Chapter 1

Sydney’s image and voice came out clear across my monitors, “I see you two careless morons are awake. It’s no use playing possum, Master has monitors everywhere. Those collars can’t come off, so don’t bother trying.” Their collars restricted their enhanced human abilities including strength, stamina, regeneration and invulnerability.

“Who are you?/ Where are we?/ Why did you capture us?/ You won’t get away with this./ I will so kill your crippled ass when I get out./ Who is your Master?”

“If you shut your pie holes for a minute, you might learn something ... Better.” The young wheelchair-bound teen rolled closer to her captives with those sparkling green eyes, regarding her newly acquired lab rats.

“I am Sydney Thomas. You can call me Sydney or Miss Thomas. I don’t respond to much else. Where you are is in my lab. I have time before the bulk of my order arrives so it was deemed the best place for this experiment. I will get away with this. Go ahead and try it, if you manage to earn your way out. Master is Master. I answered your questions. Now listen up if you want to live.”

The remarkable girl’s ability to track multiple conversations at once astounded me yet again. In a room full of people, she never once lost track of any conversation in hearing range. Sydney had earned this opportunity against my better judgment. I had been talked into it by both my student, Sydney, and my wife, Catherine.

I just hoped that it worked out the way that Sydney expected. Not that I thought it would.

“That got your attention. Now you might be asking yourself, what do I have against you two imbeciles?” Smiling her childlike smile, seemingly full of innocence, my student replied to her captives: “I, nothing, but the world’s nastiest Arch Villain does. Remember May 6^th at 01:37 AM? No, let me refresh your memories. Do you see that picture of a painting on the wall over your beds? Ever seen it before?”

“Looks like the Puss knows.”

“Puma,” corrected the 5’4” brunette Heroine from behind the transparent force field walls.

“Right, whatever.” Sydney shrugged off the interruption. “That was the painting that you two destroyed in the DIA last month. What you might not know is that it was donated by the second fucking scariest person on earth.”

I would have to sit Sydney down again and discuss her language, her anger at the world was cracking through her speech again.

“Strife?”

“No. Besides Moria is on Hope Station playing with her Tinker Toys and Lego’s. Does Leonard of Prague ring a bell to either of you two walking disaster areas?”

“Dr. Death? What does he have to do with that painting?” The B-Ranked Villainess, known as Kriss, demanded, only slightly worried about her ‘crippled captor’s’ answer.

“Dr. Death himself donated his sixteenth century nativity scene to the DIA for restoration and viewing ten months ago. You two fucking idiots came and destroyed a genuine da Vinci two weeks after that particular masterpiece was fully restored and hung for viewing. Two weeks. Do you have any idea how mad he is right now? I was in the next room and still shit my pants.” Sydney made what she called her ‘vomit face’, again.

I wished she would stop that. And the language.

“It was an accident,” Puma defended herself.

“NO, it was not, you threw me into the wall. It’s your fault. Let me go and tell Dr. Death that it was all her fault.” The tall ebony-haired Villainess directed the blame fully on her Heroine counterpart.

“Right.” My student didn’t believe a word either of them said. “Now for the offer. You want out. Both of you can be free tomorrow morning. Just say the word.”

“What’s the catch, Crip?”

Calling Sydney a cripple was useless. She called herself worse on a daily basis.

“The catch is that Dr. D. is waiting for your sorry asses. You, your family, your goldfish, cats, dogs, lovers, pimps and associates, you name it. All dead. Art is forever. People count less than candle flames to the ancient bugger.”

Both understood that was true. The millennia old vampire did have a reputation for thoroughness.

“What is your proposal, Sydney, was it?”