by Logan Jacobs
“Sure,” I agreed easily. “She seems difficult, are you sure you’re up for the challenge?”
Beacon grinned at me confidently. “Always.”
Maybe he was a little cocky, but I definitely preferred him to the Shadow Knight already.
“We’ll capture this one, then. You got that, Norma?” I glanced behind me toward my mousy assistant.
She gave me a bright smile and a thumbs up, then tapped away at something on her tablet.
So that just left the Shadow Knight and his Silver Squire without a target. I wasn’t sure if he’d accept me picking one for him since he was a complete control-freak, but so far he’d remained silent on the matter. He still hadn’t said anything, so I flipped through a few different supervillains until I settled on one of the weakest ones in the list. “Toxinator” really didn’t even deserve the title of supervillain, since he didn’t actually have any powers. He was supposedly a brilliant chemist who had gone off the deep end, and started using his knowledge to create powerful, chemical poisons. He’d managed to poison his entire lab through venomous vapor in the vents and gotten himself arrested for it, but without access to his chemicals he was entirely harmless.
“How about him?” I suggested to the Shadow Knight.
He narrowed his eyes at me, and then his gaze went pointedly to the back of his new Silver Squire’s head. The Silver Squire had been quiet, but he’d watched me with rapt attention as I controlled my screens. He seemed extremely green, so I didn’t think the feathered hero would object to an easier target. That is, if he could set aside his pride. I thought that he might be able to, after the brutal murder of his previous Silver Squire.
“Alright,” he agreed, but I could tell he wasn’t too happy about it. “We’ll bring him in.”
The Silver Squire fidgeted restlessly where he sat. He looked between me and the Shadow Knight, and then to the screen again like he wanted to say something, maybe about how lame it would be to fight someone without superpowers. He caught a glare from his mentor and sank back down on the couch, instead.
That settled it, then. We all had our specific missions and targets to capture. I had Aileen pinpoint the locations of the three supervillains and where they were most likely to go and then direct us as soon as she found out. I didn’t think it would take her very long, but we had a small amount of downtime to get ready and prepare with our respective teams. I got up from the couch to let Dynamo and Penumbra talk a little on their own, though the Silver Squire immediately inched across the couch to try to sit next to Dynamo. I knew that look in his eyes, and it made me shake my head. Poor Dynamo.
Further down the couch, Norma talked casually with Beacon. I’d taken him for a bit of an idiot at first, but from what I overheard he actually seemed to be pretty good with technology. His conversation with Norma appeared to be all business, so I let them talk and instead made my way over to the Shadow Knight.
I settled up next to him to watch our respective teams intermingle.
He seemed uncomfortable with my presence, or maybe just the entire situation in general, but stubbornly didn’t want to be the first one to say anything. That was fine, I could be the first to extend an olive branch.
“I think it’ll work out well,” I said in an attempt to be friendly.
The Shadow Knight gave me a hard look. I could tell he really didn’t know what to make of me. I could definitely tell that he didn’t trust me, either. He didn’t want to reveal anything, so he refused to talk to me. I sighed.
“Look, there’s really no point in being this serious all the time,” I prompted.
“It’s called being focused,” he spoke flatly. “It’s called being prepared for anything and not wasting time.”
“I don’t really think you’re prepared for anything, buddy,” I laughed. “You’re so wound up that the second something goes slightly unexpected, you’ll lose it. If you lighten up, you can adapt better.”
“I didn’t ask for your advice,” the Shadow Knight retorted.
“Sure, do it your way,” I scoffed. “We’ll see who ends up being more successful.”
All he did was grunt out an acknowledgment, and I knew that if I talked to him any longer, I was going to pick another fight, and since that wasn’t what we needed right now, I gave up and headed back to the other groups to get their attention.
“So, we all know what the plan is?” I announced to draw them out of their individual conversations.
The Shadow Knight had apparently decided to take a backseat, either out of spite or because he refused to even interact with my team, but that was fine with me. It was my house, my equipment, my plan, and my decisions. He could just come along for the ride.
