Authors: Ben Bequer
I wrapped my arms around her waist and pinned her against my chest. Apogee’s breasts pressed into my neck, but her arms were free and my face made for a tempting target. She unleashed her speed and threw blow after blow into my undefended face and head. I tried burying my face into her cleavage to protect myself, but my ears and the back of my head were exposed and she lay into me with terrible efficiency. The crashing of her fists was like rapid-fire sledgehammers pounding against my head. My vision swirled and my mind danced with unconsciousness. I collapsed to my knees, barely managing to keep my grip.
In desperation, I squeezed her torso in my arms, but I used too much force, and felt her spine and rib cage almost pop. Apogee shrieked as if I was killing her, and I softened my grip on her for the moment, the moment’s pause giving me a chance to come to my feet and lift her off the ground. She was wincing in pain from my bear hug, digging at my arms to get free, struggling to get her breath. My hope was that she would tire at some point, but she opened up on me again.
“Calm down, woman!” I yelled, digging my face into her chest again. I squeezed more carefully this time, intending only to deprive her of oxygen. Her fury waned as exhaustion set in. She fired off her last series of punches and grabbed me. Exhausted and short of breath, she clawed at my arms, trying to gain leverage, but there was no escape from my grasp.
“I know your name, Madelyne.” I tried to reason with her. “How would I know that?”
“Damn you!” she yelled, and threw a furious right cross, but the blow didn’t have much force behind it.
“Zundergrub is doing this to you, don’t you understand? I continued, tasting blood in my mouth and strengthening my hold on her to deny her any air. She was in a vice now, an inescapable trap; but still clawed at my face though her gloves kept her nails from hurting me. Apogee pushed against me, her every muscle straining, but nothing would break my hold on her.
“Apogee, don’t you remember anything?”
She pounded the balls of her fists on my shoulders one last time before finally surrendering. Her head hung low in defeat, strands of her hair partially obscuring her face. She was spent from the effort, from lack of oxygen.
I took a chance and released her without warning, holding her as she collapsed on the ground. Apogee came to her knees with her hair obscuring her face, and I took a few steps back in case she decided to attack again.
Apogee was scared, unsure of herself, as if the ground would open up beneath her, and I could only empathize. Who knew what mess Zundergrub had left in her mind? The only saving grace was that I had interrupted the doctor’s ritual, and he was forced to leave the job incomplete.
“Madelyne, do you remember anything?”
She nodded.
“What do you remember?”
“Everything,” she said, and a wave of relief washed over me.
“So why were you going crazy on me?”
Apogee shook her head and said, “I couldn’t help myself.”
“I know everything is a mess right now,” I said, coming closer and kneeling beside her. “We’ll put it all together again, I promise you.”
“I saw you. In Los Angeles, when Pulsewave died. It was like I was there.”
“But you weren’t.”
“I know,” she said. “But I have vivid images of the whole thing. It’s like I was in the middle of the fight. I-I could see Atmosphero charging up, and you shooting the arrow. Blackjack, it’s like I was there.”
“I bet it’s from Zundergrub’s perspective,” I said.
“I don’t know.”
“That cold-blooded sonofabitch implanted that memory in your head.”
“He went farther than that,” she said.
“How so?”
“You don’t want to know,” Apogee said and flashed me a wicked smile.
“Huh?”
“Shut up for a minute,” she said, coming to her knees and closing her eyes in concentration.
I walked away, leaving her to meditate or whatever she was doing. It was probably something Mirage had taught her to defend herself from psychic attacks. I walked to the damaged elevator and hurled the few pieces of shattered stone aside, clearing the way.
There was still the issue of what to do with Zundergrub. While he was protected by Haha, who was unaware of his machinations, the doctor was near invulnerable. Haha possessed a plasma cannon that could rip right through me or Apogee, and wouldn’t hesitate to use it should we make any hostile move. Mr. Haha wouldn’t realize he was protecting a mass-murderer, nor would he probably care. He was single-minded in his devotion to the mission, fashioning himself a knight from King Arthur’s court on a quest for the Holy Grail, or some such nonsense.
Cool Hand was also a problem, and not because we could expect him to stand against us, but more so because he would certainly join in if we were losing against Zundergrub and Mr. Haha. He was, if anything, a master opportunist, and he would only throw his allegiance once the matter was settled.
But what made me worry the most was Apogee herself. I didn’t know if she would be able to fight against Zundergrub. I could probably dismantle Mr. Haha if I had the element of surprise, leaving me and the doctor against each other, but I couldn’t count on Apogee joining me at that point. In fact, I was certain that Zundergrub’s first order of business when he tinkered with her mind the second time, was to implant a command to make Madelyne unable to fight against him. That’s what I would have done.
I looked back at Apogee and wondered what a tangled mess her mind was. I couldn’t take the risk of fighting Zundergrub and Haha without knowing what she would do.
The elevator disc dropped to the bottom level, interrupting my thoughts and behind me Apogee came to her feet and walked over.
“Better?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Makes me wish I had paid attention to all the tricks Mirage was trying to teach me,” Apogee said. “So what do we do now?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you’re thinking of going up there and fighting them-“ she started but I interrupted her.
“I’m not thinking that.”
“Good.”
“You want to ambush them down here when they get down?”
I shook my head.
“Do you even have a plan?”
“Not really.”
“Well, I have one,” she said. “But you’re not going to like it. I say we go up there and act like if nothing happened.”
“You’re right. I don’t like it.”
“Of course you don’t,” Apogee said. “But use your head for a second.”
“Says the woman that tried to remove it forcefully,” I joked, rubbing my chin.
