New Markets - 02 (22 page)

We sat down in his office and he gave her the forms to fill out, walking her through a few steps along the way.

He looked at me and said, “That was an interesting call I received this morning from Agent Willman of the F.B.I.”

“You mean when they had me locked up and were torturing me … literally?”

“Torturing you?  All he asked me was what the policy was if a hero reacted to an attack on them, and harmed officers in the scene.  He didn’t even mention you specifically.  Had I not known you were helping the F.B.I. with the kidnapping case I wouldn’t have associated his call to you at all.”

“Yeah, well, I was mind-reading this kidnapper, some jerk F.B.I. agent yanked me away from him.  It played havoc with my telepathy and I guess I did some kind of psychic scream in the area.  The jerk, Agent Dimmer, then has me carted off and locked down in the hospital for assaulting everyone there.  Not only that, they decided to connect some shock device to me to ‘make sure I wasn’t using telepathy’ on them.  Only thing is, my telepathy is
always on
.  So I got shocked for hours on end until he called you and decided I wasn’t a threat to them.”

I was so mad just thinking about the situation.  Both Captain McCain and Firebane stared at me in shock.  My face was red in their mindviews, even my eyes glowed with that golden backlit look.  My chest heaved, my hands were in fists.  I guess I’d never seen myself really angry before in a mirror.

I put my hands flat on the desk and closed my eyes.  Then I swallowed and tried to calm down.  My hands shook slightly.  Firebane leaned over and hugged me.  She really felt bad for me, and wanted to comfort me.  I felt the emotion flow through her mindview to me, washing over my anger.

I couldn’t help it; I cried on her shoulder.  Firebane was good at empathizing with me.  She hugged me tightly while I cried, and stroked back my hair with one hand.  She kept thinking that people were so mean, and here I was so young and innocent.  Poor Captain McCain sat watching us uncomfortably.  He wasn’t used to seeing heroes in emotional situations, especially women.  He quietly pushed a box of tissues toward me.  After I leaned back from Firebane I reached over and pulled one out.

Always analytical, his immediate thought was interest that I reached right for them, even though I hadn’t seen him push them closer.  I smiled at him and wiped my eyes and nose.

Firebane sat back down in the other chair and held my knee.  “Are you going to be all right?”

I took a few deep breaths and replied, “Yeah.  Thank goodness I didn’t spread that emotion around to you guys.”  I smiled wanly.

McCain was angry now, at least internally.  He debated on how to investigate the F.B.I.’s use of shock therapy on supers.

I said, “Question Psycom.  One of them said that he was paid to be a test subject for them.”

His eyes narrowed a moment as he focused on me.  “Are you reading my mind right now?”

I rolled my eyes. 
This is getting old.
  “Yes, I automatically hear everyone around me.  Agent Willman said that their testing showed that normal telepaths ‘read’ a person’s mind on purpose.  I don’t, I just hear everything, all the time.”

He said, “How is she getting through my mind blocks?”

I said, “I don’t ‘get through’ anything.  I just hear and see it.”  His expression told me he hadn’t said that out loud.  “Oh.  Sorry about that.”

Firebane looked confused.  She glanced back and forth at us like she had missed part of a conversation, which of course she had.

I grinned sheepishly, “People’s thoughts often sound like their normal voice.  If I’m not watching them actually speak it, and it fits into the conversation, I’m finding it hard to distinguish sometimes.”

He had a stern look on his face as he stared at me. 
Is she doing this intentionally?  Is she lying?

I looked down, “Sorry.”

He thought,
She’s telling the truth.

I nodded, still looking down.  I really didn’t want to look into that serious face, he reminded me of my father during a lecture.  I coughed a little and said to Firebane, “See?  One of the joys of being a super.  You do things out of the norm enough that can irritate other people.  I’m glad your power doesn’t make other people mad.”

I looked up at her, “Want to know a negative of being a telepath like I am?”

She stared at me, “What’s that?”

“I see what he’s looking at, and feel the emotion and such.  So I know he’s still glaring at me.  Not only that, but I can feel the anger about it flowing off him.”  Unfortunately, Firebane had a clear view of Captain McCain’s glaring even now.

“And that’s always on?”

“Yep.  Only time it’s ever quiet is when I’m well away from other people, like up flying.”

He finally blinked and looked at his desk again, then sighed.  “You can’t control this?”

I shook my head.  “I’ve, ah, fainted several times at school already because so many people were around that I got overwhelmed.”

“All right … I apologize for reacting badly.  It’s a different variation on telepathy than I’ve seen to this point.  And … it’s slightly unsettling.  However, I’ll simply ask that you try to control this.  See if you can find a way to turn it off.”

“I’d
love
that.  Oh, to be able to think quietly in my own head again!”

Just then I heard someone think,
Whoa, Captain’s got a couple of cuties in today!

I normally ignored the thoughts about me, but I felt down, and that made me a little more chipper.  I glanced at the door and a man in a suit quickly looked down, made a little wave motion and walked off.  I smiled a little at his awkwardness, and looked back at the Captain.  The man thought about us until he left my mental hearing range.  It was a pleasant change of pace.

