Killing Capes (12 page)

Midas seemed happy to oblige. The Power pulled back for a solid haymaker that would surely decapitate any normal person. Dwight didn’t flinch, though; he was beyond fear. In that last instant, he thought of Linda, of Molly, and of the ant that stares down the hurricane before being annihilated. He defiantly locked eyes with Midas, and waited for the end.

But it never came. An intense rush of air surged around his head. Midas’s fist stopped inches from Dwight’s face. He leaned to the right, looking past the stationary Cape to see Lia limping toward them. Her implant’s light gleamed in the setting sun. Midas was now under her control.

She was bleeding from a nasty gash on her bald head, her mask missing. “My fees just tripled. You never said anything about being thrown off a cliff.” She carried her disheveled wig in her free hand.

Dwight nodded, “We live through this, you can name your price. Do it.”

Lia grinned as she slid between Dwight and the frozen hero, pushing his outstretched arm aside. She held her hands up to Midas and placed her fingers against his temples. Their height difference was substantial; she had to stand on her toes to reach him. “One super lobotomy, coming up.”

Dwight looked on as Midas twitched, his locked limbs holding him stiff. He let out a low whimper, something Dwight would have expected from a suffering animal rather than the city’s greatest hero. Lia’s expression faded as she explored his mind, hunting for the source of his powers. Midas’s body might be free of any weakness, but the hidden depths of his brain were just as vulnerable as anyone else’s.

Linda once told Dwight about the way the empowered tapped into their abilities. It was a mental feat, an understanding that they “could” do something, that allowed them to. This is why the Capes were always training: to discover the full potential of what they could do. Otherwise, without constant practice and study, a superhuman could potentially live out their entire lives without unlocking their talents. Midas was the best not only because he had won some genetic lottery; all the man did with his time was experiment and improve his powers. It made sense that no one could defeat him – that is, unless someone managed to take all of that training away.

Lia suddenly pulled her hands back, drained from the process. She had warned him that this could happen. Blocking someone this powerful from being able to tap into something so secondary, so central of their nature, would be exhausting. Her footing swayed for a second before she started to slip. Dwight caught her in his arms and gently set her down beside Ian. It was for the best, really; neither of them would want to see the next part.

Without Lia’s influence over his muscles, Midas was just regaining control of his body as Dwight returned to confront him. The Cape didn’t seem to have any idea what Lia had done to him. Dwight kept his arms down at his sides. “Come on, tough guy, I think you were about to hit me.”

Midas accepted the invitation. The punch landed across Dwight’s chin. While it stung, it was hardly as jaw-shattering as the previous attempt would have been.

To Midas’s horror, the Referee remained where he stood. The Cape was too stunned to go for another; it was the first time someone who wasn’t an immortal deity withstood a blow from him.

Dwight touched his face, aching but proud. Today, he would topple a god. “My turn, then,” he said, engaging the charged plates of his new knuckles.

His first swing caught Midas directly in his perfect face. The metallic limb unloaded its electric payload into the Cape’s straining body. Dwight pressed his advantage, repeatedly battering the struggling Power with both fists.

Without his abilities, Midas wasn’t even able to handle standing up properly; the weight of his own body was something altogether new to him. It was as if the man was experiencing gravity for the first time. For Dwight, the rush was intoxicating.

After a few quick jabs and a hook to Midas’s torso, Dwight decided to increase the artificial limb’s power output. As the plates connected at the end of his punch, the blast from the electrical system unleashed their charge directly into Midas’s chest. The stink of burning spandex and charred flesh was overpowering.

Midas’s defenses fell instantly as his muscles failed him. He dropped to the ground, sporadically twitching but still breathing. The voltage should have been enough to kill a normal person; it seemed that Lia hadn’t taken all of the Cape’s legendary toughness. Dwight figured he still had about a minute before the effects completely wore off. As satisfying as this was, it was time to finish the job.

