Broke and Famous

by Elizabeth Gannon

  The woman standing in front of him in the alley did not look happy with that news.

  “’Gee whiz, ma’am, I was minding my own business and then it up and exploded on me. Whoops!’” The woman summarized. “Nah, nah, that don’t carry no weight with me, Thraex.” Peachtree McDonald AKA “Cornfield” shook her head, the sandy colored plaits on either side swinging. “We’re gonna need somethin’ better than that. You can’t ask Malachi and me to go back to our pappy with that cow-pie of a story.” She gestured to the huge shape of her brother, who was looming in the alley behind her. “We don’t like givin’ him bad news, ya know that.”

  “He scary.” Malachi McDonald AKA “Haymaker” agreed, his eyes hidden by the ragged brim of the large straw hat he was wearing. He leaned against the pitchfork in his hands, looking for all the world like an incredibly large but simple-minded old-timey farmhand.

  Peachtree nodded, chewing harder on the wheat stalk sticking out of her mouth. “Let me remind you of something, Thraex,” she pointed at him, voice hardening, “you owe a considerable amount to The Farm. My pappy gave you this job as a favor to you, so that you could help pay us back and so that we didn’t have to bring in nobody else we don’t know to do it…” She removed her straw hat and wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. “Then you somehow blow the danged thing up!”

  “Pappy won’t like that.” Malachi agreed seriously. “He hate when things get blowed up, he told me so before.”

  Peachtree stepped forward, her bare feet somehow not getting cut on the broken glass which littered the alley. “Cornfield” was tall, thin, and flat as a board. Her face was feminine, but with a jaw which was a little too square, her mouth a little too wide. Freckles covered her face and bare shoulders, the rest of her concealed by denim overalls which matched her brother’s. But she was pretty, in a homey, earthy way. And her powers more than backed up what her slim body lacked in terms of ability to be intimidating.

  When she was angry… people disappeared.

  “I think if you ask folks, they’ll clue you into the fact that you don’t want to know what Old McDonald has done to people who endanger The Farm, Thraex.” She warned.

  “I can’t tell ya what happened if I don’t know, Peach.” Thraex explained, watching the still smoking remains of the warehouse.

  “Well, if I were in your shoes, I’d sure try.” She pointed at the damage. “Do you have any idea how much this little screw-up is going to cost us? The building is a total loss and now the cops are all over it. This entire facility is going to have to be dumped as quickly and as quietly as possible. The Farm is out thousands and thousands of dollars.” Her freckled face contorted into a grimace, exposing the small gap between her front teeth. “You’re making us get all spendy here, all ‘cause my pappy’s got a soft spot for you, and trusted you when you said your pets could do this for us…”

  “The Westgates had nothing to do with this explosion.” Thraex stated flatly, recognizing where this conversation was going and wanting to put a stop to that line of thinking as quickly as possible. “They weren’t even in that building last night.”

  “Tough tomatoes.” Peach snapped.

  “Pappy hired ‘em to mind it fer us.” Malachi added. “If’in they fell sleep on ta job, then that’s their mess ta clean.”

  Peachtree gestured to her brother, who was taller and bulkier than Thraex, a veritable wall of muscle. “Out of the mouths of babes.” She declared, impressed with Haymaker’s thinking on the matter despite his slow-witted tone. She tucked her thumbs into the pockets of her denim overalls. “So, how’s about we just say that if the Westgates don’t either pay off the money we’re out on this little venture or explain to us who should, well…” She snapped her fingers and the barrel Thraex was leaning against winked out of existence. “Ope.”

  Without its support he fell backwards, suddenly off-balance, and hit the ground, cursing.

  “Thraex?” Sasha called to him from the end of the alley. “Is everything alright?”

  Thraex glared at Peach for a long moment, trying to reign in his temper as his fists clenched.

  Malachi spun his pitchfork around and pointed it at him in warning.

