“Cease this illegal activity!” she had ordered, feeling stupid even before she finished the sentence.
“But I live here! I just forgot my keys inside and now I’m locked out!” the would–be thief complained.
“Oh. In that case, can I help you?”
After that she had been more careful about who she dropped in on. She lived in a small town anyway, with an efficient police force. The only real criminal she came across was a man trying to hot–wire a car. She had tried to pull him out of the car, but he had got stuck against a seat and she had accidently dislocated his shoulder. A policeman had arrived minutes later, and Jenny had turned invisible. The policeman must have suspected she was still around, however, because he called out to her.
“Hey superhero, what are you trying to do here? He was only a car thief, for heaven’s sake! You can’t go about committing serious assault to punish people for minor crimes!”
Jenny was so embarrassed that she didn’t use her powers for three whole days. She considered going back to team training to learn how to be a proper superhero, but she didn’t even like doing group work projects at school or playing team sports. There was something about working with her not–quite–equals that annoyed her. Instead she tried her own training program that included going into the local forest and cutting down a few trees with her hands, but eventually she grew bored and wandered in to the local diner for lunch.
She was there eating a burger and watching TV when the news came in that a famous villain known as Steel Samantha had been imprisoned by a team of superheroes.
“Good riddance to bad rubbish!” declared the diner’s chef, clapping his hands.
The other customers in the diner cheered loudly and Jenny smiled like she knew she was expected to, but secretly she was a little disappointed. Steel Samantha might have been a villain, but at least she had been interesting. It occurred to Jenny that a world without supervillains would be a world without chaos, and that sounded just a little boring.
“Good riddance,” she agreed aloud, but she didn’t really mean it.
Jenny hadn’t shared Steel Samantha’s goals, but she had admired Samantha style and envied her squad of gothic minions. If Jenny had had minions she would have made them clean her room, but instead she spent most of Sunday night avoiding tidying up. She started thinking about what other chores an army of minions could do for her.
“And I could have my own secret base on an island, with a private beach,” she said quietly to herself. She smiled at the thought.
A phone started ringing, breaking into her daydream. The phone kept ringing, but no–one answered it. People turned towards Jenny and she realized it was her phone, the one she had been given at superhero training, the one that had never rung before. She fished it out and flicked it open.
“Yah?” she said, still chewing her burger.
“Jennifer Melissa Doom, we have a job for you,” said a deep voice that sounded male, stern, and possibly military.
Jenny hadn’t given her real name at the training camp, so she wasn’t pleased that someone had found it out.
“I’m not… I mean, you must have the wrong number,” she said, and pressed the off button.
The phone didn’t turn off. She tried pushing the off button again, but to no effect.
“Stop that, Jennifer. We know who you are. We have always known,” the voice continued calmly.
“How? Are you having psychics read my mind or something, mysterious Voice?” Jenny demanded.
“No, your mother told us. Will you serve your country, Jennifer Doom?”
“My last name is pronounced Dome… I think it's French or something,” she said.
“We both know that isn’t true, Jennifer.”
“Whatever… but who are you exactly, Voice?”
“Who I am is not important. I serve Newtopia, as you to shall come to. We need you to investigate an anomaly at the steel mill near your house. It is an urgent mission, and you are our only asset in the area,” said Voice.
“What’s in it for me?” asked Jenny as she drew pictures in her sauce with a French fry.
Voice sighed.
“Why are teenagers always so selfish? This is a chance to serve your country, Jennifer.”
“And a chance to earn some cash,” she suggested.
“Fine. I’ll send you money, a hundred credits,” Voice said. “Please just get going.”
That was a good amount, but Jenny didn’t feel like being a superhero that afternoon.
“No thanks, Voice.”
“Two hundred then, but we need you to get moving, Jennifer.”
Jenny ate the last of her French fries and stood up.
“Say please, Voice!” she demanded.
“Please! Now get going!”
“Careful there, cowboy, even my mother doesn’t take that tone with me!”
The phone had a wireless earpiece that Jenny slipped over her ear.
“Please, Jennifer, a supervillain is about to attack the steel works and only you can stop him.”
CHAPTER THREE: THE BUSINESS OF VILLAINY
A world without supervillains is a world without chaos, danger or adrenaline. Think of being a supervillain as taking part in the most extreme sport of all.
–Rex Rogue’s guide for aspiring supervillains, unpublished.
Master SCREAM’s mask was plain and white, but it struck terror into the hearts of all who saw it. It was the mask of a supervillain who took on the world’s heroes time and time again, and won. It was also quite uncomfortable, but Rex didn’t let that distract him.
“We have a request from a little town called Maro,” Slade said.
“Show me,” Rex boomed.
The display flickered to a mining town in the middle of the wasteland. It was a rough full of rough and desperate men and women out to make their fortunes or escape their pasts. Like most wasteland towns, the law was made and enforced by the powerful few; a place where normal humans and weak mutants lived in fear.
“Who’s seeks my help?” Rex demanded in Master SCREAM’s deep voice.
“She didn’t give a name,” Slade answered.
The screen changed to show a young woman covered in dirt and grease and sweat. She looked both scared and angry, a look Rex had seen on many of his clients’ faces. He smiled beneath his mask.
