My Evil Twin Is a Supervillain

by David Solomons

  Nothing happened.

  He did it again, but with no more success. He tried the other hand, then both together, until he was whirling his arms like a windmill. I could see the confusion and panic in his face. He had lost his power, and didn’t know why.

  “It’s the cats,” I explained. “Everyone knows that when you tell a cat to do something, it completely ignores you. Even a superhero with animal powers can’t get through. There’s something about feline brainwaves that makes commands simply bounce off them. My plan counted on that. I was betting that if we stuck enough of them in one room it would turn it into a sort of Faraday cage.” A Faraday cage was a container that blocked electric fields rather than superpowers but it was close enough.

  Zack grinned. “Or, I suppose we ought to call it a Furaday cage.”

  “That was awful.” I shuddered at the pun. “Or should I say clawful?”

  We all winced. Even Stellar.

  “Interesting,” mused Lara. “It seems one side effect of being around so many cats is that you can’t help making terrible cat puns.”

  A wiry Persian slunk past, eyeing me with what I could only describe as an amused expression. Their power was truly frightening.

  “Ha! Well, I’m not staying around to find out,” said Stellar. He bent his knees and sprang into the air.

  Except that he didn’t.

  He rose a few centimetres and thudded back down. He tried again, but the cats pressed their furry bodies against him and he remained firmly stuck to the floor. An expression of dismay spread across his face as he realised he was powerless, in every sense. He let out a cry born of anger and frustration, his shoulders slumped and the fight seemed to go out of him.

  I nodded to Serge. “Will you do the honours?”

  As well as luring stray cats into the tree house with his last anchovy sandwich, Serge had carried out the other, less experimental, part of my plan and collected a chair from the remains of the house and a length of garden twine. He proceeded to tie Stellar to the chair.

  “What about Catwoman?” said Stellar huffily. “She can control cats.”

  “That’s because she’s made up,” sighed Lara. “There’s a difference.”

  It was the first time she’d confronted her old friend since discovering his secret identity. I could tell she was upset. “Luke, how could you do this?”

  “Luke who? I’m Stellar. Never heard of any Luke…”

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake.” She ripped the mask from his face. There was no concealing the truth now. “You complete idiot. You should’ve told me.”

  He lowered his head. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s too late.” He looked up at Serge. “First, I betrayed my best friend, and then I couldn’t save the one person in the world who mattered to me. You know what that is, don’t you?”

  “It is the origin story of a supervillain,” said Serge.

  “Exactly. There’s no point in fighting it.”

  “Maybe so, but we can try,” insisted Lara. “And we’re going to make a start, right now.” She dragged Serge in front of the seated Stellar. “I want you two to make up.”

  The former friends regarded one another in suspicious silence.

  Serge spoke first. “That night. My inhaler. You betrayed me like Superboy Prime betrayed the Justice League.”

  Stellar made a face. “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “It was to me.”

  They held each other’s gaze for a long time. “I’m sorry,” said Stellar. And it sounded like he meant it.

  I caught Zack staring at me. In all the fuss the significance of my presence was only now occurring to him. As the others talked among themselves and tried to patch things up, he pulled me into a corner of the tree house. I felt sure he was about to express his gratitude to me for braving a perilous cosmic journey to rescue him. I just hoped he wouldn’t get too mushy.

  “What are you even doing here?” A horrified expression came over his face. “Do Mum and Dad know you’re in another dimension?”

  Well, at least he didn’t hug me. “Never mind Mum and Dad,” I said. “What I want to know is how did you escape? Last time I saw you, you were doing a pretty good impersonation of a glove puppet minus the hand up its bum. And since then you’ve been stored in darkness like the last fish finger in the freezer.”

  Zack opened his hand. In his palm lay a credit-card-sized object emblazoned with his sigil. I’d seen it once before, in my world, when he’d been preparing to leave for Other Bromley. “Star Squad’s research division has been working on this for me. Still a prototype, but it does the job.”

  I didn’t understand. “You have your own line of credit cards?”

  Zack gave a huff. He thumbed the sigil, which turned out to be a button. The credit card lit up with an intense light, the glare so bright that the rest of us had to shield our eyes.

