It was well past 10pm on the lower east side of Empire city - the time of night that the predators began to emerge, and the normal, law abiding folks began to hunker down until dawn... The weather was cold, and a driving rain was battering the rooftops and streets and passersby. I shouldn’t be still out this late, Kayden Ballard thought. Bad things happen after dark in Empire City - especially to the nobodies... nobodies like me.
Empire City wasn’t like Paragon... There wasn’t a superhero on every corner trying to help out a civilian in need - and there wasn’t a villain in every shadow waiting to strike them down. No, the evil in Empire City was much closer to home - crime, corruption, and the mafia. The mob families had the city in their pocket. They owned judges, councillors, and even the cops - well, most of them. Rumor had it some of the cops still did their jobs, but they were few and far between. There were some villains here in Empire city, carving out little domains for themselves like Shrapnel, or The Arachnid - but most were passersby; they came here to do a job, did it, and moved on to where the next score was.
Likewise, there were few heroes or heroines in Empire city. Most were lured to its sister city, “Paragon”, where supers could find a measure of fame, camaraderie, and in some cases, fortune. Others went to work for the military, or to other cities where the cops weren’t actively making a heroes job harder by letting the crooks go, or worse, by shooting at the heroes for their mafia paymasters. Most heroes considered Empire city a lost cause - already too far gone to corruption to even bother trying to save. The few heroes, like Fathom and Tesseract, who did seem to give a crap, were by far outnumbered by those actively working against them, or those who had just given up, and hoped that they would survive to see another day.
Kayden hunched his shoulders to try and ward off the rain. It didn’t help much - the October wind and the heavy rain chilled him to the bone, and he shivered uncontrollably with the cold. It would take him another twenty minutes to reach his apartment, not that it was much of one. Kayden’s place was typical of a dwelling in the city - high priced and cramped. Only those with real money could afford the luxury of large living spaces - and if it was one thing Kayden lacked, it was money. He wasn’t sure if he even had anything to eat when he got home; it depended on whether or not his last loaf of bread had gone mouldy yet.
You shouldn’t be surprised, you know, he thought to himself. You’re the one who gave his last five bucks to Sal so he could buy food for his cat Joshua. If you cared more about yourself, you’d have food tonight. He snorted. As if. You’re a soft touch, Kayden Ballard. A bleeding heart. No wonder you keep being a victim.
Kayden quickened his pace, and moved to an awning to take shelter from the driving rain for a moment. It was some sort of office building - closed of course - but the window had an advert. “Help wanted; Maintenance person needed.” Shit, he thought. I don’t like the idea of washing toilets or whatever, but a job’s a job. It’ll keep me going for a little while longer... With the rent due soon, if I don’t get a job I’ll be out on the street and once that happens, it’s all over except for the shouting. A young man like him, with no family and few friends wouldn’t last long on the streets except as prey - either to the pimps and sexual predators who preyed on the homeless kids, or to the criminals that took advantage of them. Face it Kayden... you’re one step away from swirling down the drain. You have to at least try to stay afloat.
Kayden took the advertisement’s number down. I’ll call tomorrow, and see if there’s a chance. I’ve got nothing left to lose, so I might as well give it a shot. A job’s a job, and I’m not so proud I’d turn down a paycheck, and I’m not afraid of hard work either. Grimacing at the sluicing water, Kayden strode into the night, trying to stay warm and dry - and failing miserably.
***
Kayden hadn’t been home for long; he’d had time to strip out of his wet clothes and put on some boxer shorts and a T-shirt (his usual sleeping attire), when his phone rang. Kayden looked at the caller display, and smiled... Thank god! Someone I wouldn’t mind talking to! The person on the phone was Darryl Walker – Kayden’s best friend.
“Hey, Darryl! What’s up? I’ve had a really shitty day - how about you?”
“I scored tickets to the Warden’s game this weekend... You want to come with? It’ll be a blast! I hear they’re playing Central City.”
