Wilderness Hannah, page 10
part #3 of Damsel Series
She didn’t eat a lot, but...
Sighing, she nodded.
“So, you can see a problem. Fix it. Dan gave you a cheat sheet and everything.”
She thought about that as she passed Lewis, and stopped, since he was, in a weird way, her friend. The old doorman was always nice to her, at least and she tried to do that back.
“Hey... so, I just had a consultation with a doctor. I guess I’m underweight? I’ve been trying to eat more, but you know, I’m working out at the same time. Any tips?”
The man gave her a considering look and nodded.
“Get a chubby boyfriend. Women always gain weight when they do that. Being around someone who eats all the time will push you to do it as well.” He stopped then. “It pretty much has to be a man for that. A woman would try to match you, trying to be thin. That won’t work as well.”
He stopped then, probably wondering if she was going to be offended by that, instead of seeing the logic of it. She’d asked and he’d given her an actual trick that might really help. It was kind of a niche thing, since women didn’t generally need to gain weight, and chubby didn’t mean she had to find someone who would totally crush her in bed, she didn’t think. Just someone who enjoyed eating, who would be around enough for it to influence her.
“That... Is probably a decent life hack. I don’t know anyone like that, except Tyler and he’s already dating my best friend. That’s serious, so I can’t steal him away... Everyone else I know runs toward being kind of thin, really.”
Which probably meant she was a classist cunt, or at least a shallow bitch. Most people were a bit heavy in America and she honestly didn’t know one man who was single, and carrying even thirty extra pounds.
“I’ll see about that. Thanks, Lewis. I was just talking about needing to get a real relationship going soon, anyway. Now, how about you?”
The man winked at her.
“Happily married, thank you.”
She chuckled. The man was too old for her, being in his sixties at least.
“Too skinny, too. No, I meant, is there anything in your life you want to over-share with me?”
“My son is getting married soon. Re-married, but to the same girl. They broke up, then decided they didn’t hate each other nearly as much as they thought? Something like that.”
They talked about that for about two minutes, when she noticed a small flood of camera people walking toward her, seeming annoyed and out of breath. A few looked honestly upset, as if she were the devil, having dared to avoid them.
“That’s my cue to leave. Thanks for the chat, Lewis. Talk later?”
“Of course, Miss Hannah. Now, I need to glare at some people. Call the door before you come down and whoever is on will at least let you know if anyone is lurking?”
As she went inside, she grunted a bit.
“Will do. Thanks.”
She was thinking as she got up to her place, about trying to find a real date. Just with a nice guy, who may, or may not, like to eat. She doubted that swiping on Tinder was actually a path to that kind of thing. Not if she wanted more than to have her underparts licked.
The big trick of it was that she didn’t really go anywhere, anymore. No-one had been for a while, due to everything being locked down, of course. Now that they were opened again...
Well, all she really knew about was bars and clubs.
Which wouldn’t work for what she wanted at all. There had to be a place for things like that though. It was just that she, and the people that she knew, didn’t have that kind of information. Instead of worrying over that, she decided to sharpen her shooting skills in VR.
Forgetting to eat at all, of course.
Chapter seven
Tyler didn’t really need Hannah, and John managed to get busy, having actual people to go and see, even in New York. A city he didn’t even live in. Nate made dinner for her, using the guidelines Doctor Dan had presented her with, but then left her all alone.
What she did have was a combination of tutorial videos on a graphics program, which actually showed her how to use the thing, which she downloaded for free, and a book on magic that she hadn’t read. John had gotten it for her, by borrowing it from Lashandra. That it had probably been an excuse to go and visit the other two was between the lines on the note that was left.
So, she was about to go to bed ridiculously early, at eight o’clock at night, when she got a call. From a real person and everything. As she picked up, she decided to keep them on the line, even if it was a telemarketer. She could buy things, if it meant not being alone too much longer.
“Hannah here, how may I help you?” It was coming in on her personal phone, not the one she used for business. On that one she made certain not to be nearly as casual. People who you wanted to give you money needed to be treated as if they were special, after all.
“Hannah? This is Alex. Darius?”
“Alex! What’s up?” He had the cell’s number, but had rarely used it to get in touch with her. Really, about two thirds of the time when they talked, she had to call him. She would have figured that he was playing hard to get, if not for the fact that he was very good about not hitting on her. Even if she would have probably put out. He was literally twice her age and that kind of thing mattered to some people.
Normally the good ones, which Alex didn’t have a reputation of being. There it was though, with him not abusing the little girl and everything, even if no-one in the world would have blamed him. She was an adult woman, after all. One with a certain reputation.
“Your friend, the one who broke into my home some months ago?”
She winced, wondering if Guardia had done it again. She wasn’t supposed to, for several years. It had been part of the deal to get her out without being hassled. Darius had pictures of her, without her mask and had, no doubt, tracked down her entire life, from just that.
“Yes?”
