Burn Out

by R. J. Ross

“You had to have known what he was like before you started dating,” Nico says.

  “I did,” I say, “and I know even better, now.” I turn, heading for the pile of crumpled letters that he had left behind. There’s someone that needs to see these.

  ***

  *Walter Colleck’s Mansion*

  Walter hides the tick that’s trying to develop under his eye. Someone called Lydia in, and she’s forcing him to show her around the building, now. “I can’t thank you enough for arranging for such well-equipped teachers!” she says, her arm in his. She pats his hand with her free one. “You’re so good to our boy.”

  “Well, only the best for my family,” Walter says. “Of course, we’re in the middle of a little project right now—”

  “I would LOVE to see it!” she says. “I should have come earlier to see what you boys were up to, but you know how work goes. Oh, tell me, is he behaving himself? I can’t begin to tell you how many tutors we’ve had give up. It isn’t Davis’s fault, of course, he’s just so much more intelligent than they were. You know how difficult it is to teach someone smarter than you are—well, no, I doubt you do, do you?”

  “He’s behaving like a prince,” Walter says, reluctantly leading to where the boy is working. She gets distracted as she sees her brother.

  “Richard! Oh, it’s wonderful to see you doing something you love,” Lydia says, heading for him.

  “Sorry, Lydia, this is highly precise work,” Richard says, tapping on the keyboard. “Can we talk later?”

  “Oh, yes, of course. I would hate to interrupt you,” she says, turning to watch Davis, instead. “Oh, my,” she says.

  Walter looks, as well, and then stares, a bit surprised, himself. The parts of the machine are floating in the air around Davis, thanks to a tiny glowing machine on the floor. Walter has never seen that machine before. Sometime when his back had been turned, the boy created an anti-gravity field with targeting capacity, and instead of showing it off, he’s using it to hold his parts, like a tool bench.

  The preteen doesn’t even notice them. His hands are dashing through the pieces, putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle. He doesn’t even glance at the diagram that Richard spent years creating, and the machine looks a lot different compared to the original design. It’s much more compact, for one. Walter can picture it in his mind. It’s something that will be easy to carry.

  “Oh, Davis, how wonderful,” Lydia says, walking over. She touches one of the floating pieces, watching it spin slowly in the air. “Did your daddy make this for you?”

  Davis looks at her, his eyes dead. “Please don’t, Mother,” he says in a monotone voice. He turns right back to his work, not even noticing how she recoils slightly.

  “I… I see,” she says. “I didn’t realize I was causing problems.” She looks over at Walter, and then hurries to his side, whispering, “Is… did I say something wrong?”

  “You know how we geniuses are, my dear,” Walter says, smiling, “we get so caught up in the moment that we forget ourselves.”

  “Yes, but… I’ve never had him look at me like that, before,” she says.

  “I’m sure he’ll apologize when he comes back to himself,” Walter promises, glancing over at where Richard is blocking their view of the monitor. He wants to know how things are going with the girl. He can’t say anything, though, because regardless of how easily Lydia is going along with him now, he’s not certain how she’ll react to kidnapping. Sometimes even the more… morally vague people, like Lydia, can be a bit touchy about things like that.

  Lydia watches Davis with a frown that grows more and more obvious by the second. “Have you boys taken any breaks?” she asks. “While I understand how enthusiastic Davis is about his work, he’s still a growing boy. Has he had his snack? It’s important to feed his brain, you know.”

  “Ah, yes, we haven’t had a snack yet. Do you think you could toss something together?” he asks.

  “Actually, I think Davis should come with me,” she says, heading for the boy. “Davis, honey, I know that you’re having fun, but you really must take a break. Why don’t we go over to the kitchen and—” her hand touches his shoulder, only to jerk back as the boy looks at her again. “Oh… oh my, you’re flushed,” she says, placing her hand on his forehead. “You’re burning up! Walter, how could you make him work like this when he has a fever?” she demands.

  “A fever?” Walter repeats, heading over to the two and touching Davis’s neck. “Well, I did not account for that. I’m sure I can toss together something that will bring it down, if you just give me a moment, my dear.”

