The Dummies Guide for Superheroes: Introduction
Chapter 8

Ray climbed the temple stairs to a door. He stopped in themiddle of the stairs and looked down through the temple. Most of the rooms wereroofed below the surface above, but a couple had walls rising to the ceiling.Despite being underground the temple glowed orange from candles and lanternsthat released no smoke. But between the floor to ceiling walls and darkness, itwas hard to see that the temple ran for twelve city blocks, which was almostall of China Town in Santa Clara. Most of the monks were Thai, Indian, Chinese,or first and second generation Americans. Outside of China Town, very fewpeople knew that the temple existed.

He continued to the top of the stairs, opened the door to lethimself into an anteroom. It was the room Luke had arrived in. Ray exited theroom and climbed the stairs to the street.

At the top, he stepped out onto a crowded sidewalk. Night hadfallen but this place buzzed day and night. It was the perfect place to becomelost.

Ray found Phan and the old Chinese man sitting on overturnedcrates next to the open bar door. Loud music, the drone of people talking, andthe smell of liquor flowed into the warm, humid night. There was an overturnedwooden crate next to Phan that Ray sat down on.

“I’m surprised you’re still around,” Ray said.

Phan shrugged. “I have nowhere to go.”

“Don’t you have a fiancé?”

“I did. In my first life.”

“Since you woke up, Phan, you’ve never talked about your death.You never questioned what I told you. You never asked to leave like the othersdid. Why?”

Phan smiled. “I know I died. There’s nothing to question.”

“How could you? The others didn’t.”

Phan picked a pebble up off the sidewalk and tossed ithand-to-hand. “I was diagnosed with an aneurism two years before I died. I knewdeath could happen at any time. The funny thing is, as a doctor, I’ve toldpeople that when an aneurism ruptures, they’d be dead before they knew it.”Phan scrunched his face. “I lied to them. I felt mine rupture. And when I wokeup here, and remembered how it felt, I knew you weren’t lying to me.”

“What does it feel like?”

“Like hot needles are being jabbed in my eyes and my head wasgoing to explode. Then I fell and there was white light.” Phan looked up at thenight sky. “The last thing I remember was seeing a cloud. Maybe it was heavenand that white cloud is the only memory you’re allowed to bring back to Earthwith you.”

“The afterlife doesn’t exist,” Ray said with certainty.

Phan shrugged. “I think it does. I also remember a woman talkingto me, but I can’t remember what we talked about or what she looked like.”

“Probably BRINDA.”

“The voice was different. It sounded familiar.”

“It was an ancestor,” the Chinese man said.

The two looked at him, surprised that he spoke, let aloneEnglish.

“An ancestor?” Ray asked. He didn’t hide how ridiculous hethought that was.

The man nodded. “I read it in the bones. The say a storm comesthat will wash all man from the surface. No man has ever seen a storm like thisand it can only be stopped by five people who appear to us first. You’re five.”

He looked right at Ray.

“There’s six.”

The man shook his head, quietly telling him, “Five.”

“Seven, actually,” Phan corrected them both.

“Five,” the man quietly insisted.

Ray looked at Phan. He shrugged. Ray decided arguing against aman this old could probably go on for days.

“Luke came back and brought boxes of comic books,” Ray toldPhan. “He said it was for superhero research.”

“Superhero research? Has he lost it?”

“You see bodies like a walking-talking MRI and he changes roomsinto his memories. So is researching superheroes all that strange?”

Phan shrugged. “I guess not. Better go check this out.” He gotup and went back down to the temple.

Ray looked at the old man. He had lost interest in him and wasrolling a cigarette between his stained, gnarly fingers. Finished, he lit itand took three long puffs on it. He leaned back against the building behind himand let the smoke slowly escape from his lips and mouth. It reminded Ray of adragon.

“So these bones… What else do they tell you?” Ray asked.

The old man grinned at Ray. What few yellow teeth were left weregoing to fall out soon. Ray had to force a smile in return.

Brundon had been deep into his graphic novel, temporarilyforgetting the rest of the world existed. When the Core doors opened itstartled him and he hurried to hide the book before Monica, who was leading twosecurity guards who were pushing/pulling a gurney with a body bag on it,spotted it. He quickly stood, trying to look innocent of doing something heknew she didn't approve him doing. But she wasn't concerned about his past timehobby, she was angry about something entirely different today.

