[Author's note:
So, I know that I said I'd be finishing up soon with the last chapter of this story but here it is so much time later and I'm
still not quite done. If you are interested in what has kept me from completing this story in a timely manner, please
check out and where I have been working on weekly original comics which showcase both writing and art by me and I
am still working on my novel which will hopefully be finally available on amazon by the end of the year. I have not
forgotten about my series here though and I have been working on finishing The Henchman in what little spare time I
can manage to scramble up between everything else and my 9 to 6. Thanks to everyone who has followed this series
and favorited it since I began it. I hope that I have made something worthy of you and I am eternally grateful for your
continued support. All that I have heard has been praise and It has kept me going through some trying times and
sleepless nights.
Hopefully someday I'll be able to catch up on my sleep or at least learn to type faster. ;-)
Please enjoy the next to final chapter of The Henchman]
Henchman: The revenge of 21
Chapter 9
Mrs. Dr. Monarch piloted the Monarch mobile over the city silently and touched down lightly on the top of the Impossible
tower. Many floors below the sounds of the battle raged on as the five figures pulled themselves out of the cramped
interior of the Monarch mobile. 21 and two other large henchmen had been jammed into the back and it had been far
less than comfortable and he was glad to be back in the fresh air, but the Monarch was all but dancing with excitement.
They had received intel from the ground troops as they were making their way into position where they would go into
radio silence until the first floor had been pacified and all was going according to plan like clockwork. They had even
been able to intercept radio transmissions from the enemy and they confirmed that the Monarch's forces had been able
to take the building by surprise. All was bedlam.
"What was that smell?" 21 asked as he stretched himself out and felt his back pop back into shape.
"We were never able to get all the mildew out of the carpet." the Monarch said sheepishly, before continuing with more
enthusiasm, "Come on and get yourself together. I can't wait to feel Phantom Limb's translucent bones crack under my
boot heels!"
The Monarch turned away from the others and strode towards the roof entrance with his wife slowly following along
behind him and, 21 sprang into action before either of the other two could notice and he lost the element of surprise. His
attack took the first henchman down before either of the other two men even realized what was coming. The second
henchman lunged at 21 as his comrade fell to the ground but 21 easily avoided the sloppy attack and caught him behind
the neck with a hard chop that left him unconscious as he fell to the ground on top of the first man. The whole exchange
took only a few seconds and apart from the slide of gravel had created no sound, so as Mrs. Dr. Monarch turned back to
21 and the other two henchman, after staring after her husband's retreating form, she was taken aback to see 21
standing over the small pile of forms. It was her sharp intake of breath that drew the Monarch's attention.
"What is taking you so long..." He had begun but trailed into a dumbfounded silence as he stared at 21's form. Wind
blew across the rooftop as the silence stretched on and the sounds of fevered battle continued to make its way up from
the ground so far below. Mrs. Dr. Monarch whispered Gary's name into the silence and it broke at once and time seemed
to speedup to catch up with its normal flow.
"What the hell is this?" The Monarch screeched at 21 gesticulating wildly into the night, "What are you doing? All the
preparation for this attack, all the bolstering of troops, and now you are turning against me? What is this Henchman
21?"
21 let the Monarch rant on as he kept his stoic silence, but a look of dawning came to the Monarch's face and he took a
few steps forward and, narrowing his eyes again, the Monarch shrieked, "You're working for Phantom Limb!"
The goggles he wore shielded the look of surprise that came into 21's widened eyes but he couldn't hide the laugh that
welled up and he couldn't hold back.
"Are you really so stupid?" 21 asked between the genuine laughter that rocked his body. He couldn't believe that this
was the man to whom he had pledged his allegiance to for so many years. All of the time that he had wasted doing this
man's bidding without question seemed so ridiculous now.
"Even from your own beginnings, you still can't get past the idea that the Archvillian is the only one who can form a plan
or play the game that we have spent our lives playing. You just don't get that without all of the rest of us you are a
pathetic nothing. I've surpassed you time and again but you still think that I must be aligned with some Archvillian to
give me courage to take you down Monarch. Is that it? Are the rest of us so little compared to you in your own mind?"