“Who do you wish me to remove?” Rex boomed out.
“What? How did you–” the woman said in surprise.
“I help people with their little problems,” Rex said in a low voice, “and often those little problems have superpowers. I will ask you once more, then, who would you have me remove?”
“Noble Maximus. We were having some problems with bandits so we hired Noble Maximus to help us, but now he won’t leave. He says that the town is under his protection and in order to survive we have to do what he says, but his demands and crazy decisions are costing us far more money than the bandits ever did! We have spent years working to make this town something great, and he is ruining it!” the woman said angrily.
Slade brought Noble Maximus’ file onto the screen: he was a superhero, but only a C–grade. Weak superpowers, however, were still better than none and Noble Maximus had a reputation for causing a lot of damage wherever he went. Rex had seen hundreds of little towns like Macro taken over and ruined by superhumans, and it always annoyed him to see so much potential wasted.
“I know we should have called you first –” the woman from Maro began.
“–I don’t care why you have called me,” Rex interrupted, “I simply provide a service. Now, let us talk price. I see your town mines plutonium – the cost of my intervention will be three crates of your very best.”
“What? That’s… quite reasonable, really,” the woman said in shock. “That’s a good deal if it gets rid of this idiotic superhero.”
“All superheroes are idiots,” said Rex smoothly, “but I am not. Your little problem will be sorted by sundown.”
“Will you
come yourself?” the woman said nervously.
“No, I shall send a team of my thugs.”
The woman looked relieved as Rex cut the connection. He consulted his wrist computer briefly and then clicked it off.
“Get a team together and tell them to collect the bullets marked “5847” from the armory on their way out,” he told Slade.
“Sure, boss,” Slade said.
“The dark fog may hide the oncoming terror or may simply be the ghosts of yesterday, but the unseen knife is forever dangerous. What do we need the plutonium for?” asked Skyre.
“Breakfast. I like to spread it on my toast,” answered Rex, smiling behind his mask. “Now, what else is happening?”
The screens zoomed out until the Earth was left in one corner of the map. Other worlds appeared beside it, but they had far fewer cities or people than the Earth.
“Steel Samantha has been arrested and is to be sent to the prisons of Venus with a hundred other convicts. The Lunar and Martian colonies have reported dozens of small battles between various superhuman groups, but nothing interesting. There is a guy on the other side of the world forming an army of mutants, and a giant robot beast has been seen fighting a team of superheroes in the Arctic… but I’m sure that’s just RoboRodent testing out a new toy.”
“Is that all? What an ordinary start to the day,” said Rex. “Send a team of laywers to help Steel Samantha avoid Venus.”
“The ghoul feeds first on its old master and then on the world. Why do you want to do that, she doesn’t even work for you?”
“I like her style. Make it happen, Slade. Now, what’s happening on the Icarus?”
The holographic display shifted to show a huge space station shaped like a wheel – the Icarus – floating high over the Earth’s oceans. The Icarus was where the world’s richest and most powerful superheroes lived in splendid isolation, ignoring the world below them. So many supervillains had tried to take the Icarus over and had failed that Rex had made it off limits to everyone who worked for him.
“Nothing unusual going on up there,” confirmed Slade.
The world – the solar system – was as ordered and peaceful and dull as it was ever going to get.
Rex was bored.
“Maro sounded like a fun place. Shall we invade it later?” suggested Rex.
Skyre’s computer screen started flashing red. An alarm beeped once, then another joined it. More alarms started ringing and Skyre shut them off by banging a big blue button set into her desk.
“Your desires will poison you, for the inconstant clouds hide both treason and violence. We have a perimeter breach,” said Skyre.
“Really? How interesting, who is it?” asked Rex.
The superheroes had finally found Master SCREAM’s castle. Skyre’s security cameras were useless in the thick mists, but she showed Rex an odd blob on the radar screen. The blob was several miles from the castle, but it was closing in quickly. A fragment of the blob broke off and made right for the castle as it broke the sound barrier multiple times. Only one superhero could fly that fast.
“Our eagerly awaited doom is carried on the wings of youthful wind. That little blob must be the Green Dart, which means that – “
“That idiot Mister Wonderful and his team must be right behind him. I didn’t think they would find us here,” said Rex calmly.
Mister Wonderful lived on the Icarus and was its greatest hero. He led the Icarus Elite which consisted of himself, Captain Amazing and Lady Perfect: a trio with S–grade superpowers. Superhumans generally followed whoever had the most power, so Mister Wonderful and the Icarus Elite were considered by many to be the leaders of the world’s superheroes. The Green Dart wasn’t an official part of the team yet, but he was a young superhero 9ÞÁúCÕHøãÌúprove himself by serving as their scout.
“Superheroes are the worst, particularly Mister Wonderful,” said Slade sourly.
