Meanwhile, at the Hall of Heroes
I’d been in a few interrogation rooms in my time, and the one at the Hall of Heroes was pretty good, not gonna lie.
Sure beat the ones at the supermax, anyway. This one was made of walls so blindingly white you could barely see the seams of the corners. A single table sat in the middle along with three chairs, one of which was occupied by me, and the other Mister Invincible, who hadn’t said much since taking me in. They’d taken my bracers and anklets, of course, but let me keep the rest of my clothes, though they had cuffed me by a chain to the table. Which I was pretty sure was more for the look of the thing than because Rick thought it would stop me.
Either way, I wasn’t exactly happy.
Sure, I realized the reason for all the bullshit, but it wasn’t exactly endearing me to the Heroes of Earth. I sat back in the chair, listening to it creak, checking to see how far my powers stretched out from the room. Hmm. Not very. Did they have some kind of nullifier in the walls or something? I knew there were some heroes that could lock down another’s powers, but when you had such a variety in abilities coming from magic, mutation, or schizo tech, those kinds of heroes weren’t very useful. And of course, they hadn’t had time to build a cell specifically for me. I wasn’t part of their rogue’s gallery, and that suited me fine.
Besides, they had no idea the real strength of my powers, and I wasn’t about to give them any more hints. Because fuck them.
Still, I worked to stay calm. No good could come from flipping out at the heroes. At least, not yet. I did hope I wouldn’t have to smash my way out of here, but if the option was between that and going to prison for something I didn’t do, well…
Don’t get me wrong. I was in favour of villains being warehoused in supermax jails. Some of those guys were beyond fucked up. Villainy for the cameras tended to be quaint robberies and holding major civic centers hostage, but the real supervillains and criminals were not to be fucked around with. Civvies did not deserve to live in terror of some lunatic with super strength deciding to pop your head off to jump the line at Starbucks. And considering the only alternative to jail was just killing villains, that was a line I hoped never became ‘normalized.’
On a certain level, I think a part of my job was about that. When other villains saw me doing robberies and shit, I liked to think that angled them towards larceny or menace rather than harder things like rape or whatever. I kinda doubted it was true, but hell, sometimes you needed to believe a lie.
“So how long am I supposed to wait?” I asked Rick.
“As long as it takes,” he said, then smiled jovially. “But if you need a way to spend some time, you could try and break the desk over my head.”
“Wouldn’t that get me into more trouble?” I asked.
“C’mon. It’ll be fun!” he said jovially.
“Think I’ll pass,” I said.
Rick shrugged. “Suite yourself.”
I exhaled heavily and went back to studying the wall. What a shit show.
I straightened as the door opened and John Blend walked in, wearing his usual grey suit, and a tie sporting a yellow smiley face on it.
So it begins.
“John,” I said.
“Magneron,” he said dully. “How are you?”
“Not great,” I said, raising my hand so my manacles clinked.
“Indeed. Our apologies. It is standard procedure.”
“So, I’m arrested,” I said. “Did you at least look at the tapes?”
John settled into his chair, shuffling the papers he brought. “I took a look. We saw you were attacked,” he droned. “But until Valkyria recovers and informs us why she did so, we are operating under the assumption that you committed a criminal act, and she was responding.”
“I told you all, she was being mind controlled!”
“Again, we cannot be sure of that until she wakes up. As such you will be held here until you can be transferred to supermax. Only as a precaution, of course.”
“Is that right?” I leaned forward. “You know what this is?” I said, stabbing my finger into the table. “This is profiling! You’re holding me here because I’m a villain.”
“Hey now, that’s not entirely fair,” Rick said.
“I only terrorize for money. I get paid to fight heroes! But she came after me. I didn’t start anything, but you assume I did because I do evil acts for money and have a menacing looking suit of armour. Frankly, I’m offended. I should sue you. In fact, where’s my lawyer? I’m supposed to be provided one.”
“You are not being charged at this time,” John droned.
“Then I can leave?”
