Superhero Chapter 10
The words just spill out before I know it. I had just come to the understanding of exactly who Mary was. I had just also figured it out with her standing right there.
There is a look in Fem Fatale's eyes. I can see the sense of despair there.
"I'm coming for her," Fem states.
She seems like a woman with a bone to a pick. I don't know how long Lady Liberty and Fem Fatale have been at odds but it's clear there is tension there from before my time. It was common knowledge in this day and age that every super hero worthwhile had an archnemesis.
Fem isn't understanding the dilemma I'm in here.
"I didn't mean to let what I just slip out the way it did," I explain to her.
I didn't know why Lady Liberty switched bodies but I knew that this was the only thing that seemed to make sense.
"I knew it was something but I just didn't know it was that," she explains, "I want to thank you for your honesty. None-the-less, I am going to Lady Liberty."
"I can't let you do that."
"Because she is your mother?" Fem Fatale states.
I had already said too much. The words just escaped my mouth. I knew Fem Fatale was a friend of my father at one point. She had an affinity towards him but she had something else for Lady Liberty. It was almost like some sort of obsession. I can see it in her eyes.
"She is a housewife, for godsakes," I state, "She is minding her own business."
"She is manipulating Vigor," Fem argues back, "Are you blind to it? Do you really not see it? Lady Liberty never put an end to her quest for world domination. She just found another way to do it. She just got patient. She just started biding her time. Now Vicious Vigor is back and guess who is the puppet master behind it all?"
Fem Fatale's tone is strict and to the point. She makes a point. She makes a lot of sense. So many things didn't make sense from my past. My father was once on a road to redemption but something caused him to snap. Something caused him to turn on his friends, kill the man he loves and disappear. There was only one person who wanted all these things. That person was Lady Liberty. I know that Fem Fatale had a lot of points.
Lady Liberty was dangerous.
Lady Liberty was the cause of so much drama.
But the truth is that Lady Liberty had my brother. And there was no way in hell I was going to let that slide.
"I can't let you attack her. Not yet at least," I state.
Fem Fatale looks at me. She stares at me hard. She is a well-seasoned hero. She's been through it all. I knew she could hear from my tone the way that I said my last sentence. It was a warning. She wanted Lady Liberty dead. It probably made sense with all of the fucked up things Lady Liberty has done in the time frame that she's done it. The truth is however that Lady Liberty couldn't die. Not when my brother was missing.
Her eyes pierce down on me, "You don't know what the Chimera is capable of. She is the ultimate metahuman and her gifts are not natural. There is nothing she won't go to get what she wants. She has to be stopped before we find out exactly what that is."
"She has my brother."
"What?"
"She has my brother..." I state.
I wasn't an idiot. I knew Lady Liberty wasn't innocent in any of this. God knows how many people were dead because of her addiction to my father. Scanman, Materias, and probably many others. All I knew was that this woman had my entire family in a headlock. She had my father under her influence and she was the only one who knew the location of my brother.
I had to protect Lady Liberty. No matter what.
"You have one hour."
Just at that moment as things get more and more tense, someone walks into the room. It's Aaron. Aaron immediately throws his arm around me. He pulls me close. If there ever was a doubt that I was his, those doubts were clear at that one moment.
I watch how he puts his arms around my waist.
"Baby, I've been looking for you everywhere," he states.
Fem Fatale and I look at each other. The awkwardness of the situation is beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. What if Aaron heard what was going on. What if he had arrived just a few minutes earlier when I was discussing with his mother what things were.
"I had to take the opportunity to steal your boyfriend away from you for a minute," Fem states.
"I talk to Fem so much about how great you are," Aaron states.
That's when Aaron holds my hands. It feels so good. It feels so special. I can see this light in his eyes when he looks at me. For so long I've wanted someone to look at me the way that he looked at me. It was almost like I had finally met the man of my dreams and I had this dream situation but under it, all was this big huge scam. It's a scam I needed to fix before it got worse.
