The Supervillainy Saga (Book 4): The Science of Supervillainy

by Phipps, C. T.

  “I am not—” Amanda started to say before shaking her head. “Listen to me—”

  “Come with me if you want to live!” I said, remembering all my lost pop culture quips. “Please say it.”

  “It doesn’t make sense if you say it,” Mandy said. “It’s ruined now.”

  “Get in the car!” Amanda shouted, honking the horn of the vehicle, and nearly deafening us. “We don’t have much time!”

  To show just how screwed up I was by Other Gary’s brainwashing, my first thoughts weren’t for myself or my wife. Instead—ugh—they were for other people. “This prison is full of probably, maybe, possibly innocent people! We have to free them as well!”

  That was when all the loudspeakers in Undertown started speaking with the same female announcer’s voice from President Omega’s base. “I’m sorry, but containment protocols have been initiated. We are now going to kill everyone in Undertown.”

  That was when the north side of the town detonated, followed by the south.

  “Right, into your car,” I said, jumping in as Mandy did the same.

  “Hold onto your butts,” Amanda said, sealing up the Nightcar and hitting the accelerator.

  Chapter Four

  WHERE WE ESCAPE FROM SURBURBAN HELL

  The Nightcar barreled down a long circular tube, which I took to be the primary air vent of Undertown. The place was littered with laser cannon turrets and energy mines, which would have destroyed us if not for the fact the Nightcar always moved out of the way at the last second. It also used a series of machine guns built into its front to tear through the automated defenses keeping us in. Did I mention we were moving at ninety miles per hour?

  “OK, who died and made Michael Bay the director of my life?” I said, sitting in the front seat beside Amanda.

  “Now is not the time, Gary!” Amanda said. “I have to focus on driving!”

  “Who taught you how to drive like this?” Mandy asked in the backseat.

  “I—” Amanda started to say.

  “WARNING - AUTOMATED DEFENSIVE DRIVING ASSISTANCE AT 85%. PLEASE DO NOT INTERFERE WITH MOVEMENT,” the Nightcar’s computer said.

  I gave her a sideways glare. “Focus on driving, huh?”

  “I’m learning!” Amanda said, a little too edgy.

  “Well, thank you for rescuing us,” I said, thinking about the burned-out ruins of Undertown and the hundreds of people we’d left to die. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get more people out.”

  Amanda stared forward. “We’ve known about your location for months. The others weren’t willing to go in, though, because they knew the hostages would die.”

  “But you went in anyway,” Mandy said, her voice surprised and hurt.

  “We’re losing,” Amanda said softly. “In the end, you’re the only person who can stop the threat afflicting Falconcrest City.”

  “That’s flattering,” I said, putting my hand on my heart. “I mean, I know—”

  “I meant Mandy,” Amanda said.

  “Oh,” I said, disappointed. “Uh, go team.”

  “Stop what threat?” Mandy asked, her tone suddenly cold and dispassionate. “President Omega is dead, right?”

  “He’s not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead,” Amanda said, keeping her eye on the tunnel.

  “Ha!” I burst out laughing. “The Wizard of Oz! Awesome.”

  Amanda looked at me sideways.

  “I’ve been out of action for a while.” I took a deep breath. “I’m still a little off-kilter.”

  “You’re off-kilter?” Mandy said. “I’ve lived a two-century time loop and spent the past five years playing Suzie Homemaker.”

  “Which you did a truly awful job at,” I reassured her.

  “Thank you,” Mandy said. “I tried. Can we get something else for me to wear? Anything?”

  “I think you look good in nothing,” I said, cheerfully.

  Mandy grinned and started undressing.

  “Ahem,” Amanda said, grimacing. “I hate to be the one to interrupt the happily married couple, but Other Gary’s nano-bots have sealed over the exit and it’s about a half-kilometer of supercrete long.”

  “Ah crap,” I said, as alarms blared across the interior of the Nightcar.

  “Grab my hand,” Amanda said. “We need to get through that wall.”

  I knew what she meant. “I’m not exactly at top per—”

  “Now!” Amanda said.

