Bound Evil

Emily’s bubble gum pink glove sunk into the soft flesh of the sidekick's spandex-covered abdomen, and sent him crashing through several exhibits.

“Whatever you’re here for you’ll never get away with it, Empress!"

Emily cringed as Captain Cosmic—the only other S-tier super in the city—blocked her exit. His deep, charismatic voice boomed through the halls of the convention center. Nameless bystanders lingered, hoping to glimpse their favorite hero. Their funeral.

Emily was glad her mask hid the flush of her cheeks, nevertheless, she smirked. Her trademark fiery hair framed her face as it cascaded down her crimson garments to her lower back.

“Cosmo, my dude, how can you not be embarrassed to use such a boring line.”

This muscle-brained idiot had thoroughly ruined her day off. How was she supposed to know he would recognize her out of costume? Emily certainly didn’t know it was him; she’d just thought he was some pervert because he kept staring at her chest. Then all of a sudden he and his forgettable sidekick suit up and come after her.

Trying to explain that she was just here to see the new technological developments had fallen on deaf ears, but it was the truth.

This expo was a once-a-decade event, boasting some of the latest energy manipulation devices to date. Emily had been enamored with science since she was a child, but surviving on the run made it difficult to attend any real place of higher learning.

Snapping back to reality, Emily's eyes widened as she ducked under a swing from Captain Cosmic, which exploded the nearby air in a shockwave of power.

Close quarters were not her strong suit, but the battle, though short, had been intense. The room was coming down around them, and Emily didn’t want to be here when reinforcements arrived.

With a pulse of gathered power, she sent Captain Cosmic hurtling through the concrete wall, but that would hardly slow him down.

Turning to make her exit, something gleamed from the corner of her vision. Focusing on it, Emily’s breath sped up.

The first thing she saw was a collapsed piece of scaffolding and under it, a man struggling. He was dressed in a lab coat and Emily immediately recognized the thrice Nobel prize winner, Dr Heinz.

An obstinate man who had single-handedly proven the existence of ‘null energy’.

But that’s not what caught Emily’s eye now. No, just above the scientist, on the now failing scaffolding, sat the crown jewel of this whole event.

A prototype generator for the newly discovered energy, it was supposed to be Dr Heinz's crowning achievement, and now it was about to crush him.

Emily heard movement from the hero-shaped hole in the wall and cursed under her breath.

Lifting into the air, she made a mad dash for the man just as the scaffolding’s supports gave out. Arriving in the blink of an eye, Emily kicked the debris flying and snatched the piece of equipment out of the air.

A giggle erupted from her as she lifted the glowing pyramid triumphantly. It was no bigger than a human head, but easily weighed over three tons. The outer layer was transparent, revealing the inner workings to be a delicate maze of silver wires and circuitry.

“Mine!” Emily gushed in a seagull-like tone.

This wasn’t the boring stuff normals made, this was made by a super. Now all she had to do was get home.

A squeak from Dr. Heinz below caught Emily’s attention, a look of fury masking the unique combination of liver spots and bionic limbs. Currently clutching something small to his chest, the pompous codger stared at Emily with hate. If she had more time, Emily would have loved to threaten an autograph out of him.

Captain Cosmic was beside the man ready to deflect the falling rubble that would never come, of course he was—selfless prick.

Unable to hide her excitement, Emily clutched the pyramid to her chest.

“Sorry old man, this is mine now”

And that would have been that.

Emily knew that Captain Cosmic would never leave the doctor trapped in a collapsing building in favor of catching her, not when her retreat meant no further damage to the area.

Unfortunately, his sidekick didn’t seem to know the etiquette yet because he came crashing through broken stalls, brandishing a strange-looking gun. Probably from one of the exhibits because Emily had never seen it’s like.

The battered sidekick didn’t hesitate to aim and fire a violet laser from the broad muzzle of the weapon.

With little time to react, Emily moved the pyramid to intercept the shot.

In the back of her mind, she realized her mistake, but there was no more time.

The beam hit the component and the internal contents shifted from a bright, churning silver to a black, darker than a gravitational well.

Emily’s eyes widened and she froze, staring down in mute horror at the device. Even children knew you didn’t mix super’s technologies, not unless you wanted to get blown to kingdom come.

