by Mathy, Scott
Her expression softened. She gazed up into his eyes, “I could…not bring them back, you know. Leave them to find their own worlds outside of this one. Give the people the safety you always wanted for them?”
Dwight shook his head resolutely, “No, they belong here, too. I didn’t only mean the normal, I meant them as well. We’ll find a way to live together. I know it.”
“As you wish,” Lia responded, waving her hand lightly between them.
“Wait,” Dwight stopped her suddenly, “Could you take your time? I think the people will need to adjust slowly, let them collect themselves. Enjoy the snow and the peace?”
She smiled warmly, throwing her arms around Dwight’s aching body. He flinched slightly, forcing himself to hold firmly in place rather than dissolve into a pile of agony on the sidewalk. Soon, the pain faded and he returned the hug. For a time, the two stood still, embracing as the afternoon light began to fade.
Lia separated herself from the bruised man, looking up at the twilight setting in above, “I’m heading out for a bit. There’s a lot to see, and I’m still getting used to being a goddess.”
He tried to follow her gaze, but realized she was looking at something far beyond anything he was capable of witnessing with his own mortal eyes, “How long will you be gone?” he asked, unsure of whether he wanted a truthful answer.
She returned to the present, “Can’t say for sure. There’s an awful lot out there to explore.”
A distant memory stirred at the back of his thoughts. “Wait, you’re capable of anything now, right? Whatever the anomaly could do, but more powerful?”
“I suppose I am,” she replied proudly, “My body seems to be perpetually creating the compounds from the plants.”
He continued, “I need you to take care of something for me, if you don’t mind. About a year and a half ago, when Rampage was taking me to see Wulf, I had a vision. Something showed me how to beat her; I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I figured it out.”
“Oh?”
He knew she was already reading his mind, but went on, “It was you. You put that thought there; I just didn’t know you yet. There’s no way I’d have been able to stop Bernard and save you without knowing. Can you go back and handle it?”
“I could do more, if you wanted. Warn you about everything that happened? Fix things before they went bad with your wife, Bernard, your arm? There’s a lot of power in never making a mistake.”
He became briefly lost in thought considering the possibilities, “Please don’t,” he finally concluded. “Things weren’t perfect, but they’re how they are. Let’s move forward with our world and make do with what we have.”
Lia looked up at Dwight with eternity twinkling in her glowing eyes, “I’ll come back, I promise. I’m so proud of you. I know you’ll do what’s needed here. Take care of our home.”
She blinked out of their universe in a flash of purple light before he could respond. The only signs of her existence were the boot prints in the snow and the warmth lingering on his skin. He shivered as it left him, blasted away by a gust of frigid wind. He looked across the street at his destination: the empty diner and its red fluorescent sign.
Pushing the door open, he found the restaurant completely deserted. A few half-finished meals sat abandoned at vacant tables, having grown cold long ago when the disturbance began. The televisions, usually aglow with tales of the heroic exploits of New Haven’s Capes, were dark. Even the unashamedly garish memorabilia felt uncharacteristically quiet in the unoccupied diner. Dwight limped into the dining room, Lia’s comforting mental brace now gone. He collapsed into his typical booth, lying flat across the punctured cushion.
He stared up at the flags hanging from the ceiling, the mementos of the city’s past teams. The Guild’s banner hung in the middle, a representation of their unity from the Powers’ divided history. In truth, it had all been a lie crafted by a master manipulator. Counsel hadn’t united the Capes, he’d conquered them. The thought stung like the wound at his side. His eyes welled up in anger at the betrayal of the Powers and their mission. He wanted nothing more than to tear the obscene icon from its perch and hurl it into the street.
A noise from the kitchen interrupted his train of thought, snapping him upright in a painful instant. He grabbed his injury, his hands trembling from the jolt. There was a rattling of ceramic cups, the kind he had heard a thousand times sitting at this very booth. A moment later, Wulf stepped out from the service station, resplendent in his ivory suit. He grinned widely as he approached Dwight, setting a cup in front of each as he sat down across from him.
“It has been a while, Mr. Knolls,” he smirked, taking a loud sip and replacing the mug.
Dwight fought the trembling sensation racing through every nerve of his battered, exhausted body. He thought of running, of fighting – of doing anything to escape the immortal leering at him over the tiny booth. Instead, he asked, “She brought you back, too, then?”
“‘Too?’ Oh, no,” he corrected, “She brought me first; I insisted. We have so much to discuss.” He latticed his fingers over the steaming cup. “It was quite a surprise when your friend materialized in my hiding place unexpectedly – also when she zipped me to another world without so much as a word. A bit rude, wouldn’t you say?”
Dwight looked around, trying to understand his meaning, “Your hiding place from the multiverse’s overlord was this shitty diner?”
“Where else?” Wulf glanced about, breathing in an air of satisfaction, “After the first time I visited you in this health-citation-given-an-address, I decided I’d build my safe house under it. Took a few months and quite a bit of money, but it seems to have done its job. No Power in New Haven would dare set foot in here. The only thing I had to contend with was the stench of this pit’s wretched excuse for a menu.”
