Ex-Superheroes

by A. J. Markam

  So that was her game. She was an electrokinetic – probably on the weaker side, limited to whatever she could touch. She was using the fan to concentrate her powers in one deadly spot.

  I wondered why she hadn’t just fried me when we kissed, but she might not have enough juice to kill me by touching me. Maybe just enough for a nasty shock that would really piss me off.

  I winced at the electricity sparking from her bare skin into my shield, which was still pinning her to the wall.

  I released the forcefield. It was that or have it collapse on its own.

  She fell to her feet and came out swinging.

  I rolled backwards across the bed to get out of the way of her fan –

  The bed!

  As soon as my feet hit the floor on the other side, I reached under the mattress and pulled it up a few inches. I used my forcefield to raise it up like a wall, and then pushed it towards her –

  Unfortunately, she just slashed her fan across the mattress and cut it in two.

  I released the forcefield before she could hit it and cause me more pain.

  The two halves of the mattress fell apart, revealing a bunch of metal coils and stuffing. The slashed edges were charred, and smoke curled up from the blackened material.

  As soon as the mattress halves hit the floor, that was when she threw the fan.

  The only thing that saved me was she telegraphed the wind-up, like she was going to toss a frisbee.

  She must have pumped all of her power into it, because the whole fan lit up like a spotlight as she threw it at me.

  I dove out of the way just in time. I felt the fan’s crackling heat as it passed right by me and slammed against the window in a fireworks display.

  Glass exploded outwards into the night. I felt sorry for whatever poor bastard was down on the street 800 feet below when all those shards landed.

  The wind howled through the now-empty window frame and whipped my jacket around me.

  But the good news was the bitch was fucked.

  She’d given away her one weapon. Now it was just a matter of –

  She reached into the twisted coil of hair on the back of her head, grabbed the two metal chopsticks that had been pinning it in place, and then pulled them out, one in each hand.

  Their tips sparked like magic wands, and electricity arced between them.

  Well, FUCK.

  I grabbed one of the mattress halves and held it up in front of me like a shield. A very unwieldy shield, yeah, but a good non-conducting one –

  Except maybe for all those metal coils inside.

  Shit.

  I just could not win tonight.

  She suddenly braced one foot in front of her.

  I wondered why for a second, then realized:

  She thinks I’m going to rush her.

  Most of her weight was on that front leg as she held out her crackling wands.

  Her rear was completely unguarded.

  That was it! That was the answer!

  I faked like I was going to rush forward.

  She put ALL of her weight on that front foot to brace herself –

  And then I hit her from behind with a forcefield.

  I used a flat plane, six feet high and slightly leaning back, which basically scooped her up and off her feet.

  She screamed as the forcefield zoomed her into the air and across the room. I stepped out of the way and let her pass by in the blink of an eye.

  Before she had time to react, she was out the window.

  I listened to her scream all the way down, until her voice abruptly stopped.

  “I bet that made a mess,” I said as I dropped the mattress half back onto the floor.

  Suddenly the door banged open. I looked around in alarm to see Mama-san standing there, her eyes wild.

  “You killed my girl!” she screamed.

  “Yeah, and you’re next. I know you set me up, bitch.”

  Mama-san’s fake look of horror turned into a nasty grin. “Tonmonoshitsu sends his regards, gaijin.”

  She stepped inside the room, and three men in black suits appeared behind her in the doorway.

  At the very edges of their open shirts, I could see the tale-tell tattoos covering their chests.

  Yakuza.

  Antimatter’s boys.

  FUCK.

  They were all carrying submachineguns, too, which they raised towards me.

  In the second it took to aim their guns, my mind raced at lightspeed, searching for solutions.

  Even if I threw up a shield in front of me, I was pretty fucking sure the first two rounds were going to pop the forcefield, and the rest of the bullets would pop me.

  I could slam them all in the face with three different spheres – but even if they went over backwards, their fingers could still pull the triggers and light me up.

  Triggers –

  That was it.

  All three Yakuza pulled back on their triggers –

  And nothing happened. The triggers didn’t move.

  They pulled harder, straining –

  Nothing.

  That’s because I’d cast three small cylinders behind the three triggers, blocking any movement whatsoever.

  The Yakuza looked down at their guns, but they couldn’t see my forcefields, so to them their guns had just jammed for some unknown reason.

  “Yeah, that’s me doing that,” I taunted them.

  They stared in confusion and cursed in Japanese.

  I was just about to cast a forcefield behind them and push them out of the window like Aiko –

  When the entire hallway lit up with a blast of fire.

  It looked like a bomb had gone off – but there was no shockwave, so that couldn’t have been it.

  All three Yakuza screamed as they got flambeed. Two fell to their knees, their entire bodies in flames. The other guy staggered backwards, his face a raging bonfire.

  Mama-san screamed in real terror this time, stumbling backwards against the minibar.

  Nova run up to the door, her hands blasting flames like water out of a fireman’s hose.

  “Hunter,” she yelled, “there’s more guys coming!”

  “In here!” I yelled.

  Nova forced her way past the two gangsters burning to death on the ground.

