H.E.R.O. - Horde (27 page)

She said, "Okay, I see that you brought both Rayna and Tiriffa here.  I'll bring Rayna home so I can get the details on tonight; you bring our three-fingered friend home?"

I nodded.

Psystar stood up and told her friends, "I'll see if I can make it back in time for the study group.  I'd hug you guys, but I'm seeing that everyone's having more issues than normal with my aura."

I nodded, motioned to Tiriffa and headed down the corridor.  I waved the people further down the hall as I walked.

I said, "Come on guys, clear a path for goldie.  You don't want to be near her when she walks this way."

Tiriffa ran up behind me to walk with me.  Psystar motioned for Rayna to follow her.  Once outside I pulled the fanged alien up to me, leaped up and flew toward the south.

On the way, I asked Tiriffa, "So what was that all about?"

"I do not know.  I have never seen additional receptors in a body before, nor have I seen them simply disappear."

"So these thingies can't grow new ones?"

"Yes, the body can.  However, they wouldn't disappear.  The effect is more akin to another gift."

"Which one?"

"I don't know, I mean another gift appears to be at work.  Perhaps studying the data I just obtained will tell me more."

"Cool.  You guys are getting all kinds of techy stuff then, huh?"

"We are gathering interesting data.  That is certain.  Separating the differences out between our species may take time, however."

"If you say so." 
I wish she'd talk less like a nerd....

I landed us at her plane.  It still looked odd - the first time I'd seen it the vehicle was a shiny steel color.  Now it blended in so well with the background it took time to find every time I came to it.

One of the aliens was outside the plane, on top of the right wing.  I landed us near him, bouncing on the wing as we came down.  He looked over and said something in that odd language they used.

I waved and said, "Hi."

He returned the motion, but he looked like he waved less often than even Tiriffa and Qarath did.  It just didn't look natural for him.

They rapidly spoke back and forth a few more times before Tiriffa turned to me.

"Diva, do you have access to metals and other materials?"

"I don't know, I've never tried to buy any.  You need stuff to fix your plane?"

"Yes.  Captain Trilk had a supply of additional materials for repairs, but the plasma cannon on the K'Vor did severe damage to the engine and wing.  He can use materials not originally intended for the purpose, but we need to find them."

"Umm, well.  Can you text me a list of them and I can ask some others if they know where to find them?  I could tell you where to shop for fashionable clothes in a heartbeat, but metals?  Apart from jewelry I'm not as sure."

"Certainly, I will send a message to your communication device with a list of possible materials.  I hope the translation works well enough to be clear as to what the captain needs."

"Okay.  Let me know and I'll try to help."

How do I get sucked into this stuff?  They should be asking someone smart - like Psystar - to help them find stuff.

She said, "Let us try to send you some items to your device.  To this point we have only used the voice communication."

Tiriffa hopped down off the wing.  I followed her around to the entrance of the plane on the side.  We went inside and found Qarath sitting at the same place he'd been the last time I saw him, working away at one of the neat computers.  He waved his fingers right on the floaty image above the display.

I asked, "Where did you buy those computers?  I should get one like them.  I'm a bad typist with a keyboard."

They both stared at me for a moment.

Tiriffa said, "They are part of the starship.  I would assume that they were constructed on Gahran."

"Oh, you mean that other planet?  You can't find them here?"

"I am sure your planet has a facility that constructs something similar."

"Yeah, but not where you can wiggle your fingers over them like Qarath is doing."

"Perhaps one does, and you haven't searched for it?"

She touched a computer and the screen rapidly changed as though she were pushing buttons on the screen.

I said, "I guess that's possible.  I'm pretty sure I've never seen one like it though.  Well, not as if I play on a computer a lot anyway, I suppose.  Oh, crud, I need to get back to Black Tiger.  Are you good here?"

"Certainly."

My phone beeped, I looked, and I had a text message from an unknown caller.  I clicked on it and it listed a few things.  They sounded pretty normal, although I didn't know where to get any of them in a raw material.

I said, "Got the message, it came through fine.  I'll ask Black Tiger about these things.  Go ahead and send me the full list when you can.  I really do need to get going."

