When Michael awoke, he was in a large underground structure, placed in the most comfortable bed he had ever been in. It took him a few moments to get his bearings and remember what had happened. His eyes went wide as he frantically searched the room for any sign of Deckmaster. When he did not see any, he shot to his feet and ran to the door. He pulled it open, revealing a large hallway with metal walls lined with extravagant paintings and sculptures. Hearing voices coming from the left, he bolted down the right corridor.
“Where are you going, kid?” a woman’s voice called from behind him.
He paid it no attention and kept running, pushing through a set of double doors. A large room with extravagant marble columns opened before him. He frantically looked around, looking for any kind of exit. His heart sank when he saw Deckmaster sitting on a marble throne-like structure engraved with a pattern of playing cards.
“Michael, right? So you’re finally awake,” he said with a grin.
Michael bolted in the opposite direction, sprinting for a grand hallway that he could see led to a concrete staircase. He heard footsteps echoing down the staircase as he grew closer and was about to change direction when a figure came into view. A man wearing a black costume with a blue mask, gloves, and boots with a large yellow W surrounded by a blue ring printed on the chest. He had short and brown hair forming a perfect swirl at the top of his forehead.
Michael’s heart threatened to leap out of his chest as he ran toward the figure. “Wonder Boy!” he shouted, hope glimmering in his eyes.
Wonder Boy stared at him with a look of disgust and turned toward Deckmaster. “You’re collecting strays again, are you? Thought you would have quit that bad habit after the last one failed to pay back the debt.”
Michael stopped running with a look of utter confusion on his face.
“Well, the entertainment I get is well worth the money lost,” Deckmaster said with a devilish grin.
“As long as it doesn’t come out of my cut, you can do whatever the hell you want,” Wonder Boy replied, walking fully into the large room.
The color drained from Michael’s face as the corners of his lips curled downwards.
“Y-You're supposed to be enemies! You're supposed to fight him and save me!” Michael yelled, fighting the forming lump in his throat as tears formed in his eyes.
Laughter boomed out behind him as Raymond slapped his knee in hysterics. “Kid, we have never been enemies,” he said between bouts of laughter. “It’s all a little ruse we cooked up. Wonder Boy over there acts as this city’s resident superhero, and we get to run our business however we like. That is why all the big fish stay away. All we have to do is put on an act for the camera every once in a while, and if any small fry wants to step up, well, they can join up with us or go the way of your parents,” he said with a wicked grin.
Michael fell to his knees, sobbing. Was everything a lie? “It can’t be that! Superheroes are meant to fight and stop bad guys. This has to be some kind of trick.”
“Oh, it's no trick, kid, and with his streak,” Wonder Boy said, pointing at Deckmaster, “I bet you don’t make it to see your 20s.”
“Oh, come now, I’m not that bad.”
Wonder Boy turned to look at him with a blank expression. “Raymond, if I went into half the things you did to the last stray you found, your new one would probably lose his lunch.”
“Well, that one did not know how to listen, you can’t blame that on me.”
“Can and will.”
“Anyway, let me call someone in here to take care of him and get him working off that debt, and we can get started.”
A woman came in a few minutes later and collected a still sobbing Michael, carrying him back to his room.
She wiped his tears away. “It will be okay,” she said with a warm smile. "Here, how about you come help me with some cleaning to take your mind off everything? It will also get you started on getting out of here,” she leaned over and whispered the last part into his ear.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Michael nodded weakly, still sniffling, and followed the woman. He spent the next four years helping her and the other staff within the large complex keep the building clean while earning pennies back on his debt. When he was 14, they had him help collect other people’s debt payments. His power had not yet manifested, but he held out hope that it would happen any day now, and he could be his own superhero. At least working every day had caused him to bulk up a lot for his age, so he would be ready when the day came.
When he was 16, they had him work as a driver, moving whatever they asked him to without question. His powers still hadn’t manifested, and Michael began to believe they never would. By the time he was 18, he had completely given up. He had always had a small hope in the back of his mind that he would get powers like Solaris and be able to take down Raymond’s enterprise single-handedly, but no one manifested powers after their 18th birthday. He had to accept that he was part of the 10% of the population labeled nulls. Raymond had laughed endlessly when he found out, which led to Michael’s new call sign within the organization, Null.