  I looked over at Mama-san, who was staring at the burning bodies writhing in front of her. I thought about killing her for her betrayal, but I didn’t. I’d kill a female assassin if she was trying to kill me, yeah – but I drew the line at a defenseless old woman, no matter what she’d done.

  Pounding feet and shouts filled the hallway.

  Time to go.

  I grabbed Nova by the arm and pulled her towards the empty window.

  “What are you doing?!” Nova screamed. “We’re 80 stories up!”

  “I know!” I yelled. “Just trust me and JUMP!”

  To her credit, she went with it.

  We leapt out into nothingness, our legs kicking against the empty air –

  And then we landed on the invisible forcefield I’d created beneath us.

  Momentum slammed us down to our hands and knees.

  I winced in pain. I was 230 pounds, Nova was 130 at most. 360 pounds total, which was like holding up a feather back in the day. But right now in my weakened state – and especially after the fight with Aiko – it felt like 360 tons.

  The Yakuza shouted as they entered the room.

  Time to get the fuck out of Dodge.

  I dropped the forcefield beneath us, and we plummeted down through the air.

  It was a controlled fall. The invisible plane was still underneath us, keeping us from falling as fast as we would have normally.

  I had it all handled… mostly. Although it was a nice relief not to have to be supporting the full 360 pounds anymore.

  Nova screamed. Hard to blame her – from her perspective, we were falling 800 feet to our death.

  But one second into the fall, I began to decelerate us, which hurt even mor
e than keeping 360 pounds aloft. I was having to exert something closer to 450 foot-pounds to slow us down.

  At the same time, I was worried I wouldn’t last all 80 stories. It was in my best interest to get this magic carpet ride over with as soon as possible, so I started moving the forcefield (and us) towards the nearest, much-shorter building. It was 20 stories tall at best.

  I gritted my teeth, ignored the searing pain in my head as the forcefield got closer to the top of the building, and slowed our descent even more.

  Almost – THERE –

  Six feet above the building my powers gave out, and we slammed down on the roof and tumbled across the gravel.

  “OOF!” Nova grunted as she rolled.

  I groaned as I staggered to my feet. “God damn…”

  “Why did you put us down here?” she demanded as she leapt up.

  I didn’t exactly want to say Because otherwise we would have gone SPLAT, so I lied. “Because people flying through the air are kind of fucking noticeable, and I don’t want to be noticed. Come on!”

  The roof access door was locked, but Nova melted the lock and I pulled the door open. We raced down all 20 flights of stairs and burst out onto street level, where we quickly disappeared into the urban jungle that was Tokyo.

  I’d just gotten into a fight with a super-powered assassin… found out the guy I’d come here to kill somehow knew I was gunning for him… got betrayed by an old lady… and nearly got shot by a bunch of Japanese gangsters.

  And the worse part about it?

  I didn’t even get laid.

  11

  We walked through the back alleys of Tokyo, trying to keep a low profile – which ain’t easy when one of you is wearing a bright red leather jumpsuit. So I gave Nova my jacket to wear.

  “If you gotta torch somebody else, though, drop the jacket first,” I joked.

  “What just happened back there?!” Nova hissed in a freaked-out voice.

  “The chick I went back to the room with was a hitter. As soon as she got naked she tried to punch my ticket, so I sent her out the window instead.”

  “She tried to kill you?!”

  “In case you didn’t understand, ‘punching my ticket’ was not a euphemism for sex.”

  “Do you think she knew what we’re here in Tokyo for?!”

  “Somebody knew. Somebody tipped off Antimatter, who apparently sent orders down to Mama-san, who is definitely on my shit-list now. By the way, thanks for the save back there. I mean, I had it under control, but – ”

  “Why did you land us on that roof?” Nova demanded.

  “Uh, you’re welcome for that, too, by the way, so I guess we’re even.”

  Nova stepped around in front of me and stopped me in my tracks. “Why didn’t you fly us out of here? Or get us to the street?”

  “That was the call I made in the heat of the moment,” I lied. Or half-lied, anyway.

  I mean, I had made the call. I just hadn’t really had any alternatives.

  “Did your powers falter?” Nova hissed. “Is that the reason for the crash landing?”

  “We’re safe, aren’t we? Any landing you can walk away from, right?”

  I tried stepping around her, but she got up in my face. “I need to know.”

  “Then yes, I’m not quite up to full speed yet,” I growled.

  “How the hell do you plan to go into battle like that?!”

  “I just fought a chick with her own superpowered arc welder, and I won. So battle’s not a problem,” I snapped.

  I kind of omitted the whole part about it being one of the closest fights I’d ever had.

  Nova shook her head in disbelief. “You’re going to get us killed!”

  “Hey, sweetheart – if you wanna stick around, then you gotta take the good with the bad.”

  “There hasn’t been any good so far.”

  “I feel exactly the same way,” I said sarcastically. “Feel free to leave at any time.”

  “And take the jet and leave you stranded?” she sneered.

  “If it’ll get rid of you? Sure, go right ahead.”

