The Games of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga Book 2) (14 page)

“Okay,” I said, looking it up. Running my finger on the ancient Greek king’s face on the front, the coin transformed back itself into a seven-foot-long black-bladed scythe with two thick wooden handles. It was heavy, too, as if carrying the weight of the entire world.  I ended up dropping it, which wasn’t an auspicious start to my new job as Death’s new hatchet-man or was that Reaperman?

“Your fire and ice powers should be capable of dealing with the majority of the zombies and cultists you face. You will face some opponents, however, who are not so easily dealt with. Hurl the Reaper's Scythe into Zul-Barbas, though, and my power will destroy the creature completely.”

“Okay.” I struggled to pick up the scythe but managed to succeed on my third try. It was big and ungainly, but not so heavy I couldn't swing it once I had a good grip on its handles. “Damn, I need to work out at the gym more.”

“You must strike at him immediately, though. If you do not, he will destroy your planet and rewrite reality to his wishes.”

Finally getting a good grip on the weapon, I gave it a few practice swings. “May I ask why you're so keen on stopping Zul-Barbas? You're Death. I'd think you'd be happy with the annihilation of reality.”

Death sniffed the air. “Don't be ridiculous. I'd be out of a job.”

“Fair enough,” I said, holding onto my scythe. “What now?”

“Now, you wake up.”

My eyes opened, I was once more on the Falconcrest City Bridge. Angel Eyes was giving me CPR.

I pushed Angel Eyes away from me, spitting up his saliva. “Gah!”

Angel Eyes sat up and wiped off his mouth. “He's fine.”

Cindy had her cellphone out and had obviously taken a picture of me getting CPR. “I'm totally putting this up on Crimebook.”

Getting up off the ground, I rubbed my mouth off with my sleeve. “Who the
hell
gives CPR for a shoulder wound?!”

“You're welcome,” Angel Eyes said to me, looking annoyed. “As for your shoulder, I cast a healing spell.”

“Oh,” I muttered, reaching over to touch my shoulder wound. It was sore but had obviously sealed over. Apparently, Amanda had been correct about Angel Eyes's healing abilities. I owed the little moppet an apology. “Thanks, I guess.”

We were still on the Falconcrest City Bridge with Ganglord Gorilla’s, the Purple Woman’s (who I finally recognized as a Silver Lightning villain), and the Typewriter's corpses next to the burning wreckage of our vehicles. Mandy, Diabloman, and Amanda were standing together with Cindy off to the side.

I could see fires were burning on the other side of the bridge. Whole buildings were ablaze without any sign that they were going to go out any time soon. Clearly the fire department was completely overwhelmed or, more likely, had completely failed. 

Apparently, the zombie outbreak had gotten worse while I was unconscious. Falconcrest City was fighting to survive and it was up to us, well me really, to make sure it survived long enough to become capital of my future kingdom.

“
You have a one track mind, don't you
?”

“Damn straight.” I coughed before clearing my throat and addressing everyone. “I've returned from a meeting with Death. I'm not being figurative here, I mean I
literally
met with the Grim Reaper.”

“Makes sense to me.” Cindy nodded.

“I've encountered stranger beings,” Diabloman said, going along with it.

“Cool!” Amanda exclaimed, accepting my explanation without question.

“Huh. I expected more resistance,” I said, blinking.

“It's not like you're the first to meet a godlike entity during a near-death experience,” Angel Eyes said, looking disdainful. His mask was missing and I wondered if he was aware he'd cast spells without it. I decided not to tell him because I didn't want to spoil the moment.

“I believe you, Gary.” Mandy patted me on the hand.

“She has named ruler of the world and her chosen disciple. Furthermore, she has charged me with the most holy task of destroying the Brotherhood of Infamy!” I said, raising my hands in an almost spiritual manner.

Everyone stared at me blankly.

“Oh, come on!
That
breaks your suspension of disbelief?” I exclaimed, throwing my hands out.

“
The irony is, for once, you're telling the truth
.”

“Right,” Mandy said, rolling her eyes. “Listen, I'm glad you’re okay. Things are bad, though. I’ve got a call from numerous refugee centers across town. A lot of them are under siege by the undead. The Brotherhood of Infamy is making their final push to take over the city.”

