come cheap.
“Sorry folks,” he started, pausing when he recognized her. “Apogee?”
I stood straight, pushing her off me.
“You know who I am?” I asked him.
He nodded. I could see the nerves as he tensed up and looked over to Apogee, as if for help. I knew the feeling. A few minutes prior, I had felt the same facing off the Superb Seven.
“What’s your name, buddy?”
“Powermaster,” he said, taking a half-step back. His powers had something with force projection and flight, but he wasn’t much of a threat to me.
“I’m Blackjack. My friends and I just beat the Superb Seven. I personally beat Atmosphero and Superdynamic.” I gave him a few seconds pause to mull that over.
“Apogee?” he pleaded to her, but her face was expressionless.
“You got two choices, kid. You can pretend you never saw us,” I growled, “Or I can put you in a coma.”
Powermaster blinked twice and stepped aside, saying nothing.
When we reached the bottom of the stairwell, I looked back at him and waved, betting he wouldn’t report us. He turned away returning to his peacekeeper duties, probably trying to forget the whole thing ever happened.
The Penn Station concourse was a dead zone, with no one in sight. Visibility was terrible, with dust and smoke everywhere. Part of the roof had caved in smashing a row of departure boards onto the stairs leading further down to the trains. Dust puffed off the roof and the lights blinked with every thunderous step of Zundergrub’s gargantuan yellow imp on the street above us. The only thing moving down here, other than Apogee and I, was a sole sheet of newspaper floating in the air on a whirlwind of dust.
She helped me over the departure board and down the stairs to the platform.
I saw a dimly-lit bathroom and headed towards it, but Apogee grabbed my arm and was strong enough to keep me from going anywhere.
“Come on,” I told her. “I need to throw some water on my face.”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know what Zundergrub did to you, but I’m getting some water!” I yelled with strength I didn’t know I had. Apogee let me go. I didn’t bother to see if she followed me or not, going into the bathroom. Once inside, I ran some, digging my head into the sink and pouring more at the back of my head. I scrubbed some blood and dirt off my face and chest, and cleaned a couple of serious scrapes on my left elbow and right knee. I finished ripping off the spandex costume, so now I wore a sweaty, dirty black shirt, dark grey pants and my boots. My upper body and face were red, bruised and swollen from all the punishment. But instead of a beaten super villain, I looked like a beat up pedestrian.
I looked over to the door and was surprised to find Apogee standing there watching me, and I was worried that Zundergrub’s spell would wear off and she would come charging. But there was nothing I could do, beaten as I was. Leaning back on a wall, I slid on the floor, squeezing a wadded bunch of wet paper onto my forehead and letting the water drip down across my face and chest.
Still nothing.
I sat on the cold tiles, staring at her beautiful form and dozed off.
* * *
When I woke, Apogee was standing in the same place, same position. I felt re-energized and jumped to my feet. I threw more water on my face, which already looked much better with the reduced swelling, and I could swear some of the scrapes and cuts were healing.
“Zundergrub really did a job on you, huh?” I asked her. She stared at me pursing her full pouty lips. “I know what it’s like. He did it to me once. So can you talk?”
Apogee nodded.
“And you can understand me?”
She nodded again.
“Ok, perfect. I want you to leave. Go back up there and go home.”
Apogee blinked, confused, and looked out the door of the men’s room for a long time. I was giving her a direct command to leave, and I’m sure that’s what she wanted more than anything. Well, except perhaps beating my face in. It was as if she saw something at the door, and she almost reached out for it. Then she frowned and turned back to me.
“I can’t,” she said.
“What?”
“I can’t.”
“Zundergrub said to protect me,” I said, exasperated with her. “Right? Well, you’ve done that. Now go away.”
“I can’t!” she snapped.
I punched the wall and it collapsed, surprising her almost as much as me.
“Let me get this straight,” I started, brushing dirt and tile off myself. “You can’t do anything I say?”
“That man, he-” she stared in my direction but blankly. “His eyes...”
“Hey!” I snapped my fingers. “Let’s focus here. Do you know where you are, or even who you are?”
Apogee nodded.
“Know who I am?”
She nodded again, this time sneering. At least her memory was clear.
“Ok, stay here then. I’ll call someone to come get you,” I said, though I didn’t know who to call and I couldn’t expect to go far with a superhero sticking to me like the plague.
Apogee shook her head, about to say “I can’t again,” no doubt.
I grabbed her, in frustration.
“Look, you can’t be around me. You understand? Everyone in the world is gunning for me right now and it’s too dangerous. So please, pretty please, go away.”
She scrutinized me with those big beautiful eyes. Her face was marred with scrapes and scratches from our fight, and from this close I could get the remnants of her fragrance mixed with her natural odor. She was intoxicating.
“Why do you care if I get hurt?”
I guess I stared at her for longer than was acceptable, and she looked away. I released her and stepped back.
“Contrary to what you might think, I don’t like hurting people.”
“You expect me to believe that? You killed Pulsewave,” she said, her eyes burning as tears welled up.
I walked back to the sink and opened the faucet, tossing more cold water on my grimy face and hair. She was standing with her fists clenched, and it seemed that only Zundergrub’s magic kept her from attacking me.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she shot back. “You killed him.”
“It was an accident.”
Apogee shook her head. That explanation wasn’t enough for her.
