Meeting of the Mind
I did not want to go down in the sewers.
Not just for the obvious reasons, but I really didn’t want to infringe on any of the underdweller’s lairs down there. They had very specific territories and the last thing I needed was to cross some ill-defined border and find myself fighting a bunch of Renaissance turtles or a horde of rat-people. The bubonic plague would be bad enough, but those guys were also extremely annoying.
And then, there was the worse alternative, in which I ran across one of the sewer heroes. There weren’t a lot of them, but the sewers and various underground areas had their heroes, just like the surface did. In all honesty, they probably had more heroes per square mile than Metro City. Parts of the city had been levelled and rebuilt so many times it was a warren of tunnels down there. Not even the city workers had a clear idea of where they all went. Which was why along with the sewer people, you had to deal with cults and other weirdos going down there. Sadly, most portals to hell weren’t hotel buildings built by neurotic architects, which although terrible, at least had decent parking. And to be fair, most architects were pretty wonky to begin with. Dealing with all those angles and equations gave them some pretty funny ideas, which was how we got the Ryleh building back in the 20’s. If you stood in the wrong corner of its lobby, you’d end up in another dimension. They tore the place down eventually, though not because one too many janitors vanished. It had ‘clashed with the neighborhood’s cultural aesthetic,’ apparently. The one time the NIMBYs got it right.
But no matter. This wasn’t going to be like dealing with Brute Canal. Unlike the Neons, the sewer denizens made it damn near impossible to slip into their territory and not trip their alarms. Best thing to do was negotiate with them.
Fortunately, I had a feeling the Mind hadn’t been making friends down there. Mad scientists weren’t exactly known for their diplomatic tact. And by the looks of it, he’d set up shop near the territory of the Dredges. If I played my cards right, I just might walk out of this.
But that was just my opinion.
“I ask you to reconsider, sir,” Glacia said.
“No can do,” I replied, moving my hand towards the alley’s manhole cover. The metal vibrated in answer to my magnetic powers, rising off the ground like an alien saucer. “It’s too confined down there and we don’t want to piss off the Dredges by looking like we’re invading. So it’s just me for now. But you two will wait up here and track my movements,” I added with a look to Psyren. “If I can take the Mind alive, I’ll bring him up.”
“I still think we should go with you,” Psyren said, huffing.
“Really? Into the sewers?” I said.
Psyren shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I mean. Doesn’t mean I’d like it,” she said.
Heh. I couldn’t help but smile at that. The sentiment was certainly appreciated. “Not to worry,” I said, tapping the side of my helmet. “I’ll be in constant contact with Dolly. If I need backup, she’ll send you both down. How’s that?”
“Begrudgingly acceptable, sir,” Glacia said stiffly.
Psyren sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fiiiiine,” she said, throwing her arms up before pressing her back against the alley wall, slouching with a sulk. “But you gotta promise to come out okay.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said as I rose into the air, my armour deploying with a snicking sound as I descended into the open sewer, sliding the lid shut overhead.
“You sure?” Dolly’s voice said in my ear.
“We’ll see how things go,” I said, activating the HUD in my helmet. Instantly the darkness of the tunnel was lit in a bluish glow, outlining the path ahead. Hmm. Nice work. Dolly had really done some good work upgrading my gear. I floated forward, craning my head around. There was a chance I might avoid the Dredges completely, but I wasn’t counting on it. And being the bad guy meant always preparing for the worst-case scenario.
And sadly, evading the Dredges soon became a foregone conclusion. Almost as soon as I saw the daubed symbols of the their territory markers, I could sense eyes one me. I let my powers spread out around me, and felt the pieces of metal jangle on my pursuers. Lotta guns. Not good guns. Probably the kinds that were dumped in the sewers by mobsters or gangsters looking to lose something hot, but guns all the same. Looked like negotiating might be out of the question. I could tell the Dredges were shadowing me. Herding me.
Well, that was fine. Let’s set the stage and see who walked off.
