Making Supers 1, page 14
The roller door slid up. A moment later, the three mercs entered the storage unit. Chuck and Billy stripped out of their EMT disguises without a fuss, and Javier took up a seat at the command console of Billy’s Big-Brother set-up. Billy slipped on a shirt, and his eyes fell on the massive gun between Gwen and me.
“Where the hell did you get that?”
“Scourge. Bit overkill for babysitting, though, right?”
Billy stepped over the table and glanced a silent question at Gwen. She nodded, and he lifted the massive gun off the felt surface and hauled it over to Javier. The two of them clustered around it and started speaking quietly to each other.
Chuck slammed a glass bottle down on the table between Gwen and me. It was a plain, unmarked whisky bottle, its amber liquid catching the fluorescent lights above us. He placed down a couple of glasses beside it and clapped my shoulder. I winced at the impact on my bruises and started to unstrap the vest. I’d half-forgotten I was wearing the damn thing.
Gwen poured out three glasses of rich liquor and nudged one over to me with a grin. “It’s Chuck’s home-distilled recipe,” she said. “Potent stuff.”
I dropped the vest onto the chair, rolled my shoulders to loosen them up, and scooped up the glass. I’d had my fair share of paint-strippers before, but this stuff smelled amazing. Smoky with a hint of cherry. I placed it down beside the bottle, leaned back in my chair again, and nodded toward the bathroom.
“I’ll wait for Giselle,” I said.
“Good girl, that one,” Chuck said, approvingly. “Where’d you meet her?”
“She met me,” I said. “Running up on an old errand from my dad.”
Gwen decided to join me in my wait for Giselle and set her glass down. A thoughtful expression crossed her features. She glanced back at the bathroom for a moment, pursed her lips, and turned back to me with a question.
“How exactly did you transfer your powers to her?” Gwen asked.
“Not sure,” I said, “but I’m pretty sure she caught it after we, uh, mingled.”
“Mingled, huh?”
“Use your imagination,” I said. “It’s all pretty new to me. Why do you ask?”
“Wondering how it happened,” Gwen said. “And if you can replicate it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You in the market for some superpowers, too?”
“I might be,” she said, with an innocent smile. “So, what was Scourge using all this time? I’d have thought it was invisibility, like Darkstalker.”
“Accuracy?” Chuck suggested from his spot amongst the shelves.
“Got it there,” I said. “But I’m not sure whether that one worked all that well because he didn’t manage a good hit on me or Giselle. I’m guessing he didn’t actually want to take us down because he was too curious about who the fuck we were. But yeah, Accuracy is one power. The other two are Refill Container and Darkvision. I never saw him reload, and he was dumping rounds like a minigun out of a PDW. My guess? He didn’t have to reload, because he had an unlimited supply of ammo.”
Gwen’s eyes swept to Javier and Billy, clustered around Scourge’s cannon.
“He didn’t have to reload that?” she asked, stunned.
“He wasn’t carrying extra mags. Just more guns. If you can refill containers, for free, why would you bother with ammo reserves?”
Giselle appeared from the shower. Her strawberry-blonde hair was damp, and she’d changed out of the vest and tight-fitting clothes, back into her hipster get-up from earlier in the day. Her skin almost glowed in the warm light, and her eyes zeroed in on the drinks between Gwen and me with interest.
“This a private party?” Giselle teased.
“Waiting for you so we can get it started,” Gwen assured her.
Giselle pulled up the chair beside me, seized a glass, and held it up. “Well, let’s not keep everyone waiting any longer. Here’s to the continued survival of the glorious Basement. Long may you skulk in the shadows, with superheroes breathing down your necks.”
I raised my glass up to hers. “Here’s to another dead supe, Pinnacle property damage, and another dastardly plan foiled.”
Gwen raised her own glass and clinked it against ours. “Welcome to the Basement, you two. I know we got off to a rocky start, but I’m looking forward to working with you in earnest.”
And with that, I was a step closer to completing my Story Quest.
