New Markets - 02 (43 page)

I moved off to the side, away from the windowed doors, and quickly stripped off my shirt and skirt.  I almost stuffed the wet clothes into my backpack but didn’t want my books soaked.  Then I stepped into the air, kneed up and shot up into the down pouring rain.

It took mere moments for me to become completely soaked again.  Even with my flight aura slowing down the air (and thus rain as well) it still pelted me in the face.  I had to keep my head facing down to keep my eyes clear.

I flew home first, wiped off my hands and face and put on my gloves.  I dropped off my backpack and headed back out again.  This time I flew toward Iron Cross General Hospital.

Chapter 24 - Reunited

Rael's Viewpoint

I was getting irate with Agent Willman.  It was obvious to him as well due to my clawed fingers.  We were in the midst of rehashing my escape for the third time when I heard the guards out of the room near the elevator stop someone.

It wasn't so much them stopping people that caught my attention, as they'd been doing that for the last half hour.  But I heard a female's voice that caught my attention and made me smile.

I walked over to the door and opened it.  Agent Willman said, "Black Tiger, where are you going?"

"Psystar's here."

Once I opened the door I spotted her standing with the guards.  She was showing them her H.E.R.O. ID at the moment.  She looked soaked, she'd run her hands through her hair so it clung to her head and stuck to her back.  She sort of looked like she'd just climbed out of a pool, granted in a more concealing suit than the bikinis that I'd normally seen her swim in.

A grin grew on her face and she looked over at me.  The guards let her pass; she ran over and threw her arms around me in a hug.  I smiled back at her.

She whispered, “I am so glad you’re okay.”

I motioned with my head toward the room, and she passed me and entered the room.  I took a deep breath in her hair.  Her unbelievable scent was like a fine wine to me.  Not that I was much of a wine drinker, but I supposed that fine wine smelled quite good to a connoisseur.  I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment.

I whispered, "I’m really glad to see you too.  Why didn't you get a towel?"

"Huh?  I didn't even think about it - I've been getting wet over and over today, so it's becoming a moot point to dry off every time."

I shrugged, "Okay then." 
Too bad your costume isn’t cotton….

"What are you guys up to?"  She shook her head at me and rolled her eyes.  I grinned.

"I've been telling Agent Willman here about my escape ... over and over."

Agent Willman said, "You could use some practice on thinking about all the details.  They can be very important."

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm getting that idea from all your questions."

He said, "I still don't get how you got out of the bed itself, you're unclear on that."

I shrugged, "I don't know.  One moment I was lying there, the next I was by the guy.  I don't recall looking back at the restraints, but I really don't remember breaking any of them the second time around.  However, the first time I woke up I'd ripped apart most of them."

Stephanie's face brightened, "You and Lan ... err, Spartan, got out?"

I shook my head.  "No.  We got attacked last night, and during the fight I threw him out of the building.  I thought he got away.  When I got out of my cell I was walking down the corridor of cells when more guards showed up - I hadn't seen him by that point, and didn't even think to check the rest of the cells."

"Doh ... he's still there then."

"Yeah.  Pisses me off, too.  If I hadn’t stopped to stare at the chrome chick I probably would have seen him.  They have some type of rifle that fires a pretty big round - they tore some holes in me.  I got concerned about how much damage I was taking."

"Can you picture your escape, as in think back to it and walk through it mentally really fast?"

"Sure."  I thought back to lying on the bed, the doctor guy being in the room, and appearing next to him.  I tried to skip over the part where I bit him to rushing the bars and pulling the guard to me.  Then a quick walkthrough of the cells, more guards, the fight in the corridor, and then fleeing through the factory and out the window.

I noticed her eyes were brightly backlit with golden light as she stared at me.  No - she stared off into space
toward
me.  She appeared to be focusing on something.  I noticed that her eyes shifted around slightly as though she were studying the wall in different areas.  She motioned toward herself with the fingers of her left hand early on, and occasionally made swiping motions to the left and right with that hand as well.

I opened my mouth to continue, but then I heard her voice, though it was slightly different. 
Thanks, Sweetie.  I've got the entire scene here.  Just give me a bit more to walk through it.

I was sure she hadn't opened her mouth. 
Did she just speak to me with her telepathy?

Yeah, I've figured out how to do it with one person at a time.  At least when they are close enough to have a mindview.  I've spoken to you and Megan so far mentally.  She also gave me an idea on copy/pasting these that I’ll work on tomorrow.

I said, "Wow, that's really cool.  All I got were tentacles."

She smiled,
You don't have to say something out loud for me to hear it....  Just think the statement, or picture the image, if you are close I'll see it.  Although, if others are close you might need to picture something odd to catch my attention first.  The more mindviews I've got the less I pay attention to them all, it's just too busy in my visual space.  But mentally shouting my name would work too.  That's easier to, uhh, mentally hear.

