Middle Hampton, NY...
...againIt was late, it was cold, he was hungry, and the ball game was starting ten minutes before he was due home. The evening guard at the police station tapped his feet and fingers and sighed every time he checked his watch.
“Come on, Brian,” he muttered and craned his neck to see the door better. “If I miss out on all the wings because you’re late for your shift again…”
He perked up when the door opened, and hastily put a professional face back on for the woman who stepped toward his desk. “Excuse me, you’ve just
got to help me.” She leaned an arm on the counter and bent down just far enough for her silk blouse to completely catch his eye. Between the expensive sunglasses, the perfect manicure and the fashionable miniskirt, he thought he knew about what he was in for tonight.
“Sure thing, Miss. That’s what I’m here for. What’s the problem?”
“Okay, mister…” she reached toward his name badge and tilted it upward to read. “Steinberg, I was out here on vacation last week and it wasn’t until I got
all the way home to Nevada when I realized I lost my grandmother’s pearl necklace!” She paused, as if expecting a reaction beyond Officer Steinberg straightening his jacket, and continued, “so you have to help me find it!”
“Alright, well, do you think it was stolen, or just lost?”
“I don’t know!” The girl gave an angry, scoffing sigh. “Why can’t you just find it for me?”
He sighed himself, deeper. “The procedures are different depending on the case, Miss. But here, why don’t you just fill both of these forms out, and if we come up with anything we’ll let you know.”
“Is that all?” She slammed her hand down on the counter. “I came
all the way back from Vegas for you to tell me you’ll let me know!?”
“Miss, it really is. Once we get the forms fill out we’ll know what other actions we can take – “
“This is just unacceptable. I want to speak to your supervisor!”
Steinberg turned toward the hallway that led to the offices, grateful for the chance to rub his aching temple without her seeing as he called out. “Hey Gary, can you come out here a minute?”
As the older officer came out to calm the tourist, a shadow slipped down the hallway. By the time the shadow returned, a third policeman had joined the other two in trying to explain the reports to the hapless girl.
“So when it says ‘best number’ what does that mean? My cell phone or my house phone?”
“Whichever you’d prefer we try first, Miss.”
“So that’s my cell phone.” She looked back up at the three of them expectantly and tapped her pen.
“In that case you’ll want to write your cell phone number.”
She rolled her eyes widely enough to see the shadow nod before it vanished from the wall. “Ugh, why is this so complicated? You know what, I bet you all just want to keep my necklace for yourselves. You should be ashamed.” She grabbed the forms and stormed out of the station in a huff.
Steinberg took one look at his fellow officers, grabbed his coat and left.
Far enough away from the station, the shadow materialized, and waited. The grey jumpsuit she wore blended against the buildings in the twilight, and she was practiced in the art of standing completely still. She didn’t move until she saw the girl walking past her alley, and whistled for her attention. “What. The hell. Was that?”
Jonni Thunder shook the perfect style out of her hair and pulled a sweater out of her handbag to cover her shoulders. “Your distraction.”
“Well, duh!” The woman laughed. The false ears on the top of her cowl shook and flopped with her giggles.
“But oh my god. How does the perfect professional channel such a rich bitch?”
Jonni couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “You’d be surprised what you see working with teenagers.”
The woman called Mouse reached into the front of her jumpsuit and pulled out a carefully folded envelope.
“What? There’s a pocket next to the zipper,” she winked at the look on Jonni’s face. “So are we gonna bring this to Black Spider, or what?”
“Let me read it first,” Jonni extended her hand, and Mouse gave her the envelope with no hesitation. She’d only known Mouse for the last few hours, having met her at the airport once she agreed to help Black Spider find out what happened to Punch and Jewelee’s confiscated gadgets. She still didn’t know what to make of her. Mouse was cheerful, bubbly and excellent at her job – three things Jonni didn’t expect out of a member of Injustice Unlimited.
“So?” Mouse darted around Jonni’s back to look over her shoulder. “Who took it?”
“They don’t know yet.” The impatience of the question didn’t even phase Jonni. Her entire career was built on explaining to non-detectives that real-life stories never go as fast as they expect. She did hold up a finger to stop any more questions until she’d had time to look the document over. “The break-in took place at 12:45am, with one guard on duty who says he saw nothing…they found a few strands of red hair at the scene. Then, on a whim, looked over the entire rest of the building and finally found what looked like scorch marks on the rooftop.”
“So that means what? Someone dropped a cigarette?”
“Too big…but not a bad guess,” Jonni looked up again, just shy of approvingly. “But no…more like someone started an engine too close to the ground.”
“An engine?” Mouse looked thoughtful for a moment, and then started off down the alleyway toward the lovingly-kept motorcycle that had brought the two women here. “Come on. Spider turns into a total dick when he’s kept waiting.”
Jonni couldn’t help herself as she climbed onto the back of the bike. “Only then?”
The two women laughed their way away from the station and toward the truth.
--BoP--
The school was set on top of a lush hill, surrounded by woodland and open sky. In the time it took for the police to arrive, the administrators had already been able to contact the parents, and a barricade of mini-vans and sedans haphazardly filled the parking lot. Most of the students had already evacuated onto the lawns. Many had not. Even above the shouting, sobbing, questions and answers and engines and riens, Zenobia heard the dull, deep crash of something horrible inside.
