Death Makes Me Stronger 4, page 10
Mr. Ingle threw an arm wide to motion to all of the officers, soldiers, and camera crews around the room as if they’d all personally witnessed Admiral Freedom selling Vis on the street. A couple of the cops even booed, and I glanced over to see that they were some of the ones that had been at City Hall. The lawyer nodded in respect to them and then turned back to the eagle-woman who’d somehow managed to remain calm even while my partner and I fought not to throw hands with the douchebag in a pinstripe suit.
“Is there a question?” she asked when Mr. Ingle didn’t continue.
“I suppose that my question is…” he said and then paused for dramatic effect. “How long have you hated the country of Unada? And how long did you work with Admiral Freedom to help tear it down?”
“Excuse me?” Vera asked in a dangerously calm voice like the one she’d used when the eagle-woman had threatened to peck out my liver.
“You’re not even a citizen of Unada, isn’t that right?” Mr. Ingle continued, though the lawyer did take a few steps back like his fight-or-flight reflex had gotten the better of him. “You’re part of the Great Eagle Tribe from the west. Isn’t that right? Did you start to work with Admiral Freedom after he was discharged from the military? And were you the one to turn such a powerful soldier into a traitor to not only his country, but his own people?”
“I’m going to use my venom on him,” Golden Weaver seethed, and I grabbed her hand.
The hero’s nails scraped against my glove, but the fabric was tough enough that it didn’t tear, and besides, I was now immune to any venom that might make it through the breathable fabric.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “That’s exactly what he wants.”
“Did you want me to answer your questions in order? Or are these purely rhetorical?” Vera asked, and Anora and I immediately turned back to the eagle-woman.
“Oh, no, Lady Vera,” Mr. Ingle smiled and motioned to the courtroom again. “I think that all of us would like to hear your explanation. If you weren’t in league with Admiral Freedom, then I think that we should hear exactly what caused you to be so ignorant of his dealings.”
“I may be a citizen of the Great Eagle Tribe,” Vera started and then turned to the cameras to address them rather than the lawyer who sneered at her. “But I have loved Unada from the beginning of my service as a superhero. You say that it was me that turned Admiral Freedom against his own people, but you have yet to prove that he actually did what you’ve accused him of.”
A low murmur went through the courtroom, and even Judge Warren’s attention was focused solely on Mr. Ingle like his words were prophetic instead of just a bunch of hot air.
“Lady Vera,” the agitating man snorted and shook his head. “I admire your desire to defend one of your own. But we have all seen the news, and I have personally read all of the reports filed by the brave National Guardsmen that faced the atrocities that Admiral Freedom committed in the underground bunker discovered earlier this week.”
“Then you’ll know that Admiral Freedom’s eyes and throat were ripped out,” she said with a pointed look at the lawyer.
A few gasps were heard from the reporters like they hadn’t heard that particular detail, though it had already been leaked on a couple of conspiracy blogs. Those sites were about to get a lot more attention now that Vera had confirmed the information, and Mr. Ingle quickly straightened his tie like it had suddenly started to choke him. The news stations were all live at the moment, so the cat was out of the bag, and it would be hard to convince the public that Admiral Freedom killed himself after they’d heard how the number one hero had died.
“I did see the pictures,” Mr. Ingle continued, though his skin was paler than it had been a couple of seconds before. “They were quite gruesome. Of course, that’s what happens when someone takes so much of their own product that they go on a homicidal rampage. I also saw the pictures of the nearly eighty men and women that he tore limb from limb so fast that they didn’t even have a chance to defend themselves.”
“Admiral Freedom didn’t have super speed!” Sun Streak objected and then immediately blushed as every eye turned toward her. “He didn’t. And he wouldn’t have killed himself. Someone framed him.”
“You’re a good friend,” the lawyer said in a sympathetic tone. “But we’ve all seen what Vis can do to its users. It gives their superpowers an extra boost, and in some cases gives them an entirely new superpower altogether. With that being said, isn’t it possible that Admiral Freedom gained super speed when he overdosed on his own product and then went on a murderous rampage?”