“We got it, Miles,” Norma agreed, and the rest nodded.
“Let’s get ready to go, then,” I said, and then addressed Penumbra, Beacon, and the Silver Squire. “I’ll grab earpieces for all of you so we can stay in touch with each other, in case anything comes up.”
“Thanks, man.” Beacon grinned.
I left the Shadow Knight and his allies on the couch, and Norma, Dynamo, and I headed into the basement to get changed into our own suits.
“What do you two think of them?” I questioned as I went into my private section to get changed.
“Penumbra is a little annoying, but she’s very genuine,” Elizabeth hummed thoughtfully, and I took that as a good sign for the two of them. My girlfriend’s ability to sense lies made her unable to tolerate fake people, and it made her very blunt herself.
“I like Beacon better than the Shadow Knight,” Norma added.
“You like him?” I smirked in a manner that I knew would make her blush, even though I couldn’t see her while she changed.
“N-not like that!” She squeaked, and I knew I had been successful. “He just seems like he has less of a stick shoved up his ass.”
“He does,” Elizabeth agreed. “So does Penumbra, but I don’t think she’s all that smart.”
“We’ll see how it works out,” I said as I exited my changing room, fully outfitted in my suit. I hadn’t had time to make any changes to it since we’d gotten right back to work, so it was the same one as before.
Dynamo’s suit was her usual one, which was a high-waisted black leotard made out of a thick, bullet-proof material. She had boots to match, and it left only a bit of skin exposed around her upper thighs. Her suit enhanced her already superhuman abilities and made her virtually indestructible. She was truly a force to be reckoned with.
Norma’s suit, in contrast, was much more plain. Her omni-average ability made it so I couldn’t put her in something to enhance her strength, like mine did for me, but it could serve as an extra layer of protection. It also outfitted her with plenty of guns, knives, and a variety of other useful weapons. She was a decent shot with every weapon she used, so she made for a good asset to bring along.
“Ready?” I asked.
They both nodded, and then we headed back upstairs to rejoin with our groups and set out into the city.
Chapter 3
Armed with the information Aileen had given us on our target Morpho, the matter-shifting supervillainess, I herded Norma and Beacon into my teched-out van. It could have easily fit in with all the vans at a middle school soccer game from the outside, but the inside was full of every sort of technological gadget we could ever need to take down our prey.
Since our target didn’t have a normal body and probably wouldn’t be damaged by average bullets, I was going to have to pull out some unique weapons to deal with her. I had a few ideas about how to contain her, but nothing certain yet.
Norma had taken the passenger seat, so that left Beacon to take the backseat. He whistled once again when he saw my impressive array of technology. Even as I pulled out onto the road, he couldn’t keep his eyes up front and continually glanced behind him to admire the tech.
I wasn’t sure if I liked the way he looked so closely at my inventions, but so far I’d gotten a good read on him as
an honest person. I didn’t think he was likely to spill anything to the Shadow Knight based on their interactions in my mansion, but just to be safe, I hadn’t loaded up the van with anything especially secretive. It was all pretty basic, by my standards anyway, so it amused me to see him so captivated by it.
“Man, what I wouldn’t give to have access to all this stuff,” he muttered.
“Does the Shadow Knight really not let you look at any of his tech?” Norma asked as she pulled up Aileen’s tracker.
“Nope.” Beacon shook his head and leaned back in his seat. “Since I ‘graduated’ and went off on my own, he cut me off from most of his technology, so I have to work with what I’ve got. It’s super paranoid, and I guess I kind of get it since he has a ton of enemies, but seriously? Cutting me off just because I aged out of being his apprentice? It’s not like he has any reason not to trust me. I’ve known the guy since I was sixteen.”
“Definitely seems paranoid to me,” I said. “But aren’t you supposed to be allies with him?”
“In the barest sense, yeah,” he scoffed. “He calls on me at his convenience, and sometimes he’ll let me deal with petty criminals. But actually working together? Not a chance.”