It was a simple equation. The nearby woods were part of Zenobia’s long journey, a prime setting to continue training herself. The sound indicated danger. She was a hero. Immediately upon hearing the trouble she took off on her fleet feet to vanquish it.
The sirens were whining closer but still fighting through the traffic. Zenobia found a figure of authority, an older teacher doing her best to direct the cars, and tapped her shoulder. “Be sure everyone waits here until I’ve finished.”
“Wait, you can’t, who are you?” The woman called, but Zenobia was already halfway across the grass, gaining cheers and recognition with her momentum.
As Zenobia pushed through the doors, she felt the next shockwave. By her best guess it originated somewhere on the ground floor. For a brief, agonizing second she waited perfectly still, and then the next shock confirmed her direction. There would be no more waiting.
She felt oddly sentimental as she raced through the empty school toward the gym. How dare this villain place children in danger? Her heart burned with a more righteous fury than she was used to, and she was thrilled by the way it drove her on. She could only imagine the sweet satisfaction she would have when the criminal was brought to justice….
Zenobia turned the last corner and burst through the doors, prepared for the armored monstrosity called Shockwave. The waves that reverberated through the school matched every report of his activities, and she knew she was more than tough enough to destroy him. And so she didn’t know what to think when she saw the boy -perhaps a sophomore at the oldest, short, mousy, with a thick mop of unruly hair, and only one arm’s worth of Shockwave’s armor blasting away.
--BoP--
“Okay then, according to I.Q., this should give us the rest of our answers,” Black Spider said as he settled down at Jonni’s conference table, Mouse on one side and Jonni on the other. The chief enforcer of Injustice, Unlimited tossed his burnt-orange cowl on the table and rifled his hand through the damp mop of black hair.
“Your mask? Thanks but no thanks,” Mouse teased her partner as she tugged her own mask back and kicked her feet up onto the table.
“Not the mask,” Eric Needham grumbled as he tugged out a square plastic object, the size of a chalkboard eraser, and placed it on the table in front of him. There was a small screen, with small thumb-sized controls under it, and a thick slot along the top edge of the device. “It’s a DNA reader. Quimby assures me it’ll read the strands of hair you guys recovered.”
“How long do I have to hide you guys here while we wait?” Jonni asked, sipping at a cup of coffee.
Mouse’s hand reached out and then grabbed a donut instead, nibbling on it. Her brown eyes never left the reader however, and finally she gave in and snatched it up as well. She turned it over and over, fiddling with controls and grinning excitedly.
“Not very long. It’s supposed to take five, maybe ten minutes to recover the information, depending on variables,” Needham replied as he grabbed his own coffee. “Got anything else? Some granola or something?”
“I’m not running a restaurant.” Jonni rolled her eyes up and leaned back in her seat. “You two aren’t even supposed to be here. I could lose my license over this. Be lucky you’re getting coffee and donuts.”
Mouse ignored the two of them and grabbed up the strands of hair, then carefully fed them into the slot. She worked the controls and let the device do its magic. “Man, this is
so cool. How can I get one of these? Huh?”
“Talk to the boss. Don’t get too attached to that one, it’s designed for one use. So don’t mess it up either,” Needham grumbled.
“Hey, she’s not gonna mess it up. Lay off the kid, she’s got more brains in her head then you’ve got in your pinkie.” Mouse grinned at Jonni as the detective defended her.
“Hey, if I didn’t think she could do the job, I wouldn’t have asked for her. So get off my back, Thunder.”
“Really? Man, Terry* said you were really a teddy bear,” Mouse said as she glowed over being the center of attention.
*Terry Bolatinski a.k.a. Dreadbolt, another IU enforcer“Ugh, whatever,” Needham grumbled.
Jonni gave a wry snort at the two criminals, but then spoke up about another topic. “Okay, so maybe you can tell me this: if Ira Quimby can build a handheld DNA scanner that resolves in five to ten minutes, revolutionizing forensic science in the process...why is he robbing banks?”
“He’s not.” Eric glared at Jonni. She could see how much he
hated these questions, so of course, she pressed the matter.
“My bad. I mean, why does he help plan bank robberies for other crooks then? He could make a fortune doing legitimate research.”
“And I could be an MMA champ, or top the pro wrestling circuit,” Eric shot back. “Who cares about all of that? Sometimes it’s not about playing by the rules of normal people. Maybe sometimes, it’s about the power you get from doing what you want, screw the normals. Maybe other times, it’s about the thrill you get from people knowing that no matter what, they can’t make you play their game. And making them pay for trying.”
“Maybe sometimes it’s because I couldn’t get to play with cool stuff like this,” Mouse spoke up. Eric glared at her and Jonni arched her brow. “I mean, I’m smart, but I’d never get to play with this stuff. How cool is this?” She squeaked and went quiet again for the moment.
Spider was interrupted before he could say anymore by the signals from the reader. “We got an answer! We’re in luck, she’s in the system. Roxanne Sutton. Not ringing any bells with me.” Mouse looked up at the other two.
“Roxy Rocket!” Jonni and Needham said together. Jonni saw Mouse’s confusion, and added, “A stunt woman. I got Hollywood contacts thanks to dad, and got to meet her. She’s reckless. Too reckless, and she was fired by her third stunt company a few months back.”
