Temporary Superheroine

by Irene Vartanoff

  “Because here, Dave keeps manipulating my destiny. He wants to rule my world. Come.” He motioned to a desk over by the windows. He went to it and I followed him.

  He pointed at a pile of newspapers with stories circled. “Look at these. You’ll see what I mean.”

  I glanced through a series of photos of the Purple Menace in police custody. “Definitely some career setbacks.”

  “I have the soul of a leader, yet he kept interfering, arranging for me to be foiled. Then, in your world, you opposed me,” he said, his contorted expression showing his outrage. “Yet my power has increased despite you all. Now my greatness will triumph, and I will rule your world.”

  He resembled my Eric, but he talked in the same antique manner Diabolical Dave did. Or like a crazy villain did in a sci-fi movie.

  Of course. Part of the Purple Menace was a Diabolical Dave construct, and he took his dialogue from comic books. I saw only a facial resemblance to Eric. The rest was rebellious free will in the classic mold of a mad scientist.

  Diabolical Dave’s wishful influence accounted for the retro aspects of this world, including the lack of personal computers and cell phones. He probably hated them. Yet in my world, he’d been quite willing to use advanced computer hacking to rope me into this drama.

  How could his interfering influence rule this world? Somehow, Dave had set the Purple Menace in motion. If this situation wasn’t a real menace, I would so not be helping Diabolical Dave. What a poor excuse for a father. True, a miserable little child part of me wanted my daddy’s approval and love even though he had ignored me my entire life. Left Barb to be a single mom, too. I wonder if Barb had been so sour before Dave messed up her life with a kid?

  The Purple Menace sifted through more newspapers. “See this? And this?” The Purple Menace—I couldn’t think of him as Eric, especially since my Eric was also somewhere on this world, doing who knows what—showed me the machines he had linked together. Somehow they would bend all the known laws of science. In a virtual fantasy world, anything was possible. After all, I had shot power bolts from my darn fingertips. And I could fly, sort of.

  “You may think you will win, but I’m several steps ahead of you, girl.” Suddenly, the Purple Menace turned to me and hit me with a massive power jolt. I was not expecting it and I went down like a lead weight.

  “Got you.” I heard dimly. Then I was out cold.

  Chapter 19

  When I awoke, I was in a cage hoisted above a cauldron of boiling chemicals, somewhere else in the same cavernous building. I recognized the ceiling. It had to be boiling chemicals because I’d seen this predicament in a bunch of classic comic books that Roland had showed me. The chemicals stank. I’d probably die from the fumes long before the Purple Menace could lower the cage into the gigantic pot. Which was his obvious intention. This world wasn’t exactly original. My hands were tied behind my back, but my feet were free, and I attempted to stand. On the second try, I made it.

  “Hey, what’s up with putting me in a cage?” I called to the Purple Menace, who bustled into the room, heading for another bank of machines.

  “You didn’t think I would let you ruin all my plans, did you?” the Purple Menace called out in a matter-of-fact way, as he flipped a few switches and turned some dials.

  “No, I guess not,” I agreed groggily. “What is that stench? It’s probably killing all our brain cells.”

  “Nonsense. All science improves the world,” he replied.

  An attitude straight from Diabolical Dave’s brain and the middle of the prior century, when scientific progress produced world-class poisons like DDT.

  “Seriously, doc—may I call you doc?—research in my dimension has proved chemical vapors are bad for people,” I said. “I could get cancer hanging around here.”

  “No need to worry,” he said grandly. “Soon my lovely machine will lower you into the cauldron and you will die.”

  My strength felt very depleted. I didn’t know what he had hit me with aside from the bolt, and it didn’t matter. The Purple Menace intended to kill me in the over-the-top manner of typical comic book supervillains.

  “This is a bad joke,” I shook my head, disgusted. “How about letting me out and we’ll talk?” Worth asking. Anything to stall him while I regained my strength.

  “No more chatter. Now is the time for action,” he said. He made a grand gesture and hit a big red button. All the machine lights blinked. The motor that controlled the pulley started up, and it began to lower me toward the cauldron.

