20demayo 199 Out On The Town Part Three
199 Out On The Town Part Three
199 Out On The Town Part Three
Sophia Hess sat on her bed in the PRT HQ and cursed her luck. For some reason, they had reopened the case with Veder to check the facts and her new boss Miss Militia had been tearing though her cape phone, her personal phone, and then all the records at school.
Emma Barnes and Madison Clements had also been picked up, so there was almost no hope what she had been doing to Taylor Hebert wasn't going to come to light. That was bad, because committing any crime was going to violate her parole and she could be chucked into juvie or real jail at any time. Madison was the weakest of them and she would break first.
Before Sophia could decide she was going to chance slipping through one of the walls to escape, said wall exploded inwards. She didn't panic as she rolled out of the way and went shadow to let the debris pass through her, then she reformed and braced for a fight... and mentally told herself to fuck off because there was an 8 foot tall naked amazon woman with green skin in front of her.
“HEBERT SMASH!” The thing said and a big green fist moved almost instantly to crush her.
Sophia went to shadow and let the fist pass through and reformed as soon as the thing moved their hand back. She jumped backwards herself and went shadow again, phased through her room's door, and activated the alarms she knew were there to keep her inside. The electric sting forced her to reform and she landed and turned and ran.
“RAARRRHHHH!” The thing said and smashed through the door and part of the wall.
Vista jumped off of the couch and stared at the thing as she stretched the distance between Sophia and the big green monster woman to 100 feet instead of 5. “What the hell's going on?”
“I don't know! That thing attacked me for no reason!” Sophia lied and ran for the exit door and hit the button. A buzzer rang and she cursed. It wouldn't open if there was a breach of the walls.
“HESS LIES! HURT HEBERT!” The green amazon woman yelled, seemed to kneel, then she was suddenly across the hundred feet instantly and Sophia went shadow as the monster tore through the vault-like door like it was tissue paper and disappeared from sight.
Vista hit the emergency alert, even though that technically wasn't necessary. There were three other alarms going already. “This is the ward, Vista. Requesting an all PRT cape response for a new A-class threat.”
That set off a much different response as the call was sent out to all PRT ENE employed capes in the Protectorate's local branch.
“MAKE PAY!” The amazon woman yelled as she ran back into the room and tore through another wall when Sophia dodged the attack.
“You're making her wreck the place!” Vista shouted and used her power again to stretch the distance to the threat by several hundred feet, then she pushed herself and soon reached her mental limit of a thousand feet. “I can't hold her back for long!”
“I'm not going to stand still and let that thing kill me, pipsqueak!” Sophia shouted back.
Miss Militia, Armsmaster, and Velocity entered the Ward's relaxation area and saw the wrecked place.
“Hurry up and kill it before it kills me!” Sophia said and changed to shadow to move behind the heroes and hopefully out of the creature's sight.
“Hess no hide! Smell you!” The amazon woman yelled from very far away. She tore out a huge section of wall and threw it at them.
“Everyone down!” Miss Militia ordered and nearly everyone dropped to the floor.
Vista ignored that and stretched the space upwards at the last second. The chunk of wall slammed into the ceiling and went up through it as if it wasn't there and kept going. “Oops.”
“At least you didn't send it downwards.” Miss Militia said and changed her gun to a wire mesh net-firing gun. “Reduce the distance to the target on my order.”
“She doesn't need to!” Sophia said and rolled out of the way as the amazon woman yelled and leapt, crossing the distance as if it wasn't there.
Miss Militia fired the net and caught the monster in mid-air and it yelled and tumbled head over heels as the electricity fired off. The bundle landed on the floor, just missing Sophia, and rolled through the final wall of the room and crashed against the refrigerator of the Ward's kitchenette.
“Armsmaster! Full tranquilizers and tasers!” Miss Militia ordered and changed her own gun and fired at the green creature as it struggled to tear through the electrified net. It was razor sharp and the more she moved, the more it cut her, and her green blood poured out of her wounds. “Aim for the cuts if you can!”
They both fired off their rounds as the creature struggled, yelled, and screamed in frustration, then the drugs started working on her.
“Don't stop! Keep firing!” Miss Militia ordered and the two of them advanced on the downed form and pumped her as full of tranquilizers as they could before Armsmaster ran out of ammo.
The creature's movements started to slow down. “Hess hurt Hebert... make Herbert angry.”
To everyone's surprise, the large muscular form started to shrink as it calmed down. The green tint started to fade from her skin and her skin healed from the multiple cuts.
