by Chara, Mina
“Partner Kisaragi, I’m glad you could make it.”
I could hear the faintest grunt of disapproval from Lisa when she saw him. “Ugh,” Lisa replied as she dumped herself into one of the chairs next to the mini fridge and various hot drinks. “Kids, get yourselves something to eat, can’t have you moping all day.” Lisa pulled her sunglasses down to rest over her eyes, and leaned back to catch a few Z’s. Barney halted, not quite understanding he’d been ignored, then he turned to us.
“So… Are you Lisa’s mentee?”
I wasn’t sure which one of us he was talking to so I put up my hand as though I was in the middle of class. “Yes sir.”
He nearly choked on his espresso. “Please,” he coughed, and set the cup down. “Call me Barney. I’ve never been called Sir before. You guys, think I’m old?”
“No sir, crap, I mean, Barney,” I said.
Jake leaned in to whisper like someone giving their sibling crap for being scolded. “You’re screwing it up, Friday,” said Jake.
“No you’re screwing it,” I growled.
“I’m not even talking to him.”
“Shut up! He can hear us.”
Barney’s chest rose up in a sputtering laugh, he held back. “Kids think I’m old, and she thinks I’m too young.”
He had such a youthful face, and painfully trendy clothes, but he held himself like someone much older. He sat straight backed, legs crossed, gently sipping his tasteful espresso. This was not a man that had been born poor.
Jake inched towards the snack tray like a thief trying to hug the wall.
“Jake? You know we can see you?” I pointed out, “also, get me one too.”
“Oh-kay!”
I took my place on the sofa next to Barney and the sleeping Lisa as Jake handed me a sandwich. “I don’t think Lisa thinks you’re young, just younger,” I told him.
“Why would that matter?” Barney asked, setting aside his book and his reading glasses to give me his full attention.
“I’d say, but it’s not really my place,” I told him, “she is my mentor after all.”
“Fair enough. And… Friday, since Lisa is your mentor, and Lisa is my partner, consider me your mentor too. And Abe over there, you could learn a lot from him.”
The man in the corner, fixated on the computer screen, grunted in response. His eyes darted around the screen, as though there was something very important he was working on.
The lights in the van started to flash red, and Lisa shot up. Abe, the man at the desk, spun round throwing Lisa and Barney their ear buds. “Downtown bomb threat, the new Dr. Dangerous has been spotted.” Abe told us.
“Suit up, kid, let’s boogie,” said Lisa throwing me the same kit I’d worn with her before.
Barney leaned over to me, and said in a whisper. “I love it when she says ‘let’s boogie’.” He clamped his lips together as we both stifled a laugh.
“Jake, kid, you’re staying here with Abe, he’ll show you the ropes of how to be a good handler. He’s the best.”
Jake hurried to his chair, and then turned back. “Doesn’t the Captain have the best handlers?”
Lisa smirked, and slapped him on the back. “No. Why do you think he needs three?”
Lisa laughed, and with Barney, pulled on her suit. Jake made sure I could hear him, but the moment I stepped out the hot sun came crushing down on me, it was like those days in middle school when we’d been made to take P.E. in the summer. Lisa looked at me as she mounted her bike, and Barney did the same.
“Did you not bring your bike?” Lisa asked.
“No, sorry.”
“Don’t worry today,” she replied, “but try to remember in future.”
I climbed on behind Lisa, and the bike jolted forwards as though it had started at max speed. Lisa was the only hero who regularly picked up bomb threats.
✰✰✰
“Was that her specialty? Bomb threats?”
“Basically. You remember the highway collapse of ’84?”
I nod.
“She got to the bomb under the highway, and realized she didn’t know a thing about bomb disposal.”
“So, she started learning?” I ask.
“She took bomb disposal very seriously, made every effort to keep up to date with the latest technology.”
“Because she didn’t know what to do on the bridge?”
