“I had a suspicion they were having relations.”
“Sorry, it was irrelevant to our conversation, but I thought you should know.” I cleared my throat. “What does the code do for Veronique?”
“Have you noticed that Veronique can only use her body metal consumption ability if she can physically touch someone?”
I thought about last night and, well, parts of this morning. “Go on,” I finally said.
“Activating the code allows her to use her ability at a distance of up to twenty feet.”
“She can absorb long distance?”
“She can indeed,” Ken said, “and it’s a game changer. She used to be able to before they took the power away from her. It stopped her opponents before they even met her.”
I looked up at Veronique and saw her nod. Even though we’d had sex now and continued to grow closer, I still feared her. I don’t know what it was; maybe the fact that she could kill me at any time. Then again, so could Dorian.
But Dorian didn’t have that ‘vibe.’
Odd to think of it that way, but Dorian was just less threatening. Maybe it really was the fact that I equated Veronique with a vampire in my mind. Maybe what I really needed was to redefine her.
“What?” she asked, her eyes narrowing at me.
“This brings me to my other dilemma, Ken. What do you know about Dorian’s teleportation ability? It’s causing her to overheat. For someone who teleports, she can’t do it very efficiently without having issues. I played with the dials a little bit, but I think that made it even worse.”
“I know exactly what it is. It was a stop measure put in place to prevent her from constantly relying on teleportation.” I heard some clicking in the background as Dr. Kim typed on something. “Yep, that’s what it is; they had these functions from her main stat folders. Like I said, the point was to prevent her from relying too heavily on it, so she could enhance her energy-wielding ability. I guess they never switched it back. You can do it if you have a cable with you right now.”
I always carried the USB cable now; it was small enough to fit in my pocket and I never knew when I would need one.
“I’ll send screenshots of how you get to the file location. The thing is, these drives in their necks can be a little wonky. It’s a terrible interface – I mean, scrolling through folders to open shadow boxes with dials, really? – but the screenshots should help, especially since you’ll have to find the folder in the picture I’m sending you. Go to options, set all options as visible, and once you’ve done this, backtrack to a different folder to re-add her full teleportation abilities to her main system. This will also require a reboot.”
“Seriously?”
“The reboot will only take a matter of moments, but have her sit down when you do it. Did you get the email?”
I tapped my screen and saw that I had indeed received a message from Dr. Kim with screenshots. “I’ve got it.”
“Great, that should really change the game for her.”
“Thanks for your help, Ken,” I said and started to hang up.
“Wait! More info for you. They’re moving Sabine tomorrow morning to California, and they know you’ll be coming for her. So, if that is your plan, well, you need an actual plan. I mean, I’m all for you doing this, and I hope to God you get out of it alive and that you can get Sabine out of there. Poor Sabine. But you need a real plan because Angel and Mother will be there.”
“They’re moving her tomorrow? Shit.” I thought for a moment. “Do you happen to have any more info about how they’re holding her? You said it was a makeshift installation?”
Ken hesitated. “I believe I can get more information. If I can, I’ll forward it to you. Good luck, Gideon, and don’t be a stranger. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to aid you, but until they catch me, I’m here to help.”
“Thanks, Ken. I look forward to your email.”
As soon as he hung up, I popped the back off the phone and took the battery out. I threw the battery in the bushes in front of the restaurant and tossed the phone itself into a trash can.
Better safe than sorry.
“Ready to have your stats adjusted a little bit?” I asked Dorian.
“Here?”
I took a look around the parking lot. “Yeah, maybe you’re right, this isn’t the best place for that. Let’s get our supplies first, and then we’ll mess with it after. Also, there’s a video I need to show you.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Texas Gun Show
Our next stop was the hardware store. We were lucky that the one in South Austin was near several retail outlets. As Diego waited for us in the parking lot – to the tune of twenty-five dollars an hour, mind you – we hit the retail store called Marshall’s TJ Ross Maxx, which was a terrible name that most people just called ‘M TJ Ross’em,’ after an advertising campaign in 2023.
Damn it, I did not want to be having déjà vu right now, but I couldn’t help but recall our situation with Chip Parker in New Haven; how he had gone around gathering supplies for us. (I hated narratives that did this repetitive stuff, but what was I supposed to do?) Grace needed rescuing, and I was the one that would rescue her, hook, line, and sinker. It wasn’t like this was a book … well, yet.
Or should I say, they were going to do the rescuing. Not that I wasn’t going to help. It wasn’t my intention this time to sit back and idly watch things play out. I wanted to get involved, even if it meant I may get hurt.
After checking out the clearance aisle for some goddamn reason, we bought two backpacks and three fanny packs. I chose a larger backpack, and Dorian chose a much smaller one, almost like a preschooler’s backpack but made specifically for women to look cute while wearing it.
I never really understood women’s fashion, and I probably never would, but she did look cute with it on, so let’s leave it at that.
We went to the men’s section next and got as many XXL black T-shirts as we could find – thirteen in total. Lucky us! A few of them were even on sale.
