We Could Be Heroes
Book Two
By Harmon Cooper
Copyright © 2019 by Harmon Cooper
Copyright © 2019 Boycott Books
Edited by Andi Marlowe @ Andromeda Editing
Audiobook by Soundbooth Theater
www.harmoncooper.com
[email protected]
Email signup: https://geni.us/HCReaders
Facebook Group: https://geni.us/ProximaGalaxy
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HarmonCooperWriter
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The We Could Be Heroes series is dedicated to my alpha readers, James and Scott, and my beta readers, Bobby, Dave, Holly and Kay.
-Harmon
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Centralian Power Classifications
Prologue: Jessica Bunny and Maria Meow
Chapter One: Rewind and Power Up!
Chapter Two: Night Sauna
Chapter Three: Blackmail
Chapter Four: Infamy Incarnate
Chapter Five: Like a Boss
Chapter Six: Just Out Heroing and Shit
Chapter Seven: Backwards
Chapter Eight: And Now We Feast!
Chapter Nine: In the Ghetto
Chapter Ten: Gangster-in-Chief
Chapter Eleven: Playing Dress Up
Chapter Twelve: Ghosted
Chapter Thirteen: Tea Date with a Sociopath
Chapter Fourteen: Zoe Sort of Plays Nice
Chapter Fifteen: Dumpster Pin-Up
Chapter Sixteen: All in A Morning’s Work
Chapter Seventeen: Sexy Sam
Chapter Eighteen: Welcome to the Blood Party
Chapter Nineteen: Crimson Fiesta
Chapter Twenty: House Call
Chapter Twenty-Two: All This to Say “They Got Dressed”
Chapter Twenty-Three: They Got Him! They. Got. Him.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Stress Test
Chapter Twenty-Five: Actual Snacks
Chapter Twenty-Six: Oh Nooeeez
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Turn up the Feels
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Morning After
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hamza and the Healer
Chapter Thirty: Better to Forget
Chapter Thirty-One: Round up!
Chapter Thirty-Two: Reunited and It Feels So Good
Chapter Thirty-Three: Over the River and Through the Woods
Chapter Thirty-Four: Electric Bearwolves
Chapter Thirty-Five: Crabby Hermit
Chapter Thirty-Six: Family Reunion
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Crawling through Holes
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Snooping Around
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Snow Daze
Chapter Forty: Just in Case We Die
Chapter Forty-One: Thank God for Random Love Affairs
Chapter Forty-Two: Grim Discovery
Chapter Forty-Three: Bloody Mist
Epilogue: Just What the Doctor Ordered
Back of the Book Content
Centralian Power Classifications
Prologue: Jessica Bunny and Maria Meow
Hallelujah, goddamn hallelujah.
Zoe Goa Ramone was herself again, black hair tucked under a red wig, no tiger ears, crystal-clear skin, the perfect mixture of curves and hardened muscle, perky you-know-whats and a banging peach.
No tiger features either.
Damn it felt good to be herself again, Zoe in a black dress that looked nice next to Helena’s pantsuit, the heir to the Knight fortune in a blond wig and a pair of glasses that nearly doubled the size of her eyes. Ballet flats as usual, but other than that, she was looking like a real CEO.
No ballet slippers for Zoe, though. The used-to-be tiger morpher wore a pair of six-inch high heels, each with a strip of tiger fur on the front, rocking her height as the two walked through the series of buildings that led to the main warehouse of a shipping facility.
A few hired thugs stopped to check them out, but no biggie, they got through in record time, and were passed off to another mobster.
“What are you two doing here?” the rough looking guy asked, an exemplar clear as day in the way that his eyes flared up. He was coming down the stairs when he saw them, some files in his hand.
Helena stepped forward and offered her hand. “Hi, my name is Jessica Bunny, and this is Maria Meow, and we’re here from Knight Holdings wondering what DM Enterprises is charging you for usage of this facility. We are prepared to charge you exactly half of whatever they’re charging to ship your goods through our facility.”
“Is that right?” he asked, chewing on a toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth. “And you think you can just come up in here and offer us a better price, am I understanding this correctly?”
“Would you rather us send you a mental message?” Zoe asked, cutting directly to the point. “We know what you’re doing is illegal, we figured putting this information in a mental message would be a terrible way to start a business partnership, isn’t that right, Ms. Bunny?”
“That’s right, and it’s Mrs. Bunny,” said Helena.
“Let’s cut all the bullshit. What really brings you two here?” he asked with a growl.
“We decided to come directly to the source, which is…? You?” Helena asked. “Are you the source? Or do you have someone that tells you what to do, and can we talk to that person?”
“Now, wait just a minute…”
It only took a second for Helena to hypnotize the man, the dude going from looking like a cocky bastard with a bone to pick to a subservient choirboy ready to do what he had to do in the name of salvation. He bowed his head and respectfully told Helena and Zoe to follow him.
“His name is Donovan, right?” Helena asked, her right pupil still a spinning red bullseye. “Your boss?”
“That’s right, Mrs. Bunny, Donovan. That’s what he told us to call him anyway.”
