H.E.R.O. - Horde (29 page)

Not that I minded talking with people, but it seemed like I was in a rush so often that I wanted to actually have time to eat, and that was with the hope that Jim or Mike would be kind enough to pick something up for me, since the heavy cafeteria population was hellish on my telepathy.

I noticed that the first mindviews appeared roughly around the fifteen feet mark again, so I apparently was back to normal on all my powers, or just barely over it right now.

I walked to what was becoming Jim, Mike and my normal haunt a short distance from the cafeteria, listening for their mental voices.  Having a thirty or so foot range on that made it quick to hunt them down, even among the larger number of mental voices I picked up within that range.

I found the two of them sitting together in an alcove.  Both had their eyes glued to their tablets while they ate.

I walked up to them, "Hey guys, can I join you?"

They grinned at me.  Mike grabbed his backpack and pulled it out of the way.  I sat down, thought about setting down my backpack, and for the first time I realized I'd left my backpack on the floor where I'd been taking notes for Professor Zilgard's class and the weird situation happened.

Jim asked, "Hi Steph.  You okay?"

"Yeah, I just realized I forgot my backpack at the last class."

"Doh.  You need lunch, or did you eat something?"

I smiled, "I've been running constantly.  I was hoping to eat with you guys."

"Way cool.  I'll get you something.  The usual?"

"Please."

"Not a problem, be right back."

Ugh, I left the damn thing in the hallway, too.  Who knows where it'll be now.
  I closed my eyes and put my head back against the wall. 
Not like forgetting things is unusual for me, but damn, that had my notebooks, class books - hell, it even has my belt and gloves for the costume in it.

Mike studied me every time I wasn't looking his way.  He wondered what type of superhero activity I'd been involved in to get blood on my head.

I looked through his eyes as he studied me.  There wasn't much blood visible, but if one looked close enough they would see that some remained.  I could have rolled my eyes when I saw him attempt to spot the lines of my costume under my clothes.

The mindviews had pulled up closer, as they used to be, so all it took were six to almost totally fill my visual space again – well, almost fill.  They were slightly further back than they used to be, so even with a group in my vision I was able to see past them to a degree. 
I’m making progress!
  Jim returned with something for me to eat, handed me the bag and sat down amongst his things.

I thanked him and quickly ate.

I asked, "So guys, has Razor had you dig into anything yet?"

Jim said, "Not yet, but he brought up hiring us to build a crime fighting app for a PC."

"What would it do?"

"At the beginning it would be a database to store heroes, villains and track information about them.  Over time perhaps do web crawling to hunt down information automatically on each."

"Wow, you can do that?"

"Sure, it would be similar to how the search engine websites get new info.  In this case there might be more priority put into hitting news sites, certain forums and such."

"That sounds cool.  Is he trying to put you two out of business already?"

"No, there's just so much to do that we have limited time.  Something to start building some history and linking names might be useful."

"Yeah, I don't doubt that.  It sounds like he's thinking about how to figure this stuff out long term.  You know, that's something interesting - other agencies like the F.B.I. and police have computers you can look up criminal records and all kinds of information on.  We don't have any of those things."

Jim scratched his head, "H.E.R.O. is more of a first responder type of thing, isn't it?  I mean, it’s right in the name.  Homeland Extraordinary Response Organization.  There's an emergency and you people handle it.  For most investigative crimes, wouldn't those go to one of the others?"

"Hmm, that's an interesting question.  We do that, but our jurisdiction covers anything involving other supers.  Therefore, if one is plotting something long term, we get that too.  It doesn't matter if it crosses state lines or not.  Granted, the mandate covers other things too - such as emergencies - but once it goes super, we can hop in."

Mike asked, "What if it doesn't?  You guys sometimes chase down speeding cars or bank robbers that aren't supers."

"Yep.  Basic dangerous law enforcement is part of it too.  There's not a hard line in the sand between agency coverage.  Other agencies can call us in as needed as well.  The F.B.I. did that with me last week for the first kidnapping I worked on."

"Cool."

Jim asked, "So what had you running late today?"