Once we made our purchases, we went to the home improvement store. Dorian lead the way as Veronique and I hung back a few steps. It was hot outside, and even though we only had to walk a few stores down, I’d already worked up a sweat by the time we reached the store.
We entered and were greeted by a friendly Texas woman with a southern drawl. “Welcome! Now, ya’ll let me know if you has any questions.”
“Thanks,” I told her as we passed by.
Damn, were these home improvement stores intimidating. The rows of tall aisles only made me feel like a very small man. But I wasn’t here to build a wall between Texas and Mexico; I was here for IED equipment.
I didn’t know much about building things, unless it came with instructions from Ikea, but I did have a fair idea about what we could use to make frag pouches.
So that’s what we went for.
We purchased several dozen packs of nails, all the circular saw blades under seven inches in diameter, countless nuts and bolts, three pairs of shears, and bundles of thumbtacks.
No, I didn’t take an IED 101 crash course from the latest extremist group out of Baghdad. I simply wanted to provide things Veronique could work with; I wanted to be part of what was going to happen.
I also wanted to test something we hadn’t tested before. I had asked Dorian if she could charge objects, and she said she couldn’t. But I wondered what would happen if she licked her paintbrush and charged them that way … or perhaps licked the object itself?
It was worth a shot.
Once we had our items, we asked Diego to drive us to an open field. We got out and took a walk, realizing that we weren’t actually in an open field, but more likely the outskirts of a golf course.
Didn’t matter, it would still work.
As gnats and mosquitoes buzzed around me, I took out some of the nails and handed them to Dorian. “Let’s try something.”
She understood what I meant almost instantly. “Should I lick them?”
>
“Do you mean you really never tried this before?”
“No, honestly, I’ve always just used my finger or a paintbrush.” She popped her finger in her mouth to demonstrate what she meant. “Sounds stupid, but … I didn’t really want to lick random objects.” She scrunched up her face in disgust.
I laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t think about that part. In that case, lick your finger, lift a nail, and see if you can charge it. I’m envisioning something like Gambit here.”
“Gambit?” Veronique asked.
She was on my other side, keeping an eye out to make sure someone wasn’t coming for us. I wanted to tell her to relax a little, but it was better that she was at least prepared. Because god knows I wasn’t.
“Sorry, disregard the reference. It’s not even a good reference, to be honest, because she’s neither from Louisiana nor a dashingly handsome superhero. Beautiful, of course you’re beautiful, Dorian, but Gambit was handsome. Sorry. Sidetracked. Let’s try this.”
I gestured to an old oak tree. “See if you can hit that.”
Dorian licked her finger and thumb and picked up one of the nails from my hand. As soon as she touched the nail, it began to turn pink and boil with energy.
She pulled her arm back and brought it forward, flinging the nail at the tree.
“Whoa!” I said, clapping my hands together after it slammed into the trunk like a bullet, spraying out chips of wood.
“Oh, shit yeah! Try this.” I took one of the circular saw blades out of its packaging.
The blade was about three inches in diameter, and as I handed it to Dorian, she licked her finger and took it from me.
The foliage in the top branches shifted when the saw passed straight through the oak tree. The top of the tree fell, crashing to the ground.
Even though there wasn’t anyone around, I glanced about, just to be sure no one was watching us take down trees in Austin. Based on what I knew about the city, I had a feeling the people here wouldn’t like it.
“Let me try,” Veronique said.
I gave her one of the small saw blades, and it began to fold once it was in her hand, almost as if I had handed her a pancake. It straightened immediately, and she pulled her arm back, then let it go, spreading her fingers wide as she did, forcing the saw blade farther.
Veronique’s saw cut through two trees. Now we had even more branches and foliage on the ground.
“This is a good idea,” she said.
“We needed something we could use against them, and since I don’t know how to use a gun, and don’t have time to learn how in order to go up against MercSecure, this is our next best option. Also, we need bulletproof vests. All of us.”
I got out my smartphone and did a little searching.
It was Texas; guns practically sprouted out of the ground here even if the state was in a perpetual drought. And sure enough, I found a gun show taking place this weekend.
“Only an hour away,” I told them.
Now that I had my phone out, I remembered the message Ken Kim had sent. I found a large rock and asked Dorian to sit so I could plug into her port. She did, and Veronique scooted in next to her – which seemed like kind of a strange place to sit considering the size of the rock, but I was beyond asking questions about these two, especially about after what happened this morning.
Best morning of my life? Without a doubt.
But that’s not what mattered at the moment. I needed to plug in and follow the directions Dr. Kim had given me.
This turned out to be a pain in the ass because I only had one smartphone, so I had to keep minimizing the screen and going back and forth between the different windows.
Damn you, technology, how I love you so.
It took me a bit longer, but I followed his instructions, and then rebooted Dorian’s system, reminding her to just relax while I did so.
“That was strange …” she said, taking a deep breath.
As we waited for the reboot, bees and hummingbirds zoomed in the air around us. There was a sprinkling of flowers in the grass, and I watched a particularly chubby bee collide with one of them, nearly knocking it to the ground.