Aaron is enjoying this moment but when I look over at Fem Fatale I see her look down at her watch. It's clear she wasn't joking about the hour. She was going to go after Lady Liberty one way or another and I can tell this grace period was the only sympathetic gesture I'd be able to see from her before all hell broke loose.
"I have to go," I spit out of no-where.
Aaron looks confused, "Did I say something wrong?"
He looks worried. I can see it all over his face. I don't have the time to waste to explain to him that it's not him though. Fem Fatale is staring at her watch desperately trying to count down the seconds before she could face her nemesis.
"I can't...I just...I got to GO!"
I get out of there as quick as possible. I feel like Cinderella running away from my prince charming right before the end of a ball. But this was no ball and I was no fairy princess.
This was a race for the future of my little brother.
If Fem Fatale killed Lady Liberty, I'd never see my little brother again.
~
My phone is blowing up with texts from Aaron. I know it's him but I don't even have the time to pick up the call. I've channeled the power of the hawk and I have taken flight through the skies of Metropolis. It's a beautiful night and the puffy clouds separate like baking powder as I soar overhead rising in places where the wind is forced to flow up the sides of the Metropolis hills close to downtown.
Even without the shape of the winds, I am able to move my strong bread muscles and almost feel like a bird as I flap through the air thrusting ahead.
I wish I had the chance to enjoy this. I wish I had the chance to see the beauty in my metahuman power at this moment. I wish I had the power to enjoy my uniqueness. Unfortunately, I never really had the chance to enjoy any of that. Not since I got my power. I can't enjoy myself thrusting through the sky in this remarkable way because I know I have somewhere to go. I know that my little brother's future depends on what happens in this next hour.
I land in my front yard and I'm out of breath. I haven't gotten used to the fact that using my metahuman ability to channel the metaphysical abilities of animals requires so much focus. It requires so much energy. But that doesn't stop me from running up the stairs and into the house at that moment.
"I COOKED THIS MEAL FOR YOU!"
It's arguing. Not really arguing. It's Mary crying. As I walk into the house I see that my father is walking out. He doesn't look at me. He has this completely zoned out look on his face. He's a man who doesn't seem to have interest in much of anything. And when I walk to the table I see Mary is sitting there looking down at this beautiful romantic candlelit meal.
It's been untouched.
"Where's he going?" I ask her.
Usually, I don't get in their relationship. I've never thought that my father was really in love with Mary. I never thought he really cared for her even. Sometimes I wondered what he was doing with her in the first place. They had no chemistry at all. But now all that made sense to me. When I look down at Mary I see a woman who is desperate to keep the attention of a man who isn't in love with her.
"He's going to find something to eat," she states with a swollen look on her face.
It's a slap in the face. I can almost feel her pain at that moment. I almost feel bad for her. How bad could I really feel though? She did this to herself.
None-the-less, I'm not a monster, so that is why I open my mouth and just mutter a soft apology, "I'm sorry."
Tears are flowing out of Mary's eyes. It's a hard time to let her know that her nemesis is on the way to kill her. I know that much. I'm hoping we can just get past the emotion right now if necessary but it seems hard. She's drowning me out with her tears before I know it. It's as though she's going to a funeral or something like that.
"We haven't had sex in months, at the least. Maybe I'm not beautiful as I should be. Maybe I could have been more beautiful. Or more handsome. Or younger. Before we used to have it all the time," she tells me looking down at the untouched meal, "It wasn't making love. I'm not naïve. But a girl can pretend. Can't she? And he used to take out all his frustrations on me. It's OK. I was willing to be that for him. You know?"
Everyone can relate to having feelings for someone who at one point didn't return those feelings for you. That type of emotion is understandable. But I have to call bullshit on Mary. I just had to.
"So because you couldn't make him fall in love with you the old fashioned way, you use your superhuman powers to manipulate yourself into his life?" I ask, "And look at you now. He's about to leave you. Again..."