Mike said, "Yeah - you get into a super fight?  You've got blood on you."

"No, something jacked up my powers.  A lot.  I'm not sure what happened, I ended up flying into a wall in the biology building and getting knocked out."

"By ‘jacked up’ you mean your powers got messed up?"

"No, they got, well, supersized.  My flight got faster, my telepathy was easier to use and had longer range.  It was strange."

"What can do that?"

"I don't know.  That's the odd part.  I mean, I was just sitting there taking notes through Megan's mindview as I've done for a bunch of classes already.  Nothing was new."

Mike said, "You did have a rough Tuesday, were you sick or something that you were so tired?  Could it be a bounce back type thing?"

"What, I recover from an illness and get super good?  I don’t know about that one.  I guess that's about the best thing I can think of right now too, though."

I finished eating the sandwich and gave Jim money for it.

I said, "Sorry to use you and run guys.  I need to get back up by the last class to see if my backpack is there and then run to meet the study group.  Thanks for getting me lunch, Jim."

We all stood up and I gave each of them a tight hug.  Jim in particular loved my hugs.  He figured I must really like him.  I almost said something, but realized I did like them, and there wasn't a good reason to be mean to them by saying I just hug people.

I waved to them as I walked away.  Then I turned and quickly walked up to Professor Zilgard's classroom.  I hoped my backpack would be there....

I reached the classroom, but neither backpack, books, nor anything else was on the floor near the spot I tended to sit at.  I looked into the classroom through the glass window in the door.  The room was empty, so I entered and looked around on the off chance someone had been nice enough to move the pack inside the room.  I didn't find anything.  A knot tightened my stomach.

At least I'd been keeping my H.E.R.O. phone in my pocket this week.  When it was in my backpack, I'd been missing calls.  Not that I wanted to answer every call in the city, but a direct call to me could be important.  I went to the professor's office next, but he wasn't in and the room was locked.

I took a deep breath and walked to the library to meet the others. 
There's still a chance it's in the professor's office....

In a few minutes, I walked into the large room with stacks spread out all over the place, and sets of chairs, couches and small tables between them for students to relax and study on.

I started on the wrong side and had to walk around the entire place before I came across the group.  Kell and Trevin sat on one couch, Odes was in a chair, and Megan sat on the other couch.  The chair opposite Odes was empty; Carey again had chosen not to join our group.  Since I'd become a super - and been happy about it - Carey had taken an intense dislike to me.

I hugged Megan tight, but was ready for her reaction to my pheromones and pushed her away as usual before she dug her nose into my neck.  Then I hugged Odes, Kell and Trevin and sat on Trevin's lap.

I said, "Hi guys."

Megan said, "I've got something for you."  She patted my backpack with her left hand.

I grinned, "Awesome!  I love you!"

I leaned over the table and grabbed it before sitting back down on Trevin.

Megan stared at me a moment and said, "Steph, how about you sit by me."

She thought that Trevin was doing something to me, but I very much wanted to sit where I was.  It wasn't until both Kell and Odes wondered what was going on that I stood up and stepped away from Trevin.  I stood there for seconds fighting myself.  I really wanted to sit on him quite badly, but something about it wasn't right.  I closed my eyes for a moment as my mind cleared and I sat back down on Trevin's lap.

Megan stood up with a red face, put her hands on her hips and said with grit teeth, "Trevin, you leave her be.  Go get the neural structures book you were talking about. 
Do it now.
"  She pointed off into the large library room.

Damn it, Megan.  I'll have to get up off him, knock it off.
  I almost used my pheromones on her to make her sit down and leave us be, but Trevin shifted me onto the couch next to Kell, stood up and walked off through the stacks.  He was irate with her.

I sighed, "Megan, why'd you go and do that?"

She said, "Serious?"

"Yeah."

"Because you have a boyfriend?  Because Diva said she'd kick his ass if he didn't knock that crap off?"

"But I wanted to sit there."

"Uh huh.  Come here."

"Really guys?  What the hell?"

"Just sit by me this afternoon, okay?  If you don't, then I'm calling Diva."