“I did not say that.”
“Oh this is such bullshit! All because your girl got himself brainwashed and came after me.”
John scoffed. “Do you have any idea how often we hear that excuse?”
“Do you have any idea how often you heroes give that excuse?” I countered.
Rick’s frown deepened. “Watch it, Magneron.”
“Oh come on!” I said. “Every time one of you heroes goes rogue it gets waved away with brainwashing. You work for a terrorist group? Brainwashing. You join an apocalypse horsemen themed team looking to bring about the end times? Mind control. You rob a bunch of banks and have kinky weird public sex on the statue of Liberty? Mind Control. You tweet a racial slur? Mind control. And don’t even get me started on the House of Bondage.”
Rick jerked upright. “How do you know about that?” he said.
“Of course I know about it!” I said. “Everyone knows about it!”
Rick cocked his head, seeming to consider that. “Well, true. It’s a bit of an open secret. Honestly,” he chuckled, shaking his head ruefully. “Heroes can be such a handful, you know?”
I slowly narrowed my eyes at Rick. I glanced at John, who had kept largely silent during this.
“You know,” I said slowly. “I was wondering, how many psychics do the Heroes of Earth employ?”
“None,” John said simply. “Heroes with psychic powers are quite uncommon.”
“But you’re the Heroes of Earth. Surely you’ve had a few come by, looking to join.”
“On occasion,” John said.
“Interesting,” I said.
“Is it?” John replied.
“Yeah. Because, it just occurred to me that Valkyria has been dealing with quite a few surprising coincidences lately. We keep running into each other through some reason or other. And you know? I think she was a bit suspicious about that.”
Rick cocked his head, jovial face knit with perplexity. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” I said, resting my arms on the table. “In fact, I’m a little suspicious too. Mister Invincible here showed up right after my fight with Valkyria. Didn’t you?”
“Yes! For I received a summons!” Rick declared.
“I bet you did,” I said, watching John, his grey eyes giving away nothing. I glanced back to Rick. But my eyes locked again on John.
“It’s you, isn’t it?” I said.
John blinked slowly. “Me?” he said.
“Yes. You. You’re the psychic, aren’t you?”
“What psychic?”
“The hidden one,” I said. “The one who sent Valkyria after me. The one who was puppeteering the Mind. The one who manipulated the Brain Trust into building the Mind Spike. It was all you.”
John stared at me blankly.
Then a smile hovered on his lips. John looked down as if surprised to see it there. But it grew wider. A grin that would put a Cheshire cat to shame. He chuckled like a rich kid getting caught shoplifting. “Well well,” he said, taking off his glasses, and without them on, it was like he was a new man. He sat up straighter, his air more confident. Looser. “This is a surprise, Victor. I knew you were smart, but I didn’t think you’d work that out.”
“So it’s true,” I said with a sinking feeling. “You are.”
“Oh yes. All along.”
“And you’ve hidden it? All this time?”
“It hasn’t been easy.”
I looked at Mister Invincible, and John followed my eyes. The drab man laughed suddenly. “Oh, him? I’m afraid he won’t be of much help to you at all.”
John flicked his hand, and Mister Invincible flopped forward, head banging on the table. I jerked back.
Oh fuck.
“Another puppet?” I said, looking back to John.
“Oh yes. My best one,” John said, patting Rick’s motionless body on the back. “Just like the Mind had his role to work within the Brain Trust, Rick here was the heavy to pull more visible authority within the Heroes of Earth. And quite handy to express some of my more… eccentric urges. It let me be far more dull. More easily overlooked. But that was all part of the plan, Victor. All part of my plan.”
“To rule the world?” I said.
John chuckled, rising and walking towards the mirror in the wall and staring through it. I winced, feeling a sudden throb of pain in my skull as he used his psychic powers, probably blanking out the minds of anyone watching.
“The world? Hardly. I have no interest in controlling the minds of the whole world. I have no interest in even leading it! That kind of pride? Just begging to be taken down a peg.”
