H.E.R.O. - Horde (21 page)

Fortunately, the food we made wasn’t disagreeable to her, and she very much liked the wine.  Chrome barely had any wine; she was paranoid about going out and throwing machinery around.  I had this wild urge to drink a lot and go to a club again, though I kept to water apart from tasting the wine.  Diva didn’t understand my desire to not drink while underage, but Silverlash fortunately did.

Tiriffa became more and more anxious about her desire to scan us, so finally I asked her what equipment she’d brought with her.  It gave her a reason to ask, and those of us she hadn’t scanned agreed to let her do it.  I had an interesting view into her ability to communicate directly with technology, for through her mindview I watched her mentally navigate the menus of the system without pressing the actual buttons.

They were kind enough to help me pick up before leaving, so I didn’t have a big mess at the end of the night.  I tightly hugged each of them goodnight, and we agreed as a group to meet again in the near future.

I had problems getting my mind off of Diva’s fixation of Rael when we had been talking about the guy supers.  She even had a clear memory of kissing him!  I’d debated bringing it up when she thought about it, but apparently, she didn’t realize that Rael and I were going out. 
We
are
going out, aren’t we?  Maybe I need to get together with him more often so he feels like it.

He’d seemed somewhat surprised at the kiss, and then she’d moved his hand down to her butt under that damn too-short mini-dress!

Well, he knew I was a telepath; obviously, he either knew or didn’t care that I would find out about it.  Maybe he didn’t care so much about me after all….

It took a while to fall asleep as I raged over them.  I wondered if everyone else's happiness at being together had kept me from mulling this over while she was thinking it or what.  When I finally happened to move my arm and realized I had the bunny with me I calmed down much faster as I petted it.

Chapter 18 – Minibot

Greg Paffen’s Viewpoint

I awoke in a dark area; it appeared as though I were in a big sack of some type.  I pushed on it; it wasn’t secured on one half, while the other was against something soft.

I moved my hands around to try to find an opening and heard the sound of metal on metal from my own arms.  Come to think of it, my body felt odd as well, I didn’t have my full range of mobility.

I worked harder to find a way out, found it and pulled myself out.  I was under something else huge and soft, like a parachute.  It was dark under here as well, flashing red and blue lights ran across the other side of the cloth continuously.

I moved off to the side and fell off the soft surface I’d been standing on.  I thudded onto a hard surface, continuing moving and found the edge of the ground.  The cloth went down over the side.  I had a sudden realization – I was on a table, and it was a cloth over me.  That had to mean that I sounded like metal because I was in one of the toy robots I had in my pockets, and the soft surface I fell off of had to have been
me
.

I moved away from the hard edge until I found the soft thing again, sure enough, it was soft from the side - without light, I couldn’t get a good impression of myself.  I distinctly remembered the pole coming out of my chest with my heart attached to it.

I touched the big soft thing and tried to shift back into it, but nothing occurred.  Then I attempted to find what I thought was my real body’s hand and do it again while touching the skin, again nothing occurred.

I moved over to the side and tried to move the cloth enough to see down to the ground.  I assumed I – or my body - was on a gurney of some type.

The cloth draped down too far, so I hopped down off of it.  I landed with a ding and bounced a few times, the cloth had prevented me from keeping my bearings and jumping straight down.

It was night and there was a bustle of activity from giant people around me.  I had been correct – I was underneath a gurney. 
Great, I’m dead?  Oh, shit – does that mean Aimee is dead as well?!

Stuck in this tiny form I couldn’t do much of anything here, even movement would be slow, and I’d be fortunate to just avoid someone stepping on me.

I looked around to get my bearings and ran over to the building’s side.  I’d parked the car in a ramp a few blocks away.  Those blocks were looking huge right about now….

I crept along the wall, and then dashed across the space between buildings as fast as I could.  There were some people nearby; I just hoped none would see me.  I skirted a streetlight to stay in the dark and reached the next building safely.  I looked back and forth; none of the giant people were looking my way.

