Thad stepped out of the elevator. "Hello, Jimmy. Having trouble?"
Ignoring Thad, Jimmy yanked vines from the cart, but other sections grew to take their place.
Thad could see the kids were having fun watching Jimmy struggle to free the cart and himself—vines had wrapped around his ankles. Thad waved to the kids as he walked closer. They recognized him and most waved back. Some called out his name. But Sylvia didn't see him. She was focused on controlling the vines, which came from a planter box next to a window at the far right of the room.
"Sylvia," Thad said, approaching her. "You're getting really good with the plants. I'm impressed."
Thad meant what he said, but he had another reason for talking to her. He knew if he could get her attention off the vines, they would recede. He'd seen that happen with other plants before, though on a smaller scale. As much as he loved the fact that she'd made it easy for him to get catch Sly Jimmy—and the fact that Jimmy was completely overwhelmed and frustrated dealing with the vines—Thad need the cart free so he could take it from Jimmy.
The vines stopped moving, and some of them receded a little. Thad walked closer to Sylvia, putting himself between her and the cart, and Jimmy. "So, what'd he do?" Thad glanced at Jimmy, who continued to struggle to get himself and the cart free. Thad chuckled and felt a satisfied that Jimmy was getting what he deserved.
"He knocked over my log cabin," one of the kids said.
Thad looked at the boy. It was little Dougy, Alacrity's son. Thad always liked the six-year-old. He was pudgy and friendly, and had a great imagination. Thad knew if the boy ever took up his father's superhero mantel, the baby weight would drop in a week. Alacrity moved faster than any super in the company, including Mr. Awesome, but he had to eat a full meal every hour to keep enough meat on his bones to handle the speed.
Thad followed Dougy's line of sight to the pile of toy wooden logs on the floor just outside the circle of children. He could tell from a section that was still intact that the Dougy must've done a good job on the cabin.
"Jimmy," Thad turned to him. "How could you?"
"And he stepped on that," another girl said.
Thad looked at her, but didn't recognize her. He checked out where she was pointing. There was a crumpled yellow flower on the floor. Most of its petals were broken off and the stem was bent. Thad didn't know what kind of flower it was, but he recognized it as Sylvia's favorite.
"Where's Ms. Lipsey?" Thad knew she must have stepped into the next room for just a moment, maybe to get some crafts for the kids. Bad timing for Jimmy, he thought.
"She's on the potty," one of the youngest boys said, causing all the kids but Sylvia to erupt with laughter. A few seconds later, Sylvia's focus on the vines and Jimmy eased. She looked around the circle at her classmates and chuckled.
Thad looked at his co-worker and walked toward him. "How could you, Jimmy? Destroying his cabin, stomping on her flower..." Thad came up to the opposite side of the cart from Jimmy. "And dodging me when you don't even like the mail cart duty."
Jimmy shrugged. It was evident he knew his fun had come to an end. Thad was right. Jimmy hated mail cart duty. He'd obviously volunteered to take it to spite Thad, who had never missed a day of work. He must've known Thad would get to the mail room soon after he left.
"I'll take this now, thank you." Thad put his hands on the side of the cart, noticing the remaining vines withdrawing from it, and from Jimmy's ankles.
Thad looked back to Sylvia. She was leaning toward the boy to her right, whispering something to him. The boy giggled, then whispered something back to her. Thad took a moment to appreciate the innocent exchange, and told himself one day he'd have kids of his own.
Way down the road though.
He thought of Allison on the twenty-eighth floor.
Maybe a date would be good first too.
"He's getting away!" Dougy yelled.
Thad whipped around and to witness Jimmy pushing the mail cart toward the elevator. Thad hadn't noticed he'd taken his hands off the cart when he'd slipped into a momentary daydream about Allison.
He almost ran after Jimmy, but Thad noticed the boy at the edge of the circle, between Jimmy and the elevator, was Martin, the smallest kid in the room. Thad recognized the blue t-shirt Martin was wearing. It belong to the boy's dad, Atmosphere.
"Martin!" Thad called out to the boy. "Do Red Rover!"
