by I'm Not Mister Mxypltk, T5, The Eurostar and Chewy Walrus
Chicago:
"Hello, Mr. Smith," said the old woman behind the counter.
"Hello, Matilda," replied the man in front of her, handing her a basket with groceries. "How are Arthur and the kids?"
"Good, thanks for asking, Mr. Smith," said the woman. "Would that be all?"
"And a pack of cigars, please," he said, reaching for his wallet.
"You started smoking, Mr. Smith? That will be ten dollars," she said.
"Not really, Matilda. It's for a friend," he said, handing her the money.
"I'm so glad to hear that. My Arthur smokes three packs every day, Mr. Smith," she said. "Nothing that addictive can be good, don't you think?"
"I think that depends on each person, Matilda," he said as he grabbed the bag of groceries. "See you later."
"Bye, Mr. Smith," the woman said to the man as he opened the door and walked out into the street.
The building on the corner of 5th Street gave the impression of being an old abandoned structure -- as the sign blocking the front door indicated -- and in large part, it was.
Mr. John Smith walked to the back of the building, carrying the bag of groceries in his hands. He pushed the back door open without any problem and walked into the old building and then up the stairs until he reached the thirteenth floor.
Once he was there, he walked to the room marked with a red X, and when he crossed the doorway he stood still for a moment, letting a red light scan his body. When he was recognized, the hidden security lasers stopped aiming at him. He then walked farther into the room to stand in front of an empty wall.
"What are you waiting for?" he said, and a few seconds later the wall made a mechanical sound and opened like a door.
He walked in. Behind the door, everything was different. The broken pieces of furniture were replaced by high-tech equipment, and the empty walls by walls covered with monitors, each one on a different news station from around the world.
The place took up most of the thirteenth floor and part of the fourteenth. It had a high-tech laboratory, a meeting room, eight chambers -- seven of them currently occupied -- a central room (named "monitoring room" because of the monitors on the walls) with doors to all the other rooms on it, and a room sealed by a metal door, stronger than the one on the entrance. This last room had only been seen from the inside by the leader of the group.
In the monitoring room, two members of the group observed a screen labelled Uruguay with recent events playing on it.
The Scorpion brothers:
"Ah... that Animal Man is really something, isn't he?" said the older Scorpion brother, the Blue Scorpion.
His younger brother, the Red Scorpion, answered without taking his eyes from the screen. "Indeed."
"I'm sorry he wasn't present when his friends outnumbered and defeated us back home in Mandelovia," the Blue Scorpion said. "He shall be a great opponent for me in the upcoming conflict."
"Opponent for you?" the Red Scorpion cried, turning to his brother. "What makes you think you will get to fight him?"
"The fact that I'm better suited for a fight with him, perhaps?" the Blue Scorpion said mockingly.
"Who do you suppose I should fight, then?" Red asked.
"I don't know... The woman, perhaps?" Blue answered, still in a burlesque tone.
"That Sonja woman is supposedly dead, you fool," Red said.
"Exactly," Blue replied. "A dead opponent is the only opponent you can take, brother."
Blue made a malicious smile. The expression in Red's face revealed his intense anger.
"You couldn't even take on the little lucky one!" Blue continued. "Even if the luck factor was removed he'd give you a hard time!"
Blue's smile turned into laughter. "Perhaps you'd like to try fighting the cat," Blue said. "It'd take you a lot of effort, but at least you could say you have defeated someone and stop being the family's coward!"
For a second, the Red Scorpion seemed to explode in anger, but a few seconds later, he calmed down. "So I am the coward?" Red asked. "Then why is it that you are the one scared of our boss?"
Blue stopped laughing.
"You think I didn't notice because I never said anything?" Red said, enjoying the look on his brother's face. "You are always extremely uneasy when he's around. And I know you, brother, better than I'd like to, so I know that means that you either fear him... or you want to make him your boyfriend. Of the two, I think the first option is the most embarrassing..."
