The Eidolon turned his attention squarely toward Viper. Not far off lay the body of Cassie Dawes, otherwise known as Calypso, a hero-turned-villain-turned-hero that’d joined forces with Colinaude to defeat the Cad. The Cad had joined forces with an agent named Neville, also known as Barracuda, and that union had spawned Viper, a frequent opponent of Colinaude’s who’d fired a wrist rocket at Cassie. It had found its mark. Also nearby was a puddle of mud that was also Nick Sanders, better known publicly as Silt, the Sand Man. That predicament was also courtesy of Viper. Colinaude was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He knew what kind of hero he was, and what kind he desperately did not want to become.
"You will live," he told Viper. Earlier on this day, he had seen Viper without his mask for the first time. It was at an auto dealership called Mad Jack’s, where Colinaude had planted himself to meet with a contact known as Freddy Ratbeard. As it happened, Mad Jack’s was hosting a promotional event, and the entertainers were all dressed as super heroes. Viper came disguised as Godsend, Colinaude’s one-time partner in the Terrific Tandem. Ratbeard had been fooled, but he hadn’t. To achieve the effect, Viper had needed to dye his hair a brilliant flaxen, which might have thrown anyone else off, coupled with the other main difference with the form Colinaude had seen the face before. "You will live to see another day, Peter Cooley."
Viper sneered, removing his mask, which until now had only revealed his eyes, eyes that had always been too probing, too knowing. "So, you’ve figured it out."
"The glasses Cooley wears," Colinaude said. "They fool some people, but they don’t fool everyone. You were an idiot to go as Godsend."
"I took a chance," Viper said. "Everything is always a chance. I took a chance for how many years that none of you heroes would ever be able to connect the dots between Cooley’s supposed exclusives and your encounters with the assassin Viper? That the man known as Solvent just happened to know the right things Eidolon always needed? I’ve tried to tell you, to warn you. You never caught on. Even today, I tried to distract you, turn you from the path I saw you headed toward and honestly wanted you to avoid. So it wasn’t the one it seemed to be. That wasn’t the point. I wanted to help you, one last time, and you wouldn’t let me. But you don’t bugger off easily, do you? You don’t know when to quit."
"And it wasn’t just you," Colinaude said. "There was also Neville. Or should I say Buck Bukowski?"
"It’s taken you too long," Viper said. "Too long, and now you’ve walked right into our trap. The only question remaining is, what’re you going to do? There’s only one solution. It’s the one we’ve all been dying for. Walk away. Do it. You can end everything right now if you just walk away. Think of all the lives you can save by doing it. I can think of a few. Lou, Alonzo, Ratbeard, Hopper…Cassie Dawes. Take her to the hospital. It’s that easy. Go ahead. Save her, them. And yourself."
His friend for all these years, his confidant, the man he had always turned to. For some reason, that had changed even before he knew on this day. He had taken too much for granted, trusted too much, or maybe trusted too little, and this was his reward. Peter Cooley, for as long as Colinaude had known him, had been living the same double life Solvent had been meant to help the Eidolon lead. He should have known just by how far Cooley had been able to adjust with his handicap. Why stop at merely appearing perfectly normal? Normal was never good enough, not for someone who had been pushed outside out it by mitigating circumstances, and pushed back to reach it. No, Cooley wanted it both ways. It was a familiar struggle, one that couldn’t stand company. Colinaude would know.
It was too perfect an arrangement for Cooley for anyone, least of all Colinaude, to ever suspect. He had arranged to have it both ways, to be Traverse’s champion for heroes and one of their deadliest opponents, far deadlier as it turned out than all the regular forced that worked against them: apathy, jealousy, anarchy, all closer than Colinaude had ever dared imagine. He’d thought to have had circumvented them. He was wrong. And what made it worse was the thought that it had been so much easier to accomplish than anything Colinaude had ever done. The ease of evil made it attractive, but it was the expedience that made it so prevalent. He should have known. He should have.
