New Markets - 02 (44 page)

Yeah, but the first people to be released were on Monday, and by then the volunteers had been here.

Okay, that makes some sense.  It still pisses me off that they did this to everyone.  I think it's kidnapping.

It's probably some paranoia about a whole bunch of out-of-control new supers running around possibly tearing up the town, you know.

Maybe.  But we turned out fine.

True, but we had parents who were supers.  It's not like the idea of becoming a super freaked us out.

Well, not like any of our parents have rushed down to train us or anything.

I think Lance's mom would have if we'd brought it up on Sunday.  She made being super strong seem easy though.  I have trouble recalling more than a very few times that she broke anything.

Yeah, though she had years and years to get used to it before we really knew she wasn't normal, Steph.

We moved into the hallway opposite the elevator doors when Stephanie stopped me.  She said, "Here's a good spot, I can hear the elevator guards, and yet get a lot of rooms."

She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, for all intents appearing as though she were napping against the wall.  However, I noticed she slightly raised up her left ear, as though to hear better.  I didn't have much else to do than study her, not that I minded doing that.  I loved the line of her jaw, the curve of her ear, the way her gold hair glinted in the light….

Suddenly her H.E.R.O. phone rang.  It rang three times and she didn’t give any indication of hearing it, so I popped her phone out and answered it, “Psystar’s phone.”

A woman said, “Is Psystar there?”

“Yeah, hold on a sec, she’s in a trance.”  I squeezed her shoulder and Steph opened her eyes, then I handed her the phone.

She answered it, "This is Psystar."

I heard Firebane's voice answer on the other end.  "Hi Psystar.  This is Firebane.  I'm out of work, I'm just taking my clothes off and I'll come meet you."

I raised my eyebrows at that.  Stephanie laughed, "You have your costume on underneath, I hope?"

"Well, yeah.  What else would ... oh.  Yes, yes I do."

An absolutely hugely built man approached us - he turned sideways to get past.  The man was perhaps six feet tall, but had to be about five feet wide.  He wasn't fat in the least, but when he turned into a brick he must have grown sideways in addition to gaining all the muscle most bricks gain.  He nodded to me as he sidestepped past.  I nodded back.

"Poor Black Tiger's ears just perked up hearing you say that.  I'm at Iron Cross General Hospital right now.  Can you meet us here?"

"Sure, I'll head there in a minute.  It'll take probably fifteen minutes."

"Sounds good.  I'd offer to pick you up, but in the rain you'd just get soaked."

"Yeah, and I'm not a huge fan of being up in the air.  It's not a biggie to drive."

"Call when you arrive, we'll meet you down in the main entrance lobby."

"Great, see you shortly."

"Okay."  Stephanie hung up.  She looked up at me and said, "I don't believe I need to repeat that?"

I grinned, "No.  I hear teeth grinding at twenty feet."

"Yeesh.  I thought I had it rough with my telepathy.  You hear every little thing around?"

"I can if I focus on something.  If I'm not trying it has to be an unusual sound to really catch my attention."

"Ah, my telepathy's kind of the same - although all the mental chatter can be annoyingly loud at times.  I'm getting a lot of people from the floor below us and above us right now as well as here.  It's almost as bad as school."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Not unless you knock me out, and I guess I'd rather be conscious and annoyed."

"I'm going to go and see that guy that just passed us.  He just went up to the nurse's station.  You okay here listening?"

"I'm fine, go say hi.  It's hard enough to try and actually listen to all the thoughts going on around me while actively chatting."

"Okay."  I gently squeezed her arm.  I realized then that my claws had changed back into normal fingertips around the time she arrived.  She always had this calming effect on me....

I walked over to the nurses station.  The huge guy was waiting for a nurse at the desk to attend to him.

I stepped up and said, "Hey, how's it going?"  I held out my hand as the massive man turned to me.

He said.  "Hey."  He saw my hand and his eyes flicked from my hand to my face to his hand quickly.  "I, uhh, yeah, sorry, I don't shake hands.  It's just weird."

"Ah, no problem, man.  Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.  I'm Black Tiger."

"Nick.  Nick Deicher."  His voice was very deep.

"Did you just change?"

"Nah.  I've been like this for a few years.  How about you?"

"I'm new, as of last Saturday."

"Wow, and you joined H.E.R.O. already?"

"Yeah.  I'm surprised you didn't."

"Nah.  I'm not into the whole fighting thing.  I do construction and demolition."

"Ooh, demolition sounds cool."

"It is, although the dust gets annoying.  Nothing like taking out your frustrations on some poor building, though."

