West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide

by Johnson-Weider, K. M.

  Paul turned around, looking surprised. “Whoa, I don’t think that we need to dig up things that happened years ago. We just have a few questions for you about the current investigation.”

  “Yes of course you do, but don’t you find it so deliciously ironic that if Rachel here had only been paying closer attention in class back then, she might have fewer questions for me now? Or at least more pertinent questions. Because there’s really no point at all in asking questions if you’re going to ask the wrong ones.”

  “So what questions should I be asking, Professor Keller?” Seawolf snapped. She couldn’t believe the way he was talking to her. She couldn’t believe she had dragged Paul into this.

  Starfish waved lazily at the rows of fish tanks. “Perhaps you might inquire how I am able to keep electric eels alive in salt water? You do have a passionate interest in eels, do you not?”

  She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Electric eels short circuit in salt water, so that must be fresh water.”

  “If that were truly your hypothesis, then you should be asking, why Dr. Keller, how do you get your stunning collection of sea plants to thrive in fresh water? You see Rachel, science is about attention to detail. Natural brilliance of course doesn’t hurt. But for someone like you, attention to detail is a necessity.”

  Paul moved closer to Seawolf. “I’m not sure what you’re playing at, Starfish, but… ”

  “I’m not playing at anything!” he exclaimed in mock surprise. “Though if you wish to play, I am happy to oblige.” He grinned, revealing two even rows of perfect white teeth. Seawolf wondered if he had a second set farther back, like moray eels did.

  “Fine, I’ll play,” she said angrily. “How do you keep electric eels in salt water?”

  “That’s a good girl. Ask the right questions and you too can get a passing grade. Though I suppose it’s a bit late for that.” He moved quickly to the nearest tank. “You see, I have genetically engineered them. They are most magnificent creatures now - able to withstand even the cold salt water of northern California, but with their renowned electrical discharge capability intact. And that is not all,” he said, plunging one of his rubbery orange arms into the tank in front of him. He grabbed hold of an eel, shaking slightly as it discharged its current into him, and raised it out of the tank.

  “Okay, this is getting weird,” said Paul. “Why don’t you put the eel back into the tank and we can talk this over calmly.”

  “Oh, don’t be concerned,” Starfish said, “they are air breathers, electric eels. Every 10 minutes or so they must have fresh oxygen. But see what else my eels can do.” He suddenly clamped down on the creature, squeezing so hard that Seawolf gasped. “You’re killing it!” she exclaimed.

  “Yes, I am,” he said, smiling sadistically. “Look - it is quite dead now, is it not?”

  Seawolf watched, horrified, as Starfish throttled the eel and then dropped its limp body back into the tank. “Wait, wait, patience…yes, now it begins - look!” She stared as the strangulation marks on the side of the eel began to heal, as the eel began to wriggle, and finally as it resumed swimming around the tank, looking as healthy as it had before he had crushed it, though strangely smaller. Next to her, Paul took in a sharp breath. “How the hell did it do that?”

  Realization dawned on Seawolf. “Regeneration - you imbued them with your DNA.”

  “Indeed,” Starfish said with a proud smile. “It is amazing what science can accomplish in the right hands.”

  “But why?” she said, looking at him with a feeling approaching revulsion. She wanted to wipe that grin off his face, to make those horrible little teeth disappear.

  He looked disappointed. “Why to cure myself, of course. Surely you of all mutants would understand that, Rachel.”

  She glared at him. “I told you that I don’t use that name anymore,” she said, all of her fur sticking up now. This is dangerous, this is very dangerous; we need to get out of here. She glanced around and saw that there was no easy egress. The few windows in the room were above the fish tanks, up near the ceiling. There was a door, but it would just lead deeper into the house. They would have to go back down the staircase.

  “But Rachel is your real name,” Starfish insisted. “Just like my real name is Ross Keller. But we’re not like Camille, are we? We have to do our heroics encased in these - these mutant suits!” He spit the words out. “What happened to our real lives, Rachel? What happened to our families, our lovers, our chances at happiness?”

