14

“Fucking hell Prysim, are you insane?”

“Yes”

“Damn it you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, but I do know what I’m doing.”

“People have tried this before, they usually fail spectacularly.”

“I’m better than all of them, possibly combined. Besides some people have succeeded”

“You have any idea how many of them said that too?”

“I can prove it empirically.”

“This is still insane, you aren’t this kind of crazy.”

“No I’m not, I just need a change in life. Look I’m made arrangements for you to be paid in the even of my demise.”

“You’re comfortable with that?”

“Are you planing on killing me now that you know?”

“No.”

“Then yes I am comfortable with that.”

“Fine, but why did you hire me in the first place? I have no medical or rehabilitation training of any kind.”

“Anyone who does, that I could hire, would murder the ever living fuck out of me, and possibly rape me, before and after. You won’t, besides you’re going to be really useful for stage two.”

“Whatever stage two is. Besides until then you have to deal with this.” To demonstrate Hercules attempted to insert the I.V again.

“Fuck ow, damn it you suck at that. Do you have any better ideas?”

“Kidnap a nurse or medical intern, preferably one interested in physiotherapy and offer to pay back their student loans. I can keep them in line.”

“That’s actually a really good idea, ok let do that. Get this needle out of my arm.”

Hercules obliged by removing the needle, and pretending not to notice the wince of pain that shot across Prysim’s face. Oddly he really didn’t like seeing Prysim in pain, these last couple of days since she had hired him had been quite refreshing. He even found himself liking the young super villainess, possibly because his own daughter would be about her age. A fact she likely already knew, he had to keep reminding himself. Prysim jumped up from the exam chair that was molded perfectly to her body, and went to one of the many computer screens doting the room. Hercules had quickly learned that there were not actual computers in the complex, they were all off site. All that was here were screens, and keyboards. Even if the whole place was destroyed she wouldn’t lose any data.

“Lets restrict the search to people in the top 10th percentile of student loans, keep them young, eliminate those with criminal pasts, boy or girl?”

“What?”

“If your the one who’s going to keep them in line do you want a boy or a girl?”

“Boy.”

“You sure? Statistically a girl would be less likely to try anything, also as much as I act like I don’t care, it’s kind of embarrassing to be naked around the opposite gender.”

“Really? You didn’t seem to care around me.”

“I was proving a point.”

“Ok, if it would make you more comfortable, girl.”

“Goodie. Ok, my list went from several thousand to several hundred.”

“Good?”

“It gives us choices, take a look at these people and tell me what you think.”

“Why?”

“You’ve been at this for forty years, you have instincts, who in these photos would be suitable?”

Hercules sighed, this really wasn’t his area of expertise. He started scrolling through the pictures that had appeared on a screen near him. He vetoed the ones that looked too confident, the ones that looked insecure were better, the idealistic ones were also good. 

“Might want to get rid of anyone religious, they can be unpredictable, and harder to threaten if they think their getting into heaven.”

“But atheists have standards and morals derived from logic, you still make good point.”  A portion of the list disappeared.

“A true bleeding heart, that can’t stand to see anyone in pain would be best.”

“My computer doesn’t have a search function for bleeding hearts.”

“What about adopting pets from a shelter?”

“I’m not kidnaping someone if they have a dog at home.”

“So we take the dog too.”

“What kind of monster are you?”

“Super villain remember.”

“Good point, what about this one? She has a rescue puppy and volunteers at the free clinic.”

“Do you want to get the puppy or the girl?”

“Do you have any idea what the response will be if I show up at a hospital? You get the girl, I’ll pick up the puppy, and some clothes.”

“One more question.”

“Shoot.”

“How am I suppose to go get her? I don’t know were we are, or if this place even has a door.”

“I’ll give you a teleport module.”

“Sweet.”

“Boys and their toys.”

“You have way more toys than I will ever have.”

“Some of them even vibrate.”

---

“Ok kids, form up. We have a mission.”

Koi called the three kids on her team to attention. Gaslight had been reading old mission reports, Cinder was playing on his phone, with a chemistry book open in front of him. Shatter was also reading, an into to magic textbook. He hadn’t turned a page in a while so it was hard to tell if he was actually reading or not.

“Super villain Hercules just kidnaped a medical intern from the memorial hospital.”

Gaslight who apparently payed attention spoke up first. “Isn’t Hercules considered too powerful for a youth team to fight?”

“Yes and no, he’s too powerful for us to beat. But it’s ok for youth teams to fight him because he won’t cause permanent harm to us. Part of the reason he’s still active. Fighting him his actually considered good practice.”

“What about the intern?”

“She is considered to be in a low risk situation, she might not be happy, but nothing too bad should happen to her. The real issue here is that Hercules was using Prysim teleport tech, we are going to investigate, but we are not to engage. The least dangerous person we know of who has that stuff is Prysim herself.”