Huh. Maybe he wasn’t completely insane.
“Then what?” I demanded.
“Victor? Do you know what I love?” John said.
“Being a dick?” I hazarded.
He laughed. “Not quite. I love heroes.”
“Yeah. Clearly,” I said, nudging Mister Invincible’s head. Ugh, his eyes were all glassy. Like a corpse that was still breathing.
“Him?” John said, looking at the hero’s insensate body with an expression of contempt. “Do you know what’s interesting, Victor? His powers are his own. Not some trick of mine. He genuinely is indestructible. Super strength. Flight. All the main ones. Boring abilities, yes, and yet so potent. And you know what he was going to do with those powers?”
“What?” I asked.
“Absolutely nothing.”
I glanced up at John with some surprise. “Really?”
“Oh yes,” John said, and wow, the disdain on his face was just stunning. He grabbed Mister Invincible by the hair and jerked the man’s head off the table, John glaring at the slack face. “He was going to work in a restaurant. Can you believe it? He wanted to run a deli. A deli! Impervious to bullets. To fire. Poison. A nuclear strike. And he was going to make fucking sandwiches. Can you believe it? All that power, wasted!
“And I couldn’t let that happen,” John said, letting Rick go, the hero falling heavily on the table with another bang. “For the good of the world, he needed to be a hero. But if he wouldn’t, then I’d make him one.”
“Jesus fuck,” I said, looking at John, finding new depths of disgust I’d never dreamed possible. “You’re a monster.”
“You say that knowing the number of times he’s saved the world? The number of times his being somewhere saved countless lives? Fiji would have been destroyed if not for Mister Invincible. The Klaxxon Invasion might have taken over Metro City. The Blight Bringer would have irradiated the eastern seaboard. None of it would have been prevented if he’d been making sandwiches for irate, fat midwestern tourists. Power comes with responsibility. Responsibility to use it to the best. For the good of the world!”
“For the greater good?” I said grimly.
“Oh yes,” John said, his eyes terribly intense. “The greatest good.”
Well, there wasn’t much use in arguing that. Because as horrifying as it was, he wasn’t exactly wrong. Quite the opposite. But the idea of making that sort of choice for someone… Forcing them to use their powers if they didn’t want to. Robbing them of free will and the right to choose. Ugh. It frankly made my skin crawl.
“I mean, you have a point,” I said. “But so what? There are lines you don’t cross, John. And mindfucking some poor bastard into your super powered meat puppet is definitely one of them! It’s his powers. His. You can’t make him use them just because you think he’s wasting them. Fucking hell. You do realize this shit is exactly why people hate psychics, right? You’re the worst kind of stereotype.”
John shrugged his grey shoulders irreverently. “Hm. Perhaps. But no matter. I would do far worse for the sake of the world. And that is why I will have Psyren. I will have her powers to use in the Mind Spike. And do you know what else?” he said, turning suddenly my way, his grin stretching the corners of his mouth. “You can’t do a thing about it!”
I felt my hands reflexively tighten into fists. “Oh?”
“Oh yes,” he said. “And do you know why?”
“Because I’m a villain?” I said.
He nodded, smirking. “Precisely. You tell anyone about this, and who’ll they believe? You’re just some bad guy. And me?” he said, straightening, touching a hand to his chest. “I’m the representative for one of the biggest hero associations on the planet! I run everything behind the Heroes of Earth. I may not be the face of it, but everything goes through me. All the boring paperwork that people who just like punching stuff don’t want to bother with. And that means whatever I say goes. It’s literally child’s play for me to destroy you. I could do it like that!” he said, snapping his fingers.
I felt my teeth clench, biting back the words.
Because he was right.
Dammit, he was right!
I was just a twobit villain. A punching bag for heroes like the ones he employed. And he was official. He had all the weight and respect of society and judicial authority backing him. My word against his was about as good as a fart in the wind. Bastard had me licked in that respect.