  “I’m not like you,” she said. “I was born this way.” She made a small gesture behind her back, trying to signal to Paul to start back towards the stairs. He either didn’t see the gesture or chose to ignore it, because he remained standing next to her.

  “That’s right,” Starfish said, stopping a moment to consider the point. “Does that make it easier, I wonder? Or is that much more difficult, to not even have a normal memory to think back on, a time when you weren’t a freak?”

  “No one here is a freak,” Paul said.

  “Yeah,” said Seawolf, fighting to keep her voice steady. She took a step backwards and, as she had anticipated, Paul moved back with her. “You and I aren’t freaks, Starfish - we just look a little different on the outside.”

  Starfish laughed, a short, brutal laugh. “No, we’re different all the way through, Rachel. Didn’t you tell me once that your own mother had screamed when she first saw you? Don’t you feel the pain anymore when the little children point and cry?”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Seawolf saw Paul reaching for his gun. She shook her head. “He regenerates too quickly,” she muttered as Starfish continued his monologue.

  “Take this good citizen here,” Starfish was saying. “Our own coastal guardian, the noble Paul Rutledge, so quick to rush to your defense this evening. How chivalrous. And yet do you think for an instant that he would ever touch you with a lover’s hand? Look – he is revolted that I would even suggest such a grotesque possibility.”

  Seawolf reached behind her as they continued to back up towards the wall. She remembered seeing a table; there was a lava lamp on it. Perhaps if she could grab that… No, there was no way they could fight him here on his terms. He was strong as hell and could regenerate to boot. They’d be slaughtered. She had to get Paul out of here. She had to keep Starfish talking.

  “So you’re a Celestial now?” she asked, taking a few more steps back. “Lord Morte stop by and sign you up?”

  Starfish laughed. “Perhaps. There is a certain appeal in the idea of becoming a Central American potentate over some hapless population of illiterate mundanes. Or perhaps I could learn Chinese and defect to the Celestial Empire; I’ve heard every mutant is given a harem of willing breeding stock. But what would I do with a mate, Rachel? How would I consummate my passion?”

  “Mermaid problem, eh?” she asked grimly. “Well, there’s more to life than sex.” They were at the wall now, the table with the lava lamp was to her left, Paul was to her right, and less than ten feet to the right of Paul was the staircase down.

  “Can you honestly say that you don’t long for someone to touch you?” Starfish asked, crossing the room towards them. She pushed her shoulder against Paul and he took a few steps to the right.

  Starfish looked amused. “You don’t actually think I’m going to let you leave, do you? Even you can’t be that naïve, Rachel.”

  She was sick of his insults and provocations. “Get out of here,” she hissed to Paul as Starfish approached. Paul shook his head, but did take another step to the right. She grabbed the lava lamp and smashed it on Starfish at the same time that Starfish backhanded her and sent her crashing over the table and against a fish tank.

  Starfish laughed. “You know, I thought about bringing you in on this, but at the end of the day, I knew you didn’t even have the brains to be my lab assistant. You struggled in my class, Rachel, and you’re struggling now.”

  Paul drew his pistol and shot twice; the bullets pierced Starf
ish’s torso, but within seconds his skin had started to expel them.

  “Shit,” Paul said.

  Starfish laughed again as he rounded on Paul. “I’ve always wanted to see what a Coast Guard man is really made of!”

  Seawolf dropped to the floor and with all of her strength jerked the legs of the metal table supporting the fish tank above her. As the tank fell, she swung the table into Starfish’s back, knocking him to the side and over an armchair. The tank crashed to the ground and shattered, spilling water and tropical fish all over the floor.

  “Ingenious,” said Starfish. Paul was shooting again but the bullets were having almost no effect. Seawolf realized that she was running out of time. She sprinted across the room towards Paul.

  “The most amusing thing,” said Starfish as he pulled himself out of the armchair, “is that the two of you could barely take down one of my pets and yet you presume to threaten me! What hubris.”

