Council of Evil (20 page)

“As I said, to cheat death I have the ability to absorb DNA. Just a small sample is enough to rejuvenate my body and mind. I was dying. I needed to make a genetic regeneration quickly. Did your parents ever tell you the circumstances of your birth?”

“My mom gave birth to me on the way to the hospital.”

“Fortuitously for me, I was in the area. The younger the DNA I can clone, the longer I live. A newborn baby is much better than a teenager or an adult. Gives me a few more years. A little knockout gas took care of your parents for a few moments while I stole DNA from your wrist.” Jake looked at his wrist where he had had a circular dimple since birth. “Sorry, I was in a rush. The side effect of genetic rejuvenation is that I take on the
physical characteristics of the donor—hence the family resemblance. I shall be like this until it is time for me to change once more, which will be very soon as you can tell from my appearance. Time is once more running out for me. Think of me as a genetic vampire, if you will. But I make a point of looking after my genetic counterpart, so I watched you and molded your development so you became strong and independent.”

“You made me callous and bitter?” snarled Jake. “Are you trying to say you made me into the kid that picks on everybody?”

“I certainly engineered it, yes. Your friends are the true unintelligent bullies. But I molded you to be a
thinker
and a
leader.
Why else would somebody from such a loving family become such a monster?” He said the last with a tinge of sarcasm.

“You ruined my life!”

“No. I gave you chances you would never have experienced!” He jabbed a finger at the intruders on the screen. “They are the people who ruined your life, made you a wanted man and took away your family's memories! The people who think they are doing a good deed. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You should be stopping
them
!”

Jake wanted nothing more than to lunge at Basilisk and beat the evil creep to a pulp. But that would still leave questions unanswered.

“You've done nothing but lie to me!”

“Sometimes I had to manipulate the truth.”

“You told me your name was Scott Baker, and that you were from Australia. Lies!”

“With each regeneration I needed a genuine identity to make my way around the world. I sometimes pick my identities from the deceased, acquiring their legal papers, bank accounts, that sort of thing. Otherwise, where would I put my money? Would you trust a bank run by villains? Sometimes lies are easier than the truth. But it is no lie that we have to stop those Enforcers from interfering. Please, Hunter. Do this.”

Jake hesitated. He was cornered and had no intention of allowing the Enforcers to capture him. Glaring at Basilisk he stalked from the command center without saying a further word, and slid his gloves on.

His mind was racing as he sprinted down the corridor. He wanted to cry at the injustice of it all—crying would be something he hadn't done for a long time, but wouldn't be appropriate right now. His thoughts turned to self-preservation. Could the feedback process be reversed? Then he thought about the fact that both heroes and villains wanted to experiment on him. Where did that leave Jake?

What do you call somebody stuck in the middle?

Jake entered the hangar and prepared to launch himself vertically through the hole in the roof. Something
caught his attention: the SkyKar had been moved, and Chameleon's body was nowhere to be seen.

“No!” shouted Jake. He ran to the spot and looked around. There was a little blood, but no sign of where the hero had run to. Well, that was a problem for Basilisk right now. He just hoped he could get to Chameleon before Basilisk did.

Jake focused on the task at hand. He had to stop the beach attack. With a warming surge as the powers flowed through him, Jake launched himself skyward.

Basilisk glared at the display screen as a second blip appeared in the center of the island: it was Jake. Basilisk was annoyed at himself for revealing so much to Jake so soon. But at least he still hadn't revealed his
ultimate
intentions and so still had some control over the boy—and control was something he needed. He was beginning to regret selling his last pair of power-dampening handcuffs to Doc Tempest on his last visit. They would be handy now. If Jake was ever to find out the true extent of his mutated powers … Basilisk shivered. That thought was too dark even for
him
to consider.

“Incoming transmission,” shouted one of the technicians.

“On-screen,” commanded Basilisk.

The satellite map shrank away to a corner of the screen
as the new transmission took over. Eight unusual figures appeared: the Council of Evil.

One spoke in a sibilant voice. “We have discovered your true plan, Basilisk! The real one, not the lies you've been spinning to the world's governments! This is madness!”

