H.E.R.O. - Horde (30 page)

After a moment it sunk in to Kell and Odes that if Trevin hadn't been forcing me to hug them all that way, then I must have wanted to do it on my own, and that I must really like them.  I still didn't get how I'd changed my hugs.  I mean, I saw in Megan's mindview how I used to versus how I do now and had to agree with her - I tended to press up against the person now.

The odd thing is that it felt the same to me.  I didn't recall changing anything.  I debated digging into Trevin's memory, but if he didn't do it then he'd know I pretty much mind-raped him, and that wouldn't go over well.  If he did then I'd be justified ... I thought.

We shifted over to doing our homework and such - the actual reason for having the study group.  I kept wondering what was going on, though. 
Could a side effect of my pheromones be a hidden desire to pull people in?

During a quieter point while we were taking notes out of our books, Kell stared at me a while and said, “So, Steph – I’ve got to ask.  What was the thought process behind these?”

He pulled out his latest
Hero Weekly
magazine and pulled it open to a page he had earmarked.  Just the fact that he had it earmarked was a little frightening.

He laid the magazine on the table between us.  It was a two page photo spread of me in my costume, but I was posing very seductively.  The backgrounds were faded out with post work, but I recognized the location – it was in front of the hospital.

Sure enough, the photographer was Darian McDermit, the paparazzi that had caught me flying into the hospital twice so far.  The last time I remembered him taking a photo or two, but I had no recollection of posing as provocatively as this for him.  I leaned over to study the pictures.  I was looking right at the camera, or right by it, so I had to have known it was there.

Why don’t I remember doing these?  I recall a cop chasing him away the last time.

I said, “I don’t even remember doing this.”

Kell said, “Huh?  How can you
not
?  I mean, look at you.”

“I dunno.  It … well … I remember seeing him, and an officer chasing him away.  Well, he got on my case too.  I can see why, now.”

Megan said, “Holy crap, you don’t remember doing them?  Did he give you something to drink – with a rufie or something?”

I shrugged, “I honestly don’t recall doing this.”

Odes said, “I’m not hitting on you or anything, but you look hot in those, even with the full costume on.”

I rolled my eyes, “Thanks Odes.  I’m a little disturbed that I don’t remember.”

Trevin said, “It may be your proclivity for doing as others picture you doing.  Like the others here keep blaming me about.  A good photographer would have an excellent mental vision of what they’d want you to pose like, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“And if you just did the poses, how would he not think you are doing it on purpose?  Assuming that’s what happened at all, it’s a possibility.”

Trevin was one of the few people who had extremely good control over his random thoughts when near me, but even he slipped and began wishing for a way to get me to do a photo shoot – with less costume involved.  Fortunately, he wasn’t thinking about me stripping down and doing it now.

I stared at him, “Trevin, I try really, really hard not to say anything about what people are thinking – but could you think about me with my clothes on when I’m right in front of you?  At least considering what’s going through your head?”

He blushed and grinned.  “Sorry.  I mean, the thought of that kind of photo shoot is pretty enticing.”

I began pulling my shirt up when Megan tackle hugged me from my left side and held my shirt down.  My desire to pull it up stopped.

Trevin said, “Gah.  Sorry about that.  I didn’t mean it - really.  Blame Kell for pulling out those pics.”

I shook my head and let go of my shirt.  I had to pull Megan’s face off my chest.  Her head had ended up right there and she was sucked in as usual.

The guys all grinned; they didn’t mind seeing Megan there.  Even though they all knew perfectly well that she had Brad as a boyfriend, they liked seeing her on me.

I shook my head, “You guys are bad.”

Kell said, “What?  Come on, if you two are going to do that in front of us then of course we’re going to enjoy it.”

Odes said, “I’m afraid that I’ll have to agree with Kell this time.”

Once Megan stopped wantonly staring at me and shook off the effects of the pheromones, she looked at Trevin.  “I am going to beat you.”  She used her small fist to accent the statement.

