“I didn’kill anybody, Syndi. Just hit em with the F*O*O*J’s own knockout gas, that’s all—they’ll be fine!”
“Thank God, Kareem! I told them, I told them, I said you’d never—but why—”
“I had to put em outta commission until I could get here—the stakes are too high to risk them trying to stop us—”
“But what were you trying to do? Take out Menton? Because I just did that!”
“That’s who that is? For real? Shit, couldn’t tell when you got him all youed up like that. Kot-tam, I knew it! I knew it! Yo, ’Tastic, didn’I say?”
“Word.”
“Syndi! Is Menton gonna die?”
“No, I don’t think so—not if we get him to a doctor…”
“How do you know he’s not dying?”
“I’d know—if I want to, I can feel what they feel when they’re HEATed—but he’s out cold…I should let him die—”
“No, keep him alive! We need him to testify! We need the whole truth out on this!”
“Kareem, does that mean it’s all over? I mean, I captured him, right? So now he can stand trial for Hawk King’s murder, Asteroid Zed—”
“No, Syndi—Menton wasn’t behind any of this—well, maybe Zenith, but—”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Kareem? You’re still fixated on Eva? Eva’s not Menton! This is Menton! And she’s not Sarah Bellum, either! Kareem, listen to me: You’ve been under a lot of stress! You’re not seeing things as they really are. You need help! You need therapy!”
“Shut up, Syndi! I know Doctor Brain’s clean!”
“Whu-what? But what about everything you told me at the theater?”
“Yeah, I had my suspicions at one point, but—”
~~Chip Monk’s grabbing Kareem by the arm…
“X-Man, damnation, we’ve got to move—”
~~Can’t let Kareem leave!
“But Kareem, you told me yourself, this elaborate conspiracy theory about how Eva had—”
“I just told you all that cuz I knew you’d sell me out to those freaks the second you got back to the Squirrel Tree!”
“What? You…you used me? Why? For revenge?”
“For a diversion!”
“So when exactly did you figure out this massive conspiracy, hm? And when were you planning to let me in on it?”
“It all clicked when you said who your mother was—everything fell together: Festus, Asteroid Zed, Menton—”
“That doesn’t make any sense—”
“Who’s the detective here? And besides, the proof is in the kot-tam pudding-pops! I’m tryin to save the planet here!”
“Always gotta be the one saving the planet, Kareem! How could you—just use me like that?”
“Even-Steven!”
“Oh that’s mature!”
~~Dark Fantastic stomps his boot…
“Brother X!”
“Look, I’m not gonna argue with you, Syndi! How long can you keep Menton youed up?”
“I don’know—hours?”
“Good! Get him and your mom outta here, and evacuate the building—”
“Why, what’re you gonna do?”
“We’re gonna blow this entire dome if we have to! Chip, ’Tastic—split up—stay off the comms except for emergency! Find a way to get up to that dimensional research lab!”
~~And now they’re all gone, and I’m alone…
~~Muzzer…
Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Combat
I switched cameras, clicking through until I could find one of the three invaders.
I spotted Kareem, covered in an Xoskeleton, smashing through a window and crawling out onto the exterior of the building.
I clicked again, finding a dozen camera angles on the outside of the dome from which to choose. And on Dome Camera Ext. 11, I spotted Kareem.
Backlit by the twinkling skyline, he was climbing up the dome with his clawed shadow-gloves, his shadow-cables keeping him from plummeting 150 stories to his death.
But above the whipping wind, I could hear the whine growing until it was like a band saw chewing into fresh pine. Kareem looked up—
“Okay, asshole!” shouted the Brotherfly. “Now you an me are gonna finish it for real!”
André opened his mouth wider than any human mouth should be able to and disgorged a steaming jet-spew of some type of corrosive, digestive juice onto Kareem. Kareem screamed, wiping at his exposed flesh, then reformatted his Xoskeleton to seal itself completely—even over his eyes. With Kareem stuck blind on the curve of the dome, André flew closer, kicking and kicking and kicking into Kareem’s shadow-armor until Kareem was swinging on his tow cables from the impacts, his body and legs whipping side to side. Then one of his feet went right into a camera, and the hexagon went null blue.
Flipping and clicking wildly to find another POV, I hit something that brought onscreen the phrase TACHYON TOWER—UPPER DECK CAMERAS—SECURITY OVERRIDE—ACTIVATED, and then I found myself witnessing an interior shot of Chip Monk and the Flying Squirrel smashing each other into the walls and across the chamber in a hurricane of weaponry and martial arts. In the brief moments when each man stopped to circle his opponent, they hurled fragments of cruelty at each other, horrible claims about disloyalty and hatred and paranoia.
The Flying Squirrel: “So, you’re mixed up with that shine, now? He’s doing for you what I wouldn’t? Wouldn’t Zenith be jealous?”
Chip Monk: “Zenith? The real hero that you murdered, Festus? Not that you’d do it yourself, that’d require you getting your hands dirty! You had your marionette Menton murder him for you!”
The Flying Squirrel: “How dare you question me! Me!”
The two men leapt, clashed, and the Squirrel fell onto his protégé. There was a loud crunch, and then Festus stumbled up backward, gasping, holding his hands in front of him as if to push away the sight of the motionless, costumed body on the ground.
Exactly at that moment, the exterior camera started working again.
André was still pummeling Kareem, but the X-Man wasn’t even trying to fight back. Instead his Xoskeleton was growing something like a fiddler crab’s oversized arm, a massive drill-like tool that chewed a hole through the dome wall until Kareem retracted his device and slipped through the gap.
Using the security override, I dialed up an interior camera view just as André followed Kareem inside the chamber, only to be smashed across the room by what looked like a massive black flyswatter. André careened off equipment, hit the wall, and landed on his side.
Given the