  “You do that, and I’ll put him in bed,” Lydia says firmly. “Come along, Davis. You need to get some sleep.” She tugs on his arm, but the boy doesn’t budge.

  “I am not finished yet, Mother,” Davis says, his voice still monotone. He starts working again, moving even faster than he had, earlier. The machine is coming together so quickly that it looks like it’s building itself.

  “Davis, do not talk back to me!” Lydia snaps in her best “mother” voice. “You need to rest and recuperate! There’s something extremely wrong with you right now. Your eyes are glowing! That can’t be natural!”

  “Well, my dear, he IS a super,” Walter points out. “There are several supers that have glowing eyes when they work.”

  “Yes, but orange? They remind me of that girl we met at his school. And I’ve known Davis a lot longer than you have, Walter, I would know if my child has glowing eyes!”

  “Lydia, I think you might be overreacting—” Walter starts out, only to inwardly curse as Ms. Mace appears in the room, holding a large canister of glowing energy. Lydia turns to see what he’s looking at, and then yelps in surprise.

  “Where in the world did you come from?” she demands.

  Ms. Mace gives her an emotionless look, casually handing the canister to Richard before speaking. “I am Mr. Colleck’s personal assistant, ma’am. Is there something I can do for you?”

  “But you weren’t—you weren’t there, but you—” Lydia stutters slightly, thrown off by the attitude.

  “It is an assistant’s duty to not be seen unless needed,” Ms. Mace says, as if it HAS to be true about all assistants.

  “I… really need an assistant,” Lydia says after contemplating that sentence for a second. “I don’t have time for this. Davis, come, you need to get to bed. You’re burning up! I can’t believe that both your father and your uncle didn’t even notice,” she says. “Don’t you realize that high temperatures can affect braincells? I am not letting that happen to my little genius!”

  “Mother,” Davis says.

  “Yes, Davis?”

  “You’re bothering me.” The machine he’s building is almost complete. What should have taken him over a month to build has been built in less than an hour. He reaches for the last piece, but it slips out of his fingers. He staggers, falling forward, only to be grabbed by his father.

  “I think you’re correct, Lydia,” Walter says, a bit grimly. He picks the boy up in a princess hold and starts for the exit. It was the comment about braincells that got to him, not that he would ever tell her that. As a super, he’s never had a fever, therefore he has only the basic knowledge of human sicknesses, and those were from a very long time ago.

  “My… machine,” Davis says plaintively, his hand reaching up, only to fall again.

  “You can finish it when you feel better,” Walter tells him. “You’re very close to it.”

  “But… I need to…” he says right before his eyes close and he falls into a deep sleep.

  Walter looks at him a bit grimly. He’d been certain that that dosage wouldn’t harm the boy, but it seems mixing it with the power boosting energy has caused side-effects he hadn’t planned for. Well of course it had, he realizes, the speed that the boy had used while working had forced the poison to circulate through his body faster than his healing factor could deal with it. The fastest way to fix this problem would be to…
<
br />   No, he thinks, he will not go to the supers for one of their healers. He’s a genius. He can figure out a solution fast enough that this will be a mere… bad memory. Or not a memory at all, he goes on, because the boy is still under the control of the mind-altering spray. It was so handy, while it worked, it’s a real shame about the side effects. He’ll have to factor those things in a little more in his next attempt. Or, he decides, he might even have the boy do it for him. The boy is a genius, and eager to learn, like that.

  ***

  *Reaper’s Underground Lair, Central*

  “What are you going to do with us?” Ashlynn demands as she’s sat down. The large, terrifying man is still holding her daughter, and her daughter is smiling at him. That fact makes her feel a little more confident, but not much. Usually her daughter is extremely shy, and a bit of a scaredy-cat, so how can she be so comfortable with a monster like this?

  “Careful, sweetheart,” Reaper says to the little girl, gently taking her hand before she can touch his face. “We can’t have you touching my skin.” He heads for the massive recliner, sitting down with Evie on his lap. “There we go. Such a tiny little thing…”

  “Give me my daughter,” Ashlynn says, getting to her feet, only to stagger slightly. She feels dizzy.

