Arsenal (Full Metal Superhero Book 1)

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  “It’s okay, I didn’t think you were trying to be malicious. I didn’t even know if you were aware you had it.” This is getting awkward fast. I want to cross my legs, or lean back but the armor makes the first impossible and the second would have me looking almost at the ceiling. I need to work on flexibility.

  “Epic, make a note to look for ways to make the armor more flexible.” I say to him, not her.

  “Well, I’m glad you came,” Kate says. “There’s a lot I would like to show you today, if you would like. You can store your armor here, or you can do whatever you normally do with it when you take it off.”

  It hadn’t occurred to me they would want me to take it off. I look down at my legs. Without the armor I can’t walk. I didn’t bring a wheelchair, not to mention I don’t really want to reveal my face to them yet. If I tell her I need a chair, it will narrow down the list of who I could be considerably. There aren’t a lot of raven-haired paraplegics running around. No pun intended.

  I decide to go with a version of the truth. “The armor requires specialized equipment to put on and take off. I’m afraid I can’t do it anywhere I like,” I say to her. To Epic I say, “Make a note about—”

  Mobile armor removal, noted.

  “Oh, okay,” Kate says. “well I think we can make an exception this one time. Let’s get started.” She pulls out her phone. With a punch of a button a hologram leaps out in front of me. Smart is an understatement for what I am and I can’t make a hologram work outside the controlled environment of my lab. She has a mobile one…

  “These are our standard non-disclosure agreements. Anything you see here is for your eyes only. It isn’t to be discussed with anyone, posted on the Internet, put up on a vlog, or in your diary. Understood?”

  I nod.

  “Sorry hon, I need to hear the words. It cues in on your voice.”

  “Oh, I understand and agree.”

  “Excellent,” she says with a smile as she puts the phone away.

  “Can I ask a question?” I know it makes me sound like a child, but I feel like one at the moment.

  “Sure, hon, you don’t have to ask to ask.”

  “Who made the tech you use for holograms? It isn’t commercially available. Heck, as far as I know there isn’t anyone close to a working version of what you just did.”

  She smiles coyly, the kind of smile that says ‘I have a secret’. “Well, if you join the team we can answer that question. Until then you will just have to guess. Now, follow me please. And no active sensors, or we’ll have to ask you to leave.”

  I follow her. If I could get a glimpse of the inside of the phone, even an x-ray, it could give me a clue as to how they have tech like that. We return to the elevator, I give it a dubious look as she ushers me in. She places her finger over the scanner, “Main hall please.”

  The elevator starts down. After it hits the basement the ride smoothens out.

  “This part is going to feel a little... weird.”

  I open my mouth to ask her what she means when my suits master alarm screams in my ear. All my passive sensors light up like Christmas. There is an agonizingly long second where I want to respond and give Epic orders but I can’t speak. A light fills the elevator and then it is gone. The doors open and she walks out, smiling as if nothing happened.

  “Epic, status report, what was that?”

  He doesn’t respond. Oh crap.

  “What just happened?” I say out loud. My voice always sounds weird to me, but now it’s muffled without my PA. No Epic, no control of the onboard systems. Thankfully the synthsuit doesn’t require an active interface, it amplifies my existing nerve impulses.

  Kate smiles at me from a room that doesn’t belong in the building above. It is sleek and modern looking. The outside of the lift is a shiny metal with no visible buttons. I walk out into the room and realize this is a cafeteria. Several people mill about eating and talking, maybe a dozen in total. Some in costume, others in the bright yellow coveralls of Category-7.

  Oh my god, we teleported, that has to be it.

  “Well, I can’t really tell you—”

  “—Unless I sign up, don’t worry about it. I guess I’m going to have to get used to technology that doesn’t exist, like quantum teleportation.”

  Again, her eyes widen. “How did you know?”

  “Maybe I’ll tell you if I sign up.” I keep forgetting to speak louder. My voice ends up being muffled instead of awesome. She nods, and her eyes narrow on me as if she is re-evaluating her opinion.

