Chapter Eight

Hero's Call: Chapter Eight

The plan that Czar Destructo had concocted all those years ago before landing in prison was still in progress. He knew it was a sure sign of a perfect plan. Even spending almost half a century in prison hadn’t stopped affected the first stage in his master plan for world domination. He hadn’t counted on being locked away, but it didn’t matter. The virus was perfect. It would last forever, and it had left him the only man on earth with a still active Hero gene. So the second stage of the plan had veered drastically off course when he was sent to prison. No big deal. It wouldn’t change the plan. He’d only have to adjust a few things to make sure it went through as planned.

Phase two of his plan wasn’t quite as ingenious as the first part. It was just something he had to do before he died, a moment he knew was rapidly approaching. It hadn’t been long since he’d busted out of the arctic prison, but he could already feel the time catching up with him. His appearance hadn’t changed much, but he could feel the effects of time weighing down on him. The Hero gene had kept him preserved like it should have, but there must have been something else going on there that was keeping him young and spry. No doubt it was put in place to keep him there for far longer than he would normally have been. When he first noticed his joints being a little stiffer than they used to be, Destructo had put it all together almost instantly and did a quick calculation in his mind. According to his math �" which was never wrong, or so he thought �" it wouldn’t be long before he was as old as his arch nemesis Captain Amazing. He had to move quickly to finish the plan he’d set in motion decades before.

While he wouldn’t speak of the first part of his plan to a single living soul, the second part wasn’t quite so secret. Anyone with a little knowledge of his past would know exactly what he was planning to do. And it was exponentially simpler than the first phase. Destructo was going to clone himself. Simple, of course, being a relative term. His advanced intelligence could easily comprehend the concept of cloning. His current body was not his first. There had been many clones through the years. With each new body he had adopted a new Villainous identity so as to avoid the knowledge of his cloning capabilities to fall into the wrong hands. No matter which Villain he was, his mind remained intact, still bent on world domination. He decided with this new clone, though, that he’d stick with the name Czar Destructo. It had a certain ring to it that just sounded like it would be the perfect title of the emperor of the world.

What most people don’t know about cloning is that DNA is like a fine wine. It had to mature to a certain age before it could be ready for the cloning process. Destructo extracted a sample of his DNA just before he was sent away to prison. At the time he thought he had more time to rule the world before having to clone himself. The sample he had taken was a little past the appropriate maturity, but it would have to suffice. Taking the time for a new sample to mature would be fruitless. Time would strike him down long before that. He’d just have to make due.

If his memory served him properly, Destructo had left the sample of his DNA in The Creation Dome off the coast of New Zealand. He had built the compound to facilitate his minion needs. Breeding armies, as it turned out, was far cheaper than buying them. Mercenaries are a lot dedicated only to the highest bidder, and would often price gouge Villains like Destructo because they knew full well how much money they could get. Destructo had never gotten the chance to put any of his biologically enhanced monsters to use however. Such he viewed as a true pity. A full battalion of sand golems would have wrought havoc unlike the world had ever seen.

Destructo knew that Captain Amazing would not take any of his bases offline without destroying any method of transportation that was stored therein, so making his way to New Zealand turned out to be more of a pain than he’d bargained for. Number 1 could make his own way now that his battery levels were once again full. The old robot servant would probably beat his master there, in fact. Unfortunately for Czar Destructo, he was not granted the power of flight when his powers activated. He purchased the cheapest plane ticket to New Zealand he could find, using a perfect counterfeit passport to as ID. It had been a long time since he’d flown commercial. Destructo could have bought first class, but he needed every extra penny to get his master plan back on track. It was a mistake he vowed never to make again.

Next Destructo on the plane was quite probably the fattest woman he’d ever seen. Her body was practically spilling over into his seat; the armrest separating them had nearly disappeared into the folds of her skin. Her hair had been teased into a the style of a woman from a Whitesnake video. She had her makeup plastered to her face like she was an amateur circus clown, and the clothes she was wearing made her look like a cheetah that had been gorging itself on antelope for days on end without moving. Her fingernails were painted a disgusting shade of lime green, and they clicked annoyingly as she turned the pages of her fashion magazine. Destructo couldn’t fathom a logical reason for someone like her to travel to New Zealand.

“Howdy,” she said to him as he sat down. Her voice was oozing the memory of her Southern upbringing. Destructo had been all over the world in his lifetime and heard many people speak English in various accents, so he could say with a reasonable certainty that there was no accent he hated more than a Southern one. There was just something about it that grated on his nerves. He gave her a bemused smile in reply. Grabbing a Sky Mall magazine from the seat pouch in front of him, he tried to busy himself to avoid conversation. It didn’t work. “My name’s Tabitha.”

