Friends and Enemies

Harris slammed his fist on the table top, spinning away from the computer screen before him. “Son of a bitch! He’s at it again!” he exclaimed, rushing from the surveillance room.

The screen showed a tall lanky man in a red and grey spandex suit, an emblem of a fiery explosion emblazoned on his chest, entering the bank downtown after blowing a hole in the side of the building. All that could be seen of his cackling features was his wide mouth below the mask he wore.

Harris, already in his black and blue gear, jumped into his car and sped out of the secret entrance to his base.

“I swear, I’m going to catch that bastard if it’s the last thing I do,” he snarled, pressing his foot firmly on the gas so that the car shot forward. “There’s no way Smoke is getting away this time.”

The villain’s ability to create explosions with a single touch had made capturing him difficult in the past. Harris knew it would take a special kind of jail cell to hold him, and he’d been testing out different metals and rocks to see if any were strong enough to hold up. So far he’d struck out with everything though. Smoke appeared to have no weaknesses, but Harris wasn’t giving up yet. He was determined to see his arch nemesis behind bars one day and reveal to the world just who it was hiding behind that mask.

By the time Harris had reached the bank, Smoke had already gathered his hostages together and had them emptying the money in the vault into bags that he then made them carry out to his getaway car. This was where Harris found him, standing over the cowering bank employees as they loaded up his stolen goods.

Smoke glanced over as the dark blue car came screeching to a halt in the parking lot before him, rolling his eyes as he grabbed up a terrified woman at his feet when she tried to scoot away.

“Well if it isn’t Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes,” he mocked in a squeaky, high-pitched electronic voice as the people around him look on Harris with hopeful eyes.

“Electro, save us!” the woman Smoke held in a light but unbreakable grip cried out. Her face was streaked with black mascara, making it obvious that she’d been crying at some point during the robbery.

Smoke gave her a quick shake, shooting her an annoyed look before he turned his attention back to the man before him. “So what brings you to my neck of the woods, Electro? Stop by to see how the family’s doing? Or did you just miss me?”

“Do we seriously have to do this every time? I didn’t come here to chat.” Harris crossed his arms over his chest, his own voice deepened thanks to the voice implant in his gear, and glared at the other man. This only made Smoke’s smile grow wider. “Do the right thing for once in your life. Let them go and return the money you’ve stolen. I’ll take it easy on you today if you just turn yourself in.”

Smoke threw his head back and laughed, the sound grating on Harris’ nerves, but when he started to take a step forward, Smoke turned serious once again and yanked the woman in front of him.

“Do you really think I’m that stupid?” he scoffed, shaking the woman until she whimpered and began to cry again.

Harris arched an eyebrow, though no one could see it beneath his own mask. “Well, you did call yourself smoke, which I think everyone agrees is probably the stupidest name of a super villain. Ever.”

Smoke’s jaw dropped and Harris could catch the scent of smoke in the air, signaling that his arch nemesis was getting angry, which always led to him using his pyrokinetic abilities. “There’s nothing wrong with my name! And I chose that name because, just like smoke, you can’t catch or hold me. I’ll always slip through your fingers.”

Ice blue eyes met a bright green gaze.

“Enough with the banter. Let the woman go so we can settle this like supers.” Harris waved a hand towards the woman Smoke still held before him. The others had managed to scoot away from the distracted villain. That, or Smoke just hadn’t cared enough to stop them; though he really only needed one hostage to ensure that Harris would be cautious and avoid using his own powers against him.

Smoke snorted. “Right. We both know she’s the only reason you’re not shooting me full of lightning right now. You wouldn’t dare risk her life, which is why you’re going to let me go and not follow. Otherwise, I’m going to have a little fun with this one.” He smiled as he held up his other hand and blue flames coated his fingers.

The woman bit back a scream of terror as she struggled to pull away from Smoke as she stared at his hand, the fire caressing his skin but not burning him. She wouldn’t be so lucky though. All it got her was another rough shake of her arm and a silencing look from the man holding her captive.

“Let’s be reasonable here,” Harris began, holding his hands up, palms out, as though he were trying to get Smoke to calm down. Instead, lightning bolts shot out from his palms as Smoke drug the sobbing woman around to the driver’s side of the car, hitting the wheels and popping them even as they began to melt onto the pavement.

Smoke dropped the woman and rushed back around the car, staring down at the useless tires.

Harris smiled to himself as the woman scrambled to her feet and fled back inside the hole in the bank.

“You ruined my car!”

Harris shrugged. “You won’t need one where you’re going.”

He started forward, feeling the tingle of lightning building up in his hands, when Smoke suddenly shot fire in the direction of where his victim had just run. The woman’s sudden, piercing scream and those of several others had him cursing and changing directions.

Smoke took off in the opposite direction even as Harris hurled himself into the now burning building, determined to save the lives of those now trapped inside. Smoke’s cruel laughter floated in after him, easily heard of the roar of the inferno now blazing around him.

Harris had briefly wondered why the woman had rushed back into the bank instead of getting farther away from Smoke, but once he followed her further inside the building he discovered why. She was frantically trying to untie the hands and feet of half a dozen people hidden inside the now empty vault.

It seemed Smoke had left them behind, unable to get away.

No wonder he didn’t hesitate to set the place on fire. He must have planned it for it I showed up. I’d be too distracted saving these people to chase after him, Harris thought with a rough shake of his head.

Harris silently cursed himself for not thinking of the possibility of more hostages as he helped the woman free those who’d been left behind.

“Is there a back door out of here?” he asked, shouting to be heard over the roar of the flames. “The fire department should be on their way, but we need to get you all out to safety.”