Master SCREAM and Mister Wonderful had clashed many times before, and Mister Wonderful had publically sworn to take Master SCREAM down. It seemed like he was finally going to get his chance to try. Rex never looked surprised or annoyed, but he wasn’t pleased to hear of the Icarus Elite’s attack. His base’s defenses could have held off a hundred lesser superheroes, but there was no weapon in existence that could stop the Icarus Elite. Luckily for Rex he never relied on force alone. He walked to his desk and pushed the big red button beside his computer, which caused alarms to ring throughout the base. Rex pulled two teleport belts out of a desk drawer and threw them to his assistants. They looked surprised; teleport belts were expensive and rare.
“I think it would be best if we start planning our departure, don’t you?” Rex explained. “These belts are loaded with the location of our next base. Slade, pack up everything you need and go. I’ll have people waiting for you to start setting up a new communications network, because we don’t want to lose any time. Skyre, do what you can to slow the Icarus Elite down, but don’t stick around long enough to get caught.”
His assistants both looked as if they were considering using their belts to escape immediately. Slade and Skyre were important parts of Rex’s team, but while there is no “I” in “TEAM” there is a “ME” if you are willing to cheat and rearrange the letters, and supervillains love to cheat. Villains only thought of their own safety in an emergency, but Rex had planned for that as well.
“The belts will take you to our next base but nowhere else, so don’t get any ideas about running. We are all getting out of here alive,” Rex said confidently, “but if you betray me I will personally hunt you down and have my revenge.”
Rex considered both Skyre and Slade to be his friends, but he had a reputation to uphold, after all. A fearsome reputation.
“What about you, Rex?” asked Slade anxiously.
“I’m going to rally the troops and then make sure Professor Engelmanthing gets away safely. I’ll see you soon.”
Slade nodded and ran out of the room to start packing.
“There is no loyalty in this den where transient greed leaves no thought for the bleak future. The Icarus Elite shouldn’t have been able to find us here, Rex,” said Skyre.
He pulled his mask off and stared hard at her.
“You think we have a spy in our team?” asked Rex. “I agree, but this isn’t the time to start looking for them.”
Rex pulled his Master SCREAM mask on.
“Now do as you are ordered and defend me from my foes!” he shouted.
CHAPTER FOUR: SAVING THE STEEL MILL
Unlike other countries, Newtopian heroes tend to be surprisingly competent and well organized. They also tend to be hard working and somewhat boring, which is why I tend to stay away from the place.
–Rex Rogue’s guide for aspiring supervillains, unpublished.
Jenny flew to the steel mill, staying low enough that she didn’t get vertigo.
The mill was the industrial heart of the town, and most of the families Jenny knew had one or two members who worked there. She also knew it was the biggest supplier of metal piping and armored plates in all of Newtopia. It also built the body armor used by the Newtopian army’s elite units who specialized in fighting superhumans. Newtopia didn’t have a lot of superheroes of its own so it often had to rely on its special forces to deal with attempted invasions or crimes by superheroes and supervillains. Only Newtopia knew how to make the armor, and its rival countries were always trying to steal its secrets.
The steel mill was a maze of furnaces, warehouses and office blocks connected by roads and rail tracks. Jenny flew to a tall radio tower overlooking the mill and flicked her blue phone open.
“I’m here. What am I looking for, exactly?”
“That was fast. We aren’t sure what the problem is, yet. A saboteur of some kind has been reported near here. Use the camera on your phone to show us what you can see.”
“Yup.”
Jenny started the camera just as a sharp explosion burst from a warehouse on the edge of the factor
y. Smoke started pouring out of the warehouse windows and rose in dirty grey columns into the air.
“You could start there,” suggested Voice.
Jenny didn’t move.
“That’s not a real fire, that’s a distraction,” she said.
People were already flooding towards the warehouse with fire–fighting equipment. Jenny had seen fires at the factory before, and she knew that the emergency response teams could handle a few flames with ease. She looked at the other end of the factory and saw a dark shape darting along a rooftop.
“Got him.”
The saboteur wore a red mask and a suit of tight green armor. He carried two long swords on his back and a large bag over one shoulder. The bag looked heavy, but it wasn’t slowing him down. He ran along a roof, dropped lightly to the ground and rolled into the shadows.
“He’s headed to the power station,” Jenny whispered into the phone.
“Follow him!”
Jenny turned invisible. The power station was full of enormous pipes and turbines that roared loudly and leaked steam. The green saboteur pulled a bomb off his back and propped it against a turbine. The bomb was big enough to destroy the whole station, possibly even the whole steel mill. The saboteur adjusted his red mask and checked his reflection in one of his swords; he looked every inch the stylish villain. Jenny wished she had some kind of mask and costume of her own, but she was wearing jeans and a faded t–shirt like she normally did.
“I am not dressed for this,” she whispered as she floated over an engine turbine.
“Don’t get too close or he’ll see you!” shouted Voice in warning.
“Nah, I can turn invisible. Didn’t you know that?”
“No. This changes your value to us, Jennifer.”
“So does that mean you’ll pay me more? Good. He’s trying to get a bomb set up… I think I can stop him.”
“Wait! We don’t know who he is, but he is probably very powerful and dangerous. Give us a second to–”
Jenny could see there were less than three minutes left on the bomb’s timer before it would explode. She knew that she had to do something quickly.
Rex Rogue And The League Of Teenage Supervillains Page 2