Martin's face lit up. "Okay!"
Right before Sly Jimmy pushed the mail cart past Martin, the boy's chest expanded, filling with so much air in a split second that his torso entirely blocked the elevator, and quite a bit of the wall to either side of it. His chest was still increasing in volume as Jimmy collided with it. Martin was far from hurt, however. The same power he got from the shirt his dad gave him also made his body resilient, like a hot air balloon. Martin laughed as Jimmy bounced off him and flew backward into the middle of the circle of children. Unfortunately the mail cart hit Martin's inflated chest too. The cart fell backward, sliding several feet before resting beside Thad's replica Mr. Awesome hero boots, and all of the letters which had been on the cart were scattered across the room.
Thad managed to keep his frustration hidden for the sake of the children, especially Martin.
Sly Jimmy, evidently wanting no part in the clean up and keen leave an embarrassing situation as fast as possible, scrambled to his feet and hurried around the now-deflating boy to get to the elevator. By the time Martin, had returned to his diminutive size, Jimmy was gone, leaving Thad to gather all the mail before he could finish the day's deliveries.
The children, who like Thad, pitched in, making much short work of gathering the envelopes. Thad knew the mail was a jumbled mess, but at least it was all on the cart. He thanked the kids, and a moment later Ms. Lipsey returned from the restroom at the back of the room.
"I'm sorry," she said, after hurry over to Thad and the children. "What's been going on out here? I would've come out sooner, but..."
"Poopie," Dougy said, stirring all the kids to laughter again.
Ms. Lipsey blushed.
"A coworker," Thad said, wanting to keep the explanation short on details. "He...the mail cart toppled over, but the kids helped."
Ms. Lipsey glanced around at the children. "I'm proud of you. Thank you for helping Thad. I'm sure you kept him from having a very bad morning."
If only you knew.
Thad was thankful for the children's help, however, and he told them so. Afterward, he apologized to Ms. Lipsey for the disruption, then excused himself and took the elevator up to the next floor on the delivery route.
Next floor on the route, Allison. You did it, Thad. One supervillain by the name of Sly Jimmy taken down.
Thad felt much better about the rest of his morning ahead, until he noticed his reflection in the metal elevator doors. The cut on his forehead was starting to bleed again, and his shirt and pants looked like he hadn't washed them in a week. The gauntlet he'd run to reclaim the right to deliver the mail, and get face time with Allison, had taken a toll on him.
As he felt the elevator move up, his head dipped. He stared at the disorganized pile of letters on the cart.
"This is going to take a lot longer than usual."
He sighed, knowing he might have to ship lunch, which he hated to do.
But I'll get to see her.
That thought made everything he'd gone through worthwhile.
Chapter 7
TWENTIETH FLOOR.
Thad shuffled through the mess of envelopes on the cart, gathering all the ones for the twenty-eighth floor, especially keeping an eye out for the one addressed to Allison. As usual, twenty-eight had a fair number of mail deliveries. Most were to normals, people who'd been with the company since the early months, for the most part. Thad liked seeing the familiar faces, some of whom had been in the same orientation meeting as him that first week on the job.
As the elevator doors opened, he still had his eyes down on the envelopes, shufflin
g through them. Allison had something addressed to her more times than not, but Thad couldn't find it. Without looking up from the pile of memos, work orders, and whatever else he was delivering, he suddenly had an unsettling thought.
What if there's nothing in here for her? What if it got left behind on fourteen?
He heard the elevator doors closed behind him, and he looked up, expecting the familiar layout of halls and windowed offices.
"Oh, no."
He immediately knew his mistake. He'd pushed the wrong button in the elevator. He wasn't on the twenty-eighth floor. He was on the twentieth floor.
He looked up to the ceiling, seven floors above him. The room was cavernous, completely empty, and completely made of Super Steel, the companies proprietary metallurgical breakthrough, which hadn't been released to anyone yet, not even to the military or any government agency. It was the only material known to be able to withstand almost all of the powers of the heroes Supers Inc had on the payroll.
