Hero Force United Boxed Set 1

by Baron Sord

  Time Bandits reference: “Mum! Dad! It’s evil! Don’t touch it!” They did. Ka-BOOM! End reference.

  In my case, nobody would explode if they touched a chunk of Ice Statue. At worst, they’d get severe frostbite on their fingers. But if Ice Statue’s entire head was intact and lying under that dumpster…

  No, that was unlikely.

  The pieces had all been very small.

  But.

  When those pieces thawed, they would eventually rot and stink. If you subtracted the weight of his skeleton, Ice State was 150+ pounds of meat.

  That was a lot of stinky meat.

  For a moment, I considered going back to the alley to at least pick up the chunks and put them in the dumpster. But there was a good chance police were circling the alley already. Suppressors weren’t that quiet and downtown was still crowded at this hour. Someone had to have heard.

  Fortunately, those frigid icy chunks would likely take a long time to thaw and any detectives who found them probably wouldn’t know what they were. Heck, they might even toss them in the dumpster for me.

  I decided to take a risk and skip the alley.

  Drove straight home.

  What a fricking night.

  —: Chapter 15 :—

  When I drove my Aveo up Arnold’s driveway and turned off the car, my clothes were smoking and my car seat stank of melted nylon. I had tried to concentrate the heat in my core during the 15 minute drive from door to door, but that was easier said than done.

  I jumped out of the car.

  In the shadows where I parked, my orange glow was unmistakable.

  That meant two things.

  One, if I planned on storing heat, I would be easily identifiable at night. That was a liability if I wanted to keep my identity secret.

  Two, on a positive note, I had held a large amount of heat energy in my body for what… the last half hour? That was a significant amount of storage time.

  But it came at a cost.

  After I had dropped off Pudgy Batman, my victorious high had quickly faded. Consequently, I became aware of my itching skin. Similar to after the car fire, but much worse. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it wasn’t a good feeling either.

  Now the itching was getting worse.

  Did that mean the longer I held large amounts of heat, the more damage it did to my body? Would the itching eventually turn into the ripping of skin? Or burning and baking of my muscles and internal organs? Could I cook myself if I held on to heat for too long? How long would it take for permanent damage to occur? An hour? Ten hours?

  I wasn’t in a hurry to find out.

  Especially not now.

  Now, I needed sleep.

  After I drained off my excess heat.

  I went into the guest house and changed into a swimsuit and jumped in the pool in the deep end. Fully submerged, I released all the heat at once, letting it out in every direction from all over my body. A huge heat bubble burst around me and a wide column of steam blasted upward, taking me with it. I rose up 2 or 3 feet on a large pressure bubble before sinking back down to chin level in the waving water. The steam quickly disappeared into the darkness overhead.

  “Dude! Did you just fart?!” It was Arnold, standing on the pool deck. “That was epic! You’re like a fricking fart volcano in my pool! Do it again!”

  I laughed, “No. It was the heat. I had to release it.”

  “That’s what I call a release!” he snickered. “You sure it doesn’t smell?”

  “Take a whiff.”

  He frowned, “I don’t want any part of your Dutch oven, bro.”

  I chuckled. “It’s just steam.”

  “Oh, sure. Just steam.” He narrowed his eyes shrewdly, “I ain’t buying it. Maybe we should start calling you Fartman. No, Howard Stern did that. How about Shartman? You didn’t just shart yourself in my pool, did you?”

  “No,” I grinned at him. To my surprise, the raspiness in my throat from getting shot in the neck by Ice Statue earlier was already fading. The rate at which I healed was astonishing.

  “What?” Arnold prompted.

  “Nothing. You finish your debugging at work?”

  “Oh, fuck me very much. I had to beg Gabe to go home. He wants my ass at my desk first thing in the morning.”

  “On a Saturday?”

  “I told you, we’re up against a major deadline.”

  “The Con stays open until seven tomorrow evening.”

  “I may still be working at seven.”

  “Go with me on Sunday.”

  “I’m not holding my breath. You talk to the hottie?”

  “Lady Liberty?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No.”

  “Was she there?”

  “Yeah. I saw her.”

  “Why didn’t you talk to her, man?!” Arnold sounded ten times more disappointed than I felt.

  “Too many people. I couldn’t get close enough.”

  “What, is she famous or something?”

  “She is now. She won an award. The promising newcomer award.”

  “Doesn’t everyone get one of those?”

  “No. And she won a plaque.”

  “A plaque? Ooooh!” He waved his hands in the air and made a mocking face. “She got a plaaaaque!”

  “Hey, it’s a big deal.”

  “Would you stop worshipping her already and go bang Yangelina?”

  “Vanessa.”

  He smirked, “Vangelina is probably sitting home alone right now wishing you were banging her van-gina. Stop wasting your time with Plaque Lady. She’s not interested. If you don’t want Vangelina, go find somebody who isn’t married and isn’t Plaque Lady.”

  “Can we talk about something else? I need to tell you something serious.”

  He chuckled, “Are you gay? It’s totally cool if you’re gay.”

  I frowned, “Why would you say that?”

