“That’s not the point, Bolt.” Andy, who had the power to manipulate earth and rock, rolled his eyes at Bolt, whose lightning and rain powers came in handy on sunny days. “Your girlfriend doesn’t want to scrape your innards off the asphalt. Your daredevil days are over, man. Get with it. Family first.” He sighed, his eyes glazing over at the mention of family. His own waited for him at home every night. At least he had some place and someone to go to, which was more than I could say for myself.
The girl who claimed she could take away my powers drifted back into my thoughts. I had to meet up with that Cameron chick by five the next afternoon. In a way, I wasn’t dreading it. How pathetic was that?
The fourth of the team was Kevin, but he snored away the days in front of the TV. His superpowers were subtler than the rest of us, meaning he was usually the getaway driver. He was a bottomless pit and could eat through anything, even metal. It came in handy when bombs were set to go off in the middle of town. He could literally swallow them, and the explosion within him would be minimal. Besides that, he was a big softy who preferred donuts over salads and siestas over working out.
I, the fifth member of the team, was on my own. Always the odd man out.
“You know, Carly’s right. If you’re not careful, you’ll set fire to the whole town. Remember what happened at the bank on Fourth Avenue? You almost incinerated the staff in the back room. They’re not going to trust us with any more jobs if you keep doing shit like that. I would like to pay my rent on time this month, what about you?” Andy rubbed the deep wrinkles between his brows. He was tired of working the odd jobs that were thrown our way.
The Superhero Sanctum Act also allowed for a fund for the superheroes of the city so they could have compensation for their services. More and more of that was being shunted away from us and to the younger heroes who responded faster and lived closer to the center of the city. If we didn’t do a minimum of ten jobs a month, none of us would make our rents, let alone put food on the table.
I was the lucky one, the only one without kids or family. If you could call that lucky, I guess.
“Okay, okay,” Bolt groaned. “I’ll be more careful with the lightning bolts. You guys just need to pick up the slack next time. Every time it seems I need to resort to using my powers, a fire breaks out. We just need someone who can put out fires right away on our team. Know anybody like that?”
Everybody shook their heads, mumbling under their breaths. There were fewer and fewer superheroes popping up who would even consider working with us. I didn’t know what it meant. Maybe it would be a good thing for all of us, or maybe it was a really bad thing because overall, our numbers were declining.
“Hey, Merc, you all right? You’re awfully quiet.” Carly threw me a suspicious glance, but I waved her away.
“Yep. Just got stabbed by one of Stinger’s loose appendages last night. It broke off in the wound. Sucker was a pain to fish out.”
“Ah, okay. Just let us know if you need backup. You haven’t been drinking, again have you?” She wrinkled her nose. I shrunk in my chair. I hadn’t taken a shower yet and probably reeked of alcohol.
“Nope.” I could tell she didn’t believe me. “I’m actually on my way home. You all good?” I hopped to my feet and turned toward the door before anyone could protest. They mumbled their goodbyes but didn’t make a move from their spots. I headed back out into the night, the best time of the day for me. I could ignore any obsessed fans who still stalked me now and then and get home without cursing one out. Daylight brought recognition and loud city folk, both of which I loathed with a passion.
As I walked home through the darkened streets, passing derelicts calling out from alleyways for a buck or two, I thought over Cameron’s demands. Maybe atoning for past mistakes wouldn’t be a bad thing. Maybe it would help my own guilt over Emilia fade away. Maybe she was someone I could seek atonement with.
Or maybe it was a disaster waiting to happen.
Cameron
“You scared the crap out of me.” I held a hand to my chest, feeling my heart pumping madly beneath.
“You said you’d give me until today to give you an answer. Well, I have that answer for you.” Merc threw me a sly grin, enjoying the fact that he’d surprised me.
I sighed, glaring at him as he sat nonchalantly on my fire escape. The guy didn’t like using doors. Obviously. It was something I had failed to notice about him. I wondered what else I could’ve possibly missed about the guy.
“Okay, what’s your answer?”
