

Metahuman

Wars

Copyright ©2016 Den Warren

Written and Illustrated by Den Warren

### SMASHWORDS EDITION

Really? No one should seriously think that anyone portrayed in this collection is a real person. Any similarity is a coincidence. We wouldn't want to include you in it anyhow. Even if the place is real, the events set there are totally made up.

Thank you for purchasing a copy of this book and not copying it illegally. Please use excerpts in your reviews. -Den, Publisher

Twitter: @ArchCitizen

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Chapter 1

Near McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Larry tilted his head as he looked at the display on his resonant scanner. He couldn't believe his eyes. It seemed like it had to be some kind of illusion or something. Maybe it was the composition of one or more things that looked exactly like something else. No one could blame him if they saw the image. He ran to the radio. "Hey Bill! Bill! You there?!"

"Bill here. Go ahead, Larry."

"Hey. We've got this object deep into the ice. It's really deep. Over."

"So? Over."

"It looks like . . . a guy or something. . . over."

A silent pause came over the other end. Then Bill said, "You tryin' to be funny? You ain't been drinking again, have you? Over."

"Yeah, Bill. It thought I would go down to the corner bar for awhile."

When I get back we'll take a look. It's not going anywhere. Over."

"Yeah, yeah, just get back here! Over!"

Back at the Station, Larry and Bill looked at the scanned image.

Bill looked at it awhile and said, "I see what you are saying, but that's just a dead seal or emperor penguin or something."

Larry said, "What?! That seal of yours is a human! Look, you can see an arm there! That's no seal!"

"We don't have time to waste a whole day digging up your figments! We've got a job to do and we're already behind schedule! Those image tests are not going to do themselves! Now shut up and get to work!"

Larry said, "No problem. I'll just tell the boss you could have dug up a valuable artifact and instead you chose to ignore it. You know I can convince them that you didn't dig up this guy. The image is right here and I got a picture of it."

"Okay, fine! Go get the gear, and make it happen!" The institute had plenty of ice digging equipment, but getting at the object still took some time.

By the end of the next day, the men had a deep shaft going down about thirty feet into the ice.

"Holy crap!" Larry said. "There is a guy . . . no . . . two guys down here!" Larry found the bones of two men, barely covered with a nominal layer of sinew. They were in a pose as if they were either hugging . . . or trying to kill each other. As Larry dug, he continued to find more. He found some ancient arrowheads, then a dagger. Also he found a half rotted sack.

"Look!" Larry said when he ascended from the ice shaft. "A knife!" He was busy taking pictures of the site for posterity. Bill lacked appreciation of the dig, or any other dig because it cut into his exploration efforts.

Bill said, "You're not keeping that dagger. It belongs to the Institute. They might be less mad about all this if it turns out the dagger is worth something."

Larry was disappointed, but he handed over the dagger to Bill. "Don't you even wonder what those guys were doing down there?!"

"Nope," Bill said, "I woulda left that stupid sack down there."

"That doesn't sound very forensic," Larry said.

DNA tests confirmed that the bodies were from ancient Japan, and they were brothers. The experts said the find totally contradicted historian's understanding of travel during that part of history. Upon further study of the artifacts, it was found that they were made with methods consistent with craftsmanship from that time period.

Larry took the sack that Bill called 'stupid' with him into his quarters. He was carefully fumbling with the fragile bag, thinking more about how lonely he was than the incredible sack. Then he was thinking, how in the world was it was possible that the guys from ancient Japan were down there? He also wondered why no one in the Institute cared. Were they just jealous that they didn't discover it? Guess there was just not enough money in the find. Not like the sum they were collecting from an oil company for testing and evaluating this new equipment under extreme conditions, which was also a rush job. Then Larry thought about not getting to keep the knife after all of that work digging the shaft, while Bill just sat around watching, telling him to hurry up.

Click. Click.

"Huh?" Larry heard some tiny dense particles hit the floor of his cubicle. They sounded not quite like pebbles. He picked them up. He recognized them as seeds. They looked like apple seeds. He turned the bag inside out, and more seeds were found tucked into the seam.

Larry started to wonder, what if these seeds could somehow still be good? They didn't look bad, but his cousin Harold was the expert.

Larry remembered his cousin Harold back in Louisiana. Harold was one of those "organic people" who never married and was a fanatic about gardening. Harold told Larry once that he could grow anything from a seed, except for rhubarb. So Larry thought that maybe if the old seeds could be from some long lost variety they could make him and his cousin millionaires.
Chapter 2

Lincoln, Alabama

It had been about 5 years since Harold Lancaster had gotten the parcel from Antarctica containing the seeds. From the seeds, Harold was indeed able to grow three fruit trees. Two of the trees were small and were yet to blossom. The other one was thriving. Harold knew he had to keep the valuable trees top secret, or someone would steal them.

This Year, finally the best tree had apple or pear-like blossoms, grew six medium sized fruit which grew and ripened through the following summer. Now the unusual fruit of the secret tree was appearing to be ripening. It was a unique looking fruit, which was somewhat oblong in shape and slightly larger than a pear. It was starting to turn purple. Harold was not sure when to pick them so he decided to leave them on the tree just a bit longer.

The next day Harold noticed that he was down to four fruits on the tree. The missing two were not anywhere around on the ground. He looked up at his suspicious, untrustworthy neighbor's entirely too close house trailer, with its Confederate battle flag flapping out front. Harold had long suspected Clem Ellis of taking just enough of his garden's bounty so not to raise suspicion. But this time he had done an inventory of the tree. Someone or something got two of his fruits. No question.

Harold was worried that his potential fruit tree fortune could be in jeopardy. The best plan of action was to pick the other two fruits and save the seeds that might be worth a fortune. He also thought that he might try grafting a branch off of the tree to some crabapple root stock to start more trees. This practice is commonplace among anyone who raises fruit trees. This gives the tree a better root system and the fruits with the exact genetics as the original tree like a clone, versus the uncertainty of growing trees from seeds.

As planned, the next morning he picked the fruits. He tasted the firm and moist fruit. It was very delicious. He ate a whole mystery fruit. Then he became violently ill. Eating so much of an unknown fruit was a big mistake, he thought. Then he felt disoriented as if he was levitating. It made no sense, that is, until he realized he was levitating! Now he done did it. He done ate a poisoned apple and now he was ascending toward his eternal reward in God's Heaven. He bumped his head on the ceiling. "Huh?" Going to the Heavenly Home ain't supposed to work like that. Bodies changed in the spirit don't bump their heads on ceilings. He pushed off of the ceiling. He wasn't dead, he was flying! This was impossible. He wanted to get outside where he could have more room to test this situation. He opened the screen door and then really took off. He went above the trees and looked down on his garden. He must be dreaming. This was one of the best dreams he had ever had. He was pleased that he could maneuver so easily in mid-air.

Of course, it seems that nothing so good can last very long. Harold heard a growl and some screaming over by the Barrett's place. He went flying towards it. He heard gunshots. It's not uncommon in these parts to hear gunshots. Someone was always doing some target practice. But what you don't want to hear is gunshots along with screaming. So Harold did a dive down to the ground and came in a little too hot and smacked a tree with a glancing thud. That hurt, but he didn't wake up as if he was in a dream. He looked from behind the tree and saw a wolf-man who was dragging the older, but attractive Betty Barrett off, hostage-style. The Barrett's hunting dog was growling and barking at the hairy abductor, but not getting too close to the man beast to fight it out.

Harold flew up and away, then around and behind the wolf-man as fast as he could, then he collided into its back. The hard collision didn't do as much damage as he thought it would, but the fiend let the woman go. The wolf-man snarled and turned. It was close enough to take a swipe at Harold with its long claws. Wolf-man was just close enough to scratch up Harold's face. Harold got a glimpse of Joe Barrett holding his shotgun out of the corner of his eye and flew straight up to get out of the line of fire.

Blam! Joe Barrett ventilated the wolf-man with his 12 gage shotgun. Joe quickly went to his wife's side.

The bloody wolf-man dropped and morphed into a human. The dead lycanthrope was Clem Ellis. The Barretts stared at Clem in disbelief. Betty buried her face, sobbing in Joe's chest.

Harold came down to earth and stared at Clem. "That beats all."

Joe Barrett said, "Thank you for coming to our aid, Harold. I never knew you were one of them superheroes."

Harold said, "I just got my powers today."

Joe looked at the corpse and said, "This neighborhood sure got plentiful weird all of a sudden. I never figured we would have werewolf troubles around here neither."

"Me neither," Harold said.

"Why don't you come inside," Betty Barrett said. "I can tend to those scratches."

They went inside and Betty put some antiseptic on the deep scratches. Then she poured Harold and Joe some coffee. Then she put a bit of whiskey in with it. "We could use a little sedative right now."

Joe said, "You know, Harold, you really ought to give consideration to keeping your real name a secret."

"Why? I got nothing to hide."

"Yeah, but what if one of those supervillains decides to come looking for you. All they got to do is to look you up in the phone book. Next thing you know, you're on one of them conveyor belts."

"Conveyor Belts?"

"Yep. Didn't you never see the old Batman program? You need to keep your real name secret from those evil types."

"I reckon that's true. What do you figure they ought to call me?"

Then Harold felt a sneeze coming on. He turned to the window. Crash! The sneeze came out with a huge blast that shook the whole house. The force totally shattered the window and tore up part of the window frame. Betty screamed. The Barrett's dog had lost its mind with the commotion.

Joe took another sip of his coffee. "How 'bout 'Sonic-man?'"

Harold looked at the damage and wiped his nose. He said, "I'll fix that."
Chapter 3

Harold was stretched out on his couch watching NASCAR commentary on his big screen TV. He was grateful that he had the ability of flight, which he thought was fun, so he flew around every day, mostly to see the reaction of people who would spot him. Harold figured flight must be one of the best superpowers, but it was not much good by itself in fighting evildoers. He could carry his AR-15 with him while he was flying, but sure enough, he would cross over into one of those wimpy blue states that have gun laws that violate the Second Amendment. If he ate another fruit, would he get another super-power, or would he turn into a werewolf?

He didn't think too much about it, but while he was watching the TV he sneezed. After he recovered from another sonic sneeze he looked up and saw a big crack across the TV.

"Sonofa!" He marched outside to his shed in the garden and grabbed a hatchet. That would be more than enough of a tool to bring down the superpower tree that cost him his large flat screen. That cursed tree gave him the cursed sonic sneeze and it also turned Clem Lancaster into an insane werewolf. He drew hatchet back, prepared to take a full swing, but he remembered that he did get the ability to fly from the tree. Again, he thought, what if he ate another fruit of the tree of powers and curses? Then he thought, "What are the odds this damn tree will buy me a new TV?" Again, he pulled the hatchet back.

"Damn stupid assed tree!" He grits his teeth, ready to take a mighty swing and rid the world of the tree. Carey Underwood started playing on his phone. He let the hatchet drop to the ground.

"Yellow," Harold said.

"Harold?"

"Yep."

"Sonic-man. This is Joe Barrett."

"I ain't really settled on that name, 'Sonic-Man', Joe."

"We were wanting to know if you want to come to our place for a barbeque for a celebration, on account that you saved Betty."

"Thanks, Joe," Harold said. He thought of the expense and time of having to fix the Barrett's window, and didn't want to tear up any more of their stuff. And the bottom line was that he was unsociable anyhow. "I have to decline. Sorry. I got some superhero stuff that came up."

Joe said, "I totally understand. You are super busy with all that. How 'bout Sonic Avenger?"

"I ain't really gave gitin' a superhero name much thought, to tell you the truth."

They hung up the phone and Harold stared at the tree. He really did save Betty Barrett with the powers he got from the tree. That was nothing to ignore. Betty was alive because he ate the fruit. Harold had never really done much with his life. He surmised that being a superhero must be his calling. But he figured that he needed at least one more decent superpower, even if he got another curse. He went into the house and ate another superfruit. It did taste real fine, but the same miserable sickness set in again.

Who am I? What am I doing here? Harold's memory was totally wiped out, including the recollection that he had even eaten the fruit that was now making him sick. He forgot every detail of his life. He looked at the table and saw the peelings and the seeds from the fruit. He knew right away that the memory loss was from the fruit. He told himself not to panic, that his recollections would surely come back momentarily. Time passed, but his memory didn't come back at all.

He felt a sneeze coming on. He flew outside. The sneeze cracked in the air. He quickly perceived that the power to fly and the sonic sneeze also came from the fruit. He wondered how he knew to fly outside. He just knew. These perceptions were not memories, because all the memories were wiped out. He realized that he had gained the ability to perceive things not readily known, a hyper-perception, or enhanced awareness caused from the fruit. He reasoned that he must have eaten multiple fruits to give him all these good and bad traits. He saw another fruit on the table. Maybe he should eat another one. What was his original goal in doing all this? He perceived wrongly that he would gain another power and lose his memory again. Since there was only about five minutes of memory to forget, he figured he wouldn't lose much. He could figure out his real name later after the next bout of amnesia. Just to make sure, he left himself a note detailing everything he thought he knew. It didn't take long to write.

So then he ate another fruit. Oddly enough, he remembered eating it and writing the note to himself, so he figured that he only lost his memory once, which means that the memory loss was not a constant, and that some other things happened separately, like the sneezing. So what happened this time?

He was aware that he had this new perception ability, but he didn't have a clue about what his accompanied new curse was. Maybe there were only so many curses a body could absorb. With his memory loss, he started to wonder if he was just going insane.

Harold casually scratched an itch in his crotch. "Yeow! What the . . . ?!" He looked at his hand. It was all purple and enlarged! His fingernails were claws, a couple of inches long. Now he would have to trim them back and wear gloves to at least hide the weird color. He went into the bathroom to trim them. "Sonofa!" He saw his face in the mirror. His skin had turned completely purple. "No! Oh my God! No!" He thought that he looked like some kind of alien. "Damn it all!" Evidently, being purple was his newest curse. His hair was still the same sandy color. He desperately hoped that the purple would somehow wash off. He scrubbed it. Nothing doing.

He stuck out his tongue. It was a bright purple. He touched his lip, once again forgetting about his claws. "Yeow!" He drew blood with his long fingernail. He stuck his fingers out to look at his hand and the two-inch claws. Then he found that he was able to retract them when he relaxed his fingers a certain way.

Harold shook his head. Was it worth being purple in order to get the claws?

Harold still had no recollection about his past. He found some mail on the kitchen table. "Harold Lancaster." At least he knew his name, but it didn't mean anything. He looked around the small old house for clues about his past. No pictures of a family. He wondered if he had any friends.

All he knew was he was Harold Lancaster, the flying purple claw-wielding man with amnesia, and an explosive sneeze. Harold figured that it was just as well that there were no more of the superpower fruits to be eaten. Or were there? It did cross his mind about the seeds from the fruit. Did he want to grow some trees? He worried that if he did grow trees he might introduce something bad into the general population that would be irreversible. Wars would be fought, endless murders over the trees and their fruit.

To add insult to injury; that evening he noticed his five o'clock shadow was coming in purple. So that meant all of his hair was going to eventually be purple too. So much for having a secret identity. There seemed to be no point in it.

Chapter 4

Gary, Indiana

Herman Borkosky and his wife Beth finished the weekly grocery shopping. Getting out of the house to walk around in the grocery store aisles and browse so many varieties of food products that were flavored with garlic and herb, or honey mustard, or pepper jack, Greek yogurt, you name it, seemed to be the highlight of their week. They walked through what hoped to be the last slushy snow mess of the winter, from the store back to their car to put the groceries into the back.

Herman said, "I don't see why we need all this stuff. What are we, preppers?"

"If it was up to you, we wouldn't have anything in the house," Beth said.

"We could stand to eat a little better. Less, that is."

"I know." Both of them were short and the extra weight on them showed up readily.

They hopped in their small SUV and Herman started it. The small car was just the right size for them.

Herman said, "I'm about sick of this damn snow."

"I know, its winter though. Maybe this is the last snow."

"Yeah, I suppose." Herman sighed. He turned on his windshield washer to try and wash off the dried up the chalky white glaze of smeared road salt. The little fluid pump under the hood moaned, but it was unable to pump any fluid out to clean the windshield. "Dang it. I should have bought some when I was getting the gas."

Beth looked at him. They drove away from the grocery past some small shops in the plaza. A woman walked out in front of their car without even looking and just continued on. Herman slammed on the brakes.

"Son of a bitch!" Herman said. "Why not just walk right out there! Damn women never look, they just walk out there expecting people to pay attention to them! That's the problem. There's too many laws to protect the stupid. I should have just run her over."

"Now Herman. You'd be the first one to help her."

"Maybe next time I will run her over. Stupid damn idiots."

"Hey Babe, maybe we ought to stop in that 'everything for a dollar' place."

"What for?"

"Oh just to look around. We're in no hurry, right. It's Saturday."

"That place is full of junk. It's a waste of money. You know if you had one of those dollars that is spent on junk, and you invested it for 40 years at a 20% return, you could turn it into hundreds of dollars. That is one less day I would have to spend in that stupid-ass Company sitting at a desk next to Irvin."

"They have some good deals. Let's go."

Herman shook his head. "You never listen."

"Yeah I listen, 'If we took the dollar and invested it for forty years we would have an accumulated lifetime of 40 years of no fun. Then you could stay home an extra day in total bliss with me."

"Wow. That is exactly what I said. If it makes you happy, I guess we can go in. Our groceries won't melt in the car." Herman found a parking spot in front of the store.

They walked into the store, Beth immediately vanished. It was hard enough for them to find each other among the shelves and racks given their shortness. A whole row was devoted to party supplies. Herman thought, who would want any of that crap? A row of dishes and kitchen stuff that they already had. A row of food items that Herman figured probably had a very short remaining shelf life.

Then he saw Beth. Yeesh. She was lost in the knickknack aisle. Picking up everything. Why would anyone want that stupid stuff, even if it was free?

Beth said, "I found you something."

Herman looked at the small colorful cartoonish looking plastic flower that was in an oversized cartoonish plastic pot. "Why would I want something like that?"

"No, it's neat. It has its own solar cell, and it moves."

"Really. How do these people sell stuff like this for a dollar? I guess no one wants it, so they have to get rid of it."

"I want it."

"Why do you want it?"

Beth held Herman by the hand. She pulled her body close to his, right in the aisle.

Herman looked around. Certainly someone could be watching them. "What are you doing? We are going to be on the internet if you keep this up."

Beth put her hand on Herman's back and pulled him in even tighter. She definitely got his attention. She looked at the quaint little object in the clear plastic clam pack. "Herman, I want this for you."

"Me? What would I do with that thing?"

She looked at him straight into the eyes with a serious expression. "Yes, I want you to be happy. For me. Okay?"

"Uh. . . Okay. I guess." Herman wondered how such a simple thing from a limited price variety store that had no practical function could ever make him happy. But he was overpowered by Beth's gesture. She felt he was supposed to be happy. The flower was supposed to make people happy. He realized happiness was the only function of it. The least he could do was to oblige her by accepting the little flower.

They got home and unloaded the groceries. Even though the amount of food seemed like a crazy amount for just the two of them, he felt a little less like complaining the way he usually did. About every week he would make a crack about stockpiling to get ready for the zombie apocalypse.

Beth put the solar powered flower on the bookcase. "Now don't forget to take this to work with you."

"What if I want to be happy here?"

"That's what I am for."

Herman had no follow-up comment for Beth's dangerously mine-laden answer.

Chapter 5

All a typical Sunday ever amounted to, at least to Herman, was recurring thoughts about how bad he hated his job at KoilTech. It wasn't so much the job, but some of the people. Admittedly, Herman did not fashion himself to be a people person. He was an introverted analytical guy who just wanted to keep to himself, and figure out how to deal with Company problems. He sometimes wished that he could work from home, and then he wouldn't have to be distracted by any of his coworkers. But that wouldn't be practical, given his responsibilities.

KoilTech was mostly an old run-down spring factory that had a modern looking administration and sales office, which was the area he worked. On Monday morning, Herman walked in through the front door through the lobby. It was adorned with all kinds of modernistic artwork depicting helix designs, an expression of the springy soul of the company. The motif grossly overstating the value of a spring to society as a whole, but it paid the bills.

Herman passed by Gertrude the receptionist. It seemed as though she should have retired about twenty years ago. She only had one skill, niceness while greeting people, but she was a world class nice person, maybe one of the nicest people on the planet.

"Good Morning Herman," She said.

"Hi."

"Did you have a nice weekend?"

"It was okay. We didn't do much."

"Well, we went over to . . ."

Herman did not want to talk to Gertrude. It was Monday. He didn't care about her dog, her neighbor, what she ate, what she cooked, her ailments, what she saw on the way to work, what she saw on the news, what her daughter did, how cute her grandchildren were, not one bit of it. He had to pass by her gauntlet of niceness every day and whenever he wanted to go from the office to the outside world.

Herman interrupted and told Gertrude, "You know, it's always something, isn't it? All right, see ya around."

"Have a nice day," Gertrude said.

Herman made his way to the refrigerator that was in the office break room. He looked at some of the containers that had been there for awhile. He jammed his oversize lunch container in, thinking maybe he was the one who was getting ready for nuclear war.

He walked back to the office. His co-worker and arch nemesis, Irvin, was already there. Irvin always had perfect hair. He was in great physical condition, and most of all, he was tall. Wherever there was a crowd of people, Irvin was there. He had to be. He was an extrovert. Irvin thought that being an extrovert was the normal order of things. If you were an introvert, you were some kind of dysfunctional weirdo who didn't know how to interact with people. But Irvin had to be around people, and in the center of attention, all the time. He was either telling stories or jokes or flirting with the women in the office, or bragging about his involvement in any project. Irvin was not interested in teamwork, he was interested only in high profile tasks that gave him accolades in front of the boss. All the little background stuff could be left to the others.

Irvin looked up at Herman. "Hey Professor. How you doing?"

"Okay. You?"

"Not bad. I survived the weekend. You know, going to all of the kids' basketball games, shopping. That stuff."

"Uh huh." Herman thought to himself; My weekend was fine, thanks for asking. My wife that I have been married to for the whole fifteen years I have been working here, who you have never asked me about it , thank you very much. Herman realized that he was not outgoing and it was probably his own fault. His mother always told him, "You had to be a friend to have a friend." But on the other end of the spectrum, Irvin was so self centered, he certainly must have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder. How could such a guy be a fellow bean counter with a quintessential bean counter inverted personality? Why was Irvin not in marketing? Or maybe all this was a bunch of over-psychoanalysis, and it was just because it was another Monday.

Herman and Irvin were part of the accounting group, along with a woman named Charlie. She did not get along so well with Irvin either, so that made her an ally of Herman's.

"Morning Herman," she said.

"Charlie."

Irvin hopped into the conversation. "You guys watch the Oscars?"

Charlie said, "No."

Herman said, "No. Why would I want to see those people get awards? Don't they get enough attention?"

Irvin said, "Sheesh! Don't bite my head off."

There were other groups in the office. The sales group was in a section of their own. They were out on the road a lot. Then there were other groups such as safety, and purchasing.

The boss came out of the back office and was walking towards them. Herman thought, really, already he is going to bug us on a Monday morning? No matter; now is as good time as any to confront him about the impending fiscal demise of the Company. They were going to be about a net 10 million dollars to the red by Year's end the way things were looking. All because of this new micro component division was not performing and nobody seemed to know how to fix it.

James Montgomery was the President of KoilTech. He was the American guy hired by the German holding Company, DBC. Before that, the Company was formerly known as Midwest Springworks. The Company had been around for over 100 years, making all sorts of small spring components for other manufacturers.

Irvin hopped up to intercept the President. "Jim! Did you get my email Friday?"

"Yeah, I was here all night Friday. . ."

Herman hoped that Montgomery wouldn't forget about coming to see him about saving the Company after he got done listening to Irvin's daily self promotion monologue. Herman already had enough work to do and did not want to get into a situation where he would have to be working late. It seems like once that habit starts, everyone thinks you don't mind it, so they pile even more on you.

"Herman," Jim said as a greeting.

"Hi. Jim. Could I see you in your office today sometime?"

"Alright. Now would be okay, if you have time."

"Great." Herman followed Jim into his office. Jim motioned for Herman to take a seat then he shut the door.

"Jim, I'm a little . . . No, I'm a lot concerned about our financials right now. We are losing money at an alarming rate. I don't want to have to look for a new job anytime soon. I thought maybe we could talk about what needs to happen."

Jim looked a little surprised, but he should have been used to straight talk from Herman by now. "Here's the deal; I get that we are losing our butts out in the micro line. We need someone to figure out what is going on."

"Shouldn't engineering already be working on this?"

"You know, honestly, if I thought they were the ones to go to, I would have. I appreciate your concern, and I would like for you to honcho over the situation. With your experience, you can see excess cost just by looking."

"Yeah, that's what my wife thinks, but to her it is not an admirable quality."

Montgomery didn't chuckle. "Well, it suits this situation perfectly. Can you go out there and just see if you can find anything?"

"No problem."

"Thanks Herman, you're the best."

Herman went back to the accounting group. Irvin was checking on something non-work related on the internet. Charlie was going through some figures from Purchasing. The others saw Herman putting on his hardhat and safety glasses.

"Where you goin'?" Charlie asked.

"Crazy," Herman replied. "Naw, I gotta go out in the shop and look for waste."

Charlie said, "Since when is that our job?"

"Somebody better do something, or none of us will have a job."

"Hi Ho, Hi Ho," Irvin said, trying to reference the icons of shortness, the Seven Dwarves.

Herman didn't worry too much about people making petty short comments. But he didn't much care for any sort of dwarf humor from someone like Irvin, who he felt was a boot licking slacker. Herman tried to think of which of his projects that he could shove off onto Irvin to occupy him, but he really didn't trust Irvin with anything important.

Herman went out the door leading to the shop. The micro department was immediately outside of the office in an enclosed room within the rest of the production area. Micro was a part of the most recent expansion. It was very clean, and very well guarded for secrecy. The management structure was also separate from the rest of KoilTech production. Everything that happened in Micro was a secret. Herman pushed a button that sounded a buzzer inside the secluded Micro Department. One of the workers inside pressed an acknowledgement button that in turn unlocked the door for a couple of seconds.

Herman stepped inside. Although he as a KoilTech veteran, he had only been inside of the Micro Department a couple of times.

Klaus was sitting on a stool looking through a microscope. He hollered at Herman in his German accent without looking up from his microscope. "Sign in, please." Obviously he was used to reminding everyone to sign in.

Herman signed the paper that kept track of everyone's entries and exits from the special room. Signing in every time seemed like such overkill, like no one would ever read it. Traffic in the room was so sparse that they didn't bother to put in a badge scanner.

There was one other technician in the room looking through a microscope.

Herman asked Klaus, "Where are the springs?"

"Dey are all over, so don' touch anything."

Herman said, "Fine, I'm here to talk to you about cost reduction, I guess."

Klaus said, "I am very busy. Go talk to Evan."

"That guy?"

"Yah, dat guy. Evan. And don't look at anything."

"What?!"

"Dis is all proprietary information."

"I work here, you know."

"No dat's not de problem," Klaus said, "Ve are subcontractors. Ve don't verk for KoilTech."

Herman thought, there's problem number one; Private contractors not responsible to anyone for their costs. Herman approached Evan across the small crowded room. Evan was wearing earbuds that half disappeared under his long hair and long beard. Evan was busy looking into a stereo microscope.

Herman tapped Evan on the shoulder. Evan was a little startled. Evan turned around with a smile on his face.

"Excuse me," Herman said.

Evan removed the earbuds. Herman could hear some kind of heavy metal music penetrating Evan's brain. Evan put on some glasses.

"What's up?" Evan asked.

"Um . . . I'm Herman over in Accounting. I am supposed to help you identify some cost savings.

Evan chuckled. "That is the first time anyone has ever said anything about that."

Herman thought, there's problem number two. Herman said, "Is there anything in your process here that causes a lot of scrap."

"I can't really talk about our process."

Herman sighed, "We can't function as a Company if we have those kinds of trust issues." He was wondering how he was supposed to audit something that was completely top secret, even from the auditor. "So, when do you make the springs?"

"We don't really call them springs, but you can if you want."

Herman looked at the corner of the room. There was a totally enclosed booth in the corner. "Can I look in there?"

"Absolutely not."

Herman said, "You know, if I were you guys, I would take me a little more seriously. That is, if you want to keep working here."

Evan asked, "What? Are you threatening us?" He started laughing.

"No, it's just that you will have a share of a pie that could end up being non-existent."

"Okay," Evan said. "We don't want that. Our biggest problem is . . . dropped springs."

"So, what is so bad about that?"

"They are too small to find. They are gone forever, and they are expensive."

"So, let's back up a step. How do they get dropped?"

Evan said, "When these things are being handled, sometimes we can't see them and we mishandle them and we drop them."

"Can I see one?"

"Okay." Evan held one on the tip of his finger. It was a 1 mm transparent speck.

"That is a spring?"

"Yep."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope."

"What the heck is that spring for?"

"I don't even know." He looked over at Klaus. "If you find out, let me know."

"I can see why they are hard to see. They're miniscule."

"Yeah. It's pretty cool, huh."

"So, why don't you make them red? Or yellow?"

Evan paused, "Well . . . we . . . I don't know. Klaus, why don't we make these red or yellow?"

Klaus laughed, not looking up from his microscope. Then he stopped. Klaus stared at the wall. Then he looked over at Herman. "Zehr gut. Yah, das is zehr gut. Dat is brilliant, little man!" He got up and paced the floor with his hand on his chin. "Yah."

Herman asked Klaus, "So can I see the process now?"

Klaus said, "Absolutely not. Do not come in here ever again. Sorry, you are banned."

"Fine!" Herman said, "Just tell Montgomery I did my job, okay?"

"No problem. Thank you for your suggestion. You are too schmaat to be in here. Consider it a compliment. You are da kind of person ve have to vorry about our secrets. You have to leave."

Chapter 6

Herman went to the refrigerator in the KoilTech lunchroom to get his packed lunch. There were a few people from the office there, and a couple of production people. As usual, they were all busy staring at their personal smart phones. No one looked as if they wanted to carry on a conversation.

Herman looked at his lunchbox. He unzipped it and pulled out a food container. What? He saw something unexpected. It was the little plastic solar powered flower. Beth had to have put it in the lunchbox after Herman packed his lunch the night before.

Herman stared at the toyish looking flower. All he could think of was the moment when he was looking into Beth's eyes in the store. Beth wanted so much for him to be happy. Why was he so unhappy? Was it because he was always bored? Was it because he was not satisfied with the way he looked? Then he thought about Beth. Many years ago, Beth was told that she would not likely ever have any children. Then she got pregnant, not once, but twice, and lost both babies during pregnancy. So she never did have any children. Then her biological clock ticked its last tick. Yet Beth was not a bitter woman. Most women would have turned sour after all of that. Then both of her parents had died; her mom to cancer and her dad to a heart attack. Then her brother, who was career Army, was killed in Afghanistan. Yet Beth still wanted Herman to be happy. She thought of him, not herself, even after all of that. Herman never loved his Bride more than at that moment. That stupid little plastic flower was now one of his most prized possessions, and not so stupid.

He took it out of its clear plastic package. Sure enough, the flower started moving. The stem waved the flower side to side as if it were blowing in a breeze. There was a big leaf on both sides of the flower that went up and down. What a crazy worthless thing. Yet, it was now so priceless.

Herman microwaved his lunch and admired the flower the entire time. After lunch he took the flower back to his desk.

Herman placed the flower in a prominent position on the desk.

Irvin saw the flower. "Dude, what the heck is that?"

"A flower."

"Hey!" Charlie said, "That thing is moving."

"Uh huh, it's solar powered."

"Man, that thing is annoying," Irvin said.

"I like it," Charlie said. "Where did you get it?"

"Over at that everything for a buck place."

Charlie said, "That's a good deal."

Irvin said, "I just want to crush it."

"You're screwed up," Herman said, "It's mine. It's on my desk. It is not bothering you. Don't look at it. Don't touch it."

Irvin reached over and gave the flower a symbolic touch.

Charlie told Irvin, "If it bugs you that much, then I want one. Maybe a hundred."

All three of the office workers sat there and stared at the faux flora for most of a minute as if in a trance. Then they all shook the flower's mind control off and got back to work.

The burgeoning bond between Herman and the flower began to flourish. The flower waved back and forth all day. Not only did it remind Herman of the best wife in the world, but as an added bonus, Irvin hated it.

On Tuesday, Irvin told some women on the other side of the office how Herman had the distracting hypnotic flower on his desk.

Maya, a young administrative assistant came over to look at the flower. "That thing is creepy."

Herman said, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I would be distracted by that thing. It just creeps me out."

Irvin said, "That's what I say. It is very distracting."

Herman thought of the many times that Maya pranced by with her short skirts and bent over to file documents in front of Irvin. How come he never complained about that distraction? Instead of voicing his probing question, Herman picked up the flower. He held it to his face. "Posey, they don't know what they are talking about."

Irvin and Charlie gawked at Herman.

Irvin said, "Did you just talk to that flower?"

Herman said, "I love this flower. Anything you do to this flower will be considered an act against me." Herman wrote the name "Posey" on the flower. Posey was somehow symbolic of the child he and his beloved Beth had never had. It had a psychological link to Beth. He had transposed Beth's love into Posey. Herman stared back at Posey, "Don't listen to anything they have to say."

Charlie and Irvin just stared at Herman.

Charlie asked, "Is he being real?"

"He's finally lost it," Irvin said.

Herman submitted his micro spring audit report. On Wednesday, Jim Montgomery brought him into his office to discuss the report.

"I know you didn't have much to work with," Montgomery said, "with all the secrecy."

"That is not the half of it. I wasn't supposed to see or touch anything. I guess the only sense left is hearing. There was nothing of note to hear, and I didn't taste anything either."

"Nevertheless," Jim said, "The contract workers said that a suggestion you had enabled them to save about ten thousand dollars a month."

Herman wondered just how high their costs really were. "So does that mean I am getting a bonus?" Herman said jokingly.

"Yep," Jim said, to Herman's surprise.

"What? A new slinky or something?"

"Tee Hee," Montgomery dryly said, responding to the oldest spring joke at the Company. "Before I change my mind, I have instructed payroll to cut you a check for two thousand dollars."

Herman swallowed hard and his eyes blinked rapidly. That was a lot from a Company that was going broke.

"That's not all," Jim said, "I told them that the next time you audit them they are to be much more transparent or I would re-negotiate their contract. And I am sure you know from the books that they are getting a lot of money. They need to understand that we are interested in their cost. Granted, they have potential to be a huge profit center, but I can't get into that with you."

"Actually, they banned me from coming back in there."

"Oh."

"And they seem to have very little concept about cost-cutting." Herman marveled at the weird arrangement Micro had with KoilTech.

Two thousand bucks was nothing to sneeze at. "Can I ask? Jim, what are those springs are for?"

"You can ask all you want, but I can never tell you. Please don't try to find out. That would kill the business. We need to start generating some revenue from that business badly."

Herman said, "I really don't see how I can audit the business any further then anyways. I'm going to go ahead and work on some monthly reports." He thought there was something strange about Jim's behavior, like he was trying to hide an elephant or something. Perhaps the two thousand dollars was only a distraction to keep him silent.

Herman returned to his desk, bewildered about the whole situation. He looked at Charlie and Irvin, "Maybe I should just give Ballantine a call. See if he can tell us anything."

"That's not too bad of an idea, actually," Charlie said. Virgil Ballantine was the third generation owner of KoilTech when he sold it out to the German group, DBC who wanted to bring in the micro business.
Chapter 7

"Ballantine," Virgil Ballantine said over the phone.

"Virgil?" this is Herman Borkosky, over at KoilTech."

"Oh yeah. Hi Herman. Of course I remember you. How's it going?"

"Not really all that great. I'm sure not as good as you on your retirement."

"You got that right," Virgil said. Is this call for business or pleasure?"

"I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few minutes . . . about business."

"Sure, I got plenty of time. I don't do much of anything these days. What's on your mind?"

"If you recall, I am in the Accounting group. . ."

