by Lionel Law
“Yeah, that part doesn’t seem all that difficult from my point of view,” Martin said. “You know, I should be pissed off at you, and there’s a part of me that is. But most of me is happy. You’ve been a good person to have around for all this time. Hey, just promise that no matter what, I get invited to the Voelker Consolidated Christmas party?”
Renee laughed and nodded. “Of course. First of all, most of the employees would probably enjoy having you around.”
“And second?”
Renee came over and kissed Martin on the cheek. “And secondly, you’re my friend. But I gotta run for now.”
*****
“So what’s the tape measure say?” Renee held her breath, hoping against hope. She was wearing a t-shirt and her basketball shorts, and stood against the wall in her bare feet. The tile under her feet was slightly cold.
“Five foot ten. You’ve seemingly leveled out,” Grady replied, as they stood in his lab. “That’s the third day in a row with no change. In fact, all of your measurements physically have stayed the same for the past three days.”
Renee looked down at her now D-cup breasts, and chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re happy about some of those. Twenty three inch waist and a thirty seven bust.”
“I promise, I had no idea you would get such a side effect,” Grady said. “But I do appreciate my work. It’s a fine feat of nanotech engineering. And by the way, don’t forget the killer butt too.” He stroked her face, and gave her a light kiss that quickly deepened until he snuck a hand up to cup her breast playfully.
Renee rolled her eyes and smacked Grady in the chest, who recoiled. “Ow.”
“Oh, stop joking. You and I both know you could have one of the Klitschko brothers unload on your unprotected face and you’d barely feel a thing.” She raised her hands like a boxer and jabbed at him a few times, shadow style.
She was surprised when Grady stepped back and rubbed at his chest, shaking his head. “No, I’m serious. That actually hurt. I think we might want to do a few more tests.”
“Like?” Renee asked, looking in wonder at Grady’s chest as a red mark the size of her hand appeared on his left pectoral muscle. “I’ve never seen that before.”
“That’s because it’s never happened before,” he said. “I mean, I’ve gotten injured in my fights with the gangbangers, but they’ve always been cuts or an expected bruise, like last week when that guy hit me with his pickup truck.” It was another video clip that had made its way to Youtube and quickly become viral. The gang member, driving an old Mazda pickup, had plowed into The Horseman going close to thirty miles an hour. The result was something out of a movie, as the truck’s front end caved in, while the driver shot through the front windshield to scrape along the street. Meanwhile, The Horseman was driven back a total of four feet before his feet literally dug into the pavement, bringing him to a total stop. News footage later of the car showed the engine block of the truck shoved into the cab of the car, and a police statement that the driver had been lucky to have shot through the windshield, since he would have ended up with the steering column shoved through his chest otherwise. The next day, when Grady met Renee for lunch, his shoulder was black and blue, and he said it was a bit stiff. By the next morning it was gone, and he was fully healed.
“By the way, try to not have that happen any more,” Renee said. “You do not want to know how much I worry every time you put on that Horseman costume. Seriously, are you trying to give me gray hair by the time I’m thirty?”
“I know you worry, but you know why I do it,” Grady said. “I just need to see the world made a better place. But, turning back to you. I seriously think we need to see just how much your abilities have increased.”
They left the third floor of the lab and Grady flew them down to the first (technically second, since the accountants were on the ground floor of the building), where he had his training gym. “All right, well, I guess the first thing to ask you Renee is just how much workout experience do you have? I mean, we went bike riding and even before your body changed I thought you looked great in yoga pants, but we never did get around to using the gym at the Imperial Beach place.”
Renee shook her head. “After high school, not much. I mean, I tried to keep in shape for the modeling work, but most of that was diet, which I wasn’t too good at. By the way, thank you for that nice side effect, I’ve noticed I’m eating like mad and still not gaining weight.”
