Hero Unit (21 page)

They all froze. Either she didn’t sound as
friendly as she hoped or they really were that terrified of her.
“Look, there’s a whole group of your buddies just waiting for me to
come charging out that door. And that’s exactly what I’m planning
to do, but if you all are too close there’s a chance that one of
you is going to get killed when they open fire. I don’t want that
on my conscience and I pretty sure you don’t want it on
theirs.”

“We’ve been given orders to detain you.” It
was the same guy who’d spoken before. His voice was shaky, so were
his knees.

“Right, see I’m going out that door,” Ace
cocked her head towards the door out, “You can either run back the
way you came and hope I wait until you’re a safe distance away, or
you can try and detain me before I’m out that door and your buddies
outside start firing. Before you make that decision though, let me
remind you that I am the fastest Exceptional alive. In the time it
takes the nerve impulse to get from your brain to your legs I can
be through this door. Choice is yours.”

They hesitated for a second longer before
turning as a group and running back down the hall. Once Ace was
fairly certain they were far enough away, there was no way to be
sure, she hit the door as hard and as fast as she could muster.

The world around her seemed to explode into
bullets and noise. Visibility was limited through the curtain of
lead that was pounding into her. She kept her forward momentum and
took to the air. Once airborne she got a clear picture of the
numbers waiting below. With a deep breath she descended into the
fray.

She left a semi-circle of incapacitated
guards and broken weapons in her wake. One of the guards was still
conscious. She picked him up and said, “Where’s your boss?”

He responded in a panicked stream of what
sounded like Spanish. “Slow down. Do you speak English?” For some
reason Ace had never had the knack for languages.

“Yes,” his voice was heavily accented, but
she understood him.

“Where’s your boss?” she asked again.

“There, the top floor,” he replied. She
looked where he was pointing. There was a group of buildings that
looked pretty much identical.

“Which one?” she asked.

“Th- the farthest away,” he replied. His
accent was getting thicker along with the fear in his voice. There
were two that could fit those directions, but Ace dropped him.
“Thanks.”

Again she took to the air and was met by
another hail of bullets. There were even more this time. Made
sense, everyone on the ground with line of sight to her would be
able to open fire once there was no danger of crossfire. She flew
to one of her two targets, not bothering to dodge the bullets. What
would be the point? Her borrowed clothing was already in tatters
and it wasn’t like any of them were hurting her.

Once she was at her target some of the
bullets trailed off. They apparently didn’t want to hit the
buildings. There were no windows. That was annoying. She didn’t
want to just bust through a wall. If it was the actual command
center then there were probably lots of people, increasing the
chance that she could kill someone if she just broke in.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar
sound and she dodge out of the way just as an RPG went flying past
her. With a sigh of annoyance she followed the warhead and
destroyed it before it could do any harm. She then turned and
followed the weapon’s flight path back to its origin. She landed
next to the guard who fired the weapon. He was getting ready to
load another. With a growl she took the launcher and bent it in an
arc. “These things are dangerous,” she said.

She smelt the all too familiar smell of urine
as the guard dropped in a faint. “Idiot,” she muttered and went
back to what she assumed, was the top floor of the building. She
was annoyed enough now that she just broke through a wall and
hoped.

Chapter 26

Ace came through the wall just a few feet away from a
very startled woman. She was holding a stack of file folders of all
things. Apparently the HSO, like the E.E.D, liked to operate old
school. The woman was dressed in a blouse and skirt. Her, her
clothes and everything she was carrying were lightly coated in
dust. Ace looked at the woman then at the hole and the back and
said, “Sorry about the mess. You might want to run away now.”

The woman dropped the folders and ran back
the way she’d come, screaming. Ace decided to try the other
direction. She encountered more people and they all looked like
generic office workers. Some ran away from her, some of them
fainted at the sight of her. There were people cowering in
conference rooms and under desks as Ace searched. She didn’t bother
trying to get information from them. Those few that weren’t crying
uncontrollably had passed out.