Friday nods again, smiling. “Exactly. So, by this point, she was the most qualified hero for the job.”
✰✰✰
Once on Lisa’s bike, I held on as tightly as I could while the engine propelled us like a bullet through the city streets.
“Is this the normal speed?” I asked Lisa.
“When there’s a bomb threat it is!”
My ear buzzed, and Jake started talking. “Abe says he gets updates from people on the scene, so here goes. The place has been evacuated, so chances are it’s not a false alarm. There’re hostages inside, as far as we know the kidnappers haven’t made any demands yet.” There was a pause, like he was checking with Abe, and then he came back. “Day, I think this is a real, building, collapsing bomb. You could die.”
I swallowed, hard, and held onto Lisa tighter. She’d know what to do, and I wasn’t going to run. This was now my job. I took a deep breath, as the bike skidded to a halt. The building was a hotel, a big one, not as large as the Super Structure, but still a city skyscraper. The area was sectioned off by police, holding curious bystanders back. Lisa squared her shoulders, and looked over at me. “You don’t have to come kid. I won’t blame you. If this goes wrong-“
“I’m coming.” Barney looked surprised, but Lisa just nodded.
“‘Day, no!” yelled Jake in my ear. “Come on! It’s dangerous in there, you could die!”
Lisa turned round and placed her hand on my shoulder. “You sure about this kid?”
I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
The policemen on duty looked at us with weary eyes, they didn’t expect this to go well. Veronica came up behind us lugging a huge camera over her shoulder.
“If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself,” she muttered.
“Veronica? You are not going in there with us!”
“Stop me,” she said pulling her hair up into a tight bun, while she readied the camera. The woman was crazy, seriously. It was unhealthy, but I was done waiting around so I dashed straight into the building, forcing Lisa and Barney to follow.
The hotel’s lobby was huge, decorated in bridal white, every inch glittering as though it were a diamond. The stairs that led from one small level to another were the most opulent and theatrical thing I’d ever seen; it was the kind of place you could yell your name and hear it called back to you a million times over. Barney, Lisa and Veronica all pulled ahead of me as I gawked. Trying to catch up I dashed past a map of the floor bolted to the wall in the hallway. Lisa’s ear piece rung and she pulled out her phone. “Day, this video just came through,” said Jake in my ear.
Abe’s face appeared for a brief moment, and then flickered to a large bomb set against a white wall. Dr. Dangerous tuned in, he shook the camera, and stated calmly that he would blow everything sky high. The video then cut away to footage of the bomb in what my gut told me was a completely different room. There were twenty minutes on the timer. The lighting was darker, the color of the walls were more beige than white. The moment the video stopped, I saw Lisa panic. It didn’t make any sense, there weren’t any people left in the building, why would he blow it up? Even so, what did he get out of blowing the building up? He hadn’t made any demands, mentioned money, or motive. It didn’t seem right, but it wasn’t the time to quibble, not when a bomb was ticking, so I set the thought aside.
“Abe, play the video again! Maybe if we each isolate a different sound, we can figure out where it is.” We all nodded and closed ours eyes to listen.
“Just the hum of electricity,” said Barney.
“With the bomb…Rushing water maybe, and
something else…” said Lisa finishing his sentence.
I grabbed her by the shoulders, nearly shaking her. “Not the specific noise, what did it remind you of!?”
“Hotel rooms, not a buzz exactly, something else…”
“A ceiling fan?” shouted Barney.
“Yes!”
I blinked, and the world had stopped. I was once again, inside my head. They heard running water, and a fan. Running water could be a fountain, or it could be a faucet. No, that didn’t make any sense, why would the tap be left running? Maybe it was the pipes, perhaps it was a toilet. And a ceiling fan. How many toilets in the building had ceiling fans? No. How many toilets were big enough to provide a blank background for the videos, and have ceiling fans. I opened my eyes again just as Lisa reassumed her shouting. I whistled to get their attention, and pointed to the map of the building.
