by Logan Jacobs
They just didn’t understand that the game was about the Shadow Knight, not petty revenge against irrelevant people.
“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” I asked the squirrel as its fluffy tail disappeared through the leaves.
“Ahhh, but I did.” I sighed. “I always see what’s going to happen.” There was no need for me to remain in this tree anymore, so I swung down, released the branch, and landed elegantly at the base of the trunk.
Truthfully, while I was actually quite irritated about the weak showing from Grayville’s overflow villains, I hadn’t released them merely to cause chaos. No, I’d set them free on the world to draw out this Miles Nelson and gauge his team’s prowess against them.
So far, they were… disturbingly competent.
I had also expected a bigger clash between Miles and the Shadow Knight, since my archenemy still couldn’t come to terms with the concept of death. What I’d thought would happen would be a glorious three-way battle between the escaped villains, the Shadow Knight, and Miles Nelson as they all fought against each other, got into each other’s ways, and caused a delicious amount of chaos.
I had completely and utterly underestimated Miles’ abilities, and I didn’t just mean his crime-fighting ones. I had expected him to be as stubborn and stuck in his ways as my nemesis, but he’d proved me wrong. He’d come up with some kind of compromise that left the supervillains alive and safely placed back into their cute little easy-to-escape cells. I was honestly a bit impressed that he’d managed to figure out something with the Shadow Knight at all.
And after I’d watched the billionaire and his team for the past twenty-four hours, I had come to a conclusion about Miles Nelson: I respected him.
But he was in my way. Too bad. So sad.
His influence on the Shadow Knight also couldn’t be denied. I’d taken some time out of my busy, busy schedule to spy on my nemesis as well, and I’d noticed that he actually hesitated when he had dealt with some of the escaped criminals. There had been a moment where I expected he’d even kill the Toxinator, though that was probably because of how much the ex-chemist had modeled himself after me. That was flattering, of course. It meant a lot to me that the Shadow Knight couldn’t seem to get me out of his mind.
That was the game we played, anyway. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and I could even admit to myself that I quite loved playing against the Shadow Knight. His struggles were the greatest entertainment I could ask for, and the despair and anguish he’d felt when he found out I killed his previous apprentice… it was beautiful. It was delectable. It was more than I could ever ask for in a nemesis.
Miles Nelson refused to play this game with us, even though he could have been so interesting to play with, but since he refused to play the game at all, he had to go.
But first, I’d have my fun with the little assistant or the ravishingly beautiful girlfriend.
I hummed a wordless tune to myself as I strolled down the streets of downtown Grayville and thought of the best way to handle Miles. He was too intelligent to fall for most of the traps I would set for the Shadow Knight, so I would really have to get creative here.
I searched the streets for inspiration, but it was too late for anyone to be around. Downtown Grayville might not be the cesspit that the slums were, but it wasn’t exactly safe to walk around this late at night, and most people knew that. Some of them openly put their faith in the promise that the Shadow Knight would keep the streets clean, but at the end of the day, no one really believed that.
“Help! Please, someone help!”
A distinctly feminine voice cried out through the streets, and I tilted my head to the side as I mentally traced the origin of the sound. It appeared to be coming from a typical dark alleyway, and I gleefully skipped toward it. I always enjoyed the fun of discovering a new crime. What would it be this time? A robbery? A rape? A murder?
All three?
I peeked into the alleyway and caught an immediate eyeful of man-ass.
The owner of the man-ass had a woman backed up against the rear wall of the alley, and since his pants were down far enough to moon me, I knew what his intentions were. What a boring find. I wondered if he even planned to kill her afterward, or if he was just going to leave her alive. It was always a struggle for me to figure out which was worse.
Not that it mattered, at least this time.
“Ahem!” I cleared my throat behind them. “Your savior has arrived, madame!”
I punctuated my entrance with a sweeping bow as the fat man threw aside the woman he’d been about to stick his dick into. He charged toward me like a boar on a rampage, and I easily stepped to the side to avoid him. The idiot spun back around to charge toward me again, and once more, I twirled to the side like we were partners in a graceful dance.
Each move he could make was laid out before me, and with someone so simple, there was really only one option he would take. It was so silly. I knew where he would be before he even knew himself. Even when he drew a knife and slashed it through the air, I dodged effortlessly to the side because I had already seen it coming.
Ahhh. What a time. What a time.
“Fuckin’ hold still!” the man cursed at me.
That was really quite a rude thing to say, but I could forgive him for being frustrated as I dodged another clumsy swipe from his knife. Still, I couldn’t forgive him for being painfully boring to fight, since that meant that he was no fun to play with at all.
I was already bored with this dance.
So in a single movement, I raised my silenced pistol and fired a quick shot right in the center of the man’s forehead. It exploded into gore that splattered the brick walls of the alley, and bits of blood and brain matter even splattered against the woman that he’d almost managed to rape. The overweight man’s body slumped forward as she scampered off to the side. She was hyperventilating, obviously, and tears streamed down her pretty face from blue-green eyes that reminded me of Miles’ girlfriend, Dynamo.
Ah… I suddenly knew what my plan would be to get rid of Miles for good.
