Blackjack Villain

by Ben Bequer

  This time I could feel the tendrils trying to hook me. They probed for an opening and found none. My rage was the perfect defense, my irrationality an impenetrable shield.

  “Control yourself!” Zundergrub yelled, but nothing could deter me. I could see the fear in his eyes, and it fed my murderous rage. Haha doubled his efforts, but he was only delaying the inevitable, as I tore through each new strand of his metallic embrasure, making steady forward progress, closing in on the cowering Zundergrub. The doctor was dead if I could reach him, my hands were almost on him, and once I grabbed that dirty lab coat, I’d crush every bone; smear his lifeless body across the floor.

  “Fucking chill Blackjack!” Cool Hand shouted, firing off one of his time bubbles, and I felt some of my momentum drain away, but as with Zundergrub, my rage propelled me. Neither he nor Haha’s ongoing entanglement were going to save the doctor.

  I was almost to Zundergrub’s cowering form, tearing through Haha’s metal bracing. I lunged, my fingers wrapping around the greasy hem of his coat and ripped him to me. It was a clumsy maneuver, impeded as I was by Haha’s metal ligatures, but I yanked him away from the door and close enough for me to grab his neck with my other hand, his vertebrae popped and snapped between my fingers. With only moments left to live, the doctor released his yellow imp, and the creature ran over to Apogee. It grabbed her brown hair and twisted her body to expose her throat. The imp spread his maw, revealing rows of long, serrated teeth, and drooled on her neck.

  “I will kill her!” he shouted, more terror in his voice than he realized. “If you touch me, the woman dies!”

  My rage faded, replaced with fear, I released Zundergrub giving Cool and Haha the chance to gain the upper hand and overwhelm me. My head bowed in defeat, I surrendered. Haha’s metallic tendrils enveloped me leaving only my head exposed, like in a cocoon. Once I was secure, he dragged me away from the doctor.

  “Easy B,” Cool soothed. “Easy.”

  Cool hand kicked the yellow demon off Apogee, and helped her up to her feet brushing her unbridled hair from her face. She was placid and calm, unaware of what had taken place.

  “See?” Cool said. “Everything’s alright. She’s good, brother.”

  He brought her to me, as Haha slowly released his grip. Madelyne was confused and a bit frightened by my presence, as if she was having trouble identifying me.

  “Doctor Zundergrub merely wiped her recent memories,” Haha added. “She will have no recollection of anything that happens in the next few days. It’s for our protection, Blackjack.”

  “I wasn’t finished,” Zundergrub shouted nervously.

  I turned on the doctor, and since few of Haha’s metal tendrils remained, he realized how vulnerable he was and cowered back.

  “One day, I’m going to fucking kill you,” I grunted through clenched teeth.

  “I told you all along he could not be trusted,” he shrieked to the others in a voice a full octave higher. “It is your fault this has happened to her, Blackjack. You should have rid yourself of her long before.”

  His yellow imp crawled next to him, emboldening the doctor. He stood straighter, and stepped forward resolute.

  “You placed a psychic trigger to kill her if she was separated from me, you fucking psycho,” I raged. “What kind of a man are you?”

  “I could have done far worse to her,” he threatened.

  “Hey, Z. Enough of the creepy asshole technique, okay?” Cool Hand said, coming between myself and Zundergrub. “And Blackjack, this shit is over now. It’s done and over, so chill yourself out. Let’s all be fucking professional, ok?”

  I turned my attention on Apogee, who glanced around with a puzzled expression. She was unaware of who any of us were, but wasn’t threatened, as if Zundergrub had wiped from her mind what we represented as well.

  “And now, if everyone’s cool, let’s do this thing we came to do.”

  “Agreed,” Haha said, also edging himself between the doctor and myself.

  “You ok?” I asked but Apogee was too confused to speak, too confused to do anything but stand there and wonder where she was.

  Haha threw the hatch open, and a cold gust of wind blew inside. The doctor and his imp went down the ramp, with Haha close behind.

  Cool stood at the edge of the ramp.

  “You ok, B?”