"Yeah, I remember. I always said you were a good guy Herman."

"Thank you, Sir. Well anyway, our bottom line is not looking good at all."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Um . . . Yeah, thanks, anyhow, part of the problem is that the micro division is so disjointed from the rest of the Company and it is a total money pit. We have no clue how to fix it, because they won't work with us."

"Well, you know, they have to keep it secret. Some of what they are working on is being kept very quiet. They really can't afford to let the competition get any traction against them."

"Can you tell me what they are doing in there, Sir?"

"No, I really can't. I signed a paper stating that I wouldn't discuss it with anyone. But the micro subsidiary was all their own capital investment anyhow. They didn't buy that business from me. So I had no reason to know much of anything about it. You will have to ask them directly. Sorry."

"No, that's okay. I completely understand. Sorry to bother you."

"No bother. Nice to hear from you."

"Thank you. Nice to talk to you. We all miss you."

"Thanks. Nice of you to say."

After the nice phone call with Ballantine, Herman waited until Charlie was alone with him. So when Irvin left for the restroom or wherever, he told Charlie in a hushed tone, "Hey Charlie."

"What."

"You busy Saturday?"

"Saturday?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I want to go into the Micro Department and snoop around."

Charlie started laughing. Herman was not joining her in the hilarity. "Okay, I know you are losing your mind, talking to Posey and all, but you could go to jail for going in there without authorization."

"Yeah, but if we don't do something, you know as well as I do that this Company will go out of business. You have seen the figures. It's as obvious as the nose on my face. "

"Look, you nutcase, if this place goes out of business, then I can get another job. If I get caught in there, I can go to jail. It's all pretty much that simple."

"That's why they would never suspect us. You know, maybe we could dig up some dirt on a number of people around here. Maybe they would be the ones going to jail."

"What?!"

"Shhhhhh. No, I know there is no reason for us to risk our reputations, so that is why they would never suspect it."

"What? There are cameras all over in there. You're crazy on so many levels and make no sense."

"No, if we dress up and hide our identities, then they will never know it is us."

Charlie sighed, "Honestly, how many people with your size and shape would be in the police lineup?"

"It always comes back to that, doesn't it? I'd like to have a conversation someday where my height, or lack thereof, was not an issue."

"Well in this case size matters. You know, I could look more like a guy than a chick," Charlie admitted.

"You said it, not me. Hey! Do you think I could pass as a chick?"

"Hmmm. . . Not a particularly attractive one. We could put a mask on you. Give you a couple of cones. Maybe. If Superman can hide behind a pair of glasses, you ought to be able to hide behind a couple of cones."

"There is no way anyone could figure out it was me if I cross dressed."

"I'll think about it. I ain't gonna lie, I do hate Montgomery and his little suck ass Irvin."

"Now that's the spirit."

*******

Off and on throughout the rest of the workweek, whenever Irvin wasn't around, Herman and Charlie tried to figure out what they were going to do on Saturday, and how to do it.

Whenever Charlie expressed doubts about the mission, Herman bombarded her email with pictures of them working together in happier times, before the buyout.

Charlie looked at pictures of past KoilTech Associates. Some of them retired, quit, or died. But many of them had spent many years there and relied upon management to prevent the Company, and their futures, from going down the tubes. Charlie realized that maybe Herman wasn't so crazy after all.

Herman asked Charlie, "Can you buy me the . . . cones?"

"Already got 'em."

"Where?"

Charlie made bug eyes at him. "As much as you guys look there, you'd remember I already have them on."

"Umm . . . I'll admit to nothing. Well, did you get an outfit for yourself?"

"I'm good to go."

"Yeah, me too."

Charlie asked, "What time do you want to be here?"

"You need to be here at 6am to do quarterly reports."

"Okay. We'll just have to see how it goes."
Chapter 8

On Saturday, Herman waited in his car in an empty parking lot for Charlie to show up. She was right on time. They got out of their vehicles carrying attaché cases. They went into the front door of the Office together. The weekend guard was sitting at the security desk reading a novel on a tablet, paying no attention to them whatsoever. Why were they paying this mannequin of a security guard?

Herman shrugged his shoulders and shook his head and motioned for Charlie to follow. As expected, there was not a soul in the office. They went out into the shop and could hear a couple of maintenance guys working off in the distance. Herman waved his arm in their direction, dismissing them as being no threat." Okay, let's go behind that stock over there and suit up."

They went behind the stacks of boxes. It was very dark with only a few security lights on here and there. They had their stealth uniforms on under their street clothes. They pulled their masks out of their attaché cases. Charlie reached up behind her back to dismantle her bra for Herman to use.

After they came back into the better light, he saw that Charlie had her breasts taped down flat somehow. "Impressive."

"Thanks."

Herman put his hands on his hips and showed off his rack. "How do I look?"

"Um, well. . ." She pointed at his crotch. "You aren't fooling anyone with that package there."

"You think it's noticeable?"

"You don't think an investigator would notice it?" Charlie walked over to the packaging station. There was a roll of wide packing tape on the table. She took it to Herman. "Pull your pants down."

"No."

"Come on, I'm gay. I promise I won't get excited. Although I don't think I would, even if I wasn't."

"Thanks a lot." Herman sighed. He pulled his pants down, revealing his tidy whities. "You'll probably turn straight now. Hey! You're not gay! You have two kids."

"You're a hoot." She unraveled about a foot and a half of the packing tape, while staring at his package. "I already don't like this." Herman became quite nervous as he heard the sickening sound of the uber-strong tape adhesive stubbornly refusing to unroll. "I don't know. . ."

Charlie froze and stared up at Herman's face. "This was all your idea, right? And you are the knucklehead who picked out these form-fitting yoga pants. You want to do this or not?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fine. See if you can suppress my manhood."

Charlie pressed one end of the tape just below Herman's navel. Then she said, "Bend your knees a bit."

Herman obliged. "This is inappropriate."

"Okay," She said, "Now spread your legs a bit."

Again, Herman complied and gritted his teeth.

Charlie stood up and passed the tape between his legs and then pulled up sharply, compressing his business tightly.

"Ugh," Herman said, "I'm gonna puke."

Then Charlie unrolled the tape a bit more and ran it through his butt crack high onto his back and flattened it fast against his skin. Okay, Hermione, pull you pants back up."

"Man this is killing me. He pulled his pants up."

Charlie said, "Not bad, you even have a little camel toe going on there."

"Yeah, I appreciate the realism, but I can barely walk."

Charlie said, "Okay, hot stuff, so how are we getting into the Department?"

Herman put on his wig and pulled a small crowbar out of his case and used the blunt end of it to break out the glass on the door. He reached in and unlocked the door from the inside.

Charlie said, "Okay, so now we got felony B and E. Maybe industrial espionage."

Herman easily pried the door open door and went in.

Charlie said, "You learn that on Grand Theft Auto?"

They did not hear any alarms. "Maybe security is not as tight as everyone thought."

Charlie went out to the packing table and picked up some cardboard. Herman turned on the lights to the room. Charlie put cardboard over the windows. They went over to the racks in the rooms. There were hundreds of small plastic containers each holding thousands of miniscule components. There were grid plates on the countertop with thousands of tiny holes.

Charlie said, "I don't understand any of this stuff. Here's a book." Charlie picked up a three-ring binder. "This stuff is all in German."

Herman said, "Here's one that is in English. I think. Bioenhancement blah blah blah. Bio-Capacitor yada yada yada. Look at this buff model. It looks like we are making some kind of weight loss station."

Charlie said, "We're making weight loss stuff? At a spring factory? Let me see that." Charlie read the manual, "Exoskeletal. . . Augmentation Procedure. Warning: Side effects include possible calcium deficiency and increased amount of dandruff? Really? This stuff may as well be in German."

Herman said, "Those liars. There's no springs or mechanical machine deals in here. It's all a bunch of biological technocrap."

Charlie said, "No wonder this stuff costs so much. Vanity is a huge market."

Herman pointed to the object right beside the table and said, "Hey, the booth. That must be where it all happens."

"I imagine so. But what happens?"

Herman waddled over to the booth and swung open the door. It was just large enough to hold a standing person. On the floor in the booth was a round platform. "That's kind of weirdish. You think if I go on that thing I would lose weight?" Herman was not morbidly obese, but liked the idea of stepping into the booth and losing a few with no effort.

Charlie said, "I don't know about that. Maybe we don't have enough information yet."

Herman pointed out the computer next to the booth and said, "There's a computer setup to this." He turned it on. It started up in seconds. A title screen appeared. "Terminal Insertion Protocol". Also there was an on-screen, "Subject Preparation" button. "I was right. This system is dedicated to this booth. No password. I'm going to get in."

"Maybe you better not."

Herman ignored the advice and hopped in and stood on a platform with the outlines of the soles of two feet painted on it.

Charlie said, "Hey it says here, "Subject should have all clothes removed."

"No way. Everything that is taped, is staying taped."

"Just do it in the booth, so the outside cameras can't see your manly profile."

"This is inappropriate. Now would be the time the security guard would come around." The yoga pants came out.

Charlie said, "It says I have to strap you in." She went inside.

Herman said, "Hey! This is really not appropriate."

"Yeah, definitely not. Ooooh. That's all red down there. What's Beth gonna say?" While strapping Herman's wrists with his arms held straight up. "Now it says I gotta tape your eyes shut."

Herman said, "I'll just close them"

"No, we better do it. Sorry, all I got is this packing tape."

Herman was strapped in and helpless to stop her. He didn't bother to resist. "This is getting weirder every second. It better be worth it."

"Okay," Charlie said, "you're good to go. Any last requests?"

"Yes. No more tape. My stomach still hurts."

Charlie shut the door and latched it. She looked at the computer screen and clicked the "Initiate Sequence" button.

Some whirring and clicking noises came from within the booth. Charlie was nervously looking at the computer screen. There was a notice at the top of the screen, "Administer Analgesic? Y/N"

"Oh crap," Charlie said audibly because she was unable to make any provision for pain killing. But she figured that Herman was a tough enough guy and he would be more than willing to suffer a little discomfort in order to slim down. After all, "N" was a legitimate option. So she pushed the "N" button and held her breath.

Then a screen popped up, "Initiate Automatic Sequence? Y/N"

They were in a hurry to get this over with. "Let 'er rip." Charlie pushed "Y".

Charlie could hear Herman squealing and cussing inside of the booth and some rapid fire compressed air popping while an implement of pain was whirring up and down and the platform was clicking like a ratchet while it rotated. A timer on the screen was counting down. "Twenty seven minutes?!" She knew that Herman was going to be irate no matter how beneficial this treatment was. While she was waiting, she went to the door of the lab to see if anyone noticed the activity. She thought this must be the dumbest thing she had ever done in her life.

Every minute seemed like an hour. She thought about aborting a few times, but stayed the course. After the full amount of time on the screen had passed, the machine finally stopped. Charlie looked at the screen. "Procedure Successful." She opened the door and Herman was trying to catch his breath from all of his moaning in agony. He was drenched in sweat.

"Get me outta here!" Herman said. "That's the worst thing I've ever been through! I thought for sure I was going to die!"

Charlie handed him his clothes. "Hey, it said it was successful."

He struggled to put them on. "No tape," he said. "I'll walk close behind you."

So they left the lab and went over to their original changing place and put their regular clothes on. Herman was muttering the whole time. There were thousands of red spots all over his body in a grid-like formation.

Charlie said, "You look like a pin cushion."

"I'm pretty sure I was. It felt like tens of thousands of bees stinging all at once. I'm surprised it doesn't recommend some kind of pain killer."
Chapter 9

The following Monday, Charlie and Herman noticed a lot of hubbub in the office. They knew that the activity was because of their break-in. But they were confident they would not be suspected because of their cross dressing disguises.

As days went by, Herman noticed that the warnings about calcium deficiency and dandruff were completely understated. He got a patch of thick gray skin on his scalp and all of his skin over his entire body. Some of the crusty forming layers would peel off, but it was building up faster than he could peel it off. The new gray hide got thicker at an alarming rate. It didn't stop. It looked hideous. It was so thick that it was like boney material. Then it was not uncommon for the crust to crack and break. In time, the buildup became so thick that cracking could be heard. This situation didn't cause him any pain or discomfort other than psychological. What was happening? Why? Would it ever stop? People kept asking him if he was alright, but it continually got worse, and fast.

Herman knew that whatever this condition was, eventually someone at KoilTech would figure out he was the one who broke into the micro lab. He had no choice but to hide his nightmarish symptoms, so he stayed home, saying he had a serious illness. He also noticed that he was gaining weight when he got on the scale.

Beth had begged Herman to go to the doctor, but he kept finding excuses not to. One day Beth could no longer help it. Seeing Herman's condition, she lost her composure and was moved to tears. His face was covered with gray crust with crack and bumps all over. She pleaded with him to go to the doctor. He said he would, but he knew that he was going to have to quit the Company and go into hiding.

Charlie brought a shoe box to his house with some of Herman's personal things from work. When she saw him, Charlie was speechless and worried. She left without saying much.

Inside the box among other items was the solar powered flower. Herman pulled it out and stared at it. All the while his heart was breaking because he knew he would no longer want Beth to see him the way. And he didn't want to finish off his rotting process in a jail cell. So he left Beth a note:

Beth;

I can't stand you seeing me while I look this ugly. You deserve someone better. None of this is your fault, because you were always a perfect wife. Way too perfect for me. I can't expect you to love me if I look like this. I'm sorry, but I am leaving and I am not coming back, that way you won't have to worry about me and I won't disappoint you any more.

Love Always,

Herman

Then Herman Borkosky left Gary, Indiana, on a bus with no clear plan and not much in the way of provisions. He did take Posey, the solar flower with him.
Chapter 10

Omaha, Nebraska

Al was always sitting in front of the television like a narcoleptic sloth in the small apartment they shared. A superhero movie was on, and one of the heroes was getting beaten senselessly. Al's lifelessness is one of the main reasons that Rhonda liked him, or at least tolerated him. What you saw is what you got. There was no noise. No interference from Al cluttering up her mind. Al kept a full time physically demanding job in the meat processing plant, but at home, he was unanimated.

Rhonda sometimes had doubts about being in a long term relationship with someone based upon their mutual mental disengagement. Especially, since whenever she and Al did talk, Al would give Rhonda a hard time about all of her "wacked out" interests in her professed mental superpowers and her ultraliberal minded politics.

But Rhonda was convinced there was something to her abilities. She reasoned that just because her powers were rare did not mean that they were imaginary, and that she shouldn't use them. So Rhonda always vowed that she would use her powers only for the greater good, thus confirming that she was not of the Devil, like Al would say half kidding around.

Many questions in Rhonda's mind about her mysterious abilities remained. At times she seemed like she was able to know, or find out things that she shouldn't be able to. Things like when people were lying. Was she gifted with intuition? Supernatural perception? Or did she have powers just because she was a woman? Why did it seem like women tended to know things that men had no clue about? She also seemed to know about things that happened to someone in the past; was that a mental power, or just a keen ability to pick up on clues? Did it really matter? Rhonda seemed to know when something bad was going to happen. Was reliably predicting trouble an ability, or was it because there always was something bad getting ready to happen? But she also was able to cause mental confusion; or was it just like Al would say, "You don't make any sense?"

Being with Al was like the opposite of being at work. The hustle and bustle of work gave everyone heightened emotions. Their minds at work were always running at stressful levels. At times Rhonda's mind was "working a hundred miles an hour". Her anxieties were so heightened that being at work would induce panic. So was her mind superior, or on the brink of collapse? Maybe Al was right. At any rate, they were never going to be married the way things were going.

Rhonda determined that she would not have a normal, boring life. She would not allow herself to go down a predictable path of having a couple of Al's kids and sitting at home and getting fat. The next thing she knew she would be an old lady and never really accomplished much outside the home. All that talk about making the world a better place by being an influence on the lives of her children didn't work for her. She was going to have the glamour and prestige of being a superheroine. That life she imagined seemed so close to reality, that she could reach out and grab it.

Still in her early thirties, Rhonda thought that she would not be young for long, and if she was going to do anything with her special powers . . . "Altoid!"

"What?! I'm watching this!" Al was suddenly startled as if he was being removed from his life support system.

Rhonda sat there for awhile as they both were fixated on the TV. This could not wait another nanosecond. "We need to talk. Right now."

He looked at Rhonda. "Talk? You know I hate that. Listen, I can start doing a better job of cleaning up around here."

Rhonda was still staring at the TV. "That would be great. I want to talk." She pointed at the TV. "I . . . want to start using my powers."

"You mean your power to terrorize people who want to watch TV?"

"Are you going to listen?"

"All right. Go ahead."

"First, I need to quit my job."

Al's head dropped and he started shaking it.

"Listen, Al. I already made up my mind. I'm going to quit my job. It's not working for me."

"Poverty would?"

"Things are meant to work out. I know it."

"Is that your powers talking?"

"Not really, but I know it will. I am going to become a superhero, Albert."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. A superhero."

"Noooo."

Rhonda said, "Who are you to tell me what to do?! We're not married! You would think if someone made the decision to help mankind, she could get a little support at home!"

Al cringed. "Okay, okay. Let's not get all crazy here. Why don't you try it for a week and see how it goes."

Her legs were crossed and her foot was twitching. It was not good for Al when her foot was twitching. "Six months."

Al's arms were crossed. "Okay, two months."

Rhonda uncrossed her legs as if this was to be her final offer. "Fine Allan, I'll meet you in the middle, five months."

"Deal." Then Al was trying to do some math in his head.

"You'll see, Alvin. I'm the real thing."

"Okay," Al said. "In five months you will come back and try to find another job, or you will be a household name. What is your super name? You will protect your secret identity, right? I don't need a bunch of supervillains coming here looking for you."

*******

That night, Rhonda had a lot to consider. Maybe Al had a point about the poverty thing. She really had no savings to speak of. How do superheroes support themselves? Maybe she needed an agent. She got on the internet and tried to find an agent representing superheroes. Nothing. It was almost as if there was no such thing.

So she got on the Super Human Outfitters website and went to the women's section and ordered a closeout superhero outfit in her size that was on special. It was bright orange. "Perfect for the local superheroine fighting baddies, or for going to a comic convention." It looked like it might be tight on the hips, but the suit came with a mask. Click. She would make it work. She could always wear it on Halloween if the superhero gig failed.

What about crime fighting opportunities? She could use her mental powers, which would help finger the perpetrators, but then they would just kill her. Rhonda thought about carrying a gun, which is not very superheroey. But then she saw Super Human Outfitters had a message board that matched heroes to teams. That was more her style. Maybe there would be heroes there who could show her how the whole superhero thing is done.

It seemed like there was a lot of possible connections in Neogothic City, or Atlanta. They both seemed too far from home. So she looked for local heroes, and didn't find anyone she could take seriously. Evidently Omaha was not a hotbed of superhero activity.

A few days later after her new uniform showed up, Rhonda said, "Alfonso!"

"What?"

"You want to be a superhero with me?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Hell, no."

"C'mon! It will be fun!"

"No. It will not."

"I'll get you a costume."

"I don't have all of the powers you do, so I can't do it. I'm just a regular normal guy. I've got this thing . . . you know, it's called a job. I'm tired."

"You can be my sidekick."

"Huh?"

"Sure, Alton."

"Oh wait," Al said, "How's that speech go? You cannot tell me what to do, because we are not married. Yeah. That's it."

"Is that a proposal? It's pretty crappy, but I'll take it. I'll even stay here and forget about being a superhero."

Al's head dropped and he started shaking it. "I'll tell you what, I got an idea for a costume." Al came out with a long underwear and colored shorts ensemble.

"You going to wear that?"

Al's head dropped again.

Rhonda said, "Why don't you wear that green shirt I got you?" Then she said, "I'll go get my new uniform on."

She came back in a few minutes, "How do I look?"

Al said, "It makes your butt look the perfect size and shape in all ways."

"Oh! Nice answer, you big coward!" Rhonda said, "You know what?! Maybe I was fishing for a compliment! Would it really kill you to say something nice once in awhile?!"

"You do want me to be honest, right?"

"So! You are saying you can't be honest and complimentary at the same time?! If I am so unattractive to you, then why do you stay with me?!"

"C'mon Rhonda, you're not making any sense. You know we don't see eye-to-eye on your politics, but there is some good physical chemistry with us."

"Oh right, now you are just bashing my beliefs! When was the last time you ever cared about anything?!"

"Just because I don't blindly follow every one of your stupid emotional causes!"

"That's it!" Rhonda said, "If I am too fat and stupid, then I really don't need to stay here with someone who doesn't share my goal to be an activist for people who just wants people to get a fair wage, free education, freedom to marry whoever they want, and free medical care! You know what it is?! You are jealous of my powers!"

Al said, "All you want to do is run your mouth and take money from people who work their ass off, like me, and hand it to people who don't want to work! The only superhuman I ever heard of who had beliefs like you was a supervillain!"

"I won't be back in five months, or ever!" Neogothic City or Atlanta didn't seem so far away for Rhonda any more. She would call herself Cynapse, and she had no interest in sharing her intentions with Al, ever again. The simple argument quickly morphed into a battle that brought up issues that had been festering for years. It was time for a new start.

Chapter 11

Portland, Oregon

Luke put on the turn signal as he and his best friend Will pulled into Kevinz Komix. He asked Will, "You going to check out that new Space Battle Guys book?"

"I'm not really a sci-fi guy. I'm more into fantasy."

Luke said, "What do you think superhero comics are?"

"They're fantasy, not sci-fi."

"What? That makes no sense."

"Whatever. Anyways Chloe said I'm supposed to tell you our wedding is going to have a superhero theme."

"So?" Luke said as he pulled into the front of the small Comic Shop.

"Well, you gotta wear a superhero costume."

"What?! C'mon! "

Will said, "Hey, it's no more expensive than renting a tux.

"It's not that, I'll just look really fat in something skin tight. Can't she just have a normal wedding?"

"It's not like I have a choice. Chloe wants it. "

"So?"

"She actually said, 'I dumped one guy for being boring, I can dump another one.'"

"You're totally whipped."

"No, I just try to make my future wife happy. She really likes superhero movies, you know. How many women are into the same stuff as us?"

Luke sighed. "Doesn't the Church have some kind of church rule against weird stuff like dressing sci-fi in a wedding?"

Will said, "I don't know. I guess they need the business. C'mon, it's no big deal. The rest of us already have our superhero names and are going to go on the Super Human Outfitters Website to pick out our costumes."

"Wow, this superhero theme deal and throwing all that cash at his online business rival is really going to piss Kevin off even more." Luke opened his car door. "Sure you want to go in?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"You don't think that maybe Kevin is the least bit mad that Chloe dumped him for you?"

"Kevin said we're good. But I wouldn't bring up about the superhero theme or nothing."

"Honestly, I just can't see myself as a superhero. I could call myself 'Mr. Muffin Top' or 'Captain Spare Tire'."

"That would be perfect."

"Whaaat?!"

"Well, no. I mean . . . we are all are using the unflattering names that Chloe called us. After Chloe told Dan his name was "Party Man, Dan turned around and told her that her name was 'High Maintenance Woman' and she agreed to it."

"You're kidding."

"I'm kind of surprised too."

Luke asked, "What's your name?"

"Doctor Groom."

They walked into the store. They waved at Kevin who was sitting behind a counter and returned a minimal nod.

Will said, "Hey, look at this. . ."

Will continued, "That's the original superhero novel put out by Unbelievable Universe. Someone said it's a real hoot. This guy gets superpowers and has a giant green rat and gets into a ton of fights with a bunch of other meta-humans."

Luke said, "Interesting. Sounds totally like sci-fi."

Will said, "Yeah, no. Maybe you can get some ideas in here?"

Luke asked, "Ideas for what?"

Will said, "Ideas for your costume."

Luke sighed.

Kevin, the store owner and former competing suitor for Chloe's hand said, "I got the new Space Battle Guys."

"Sweet," Luke said, "I've been wanting to get that."

Kevin said, "I'm surprised that you guys are buying anything here."

They both turned and looked at Kevin.

Kevin said, "I hear from one of your groomsmen that you are spending all your money on the internet at Super Human Outfitters."

Will said, "That was Chloe's choice, not mine."

Kevin said, "Yeah, she makes a lot of bad choices. That's why I had to dump her."

Will got red in the face. "Look! You. . ."

Luke said, "Look at the time! We gotta get going. Let me pay for this."

After they got back into the car, Will said, "I can't believe those guys said anything to him about Super Human Outfitters!"

Luke said, "You don't think that moment wasn't more about Chloe than the S.H.O.?"

Will just sat there staring out his window.

Luke said, "Doctor Groom, you better double check with High Maintenance Woman about all this."

Chapter 12

Luke got home to his apartment and threw his car keys in the vase on the shelf and set the Space Battle Guys book next to it, wondering if he would really read it, or it would just end up taking space like so many of his other crazy books.

He flipped it open to a random page. Space Battle Guys looked good, but this whole superhero wedding thing was becoming a distraction. He hated the idea of parading down the aisle with an unflattering form fitting outfit on. So Kevin decided to mitigate the amount of humiliation by coming up with a better costume.

After thinking about it, he decided to call Sarah, one of the bridesmaids who also carried some extra weight. Even though Sarah was heavy, she was proportioned more than well enough to hold Luke's attention.

Luke called her up and told her his concern over his weight.

Sarah said, "You worry too much. None of us are perfect."

"Except High Maintenance Woman."

Sarah laughed. "You heard about that already? Why don't you wear something with some vertical stripes . . . and black. Those have a slimming effect. "

"As a superhero? Wow, that would really be exciting."

Sarah asked, "You got any better ideas?"

"Not really. I guess I could wear my referee uniform."

"You were a referee?"

"Peewee soccer." Luke tried to imagine how the stripes on a shirt would make him look less fat. "I dunno. . . That thing might be real tight now."

"Okay . . . Then wear a cape, and you can pull it around you."

"Well then it will be obvious I'm trying to cover up."

Sarah sighed. "Just act normal while you are wearing it. Have some confidence. You could be Referee-Man, or Mr. Neutral, or The Official. It's just for one time, you know? Personally, I don't think you look so bad."

"Really?" Luke thought that certainly Sarah could not be complimenting him the way he hoped she was. The thought of ruining the moment by getting a clarification scared him, so he changed the subject. "I doubt if being Referee-Man will make H.M.W. happy."

Sarah said, "H. M. . . . Oh yeah, High Maintenance. Bridezilla will have enough other stuff to worry about to watch what you're doing, Referee-Man."

Luke said, "I don't know if I like that name. I think I will name myself after one of my superpowers."

"Superpowers?"

"Yeah. My power to book players with a red card. So I shall be. . . Redcard. I don't know how to make a cape."

"Really? I'll bring you one if you pay me for it."

"That's super . . . get it?"

"Nyuk nyuk. Another clunker," Sarah said.

"And I need a mask."

"Click over to Super Human Outfitters Megastore. That is what we are doing. I can't do it all for you."

"What are you going to wear?"

"That's kind of personal, isn't it? You want to know what I am wearing right now? You want to know what color; or even if I have underwear on?"

"I just. . ."

"Just kidding, dummy! I'm making some mods to my outfit I got from Super Human Outfitters. It's not done yet. I'm going as the Cleavenger?"

"Like you're supposedly from Cleveland?"

"No! I'll be sporting some not real modest cleavage."

"Ohhhhh."

*******

Meanwhile, back at Kevinz Komix. . .

Randy, a regular at the comic shop, and a close friend of Kevin, asked him, "You going to Will and Chloe's superhero wedding?"

"Negative."

"I understand. I wouldn't either if I got dumped.

"I dumped her! She can marry whatever idiot she wants!"

"Whatever." Randy said. "I always thought Will was an overrated loser. Here you are with your own store and all. You know what you ought to do?"

"Keep working on this order and ignore you?"

"No. You ought to go on that Super Human Outfitters website and call for all supervillains to meetup at the wedding. Chloe has been bragging all over social media about her stupid fake superheroes."

"I'm not interested in being an evil mastermind, thanks."

"Whatever. It's not every day you get an opportunity like that." Randy continued flipping through more comics. "You know, I think I'll get a costume and show up."

"What will you be, the 'Sarcastic Bastard'?"

"It's Mister Sarcastic to you, boy blunder. And I know this dude, a really massive bodybuilder dude, Shane Winston. He freaking looks like he came right out of the comics, and he owes me a favor since I took his sister to the prom. I'll tell him we need him to play a supervillain role and act like he is messing up the wedding."

"Why would he do all that?"

"You should see his sister."

Kevin said, "That all sounds really stupid. I'm still out and I don't want to know anything about your stupid idea."

Randy said, "You can thank me later."

"I'll send you a Christmas card when you are in County Jail."

**Chapter 13**

The day of the wedding of High Maintenance Woman and Doctor Groom came. The superhero costumes were all ready. Many in attendance were wearing costumes of various characters, or just a mask, except most of the older people, who thought the theme was a little crazy, but not blasphemous.

Dr. Groom was waiting at the altar with his Best Man, Redcard, and groomsmen; Partyman, The Geek, and The Nerd.

Then the bridesmaids came down the aisle; Captain Air Force; Invisible Maiden, who was visible; and the Maid of Honor, The Cleavenger, who was bustily busting out of her uniform in classic superheroine fashion. The young women took their place on the stage.

Then High Maintenance Woman was escorted by her father, who was dressed in a conventional formal suit, but also wore a red velvet cape. He tearfully delivered his daughter up to Doctor Groom who looked as if he was headed to the gallows.

The Pastor, who was not at all thrilled with the theme of the wedding, tried to appear all business, and asked those in attendance, "If there is anyone here who objects to this union, let them speak now, or forever hold their peace."

"I object!" The guy was in a blue cheapo store bought superhero suit from Kevinz Komix. Two others followed him, a guy dressed in all green, and a massive guy bulging with muscles, who had on a black t-shirt and a mask that read, "Mr. Awesome" in white lettering.

The Pastor said, "It's okay to enjoy ourselves, but we need to keep our eyes upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Shall we continue?"

Luke whispered to Will, "I knew we should have had a rehearsal, what is Randy from the comic store doing here? And that big guy has to be that Shane Winston who practically lives at the gym.

Will, aka Dr. Groom whispered back, "I don't know anything about this! Chloe never said anything about it!"

The guy in blue said, "I am Mr. Sarcastic, and these are my associates, Green Vandal and Mister Awesome. Doctor Groom! We are calling you out! Right here, right now!"

Doctor Groom, said, "Get the Hell out of here!"

The Pastor said, "Amen, to that."

The congregation chuckled.

Then the blue and green guys charged the stage directly at Dr. Groom. The audience thought the action was part of the theme and were laughing uncontrollably. The perturbed Pastor calmly took a seat next to the pulpit.

Mr. Awesome said, "What are we doing?"

Fists started flying and Doctor Groom was pounded right in the face by Mr. Sarcastic. The unexpected punch sent Groom down to the floor.

Nerd and Geek ran away. Cleavenger and Captain Air Force stepped in to help Doctor Groom. The two women started grappling the men. Both of the wrestling couples were down to the floor. Invisible Maiden disappeared. Partyman was just standing there laughing.

The close combat continued with people rolling around on the floor. Mr. Awesome was trying to pull Captain Air Force off of the Green Vandal when the Captain turned and gave Mr. Awesome a sharp elbow to the midsection, hard enough to make him double over. Then after Groom and Sarcastic stood up, Cleavenger shoved Mr. Sarcastic off of the stage.

Once Awesome got his second wind, he charged after Doctor Groom. It looked like a grown man tackling a child.

TWEEEEET! All the combatants froze in place. Redcard had blown his whistle.

Mr. Awesome held up his hands, "What?!" He started pointing at everyone else. Clearly, this was his conditioned response of feigning total innocence learned while being whistled during football games.

To add insult to injury, Redcard pulled his red card out of his pocket and held it up in the air in front of Awesome.

"No way!" Awesome said, stomping off. He had never played soccer, but knew the meaning of the card was ejection from the game.

"What?! No!" Mr. Sarcastic said. "Get back here! We don't stop for referees!"

High Maintenance Woman walked over to Doctor Groom, who had blood trickling down his face from his nose. "Will, you are such a wimp. You could have fought a lot better!"

"You know what, Chloe?" Will said, "You can just shove it. I'm not marrying you."

"We win!" the Green Vandal said as he limped off of the stage.

Everyone gasped. Will walked off holding his nose with his head up in the air. The congregation was stunned and embarrassed for the couple, but then started filing out of the rows of pews and heading for the door. The last ones to leave were some people who were replaying their videos of the scene, which soon exploded on the internet.

For most, the mood was shock and dismay at what had happened. Redcard sat with Clevenger in her car looking at the video. She played it a couple of times.

Luke said, "Man, this totally sucks for Will."

Clevenger said, "Luke . . . I mean Redcard, you know you really look good in that uniform. Like, really commanding."

"Oh? You really think so?"

"It's kinda hot, really. And you stopped the whole fight. Amazing."

Luke decided right then that he wanted to keep his Redcard persona. He studied the video of the voluptuous Clevenger tumbling around. He could imagine himself being her next wrestling "opponent"; win, lose, or draw. He told her, "You look incredible."

She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow and a partial smile in the corner of her mouth.

Redcard had never had such a feeling of satisfaction. He had found his calling. It was at that moment that he knew he wanted to be a superhero full-time.

Chapter 14

Shanesville, Ohio

Corpus DeLuxx was well known in superhero circles as the number one archvillain on the Super Human Outfitters website. While lurking menacingly, he was captured by surprise at a public park in Shanesville, Ohio. His captor, Nautiqarella was a water breathing and air breathing superhero who was a member of the Sistas, a local superhero team. She attacked DeLuxx from behind by charging out from under the surface of the duck pond, then grabbed him in a headlock and pulled him directly backwards, and into the pond. But being the water-based paragon of virtue that she was, she swam with him through a large underground tile and emerged in another secluded area of the park, saving his life. DeLuxx hacked and sputtered, trying to cough up the pond water teeming with microbial life out of his lungs.

"I can't believe that I got taken . . .*cough cough* down by a useless water-based . . .*cough* interloper. There I was, minding my own business, and fishy-girl comes and yanks me underwater in an indiscriminate act of terrorism. I know you are probably hot for my body, but didn't anyone ever teach you anything about water safety?"

"Don't try anything Creepus. I'm taking you to the cop shop," Nautiqarella said, shaking water from her blue uniform with fins protruding from her back, arms, and legs.

"Yeah . . . No . . . I don't . . . think so. I'm going to kill you."

"You're real funny, creepazoid. One wrong move and we'll see if you can drink that whole pond."

Corpus could barely move. "Okay, then. Looks like you got me. I give up." Before Nautiqarella could become suspicious over Corpus DeLuxx's overacting, he held his hand up into the air. He squeezed his thumb and forefinger together and a tiny flash appeared. Then a pea sized glowing red orb hovered above his hand. He quickly flicked his fingers sending the small projectile at Nautiqarella's face. Before she could dodge the harmless looking energy pea, the tiny ball burned through her skull and exploded inside of her brain. Her eyes rolled back and she was dead before she hit the ground.

"The Joke's on you. You snoozed, so you lose. That's the rules."

DeLuxx stood up, staring at his handiwork. Water ran off of his black cape and skin tight red suit with its yellow fist icon. Gifted with the ability of flight, he left Shanesville. He would rather have travelled on the road, but since he recently lost his RV and driver, he would have to fly under his own power.

He thought about his encounter in the pond. "The nerve of her, thinking she would force me into a single day of incarceration."

Corpus DeLuxx felt that he would feel much more appreciated in Neogothic City, than the more rustic, simple, slower-paced Shanesville, Ohio. Also, DeLuxx had his super secret, evil supervillain lair close to the large Neogothic metropolis.

After arriving back at Neogothic City, his first order of business was to stop at the Neogothic Mal-Mart for some toothpaste. He landed on the big store's parking lot. A number of people watched him land and continued to stare at him. Then he observed an older man getting out of his car. He shook his head. The man was parked in a handicapped parking spot.

The older man got out of his car and quickly was walking to the store.

