Ancient Arsenal (Full Metal Superhero Book 7)

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  The door guard shrugged. “Your funeral.”

  Tessa brushed past him and Tia followed. The ex-cop in her tried to relax as she moved into the main bar. The low lights, combined with the heavy fog of smoke, made it hard for her to see. The smell of weed and alcohol weighed heavily in the room. The floor creaked under her and for a moment she worried it would break but nothing happened.

  A long, worn out bar ran the length of the far wall, shielding shelves full of alcohol. An old haggard woman with dirty blonde hair and a leather vest worked the drinks and an even older man served the twenty or so tables.

  From the outside Tia had expected bikers—but that wasn’t the case. The tables closest to the door were filled with heavily tattooed men wearing leather, scattered with a few dark-haired girls who looked like they would rather be anywhere else.

  On the far side were the more well-dressed gangsters. Not the kind that would eat in public at front restaurants, but the kind that scurried in the shadows.

  “Oh, for the love of all that’s.... Bruno, why did you let her in here?” the bartender asked.

  Tia turned to the woman tending bar. She was holding a pistol in one hand and pointing at Tessa with the other. Without thinking, she leaped in front of Tessa as the gun went off; protecting others always came natural to her. The bullet struck Tia square in the gut, burning a hole in her clothes before impacting on her rock-hard stomach and falling to the ground.

  “Who is she?” Bruno asked in the silence that followed the gunshot.

  “She’s my old barmaid, Tess Harper—and one of the Protectors,” the bartender said with a sneer.

  “Hey boss. I came for my final paycheck. But I’ll take a trade instead. Tia?” Tessa asked with a smile.

  Tia cleared her throat, stepping forward and tried to use her best English. “An assassin named Massacre was hired to kill the Protectors. Who hired him and where is he?”

  Tessa turned to the girls and shooed them out. “You don’t want to be here for this,” she said.

  They agreed, hopping off the laps of the men and running for the backroom.

  “You’re not the only one here with superpowers,” Bruno said marching by Tessa, ignoring her and coming to stand in front of Tia. “I’m an F4 strength and invulnerability. I might not look like much, but the meat doesn’t make you strong.” He emphasized his words by slapping his belly, sending the fat jiggling. There was a collective snicker from the gathered crowd. No one moved as the two completely opposite people stared each other down.

  Tia nodded and let her valve open, increasing her mass to fifteen hundred pounds per cubic foot before choking it off. “You’re right,” she said to the bouncer.

  At five foot four, with a size four waist and normally weighing in at a hundred and twenty pounds, Tia didn’t look like much. Sure, her arms were cut, and she was clearly in shape, but to a six-four, three hundred and fifty pound man, she was hardly a threat.

  At least, if there were no superpowers.

  Tia reached back and slammed her hand forward with an open palm, striking Bruno in the stomach. He didn’t even try to dodge. A crack of thunder filled the room as the air compressed at the point of impact until it exploded outward faster than the rest of the air in the room could escape. At fifteen hundred pounds per cubic foot Tia weighed twelve thousand pounds—with a density greater than anything on Earth. For all intents and purposes she was indestructible. The blow hit with more force than a train.

  Bruno was indeed an F4 but he only weighed three-fifty. Twelve thousand pounds of mass, spread out over a palm four inches wide, struck Bruno in his fat gut. The shock wave exploded every glass bottle in the dive. Bruno flew through the air and crashed through the far wall. The big man lay in the street outside, blood leaking from his nose and ears, but his chest steadily rose and fell.

  “Anyone else want to try their luck?” Tessa asked the stunned crowd. “I thought not.”

  Chaos descended on the bar as the patrons ran every way at the same time. Tia, though incredibly powerful in strength and resiliency, had no way to detain or contain people. She looked over her shoulder to Tessa for help. The seedy rockstar-like super just smiled, laced her fingers together and cracked all of them at the same time.

  “I’ve got this,” she said. Holding her hands out she focused. An invisible barrier popped into existence so suddenly that two patrons slammed face first into the all but indestructible field.

  When she realized she couldn’t leave—and none of her customers could either—the bartender scowled at the two girls. “Tessa, you’re killing me here. What do you want?”

  The telekinetic smiled sweetly at her old boss. “Where is Massacre and who hired him?”

  “I don’t know anyone named no Massacre,” she said, mangling the words with her accent.

  “Who is trying to kill the Protectors?” Tia asked. Twenty heads all looked as one at a poor sap alone in the corner. He wore a dingy pair of jeans and a white shirt that had long since lost the battle for brightness.

  “Oh thanks. No honor among thieves I see,” he said.

  Tessa dropped her shields and people scurried out like rats from a sinking ship. The two women, neither one of whom was physically imposing but both with a fierce countenance, approached the man in the tattered shirt.

  “I don’t suppose we can talk about this?” he asked.

  “Oh, you’ll talk sweetie,” Tessa said, raising her hand, and him, into the air.

