The Negative Man: Twilight Days (Pacific Station Vigilante Book 4)

by Jeremy Croston

  Ask and you shall receive. I finally saw the tic (no pun intended, womp womp) that I was looking for. Each time Bug Tooth prompted the ticks to attack, he whispered something as the swarm went by. He was almost good enough where I didn’t see the lip movement, but yes, it was there each time. That was something I could target.

  I wanted to get a gauge of the time I’d have to work with. He’d separated the swarm into two smaller ones and they were ramming me from each side. When they finally retreated, I dropped the shield and went full-on fury. Slapping my hands together, I brought up as many Stormfall-fueled negative charges as I could and fired them at Tony’s throat. If I cut off his path for communication, the swarm wouldn’t be able to respond.

  He saw what I was planning just a moment too late. He tried to get the swarm to change tactics, but the blast fried his throat. Unfortunately for me, the ticks had received their final instructions from him and I had no reserves left from that attack to block them. Instead, I tried to outrun them.

  I burst out of the front of Bug Tooth Tony’s and into the parking lot. The sun was starting to show its rays as the tick swarm was closing in. I was a goner, I knew it.

  Then, I was gone. Really, I vanished from the parking lot and into Destiny’s little sanctuary.

  “He knows I’m here. He saw me run out,” she said the moment I looked at her.

  “Send me back.” My instructions were clear.

  “Just know that taking out his voice isn’t going to stop him. Tony’s ruthless.”

  So was I, when I wanted to be. I very much wanted to be ruthless right now. I gave her a shake of the head to do it, but before she did, Destiny leaned up and kissed me. I didn’t even have time to process that when I came back into the real world.

  That’s when I saw her warning and knew things were about to get very real. Tony was stalking toward me, his bug army surrounding him. There was an angry red gash across his throat from where my attack landed. There’d be no more communications, but I don’t think he needed that anymore. Chunks of the swarm broke off and began attaching themselves to his exposed body parts. It was almost as if he was making an armor out of the ticks to cover himself with.

  Well that sucked.

  Enough of the bugs broke free of his hands where he began to sign something to me. As I wasn’t up to date on my American Sign Language, I had no idea what he was trying to get across. “Sorry Bugsy, I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”

  “I do.”

  Having elected to come out of her own safe zone, Destiny was standing beside me. “He’s telling you he underestimated you, that you were fortunate he made a serious miscalculation. For that, once you’re dead, he’s going to hunt down all your friends and kill, too.”

  That was quite the threat. “Now what’s he saying?” I asked.

  “He’s telling me that once you’re dead, I have two options; join you in the grave or submit to his will.”

  I know it wasn’t the time, but that never stopped me. “Wait a minute. How do the two of you know sign language?”

  “Our mother was deaf,” Destiny answered. Tony signed something in a very angry manner. “He told me not to talk about our mother,” she said, knowing I’d probably ask.

  Well, that made sense. “Honestly, I don’t think there’s much left to say. You can tell him I won’t ask any more questions about her, out of respect.” She made a few quick signs and he responded by giving me the middle finger. I knew what that meant. “If that’s how he wants this to go…”

  “I only ask one thing, Jericho.”

  I was about to send her away. “What’s that?”

  “He’s still my brother. Be merciful and don’t make him suffer.”

  She disappeared as soon as she said that. It did make me feel good that she had confidence in me that I’d be the winner here as night began to make its journey towards morning.

  With a turquoise sky as the backdrop, I pushed any thoughts of being old and worn out away. It was time to bring the storm to Tony.

  He was about to bring the bugs to me.

  Chapter 21 –

  Tuesday Morning: Bug Tooth Tony’s

  He wasn’t just covered in ticks, he’d taken on their properties as well. He jumped very high into the dawn sky as the first lightning bolt crashed down on where he’d been. The black dot seemed so far at first, but Tony came crashing down towards me with great speed. I stood my ground and crossed my arms in an X pattern. A new barrier formed, and the bug man rebounded off of it.

  It was the same stalemate as before. My energy blasts did something against their tough shells, but it had also proven strong enough to deflect their physical barrages. I was most interested to see if Tony would become increasingly unstable, possibly giving me a new opening to exploit. Like a prize fighter, I couldn’t go for the kill too early, I had to let me opponent wade into the later rounds and beat him with experience.

  Bug Tooth jumped twice, once to my left and the next was more of a tackling move towards me. Jeez, he wasn’t even really testing me. I put up another barrier, ready to block him. That’s when I realized it was my turn to fall for a trick. He twisted out of the way at the last minute, his body avoiding my energy shield. There was no time to protect my back and that’s when his tick covered arm slammed into it as he passed by. Never in all of my life had I been hit with something so hard!

  I didn’t even realize I wasn’t standing up at first. As I tried to get to my feet, my head exploded. Oh, you can hear me quite well now, can’t you?

  Tony’s voiced echoed around in my head. “What the hell?” I stumbled back down to the pavement. The ringing in my ears was out of control.

  The point of that attack wasn’t to cause you harm, even though I did. One of my little friends is now on your body, which creates a link between us. Sorry Jericho, you lose.

