H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (24 page)

What the hell are these things?  Aliens?  Some kind of small floating robots - is she that technologically advanced?

I landed near the edge of the building.  She turned toward me as I touched down.  She was incredibly cute, possibly beautiful.  She was blonde with shorter hair; a pair of locks came down along the sides of her face, partially covering a white mask that covered the top of her nose and eye area.  She wore a white shirt and boots, and some kind of pink shorts that attached up the sides of the stomach, went under the chest and around the sides up to her neck area.  Pink straps also extended down her legs and attached to pink leggings that went under the boots.  She also wore very long pink gloves that covered from the wrist to the top of her biceps, and had a white strap at the top.

I was certain I’d seen her on the news before – she was a member of H.E.R.O.  The creatures were new to me.  I was glad my eyesight was so good in the dark – seeing these in an actual dark environment would be extremely creepy.

The other floating ball also moved between us.  It was brown and white, with a white mohawk and goatee.  Otherwise it appeared to be a smaller version of the pink ball.  Its fangs weren’t as long, and it was missing the spikes.

She quickly leaped to her feet as I took my first steps toward her.  Whatever had been holding my wing released it and in a moment a third floating ball-creature appeared.  It moved toward her – it had to have been what was holding onto me.

This one was only the size of a softball.  It was white and blue, with a black mohawk and goatee.  Apart from that the only difference from the pink ball and brown ball was that this one wobbled as it floated toward her, and was upside-down.

It surprised me when I heard it speak to her, “Arr, saw mootie meet.  Wing guy watch too.”  It waved its crab claw back toward me as it spoke.

She glanced at the white ball and whispered, “Darn it, Duff – are you aren’t supposed to bring them back to
me
.”

“Duff want game glass.”

“You want a glass?  With a game character on it?”

“Duff want game glass for eye.”

The small eye creature tapped near his huge center eyeball.

I interrupted them, “Greetings, I’m Razorwing.  Perhaps he’s talking about the pair of glasses one of the mutants had that looked like a computer screen on the inside.  I take it you were trying to get information on Hal and his cronies down there?”

She said, “I’m Rayna, and I’m sure I don’t know what you are speaking about.”

“I was following them myself.  I know they are planning a hit on some research place, but couldn’t get close enough to them to find out more.”

“Okay, what if I
am
checking into them?”

“I’d like to stop them.”

“But … you’re a mutant.”

“That’s fairly obvious – what’s your point?”

“Well, they aren’t good guys.”

“I’m a good guy; I’m just not in H.E.R.O.  Plus, there’s a new mutant in H.E.R.O. - his name is Black Tiger.”

“Really?  I must have missed that he was a mutant.  I’ve been kind of busy lately.  You aren’t talking about Ninja Tiger, are you?  He’s not a mutant.”

“No, Black Tiger wears all black, has a white tiger paw on his chest.  He’s got black hair, kind of long for a guy.”

“Nope, I haven’t seen him.”

“Not that it’s important, anyway.  Back to the point at hand, would you care to work together to find out more about what these guys are planning?”

The white ball spoke again, “Duff know.  Mootie spoke about attack.  Man give him paper with cucumber codes.”

Her eyes flicked to the white ball, “You mean security codes, Duffster?”

“Duff say cucumber codes.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, smiled, opened them again and said, “Apparently the meet was about selling the three the security codes to something – perhaps that building.”

The sound of monsters killing off a character in a video game came from the phone the brown ball had dropped.  Two of the eyestalks on the creature bent and looked down at it, it said, “Ugh, nooo.  Gruff die.”

She said, “It’s okay, Gruff.  You can play another game later.  You have to remember to pause it.”

The brown ball lamented, “Gruff sucks.”

The pink one let out a deep chuckle and said, “Gruff suck.”

The brown sphere – apparently named Gruff, replied, “Fluff sucks.”

“Fluff kick Gruff butt.”

“Gruff no has butt.”

Rayna said, “Boys.  Be nice.  Stop arguing.”

Gruff said, “Bah.”

Fluff said, “Argh.”