The Monarch's thin body shook with rage and pointed at 21 with a trembling finger, "I made you Henchman 21! You
were nothing without me to lead you! Alone you're nothing but some geek with a blog and your online games! I turned
that fat kid into the soldier you are!"
"In a way you are right," Gary replied as he slid the mask off of his face and tossed it into the wind and let it fly off of
the roof, "but not how you think. I wasn't anything without the cocoon; it gave me purpose, a home, and a friend. It was
where I realized I liked to write and was good at it. It was where I found I could learn to live with love and overcome my
own emotions, but it was your lack of training and foresight that led to the death of my only friend, and that is what put
me onto the path to become what I am now; not your influence. I trained myself, I taught myself, and I made all that
you see before you, because you couldn't. It was your lack of training that led me to learn to train myself and others. It
was your lack of performance that led me to learn to perform.
It was I and your henchmen that abducted the Venture's and Brock Samson without your help or 'leadership'. It was I
that infiltrated the Venture compound and took Hank and Dean. It was Brock Samson and I that took down Monstroso
when you fell into his trap. It was I who chose to leave and it was I who chose to return on this final mission to end you
once and for all."
"You... bu... you..." The Monarch sputtered with impotent rage, "You belong to me Henchman 21."
"My name is Gary." He said as he slipped a small remote device from one of the compartments on his belt and activated
it.
The Cocoon, hovering silently in autopilot, went up in stages. It exploded outwards, filling the night with light and sound,
before collapsing back into itself and down towards the ground in a heap of metal. As he had planned the Cocoon was
empty in its final moments except for the substance less form of a lone henchman who smiled one last time as he too
became nothing for the last time.
The concussion from the blast shook the building but, as Gary had anticipated, the reinforced glass and concrete shell
held, keeping all within safe but trapped.
On the roof the Monarch rushed to the edge of the building and screamed at the destruction of his mobile base of
operations and part of Gary hoped that the Monarch realized that he had been bested but it was not to be so. Even as
the Cocoon fell in upon itself the Monarch turned back to face Gary, still holding onto the ledge of the roof, with a face
contorted with rage. He let go and, with still and purpose, made his way back to Gary. He raised one of his arms slowly
and trained his wrist shooters at Gary's head.
"When I am done with you, you will envy Wonderboy!" The Monarch menaced, and let out a volley of what Gary could
only assume were poison darts.
Mrs. Dr. Monarch shrieked as Gary deployed his wings quickly to shield himself, but as the Monarch continued to fire
volleys of darts he was forced to also use the leather of his gloves to deflect the small projectiles. Despite the attack
Gary managed to keep his guard and slowly began to edge his way forward. Before the Monarch could realize what was
happening, Gary slipped into arm's length and had managed to grasp the Monarch by the wrists and sent a foot forward
in a devastating kick to the Monarch's chest. As the Monarch tumbled backward his wrist shooters slipped off and Gary
tossed them to the side, but the Monarch was on his feet again with surprising swiftness and landed a punch to Gary's
nose. There was an explosion of pain and Gary could feel warm liquid life poured from what was an obviously broken
nose. Mrs. Dr. Monarch was continuing to scream but it came through dulled ears as the Monarch began to land punch
after punch on the stunned Gary.
"Overconfidence can kill especially for those that forget the savagery of the Monarch's bite!" the Monarch screamed
through delirious laughter.
Gary felt himself snap back to himself and deflected the Monarch's fist with one hand and met the Monarch's other fist
with his head. There was a satisfying crunch as something in the Monarch's hand gave way against the heavy plating of
his skull, the Monarch howled in pain, and he stumbled back a step. Gary stepped forward menacing and the Monarch
swung out blindly but this time Gary was ready and he caught the Monarch's fist. Gary began to squeeze and felt the
bones in the Monarch's hand grate together.