"Hey! You!" DeLuxx hailed the man. "You are parked in a handicapped spot!"

"So?"

"You don't look handicapped to me."

"Look, I got a permit for it, see there? So why don't you just mind your own business, weirdo."

"That won't be possible. Because you crossed the line. The thin line of what I will tolerate out of idiots like you."

"Look here, I. . ."

Then Corpus DeLuxx pulled his hands together as if he was catching a ball and a softball sized energy ball appeared hovering and rotating above his hands. He tossed the ball at the man's legs. The energy ball exploded, shearing one leg completely off and leaving the other one broken and dangling.

The man was screaming on the pavement, with horrific amounts of blood pulsing out of his body.

Corpus said, "There. Now you really are handicapped, you vile lazy liar. It's great to know that I can use my special gift to make the world a better place." He walked into the store.

Onlookers were screaming and running away. Witnesses wanted no part of the horrific situation.

DeLuxx said to himself out loud, as supervillains often do, "I think I may have found my calling. My mother always wanted me to settle down and get a steady job. It seems that now is the time. I believe I'll go in and fill out an application to work for Mal-Mart as their security expert. I'm a natural. Maybe I'll get a discount on what I buy."

DeLuxx filled out an e-application at a specially designated employment application station inside of the store. "They may not hire me, since I am so universally worshipped and grossly overqualified. I better change my name and dumb down my employment application. Let's see; Name . . . Billy Bob. Experience. . . Ummm . . . Regular Helper Lackey . . . Education . . . Doctorate in . . . NASCAR. My interests include . . . Anything Duck Dynasty. Special Skills are definitely; Lots of energy. Field test security countermeasures, great with people, selling stuff made in Communist Countries. Have I ever been convicted of a felony? Ha! Like that will ever happen. Not enough evidence to convict. There, that ought to get my foot in the door."

DeLuxx went home and saw himself on channel 2 news. The Mal-Mart security camera naturally had captured the whole handicapped parking dispute, along with its graphic violence. DeLuxx's face was not in view. Opinions were divided on whether it was really possible for the wrongdoer to take off the man's leg or the video was a hoax. Real or not, many people called the station, disgusted with them for showing the extremely graphic violent video.

*******

The Mal-Mart security manager invited his acquaintance and local super-hero, Blue Retaliator in the store office. He had just played the security video of the parking lot incident for him.

"Retaliator, I don't know what to do. The police won't take this video or this guy seriously. For God's sake; that guy lost his legs out there! They say the guy is going to live. I don't know. What if that fiend comes back? He could destroy our business or kill people. So I am turning to you. Is there any way you can you help us out here?"

The Blue Retaliator said, "Mitch, as a member of the Pain Posse, I have dealt with him before. That's Corpus DeLuxx. He's the number one supervillain on the Super Human Outfitters website."

Mitch looked confused about DeLuxx's pedigree. "So can you stop him, with your kung-fu or something?"

"Absolutely not. Anyways, just because I am of Asian descent, Vietnamese to be specific, does not mean that I know kung fu."

"Dang! What can you do?"

Retaliator held his finger in the air as if to make an important point. "Maybe if we can reorganize the Pain Posse, we can build up a team that can stop him. I'll get on it right away."

Mitch said, "Please keep in touch."

"You have my word."

*******

DeLuxx got a call from Mal-Mart the next day to come to work immediately under the pseudonym, "Billy Bob". Mal-Mart associates were required to wear gray pants and a black shirt of some kind, which he already had in his extensive wardrobe. The degrading outfit made him feel like a uniformed henchman. He told himself, "The first day of a new career. How demeaning and depressing. Oh well, I should get promoted right away. That will make mother happy." He imagined himself in the uniform looking important while his mother comes into the store.
Chapter 15

The Blue Retaliator was a utility superhero without a team. All the other former members were either dead, or quit. He gave a call to his benefactor, Mrs. Jenkins, who had supported the team since its inception. She was in favor of getting new members and restoring the Posse of Pain, but Retaliator knew she would not be interested in getting them all killed off while going up against DeLuxx.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "What you need is K-Tron."

Retaliator said, "I know he won't help us out and he doesn't want to be a superhero any more. He says he doesn't want to do it, but you know what? To me, he is just an overrated glory hound."

"Why would you say that?"

"Case in point; if you look at the book he wrote, K-Tron, named after himself, with all of that bad grammar, you will see that my face is chopped off on the cover. That giant green rat doesn't even have his face chopped off. Well maybe part of his tail . . ."

On the other end of the phone, Mrs. Jenkins blinked impatiently and said, "Who else you got?"

"I got a friend, Roid Rage. This guy is a beast. He hit a guy with a motorcycle once."

"So?"

"He wasn't riding it."

"Oh. That's a start. You need someone with some kind of ranged weapon or can fly. Why don't we have open auditions?"

"We don't have time for that. DeLuxx could be over there right now. You know what? I've got this other friend who's been begging me to join the Posse."

"Another Geek?" Mrs. Jenkins asked.

"Um, yeah. Wait, what exactly do you mean by another?"

"That figures. Again, I'm telling you that you need some kind of ranged weapon. I'm serious. I can't fund you in good conscience unless you can come up with a solid ranged weapon. And I'm not talking about brining guns into a no-gun area."

Retaliator mumbled something she couldn't make out.

"What's that?" she said.

"I guess I could invite Pink Arrow, I guess, if I have to."

"So what's wrong with her?"

"Nothing . . . I guess. I just don't get any respect from her. Her answer for everything is shooting an arrow. Not a technically advanced arrow, just a plain old goes through your neck arrow, like into the neck of a guy's Arch-Nemesis."

"She sounds great."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"You got her number?"

"Yeah."

"Call her."

"Okay."

"I'm talking today, not later. Got it?"

"K."

"And Retaliator, do some open auditioning. ASAP."

*******

Corpus went up to the information desk at Mal-Mart. "I'm here to start my first day of work."

"Lucky you. I'll call the assistant manager."

"Assistant manager?"

"Yeah. What's your name?"

"Billy Bob. I thought the corporate COO would greet me."

"Hang on."

The Assistant manager, Lisa came to the desk.

"Nice to meet you." They shook hands. "I'm Lisa Fortunato."

"The pleasure is all mine, Lisa."

She was clearly enamored by DeLuxx's well cultivated charm. "I have a great job for you, Mr. . ." She looked at his application, "Mr. Bob."

"Wonderful."

"You will be a Greeter on Second shift, after some on-the-job training on day shift. I know we call the position a 'greeter' but there is a very important anti-shoplifting component to it. When you are a greeter, you never know who can come through that door. Shoplifters are very clever about how they steal merchandise out of here. But Bruce will show you everything you need to know."

"Great. But there's a little problem about me being on second shift. You are going to move me to first shift, correct?"

Lisa said, "That won't be possible. We go by seniority here."

"I must have day shift. I will have day shift. I have a life."

Lisa said, "I don't think you understand Billy. Your shift is determined by us. You have no say in that at all. Now once you are here awhile you may get the chance to be on day shift. That is the rule. Your longevity here at Mal-Mart depends upon you following all the rules."

DeLuxx said, "Well played, Miss Fortunato. Well played. I have never heard a better threat issued by any of my proto-villain acquaintances. You have earned my admiration."

Lisa's eyes narrowed. She took a deep breath. "So, I'll go ahead and introduce you to Bruce."

They walked over to Bruce, and the instant Lisa left "Billy Bob" with him, Bruce said, "I gotta run to the crapper."

"Hold it!" DeLuxx, aka, Billy Bob told a rotund woman leaving the store with a loaded down shopping cart.

The woman presented the cash register receipt.

DeLuxx said, "I don't care about what you paid for. My only interest is in what you didn't pay for. Now I see that your pants are incredibly tight, but your shirt is hanging loosely, yet bulging over your midsection, which appears to be far larger than what would be considered to be normal." He grabbed her shirt with both hands and lifted it up past her brazier, revealing her bare obese midsection for all passers-by to gaze upon.

The woman screamed, "Stop! Why would you do that, you idiot?!" She yanked down her shirt and ran red-faced out the store. "I'm gonna sue your ass, and the store's ass!"

DeLuxx called out to her as she was leaving. "My apologies. I was only thinking about the best interest of the store. It keeps prices low."

"You and your store can go straight to Hell! I'll never shop here again!"

DeLuxx muttered to himself, "Store's ass. Humph. How stupid are these people?"

Lisa showed up. I thought I heard some screaming. Is everything all right?"

"I just exposed a woman who was trying to conceal . . . something. She was embarrassed and ran out."

"Where's Bruce?"

"He said he had to go to the crapper and take a 'Lisa' and wipe his 'Fortunato'. Do you know what he meant by that?"

"Oh, is that a fact?!" Lisa stormed off in the direction of the restrooms.

Retaliator said to himself, "Bye bye, Brucie. Looks like there might be an opening for a new day shift Greeter pretty soon."
Chapter 16

The Blue Retaliator met at a Neogothic City Public Park with his friends. This was the appointed place that Retaliator promoted on the internet for all prospective new Pain Posse team members to assemble on the following day.

Retaliator said to his uber-muscular friend, "Roid, desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm going to let Jason join the Pain Posse under the name of 'Phantaztiq'."

Phantaztiq wore a red hooded sweatshirt with a black mask, and blue jeans. Phantaztiq, Roid Rage, and Blue Retaliator had all been friends a long time.

Phantaztiq said, "Welcome to the team, Roid Rage."

Instead of shaking Phantaztiq's hand, Roid Rage puts his massive hand on Phantaztiq's scrawny upper arm. "My wrists are bigger than that." Roid Rage had dreadlocks going everywhere and a soul patch on his chin. He wore a regular shirt and jeans and a long, brown leather coat. His lightning bug green plastic shoes seemed incongruous with his image. "Jason, why do you call yourself Phantaztiq?"

Phantaztiq said, "You'll see."

"Whatever," Roid Rage said. "My thinking is, when the crap comes down, you would just get yourself hurt." Jason, I think you doing this superhero thing is a really bad idea.

Retaliator said to Roid Rage, "Let's not marginalize anyone. Let's try to be less rude, and more objective, and not use real names."

Roid Rage said, "Humph. I was just expressing my concern. Not to change the subject, but did you get a hold of Pink Arrow yet?"

"Actually no, I have been putting that off, trying to get someone else to fill her spot."

"Why?! A while ago she was hand-picked by Arch Citizen himself to help go after DeLuxx." Arch Citizen was the administrator of the Super Human Outfitters website. The SHO formed an elite team called the Power Patrol, and Pink Arrow was on it, to help go after top baddies and no doubt promote their products.

Retaliator said, "Pink Arrow and I don't have a good working relationship."

Roid Rage said, "You need to get over it, chump."

"We could sure use her," Phantaztiq asked.

"Look, first we are going to have open tryouts. I set it up for tomorrow, right here. If any of us don't like a particular candidate, we won't let them join the Posse. All right? And if nobody worthwhile shows up, then I guess then I'll have to call the irreplaceable Pink Arrow. I know Mrs. Jenkins is going to get on me anyhow if I don't come up with someone. Finally, it doesn't matter if you can beat the whole world single-handedly. You won't be on the team if you can't respect the others, including me."

The others nodded in approval.

*******

Back at Mal-Mart, Corpus DeLuxx was on the job as a Greeter. Customers found him to be weird at best, and they kept their distance from him. His greeter's post was near one of the two main doorways. From this vantage point, DeLuxx had a good view of the Express Lane Checkout.

DeLuxx said, "What the . . . Hey you!"

A young woman had her cart in the Express lane. The cart clearly had way more than the 20 maximum number of allowable items for the Express lane. She looked at DeLuxx. "You talking to me?"

"Yeah, that's right. You. How many items are in that cart?"

"Ummm, twenty?"

"You get on over to the other aisle. You have too many."

She said, "Why don't you mind your own damn business."

DeLuxx walked up to her. "You insolent tart! I am the Greeter, and you won't mess with me!" He picked up her cart, and flew up to the ceiling, then flew down with it. THOOOM! He slammed it down to the floor as hard as he possibly could. The cart and the contents shattered all over the aisle. Customers were screaming and cowering.

A young boy was standing back and observed the whole thing. He said, "Nice."

A guy waiting in line behind the woman in the Express Lane, holding only a couple of items backed up, but he was smiling.

Terrified, the woman customer ran away.

"Cleanup at the Express Checkout Lane," announcement came over the public address system.

Lisa came out and looked at the area of impact. The cart was a twisted wreck. Some of the floor tiles were broken up. She asked, "What the hell happened?!"

The woman running the checkout looked at Lisa. Then the checkout clerk raised her eyebrows and glanced over at DeLuxx.

Lisa shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

The checkout woman shrugged her shoulders and made duck lips.

An older woman walked up to Lisa. "I saw the whole thing. The Greeter came over and flew up in the air with the cart and came down and smashed it. I thought I was going to die. I thought we all were."

Lisa saw the woman had a bag from the Pharmacy in the store. She wondered what possible side effects, such as hallucinations, her prescription had upon her interpretation of the events. Lisa looked over at DeLuxx and saw him being ridiculously polite to all who passed by.

As soon as Lisa turned away, Corpus yelled at a woman customer who was on a company owned motorized scooter. "Hey fatty! You're not handicapped! You're just fat!"

The scooter rider floored it and tried to get away. At full throttle, the scooter was not as fast as a normal person's walking speed.
Chapter 17

The next day in the park, there were many people who had gotten the message through social media about the tryouts to join a real superhero team with some actual prestige.

Blue Retaliator, Roid Rage, and Phantaztiq were seated on one side of a picnic table in a panel waiting on the candidates to apply. The hopeful candidates had formed a single file line to the table. Retaliator had corresponding paper applications from all of the applicants in front of him.

"My name is 'Fate', spelled P-H-8."

Retaliator said, "Got any super powers?"

"Yeah. I can time travel."

Roid Rage said, "Prove it. Come back a hundred years from now."

PH8 walked away.

Retaliator shrugged his shoulders and looked at the others. "I was just kidding."

The next applicant approached. "My name is Batman." He was dressed as the Batman in a Halloween costume.

Retaliator said, "You can't call yourself that."

"I'm Man-Bat."

"No."

"Okay, I'm the Caped Crusader."

"Again, no."

"Okay, I'm Darth Vader."

Phantaztiq said, "All of that is copyright infringement. You can't do it. Technically, you could be a Thor. . ."

The Bat guy said, "That's cool."

"So now you want to be Thor?"

"No, I'll be the Infringer."

"Next," the Blue Retaliator said.

A skinny soldier in a US Army uniform stood at attention. "I'm Corporal United States."

Roid Rage asked, "Got any super powers."

"No, sir."

Roid Rage said, "Thank you for your service. You've done enough for the country. "

"Yes, sir."

"Next!"

A guy with a blue cape and yellow pajamas said, "I'm the Eliminator."

Once again, Roid Rage asked, "Got any super powers?"

"Yep. I can eliminate toxins out of my system."

Blue Retaliator said, "That's remarkable. Can you show us how it is done?"

"Sure can."

Phantaztiq interrupted the action, "Whoa! You may want to table that request." He turned to Eliminator. "Does this super power by any chance include anything other than poo poo or pee pee?"

Eliminator hung his head and walked away.

"Not funny!" Retaliator shouted at the Eliminator.

Then a short, blocky built man approached the table. He wore a large pair of green shorts. He looked like he was in some kind of old plastic suit or something. He was looking down.

"Well?" Retaliator asked.

The man looked up. The entire panel gasped.

Roid Rage said, "Dude. . . Your face . . . What the . . .?"

He said, "My real name is a secret." It was Herman Borkosky from Gary, Indiana. By now his eyes were very deep set within the extremely thick boney shell that covered his entire body. His hideous face was a thick, gnarly, knobby, cracked, disfigured mess.

"I have a thick exoskeleton for protection, I guess. You may call me Exo, please. I think Exo is a fitting superhero name, with this condition."

Phantaztiq asked, "So you have a protective shell?"

"Correct. I don't know how strong it is, but I feel safe in it. However, I can't move very fast."

Roid Rage got up from the table and walked over to Exo. He gave Exo a mere 10% of a punch. Such a punch from Roid Rage would ordinarily knock down a normal man. Roid Rage yelled, "Ow! My hand! That is bone!" He asked Exo, "You couldn't feel that?"

"Nope." Exo gave Roid Rage back a feeble tap of his fist.

"Ow! That does hurt! That was like getting hit with a sledge hammer! I say he's in!"

Phantaztiq said, "I wouldn't want you hitting me. So I say you're in."

Blue Retaliator said, "Welcome to the Pain Posse, Exo."

"Thank you. I hope I can meet your expectations."

Then a busty, curvy woman in low cut tights with an iconic cape and mask moved forward. She stood akimbo in a dramatic superheroine pose. "I'm the Cleavenger. I came here from Oregon to fight crime."

The panel stared blankly for a moment.

Without averting his gaze, Phantaztiq said, "I think she should be in."

The team quickly reached unanimous consent.

Blue Retaliator said, "Welcome to the Posse."

Redcard was next in line. "I'm a friend of Cleavenger."

Looking at their application form, Retaliator said, "So, that's why you are both from Portland."

Phantaztiq said, "How does the whole referee theme of yours work?"

Redcard pulled out his phone and showed Phantaztiq and Retaliator the video of the wedding that never happened. "See? I got the whistle of confusion, the red card, and also the yellow card."

"That's interesting," Retaliator said.

"No," Phantaztiq said, "That's just some conditioned response thing when they hear the whistle. That won't work all the time, unless the villains are dumber than I think." The panel weren't nearly so interested in a rubber stamp approval of Redcard as they were Cleavenger.

Redcard asked Phantaztiq, "So what powers do you have?"

Roid Rage chuckled.

Phantaztiq stammered, "We're asking the questions here."

Cleavenger said, "Well, he's my ride . . . I gotta. . ."

Once they saw Clevenger was possibly slipping away, they warmed up to Redcard. Retaliator took Redcard's phone and said, "Look at her in action in this video. I say yes. . . to Redcard, that is."

Roid Rage said, "Looks like you're in, Ref."

A hideous looking woman approached the panel. "My name is Ectomancer. I can summon ghosts."

Retaliator asked, "How about zombies?"

"Nope, just ghosts."

Retaliator said, "Here's the deal; we get people who say they're invisible, or some other supernatural power they can't prove. How do we know that's not a load of crap? Also, you are not scantily clad, not that we are interested in that."

"What?" Ectomancer said, "You're not scantily clad either."

Retaliator said, "Yeah, but I'm not a female superhero."

Cleavenger said, "I don't have any powers."

Phantaztiq told Ectomancer, "See that? Clearly you don't look like her."

Ectomancer said, "You want to talk about crap? You can just shove it, you bunch of sexists." Then she left.

When the next superheroine approached the panel, Retaliator and Phantaztiq exchanged glances. Another woman, applied. They knew they shouldn't invite too many tactically useless team members just because they wanted women to join.

Retaliator said, "Who are you, and what powers do you have?"

"I have mental powers."

"Such as. . ."

"My name is Cynapse, and I have the ability to cause empathy in others toward me, along with some other mental powers, and I can hit pretty hard."

Phantaztiq said, "Are you using your empathy now?"

"No."

Retaliator said, "Go ahead. Make me black out."

Cynapse put her fingers on both of her temples and strained to the point that a big blue vein bugged out of her forehead.

Retaliator said, "I'm not getting anything from it." It did occur to him that her powers could be so insidious that he wouldn't even know they were working.

The others shook their heads.

Retaliator said, "Sorry Cynapse. Our best wishes go with you."

Cynapse said, "I don't really feel like you gave me much of a chance. I really believe in my abilities and want to help make the world a better place for the children."

Retaliator said, "We encourage that. We just only have so many openings. It's a money thing."

Cynapse pleaded, "But I want to change the world."

Roid Rage asked, "How?"

"I don't understand why people just don't seem to care about such important issues like I do. I want to defend women's health, and wage equality, combat Islamaphobia, the right for people to love who they want, keep religion out of; schools, business, and government, I care deeply about animal rights, and also to stop climate change."

Phantaztiq asked, "You want to stop the weather?"

"I didn't say that."

Retaliator was getting bored with her. "Anything else?"

"Take guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists."

Roid Rage asked, "You got any plans on how to do any of that?"

"I don't plan to actually do anything personally, but it's called the power of democracy. Everyone should all just join hands under the total central planning by the State. Plus I have my mental powers.

Retaliator said, "Again, I'm not thinking we would be a good fit for each other. Best wishes."

Cynapse hung her head and walked away. She couldn't believe she came so far to face rejection. She put her whole life in Omaha on the line to try and make the team. She missed so many days of work, so she would likely be fired, and she broke up with Al, who probably was right when he told her not to go. The only other possibility would be to find another one of the many superhero teams in the area who might welcome an ambiguously powered psionic.

Then the Purple guy from Alabama stepped forward and levitated. Then he showed the panel his tiger-like claws. "I'm Harold. I can fly. I got claws. And I ain't gonna say I'm that smart, but I also got the perceptions."

"Dude," Retaliator said, "you're. . ."

Before Retaliator could comment on Harold's purpleness, Harold said, "Yeah I know. Nobody wears bib overalls any more. I'm one of those organic people."

Roid Rage said, "I think we can all agree that guy is qualified."

Retaliator said, go ahead and step back here, Harold. We will have plenty to discuss."

A petite woman with a black mask over the upper part of her face approached the panel. She was extremely thin to the point of looking frail.

Roid Rage said, "I don't know. . ."

Blue Retaliator said, "We are an equal opportunity crime fighting team. What's your name?"

"I prefer to be anonymous right now."

Retaliator said, "Well, anonymous, what brings you here today?"

"I have a special power. Healing power."

Phantaztiq, ever the suspicious cynical said, "You a nurse or something?"

"Not really, but when I am around, people heal up very fast. I get my powers from God, you know."

Phantaztiq said, "So you pray and people get healed."

Exo said, "Heal me."

The panel chuckled.

The healer walked up to Exo and placed her hands on him. She said, "I don't understand. There's something not natural about your condition. I have no power over it."

Phantaztiq scoffed.

"She's right," Exo said. "My condition is definitely not natural. I believe her."

Blue Retaliator said, "I've seen enough of these types. They say they have a power, and they can't prove it. 'Hey, I can time travel', 'Hey, I'm invisible.' Sorry, I don't think so."

Exo said, "Nothing against Cleavenger and Redcard here, but they clearly have no powers, and they got put on the team."

Phantaztiq said, "Clevenger has a very high charisma. You know, charismatic."

Cleavenger looked at Exo, "What do you mean by that? What are you saying, I should be off of the Posse?'

"Either that, or that anonymous healer should be on the team."

Retaliator said, "I am making the final decision here. Sorry, anonymous healer."
Chapter 18

Just then a black limo with dark glass pulled up to the Pain Posse superhero recruiting location in the park in Neogothic City.

Retaliator said, "Looks like this is all going to get settled right now.

The large fifty-something driver got out and opened the back door. A woman with a colorful print veil over her face got out of the back. Then Pink Arrow got out of the other back door. Pink Arrow was sporting a new uniform. It was almost all black with some magenta trim.

"Sonofa!" Blue Retaliator said when he saw her. "Damnitall!"

Mrs. Jenkins and Pink Arrow slowly walked toward the panel. She did not remove the veil. Mrs. Jenkins asked Retaliator, "Who all do we have here?"

The Blue Retaliator said, "Roid Rage, Exo, Purple Harold, Redcard, Cleavenger, Phantaztiq, and me."

Purple Harold couldn't help but notice that Pink Arrow was looking intently at him. He told himself that he might as well get used to people gawking at him like he is a freak, since in fact, he was one. But the way Pink Arrow was staring at him was even more disturbing upon realizing that Exo, who was perhaps even more of a physical disaster, was not being stared at.

Mrs. Jenkins walked close to the candidates. "Have these candidates been thoroughly vetted?"

Retaliator said, "I'd have to say no, to that. We can get to know them as we go."

"Not good enough. You are going to trust your lives with each other. And I only budgeted for four members, that way I can take care of them all properly. You have seven."

Retaliator said, "I'd like to keep all these. They are valuable."

"Fine," Mrs. Jenkins said, "you're fired."

"What?!" Retaliator didn't see that coming. "Me?!"

"I need the most valuable four. We can keep the contact information for the others." She put her hand on Roid Rage's pectoral muscle. "My oh my. I like him." Then she walked up to Exo and tapped on his hard shell. "Interesting." She looked at Purple Harold. "Amazing purple costume."

"That's my skin, Ma'am."

"Sorry. Are you an alien?"

"No, Ma'am. I'm from Alabama." He levitated and showed his claws again. Then came down and shrugged his shoulders.

"I like your modesty. . ." Mrs. Jenkins said, "we were never introduced properly."

"Harold."

"You might want to come up with a code name. You know, security for your family."

Harold said, "Any name is fine, Ma'am, on account that I ain't got no family."

Then she moved on and got to Redcard. She pointed at him a couple of times as if she recognized him. "You're the guy from the wedding video."

"You've seen it?"

"I keep up on this stuff, I assure you. Of course, how many referee themed superheroes does someone normally see?"

She looked Cleavenger up and down. "You look familiar too."

"Wedding Video."

"Oh yeah. I see your power. You have the ability to wear half a dress."

"Well . . . I. . ."

"I know, the boys like it. However, I can't let you on the team because I don't want you to get hurt, or the people who count on you will end up getting slaughtered after you scream and fall down in a fight. This is serious, not theatrics. I can see why and how you made the team. Sorry. Redcard, you will not be on the team either. Phantaztiq, or whatever you are calling yourself these days, you are not on the team. You are all good folks and I thank you for trying out. And I will keep your contact information." Then she turned to Blue Retaliator. "I want to hear it from you; did you even call Pink Arrow like I repeatedly asked you to?"

"No, I. . ."

"I don't want to hear any lame excuses. She is a veteran. You know I don't handle being ignored very well. Like I said, you're fired. I might reconsider if you get your head screwed on right. Pink Arrow, welcome to the team."

"Thank you so much, but I don't go by Pink Arrow anymore. I go by Magenta Arrow."

"Oh?" Mrs. Jenkins asked.

"No. . . Um, I thought it was time for a change."

Retaliator threw up his hands. "So you think just because you changed your name from Pink Arrow to Magenta Arrow, the cops won't be looking for you for murder anymore?!"

Mrs. Jenkins put her arm around Magenta Arrow, leading her away from Retaliator and said, "Now we all know that a lot of our most prominent superheroes are misunderstood by the authorities and the public. It's okay."

"I can't believe this!" Retaliator screamed throwing up his arms.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Retaliator, you are dismissed. I'll be in touch."

Retaliator looked at Magenta Arrow with scorn and walked toward his van beside his friend Phantaztiq, all in a huff. Here he was, kicked out of the group that he and Prince of Power helped to start, but Mrs. Jenkins was the one who was still paying for everything.

Retaliator thought back to the gas station down south where they got into the battle with the Rednecks. Prince of Power was Mrs. Jenkins grandson, and he was shot in the face. She would probably never forgive him for letting that happen, no matter what the circumstances were.

Magenta Arrow shook the hands of her new teammates, but when she got to Harold, she looked away abruptly as if she was appalled by the experience of having a huge beastly purple paw with long claws clutching her own hand.

The new Pain Posse was formed with Magenta Arrow, Purple Harold, Exo, and Roid Rage. The new group all left in Mrs. Jenkins's large, but crowded limo.

Phantaztiq walked to his car beside Retaliator. "Man, that sucked, so bad."

Blue Retaliator stopped. He looked over at Redcard and Cleavenger, who were going toward Clevenger's car. "You guys want to get a cup of coffee?"

They looked at each other.

Clevenger said, "Sure."
Chapter 19

Mal-Mart

Cynapse was still in a daze after her rejection by the Pain Posse. Not thinking, she ran a red light and almost caused a serious wreck. So she decided to pull over and collect herself. She noticed that she was at Mal-Mart. Still in her orange jumpsuit, she walked into Mal-Mart, possibly looking for some retail therapy even though it was not her favorite store.

Greeter Corpus DeLuxx, aka Billy Bob, said, "Welcome to Mal-Mart, Superheroine."

She looked up at Corpus and smiled. "Thank you, Greeter."

Corpus was immediately charmed. He wanted to seize the opportunity to gain Cynapse's attention. "Let me get you a cart? Would you care for a cart?"

"No thank you. Actually, I just kind of wandered in. I don't know why."

"You can tell me what happened, if you want," Corpus said. "I'm a great listener."

Cynapse said, "I was out trying to make the world a better place?"

Corpus said, "For everyone, right?"

"Um, yeah, I was trying to."

"Would you mind terribly if I asked you a personal question?"

"I guess not."

"Are you really a meta-human?"

"Huh?"

"You know, a super? You got any powers?"

"Uh huh. Yes. I have mental powers."

Corpus said, "That's amazing!"

"It is?"

"Clearly so! You had a super mental sense that you would come here and team up with me. I'm a superhuman also!"

"I did? I mean, really?"

"It's obvious! You're not already on a team, are you?"

"No. . .I'm not actually. But, what did you say your name was?"

Corpus got closer and whispered to Cynapse, "I'm Corpus DeLuxx."

"That's your name? What is it, Canadian?"

"That's not important. You don't know who I am?"

"Why, should I know you?"

Corpus laughed. "That's okay. I guess this way you have no preconceived notions about me. I so struggle with being misunderstood. You would think that I would be used to it."

Cynapse perked up. "I get beat down too. All my views get twisted around and I get called all sorts of names; People say I am for killing the unborn, legalized theft, taking away people's right to self-defense, or just being generally anti-religion. Just because I am a liberal superhero, doesn't make me a supervillain. You know, I only want to make the world a better place and fight for everyone's rights. I want to use my powers to help people. I mean, really help people, not just be part of some wimpy local superhero group in Omaha."

"As do I."

"You've been to Omaha?"

"No, but I have the power of flight, and can throw spheres of energy."

Cynapse's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "So if you are a supermetahuman why are you working at Mal-Mart?"

Corpus rolled his eyes, "My Mom wanted me to get a job."

Cynapse said flatly, "Oh. Al says I should get a job too."

"Who's Al?"

"Never mind. We're history."

Corpus said, "Hey! You know what? I can walk away from this job right now and we can work together as a superhero duo! It's not like I really need to work."

Cynapse said, "Honestly, I have no money to finance my superhero career."

"Money?! Bah! Your work is the most important thing in the world, is it not?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Look at all these pathetic, stupid people in this store. Why do they deserve to have so much money just so they can spend it on stupid worthless goods? Wouldn't you put that money to far better use than them if you had it?"

"Absolutely. I never thought of it that way. But, it's their money, so it doesn't matter."

Corpus said, "The truth is, you know what is better for them that they do, right?"

Cynapse looked confused. "I guess so. So what is your point?"

"You make the world better for everyone, including them. So you use your mental powers to get them to hand over their money to you."

"Oh I couldn't. Wouldn't that be stealing?"

"Oh never mind that. Those ethics are a mere technicality." Corpus walked over to the service desk and got on the intercom. "ATTENTION MAL-MART SHOPPERS: PLEASE REPORT TO THE CHECKOUTS AND HAND OVER ALL YOUR MONEY TO THE BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE ORANGE SUIT." Corpus made googley eyes at Cynapse, who was too confused and alarmed to blush.

Shoppers froze in place and looked around. Some of the shoppers were laughing. Others were standing back in suspicion.

Corpus became impatient as no one came forward. He held his hands out and created a basketball sized red hot orb of energy and heaved it with both hands at a display of cheap DVD movies. There was an explosion and the movies caught on fire with black smoke from melted, burning plastic billowing upwards. "ATTENTION MAL-MART SHOPPERS: YOU HAVE EXACTLY THIRTY SECONDS TO PROCEED TO THE FRONT WITH ALL YOUR CASH UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO PAINFULLY INCINERATE YOUR BODY WITH PURE ENERGY! OH . . . AND AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT MAL-MART."

Customers frantically pulled out their money as they rushed to the front. Corpus saw a woman try to sneak to the back. "YOU! HALT!" Corpus created a golf-ball sized energy ball and threw it at her. It hit her in the back. Even though she had a heavy coat on, the ball burned through it. She rolled on the floor screaming in pain. "THAT'S RIGHT. EVERYONE BRING YOUR MONEY AND IT WILL BE ALRIGHT. JUST GO AHEAD AND PUT IT IN THAT SHOPPING CART NEXT TO THE LOVELY WOMAN IN THE ORANGE SUIT. IT'S GOING TO A GOOD CAUSE." Corpus again smiled at Cynapse, who had reservations about the fund raising tactics being employed.
Chapter 20

The Blue Retaliator's phone played the Billy Idol song, "White Wedding" while he was at the cafe having the impromptu meeting with Redcard, Cleavenger, and Phantaztiq.

Retaliator didn't promise much over the phone to Mitch, the security guy at Mal-Mart, except, "I'll do what I can," then he hung up. He told the other "almost" Pain Posse members, "Mitch the Mal-Mart security guy told me that Corpus DeLuxx is robbing the store and is trying to burn it down." He looked at the others at the table. "We need to get over there and take him down!"

Phantaztiq said, "Don't you think Corpus is a little out of our league? I mean, Mrs. Jenkins had a point, you know."

Retaliator said, "I can't believe you guys! Now is our chance! It's us four against one guy! Come on, you know I have fought him before!"

Phantaztiq said, "Yeah, you fought him with K-Tron and Headache. The smart thing to do would be to just call up the Posse."

"Would you forget about them?! I am the Posse!"

Phantaztiq said, "No, you are not. We are like, some kind of B-team, if even that. Probably D-Team, truth be told. Do any of us claim to have any superpowers?" They all looked at each other.

Retaliator said, "You can't replace experience, which I got loads of!"

Phantaztiq shrugged his shoulders. "I read K-Tron's book. You really didn't do that much except get beaten up a lot."

"Fine!" Retaliator said, "I'll call the NCPD! And for your information, that book of K-Tron's is pure crap! That book makes him look like the hero. He was just a lackey working for Global Domination! None of it would have happened that way if it wasn't for me! If we called K-Tron up right now, he would just say, 'Dude. Buzzword Buzzword Buzzword.' And yeah, I ain't gonna lie! I did take a lot of beatings!"

Phantaztiq shook his head. He took a casual sip of his mocha latte. "Don't be so touchy. Call the Posse."

"All right! All right! But you can talk, because I know that Pink, or whatever the color Arrow is going to answer! I have no interest in talking to her."

*******

Magenta Arrow took the call from Retaliator's phone, "Retaliator? I knew you would . . ."

"No, this is Phantaztiq. Listen; you gotta get the Posse over to Mal-Mart. Corpus DeLuxx is at it again."

"We're on it!" The Posse jumped when she shared the report.

The Posse was now equipped with their own Hum-V, which had the Pain Posse Logo on the sides.

The Pain Posse team members arrived at Mal-Mart in the Hum-V, except Purple Harold, who was flying overhead. Since it was so cold out to fly around, Harold had a heavy winter coat over his bib coveralls.

Harold spotted smoke, so he flew over the roof of the store looking to see if flames had destroyed any part of it. Roid Rage, Exo, and Magenta Arrow walked in through the front door.

Corpus was standing in his position as the Greeter. "Welcome to Mal-Mart." POW! Corpus sucker-punched Roid Rage in the face. Roid Rage went reeling back with blood immediately running out of his nose. Exo lunged at Corpus and held him around the legs with a bear hug, hoping to hang on until he could get some help from someone. Corpus flew up in the air, taking Exo with him. Corpus tried to push the rock hard Exo off of him so he would fall to the floor, but couldn't break free from Exo's grip.

Magenta Arrow was looking for a shot at Corpus when she caught a glimpse of Cynapse in her periphery. Cynapse had her fingers on her temples with the vein bugging out of her forehead. Magenta Arrow wanted to shoot but couldn't, or at least it seemed that way. Magenta was wondering, if Cynapse actually stopping her with some sort of mental defense, or was Magenta just being apprehensive because of what happened the last time when she put an arrow into the neck of Loonatik in the waiting room of that clinic?