  “Because you refuse to bang Vangelina!”

  I smiled and rolled my eyes, “I’m not gay.”

  “It’s totally cool if you are. Just don’t throw any gay pool parties here without asking my permission first.”

  “Why not?

  “So I can be out of town when you do. And make sure you clean the pool filter afterward.” He grimaced for effect.

  “I’m not planning on throwing any pool parties, gay or otherwise.”

  “Okay, what’s on your mind?”

  I looked around, feeling like somebody might be listening. We were outside. As large as the Beaks’ property was for this area, the neighboring houses weren’t exactly far away. If our neighbors were in their backyards, they might overhear. I paddled over to the edge of the pool and waved Arnold over.

  “What?”

  “Come closer.”

  “If you pull me into the pool, I swear to fuck, I’ll kick your ass.”

  “I won’t pull you in.”

  “Okay, what?” He squatted down at the side of the pool with a grunt.

  “Maybe I better tell you inside.”

  He stood up and groaned. “You are such a cocktease. And a pussytease.”

  Smirking, I climbed out of the pool and grabbed a towel to wipe down before going inside.

  In the kitchen, Arnold sighed impatiently, “What?”

  “I killed somebody tonight.”

  “No you didn’t,” he chuckled.

  “I did,” I said somberly.

  “Wait. Are you serious?”

  “Deadly.”

  “Ha ha. Deadly. You’re fucking with me, right?”

  “No.”

  Concern tightened his face. “What happened? Sit down. This is serious.” We pulled out chairs at the kitchen table.

  I told him the whole story about Pudgy Batman. I also got up, drank several glasses of water, and made myself a sandwich because I was thirstier and hungrier than usual.

  After sitting down at the kitchen table, I stood the eight shell casings and eight slugs on the wood. Three slugs were still vaguely bul
let-shaped. The other five were in the wad, which was now hard and cool to the touch.

  “So you are bulletproof,” Arnold marveled, inspecting one of the slugs under the light from the chandelier.

  “I guess so.” I showed him the red marks all over my body.

  “Wow. And you froze a guy and shattered him like an ice sculpture?”

  “Not like an ice sculpture. I turned him into an actual ice sculpture.”

  “Shit yeah you did. Wait, did you really?”

  “I’m telling the truth. I swear.”

  Arnold looked at me shrewdly. “Fuck, Doug. What are you turning into?”

  “A killer?”

  We both grimaced at each other.

  —: Chapter 16 :—

  Lady Liberty watched from the shadows.

  An endless maze of randomly stacked shipping containers stretched out around her. In the distance, she could see three gantry cranes lifting varicolored containers off the deck of an enormous ship. This late at night, several sections of the sprawling port were still active. The onloading and offloading of cargo never stopped. Rumbling trucks came and went around the clock.

  The bloated city needed to feed its addiction.

  Below Lady Liberty, this section of the port was quiet, save for a single white box truck driving into the blocky maze. The tiny truck came to a stop in one of the many dead ends. Turned off its lights. One shadowy man stepped out.

  Four more emerged from the surrounding darkness. Two smaller and two taller. All had rifles. Some smoked, their cigarettes tiny red embers.

  They looked around warily, watching for prying eyes.

  Lady Liberty ducked low below the roof line of the shipping container from where she watched atop a tall stack.

  Below, the men formed a circle around the back of the truck.

  One man opened it.

  At this distance, the sound of the rattling rollup door was a whisper.

  A small form was shoved stumbling out the back of the truck.

  A girl.

  Poor thing fell to her knees on the slick black pavement and cowered in fear, wishing desperately to be any place other than here.

  No man went to help her. They ignored her.

  Lady Liberty could see the little girl’s haunted eyes and feel her desperation as if it were her own.

  More girls with frightened eyes were shoved from the back of the trailer in ones and twos until a crowd of them were huddling together in the center of the men.

  Two men who’d been inside the truck since its arrival carried out three ladders. They set one up at the base of a stepped row of shipping containers. One man climbed up the ladder. The man below passed another ladder up to him. The man on top of the container set it leaning against the next container up. Went back for a third ladder. Bottom Man handed it to Top Man and climbed up. They transferred the last ladder up to the third level and set it leaning against another stepped container. Climbed up and opened one of the double doors on one of the many containers on the fourth level.

  From Lady Liberty’s vantage point across the maze, she could see inside the open container on the fourth level.

  A score or more of girls were huddled inside, bunched up against the cold interior walls.

  Bottom Man hurried down the ladders to fetch something from the truck. Three 5-gallon plastic buckets, the kind used for paint. Stuck his arm through the metal wire handles and hurried back up to the fourth level. Based on how the buckets were banging around, they were empty. He pulled the lids off and set them down in front of the open container.

  Top Man and Bottom Man bickered for a moment.

  “You do it!” Top Man said.

  “No, you do it! I went and got them!” Bottom Man said, followed by a growl and a shove.

  Top Man squealed and staggered toward the edge of the container. It was 24 feet down to the ground.

  “Do it!” Bottom Man surged toward him and barked in his face.

