by Tom Andry
"Damn it, you fool!" Doe cried, "Not in here."
"But boss, you said anyswheres!" Crush complained.
"Upstairs. With the others. I don't want this room to have any evidence in it."
"Fine, boss. Whatsever you's say." Crush picked up the bodies and threw them again over his shoulder and trudged toward the door we'd just used. He nodded to us as he passed as if we were waiting in line at the DMV. The door clicked closed behind us. From the wall, one of the cleaner units detached and started to clean up the bodily fluids left behind.
I turned back to Doe, "Isn't this the point where you're supposed to tell us your master plan? Start with the whole, 'look how much smarter I am than you' routine?"
Doe looked up from the console, "In good time. Right now, I'm waiting for the last of the shuttles to leave." He pressed a few buttons, "Here, you can as well." The walls all around the room transformed into images from all over the Super City. Everything from the inside of people's homes to aerial views of the entire City.
"That's impossible!" Gale cried, clearly still shocked at what was happening, "There are no cameras allowed anywhere!"
"Yeah," Doe laughed, "like that was going to stop me." He looked around the room, "See," he pointed at a wall, "there are your precious supers, gathering as per your orders. Orders, I have to say, that were based on my evacuation plans."
Gale gritted her teeth. I continued to scan the images. One section of a wall was split into a grid of four, each displaying the top of a League building. Three were completely devoid of activity, while one had a few people loading up their last few passengers onto the last shuttle. I scanned the crowd for Chris. I didn't see him. I couldn't even tell if that was my building.
"Ah, there we are," Doe nodded at the wall I was studying, "the last to go."
The shuttle doors closed and the air under the shuttle started to distort. Slowly, it rose into the air, preparing to pass through the blue barrier.
"Well, that's our cue, I'm afraid." Doe pressed a button and spoke loudly, "Crush? It is time. Hurry back or be left behind."
Doe pressed a second button and a hatch I hadn't noticed before opened in the floor, a few feet in front of us. Gale floated up into the air, presumably to get a better look at what was beyond the opening.
"I've seen something like that before." I remarked.
Doe smiled, "I suspect you have." He turned to Gale, "Now, just so you don't harbor any illusions, after I pass through this portal, you'll be trapped here with the rest of them. So don't go straining yourself trying to get out. My plan is perfect in every way. There will be no escape."
"Trapped..." Gale stammered, "that's impossible."
Doe cocked his head, "You keep saying that. And yet here you are. And soon, here you'll die. Along with the rest of them." Doe lifted his shoulders apathetically, "I assume, no matter what I say, you'll try to figure a way out and then break back in to save your friends." He smiled, "Isn't that the way these things are supposed work?"
Gale muttered, "I'll take your head off, you son of a bitch!"
Doe shook his head, "Such language. Bob, you used to kiss that mouth?"
I tried to keep the tension from my face or voice. I had to stay calm or risk missing an opportunity. Most of all, I had to keep him talking, "You said something about bad news?"
"Right!" Doe exclaimed, "The bad news is, I'm about to sublet... Ah! Crush!"
I turned. The door opened, revealing Doe's sentry. He stood, immobile for a moment before crashing forward onto his face. Behind him was a naked woman of such impossible proportions that it was comical. The woman held a stuffed monkey with white fur on its head and hands, and dark brown fur everywhere else.
"Tinkerer!" Doe hissed. "What are you doing here?"
The woman cried out in a decidedly male voice, "Stopping you, asshole." She pointed the monkey at Doe like a weapon and squeezed the belly. The lights in the room started flickering and sputtering. The projections on the walls winked out and the machinery behind Doe popped and sparked. In moments, smoke started pouring out of it. Doe jumped back, shielding his face. He then turned back to Ted.
"That wasn't nice, Tinkerer." He huffed, "Well, we can take care of that, can't we?" He reached out and pressed a button on the device in his hand.