“Eric,” Destructo replied with disinterest. He was flying under the name Eric Sanders. Another of his many aliases he’d used to travel anonymously.

“I hate flying,” she said, powering through her neighbor’s disinterest. “The take-off always makes me so nervous, so does the landing...and turbulence. Really, the whole thing just kind of makes me a wreck.”

Destructo mumbled a reply.

“Oh boy. Here we go,” Tabitha said as the flight attendants finished their pre-flight safety speech and the plane moved onto the runway. Tabitha’s chubby fingers dug into what was left showing of the armrest as the plane built up speed and climbed into the air, bumping slightly as it was buffeted by the wind. She made a weird squeak like a chipmunk with each little dip or bump. When the plane leveled off, she relaxed somewhat. “I hate take-offs.”

The entire thirteen-hour flight was filled with Tabitha talking incessantly and Destructo barely listening or responding. Apparently Tabitha, or Tabby as her friends called her, had met a young man from New Zealand on the internet and was flying out to spend a week with him. She was nervous about whether or not it was going to work out, and whether spending that much money on something that may or may not turn out well was a good idea. Little did she know, it didn’t really matter much. In a few short months, Czar Destructo would be ruler of this miserable planet. Even if it did work out, her and this mystery man would be enslaved anyway, so the point was moot.

The plane touched down in the airport in New Zealand, and Destructo scrambled to get off the plane and leave Tabby behind. For such a large woman she could move quite effectively. He managed to lose her and duck into a bathroom just off the plane. When it was all clear, Destructo made his way to the car rental desk, and rented a car. It took him about an hour or two to drive from the airport in Queenstown to the coast. He ditched the car and went the rest of the way on foot.

The Creation Dome sat out on the ocean, a shattered wreck of what it used to be. It pained Destructo to see something he was so fond of destroyed in its prime. He walked down the pathway past the crumbled statues of himself. He had a bit of difficulty getting across some of the gaps that had appeared. He finally arrived, but at great personal risk. He’d make Captain Amazing pay double simply because of the inconvenience.

He crossed the threshold, and passed through the entrance hall. He was grieved to find his once great collection of eco-systems withered and useless. Those prairie dogs were the most poisonous things on Earth. They could kill you in less than three seconds if they bit you, and now they’re dead. Destructo could rebuild his armies, but it didn’t matter. His time was coming to an end, and he needed to train his successor.

Inside the command center, Number 1 was attempting to clean up. He dropped a shattered computer screen when Destructo walked in.

“Master!” he said joyfully, “You made it.”

“It only took a day or so,” Destructo said and walked towards the cabinet.

“It’s gone, Master,” he said with disappointment.

Destructo opened the cabinet and found a single vial of DNA and it wasn’t his. He lifted it and looked at the letters marked on the side.

“T.S.” he said thoughtfully. “Interesting…”

“What’s interesting, Master?” Number 1 asked.

Destructo didn’t answer right away. A new plan was formulating in his head.

“This will do,” he said with a smile. “It might even turn out better than I expected.” He slid the vial of DNA into his pocket.

“Not to ruin your good mood, Master,” Number 1 said, placing a hand on his master’s shoulder, “but I have another bit of bad news.”

He crossed the room and turned on one of the monitors on the wall. A news report came on the screen.

“I recorded this earlier today,” the robot said, “I thought you might want to see it.”

Destructo watched the report with a sinking heart. The report claimed they didn’t know what caused the destruction of that family’s house or who hurt the boy, but it was obvious. There was an unknown flaw in his plans, an unaccounted anomaly with the Dreadnaught Virus. Apparently it wasn’t going to last forever. He had destroyed the research once he’d successfully synthesized the virus. There was no way for him to go back and check his work now. He would have to accelerate his plans substantially before things got out of hand.

That’s unfortunate, Destructo thought. He was really quite looking forward to taking his time and doing it right.

“Do you realize what this means, Number 1?” Destructo asked, turning off the report.

“Yes, Master,” he replied. “Should we set out for Buckland?”

“No, not yet,” Destructo said and brought a new monitor online. Surprisingly enough, there was still a single aircraft still operation in the underground hangar. Bringing up the specs, Destructo found that it was nothing special; a two man craft that would be big enough for both he and Number 1. That was some good news at least. “There are still things that must be accomplished before we square off with any Heroes. We must start with the cloning process. If everything goes according to plan, we may be able to crush him before he even makes a name for himself.”

“We’ll leave him be, master?” Number 1 replied.

“For now, Number 1,” Destructo said. The plan would need tweaking, but the changes were already forming in his mind. “For now.”