That was bad. I still didn't have a full stock of what was happening with the city's zombie problem but if Mandy’s militias couldn't hold them back then things were going to get worse before they got better.

There was also the little bitty tiny problem of the fact that all of these undead were apparently part of a larger plan to summon Zul-Barbas. When he arrived, it was in the words of a famous movie Marine, “Game over, man, game over.”

“It gets worse,” I said, sighing. “Death said the end of the world is happening tonight.”

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say as all of the supervillains in my group shared a glance which told me they were no longer interested in hanging around.

Crap.

Angel Eyes spoke his objections first. “I suggest we abandon this place and head to some island in the Aegean. We can harvest a small population of humanity to breed as slaves and use magic to keep the rest of the world out. In a few centuries, after all of the zombies have rotted away, we can return to dominate the world's ruins. Simple and effective.”

“I support this plan,” Cindy said, raising her hand. “Especially the part about being on a sunny isolated island with Angel Eyes.”

“Wow, guys. Way to show the team spirit,” I said, shaking my head. I tried an alternative approach to convincing them it was in their best interests to save the world, though. I doubted appealing to their altruism would work. “That plan won’t work, though. Seriously, do you know how much work rebuilding the Earth would be even with slaves? We might as well not take over the world if we have the responsibility of rebuilding it! Have you
seen
any post-apocalypse films? Everything’s broken! I can't live without the internet or toilets.”

“I hadn't considered that,” Angel Eyes said, rubbing his chin.

“Are they good guys or bad guys?” Amanda looked to Mandy. “Because, I'm having difficulty telling.”

“She's good, I'm bad.” I gestured to myself then my wife then pointed my henchmen. “They’re badder. The Brotherhood of Infamy? The worst.”

Cindy lowered her head, faking hurt. “I’m more naughty than bad.”

Diabloman made an annoyed grumbling noise. “I will help you save the world. I am going to, if you’ll pardon the phrase, catch hell from my demonic masters for it, though.”

“Thank you, D,” I said, glad at least someone was on my side.

“Fine,” Cindy said, sighing. “I’m in.”

Adonis looked away. “I suppose I could barter this with mistress and a few other gods to get favors. Besides, the worst that could happen is I’m banished to the Underworld for a few centuries. The benefit of immortality.”

Amanda, though, was troubled. “What are we going to do? I should call Sunlight for instructions.”

“Sunlight doesn't know which end his ass is on,” I said to her. “Surely you've realized that by now.”

I was being unfair to Sunlight and felt a little guilty for it. No, the guy shouldn't be fighting supervillains as an old man but he did a lot better than any non-superpowered person should. Besides, I had to admire anybody who had the balls to continue fighting crime when all the criminals were now cannibalistic undead.

“He’s a hero but, no, you’re right. Sunlight can’t help,” Amanda muttered, looking at her cellphone. “We need
The Book of Midnight
. If we stay on mission, we’ll be able to salvage this. “Amanda put her hands on her hips, looking taller and more regal than her five foot two frame should allow. “Okay, I was willing to postpone my arresting of you on the grounds of the city about to be destroyed by an evil god and his zombie army. If you assist me in defusing the threat, I will even consider allowing you to go in hopes you'll reform and put your abilities to good use.”

“I quake with terror at the possibility of your going after me,” Angel Eyes said, his voice dull with sarcasm.

“You should,” Mandy said, smirking. “She’s taken down tougher villains than you.”

“
Et tu,
Mandy?” Angel Eyes said.

For my part, I had to admire Amanda’s brass. Spotting a golden light travelling through the air, I made a decision. “I don’t think we should go straight after
The Book of Midnight
, though.”

“Why’s that?” Mandy asked.

The arrival of Ultragoddess was like a torch shining in the darkness of Falconcrest City's darkest hour. Gabrielle was wearing a white-and-gold form fitting alien polymer costume which had a long-flowing golden cape hovering behind her. She had ditched her short-skirt for a pair of shorts built into the top like a runner's outfit. Gabrielle wore her thigh-high boots over bare legs, more as a fashion statement than anything else since she was invulnerable to anything short of a nuclear bomb.

The Ultraforce appeared around her as a nimbus of light, a chain of glowing white energy extending behind her in a bubble which was wrapped about the Shadow Seven. There were actually six of them, Ultragoddess included, due to one of their number falling months earlier. I'd filled in for them on the moon and I supposed Mandy had been doing the same while they were visiting Falconcrest City.