I shouldn't spit it out the way I do. I should be more careful not to piss her off but there is nothing more annoying to me then someone so miserable. She lived her life for Vicious Vigor. All day she stayed home, raising his kids, cooking, cleaning and being this perfect suburban wife. This woman was possibly one of the most powerful metahumans alive if not THE most powerful and she belittled herself over and over.
It was embarrassing.
"So you know?" she states, "Yes. You know. I can see it."
"You can read minds?" I ask.
"Emotions," she responds, "One of many powers. Which I'm sure if you know about me then you know I have many of those."
"Lady Liberty..."
"Son," is her response.
Just at that moment instead of Mary, there is another woman looking at me. A woman who looks so much like me it's uncanny. I feel this discomfort as I look at this stranger. She smiles at me with this false idea of recognition but that doesn't even bother me. What bothers me is what she does next. What bothers me is that this woman, whoever she is...this CHIMERA of the metahuman race decides to get up and walk towards me as though she is going to embrace me.
As though she is going to fucking hug me.
"Don't ever touch me in your life," I state backing away from her, "Have you lost your fucking mind? You sat in this house for how long knowing I was your motherfucking son and you could care less. I wasn't your concern. Tristan isn't your concern. Your concern is your obsession over a man who would never love you."
"What the hell do you know about love? You're chasing the SON of Materias, the very man who drove your father to insanity."
Just at that moment, she spits. How she knew about my relationship with White Frost was beyond me but it was clear that this was something that was bothering her. Whatever feelings she had towards Materias seemed to be inherited by his son. I can see the anger in her eyes as she even thinks about it.
That's when I can't help but to tell her the truth.
"At least my father loved Materias."
I know it's something that I shouldn't say. I know I should be working on getting my brother but there is so much personal anger that I have. I don't know if I'd ever get the chance to confront this woman in this way so right now I just know that.
I can tell I've said the harshest thing I can say to her at this moment. I've made my point. I've left her speechless on the kitchen table and I've taken my revenge. I've taken my revenge for myself. I've taken my revenge for my brother Tristan. I've taken the revenge for everyone else she used as a pawn to get the affection of a man who never gave a damn about her.
"Did you come here to rub it in?" she asks, changing back into Mary.
"I've come to warn you."
"About?"
"Fem Fatale is coming here."
Mary all of a sudden has a look on her face. She goes from this sad looking emotional wreck to something else. It's scary almost. I can see her eyes change at that moment. There is something going on with her Iris. I see it as she gets up and goes to the kitchen counter. With the bright light of the kitchen, I notice her iris closing and become very narrow slit-like iris. She has pupils that contract to a round point. It's the eyes of a cat. A big cat. It scares me how it flashes at that moment. Almost all metahumans that I've seen look completely human, but something was off about Mary.
Something was unique about her.
Something more animal than human.
"What...what are...you..."
My mouth gets dry when I see her eyes. I watch how she looks back at me. God knows what she did to herself. Whatever sort of stone had turned her into what she had become wasn't natural. It scared the fuck out of me. All of a sudden I feel a heaviness in the room. It's hard to breathe. It's almost like she's stealing the air out of the room with her. I press myself against the wall at that moment. I'm so afraid. What the fuck was this woman?
She ignores my question when she looks out the window, "Fool. You led her here."
"I...I didn't mean to..."
The door opens at that moment. We look to the front of the house. Sure enough Fem Fatale is here. It hasn't been an hour yet. That was a lie for me to lead Fem Fatale right to my house. Here she was in basically armor. I look at her and I see a pistol in one hand and something like a machete in the other. The woman has this look in her eyes.
"There it is..." Fem Fatale states taking a few steps into the room with boots so heavy that they crash underneath her feet.
I notice how she calls Lady Liberty an "It". It's a weird pronoun to use but when I turn to Lady Liberty I can see how it all makes sense. Mary, Lady Liberty, my mother or whatever human figure the Chimera has taken before has disappeared. At first, her ears seem to twist. She has wide-open eyes and mouth ever so agape.