The sewers twisted and turned as I delved through them, and I soon found myself floating into the central maintenance room for a network of storm drains. The place was large, built like a cathedral’s dome. Pipes jutted into it from every wall, the low thunder of water booming as it poured down, raising a faint mist. Metal grills formed the floor, led to by four large tunnel mouths. Nice spot for an ambush.
Perfect.
I stopped, setting myself down lightly on the mesh floor. Stretching out the field of my magnetic powers, I felt the bits of metal moving towards me from a number of directions. A couple from the upper pipes. One or two from the sides and… ah, hello. Some from behind as well. But the main one was coming through the front.
I crossed my arms, and didn’t have to wait too long. Out of the tunnel ahead came the gleam of eyes, and then shambled into the open the Dredges.
They were not pretty, that was for damn sure. But when you’re a clan of former literal lab rats mutated by unscrupulous scientists, you don’t come out looking too good. Most were dressed in rags roughly stitched together, but more than a few were wearing old castoff jeans, t-shirts, and other cheap clothing that got scavenged down into the sewers. Their weapons were equally crude, but serviceable. Like I’d sensed, pretty much all of them had guns, and despite their clearly abused nature, I had little doubt those weapons could still pack a punch. And those that didn’t have guns had spears or knives or something equally pointy and rusty.
I looked at the leader, picking him out at once. Bigger than the rest and dense with almost absurd muscle, he was wearing an old pea jacket, the front undone to reveal some faded jeans. A chain was wrapped around one arm, ending in a vicious hook, and one of his mousy ears were notched. Metal plugs from whatever experiment he’d escaped from were still embedded in his skull, and his beady eyes showed an intelligence that was vicious and unwise to fuck with.
“I Rattacan!” the ratman growled in his guttural voice. “What you want want here?” he demanded.
I raised my hands in a gesture of peace, but also allowing my powers to further radiate outwards from me, wrapping around the weapons in the grasp of the ratmen. “I’m not looking for trouble,” I said. “You’ve got a guest in your territory. I have business with him.”
Rattacan snapped his teeth angrily. “You speak speak of Mind! Yes. He here here. But none speak speak with him!”
“You’re protecting him,” I said. “Why?”
“He kill kill if we not,” Rattican snapped.
“Ah, well, that makes things easier,” I said.
And twitched my fingers.
Mutants yelped and spat as their weapons were magnetically wrenched out of their hands and into the air. I gave my fingers a twirl, and every gun, spear and knife suddenly turned around, hovering before its former owner, ready to strike.
Everything froze. I waited a couple heartbeats for it to sink in what I’d done, then I let my powers slowly lift me into the air, floating me in the center of the domed room, impressing on them that their very lives were in my hands. It shouldn’t have felt so good, but it did. That kind of power was intoxicating. Was it any wonder so many who got powers go villain?
“I don’t want any trouble with you all,” I said, my voice echoing among the damp stonework, my eyes looking about the room and the horrified mutants, transfixed by the weapons poised before them. “I only want to pass through. If you don’t get in my way, we won’t have a problem. But, if you try and stop me...”
I let my powers twitch. Guns cocked, the clicking sound echoing heavily in the stillness.
The mutants remained frozen, staring at death hovering an inch before their eyes. None were stupid enough to try anything. Every one of them realized how fucked they were if they so much as twitched. A place like the sewers bred survivors, not martyrs.
Good.
I moved forward, the crowd of rat creatures parting as I floated towards the exit. As they shuffled out of the way I kept their former weapons aimed dead to rights at each of them, tracking them as they moved.
The tunnel yawned before me, and I slowly floated through, casting a glance over my shoulder. The mutants were still staring at the weapons aimed at their heads.
Alright. Message received.
I dropped my hands, releasing my magnetic hold. The clattering rain of metal echoed up the tunnel behind me. I wasn’t worried. They’d probably retrieve their weapons eventually, but I knew they wouldn’t do it for a while.
But I wasn’t going to assume that, so kept my powers keyed up, sensing around myself as I made my way towards the Mind’s lair, and I wasn’t exactly enjoying the scenic route. The walls were almost universally the same old brickwork, occasionally crossed with piping and the dab of territorial paint, and I did my damndest not to look at the waterways. Though I was largely moving through the storm drains, I was real happy my helmet was airtight. Handy when you’re dealing with heroes who use pheromones and toxins. Really useful during times like this.