Captain McCain quietly asked, “You live in an entirely different world now, don’t you?”

I stared at him a moment as I thought, and replied, “Yeah, I guess I do.  It’s louder, there’s constant motion from people near me looking around, and I’m all too aware of how much I get stared at.  I joke with my friends that I’m glad I’m narcissistic.  If I hated looking at myself I’d go nuts.”

“I don’t care to know the specifics, but was Pete thinking of a joke or something that made you smile?”

I blushed slightly, “Ah, no.  He stopped to stare at Firebane and I.”

“I’ll have a talk with him about that.”

“Why?  It didn’t bother me.  You guys do it far more often than you think you do.  There’s no harm to it.  We can’t punish people for their thoughts.  I’d hate to live in a society like that.  Besides, I’m the intruder here.”

He looked thoughtful.  “Hmm.  No secrets.  If you find that hard to deal with, seek out some help from a professional....”

I laughed, “A psychiatrist?  You do know that I’d hear everything they're truly thinking during a session?  If they were bored or otherwise disinterested … yeah, not good.  I think I’d make a better psycho-analyst than most others at this point.”

Firebane seemed fascinated by this entire ordeal, but had stopped filling out the paperwork.  I said, "Sorry about interrupting you, Firebane.  I didn't mean for this to be time for me."

She grinned, "I think it's interesting.  I've never met supers before today, so it's a really exciting thing.  I never imagined I'd be sitting next to a real live psychic!  Can you read palms too?"

I blinked at her, “Uhh … no.  I’m just a telepath.”

Yeah, bet she never thought she'd have someone pick out her car, license plate, real name, or 'overhear' all her private information she's writing on the forms.  Might as well not throw that in her face though.  People get freaked out bad enough about this.

She did return to filling out the paperwork, and quickly finished them.

Captain McCain entered some information on his computer and printed out a H.E.R.O. card for Firebane.  He also took out a H.E.R.O. smartphone for her and set it on the desk.

The Captain mentioned, "Agent Carson has the information in about the fire scene.  I've tied it to your profile, and the reward has been sent to your accounts.  The program subsidizes your first phone, so you've got five thousand dollars split out between the percentage you wanted on the H.E.R.O. card and your other account."

I still sat so close as to almost be touching her constantly, so I wasn't prepared for the massive wave of excitation that practically blasted from her.  I gave her a high-five, and wondered why I did it.  I hugged people a lot, but rarely gave out high-fives.  Then it struck me that she had wanted me to do it, and in doing so forced me to. 
Ah well, if it makes her happy!

He continued, “I’ve updated your profile as well, Psystar.  The reward’s been funneled in.”

I grinned at him, “Thanks!  I thought you reviewed that stuff before assigning rewards.”

“I watched the news, and Agent Carson is very fast on entering the summary of the situation.  You’ve got over 100 people saved on that rooftop.  Very nicely done.  I also like that you chose to fly them to the next building for speed rather than to the ground.  Sometimes explosions occur, and people could have been caught in something during the wasted time.  Flying Firebane up to the eighth floor was a nice touch as well to save more time.”

I jumped up with my hands up as though scoring a goal.  My flight kicked in and I banged into the ceiling.  I quickly step-motioned back down to land again and sheepishly looked at the two of them … they both laughed at me.

I ran my hand through my hair and said, “Okay, time to go….”

Captain McCain said, “Be safe, you two.”  He already switched mentally to the tasks of digging into my arrest this morning as well as Psycom’s involvement with the F.B.I.

We nodded to him and walked out.  Firebane gave me a big hug in the hall.  “I love your perfume, what is it?”

“I don’t wear perfume.”

“Huh, for being so active you sure smell good.  I should go take a shower, and then shop!”

“Other than being a bit dirty, you don’t need a shower, Firebane.  We don’t sweat any more, you smell fine, perhaps a little sooty.”

“Really?  Oh my gosh, this is so great!  Is there anything else I should know about being, well, a super I guess.  Oh my gosh, I’m a super!”

I chuckled, “No.  You’re a superhero.  You just proved that.”

“Wow, what a day!  Okay, I need to go shop then!”

“Did you have something in particular you planned to buy?”

“Clothes!  I lost some weight when I changed.”

“Oh!  Yeah, that should be fun!  I wish I had the time to go with you.  I’ve got to get back to school to pick up my books and then head to the F.B.I. to see how the kidnapped girl is doing now.”

“Can you get me back to my car?”

“Of course, that was my plan, silly.”

I hooked my arm around hers and walked outside with her, concentrating on spreading calm as I did.  I slipped my arm around her once outside and hugged her close, then brought us into the air, and quickly flew back to her car.

Firebane was preoccupied enough not to mention where her car was at, and was surprised when I landed us in a small street next to it.

She asked, “Hey, how did you know where my car was at?”

“Before we flew to H.E.R.O. HQ you thought about it when I asked if you wanted to be flown there.”

“Oh.  Okay.”

I smiled, “Your secret’s safe with me.  Hey, have fun shopping!  I need to get back to the University to pick up my stuff, or I’d join you.”