Dwight found it impossible to argue with his logic, “And no one found you here?”
He took another audible slurp, “They never came looking; everyone was content to go about their meager lives, comforted by the knowledge that everything was just how it had always been. People want to be ruled, Mr. Knolls. They long to have that burden taken from them.”
“You’re wrong,” Dwight argued, “They’ve seen the truth. They know what the Powers can be, that they can fight against it.”
“Is that what you want?” Wulf asked flatly, “A war between sides, one final conflict to drive the Powers from your city?”
“No, war was never the solution. That was the End’s method. Control isn’t the answer, either; Counsel only made things worse for everyone but himself. I’ll find another way, one that doesn’t bring death or enslavement.”
Wulf glared across the table, “They’ll fight you, Knolls. The powerful don’t like being told they’re the same as everyone else. You’ll face the tide by yourself, then?”
He looked into the dark fluid steaming in his cup, then at the banners hanging from the ceiling. Finally, he turned to face the Power before him, “I’m not alone. We’ll find a way together. No more fighting, no more shadowy enforcers. You’re done.”
Wulf sat back in his seat, interlacing his fingers over his suit’s breast, “How brave you’ve become, my little assassin. Are you really saying you’d give your life to free this city from my immaculate hands?”
“Your hands aren’t clean, Wulf. They’re soaked in the blood of normal and Power alike. You’re the biggest killer in the room, not me. I was your puppet for far too long, but not today. Not ever again. You served that monster, just like I served you.”
“Oh, how right you are,” he grinned, those toothy fangs peeking over his lower lip, “I met him so long ago, saw that unimaginable power of his, and I kneeled. I watched as he rebuilt this burnt, broken world and sat at the top beside my new master, a hound waiting for scraps. Did you think I was always called Wulf?”
“You survived the old world, the last time he fought the End?”
“It burned, Knolls. I discovered my powe
r in the instant the old world – my home, my family – were taken in a wave of searing death. The wounds may have regenerated, but I still feel the flames, hear the cries of everyone I ever loved as they burned away to nothing, still feel their ashes as they crumbled into nothing between my scorched fingers. But I lived on.”
Dwight felt the hatred radiating from the tyrant seated across from him, but couldn’t find words to respond.
He continued, “I wandered the wastes for years, searching for anything, anyone, but found only ruins. Lost my mind sifting through the wreckage of a dead world, unable to die along with it. But then, I found my answer. He returned.”
Dwight finally took a sip from his cup, “Counsel returned.”
Wulf smiled, “And brought with him the means to repopulate our world. The unempowered refugees of another fled universe, the survivors of another conflict, without a Power among them to bring life back to this one.”
“But he knew that the Powers are inevitable, and once one appears, the instances only accelerate.”
“You catch on so quickly,” he laughed, “Yes, but for a time, we ruled like gods.” He sucked in that last word, rolling it over his bared teeth as he said it. “I served, culled the herd as their numbers grew, and prepared for the unavoidable conclusion.”
“Another battle with the End,” Dwight finished his thought.
Wulf sighed, “Quite. The cycle would continue for eternity, as he wished. The End would come, this world would be destroyed, the few survivors spared to rebuild another of his charred carcasses. Unless he released that horrible plague and cleansed it himself.” He stopped for a moment, “But I found a way to break it.”
“You found the Referee,” Dwight looked up at Wulf’s sly grin.
“I did. You have no idea how surprised I was when your file came across my desk. I’ll admit, your wedding pictures were quite lovely, even if you only made the paper in one of them; Linda did always pose so well for the crowds. But, oh, did I recognize that face from my nightmares. It was so young, so pure, but it belonged to him as well – the death of my world. Your naïve little smile, so happy in that tiny moment, could have melted even my blackened heart. It really took almost nothing to put her in the room with Midas and let events play out.”
Dwight felt sick to his stomach, “You did?” he struggled to steady his spinning head.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I only set the stage. They made their own choices. It’s not like I ordered Midas to destroy your marriage; you were already well on your way to doing that yourself before I even knew of your existence.”
“But why?” he fought the urge the throw up in his seat, a million thoughts fighting to get to the forefront of his mind.
“Because you were spineless, unable to take any action beyond the safety of your little protective bubble. If I’d told you that there was a power-mad god aiming your world toward annihilation, you’d have crawled into a hole and cried for the Capes to save you. I shattered your illusion, and made you see what you really are.”
Dwight sat silently, trying to process the revelation.
“I had no clue how someone like you was supposed to stand against something so unimaginably powerful, but I’ve been around long enough to know that there’s always a reason, always a way. The universe has a perverse sense of humor about these things, don’t you agree? When I saw your smiling, ignorant little face, I knew that there was a chance.”
He was shaking, unable to control his body’s volatile reaction, “You broke me, ruined my life, made me do terrible things – just on a chance that I’d be able to kill not one, but two versions of myself with unstoppable power?”
“And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Anything so the gods’ meaningless war with all of its infinite casualties was ended, once and for all.”
He looked down at his two hands, one flesh and blood, the other steel and circuitry. “So that’s it, then. I’m nothing more than a monster for a bigger monster,” he glared up at the smiling Wulf.