  After a moment she leads me to the room and shows me the large kitchen, it looks like a five-star restaurant with everything I could ever want. There is a long line of food, drinks, even several cooks in the back.

  “This is a lot of food for four people.”

  She laughs. “Since you figured it out, you should know this is the ultra-secret HQ for the entire western United States. We have six speedsters on the left coast and they can literally eat a cow after a mission.”

  I nod. This is starting to make sense. Why spend the money individually when you could pool it. All the teams are linked slightly anyways. If not from members by the fact they’re all state-sponsored militias. My mind reels at the possibility. I start doing the calculations for the amount of energy the quantum teleporter uses. I’m so involved in it I follow her on auto-pilot.

  Epic hasn’t come back and unless they have a Ethernet port I can jack into—I blink a few times, I got lost in my own thoughts and didn’t hear anything she said. Major Force is standing there next to her, in civilian work out attire. He’s a little sweaty and he’s using the towel around his neck to pat himself dry.

  “I’m sorry, I am a little speechless from all this.”

  He smiles. “Listen, about yesterday, I wanted to apologize. I can be a little intense during combat due to my powers amping up with adrenaline and I can get a little cranky—”

  “—That’s an understatement,” Kate interjects.

  “—No commentary from the peanut gallery, please,” he says with a smile. “Anyways, I’m sorry.” He holds his hand out. I take it and his grip is as solid as he is. He still towers over me but I regain a little of my respect for him. I’m glad I’m in my armor, I would hate to have him see me blushing. Focus!

  “Well, you know,” I say awkwardly.

  “Okay big guy, let me show the lady around some more before you start scaring her away with your chiseled abs.” He suddenly lets go of my hand and turns away quickly. I catch a glimpse of him blushing. Wow.

  The tour goes on from there. She shows me their quarters, the command center staffed by a dozen workers in Category-7 jumpsuits, and a comm center manned by more Cat-7 employees.

  “I didn’t know Cat-7 was as involved with the teams as this.” I try to say casually.

  “They contract with the government to provide the majority of our services, from tech like my phone, to our merchandising. Some of what they do they earn a flat fee from the Feds, the rest is paid by the states and their percent of the merchandising. Last year my collectible figurine outsold everyone’s but Princess Panther.”

  I cringe at the name. “Do you ever get tired of the code names?”

  She smiled. “You get used to it. Some of us, the ones who are more—how shall I say—pleasing to the eye, make quite a bit of a bonus every month from our toy sales and appearances. It’s even a bit of a competition on the sly.”

  I knew merchandising was a big deal, I just didn’t think it mattered much. Apparently I have a lot to learn. Good thing for me I learn fast. Learning is good, but what I really need is Internet access to check in with Epic. His emergency protocols probably have him hacking NASA by now.

  I follow her along as I scan for one. This place is a marvel of engineering, it’s obviously underground, but without going active I have no way of knowing. She continues the tour to their recreation room. State of the art computer terminals, TV’s with headphones, even cots for sleeping fill the hall. Carlos woul
d love this place. Since this seemed like the time to ask, “Do you guys have Internet?”

  She points. “We have all the cool toys. We’re plugged directly into the backbone which gives us incredible speed. Go ahead and look around for a minute. Bear in mind, you get daily access to all this if you join up,” she says with a sly smile. She moves away to speak with a nondescript man who walked in while she was talking. I try to look casual as I check out the computers. State of the art and then some. I had no idea. I thought I would have to work my way to the national team to have this much access. I’m in the heart of the beast. I guess this settles it for me, I’m going to join. Now, I need to let Epic know where I am. It’s easy enough to reach behind and unplug the Ethernet cord from the nearest computer. Once my armor’s electromagnetic field makes contact I have instant access.

  Why are you in Oregon? Epic asks me.

  The suit’s HUD springs to life and suddenly I am back in control again.

  “Epic, I need you to write a quick program to give me voice access to everything. As soon as I let go you won’t be able to connect to me.”

  Wireless?

  “I don’t want to open the suit up to prying eyes.”

  I need three minutes.

