Brass Ring Chapter 14: When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Captain Sandoval walked into the room. In this room were ten of the best of his precinct, men who had proven themselves again and again. They had access to the best training, the best equipment, and the best weapons. Each had been assigned a suit of armor capable of handling an anti-tank weapon, a rifle that could switch between a sonic blaster, a grenade launcher, and a slug-thrower capable of eliminating a marble statue. They were ready to deal with most super-powered crime.

These were the Overton Anti-Enhanced Suppression Unit. They dealt with the beings that CAPES were too busy to deal with, and were very good at it. Today they were assembled to deal with one that had helped them dozens of times but had also put far too many of them in the hospital. Sure, he had been an ally, but he was an ally whose help usually cost more than it was worth

Captain Sandoval smiled. They now had his secret identity. It was time for some payback. The large officer looked at the assembled men. “Today, we plan a mission that we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. We know the identity of the vigilante known as ‘The Weasel,’ giving us an unprecedented opportunity.” Most of the men smiled. “While he has been an ally in keeping the level of crime down, he has also been responsible for a large number of ‘accidents’ that left the victims on the disability rolls.” He sighed dramatically. “Thanks to the release of the Telemachus Ultimatum, we now have the intel we need to bring him in.” He looked at his men. “Harrison Bennison, founder of Bennison Enterprises, is The Weasel.” He let the shock linger for a moment.

“We have developed plans to take him.” He distributed the maps to his mansion. “The goal is to take him by surprise, and in his civilian guise.” He led them through the plan. “Any questions?” What followed were some debate over better routes of attack, some potential legal issues, and some quick smiles when the men of the AESU were content with the plan. “And that should cover it. The operation will begin in a few hours. Do what it takes to get yourself prepared, people: This will be arguably the toughest fight of our careers.”

As they filed out, Captain Sandoval allowed himself a quick prayer. “Dear God, let this go smoothly. And please let’s keep the number of wounded down to a minimum.”

He allowed himself one short of moment of joy. The Weasel would be in custody within the hour.

* * * * *

Don Pelegrine was actually smiling. While things had not gone as smoothly as he had hoped, he was still on schedule. He walked over to PsyBorg. “We need to discuss what happened.”

Psyborg smiled. “We got the gadget. While we encountered some resistance, it didn’t matter in the end. Kung ran hoe with the gadget, I gave him some free time without the Brothers Boom. We even had a small celebration.” He nodded at the don. “Easy mission.”

The don frowned. “What kind of resistance? There wasn’t supposed to be any.”

Psyborg dropped the smile. “I’m guessing CAPES had some sort of backup should someone trigger the Telemachus Ultimatum. Once it went into effect, it looks like someone with no issues would come to rule the roost in their place.”

The don’s eyes narrowed. “Great. So your next move is to kill their leader. Eliminate the leader, the rest of the team will back off.”

Psyborg ran through some quick calculations. “Are you sure? His death could be a rallying point for the rest of the team, and you’re assuming he’s the only one with leadership skill. He could also become a martyr to the other heroes, forcing them to come together despite what else is going on.’

The don smiled. “I’m sure. Just do it.

He sighed. I’m really going to hate family reunions after this assignment.

In the background, there was a small explosion followed by some angry Chinese by Kung. Psyborg rushed over to see what had happened. Kung was angry. “Bleeding circuit board is just off.”

Psyborg scanned the board and the mechanism it was attached to. He shrugged. “Here’s what you need to do.” He then listed off a few basic modifications. Kung ran off, swearing at all of the extra work he now had to do. Psyborg smiled. “Well, that was an easy fix.” Psyborg decided he needed to take a walk.

* * * * *

Outside, PsyBorg was learning to hate his newest assignment. This has got to be over soon. Don Pelegrine was beginning to grate on him. Admittedly, it was mostly due to the tight schedule required to take advantage of the Ultimatum, before thins normalized again, but the don was probably not much more fun on a regular basis. And now I have to plan the death of my brother.