Corpus flew down with Exo still hanging on, and they bowled into a display of bargain merchandise which flew everywhere. Corpus clearly got the worst of the crash landing, and was slow to get up. Exo was like a turtle on his back, just trying to move.

Cynapse ran toward the exit of the store with the shopping cart full of cash. Customers were all running out to their cars and driving off.

Magenta Arrow readied her bow to unleash an arrow at Corpus, who was forming an energy sphere. Corpus threw the sphere at her but the ball of energy was knocked down by a well aimed arrow, sending hot sparks in all directions.

In the next instant Corpus was tackled by Roid Rage and they smashed into a cooler full of frozen pizzas, shattering the glass doors. Roid was swinging wildly at Corpus, but only hitting pizzas most of the time, which were cascading out of the smashed up cooler.

Mitch the security guy was running around with a fire extinguisher putting out small fires.

Outside, Cynapse was throwing thousands of dollars into her old car from the shopping cart. She got into the vehicle and was frantically trying to get away.

THUD! "Going somewhere?" Purple Harold said after dropping out of the sky on top of the hood of her vehicle.

Cynapse screamed at the sight of the other worldly Harold, then in frantic desperation, she drove the car forward in the parking spot which slammed into the front end of a pickup in front of her, sending Harold unexpectedly off of the hood and onto the pavement. Then Cynapse floored it into reverse and slammed into another car behind her. She gunned it out of the parking lot, sideswiping a couple more cars on her way out. The street was crowded with traffic. Cynapse had no choice but to stop at the first red light. "Come on!" she said, waiting for it to change. The next thing she knew a large purple hand with long sharp claws came crashing through her driver's side window.

Harold had appeared from nowhere out of the sky again and landed on the road next to her driver's side window, nearly swiping his sharp claws across her face. She cowered and screamed again while punching the accelerator. Her car rear-ended the car in front of her, dragging Harold along, giving him some lacerations on his arm. It took him a few seconds until he could break free of the jagged glass. The driver in the damaged car in front of her came out yelling. After the irate driver saw Harold, he quickly got back into the car.

Harold was standing on the road holding his injured arm when his perception powers kicked in. He noticed a shadow on the pavement that was getting larger within the space of a half-second. He quickly dropped and rolled off to the side, avoiding being tackled by Corpus, who attacked from the sky, but hit the pavement instead of Harold. Corpus could not move much after the harder-than-expected impact on the street. Then Harold pounced on Corpus and raked his claws down Corpus's back, drawing blood. Corpus screamed, but managed to form an energy ball. Since Corpus fashioned the ball so hastily, he was unable to get a high percentage shot off at Harold from his awkward position. Harold backed off before the ball hit him. The ball hit a car passing by in the other lane. The car soon exploded, sending the rolling bonfire crashing into other cars. Corpus couldn't help but admire his handiwork, but then he realized Harold was gone. He looked up and spotted him flying away. Corpus pursued Harold into the sky and they both flew at about the same speed. Corpus used his energy balls to attack Harold, but Harold was doing a competent job of evasion in the dogfight, causing all misses. DeLuxx's incendiary bombs fell on various businesses in the commercial section causing multiple fires.

But since Harold was bobbing and weaving to avoid the ranged attacks, Corpus caught up to him. Eventually, he was able to reach out and grab Harold's high-top work boots. Corpus had one hand on Harold's ankle and the other desperately trying to hang onto him by grabbing the toe. "Yeow!" Corpus felt a sharp pain. "What the?!" Harold had claws on his feet that cut clean through the work boot. The sharp talons put some noteworthy scratches in Corpus's hand, so he let go of Harold to stop and inspect his injury.

Cynapse was just starting to calm herself when she saw an arrow whiz past her car. The arrow hit the car in front of her and exploded, sending glass everywhere. The car struck by the wildly errant arrow stopped suddenly and she crashed into it. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw Magenta Arrow, Exo, and Roid Rage getting out of their Hum-V. Cynapse threw her car into reverse and hit the slow moving, but super-heavy Exo with a jolt. Then she shift selected forward, and felt a lot of drag on the car, then she was burning rubber on her front wheel drive car until it broke free of Roid Rage's grasp on the rear bumper. Thok! Thump! Thwap! Three arrows penetrated the rear window, but none of them exploded. None of the arrows went all of the way through the glass and were just sticking out the back.

Columns of smoke from numerous fires throughout the Neogothic City commercial area were billowing upwards. Police and fire sirens were screaming in force. All the combatants decided it was time to break off the battle and nurse their wounds.
Chapter 21

Neogothic City Hall

"I am sick and tired of that stupid bitch letting her stupid dog crap all over my yard!"

"Order!" The Mayor said to the irate citizen at the start of the City Council session. "We have more important business here today than that. Please get with your neighbor and come up with a solution to your very minor problem."

"Let her damn dog crap all over your yard! You're worthless!"

Mayor Henderson said, "That is all! Important as that may seem, I called this emergency session together solely for the purpose of taking action on what happened yesterday with all of the fatal injuries and collateral damage."

A young shabbily dressed councilwoman with no makeup and crazy green hair spoke up. "Mayor, how long will we permit metahumans to run, or in this case, fly amok and harm people and break things? We need some common sense measures to stop the epidemic of metahumans destroying our City. It's for the children. I move that we immediately issue an ordinance whereby we ban all superpowers within the City limits."

The Mayor said, "I understand the sentiments Councilperson Taylor, but how do we enforce it?"

Taylor said, "Order the NCPD to shoot to kill, Mayor. Those metahumans are using a deadly weapon, so they should be stopped with lethal force."

The Mayor nodded.

A guy in the front row of the sparsely attended session came to the mic and said, "The only way to stop a bad guy with superpowers is the have a good guy there with superpowers. Everyone knows that, unless you're a liberal idiot."

Councilperson Taylor said, "Mr. Mayor, let's be clear. We will just keep having this problem if we listen to extremists, until we come up with a common sense approach to banning superpowers."

The guy at the mic said, "Anyone with half a brain will realize that only the supervillains will be out there killing everyone and there won't be any superheroes to stop them! I sure don't know what is so extreme about saving our own asses!"

The Mayor said, "I don't want to start labeling people "villains" and "heroes" here. That divisive language is not what we are about. So please, everyone, please watch your tone while you are here."

"My tone?! There's nothing wrong with my tone! You people just suck!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave, sir."

"Blow it out your ass!"

"Officer! Please escort the citizen out of the chamber!" Rattled, the Mayor tried to gather his composure. "I think we all want the same thing here. We all want our community to rest assured that we are doing all that we can. While banning deadly superpowers may not be the best solution, or even a very good solution, it is at least a solution. We do want to demonstrate by our actions that we care about our people, and we don't want to see any more of this. So we will hastily craft a measure and put it to a quick emergency vote without much thought or discussion."

The original citizen who spoke at the start of the session said, "What about my neighbor's dog now!"

*******

Within a couple of days the Mayor held a press conference in front of the City Building. The Chief of Police, City Prosecutor, and City Council Members, and a few armed guards were all standing with him in solidarity. Local TV crews were there along with a smattering of concerned Citizens.

The Mayor came to a podium. "My fellow Neogothic Cityans; Er . . . Citizens of . . . anyhow; I come to you today with a heavy heart. Today I saw a little girl sitting on the steps of City Hall, and she was crying. I wiped away her tears from her little cheek and asked her, 'Little girl, what's wrong?' She said, 'My mommy said the mean Pain Posse was going to come and hurt everyone.' I held her little chin up and looked her into the eyes, 'Little girl, I promise that I will not let those mean Pain Posse creeps hurt you or your mommy.' And you know what? I will do everything in my power to stop them! No matter what the cost! We are taking action right now to help that little girl and all of the innocent people of this City. It is now a crime to ban any superpowers within the City Limits. The Police have orders to use deadly force to stop anyone using unauthorized superpowers, or improvised weaponry such as death rays or exploding arrows."

A council member whispered into the Mayor's ear.

"Okay, I have been advised, no arrows at all, exploding or otherwise. Also, anyone caught giving financial support to any unauthorized metahumans will be prosecuted as if they were using powers themselves; the superpower of money. Also, we want to caution citizens about our strict common sense laws against owning guns within the City. Make no mistake, there is still no hunting allowed in the City, so no one really needs any guns. It only takes a few seconds to call 911. And your protection by the NCPD is only minutes away when you have an immediate need. Certainly you should get help in less than a half-hour. Statistics show that I am totally right, of course. The experts all agree with me too. Let's be clear; we all have plenty of candles and flowers to have lots of candlelight vigils with. Those vigils leave a lasting impression on terrorists."

A reporter asked, "What if supervillains keep using their powers against innocent citizens? Won't that make it more dangerous to live in Neogothic City?"

The Mayor responded, "This Administration thinks events over the past couple of days have shown us that we need to take action. Studies by experts have shown that I am right about this. So this ban, I believe, a common sense response. Now let me be clear; anyone who uses superpowers will be dealt with. We are not going to differentiate between who is 'evil' or 'good'. That is irrelevant. We are not going to tolerate groups like the Pain Posse who are on some kind of sick jihad. They are nasty nasty people. No one likes them. Extremist haters like them are going to hate with their extreme hatespeech."

The reporter asked, "But why would a supervillain obey such a draconian law?"

The Mayor said, "It depends on your definition of 'draconian'. Do I think this is draconian? Like Dracula, or something? Studies by experts have shown that this will work. Time will tell. Like I have been saying, it just makes sense to do something. I mean, don't you think those citizens will feel better about this, even though it may not help in every case?"

Another reporter asked, "Isn't this just being done to satisfy your liberal base's emotions for the upcoming mayoral election?"

"No. Okay, that is all the time we have." Then the Mayor turned away and went back up the steps into the City Building, leaving reporters yelling many more unanswered questions.

A third reporter shouted, "Who gave you information on the Pain Posse?"

The Mayor turned and said, "First, I told myself. I have a good brain and I say a lot of things." Then he continued to walk up the steps.

Chapter 22

After the day Retaliator called her about reviving the Pain Posse, Mrs. Jenkins purchased a small old non-descript three floor office building with a small adjoining shop in a light industrial zone in the City. This was where she set up the secret Pain Posse Headquarters. Inside the PPHQ was the team's individual quarters, and a commons area where they all watched a video of the Mayor's press conference on TV.

Within an hour, Mrs. Jenkins's limo pulled into the shop of the HQ and the door shut behind her. She called for a meeting in the Posse Strategy room. The team was already assembled at the meeting table.

Mrs. Jenkins sat at the head of the table. She said somberly, "The world is a seriously messed up place. This City is on the verge of becoming the epicenter of all that is rotten. Every minute of the day someone is getting robbed or killed. I originally got into supporting super-vigilantes because I have no faith in the justice system. What they did to my late husband is unforgivable, and I vowed to fight against crime any way I could. But then I lost my superhero grandson to a bunch of crazed hillbillies down south and I don't want any more things like that to happen. You heard our beloved Mayor. He wants to use 'deadly force' against any superheroes. I have decided that it would be in everyone's best interest to pull the plug on the Posse. I don't want to go to jail. But above all, I don't want any of you getting hurt trying to help a corrupt unappreciative City government."

They all just sat quietly, not knowing what to say. Purple Harold said, "If they don't want our help, then I guess we don't want to help them."

Exo said, "Is that what the people of Neogothic City want? I don't think so. It's just that idiot mayor you got here."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "I'm sorry, I know we were just getting started here, but it is just too risky. I'll keep this place open for a few days, but I want a promise from all of you that you won't do any crime fighting. In the meantime I'll send a legal team to City Hall, to try and get an exemption to this madness, but I'm not promising anything."

Exo said, "Look at me. Look at Purple Harold. What good are we if we can't fight crime? No offense, but do you think anyone would hire us to work, even at a convenience store? You would do better to put us in a freak show or something. What do we do with ourselves now?" Exo thought about his dead end life. His health and marriage were destroyed by this exoskeleton condition, and now his sole remaining reason for living is being threatened.

Harold was equally as confused. His memory had been wiped out. He had no idea what his past was, or the trajectory of his future. But who would want to hire someone purple for a conventional job?

*******

Word quickly travelled on supervillain social media that Neogothic City had banned superpowers. To them, that sounded like an engraved invitation to come to the City to wreak havoc. Criminals are quite enterprising, and quick to exploit any opportunity, especially one so easy. So many unsavory, not all super-powered, but often strange characters decided to set up their evil ventures in Neogothic City. Among such diabolical entrepreneurs include; Old Goat, Supersize, Doctor Normal, Papa Death, Impaler, Caregiver, Miss Take, Kid Dope, Skippy, Pixel Monkey, Tommy Gunn, Compassion, Salvatore Riggo, The Broker, Rayne Mayhem, Newfoundland Kid, R-Son, Atomic Marvel, Grotesque Gretta, Supercollider, Ping Pong, Green Vampire, XtaC, Lord Scorn, Mosquito Man, Pinnacle, Detesto, Baldon the Balkan, Komical Killer, BrainZ, SuperMax, Dagger, The Recycler, Old Skool, Mind Bender, Really Dark Assassin, Kevin, Poison Candy, Dr. Evil (Impersonator), Malfeasance, Panda Monium, Back Cracker, Book Pirate, Halloweener, Bleu LaGoon, Fertilizer Bomber, Mad Spammer, Striped Mutant, Copper Man, Shankster, Grammar Nazi, F-Man, Toonager, Helium Talker, Politically Indifferent Woman, Openly Straight Razor, Doctor Jeopardy, Percy Paradox, Community Reorganizer, Doctor Dismemberment, Entitlement Smuggler, Poindexter, The Refunder, Ann Biguous, Extra-Creepy Colonel Chicken, Buffet Master, Tag Ripper, Kitty Killer, Skull Kracker, Mall Rat, Gothic Glen, Garlic Freak, First Lady of Crime, Jugular, Slimetime, Turquoise Terror, Klown Kommando, Technodude X, Mohammed Wilson, King Toxic, and the Eel of Injustice, Just to name a few.

With all of the influx of new employers and capital investment in the local crime industry, it became nearly impossible in the City to find any available henchmen. When they were to be found, they expected to make the outrageous sum of at least 15 dollars per hour.

There were so many places being robbed so often that many businesses decided to close up for good. So many former business owners and their workers were forced to join one of the many new evil masterminds to the City.

The Blue Retaliator put out a message all over social media that the B-Squad was offering non-metahuman superhero security services to businesses. On the same day he got a call from the large Bullseye Store. After meeting the manager, they easily got the job and were all pleased with the assignment. The B-Squad all wore Bullseye T-shirts over their uniforms. Clevenger cut hers open down the front, however. Retaliator complained about the commercialization of their team, but the others liked the steady income they were making.

The Police kept a close eye on the Bullseye Squad, making sure that they were not using superpowers. One time outside of the Bullseye store, a Police patrol cruiser rolled by, Retaliator yelled to the Police, "Instead of worrying about us, why don't you go catch a few of the baddies who are running around here?"

The Officer said, "Never mind that. Just make sure you keep you superpowers under control, metafreak." Then he showed his shotgun and the car pulled away.

At least the B-Squad, aka "Bullseye Squad" was being paid a meager sum to by their presence to "fight" crime by preventing it. This gave the members some satisfaction that their superhero personas were not going to waste.
Chapter 23

"Look at that store window!" Cynapse said to Corpus, as they were window shopping. "'Pray for Peace'! 'Love your neighbor'! Then when you do, love your neighbors, they tell you that you are doing it all wrong! We need to get the enslaving influence of religion out of society. Teaching kids that stuff is child abuse. The government works better for all. The government is my religion. Everyone knows that those religious fundamentalists are really a bunch of suicide bombers who want to cut your head off the first chance they can get."

Corpus said, "I don't really think. . ."

Just then two figures descended from the sky down next to them. One was a bald chubby older guy dressed like a fusion of fisherman and Zen master, along with a petite creepy paramilitary storm trooper officer looking guy.

"May I help you?" Corpus asked the interlopers who were both suspicious in appearance and proximity.

The bigger of the two asked, "Hey. Aren't you Corpus DeLuxx, the top ranked supervillain on the Super Human Outfitters Website?"

Corpus sighed, "That would be me. I don't know how many times I have to say it though; I'm not a villain, just misunderstood. Why? Are you two here to try and make a name for yourselves? All you would end up accomplishing is to have me disfigure your face."

"My name is G-Force. I find that whole Super Human Outfitters thing is a total farce. Not because of the villain labels per se, but the accuracy of the ratings."

Corpus said, "Oh? What makes you such an authority on the subject?"

"What I am saying is, in a way so you can understand; you are not all that."

"Huh?" Corpus said, "Excuse me? It sounds almost as if you were trying to marginalize my greatness. I know that can't be your intent. You probably have something more worthwhile to do, like going home and counting your socks."

G-Force said, "There is no marginalization intended. I say plainly that you are definitely not the greatest."

"I give up, who is the greatest then, Curly?"

G-Force said, "One thing I have learned; is that there is always someone bigger and better, so I hesitate to say me, even though I would probably be right. However, I know you are at least no higher than number two."

"Oh, is that a fact, Dr. Evil?"

"It's a metaphysical certitude."

Corpus got close to G-Force, seeing if he could intimidate him.

G-Force didn't back down a millimeter and said, "You don't even know my associate here, Kommiczar. How do you know that he is not also more powerful than you? You think you can size up a potential adversary by staring at their face?"

Corpus looked at the petite man dressed in a uniform that looked like some kind of Gestapo officer and said, "He's really adorable, but I'm pretty sure he's just a little wimp."

G-Force said, "That was unkind, Mr. DeLuxx." G-Force waved an arm toward Corpus without even touching him. Corpus involuntarily went down to one knee.

"What . . . What is this? What are you doing?"

G-Force said to Corpus, "Get up number one!"

"I . . . ca . . . . can't"

"Why not?" G-Force taunted. "You don't seem to be able to back up your big talk and your silly ranking with any action.

Cynapse said, "Stop it! What do you want?!"

G-Force waved his other arm and also sent Cynapse to the ground. She turned and put her hands on her temples and glared at G-Force.

"All right then," G-Force said. "I think I've proved my point."

Corpus wondered if Cynapse had psionically caused G-Force to disengage.

While Corpus was locked in a kneeling position, he posed his hands into the shape of a ball, about the size of a basketball, then pushed the large energy sphere at G-Force. G-Force quickly held up one hand and deflected the red hot energy sphere down to the sidewalk near Cynapse. The explosion sent concrete dust into the air, causing Cynapse to gag and cough. With the other hand he sent Corpus DeLuxx down to the ground on his back.

G-Force said, shaking his head. "Every time you hear of a new metahuman these days they are some garden variety energy-based type who has lightning coming out of their hands. Even your orbs of energy are incredibly boring."

Then Corpus feigned weakness as he got partially up and threw a punch right into the crotch of G-Force, who underestimated his opponent's toughness. "There's always that, tubby."

G-Force bent over in pain holding his source of pain, but he waved his free arm, causing Corpus to leave his feet, flying twenty feet into the air. Cynapse tried her mental attack against G-Force and Kommiczar charged her.

Corpus regained his sense of balance in mid air, and seeing Kommiczar's counter-attack, Corpus fired two baseball sized energy balls at him. G-Force protected Kommiczar by causing both of them to fall short, defying laws of physics. The energy balls cracked and splattered on the sidewalk, leaving some blackened divots.

Corpus was not sure how far to test G-Force. Every time he did he saw another new trick that caused him more pain.

Cynapse grabbed Kommiczar and flipped his small body over her hip, tossing him hard onto the cement while landing on him. She let go of him when his body started to levitate into the air. It took her an instant to realize it was not Kommiczar's power, but G-Force. Because of G-Force's arm motions, it became evident that he was doing the levitating for both himself and Kommiczar, who had no such gravity manipulation abilities. Then G-Force put his diminutive sidekick down a safe distance away. Almost immediately, G-Force waved his other arm and a nearby soda vending machine levitated. He moved the machine directly over Cynapse who felt it prudent to move just as it dropped and hit the sidewalk with a crash. The front of the machine broke open and Cans of soda came rolling out of it.

"That did it!" Corpus said, "No one attacks my woman . . . er . . . sidekick!" He flew full speed at G-Force who waved his arms and sent Corpus flying, mostly under his own momentum, into the large plate glass window of the furniture store across the street. The entire window shattered upon impact. G-Force casually walked over to the furniture store and levitated himself with a small hop through the window frame and into the shattered glass mess inside the store. He looked around, not seeing Corpus.

Suddenly Corpus came out from nowhere and he collided with G-Force, sending him backwards into a recliner. G-force levitated the recliner and rode it outside of the furniture store. He sat in the recliner in mid-air, waiting for Corpus to come out of the store. He pulled the lever on the recliner and put his feet up. When Corpus finally attempted to follow him out the broken window, G-Force waved his arm and sent Corpus straight down, giving him a belly full of the jagged glass that remained in the window frame. Corpus had the wind knocked out of him upon impact, permitting only a guttural scream. Then G-Force showed DeLuxx the courtesy of allowing him to stand up. Corpus stood, pulling bloody shards of glass out of his abdominals.

G-Force levitated a cold can of Sierra Mist from the soda machine up to his position in the flying recliner. He popped the tab and took a long satisfying swig. "Ahhhhh. Lemon-Lime. You know, I really have come to respect your marginally useful abilities, Mr. DeLuxx. True, you are just an energy-based meta, but you can fly. I can attest how useful that could be to us."

Corpus looked from his abdominal mess up at G-Force. This certainly had to be the most arrogant sight he had ever seen. A guy reclined in a floating recliner drinking a cold beverage while watching him tend to his very nasty lacerations. Was there ever a worse insult?

G-Force said, "I think anyone would have to say, you are no match for me. Not that it reflects poorly on you. Truth be told, I'm pretty amazing."

Corpus told G-Force, "That's such a lovely sentiment, dear."

G-Force said, "Kumbaya," and raised the soda as if making a toast. He took another long drink and stared up into the sky ignoring any possibility of another Corpus energy attack. Then he flipped the empty can overboard. "Here's the thing; Kommiczar and I have been looking for a couple of patsies to serve us." Then he turned and stared right at Corpus and floated the chair down to the ground near him. "So I would like to make you an offer to you to join my organization."

Kommiczar wiped the dust off of his black clothes and said in an eastern European accent, "Yes. There are plenty of openings on the organizational chart."

Cynapse screamed, "We would never join you! We have our principles!" She was angry enough to resume the battle and posed ready to fight.

Corpus held up his hand at Cynapse. "Hold on a second. I think we owe it to our very capable, yet totally narcissistic archetypical elemental friend, the courtesy of hearing him out."

"Friend?" she asked.

"Why thank you, Mr. DeLuxx."

"You can call me 'Corpus'."

"Fine; and you may call me 'Supreme Overlord', I'm gratified that we have established a hierarchical relationship now. My mission in life is to dominate the world, starting with Neogothic City, with its business friendly environment as my base of operations. Kommiczar is to be my Chief Operating Officer, taking care of the mundane chores of administering my world supremacy. The bottom line is, since my ideas are better than anyone else, why wouldn't I force everyone into following me? I was given this great gift of elemental power and supreme intellect, so I intend to use it to its fullest extent. So, since you, and everyone else, will ultimately either end up following me or dying, wouldn't it make more sense for you in the long run to just willingly follow me before your day of reckoning? I think so, but that's just me."

Corpus looked up from his bleeding glass picking endeavor. He shook his uniform, trying to knock out small shards. "All I can say is . . . that sounds great! I love the way this guy talks. I'm definitely in!"

Cynapse shrugged her shoulders and said, "Really, if you think about it, we do need a leader who is . . . kind of a fascist. We have to get things done, even if we have to use a little force now and then. I don't see how we can change anything unless we have the power to force the ignorant knuckle dragging fools to see things the correct way. Okay, so what is the name of our team, ' Progressive Liberal Axis'?"

G-Force said, "Absolutely not. Why would I draw unnecessary unwanted negative attention to my true motives, which largely benefit me? I'll leave the villainous sounding names to others who are constantly spoiling for a fight. They all want to put the words 'evil' , 'sinister' or 'injustice' in their team names. That sort of transparency is ridiculous. In fact, I think I shall call my organization, the Tolerance Consortium."

"I love that!" Cynapse said. "As a liberal superhero, that sounds like something I can give myself totally blindly to."

G-Force and Kommiczar laughed.

G-Force said, "Liberal superhero? Right. Amazing. That's what I am too."

Kommiczar started chuckling too. "We are as progressive as they get. Especially the income redistribution part."

G-Force and Kommiczar started laughing again.

Cynapse said, "I don't see what is so funny about a fair wage for all. Everyone deserves a livable income. It's for the children."

Kommiczar said, "I am all for it as well, as long as we are setting the wage. It's for the children." He laughed.

Cynapse asked, "Can we do that? I thought the government had to set the rules."

Kommiczar raised one of his thin eyebrows and said, "Oh, you are quite right about that, super socialist dirnik kuchka. What you must understand is that we are going to be the government."
Chapter 24

It was another typical day at the Bullseye store. The store was running specials to compete with their rival, Mal-Mart. The checkout lines were long with people trying to scarf up all of the superb deals.

In checkout aisle 8, an older woman was having her items checked out. The cashiers were trained to handle each customer as a major event, not just to rush impatient customers through so they could spend the rest of the day however they wanted.

The older woman at the front of the line was only buying a few items. "I'd rather have a paper bag, if you don't mind."

"Sorry, Ma'am. We don't have any paper bags."

"You used to."

The clerk bagged up her items. "Do you have your Bullseye Super-Saver card?"

"No. I don't have one."

"Would you like to join? You will save a dollar and twelve cents if you join today."

"Oh. All right."

"Of course you will. Just fill out this form please." The clerk handed her an application form to fill out and took a deep breath.

The woman very meticulously and deliberately filled out the form while she muttered about each of the entries on the form.

Meanwhile a very strange customer was next in line behind the elderly woman. He was dressed like he was still in the 1960's with a fedora and a long trench coat. Even with the long coat he looked like he had a weird shape with a huge, bulging midsection. He also had a kerchief around his mouth, and dark sunglasses. Behind the divider on the checkout conveyor, he had a loaf of bread, a package of sea salt, and some packaged fish. He was patiently waiting until the two small boys behind him started loading the belt with purchases for their mother. They had a huge cart full of all sorts of sugar-laden unhealthy items. The two boys were cramming the unmoving belt so full that their colorfully packaged items were shoving the divider forward on the belt and crushing the man's bread.

The man said, "You might want to have you kids pay attention to what they are doing."

The mother said, "They're just kids. You don't have to get all whiney about it."

The man slid their stuff backwards with some force. "I'd like to make sandwiches out of this bread if you don't mind."

The kids kept putting items on the conveyor and crushing the bread again.

"Hey!" The man said.

"Don't yell at my kids, jerk!"

The man was fuming. "I shouldn't have to put up with you and your spawn from Hell!"

"Just shut up!" she said. "You need to learn how to talk to young kids!"

The clerk glanced backwards at the brewing trouble as she took the woman's membership application. "Can I see your driver's license?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't bring it. You know my son dropped me off here. He's waiting outside. Should I go get him?"

The clerk ripped up the application. "No. Would you like to donate a dollar to polar bears?"

"Oh . . . I don't think so. I don't know what they would do with the money." She chuckled at the ignorance of the clerk. Then she started talking about charities she was involved with.

The clerk cut her off, trying to get her rapidly deteriorating checkout line moving. "That will be twelve thirty eight."

She said, "I have the thirty eight cents." She reached into her pocketbook to pull out some coins. Eventually, she handed the thirty eight cents to the clerk. "Do you take the Feesa Card? I have to put the rest on my Feesa Card." Let me see . . . Oh, here it is.

Meanwhile, the boys were goofing around and rammed the strange man in the hip with their cart. He got mad and shoved the cart back off of himself. In turn, one of the boys bumped backwards into their mom, who was looking at a trashy gossip magazine.

"Hey!" She said.

The boy told his mom, "He pushed me."

"Don't touch my kids, damnit!"

"I didn't! If you would just pay a little attention to their behavior!"

The irate mother shoved her cart back at the man, who then bumped into the older lady, but didn't knock her down.

The old lady stood idly, distracted after the bump.

"That's it! The agitated man said, opening his trench coat, revealing ten long extending tentacles, complete with suction cups. Then he pulled down the kerchief from his mouth, revealing long feelers on his face. "I am Squid-Man! And you will pay for your indiscretions!"

The woman said, "Boys! Ninja attack that gross creep!"

One of the boys was hitting Squid-Man in the crotch while another one was kicking his leg. Squid-Man was using his tentacles to pry them off of him while the mother ninja was throwing grocery items at his head. An announcement came over the loudspeaker in a calm monotone, "BULLSEYE SQUAD. PLEASE COME TO CHECKOUT EIGHT FOR A CUSTOMER ALTERCATION."

Blue Retaliator was the first one at the scene. He saw the man with so many tentacles taking on the ninja family. Because of the strangeness of the man with tentacles, he assumed that he had to be some sort of an evil instigator. Retaliator shouted "Stop the Kraken!" Then Retaliator began helping the woman in the fight. He drew his retractable batons and started whapping tentacles. Clevenger showed up and grabbed one of the mini-ninjas and shielded him from Squid-Man. Phantaztiq came and grabbed another boy and did the same.

"Let go of them!" the protective ninja matron shouted at Clevenger and Phantaztiq. Then she threw a glass jar of pickles, which bounced off of Phantaztiq's head, then fell and broke on the floor. Phantaztiq went down holding his cranium, but was still conscious.

The old woman was still trying to figure out how to punch in her numbers on the pad and e-sign for her charge card.

Redcard arrived at the scene and blew his whistle. Squid-Man had Retaliator all wrapped up in his tentacles. Everyone turned to look at Redcard and froze for five seconds. Redcard showed Squid-Man a yellow card. Then an argument broke out regarding who started the whole thing.

Squid-Man screamed into Retaliator's ear, "I am going to report you! Meta-Humans are a protected minority, and you attacked me! I'm going to sue!"

Retaliator wiped the squid spit from the side of his face, and tentacle goo off of his arms and said, "Um . . . sorry, sir. I . . ."

The mom pulled her young son, who was staring at Clevenger, toward her. She told Clevenger, "What is the deal with your boobs? That you have to show them all over the place like a pole dancer? This is a grocery store, not a grubby nightclub."

Phantaztiq went to get up and he slipped in the broken glass, pickles, and pickle brine on the floor. "Oww!" He pulled a jagged piece of glass out of his knee. "Who the hell threw this at me?"

Finally the clerk got the old woman through the checkout. Then under the Bullseye Squad's vigilance, Squid-Man and the ninja family got checked out.

The store manager came over to the scene. He looked at the pickle mess on the floor. He told Redcard, "This mess ain't going to clean itself." He walked away shaking his head.

Retaliator shouted back at the manager, "Who cleaned this crap up before we took this job?!"

The manager ignored the question and kept walking.
Chapter 25

Later that day, the Tolerance Consortium strutted right up to the front steps of City Hall. There were several lawyers trying to get in, but the door was locked. Even though they were twice his size, Kommiczar shoved them out of his way to get to the front of the crowd.

One of the lawyers happened to be an attorney for Mrs. Jenkins, benefactor of the Pain Posse. The lawyer recognized Corpus, and gave Mrs. Jenkins a call.

Two policemen at the door commanded, "Halt!" They pointed rifles at the Consortium members. G-Force waved his arms and caused the rifles to fly upward out of their hands. They looked around in amazement, pulling their pistols and the same thing happened. KRACK! Corpus destroyed the lock with an energy ball. The Consortium brazenly walked into the building and went up the stairs.

The unarmed police duo followed them inside, but the Consortium members were already halfway up the very long staircase to the next floor. G-Force sighed and levitated the policemen back hard into the door. Everyone outside the door was astonished by the action. The Consortium continued up the stairs. An incompetent guard outside of the Mayor's office saw Corpus approaching and immediately ran away.

The Mayor turned white when he looked up at the Consortium. He said, "What can I do for you people? If there is a problem or something, I know we can work something out. No one makes better deals than me. I make deals with everyone."

The foursome took seats around the Mayor's enormous desk.

Kommiczar said, "Mayor Henderson, while we agree with your actions in banning superpowers, we feel that it would be in your best interest to be able to back up such a bold proclamation with some power of your own. Certainly that would be justifiable."

The Mayor said, "What did you have in mind? I like to think we are very flexible here. If you remember, I banned 'unauthorized' superpowers, not all superpowers. And you know, I am always eager to listen to the people. My door is always open."

"No it wasn't," Corpus said, "I had to break it open."

Kommiczar said, "We are willing to provide security as private contractors for the entire city. That would in effect, solve all of your looming security problems."

The Mayor asked, "Who is it exactly who would be providing this security?"

Kommiczar said, "The Tolerance Consortium."

The Mayor said, "I can't really say that I have heard of this group before."

Kommiczar said, "You can rest assured that no one will be able to breach the iron-fisted grip of protection that will be provided."

"Provided with a smile," G-Force added, with a smile.

"So, what is this iron-fisted grip of protection going to cost me?"

Kommiczar chuckled, "It will cost you personally nothing, of course. But, obviously certain expenses and fees will apply to the City. It's not as if you really have a choice now, do you?"

"I suppose not."

Kommiczar said, "You can work out the details with the citizens, but our initial capital expenditure will be about 30 million dollars."

"Thirty. . ."

"We will need to upgrade our headquarters and hire a lot of subordinates. It's a big job. The only other thing," Kommiczar said, "is that you will make me the City Manager. Under those conditions, you should be able to keep your job."

"That goes against our Charter," The Mayor said. "I'm not saying I'm against it, it's just that some people will not be happy with the decision to create the position of City Manager."

"No problem," Kommiczar said, "just scrap the Charter. They do it all the time in the third world."

Corpus DeLuxx said, "Yeah, just adopt the Supreme Overlord form of city government."

G-Force scowled at Corpus for interjecting.

Kommiczar said, "At any rate, you will have no further use for the City Council per se, but they can function as political officers. Please, Mayor Henderson, work on the details at once, and we can make a joint announcement. There will be a few other remarks we will need to make. But rest assured, we are here to help."

*******

Mrs. Jenkins showed up at the Pain Posse headquarters for another meeting with the Posse. They gathered around the table.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Things have changed quite a lot, in a very short timeframe. What I hear is that the City now has a sinister group known as the Tolerance Consortium 'providing security' for Neogothic City. They have suspended the City Charter and are operating totally rogue."

Exo asked, "What do we do now? Sit by and let these pukes take over the whole country?"

Purple Harold said, "I think we should do what my ancestors in the South did, if I had a clue for sure who they were, other than being southerners."

Roid Rage asked, "What are you going on about, Harold?"

"I'm talking about secession."

Exo asked, "How can you remember ancient history about the country, but you don't remember anything about yourself?"

Harold said, "I have no idea. I try not to think about it. But, what about the idea of setting up our own government?"

Exo asked, "You want to quit the USA?"

"No, just Neogothic City. If they can scrap the City Charter, then we can ditch city limits. We can make this part of town a new town. We could call it Posseville."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "It is all out of the hands of the lawyers now, I guess. I wonder if public would support us if we broke away? The regular person may not want to give up the security that the Consortium will supposedly provide to them."

Magenta Arrow said, "Maybe we can wait and see what happens before we act."

Roid Rage reacted by slamming his fist on the table. "No!"

Everyone was startled. Exo wiggled the table to see if it was still in one piece.

"I'm tired of doing nothing!" Roid Rage said. He started rubbing his dreadlock head and snorting.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Let's be smart about this. We can't make a mistake right now."

Purple Harold offered, "What if we offered Neogothic City security at a lower price? We would be in the driver's seat instead of the Consortium."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "That's an idea, but what I hear is that the Consortium is led by a newcomer to the City named G-Force, and Corpus DeLuxx is his sidekick. So, this guy must be some kind of a nightmare."

"Ugh!" Magenta said. "I hate to see this G-Force character."

