by Nathan Howe
Kraftg, Heldonhaft, and I were lucky to get out alive. She set up a perfect trap for us. It helped that she didn’t know how to use Kraftg powers and ended up knocking him out. I felt completely useless because I couldn’t use my abilities. She threw me off my game, but the kid Heldonhaft saved us. He created some-thing called an EMP. It did the job. I was tempted to see if Jack could tattoo one on me, but wasn’t sure it would work. It sounded like an extremely complicated device.
“It wasn’t my fault,” I said.
Inflamed rolled her eyes. “Why do you automatically assume we are going to blame you?”
I tilted my head and glared at her. “Isn’t that how it works. Shit on the little guy and throw the blame around?”
Invincible laughed. “I might try that next time. Thanks for the tip.”
Inflamed punched him. “We came here because there had been no word from Cyberhex.”
“If I had heard from her, trust me, I would have told you.”
I continued to my place. This was a conversation I wanted nothing to do with. Any time I dealt with In-flamed I ended up worse for wear. She had an ability to get me into situations that I wanted nothing to do with.
Before I made it to my door, Invincible reached out and grabbed me. His grip was firm, and there was no way I was going to get away from it. “Where do you think you are going?”
“Inside and away from whatever it is you want me to do,” I said. The door haunted me. So close but so far away. I sighed. “What is it that you want from me?”
Inflamed smiled. “We are starting a task force for tracking Cyberhex.”
Not good. I’ve heard of the task force they have. They can last ages or just days. If assigned, an Ardent had to listen to whoever was in charge. It didn’t matter if they knew what they were doing or not.
“I’m not one for following orders,” I said.
Now it was Invincible’s turn to smile. I wanted to wipe that grin off his face. Of course, I would never actual-ly attempt it. He’d stomp me into dust. Just thinking about it scared me. He was immensely powerful.
“I want you to lead it,” the imposing man said.
My jaw dropped. I stared back at him in surprise. The shock of what he said took a moment to settle in. I was new to the whole hero thing. Sure, I had been a Private Investigator for years, but not a hero. It was different.
“Have you gone insane?” I asked.
Both of them burst out laughing. I must have looked a like a fool. This was the last thing in the world I ex-pected. I had not been a model Coalition member or shown any initiative to be a leader. In fact, I did my best to act like I wasn’t a part-time member. Never going to a meeting, not answering calls or emails. The only way they had been able to get a hold of me was to show up to my office unannounced, like what they are doing right now. Now, most of the time they’d send the kid to talk to me. I should have known some-thing was up with the big guns here.
“Steve,” Inflamed said. “You are the best guy for the job.”
I couldn’t understand how that was possible. It confused me. I just had trouble wrapping my mind around what she was saying. “Do you even know me?”
“Yes. Come to the Headquarters. We’ll talk, and you’ll meet the team.”
“Do I have a choice in the matter?”
“Not really,” Invincible said.
I relented and let them drag me across town. Arriving at the tallest building in the world, I was taken up to a floor above the training and hospital areas. I was greeted by a blonde-haired woman in a pink and black uni-form. I searched my memory for a name, I had met her before.
She thrust her hand out, “I’m Gravitation Woman.”
That was it. She could control the gravity around her. She was rather bubbly and friendly. The type of per-son that grinds on my nerves after a while. They were always in a good mood, but I’m not. Sometimes I’m in a mood where I don’t want to be bothered, and a happy person is the last thing I want to be around. Looking for Cyberhex, I might have many of those moments. “Hi,” I said.
Inflamed guided me forward. “She will be working directly with you.”
I nodded. Part of me had hoped I’d get to pick the team I’d be working with. We entered a large confer-ence room, and in it, Heldonhaft and Kraftig sat. The two who I’d want on the team the most. There was one other in the room. Wearing a helmet that covered her face, it was purple and black. Next to her was a sword. I tilted my head to see it. It looked more impressive than the ones I used. I wondered what her powers were? Many members of the Coalition didn’t have offense powers, so they had to learn a weapon. Some learn the basic of their weapon while others became a master with it. I had a feeling she was a mas-ter with it, maybe even better than me. We might have to spar at some point.
She stood and walked over to me. “Violet.”
I had heard of her too. She was part of a team they used to investigate crimes against Ardents. They had a few, Valiant Rush was another. “Hey.”
Invincible walked forward. “Okay. Steve here has the ability to track her.”
I raised my hand. “Only if she is actively hacking a place, I am at, and last time she knew how to trick us.”
Invincible glared at me but continued. “He will take the lead since he can. He’s good at finding people,” he said with what sounded like reluctance. Once done he left the room and the others turned to me.
Heldonhaft stood and walked over to me. He smiled, his white teeth contrasting with his darker skin. His blue and white uniform both hugged his body, but provided it with protection in key areas. His utility belt did as well.
“Glad you decided to join us,” the kid said.
I rolled my eyes. “Like I had much of a choice.”
Kraftig and Violet joined us. Both smiled and shook my hand. It was Violet that spoke, “They never do.” Her voice was distorted through the helmet that covered her face.