  “Ah… looks like I carried you a bit too long, even though I wore three layers,” Reaper says. “Shame, that. You should recover with time.” He puts the little girl down. “Don’t want you affected, as well.”

  “What… what did you do to me?” Ashlynn asks.

  “Well, darlin’, I’m a grim reaper,” Reaper says, pulling out a cigar from his coat, only to look at it and put it right back. “Unlike my baby girl, this will affect that one, won’t it,” he says, almost to himself. “There’s a little… bounty on your man’s head right now. He has things the other villains want, but you know how that goes. We’re villains. Why pay when you can just hold something valuable hostage?”

  “Is that what you’re doing?” she asks, shaking slightly with fear.

  “If I was doing that, I wouldn’t have left the…” he pauses, censoring himself with a smirk that doesn’t reach his eyes, “kidnapping pill to be eaten by his own pets. No, I’m not nearly the twit that he is. The Hall is looking for your little girl. I’m going to give her to them, but for now, we’ll lay low and play nice.”

  “So… you’re just… just going to hold us for a bit before giving us to the Hall? Aren’t you a villain?” she asks, calming slightly. She looks around, taking in the strange decor and the gigantic picture hanging on the wall. “Who is that?” she asks, motioning to the picture.

  “That’s my baby girl,” Reaper says proudly, looking at it, as well. “Beautiful, isn’t she? Shame that she’s not interested in taking on the Reaper name.”

  “I see,” she says. “Is he… will they really eat him?” she asks. “I know that I shouldn’t feel any attachment to him, it was just a… brief affair. Oh, he has a son. Evie has a big brother. Do you know the boy?”

  “He won’t die,” Reaper says. “If he could die that easily, he would have kicked the bucket a long time ago. But you’re right. He does have a son, who could become troublesome at any moment,” he goes on, looking at the wall, pointedly.

  A hand comes through a shadow, followed by the teenager in question. “I’d like to have my little sister back, now, Reaper,” Rocco says.

  “I’m just borrowing her for the moment, boy, so don’t take this personally,” Reaper says, getting to his feet, “but I’m going to have to toss you out.”

  “What are you going to do with them?” Rocco asks as Reaper walks towards them. “If it’s going to hurt either of them, I’ll have to stop you. Sandra wouldn’t be happy, you know?”

  “It won’t hurt them,” Reaper says. “I’m just using them as a bit of bait.”

  “Bait for what?” Rocco asks.

  “Triplets,” Reaper says before pushing Rocco back into the shadows. The teen disappears, only to come in again from a different shadow.

  “Then let me stay here,” Rocco says. “I’ll hide the two if they get too close, but I don’t know what you’d want with the triplets, anyway.”

  “I want to have a little talk with their brother,” Reaper says. “Sandra’s birthday is coming up, soon, and his secretary keeps gumming up the works.”

  Rocco just stares at him for a moment before shaking his head and heading for the little girl.

  “You didn’t happen to find your old man eaten, did you?” Reaper asks as he heads back to his recliner. Rocco looks up from where he’s trying to make friends. He tilts his head slightly, his eyes glowing faintly, and then looks back.

  “No, he’s still alive,” he says.

  “Shame.”

  “Yep.”

  Ashlynn looks from one to the other, wondering how she’s supposed to feel right now. She’s almost certain that it isn’t amused. “Who ARE you, Rocco?” she asks.

  “Nightstep,” Rocco says as he digs through his pockets and pulls out a sucker to offer Evie. “Super Villain.”

  ***

  *Walter Colleck’s Mansion*

  “So there’s a good chance that he poisoned Davis?” I ask as we float high above Walter Colleck’s mansion. “What is it, exactly, that they used to do it?”

  “A nasty cocktail containing Atlanti’s venom,” Nico says. “You saw that they had it, right? She’s one of the Cape Cell inmates, an octopus shape-shifter. She’s a…” he pauses for a moment, as if trying to find a way to put it, “well, let’s just say she would kill all of humanity if she could, because she blames them for the destruction that’s happening to the oceans.”