  While he does his thing I flip through the passive sensors to see what’s going on here. My ECM master alarm blinks to life immediately. Someone is shooting x-rays at me, along with fluctuating magnetic fields, infra-red beams and a kitchen sink or two. A smile spreads on my face. As far as I know, nothing can slip between the molecular bonds of my titanium—tungsten carbide armor. Nothing. All they will get is an outline. However, I pick up a lot. The air is climate controlled and lacks any impurities, which means it’s likely canned.

  Another man enters the room, he’s wearing a white lab coat and carrying a tablet. He keeps glancing in my direction while I fake my interest in the computer. A radiation warning pops up. Which is odd. If we’re underground the only radiation I should detect, outside the x-rays they’re bombarding me with, would be background.

  “Epic, analyze wavelength.”

  I can’t.

  “Why not?”

  While my passive sensors can ‘see’ it, the wavelength isn’t one I have on record. I cannot tell you what it is, because it doesn’t exist.

  “Damn,” I mutter. The HUD blinks and he notifies me he’s done.

  “Don’t risk detection, but learn everything you can about this place.”

  Affirmative.

  I put the cord back in and Epic immediately disappears. His subroutines stays and I have full control. It would be a little less responsive but it would work. The warning lights die on the ECM, but the radiation warning remains. It piqued my curiosity. The tech I had seen so far was beyond the current commercial ability of any country I knew of.

  “Arsenal, this is Sam Carver, he’s our chief technical officer for the West Coast, and this is Pedric Matahal, he’s the—person behind a lot of our tech and VP of the company. He’s here visiting, I thought you would like to meet them since you seem interested in technology.”

  Carver tripped all over himself to shake my hand, “It’s a real pleasure to meet you—uh—Arsenal. Can I ask you a few questions about your—uh—armor?”

  “You can ask, I won’t promise I’ll answer.”

  Matahal was next, the man freaked me out. His eyes were cold as he stared at me. He didn’t blink, or smile, as far as I could tell he didn’t have one emotional reaction to anything. Other than to sneer a little when he touched the armor.

  “What is the coating you use on the outside, it seems to be resistant to standard wavelengths?” Carver asked.

  “I designed it that way on purpose. Technology in the wrong hands can be dangerous, don’t you think? What do you use to power this base?” I did some quick mental math, “What do you need, one point six trillion BTU’s a day?”

  That got a reaction out of Matahal.

  “You can’t possibly know that, you just pulled that number out of your—” he growled. Kate smirked like I said something funny. Maybe she liked the guy as little as I do.

  “Like I care if you believe me. I’m right though,” I say.

  “1.7, you are very precise. Would I be correct in saying you designed and built your exo-suit?” Carver asked. Uh-oh, I guess I already committed to this.

  “Yes,” I say.

  Both the scientists look at each other and they argue without speaking. Finally Matahal nods to Kate and leaves without a word. Carver turns the tablet he’s holding around in his hand a few times before wiping his forehead.

  “I have to apologize for my associate, he’s not used to—”

  “—Being civil?” I fill in for him.

  “Quite. Can I ask, how is it you can run your exo-suit and generate as little heat as you do. Thermal imaging puts you at a degree under body temperature.”

  “Is it Doctor Carver?” I ask.

  He nods eagerly.

  “Okay, let’s tit for tat. You show me the power generators here and I'll answer any one question you have about my suit.” I don’t think they will go for it. I’m sure they have tech more advanced than mine. Heck, for all I know they can teleport me out of my suit anytime they want. Of course it would require a sensor lock… and how did they do it in the elevator? Some form of ‘always on’ field?

  “I don’t think we’re authorized—” Kate starts to say.

  “Nonsense, this is just as much my base as yours,” Carver says. “I have the clearance, I'll authorize it.”

  Kate raises an eyebrow at him and shakes her head. “Alright doc.” Then, to me, “Arsenal, I'll leave you in his capable hands. When you’re done have him page me and meet me by the elevator. Enjoy the show.”

