Soda Supreme, page 4
Hannah nodded, before Burgess could suggest that wasn’t important. Not that it really was.
“Right. I sleep with a gun by my bed, but when I woke up, with that hood on, I didn’t have that with me.”
Covering the rest of the fight, making certain she spoke about how freaked out she had been, and how she’d been fighting blind for the first minute of it, Hannah tried not to add anything. It had been scary, so that wasn’t a lie. They only went through the story once, and then doubled back. She wasn’t the one accused of anything, not yet, so that was probably enough. Lionel stood then, and Wisp took the Deputy by the arm, without speaking, making her vanish, before she could talk again.
The older man sighed.
“I need to work with that one more often. She probably saved us half an hour. Are you waiting for a doctor? We’ve been doing this for some time...”
Hannah looked around.
“Yeah. There was an incident here. One of the men took a drug that gave him medium level powers. Strength, speed and that kind of thing. He managed to hurt two of the doctors, before anyone got here to help them. We might have a bit of a wait.”
He nodded and started to sit again.
“I’ll sit with you? Or we can call someone?”
Diaspora shook her head.
“I’ll stay. If we have to take DNA samples by force, I’m the person for the task. I’ll get in trouble for it, but I’m used to that. You two can take off.”
She glared a bit, but even Hannah couldn’t tell if it was meant to drive the men away, or if they were supposed to stay. Christopher shook his head.
“I’ll stay as well. In case there are any further issues with those men. Thank you... Lionel Burgess?”
“That’s right. I know who you are, of course.”
The man simply nodded.
“Thanks for coming out like this. I know it’s not the best time of the day for such things. Not that any is.”
That was enough for Lionel, seeming a bit driven off, to leave. Wisp didn’t come back, but Kate, Veronica and Tyler did. That last one was a shock, really. He was her friend, after a fashion and dating Kate, but she wouldn’t have figured him for a wait at the hospital type buddy.
More of an awkward hug, two weeks later, as he mentioned having heard that something happened, but that he didn’t know what to say kind of thing. There he was though, waving back when he did it. He glanced at the others there, but didn’t act impressed. Then, he’d met them both before. With Vidya that had actually been at least ten times, since she’d worked on the Knife Fight Trainer with him.
He even spoke first.
“I asked Terry to go in to the shop. She can handle orders and do some of the work. Unless we’re staying, then we’ll work it in shifts. You seem fine?”
She nodded, not mentioning the whole thing. If she’d been raped, not knowing it, she’d be annoyed, but letting it freak her out wasn’t going to help anyone.
“Probably a broken arm. Wrist. I jumped in the air and sat on my hands, to force them apart and break the duct tape. It wasn’t a lot of it, but the landing was hard.”
He made a pained face.
“I can’t pull that move off. My behind is still too big for my arms. You can go to, um, that other place, and heal up?”
She nodded.
“Sure. Except that I need to be able to show the injuries for the court case. We need to get pictures. The whole thing. I should strip for that, since I bet I have some nice bruises going on. Not out here. I’m a prude that way, you know?” She wasn’t and didn’t care if the others in the room saw her naked. It was mainly for their sensibilities that she was acting that way. At least she was claiming that. The truth was, she felt really vulnerable.
Her power hadn’t been taken away, but people had tried pretty hard to do that to her. It was enough that she didn’t feel strong, at the moment.
She smiled.
“At least this time what I did actually had an impact on people. I think one of them might have been on those drugs in the van. He was fast and strong. Not ready for me to do anything real though, so I won. He might not have been on anything, either. I was tossed around a bit, but I’m not huge.”
She had to go over the whole thing then, since Kate had pulled Tyler from bed and kind of ordered him to come to the hospital, in a bit of a panic. Not that there was a real need for that. The slightly heavy, but trimmer over the last several months, tech guy nodded.
“Right. We need sensors on you then, while you sleep. Some way to protect against mental coercion, too. I... Have nothing for that. Hey, did anyone get with Nate?”