The device hummed for a moment and then went silent, stabilizing itself.

A second passed, and then two.

Emily’s tensed shoulders drooped as she let out a sigh.

Funnily enough, she could see Captain Cosmic had taken several steps in her direction, his hand outstretched and a worried look plaster on his disgustingly, handsome mug.

Had the superhero been about to save her? Emily didn’t get a lot of time to think because another angry voice shattered the silence.

“Old? Old! I’ll show what it means to be old, enjoy your trip to the next dimension, you thieving bitch!”

‘Who the what now?’ was all Emily had time to think before she spotted the old man smashing his thumb down on the remote he’d been clutching.

The device whirred back to life in her arms, and Emily's thoughts of throwing the device away were stolen from her, as a charge of electricity forced her arms to spasm against the device, clutching it in a death grip.

A low keening hum exploded into the room, shaking the air around them and filling the space with a neon purple light.

Emily was dimly aware that Captain Cosmic was rushing towards her again. Only for a perfect sphere of darkness to expand from the prism as though space had fallen in on itself. Trapping her inside the phenomenon, Emily heard the rushing of air as it vented past her into the space beyond.

Debris followed through the sphere, yet they did not touch her. Emily tried to spot Captain Cosmic or that fool of a scientist but the world rippled like a wave on a pond.

Then, when it felt like the sphere would detonate into their reality, Emily heard a voice stretch out from the violet emptiness behind her.

“Then we are of one accord. Now go!”

A hand reached through space itself and pulled Emily back with it. She tried to resist, drawing all her power from her core in an attempt to stay, but the force was too powerful. All Emily could do was watch as the world around her shrank to black and violet, and her body ignited.

Star Lad pulled the door off the police car and dropped it to his side revealing Dr. Heinz chained in power restraints.

“What in the world have you done? Where does that hole lead?"

The old man looked up at the convention center where a violet sphere of pure darkness rotated, slowly growing as it ate anything it came into contact with.

The scene was littered with officers and reporters as they moved about the roads.

“Now-now, kid, shouldn’t you be worrying about finding your next mentor, not that they would accept you. After all, you played your part in this, though mixing that inferior piece of tech with my own was never part of the plan.

Max’s eyes dilated as his patience snapped, he reached in and ripped the doctor from the vehicle, hoisting him into the air by his collar.

“Where did you send him!”

Surprise and perhaps a hint of fear clouded the doctor's eyes.

“Collateral damage kid, all that matters is that the Empress is gone. I’ll need to study the phenomenon.”

Max slammed the doctor onto the boot of the car causing it metal to groan.

“Not good enough!”

“I don't know, I can only guess”

“Then guess!”

“Okay…okay, if we assume he’s still alive and not atomized on impact-”

Max’s hands tightened on the doctor's collar.

“-then the only outcome is dimensional shunting. By the looks of things, matter is being converted into null energy, and sent somewhere, but wherever that is leaking energy back into our world.”

Max’s fist sunk through the metal of the car with ease as the windows exploded outward from the force.

Max’s voice became nothing more than a hollow whisper.

“And where is that doctor”

“How aren't you getting this, you muscle brain whelp. I don’t know! What I do know is if you harm me, the planet is doomed. That anomaly will continue to grow unless I can find a way to stop it.”

The doctor could see this wasn’t enough to get him to back down so he continued.

“The likelihood of anything being pulled through safely is possible, but that's not the problem. The real concern is whether the other side is habitable. This is the equivalent of a blind jump, the chance of appearing in open space is a statistical certainty.”

Max’s eye remained fixed on the man until he was certain he was telling the truth. Dropping the doctor, Max took a step back into the air as he began to ascend.

Adjusting his collar the doctor looked up at Max.

“Relax kid, so we lost a piece. You’ll get your dues”

Max couldn’t listen to the man any longer and lifted into the air, putting on a burst of speed and rocketing himself up past the twentieth floor and parallel with the hole in space as it floated above the city skyline.

Max’s shoulders drooped his form tiny in comparison to the now monolithic sphere.

As the air made contact with the anomaly it let out a quiet hiss, as though it were whispering to Max, mocking him for his hubris.