West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide (15 page)

“Some of us have
been kind of busy today to get around to reading a hundred page police report
that was only given to us this morning,” snapped Camille.

“They probably
didn’t want anyone reading the report, that’s why they waited till the last
minute to send it to us,” mused Starfish. “The truth is the WPPD doesn’t like
to share information with us and keeps us at arm’s length. Now that Dagan knows
some of us are reading the reports, he’ll probably stop sending them to us.”

“Was there anything
we should know in the report if the WPPD was hiding something from us?” asked
Blue Star.

“Well, Dagan was
certainly underplaying some of the concerns in the report about centralization
of criminal organizations and the potential ineffectiveness of some WPPD
initiatives,” said Cosmic Kid. “Most of the negative information was concealed
in the footnotes and cites to other materials and studies. It was a
comprehensive report though; whoever compiled it does good work.”

“The WPPD uses an
outside research service for reports like that one,” said Dr. Sterling.

“We should probably
use them too,” Blue Star suggested.

“We do – it’s our
research department that assembled the report, which has been available to the
team for the last three weeks,” said Dr. Sterling, rolling her eyes. “Dagan
isn’t hiding anything; he’s just trying to get a little useful information into
your thick skulls. We spend millions on research and other support activities
and I would be thrilled if you all started reading reports, but most of you
won’t, so as Cosmic Kid said, we spoon feed you useful information. You may be
literate adults but most of you are lazy literate adults.”

“It would be a
better use of our time to schedule in mandatory reading and research time
instead of, let’s say, publicity work,” said Seawolf.

“Publicity work pays
for the reports,” said Gabrielle with a menacing glare.

“The Ultimate League
would have brainstorming sessions over pizza where the team would mull over
problems and issues,” said Cosmic Kid. “We would even sometimes invite law
enforcement, government officials, and the like if appropriate.”

Starfish grinned
again. “So that’s the secret to their domination of the Mid West Conference -
pizza parties! I bet they have sleepovers and movie marathons too.”

Cosmic Kid sighed.
“No, our success was due to everyone reading the reports.”

“I think we might
need to look at our briefing system and policies and fine tune them to better
reflect the abilities of the current team,” said Blue Star.

“Annie, who attacked
the team and killed Awesome and Jason?” asked Camille.

Everyone went
silent. It was the question everyone wanted to ask but Cosmic Kid for one
didn’t expect a definitive answer for a few more weeks at the earliest. As far
as he knew, no one had claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

“It was a simple operation
and thus professional,” said Dr. Sterling. “It was a 2012 WPS kid’s backpack;
only about 9,000 have been sold, mostly to students in the West Pacific school
system. It held a C4 explosive with a remote-activated detonator, or so we
believe; there wasn’t much left for a positive identification of the detonator
but a timed explosive would have likely missed the team’s passage through the
corridor. Probably as the team approached the backpack, someone triggered the
explosive.”

“Mr. Awesome did
notice something right before the backpack exploded,” said Starfish. “Though he
didn’t have a chance to do more than call out a warning, and by then it was too
late.”

“But if no one but
the team was in the hallway,” Seawolf asked, “how did they know when to set it
off?”

“There are three
possibilities,” said Dr. Sterling. “First, they did have some surveillance
device in the hallway that was destroyed in the explosion. Second, they had
someone with the staff inside who saw when the team left for the stage. Third, they
had a mutant who triggered the device, a mutant who might have had clairvoyance
or x-ray vision and was waiting in the crowd for the team’s approach.”

“There was video
footage of the event and area, right?” asked Camille. “Someone’s going through
that?”

“Yes, but most
telling is that the Infinite Circle is claiming responsibility among the
criminal elements of the city,” said Dr. Sterling. “Last year was a good year
for us against the various criminal syndicates operating in the city, but that
was because we were being fed tips and leads by the Infinite Circle to clear
out their competition.”