Hannah shook her head.
“He was on patrol all night. I didn’t think of it. He’s working with The Underdogs?” That was for Vidya and Chris, even though she was pretty certain they both understood that. Veronica pulled her phone then, which was clunky and too large. The special communications device of her team. Made of metal and with four, very uneven, strangely swirled antenna on the top. It was about the size of Hannah’s hand and didn’t have a camera at all.
It was really more of a radio than a phone, but when she spoke, Nate answered, a few seconds later.
“Cry? What’s up?”
Veronica spoke calmly. A forced sounding thing.
“Hannah was kidnapped. She escaped and took down the four men who did it, but has a broken wrist. She did that to herself, escaping. We found the man who arranged it. I called in about the new drugs we need to look for? Linear told you about that?”
“No? Then, he wouldn’t have, since I haven’t been in to report yet. What did they do?”
Hannah leaned in, the little wire mesh microphone pointed her way, by Veronica.
“Boosted his strength by about ten times. Maybe more than that. Speed, too. His heart exploded, but he wasn’t in good shape to start with. Milage might vary on that one. At least one of the others had that, too. Red Cape and Death Princess got to the hospital where they were being helped, in time to keep him from escaping. The creep, the first one, was hurting himself, as he moved. I could hear breaking bones. He didn’t respond to the pain at all.”
Christopher nodded.
“Agreed. The one here also did that. He was stronger. Not that fast, which is different. Or not. He was also already nearly dead, from his fight with Hannah. All the men are.”
“That’s... Are you okay?”
She sighed, then didn’t hold back.
“I was out for a bit first. Some kind of power was used. I heard that much. A teleporter, as well. A person with that kind of power. That could be a lot of things. John can do that sort of thing. He came in to help. Um, where is he?”
Kate raised her hand, to a little less than shoulder high.
“Your place, putting up wards. It probably wasn’t magic, since what you already had in place against it wasn’t touched at all. We need to find who did this. The man paying them is dead, but we have the four here. I think we might want to pay some other people a visit, if they haven’t fled the country.”
She agreed with that, but didn’t say so. After all, the nurse had finally come for her.
“Holden Grace?”
Or not. It was frustrating, but she understood what was going on, so settled in and waited her turn. Even if she kind of hated doing things like that.
Chapter three
Hannah, sitting on her own sofa, feeling exhausted, smiled. To herself, even though she had an apartment filled with people at eleven in the morning. Carl actually smiled back at her, his face bare, and dressed like a truck driver, instead of as a superhero. He was even wearing a brown ball cap, and a tucked in flannel shirt, with blue jeans on and regular running shoes. It wasn’t obvious, but the man was also armed to the teeth.
Then, so was Hannah.
He cleared his throat.
“You seem happier than I would have thought you’d be?” It was kind of clear the man didn’t know if he was supposed to say something or not on the topic. Then, he wasn’t a people person, really. In fact, even if it wasn’t showing too much at the moment, the man had a reputation for being a bit of an asshole.
Hannah winked at him, almost being playful.
“The doctor said I wasn’t sexually assaulted. Also, even though I’m not wild about being teleported out of bed as I slept, I handled things. I wasn’t a victim. Those guys made a mistake, trying to take me, and paid for it.”
Carl, thin and rangy, his face a bit blotchy in places, since like most men, he didn’t wear makeup, nodded. John, from across the room cleared his throat.
“Damn straight they did. That cute woman... Vidya? She mentioned that she and Wisp got there just in time to save their lives. To get them to the hospital in time for them to live. I mean, sure, they were just regular blokes, so don’t feel too proud, but you aren’t wrong. They screwed up, making a grab for you. I doubt they’ll do it twice.”
He was fighting a smile, but it was an act, most likely. The man was good at things like that. Also of rather loose moral grounding. It was the real reason she’d asked for him. Carl as well, though the man wasn’t as humorous about the fact that he’d kill, if he had to. Not that John Fawks was a murderer. The man would help you hide the bodies without blinking.