“T-thank you, thank you, thank you, please, how can I ever thank you enough,” the woman stammered, but then as soon as she got a better look at me, all the blood drained from her face.
“Oh, you are very welcome!” I smiled and twirled my pistol around my finger as I skipped closer.
“P-please,” she pleaded as she backed herself into the wall again, so I knew she definitely recognized my green-black hair and long trench coat.
I liked to think I was fairly good at blending in with the rabble when I wanted to, but I always enjoyed encountering a fan.
“Please?” I prodded as I continued to spin the pistol around my finger. I flicked it back into my hand and aimed it toward the dead rapist’s body. “You want me to shoot again?”
“No, please, please don’t hurt me,” she murmured as she tried to cover her face with her hands.
She sank down further against the wall as she cowered before me, and I sighed dramatically. It was actually quite pitiful to see, but I supposed that she was experiencing a lot of emotional whiplash.
Oh, well.
“Unfortunately, I’m in need of some test dummies,” I crooned in response, as though the sound of my voice would comfort instead of terrify her.
“Wait, I--” she screeched.
She never had a chance to finish, as I suddenly spun my pistol back to her head, pressed the barrel of the gun point-blank against her skull, and then fired it.
Her head exploded in a beautiful splatter of brain matter, bone, and bloody flesh from the force of the impact. Before her body could collapse fully to the ground, I shoved my fist into the crater that had become her head, and I squeezed my fingers around the remaining brain matter.
I never felt closer to another human than when I touched their brains directly, and the slippery, slimy substance always felt so visceral and real. This was the essence of a human that gooped between my fingers, and I had been the one to end thes
e thoughts forever. What was once alive was now dead, by my hand…
Right, time to focus! I had a plan to create, and I had more people to kill.
I shook my fingers free of her brain and wiped the remnants against the wall. Then I turned to face my two new playthings and hummed thoughtfully while I made up my mind. Finally, I picked the woman’s body up by her dark, silky hair, and I rubbed the bloody matted strands between my fingers. My, she had been beautiful when she was alive, but somehow she still looked beautiful.
“You will get to play the part of Dynamo tonight, my dear,” I purred to the dead woman. “You’re very lucky.”
I was being sarcastic, of course, but she was too dead to know that.
I threw the woman’s pretty corpse so that she was sprawled on the ground in a position that would be easier to manipulate. Blood and gore trailed across the ground in her wake, but I had never been the squeamish type.
“And you, ah… well, I suppose you will have to be Miles,” I mused to the dead man, even though the unattractive man did not look anything like Miles.
Neither corpse responded to me. I really needed to find some better company.
“Yes, it is such an honor,” I replied like they had answered me. “So let’s see… hm, I suppose my plan will start with you, lovely Dynamo.”
I grabbed the dead woman’s silky black hair again and pulled her head back so I could look deeply into her dead, turquoise-blue eyes. Well, no, not quite turquoise, since her eyes were a bit on the pale side, so they weren’t nearly as vibrant as Dynamo’s. Still, they would just have to do for now.
“You will be my bait,” I informed her and petted back the woman’s black hair against her cratered skull with a wet squelch. “I’ll need to kidnap you first, but that shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll simply need to orchestrate multiple crimes across the city again, so it will require that you all split up once more. Your strength is your strong suit, is it not?”
I made the dead woman playing Dynamo nod.
“Perfect!” I exclaimed. “So my bait for you will be something that requires super strength. Perhaps I’ll set off an explosive to make a building about to fall over, but at the same time, maybe a bank is being robbed! Or something like that. You know, just something where Miles can go off and make himself useful, too.”
I prodded the overweight stand-in for Miles with my foot so he would roll over.
“And I’m sorry to say, my dear, but you are not nearly as intelligent as your boyfriend,” I said with a click of my tongue. “So the building I’ll blow up will be one of my own, secret warehouses! Secret as in no one knows that I own it, since I do make sure to cover my tracks well.”
I pulled a little too hard on the woman’s hair and tore out a chunk of her skin. Her head lolled and her body followed so she was laid flat on the ground again.
“Oh, do pay attention.” I rolled my eyes. “But yes, you’ve got the right idea. Once I have secured you within the basement of my exploded warehouse, we’ll have time for a bit of fun before Miles realizes what happened to you. And by fun, well… I’m sure you can use your imagination. I’ll fill some of your holes, and then I’ll make some new ones and fill those, too.”
As I stared down at her prone body, I nudged her with my foot to flip her onto her back. Since she had already been well on her way to being raped, her clothes were already torn open to reveal her heavy breasts. I grabbed a handful of one and squeezed, and to my elation, her skin still had some warmth left.
“Ah, you’re really perfect for this part,” I sighed. “You were truly born to play Dynamo.”
Her lifeless eyes stared up at me, and I let go of her breast.
“Right, yes, I’ll continue, no need to be so impatient. It’s unbecoming.” I cleared my throat. “We’ll have some fun together when I have you there alone in my warehouse basement. After all, we’ll need to kill time while we wait for our leading man to arrive, won’t we? Ah, but I’m not quite so stupid as to let you live for very long, beautiful Dynamo…”
I leaned in toward the woman’s dead face, and yes, for a moment I did consider kissing her.
