The Open Book Collection

Mayor Ominous? (Part One)

"Ohhh, Frosty!"

My head whips in the direction of the abandoned alleyway to my left, no doubt where that obnoxious voice is coming from. I scoff, knowing that on the other side there is a dead end. How typical of a villain to trap themselves in a corner. I round the bend and immediately spot a familiar outline of a well-known, dark, slowly growing shadow. Knowing that I can't do anything against it without a light, I watch as it stretches up, up, up until its head is in a rickety fire escape. Then it slowly shrinks from the bottom up, the shadow feet getting higher off the ground, until the whole thing is squished together like a black window. Out of it struts an average sized man in an all black business suit.

He doesn't look scared. In fact, I think I see a smile on his face. I crack my neck. It won't be there for long.

"Give it up, Ominous!" I shout up at him. "Your arrest and those of every WAV member is now inevitable. From now on, the citizens of Lores will be free of the villainy of you and your little group. From now on, each and every one of you will rot in jail, wishing that you had never made an enemy out of Captain Chill."

Above me, Ominous' shadow fades away as his grin turns tauntingly bigger. "Frosty, Frosty, Frosty." He clicks his tongue. "It's pronounced 'wave' not 'wav'. W-A-V, wave. Use some imagination, poetic license or whatever it's being called nowadays. And stop treating us like we're the bad ones. The only thing that is keeping us hidden and forcing us to run is you and your group of single-minded misfits. We aren't villains. God, I'm getting tired of explaining that acronym," he adds under his breath. Louder, he tells me, "Oh, and by the way, I would suggest giving the speech after we're behind bars, if such a thing ever happens."

That's all the warning I get before the sharp feeling of a needle plunges into my upper arm. I give a shout and whirl around, ice already crackling along the ground under me. But no one's there.

"Honestly, Frosty," Ominous says. "I would like to think that you have the brains to step inside the shade, the one place my shadow can't appear. It's disappointing, really. All you had to do was take two steps back."

His shadow. Of course. That's why I didn't sense anyone sneaking behind me. But...

"Your poison isn't working on me," I say smugly, flexing my arm and icing the air around me. He wishes he could get rid of me that easily. "And now you are, for sure, coming to HQ with me."

"No, he's not."

Instantly, I know who the voice belongs to. Or should I say voices.

"Nightmare and Daydream," I say. The twins girls couldn't be more different or contradictory to each other. The pale, dark haired girl in a white tank top and bleached jeans—Daydream—gives me an evil, haunting look that makes the actual Nightmare—blond and blushing in an all black version of her sister's outfit—not nearly as scary as she is.

Everything about them makes my head spin, even from their names. Nightmare, who looks light and fun but is never seen without black, can knock out a person and watch over their dreams. Daydream, all dark and gloomy except for her white shirt, can make someone dream about their biggest fear. The only known way for a person under their powers to wake up is for the opposite twin to rouse them. Several of their victims are in permanent comas.

"So do you know what was just injected into you?" they ask simultaneously.

"Because it's bad," says Nightmare.

"Really bad," Daydream adds without missing a beat.

"Care to explain, Doctor?" both finish.

Doctor. The last mainstream villain of Ominous' group pops their head out an open window. He's a young black man—younger than what a title like Doctor implies—with a gray lab/trench coat that covers his entire body. The files on his profile say that he doesn't have a superpower, but warns anyone who comes in contact to be wary; there could be countless bio weapons and poisons in his pockets.

"How's it going, Chill," he calls. "So you're probably wondering what I put in you. It's a little thing I like to call the backfire. It goes through your cells and DNA and finds whatever gene mutation that gives you your powers. Then, it takes those special genetics and adds more of the mutation into it, giving it an extra charge, if you will. With that charge, your body isn't going to know what to do except find a way to get it out. So then your body's going to give out all of this energy all at once, but I tweaked this so that the release is still on the inside. It wasn't too hard, supposing that I only needed to switch the—"

"Can we just get to it, Doctor?" I ask. Just keep monologuing until I can come up with something.

He gives me a look before continuing. "Okay, and now those superpowers inside of you are going to mess up your organs and brain. Your ice, Chill, is 'bout to put you into the deepest sleep since before the dinosaurs."

At that moment, my hand starts to tingle. And so do my legs. And chest. My body slowly falls into a complete state of emergency as I see the ground come closer and closer to my face. Even my ice won't work now. I feel like I'm slowly dying.

"And to assure that you stay asleep," Ominous says, "Nightmare and Daydream would you do the honors?"

No.

I try to get up, try to move—do anything—but my entire body feels like it's covered in ice. I silently scream in horror as both twins reach toward me with devilish grins.

"We never tried putting someone under together," Daydream says.

"Are you going to have nightmares, sweet dreams—" starts Nightmare.

"—Or both?" they finish.

"Please..." I croak out. How could this happen? After years of tracking down WAV and Ominous, how could I have possibly let my guard down?

These are the last thoughts that wander around my head before both girls—one light and dark, the other dark and light—put their hands on my temples and the world slowly fades away. But before I go out, one final, shadowy, familiar and foreboding catchphrase echoes past my ears.

"It can get so much worse from here."