The Science of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga Book 4) Read online

  The Science of Supervillainy

  by

  C. T. Phipps

  Copyright © 2017 by Charles T. Phipps

  Published by

  Amber Cove Publishing

  PO Box 9605

  Chesapeake, VA 23321

  Cover design by Raffaele Marinetti

  Visit his online gallery at http://www.raffaelemarinetti.it/

  Cover lettering by Terry Stewart

  Editing by Valerie Kann

  Book design by Jim Bernheimer

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Visit the author’s website at http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/

  First Publication: April 2017

  Dedication and Acknowledgements

  This book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Kat, to Jim Bernheimer for supporting me throughout creation of this series, to my good friend Michael Gibson, and to all those wonderful fans who made this series possible.

  C.T. Phipps

  .

  Foreword

  Chapter One

  WHERE I TRY TO TAKE DOWN THE EVIL PRESIDENT

  Chapter Two

  WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FINAL BOSS FIGHT

  Chapter Three

  WHERE WE SKIP OVER MY IMPRISONMENT

  Chapter Four

  WHERE WE ESCAPE FROM SURBURBAN HELL

  Chapter Five

  OUR BRILLIANT PLAN TO ATTACK OTHER GARY DIRECTLY

  Chapter Six

  WHERE THINGS GO PEAR-SHAPED (OF COURSE)

  Chapter Seven

  WHERE THE GANG REUNITES LIKE IN RETURN OF THE JEDI

  Chapter Eight

  WHERE MY BRAIN SHUTS DOWN FOR A BIT

  Chapter Nine

  WHERE I MEET MY DAUGHTER FOR THE FIRST TIME

  Chapter Ten

  BEING A FATHER IS MY GREATEST CHANCE FOR VILLAINY YET

  Chapter Eleven

  WHERE I REALIZE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE PROBLEMS TOO

  Chapter Twelve

  WHERE I HAVE A NICE CHAT WITH MY DOPPELGÄNGER

  Chapter Thirteen

  MUSINGS ON THE LOSS OF FRIENDS AND LOVE

  Chapter Fourteen

  WHERE WE HEAD TO CLUB INFERNO

  Chapter Fifteen

  THE STATE OF THE SUPERVILLAIN UNION

  Chapter Sixteen

  WHERE I TRY TO SELL THE BLACK WITCH ON MY NOT-PLAN

  Chapter Seventeen

  DRAMATIC ENTRANCES MAKE FOR GOOD FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  Chapter Eighteen

  WHERE OTHER GARY CROSSES THE MORAL EVENT HORIZON

  Chapter Nineteen

  A QUIET MOMENT BEFORE WE GO TO WAR

  Chapter Twenty

  WHERE EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL (AGAIN)

  Chapter Twenty-One

  WHERE I FACE THE ONE DECENT PERSON IN THE MERCIFUL REGIME

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  THE FINAL SHOWDOWN BETWEEN ME, MYSELF, AND I

  Epilogue

  An Excerpt from Agent G: Infiltrator by C. T. Phipps – On Sale Now

  Chapter One

  Agent G: Infiltrator

  Chapter Two

  An Excerpt from Villains Rule by M. K. Gibson - On Sale Now

  Prologue

  Prologue pt. 2 - Electric Boogaloo

  Chapter One

  Where I Introduce Myself

  Chapter Two

  Where I Discuss Fantastical Beasts and How to Feed Them

  About the Author

  Foreword

  The Secrets of Supervillainy was a bit of an experiment where I got to investigate how Gary dealt with events challenging the bedrocks of his personality. Would he ever fall for someone as deeply as he fell for Mandy? Answer: no. Would he ever become a good guy? Answer: no. Would Gary ever be able to move on beyond a dead Mandy? Answer: nope. The nature of deconstruction, though, is such that you should be willing to put your toys back into their box after you’re done with them. You should never destroy something beyond repair.

  In this case, I admit, The Secrets of Supervillainy had some flaws. I didn’t quite get where I wanted to go with the climax because I kept having to defer it. Why? Because I wasn’t done with the characters yet. President Omega and Other Gary proved to be wily foes, so I wanted to make sure they got the attention they were due. That, ironically, meant the book ended on a pre-climax.