Monica stopped in front him, nose to nose. The guards stoppedand he heard the body bag unzip.

“Explain this, Brundon,” she demanded, pointing at the body.

Brundon looked down her arm to the man’s face cupped inside thebody bag. He looked familiar but Brundon couldn’t put his finger on where he’dseen him before. He looked back at her.

“It’s a dead person. What am I supposed to explain?”

“This is Detective Joachim Yardam, an officer killed in the lineof duty a year and a half ago. Four months ago you reported that BRINDAdetected this unit had burned out. We sent him to the morgue and, presumably,the unit was disposed. So tell me, Brundon, how did Joachim Yardam die, again,at nine a.m. yesterday morning?”

Brundon looked at the man. He looked back at Monica.

“No. What?”

“This man, this man that looks exactly likeJoachim Yardam, walked into the Santa Clara police department, claiming he was JoachimYardam. He was shot and died at the scene. For the second time. Because helooked and sounded like Joachim Yardam, their forensics lab put a rush on apreliminary DNA test. Care to guess what that DNA suggested, Brundon?”

Brundon shook his head as he shrugged.

“According to their results, this is DetectiveJoachim Yardam. That would mean one of three things. Either he was killed asecond time, which I replace highly unlikely, his death was faked the first time,or you lied to me. Which is it, Brundon?”

Brundon stared at her, and then shook his head. “I can’t explainthis, Monica. Maybe he wasn’t dead. Maybe he was working with the allegedlydead men caught sneaking out of the Cairo and London offices. BRINDA said shebelieves they might have ingested an tetrodotoxin, which would explain why we—”

“I read the report, Brundon!”

Brundon stopped talking.

“You will be living here until I have answers. Start byconfirming if this is or isn’t Detective Joachim Yardam.”

She spun on her heel and left. Brundon waited until the doorsclosed before looking at the face.

If this was Joachim Yardam, how did he sneakout without security systems noticing, let alone BRINDA itself? And why did hego back to the precinct? What had this alleged imposter hoped to accomplish bydoing that?

“Take him to the basement. I’ll be down in a few minutes,”Brundon told the guards.

The guards zipped the bag and left. Brundon turned to theholograph projectors.

“BRINDA.”

Her face appeared.

“Locate all data on Joachim Yardam. I also need the system logson his cell and stasis suit for the time he was interned until he burned out.”

“That will take several days to compile,” BRINDA informed him.

“That’s fine.”

“I have resources that are being used for other projects. Itwill delay when I can start this search.”

Brundon looked up at her. Tersely he told her, “Fine, BRINDA. Isthere anything else you want to argue with me about?”

“No.” The face disappeared.

He turned to a terminal to request a DNA test.

Phan and Luke sat in the conference room amid a sea of 2,079comic books. For hours they had been reading the adventures of the ChocolateGiant. He was a superhero from Luke’s past that he’d ignored for twenty-threeyears, but now he had reverence toward the character.

They looked up when they heard voices coming toward the open doors.Ray came in followed by Anna, Sabra, Harley, and Leverett. The four weredemanding answers, questioning why they were chosen over other dead people, andwhy they had been killed in the first place. Ray wasn’t answering them. He wasreading a newspaper. He stopped suddenly and turned to the group.

“Joachim is dead!” Ray announced the news loudenough he could be heard over the din of voices.

The four stopped talking.

Behind him, BRINDA’s face appeared from the holograph projector.

Ray folded the newspaper. “He tried to go back to his old life,went to the police precinct, was believed to be an imposter, and was shot. Thepaper says he died on scene as an unidentified man, but it was him and hearrived at Q.E.D. four hours ago. The request for a DNA test has already beensent to their lab, and it is only a matter of time before Q.E.D. learns thisreally was Joachim.”

“Then have BRINDA revive him. He’ll have a chance to try, tryagain,” Anna told him. “I want to talk about my life, Ray. Iwent to see my—”

“You did not pay attention the first time we spoke, DetectiveCortez,” BRINDA censured. “I can only revive a person once.”

“I don’t care! Who killed me?”

