Supers Incorporated

by Scot C Morgan

  "Got the new contacts in?" Franklin asked.

  "Yep. Put 'em in before I put on the suit." Thad focused on Franklin. "I can see your thermal image. Now your profile in the company database." He was giving the commands to Becky with his thoughts. She could read them with the chip, which had sensors to make sense of his thoughts when they related to one of a specific list of commands. He'd studied the list earlier in the day, memorizing most of it.

  "Becky," Franklin said, "you have a good connection from all the way back at the Supers building?"

  Becky replied to Thad, then he said, "Yeah. She's good."

  The rain starting coming down heavier, and a large lightning flash lit up the interior of the building. The thunder boomed almost simultaneously.

  "Sheesh." Thad looked out the nearest opening in the roof. "Really coming down. Hope it lets up in a bit."

  "Yeah. But for now, let's see what you can do." Franklin started walking toward Thad. "No need to hit me with the stun ray, though. Or one of the tracking chips. I made the wrist bands, after all. Plus, not too keen on getting knocked unconscious."

  Thad chuckled. "Don't worry. I've got plenty of other things to show you."

  "Go for it." Franklin stopped. "Should I...take cover, or what?"

  "Thad." Becky's voice sounded in his head. "Do you want the weather forecast for the next few hours?"

  "No," Thad said quietly. "I'm good, but thanks."

  "You're good right there," Thad said to Franklin, then he walked over to one of the puddles of water the rain had made. It had built up considerably, and looked to be about two inches deep near the middle. Thad figured the concrete floor had a recessed area there. He stopped in front of the puddle and turned to Franklin. "Honestly, when I first read about this power, I was a little disappointed. I mean, it's not flying or super speed. I wasn't really sure how I'd use it, but...the more I thought about it, the more I realized it could be really handy if I was creative."

  "Just show me already. No need for the speech."

  "Okay," Thad said. "But remember, you asked for it."

  "What?" Franklin sounded alarmed. "What do you mean, I asked for it?"

  Thad didn't answer his friend. Instead, he walked around the puddle so that he could face it, but still see Franklin. "Here goes."

  "Here goes what?"

  Thad jumped as high as he could over the puddle, positioning himself so that he was going to land directly in the deepest part of it, which he'd reassessed to be at least three inches of water now. Before he hit the water, he looked directly at Franklin activated the power with his mind, which is how the super suits' powers were triggered in most cases.

  Franklin, who had been watching Thad intently, evidently trying to figure out what he was about to do, suddenly found himself in the air, dropping down toward the water. Before he could say or do anything about it, his shoes hit the water, splashing the puddle up onto his pants. He stood, submerged up past his ankles, half his pants soaked, and with more rain falling on him.

  Thad, who had appeared exactly where Franklin had been standing before the jump, started laughing. "See. Weird power, but if you're clever..." He took a second to collect himself. "If you're clever, it can come in pretty handy, huh?"

  Franklin walked out of the puddle and under the cover of the roof, then shook his arms a few times to throw some of the water from him. "Nice. Really cool superpower you've got there." He shook his head, then looked down at his pants and shoes, moving his feet a little to make a squishing sound.

  "Hey, sorry, but it only works with another person," Thad said.

  "You couldn't have just switched places with me when we both were standing under the roof?"

  "Oh, come on. That would be boring."

  Franklin was still for a moment, then nodded. "You have a point. Well played."

  "Thanks for being my guinea pig."

  "What are friends for?" Franklin walked over to Thad, pausing a couple of times on the way to squeeze some water from his pants. "Okay. I can actually see how that could be useful. Like, what if a guy is about to punch you and then you switch with one of his buddies?"

  Thad laughed. "Oh, that'd be great."

  "Okay. Anything else?"

  Thad nodded.

  "Does it require something bad happening to your best friend?"

  Thad cocked his head slightly and looked up toward nothing in particular, then turned to Franklin and nodded again.

  Franklin sighed. "Crap. Do I die?"

  Thad chuckled. "No. Probably not."