“With the growth you’ve been going through, I’m not surprised. You should have seen me at thirteen when puberty kicked in,” Grady replied. “My parents were feeding me a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, and four potatoes just for breakfast. It leveled out naturally though. I can still eat more than most people, but it’s like any athlete. When I’m out on patrol or using my abilities, my appetite increases.”
“Well, you’re not a skilled lifter,” he continued, leading her over to the custom made bench press. It was made of I-beams, like those used in skyscraper construction, and weighed itself over eight hundred pounds. The bar Grady used was two and a quarter inch thick solid steel, although he had a special rig he used when he wanted to ‘push hard,’ as he said. The plates were specially made to fit the larger bar, even. He chose the basic bar and set it on the uprights. “Since you aren’t skilled, there’s going to be a lot left back because you don’t know how to lift. I’ll give you a quick demonstration to keep yourself safe, but we’re not worried about technique, just a rough idea of what you can do.”
After showing her how to press safely, he had her get under the bar and take a grip. Her fingers could wrap around it, but it was still large in her hands. “I feel like I’m going to drop this damn thing.”
“Hold on,” Grady said. He went over to the side of the room, where he got two safety catches made out of I-beams that resembled sawhorses. “These will catch the bar before it can injure you. Just try not to clang the bar too much, the bookkeepers downstairs will get annoyed. Go slow like I told you, and let’s feel the groove.”
She was amazed when the bar came up so lightly in her hands. Taking a deep breath like Grady showed her, she lowered the bar until it just touched her chest, then pressed upwards. Repeating the exercise fifteen times, she racked the bar back and grinned. “Okay, that was easy. How much does that weigh anyway?”
“Hundred and twenty five pounds,” Grady replied. Renee looked at the bar then at her hands, and gave him a questioning look. “Really. I measured the weight and the collars exactly to make sure it was exact. I may be an engineer, but when I train I like to keep the math simple. So it was easy?”
“Oh yeah,” Renee replied, grinning. “Let’s see what I can do.”
Grady made sure to load the plates himself to check, and let Renee stretch and rest between lifts. By the time she finished, she had over a thousand pounds on the bar, and still touched her chest twice with it. However, she bobbled the bar a bit on the way up on the last press, and Grady cut her off before she could add more. “Impressive. I’m almost tempted to set you up on the squat, but I think it would be better to see just how fast you can run instead. We’ll set up the other lifts later.”
Grady’s treadmill was also custom made, designed on almost frictionless bearings and unpowered. To get it going, the runner had to lean into a shoulder harness that looked like something a football player would use and push. A set of brakes normally used by semi trailers provided resistance if he wanted it. “Okay, I set the computer to simulate running up a slight incline, on pavement, like you were running on a sidewalk. Start off at a light jog, and then when I say go, take it up until you’re at what you feel is about eighty percent of your max effort.”
Renee nodded and settled herself against the pads. It felt a little weird at first to lean and push into the pad, but she didn’t really mind. After all, without a real number to go off of, she was just trying something new. She started with a light jog, just letting her feet get used to the feel of the steel belt under her feet, when Grady told
her to go. Starting to push harder, she kept going until she was at what she thought was eighty percent, then backed it down. When the belt stopped, she noticed it felt a bit warm under her feet. “Well?”
“Well, if you did that on the I-10, you’d get pulled over,” Grady replied. “You topped out at a hundred and eighty eight miles an hour. I’ve run faster, but not much. Normally at that point I just decide to fly instead, it’s less wear and tear on my shoes.”
“Speaking of which…..” Renee said, pulling off her Reeboks. The soles were warm to the touch, and the rubber looked worn out and partially melted. “I do hope you have some super material you’ve invented that’s better than plain old rubber for my shoes, because I’m not going out to buy new shoes every time I want to go for a jog.”
“I use a variation on steel belted radials for my Horseman suit,” Grady replied. “Sadly, my inventions have not exactly produced a wear resistant material for running shoes yet. However, if you notice something else, you won’t be worried.”
“What’s that?”
