New Markets - 02

• Chapter 1 – Night Call
  
• Chapter 2 – Brash Youth
  
• Chapter 3 – It Comes as a Shock
  
• Chapter 4 – Grumpy Kitty
  
• Chapter 5 – Rescue
  
• Chapter 6 – Back to College
  
• Chapter 7 – Study Group
  
• Chapter 8 – Office on Fire
  
• Chapter 9 – New H.E.R.O.
  
• Chapter 10 – Back to the U
  
• Chapter 11 – Cash & Carry
  
• Chapter 12 – Missing Persons
  
• Chapter 13 – Hitting the Iron
  
• Chapter 14 – Dangers of Studying
  
• Chapter 15 – Hit Team
  
• Chapter 16 – Wednesday
  
• Chapter 17 – The Cell
  
• Chapter 18 – Biology
  
• Chapter 19 – Mutating
  
• Chapter 20 - Arissa
  
• Chapter 21 - Good News
  
• Chapter 22 - On the Move
  
• Chapter 23 - Hackers
  
• Chapter 24 - Reunited
  
• Chapter 25 – The Search
  
• Chapter 26 - Rescue
  
• Chapter 27 - Awake
  
• Chapter 28 – H.E.R.O. HQ
  
• Chapter 29 - Insubstantial
  
• Chapter 30 – Turbulent Thursday
  
• Chapter 31 - Frustration
  
• Chapter 32 - Paintball
  
• Chapter 33 - Reunited
  
• Chapter 34 – Warehouse
  
• Chapter 35 – Memories
  
• Chapter 36 – Home
  
• Chapter 37 - Broken Leads
  
• Chapter 38 - Final Moments
  
• Chapter 1 – Flight of Fancy
  
• Chapter 2 - Frustration
  
• Chapter 3 – A Great Day
  
• Chapter 4 - Action!
  
• Chapter 5 - Crushing
  

H.E.R.O. - New Markets

Copyright © 2011 Kevin Gerald Rau

Editors

Kimi Johnson

Dan Henry

All characters are original and fictional.  Any likeness to real people is purely incidental.  Cover created by Kevin Rau.

The H.E.R.O. series includes:

H.E.R.O. – Metamorphosis (1)
http://www.amzn.com/B005GM3PV8

H.E.R.O. - New Markets (2)
http://www.amzn.com/B005NBLWW6

H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (3)
http://www.amzn.com/B005QNS4ZY

H.E.R.O. - Dark Research (4)
http://www.amzn.com/B006KWAA3O

H.E.R.O. - Horde (5)
http://www.amzn.com/B0070UQ5G6

H.E.R.O. - Paragon (6)

H.E.R.O. - Dossier I (Illustrated Guidebook) - coming approximately Apr/May 2012

Wondering what the characters look like in detail? 
http://www.kevinrau.com
has images of many of the heroes.

Please "like" H.E.R.O.  Superhero Novels on Facebook!

http://www.fb.com/herobooks

Chapter 1 – Night Call

Stephanie's Viewpoint

Monstrous eyes loomed over me in the darkness.  Slit down the center like cat eyes, they were green with slight amber and black streaks from the outer edges in toward the center.  They filled my entire vision, and I awoke with a start.

My heart pounded as I jerked up into a sitting position.  I didn't make it far as my head slammed into Rael's face.  He had been leaning directly over me.  From nightmare to reality, the eyes of the dream manifested themselves on his face.  As unusual as they were, they were far more frightening in the blackness of sleep than where they belonged on him.  I put my hand on his cheek as my head fell back onto the pillow.

He leaned back to sit next to me as I rubbed my forehead.  The mild pain already faded, my new regenerative abilities worked fast.  He sat on top of the sheets, showing off his lithe, muscled torso.  I said, “You know, if I wanted to be stared at in my sleep like that, I'd get a kitty.”

He chuckled with an almost sinister tone.  He held up his hands, growled and stared at them, and the last segment of each finger grew and hardened into a two inch long blackish claw.  He wiggled his fingers at me as he said, “But you already have a big kitty … me.”  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and his demon claws shifted back into his normal fingertips.  He rubbed his fingers together when done.

He sat on top of the covers. 
Why wasn't he in bed?
  We didn't have to relieve ourselves any more, so there weren't many reasons to get up in the middle of night.

I asked, “Were you trying to wake me?”

“Yeah.  I thought I'd try something different.  The last two times I woke you up I mentally shouted your name while touching my head to yours.  This time I thought I'd try a visual.  Obviously it worked, but this time your heart rate shot up when you woke up as well.”