It didn’t sound like he had a very high opinion of his ex-mentor. It amused me that I wasn’t the only one to think the Shadow Knight had a terminal case of stick-up-his-ass, and I’d gone out of my way to be a thorn in his side. Beacon had been trained by the guy, so if anyone was going to have a high opinion of the feather-cloaked hero, it should have been an old apprentice, but if anything, it seemed like Beacon had a worse opinion of the Shadow Knight than the rest of Grayville.
That just meant it might take less persuasion to get him to join our side.
I glanced at Aileen’s tracker to see where we were headed, and I raised an eyebrow. Apparently, Morpho had last been spotted in downtown Grayville around an old, run-down gym that had recently been shut down due to disrepair. Of course, most of the structures in Grayville looked like they were in need of some serious repairs, so that wasn’t surprising, but it was an odd place for a supervillain to hang out, especially one who was made up of mostly water. I could only guess that she was trying to find a pool, so I assumed that the gym hadn’t bothered to drain their’s yet.
“What was it like?” Norma asked Beacon. “The Shadow Knight’s training, I mean. Um, well, if you don’t mind saying.”
“Where do I even start?” he sighed. “Well, did you know he made me keep a pager with me at all times?”
“A pager?” I laughed.
“Yeah, a pager,” he said with a grin. “Like this ancient, clunky piece of tech was all he’d let me use at first. He claimed it would help me learn to be a hero better, but all he ever used it for was to wake me up at random points in the middle of the night because ‘crime doesn’t sleep’-- and yep, that’s a direct quote.”
“He’d just wake you up for the sake of it?” Norma asked.
“Yup,” Beacon answered. “For my first month of training, he’d wake me up whenever he felt like it, make me get dressed to go meet him in his lair, and then tell me it was just a test.”
“That’s it?” Norma demanded. “He just made you get dressed for nothing?”
“Well, I did have to recite his code back to him before I could leave his Nest,” Beacon chuckled. “But, yeah, that was it. He wanted to make sure I knew his code of ethics backwards and forwards, and I guess he thought the best way to do that was by not ever letting me get a full night’s sleep.”
“Hold on,” I said. “Did you say his Nest?”
“Yeah.” Beacon winced. “His Nest. That’s what he calls his base of operations.”
“Whoa,” Norma breathed. “He’s, um, really committed to his theme, huh?”
“You have no idea,” Beacon said. “Like, absolutely everything is crow-themed-- and I mean everything.”
“Like what?” my assistant asked. “Don’t tell me that he made you wear feathered pajamas or something.”
“Basically,” Beacon sighed. “The Nest itself is covered in feathers, and let me tell you, they get everywhere. And all of his computers are designed so they look like they’re encased in branches, and he also has to put his symbol all over everything-- you know, the double-winged thing.”
“Oh, yeah, we know,” Norma said as she rolled her eyes.
“Plus, his equipment is all named after birds,” Beacon continued. “Oh! Guess what he named his weapons cache in the Nest? He calls it the Clutch.”
“You’re kidding,” I interrupted.
“Nope,” Beacon said. “It really is the Clutch, just like a clutch of eggs.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and even Norma didn’t pretend to hide her giggles. On the one hand, I couldn’t fault the guy for being so dedicated to his brand, but that was all a little too on-the-nose. It was so obsessive and single-minded that all it really did was get in the way of efficiency, much like every other aspect of how the Shadow Knight operated.
That was just one more thing that made me better than the Shadow Knight-- I’d had the good sense to name my Cellar something practical, and more importantly, I’d been smart enough not to scatter feathers everywhere just for the sake of a brand.
“He’s not that bad of a guy, though,” Beacon insisted once our laughter died down. “He’s just got a specific way of doing things, you know?”
“Very specific,” I said dryly.