All I can think is...what...the...fuck...
It retreats to the shadows until all I can see are eyes. And then I see something else. Something that seems like a tail. Was this the true appearance of the Chimera?
"What the fuck is that?" I state.
"Your mother," Fem Fatale responds.
The light bulbs in the room start to ignite as though being pummeled by some invisible hammer. I know it's the Chimera that is causing this. A sound comes out from the corner of the room. It's this impressive roaring sound that sends shivers down my spine. I look over at Fem Fatale. She seems alarmed as well. Her eyes glance into the darkness. The only light in the room is coming from the windows. It's enough to see Fem Fatale take a shooting posture.
"Don't," I tell Fem Fatale.
Fem Fatale looks over at me, "I know you're afraid of it, Cam. You don't have to be. My metahuman ability is that I don't miss. Let me do this."
"You promised me an hour. I need to find out where my brother is."
"I don't have a choice."
All of a sudden her voice is like the voice of a hundred others as it echoes towards me across the house like surround sound, " Get rid of her."
"Get rid of her?" I ask.
"She's in your head," Fem Fatale tells me, "Don't listen to her!"
It's at that moment it becomes clear that the Fem Fatale isn't hearing what the Chimera is saying. It becomes clear that the Chimera also has the ability to speak to me directly into my mind. It's a scary thought.
"Get rid of her," the voice repeats, "Or you'll never see Tristan alive again."
This threat was different. It was so different from the threat that she gave me before. Before she just stated that I would never see my little brother. Now she was saying I would never see him alive. My heart is racing. What kind of monster was this?
What kind of mother threatened her own child?
"I don't have a choice," Fem Fatale states.
"Neither do I," is my response.
Just at that moment, I charge at Fem Fatale.
"NO, IT'S GETTING AWAY!" I hear Fem Fatale scream.
The window breaks and the animal vaults out of the window faster than light making an escape. Fem Fatale is unsure of what to shoot at. It's clear.
I have chosen a side. I choose the only side that I can. I charge at her channeling a rhino. I don't think she's ready for it as I break everything in my path trampling the couches and lamps to get to her. I am 160 pounds but I am charging with the strength and force of a 4600-pound Indian rhinoceros.
Fem Fatale rolls out of the way quickly and shoots. I feel the gunshot chafes the side of my shoulder slightly. She's attempting to slow me down.
I charge again.
And again. And again. She continues to roll out of the way. I leap across the room quickly channeling the grasshopper. I land and slap her gun away. She's dangerous with that thing. Way too dangerous. And that's when I channel the baboon. I begin to pound on her hard.
I don't mean to hurt her too much. I just mean to knock her unconscious.
But then something happens. I try to stop but the animal in me won't let me. All of a sudden this need to save my little brother takes over and all I feel is my ID. All I feel is this animal desire to protect my family. And then I see nothing.
I see nothing but black.
~
I'm so confused when I wake up at that moment. There is pain everywhere. There is blood everywhere. At first, I don't know who the blood belongs to but then I see I'm bleeding. I feel so light headed. I wonder where Fem Fatale is at this moment. I'm so afraid. I'm beyond scared. She was nowhere to be found. I'm feeling now that she must have gotten the better of me somehow.
I spit up blood. Yes. She had definitely done a number on me. I notice I'm not alone though. There is a familiar face who runs into the room once I start splitting up blood.
"Motions?" I state.
Mister Motions is in my house. I'm so weak that I can barely see what is happening. I'm in a fucking daze and it feels like I have internal bleeding.
I'm dying.
That's what it feels like. Fuck! I don't remember a single thing either. I blacked out halfway through the fight with Fem Fatale. I just literally started seeing black. I have no idea what happened after that. I just see his face looking at me and seeming to be a little confused at me laying in the room in the way that I am.
"Your father is going to kill you," he states.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Your father wanted to meet up with me. We were going to plan to attack the Host of Heroes. I came in and I just saw you in here. You were fighting someone."