“We’re looking for a large bathroom.”
“You sure kid?”
I took a deep breath; I could have nodded, could have said yes, it was the first thing that crossed my mind, but instead I said, “No. But it’s the best I’ve got.”
“Wait, kid. I’ve got an idea.” Lisa crouched, and swung her fist at the floor. She stared at the world like she could see so much more. “There are seven large bathrooms. But only two of them have something out of place.”
Barney stared at her wide eyed. “How’d you do that?”
“Kinetic energy, If I can create any sort of movement, it’s almost like radar.” Lisa turned to the map and pointed at two different locations. “Baxter, go south, Friday and I will go to the top floor.”
We split up as fast as we could, Lisa hot on my heels. Veronica wasted no time; she chased after Barney, after all he was the one the public knew best. I breathed carefully in and out, trying not to vomit, especially not in a wedding fantasy hotel. I was determined to keep it together. I got off the stairs at floor ten, and found a toilet sign to the right. I goosed it down the hall nearly stumbling into the men’s bathroom and there it was. My body froze as I took in the scene, the flashing red numbers, and the RGB wires. A shiver ran through me as I inched ever closer. Lisa cried from behind me, and I spun round to see Dr. Dangerous rendering Lisa unconscious with one of his gadgets.
“Usually I like to get the drop on someone,” he said, “but that gets harder with two people.”
“What have you done to her?” I asked.
“She’s fine.” I rushed forwards ready to fight. He reached out the same device, and I ducked left, running round him, making for the door, maybe I could get help. He swayed, making a grab for me, pulling me back. My back hit him, and I pressed my hand up, pushing against his chin. The Dr. stumbled, and I swung my fist. He gripped my arm, and pulled me again. I struggled, but couldn’t break free. He pressed the device to my back, and everything from the neck down went limp against my will, as though I was gracefully falling asleep.
As my legs gave way, he scooped me up into his arms. I couldn’t move a limb, every inch was held in place. My eyes drifted up to his face, and I saw his blue eyed domino mask. I felt like one of those limp damsels being carried away by a B-movie monster.
He kicked in a door across the hall taking me far away from the bomb as I tried to gather my bearings, and he spoke to someone through an ear piece. I needed to get out, out of his arms and out of the building. He continued down the white halls, and then up a set of red carpeted marble steps.
The room above was all white, a penthouse suite. Guess he liked to pretend to be a high roller. The only source of light came from the monitors he’d brought in and the small jazz club light fixture. It reminded me of a rooftop observatory the way the sunlight shone through the balcony window. He set me down on the bed, softly laying my head down last, almost as if he was worried he’d ruin my hair. He stood just at the edge of the balcony, checking his watch before he spoke to me. “Hello Friday. Lovely to see you again.” I tried to move my fingers, but all they did was twitch. “There’s no point in trying to move,” he said wiggling the gadget he’s pressed to my neck. The huge room was filled with cameras and monitors he inspected idly like a bored security guard. “How powerful exactly are you, Friday?”
“I’m not telling you.”
He smiled at me, turning away from the screens only for a moment. His face was almost completely shrouded in darkness. His fingers danced on the keyboard of a computer, and his eyes scanned the screens. “I looked you up. Funny we should meet again. You’re not supposed to be here.”
“You lied to me.” I said.
“You’re the one who insisted I was a superhero.”
I grunted as I tried to turn my body, but my limbs still wouldn’t budge. His fingers stopped on the keyboard for a moment, but he didn’t turn.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Doing what?”
“The bomb.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, it won’t go off… If they get here in time.”
He was waiting for someone? Was he waiting for someone to defuse the bomb, but not us?
“Who are you?”
“I like that name. Friday. A shame the Hero High website seems to call you Fitz.”
“Most people make fun of me for it,” I grumbled.
