Flash Fiction Friday: Symbolic Name Fail

Today's flash fiction is set in the Supers universe during the events of "Not in the Job Description." If you are new to these stories, I would suggest reading "Not in the Job Description" first, but it is not strictly necessary to understand today's installment.

Symbolic Name Fail
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They called her Styx, and she worked for the highest bidder. Cam might have chuckled at the misnomer if his bones didn’t feel like they were on fire. Lethe would have been a more accurate code name based on what he saw in the cursed files that landed him here, but most didn’t pay attention to mythology past what little was required in school. 

It hadn’t taken Cam long to figure out he’d been captured by a rival of the two bit politician they’d lifted the drive from all those weeks ago. Well, either that or they possessed a new level of arrogance and didn’t bother to make copies. Someone with questionable morals, and who still had copies of the files, would have just killed him and been done with it by now. That or wiped his memory clean given they had a meta like Styx on their side. So he’d tried feeding them false information after the first couple rounds of human pinata.

That plan ended in spectacular fashion thanks to Styx’s presence. She hadn’t burrowed into his mind, yet anyway, but her power still alerted her he wasn’t being fully honest. She’d informed his “host” of this fact, and they’d ramped up the intensity of their interrogation as a result. 

Styx was there through it all. Hours of watching him be pounded, sliced, and having his nervous system turned against him, and still she stood there, stone faced and impassive. What he couldn’t figure out was why they hadn’t had her pull the information out of his head. They obviously knew everything about him to bother, so it stood to reason they knew all about her abilities too.

Did they think he’d figured out some way to thwart her? Why would he have even given it a thought? It’s not like he could have guessed he’d be up against a metahuman mercenary.

Cam only noticed the cold burn of the supercooled metal pressed across his back when it was removed. The fact shocked him even as his body relaxed, sagging within the cords binding him. He fell into a half doze almost immediately.

He heard his host heave a heavy sigh and the clang of the metal rod being set aside. Footsteps sounded, heading off to the side of the room where he knew Styx stood.

“I’ve no more time to waste on this,” Cam heard the man grumble. “Pull it from him.”

“You know what will happen if he resists.” 

It was a woman’s voice. Cam supposed it was Styx, but he was too exhausted and in far too much pain to pry his eyelids open just to check. What was she talking about? The file didn’t mention any adverse effects of resistance to her abilities.

“Security’s been breeched,” the host said, and Cam’s heart leapt, rousing him with a fresh surge of adrenaline. “I’ll take the risk. Some’s better than nothing.”

“I understand.”

Cam opened his eyes as the click of her heels sounded. Styx only made it two steps before the other man grabbed her arm. She looked back over her shoulder at the man.

“If he leaves,” the man said with a significant look to Cam that sent a chill down his spine. “He leaves an amnesiac or in a body bag.”

“Obviously,” Styx answered with a tone that spoke of just how few brain cells she thought the man had rattling around in his skull.

The man scowled at the insult, but he released her arm and stalked out of the room with his pet puppeteer trailing behind. Cam watched Styx stalk toward him with a confusing mix of curiosity and terror. He strained against the bonds, but he was too exhausted to give more than a token effort.

“What’d you tell them would happen if I resisted?” Cam surprised himself by saying as she leaned over him.

Styx grinned. “That it’d scramble your brains, and I’d only get some of the information.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll owe me,” Styx answered at a whisper. “And you have something in that head of yours I want more than all the money in the world.”

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I publish a new flash fic, written based on either a reader submitted prompt or a random first line prompt found online, each Friday morning. each flash fic is 700 words or less.

Please comment below and let me know what you think of the story, or leave your own story prompt. I screenshot each prompt to be included with its story, and I write stories for reader submitted prompts as quickly as possible.