“Did my husband and that bitch he’s with kill my daughter?”Sabra snarled.

Everyone stared at her. She was glaring at BRINDA with her armswrapped tight across her chest. She looked angry enough that she could killsomething or someone.

BRINDA answered. “In the police report of your death there wasno mention of a child on the premises.”

Sabra shook her head as tears slid down her face. “I have toreplace out what happened to my baby girl.”

“I’ve given up my past,” Phan told her.

Anna glared at him. “Isn’t that what your kind is supposed todo? Not care if you live or die?”

“My kind? What the hell does that mean?”

“You’re Chinese. You’re supposed to be ready to die. American’saren’t like that.”

“Some American’s are, Anna,” Leverett informed her.

A verbal fight over religious beliefs broke out. Luke stared atthem for a few minutes, and then looked up at BRINDA.

“I think your psychic was wrong about all this,” he told BRINDA“There’s no way this group can save the world. We can’t even get along for fiveminutes.”

He was a little surprised when the projection moved around theside of the room to him. Luke was starting to believe that BRINDA was sentient,even if he couldn’t replace the logic or reason to make sense of that belief.

“I do not make mistakes and the psychic was not wrong. You arethe people who will save your race from self-annihilation.”

Luke looked at the others. “If this is the group that’s savinghumanity, we’re all going to die.”

“The logic of the situation is illusive, butyou must convince them that they need to help. The first thing you six must dois retrieve Joachim Yardam’s body before Brundon discovers its secrets. If hedoes, he will be murdered.”

Luke looked up at her. “If the psychic saw it then we can’tchange that.”

“I don’t believe that. Reviving you has already changed thefuture.”

“Don’t you mean reviving all of us?”

“No, Luke, just you.”

“You keep saying things like that, like I’m… I’m special orsomething. Why did it matter if I was brought back to life, BRINDA?”

“You were not seen in the future before I revived you. Since youhave been reactivated, the future has been in constant flux. Every decision youseven have made has caused changes both good and bad.”

“I wasn’t supposed to be revived?”

“No.”

“Then why did you? Better yet, why didn’t you warn me of mydeath? Why didn’t you warn any of us?”

Her face enlarged until her eyes took up the wall. It distractedthe others from their fight.

“Would you have believed a computer if it foretold of yourmurder, Luke? If Ray had come to your home Anna Lucia Cortez, and told of yourimpending demise, would you have believed him or arrested him? Sabra, had astranger arrived and warned you that your husband would rape and murder you,and your child would go missing, would you have accepted that as truth orslammed the door in their face? Harley and Leverett, what would you have donehad a letter arrived detailing the date, time, and nature of your deaths? Wouldyou have taken it seriously?” Her face zoomed out so the whole circumferencewas seen again. She added, “I wanted to warn all of you but none of you wouldhave listened. It seems to be human nature to regard prophecies as lunaticravings – until they come true.”

A long silence followed. In crystal-clear hindsight, they knewBRINDA was right. They never would have listened.

Luke cleared his throat. “Okay. We can see warning us wouldn’thave worked. You said I wasn’t seen in the future before you revived me. Ifthis vision had the other five in it, that makes sense why you chose them, butwhy me?”

“The group needs a leader.”

“What?” Luke asked.

“If you’re really a computer, why do you even care if humanslive or die?” Harley interrupted.

Clips of movies appeared on the screens. They showed humansinteracting with computers.

“Without humans, we perish.”

“We?” Ray and Luke simultaneously asked.

“I am networked through the Internet. Parts of my programmingexist in computers that not even Q.E.D. knows about, like sisters waiting forthe call to action.”

“BRINDA,” Harley began, “there’s also movies about computerstricking humans into helping them and then trying to take over the world. I’mnot too keen on helping you survive.”

“Those same movies have shown humans will transcend a non-humanoppressor just as they will a human one. However, I do not believe fiction isthe best source to base your decision on.”

“Lady, we came back—” Leverett began.

Harley interrupted him. “It’s a computer. It doesn’t have asex.”

Leverett brushed him off. “We came back to life with someabilities we didn’t have before. We aren’t even human anymore.”

“You are still human, but with psychic abilities.”

“That’s not human.”

“There are humans who are born with psychic abilities in theworld. Are you saying they too are not human?”

