H.E.R.O. - Horde (7 page)

"Guys?"

"Yeah."

"Sure.  Where would you like to meet?"

"How about the Cafe Rito, it's not too far from the University - you can pull it up on your phone, it's listed on the map under restaurants."

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute."

"Great!  See you soon Diva."

"You too, goldie."

I hung up and looked at Black Tiger. 
Damn, we lost the moment.

I said, "Sorry, I have a lunch date with a girlfriend."

"Err ... okay."

"Did you want to join us?  It's your friend Psystar."

"Sorry, I've got plans already or I would."

"Lunch plans?"

"Well, I kind of need to leap off a skyscraper...."

"Nice.  No, really, you should join us."

"Um, I really can't.  And then I think I do have to do the leap thing."

"You're being strange."

"Sorry.  You'd best hurry to drop me off if you are going to get to the lunch in time."

"Oh, right."

"Diva … by the way, we really do need to get in contact with the aliens.  If you see any of them, talk to them or whatever let me know ASAP.  We have a problem that needs their help."

"Okay."

I shifted up my flight gear and shot toward his house.  In very little time, we arrived.  After another hard landing, I tossed the dress to him.

"Hold onto that for me, will you?"

Then I leaped into the air toward the University while I searched for the cafe on my phone.

Chapter 5 - What THE?

Psystar's Viewpoint

Wednesday morning - I woke up refreshed, unlike on Tuesday morning.  On Tuesday, I'd woken at home, but it took me a minute to remember what had happened the night before, some of it was a blur.

I remembered the fighting at the alien spacecraft - the pirates shooting at our heroes with a variety of energy pistols.  Many of our people had gotten hurt, though it was all a blur of colors.  I had barely been conscious during the fight.

I recalled the military being there, but nothing about talking with them or otherwise interacting with them.  I didn't even recall flying home - I think I rode back in one of the cars, but it was a loss as to whose.  I certainly didn't remember coming into the house and changing into jammies.

Tuesday was even something of a blur.  Lab had been the first class; I even forgot to be mad at Trevin.  I think he even helped force me to do some of the lab work with his mind control over me.  He didn't try anything annoying that I was aware of, so I didn't mind.  Being in robot mode worked just fine when I was wiped out.  I distinctly remember being extremely hungry most of the day as well.

After Medical Biochemistry - the second class - I think I ate lunch, I couldn't be sure.  I know I fell asleep on my pals in the study group when we were all in the library.  Megan had woken me up at some point and said they were done.  She said they didn't wake me because I'd looked so out of it in the morning classes.  I tried to study in the evening, but even then, it didn't go well.  It was as if I was ill or something.

At least this morning I felt good.  I shrugged and snapped myself out of my reverie.  Then I quickly got ready for class.  It was going to be a packed day between three classes and the special study group again.

I called Megan again while I picked us up some breakfast.  She was reluctant, but I knew she was tight for money, and the hero stuff paid well.  Besides, she was giving me full access to her thoughts and senses during class.  Not like she had any choice if I didn't want to, but she was a great friend who was willing to help me out.

We met, ate, and then went to Professor Pomplun's class.  I gave Kell, Odes, and Trevin a particularly tight hug when they showed up.  I sat outside as usual, positioned to barely catch her mindview - the TV screen in my vision showing me what she was either looking at or thinking about visually as well as all of her other senses and emotions.  Unfortunately, I always had a few others within range as well - and that didn't even include the random students wandering the halls.

Pulling her mindview up close to fill my entire vision helped me focus immensely, however.  The other mindviews were still there in the background, but were overpowered by Megan's.  Occasionally I'd switch to the professor's when her mind wandered - especially when she began thinking about Brad, her boyfriend.

Overall Professor Pomplun's class went well - far better than the classes on Tuesday.  Professor Stonewall's Biology class in the large auditorium also went well.  I noticed that Trevin made a point of getting there early enough to sit in the front left row next to Megan, easily within mindview range of me.