But I was even happier when I finally reached the outskirts of the Mind’s lair. I was in one of the drier sewer systems. Seemed to have been cut off from the rest ages ago. Not too surprising. When monsters from beneath the earth emerge to attack mankind every other Thursday, parts of the basements get shifted and moved around.
The current tunnel stretched on ahead in a rounded passage that was probably once a pipe system. It ended suddenly at the far end with a massive metal door. Built like a plug, it reminded me of a submarine hatch or a bank vault door. Clearly a recent addition, given the general decrepitude of the sewer.
That the Mind wasn’t the kind to welcome guests was blatantly evident. I found myself looking at old bodies in various stages of decay strewn along the passage. I subtly stretched out my powers, letting it flow down the passage and through the walls. Wow. The Mind sure wasn’t taking any chances. I could feel damn near dozens of traps. Spikes. A pitfall. I think those were saw blades and… oh, yep. Lazer grid. Gotta love anyone who boobytrapped a hallway to slice intruders into cubes. And at the very back, coyly snuggled on either side of the door, was a pair of flamethrowers.
Ah.
Almost be a shame not to run such a meticulously plotted death trap.
“Ready to go?” I said, reaching into my pocket.
“Victor, baby! I was born ready!” Dolly smugly replied.
I chuckled and pulled out the metal ball Dolly had given me. I gently set it on the ground, and almost at once four thin legs sprouted from it. With dainty clicks the ball scurried forward and past the ruined bodies of those who’d challenged the trap tunnel. Honestly, I would have loved to go down that thing. Letting those traps try and take me would be so much fun. That was the one problem with being the villain. Your job was to design the death traps, not try them out.
And sadly, I dared not run this one. If the Mind got a hint I was coming, there was no guarantee he’d stick around and not fuck off through some escape pod, or portal, or other random bullshittery. Trust me, I was an expert on making a getaway to fight another day. Well, sorry, but this time I was going to have to insist he stay for a chat.
Hence Dolly’s drone.
I watched intently as the little bot skittered like a spider along the walls, too small to set off any pressure pads, get picked up by motion sensors, or draw attention from a camera.
“Aaaaaand bading! Gotcha,” Dolly crowed as her drone reached the end of the hall. The little ball clicked up the wall, setting itself above the door. The drone’s top opened, opening like an egg and poking out an antenna. A faint hum emanated through the air and the corridor was tinted with a bluish glow. “Ha! Easiest game I’ve ever played.”
“You good?” I asked.
“Hell yeah, Victor! This’ll loop the cameras, deactivate the traps, and make sure he never even notices you’re coming through that door.”
“You’re a life saver, Dolly,” I said.
“Victor, please! I’m a genius. Saving your life is just incidental to how fucking amazing I am! But it’s a nice side effect.”
Dolly’s self-aggrandizing would be more annoying if she wasn’t absolutely correct. “So it’s good now?” I said.
“Go for it, Victor. I’ll even open the door for you.”
As I looked there was a whirring sound from the massive door. With a groan of heavy metal, the hatch slid open, revealing the throat of a deeper iron corridor.
“How polite,” I said, stepping out from cover.
“Never had someone call me that,” Dolly said.
That I could believe.
I passed the corridor without incident and reached the door, but lingered, glancing back at the hall of death I’d so easily walked through.
“Aw, what’s the matter, Victor? Did you want to set off the traps?”
“Kinda,” I admitted.
“You wanna go back and walk through it? I can turn them back on.”
Oooh, that was tempting. But no. No. Priorities here. “Maybe on the way out,” I said, turning forward and making my way slowly down the hall.
Even as I walked I kept my magnetic powers keyed up. I certainly didn’t lack for metal down here. I was walking through a round room that branched off into a number of different directions. Several of these were obviously labs, judging by the metal makeup within them. I could sense the thin copper, gold and wiring of computer systems. Another was something like a surgery, and a third was…
What the fuck?