"I have another idea," he said. "You. Go. I will take Cassie to the hospital and I will not see you again. This I promise you. You can tell the same to Barracuda."
Neville was another case. Whatever his motivations, or perhaps he had never truly worked for the government, he had set his sights on Colinaude, and had used a legitimate post to gather as much information on the Eidolon as Solvent couldn’t. Buck was a recent addition to Colinaude’s contact list, and now it came as no surprise that he had become interested in Colinaude via the Cooley call. He had been searching for the Eidolon, and Colinaude led him straight to him, to himself. What a fool. What a fool to make such an amateurish mistake, to take such a chance. No one ever found something they weren’t searching for. That Buck would be able to make the leap from a conversation to understanding the context of that conversation should have been too remarkable to trust. That had been the very reason Colinaude never called Cooley. Why had he slipped? Why? Why?
"I have another idea," he said again. "I will drop Cassie off at the hospital and then I will hunt you down, and then I will hunt Barracuda down. You will both die."
"You can always try," Viper said. "You can try, and fail, just as you have always done. You couldn’t even defeat Rancor. I could. What did you think I was off doing, when Lou missed me today and the disappearance of Peter Cooley had even Cotton Colinaude concerned? Imagine that, Cotton Colinaude concerned. That was something new, I have to admit. You surprised me. Bravo!"
"I’ll have to think of something bigger for the next time," Colinaude said. "To trump yours."
"Oh, I’d love to see that," Viper said. "I really would. But I doubt very much I’ll ever see it. You’ve been defeated. Deal with it, and take my suggestion. It’s the only way for you to win. What do you think Neville is doing at this very moment? He’s no longer guarding Ramirez. He’s preparing our insurance policy."
"Does it matter to you that you can’t possibly win, even if you beat me?" Colinaude said. "All the heroes that have been neglecting Cad won’t be doing that any longer, not after it becomes known that his scope has increased triple-fold?"
"We’ll see about that," Viper said. "I’m afraid I’m taking you up on your offer. I’ll let you take Cassie to the hospital and see if you can catch up with us again. It’s an awful risk, though. You’re taking quite a chance. Let’s hope you don’t end up on the wrong end yet again."
Colinaude watched as Viper made his exit. Yes, he was letting that happen, one more time he told himself. He also told himself that Nick could wait, that whatever shape he was in, dead or alive, his priority lay in Cassie. It was probably his latest grand mistake, but he was going to live with it. He had to let Viper go, if he was going to be able to hold fast to his ideals. He had other plans to deal with Viper and Barracuda, but he couldn’t neglect Cassie, not if he was going to hold onto his sanity.
Yet he could feel it slipping away, just as his sense of control was disappearing. The control he had always believed he had over his personal life, the thing that had allowed him to parade as a hero named Eidolon, all of the measures he had taken to ensure his safety and in turn the safety of everyone he thought he could depend on. It was the foundation for the new life he had claimed for himself, the one he had assumed after parting ways with Godsend, when he told himself that all the ideals he had always cherished were about to be fulfilled. Everything had been undermined. Everything.
He picked up Cassie Dawes, her body covered in blood, and the wound to her torso still oozing profusely. He knew enough about basic medical practices, courtesy of the few spare hours his life afforded him and the necessities of Tin Can, to know he to move Cassie without injuring her further. Yet he was in a greater hurry than the greatest care would allow him, so he had to compromise. Fortunately one aspect of the Eidolon’s existence could still be counted on. He still had his sense of body control. He would need every bit of it.
To hell with the questions that would be asked about Cassie’s choice of clothing. The general public had never really gotten to know Calypso, and the authorities might have forgotten her in three years, if they’d ever known her. The extent of Cassie’s hindrances had always been Colinaude. He now prayed he was no longer one. He had his doubts. His fears were worse. And as he made his way, he thought it ironic that for the first time in its history, Traverse was a destination instead of a means to an end. Well, not the first time. The first time had come nearly a lifetime ago. It had been what created the Eidolon.
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