But then a trickle of blood began to leak from her dead mouth, and I thought otherwise. I did have standards, after all.
“I’ll keep a recording of your screams on hand, but yes, you will need to die,” I mused.
To emphasize my point, I kicked in the woman’s face, and the action produced a satisfying crunch of bones and skin.
“Good girl,” I sighed. “You see, it’s nothing personal, but I’m not stupid enough to allow you to live on the off-chance that Miles manages to rescue you. He’s proven to be very resourceful, so I’ll need to have all my bases covered. You understand, I’m sure.”
I stepped on the dead woman’s face again with another wet crunch, and then I made my way toward my next stand-in: the fat man.
He really made a poor replacement for Miles. They had almost nothing in common, since after all, Miles always had his pick of beautiful women who just threw themselves at him. It almost made me wonder if raping Dynamo was even worth it, but I knew it would make him furious. And I needed him to be furious with me, because the angrier someone became, the less capable they were of rational thought. Once he found out that I’d had my way with his girlfriend before I killed her, he would lose his brilliant mind and become obsessed with vengeance.
And as soon as that happened, I would win.
That was why I couldn’t simply lure Miles away first or go after him while they were already split up into teams. I respected his intelligence too much to go in without a plan of my own, and that meant that I needed to break him down piece by piece. Dynamo was the perfect bait since she was confident enough to coax away on her own, unlike Miles’ mousy assistant. Besides, Dynamo was much more attractive, and if I was going to have a little fun with anyone, I would prefer it to be her.
I prodded my foot into the fat man’s corpse again and hummed tunelessly.
“How should I kill you, then?” I asked the dead man. “Quickly, slowly? Should you suffer? The death of your beautiful woman will surely cut deep, especially once you realize that it was all your fault. It wasn’t only because you couldn’t protect her, but it was because of your arrogant attempt to make Grayville bend to your whims. But listen here…”
I squeezed my hands around the dead man’s fat neck, and after I applied enough force, my nails broke right through the still-warm skin. A steady, slow stream of blood dripped down over my hands, even though it was only a lingering remnant of life. The arteries in a living man’s neck would have spurted from the force of my hands, but the fat man’s jugular no longer had the proper force from his heart to create a fountain of gore, and I had to admit that was rather disappointing. Perhaps I had been too hasty in shooting him.
Right, I was supposed to be focusing on my master plan.
“Listen here, Miles Nelson,” I told the corpse as blood continued to trail down my hands. “This. Is. My. City.”
I felt a snap of bone as I squeezed down again, and the dead man’s head cracked at an angle that should not have been possible.
“This will always be my city,” I said as I pulled my hands back and wiped the blood off on my pants. “It is not yours. It is not even the Shadow Knight’s, although I will share with him because he understands the game.”
I lurched to my feet and lifted my head toward the dark night sky, where there wasn’t even a single star to be found.
“You made a mistake in coming to Grayville, Miles,” I exhaled. “And I will ensure it is the last mistake you ever make.”
That was my promise.
I left the two bodies in their gory states for the police to find in the morning, and I sauntered back through downtown Grayville. I had some preparations to make before my plan was ready to be set into motion, but I was feeling confident about it. I was quite certain it would work, and that even Miles’ genius mind wouldn’t be able to figure it all out before it was too late.
>
After all, it didn’t matter how smart he was.
I would always be three steps ahead.
Chapter 12
It had been almost too easy to recapture the Croc. In fact, I’d say it was definitely our easiest capture yet.
Of course, that was exactly what I had expected. Croc hadn’t even been as much of a challenge as the Chief back in Pinnacle City, but the Chief had only worn a crocodile mask for effect and had at least had actual superpowers. Poor Croc only had the power of “being part crocodile,” so he’d been exactly as predictable as I’d anticipated.
Aileen had informed Norma and me which parking garage he was heading toward, and it was naturally the most obvious one: the parking garage of the most expensive hotel in Grayville. His single-minded obsession with stealing cars made him predictable. Hell, he’d been tossed into prison in the first place for stealing a car from that very garage, so it was honestly pretty pathetic.
Poor guy. His tail wasn’t even the right size to fit into a Lamborghini seat.
“How are the others doing?” I asked Norma once we were in my car and headed back to the mansion.
She took a moment to flip through the stealth drone cameras that we had trained on both the Shadow Knight and Elizabeth. I had Aileen set those up while she was hacking into Slade’s systems, because I always liked to have eyes around the city. If Grayville was willing to sign a contract with my company, maybe I’d set up their own version of the C.D.S. for them here.
Once the Shadow Knight got off my ass, of course.
“Dynamo and Penumbra are still staking out the dance studio,” Norma explained as she flipped through the screens. “And the Shadow Knight, um… I think he’s driving somewhere?”
“He is moving,” Aileen confirmed through the speakers of my car. “Likely to the destination of his next target. He has, again, refused to accept our coordinates, Creator.”
“Stubborn bastard,” I scoffed. “Guess he’ll be a while, so it looks like we’ve got some time to kill.”