Pestilence

by ÆGEON DAVIS

  “Yeah,” I said. “Either die a villain or become the hero. I remember the polarization we set, but I don’t think it’s the become the way.”

  “And there you go on your ‘blurred lines’ rants again,” Hera said. “Remember, zero kills. Always.”

  “But they want to kill you,” I said. “They had you. And now they have Gemini. It’s because of both of us that we are in this predicament. I shouldn’t have let you go in by yourself.”

  My comment angered her even more. Ever since my increased strength had come upon me, I had been leading the group like the alpha male I was. It wasn’t my fault she didn’t feel the strongest member of the team anymore. This wasn’t fucking high school anymore. I wasn’t playing games.

  “You countered every chance of showing them that we are the light,” Hera said. “We need to show them that we are the answer, not the opposition.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” I scoffed. “You're a heroine, Hera. The whole world out there is full of villainesses who hate and fear you, and you're wasting your time trying to protect them? They’ve always had a choice: join us or die.”

  Hera fell silent. I could hear Jess whispering to the new girl. My eyes caught her soaring blue eyes, and for a moment, I thought of Tessa.

  “And what about you?” I asked, adjusting the rearview mirror so I could see the Diamond girl fully.

  Her nude, diamond-encrusted, sheer suit was revealing. Hugging a pair of pert breasts that had me looking forward to the moment when she would trust me enough to let me hold them — hold her.

  Her head was slouched, and Jess slowly pulled her fallen hair back, revealing her saddened face.

  “She…” Jess said in her place. “She fears us.”

  I chuckled. “Like we’re the ones to fear. Villainesses have committed far worse crimes.”

  “Th-they…” the diamond girl stuttered. “They spoke stories of you when I was at the brothel. They called you ‘the Grey’.”

  The Grey?

  “What the hell does that mean?” I demanded.

  “You walk both sides,” she said, adjusting the cuffs behind her back with a look of uncomfortability. “You are both villain and hero.”

  I looked at Hera with one eyebrow arched. “See? Not black and white.”

  Hera rolled her eyes. “Just keep driving.”

  “So, diamond girl, you have a name?” I asked.

  The girl was silent.

  I watched Jess whisper into her ear, and then she replied, “Her name is Crystal.”

  How original. Probably would have been a week before we got her name if Jess wasn’t breaking her mind. Crystal is putty in Jess’s hands, whether she knows it or not.

  “Well, Crystal,” I continued. “Are you going to tell us what we are up against?”

  “And how is there a male villain now?” Hera asked. “The virus has only been able to infect women recently. Ever since it changed in Tessa.”

  Jess whispered into the woman’s ear again, and I saw Crystal finally lift her head up, looking at me through the mirror.

  “I don’t know his whole story. You should have asked the woman whose head you incinerated,” she said coldly.

  This wasn’t getting us anywhere. She wouldn’t begin to see it our way until some time had passed or Hera turned her.

  I hit the brakes.

  The contents inside the van, including us, jolted forward. We started to drift sideways slightly until we stopped in a bloom of gravel dust. I turned around and built glorious metal around my skin, hardening. My eyes wafted with red heat.

  “Cut the shit,” I ordered.

  Her eyes were alert now. I had her complete, undivided attention.

  “He’s some government rogue,” she finally admitted. “Said he was made by them.”

  Made by who? And what the hell are they doing?

  Last I’d heard of anything government was when the San Diego Navy dropped a bomb on my best friend. Images of Ari’s gator-like body being blown apart filled my head. I felt the anger flow in the pit of my stomach.

  I retracted my metal frame and resumed driving.

  “And what’s he doing, paying you for infected women?” Hera asked, now turned around to face our captive.

  I glanced over and could see the sympathy oozing from her warm, brown eyes.

  She’s too soft on them.

  “He didn’t say,” Crystal said.

  “Is that the truth?” I asked, looking her square in those deadly blue eyes.

