Yesterday's Heroes (Consortium of Chaos Book 1) (5 page)

He gave a put upon sigh.  “I am in
need of your organization’s assistance.  I will give you the full details when
I see your father.  Is that satisfactory?”

She scowled at him, considering her
options.  She didn’t like this.  “Fine.  He’s probably in the command wing.” 
She gestured to him.  “This way.”

An
ant came across a chrysalis that was very near its time of change.  "Poor,
pitiable animal!" cried the ant disdainfully. "What a sad fate is
yours!  While I can run and climb, you lie imprisoned here in your shell."
 A few days after, when the ant passed that way again, nothing but the shell
remained and he felt himself suddenly shaded by the gorgeous wings of a
beautiful butterfly. "Behold in me," said the butterfly, "your
much-pitied friend! Boast NOW of your powers to run and climb." So saying,
the butterfly rose in the air, and was soon lost to the sight of the ant
forever.  Moral of the story?  Appearances are deceptive.

Harlot stared out the window in the
training room, watching her father talk to Wyatt.  This whole situation was
bizarre
. 
She had no idea why her father was being so nice to him, or what Wyatt was even
doing here in the first place.  He was a HERO.  Everyone knew that.  He would
ALWAYS be a hero, because he was a good person.  Everyone knew that, too.

Well,
almost
everyone
anyway.  Some people hadn’t forgotten his… breakdown… but that didn’t make him
any less heroic. 
Look at the man!
  He was the fucking POSTER BOY for the
heroic lifestyle!  Brave, selfless, modest, intelligent… handsome… a deep
voice, great body and unbelievable hair! 

Her eyes narrowed.  …When he didn’t
cut it anyway.  Why in the hell would anyone want to cut their hair if it
looked that good?  It was
insane
. 

He had it all!  Friends, family, a
great job, the love of everyone in the city.  Everything.  So why was he HERE
and not at the Freedom Squad?  Why would he throw it all away?  He HAD to be
planning something.  There just was no way in the
world
that he would be
here looking for employment.  It must be a plot of some kind, a way to
infiltrate the organization and find out their secrets.

Not that she wouldn’t ABSOLUTELY
welcome him with open arms if he decided to join up for real.  The man was incredible. 
Of COURSE she’d love to have him on their side, but he obviously wasn’t.  It was
just like the time the Squad sent him undercover into that terrorist group in
’02.  Harlot read the news reports on that, AND she bought the novelization; so
she knew what she was talking about.  Hell, she had even beaten the video game
based on his efforts… as… research.  She needed to know his fighting moves in
case she ever needed to take him down in the field.  Yes.  Only research. 

But the point was, that this was
PRECISELY the kind of stuff he DID as a hero.  He was crafty and smart.  Brave
enough to walk into the enemy’s camp, and strong enough to take them all down. 
Yes.  He was a clever one beneath that beautiful exterior.  He must be here
doing similar research now.  Spying on them; looking for
weakness
.

He really didn’t appear to be doing
much investigating though.  In fact, he mostly seemed
bored
.  Very
bored.  And expressing disapproval about a lot of stuff, and offering suggestions
on how to improve things.  All in all, he wasn’t acting especially “spy” like. 
Or maybe that was all part of his plan?  What better way to spy on someone than
to pay absolutely no attention to what they were doing?  Spies could spy by not
acting spy-ish, right?

At the moment, he was standing in
the training room waiting for the test to begin.  The requirements for
membership demanded that he prove himself in battle, so he was preparing
himself and looking incredibly long-suffering in the process. 

Not that she blamed him, the whole
thing was ridiculous.  He didn’t NEED to prove himself!  He was Fabricator, for
God’s sake!  He had spent a
lifetime
proving himself!  Standing
heroically against the hordes of darkness, and looking good in the process. 
Soooo
good.  The man had been on every magazine cover you could name, and Harlot kept
them all in a scrapbook. …For the
articles
.

Her father gave him one last hearty
pat on the back and then departed.  “I’m craving a charmed conclusion from you
in our circle of combat!”

Wyatt turned to face her through
the window in the booth.  “Have I mentioned that I abhor needless violence? 
It’s counterproductive and a waste of my time.  I didn’t sign up for this.”

She pressed the button on the
microphone so that he could hear her.  “Yes, I’ve made a note of it on your
record.  Don’t worry, we’ll take that into account when tabulating your
scores.”