A third tube dropped over the naked woman. I looked over at her. Her outline kept distorting like bad reception on a TV. She was pushing on the monkey's stomach desperately as her features started changing. Her face flipped between many that I'd seen Ted use before and some I hadn't. Male, female, and a few that didn't look human flashed by. The body changed as well, through more clothes than I could count. The monkey, at times took the form of everything from a marital aid to a gun. No telling what it actually was.
Doe tilted his head to the side, staring at Ted's feet, "Oh, well." He turned, "Come, kitty," Doe yanked on the chain around Leon's neck and he yelped. They approached the hatch in the floor and Doe kicked Leon through. He looked back at us, "Remember what I said about escaping? He smiled, "I know I can't stop you from trying, but it will be useless. If nothing else, you can take solace in the knowledge that you are trapped with the one you love." He saluted and jumped through the hole. As he did, the portal winked out of existence.
Gale started cursing. I turned back to Ted and noticed his feet. The tube had been centered on the super genius. Unfortunately for Crush, he had landed on the ground in the wrong place. The dropping of the tube had taken off the left side of his head. For that, Doe had offered him an "Oh well."
"Damn," I turned away. As I did, the lights stabilized and I could hear a hiss.
Ted was looking at his monkey, poking it in various places and occasionally twisting its head and limbs. I took a deep breath. He wasn't looking at us, but he must have been following us. What did he overhear? What had we said? I shook my head. Ted. He was mad. Naked female persona or no, I could read his body language. He was furious. What had we said? I couldn't remember.
"Ted," I paused, he didn't answer. "Come on, Ted. You know I was always on your side."
Ted's lips tightened, but he didn't respond. The monkey quivered in his hands as he throttled it.
Gale had the wind swirling around the bottom of the glass, trying to push it up. It wasn't working. "We've got to get out of here before he locks us in."
I ignored her and called back to Ted, "Come on, Ted. Talk to me."
"Don't worry about him, Bob." Gale called over, "Ted understands, don't you? These things happen. It wasn't our fault. Thanks for coming to the rescue, by the way."
Ted's face darkened. It didn't seem to me that Ted had planned on rescuing us. That was just a side effect.
With a screech, the tube slowly started to ascend back into the ceiling. We waited an agonizingly long time before it was finally high enough for us to roll out from under them. Gale did so. Ted glanced over at me as she got to her feet.
"Nice shirt."
I glanced down at the Supers Suck T-shirt I'd thought was so clever when I had them made. "Nice tits," I responded.
Ted, his face unreadable, turned and continued to maul his stuffed monkey. Gale waited for me as I waited for the wall to rise a bit higher.
"Come on, Bob. We're on a time limit here."
"What time limit?" I shook my head. "He's trapped us all here."
"Well, I'm not going to just take his word for it. Now help me look for a way out." Gale demanded.
"But what about Ted? And Chevalier?" I rolled under the wall and came, less than lightly, to my feet.
Gale turned and floated over to the hatch in the floor, "Ted will get them out, right, Ted?" Ted didn't respond. Gale stopped over the hole, shaking her head, "It's gone." She turned to me, "Before, it opened onto a street. Or parking lot. Something with asphalt."
I nodded as I joined her, "Makes sense. You didn't think we'd just have to jump down after him, did you?" I looked over the edge. There was nothing but a blank section of floor.
I turned back
to Ted. He was still fixated on his monkey. I walked up to the glass, putting my hand on it. He stopped what he was doing and finally looked at me. I'd seen Ted in a lot of different bodies. Many different faces. But I'd never seen an expression like that on him. He'd changed. I could see it in his eyes. Ted was ever the lighthearted jester. But his eyes had gone hard, his lips tight.
"Ted..." I whispered, not knowing what to say.
His eyes narrowed and he turned away. Behind me, I heard a whoosh of air.
"Bob!"
I turned. The portal was back. Gale was floating over the top of it, motioning me over.
"You did it, Ted! Great work!" Gale called out.