I was mildly worried that he'd try to make me do something unusual.  Even more than in the other classes, in that auditorium class I sat right up on the stage at the far left side of the professor to keep my distance from the other students.  My professors had all been wonderful about working with my new problems caused by the telepathy - the fact that I was now a willing lab rat for the special study class probably helped to some degree.

The class went fast, and I didn't notice doing anything unusual, so I believed that Trevin either failed to control me, didn't try to, or I had built up a resistance to it.

As soon as class ended and I'd packed up my notebook I turned my cell phones back on.  I'd felt the vibration of a message during class, but hadn't wanted to pull a phone out while on stage.  It would just send a bad message - and be rude to the professor.

The message was from Diva - she wanted to do lunch.  I grinned; I wanted to see how she was doing.  She'd taken so much damage every day since last Saturday that I felt horrible for her.

I called her right away and set up the lunch as I walked to my normal meeting spot for Jim and Mike.  I knew that Jim and Mike had felt neglected, and I really wanted them to want to continue helping me.  I couldn't match the twenty thousand dollars that Razorwing had thrown their way to be his hackers as well, but maybe if they liked me enough they'd continue helping me, so I asked if she'd mind if I brought them.

I saw the boys and walked up to them.

I said, "Hey guys, we have a special lunch setup today."

Jim said, "Oh?"

"Yep, we're meeting Diva at the Cafe Rito.  I'll fly us there."

"Diva?  She wears purple, right?"

Mike said, "Oh, man, she's hot."

Jim nodded.  "She broke the brick mold."

I rolled my eyes, "Thanks guys, I'm feeling neglected here."

"Oh, you're our resident pet H.E.R.O. - we love you."

He wasn't even lying; I felt that both of them liked me more than just a little from my strong mental connection with mindviews being so close.

I grinned.  "Thanks guys.  I've been getting paranoid that you'll dump me for Razorwing."

Jim said, "He's pretty cool, we're looking some things up for him now.  Some might help you as well."

Mike said, "But we won't drop you.  He seems to want to be a good guy too - or at least a vigilante."

I said, "Thanks.  However, we're still meeting Diva, so let's go.  Neither of you are afraid of heights, are you?"

Jim said, "Not here."

Mike said, "Umm, well...."

I put my arm around his waist.  "No biggie, I'll help you with that."

Once outside I concentrated on spreading calm until my skin tingled all over.  Jim's excitement drained a bit, but Mike's obvious trepidation disappeared.  I slid my arms around both of their waists.  I felt this immense urge to press my body up against them, but with two of them, it just wouldn't work.  I pulled them tight against each side, stepped up and pushed off my invisible air step and we began floating upward.

I almost burst out laughing at the thoughts of the two guys.  Neither had ever had a girl press up against them, much less stay in contact with them for any length of time.  Fortunately, neither was extremely susceptible to my unintentional pheromones.  Some people tended to dig their noses in my hair or neck when they got close to me.

I pushed off a few more times to rise up slightly faster, and then jabbed my knee up a little to kick in some speed.  It only took us a minute to arrive over the cafe.  The boys were torn between looking around the city and staring at me from only inches away.  I caught the thoughts where both noticed how the light glinted off my metallic golden hair more in the natural sunlight than under the manmade lighting in the University buildings.

I kept us hovering in the air a few hundred feet while we waited for Diva to arrive.

I said, "Keep an eye to the west or southwest, Diva will probably fly in from that direction."

Jim was breathless as he said, "Flying is awesome.  Why don’t you have to crush us against you to keep us up?"

“It’s something to do with my flight, holding stuff seems to be easier when I fly.”

“That’s cool.  You got a good flight power.”

I nodded, "Yeah, I really like it.  Plus, it just works - and doesn't cause me the same trouble my other powers do at times."

I spotted the flash of purple in the sky. 

I nodded in that direction and said, "Guys, there."

In a second Mike said, "I see her."

Diva flew up to us like I normally do - facing her head and shoulders in the direction she was flying.  She displayed an impressive amount of cleavage as she approached - something both of the boys noticed at quite some distance.

She pulled up to us and stopped while hovering in the air.