“Now she’s got a new boss,” Needham said as he grabbed up his mask. “And a fancy new ride, according to Quimby. He said the char on the roof had a very potent experimental fuel mix.”
“She’s really a Rocket now?” Mouse asked as she stood up with the others.
“Let’s go pay her a visit and find out,” Jonni said. “We’ll go and get her address, and be on our way.”
The three of them stalked out of the conference room, Spider shying away into the shadows and heading for the roof to avoid being seen by any of Jonni’s team-mates. The less well-known Mouse darted up next to Jonni.
“Thanks for sticking up for me. That was really cool.”
“He knows all of that stuff he was spouting earlier was crap right, Mouse? Some of it didn’t even really make sense,” Jonni asked as she settled into her office, typing at the computer for the database she used.
“Oh, call me Pam,” she said as she sat on the desk and watched. “Eric’s just got a problem with all of that. He used to be in the MMA. He was going to be a champion, and things went off for him. He got hooked on bad stuff, and when he got away from it, he tried to go the hero route, but he was way too hard about it. When Batman put him away for attempted murder, his identity got out and his family got capped. He’s got nowhere to go. No one will let him do what he does professionally, and he hates the white hat capes. What’s left?”
Jonni got the information and jotted it down, shut down her computer then reached for her holster and jacket. She said nothing about Black Spider, because there was nothing she coudl say. Instead, she looked over at Pam, then back to her computer. “I have to change my passwords now, don’t I?”
“Don’t change ‘em for me, I’d just crack them anyway!” She jumped off the desk and skipped over to the door, “But ya, you should always be changing them regularly anyway. C’mon, we’ve a crook to catch!”
Jonni watched her dash down the hall and shook her head in disbelief, then followed after.
--BoP--
Wenonah Littlebird never really understood freedom before this day. As she hurtled through the night sky at tremendous speeds, wind buffeted her and tugged on her long hair and the ground below raced by in a blur, she finally understood it. She swooped, looped and spun in all the directions now opened to her, all as the waning Moon shone down on her antics. She saw ahead, all the people on the ground, so little, so hurried as they darted around in their lives. She was a half-mile in the air, and she could pick out details on any of them. She grinned and dove, slicing through the clouds with reckless abandon before she pulled herself back up level with the skyline.
She was here, in Platinum Flats, the neon glare to the east, where the casinos stood tall and garish, centered around the Paradise; to the west were more hotels, restaurants and other tourist traps. A city competing with itself, and this is where she chose to make her base, Wenonah thought as she streaked over the streets and continued to absorb it all.
Her costume clung to her like a second skin, to which she remained unaccustomed. She’d been a more conservative dresser in her professional life, but now the deep brown and light tan top clung her her petite frame, and left her long lean legs exposed to the cool night air. Knee-high brown boots, opera gloves of deep tan, and the feathered mask on her face finished her look, and her costume drew as much notice as her flight from the people on the street. At least, that’s what she believed, but the more she heard and especially saw with her wondrous new vision, the less it bothered her.
She lifted up a little higher and let her amazing telescopic vision locate her destination, then she raced toward the building. In moments she had entered the courtyard in its center and landed with a resounding clack of those swashbuckling boots. She looked up from where she landed, one knee on the ground, arms outstretched to keep her balance. She swept the air with her gaze, and then sniffed as well. Such a variety of scents, and she struggled to sort them all out even with the wisdom of her totem.
“Hey! Who do you think you are?” Onyx called out from a balcony. She sprung out and caught a cable she used to drop to the ground near the stranger. “What are you doing here?”
“I call myself Owl...Woman…” Wenonah had been caught off-balance, and stammered instead of the big presentation she intended. “I’m looking for Manitou Dawn. We have business to discuss.”
“Do you now?” Onyx asked. She eyed the woman warily, having never heard Dawn speak of such a person. She was Native American, Onyx could see that much. Owls were wisdom, but also messengers of death. So that didn’t help sort out her intentions. “What kind of business?”
“Personal. It’s not for outsiders,” Owlwoman declared and let her eyes scan the area once more. This time, she looked beyond just the obvious and smiled when she saw it. Ethereal wisps, a trail to follow.
“She’s our friend, so what concerns her concerns--” Onyx reached out to hold her arm, but she got cut off when Wenonah streaked up into the sky again, in an eye-blink out of sight. “...us. Damn, girl, that’s fast.”
Now that she knew what to seek out, Owlwoman flew from Platinum Flats and continued further into California, up the coast, following the ethereal wake Dawn’s continued teleportation left. She found a small town up north of San Francisco by the name of Santiago, where the trail led and she grinned. At last, she’d meet Dawn, and her investigation into the shaman’s worthiness could begin.
But as she neared Dawn’s apartment, another movement distracted her. Some other scent coupled with a familiar silhouette made her pivot away at the last moment and arrive at a restaurant. She perched in a nearby tree, crouched in a strong upper branch and hid in among the shadows. She stared as Dawn Makes Strong Move exited and walked across the parking lot with another person. A man. One she knew well, from the council.
John Montaigne (as Dawn knew him) escorted the anthropologist to her car and with a kiss, closed the door for her and waved as she drove off. He walked down the sidewalk, to the hotel only two doors down. By the time he’d entered his third floor room, she was in place.
