by J.P. Yager
these otters sapping your strength, there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
The Vandal King watched as Mr. Magnificent drew his last breath and lay still. The otters gathered around him, smelling him dumbly. He smiled at finally overcoming his greatest adversary then he checked his watch. In moments, he would be the richest man in the world and he would recreate the world as it should be. The planet would be overrun with filth. Garbage on every street. Maybe even construct a continent of refuse. His real dream would be to make people out of garbage. Eventually even the people working for him would be slaves to those garbage people, but that would take time.
Then an explosion rang out and all the otters in the room were thrown into each other. Walls of plaster appeared and boxed them in. Some were smashed violently.
The Vandal King turned and saw the Meddler in the doorway. “Forget about me?”
“But we had you locked up.”
The Meddler toyed with the broken cuffs on his wrists. “Not quite.”
“No matter. Your days as a sidekick are gone. Mr. Magnificent is dead.”
“Wrong again.” The Meddler tossed a glowing blue stone at the body on the floor and suddenly Mr. Magnicifent was back on his feet, right as rain.
“What the?”
“Resurrection stone. I just found it on the way here.”
Mr. Magnificent brushed himself off. “Good work Meddler.”
The Vandal King wanted to ask about this new and insanely inconvenient bit of information but his face was punched in seconds later by two angry super heroes.
“Way to take out the trash.” Meddler chimed in.
Mr. Magnificent laughed at the quip.
As the Vandal King was taken away, Mr. Magnificent saw a single henchman leave the seen with a bag of something. He was too preoccupied with the bigger picture stuff so he’d let the local police handle the hooligan. He flew the Vandal King straight back to prison. There was no need for a trial since he had more than a thousand years life sentence.
Ὸ
Days later, on the other side of town, the Ice Queen was battling it out with the Young Magician again. The two sides were equally matched when Demona Fire and Mrs. Ultimate joined their appropriate sides.
“When will you both learn crime doesn’t pay?” Mrs. Ultimate asked ironically.
“Well, technically it does. It’s why we do it.” The Ice Queen spat back and launched a barrage of ice missiles, but Mrs. Ultimate was impervious to that attack when she wore her anti-ice gear. She dodged and came at the Queen hand-to-hand. It was severe slap fight for a moment until Demona threw a fire wall between them.
The fighting continued as both sides tried their best to murder one another. They didn’t notice the large mousy girl sneak into the stronghold and then exit right out with a duffle bag.
Ὸ
A week later, in a space station orbiting the planet, a dark robed figure stood looking out over space. “Soon the Earth will look just like everything else out there. Desolate nothingness.”
Another man sat tied to a chair, angrily fighting against his binds. “You are mad. If you destroy the world, there’ll be nothing left to rule.”
“Don’t you know anything Captain Comet? I’ll rebuild it, just the way it should be.”
“But who would build it?”
“Details…details. Robots, maybe.” Black Rune swayed from his viewing console and took in the helpless super hero. “Since you destroyed this space station last year, I have abandoned trying to control the world’s minds. Destroying them seems more fun.”
“I will stop you!”
“It looks like you failed.” Black Rune went to slowly press the launch button.
“Wrong. I just needed to know your plan. Even though it is pretty much the same thing every time. I just had to be sure.” Captain Comet was out of the chair and shooting arrows at all the henchmen surrounding Rune. That was all except one sneaking out into an escape pod. Comet was too busy getting ready to blow up the station again to care.
Ὸ
Back around the table, five henchmen sat back smiling. Over the months, they had accrued enough to retire from the criminal lifestyle altogether. The big difference was the absence of colored uniforms. They had mostly been replaced by large trench coats. They were their own bosses now and looking silly was their choice.
“I’ll have to admit it. You had a great plan.” Roach admitted. He was loose with his money and his drinking that night, cheery and beery.
“Thank you. It turned out pretty well.” Grundel agreed. He lit a cigar and rolled it around his mouth.
“I still don’t know how you came up with it.” Barracks patted the large man’s back violently.
“It was too simple to pass up. Instead of us being the diversion to the larger scene unfolding, use the puppet masters as the diversion to smaller scale crime.” Grundel explained.