"You treat your henchman with contempt or indifference even though we are the closest thing to friends you have in this
world." Gary told the Monarch.
He head-butted the Monarch hard, sending the thin man to his knees. He let go of the Monarch's fist and it flopped down
to his side.
"And now you're done, Monarch." Gary told him as he kicked the Monarch onto his back and engaged the long blades
that where hidden in his gloves on a sliding mechanism.
Overhead there was a roar as two jet fighters broke through the pillar of smoke that was all that was left of the Cocoon,
and from trails of the planes two figures dropped. The dark figures landed behind Gary with a thud and a spray of
gravel.
"Hey there, Tubbs." Shoreleave greeted Gary with a smirk as he and Brock Samson raised themselves from the gravel
roof and made their way forward to flank Gary.
Gary grunted back at Shoreleave and Brock gestured for them to move along past the Monarch and into the building.
"You've really stepped in it this time Monarch," Brock commented out the corner of his mouth as they passed where the
Monarch lay on his back and then said over his shoulder to Gary, "Finish up quick we're gonna need you inside."
The wind blew Gary's hair around his head as the roof door closed behind the two OSI agents and it cooled the skin of
his face as he started down at the prone figure of the Monarch. Gary crossed his blades and slowly drew metal across
metal with a pleasing sound. He dropped down over the Monarch's thin chest and drew back his arm with deliberate
motion, judging the position, and force. A gurgling noise came from the Monarch's throat, Gary stared into the sliver of
eye visible on the Monarch's face, and they both knew what would happen.
He had tightened his muscles and drawn back the extra inch for the killing blow when a soft body wrapped itself around
his own. Mrs. Dr. Monarch sobbed into Gary's back and one of her arms was on his back while the other was placed on
his raised arm.
"Stop. Please." She pleaded into his back around her tears, "Don't"
Gary tasted the bitter, sharp tang of acid and swallowed back hard against it, "Why? He treats you like you're just
another henchman, like one of us, and he will never take care of you the way that you take care of him. Let me end this
for the both of us. We'll be able to start again eventually. We'll be free and clear."
"He's my husband." She whispered with shame into his neck.
Gary looked over his shoulder at her, and took a moment before he could speak with any calm.
"You have to understand that he'll nothing after this, Shelia. I'll see to that one way or the other."
He could feel her nod and he dropped his arm and retracted his blades. Then, grabbing the Monarch about the neck,
Gary raised the pitiful form to eye level.
"I killed your fucking cat." Gary told the Monarch as their eyes locked, before letting him fall back to the ground like a
sack of potatoes and, sliding out from under Mrs. Dr. Monarch, he stood to his full height and made his way to the roof
entrance. Gary looked back to where the Monarch lay on the ground and Mrs. Dr. Monarch cried freely into her hands as
he opened the door.
"By the way," Gary said, while walking into the building, "He pissed himself."
Bodies littered the hallways as Gary made his way through the top floor in search of Brock and Shoreleave but he wasn't
worried about finding them because he knew he could follow the bodies like breadcrumbs until he found the fighting and
there they would be. Bullet casings glittered like confetti in the overhead lighting among the bodies and caught Gary's
attention long enough for him to run into a wall. He got knocked onto his butt and the shock jarred his still bruised and
swollen nose, which gave out another gush of blood onto his already soaked uniform. He grabbed it to staunch the flow
just as the wall turned towards him and he realized that what he had mistaken for a wall was actually a man of
outrageous proportions. More than that even, he knew who this man mountain was, as they had met on a prior
occasion.
"Monstroso!" Gary exclaimed popping out his blades as he scrambled to his feet, even though it changed little about the
height difference, "I heard you died."
"Do I know you, little man?" Monstroso asked, in a low rumbling voice like an earthquake before recognition slid across
his face, "Oh, aren't you Henchman 21? One of the Monarch's henchmen? I'm surprised. I didn't think that guy had any
balls, or brains for that matter."
"I'm not with the Monarch anymore and the name's Gary, or, if you prefer, Jedi Master 'Gonna-kick-your-ass-again'!"