Darryl was a football fan, and it wasn’t often he was able to physically get to a game. Turning him down would be a jerk move, but I realized I might not have a choice... I had to get rent - which meant I had to work - which meant I probably wouldn’t be able to make it. “I can’t, Darryl - at least I THINK I can’t. I’ve got cashflow problems and need some money to cover rent, or I’ll be out on the street.”
“What? Are things that bad, Kay? Why didn’t you say anything?” Darryl sounded shocked and concerned for his friend.
“Cause I’m too damn stubborn - you know why.” Kayden frowned. “Sorry Darryl - I should have told you how bad it was, but since I got kicked out, I’ve been circling the drain and it’s been a chore to just make it through the day.”
“Sounds like you need some help. Is there anything I can do?”
Kayden sighed. “I don’t want your money, if that’s what you’re asking. I have a line on a job that might work out – I’ll let you know how it goes.”
Darryl sighed as well. “I wasn’t offering money, dufus - I know you wouldn’t accept it! God knows I’ve tried! Is there anything I can do to help out?”
“Know anyone with an available job?” Kayden asked.
“I can ask around, Kay. I’ll keep in touch. You know, if you don’t find work, you might as well come to the game. You’d still be out on the street, but you’d have spent the day with me...” Darryl joked a lot like that - but he wasn’t wrong.
Kayden couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, okay - If I have no hope of a job, I’ll consider - CONSIDER - coming to the game with you. You can’t miss the Wardens in a home game, after all...”
“That’s the spirit, Kay! Damn. When did your life get so screwed up?”
“Hrmph! Probably when I got kicked out, jerk-face.” Hah - fat chance! I thought. More like when I was born.
“Maybe, Kay - still, you have friends dumbass. You might try letting them help you sometime. I know Rob or Laurie would be glad to put you up for a week or two at their places, and so would Yvonne or Brendan.”
“Probably, that’s true... But I hope it doesn’t come to that. Basically it will mean I’ve totally failed at being an adult, at taking care of myself, and my fucking parents will be right - they will have been right since day one - and I can’t and won’t accept that. Period.”
Darryl sighed. Kayden was too concerned with what his parents thought of him. It was stupid, but he knew it was important to Kay. “Fair enough, pal - just stay in touch... You have money for food?”
“I’ve got enough.” Kayden lied. I have so little food the roaches and moths are fleeing my apartment for someone else’s.
“Cool. I’ll see you on the weekend, maybe.”
“Bye, Darryl.”
Kayden hung his head, and slumped in his chair. Why do I keep lying to my friends like this? Am I so invested in what mom and dad think that I’ll willingly screw up my life? I guess the answer is obvious – it’s what I’ve been doing. But if I tell Darryl and the others the truth, they’ll see what a miserable failure I’ve been... What the hell am I going to do?
Kayden turned the TV on, and tried to forget about his problems, but the screen came up black with a “Subscription Required” message. Fucking hell - the cable didn’t get paid. I might as well go to bed... This sucks. Kay went to the kitchen and took one final look at his food supply. Yup - the bread is mouldy. I’d eat it if I thought it was safe, but bread mould isn’t good – I’d probably end up sick as a dog and have a huge freaking hospital bill. I guess I’ll just go hungry again.
Kayden headed to the bathroom, and washed his face. He felt tired - bone deep tired, and not just from physical exhaustion but from despair, depression and hopelessness. The face in the mirror was disgusting, as usual - oh he supposed he looked acceptable, but to him it felt and looked wrong. The face was relatively attractive, with a strong chin and short cropped black hair. Grey eyes, and a sad expression on its face. Every time he saw himself, he wanted to punch the mirror and smash the face that made him feel so alien in his own skin. “This isn’t me, dammit.”
Kayden finished up in the bathroom, and went to bed. Sleep didn’t come easy, but it did come eventually.
* * *
Kayden arrived at the office building in the lower east side early - it wasn’t even 9am - and sat on a bench, waiting. The day was grey and cloudy - but thankfully it wasn’t raining. The wind was light and cool, but it held the promise of winter in it, and Kayden could tell it wouldn’t be long before it started getting colder. As he waited, his stomach rumbled, reminding him again that he hadn’t eaten since dawn yesterday.