“What are you doing here? What do you think you’re doing interfering with my sacred mission?” Owlwoman demanded to know, crouched now in the window she’d forced open. She stayed there, casting a shadow over the darkened room, and a silver eyeshine stared him down.
“I had to know on my own,” John said. “She’s a good person, she works damned hard, and everyone in that council is acting like they have some right to dictate the good she does.” He went to the lightswitch, but Wenonah tore across the room and caught his hand before he could. She spun him away and stared at him. She looked up at him, but he suddenly felt as if she were so much larger. “I didn’t tell her a thing! I’m here for an educational project anyway! I
am an educator!”
“If you compromise this effort, Ernest will be told. You’ll face the council. This is my duty, not yours. My privilege, and I intend to do it properly!” She let his hand go and returned to the window. “I am the Owlwoman, and don’t forget that, John Fire Mountain.” She disappeared in a rush of wind as John continued to watch the empty sill.
“What did Ernest send you into, Wenonah?”
--BoP--
“You’re just a child,” Zenobia called aloud to the teenager, unsure of how to proceed.
“I’m not a child!” The student ran at her and punched her with the armored arm.
She knew a cross-arm block would stop the blow, her bracers able to absorb the vibratory attack. She was not prepared to be hurtled back down the hall by the strike, until she noticed there were enough exo-limb struts wrapped around his legs and arms to provide the enhanced strength. She would not make that error again.
“You’re just as much a bully as everyone else!” he yelled and smashed his amplified arm down on her back. She grunted in pain as the floor ripped apart beneath her, timber and beams cutting her back up as she fell out of sight. He turned around after that, then stalked down the hall where he knew he had some of his worst tormentors trapped, and cowering. He slammed the lockers with the gauntlet, and watched the metal tear like tinfoil, and then cracks laced up the wall. The school shuddered, even when he didn’t strike it. It was only a matter of time now, he knew.
She flew up the stairwell, and with her speed, blocked his progress. “Do not force me to make this a battle, young one,” she warned. “Just stop this, and let us help you. Things get better.” She struggled now, and her brain raced to the pop culture that had surrounded her on her journey so far.
“Things never get better!” He went to punch her again, but better prepared, she caught it and shoved him back. She pulled back almost all her might, and just forced him back a few steps so she could talk before her battle lust took over. “You haven’t got any idea what I’ve been going through! What they say about me because of my glasses, what they do to me because I can’t run! Here! At home! Everywhere!” Tears streamed down his face and he wound up the arm again. “Now I’m strong and I’m gonna show ‘em all!”
“
I have no idea?” Zenobia gave a barked laugh at that. She dashed forward and caught the arm before it could smash the floor. Again she shoved him back, further this time. “You are the one with no idea, stripling! You who have lived a handful of years on this globe, with no idea of what the world is like! Who do
you think you are? I am Zenobia, a warrior born, and because of my unparallelled power, I won the right to be Wonder Woman! I, the champion of the Amazons!”
She walked up to him as he started to shake, worried, upset, not able to use his power at long last. “It’s not fair! I have the power now! I can make them cry, and make them...wet themselves and...and…”
“Fair? Hah! I came to Patriarch’s World...your world, thinking that I could at last use my decades of battle experience to put down the villains of this world. To make a difference! But do you know what it is like to take up the mantle from one the world sees as perfect?” She reached out now, and hauled him to his feet. He stared at her, the unarmored hand wiped at his eyes and nose, her rant captivating him.
“No! I could make no difference. I was too hard! I was too cold! I was too honest! I saw only black and white! I saw only conflict! My power was the answer to everything in my time as Wonder Woman,” she continued as one hand gripped the armor and peeled them it of the kid. “It was unfair. I was strong, I won every battle...except the important ones. I listened to them all compare me to Diana. Listened to them tell me how far I was from the ideal of Wonder Woman. I was bullied, and pushed, and hated. And feared.” She tossed the remnants down the hall away from them.
“You’re a superhero,” he sniffed and pushed back from her, now divested of Shockwave’s armor. “You guys are amazing. You do awesome stuff. You can’t understand?”
“Better than you think, stri--” She knelt down now, and faced him eye to eye. “What’s your name?”
“Alden,” he answered quietly. “I was named after my grandfather. He won a medal back in Korea. He was a hero too, and mum wanted him to live on and stuff. So I got his name.”
“You and I have something in common, Alden,” she said with a hand on his shoulder now. “For some time, after I lost the mantle back to my seemingly perfect sister, I wallowed in anger. It’s very easy to be angry, isn’t it? Too easy to think about how to make each and every one of them pay, the images leap to the mind’s eye?”
“Yeah. I want to punch Ken, and his buddy Scotty and there’s this girl...but you can’t hit girls,” he said with a bitter voice.
“Ha! You struck me. Two fearsome blows.” She winked at him now. It was hard, to talk like this, to let her own anger at Alden slip away. The wink came slow and awkward. She stood now, and put both hands on his shoulders.
“I guess I did,” he said.
“You want to do more than punch them, don’t you?” She watched him nod. “It’s easy to get lost. But I found a place to be myself. I started to learn things about myself. I am...much older than you, Alden, and I started to learn things about myself I never even suspected. You know what I learned finally?”
“What?”