Chapter 19
We’d become official members of the Basement, but my mission was far from over.
Giselle’s eyes lingered on me after the cheers. We all took a pull from our glasses. Rich, tasty whisky burned its way down my throat and washed away the taste of factory chemicals. A warm sphere of heat formed in my chest from the liquor.
I let out an appreciative sigh and glanced up at Chuck. He watched us with a grin.
“I think I’ll need a barrel,” I said.
“Make it two,” Giselle added. “It’s amazing. Where do you get the time?”
“I make time,” Chuck said. “It’s how we recruit new blood around here.”
“Give this to a couple of the supes, and I think they might change their colors.” I laughed. I took another sip and appreciated the flavorsome burn as I turned my attention back to Gwen. “So, do we get costumes and everything? Now that we’re working with the good guys?”
“I wouldn’t call us ‘good’ by any stretch of the imagination,” Gwen said. “And no.”
“Shame,” Giselle murmured. “Dean would look great in a cape.”
“Right up until some fuck sets it on fire. Or chokes me with it.”
Gwen chuckled merrily at that. “You get what you’re given. We blend in as much as we can, and until you showed up, we were managing to keep a low profile quite well. You threw a massive wrench straight into that.” Gwen tossed back more whiskey with gusto. “But now Pinnacle has three less supes, a hole in their operation, and a lot of ground to cover if they want to continue looking like they’ve got everything under control.”
“Question on that,” Giselle said with a frown. “How do they manage it, exactly? I know that they’ve probably got their own media people, and given how cozy they are with Empyrion PD, I wouldn’t be surprised if the police overlook things from time to time. But how the hell are they going to cover up a clusterfuck this big?”
“Money, connections, and manipulating the narrative,” Gwen said. “But it only gets them so far. I can nudge a couple of journalists I know into getting IDs on the bodies in the warehouse. It’ll put the pressure on the bastards to explain what the hell was happening there, and that’s good for us.”
Giselle nodded, satisfied, and let her hand rest on my knee under the table. I noticed the intensity of Gwen’s gaze again, and suddenly felt a little like I’d been caught between two predatory cats.
I quashed the thought in my mind and watched Gwen reassemble her pistol with quick, precise movements.
“What’s your next move?” I asked.
“We’ll need to lay low,” Gwen said. “This is more excitement than we’re used to in a whole year, and you made it happen in two days. Pinnacle and their people will be everywhere looking for us. They’ll stalk our pages, try and find out anything they can to pin us down.”
“No new targets?” Giselle asked, crestfallen.
I gave her hand a squeeze and laughed. “You’ve been a fugitive for what, two days? Probably lost your cushy job at SatSec. Now look at you. A true hardened badass criminal.”
“It’s the waiting that gets me,” Giselle said. “I hate sitting idle.”
Gwen considered that for a moment. “I’m sure I can find something for you.”
Giselle’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“It’ll depend. You might have superpowers, but that’s no excuse for lacking training.” Gwen jerked a thumb at Chuck, behind her. “The man mountain and Billy could show you the ropes, if Dean’s not busy trying to tear Pinnacle a new one in the next couple of days.”
I nodded. “It’s a good idea.”
“What kind of training? Kung fu?” Giselle asked. “Because these new powers have already given me a knack for fighting. Feels like every part of me just works... better.”
“That right?” Gwen said with a raise of her eyebrows. “In that case, I’m thinking more guns and knives. And we’ll have a good opportunity to test out your exact capabilities. See how strong you are, what you can do with your powers. Once we’ve got a good idea of your baseline, we can prioritize what we need to.”
“You’ll be around, right?” Giselle asked me.
“Count on it,” I said. “I might have some things to follow up on, but I’ll make sure that you don’t slap Billy around too much on the mats.”
“Fuck you,” Billy called out.
“Rather jump into a washing machine with bricks and razors,” I fired back. “Probably be less fucking sharp than you. You guys done jerking off over the metal dick over there?”
Javier pinned me with a glare, but Billy put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
“He’s always like this,” Billy assured him.