“You just ran close to eight miles, and you’re not even winded. Regardless of the amount of time it took, you think you could have run eight miles when we met without being winded?”
Renee laughed and rubbed her feet. “I couldn’t have run eight miles at all when we met. You want any more tests.”
Grady shook his head. “No, but I was thinking it’s a lovely day for a lunch picnic by the beach. Would you like to join me?”
At the base of the cliff which Grady’s lab was built on, there was a lovely small private cove. Surrounded on both sides by almost sheer rock face, the only two ways to get to the beach were to either take a narrow, rickety set of stairs, or to fly. Renee held the basket in her arms while Grady floated them down to settle on the sand below. They were about halfway through a tube of Ritz crackers and cheese when Grady’s phone rang with a tone Renee had never heard before. Grady dropped his half eaten cracker and snatched the phone. “Dammit!”
“What is it?” she asked, thinking it was some sort of office emergency. Grady glanced at the screen, his face tightening. “What?”
He handed her the phone. On it, a video feed from Action Five news played. Maria Mendoza was standing in front of two police cars, with their lights flashing. “…..the gunmen broke into the preschool about fifteen minutes ago, according to police,” she said, indicating the building behind her. Renee knew that school, it was the Little Acorn Grove School, a small preschool in the Heights that was run by a local church. Most of the kids were in single family households, and the school operated only through donations. Maria continued. “The gunmen are in communication with police, stating that they have taken the children hostages and are willing to kill them if their demands are not met. At this time, the police are not saying what the demands of the gunmen are, but we are trying to get a statement as soon as we can. Again, a group of seven gunmen have taken the Little Acorn Grove School hostage, and are currently holed up in some of the classrooms.”
Grady took the phone back and stood up, brushing off his pants. He bent his legs to jump and start to fly, when he paused and looked over at Renee. “You want in?”
She didn’t have to even think about her answer. “Damn right. Hold on buddy, I’m riding piggy back.”
They streaked up to the top of Grady’s lab building, going in through a roof top entrance and down to his lab. Grady pulled open the doors to the cabinets and started stripping out of his clothes, pulling on The Horseman’s uniform. “Next time I’ll get something made for you, but do you have anything that can conceal your identity?” he asked, pulling on the pale and blood red tights.
Renee thought, then nodded. “In the trunk of the Jeep. I was going to wear it tonight for work, but I think that’s been delayed.”
Renee ran to the window and opened it, looking out. The side of the building faced empty dirt, so before Grady could say anything she jumped out, landing three floors below like she had just dropped a few feet. Grady’s head appeared out the window, and she looked up at him, giving him a thumbs up. She dashed over to the Jeep and grabbed her bag out of the back, running back over. Slinging the bag over her neck, she gathered her legs underneath her and jumped as hard as she could. Reaching up with her fingers, she grabbed the ledge of the window to the third floor, where Grady had his apartment, and pulled herself onto the ledge. It was barely wide enough for her to get a solid grip, but she pulled as hard as she could, vaulting her body up the last floor to grab the open window sill and haul herself in. “Okay, I just vertically jumped thirty something feet,” she said as she came in. “Just how much of your high school jumping was bullshit?”
“Most of it,” Grady replied. He had his entire uniform on, except for the half hood that covered the back of his head and his eyes, while letting his hair flow freely. “But let’s face it, I couldn’t exactly do my best now, could I? So what do you have?”
“This,” she said, pulling open her bag. The outfit was a bit of old mixed with some new, and she had been planning to debut it that night. Originally a knee length shiny leather skirt, it fell barely to her mid thigh when she pulled it on. “Hmmm, going to need some bloomers for this one. At least I’m wearing red boyshorts today.”
“Cute,” Grady commented as he pulled on his hood. Fixing his eyeholes with spirit gum, he watched as Renee pulled on the rest of her outfit. The tight black corset was shot through with blood red streaks, and leather gauntlets that came most of the way up her arm. “Check that. Damn that’s sexy.”