There was General Venom the terrorist turned red, white, and blue power-armored knight in shining armor. Beside him the Red Schoolgirl, who was a cursed Goth samurai in a black and white sailor fuku. Bronze Medalist, an African American speedster who'd come out as the Silver Lightning's partner in two senses years back. The Black Witch, who was dressed in a tight black leather assemble and pointy witch's hat which made me very uncomfortable to look at given her relationship to my wife. Finally, there was the Human Tank, a transgendered woman in a bulky suit of metal armor which could level a city block.

The Shadow Seven were an oddball mixture of villains and heroes, each of them determined to do what was right even if they didn't get any credit for it or outright incurred the wrath of the wider world. They were champions I could respect, even if I still clung to my increasingly brittle justification that supervillainy was
cool.

While it was more metaphorical than literal, the presence of Ultragoddess seemed to banish the dark energy gathered in the air around us. I felt less like giving up and more like doing some good, a strange feeling for me if you hadn't guessed.

I loved Gabrielle, always would, and while I wasn't going toss away five years of marriage to pursue something which would be toxic to both of us, I hoped I could renew our friendship. Keith had reminded me of a time when I wasn't so angry at the world and it was probably a good idea I start to work on recovering that period.

“
So does this mean you're abandoning supervillainy
?” Cloak asked.

“Ask me again when the world isn't ending,” I said, shaking my head. Looking up to Gabrielle, I said, “Hey.”

“It's good to see you're back, Gary,” Gabrielle said, smiling at me. “Though, perhaps not at the best of times.”

“Eh, the world is always ending,” I said, shrugging. “Either Entropicus is attacking us with his Cross-Time Empire, Pyronnus is trying to destroy the galaxy, a Great Beast is coming into this universe, Mister Hoppy is rewriting reality, or one of the interstellar powers is trying to bomb Earth into submission.”

“
You forgot Atlantis invading or the Ultraterrestials
,” Cloak said. “
There's also a few Dimension Lords you wouldn't know about I used to tangle with
.”

“I'm not mentioning P.H.A.N.T.O.M, Unity, the Emerald Sign, or various world-ending supervillain plots either,” I told my Cloak. “We’ve survived all of those, we'll survive this.”

“Your optimism is encouraging,” Gabrielle said.

“Except the bad guys only have to win once,” Cindy said, frowning.

Diabloman said, “Not necessarily true. Good cheats. One time I destroyed the world only for them to reverse time.”

“No shit, they can do that!?” Cindy said, staring.

Diabloman nodded.

“Those bastards!” Cindy said, shocked.

Gabrielle looked at Mandy. “Hello, Munin.”

“Hugin,” Mandy said, back.

“Pardon?” I asked.

“They're the codenames we use to communicate via radio,” Gabrielle said, looking back at me. “Mandy and I have been coordinating our defense of the city since the dome went up. You've married a very formidable woman, Gary.”

“Thank you,” I said.

The Black Witch waved to Mandy.

Mandy waved back, embarrassed.

I frowned, trying not to let my jealousy get the better of me. He who lives in glass houses, shouldn't carry a rocket-launcher and all that. “We were just discussing our next move. We're hoping to get the Book of Midnight to prevent Zul-Barbas from getting summoned.”

I looked over at Amanda, seeing her positively bouncing up and down at the presence of Ultragoddess.

Apparently, she was a fan.

“It's an honor to meet you!” Amanda said, grinning from ear-to-ear.

“Uh, thanks,” Gabrielle said, not really looking too comfortable with the adoration. She'd started her covert ops team precisely because she'd gotten sick and tired of the limelight. “Getting the Book is a good plan. It may work.”

“May?” Amanda said, stopping in mid-squee.

“We don't know where the Brotherhood is operating their ritual from but it's very likely they've already gotten everything they need to know from the book,” Gabrielle said, frowning. “I've identified the leader of the cult as a woman named Lucretia Despayre. She's going by the moniker of the Nightmaster and possesses powers easily equal to anything we've faced before. The Nightmaster has a cloak like yours, Gary, but with much-much greater powers.”

“Who names their child Lucretia Despayre?” I asked, missing the point of what she was saying.

“Someone who wants to raise their child to end the world?” Cindy asked.