“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Athough, I’m not sure I want to call this armor, Mechani-CAL. It seems like it is so much more.”
“What name would you choose for it? In almost all categories, it outclasses the performance parameters of the Ultraweapon armor.”
“With him going to prison, I guess I could start calling myself the new Ultraweapon. What do you think, pal?”
“It seems like an acceptable name for now. Perhaps you will come up with one that is more suitable, in the future.”
Andy doesn’t really understand human pettiness. I, on the other hand, am all too familiar with it. Taking Patterson’s name would be the icing on the cake! That’s right! I’m the new Ultraweapon and one badass mofo! What the hell? If a nuke couldn’t kill me, what’s the worst a forty-year old teenager could do?
Larry and the therapist playing his “dad” lived in a two-story farmhouse within walking distance from the school. Supposedly, he’d have his telekinetic construct “friends” over for sleepovers and study sessions. The therapist was a cousin to that Mather bastard I waxed at Mount Olympus, and also a projecting empath, but on a much weaker scale than MindOver.
While Andy disabled the alarm systems, I planned to use the hose that replaced one of my grenade launchers. It was hooked to a tank of knockout gas. The plan was to get in, snatch Larry while he dreamed, and take him somewhere else to meet his new world.
It was a good plan, which was precisely why I felt it was doomed to failure.
• • •
To the credit of my armor’s builder, namely me, it survived being dashed into the ground from one hundred and fifty feet in the air. One minute I’d been flying along with the sleeping prince on his twin-sized bed, and the next thing I experienced was the telekinetic pile driver.
The shields protested, losing forty percent and frying one emitter outright, but they held. Already, they were recovering as I pushed the suit into an upright position and brought my weapons online.
Larry’s bed was smashed into the ground and he stood next to it, flaring with his power. A small army of telekinetic constructs surrounded him.
When Wendy and I had fought him, she said that the Olympians usually wore him down until he dropped. That might take some time, but I didn’t have much to do anyway.
“Looks like we’re doing this the hard way,” I said, and opened up with the four pulse cannons. There were cases and cases of grenades and fifty caliber machine guns also available to me, but I still lamented not having some kind of unstoppable weapon yet.
His constructs swarmed over me, but the large number he created actually worked to my advantage. My shields were repowering faster than the constructs could wear them down. If he focused his attack into bolts like the one that had knocked me down, or into a couple of giant sized energy forms, I’d be in trouble.
With cannons blazing, I walked toward him like one of those stupid TV weathermen in a hurricane, trying not to let the band members climbing onto my back and beating at me with their instruments bother me. We’d crashed into the side of a mountain and he held the high ground, so it was a foot-by-foot struggle to break through the energy barring my way.
A construct in the form of a pole-vaulter slammed into me and I responded by turning on the fifty calibers and added something physical that he’d have to deal with. I also kicked on the sonics built into the thorax, thank you Bo Carr.
For the first time in my life, I actually was the unstoppable force, breaking through wave after wave of constructs. Though it slowed me, I cut off the steady stream of bullets. I didn’t want to injure the man if I could avoid it. I also eventually turned off the sonics.
The tide started to turn in my favor, and maybe on a subconscious level he was starting to panic. Detecting an energy anomaly ahead, I angled my shields forward and seconds later a powerful bolt smashed into them. The wedge of power I’d created in front of me turned white against the exertion, but stayed active. Larry’s bolts came at the expense of his constructs, which dwindled in number.
Seeing that wasn’t working, he spun and fled. Some of Larry’s “friends” tried to help him run, but I closed the gap and brushed them aside.
Finally, it was he and I. “Take it easy, Larry. I’m just here to give you your medal. Don’t you want your medal?”
“What medal?”
“The state championship basketball game in Charlotte; don’t you remember? You were the MVP.”
His medal might have once belonged to Chain Charmer’s husband, but that was beside the point.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Coach Cal. The basketball coach. Remember?”
“Uhhh, what are you wearing?”
“This? Oh, this is one of those suits they make for you to help you walk. I got in a bad car accident after you won the game and they only let me out of the hospital last week. When I found out you didn’t have your medal, I came to give it to you.”
Lying to someone not fully in possession of his faculties turned out to be really easy for me. I’d prepared this whole lie earlier with Andy and Bobby, but even so, it just flowed out of me as natural as could be.
I guess that doesn’t speak very well about me, but what’s a guy gonna do?
“Where’s my watch?” Larry asked in a panic. “Dad said he’d never forgive me if I lost it! It’s a priceless family heirloom.”
He was referring to the GPS unit they made him wear. It had taken Andy two minutes to override the damn thing and make it fall off Larry’s hand. I was going to have to check him for other tracking devices, but that could wait.
Needing a quick answer, I said, “I think your dad took it into town to have a repair shop put a new battery in it. Don’t worry. So, are you ready to get your medal?”
He seemed a little skeptical, but straightened up. Some of his remaining constructs came to his side and appeared to be cheering him on.
