“Was that necessary?” Zoe whispered.
“No, but it was fun,” Helena told her, giving Zoe a bitchy smile.
“I’m going to do it,” Sam said, moving in behind Zoe. She scooted up a little bit, allowing him room to press his ear against the wall. “Power-up, hearing.”
Sam closed his eyes, the sounds of water gushing through pipes coming to him, an argument happening two floors down, a man pacing back and forth in the apartment on the left.
Sam focused completely on what he was hearing now, ignoring any other sensation around him as he tried to target the apartment in question.
He heard his first heartbeat, then a second one came to him, then a third, this one a much quieter heartbeat.
He focused on each individual heart, noticing a clicking noise that overpowered their heartbeats. Sam had heard this noise before—it was the sound of someone toggling the safety on a wrist guard.
“Power-up, off,” Sam said, feeling a warm sensation move from his ears around his cheeks and back into his nose, settling somewhere between his eyebrows. “He has two guards in there; I don’t know if they are exemplars or not, but someone has a wrist guard. Three people total.”
“This should be relatively easy. I can blade the door handle, and you can go in for the kill,” Helena told Zoe.
“No,” Zoe said. “If we ruin their door, it may make him angrier. Weird, but trust me here. I mean, look at this door. It’s the nicest one in the building. We have already shown their leader that we mean business by the way we mopped up the henchmen outside. We’re here to get information, and it might be easier if we do this the right way. Ozella, have Dinah knock on the door.”
“Power-up, on,” Ozella said, and Dinah took shape next to the masked woman in the schoolgirl uniform.
Dinah looked absolutely giddy, strands of her hair in her face, the pale woman wearing not much more than a smile as she took directions from Ozella, who gestured for her to knock on the door.
With a shrug, Dinah stepped over to the door and knocked.
A blast of energy cut through the door, sending wood particles in the air and tearing through Dinah’s chest.
“We tried things your way,” Helena told Zoe, activating her energy blade.
“I really thought they’d take care of the property,” said Zoe with a shrug. “Oh well, Plan B it is!”
A man materialized from the ground behind Helena, his body covered in a slime. Helena was quick to spin around with a kick, but the man slipped by her, his form liquefying again as he avoided her attack.
Another blast tore the door to shreds. Zoe looked to Helena to make sure she could handle herself before zipping into the apartment.
The man made of slime kept trying to punch Helena, going in and out of his slime form, and even though he had cornered her, Helena was able to dodge his attacks.
It was when Dinah launched herself at the man and brought him down that the tides turned. As Sam had seen her do in the past, and even though Slimer was technically suffocating her with his goo, Dinah was starting to transfer the injuries she had healed to the man.
“I’ve got this,” Sam told Helena, nodding for her to go into the apartment.
The combat dancer slipped by, just as Sam brought his wrist guard up, aiming it at Dinah and the struggling slime-based exemplar. He hated shooting Dinah in the back, but if he could neutralize the exemplar…
Sam quickly toggled to an energy beam that would simply stun the man. He fired a shot, the blast moving through Dinah and to the slimy exemplar.
Slimer stopped kicking at that point.
As Dinah stood, the man’s slime trickled off her body. Sam and Ozella exchanged glances, both wondering why they weren’t hearing anything from inside the apartment.
“Get ready,” he told her, lifting his wrist guard, Ozella doing the same thing. “I will go in to the right, you go in to the left.” But as he said this, they heard Zoe call from inside the apartment, letting them know everything was clear.
“Power-up, off,” Ozella said as she followed Sam into the place, Dinah fading away.
It was a nice home, even though the building itself was in shambles. Helena stood near the guy with the wrist guard, the man passed out at her feet.
Sam’s eyes jumped from Helena to the weirdly dressed gangster sitting on a beanbag in the center of the room, the dude looking a lot more relaxed than he should have considering there were four exemplars standing in his apartment.
“I get it, I get it,” the leader of the Army Oaks said. He wore colorful turquoise robes, white pants, and had a pair of red, wraparound sunglasses on his face. Most of his skin was covered in tattoos, aside from his face. “Can I offer the four of you anything?”
“We’re not here to have tea,” Helena said firmly.
“Well, may I at least know who I’m talking to?” he asked.
“I’m Ballerina,” Helena said.
“Human Shield,” said Ozella.
“Nosy,” Sam said, realizing he had never properly introduced himself as a superhero before and taking some pride in the moment.
“Tiger Ears.” Zoe shrugged. “Yeah, Tiger Ears.”
“I’m not taking off my sunglasses,” said the Army Oaks gang leader with a snort. “If you fucks get to wear masks and hoods, I’m wearing shades. And since you were kind enough to introduce yourselves, I suppose I should tell you who I am.”
“We don’t care who you are,” Zoe hissed.
“Well, we know which one in the group is the bitchiest, and I’m guessing the one in the schoolgirl uniform is the shyest.”
“My name is Human Shield,” Ozella reminded him. “And I… I…”
“You what?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t screw with me if I were you. Of the four of us, the way I can kill you would probably be the most painful,” Ozella said, now standing with her fists at her side, her bangs partially covering her eyes as she stared the man down.
