ALTERNIVERSE: Chapter nine
An unknown amount of time has passed before Freddie awakens in one of the empty rooms of the brewery, blinded, bound to a chair and no longer disguised as Jose. The sudden sense of nausea hits him considerably hard making him lean over to vomit. The sound of the door to the room is heard as Freddie slowly picks up his head in the direction of it. He follows the footsteps around the room. One set of footsteps stops behind him while the other is about 2 feet in front of him.
Everchange looks down at Freddie from behind, now wearing a zipped up, reflective dark emerald coat, black jeans with dark green stitching in the shape of a saint symbol on them. Everchange grabs Freddie by the hair and yanks him towards her until he's sitting back in the chair with his head tilted back.
She sniffs the air coming off Freddie and pinches her nose from the stench of vomit lingering in his breath. "That's just foul, I think Gyro trounced him too hard."
Back in villain attire Transmuter stands back with his arms folded behind him. "As long as he is conscious enough that's all I care about."
"Wh-where am I?" Freddie grudgingly says while trying to keep the urge to vomit down.
"You're where I need you to be. So why don't you tell us what you're doing here." Transmuter asks him but Freddie stays quiet. "You mind telling me how to use this little device?" Again Transmuter is met with silence. "I knew you weren't going to talk to us, just thought I'd give you a chance. My friend here has the oh so very helpful power of Telepathy, you can call her Everchange."
Everchange softly caresses Freddie's cheek while having a sadistic smile on her face. "I already peaked through your mind before but just a little bit of it. From what I saw was enough to figure out you weren't who we thought you were."
"Indeed, now she can peer deeper into your mind through physical contact which will leave you in discomfort. In the cases where you struggle to keep out the harder and more painful it will be." Transmuter turns his back on Freddie and waves back to Everchange over his shoulder.
"It's about time. Make sure you fight back as hard as you can or this won't be fun for me." She grips Freddie's face tightly and her eyes glow blue, prying her way into his mind. He grits his teeth in pain, grunting and breathing heavily while trying to hold off the invasive psyche of Everchange to no avail. She rips through the mental blocks like they were paper as Freddie loses it and yells out in agony.
Back at their hideout Franny paces back and forth not having heard from Freddie in quite a considerable time. James doesn't seem bothered as he is eating a bag of chips while watching the surveillance cameras throughout Helmburgh.
"What if he got caught?" Franny asks, still pacing.
"He didn't get caught." James replies in a calm tone.
She stops her pacing to look at James. "What if he did and now he's dead?"
"If! If he was caught in the act he can handle himself. He can teleport right out of there or turn into a huge thing to fight his way out." James answers back, still flipping through the feed.
Franny exhales slowly then takes a deep breath. "I don't know how you can be so calm about this?"
"One of us has to be the calm one." Just then a light pinging sound can be heard coming from their communicator. "See that's him right now." James gets up from his spot and walks over to the device. Clicking the button to answer Freddie he sets it to speaker mode. "Freddie, it's about time you contact us. Tell Franny you're ok."
"That's going to be a bit difficult seeing as he is unavailable to speak right now." Transmuter answer looking back to the unconscious vigilante, slouched in the chair. James and Franny listen in shock with a look of despair on their faces hearing the voice of someone that they didn't want finding out. "I'm feeling a bit generous today. You obviously know where I am and I know you have recordings of what transpired here the other day. So I propose a trade; bring me what I want in exchange for your friend. You got half an hour." And with that Transmuter uses his power to completely destroy the communicator into little pieces. "You know what to do. Take the others and don't disappoint me."
Everchange nods and heads to the door. "What are you going to do in the meantime?"
Transmuter grabs Freddie's body. "I'll wait."
"I KNEW IT! I FUCKING KNEW IT! HE SHOULDN'T HAVE GONE IN ALONE!" Franny yells out in frustration but James rushes over to the computer. "Really!? Back to watching your camera feed?"
"No." James starts taking the data that Freddie managed to record while there and backing it up on the computer. "Transmuter wants what we have. Let's make him think that we won't have it anymore." He begins downloading a copy of the data onto a flash drive.
