Psychoworld, p.9
Psychoworld, page 9
part #2 of Tear it Up Series
“Who’s that?” I asked Cheri, who was frowning.
“Lilly says he’s the one,” she replied.
“The one…?”
“Hadrian himself.”
I stared, impressed, having heard conflicting stories on all sides of morality when related to this man. When listening to the tales from bounty worlds, he was the scourge of space, the worst piece of shit to ever sail a ship. Then get out to most of the other worlds, and they looked up to him like a god. The Citadel was their Mount Olympus, this guy their Zeus. I fucking loved his getup—a scarred-over eye offset by shiny red armor and a gold cape. The fucking balls on that guy to go around like that.
Next, I saw a side of the notorious Blue Lady I never could have imagined. She looked somewhere between weeping and laughing, then ran to throw her arms around Hadrian.
“I thought you were dead,” she said.
It took me a moment of watching this back and forth to realize she was his daughter, and then she confirmed it.
“Come, everyone,” Hadrian motioned to the glowing crystals. “Are you ready to see what we’re up against?”
“I’d like to know what the fuck is going on, first of all,” Cheri said, causing others nearby to mumble and nod.
With a laugh, Hadrian said, “There’s a long story for you in that, but the simple version is we thought we were defeated. We made great sacrifices, and now, thanks in large part to Breaker and his brother, Drew, we’ve been making great strides to free the Citadel of this alien menace, to see that the Nihilists and the supervillains they’re working with are removed from the equation.”
“How?” Breaker asked.
“It’s easier if I show you.”
I was about to protest, wanting to ask more questions, when he made some gesture toward the pyramid-shaped item and light shot out, engulfing us.
When it was gone, we weren’t on the Citadel anymore. In fact, we were well above it, I saw through parts of the ground that were translucent. The rest of the ground was metal with metal domes, ships staged with protective shields. Shadows floated in the distance, which I took to be the enemy, although all auras from Hadrian and others I now sensed nearby spoke of confidence. This was the forward base, the point of attack against the Nihilists that had caused so many problems for the Citadel.
“Go for the whiskey,” Lamb was telling Cheri, and I realized they were indicating one of the metal domes that was apparently operating as a bar. A pleasant surprise, to be sure. “It’s made following old Earth instructions. Imported from the planet Inton.”
“No shit?” Cheri nodded, impressed, and nudged Charm. “Don’t worry, girl, we’ll take good care of you.”
Charm laughed, shrugging my way and giving Laurel a look of ‘what can I do?’ before walking off with the rest of them to the ‘bar.’
They walked off, but I turned to Lamb, clearing my throat.
“Yes?” Lamb asked.
“About the… well, we found some items back on Abaddon. Items that have been allowing us to level up, and I hear you—”
“They’re exactly where they need to be,” she cut in.
“Are you sure?”
With a pleasant smile, she nodded. “Enjoy yourselves, Ezra. And welcome to the Citadel.”
I was beaming with pride as she walked off, amazed that they were letting us keep the items we had found, which also meant the upgrades we had received. Possibly future upgrades, too.
Breaker was interacting with others emotionally, embracing someone I took to be either his brother or father, so I figured I would leave them to it and headed for the bar after the ladies. Cheri had taken a seat with Charm and one who had been pointed out to me earlier as Threed, who was apparently on Drew’s team. I nodded to the rest of my team and told them to spread out, get to know the others.
“I’d rather have a drink with you,” Tink said.
“We’ll have plenty of chances for that,” I replied and kissed the back of her hand. “But right now, mingle and see what you can learn from these supers. The sooner we find a place to fit in here, the better.”
“If we haven’t proven ourselves after what we just did…” Erupa scrunched her nose. “We’re fucked.”
I laughed, nodding at that. “Not what I mean, though. We’re good, in with Breaker and them, I’m sure. But we don’t know what sort of role we’ll play here, how this works. Better to be informed.”
