Blackjack Messiah

by Ben Bequer

  Ms. Pinter got to work. I stepped outside. A heavy layer of dust permeated everything, a fog that grew thicker with every pounding step the monster took. Each footfall was like a tank shell exploding in the distance, but I had no way of telling if they had drawn the monster towards the ballparks as planned. I also had no way to contact the team. We’d run off before I had a chance to get one of their communication earpieces. Hell, I didn’t even have Powermaster’s cell phone.

  “Guess I’ll follow the carnage,” I said.

  A woman across the street was screaming, with several men standing over her. The streets were mostly clear, but the police cordon was nowhere near, and most of the force was dealing with the monster. I saw Ms. Pinter working behind the counter and left her to it, crossing the street.

  “Everyone back off,” I said. One of the guys was wrestling for her purse while she lay on the ground, cradling a toddler. A second guy stabbed me in the stomach with a switchblade that he produced out of nowhere. I looked down at him as he pulled the knife away from my torn clothes. The blade had taken on an unhealthy bend, and the tip had snapped away clean. Grabbing his hand, I lifted him off the ground, feeling his bones grind in my grip. He screamed as all of his weight settled on his shoulder and elbow.

  “Are you guys for real?” I said, and even the shithead struggling for the purse stopped to stare.

  “Fuck,” he said. “He’s a super.”

  I wanted to feel the delicate bones of his hand disintegrate. I wanted to hear him scream, to present him to the poor woman and her child, as if his anguish would make up for the horror these men had inflicted on them. My mouth turned down in a scowl. “You can run,” I said, my voice a hoarse grunt, “Or you can die.”

  The biggest of the bunch ran, but the guy fighting the purse dug into his coat and pulled out a pistol. I threw his buddy at him, the guy flying through the space between us like a shell shot out of a cannon. They collided and hurtled through a set of storefront windows behind, the shattered glass raining down on them.

  The last guy stared at me. He had the woman pinned, but she took advantage of his hesitation, producing a can of mace from her purse, and giving the shithead a good, long spray. I stepped back, arms wide in supplication, and the shithead wailed in pain, rolling around on the ground between us. I peered into the destroyed storefront and saw the two others unconscious, but noted their chests were rising. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Thank you,” the woman said. She threw the mace into the purse and gathered up the crying toddler.

  “Where are you going,” I said. She might be in shock, I couldn’t let her bolt.

  “The county office is a shelter,” she said. “It another block past here.”

  “Young man!” I heard a scream behind me and turned to see Ms. Pinter coming out of the pharmacy, brown paper bag in hand. I waited for her to cross the street.

  “Ms. Pinter, this woman was just assaulted. Could you help her get to the shelter?”

  “Susan, are you alright?” Ms. Pinter said, moving past me to give the woman a once-over.

  “Yeah, Lucille, thanks to this man here.”

  “He’s an All-Star,” she said, looking at me for confirmation.

  “I’m sort of new, and I need you both to get to the shelter. Hopefully, your little cocktail solves this problem,” I said, but I wasn’t sure. The doses were good for a normal-sized human, not for a 100-ton behemoth.

  “I mixed it as best I could,” she said, handing me the bag.

  “Please,” I said.

  She patted my hand in a way that was so maternal I wanted to lift something heavy for her. “We’ll go right now. You get going.”

  “Got it,” I said. “Powermaster knows what to do with this?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay,” I said. “Now to catch up to him. Thank you, ma’am.”

  Ms. Pinter beamed, “Not at all. I’m just doing my part. It’s good to have you here,” she said, as I ran toward the bike.

  Kicking it into gear, I grabbed the handles and tore off.

  “Be real careful now,” Ms. Pinter shouted as I raced past her, heading down the street.

  I took advantage of the barren streets, breaking the posted speed limit almost three times over. As I reached the staging area the cops directed me toward the mayhem. I found it hilarious that none of them doubted I was a hero on the job. Part of the team’s onboarding process was filing my information with local, state, and federal agencies so they would know there was a new super operating in town, but that was all still in the works, another reason I was wearing jeans and not shooting monsters.