"A buddy of mine changed into a brick.  He found the same thing, he got goggles for the dust.  Although I think he also just wanted to look cool."

"Goggles?  That sounds like it might be worth trying, if they don't break."

"How do you breathe when all the dust is flying around?"

"Breathe?  I can hold my breath for an hour easy."

I blinked.  "Really?  An hour?"

"Sure.  You're a mutie, right?  I'd bet that you can hold it for five or ten minutes, perhaps even twenty."

"Hmm, I'll have to try it.  Mind if I ask how much you can lift?"

He shrugged, "Not like I've been able to really test it exactly, but perhaps seventy tons, I'd say."

"Do you get colored fumes coming off your skin when you get hyped up?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm wondering about my buddy, he does.  It makes him a lot stronger when he gets an adrenaline rush."

"No.  No fumes.  If I focus on a punch I can pretty much punch through anything though.  I get this odd, uhh, lightning on my arm.  It kind of looks like lightning, don't think it really is though."

"Wow.  A megapunch.  That's cool."

"You asked about demolition though - it's actually more appealing to build stuff to me.  You can take your aggression out on something in a few minutes, but when you've been part of making something grand - like a skyscraper - that's special."

"Hmm.  I can see that.  Well, sorry for bothering you.  Other than Spartan, I've not gotten to talk to other bricks."

"Oh, your buddy is Spartan?  I saw him on the news about the train derailment thing.  That's impressive, lifting the butt end of an engine.  I’d have gone to help if I hadn’t been up on the G10 building."

"That’s the new one downtown, right?  Yeah, if I recall they said it weighed something like three quarters of a million pounds - but that's the entire thing, not just the back end."

"It is.  Still pretty cool to lift a train."

"Aye.  Pisses me off about this kidnapping thing."

"What do you mean?"

I waved my arm around us.  "The people being released here, some have been kidnapped.  Last night Spartan and I got attacked and kidnapped.  I escaped earlier this afternoon, but didn't realize they still had Spartan.  Of course, they have others kidnapped as well, we need to find them and free them."

"That's messed up, what do they want with supers?"

Stephanie said from slightly behind me, "They are selling them on some kind of web auction site.  If we don't free them in time they have a telepath who will wipe their minds and sell them off."

Nick looked shocked, "What the hell?  How do they get away with that?"

Stephanie's phone rang while I answered.  "We're the ones who have to stop this sort of thing.  They've got guns that do a lot of damage, super-tasers, and more.  It's not like we can just step in, wave a badge and they all turn themselves in."

"Well, good luck on it, then.  I won't take any more of your time if you're working on a case like that."  With that he looked back at the nurse, who handed him a slip of paper.  He glanced at it, nodded to me and Stephanie, and walked back down the hall.

Stephanie said, "Firebane's heading into the lobby."

As we rode the elevator I asked, "Is that true?"

"About the auction?  Yep."

"How do you know about that?"

"A couple of computer guys I know at the University went digging into it after Firebane and I worked at detecting where you guys were at."

"Firebane can detect supers?"

"Yep, she started figuring it out at the fire we handled."

"Wow, that'll be useful."

"Yep."

"So you and Firebane are really hitting it off, huh?"  I couldn't help but remember how she and Tina hit it off on Sunday, when Stephanie's pheromones made Tina kiss her.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Not like you are thinking.  I miss Tina, I'm used to seeing her every day during our workouts."

The elevator doors opened, we passed a few people getting in as we headed toward the main lobby.

"Yeah, I stayed with her for her workout last night, she showed up when Lance and I went to try and work out.  She misses us being there every day."

"Yep, me too.  How did the workout go?"

"It sucked.  At least me getting anything out of the workout sucked.  It was fun pushing her to workout though.  On the other hand, Mia is checking into how much it would cost to get equipment for supers to work out on.  If she did she'd be the first supers-capable gym in Metrocity that I know of."

"That'd be cool, although why continue to work out now?  You're in awesome shape, can lift a few tons.  Wouldn't it just be repetitious?"

"Nah, we might be able to get even stronger if we push ourselves.  Plus, we can focus on just strength now, no need to worry about cardio.  It's also time to hang out with our workout buddies.  I don't want to stop hanging out with Mia and Tina, for example."

"That makes sense."

We reached the main lobby.  People sat spread out in the waiting area.  In a moment we saw Firebane near the entrance and walked over to her.

Chapter 25 – The Search

Stephanie's Viewpoint

Seeing Firebane raised my hopes.  With Rael at my side and Firebane to find the other supers, I thought we held a real chance at finding and freeing Lance and the other captives.