Monstroso rubbed the goatee on his massive chin with a hand the size of a pizza pan and thoughtfully said, "Oh, are you
freelancing again? That reminds me that I owe you one for the last time we met."
Monstroso lunged for Gary but before he could take more than a step Brock Samson leapt from nowhere and managed
to get the mountain of a man in a head lock.
"He's gonna have to form an orderly line behind me because I called 'dibs' big boy," Brock said as Monstroso tried to
throw him off, "and Shoreleave could use a hand short stuff. Don't worry about this one; he's mine."
With that the two men crashed through an office wall and disappeared from sight, and Gary continued farther into the
building to join up with Shoreleave. Shoreleave, meanwhile, had found himself cornered by the combined forces of Baron
Underbite, Professor Impossible, and Phantom Limb. Not a very good situation to be in, it had to be said. Shoreleave
was doing quite a good job of dodging Phantom Limb's blasts, Underbite's massive fists, and Professor Impossible's
super stretchy limbs, but it wasn't something that he could keep up forever. In fact, as Gary dashed around a corner
Professor Impossible managed to grab Shoreleave and, snake-like, began to coil and constrict around him.
Taking the nearest to him, Gary flew into him with both feet out and connected with Underbite's lower back sending him
to the ground on top of Phantom Limb. Those two temporarily incapacitated Gary slashed at the nearest part of
Professor Impossible and opened a large, nasty gash in his abdomen. The Professor snapped back together in pain and
grasped his wound which flowed freely with blood. Shoreleave, on the other hand, fell from his grasp gulping air
gratefully.
"That was too tight even for my taste." Shoreleave joked filling his lungs greedily with air. He struck out with a foot and
caught the Professor in the jaw which knocked him out, "You should have taken me out to dinner first before you tried to
fuck me."
Gary helped Shoreleave to his feet, asking, "Are you okay?"
"No time for pleasantries now." Shoreleave yelled, pushing Gary to the other side of the hallway, as Underbite charged
past and ran into a wall farther down the hallway.
Underbite crashed halfway through the wall and got stuck but Phantom Limb had gathered himself by that point and he
started attacking Gary and Shoreleave. The two men dodged around trying to avoid the deadly invisible limbs whose
touch could bring instant death. as they did so Underbite managed to free himself from the wall and began to make his
way back down the hallway closing off Gary and Shoreleave's possible exit by simply taking up the whole of the hallway.
To make matters worse Phantom Limb's constant attacks were pushing them steadily back towards Underbite and would
soon put them in a tough position.
Finally without any other option Gary slid behind a punch and lashed out with his bladed hand directly into the invisible
meat of Phantom Limb's arm. The blade sliced through with very resistance and with a yell Phantom Limb struck out
with the other arm. Gary struck out with the other blade and felt it sink in deep into thin air that on a normal man would
have been his forearm. With a twist of his wrist Gary heard something soft thumped to the carpeted floor over Phantom
Limb's screams. The lack of blood was unnerving.
Armless, visible, or otherwise, Phantom Limb retreated back down the hallway away from the others while Underbite
stepped to the side to let a group of Revenge society henchmen pass by him. Pursuit out of the question, Gary put
Phantom Limb out of his mind for the moment and focused on helping Shoreleave stem the tide of henchmen, Though
the henchman were obviously well trained they didn't hold up against the veteran soldier or the veteran henchman and
the two worked through them single-mindedly until they once again were alone in the hallway with Underbite.
"Don't you think we could talk about this?" Underbite managed to get out before Gary and Shoreleave pummeled his
lights out.
Elsewhere on the same floor Brock Samson wasn't fairing even quite so well. Monstroso had managed to work him off of
his back and flung him through a wall into an adjoining conference room. Brock took the time to walk around to the door
of the room which allowed Brock to regain his breath and stand by the time his opponent managed to enter the room
through the spacious double doors. Once in the room Monstroso addressed Brock in a calm conversational tone.