  Either way, I decided this book would reconstruct Gary’s fundamentals. Which means that it’s getting back to some old-school supervillainy action. What does it mean to be a supervillain in a world where good and evil are clearly defined? Who arbitrates who is good and who is bad? Are there any shades of gray in a world of four-color superheroism? What is justified evil in the name of the greater good, and does that mean it’s not evil? Also, punching President Omega and Other Guy in proper Adam West fashion.

  We’ll also get more insight into some characters whom I haven’t been able to get into quite as much as I’ve wanted to. One of the benefits of having such a large and fascinating cast is that I get to cover many more stories than I expect; however, some characters don’t get explored as much. This book covers some of my favorite neglected characters.

  Some people have asked me whether this is going to be the last of the Supervillainy Saga books. Not a chance. It is, however, going to wrap up the existing plot threads and definitively answer who our protagonist is. Still, comic book worlds are a playground of infinite potential. Honestly, getting into Gary’s headspace is something that never gets old.

  I hope you guys enjoy.

  Chapter One

  WHERE I TRY TO TAKE DOWN THE EVIL PRESIDENT

  The air above me was full of more blue, red, and white energy blasts than the G.I. Joe cartoon from the eighties. I was in the middle of a long supercrete hallway behind the body of a giant Exterminator-robot’s torso as the plastisteel-armored soldiers of President Omega advanced on my little group.

  “Remind me, Cindy,” I said, shooting bullets of hellfire over the edge of the robot. “Why are we here again?”

  Cindy Wakowski, a.k.a. Red Riding Hood, my number one henchwench, was wearing a bulletproof, magically-enhanced, sexy Halloween costume of her namesake. She was firing a plastic toy gun that somehow shot out real blasts of energy.

  Cindy blasted two of the Omega troopers in the chest. “Well, if I remember correctly, Charles Omega, the forty-fifth president of the United States, is a time-traveling Nazi. He has it in for you because you lead the John Connor-esque resistance in the future. Also, you stole a lot of money from him. He’s teamed up with Other Gary, your alternate self from a destroyed universe like the sixties Nightwalker TV show. We’re caught in a time loop where President Omega blows up the world with his ICBMs full of nanites and Other Gary harvests the necromantic energy created. Other Gary then turns back the clock to do it again. He’s done it twice.”

  I stared at her. “Uh-huh.”

  “You knew this,” Cindy said, frowning at me.

  “I was just hoping I’d gone insane,” I muttered. “How much time do we have until the end of the world?”

  “THIS WORLD WILL END IN T-MINUS TWELVE MINUTES AND EIGHT SECONDS,” a female voice intoned over the hall’s loudspeakers.

  “Thank you!” I called up to the speakers.

  “YOU’RE WELCOME.”

  “I will never look at Spaceballs the same way again,” I sai
d. “WHERE THE HELL IS OUR AIR SUPPORT?”

  “We’re underground!” Cindy snapped at me.

  That was when a glowing Ultra-force nimbus zipped over our heads and blasted the soldiers. The nimbus was surrounding the beautiful Afro-Latina Gabrielle Anders, a.k.a Ultragoddess. She was wearing a gold and white costume—a short skirt over a pair of bicycle shorts, because well, she flew, and you don’t want people looking up your skirt while you’re saving them.

  Ultragoddess was the daughter of the late Ultragod, world’s greatest superhero, and she was my ex-fiancée, if you could believe it. She was also our big gun and about the only reason we’d made it this far through the near-endless waves of 29th-century technology President Omega had fortified his bunker with.

  “Clear!” Ultragoddess shouted.

  Cindy and I stood up before looking back at the small group of superheroes and villains we’d gathered to join us in fighting President Omega’s doomsday plot. There was the Shadow Seven—technically, five since Gabrielle and I were members—and what few members of my gang were left. The Shadow Seven consisted of serpent-themed knight General Venom, speedster Bronze Medalist, the too-sexy-for-Halloween Black Witch, the Human Tank, and the Red Schoolgirl, who was a magic katana-wielding girl out of an anime. On my gang’s side, there was Diabloman, a red-suit-wearing demon-themed luchador, struggling as he ripped the arms of a combat robot and Nightgirl. Nightgirl was the deludedly heroic Amanda Douglas. She had a cloak like mine but with a different power set. Amanda also used hers for “good,” which was just strange to me.

