What's in it For Me?

“Is this recording?” Jackson asked. 

“Yeah.”

“Alright.” He turned to the man sitting across from them. The man’s black eyes were flecked with red and gold. His veins were black as well, running like map lines under his paper white flesh. His hands in the cuffs had turned a strange pink colour, which meant the cuffs were working to keep him under control. 

“You’re gonna tell us everything, okay? From the beginning.”

“No beginning to tell, really,” the man said.

“None of that crap. Start talking,” Cora said.

“You think you can hold me here? You think your handcuffs can hold me?”

“They can and they are. They were specially designed when we learned you destroyed the entire country of Iceland.”

The cuffs had a yellow glow, and the man yanked towards his chest. His attempt to escape miserably failed.

“Ultimate, there are six charges of major destruction laid against you. You are going to tell us everything. You’re going to tell us how you destroyed all those countries, and why you did it. You’re gonna tell us everything, and I suggest you start now,” Cora said.

With another halfhearted tug at the chain, Ultimate’s shoulders slumped, but only for a moment. He then returned the eye contact with the two uniformed officers in front of him.

“Well, I suppose to start, I began by lifting off the ground into the air, something you humans call flying.”

“The sarcasm is unappreciated.”

“I then began shooting lasers from my hands, burning buildings, cars, and bushes."

"And people," Cora muttered.

“Then, when the city was ashes, I decided to fly off to another, and burn that one down, too.”

“How many did you destroy?”

Ultimate’s black eyes kept staring, and it made Jackson feel a little woozy.

“Wouldn’t you like to know. You couldn’t even name all the cities I’ve destroyed.”

“Which is why we’re asking you to do it, Ultimate,” Cora said.

“Oh, I’m not really sure how many at this time.”

“I don’t believe that for a second.” 

“Oh, I suppose you’re right. I do know. But I also know that if I tell you, then you are gonna up all those charges.”

“Ultimate, your only charges are the six major destruction charges. I am not authorized to bring more charges against you,” Jackson lied.

Ultimate shook his head. “I’m not talking any more to either one of you.”

Cora sighed and crossed her arms.

Jackson folded his hands on the steel table. “Ultimate, come on. Up until a few days ago, you were a symbol of hope. You gave the people something to believe in again. The day you came to us was a day that will be spoken about for years to come. What happened to you? You’re better than this, and you know it. Why are you doing this to us?”

The bang of his fists on the table startled the officers.

“They deserved every bit of what came to them.”

“How do you mean?” Cora asked.

“I mean that you people are all the same. The worst.”

“That seems a little unfair, Ultimate,” Jackson said.

“Unfair?” Ultimate scoffed. “Unfair.”

“Well, it does.”

“Do you find it fair then, that your politicians give themselves and their cabinets ten percent raises while leaving thousands of people to starve on the sidewalks?”

The officers glanced at each other.

“Well, that’s sort of out of our-”

“Do you find it fair then, that the Real Fresh bottled water company poisoned the nearby reservoirs, then decided to raise their prices by fifteen percent?”

“Ultimate, I-”

“Do you realize how stupid you all are? You humans all somehow seem to think that you are all better than the next one. Do you find it fair then, that you humans hold a vote every so often, a vote to choose the next best person to oppress you all?” Ultimate scoffed again. “I can’t believe I have to watch this all happen again.”

“Again?”

“When my planet was first destroyed, many, many years ago, life had become very dark for my kind. The rivers were dry. The mountains collapsed. The plants all withered away. The dirt wouldn’t grow any food. The air became so thick with filth that it suffocated and killed instead of bringing life. And it wasn’t even our fault. My planet had just simply died, like a star. Yours is being slaughtered.”

Jackson looked back over his shoulder at Cora, who shook her head.

Ultimate laughed at the officers’ silence. “You have all lost your minds,” he said. “You have poisoned your planet, ruined your futures, and effectively killed yourselves. For too long, I tried to help you all. I wanted to help you all. How many times have I saved you from yourselves? How many times have I stopped a speeding bus from slamming into a daycare, or pulled a sinking boat from an ocean? How many times have I swiped a doomed man from a burning oil rig? A woman from a collapsing building? A family from the devastation of their war-torn homeland? And what do I get in return? What’s in it for me? What’s in it for Ultimate?”

Jackson swallowed the lump in his throat.

 “I’ll tell you what’s in it for me. I’m going to be the one leftover, the one left behind. I am going to have to be the one who watches as you all burn, and drown, and starve, once you all finally learn the truth. The truth that your planet is not as forgiving as she has been thus far. Your planet is going to take herself back. You all deserve what’s coming to you because you all are the reason for it.”

“That’s enough, Ultimate,” Cora said.

Ultimate cackled. “Thought you brought me down here so I would talk to you. Tell you everything about why I did it. You thought you wanted to hear it, didn’t you? You thought I had turned crazy, didn’t you? No, ma’am. In fact, I think I’m about the sanest of all of you humans, and I don’t even think I can be considered a human.”

“That’s enough.”

Ultimate threw his head back with laughter. “You wanted this! You all begged for this, you all wanted to know!”

Jackson clicked the recorder off, then stood and turned to Cora. “Let’s go, let him be for a bit. We’ll come back to him once he’s calm.”

“You all wanted this!” Ultimate shrieked. “You all deserve what you get! If not from me, then from your precious planet who you all claim to care so much for!”

“Come on,” Jackson said, leaving the dark of the interrogation room for the offensive fluorescents of the hallway. Cora followed close behind, and the echo of Ultimate’s laughter through the halls was suddenly muted by the slam of the door.