I knew that many of the Ardents in the Hero Coalition went out of their way to protect their identity, it was obvious Violet wanted no one to know who she was.
I cleared my throat. I didn’t know the first thing about leading a team. As a Private Investigator, I worked alone, not part of a team. Even in school I never took the lead on a group project. I just sat back and let someone else take the lead and did what I was told. This was foreign territory for me, and it made my skin tingle. I wanted to go hide under the table and drink a nice smooth scotch. It was terrifying.
After a deep breath in, I scanned the team assembled around me. It was clear it was a diverse group of young and veteran heroes. Myself the true grizzled Ardent that had been around the block a few times.
The others were ready to go. “Shall we?” I asked.
“Let’s,” Heldonhaft said.
With no glory or anything else, we started our little task force. I took the seat at the head of the table. The others filled up the rest.
I slowly scanned the group, outside of Gravitation Woman, the rest appeared to be looking to me for guid-ance. Well, I couldn’t actually tell with Violet. But the two true kids stared at me. “Any ideas?” I asked.
Gravitation Woman glanced around the room. “I don’t think we can do much but wait for her to attack. So far the only way to track her is your magic.”
I groaned. “There has to be a way. She is catching on to my little tricks. She has a much better understand-ing of magic than me. I'm worried she might be waiting for me to do my little trick and do me in or she could move to another city. My spell only works well when she is in the same city. If I were her, I would leave the city and never go after the Hero Coalition. So we need to work from that frame of mind.”
The others glanced around the room. “Look If we have to wait, we might never find her. If she went across the country, we’d be at this for years, and I don’t think any of us want that.”
I sat silent for a moment thinking about what we could do. “We need to lay a trap.”
The group around me didn’t
seem to react. I didn’t take that as a good sign. It was better than nothing. I wasn’t a very patient person. For most of my career, I was a go out and get the job done. Waiting for the person I was tracking is not in my nature.
“What do you suggest?” Gravitation Woman asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn’t sure, just that I had to be active. “Create a target for her. Trick her into attacking us.”
Heldonhaft tilted his head and rubbed his chin. “What could we do to make her want to attack us?”
I had done a lot of different tactics in tracking and finding my objective. “She doesn’t like me,” I said. “That will be our way in.”
“How so?” Violet asked.
“It’s simple,” I said. “She tried to kill me twice now. And Heldonhaft and Kraftig once. Cyberhex doesn’t like us. If we do a mission and stuff to make us look like easy targets, she’ll attack. She can’t resist.”
“That just might work,” Gravitation Woman said.
Steve and Jack arrived at Ambrosine’s shop. From the outside, it was barely lit. If Steve didn’t know where it was, he would have walked right passed it. Both men entered the shop. It was filled with the normal scents. It was a delightful scent at first, though if you went too close to some, it would burn your nostrils.
At the rear of the shop, Ambrosine appeared. She had her usual appearance. One that Steve knew that Jack loved. It wasn’t Steve’s cup of tea, but he understood it.
She flashed her smile at Jack and then one at Steve. Steve felt her eyes darting over him. It was both the same and different than what she did with Jack. They had been dating for a little bit. Steve had provided the connection at Jack’s insistence.
“Steve,” she said. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
Steve rolled his eyes. Ambrosine was connected to the Ardent world just as much as Steve was, even though she wasn’t one. Though this kind of job was one she wouldn’t touch, no matter what the cost. Much the way Steve used too.
“That Cyberhex capture,” Steve said. “It didn’t go as planned.”
“At least you have all your tattoos,” she said.
“Thank God for small favors,” Steve said.
Ambrosine reached under the counter and provided the healing potion. Steve opened and used it immedi-ately. It felt great as his wound healed under the potion. It worked best on Ardents like him. Ones that dealt with more magic and mysticism. Not that Steve understood it one bit. He just did what he did. The pulling of the tattoos was different than what some of the other Ardents did. No one could really explain it.
“I’m guessing you are telling Jack the story,” Ambrosine said.
Steve nodded. “I am.”
“Don’t let me stop you from finishing,” she said.
I spent the next week doing missions. I had a member of our team contact a couple of news outlets and asked them to help with our investigation by covering our missions. They were happy to oblige. One of the stipulations we asked them was to make it look like they were all related to the same Ardent. We wanted to make it look like there was an Ardent who was more important than Cyberhex. Making her jealous and feel like she had been passed over. From my experience, the baddies have big egos, and if they are passed over, they will do something about it to make their presence known.
She had to think that I didn’t care about her anymore and moved on to the next mission, so I had to be seen out working. It wasn’t easy work. Especially since I hated doing this stuff. Sure I was out and helping, but it wasn’t my normal. I could see that the others were having a blast. The kids, Heldonhaft and Kraftig, had more enthusiasm than a kid in a candy store. I remembered being that way in my youth. Young and untainted by the world. But as everyone finds out at some point in time, life's not fair. The years hardened you especially if you’re an Ardent. I have seen things that I can’t forget. These kids haven’t seen that yet, and I hope they never do.