  “She doesn't know,” Jess said for her.

  The road opened up to a flat desert valley bellow. We could now see a chainlink fence with barbed wire stretching as far as the eye could see. A small airport-like building stood next to a series of take off runways that criss-crossed over each other. Despite the creepy feel I got from the compound, I couldn’t help notice the glistening lake that sparkled in the early morning sun like a thousand reddish orange gems strewn on a purple blanket.

  “How are we going to get past the fence?” Jess asked.

  I smiled, pressing down on the accelerator.

  Everyone jolted back. I could feel every bump in the road as the speedometer climbed to its disappointing top speed.

  “What are you doing?” Hera asked, bracing herself.

  “They are gonna see us when we break that perimeter,” Jess added.

  “That’s what we want,” I said.

  The van broke through the fence, snapping chain links. We hit a small embankment and were sent flying into the air. For a second, I felt weightless, until we slammed down hard on the dusty ground. We paused, getting our wits about us.

  The axle must be destroyed, with a landing like that.

  “Nice one,” Hera said, rubbing her head from hitting it on the dashboard. “Any more bright ideas?”

  I felt the van transmission still engaged, but the car was not moving. We couldn’t go any further if we wanted, however we didn’t need to. Faint sirens began to echo from afar.

  “Nope,” I said. “That’s our ticket.”

  “What ticket?” Hera said. “They are going to imprison us when they get here.”

  “Just leave the talking up to me,” I said, stepping out into the warm sun.

  The air reeked of brimstone like a sulfur pit. I knew what that smell meant. A jumper was here hiding.

  The sirens grew louder, and I could see an army of black suburbans cutting their way through the desert dust.

  I walked out a bit and looked back at my girls, catching Jess’s blue eyes. I nodded and felt her thoughts within my mind. This type of link she made with me was incredible, especially during our lovemaking.

  But that was neither here, nor there.

  These assholes barreling in on us were going to take us to Lazarus, and they didn’t even know it yet.

  The leading suburban hit its brakes about thirty feet out. It skidded and drifted sideways, then a squad of agents dressed in desert camo fatigues armed to the teeth with automatic weapons piled out of the vehicle.

  “Freeze,” one soldier said. “You are trespassing on government property. Lay down on the ground and put your hands behind your head.”

  I knelt down and placed my hands behind my head. In my mind, I felt Jess.

  Now is the time. Don’t hurt them, just take away their tension, I instructed her.

  The soldiers lowered their weapons with a dull look upon their faces.

  Jess had perfected this technique with Gemini. Having both of them together, they were unstoppable. We needed to get Gemini back.

  Now have them take us into custody and return to their base, I sent to Jess.

  I couldn’t help but smile as I was handcuffed.

  The cells inside Edwards Air Force Base were cramped and smelled of fresh linens — a nice change from the pungent sulfuric scent above. I bided my time analyzing the integrity of the bars, figuring out how they would break. I was practically giddy when I learned I could simply transform into my fully metal m
ass and thump the whole wall of bars outward onto the watching guards. That knowledge would come in handy.

  On the wall, a negative number two was spray painted in large, yellow font and circled in red. We aren’t that far underground.

  My thoughts ran rampant, thinking of the conspiracies associated with Area 51, and the highly classified remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base.

  I didn’t see Hera, Jess or Crystal, but I could hear Jess whispering to Crystal somewhere adjacent to my cell. Then I heard Hera get pulled out of her cell.

  As she passed me, I gave her a nod, and she batted her eyes in agreement. It was just a matter of time before she would make her move and I would follow — a routine we planned if we ever were taken captive. They were probably bringing her to an interrogation room, where officers would play ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’.

  Pathetic.

  Two guards came and opened my cell. A thin man wearing thick-framed glasses over a thick mustache held a briefcase behind the escorting guards. They pulled me to a nearby room, across from Hera’s. Inside, they sat me down, along with the plainly dressed man. He was wearing a brown corduroy suit and, in one hand, held a pen that he clicked nervously.