Holy shit, I’m glad I’d played with these little robots a few times and had one with me.  What does this mean?  Oh, crap, can I even speak?

I tried to say something, but no sound came out. 
Come to think of it, how can I see but not talk?

I put the thought aside, however it worked I’d figure out a way around the problem soon enough.  My first task had to be getting a larger body.

A shadow covered me for a moment, causing me to look up.  All I saw was a gigantic eye and mouth before a crab-like claw grabbed me and lifted me off the ground.

While I seemed to be extremely strong in the large robots I’d made, these little ones had very little strength to them.  I tried to pry the claw apart, but was unable to.

The creature began flying upward somehow, in moments it felt like we were dozens of feet up and rising quickly.  The huge creature seemed to be shaped like a ball, with what I assumed to be the front having a giant eye and mouth.  It was missing a nose, eyebrows and ears, and it had a mohawk and a goatee.  The skin was brown, with white markings – it reminded me of some of the outer planets of the solar system and the way the clouds created interweaving colors.

The beast lifted me directly in front of the giant eye, it stared at me closely.  Several other large eyes at the ends of tentacles peered down at me from the top of the head.

I stopped struggling when we were several stories up and just looked at the creature.  It had a tongue, for it opened its mouth several times.  Its mouth took up much of the interior of its body.  Unless it had a long, cone-shaped body that was currently facing directly away from me it just didn’t have a body.

Finally, we reached the rooftop and the creature floated over the top and stayed near the edge, where two of the eyes on tentacles began looking down at the ground so far below.

Another creature, even larger than the one that held me, floated over and said, “Wazzat?”

This gargantuan ball was pink and white, with a red mohawk and goatee.  The only other difference was that this one had sharp fangs, and spikes stuck out from the body here and there.

The one that held me said, “Toy.”

“Where get?”

“Der.”  It pointed down where it had attacked me.

“Where Rayna?”

“Dunno.”

“Want Rayna.”

“Fluff
always
want Rayna.”

“Fluff guard.”

“Fluff
always
guard Rayna.”

“Gruff suck.”

“Fluff suck.”

“Duff suck.”

“Duff suck.”

Apparently, they agreed upon something, at least.  It continued staring at me for a while, brought a huge cell phone up next to me and began playing a game on the phone.  Unfortunately, it kept moving the claw I was in to push the buttons.  Good thing I didn’t have a stomach any more or I’d have gotten sick.

When I’d turned my head to look at the phone all of the eyes had shifted back to me again, and it lifted me up to study me closely.

I kept from moving while it had its attention on me, the last thing I needed was for it to decide to bite me or something.  In a minute, it went back to playing the game.

This happened again when I looked around, except this time both of the monsters stopped and stared at me.

The pink one said, “It move?”

The brown one said, “Arr.  It move.”

They continued staring at me while I held still.

The pink one said, “Make it move.”

The one holding me shook me for a moment and then went back to staring at me.  When I didn’t move, it spun me around a few times, perhaps looking for buttons or something to push or turn.  When it failed to find anything, it went back to playing the game.

Then a flash of yellow, white and pink flew up over the side of the building, and I saw a huge superhero wearing red and yellow holding a small woman in pink and white land on the rooftop a short distance away.

The pink one said, “It move.”

The brown one said, “Arr.”

The woman looked up at the man and said, “Thanks, Spartan.  Have a good night; I need to find Duff now.”

“Sounds good, let me know if you find anything else and I’m there.”

“Sure thing, big guy.”

He waved toward the two eye monsters and said, “Night, balls.”

The woman said, “Bs, not balls.  As in the letter ‘b’.”

“Ah, okay.  Night Bs.”

The pink one narrowed its huge eye at him, while the one holding me waved me in the air a few times.  The woman walked over to us.

She said, “Whatch’ya got there, Gruff?”

“Phone.”

“In your other hand, silly.”

“Toy.  It move.”