"Get ready, heroes." The synthetic voice filling the room, sounded like a woman, but Thad knew it was generated by the A.I. System which ran the Danger Room scenarios.
A hole opened in the wall at the far side of the room from Thad, and three figures came out. Before Thad could tell who they were, he spun around and lunged to hit the button to open the elevator doors. But they didn't open.
He heard more sections of the metal walls opening somewhere in the room behind him. He mashed the elevator button several more times, looking at the digital display above the doors.
"Fifteen! Oh, come on!"
He knew there would be lots of people on fifteen waiting on the elevator. The normals cafeteria was on fifteen, and even though lunch hours didn't start for a while yet, there were always people in and out of the normals cafeteria, taking advantage of the free coffee and pastries.
He'd taken the only elevator which stopped at the Danger Room, which meant he had no choice but to wait for it to leave. Some people leaving the cafeteria would being going to lower floors, some to upper ones. He figured he had a fifty-fifty chance of getting out of the Danger Room before something blew up in his face or he got blasted by one of the
He looked out over the seven-story Danger Room. Turrets had risen up through the floor. He counted at least six of them. A criss-crossing grid of lasers appeared in the air, midway between the floor and ceiling. They began to move erratically.
I've got to get out of here!
He hit the elevator button again and looked at the number display above the doors.
Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen.
"Yes!" He knew it would only be a few more seconds before the elevator doors opened. He readied himself to jump to safety once when they did.
Nineteen.
He watched the display, waiting for it to read twenty, but it didn't change.
Seriously?
The sound of turret blasts echoed throughout the gargantuan room, and he felt the floor vibrate beneath his replica hero boots. He looked behind him, hoping the view wouldn't be the last thing he ever saw.
The three supers at the far side of the room were moving toward the center—two on foot, one in the air.
"I didn't think any flyers were in town."
Glancing between the floor display above the elevator, the turret closest to him, and the three heroes moving closer he eventually recognized the three as Bull, Bullfrog, and Nymph.
Bull was taking fire from one of the turrets, which looked to be shooting a heavy caliber. It wasn't slowing him down. Bull has the ability to harden himself to the point of being nearly impervious, but only when charging, which is exactly what he was doing. Bullfrog, was using his friend for cover, hopping behind him. No doubt waiting until he was close enough to one of the turrets to slap on one of the explosives he's known to be fond of using. Nymph was using her suit's fairy wings to swoop and soar, diving and spinning to avoid fire from two of the turrets targeting her.
Maybe the room will target them long enough for me to get out in one piece.
Thad kept darting his eyes from the Danger Room action to the elevator floor display, and back. Thankfully, none of the turrets had targeted him. He knew if one of them did, it'd all be over for him.
I really would love a super suit right about now.
He pulled the mail cart closer to the elevator, getting ready to take it in with him. But he put the cart between himself and the rest of the Danger Room, on the off chance it could deflect any of the turrets' attacks if one swiveled around to his direction.
Thad watched Bull continue his charge at the five-foot gun turret in his path, shots making a metallic ping noise as they deflected off his hardened chest.
Nymph performed another aerial dive, moving between the lasers which appeared to be tracking her movements, then she circled and flew nimbly through the barrage again. Thad saw her jut her hands out toward one of the gun turrets about thirty feet to the left of Bull and Bullfrog, just as the turret reposition to put the two of them in the gun's sight. The massive steel weapon shook, knocking the barrel askew. A moment later, the base of the turret ripped free of the Super Steel floor. The heavy bolts had broken in two. Nymph swung her hands toward the seven-story ceiling and the levitated turret obeyed, rushing straight up until it smashed against the unyielding surface. Chunks of the obliterated weapon sprayed across the room.
Thad saw one large piece hit Bull in the side of his head, but the muscled charging hero barely flinched. Two seconds later, Bull lowered his head into the heavy line of fire front the turret in front of him, then plowed into it, knocking the barrel off mechanism that feed the ammunition into it, casting the feeder into a spin atop the floor mount.