“It’s when I stop talking that you need to be worried,” I said.
Javier grunted and turned back to the gun.
Chuck joined us at the table a moment later, poured himself out a glass, and dropped a deck of cards and a pile of chips onto the table. Giselle’s eyes lit up at the unspoken promise of poker, and Gwen shot me a challenging look.
“How good is your game?” she asked.
“I’m not just a pretty face, sweetcheeks,” I replied. “But I’d also hate to take you to the cleaner’s. Figure you guys need every cent you can get your hands on.”
Gwen’s eyes narrowed at my little jab, but a touch of color slipped into her cheeks.
“Just for that, I’m going to make sure you don’t win. Giselle, you interested?”
“Only if there’s another glass along with it,” my partner-in-crime said.
“Coming right up,” Chuck said, and poured her a fresh dose of his weapons-grade homemade liquor. “Texas hold ‘em, hundred buy-in. Billy, are you playing?”
“Busy,” Billy said. “This thing’s got a lot of moving parts, and I want her to speak to me. Javier will sit in for me, though.”
“Not a chance,” Javier said with a grimace. “Can’t play for shit.”
“Get us started, Chuck,” Gwen said, and emptied her glass.
I didn’t exactly zone out as we played poker, but my heart wasn’t in the game. I played patiently and watched for obvious tells.
Gwen was a bully. She liked to intimidate people with raises, trying to eke out as much as she could from each of us. Giselle played with a strange, chaotic style which made her hard to read. She’d bet big on one hand, then durdle for other rounds where more was at stake. Chuck was a good middle ground. He kept the game relatively honest, and was the first to drop out once we stripped him of his chips. Giselle went out next, after Gwen called one of her bluffs, and that just left the leader of the Basement and me.
Giselle poured out another two glasses, one for herself and one for Chuck, and eyed the bottle. We’d worked through almost all of it. I had a good buzz going, Chuck barely seemed affected, and Gwen’s face was flushed from the booze. Giselle held her liquor incredibly well, something that I chalked up to her Resilience power.
We moved through to our next hand.
“You didn’t strike me as the patient type,” Gwen observed.
“I can be patient,” I assured her, “if the stakes are right.”
I checked my hand, watched Chuck deal out the flop, and fixed my eyes on my opponent. Gwen met my gaze with a coy little smirk, adding larger and larger bets. I matched her coolly without giving her an inch of an idea what was in my hand.
We both went all-in as the river came out, and I won with a full house. Giselle grinned proudly as I tucked the money into my pocket, finished off the last of my bourbon, and stood up to clear my head.
“Not bad,” Gwen admitted.
“Thought you’d be more careful for the leader of an underground resistance,” I said.
“There’s plenty in common with gambling,” she countered. “It’s all about risks. Just like the risk I took on you two. That had every possibility of going sideways, but you pulled through.” She smiled at me again and turned to Chuck. “You in for another?”
Chuck raised his hands with a laugh. “I’m good.”
“I’m going to get some air,” I said, and moved out toward the roller door.
Giselle joined me a second later, and we both slipped out into Empyrion’s cool night air. The storage sheds were empty of life, and a pleasant quiet had slid into the industrial yard. The occasional vehicle hummed past.
I noted the three cars pulled up beside the storage unit, and thought back to my old man’s sedan. There was a connection between SilverSky and Pinnacle, and I needed to find out what it was. Giselle bumped my shoulder with hers, pulled me out of my thoughts, and I turned to face her with a grin.
“Looks like you’re immune to alcohol,” I noted.
“Oh, I can feel it. But I think it’ll take more than it normally does to lay me out.” She stretched with that catlike grace of hers. “Gwen on your mind?”
I noted the casual way she said it and raised an eyebrow. “Jealous?”
Giselle laughed. “She’s been eyefucking you ever since you got here and started talking shit, Dean. She’s into you, no doubt about it. You tell her about the power transfer process?”
“Not all the details, but close enough.”