He nodded.

The door flew open and Keystone
walked in, his hulking form followed by Bobbi and a group of men from the
Excessive Force.  They were all dressed in their usual uniforms: Keystone
Cops.  It was weird, but Harlot was used to it by now.  She wasn’t sure WHY
they dressed like that, since they were criminals and all, but it was their
thing and they seemed happy with it.  Plus, they’d been doing it for so long
now, that it was tradition. 

Every couple of years some brave
soul in the Consortium would introduce it at a meeting that perhaps they should
rethink their costumes, and Keystone always hit the roof.  He LIKED his uniform
and was dead set against changing it, no matter how confusing it was for
people. 

Criminals shouldn’t be dressing
like cops, though.  Harlot didn’t care
what
he said.  Cops and criminals
should always be easily distinguishable.  Criminals shouldn’t dress like cops,
and heroes shouldn’t join evil organizations.  Why were people having so much
trouble understanding that lately?

The Excessive Force were the foot
soldiers of the organization.  They did the heavy lifting.  They weren’t overly
bright, but what they lacked in intelligence, they made up for in sheer numbers. 
There were a lot of them, but they were all basically interchangeable.  No one
knew who any of them were, and there tended to be a high turnover in their
ranks due to a
staggeringly
high mortality rate when faced with the
enemy.  Honestly, the only real time that the rest of the C of C remembered
they even existed, was during battles, as the men had the odd habit of
screaming “
CHAAAAOS!
” as they attacked. 
Every
time they attacked
actually.  Or left on a mission.  Or came back from a mission.  Or had meals. 
It was
very
annoying. 

Keystone was their commander, and
he kept the men in line, and kept their morale high, despite near constant
failure.  He did an excellent job of training the men, but if “evil flunky” was
the only job position available to them, that probably said something about the
kind of people the job tended to attract.

Keystone removed his cap and handed
it to Bobbi, his second in command.   She tucked the cap under her arm and
stood at attention; her tailored uniform looking impeccable.  Her own cap was
in the style of nineteenth century London cops, the Bobbies. 

Keystone walked towards Wyatt,
twirling his nightstick. He reached up and smoothed his mustache in
consideration.  “Well, what do we have here?  Looks like one of those heroic
do-gooding
bastards
has mistakenly wandered into
MY
training
room.  What do you think, Lieutenant?  Should we let him go about his way and
move along?”

Bobbi shook her head.  “No, Sir. 
An example should be made, Sir.”

Keystone nodded.  “Indeed.”  He
gestured and two of his men stepped forward.  “Okay then.  Let’s see what color
his blood is.  Officers;
take him
.”

Wyatt calmly walked over to a table
and handed his briefcase to Henchman.  “Do
NOT
lose that.”  Then he casually
removed his overcoat and carefully rolled up his sleeves.

Behind her, the door to the room
opened and Holly walked in.  “I miss the show?”

Harlot covered the microphone.  “What
are you doing here?  You’re not supposed to be in here.”

The other woman scoffed.  “Yeah,
report me to HR.  I’m not going to miss this.”  She pulled up a chair in front
of the control panel beside Harlot.  “Oh good.  It’s just starting.”

The men advanced on Wyatt and he
stood motionless.  The man on the right swung at him, and he grabbed his arm
and used his momentum to throw him into the other man, knocking him down.  He
stared at them.  “That was… utterly unimpressive.”

Yeah, he was right.  Two goons were
no match for someone of his power level.  Better add a few.  She pressed the
button on the mike.  “Double the number of soldiers.  Powers are now permitted.”

Two more men joined the fight.

Holly leaned forward.  “Ooooooh!  Here
we go!”

Harlot glanced down at the dossier
Wyatt had prepared on himself.  He listed his powers as “Telekinetic object construction.” 
Huh.  So that’s what he called it.

 As far as she was ever able to
tell, he just sort of
made
stuff out of thin air.  And then when he
didn’t need it anymore, it sort of disappeared.  Apparently he was a psychic of
some kind.  Weird.  His biography hadn’t mentioned that.  And the Freedom Squad
movie combined him with The Visitor and attributed his powers to alien
technology.

She scowled.