  She had reached Paul’s side; the staircase was right beside them. If she and Paul both went down, Starfish would follow and be on them before they could unlock the door. She would have to find her own exit; right now she had to save Paul.

  “You’re leaving,” she told Paul. She grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him down the stairs. There was a sickening thud a moment later as he hit bottom and she winced when she heard him scream, but that just meant he was still alive. Hopefully he could manage to get out the door.

  Starfish was right beside her. This time he grabbed her around the throat, lifted her up, and slammed her repeatedly into the wall. She felt the plaster cracking behind her.

  “You know,” he told her, “my experiments on normal humans have not been yielding the desired results. I’ve been debating how to acquire a mutant volunteer. How fortuitous that you came along.”

  She brought both knees up and kicked hard at where his genitals should have been. His yell of pain was immensely gratifying. He dropped her and she rolled to the side. “I guess you still have something down there,” she said. She could hear the sound of deadbolts unlocking; perhaps she could make it to the door after all. She moved towards the stairs but Starfish grabbed her with a roar and tossed her across the room. She slammed into a fish tank and felt her chest buckle with the impact.

  “Stop playing around Rachel,” said Starfish coldly as he advanced on her. “You have no way out.”

  “There’s always a way out,” muttered Seawolf. She heard the door open; Paul was out. My turn. She grabbed a nearby coffee table and flung it at one of the small high windows, which shattered as the table sailed through.

  Starfish sprang for her, but Seawolf was quicker. She jumped up to the window and hurled herself through. Her hands were sliced on the broken glass and she dropped hard two stories to the concrete sidewalk below. There were snapping noises as she hit the ground; she had broken something, a couple of ribs probably and maybe her arm. She scrambled to her feet, not bothering to look up at the window through which she could hear Starfish laughing.

  “I was wrong, there was a way out,” he called. “At least you can deliver a message for me: give my regards to Annie!”

  Paul had gotten the front door open and was crawling down the sidewalk. They didn’t have time for that. She hobbled over and picked him up, pain contorting her body with waves of nausea. It was a struggle to cross the street and by his breathing she could tell that he was barely conscious.

  “Stay with it, Coastie,” she growled. When they finally reached the Jeep, she propped him against the vehicle and fumbled through his pockets for the keys.

  “Get in,” she snarled when she got the door open. She pushed Paul through to the passenger’s side, an action that nearly caused him to pass out. She didn’t have time to be gentle. She started the car with one hand and autodialed her HoloBerry with the other. “Annie,” she breathed when the call picked up. “8643 Coastline Drive. It’s Starfish. He’s gone supervillain.”

  Chapter 38

  12:16 a.m., Saturday, August 3rd, 2013

  8643 Coastline Drive

  West Pacific, CA

  A traitor in their midst: it was the dark secret of the Industry that many of the worst supervillains began as superheroes. Blue Star had seen it many times before, but that didn’t make it any easier. Despite all their abilities, superheroes were still human and that meant they had human flaws and weaknesses. They could crack from the many pressures on them and give in to their baser desires and passions. He had experienced his own dark periods, though for him it was self-destruction - from affairs to even addictions back in the day. Whatever Starfish had in mind when he started using homeless people to create mutagenic monstrosities was unfathomable to Blue Star, but he had seen enough horrible things to know that it was real and came from the same dark place that had corrupted many hearts.

  “We may outnumber Starfish, but he’s nearly as strong as Camille and heals significantly faster than even Cosmic Kid,” said Blue Star as he gathered his team right down the street from 8643 Coastline Drive. It was past midnight and the darkness did little to improve everyone’s mood.

  “According to this report, he also has genetically engineered monstrosities that share his healing abilities and the power of electric eels,” said Camille. Dr. Sterling had given them all a copy of Seawolf’s report, including a synopsis of the off-shore investigation that Starfish had taken over from her a couple months ago, which was probably highly inaccurate as Starfish had no doubt done his best to undermine the investigation. Blue Star had spoken to Seawolf about 20 minutes ago and knew that she was spoiling for a fight, but she was far too injured to get back in action tonight. He had been in her same position when Nimbus betrayed the Paragons. He wondered if Seawolf and Starfish had been intimate; he could understand all too well her anger.