  "Okay. Let's have it."

  "Do you have your multi-tool on you?" Thad asked.

  Franklin leaned back a little, as if indignant at the question. "I always have my multi-tool." He reached into his right pocket and pulled out the folded metal thirty-piece tool. "Why?"

  "Okay. You're going to need to trust me on this one."

  "I trusted you on the last one," Franklin said.

  "I probably could've left the puddle out of it. Sorry about that."

  Franklin wave a hand dismissively. "It's fine." He sighed. "I trust you. Go ahead."

  "Okay," Thad said. "Pull out the knife blade."

  "Not that I should be going along with this, but which one?"

  "Doesn't matter."

  "Of course it matters. I mean, are we talking about cutting wood? Then it's the saw blade. Peeling an orange? Different blade. It has five knife blades. You're going to have to be specific."

  Thad was smiling, amused by how seriously his friend took his multi-tool. "Okay. You're right. You'll need the blade you'd use to make a small cut through your own skin."

  Franklin shook his head. "Don't have that blade."

  Thad laughed. "Oh, don't be a baby. Just a small cut." He looked at the multi-tool, then back at Franklin.

  "Fine," Franklin said. He pulled a blade out, then held his other hand up.

  "Make sure it bleeds a little, though," Thad said.

  Franklin glared at him, but a couple of seconds later he took a breath and held it, then quickly ran the sharp knife blade across the back of his thumb on his other hand. "Ah!" He buckled over for a moment, then stood up straight and jutted his hand out toward Thad. The cut wasn't too deep, but it was bleeding a little.

  "Good," Thad said. "Now, don't move." He grabbed the pinky side of Franklin's hand, leaving the cut on Franklin's thumb visible. "Should take just a second or two, since it's small."

  The bleeding stopped and almost immediately the cut closed. Two seconds later, Franklin's thumb looked as if it had never been cut.

  "Holy moly." Franklin pulled his hand closer to look at it. "It's gone. How'd you?"

  Thad held up his hand, showing the cut on the back of his own thumb. It was exactly the same as the one Franklin had made on his thumb.

  "Whoa." Franklin wiped the blade of his multi-tool on his pant leg, folded the blade in, then put the tool back in his pocket. He looked at Thad's thumb again, but now the cut wasn't there.

  "Healed," Thad said. "I can take an injury as my own, and I heal faster. It still hurts though."

  "Wow. So, if...somebody gets shot in the head, you can save them and heal yourself?"

  Thad put his hands up. "Hang on. Nobody said anything about that sort of thing. I don't think it works that way. I mean, yes, I could take the wound from them, if they aren't already dead. But I'm pretty sure I'd just end up dead instead. It's faster healing. Not a miracle. I'll just need to be smart about it."

  "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

  "Besides, I still feel the pain. So, I'll use it if I have to, but I don't think it's going to be my go-to power."

  "Right. I probably wouldn't go telling everyone about it either. Otherwise, anyone with a headache or an ingrown toenail is going to be hitting you up for instant relief."

  "Good point."

  "Anything else?"

  Thad held his hands up, indicating the wrist bands Franklin made for him. "These and Becky. The suit itself is pretty tough, like the
y all are."

  "Aw, thanks, Thad," Becky said

  "No, problem, Becky." He tilted his head slightly. "She was just saying thanks for including her."

  "Right."

  "Thank you, again, by the way."

  "Happy to help. I prefer to do my part inside the lab."

  "Oh! I'm learning martial arts too. Tatiana offered to teach me."

  Franklin nodded approvingly. "She's the best, but..."

  "But what?"

  "Allison okay with that?"

  "Why wouldn't she be?"

  Franklin appeared taken aback by Thad's question. "Have you seen Tatiana?"

  Thad chuckled. "Yes, but Allison. I mean, come on."

  "Touché."

  Thad looked toward one of the openings in the ceiling. "Rain stopped. Maybe we should call it while it's in a lull."

  "Sounds good. When are you going out in the field?"