I looked over the edge. It was like when Tay showed me his way of getting technology off the City - nothing but city lights far below. "Damn," I shook my head. "What you saw must have been a teleportation portal. This is just a window to the outside. He could be anywhere," I muttered.
Gale called over to Ted, "Do you want us to wait for you?"
Ted's voice was low and flat, "Go. I'll get us out and figure out what all this is. I don't see anything here that looks like an engine control."
"Ted."
Ted looked up at me.
"Are you okay?"
Ted nodded slowly. "I'm fine, Bob. These things happen, right?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Gale cut me off, "Come on, Bob. I know you think we have all the time in the world, but I don't want to take the chance." Gale turned to the immobile figure of Chevalier, "I guess your services are no longer needed. I'll take it from here." Chevalier didn't respond.
Gale pushed me toward the hatch. The wind picked up near my feet and we started floating side by side. She smiled at me as we dropped through.
I'd forgotten. How it felt to pass through the blue field. This time, since I went feet first, it pretty much hit my inner ear and eyes at the same moment. I immediately started to gag as the world spun around me. Panic set in as it felt like Gale had lost control and I was spiraling down to my death. After a moment, the disorientation passed, but no one told my stomach. The remains of dinner and a fair bit of scotch were sent plummeting down to whatever was under us.
I wiped my mouth on the white dress shirt I'd been using to dry my face during our descent down the stairs. I spit a few times and then, without a better option, let go of the shirt.
"Bob!" Gale exclaimed, "That's littering."
"Seriously?" I retorted. "This is what we're worried about now?"
"It's a problem, Bob. How would you like it if a filthy shirt landed on you while you were out for a walk?"
"I'd probably be happier than the guy that got caught under what I sent down there first."
Gale shook her head and looked up. We were under the huge, metal floor of the City. I glanced up through the hole. Ted was still trapped in there. I thought about his attitude before we left and felt a twinge of fear creep up my spine. What was it going to take to pacify him? To make this right? I'd pushed on him hard in the interview room to prove something to Gale. I'd needed him to think I'd betrayed him. Which, I had to admit, I sort of did. But that was, for the most part, to put him off balance. I knew Ted. He was exactly the type to crack under pressure. And he hadn't.
Doe. What could be the reason behind all of this? He'd obviously had labs of scientists working on any number of things. It was clear that they weren't just working on a single project. But what? Stuff for the City? Why keep it a secret? And what was his fixation on me? The microbots must have come from him and he must have known what they would do to me. Could he have known that they would also cast blame on Ted? How could he? I had never told anyone. Even Mind.
I took a breath. I needed to focus on the here and now. The stuff I could figure out. I let my mind clear as Gale kicked up the wind around us. It was a weird way to travel, more so since it had been so many years since I'd experienced it so high up. We soared under the City and up the nearest side. We passed yards of metal before we got to the ground level. Soon, we were traveling over the Level 5 mansions and got a view of the City.
Nothing had changed. The lights were still out and there was an obvious grouping of supers near the center. Gale reached out and tried to push her hand through the field.
"It's sealed," she grumbled. "We're too late."
I didn't bother answering. I was still mulling over all the things that had happened in the last few hours. Hours? Was I thinking too small?
"What do we do?"
Gale was floating a few feet above me. I looked up at her, her fabric costume waving in the breeze. He expression was pained under her eyemask.
It hit me. For maybe the first time. She thought of them, the supers, as her children. Whereas I'd latched onto my work and my scotch, she'd substituted them for her lost child. Abigail.
I smiled. Gale's coping mechanism was a lot healthier than mine.
"Are you okay, Bob?"
I nodded, "Yeah." I sighed, "Well, I think I know where Doe is. I didn't want to say it in front of Ted, but I think I know."
"Yeah? That's great."
"Oh, yeah. Especially if you love walking into traps."
* * *
The Super City had fortunately not changed position since my arrival. That was unusual. It almost never stayed in one place for both night and day cycles. But this had been a pretty unusual day.