Maybe I’ll get lucky, and be working soon? He wondered. Let’s go see... He got up from his bench, and walked inside.
Inside, a bored security officer sat at a desk, watching some screens. The building itself looked like a generic office building - nothing particularly exceptional about it other than the rugs were a nasty shade of burnt orange. Yuck.
“Can I help you?” The guard looked bored, but not unpleasant.
“Yeah. I’m looking to talk to someone about the maintenance job - on the window.” Kayden turned back and pointed to the flyer on the window - only to notice it was gone.
“Yeah... sorry, pal. That job was taken last Wednesday. I forgot to take the flyer down until this morning. Sorry.” The guard at least had the decency to look truly chagrined. Kay could tell it wasn’t malicious - just bad luck. “You in a rough spot?”
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“The worst. I need rent soon or I’m out on the street.” Kayden didn’t see any reason not to be honest.
“I know where there’s a guy looking for a lab partner - someone to clean up and do the scut work. He works over at Trask Chemicals. It’s all under the table - but he pays cash, and I know for a fact he’s looking for someone - someone who isn’t interested at looking to close to what he’s doing.”
“Illegal?”
“Damned if I know. Even if it was, you’d basically be the janitor. No one would convict you of anything. What I do know is that he said what he was working on was big, and would make him rich. Rich enough to start his own company.”
Geez, he sounds like a mad scientist - and not of the ‘angry’ variety. Am I desperate enough to be some jerk’s Igor? Kayden thought about how hungry he was, and what little he had to go home to. How he would feel when he was kicked to the curb with what remained of his meagre possessions. Nope. He sighed. “Does this guy have a number?”
“Yeah - his name is Justin Pierce.” The guard handed him a white card with a handwritten number on it.
Empire city didn’t have many mad scientists or supervillains, unlike her sister city Paragon, but Kayden couldn’t shake the feeling he would regret taking this job. Maybe he is a supervillain? So what? Don’t they need janitors too? Or do I want to have a lab accident and die or get mutated into a dangerous monster?
Kayden’s musings weren’t silly or idle worries. Government agencies claimed that studies showed anyone willing to work for a mad scientist was risking their life. “Maybe he isn’t mad... I could deal with it if he was only a bit pissy.” Kayden laughed bitterly to himself. “Hey, while we’re at it, maybe I’ll get superpowers! Then what would I do? Run around in some cheesy spandex costume? Dammit.”
There weren’t many superheroes in Empire City - maybe a handful. The two most well known heroes were Tesseract and Fathom. Fathom was some sort of water controller, and half the city’s female population had a swimsuit poster of him in their rooms. He was a stud, and rumors said he was ex-military. Tesseract was his girlfriend as rumors went - whether they were true or not, Kayden didn’t know. She had some crazy spatial warping ability and could teleport, and she was considered quite beautiful. I think they were both a seven or so the last time anyone checked, I think. Kayden smirked to himself. Why do we rate Superheroes and Villains by numbers? I mean, I know it’s supposed to be so that a rank 4 hero doesn’t go trying to stop a rank 8 villain and get himself killed - but seriously. We could have called them Alpha’s, Beta’s, Gamma’s and Delta’s - with us stupid normals being Epsilons, but I guess someone decided on numbers. Not like it matters...
There was one other super in Empire City, but it was a toss up as to whether they were hero or villain... Revenant. Revenant was a person of indeterminate gender who looked like a skeleton with a flaming skull, who stalked and punished criminals. This might nominally make him or her a hero in the eyes of the public - but the fact that he or she looked absolutely terrifying to behold, and the fact they usually beat their victims nearly to death or scared them so much with some sort of supernatural terror they occasionally went mad, made their motives a bit suspect. There were villains in the city too - Shrapnel and The Arachnid had carved out an illicit kingdom for themselves, powerful enough to rival any of the mafia families... and there were others too. Swiftsteel and Carnage had come through the city last month and left a trail of destruction... If it hadn’t been for Fathom driving them off, who knows what would have happened? At least Fathom and Tesseract help clean up the damage from their battles with their powers. I heard they even trained as firefighters for a year so they could assist the fire department.