“So why this whole song and dance?” I asked acidly. “Why not just knife me now and get it over with?”
“You don’t think I’d be stupid enough to bring a knife in here, do you? I know your powers well enough, Victor. Not that a knife would help you anyway. No. I’m going to do this all nice and proper,” John said, making a pinching, then stretching motion with his two hands. “You made me have to take a few risks, I have to admit. When you refused first to join the Heroes of Earth and bring your girlfriends here, I knew I’d have to be a bit more forceful.”
“Which was why you tried to partner with Razer to get me to take on a heist with the Heroes of Earth,” I said. “And I just bet Psyren was going to be one of the villainesses you insisted I bring along.”
“You are a quick one,” John said. “Villains always are quite clever. Which is why I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you found about my little conspiracy using the Brain Trust, though I have no idea how you managed it. But it doesn’t matter now. When I realized you were coming for them, I knew it was only a matter of time until you found me out. And I realized I was going to have to do something drastic.”
“So you laid a trap with your Mind puppet,” I said grimly. “And when that failed, you used your psychic powers to send Valkyria after me. Win or lose, I’d be in trouble, and you’d have an open path to Psyren.”
“And I still do,” John said. “A proper scheme, Magneron, leaves no room to chance. And you have a tendency to meddle far more than I’d like. But don’t sell Valkyria short. I had intended for her to kill you. To grow so suspicious she’d either arrest you or end you. But something you said must have warned her. When she said at the restaurant she was close to something, I had no idea how close. She’d learned too much, and demanded I explain myself. I didn’t like it, but events forced my hand. Her mind was strong, but I’ve had a very long time to subtly deepen my influence on her. Decades. And even then I had to be a bit… rough, but the result is satisfactory. And while she’s unconscious, I can better twist her thoughts. I’ll soon have her believing she found evidence you were the true mastermind behind the Brain Trust. Then, you’ll be put away forever. And I can scoop Psyren up without issue.”
“But why?” I asked. “Why do you need her? You can clearly manipulate minds yourself.”
John chuckled, the red squares glowing in his eyes again. A pen suddenly rose from his pocket, lazily spinning in the air. “Ah, well, that’s the thing, Magneron. I’m afraid I’m more of a telekinetic than a psychic. I can toss stuff around quite well. Reinforce the body. But mind manipulation is a bit trickier for me. Honestly? I’m terrible at it. And for what I’ve got planned, I’m going need something of a… specialist.”
His pen suddenly shot down, burying itself in the table between two of my fingers, vibrating from the force of impact.
I didn’t flinch. I just gave him an even look. “Oh?” I said.
He smiled again. “Indeed. You see, there are far too many heroes running around. So disorganized. So… inefficient. What we need is a centralized hero association. A single entity under which they all work. But so many heroes have different opinions on that. Teen groups. Groups of four. Of five. Of thirty. International heroes. Local heroes. Hero Guilds. Hero Associations. Super Friends. They all have different morals. Or way of doing things. Some work for corporate bodies as insurance. Some work for prisons. Some work for themselves. How many suffer because heroes do whatever they feel like? Because they don’t respond effectively? Too many, Victor. Too many. What we need is efficiency. Standardization! No more random heroics.”
“So, you’re not really looking for a hero association, so much as a hero monopoly?” I said.
“In a way,” John said. “For the greater good.”
I was getting so fucking tired of those words.
“Is that what the Heroes of the Earth was supposed to be?” I said.
John nodded, grimacing. “Yes. But it didn’t work out.” He sighed. “Independence is such an inconvenience when the good of the world is at stake. Ah well,” he said, his smug smile growing again. “But with Psyren in the Mind Spike, all I need to do is get a hero to walk through my doors, and ta da! Mind changed. Contract signed. And look at that! Heroes all under one roof.” Satisfaction deepened the lines of his smile, his eyes growing misty. “My roof!”