  “Synthetic star-light,” he explained. “Nowhere near as powerful as the real thing, but useful in a pinch.” He switched it off.

  “It’s a charger?”

  “Yes, although not a quick one. My powers are still far from at their peak. I’d have preferred another day to replenish before I took on Stellar, but I hadn’t counted on you showing up. And there was a lot to consider before I mounted any sort of escape attempt. For a start, how deep was I underground? Were the cave ceiling heights consistent and predictable, or was there a likelihood of bumping my head in a rapid breakout scenario? Could I get out without causing unnecessary injury to innocent civilians or damage to the historic surroundings? How could I overpower and then safely secure Stellar? That sort of thing.”

  It all sounded kind of familiar. “You did a risk assessment,” I said.

  Zack nodded. “Absolutely. It’s only in a situation like that you understand just how valuable they can be.”

  More important than his stupid form-filling, there was something I had to know. “So you weren’t tempted to stay in this world?”

  Zack hesitated before he replied. But it was only to move back towards the others. He wanted to ensure that Stellar could hear his next words.

  “I don’t belong here,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  I should have felt relief, but when I saw Stellar’s face contort in pain, my stomach tightened like one of the knots holding him in place. There was something I had avoided confronting since the moment I learned of Stellar’s plan to replace his brother with mine; an inescapable question as uncomfortable as Hawkman’s chest straps.

  Was what Stellar had done so evil?

  On the one hand, yes. Obviously. He’d lied, abused his solemn superhero oath, summoned a world-eating terror during a hissy fit, kidnapped and imprisoned Zack. On the other hand, in comics and films when superheroes faced impossible odds, they moved Heaven and Earth to save their world. Stellar had moved infinite worlds to put things right for him and his family. And this was the big question – is it OK to do bad things if you’re doing them to help the people you love? It had been much simpler to think of Stellar as my Evil Twin. It made the world an uncomplicated black and white. But suddenly that world, like my own, felt a long way away.

  “So what’s the plan for getting us home?” asked Zack. “I assume you have one.”

  I nodded. “But not here.” Even though Stellar’s powers were neutralised, I didn’t want to risk discussing it in front of him. “I just need a couple of things.” Brushing off some cats, I collected the Scrabble board, Serge scooped up the squirrel, and we headed out of the tree house.

  Darkness crept across the garden as I led the others to what used to be the garden shed, but which was now a cracked concrete foundation and a handful of splintered two-by-fours. I laid out the Scrabble board.

  “Serge, the interdimensional squirrel, please.”

  He handed it to me.

  “What are you doing?” questioned Zack.

  “Establishing whether this creature can receive as well as send. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I peered into its fluffy face. “Dark
Flutter, if you can hear this, give me a sign.” There was a pause, then its tail stood straight up and waggled about in a weird, non-squirrel-y fashion. “Excellent.” I proceeded to inform the squirrel that Stellar had made a classic supervillain mistake when he told me about using Zorbon’s ship to travel to our world. Then I’d put två and två together (två was Swedish for two) and come up with the likely location of the ship. “Look for it in IKEA.” With my final instruction dispatched, I set the squirrel down next to the Scrabble board. Immediately it spelled out a reply.

  W.E. W.I.L.L. F.I.N.D. I.T. A.N.D. C.O.M.E. F.O.R. Y.O.U. B.E. R.E.A.D.Y.

  A.L.S.O.

  H.A.V.E. Y.O.U. G.O.T. M.Y. P.H.O.N.E.

  Reading those words – well, the first lot – I was filled with hope. My friends were coming. And, of course, my friends were here too. Two Laras, two Serges and a Zack – there was no way we could fail. “It’s only a matter of time until S.C.A.R.F. find the ship. In the meantime, Stellar is safely secured in the tree house, unable to create more gerbil-holes. The world, the universe, and indeed the entire multiverse is safe. All we have to do is wait to be picked up.”

  Zack gave a contented sigh. “Frankly, it’s just a relief for once not to be racing against a giant flaming alien countdown in the sky. Good work, Luke.”