“I am Wonder Woman. Just a different one. Who does things differently. If I embrace the fact that I am who I am, I can make a difference. It’s not about anger, about power.” She started to walk him down the hall now, toward the school doors. “It’s about knowing you are lost, and there are better ways to find your way out. Find a friend, even one, who will believe in you, and take the chance to find yourself.” Her voice grew thick as she spoke, thinking on the people who did give her that chance, starting with Diana herself.
“Easy for you to say. You’re Wonder Woman. And I’m--” He stopped as he looked at the terrified perimeter of armored police and huddled classmates, faculty and parents. “Oh shit, I’m in big trouble.”
“You are. Face it. Show them what it means to be Alden.” She knelt next to him again. “I’m Zenobia. And I’m your friend, Alden, grandson of the war hero. You will not face this alone. Do the right thing.”
He hugged her, very tightly, tears on her shoulders, then held his arms up and walked toward the police. She paced behind him, and watched the scene carefully. She hardened her gaze as the police took the teen-ager into custody, made clear that she would brook no retaliation.
Then she stood in place, and watched the police drive off; watched the families hug their children, the teachers hug the parents and each other; watched the reporters rush about trying to get everyone’s opinions; and watched as she was thanked and covered by all those groups. She watched until the tableau grew dark under evening’s gaze, caution tape now up, the cracked school now empty. She stood, and thought about everything that had just happened. “Not fair. Oh, Alden, you have no idea.” Then she flew away.
--BoP--
Bee. Ess. Ess. El.
The four letters stared Jonni in the face, crouched in the messy apartment, shielded from the others’ sight by the unmade bed.
A check made out to Roxanne Sutton from BSSL, Inc. It provided her little group no help in finding where Roxy Rocket planned to take Punch and Jewelee’s equipment, or to whom she intended to give it, but Jonni immediately knew that the four letters involved in this case that concerned Mockingbird so much was no coincidence. She stashed the stub into her pocket and stood back up.
“Okay, I think I’ve got something here,” Mouse said as she raided the old desktop computer in the room. “Gotta admit, I didn’t expect to have a tough password from this Roxy chick, not looking at all of this.”
Black Spider walked up behind Mouse and peered over her shoulder. “I suppose when you choose to live a razor-blade life, you also make all the due diligence so it works out.”
“Any hints about who she’s working for?” Jonni asked as she picked through Roxy’s dresser now. The top draw was a sea of bills, note paper, letters, pictures and more. Jonni tugged it out and dumped it onto the bed. “Spider, over here.”
“I’m checking now, but surprisingly, there’s no folder labeled ‘criminal plans and connections’ on her desktop,” Mouse grumbled. “Hmm. Okay. Let’s see what things I can come up with.”
Black Spider turned away from his partner and looked at the mass of papers. “What do you want me to do?”
“This is the detective work, fella. Get over here and help me sort through this all. You want her, you want the stuff? This is all part of the job.” She pulled out a stash of bills and started to sort through them. “Besides, closest you’ll be able to say you got me into bed, big guy.”
“You say that,” Black Spider said as he settled down on the other side of the pile and started to pick at them. “But how will you know until we go out? You free tomorrow night, for instance?”
“Nope. Already spoken for,” Jonni said with a glint in her eyes. “Movie date, and I wouldn’t miss it.” She stopped at one official paper, and those four letters taunted her again.
“Now who’s avoiding?” Spider asked as he tossed aside several pages of stunt arrangements. After a few moments of silence, he looked up at the detective. “What? No smart-aleck remark?” He looked closer. “Find something?”
“Hm?” She looked up now and tossed the letter accepting the stunt woman’s consulting services for the company aside. “This? Nah, just had to read through it. Nothing important here, it’s just looking to hire her as a stunt consultant.”
“Hey! Hey, check this out!” Pam said from the computer. “Blueprints! Rocket jet plans, in fact. Someone designed her a flyer, and I’m thinking…” she paused and looked through some attached files, “...yup! She built it. She’s a mechanic, cool.”
“Well, that’s something,” Jonni said as she walked over to look at the monitor.
“Does it?” Spider asked now, as he stayed in place, and looked over the two women. He never stopped trying to appraise the detective, something about her that kept him from being positive of her danger level. He was a skilled judge of ability, but she walked like she held so much more power.
“Sure thing. We assume she’s been here recently, after stealing the stuff, because Mouse here already found the emails confirming the contact. We can’t find out where they went, for whatever reason.” She paused and remembered how Kendra had also been unable to find the IP source of Mockingbird’s transmissions, in much the same way Mouse had been frustrated. “But we know they came from here, and not all that long ago. The rocket had to be on the roof, where else around here would she land it and not be noticed?”
“Okay, I’m listening,” Spider said with a nod. He stood up now, and joined the two women at the desk.
“I see where you’re going,” Mouse said with a grin. She blew up the blueprints on the fuel tank. “We know the capacity of the rocket fuel, and I can dope out how much it burns, and we can figure out how far she’d go before a refill.”
“Right,” Jonni said and patted Pam’s shoulder. “She wants to dump this stuff fast, she has to know people are after her now. She’s a crazy thrill-chaser, but she’s not stupid, and high levels of paranoia are good in her trade. Besides, you guys have a rep now. So she’s not going to stop and refuel and head out again.”