“I fear she’s walking into an ambush. I have no way of warning her, and was just handed that information. The warehouse she’s about to go into has nearly a hundred well-armed mercenaries in it, as well as a half dozen superhumans. An investigator of mine informed me of this no more than two minutes ago. It has nothing to do with me, of course. I mean that, as well. So, knowing you’ve dealt wither people before, I thought to give what warning I could?”
A lot of people would have doubted the man on his word. Hannah just figured that if he wasn’t being legit, then the worst thing that would happen was her giving a warning to the woman without it really helping her. Not that Alex had never been involved in anything dark, but the truth was, if that had been his goal that night, he wouldn’t have contacted her.
“I’ll get with her. Thanks. You’re coming to dinner on Saturday? At seven?” They didn’t have a regular thing, but the man sounded pleased enough when he spoke.
“A date. You need to hurry...”
She hung up, and thought for half a second, then just tried calling first. It was shocking, but the woman actually picked up.
“Guardia, here.”
“This is Damsel. I just got word that you’re about to walk into a trap? A warehouse with at least a hundred-armed men, and six or so people with powers? Alex Darius called to tell me. He said he isn’t involved, so wanted you to have a warning.” That hadn’t been how he’d put it, but it sounded nicer than her being used to help out Hannah.
“Fudge. There are three men being held hostage in there. That sounds real enough, for the numbers, but I was hoping it was something I could handle. I don’t know... One of those kids is Daniel Foreman. Senator Dan Foreman’s son? Dan junior is actually not half the slime bag as daddy, even. I don’t know what to do. There isn’t a lot of time here and that’s...”
Hannah frowned. She didn’t have any powers that would help at all, of course.
“Wisp, Zip, Red Cape and Green Running guy? People who are fast and not easy to hurt. I can call up... Two of them. Let me see what I can arrange. Can you hold there? If that doesn’t work... I’ll figure something out. Do you have any idea who’s doing this?” It was too big for a normal kidnapping, after all.
“Not a clue. It isn’t the Khan Collective or Murder Underground. My contacts are solid on both of those points.”
That left her feeling a bit better, even if she’d never even heard of the Murder Underground. That sounded kind of sinister to her. Which was probably the point.
“Hold there and don’t be seen. You dying helps no-one.”
She hung up, and called Wisp first, which had Kate on, almost instantly.
“Wisp here-”
“Guardia has found three hostages in a warehouse. One is a senator’s kid. There are a hundred gunmen and at least half a dozen supes. We need a team to get them back. Can you get with Zip on this? Maybe Luther, for backup. I’m going to call Red Cape and see if he has any contacts. We need to not mess this up.” Hannah honestly doubted they were going to be able to get the people back alive, with those odds being against them.
She would have simply had ten of the men standing there with guns, ready to shoot them, if anyone started to break in. At least if it looked like they were winning.
“Understood. I’ll make the arrangements. I get with Guardia for the location? Is she in touch with you?”
“Use her cell.”
Then she called up the Red Cape, feeling freaking awkward.
“Hello?”
“Damsel here. A situation, which could use your help. Some of your friends, as well? That fast guy from your team. Green Runner? Maybe Death Princess? We’re getting Wisp, Zip, Luther and Guardia. She’s on the scene there. Alex Darius called to let me know it was a trap.” She covered what had been shared with her, the man on the phone clearing his throat.
“Let me see who’s available tonight. Wisp is the one who can teleport with people? Is he willing to do transport?”
“Yes, but we need known locations for that, or good maps of where to find people. I can...” She didn’t think she could do much at all, other than work a phone. The man grunted and sounded considering.
“Can you go in, mentally? Knowing even roughly where people are inside can really help in a matter like this.”
“I should be able to. If nothing else, it’s practice and I can feel like I tried to help, right?”
The man laughed, as if she wasn’t being serious.
“I’ll head over now. Keep me informed?”
She had a name, for the Senator’s kid, so sat on her sofa, well away from any real danger, being smart like she was, and found him, with decent speed, for her. Twenty minutes later she had a map, of both the inside and outside of the building, complete with how the prisoners were tied up, which was with duct tape and zip ties, hands behind their backs, legs wrapped up with the silver tape.
The other two didn’t look like bodyguards, but they were all men. One was an older fellow, but she didn’t try to find out his life story, working out what the superpowered people had going on, instead. That was a bit different than she would have thought.
It was hard, but she went into their minds, and tried to understand what she was seeing there, in regard to powers. That meant, when Wisp came, she had a list of what she thought they might be facing, power wise and where they were staged inside the steel building.
The blue man popped in behind her, without calling, of course. She’d understood, somehow, that he was coming. Then, she was still in a trance state, and Lashondra had mentioned that she might eventually show a few other powers that way, if she bothered to keep practicing. Nothing too strong, but human beings all had some basic abilities that way.
Most just didn’t use them very well.
Not that she was, either. Still, she’d felt Kate coming, while sitting in a trance state.
“There are eleven superpowered people. They aren’t all that, power wise, but it’s a real enough threat. I wouldn’t want to fight any of them, if I could help it, myself. I marked them on the map. There’s a list, too. I couldn’t get the names for everyone, but I think I have what they can do?”