“Duh.  I'd rather not have giant cat eyes in the darkness chasing me, thank you.  Please shout my name or something next time.”  I sat up on my elbows.  “So why did you wake me up, I need my beauty sleep.”

“No you don't.  Other than slightly tousled hair, I don't believe you need any help along those lines at all.  Besides, you’re a heavy sleeper; I’d have to practically hit you to wake you up.”

At least he's telling the truth.
  My new telepathy was always on.  Right now it showed me a visual of what he looked at, and both the visual and words of what he was thinking at the time.  It looked much like a giant television screen to me, but unfortunately blocked much of my own vision.  His visual amounted to me at the moment, so instead of me staring at him in the dark, a good portion of my vision stared at myself.  I heard my heart beating rapidly through his mindview - the visual, audio and other sensory link I currently had into his mind.  He saw me in the dark room as clearly as if it were daylight – a benefit of his cat eyes, I supposed.  At that moment they were rounded at the iris though, probably due to the lack of light in the room.

My pure gold hair was tousled from sleep; I looked into my own amethyst eyes.  They still looked odd to me compared to the old hazel iris color.  My skin was tan and I wondered how long the tan would last, or if my new regeneration would eliminate that.  I had a small nose and ears.

He smelled my pheromone enhanced fragrance acutely.  My natural odor now affected most people greatly when they were close enough to touch me.  If their face touched my hair or neck it seemed like everyone wanted to kiss me to get more.  For someone like Rael, who had an enhanced sense of smell I was almost a drug.

We mutated from normal humans to supers only two nights ago.  Both nights he maneuvered to keep me with him overnight just to keep my body against him, and my hair under his nose.  I was only now finding out how much he really cared for me, though we’d been the best of friends for most of our lives.

I motioned with my hand to shift the large image out of the way so I could look better at him.  Fortunately they were movable within my visual space.  The problem was that I couldn't remove them entirely when people were near me.

He smirked at my motion.  When I raised an eyebrow he said, “What was that gesture about?”

I asked, “What gesture?”

“You just moved your hand like this.”  He mimicked my hand swipe.  I hadn’t even noticed I made the motion with my hand.

“Oh, just moving your mindview.  It was in the way, I couldn’t see well.”

His eyebrows rose up.  “So that’s what you’ve been doing these last few days.  I’ve been trying to figure out your odd gestures since you changed.”

I rolled my eyes and shrugged.  “I can’t help it.  It’s probably a mental thing, trying to move things with my hands, even if they are just in my head.”

I looked him over.  His black hair was slightly unkempt from sleep; it hung down just past his shoulders.  He had gained additional muscle during the change from human to super.  He was now well built, but not like a body builder.  His frame was lithe.  His cat eyes gave him a slightly sinister look in bright light when they weren’t rounded. His mouth was closed, so I couldn't see his fang-like canines.  His new alias, Black Tiger, fit him well.

I asked, “So other than wanting me to see you looking all sexy and shirtless, was there a reason you woke me up?”

He replied, “Oh, yeah - your H.E.R.O. phone rang.  You didn't wake up, so I went to look at it.”

“I'm not marked 'on duty' right now, why would the phone ring?”

“There's an F.B.I. call specifically for you.  A kidnapping about one hundred miles from here.”

“Oh, jeez.  I did tell Agent Carson that they could call me for those.  I didn’t think they’d call so soon on one though.”

“Are you going to go?”

“Of course.  Having a loved one kidnapped would be horrible.  They wouldn't call if it wasn't important.  A note should be in the system to only call if they've apprehended someone that might have information on the kidnapping, so it shouldn’t take long.  What time is it?”

“2:10 a.m.  You've got classes in the morning too.”

“I know.  I'll just have to deal with that.”

“You want me to go with you?”

“No, get your sleep.  You got clawed up far worse than I did yesterday.”

“Yeah, but you got knocked out, I didn't.  Plus, I healed all that damage shortly after taking it.”

I kissed him quickly, and then slid out the far side of the bed.  “Thank you for waking me up.”  I watched through his eyes as he watched me closely as I walked out of the room.  That made me think for a moment, I could still see his mindview when I was in the bathroom.  He had to be twenty or more feet from me.  My powers were new, but it seemed like my range was usually about fifteen feet.  He was still thinking about me.  Interesting, I’d never seen a video of myself sleeping before, but he was replaying his memory of watching me a few minutes ago. 
At least I hadn’t been drooling.