  "Not sure. Danger Room training all next week. I guess they want to make sure I know what I'm doing with the suit before they put me on duty."

  "Can't blame them. Course you did pretty well the other day."

  Thad shook his head. "That was lucky. Luck and help from you two." He tapped the side of his head.

  "Well, I know a lot of people who are probably glad you were stupid enough to rush out there without any training or a super suit."

  Thad laughed. "Yeah, was pretty dumb, I guess. But..." He recalled the feeling he had when Allison fell through the window from the thirty-fifth floor.

  "Hey," Franklin said, evidently reading the mood change from Thad's face. "She needed you. There was never a choice not to go."

  "Yeah." Thad looked at his friend. "Never was. I just hope that's the last time she's..." He stopped because he knew what he was about to say was unlikely, if not impossible. She'd be in danger again. She was a super. But so was he now.

  And I'll always be there to save you.

  Chapter 15

  "How about Blinky? Or Switcharoo?" Micron hadn't shrunk yet. He said a moment earlier that he was waiting for the Danger Room to present whatever obstacles or threats it was going to come up with, explaining that the system chose based on the difficulty level selected and the powers of the participants.

  Thad realized Micron had already heard about his power set from someone—no surprise since Thad had already shared his suit's abilities with many of the supers who had asked. "No. I don't think so, but thanks." He didn't know Micron well enough to know whether the name suggestions were serious or meant to razz him.

  Allison, who was the last one to come into the room, had been walking over to the other four. She nodded to Phantom and Multiplicity as she passed them, then came to Thad's side. "You've got time to think about it. Something will come to you."

  Micron started glancing around the room, evidently expecting the training session to start any second. "You could always talk to Marketing. They always have a good list of names."

  Okay. He's definitely giving me a hard time.

  "Thanks," Thad said as he glanced at each of his wrist bands to make sure they were synchronized with Becky. "That where you got yours?"

  Multiplicity chuckled. "Ooh. Burn. You going to let him belittle you like that, Micron?"

  Allison giggled.

  Thad realized this was just how they played it with each other. Camaraderie through harassment. He knew he was going to fit in well.

  Phantom took a few steps forward, though it almost seemed like his feet were gliding over the floor. He scanned the room also. "Looks like you got the short end of that exchange, huh, Micron?"

  "Alright, everybody," Allison said. "That's enough small talk. We've got work to do. Heads up."

  Thad looked at her just as she turned to him. Both of them smirked, and Thad heard Micron curse under his breath.

  Panels on three sides of the room slid up, creating tall wide openings. After the echo of the whooshing sound from the last opening panel stopped, the massive, cavernous room was silent.

  Multiplicity appeared in three more places beside her original. All four of her said, "What do you think's going to come out?"

  Allison took a step forward and transformed both her hands into something akin to glowing lava, though they kept their form. "I'm not sure, but I doubt we're going to like whatever does."

  "Thad." The chip on his collar sent Becky's voice into his skull, vibrating the bones in his inner ear. "I've been instructed not to use scans in the Danger Room. I can't tell you what's going to come out of any of those twelve holes. I hope you understand."

  "It's fine." He saw Allison glance back at him, so he tapped the side of his head. "Hearing the A.I. Franklin set me up with."

  Allison nodded, then turned her attention back to the openings in the walls.

  A second later, out of each portal walked a humanoid-looking robot, eight feet tall, made of a dark gray metal. All twelve had some sort of shoulder-mounted weapon. Thad thought they looked like ray guns out of an old black and white sci-fi movie.

  "Sentinels," Phantom said. "I hate these things."

  The sound of the sentinels marching toward the center of the room echoed off the walls. They stopped when all of them had gathered and lined up facing Thad and his fellow supers. They stood fifty feet away, in a single row which covered half the diameter of the room.

  Everyone waited for something more to happen, but nothing did for several seconds.

  "Are we waiting on somebody to say go?" Micron started walking across the room.

  Allison did the same. "No sense in waiting for them to attack first."