“Hachi machi,” the Gangster-in-Chief said as he ran his hand over his beard stubble. “Well, I’m convinced. Not really scared, but I’m convinced that the four of you at least mean business. So we got the bitchy one…”
Zoe bared her claws, and walked over to the wall. She placed her fingers on its surface, and tore through the walling as she made her way toward the Gangster-in-Chief.
“Hey!”
“I’ll move to the furniture next.” Zoe kicked over a nightstand. “Oops.”
“My great-aunt gave me that!”
“Zoe, that’s enough. I will handle this.” Helena composed herself with a calm breath, smiling at the man seated on the beanbag. Sam’s nostrils started to flare open, but he returned to mouth-breathing, already sensing that this guy was a real lowlife.
“Ah, the leader,” the Gangster-in-Chief told Helena. “You four act like this is the first time I’ve been visited by an exemplar team. If you want my opinion, I don’t think anyone, exemplar or non-exemplar, should legally be able to act as if they are above the law. Last time an exemplar team visited me, they broke all the glass on my sliding balcony door. And guess who had to pay to fix that?”
“Well, you are the leader of a pretty powerful gang,” Zoe said. “My guess would be probably the people that you extort money from? Maybe some of the addicts you sell drugs to? And you broke your own front door by firing out at us, so you seem to have the funds.”
“You know, you got some lip on you,” the man said. “You kind of remind me of a…”
“What?” Zoe asked.
He nodded, clearly impressed with his own intellect. “That would make sense. You’re from around these parts, aren’t you? That sass, that ass...”
“Hell no, I’m not!”
“Yeah, you’re from these parts, and if you don’t think I can figure out who you are or who you are related to…”
Zoe lunged for the man, Sam having to hold her back.
“And that temper!”
“This has gone on for far too long,”
Helena said as she stepped in front of Zoe. “Yes, I’m the leader of the group, and since you’re the leader of your group, I think you and I should have a simple conversation.”
“Sam…” Zoe said as he continued to hold her back.
“Relax, let Helena handle this.”
“I want to be the one that handles it,” Zoe said under her breath.
“Her power,” Sam reminded her.
“I would love to be the one that handles this,” Ozella said, feeling emboldened.
“Don’t call Dinah,” Sam told Ozella, “not yet anyway. Just give this a second to play out.”
“Yes, how about you and I have a conversation, just the two of us,” Helena told the Gangster-in-Chief.
Sam couldn’t see the lean combat dancer’s face, but he could tell by the way the Gangster-in-Chief was nodding that she had hypnotized him.
“Sure, a simple conversation,” he said, “what’s the problem with that?”
“Exactly,” Helena said as she moved a chair in front of him. She sat down, one leg crossing over the other. “We have only come here for one reason, and one reason only.”
“I’m listening,” he said, his voice wavering.
“There have been a few interesting shipments that have moved through some of the southern regions over the last several weeks. And according to my colleague over here, whenever something moves through any of these ports, someone gets paid. Are you one of these people?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard it,” the man said, a dazed look behind his red shades. “Some terrible fuckers to deal with. Shit, you should have told me this was about them. I wouldn’t have sent the boys after you had I known. And hell no, I don’t get paid.”
“Good, I’m glad we’re coming to an understanding. It is sort of an enemy of my enemy situation now, is it not?”
“You are most definitely right,” the Gangster-in-Chief mumbled. He adjusted his posture, his robes parting, and Sam got a quick view of his happy trail. “What was your name again?”
“Ballerina.”
“That’s a nice name. I used to go with my mom to the ballet, tickets were expensive. That’s why I got into this line of work, actually, to buy my mom tickets. But then I realized it was easier to steal them.” He burst out laughing. “And look at me now!”
“Great, I am glad to see you’ve done well for yourself. But back to what we were discussing. What can you tell us about these shipments, and more importantly, what can you tell us about where they have originated from?”
“I don’t know anything about that. But I do know about one thing,” he said, one of his eyebrows rising. “And maybe this is some information that you will find useful. Who knows?”
Sam watched as Zoe’s hands came to her mouth, as the Gangster-in-Chief revealed to them what he had heard recently. Ozella gasped once the man finished.
“Shit, this really complicates things,” Sam said. “Like really.”
“Yes, it does,” Helena agreed, her focus returning to the man. “What else can you tell us about this? Do you know when this is set to take place?”
“No,” he said, “but I know who you could ask.”
Chapter Eleven: Playing Dress Up
(That’s one freaky ghost...)
Sure, it had been a long day, but that had never stopped Ozella Rose from staying up all night and geeking out over her latest obsession.
Everyone was asleep now, the revelation that they had learned from the Gangster-in-Chief (who Ozella knew was named Thomas Baker through her power) still at the forefront of their minds.
Well, that and probably sex.
Ozella was pretty sure that Sam and Helena had banged it out; she had heard some of the sounds, and quickly got out of the living room when Zoe entered, stomping her feet all the way to the kitchen to get something from the pantry.