Tiriffa said, "Be well, Diva.  Thank you for bringing me to Psystar so quickly.  Given some time I am not certain there would have been anything left to scan."

I smiled, "I'm glad it helped.  It's good to know that moving fast helps you out."

I turned, walked to the exit and leaped into the air.  After hovering for a moment, I flew over by their captain and waved at him before flying back to the sports store to meet Black Tiger.

Chapter 23 - Every Minute....

Psystar's Viewpoint

Diva walked down the corridor, ushering the remaining students ahead of her.  I stood up as she moved away and motioned Rayna to follow.

I looked at my friends before leaving and said, "I'll see if I can make it back in time for the study group.  I'd hug you guys, but I'm seeing that everyone's having more issues than normal with my aura."

To quickly see how I looked, I pulled Megan's mindview to fill my vision for a moment, as we did in class.  My hair was wet and covered with blood, but otherwise I was fine.  Kell put his hand on my shoulder and I looked at him.

Then I realized his hand was on Megan's shoulder, and I'd caused her to look rather than use my own eyes.  I motioned her mindview back to fit in with the rest and she didn't even react to having done something unintended.  Mindviews seemed more confusing when pulled up to fill my vision while amped up like this.

It's almost like I'm remote controlling them when I pull up the mindview now.

I began walking down the hall.  Rayna stayed slightly back.  She was concerned about my pheromones.

I followed Diva out at a slight distance.  Although I'd seen her in relaxed type clothing last night, it was odd to see her in spandex shorts and a half top while out and about.

I stopped at a bathroom and quickly rinsed my hair off in the sink.  I'd rather have hair wet by water than by blood and Gruff's licking, even though I appreciated his healing abilities.

Once outside I motioned Rayna to me.  She'd stuffed Gruff under her shirt to keep him out of sight as much as possible.  Fortunately, she hadn't brought Fluff along.  Gruff was only the size of a volleyball, plus the eye stalks and crab claw stalks.  Fluff was larger than a basketball, and he had spikes sticking out of his body.

I pressed up against her while she held Gruff somewhat off to her right side.  She immediately fell prey to my pheromones, but I ignored her nose and pushed off into the air.  When I kneed up slightly we shot up much faster than I'd anticipated.  Everything felt amped up.

The many mindviews disappeared in a heartbeat, leaving only Rayna's.

I said, "Rayna, I've got to swing by Metrocity Jail to meet Captain McCain - you want me to drop you off first?"

She fought off the effects of my pheromones enough to answer, but she failed to pull away from me.  "I'll go, it should be interesting."

I replied, "Okay.  I'll drop you off at home afterward then."

I thrust my knee upward to increase our speed and we hit the sound barrier in moments.  It was interesting - everything seemed to take far less effort to do.  Not just less effort - my abilities required no effort at all now.

We crossed over the cityscape faster than I'd seen before, barring the time with Trevin.  This time I didn't feel the absolute need to go faster and faster.  For that, I was glad.

On the way, Rael called and asked how I was doing.  I wondered how he knew I’d been hurt, but figured I could ask him later.  It made me feel good to know he was thinking about me.

We rocketed to the Jail.  I aimed for the front parking lot to be polite to the guards.  As soon as I thought to slow down, we began to - even before I had a chance to put my left foot forward to do it, as I'd been used to.

We had to wait a few more minutes before Captain McCain pulled up in his large SUV.  I had a difficult time pushing Rayna off me - she was significantly stronger than I was.

Captain McCain studied us as he approached us.  "Hello, ladies.  No costumes?"

I said, "I was at school.  I can take my clothes off, if that would help."

He raised an eyebrow.

I grinned, "I
do
have my costume on underneath."

Rayna said, "Sorry, I was picked up in a hurry due to someone's emergency."  She pointedly looked at me.

The captain asked, "What happened?  I don't recall seeing any events in the last twenty or so minutes."

Rayna said, "She charged a wall at Mach 1.  The wall won.  Granted, she put a hole in it, but it KO'd her."