  “Okay, okay!” Top Man whined, eyeing the fall he desperately wanted to avoid. With an annoyed head shake and shoulder roll, he carried the three bucket lids inside the gloomy container and grimaced at the stench. Not the stench of dead girls. The stench of piss-and-shit buckets, which was no doubt fragrant. Cursing to himself, he secured a lid on each bucket and carried them out. As he passed Bottom Man, he hissed, “You get ’em next time, asshole!”

  Bottom Man didn’t answer, but he did carry the three empty buckets inside the container and dropped them rattling on the floor. Two fell down. He didn’t bother to right them. The girls surely would when the urge struck.

  Lady Liberty grimaced in disgust, dying to go help the girls. But there were too many men with guns. She didn’t want any girls getting shot. Once the three delivery truck men were gone and the metal container doors closed, she could safely take care of the four armed guards on the ground, then climb up and free the girls.

  Bottom Man walked out of the container scowling and waving his hand in his face. He muttered to himself, “Fucking stinks. Need to air that shit out.” He opened the other double door wide.

  Top Man carried the loaded lid-covered buckets sloshing to the topmost ladder. Set the buckets down, held his hands to his mouth, and hissed loudly, “Some of you fucks down there need to help the fuck out and carry this shit down!”

  The two taller guards glared at the two smaller guards. Nobody wanted to do shit detail, and it wasn’t gonna be the larger guards.

  Annoyed, the smaller guards slung their stubby submachine guns over their shoulders before scurrying up the ladders to help Top Man carry the buckets down to the ground. There, they put them in the back of the truck.

  Finally, the two taller guards began shoving the girls waiting on the ground up the ladders, prodding them at gun point.

  Reluctantly, the new girls climbed up and joined the others jailed inside the open shipping container.

  On the ground, the smaller guards pulled several plastic-wrapped packs of water bottles out of the delivery truck, followed by several plastic-wrapped cardboard flats of food cans. The small round shape of the tiny tins was unmistakeable.

  Cat food.

  They were making the girls survive on cat food.

  Those poor girls, Lady Liberty thought. Stay strong. Only a little bit longer and I’ll set you free.

  The two smaller guards transferred the water and cat food packs up the ladders leaning against storage container steps, working one level at a time. One would toss them up to the man on top until all had been moved, then scurry up the ladder, move to the next ladder, and repeat the tossing. For small men, the pair made surprisingly quick work of the transfer. Finally, they put the packs inside with the girls and walked back out where Top Man and Bottom Man were standing guard.

  It struck Lady Liberty that these men all ignored the girls like they weren’t even there. Or perhaps saw them as animals beneath them and unworthy of any attention or sympathy. Heartless.

  Finished, the two smaller guards scurried down the ladders.

  Top Man closed the doors and padlocked them. With the help of Bottom Man, the two of them brought the ladders down to the ground and put them in the delivery truck. Climbed in the back. One of the taller armed guards pulled down the rollup door with Top Man and Bottom Man still inside.

  The driver climbed in the cab and started the truck’s engine.

  Lady Liberty tensed, ready to spring into action the moment the truck was gone. She couldn’t let the girls stay inside that shipping container a second longer.

  Suddenly, the unexpected.

  Lady Liberty froze in the shadows.

  Headlights swept across the maze walls as a long car entered the dead end. An incredibly expensive and elongated luxury limousine.

  It rolled to a stop alongside the delivery truck. The limo driver hopped out and opened the rear door.

  A humongous portly form emerged. He wore an expensive and expansive 3-piece suit.

  The four armed guards on the ground came to
greet him.

  Two more large men emerged from the limousine and stood behind Humongous like they were his bodyguards.

  Humongous talked quietly to the armed guards.

  Lady Liberty couldn’t hear them.

  Talking turned to arguing.

  Frustrated, one of the ground guards threw his arms up in resignation. Opened the back of the truck. After more arguing, Top Man and Bottom Man were forced to pull the ladders back out and set them up on the container steps. They unlocked the container on the fourth level with the girls and waited beside the lone open door.

  Then the two large Limo Men helped Humongous climb up, shoving his bloated ass up the ladders. At the top, Humongous walked inside the container with the girls.

  For one horrible second, Lady Liberty thought they were gonna close Humongous inside with the girls and let him have his way.

  No, he was inspecting the goods. Took his time picking out two.

  The Limo Men walked inside and each picked a girl up over his shoulder and carried them down to the limo. There, they put them inside the car and shut the doors.

  Lady Liberty grimaced in disgust, trying not to think about what Humongous would do to those girls when he got them wherever he was taking them.

  Change of plans.

  She had to stop the limo.

  If that meant fighting all of these armed men at once, so be it. As long as the two girls were safely in the limo, what was the worst they could do to Lady Liberty? Shoot her? She wasn’t worried about that. She was worried about those girls. She needed to be in position the second the limo started moving. Maybe she could catch it after it left the dead end? Then she’d only have to deal with Humongous, his two body guards, and the limo driver. No, she couldn’t let those men get back inside the limo with the two girls. They might shoot the girls dead before she got inside to rescue them.