“I agree to your terms under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You come with me on every single one of these ‘atonements’ you want me to do.”
“Why? You can do it all on your own.” I scowled, lifting an eyebrow. “I’ll know if you don’t, trust me. Besides, it won’t be safe for me. I am essentially powerless. I can’t save anyone.”
“True, but you never know. I just want to show you who I really am. You are under the impression that you know me. You know nothing about me and my life, but I’m willing to show you.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. I knew a lot about him, his stories, his slight indiscretions, all from afar, all from the eyes of others, maybe, but he was wrong. I did know him… some.
“All right. If I agree to your condition, when do you want to start?”
He held out a hand, grinning mischievously enough it made my blood stop cold in my veins.
“Right now.”
Merc
I approached Tony, who I had not seen since he was a scrawny, bleeding twelve-year-old. Now he was eighteen and far from the kid I’d watched screaming as his father lay in a bloody pile next to him. His leg had been shredded, but his only concern had been his father’s life. Now his father was long dead, and he’d survived a string of foster homes filled with nothing but neglect and abuse. I wondered who I’d meet this time around. He didn’t look like the same sweet kid.
Tony leaned on the street corner doling out whatever flavor-of-the-week drug he had stashed in his shirt and pants. Innocence was long gone from the piercing brown eyes as he flicked his used-up cigarette into the street and ran a hand through his unruly black locks.
This couldn’t be the same kid I remembered tearing up as his father struggled to live. That kid with dirt streaking his cheeks was nowhere to be found. He leaned on his good leg, his prosthetic one hidden beneath baggy jeans which were held up by a worn-out black leather belt that had seen better days and probably a bigger waist.
“You Tony?”
The guy stopped biting down on a new cigarette and let it drop from his mouth, startled. “Who’s asking?”
“I’m Mercurial Man.”
His eyes traveled down my clothes. I’d long given up on my signature blue and orange, skintight outfit with a big yellow M across the chest. From the stunned, unbelieving look on his face, he wasn’t the only one who had changed these past few years.
“You’re not him. Get out of my face, freak.” He spat on the ground and snatched the cigarette from his boot, where it had landed. He snapped a Zippo lighter out of his pocket and clicked it, lighting up the end of his cigarette.
“Those things will kill you faster than I can.”
“It’s none of your business. I do what I like.”
“Since your dad died?”
His eyes glazed over as he inhaled, then he proceeded to blow the smoke out into the atmosphere without looking at me. “My old man was good for nothing.”
“He was your old man, nonetheless.”
He snapped his eyes onto me, nothing but contempt swimming in them. “You buying or just going to take up space?”
“I heard you wanted to meet me once.”
Tony took one confused look at me and burst out laughing. “You? Why would I want to meet you? You’re a washed up old superhero not worth his signature on used toilet paper.”
I folded my arms, letting his insults slide off me like oil. “You finished
?”
“I got more where that came from, but I have money to make, so get off my corner. I’ve hurt a lot bigger guys than you for less, so get lost mercury dude.”
“It’s Mercurial Man.” Cameron stepped from around the corner, clearly losing her patience with our conversation. “And you told your foster mom, Emilia, that you waited so long to meet him, and he never came when you were at the hospital. Remember?”
Tony’s eyes narrowed onto her, and then he flicked his eyes away, his face reddening. “You know my Aunt Emmi?” I liked the term of endearment he’d given Emilia. If only I’d known she had fostered this kid at one point. She always did pick up the pieces I’d left behind. The woman was a saint.
“Yes. She told me a lot of things.”
“She—she had no right to tell you anything. I’m dead to her, you know? Might as well be really dead for all she cares about me.” Angry tears glistened at the edges of Tony’s eyes, but he refused to let them fall as he inhaled another sharp lungful of smoke. The kid was on his way to COPD from what I could tell. Not good.
“But she does care, and you know it. I apologize for being so blunt, but she wanted you to realize that maybe you were wrong about Mercurial Man, about your dad. About all sorts of stuff. He wouldn’t want this for you.”