“Sure, sure.” The two walked off, Mer in tow, and sat at a table with a few men, as if that was supposed to bother me. It didn’t, though, because I knew they weren’t about to abandon me like that. Just following my orders, I guess.
Since they were putting themselves out there, I needed to do the same. Finding a spot at the bar, I ordered a whiskey and nodded to the two supers standing next to me. One was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, with thick muscles and chocolate brown eyes. He stood a good six inches taller than me, and if ever I had been the jealous type, I suppose I might have been jealous of this guy. The other one was much more of your average type, if not a bit eccentric, with a shaved head and beard, and thick glasses over his wide nose.
“You’re with the brother?” the short one barked over the noise of the small crowd.
“In a sense,” I replied. “We fought together to take down a major arm of Orion Corp., and… heard of Abaddon?”
The guy shook his head. The other looked down his nose at me.
“Ah, never mind, then,” I waved it off. “How about you two?”
“I came from Rocadium,” the short one said. “Name’s Axe, power’s exactly what it sounds like.”
“Your power is that you have an axe?”
He laughed, loud. “Watch and learn.” Holding out both hands, he grunted and axes appeared with a flash of blue light that flowed around them before going into the metal, shining.
“Enough of that in here,” the bartender said, handing over my whiskey.
“Two more for my new friends,” I told him, and he nodded.
“So you know, everything in here is taken care of,” Axe said. “But the gesture’s appreciated.”
“That so?” I laughed, took a much-appreciated sip, and eyed the tall one. “And what’s your deal?”
“Here to fight,” the second man said. Not much of a talker, apparently.
“Ignore Midnight, here,” Axe said, indicating the guy. “He fights with Arthur for a year and now thinks he’s tough shit.”
Midnight grunted. “To be clear, I led one of Arthur’s main armies, ever since he went off after the sacrifice. Now that he’s back, I’m not sure what my role is, exactly.”
“A good one, I’m sure.” Axe eyed me in a way that said he knew this guy was a bit much, but that he was worth sticking around for.
“Wait, no shit?” I lost myself, excitement bubbling over. “The Tier One Arthur, the one who goes around with a group named after old Earther Arthurian legend stuff?”
Midnight nodded, giving me a look that showed he was impressed with my knowledge of it.
“Holy hell, that guy was worth a fortune before he went missing. All the hunters thought he was dead.” I took a moment to calm my breathing. It wasn’t like I was going to go after him anyway, anymore. We were on the same side now, after all. “You’re telling me he’s back?”
“Might even be around here, somewhere,” Midnight replied, eyes narrowing. “How’s it you know so much about this Arthur?”
“And… hunters?” Axe added.
“Right.” I indicated my uniform. “See… Before all of this I was a bounty hunter. Mostly working for the Gold Reapers, passing me jobs for the Orion Corp.”
“Which you since helped to take down,” Axe said. “For clarification purposes.”
I nodded. “Orion Corp, not the Gold Reapers—oh, by Oram, not them. Shit. But, yeah, found out what Orion Corp. has been doing out there and realized we couldn’t let that continue.”
“The Gold Reapers…” Midnight ran his tongue along his upper teeth in thought, then his eyes finally lit up. “We ran into a couple of their hunters not long back, actually. Strong fighters, bastards every one of them.”
“Almost every one,” I corrected, thinking that he was generally right, though. “Some of us learn our lessons.”
“Or so you’d have us believe.”
“Watch it.” I hadn’t meant for the words to come out like such a threat, but when they did, I puffed out my chest, hands in fists. If he wanted to come at me, so be it.
“Hey, now.” Axe stepped between us as a smirk formed on Midnight’s face. “Which of us hasn’t done something wrong? The point is, you weren’t aware of the true situation, and now you’re fighting on the right side. Good for you, man.”
“For how much pay?” Midnight asked, words full of spite.
My anger flared, my powers telling me this guy was full of shit—the type to back down if I tried anything in here. That was enough to get me to not throw a punch. He was trying to rile me up, hoping I would make a scene.