I couldn’t quite keep myself from drifting over to the doorway and, after feeling out the frame to make sure there wasn’t an alarm hidden in it, then I opened the door.
Oh.
Wow, yeah. It was a collection of vintage comics, all politely and respectfully arranged behind display cases like at a museum.
Well, everyone needed a hobby, I supposed.
I shut the door delicately, then turned back to the central door. Just beyond it I could feel the large, circular shape of the room thanks to the metal reinforcing the walls. More cabling and computer wiring spiralled away, along with… ah. Got it. I’d know the feel of an escape tunnel hidden at the base of a big ass metal command chair anywhere. That sort of round trapdoor was classic. Too bad it wouldn’t be getting any use today.
Still, I had to be deft about this. I stretched my hand out. Damn but this was hard doing it blind, but I’d never lacked for practicing my technique, and after a moment I managed to figure out which wire was meant to activate the hidden door. I narrowed my magnetic powers, wrapping them tight around the wire, then gave it a tug, yanking it out and disconnecting it.
There we go.
Taking care of the Mind himself, however, was going to be a bit more of a problem. He was bound to have some defences I wasn’t able to pick up. But no avoiding it now. It was time to meet the Mind.
I moved my hand towards the door and sent a sudden blast of magnetic power against it. The whole thing buckled, thrown inside with a crash, and I glided through.
The image I got from my powers lined up with reality pretty well. A large domed room made of old brickwork, reinforced with metal beams. Wiring crawled from the walls, suspending screens overhead that flickered and danced with pics taken from Psyren’s social media feeds. Pipes snaked down from the walls like dead snakes, and the faint hum of machinery droned through the air. A whole bank of monitors near the far wall loomed like the hood of a cobra over a large chair set on an elevated platform.
“I wasn’t expecting… guests…”
The voice rasped from the chair. Distorted like from an old air raid speaker.
“Would have knocked but I wanted it to be a surprise,” I said.
“And here it is… not even… my birthday.”
The chair swivelled. Aw, I loved that. Gotta have a proper evil swivel chair in your lair, and the Mind was clearly a man of classical villainy. Had he a mustache, he’d be twirling it.
But he didn’t. He did, however, have an ape’s body.
Sure, it was wearing a white, double breasted doctor’s jacket, but the massive furry paws that poked from the sleeves were a dead giveaway. As was the fact he wasn’t wearing shoes, leaving his dexterous feet on full display. Above all this was a glass dome, bolted to the neck, a brain floating in a faintly bubbling solution like a shrivelled goldfish.
“And you… must be… Magneron,” he said.
“You don’t sound surprised,” I noted, which wasn’t too encouraging.
“I am not. I… knew you would be… coming… eventually.”
“Then you know what I want,” I said.
“I… do…”
I sighed. “And you’re not going to give it to me, are you?”
“I… am not. Because I… do not… have it…”
“You don’t have the Mind Spike?” I said.
“No.”
Shit! Well, that would complicate things a bit. “And I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where it is?” I said.
“I will… not.”
Alright. Only one reason we were talking now. He had a trap to spring. Those kinds of polite, chatty villains always had some nefarious tool for moments like these, so time to figure out where it was coming from. I let my powers stretch around me, resonating with the room’s magnetic fields. I wasn’t feeling any hidden weapon emplacements, but if he knew I was coming he’d probably have set something up that I wouldn’t be able to sense. “Well, that’s going to be a problem,” I said as I instead wrapped my powers around the metal plates of the floor.
“You intend… to beat it… out of me?” the Mind said.
“Something like that,” I said.
“How… unfortunate… for you.”
And there it was. That one liner could only mean it was time to rumble. Now where was the attack coming from? Not the Mind. Despite his size he showed no signs of coming at me. But…
I heard a hiss beneath me, and that was all the warning I was going to get.
My powers yanked me backwards towards the door, moments before a mass of green sludge surged through the mesh under my feet. It nearly had me, but I just managed to rise out of the way, evading a grasping, oozing tentacle. I halted, floating halfway to the ceiling as the gooey mess swirled, rising up like a gelatinous pile of rubbery goop.