Sun Streak pressed her lips together, and Lady Vera clacked her beak to bring everyone’s attention back to the front of the courtroom.
“I believe that you’re still questioning me,” she said when Mr. Ingle looked at her. “And while your theory that Admiral Freedom killed those people is plausible, it still does not explain how he managed to rip out his own eyes and throat. The Vis users that we have seen over the last few years have never taken their own lives, and those who did die while under its fluence were capable of feeling pain. Evidenced by their screams when it consumed them.”
“Of course,” Mr. Ingle said with a shrug. “It’s also just as possible that Admiral Freedom realized what he’d done, and in a moment of clarity, decided that he should pay for the crimes that he committed against everyone he was sworn to protect.”
A couple of cops shouted their agreements, and then the whole courtroom erupted into jeers. Some of them even came from the superheroes in the seats behind me. The whole place felt like a powder keg that was about to explode, and Vera’s interrogation was the spark that would light it all.
I glanced around until I found Kyle Isles stationed by one of the news cameras. The PR man had the hint of a smirk on his face, but no one else had looked in his direction. I didn’t have a headache, so the psychic wasn’t the one in charge of Mr. Ingle, but he’d already done so much groundwork that there was no real need for mind control.
The whole city had endured weeks of panic at every turn with supervillains and civilians alike that went berserk while they were on Vis. They wanted someone to blame for the pain and heartache. And Admiral Freedom was the perfect fall guy since the man was already dead and couldn’t defend himself.
“Lady Vera,” Mr. Ingle continued when the courtroom was finally back under control. “Can you really say, with absolute certainty, that Admiral Freedom was not involved? Even with all of the evidence that’s staring you in the face? Do you really want to believe in him so much that you would turn a blind eye to the atrocities that he committed against the people that you’re supposed to be protecting?”
“I am sure that Admiral Freedom was not the leader of the Vis drug ring,” the eagle-woman said.
“Then,” the lawyer said and paused to sweep an arm out to all of the heroes in the courtroom. “How can we trust the Heroes Society? If you refuse to believe the facts that are right in front of you, then how can we believe that the other heroes are not just as corrupt as Admiral Freedom?”
Angry protests exploded from behind me as everyone rose up to defend themselves.
But the damage was done.
And the Heroes Society wouldn’t survive the day.
Chapter 7
“That’s all the questions that I have for you, Lady Vera,” Mr. Ingle said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
The heroes were still up in arms behind me, so the National Guardsmen and cops all broke out the superpower-restraining cuffs. There were more of them than us at the moment, but there was no way that they could take on every hero in the courtroom if they decided to go to war. Even Alexiar and Sun Streak stood up to protest their leader’s treatment, and Golden Weaver had started to vibrate like she needed to calm herself down.
My partner’s ability to vibrate wasn’t very well documented since the superhero didn’t use it often, but the frequency could immediately calm whoever the spider-like woman targeted. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Blue Frost had started to chill just a bit, and soon, everyone within a few seats of us had managed to take a deep breath. Golden Weaver nodded once when I turned back to her and then rolled her shoulders as if she’d finally managed to relax enough that she wouldn’t immediately tear off Mr. Ingle’s face with her venomous claws.
“Everyone, please sit down,” Vera said as she came off the stand.
The eagle-woman stood a full head taller than Mr. Ingle, and the lawyer backed away a few steps like he thought she would attack. Several of the soldiers rushed forward to step between the pair and escort Vera back to her seat, but it was the sword strapped to Vera’s waist that everyone seemed to notice for the first time. We’d all seen it in action at the City Hall massacre, and the National Guardsmen suddenly looked like scared kids facing their angry mother.
