Damsel: No More, page 21
part #1 of Damsel Series
“I should get my own float tank, if this kind of thing is going to come up all the time like this. Oh, did you hear anything about that little girl?”
That got an exclamation, which was happy. Nearly joyful.
“I did. You got the big guy there, exactly enough that he called and asked Lash if you were available for other work, almost immediately. Then, because it’s our life, there was another thing for her to pay attention to, instead of calling you, to let you know. I should have done it. I just... Do I call you, do you think?”
Hannah looked at the woman’s back then, and frowned.
“Um...Yes? I’m not a superhero and I know you, so... That sounds right. Really, it sounds more correct than any of these others doing it. I mean, you can share your pancake skills with me, if nothing else. I don’t know if we hang, yet, but if you want to do that, then darn straight, call and ask. I’m not so busy that I don’t have time for my friends.”
There was a nod and a smile as the woman turned to look at Hannah.
“I meant the trans thing, it can throw some people off a bit. I try not to push in, due to that.”
Hannah snorted then.
“Oh. Not to be mean, but I really don’t care about that. You’re a good person, or you aren’t. So far, you’ve been really cool, so...” She shrugged, meaning it. The entire topic wasn’t that interesting to her.
Debbie, took a deep breath then.
“All right. So, from now on, I can call you with news and to keep you in the loop. Or if I want to hang out? Good to know. Now, coffee. I need to put a fresh pot on.”
For all the situation seemed tense, or like it could be, since Zip had been shot a few times, when the man appeared in the basement, he didn’t call out for a medic.
“Anyone home?”
That got Debbie to move to the head of the stairs, and move down, with Hannah following her. They got to the bottom just as Cry and then Lash, followed by Wisp, showed up. Each person arrived with a pop, that was powerful, but so low in tone that Hannah felt the impact of it. She moved in then, toward Zip.
“You’ve been shot. Do we have a first aid kit?”
That got a nod, as Lash moved, running fast enough, up the stairs, that Hannah was impressed. It wasn’t superhuman, but also wasn’t a slow trudge at all. Zip, moving in his normal fashion, at least when in his yellow costume, stopped suddenly, when Hannah held her right hand out.
“I need to see what’s going on here. I picked up a bit about it, from... You know, using my abilities, in the tank. Those detectives are tools.”
That got a wry expression, a set of the lips that spoke of anger being repressed. It was held in the eyes as well.
“Worse, one of them has been a longtime contact of mine. It was why I went to help in the first place. I made the mistake of letting my guard down and thinking that we were on the same team. I won’t make that mistake again.”
She made a face then, and looked at the weeping red spots on the clothing.
“None of these look that deep. You managed to dodge them all?”
That had the man looking down at the wounds, with a small grin on his face. It was familiar, now that she knew to look for it.
“You can’t dodge bullets. Well, some of the very high-end speedsters can do it, I hear. For me moving out of the way of the hand aiming is difficult. I stayed in motion, making it harder for them to hit me. These were almost random. Then, the police aren’t very good shots, most of the time. In that close of confines, an expert would have probably hit me on purpose.” He stopped then, so that they could examine the wounds.
All of those were on his upper body, and none had touched his head, thankfully. His arms had three bloody wounds, two on the left and one on the right. That one was the deepest, though, truly, they weren’t that bad for it. They’d broken the skin, and had to hurt, but by some miracle, nothing looked to have bitten into the muscle or tissue under that. Not too deeply.
Which made sense, when Lash looked at the outfit.
“We’ll have to take this off of you, we aren’t cutting it. A bit of a shame, this was a good costume. I’m surprised they managed to get through it, to be honest.”
Leaving his mask and head covering on, the man reached up and undid the hidden fasteners under his right arm. How he managed it without grunting in pain, Hannah honestly couldn’t tell. She would have been whimpering at every move, probably. Then, maybe not. She hadn’t when her face had been sliced up by that bottle, after all.
That, not complaining about things that couldn’t be helped in the moment, was a kind of strength, but one that she could choose to have, just like anyone else. Under the uniform, the man had scars, but he wasn’t covered in the things. His abs showed, and it was clear that he worked out, or at least had some kind of power that made it so he didn’t need to. Maybe both. He looked incredible, really. Almost not human.
Interestingly, Debbie moved in to do the actual work on him.
“You have an accelerated healing factor, so even closing these up is wasted effort. Our girl here called it right, these aren’t that bad, for all the blood you’re leaking still. Let’s get these wrapped up. Hannah, give me a hand?”
She didn’t know what to do, other than follow instructions, but she tried to pay attention, in case it came back up again at some point. She’d had basic first aid, in school, but it had been about ten years before and she really hadn’t had to use that kind of thing a lot, since then.
After holding a few things in place, so that tape could be put on to hold the gauze together, with cotton pads underneath, Veronica came and touched her arm.
“You need to get home. To play video games, before bed?” The words were very out of place, sounding wrong, but she smiled, since there was a sweet innocence about it all. Plus, it was literally her plan, as strange as it had to seem to anyone else there.