Blue Star leaned
over towards Cosmic Kid. “The Infinite Circle is an international organization
that dominates the Pacific Rim drug and smuggling trades.”

Cosmic Kid nodded,
annoyed that Blue Star was again assuming that he didn’t know anything.
“They’re rumored to have connections to the Celestial Republic of China and
other mutant-dominated regimes in Asia and South America,” he said. “Page 32 of
the report. They’re moving into West Pacific to establish a foothold for
expanding their operations into the United States.”

Blue Star grunted,
whether in grudging respect or annoyance it was hard to tell. Cosmic Kid
ignored him. “How were they feeding the team false tips? We have to focus on
securing that angle immediately. The moment you have to question your sources
is the moment you’ve lost the ability to respond quickly and confidently to
crises.”

“Wow, what’s that
from – the Ultimate Teen leadership manual?” Starfish asked innocently.

Cosmic Kid flushed
and Dr. Sterling threw an annoyed glare at Starfish before answering the
question. “They used a number of techniques, including the team’s hotline,
anonymous informants, and even a vigilante named Codex who was just a fictitious
persona for funneling information to us.”

“They’d even
infiltrated the WPPD,” said Gabrielle.

“We got lucky that
White Knight and a few vigilantes were able to figure out what the Infinite
Circle was doing,” said Starfish. “If it wasn’t for that, the Infinite Circle
might have had us running around for months; they’re quite cunning. That’s what
got White Knight on the team - with his help we were able to apprehend several
members of the Infinite Circle in a large raid, but the senior leadership escaped,
including the mysterious Mr. Darwin. Though apparently White Knight can’t make
it to team meetings. Where is he anyway?”

“Tracking down
leads,” said Dr. Sterling, though Cosmic Kid doubted this explanation. Most
likely White Knight was covering for his secret identity. Secret identities
were a lot of work to maintain; living a double life was no way to live.

“Nice work if you
can get it,” mused Starfish. “God knows I’d rather be out there than in here.”

“That will do for
this morning,” Dr. Sterling snapped. “I will tell our Federal liaison to send
you all a thorough report on coordination with DSA, as well as various Federal
programs that may be of interest to the team, such as the Mutant Dating
Service.”

Camille laughed. “I
don’t think that any of us need to use the Mutant Dating Service.”

Cosmic Kid noticed
Seawolf narrow her eyes at Camille as Starfish laughed. “Speak for yourself.
From what I’ve heard, our new team leader goes through relationships like DSA
goes through mutant agents. He could probably use some dating advice.”

Blue Star started to
say something, but Dr. Sterling waved him down. “We have a training session
this afternoon. Some of you may want to use the intervening hours to brush up
on the team operations manual. I am sure some of the old-timers will find it
fascinating reading.”

“No doubt,” said
Starfish. “I don’t have anything better to do. I presume I’m off the hook for
training?”

“You’re in physical
therapy, which counts as training,” Dr. Sterling told him. “Work hard. We want
you back on the team as soon as possible.”

“It’s so nice to be
wanted,” Starfish mused. “Oh, and I’m afraid that they let the cat out of the
bag while you were out of the room, Annie. I can’t tell you how much I’m
looking forward to the welcome-back party that Dr. Hodges and Camille are
organizing for me.”

Camille started to
sputter in disbelief, while Seawolf grinned wolfishly. If Dr. Sterling was
surprised, she didn’t give any indication of it. “I’m sure we’re all looking
forward to it just as much as you are,” she said. “Okay, everyone knows what to
do – have at it!”

Cosmic
Kid was pacing his office on the balls of his feet. His first team training
session with West Pacific Supers was only minutes away. He had done a lot of
training sessions when he was on Teen Ultimate and even worked with the
Ultimate League over the last year, but this was his first real session as a
professional super. He loved training sessions, especially good ones and the
word was that Dr. Annie Sterling ran the best training program in the West
Coast Conference. He tried to remember the words of Seawolf after the awkward
team meeting: Dr. Sterling was “sadistic and more interested in tormenting the
team than training it”. Cosmic Kid loved that; it was exactly what he wanted in
training. He also needed to put in a strong performance after his crash and
burn this morning.