Blue had suddenly turned very serious. "You don't..." Blue said with an altered tone of voice. "You idiot. You can't feel it, can you? He's much more than he's told us. He's much more than you can imagine. At first I agreed to join him because I wanted to get revenge on the Revolutionaries as much as you and the rest of this group does, but now I'm only staying because I recognize what he is, and I'm afraid to be on the losing side of this. I admit it. You don't because you're too blind to see it."
The Red Scorpion looked disgusted. "I've never been more ashamed to be your brother," Red said as he left the room, without looking at his brother.
Blue sighed. He remembered a minute ago he was joking. He was able to let himself go and interact with his brother the only way he knew, but now more serious matters occupied his mind. His thought were interrupted by a strong presence entering the room.
"Blue," Mr. Smith said. "Where is everyone?"
"They're, uh, in their chambers, sir. My brother just left."
"Tell him to go to the meeting room."
"We're having a meeting?"
"We're having a sudden change of plans..." the mysterious Mr. Smith said, and with that he left the room.
Ma Kalunga:
The dream returned in its full-color glory. Never before had Ma Kalunga imagined the rapture of being the vessel of a being so powerful as the Zveidi.
Ma Kalunga had thought about the recent events, and she had deduced what was really happening. She believed that Zveidi found a lonely, desperate man to whom she had given the powers of darkness.
The man, now powerful beyond his dreams, set out to find more disciples for Zveidi, who waited patiently in her nether region of Hell. He found a similar soul in Ma Kalunga, a person who wanted change, not the stale, gray status quo the world now lived comfortably in.
Sensing her despair when she was attacked by strangers on La Perdita, he reached out, and she was teleported to his side, and they met.
Now, she looked out the window on a beautiful sunset. They were about to return to her lovely island and take back what was hers. She had been born on that island and always did what was best for its people and her faith. The island was her home, provider, and life's work.
No one would take that away from her. Especially not some moronic foreign metas who thought they could just waltz in and take over. This time she was prepared and had some serious power flowing through her via the connection with Zveidi.
Zveidi, the beautiful nether Empress of the Blade.
Together they had forged an alliance that gave Ma Kalunga the Blade of Hin, a sword capable of cutting anything.
In return, Ma Kalunga would lead her people on the island, the beautiful La Perdita, to her temple and convert them to the legions of Zveidi.
"Ma Kalunga, we need you in the meeting room," said a voice she recognized as the one of the leader of the group.
The time for change had come. And she would be its instrument.
Aurochs:
"Immortality. Immortality, immortality, immortality. I did it! Nearly! Only a little more... and I will become immortal!"
But Aurochs knew that he was lying to himself. It wasn't "a little more." It was another task of the kind he hated most.
The mysterious man was straight to the point when he welcomed Aurochs. Sitting on the bed in the room reserved for him, the old mage thought about all the moments after his entry to the colorless apartment.
The man in the shadow was tall, very tall. "Mr. Auguste Bull, I suppose," he said. "Or should I say Aurochs? We are very pleased to have you join our little society. I know you are looking for something, and I have that for you. But I want something in exchange."
"What?" Aurochs was mad. "I have levelled a mountain, buried a group of freaks in Hell, sunken an oil plant and deserted three villages in India! I want my payback. Now!"
The man in the shadow said nothing. He only smiled. And his teeth impossibly shone in the darkness.
With a mellowing tone, but still loud as thunder, he stated, "Uh, no, little wizard. For that, you were awarded my address. To have the secret, you must perform another task for me!"
And Aurochs felt like in his teens, when Billy Horn bullied him out of school. And like then, he lowered his head, whispering a mute, "Okay."
And now Aurochs lay down on the bed, and tears ran on his face. The freaks he sent to Hell were back at their home, revealed the mysterious man. And the task he requested to him would be fighting them. Again.
And he feared it. Fighting. Be on the first line. On the battleground. How had he arrived here?
A voice: "Mr. Bull, you are requested to join our associates in the meeting room!"
Aurochs wiped the tears from his face, and went.
K'tl:
...pleasefreemepleasepleaseletmefreepleasepleaseletmeplease...