  Peach made a tsk-ing sound. “You don’t wanna fight The Farm, Thraex.” She reminded him, almost pityingly. “We’re the only friends you got in this town, don’t cha know.” She started from the alley, motioning for her brother to follow her. “So how’s about you and your little crew go figure out what happened to our warehouse? There’s a good boy.”

  Thraex got to his feet, brushing off bits of glass and ash.

  “The warehouse?” Sasha arrived, standing between Peachtree and Thraex. “We were installing the equipment, Thraex caught a couple of teenagers stealing something, then the building exploded.” She shook her head, looking amazed. “Honestly, I…”

  Peach slowly turned to look at Thraex, distracting Sasha. “What were they stealing, Thraex?” She demanded, voice low.

  He moved so that he was between Sasha and the McDonalds. “Wire.”

  The woman considered that for a moment, face darkening as if it meant something to her. “And where is it now?” She asked in a clipped tone.

  “Cops took it.” Thraex angrily slapped the tip of Malachi’s pitchfork away so that it wasn’t so close to Miss Sasha.

  The man made an indignant sound of rage, and Thraex stepped forward, ready to fight him.

  But Peachtree whistled at her brother and they both started to walk from the alley. “Just get us our money, Thraex.” She looked Sasha up and down, then snorted in dismissal. “Or my pappy is going to ‘have’ a whole lot more than just The Farm, don’t cha know.”

  Thraex watched them go, not feeling comfortable until they were out of sight.

  Sasha spun around to glare at him in astonishment. “You had my family working for super-villains!?!” She loudly demanded, then quickly lowered her voice to a conspiratorial tone because of the firemen still dousing the nearby smoldering remains of the building. “Are you out of your mind!?!”

  Thraex ran a hand through his hair. “I take jobs where I can get‘em, Miss Sasha. It ain’t like we can get all picky ‘bout things these days.”

  “But The Farm!?!” She put her hands up to the sides of her head, as if trying to wrap her mind around that. “Why would you ever borrow money from people like that!?!”

  Thraex let out a long sigh. “I don’t know.” He admitted. “Don’t make a lick of sense, does it.”

  “No!” She agreed, brushing a shard of broken glass from his shoulder. “How much do you owe them?”

  “You don’t want to know.” He assured her.

  “And now you’ve gotten us involved in all of this!” She snapped, losing her patience. “With super-villains! When people find out about this…”

  “Still afraid of what the neighbors will say, Miss Sasha?” He teased, leading her from the alley. “This is Reichelt Park, chère. Half the damn town is involved in stuff like this. This place has always…”

  From the wreckage of the building, one of the fireman shouted something and a group of investigators huddled around him.

  Thraex frowned over at the scene, losing his train of thought due to the commotion. He leaned against one of the trucks, squinting at the wreckage. “What’s all this about now?”

  Sasha took a step towards the devastation, eyes widening in horror. “They just found a body…”

  ****

  Sasha wasn’t happy.

  First she’d learned that Thraex had gotten them involved with super-villains, but now there was an ongoing murder investigation.

  The police and fire investigators had cordoned off the area, and they’d said that the Westgates and Thraex couldn’t leave until they spoke to someone.

  Apparently, some kind of specialist had been called in to handle this.

  Which was just what Sasha didn’t want to hear.

  Specialists meant that this was something major, which meant that so
on everyone in Reichelt Park would know about it.

  She took a long sip of her bitter coffee and rearranged herself on the bumper of the firetruck. “They’ll be no stopping this now, you realize that?” She complained, not for the first time. “Within an hour of this, the entire community will know.” She took on the voice of one of her neighbors. “’Did you hear about Sasha Westgate?’” She turned her head to the side, acting as another resident. “’No, but nothing about that woman would surprise me at this point.’” She returned her head to its original direction. “’Unconventional Sasha’ has killed again!’” She acted out the second resident’s gasp of horror.

  Thraex snorted in amusement. “Nah, they’ll blame this one on me.” He shrugged. “Not that it matters. By this point, they’ve all lost interest in gossiping about me. Since your mama died, there’s no one important left they can link me to in that regard.”

