The Games of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga Book 2) (27 page)

“You are truly a great supervillain,” Diabloman said, bowing his head. “One we are all honored to follow.”

“Speak for yourself,” Angel Eyes said.

“I'm thinking of actually demanding a full partnership,” Cindy said.

“He follows, I lead,” Mandy said.

“I'm not a supervillain. I'm more just not arresting you guys.” Amanda clarified. “Which won't happen the next time we meet.”

I smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Nightwalker.”

Diabloman didn't notice. Instead, he just laughed. “What next?”

I looked out onto Falconcrest City, taking in all its breathtaking glory. It was a whole city ripe for the taking. Seeing Ultragoddess’ light move through the air, I pushed aside those thoughts. “I’m not feeling very supervillainy right now. If you won’t tell anyone, I think I’m going down there to take care of any remaining zombies to get this place back on its feet.”

Angel Eyes said, “I won’t tell.”

Cindy and Diabloman laughed.

Mandy was silent.

I worked until the better part of the morning, only stopping when it was clear I was running out of power. My compact with Death had given me massively expanded energy reserves, far more than the Nightwalker ever had, plus the city was a walking negative reservoir but my experience with channeling was limited. The others helped, though, and with the Shadow Seven's help we'd made the city absent several thousand more zombies.

Now the city was freed from its dome prison, hopefully the government would be able to send relief or allow superheroes in. If not, we'd probably be able to cleanse the city ourselves in a week. Falconcrest City had suffered a terrible blow but my city would recover, I guaranteed it.

It helped that I intended to extort the government into sending a massive amount of relief money and, if not, would steal however many billions necessary to get it fixed. The fact the Brotherhood of Infamy was no longer present to the corrupt the city or outright working for me would help.

Angel Eyes, Cindy, and Diabloman went off on their own after I decided to retire with Mandy. Angel Eyes was fascinated at the prospect of being a hero and my suggestion he use the camera equipment at WFCB to address the city and nation. If nothing else, social media would let the world outside know who had saved them. I certainly didn't want them to know it was me and Gabrielle's team was, at present, still a secret.

I hoped I hadn't created a monster.

Mandy was conspicuously silent on the way home, giving one word answers or staring out the window of the Nightmaster's car I'd stolen. I wasn't sure how our marriage would adjust to the fact she was a vampire now, but I was willing to try. Pulling the car to a stop, I opened the door for her to get out and walked beside her to the porch.

“I think we'll focus on finding you blood stores which won't offend your moral sensibilities,” I said, smiling.

“That would be best, yes.” Mandy's voice was cold, colder than I expected.

Entering through the front door with my wife by my side, I was already trying to figure out how to introduce our dogs to their newly changed mother when Mandy grabbed me by the arm.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, looking at her.

Mandy shut the door behind us. Her gaze was empty. “I don't know who you are.”

I stared at her, a sudden sense of overwhelming terror filling my belly. “What?”

“I know your name, I know our past together, and I remember the emotions associated to them. But you are a stranger to me.”

I shook my head. “Don't joke around like this, Mandy.”

Mandy closed her eyes. She then spoke, her voice absent of all emotion, “Such a strange thing, a name. Only two people in her life ever spoken it with that much unreserved affection. Selena Darkchylde and you. I remember feeling so terribly proud of you, willing to do whatever you could to save this city. My sister, her sister, and the city she grew up in. Then I remembered dying at the dragon's hands. The pain, the crunching sensation, a sense I was being picked up by loving hands. Then an emptiness of neurons dying without a spark to guide them.”

“You're back now, though.” I reached over to touch her, only for her to take a step back.

Mandy shook her head. “I was born in the fires of your spell. A moment of agonizing pain followed by immense hunger and strange, alien emotions. She could have prevented my return to existence, forbidden my body from rising from the grave, so strong was her heroic willpower and purity of spirit. Yet, she did not. So great was her desire to protect this city.”

I stared at her in abject horror. “You're not Mandy?”

A sense of cold, terrible dread, went up and down my spine.

Mandy lowered her gaze then looked up to me and I saw the emptiness in her eyes. “No. I am something new.”

“
Soulless
,” Cloak whispered, his voice filled with terrible sadness. “
A husk animated by the Ka and Sheut but absent the Ba. She's missing the part of her soul which makes her, her. Oh God, Gary, I'm sorry
.”

“Shut up! Shut the hell up! Get the hell out! You're lying!” I shouted, screaming at my Cloak from every direction my neck could manage.

Mandy looked to one side. “I cannot feel sympathy for you. I do not feel that emotion. Only pain, pleasure, appetite, and need. Yet, the memories which distinguish this body from the past carry a shade of great feeling. She would not want you to blame yourself, Gary. You did not lead her down this path. If not for you, this world would be destroyed.”