Kayden wondered what it would be like to be a hero for a while as he waited for the bus to take him across town. At first, it was a pleasant daydream - but it soon devolved. He imagined himself getting shot at, lasered, killed - and still having no job and no money and no future. Being a hero sounded nice, until you realized that unless you were one of the lucky few, being a hero didn’t put food on the table or clothes on your back.
The bus ride was tiresome, and the crowds were busy, making the bus cramped and uncomfortable. Kayden counted himself lucky he had a seat. A few stops passed - and Kayden saw a young woman climb on board. She looked tired and hungry, and a little scared. She was also limping, and Kay thought he spied a hint of blood on her blue leggings. She was maybe 17 years old, with dyed blonde hair and a black skirt and t-shirt with a too-thin jacket. She was thin, and had the look of someone who hadn’t cleaned up or eaten in a little too long. No one was moving to help her, and she was struggling to stand.
Kayden sighed. I guess I’m standing. He turned to her, and stood, motioning to his seat. “Take mine, miss.”
“Thanks. You sure?” She asked.
“Yeah - you look like you need it more than I do.”
“Thanks. I’m Diane.” She smiled and sat down. Kayden looked at her leg, and was sure she was bleeding.
“I’m Kayden. You okay? You look hurt.”
Diane looked really nervous. “I’m fine, really. You don’t want to get involved.”
“I don’t mind.” Kayden didn’t mind, either. He could tell when someone was having a really bad day, and if anyone was, it was Diane.
“My ex boyfriend. We got into a fight. I’ve been avoiding him - but he found me and well, he pushed me and I fell and screwed up my knee. That’s where the blood’s from.”
Asshole. Kayden thought. “Anything I can do?”
“Not really, unless you want to kick the shit out of my ex boyfriend so it doesn’t happen again.”
“I... I see.”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks anyway... and thanks for the seat. It really helps.” Diane smiled, and Kayden could see she would be quite pretty if she cleaned herself up - but it was equally obvious she cultured this vagabond style to make sure she didn’t look pretty.
“No worries. Sorry about your Boyfriend.” Kayden was sorry too. No one should have to live with being abused.
“Ex-Boyfriend.”
“You’re right... Ex Boyfriend. My Bad.” Kayden smiled, and tried to turn it into a joke, and Diane smiled back too.
They rode quietly for several more blocks, and finally Kayden’s stop came up. As he turned to leave, and make his way to the door through the crowded bus, he heard Diane call out.
“Hey, Kayden! You’re okay. Thanks.” Diane was waving at him.
“You too Diane. Seeya.” With that, Kayden got off the bus. Trask Industries. I hope I’m not making a huge mistake. Kayden walked up to the door, and went inside.
* * *
“Just a few more tests, Mr. Chips.” Justin’s hand tenderly stroked the small dog’s flank. Mr. Chips was a tired and sick miniature schnauzer, and had been Justin Pierce’s faithful companion for over 11 years, since he was a tiny pup. Mr. Chips whined, and gently licked his masters hand, and licked it again when Justin shed a tear. “It’s okay, boy. I’ll save you - and together we’ll save everyone.”
Justin went back to the desk to check the lab results. Negative. Damn it! He tossed the clipboard away, and it clattered across the room in a flurry of discarded papers. The newest version of the healing serum was a failure - again! “Gah!” Justin tried to gain control of himself, and looked at his faithful buddy, Mr. Chips. They had done everything together, since he came home on his 16th birthday. Even when his parents died in the explosion, Mr. Chips had consoled him. They were inseparable... and now Mr. Chips was dying of leukaemia - a deadly cancer of the blood.
Justin had spent the last seven years of his life doing nothing other than attempting to find a cure for leukaemia - and by association, all cancers... Not for fame and fortune, like Mr. Trask had assumed - but to save his childhood friend, the tiny fuzzy, lovable creature that licked him and kissed him and consoled him when he learned his parents were never coming home again. I won’t let you down, buddy. I promise. I’ll save you, and all the people who suffer from cancer. I’ll save you... I have to.