  She turned away from me and began pulling nervously at her hair.

  After a second, I realized that her jitters probably weren’t just from the near-death experience.

  “Are you alright?” I asked gently.

  “No, you almost killed us!” she snapped.

  “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what you did back in the hallway.”

  She looked at me with a stricken expression. She didn’t have to say anything; I could see the answer written on her face.

  “The first one’s always the hardest,” I said. Then corrected myself jokingly. “Well, in your case, the first three.”

  She turned away with real anguish on her face. “I… I didn’t expect them to scream like that…”

  I almost said, Well, that’s what people tend to do when you burn them alive, but I decided that wouldn’t help matters any.

  So instead I said, “Well, you had my back and I appreciate it. You did good.”

  She glanced at me, and the worry in her face lessened the tiniest bit. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I looked both ways down the alley. “But we need to find a place to lay low before Antimatter’s guys can find us.”

  Nova snapped back into problem-solving mode, which I took as a good sign. “What about a hotel? A cheap one where we can pay cash.”

  I pointed at the red legs of her suit still visible under my duster jacket. “You’re not exactly dressed for walking into a hotel, even a scummy one.”

  “So you want to break in somewhere and risk bringing the cops?” she retorted.

  I thought for a second. There was something there in the part about walking into a hotel, even a scummy one.

  I snapped my fingers. “I got it. Come on.”

  She followed me down the alleyway. “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere your costume won’t raise any eyebrows.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “You better not be taking me someplace weird.”

  “Weird like what?”

  “Like a… like a sex club,” she spat.

  I laughed. “No, we’re not going to any sex clubs, but it’d serve you right. You should have gotten some clubbing clothes when I offered.”

  “You already saw one naked woman tonight. That’s enough.”

  “Trust me, that’s never enough.”

  “How many naked women would you have to see to keep it up?” She paused just long enough for me to register the barb, then smirked. “Your forcefields, I mean.”

  “That was cold,” I laughed. I had to admit, though, she’d gotten me pretty good. “It’s never happened before, I swear. First time. Must be you.”

  “How could it possibly be me.”

  I shrugged. “You didn’t get naked.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that was the problem.”

  “Yeah, you’re right… it had to be something else…” I muttered, setting up the joke. “By the way, exactly how much do you weigh? Jesus, it was like lifting a friggin’ elephant…”

  She smacked me in the arm, and I laughed as we walked down the alley.

  12

  Tokyo has a rather interesting cultural phenomenon: rabuho, or love hotels. They’re a distinctly Japanese take on the ‘no-tell motel,’ because not only can rooms be rented by the hour, but they’re socially accepted and out in the open. Japan wasn’t nearly as uptight about shit like that.

  Even better, to compete and stand out in the crowd, individual hotels often have outrageous decorating themes. Under-sea motifs… European castles… medieval Japanese settings… subway cars for those who want to bang on public transit without getting caught…

  And even superhero-themed rooms.

  In fact, ever since the discovery of Ephemera and the creation of SPCs, that was one of the most popular type of love motel themes out there.

  I d
on’t know how they’d fared since Antimatter took over Tokyo, but we needed a place to stay, so a love hotel it was.

  As I paid the clerk with cash, he glanced over at Nova, whom I had advised to keep my jacket open so her uniform could clearly be seen.

  I said in my rusty-ass Japanese, “We’re going to play superhero.”

  By the way, the word for ‘superhero’ in Japanese?

  Supahiro.

  Gotta love it.

  As soon he figured out I spoke the language, the clerk nodded somberly and answered in Japanese. “Bad thing that happened.”

  “Hai,” I agreed as I took the room key from him.

  As we walked down the hall, Nova asked, “What did you say about superheroes?”

  “That we’re going to roleplay, and I’ll be the bad, bad villain you have to apprehend.”

  She gave me a sour look. “If that’s your fantasy, it’s going to stay a fantasy.”

  I just laughed.

  We stopped by a vending machine on the way and got a smorgasbord of their finest junk food, then proceeded onwards to the room, which was all sorts of insane. Sci-fi devices embedded in the walls. Glowing electronic lights. Wacky murals of famous superheroes battling bad guys.

  Except now all those superheroes were dead.

  I changed my mind. It wasn’t so much wacky as it was depressing.

  Nova sat down in a chair. “Lovely.”

  “Beats spending the night in a dumpster,” I said as I chowed down on some Pocky sticks.

  “Could Antimatter have a place like this under his thumb?” she asked worriedly.

  “Doubtful. They’re legal and aboveboard, so I don’t see why the Yakuza would run them. But just in case, we’ll sleep in shifts.”

  “I don’t think there’s any way I could sleep tonight.”

  “Good, you can take first watch. While you’re doing it, message Harding and tell him I need the blueprints for the Yasuda Bank in Maranouchi.” I spelled it for her as she typed it into her flexible computer screen. “Tell him to pull out all the stops. I need it ASAP.”

  “For what?”

  “The heist.”

  She frowned. “What heist?!”

  I told her everything I had learned back at the bar.

  “You got this from that Shadow guy?”