Soda Supreme, page 9
Chapter six
Hannah recalled having stumbled out to her living room, which needed to be tidied a bit, after having all the people there the day before. The maid service would do most of it, but only an asshole left obvious clutter around for the servants to pick up after.
She’d heard of people just leaving massive messes, some of them gross, or doing things like just peeing on the floor, to make the little people around them scrabble and take care of the problem a few times in her life. Even her old friends, the entitled ones, had thought of that kind of thing as a mental disorder, of course. Probably because it actually was. Narcissism taken to a point where it broke minds, or something like that.
So, she carefully picked things up, which were mainly cups and glasses, though some plates with food still on them, and moved into the kitchen, dumping things as she tried to get ready for the day. Even having slept, she wasn’t perfect. Her arm ached, and she was sore all over from the fight in the van. She felt old and broken. On the great side, her dreams hadn’t been nearly as bad as she’d figured they would be. She recalled some about being in a van, but when the fight came, she pulled out a win each time.
In one or two, she thought she recalled having saved Eugene for some reason. Talking him into giving up, instead of suiciding by taking that pill and trying to fight Superion and the others. She felt bad about that, when she recalled it. The idea that she’d have cared enough to let a would-be killer and rapist go, or at least live. She wasn’t some kind of murderer, but she refused to let herself feel bad for the man. Not once he’d reached the point of trying to kidnap her.
Before that, she could see it.
A fat guy, who had grown bitter and felt put down by all women... She could feel for that guy. The instant he hurt others over it she had to draw the line. A person who would do what he tried with her wasn’t even human any longer. Not to her. Being entitled on that level was unforgivable.
So, making some coffee, dropping into a trance while it brewed, and then watering her two cups of joe down, so she could drink them faster, Hannah worked out what she needed to do that day. It was, she had to figure, a rest day for her. At least in part. She walked, practicing the fourth and fifth gait movements, as well as moving backwards, and stretched, then hit the VR room, to practice one handed blade and shooting work. That last one was hard for her, given that the movement in the game was controlled by the thumb on the left hand. She got online anyway, since she had a group of guys she played with, and leaving them hanging, without a fifth member was bad form.
It happened, since people had lives to see about, and things did come up, but just vanishing would get a person whined at, if they were ever found. She was flagged by the Marxist, and Rook, almost instantly. No one else was there yet, since it was still early, on the west coast.
Marxist, who was kind of the group leader, sent her a link and invitation to a practice map. Against bots, since there weren’t enough other players yet for a team to show up.
When she got into the lobby, the tall man waved. He did the same with Rook.
“Hey, guys. You missed yesterday, Wilderness Hannah. Was he at least good looking?” The man was joking with her, like she was one of the guys. She was flirted with a bit, at times, but no one on her team did a lot of that. Meathead tried it, occasionally, but he was thirteen, so got shut down. At the same time, she gave him advice and was supportive of his efforts, when he got close to something that could have actually worked with a girl. After all, killing his self-esteem at that age would be too bitchy for anyone to allow.
She grunted though, and then sighed.
“Yeah. There was a thing, and I broke my left wrist. I can kind of play, but reloading in game is going to be slow for me. I have a splint on right now and can barely hold the controller on that side.”
Rook groaned.
“That sucks. What happened? Car crash?”
She’d never gone out of her way to claim to be herself. Wilderness Hannah was a kind of mean nickname for her online, or had been for a few weeks, after season two of Life of Kate, but that had died down over time. When they’d showed her training in escape and evasion with the others in the Sinclair Saga a few months back, no new name calling had come up for her.
“No... I was kidnapped and had to fight my way out of it. I... Haven’t been watching the news, but... Yeah. I won, but it was hard and I managed to get busted up a bit. Bruises and all that. My ribs feel like I was crushed, even though I don’t know why that happened. Probably when I was thrown into the side of the van.”
The guys were silent for a bit, then The Marxist made an annoyed sound.
“I heard about that and wondered if it was you. Do you need to not do this today? Or... We can stay longer and do more, if you need? I’m not there, so I can’t really help much...”
She laughed, a bit.
“This helps, actually. I... Don’t really know what to do. I’m trying to be an adult this time and not have everyone else do it all for me, but... What’s the protocol for this kind of thing? How do I deal with the police and all that?”
Rook cleared his throat, he was younger, but she thought he was out of high school. At least he was always there to play, which indicated that kind of thing. Possibly home schooled. She’d never asked. They didn’t sit around chatting about their lives, like that.
“Have a friend of the family make a few public addresses about the matter. You know, you’re in seclusion after the event, the family hopes that justice will be done... That... Let me... I need to research this. I can write up a speech for whoever you pick? Or, that might be too much. I mean, you said you were doing it all?”
She laughed.
“I’ll pay you for that? Then it’s me doing it, right? Now, we’re about to need to fight. I’m going to have to head to cover, first thing, if I can.” She scrambled to get her weapons in order, in the fifteen seconds she had.