"Fem...where is she? Where is Fem?"
"Don't worry about Fem. You need to leave now before your Dad gets home. You're losing blood. You were shot."
"Oh fuck."
"I called Power Up. He's on his way to come get you. The story is you were robbed. Say it's Vicious Vigor. That's the only one they'll believe is strong enough to have done the damage they did to you."
"Why are you helping me?"
Motions shrugs, "If you get caught, I'm caught too. Not everything is about you. Besides if your dad finds out I let something happen to you...he'll kill me. So you lie to Host and I'll lie to your dad."
~
I don't know how Motions pulls it off but he manages to pull it off. Sure enough, he drags me to some street corner somewhere and a few moments later Power Up comes and gets me. Power Up doesn't stop until we get to the Hall of Heroes.
At the Hall, I'm immediately taken into surgery. I thought I was just shot once but I was wrong. I'm in surgery for hours with the Hosts' personal doctors that they have on staff. I think they have been personally financed by Power Up and his family's money.
If it wasn't for Motions I wasn't sure how I was going to survive what I survived. When I get out of surgery it's hours later and everyone is in the room including Motions.
"You OK?" Ultrasound asks, "We were all worried."
One at a time each of them come over and gives me a hug. When it gets to Motions he gives me an extra squeeze. It's weird that the guy who I distrusted the most happened to now be the only one in the world who really could understand everything that I was going through.
I notice something odd though. It's White Frost. He doesn't hug me. He just stands there on the side of the room. I'm scared to death with how Frost is acting.
"We heard what happened," Power Up states, "We're all just kind of pissed...to say the least. We're a team, Cam. If Vicious Vigor attacks you. He attacks all of us."
I hate the fact that this is being blamed on Vicious Vigor. Truthfully though I didn't have time to argue with Motions about what was happening. If I didn't get help immediately after getting shot so many times I would be dead by now. Motions saved my fucking life and regardless of who was getting the blame right now I was alive. There was already tension between Vigor and the heroes. Things couldn't get much worse.
Maybe that's why I shrug my shoulders and sigh, "He just came after me. Out of nowhere."
"I knew he was back," Ultrasound says.
Power Up shakes his head, "Sunbeam and the others are fully aware. They are going to solve this."
"No, they aren't," White Frost states.
We look across the room and see Aaron. Aaron has a serious face on. The look is something that scares me. I've never seen him so...intense before.
"You OK?" I ask Aaron.
"I almost lost you yesterday. No, I'm not fucking OK."
"We almost lost him," Power Up corrects White Frost, "We are in this together."
"Then will you all stand with me?" White Frost asks, "Because I'm going after Vigor."
"We aren't ready for something like that," Motions interrupts, "I know you're upset right now but have you lost your mind?"
"I'm going after Vigor one way or another," Frost responds, "It's up to you guys to decide if you're down with me or not."
The others look like they are in the mood to think. I think everyone knew that there was no way in hell Sunbeam would agree to our young, inexperienced team of superheroes going after the greatest supervillain that ever lived. Frost was going against his father's wishes right now. That meant a lot. That meant more than anything I've really seen Frost done. The determination in his eyes right now is something amazing, to say the least. I see this drive that I've never seen before. It isn't just that he's pissed. No. This was a lot deeper than that.
"Can I have a moment?" I ask the others, "With Frost."
The hospital room in the Host of Heroes is comfortable enough for all of them. I have no doubt that my team loves me so much that they would have all probably stayed the night if I wanted them too. Hell Power Up and Ultrasound both have blankets that they already brought with them. I realize though that this is getting a little out of hand.
I can't explain to Frost what really happened. This lie about Vicious Vigor fit a convenient narrative, but this narrative was dangerous. And right now it wasn't Vicious Vigor I was worried about.
When the others leave I look over at Frost.
"Come here."
He walks over to me at that moment. I don't hesitate as soon as he gets close to grab him and pull him close to me. I stick my tongue as far down his throat as I can. Our lips start pressing hard against one another.