“I should have fucking let them destroy it!” I shouted, falling to my knees and clutching my head.

This couldn't be happening.

I'd fix it.

Somehow.

I'd make another deal with Death.

I'd sell my soul.

I'd sell anybody's soul!

Silence greeted my call into the spirit world.

Not-Mandy as I came to view her, removed our wedding ring, looking at it. “I am enough of her to know what I must do with my life. This city needs a protector and the bloody revenge you have wrecked upon the Brotherhood of Infamy will not be enough to keep the citizenry safe in this land, especially when the people start to return. She was a great heroine as Nighthuntress and I will try and follow in her footsteps.”

“You are not worthy,” I said, looking through the fingers pressed against my face. “What made Mandy a hero was her compassion and love.”

“Yes.” Not-Mandy placed the wedding ring on the ground. “But you act as if she did not know what the risks were. That this is about you. Better than you, she became a superheroine knowing it would perhaps lead to her death. You treated it like a game but to her it was a calling. A chance to rise up above the mundanity of this world and become a protector. It is not an uncommon choice. The firemen, policemen, ambulance drivers, doctors, priests, and soldiers of the world often follow a similar challenge. To be willing to give of yourself. Which she did, both to save this city and save your friend Cindy.”

I held back saying saving Cindy was not worth my wife's death. I wanted to say it but I wasn't going to profane my wife's dying act. “She didn't
have
to sacrifice herself.”

The Not-Mandy's voice softened, to the point of becoming near-identical to my wife's. “But she was willing.”

Tears streamed down my eyes as I heard our dogs growl loudly at Not-Mandy, treating her as a stranger in their home. “You say you can feel the emotions of the past and her memories? We can awaken these emotions in your current ones. You've gone through a traumatic experience. An even more traumatic transformation. Maybe you just need an adjustment period. Further treatments of magic to—”

Not-Mandy shook her head. She then stepped to one side.

I saw a shimmering silver-white figure staring at me from behind her.

It was Mandy's ghost.

“No,” I whispered. “Please no.”

In that moment, I broke.

Mandy's ghost walked over to me and placed her hand on my shoulder, leaned down, and gave my lips one last kiss. “I'm going onto a new life, Gary. The Goddess watches over me and will watch over you to in my absence.”

I placed my hand on her face. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

Mandy smiled and whispered in my ear. “Live.”

And then she was gone.

Later, I would come to wonder if Death had sent that an illusion to bring her servant comfort in a time of great sorrow or whether or not I'd hallucinated the entire thing. A memory I'd conjured in order to deal with the immense amount of grief. I could not bring myself to completely belief it was real, the doubt gnawing at me like rats on a piece of cheese.

But I willed myself to believe.

It was the only way to go on.

The Not-Mandy, Nighthuntress, walked to the window of our house rather than the door. Something about thresh-holds not agreeing with them even when being invited in. Opening it up, she spoke. “I will watch over you, too, Gary Karkofsky. Merciless—”

“Don't call me that,” I snapped.

I wasn't in the mood to play dress-up.

Nighthuntress' voice softened again. “As you wish. I am grateful for the life you have given me and the memories which provide me a greater context for this existence than most vampires ever get to know. I will try and make it count for something. Mandy believed that life and death were part of an eternal wheel which gave rise to on another. Do not be ashamed of who you are or what you have done. Know only that, this is not the end.”

She then disappeared through the window at a speed so fast I couldn't see her vanish.

And I was alone.

The dogs yowled, sensing their mistresses passing.

I went to the window and shut it tightly before locking it.

“No words can express my sympathy, Gary,”
Cloak said, trying to comfort me.
“Know I, too, have suffered loss and will be there if you need me. My...friend.”

I wiped away the tears on my face, pushing down the emotions afflicting me. Blinking rapidly, I took several deep breaths and went to go let the dogs out. They'd probably piddled in the floor but there wasn't much you could do about that during the zombie apocalypse.

“Thank you, Cloak. I mean that. Don't worry, though, I'll be fine.”

“
What
?” Cloak asked, surprised.

I spoke with more resolve than I'd ever had in my entire life. “I am going to
fix this
.”

***

Fear not! Merciless will return in
The Secrets of Supervillainy.
Coming in 2016!

C.T. Phipps is a lifelong student of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. An avid tabletop gamer, he discovered this passion led him to write and turned him into a lifelong geek. He is the author of The Rules of Supervillainy and the Red Room series. C.T. lives in Ashland, Ky with his wife and their four dogs.  You can find out more about him and his work by reading his blog, The United Federation of Charles, (
http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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