Super Avenged

There was a disturbance. I could hear sirens going off from my place on the floor of my bathroom. I wondered what had gone wrong, what had malfunctioned. Maybe something had burst and soon we would all be drowned or crushed to death from the insane pressure all around us. I was dead anyway. What did it matter how I died?

I heard voices yelling and shots ringing out. I wondered what was going on outside my apartment, but I didn’t have any energy to stand up and go to the door to listen closer. I was perfectly content just lying on the floor of the bathroom. What did it matter to me what went on beyond that door? Everything, good and bad, was blending into one long strand of time. All of it was wasting away, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

Presently, I heard a loud crash, like a door being kicked violently open. A few moments later, there was another crash, only this one was closer and louder. Another crash, but this time I could hear a voice. I couldn’t understand the words but there was a voice. One more crash, and the voice was clear as day.

“Nope, not in there either,” Jimmy said. I moaned and curled my knees to my chest.

“Please,” I whispered to myself, pressing my hands over my ears. His voice had to be a figment of my imagination. “I don’t need your interference, brain.”

There were more crashes, and each time, the voice got louder and clearer. Soon, there was another voice I recognized as Johnny’s. I soon forgot about how much it hurt to hear Jimmy’s voice so close to my death and listened intently to every syllable coming from wherever Jimmy’s voice came from. A few more crashes later, and the voice was closer than it had ever been.

“Dude, she’s got to be in here. Unless she’s somewhere else in the facility,” Jimmy announced. “Kick it down.”

There was a crash, the loudest crash of all, and I heard my apartment door land on the floor with a thud. I gasped and shot up into an upright position. I looked around into the doorway in time to see a most familiar tall, lanky form appear there.

Our eyes met, and we both froze for a millisecond that seemed to last an eternity. I blinked, and the magic of our first sighting of each other evaporated. I burst into tears, feeling like a little girl who’d scraped her knee.

“Shhh,” Jimmy shushed me gently, crouching next to me and wrapping me tightly in his arms. He stroked my hair with one hand as I continued to sob into his chest.

“I told you I would save you,” he whispered in my ear, pressing a kiss to my neck right below my ear.

I wanted to respond. I wanted to tell him how much I had missed him. I wanted to tell him that I loved him. I wanted to kiss him and feel his lips against mine and know that he was really, truly there. But all I could do was sob into his chest and hug him back as tightly as I could. Never before had I felt relief as immense as I did then.

I wouldn’t die. Jimmy wouldn’t allow it. We would be okay.

“Dude—and lady—as touching as this reunion is, I think we should be going. It might not be a good idea to linger...” Johnny said after a few moments. Jimmy nodded and pulled away. He helped me to my feet and grasped my hand. He squeezed it reassuringly as Johnny led the way back out of my apartment and into the domed room.

It was swarming with members of the Navy. All of them were carrying some heavy artillery. Many of them were leading handcuffed scientists towards the docking station, where the submarines docked and unloaded. None of the scientists seemed to be resisting. Hell, I wouldn’t, if I saw all these Navy people with their big guns pointing straight at me.

“C’mon,” Jimmy murmured to me, leading the way towards a door. “Johnny and I have to destroy this robot that your father was creating.”

The door led into the workroom where Revolution was being built. It looked different than I’d last seen it. Its chest plate had been welded on. It had an oddly human face. Only its forehead wasn’t put on. Inside of its head there was an empty cavity where my brain would’ve gone. Because of Jimmy, it would never be filled.

Johnny raised a clenched fist and slammed it right through the robot’s head. It collapsed beneath his strength, obviously not as strong as Christopher had thought. Or maybe Johnny was just stronger than we all thought. Next, he peeled away the chest plate and began to tear fistfuls of wires out. Jimmy’s hand slipped momentarily from mine to help him.

“Revolution!” a pained shriek sounded from a shadowy corner of the room. Jimmy, Johnny, and I looked up to see Christopher stumble towards us. He raised a pistol in our direction, and Jimmy instantly dragged me behind him.

“It was the perfect robot!” Christopher continued, tears pouring down his face. “It would make me famous for something more than that fucking hotel chain! I would be credited for making the most human-like robot ever! I would change the world with that robot! And you’re destroying it!”

He glared from Johnny to Jimmy before his eyes finally fell on me. I saw his finger twitch on the trigger. In my head, I prayed as hard as I could that he wouldn’t hurt Jimmy. I could handle being shot, but I couldn’t survive if Jimmy got shot.

“You!” Christopher screeched, pointing with his other hand at me. “You were the secret to the plan! You were what made the plan possible! I was so close, but you decided to be a little whore and ruin it all!”

“Hey!” Jimmy snapped. Christopher glared around at him. “Don’t call her a whore.”

“No one can tell me what to do! I decide for myself! Not you!” Christopher shrieked. He had finally snapped. His villainous transformation was complete: he had reached insanity. He had the minions, the damsel in distress, and the superhero fighting against him. And we even had a predicament at the end! How fabulous. This was turning out more like a comic book than I thought. Maybe I would write a story...

“My dream is ruined!” Christopher continued. “Now I ruin yours!”

He swung the pistol around to Jimmy. I cried out and started to shove Jimmy out of the way, but someone else appeared out of the shadows.

Andrea leaped out of the shadows, the trusty sidekick in this story. She slammed a metal pipe down onto Christopher’s head. He made an odd whimpering noise before dropping the pistol and slumping to the floor. Andrea looked from her boss back up to us.

“I told you I didn’t think it was right,” she said, her voice breathless.