“Look, he was trying to kill me. Or at least Atmosphero was. You heard him on the street back there. The guy is crazy. He has a hard-on for me or something.”
She stepped forward. “He died trying to stop you from stealing...whatever it was you were trying to steal. It was your evil intentions that got him killed, you understand? It’s your fault.”
“Evil intentions? You gotta be kidding me. I went there to steal something. For...” I didn’t know how much to tell her. “For a friend.”
“You are responsible for your own actions, Blackjack.”
“It was three against one,” I said, though not very convincingly, with my voice trailing off. The bathroom was silent save for the water faucet. I threw more water on my face and watched the foulness of blood, dust and dirt drip down the drain.
“You were scared.”
“Damn straight. I don’t know if you know the history between Atmosphero and me-“
She nodded.
“Yeah, so when we started squaring off, well, I knew it was me against him and Pulsewave and the other guy. I forget his name now,” I paused trying to recall, but the hero’s name eluded me. “So I dropped my decoy, threw myself off, and fired an explosive arrow to knock Atmo out.”
I looked at the tiles on the floor, broken and uneven. It was like everything I touched turned into rubble, everyone I was close to either died or was injured. All I had accomplished in my short life is leave a wake of collateral damage and dead bodies. I had almost killed those bank robbers, killed Pulsewave, and I was responsible for Influx.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “It is my fault.”
She hadn’t moved, and was standing there looking at me, her fists on her hips in full super heroine mode.
“Does his family have means?”
Apogee was confused by my question.
“Financially,” I added. “You said Pulsewave had a wife and kids.”
“Oh,” she said, starting to follow. “We’re setting up a fund.”
Apogee laughed, finally understanding what I was talking about.
“You think we’d take your blood money?” she taunted.
“I thought-“
“You thought what?” she interrupted taking a step closer to me and clenching her fists, but it was like she was hitting an invisible wall. Her fury was checked for a moment, replaced with surprise at first, that she couldn’t charge me, then with even greater resentment as Zundergrub’s spell prevented her from doing what she most wanted.
“I was hoping I could do something, you know?”
“Do nothing,” she snarled. “Even if you were to turn yourself in, and do the time, and then get out, even then you’d be nothing but a piece of shit criminal and we wouldn’t want any of your fucking help. You could burn in Hell a thousand years and it wouldn’t be enough.”
“Shut up,” I said storming past her and out of the bathroom.
“I mean, you have no right to even think to help.”
I kept going, ignoring her, but I felt her glaring at me as she followed close behind. We reached the fallen departure board that lay over the nearest stairs heading down. I climbed over and jumped down to the stairs below and heard her come after, muttering; “you have got to be kidding me,” under her breath but loud enough for me to hear.
“I thought you were mind controlled or something!” I yelled at her, getting into her face, but to her credit, she stood her ground. “Huh? Aren’t you? Well, then shut the fuck up!”
I strode off down the platform level, which was dark except for some flashing emergency lights on the roof that gave the whole place an orange hue. Gauging direction, I jumped off the platform onto the rails and headed the way I thought would lead towards Jersey under the East River.
“You have a real mean streak,” she said, following close behind. “You know that?”
“If I do, it’s because you bring it out in me.”
* * *
Apogee and I made our way through the tunnel system for the better part of two hours before we saw our first train. One moment there was a glimmer of light deep in the dark distance, the next the train was on us, racing past at high speed. As the morning trains started coming into the City every ten minutes or so, I found it useless to try to hide. It was certain that they were reporting our position, but what could do? They would probably have a welcoming committee waiting for us when we reached the surface, and though I felt a lot better, I wasn’t sure what I could do ag
ainst a guy like Epic.
Apogee followed without making a sound and I have to admit it became rather strange to have her dangling along for no reason. Partially because I didn’t trust Zundergrub and his mind trick, since the Doctor had proven so far to be both a coward and micro-selective with the use of his powers. I couldn’t really expect her to stay mind-jobbed. If Zee’s trick wore off, I was in trouble.
There was also something else that made me feel ill at ease. I’d grown used to being alone. And I guess I was always more comfortable in the silence of my lab, working with my tools to build crazier and crazier gadgets and toys.
It was weird to have her stuck to me, like a lost puppy.
We only had my small hand torch to light the way, but we made steady progress through the subway tunnels. There’s a reason nobody walks from the City to Jersey, but we had no choice as the surface exits from Manhattan were sure to be monitored. It was a strange feeling, having Apogee tagging along. I feared that she may attack me at any moment, but she trudged along behind me without making a sound.
After a few hours I saw a sliver of sunlight filtering underneath a door on the side of the tunnel. I sped up, leaving her behind but without my light she stumbled, falling on the ground.
“You ok?”
I put the light on her as she came to her feet and brushed herself off.
“What?” She said, a bit embarrassed by her clumsiness. “Get that light off me, you perv.”
“Huh?”
“Quit flashing my tits!”
I put the light down. “I was giving you light so you could get up! I wasn’t…never mind.” It was no use talking sense to her. In addition to being a total mind job, she was also a pain in the ass.
“You know,” I blurted out, turning and stopping her mid-track. “You can stay here for all I care.”
“I can’t.”
“Yeah right,” I snapped. “And if you’re going to be all testy about…” I waved at her chest area, “you might want to reconsider the outfit.”