Damn, but that still pissed her
off.  She had stormed from the theater in protest.  Why did Hollywood always
change stuff like that?  It was SO annoying.  Wyatt was TWICE the hero that
Visitor was.  If anything, they should have made WYATT the star of it instead
of Captain Dauntless.  He was
far
more charismatic.  And they could have
gotten Wyatt to play himself, because he was a much better actor.  Dauntless
wasn’t even
human!
 He was like just some human-looking weird alien guy
with super-strength.  So he could fly?  Oh, big deal.  WYATT had true star
potential!  If HE had been in that movie, it would have won an Oscar.  Probably
several.

Her frown deepened.

Now that she thought about it, he
WAS a good actor.  She paused considering that more.  That was definitely
something to be mindful of.  His acting talent would allow him to look entirely
convincing as he expressed his desire to join up with them.

The group advanced on Wyatt, now
sporting batons.  He looked down at their weapons, and his hands were suddenly
filled with sparkling semi-opaque versions of the nightsticks.  He brought the clubs
up to block a blow, and simultaneously struck another attacker across the face.

Holly grinned and produced a bag of
microwave popcorn.  “Wow.  This is awesome.  I feel like we should be in our
own individual booths for this or something.  Oh yeah,
work it baby
! 
Mama likes.”

Harlot ignored her.  “He’s up to
something, Holly.  I can feel it.”

Holly leaned forward in her chair. 
“Oh, I’m feeling something too, and I certainly hope he’d be
up
for it.”

Harlot shook her head in disgust.  “That’s
not what I meant.  He’s… he’s a hero, what the hell is he doing here with us?”

Holly laughed.  “From the looks of
it?  Kicking some ass! 
Yeah!
”  She leaned forward and grabbed the
microphone out of Harlot’s hand.  “Yeah, we’re not sure that isn’t some kind
of… power granting magic dress shirt or something, so we can’t be certain of
the results we’re getting.   You’re going to have to take it off.  And we want
you to grease your…”

A struggle ensued as Harlot tried
to wrestle the microphone from Holly before she could finish the order.  Harlot
glared at her.  Below, Wyatt obediently removed his dress shirt and tie though,
revealing a white sleeveless tank top. 

Holly sat back in her chair and ate
another mouthful of popcorn.  She grinned at Harlot.  “You’re welcome.”  Her
smile spread as her eyes slid up and down Wyatt’s body.  “My, my… I’m starting
to wish this chair had a
vibrate
function.  Maybe I should ask dad to
give me one for Christmas…”

“
GOD!
  Does everything have
to be about sex with you?”

Holly scoffed.  “What?  Are you
saying you wouldn’t love to trim his tree?  Huh?  Cause I seem to recall a
certain
someone
who has his poster on her bedroom wall…”

Harlot sniffed.  “That was a long
time ago.”

Holly didn’t look convinced.  “Uh-huh. 
And where is the poster
now?
”

She tried to look innocent.  “I
don’t know.  I took it down years ago when they started selling for a grand on
eBay.”  In truth, the poster in question was currently at the framers, but
Holly didn’t need to know that.  “I don’t even know why I had the silly thing
up in the first place.  I was only into him for like a minute and a half when I
was REALLY young.  And mainly it was just because I liked his cereal.  It had
those little marshmallows in it, remember?  Those were delicious.”

Holly nodded dubiously, and ate
another mouthful of popcorn.  “Oh yeah
. 
He’s
tasty
all right.”

She rolled her eyes.  “I’m not even
going to talk to you if you’re going to be like that.  I’m
serious
.”

Holly sighed and sat up straighter
in her chair.  “God, you’re such a
downer
.  A good looking guy is down
there, muscles all rippling, and you want to sit in here and NOT ogle him?” 
She shook her head sadly and threw several kernels at her.  “You’re no fun.”

“Yes, so I’ve been told.”  Harlot
looked out at the scene below where Wyatt was using a baseball bat he had
apparently created to bludgeon one of the men.  “What do you think he’s up to?”

Holly shrugged.  “Honestly?  I have
no idea.  I have a real hard time believing that ‘Hermie the Cape-wearing Elf’
has always dreamed of being an evil dentist, though.  He obviously has a plan
of some sort, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.”  She chewed around
another mouthful, her words garbled.  “Who cares?  We don’t like it, we’ll kill
the bastard.  Until then, I’m going to enjoy the show.”