“And I’m guessing she wants in?” Giselle asked.
I eyed her again, and my gut fluttered at how uninterested she seemed about the subject.
“That was the signal I was picking up, yeah.”
“Well, you did tell her that you weren’t going to work for her,” Giselle reminded me. “She did take a massive risk on the two of us, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re exactly what she needs right now. Well, you more than me.”
“What are you suggesting, counselor?” I asked.
“You’ve got leverage. You needed to find the Basement, and now you’ve found it. Looks like they’ve got the resources and the people that Brandon wanted you to find. If you’re going to keep playing this crazy game of following his messages around, it makes sense to make sure that Gwen can’t let you go.” Giselle met my eyes with a vulpine smile. “She’s cute, she’s smart, and you guys obviously have a thing for each other.”
“So if she decides to take me back to her place, we’re not going to have a problem?”
Giselle snorted. “Please. It’s practical, and it’s not like you’re going to leave me behind. I’m your first, after all, and last I checked, you’re technologically handicapped. Gwen looks like she hasn’t gotten any in a while, either. If she gives you that opening, I’d take it.”
“You are a devious person, Giselle.”
“Smart,” she countered with a smirk. “I know you guaranteed me a good night tonight, but I think you’d be better off solidifying your position. Three of us with superpowers is better than two.” She nodded to the roller door. “Got enough air?”
I caught her arm, pulled her in close, and kissed her.
Giselle moaned softly into my mouth. The taste of whiskey, and the flavor that was just her, washed through the kiss, and she slid her hands up over my chest to find my face. I don’t know how long the kiss went for, but when I eventually pulled away, Giselle’s face was flushed, her eyes sparkled, and she had a hungry glint in her eye.
“I might just have to reconsider my position.” She giggled.
I raised an eyebrow. “That soon?”
“I’m kidding. Come on, let’s get you shacked up with a terrorist.”
She hauled the door back up, and we headed back into the secret lair. Billy and Javier had swept the cards and chips off the table, and were elbows-deep in disassembling the huge cannon. Chuck appeared from the shelves with a backpack and tossed it to me.
My reflexes snatched it from the air, and I unzipped it. Fresh clothes, underwear, and a smaller bottle of his whiskey sat neatly packed inside. A box of 9mm sat in a side pocket, and I sidled over to the table. I whipped out the stolen pistol, cleared the chamber, clicked the magazine out, and re-stacked the mostly-empty magazine.
Gwen watched me with approval in her eyes, and I slid the gun back into the back of my pants. Giselle met Chuck halfway and fought off a yawn.
“Been a long day,” she said. “Who’s a girl gotta stab to get a comfy bed around here?”
Chuck and Gwen exchanged a look, and the leader of the Basement stood up from the table. She muttered a couple of quick instructions to the two mercs and pulled a set of keys out of her pocket.
“We’ve got options. Chuck’s place is as safe as any. You need a ride?”
Chuck glanced a question at me, and I winked at him and nodded to Gwen, behind her back. The giant’s eyes widened in sudden understanding, and a cheeky grin split his face.
Gwen glanced back at me, and a lot of unspoken questions flared up all at the same time. I kept a cool smile on my face and looked back to Chuck.
“You’ll look after her for me?”
“It’ll be the other way around,” Chuck assured me. “And yeah.”
“Pretty confident of you to assume that I’ll just take you back to mine,” Gwen sniped.
I met her eyes with a smirk. “We’ve still got business to discuss.”
A fresh blush hit her cheeks, courtesy of the booze, but she did her best to frown and look irritated. I gestured for the keys, and she tossed them to me without argument. Javier and Billy didn’t look up from their work on the gun as I approached their table.
“How soon can you make some of those supe-stoppers?” I asked.
Billy glanced up at me with a grimace. “I’m in the process of putting more of them together, but it’s tough to tell. Three days, four?”
I nodded. “They’re hell on wheels. Couldn’t have gotten away with what I have so far without them. So I’d appreciate more of them, when you’ve got the time for it.”