A few of those things were a bit strange, like one man, who clearly had powers, but who seemed more like an auto mechanic than a fighter. She’d put that down as well, in case it meant anything.
Wisp grabbed it all, and vanished, never speaking.
Hannah wasn’t called after that, but did find a television channel that had the whole thing going live. At the commercial break she noticed that all the big channels seemed to be covering it, when she flipped through, just to check. The fight was intense, and lasted a while, since the men inside were trapped. Not the three hostages, since Wisp had taken them away in the first moments, with Red Cape and the rest making enough noise to distract the jailers, as cover.
She knew that, since the three freed men were being interviewed, live, almost first thing.
Wisp went back to help her friends. Which left Hannah feeling useless again. After all, even if her place was there, watching events on television, she actually cared for some of the people on the scene. Really, all of the ones on her side. Mainly because it was her side, of course.
They’d been called in, by her. So if anyone got hurt, it was a thing she’d need to deal with. To that end, she nodded, and called Debbie.
“Emergency?”
The voice was firm and hard.
“No, this is Hannah, safe at home. You’re up on what’s going on?”
“We are.”
“Can you stand by, in case we need to heal anyone?”
There was silence for a bit, then a deep inhalation.
“Standing by.”
Then the phone clicked, going dead. Of course.
“Right. You know this. You’ve done gun battles in a warehouse before, what did you need?”
That had happened to her, earlier that day, in fact. A smaller thing as far as raw numbers went, and in VR, but one of her new buddies, The Rook, had called out locations of people, while being dead. It was a gray area, being considered cheating by some, in the games she was playing...
Real life though, had no rules that way at all.
So, it was time for her to become a ghost. The easy way, that didn’t require death at all. Just a buttload of concentration. That and a cell phone. She had to put that in her lap, and find a person who wasn’t actively fighting, at that moment.
In this case, it was actually Guardia, who had been shot, once, in the face. That was going to leave a bruise, it looked like and she was clearly annoyed by it, rubbing at the spot that had been hit, occasionally. That didn’t make her unable to answer her phone, of course.
“Here.”
“Hold out your right hand, and point... Toward the center of your body more, at the warehouse... There. Behind that concrete round thing? There’s one of the super types. Laser blasts of some kind. About to stand up and shoot, in about fifteen seconds, I think.” She wasn’t exactly able to read minds, but she was, kind of, getting a sense of what might happen. She could see a transparent shadow of the man moving, and doing that. Shooting light at people. The lines went in a few directions.
Guardia yelled.
“Superion! There!” She didn’t stop pointing, and just as the blast of golden light came, hitting no-one, yet, Red Cape dropped from the sky, and tapped the man with the laser hands on the top of the head. The fellow went to sleep and didn’t wake up very quickly at all. In fact, the flying man on her side stole him, physically flying away with the would-be villain.
That meant other people had to act, over the next few minutes. Death Princess, or whatever she was actually called, went in physically, along with Luther, as Zip and the even faster Green Running Guy caused a distraction on the other side of the building. Their side was hit, occasionally, mainly by bullets, but they all had better than decent armor on, or were just immune to that kind of thing for one reason or another.
When their flying buddy came back, they were able to take the lower powered super people inside the building away, one at a time. Wisp actually did a lot of that, teleporting full grown adults to the Red Cape, for him to haul away. Using a map of where they were inside the building, provided by Guardia, getting directions from Hannah, on the phone.
In the end, the last fifty or sixty men, all armed, ran out, and simply scurried away. The good guys had people with super speed, the ability to fly and teleport on their side. The mercenaries had a lot of experience and a strong desire not to be caught, as well as raw numbers.
About half of them actually got away.
One of them, Hannah noticed, was the leader. Not the boss of the whole thing, but the man who had hired all the armed men, and was leading them that day. She simply focused, not letting go of the image in her mind and moved along with the jerk, muttering into her phone, not even knowing if anyone could follow him at all. That, it turned out, was done by Death Princess, who was chasing the man’s car, on foot, casually talking to Hannah as if they were teammates or something.
“I lost him.” Diaspora, her actual name, or so she’d claimed, sounded annoyed.
“I haven’t. He turned into the alley to your left. Just ahead of you. Then turned the lights on his car off and is ducking down.”
There was a pleased gasp then.
“Ah! And there he is. Clever of him! Let me...” The phone was turned off, so Hannah got the idea, and shut her own down as well. The woman was going to be busy, for a few moments.
She watched it happening, which was amazing. Diaspora literally punched through the top of the armored car, a large sedan style thing in gray, and peeled the roof back, ignoring the fact that the man inside was shooting at her the whole time. The lady was hit, and ignored it, finally reaching in with her sword and cutting the man’s right hand off. That did stop the weapon from firing, pretty well.
There was screaming, but she pulled a zip tie from her belt and used it as a tourniquet.
Then she carried the man away, at a jog, back to the warehouse where things were going on. Red Cape was annoyed with her, for some reason. Diaspora, not Hannah. She couldn’t track what was being said, of course.