  I shook my head, still horrified.

  “Come on, man. Let’s do this.”

  I reached out to Apogee and gently led her towards the ramp. She followed, like an automaton, like I was giving her the will to move where she was otherwise unable.

  We passed Cool down the ramp and got my first look at Nostromo’s massive fortress, but Apogee was all I was aware of.

  And she didn’t recognize me at all.

  * * *

  In the four decades since Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt’s last moonwalk during the Apollo 17 mission, no man had walked on the surface of the moon, save for Nostromo. I joined that fortunate few, and thanks to the artificial atmosphere and gravity well surrounding Nostromo’s base, we did what the astronauts did without the limitations of a spacesuit.

  Yet, for all the grandeur of being on the moon, of having the Earth hovering behind us and Nostromo’s magnificent recreation of the Lighthouse of Alexandria; I couldn’t enjoy any of it. It should have been one of the landmark experiences of my life, but all I could think of was Apogee, using my hand to steady herself as she was still weak. Her steps were slow and measured, as if Zundergrub had affected her autonomic nervous system and she was learning to walk again.

  “The Moon,” she said as Cool Hand jogged past us to catch up to Zundergrub and Haha. His head was on a swivel, the word “awesome,” repeated almost rapid-fire.

  “Madelyne, do you remember anything?”

  Hearing her name, she smiled. It was the same great smile that stopped me in my tracks while we were buying clothes a few days ago.

  “You know my name?” she said, crushing all my hopes.

  “Yes,” I said. “Do you know me?”

  She stopped and regarded me seriously.

  “Of course,” she said, and my heart raced again. “You are...”

  Her mind seemed to wander, and while she turned pensive and gazed out into the wondrous Moon’s horizon, her thoughts were lost amongst the craters and plains. Instead of forcing the issue, I merely helped her along towards the citadel holding her arm as we walked across finely cut moonstone slab that Nostromo had fashioned into the landing platform and approach to the citadel’s entrance.

  As we reached the endless row of marble steps and climbed up to the main entrance, an explosion above drew my attention. Parts of metal showered us as something erupted in flames and smoke near the edge of the stairs above.

  “Stay here,” I told Apogee, and ran up the stairs three at a time. I crested the summit in to see, the guys had handled the huge robotic drone that acted as a defender. Its damage was so extensive and severe that I couldn’t even tell how the machine was supposed to function.

  Haha rotated weapons in his hands until he reverted to his mannequin hands and drew his rusty katana.

  “Good to have you with us,” he said and I noted a more than passing sarcastic tone.

  Cool Hand ran back to me, as Haha and Zundergrub continued towards the fifty foot tall entrance. He was covered in dirt and his back was blackened with soot, which meant that he had been quite close to the drone defender when it exploded.

  “Hey,” he said patting my shoulder. “What are you doing man?”

  I looked back to the summit as Apogee climbed up, her gait improving.

  “With what?”

  “With her,” he motioned to Apogee. “Dude, I know she’s unreal but you tap it then forget it.”

  I shook my head.

  “Come on, B. You got to see this in the long term. Once all this is over, you and I can go into business for ourselves. We can open up shop and make some real money. We’ll ditch the old guy and install an mp3 player
on the rabbit to make him more useful. So quit screwing around and band up, you hear?”

  I nodded, “I don’t to see her get hurt, Cool.”

  “I know you really like her, man,” he started, “but believe me that was the only option that didn’t involve killing her, or you, or both, or me.”

  Apogee walked up to us, confused and a bit frightened.

  “And look at her,” Cool continued. “She’s fine, man. No harm done.”

  “What about killing Zundergrub?”

  He smiled.

  “What are we doing here?” she asked.

  “More of Retcon’s shit,” he answered.

  “Retcon? DOCTOR RETCON?” Apogee tensed.

  Cool Hand laughed. “Damn girl, he totally fucked your head. Actually, confused and weird like this is very sexy too,” he joked, but my demeanor relayed my ideas about his humor.

  “Sorry, B. I’m being a dick.”

