Chapter Twelve:
No Rest for the Wicked…
(The Grand Summit of the Impergium)
In St. Croix…later on in the day…
Daytona and Carlos arrived back at the schoolhouse as the woman they met outside of Rictus' bedroom, now fully clothed, was with them. They made sure they got the rest of their stashed equipment and disposed of the kitchen uniforms in a careful manner. The woman took to the trip willingly however was rubbing the back of her neck as she was gazing at them slightly angry.
"I'm not that hurt but this does irritate a little...Did you have to do that?" She said in a confrontational tone.
Carlos pulled an ice pack from the medical chest nearby and gave it to her to place on her neck, "Unfortunately yes, that chip implanted in your skin would have alerted the brothel as well as the Impergium of your illegal attempt to leave the city. We had to temporarily disable it in order for you to come with us. Now…what is your name?"
As a sort of habit she responded, "What do you want my name to be?"
Daytona backed away slightly as she started giggling.
"I have no name…I have a number. My number is B- 104." She said.
Daytona looked to his right as a majority of the Blackbirds were gazing at her like a thirsty man would gaze at a glass of water. He stomped his foot in their direction and that seemed to wake up the boys as they went back to doing what they were doing. He then turned his attention back to the woman.
"I ain't calling you B-104…it ain't proper for a human being to not have a name." Daytona quipped as he sat down trying to take his boots off.
She looked at the two and closed her eyes, "You do realize that for the most part of my life I was a test tube baby? That I truly never knew what it was like to be human as the same scale as you are. And in my own mind I never felt human...I was made to be a superhuman fuck toy."
Carlos sat down as well and looked at the woman, "Is there any name you like? Anything you would like to be called?"
She laughed hysterically. Carlos and Daytona looked at each other and then back at her.
"Sorry…not really believing that this part of my life is over. You can't just turn it on and off like a switch. I just traded one brand of superhuman johns for another…all I will ever be is a whore. That's all I know how to do...eat, sleep, and make men and women happy."
Daytona finally got his boots off as he went into his pocket and pulled out two cigars. One he waved toward Carlos who politely declined and put the other in his mouth. He then looked at the woman who also politely declined. He lit up the cigar and looked at her. "Even though this might be completely off topic...You sort of remind me of my ex wife, Bailey…how about I call you Bailey? I know I am gonna slip up anyway and do it, so I figured I'd ask you."
She looked at him and grinned leaning toward him, "I like the name. I think it fits me…But the real interesting question is how she became your ex wife."
He took a long puff from his cigar and leaned back on the wall. "Death."
"I am sorry," she said sort of back peddling.
"It's ok."
"How did she die, if you don't mind me asking?"
"She was captured by Impergium forces for 'crimes against the Brainchild' in a raid on a base I had been working from in Atlantis. That was bullshit. She never lifted a gun or joined any troop to fight against him. She only died because they wanted to get to me…" As he began to tell the tale, he noticed that Carlos had gotten up and left heading over to Sweets and Slim, who were now monitoring the activity from the surveillance info being sent back from Las Vegas to NAB. That night's occurrence was very secretive and classified information from the HLM and he didn't like talking about stuff like that.
Bailey's attention came back to Daytona, "So, because you were a part of the HLM that is what doomed her? That seems kind of vague..."
Daytona nodded in the affirmative and paused slightly as if to think about how to put what he was about to say and then spoke, "After the capture in Atlantis, she was sent over to New Kandor where the 'Holy Warden' and a now dead enemy of humanity just known to us as the Man In Black proceeded in taking my pregnant wife into a torture rack where my unborn daughter was ripped out of her body and thrown to a pit full of jaguars the Warden has as pets. My Bailey girl…she didn't survive the torture…but before she left she told me that she would never give me up to them…even after all that…the woman never did," Daytona paused for a while and then responded, "My hope is that now both are in a better place than this."
Bailey leaned back looking at Daytona. It was clear that this man wanted to show emotion, but he just had no more tears left to cry. He was battle worn and proud, but the look on his face was that of someone still trying to make sense of an insane world.
"I don't know if I like this name anymore…" Bailey said shyly.
Daytona puffed once more and pointed to her, "It's a good name. Just make sure that you do it proud for her memory. That's all I ask."
