So Not a Hero

by S. J. Delos

  He spread his arms and the air in the room began to circulate rapidly. “That’s as far as you’re going,” Turbu-Lance said with inflated bravado. The rushing vortex of air he’d generated made his words all distorted, like he was talking into a fan. “You can either step back, or be blown back!” he yelled.

  I cut my eyes over his shoulder to look at Daniel. The smile on his face told me that he fully expected me to be the hero. So I reached out, pushing against the localized gale, until my hand was an inch from Lance’s forehead. He kept his arms spread, but his eyes crossed as they tried to see what I was doing. I couldn’t help but return Daniel’s smile as I flicked my finger. The sound of cracking bone was audible over the wind.

  Lance’s eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped unconscious to the floor. Instantly, the mini-hurricane stopped, and only gently descending paper items—and my wind-blown hair—remained as evidence it had ever existed. I glanced down at the villain and placed the finger that had knocked him out against my lips.

  “Shhhh,” I said softly. “Grown-ups are talking.” Then I looked over at Daniel and raised my eyebrows. “Care to guess who’s next?”

  Daniel glanced down at the man on the floor and then back up to me. He laughed and held up a hand. “Wait,” he said. “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

  I looked around the lab slowly. “Where is Darla?”

  “Bingo!” He said pointing at me. “Where is Darla?” He tapped his finger against his grinning lips. “Let’s talk about Omega-Girl, shall we? First of all, she’s a little older than she claims. She’s actually closer to thirty-five, not the twenty-five she tells everyone she is.”

  “So, she should be punished for not calling herself Omega-Woman?”

  “The point is, she lies. She’s vain, shallow, and manipulative.” There was a definitely venom in his voice.

  He backed away until he was standing next to one of the huge cylinders. The observation windows were in their opaque mode, preventing me from seeing inside. Hiding what he’d done to our teammate. “Omega-Girl is solar powered, right? All of her abilities are fueled by sunlight. She even gets her nourishment from the sun.” He paused to make sure I was keeping up and then stepped over to the control panel on the side of the container. “What do you think happens when the genetic controls responsible for regulating that energy are shut off?”

  My heart hammered hard in my chest as I followed his twisted train of logic. “If her cells can’t stop absorbing the energy,” I said, swallowing hard through a throat that had suddenly gone dry. “She would … take in too much.” I found I had no desire to see what was on the other side of the darkened glass. “She would … grow.”

  He nodded slowly, pleased smile still in place, and flipped a switch causing the darkened glass to turn crystal clear.

  The blonde girl was lying on the floor of the chamber, face-down. Even from where I stood several feet away, I could see that it was Darla … and then some. The emitters in the ceiling above her glowed a brilliant yellow, bathing her with a continuous stream of replicated sunlight. I didn’t need to move any closer to see that the athletic body of my teammate had vanished about forty dress sizes ago. If not for the built-in durability of her costume, she would have been completely naked. I guessed that she probably weighed almost half of what I did, only hers was due to girth, not molecular density.

  Daniel kept his eyes on my reaction and reached back to rap his knuckles on the omni-plex window. “Not so hot any more, are you? Well, maybe you’ll be able to develop a real personality, since you can’t rely on your beauty to get people to like you.” He winked at me. “At least now there’s no question about who is the best looking girl on the team.”

  I forced myself to look at Darla again, covering my hand with my mouth. Each obviously labored breath caused a chain reaction through the folds and rolls of pale flesh. The undulation made me shudder. “How much bigger are you going to make her?” I asked him.

  “Oh, that’s about the maximum. I turned down the intensity of the solar radiation to keep her from metabolizing. Her legs can’t support all that flab, so there’s little chance of her smashing her way out. Hell, Omega-Tub will be lucky if she can even lift off the ground. Don’t want to kill her, you know. No, I just wanted to humiliate her.”

