Lair Read online

  Lair

  Henchman Book One

  Carl Stubblefield

  Copyright © 2020 by Carl Stubblefield

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Newsletter

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About Carl Stubblefield

  About Mountaindale Press

  Mountaindale Press Titles

  Acknowledgments

  Hey y’all!

  I’d love to take the time to go ahead and thank a lot of people. My family, friends, peers, and those who supported me.

  And now those who...didn’t. Those who doubted me. Those who tried their best to bring me down. Those who fueled my rage and spite-filled nights with writing. Those who can be immortalized as villains and who tried so desperately to keep me and other good people miserable for their own gain.

  To you? I say thanks, and read carefully. You never know what may lay between the lines, subtext and foreshadowing and all that. See you soon.

  Newsletter

  Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life.

  Chapter One

  Free Falling

  Gus dragged the mop across the already spotless floor on the bridge of the space station. He had drawn the short straw and got custodial duty, again. Staring at the floor, he didn’t notice the increase in activity of the crew.

  Just do your time. Three more months on the station then you can get back to your friends. He had only taken this job because he thought his three best buds would be onboard with him. When they didn’t get picked, Gus had been alone. He felt isolated as the new guy, and, of course, all the worst jobs fell to him more than what seemed like his fair share.

  A sudden impact made everyone stumble, shaking Gus out of his moping while mopping.

  “Give me a status report!” Station Commander Graviton barked.

  “Sir, it appears that we have lost stabilizers one through six and the remaining two are at half capacity,” First Lieutenant Aurora reported as her hands flew across multiple view-panels.

  “How is this happening? I thought having him here would prevent those types of malfunctions!” Graviton growled, jabbing a finger in Gus’ direction.

  Gus tried to press himself closer to the wall in a misguided attempt to become less noticeable. His super employer was known for his hot temper, and despite his famous father’s connections getting him this job, he had no illusions that he wouldn’t be crushed in a fit of rage. Just his luck to be on custodial duty when something went wrong.

  “The stabilizers are showing no signs of mechanical failure, but there is something impeding their access to a sufficient gravimetric field to function as designed—”

  “Is the disruption only below us or all around?”

  “It appears to be a disc-like interruption slowly moving to eclipse the footprint of the station from Earth. Remaining stabilizers will be unable to function in forty seconds!”

  Gus slowly slid toward the exit as Graviton madly pounded at various panels. Adjustments made, he slid his arms into two sleeves in a crystalline box that resembled the type lab techs used to work on dangerous chemicals or viruses. Once his hands were inside the sleeves up to the elbow, the inside of the box lit up and a blue hue emanated from his palms. His hands began gesticulating and waving and then were pressed flat as if he were trying to keep the lid on a box with some wild creature inside fighting to be set free.

  The whole floor tilted suddenly and the mop bucket began to slide when it suddenly stopped with a slight vibration as the crystal box activated. Gus was hoping to get off the bridge, but as his mag-boots engaged he couldn’t lift his feet off the ground. He didn’t know if it was due to his boots being typical faulty, low-tier henchman issue or that the magnetized floor was set for supers and he was just too weak.

  So flipping close to the door! Gus pulled frantically at his ID attached to his retractable keycard holder, trying to stretch it to the sensor panel. Of course, it had to be on the right side of the exit door, a mere six feet away. Directly behind him was the access door to the escape pods.

  Why not? he thought, pulling the ID to this panel. The panel flashed on:

  ID: Gus Vannett

  Rank: G.O.O.N.

  This pod is reserved for Tier 1 employees only, please access pods reserved for your particular tier.

  Tier 1 comprised the highest ranked supers, who made up the bridge crew. Pods for regs were probably hopelessly far away on the extreme lower levels; if they even existed, that was. One more reality that reaffirmed the distinction between supers and regs, as they were called—regular humans with no powers.

  “Get ready!” Graviton shouted.

  Gus turned back to the chaos… and was hit by a wave of nausea as his inner ear was overwhelmed with the confusing maelstrom of forces, as it struggled to determine what was up and down. It felt as if riding a spinning teacup ride on a rollercoaster with a liberal amount of loop-de-loops. He held out valiantly for about two and a half seconds before throwing up.