  I barely heard my brother’s praise, because just then I noticed another new message on the Scrabble board.

  A.R.E. Y.O.U. S.E.E.I.N.G. A.N. E.C.L.I.P.S.E. T.O.O.

  The squirrel crouched at the end of the sentence like a furry grey question mark. The eclipse was happening in my universe too. What did that mean? How could we both be seeing the same phenomenon? And then it hit me.

  “Lara, do you have a notebook?”

  “Of course.” Her cub reporter’s instincts never left her. She handed it to me and I tore out two pieces of paper.

  “Zack, can I borrow your sigil?”

  I’d made Star Lad’s sigil out of one of Mum’s old brooches. I used the pin to pierce a hole in the paper. “I know what’s causing the eclipse,” I said. “It’s not a giant piece of Jenga or a galactic wedge of cheese.”

  Turning my back on the eclipse I held one piece of paper above my shoulder and used the second as a screen. An image of the sun appeared, projected through the pinhole. As I suspected. “It’s a shadow.”

  “A shadow of what?” asked Zack.

  “The universe next door.” I tapped a finger against the paper image of the eclipse. “Our universe is about to crash into this one.”

  That morning I’d awoken to a sliver of black sun; now most of its surface had fallen into shadow. Like the Titanic and the iceberg, our worlds were destined to collide, unless we could figure out a way to stop them. A fresh tremor shook the garden.

  “How long d’you reckon we’ve got?” asked Zack, steadying himself in the aftermath.

  The shadow slid another degree across the face of the sun, and I had my answer to Zack’s question. It wasn’t a convenient flaming countdown in the sky, but the next best thing. “I’m betting the universes will crash together at total eclipse.” I swallowed thickly. “When the light goes out, the lights go out.”

  Lara grabbed her notepad and began making calculations, quickly and neatly filling two pages with numbers. “Then using the rate at which the sun is disappearing, I estimate that impact will occur in a little over…” She paused. “Twenty-two minutes.”

  I set a timer on her counterpart’s phone and turned to my brother. What we faced was far beyond my capabilities – I was hoping he had the solution. “Zack, can you stop them?”

  “No chance. My powers are barely at thirty per cent and even fully charged, giant asteroids are one thing – this is on a cosmic scale.”

  The dark boundary of a storm front slid overhead. Lightning lanced from billowing black clouds and a crack of thunder split the sky. In the face of the apocalypse, the weather was going haywire. Another rumble. For a second I thought it was more thunder, but then I realised it was coming from the tree house. I snapped my head round to see Stellar, tied to the chair, blast through the roof like a fighter pilot in an ejector seat.

  “But how?” mumbled a dumbfounded Zack.

  “Rocket shoes.” I pointed at the twin jets of fire pouring from the heels of his school brogues. He must have held on to them after they appeared in my bedroom. Once more I felt a sneaking sense of admiration.

  Stellar manoeuvred himself away from the influence of the superpower-sapping cats and shrugged off his restraints. Discarded ropes and bits of broken chair tumbled to earth, landing with a crash in the crater made by Nemesis. He hovered above us, rocket shoes belching flame.

  “Stellar, you have to listen to me,” I pleaded. “At total eclipse the world is going to—”

  “Blah blah blah.” He cut across me. “Save your breath, Other Luke. The world is not ending. It’s just a trick to make me give up Zack. Well, forget it. He’s staying here with me.”

  He was deluded.

  “No,” said Zack calmly and firmly. “Luke and I are leaving. Together.”

  “Oh yeah, and how d’you figure that, when I have this?” Stellar stuck out a hand and curled his fingers in a beckoning motion. For maximum effect, something evil ought to have happened immediately, but it didn’t.

  Nothing continued to happen.

  He looked faintly embarrassed, hovering there, one rigid arm shaking with the effort of whatever it was he was trying to do. “I would’ve brought it with me,” he said cryptically, “but I wasn’t expecting to be turned into the Purr-isoner of Azkaban.”

  The terrible cat-pun effect lingered like old kitty litter.

  We waited some more.

  “Are you using telekinesis to bring something here from a great distance?” I enquired.

  “Maybe,” Stellar said cagily.