They all sat there thinking about Harold's proposal of secession and offering the City security. Exo sat there staring at Posey, the solar powered plastic flower, as it toggled back and forth. No one in this particular group thought Exo was behaving strangely because of it. Sometimes they even joined him in the behavior. Magenta Arrow and Purple Harold were still catching each other glancing back, and trying to read into each other's intentions.
Chapter 26

Roid Rage was too angry to stay inside PPHQ any longer. He was afraid that he might lose his mind and hurt his friends. Even though it was against their mutually agreed upon plans, he had to get out for a stroll by himself. None of the others thought it wise to try and talk him out of it. To be less conspicuous, he went out the back door down a narrow alley between buildings. The alley was a zigzag maze that only in a couple of places branched off into other alleys. Steel bars and grates were over the windows. The back doors to the adjoining buildings were very heavy reinforced metal. This was evidence that it was not a very secure neighborhood even before the influx of newly arrived evildoers.

A few thugs with bristly and spiky brightly colored hair came from around a corner in front of Roid Rage. He hoped they didn't have an illegal gun or worse, an illegal superpower.

"You're a big one," One of them said. "And look at those sexy plastic shoes."

Roid Rage had been into fights before over his unwavering affinity for plastic shoes. "They're comfortable. To tell you the truth, I'm not in much of a mood to chit-chat. Seriously."

Then a half-dozen more thugs came around another corner.

Then the alpha-thug spokesman said, "Oh look. It's our other friends. I really don't have much use for those fancy shoes of yours. Got any money, big guy?"

"Yeah. I got thousands of dollars in my pocket. Come and get it, cupcake."

"Let's show this smart ass some manners! He pulled a small knife out of his pocket."

The circle of thugs slowly moved in tighter and tighter around Roid Rage.

Roid Rage looked at the thug directly behind him and faked a move at him, causing him to jump back six feet. Then Roid Rage turned and charged their leader. The leader took a swipe at Roid Rage with the knife and got all coat. Roid Rage grabbed the knife wielding wrist and shoved the thug's own knife into his throat. Blood spurted from his shocked victim's neck. His eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped backwards. Then Roid Rage quickly turned and caught a thug who was diving at him, and used the attacker's own momentum to toss him over ten feet into the air, and landed head first into the pavement. Then Roid Rage punched another attacking thug in the face, landing solid damage, and knocked him out cold. Another came from the other side and Roid Rage kicked the thug's legs out from under him with a tremendous force, easily causing leg bones to snap. A thug jumped on Roid Rage's back, and had him by the neck. Roid Rage responded by jumping backwards and landing hard on his back with all of his weight, using the thug as a cushion. The thug's ribs cracked under the impact. Roid Rage used his legs to kick at thugs, who managed to get a solid grip on his legs. Then another thug grabbed his head, while others got on his arms.

Another thug with a large knife said, "Now we are going to teach you a lesson. I'm going to rip your guts out, you big freak show!"

The thug with the large knife took an overhead swing of the knife and came down with full force and plunged the knife accidently into the back of one of the other thugs that Roid Rage used his massive arm to move into the path of the knife. Then Roid Rage threw off the thug on his other arm and reached up and grabbed the thug on his head and threw him at the ones on his legs. The trio went rolling off of him. Roid Rage jumped up and the demoralized gang started running away. Since the alley was long and narrow, they could not scatter. Using his world-class quickness, he caught the slowest one and bashed him in the back of the head with his fist while still running, sending the thug straight down. Then he caught another one while still on the fly and sent him down with a backhand chop to the front of the neck. The pursuit continued. He grabbed one by the back of the neck while he was running and slammed his face into a steel pole that was holding up a fire escape. The entire fire escape vibrated with the impact and the dead thug with a disfigured face lopped to the street. Then while still running, he stepped on the Achilles tendon of another runner and broke his ankle, sending him down. After that, he grabbed another one by the back of the neck with only one of his huge hands and stopped. Still with one hand, he picked the thug up. He turned the thug towards him while still holding him off of the ground. The thug had terror in his eyes and was feeling a literal pain in the neck.

Roid Rage said, "This is getting boring. So I think I will just make an example out of you."

The remaining fleeing thug could barely talk. "No! Don't! No! Please!"

Roid Rage slammed the thug's face into a brick wall, crushing his face, then swung him overhead with both hands like a rag doll and slammed him windmill style full force onto the street, breaking numerous bones. He casually walked by each of his moaning or dead victims until he got back to the Headquarters.

Exo looked up at Roid Rage from Posey. Roid Rage's demeanor seemed a lot more relaxed. Exo said, "Hey Double-R, you ripped your coat." Exo ignored the blood splatters on Roid Rage's sleeve.

Roid Rage said, "I know. I do tend to get a little careless about my surroundings sometimes."

*******

Back at the Bullseye Superstore, a flashmob of diverse, quirky supervillains rushed the store.

Cleavenger shouted, "Those aren't regular shoppers!" as the mob ran past them. There were about 30 of them, dressed in costumes of all types, some with capes, almost all with hoods or masks covering their faces.

"Let them all in!" Retaliator said. "We'll block all of the exits and they can try to get out!" He could only hope that none of them had any special powers.

Retaliator stood in one doorway and had his retractable rods in hand. Cleavenger blocked the middle door. Redcard blocked another door hoping his extra weight would come in handy as he tried to hold the line.

Cleavenger said, "I'm scared. They're going to hurt us."

Within a couple of minutes the flash looters, who were all carrying as much of the store's property as they could, were heading toward the set of three doors trying to get out. As the first super-looters were making their mad dash down the final stretch, Phantaztiq quickly pushed an entire row of nested shopping carts across the aisle out in front of the defenders. As more looters were coming to the exit, they started pushing the row of shopping carts back into the Bullseye Squad, forcing the outnumbered defenders out the door. The carts were across the doorway and could not be budged. Some of the looters tried to jump over the carts with their stolen goods, but took headshot beatings from the team. The looting mob dropped many of the larger items as they tried to escape.

Cleavenger got hit in the mouth and retreated. Redcard got rolled to the floor and got kicked a couple of times, all while his attackers were ignoring his whistling.

Inside the store on the other side of the row of carts, three looters ganged up on Phantaztiq and punched him until he went down, then the kicked him. Then the larger group finally worked together to move the row of shopping carts so they could open a path out of the store.

Retaliator retreated back to the outer set of doors and continued to whip anyone who tried to get out. "Leave the stuff and you can go!" One by one the super-losers were letting go of their booty to get amnesty from Retaliator.

A few thieves managed to take some pilfered items out of the "in" door. Some of them escaped with a ridiculously small amount of loot, such as a roll of paper towels, or some "As Seen on TV several months ago" goodies. Eventually, the entire group had left, leaving a mess of store inventory all over.

After the trauma of the flash mayhem, Cleavenger said, "I'm not doing this again. I quit."

Redcard said, "If she quits, I'm out too."

Phantaztiq was just moaning, holding his side.

Blue Retaliator, who didn't take a hit, said, "C'mon! We won! How many store security guards could have done that well against a whole mob like that? We are actual real super-heroes! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"

Redcard said, "Tell that to my ribs, and look at your buddy Phantaztiq."

Retaliator said, "Did the Space Battle Guys quit when the Astrogoths sent the mother ship?"

Redcard said, "That is totally fake. My pain is real, and I don't want us to die here for real, for no reason."

Clevenger said, "That's the smartest thing I've heard you say in awhile."

Blue Retaliator said, "Phantaztiq, that was a great move you made with the carts."

He nodded his head, still doubled over in pain.

Cleavenger said, "We aren't getting paid enough to do this. Sorry guys, but were going into retirement."

The store manager overheard her comment. He said, "I'm going to give you people a dollar an hour raise. Great job. Now go ahead and help pick this stuff up, okay?"

"Just a dollar?" Retaliator countered.

The manager said, "Pretty soon, with the Consortium protecting us, there won't be any crime, so you should be happy with even having a security job here."

Phantaztiq felt the pain as he breathed and asked the manager, "What about medical insurance?"

The manager asked, "Didn't you enroll in Obamacare? If you like your plan, you can keep your plan." Then he walked over to the carts and started putting them back. "Let me give you guys a hand here."

Retaliator told the team, "Here's the problem; It's this whole City. It all comes down to Mayor Henderson. I think we need to pay him a little visit."

Cleavenger said, "You're stupid! You can't fight City Hall, especially when the Consortium is protecting it!"

Redcard said, "That's right."

Cleavenger said, "O.M.G. Do you ever think of an opinion on your own?!"

Redcard said, "Yes?" as if he were trying to guess the right answer.

Phantaztiq said, "I can tell you all one thing; No matter how stupid Retaliator's ideas are, and there have been some really bad sounding ones, if you get past all of the attitude, he will not steer you wrong. So I think it's smart to listen to him."

Cleavenger said, "Nope. You are crazy and we are from Portland. Retaliator, you have to understand our point of view. This is all Neogothic City's problem, not ours."

Redcard said, "We are outta here."

Cleavenger rolled her eyes as they left.

Retaliator wanted to say something inspirational as they left, but nothing came out. He hung his head in disappointment. He looked up at Phantaztiq. "I really appreciate what you said. I grew up here. All my family and friends are here. I will fight and do whatever it takes to save this City, and I do mean whatever. But I guess we are done here, Phantaztiq. Let's pick up our last Bullseye paycheck and move on."

"To do what?"

"Something will come up."

Chapter 27

The Consortium and Mayor Henderson came out to tell reporters and other bystanders about the new security arrangement for Neogothic City. Overall, with all of the trouble, the citizens were quite happy to give up a sizeable chunk of their freedom in exchange for more security. But others worried it was only the beginning.

Mayor Henderson said from his podium in front of City Hall in front the small gathering, "I am proud to say today that in order to provide the level of security that the great citizens of Neogothic City deserve, we are hiring these superpeople behind me known as the Tolerance Consortium, whose expertise in these matters has no rival. Also, we will be hiring top qualified Consortium Agents at top pay. These agents will support these heroes, and we will be getting money from the state for hiring them. Soon we will be able to save the state millions of dollars by giving early-release prisoners real meaningful jobs when they get early release, not just pay them for not committing crimes the way we do now. This great improvement is going to require some sacrifices by some, but not really by anyone from the demographics who vote on me. What I am saying is that someone will have to pay for these improvements. So I am going to ask City Council for an increase in the Municipal Income Tax on those with a top income, so they can start paying their fair share. Also, churches will be expected to hand over half of their receipts, since everyone has a constitutional right to an equal voice."

A reporter pointed at G-Force and shouted, "Isn't that the guy who helped tear up the City the other day?"

The Mayor said, "Everyone here has been through a very robust vetting process, and he is no exception. Now let's hold any other questions to the end. Now, I would like to introduce to you the newest member of our winning City management team, the esteemed Mr. Kommiczar."

Only a few disillusioned hopey-changey citizens who loved this new insidious direction offered by the Mayor clapped. In fact, many found Kommiczar's tyrannical appearance disturbing.

Kommiczar said, "Greetings Neogothicans. It is my privilege to be here to implement change and to bring you some hope. We are bringing peace to Neogothic City. So your full compliance will be expected. We will no longer tolerate anyone going around hurting people and breaking things. Seditious fools opposing the Tolerance Consortium will be expeditiously executed. Extremist metahuman villains will be killed on sight. If anyone speaks out against the Consortium, it will be considered hate speech and dealt with accordingly. Finally, I would like to mention that we will be working hard with the Federal Government to gain subsidies for strategic military industries in Neogothic City. Companies that are in the business of killing and destruction will love our war friendly business climate and want to relocate here. We will make Neogothic City a thriving military technology sector unlike the world has ever seen since Nazi Germany." Then Kommiczar started laughing hysterically.

He looked around and didn't see anyone else joining in the laughter, so he stopped. "Just a word of caution to would-be troublemakers; I have a pen, a phone, super-powered friends, and will soon have a multitude of lackeys at my disposal, and I know how to use them."

*******

Back at the Pain Posse Headquarters, the Posse had just viewed the Mayor and Kommiczar's press conference.

Exo complained, "Man! The bad news just keeps coming and coming! When's anybody gonna do something about these creeps?!"

Purple Harold said, "I don't imagine it will be too long before we get another visit from Mrs. Jenkins."

Exo said, "If we wait much longer, the Consortium will be solidly entrenched in the City and we will never get them back out. I gotta go powder my nose." He left the room, leaving Purple Harold and Magenta Arrow alone."

Magenta Arrow said, "Harold, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Okay, but don't forget, I don't know anything about my past."

"That's okay. I just was wondering . . . do you like me?"

"Magenta, I don't really know you that well, but I have no problems with you."

"Well, it seems like you are kind of . . . maybe this is the wrong thing to say, but you seem a little stuck up, like you are big on yourself."

"I don't mean to be. In fact, I think that is totally the wrong idea."

She said, "You might not mean to be, but that's the way you come across. Don't you think I am good looking enough for you?"

"Huh? You are one of the best looking women I've ever seen, and to be honest, I know you would never have any interest in me. I know I'm a disaster and I am not stuck up. So, what does all that got to do with the sun shining?"

Magenta asked, "Did I do something wrong? Does it have to do with what I did with Loonatik?"

"I don't know anything about Loonatik. And no, I have nothing whatsoever against you. In fact, I respect you for being on this team."

Despite the open conversation, the non-verbal miscommunication and situation between them was more awkward than ever.

*******

The Consortium rode in Cynapse's beat up car with broken out glass, to Corpus DeLuxx's super-secret rustic cabin lair deep in the woods outside the City.

G-Force sat in the front with Cynapse. G-Force asked, "DeLuxx, tell me all about your partner here," as if she wasn't there.

Corpus stammered, "That's kind of personal."

G-Force sighed, "Tell me about her powers."

"Honestly, I can't say for sure that she has any."

"But you don't know for sure," G-Force said.

"No. I do not."

G-Force shrugged his shoulders. "The mere perception that she might have powers, gives her some power, am I right?"

Cynapse said, "I never really thought of it that way." I really do have power. For real, that is."

Corpus said, "Tell me about your partner."

"Kommiczar is a genius. He has a total mastery of psychology, as you can tell. He is so far above and beyond a natural man. I consider him a metahuman."

"Thank you sir," Kommiczar said.

"Just stating the obvious," G-Force said.

Cynapse asked, "So what is going to happen next?"

G-Force said, "We will remain inconspicuous until Kommiczar oversees the renovation of our new headquarters, which is being built with public funds, and meanwhile he will also oversee the hiring of our lackey agent force, and then we will commence with the systematic extortion of the government to increase our power-wielding assets." He looked at Cynapse, "All for the good of mankind, of course."

Cynapse said, "This all sounds very risky."

G-Force said, "No, what it sounds like, is a dream come true."

Corpus said, "This is the first time in my life I can say I am proud to be an American."

G-Force told Cynapse, "Don't worry. I know there will be a place for you in our organization. One suited to your skills."

Cynapse said, "You mean I'm not a partner."

G-Force started laughing. "Silly woman! There are no partners! Even if there were, you are totally unfit for such a designation." He kept laughing.

Soon the car pulled up the hill on the dirt path to the hideout.

Once they arrived, G-Force said, "That is your lair?"

"What?" Corpus asked. "I used to have an RV, but the Power Patrol stole it.

G-Force exhaled a long breath. So you have no decent lair, no lackeys, no weapons of mass destruction, a marginal sidekick at best, and let me guess, no super computer, no escape rocket or supercar and your uniform, what is the deal with that ensemble you wear? I never heard of a black cape with red and yellow tights."

"At this point, what does it really matter?" Corpus asked.

"Yes. Actually it does matter. You are sending mixed signals to your foes. Your uniform kind of says, 'Don't screw with me, but I'm a really nice guy after you get to know me.' Now my uniform has, 'Ruthless' written all over it. Am I right? And look at Kommiczar. He looks like genocide on steroids, like he is ready to do your autopsy already."

Kommiczar said, "Thank you, G-Force. I can go a month on a good compliment."

Cynapse interrupted, "Do you think my uniform makes me look fat?"

"No, but it doesn't do a very good job of hiding your excess adipose either," G-Force said.

"What!?" she said.

Trying to console her, Corpus said, "Hey, he doesn't mean anything by that, he is just making an off the cuff comment on what he sees."

"What!? You think I'm honestly fat?!"

"I mean. . ." Corpus knew that he needed to back pedal.

Kommiczar said, "Perhaps we should go in now."

After they got inside, Corpus said, "I'll make us some dinner."

Cynapse said, "Better make it low fat!" She looked at G-Force, "You know, you could stand to lose a few!"

G-Force said, "Unlike some of your amenities, my body defies gravity quite nicely."

Kommiczar started laughing. Steam was ready to come out of her ears.

Corpus looked at Cynapse. He knew that G-Force had crossed a line with his injudicious blabbering, and this new animosity between Cynapse and G-Force would force him to take sides if he wanted to stay on Cynapse's good side. Clearly G-Force had never had a girlfriend, and his thoughtless comments would earn him a lifetime of contempt. Corpus thought about setting him up with his ex, Carrot Woman, which would be a devious move, like inflicting a chronic, slowly spreading wound on him. But G-Force was probably way too smart to fall for that scheme.

Corpus asked the group, "What kind of ramen noodles does anybody like?"

Chapter 28

Back at Pain Posse Headquarters, the Posse met for another team meeting. Mrs. Jenkins sat at the head of the table. There was a young woman sitting to her right with curiously orangey skin.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "I would like to introduce to you, Agent Orange. I have commissioned her to find out everything she can on Consortium activity. She has a report for us today. Go ahead, please."

Agent Orange said, "What I have found out is that the . . ."

Purple Harold said, "Sorry, I can't help it. How in the devil's name did you get so orange? I mean like, you are really super orange."

Agent Orange said, "Funny you ask, seeing how you are so incredibly purple."

Magenta said, "He just asked a question. I don't think he was trying to be mean."

Agent Orange looked at Magenta and tilted her head as if to ask why she spoke.

Magenta looked away.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Can we hold all questions for later? Especially ones that are of a personal nature not related to the topic at hand?"

Harold made a gesture like he was zipping his purple lips.

"As I was saying," Agent Orange said, "Let me give you a little background on who we are up against. First, let's take a look at Kommiczar; He is from Eastern Europe; Bulgaria to be exact. Through extortion and violence, he has continued to build up his modest oil and coffee producing empire in Latin America. Now he is teaming up with G-Force, who we know little about, to stake a claim right here in Neogothic City. Since our glorious Mayor is so desperate, he will look to anyone for some help, even enemies of America, as long as they are doing whatever his conservative political rivals don't want."

Then Orange said, "I did try to find out what is going on with G-Force; there is not much out there. I have no idea what his weaknesses might be, but he is a gravity manipulator extraordinaire. I heard one unsubstantiated story that when he was a kid, he got mad at the world like kids do, except that he wiped out his entire neighborhood. He is to be considered extremely dangerous. The only thing that matters to him is himself. We all pretty well know Corpus DeLuxx and what he is capable of. He has been frequently seen with a useless fat bitch known as Cynapse, who is a nobody with no real powers."

The heroes' eyes shifted about after the emotionally charged commentary on Cynapse was made. It sounded strangely like Agent Orange had a personal vendetta against Cynapse for some reason.

Orange said, "Anyways, those are the founding members of the Consortium. I don't care what anybody says, they are currently the true rulers of Neogothic City."

The Consortium is openly channeling huge amounts of municipal funds to the BioMech Industries, who in turn is going to arm Consortium lackeys with next generation weapons."

Exo asked, "What kind of weapons?"

Agent Orange said, "That is extremely difficult to find out. The security is multi-layered, but I should find out any time now."

The Posse all gave each other an anxious look.

Exo said, "The longer we let this cancer grow, the harder it will be to defeat them."

Magenta Arrow said, "I can't believe we are just sitting here while one of the great cities is taken over by some meta-creeps."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Yeah, but if we act, we will be the outlaws. It would be treason against the legitimate Neogothic City government."

Purple Harold said, "You know, on those spy movies, if we are caught or killed, the Mrs. Jenkins character would disavow all knowledge of us, but they still went on their mission, and they would get the job done."

Exo said, "And usually only one guy makes it out alive. The good looking one, and maybe his love interest. So I won't make it."

Harold said, "Well, the only good looking one here is Roid Rage. Everyone knows the black guy always gets killed right away."

Roid Rage said, "I know, they always think we are expendable. Of course with some of your newer movies, that cliché is changing."

Agent Orange said, "Can we get back on topic? If you want to fight the Consortium, that's up to you. I can't stop you. I can only advise against it. The main places you could raid would be the headquarters, City Hall, or BioMech Industries. Or, you could help Guerilla Gorilla Joe attack Kommiczar's oil field in Central America as a diversion."

"Gorilla Gorilla Joe?" Magenta Arrow asked. "What's that?"

Agent Orange said, "No. Guerilla Gorilla Joe."

"That's what I said."

Agent Orange said, "Anyways, he is a Guerilla fighter, who also happens to be a Gorilla."

Exo said, "You're joking, right?"

Agent Orange said, "I'm dead serious. Guerilla Joe is a trained Gorilla who communicates in English and Spanish with his electronic device. Of course his vocabulary is extremely limited, but he can live off of the land indefinitely and knows how to use a machete. He won't stop until he cuts up the person he is assigned to take out."

Exo shook his head in disbelief. "How did we get on this?"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Never mind. If you go decide to attack, I don't want to know anything about it, and I don't want any of you to come back here again, ever. And to be real honest about it, I'm not so sure that I want to remain in Neogothic City myself, even though everything I own is here."

Orange continued, "Speaking of their Headquarters; the Consortium is making great progress on it every day. They are about three quarters done and are using it as they go. When complete, it will have state of the art security. There is also going to be a barracks and training area for their lackeys."

Magenta Arrow asked, "Did they hire any lackeys yet?"

"Yes," Orange answered. They are helping with the construction."

*******

Phantaztiq was stirring a small batch of mortar in a wheelbarrow at the Consortium HQ construction site and said, "Man, this is killing my arms!" He was still wearing his green and purple Consortium Lackey uniform, which was all slopped up with dust and wet cement. "I knew getting this stupid job was going to be a huge mistake."

Blue Retaliator, who was also sporting Consortium green and purple threads said, "Just superhero up, Phan. Keep your eyes open for ways we can screw up this place, but only if we won't get caught. This is not just a job. We are spies, you know. Besides, did you like the job better where you got your head cracked with a pickle jar?"

"Yeah. Who did that anyway?"

The original goals Blue Retaliator and Phantaztiq agreed upon with each other were to spy on the Consortium, and to sabotage their efforts. After they heard from other lackeys that they might get some super-weapons, they decided to keep their mouths shut and play along to get along. Since there was such a labor shortage in the area, there was virtually no vetting of the lackeys' background.

Phantaztiq looked at another crew working in another area and asked, "I wonder why they are installing a conveyor belt?"
Chapter 29

A NCPD officer assigned to guarding the perimeter of City Hall heard the unmistakable swoosh of air of a flying metahuman and saw a strange shadow come into his field of vision, then the sound of breaking glass. By the time he looked up, Purple Harold had already entered a broken window going into a fourth floor office. He alerted the squad of police guarding City Hall. They rushed inside.

The window to the Animal control office shattered as Purple Harold flew in.

"I'm just the dog catcher!" the older man in a plain uniform the office said.

The irate citizen who was yet to get any satisfaction from the Mayor concerning his neighbor's dog was standing in front of the dog catcher's desk. "Get in line!"

Harold was amazed at the curmudgeon's audacity. "Where's Kommiczar!" Harold demanded of the dog catcher.

"He's . . . two doors down to the right!" the dog catcher said.

"He's worthless too," the irate citizen said. "I wouldn't vote on him for dog catcher."

"Hey! I'm right here!" the dog catcher said. "And you," he said to Purple Harold, "you owe me a new window!"

Before Harold could get out of the contentious Animal Control office a couple of police rushed through the doorway. Harold shoved one of the policemen into the other. The one in back went to pull his sidearm. Harold displayed his ominous claws within a foot of both of the officer's necks and they simultaneously raised their hands. Harold disarmed them by throwing their pistols into a cage with a rabid dog.

Then Harold went down the hall and found Kommiczar's office. Before Harold could get into the office, Kommiczar was crouched behind his desk, shooting at him with a machine pistol. Harold ducked for cover behind a chair as Kommiczar was shooting up glorified wall hangings and sculptures of himself, but then Harold, staying low to the floor skimmed like a hovercraft straight at the desk, flying under it and knocked Kommiczar down and back into the wall. The impact into the wall caused Kommiczar to drop his weapon. Kommiczar could barely move.

"Gori v ada!" Kommiczar spewed in his native Bulgarian.

Harold picked the small totalitarian up and threw him out of the fourth story office window, back first. Kommiczar and the shattered glass fell out.

"Ha!" Harold said. "My work here is done."

While investigating the incursion, G-Force was hovering about ten feet off of the sidewalk outside of City Hall, while levitating Cynapse. He saw Kommiczar falling to his certain death, so he abruptly dropped Cynapse without concern and lowered Kommiczar as a mother would lower her newborn into its cushy bassinet. Cynapse was stunned by the sudden fall. The severe pain made her wonder if all of her bones were intact.

Then Harold flew out the window as police ran into the office and were shooting at him. But Corpus DeLuxx was hovering outside and made an energy ball to fire at his nemesis, Purple Harold.

While G-Force was laughing at the scene in the air, a strange hiss could be heard, then instantaneously he felt an intense pain in the back of his leg. G-Force screamed and pulled the arrow out. The burning phosphorous residue kept burning in his leg even though the arrow was removed. A small vapor rose from the wound. He turned and saw Magenta Arrow, along with Exo and Roid Rage. "Bloody Hell! You'll pay for that, you cherub from Hell!"

Still up in the air, Corpus DeLuxx threw his energy ball at Harold, who did a barrel roll as he was flying directly at him. The energy ball missed Harold and exploded on the side of City Hall. Harold swung his claws at Corpus's face, but DeLuxx dodged the attack.

Then a smoke arrow exploded in front of G-Force, blocking his line of sight to Magenta Arrow and the others. G-Force coughed and sputtered as he levitated himself out of the gray cloud.

Roid Rage charged at Kommiczar, who was still trying to get up, and kicked him in the head with his large plastic shoe. Kommiczar's neck whiplashed as he went down. Roid intended to furiously stomp on the small beaten down fiend but the police started firing. "Let's get out of here!" he shouted.

Cynapse finally got herself up, and the slow moving Exo charged her. She kicked Exo and found that the exoskeleton was a lot harder than she thought. The kick hurt her foot enough that she couldn't stand well enough to keep her balance and went back down to the concrete.

Roid Rage shouted, "Let's go!"

Exo brought back his rock fist to put a knockout blow on her when he was shot in the back by police. Pieces of his thick hide were being chipped off by the bullets hitting him. Exo turned around to face three policemen and started walking toward them. They shot Exo in the face and torso, but he kept coming. Seeing that their shooting was of no real effect, the police pulled back.

Roid Rage shouted, "Come on!" But it was like no one could hear him.

Magenta Arrow fired two more arrows, and G-Force caused the arrows to drop and bounce off of the cement. "Idiot girl! Is that all you got?!" He waved his left arm and levitated Magenta Arrow about fifteen feet off of the sidewalk. G-Force saw Roid Rage charging him, so he used his right arm to levitate Roid Rage as well.

Even though Magenta Arrow was in the air, and being shot at by police, she was able to pull an arrow from her quiver and draw back her bow, aiming right at G-Force. "Hey stoopoid! How many arms you got? Ever use an arrow as dental floss?!"

G-Force knew that he could only manipulate gravity in two places at a time because he used his arms to implement the manipulation. With Magenta Arrow and Roid Rage both under his control, he had no way to stop the arrow. If he didn't drop either Roid Rage or Magenta Arrow, he may have the foul taste of arrow in his mouth, so he immediately dropped Magenta with force. "Ha! Looks like you are the one who needs to make a doctor's appointment." Then he turned his attention to Exo and levitated him. "Oh look! A big mutant turtle! You sir, are neither a teenager, nor a ninja." The G-Force crossed his arms, causing Roid Rage and Exo to collide in mid air, then he let them both fall to the ground.

Purple Harold chased Corpus DeLuxx across the clear Neogothic City sky. Corpus wanted no part of a hand-to-hand skirmish with Harold's claws. Yet, Corpus could not get far enough away from Harold to take the short amount of time that it took to make his signature energy ball and be able to throw it with any accuracy. During the pursuit, Harold got close enough to take a couple of swipes with his claws at Corpus. Once, he was able to rake Corpus in the back with his claws, causing more damage to his already tattered black cape than bodily harm.

Finally, Corpus made a surprise attack by abruptly stopping and pivoting in mid air, while swinging his fist at Harold, landing a glancing blow on his chops. Harold spun away and Corpus made and launched an energy ball at him. The ball missed badly and fell to the ground, catching a house in a suburban area on fire. Since Corpus could now fire his deadly spheres of energy, Harold had lost the initiative, and decided to break off the combat and head to the agreed upon Pain Posse rendezvous point.

Back at City Hall, all of the combatants had taken a serious beating. But G-Force was still able to regain enough composure, burning leg notwithstanding, to work his mastery over gravity.

G-Force said, "Now, boys and girl; it's time to put an end to this ridiculous notion of opposition to my supremacy. I'm going to crush you now. Your ribs will all break from the tremendous weight, and then your hearts will explode inside your bodies. I'd like to say it won't hurt, but I don't want to lie to you." He laughed and started to raise his arms and a loud noise came directly overhead, causing him to cower.

A rider on a self-balancing Jetway hovered in front of G-Force, who then focused on the flying contraption. The Jetway was like a cross between a helicopter, fighter plane, and a Segway. G-Force manipulated the gravity below the Jetway. The rider throttled the jet engine up, and the craft was still slowly descending. Then machine gun fire rained down from the Jetway that was bobbing up and down. G-Force abandoned trying to pull down the Jetway to avoid being ventilated by the machine gun. Since G-Force quit pulling down the Jetway pilot overcompensated and flew straight up, strafing City Hall with the machinegun in a vertical pattern.

Kommiczar said, "Let's get out of here!" Cynapse followed him into City Hall, which was like a large stone castle.

Police fired at the Jetway and hit it a few times, and then it aborted the attack but was able to zip out of sight.

Magenta Arrow, who was looking at the sky, turned and said, "Now would be a good time to regroup!"

Police directed their gunfire at them.

"Move!" Magenta Arrow shouted.

All the fight was beaten out of Roid Rage and Exo, who were barely able to limp away. The trio did not take an instant to watch their backs as they got away. Since Exo is the slowest, he helped cover the team by involuntarily taking some bullets into his thick armored back.

Chapter 30

G-Force stormed into the Mayor's Office at City Hall as well as anyone who had just pulled a burning arrow out of their leg could storm. He pointed a finger at the Mayor, who cowered behind his desk.

"C'mon!" the Mayor said, "What now?!"

"You! And your so-called Police Department, are absolutely worthless!"

The Mayor said, "Let's step back and look at the big picture. Could you be a little more specific?"

"The security you provide here is a joke! Where did your cops learn how to shoot?!"

"I'm sure we can . . ."

G-Force said, "That purple goon comes flying into the Animal Control Office! How fitting! He goes and throws Kommiczar out of the window! Astonishing! That is some real great security there! Then those other weirdoes just come marching up to the building in broad daylight and your brainchildren in blue can't manage to do anything about them! Not to mention the audacious attack by that flying Segway. I am a tolerant man, but this situation better improve! Likewise, the situation at the new Consortium Headquarters is no better! Kommiczar painstakingly vetted every lackey we have out there, but a lot of good that does if your porous defenses let every form of . . ." G-Force took a deep breath. "Let me say this as calmly as I can. I am a man of peace and tranquility, but if you want to remain a part of our winning team, you must wrap your pea brain around this situation. Am I getting through to you?"

The Mayor said, "Yeah G. Hey, we're all on the same page here. Okay?"

Then G-Force limped out of Mayor Henderson's Office and found Cynapse and Corpus DeLuxx in the Hallway nursing each others' battle wounds.

G-Force looked at Corpus and said, "You know, I think I have determined the perfect assignment for your full-figured female here."

Cynapse had a worried look on her face and crossed her arms over her waistline.

G-Force said, "I think since she has no super powers that contributed anything to our most recent confrontation, she shall be sent to the headquarters to work on construction."

Cynapse said, "I'll do a good job, G-Force. I'll make sure everything gets done properly and on time."

G-Force started chuckling in a forced laughter that bordered on anger. "I think not. I hope don't think you are not part of the Consortium leadership. You will be doing the actual construction work. What I am telling you; is that you are now a lackey."

Cynapse's lower lip started quivering and she started blinking rapidly. "Lackey?"

Corpus frowned and said, "Wait a minute! If you move her, then you have to move me!"

"Lackey?" Cynapse said again.

G-Force shook his head. "That comment sounds like someone who lacks the minimum amount of judgment to be on my leadership team. I can't have subordinates who's judgment is clouded up because of their out of control sex drive. It kind of confirms my suspicion I've had about you."

Corpus DeLuxx changed his tone. He held up his hands and said, "I fully understand, G-Force. I won't let it happen again."

"Hey!" Cynapse said, raising her arms. "You throw me under the bus right in front of my face?!" Her voice was ready to crack and her arms dropped.

DeLuxx put his hand on Cynapse's shoulder. "Naturally, you understand this reassignment is for the betterment of the cause."

Cynapse swatted DeLuxx's forearm with hers like she was doing a hard block in hand-to-hand combat. "No. I disagree."

G-Force smiled and nodded in approval. "Cynapse, if you play your cards right, you may become the significant other to one of the most powerful men on the planet. Meanwhile, you still will do exactly as I say. Consider construction work as an opportunity to serve the cause while you work off some of your excess weight."

*******

Meanwhile, the Posse had regrouped to the abandoned warehouse that they had agreed upon as their fallback point ever since they left the Posse Headquarters. They did not want to lead the police to the Jenkins building and implicate her in their activities.

Magenta Arrow looked over Exo. There were multiple pock marks in his armor where bullets had chiseled out pieces. Magenta said, "Exo . . . You're a mess. Is there anything we can do?"

"Honestly, it doesn't even hurt. It just grows back. But it doesn't heal holes or cracks, it grows back uniformly, so it gets gradually uglier, but like I say, it doesn't hurt. I'll be ready to take them on again anytime, especially if that high powered flying gizmo comes to help us out again."

Purple Harold said, "Thanks to that flying thing, some or all of us are not dead. Who was that, I wonder?"

No one answered.

Roid Rage said, "I ain't gonna lie. I hurt all over. I almost would rather be dead."

Magenta Arrow said, "We all do. While we are resting, we can figure out our next move. We did learn something though. G-Force has limits on the number of us he can throw around at a time."

Roid Rage moaned, "Yeah. That really helps."

Harold said, "And if he levitates me, I can fly away. Did you see how he babied Kommiczar? I wonder if they are gay lovers or something."

Magenta said, "Harold, you have to match up against DeLuxx each time, since you both fly. If you can keep pressure on him, that takes away his ranged attack ability. In order for us to beat them, we have to somehow get the upper hand. We have to hit them before they hit us."

Harold said, "If we mull all this over together, I'm pretty sure we can figure out how to take them."

"Yes," Magenta said, "we need to work as closely as possible." She looked directly at Harold, without averting her eyes.

"I think that would be a great idea," Harold said, looking directly back, feeling more empowered every second.
Chapter 31

Later that day, at the Consortium Headquarters construction site, Cynapse was fitted with her lackey uniform and was out getting directions on how to do her "volunteer" work.

The construction site lieutenant said, "Cynapse, you will work with these two, who always seem to be working alone for some reason, Blue and Phan. They are not getting much done and could use the help. They'll show you what needs done."

Cynapse's eyes narrowed. She said, "It seems like I ought to know you guys.

Blue Retaliator said, "You don't know me. How could you know me? If I were you, I'd shut up and get to work. This mastermind HQ is important, you know."

"And you," she said, "Your name is Phan. That sounds like an Asian name or something and you are white, yet the other guy, Blue, is an Asian."

