There were a few things of note in other areas of my life for those three weeks as well. I of course, spent most of my time not training with my daughter, cooking, and spending time with the others relaxing. I even went shopping a couple of times, for both food, and to further enhance my pitiful wardrobe. A couple of nights those three weeks, I even let Maria talk me into going clubbing with her.
I’d gone ahead and updated my license since I was staying at the safe house. I’d also opened up bank accounts with the salary I was being paid for accepting Glenn’s deal. Officially I was an administrative assistant at some company I’d never even been to, for tax purposes as well as fleshing out the cover.
The news barely even mentioned me anymore at the end of three weeks. With me being missing for three straight weeks, many even suggested I’d left the city to go into hiding. We all suspected however, that my reappearance would relight those fires and get people talking again, and hopefully thinking. Though that was far from sure.
To no one’s surprise, not even my own, there was no investigation launched into the matter. To my surprise however, there were two superheroes who quit the SAB over that time, which hardly ever happened. Their turnover rate was notoriously low, and their people incredibly dedicated and loyal to the cause and their own stubborn ignorance of what the SAB was really doing.
There were no accusations leveled. They’d left quietly, but it was a little heartening that I might’ve actually reached two people, though the possibility of coincidence existed. Maybe they just wanted out of the superhero game.
Not everything was about me, after all. Maybe it had nothing to do with the corruption and evil I’d tried to expose.
At the end of those three weeks I was also done grieving Brad, for the most part. I no longer felt a surge of guilt, every time that I laughed or enjoyed a moment, and the random thoughts of wait until I tell Brad, or wait until I see Brad, had stopped entering my mind. I stopped looking for him when waking up until the devastating truth once more came over me. I’d accepted it. Of course, there were surges of sorrow still, strong ones, usually when I was alone. They were powerful and overwhelming, and I suspected those would keep coming for some time, perhaps years, but I wasn’t lost in it anymore on a constant basis.
The SAB themselves had me on the top of their most wanted supervillain list. I was described as incredibly dangerous, unhinged, and highly deluded. They’d pulled out all the stops on bringing out charges and data showing how unstable I was. They had superheroes with thermal detection goggles out all the time, and despite the press giving up on me they had done no such thing. I was also pretty sure that they’d upgraded their building security to include thermal cameras.
At the end of those three weeks, I was more than ready for the next step, or so I believed. I hadn’t heard anything back about the suit, technology, or the lair and support personnel, but that was about to change.
Chapter Twelve
It was early August in Excelsior city, twenty-four days after all the craziness had started that day on the bridge, when Germaine and Debra pulled me aside and had me get my super suit.
They handed me a watch. It looked like an iWatch, or one of those kinds of devices, with an LED screen and all. They had one on their wrists as well.
Germain said, “Put it on.”
I shrugged, and put it on, “What is it?” I asked, a mere second before a bright flash of light filled the room. I felt a little disoriented, as I was suddenly standing in another place. Nothing could’ve shocked me more than the very first time I was ever teleported somewhere.
The walls were steel covered, and the floor was white tile with gray and black flecks, while the ceiling was a grayish metal composite of some kind. The room was maybe forty feet by forty feet square. There was a blank wall behind me.
Along the left wall in an alcove there was a suit identical in appearance to the one in my hand, with a similar eye mask. Next to it, there was a door that was open, and it looked like a bathroom to me. Somewhere to both change and shower I supposed, and I’d learn shortly that there was a small closet in there to hang up whatever clothes I’d arrived in.
The right wall had what looked like two cells toward the back of the room. There were also shelves with electronic devices I’d never seen before, but some of which I could guess their function. There were cuffs of some kind, but they were extremely bulky looking. There were also some very small surveillance drones no bigger than the size of a cellphone. There were also several small cases I had no guess at all for.
Along the backwall right across from me was a huge HD wall screen. I mean, the wall was pretty much the screen, and it was split into four parts. The top left showed an aerial view of the city. The top right showed a street map view and it had several colored lights that were labeled with superhero names. A superhero tracker? That could be useful. The bottom left showed a scrolling dispatch screen of all nine one one emergency calls in blue and red colors for super and non-super threats. On that same virtual screen was a second window that was flickering through Excelsior’s CCTV cameras. The bottom right screen showed a browser that was skipping around like crazy, to various social media sites.
In the center of the room was a large circular desk that was made with some off-white polymer. There were no sharp angles at all, it was all rounded. There were various screens in there as well as keyboards and a whole lot of tech I’d probably never understand how it worked, even if I learned to operate it.
There was also no one else in the room at all, or so I thought.
“Where are we?” I asked just a few seconds after we appeared.
An excited, young, and upbeat female voice answered, “You don’t need to know that,” as she appeared just a few feet in front of us, between us and the circular command center desk.