"It took you and 21 in a combined effort to take me down the last time you faced me, Brock Samson. What makes you
think you could take me alone this time?" Monstroso asked.
Brock spoke through his gritted teeth, "I've got my reasons. This time it is personal."
Brock let out a primal scream of rage and charged forward like a locomotive full of steam. The large man hit the much
larger man with all the force that he could muster, and Monstroso was actually knocked from his thick feet and the two
went backwards through the double doors as a single slab of meat. The two hit the floor with the sound of a wet towel
slapping a tile floor as one man with Brock on top. Brock mounted Monstroso like a professional UFC fighter and he
began to pummel the larger man. The punches flew hard and fast but, even though Brock managed to break his nose,
break teeth, and bring forth blood with every blow, Monstroso laughed and writhed like a father wrestling around on the
floor with his son.
With what seemed like little effort Monstroso tossed Brock aside and raised himself to his elbows and spit from the side
of his face covering a nice sized piece of carpet with blood and bits of tooth, but his good nature was not even dented as
he continued to raise himself to his feet. Brock, on the other hand, was fairing far worse even this early in the fray. His
hands were covered in blood from both of them, his fists had been cut on the man mountain's teeth even as they broke,
and his muscles had begun to ache with the strain. Even through this Brock also raised himself to his feet, if more
slowly.
As they began to circle each other like gladiators in the great collocium, Monstroso still laughing, and Brock's face set
like stone.
"It feels so good to finally get some real exercise after all this time." Monstroso mocked laughing as the two men
continued to circle, "It's been so long since my heart has beat this fast. Almost better than sex. Almost. Red heads are
so feisty don't you think?"
Cold ice pierced Brock's heart and he rushed forward. Rage drove him forward with reckless abandon but nothing, even
a blinding red blanket over his eyes, could do away with two decades of training as a spy and assassin. Monstroso
attacked with a quick downward jab and Brock spun under the large fist and brought his clasped fists across Monstroso's
large jaw loosening it. Then he quickly dashed away and continued the hungry circle that turned and turned.
It was like that for some time. One of them would break the circle and they would break the circle and they would tangle
for a short time, all limbs, knees, and elbows, before they would once again fall back into the circle where they would
again begin to turn slowly. Both men had begun to breathe heavily, and sweat covered Brock's rippling skin in a fine
sheen that caught the overhead lights. Monstroso's suit was wrinkled, his tie had become askew, and his shirt had pulled
free of his pants. The larger man slowly slipped out of his blanket sized coat (his shirt had sweat stains spreading out
from under his arms) and held it out in a single ham-sized fist. It dangled down to the ground slid along as the two men
continued to circle.
"You ..." Brock began, but had to work up some saliva to lubricate his vocal cords before continuing, "You just let her
die."
Monstroso seemed to be honestly confused by this and Brock stunned. The two men actually stopped in their circling and
just stood there staring at each other.
Slowly understanding seemed to dawn on the monstrous man's face followed by a look of sly amusement. The crooked
smile that crossed his lips was hard to look at.
"You're like a dog, Samson, always ready to hump the leg that you've been pushed off of so many times."
Brock felt the growl that came from deep in his chest before he was even aware that he had begun to do it. Monstroso
had touched a nerve and he felt the muscles in is back knot up and tingle like an electric charge ran across them. His
fists bunched up so tightly that his short finger nails bit into his palms and his teeth ground together as his jaws
tightened. He leapt at Monstroso and missed but caught himself on his hands and sent his muscular legs out behind him
taking the large man at the knees. With sounds like a pair of pistons firing Monstroso's legs gave out and he howled with
pain as they shot back into their sockets with the force of his fall. With Monstroso momentarily immobilized with pain
Brock strolled around the big man and dealt a swift kick to his gut. When Monstroso doubled over out of breath Brock
grabbed him about the head and placed one massive arm around his own his own beefy shoulder. With a mighty grunt
Brock managed to lift Monstroso over his head in a power bomb that left the two men in a heap on the carpeted office
floor.