Oh great.
A slimer.
Again!
“Meet… the Ooze,” the Mind said with a gesture at the mass of jiggling green. “I got him… just for you.”
“How kind of you,” I said, facing off with the wobbling horror. “Any chance you saved the receipt?”
“Afraid… not. Now, my creation, if you’d… be so kind…”
The Ooze trembled and started flowing towards me. Aw fuck. I pulled back, stretching out my magnetic powers around the room. I’d dealt with slimers before, but this one didn’t look like the intelligent sort. Those are the worst kind, so small mercy, but either way this was a bad matchup for me. Fortunately, there was a lot more metal around for me to use compared to my last encounter with one of these guys.
I stretched out my hands towards the Ooze, my powers thrumming from me, making the metal floor under the slime vibrate with power. That’s it you jello bastard. Little more… there! I suddenly raised my hand, and the floor’s metal plating curved up, ripping free with a groan and wrapping around the Ooze in a ball of steel. I squeezed my hand, sealing off the joints, air tight.
There we go.
“Oh dear…” the Mind said, rising from his chair.
“Sorry your Blob knockoff didn’t work,” I said.
“Is that… what you think?”
It was then I heard a sizzling sound. I looked back to the orb. Fuck! The metal was corroding. The thing was acidic!
“How very… unfortunate,” the Mind said. “I do hope you… and my pet… get well… acquainted.”
As he said that, the Mind pressed a button on his chair. There was a heavy beep, the floor under his feet giving a metallic chonk.
And nothing.
“Technical problems?” I said as his escape route failed to open.
The Mind said nothing, but instead slammed his foot down on the hatch in the universal gesture of trying to make finicky tech work. Ha! Served him right. But with his gorilla strength, he’d get that hatch open sooner rather than later. And before that happened, I needed to deal with the Ooze.
And I was running out of time to figure out how. Already a hole had been melted in the container and the gooey bastard was pouring out of it like a fucking nightmare. How was the Mind controlling it? Did it have intelligence? Unlikely. Some sort of crude impulse system? Fuck! I needed something to kill it now!
“Dolly!” I shouted into my receiver. “I need water. Is there a reservoir here? A discharge pipe. Something!”
“Uh. Uhhhhh… Hold on.”
“No hurry!” I said, jerking myself to the right as a pair of acidic tentacles swiped for me, instead grabbing a pair of pipes that almost instantly sizzled and melted to slag. “Take your time!”
“Ummmm. Aha! There’s a still working storm pipe about… uh… six feet through the wall at a forty degree angle to your right.”
“That’ll do,” I said, reaching up. I stretched my magnetic powers. Lotta pipes, but I could feel the corrosion of still running water... there! Ha, got it! The Mind must have boarded the thing up when he built his lair, which worked fine for me. I wrapped my powers around the old iron and pulled with all my might.
A groan echoed through the room. The Ooze was almost on me, tentacles grabbing for me. I jerked my leg out of range, but it swiped my heel, the metal of my armour hissing and blackening. Come on baby. Come on!
Aha!
At last, with a crack, an old pipe broke through the wall, twisting right towards the bubbling Ooze.
In a gush water sprayed down on the acidic slime. It was like someone had turned a firehose on a plate of Jell-O. The rush of water splattered the Ooze across the floor, its mass squirming, trying to reform, even as it was further diluted into a huge green puddle that dripped down through the grate to coat the floor.
“There,” I said, releasing my hold on the pipe and turning my attention back towards the Mind, who had given up trying to wrench off the door of his escape chute. I raised my hand, shards of metal rising around me. “Now, about that chat.”
The brain sighed through his speakers, rising back to his full height. “Pity. But you… can’t blame me for trying,” he said.
“Yeah, I kinda can,” I replied, and flicked my finger towards him.
The shards of metal ripped through the air, slamming into him. The impact carried the Mind across the room, pinning him to the far wall, impaling his hands, chest, and legs.