  Behind them were the two members of my family I was dragging along because leaving them outside was even worse than taking them into President Omega’s lair. There was my niece Lisa, a pink-haired teenage girl who had the superpower of creating small sparkling explosions. I called her Fireworks, even though I was determined to keep her from the superhuman life.

  My sister, Kerri, was keeping her head down even as a small cadre of ghosts from World War II were shooting up the place around her. Ghosts liked my sister, almost as much as they hated me. She also didn’t want a codename. I’d equipped both in stolen laser-proof Foundation for World Harmony bodysuits, but still worried to death about them being injured and killed. Both had taken out a substantial chunk of our enemies, which was a benefit to go along with being able to watch over them.

  “You’ve assembled quite an army here,” Cloak, my magical costume, said. “Perhaps enough to stop President Omega’s plan.”

  “Yeah,” I said, without confidence. “Except we’ve failed two times before.”

  Two times we’d tried this and ended with President Omega killing most of humanity. There were two centuries of misery remembered only by my wife Mandy. The woman I loved more than anyone else on Earth. A woman I’d already lost once before, only to lose her again when I’d brought her back from the dead with necromancy I’d botched. Mandy was an ensouled vampire now, restored to her former self as a bribe by Other Gary. It was the reason I was going to kill him quickly if I ever saw him. It was the least I could do after all the shit he’d pulled.

  “I wouldn’t trust her,” Cloak said. “Vampires are wily creatures.”

  “She’s my wife,” I insisted. “No matter how much time has passed between us.”

  “Is she?” Cloak asked.

  That was when I advanced with my little army around the corner only to find myself in a corridor filled with corpses. Dozens of them, in fact. There were DARPA scientists, Marines, U.S. Army soldiers, and more of Omega’s Darklight troopers. The last had been eviscerated with shadow magic and their blood drained from their bodies. I could tell because their organs were spread all out over the walls but very little blood was present.

  Mandy was standing in the middle of the carnage. She was a beautiful Eurasian woman with long black hair down to her shoulders, a thick black leather coat, and a pleather bodysuit that kind of made her look like she was cosplaying as a video game character. Mandy was soaked in the gore surrounding her, leaving little doubt as to who murdered these people. Did I mention that, pre-vampirism, Mandy had never hurt anyone?

  “Goddammit,” I muttered. “I hate when reality disagrees with me.”

  “And yet it happens so often,” Cloak muttered.

  “The U.S. troopers here were killed trying to stop President Omega’s nano-missles,” Mandy said, looking around her. “I avenged them.”

  “That’s kind of good,” Cindy said, cheerfully ignoring the bloodshed. “What about the scientists?”

  “Oh, those guys I killed,” Mandy said. “They’re the people who built this nano-plague monstrosity.”

  Yeah, Mandy was a bit different. More vengeful. Darker. At least she only killed the wicked, for now.

  “Are they going to rise from the dead as vampires?” Cindy asked.

  “No,” Mandy said. “I need to share my blood with them as they’re dying.”

  “Ah, Vampire: The Masquerade rules,” Cindy said.

  “Or Dracula,” I pointed out. “The novel, not the vampire.”

  “I’m just saying we could use a small army of mind-controlled undead cannon fodder,” Cindy said.

  “No,” Mandy said.

  “But—” Cindy started to say.

  “No,” Mandy said, with finality.

  “Right, the soul thing,” Cindy said. “I’m glad you have it back, but it’s very inconvenient when we’re trying to prevent a global genocide.”

  “She wouldn’t care if she didn’t have a soul,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Cindy scrunched up her brow. “Well, maybe if we—”

  “Stop it, please,” Mandy said. “I’d forgotten how much of a pain in the ass you two are when I have morals.”

