Chapter 11: Trophies

Chore time. How phantastic.

            Phantom Paranoia

“Police say she is armed and dangerous and those around her may suffer from severe dizziness.  If you have information regarding her whereabouts, do not approach her but call the number at the bottom of the screen,” the newswoman said.  A phone number appeared on the TV, joining the mostly accurate sketch of Vertigo.  The only part that was wrong was that for some reason she had fangs in this depiction.

I sighed and turned it off.  Oh, Vertigo.  I wasn’t even mad at her anymore.  I was just worried.  Worried about the cops finding her and worried about how she and Nessa were doing on this mysterious mission.

I looked down at my watch.  It was almost seven o’clock.  Chore time.  Today my team and I were supposed to polish the trophies in the trophy room.  Nothing brightens your day like a mind-numbingly tedious chore with the people who ruined your last mission.

I headed down the stairs from my room toward the trophy room.  This was where the League honored it bravest and most accomplished members by creating trophies and medals with their names on them.  I had always dreamed of earning a spot in this room.   

However, when I opened the door I found something that was not what I remembered.

            The room was lined with thousands of baby rattles.  They came in all kinds of sizes and colors, but they all had the same label on them: SUPER DEMON BABY, FIRST PLACE.  And the trophies were nowhere to be found.

            Was this some kind of sick joke?  It just wasn’t right.  Some of the members that had been honored here had passed away, and their awards here were all they had left behind.  Now SDB’s rattles stood in their place, making a mockery of them and the League itself. 

            I clenched my teeth, telling myself not to get mad because that’s what he wanted.  This was a reassertion of his power.

            “We’re cleaning rattles?” demanded an outraged voice I knew all too well.  I turned to face Sunny D, who must have entered right after I did.

            “My team is cleaning rattles.  But you, shiny d********g, are not on my team!” I informed him.  It felt good to insult him, like he had been doing to everyone else for years now. 

            “Easy there, sport,” the clerk said to me.  He and Anaconda had just walked in.  “The purple dude just told us that Sunny will be joining our team, since most of his was executed for trying to run away.  Besides we could use another member, since Vertigo is out on a mission.”

            “Well, then,” I declared, walking to the other side of the room from them. “Let’s CLEEEEEEEEEEEEAN some trophies!”  I realized I sounded crazy, but I didn’t care anymore.

            I set to work, not looking back at the others, but getting the feeling the feeling that they all stared at me for a moment before doing anything.  I tried to concentrate on polishing the rattles, but unfortunately my mind began to wander.

            I thought back to when Nessa, Vertigo, and I were all still friends with Sunny D.  Sometimes we would all play poker together, Sunny dealing because otherwise he would always beat us.  Other times we would sneak out at night and just walk around.  It sounds boring, but when you’re with the right people anything can be fun. 

            Eventually Sunny got promoted to a full-time hero.  He had always been a hard worker, so he deserved it.  We were all happy for him.  But then we began to notice that Sunny had been spending a lot of time around this guy named Falcon.  Falcon was a really powerful League member, and also a really terrible person.  He was arrogant, not too bright, and definitely not as funny as he seemed to think he was.  But more and more often, Sunny would turn down our invitations to hang out, and we would sometimes see him walk by, laughing hysterically at something Falcon had said.

            One night we asked Sunny if he wanted to sneak out and go somewhere with us.  As we expected, he declined.  So Nessa, Vertigo, and I went without him.  When we returned, we found Falcon and Sunny waiting for us.  We stared at Sunny in disbelief as Falcon yelled at us, sentencing us to two weeks in isolation.  Sunny just stared back at us, with that impassive poker face of his.  None of us had spoken a word about our former friendship ever since. 

            “Hey, I’m really sorry about your teammates,” Anaconda said behind me, interrupting my thoughts.

            “Yeah, it’s too bad,” Sunny replied.  “This whole situation kind of sucks.  I mean, we can’t fight because we don’t have our powers.  And we can’t run away, or we’ll get executed.”  He sounded legitimately frustrated, but I didn’t buy it.  Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was kissing up to SDB to become an officer in the new version of the League.

            Then the clerk chimed in.  “But there has to be something we can do!  In the movies they always figure something out.”

            “This isn’t a movie.  This is life,” Sunny said morosely.  “And sometimes in life you lose.  You just wake up one day and realize that everything you’ve been doing has been worthless.” 

            I smiled as I polished a hot pink rattle that was as tall as me, thinking that maybe there was an upside to all of this- the fact that Sunny lost his power in the League.

            “Dude, that’s depressing,” Anaconda told him.

            “Yeah, but so is life.  Haven’t you noticed how many people are missing?” Sunny asked.  “Tomorrow at breakfast, just take a look around.  We’re down to about half of the members we used to have!  So if you guys have some magical plan to take down SDB, I’d like to hear it!”

            The room got quiet again.  I thought about what he had said.  He was right; people were dying every day.  My anger at him seemed petty now.  He was a jerk, but he wasn’t my real enemy.  The person I should focus my hatred on was Super Demon Baby.  I wanted to take him down, and I realized I was in a room with three others who wanted the same thing.  I spun around to look at them.

            “We must form a band in the face of this tyranny!” I exclaimed.

            They all stared at me for a second.

            “That’s a really cool line,” said Anaconda thoughtfully.  "Where'd you come up with that?"

           

Author's Note

Any review is a great review!

Reviews

[SomeTypeOfArtist]

Super Demon Baby, First Place... cracks me up. There's usually always something that cracks me up in each of your chapters. On a more serious note, I also liked the line "It sounds boring, but when you’re with the right people anything can be fun." I used something similar to that in one of my previous stories, too (before it got deleted from my computer), and I feel like it's one of the most applicable lines to real life that I've ever read/written. I also like how this chapter kind of stands alone in the back story of Sunny D, I really enjoyed reading about it. Hopefully we can see a little more of that!