Floating up, she glances at Megasuit and looks disappointed. She tries to reach through my shields, but the attempt fails. “I hoped I would have brought down your shields, but I guess that didn’t happen.”
“Correct. Do you even have children?”
“Of course I do, you bloody hunk of scrap metal. The Overlord has a great daycare program!”
Naturally he does.
“How long can you stay intangible?”
“As long as I want,” she says with a slightly distant voice.
“Your clothes obviously did not follow.”
“Oh, you’re a smart one! Aren’tcha?”
“Got a name on this sarcastic wench?” I ask Andy.
He transfers a picture of a red-haired woman. Her name is Raine Tanner, also known as Hot Streaker. She fits the mold of people with only semi-useful powers that Orlin covets and grooms. Unlike other people with similar powers, she can’t take anything into her intangible state, even her clothes. She can spy, but really, Raine is only as useful as a five-foot, two-inch-tall naked woman who can’t be touched. One instance where she tried to assassinate Lazarus Patterson comes to mind where she materialized and tried to toss a hair dryer into the large bathtub the bastard was sharing with a pair of models. Pity she didn’t succeed. Of course, there are at least two other times when she was caught by security cameras dumping chemicals into milk and orange juice. One of the targets died and the other spent a chunk of time in a hospital room protected by a force field.
In short, she might be buck naked, but she is far from harmless or innocent.
“Ms. Tanner, when you are caught, your children will be taken from you. As I recall, a simple low-level electrical current is all that is needed to prevent you from phasing through a wall.”
“They’ll never hold onto me,” she replies, angry that I would even suggest that.
“Perhaps. Please tell your employer that I am unharmed.”
“He figured you’d be,” Raine answers. “He said that next time he might use a nuke.”
Yeah, I could see that. My shields should stop anything that could be fit into the space inside a suit of armor. “Can you survive a nuclear detonation in your state?”
The woman frowns. “Never tried before, luv. Not exactly sure I’d want to give it a try. Anyway, Jerimiah wanted me to give you a message: General Devious has two facilities where your missing friend might be held. The first is in Central Nicaragua and the other is in Northern Mexico. He made me memorize the coordinates for you.”
“Should I ask why he is providing this to me?”
The woman shrugs, not caring about her naked state. “He’s never liked Davros and he doesn’t approve of her working with both Mangler and the Apostle. Sending you against them will either knock them down a few notches or do the same to you. Either way is fine with him.”
When she puts it like that, The Overlord is a pretty twisted bastard. I ask her for the coordinates of the facilities and she gladly hands them over.
“Well, our business is finished. I think I’ll be going now. Or are you going to try and stop me?”
“If I do, you will just fade into the ground and flee.”
“True,” she replies. “Still, it makes a girl feel like she’s wanted.”
“You are not wanted,” I state.
“Aw, I didn’t think you had feelings. Try to live with your disappointment.”
“Thank your employer for me. Hopefully, once I have beaten the General, she will have the locations of some of The Overlord’s facilities. I will be sure to let her know the source of my information.”
“Do whatever you wish. I’ve delivered my message and now it’s time for me to go. You be a good little android and take care of things, and when you’re doing that, remember that you’re doing his bidding. He gets a kick out of irony.”
The naked woman laughs at me and begins walking toward the nearby buildings. She’ll walk through them to lose me. If necessary, Hot Streaker will even sink into the ground and just kind of swim away. Naturally, the inventor in me starts looking for a way to get around her powers.
It’s a bit of a pain dancing to The Overlord’s tune, but if it helps rescue the Six-Pack, then I’m good with it.
Unless he warns Devious that we’re on our way. I wouldn’t put anything past the man.
This makes me nostalgic for the old days, when I didn’t have the best toy on the block. Back then, people just fought and beat on me straight up without all the subterfuge. Now, I’ve got Uncle Sam trying to churn out invulnerable super soldiers, suicidal acolytes of the Apostle, and insubstantial women who walk away from me laughing and naked after attempting to kill me.