Holy hell. He was serious. And the worst part of it was how horribly, nightmarishly sane it was. It made absolute sense. A sort of terrible, midwit middle management plan on a monstrous scale. I couldn’t even think of a word to describe it.
“You really think you’ll get away with that?” I demanded. “That no one will notice every hero on the planet suddenly deciding to join your association?”
“Once they see the efficiency of my system, no one will even care. Besides, once I have Psyren powering the Mind Spike, even if they do, it will be simplicity itself to just… change their minds. Invite the regulators to take a look around the place, and they’ll be under my spell. The UN. The military. Whatever I need to control, I can. And you,” he said, jabbing a finger pointedly into the table. “You are not going to stand in my way. You’re done, Victor. And I’m going to make damn sure you never see the light of day again.”
I glared into his eyes, my hands tightening on the table. I was going to kill him. I could feel the trembling of my magnetic powers resonating in the room. It had been building since he’d started talking, but now we were reaching the limit. The table rattled. My cuffs clinking. The struts in the wall shaking.
“Go on,” John said, low and sharp, his grin quivering with anticipation. “Take your shot.”
He wanted it.
He wanted me to try. To hit him. He’d take it, cry victim, and really fuck me over. Should I chance it? I felt my head pound with anger. With fury. This bastard. This bastard! Fuck it. It would be worth it. It would be worth it and I would-
The door slammed open, the sound like a gunshot in the silence. I jerked back and John did too, the tension snapping like a guitar string. We both turned to the doorway in shock.
And the sight made me gape, dumbfounded.
Madame Mammon stood there, one leg thrust forward through a slit in a blood red skirt, her hand holding the door wide open. Her head was tilted back, her hair in a bun, her face veiled with a spiderweb-sheer fabric and a little pillbox cap on her head like a stewardess from the 60’s. Her tail snapped behind her as she turned her head, taking in the room with lazy confidence.
“Daaaaarling!” she cried, throwing open her arms and striding into the room like it was her private catwalk. “There you are.”
“Mammon?” I said blankly.
“Oh yes, darling. Oh yes! In the flesh. Let’s look at you. Oh Victor! Cuffed. Hmm. How cute and quaint. Would you mind taking these off him, darling?” Mammon said, turning her hundred watt smile on John.
John stared at her expressionlessly, like the life had been drained utterly from him once more. And when I noticed that, I also noticed that Mister Invincible was sitting up again, the hero meeting Mammon’s grin with his own. “Well hello there! Mammon, was it? Great to meet you! And well, we’d love to, but I’m afraid there are… you know. Circumstances.”
“Indeed,” John said, his voice dull as dishwater as he peered at Mammon. “And… you would be?”
“Me?” Mammon said, pressing a hand to her breast, her smile not slipping an inch. “Why darling. I’m Victor’s lawyer!”
…What?
“Huh?” I managed to say.
A single eyebrow flicked up on John’s forehead. “I beg your pardon?” he said.
“Oh yes, darling. When I heard my dear Victor had been arrested, I was simply distraught. Distraught! And surely, darling, you weren’t thinking of denying my dear Victor legal representation, were you? How rude. How naughty! Why, that sort of thing would open you up to ever so many lawsuits, darling. Ever so many!”
“Oh!,” Rick said. “Ha ha! Well, no. Not at all,” he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders and a grin. “You must be a bit mistaken. We’re just holding him until the police can bring in some proper transport for a villain like him. Reasonable mistake.”
“Why daaaaaarling!” Mammon said, her voice thrumming like a roadster revving up. “Surely you weren’t thinking of having my dear Victor arrested, were you? After he was attacked so openly by a member of your group? Surely you must have read Omnitron’s Law, right? Surely you must have!”
“Omnitron’s?” Rick said, and laughed disarmingly. “Woah, woah there. I’m not much of a lawyer.”
“Oh clearly, darling. Clearly! Because if you were, you’d have remembered that the 1983 precedent with Omnitron versus Blackwing, that it is illegal, darling, terribly illegal for a hero to arrest an individual, even a known villain, and hold him unless he had been in the midst of committing a crime. A common statute, darling. Very easy to overlook, you know.”
