New Markets - 02 (2 page)

I picked up my new H.E.R.O cell phone; the task was on the main screen.  All agents of the Homeland Extraordinary Response Organization had a smartphone with applications to aid in response to emergencies.  In this case the message was brief, though I noticed it was a private event directly to me.  Most events were posted for all H.E.R.O. agents, so any available could respond.  It wasn't a standard nine to five job for any H.E.R.O.s that I was aware of, though I was very new at it.

The event listed a kidnapping, the location, and a phone number to call.  I called it.

A man's voice answered, “Agent Willman.”

“Hi, this is Psystar.  You put in a request for me in a kidnapping case?”

“I did.  We're hoping to move quickly on this situation.”

“You've already got one of the perps in custody?  I'm a telepath; I need to be right by them to read their mind.”

“We've got one boxed in.  We're working on capturing him without shooting him or using knockout gas now.”

Does no one ever read instructions?  I specifically only agreed to do these if they had someone on hand.  Well, I already called him; I can’t exactly not go now.
  “Okay, I'll fly to you then, hopefully your men can get him by the time I get there.”

“We sent the location, you have it?”

“Yeah.  It's about a hundred miles away; I'll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Very nice.  Wait - fifteen minutes?  How are you getting here?”

“I’m flying in.”

“You have a chopper on hand?”

“No, I fly myself.”

“Oh, we'll see you soon then.”

“Okay … bye.”  I hung up.  I grabbed my costume and began to put on the pieces.  The entire costume was pure white, and made of a very thin, expanding material.  It fit me like a glove, or tighter, actually.  The bottoms were short shorts, much like low cut biking shorts.  The form fitting top went from the top of the shorts to cover most of my bust, and ran down my sides to hit the lower back.  The front had three wide ovals cut out; the lowest centered on my belly button, the top just touched the bottom of my bust.  The boots were mid-calf in height with a low heel, and the gloves mid-forearm.  I had a mask that covered part of my face; it somehow clung to the skin without needing a band around my head.  Last was a gold belt, the same color as my wavy golden hair.  The costume was revealing, but I could hide it under a lot of different clothes.  For that reason I had forgone a full top or pants.  Well, that and my pheromones, which worked better with less material.  I wanted to be able to wear skirts and halter tops over the costume, though, so I was pleased with it.

I ran a brush through my hair a few times.  I looked at my amethyst eyes in the mirror, and 'heard' Rael's thoughts as he programmed in the address into his phone in case he needed it.  I stopped back by his bedroom.  “This will probably take an hour or two, don't wait up, okay?”

“I'd rather go with you, though I'm guessing they would be irritated by a tagalong.”

“I’d think so, besides, you’re a bit on the dark side.  People like this will need reassurance, not a good scaring.  Wish me luck.”  His thoughts came to me as if he spoke them aloud; he momentarily regretted choosing an all-black costume.

I double checked that I had the H.E.R.O. cell phone, my H.E.R.O. ID card and left Rael and Lance's house.  I verified the direction I needed to fly via the cell phone's display, then stepped up on an imaginary stair step and pushed off.  I floated up into the air, then jabbed my knee up and my body blasted up into the air as if shot out of a gun.  I angled my upper body to lead my direction, and focused on pouring on the speed.  It required me to mentally hype myself up, but when I finally felt the shiver down my spine, my speed cranked up past Mach 1.  I angled my flight slightly upward and toward the location on my phone.  It was a cloudy night; a storm might be coming into the region soon.

Being in the air was pleasantly quiet from multiple perspectives.  Apart from being beyond Mach 1, and not hearing much of anything via my ears, I was too far from anyone to pick up the 'sound' of their thoughts, as well as being far from any mindviews.  Those normally only appeared when people were within perhaps fifteen feet of me, while I could hear the ‘sound’ of thoughts from more like thirty feet.

It still amazed me, being able to fly.  Just a few days ago I was a normal person, albeit one with a father who was a super.  Now I could fly, read minds, give off a mind controlling pheromone, and was quite strong.  At least I was compared to normal people.  Rael could lift cars, and Lance found out he could lift a train locomotive.  That's several hundred thousand pounds even when lifting the back end alone.  I was tiny compared to Lance though.  He was 6'8” tall after the change versus my 5’3”, and his upper arms were as big around as my abdomen.  Still, I was happy that I could lift hundreds of pounds without strain. 
I need to test my limit soonish.

The air felt cool as it blew past me.  My hair blew back in the wind, but something about the aura surrounding me kept it to a pleasant level.  Otherwise, I’d imagine that my hair would have whipped back practically in a straight line.  That aura also allowed me to carry others while lightly holding them instead of brute force lifting them as I would on the ground.  Last, it meant that clothing didn’t rip apart.  That was a bonus when I wasn’t just in my costume.  Even miles in the air, the cold didn’t bother me.  I’d been told that the same oddities that made supers heal faster, not sweat or excrete waste, and otherwise have these wonderful powers made us less affected by heat and cold.  Something internal to our bodies regulated things better.  I wondered if it made us significantly less or more than normal Homo sapiens though.

I looked at the cell phone device to watch the coordinates.  It was a really cool device the Homeland Extraordinary Response Organization, aka H.E.R.O. offered its operatives.  In effect it was a smartphone with some complex software for posting trouble situations for superheroes to help with, mark that we accepted one, completed one, needed medical or paddy wagon type assistance, etc.  It also had GPS software, internet connectivity, mapping software, and worked as a secure cell phone.  I hadn't tried texting from it yet.