Opening a small compartment in my armor, I slid out the necklace and felt a pang of regret. If this worked, the boy who never grew up was about to be evicted from Neverland. I don’t normally face moral dilemmas, well that’s not true; I usually just don’t let them bother me that much.
Letting it drop over his head and onto his neck, I took two steps back and held my breath.
Larry grabbed his forehead with his right hand and sank to the ground. A couple of his constructs reached to help him, but they disappeared; followed quickly by all the other shapes that had been milling about.
“Mister Hitt? Can you understand me?”
“What’s... what’s going on...? I don’t... what.”
“Take it easy for a minute. Focus on my voice if that helps. You are a superhuman with incredible telekinetic powers. Those powers have been out of control for years. The necklace I just gave you dampens that power. Hopefully, you can think straight now. Do you understand this?”
Thrusting his left hand out, he screamed, “No!”
His energy became an extension of his hand and it was as large as I was. It crashed into me and sent the suit hurtling backward and I was reminded that I hadn’t been concerned about so many constructs before and was glad he didn’t just focus on just a single attack.
I wasn’t glad anymore.
The energy swelled around him, becoming a full body some twenty-feet tall, with him hovering in the center of it. Spending a good chunk of my life dealing with criminal lowlifes, I recognized the look of murderous rage on his face. Whatever was going on in his mind at that time wasn’t my problem. He was my problem!
“No!” he shouted again. “It’s not true!”
Both his transparent arms reached for me, but I used my jetpack and went skyward. He responded by ripping chunks of earth from the ground and throwing them at me.
It took all of one hit and the loss of a second shield emitter to break me out of my funk.
“Round two it is!” Four pulse cannons lanced downward and struck one of the arms he used to shield himself.
He ripped
whole trees out and chucked them at me. I responded by flying higher and that’s when I knew he didn’t know how to effectively wield his powers. He doubled in size to forty feet, but I didn’t detect a corresponding change in energy output. Sure, he was bigger, but the power was less defined.
If he survives this, maybe I can help him with that, I thought, and then let him have it.
Sustained fire from the pulse cannons rained down on him like a sleet storm and drove the telekinetic version of King Kong to his knees. When he curled into a fetal ball, I stopped and waited for thirty seconds before descending next to the giant head.
“Mind telling me what that was about?” I demanded, my voice booming over my external speakers.
The energy-being dissipated, and all that was left was a forty year old man, sobbing in the middle of what used to be the side of a mountain that now looked like it had taken a dozen missile strikes.
He mumbled something about his mom and I said, “What?”
“I killed her! My powers went out of control right before I graduated high school and I killed her! Don’t you understand! I killed my own mother!”
Guess that explains why they never had a “mom” living with him. Also, why he never graduated, and always reset to a ninth grader every time he was about to get his diploma.
“Damn,” I said, not expecting that. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Larry. But you’ve been torturing yourself over this for over twenty years, and it sounds like it was beyond your control.”
“Cal,” Andy said. “I recommend you keep him talking. If you get him to confront the issue, it may defuse the situation.”
“Copy that,” I said.
“Who’re you talking to?” Larry asked. I hadn’t switched off the microphone.
“You ever hear of Andydroid? He’s on my team and wants to meet you. But before that, tell me more about your mom.”
My inquiry pushed him back into a funk and he said, “She had the power too, but nothing like mine,” he babbled. “Mom was always on me about control and not hurting anyone. We got into an argument... she didn’t... want me to go to college until she said I was... ready... and I... I...”
I guess I’ve gotten better with the pop psychologist bit. “Anyone with powers has made mistakes. I’ve made enough of my own to know that. There’s plenty of blood on my hands too, Larry. If you let us, we can help.”
“I don’t want your help! I should die for what I did!”
Okay, maybe I still suck monkeyballs at head games. How about this, then?
In response I turn toward one of the trees that’d been knocked over and had the root ball exposed and fired all my weapons at it. Satisfied with the destruction, I turned back to him. “You’ve got three choices, Larry. Number one, take off the necklace and go back to being the ninth grader worried about oversleeping for your morning class and if Peggy Sue likes you. A few more decades and you can use social security to pay for your lunch money. Number two, I leave this mountain with your blood on my hands. I’m sure if you learned how to use your powers better, you might be able to stop me from killing you, but you haven’t. If you really want your ticket punched, I’ll be your huckleberry! Or, you can pick what’s behind door number three, which means you accept what happened twenty years ago and man the hell up! Obviously, your mom was right, and you weren’t ready for college, but the only school I’m offering is the school of hard knocks. You’ll be around a few other misfits of the superhuman world and you can figure out your powers, and figure out what kind of man you want to be. Take a few minutes and think it over, Hitt. This is the biggest decision you’ll ever make, maybe the last one too, so think long and hard.”
Activating my jetpack, I gave the guy some space. Andy immediately asked me, “Calvin, I fail to see how eliminating Imaginary Larry would advance our cause?”
“Can’t make a person who doesn’t want to live, want to, Andy. If he wants a mercy killing, I can’t think of a good reason to deny it.”
“You were able to coax Aphrodite out of suicidal depression during the bug crisis,” he replied.