The troops start to gather as the stationary tesseract portal that was recently installed there turns on. Bailey shields her beautiful blue eyes from the bright light of the tesseract as several engineers as well as a few extra troops as well as a distinguishing female figure all come through the portal. She saluted the Blackbirds who were present and looked at Carlos and Daytona. From Bailey's point of view she could tell there was something between the woman and Carlos. After all Carlos did for her, she was glad that he had someone that looked like that they took care of him the way he should have been. Daytona motioned the woman over to Bailey as Bailey stood up.
"This is our General Bridget Luthor. General…this is Bailey…" Daytona introduced the two as Bridget Luthor eyed up Bailey but not in the way that Bailey was used to.
Bridget grabbed her hand to shake it and it startled Bailey. Bridget's hands were a mixture of rough and smooth, like she had been at this for quite some time.
"Bailey…you and I will talk later on, but here is the situation. Normally we would have you come back with us through the portal, but with that chip in your neck, the Impergium would find us in a heartbeat. Until we are able to either remove that chip, or disable it permanently, you are going to have to stay here in St. Croix having us temporarily short out that chip every day. You cannot go back to Vegas. This part of your life is now over. Do you understand this?"
Bailey hesitated a moment taking this in through deeper thought. Finally she looked into Bridget's eyes as tears come to the surface of Bailey's eyes and finally nodded, "I do…and I thank you for it."
Bridget smiles, "Welcome to freedom…it might be scary at first; it might seem that it is futile and unnecessary. But when you finally taste it for the first time, you will never want to relinquish it. Also, remember that freedom truly isn't free. You have to fight for it every day of your life. We are free, but we are now conscripted by sheer duty and right to bring freedom to others. This is now your duty, and we will talk later about in which method you will help the cause."
And with that she and Carlos walked back towards the tesseract portal and enter it heading back through to New Argo base. It was that conversation, as brief as it was that changed Bailey for the rest of her life that moment forward. Daytona looked at Bailey and smiled.
"Come on…let's get some grub."
In Las Vegas…
Rictus and Shithead walk into the conference room and look for their seats still wondering where Mordred was, and it was also funny that with a meeting of this magnitude that even Sinestro was not summoned to come in and participate. Inside the room already was the mad Cossack himself with a large bottle of vodka in his large hand. His eyes widened dramatically with seeing Rictus walk in.
"My comrades, Mr. Rictus and Shithead! How are you doing this fair day?" Rasputin exclaims with joy as he stands up to greet them. Rictus notices the absence of Mandarin and looks at his friend. "Mandarin?"
Rasputin laughs, "He seems to have the shits again…these type of trips seem to get to him in his older age."
The room was a pleasant mixture of Kryptonian style in the form of crystalline walls and pillars. The sunlight from outside could be filtered through the skylight above down onto whoever was in the room. The large table in the middle as well as the chairs surrounding it was in a circular formation, giving the illusion that everyone at the table had an equal say to the direction of the Impergium. That was very far from the truth. If the Brainchild didn't want something to happen, his word was set in stone.
The make of the table was that of smooth white marble with cypress inlay for the functionality of the table. The chairs were soft and of a new cushioning material that acted like a memory foam that contoured to every curve on his body. Rictus only sat in something like this once in his life, and that was created by the entrails of the Jews he killed in the first revolt of Eve's Twat.
Rasputin sat down and leaned back onto his chair enjoying the comfort. Rictus followed him as well as Shithead to his left. The smell from Shithead started to permeate into the room as Rictus looked at him in disgust. Suddenly, Rictus realized that the smell wasn't coming from Shithead at all and was coming from the adjoining bathroom nearby as a flushing sound was heard and Mandarin walks out heading to his seat of the large table next to Rasputin.
"Wow…I was going to blame Shithead for that, but apparently this matter is something of your doing." Rictus said in a smug fashion to Mandarin.
Mandarin looked at Rictus with disdain on his face as he proceeds then to extend his middle finger in his general direction, "Bite me, Gaijin…you have no idea what is going on in my body due to the poor practices of hygiene and food choices left to my people thanks to the HLM getting to our food stores."
"So you are blaming the HLM for you getting the shits?" Shithead asked mockingly.
Mandarin looked at Shithead loathingly as the doors of the conference room open and the Al Ghuls make their way inside.
"I am sure you all notice something big had just happened, and I feel that is the first subject we are going to talk about." Ra's Al Ghul said as he walked down the steps pulling off his luxurious fur coat handing it to the robotic attendant and then proceeded in helping his daughter/wife's coat off of her and also hands it to the attendant. Talia was dressed most provocatively as most of her goods seemed to be on display.
