Kerry and Danny: Dead


    Kerry looked over the landing balcony down at the hospital reception. “Burn!”

    “No!” Danny cried out, grabbing the probability arsonist. “You don’t want to do this, Firecracker!”

    “I do,” snarled Kerry, pulling out of his grasp, hand trembling on a paraffin lighter. “I want to burn down the world!”

    “You don’t. Calm down! If you don’t calm down then lots of people are going to die!”

    “I don’t care.”

    “You will afterwards. This is a hospital. There’s more sick people here than just…”

    “Naari?” Kerry’s newborn niece had been born less than an hour ago. Now people were discussing the baby’s autopsy.

    “Yes, than Naari. It’s awful that she died, but really it’s nobody’s fault. Why take it out on innocent people?”

    Kerry started trembling. “Because… because somebody has to pay! Somebody…” Then she glared up at her boyfriend. “You just used you denial powers on me!” she accused. “To stop me! You said you’d never do that!”

    “You said you’d never burn down a hospital,” Danny Lyle replied. “Well, not specifically, but I always assumed there was some kind of guarantee. Look, Kerry, this is all just terrible but you going nuclear isn’t going to make it any better for anybody.”

    “Did you see Visionary’s face? Did you see Hallie and Miiri? Did you?”

    Danny swallowed hard. He really didn’t know what to say. He wondered how he’d ever got into this.

    “Right,” Kerry said, her face hardening. “Get a cab. I’m going to do what Hallie talked about. I’m going to see the Hooded Hood.”

    “The… the Hooded Hood?” Danny seemed disconcerted. “He’s not a good idea.”

    “Where as doing nothing is? He’s got retcon powers. He could wiggle his nose and make it so Naari didn’t die.” The teenager’s face crumpled in a scowl. “He’ll do it or he’ll burn!”

    “He won’t. You know you can’t force his hand. He’ll hurt you.”
    “I don’t care. I have to try. Zack wouldn’t contact him but if I go to Herringcarp… I did once before.”

    Danny caught her hands and held her back. “Firecracker, don’t. Look, I… I happen to have the Hood’s private line number. I could call him. From here.”

    Kerry looked back at her self-proclaimed supervillain boyfriend. “You have the Hood’s number?”

    Denial didn’t deny it. He held up his phone. “I’ll make the call.”

    “Put it on speaker.”

    There was a long pause as the call connected. Kerry snorted with impatience, her hands gripping the balcony rail so hard that her knuckles turned white. And then a cold Latverian tone said: “Good evening, Daniel. Good evening Kerry.”

    “Hood,” Kerry called out. “We need to talk.”

    “I thought Daniel had made it clear that there was nothing else to for us to say to each other ever,” the Hood said.

    Kerry flicked a suspicious look at her lover. “You talked a lot, did you?”

    “Just bring Visionary’s kid back,” Danny demanded. “Make with a retcon so somebody found out about her in time to save her life.”

    “You have already attempted to deny the death yourself,” the Hood replied. “So why is the girl not restored to you?”

    “You know why,” Danny hissed. “I can’t do everything you can yet. There’s… I don’t know, a weight of destiny here. Too much for me to push against. And the longer time has passed the harder it is for me to deny stuff. Naari was too long gone. I tried.”

    “Never mind the games, Hood,” Kerry interrupted. “Just tell us what we have to do and bring her back.”

    “No,” replied the archvillain.

    “I said bring the baby back to life,” Kerry warned, her voice trembling. “Before I hurt you.

    “No,” repeated the Hooded Hood. “The consequences would be worse than things are now.”

    “Worse than Naari being dead, than Vizh and Hallie and Miiri being shattered, than… everything being dark?” Kerry shouted.

    “Yes.”

    Danny stirred uneasily. “You have to do something.”

    “No. I am under no obligation to intervene. And no obligation to you, as you so forcefully and emphatically explained to me. Or have you reconsidered joining my cause?”

    Kerry had been wondering why her boyfriend would have the Hood’s private line number on his phone memory. “He wanted you to join him?”

    “I’m not interested in ruling the world with Dr Evil,” Danny answered. “I do things my way, not his.”

    “It appears that we have therefore concluded our discussion,” the Hooded Hood said. “I will be watching with interest to see what each of you elects to do next. Especially you, Miss Shepherdson.”

    “You stay the hell away from her,” Danny warned.

    “Too late, Daniel,” the Hood answered. “I already arranged for her to meet you.” And the line went dead.

    Kerry’s frown deepened. “What did he mean? What did that mean, Danny?”

    “Nothing. Just another of his games.”

    “What did he mean? Why should he want you to meet me? Why did he want you to work for him anyhow? I mean you basically have cutdown versions of his powers anyhow, so why should he need…”

    And then the penny dropped. Danny Lyle had been raised in an orphanage after being abandoned. He’d only learned his true parentage when he was sixteen years old. He’d enrolled in the Heck Fire Club as the son of a supervillain. He had powers to deny what had just happened, almost like the retcon abilities of…

    “Your father,” Kerry said. She couldn’t stop trembling. “Your father is the Hooded Hood.”

    “Maybe.” There were some things Danny couldn’t deny.

    “You’re his son. After he retconned spiffy, disinherited him as being unsuitable. We all knew there had to be a new son. And… oh crap! What is it with us Shepherdsons and you bastards? Sarah and your father. Me and you!”

    “Firecracker, it’s not like that. Nobody planned this. It was our choices.”

    “It was your daddy!” Kerry shouted, knocking his hand away. “He set this up, like he sets everything up! He wanted you to have me for some… some devious twisted scheme he’s running to hurt the people I really care about! He used me, and he used you to use me, and whatever you say he’s probably pulling your strings right now!”

    “He isn’t,” Danny shouted back. “You think I want to have that manipulative bastard as a father? You think I agree with what he does, how he does it? I thought we were together because you loved me, not because of who I’m related to!”

    “Yeah, I thought that too. But it turns out differently, doesn’t it?”

    “Kerry…”

    The girl turned away so he wouldn’t see her crying. “I thought this day couldn’t get any more horrible,” she said. “But give the Hooded Hood credit. Turns out he can always make things worse.”

    “Kerry, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I thought if I did, then…”

    “Then I’d feel like this? Well guess what, you were right. You know, I accused Hacker Nine of being a traitor for apprenticing with the Hood, and all the time I was sleeping with the enemy!”

    Danny moved hesitantly towards her. “Look, you’re upset today because of Naari. That’s such a huge thing, its right there, we can’t think straight about anything else.”

    “Oh I can think straight now, Danny Lyle!” Kerry hissed. “I can see what a fool I’ve been. What a fool you’ve made me, you and your father!” She backed off. “Stay away from me Danny. I mean it. Next time I see you, you are ashes. I wish I’d never met you, never heard of you! Just keep away!”

    “Fine by me. I was starting to think that maybe you were big enough to see past all of that crap, see me for what I am and what I might be. But if you can’t get past my father then the hell with you! Turns out you’re just another dumb hero-wannabee.”

    For a moment it looked like Kerry was going to lay into him. Her teary face burned with a fury that could detonate stars. But finally she let out a deep snarl and raced away down into the foyer then out.

    “And I didn’t use my power to stop you before,” Danny said. “I just asked you and you stopped.”

    But really it was far too late for words now anyhow.

Original concepts, characters, and situations copyright © 2006 reserved by Sarah Shepherdson. Other Parodyverse characters copyright © 2006 to their creators. The use of characters and situations reminiscent of other popular works do not constitute a challenge to the copyrights or trademarks of those works. The right of Sarah Shepherdson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.