“Hey. Hey! No need to bring that kind of legal opinion in here,” Rick said.
“Oh but darling, if not here, where?” Mammon crooned. “If we don’t have laws, then what have we? And they must be applied to the letter, darling. To the absolute letter! Otherwise, wherever would we be? Why darling, we would be in quite the predicament indeed.”
I watched the exchange, mouth hanging open as the pair strove to out ham one another. It was like watching a Shakespearean company argue.
“Well! That’s some impressive precedent. Amazing! Fantastic. Can’t think of a thing to object to. John?” Rick said, turning to the drab grey man.
John blinked slowly. “She is… correct,” he said at last.
“Well! I guess that’s that,” Rick said, rising. “Very sorry for the delay and keeping you here. Hope you’ll forgive me, Magneron. Sometimes I just get a bit too… enthusiastic for my own good when stopping villainy! John?”
I watched as John shuffled forward and unlocked my shackle, his every motion stiff with barley suppressed frustration.
“There we are,” John said, stepping back.
“Yeah. Thanks. And,” I said with a sharp look at him. “I’ll need my gear back.”
“Of course!” Rick laughed. “Wouldn’t think of keeping it. Hey! I know how important a costume is to a hero. Sorry! I meant villain. Haha!”
“Ha ha,” I said expressionlessly as I stood.
“This way, darling,” Mammon said, squeezing in beside me, her heels clicking off the floor like walking punctuation.
“See you soon,” Rick said, his singsong voice putting my teeth on edge. I gave John a murderous look, but all he did was offer me the twitch of a smile. And why shouldn’t he? Sure, I might have slipped his clutches, but he wasn’t just holding a winning hand, he had the whole damn deck.
But then, I mused, glancing back to Mammon, maybe I still had some jokers.
“Surprised to see me, darling?” Mammon asked me as she led me through the Hall of Heroes.
“Honestly? Yes. How-“
“Oh darling, please!” Mammon cried with an errant wave. “How could I do anything else? When those poor girls Dolly and Psyren burst into the chalet, just weeping about what had happened, how could I do anything else? And shame on you, Victor, darling, for making those poor girls cry. For shame!”
“It wasn’t exactly intentional,” I said.
“I know, darling. I know! But nonetheless, you have to be careful, darling. You simply must!”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling the hostile eyes of the various heroes on us as we passed. No doubt word had gotten all around by now as to what happened to Valkyria, and I was everyone’s least favourite guy at the moment. I glanced back at Mammon, who seemed utterly unperturbed by the looks we were getting. “How’d you do that anyway?”
“Do what, darling?” Mammon said innocently.
“All that legal jargon. How’d you know about that?”
Mammon burst into trilling laughter, which made more than a few jittery heroes around us jump and edge away nervously. “Darling, please! I’m a demon. We practically wrote the books on wriggling out of contracts and legal loopholes. Honestly, your lawyers are positively quaint compared to the kinds we have in the seven rings. Oh darling, just quaint!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. There was just something about Mammon that made the stress of the day melt away. And I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised Mammon was intimately familiar with the legal system in the material world. She hadn’t built up a fashion empire by being anyone’s patsy.
“But what did happen in there, Victor?” Mammon asked as we walked down the shining halls. “Did you really-“
“Shht!” I quickly hushed her, glancing at John, who shuffled after us like a grey shadow. “I’ll tell you in the car.”
“You’d better, darling. You had better! I’m positively aquiver, darling. Secrets are such naughty things, darling. Naughty naughty naughty!”
I felt my face heat at her admonishments. But she did leave it until we got out the door and made our way to her car. Unsurprisingly, she’d brought her Cruella de Vil mobile.
“Halt!”
Oh, just fucking perfect.
I turned reluctantly to see Olympia marching across the parking lot, her face taut with fury. Was she here to start something? No. Wait. I could sense my anklets and armbands clutched in her fist. Fucking John. He was really trying to get under my skin here.