“Now,” I said, floating towards him. “About that talk.”
“Afraid we… don’t have… the time…”
“What are-“
A sudden stab of pain throbbed in my skull. I winced, wavering. I looked up sharply as a series of booms echoed above us.
“Explosives,” the Mind said. “In the upper levels. We will be buried together, you and I. An… unfortunate end… to this play…”
Son of a bitch hit the self-destruct! But like hell I was letting him bury me here! I reached out with my powers, grabbing the Mind’s dome. There was a lot of circuitry connecting his container to his gorilla body, and I ripped them right off his neck. The jar flew into my grasp and I tucked it under my arm, repelling my armour back into the center of the room. I looked up, seeing the ceiling crack under the weight of the collapsing stone. I pointed down, my powers grabbing the useless metal hatch. Where gorilla strength failed, magnetism succeeded, and I ripped the thing clean off the hole.
Not a moment too soon. As I jumped down the hole, I saw the ceiling give way, chunks of it falling, tearing apart screens and piping with explosions of machinery.
The passage bent, and I flew through it. Behind me the tunnel was already collapsing. Cracks chased me, overtaking me, the tunnel giving way around me. Faster. Faster! I jerked around corners. Almost. Almost!
Aha!
Daylight bled in ahead through a mesh grid of metal. I slammed my powers into it, ripping the grill of metal clean off, sending it hurtling through the air. I burst out of the tunnel like a cork, a cloud of dust belching after me.
I halted, floating, waving away the cloud as it settled around me. I found I was floating over an old cement flood channel. The pipe I’d flown out of once discharged into it, but the whole thing was dry as bone. There was a rumble, and I looked up the bank, seeing a cloud of dust rise in the distance from the collapse of the underground into the Mind’s lair.
Well.
That wasn’t great.
“Boss!”
The voice pulled my attention towards the sky, just in time to see Glacia descend on a rush of cold air, Psyren in her arms.
“Hey, girls,” I said as the pair touched down. “How’s it oof!”
I grunted as Psyren and Glacia threw themselves around me, hugging me tightly.
“Sir!” Glacia gasped. “I am so glad you are alright!”
“Holy fuck, boss! That was crazy!” Psyren said.
I uncertainly patted the pair on the heads. Having people this worried about me was a bit new for me. My brand of villainy was a solo act for so long, it felt… odd. Not bad, but certainly different.
“Thanks, girls. I’m fine. Take more than a couple tons of rock to kill me,” I said.
“Victor, just want you to know I’m hugging a pillow in solidarity since, ya know, I’m not there,” Dolly said in my ear.
“Noted,” I said, easing Glacia and Psyren off me. “And hey! It wasn’t a total loss. Look what I brought back?”
I held out the jar and Psyren recoiled. “Ew!”
Glacia, unsurprisingly given the fact she’d probably seen far worse while with her father, leaned forward, glaring at the grey matter in the jar. “So this is the Mind. The last of the Brain Trust?”
“That he is,” I said. “And we’re going to make sure of it. Not to mention find out where he hid that fucking machine of his. Psyren?”
“Do I gotta be gentle?” the psychic asked.
“Asshole tried to bury me alive. Strip his mind to the stem if you have to,” I said, handing her the jar.
“Oh boss, you really know how to make a girl happy,” Psyren giggled, then turned her attention to the jar. Pink hearts flared in her eyes, and I felt the subtle pressure of her psychic powers aching in my skull.
But Psyren’s smile suddenly fell, her face pinching in a look of confusion. “Boss?” she said. “It’s… empty.”
“Empty?” I said. “What are you talking about? The brain is right here,” I said, tapping the glass like a kid at the aquarium.
“No, yeah, I know, boss. But there’s no mind in it. It’s just… a brain. It’s like someone stripped it of everything.”
“What?”
I grabbed the jar before realizing how stupid that was. What was I going to do? Shake it and see if a thought popped out? “But… it talked to me. Very arrogantly mind you,” I said.
“Some things that talk are still utterly brainless, sir,” Glacia noted.
“Har har,” I said, staring at the brain in the jar. This wasn’t adding up. What the fuck was going on here?