“Right,” Spider said. “Very bright. She’s going to meet them wherever she needs to stop. At best, it’s the quickest exchange spot and then she’s on her way, all finished. At worst, if she’s being chased, we show up while she has a diversion that lets her get away.”
“Okay, let’s see.” Pam had pulled out her own tablet now, and compared the math from the blueprints to the topographical map she called up. She pivoted and twisted the map under the calibrations, then said, “Here. I think it’ll be here. It’s an old Checkers Rest-Up about thirty miles up 33 East out of the Flats. That’s cheeky.”
“Cheeky?” Jonni laughed at the word as she looked at a close up of the location.
“What do you mean, Mouse?” Spider asked as he also looked over the details, his brain already working out the tactics.
“We own it,” she said. She called up a different file and showed it to him. “See? It’s one of our own ‘gas stations’. For members who have special fuel needs. Just like Roxy’s using it for.”
Spider growled low in his throat, then punched his hand through the wood surface of the desk.
“Whoever hired her, they’re playing you for fools,” Jonni said, then took a step back when Spider’s head snapped in her direction. “Hey! Sorry ‘bout that, just saying.”
“Get yourselves together,” Spider grumbled and headed out of the door. “I’m going to get some back-up. I’m taking zero chances with this bitch and her boss.”
“He’s mad,” Mouse said as she pocketed her stuff. “Really mad. This could get ugly.” She tugged her mask away, to let the brown eyes plead with Jonni. “I mean really ugly. I don’t want too much ugly on my watch, if you catch my drift?”
Jonni gave a reassuring look and pulled out her cell phone. “Then go tell your partner I had to make a pit stop and I’ll be right up.” She dialed and Mouse dashed away. When she was alone, she pulled the stub back out and stared at BSSL, Inc. again. “Hey there, yeah. Get the gang together, we have a job,” she said into the phone.
--BoP--
They listened to her mutter something about Alden’s idea, then soar up into the sky. Finally, the two of them could creep out from the nearby brush, stretch out and loosen up cramped joints.
“Man, I thought she’d never leave,” one said as the other pulled out a pouch.
“Tell me about it. She just stood there, for like, three hours. What the hell was that about?” The other asked as the pair ducked under the caution tape. He crouched again and started to use his lockpicks on the school door.
“Who knows? I tell you, these super-freaks get nuttier every year,” the one said as he acted as a lookout for the lockpicker.
“Yeah, but at least this one was easy to look at for three hours, right?” The other stood up in triumph as the door swung open and he let his partner in first.
“Got that right. I mean, those legs. I gotta love her outfit. There’s a woman with zero shame,” the one said as he pulled out a flashlight and led the way down the broken corridor.
“Well, she comes from that Paradise Island place. They all run around naked with each other all the time. If you know what I’m saying?” the other said with a nudge of his partner.
“C’mon, I’ve seen those websites too. You know they’re all photoshopped, right? They don’t really do all that,” the one replied with a heavy sigh, and turned a corner.
“Not all of them, no way,” the other insisted. “I saw this one with Hi--”
“Here. This is what we’re looking for, I think,” the one cut his partner off, and pulled out a blacklight scanner. “There. Right there.” He pointed at the illuminated blood on the snapped support.
“Yup, I see it,” the other said as he pulled out another kit. He laid down on the torn linoleum, and reached down to extract the dried blood and tissue, carefully tucking it into a vial. Sealed up, the vial went back into the kit, went back into a pouch, and the other stood now.
“Time to get out of here?” the one asked with a satisfied voice.
“You bet. Mission accomplished. Let’s get back, we should be just in time to catch the last of the hockey game.”
“Sounds good to me. You’re buying the beer this time.”
The one and the other slipped back out of the school, back into the shadowy brush, and left the grounds silent at last.
--BoP--
Jonni led her little team out over the sandy dunes that tucked the shut-down rest stop off to the side of the highway. The early evening shade kept things cool, and provided shadows they could move through. Black Spider, Mouse and new muscle Dreadbolt crept up along with her, to her left. They’d left Spider’s autogyro behind them, and were met by Dreadbolt along the way, now the four peered over and around a knot of sandy grass, and stared at the rest stop.
The sign Checkers Rest-Up could still be seen, a tall spire of white and red long caked with rust and soil, as it resisted the passage of time. The building was pitted and collapsing, though some of the large glass still held in their frames. The gas tanks looked decrepit, and the entire parking lot was cracked and torn and littered with spiky weeds.
Roxy Rocket could be seen with her personal craft, crouched down and making an adjustment. An empty cartridge indicated she’d refueled, while another case on the ground next to the woman indicated her contacts had yet to arrive.
“I got this,” Dreadbolt snarled as his fists lit up with electricity.”
“Settle down there, cowboy,” Jonni said, her arm outstretched to wave him down. “Let’s not be premature about this.”
“Yeah, save that for Claire*,” Mouse teased him and caught a spark in the face for it.
*Claire Selton, a.k.a. Volcana, Dreadbolt's girlfriend and another IU enforcer“Stop it, you two!” Spider hissed. “Thunder’s right, ‘Bolt. We want the person she’s delivering to just as much. Maybe even a bit more.”