  Still, I looked suspicious as hell riding a police motorcycle in plain clothes with a scraggly beard, white ponytail flowing in a wake behind me. I wasn’t even wearing a helmet. I guess I was the only guy headed into trouble, as opposed to running away from it. That meant something. And Powermaster vouched for me, and I was starting to think that carried its own weight in this town.

  I pulled up to a parking lot ringing the park, swerving through the haphazardly overturned cars and hopping the Harley over a small fence that lay bent inward. Beyond were a series of uprooted trees and a path of churned ground that led deeper into the park. In the distance, I could see the top of the beast’s head, suddenly alight with an explosion that did little to hurt it, but much to enrage it. The T-rex thing lunged in one direction, roaring. Then it swung back around ignoring the source of the explosion and tugging at its hindquarters. Nina Haze flew up in the air, headed in a slow arc away from me, landing far out of my range of vision.

  Opening the throttle, the Harley skipped under me a little as I followed the big tear in the ground, driving laterally to it and heading for the big monster. Dodging through the trees, I broke through a high copse of bushes and drove over a leveled chain-link fence into a large open area that housed four baseball fields, each facing the center area where the KC All-Stars did battle with the massive beast.

  I raced up to Powermaster, who fired shot after shot at the beast, holding its attention. He seemed lost when Red Quiver was talking about shooting styles earlier, but Powermaster’s energy beams were grouped in a space that would make any marksman proud. The beast turned on him as he waved me down.

  “It’s bigger,” I said, noticing that it was closer to a hundred feet tall.

  The huge lizard roared at the pain, and turned in our direction, taking a thundering step toward us. An arrow sailed past its head emitting a sound so loud that the beast almost collapsed. It’s roar enveloped me, shaking me down to my artificial bones. It thrashed around, turning away from us, and we barely avoided being flattened by its tail. I saw Roy across the field from us, digging into his quiver for another arrow.

  “You got it?” Powermaster said, running up to me and I dug into my jacket for the folded up brown paper bag. It felt like inside was only one small bottle. “Good,” he said, breathing heavily. “Nina’s down, Invictus is off to get her.”

  “I saw.”

  “Get that to Red Quiver,” he said, turning back to the monster. “He’ll know what to do.”

  The beastie was closing on Red Quiver, who fired a smoke arrow into the ground, giving him some concealment. I gunned the Harley back to life and tore off in his direction as Powermaster fired another energy blast at the T-rex, drawing it away from the smoke cloud.

  Playing back and forth between the two of them, Powermaster and Red Quiver had momentarily neutralized the beast, but it wouldn’t hold the creature for long. At some point, it would settle on a single target, and Red Quiver’s smoke arrows wouldn’t be enough to save him from its wrath.

  I drove at breakneck speed, feeling my rear tire spilling out behind me as I changed gears. Instead of driving around, I took the shortest route, between its legs. The beast’s attention shifted to Powermaster, so it noticed me only at the last minute, scuffling its massive clawed feet in an attempt to stomp me. I swerved and avoided the powerful blow, using the concussive force to prope
l me towards Roy.

  Arrow nocked, he was about to fire again, but his posture changed. He let the ready arrow fall, waving both arms above his head frantically. The air changed around me as if the world itself was angry, and I didn’t even have time to look surprised when the creature’s tail smashed into me.

  ——

  I held the mangled bike’s handlebar in a death grip as we flew through the air, along with a ton of dirt, grass, and clumpy earth. The ground slid past below in slow-motion until my parabola went into descent. I smacked into the ground, the bike was torn away as I flailed like a rag doll, my inertia halted by a combination of friction and a large tree.

  I lay in a pile of disjointed limbs, and there were too many individual little hurts to catalog. I had been flung across the length of two adjoining baseball fields, a huge smear of rent earth marking the trail back to the action. Red Quiver was running in my direction, the monster chasing him. Powermaster’s blasts weren’t affecting it, and the thing was two long steps away from crushing Red Quiver. He turned and fired an arrow at its legs, but the goop payload wasn’t powerful enough to slow it.