“He was there for me all throughout my training, and I’d jump at the chance to help him now if he could just admit that he needed me,” the ex-sidekick said. “I look up to him, and I’ve always looked up to him. I try to follow his code to the best of my abilities, but it’s hard to do that when I never even get a chance to fight any real supervillains.”
“Could he be trying to protect you?” Norma suggested.
“I guess,” Beacon shrugged. “He considers me part of his team enough to call me out for dire situations like this one, and I know he trusts me to uphold his code, but it doesn’t feel like he trusts me beyond that.”
“From what I’ve heard, he has lost a lot of sidekicks over the years,” I said.
“It’s true,” Beacon admitted. “So maybe he is just trying to protect me, but I don’t know.”
The Shadow Knight was known for being incredibly paranoid, but he had good reason to be. From what I’d seen of him so far, I also took him for a very independent person. He could probably handle a younger sidekick, but as soon as they got old enough to start thinking for themselves, he would cast them aside.
Beacon definitely seemed brainwashed by the Shadow Knight’s code of conduct and ethics, and he still definitely had some irritating respect for his old mentor. He could probably be convinced that the Shadow Knight’s code was a load of shit, but I knew that I would need to be careful.
“Why are you Beacon, then?” Norma asked suddenly. “Didn’t he want you to stick with the theme, even if you aren’t his apprentice anymore?”
Beacon became very quiet, and at first, I thought he might be embarrassed by whatever the answer was, but then the answer hit me.
“Beacon,” I said his name slowly, and drew out the syllables. “Beak-on. Beak. Like a--”
“Yeah, beak,” Beacon groaned. “Like a bird’s beak.”
That sent us into another round of laughter.
“I made it work, alright?” Beacon protested through our laughter. “He actually designed me a mask for this costume, and it had the biggest, ugliest beak I’d ever seen. Take his crow mask and dial it up to eleven, and that was what he tried to put me in. Just a long, phallic beak, right on my face. I was like, fuck no! I’m not wearing that.”
“Are we sure he isn’t gay?” I asked Norma.
“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “He didn’t really pay attention to any of the women on his yacht.”
“Nah, he’s not,” Beacon said. “I mean, that’s not the vibe I ever got from him. He’s so obsessed with his crime-fighting t
hat I think he’s just sexually attracted to villains or something.”
“Gross,” Norma said.
“Yeah, but it’s not even the hot ones,” Beacon said. “It’s just supervillains like the Maniac. The two of them have a really… well, it’s a super creepy relationship.”
I knew that the Silver Squire that had been killed a month ago by the Maniac, and I wondered if that was all just part of a game that the Shadow Knight and the Maniac played. It was a disturbing thought, especially since that might explain why the Shadow Knight had just immediately taken on a new apprentice, like nothing had ever happened. Maybe he let his villains live instead of killing them because it gave him some kind of sexual thrill to hunt them down.
I didn’t think even the Shadow Knight was that bad, but still, maybe that was a part of it. After all, he had to have a reason to leave someone like the Maniac alive, and it had to be more than just his damned code of ethics. I knew the Maniac was much worse than Mayhem because he was more intelligent, sadistic, and powerful. The things the Maniac did were repulsive even to someone like me, who didn’t shy away from blood and gore. The fact that he’d been captured and had escaped more than once was enough for me to condemn the Shadow Knight as an idiot.
“Have you ever encountered the Maniac yourself?” I asked.
“Once,” Beacon replied quietly. “It’s not really an experience I want to repeat.”
“We’re coming up on the abandoned gym now,” Norma announced.
I let the subject of the Maniac drop, but I knew I’d revisit it later. Since I hadn’t quite realized the depths of the Shadow Knight’s obsession before, I would want to go over the superhero’s eccentricities some other time. Beacon’s first-hand account of the guy’s insane training methods at least helped to explain why the sidekicks that survived his training were so attached to the Shadow Knight’s ways, even though I didn’t understand the point of training apprentices if he didn’t want to build up a team that he trusted to protect the city.
But that would all have to wait for some other time. Right now, it was time to focus on our mission.