“Great, we can’t wait to meet him,” said Helena as he took the stairs to the top of the warehouse. “Isn’t that right? Ms. Meow?”
“Correct, and it’s Mrs. Meow,” said Zoe.
“Ah, I didn’t know you got married,” Helena said as they continued to follow the hypnotized mobster.
“I don’t tell you everything about my life, Mrs. Bunny, just the important details.”
“You two sure seem like friends,” the man said as they neared the top of the stairs.
“Something like that,” Helena said under her breath.
Everything was set, Sam and Ozella on the rooftop, Dinah too, the three of them supporting Helena and Zoe as best they could.
They would only have one shot at Donovan, and if the alarm was sounded, shit would yet again meet the fan for our would-be heroes.
But they had made it this far, so hallelujah, goddamn hallelujah.
Everything was coming to fruition.
Chapter One: Rewind and Power Up!
(Because the fast-forward button is currently malfunctioning.)
“Why is she alive?” Zoe Goa Ramone asked, her claws growing sharper as she started tracking Dinah, who continued to run around the room, jumping on the bed, jumping off, slamming into the wall, dancing, happily pumping her fists over her head.
Ozella Rose had just done something to bring the woman to life, but Zoe was still unclear as to what had happened, or how she should respond.
“What the…? Whoa!” Sam Meeko skidded to a halt at the entrance to Ozella’s bedroom, Helena Knight running into his back and pushing him forward. “Hey!”
Ozella glanced from Zoe to Sam to Helen
a. “It’s… I tried…”
“Dinah, stop!” Sam brought his hands up in front of the now tangible woman. She was no longer blue either, her skin the same tone as Ozella’s, the look on her face devious, her eyes large and reflective.
“How did this happen?” Helena asked Zoe, who merely responded with a shrug to indicate she was just as baffled as the heiress supreme.
“That’s it,” Sam said, approaching Dinah with his hands out. “Easy does it, easy…”
Dinah lifted her hands as well, her breasts moving just a little bit closer together as she took a step toward Sam.
“What happened?” Sam asked Ozella again.
“I tried…” Ozella took a deep breath. “Sorry! I tried something new, and I think it worked. No, I don’t think, I know. It worked. It definitely worked.”
Sam didn’t have a chance to respond as Dinah leapt forward, wrapping her arms around Sam’s neck and kissing him passionately.
“Hey!” Sam said as he tried to push her away, his hands naturally coming onto her hips and confirming that yes, she was indeed real, and she was incredibly light. He was easily able to lift and move her away, giving room for Helena to step between the two, her CEO nature on full display.
“Dinah, if you’re going to be real now, you have to behave yourself,” Helena started to say.
“Okay, I realize that Ozella did something, but will somebody please fucking explain to me what she did, and by ‘somebody,’ I mean you, Ozella, what the hell did you do?” Zoe asked.
“Dinah,” Ozella said, “please come here.”
Rather than stare at Sam in a funny way, Dinah turned to Ozella, hiking her ass up as she walked on the tips of her toes.
“I seriously have no idea what to make of this,” Sam said as he wiped his lips with his arm.
“I’ll explain.” Ozella reached out and touched Dinah’s shoulder. Eventually, her hand dropped to Dinah’s hand, and once she had it, she led the woman to a chair. Dinah sat, her eyes still locked on Sam.
“I gave myself a ‘power-up,’ and I believe I can give each of you a power-up. Apparently, giving myself a power-up gave Dinah a corporeal form, so there’s no telling what it will do to the three of you…” Ozella took a deep breath. “Or how long it will last. I will have to ask my book questions to figure this out.”
“A power-up?” Zoe exchanged glances with Helena. “Ask some questions then,” she said, her claws still drawn, her tiger ears erect.
“Okay,” Ozella said as she started writing in her book. Sam joined her and watched her write the phrase ‘time restraint’ under where she’d written ‘power-up.’
Sam also caught a glimpse of everything she had written (and rewritten), a little surprised at how Ozella had classified herself.
Ozella Rose
Codename: Human Shield
Dinah Healing
Dinah Wound Transfer
Enhanced Mental Imagery
Pattern Sense
Known Limitations: No combat ability. Power can be
overwhelming.
Cleverness: 5
Charisma: 4
Corruptness: 2
Gullibility: 8
Attractiveness: 4
Kindness: 6
Neediness: 4
Known Trigger Points:
Exemplar or Non-Exemplar: Exemplar
Astrological sign: Ignis
Temperature Preference: Lukewarm
Family Relations: Only child. Mother and Father live in
eastern Centralia.
Idiosyncrasies and Nervous Ticks: Often late.
Known Lovers and Sexual Preferences: Classified.
Willingness to Try New Things: 4
Public Awareness: 3
“Interesting,” Ozella said as she scratched down some more information.
Time Restraint: One power-up per day, lasts one hour
Upgraded Power: Tangible Dinah
“Is that what your power is telling you?” Sam asked, pointing at his own eyes.
Ozella nodded. “It makes total sense now. I get one power-up per day, which lasts an hour.”
“So she’ll be tangible for an hour?” Helena asked.