Dreadbolt settled in and tried to be patient, and Jonni noted it was not one of his skills. As the four waited, Dreadbolt and Mouse fidgeting, Black Spider was the first to note the disturbances. A stiff wind had apparently kicked up a blast of dirt and dust down the highway, as at the same time a small dot high in the blue-and-white sky grew larger. It was a person, and she slammed feet-first into the lot, cracked pavement spider-webbed around her controlled landing.
Leather-clad jet-biker woman Roxy stood up now, goggles on her head, bomber jacket open, and she tugged up her short leather gloves tight onto her fingers. “Heya, you here for the goods, I hope?” She sauntered over to the newcomer, all eyes on the woman.
She stood up and wiped her hands off, cold eyes focused on Roxy’s casual approach. She was tall, with powerful shoulders and upper back and muscled thighs, all clothed in stark-white. On her shirt was splashed a stylized blood-red skull, which matched the color of her nails, and lips, and a half-dozen of her dreadlocks, the rest all pale blonde, thick on her head. The dusty white combat boots crunched over the rubble she’d kicked up as she stepped over to Roxy.
“I’m the one yes,” she said. “You have the merchandise then?”
“Yup, just over here,” Roxy said, and turned to lead her to the case. “So I’m Roxy, and you are?”
“Do you need to know?” Hard dark eyes bore daggers into the thief’s back, and without even looking back, Roxy shuddered. Suddenly, her face fell and she just wanted to get out of here.
“Guess not, no. Just bein’ polite and all.” Hefted the case up and held it out to the woman. “Well, here we go.”
Jonni felt a tingle in her pocket; her cell phone alerted her to her friends’ presence and she smiled. “I think we’re good to--”
She never finished her sentence as Dreadbolt’s face broke out into a mean grin and he flew out from his hiding spot. “Whoo-hoo! Okay, ladies, time to pay the piper!” he called out and unleashed a potent blast of electricity into the woman in white.
“I’m still training him. He’s young, give him time,” Black Spider explained to Jonni as the three of them picked up and raced into the fight.
“Is that all you have? Some lightning, boy? Go running back to your cringing masters!” The mystery woman reached out and tore off a metal support beam, hurtling it up at Dreadbolt and spearing the electrical villain in the stomach. He crashed to the ground, his power suit barely shunting the worst of the damage.
“Holy shit!” Roxy said and leaped onto her rocket. “That’s a mean fastball you got there, sister. Whoever you are, you need me again, your boss knows where to find me.” The engine roared to life and she lifted up away from her contact.
“Oh no, you’re not out of the woods yet, Sutton,” Hawkgirl said as she plunged down through a cloud. “You got a lot to answer for, and I’m aiming for some serious answers!” She swung her mace, but the stunt woman twisted the controls, entering a barrel roll that let her narrowly miss the attack.
“Whoa! That’d be worse in the eyes then regular mace!” Roxy called out over her shoulder as she sped away from the winged wonder. “Now this is more my speed! Let’s race!” She laughed and streaked out into the desert.
“I hate this part of it,” Hawkgirl grumbled as she looped back over and entered the chase. “Why can’t they just let me punch them in the face and have it over with?”
Sabina snatched the case up with one hand, fingers tearing into the metal surface for purchase. “Sabina de la Croix, isn’t it?” Black Spider said. He had leaped in close, and from a low crouch, lashed with a kick to her wrist, before she could react.
“Stupid man, thinking you can--” Her fingers released the grip and the case dropped to the ground. She stared at Spider now, fury contorted over her porcelain features. “How did you do that?”
“Years of practice, Ms. de la Croix,” he said as he jumped back from her counterattack, as her fist smashed the pavement where he’d been. “You’re stronger than when we scoped you out for membership. I suspect it’s not just an intense workout regimen?”
“I didn’t want to join your candy-ass crime gang back then, I want less to do with you now!” was her only response as she swung at him again.
Spider leap-frogged his opponent and tumbled over to snatch the case up and prepared to run with it. Then his own bicep went numb from a chop and followed the arm back to Onyx. “I can’t let you have that. Put it down.”
His arm trembled as he tried to ignore the blow’s command but then, as he had done to Sabina, his hands released the case, and it clattered to the ground. “You’re good. Every bit as good as your reputation from your Red Claw days.”
As he spoke, he ducked a kicked and then sprang back from another one. He blocked a punch, lashed back with a short flurry that Onyx avoided with deft pivots of her torso. “Heard you left the maniac. We could use someone as tough as you in enforcement. Good pay, good benefits.”
“I’m reformed, and I have a better job,” Onyx said as she shifted his next attack to try and force an opening. Before she could though, Sabina crashed into both of them with outstretched arms. The two martial artists twisted around in mid-air to roll with the blow, but were each stunned several feet away.
“Bush league,” she grumbled and turned to the case again. Her wrist was caught and spun away by an ancient-looking tomahawk, wielded by a young-looking woman.
“No means no,” Dawn said and spun the tomahawk about so the flat back of the blade cracked into the bridge of the woman in white’s nose. “Sabina, was it?”
“You drew blood! My blood!” Sabina smiled now and Dawn’s blood turned cold at the sight. She wiped a trickle of blood from her face and licked it off. “That’s a really nice toy to have then. Too nice for someone like you, I think.”
“Dawn, duck!” Jonni cried out from over by Dreadbolt’s crash site. The heroine spun to the side and Sabina turned to face the noise.
