CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

NO PRISON CAN HOLD ME

         If you had one single chance to get everything you ever wanted, to succeed, to win, what would happen? Would you make it, or would you go down in flames? Which kind of person are you? I used to ask myself that question. Now I don’t have to.

It happened two weeks ago, but there hasn’t been much else to do except think about it.

They chained me up outside, rain running into my eyes. Blackwolf and Damsel were kissing, like idiots. Blackwolf’s mask came off, showing the shock of white hair he usually keeps hidden. They pretty much forgot about me for a while.

It didn’t take much to finish me. Once the Champions were loose again, everything started to crumble. Elphin used her storm powers, and Damsel did something to the ocean so that it surged over the walls, washing everything in warm salt spray. The great dome of my laboratory cracked and broke. The sky opened up, and my much-ballyhooed Ice Age fizzled into a warm tropical rain. The water ran down through the laboratory, the armory, all my experiments, trickling down even into the lowest levels this time, through the subbasements and into the atomic furnaces far below, the secret fires.

It’s a great moment for them. The New Champions are splashing around in the courtyard like giddy ten-year-olds, while I watch, helplessly trying to reach the padlock on my ankle. Why shouldn’t they be happy? After all, it’s their finest hour.

Elphin is aloft, chanting unintelligibly, weapon raised to the storm. And Mister Mystic’s cloak flaps in the wind as he gazes dramatically off, stage left. He even winks at me. His ridiculous top hat finally seems to have found a purpose in keeping the rain out of his eyes. The cyborg hits me in the face, to the amusement of all.

Lily’s gone, or Erica I guess, disappeared into the rain to find her own way home. She didn’t seem any more eager to hang out with the New Champions than I was, and they didn’t go looking for her. I still don’t understand her role in this, whether she’s a hero or a villain, or exactly what. I make a note to ask her.

But that was two weeks ago. Sitting here chained up in a DMA transport I have other things to think about. In about ten minutes, the smoke bombs will go off. I’ll slip the handcuffs and get out the other side of the helicopter and into the uniform I cached there. After that, all I’ll have to do is keep walking across the tarmac. With the briefcase, I might look a little odd, but it could just be somebody’s baggage. That dummy I made out of seat cushions and parachute silk should fool them for just long enough. If not, I’ll have to improvise.

In a few minutes, I’m going to be free again. But that’s just the beginning of my problems. I still have my work to do. There’s still the whole world to deal with.

What does it mean to conquer the world? Is there really a way to do it? Do you have to be the richest one, or the smartest one, or to beat everyone in a fight? Or just know you could? Is it to be invincible?

Does it just mean you get the girl you really wanted? Did CoreFire already conquer the world a long time ago? Did I? Or maybe there is no way to do it. No one could have tried harder than I have. Haven’t I already fought a hundred battles, and lost every one?

Three minutes now. And yes, this could be a bigger problem than I thought. Nontrivial. I see that now. But that’s no reason to stop. No more mistakes this time.

I can see a helicopter parked in front of its hangar, maybe six hundred feet off. That’s what I’ll make for, just slip into the pilot seat and start revving the engines for the dash across the border. It’s even odds I’ll make it. Who built Antitron? Who harnessed the limitless energy of Dimension Zeta? No hero did that; that was groundbreaking. I can beat these people, no question about it. Who moved the Moon? I did.

In a week, I’ll be in Antigua, or Hong Kong, or Des Moines. And from there, I’ll find a way. Something new, nanotech or superstrings or voodoo. I’m still the smartest man in the world. Soon, yes, soon I will be invincible.

When your laboratory explodes, lacing your body with a supercharged elixir, what do you do? You don’t just lie there. You crawl out of the rubble, hideously scarred, and swear vengeance on the world. You keep going. You keep trying to take over the world.