H.E.R.O. - Horde (26 page)

Quite a bit of blood was on the floor and wall - they had pulled her out of the hole in the wall and laid her flat.

Rayna stepped past me, one hand on what appeared to be her huge tummy, the other pulled out her H.E.R.O. ID.  She showed the woman her ID and knelt down by the golden-haired woman.

She leaned over Psystar to block the view as much as possible - I didn't think she wanted people seeing her freaky little monster.  I stepped over and knelt down as well to block more of the view.

While she moved Psystar's hair out of the way, the thing licked at the wound.  I grimaced, it just didn't look right.

Rayna said, "Wow, she's actually already healing really fast."

I asked, "How do you know?"

"You can see that she had to have hit the wall about here.  You said she was moving how fast?"

Kell answered for me, "We heard a sonic boom from inside the classroom.  Megan had just gone out because Steph had screamed, then Megan ran off, and a moment later this wave of ... of ... I don't know.  I had to run away from her - the entire class piled into the far corner of the room.  We were in the midst of running when I heard the boom and then the crash from the concrete."

I said, "That doesn't make any sense.  You were in the hall, Megan?  What did you see?"

Megan said, "She screamed, I ran to the door and opened it.  Her eyes were glowing as if bright flashlights were behind each of them.  Wait, a group was just starting to run away from her - but that's when I felt the need to flee from her.  A moment later and I barely caught sight of her as she blew past me and into the wall.  I couldn't stop though; I had to keep running for a ways."

I looked back at Rayna, "That help?"

Rayna nodded, "Have you been around her often?  Do her eyes glow the more she uses her power?"

"Definitely."

The heads of the four party friends all bobbed as well.

"Okay, so she was really using her powers a lot if they glowed that bright.  Mine do the same.  Perhaps she was fending off the people that were by her?"

"Could be - she's the only one that'll know that."

"Anyway, I think she plowed into the wall here while looking up - which means she took a massive hit on the forehead and neck damage.  Probably some spine or vertebrae damage as well."

"Umm, okay.  So that thing's drool will heal her?"

"It'll help.  I was saying I think she was healing super fast already because of the way her forehead appeared."

Rayna ran her hand up Psystar's back and neck a few times.

I asked, "What are you doing?"

"Feeling her spinal column.  When a normal person is injured, they need to see a doctor or chiropractor to get misalignments popped back into place.  With supers, the bones just pull back into place as they heal.  Her spine is mostly normal, which means anything really bad has already been healed.  How is she healing so fast?  I mean, I heal fast, but dang, this is mutant fast."

"I haven't seen her horribly injured before.  She's been knocked out for long periods though, and hasn't woken up fast from those."

Megan said, "Yeah, and she was dead tired all of Tuesday, or is that normal sometimes?"

I shrugged, "It's taken me days to heal before, but those were bite and stabbing wounds."

Rayna said, "I heal a gunshot in a few minutes.  I'm estimating that this ought to have taken an hour or more to heal normally for a blaster or psychic - I think she's a psychic, right?"

"I guess."

Megan said, "Yeah, she is.  She and I stay linked up mind to mind for all of our classes so she can get through them."

My phone rang again.  The number was unknown.

I answered, "Hello?"

"Diva?"

"Yes?"

"This is Tiriffa."

"Hi Tiriffa, now's not a great time to chat...."

"Ah, I am sorry.  We just detected a powerful Dark energy signature - I was hoping you could bring me to the location to analyze it."

What am I, a cab service?

"Well, I'm kind of busy.  I tell you what, give me the GPA and I'll see if I can figure that out on my phone."

"What is a GPA?  Do you mean the GPS coordinates?"

"Yeah, those too."

"I can only give you the GPS, are you ready?"

She rattled off the numbers to me.

Rayna looked over, "GPA?  Do you mean GPS?"

"Yeah, she just said that too."

"Just push this button and enter them."  She leaned over and pointed at the button on the screen.

I held the phone up again, "Can you repeat those, Tiriffa?"

She repeated them and I entered them.

I asked Rayna, "It'll remember this?"