"Ah, I'll make a note in your file then.  'Lost fight to wall.'"

I laughed, "Great.  If word gets out about this one I'll have to watch it, villains will begin bringing walls to fights."

"Exactly.  Walls are pretty easy to find, it's a weakness found everywhere.  Are you ready for this?  I don't want to overstrain you like we did on Monday."

"I'm good.  Let's do it."

We walked to the main gate where the guards opened it before we reached it.  I'd become a regular at the Jail.  We went through directly to the section of supers.

Garrick met us at the section.  I looked for Chrome but didn't see her.

Garrick brought us the interrogation room we'd used when trying to find out what Shrinker's group was up to a week and a half ago.  We sat down while he left to bring the prisoner to us.  A minute later, he dragged a hostile, bulky red-skinned man into the room.

The man had pointed ears; his lower jaw was wider and stuck out slightly.  Two long lower teeth - or small tusks - stuck up over the lip.  He was about six feet tall, but looked bulky enough to be a body builder - plus some, but without the definition I'd seen on some of the guys at the gym.

I said, "Is he a...."

Then I saw Rayna's memory of fighting them the last two nights, and simply skimmed through the fights from the memory off her mindview.

Captain McCain asked, "Can you find out where he's from, and what occurred to him?"

"From his current thoughts - nothing.  He hates mutants and Goths.  He doesn't think about anything else."

"Can you dig in?"

"Yup, I was just about to."

I grabbed his mindview and pulled myself in.  I felt a massive wave of hate and anger flow over me.  For the most part, I'd been having an easier than normal time of allowing emotions to not affect me.  This was some powerful stuff.

The matching image of the brute stood in the center of his main thought room.  He rushed me as I summoned my nimbus of golden light and batch of gold tentacles.  I easily grabbed him and slammed him against one wall.  I flung him across to the other side, near the door to the emotion chamber as I walked toward it.

Something was off about this situation....  When I arrived in the emotion chamber I saw the standard bunch of pools, but they felt wrong.  I carried the brute in with my golden tentacles while I looked at the pools.  The emotion flowing off all of them was either anger and hate.  Somehow, the normal emotion pools had been changed.

I had no idea how to correct this problem, there wasn't anything I could rip down, move or burn in the chamber.  I turned and walked out, slamming the door behind me once I'd moved the brute out with me.

The door to the memory chamber had been closed and sealed over.  I remembered how the telepath Arissa had put a series of locks on Spartan and Chrome's memory doors, and then created a new memory chamber with some false memories to begin remembering by.

This man had no access to his memories, but also had no new memory chamber.  I looked around, but it appeared that he wasn't retaining anything new - probably since his change.

Forcing the memory chamber door seemed easier than it did last week with the two bricks.  I felt like I finally knew how Lance must feel - I grabbed the door and just yanked it open, even though it appeared to be stuck.

His memory chamber looked normal.  Thousands of small TV screens floated in rows.  I stepped in and viewed those closest to me.  His last memories were at a combined bar and club.  He and a group of friends had been sitting at a table while a band played heavy metal songs.

They had pitchers of beer at the table.  I frowned when I saw that his very last memory was of drinking and listening to the guitarist crank out a long, complicated riff.  I'd hoped to see a super doing something to him.

I grabbed the memory, dragged it in a golden tentacle to the main chamber.  I threw the brute back across the room as I flew up out of the mindview opening and pulled the memory to slam over the opening.

The shock of coming out of a mindview was minimal - that had to be a first.  Normally doing it almost knocked me out.

I pushed the mindview back among the others, grabbed it as it moved and scanned for Captain McCain's.  Once I found his among the dozens in my vision, I dragged the brute's mindview over his to let the captain see what I had seen.  I did the same for Rayna.

I skimmed over the many mindviews currently in my vision.  About two dozen of them all had the same rage and hatred flowing from them.

While the two watched the playback of the memory, I pulled a second mindview to me.  While many of the criminals in range were angry, it wasn't to the degree of these brutes.  I saw through many eyes that several larger cells had groups of the red men in them due to limits on cell space.