Brock, unable to use his over strained legs, crawled on top of Monstroso and began to throw punches without caring
where they landed. His eyes were over flowing with tears of grief, shame, and rage and he poured out all of those
emotions into his quickly failing arms. Finally, too exhausted to continue, Brock allowed himself to slide off of Monstroso,
whose face had begun to resemble raw hamburger, and collapsed, drained physically and emotionally, to the floor. His
breath came in ragged gasps, his hands were broken, his legs felt shattered, and his chest felt like it was full of glass,
but a weight cleared from his shoulders and grief, for the time being, seemed to have released his heart. He looked over
at the larger man and watched the rise and fall of his chest. Then Brock let his head fall back and stared at the celling
for a while.
A gurgling drew Brock's gaze back to Monstroso's body. A uniform clad man was on top of the villain drawing a long
ornate dagger from his throat. It was from this wound that the gurgling sound came with pulsing gushes of blood. The
figure crouched on top of Monstroso sat and watched as the life ebbed from the large man. When the final spurts of
crimson fluid began to soak into the carpet the figure turned its attention to Brock Samson. With a minor adjustment the
figure turned and sat on Monstroso's chest as it looked down on Brock's prone form. It tilted its head as Brock struggled
restlessly trying to move.
"Do you know who I am, Brock Samson?" the uniform clad figure asked the struggling Samson.
"The Henchman." Brock croaked through gasps, "and you follow your own code. Are you going to kill me too?"
"Should I?" the Henchman cupped his chin, as if concentrating, and a spark flashed behind the Henchman's goggles, but
eventually the Henchman lowered his hand and let out a hearty laugh which was masked by a voice modulation unit.
"No, no, I'm not going to kill you." The Henchman said jovially, "You, Samson, help to maintain the balance between but
a killer with a conscience and you only do what you feel you must. I wouldn't kill you unless I had to but you managed
to help me make sure that I didn't have to."
The Henchman patted the large chest on which he sat while continuing, "This guy on the other hand managed to hurt
everyone he was able to get near. He had to go for the betterment of everyone. He was a danger to us all. Besides, I'm
doing you a favor."
"If you think that," Brock wheezed, letting his head drop back down to the floor, "Then you have no idea how much
paperwork I'm going to fill out now."
The Henchman laughed heartily and without another sound was gone. Brock, alone, allowed the darkness to enfold him.
Gary finished tying Professor Impossible using his own rubber-like limbs to do the job before standing and collecting his
hair which had fallen across his shoulders in battle. Shoreleave has produced a pair of metal shackles from somewhere
that Gary didn't want to think about and was putting them on Underbite so the two could be collected later.
Shoreleave finished up and brushed his hands together before turning to the former Henchman, "Well, now that's done
its time to clean up. Phantom Limb is still out there. If we get him, then this mission is a total success otherwise the
whole thing is a bust and we'll have to do this whole thing over again in a year or two. We can't have two large
supervillian groups acting this close to each other it will destroy the whole balance of things and the world will crumble."
"You say that like I don't know." Gary said, wiping a hand across his brow, "with the havoc and fire below I doubt that
he went that way. That leaves this floor and up. So, what do you say split-up?"
"Brains and Brawn? I'm liking you more and more Puff and Stuff." Shoreleave said looking Gary up and down in a way
that made him slightly uncomfortable, "I'll go towards the roof and you go the other way."
"Okay," Gary replied as he passed Shoreleave on his way down the hallway and Shoreleave did the same heading the
other way.
The hallways beyond the main battle area were mostly clear of combatants and bodies. The majority of the Revenge
society henchmen had, as he planned, been drawn down into the lower floors of the building, but those few that were
still wandering about gave little resistance to his blades. Without battle fugue clouding his mind and his blades to guide
him Gary was confused by the labyrinthine hallways of the offices and cubical. Aimlessly wandering about he passed
doors and desks quickly forgetting how he got there. After a short time, that seemed like hours but was probably only a
few minutes, Gary stopped to survey his surroundings. Suddenly a door behind him flew open and he barely dodged
Phantom Limb's attack. Spinning quickly Gary landed a boot in the small of his enemy's back. Phantom Limb hit the wall
but quickly did an about face and flung himself again at Gary.