“Sir? Might it be possible he wiped his own mind?” Glacia suggested.
“Maybe…” I said. That wasn’t too uncommon. And any man who rigged up his lair to explode with him in it might have a dead switch hooked up to his own brain. Still, I didn’t much like it. I sighed. “We’ll talk it back to the lair,” I said. “Dolly? Maybe you can analyze it and see if you can find anything.”
“Sounds like fun, Victor. Can’t wait to get my hands on that head.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “And in the meantime, I...”
I trailed off, spotting some thunderclouds gathering above us in the sky.
Aw hell.
I shoved the jar back into Glacia’s hands as I stepped forward. I tracked the crackle of blue lightning threading its way through the cloud cover, hoping the weather man had been wrong as usual in claiming it was gonna be a sunny day today.
But as expected, I wasn’t that lucky.
I winced as a thunderbolt slammed into the ground a few yards from us, the static dissipating and leaving in its wake Valkyria. The stormy heroine straightened from her heroic landing, gripping tight her mace as she looked down at my grimly.
“Magneron,” she said. “It seems I run into you quite often these days.”
“Fancy that,” I said.
She turned her head towards the half-collapsed bank. “Would you mind explaining this?”
“Mole people?” I ventured.
“The United States has a treaty with the Underground Kingdom,” Valkyria said.
Right. Forgot about that.
“Sir?” Glacia said in an undertone from behind me. “I am prepared to freeze her in a block of ice immediately.”
“Let me handle this,” I hissed back, then turned back to Valkyria. “Look. There was an... incident underground. A villain’s lair blew up.”
“It blew up?” Valkyria said.
“He blew it up. Self destructed. Bam,” I said, smacking a fist into my open palm. “Just blew it up on me. I’m sorry about... all this,” I said, gesturing at the crumbling channel. “But really, it’s not that bad considering...”
“You are merely fortunate you did not emerge in a residential area.”
Which was... well, true. Though it was hardly uncommon for parts of the city to be evacuated right before a super brawl. But that was usually because I or a villain like me was doing the job. Most actual villains don’t give a damn if they kill a couple hundred civvies. In fact, most are counting on it.
But that did make me think of something else. “What are you doing here anyway?” I said.
“What do you mean?” she replied.
“I mean, how did you get here so fast? There’s no one around who could have called you. How’d you know to come here?”
Valkyria didn’t answer at once. Her expression was stony, her blue eyes glaring down at me, unreadable. “I have no reason to answer that,” she said at length.
“Just seems a bit suspicious,” I said.
“I find your presence here far more,” she replied.
Well, she had me there.
I sighed, checked my watch. “Look,” I said. “We can do this one of two ways. You can arrest me, drag me down to the Hall of Heroes, but once you investigate the ruins underground, you’ll find out I was telling the truth, and I may sue you for false imprisonment. Or...”
“Or?” Valkyria said.
“Or we get lunch and just... talk this out. Hm? My treat. How about that?”
Valkyria gave me a perplexed look, her eyes narrowing slowly at me. I shifted my feet. Was I really going to have to fight her?
Finally, Valkyria gave a slow nod. “Very well,” she said. “But not lunch. We will have dinner with my associate and… discuss this matter.”
Damn. I didn’t want to give her more time to think about this, but I could hardly say no at this point. “Fine,” I said, sighing.
“And you will give me… that,” she said, pointing at the jar.
I glanced back at the brain in its jar. Fuck! That was the one lead I had here. “I…”
“Or are you trying to hide something from the Heroes of the Earth?” she demanded.
Shit! There was no way out of that one. I looked back at Glacia, who grimaced but handed over the Mind. I took it, walking over to Valkyria and reluctantly giving it to her. Taking the jar, Valkyria eyed the grey matter within, her eyes narrowing subtly before she tucked it under her arm.
“Tonight. Scan Da Navya. You will meet us there, or I will come find you, and we can speak through the bars of a cell.”
“Fine. Whatever,” I said, sighing.
Dammit. Just when things seemed to be looking up too…