  After she is gone Doctor Carver practically leaps with excitement as he leads me to the power room. I can hear him mumbling under his breath what he should ask me. Poor guy, I bet he doesn’t see tech he doesn’t understand very often. To be honest. I know how he’s feeling. Quantum Teleportation? Who has that?

  The room he brings me into looks like an interrogation chamber from a police drama.

  “We can’t actually enter the room the zero-point field is in, but you can see it from here.” He reaches over and pushes a button. I’m reeling from his revelation. Zero-Point field? Quantum mechanics isn’t even close to understanding—

  The light comes on in the other room. Floating in the center is a canister no bigger than my hand. It glows slightly and my passive sensors tell me this is the source of the mysterious radiation. I open my mouth to speak but I can’t find the words. Zero-point… it’s no bigger than a car battery and it powers this base? I put my hand to the glass to feel if there is any heat. Passive picks up… room temp. As far as I can tell the other room is completely survivable.

  “Our bargain?” He asks suddenly.

  “I can’t believe you have this. I mean I see it, but… still working on believing it.” Then I realize he was looking at me expectantly.

  “Right, sorry doc. You could have shown me an alien and I would be less stunned. Go ahead.”

  He wipes his brow and I can tell he’s eager. “What is it made of?”

  It really is the only question he could ask. Everything else is easily guessable. However, this is my baby. I smile, at least I know he will appreciate the response.

  “I found a way to bond Tungsten Carbide to Titanium molecules.”

  Now it’s his turn to be stunned. “H—how?” he stammers out.

  “Trade secret. I can’t have an army of these running around,” I say. Like I would tell him anyway. I spent half my life building this thing to find the truth of what happened to my parents. What these people did to my parents. I’m not going to give up my one advantage.

  “I guess you wouldn’t. Still, bonding titanium… are you a metallurgist?”

  “I’m a lot of things. One of them is protective of my identity.” There aren’t a lot of metallurgists with PhDs in the world, so answering
his question would make it pretty easy to figure out who I am. Although... the point's probably moot. It’s not like they aren’t going to know soon enough. I have to join if I want to find out the truth.

  It’s been two weeks, and I haven’t given them my answer. Domino offered me probationary membership. It’s a big deal. They have no probate members at the moment. I would be the only one. Considering they have two empty slots to fill, I would be a fully fledged member in no time.

  That’s the problem. I’m still not sure I’m ready to tell them who I am. It never occurred to me Cat-7 would be as involved as they are. If I join, I will have unfettered access. It shouldn’t take Epic and I long to find them. On the flip side, they will know who I am. They’ll know I’m the daughter of John and Hope Lockheart. I’m stalling in the hope of finding a way to fix this… well, that and I wanted more time to come up with the answer to the zero-point equation.

  I wheel over to the glass I use as a chalkboard to take my mind off this. It is low enough I can reach it top to bottom without much effort. I’ve tried these calculations seven ways from Sunday, none of them work. This may be the first time in my life I haven’t been smart enough. There is simply no way to make a stable zero-point field. None.

  “Whatcha working on?” Carlos asks from the window. He crawls through and flops down on my bean bag.

  “No, by all means come in, you’re not interrupting anything.” My sarcasm flies right by him. He reaches over and opens my little fridge and pulls out a soda.

  “I’m trying to find a way to stabilize a quantum field so energy is both infinite and finite in a given space, at the same time. I don’t think it can be done. I know it can be done. I just don’t know how.”

  “Infinite energy, that would power the hell out of your suit.” He takes a long pull from the Coke. Now I’m thirsty. I wheel over to the fridge and grab one of my own. Caffeine helps me think.

  “Yep. Pretty much.” I needed it too. I added a particle beam to my ever expanding line up. Only on my right forearm. It will cut through hardened steel. I consider it extremely lethal. A last ditch for a super out of control, or if I have to cut something away in a hurry. The problem is I have to shunt all power to it. No kinetic shields, no IP cannons, nothing. Not only will it take all the energy I can produce, it will sap my batteries. I estimate a thirty-second recharge cycle. If I use it, I better make damn sure it’s the last thing I need.