Arch Frenemies

Part 71: Thicker Than Water

Galaxy Girl gasped. The evil speedster had Toxic's father in his grasp, one arm maliciously wrapped around his neck.

"Mastermind....Sir?!?" Exclaimed the hero in utmost surprise, causing Toxic to nearly hit his head on the piano base.

"Little Galaxy?" answered the world's most famous Supervillain, appearing unfazed by his current position, seeming almost pleasantly surprised even.

It suddenly made sense to the radioactive villain, the twins were using his father's bombs because it was Mastermind they wanted revenge against, and what a rather brilliant plan for revenge it was! Dominate 1/3rd of the world population and frame him for it... then it wouldn't just be Captain Galaxy after him anymore. Every hero and government in the world would then have jurisdiction and motive to hunt him. Anyone in an affected country who survived contact with the radiation would be mutated into a superhuman with reason for revenge, even the Supervillains would be after him....
Toxic had to do something now.

"It's good to see you again my dear." Mastermind’s voice was filled with genuine concern as he addressed Galaxy Girl.
"Uh... Thank you... Sir?" She responds slowly.
"Does your father know you are alive?" He asked nonchalantly.
"Not yet." She shook her head, taken back by his calm demeanor.
"He will undoubtedly be happy."

"Enough!" Screams Quickstep, stopping the super genius mid-sentence. "Release her or I snap his neck."
He threatened.
"Oh please." Galaxy Girl scoffed.
"You are kidding right?" 

"Do not think out can bluff me, American, I know all about your hero code." The speedster tightens his arm around the villain’s neck. Galaxy Girl's eyes widened in concern, giving her away.
"Now I repeat, let her go, or I snap his neck."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Toxic warns. The male speedster stiffens when he felt a cold metal barrel pressed against the back of his head. 
The spy froze in place.
The icy barrel of the radiation gun was powerful motivation.

"Toxic?" Mastermind sucked in shocked breath. His calm in control demeanor appeared to have be thrown out the window.
"Hello Father." His son answered
"Son... What are you doing here? Where have you been?"
The words escaped Mastermind before he could stop them.
"Are you OK!?" Everyone was surprised by the concern in his voice, it sounded so foreign. No one was more surprised than Mastermind’s son himself.
"Wow... I don't think you've ever asked me that before..." Toxic awkwardly responds.
"Yeah dad, I'm OK."
Emotions tugged at the cage.

Galaxy girl glanced from her hostage, to Mastermind who was still held tightly by the Russian, then to the silver gun, before shooting her ally a very clear what now look. 
"It's when you think you've planned for everything..."
The speedster complained to his sister in Russian, rolling his eyes. 
"Don't you want to know what this pig has done?!?" Cha-cha spits towards the other hostage in the room.

"I really don't care what he did, add it to the list." Galaxy Girl answers; with typical hero ego.
"I wasn't talking to you little brat!" Seethed the lady villain, raising her eyes to Toxic's.
"I was talking to my nephew."

"That can't be true." Toxic denied, but he was unable to see how Mastermind’s eyebrows knit together at her calling him her nephew.
"Oh, is that what you believe?" Her voice began to fill with cruel irony.
"Tell me now, exactly how much has this pig told you about your mother?"

Toxic didn't know much about Romana, Mastermind hardly spoke of her. Once, long ago after he had just learned to walk; Sebastian Stockman had told him a little about how they’d met. He only knew what she looked like from her pictures that hung around the mansion, and the small photo that his father still kept beside his bed.

But over the years, Toxic had come to understand his father’s distance. He had realized the raven haired Soviet was the only thing his father had ever truly loved, and when Toxic’s unborn radiation had killed his mother from the inside out... leaving the world’s most infamous villain to raise the thing that had killed her, the underlying resentment and paternal ice didn't seem so unimaginable to him.
Actually, it made some form of sense. 
"Toxic..." Mastermind started to speak but not before his son defensively cut him off. 

"I know enough." Toxic stated firmly, pushing down the usual feelings of regret for an event that was beyond his control.
"Then why hasn't he told you about your aunt and uncle?" Cha-Cha asks. "Tell the boy!" Quickstep raised his voice to his hostage.
"Are these really my relatives?" The son questioned the father.
"Yes." Mastermind answered with a guilty sigh.
"These are your mother’s younger siblings... Elena and Nikolai."

"How dare you speak our names with the hero present?" Shrieked Cha-Cha, trying fruitlessly to wrestle her way out of her captor’s grip.
"Oh please..." Mastermind retorted. "After what you did to her, now you are going to bring up the rules?!" 

"Just stop wriggling, I’ve juggled tanks with these hands, you are not going anywhere!" Galaxy Girl warns, her father would not be happy if she accidentally dismembered someone again.

"Brat!" The Lady speedster cursed before turning her gaze back to Toxic.
"Boy what do you know of your mother’s death?" Toxic sucked in a breath, silent as a new kind of guilt reached in and tugged at Toxic’s soul, it was only a fraction of what he had felt the first time, but still he clenched his jaw, refusing to let the sickness show. But he couldn't hide much from Cha-cha, whose training allowed her to read people almost as good as any empath.

"My mother’s death was caused by internal poisoning from carrying a radioactive fetus... Me." He finally churned out the words, taking full responsibility.
"So if you are going to blame someone for her death, blame me."

"Oh, you are sick..." Elena narrowed her eyes at Mastermind in disgust. 
"Why don't you tell him...?”
Quickstep angrily yelled down at his prisoner, tightening his grip, his voice suddenly filled with years of concealed rage.
"Why don't you tell him what really happened?!?" He swung around so Mastermind could face his son.
"That it was not the boy who killed the Ghost Dancer,.. but you!"

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A/N: Hope to post more this weekend, as well as update Crimson Ice if I can.
Thanks guys.
Much love,
-QueenOfGeeks