  I grabbed the seat and turned the Nightcar insubstantial.

  “Ludicrous speed! Go!” I shouted, giddy.

  I didn’t get a chance to rebut him because my face was suddenly pressing against the back of my skull due to g-forces equivalent to a shuttle launch. The Nightcar passed through hundreds of feet of supercrete, my powers straining themselves to the limit to keep us from being entombed alive. I almost lost it but managed to hold onto my power just long enough for the Nightcar to burst through the other end. Sunlight, real sunlight, streamed through the windows before the car smashed into the middle of a grassy field.

  “I am really glad you two can do that,” Mandy said, exhaling. She was half-dressed with smudged makeup and messy hair. She looked more like herself than she’d looked in literal years.

  “Me too,” I wheezed, letting go of Amanda’s hand.

  “Activate the stealth system,” Amanda said.

  The Nightcar’s tires turned sideways and levitated the vehicle sideways. The car zoomed down the grassy hills and between trees as a weird bubble-like field surrounded it. It reminded me of Die Another Day’s invisible car. Ugh. The worst of the Bond movies. Thankfully, it also reminded me of Back to the Future 2.

  “Please,” Cloak said. “Tell me we’re not going to be doing this constantly.”

  “No promises,” I muttered.

  The Nightcar traveled for about twenty more minutes before pulling out onto a hill outside of Falconcrest City and coming to a stop.

  Amanda took a deep breath. “OK, we can talk now.”

  I responded by throwing up in the front seat.

  “Oh, that’s nasty,” Amanda muttered.

  I rubbed my temples. “I should probably have mentioned I get motion sick when I’m not driving.”

  “My poor car,” Cloak muttered. “My poor, poor car. How are we going to fix it? You can’t exactly just take it to the cleaners.”

  “Hush. You never even liked it,” I said.

  “That’s not the point,” Cloak said. “It was a gift from my brother.”

  “Be glad that wasn’t this morning’s meal,” Mandy said.

  The three of us got out of the Nightcar, more like hobbled in my case, and we were soon standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking Falconcrest City. It wasn’t the Falconcrest City of my memories, but something far different. Gone were the miles of slums leading up to the city, replaced by beautiful suburbs and retro-future works of architecture.

  The industrial section of the city was ultra-modernized with the old city’s smokestacks and dirty chemical plants replaced with chrome factories. The air was clean and the Falconcrest City Bay no longer looked like an ocean of sludge. Instead, it was a gleaming crystal lake—and not the kind serial killers stalked. Electromagnetic zeppelins hovered in the air, advertising various Omega Corp products.

  “Wow,” I said, staring at the sight. “What has Other Gary done to my city?”

  Amanda sighed. “After you killed President Omega, World War 3 ended a few weeks later. Twelve million people died before the world’s militaries could stop Omega’s loyalists and mercenaries. Other Gary stepped up to claim he was the man responsible for stopping President Omega, pretending to be you, and was rewarded with all of Omega Corp’s assets. He used the billions to rebuild the world and get himself declared First Citizen.”

  I stared. “Wait a minute—”

  “I haven’t even begun to explain things,” Amanda said.

  I gestured to the refurbished city. “I killed the President of the United States and got h
is stuff? When did the United States start working under Necromonger rules?”

  “Gary—” Mandy started to say.

  “President Omega was a bad person,” Amanda said. “Also, the United States wasn’t exactly in a great position after the conflict. Most of the federal government had been killed, massive sanctions had been imposed, and the number of dead Supers left the world badly off. Other Gary claimed to have given up crime and was the hero the country could rally around after Ultragod’s death.”

  I gasped in horror. “I’m considered a superhero now!?”

  “Uh, sorry?” Amanda said, confused that my superhero status was bothering me.

  “How the hell did anyone confuse Other Gary with me?” I asked. “He’s like twenty years older.”

  “Centuries, actually,” Mandy said.

  “People are stupid,” Amanda said, shrugging. “I think he claimed he’d prematurely aged because of all the power he’d expended saving the world.”