But the proud woman just nodded in respect and then sat down next between Golden Weaver and Sun Streak like the despicable lawyer hadn’t just accused her of being a traitor and incompetent within the span of ten minutes. She fluffed her feathers, clacked her beak once when a few of the other heroes were slow to return to their seats, and then nodded to the judge like she was the one running the show.
“Everyone sit down,” Judge Warren ordered, though the only ones still standing were the cops and the soldiers. “Mr. Ingle, please call your next witness to the stand.”
“Thank you, Judge Warren,” the irritating man said with a polite smile. “My next witness is Blue Frost.”
“Of course,” the ice super preened and then went up to the stand.
It took all of my self-control not to get up and punch the smug bastard in the face, but that wouldn’t help anything, and the Heroes Society was already doomed no matter what Blue Frost said. I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t completely tear down our organization, but the glare that he shot in Vera’s direction was filled with years’ worth of resentment. Everyone knew that the ice super had wanted to be the number one hero, and it was clear that he still thought that would be a possibility, especially now that Admiral Freedom was gone.
“Blue Frost,” Mr. Ingle started and began to pace in front of the witness stand. “I understand that you worked closely with Admiral Freedom over the last few years. Is that correct?”
“Of course,” Blue Frost responded and puffed out his chest with pride. “I was invaluable to several of his missions. And he even helped me with some of my own. It’s a tragedy that such a promising hero lost his way, but not all of us are as incompetent. And the lure of evil cannot sway me.”
“Naturally,” the lawyer sneered and clasped his hands behind his back. “By all accounts, you’ve done quite well for yourself despite not being part of the big three.”
The ice super blanched at the obvious snub, and Alexiar coughed a little too late to hide his laugh. I shot a look over at the usually stern superhero just in time to see Sun Streak slap his knee and cover her mouth with one hand like she was scandalized, but there was a smile beneath the speed super’s fingers. Blue Frost must have made more enemies than I thought, though it wasn’t too surprising since the conceited prick was under the impression that he was powerful enough to take Admiral Freedom’s place instead of someone else from the big three.
“I have,” Blue Frost said and brought everyone’s attention back to himself. “I have fought quite a few of our city’s worst villains and came out victorious. If it wasn’t for the obvious bias within the Heroes Society, then I would have risen much higher in the ranks.”
“No doubt, no doubt,” Mr. Ingle nodded in agreement. “It has to be hard to fight for a place in the spotlight when so many other, more charismatic, heroes have already taken those spots. And the big three was already established when you joined the Heroes Society, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” the ice super said with a pointed glare at Sun Streak and Alexiar. “Though I’m not sure if they deserve that recognition.”
Mr. Ingle nodded again and glanced around the room like a magician that was about to pull off a great illusion. I had no doubt that he planned to hit Blue Frost with the same accusations that he had with Vera, but it was clear that the ice super was too full of himself to see what was coming. The lawyer had played straight into his ego, and it was finally time to rip off the Band-Aid.
“You do deserve recognition,” Ingle said and rested an arm on the witness stand, looked toward the cameras, and then turned back to Blue Frost. “In fact, you actually knew about the Vis epidemic long before most of the city did, didn’t you?”
“Well… I…” the ice super spluttered like someone had rebooted his brain. “I did. Of course. Only an incompetent hero wouldn’t have noticed the epidemic that was spreading through New Liberty. And I reported it to our illustrious leader.”
“Naturally,” Ingle nodded and flashed a bright smile. “And then you joined the drug task force to help them take Vis off the streets, didn’t you?”
“Well, no,” Blue Frost said, but the superhero still managed to regain his composure. “I expected Lady Vera to take care of it. As the head of the Heroes Society, it was her duty to take the drug off of the streets like any other criminal enterprise. Why she didn’t assign me to the task force is beyond me. And I was even told to keep quiet about the drug epidemic for the last few years.”
“Years?” the lawyer gasped with fake shock that would’ve made a soap opera proud. “Vis has been around for years, and you did nothing about it?”