“You know our old employers may come after us.” Fester spoke. “They are crazy after all.”
“They burn through more money than we stole every single day.” Barracks barked. “Do you know how much a rocket to blow up a city costs? Or the price of technology that can freeze an ocean? We’re talking trillions. We took peanuts compared to that and from both good and bad guys. Just a pinch here and there that added up.”
Grundel passed out four envelopes. “I took the liberty of splitting the money into your accounts as requested before the meeting in case anyone was thinking of a last second double-cross. Only you can access your cash right now. What you do with it is up to you.” The statement was true enough.
Barracks made a quick a shake of his head to a man leaning near the exit. The shadowy assassin was gone into the night before anyone noticed. Old habits die hard.
“How are you going to spend your share of the money?” Fester asked Roach.
For the first time in years, Roach not only looked cleaned, he also didn’t smell rancid. He was mulling over new names for them to call him. “My own moon base. It’ll take time to set up and travel there, but it’s just the place to keep out of this crazy world’s problems and still enjoy satellite TV. Lots of traps too, just in case. You?”
Fester breathed long and hard in thought. “Probably spend it on medical care. All these years getting thrown around has done a number to me. That and I have cancer which I should probably have a doctor look at.”
Squeak let out a high pitch laugh before she threw her hands over her mouth and waited for her laughter to stop.
“She’ll probably spend it on candy.” Fester chided.
Squeak nodded quickly and suppressed more laughter.
Grundel put out his victory cigar. “I think I’ll buy an island, build a resort and live off it forever. Drink every night and fart around with the young girls. Show my son the lighter side of the good life. Plus, it’s very rare that super villains and heroes ever go to an island unless it’s a secret base. I’ll have to watch for new construction. Barracks, what about you?”
Barracks sighed and shook his head. “Since the Inquisitor was blown up and put back together as a robot, he’s escaped prison and is looking to rebuild. I’ve spoken to his hiring agents and if I pay into the organization top dollar, I could be an Evil Advisor or at the least Head of Henchman Affairs. Both are pretty cushy desk jobs.”
Grundel laughed. “Can’t get out of the game, eh?”
“Wouldn’t know what to do without it.”
“Well, good luck to you and the rest of you guys.” Grundel nodded toward the others. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
The barkeep suddenly appeared at their table.
Grundel held up a hand before he could warn them. “I take it someone or something is about to be destroyed or killed and you’d like us to leave before it spills into he
re?”
The barkeep nodded.
“We were just leaving anyway.” Grundel lifted his duffle bag full of weapons and explosives and smiled curtly from one side of the table to the other. “If I ever see any of you again I’ll know it’s a double cross and…well, I think you know the answer of what I’ll do to you.”
The others nodded their understanding.
Grundel paddled his way through the bar and left through the smoky haze into fresh air. For the first time, life seemed worth living. He placed a call to his boy to meet up with him.
Back inside, they waited a few moments to be sure he was gone and then a new scheme began to take shape.
“He bought it.” Squeak laughed, winking at the barkeep who brought over another round.
“How should we do it?” Fester asked. “A slow moving death trap or maybe use a teleporter straight into space?”
“I say we just cap him.” Barracks answered.
The table erupted with ideas, from simple to overly complicated.
Just when they had decided how best to betray Grundel and get his share, the explosives attached to their seats exploded. They and the radio transmitters that had been relaying their conversation back to Grundel. The force of the blast ruptured the entire floor and the building caved in on top of everyone inside.
Grundel, on the other hand, strode through the streets. He was a rich man now. Maybe, he thought to himself, he would have betrayed his friends anyway. It was a dog eat dog world. But in the end, those plotting against him had made it all too easy to decide.
Now what?
He had lots of money. He was a pretty smart guy. The idea of world domination all of a sudden seemed like a good idea. Even possible. Was this how super villains get started?
First he needed to buy that island and get that resort going. Then maybe build his own secret base there…and perhaps install a few world destroying devices.
Just in case.
Afterword:
If you enjoyed this story, feel free to check out my others. If you really loved it, look into my first novel, Void Star. Thank you so much for reading! I truly hoped you enjoyed it.
Follow me at my website @ www.otterbored.com.