Supers Wear Spandex *third book to Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 8 - Loyalties are a Liability

"I have no more battles left to fight. My nemesis is gone. All that's left is to save the only girl who ever had faith in me. Please."

~ Anakin McPhail (Black Knight)

Clark Rogers was sitting in the office of his old boss with a satisfied smile. His new boss was much better, paid well too.

It wasn't like he absolutely needed the money. His parents were lawyers and his trust fund would make even Steve Jobs jealous. To him the job was more about freedom and having fun. How many people had the opportunity and money to become a real life gun for hire?

The summer hunting trips with dad made Clark a good shot, and one day he decided that he could be doing so much more with his life than just trying to be the most popular guy at school. High school didn't last forever, but your reputation did. What better reputation to have than one that let you be feared even by the most heroic of heroes? It was awesome to face down the strongest and know that they weren't as confident as they played.

The job perks also included information. He was told the identities of Kingdom City's favorite dueling super couple. Oh, it was so satisfying to see poor little nerdy Ross Gustin pining after his arch nemesis, knowing that one day they'd have to find out about each other.

But, as of the mass super villain break out, there was no school. No school meant working. Working for X could entail much, Clark soon learned.

Mostly X seemed concerned with waiting out the citywide shutdown. His spies were getting close to city hall, so close that the citywide mandatory curfew was almost shut down. In no time the small businesses and schools would open back up, giving The Black Tiger gang opportunity to deal out The Pill secretly under everyone's noses. Not so long after that the entire city would be at X's beck and call.

Mischief was promised a bit of control as well. He would be given connections in the underground criminal world he didn't even know existed. He would be able to do anything he wanted.

All he had to do was endure the days waiting on X. Sure, he seemed like he had lost a few screws sometimes, but it got normal after a while. If anything the really crazy one was April Watson.

Like most teens in the city, Clark knew April as White Knight's damsel. She even went to his high school years before. A burn mark in the girl's restroom that was said to come from one of Black Knight's death weapons aimed at White Knight, who was trying to save April Watson, and it was framed with hearts all around it from admires of White Knight.

She seemed so different from the girl on the news, always in need of a hero. Now she seemed a bit in the clouds, like she wasn't fully aware of what was going on around her. But X must've had some use for her if she was still around after the breakout. Maybe X really did love her (or maybe she was just the entertainment).

"Do you ever just wonder how it feels to have absolute power over another human being? Like you could make them do anything?"

Clark avoided giving Midnight his attention. It was when you indulged her with your attention that she got even weirder.

X had broken the villain out of a top secret MASKED facility after he'd broken out himself so she could incapacitate one of the city's heroes. Why X didn't just make her get rid of Wild Fire, Clark didn't understand. Silver Streak was a vigilante, so X wasn't as worried about her for obvious reasons, but Wild Fire had a lot of power that could take down X's empire.

Clark wasn't supposed to question X and his decisions though. If X wanted to go ahead and murder one hero, put another in a coma, and leave the last two alone, he probably had a good reason or two.