One of the men nodded, leading the way out of the vault and past the back offices, away from the inferno eating its way deeper into the building. But when they reached the door, they discovered that Smoke had melted the metal handle so they couldn’t escape.

Harris hurried back to see how close the fire was, then rushed the others into the closest office. “Give me just a moment to get the door open. Stay here until I tell you to come out.”

Even as he ran back to the door he pushed as much power as he could into his hands. He then directed his powers at the door’s hinges, blowing them off completely until the door sagged and fell to the ground after another blast directed at the melted handle.

“Alright everyone, hurry!” he called back.

By the time everyone was free and the fire had been put out, Harris had been able to verify that all but two of the bags from Smoke’s car were still there. He waited while it was arranged for the money to be transported to another bank, and then until the armored car arrived on the scene.

After what felt like an eternity to Harris, he finally managed to get away and made it back to his base by nightfall.

He ripped the mask off his head and tossed it onto a nearby table, cursing his enemy the whole time. He ran one hand through his honey colored hair, then groaned when he realized his hands were covered in soot and he’d inadvertently rubbed it into his hair.

In a worse mood than before, he stripped off his sooty gear to clean and headed out of the hidden underground portion of his basement and up into his actual house. He needed a shower and a stiff drink, though he decided not in that order.

He’d just poured himself a hefty glass of whiskey when his phone rang.

“What?” he snapped into it after snatching it up off the table nearby.

“Well someone’s in a bad mood,” a familiar voice taunted over the phone.

Harris smiled a little. “What do you want, Joe?”

The other man’s laugh rang through the line. “I’ve got a little extra money to spend, got myself a nice bonus at work. Not as much as I’d hoped, but still…”

“And what’s that got to do with me?” Harris asked before taking a sip of his drink. He sighed a little as it burned its way down his throat, soothing the ache that had been there from breathing in so much smoke earlier.

“I just figured you might like to enjoy that bonus with me. You know, hit the town. I was thinking we go out for drinks, see if we can’t find a nice girl for you to go home with…and then not sleep with.” Joe cackled at his own joke, because they both knew it had been a while since Harris had dated anyone, but only Harris knew it was because he was too wrapped up in trying to figure out a way to catch Smoke to have time for women lately.

“I’d rather not.” Harris dropped into a plush leather armchair, swirling the liquid in his glass as he stared into the golden whiskey. “I’m glad you had a good day at work, but mine sucked. That, uh, rival company I’ve been up against beat me today, so I’m not really in the mood to go out partying.”

“All the more reason to drown your sorrows in alcohol and a woman,” Joe replied.

Harris sighed again. “Really, I don’t feel up to it.”

“Alright, fine.” Harris could picture his friend shrugging as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “Order a pizza or two then, because I’m already halfway to that pathetic thing you call a house and I’m hungry. I’m paying, so you have to call. We’ll drown your sorrows in meaty, cheesy goodness. And booze. I’ll swing by and pick that up on my way, along with some cigars.”

“You’re a bad influence,” Harris said with a laugh.

“That’s what you’re mother always used to say too. I’ll be there in fifteen.”

Harris put the phone down at the sound of his friend ending the call. He’d take a quick shower, call for pizza, and maybe pull out a deck of cards or two. Maybe he could win some of that bonus money from Joe.

True to his word, Joe’s car pulled up fifteen minutes after they’d spoken.

Harris opened the door and smiled at Joe, who had to duck as he entered the doorway. He was tall and lanky, with bright red hair and laugh lines around his green eyes. He held up two six packs before heading into the kitchen to shove them into the fridge.

Another fifteen minutes and they were settled in the living room, an action movie playing while each man sat with a pizza box on his lap and a six pack at his feet.

Joe glanced away from the movie. “So what exactly happened at work today?”

Harris shrugged, still watching the movie though he hadn’t really been paying much attention to it. “I’ve been dealing with this guy lately. He’s a huge jackass and is constantly making my life a living hell. Today he…kind of blew my proposition up at work. Just burned the whole idea to the ground and had a blast doing it. Honestly, he put several people’s lives in danger…” Harris threw a quick glance at his friend and cleared his throat. “You know, their jobs, that is. He put their jobs in jeopardy just so he could win this, uh, project and didn’t seem to care about the people he could have hurt.”

Joe shook his head, taking a large bite of pizza. “Sounds like a total dick. You should punch him.”

Harris snorted. “That’s your response to everything, punching it.”

He shrugged and his wide mouth stretched into another grin. “And that’s why I’m so good at my job.”

“Speaking of which, what was your bonus for this time? I swear, you get so many bonuses that I don’t know why you have to work anymore. You think my house is pathetic, but you live in a monstrosity. How you afford that castle you think of as a house I’ll never know…but then again your job seems to just throw buckets of cash as you.”

Joe shrugged again and looked back at the movie. “I went up against my rival today too, but I was able to crush him. He took out my…eh, transport plans, but then got distracted by the collateral damage that trying to ruin my plans caused. So while he was trying to make amends for what he’d caused, I was able to swoop in and complete most of the plan. Since it didn’t go quite how I wanted, my bonus got cut by a significant amount…bags and bags of it…but I still got away in the end.”

Joe sent Harris another quick flash of a smile. “Got away with my business plan winning out in the end that is.”

Harris nodded and finished off the slice of pizza he’d been holding, his blue eyes meeting his best friend’s green ones. “We both work with a couple of jackasses it sounds like.”

Joe’s grin stretched wider as he lifted his beer as though in a toast. “Good thing we’ve got each other then, huh?”

Harris lifted his own drink. “Ain’t that the truth.”