Jonni helped Dreadbolt up to his feet, suit ripped, and flat stomach showing through crackling circuits. “Blast her, then catch me, tough guy,” she said with regret and went limp in his arms.
Dreadbolt raised one arm and released all the energy he could into a bolt of white-hot lightning. His other arm barely caught Jonni in time as she released her electrical form into his suit and out through the bolt of power he’d unleashed. The combined energies crashed into Sabina, who stood her ground at first, shirt and pants tearing, her hair becoming singed. Then she was thrown back into the dirt, burnt and scraped and dazed.
“Oh man! HA! Got you now, bitch!” Dreadbolt said as he dropped Jonni now and lifted both arms to put Sabina down permanently. Sparks dribbled out from his fingertips though.
“Sorry, sparky, but no killing,” Jonni Thunderbolt said to the villain as she hovered over Sabina, who groaned and struggled to clear her eyes.
Out in the desert, sand and rock and grit sprayed up into the air as Roxy pressed her jet down low to the ground. She left a deep furrow in her wake as the jet exhaust sent the heated rubble toward her pursuer. But Kendra’s helmet refused the worst of it and let the heroine keep her eyes on the prize.
“You’re fast, but I bet I’m faster,” Kendra called back out as she started to slide from side to side in the slipstream, using the draft of Roxy Rocket’s run to build up the momentum. Then she swung out wide, into an upward arc, then curved back down. As she reached back down to ground level, all of her momentum and strength went into a swing of her mace. A cactus flew out into Roxy’s path, but it missed the thief.
“Ha! Terrible ai---ahhhhh!” Roxy’s smile vanished as her intakes snatched the pulpy, needled flora and the engine immediately seized and blew. She hollered as she hurtled through open space, and then landed with a whoosh in Kendra’s strong arms.
“We done now?” Hawkgirl asked as she started to speed back to the rest stop.
“Heeee-yah! Oh man, that was great!” Roxy said with a laugh, as she held onto the feathered fury. “Especially the landing. You seeing anyone?”
“Yes!”
Hawkgirl arrived in time to see Sabina hurtle up into the sky, leaping away. She landed and dropped Roxy onto her rear as she stared at the disappearing figure. “I could catch her.”
“You couldn’t hold her. We’ll need all of us,” Jonni said and then she zapped back into her body. The groans indicated Jonni’s physical body started to get back up.
“Yeah, all of us. Even her,” Dawn teased Hawkgirl, who rolled her eyes up at the thought of relying on Zenobia.
“Guess we’re done here,” Black Spider said as he grabbed Dreadbolt by an exposed ear in his torn suit. “Time to go.”
“Whoa, I don’t think so,” Hawkgirl and Onyx both said now.
“Yeah, it’s okay. Let him go,” Jonni said as she trudged up to the others. “We got nothing on him anyway.” They looked at her as Spider smiled smugly under that orange mask of his. “Look at it this way, ladies. The only thing he’s guilty of right now is being a vigilante stopping a Federal crime. Right, Eric?”
The smile fell, and he turned on his heel, marched off with Dreadbolt in tow, grumbling all the way.
Mouse however, at the rear of the building, clutched the case that everyone else had lost track of during the battle. She grinned as she ran. “Gonna make my bones big, they’re gonna love me, gonna get bonus, gonna get that ghost comp for sure now!” she giggled as she darted for a bolt hole she knew she could use to hide.
“Going somewhere?” Gypsy asked the air in front of the fleeing criminal shimmered and shifted and revealed the illusion-casting teen-ager. She smiled and waved at Mouse, who came to a sudden halt, then waved back.
“Look!” She held the case out to Gypsy now with a cheesy smile. “Tell Jonni I managed to keep this from the bad guys?”
“You bet,” Cindy said with a wink. There was something about the sneak-thief that reminded Gypsy of her heritage. “Get outta here.” Mouse dashed off for that bolt hole and Gypsy carried the case back to the Birds, whistling.
--BoP--
He checked his watch when he arrived at the theatre and took a scouting spot outside. He checked his watch when he waited in line for popcorn and soda to kill time. He checked his watch when the soda was absent-mindedly drunk and long one, and she still wasn’t there.
Frankie checked his watch and sighed. It was only a minute later than the last time he looked, but each minute closer to showtime ebbed at his hopes for the evening. At first he thought he was just early, but now Jonni was definitely late, and without a call, or even a text.
This time it hadn’t even been a full minute. Standing outside the multiplex, he could see a light blinking outside their theatre. Previews were starting. Frankie dropped his empty cup in the trash can and turned to go back inside alone. Wizard of Oz...at least he could still enjoy the movie….
“Hey!”
If Jonni had ever had any doubts about agreeing to this date, they melted away when she saw Frankie’s smile. “You made it!”
“You thought I forgot?”
“Well...no, not forgot, exactly,” he answered, reaching to rub one arm with the other and realizing he still had the popcorn to hand to her.
Jonni took the cold bag with a small, sad laugh. “I can’t believe you think I’d stand you up. Believe me...I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.” She reached her hand toward the top of the bag as they walked through the doors, toward the booming noise of the coming attractions inside. “Is there butter?”
“Oh, no...it’s a little too much for me. I can get you some with - “
“Perfect,” Jonni beamed, and linked her arm through Frankie’s. “Come on. It’s gonna be great.”