"Yeah, imagine that," Phantaztiq said. "Well, times do change, you know."

Cynapse said, "After what happened today, I really couldn't give a crap less whether I stay here or not."

Phantaztiq said, "That is anti-Consortium hatespeak. Certainly you don't mean what you are saying." Phan hoped to pry some information out of her.

Cynapse said, "I don't know. It just seems like the future ruler of the world ought to be a little more sensitive about his subjects. You know, like just coming out and saying stuff about their weight."

Phantaztiq said, "I know for a fact what you are saying is completely wrong. Our leader would never bad mouth a woman for no reason. He is totally compassionate."

"Well he did!" Cynapse said.

Blue Retaliator and Phantaztiq looked around, hoping not to draw any unwanted attention.

Cynapse said, "It is all I can do not to hate that guy."

Blue Retaliator said, "Hate G-Force? Is that even possible?" They both figured they could bait her for more inside information.

"Yes. He is an asshole to me and my boyfriend."

"Who's your boyfriend?" Phantaztiq asked.

"Corpus DeLuxx."

"Whoa!" Blue Retaliator said. "You kidding me?! He's your . . .

Phantaztiq interrupted, "What we are saying is that Corpus is a rock star."

Cynapse said, "I know, right? He is the best and . . ."

Phantaztiq asked, "So what's it like, you know getting down with a super guy like that?"

"Do I know you? Are we close friends?" Cynapse asked. "You guys don't even know my real name and you're getting into my really personal stuff like we are so tight already."

Retaliator had a stern look on his face and said, "Let me tell you about that guy. . ."

Phantaztiq put his hand on Retaliator's shoulder to get him to stop talking. Phantaztiq said, "You know, I can't believe that G-Force would treat such a great guy like Corpus the way he does."

"Yeah. I know, right?" she said. "I should be really mad at Corpus for throwing me under the bus, but how can I?"

Phantaztiq said, "You know, when you get right down to it, I think DeLuxx would make a better Imperious Leader than G-Force, don't you think?"

Retaliator said, "Umm. . . Oh yes. I certainly do also. Don't you think so as well, Cynapse?"

"Absofreakinglutely. But they both can be jerks."

Then an announcement came over the loudspeaker. "All lackeys report to the conference room for training."

The newly constructed conference room was a meeting room with a massive table in the middle with cushy chairs around it, then plain uncomfortable chairs all around the perimeter of the room. In all, it had about fifty seats.

Blue, Phan, and Cynapse were among the first to arrive and chose empty cushy seats at the table.

"Don't sit there!" a short pudgy bald man in a lackey uniform sitting at the head of the tables said. "Sit along the wall!"

More lackeys came into the room and the man yelled at all of them, "Don't sit there!" Even when there were more attendees than there were seats, he would not let any of them sit at the table, so they had to stand.

At one end of the room was a screen that had a presentation projected on to it. The first slide in the presentation read, "YOUR NEW REALITY AS A CONSORTIUM LACKEY"

"All right", the pudgy bald man said, "let's get started. My name is Lieutenant Gonzalez. I am a Lieutenant because I know how to take a worthless lackey and make them considerably less worthless."

Then a tall, skinny lackey came into the room. The leader pointed at two others and said, "You, and you, go over there and teach him not to be late."

The two generic looking lackeys went over to the tall tardy one. One of them said, "Umm . . . dude, you can't come in late, okay?"

"No!" Lieutenant Gonzalez said, "When one of your superiors, which includes everyone, orders a lackey to teach someone a lesson, we are talking about physical violence! Now do it right, or you are next!"

So the two assigned lackeys started punching the tardy attendee, who was doing his best to cover up while pleading for them to stop. Then after he doubled over and fell to the floor, they started kicking him. He fell on the floor screaming and moaning.

Gonzalez said, "Throw him out, I can't stand hearing him cry like a baby. I'm sure he already understands what we are going to go over here. I hate rudeness from some pathetic lackey. Okay. Now let me continue. We call this class 'training'. However it could also be considered more of an affirmation of your worthlessness as a lackey."

The next slide read, "AS A LACKEY, YOU ARE ABOUT WORTHLESS." Gonzalez said, "Here at the Consortium, we do not coddle losers such as yourselves." Then Gonzalez held his hand over his mouth in feigned shock. "Oh, did I call you all losers?" Then his face turned into a vicious scowl. "This is not public school, where everyone is a 'winner', when in reality, no one is. Let's get real here for a moment. You are only paid the minimum that the Consortium feels you will take in order to be an abject slave for us. You have no skills useful to the goal of world domination, so why would anyone think you are worth much? It's not like you have any superpowers, or skills or anything. So therefore, you are totally expendable. Now, there might be one or two of those among you here who would say, 'I want to be less worthless.' If that is you, it is up to you to increase your own value. If we had to change your diapers, it would take too much of our time, and that would defeat the purpose."

The next slide read, "AS A LACKEY, YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF THE TOLERANCE CONSORTIUM." "So, here is the thing about that . . . it should go without saying that you don't call any of the shots. You don't question any of the shots. You should just be happy that we put up with your buffoonery in the first place.

One of the lackeys raised his hand, as if to ask a question.

Gonzalez said, "Something wrong with your arm, lackey? If so, we can have it fixed for you."

He slowly pulled his hand back down as if it was never raised.

The next slide read, "YOUR WORTHLESSNESS IS RELATIVE." Gonzalez said, "Here is what you can take away from this; Even if we show you how to do anything, and you improve, you are still worthless if you are not considerably more useful than the other lackeys. And if you fail to keep up with everyone else. . ." Gonzalez started laughing, bending over and waving his arms. He had a hard time catching his breath he was so amused with his own thoughts. "I remember this one guy once when I worked for Doctor . . . oh never mind." He stopped laughing and looked up at the screen, wiped tears from his eyes and flipped slides. It read, "WE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU." Gonzalez commented, "Why should we? Oh, I am not saying we will go around executing you without at least some kind of reason, but at the same time, we are not your mommy. Let's face it; you are worthless and you are getting paid; probably grossly overpaid for what you are worth. But why would the Consortium owe you more than your hourly wage for your total allegiance? Those are the terms. If any of you think you could do better than following the guy who will rule the world, then you know where the door is. That is basically all you need to know. It's not like we owe you anything else. We don't have the time or resources to devote to caring about your confused and screwed up personal lives. If the Tolerance Consortium members so much as bother to learn your first name instead of calling you 'fool', you may silently consider yourself a success. Whether they treat you like anything other than a bottom feeder or not is of no consequence. Don't worry though. Once the world is in the control of the Consortium, you might be rewarded somehow, I would think." He shrugged his shoulders.

The final slide was a "DISCLAIMER", and had a lot of small fuzzy print. "This slide is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo I had to put in here, that if you disobey, blah blah blah; punishable by death, blah blah blah. Just the usual stuff. That is all. Off with you. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Make sure you all fill out the course evaluation sheet on your way out. Your name must be signed on the sheet."
Chapter 32

The old warehouse was abandoned decades ago. There was trash laying around where vagrants had sought refuge from the elements over the years.

Rain poured through the roof in most places, and in some places there was no roof. The Pain Posse found a secluded area that was darker and better protected. Purple Harold was sitting and resting, yet still on guard. His dark purple skin and perception made him an ideal sentry.

Magenta Arrow approached Harold. "How you doing?" She sat down next to him. Quite close.

Harold said, "I've had better days. And you?" He was still a little nervous because the woman who often stared at him, no doubt judging him in silence was uncomfortably close.

Magenta said, "My leg." She stretched it out in front of him. "It hurts like hell." She thought he would be obliged to rub it for her, but he didn't get the unspoken message. "Would you mind?"

Harold started rubbing her calf. He thought about what it would be like to be intimate with her. He didn't want to overplay his hand, so he stopped. "How's that?"

"No. Keep going. Up higher, please."

He started rubbing her thigh. This was all very confusing, yet still quite stimulating.

Magenta said, "Oh . . . that's good. Please don't stop. When that sick bastard G-Force dropped me, I thought for sure I broke my leg." She leaned toward Harold, and put her arm against his. Her sleeve was half ripped off. After a couple of awkward silences, she said, "Harold, I'm going to be straight up with you. Do you have a woman in your life?"

"Magenta, I . . . "

"You can call me 'Mags'."

"I don't think any of us should even bother thinking about stuff like that. We don't even know if we will survive the day, let alone talk about our future."

"Oh. Is that why you are so inhibited? If we are going to die, then I guess it doesn't matter, right? You aren't with anyone, right?"

"Well . . . Mag, I don't remember much about my past, and I can't guarantee it, but I never saw any evidence in my past of a woman who had any interest in me."

Magenta said, "What's your deal? I thought you had the perceptions like you say. You seriously can't even tell that I am totally into you, can you?"

"What? No. I can't believe that. You're just . . . messing with me. Quit it."

He turned and looked at her in the eyes and looked away. "I'm all purple, you know. I realize I look like a joke. You're a real blonde bombshell. You could get any good looking guy you want."

She tugged his chin towards her, gazing into his eyes. She looked at both of their arms touching. "I like the contrast."

Harold said, "You must have the weirdest fetish ever. Purple monster guys." He shook his head chuckling nervously. When he looked at her again, she was waiting to lock eyes with him. Then he made a serious attempt to snap them both out of it by avoiding the seductive gaze and changing the subject. "I thought you and the Retaliator was a thing."

She put her index finger on his lips to silence him, and to probe his purpleness. "That's just crazy talk, Harold. He's just a boy." She ran her hand over his chest. "You're a man. " She thrust her thigh towards him and looked over his whole body. "He hates me anyway."

"Well, what if he changes his mind?"

Magenta sighed. "He had his chance, and he blew it. You ask too many questions. Now I am going to show you my superpower."

"Superpower? I thought. . ."

"Yeah. The same one every woman has. The power to shut a monster up. Beast control, I think they would call it."

"Huh?"

"I can't wait any longer for you to make a move." She moved on top of him, and they both settled back to the floor. Harold had no more resistance left in him.

Elsewhere in the warehouse, Roid Rage's huge body was stretched out on the floor and said, "What they say is true; the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Around the corner Exo could see the couple. "Would you look at that? Magenta and Harold are locking lips over there."

Roid Rage was in too much pain to turn. He said, "Good for them. They may as well enjoy their lives while they can."

Exo said, "What do you mean by that, big guy?"

"What's our plan? What are we doing here? Are we gonna live through this?"

Exo shrugged his shoulders at the question and said, "What's your assessment?"

"No one wants us here. Everyone acts like we are the bad guys, and the Consortium is some kind of superhero team, protecting the rights of the oppressed little guys. Why should we bother helping Neogothic City anyhow? I say let them croak in their own ignorance."

Exo said, "I don't blame you for wanting to leave your own hometown, and I don't claim to know much, but I do know about the Consortium. It's a cancer. Neogothic City needs a Consortiumectomy, before it's too late. They are digging in and will have a base of operations to do whatever malevolent activities they want. It won't be long before they have a super-army and take control over every political hack looking for a bribe in the Country. All the rights of the people will be gone forever. I came all the way here for a reason. With the medical condition I got, I got no future. I went to the doctor the other day. After she got done being creeped out over how I looked, she took some X-rays. She said my natural internal skeleton is dissolving because all of the calcium is being absorbed out of my bones into this damn shell. Over time, I will turn into some kind of cockroach. You can do what you want, big guy, but as for me, I'm going to fight as long as I have any fight in me. We may not be world beaters, or have much of a plan, but we walked right up to them and took them head on, then we walked away, and lived to tell about it. That's real damn good in my book. It's better than any other future I figure that I can possibly have."

*******

In Kommiczar's office, he studied the smartly dressed young couple who had made an appointment with the Consortium. They sat nervously as Kommiczar stared at them with a blank look on his face. He tilted his head one way, and then the other, never becoming self-conscious over his creepy behavior. Then he started vaping, exhaling some scent not found in nature. "I'm sure G-Force will be along any moment."

After about twenty minutes of waiting, the visiting man said, "We at Belarus Industries would like to have clients who we enjoy working with. Our product is highly sought after, and we are not going to respond positively to any kind of passive aggressive head games, where a potential buyer might try to posture themselves into some sort of enhanced bargaining position by making us wait."

Kommiczar spoke with the steel tube in his mouth. "Relax. He's just in the crapper. The only reason we are seeing you in the first place is because you are on the Department of Commerce list of banned foreign companies. That means you have something we want and that you will not be able to find so many customers as you claim."

The salesman said, "Funny you say that, because we ordinarily use the list of terror sponsoring nations. So our clientele is not as limited as you suggest." He raised his eyebrows. Everyone chuckled at the comment.

G-Force glided into the office to avoid limping on the leg that had the festering arrow wound. "Belarus Industries; you got one minute. Go."

The woman held up a tablet. The initial image was of a sci-fi looking rifle. "Here is our new Plasfusion Personal Weapon, or PPW." Then a video ran showing a man firing the PPW at about 10 feet away from a solid round steel target. "This target is one foot thick solid steel." A blue pulse came out of the PPW and immediately went completely through the target, sending hot sparks everywhere. "This weapon will change warfare forever. We would like to demo this weapon for you in person."

Kommiczar looked at G-Force, then at the weapons salesman. "What is the price tag on this item?"

The guy said, "We can make you a special deal."

G-Force said, "See! This is why salesmen are even less popular than politicians. You guys are right up there with lawyers. All I wanted to know was the price. Since you did your presentation in under a minute, I won't throw you out."

"Three hundred thousand US dollars each," the saleswoman said.

G-Force sighed.

Kommiczar asked, "What if we had you move your factory here, underground, of course. We would give you permanent tax abatement." He started laughing.

The man asked, "That's interesting. How many units would you take at half-price?"

"All of them, of course," Kommiczar said, blowing vapor straight up into the air.

The man and woman looked at each other with dollar signs in their eyes and held out their hands to seal the deal with the Consortium by handshake.

A noise came from the corner of the room.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?!" G-Force yelled at a lackey who was standing on the far end of the large office, partially behind a floor lamp.

"My name is Phan. I didn't mean to interrupt, but I was told to come in here and find out what everyone wants to drink."

Kommiczar said, "Is it customary in this country to take drink orders from behind a lamp?"

The saleswoman said, "Got any Champaign?"

"Sure. I'll supersize it."

Kommiczar said, "I would like some scotch."

G-Force said, "Bring me a Sierra Mist."

"I'll check on that. We may only have diet."

"Huh?"

"Is Mal-Mart brand diet lemon-lime okay? Lieutenant Gonzalez said we should help you out with your diet."

"Whatever!" G-Force said. "These lackeys are useless. Off with you! We're thirsty here!"

The meeting continued so the Consortium and Belarus Industries could work out the details of their new relationship. The drinks never came. The lackey's inattentiveness was just chalked up to ineptitude.
Chapter 33

Blue Retaliator, Phantaztiq, and Cynapse were out doing their daily unskilled construction work at the Tolerance Consortium Headquarters.

While Cynapse was bent over working, another lackey walked by while no one was looking and thoroughly brushed up against her backside.

"Hey! I'm gonna report you!" she said as the man walked away. "Who is that?!" she asked Phantaztiq.

"That's Skunkmaster. What did he do?"

"Never mind." Cynapse didn't want to report the offense, and face repercussions for reporting it.

A message from Lieutenant Gonzalez came over the loudspeaker, "ALL LACKEYS REPORT TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM, NOW."

Phantaztiq sighed, "Again? Wonder what that idiot wants now?"

Cynapse said, "I don't think you should be calling him an idiot. He is our direct leader, you know. "

Phantaztiq said, "Hey, I'm being as nice as I can."

Cynapse said, "The Consortium needs everyone's full cooperation in order to be successful. Don't you remember our last meeting?"

Phantaztiq said, "Why yes I do. I am really pumped up to serving the freaking Consortium after that kick in the damn mouth."

Blue Retaliator said, "I agree with Cynapse. He is our leader. We have to perform well to earn his trust."

Phantaztiq looked at him and rolled his eyes. He started moving and talking like an artificial human. "I am a robot. I love the Consortium."

Retaliator said, "You need to get with the program like Cynapse and me."

"Yeah," Cynapse said.

The lackeys took their plush seats around the huge table and were ordered not to sit there again so they moved.

Gonzalez said, "Today you will go out on a mission. It is very simple. Even a total moron would not be able to screw it up. I need three groups of four lackeys. Each group is to take a lackeymobile and pick up the person written on this card and bring them to the Channel 2 TV station. The person on each of these cards will be immediately brought to the TV station by you to get a lifetime achievement award from the Consortium. That is all they and you need to know." Gonzalez passed one of the three large index cards to Cynapse along with the keys to a lackeymobile, and gave the same thing to two other lackeys.

Cynapse asked, "Who do I take with me?"

Gonzalez snapped, "Does it really matter?! I don't care! Just pick three! They are all the same! Any more stupid questions?!"

"Fine. Blue and Phan . . . and I don't know. . . Gordon."

"Yes!" Gordon said. "My first mission! Shotgun!"

Phantaztiq said, "I'll drive. You're the navigator then, Magellan."

"My name's Gordon."

The team got into a purple lackeymobile with a green swoosh-like mark on it. The front doors had "Tolerance Consortium Lackey" on the side with a large Tolerance Consortium flower logo.

"Who is this amazing person we are picking up?" Phantaztiq asked.

Cynapse looked at the index card. "Doctor Vincent Fallon. One of these days after Corpus makes me queen of the Consortium, I am going to make that son of a bitch Gonzalez pay for the way he talks to me."

Phantaztiq said, "I thought you were so loyal to him?"

"I don't blame you at all," Blue Retaliator said from the back seat of the crowded lackeymobile. "There's no excuse for him to talk that way to one of the most important people in the Consortium."

Phantaztiq said, "Yeah. Everyone is talking about it. . . How important you are, and how they can't wait until you are queen and Corpus is the King."

Retaliator scowled at Phantaztiq because his over-the-top overacting job.

"Really?" Cynapse asked, "They are saying that?"

"All the time," Phantaztiq said.

Gordon said, "I never really heard anything about it."

Phantaztiq told Gordon, "Well did you hear that they were going to test a new death ray on a random lackey?"

"What?!"

"Yeah," Phantaztiq said, "They said they were going to tell everyone except the one who they were going to test it on."

"Really? No. Really?"

The address took them through the city center and all the way to the other side of the rapidly rotting metropolis. There were mammoth posters of Kommiczar and G-Force pasted up against buildings, bus stops, and billboards.

It took them about an hour to arrive at Doctor Fallon's suburban residence.

The team went to the door and Gordon rang the doorbell. A small dog was barking inside and an elderly woman answered the door.

"Mrs. Fallon?" Cynapse asked.

"Yes." She said, her eyes shifting about looking at the lackeymobile and the uniformed lackeys. "Is there a problem?"

"Not at all, Mrs. Fallon," Cynapse said, "In fact, your husband is being presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Consortium at Channel 2 today."

"Who is it?" Doctor Fallon came to the door.

Mrs. Fallon told him without any enthusiasm. "They say you're getting an award from the Consortium."

"No thank you," he said, and started to shut the door.

Gordon opened the screen door and pushed the door open, almost hitting the couple. The dog started going insane with barking fury over the intrusion.

"That's all you need to know!" Gordon said. "That's what we were told to say, anyways."

"All right!" Fallon said. "No one told me I had to go. Just stay out of my house. I'm coming."

Mrs. Fallon started sobbing.

"Awwww, Cynapse said. "Look, she's happy that he's getting such a big reward. You must be so proud. Make sure you are watching. It will be on Channel 2."

On the way to the television station, Doctor Fallon sat in the back seat between Blue Retaliator and Cynapse.

Phantaztiq asked, "Doctor Fallon, so what field are you in?'

"Climatology."

"Really?"

"What? A climatologist can't get an award?"

After a long silence, Gordon asked, "So why you getting an award?"

Doctor Fallon said, "The thing I did that seems to get most people's attention, both good and bad, is that I was instrumental in uncovering the global warming fraud."

Cynapse said, "Oh yeah. I heard of that. You tried to say climate change is fake."

"No, I did not." Fallon said, "Climate change is a fact. It's called weather." He sighed and shook his head.

Cynapse said, "Yeah but, it's not normal for it to be warm in the winter and cold in the summer."

Fallon said, "Yeah, it kinda is sometimes. But I really don't want to discuss this with you."

"That's because you know you would lose," Cynapse said.
Chapter 34

The lackeys all arrived at the television station with their captives. Gonzalez was waiting in the front lobby with his arms crossed and tapping his foot. He said to Cynapse, "Where have you idiots been?!"

Cynapse said, "We didn't have any problems, Lieutenant. We came right here. Do you have a problem with me or something?"

Gonzalez said, "Just shut your damn mouth and follow me!"

They followed Gonzalez into one of the studios. The Lieutenant said, "You crap-for-brains fools guard this doorway and don't let anyone in. Keep your mouths shut. Fallon, follow me."

They could see the television set from the side of the stage. Phantaztiq whispered to Blue Retaliator. "What is this all about?"

Blue just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

After a wait that seemed like a half hour, they watched Fallon and two other men, led by armed lackeys, come out with lab coats on them. They were gagged and had their hands tied behind their backs. They were forced to their knees facing the camera. Then Kommiczar, G-Force, Corpus DeLuxx, Mayor Henderson and the six puppet City Council members came out.

The director said, "Ready on the set . . . three, two, and you're on."

Kommiczar said, "Today, I must bring you some sad news. It seems that we have uncovered a terrorist plot by some scientists to kill every man, woman and child in Neogothic City. Somewhere in this City, there is a container that contains a highly volatile and contagious form of a biological weapon of mass destruction. We believe this deadly weapon is now in the hands of the Pain Posse terrorist organization. Fortunately for all you innocent viewers, the Tolerance Consortium, with the help of its own lackeys, and the NCPD, have discovered this nefarious plot. As you see here, we have also captured the creators of this evil menace."

The three bound and gagged men looked wild with terror in their eyes. They were shaking their heads in denial.

Kommiczar continued, "We are happy to report that we were able to recover a limited amount of anecdote also created by these men that was meant for their own use while everyone else died. Unfortunately, we have not been able to convince them to give us the formula for the anecdote."

Phantaztiq whispered to Blue Retaliator, "We gotta do something about this!"

"What?!"

"I don't know!"

"We'll just be shot!"

Kommiczar said, "We cannot, nor will we allow this type of behavior to go on in Neogothic City, so we wanted to go public with this, as deterrence to any other would-be evil-doers. But being the kind-hearted people that we are, we are going to give each of them one last chance to cooperate. Of course, we cannot remove the gags and run the risk of their foul language violating FCC rules." Kommiczar looked at the three men. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Phantaztiq said under his breath, "Do something!"

The men in white lab coats were shaking their heads.

Kommiczar said, "See, like I said, they are refusing to cooperate. He nodded to the lackeys behind them. Their uncooperative attitude has compelled us to act. I must remind the viewers that it is often necessary to take a hard line with terrorists. We can't be held hostage by terrorists just because we are too timid to act. Consortium policy requires it. So, unfortunately workplace violence is sometimes totally unavoidable." Then Kommiczar nodded to the lackeys.

Two of the men were shot in the back of the head by lackeys and dropped to the floor. Blood ran all over their white coats and ran across the floor. The lackey behind Doctor Fallon balked at his duty. Kommiczar pulled his pistol and said, "This lackey has committed an egregious offense by not carrying out my orders." Then he shot the insubordinate lackey. Then Kommiczar nodded to the lackey next to Fallon who had already executed one scientist. The lackey shot Fallon in the back of the head and he fell dead next to the others.

Corpus, G-Force, the Mayor and the Council stood and literally applauded the action. Blue and Phan felt bile coming up their throats. Gordon was heaving.

Cynapse said to Blue and Phan, "It's for the good of all. Right?! Tell me! It's the right thing! Right?!"

Kommiczar said, "The anecdote we recovered is good for life of the recipient and will be distributed in a common-sense method. First, all essential personnel will be treated. Then, those who are most committed to the Consortium will be given the remaining supply, for a fee. In order to protect our neighbors, we have already quarantined the entire City. We have been assured that anyone caught trying to leave Neogothic Metro Area will be shot on sight by the National Guard. That is an action that we fully support. Let this be a lesson to anyone who seeks to oppose us."

*******

Within hours a white military helicopter with a biohazard symbol on it descended to the ground on the west side of Neogothic City. Armed troops in white biohazard gear repelled down to the ground then squatted and radioed, "Area secured." Then another huge quad-rotor transport helicopter with the same identification insignia came down and landed on the ground, while the troops protected the perimeter. Another team of men disembarked the chopper and started setting up their base camp.

But hostile eyes were upon the medical team from a distance as they carried out their work. "This is going to be the easiest money ever," Doctor Maelstrom said to his half-dozen henchmen. He took a deep breath. He said, "It's time for me to do my thing." then he walked toward the camp that was under construction.

"Halt!" One of the sentries said.

Doctor Maelstrom swung his arms and started spinning, then he pulled his arms in and made his body tighter as the spinning increased.

"Stop!" the guard said. "What are you doing?"

Another guard heard the "stop" command, and moved toward the situation to back him up. Then he saw the strange twirling by Dr. Maelstrom. "Shoot him! He's a meta!"

But it was too late. The shots from the two guardsmen were poorly aimed, because the strong tornado-like vortex made them lose their balance. Then the air movement created by Maelstrom's spin caused super-strong winds that were also tearing up the camp. Guards lost their footing and were tossed about like dried up leaves. Then some of them were being killed by hitting hard surfaces of buildings or trees. All of them lost their will to fight. Even the transport helicopter almost flipped over. Doctor Maelstrom stopped spinning and then the henchmen finished the job of destroying the camp by throwing firebombs at everything. One of the medical personnel was seen running while engulfed in flames. Others were laying about in a twisted mess.

Doctor Maelstrom was exhausted and disoriented for about a half an hour as is typical after each vortex that he generated. Then Doctor Maelstrom and his henchmen met Kommiczar and G-Force at their limousine parked in a alley a couple blocks away.

The back window rolled down. "Excellent work, Doctor Maelstrom. The full amount is in here." Kommiczar handed Maelstrom a briefcase.

"Yes!" Maelstrom said. "Let me know if you have any other jobs for us. We do good work, cheap. That's our motto."

Kommiczar pointed his index finger at Maelstrom like a pistol. "Gotcha, Doctor." Then he acted as if his hand was a phone. "I'll be sure to call."

Maelstrom said, "All right, boys. Let's get outta here." Then he told his henchmen, "You know, I don't know why everyone says that Kommiczar is so bad. I think he is extremely cool."

Kommiczar rolled the window back up and the car immediately pulled away. He told G-Force, "Youthful exuberance. . . They are so excited just to get paid the going rate for a modest sabotage job. But it was well worth it. You know our lackeys would royally screw up such a sensitive operation if we were to have them execute it."

G-Force said, "At least now we won't have to worry about the CDC or someone finding out that there really is no pandemic going on here. They will just chalk this unfortunate occurrence up to an attack by the Posse or another one of our rascally rebellious citizens. I must say, Kommiczar, this was another one of your brilliant exploits, the quarantine gives us power over the city and everyone in it, and they can't leave. I especially like the part where you executed some of our best friends' enemies, those scientists for a huge fee. Then, on top of all that, we are also making hundreds of thousands on your colored water "antidote"! All your clever lies are like a win, win, win scenario!"

"Your kind words mean a lot." Kommiczar said. "You are like a brother to me. Not like the real one who I killed with an ice pick, but some other . . . not real brother."

G-Force said, "It turns out you really can pick your family members."

They both started laughing at the demented pun. The driver looked in the rear-view mirror and shuddered at the sight of them.

*******

The Consortium got an emergency call from their Headquarters forwarded to their phones. There was a problem on the west side of the City. Some Consortium lackeys were confronting one of the several rival factions who were trying to establish their own autonomous area of control within Neogothic City. A relief transport plane had just air dropped supplies into the quarantine zone and it fell in a hotly contested area. Both sides wanted to confiscate the free stuff and to deprive their enemy of them. Troops from both sides were well armed. A couple of the lackeys were laying on the pavement in a fetal position. All eyes were upon the Consortium leaders as they stepped out of the car.

The Consortium lackey area lieutenant told G-Force. "Sir, they are refusing to back away from the air dropped supplies."

G-Force said, "Are you buffoons going to call us for backup every time you have the slightest problem? All I ask is that we consolidate power throughout the metropolitan area. This is not quantum physics here. This is exasperating, to say the least."

The lackey said, "Yeah but . . . sir that guy over there, they call him 'Bugeyes'. He's some kind of meta. He can put a man down just by thinking it."

Cynapse stepped forward from among the lackeys. "I got this," Cynapse said. "Mind versus mind. It's what I do."

G-Force said to Cynapse, "Not you again. Okay, just hold that thought. Let's try to be a little more diplomatic here, all right?" G-Force glided a little closer to Bugeyes. He could have just as easily walked, be he wanted to show off his mastery over gravity. He got a closer look at Bugeyes and saw a young man of average build with the hair loss of a senior citizen. Then he got a quick glance at Bugeyes's eyes, which looked like they were ready to pop out of their sockets. The sight of those eyes alone had some sort of power that would sap any opponent's will to fight. G-Force hailed Bugeyes without direct eye contact, "What seems to be the malfeasance here . . . ol' . . . Bugeyes?"

"I don't know," Bugeyes said in a very strained voice, "Maybe I just kinda . . . hate your freaking guts!"

G-Force said, "Your seditious attitude aside, that's just plain rude. We're here to build a bridge of friendship. We are always on the lookout for good young talent to join our ever-growing ranks. We would welcome you into the Consortium fold with open arms, we offer great pay and a nice benefits package. Even your hirelings would fit in nicely."

One of Bugeyes's men said, "Hey boss, that don't sound too bad. I bet they do pay real good."

"Shut up!" Bugeyes said. "Did I ask you to talk?!"

Corpus DeLuxx had his sunglasses on as usual. He waved to Cynapse. Then he faced Bugeyes, but avoided the nasty demoralizing Bugeye gaze. Cynapse acted as if she was keeping all of Bugeyes's henchmen in check.

G-Force said to Bugeyes, "What do you say, friend? You know those supplies belong to the people."

Bugeyes said, "Let me think about it. No. Here's the problem, super-size; when you say 'the supplies belong to the people', you mean you will use them to try and crush anyone who opposes you. I'm every bit as powerful as the 'Clownscrotium', and I know how to use it. I am dead serious here tons-o-fun. Check this out, bitches." He looked at one of the Consortium lackeys with an evil sneer and the lackey collapsed into a fetal position. He started huffing and laughing. "How do you like me now?!"

Lackeys turned their heads in the other direction and shielded their faces, making sure they did not experience the Bugeye gaze.

G-Force said, "My compliments. That was very nice. Certainly something we could use with the Tolerance Consortium. Again I ask, won't you please consider joining?"

The Consortium lackeys, Bugeyes's henchmen, Corpus DeLuxx and Cynapse were all immediately nerved up to spring into action, looking for the least bit of further provocation to commence a point blank firing squad on each other.

Bugeyes got the same evil sneer on his face, "Won't you please consider kissing my. . ."

Cynapse jumped forward, with the vein bulging on her forehead, to do a psionic counter-attack. It was going to be her chance to get back into the upper echelons of the Consortium.

"Boss!" one of Bugeyes's henchmen shouted when he saw Corpus make a move, but it was too late.

Bugeyes didn't even scream when the energy sphere from Corpus DeLuxx exploded his torso into hot sizzling bloody chunks. Everyone froze and stared in disbelief as his appendages were strewn about.

G-Force tsked his tongue and shook his head. He said, "Now that is really a shame. So much potential. What a waste."

Cynapse screamed when she realized that one of the buggy eyes landed on her shoulder with the attached optic nerve draped on her breast. "Eww! Get it off! Get it off!"

Corpus picked up the eyeball and dangled the bloody nerve. He lifted up his sunglasses and studied the dismembered orb for a moment, then flipped it over his shoulder. Then he put his sunglasses back down.

Some of the former henchmen ran away. Others stood in fear. But many had no further interest in fighting since their meal ticket was dismembered on the ground.

G-Force told those remaining Bugeye henchmen, "Welcome to the Consortium. Go ahead and load up those supplies in our transport vehicle."
Chapter 35

Some of the Consortium lackeys were busy the following day at the headquarters firing range training with their new Plasfusion rifles. The rifles cracked with intense heat as the blasts went completely through the back walls of the firing range, and caused some damage to buildings across the street.

Lt. Gonzalez yelled. "You idiots cannot hit a damn target! Come on! How hard can it be?!"

Cynapse asked Blue Retaliator, "I just wonder who it is that we are supposed to be going to kill with these weapons. Do you think they should have killed Dr. Fallon and those other two?"

Blue Retaliator said, "I thought that we were supposed to brainlessly do whatever they say without giving it the first thought."

Cynapse said, "Yeah but, I wonder if . . . I don't know. I guess we don't know the whole picture. That's why they pay Corpus the big bucks."

Phantaztiq said, "I thought everyone should get the same no matter what they do. I think it's okay to have an open mind, unless you don't like what others are saying, then you should completely close it."

"That's so true," Cynapse said.

Retaliator said, "Oh yes. That is so very true." He stuck his index finger into his mouth behind Cynapse's back as if he were trying to induce vomiting.

Then there was a huge thud of an explosion and all practice firing stopped. When the dust cleared, they could see the partial remains of one of the lackeys, which was mostly a pink mist. Some were petrified. Others wanted to know who was vaporized.

Gonzalez shouted, "Don't worry about that! These weapons may explode from time to time!"

Phantaztiq was shaken and told Retaliator, "I've had just about enough of this crap. That's it!"

Blue Retaliator said, "Not yet. Things are going just fine."

"No! They are not fine! I am not going to explode into a million pieces!"

Retaliator said, "Keep your voice down!"

Phantaztiq said, "We saw them execute those scientists, then we let the shipment of space rifles come in! This is stupid! Instead of choosing our battles, we aren't choosing any!"

Cynapse said, "What did you say?"

Phantaztiq said in a loud voice, "It sounds like a battle zone here."

Retaliator said, "Just don't shoot too much at once or your rifle will overheat, I guess."

Phan asked, "Why would anyone with a quarter of a brain do this crap for this kind of money?!"

Retaliator said, "For whatever reason, they are not doing this for money. They are true believers. This is a war we are in. A war, or several wars, that are led by metahumans."

*******

After they quit the Bullseye Squad, Redcard and Clevenger had critical engine problems with their old extremely high mileage car before they could even leave the Neogothic metropolitan area. Given the turmoil in the City, it took them a few days to find someone who would work on their car for something less than at a purely extortion rate. Then they had to wait until the mechanic could get the right model alternator. This took about all their money, but they were determined to find a way out of the Neogothic City Nightmare. Finally the day came when they would leave. They took the car out on the main westbound expressway. Horrible sights of accidents along the way made them even more anxious.

"O.M.G.," Clevenger said, "what is going on here?!" Each of the burned out and abandoned cars on the nearly empty expressway had their own story. She could only hope that it would not happen to them. Then they saw a sign that read, "Road Closed Ahead – Due to Quarantine".

"No way!" Redcard said. "We've got to find a way out of here! I've got to turn around and find a way out of here." He slowed the car down to prepare to find a way to get onto a lane going back the opposite direction.

"Look ahead," Clevenger said, "It's a roadblock. And they have guns!"

"Sonofa. . ." Redcard said as he looked in his rear view mirror. "There a big rig coming full speed up behind us."

The truck went roared past them in the adjacent lane.

"He's going to crash the gate!" Clevenger said.

Then the truck did indeed go head on into fortifications placed by National Guardsmen. It smashed through some temporary concrete roadblocks, but eventually was stopped by an assortment of barrels, and rails and heavy military vehicles. Then the shooting started. The truck caught on fire. It was full of people. People were struggling to come out of the back of the trailer and being shot on the spot.

"Get us out of here!" Cleavenger screamed.