Then, crippled on one side or not, they slaughtered the bots that day. She died once, as did the Marxist. The Rook died twice. Those numbers were incredible, even against bots. Their kills were about thirty each. They had two bots on their side, who did a lot worse, but it was an easy win.
After that, no one else signing on, they ran a map with zombies on them. Those didn’t have guns, but they always rushed in, at full running speed. It was VR, so it seemed like they were really being swarmed with monsters from all sides, constantly.
Then she had to drop her numbers for the boys, and for the first time got their full names, and gave her own. Meaning as soon as she got out of VR, she had to text both of them, so that they’d know she was a real person and not someone online just pretending to be her. It could have still been that, of course.
It simply wasn’t.
They worked on an action plan, until noon, when she called Lionel Burgess, with a decent sounding script. It was simple enough, but Don Welling, The Marxist, was putting together an actual press conference for her. Contacting different stations and setting up a location for it.
“Lionel Burgess.”
“Hannah de Peyser. We need someone from your office to do some public speaking. If that’s allowed? We have a speech worked out. A statement. I hired some work done on that. It’s pretty boilerplate. On purpose.”
“You want me to do this?”
She shrugged.
“You, or the most junior person you have? This won’t be that high level, so whoever you want to put forward works for me. I’m officially in seclusion, after the ordeal. I can send the script. I also have some mock questions, with answers, in case anyone cares?”
He was shocked that they had a time planned, and a location, which was outside of city hall, there in New York. Not too far from the law offices. A couple of miles, but the man seemed pleased enough to learn of where he was supposed to go. It was warm out, being early summer, but also overcast that day. It wasn’t going to rain though, so it was being held outside.
“Send us what you have? We’ll handled the rest.”
“Thanks, Lionel. This is... I’ve never done this part, before. I always left it to other people. I mean, I am now, asking you and your people to do the actual public parts, but this, setting things up, or even hiring people to do it, directly? It just always happened before. Or didn’t. I never bothered to check, honestly.”
The man didn’t ask how she was doing, but the answers she was providing mentioned that she hadn’t been sexually assaulted. Also that it had clearly been the plan. Hiding that wasn’t going to help anyone, though she suggested not saying anything, if it would hurt the court case, later. They had four people to send away for a good long time, if possible.
That was the fight of the moment, and if she had to pretend to be weak, to make that happen, she was willing to do that. She didn’t want to be a victim and wasn’t one, but pretending to be that to manipulate the system, that was totally inside what she was willing to do.
Lionel had one of his junior partners, Kevin Merk, call up, several times, to get clarification, but at four that afternoon, the man, Kevin, who she’d never met at all, was standing up on all the major news channels, acting as if he and she were personal friends. He wasn’t a great looking guy, being short, chubby and balding. He spoke really well, and seemed to actually care about what had happened to her. Even to the point of fighting back real looking tears, at one point.
The script was, more or less, used, as well. So were the questions and answers. That part was almost a little too well done, actually. As if the news people had been fed their lines.
“Yes?” There was a bit of pointing followed by a man’s voice.
“What are the nature of Hannah’s injuries? You just said that she’s healing up? What does that mean?”
The lawyer, who wasn’t old at all, grimaced.
“Her left wrist was broken. Bruises, contusions and other injuries, most of those happened during the fight with the four main kidnappers.”
Another voice called out then, not waiting for acknowledgment.
“Homeland says that there were superhumans involved, and that three of them are dead. How did that happen?”
She blinked at that portion of things, but Kevin didn’t. He simply looked at the camera.
“The man who put the attack together, who hasn’t been named by police yet, died while attacking Superion X and Diaspora. His heart exploded, from what I’ve been able to find out. The other two did the actual kidnapping. A man and a woman. The man was neutralized on purpose, last night. The woman... Took her own life, earlier today. She managed to teleport a portion of her own brain out of her body. There was a release on that, from DHS? I don’t have any more than that.”
“So, everyone who could speak out against the government’s story is dead or in custody? Why won’t Hannah speak to us, directly?”
The man speaking then was fixed by a gaze that seemed as if Kevin Merk, slightly chubby junior lawyer, was about to jump into the audience and start throwing hands.
“Why isn’t Miss de Peyser speaking to you right now? Did you really just ask that? Seriously? You know the reason for that. Even if you don’t have a human heart, you have to understand that there are four violent kidnappers who need to be prosecuted. Miss de Peyser, Hannah, refuses to accidentally ruin the case against them. That’s why she isn’t speaking. Now, are there any real questions, or should I pass this over to Sheriff McKay?”
That man, a person that Hannah hadn’t seen the night before, had come all the way there to make a statement. She didn’t know how it had worked, but she kind of thought that Wisp had brought the man in. A few of the camera shots, when they moved, showed the familiar blue woman in the background, staying well out of the way. Also, ready to fight.
Not that anything happened. Kate was ready, regardless.