Duff, the floating white ball stuck its tongue out at Gruff.  I had a tough time figuring these things out.  I wasn’t even aware such a creature existed – much less was intelligent enough to speak.  The floating too – how did they float?

I stepped forward again and held out my right hand.  “So – what do you say?  We work together?”

The pink ball, Fluff said, “Fluff eat hand?  He have two.”

Rayna moved forward and gently pushed Fluff off to the right.  She smiled at Fluff’s eyestalk that turned to watch her and quickly ruffled his mohawk.  Then she took my hand and shook it.  “All right.  I’m willing to give it a try.  Besides, I’m known in some circles for keeping weird company.”

“Indeed.  Where did you find these?”

“They’re mine.  I made them.”

“You … made them?  Are they robots?”

The white one spun a circle in the air and said, “Duff no has butt.  No has row butt too.”

Rayna smiled, “No, my power is to create things – like them.”

“Oh, are they an illusion?”

“No, no – they’re quite real.  The occasional disaster in my house has proven that.”

“That’s … how is that possible?”

She shrugged and grinned.  “I have no idea, but it works.  I have quite a few special … pets at home as well.”

Gruff said, “Duff day to feed pets.”

Fluff joined him and said, “Argh.  Duff day.”

Duff replied, “Duff need to scout.  Is right, Rayna?  Scout place what is has cucumber codes.”

Rayna nodded, “He’s right.”

I said, “We just need to discover where.  I know it’s a genetics research company, I don’t know which at this point.  I wish I had some kind of information gathering contacts.”

“I could send a message out to the other H.E.R.O. agents; see if any of them have heard anything.”

“Really?  I didn’t know you guys were accessible as a group.”

“Generally not, but I can with my H.E.R.O. phone.  Hold on.”  She pulled her phone back out and began swiping and tapping like a pro.  “Done.  Now we wait.  So, um, how do you want to contact each other when we find something out?”

“I’ll give you my number, go ahead and call or text when you find anything out.  You might want to send a text now so I can let you know if I’m able to dig anything up.”

“How do I know you’re not just trying to get my number?”

“Umm, well – we could both go get temporary cell phones that have no contract….”

“Just checking, you can use my H.E.R.O. phone number.  Hit me.”  I gave her the number and she sent a text to my phone.  In moments I heard a beep from my pocket. 
Doubt I need to tell her that I’m already using one of those phones while out on the town….

I asked, “So, do you normally work at night?”

“Not always.  It’s just quiet and I thought I’d check out some of the rough areas.  I recognized the woman – I suspect that she was involved in another crime I’d been looking into, but don’t have proof yet.”

The white ball – Duff – bobbled through the air while upside-down until it bumped into her left shoulder.  Rayna absent-mindedly scratched its upside-down mohawk.

I said, "Ah, too bad, I wouldn't mind having someone familiar to communicate with at night while out on the prowl."

"I
do
stay up fairly late.  Most crime seems to happen from dusk until the middle of night.  You can always call me."

"Same here.  If you ever need someone to help fight some bad guys, let me know.  I make a pretty good shield with the wings spread out."

"Doesn't it hurt getting them shot?"

"They are armored like the rest of me.  I'm not overly worried about that."

"Well, that's useful.  I'll keep it in mind - especially since I try to avoid big fights myself.  I'll see you soon then perhaps."  She smiled at me.

"Will do."

She walked over to the two phones on the rooftop, bent and picked them up and handed them to the creatures.  They stayed fairly close to her.  She waved at me and began walking away while pointing out to Gruff how to pause the game he’d been playing.

I watched her and the creatures until she leaped off the roof to a lower building. 
How the hell can a sweet looking girl be a superhero?  What does she do, smile at the criminals and they just give up?
  I shook my head, ran to the edge of the building and leaped off, flapping my wings to gain altitude as I did so.

In a short time I was hundreds of feet above the city, slowly gliding around.  I watched traffic and night walkers for a while, but after failing to see any crimes or activities of interest I flew higher and angled toward the southeast.  I made a habit of flying slightly in the wrong direction on the off chance someone tracked my flight home.  I wished I could fly faster.  The wings were so strong that I could lift off fairly fast, but only seemed to be able to push seventy or eighty miles an hour when I really tried.

