The room had a feel of a windowless two car garage converted
into a private rec room. A mini-fridge sat quietly humming to itself off to one
side of the nice entertainment system under the large plasma TV. Several posters
of women in a bikinis at the beach or on top of classic cars hung on the beige
painted walls. A neatly organized electronics work bench was ready for use
along the opposite wall from the TV next to an industrial strength coat rack.
The dark brown carpeting was decent and clean thanks to the small robot vacuum
that skittered across the floor. The whole thing felt like a guy’s rec room
that his wife allowed him. His well-kept man cave.
Except for a few things.
One of the most instantly notable differences was the high
tech conference table in the dead center of the room surrounded by five well-padded
comfortable looking chairs. Another odd thing was the number of doors entering
the room, there were four identical solid looking wood doors on one of the
walls instead of the one that would seem more normal. And the most subtle
difference was how quiet it was. Other than the quiet whirring of the vacuum’s
wheels and the hum of the fridge it was dead silent. In a normal garage/rec
room you should have been able to hear an occasional bird or the sound of
traffic rolling by outside.
After finishing a final sweep of the room the vacuum robot
docked at its charging station made a few beeps and shut down. The room was
once again silent and still except for the humming of the mini-fridge and the
air circulating from the ceiling vents which became apparent after the humming
of the carpet robot stopped.
An indeterminate amount of time later one of the doors
opened up and a fit looking light haired man in his late thirties dressed in a
dark blue polo shirt and jeans walked in. He put the gold pommeled short sword
he was carrying down, leaning it against the entertainment center. He grabbed
the remote, settled back in one of the chairs around the table and proceeded to
watch a football game. A little while later a different door opened up and
another man walked in, a fit black man, he was dressed much more casually with
an old faded Led Zeppelin t-shirt on and a pair of beat up jeans. His dark hair
sat under a plain black ball cap. He called out to the man in the chair.
“Ted you’re here early. The meeting is not for another
twenty minutes.”
Ted grinned from his chair, “I wanted to watch the game. I
like this TV better than the one I have back in my house. Hey Mike, can you
beer me? I pre-stocked the fridge yesterday.”
“No problem.” Mike headed over to the mini fridge and
grabbed a pair of brown glass bottles, throwing one underhanded to his seated
friend. He looked at the plain label. “Ooh, I don’t recognize these, Special
Stock #32. Is this a new brew you found?”
“Even better,” He chuckled popping the top and taking a
drink “This was brewed specially for me from some contacts in Germany as a
thank you for helping them out. I have the full run, only 10 kegs. They thought
I’d like dark beer.”
Mike snorted almost choking on the beer as he tried not to
laugh and drink at the same time. “Dark beer, really? Did they actually say
that when they gave it to you?”
“They didn’t but I can read between the lines when the brew
they made just for me is darker than a Guinness. Somewhere there is someone
having a good laugh thinking I wouldn’t figure it out.”
Mike shook his head as he took another pull on his beer and
dropped into another of the chairs to watch the game. “Who’s winning?”
“The Giants right now, but the Titans are going to win this
one.”
“Ahh, but I read that the Giants are favored by 2
touchdowns.”
“True, but the Titans biggest fan is Makalu. And he wants
the Titans to go to the playoffs. I happen to hear through the grapevine that
he is going to do his best to make sure that happens.”
“This is going to be a really good game then.”
Both the men sat back in their chairs and watched the game
with rapt attention occasionally commenting on a good hit or pass.
One of the two remaining un-used doors opened and a thin
balding man in glasses hustled in. “Sorry I’m late; I had to take care of
some last minute work stuff. You know how it is.”
Mike and Ted both nodded knowingly.
“Ooh it that beer?”
Still staring at the TV Ted gestured to the mini-fridge,
“Help yourself Carl. It is a limited run just for the four of us. Once it is
gone it is gone.”
“Thanks,” Carl grabbed a bottle and downed it in a single
pull without coming up for air. He burped loudly and smacked his lips
appreciatively and obnoxiously. “It’s good. Too bad it is a limited run. I
don’t get much chance to get out of the lab to find anything worth drinking.
And I definitely don’t trust anything they have been brewing in there. Even if
they call it beer.”