  “Hell with this,” I said, firing off my rocket boots. Racing toward the creature, I flew past Red Quiver, landing between them. As the beast reached me, it lowered its head, and using my forward motion behind a full-body punch, I cracked it in the face.

  Its head whipped left, the momentum of the blow spinning the whole creature in that direction and it toppled away from me, collapsing in the outfield between two of the baseball fields and shredding the grass beneath. The ground shook, one of the scoreboards came loose from its moorings, swinging on its remaining mount. I struggled to keep my feet.

  “No, Blackjack. NO!” Powermaster said, coming to his feet and running at us.

  Red Quiver reached me first. I reached into the coat pocket and handed him the bag. His eyes never leaving me, he tore the bag open and spilled the contents of the small glass container into the open chamber of one of his arrows.

  He moved past me, prepping the arrow. The T-rex was thrashing, using its tail and head to get to its feet. Invictus returned to the field carrying an unconscious Nina. Her face was sprayed with blood. As the beast rose, it was hard not to notice how much bigger it was. I kicked myself mentally. The damn lizard was like Moe, it absorbed energy, but instead of just getting stronger, it grew larger. No wonder Powermaster didn’t want me to hit it. “Damn,” I said as Powermaster reached me.

  “Don’t hit it!” he yelled, his attention split between me and Red Quiver, who was timing his shot. The monster reared back and roared. Red Quiver fired. The arrow soared through the air, flying between the rows of jagged teeth and disappearing into its mouth. It was so small, the beast didn’t even notice it. It just lowered it’s massive snout in our direction, saliva slathering from its huge clenched teeth.

  “Get behind me,” I said, but Invictus didn’t listen, taking up position next to me, having placed Nina’s unconscious form on the ground.

  He unslung the tetsubo and got ready. “What the fuck are you doing here? Get a bow and back the fuck up.”

  I clenched my teeth as the T-rex took a tentative step forward. Red Quiver and Powermaster moved back, Red Quiver nocking another arrow. “Go on, dude,” Invictus said, shoving me back as he faced off with the beast. “No need to be brave. I’m the meat shield.”

  The creature roared again, enraged beyond its limit, then it stumbled, one leg buckling under the weight. As it tripped, the monster’s momentum took it to the ground. Fighting the inevitable, it lashed out with its tail, trying to stay up. It took a deep breath and collapsed forward, falling just in front of us. We were ready for this crash, watching it slowly lope to the ground, but it still knocked us off our feet.

  Expelling a long, lasting sigh, its eyes lulled off into a drug-induced haze. Then the creature erupted in smoke that bubbled from its skin and started shrinking. As it did, it left behind a growing puddle of green-tinged water and a rising green mist that soon encompassed the whole open area.

  Powermaster moved forward, leading Invictus and me closer to the beast. It was small now, no larger than a hippo, and its transformation continued, the legs growing shorter, arms lengthening, and the big snout receding into its face. In a process that took less than twenty seconds, the hundred foot tall dinosaur, transformed into a skinny naked kid.

  Powermaster rolled him over, noting a purple welt at his jaw that proved to be a broken bone when he touched it. More bruises, welts, and slashes showed near his legs. He looked back at Invictus and I with displeasure, shaking his head. “Gotta learn to follow instructions, guys,” he said, his tone at full taskmaster.

  “Sorry, boss,” Invictus said. “He hit my favorite set of tits.”

  Powermaster stood, patting Invictus on his brawny shoulder. “You learn the hard way, don’t you?” he said, then shot me an angry look.

  The mashed earth soaked up the water, turning a fifty-foot area around the kid into a muddy swamp. Invictus mushed through it, the mud trying to suck his boots off, and carried the kid to dry land before he got swallowed. Setting the kid down, I could tell Invictus was nervous. The drugs should keep the kid out for a while, but none of us wanted him to wake anytime soon.

  “So the kid is the monster?” I said.

  “The kid’s a kid,” Powermaster replied. “Lawrence is a super. Just had some issues and had to be institutionalized. I guess he cheated on his meds.”

  “Holy shit,” I said. “And the T-rex thing?”