I laughed, “No crimes in my presence, please.  I can tell, he actually didn’t mean to do it.  On the other hand, Trevin is so good at controlling his own thoughts that he probably could have kept from doing that.”

Trevin shrugged.  “I don’t know, I can’t help but like those pics.”

Kell said, “I especially like how you grab….”

I said, “Enough!  Don’t want to hear about it.”

He grinned, “Okay.  I guess I’ll go back to biology then.  Maybe study the human body….”

“Ugh, you are horrible.”

I pulled Megan’s mindview up close just so I wouldn’t have to see what the boys were seeing in their mind’s eye, and started talking about our reading assignment with her to get her to start thinking about another topic as well.  Fortunately pulling her mindview up close worked as it used to, without me remote controlling her.

Chapter 24 - Hands

Borgz’ Viewpoint

After a few hours of packing the large things in my truck, I realized that I needed better hands.  Only one of my small toy size robots had hands that were articulated to any degree - I needed something around the size of human hands with joints and roughly five fingers - or at the very least three, but with an opposable thumb.

In addition, I needed some kind of grip.  I could pull a tight glove over a mechanical hand to provide some, although I'd prefer a hand made for fine use.

I wished I'd focused more on making robots that looked like humans rather than the movie stuff for dinosaurs and partial large monsters - commonly just the upper body, perhaps with some appendage or two that could move, such as a tail.  Even making something like that would require better hands than I had at my disposal.

I knew about the larger bionics companies in Metrocity, one tended to study that sort of thing when you made robots for a living.  They were making prosthetic limbs for people who lost their own.  Those would work like a charm.

I knew I had to clean out my apartment before someone came to do it, now that my body was dead.  I had too many tools to quickly replace - not to mention the many small robots I'd already built.

I took one of my smaller robots - about eight inches tall, attached a bungee cord with s-hooks onto it, and emptied out a duffle bag with a shoulder strap.  Then I shifted into one of the dinky robots only an inch or so tall and attached myself with duct tape to the eight inch model - I always wanted a backup from then on.  I also brought a hand taser, duct tape and a multi-tool.  With the ability to activate mechanics by touching them, I was able to operate both even without hands.  I prepped the duct tape for use by peeling back a bit of it with the knife and forcing part of it to be bent over for easier access later on if I didn’t have mobile hands.

I figured I'd confuse people for this caper.  Once I loaded those robots in the stolen car outside, I drove downtown.  Driving in heavy downtown traffic felt odd from the lower vantage point I saw from while using the car as a body.

When I was near the parking ramp I wanted to use, I heard the short siren of a police car and realized a police car was behind me.  They must have noticed the lack of a driver.

I sped up, tore off the road and used the sidewalk for a short distance.  The police car came after me, we ran a short chase between the street and the sidewalk to the ramp, where I sped inside and began going up.  I popped the trunk to make it harder for the officer to see into my car.  I wanted them wondering if there were a person inside after all.  The police followed me up.

I ended up slamming into a few cars as I skid around the corners on the smooth surface at high speed.  I didn't mind damage to the sides or rear of the vehicle - all I needed were for the wheels to turn.

When I was up enough levels in the ramp and had plenty of distance at one point from the police car, I turned to go back down the ramp.  I left the car in neutral and heading downhill and popped open all four doors.

Then I shifted into my largest robot and leaped out of the car with the duffle bag.  After bouncing a few times I pulled the bag under a car.  The police car came around the corner and continued after the car until it rolled into another vehicle.  I snuck under a few cars and made my way down to the anchor store in the mall on this side.

I hid the duffle bag so I had just the pair of attached robots and walked in.  Some people noticed the small robot walking along and either pointed at me or stared, but fortunately, everyone thought it was a gag of some type and didn't attempt to pick me up.

I did have a pair of young children run up to me.  I started doing a simple robot dance for them and they mimicked me.  When I continued walking toward the clothing area with the mannequins, they followed me.  I thought it was a perfect cover – they thought I was a cool toy, and others watching likely believed I was their toy.