That part of things wasn’t as well done as what her team had put together. The older man was fine, but seemed like a County Sheriff, which he was, not a professional speaker with a well-planned speech. He pretty much read over the basic notes of the night before, leaving off most of the new information, except for adding that all of the attackers had been running superpowers, not just three. He didn’t go into the description of how that was done, of course.
It was, she had to think, almost certainly that new drug or machine power set up. They might all have had it, but it was pretty clear to her that they hadn’t been using them, in the fight with her. Thankfully. Otherwise, she’d probably be dead.
That was the only new piece of information for the day, that the news told her. They also got a few things wrong. Nothing so large that she was going to make a fuss about it, but the local Sheriff department sounded a whole lot more heroic than they had been at the time. Mainly in that they hadn’t been there, until later. That wasn’t their fault, but there was a bit of glory seeking involved, it was clear.
She was fine with that. Really, she thought it was kind of cute. Like little kids riding bikes with no hands, shouting for their mom to look at them.
After she turned the television off, and tried to get back into her psychic trance, she considered the idea, for a while. It didn’t harm her for other people to look good in the whole thing and they sort of needed to protect Chris and Vidya, since it had sounded a bit like they’d murdered Eugene the kidnapper, the way people were talking about it.
As if the heart popping portion of things had been a code for smothering the fat man to death, in retribution. It hadn’t been that at all. The man had literally planned to fight to the death and managed it, as they both struggled very hard to simply keep him from killing anyone while he did it.
Hannah sat cross legged on her sofa, with her forty-four in her lap, which she brought up, pointing it in the direction of her front door, as Wisp popped into place. This time with another person being with her, which was unusual. Kate came over, even in costume, but she’d rarely brought anyone else without calling first. It was just Luther, in his full superhero get up.
He instantly went for his own weapon, as she started to lower her own, seeing who was there. Shooting her friends wasn’t a good plan, after all. She might need them, later.
“Sorry. I only got incoming, not who it was. I guessed it was Wisp, but there are other teleporters in the world.”
Instead of whining about her having the drop on him, the man took off his mask, smiling. That was odd for him and looked strained, but seemed genuine.
“Ha! From now on we call first. Good work, H. We have news.”
Wisp took her mask off as well, and nodded, then moved in and gave Hannah a hug.
“How are you holding up? Lash was worried about you. I mean, we all were, but she almost ordered everyone to come stay here, last night, so you could sleep.”
That got a shrug, but a smile, as well. She wasn’t really tired, just sore. The coffee had done its work that way, so she was a bit jazzed, under the meditation she was doing. It was hard to hold that and talk, at the same time.
She tried anyway.
“I slept pretty well, considering everything. It doesn’t hurt that all of the people involved in this are already in custody. That or dead. I... Don’t know if the teleporter involved is actually dead. I heard what was said, but there was a deal in place, for her to work for the Feds, instead of going to prison. I tried to intimidate her, but it probably won’t hold. No one fears the chihuahua, do they?”
Her best friend, Kate, grinned then.
“She’s alive. I had that from Vidya, who’s keeping tabs for us. From what I heard that wasn’t really the case. That woman wet herself, over what you said to her. She probably isn’t really a bad guy. Which you know, or she’d be dead. The man, Stunny Joe or whatever he called himself? He didn’t leave the facility. The Agent in Charge there shot him in the head. From behind. The word is the man was trying to escape. You know, while kneeling, with his hands cuffed behind him?”
Her voice was quiet, as if she figured that was an abuse of police powers. It probably was. Hannah nodded.
“That’s the right thing for them to do. I nearly killed him myself. He... Wasn’t a good person. He knew what he was doing, and what would happen to me, due to his actions. He thought it was a good thing. That it might teach me manners or something? So I wouldn’t be a stuck up bitch in the future? That I’m not like that with men was totally missed. By all the evil dudes involved. What’s with that? Do they not read the tabloids or something?”
Carl sat in the chair across from the sofa, his back to the bedroom, but not the patio or the front door. Katherine moved in next to her, and shrugged.
“That’s probably the big thing here. A lot of men are kind of marginalized. If you aren’t great looking, have millions in the bank and the sense of humor of a stand-up comedian, you aren’t going to be getting dates that easily, right now. I mean, when I started as Wisp, eight years ago, women would flirt with me. Ask me if I wanted to go on a date, that kind of thing. In the last three years or so, with the same outfit, the same kind of saves being made, I’ve actually had women claim that I was trying to feel them up with my powers.” She looked down her nose then and shook her head. “Not all of them, or all the time, but no one has been asking me out. Not even after the costume change and going public. I get that as Kate, from both men and women, but Byron didn’t get much that way at all. And that was as a literal superhero, after saving lives. I can’t imagine what it’s like for a normal guy that way.”
There was a head shake from Carl.
“Things are rough. Still, these weren’t average guys or even just what ugly dudes are like. These were broken people. Men aren’t going around kidnapping women any more than they ever have. Really, that kind of thing is happening less. Probably due to it being more dangerous now. It’s not impossible for criminals to get away with things, but when someone might well read your mind and find you, no matter how well you hide, a lot of people won’t risk it.”