“This here is all I got.” He tossed his half-smoked cigarette to the asphalt, smashed it with his heel, and waved his arms around. His clothes were pressed and clean. He took care of his things. I could tell he wasn’t into being a junkie dealer. Maybe this was a detour for him, a stop on the way to bigger and better things.
I let the optimism slide off me.
“You have more than you know,” I said. “I apologize for not coming to see you in the hospital when you were twelve and your father died. I wasn’t in the right state of mind. Sometimes you can’t save everyone the way you’d like, even as a superhero. It does things to our minds. It did to me. The disappointment, the madness that comes from failure, makes us do things we wouldn’t otherwise do, like not visit a kid who desperately needed to meet me.”
“Why do you even care?” Tony snapped. “You don’t care about who you save. I know that now. You do it for the money, for the fame. There’s no heart inside you. You’re just a washed-up nothing who doesn’t give a damn about anyone but yourself.” Tony was yelling at him, not realizing the tears were dripping down his cheeks. He wiped at them madly, more from annoyance than anything. “You don’t care. So why should anyone care about anyone in this world?”
My chest squeezed, and I found my own rage cracking. I was angry that I had failed this kid years ago, and that failure had manifested into this creature before me full of rage, resentment, and lacking any kind of warmth. Forgotten by everyone he believed in. And alone. So very alone.
“I’m sorry, Tony. I didn’t realize at the time that my actions could cause so many ripples. I came here to make it right.”
He shook his head and turned away, smacking a palm against the cement wall of the building. “The hell is this? This is crazy. Why’d you even come here?”
“I said I wanted to make it up to you.”
He turned, his eyes dark red and glowing. He wasn’t just a kid anymore, he was… something else. Realization bubbled inside me, and I felt my powers instinctively rise to attention.
“Liar. I make sure liars pay. I’ve done it since those days in the hospital. When the doctors lied about my leg, that it would be fine once they cut it off, they lied. I feel the pain there, every single day. My father lied. He said my mother left me because she didn’t love me. She died. She died from cancer, and she left me a letter to tell me that she loved me, but my father hid it. He lied to me. Everyone is just a liar.” He held out his hand and grabbed my arm. In an instant, I felt my flesh stinging like I’d been poked by a thousand bees.
“You—you’re that Stinger guy I’ve been tracking… the one who’s been leaving people to die on the street with thorns stuck through them. It was all you?”
He laughed. “You created me, Mercurial. Why are you so surprised?”
“Let him go!” Cameron screamed, but I shook my head to keep her from coming closer. If I could barely stand his powers, she’d certainly die from getting zapped. I doubted she’d be able to neutralize him before he poisoned her.
“Wait! Don’t come any closer. He’ll kill you.”
She shook her head, yelling an answer I couldn’t hear. I fell to my knees, the pain overtaking my ability to heal and my arm searing where he touched me.
Tony was Stinger. That was who the kid had turned into, all because of me. All my fault. In my head, Tony was a kid again, calling out to me as his eyes widened in horror as a bullet slammed into his father, throwing him to the ground.
“No!” Tony the kid had run to his father, screaming for them to stop. The gunman took no notice that he was so young and continued to send bullets his way, hitting his left leg and sending him crumpling down next to his father. “Dad! Help! Mercurial Man, help my dad!”
I squeezed my eyes shut as these memories flashed across my eyes, shoving them to the side. “Tony, you don’t want to do this. You can help people. You can do what I failed to do. Please. Stop.”
“Tony, do what he says,” Cameron pleaded from a few feet away. I peeked her way, barely able to keep my eyes open. It was then that I realized she hadn’t stayed away from us. She was rolling up her sleeves and preparing to jump into the midst of it all. My eyes widened as I turned toward Tony.
She wasn’t going to get hurt, Tony was.
Cameron
“Let him go!” I demanded. Merc was on the brink of passing out if I didn’t do something soon. “Killing him won’t wipe the pain away. Nothing will. You must let him go, Tony. You can’t go down that path. You don’t want to face the consequences of killing Merc.”