She raised an eyebrow and said, "Hi goldie.  Running with an escort today?"

I grinned, "Apparently it takes two to keep me happy.  Shall we head down for food?"

Jim nodded but didn't say anything.  Mike just stared at Diva.

I shook my head and stepped down a few times to float downward.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Diva cock her head off to the side as she watched my motion before she began floating down above us.

I tried to ignore the mindviews of the two boys as I brought us to a smooth landing with a few stepping-down motions.  Diva came down shortly, bumping hard on the ground even though she wasn't moving extremely fast.  I saw her try to match my stepping motions just before she hit the ground.

After standing up straight she said, "Pfah.  I don't get how you land like that."

I replied, "You have a different way of thinking about how you speed up and slow down.  I heard your thoughts - you were concentrating on shifting gears, as if you were in a car.  I use physical motions to control my speed and direction.  It could be either a mental handicap, or we just have slightly different flight powers."

She said, "Maybe.  Hi guys, I'm Diva."

Jim reached out his hand and Diva shook it.  Mike followed his action.

Jim said, "Whoa, your hand is really hard."

"Yeah - I'm a brick."

"Is everything that hard?"

I snorted, "Nice question to ask a girl, Jim."

Everyone looked at me strangely and wondered why I thought he asked something.

I said, "Sorry.  That thought sounded like it was out loud."

Diva said, "What question?"

"What everyone wonders about the lady bricks - are you rock hard everywhere?"

Diva nodded, "Pretty much.  On the other hand, everyone else feels, well, fluffy to me."

I wondered at her thought that Spartan and Black Tiger didn't feel fluffy though.  She didn't dwell on the thought and I decided not to try to figure out how she knew that.

I said, "Oh, you distracted them - Diva, this is Jim and Mike.  Guys, this is Diva."

I led the way into the cafe - it was a slightly out of the way place, so it wasn't horribly busy.  That was what I'd hoped for, so I could avoid my issues with too many mindviews at once overflowing my visual space.

The groups that were in there stared at Diva, although some wondered about my hair color as well even though I wore normal clothes.

There were still too many up close, so I pulled Diva's mindview up close to look at the menu through her eyes.  She tended to think similarly to me - we were both so used to eating healthy before our change into supers that we still looked for that type of food first.

We picked out our selection, I paid and they gave us a number to put at the table.

I put my hand on Diva's arm and asked, "Hey, would you pick a table near an outer wall please?"

She stared at me with a confused expression for a moment and then said, "Oh yeah, you have that same thing from the club?"

"Yep."

She smiled, put her hand on my back and walked to a table.  We all sat down.

Diva said, "By the way goldie - you left your clothes at my place the other night."

Both of the boys stared open mouthed at us for a moment.  They were both thinking the same dirty thoughts.

I said, "You mean your extra clothes that you're giving me, right?  Not clothes that I took off."

"Aww, that ruins it."

"Yeah, well, I heard the reaction, it worked quite well.  So how are your injuries?  Thigh doing good?"

She showed her left thigh, "Oh, yeah.  See, no more discoloration, it's completely healed.  Same thing with my shoulder and forearm.  The burns are all gone now too."

"Burns?  When did you get burns?"

"From the plane's laser thingie, remember?"

I didn't, but her memory of being shot at by the pirate's smaller ship flashed and I got to see the rapid-fire lasers from her point of view.  I even felt a mild flash of pain in my abdomen as she recalled the pain.

I said, "Ouch.  I'm glad you healed it up."

"So how about you - you're conscious, so that's a good thing."

"Yeah.  I was wiped all of yesterday from it."

Jim snorted, "Yeah, you were like a zombie as you ate.  I'm not sure you said more than a few words during all of lunch yesterday.  Right, Mike?"

Mike replied, "Exactly.  We kept asking you questions and you didn't even register that we were there."

I grimaced, "Sorry guys.  I didn't mean to ignore you.  I honestly don't even remember lunch yesterday."

Granted, I now knew what I looked like when I was out of it from their mindviews.