Phantom Limb charged Gary holding out his mangled arms crawling with un-named energy ready to kill. Gary rolled back
through the still open doorway and caught Phantom Limb with his legs sending the purple clad fiend over himself and
into a conference table, breaking it into half. Gary crawled to his feet and made his way over to where Phantom Limb
lay. From his position on the floor Phantom Limb struck out with his invisible feet but Gary leapt back out of the way
giving Phantom Limb just enough time to get back up to his feet. The two came together in battle again. Despite his
mangled limbs, Phantom Limb, lashed out with skill and speed, each blow for blow managing to avoid being touched skin
to skin. Even without being touched directly small surges of the deadly energy passed through him every time Gary
blocked which was wearing him down slowly.
Sweat beaded along his brow and began to cover his arms with a sheen. Using the button hidden on his gloves Gary
popped out his blades, and lashed out at the first limb presented. What was left of Phantom Limb's arm, already
mangled at the fore arm, went flying across the room to land invisibly on the floor. Phantom Limb yelled and Gary spun
low taking both of his legs in a single strong swipe. The torso that had been a formidable villain fell to the floor
screaming in pain.
"What have you done, you worthless pile of filth." Phantom Limb raged from his phone position, "What have you done?"
Gary wiped the blades across his thigh and looked down at his foe.
"I cut off your legs. I thought you might have noticed. Your arms are gone as well, just in case you missed it."
Phantom Limb grunted in pain, "So what now little henchman? Truss me up like a Christmas goose and hand me over to
the Guild, the OSI, or to your boss? Do you think that it will save you? Do you think that I won't find you?"
Gary thought for a moment before looking back down to where Phantom Limb lay and said, "No. I'm not going to give
you over to anyone. No, I don't think that it would stop you. You've escaped the Monarch at Cremation Creek and I'm
not with him anymore by the way, you've escaped the guild, and I have no doubt that you'd figure out a way to escape
the OSI if I let them have you. You're a resourceful man Phantom Limb, I doubt that you'll ever stop on your own and
your enemies list gets longer and longer."
"That does leave us in quite a pickle now, doesn't it?" Phantom Limb taunted.
Gary reached down and grabbed Phantom Limb by the cloth of his uniform and began to drag him across the room
towards a bank of ceiling to floor windows.
"No, it doesn't." Gary said, tossing Phantom Limb at the window with all of his might. The thick sheet of glass cracked
but didn't break unsurprisingly. A stiff kick finished off the window and a gust of wind blew in carrying with it the thick
stench of smoke from the destroyed Cocoon. Gary surveyed all of the carnage that he had wrecked before turning back
to retrieve Phantom Limb.
"For the love of God, what are you thinking?" Phantom Limb wailed as Gary picked him up and took him to the window.
"You are a danger to everyone and everything. If you are allowed to continue you'll just keep reforming the Revenge
society, pumping out henchmen, and wreaking havoc so that no one has any peace. So long as you are alive you will
continue. You breed evil like a cancer. You taint everything you touch like the dark side of the force. You're the kind of
villain they model the most famous bad guys after. You are Lex Luthor, the Joker, Black Adam, Dr. No, and Voldamort.
People like you shouldn't exist in the real world." Gary summarized as he dangled Phantom Limb over the void.
"You can't do this!" Phantom Limb screamed, trying franticly to pull himself up or flail his legs to get a foothold or
anything to keep him from falling but he was ill-equipped.
"I have to." Gary said, and let go.
[Footnote: So I had planned to power through and finish the whole story in one last big go but I couldn't help myself. I
got to that last part and there wasn't a better line to end on than that. I will be finishing up the story as soon as I can
and all the secrets will be revealed and I hope that I'm not going to disappoint but I think that it's gonna be good.
- D]