Crouching over the fallen Cape, he considered enabling the shot of the Doc’s serum hidden in his prosthetic. A sudden boost of superpowers would definitely give him an edge. Dwight shook the idea; remembering Ellis’s warning about the potentially deadly side effects stopped any further thoughts of using the drug. He wouldn’t need it.

Even now, Midas’s shocked organs were dying. A few more hits from the electrified plates would be enough to send the Cape into fatal cardiac arrest. Dwight thought about what the news agencies would say tomorrow about the “powerless” Referee slaying Midas, their golden savior.

Dwight pulled back his arm, preparing to strike directly at the man’s heart. As he did, Lia’s voice called out behind him. “Dwight, stop!”

Turning back to where he had left her, he found Lia inching along the ground. He checked himself for the familiar feeling of Lia’s mental probes in his mind. Finding none, he waited, ever aware that their window to complete the job was closing.

Dwight kept his fist raised. “We’re running out of time. He’s about to get his powers back!” He prepared to land the killing blow. Midas’s eyes rolled back in his skull as Dwight lifted him off the stone by the collar.

“He’s innocent!” She shouted. Dwight suddenly felt Lia’s presence in his mind, even if she still wasn’t strong enough to do anything there.

“‘Innocent?’ He slept with my wife. Whatever else he did is between him and Wulf.” Something in him wanted to hate this man, to see him destroyed.

“You know that isn’t you. Infidelity aside, he hasn’t done anything.” She slowly pulled herself to her knees.

“What do you mean, ‘hasn’t done anything?’ I got this job from Wulf. If he’s on Wulf’s list, he must have done something wrong, broken the rules of the fucking game.” There were only a few more seconds before Midas’s powers returned, and he could destroy them like insects.

“Did you? Think about it. I’ve been in both of your minds. I know how this works.” She was pleading now, unable to force him to stop.

Dwight tried to remember.

“He hasn’t done anything. He’s been busy running the Guild’s business for months now. He hasn’t done a single thing that would violate Wulf’s stupid game.”

The spasms ceased. Comprehension returned to Midas’s eyes. He hung in Dwight’s grasp, still unable to move his weakened body.

Dwight leaned in close, eye to eye with the recovering Cape. “Tell me, what did you do to piss off Wulf?”

Midas coughed, struggling with the words, “Nothing, I swear. I do everything he says. I’d never betray him.”

Dwight brought his fist down into the rock beside Midas’s skull. It shattered under the strike, shards bouncing harmlessly off his sweating skin. Dwight stood.

“Get up.”

It took him agonizing moments, but Midas rose to his feet. He was hunched over, gripping his chest, and breathing hard. Dwight had only ever seen the Cape in that kind of mess after a major incident with one of the big players in the city. He supposed he could take some measure of pride in the fact that he was now somewhere on that very short list.

He pointed to the tipped RV, “Get this thing off of my friend.” Dwight hoped that Ian’s leg was only pinned, not completely crushed under the vehicle.

Midas did as he was told. Lifting with a single hand, he tipped the heavy camper back onto its wheels. The entire thing rocked from the sudden force righting it. Inside, Dwight heard clattering; he guessed Ian’s computers wouldn’t be usable. He could add it to the ever-growing list of debts to be repaid.

The Cape stared at Dwight, growing more confident as his powers restored themselves. “And now?”

“Now, you leave. I need to have a long conversation with my partners and my boss about what happened here today.” He turned to point back where Bernard’s body had made a rock angel, but didn’t see the huge man where he had fallen.

“Lookin’ fer me?” Bernard called from behind Lia. None of them had time to react as he roughly grabbed the back of her head before slamming it into the side of the RV. The implant shattered against the steel, blood splattering from the blunt force.

“That’s what you get for divin’ in me ‘ead.” He let her go and she limply fell over Ian. He spit on her unconscious body.

“You son of a bitch!” Dwight shouted, already running. He rushed to Lia, but a sharp kick from Bernard knocked him away. He caught himself and sat up, blood boiling, “You set this up. Why in the hell would you do any of this?”