  She frowned at the wreckage, feeling bad about the fact that she was making jokes about her social standing when a man was dead. “What do you think happened?”

  He shrugged disinterestedly. “Warehouse filled with science gizmos blows up. Another night in Reichelt Park. Life goes on.”

  She shook her head, unconvinced.

  In front of them, a new group of people were arriving on the scene. They weren’t fire investigators.

  They looked like Capes.

  The man in the lead was dressed as a big game hunter, and he appeared to be arguing about something with his two female companions. The women were identical twins, one of whom was dressed as a witch wearing nothing but her underwear, and the other was dressed in a ridiculously conservative Pilgrim outfit.

  The man was making an impassioned argument about something to the women, swearing like a Scotsman with Tourette’s, then stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Thraex.

  “Aw, hell…” Thraex got out lowly, sounding both irritated and wary. He shifted to his right so that he was standing in front of her. “Stay back, chère, this is about to get downright ungentlemanly.”

  Sasha had seen the man on the news several times over the years, usually for nothing good. He was with the Consortium of Chaos, the super-villains who had recently fought to free the city from the Freedom Squad’s evil plans.

  On paper, the C of C were now the go-to protectors of the city, just because there was no one else to do it, but that didn’t make them good people.

  The big game hunter prowled forward, shoving random bystanders out of the way like they were gnats. “I know you.” He told Thraex, his deep voice sounding hard and rough as granite. “You used to run with the Freedom Squad.”

  “And?” Thraex asked, looking unimpressed.

  “They killed some of my friends.” The big game hunter shook his head. “I aim to hunt them down.”

  “If any of the folks I killed were your friends,” Thraex crossed his arms over his chest, “you can take comfort in knowin’ that they deserved it.”

  “No, no!” Sasha was instantly on her feet, stepping between the two Alpha men before there was bloodshed. She turned to look at the big game hunter. “Thraex had nothing to do with the Freedom Squad’s plans for the city and he took no part in their final fight with the Consortium, he had already left them by that point.”

  The big game hunter glanced down at her, then back at Thraex. “That true?”

  Thraex put his hand on her shoulder, gently trying to move her out of the way, but she wasn’t budging. “You heard the lady.” He told the other man simply.

  “He’s not a killer.” She pressed. “He’s…” her mind raced, trying to talk things down before it spiraled out of control. She’d seen firsthand how bad that could be. “He’s… he’s a loyal, kind, honorable man…”

  The blonde in the underwear and witch’s hat looked at the big game hunter, rolled her eyes and made a ‘jerk off’ motion with one hand.

  The big game hunter nodded in agreement.

  “Sounds like a total pussy.” The half-dress witched remarked under her breath, beginning to casually file her nails despite the impending battle and crime scene. “I think you can take him, Syd.”

  “Here’s what I think…” The big game hunter stepped forward until he was nose to nose with Thraex. “I think you know where the rest of your friends are holed up…” He nodded in certainty, eyes still locked with Thraex’s. “And I think you’re gonna tell me before I’m done…”

  Thraex shifted his weight, obviously preparing to move. “Even if I did know where those peckerheads were… I still wouldn’t tell you.” He growled out.

  Sasha felt the stirring of fear. “Thraex?” She all but pleaded, taking his arm and trying to stop this before he got into a fistfight with another group of supervillains tonight.

  They’d already pissed off The Farm, they didn’t need to give the Consortium a reason to hate them too.

  The big game hunter’s mouth curved, obviously anticipating the looming battle. From the way he held himself, he’d seen more than a few of them.

  Before either man got the chance to strike though, another man arrived on the scene. Tall, bald, and impeccably dressed in an entirely white suit and sweater vest, the man looked completely out of place at a crime scene. He was spotless, as if everything he owned had been bleached multiple times today. His hands were covered in white gloves and he wore a particle mask, apparently to keep from inhaling the fumes of the unknown materials in the building.

  The smoke had died down now though, so it was a blatantly unnecessary precaution.