After months of having those words inside his head, K'tl had gotten used to them. At first the sound of his "partner" Eduardo Frederico's whining annoyed him, but now he recognized the pain of a tortured soul in those words. He was starting to love the sweet tune of the man's suffering.
"What's that you're saying, Eduardo?" K'tl said out loud. "Please what? Let me free? Is that it? No?"
...please... please... please...
"You were quite happy with our partnership when it first started, Eduardo. What made you change your mind? Was it the fact that I completely took over your body? Did that bother you? I'm sorry, I didn't realize."
...let me free...
"You want me to let you free? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't do that, my friend. You have too much information. I'm afraid that as a consequence of sharing a brain with you, I have inadvertently revealed to you secrets nobody else should know. I can't allow you to be free with that information in your head."
...let me die... let my mind die... let me rest...
"What's that? You want me to let your mind die? Hmm... I suppose I could do that. I'd have this body for myself, and you wouldn't be able to tell anyone what you know about me since you would be, you know, dead. This is a viable option, actually. Okay, Eduardo, answer me the following question..."
...anything... anything...
"What would be the fun in that?"
Silence.
"You can't tell me? No?"
...please...
"Thought so," K'tl said, always keeping his deadly serious expression on his face. "Speaking of thoughts, Eduardo, I just had a funny one. You have my deepest, darkest secrets, right? Well, wouldn't it be fun if I looked inside that little mind of yours for YOUR deepest, darkest secrets? You humans always keep one or two delicious ones lying around. I could use those secrets to torture you to make your stay here more pleasant. Wouldn't that be--?"
"K'tl," a voice coming from the buzzer said. "Stop playing and come to the meeting room."
"Just a--"
"NOW."
"Ah, well. We'll leave it for some other time, Eduardo. I'm sure you'll have time waiting for that time to come."
With that, K'tl stood up and left the room.
Dr. Zachary Knell:
Massive hands deftly moved from instrument to instrument, carefully pressing keys, measuring amounts, and mixing solutions. It had taken Dr. Zachary "Doctor Clone" Knell quite some time to get used to tinkering with his chemistry set again. The vials, beakers, and test tubes were all too small and too fragile for his hands after his accident. For months, Knell had cursed Turner for doing this to him, cursed Cicciotto for robbing him of his business, cursed Walker for undermining him, and cursed Curie for stabbing him in the back.
Now, however, was Knell's turn for revenge.
Within the last few months, since the fall of TriVext Corporation to the infernal Revolutionaries, Knell had joined an alliance that guaranteed that failure was not an option. His employer had made that quite clear, indeed. His new comrades-in-arms -- K'tl, the Scorpion Brothers, and Ma Kalunga -- were all as eager as he to see the fall of the doomed Revolutionaries. And, thanks to their employer, they now had the chance they sought.
Knell had only asked the head of this revenge squad for one thing (other than revenge, obviously): his own laboratory. Here, Knell conditioned himself to once again use the tools that defined his trade and began arduous work for a cure to the ailment that now seized all that he was and all that he had become. Day after day, Knell locked himself in his lab, his sanctuary, trying to find the morsel of peace and fulfillment that came with scientific discovery. He had felt it when he had discovered the metagene. He now yearned to feel it again.
Gently, he picked up a hypodermic needle, smiling uncontrollably as he did so. A long tendril of saliva hung from his slimy tongue in anticipation as he pulled his new solution into the syringe. A rip resounded off the walls as the behemoth pulled a long piece of white material from his lab coat, wrapping it tightly around his left arm, while bringing the syringe close to his main vein.
"Thisss time," he hissed with sadistic pleasure, "it will work..."
He closed his eyes as the needle broke skin and squealed with glee as he pushed his miracle cure into his veins. "Yesss," he whispered, savoring the moment.
There sat, in the corner of his lab, a full-length mirror, or rather, it had been full-length when Knell still stood at his natural height. Even so, Knell limped toward the mirror, smiling a big, toothy grin. His head swam as he opened his eyes and stared at his reflection. For a second, one glorious, triumphant second, Knell was certain that he saw his old self smiling back at him, congratulating him on a job well done.
