Yesterday's Heroes (Consortium of Chaos Book 1) (26 page)

 “Ignore it.  If the guards show up
and try to stop us.  I can deal with them…”  He shook his head and started
pulling her towards an exit.  She swore savagely.  “Really?  You’re really
going to let something like an
alarm
stop this?”

He cleared his throat, looking
almost relieved that their moment had been ruined.  “I really don’t want to
spend the day in jail, no.”

A minute later, they were both
racing back the way they had come, dragging the bags of stolen goods.  He
stopped for a moment as they fled passed the memorial mural and then smiled
over at her, a strange look on his face.  Then he raced after her and opened
the door to the storeroom.  They both ducked inside and then out onto the
street.  She pointed to the door as guards on the other side tried to open it. 
“You barricade it; I’ll bring the car around.”  She jogged away and then turned
around to smile at him.  “Isn’t this FUN!”

She reached the car and tossed her
new collectibles in, careful not to injure them.  All in all, the most
successful job she had ever been on.  It wasn’t every day that she got to make
out with her teen crush AND get a collection of rare collectibles in the process. 
Awesome.  One of the…

The world went dark.

The lion once
proclaimed that he was sick and summoned the animals to come and hear his last
wishes.  So the goat went into the lion's cave.  Then a sheep went in, and
before she came out, a calf went in.  But soon the lion seemed to recover, and
came to the mouth of his cave, and saw the fox, who had been waiting outside
for some time.  "Why do you not come to pay your respects to me?"
said the lion to the fox.  "I beg your Majesty's pardon," said the fox,
"but I noticed the track of the animals that have already come to you; and
while I see many hoof-marks going in, I see none coming out.  Until the animals
that have entered your cave come out again, I prefer to remain in the open
air."  The moral of the story?  It is easier to get into the enemy's toils
than out again.

Harlot had gotten into a lot of
trouble over the years of her criminal career; she had once locked herself
inside the prison cell that she was trying to free someone from, had blown up
an armored car she was trying to get into, had dropped from an air conditioning
duct into the Freedom Squad meeting room while they were in conference, and had
once accidentally kidnapped the wrong diplomat.  This current situation however,
was not only arguably her MOST extreme screw-up, but would also rank near the
top of her most embarrassing. 

To be caught by someone like
The
Honey Badger? 
She’d be the laughing stock of all the thieves in the
Consortium
.  IF
she ever got out of this, and that was looking less and
less likely.  Traditionally, villains didn’t spend too long in the custody of
heroes before they were freed.  Someone would always show up and free them. 
Unfortunately, SHE was usually the one in charge of rescuing people when they
were captured.  Who swims out to save the lifeguard?

Nope.  Things were not going well. 
She looked up at the bonds; Smithfield model 638 manacles.  Damn.  Those were
tough, especially since she was the one
IN
them.  They’d take her at
least ten minutes to pop, and she didn’t think Badger was going to give her
that much free time.

The psycho in question was busy
frantically typing at his oversized computer, seemingly paying very little
attention to her, but she knew better.  Despite his appearance, Badger was the
Squad’s workhorse.  The man was a professional.  A lunatic who was a borderline
sadist…well, no, he was on the
other side
of sadist actually…but he was
FAR from stupid.  She had no doubt that he had his eye on her, and at least two
cameras watching her every move.

She pursed her lips in thought.  “So,
when are you going to transfer me to the holding cell at the Fortress of
Liberty?  I do so love the views from there.”

He was silent for a long moment as
he typed something else into the computer, and a multicolored graph appeared on
the screen.  “What makes you think I’m transferring you?  If I move you, we
both
know you’ll only escape.  No, you’re staying here.  With me.  It’ll give us the
perfect chance to…
talk.”

Damn.  She had been expecting that,
as well.  Pervert.

He got up from his chair and swept
over to her, his cape flowing behind him.  His deep voice echoed off the cave
walls.  “I’m rather interested in why the Commodore has changed his game plan
of late, so I thought I would ask his daughter.  It was a happy coincidence
that I was the one who got the call about a sinister looking SUV illegally
parked in front of the Hero Museum. 
Destiny,
really.  The Commodore and
Ferral must be planning something, and
you’re
going to tell me what it
is.”  He ran a gloved hand down her cheek.  “You WILL tell me.”

Okay, might as well give it a shot…

She kicked him hard in the groin
and he stumbled backwards.  She used his body as a springboard to propel
herself up and over the cuffs so that they were now in front of her, and quickly
wrapped one of the chains around his neck.  She pulled on it as hard as she
could and he let out a gasping sound.