  “But not from another universe? Because then you’d use a gerbil-hole.”

  He scowled. “It’s in my bedroom, if you must know.”

  “Is it a weapon?”

  “Look, I’m not playing Supervillain Twenty Questions. Ah, here it comes.” The relief in his voice was evident.

  An object whistled out of the sky and landed with a smack in his open palm. It was a blue-painted metal cube layered with glass. I remembered that I’d seen it before, on the roof of Dad’s comic shop, just before Stellar took Zack. Back then Stellar had called it a loose end. With a cough from his rocket shoes he flew down to the ground, held out the object and let go. I caught it in both hands.

  “Oof!” It was a lot heavier than it looked.

  “In case you were thinking that S.C.A.R.F. is coming to your rescue,” he said with an unsettling smile.

  A deep-noted chime sounded from within the cube. I dropped it in shock. It hit the ground, wobbled once and came to rest on one side. With horror I realised what it was.

  “Zorbon’s interdimensional craft.”

  Stellar had used his powers to squish it into a paperweight.

  “You honestly thought I’d leave behind the one thing that could ruin my plan?” He looked offended. “I mean, really, what do you take me for?”

  Once more I’d been outmanoeuvred by my Evil Twin. And right then, staring into his smug face – my smug face – something in me snapped. With a howl of fury I charged at him. I wasn’t expecting to breach his superpowered defences, and evidently neither was he. I took him by surprise, tackling him to the ground. He landed heavily, gasping for breath. I’d knocked the wind out of him. But my victory was temporary. With a snarl, he launched himself at me, crushing me in a bear hug. We rolled over and over across the garden.

  I could hear Zack shouting at us to stop, Serge encouraging me to punch Stellar on the nose and Lara yelling out the countdown.

  “Sixteen minutes to apocalypse!”

  “Enough!” cried Zack. “Quit it, right now. Don’t make me pull you two apart.”

  The phrase rang round my head. Pull us apart.

  Of course.

  I s
topped fighting. It took Stellar another few seconds before he realised I was no longer resisting, and then he stopped too.

  “Had enough?” he said, straightening his cape.

  I barely heard him. I had made a decision – the most difficult of my life. I ought to have been scared but instead I was flooded with a sense of calm. We disentangled ourselves and got to our feet.

  “Don’t try anything funny,” warned Stellar.

  I shook my head. There was nothing funny about what I had to do. “We were never meant to meet, for a lot of reasons. One being that when we’re together we generate a super-powerful magnetic field.” He looked at me blankly. “Don’t you see – it’s us? We’re pulling our universes together.” My throat was dry. “Even if you won’t let Zack go, you have to send me back to my world.”

  Superman’s dad sent him away because their world was dying. Jor-El didn’t want to leave his son alone in the universe, but he had no other choice. Now I had to go, to save my world. Even if it meant leaving Zack behind.

  “No way,” said Zack. “Absolutely not happening.”

  “Zack, listen to me, if I don’t leave in the next –” I glanced at Lara.

  “Thirteen minutes,” she confirmed.

  “– then it’s the end for all of us.”

  Zack wrung his hands. “There must be another way.” But he knew there wasn’t. “Luke, no.” And in the tone of his voice I could hear that he’d accepted my decision.

  I couldn’t remember if I’d ever properly looked at my big brother’s face. Who does that? It would be weird. But at that moment I didn’t want to take my eyes off him. I knew that when I did finally turn away, it would be for the last time.

  “At least this way I’ll know you’re alive.” I swallowed. This was proving harder than I’d believed possible. “Even if it’s in another universe.” I fought to hold back tears. I knew that if I started to cry, I might never stop. I swung round to face Stellar. “Now. Do it now!”

  He hesitated.

  “Stellar, please,” I pleaded. I daren’t look back at my brother.

  “It really is the end of the world, isn’t it?” Stellar said quietly. He sat down heavily on the ground and clasped his hands to his head. “I wish… I wish I’d never been given superpowers. I wish I was the one who’d left the tree house that night. Then he’d still be alive.” He looked up at Zack and when he did something in his face had changed. Anguish was replaced with acceptance.