From that day on, Michael put his head down and focused on trying to build the best future he could for himself in this fucked up city. He increased his debt to Raymond and got his own apartment, happy to have a space for himself. When he was 22, he was finally trusted enough to take on jobs that would reduce his debt. Until now, the monstrous interest rates Raymond had forced upon him ballooned what he owed to over $100,000. But with this next job, he would finally be able to cover the interest payment and more. If only what he had to do wasn’t so awful. Michael almost gagged just thinking about it, body disposal.
He awoke early the following day to his phone ringing. He picked it up and groggily answered. “Hello,”
“Raymond sent me. Be outside your apartment in 10 minutes or I’ll be going to the job site without you.”
Michael jumped out of bed frantically, pulling a stained shirt out of his laundry basket and over his head. “Sure, see you then,” he said.
The call ended, and he scrambled to get something to eat before heading down. With only five minutes remaining, he made it into the elevator while shoving a bagel into his mouth. He walked outside right as a black van pulled up to the building. The front window rolled down, revealing a gaunt-looking man. His sunken eyes and lips that hung in a constant frown gave him the appearance of a man one lousy phone call away from doing something terrible.
“Are you Null?” he asked in a monotone voice.
“Yeah,” Michael responded.
“You can call me Saw. Get in.”
Michael pulled open the passenger-side door and climbed into the car. As soon as the door was closed, the man spoke again. “Raymond tell you what you’re doing today?”
“Yes,” Michael said, his lip twitching.
“Good. I don’t need him throwing me in with someone who is not prepared to see what we are going to see just because he thinks it would be funny,” he gritted his teeth and shouted as his statement went on.
“Yeah…” Michael wanted to say something about how he wasn’t prepared for what they were doing, but felt like it might set the man off, so he decided against it. They drove for around an hour before coming to an unassuming house in the middle of the suburbs. Saw backed into the driveway and hopped out of the van.
“Let’s go. I need your help to carry some equipment inside,” Saw said.
Michael followed him, jumping out and moving to the back of the van. Saw opened the double doors in the back, revealing an assortment of different tools and plastic buckets filled with who knows what.
“Put this on,” Saw said, throwing him a yellow hazmat suit and mask.
Michael completed pulling the suit over his clothing and putting on the mask and a pair of gloves that were slightly too large for him. After he was suited up, Saw punched in the garage code.
“You can carry those in,” he said, pointing at two buckets.
He grabbed a few tools and a roll of plastic sheeting, wrapping them in a towel before heading inside. Michael grabbed the buckets, feeling them slosh around as he followed Saw. The stench was the first thing to hit him when he entered the building. It smelled like something had died in this house and been left to the elements for a few days, which he guessed was not too far from the truth. Michael fought his urge to gag and followed Saw down a hallway and to a bathroom.
“Take a good look, kid. That’s what happens if you get on the bad side of this city’s superhero,” Saw said, motioning to the bathtub.
Michael openly gagged when he saw what remained of a man sitting in the tub. From the neck down, it looked normal. Just a man dressed in a red t-shirt and blue jeans, but the top half of his head looked like it had been liquefied, drooping down and mixing before solidifying again.
“I thought Wonder Boy’s power couldn’t affect anything that was living,” Michael said, turning away from the grotesque sight.
“That’s just what he tells the media. Do you think this city would feel as good about their resident superhero if they saw him turn someone into mush?” Saw said while opening the roll of plastic sheeting. “Now put those buckets down and come help me cover the floor and counter with this.”
Michael did as he was told, helping Saw roll out a large section covering the room in a thin layer of plastic.
“That should be enough,” Saw said, taping down the last plastic sheet. “Now, come help me lift him out of the tub.”
Michael walked over, trying to avert his gaze from the man's head, and grabbed hold under his armpits.
“On the count of three, 1… 2… 3!”