  I turned back to him. “So, you turned the tables on the bullies. Bravo. You made the popular guy who picked on you unlikeable, the pretty girl who looked through you obese, and the hot-headed jock flammable. This isn’t an evil scheme, Daniel, it’s just petty high school revenge.” I shrugged. “What’s next? Going to punish me?”

  He shook his head and patted the device on his wrist. “I’m not. I need more of your blood to keep my new toy working properly.” The smile that appeared made me want to take a shower.

  “Oh, I think some bloodletting is definitely in order,” I said as I balled up my fists and took a step towards him.

  “Besides, I think we’d make a pretty good team, don’t you?”

  It wasn’t subtle. After the last syllable left his lips, I felt the sensation of phantom fingertips stoking inside my skull. If not for my training, I wouldn’t have even noticed they were there, massaging various parts of my brain, pushing neurons to flow in a particular pattern.

  He’s not wrong. We would be pretty good together.

  What the hell? I shook my head and took a step back. My hands curled into tight fists and I blinked a few times before turning my attention back to him. “What was that?”

  “That’s the other thing,” He said with a small laugh, “Not only can I manipulate Enhanced abilities, I can also transfer them to others.” He held up one hand, fingers spread wide. A crackling aura of ionized plasma formed around his hand, bathing it in a white glow. The sheath wasn’t as sharp and uniform as Darla’s, but it was otherwise identical.

  “You stole Darla’s plasma power.” The implications of this new information became downright terrifying.

  “Copied it, actually. And a few others as well.” He glanced at his hand as he turned it back and forth, examining the energized particles. “I didn’t see any reason why all the time I spent scanning everyone while testing their powers should go to waste.”

  I thought about those sessions. The way he’d encouraged everyone to push themselves to the limit. All while his machines examined and measured and deciphered. I pointed at finger at him. “That’s how you found out I was a transgenic.”

  He nodded. “I was completely shocked, too. I mean, every file the EAPF had on you listed your strength as Class Four. When you measured Class Five during the testing, I realized that your Enhancement had changed to make you stronger. It nearly knocked me on the floor.”

  I nodded and started towards him. “This time, Daniel, it won’t be a nearly.” I figured if he started throwing plasma blasts, his inexperience would grant me enough time to crack his skull like a pecan. Curiously, he stood there and waited until I’d grabbed him with one hand and pulled back the other. Then he made his play.

  “Come on, Karen. You don’t really want to do this, do you?”

  The touch in my head surged back. With a vengeance. Instead of stroking and nudging my thoughts, those fingers scrapped along my cerebral cortex. Pushing things into new and unfamiliar formations.

  “Yes … no.” I fought against the confusion. My memories sought out Martin’s face and focused on it. “I guess not.” My punching arm lowered, raised back into the ready position, and then lowered again.

  You know you would be better off working with me and not against me, right?”

  I shook my head and told him that he was crazy. Except the shake was more nod-like and instead of saying crazy, I said, “You’re … right.” I tried to listen to Martin’s voice and remember what he’d taught me.

  “What the hell is going on?” Kurt’s voice came from the open doorway.

  Daniel and I turned at the same time to see the detective standing there, pistol aimed at Daniel. “Karen, step away from hi
m.”

  “Detective Braddock,” Daniel sneered. “Don’t you think you should put that gun—”

  The weapon barked once and Daniel jerked under my grip. My head, slowly becoming clearer, turned to see a hole in the shoulder of his uniform. The flesh beneath was completely unscathed. When I looked back up to his face, the bastard winked. “Copied her invulnerability as well.” His eyes turned hard and he leaned closer. “The good detective should pay for that, don’t you agree?”

  I stared at him for a few moments and then released him, turning back to face Kurt. I walked over the doorway slowly and frowned a little. Kurt kept his weapon trained on Daniel, but his eyes swung over to look into mine.

  "I'm really sorry about this," I said. I smiled a little, hoping to convey that everything was going to be okay, and that he needed to trust that I knew what I was doing. However, I think my expression wasn't nearly as clear as I'd hoped, because his brow wrinkled in confusion and his mouth turned down into a frown.