It feels like an arms race is running, and I don’t always know who I’m up against. I do admire The Overlord for one thing—he figured out how to weaponize a naked woman. That’s probably not his crowning achievement, but it’s got to count for something.
Unfortunately, that makes me wonder what Jerimiah Orlin does consider his crowning achievement, and how soon before I will end up facing whatever that is.
Chapter Seven
Fight Night in Vegas
.
“I don’t like it,” I summarize for our leader. “As soon as we get within a hundred miles of either of those sites, he’ll tip off General Devious. He’s a dick. I’m pretty sure the reason he and Patterson hated each other is that they were too much alike.”
Bobby’s not back yet. Because of all his commitments to the Gulf Coasters, Charles is really just down to being an occasional guest whom we’ve let in on some of our secrets. I suspect he and Wendy aren’t doing so well, but it’s not really my place to ask her. It would also mean that I give a shit, and since we were never really an item, I don’t.
“He is forcing us into a crucible,” Andy offers.
I definitely would never be caught uttering that sentence, but at least he is agreeing with me.
Wendy gives me the stink eye. “Of course it’s a trap, and he’s probably got an operation ready to go as soon as he’s sure that we are committed.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t act on the information and screw with him?” I ask. In my life, I’ve never had many “gift horses” to look in the mouth. I usually end up with gifts from the other end. “Who knows if both those places are being used by Devious and Apostle?”
“I don’t want to pass up a chance to rescue José,” Wendy replies. “Andy is doing his best to get satellite images of the two places. How’s that coming anyway?”
She must be concerned, I think. She hasn’t cussed once during this entire conversation.
Our android teammate provides the answer. “There is considerable foot and vehicle traffic at the Central American location. I was able to identify three Manglermals at that site. The one in Northern Mexico has averaged only ten percent of that traffic.”
“Sounds like Nicaragua then,” I say. “We could give the other location to Stacy and have them hit it at the same time.”
“Not bad, Cal,” Wendy says. “I’m still worried about whatever The Overlord is going to try. Why don’t we have Stacy tip off the West Coast Guardians and keep the Olympians in reserve to respond to whatever The Overlord is planning?”
“Any specific reason you want the West Coasters on the frontline instead of the Olympians? I’m the first to admit that with one notable exception, I’m not the Olympians’ biggest fan, but I trust them a whole lot more than I do Patterson’s bootlickers to get the job done.”
Wendy casually answers, “We suspect it’s going to be a trap. Why not send the jackasses who tried to arrest me and turn me over to the feds?”
I have to give her credit for that one. Maybe I’m a bad influence on her. Part of me wants to make sure that one of Gabby’s parents is a respectable human being, but I’m actually rather impressed with my baby’s mama right now.
Larry shrugs and sips his coffee. “I’m not the biggest fan of those assholes either, but make sure Stacy tells them up fro
nt they might be headed into an ambush.”
OK, maybe Gabby can settle for having a pretty cool uncle to offset her terrible parents. Wendy never got around to naming godparents. Of course, if Larry ever locates any of his kids, he may not have time for my daughter. Andy is probably the safest, if somewhat unconventional, option.
Would that make him a goddroid?
“Daydreaming there, Cal?”
Busted!
“Huh?” Eloquent comeback. I’m on fire!
“Nice to see this is keeping your attention,” Wendy mutters. “I was asking you to let Aphrodite know when you go downstairs and connect up to your damn suit.”
“Oh! Sorry.” I don’t bother with saying it won’t happen again. It will. I can’t help it if the thoughts in my head are more interesting than the crap they’re going on about. “Yeah, I’ll let her know. Andy? Can you signal her and see if she’s in her suit?”
Andy nods and does as I request. My guess is she isn’t in her suit right now. She said something about visiting her parents either today or tomorrow. Stacy wouldn’t need to bring her suit with her unless she was going to reintroduce me to her parents as her boyfriend.