The words had Carl nodding, however.
“True. Unless they were all running that drug? That’s a bit off, isn’t it? I mean, how does something like that go unnoticed? People suddenly showing up with powers like that? Especially criminals.”
Walking out of the kitchen, with Veronica, Vidya was holding her cell phone, a rather standard black looking thing, to the side of her head. Nodding.
“Understood. I can pass the word on this?” She waited, sounding as if she were almost military in her speaking, even if she was doing it with her cute accent. She looked around, scanning the room. Then she listed everyone in the place off, by name. Their real names, as far as Hannah knew. Everyone except Carl, who she just called Luther.
After everyone had looked at her, she nodded.
“Got it. Let me see what I can set up?”
Instead of speaking to her sister, Veronica, the woman waved at Fawks.
“We have information on this drug. Not a lot, but the initial autopsy shows a small machine network in the digestive track of Eugene Leptis. We don’t think it’s a drug. It’s some kind of nano tech. We don’t know how it works, but the remnants of the pill that he took show that it’s a battery, not chemicals. Or, Lichen didn’t say battery...”
Walking closer, Tyler Yaun nodded.
“A super-capacitor?”
Rather suddenly, the hot brunette pointed at the slightly schluby Asian guy.
“That’s it. I was asked if you’d get some feelers out and see if anyone knows where this is coming from? You know, underworld things?”
John just nodded.
“I can probably do that, if anyone knows anything. It will take a while. I need to get back to London for that. Anyone seen Wisp?”
Kate wasn’t there, for some reason, which was a bit odd, really. Normally after Hannah was beaten or had been kidnapped, she showed up and stayed with her for a while. This time she’d been a lot more distant. Clearly there, to help, but not holding her hand. Not even the unbroken one. That got her to smile again, even if her left wrist was in a splint at the moment. They had to wait for the swelling to go down, before she could have a cast.
Technically, if she could have gotten a ride to the Never, she could have used magic to heal it, as well as the bruises and abrasions she had going on, but everyone had decided that she needed to look beaten up for at least a normal amount of time, so that no one could claim that the men were simply attacked by her, in court, later. That didn’t seem likely, but it was a real problem with the modern world.
If you fought back too well, you were claimed to be super human. If that happened, the courts pretty much could go in any direction. Her low-level psychic skills wouldn’t really count though, since they were invisible. If it looked like she had instant healing, that might influence a jury against her. So she was living in pain, for the time being. Her wrist ached, even with the pain meds in her system.
She schooled her mind, trying to ignore it.
There was a shrug from Tyler.
“I can call on that one? I think she mentioned taking a nap?”
That didn’t sound like Kate at all, to Hannah, which must have showed on her face. Oddly enough, Ty grinned at her.
“I told her not to baby you, this time. Even if she was planning to come live here, for a while. You have this under control. Acting like that would sort of be cutting your nuts off. She wanted to though, in a nice way, so you get the idea? She’s fighting to make sure you know that she knows you had this, all on your own.”
It still would have been nice to have her pal there, but Veronica moved in, settling beside her on the sofa, and put an arm over her shoulder.
“A real point. Now, I’m starving. We should get some food in? John, can you work from here, for a bit? Or The Underdog’s HQ? That way we can let Wisp be rested, in case anything really pressing comes up. We should have more than one teleporter on tap, really.”
The man looked annoyed, then went still.
“You know, I was just being lazy. I can open a point to point portal on my own. It isn’t as fun, and takes some work, but... Yeah. Hannah, do you need me to stay?” He seemed ready to, even if The Society was asking him to see if he could find out any information for them.
That was either very big, or pretty scary, depending on his current thoughts about how he was living his life. He was, normally, on his side, as he liked to put it. It sounded like he was assuming that his side had a Hannah on it, as well. Which was true, but she wouldn’t have figured him as thinking that way, really.