  “Goodbye, young lady. Sorry I can’t stay and watch, but I’ve got plans. First, a chat with the Eric from your world.”

  Uh-oh. “Are you two best buddies?” I asked.

  “Very funny,” the Purple Menace sneered over the grinding of the gears. The cage continued its descent toward the boiling chemicals. “Eric is my guest, whereas you have outstayed your welcome. You being here interferes. Your brain causes static. Another reason you must die.”

  “Sorry about that,” I said.

  “Soon I will have more power. I shall take his DNA strength. Then I will control the entire universe.”

  “Uh, what happens to Eric?” I asked, although I was fairly sure the answer would not be sunshine and butterflies.

  “He’ll die, of course,” the Purple Menace said off-handedly.

  “You made up a DNA-draining machine on the spot? Sure,” I scoffed. “I’d like to see that.”

  He sent me a creepy glare. “You think I’m merely a comic book character with no brains. I am a scientific genius. Haven’t you noticed? I no longer need the Amulet of Life. I am stronger than ever. Soon my power shall surpass anything known to man.”

  “I believe this is where I say you won’t get away with this,” I said mildly. I felt sick. Still weak. As the cage lowered, it was getting hotter.

  “There you go again, making feeble quips because you think all superheroines must,” he replied.

  “It’s in the rule book,” I joked.

  He turned and left.

  The pulley moved very slowly. Unfortunately, so did I. I needed to get out of the cage ASAP.

  I’d never tried so hard to control the power bolts. First to free my hands. I couldn’t shoot my bolts directly at what held my hands together behind my back, so I shot them at the bars. As my bolts ricocheted, I moved my hands and let the bolts strike the bonds. It worked, but it stung a lot, and some blood dripped from wounds on my wrists.

  I angled the bolts so they’d pass harmlessly overhead the next round, and tried to bend or break the bars. Nothing much happened, except the pulley kept moving me toward a nasty death. After three rounds of my bolts, the bars still had not bent much. The heat was increasing. Sweat dripped down my face. I didn’t know what else to do but keep trying. My tool belt didn’t have anything exciting in it like a laser saw. “Drat.” I wanted to say a much stronger word.

  Duh, look for the lock, dummy. There’s always a door and a lock. As soon as I located the door and shot a couple of bolts at the lock, it gave way. By now the base of the cage was touching the boiling chemicals. I would get a major hot foot unless I moved fast. I grabbed the bars overhead, swung with my legs, and kicked at the cage door. It worked like it did in the movies. The door opened. I quickly clambered to the top of the cage, sweat obscuring my eyes as I did. It wasn’t graceful. My rear end seemed to drag behind me as I gasped and grunted my way to the top. From there I threw myself past the rim of the cauldron to the floor.

  I didn’t remember I could fly until I was almost touching the hard concrete. I braked, but not soon enough to save myself from a new set of bruises.

  Two seconds later, the bottom of the cage went into the boiling chemicals with a big hissing sound.

  I lay on the rough cement floor and tried not to hyperventilate. That hissing sound could have been me, but I had saved myself. I had saved myself.

  I’d also forgotten I could fly, which could have helped me. Or maybe not, considering how new I w
as at it.

  I was alive.

  We weren’t playing. There was no time to recover. I must find Eric and keep him from being killed by the Purple Menace. If the Purple Menace had told me the truth about Eric. And vice versa. Eric could have lied to me about everything.

  What if Eric had secret powers of his own? Had he been behind those purple bolts that saved me from the metal arm back in Manhattan?

  I didn’t even take the time to destroy the Purple Menace’s machines, despite Roland’s message telling me to. Even to my uneducated eye, it seemed pretty obvious this entire wall of metal and tubes and wiring, six feet high and twelve feet across, existed only to control the boiling cauldron. There were lots of dials and switches, and the enormous red button the Purple Menace had pushed. It was an instance of comic book junk science in action. The old-fashioned idea that big projects called for big machines. I left the room and the machines that almost killed me, and went searching for the Purple Menace. And Eric.