Tony’s mouth tensed, a frown gracing the edges of it. He thought over my words, but as quickly as the doubt slid in, he shook his head and brushed it off. “Go away, woman. I don’t even know why you’re here.”
“Emilia would be so disappointed.”
“She’s not here now, is she? No foul there.”
“Tony… please. I don’t want to hurt you.” I sucked in a breath, curling my fingers into my palms.
He laughed, squeezing Warrick. He groaned, his eyes rolling back as he swayed. “You don’t want to hurt me? You’re nothing. You couldn’t harm a fly. Don’t come any closer.” He flinched as I took a step forward. “He can withstand my powers, but one touch, and you’ll die from my stingers.”
“I won’t die. I’ll take your powers, and you’ll be ordinary Tony once more. Is that what you want? Because that’s what I do. I take the powers from those who abuse them. I’ll do it to you if it kills me. Is that what you want?” I repeated my question, hoping he would believe me and stop hurting Merc.
Instead he turned toward me and smirked. “You’re making a mistake, lady.”
“No, you are.” I reached out and grabbed his arm, feeling a sting on my palms like molten metal. It eased as my touch drained the power from him, and his eyes widened as his mouth dropped open.
“No!” He let go of Merc, who dropped to the ground in a heap. “Let go!” Tony screamed, but as the sting of his power biting into my skin cooled to a dull throb, he paled. I felt dizzy, sick, and let go just as the last thread of his power seeped into me. A violent nausea hit me as it absorbed into my core, my “haven” as I called it, for super powers.
Tony was on his knees, bent over and white as a sheet. “What did you do to me?”
“It’s done.” I heaved a breath out and flicked my eyes toward him. “You’re powerless. You’re just Tony now.”
He stared at his hands in horror, realizing his powers were truly gone. Disbelieving, he reached out and grabbed my arm, squeezing enough to make me yelp. When nothing else happened, he let go, cursing. I cradled my arm as bright red marks blossomed on it, the outline of his fingers stark against my skin.
“I told you. Powerless.” I pulled myself toward Merc to check his pulse. It was thready, but it was there. “Warrick, wake up!”
He mumbled, his eyes fluttering up at me. I let his pupils focus for a moment before helping him sit up. We threw one another a knowing look.
“What did you do? They’re gone… my powers… Give them back!” Tony, who had dropped to his knees, crawled toward us, cursing his demands.
“I can’t. You failed the test. I had to ask Merc to help me. I knew you were causing trouble and had to get to you before you hurt more people. I’m not strong enough to keep you down long enough to drain you, but Merc is.”
Merc threw me a perturbed look before he got up to his knees, using the wall for support. When he was on his feet once more, he stared at Tony and held out his hand while his other pulled a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket.
“So, you’re Stinger,” he said in disbelief. “I’m sorry about your powers. I blame myself, but I’m prepared to make it up to not just the world, but to you too. And it starts by taking you in.”
“My powers are gone. They won’t believe you.” Tony’s loathing was hard to ignore, even as Merc snapped the cuffs around his wrists.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” I motioned toward the small pin attached to my shirt which said “RN” on it. “I recorded it all with this tiny pin camera. I got it on sale at the You-Spy store. A nurse must always be prepared.” I fished the attached video recorder from my shirt pocket and held it out, tapping the small screen on one side of the device. I ran the recording back and showed him using his powers on Merc. “You forgot to smile for the camera.”
“No!” Tony bucked, but without his powers, he was too weak to break free.
“Let’s go,” Merc said. “I know just where to take you.”
Merc
I sat in the comfort of the familiar, run-down basement, smiling at my pals as they played cards with Cameron. She was a huge asset to the team. After taking Tony in for rehabilitation, which included a six-month removal of his powers, he relented and began working with troubled youth. Turned out he had a knack for it and enjoyed talking about it when I visited him.
It's A Bird! It's A Plane! Page 15