"Right, it remembers all your previously entered ones unless you choose to delete them."

"Cool.  Tiriffa, I'll come get you as soon as I'm done here, okay?"

"Thank you, Diva."

I hung up and sighed.  The phone's display didn't make any sense to me.

I held it toward Rayna and asked, "What does this mean?"

She stared at it a second, and then used two fingers to zoom in a few times.

She said, "You're already at the location."

"Huh?"

"Did you get the right coordinates?"

"Yeah, she repeated them."

"Then you are where she wants to be."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Why, who was that?"

"It was Tiriffa, that blue girl you saw on Monday night at Fargene, remember?"

"Yeah, I recall her.  What does she think is right here?"

"I don't know, she called it a Dark energy something or other."

"Dark energy - that stuff they are here to study?"

"I guess."

She looked up at the study group, "Are you guys doing any experiments on meteorites?"

All of them shook their heads.

Rayna looked back at Psystar, "I wonder if she did it."

I asked, "Why wouldn't they have detected her on Monday then?"

"I don't know - we're missing something.  You know, this will take another five or ten minutes before she's likely to wake up.  You could go get her - maybe she has the missing answers."

"Fine, Divacab on the way."

I stood up, jogged past the group of students in the hall to the stairs and hopped down to the exit.  Then I flew at top speed toward the alien plane. 
I wonder what the sound barrier sounds like, and why can she hit it but I can't?  That's not fair.

Minutes later, I picked up Tiriffa with her satchel and returned us as fast as possible to the University.  I filled her in on the basics about Psystar as I flew.  The wind rushed against us so fast that I had to speak loud for her to hear me.

We entered the building and returned to the second floor.  Not much had changed in our absence.  Tiriffa waved at the students and knelt down next to Psystar.

She pulled out a device and held it out over my friend.

"Interesting.  She has more than double the normal number of Dark receptors, but they are fading."

"Fading?"

"Disappearing."

"What are Dark receptors?"

"They are what bridge our cells with the umbra and channel the Dark energy to give us our gifts.  They transfer and translate the energy of the Dark to be usable by our cells.  Think of the receptors as an energy conduit, and the modified cells in the body of a gifted as machines that use that energy to perform certain tasks."

"I have no idea what you just said."

Trevin stepped forward, "The Dark?  What's that?"

Tiriffa looked up at him, "The Dark – or what my people call the umbra is a form of energy.  We believe it runs alongside all matter in this universe, and normally does not interact with it, barring perhaps some alteration to the speed galaxies move away from the center."

"Really?  Hold on, is this what a Dark receptor looks like?"

He pulled out his cell phone, brought up a picture and showed Tiriffa.

She replied, "This is a crude depiction of it, but yes."

"So how do these cells work?"

"To fully explain what I know would take months to you at the minimum, it is part of my field of research.  Simply put, once the receptors find a host and are active, they bond, changing the host into an energy based being.  For some the energy is mostly temporary during the initial change - as with your bricks.  Others the bond stays strong and grants what we call gifts."

"Why can't some be transplanted into another person to spread through that new host?"

"The receptors form a network.  Once a network is established it cannot break and form a new network."

"Damn."

Psystar began stirring on the floor.  Suddenly she jerked her head to the side, her eyes snapped open and she thrust her hand out with the fingers spread.  Her eyes lit up like flashlights, with the amethyst iris darkening a ring in it.

She drew in a deep breath and looked around, but not at any of us.  Whatever she looked at, it wasn't here.  Her mouth hung open in wonder.

Tiriffa's device was flashing with updates, and a chart of some lines spiked way up.

The alien said, "Everyone back up."

I smelled Psystar's perfume-like scent strongly as I stepped back a few times.  Rayna leaned in at her and looked like she was going to kiss Psystar.

Tiriffa grabbed her by the shoulder and tried to hold her back, but Rayna was significantly stronger than the blue woman was.  I held my breath, stepped forward, grabbed Rayna and pulled her back.  I wrapped my other arm around her waist and moved well back, motioning the others around me to move back more as well.

Rayna whispered, "I want that."

Megan began walking forward, even from behind me, and I had to pull her against me as well.