  Chapter 20

  I don’t know why I expected finding Eric to be difficult. This was an enormous building, but it had only one level. No light came from the windows facing the ocean now that it was fully dark outside. The empty rooms didn’t have any lights on. The ones with machines did. It was easy to quickly search down the long main corridor, which was lit by fluorescent tubes at intervals. Finally, I found another room that had plenty of machines. Eric was strapped down to a table with a weird metal helmet on his head and a hose attached to it leading into one of the machines.

  He was conscious, though he didn’t look good.

  “I’ll get you out, I’ll free you,” I babbled as I ran over to him. I started to apply my bolts to the metal bands strapping him down.

  “No. Don’t, Chloe.” Eric’s voice was thready. “No. You’ve got to shut off this infernal machine first.”

  “What? How?” I asked. Oh, no, I’d almost killed him myself in my haste to free him.

  “Shut off the computer powering this.”

  “Where?”

  “The next room. Control room.” His voice was getting weaker. “Matching helmet. Knock it off.”

  I was horrified. Eric’s face was ashen. “What if—?” I cried.

  “No time,” he said. “Go.”

  He’d left a lot out. Like, if I shut off the machine, could that kill him? Too much of his DNA strength might have been stolen already.

  I threw myself into the next room. The Purple Menace was there, sitting in front of another big machine. He wore a helmet that matched the one on Eric’s head and was connected directly to the machine. Along with the usual flashing lights and dials with moving indicators, this invention included two four-foot tall thermometers to indicate progress. Conveniently, the thermometers were labeled, so I could tell at a glance that the machine was storing Eric’s strength but hadn’t given any of it to the Purple Menace yet. Or should I call him Evil Eric?

  He was talking to himself. “Yes, soon, soon,” he muttered. “It will all be mine. The strength of two men in one. I will rule two worlds.” His words built in volume to a shout of triumph.

  “Not a chance, you loser.” I shouted as I zapped the connector to the helmet he wore. I severed it completely. I zapped the Purple Menace too for good measure. My power bolt didn’t do much to him. It only knocked him off his chair.

  “You escaped,” the Purple Menace screamed. “How dare you delay my ultimate triumph? It no longer amuses me to toy with you. Now your death will be swift,” he snarled. He rose, pointed his hand, and instantly shot at me with a bolt. This time I was ready. I ducked behind another desk and shot my own bolts at the same time.

  “Oh, you’re such a sweetheart,” I cooed with disdain. “What a loving reception.”

  “Where are you, you brat? Ah–ha!” He shot at me again.

  I popped up and shot at him. “Eat dirt!”

  “My bolts are more powerful than yours,” he boasted.

  “Sorry, no extra strength for bad boys.” I sidestepped him and flipped the obvious control lever to reverse. With any luck, in this dimension of junk science, Eric’s DNA strength would flow back into him.

  “Now see what you’ve done!” the Purple Menace screamed. “I was about to get a full charge!”

  “That’s the point, you cheesy creep.”

  “You’ll pay,” the Purple Menace yelled as he shot a big red bolt. It hurled me about fifteen feet across the room in an arc. I hit the wall, plus a nasty edge of a metal machine as I came down. It knocked the wind out of me. I would have a lovely bruise on my back. If I lived long enough to bruise.

  “Now, play nice, Mr. Menace,” I taunted him, although it came out as a gasp. I reeled from the blow, but anything to drag this out and keep his focus on me.

  I shot a bolt at him again. With his attention on me, he easily shook it off. He sent a bolt directly at me, but I moved enough to dodge it. Good thing. It fried the wall behind me. I saw smoke billow from where the bolt hit. His bolts were stronger than mine now.

  “Ha,” I chortled, continuing my trash-talking. “Missed me.”

  I sent a bolt at the chair he’d been in, shoving it at the Purple Menace. It tangled him up for a minute, while I got off another bolt and hit him dead on. He shook that off, too.

  He aimed at me again. “Take this, you interfering urchin.”

  I sent my bolt to meet his. For a second or two, it was like arm wrestling. Neither of us gained ground. His bolt pushed mine aside, but I’d managed to move away from its trajectory. Another piece of fried wall.