I have to get another culture growing, and try to formulate another serum! He doesn’t have much time left... the damn animal tests aren’t teaching me enough. I need something more! Justin’s thoughts were disrupted, when an annoying knock came on the door of his office.
“Go away! I’m working!” He said, hitting the reply button on his lab’s intercom. “Bother somebody else.”
“Mr. Pierce? This is security. Someone has come to apply for the lab assistant job. His name is Kayden Ballard.”
Lab assistant? What is this glorified rent-a-cop talking about? Justin thought, and remembered he had asked for help around the lab. About bloody time Trask sent someone to help him. Unbidden, an idea began to germinate within him, and he smiled. “Send him in, then go. That is all.” Before his finger left the intercom, his mind was whirling again - thoughts of the serum he would need to create to save his beloved dog consuming him.
* * *
Kayden waited with the guard, when the voice on the other end - presumably Justin Pierce - rudely told the guard to send him in, and go away. Geez, he thought. Sounds like a real charmer. Fuck.
The guard ushered him inside, and Kayden left the hall for a doorway that looked more like a high-tech airlock, beyond which looked to be a medical lab. There were cages for about a half dozen animals, and computers, and several machines that Kayden could tell were used to make medicines and separate DNA and other stuff he’d seen on crime shows - but the only one he knew the name of was a centrifuge. He resisted the urge to call it the ‘spinny thing’ - he already felt stupid enough for two people walking in here. How the hell am I going to help clean any of this? I don’t even know what most of it does or what it’s used for!
He steeled himself, and thought of the gutter he was so close to circling and going down... “Hello, Sir. I’m Kayden Ballard. I’m here about the job you offered.” The scientist he addressed - presumably Justin Pierce - was in his mid twenties, and looked thin and wiry. He wore spectacles, and his attitude said his mind was probably a million miles away. Definitely at LEAST pissy, Kayden thought.
Justin looked him up and down, gauging him by some unseen scale. “What’s your blood type?”
“I don’t know. I think my mom said I was O-negative. Does it matter?”
“Obviously.” Mr. Pierce walked over to a device next to the centrifuge, and pointed at it. “Can you tell me what this device is, and what it does?”
Shit! “No sir.”
“I see. Do you have any scientific or lab training at all?”
“No sir. The fellow who told me about you said you needed an assistant. He didn’t say it was highly technical.” Shit... I’ve wasted both our times coming here...
Justin thought a moment. “I think I can still use your help - but not as a lab assistant. I need someone who I can draw blood from to work on a serum. My work is very important – I’m trying to find a way to cure Leukaemia - a deadly blood cancer that kills millions. If I can do that, it won’t be a hard stretch to branch out to other cancers, either. So, Kayden... Do you want to help me cure cancer?”
“Seriously?” Kayden looked stunned. Could you believe this guy?! He actually thinks he can cure cancer... with my help.
“How.”
“I need to draw a bone marrow sample of someone with O-negative blood, and take copious units of blood as well, to formulate a serum to neutralize the mutational effects of cancer. I apply my irradiated serum to your bone marrow sample, and transplant the treated marrow into the patient, and if everything goes well, the cancer should be cured. It will hurt - a lot - but I’ll pay well, and in cash. All you have to do is sign a secrecy clause, and we can get started.”
“Whoa! I’d love to cure cancer and all, but what about the risks?”
“Virtually none - to you. You’d go under anaesthesia and have some bone marrow and some stem cells withdrawn. You’d be in our private clinic for maybe a few days, and it would hurt a fair bit - but that’s the extent of it. Once that’s done and you’ve recovered, I’d like to keep you around for a week or so to be able to draw blood if needed, and run some tests. I’ll pay $5,000 up front, and another $10,000 if you finish out the process. Paid in cash. If it results in a cure for Cancer, you get 1/10th of one percent of the royalties.”
This is a bad idea, Kayden... His brain was telling him to let this go - but the thought of circling the drain compelled him. I’m going to regret this... Damn my pride, my stubbornness... whatever you want to call it. I don’t have a choice - I need the money. “Doc, I think I’d love to help cure cancer.”