  Not good! That’s when the little bastard began to bite me. Little pockets of pain popped up at random places on my body. First my knee gave out, then my left arm from the elbow down howled in pain. I couldn’t even see the bug in order to do something about it. Oh God—ticks drank blood! Was this thing feeding off of me?

  My little friend sends his regards. The amount of energy we’re taking from you is extraordinary. Never did I think anyone would ever force me to use this talent again.

  Again… in his little mental rant, he gave me another clue. One of the supers he’d fought brought him to the brink before. If I knew what their power was, that would be the first step into making a brand-new plan. I just doubted he’d give that information away for free.

  The tick was working me over, bad. “Just how dumb are you? You should’ve started in this form, you idiot.”

  A wave of anger entered my mind. Angry supervillains are arrogant supervillains. Maybe your past self, yes, but you’re just a shadow of The Negative Man. If The Dark Lion wasn’t able to defeat me, why on earth did you think you’d be able to?

  John fought this monster and didn’t kill him? The revelation that one of the three supers Bug Tooth fought was John Wonderton hit me harder than that punch he connected with. For a few moments, I’d even be able to block out the attacks from the tick on me. I couldn’t believe John would’ve been stupid enough to let him live.

  Oh, he tried to kill me, Bug Tooth’s voice assured me. I can’t read your thoughts, but everything is written on your face. The man who defeated you wasn’t able to defeat me.

  It seemed history lessons were needed. “In case you forgot,” I growled. “The Dark Lion died by my hand.”

  Which makes his life all the sadder.

  I’m not sure what it was. John and I always had a weird relationship, even during The Negative Man and The Dark Lion battles. The way Tony was disrespecting my greatest foe… nope, wasn’t going to happen. Ignoring the blisters sprouting up everywhere from that damn insect, I reached deep and demanded that whatever Stormfall energy was left rise to the surface. It was time to end this, to correct the error John had made
years ago.

  An upswelling of negatively-charged neutrons combusted at different points of my body. I kept pushing, feeling heat like I’d never felt before come off my powers. Tony had pushed me to go somewhere I didn’t know I had, to another level. This was the purest form of my power I’d ever encountered.

  He didn’t know it yet, but this fight was over.

  As my power surged, I felt the small insect that had riddled my body with wounds burn away and die. No longer was I being held back by some mutant bug. “Destiny asked me to make this quick, so I will.”

  The link between us was gone, but much like he did to me, I read his face. He didn’t know where this had come from and it was too late to do anything about it. Through will power, I condensed all of the power into the space in front of me, by my chest. Guiding it as best I could, I let it go right for Tony. The bright light flashed forward, destroying everything in its wake. One minute there had been cars and a supervillain. The next, a mostly-destroyed parking lot with a pretty big gouge running its length.

  As soon as the adrenaline left me, that’s when the shakes began to happen. Uncontrollable shakes from my head to my toes. There was nothing I could do to stop them.

  “This happened to my mother after the warhead went off near our village. Tony’s ticks were conduits for the chemicals that killed so many, yet gave us our powers.”

  Destiny’s head appeared under my arm and she lifted me up. “Wh-what wi-will happen?”

  “You’re a super, so the effects will go away. It’s just going to be a rough day until they do.”

  With that understanding, I was at her mercy. I’d just killed her brother and was incredibly vulnerable. I wasn’t sure how she’d take it. She just placed me in one of the few cars that survived my blast, hotwired it, and drove us back to Pacific Station. Every so often, she’d look back and just whisper, “It’ll be okay.”

  ****

  “Don’t the two of you look like crap,” Providence said as he entered my room. “Volkkenkrüger is on his way to see what happened.”

  I never cared for Parker Lattimore, either as the cop or now as Providence. He stood at the threshold between the hallway and my room, just eyeballing Destiny and I. She hadn’t left my side since we returned, helping me to manage the side effects. Currently there was a warm compress on my head.

  Ellison approached and Providence snuck back, out of sight. “Dear boy, what happened out there?”

  “Jericho met my brother,” Destiny answered for us.

  “Bug Tooth Tony. I take it he’s no longer a problem?”

  I pushed myself up. “Yeah, turns out his ticks weren’t a big fan of certain parlor tricks I’d been practicing.” I didn’t want to give him too much. As much as I loved my foster dad, this whole situation was wrong.

  Ellison didn’t say anything, just looked on, curious. “Destiny, I know he was the last of your immediate family, so losing a loved one is never a victory.”

  “Tony stopped being a brother to me a long time ago. I’m fine with everything, sir.”

  “And Jericho, once you’re rested up, come see me. I have something I want to go over with you.”

  His tone wasn’t the same with me as it was with Destiny and Providence. It was also curious that he still referred to me as Jericho, and not as Fate. Hmmm, I wondered just what exactly Ellison had planned this time. And would it even be real?

  He gave us one last smile before leaving, closing the door behind him. “Sometimes, he scares me,” Destiny admitted.

  “Why?”

  “He promised never to use his powers on his most loyal, so we would always have a clear mind, but the doubt does creep in.”