*******

"Hold it right there!" one of the two Neogothic City Policemen holding pistols said to Exo, who was acting as a sentry at the warehouse.

Exo said, "Look boys, I'm not your enemy, alright?" Exo was disappointed in himself as a sentry, allowing himself to be discovered by surprise. He figured his lapse must be his narrowed field of vision because of all of the growth around his eyes. He would have to tend to grinding some of the excess material that blocked his line of sight off next time he got the chance.

The cop said, "Don't try anything! Backup is on the way!"

Exo said, "If backup is on the way, why didn't you wait for them before you approached me?"

"Shut up and show me where that biological weapon is!"

"Bio what?"

"Don't play stupid with me!"

"I don't know who you been talking to, but there's no biological weapon here and there's no reason for you to get hurt. If I were you, I wouldn't press the issue. Don't you want to go home safely to your family? Don't you want to . . . "

Just then Purple Harold descended from the air behind the officers and knocked them onto the ground. Exo could have stalled the policemen by talking forever. He knew Harold would show up eventually.

Exo rushed to help, as fast as a turtle-like being in human form can rush. Harold picked up their pistols. Magenta Arrow and Roid Rage walked out from the shadows.

Roid Rage asked, "What do we do now?"

Magenta Arrow helped the unarmed policemen stand back up.

Exo said, "I really wish I could convince someone in this whole big mess that we are not the bad guys here."

The younger cop said, "Why don't you just tell it to a judge?"

Exo said, "I was afraid you would say something ignorant like that."

Then the younger cop said in a confrontational tone, "What are you going to do, shoot us?!"

"Whoa!" Exo said, "We are not your enemies. Your enemy is the Consortium."

The older policeman said, "As far as I can tell, you are bringing terror. The Consortium is bringing law and order, and lots of jobs to the area. "

"At what cost?" Exo asked. "Is money and safety all that anyone cares about?"

The young cop said, "At the cost of getting the likes of you off of the street!"

The older policeman said, "You guys could leave by flying away whenever you want. I don't get it. Why do you want to come kill us all?"

Magenta said, "We don't! You need to stop listening to that talk!"

Exo said, "We gotta run. See ya."

Harold said, "You guys go ahead, I'll watch NCPDs finest for a few minutes." As Harold waited, he heard sirens off in the distance. Then he also heard thumping of helicopter rotors. His worst fear was that he could not safely fly away from any given situation, so he decided to evacuate the warehouse without the police officer's weapons.

Once outside, he took to the sky. He looked down and saw the helicopter and a convoy of police vehicles coming his way into the industrial park. He looked around for the rest of the Posse, then spotted them running on a sidewalk. Roid Rage was trying to pull Exo along. Harold flew down to them. "Quick! Find somewhere to hide! They'll be here in a minute!"

The Posse turned to go into the Neogothic City Water Treatment Facility. An unarmed guard at a small guard house shouted for them to stop, but they ran right past her.
Chapter 36

A message came over the loudspeaker at the Consortium headquarters, "SCRAMBLE ALL LACKEYS TO THE LACKEYMOBILES! THERE IS A TERRORIST ATTACK AT THE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY!"

Retaliator told Phantaztiq. "Okay bro. NOW is the time."

"Now?"

"Now. Bring your Phantaztiq suit with you. Make sure we are in the same lackeymobile.

Retaliator, Phantaztiq, Cynapse, Gordon, and the lackey known as Skunkmaster put their new Plasfusion rifles into the small trunk and got into the same lackeymobile.

Cynapse told Skunkmaster, "Can't you go in some other car? We already have four here."

"Just shut up and get in! This ain't high school!" Retaliator got behind the wheel.

"What are you waiting for?!" Gordon said.

"What's the hurry?" Retaliator said. He was adjusting his seat and all of the mirrors. "A good lackey always makes safety his top priority."

"Or her top priority," Cynapse added.

Retaliator was deliberately making sure his car was in the back of the lackey convoy of lackeymobiles. As they were riding in the car looking at the run down cityscape, Retaliator said, "This City smells like death."

Cynapse said, "No, it's the rank guy back here that you made me sit by because we aren't in high school. Happy now?"

"Hey!" Skunkmaster said, "I'm just pheromonally challenged."

"Huh?" Phantaztiq said. "Is that even a thing?"

Skunkmaster said, "Besides, some women think I have an earthy, sexy scent."

Cynapse said, "Maybe the kind of women who don't shave their underarms."

"Or their backs," Phantaztiq said, while checking the contents of a paper sack.

Skunkmaster asked Phantaztiq, "Not to change the subject, but what's in that sack you got?"

"Um, just some spare underwear. This stuff can get a little intense, you know."

Skunkmaster said, "That's what I said. It's completely normal, really."

"You need a shower!" Cynapse said.

Skunkmaster said, "Don't worry, sexy. When we get back to the barracks, we can take one." He rubbed his upper arm against her breast.

She elbowed him hard. "Get off me, Stinkhole!"

After they got away from headquarters, Retaliator pulled over the car. "Everyone, get out," he told Gordon and Skunkmaster.

"Why?" Gordon said. They all sat motionless.

Retaliator looked at Phantaztiq with raised eyebrows and shrugged a little, not knowing what to say next.

Phantaztiq said, "Can't you hear it?! There's a bomb ticking in this car! Move!"

Skunkmaster said, "Holy crap! Lemme outta here!" He groped all over Cynapse unnecessarily as he tried to climb over her, going in the wrong direction.

Cynapse swatted at him and screamed, "Hurry up, stupid! I ain't dying because of you!"

After everyone was out, Retaliator and Phantaztiq hopped back into the car. Phantaztiq looked back at the abandoned lackeys' bewildered faces as they pulled away, burning rubber.

Retaliator said, "That is three less lackeys who will be fighting the Posse today. Now we find a place to stop and put on our real uniforms."

"And grab our new space guns; to do some binge ass-kicking," Phantaztiq said, wringing his hands.

"Affirmative."

"So, what made you decide to make your move now?"

"I know the Posse needs us right now. A lackey told me he heard on the news that the Posse attacked City Hall and they are being hunted down."

Phantaztiq said, "Making our move now was good timing, because I don't think I could stand it another second in this car with that Skunkmaster."

Retaliator opened the windows. "Ugh!"

Chapter 37

Several purple and green Consortium lackeymobiles pulled up in formation to the Neogothic City Water Treatment plant. G-Force descended from the air with Kommiczar, and Corpus DeLuxx was at his other side. Lieutenant Gonzalez, dressed in his purple and green lackey uniform approached them, with a few lackeys armed with Plasfusion weapons at his side.

"Sirs!" Gonzalez saluted. "The Police have the entire area surrounded and we are here in force waiting for your orders!"

G-Force said, "I don't care how you do it, but keep this in mind; my water treatment building over there takes in the excrement from millions of people in this city and turns it into clean water that they drink without thinking about it at all. If anything was to happen to that place, I promise I will have you personally licking it up."

Gonzalez said, "Yes sir."

Then a huge crash startled everyone. They looked around, expecting to see the Pain Posse pulling some sneak attack.

Corpus said, "What the?"

G-Force said, "Seriously?"

They realized a lackeymobile had slammed into two more lackeymobiles, causing a lot of damage and injuries among several lackeys.

Kommiczar said, "O tova e dobre. What is this?"

G-Force said, "I'll tell you what it is! What could have been a well orchestrated operation has turned out to be a clown show!"

CRACK! G-Force could feel the heat as his head was almost taken off by a Plasfusion bolt. FOOM! Then a lackey mobile exploded, then another. Kommiczar saw Blue Retaliator and Phantaztiq running around with their rifles taking pot shots at lackeys from behind the cover of other cars. The blasts were devastating. Blasts were going through lackeys and then cars and buildings.

G-Force shouted at Corpus, "Stop them! Now!"

Corpus took to the air while G-force raised a lackeymobile. A couple of lackeys jumped out of the elevated car and landed hard on the street. Then G-Force flung the car in the direction of the Retaliator and Phantaztiq. The weight of the car was more than G-Force could effectively control and the top of the car landed upside down on top of another car, smashing them both, with glass flying everywhere.

Gonzalez rallied some of the lackeys who began firing with their Plasfusion rifles. They were pulverizing the row of cars in front of Retaliator and Phantaztiq with a withering attack. With Retaliator and Phantaztiq pinned down, Corpus looked down on them and laughed. He formed an energy ball. He drew back to send it at down at Retaliator. THUD! He lost his breath as Purple Harold had hit him like a blitzing linebacker on a quarterback's blind side. The sphere he was making fell down and exploded harmlessly on the pavement. Harold used the momentum to drive DeLuxx helplessly down. When they were near the ground, Harold gave him a shove. But G-Force was there to partially cushion the impact that would have otherwise broken most of the bones in his body. Harold flew back around a building for cover.

There was a scream from a lackey who had an arrow stuck in his back. He was trying to pull it out and he couldn't reach it.

"Naistina li?! This is madness!" Kommiczar said, trying to figure out where Magenta Arrow was hiding.

G-Force levitated Kommiczar and pulled him into his face and said, "You are here because of your world domination operations management acumen! Frankly, I'm not seeing it right now! Would it be too big of an imposition for you to explain what those two hooligans were doing in that lackeymobile with Plasfusion rifles?!"

WHAM! Roid Rage picked up a lackey from behind and slammed him on a lackeymobile. Another lackey tried to shoot Roid Rage from a distance of about thirty feet. He missed the rampaging Posse member terribly and destroyed another lackeymobile.

G-Force was too busy angrily waving his arm at Kommiczar to manipulate any gravity. He said to Kommiczar, "You had the chance to test out those rifles! Did you do it?! No! You did not! Look how much they cost! You had to be the big shot and say you would buy them all! They better improve them or you can forget about that factory deal!" Then G-Force turned and faced the spot where Retaliator and Phantaztiq were taking cover. He motioned both arms and fully focused on lifting two cars. The cars slowly raised exposing the two out in the open.

Retaliator ran for a new place to hide. Phantaztiq stood up slowly and started blasting non-stop at Gonzalez and the opposing lackeys. Blue bolts cracked and exploded along all of the hard points where lackeys were taking cover.

Gonzalez shouted, "Get up you fools and shoot back!" They continued to cower. Some of the pinned down lackeys were being killed without fighting back.

Phantaztiq was laughing. "You suck!" Then in an instant he was gone. His own weapon had overheated and exploded, vaporizing him.

Retaliator was stunned. His mouth agape. "No. No! Damnit!"

Roid Rage also saw what happened, "Oh my God! No way!" Phantaztiq was also a personal friend of his, having a mutual history in their youths with Retaliator.

Roid Rage heard Exo call out to him, "Fall back!"

G-Force yelled at the lackeys, pointing in the direction of Retaliator. "Get up you babies! I'm not going to change your damn diapers! Go after him right now!"

When they charged out Retaliator started firing. "Come on losers! Earn your fifteen dollars!" He realized the end of his Plasfusion rifle was glowing red hot, instead of the normal blue color. He threw it down and started running around some more cars. Some lackeys were still in pursuit. BLAM! The rifle he had dropped exploded and the lackeys in pursuit were knocked down to the street and covered with the remains of one of their own. The explosion had given Retaliator enough time to get break away without being assaulted again.

G-Force looked around. The bodies of dead and injured lackeys were all over. The street was soaked with their blood. Most of the lackeymobiles were destroyed. Then G-Force looked at Kommiczar. "I'm going to say this as calmly as I can; this Pain Posse. . . You have my promise we will do whatever it takes to see that their guts are ripped out, or I will start getting rid of the dead weight around here. I won't be affiliated with any sort of a group that has abject failures within it."

Purple Harold managed to find Retaliator and the Posse. They all regrouped an industrial-sized block farther away from the Water Treatment Facility, behind an equipment rental business.

Retaliator's eyes were teary. "Phan . . . Jason wouldn't be dead right now if I didn't let him in the Posse." He shook his head. Retaliator imagined himself telling Phantaztiq's parents that he led their son into a battle and he was killed. How would they react towards him? He looked at Roid Rage. "You even told me he was not suited to this."

Roid Rage put his hand on Retaliator's shoulder. "He begged you all the time to let him be in the group. Finally you gave in. Come on man. He went down fighting. He was a hero. He helped us out big time. If it wasn't for him, they would have got to us and wiped us all out."

Retaliator said, "We first started the Posse out as a mutual protection society, then it was more of a social club. Then all that stuff with K-Tron. I never would have thought that people would die." He continued to shake his head. "This is all wrong."

Harold and Magenta were hugging as they listened.

Harold said, "We owe our lives to you and Phantaztiq. That took a lot of nerve to come crashing in like that."

"That's right," Exo said. "I don't know about the rest of the Posse, but as for me, I think you belong back in, not only as a full member, but as the leader we have been lacking."

Retaliator said, "I don't know." He sniffed. "I don't have any powers, you know. I was pretty stupid before when I was the leader."

Exo said, "You ain't a metahuman. But regardless, you are a true hero. You guys wiped out a whole company of lackeys."

Magenta walked closer to Retaliator. "I know you don't like me much, but I think you should come back to your own team. The truth is, we all need you." She extended her hand and Retaliator shook it, then they hugged.

Retaliator looked her in the eyes. "We're good. That stuff before was entirely my fault. Let's be a team now. A smart one."

The rest of the team put their hands on Retaliator's and Magenta's.

Chapter 38

"Look at that," Agent Orange said to Mrs. Jenkins as they looked out through her limousine window at the three figures walking down the street. "Isn't that woman Corpus's new victim . . . I mean love interest?"

Mrs. Jenkins tried to look back as they passed. "Cynapse? I don't know, maybe it was her. I couldn't see her well enough."

Agent Orange said, "They were unarmed. I'd like to interview them."

"What you really mean is, 'mess them up'." Mrs. Jenkins paused a moment to think. She said to the limo driver, "Zach, turn left up here and go around the block. We want to engage that trio of Consortium lackeys. I want to take one of them for a ride."

The driver dutifully turned without a word. While they went around the block, he pulled out an automatic weapon and set it on the seat next to him. Agent Orange also checked out her pistol. Mrs. Jenkins shouldered her heavy handbag that had her revolver in it.

Then the car slowly pulled up behind the lackeys. They turned around a couple of times and as soon as they saw the ominous looking limousine, Skunkmaster started to run. Gordon and Cynapse tried to peer into the dark tinted glass.

Agent Orange rolled down her window.

Gordon said, "Hey. It's Carrot Woman. What the hell do you want?"

Orange asked, "Can either of you tell me how to find the nearest dead lackey?"

"No," Gordon said. "Screw you."

Then Orange raises her pistol and shoots Gordon in the head. The force of the bullet drops him straight backwards. "Oh look. Silly me. There's one right here."

Cynapse covered her mouth in horror at the sight of the slaughter by the orange-faced killer. She moved her hand to her temples trying to muster a mind control attack.

Agent Orange got out of the car and opened the door. She wore a full black leather suit. "Wow. That mind trick you are using is really working because I really want to splatter your brains all over the sidewalk, but now I can't. Get in."

Cynapse got into the car and sat between Agent Orange and Mrs. Jenkins. "What are you going to do with me?"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "That depends."

"On what?"

"You."

Agent Orange held up her hand and a large knife blade appeared. The tip was picking at Cynapse's throat. "Don't play victim with us! I wonder if you had all that horror when that puke Kommiczar offed those scientists right on the damn TV?!"

"I didn't agree with that," Cynapse said.

Orange said, "You're still part of that slime ball system!"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Now girls, let's try to get along. We'll have plenty of time to chat later. Besides, I don't want this car messed up. Zach works so hard to keep it tidy."

"Thank you, Ma'am," Zach said.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Cynapse, if I was you, I wouldn't do anything to upset Agent Orange. She has a bit of a temperament issue going on."

Agent Orange retracted the knife blade.

*******

Roid Rage bought a round of sandwiches from a street vendor. They were all sitting on the curb, tearing up the sandwiches when they heard police sirens off in the distance.

Purple Harold said, "I always thought that was weird how they run those sirens. That gives us a pretty good heads up that they are coming. I guess they want us to run away."

Exo said with his mouth full, "Okay leader, what do we do now?"

Retaliator said, "Rule number one. Our quarrel is not with the Police. We need to try and win them over. But we will not go to jail either. So we should avoid them. Lackeys are another situation altogether. They are ideologues who will fight to the death."

"Crap!" Purple Harold said, "There's that helicopter again. I wish people would quit ratting us out! We better move!" He helped Exo up, "Come on, grandpa."

Roid Rage told Harold, "Man, you got good ears. I can't hear nothing."

They ran as fast as Exo could move. They found themselves in a commercial section where there was not much commerce taking place. The police were getting closer and closer. The sirens were increasingly louder. It sounded like either numerous echoes were bouncing off of the stores along the street, or a whole lot of police were almost upon them. Soon the police were in sight. It was a whole column of police cars and SWAT vehicles.

"We're screwed," Exo said, huffing and puffing and looking up at the hill ahead. "You guys go."

"Shut up and run!" Retaliator said.

Exo dug deep underneath his crusty unmovable armor and was reinvigorated. They ran past a sign that read, "Welcome to Poznan Heights". But soon Exo started to overheat under his shell which was slow to transfer heat away from his inner body.

Then the sirens stopped. Magenta turned around and saw the police had stopped and were no longer in pursuit. "Hey! Look, guys!"

"All right!" Purple Harold said, smiling at Magenta Arrow.

Exo chuckled. Look at those signs. Next to a welcome to Neogothic City sign, was a sign that banned firearms and superheroes in Neogothic City. But someone had spray painted another message over it. "Helpless Victims Zone".

Retaliator said, "Let's not get too excited just yet. There has to be a reason why the police won't come here into Poznan Heights, and we don't know what it is. The same reason might not stop the Consortium."

They walked slowly up the long steep hill. The homes were not in the best condition but appeared to be livable. There was no one to be seen. They looked around, and back. The police were leaving.

Roid Rage said, "This quiet is creeping me out. "
Chapter 39

The limo pulled into what was intended to be the Pain Posse secret Headquarters. Mrs. Jenkins and Agent Orange took Cynapse into a small office that was sparsely decorated with an abstract picture and a fake plant. Mrs. Jenkins sat in the cushy chair behind the desk and Agent Orange took one of the chairs.

Cynapse felt obliged to sit in the other chair. She said, "Can you tell me now what you want? Or should I ask why you didn't kill me already?"

Agent Orange said, "Personally, I think shooting you would be a good choice."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Agent Orange, you may leave."

"Huh?"

"Go. I have some things to discuss with our guest."

"But . . ."

Mrs. Jenkins raised her eyebrows and Orange understood the emphasis.

Agent Orange sneered at Cynapse and said, "Don't get any ideas about causing problems. I'll be right outside. If you start anything, I'll end it."

After Agent Orange left, Mrs. Jenkins said, "I'm a little surprised that you didn't thank us for rescuing you from that cult-like situation you found yourself in."

Cynapse said, "Someone like you will never understand us. We are going to bring change to the world. You won't accept that because you only know your cushy life you have here."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "You don't know anything. My husband and I spent our whole lives building up his business. He worked himself into an early grave and left me alone because all he ever did was work. Some of his customers were never satisfied with what he did, or they were always trying to squeeze more out of him. And of course the government always wanted more and more. So frankly, jealous types like you make me sick."

Cynapse said, "You took a lot of money from people."

"That's right, we did. They were more than happy to hand it to us for the products we sold. We had to kiss up to a lot of people who had high expectations of us. You and people like you, on the other hand, want everything handed to you, because you think it is unfair for someone else to be able to earn it. Have you ever accomplished anything in your life without tearing something or someone else down?"

"You have to fight to get anywhere!"

"No! You have to work! You fascist socialists never want to produce anything of value. You pick careers like lawyer, or activist, or teacher, or supervillain, where you can use your influence to take from those who produce."

Cynapse countered, "People deserve a fair wage. Capitalists like you won't give it to them so the government has to force them! It is only right for people to share what they have, not to hold out on poor people!"

"Where in the world has that ever worked? Russia? China? Your way is all death, starvation and war! If you want to make a 'fair wage' as you say, then you have to make it convenient for your employer to pay it, by being worth it. Nothing in this world is fair the way you see it, and never will be. You can't get past your ignorance and jealousy to see things as they really are."

Cynapse squirmed in her seat. "There is no way I can be wrong, because I know I care about people and you just oppress them."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "I almost could at least believe in your emotional sincerity, but here are the facts; you rob a store and take everyone's money and you are part of a murderous organization and don't seem to have any problem going along with whatever they want to do. To what ends will you continue this evil?"

"Evil?! I'm the good one here! I do it for the future and the children! You just can't or won't see it!"

"Then why don't you hand people money out of your own pocket?! No! You want to steal from everyone else then claim you are compassionate."

Agent Orange stuck her head in the doorway. Mrs. Jenkins motioned for her to leave.

Cynapse said, "I donate my time and effort to the cause. You just need to pay your fair share. What are we doing to take rights away from you?!"

"You are a communist! You are destroying our freedom to do business, our right to defend ourselves, our right to choose whoever we want as a leader! Your philosophy of death and lies come straight out of Hell! If anyone opposes you, they face every kind of cowardly harassment."

Cynapse said, "People like you and the Posse kill innocent people. I don't see how you . . ."

"We are fighting against you for our freedoms! We will never give up. You are doing this, why? Because you are insane for a murderous Consortium guy?!"

Cynapse stopped for a moment, wondering how Mrs. Jenkins knew about her and Corpus. She said, "We have to be strict and forceful. There are terrorists like the Posse out to kill innocent people. They kill and say it is from God."

"Your beloved employer the Tolerance Consortium created that crisis out of thin air as a way to gain more control over people. Another lie. It's what they do. You are too ignorant to see it."

"You are the ones who want control over people! You want to tell us who we can love and marry! You want to abolish women's health!"

"Don't you see? Your worldview ends with every sort of perversion and death. You hate this country and the people so much that you will get back at it any way you can."

Cynapse said somberly, "Countries start wars. If there weren't any countries there would be no wars."

"Your little Neogothic City Empire here is a country."

"What?"

"Every bit of one. It's a dictatorship within another country."

"It's more like a collective."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "You know, I can't believe with all of your high-minded liberalism, that you lackeys don't have a union."

"We don't need one!"

"That's great news," Mrs. Jenkins said, "that you are all treated with respect and are all making the same good money over there like G-Force and DeLuxx. Where do I sign up? You really think Corpus believes in this same crap that you do? He believes in Corpus DeLuxx and that's it."

"I don't care what you say. I know that's not true."

Mrs. Jenkins pulled her revolver out of her purse. "Tell you what, crime diva. How's about a little wager? Pull your phone out."

"I don't have one."

"For God's sake! Your pants are so tight I could see your phone! Now pull it out!"

Cynapse pulled out her phone.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Now I am so sure about this, that I am willing to bet it all on this. So here is what we are going to do; you put your phone on speaker. Then you call up your beloved Corpie Baby and ask him questions about being a good totalitarian communist and see if he sees it all the same way you see it. If he agrees with you, then you can leave. If you scream and act all stupid telling him to come here, I'll shoot you and Zach will come in here to mop up the mess. If he doesn't agree with you, then you lose the bet and your fate will be in my hands."

"You'll let me go?"

"Yes. You have my word. Just play by the rules."

"Why would you do this? I mean, let me go?"

"Because I am not wrong, as you will see."

She put the phone on speaker and started dialing it. It rang a couple of times. Her eyes shifted nervously about.

"Hi . . . Uh . . . What's going on?"

Cynapse said, "We haven't had much of a chance to talk lately, so I thought I could just give you a call."

"Okay . . . So . . ."

"I was just having a conversation with this . . . woman I know, and we were discussing how the Consortium is doing good in the world."

Corpus said, "Cynapse, I'm pretty busy right now. You think we could pick this up later? Kommiczar usually takes care of all of the propaganda anyway."

Cynapse knew she was getting nowhere, so she turned to something more serious. She said, "I want to file a sexual harassment complaint against Skunkmaster."

Corpus said, "Sexual. . . Really? He thinks you're sexy?"

"What?! You have to take this seriously! It's your job!"

"Let me get back with you later. I'm sure there's nothing to it."

"Thanks so much Corpus! You can't even see why I would be attractive enough for another man to harass me! Don't you care what happens to me?!"

"You know that's not what I meant."

Mrs. Jenkins pointed the gun at Cynapse's face and pulled back the hammer with her other hand.

Corpus said, "I have a lot of responsibility here. I gotta go."

Cynapse said, "No! No! Don't hang up! Do you agree that what we are doing is making the world a better place?"

"Sure. Why not."

"Yes!" Cynapse said, "That's good!"

Mrs. Jenkins held her hand out and toggled it like is was a so-so response from Corpus.

"Corpus, I really need for you to be positive right now."

"Fine."

"Would you say that the Tolerance Consortium is committed to helping the entire world live in peace and harmony and prosperity?"

Corpus started laughing. "That's what we tell people. Whatever works. I'm more into it for fun and profit myself. Basically, your socialism racket works well for people like me at the top. We are very well off and everyone else is left with next to nothing. So tell your friend that once we get control over everything, our friends will be sitting pretty."

Cynapse said, "I can't believe what you are saying. Aren't you at all worried that you are going to alienate your own people?"

"Alien? Who said I am an alien? Did someone tell you that?"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "All right. Sounds like you are really testing his interest in you. Go ahead and hang up now."

Cynapse had a blank look on her face. "Corpus said . . ."

Mrs. Jenkins said, "I heard what he said. Hang up."

Cynapse shut her eyes tightly, waiting for her quick and hopefully painless demise.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "I'm not going to shoot you, stupid girl. We are in a war of corrupted minds, not with belligerent nations. I am going to let you think it over for a few hours and see if you are thinking any clearer yet. I'll come back later and we can talk it over. You are not to leave this room." Mrs. Jenkins thought that the highest goal would be to make Cynapse switch sides and become a spy for the Posse. There was nothing lost if the attempt failed.

Chapter 40

The Posse kept moving through a residential area in Poznan Heights. Harold was in tune with his ability of perception and told the others, "Hold it."

"What?" Magenta asked.

"I feel we are walking into an ambush." Harold patted Magenta's hand twice and took to the air. He flew a couple hundred feet in the air up the street and looked down and saw the faces of a couple of dozen people who thought they were hiding around the corner looking up at him. They were armed with all sorts of firearms and clearly prepared to ambush the Posse.

Harold hollered down to them, "We come in peace!"

An older, chunky bald guy put down his rifle and stood fully up, which wasn't very tall. "All right, you see us! Come down here then!"

Harold had to internally fight against both his own perception powers and his better judgment to slowly descend down among the mob, yet keeping some distance.

The chunky guy said, "Holy Crap! You really are purple!"

"Yeah, I know. I see it every day."

You are a strange one! I've seen some weird metahumans before, but nothing like you! I mean, I heard about you on TV, but you really are . . . are you some kind of demon?"

Harold said, "No, I am not a demon. I am just a regular guy such as yourself, who happened to be exposed to a substance that made me change." Harold always did his best to hide the fact that there was a tree in his backyard back in Alabama that would bestow a power and a curse if you ate its fruit. If word of the tree got out, the resulting chaos would be like a shark feeding frenzy at his sweet home in Alabama.

"Your group there; aren't you that Posse that caused this whole thing about the entire metro area all getting quarantined because of your biological weapon?"

"We didn't do any of that. It is a big fat Consortium lie. We are just here to fight the Consortium. In fact, we just lost a member a little bit ago."

"I guess I can believe the part about them lying. They are nothing but liars. Sorry about your casualty. Any enemy of the Consortium is a friend of ours. You can call me the Baron. That's what everyone calls me. I am the leader of Poznan Heights right now. These guys are the Poznan Heights Militia. Come on. Let's invite your team over here."

The Baron and Harold walked around the corner. The Posse introduced themselves to the ethnically and racially diverse militia. That evening, most of the militia, and some other Poznan Heights citizens along with the Posse sat around a convivial campfire and a hearty meal was served.

Exo asked the Baron, "Why don't the Neogothic City Police come in here."

The Baron said, "For one thing. This ain't Neogothic City here. It's Poznan Heights. For the other thing, they know better."

Exo asked, "Isn't it difficult getting along under these circumstances?"

The Baron said, "We are doing okay, but with this quarantine deal going on, we may not be able to continue on for much longer. We got some people here who are real sick and need some medical attention. We need to get them some help."

A greasy thin white man with long hair who went by the name "Slash" was reading a Kings and Clans Trilogy paperback. He looked up from the thick volume and said, "We are the police here, and we are going to keep it that way. We don't really have any use for metahumans here either."

"Slash!" the Baron said. "We had to build our militia up when all of the influx of outlaws came to Neogothic City. It was pretty hairy for awhile. There were a lot of murders and we almost got completely overrun, but we have convinced most of them to go elsewhere. Actually, that book Slash is reading gave us a lot of good ideas. But I wouldn't blame the federal government if they just nuked this whole place while all the super baddies are all bunched up here in the Metro area. In fact, I would recommend it."

Slash looked up from his book and said, "We fought a supervillain here once; Doctor Paradox. Thing of it was, he had a good and a bad side, so he pretty much kicked his own ass."

The Posse looked at each other wondering what the point of the Paradox story was.

Retaliator said, "Baron, we appreciate your hospitality, but we cannot stay."

"Huh?" Roid Rage looked up at Retaliator as he was stuffing his mouth with food.

"It has nothing to do with Slash or his comments, it's just a bad idea," Retaliator said, although he couldn't dismiss the thought that the way Slash looked, wondering if he might be some kind of Consortium bounty hunter. "I know G-Force will be after us. We don't want to drag all these people into our war."

The Baron said, "You should at least stay the night."

"Agreed," Retaliator said. "Thank you. We need to come up with some kind of a plan."

A young girl of about ten years old, with a blue cape kept hanging around Magenta Arrow, who was snuggled next to Harold.

"What's your name?" Magenta smiled and asked.

"Brightstar," she mumbled.

A young man with a missing front tooth said, "She's a metahuman, like you people."

The Baron laughed. That's Elwin for you. "She's no more of a metahuman than any of the rest of us! We call her 'Tweety', or 'Tweet', because she thinks she is talking to birds."

The name "Brightstar" had nothing whatsoever to do with the power of bird empathy, but it was clearly a name that a young girl thought would project an elegant image.

Elwin said, "Yeah, she can talk to birds. I seen her do it."

The Baron said, "No she can't. That all started about the time she lost her parents, I think. She's not quite right, sorry to say."

After hearing that tidbit, Magenta thought differently about Brightstar's wishes to be close to her.

Elwin said, "Come on, Tweet! Do it!"

Brightstar gave the Baron a sneer and she shook her head.

Magenta told her, "You have at least one person who believes in you. Elwin does."

She nodded her head.

"Will you do it for me?" Magenta begged.

Elwin said, "Do it, Tweet."

"Leave her alone, Elwin," Slash said. "Don't encourage that behavior."

Brightstar got in front of Magenta and held up her cape so no one else could see. She started tweeting like a bird.

"Wow!" Magenta said, "Did you hear that?!"

"Dang!" Purple Harold said. "I don't know my different birds much, but that sounds exactly like a bird!"

The Baron started laughing a belly laugh at their reaction.

Elwin looked dead serious and said, "This one time, I seen her outside playing, doing that bird call and that. The next thing you know there are all kinds of birds coming around her. I seen it myself. It's true."

The next hour or so everyone spoke of their mutual hatred of the Consortium. The Posse relived the smack down they put on the Consortium lackeys earlier that day and how they got away. The militia members told of all of the miscreants they dispatched since the trouble started.

After Brightstar got warmed up to Purple Harold, she whispered to him so the Baron couldn't hear, "The birds told me they are scared of you and the other flying man who shoots fire."

Harold said, "The other flying . . . Corpus DeLuxx?" He asked Magenta, "Is she talking about Corpus DeLuxx?" Then he asked Brightstar, "You know Corpus DeLuxx?"

Brightstar shook her head. "No, I said the birds told me."

Magenta said, "Tell the birds I promise that Harold will not hurt them. He loves birds. The flying man who throws fire is very bad. He hates everyone."

Harold was skeptical of the girl's powers, other than excellent bird calls. Yet he also thought about himself; why should he have such a disbelief in Brightstar having such powers, given the powers he had himself?

The Posse noticed a change in the Blue Retaliator as he sat quietly staring nowhere. Today changed him, probably forever, like he was ten years older. He was no longer the reckless youth clamoring for attention and prestige. He had become a leader, brooding with the sullen responsibility of the lives of everyone around him, their well-being hanging in the balance on his every decision. Retaliator knew that if some kind of relief did not come to this quarantine situation, many more people in the City would die. He wanted to call his sister and his other relatives who lived in the City in case he would never hear from them again, but what if someone got a hold of his phone? Or intercepted his call? Their names might go on some secret police hit list.

Chapter 41

Mrs. Jenkins came back into the office with Cynapse and asked, "Well, are you done denying that you have fallen for every statist government lie and are now willing to commit to personal responsibility for yourself?"

Cynapse asked, "Is that really a yes or no question?"

"Is that another question instead of an answer to my question? One thing you have to remember; when you are here with me, that common liberal practice of constantly putting the common sense person on defense, i.e. me, will not work."

Cynapse said, "You think that just because you, a member of the 1% decides not to kill me; that I am all of a sudden going to listen to everything you say?"

"No, I thought that you would use your brain and realize how you are hurting yourself and everyone around you. I thought you were different somehow. Guess I was wrong. "

Mrs. Jenkins thought to herself. How can someone become so deluded? Cynapse and those like her have a worldview that is entirely perverted. Cynapse had a worldview based upon no responsibility to anyone and entitlement for everything. How can this happen? This evil that afflicts so many seemingly comes from the darkest side of the spiritual realm. Only God could help her now.

Mrs. Jenkins knew that God can help anyone who is willing to commit their lives to His Son Jesus, Who is able to save them from their sin and He would show them the right way to an eternal future in His Heaven. Yet, so many take offense at the mere suggestion of receiving the best thing that could ever happen to them. Mrs. Jenkins's thoughts were broken by Cynapse.

Cynapse said, "Not to give you any ideas, but why are you still keeping me here? You could have just shot me."

Mrs. Jenkins suspected that Cynapse had a lot of useful information, and she did hope for that miraculous change in her, but it seemed that she may be too hardcore. "I'll come back later. What do you want for dinner?"

"I get a choice?"

"Sure." Mrs. Jenkins thought maybe a different approach would be better. "I can play nice if I want to. Not something your type ever seems to be capable of."

*******

Back in Poznan Heights, the Blue Retaliator assembled the Pain Posse at a distance from the militia camp so that no one else could hear. He told them, "We have to do something right now. We have to hit them before they consolidate any more power and more innocent people start dying."

Retaliator unfolded a piece of paper. "Here is a rough map of the Consortium Headquarters. Magenta, you got any exploding arrows?"

"Two or three."

"Great. Please count them to make sure. We need you to hit these pillars on the front with your arrows. Here too, if you have any more."

"Why there?" she asked.

Retaliator was a little choked up and found it difficult to speak. "The bottom floor of the building has a fifteen foot wide sidewalk in front of it. The sidewalk is covered by the other stories of the building. The massive overhang is supported by several two foot thick load bearing pillars. Phantaztiq and I helped build those pillars. Like good little saboteurs, we put enough salt in that concrete that they will soon fall apart on their own even if we don't help them along with your arrow bombs."

Exo asked, "This sounds real dangerous. What's the goal of this raid?"

Retaliator said, "Break things and hurt people. Harold, you do your usual aerial support and the rest of us will freelance as much mayhem on them as we can."

After their short meeting, Purple Harold approached Magenta. "Mag, what do you think about this raid?"

"No big deal. Sounds okay to me. I mean, I'd much rather be soaking in a hot tub, but you know. I'm fairly used to this. I was with the Protection Patrol when we took on Malcolm, and now I am doing it again with you guys. You got a problem with what's going on?"

Harold said, "If we keep this up, eventually it won't end well for some, or all of us."

Magenta said, "Yeah, I know. But I did manage to put a phosphorous laced arrow into G-Force's leg once. That encourages me to try again."

