The Sidekick Club

1.4

Emily watched the clock as last period slowly drew to a close. Unlike the other students, she was hoping it would go slower. Nefarious was picking her up today, and she knew he was still going to be pissed from the mall incident. She'd rather not have to deal with that.

Unfortunately, time did not go slow enough and she was forced out of her seat as the last bell rang.

With her backpack slung over one shoulder, Emily stepped out of the school and came face to face with a pitch black sedan with tinted windows. She didn't even hesitate as she opened up the door and slipped in.

She turned to see Nefarious behind the wheel. He was, much to her surprise, dressed in civilian clothes, though he still wore his mask. She tried to memorize his clothes, just in case he happened to wear them in public without his mask one of these days.

He wore a black leather jacket, a white Sex Pistols T-shirt, faded jeans, and black combat boots.

"Are you done checking me out yet?" Emily looked up to his face to see he was smirking, but keeping his gaze on the road at the same time.

Emily rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. "I wasn't checking you out."

"Keep telling yourself that, darling."

"Where's your suit?" she asked, knowing she needed to change the subject.

"At the dry cleaners," he smirked again. Nobody brings their super suit to the dry cleaners, it's common sense, so she knew he wasn't going to tell her the real answer. He was probably just running late or something.

"Where are we going?"

"We're setting the stage, sweetheart. It's time for the downfall of heroes."

"What?" she felt herself paling a bit. "You mean the serum worked?"

"Oh it worked all right. It worked far better than I'd ever imagined it would."

This was not good. Edison had only been a test subject to figure out if the serum worked and for how long. Now Nefarious had what he needed. He had everything he needed to create pure and utter chaos in Westington Heights.

Emily couldn't let him get away with this, but at the same time, she couldn't stop him.

Not alone, at least.

"Where's this stage going to be?" Emily found herself asking.

"Where else? The center of town. Deming-Porter Corporations. I want the whole city to see my victory."

"How do you know you're going to win?" Emily challenged his ego.

"It isn't about winning, Em. It's about gaining something- starting something. Every villain knows that a victory doesn't always come from the winning side."

"How philosophical," Emily muttered under her breath. In truth, his words worried her. What he wanted to do was insane. Sure, most villains' plots to take over a city were insane, but Nefarious's might just work.

She had to do... something.

Perhaps if she went to the heroes, even without knowing his identity, and explained how he was blackmailing her, they would have mercy on her. Maybe they would understand.

She hadn't really done anything illegal, after all. Nefarious did all the illegal stuff. All she did was unlock doors from the inside and create distractions. He was the one that stole, kidnapped, killed, and committed arson. Emily just stood to the side.

Emily was pulled from her thoughts as Nefarious honked his horn out of road rage in the stop-and-go traffic near the center of the city. Everyone drove like idiots there, and they were all very aggressive with one another. Emily never liked to drive in the city.

Nefarious swore under his breath as he glared at the cars in front of him.

They would arrive soon. She could see the Deming-Porter building standing tall over the city. She wondered what he had planned.

If she found out, then she might be able to warn the heroes.

She had to try.

Nefarious parked the car in a nearby lot and jumped out of the car. Emily got out too, knowing she was needed in part of the setup.

Nefarious drew the hood of his leather jacket over his head as he opened up the trunk. He pulled out a large duffle bag and held it out to her. She pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt over her hands as she grabbed it, not knowing if it was okay to have her fingerprints on it or not.

"Careful with that," Nefarious told her as he pulled out a bag of his own, "It's a little touchy. Wouldn't want to start the party too early now, would we?"

Emily figured that meant she was probably holding a bomb. She decided to handle it with extreme caution either way.

"Let's go," Nefarious grinned wickedly and closed the trunk, heading off in the direction of the Deming-Porter building.

Emily could only hope not too many innocent people got caught in the crossfire when this all went down.

People were bound to get hurt, they always did, but all she could do now was put her faith in the heroes.

For everyone's sake, they needed to prevail.