  "Karen, what are you doing?"

  I punched him in the stomach, folding him over. The pistol in his hand came loose and clattered on the floor. Then I shoved him backwards, through the open door, and into the hallway. He hit the far wall with a dull thud and slid down it, unconscious.

  Daniel walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go have some real fun.”

  CHAPTER 21: SO NOT A VILLAIN

  I stared silently at Kurt’s unconscious form and felt Daniel lean in to whisper in my ear.

  “I would have you kill him. But I’m not really sure what that would do to your psyche.” His fingers played along the back of my neck. “So, why don’t we forget about the detective and be on our way?” The tendrils in my mind screamed that Daniel’s suggestion was a great one and I should accept it and obey.

  “Okay,” I said, turning to face him. “Where are we going?”

  “Well, Greg will be back soon, most likely with multiple law enforcement agents. I don’t think they would be able to do much to stand in our way. However, I’m eager to put the next part of my plan in motion.” He kept his hand on my neck. “Exciting, isn’t it?”

  No, I tried to think, exciting would be mashing your face in. Instead, I nodded slowly and followed him as he guided us down the hallway towards the private lift that went up to the hangar. Inside its tight confines, the aura of agreeability intensified. I kept my gaze straight ahead to keep from looking directly at Daniel. I knew deep down, on a base level, he was using Richard’s ability to control me.

  The Martin in my head kept insisting that I fight to break free from Daniel’s influence.

  “The Legion has a warehouse near Lake Norman,” he said. “I think it might be a good place for us to lay low until the chaos settles down.”

  “Sounds perfect,” I said without turning my head. The fact that it did sound perfect itched at me like a tick under the fur. I clenched my jaw and tried to focus.

  The doors opened, revealing the hangar and the haphazardly parked hovercraft. Normally, it would have been waiting within the square of red lights around the landing pad. This time, it was turned slightly, and the front strut was well past the marked area. Richard must have suspected something was wrong when he and Darla had returned from the hospital and set the ship down without his usual preciseness.

  I stopped at the bottom of the ramp and looked at Daniel. The fact that he now seemed to be larger than life and overflowing with delicious appeal caused my breath to hitch in my lungs. I curled the hand furthest from him into a hard fist, squeezing my fingers to near the breaking point.

  “Is something wrong, Karen?” he asked as he walked back down to stand next to me. Several beads of perspiration adorned his forehead.

  “Can you fly this thing?” I kept my voice demure and compliant.

  He studied me for a moment and then laughed. “Of course I can. I was the one who built it.” Another pulse emanated from him and he reached out to pat me on the ass. “Climb on in, beautiful. Time’s wasting.”

  I smiled and closed my eyes as I walked up the ramp, part of me bristling from the unwanted touch. The Martin in my head was talking, but his words kept getting drowned out by the soothing vibrations coming from Daniel’s hijacked power. It was like being in close proximity to two radio stations sharing the same frequency.

  Once aboard, I went to sit in my usual seat in the back. However, Daniel had other ideas.

  “You can sit in Greg’s seat, Karen. He’ll not be using it ever again.” A slamming wave rolled across my mind. “Right?”

  I nodded. “Right,” I said as I sat down and fastened my seatbelt. Despite the forced smile, I was drowning under a flood of manipulated feelings. Struggling for air and freedom.

  Daniel hummed softly as he flicked the switches to bring the hovercraft to life. The instrument panel cycled through the pre-flight sequence and the hatch closed with a clink and a hiss. I watched him for a moment and then realized what was different about him. Other than the obvious traits of psychosis and evil.

  He was confident. There was no hesitation in his actions, no pause in his decision-making. The nervous tics, the stutter, the blushing. All gone. He performed and behaved exactly like someone who had no worries or doubt. Someone who fully believed in himself without question.

  And was trying to force me to do the same.

