The Games of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga Book 2) Read Free

rising from the grave. It became more than the police could handle.”
    “Can they handle anything?” I asked, sarcastically.
    The Backwoodsman snorted. “No. They don't even try. Probably why they’re still alive. A few people started to put up a token resistance when they realized the authorities wouldn't help. That rich girl, Amanda Douglas, started organizing citizen's militias with that old fart Sunlight while a new heroine called Nighthuntress took down several of the more powerful zombies. She was accompanied by some new heroes in masks, a strong man and a sexy woman in a red hood.”
    My heart seized up at the mention of Nighthuntress. That had been the name my wife had chosen for herself when she decided to become a superheroine. It seemed Mandy had decided to begin her career when the city needed her most. The others were probably Diabloman and Cindy, disguising the fact they were helping a hero. “Go on.”
    “That was when the Brotherhood revealed itself. Hundreds of the city's rich, famous, and powerful proclaimed they were in service to Zul-Barbas and cast rituals which raised all of the city's dead in graveyards across town. Thousands of dead, including bodies they'd been stockpiling from P.H.A.N.T.O.M attacks and the last couple of alien invasions. Many of the police chose to join the cult for protection and those that didn't joined the ranks of the dead. Millions evacuated the city as fast as they could.”
    “What about Nighthuntress?”
    “No idea. She’s hot, though.”
    “That she is.” I nodded, holding the bottom of my chin as I thought about what this could all mean. “Go on.”
    “President Omega and the government declared a state of emergency and helped with the evacuation. They forbid the Society of Superheroes from sending in reinforcements, claiming the government would send in a military response to deal with the zombie threat. The Society was then distracted by Pyronnus and Entropicus waging a war over the Cosmic Starchild. It’s only us second-stringers left over to help.”
    “You’re not a second-stringer!” Cloak shouted in my head. “ You are an inspiration to children everywhere!”
    “Merciful Moses, dial it down,” I said to Cloak. “ You’re going to give me brain cancer.”
    “Sorry,” Cloak said. “ I read his Junior Adventure Novels as a boy. They were a great inspiration to me. Did you know the Backwoodsman killed a bear when he was only three?”
    “I’m pretty sure that was Davy Crockett,” I said.
    “Maybe they both did.”
    I sighed, disregarding Cloak’s statement. “Stupid team-wide crossovers. The Society of Superheroes will be gone for months. What about the government response? If President Omega is trying to show off by handling this, what has he done?”
    “Not a damn thing. I believe he’s keeping Congress deadlocked while looking like he's trying to get them to move in order to increase his political power. The bigger the disaster, the more it makes him look heroics when he resolves it. Pfft, politicians. A few heroes like me have broken the Foundation for World Harmony blockade of the city, though. Ultragoddess and a team of renegades have been fighting the monsters left and right. A real hell-cat that one but magic is one of the Ultra-types weaknesses so they haven’t been able to sort things out.”
    “No one could do a better job under these circumstances.” I had a lot of faith in Ultragoddess, real name Gabrielle Anders, who, I shit you not, had been my girlfriend in college. Back on the moon, she'd confessed she'd broken up with me to protect me from her enemies. The oldest excuse in the book. She'd indicated she still loved me but I wasn't going to leave my wife and she wasn't a home-wrecker. It was good to know Gabby was out there, though, fighting the good fight.
    “I don’t doubt that,” the Backwoodsman said, sharing my opinion of Gabby.
    “Any idea why the Brotherhood is doing this?” I asked.
    “To be evil?” The