Almost there…Almost there…

Badger reached to his utility belt
and pulled out a small torch and cut through the chain and drew in a mouthful of
air, and tumbled backwards.   She moved to continue the attack and press her
advantage, but the other manacle held fast.

Dammit.  She knew that would
happen.  She figured there was a chance that he’d drop that damn torch thing
when he fell, but no such luck.  He held onto it, so she had no way to cut
through the chain tied to her other arm.

He got back to his feet and rubbed
his neck.  “Oh, you’re a
fighter
aren’t you?  Yeah, I’ve dealt with
your
kind
before.”  He reached behind his back and pulled out a stun gun and
pointed it at her.  “That’s why I carry this.  I don’t have to be anywhere NEAR
you to use it.  So you can just stand there and act all tough, but when you
come to, we can
talk
again.  And I have plans for you now, girl.  I owe
you
pain.
”

She frowned.

Yeah, that didn’t sound too good
either.  “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you’re kind of giving me a
headache with your constant talking.  ‘Blah-blah-blah…I’m the goddamn Honey Badger…Blah-bla-bla…’ 
You’re really killing your whole mysterious man of mystery thing by talking to
me so much, and
now
all I can see is some asshole wearing his furry
pajamas and trying to scare me.  We both know you’re not going to rape me,
Badger.  I got $10 that says you can’t even
get it up.”

In retrospect, that probably wasn’t
the wisest thing she could have said.  It DID make him angry enough to walk
towards her again though.  …Walk towards her while still carrying the
torch
…

His temper exploded.  “
Rape
you?  That’s the least of my plans.  I’ll make you fucking BEG me to merely
rape you.  I’m going to eat your skin and mail you back to the Commodore piece
by fucking piece!  He’ll be getting parts of you for years!”

He took another step closer.  Just
one more…one more…And she was out of here…

His foot rose to take the last step
and she prepared to grab him.  Grab his wrist while he was distracted, kick his
legs out from under him; burn through the chain and then…

A loud alarm filled the room and
his foot stopped in the air.

Dammit! 
So close!

He ran back to his computer and
punched something in.  The loud intruder alert blared through the cave for
another second until he shut it off.  He whirled around and gaped at a set of
stairs in the corner of the huge cavern.  A shadow descended from the door at
the top.  “Hello, Randy.  Been awhile.”

Wyatt casually walked down the
stairs as if he had simply run into Badger at the local shopping mall.

Badger squinted at him. “Wyatt? 
What the fuck are you doing here?  How did you even get in?”

Wyatt laughed.  “Surely you remember
the time you invited us all over so that you could review your plans on stopping
the Buslatanian invasion?  You were so distracted by the thought of an alien
attack that you made the mistake of showing your house keys to someone who can
create three-dimensional copies of anything.”  He calmly tossed the telekinetic
key at the other man and it disappeared in mid-air.  “Sloppy, Randy.  You’re
usually smarter than that.”  He looked around the cave disinterestedly.  “Add
that to the fact that you sped from the museum so fast that you left VERY
distinctive tire treads.  It wasn’t too hard to figure out, especially not
after receiving a very interesting letter.”

Badger squinted at him in suspicion. 
“
What are you doing here?”

She turned to Wyatt.  “He’s planning
on…”

Wyatt cut her off.  “Hey!  The
MEN
are talking.  Just sit there silently and look pretty.”

Okay.  Kind of an asshole thing to
say.  Not like him at all.  What the hell was going on?  Why wasn’t he…like
going nuts on this guy and hacking him to bits or something?  This was most
unsettling.  This could be bad as well.  She could deal with Badger…
probably
. 
But if Wyatt was suddenly evil…or suddenly
good
as the case may be, that
would pretty much be the nail in her coffin.  …But she had NO doubt that something
else was going on here, she just didn’t know what.  If it was a rescue attempt,
he really needed to work on the whole stealth thing.  When you were trying to
sneak up and free someone, it really didn’t make a lot of sense to introduce
yourself to them and ask them how their day was going.  It kind of ruined the
element of surprise.

Badger continued glaring at him. 
“What
are you doing here?”

Wyatt looked around the cavern.  “In
the neighborhood.  Thought I’d drop in and see what my favorite godfather was
up to.”

Badger took a wary step back and
punched something into the computer and the room was filled with an amber
light.  The wall of energy stretched between Wyatt and where she and Badger
were standing.  “You won’t blame me if I’m LESS than convinced of your
intentions, Wyatt.  Some of us don’t HAVE super-powers and so we have to take
every advantage we can.  Just a little shield to make sure you don’t use your
powers on me.”