He pointed at Midas, who remained still. “That bastard stole me powers, left me to die. ‘e deserves to be put down more’n the lot of ‘em.”

Midas took a step forward. It was obvious to Dwight that the man’s full strength was back. “He was dangerous. We all voted, and had his powers blocked by the strongest telepaths we could find.”

“You ‘ad no goddamned right!”

Bernard may be many things: an oaf, a sadist, a sarcastic asshole – but Dwight could never see him as a hero. He would have been the walking embodiment of everything that scared Dwight about the Powers.

His confidence and abilities restored, Midas seemed ready for another round; thankfully, his attention wasn’t set on Dwight. “You weren’t going to stop. It was only a matter of time before you did something stupid and got innocent people killed.”

“Since when ‘as it ever been about them, Kyle? When did you ever give a fuck abou’ a single one o’ them?”

Dwight had never heard Midas’s real name. He was somewhat disappointed that it was so normal.

Bernard pointed an accusatory finger at Midas, “You jus’ wanted to show ‘em how strong you are and ‘ow pathetic everyone is compared to you!”

The words did more damage than Dwight’s assault. Midas let his arms drop, his fighting spirit burned out.

Bernard’s anger stung in his eyes, “I was no bloody more dangerous than any o’ you! You took my powers because you wanted to see if you could! I was a fucking
test
!” He took a few steps closer. “You jus’ wanted to see if you could make one o’ us like one o’ them.”

“You’re right,” Midas admitted, “What we did to you was inexcusable. There were worse than you. More reckless, more powerful. We needed to know: if one of us got out of line, could we stop them?” He looked Bernard straight in the eyes, the solemn gaze of a wounded leader, “We didn’t have any other choice.”

They were face-to-face, two titans focused only on each other. “You ‘ad a choice; you could ‘ave voted for anyone else.”

Raising his arms over his head, a piece of twisted metal in his massive grip glinted in the fading afternoon light. Bernard brought down the point with all his strength, aiming for Midas’s scalp. The Cape made no effort to block it. Something about the whole thing made Dwight think back to the look on the Phoenix’s face: the expression of accepting death.

The blade bent against the top of Midas’s unnaturally tough skull, leaving Bernard impotently furious in the face of a god.

“You don’t get to
kill
me for what we did, you monster.” Midas grabbed Bernard’s wrist and twisted the remains of the makeshift knife free. It fell to the ground with a soft clink, covered in Bernard’s own hyper-regenerative blood. The wounds on his hands were already healing as Midas released them.

“I already did. They all know, Kyle.” Bernard took a step back and pointed toward the downed camera lying on its side about twenty feet away. The broadcasting light, despite all of the tossing and tumbling, was still on. The entire event had been sent to every news organization in New Haven. Their secrets – all of them – were now public knowledge.

With that, Midas let loose a single uppercut with all his might. The punch caught Bernard in the sternum and launched him skyward. Had Bernard not already survived a similar blow earlier, Dwight might assume his partner was dead. Bernard flew out of sight over the forest, before landing with an audible crash. The impact was brutal enough to down several trees; he would need some time to fully recover. For now, the well-being of the backstabbing scum was the least of Dwight’s concerns.

With Bernard gone, Dwight hurried to check on Lia and Ian, both still lying in a heap. A growing pool of blood spread beneath Lia’s smooth head. Dwight carefully flipped her over and checked the implant. Exposed wires hung from the ruined casing; the impact with the RV had destroyed the device. Dwight had no way of knowing how deeply it was attached to her brain and whether the damage was more catastrophic than it appeared on the surface.

Ian, on the other hand, seemed mostly okay; the camper had torn into his pants, exposing enough of the leg that Dwight could examine it. From a casual once-over, nothing seemed broken, and he suffered only minor cuts and bruises from Midas’s earth-shattering arrival.

Dwight turned to the Cape. He hadn’t moved from where he had punched Bernard. He looked defeated; this was not the same raging Power who threatened them minutes ago.