“Doc Tempest betrayed you!” said a woman's voice with a hint of glee. “He told us everything. Stabbed you in the back so he could have an official permit for his own plan.”

Basilisk smirked. “You think I was mad enough to turn the earth into a wasteland? What use is that to me? I intend to blow Villain.net and your pathetic Council off the face of the planet!”

“You'll never get away with this!”

“I already have. And being one of the few people who knows your headquarters lies in an extinct volcano, I finally discovered a method of breaching all of your state-of-the-art defenses. No missile attacks, no swarming armies. I will just simply blow your lair apart from under your feet as you cower in terror!”

“Once again, you threaten to destroy the world!”

“I have taken precautions to ensure my lair was constructed at the precise point on the volcanic network to maximize the destruction of your base. My engineers have worked tirelessly to block magma channels in order to prevent other volcanoes from erupting. The earth's
pressure will build to such intensity that your extinct volcano will be magically resurrected. Then, by using Hunter's amplified powers, all I have to do is take over Hero.com and I will control the only superpowers left. Nothing in the universe can stop me!”

Basilisk was swelling with his own self-importance. He stabbed a button and killed the connection with the Council. He turned to a technician. “Launch the Probe!”

Nothing happened. Then Basilisk noticed that three of the technicians were stuck fast to their seats by large globules of sticky glue that bound their arms and covered their mouths to silence them.

Basilisk turned to see that a fourth technician was standing close by and pointing a resin-rifle at him. Basilisk's puzzlement vanished as the technician's clothing and skin rippled into a vaguely reptilian form, and then into that of a young man dressed in black. Chameleon.

“The Council made such a pleasant diversion, didn't it? Your insanity ends here.”

“This must be the same thrill a lion feels as it stalks its prey,” thought Jake as he felt the sand crunching under his boots. The figures in the trees were picked out like Christmas lights in his enhanced vision. They had nowhere to run. Black smoke drifted behind him
from the damaged Sea Crawlers, polluting the clear tropical air.

The ground shook; he looked up. Beyond the cowering Enforcers a spectacular plume of red lava spewed from the lip of the volcano.

Jake looked at the Enforcers, who were twisting their necks between the erupting volcano behind and the ominous figure of death on the beach. Basilisk had said they were the real threat, but looking at them now he realized they were just normal men, trying to do a job without the aid of superpowers. Unlike Chameleon, who hid behind his powers.

“Who cares about these Enforcers?” thought Jake. They posed no threat. The erupting volcano signified that Basilisk had just launched the Core Probe and its nuclear payload.

Jake decided that it was time to take matters into his own hands.

The Enforcers cowered as Jake ran toward them. They were expecting another barrage of superpowers. But their assailant rose into the air and zoomed over the treetops, heading toward the eruption.

For once he was going to do some good. He was going to stop Basilisk.

Basilisk repeatedly slammed Chameleon's head against
the control panel with such ferocity he was drawing gloopy green blood. He had the superhero in a viselike grip amid the trashed command center.

“I should have dealt with you a long time ago!” Basilisk roared in his face.

Chameleon fired the resin-rifle at Basilisk in the hope it would restrain him, but instead the expanding glue-balls ricocheted from an invisible shield. Basilisk had retaliated with a blast that sent Chameleon soaring through the massive screen in an explosion of sparks and plasma fluid.

The three technicians, who were stuck to their chairs, still had the use of their feet and rolled their chairs toward the nearest exit.

Chameleon counterattacked by hurling fireballs across the room, decimating several computer banks. Basilisk had dived aside and activated the Core Probe's remote launch sequence before Chameleon had a handle on what was happening. The superhero leaped onto Basilisk's back to pull him away, but was too late.

The entire hangar started to tremble as the Core Probe thrust itself earthward. Rock bubbled and melted away as the device slowly lowered itself. It quickly vaporized the ground in its path and after a few feet it pierced a small magma chamber under the volcano. But that was enough to initiate a local eruption. The
entire base shook as the volcano erupted far above the surface.