“Right! I also need to call Katie and see if she can come with us to Illinois in a few days. We’re blaming her for the food banks and trying to use her show to advertise the whole project, so it’s only right for her to go along. We should bring cameras, so that we can use it for television. I bet Ty can use that kind of thing.” He did everything electronic, after all.
Zip glanced at her, but didn’t comment on the strange words. Wisp was facing her, but what the expression was, under the mask, Hannah wasn’t able to tell. All of the body language was subdued for the man, after all. How much of that was holding the form and how much was a lack of concern in general, she didn’t really know. She knew Kate, but Wisp was being presented as a different person. What he did might not mean the same things.
Which was fair enough, really. It was important to treat people as they wanted, based on presentation, when possible. At least it was to her.
She didn’t pull her phone right then, waving to Wisp, instead.
“I didn’t bring a car. I know you aren’t a taxi service, but if you want, I’ll blow you, if you’ll get me back to my place?” She knew that wasn’t happening and felt bad, teasing Kate that way. Almost. She nearly felt like it was unfair. Of course, even if she wasn’t supposed to know that Wisp was Kate, it had been made clear that he was a girl. So, her teasing could be taken as her attempt to help him sell his boy act.
The man nodded, then.
“You and Cry Diamond need to go back there? I can do that. I have the location.”
She showed her dimples then, and nodded, but Veronica shook her head.
“Can you do my place? For me. I need to do some things, before turning in for the night. I have some people to visit.”
That got a nod, and the dark-haired woman to vanish. Then, a moment later, with a slightly disorienting pop, Hannah was standing in her own apartment, facing the front door.
There was no second pop, indicating that Wisp was going to show up for his reward. It was a shame, since it would have been interesting to see how that would have worked. Telekinetically, was the likely answer. She hadn’t said goodbye to anyone, but decided that they’d get the basic idea of her being teleported away. Probably better than she did, even having had it just happen to her. It was faster than calling for a cab, she had to admit.
Thinking about that, also that she’d managed to be useful that night, she went to her new VR room, and then spent half an hour working out how to get the program she wanted up. It wasn’t that hard, except that there was a second program that was needed for the headset to work, it being on a different system than the rest of the gear, since she’d asked for it to be very high end.
Then, feeling a bit scared at times, she killed, and died, over and over. Until she finally decided that sleep would help her more than running around, or trying to, inside a place that didn’t exist.
It meant she was off to bed by one in the morning, and managed to climb out of the sack and get ready for her day by ten. That was early for her, but she texted Kate, with the particulars of the trip. That wasn’t set yet, as to time, and it did occur to her that the woman might just be too busy to go with her. To that end, she made a second set of plans, just in case.
It wasn’t that different, she realized, since the truth was that, while getting vid of the star doing the set up for the food bank was nice, she wasn’t actually needed to make the whole thing work. There was no immediate answer, so she started her daily exercises, walking around the path in her living room, forward and backward, and then running some drills, to help her get into motion in a given direction. Things that she doubted she was going to remember to do in a real emergency. Then, she was practicing, and it was exercise, which had value, just for the sake of movement.
She also did the stretching exercises and played in VR for an hour and change. She did a bit better, killing the computer-controlled characters about the same amount that they killed her. It felt important to learn to do better than that, so she tried to work out how that might work. Things like keeping her back to the wall and pointing the weapon, held at the right height to aim for the head, as she turned her body. It didn’t make her perfect and she was still slow to shoot, being surprised when she saw an armed man, one who seemed real, coming at her around a corner but by the end of her session she felt a bit more confident.
Not enough for real life, of course.
After a second shower, the rest of the afternoon was spent reading, of all things. She worked at Pleny’s book, ignoring the fact that the man was also a superhero. One with a weird name. Zip. It probably meant that Carl was one too, really. Possibly Debbie. She’d claimed not to have powers, or at least had pointed out that her pancake skills weren’t relevant. Then, if you wanted a secret identity, going around calling out that you could fly or whatever wasn’t a good way to protect it. Plus, not everyone in that game had powers.
She was considering that, and reading about the fifth gait, which was a strange sounding kind of running type movement, when there was a knock on the front door. She blinked, pulled the handgun she had, after she rose and stepped to the side of the door, in case the person on the other side was planning to shoot. Then she used the peep hole, and noticed it was just Kate.
“One mo, Katie!” She put the firearm away first, since nothing said crazed loony like holding a gun when you opened the door to a friend.
The brown-haired girl, her skin pale and lightly freckled, moved in, to give her a hug. She had to reach down to do it.
“Hey! You have a tour bus and we’re going on a road trip? I cleared my schedule for it. The studio wants us to bring a camera guy or two. Is that...” She seemed to be holding her breath then, as if it might be a real issue.
“The bus should be big enough. I’ll pay for the hotel rooms for everyone. I kind of want to keep everyone close. Sober, too, if possible. I... You know, there have been some problems. Come in?”
The woman didn’t normally need to be invited that much, but it wasn’t a bad idea to knock. Especially since Hannah was armed and VR was teaching her how to be a nutjob that shot at everyone, or nearly so. Not the people on her side, hopefully.
Kate moved in, put her purse on the table next to the sofa, then lounged back a bit, getting comfortable.