At that moment, I heard Cheri say the word ‘cock’ and glance my way. It pulled me back to the team, to why we were there, and I was thankful for that. Even more so when she said, “his cock grows like three times as hard when he’s watching. And it’s already a damn fine one at that.” That made me blush, but I’d take it.
I turned back to my new friends, pretending not to hear the conversation. Ignoring was harder with the way she was holding her hands up to show my length. When she started to wave over to me, I considered going, but Charm grabbed her hand and pulled it down.
“No pay,” I mumbled in response to Midnight’s question. “We’re here to fight the good fight.”
Midnight grunted.
“You doubt him?” Erupa asked, stepping up to my side, Tink right behind her. While I’d told them to mingle, this guy was starting to bother me and I didn’t mind the help.
“A fucking demon,” Midnight said. “I heard you’d brought one here.”
Apparently, the guy was still addressing me while glaring at Erupa. For her part, she merely smiled.
Tink however, stepped up. “Watch it, or I’ll cave in your fucking nose.”
“Whoa, there,” Axe said, glancing around as if weighing up the room. “No need for that.”
“He’s right.” I hated to admit it. “We’re here to be part of the team, not fight the team.”
Midnight scoffed, but I wasn’t done with him.
“And you,” I added, standing straight as I faced the guy. “You have an attitude problem.”
While Midnight glared, Axe laughed.
“The understatement of a lifetime,” Axe said, then elbowed the taller man. “Thought you two didn’t know each other?”
Midnight’s eyes bored through me, but a smile formed at the edge of his mouth. “Don’t we all have some sort of problem? Maybe I have an attitude problem, but me… I say I have a pest problem. What do we do with pests?”
“Fuck you.” The words slipped out before I could stop myself. But I rolled with it. “I’m being the bigger man here, or was, but now you’re saying you want to exterminate me?”
“Big guy,” Axe said, hand out to calm me, “he was talking about the Nihilists. Weren’t you, Midnight?”
“Not at all,” Midnight replied, squaring up to me.
Erupa leaned against me, running her hand down over my chest. “Try it.”
Midnight’s eyes moved to her, and I saw the hesitation there. But something else caught my attention, Threed saying, “Wait, both of you—yeah, you all just came from Abaddon, right?”
I turned their way, listening as she continued.
“My sister was there,” Threed said. “She wasn’t exactly on the good side of the fence, but still, I’ve kind of been planning a way to bring her over to our side, to get her to come over, to convert to being a superhero someday.”
“That’s sweet,” Cheri said. “If I can come over, anyone can.”
“Right…” Threed said as I held up a hand to stop Midnight when he was about to say something. He frowned, glancing over at the table with Threed, Cheri, and Charm.
Threed leaned forward. “I don’t suppose anyone in your group came across a woman there that went by the name of Plague?”
“Oh, fuck. Yeah, we killed her,” Charm blurted out and the look of horror on Threed’s face made her cringe.
“Oh, fuck,” Cheri said, voicing my exact thoughts. “Fuck.”
I tuned out for a moment there, suddenly not caring that this Midnight guy was being a dick. Did I expect all Citadel supers to act like gentlemen? Of course not.
“Fuck!” The shout came from Threed, followed by her glass shattering against the wall and drawing all of our attention. “FUCK!”
“Threed, I’m…” Charm started, but then Threed took Charm’s glass and threw that, too.
“You’re what?” Threed shouted.
“I’m sorry that happened. None of us knew…”
“I know,” Threed replied. “But that’s part of the problem. Everyone only knew her as the supervillain, not the woman I knew her to be. There was a loving, caring side to her. At least, once. A long time ago, there was.”
“This isn’t good,” I said, taking Erupa’s hand and moving it off my chest. My gut clenched as I tried to imagine what was going on with Threed in that moment, trying to figure out what I could do to calm the situation.