  “I see,” I say. I have a basic knowledge of the Cape Cell convicts, but he knows them, personally. This should be interesting.

  “We’ve been working with her,” Nico says, “She’s building cleaning devices that the Hall’s been setting up in all of our waters, lakes, rivers, oceans, they do a decent job, since I’m the one that designed them. But before we caught her she thought it would be a good idea to replace the ice up in the North Pole.”

  “Don’t supers live up there?” I ask. “That’s where your parents are, right?”

  “She decided to get rid of them,” Nico says. “She has a nasty little trick that can even throw Superior for a loop.”

  “The venom?” I offer.

  “The venom.”

  “And he used that on a boy that’s only just now coming into his true powers?” I demand, enraged.

  “According to Jonas, he seems to have diluted it with something that causes the victim to be highly open to suggestions,” Nico says. “There’s a chance that he diluted it even more for Davis.” He taps his earbud. “Rocco? What’s the status on Shadowman’s daughter?”

  “I’m with Reaper, who’s using her to try and bait the triplets,” Rocco says.

  “What in the world?” I say. “Who gave him permission to do that?”

  “Jimmi,” Nico says, holding up a hand to stop me. “Rocco, does he realize how much trouble that might get him in? Tell him that Panther wound up stuck in tights for three months the last time he messed around with norms like that.”

  “I don’t look good in tights, tell them that I’ll help with their financial advising for three months, instead,” I hear Reaper say.

  “Deal,” Nico says. “Rocco, keep them from getting hurt, all of them. I’m fond of the triplets.”

  “Got it, Boss,” Rocco says.

  “So… you’re just going to let him do whatever it is he’s planning?” I ask Nico.

  “We don’t have time to slap him on the wrist for this,” Nico says. I shrug, slightly, and turn my attention to the building below. There’s something bothering me. It’s like there’s a… power fluctuation going on. My eyes narrow as I see Walter carrying Davis from the school building to the house.

  “There,” I say, rushing forward, right behind Nico. Davis is unconscious, he must have been affected by the poison, just
like Phoebe was. I have to get him away—

  The world flashes white, and I find myself falling through the air. I land on top of Nico, only to feel him hit the ground with my weight. That… that would NEVER happen. I look at him, and then up as I hear guns being cocked.

  “You’re trespassing on private property,” the teleporter says as she heads for us. “It’s obvious that he’s going to have a security system set up. Have you come to save me?” she asks under her breath, looking me in the eyes.

  “Ms. Mace,” Nico says. “I knew that you looked familiar.” I move off of him, feeling guilty for knocking him over. I might be a bit short, but I weigh a lot more than I appear. I also feel a bit wobbly.

  “Please,” she whispers.

  I don’t know why, she kidnapped me, and all that, but… I don’t feel right just abandoning her. I’m a hero, we’re born to do stupidly selfless things! But I can’t just grab her, there are norm guards all around us and I’m positive that we just got hit with a power blocker. I glance at Nico for all of a second, and he gives me a little smirk before jumping to his feet and grabbing the woman from behind. He presses his finger to her temple, looking at all of the guards. The scientists are filtering out of the building to the left, but they just stare, or record this with their smartphones until Nico nods in their directions. I hear several of them curse as their phones explode.

  “We just came here to check on an ex-student, and you hit us with a power-blocker?” Nico asks. “That’s a bit rude, don’t you think? Don’t make a move. She might be a super, but I outclass her by a mile. Don’t think of firing, either. Bullets don’t work on me, but they might on her.”

  “You’re a Hall super. They don’t kill,” one of the guards say, but he doesn’t look nearly as confident as he’s trying to. “And what about the girl?”

  “She’s faking it,” Nico says, “just like I did. Now, you’re going to do some things for me. I want Jimmi’s commlink back. It won’t work for you, anyway,” he tells Ms. Mace. I see her hand go down, touching the bracelet she’s wearing. “I’m surprised he didn’t take that from you. You gave him the phone, I know, I’m the one that destroyed it.”