Even though Zoe was trying to fight it, jealousy was a bitch that never seemed to go away.
Ozella understood this.
She had been jealous in the past. The nerdy statkeeper had had a few boyfriends, but she still hadn’t done the deed, and when one of her exes hooked up with this other sluttier classmate of hers, Ozella’s envy knew no bounds.
She’d practically stalked him for the six months after they broke up, which was part of Ozella’s past that she had tried to forget.
So she got it, and now she tried not to worry about guys, or ever losing her virginity, more focused on her stats and now her superpower.
It was still strange to think that she was an exemplar; even if Ozella was classified as a non-exemplar on paper. And what a strange power she had. First, there was the visual aspect, and then there was Dinah, and everything that came with her.
Ozella Rose
Codename: Human Shield
-Dinah Healing
-Dinah Wound Transfer
-Enhanced Mental Imagery
-Pattern Sense
Known Limitations: No combat ability. Power can be overwhelming.
Power-Up: Tangible Dinah one hour a day
She didn’t need to look at the stats she had created for herself to remember them; she simply liked looking at them. And to hell with people who didn’t understand her obsession, like Sam, although she couldn’t really blame him.
And maybe he was right, maybe she should drop her Book of Templates.
The standard set for men: Bland Stan, Needy Petey, Chester the Molester, Muscles Miguel, Good Guy Dave, Smarty Arty. The standard set for women: Tammy Big Tits, Samantha Lies, Bitchy Bridget, Gym Rat Pat, No Confidence Karen, Silly Sally.
There were other classifications that she had come up with, but those were her go-tos, and she had worked hard on narrowing exemplars and non-exemplars alike down to several templates.
“But it’s good to let things go,” she told Dinah, who sat before her in her ghost form, braiding her hair.
She probably would let that part of her classification ability go, or she wouldn’t dig any deeper into it.
Now that she could write questions out and get answers, this presented a whole new level of opportunities for what she could do. In fact, she needed to put something about this in her stat sheet, but she didn’t know quite how to list it.
Answer generation?
That would work for now, so she penciled it in under “Pattern Sense”. She flipped quickly to check out the base stats of her teammates, no, friends.
Helena Knight
Codename: Ballerina
-Mental Inducement
-Enhanced Persuasion
-Heightened Agility
Known Limitations: Must make eye contact with target for power to work.
Power-up: Mass hallucination creation for one hour per day
Zoe Goa Ramone
Codename: Tiger Ears
-Biomorphing
-Heightened Agility
-Heightened Senses
*Olfactory
*Auditory
*Vision
*Strength
-Claw Retraction
Known Limitations: Halfway morphed and cannot morph back, no long-range
capabilities.
Power-up: Transform back to original form for one hour per day
Sam Meeko
Codename: Nosy
-Enhanced Orthonasal Olfaction
-Psychometry
-Memory Reading
Known Limitations: An abundance of scents can cause issues, cannot turn power off, cannot identify chemicals by name (classification issues), nasal congestion could lead to diminishing returns, no combat capability.
Power-up: Choose a sense to enhance for one hour per day
Yes, friends, Ozella thought.
It was good to have friends, and even though Zoe had betrayed them once, she felt like she could trust them.
Helena and her fearlessness and leadership skills; Sam and his overall demeanor, his brazenness and his kindness; Zoe and her fierceness, her willingness to sacrifice herself to accomplish the mission, her attitude.
<
br /> Ozella liked Zoe’s attitude, and she had been channeling it earlier in the day when she talked back to Mister Fist and his crew.
Damn, did that feel good.
Speaking of Mister Fist, she jotted down some notes about his group, just so she could remember them later.
Maybe her notebooks would prove useful after all.
While she could see more information than she could ever process on her pane of vision, Ozella was starting to notice that she couldn’t actually recall all of it. She could recall some details, but there was just too much information to get a grip on all of it.
Which was why she would need to write some of it down, like the details that she could remember about Mister Fist’s team, their identities, a few other tidbits that caught her attention.
And it was for this very same reason that she needed to once again see the exemplar they were after, the man named Donovan. If she could see him again, she could get the info this time and lock it down.
But that would happen all in due time.
And it was rather interesting what the Gangster-in-Chief had told them. From what he had heard, Fang was trying to start an infection, and for the life of her, Ozella couldn’t quite understand why they were doing it in another country.
But they would have more answers soon, in two days, which gave them plenty of time to train and follow any other leads they could sniff up.
Ozella looked up at Dinah and smiled.
The ghost woman had her eyes closed, and was currently massaging her vulva.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ozella asked.
Dinah’s eyes opened and she continued kneading her breasts.
For the next few hours, Ozella took a deep dive into a few of the books she had gotten through Helena’s unlimited resources. She ignored Dinah for the most part, the ghostly woman eventually drifting off, her head falling to the side, hair in her face.
At some point, Ozella looked up at Dinah, waking the blue ghost woman up by calling her name. Ozella had been reading a book on Western Province fashion, which seemed to have nothing to do with the spread of vampirism, but had actually impacted the fashion over there.
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