Chapter 14: Origins

An attempt to form a resistance leads to new knowledge about Super Demon Baby.

Phantom Paranoia

            I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes, trying to cancel out the chaos surrounding me.  To my right, Nessa and Vertigo were arguing about whether or not to call the number in the cell phone and what to say if they did.  It wasn’t hostile arguing, but it was still frustrating to hear.  To my left, the clerk was spouting some ridiculous scheme to take down SDB, while Anaconda and Sunny spoke over him, trying to tell him all the reasons it wouldn’t work.

            I took a deep breath and looked around the small room, which contained nothing but four rusty metal folding chairs and a fairly flat boulder in the middle that seemed to serve as a table.  When Vertigo had asked about a meeting place earlier this evening, Anaconda came up with this place right away.  He said his father dug this hideout beneath S.H.O.V.E.L. headquarters with his friends and took him here a few times when he was little.  But no one had been in here since about fifteen years ago, when his father and his friends died in a mission gone horribly wrong.

            Anaconda said his dad would have been proud that this place would be used for an honorable cause.  But as I looked at the others blabber on and accomplish nothing, I didn’t see anything honorable happening at all.

            “Stop!  Hush!  All of you!” I said, not shouting, but speaking loud enough and with enough urgency that they stopped talking and looked at me.  I hesitated for a moment, not sure what I had planned on saying.  “We’re not solving any of our problems with all this nonsense!  We need to figure what we’re doing, and for goodness’ sake, only person should be speaking at a time!”  I turned to Nessa and Vertigo.  “I think one of you needs to call the number and tell them we want to help.  Convince them we’re trustworthy.  Because we’re going to need their help if we actually want to get anything done!”

            “You’re right,” said Nessa after a moment, picking the phone up off the boulder. “I’m going out into the passageway to work my magic.”  She flashed us a nervous smile and left the room.

            We looked around at each other silently, not knowing what would come next. 

            “So…” said the clerk, “Now we just wait and hope these people have a plan?”

            “Yep,” answered Vertigo. “Also, we hope they trust us and don’t kill us.”

            “Great,” the clerk muttered, looking down at his shoes.

            Once again the room was silent, except for the muffled sound of Nessa’s words.  I concentrated, trying to figure out what she was saying, but I couldn’t.  A few minutes later, she came back in.

            “Natalia wants to talk to you guys,” she told us, laying the phone on the rock and putting it on speaker. 

            “Hello,” greeted Natalia happily through the phone.  “It’s nice to know you all wish to join us!  Unfortunately, I will not be sharing details of our organization over the phone.  We will have to meet when you are sent out on your next mission.”

            “So you actually have plans?” asked Sunny, leaning in toward the phone.

            “We’re working on it,” replied Natalia.  I could almost hear her smile through the phone.  “But if you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!”

            “How can we have ideas about how to defeat someone if we barely know anything about them?” Vertigo asked.  “I mean, at the warehouse, you acted like you had experience with Super Demon Baby.  Isn’t there anything you can tell us to help us understand him better?”

            “No!” Natalia exclaimed hastily.

            “But we have to figure this out as quickly as possible!” pleaded the clerk.  “Before we’re all dead!  And what if he decides to take over more than just S.H.O.V.E.L.?  With all the people working for him now, he could do almost anything!”

            There was a long pause before Natalia spoke.

            “I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you about him.”  Now her voice was solemn and quiet, so we all leaned in to hear her better.  “It all started less than two years ago, when a poor single woman with a newborn baby could no longer afford to pay the rent for her apartment.  She was evicted and had nowhere to go.  She had been laid off from her job, due to the economy, and had no income.  She was determined not to give her baby away.

            “An old friend allowed the woman to stay at her house until she got back on her feet.  But she could tell her friend was not thrilled to have a baby in the house, especially since she was always asking to borrow money for baby supplies. 

“The woman applied for many different jobs, and eventually got a position as a waitress at a restaurant, making less than minimum wage, plus tips.  This allowed her to better take care of her child, but there was no way she’d be able to move out of her friend’s house or pay off her debt with that kind of money.

“Then one day, when she was grocery shopping with her baby, she was approached by a man who would turn her life around.  He said he was a doctor, working on a new treatment that would improve a child’s health and development.  He offered her a hundred thousand dollars to let him try it on her infant son.  He left her his phone number, telling her to let him know her decision as soon as possible.

“She needed the money.  A hundred thousand dollars!  The man must have been a rich fool to offer that kind of money… Or there would be some kind of repercussion to experiment… But she didn’t let herself think about that.  She needed the money.

“She called him that night.  They scheduled the appointment for that Saturday.  She brought her baby and placed him in the arms of the stranger.  She signed a waiver, telling herself it would be alright.  It would even be good for her child.  She waited in the lobby for it to be over.  She tried to read a magazine, but couldn’t concentrate.  She ended up pacing back and forth for the several hours it took for the man to bring her baby back.

“Finally, the man appeared, with the baby held tightly in his arms.  She sighed with relief.  Her son was safe and sound.  The man told her the check would be in the mail, as he handed the infant back to her.  She looked down into her baby’s face, tears of relief stinging her eyes.

“’Hello mother,’” the baby told her, letting out a horrible deep laugh.”

Author's Note

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