But when the doctor blinked, he saw only a hideous reptilian demon smiling back at him. "NOOOOOOOO!" the scientist roared, a heavy scaled fist punching straight through the mirror.
"FAILURRRE!" he cried again, bringing his massive tail crashing down onto his chemistry set. The chemicals flew everywhere, dripping off of the floor, the walls, and the ceiling -- corroding everything they touched. Knell ripped his clothes, shredding his lab coat until it was not even fit for use as a rag. Knell then brought a scaly, taloned finger up to his neck, determined to slice his own throat.
"Thisss wasss the lassst ssstraw," he rumbled to himself. "I ssshall never fail again..."
As Knell's finger drew closer to his scale-covered flesh, the small cordless phone on his belt began to ring to the tune of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. In that moment, Knell remembered what his employer had once said: "Failure is not an option."
Slowly, Knell took his finger from his neck and brought it down toward the phone. Gingerly lifting it to his ear, Knell hissed his response. "Yesss?"
"My dear doctor," the voice of his employer said from the other line, "I do believe our window of opportunity has been opened."
With that, the connection severed, leaving a dial tone filling Knell's ear. Hanging up the phone and returning it to his belt, Knell couldn't help smiling. Walking over to a cabinet in the far corner of the lab, he retrieved a new lab coat, placing it over his tattered clothes. Knell's smile broadened as his yellow, soul-piercing eyes gazed around the wreckage that now made up his lab.
He would get a new lab. He would find his cure. But, not today. For today, he was thirsty for revenge.
The meeting room:
Sitting around a table were the Red Scorpion, the Blue Scorpion, Ma Kalunga, Aurochs, and K'tl. At the head seat of the table was Mr. Smith. Dr. Knell was the last to arrive.
"There you go," Smith says, throwing a pack of cigarettes to Knell, who caught them and sat as the leader of the group stood up. "The time has come, my friends," Smith began, his arms open like a politician.
"You mean... we are punissshing the Revolutionariesss?" Knell asked, lighting a cigarette. "Aaaaah..."
"Yes, my friend. After months of keeping you waiting, your wishes will be granted."
"I thought you said they weren't a threat for you," said K'tl.
"And what about the plan we have already set in motion, to put the EPS and the Revolutionaries against each other?" added the Red Scorpion.
"Something has come to my attention that made me decide to take care of this directly," the leader said. "Our plan involving the EPS, while effective, relies on Walker's decision to strike, something that I'm afraid won't happen anytime soon. Walker is a planner, and it might take awhile before he even gets around to beginning a counterstrike."
"What made you change your mind?" asked Ma Kalunga, hoping that a revelation had made Mr. Smith realize his true purpose, being the vessel of the Zveidi.
"I have been informed that someone has been enquiring for your whereabouts, Dr. Knell. Someone knows you are alive," said the leader, turning to the lizard man. "While I was trying to find out more about this annoying situation, the name Velo came up... Marv Velo."
"One of the Revs," Blue Scorpion said excitedly.
"Exactly," the leader continued. "It is perfectly possible that it's someone related to Velo -- or even someone he barely knows -- the one that knows about Knell, but there's also the possibility that the Revolutionaries know something about this group, and that simply can't be. They are not smart enough to stay quiet if they find out about my plan."
"Ssso, we are dessstroying them," Knell said, enjoying the first nicotine rush in months. "I love it."
"Wait, it's just going and destroying them?" Aurochs asked. "Aren't we underestimating them?"
"You haven't been told about the other part of my plan, have you, Aurochs?" asked Smith.
"Other part?" said Aurochs, curious.
"You see, Aurochs, for nearly a year I have been collecting evil from all over the world."
"Evil?"
"Yes. Pure evil. I have the metahuman ability to take it away from other people and use its power as mine. The amount of evil I have gathered in this place by now is considerable. You are not going to attack the Revolutionaries alone. The power of the evil of entire countries will be with you."
"Wait... wait. This is crazy."
"Haven't you read about crime rates lowering recently?"
"Yes... that was you?"
"Yes," Smith answered with a frightening smile. "And in case you haven't deduced it by now, my final goal is to gather all the evil... all of it."