New Markets - 02 (8 page)

I continued, "Onto another topic, did you get any further on the kidnapping case?"

"No.  The prisoner fell unconscious after screaming for five minutes, and you've been out of it, so we didn't know if you had gotten anything useful.  Then Dimmer mentioned that you tried attacking him here.  I decided I had to find out for myself, which is why I came in.  We've lost valuable time."

"I agree.  You know, I'm pretty sure I have federal official status.  Dimmer pulling me off the guy might constitute an attack on me, not the other way around."  I put on my belt and gloves as we spoke.

"You might be right, though to be honest we really don't need any inter-agency squabbling right now.  Dimmer doesn't like supers.  As a group you tend to be hot headed, and are glory hounds in it for the bonus money.  You, Miss Psystar, definitely fit into the hot headed case earlier."

"I'm sorry about that.  Really, I am.  I
did
give clear instructions to only have me called after a kidnapper had been apprehended though.  You guys kind of blew that one."  I held up my hands.  "I'm not finger pointing though, I just want you to understand one of several reasons I was grumpy.  The rest I'm not sure you'd understand unless you were a telepath like I am."

"Fine.  Fair enough.  The man is still unconscious, can you mind read him while he's out?  If so, can you do it without causing him such terror?"

"I can try."

"Great.  We’ll check you out, and then let's go give that a try.  Find out if we can get any closer to saving the Lieberman's daughter without hamstringing each other."

I stuck the mask onto my face, and we left the room.

Chapter 4 – Grumpy Kitty

Rael’s Viewpoint

The morning didn’t go well.  I woke up perhaps three quarters of an hour after Stephanie left for the kidnapping case.  I had this dream, or nightmare, where she was in pain and calling my name.  It didn’t happen again, so I wrote it off as paranoia, but didn’t get much sleep after that.

I called into work sick early in the morning.  Something just felt wrong to me.  I showered and ate breakfast.  Lance joined me by 7:00 a.m.

Lance studied me for a moment and said, “You look upset ... claws out.  What’s going on?”

I answered, “Stephanie got a kidnapping call around 2 a.m. last night.  I haven’t heard from her since, and I tried calling her H.E.R.O. cell phone an hour ago.  No response.”

“So call her personal cell phone.”

“I did that too, it’s in her purse here.”

“Oh.  Maybe she’s in the middle of something.”

“For an hour?  What takes an hour?  She should have been done with reading a perp’s mind by three or four in the morning.  It only takes her a few minutes to do it.”

“Yeah, but she’s fallen unconscious after every time, right?”

I nodded, “Hmm ... true.  But she also wakes back up in a minute or a few.”

His eyes narrowed as he thought about it, “Good point.  Something’s up.”

Great, just talking about it is getting me even more riled up.
  I paced back and forth.  My arms felt odd, and the small fin-like spikes pushed through each forearm.

Lance watched me.  “Dude, it won’t help wigging out here.”

I growled, “It just pisses me off.  I think she would have called me back.  I didn’t mention the nightmare I had where I heard her scream.  It happened only once, but maybe something happened to her.”

Lance pounded his fist on the table and said, “You heard her scream?  That clinches it; we need to find out where she’s at.”  The table split from the massive strength in his fist, even from a light blow to the table.  One leg broke off; he barely caught the table before it fell to the floor.

He muttered, “Crap.  I’m breaking everything.  Car, cell phone, doors, and now the table these last few days.  This is going to get expensive.”  My enhanced hearing caught his muttering as though he spoke normally.

An odd thought came to me, “Hey, have you had to go to the bathroom since Saturday night?”

He said, “Of course … wait.  No.  I’ve taken showers.  No, I haven’t had to go in what, two and a half days.  Great, my super muscles are blocking me up.”

I blinked at his statement … and then I laughed so hard I doubled over.  After I recovered I said, “Oh man, a case of super constipation.  That’s awesome.  But, no they aren’t.  Stephanie and I noticed the same thing.  Our bodies are consuming everything.”

He snorted, “Well, at least I won’t have to take a break from a super fight to go visit the restroom, that’s a bonus.”

I said, “It’d be a humorous sight, you in your tights at a urinal.”

He thought for a moment and said, “Huh.  Well, that's one good thing against my breaking of everything.”

“At least you don’t feel like biting people any time they are right in front of you.”

“I’m with you there.  I’ll try to keep an eye on you in a crowded area to keep you from doing it.”

I noticed that my arms had smoothed out again.  “Thanks ... hey, nice distraction; my temporary spikes went away.”

“I noticed.  I just didn’t want to draw your attention to it.”

“Okay, back to Steph.  I know where she went; I put the address in my H.E.R.O. phone before she took off.”

“Did you take down any contact info on the task?  I’m assuming it came through as a task just for her on her phone?”

“Right.  Damn, I didn’t get that.  We could head to the address.”

“Sounds good, let’s suit up and head there.  Not much use hitting the gym, everything feels too light.”  He couldn't hide the bitterness from his expression.