It would be fun to watch the fireworks . . . almost.
After a couple of minutes with no response from Stacy, Wendy declares our morning meeting over and goes back to her room to see if Gabby is awake. Larry heads for the elevator and says that he is going to stretch his legs.
All that’s left are me, Andy, and my thoughts on my girlfriend.
Secretly, I feel bad for Stacy. She loves her parents dearly and has the kind of relationship with them that I could only dream of with mine. But after she let me in on her nigh immortality, I can see why she doesn’t mind spending time with her family. Centuries from now, she’ll appreciate it.
I get up and go into the kitchen as my hunger starts to get to me. One of the side effects from using my transformation belt and becoming the world’s mightiest dinosaur/human hybrid is that I seem hungrier these days, and I now prefer my steak with more pink in the center than I used to.
Grabbing a box of those thin-sliced frozen steaks, I opt for a Philly cheesesteak. Everyone who says food doesn’t solve problems has never had a cheesesteak when they were feeling melancholy.
Life’s just better with one in hand.
• • •
“Where is your suit at, Cal?” Stacy sounds like she’s in a hurry.
“Well hello to you too, my dear. Did you get my message?”
“How fast can you get to Vegas? Can you meet The Chariot along the way?”
There are thought-provoking questions, and then there are thought-provoking questions. “Did you make up your mind about getting married? Getting hitched in our suits is a cool idea. I never realized that you’d be in that much of a hurry that you’d commandeer Apollo’s Chariot.”
“Be serious, Cal! There’s a group of villains attacking Vegas. Or you could try turning on the damn news.”
“OK, I suppose I can be serious, but only for you. Which criminal mastermind are we looking at today?”
“It could be General Devious’s people, or it could be a large group of villains who thought Tulsa was such a good idea that they decided to take it to the next level and go after Vegas.”
“Mini-HORDES or Devious doing something specific? I’m near Austin, Texas. I’ll fly near something important so you can get reports of my whereabouts. We wouldn’t want this to look too scripted. You want Larry and Wendy there?”
“Larry, yes. Let’s keep Wendy on reserve. Her little trip to Havana and all those interviews didn’t make her popular with the U.S. government.”
“Well, the truth does hurt. Especially when it’s their hand caught in the cookie jar,” I say.
“Not going to argue that point with you,” my girlfriend replies. “Get seen and then make a beeline for Las Vegas. I will let you know when we’re getting close and you can have Larry get out, so he doesn’t have to fly for too long.”
“I’ll let him know. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the consideration.”
“We’re leaving in two minutes. Hang on a sec, gotta speak to Athena.”
Andy pops up on a split screen while I wait for Stacy to return. “James is on his way to the pond where Larry is fishing, to brief him on the situation. Wendy is watching the news reports I am feeding to her room.”
“Let her know that Larry and I will be meeting the Olympians and catching a ride to the action with them. Start making a list of who is there so we know what to expect.”
“Understood.”
“See if you can find out if the Sin City Sentinels are still in the fight too, and if the West Coast Guardians have scrambled.”
“Checking now.”
Sometimes I get the impression that Andy is probably already doing all these things, but holds off on giving out the information just to make us feel like we are important to the process. If he ever did become some kind of mechanical equivalent to The Evil Overlord, we’d probably be in serious trouble.
As Mega takes a northwest track over Austin and sets a course for the city that once banned Calvin Matthew Stringel, I keep myself busy getting ready for impending combat. I start by checking the autoloaders, getting the extra shield modules staged, and running diagnostics on the four plasma cannons. I pay special attention to the one that overheated and failed at that camp in Mexico, and I wrestle with the notion of pulling it now and just sticking either a machine gun there, or a forty-millimeter grenade launcher. I could easily make the forecast for parts of Vegas hot and sunny with a chance of a large tear gas cloud wafting down the strip.
Yeah, Stacy would probably appreciate that I’m showing restraint. Plus, I can always switch to High Explosive Armor Piercing if things get shitty.