“She’s getting out of the chair again,” Zoe said, moving over to Dinah. “You need to stay seated, little lady; we’re not done figuring you out.”
Dinah stuck her tongue out at Zoe.
“You’re real now, and trust me, you don’t want it with me,” Zoe said. “You can’t just disappear if I come after you; and these things,” she said, showing Dinah her claws, “will definitely hurt.”
Dinah continued to stick her tongue out at Zoe, shaking her head now, her eyes closed.
“So what happens if you do it for us?” Sam asked. “What powers will we get? I’m assuming that each of us can have a power-up…”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” said Ozella. “Maybe we should go to the gym for this, just in case there are any …incidents.”
“You mean like the ghost that has followed you around forever, and kind of looks like you, all of a sudden becoming real?” Zoe asked. Dinah glared at the tiger girl for a moment.
“Yeah, incidents like that. Let’s head to the gym.”
With Helena leading the way, the five of them made their way down the hall into the gym. Once they were there, Ozella began with Sam, adding the word ‘power-up’ to the stat sheet, the number one magically appearing in the air next to it, a number only she could see.
“How did you trigger it?” Helena asked.
“I think I just said something like ‘use power-up,”’ Ozella told her. Dinah was standing off to her left now, looking at herself in the mirrored wall and pinching her nipples.
“Should I say it then?” Sam asked.
“Do it already,” Zoe said. “Let’s see what you got.”
“Use power-up!” Sam said, pointing his finger in the air. Zoe started to laugh, not able to get over how ridiculous he looked doing that gesture.
“Anything?” Ozella asked.
“Nothing…”
“Let me write the rest,” said Ozella. “Maybe if I write ‘Upgraded Power’ as I did for myself, it will tell us what power you have, then you will know how to activate it.”
“Dinah, stop squeezing your breasts,” Helena said in the tone one would remind a young child to stop picking at a scab.
Ozella wrote the information in her book quickly and looked up to the air for the answer.
“Well?” Sam asked her.
“This is going to be interesting; it reads, choose a sense, which I take to mean you are able to choose one of your senses to heighten for an hour. Worth a shot.”
“Which sense should I choose?”
“It’s really up to you…”
“Okay, use power-up, vision.”
As soon as Sam said this he stumbled backwards, the crispness and clarity of everything in his vicinity striking him at once.
He could no longer feel his heightened sense of smell; instead he noticed he had the ability to see everything at once, and he was able to do things like focus all the way across the room on a spot of dust sitting in a far corner, the dust growing in size the longer he stared at it as if he were looking at it through a microscope.
It only took about thirty seconds of this to feel a migraine come on.
“What are you seeing?” Zoe asked.
“You are not going to believe this…”
“Is it working, Sam?” asked Helena.
“Yes, and you need to dust that part of the gym.”
“Excuse me?”
Sam was now looking at Helena, able to see everything on her face, to the pores on her cheeks, small blemishes, and an enlarged vein on one of her eyes. “Holy hell...”
“We need to figure out a way to turn the power-ups off,” said Ozella. “Try saying something else. I’ll try too. Power-up, off,” Ozella said, tit-fondling Dinah fading away. “It works! Try saying that, Sam.”
“Po
wer-up, off,” said Sam, and his sense of sight returned to normal, the power of his nose back at full throttle. “Whew!”
“We’ll have to test your other senses: touch, taste and hearing, but we can do that later.”
“Maybe,” Sam said, rubbing his temples. “The sight one is… damn.”
“Power-up, on,” said Ozella, and Dinah’s form solidified again.
She was happy to be back, and to show how happy she was, Dinah took off toward some of Helena’s gym equipment. She was fast too; at one point, she tried to use one of the parallel bars and ended up landing in a way that would have normally snapped a person’s back.
The four of them just stared at her in horror for a moment as Dinah slowly adjusted herself, got back to her feet, and cracked her back, the sound reaching all of their ears.
“This is very disturbing, but I like it,” Zoe said.
“You like it?” asked Sam.
“Think about it, she’s indestructible. We can send her in at the beginning of a big fight, or whatever, and she take the brunt of the damage, and then we can make her disappear, or she can heal us. It’s genius. And we can test all of this later, of course. For now, Ozella…” Zoe gave her a sweet look. “Can we please see what my power-up is?”
Ozella fiddled around with her notebook for a second, looking up at Zoe fondly as she told her what it said.
“Thank you,” Zoe whispered as she turned to the mirror. “And this better work. Power-up, on!”
As soon as the words left her lips, Zoe’s face started to change back to normal, her tiger ears merging back into her head, her human ears taking shape, her tail shrinking up, her eyes returning to normal, whiskers disappearing, skin reforming.
“Oh my God,” Zoe said as she approached the mirror, tears in her eyes. “Ozella…” She looked at the statkeeper through the mirror’s reflection. “You are… you are a fucking genius!”
Zoe turned Ozella and ran toward her, scooping the woman up in her arms. Zoe let Ozella down just as Dinah approached, an aggressive look on the now tangible ghost woman’s face.
“Whoa, ghosty,” Zoe said. “I saw your little fall back there, and unless you want to fall again…”
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