Fortunately, they became bored with me by the time I went far into the clothing section.  I walked up to one of the fully articulated mannequins – those with joints generally matching those on a human.

I looked up at the mannequin.  The feet fit onto studs on the floor; those would be easy to step off.  I hoped taking over something so simple would work….

I climbed into the bottom of the pant leg and used the duct tape to attach my current robot right to the leg of the mannequin.

Then I attempted to shift into the mannequin – it worked.  In a heartbeat, I was as tall as a human was.  I would have smiled, if I had a movable mouth.

I moved the arms and looked around.  The ball joints actually worked better than a human arm, they allowed me to move the arm backwards.  However, it was a bit strange to perform the movement.

I held up the right hand in front of my face.  Sadly, the one body part that had almost no movement was the hand.  The wrist moved, but the hand itself was molded from some material, and wouldn’t move.

The body would function, however.  I popped each foot off the base and tried walking.  It was a slightly different motion than a human body, but was functional.

I walked over to the next male mannequin, picked it up and simply carried the entire thing toward the exit.  Better to have a backup than not.

People stopped and stared at me, but after getting a good look at me – and realizing I was definitely a mannequin and not a person – they allowed me to walk by without contesting me.

My feet made a clacking noise as I moved off the carpet onto the tile floor.  The alarms at the exit of the store went off – I didn’t stop to wait for a security guard.  I’d chosen this anchor store specifically because they used the articulated mannequins as well as had easy access to the parking ramp.

I was in the ramp in moments, picked up the duffle bag and selected a random car that appeared to be in good shape near the door.  I touched the car and forced the doors to unlock.  Then I opened the door, tossed the extra mannequin into the vehicle, climbed in and set the duffle bag on my lap.

Rather than take over the car as a body this time I controlled it by touch.  This body was tall enough to see out the window, and it would appear more natural to have a human-like head looking around.  I hoped that most people would miss that it wasn’t actually human.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to pay the automated machine at the exit, either, so I tore through the ramp and smashed through the wooden beam blocking the exit.  It smashed against the car and scratched up the paint, but I wasn’t going to keep this vehicle long.

The car was nearly silent without the engine revving or radio playing.  I heard sirens when I was barely a block away from the ramp exit.  In a few blocks, I pulled into a parking lot, left the vehicle and walked through an alley to the far side of the building.

I chose the first car on the other side without anyone inside, walked around to the driver’s side, forced it to unlock and repeated the scene with the last car.  This time I drove along with traffic to decrease unusual attention.

I headed to the southwest part of Metrocity, where I knew a small bionics startup firm named Balacar Bionics was located.  It had come up before in my research on robotic type limbs, and was tiny enough to not have a real security force.

I stopped one more time in a random parking lot at a huge discount store and switched out the car for one at the far end of the parking lot, where the employees were more likely to park.  The car hopefully wouldn’t be missed for hours or more.

I continued to the destination, pulled into the parking lot opposite the building housing Balacar Bionics, and stared at it.  If I waited until dark, then most of the employees would leave, and I’d be able to grab what I needed unobstructed.  On the other hand, I needed to clear out the apartment, and I needed the hands for that.  My hope was that the office would close before dark.

I also wanted to use the night to make those red men pay for killing my friend Aimee.  I didn’t know how to find them, but I figured those mutants at Blacklight would know.  I hoped they would just answer – once I had a means to speak – but if not then I’d make them give me what I needed to know.

While waiting I took out the duct tape and attached the taser to the dummy’s hand just in case I met opposition.  By 6 P.M., a group of people had left the office and the lights appeared to be out.  I pulled the car up to the front of the office on the street and got out with the duffle bag.  As I walked to the front door, I noticed a card scanner on the side of the door.  I put my mannequin hand on the door to force the locks to release – fortunately it worked.  My back up plan had been to run the car into the door to create an opening.