Thad crouched slightly to better use the mail cart for cover, but he kept his eyes up over the top to keep watching. Despite his reasonable fear for his life, he didn't want to miss any of the superhero action. He still had no idea when it would happen, but he knew he'd be one of them someday. He didn't join Supers Inc to stay in mail room forever.
He looked for Bullfrog, but Bull seemed to be blocking the view of him. Suddenly, Bullfrog leapt out from behind his superhero friend, jumping high over his head. Thad worried Bullfrog had overdone it with his jump. The hero was heading straight into the criss-crossing array of moving lasers.
No. Bullfrog!
But the leaping hero apparently knew what he was doing. Right as one of the lasers was about to burn him in half, Bullfrog stretched himself out like a platform diver, then went into a rapid spin before contorting his body to send himself into a dizzying tumble, which somehow got him past every one of the laser beams unscathed. He landed in a squat with his hands on the floor in front of him, then leapt again, shooting himself just over the top of one of the gun turrets—the one closest to the elevator, but still forty feet away or more. Thad saw Bullfrog slap an explosive charge onto the barrel of the weapon as the hero flew by it. A four-point landing and another leapt later, the charge on the barrel exploded the weapon into hundreds of pieces.
Thad only realized he'd risen up from behind the mail cart to watch when several small flecks of the shrapnel peppered his arm and one piece plunged into his left cheek. He recoiled instinctively and stumbled back into the elevator doors.
His arm felt like a dozen wasps were stinging it at once, and his cheek felt like an oversized fish hook had been yanked through it.
Bull slid to a stop a few feet in front of the mail cart. "What are you doing here?" He leaned his head back and yelled, "Emergency stop! Emergency stop!"
The gunfire from the remaining turrets immediately silenced, and as Bull walked closer, Thad saw the laser array vanish from the air behind him.
Bull stood in front of Thad, who was sitting on the floor, still against the elevator doors. "You okay? You know this room is supers only, right?"
Nymph flew down and landed beside Bull. "Of course he does." She glared at Bull for a second before kneeling down next to Thad and looking at the injuries to his arm, and then
at the one on his cheek. "I'm sure it hurts, but I don't think it's anything the clinic can't take care of."
Bullfrog hopped down to join the three of them just as Nymph was helping Thad to his feet. "What's wrong with him?"
Nymph gave Bullfrog a disapproving look, then returned her attention to Thad. "Ignore him. He's... Just ignore him."
Bullfrog shrugged, then walked over to the mail cart and started rummaging through the pile in the top tray. "Anything in here for me?" He looked at Thad. "You know I have an office, right?"
Bull elbowed Bullfrog's shoulder. "Like you ever spend any time there."
Bullfrog shrugged. "What can I say. I'm just not the office type."
"Don't mess with those," Thad said, nodding toward the letters. "It's on me to deliver those."
Bullfrog had dropped the letter he had been holding, but he picked up another. "This one too?"
"Frog." Bull's voice was always deep, but Thad detected more intensity in it, like he was giving his friend a not-so-subtle warning.
"Fine." Bullfrog dropped the envelope into the pile, then turned around and hopped fifty feet, back toward the opening the three heroes entered the Danger Room through. "To my office!" Three more hops and was gone.
The elevator ding sounded behind Thad and the doors opened. Thad reached for the mail cart, but Nymph put her hand on his wrist. "I think you need some attention first."
She looked at Bull. "I'm going to take care of him. We can do another training session tomorrow."
"Yeah, sure," Bull said. "No problem." Then he looked at Thad and winked. "Don't worry. You're in good hands. Nymph will definitely take care of you."
"Oh, shut up, Bull." Nymph held the elevator door open and gestured for Thad to get in.
"Don't forget about this." Bull pushed the mail cart in behind the two of them.
Thad took hold of it and wheeled to his side. "Thanks."
Nymph pushed the button for the nineteenth floor. "We'll use the supers clinic. It's closer, and something like this they can take care of fast."
"Yeah, okay." Thad knew the clinic on the nineteenth floor was only for supers, but he figured since Nymph was taking him there, it'd be alright. Anything to deal with the pain in my arm and face as soon as possible, he thought.
Supers Incorporated Page 5