She was… adorably cute came to mind, but those words hardly covered the reality of her cuteness quotient. She was right around eighteen years of age, five foot seven, with extremely light brown hair down to the small of her back, and wide doe brown eyes. She was lissome, and she had on a light gray women’s skirt suit with a light blue blouse underneath and black shoes with two-inch heels. Her face was thin, her lips just short of full, and her perfectly white and straight smile put sweet dimples on her cheeks.
She also had horned rim glasses on and a clipboard under her arm.
She said, “Even if the blood has expired, which isn’t guaranteed at this juncture, there is a chance with their psychics focused on you that they could be viewing this very moment, or some other future moment while you’re here. Of course, you were teleported here, there is no physical exit or windows, and you have no idea where you are, so neither do they. This room is in fact a part of my boss’s secret laboratory, though there’s no access to the rest of it from in here. A boss who is one of your… benefactors, an illegal super himself, and one who just happens to be a mad scientist.”
I exchanged a look with the others, clearly none of that had been explained to them yet either.
“Who are you?”
She smiled, “Prisma. I am your dedicated assistant and researcher for the duration of our association. I’ll follow any of your directives or orders so long as they don’t compromise my boss’s identity or our location here,” she turned to Germaine and Debra, “You too, but her granted access is at a higher level so can override yours. The watches on your wrists will keep us in contact at all times, and I can notify you of any emergencies in the city and get you here to change and then there in a jiffy. Any questions?”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
She beamed, “You too. I’ve been looking forward to this for what feels like several eternities. We’re going to do a lot of good together, I can tell.”
Right.
“So, you’re the only assistant researcher, I mean besides Debra and Germaine keeping an eye on me as well?”
She tilted her head, then smiled, “Oh, that’s wonderful, you haven’t realized yet? I’m not human
, Bell. I’m an A.I., and fully capable of monitoring the entire city twenty-four hours a day on your behalf. This is going to be so great,” she dragged out the word so.
I wasn’t sure what to think about that. Teleporting watches, A.I.s? I knew mad scientists existed, but they were either supervillains or they worked for SAB. Another impossible statistic, because there weren’t any at all in the private sector. Which… meant they probably killed the ones unsuitable to recruit.
She waved, “I can also teleport the stealth drones or suppression cuffs to you at any time, they both have the circuits required. When on someone’s wrist or activated it creates a field that snaps them together and can hold any super with up to thirty tons of pressure and keep them grounded. So really, they can hold almost anyone but you. They also inject a drug that will disable an energy wielder’s power if necessary. The norm will be to turn them over to the SAB. The supervillains you catch, but there may come a time you’ll want to interrogate one yourself.
“The stealth drones will be recording everything you do, and we’ll be starting a Christabel Moore YouTube channel, and I’ll update videos of all your takedowns and anything else exciting. It will both be to raise recognition and influence the opinions of the masses, and at the same time provide the SAB with the proof required by law to press charges, since its likely their own agents won’t be at the crime scene.
“The small cases are replacement watches, they are quite durable, but it’s likely it will break often in the course of your duties.”
I shook my head, “I doubt it, anything within three inches of me should be safe enough. At least from physical harm.”
She grinned, “Good, but there’s always energy attacks to worry about. Your new suit hanging over there is equipped with heat dampening technology. Your own body heat powers it, along with the eye mask. I know they know your face, but you’ll need to wear the eye mask as well. It has a secondary GPS and teleporter in it in case the watch breaks, it’s also our audio and video connection.”
“Video?”
She nodded, “The inner edges of the eyeholes have micro holographic projectors in them, that will create a head’s up display right in front of your eyes. I’ll be able to feed you flight paths, super names and abilities for anyone near, and more importantly their vulnerabilities if they’re known. It also has audio so we can speak to each other. Your watch can fulfill the same functions, but it's not nearly as convenient, although you could use that as your phone if you wish. It’s untraceable and I can transfer your cell number to it if you wish?”
I shrugged, “Go for it.”
It wouldn’t even stand out, since most people would assume my phone was in my pocket and the watch was using Bluetooth. It was common enough, anyway, to go unremarked upon.
“This place is quite impressive, are we ready for my first patrol then?”
Germaine said, “That was the plan.”
I smiled, and Debra brushed my arm with an encouraging smile.
Prisma said, “Just drop the old suit in the recycler in the bathroom.”
I frowned, “I got it from Glenn.”
She nodded, “And he got it from us. My boss sent it over when Glenn reported your existence and potential.”
Oh, right. I should’ve realized, but I hadn’t gotten that far in my head yet to add this new information to old connections.
“Clipboard and glasses?” I asked the A.I. Who clearly wouldn’t need either.
She shrugged, “Makes me look more professional.”
I laughed and headed over to the suit which was hung in a little concave cubby in the wall. I pulled it off the hangar and grabbed the mask. It felt extremely similar, just a little thicker which I wouldn’t argue about. It was still very thin, stretchy, and soft.
It was a bit of a surreal moment that first morning, when I went to the lair and changed for the first time. The bathroom was well appointed, with a small wardrobe to hang my clothes plus all the usual stuff you’d find in one. I dropped the old suit into the recycle bin integrated in the sink counter, and then put the other suit on the counter to undress.