I turned to face her, waiting until she was in front of me. I could tell she wanted to punch me. She was positively trembling to do it.
But then, with surprising self-control, she held out my gear and dropped them into my waiting hands.
“This is not over,” she growled at me. “You will pay for what you did to Valkyria.”
I glanced past her and at the front of the Hall of Heroes. More than a few supers were standing there, watching us. If I needed a reminder of how fucked my reputation was right now, there it was.
“Yeah, whatever,” I said, slipping my gear back on. It was tempting to flip them off, but I didn’t have time for that. Instead, I forced myself to turn and open the car’s passenger side door.
“You drive, darling,” Mammon said, slipping past me with a flippant gesture, her long legs carrying her into the baby-seal leather seats. She settled herself, carelessly tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I simply cannot stand driving myself. Cannot stand it! It’s so… peasantly.”
Well, it was the least I could do, I supposed. I slipped around to the front and, after a few minutes figuring out how the damn thing worked, put it into drive and stepped on the gas.
“Now then, darling,” Mammon purred as we roared down the highway. “I believe you have a story to tell, hmm?”
Did I ever. As we drove, I told Mammon all about my meeting with John.
She listened attentively, her lips pursed. When I finished Mammon sighed.
“Well!” she said. “Seems you have quite the problem, darling.”
“Yeah. Looks like it,” I said as I watched the city bleed away to be replaced by thick forest. Going over the whole thing again had gotten my blood up, and I was working really hard at keeping my powers from deconstructing the car around us.
“Do you have any plans, darling?”
“Well, running away sounded appealing.”
Mammon gave me a skeptical look from over her sun glasses. “Really, darling?”
“What?” I said defensively. “I’m a villain. Running away is what we do! At least, the ones who want to show up in a later episode and not get killed by the good guy right away.”
“But darling, really? Surely he’s expecting that.”
Was he? Probably. Despite being a massive tool, John clearly knew how to manipulate everyone around him. No surprise, seeing as how deeply he’d gotten his tentacles into the Heroes of Earth, and who knew what other organizations. With all that said, I still had a few options. Not great options, mind you. Actually, they were pretty shitty ones, but options all the same. And ones that would keep Psyren safe.
And top of that list was getting the hell out of Dodge.
Once I was on the move, I could possibly make a few more plans. I could, though I’d rather not, try and join the Guild of Villainous Foes. Not exactly my first choice, but not even the Heroes of Earth would dare touch me if I were in that. I’d probably have to work under a greater villain, but hell, I sold my pride every day to the highest bidder. I could do it to protect the girls. And ideally it would only be temporary until I could find a way to expose John. It would be tricky, but I’d done harder work.
“I’ll think of something. We’ve got time for a team meeting,” I said.
“Mmm. As you say, darling,” Mammon said, stretching lazily in her seat, firm breasts almost popping out of the scandalously low top.
I was still ruminating on plans, some pretty wild, when we finally pulled up at the chalet. The gate opened with a creak and we were through. Unsurprisingly, Glacia, Dolly and Psyren were all waiting outside. I parked, getting out.
“Hey girls oof!”
I grunted as Dolly and Psyren positively threw themselves at me, nearly slamming me back inside Mammon’s car.
“Victor! Oh my gosh! Oh my fuck, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Dolly cried.
“We were so worried, bossman!” Psyren cried, clinging to the front of my jacket, her eyes throbbing with pink hearts. “We didn’t know what to do! But Glacia thought about Mammon and we… I…”
Glacia cleared her throat audibly, stepping down off the porch with prim professionalism, but I could see by how tightly she clasped her hands together that she wanted to join the other two in squeezing me like a tube of almost-empty toothpaste. “We are most glad to see you return, sir. We had some concerns when we learned what happened…”
“But not for long!” Dolly said fiercely. “Those heroes were lucky they let you go. Otherwise, we were gearing up to give them the worst day of their goddam lives!”