Wyatt laughed.  “You don’t need
that, Randy.  You have my word; I won’t use my powers against you.  I swear to
you on my brother’s grave.”  He sat down and sat his briefcase on a table in
front of him.  “So…how have you been?”

Badger relaxed slightly, but was
still wary.  “Well, things have been tough lately as I’m SURE you know.  It’s a
tough time to be a good man in this city.  Last I heard you were working with
the Consortium for some reason.  And what is THAT about?  What the hell could
you POSSIBLY want with those freaks?”

Wyatt laughed.  “Well, you know
me.  I
always
have a plan.”

Badger frowned.  “And what would
that plan BE precisely?”

Wyatt gestured to her.  “Well, whatever
it was, I would say if worked beautifully.  Wouldn’t you?”

She should probably be worried
about that.  After all, she was restrained and no one even knew she was here. 
No chance of escape or rescue.  And now Wyatt was apparently evil…but she just
wasn’t scared that Wyatt would do anything to her.  He wouldn’t.  She was
willing to bet her life on him.  Who swam out to save a lifeguard?  A hero. 
And Wyatt was a hero.

Harlot’s world was a world of
gray.  She lived with villains and was used to seeing a moral ambiguity in
everything.  She didn’t really let it bother her though.  Her family was filled
with murderers, conmen and maniacs bent on inter-stellar domination, and she
was
always
on their side.  She knew enough about the Freedom Squad to
know that not everything they did was morally right either.  In her world, it
was the game itself that was ‘right’.  Since
both
sides were kind of ‘gray’,
it all evened out.  She could respect fighting for what you believed in, even
if she personally didn’t really believe it herself though.  She’d help you in
your evil quest, and genuinely hoped you got what you thought would make you
happy, but she didn’t believe in concepts like “good” and “evil”.  There were “evil”
good people and “good” evil people.  The world was gray.

Except for Wyatt.  Wyatt was a good
person.  It was the epistemological assumption which had guided her world view
since childhood.  Wyatt was the pure bright white that made the rest of the
world look so terribly gray in the first place.

No matter what he thought about the
matter, her fascination with him had nothing to do with his TV shows or
movies.  Nothing to do with the fact that his action figure had the best sculpt,
or that his orange flavored “Fabric-Ade-er”  drink tasted the sweetest.  His
bath soap had a lovely “pine” sent, but that would be a silly reason to idolize
someone.  Honestly?  Wyatt was by no means the strongest member of the Freedom
Squad.  There were other people on the team who could have crushed him in
moments.  On
paper
at least, he wasn’t even the most attractive….
she
thought he was, but taking a unbiased look at it, there were
probably
some other heroes who were arguably
as
good looking.  If the judges had
no taste and poor vision, they could even say someone else was handsomer. 
Possibly
. 
What made Wyatt so attractive though, was that he had an inner goodness that he
probably wasn’t even aware of.  He was just deeply honest and righteous. 

In all of the tabloids she had ever
read on the heroes, all of the gossip, no one had ever had anything bad to say
about him.  He fought for the little guy and always seemed to do the right
thing, even if he didn’t always succeed at it.  He was kind to the public and
the press.  He did charity events and never treated fans like an annoyance. 
Hell, sometimes she even got the sense that he really loved his parents,
despite the terrible things they had done to him.  In a world of gray, someone
so moral was fascinating.  She wasn’t into Wyatt because she was a fan of
heroes; she was into heroes because she was a fan of
Wyatt
.

When she was eight years old, the
city had been invaded by the Buslatanian.  They had come to Earth in an attempt
to retrieve their lost prince, who had escaped here in order to get away from
the responsibilities of the crown.  They were dead set on taking him back, and they
were far more powerful than anyone on Earth, so the Freedom Squad was forced
into relenting.  After all, the aliens just wanted their prince back, and then
they’d leave and everything could go back to normal.  As news of this decision
was delivered to the Earth Council, hero after hero voted to let the
Buslatanians take the Prince.  But Wyatt had seen the look of terror and misery
on the boy’s face, and had argued that he should be able to choose his
own
life, and had stood up for him during the meeting.  He said he would fight for the
Prince, even if no one else would join him.  He was literally willing to stand
alone against a galaxy and his own teammates, just because he thought it was
the right thing to do.  An entire world in the balance, and he still risked it all
rather than do something he knew was wrong.  He was barely more than a boy
himself, and didn’t know the Prince at all, but it didn’t matter to him.  He
stood up, and then Peter backed him, and the Freedom Squad had no choice but to
follow suit or look like cowards in front of the press.  The Buslatanians were
forced to leave, and the Prince was allowed to stay.