Gale had tried to think of possible supers on the planet that might be able to help. There were Thunderbolt and Lightningball that were supposedly securing housing for the League of Nations tippys. But Doe had sent them, so they had to be suspect. Any other supers could be contacted through Gale's communicator, but all of the devices were routed through the Super City. The satellites they bounced the signals off of were still up there and receiving, Gale surmised. But without the relays in the City operational, all she could hear was static.
My own earpiece had been noticeably silent. That could mean one of two things. Either whoever was trying to break into my apartment had succeeded or, more likely, Mind didn't want to risk talking to me with Gale around. With Gale at high alert like this, it was likely that any little disturbance in the wind would be picked up by her power. Mind wouldn't risk that.
We soared over the city, my city, more slowly than Gale wanted. But I needed the time. I was trying to piece all of this together and wasn't having much luck. I had some thoughts, but...
"I'm taking you home." Gale didn't need to yell over the rushing wind. The wind carried her voice as if we were standing in a silent room.
"Fine," I didn't have to yell either, but I couldn't help myself. She could hear even a whisper, but with all that noise, yelling just sort of came naturally. "Let's just circle above for a bit first."
Gale's eyes narrowed but she didn't argue. She nodded and we turned and entered a dive. We weren't far away. This wasn't a great plan, but Gale didn't know everything I knew. If Doe wanted to have a showdown, he'd picked the wrong place.
"I can't believe you never installed a backdoor."
I shrugged, "I never needed to."
We soared over the top of my building for about five minutes. If there were anyone outside, I couldn't see them. I picked a spot for Gale to set us down about a block away.
"What was that all about, Bob?"
"There were people trying to break into my place while I was gone."
"And you know that how?" Gale asked.
"Got a call."
"Huh." Gale paused. "You know, all calls to the Super City are logged."
I shrugged, "Who knows what Doe did up there. Could have been erased."
"I don't like it when you are mysterious."
"I don't like it when people are trying to kill me."
"Is that what you think this is?"
I stopped, "Seriously? What else is it? I don't know how I got wrapped up in this, but I don't like it."
Gale put her hands up, "Whoa, slow down. Seems to me that there are quite a few supers that are trapped in the Super City tha
t would disagree with you on that one."
I turned and continued toward my building, "I'm not saying it is all about me. I'm not that vain. But some part of it is. And that makes it personal."
Gale shook her head, "You get used to things like this. I mean, look at me. My friends are all trapped up there and I'm not storming off looking for a fight."
"Yeah," I put a finger up, "what's the deal with that? How can you just be so calm about it?"
"We'll figure it out. And, somehow, we'll prevail."
"Oh, that's real reassuring."
"Come on, Bob. Weren't you the one telling me how you always find your way out of things?"
"That's right, Gale. I do. Because I always have a plan."
"And you have a plan now?"
"Damn straight."
"And it is..."
I turned to her, "To go home."
We slinked through the shadows to a doorway across from my garage entrance. From what I could see, there was no one around. If Doe were behind everything on the Super City, it would make sense that he was behind the attack on my apartment. He obviously wanted in to my apartment for whatever reason. Fine by me. I'd let him in and let Mind spit him up and chew him out. Problem solved.
"Looks like we're clear. I'll see you, Gale."
"What? And leave you?"
"Why not? There's no one around. You've got to go find some supers to help you break into the Super City. Go. I'll be fine."
"No way," Gale shook her head. "I'm not leaving until you are safely home."
Damn her. She wasn't going to leave. That presented two problems. First, Mind most likely wasn't going to talk to me while she was around. But, more importantly, I was pretty sure Doe was around here somewhere, waiting to jump me the moment I opened the door to my apartment. That's exactly what I wanted. But he'd be a fool to jump me with Gale around. He may have had technology and planning on his side on the Super City. But out here, in the open? Gale would crush him like a bug.
"Fine, stay around then. You'll see there is no one in the garage and then you can go, okay?"