"You noticed that Mordred wasn't here?" Rictus said to him.
Ra's Al Ghul grinned and looked at Rictus, "plain as the shit on Shithead's face…and can you please ask your second to stop staring at my beloved's breasts please. I would greatly appreciate it."
"Sorry Ra's…but I think we all are guilty in this instance." Mandarin quipped as the others laughed with him.
"God her tits look great…have you had them done, Talia?" Rasputin chuckled.
Talia smiled and literally flashed them revealing them in all of their glory giving Ra's a jealous scowl, "Nope…they're real and they're fantastic."
"The wonders of the Lazarus Pit…" Rictus murmured.
They both sat down as Talia put her breasts back into her dress and looked at everyone else. This was sort of an awkward moment considering most of Impergium business was done locally, not on a global scale like this one. The magistrates usually didn't have to deal with each other unless it was acted upon by the Brainchild himself.
"The Brainchild had to quash a story BCCNN was planning on running about Atlantis because of the lack of a thorough investigation. I also have a source at the Hall of Champions that tells me they received two new additions to the monument to be displayed after the Summit. That can only mean two things...and I am sure with your intellect what that is…" Ra's Al Ghul stated as he leaned forward in his chair.
Rasputin then chimed in, "This is indeed serious."
The door opened once more as the Holy Warden walked into the room and gazed upon the rabble of magistrates before him. He was followed by Deacon Jailer as both entered the room without as much of a whisper. They took their seats and looked at the table.
"Hello Hank." Talia Al Ghul finally said as he sat next to her.
The Holy Warden looked at her, "That name no longer has any meaning for me. You can call me just Warden if you are uncomfortable with the Holy part. And I warn everyone at this table, the Brainchild can hear everything you say in this room."
In St. Croix and New Argo Base…
"Yeah asshole, we can too…" Said Sweets and Bridget Luthor respectively.
…back to Vegas…
Finally tired of the boredom, Rasputin pulls out a deck of playing cards and shakes them at the crowd, "Seems as though we have some time to ourselves…how about a game of poker?"
The door opens and Apocalypse walks in flanked by Mr. Sinister, who is carrying five extremely large pizzas in his hand. In Apocalypse's hand is paperwork in a manila folder. Sinister puts the pizzas down as he looks at Rasputin. "Deal us in…it seems our master the Brainchild will be a while."
Rictus looks at Rasputin and then at Shithead, "I don't mean any disrespect on this, but why does he have us waiting here for so damn long? If the news he has is imperative to the health and welfare of the Impergium, shouldn't he make meeting with us priority one?"
"Maybe his Eminence has other more important matters to attend to at the present moment Rictus." The Holy Warden retorted.
Rasputin leaned forward looking at the Warden, "What crack are you smoking? And can I have some? Something is going down and it is big…really big…"
"I agree, and I have heard about it firsthand..." said Apocalypse taking a slice of pizza and putting it in his mouth.
"What do you know about it?" Ra's Al Ghul said as Apocalypse took his seat at the table.
Apocalypse looked at the Al Ghuls who went to grab slices of their own, "I know that the Prophecy of Retribution keeps coming up to him in the most opportune of times to not be considered curious. I also know that his mathematical equations are not coming out properly…he keeps muttering about a hidden variable…"
"I think His Eminence tells you too much." The Holy Warden says in contempt of Apocalypse's revelation.
"And I think someone is jealous…" Apocalypse muttered under his breath.
"Jealous? Of a fake Pharaoh?"
Apocalypse looked at the Warden and his Deacon, "Oh yes…I would rather be a fake god, than a fake pope any day."
"Oh…so now the truth comes out…why don't you two just settle down? Warden…you in the game?" Rasputin asked as he starts dealing.
The Holy Warden shakes his head, "No thank you, Russian. I will watch."
The Cossack shakes his head and continues to deal to everyone else. He looked at Apocalypse who was now on his second slice of pizza. "What does he mean by a hidden variable?"
Apocalypse shakes his head, "I don't know. All I know is that for some reason he thinks that all the stuff going on has some hidden variable that his equations are not registering."
"Well, what has been going on?" Rictus asked.
"If I knew more…I don't think a summit would have been necessary."
"Where are the Horsemen?" Asked Talia Al Ghul to Mr. Sinister.