I didn't have anyone other than Lance and Rael that I really wanted to know I was also the superheroine named Psystar, so I planned on keeping my normal cell phone as well.  Everyone else knew me as Stephanie Quinn.  Everyone except two professors at Metrocity University, that is.  Possibly more soon, since I'd agreed to let Professor Gently start up a special study group to test my blood, DNA and such as long as I was in the group getting credit as well.  My degree was in genetics, and I was a junior at Metrocity University.  I was pretty excited about being able to do some real testing on a super, even if I were that super.  I had some trepidation about being years behind the other students in that group, though.  It sounded like most would be in their Doctorate program, and here I was without even my Bachelors yet.

I was pretty sure that Rael would quit his daytime carpentry job, although Lance might keep his bouncing job at Score!  He liked the place a lot.  He was also such an amicable guy that he stopped as many fights with gentle talk as muscle.

There was no way that I wouldn't complete my degree, though.  I knew that some people would try to write me off as a ditz for having golden hair and a tight, skimpy costume.  I wanted a solid degree backing me up.  There was also something to be said for being a role model for people even if I didn't work in my degree field.

Apart from the heavy cloud cover, the flight was pleasant. 
When I have more time I’ll have to fly through some clouds to feel what it’s like. 
Flight didn’t feel taxing to my system, and the actual angle I flew at didn’t appear to impact comfort at all.  I knew that flying at a downward angle while over Mach 1 could potentially be dangerous though.  I had no desire to cause some kind of shockwave that destroyed windows and otherwise damaged property or people. 

I spotted suburbs in the distance.  It didn’t take long at Mach 1 to close on them.  I watched on the H.E.R.O. phone's map as I approached.  When my distance was minimal I swung my shoulders back and pushed my left foot forward as though to take a step.  My speed dropped hundreds of miles per hour in a few seconds.  Fortunately my flight power somehow kept me from having problems with g-force or whatever else might cause problems by doing that. 
I suppose I'll have to read up on some of that, or people are going to ask me about how flight works and I'll be clueless.

I closed in on the location at a more reasonable hundred miles per hour or so and aimed at the front yard.  It was a suburban area, with large homes and wide streets.  Many had pools in the back yard. 

It was obvious which house it was, several extra vehicles were parked outside on an otherwise sparse street.  They must have been detectives or F.B.I. agents, the vehicles weren’t marked other than having government license plates.

I’d discovered that when I made a stepping down motion, as though onto a lower stair step, my speed slowed down and I began floating downward.  I hadn’t decided yet if this flight power required any of these physical motions I used, or if my mind simply needed them as a crutch to take everyday actions and apply them to something unnatural … like flying.

I floated down to the sidewalk, making the stepping-down motion with my feet a few times to slow my descent.  I lightly bumped onto the ground and walked up to the front door.

  I heard the thoughts of people nearby.  There had to be four or five people inside from the mental chatter. 
I'll have to practice so I can figure out the number of people by mental voices alone.
  By the time I reached the door four mindviews appeared.  I had a good look at the three men and one woman in the room from each of their viewpoints.

I knocked on the door, and then watched the four mindviews look at each other.  One of the men motioned to the others to sit and said he would answer the door.  I saw him place one hand on a gun at his side, and then he glanced out the peephole.  He opened the door and held his hand out toward me.

“Hello, I'm Agent Dunsworth of the F.B.I.”  I chuckled and shook his hand.

Agent Willman was the one I spoke with earlier. 
I wondered why it was so easy to pick people's names out of their mindviews.  It must be kept in some easy-to-access place in memory that I can just scoop the information from. 
Or I'm just that good, hah!

I shook his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Agent Dunsworth.  I'm Psystar.  Agent Willman was the one I spoke with earlier, ah, hello.”  I waved at him across the room.

The two F.B.I. Agents were skeptical of bringing in a super to help with this, so I thought showing I knew things that weren't said yet might be helpful.

Agent Dunsworth asked, “Is something humorous?”

I looked back at him, “I laughed at your smooth transition from having your hand on your gun to shaking my hand.  You're quite good at it.”

He made a “hmph” sound and walked back into the room.  I closed the door behind me, walked over to Agent Willman and shook his hand.  “Nice to meet you in person, Agent Willman.”

The father, Chase Lieberman was thinking that I looked far too young to be helpful here; he didn't want a cheerleader delaying the saving of his daughter.  Agent Willman mentally sized me up as we shook hands.  He thought I belonged in a modeling shoot rather than in the midst of a kidnapping case.

Agent Willman said, “You as well, I hope.  You're much younger than I would have expected.”

“I could be much older than I look, sir.  Supers visibly age slowly.  But ... you are correct.  I am young.  What I do have are abilities that can help.  Such as knowing that Mr. Lieberman thinks of me as a cheerleader.”

I looked at Mr. Lieberman.  “Mr. Lieberman, I wear a revealing costume to distract villains, and to fit it under normal clothing in case of emergencies.” 
Don't think I need to admit that I like workout clothes like this right now….  Well, or the pheromones, for that matter.

I asked him, “When was the last time you saw your daughter?  What was she wearing?”