“I didn’t say that,” he finished his drink.
Dwight felt the disgust, the rage, building in himself, “I’ll fight you. The Referee may be over, but I’ll give whatever I have left to stop you. I made a mistake when I brought you back after Bernard killed you. I didn’t have a better answer. I know better now: the people deserve to live without being pawns for the Powers. They’re going to be free, even if I have to spend the rest of eternity choking the life out of you.” He steadied himself for a battle to the death.
Instead, Wulf raised both hands in surrender, “So you were listening. All those years ago when you watched a man die in my office, you did nothing. Power, real power, is the will to take a stand for what you believe in. It’s not the strength to throw a bus, or withstand a hail of bullets, or command the minds of those around you like puppets; none of those things mean a fucking thing if you will not use them to bring change to your world. The old Dwight Knolls, even before I ‘robbed’ you of the things you loved, would never have fought for a damned thing. You didn’t even fight for control of that fucking dog you claimed to love so much. Not with Linda, and not even with your pathetic ex-roommate and his robot girlfriend. I broke you, and here you are, willing to scatter me to the winds, knowing full-well that I’ll come back again and again. That is what you are now: a fighter.”
He sparked the pads on his hand, “Do you think I should be thanking you?”
Wulf looked away from the weapon, unimpressed, “Not for that. But certainly for my company, my workforce, and my resources.”
Dwight returned a look of pure confusion, letting the electricity in his fist die, “Come again?”
“I’m done,” Wulf sighed, “It’s yours.” He waited for a reaction that didn’t come, finally resuming, “I’m leaving StarPoint and New Haven. Going back to see what else is out there, maybe see if anything can exist beyond what’s left of this world.”
“You’d just leave,” Dwight asked, trying to dissect the tyrant’s play, “No fight, no game?”
Wulf held out his hands, opening the cuffs of his sleeves, “When you’ve been around as long as I have, you grow tired of seeing the same things day after day. I’m ready for a change as well, and I don’t think I can be the one to reshape New Haven into whatever bright future you see for it. I’m too old, too set in my ways, and I’ve done too much to these people to convince them otherwise.”
Dwight was stunned, unsure of what to think, “And you’re leaving me StarPoint?”
“No strings attached. If you’d bothered to look at the terms of your employment when you started for me so long ago, I think you’d have found the clause I wrote in about the Succession Protocol being terminated upon my departure from the company; no reason to look over your shoulder for contenders to the throne. StarPoint is yours for as long as you’ll have it. You really should learn to read the fine print if you’re going to be running the largest corporation in the city.” He rose from the table, taking his cup with him before dropping it into the serving station’s dish tub.
“Where will you go?” Dwight called across the restaurant.
Wulf pushed open the door and laughed into the cold night air, watching the snow continue to fall over his city. A few drifts blew into the restaurant. “Somewhere far away, Mr. Knolls. I don’t expect we’ll ever be meeting again, but understand, I will be excitedly watching your performance. Show me what you can really do, now that the fighting is done and the Referee isn’t needed.”
He leaned back through, shouting at the diner’s sole occupant, “I’ll be sending a box for my skull!” he added quickly.
And with that, the former Tyrant of New Haven released the handle and disappeared with his pure white suit and graying hair into the falling snow. Dwight sat alone in the now-empty diner, staring into the dark, sedentary liquid of his cooled drink. He spent the remaining hours of that night contemplating the meaning of his ex-boss’s words, the plan that had nearly torn his city apart, and the end of a cyc
le that had claimed countless lives on this world and a thousand others.
After an entire evening sitting in silence, as dawn approached and the storm outside finally ceased, he stood. Watching the dawn’s light pour into the diner’s windows, glistening off the freshly fallen snow like diamonds, he finished his cold drink and walked through the doorway into the new morning. He left an I.O.U. on the table for the coffee.
ELEVEN
Outside the office windows, a half-dozen enormous cranes rose with the renewed skyline of a city in recovery. Dwight marveled at how quickly the people had come together to restore their home, the sheer number that stepped up to rebuild New Haven after those hellish days. In the midday light of late spring, the entire city felt alive again. Something had changed.
Dwight sipped his coffee, admiring the passion of the citizens, both the Powered and normal. Lia did as she had promised, slowly returning the Powers over the course of the weeks following Counsel’s defeat and Wulf’s disappearance. Each one returned to an uncertain welcome; for every triumphant cheer, there was another victim reminded of the chaos. In time, they settled into an uneasy truce. The corporations retreated to nurse their wounds, drawing back to assess the newfound suspicion for their kind. Linda informally stepped into a role at the head of the Guild, still without a headquarters. Many of the Capes knew Lock Heart from her time there, respected her leadership, and followed as she rebuilt the shattered reputation of New Haven’s former protectors.
He watched a pair of bright streaks sail over the highway just beyond StarPoint’s front gates, Powers still trying to emulate their old habits. The people didn’t need saving anymore; the few empowered criminals were afraid to show their faces for the massive backlash they’d receive. The press, it seemed, was done with the Powers. More and more of the news became focused on the repairs to the city and the regular heroes of New Haven.