  The two guards stepped behind me while the plain man opened his briefcase. He grabbed a thick manila folder and threw it down in front of me.

  “You’ve been busy, Michael,” he said.

  I ignored his comment. I knew what he was doing, and it wouldn’t work on me.

  “Six months ago, the San Diego event spawned a set of accords,” the plain man said. “Laws that govern when and where superpowers can be used. As you know, the SubSpace is the only sanctioned area where a person with such abilities can perform these… tricks.”

  “The SubSpace is a dumpster fire,” I said.

  “A dumpster fire you helped create,” he countered, opening the folder. His eyes seemed to fixate on an image inside it. “Now you run around with these infected superwomen, showcasing your abilities, when they are highly prohibited in public.”

  I didn’t give a rat’s ass what the government had sanctioned. We were cleaning up our mess and doing what was necessary.

  “Burglary, assault, robbery in the first degree,” the man said, pulling the charges from the folder. “This will get you all some serious time on the Big Island.”

  The Big Island was the largest landmass of the Hawaiian Island chain. It housed a newly built prison for supervillains and superheroes alike. The U.S. government had recently passed an initiative to invest heavily in developing more land for its country. What better way to make more land than to use the Earth’s own geological processes and force supers’ labor? The continuous flow of lava had added 570 acres of land to Hawaii's Big Island since 1983. I felt sorry for the supers out there that could control the elements, especially earth and water. Their abilities would be highly sought after.

  “I got a rusher, a budding telepath who sews costumes, and a singer,” I responded. “We are worthless to you.”

  “What about your most recent pick up?” the man asked. “She can project diamonds from her skin.”

  Shit. He had a point. Diamonds were formed from carbon over millions of years and only made their way to the surface via magma. Crystal’s powers could benefit them on the Big Island.

  “Just met her,” I said, trying to convey my disinterest. “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Well then,” the plain man said, pursing his lips and wrinkling his thick mustache. “Maybe you can tell me something you do know.”

  He pushed another picture toward me. This one was painfully familiar. Her blonde hair and soaring blue eyes were as electric as her expression in the candid photo. She was as gorgeous as ever, deadly gorgeous. Tessa. In the pic, my once held creation gripped a man’s neck in her hands, strangling the life from him.

  “How do we find Tessa in the SubSpace platform?” the man asked.

  “You can’t,” I said, trying to look away from the obvious joy she took in killing her prey. “She hides her torturing via NaN constructs.”

  “Yes, we are aware of these, and from what we gather—”

  “Why do you want to find her?” I interrupted.

  The plain man smiled. “Let’s just say she owes me something.”

  What an odd thing to say, I thought. And the fact that the U.S. government was doing deals with an A.I. from hell put me more on edge.

  “Is that why you’re having infected villainesses shuffled here?” I asked.

  The plain man’s lip quivered. I could tell something was tearing him apart from within.

  “The BAMF program is classified,” he finally said, pointing to the guards to take me back to my cell. “Even if I could tell you, I don’t think you would really want to know.”

  As they raised me up by the armpits, the plain man wiped a tiny bead of sweat from his brow with his sleeve, rubbing off what seemed like a topcoat of makeup. He looked at his sleeve and then began fixing his face, applying a fawn powder.

  I smelled the air as they pulled me along. And then I knew. Something I had only heard about. I hoped for something different to show. And when it would, that putrid sulfur smell would be the trigger for me to bust the place up.

  Jess came into my mind. I could feel every part of her, like she was caressing my thoughts. Feeling my inner desires. I wish I could hold her now.

  “What are you waiting for?” she asked within my mind’s eye.

  The smell, I thought to her.

  BAMF!

  A loud sound came from the down the hall. One of the guards tipped back in his chair and looked at is partner with an agreeable nod.

  If they only knew the truth.