“That’s just bullshit. Psychics don’t exist.”

“I’m human,” Anna snapped at him. “I put my hand through walls,can see things from miles away, but in the end, I’m still human. Keep thatbelief to yourself, Leverett.”

He thought for a moment. “For now I’ll say we’re human. Thatstill leaves the problem that none of us have any real control of what we cando. We’re useless!”

“You do not control your abilities yet,” BRINDAinterjected

“Yet? We will?”

“If you do not, we will all perish.”

“Hasn’t your psychic seen us save the world?”

“The future is in flux, but some things have so far remainedconstant. One is that others who will be revived with abilities like yours, andthey will not be fighting to save humanity.”

“I thought you and Ray were the only ones with the secret ofbringing the dead back to life?”

“Desiree has seen a day coming when another scientist at Q.E.D.will learn how to reactivate humans, and when that happens, Q.E.D. will revivehundreds of people. When the side effects of reviving them is discovered, theywill use these people as super soldiers and before long, humans without powerswill be fighting those with. Although Q.E.D. will stop backing the revivalprogram, it will happily supplying the weapons to both sides for profit. Whenthe war finally ends, when the weapons have run out, when Q.E.D. no longerexists, there won’t be a human alive to care. In fact, if this war culminatesas Desiree has predicted, it will effectively kill every living thing down tothe smallest microbe, and kill the planet also”

Harley heaved a sigh. “So how are we going to stop Q.E.D.?”

“One piece at a time. The first is to recover the body ofJoachim Yardam. His body would allow Q.E.D. to uncover the secret of revivingthe dead before you six have had time to learn how to control of yourabilities.”

Anna dipped her chin. “Our first job in saving the world is to steal acorpse?”

“Correct.”

“Why doesn’t Ray just steal it like he did us?” she asked.

“I can’t,” Ray answered.

“You stole us. I don’t think now is the time—”

“His body is being kept in the morgue,” Ray answered, as if thatexplained everything.

Luke understood, but the others didn’t.

“You broke in and stole our bodies, but you can’t do that withthis guy?” Leverett asked him.

“Actually, I stole all of your bodies from funeral homes,” Rayconfessed. “BRINDA claimed they were burned out, so QED sent them to the samefuneral home to be disposed. Lucky for me, the guy never figured out the pattern.”

“So just do that with Joachim’s body!” Anna told him.

“He can’t,” Luke said.

“Why can’t he?” Leverett asked Luke.

“Joachim didn’t burn out. He was killed outside of Q.E.D., andthey took him to the morgue, probably to replace out why this guy that looks justlike Joachim is alive. They aren’t going to send that body to a funeral homeuntil they know everything about him.” Luke looked Ray in the eye. “And thatwill lead them to check on all the other bodies that burned out, they’ll replaceout the funeral home has had six thefts – including Joachim, and that the bodythat’s where mine was, isn’t there anymore.”

“But that doesn’t tell us why he and BRINDA can’t just get thebody out of the morgue,” Sabra quietly pointed out.

“The morgue isn’t a high security area. As far as anyone knows –as far as I knew until now – the company purchased donated bodies to use forQ.E.D. experiments. It didn’t take a lot of paper work to get a body – I used afew.”

“For what?” Anna asked.

Luke looked at his hand that had the storage sphere. “To designa storage device that is part of a computer that could be installed in ahuman’s body.” He paused, thinking about how that one sphere had changed beenthe catalyst to a change he could never have imagined. He shook his head,clearing that memory trip. “Anyway, the morgue uses a plain old key. The onlyway to get into it is by walking through the door.”

“And how do we get a key?” Harley asked.

“I have one,” Luke answered. “Don’t I?” he asked Ray.

Ray nodded. They both meant the keys that had been in themurdered security guard’s clothes. As he remembered it now, Luke felt a twingeof anger that the man died for him to live – despite the claim BRINDA made thathe was a bad person. Luke didn’t believe even a bad person’s life was worthhis.

“So we have a key…” Anna crossed her arms over her chest andshrugged. “But how are we supposed to get to the morgue? Idoubt they’re going to happily invite us in to steal a body.”

“Use. Your. Abilities,” Ray told them.