Basilisk and Chameleon struggled, limbs locked together on the floor as they rolled through chunks of burning control panel. Basilisk was proving to be the stronger of the two and twisted Chameleon around, gripping him tightly across the jaw.

Chameleon tried to shapeshift as Basilisk crushed his head repeatedly against the panels. But no matter what shape he took, Basilisk's grip was relentless. He forced Chameleon to face him.

“No!” pleaded Chameleon as the intensity of Basilisk's soulless blue eyes increased. Chameleon could feel the warmth being sucked from his body and his limbs becoming stiffer. His skin took on an unhealthy sheen and his face felt immobile, as if mud had rapidly dried across it. He was being petrified, and the experience was horrendous.

Basilisk felt a heavy weight suddenly slam into his back. The momentum propelled him clear of Chameleon. The pallor left Chameleon's face, but he was still weak. Both he and Basilisk looked up to see Jake standing in the doorway ready to hurl another energy blast, and oblivious to the burning wreckage around him.

“Stop the Probe!” Jake shouted.

Basilisk was on his knees. He held up his hand in a
pitiful gesture. “No, Hunter. You don't understand. It's not what you think—”

“Stop the Probe,
now
!” repeated Jake. A humorless grin filled his face. “Stop it, Basilisk, or you'll suffer the same fate I have planned for lizard boy.”

“I can't stop the Probe! The planet will
not
be destroyed. I've already told you that was never the plan! I just thought I could strip countries of their armies and extort some money as an afterthought.”

“Then what's the warhead for?”

Basilisk spoke rapidly. “To bring down the Villain.net system and the Council of Evil along with it. Then, with the world's armies at my disposal, I would have finally been able to eliminate the superheroes from this world and every country would have been defenseless against me … I mean
us
!”

Jake hesitated. Why had Basilisk not told him about this before? Surely that was not as bad as destroying the world?

Gasping, Chameleon spoke. “Hunter, it's true. If he brings down the Council, then he can also destroy the V-net system.”

“You shut up!” snarled Jake. “I still have you to deal with. You took everything away from me. Left me with nothing!”

Chameleon pressed on, almost babbling. “He will have unlimited access to all of those powers. If he were to
amplify them through you, then there would be no stopping him!
He
would become the most powerful person on the planet, not you. And pumping them through you would wear you away until you were dead.”

Jake hesitated. He'd expected Chameleon to plead for his life. “If I let him,” Jake retorted. He was no longer going to let Basilisk dictate the course of his life.

“You won't have a choice, Hunter,” Chameleon croaked.

Basilisk tried to stand, but couldn't. He slowly dragged himself over to Chameleon.

“Silence!” bellowed Basilisk.

But Chameleon pushed on. “I know you want me dead, Hunter, but I'm trying to save your life here! Think about it! What would happen if Villain.net failed?”

Jake frowned. A moment ago, he thought he had been saving the world, but now the person he hated the most was telling him that his actions would actually defend a stupid Web site that Basilisk had been instrumental in creating. If Villain.net crashed, so what? He would lose his powers, and … the thought struck him like a lightning bolt.

He would die.

Basilisk had said as much. Jake's body craved the power surge offered by Villain.net. Basilisk had made him an addict, as dependent as the drug users that his
schoolteachers constantly ranted about. And now Basilisk was willing to sacrifice Jake as a pawn in his twisted game.

Jake let out a roar so full of anger it took him by surprise. He threw his hands forward and familiar green streamers lashed out and struck Basilisk hard in the chest. The radioactive force burned across the villain's skin. Basilisk staggered backward. Jake was experiencing a gut-wrenching vehemence that he had never felt before. He wasn't finished with him yet.

“I'm tired of your lies! You've betrayed me, just like Scuffer and the others!”

Jake shifted his balance forward and shot into the air just as Basilisk got to his feet. Jake smashed into him with such a mighty force that he yanked Basilisk off the ground. They powered across the room, straight into the shaking wall, with the impetus of a jackhammer. Jake dropped to his feet. Basilisk was groggy and was still supported upright by the indentation he had created when he battered the wall. Jake flexed his razor-sharp claws and pulled his fist back to strike.