“Was it a lost toy?”

“Arr.”

“Okay, you can keep it.  Phones away, boys - we need to find Duff.”

She pulled out a phone and began tapping away on the screen.

After a minute she said, “Okay, he’s a few blocks north.  Ready, Fluffster?”

The pink one said, “Arr.”

I debated trying to get her attention, but in this little robot form I thought she’d consider me a toy more than a person.  I needed something much larger to be taken seriously.

Then the pink one floated up slightly and the woman held its claws.  It floated across the top of the building and directly over the space to the next one.  The ball holding me followed along a few feet behind the pink ball.

They floated the few blocks north and stopped at the edge of a rooftop where a third ball with eyes floated.  This one had blue and white skin, but it was smaller than the other two, even though it was still more than double my current height.  There was something wrong with this one, it floated upside down.

The woman dropped to the rooftop, walked up to it and scratched its upside-down mohawk.

She asked, “What did you find, Duff?”

“Dis place.”

“Obviously you found this place, you're here silly.  This is where the big red guys came from?"

"Tink so."

"What makes you think so?"

"Uhh.  Uhhh.  Dis."  He plucked at Rayna's shirt for a moment.  "Doz guys."

The ball carrying me floated over to the edge of the roof and peered down.  A guy stood in the shadows; he was hard to see from this height and distance.

The girl asked, "Is that a metalhead?"

"Mootie."

"Ahh, good eyes there, Duffster.  So they are scoping out the place as well, huh?"

"Arr."

"Good boy.  Now I just need a way to get into the club without standing out so darn much."

The brown orb said, "Sneek kit."

"Yup, that's what I was thinking too, Gruff."

"It move!"

The pink one chimed in, "It move!'

They both stared at me with all five of their eyes for a minute.

She looked at them, "Don't be silly, stop trying to trick Duff."

She took out her phone, dialed, and in a moment said, "Heya Kar."

"..."

"Got somethin' for ya to do, little one."

"..."

"I know, but this is worth quest XP."

"..."

"Real life XP.  I need to use my disguise skill to sneak into a heavy metal bar and club.  Can you bring me my disguise kit, a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and shoes?  Oh, and my wallet."

"..."

"You are too strong enough to fly with it all, use a bag."

"..."

"Then pause the game, it'll be there when you get back.  You can't get real quest XP on the couch, you know."

"..."

"Plus there's a quest reward - an entire stick of italian sausage!"

"..."

"You can share it or not, it's your quest."

"..."

"Thank you sweetie, I'm texting you the GPS now, we're on the rooftop."

"..."

She hung up and smiled.  She sounded like she was speaking with a gamer.  What little I could hear of the voice sounded strange.

After about ten minutes, the many eyes of the three ball creatures all looked into the sky in one direction.  I followed them to see a winged creature swoop down and land on the rooftop.  It carried a black purse made of cloth.

The girl looked inside the bag, along with the three floating creatures - which all floated into positions to see better - and made sure all the items she had requested were in the bag.

She grinned and looked at the dragon, "Quest complete!  The reward will be delivered to you tonight when I get home, Kar."

"Woot!  I think I'm going to spend my quest XP on flying faster.  What do you think?"

"I think it's a great choice.  I wish I had wings like yours."

The small furred green dragon had a yellow section on its underbelly, and was perhaps three feet in length from nose to tail tip.  It did a strange little hopping dance back and forth on the right legs, then the left, then the right and repeated it a few times.

The ball holding me said, "Kar
always
get quest XP."

The girl began taking off her costume and said, "That's because you just stare at me when I try to offer you quests, Gruff.  If you'd accept them you would get quest rewards too, buddy."

She scratched his goatee for a moment and smiled at him.  He grinned back.  She changed into the pair of jeans, black t-shirt and tennis shoes that the dragon had brought, pulled out a makeup kit and began putting quite a bit of makeup on her face.

The dragon watched her and said, "Disguise kit bonus to skill."