“I was following orders,” the superhero said and shifted in his seat. “And as I said, I trusted Lady Vera to do what was right. Clearly, that was a mistake. If I had been in charge of the Heroes Society, then none of this would have happened, and I would have taken Admiral Freedom out of play long ago.”
I rolled my eyes beneath my mask as the ice super made his play to be the new head of the Heroes Society. Everyone else could see that the whole hearing was nothing but a sham operation to justify shutting us all down, but Blue Frost really seemed to think that he could convince Ingle, the judge, and even the mayor that he should be in charge. I wasn’t sure if I should be impressed by his delusions or just sad that the guy was seriously that removed from reality, but there was no way that things were going to go in the superhero’s favor.
“Following orders,” Ingle nodded again and then clapped his hands together. “That seems to be the general consensus from everyone in the Heroes Society these days. You were just following orders. You thought that someone else would take care of the problem. But aren’t all of you supposed to be the ones to take care of New Liberty? Isn’t it your sworn duty to protect us from the things that threaten to tear our great city apart at the seams?”
Ingle had completely turned away from Blue Frost at this point, and his speech was given directly to the news cameras stationed along the walls. The live broadcast would be heard by everyone in the city, and all the way across Unada, but the lawyer wasn’t quite finished yet. He pressed his lips together into a thin line, took a deep breath, and then nodded again with a disappointed expression.
“Following orders,” he repeated. “The Heroes Society has been a shining beacon of hope for not only New Liberty, but all of Unada. No. For the entire world. But here we are today. Disappointed. Betrayed. And the fault isn’t just with the once great superhero, Admiral Freedom. But with every single one of the heroes in the Heroes Society. With everyone who was just… following orders.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Blue Frost tried to backtrack, but the damage was already done, and Mr. Ingle quickly waved a dismissive hand at the ice super.
“You can go back to your seat, Blue Frost,” the lawyer said. “That’s an order.”
I watched as the ice super struggled to decide what to do, but Ingle had already played him like a fiddle, and there was nothing left to do but to skulk back to his seat. Some part of me felt bad for the conceited jerk as his shoulders sank in on themselves like a deflated balloon. I didn’t get along with Blue Frost, and I wanted to punch him more often than I had wanted to hit Admiral Freedom, but no one deserved to be humiliated like that.
“Osiris,” Ingle pulled my attention back to the front of the room. “Would you please grace us with your testimony?”
“Sure,” I said and stood.
The walk to the witness stand seemed longer than it should have been as if the carpeted floor had turned to quicksand. My partner’s attention was devoted to me as I sat down, and Vera nodded once in reassurance. The bright fluorescent lights blinded me for a second before the lenses in my mask adjusted, and then my eyes shifted to the red camera lights pointed in my direction.
“Osiris,” Ingle said with that same used car salesman smile that he’d used on Vera and Blue Frost. “You’re relatively new to the Heroes Society, aren’t you?”
“I am,” I said and fought the urge to roll my shoulders to relieve stress.
“And yet you’ve already made a name for yourself among the other superheroes,” the lawyer continued.
“I guess,” I shrugged. “I’m just doing the best I can.”
“You’re not one for a lot of talk, are you?” Ingle laughed and patted the witness stand like we were old friends. “That’s fine. It seems like a lot of the Heroes Society members don’t like to talk. At least, not about what’s important.”
I just stared at the man and waited for a question. There was a moment where Ingle looked a little flustered as if he’d expected me to defend myself, or the Heroes Society, but there was nothing to say. I knew that our days were numbered, and it was only a matter of time before the lawyer finished the little charade so that the judge could disband us and send us packing.
“Right,” the lawyer said and shot the cameras a side-eyed look. “I understand that you and your partner, Golden Weaver, were asked to join the drug task force?”
“Yes,” I said.
“And did you work closely with Admiral Freedom after that?” Ingle pressed with an irritated glare as if he was a frustrated director with an obstinate actor.