She didn't even know Diva's number, but she knew that Kell did.

I gave Kell a quick hug, "Sorry bud, you don't get to sit by me today."

I stood and moved my pack and my butt over next to Megan.

Kell said, "She
does
normally sit between us, Megan."

"I know, but I've never seen her sit on top of Trevin before."

I said, "Guys, you know I'm right here, right?"

Megan smiled and patted me on the knee.  "I know, Steph.  I'm just trying to protect you."

I threw my arms up, "From
what
?  I'm something like four or five times the strength of Trevin.  I could kick his butt."

"Physically, sure.  But mentally you're becoming his little mind slave."

Kell thought,
I dunno, I really like the new way she hugs.

I looked at him, "What new way do I hug?  What changed?"

He loosened his collar and said, "I don't know, recently you've just been hugging us a lot, well, tighter.  I like it, it's not like we're grabbing your butt or anything."

Odes said, "Or she us."

I looked at Megan, "Am I doing it different?"

She opened and closed her mouth, "Yeah.  It doesn't look harmful, but … you hug a lot more ... well ... personal than you used to.  Like you're about to kiss each of us."

"I didn't do that before?  Are you sure?"

She was quite clear from her thoughts, but it seemed to me like she was talking out her backside.  Yet I did get the occasional thought backing that up....

I said, "Trevin's not even with me most of the time - I just hugged you guys the same as I do everyone.  I'm a hundred percent sure on that.  I had some people over last night and hugged them that way."

Megan was filled with doubt, "Oh.  I'm sorry then.  I thought it was just Trevin doing it to you.  Why did you change how you hug?"

"I don't think I did.  I don't know - maybe it's something weird with my pheromones?"

"Oh, now
that's
a scary thought.  You purposefully get close to people so they smell that awesome perfume-like smell on you?"

"I ... well ... I didn't think I did."  I ran my hand through my hair.  "Is it bad?"

"The scent?  No, it's awesome."

"No, I mean my hugs."

She chuckled, "You hug mostly guys, every one of them likes it, I'm sure.  For sure these three here."

Odes said, "Hey now, come on.  I've never been after Stephanie."

"True, but you don't mind her hugs, do you?"

"Well, I can't argue that.  She's hot, smells awesome and friendly.  Who wouldn't want that hugging them?"  He waved his hand up and down at me as he spoke.

I said, "Again, guys, I'm here with you, I can hear you."

"Sorry, Steph.  I really did assume it was something Trevin was making you do.  Did you actually want to sit on his lap?"

I thought about it a moment - of course I did.

I said, "Well ... yeah.  I don't feel like I blacked out or went fuzzy.  Why wouldn't I want to do that?"

She simply stared at me a moment as she thought,
Uh, hello?  Because you have Rael?  Diva?  Because you like Trevin but not that much?

Trevin came back with a book in his hands.  He dropped it on the table and said, "Are you done dissing me yet, Megan?"

Megan opened and closed her mouth and then said, "Sorry, Trevin.  I just ... it just looked like you were making her do something."

He replied, "Well, if she wants to sit on my lap, like I'm dumb enough to say no.  Of course I want her to.  It would be nice for you guys to not assume I'm being a bad guy here.  Have you forgotten that Steph's been flirty for the last two and a half years?"

Megan nodded, "That's true.  Okay, I'm sorry.  I'll step back."

"Especially not cool to threaten that Diva chick.  Man, she's dumb enough to do something without thinking."

Kell said, "Come on, man.  Diva's pretty nice.  So she's not a genius, not everyone can be."

"Well, that's obvious.  But it would be nice not to have my own friends attacking me, okay?"

Odes said, "I can't blame them, Trevin.  To be honest I rather wondered if you were doing it too.  After the party and the way she hung on you I figured you had to be."

"Wow, nice slam, buddy."

"I didn't mean it like that.  Just that she'd not been all over any of us ... until then."

"Well, it was the first time she was drunk around us, too."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Truce then?  Can I stop ducking incoming fire?"

"Sure.  Sorry, man."