Fucking fat-ass bee.
Once Dorian’s drive was back up and running, I went to her teleportation abilities folder and the shadow box with dials opened.
Main Second: Teleportation
Tele-Sphere Radius: 3
Conscious Spatial Awareness: 10
Recharge Speed: 5
Restoration Speed: 6
Teleportation Rapidity: 1
Teleportation Distance: 10
Empathetic Teleportation: 5
Banishment: 1
Overcharge: 8
“Hell yeah, everybody!” I said. I started reading what the additional abilities allowed for.
Teleportation Rapidity increased the speed in which she could teleport over short distances, usually covering a hundred yards or so.
Empathetic Teleportation allowed her to teleport to someone she has strong feelings for, which I assumed meant someone familiar to her.
That’s helpful.
I checked what Banishment did. By placing my finger over the listing, I saw that it allowed her to touch someone and teleport them away to a place she’d visited recently.
“That’s badass.” I quickly turned Overcharge down. The only reason I could figure they’d put that on her dials was as a type of governor and to handicap her if necessary. Still, I had to be careful not to trigger it.
With a few adjustments, I had her teleportation ability rearranged in a way I thought would work best.
Tele-Sphere Radius: 3
Conscious Spatial Awareness: 10
Recharge Speed: 5
Restoration Speed: 6
Teleportation Rapidity: 7
Teleportation Distance: 10
Empathetic Teleportation: 6
Banishment: 3
Overcharge: 1
The added options really allowed for customization.
I wasn’t able to bring Overcharge lower than one, nor was I able to modify Teleportation Distance. I could see, by touching its dial, that she could move upwards of two thousand kilometers at a time, or roughly thirteen hundred miles.
Not bad at all. If I kept Dorian around, I’d never have to get groped by TSA agents again.
“You feel alright?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I feel pretty good.”
“Now it’s time for you to see what you could be capable of.”
I unhooked the cable from her neck and went to TwitchTubeRed. I knew the exact scene I wanted to show her, and while the movie X2 had been released three years before I was born, it still held up. I remembered watching it as a kid and being pretty impressed.
I typed ‘Nightcrawler White House Scene’ in the search box and the scene came up.
Again, damn me for having no other reference point for people using superpowers, but sometimes you have to stick with what you know.
“This is what you can do now,” I told her as I started the three-minute clip. “And I don’t mean kill the president. Because that’s what he’s trying to do here. I mean … just watch.”
One of Dorian’s eyebrows raised, which caught Veronique’s attention, who moved closer to watch the clip as well.
“The blue creature should have stabbed him,” Veronique said after the Nightcrawler scene ended. “It seems useful to have a tail, though.”
“Do you see what I’m suggesting here?” I asked Dorian.
She disappeared in a flash, reappeared fifteen feet away, her paintbrush in her mouth, flashed again, reformed alongside a fireball made of energy that slammed into a tree as she zipped away and materialized next to a tree stump, touched it, freaking exploded it, and disappeared again, finally reforming behind me.
“That was so awesome,” she said between gulps of air. “It’s like running, almost. A little different. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“That’s going to be very helpful,”
Veronique said.
“Do you feel like you’re overheating?” I asked.
“Not in the least bit.”
“Try again, go for longer this time, and see how it goes.”
Dorian jumped forward and – poof – she was at it again. She bounced back and forth, her form taking shape and disappearing, leaving a cascade of brief afterimages each time she flashed away.
It took her a moment to really find a groove, charging things, using trees and rocks as targets, and her paintbrush to paint objects into existence.
Thank you, Dr. Kim, I thought when she finished.
“Where to now?” Diego asked.
“Dripping Springs. We need to go to a gun show there.”
“Damn, you’re a crazy white boy, you know that?”
“I fucking know it.”
The drive to Dripping Springs was uneventful. As we’d done on our way to the breakfast restaurant, I sat in the front, the two superpowereds in the back. Mostly I just stared out at the open road, at the beautiful wasteland between hubs of civilization in Texas.
It was quite different from Connecticut. Most of the cities in my state were separated by trees and rocky cliffs where gray skies often hovered, signaling rain to come or rain that had recently passed.
Texas cities were separated by large swaths of parched land, land peppered with dying shrubs, the occasional tree, and a constant blue sky overhead that seemed as endless as it was foreboding.
Most of Connecticut had unrestricted access along highways, whereas Texas had barbwire that screamed of autonomy and anti-government sentiment, which got me thinking of my favorite quote from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: “The government of today has no right to tell us how to live our lives, because the government from two hundred years ago already did!”
Ha! What a quote.
We arrived in Dripping Springs, drove past a couple churches and a Dairy Queen, waited at a traffic light behind a big dually truck with chrome exhaust, and found the gun show at the convention center.
“Keep an eye on everyone,” I told Veronique as we got out of the car. “There’s no telling who we’ll encounter … On second thought, just be cautious. Don’t use your powers in here. There will be tons of metal. Dorian, be ready to teleport us out just in case something happens.”
Cherry Blossom Girls Box Set Page 37