“Scott, from the studio? He actually loves the food bank idea. Only as a ‘B’ plot line for the show, and we need some kind of controversy. Fights and drama. I told him to leave you out of that, but I don’t think I get to be spared. It’s the problem with having my name on the show like that. They’re paying to see a vapid heiress do all the rich kid things, and I’m not really like that. Not enough for a show to be about that.”
Snorting, Hannah sat down, nearly on her friend’s feet. The shoes had been slipped off, and while poor manners, putting her feet all over the sofa, Kate had, occasionally, almost lived there. Those were put in Hannah’s lap, the hose covered toes wriggling a bit, as if begging for a message.
She started in on it, almost instantly, not even thinking about it.
“Hmm. Anyway, I’m inviting Veronica along. Tyler as well. The tech? He’s going to protect us, in case we need to drive any interested men away, without using violence. Um, also Jaime? He’s... Pretty nice. A friend of Veronica’s. You know, he likes to LARP? No power’s, though. Kind of a neighborhood watch, really, more or less.”
There was a bit of a shudder then, which was what Kate did when her feet were being handled in the right way. It didn’t matter who was doing it either. Hannah... Her latest boyfriend or a sixty-year-old masseuse with man hands and a hairy mole on her face. The first time she’d seen her pal do that, she’d figured she was about to get lucky. It didn’t work that way for her.
At least with Hannah. If she were a guy, it was probably going to be enough to get about halfway to the bedroom. Maybe even more than that. Occasionally, almost subconsciously, her friend was taking swipes at her crotch. It wasn’t a thing she normally did.
Kate wrinkled her nose then.
“Live Action Role Play? That’s... you know that the people who do that aren’t really playing, right? Not most of them. Even some guy in a party mask is asking for trouble, if they do it. That... I heard that there was one of those types, a guy with powers, tearing up a police precinct last night? He nearly killed three of them, or something. Then he escaped.”
Hannah nodded, debating what she was supposed to tell Kate about all of it.
She decided with the truth, minus the portions about who was who. After all, it was what she would have done if Katie was only herself.
“Zip. That’s the name of the guy. A speedster, kind of. It’s different than that, I think, a little. Some kind of space manipulation? I didn’t ask. We, um, some people and me, we got him away from the police. He was trying to make sure he didn’t hurt them, trying to leave. I helped from a different location, trying to get a psychic feel for where he was. I’m not that good at it, but I can kind of tell where a person is and all that, if I’m in a float tank and use the right mental tricks.”
Her best friend nodded then.
“You bought some powers?”
She kept working on her feet.
“Nope. I earned these, through the trauma of being kidnapped and hard work, in a tiny box. You know that... I had to learn not to be afraid of tight spaces. From that one time?” She still wasn’t wild about talking about it, recalling the men, three of them, who had put her in the hole. They’d seemed so normal, really. Like someone’s brother in law, instead of being covered with prison tats and using foul language, constantly.
In a way it was worse than if they’d been obvious about who and what they were. After all, for years she’d had to doubt everyone she met. Just in case they were merely pretending to be human, hiding a monster underneath their smiles.
Kate nodded, looking up at her.
“Yeah. That has to be hard. Still, you can find people? Like... You wanted to be found...” She seemed to be considering it, as if she hadn’t before.
“A bit like that, I think. Anyway, I stayed well back from the action. I’ll leave that to the people in the costumes, you know? Still, I thought that it was only fair to let you know that we were going to have a few of those along. Um, anyway, I was thinking you should get to know Tyler.”
Those words came out of the blue, but after a moment, she nodded. It felt right, as weird as it seemed.
“He’s a bit chunky, balding but has a dour personality and is a wizard with tech stuff. Plus, he has problems getting along with people. That, you know, he’s almost perfect for you. Plus, even if you don’t want to date him, get him to sleep with you for a while and we can have America gasping at the idea, without you having to fake a tantrum at all. Better, even with my killer buildup there, he’s actually worth your time. Now, the other way around...” She was teasing at the end, a thing that her friend got.
Instead of acting too good for an overweight computer guy, she nodded, slowly.
“I can meet him, if nothing else? The last three guys I’ve tried to date... Well, it hasn’t really worked out. Meeting men at clubs tends not to, for some reason.
Hannah kept working on the decently dainty, rather squirming, feet. The feeling of the shear stockings on her hands was nice, as Katie bucked and moved as the right places were hit and rubbed delicately. After a while, one not all that long, it was kind of clear that her friend had an orgasm, even if she was hiding it. The weird part about that was that Hannah didn’t know if she was hiding it from herself or not. She had to figure, given how repressed her buddy was, that it was the real case, as hard as that was to imagine.
Chapter fifteen
She was asleep when the phone rang. A thing that she normally would have put on vibrate, so that she might not miss calls, if she were alert enough to bother with things like that. When she popped her eyes open, the room mainly dark, except for the glow of the green numbers on her digital wall clock, she sighed.
“Seriously? It’s four in the morning. Four-seventeen.” Just grumbling that had her smiling. Less than two weeks before she wouldn’t have even been ready for bed at that time. The evening would have been winding down, but that was all.