  “You people are working for Dr. Retcon?” Apogee continued, ignoring what he said, or perhaps not even perceiving it fully. “I mean, Retcon is a madman!”

  “Be calm,” I told her.

  “No,” she blurted. “If he’s involved, then the whole world is in danger.”

  Her fragile mind wasn’t up to the challenge of the complexities involved. Apogee looked around, baffled at where she was, who she was with. She looked at me and cringed, shaking her head.

  “Hang back,” Cool Hand said to me. “We got this.”

  And he sped off deeper into the tower.

  * * *

  The huge stone doors to the fortress gave way under the combined force of Mr. Haha’s plasma cannon and Zundergrub’s colossal yellow imp, collapsing to the floor with a thunderclap, raising a cloud of moon dust. Even though Apogee and I followed a great distance, we still felt the reverberation through the floor, and the spray of dust enveloped us.

  I tried to hurry Apogee, dragging her along behind me, trying to reach the others, but they rushed inside the collapsed doors, down a long passageway, and now did battle with several of Nostromo’s defense droids, fifty-foot tall metallic automatons. Nostromo’s robots were ripped from another era, perhaps the 1930’s, and their design was similar to something Dr. Retcon might have come up with. In fact, I wagered Nostromo had stolen a blueprint to spite his old enemy.

  “That’s...Doctor Zundergrub,” Apogee thought aloud as we watched them defeat the final defense droid. The ground rumbled beneath us as it collapsed in a heap and exploded.

  “And Mr. Haha 2000 and Cool Hand Luke,” she went on.

  The guys didn’t wait up for us, but continued to an elevator shaft about a hundred feet further into the tower. Zundergrub led them at an accelerated pace and as they ran inside the elevator and the doors slid closed, I swear I saw him smiling.

  Apogee grabbed my arm and whirled me with her full force.

  “And you’re...” her eyes widened and filled with wrath as her right hand reared back, charging up to hit me.

  I tensed for the blow, but nothing could ready me for the sheer speed and power of it. Her fist slammed into my face and I soared through the air almost to the elevator shaft.

  The pain of Apogee’s charged blow raced through my face, head and neck as I was coming to my feet, but she was on me again, relentless. The next blow pummeled me into the closed doors to the elevator, doors made out of the same moon rock as the rest of the building, but I broke right through them, smashing them into a million fragments, and fell back onto the base of the elevator.

  The pain hadn’t fully registered before she closed on me, grabbing my waistband and collar to hurl me across the room. I was ready for her maneuver, much like I had known she was going to ‘cape-toss’ me in our New Yorker hotel lobby fight, I let her throw me and flew back across the hall. I slid across the ground, slowing my momentum with the friction of my boots on the stone floor.

  “Apogee,” I pleaded. “Listen to me.”

  But she wasn’t in the mood for banter. Her face was twisted into a mask of rage, her teeth clenched and fists jackhammers ready to pummel me. It was as impressive as it was frightening.

  Zundergrub had left a trap for me, and I had fallen right into it. He knew I would care for her and in her weakened state, we would fall behind. That’s why he had hurried, to leave me alone with her. When they returned, they would find Apogee alone with my corpse and the whole matter would be settled. He’d feign shock at what Apogee had done and blame me for interrupting his process. Then they would either finish Apogee or turn her into a thrall.

  I bet he had selectively implanted commands to make her friendly with himself, maybe even Cool and Mr. Haha. But in my case, all he had to do was remind her of my deeds, and give her a slight nudge in my direction. Apogee, though, was a willing participant, her figure a flashing blur in my direction. She rocked me with an uppercut that sent me back reeling. One thing I noticed, though I can’t really say how, was that her fist wasn’t charged.

  She swung again, and I dodged, knowing her blows would most likely be aimed at my face. Avoiding that punch, I pivoted and kicked her midsection, putting her on the defensive.

  I was expecting the kick to hurt her, to double her over in pain. Instead, I knocked her almost to the entrance of the citadel, a hundred feet away. The force of the blow slammed her body into the moon rock wall and she fell to the ground in a rain of rubble and debris.