  “How do we know he hasn’t just rigged his house to explode when we all charge inside?” asked White Knight.

  “More likely he wants to pick us off one by one,” said Camille who landed after flying a circle around the area. “In close combat and supported by a few of those pets that Seawolf described, Starfish could give the entire team a run for its money, let alone the three of us. If he succeeded, he’d be instantly catapulted into the supervillain elite. It would be a Total Team Kill – the dream of all supervillains.”

  “Is Starfish really that psychotic?” asked White Knight.

  “Hmm, let me see,” said Camille. “He tried to kill Seawolf and the Coast Guard liaison after they caught onto his penchant for abducting homeless and turning them into mindless sea monsters. Doesn’t sound too sane to me.”

  Blue Star had wanted the entire remaining team to engage, but Dr. Sterling had been adamant that Cosmic Kid should be sidelined at HQ for backup. Blue Star could have argued more, but it was the middle of the night and he was tired; he had been finishing up patrol when the call came in. It was more important to spend the time and energy he did have getting this team ready. “Camille’s right,” he said heavily. “We need to be prepared for him to be targeting to kill.”

  “Which is why everyone is going to be suiting up in full tactical gear with air tanks, bomb sensors, and reinforced armor,” said Dr. Sterling over the headsets. “The van is fully loaded, so use it.”

  Blue Star hated wearing full gear – it felt somewhat less than heroic to him, and the 30 or so extra pounds combined with the thicker fire-retardant costumes limited his mobility a little. However, it was a necessary precaution. This was the gear that supers were supposed to wear when aiding firefighters in major disasters and they were all well-prepared to use it thanks to Dr. Sterling’s training regimen. He had to admit that he’d learned things in the last few months that he wished he had learned earlier in his 40-year career.

  “There are docks down the cliff and I would bet he has a secret base under there,” said Camille.

  Blue Star visually checked to make sure everyone was properly suited up. “With our luck there’s going to be a lot of underwater work tonight. Annie, how do
es this gear work underwater?”

  “Everything should function fine,” said Dr. Sterling.

  “I’m not the best for underwater operations,” said White Knight.

  Blue Star nodded; this situation was just getting worse and worse. “White Knight and I will check the house. If there are bombs, White Knight’s sensors are probably our best bet for locating them. Camille, head down to the docks and try to find any secret entrances – or at least cut off Starfish’s escape if we flush him out of the house. We’ll all meet up when someone finds Starfish or his pets.” Everyone nodded, but Blue Star still felt uneasy. Turning to one side, he tapped on the closed-circuit channel that linked him directly to Dr. Sterling. “We need another person,” he told her quietly. “With Cosmic Kid, everyone would at least have a partner. This is too dangerous for solo operations. Three is not a good number.”

  “Three is what you’ve got,” replied Dr. Sterling. “This is why we practice multiple numbers for deployments. A team leader should be able to work with whatever he’s handed.”

  “I understand that,” said Blue Star testily, “but there’s no point in Cosmic Kid just sitting in HQ. It’s better to commit fully here to ensure maximum success with minimum casualties.”

  “And if this is an ambush or distraction? We’d have the whole team committed and no spare. One super always sits out. Tonight it’s Cosmic Kid. WPPD is gathering up a tactical team for support and should be with you all in 20 minutes. You’re wasting time.”

  “Right,” said Blue Star through gritted teeth. He wanted to hash things out with Annie, though it would be idiotic to do so right now when nothing he said would change her mind. Unfortunately, she was probably right. This situation did have ambush or distraction written all over it and it was best to have a spare in reserve, especially a fast one like Cosmic Kid. Blue Star frowned. He hated going into situations blind and he was feeling particularly uneasy tonight.