  The fluid projectile mass streamed away from him, combining with the levitating mop water in front of him which then hovered and began to coalesce into a ball. Gus watched in horror as it was stretched and contorted by the forces playing upon them all, and the mass nearly hit Graviton. Luckily, it did not. Unluckily, it hit Aurora full in the face like a vengeful slime creature from one of the RPGs Gus and his buddies loved to play.

  Gus’ jaw dropped and he redoubled his efforts to lift his boots. Gravity slowly began to reassert itself to its normal direction and things started to settle. His boots were still stuck to the ground and he was effectively trapped. This was not good, as his punishment for losing his lunch and probable death were only delayed by the confusion and urgency of stabilizing the station.

  Why did it have to be Aurora? The blonde beauty was one of the few people who ever noticed Gus and was even nice to him. She was way out of hi
s league, of course, but there was a tiny part of him that fantasized that she actually liked him back. Reading volumes into a smile and glance where in reality there was probably only kindness, or pity.

  Gus stopped trying to lift the boots and began to start removing them when he realized he was getting nowhere. He managed to loosen two of the ski-boot type latches on the back of his left foot. It had taken a while to get used to walking in the clunky boots, a mandatory part of the station uniform. He hadn’t given it too much thought until they activated and secured to the floor. The station stopped with a lurch, and the display showed that they had anchored to the moon’s gravitational field.

  At the same time, a pinpoint of light appeared near the center of the floor. Hooray! More distractions! The light brightened and the metal began to bubble and sink in an ever-widening pit.

  Gus kept working, feeling like he was in cement shoes as he worked to finish unlatching the left boot and began on the right. Three supers flew in through the breach and executed perfect three-point landings in a row, somehow managing to position themselves opposite Graviton and Aurora. They wore black uniforms, contrasting with the garish purple and white of those whom were on the station. Graviton was Purple Faction, one of the three governing factions of supers on the planet. The fact that the invaders wore black spoke to their factionless nature.

  The center figure pointed at Graviton, twisted his hand and made the ‘come and get it’ gesture Morpheus made famous all those years ago.

  Was there a class supers attended called ‘Dramatic Entry?’ If so, they needed to expand the course curriculum. Maybe it was only a weekend continuing education class. Gus recognized the woman on the right to be Slipstream, a super who could wield solid light. She could also use existing forms of light as tethers to pull against and move around, both artificial and natural. Gus didn’t know the other two, but thought the one on the left was a shapeshifter—Mercurio, maybe?

  Graviton whipped his hands out of the interface, pushing it to the wall as he prepared for battle. His eyes stopped on Gus struggling by the escape pod.

  “Don’t even think about it, boy—that pod is for me alone,” he said through gritted teeth. Gus froze, feeling a bead of sweat roll down the center of his back. Graviton turned back to the invaders, and Gus finally gasped, not realizing he had been holding his breath as his boss’ gaze fell upon him.

  Aurora had cleaned herself somehow and flung out her hands, shooting a blinding spray of ionized light and particles toward the invaders. Slipstream slid forward in front of her companions to meet the spray. She raised the back of her forearm to the attack, absorbing the light and energy into an invisible shield. Her feet appeared to be skating on mini Tron-like light cycles and she spun and flung the blinding blast back toward Aurora.

  Mercurio took his cue, stretching and sliding, serpent-like, attacking from the other side. As he leaped, Graviton flung out a hand and Mercurio slammed to the floor. He vibrated there, losing cohesion slightly as the G-forces held him to the ground. While Mercurio was held, Graviton had to split his focus and keep his arm outstretched to maintain the localized gravity well. With his other hand, he aimed at Slipstream, but she was too fast for him to target as she rocketed side to side at jerky angles to avoid being hit.

  Slipstream pulled slivers of light from the LED panels above and began to fling them at all of the bridge crew, skewering one through the neck and another in the eye.

  Many were so intent on stabilizing the station that they were not paying attention to the battle going on and were mortally wounded. As they saw their comrades fall, others rushed to maintain the station’s functions, but ducking and staying behind cover as much as possible.

  Slipstream targeted the bridge crew with dogged determination. Gus had assumed they were supers, but they made no attempts to retaliate or join Aurora and Graviton as they ducked out of the way. When they attempted to check a screen or panel, Slipstream would pick them off, one by one.

  The invading leader, wearing a black suit with a red lion or scorpion—it was hard to tell the logo—stepped forward, exuding equal parts confidence and contempt.