  “He projects his fears and transforms into them. But when he’s medicated, he’s the nicest guy. This is the worst I’ve ever seen him. After this, it’ll mean serious incarceration.”

  Invictus laughed, “I’m just glad he didn’t turn into a flying fucking fire-breathing dragon. Day that happens, I’m calling in sick.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Come Out To KC, We'll Have A Few Laughs...

  I figured we were done, having saved the city from the rampaging monster, but that’s when the hard work began. First of all, we had to secure the kid. He might’ve been suffering from psychotic delusions, but now he had moved up to murderer and destructor of private property. We heard from the cops that at least six people were dead, over a hundred injured, some seriously. It was almost impossible to estimate the property damage, but it was at least in the hundreds of millions, with sixteen buildings nearly destroyed.

  When Lawrence came to, he cried and begged for forgiveness. I had to shackle him and with Invictus, escort him to a secure vehicle. After Lawrence was dealt with, we hopped in the van and patrolled the area, where Invictus and Nina – who had a bad headache and a nasty cut on her scalp, but refused medical attention until we were done – dug through one collapsed building after another, looking for survivors. I tried to help, but Powermaster took me aside.

  “Hey, I want you to curtail your use of powers.”

  I was about to reply but he raised his hand, “I know. You saved Roy. And it’s not like I had time to explain the whole situation to you. I’m not mad, okay? But think about it in the future. I don’t want you more exposed than you already are.”

  Red Quiver joined us, a sly grin playing at his lips. “Guess I owe you.”

  “No worries, man.”

  “No, he’s right,” Powermaster said. “We probably lose this guy if you hadn’t jumped in. Let’s be clear, I would have rather the thing go totally different, but I’m glad we didn’t lose my best friend to an overgrown lizard monster thing.”

  Roy patted me on the shoulder and moved to our van, where Nina sat in the passenger seat, staring out blankly.

  “You think she’s okay?” I said.

  “You have more experience getting punched in the head than I do. What do you think?”

  “We should get her a CAT scan,” I said. “Make sure there’s nothing serious.”

  He gave that some thought before digging into his pockets and handing me the keys to the van. “KU Hospital is pro
bably your best bet.”

  “KU?”

  “University of Kansas,” he said. “Use the tablet’s GPS, it has its own internet service.”

  He started off, but I yelled after him, “Hey, I don’t know the slide-lock password.”

  “It’s 1-5-5-9. ‘Ally’ spelled out in the letters on the keypad.”

  “Got it,” I said and ran over to the van. I jumped in, started it up and with the local cop’s help, managed to get out of the destruction zone south of the park. After a few minutes, I was driving through the early morning streets, using the maps tool to find the way to the hospital. Nina said nothing the whole trip, staring out of the window without blinking.

  “You okay?” I said, growing worried. She could have a concussion, or worse, cerebral hemorrhage.

  “Dizzy,” she said. “Tired.”

  The streets were more congested the closer we got to the hospital, and I ended up weaving through a small throng of emergency vehicles that last quarter mile. We pulled up to the emergency drop off and I threw the van in park, running around to help her. She stepped out of the van on uncertain feet, wobbled in place for a second before leaning her weight on the van.

  “You want me to?” I said, making a lift motion with my arms.

  “That’s sweet, but I can walk. Be a gentleman and lend an arm?”

  I held my arm out formally, and she took it. Her gait was still shaky, and I was supporting most of her weight, but we walked through the ER doors together. The place was a mess, nurses, and patients scattered all over the place. I found a free wheelchair and sat Nina down. “Don’t go anywhere,” I joked, drawing a smile, then went to the nurse’s station.

  “I need help,” I said, earning a raised eyebrow from the nurse behind the counter. She didn’t have to say it, they were slammed. Everyone needed help. “That’s Nina Haze, of the KC All-Stars, and she was thrown quite a ways when we were fighting the beast-”

  The woman’s expression changed, looking around me to where Nina slumped in the wheelchair. “Yeah, that’s her,” I said. “She’s dizzy and tired and I’m afraid she got a serious concussion...or worse.”