Looking at the stairs, I don’t see Andy or Larry yet, so it looks like some manual labor is in order, except I use the belt to transform into my hybrid form. The equipment I swap in and out of the mirror shards in Mega hangs in harnesses attached to a tracked system overhead. My clawed fingers spin a toggle switch that causes the weapon in question to begin rolling back to the stowed position. My biggest concern is making certain that the power cables don’t catch on one of the other weapons . . . like that hasn’t happened once or twice before, much to my chagrin.
I amble over to the ready ammo locker, deactivate the internal shield that I hope will save my sorry ass if things go boom inside of it, and withdraw a crate containing thirty-six tear gas grenades. It’s considerably easier to carry like this. I mean, I’m a manly guy and all that, but I have mentioned that I’m the kind of guy that will do hours of inventing to ensure that I don’t have to do minutes of work.
It’s how I roll.
• • •
Eleven minutes into my flight, and with the entire team in the lower level, Stacy notifies me that they’re two minute from my position. Larry lets out an audible sigh and slides through the poop shoot. Seconds later, I detect the high-speed approach of Apollo’s Chariot. The ancient, alien psionic craft, keyed to the brainwaves of the Sun God’s avatar, streaks through the sky toward us and I slow, mostly to make Larry Hitt happy.
“The others aren’t necessarily happy that Robin wants to bring you two along,” Stacy says over our private channel. “Try not to use the railgun inside the city limits. I don’t think that famous neon cowboy sign would stand up to that kind of punishment.”
“But he looks so arrogant, like he’s mocking me,” I complain in a fake whine. “He has it coming! Besides, don’t you remember that they replaced it like two decades ago when that Merciless Manitou guy possessed it and used it to fight the Haunted Tank and Thunderclaws? That tore up part of the old strip.”
“Oh, you’re right. I’d forgotten about that,” she confesses. It must be an occupational hazard. I nod to Andy to handle the real conversation while I stick to the private channel, more interested in what my girlfriend has to say than the bartering going on with the rest of Stacy�
�s team.
“What the hell is up with the West Coasters, or should I call them the No-Show Coasters?”
“They refused to discuss what they’re up to,” Stacy says. “Whatever they’re doing, it’s supposedly more important than dozens of villains running amok in an area they should be protecting. Suffice to say, everyone is pissed.”
Wendy’s idea of using them as fodder against Devious is looking dubious instead. I don’t really like them anyway, so screw them.
“They assume Wendy is riding inside of the suit,” Stacy continues. “I told them the shielding is too thick for me to figure out one way or the other.”
“With any luck, the boss lady will be sitting this one out and inflicting her gaze of contempt upon yours truly.”
One quick look over at Wendy confirms that she has started already.
“Funny, Cal. You’re lisping. I assume you’re in your ‘Little Winky’ form.”
“Could you please not call it that?”
“With all the things that come out of your mouth that I let you get away with, you will allow me this,” she says in a haughty tone.
I think I’ve just been put in my place. “You’re hot when you’re being a bossy wench.”
She laughs. “I’m always hot. It’s my thing, remember? You’d think with less blood down there, you’d have more for the brain cells and have some better comebacks. Oh, look at the time! I have to go.”
She cuts our private channel, leaving me hanging.
Now she’s just being mean.
But she’s still hot.
The energy dome surrounding Apollo’s Chariot retracts and allows Larry and Mega inside. I stand near the edge while Hermes practically drags Larry over to one side. I hope that she is telling him about her search for his children, but I fear she is asking him how to get in touch with the “mysterious” Highwayman. The poor woman is headed for a major disappointment of epic proportions.
Apollo’s Chariot is a sight to behold. In interviews, the Sun God has stated that it has some kind of sentience that reminds him of a dog or a horse. Naturally, I wonder if I could imbue something similar to that inside of my armor.
Rise of a D-List Supervillain Page 9