"Ok but even if we go there to get Freddie it most definitely will be a trap." Franny suggests. "We can't go in alone."
On another screen the computer brings up the license plate of Daniels car being spotted somewhere in Helmburgh. "Looks like we won't have to."
In Helmburgh B.A.D and Daniel come walking out of a diner having a satisfied expression on their faces.
"I swear small town diners always have the best food." Daniel states rubbing his stomach.
B.A.D nods his head in agreement. "Agreed. We got to stop here before we leave this town."
"B.A.D! Cerberus!" The two Heroes turn around to the fall of their names. Standing before them are Franny and James in their costumes. The citizens on the sidewalk start walking the other way as other across the street and in the store windows begins recording with their phones incase a fight breaks out. "I'm Horizon, this is my partner Hexen. We need your help and we don't have much time."
B.A.D's mood goes from sweet to sour, slowly reaching for his brass knuckles. "And why should we help you? You're not any hero listed in the registry so that makes you vigilantes and criminals at that."
Hexen steps forward. "Because we can get you Transmuter." Daniel eyes widened hearing her offer yet B.A.D gets a sense of dread.
"Ok, what do you need us to do?" Daniel questions.
"We'll explain on the way. Hurry we don't have much time left." Hexen and Horizon start to lead the way to where they parked their van.
"I'll catch up. I'm going to call this in." B.A.D says, taking out his phone. Once out of sight B.A.D dials up and unknown contact on his phone. "Just a heads up. We know where you are and we're coming now. Also Daniel is playing detective and looking into previous cases about you and the tech you got… that's all, I got to go." He hangs up the phone then proceeds to call the actual Hero Organization about Transmuters whereabouts in Helmburgh.
Seven minutes before the deadline giving to the vigilantes they arrive outside the old brewery. Daniel shifts into his Cerberus form and B.A.D slips on his brass knuckles as they prepare to enter the building. Cerberus circles around to the back as a precautionary measure just in case anyone else was in there while the other three continue to move inside. It doesn't take them long to reach the main hall where the villain meeting took place but the lights are off and the room is completely dark.
"Well isn't this a surprise." The lights flip on to reveal Transmuter sitting in the middle of the room sipping on a bottle of ale. "You make it with just 4 minutes to spare." He places the bottle on the table next to him. "Did you bring what I wanted?"
Horizon takes out the flash drive and tosses it to him. "It's all there now where's Freddie?" Transmuter catches the flash drive and looks at it, giving it the once over. "Hey fucker! Where's Freddie!?"
Transmuter tucks away the drive in his back pocket. "I heard you the first time." A dark pool of shadows begins to form on the floor in front of him. Rising from the shadows is Freddie's body, motionless. Transmuters right arm turns black by the shadows as it grows and extends, picking up the vigilante. Like a black whip, Transmuters arm flings Freddie at them. Horizon uses his telekinesis to catch the body, slowly bringing him towards them. "Your friend as promised."
Horizon and Hexen gently lay him on the floor with B.A.D watching on in silence, taking quick glances at Transmuter who looks at him with a smile.
"Hey… Freddie, wake up." Hexen says softly, holding back the tears trying to get a response.
Horizon looks at the side of Freddie's head and notices dried blood coming from his ears. "What the hell did you do?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Transmuter says with a cocky expression.
"Don't fuck with us. This wasn't part of the deal!" Horizon states standing to his feet.
"I said I'd give him back for the data you had. I didn't state whether I'd give back to you alive." Transmuter picks up the bottle of ale he was drinking before. "Be happy I gave him to you at all." Hexen, Horizon and B.A.D get into a fight stance. "At least you can give him a funeral." Hexen snaps letting loose powerful beams from her hands at him. Transmuter's body and clothes turn black like the shadows as his body stretches and molds around, dodging the beams. "Hmm, looks like I struck a nerve." Transmuter's body morphs back to its regular shape, taking out his mask and attaching it to his face. "Ok, let's see if you can make this any fun for me."