“Yeah!” Psyren said, patting me over. “You hurt, bossman?”
“I’m fine,” I said, unbelievably relieved to see she was safe, unable to keep the smile off my face. “Things just got… a little complicated.”
“Indeed, sir,” Glacia said stiffly, a blue glow around her as the air chilled, popping with frost as her anger began to leak out. “But it would have gotten considerably more complicated had they not released you.”
“Yeah!” Dolly said, letting me go and pumping a fist. “Because if they fuck with you, they better be ready to fuck with the Hot Girl Villains!”
“That’s not going to be our name,” I said with a sigh.
“Aw, that’s a shame,” Psyren said, leaning against me. “I kinda liked that one.”
I felt myself choking up a little at their words. It was… something incredible to know I had a group of villainesses that were willing to take on the world for me. They had even been gearing up for it. My powers could feel all the weapons Dolly had secreted away on herself. The shock stick. A couple pistols hot with plasma. And Psyren’s…
Psyren’s…
I slowly turned towards Psyren, who gave me a curious smile. “What’s up, bossman?”
“Oh. Not much,” I said, smiling at her as I felt up her breast through her top. I gave it a squeeze, Psyren gasping, her lashes fluttering as she arched against me, my fingers rubbing the rings piercing her nipples.
“Mmmm. Oh boss, getting naughty already?” she cooed.
I chuckled. “Sure am.” I glanced over at Dolly. “You still got that shock stick?”
“Sure!” Dolly said, fishing out the weapon from the strap on her thigh and handing it over. “But you know, Victor, that’s gonna be a bit strong for fun times. I got some clamps down in my lab though. Been dying to try them out too! They even work remotely, so you can give me a little spark at any time. And anywhere,” she said with a lewd smirk.
I took the stick. “Nice,” I said, clicking the switch on the handle, a buzz of blue electricity crackling from the tip. Still smiling, I turned towards Psyren.
And jabbed it right into her stomach.
Psyren shrieked, jerking back as twelve hundred volts surged through her. The other girls jumped with surprise.
“Holy fuck!” Dolly gasped, reflexively reaching for her pistol.
“Sir!” Glacia cried, her whole body tense, quivering, icy cold whirling around her, but her face torn and uncertain. “What are you-“
“Watch!” I growled, driving the prod harder against Psyren.
Psyren’s shriek grew garbled, her body twisting, writhing, losing its consistency like she were made of putty. Both Dolly and Glacia gaped as the figure slumped against the hood of Mammon’s car, still twitching, her body resembling a bluish barbie doll, her skin rippling like scales and huge, yellow eyes blinking as her chest heaved, gasping. I grabbed the shapeshifter by the neck and swung her around, slamming her back down on the hood.
“Where is she?” I snarled, raising the shock stick. “Where’s Psyren?”
“H-how…” the shapeshifter gasped, her eyes blinking with horizontal pupils.
“You can look like her, but you can’t mimic the metal she was wearing. Your nipple rings weren’t metal you stupid fuck. Now talk!” I snarled, moving the shock stick an inch from her face, the blue lightning crackling off it, flashing in her eyes. “Or am I going to have to get creative with where I stick this thing?”
Her teeth grit. “I’ll n-never talk!” the shapeshifter gasped.
“Oh really?” I said, stretching out my hand towards some tasteful railing around the stoop, my magnetic powers ripping metal bars out of their mooring cement. I floated them over, binding the shapeshifter tightly in them with a few quick motions. “Well, we’re going to find out, aren’t we?”
“Victor,” Dolly said shakily, staring at the shapeshifter in horror. “I… I had no idea. We got separated during the fight at the mall, and I just… I mean, I assumed…”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” I told her grimly. “We got played. And don’t worry,” I added. “We’ll get Psyren back. And as for you,” I said, grabbing the shapeshifter by the throat and lifting her up. “You are going to help. Or,” I growled, giving her larynx a squeeze, “die trying.”