“How do we find someone if we don’t know were they came from, or where they went?”

“Easy, we find out who hired him. And by find out I mean we get to support an experienced team.”

“LLLLAAAAAAAMMMMMMMEEEEEEE.” Cinder still needed to be taken down a peg.

---

“Ms. Yamada are you ok? The teleport can be a bit jarring.”

The young looking asian girl in green hospital scrubs was half sprawled on the stainless steel floor. It couldn’t be comfortable, the floors were cold, the whole facility was cold. Prysim said she liked it that way. The girl looked up at him with terror in her eyes, it was fair enough even ignoring his imposing figure, he had just kidnaped her, and was a super villain. Can’t forget that super villain part, well at least it was highly unlikely Prysim would do anything permanent to this girl. As far as he could tell Prysim was just in it for the practical jokes, her jokes were just very large.

“You are going to have to get up I’m afraid, the boss wants to see you. Don’t worry she needs you alive an unharmed, nothing will happen to you.”

Ms. Yamada didn’t make a move to get up, she just continued to state at him mutely. Hercules sighed inwardly, sure it would be useful for her to be terrified, but it also was annoying.

“If you don’t get up I’m going to have to carry you. We are expected and the boss isn’t use to waiting.”

He reached down and grasped her forearm, when she showed no sign of moving. He was going to haul her up to her feet, but she remained limp in his grasp, so he instead put her in a bridal cary. She was shivering in his arms as he carried her to the room Pysim had set up for this little venture. The room wasn’t very large but it’s purpose was fairly clear. It was stuffed with various medical equipment, in one corner there was a hospital bed. Of course all of that was dominated by what was in the center of the room. It was a massive tube, that looked to be made of glass, it was filled with what appeared to be a greenish liquid. In the liquid floated a girl. She was entirely naked except for a breathing tube that had was coming out of her mouth and reached into the celling. The girl looked like Prysim, her hair floated free and everywhere.

It wasn’t Prysim of course, Hercules had watched Prysim make this particular body double. Prysim was standing behind the tube, in her light absorbing armor, that made details difficult to tell. It wasn’t exactly the same as before, she had added two red glowing eyes, and changed the voice modulator. Now she sounded like one of those super villains in movies that were on life support. It was admittedly very scary, it did remind him that Prysim wasn’t just a prankster but one of the more dangerous people on the planet. Ms. Yamada  actually forgot to be scared of him, as evidenced by how she started clutching his arm. The shivering did get worse.

“Hello Ms. Yamada, or is there something else you would like me to call you?”  Ms. Yamada remained mute as Prysim paused to let her talk. “Ok, Ms. Yamada it is then. Now I’m sure you’re wondering why I had you brought here?” Prysim paused again to let her talk, no such thing happened. “Wow, you’re totally spineless aren’t you, I mean this does make thing easier if less fun. Here’s the deal in about a week I’m going to let this unfortunate girl out of her tank, at which point she is going to suffocate to death.” Ms. Yamada did make a sound at that, Hercules wasn’t sure what the sound was. “Unless you save her, after with she’s going to need pretty much around the clock care for a week or two. Time I’m not willing to give up. I’d have Hercules do it, but he kind of sucks at medicine and would probably kill her through incompetence.”

“Why?” Hey, she spoke for the first time. Sure it was basically a whisper, but it was a word.

“Oh, that’s simple I thought it might be fun, she didn’t mind.” Prysim knocked her knuckles on the glass to indicate the girl in the tube. “Ok, I don’t think she minded.” Another dramatic pause, Prysim was really playing this up. “I might have forgotten to get informed consent. Or consent. Or her name. But the experiment was really cool, so she should be happy about the results. Look that doesn’t matter to you, keep the girl alive till she can keep herself alive and I’ll send you home. Put her in her room for now Hercules, I’ve got work to do.” Prysim glided out of the room silently.

“Ms. Yamada if you would like to walk your room is behind the door in the back. I’m afraid you’re going to be restricted to this room and your rooms for the time being. I believe some of your things have been placed in there for you.

---

Fifteen minute later Hercules joined Prysim in her office. She was watching Ms. Yamada on a rather large screen that currently took up part of the wall. The room looked odd to Hercules, and it was probably worse to Ms. Yamada. The room itself was stainless steel, just like everything else in the complex. It was filled with things that were entirely new, except the puppy.  New sheets, new posters, new potted plant, new clothes. But they were all the same as things Ms. Yamada owned, same posters, same sheets, same type of plant, even the same clothes. It was probably terrifying to Ms. Yamada. As was evidenced by her in the corner of the room that was empty, and hugging her puppy.

“I couldn’t feel worse about this if we had murdered her puppy.”

“Relax Hercules, she is kind of perfect. We’ll send her home better off than before. But you do have a point, make sure nothing happens to the puppy.”

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