He reached into the cabinet and tossed her the punch enhancing device he’d shown her the first day he’d revealed his identity to her. “Right hand. Switch at the base of your wrist turns it on. I’d advise not punching any walls until we know if your bones can take it, but if you need it, you’ll have it.”
“Thanks,” she said, slipping it on over her glove. She reached for her goggles before looking at them, undecided. “If I wear these, too many people will know who I am. They’re a trademark of Litezout.”
Grady thought for a second, then reached into his cabinet, pulling out a set of ruby reflective lens Gargoyle sunglasses. “Here. I used them on an early prototype of my costume, but settled on my hood instead. Secure them to your face with spirit gum, and they’ll stick pretty well. Also, try to change your hair color like I do. It’s a conscious decision.” He helped her with the adhesive, then stepped back. Renee concentrated, and her long black hair slowly went flame red, and became a bit wavy at the same time. Grady studied the change and nodded. “Okay, nobody will know who you are. Now, keep low, protect the kids, and don’t hold back if you get the chance on these guys. This isn’t the comic books or the movies. We can get killed, you more than me.”
“I know,” Renee said. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Now, hold on.” Grady turned and offered his back, and Renee climbed on. As she did, she noticed Grady’s hair change color again, and he floated off the floor and towards the staircase. Gathering speed as he approached the roof, he sped off into the sky, Renee riding piggyback behind him. “You okay back there?”
“Yeah!” she yelled into his ear over the rushing wind. “By the way, how fast can you go, anyway?”
“Short bursts I’ve topped the sound barrier, but it drains my energy a lot to get up that high. I can sustain flights in the three hundred mile an hour range for about two hours though.” They whizzed over the spread out landscape of San Diego, Grady following the general guidance of the I-5 freeway below them. “I should get a GPS for this thing!”
“Add it to the list of things you can invent, a superhero friendly GPS navigation system,” Renee said, before her eyes tightened. They were approaching the City Heights, and they could see the flashing blue lights surrounding the preschool.
“Hold on,” Grady said. “We’re going in.”
Chapter 8
They came in low, circling the building. Unfortunately with the broad daylight, there was little they
could do to avoid detection from the army of police and media that were encircling the school. Thankfully, despite the outstanding warrant for his arrest (The Horseman, after all, had killed at least four people and assaulted dozens of others), none of the cops tried to take a shot. They had other things on their mind.
Landing lightly, Grady let her off his back and then knelt down. “Okay, silly rule, but just remember, don’t use our names inside.”
Renee nodded and looked out. She could see cops and news cameras looking at them, and she patted his arm. “You got your cell phone still?”
“Yeah, its in a pocket on my leg,” Grady replied. “Why?”
“Because we need information. Pull it out.”
He handed her the phone, and she pulled up the app market. “It’s not great, but I think we might be able to get some info. In the future, let’s get some burner phones to use for this little trick.”
Quickly downloading a voice chat program, she put in the phone number for Action Five news. “I remember it from all the times she would flash it on screen during The Horseman stories she did,” Renee whispered, before turning her attention to the phone. “Yes, this is The Horseman’s assistant. No, I’m not joking. I need you to connect me with Maria Mendoza on scene. Oh for fuck’s sake!”
She looked over at Grady, and sighed. “They want proof.”
Grady thought, then nodded. “Tell them I’m going to fly a figure eight over the roof.”
Renee nodded and spoke into the phone. “All right. The Horseman tells me he’s going to float up and do a figure eight over the roof. Ready?”
Grady floated into the air and did a quick but obvious figure eight and landed. Renee nodded. “Got that on film? Fine, now put me through to Maria Mendoza.”
Renee waited, then spoke again, dropping her voice in a false bass. “Maria Mendoza? Yes, that’s correct. Yes. Listen, we can talk about that later, but we need help right now. The Horseman and I want to prevent these children from getting killed. But to do that, we need to know where the gunmen are. What can you tell us?”