  My insults annoyed the Purple Menace, so I kept them coming. “You’re not impressing me, Evil Guy,” I said, adding a smirk.

  “You impudent snip! Die.”

  As his next bolt flew at me, I leapt a few feet into the air. My fledgling flying ability carried me safely above the bolt, although I nearly crash-landed coming down. I snapped off a return bolt from my new position, all the while making silly quips like a comic book superhero.

  “Relax. This won’t hurt a bit,” I said. But I was outmatched. Sheer power could win this for the Purple Menace unless I thought of something to reverse the odds.

  Then it happened. The Purple Menace must have gotten some sort of internal message. He straightened up and smiled.

  “Goodbye. I’m off to rule your world.”

  He vanished. No puff of smoke, no nothing. Gone.

  The thermometer measuring Eric’s life force, or DNA force, or whatever, now showed zero. I hoped that meant he was together again. I shut off the machine carefully, then ran back to the first room.

  “Are you all right?” I asked. I quickly released Eric from the steel straps binding his arms and legs.

  “I’m fine,” Eric said brusquely. He took off the helmet. “Nice save. I thought I was toast.”

  “You were a few seconds away from it,” I said.

  “Where’s my evil twin?”

  “He winked out of this dimension. Dave must have fallen asleep.” I added, “I’m still stuck using the Amulet of Life, but somehow, the Purple Menace now can cross over if Dave nods off.”

  My side gave a twinge where I had hit the machine. Other parts were speaking up from my struggle with the cage over the Purple Menace’s hot pot a few minutes before. I was tapped out.

  “Then we have time to regroup,” Eric said. “We’ll explore his layout and destroy his machines.”

  I wanted to agree. I had another, more pressing concern. “I’m the only one who can fight the Purple Menace, remember? I’ve got to get back to our world immediately and fight him there.” I strove to hide my utter exhaustion.

  Eric gave the machine that had almost killed him an angry look, but turned briskly and came to take my hand. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  As always, his touch made my fingers tingle. I ignored it, and started the chant.

  It didn’t work.

  We tried, again and again. We even tried doing the letters backwards. “We’ve each got to return to where we arri
ved and try it there.” I said.

  “No. We don’t. Earlier today, I made the return twenty blocks from my original entry point. The Purple Menace currently being in our world must block the portal.”

  “Great. Now what?” I was totally frustrated and more tired and achy by the minute. I didn’t even confront Eric over his admission he had been to this dimension earlier today, as I had suspected. Of course he knew the proper chant. He’d probably read Lord Raga comics when he was a kid. “I’m wiped out. I need to rest.”

  “We’ll find a hotel room and get some sleep,” Eric said. “First let’s destroy his machines.”

  “All right. Especially anything that looks like it could create an obedience beam.”

  “Obedience beam?” Eric’s expression was disbelieving.

  “We’ve living in a comic book adventure, don’t you know?” I replied.

  I shot my bolts at the controls while Eric used the chair to smash the DNA-stealing machine that had almost killed him. His feelings were obvious. He didn’t stop until the pieces were crunched. My bolts melted the remains together.

  We went back to the first room where I had encountered the Purple Menace and smashed as much as we could of his enormous group of machines. I used my bolts and Eric ripped a plank from an empty crate and wielded it to vicious effect.

  Finally, I stopped. “I can’t shoot any more bolts,” I said. “I’m beat.”

  “We’ll leave now,” Eric said.

  When we got outside, the area was as deserted as before. I didn’t bother to pull the gate closed.

  Eric knew where the nearest subway station was. Faster than looking for a cab in this desolate stretch of Brooklyn. A train came along very quickly. We sat in a nearly empty car. I was dazed from all I had been through in the past hour.

  Finally, I roused myself. “How did the Purple Menace capture you?”

  Eric grimaced in disgust. “While I was trying to save you from that steel robot arm, the Purple Menace sneaked up on me and knocked me out.

  “I came to strapped down. He was raving about how he was going to kill me and take over the world. What a nutcase.”