Once I was over a large, heavily forested park I dove close to the trees and shifted direction to the north end of the park.  In a short time I landed on a pole near the truck I'd left earlier.  After studying the area to ensure no one was watching I hopped down and drove the truck home.

The gates of my estate were a welcome sight.  I entered the security code to open the gate and brought the truck into the large garage attached to the mansion.

I hung the keys on the wall next to the door and walked into the house.  I paused and listened for a moment, but the house was quiet. 
Maris must have gone to bed by now.

I passed by my armor room.  It was full of medieval armor suits - most of them authentic, although a few were such interesting looking fantasy armor creations that I'd added them to my collection.  I set my unused tabard in the open gauntlet of a suit near the door.

I started up my PC, checked my stocks and made a few adjustments, and then began searching for research companies and genetics companies operating out of Metrocity.  It took a few hours, but I slowly built a small list of possible targets for the mutants.

Most of the companies didn't publicly list the types of research they were currently involved in unless it was close enough to release as to either boost the stock price or otherwise improve the marketing for the company.

I needed to find a computer hacker and get them on retainer.

Preview Chapter 4 – A New Week

Psystar’s Viewpoint

Ah, Monday morning – another week of school coming up.  I figured it would be exciting with the start of my special study group kicking off to analyze my blood work and such.  I hoped that Lance and Rael would be guinea pigs with me, they’d said they would.

I got up, set out my supplies for school and took a shower.  It gave me time to reminisce about the last few days….

What a weekend.  It started off interesting last Friday with another new super – Diva – contacting me and asking me to teach her how to use her flight.  Nothing like hanging out with a supermodel with muscles who craves attention more than anything.  She was okay overall; we even worked together on a major traffic accident.  Of course, she somehow ended up having her clothes almost entirely burned off her.

Granted, it was nice not to see everyone’s mindviews through other people’s eyes looking at me for once, but I began feeling like I was ogling her and couldn’t stop.  When I took her to get a real costume she wanted the same skimpy mini-dress outfit she’d found at some store meant for clubbing.  I’d even tried pointing out that a bit too much was showing anytime anyone was below or behind her while she flew – or above her I suppose, but she seemed to be happy about that fact. 
Strange people.

Diva made me bring her to a party my study group at the University of Metrocity had planned.  The real reason for the party was to see if alcohol affected me in any way.  Not that I’d even been a drinker before becoming a super a little over a week ago, but apparently it worked all too well on me now.

The party still wasn’t the clearest to me at this point.  I remembered hanging on the guys quite a bit – mostly Trevin.  I had a feeling he used my weakness – thinking clearly of me doing something when right by me – to his advantage.  I also remember Diva getting really upset and making me leave with her.

She’d dragged me to Score!  That was a popular club and bar that my friend and fellow super Lance bounced at most evenings.  The number of mindviews and all the mental noise from people thinking had been horrible at first, but once I started looking through Diva’s eyes it all became so dreamy.  Everyone just wanted to dance, touch and have fun.  There had been so much touching, and I felt it all through my mindviews with so many people close to me.  The more the night went on the more personal the dances became – and the more touching and kissing.  I’d never felt anything like it before.  Sensing everyone’s emotions through my mindviews just amplified the effect.

The thought of going back had crossed my mind both Saturday and last night.  The idea was both exciting and frightening.  I kind of wanted to feel all those touches again, but I don’t even recall how I got outside with Diva and Lance.  I’d been embarrassed and flew away on them.  I'd just started taking a cold shower when I thought I was imagining things.  I heard Rael’s voice, and moments after that his mindview when he came in to check if I were home.  His thoughts told me that Lance had called him to check on if I was all right.

I'd been too turned on by the emotions of all those people dancing in the nightclub.  I rushed out of the bathroom and literally leaped on him.  Between my lack of clothing and probably aided by my pheromones, he didn't have a chance to resist me.  I made him stay the night.  My thoughts lingered on that memory.  It wasn't how I'd wanted to spend my first night with him, but it was fantastic.  With my always-on telepathy forcing me to share his senses and my own made for an unbelievable sensory experience.  It felt like there were hands and skin everywhere.