Sinister looked at her and handed her another slice of pizza, "We were told that the Horsemen could not be in this meeting. Only magistrates and seconds were mandatory."
The card game continues for about an hour with minimal banter between parties as finally another robotic attendant comes walking through the conference room door.
"His Eminence the Brainchild would like to kindly remind you to clean up this area for his arrival in the next 10 minutes. Also you must have your presentations ready."
The attendant leaves the room and leaves everyone confused, everyone but Apocalypse and Sinister.
"What presentations? What is this all about? We got no news of a presentation." Ra's Al Ghul asked alarmingly.
"Relax; he is just going to ask of us some basic status questions about what is going on in our general sectors. Don't get all flustered." Mr. Sinister said to calm his brethren down.
"Unless you are like Rasputin who pretty much does nothing…" Apocalypse insulted Rasputin who stood up.
"What is that supposed to mean, asshole? I take care of a lot of things in my territory…the things I don't, Mandarin takes care of."
Mandarin stands up defending his fellow Asian Magistrate, "I also take great offense to what you just said, Apocalypse. Not everyone has a Four Horsemen to make them look good."
Rictus looks at Shithead and whispers to him, "And this is normally why we all don't get together much…"
"You know even after 400 years, you still want to hold that bad blood for me?" Rasputin yelled toward Apocalypse.
"Sorry…it's just for years I look back into my existence and realize that even as an X-man you had it easy. Any work you had to do was mostly physical…or taken care of by Charles Xavier. You are the epitome of what I stated was survival of the fittest, but in a BAD way. You let the hard things go and take care of all the easy things...good for survival, but bad for growth as a mutant."
Rasputin activated his steel skin and motioned to Apocalypse, "Are you saying that I am not smart? You want to finally settle this now? I'll kick your Egyptian ass all over Las Vegas."
Apocalypse stood up and motioned him to the door and looked up into the air as if talking to a fake ghost, "Look mother, after 400 years I am about to finally finish off the X-Men!"
"SILENCE!" Came a thunderous voice from the doorway. It was the Brainchild who walked into the conference room and stood atop the platform area and looked down. His flowing red cloak waved slightly behind him as a large humanoid arm came from beneath it, "If any of you strikes the other, I will have to handle both of you personally. And that is the last thing you both want of me at this point. Both of you CAN be replaced... Now take your seats."
One hour earlier, in St. Croix…
Bailey looked up to the man standing over her with food that she had just met recently as Daytona. From the story she got from him this is what she had pieced together. Almost all of his boys, including him, were from a place called Old Baltimore. The only one who hadn't been was a man they called Zombie who was a new recruit from Bridget Luthor herself for the team. Most of his men were looking at the video feed from their surveillance equipment with bated breath. She looked at Daytona who hadn't seemed to get into anything yet but whose ears were still on what was going on behind him. He handed her what might be considered a type of stew.
"Here, it's not much, but it's good and hot. Probably not used to what you are eating in the stylish Las Vegas strip." He says as he hands her the hot metal mug, "The engineers have been told that until this Summit is over that any digging or renovation of any kind was to cease so people can hear what is going on."
She took the mug and spoon and lifted the food to her mouth eating some. She nodded obligingly and in approval as she ate. In between bites she looked at Daytona, "Is it ok if we talk for a minute?"
Daytona looked back at the Summit footage and then back to her, "I don't see why not at the moment. All those assholes are doing is playing cards and bickering."
She leaned back against the wall, trying to get comfortable, "You said you all were from Old Baltimore…"
"Yep, all of us but Zombie…home of the free…trampled to the grave…" Daytona said sarcastically.
"What happened there?"
Daytona took another bite of food and swallowed, "Well, the only two people that were there when a majority of the shit went down were our General, which you met, and Dog Shit. All the rest of us were very little and have no memory, or in my case was away fighting other places. It happened twenty five years ago…" He motioned over to the crew near the video feed, "Dog Shit? Get over here!"
Dog Shit hesitated slightly just because of the sheer aura of powerful beauty that came from Bailey, but his fear of his CO was more powerful than her beauty at the moment and he sat next to him, "what's up, Chief?"
Daytona gets up and starts walking to the monitoring screen, "Our new friend is curious about us...Tell her about Old Baltimore."
Dog Shit looked down at the semi dusty floor and shook his head. Then he looked up at Bailey. "What does a pretty woman like you want to hear such as sad and horrible story?"