She finally rounded a corner and saw a woman
standing in front of a double doorway. Her arms were folded and one
eyebrow quirked. She was strikingly beautiful with her red hair
pulled up in a bun showing her model worthy features. She was
dressed like a high class CEO and when she spotted Ace she spoke.
“I’ve been wondering how long it would take you to find me.”

“Well your employees haven’t been very
helpful. Most have either been injured in the line of duty,
fainted, pissed themselves or are so hysterical that I’m worried
they might need to be put in an institution. What the hell have you
been telling them about me?” Ace replied.

The woman laughed. “You are not the first
Exceptional to run loose through our facility Officer Ace, just the
most law abiding. You will have to forgive my people. The last time
a Fortress Class broke free they left quite the mess behind
them.”

“Well I’m here to tell you that you are under
arrest. I can’t even begin to think about the laws you’ve broken
and that’s just within the US,” Ace said. This woman was the first
Exceptional Ace had encountered. She had no idea what the woman’s
powers were, other than she was not a Fortress Class.

“So you’re here to arrest me, on my own
property, well outside of your jurisdiction? I hardly think that
will sit well with anyone. Besides you haven’t given me the chance
to elaborate on my plans. Isn’t that the way these scenes are
supposed to play out?” the woman replied. She looked confident
enough, but when she asked that last question something in her
voice changed.

“Look lady I am under orders by not only the
E.E.D but every police agency in the United States of North America
to bring into our custody the leader of the HSO. Now if that’s you
then you’re coming with me. If you say you’re not, then I’m here to
bring you in for questioning. And you can still be charged with
kidnapping an officer. So what’s it going to be?”

Her answer seemed to take the woman by
surprise. “Don’t you want to know why I brought you here?” She
sounded confused, and almost heartbroken.

“Not in the least. I’ve seen the aftermath of
your damned experiments. You are sick lady and I don’t want
anything to do with you,” Ace replied.

That just plan pissed her off. “No. NO! NO!
This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be! You’re supposed to be
defiant, but curious. You have to give me time to divulge my plans
before declaring you are going to stop me! You aren’t doing it
right! Heroes and villains have to do things right!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You actually
believe that crap?” Ace asked. Apparently this woman had either
watched too many movies or read too many comics. She thought the
world was supposed follow those rules. “I’m just a cop, lady. I’m
not a hero. I’m sure as hell not a superhero.”

“NO!” the woman shouted. “You are going to do
it right! I’m going to make you!” She then jabbed a needle into her
leg. The motion took Ace by surprise, not giving her a chance to
respond. “Now what?” Ace asked.

“Now I have power. Power that will rival
yours!” the woman screamed and the laws of nature screamed with
her.

The force of it actually hit Ace and caused
her to stumble a bit. That was a first. Ace was so put off by being
staggered that she was totally unprepared when the woman slammed
her fist into the side of her head. The force of the blow caused
her head to turn.

Before she could recover from the surprise of
feeling pain the woman hit her again. She rained down punches and
kicks in a flurry that served to confuse and disorient Ace even
more. And with each strike the natural laws screamed.

At that rate of attack it didn’t take long
for Ace to be pounded through the floor. She hit the carpeted floor
below with a grunt. Her attacker was slow in following, giving Ace
a minute to recover.
Damn it. She’s strong, probably as strong
as I am. What the hell am I going to do?
She’d never in her
entire life fought a fair fight. It had never even been a
possibility.

As Ace’s mind started to panic, her training
finally kicked in. In the military and with the E.E.D her trainers
had never let her pass with the excuse that nothing could hurt her.
“You never know what can happen, kid.” That had been the motto of
her drill sergeant. Well, now she was grateful for that advice. As
her attacker jumped through the hole Ace caught her feet and
slammed her into the floor.