I noticed that she still hadn't looked back up at my eyes; she still stared off into space behind me.

I heard her mental voice again,
Oh, sorry about that.  I don't actually see anything at all right now.  I'm, hmm, playing the video of your memory back and forth a few times to try to get information.  At least that's how it seems to me, like a video.

Agent Willman stepped over to us and glanced back and forth at us.  His eyes were drawn to Stephanie's backlit eyes.

I said, "Pretty cool effect, isn't it?"

He nodded, "Yeah.  A little ... odd, but interesting at the least.  I don't get how anything inside your body can give off light like that."

I shrugged, "Who knows, mine don't to my knowledge."

Stephanie's eyes dimmed a bit and her eyes came into focus.  She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands.  She appeared tired.

She looked at Agent Willman.  "It's just a guess, but I believe we're converting one type of energy into another somehow.  Our bodies don't seem to process food in the normal way any more, and we sometimes let off energy in other ways, like Spartan's fumes.  It'll be interesting to test it."

Agent Willman said, "Oh, you've changed your mind about coming in for psychic testing to fine-tune our device?"

"Hell no!  I'm going to be doing my own testing.  You guys are too eager to turn on the pain machine."

"Well, it wasn't supposed to cause pain all the time like that.  But ... I can understand your hesitance."

"Anyway, I don't want to rehash that again.  So where are you guys at here?"

I said, "I haven't gotten around to doing anything here other than talk with Agent Willman."

Agent Willman said, "I've got agents looking into possible leaks here as to the identity of metas that were sent home.  Others are looking into possible breaches of the computer systems."

I said, "You've already checked the other supers that are here 'helping' the new supers?"  I used my fingers to emphasize it.

He nodded, "Of course.  Only one had a criminal record, and that was minor - an incident where he apparently drank too much and caused some property damage due to his strength.  Nothing malicious, just clumsiness."

I nodded, "Yeah, Spartan's having issues with that at times.  Everything seems really fragile to him.  So ... what can we do to help here?"

"I'd prefer my people do all the interrogating.  They are trained in it, and we'll get consistent questioning."

Stephanie said, "I'll wander around, if there is a spy perhaps they'll give themselves away with their thoughts."

Agent Willman said, "Well, that's an interesting way to get information.  Give it a try."

I said, "I'll stick with her then."

Stephanie said, "Oh, and Firebane should be calling me shortly when she's done with work.  We can try detecting the supers again."

"Awesome, with three of us we could try an attack on the place if she can help me find it again."

"She's not a fighter, you know.  She only signed into H.E.R.O. to help with support type roles, like fires and such."

"Oh ... well, that sucks."

She shrugged, "She's never even taking a Tae Bo class, much less full martial arts.  It'd be unfair to throw her into a fight and hope she does well."

"I suppose.  Although a lot of those mutants we fought on Monday obviously didn't have training.  They would smoke a normal person.  Plus, she ought to have our healing, the sooner she realizes that bullets don't do a lot of damage the sooner she might be willing to get into some fights."

"I distinctly recall you remembering the rifle shots as doing a lot of painful injury to you...."

"Oh yeah.  But that goes away pretty fast."

"You also seem to heal faster than I do, I wouldn't be surprised if she's more similar to me than to you."

"Oh, sure, hate on the mutants."

She rolled her eyes.  "You know we're almost a different subspecies.  Although I'm hoping you'll do some of the testing with me.  It'll help us figure that stuff out."

"Cool, if you're going to be there I'll help."

She smiled at me.  I grinned back at her, feeling very good at the moment.  After a few seconds of staring at me she raised an eyebrow, her smile grew even more and she turned to leave the room.

She glanced back at me and said, "Shall we go get started?"

I realized I'd just been grinning stupidly at her for who knows how long, and flushed red as I followed her out into the nurse's station area.

She stopped just outside and said, "I wish I could just tear into everyone's mind here to see who did it, but there's no way I'd be able to handle more than a few people, and the chances of the ones we pick being guilty would be remote."  She sighed.

She looked back at me again, and then waved me to her.  Considering that I was only a few feet away I gave her an odd look and stepped closer.  Her eyes lit up from behind.

Rael, I'm thinking we move to where I can at least hear the thoughts of everyone at the nurse station here, plus however many more I can get from the nearby rooms.

This time I focused on just thinking rather than saying what I wanted to say. 
Sounds good to me.  You think it's a nurse?

No, it could be a doctor, a nurse, a guard, or even a volunteer.

Oh ... well, I doubt it's a volunteer.  If this started on Saturday night, then none of the volunteers would have been here yet.