  I chuckled at that. Destiny didn’t know just how right she was. “I honestly thought I knew the man. Hell, I grew up with him. There’s just a lot different today from the Ellison that saved me so many times back when I was a lab rat with the government.”

  “I believe in the mission, completely,” she blurted out the moment I finished. It was clear she didn’t want me to think she was weak of mind. “To live in a world where people like us are treated like the Gods we should be, it will be a glorious day. Volkkenkrüger will make it happen.”

  It sounded as if she was trying to build up her own belief in Ellison. As for me, I hadn’t seen anything that would make me want to stay aboard this crazy train any longer than I had to. Ellison was dangerous; too dangerous. It was only a matter of time before we saw that with whatever ‘new memories’ he gave the mayor.

  I needed to find a quick way out. I began to let my eyes close. “I think all the commotion of today has worn me out. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to rest for a bit.”

  Destiny, kissing me on the forehead this time, agreed. “Do tell me what Volkkenkrüger has planned for you. I can’t wait to see his vision come to reality.”

  On that, we’d have to disagree.

  Chapter 22 –

  Tuesday Night; Skyline Tower

  **Ellison Staley**

  Lattimore was with me, at the top of the tower. I loved the rooftop and the view it gave me over the entire cityscape. It reminded me of what I was trying to achieve; it kept me on track. “You still disapprove of my son joining us.”

  “No, I would never question you, Volkkenkrüger,” he replied hastily.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out the man was worried he was going to be displaced by Jericho. Lattimore was very useful and loyal, but at the end of the day, family triumphed over all.

  And Jericho was family, even if he wasn’t my biological son. From the moment I saw that scared five-year-old that Cooper dragged in after his first ‘event,’ I knew it would be my duty in this world to not only protect him, but mold him into the being that would one day save the super race from the plague that was humanity. The horrors I’d witnessed, from being turned into Volkkenkrüger by chemical torture to what our government could do to a five-year-old, only strengthened my resolve.

  It was time for the genetically altered to take their place at the top of the food chain. Normal society had its chance and they decided to squander it away out of fear and malice.

  The first thing I needed to do was to squelch this rebellious spark in Lattimore. “Providence,” I said using the call name I gave him years ago. “You got along so well with Jericho before, when you were friends with Kyle Wonderton.”

  I could see my power mixing into his mind, the memories that I wanted him to have replacing his real animosity. “You’re right. When we took down Victory, we worked so well together.”

  When I first recruited the original Providence, Destiny, and Fate, I made a vow to them never to influence their memories and manipulate them. I was breaking that vow, but it was necessary. I needed Providence to be completely committed, as the day of reckoning was almost here.

  “It’s that Kyle Wonderton that has made the mistakes you need to correct,” I went on.

  “If we don’t deal with him once and for all, he could ruin our plans.”

  What the mind would come up with to deal with the intrusion of my false memories was truly amazing. Lattimore’s anger at Jericho was being projected on to Kyle. I could work with this. “You once had a chance to eliminate him and fortune alluded you that day. The night is young…”

  A wicked grin crossed his face. “Are you giving me permission to hunt him down?”

  “What better night than tonight to take out the one enemy who has the best chance to ruin us.”

  Lattimore gave me a small bow and quickly left the roof. Yes, it was all coming to fruition perfectly.

  **Kyle Wonderton**

  I was getting a bit worried that Jericho hadn’t checked back in, yet. The rest of the group was out on a simple fact-finding mission, to see why all of a sudden Mayor Boosman had such a change of heart within twenty-four hours. Especially after the scene that was caused by a few supers, Jericho included.

  Becky knew the worried stance when she saw it. “Feet a little more than shoulder wid
th apart, hand in the chin; yep, you’re worried.”

  “It was me who put him in play, of course I’m worried.”

  She came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. It was these private moments that made the rest of it a bit easier to handle. “Of all of us, Jericho is the one guy who could pull this off. He’s a killer, an evil genius, and probably one of the most damaged individuals I’ve ever had to read.”

  “Are you trying to make me feel worse?”

  “But he’s also one guy who believes in loyalty above all us. He’s loyal to you because of how things ended between him and your dad,” she told me.

  The Dark Lion—the one name that went hand-in-hand with both The Negative Man and Pacific Station. “What does John have to do with this?”

  That’s when I realized she’d be keeping something from me. “His biggest regret is killing your father. He’s held on to that guilt for as long as I’ve known him.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  She shook her head, clearly unsurprised at my reaction. “I just would say -”

  Before she could dive in even further, Phil jumped to life from the table. “Guys, hate to break up this listen and learn session, but Parker Lattimore just triggered a bunch of the facial recognitions.”

  Lattimore… The anger I had toward him topped anything that I held for anyone else. “Where at?”

  A map of the city popped up on the screen and Lattimore’s location was indicated with a blue arrow. For a moment, it looked like a directory at a shopping mall. “If I didn’t know any better, based on his current direction, I’d say he’s heading toward Wonder-Tech.”

  Of course, he was. This was a blatant call out by a mad man. “Becky, you and Phil keep any feelers out for Jericho. He may try to contact us. I’m going to deal with Lattimore.”