The woman cried out in pain, but Ace wasn’t
finished. She squeezed both feet until she felt bones cracking. Now
the woman was screaming. She thrashed violently and caught Ace a
glancing blow to the chin. With the woman’s new found strength the
hit was enough to snap Ace’s head back and dislodge her grip. As
she stumbled back the woman started to crawl away.

To Ace’s immense frustration she could see
the damage she’d caused already starting to heal. She followed the
woman down the hall and as she stood slammed her fist into the back
of her head. The impact slammed the woman down again, leaving a
dent in the floor where her forehead struck.

“I don’t know how you did this to yourself,
but I’ll be damned if I let you get that knowledge out to people
worse than you,” Ace said as she pinned both arms behind the
woman’s back.

She planted one knee in the small of her
opponents back and held on. Her prisoner tried to struggle, but Ace
had her held fast. “Let me go! I have to find the real heroes!” she
screamed. “I have to find someone who knows how it works!”

“Give up already! There are no heroes! There
are just people. Some are born with power, others without, that’s
all. And those with power have to protect those without, especially
from people like you. Now you are under arrest!” Ace shouted over
her prisoner’s screams.

Suddenly the struggling stopped and the woman
beneath her went limp. Ace let her go on reflex and once she was
free the woman curled into a ball and started crying. “I’m still
not good enough,” she repeated over and over.

Still confused Ace picked up who she assumed
was the leader of the HSO and took her back to the top floor. She
figured the double doors where the woman had been standing would
lead to an office. She was right. Inside she found the intercom
system.

“Attention all personnel, this is Officer Ace
of the E.E.D and New Davenport Police. You are all technically
under arrest, but since I have no way of bringing every last one of
you in I will excuse you if someone will come up here and tell me
how I can radio in some backup.”

Later, after the sun was down, an E.E.D heavy
chopper landed in the center of the complex. Ace met them outside,
carrying the still distraught, leader of the HSO. Her name was
Janice Rodriguez. Ace also had a number of sworn testimonies from
the HSO personnel about the organization’s true goals. There were
also five hard drives, all with copies of the tests that had been
done on Exceptionals. She had also names, lists and lists of names
of those that had contributed money, or were members of the HSO. It
was a lot of information.

The E.E.D officer that stepped out of the
chopper was not someone Ace was familiar with. “Officer Ace?” she
asked over the noise of the rotors.

“Yes,” Ace replied.

The woman motioned her into the cabin of the
aircraft. Ace was still carrying Ms. Rodriguez. She buckled the
poor confused woman into one of the seats. When she saw suppressor
cuffs hanging from the wall she grabbed a pair and slapped them on
her prisoner. She then strapped herself in and closed her eyes. She
didn’t want to answer the questions behind the other officer’s
eyes. Just as they were lifting off the noise of more choppers
arriving made Ace open her eyes and look. Five more landed and
disgorged E.E.D officers all over the grounds of the HSO complex.
Ace relaxed and closed her eyes again.

Chapter 27

Back in New Davenport Ace wanted to report to Bones
immediately. It was mid-morning when they arrived. The HSO facility
where she’d been taken was in the middle of Nevada, so there had
been a necessary change from chopper to plane and that had taken
time. Ace had a feeling that her uncle was still on the job.

She first went to her precinct. The E.E.D
officer that had picked her up had given her new clothes, E.E.D
standard issue, but it was better than being naked. She went to the
Exceptionals holding and handed Janice over to them. There had been
an attempt by the other E.E.D personnel in Nevada to take her, but
Ace had insisted that she be brought back to New Davenport. The
argument hadn’t lasted very long once she pointed out that she was
the Fifth and she was tired and already very upset.

She filed the paperwork with the officer in
charge. She thought his name was Chip, but she wasn’t certain. It
had been a long day and she was tired. “Search her thoroughly and
put her in a class four containment unit,” she said as she passed
custody. Chip nodded and Ace left.

Up in the E.E.D floor of the precinct Ace
found Torment waiting for her. “Bones is waiting for you in the
Captain’s office.”