Blackjack Wayward

Epilogue

Eventually, I did sleep.

Superdynamic induced a coma and off I went. When I woke, it was to the ringing of a phone, loud and blaring. I looked around, still having only the use of one eye, and realized I was in the Tower, probably in the same room where Ruby had checked me out a few hours before. The configuration was different, more spacious, but the walls were made of solid-light tech, designed for ultimate modularity.

Apogee slept on a real fold-out bed, a blanket half coming off. She was still wearing her damaged costume from the Washington fight. My body was in a solid-light cast. I was virtually immobilized, with only enough wiggle room to scratch and itch, or to shift a little to get more comfortable.

The ringing ended and I looked around for the phone. Apogee stirred, looking at me, still half asleep. She smiled and let her eyes flutter closed, falling back asleep.

Ruby walked in, dressed in lab coat instead of her usual getup, and moved over to me.

“You should try to get some sleep,” she said, monitoring an info screen beside my bed that gave a readout to all my vital signs.

“The phone rang,” I mumbled, struggling against a brace that held my mouth tightly shut. I could basically expel air and formulate the words with my lips and tongue as a form of communication.

She looked over at me, not understanding at first, but once she translated my mumble she looked more confused than anything.

“There’s no phone in here, Blackjack,” she said. “You might be imagining things. The painkillers we’re giving you are pretty strong.”

I smiled and tried to shrug, but moving my shoulders was impossible, and painful to even try. I tried to turn my head toward Apogee, but that too was immobilized.

“Just get some rest, hon.”

Ruby looked over at Apogee, following my stare. “She hasn’t left your side. Hell of a thing how Superdynamic saved you.”

“Thank you,” I said, but she shushed me.

“Just fall asleep, okay? You need rest.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, feeling her move away and leave the room as I began to settle back into sleep.

Then the phone rang again.

Apogee shifted, reaching for her blanket, but didn’t wake as the phone continued to ring.

“Blackjack,” whispered a voice near to me.

I tried turning my head again, but I couldn’t.

“No, don’t move,” the voice said. “I’ll come to you.”

The monitor shifted, groaning on its hinges as a weave of wiring knitted itself around it, inching it closer to my field of view. The screen shifted, as the signal changed to reveal an animated vision of Mr. Haha 2000 in full Rabbit-man form.

“Hi, there,” Mr. Haha said, his voice modulator returned so he sounded like a psychotic carnival barker again.

“Haha?”

“She’s a looker, my friend,” he said, referring to Apogee. “First Influx, then none other than the Lady Vexille, and finally, Apogee. You sure know how to pick them.”

“Where have you been?”

Haha’s 3D form crossed its arms, frustrated. “I’ve been out there, doing the hard work, while you’ve been moping.”

“I could have used your help,” I said, my voice dripping with bitterness.

Haha laughed

“What do you think I’ve been doing? I’ve made all of this possible for you.”

“You left me out there,” I said, growing angrier by the second, wanting to let him have a piece of my mind, but my shattered body was muffling my intentions.

“Don’t get all wound up, Blackjack. It’s a miracle that they put you back together. I guess it’s nice to have friends in high places. Something I factored into the equation, you know.”

I looked over at Apogee, who was too tired to wake with my ranting. Haha was making sure to speak in a low voice, and I couldn’t speak in more than hushed tones. Every breath felt filtered through a sieve of fractured ribs.

“Just go away,” I said. “I don’t need you anymore.”

“Well, that’s fine thanks for all I did.”

I looked at him, bewildered. What the hell did he want from me? It was over. He had missed the show.

“Thanks for making you a big star, of course,” he said, trying to fill in the blanks of my confusion. “For making you the best show out there. Hell, it wasn’t easy, either.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Haha,” I said.

“Well, you should know how much trouble I went through, Blackjack. I mean, you were holed up in a secret underwater facility, lost to the world, and I couldn’t let that happen. So I made sure that Doctor Zundergrub found the location. I knew you were too savvy to let him kill you right there. I know how resourceful you are, how good you are in those desperate situations, and lo and behold, you made it out. But then you went and decided to become all domestic with the evil villainess and it wasn’t any good for the show, you see. So I had to put a bounty on your head, a billion dollars, enough to motivate everyone to come after you. I also let half the world’s villain population know where you were. I had no idea there were going to be so many–”

“What show are you talking about?”

“What show?” he repeated, bewildered. “You, Blackjack. You’re the show. But let me finish. Hmm ... where was I? Oh, yes, of course. I was surprised how many responded to my bounty. It was pretty impressive to see how many people hate your guts. But again, as in the prison, I had a feeling you might make it. And you did, didn’t you? I had to keep you motivated in Superdynamic’s base, just my way of making things exciting, you see, a glitch here, a fight there. And by the way, let me just say that hacking into that man’s base is harder than it looks, and controlling his training room, eliminating all the security protocols? The timing I can’t take credit for, you know. To have a woman in the combat room at the same time, for you to be the hero? That was just plain luck.”

I thought of Focus, almost torn apart by the battle droids.

“That was you?” I asked, incredulous.

“Of course,” he said with a flourish and a bow. “It was worth it, though. Don’t you agree? It motivated you. For once. Because the final battle was so wonderful. One for the ages. And Zundergrub played his part, too. He might not have, you see, because it was all so ambitious. The poor man was brilliant, but so asocial. If not for me, how do you think he would have kept his little army together? Then I delivered Lord Mighty so you would have a worthy challenge. It was easy. Mighty felt guilty after Hashima. See, he followed Nostromo and saw him killed by the Lightbringer alien. He saw someone greater than him destroyed and felt fear for the first time. Can you believe Lord Mighty ran away? I, of course, monitored all of this with a small transmitter I snuck onto his costume, but after the nuclear device you used in Hashima he proved hard to find. So very hard. But then again, I’m everywhere, aren’t I? And just the right combination of subliminal images strategically placed in his normal television viewing got him thinking that the planet was safer without humanity, without any civilization to attract the Lightbringers. Once I had him worked into a frenzy, well, it was just a matter of making the introductions between Mighty and Zundergrub.”

“You’re insane,” I whispered.

Haha cocked his head and crossed his arms.

“Not even a little bit of thanks?” he said.

“What do you want, Haha?”

There was a long pause as he weighed variables and probabilities. Haha was ready for every conceivable outcome, and to find him speechless meant that maybe he didn’t know himself.

“I wanted to congratulate you,” he said finally. “Now you have what you wanted, right? You have reluctant acceptance, which will grow into something more with great effort. And I couldn’t have asked for a better narrative. Redeemed villain turned world’s greatest hero. And you have the girl, of course.

“Just leave us alone,” I said, wishing for the strength to reach out and shatter the monitor. “I don’t want to be a part of–”

“But how could I do that? How could we walk away from this after all the hard work we’ve put into it? Ask yourself that. You’re the best show on earth, but this is only the first act. First we build you up, we make you. You’re the big hero and everyone loves you, right?”

He paused, his voice changing, turning more ominous.

“Then we expose the real you for all to see, and after that, we break you.”

Haha let that sink in, and then leaned back, his effervescent attitude returning.

“So get your rest,” he said as he faded out. “This is just the beginning.”