  “We should perhaps focus on the ten minutes we have left until doomsday,” Cloak said.

  “Right,” I muttered, trying not to look at my blood-splattered vampire wife. “Have you seen Gabrielle? We kind of need to keep track of our big gun.”

  “She zipped past me,” Mandy said, sticking her right thumb over her shoulder. “This is personal for her.”

  “Other Gary killing her father will do that,” Cindy said, pulling out a surgical mask from her picnic basket and putting it over her face. “Can we do something about all the corpses here because this isn’t exactly sanitary?”

  “We have bigger concerns than—” Mandy started to say.

  “This is awesome!” Lisa said, coming up behind me and looking at the abattoir in front of me. My teenage niece’s eyes were as big as plates.

  Kerri covered her eyes and tried to cover Lisa’s, which didn’t work out so well. The Shadow Seven stayed behind even as they fought a counterattack by President Omega’s men. The United States military was firmly against “crazy Nazis from the future,” presidents or not, but Omega had an endless supply of clones and alien mercs to fill in the holes his brainwashing methods couldn’t. I admit, though—I was getting sick of killing people to get to my opponents, and that wasn’t something I’d ever expected to happen. I was kind of a psychopath.

  “More like a sociopath,” Cloak corrected. “They tend to have a certain code. A terrible nonsensical one, but a code nonetheless.”

  “Thanks,” I thought back before turning to my niece. “You’re too young to see this kind of stuff.”

  “It’s just like GoreFest V!” Lisa exclaimed, showing that my supervillain tendencies might be genetic. “I mean, that was all faked, but this is awesome. The smell could be better, perhaps, but—”

  “EXCUSE ME, MERCILESS?” the female voice on the intercom said. “YOU HAVE ROUGHLY EIGHT MINUTES AND TWENTY SECONDS LEFT UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD. YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GET TO STOPPING THAT.”

  I looked up at the intercom. “You’re an awfully helpful A.I.”

  “I’M NOT AN A.I. I’M PRESIDENT OMEGA’S ONLY LIVING SECRETARY. HE HAS ME LOCKED IN A ROOM DOING THESE ANNOUNCEMENTS.”

  I blinked. “Oh, well, then thank you. I don’t suppose you could tell me w
here the President or Other Gary is.”

  “SORRY, I’M KIND OF LOCKED UP HERE. I’M ROOTING FOR YOU, THOUGH, MERCILESS. MY SON PLAYS WITH YOUR ACTION FIGURE.”

  I paused. “I better be getting a piece of that. I swear, you can’t trust these toy companies. They’re all criminals.”

  Moments later, Diabloman jogged up from the other side of the hallway. The older supervillain looked winded, and I had to wonder if there was something wrong with him. Well, more wrong with him. He’d been one of the most famous supervillains of all time in the eighties, but time hadn’t been good to him. The black magic tattoos that gave him his powers were slowly killing him, and despite being given the best treatment stolen money could buy, he wasn’t looking so hot. Still, of all my henchmen, including Cindy, I thought of him as the most loyal.

  Diabloman huffed and puffed before catching his breath. “I have found the president.”

  “Thank God,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. “How did you get ahead of us? Where is he?”

  “Magic,” Diabloman said, giving the ‘ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer’ response I deserved. “As for where he is, he is in the missile silo command center. It is buried underneath hundreds of layers of magnetic shielding, mystical wards, and reinforced duratanium steel.”

  I stared at him. “Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

  “This is Other Gary’s influence. Usually, there’d just be just one easily surmountable defense which the villain is certain will defend against all attackers. It’s only people like you who think of layers upon layers of redundancies with their evil plans,” Mandy muttered. Shadows clung to her and she seemed to be not entirely of this earth anymore. I didn’t know if it was a result of her being an ensouled vampire or an after-effect of the time loop she’d been caught in.

  “Oh, this is my fault now!?” I snapped. I was still a little defensive about the fact that my doppelgänger was destroying the world repeatedly. Oh, and that he’d murdered the greatest superhero who ever lived.

  “Well, it kind of is your fault,” Cindy said, looking over her shoulder. “I mean, he is you.”