“Hebert only want... left alone... be... hero...” The figure said as she returned to her normal size.
“Fucking Hebert!” Sophia exclaimed and ran over to start kicking the unconscious girl.
Miss Militia didn't hesitate to shoot Sophia in the back several times and dropped her. “Armsmaster, check the structural integrity of the rooms and then building. If there's no way to brace it temporarily, order an evacuation of the night personnel. I'll call the director to report this.”
Armsmaster nodded and went to do his job. He regretted losing the top job and the prestige it gave him; but, he had a lot more time to tinker now. At least they hadn't slashed his tinker budget.
*
“Good morning, Narwhal.” I said and popped the top off the bottle for her. “I'd offer you a beer if I wasn't underage and you weren't on duty.”
Narwhal gave me an odd look, barked a laugh, and accepted the bottle of soda. “What are you doing here, Atlas? This is pretty far from Brockton Bay and New Wave.”
I took a drink and relished the cool feeling as it went down my throat. “I'm not sure if I can tell you the truth without compromising my mission.”
Narwhal took a drink and floated over to land beside me and sat down to hang her very long legs over the side of the railing like I was. “Can you tell me why?”
“Only if you ensure that the most valuable tinker in the world isn't listening in right now. If she is, or can hear at a distance, or has a camera on me to read my lips, then I can't say anything... for about half an hour. After that? I'll tell the both of you what I know.” I said and took another drink.
“Why that long?” Narwhal asked and took another drink herself.
“Same answer.” I said and she gave me a pointed look. “Really, Narwhal. If I mention even one thing, my mission will be ruined before I can do anything about it. I'm not trying to be cryptic on purpose, I genuinely fear for the consequences.”
Narwhal sighed and kicked her legs out and back, like a child on a swing. “If you weren't so handsome, I might try to pressure you.”
I glanced down at her legs and back to her face. “With your thighs?”
Narwhal laughed. “I doubt you can handle these babies.” She said and slapped one of her thick thighs.
“I let Glory Girl punch me in the face as hard as she could and all I did was turn my head.” I said and took another drink. I did not elaborate or say she also wrapped her super strong legs around my waist and ground herself against me without restraint.
Narwhal caught her breath and stared at me, apparently guessing what I didn't say.
“I stopped here for the view and to take a break. The next half hour isn't going to be fun.” I said and finished off my soda, stuck a small piece of paper to it, and flicked it out into the air.
“Hey, no littering!” Narwhal exclaimed and darted out and down to catch it, just like I knew she would. When she looked back to where I had been, I was gone.
*
“He's a slippery one.” Narwhal said as she floated there. “Did you see him fly away, Dragon?”
“No, he just disappeared. I've replayed the footage and he was there in one frame, was a twisting mass in the next one, then he was gone in the third one.” Dragon said over her hidden earpiece.
“Teleportation?” Narwhal asked and turned the bottle over. The piece of paper he stuck to it had a note that said Atlas would meet her at her office in 25 minutes.
“None that I've ever heard of or seen records of before.” Dragon said.
“Well, he is a fresh trigger.” Narwhal said.
“It wasn't on his registration form.” Dragon said.
“Do you think he left it off on purpose?” Narwhal asked.
“Yes, and unfortunately I have to report it, because he committed criminal trespass with it.” Dragon said, her voice sad.
Narwhal sighed at how much of a stickler Dragon was about little things like that. “Can you fudge the details a little? We could keep it to ourselves and use it as a hidden asset when necessary.”
Dragon sighed. “I have to ask if that's an order or are you only implying it?”
Narwhal sighed again. “In my authority as the heads of the local PRT branch and The Guild, I order you to fill out the report as vaguely as possible and file it with my branch, in the PRT Head only section, and do not file it with anyone else.”
“Done.” Dragon said, happily.
Narwhal shook her head at her quirky friend. “I should head back to the office to wait for him.”
“I'd like to be there as well, except I'd rather monitor any cape activity I can find and figure out why Atlas didn't want me to know what it was.” Dragon said.
“Don't hurt yourself by overthinking that too much.” Narwhal said with a chuckle. “I'll leave this line open for you to listen in.”
“Thank you.” Dragon said and didn't say her friend's words had just helped lift her burdens considerably. “Have a nice flight back.”
“I always do.” Narwhal said and did a swan dive off of the top of the tower and waved to the people in the spinning restaurant before she flew off towards the Guild HQ. If the briefing Atlas promised was anywhere near as interesting as meeting him was, she was going to enjoy that, too.