"What was that for?"
"For being my hero," I tell him, "But I don't need you to be my hero right now..."
"That piece of shit attacked the man I love. I'm not going to sit around and not doing anything about it," Aaron responds.
"Wait...did you just say you love me?"
I don't think Aaron even noticed it. All of a sudden his face gets beat red. He puts his hand on his head. He's shocked and confused by his own words. His reaction is the cutest thing that I could imagine.
"Fuck..."
"You did say it."
"You must have heard something else."
"Admit it," I start tickling him.
He breaks out into laughter without wanting to. I can tell that he's playing hard to get at this moment, but it feels good that I'm able to take that seriousness that he has at that moment and turn it upside down.
I don't know where I get the energy but I throw Aaron underneath me at that moment. He's sitting on the bed and I can feel his dick underneath me. Within a matter of seconds, that long dick of his is hardening. I find myself immediately going down on it. Aaron is shocked when I have his long hard cock in my mouth. I feel it at the back of my throat as I begin to suck it.
I want to take all the stress away from him. I want to take all the tension he has towards my father away. Maybe that would mean I would be able to save his life and the lives of the entire team if they decided to go after my father.
"Damn...yeah...definitely, love you," he states, throwing his head back.
I gag on his dick, tasting the precum in my mouth. I run my tongue up and down the veins of his dick tasting every last inch of his hard, long man meat. He slaps it aggressively across my face until he is so hard that I think he is about to bust. He doesn't spray his cum just yet though. I watch as he picks me up as if I were a child. He drafts me across the room quickly, pushing me hard up onto the corner until my face is in the crevice of the hospital room.
My ass is sticking out and within a matter of seconds, he's ramming that swollen cock inside of me. The clapping noise is loud and violent. You would think we were having a battle in this room as he begins to thrust over and over.
THUMP THUMP THUMP!
There are knocks on the door. It's Ultrasound, "Everything going OK over there."
"just...great..." I'm moaning.
It Ultrasound didn't get the clue from the steady thrusts he must hear it in my voice because he disappears again. Frost isn't amused by me taking the time to respond to Ultrasound because he covers my mouth with his hands. I love it. I don't know how I resolve to sucking his fingers as he is to pummel me. I'm throwing my hips back in unison.
It takes him almost 30 minutes of plowing me before he finally nuts, squeezing onto my hips and letting his dick spray nut in me like a hose in the summertime.
We collapse on the floor before we know it and he's holding me. Whatever tension he had has disappeared.
"Damn, I want every day to be like this," he states, "I've never been so happy as I am with you."
I smile at the thought.
"Everyday can be. Just promise me that we won't go looking for trouble with Vicious Vigor. Let's let your dad handle it."
I couldn't risk my father going up against Frost. It was already too close to home.
"OK..." he gives in.
~
It is a moment of peace when Frost stays with me that night. We talk about our dreams. We talk about our past. We talk for hours until we fall asleep in each other's arms. I'm actually the one holding him when the night is over. Unfortunately, however, I don't wake up in his arms. I wake up to him standing up shirtless. Someone is at the door.
It's Sunbeam.
"Everything OK?" I ask.
Nothing is OK. I watch at that moment as White Frost hits the ground. He hasn't been attacked. No he does it because he is upset. The upset is written all over his face as he breaks out into tears.
I feel so helpless. No matter what animal I've channeled I can't get to White Frost fast enough.
"What's wrong?" I desperately start asking.
"Fem Fatale was killed," Sunbeam states, with tears in his own eyes, "Her body was found...mangled. Almost like she was killed by an animal."
An animal.
Was I that animal?
I had blacked out. I remember how Animous couldn't control his powers that were similar to mine. Was this the issue that had happened to me?
Had I killed the mother of the man I loved?
All of a sudden White Frost stops crying. He gets up and he just silently walks out of the room. I can see that anger has come back. I was wrong when I thought that things couldn't get much worse.
Things had just gotten so much worse.
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