“I could see that.” He pushed away the keyboard, and clapped his hands together, checking his watch once more. “Looks like we’re out of time. You just can’t find good help these days.” My fingers twitched as he towered over me. “I’ll see you again soon Friday. I would call you Fitz like everyone else but-” He leaned down, his face only inches from mine, “-I like knowing I’m the only one using your real name.” His canine smile flashed in the shadow his body set over me, sending a pleasant shiver through me. I thrashed my head to the other side to hide my face. But when I looked back, he was gone.
My body twitched, and my legs moved upwards, but only a little. Where was he? How had he done that? I didn’t hear him leave. Another one of his gadgets? I looked at the clock trying to figure out just how much time I had left as feeling returned completely. My stomach nearly flipped, I could have sworn I’d lost at least five minutes. I pulled my leg out from under me, and ran as fast as I could, back down the stairs, through the hall through the door that had been kicked open, and back into the men’s bathroom.
Lisa was still on the floor, tossing and turning. I slapped her hard across the face, and she jerked upwards.
“Where’s the bomb?” she asked.
I pointed to the mess of wires. “Jake? I found it. Help.” I heard a scuffle from the other end of the communicator and Veronica’s voice came through the ear piece.
“Barney and I are on our way. How much time is left?”
“Five minutes,” I replied, my voice breaking as I tried to stop myself crying, vomiting, or both. “Jake, help!”
Barney nearly bashed into me. Only a few seconds later Veronica was catching it all on camera.
“You’re filming this! Really, Veronica?”
“Just save everyone, Lisa.”
Lisa’s hands hovered over the device as Veronica’s camera came painfully close. “How many wires does it have? Eight, okay. Three blue, two red, and three green. Okay. I know this model.” Lisa closed her eyes much like I did when I used my power. Her fingers wobbled in place as she thought. “Hold down the button, and pull the second yellow wire from the center.”
Barney laid a hand on her shoulder. For a moment her eyes flickered to his hand, but seemed all the calmer for it. As the timer counted down from five, she plucked up the courage to pull the yellow wire, but stopped. My fingers clenched around her shoulder, no air finding it’s way into my lungs. At the last second, her hand twitched, and she pulled the blue. We all gasped. It went dark.
There was no noise from the bomb, no message, no weird sound effect, nothing. The display just turned off like we’d pulled the plug on the microwave, but outside the building there was a roar of applause. People were cheering. I looked round to Veronica
’s camera; the red light was still on. Everything we’d just done was live. I was live. I rushed over to the large window, and sure enough there was a timed delay of my face on the jumbo screen in the city.
Men and women in head gear jogged up the stairs and into the bathroom just as others walked out as though they couldn’t believe they’d made it out alive. Veronica’s hand hit me hard in the back as she tried to give me an encouraging slap. “Good going. We should talk about your prospects sometime.” I stood there stunned as Lisa tried to maneuver me down the steps and out the door.
Crowds of people were holding out paper and pens and snapping pictures. I waved to the crowd and clambered back into the bus. Jake wrapped his arms around me out of relief. My mind went blank as I collapsed on the small sofa. I could not believe what had just happened. I’d found a bomb, watched someone defuse it with five seconds to spare, and survived to tell the tale.
“I want to go home now,” I said and Lisa, who’d collapsed on the floor right next to me, agreed.
“I’m with you there kid.”
✰✰✰
“It must have been about a week after the bomb,” Friday says, “I wanted to focus on the ‘investigation’, but I needed to send more money home, and since second jobs were prohibited by Hero High, I was serving in the Super Structure’s café.”
“What was it like? Was it nice?” I ask.
“It looked much like our cafeteria, for the fans and all. It was fine, the only problem was the uniform.” I nod, and she sighs, as though recalling a mixture of troubling, and fond memories. “It was frustrating, but I still didn’t have any leads on the Golden Syringe, The Figure In The Flames, or the new Dr. Dangerous. I was the worst crime solver ever.”