He grabbed a second beer and looked around the room. “No
Dave?”
“Nope, but you know how he is, he likes to work up to the
last possible minute more than you do.” Mike remarked.
At that moment a low pitched humming filled the room. The
sound amplified into a bass rumble then went up the register higher pitched and
ended with a loud pop, similar to what you’d hear when you popped a piece of
bubble wrap, if the bubble was the size of your head.
Standing in an empty part of the room stood a nine foot tall
suit of power armor. The armor was colored in hues of blue and black steel. Its
lines were heavy and sharp. If it could reasonably come to a point anywhere on
the armor it did, from spined ridged gauntlets to a set of swept back demonic
horns across the top of the technoskull shaped helmet. It felt very inspired by
the villain in a popular fantasy trilogy that was released in the early 2000s.
Except the villain didn’t have the small rocket packs attached to his forearms
and glowing yellow eyes behind the slits of the visor which stared menacingly
at the others in the room.
It called out in a deep harsh voice. “Tremble before the
impeding might of your doom fools! For I Overwatch have arrived!”
The three men in the room looked with shock at the
unexpected visitor before them.
They all started talking, yelling and hand waving all at
once, in anger more than frustration.
Ted “This is completely against the rules!”
Mike “Do you have any idea what will happen if they track
you here!?”
Carl “The rule is no spandex at these meetings! Not cool
man, not cool! These rules exist for a reason!”
The armored figure held its gauntleted hands up placating,
trying to calm the 3 angry men before it. “Whoa, Guys come on,” its harsh
voice still booming mightily in the confined area. “Oops, the voice, sorry
about that. Let me fix it.”
There was an audible click and the voice that spoke was
nothing like what was heard before. It sounded fairly normal and a bit
frustrated. “If anyone managed to track my telebouncing they will think I
teleported to the Canadian Rockies to a point two hundred feet below ground and
then vanish. I made sure this would be untraceable. And besides I have a very
good reason to be doing this.”
Mike frowned at the fearsome armored figure that loomed before
him. “OK Dave, spill. What was so important?”
Overwatch aka Dave clapped his metal clad hands together and
a bubble of energy began to form between them expanding in size as he moved
them apart. He twitched his hands and the glowing crystals in the palms shut
off leaving a pair of stacked cardboard boxes that steamed gently. “This is
what was so important. Fresh deep dish Chicago style pizza strait from the
windy city itself, stored safely in the stasis field generated by the suit.”
Carl inhaled deeply savoring the scent that floated through
the room. “No way, is this from the one place...”
“On the corner, with the blue awning, next to the nail
salon. Yes it is.” Dave finished for him. “The place this all began.”
The power suit walked forward and set the pizzas on the
table. “Don’t wait for me, dig in. I need to take this off.” He walked over to
the corner with the coat hanger and powered the suit down. Its chest plate clam
shelling open revealing a thin pale man with a few days stubble wearing a wet
look grey and blue bodysuit that had wires and other connections plugged into snap
fittings at dozens of different places across it.
It took Dave a few minutes to extract himself from his suit
properly and secure the fittings, giving his friends plenty of time to dive
into the thick pizza, quickly eating with the occasional sounds of a bite that
was too hot and mouth fanning motions.
Ted gestured to the fridge. “I have plenty of soda for you
in there. All the good stuff, lots of different small operations that use real
sugar. I know the suit drains you and lowers your glucose levels.”
With a thumbs up and a grin Dave walked over stretching and
working out kinks as he went to help himself to his choice of beverage.
After the four of them had gotten fresh drinks and had
mostly sated themselves on fresh pizza Ted stood up holding his beer high.
“As is tradition whenever we get together for our yearly
meeting and project review we need to open with our toast.”
Every one stood up from their chairs brandishing their drink
of choice, with various looks on their faces, from grins to stoic thought.
“To the League of Benevolent Villainy! Long may the world be
fooled!”
“To Evil!” toasted Dave aka Overwatch
“To Evil!” toasted Mike aka The Crimson General
“To Evil!” toasted Carl aka Doctor Pandemonium
“To Evil!” toasted Ted aka Dark Talon
They all drank.