  He quickly put himself between the two men and looked over the big game hunter’s shoulder to address the woman who was dressed as a pilgrim. “Amity?” He called calmly, holding up his hand to keep the other man away from Thraex. “Can you please…?”

  The woman dressed as the pilgrim immediately hurried over to take the big game hunter’s hand, and then half escorted, half pulled him from the scene.

  The man’s eyes remained focused on Thraex, not at all happy that their discussion had been interrupted.

  “Let’s go play with that adorable tiny little giraffe, Sydney. Won’t that be nice?” The Pilgrim woman tried, trying to talk him down. “Look how cute it is!” The Pilgrim woman glanced at her twin, silently asking for help in getting the man away.

  The Witch rolled her eyes again, then trudged after her twin and they both pushed the man from the scene.

  The man in the particle mask watched them leave and when he judged them to be a safe distance away, he turned back to face Sasha and Thraex. “Hello, Thraex.” He said simply. “Been a long time.”

  Thraex nodded his head in greeting. “Oz.”

  “You back in the trade?”

  “Nope. Still workin’ for the Westgates.” Thraex shook his head.

  “And just so there aren’t any surprises later: you have no idea where your former teammates are, correct?”

  Thraex shook his head. “Only ex-Freedom Squader I’ve seen in years is you, Oz.” He gestured to the man’s friends. “Had heard you’d started runnin’ with the Consortium of Chaos though. Seems mighty out of character.”

  “I don’t believe in labels like ‘hero’ and ‘villain.’” The man named Oz informed them confidently. “I believe in people and I believe in the process.”

  “Uh-huh.” Thraex didn’t look impressed by that. “So you joined up with damn super-villains?”

  “Again, as long as I’m doing what’s right, I don’t care what name is on the door.” Oz assured him. “I was with the Freedom Squad for the right reasons, then I left it when those reasons stopped being correct. Now I’m with the Consortium and we’re trying to do good things.”

  A person with a mask engraved with the Kilroy symbol strolled by and yanked the dust mask off Oz’s face. “Take that off, you weirdo.” The voice was filtered to alter the tone and disguise the person’s identity and sex, but the amusement was still evident. “It’s a little bit of smoke, not Ebola.”

  Oz glared after the person, but didn
’t press the issue. He noticeably spaced his breathing now though, as if afraid to inhale too many toxins.

  A female officer appeared and handed Oz a folder, leaning in to whisper something to him. Oz flipped through the information while the woman was talking.

  “You a cop now, Dimico?” Thraex asked, trying to sound nonchalant, but Sasha could tell that he didn’t consider this a friendly conversation.

  “Not as such.” Oz nodded in thanks to the officer as she departed, then refocused on them. “But I work with them in cases like this.”

  Sasha frowned. “Cases like what?” She arched an eyebrow. “Warehouse accidents?”

  Oz removed a pen from his breast pocket. “Cases which involve super-powered individuals and the ‘accidents’ which seem to befall them.”

  “In this town?” Thraex snorted in amusement. “Must keep you busy.”

  Oz looked down at his paperwork. “Who killed Councilman Merridew?” He asked suddenly, without any preamble.

  Sasha jolted at the name, not realizing that Merridew was the man who had died in the warehouse. “Oh god…” She gasped, feeling horrible that it was someone she’d known for years.

  Her parents had worked with Pericles Merridew since she was a girl, their labs working together on any number of projects. He’d made the move into local politics after she’d left the city, but she still couldn’t see any reason why he’d be inside a building owned by The Farm.

  “I’ve got no idea.” Thraex answered simply, not sounding at all interested.

  “None at all?” Oz flipped over one of the pages in his folder and nodded. “Huh. That’s odd. He told his office that he was going to speak with you tonight about something called ‘The God Machine.’” He looked up from his notes, voice completely calm. “That jog anything in your memory, Thraex? Anything you suddenly remember and want to clarify in your statement before this goes further?”

  Thraex simply stared at him, not saying a word.

  “How about you, Dr. Westgate?” Oz asked, beginning to write something down. “Anything you feel like sharing?”