  “Factionless!” Gus said in shock. Those who were unable or unwilling to join a Faction were looked down upon almost universally. Often they were mercenaries, willing to do anything for the right price. While the main Factions were Purple, Green, and Orange, most factionless chose to wear gray or black. The Factions were merciless with imposters, and few dared incite their wrath. Gus stared at the spectacle, unable to control the covetous looks he gave even the Factionless. Am I the only reg on this station?

  Graviton intensified his pressure on the shapeshifter as the Factionless leader faced him and began hurling glowing lava balls, kudoken style. Equipment was dissolved into black bubbly masses as the superheated material dissolved polymer plastic panels and displays. A lava ball hit the leg of a crew member, taking it off at the knee, cauterizing it, and filling the room with an unbearable stench.

  Aurora focused her intent and drained most of the energy from the lights, absorbing photons and robbing Slipstream of her deadly ammunition. The area darkened; Aurora left only the red emergency illumination, which had the least energy of visible light.

  Graviton attempted to shift the direction of his abilities to immobilize the opposing leader, who responded by simply beginning to hover in the air. One of his sub-skills must have been flying, and these supers were resistant to gravity attacks. Abandoning these techniques, Graviton flung Mercurio against the far bulkhead to focus on the leader. Concentrating, he began to generate a matterless singularity at the core of the invader’s chest.

  Gus watched Mercurio fly toward the wall, changing his form into a ball. He hit it, but rebounded off of it like he was made of rubber, and launched back into the fight. He slid behind Aurora and his elongated arms began to snake around her.

  Glancing back to the bosses, Gus saw the lava super had staggered to a knee, clutching at his chest, looking back in fury at Graviton. Stretching his hands out to the sides, tight beams of lava shot laterally and began eating into the structure around him. One of the crew leapt out of the way as a console was split in two, the beams melting through everything in their path.

  Locking eyes, the two supers pitted their strengths against each other to see who would last the longest. Creaking of beams could be heard as the heat chewed through supports, weakening the substructure. The space station was designed more for functionality and was lightweight by nature, to more easily maintain orbit. Thus it lacked the durability of a typical fortress, as access was limited for most supers, and soon began to succumb to the heat.

  Gus could begin to see an indented deformation that was slowly growing larger in the chest plate of the lava super that resembled a crumpling soda can.

  Mercurio had wrapped Aurora in multiple bands of his stretched, flexible arms while Slipstream was hitting her with what looked like a glowing cudgel of some sort.

  With a loud groan, the room split, buckling upward in the center, separating Graviton from his enemy. There was a moment of weightlessness, the strain of damaged components stressing gravity tethers to the breaking point. Gus flew out of his left boot, secured in place only by the remaining latch on the right one. The station’s gravity field stuttered into effect, then winked back out into zero gravity.

  “Critical failure! Hull breach! Please evacuate!” a voice warned over the speakers, amidst sirens that began to sound. The door to Gus’ right slid into the wall… the escape pod was open! Whether caused by a short or the station’s imminent demise, the restrictions had been lifted. Gus strained to reach to remove the last latch on his right boot, grabbed the doorjamb, and pulled himself out of his boots and inside. The supers outside continued to struggle and crash about, pushing off walls to engage each other in the weightless environment.

  The pod was an oval room that branched off the main bridge. It was about twenty-five feet in diameter and appeared to be designed for two individuals. The
decor and technology appeared a lot older than the bridge for some reason. The fluttery-falling sensation of lost gravity returned and Gus hit the launch button. As the doors slowly slid shut, he could see Graviton getting a face-full of lava as the other super straddled him and they both grappled each other as they floated by. Blinking in surprise, Gus numbly let his eyes drift and saw explosions through the portholes and main screen along the front of the pod. He was still in a shocked stupor when it was forcefully jettisoned away from the station.

  Chapter Two

  Crash Into Me

  Gus hovered for a second as gravity shifted yet again, then he was flung into the wall. Lights flashed, and the world turned as he flew toward the ceiling. Through the viewport, he could see the tumbling of the sky, then water, then sky again as the pod flipped and shimmied through the atmosphere. His inner ear and stomach tried to orient with the confusion of signals to figure out just where down was, as the rudimentary inertial dampeners struggled to minimize the strain to the occupant inside. Fortunately, his stomach was conveniently empty.