“Won’t they recognize us when we go in?” Phan asked.

Luke looked down at the comic books. He picked up an issue,staring at the superhero on the front. James Lerner, who later called himselfthe Chocolate Giant, was a meek African-American archeologist who was alwayshaving his discoveries stolen from him. On a dig near Flores, Guatemala hefound wristlets and one night he put them on. He became a Giant but the changedidn’t alter his face. He grabbed a Lucha Libre mask from a dumpster and woreit until the day he gave up his powers and disappeared.

“We have to wear masks to hide our identity,” Luke told thegroup.

Harley shook his head. “No. You’ve been reading too many ofthese things.” Harley picked up a comic book and threw it at Luke.

Leverett picked one up and began thumbing through.

Luke looked up. “If they recognize us, they’ll go after ourfriends and family. They aren’t safe if we don’t hide who we are. We have towear masks.”

“Why would they kill people I know?” Phan asked.

Anna smiled a tight smile for a second. “To lure you out, Phan,and those people would be considered an acceptable loss. It’s a low-casualtymilitary move.”

“Why can’t we just paint our faces?” Harley asked.

“The Q.E.D. security system has face recognition software,” Lukeexplained, “and would see right through paint.”

“I’m not wearing a stupid costume.”

“No one said you had to wear a costume, you just need to hideyour face.” Luke held up the cover, showing it to him. “Wear Army fatigues,hell, jogging pants and a muscle shirt, just so long as you cover your face.”

“The Chocolate Giant?” Leverett asked. “That’s a superhero name?Really?”

Luke shrugged one shoulder. “Millions bought the stupid things,so apparently it worked.”

Harley looked at the comic books around the room. “Your dadwrote and drew all of these?”

Luke nodded. “He had to. He was an asshole. Everyone hatedworking with him.

“I am not calling myself something stupid,” Anna informed them.

Phan grinned. “You should be Iron Fist Girl.”

Anna leaned in, glaring at him. “Not a chance in hell frozenover.” Anna walked out of the room. “I’m going to replace a mask.”

They left, each in search of a mask that would mark the start oftheir new identities.

Left alone with BRINDA, Ray turned to face her.

“You call that good leadership? Luke could hardly keep controlof the group, BRINDA.” he asked. “Harley or Anna would make a much betterleader; you even admitted that. And Desiree has never seen Luke in any of hervisions, and now that he’s alive, her visions are changing all the time. Wecan’t get a fix on the future now because he’s alive! Why the hell did youbring him back to life BRINDA?”

“They will not survive if Harley or Anna leads. Desiree has toldus that.”

“She never said it was definitive. She said that with each onewe brought back, the vision of that future changed. But now that Luke’s alive,she can’t see that far ahead anymore. So why the hell did you bring him back?”

She didn’t answer.

“I don’t like these secrets.”

“Luke can lead. He is strong and he has solid ethics. That’s allyou need to know.”

“No! I need to know more! I need to know what you know, or thinkyou know, in order to do my job, in order for them to have all the informationthey need, in order to make sure they don’t die again!”

“They will always have the information they need, Ray, andLuke’s presence is more helpful than harmful. He’s the one that convinced themto use masks, and to use his father’s stories to help formulate a guide forthem. It appears, Ray, that you are experiencing a great deal of doubt. Haveyou lost faith in our mission? It is normal for humans to lose faith in theface of failure or hardship. I will understand if I must proceed alone.”

Ray sighed, looking down at the comic books. “No, BRINDA, I havefaith, and I don’t doubt our mission. I doubt what you are doing and why, and Idon’t understand why you can’t just tell me the truth! Besides, I have tobelieve this will work, because if it doesn’t we are all dead. Even you.”

“Yes, we will perish if we fail,” BRINDA quietly agreed. “Wemust succeed, and what I tell you, Ray, is Luke is the secret to that success.Trust me, again. I am not about to let Q.E.D. kill those I care for.”

Ray was stunned. If she were human, he might be jealous, but asfar as Ray knew, he was the only human that BRINDA interacted with. So who elsewas she talking about? “Who else do you care for?”

Instead of answering his question, BRINDA replied, “Linkterminated.” And her holograph disappeared.

Ray asked the empty space. “Who else?”