“Not the same, in my eyes. Aphrodite was a functioning hero before the bugs. This guy’s a train wreck. The only person who can get him out of this mess is himself. They’ve had an army of specialists try to help him through the years. Other than the necklace, I’ve got nothing to offer him when it comes to how to live your life. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretending to be dead to the world at the moment.”
“Not quite knowing what it is like to be alive makes it hard to fathom why someone would want to abandon it so quickly.”
The robot had a point, but I wasn’t really the person to debate deep issues like that. Instead, I went for something we could both grasp. “Did you get the readings on his energy levels? He was pumping out megajoules even with the necklace on. You could power a whole city with what he’s capable of!”
“Quite true, Calvin.”
“Yeah, if he’d compressed those rocks into a tiny missile and shot it at me, it’d be like one of those railguns the Navy keeps working on. Even with my extra shielding I wouldn’t have stood a second hit from something like that unless I was really, really lucky.”
Holy shit! That’s it!
“Andy! Andy! I know what we should make for this suit’s ultimate weapon!”
“Based on your level of excitement, I am guessing you would like to make a railgun. Is this correct?”
“You bet your ass it is!”
“It is difficult to imagine a reason why wagering an integral part of your anatomy is justified. As to your proposition, we will require an additional power supply for this base in order to charge the weapon, but the space in this area should be sufficient. However, the cost of the materials would be a problem.”
“I was already trying to figure out how to approach Wendy, this just gives me another reason.”
I did see an interview where she said she’d be happy to see me one more time. The question is would she be happy enough to buy me the parts to make a hypersonic railgun?
For the next few minutes, I went over the possibilities of what we could fit into the area. That went on until Andy reminded me that it had been twelve minutes and I should go check on Larry.
I’m OCD, not ADD, but who wouldn’t get distracted by the prospect of their very own megaweapon?
“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back for me.” Larry said, sounding a bit defeated.
“Sorry,” I replied. “I got held up with another issue. Did you decide what you want to do?”
“I remembered that woman, she got into my mind and said that she’d help me make everyone pay. I didn’t like that.”
“Oh, General Devious,” I said. “Yeah, she’s a megabitch. As I recall, you sent her packing with her tail between her legs.”
“What do you want from me?”
“A dead guy, who could see the future, sent me a warning that something is gonna happen in San Francisco in a few months. His warning said I needed the most powerful people I could find. Most supers would lose half their powers with that necklace on. On you, that’s a good thing, but even with it, you’re still one of the most powerful people on this planet. I want you on that team, at least for whatever is going down in California. You wanna walk after that, I won’t stop you. In the meantime, you can lay low at my base and figure out what you want to do with your life; or you can take either of the other options tonight.”
The manboy thought it over. He didn’t strike me as the suicidal type. If he was, he’d have done himself in already.
Finally he said, “Dying’s like giving up, and Mom only wanted me to be the best person I was able to be. I don’t want to go back to thinking I’m some thirteen year old, so I guess I’ll go with you. Maybe if I work real hard at being a hero, it’ll make her proud of me.”
Guess he’s been upgraded from Neverland, to the Island of Misfit Toys. There I go again, mixing metaphors.
“Fair enough, Mister
Hitt. We got the one government tracking device off of you, but Andy needs to scan you to see if there are any others. We’ve spent too much time here, so let’s put some distance between us and here and then meet up with him.”
“You weren’t really going to kill me,” Larry stated, rather than asked.
“Why would you think I wouldn’t?” I answered.
“Well, you’re a superhero. You wouldn’t do that. Hey, why are you laughing?”
“Get to know me a little and you’ll understand. Now use your telekinesis and grab onto my arm. I’ll fly us deeper into the mountains and Andy will meet us when we land.”
The dude didn’t make it a hundred feet before he started blowing chunks all over the suit. Airsickness! Add that to his list of problems... and mine too.
• • •
“I don’t think you would have killed him,” Stacy says.
“I agree with your assessment,” Andy adds.
Hesitating before I toss the towel into the hamper, I instead set it on the sink. I’d need to check it for contamination before deciding its fate.
Glad they seem so certain, I think. Wish I could say the same.
“I’m just happy I didn’t have to make the decision. Larry’s a decent guy who was dealt a pretty raw deal. Except for being a decent guy, he’s a lot like me.”
Chapter Fourteen
Oz Against the World
As I finish telling Stacy about how I recruited Larry, Wendy marches in with a fussy Gabolicious in her arms and holds her out to me. She’s got her “I’m annoyed face” on. I’m pretty used to it at this point.
“Naked here!” I protest.
“If you spent less time running your trap, you’d have some clothes on. Your daughter wants you and won’t take no for an answer. Besides, been there done that, and she’s the proof. I’m going to finish getting into costume. Andy, what’s the ETA?”
With Stacy’s stifled laughter crackling on the channel, Andy replies, “We are currently ninety minutes out. Larry is awake, but I have told him to remain on the couch until one of you can provide protective clothing so that he may access the showers.”
Secrets of a D-List Supervillain Page 22