“Not if you can get back here if we need you? It probably won’t come up, but if it does, I’d feel better, knowing it’s possible.”
His British accent was a bit thick, but he wasn’t hamming it up, at the moment.
“Got it, luv. I’ll keep my phone on me. Now, let me use your VR room for a bit? A bloke doesn’t want everyone seeing them make a portal, after all.”
That was fine. Really, she stood up then, stretched, which caused pain to shoot through her left arm and nodded.
“I hear that. Thanks. Really, thank all of you. This was... Annoying.” She grinned. “Which is better than so traumatic I need to go away to rest for a while, so I’m calling it a win.” John got a hug then, before he could escape the room.
“Call if you need me? Even just to talk.”
“I’ll probably be calling anyway, just to keep myself awake.” She grinned but nodded. “Also with any updates, if we have some of those? So far none of those guys have died, other than Leptis. Also, Megan Kant hasn’t called to yell at me, which is a miracle. Not that she’s normally that way, but...”
John nodded, mainly ignoring that. Then he left the room, knowing where he was planning on working at the moment. Her VR room. Out of everyone there, only Vidya grinned at her clever notice that Reese’s mom was the one to worry about. The woman was sweet, in her own way, but not a pushover.
A thing, clearly, Vidya was aware of.
“Yes. That’s coming. As it should be, of course. You took a fourteen-year-old boy to a crime scene, to capture a man who ended up having superpowers. His work after that was good. Lichen mentioned that, on the phone, in fact. How he smoothed everything over and took charge. Tom was not happy about that. Impressed, which is harder to pull off with him.”
Hannah nodded.
“I was too. It didn’t seem like him, really. I need to talk to him about that. I should also...” Hannah petered off, not being able to think, for a moment. She tried shaking her head, to clear it, but nothing of use happened. It was the drugs. That or the fact that she was a bit overwhelmed. Normally when things like that, her being kidnapped, had happened in the past, other people had done everything for her.
This time they were only doing about two thirds of it. That didn’t seem like a big deal, but it kind of was. For instance, no one had called her dad to let him know she was all right. Her step mom, or, she had to figure, her real mom, either.
She also hadn’t worked up any kind of press release. That was a mistake, on her part. She nodded though, and got her phone, which had stayed there the whole time, the drugs making her a bit drifty. It was probably that which had her dialing Alex Darius, instead of her father, first thing.
“Alex here, how may I help you?”
“Hey, Alex. Hannah. I was kidnapped last night. Four men in a van, with super human help. A fifth man was behind it. Two of them had some kind of tech inside of them that gave them superpowers. Strength, speed and it made them impervious to pain. I managed to take out the first four, and then got some help with the rest. We haven’t located the supes yet.” She was just bringing him up to speed, working her way to what she really wanted to get to.
The man interrupted her, of course.
“Are you all right?” He sounded cold, suddenly. Angry, on her behalf.
“Broken left wrist, bruises, it’s a little hard to breathe, since fighting in the back of a van will do that to you. Only the one break. I was out for a bit first, but not raped or anything like that. Probably felt up, since the creeps had a perfectly good me there, unconscious, but that’s all. So, more or less fine. Then Eugene Leptis, the man who set it all up, he pushed himself until his heart exploded. Fighting Red Cape and Death Princess. Technically Timekeeper and Luther, as well. Reese has a black eye from it.”
There was a sound of typing then.
“I... Have some information on a few things that sound like they might be the technology used? I’ll have that brought to you, via currier. Reese was there?”
She nodded, Vidya and Veronica both looking at her, rather seriously.
“Yeah. He did the initial approach, for the take down. We didn’t know that Eugene was going to suddenly have powers or anything. That... Yeah. Megan is going to have my behind over that part.”
“I... Would say I understand, but I don’t. You said that Luther was involved? From The Requiem?” His voice was a bit odd, on that one, for some reason.