I asked, "Tiriffa, what's she doing?"

"I do not know the gifts she has.  There are so many additional receptors in her that her gifts are all amplified right now."

"Oh, so the pheromone thingies are stronger too then?"

"Correct.  They have a wonderful smell, do they not?"

Gruff floated over to us and put his little crab arms around Rayna's neck.

Psystar put her other arm up and made a push-up motion, even though she was on her back.  She was gritting her teeth.

My golden-haired friend said, "Hi guys, I see you here, but I'm hearing so much background noise, if you are talking to me it's getting drowned out.  Hold on."

She made a number of swiping motions and then pulled the air back toward her.  Tiriffa looked at me.

Both Psystar and Tiriffa said at the same time, "There, that's easier to focus."

Tiriffa looked back down at Psystar and they both spoke simultaneously again, "Oh my god, that is
so
cool.  Do my eyes always glow like this?  And why am I hearing a reverb of what I say?"

I said, "You and Tiriffa are both speaking, Psystar."

Tiriffa pointed at Psystar and both replied, "No, I can see me speak through Tiriffa's eyes."

Megan said, "That's kind of creepy, it's like she took the blue girl over."

Rayna said, "That's exactly what she did.  Tiriffa, can you hear me?"

Tiriffa looked at Rayna, but didn't respond.

Psystar and Tiriffa said, "Wait a second.  You're right, I don't hear her thinking."

She waved a hand away from her and Tiriffa blinked a few times.  The alien looked around her quickly, trying to figure out what was going on.

Psystar - with only her own mouth - said, "Hmm, are some of them disappearing?"

The golden-haired heroine made a large right-to-left swiping motion with her right hand a few times.

She said, "This is unreal, they are doing what I want."

She pulled toward her with both hands, gasped, and pushed back outward quickly.

I asked, "What are you doing?"

"Looking at all the mindviews.  There are dozens and dozens.  This is the first time they aren't all crammed up where I can't see - I can push them all back, align them into a big sphere and move them around at will.  Hey!  I can pick out your voice now, Diva."

"Good … I think.  What does that mean?"

"I can quiet all the senses from the mindviews by pushing them farther away.  Cool.  I don't know what happened, but this is awesome."

Tiriffa said, "The number of Dark receptors are decreasing.  It may not last long, Psystar."

"What?  No!"

"I'm sorry.  I don't know what caused them to multiply, but the extras are simply fading away.  I am not finding inert receptors in their place."

Psystar jumped as though startled and pulled her H.E.R.O. phone out of her pocket.  She sat up as she answered and put her left hand on her head.  She pulled it away from her wet, bloody hair and made an 'ick' type face.

"Hello?"

"..."

She glanced around at the students in the hall.  "Captain, I have a class I'm ... wait ... never mind, apparently class is over."

"..."

"Okay, I'll head down as soon as I can.  Probably a few minutes."

She hung up.

Psystar looked at Tiriffa, "Am I bleeding?"

The blue alien's ears drooped as she said, "Not any more.  Whatever remains is extraneous."

Psystar nodded, "Thanks."

I said, "Oh, crap.  Goldie, if you are doing all right, I really ought to get going.  Someone's waiting on me."

She stared at me a moment, "Hey, you're not in costume.  Were you actually working out?"

"No, I'm finding active wear for a photo shoot in a few hours."

Rayna asked, "Psystar, how do you feel?  How are the injuries?"

She said, "I feel fine.  Why is my head wet?"

Rayna looked at me, "Gruff licked you to heal you, Psystar.  Hey, I need your help tonight - both of you if you can.  We need people to go incognito at the metal clubs to find a drug dealer or someone putting stuff in drinks."

I asked, "What's incognito?"

"You know, wearing normal clothes so you don't stand out."

"Oh.  You figure I can somehow not stand out?"

"Hmm.  Maybe we get a wig and a tight shirt for you.  No one will be looking at your face."

Psystar laughed, "Get her really tight pants too, or a mini-mini skirt.  She likes having people check out her butt."

I grinned.  I did enjoy having people look at me.