We both went to our rooms and suited up in our costumes.  He came back out in his bright yellow and red costume.  Unlike Steph’s revealing costume, his covered everything but his neck and head.  There was a tall red diamond shape on the outside of the elbows and knee area, meeting on the inside of the leg and elbow.  The boots and gloves were black, so he could wear them with normal clothing and not look out of place.  A red V shape went from each shoulder down to meet at a point in the center of his chest and back.  He also wore a yellow tactical belt to hold his H.E.R.O. cell phone, card and such, and he wore a pair of goggle like glasses that were red.

My costume was simpler.  I wore all black, though the pants, chest and partial gloves were the same material as his.  My gloves didn’t cover the fingers, since my claws grow out of my fingertips and would rip them up every time.  The shirt was only a t-shirt in shape, leaving part of my biceps and lower arms bare.  I had a gray and white tiger paw on the chest.  I wore a black partial face mask to try and hide my identity.  Kim, a nurse at Iron Cross Hospital thought it looked too dark.  People wouldn’t know I was a hero on sight.

I stared at Lance for a moment.  “Dude, you know that putting on those shades won’t make people not recognize you out of costume.  You’re six foot eight, and make many pro wrestlers look small.”

“Well, duh.  Of course they will.  Even a tux or business suit wouldn’t hide my size.  I’m wearing them to be cool.  Plus, they keep out dust and debris.  It was annoying when the building collapsed on me and dust got in my eyes.”

“Okay, just so long as you understand that.  The day I see you pull off a normal shirt to reveal your costume, put on your glasses and expect everyone to see a different guy I’m going to laugh at you.”

“I would expect no less from you, Rael.  What they will recognize is that there is a hero in their midst to help them.”

“Hmm.  I’ll give you that one.  Or maybe a clown.”

“Yeah, thanks.  So, where’s the place Steph went to?”

“Down in Rikesville.  About a hundred miles away.”

“Jeez.  That’s going to take an hour and a half to get there.”

“Let’s get going then.  How about I drive?  By the way, after we’re done with this I’m going to get a cycle for my superheroing.”

“Good idea, though I prefer the jumping myself.  It’s pretty cool flying over buildings.”

“Yeah, well, not so cool when I have to hang onto you.”

“I’ll agree with that.  Though, if you have a cycle Steph might not want to fly you around with her.…”

“Hmm.  Good point.  I’d hate to deprive her of clinging to my manly body.”

Lance laughed, “Nice.  I’m sure it was
her
clinging that you were thinking of.”

As much as I love the clinging, I doubt he realizes it’s her scent that is so awesome.

We left the house and hopped in my car.  Not the most august form of travel for a pair of superheroes, but it was better than hanging onto Lance’s back for an hour and a half.  He didn’t slow down on the descent, so my claws tended to pop out and cut into him.

I again received the feeling that Stephanie screamed while I drove us to Rikesville.  A shiver ran down my spine, and my fingertips elongated into claws.  I noticed that Lance fidgeted oddly at that moment, so I asked, “Did you just get the sense of Steph screaming?”

“I … think so.  I figured I must just be worried about her.”

“I don’t believe so; I just had the same feeling.  Something’s up, I don’t like it.”

“Step on it, Rael.”

“Dude, the car’s a beater.  It’s only going to go just so fast.”

It made for a tense drive, thinking that your friend is in enough danger to scream. 
I didn’t know her range was this far, either.  I thought she said she could only hear thoughts from a few dozen feet away, and links into our other senses from about fifteen feet out.

I gave Lance the address so he could pull it up on his H.E.R.O. device and handle the navigation.  I didn’t want to touch my device too much when my claws were out, and I was too worried to get them to change back to normal.  The claws were razor sharp on the tips, and hard enough to easily gouge through concrete.  I feared that my smartphone wouldn’t survive a lot of scratches from them.

I noticed that Lance grimaced, and occasionally rubbed his gut and leg.

I asked, “You okay?”

He replied, “Yeah, I’m still healing from the huge fight with Kralgon.  He did a lot of damage to me.”

“Wow, that was yesterday afternoon.  I’m surprised you haven’t healed yet.”

“I heal a lot slower than you do, apparently.”

“Good thing it takes a lot more to hurt you, then.”

“Yeah.”

The thick clouds seemed to portend a bad day.  A storm would likely hit sometime late today or tomorrow.

As I drove I asked Lance, “Any idea if our status as H.E.R.O. agents makes us local, or federal officials?”

“Federal.  Didn’t you read the stuff I downloaded off their website a while back?”

I shrugged at him.  “I glanced at it.  I was more interested in the idea of action than rules.  We’ve got the ability to step into another investigation and involve ourselves, or even take over?”

“I don’t think we could take one over, although if it involves supervillains then we have official jurisdiction.  Similar to how U.S. Marshals are the prime agency for apprehending foreign fugitives, we’re the agency for supervillains.  In fact, I read that originally they considered making heroes part of the U.S. Marshal Tactical Operations Division, but since we also deal so much with rescue operations they decided to keep us separate.”