  “Ah, the Palpatine defense,” I muttered. “Now, last bit . . . First Citizen?”

  Amanda looked uncomfortably at the city. “After President Omega’s actions, the United States demanded someone take charge and prove things could change. Other Gary proposed the major cities be governed by superheroes to keep things honest. As a member of the Society of Superheroes, Other Gary controls Falconcrest City until power can be returned to the people.”

  I stared at her. “Holy shit.”

  “Dear god,” Cloak said.

  “Does no one fucking learn from history!?” Mandy said, feeling her head. “You’re telling me the United States dealt with a dictator coming to power by demanding another one?”

  Amanda looked disgusted. “I’m pretty sure Other Gary rigged the elections and had access to all of Omega’s mind-control technology to boot—if he wasn’t the one who provided it in the first place—but the United States is now a superherocracy.”

  I took a deep breath. “Gabrielle never would have tolerated that. What happened to her?”

  “I don’t know,” Amanda said. “I found you and her but not the others.”

  I closed my eyes.

  “The Society of Superheroes would never do this,” Cloak said, appalled. “They are better than this.”

  “You mean the same Society of Superheroes that sided with President Omega on every decision right up until he tried to kill them?” I asked, disgusted. “The same society that locked me up on the moon without trial? The same society that believed Ultradevil over Ultragoddess when she said her father had been replaced?”

  “Yes,” Cloak said. “They are still better than this. I mean, you were guilty as sin when they locked you up, but what they did to you was still wrong.”

  I sighed. “Maybe they are, or maybe the death of the Nightwalker and Ultragod leaves only Guinevere, Aquarius, and the Prismatic Commando in charge. Two absolute monarchs and a guy who answers to a galactic peace agency run by alien gods.”

  “There’s always the Silver Medalist,” Mandy said.

  “He retired,” Amanda said. “He refused to have anything to do with the new order. That didn’t stop the younger members from believing they should take over, though. Other Gary is very persuasive.”

  “God dammit,” I muttered. “So, you’re like, what, the plucky resistance?”

  “Of sorts,” Amanda muttered. “I won’t lie to you, things haven’t exactly been conducive to getting much traction against your doppelgänger. People . . . are happy.”

  “Happy being under a dictatorship?” I asked.

  “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one,” Amanda quoted Benjamin Franklin. “That doesn’t keep people from making that trade all the time. Supervillains are spirited away to Other Gary’s prisons and are usually never seen again. When they are, they are completely rehabilitated. He’s also found ways of removing superpowers from people and giving them to others. The U.S. government and its allies now have dozens of Omega Corp-produced super teams that all consider Other Gary their personal Santa.”

  “Technology from the future,” I muttered. “Damn, I’m a genius.”

  Mandy glared at me.

  “An evil, evil good-guy genius!” I said. “So where is the rest of the resistance? You know, Mandy’s army to take over and lead to overthrowing this asshole?”

  Amanda looked over her shoulder. “Uh—”

  “You are the resistance,” I muttered, guessing that was why she’d gone to such desperate measures.

  Amanda closed her eyes. “The Foundation for World Harmony rounded up all of my friends and either killed them or turned them over to Other Gary for brainwashing. Some of them were probably in that town. I’m the only one left. There may still be other groups, but he’s been efficient about keeping us all divided. No one knows who to trust.”

  “Well,” I said, taking a deep breath. “That just means we’ll have to start small and work our way up.”

  “No,” Mandy said, looking at the city and then back at us.

  “No?” Amanda said, her voice raising an octave. “What do you mean no?”

  Mandy looked at her sympathetically. “You can’t force freedom onto people, Amanda. If most people support Other Gary, that’s democracy in action even if it’s stupid.”

  “Are you serious?” Amanda asked, horrified. “You want to leave him in charge?”

  Mandy crossed her arms. “No, he’s killed billions of people in the future and is responsible for the death of millions. I’ve led two revolutions against him and President Omega, so I know they don’t work. We need to find out where he lives, drag him out, and then pull his skull out from his head.”