  Clarity about Richard washed over me and I saw past the surface. No wonder he’d never seemed the least bit embarrassed about his actions. His power wouldn’t let him. He affected others as a matter of choice. It had been the only thing that had kept me from busting his head open from Day One. But he was also a victim. He believed he was right all the time. About everything.

  Now Daniel had that same confidence, only jacked up to eleven.

  Daniel pulled on the stick and the ship lifted gracefully off the pad and up through the open ceiling doors. “Off we go,” he said, giving me a smug grin.

  “You know they’ll come after us,” I said as we climbed into the clear, blue Carolina sky. “Greg, the EAPF, Defense Incorporated, and others.” I couldn’t tell if I was appealing to him to reconsider whatever he had planned or expressing concern for his well-being. The confusion of it all scrambled my thoughts.

  “Oh, I think they’re going to be too busy to worry about tracking us down. At least for a while.” He looked at me and winked. I responded by wanting to smash his face in and cover him with kisses simultaneously. Thankfully, I did neither.

  We continued to rise until the city fell below us and the tallest buildings downtown were the size of toy models. I thought we might keep going until we reached orbit. Instead, after we’d reached a considerable height, Daniel pressed a button, and the craft shifted into hover mode.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, leaning forward to look out the cockpit window. The ground seemed really far away.

  “We’re going to kill two birds with one stone.” He held up his arm, displaying the genome-manipulation device on his wrist like a game show model highlighting the featured prize. “I’m going to channel this through the sonic emitter on the ship. It will blanket the city with random frequency modulations.”

  I blinked and looked from him to the metropolis below. “Won’t that make everyone’s Enhancements go haywire?” I looked back. “Those that don’t become Slips will have their powers mutated into a different expression.”

  He nodded and smiled, tapping on the end of his nose with a fingertip. “Exactly. Some will find their abilities increased exponentially. Most will find them flaring out of control.” He cackled—actually cackled—and rubbed his hands together. “The pandemonium will be worse than it was on Activation Day.”

  “Why?” His vendetta against rest of the team I could follow. But to do something like that to a city of six million? Not even Martin would be that evil.

  “Well, it’ll send a message that I am a power to be reckoned with. Plus, with your ex-boyfriend, Doctor Maniac, one of those afflicted, I’ll be the only
one who can fix an Enhanced’s abilities. And I will, for a modest price of course.”

  He smiled and turned a knob on the side of the device. The lights running along the unit on his arm turned a brilliant green and began to blink. “Normally, I’d have to scan someone and make alterations to their genome that way. However, if I set the modulation to rotating, it will randomize the effects.”

  “Please, don’t.” It was the first time I’d been able to consider countering his plans. Head Martin had become a fraction of a percent louder than Daniel’s influence and I felt the tendrils in my mind receding. Even as bad as he had been and the things he’d done, I wanted to give him a final chance to do the heroic thing. “This isn’t you. You’re a hero.”

  He pulled a thick cable free from under the console panel and screwed it into the device on his arm. “Actually, I’m not. I’ve always been superior to everyone else, but to attempt to do something physical before now would have been stupid and suicidal. Now I have the power to make everyone bow down and accept that I am their better.” A little spark jumped from the end of the cable on the last turn, making Daniel flinch.

  It also caused his control to falter.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “For what?”

  “Misjudging you.” I turned and slammed my fist into the hovercraft’s control panel. The metal caved in under the blow and a whole parade’s worth of fireworks shot up through the hole.

  Daniel whirled around to face me, and the cable hooked to his arm popped loose. His stunned gaze went to the ruined panel. “What are you doing?” he screamed. The whine of the ship’s alarms nearly drowned him out. For the first time since I’d learned about his treachery, he sounded afraid.

  “I’m putting an end to this bullshit,” I snarled. His panic had caused him to fully release his influence, and I didn’t hesitate to go on the offensive. I leaned forward and grabbed each of his wrists in a hand. I squeezed the one wearing the sequencer and the metal crumpled and bent. The lights flashed angrily and electricity flew from the diodes. He jittered in his seat from the power feedback, and I felt my teeth rattle.