  Running over, I wondered how strong I was really becoming. My entry into the super community was as an archer with moderate strength, but my abilities were becoming more and more pronounced every time I used them.

  “Damn it. Stop and listen for a second.”

  She dug herself out of rubble, woozy and dazed and I had a few seconds to talk sense into her or to beat her before she beat me.

  “Madelyne,” I said, coming beside her. “It’s me. It’s Dale.”

  As she stood, Apogee even took my steadying hand, shaking the dust and mental-cobwebs out of her head. Her eyes darted about, searching for focus.

  “What do you remember?”

  But the anger returned as she realized who was helping her, and her eyes flashed with burning rage. Apogee’s right fist charged again and she struck with merciless efficiency, hurling me through the air, the vestiges of her anima banner rippling along with me as I came to rest along the polished moon rock floor.

  She strode towards me, her head and shoulders bowed low, like a stalking predator, giving me a chance to come to my feet.

  “I’m going to kill you for what you did to me,” she growled.

  “Madelyne, you don’t have to do this. You are under Zundergrub’s mind control. He’s using you to-”

  But I had to duck as she threw a punch that would have decapitated me. Before she could follow up, I shoved her away, giving myself some room to work with.

  “Zundergrub is using you to-”

  “I don’t care,” she said coming at me again, this time with her speed, and cracked me across the face with a powerful blow that sent me staggering, tasting blood. She spun and flashed two kicks in successive motion. One slammed into my stomach, doubling me over, the second slapped across my head and threw me reeling to the floor. She didn’t let up, rushing over and straddling me so she could lay into my face. I reached down and grabbed her crotch with one hand, and her neck with the other hurling her into the opposing wall.

  “Madelyne, listen to me!” I yelled, but Apogee charged the distance between us in a heartbeat, shoving me back into a wall cutting off my retreat. Without skipping a beat, her body became a whirling dervish of fists and kicks, all aimed at my face.

  I went full defensive and weathered the first few blows, putting my arms up to block as best I could. But she was too fast and found all my weak points. My legs wobbled, unsteady, as my head rocked back time and time again. The greater the beating I was taking, the more unhinged Apogee was becoming, throwing wilder, more powerful punches. But amidst the pummeling I was receiving, I saw an opening. Closing the distance
between us, I grabbed her waist and pulled her into a powerful bear hug.

  I wrapped my arms around her waist and pinned her against my chest. Apogee’s breasts pressed into my neck, but her arms were free and my face made for a tempting target. She unleashed her speed and threw blow after blow into my undefended face and head. I tried burying my face into her cleavage to protect myself, but my ears and the back of my head were exposed and she lay into me with terrible efficiency. The crashing of her fists was like rapid-fire sledgehammers pounding against my head. My vision swirled and my mind danced with unconsciousness. I collapsed to my knees, barely managing to keep my grip.

  In desperation, I squeezed her torso in my arms, but I used too much force, and felt her spine and rib cage almost pop. Apogee shrieked as if I was killing her, and I softened my grip on her for the moment, the moment’s pause giving me a chance to come to my feet and lift her off the ground. She was wincing in pain from my bear hug, digging at my arms to get free, struggling to get her breath. My hope was that she would tire at some point, but she opened up on me again.

  “Calm down, woman!” I yelled, digging my face into her chest again. I squeezed more carefully this time, intending only to deprive her of oxygen. Her fury waned as exhaustion set in. She fired off her last series of punches and grabbed me. Exhausted and short of breath, she clawed at my arms, trying to gain leverage, but there was no escape from my grasp.

  “I know your name, Madelyne.” I tried to reason with her. “How would I know that?”

  “Damn you!” she yelled, and threw a furious right cross, but the blow didn’t have much force behind it.

  “Zundergrub is doing this to you, don’t you understand? I continued, tasting blood in my mouth and strengthening my hold on her to deny her any air. She was in a vice now, an inescapable trap; but still clawed at my face though her gloves kept her nails from hurting me. Apogee pushed against me, her every muscle straining, but nothing would break my hold on her.