“Be serious,” she said. “If we fight them and win, then what?”
“Well, we can get the rocket ship and get you home safe,” I said.
Madelyne laughed, “If I wanted safe, Blackjack, I would’ve never put on this suit.”
I looked at her suit and smiled.
“It is a pretty nice suit.”
“You have a one-track mind, you know?”
“So…we pretend like nothing happened. What about this,” I pointed to my bruised and beaten face.
“So you’re ugly, that’s not my problem,” she joked. “You say you fell, like twenty times. You’re clumsy, how is that my fault? Besides, this is all a moot point if Nostromo’s already taken them out.”
She stepped into the elevator.
“Are you coming?”
I made her wait for it, but there was never any real doubt that I would follow. As soon as I was inside, the elevator shot up. It was a disconcerting ride, because the elevator only consisted of the ten foot-wide circular platform, and the walls of the shaft were of carved, jagged moonstone, racing by at breakneck speed as we rose up the tower.
“Something wrong?” she asked, noticing my apprehension.
“I was wondering what else Zundergrub did to you.”
“I told you that you didn’t want to know.”
But I really did and though I was prepared to let the matter lie, she filled in the blanks.
“He tried to change some of the things you did.”
I didn’t know if that was all she was going to say, so I watched her silently.
“Like when we were at that motel,” she added. “He altered that so it wasn’t so pleasant.”
I was about to ask, when I realized what was the only thing that cold, depraved bastard could come up with. It also explained the ferocity of Apogee’s confused attacks.
“Yep,” she said.
“And you want to let this guy live another day?”
Madelyne smiled.
“We’ve come this far,” she said, and the door slid open, revealing Nostromo’s inner sanctum, and more importantly a man standing in front of us.
It wasn’t Nostromo, though I wasn’t ready for a fight either way. It was another of the Original Seven, who along with Nostromo and Doctor Retcon had been the first super powered beings in human history.
It was Ed Waters.
* * *
To explain who Ed Waters is, and what he represents, would require a dissertation, but suffice it to say that Ed was one of the Original Seven, probably more powerful than the other six combined. His powers were based on molecule mastery and he could, in essence, transform me into a chair if he so desired.
He also wasn’t as reclusive as the others. With great heroes like Valiant, Nostromo, Global and Apostle, colorful villains like Dr. Retcon and Lady Jade to write stories about, you’d think there was little print space reserved for Ed. But his was the story of a man imbued with great and horrible power, who wanted nothing more than an ordinary life, and the news outlets ate it up.
And in that sense, he reveled in the idea of being super. He loved the life, and the idea of having powers. While the others ranged from truculent (Valiant), to mysterious (Nostromo), to unavailable (Apostle) and finally too evil and dangerous to interview (Dr. Retcon and Lady Jade); the only Original Seven who were widely known were Global, whose whimsical and carefree nature made him a natural for the press, and Ed, who made himself available to every interview possible.
It was ironical, and perhaps hypocritical that what Ed wanted most in the world was to live an unassuming life as an accountant and spend time with his beloved wife, Teresa and their three adopted children. He and the other Seven were never able to conceive for some reason.
I recall the 60 Minutes interview from the late 90s when she was much older, how he held her hand the whole time. He looked at her as if his entire world depended on her looking back. He hadn’t aged, as was the case with the Seven, but time had taken its toll on her, as had disease and a lifetime of smoking. Ed still had the appearance of a man in his late 30s, vibrant and full of life. I read she died recently after a long bout with emphysema, and I wondered about him then. He had his adopted children to keep him busy, now adults and parents on their own accounts, but I imagine his morning sun had somewhat faded, for he had spent every ounce of his soul on her, and now she was gone.
But the man standing in front of me looked no different than he had in the interview I had seen more than a decade ago. His demeanor was pleasant, and the sight of Apogee, a known super heroine made him all the more pleased.
“Hello there,” he said as the elevator platform slid to a stop, with a broad smile across his face. “You, I know. I’ve been up here the last couple of years, and I’m out of touch. But I would know Apogee anywhere.”
“Hello, Mr. Waters,” she said blushing.
His smile was infectious, and calming. Most men would ogle Apogee, unable to escape her obvious beauty as a calling card, but Ed was unbothered by her appearance. As he said in that 60 Minutes interview, “I’ve only got eyes for Teresa.”
He extending his hand towards me, “I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
“I’m Blackjack,” I said, shaking his hand. I expected him to use his powers to dematerialize me, or turn me into a comfy chair, but instead he took my hand and shook it with an affable grin on his face.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Blackjack. I assume you are with our other guests?” He motioned to Cool Hand, Mr. Haha and Dr. Zundergrub who stood in the hallway beyond the elevator. The others stood near a podium, ten feet off the ground, with a large chair sitting atop of it that faced away from me, where the great hero Nostromo sat.
And I have to admit that I almost went at the old man right there. The world became a tunnel vision, and for a moment all I could see was Zundergrub, over a hundred feet away. I suppose that’s what a shark feels like moments before the strike, as the nictating membranes roll over their black eyes and their murderous jaws extend for the kill.
But the anger faded, tempered by the fact that Ed was standing next to me, and he could stop me before I took the first step in anger.
“He’s with them,” Apogee answered, seeing me hesitate. “I am their captive.”
Ed’s brow furrowed, “Oh no. You are a villain, Blackjack?”
Apogee stared at me as I faced Ed like a cornered mouse fends off a hungry cobra. Except Ed was more disappointed than angry.
“I guess so,” I managed.
“Well, you have to be sure, don’t you?”