We had no way to tell if the job we were doing was working or not. That was the tough part. I liked to see the effects of my labor. Not knowing if the crazy woman was noticing that I was ignoring her. That the Hero Coalition had ignored her.
I hoped it angered her to make a mistake, but I feared she wouldn’t even notice. The days went by with little in the way of success, other than saving more people than I had ever before. It really was a good time. Seeing the regular people staring in awe of us.
Late one night I sat in the meeting room that was our headquarters for the task force. Our group had been named Hexkiller. Since that was what we really wanted to do. At least that is what I wanted. It was a shame that we had to take her alive. She didn’t deserve that.
Nonetheless, I was forced to play by the rules. That was one thing that had been made clear. When they learned what I had started to call the team, Inflamed had rushed down to talk to me. She used her stern motherly face and tone. I had relented but still called the team by the name. It was my little victory against the Coalition for forcing me here. Not that I minded tracking Cyberhex. I had planned on doing it myself, but with the Coalition it made it easier and safer.
We sat at a table in the room with Gravitation Woman’s equipment. We had my supplies ready to strike if she did. In addition, we had all sorts of computers that the others knew how to use. It was all gibberish to me. I barely used my own.
The alarms sounded. I jumped to my feet in shock and with some hope that it was Cyberhex. I spun to Gravitation Woman who frantically typed away, before turning to me.
“It’s her,” she said.
I went to work. It wasn’t tough, but I had to concentrate. And the pressure was on. We weren’t sure if we missed her this time that we’d have another chance. She would find out this was all a ruse to get her out of hiding and would go deeper into hiding. I tracked her through the city.
‘I found her,” I said. “But I’m fairly certain this will be another trap.”
“Really?” Gravitation Woman said. “You don’t think.”
I groaned. She had been extremely sarcastic with me over the days. Her attitude was unexpected. For what I had known of her she was driven, and sturdy. A while back when she was on patrol, and she missed a horde of zombies. While not her fault they can be summoned anywhere at any time, so they were prob-ably not there when she passed. The zombies ending up taking a fellow Ardent who was brainwashed and turned evil. She took it personally and felt like she should have been there to stop it. It pained her to this day.
The kidnapping was the first event in a series that caused destruction to the city by Spector’s attack. She wasn’t the only one who had a chance to stop it before it started. I could have finished it too, but I failed. I know the pain she has because of that, but I know Spector was going to do what he wanted one way or another. And it isn’t my fault people died, it was his.
Gravitation Woman contacted the rest of the team and gave them orders to arrive and wait for them.
She could have flown to it faster without me, but instead, we took a vehicle that was at the ready for us. I drove like a madman, not paying attention to any of the traffic laws. Technically I wasn’t supposed to do that, but I didn’t give a flying squirrel right now.
Instead, I weaved in and out of the late-night traffic, which thankfully wasn’t nearly as bad as the daytime. But Cynosure was the largest city in the world, that meant the streets were always crowded.
Even so, I made record time. We arrived right behind Heldonhaft, who was the first one to arrive. It wasn’t long before the other two showed up.
“First, we need to scan the building,” I said. “I don’t want to make the same mistake.”
Violet nodded. “On it.”
Her suit had the ability to scan of her surroundings and inform her what was in the area. I cringed thinking about it. She might have the ability to see through my clothes. Not that I leave much to the imagining, but still. I didn’t want her looking at me.
After several minutes, she spoke,” Empty. No signs
of life or electronics.”
“That can’t be possible,” I said. “Can that thing of yours pick up magic?”
“No.”
“Check again make sure nothing is here. We can’t lose her.”
She went silent again. “One room, with what appears to be a tablet.”
“Better,” I said. “That has to be the trap or her goodbye message. It’s something.”
Tentatively, I led the team in. If anyone was going to get hurt, it was going to be me. I wouldn’t allow the others. I had my sigs pulled and was ready. Inside it was dark and creepy. A burnt wood smell lingered in the air. I had flashbacks to the time I went into a serial killer's den. That was the worst smell on the planet. Let me tell you if you can avoid rotting bodies that have been chopped up, do. It wasn’t on my bucket list, and I wished I could forget it.
The building had that same feeling, and I didn’t like it. As we went deeper into the place, the hairs on my neck raised. I didn’t like this at all. With Cyberhex’s ability to hack anything, I was sure she was doing it now. With the tablet in the center of the building. She’d be able to activate anything close enough to the WIFI.
Clearing each and every room, nothing happened. I was sure something would jump out and scream BOO.
Once I was satisfied the place was secure, minus the mystery room with the tablet. We stopped next to the door. I turned to the team. “I’m going in, with Gravitation Woman. I want the rest of you here in case it is a trap.”
“We can help,” the rest said.
“No,” I said. “Stay and keep us safe or rescue us.”
They nodded. With that settled, the two of us cautiously entered the room. Again, I was certain that I was going to be greeted by some sort of ambush. But it didn’t happen. Maybe she was up to another one of her old tricks.
The room was musty and empty, just a table with the tablet in the center. My senses were still on alert. I couldn’t stop thinking that something bad was going to happen. It was just too easy so far.