“Control yourselves,” Midnight said to the ladies. “This isn’t your fucking living room.”
When my eyes turned back to him, I hoped he saw the spite flowing from me toward him in that moment.
“And fuck you, too!” Threed said.
Midnight made a lewd gesture as he said, “Crazy bitch.”
Cheri was up and charging past me, going for the super. A woman was there in a flash, but Cheri had moved out of the way and came up under the woman with a punch that threw her back, then she was past her and hitting the man.
Threed was in the fight now as two others attempted to intervene. Chaos broke out everywhere. Cheri was whooping, clearly loving it, and even Charm joined in. No powers being used, at least. But still, this was going against everything I hoped to establish here.
“ENOUGH!” I shouted, pushing myself up onto one of the tables. “Cheri, come on. Really?”
She paused with the rest of them, fist pulled back to punch the large lady. She dropped her fist and grinned my way, only to be punched by the woman. I shook my head as Cheri went back in, biting her opponent’s thigh, but then a group of supers moved in and pulled everyone apart.
“What’s wrong with you?” one of them shouted. “This isn’t the place for brawls. Are you crazy?”
Cheri looked like she was about to lunge for him, but instead turned to Charm and winked, then laughed as they escorted Threed and Cheri to the doors. Charm was close behind.
I glanced back at the others apologetically and followed them to the door. Just outside, Threed had turned back to the bar, her hands outstretched with green smoke rising from them. “Who else wants to talk shit, huh? Who else wants to try to say something about me or my late sister?”
No response came, and I simply glared, not sure what to think of this crazy lady. If she was on Drew’s team, I had a feeling he and I would get along quite well.
Considering the news she had just received about her sister, I couldn’t blame her. Others seemed to be picking up on this as well, or maybe had recognized her for who she was, and let it go.
I followed, glancing back to see Charm look out through the doors and then duck back into the bar.
“This place is fun, huh?” Tink said, hand on my back. Erupa laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh as well, earning myself a frown from Axe as he exited and went past us.
12
We hadn’t gone more than a few paces before Midnight strolled up to me, making me think at first that he was going to cause trouble. His aura of affection, however, spoke a different story.
“That was some show back there,” the man said, grinning.
“I wouldn’t think you would be the type to appreciate it,” I countered, wondering at the shift in his emotions toward me.
He shrugged. “I liked how you handled yourself, how your team works. You wouldn’t make a bad Knight of the Round Table, you know.”
“I know.”
He laughed. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to Arthur. Rumor has it he might be back.”
“Yeah?” I couldn’t hide my excitement at the idea of meeting the legendary super who had taken the moniker of the great king. In that moment, though, worry hit me from Cheri. When I turned to see her eyes dart away, then slowly make their way back, I got what she was thinking.
Midnight was already starting to walk off, saying, “If you’re half the badass they say you are—”
“Actually,” I interrupted, “I’ll have to pass.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s… not for me.” Shit, the idea of being one of the knights sounded cool, but I had my team. Not only that, I realized that being one of Arthur’s boys would deter me from being my own man. No, thank you.
Midnight stared at me, baffled, and then laughed. “You are a strange one, Mr. Psychobitch. Passing up an opportunity like this.”
“If you knew what I already have, you wouldn’t think so.”
I walked over to Cheri and put an arm around her, only then realizing that Hadrian had joined us and was speaking with Tink at that moment. When I joined them, he looked up and gave me a nod.
“I hear there was some bounty hunter problem out there?” Hadrian gestured for me to follow. “Come, tell me about it.” I went, going a few paces and about to talk, when Hadrian continued. “I’m very much aware of Muuaji and what happened.”
“Then what do you want to know?”
“If you can take him.”
I frowned, then laughed. “There was a time when I would’ve said no way, but now? I think so.”
“You think so?” He chuckled. “That might not be enough. But with everything I have planned for you, you’ll get your chance to find out.”
“I have some ideas of my own,” I said, excitedly, keen to prove myself.