Harold said, "What about us? I mean . . . you and me? Somehow I feel like we might miss out on something really great . . . you know, if one of us doesn't . . ."

Magenta moved toward Harold. She clutched the straps of his coveralls, and he embraced her tightly.

"Harry, I feel the same way. I don't let myself think too much about the future right now. It could be really great, or really empty." She put her head down on the much taller Harold's purple chest which was barely covered by his blue coveralls.

Harold smiled a little. "I guess we can't do much else with the stupid quarantine they got us in. I mean, we could leave. I could carry you while I fly out of here."

Magenta said, "Yeah. That sounds so good. But that just isn't us, is it? You know, to just leave these guys here on their own."

"No, I reckon it ain't. Mag, the more I fall for you, the more worried I am. Should I stop thinking about you?"

"Never. I couldn't go on if this thing between us became one-sided."

Harold said, "There's no way I could stop . . . loving you if I tried anyhow. I'll never understand how you loved a guy like me first."

They kissed long and passionately as if there were no tomorrow.

The next morning, the Posse left Poznan Heights and went back into Neogothic City. The town line looked eerily deserted the same way it was when they crossed it going in.

They always had to look back to see if the human tank Exo was keeping up. Roid Rage looked back and said, "Hey! Brightstar is following us!"

Retaliator looked back. He walked back with an angry gait. "Hey! You gotta go back! This ain't for kids!"

Brightstar headed for Magenta Arrow's protection.

Magenta said, "Brightstar, he's right. This is no good for you. We need you to stay back and protect your people."

Brightstar shook her head.

"Yes!" Magenta said.

Brightstar hung her head and slowly walked back.

Purple Harold said, "We'll come back and see you."

Brightstar didn't believe or acknowledge the promise.

Chapter 42

On the third floor of the newly constructed Tolerance Consortium Headquarters, Kommiczar and G-Force were preparing to be interviewed by an independent team doing a special report for local channel 7 TV on the successes of the Consortium.

Kommiczar told G-Force, "The drive-by media is our ticket to controlling the feeble mushy minds of the low information ignorant masses."

G-Force said, "Plus they can see how hot I am."

Under the bright lights, the pale looking Kommiczar told the interviewer, "We are trying to create something new here. Something better, something that has never been tried."

The reporter said, "Some may say that your methods are the same old failed communism that my grandfather knew, and almost got into a nuclear war with. What do you say about that?"

Kommiczar stroked his chin and stared into space, striking a pensive pose. "You know, I think my Grandfather back in Bulgaria would disagree with the negative premise of that question, and by the way; probably have you shot. Though there were good points to being a totalitarian leader in his day, this is a kinder, gentler. . ."

THOOOOM!!! The building shook.

"Sound the alarm!" Kommiczar screamed. "Excuse us."

Outside, Retaliator pumped his fist as the explosive arrow obliterated one of the large columns supporting the front section of the three story headquarters. A large crack formed from the point of the column all the way up the front of the building. "Yes! Nice shooting. Now get that one to the right of it."

The alarm sounded and lackeys came pouring out of the front of the building.

"Come on, Mag. You got this." Purple Harold said.

It was an easy shot, Magenta Arrow told herself. Don't want to miss like the occasional NFL kicker trying to make a clutch field goal in a decisive game. She released the arrow and it was a perfect shot.

THOOOOOOOOOM!!! It seemed like the noise was never going to stop. The pillar gave and the entire front wall of the building collapsed. Interiors of the rooms were exposed wide open. Rubble had crushed most of the lackeys who were charging at them. After some of the dust cleared, the massive amount of damage could be seen. A few lackeys were trying to pick themselves up and out of the huge mound of rubble. At least one lackey was impaled with metal rebar. Roid Rage was busy tossing large chunks of bricks and concrete at any of the few survivors he could see.

Retaliator got in a desperate hand to hand skirmish with a lackey swinging his damaged Plasfusion rifle at him. The lackey swung the rifle overhead at Retaliator, who held up his left forearm over his head at an angle to deflect the blow. Then Retaliator countered with a solid right to the chin of the lackey, sending him down.

Retaliator shouted, "Let's get out of here!"

The Posse turned and started running away.

"Not so fast, vermin!" G-Force said as he levitated twenty feet in the air.

Exo and Magenta Arrow were being levitated. They turned and saw G-Force manipulating the gravity that normally held them to the earth. When they had risen thirty feet into the air, Harold flew up and rescued Magenta. G-Force continued to raise Exo to a height of about forty feet and dropped him onto the jagged rubble.

Harold had seen Kommiczar on the third floor, so he flew through a cloud of dust, carrying Magenta into an exposed room on the second floor of the headquarters that looked unoccupied. Then he landed and dropped her off there. Then around the corner came two lackeys who raised their Plasfusion rifles on them both. Harold could tell by the look on the lackey's faces that there would be no mercy. The lackeys would be the heroes of the cause who took down the biggest two threats to the Consortium. As the thick dust of the destruction settled, Harold had the involuntary urge that he did not try to stop. "AHHH. . . AAAH-CHOOO!"

Those sonic sneezes had always been one of his curses, along with the purple color and the amnesia. This time, the sneeze sent shockwaves that knocked the two lackeys off of their feet. When they hit the floor they involuntarily dropped their weapons. While Harold was bent over from the powerful sneeze trying to clear his head, Magenta ran over to the lackeys and shoved them backwards and they rolled down the stairway. She grabbed one of the Plasfusion guns and started blasting gaping holes into the ceiling and destroying the third floor.

Meanwhile, G-Force looked at Retaliator. "You are mine, small man! What the . . ." G-Force noticed Brightstar running around on the ground flapping her wings making all sorts of bird calls. "Now, you don't see that every day! Is that the replacement for that little wimp of yours we had to kill?"

Blue Retaliator said, "You sick bastard! You leave her alone! She's not doing anything to you!"

G-Force said, "Well, since you care so much about her . . ." He started levitating Brightstar higher and higher. "Oh look, he said, "she really is a bird." A large group of birds came and circled her in the air. "Now that's a curious thing."

While in the air, Brightstar started screeching in all manner of bird talk, then waved her arms furiously making her cape flap in the wind.

Corpus DeLuxx showed up by G-Force's side, looking at Brightstar. "Hey! What's going on here?"

Then, almost in unison, the birds flew and started attacking both G-Force and Corpus DeLuxx. The villains screamed and flailed their arms as birds tried to pick out their eyes. They were too busy keeping birds out of their face to work either a gravity manipulation or an energy sphere to muster a counterattack on any of the angry birds.

Brightstar fell from a considerable height.

"No!" Retaliator screamed, holding his head.

Purple Harold was there to catch her before she hit the ground and she clutched him tightly.

Kommiczar was shooting his pistol down through holes in the third floor down at Magenta Arrow who was on the second floor. All his shots missed as she could move around and dodge the shots much faster than he could aim through the narrow holes. But not wanting to be the victim of another exploding weapon, Magenta ran down the stairs to get away, but got into a fight with the two lackeys she previously sent tumbling down. They started punching her and she screamed for help. Then Roid Rage appeared from the floor below and started pounding them mercilessly, slamming them against the wall and the railing. His eyes were wild with rage. He wanted more lackeys to savage, but there were none around. He rubbed his head with his large hands while screaming, sending his dreadlocks in all directions, somehow trying to curb his own rage. Magenta could not believe the ferocity of his attacks. As large as Roid Rage was, he fought like he was three times larger.

After Harold put Brightstar down, he turned toward G-Force, who was still having a tough time with all of the birds. Purple Harold saw his chance. At long last he was going to be able to use his claws on those two. He flew after them and started raking them on the legs whenever the birds would let him catch one. Then the villains became wise to their hopeless predicament and started to fly away. Harold heard a bullet whizzing by and made a move toward Kommiczar, who was still on the third floor. Kommiczar saw Harold looking at him and figured that was probably enough to send him slithering away into the shadows.

Harold noticed that the whole thing was being videoed by a television cameraman after he flew over to the third floor and floated in place looking for Kommiczar. Kommiczar was nowhere around and neither was Magenta. "Mag! Mag! Where are you?!"

Roid Rage was helping Magenta limp out from the rubble.

"Mag!" He flew over to her and hugged her.

"I'm okay," she said. "Go check on Exo, Harry, I'm really worried."

They all moved toward Exo, who was motionless. They turned him over. A couple of large chunks of his armor were completely broken off, emitting an unpleasant odor from within. His eyes were shut. They could not see any indication of him breathing and there was no way to check his pulse.

Retaliator shook Exo's face. "Hey! Come on!" This will grow back, right?"

"Maybe," Exo said. "Right now I don't care."

Blue Retaliator said, "Look, you stubborn . . . We gotta get this guy some help! Right now!"

"Calm down," Exo said, "Just help me get up."

They helped him up and he moaned and could hardly move. He limped as he took short steps away from the mess. Then they could hear police sirens off in the distance, along with automatic gunfire.

"Harold," Retaliator said looking in the direction of the sirens, "Take a look at that."

Harold sighed and flew straight up into the air. He stayed there awhile then came back down. He said, "It doesn't take any special perception to know that the raucous was that guy on that crazy jet scooter thing fighting the police. He does like to show up at just the right time."

Roid Rage said, "Someday I'd like to thank that guy."

Magenta Arrow told Brightstar, "I thought we told you not to follow us!"

Brightstar said, "You needed my help. Now you don't need it anymore."

Harold asked, "We don't?"

Brightstar just turned in the direction of Poznan Heights and walked away, chirping at some of her bird pals who swooped down near her.

The Posse looked at each other in amazement at what had happened.

Then Purple Harold flew up to the third floor where the TV Crew was still there filming. He struck a momentary super heroic pose for the TV camera. Then he looked directly at the lens and pointed, "I got a message for the whole world! The Consortium is over! We are going to finish them all off! You hear?! Citizens of Neogothic City; rise up against them now!"
Chapter 43

Back at the secret location where Mrs. Jenkins was holding Cynapse, they were watching a reality show called "Bad Luck" about a dysfunctional family on TV. It was presented as if cast member's never ending crises were somehow not related to all of the bad life choices the family members made.

Mrs. Jenkins said, "It's time for the local Channel 7 TV news ."

"I'm watching this." Cynapse said.

"Not any more, you're not."

Cynapse sighed at the annoyance and changed the channel.

"Today Channel 7 Action News was able to bring you an exclusive report from the Tolerance Consortium Headquarters. Let's go to the exclusive video. Here you see the camera shake as the massive explosion takes place while Kommiczar and G-Force were being interviewed exclusively by Action 7 News. . . Then the front wall falls completely off of the building. . . Next we see G-Force fly out and attack who is clearly the Pain Posse. For some reason G-Force also is attacking this little girl. . ."

"Look at that creep!" Mrs. Jenkins said.

"No! Look!" Cynapse said, "It's that Purple Harold makes him drop her! G-Force was trying to save her! The Pain Posse is nothing but terrorists!"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "That is what you got out of that?!"

The news report continued, "Then the entire battle seems to be strangely broken up by a flock of birds. . . After this devastating raid by the Pain Posse, we immediately went to City Hall to talk to Consortium leaders. Mayor Henderson said the Posse was, I quote, 'terrorists of the worst kind and an enemy of all good people everywhere'. The interview had to be cut short because of strange behavior by yet another flock of birds. The Consortium stated that toxins of mass destruction released by the Posse has resulted in, I quote, 'degenerative mental capacity among birds in the wild, and this is all the fault of the Pain Posse'."

Cynapse said, "Now they're ruining the environment!"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "You just believe whatever you want to without any facts, don't you? Bird brains can't just degenerate in the same day!"

"You can say whatever you want," Cynapse said, "I'll never trust the Pain Posse over the Consortium!"

Mrs. Jenkins said, "Listen to what you just said. You are totally closed minded. You will never look at any facts. You are all emotional, believing what feels right to you."

Just then a man burst into the room. "Don't move!" He was a lackey holding a pistol on Mrs. Jenkins.

"Skunkmaster!" Cynapse said. "Corpus sent you to rescue me!"

Skunkmaster's average sized shoulders and head dropped. "Okay, first off, my name is not 'Skunkmaster'. I don't know who started that, but . . ."

"What is that smell?!" Mrs. Jenkins had her hand over her nose and her eyes were watering.

"Anyways, my name is Wendell and nobody sent me here. I came on my own. For your information, I am a metahuman. I don't have any superpowers. Only the meta-smell. Most natural mutations are not beneficial, you know."

Cynapse asked, "You came here on your own?"

Wendell, aka Skunkmaster said, "I am not going back to the Consortium. They don't care if we live or die! I . . . I am in love with you and I am going to take you away from here!"

"Oh good," Mrs. Jenkins said as she started gagging.

"No, you are not," Cynapse said. "I am in love with Corpus and I will wait on him! I don't even like you."

Skunkmaster said, "Corpus doesn't give a rat's ass about you! Now come on!"

"He's right," Mrs. Jenkins said. "You ought to go. I'm totally serious."

"No way!" Cynapse folded her arms. Then she did her psionic attack move on Wendell.

"Really?" Mrs. Jenkins said. "A guy comes to save you, and that is how you treat him? If I were you, I would seriously consider going. He's not really a bad looking guy. Maybe you could get a nose plug."

"No. I won't."

Skunkmaster Wendell said, "What?! After I went to all this trouble? You think you are too good for me?! I am not leaving until you come with me! You know you want to!"

Mrs. Jenkins coughed and said, "You have my blessing, Cynapse." She motioned for go with her hand.

"No!" Cynapse said. "How many times do I have to say it? Leave me alone! You stink!"

Wendell said, "Now that hurts. He doesn't love you like I do! Now hurry up! Pleeeeeese?"

While Wendell's attention was fully on Cynapse, Mrs. Jenkins pulled out her impressive revolver from her desk drawer and pointed it at Wendell. "Cynapse, this is the best offer you are ever going to get. And I don't care if you two break up the instant you hit my door. You both get out. Now."

After they left, Mrs. Jenkins went outside for some fresh air. After giving it some thought, she almost fell over laughing at the thought of Cynapse leaving with Skunkmaster.

*******

"Get in here!" A chunky man with a white apron stained with tomato sauce and the rest of the day's special, was hiding around the corner and motioned for the Pain Posse to take refuge in the shed in back of his diner.

Blue Retaliator said, "I guess we don't have much of a choice other than to trust you."

Magenta said to the cook, "What he means, is, 'Thank you'."

Retaliator nodded. "Well, Yeah."

The man led them into the shed. A dirty old car and some stacked up boxes were in the old, but intact wooden building. "I'll get you people some food and water."

Harold asked, "Why you helping us?" They all knew that it would be a capital offense to be caught helping "terrorists". They also knew that this could be a vulnerable situation for them if the cook was a gutless informant.

The cook turned around, "You guys are my heroes. I hate the Consortium. They are the biggest bunch of thieves, murderers, and liars on the planet. Now keep quiet and don't get caught."

Blue Retaliator said, "Hey. Would you do me a favor?" He pulled out his phone and charger out of his utility belt. "Would you mind charging this?"

"I think there's an outlet behind that junk over there."

Exo begged, "Just let me lay down here." Magenta and Harold helped him down. His exoskeleton cracked and clacked. Exo exhaled. "Thanks".

Retaliator dug around behind the dusty boxes until he found the outlet. He plugged in his phone, and what amounted to his life support system came to life. He frantically scrolled through the incoming messages. "Crap! Something happened to Redcard and Clevenger."

"Do we know them?" Roid Rage asked.

Harold said, "You forget them from tryouts?"

"Oh yeah," Roid Rage said.

"And they were also my Bullseye Squad team mates. All it says here is that they had car trouble."

Roid Rage said, "Not a good thing in this town."

Retaliator said, "I'm not really in a position right now to be able to offer them any road service. The most recent time stamp on their messages was three days ago anyhow. That means they were still somewhere in the City during the start of the quarantine."

Roid Rage said, "That was a long time ago. Whatever was going to happen to them has already happened."

Then Retaliator said, "I definitely don't know who or what this other message is about. It must be a wrong number or something. Someone named Beth, looking for another someone named Herman."

"What?!" Exo said. "Lemme see that! Um . . . It's for me."

Retaliator said, "Okay, but you'll have to slide on over here, turtle boy, so you can reach the phone."

Exo crawled closer. He looked at the phone and said, "Damn. I better call her."

Harold asked, "You want us to step outside?"

"Never mind that," Exo said, "I don't want you to attract any unwanted attention." Exo called back the number, which was Beth's. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he left his wife. Exo had to carefully punch the numbers to avoid fat-fingering them with his blocky fingers.

"Hello? Is this Retaliator?" Beth asked.

"No. This is Herman."

Beth became choked up. "Oh Herman, what is going on?"

"It's a long story. How did you find me?"

"No, that is a long story. Why did you just up and leave me like that?"

Herman heard the anger and pain in her voice. "I. . . I didn't want you to see me."

"Why not?"

"I. . . I really look bad, Beth."

"You big dummy. Whoever said you ever looked good in the first place? If I would have married you for your looks, I wouldn't have married you. Why did you go in that booth at work in the first place?"

"Originally, I was trying to save the Company from default."

"And?" Beth pressed.

"Well, then honestly I saw an opportunity, that I thought was to lose some weight in that booth. You know . . . slim down."

"What? You are so infuriating . . . Exo, or whatever you are calling yourself."

Exo fought back the tears. "I know. I should have talked to you. Man, I am really stupid."

Beth said, "We're going to fix this. Okay?"

"I don't see how. My body is a big mess."

"These men who are here . . . they're kinda creepy. They're foreigners or something. They came to the house."

Exo said, "Beth, did they hurt you?!"

"No. No. Not at all. They are fine with me. I promise. They are pretty sore at you though for what you did at work in the booth, but if you cooperate with them, they say they can help you . . . help you with your body. If you cooperate, they won't sue us."

"Oh. Sorry I put you through all that."

"Those men said that you only went through stage one of the transformation, whatever that means. If you complete the other stages, you will be fine. Herman, just come home, okay?"

Exo looked at his nosey Posse teammates who were hanging on his every word looking for a clue that might indicate whether he was leaving the team, or what. He thought of how the Posse had helped him whenever he was hurt or lagging behind, and how he helped protect them. If he left now, what if it was his fault if one of them was badly hurt or killed?

"Beth; I promise I will come home. First, I have something I have to do."

"No, Herman. I saw videos of you getting beaten up on the internet and fell so far. I can't believe you are not already dead. Why are you doing all this? You have to come home. You are in no shape to mess with those kind of people. Come home now!"

"I will, I promise, but first . . ."

"No! That's it! I'm coming over there to Neogothic City!" she said.

"No damnit! There is no way for you to get in here anyhow! All the roads to the City are blocked! I wish you would just listen for once! This hellhole ain't no kinda place for you! I promise I will come home as soon as I can!"

Beth was full out crying. "Herman. . . "

The cook came into the shed carrying a large box. Inside the box were some covered platters stacked up holding some large meals. Exo closed the phone conversation and stared blankly at the floor.

Harold said, "Quiet! Someone is coming."

Soon, the room was packed full of ordinary citizens wanting to meet and get the autographs of the Pain Posse members.

A young man said to Harold, "Remember when after you beat the Consortium and then you made the speech in front of the TV camera? That was so awesome! That whole Consortium Headquarters fell apart! That was the coolest thing ever!" He said to Harold, "That flying speech was the coolest thing I ever seen in my life! Harold, I need your autograph!" The young man held up his phone, wanting a selfie with Harold.

Retaliator said, "No pictures! If anyone recognizes this building in your pictures, this kind man will be dead meat!" Retaliator looked at the cook, who shrugged his shoulders. "Okay team, saddle up. We have been compromised. This war is not over yet."

Chapter 44

The Channel 7 video of the recent battle at the Consortium Headquarters was projected on the large screen in the meeting room at City Hall. Among the dignitaries in attendance were, Mayor Henderson, Kommiczar, Corpus DeLuxx, G-Force, lackey Lieutenant Gonzalez and NCPD Chief Emily Davis.

Kommiczar said, "We have called this emergency security meeting with all of you today. We want to analyze recent developments. It appears that again, mistakes were made. As always, when you are at these meetings, please maintain secrecy." Kommiczar went through some bullet points on some slides projecting his presentation. "Okay, a couple of things; Our root cause analysis of this debacle is that the Posse Archer known as Magenta Arrow has developed some sort of superweaponized arrow that obliterated the pillars in front of the Headquarters, causing the total collapse. We must make every effort to be sure that the same thing does not happen here. Also, it appears that the little girl in the video was the source of some kind of demonic hex on our beloved leader and Corpus DeLuxx. Every time they go outside they are either attacked or pelted with bird guano."

Corpus said, "Yeah. It is really getting sickening! And I did nothing to her! I'm gonna kill that stupid girl!" He shivered at the thought of being dive-bombed by birds again.

Kommiczar said, "There is no evidence that killing the girl would make the curse go away. I'm not saying it is a terrible idea, just maybe not that effective, or worse, counterproductive in the overall scheme of things."

"At least she would be dead," Corpus DeLuxx said. "I can't even go outside for two minutes! I hate her so bad!" Corpus was gritting his teeth. "My main power is flight, which is totally disrupted by crows and pigeons and whatever, and my energy spheres, which I can barely form, and when I do, they splatter a stupid bird instead of the intended target. I want to rip her guts out and feed them to the rats!"

G-Force said, "I lose a headquarters, and you are worried about some stupid birds. This is not that difficult people. It's not like it's a harmonic resonance in the gravitational wave particle duality."

Kommiczar said, "I thought we were going to let that incident go, G-Man. You were really young back then. How many self-taught elemental proto-metahumans in the world are there? Right?"

G-Force ignored Kommiczar's commentary. "Anyway, let's not get all emotional, DeLuxx. We need to keep our focus on the Posse. After the meeting, we can take a look at how to progressively kill all the birds 'diseased' by the terrorists in the city. It's a matter of our convenience and the importance of our goals to us. Birds are kind of worthless anyhow. Right? Sooner or later the bird girl will turn up too. If not, once we capture a Posse member, we can torture her name out of them. Let's not make this stuff harder than it really is people."

Chief of Police Emily Davis had a scowl of confusion on her face and said, "Minor detail here; I think the law prevents us from killing minors and even birds without some kind of . . . reason?"

Kommiczar said, "Once we tell the Federal government that the birds are diseased, they will probably come and eradicate them all themselves."

Chief Davis said, "The kid. What about killing kids? Are we all cool with that? Everyone? Seriously?"

Kommiczar asked Mayor Henderson, "Can we work on something to change the local homicide laws to fit our needs and ideals, or something?"

Mayor Henderson said, "I'll see what we can come up with. Any more the City Charter is just a historical piece of paper. We can just claim our values are too important to listen to anyone else. I think we should always make whatever the Consortium wants a priority."

"Of course," G-Force nodded in agreement. "That's just good policy."

Kommiczar changed slides again. "This slide illustrates the mysterious heavily armed jet powered platform that keeps harassing us. It may be a good excuse for us to buy a Consortium Air Force. Mayor?"

"I totally agree." The Mayor nodded like a bobble head. "No cost is too much when it comes to the safety of our children."

Another slide showed a mob of supervillains roving about the City. Kommiczar said, "This is a photograph of a seditious mob who wants to take over the City so they can commit wanton crimes and create pandemonium." Then he showed another slide with numerous road warrior types and their flying attack drones. "This particular photo is of Industro and his mechanized army. They have taken over the south side of the City all the way up to the Seventh Street Bridge. That area is now a no-man zone. Clearly our beloved Police have their work cut out for them." Kommiczar showed yet another slide. This is one of a nearby downtown department store. I was there minding my own business buying black undergarments and a weirdo in a referee suit came out of nowhere and put a full nelson on my arms. He was blasting his whistle into my defenseless ear at point blank range. We grappled and both fell down the up escalator. Needless to say we kept rolling down as the escalator steps were moving up, all the while he was blowing the whistle into my ear and slamming my head on the steps. Finally we rolled all the way down. Then he and his busty girlfriend made a hasty retreat. I don't need to tell you that referee terrorist did some serious damage to my hearing in that ear."

Chief of Police Davis rolled her eyes, wondering how the motivations of the insurgent mobs differed so much from her current employer, the Consortium. She said, "This has gotten completely out of hand. No place on earth has more criminals running around as they do here. I finally had no choice but to commit all our resources to keeping these groups in check. We can't even begin to control them or bring any of them to justice."

G-Force asked, "So that is why security is so bad here now?"

Davis said, "I'm not saying that protecting City Hall is unimportant, but the agreement we all just got done making was that the lackeys were going to provide security here, and at the Consortium Headquarters. It is not the fault of the NCPD that the lackeys have proved incompetent."

Gonzalez said, "That's a ridiculous comment! We lost a lot of beloved people fighting terrorism just to keep you all safe! We don't have the big budget your union Police Department has!"

Chief Davis said, "Would giving you and your lackeys more money mean that Posse members wouldn't pull up in one of your own lackeymobiles and start killing off your people?"

Kommiczar said, "We suspect that lackeys named Skunkmaster, Cynapse, and Gordon had something to do with that. Gordon was found dead. Skunkmaster and Cynapse are missing, and we believe, deserters."

Gonzalez said, "My highly trained and motivated lackeys would never desert!"

G-Force said, "DeLuxx, aren't you and Cynapse still a thing?"

Corpus's eyes shifted around the room. "She's not my girlfriend. I don't know anything about it. She could have run off for all I know."

G-Force slouched in his chair. He shook his head. "I don't like the way any of this is going. Everyone is suspicious and in denial. This isn't going to get us anywhere. Where do we go from here?"

Kommiczar changed the slide on the screen. "Next, I want to go over some possible tactics we can use. As a defensive measure, we can embed ourselves in schools and hospitals so we won't be attacked. You know, use children and hospital patients as human shields."

Chief Davis said, "That strikes me as being somewhat cowardly. . ."

BLAAAAMMMM! The building shook.

"Not again!" G-Force exclaimed. "Everyone get them! This time we fight them until every last one of them are dead! There are only four of them! Move!"

Chief Davis was taking cover under the table calling numerous elements of the NCPD to City Hall. Likewise, Gonzalez was trying to call in whatever lackey assets that were available. He threw his phone down when no one answered his desperate call.

The rider on the Jetway had launched a rocket into the front of City Hall. Then hot lead was raining down on the already severely degraded lackey crew. The relentless attack from the sky kept them from getting a single shot off at the attacker.

Corpus DeLuxx came flying out from a broken out third story window directly at the Jetway. Corpus formed a large energy sphere and looked around for birds, then launched it at the Jetway. The pilot saw the incoming sphere and was able to maneuver the Jetway to barely evade the attack. If Corpus wouldn't have paused an instant to look for birds he might have gotten a better shot off. Then the Jetway turned to deliver a counterattack at Corpus, but he easily evaded the less maneuverable Jetway. Then the two started a cat and mouse dogfight to see who could put a hit on the other.

G-Force came out the front door along with Gonzalez. They looked for the Posse but this time the Posse was not boldly walking up to the front door as they had always done in the past.

This time Purple Harold flew into, and shattered a third story window in the back of the building. While the lone guard still in the back of City Hall was looking up at Harold, Exo sneaked up on him from behind a tree and clobbered him in the back of the head, sending him down. Then the rest of the Pain Posse charged into the back door of City Hall behind Exo, their usual shield. Retaliator picked up the lackey's Plasfusion rifle.

The Posse went into the building single-file. They went up the ornate stone staircase and heard gunfire. They crouched down and realized someone at the top of the stairs was shooting. Retaliator fired up in the direction of the shooting. The Plasfusion bolt did not obliterate the stone.

Exo said, "Hey, maybe those rifles aren't so tough against me." He figured his bone-like hide was more like the stone. "Everyone; on me." He crept up the stairs, and the others followed.

Magenta Arrow spotted Kommiczar and unleashed an arrow almost hitting him in the face.

Then suddenly Retaliator was being levitated in the air. They turned around and saw G-Force and Gonzalez had come back in through the front door.

"Kill them! Kill them all!" G-Force commanded.

Gonzalez smiled and raised his Plasfusion rifle to fire at the huge Roid Rage who was charging at him. Then before Gonzalez could shoot, he was knocked down by Purple Harold who came seemingly out of nowhere and was clawing his back to ribbons causing him to scream loudly as he bled out profusely.

Retaliator was trying to fire the Plasfusion rifle at G-Force while being levitated, but he couldn't get a clean shot. Then he accidently dropped the rifle and it hit the floor.

The smile was wiped off of G-Force's face when an arrow penetrated deep into his thigh. But this caused him to drop Retaliator from the upper reaches of the ceiling. Retaliator was ready for this event as he had already reached into his utility belt after he dropped the rifle and pulled out a mini skyhook. Then he managed to snag the chandelier on the way down. This slowed his descent considerably, but he still hit the floor with a hard landing.

Exo was shot in the back. He turned and ran up the stairs and saw Kommiczar firing at him. Exo covered his face with his forearms and was being hit by gunfire. Chunks of his armor were flying off again, but that did not slow his progress.

G-Force was down on one knee with blood running down his leg. He looked up at Magenta Arrow with all of his archvillain scorn and raised his hand to manipulate the gravity beneath her feet.

Before she was a foot off of the floor, she let loose an arrow that penetrated the palm of his hand. Half of the arrow was sticking out of each side of his hand. G-Force was unable to any gravity manipulation at all.

Magenta believed that she had G-Force right where she wanted him. She pulled out what certainly must be the final arrow necessary for the job, and her only remaining arrow in her quiver. This one was going to rid the world of this metacreep forever. Just as she was ready to release the showstopper, she saw a red-hot energy sphere coming at her. The arrow intended for G-Force's Adam's apple popped the sphere.

Corpus DeLuxx flew into Magenta Arrow and slammed her into the floor. Roid Rage grabbed Corpus and started beating him with his knees and elbows, Muay Thai style.

Corpus saw Exo and Harold coming, and he knew he had to break away from Roid Rage to regain the initiative. He hastily fashioned a smaller energy sphere and flung it at Exo, then he took to the air.

The tennis ball sized energy sphere sizzled and cracked with flashes of light and left a smoldering gaping hole in Exo's chest. Exo fell to the floor holding his chest.

"Nooooo!" Magenta screamed toward Exo as she laid, still incapacitated from the slam.

Harold grabbed Corpus, but he managed to punch Harold squarely in the mouth and he broke free. Corpus flew straight up, then came down to G-Force, who could barely move, and helped him levitate himself away from the Posse.

The Police poured in through both doors, pointing rifles at the Posse. With Mayor Henderson at her side, Chief Davis came down the stairs and commanded. "No! Stop G-Force and DeLuxx! They are the criminals here!"

"You worthless ingrate!" G-Force said.

That was Corpus's cue to exit with G-Force. They flew upstairs and they were able to evacuate Kommiczar. The trio flew out to the window to Neogothic City Harbor through a virtual cloud of angry birds. They reached the Harbor where Kommiczar's cousin, Dragomir was waiting in the family submarine. The stealth sub was able to easily get away from the Coast Guard siege around Neogothic City.
Chapter 45

Harold helped Magenta up. She had a hard time standing or walking. The Posse stood silently around Exo. The stench of his burnt armor filled the room. He laid motionless.

Magenta cried, "I knew this would happen." She touched Exo and he was as cold as stone.

Retaliator could barely move. He crawled to Exo. "No! No! No! Say something! Come on! Talk!"

Exo coughed and turned to his side. "I'm a damn anvil, and everyone else in the world is a damn hammer." He was still clutching the crater of a hole in his chest. "That was a close one. That one actually got pretty hot."

They helped him up and they started walking outside.

Harold asked, "You in a lot of pain, old buddy?"

"Some. Not too bad."

"Then why you still holdin' your chest?"

"I'm not, really. My hands are kinda melted to it."

Roid Rage said, "Let me give you a hand here." Roid Rage was almost embarrassed by the amount of force it took for him to break Exo's hands free from his chest.

Exo said, "Dude, I thought you were going to rip my arms off."

The Jetway landed near them, and the pilot unstrapped and walked toward them in an all black suit, including a black helmet and visor.

Harold said, "Hey, looks like we are actually gonna get to meet that guy."

The pilot took the black helmet and visor off. The pilot revealed long red hair. It was Agent Orange.

"That ain't no guy," Magenta said. "No he ain't."

They all praised Agent Orange and offered her their thanks.

Harold said. "Mag; I gotta ask you something."

She drew close to him, as they walked together. They were living in the moment, trying to put the recent events and the pain behind so they could enjoy the victory. "What's on in your mind, hairy purple boy?"

He asked, "You ever thought about being a farmer in Alabama."

"Nope."

Harold stopped walking, and almost stopped breathing.

Magenta said, "You know, you could become the mayor of this City. You would win easily, maybe even Governor."

Harold said, "I can't do that. That ain't me. What about . . . you?"

Magenta said, "I thought I would find me a real God fearing man. Not someone who is perfect, but someone who fights for the weak, who loves children, who is unselfish and kind. It also helps if they think I am great too. Oh, I don't know . . . I might consider being an Alabama farmer's wife. Even if he was a weird purple color."

"Yes!" Then he said real fast, "I mean . . . will you be my bride?!"

She smiled and nodded her head and they embraced as if nothing else was going on around them. Harold picked her up off of the ground and spun her around a couple of times. Then he embraced her in a dip, and they levitated in a slow spin while kissing. Magenta's dropped her bow on the ground. People were taking pictures and videos of the elegant scene that was destined to be seen the world over.

After the epic kiss, Magenta said, "Did you really mean it when you said you would go back and see Brightstar again?"

"Mag, I perceive you want to take her with us, on account that she is an orphan."

"You're getting a lot better at that. Will you?"

"Let's go ask her." The couple flew off together toward Poznan Heights.

A modern looking black helicopter descended from the sky. Everyone looked on suspiciously. Two tall beefy agents in black trench coats and dark sunglasses hopped out of the side. Their movements under the rotor revealed they were concealing weapons. Then one of the agents helped Beth Borkosky, Exo's wife, hop out of the helicopter.

Exo said, "That's my ride, folks. I told her not to come. Does she listen? No, she does not."

Before he could leave, several citizens expressed their gratitude to Exo for his service on their behalf.

Exo hobbled toward Beth, who ran toward him with open arms. "Herman!" They got onto the helicopter and flew away.

*******

The next day the Mayor held a news conference in front of City Hall. Retaliator and Roid Rage were in attendance to see what direction things in their hometown were going to go in.

"I would like to express my gratitude to Chief Davis, who exposed the Consortium's criminal activities. They will be brought to justice on numerous charges that include murder. The Chief has also uncovered the conspiracy by the Consortium to fake the plague, so the City will no longer be isolated from the rest of the world. The quarantine is hereby lifted. And . . ." Mayor Henderson had to wait for the applause to subside. "I am hereby lifting the ban on superheroes. As always, my administration has sought to make the City the best it can be. So I am not wasting any time to appoint a new City Manager. This person is eminently qualified for this position in a time when things are very challenging for this City. But I know she will do a great job. Please welcome, Mrs. Jenkins."

Many in the City were aware of Mrs. Jenkins's behind the scenes activities on their behalf, and the applause showed it.

She approached the microphone. "First I want to thank the Pain Posse for doing what seemed impossible; ridding the City of the Consortium." There were exuberant cheers and applause. "There are a couple of Posse members here. Boys, come up here." As Retaliator and Roid Rage joined them at the podium the cheering continued. "I want to thank the people of this City, who are not criminals, and we are requesting your support . . . and to any supervillains out there, your days are numbered. We are coming for you!"

*******

After the speeches, Mrs. Jenkins approached Blue Retaliator. "I was wrong about you. You definitely have what it takes to be a superhero."

Retaliator said, "No, you were right. No one can fulfill super heroic expectations. We are all just men and women, in spite of our flaws, who dare to try." Retaliator wanted to be a superhero for a long time. Now that he really was, the burden seemed too heavy for anyone to carry.

THE END

Twitter: @ArchCitizen

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-Den Warren, Author, Publisher

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