I’d just have to hope my new benefactor and host believed in privacy.
Once I’d gotten my clothes hung up, it didn’t take me long to pull on the new super suit. It felt almost identical, though that wasn’t saying much I supposed. Steel wool and silk would feel similarly soft to me, when my power of physical resistance was active.
I put on the eye mask next, and the holographic HUD came up immediately. I could see it in front of my eyes, and I supposed I’d get used to the distraction after a while. It was probably better to have than not. At the same time, I couldn’t see the light in front of my eyes in the mirror. I suspected the light was going right into my eye, and it’d be undetectable to anyone else.
I paused then, wondering what the hell I was doing. All the old doubts came back for a moment, I didn’t even like supers. Here I was with a stealth super suit, the best superhero lair ever, my own A.I., and my housemates would be watching my back.
That was just last-minute jitters though, I knew what I was doing. It was time to put up or shut up. It was time to do it better or find out the superheroes really were doing their best. It was time to save lives, all while putting myself in the spotlight so we could chip away at the corruption and evil in the SAB until it stuck, and something happened.
I took one last look in the mirror, then rolled my eyes and canceled the illusion. Golden hair, and the mask made my vivid blue eyes really pop, much better. I opened the door and headed back out, Germaine and Debra were in the circular command center behind two of the terminals facing the giant wall screen, and Prisma was walking them through something.
I bit down a chuckle, she was holding a ruler in her holographic hands and fiddling it with it. I supposed that was her in teacher mode instead of assistant mode? Cute.
“Alright, patrol?”
She looked up, “Go ahead and turn invisible first. But yes, I’ll drop you in the middle of the city and you can patrol around. Obviously if there’s an incident in progress I could send you straight to it, but once on patrol flying anywhere in the city will be about just as fast given your abilities. I can’t send you site to site, I’d have to teleport you back here first and then thirty seconds later to the new destination. Teleporting too many times in a row too quickly can be disorienting.”
Good to know, I turned invisible.
One of the tiny stealth drones took off, then disappeared and went silent.
Prisma nodded in satisfaction, “I can’t find you with the drone’s thermal and other visual and audio scanning systems, if it wasn’t for the GPS that is, which only we can see. Be careful anyway, we can be sure the goggled supers won’t see you, but we’ve yet to test it on all the supers with special detection abilities.”
Oh, that was a comfort.
Debra said, “Good luck,” and Germaine nodded in agreement.
I said, “Send me.”
I blinked out, and I let out a small chuckle when I appeared right over SAB headquarters. Guess she wanted to make sure. There were four superheroes around the building with goggles, as well as technology of some kind on the roof.
So far so good, since there was absolutely no response at all to my arrival.
Chapter Thirteen
The scents of asphalt and the cars going down the street were familiar as I flew around the city. The sounds of car horns, people walking and talking on the streets, the scent of the hot dog and pretzel vendors, dogs barking, and other signs of city life were familiar and invigorating. The HUD had a green border, which would turn red at any sign of super trouble, along with directions to where they were.
Which meant the only reason to patrol, really, was to make my presence known. I picked an area in downtown which had no supers within a half mile at the moment, at least none that were superheroes. There were some bars and restaurants down Main Street, and I not only turned visible, but I glowed like a damned night lig
ht just in case they missed the cute blonde in the skintight black suit.
I really wasn’t looking forward to being named, it’d happen eventually.
If I’d expected to be warmly welcomed by the citizens of Excelsior, then I’d have been sorely disappointed. Of course, I didn’t expect any such thing. I hoped that my actions and not killing or letting innocents be killed would win them over, as I took down supervillains and hopefully had no collateral damage, but I knew it’d be an uphill battle. That was part of the long-term plans, win over the people enough to force things to happen. Right then in all of their minds I was a heartless killer with wild powers who’d melted down but for some reason didn’t die.
Needless to say, the screaming and running started almost immediately. I pretended it didn’t bother me at all, and I don’t know where it came from, but I strutted down Main Street in my super suit like I was actually comfortable and thrilled wearing it. Which… there was a part of me that was thrilled, I supposed. Not by the terror, but by the looks. Call me vain, but I looked fantastic, and the way the men were running slower than the women was because they were taking a few peeks first fed that feeling. I felt a little naughty about it, and powerful, but at the same time I was absolutely scandalized by the terror. Two cars almost crashed, and the people were running into the streets.
Point being, I felt more than a little conflicted over it. I wasn’t perfect, far from it, and the power was heady, as was being looked at like I was some kind of sex symbol. I’d always been cute and sexy, with a tightly curvy and petite body, but I’d never drawn in the looks of a whole room before, that kind of thing. My face was above average, I’d been told more than once in my life, but far from the flawless beauties you’d see on a magazine cover or a runway. It was what it was though, and I wouldn’t let it go to my head. Not too much anyway, but I did enjoy it a little.
Death's Mistress: Origins of Supers: Book One Page 12