Bailey took that as apprehension and that she might have offended them by asking, "I am sorry if it is a sore subject. Please beg my pardon but I am curious, first about your General and also about the history HLM. I don't mean any offense to you."
Dog Shit looked to Bailey and smiled, "No offense taken...it's just that this story is not a story you tell people before they go to bed or anything. Ask Zombie sometimes about that. We told him and he had nightmares for a week. So…you really want to know what happened to Old Baltimore? It actually feeds right into the history of the Human Liberation Movement. Like I said before, it's a gruesome story…you sure you are up to it?"
Bailey nods and smiles to him, which melts his resolve. Dog Shit inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly.
"Baltimore, before the Impergium took over, used to be a part of a state called Maryland. In something my great great ancestors called The United States of America. But as you know…nations mean nothing anymore.
"The Human Liberation Movement's original main headquarters was in Old Baltimore. For some reason, the Impergium found out about us. They sent in the Impergium Raiders to attack us, but the people of the city itself rose up behind us to help defend the city. For a while it felt that we might have a chance to deflect the forces just to give the women who were pregnant at the time and the children to get through the tesseract portals to get out of there before the Brainchild or anyone he brought after us. Our General, who was with her father at the time watched as the Brainchild himself showed up and started obliterating everything in his path, innocent and guilty...people's homes and soldiers didn't seem to matter to him as he just…"
Tears formed in Dog Shit's eyes he tried to keep his emotions at bay as he continued, "The...The forces withdrew down Fort Avenue to Old Fort McHenry to hold off the attack but we knew that wasn't going to work, this is where I and my family had been to ride out the attack. Seamus Luthor, her father, knew there was nothing left to do and we couldn't all get away in time so he sent Bridget and me, Bridget was 8 and I was but a small toddler at the time, through the portal and we never saw our families again."
Bailey's face was already ghostly in color as she listened to Dog Shit.
Dog Shit paused a moment to wipe his eyes, "The story we found out much later was that The Brainchild hovered above the city and screamed that because of what transpired The City of Baltimore in its entirety was found guilty of treason against him, and the Impergium raiders went through the entire city, killing every man, woman and child, regarding if they helped us or not. They wanted to send this message as an example to anyone else who wanted to join up with us. My mom…defiant to the end told the Brainchild to fuck off and leave us alone and that he had no right to treat people this way. That we were meant to be free...He didn't take kindly to someone outright protesting him so without a word he roasted her alive with those heat beams that come out of his eyes and then proceeded to do the same to the rest of my family. BCCNN covered the entire incident and made most of us cringe in disgust…"
Dog Shit said as he began to tear up, "from that moment, everyone still alive from Old Baltimore who had survived the evacuation got together for a tearful vigil in the shadows of what would become our new headquarters thanks to Michael Luthor, Bridget's uncle, who shortly after Seamus' death became the head of the HLM by Council vote. Anyway they also took an oath that with every breath of their body they would dedicate themselves to the cause of the HLM until they could breathe no longer. The youngsters of us were taken by a young Daytona over there…and we began to train as young as age 5. The Blackbirds, as homage to the Raven of Edgar Allan Poe who had died there in olden times, were born."
"So your entire existence as a unit is based on revenge?" Bailey asked.
Dog Shit stood up, "Not vengeance, it was based on love. Vengeance will come for what happened; I just don't believe that we are the vehicle for that. But if we can prevent another incident like what happened to Old Baltimore from happening again…I would gladly give my life for it."
"So what happened after that?"
Dog Shit started to grin but that's only because there was nothing else left to do, "The Brainchild used the Cosmic Cube to wipe Baltimore off the face of New Krypton, and rebuild it into this…sterile…cold type of super city. It pretty much encompasses what was Old Baltimore and the old Washington DC. It was no longer our Charm City…No one really lives there anymore. Mostly what the people do is that they work out there maintaining computer and military infrastructure and then go out to the suburbs to live. And where old Fort McHenry stood as a last act of defiance of the Brainchild, now sits a gargantuan monument of the Brainchild watching over the bay like a spectre of evil."
Bailey who normally didn't hear stories like this being a person who had no family or friends herself, turned a whiter shade of pale from the last of that story and stood up to stretch her legs noticing that there was a fight about to brew between what looked like a man in robes and a mad Russian Cossack made of metal. All eyes were glued to the screen as The Brainchild finally entered the room.