  “I like that use of imagery,” I said, nodding. “However, it may be a bit more complicated than that.”

  “We’ve tried to kill him dozens of ways,” Amanda said. “He always gets better.”

  “Which is the thing that is more complicated,” I said. “Apparently, being the Chosen of Life makes him damn near immortal.”

  Amanda asked a very pertinent question. “Can’t you kill him as the Chosen of Death?”

  “Apparently not,” I muttered, thinking about how I’d thrown everything I had at my doppelgänger only for him to survive. “I can slow him down, but I don’t know how to eliminate Other Gary.”

  “We could ask Death,” Cloak said. “Not that I recommend that as a matter of course.”

  “If she didn’t rescue me in five years, I don’t think she’s responding to my summons,” I said. “In fact, Death, could you help here?”

  Nothing happened.

  “That was very risky,” Cloak said.

  “Only if she answered,” I said.

  “Finish Other Gary off and you’ll be back in my good graces, Gary.” A voice very much like Mandy’s spoke in the wind that washed over us. “I have quite the backlog of souls for you to deal with.”

  Mandy and Amanda looked up to the sky.

  “OK, that was terrifying,” Amanda said.

  “Is anyone else bothered she sounds like me?” Mandy said, covering her face from the sunlight.

  “Extremely,” I said, frowning. “Honestly, I think she’s a little sweet on me.”

  Mandy looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”

  “So where is my antithesis? You know, the superhero who is really evil to my supervillain who is . . . well, not really good but not at all that terrible,” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter since we can’t kill him,” Amanda said.

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t incapacitate him,” I pointed out. “I’m all for sending Other Gary to the Mirror Zone, shooting him on a rocket into space, freezing him like in Jason X, or dumping him into the bottom of the sea. We could also turn him to stone since I have a few medusas’ phone numbers. Is it a permanent solution? No, but it sure as hell won’t be pleasant for him.”

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Amanda said. “Despite the whole Nightgirl thing. I�
�m thirty, for godsakes.”

  “You’ll always be Merci-Lass to me,” I said, smiling. “So, where’s his tower? I assume it’s a tower. I wouldn’t settle for a mere mansion or palace.”

  Amanda pointed to the center of Falconcrest City where a gigantic M-shaped building towered over all the others. It was made of crystal and shined with all the light of the city like an inverted Bara-Dur.

  “I’d say he was compensating for something, but I’d be insulting myself,” I said.

  Mandy snorted at that.

  Amanda looked embarrassed.

  “So, who is up for wrecking this guy’s shit?” I said, giving two thumbs up.

  Chapter Five

  OUR BRILLIANT PLAN TO ATTACK OTHER GARY DIRECTLY

  We broke into a Ultramart outside of Falconcrest City and picked up new sets of clothes. I wore a red hoodie with a white M on the side, which was part of the official Merciless™ merchandise line Other Gary was making millions off of, and jeans with plain white sneakers. Amanda changed into a white summer dress and sunglasses. Mandy, by contrast, chose to wear the decidedly attention-getting outfit of leather pants and a corset from the goth aisle.

  As the trio of us walked down the clean sidewalks of downtown Falconcrest City, I noticed she got the clear majority of attention from passersby. Not that I blamed them.

  “Isn’t the point of this exercise to not be noticed?” I asked, leaning over.

  Mandy shrugged. “I’ve been stuck wearing a floral print dress for five years. Besides, no one’s looking at my face.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m more worried about the cameras.”

  Downtown had changed, in many ways for the better—just not for people like me. Gone were the bars, porn theaters, gun shops, pawn shops, and hundreds of homeless, replaced by cafes, boutiques, bakeries, and tourists. Everyone was dressed in high-quality clothes while robot cops were on every corner, scanning people. Drones flew over every few minutes and I saw security cameras everywhere.

  “We should be unrecognizable,” Amanda said, looking over her shoulder. “The central computer system, S.A.F.E.T.Y, is not that difficult to hack in to if you know the right people. I’ve also got a personal jammer, which should keep us from being recorded. Even so, my safeguards are never good for more than a week.”