  I knew that, behind those doors, it wasn’t Hera getting interrogated, but the other way around.

  “What the fuck is that smell?” one guard asked, leaning forward in concern.

  His coworker extended his arm out to comfort his partner. “It’s him.”

  I smiled at the confirmation of the brimstone-like smell. Inside, I felt the anger, felt all my hate and negative feelings I’d buried deep down and balled up. Thoughts of losing my brother and losing my best friend came tumbling out of me in metal form.

  The cold metal grew completely over my body, and my eyes once again burned red.

  A guard shot up from his chair, his hand on his gun.

  “Jesus, Carl,” he said to his partner. “The big guy is losing it or something.”

  “What the fuck is that,” Carl said, now aiming his gun at me.

  I stood up, wrapped my hands around the cold, iron bars, and pushed them out, ripping them from their cemented base. I carried them just long enough to feel the gunshots spur against my skin and ricochet off.

  I slammed the bars down on the attacking men’s heads, knocking them out cold. Almost every part of me wanted to push my metal fists through their faces, but Hera’s voice was in the back of my head.

  Or is it Jess’s voice?

  I didn’t care either way. I needed to get to Hera.

  I ripped the doors off Jess and Crystal’s cell and turned my attention to the interrogation room just down the hall. I sprinted and put my shoulder squarely against the metal door, shattering the small glass window used for viewing.

  The room was full of smoke, or what looked like it. It reeked with sulfur and two guards were on the ground, unconscious.

  “Fuck,” I yelled out, slamming my forearm into the tinted glass in the wall. “He took her.”

  Chunks of shattered glass fell in serrated shards, revealing another room. In it, a console with multiple cameras tracked the movement of a person running and carrying a slumped body, as he disappeared and reappeared in large plumes of smoke.

  It’s like he isn’t able to exist in our world space.

  Jess ran up behind me pulling Crystal with her. She pressed the side of her temple, trying to feel out the situation, but to no avail.

  “His teleporting jumps are throwing me off,” Jess said.

>   I kicked in the lower part of the wall that was below the shattered glass, making my way into the room. I looked closer at the movement on the monitor. Troops were gathering topside.

  I have to slow them down.

  Then I saw a pale man, his skin as white as a ghost’s and almost fluid, carrying Hera hung over his shoulder. She looked to be passed out as she dangled over his back.

  “There they are,” I said, and noticed the number three painted on the wall. “One floor beneath us.”

  “How did he get down there so fast?” Crystal asked.

  Jess and I both gave her a crooked eye. The man is a jumper.

  One thing gave me hope, though. The fact that he was still here.

  He must be looking for something.

  “Oh, right,” Crystal finally said.

  I smashed the controls on the console. One by one, the monitors went out, short-circuiting the system. It would give us time before finding ourselves up to our necks in troops. I looked around, tapping the ground with my boot. I didn’t have time to search for a conventional way to get down there. The fastest way down would be the one I made myself.

  I flooded my skin, strengthening the organic metal bands.

  “Stand back,” I said to Jess and Crystal.

  They backed away and watched me leap up and channel all my kinetic energy into my fist, pounding it down on the concrete below.

  Cracks climbed out from the epicenter my fist created, opening into larger fissures until my weight gave way underneath me. I fell through the floor, down to the next one, and landed hard on my booted feet, feeling debris shower down around me.

  As the dust cleared, I saw I was in some kind of lab with an operating table and a strange looking exosuit with ported holes around it. A large acronym reading BAMF was spelled out with the vertical words descending Bad Ass Mother Fucker.

  What the hell are they doing down here?

  Next to it, I recognized the reverse ARMOR rig pioneered by Enconn for LayBoy technologies. Its tech specialized in projecting entities from the SubSpace into reality. On the walls, blueprints were posted of a small device echoing out some kind of wave.

  Above me, Jess and Crystal were peeking their heads down.

  “Jump and I’ll catch you,” I yelled up to them.