He mused over several options he had available to him. The most obvious was a simple sniper's bullet. He smirked: While it would be satisfying to see the self-satisfied smile removed from his brother's face permanently, it lacked a certain panache. That would be too simple. He debated going straight-up biblical: he wondered if his brother's telekinesis could handle a 10-ton rock from directly above him. Of course, if he attached a magnetic field generator, his younger brother's powers became moot. He could even set up some sort of Goldberg device, but that would require so many things to go right that it would be more of a pain to set up and would likely not work the way he wanted. Still, it was hard not to smile.

He even debated giving the job to the Brothers Boom, but that caused an actual chuckle. Twid would quickly find himself nailed to a wall, possibly hard enough to knock even him of the hard skull unconscious, and The Yeth would find that using his sonic powers where the air itself had been dispersed would be difficult. They were good, but his brother was debatably better.

But while becoming Cain to his soon-to-dead brother's Abel somehow amused him, especially with him being an atheist, if he killed his brother he would never hear the end of it from their mother; it would make holiday get-togethers very difficult. It was hard not to smile at that scenario. He looked over at his personal arsenal; the dart gun and the blow gun both looked appealing. He began planning the job of taking his brother off the board. I have to make it look convincing while not actually killing him.

It took him a half-hour of work to work out some sort of working plan. As he sat back, very happy with his work, his hand smacked his forehead: He realized he would need to call his brother about this development. He debated not doing it, but then realized that while it would be amusing for his brother to wake up naked on the autopsy table, his mother would have words to say about being called in to identify a living body. He texted his idiotic dork of a brother, annoyed that saving his life was becoming so difficult so quickly by having a superhero in the family. At least it’s a chance to meet his girlfriend…

* * * * *

Oliver stripped, grabbed a towel to cover himself and a small towel for his head, and entered the sauna. He needed some time to relax. I’m feeling better about what’s going on, but we need some more information. It feels like we’re missing something obvious. He was physically exhausted from the two fights with his brother and recruiting people to the team, and he just wanted to melt away in the steam. He put his phone down and threw some water on the heated rocks; the resulting steam brought a smile to his lips. He leaned back, covered his head with the second towel, and tried to become one with the steam.

He felt a touch of ice on his chest, and he smiled. He pulled down the cloth over his eyes. “You never let me relax.”

Cass smiled at Oliver. “Sometimes you don’t need to relax. She moved the ice cube slowly down his bare, glowing chest. She took the ice cube away and glared at him. “I know you’re just protecting me. We need to discuss that.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I know. Bad habits never stop, I suppose.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll always feel like I need to keep you safe. Even when I know you can protect yourself.”

She smiled. “Don’t get me wrong: A girl likes it when her boy protects her.” She brought her had up to his face. “And I appreciate that being a super can be hazardous work, so the responsible thing would be to run.”

“I don’t want to see you in the hospital or, Heaven forbid, have to bury you.”

“I know, and I appreciate that. And I reciprocate that feeling: I would hate to see you even get a boo-boo.” She honked his nose. “However, I’m part of the team, and if you’re going to be the team leader you need to treat me as part of the team.” She lowered her hand. “If you’re always seeking ways to protect me, then you’re going to make mistakes, and those mistakes may end up costing someone their life.”

His brow furrowed. “Yeah, I know.” He smirked/ “If I promise to work on it, can we still be friends?”

She punched him. Without touching her, he caused her towel to drop. She acted shy for a moment, just a moment, then she tackled him. And of his course beeped.

Psyborg: We need to meet.

He rolled his eyes. “Aargh.”

Oliver: Sure. I do have a plus one.

Psyborg: No problem. Time I meet the girlfriend.

He looked at her longingly, then returned to normal. “Looks like we’ve been invited to dinner.”

She smiled. “Time for me to finally meet your brother.” She retrieved her towel and they left the sauna. But not before he spanked her.

[The last chapter can be found here.]