Isaac knocked on the
door and entered the office. “Cosmic, Dr. Sterling called and said it’s ten
minutes until the team training session begins and she wants the team to meet
in the parking garage. Also the rankings just came in for the week; we’re #6.”

“Fantastic! Six
isn’t a bad place to start, but you would think we would have been higher given
our roster. I wonder if we’re going to do some sort of combat driving drill or
maybe we’re deploying to somewhere in the city. Exciting stuff, Isaac, exciting
stuff,” said Cosmic Kid with a smile as he fastened his utility belt, put on
his jacket over his uniform, and grabbed his backpack.

“Ah, good luck,”
said Isaac.

“If you’re the good
guy, you don’t need luck,” said Cosmic Kid, leaving his office and jogging down
to the elevator. He waited impatiently for it to arrive and when the doors
opened he popped in. There was a young woman in a grey suit already inside,
carrying a stack of folders and papers. She gave him a polite smile.

“Hi, so you work for
the team?” asked Cosmic Kid as he mentally went over some of his favorite katas
in case there was fighting in the mix for the day.

“Yes, I’m a summer
intern with Blue Star’s staff. I’m Emily,” she said, awkwardly shifting the
papers so she could hold out her hand.

“Great,” said Cosmic
Kid, shaking her hand. “Blue Star is awesome, a true living legend.”

“Isn’t living legend
just another way of saying he’s really old?” asked Emily with a raised eyebrow.

“Maybe,” said Cosmic
Kid with a smile as he practiced a punch.

“You lead with your
right too much,” said Emily.

“What?” said Cosmic
Kid.

“You always lead
with a right cross and follow it up with a round kick with your right foot,”
said Emily.

“Well, I am
right-handed so I’m a little quicker on the right side. Speed is everything,”
said Cosmic Kid defensively. The truth was it was a regular criticism by his
various trainers over the years that he mostly fought with his right side.

“Hmm, well, I
disagree, speed really isn’t everything. A lot of times it’s better to do
things right rather than just do them quickly,” said Emily with a mischievous
smile.

“Right… so what do
you do here?” asked Cosmic Kid, taking a moment to get a better look at her.
Curly brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a perky little nose – she was cute.

“I’m an ‘intern’,
which translates into enslaved lackey, and… sorry, but I really think East
Coast Style is not a good fit for you,” said Emily, clearly bracing herself.

“Really?” said
Cosmic Kid. “Now why do you say that?” As he spoke he noticed that the elevator
had stopped moving and the door wasn’t opening.

“Well, East Coast
Style is all about power in brawling. You’re strong, certainly, but you’re also
smart – you could leverage those two strengths with a Southern Style approach.
With East Coast Style, you’re merely focused on bludgeoning people, but
Southern Style incorporates more of the terrain, using throws, trips, and more
jujitsu as opposed to East Coast, which is like boxing, effective, certainly,
but really ugly on film,” said Emily who riffled through her papers, pulling
out a folder that she handed to Cosmic Kid who was pushing the buttons on the
elevator control panel.

“The elevator
stopped,” said Cosmic Kid as he took the folder. “What’s this?”

“It’s some
recommendations for you. I did them up for each member of the team after
watching footage of you in heroics and at media events,” said Emily.

“Oh,” said Cosmic
Kid, flipping through the folder. “What does ‘eerie smile’ mean?”

“Well, when you get
asked questions you don’t want to answer the ends of your mouth sort of twitch
and your eyes narrow; it’s subtle, but kind of freaky,” said Emily.

“Huh, really?” asked
Cosmic Kid who peered at a magnified picture of himself in the folder. “You’re
right, that is a weird look. What was the question I was answering?”