  Phantom's body became semitransparent as he floated forward.

  Multiplicity took the three copies of herself back into her original, then made three more at a diagonal, the last one halfway across the room, but near the left wall. A second later, all but that farthest one vanished. As her new original, she walked ahead, staying close to the wall.

  Thad broke into a slow jog to catch up with Allison.

  The sentinels did nothing for a few more seconds, the they started walking toward all of the supers. A moment after that, three holes, six feet in diameter, opened up at three random spots in the shrinking gap between the supers and sentinels. Thad and his companions stopped.

  Micron looked back to Allison and Thad. "Are there going to be more of those?"

  "Let's hope not," Allison said. "Unless they're under the sentinels."

  "At least nothing's coming out of them," Multiplicity said, still walking beside the wall. She made a copy of herself ten feet behind her.

  "Not yet, anyway." Thad wished Becky was allowed to perform a scan, but he knew not to ask her.

  "Allow me." Phantom, who was near one of the three holes in the floor, floated to and looked into it. "There's nothing down there. It's just black."

  "Great." Micron stopped and looked behind him to see where the rest of his fellow supers were. "Do we face the sentinels head on or take what's behind door number two?"

  "Allison," Thad said. "Your hands could probably melt them, but you'll need to get close for that. Do you have any ranged attacks with that suit?"

  "Afraid not, but I also can do this." She transformed her body into a hard, black rock of some sort. The floor creaked under her. A moment later, she transformed back to normal. "I can't move when I'm like that, but it makes me extremely heavy and I'm basically indestructible."

  "How heavy?"

  She glanced at this floor. "If this were anything but a ten-foot thick layer of our proprietary Super Steel it would've crumbled beneath me." She shrugged. "Or maybe I would've gone right through it. Not sure."

  "So, really heavy?"

  Allison chuckled as she nodded.

  "Hey guys!" Thad glanced to Multiplicity, Micron, and Phantom, all of whom looked back at him. "Any of you have some sort of ranged attack? Or are going to have fight these guys up close?"

  "I'll be honest with you," Micron said. "I've nothing. I'm not sure why I'm the one out front right now."
<
br />   "Because you're crazy." Multiplicity said, speaking only from her original. "No laser eyes here, Thad. But I could carry Micron up there with me. I mean holding him while I make a copy and and then make it my new primary."

  "You can carry something when you become another you?" Thad realized he probably didn't say that in the best way.

  "Yes! And Micron is sooo tiny, so..." She giggled.

  "I'm going to go see if they have an off switch." Phantom, still phase-shifted, continued floating toward the group of sentinels.

  A moment later, when his body crossed to the other side of the hole he'd been investigating, all twelve of the sentinels started firing repeatedly. Two shots went through Phantom, but he was unaffected by them and kept moving closer to the sentinels.

  Another shot almost hit Multiplicity's original, but she vanished, making her copy the new original, then she create three more copies, equally distributed across the middle of the room. One of them appeared beside Thad and looked at him. "Hey, Thad. Crazy, huh?"

  Allison stepped in front of Thad and looked back at him over her shoulder. "If you stay behind me, we can get there safely. Indestructible, not just heavy."

  "Right." He nodded to her. "Can you change that fast?"

  "Yeah. Should be good." She started jogging toward the sentinels. "Just stay with me."

  Then what?

  Thad stopped as Allison changed to her indestructible form to protect herself and him from several well-aimed blasts from two sentinels. The shots deflected upward, hitting the ceiling high above. He glanced to the Micron to see how he was fairing as the sentinels continued their barrage of fire. Micron shrank down to the size of a toy army man, avoiding the attack from the shoulder-mounted weapon of a sentinel only fifteen away from him.

  "This isn't working!" Phantom was directly behind one of the sentinels, apparently trying to do something to its neck. "There's no off switch! No wires to pull!" He had made himself solid again.

  The sentinel turned around, knocking Phantom to the ground. Phantom only barely shifted to his phased state before the sentinel blasted. The shot passed through him, deflecting off the floor.