  FOURTEEN

  Ashort distance away from the bar, the dingily dressed man, who identified himself as Mav, pointed to a squat, four story building with all the windows blacked out. “That’s where I pick up the drugs, sometimes,” he said nodding more to himself than the girls.

  Tessa scowled at him. “And how do you know they have it in for the Protectors?”

  He glanced around, as if the shadows themselves would come out and kill him for speaking. “You can’t tell anyone I told you.”

  Tia wanted to slap herself for how idiotic this man was. One, he left with them in a room full of criminals, and two, who would they tell?

  “Of course not,” Tessa said, patting his shoulder reassuringly.

  “Last time I was picking up a shipment they had a big TV and all you were on it... well not you,” he said, pointing at Tia. “They were all talking about the kind of product they would be able to move once you were out of the way.”

  Tia shrugged. It was a better lead than they had otherwise. For all of Milton’s processing power, he had turned up very little on who was behind hiring Massacre.

  “Okay, get out of here—and find a new line of work.” Tessa slapped the man lightly on the cheek. He nodded and ran down the street as fast as he could from the two superpowered women.

  “What do you think?” Tia asked.

  “I think Mav there is a tweaker and would say anything to save his own skin.”

  Tia nodded in agreement with her friend. “I agree.”

  “But we’re going to check it out anyway,” Tessa said with a smile. They both walked back to the F-150 Milton had provided them. It was the single most common vehicle in the city; they blended in seamlessly when in it.

  In the back they had their equipment—what the team referred to as their uniforms. Tia’s was a stretch leotard-like material that faded from white around her neck to dark blue at her feet. It was made of a special fabric Amelia developed just for her. She’d called it “smart” fabric. Small tears and holes mended themselves, so she didn’t have to worry about running around naked after she stood in front of something big or explosive. Tia climbed into the back and took off her jeans and her shirt, which already had a hole in it, then pulled on her costume. The only down-side was how tight it was; it was like wearing yoga pants for her body.

  Tessa’s costume was much more to her liking. The entire thing was reinforced with Amelia’s titanium-tungsten carbide, lending it serious toughness and protection. It would take a high-powered rifle to penetrate it. She wore
combat boots with three-inch heels, black cargo pants, a red top made of the same smart fabric Tia wore, and a dark red military style jacket over that.

  Of course, they both wore the standard black goggles with low light capability and Milton/Epic access.

  “Good evening, mums. Sorry for my absence. I located Ms. Petrenelli and Mr. Dominguez and they needed my assistance. I’m all done there, though. How may I help you?”

  Tessa quickly filled the AI in on their plan.

  It sounds like a good idea. Neither of you are easily hurt and the risk level is low. A cursory scan shows no wireless accessible devices on the premises. Not even cell phones. Either no one is there, which I find unlikely based on the heat levels, or they are taking extreme measures to protect whatever is inside.

  “I’m not too worried about going in blind with the Boulder here,” Tessa said.

  Tia perked up. “Boulder?” She rolled the name around in her mouth for a second. “I like that.”

  Boulder it is, then. Congratulations on your codename.

  “Thank you, Milton. Okay, TK,” she said her friend’s lackluster codename with a grin. “Let’s do this.”

  It only took a few moments for them to dart across the street. To protect her modesty and be less obvious as they approached the place, Tia wore the jacket Milton bought her.

  The squat building was one of many on the block. Chain-link fences guarded each, connecting in the alleys that were little more than ten feet of space between buildings. With the light fading in the west they had to hurry. Not for their vision, but because they were running out of time to stop Massacre. Right now, they knew what he looked like, but soon...

  Tessa formed a knife with her fingers and raised them in front of her like she was waving at an invisible person. Her telekinesis formed a knife that sliced through the fence, peeling it back like a wrapper.

  “This way,” she said, ducking through.

  “But the door is that way?” Tia asked, pointing in the opposite direction from where they were now going.

  “Door? Where we’re going, we don’t need doors,” Tessa said. She giggled at some joke Tia didn’t get. Honestly, half the things the team said she didn’t understand.

  Tessa ran her hand along the aluminum siding, her eyes closed as she walked slowly forward.

  “What are you doing?” Tia whispered from right behind her.

  “I’m ‘pushing’ to see if there is anything on the other side of the wall.”

  “Oh.”

  Halfway down the alley, just as Tia was starting to wonder if they would have to double back to the door anyway, Tessa stopped. “Right here.”

  Tess turned to face the wall and took a step back. She put both her hands together, palms flat to form a wedge and raised them at shoulder level. Then, so slowly Tia could barely tell she was moving, Tessa lowered her hands.

  Tia watched the hole form in the wall then slowly slide down like a zipper. She looked back to her friend and sweat beaded on her brow.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah... this... takes... effort...”

  Tia closed her mouth, not wanting to cause her friend anymore strain. Instead, she closed her own eyes and reached for that place deep within her. The valve opened and the feeling of weight descended on her. The air shimmered around her like a mirage in the desert as her body condensed without changing size. Within moments she had the density and mass of granite. Enough that she couldn’t really be hurt, but not so much that she couldn’t run if she needed to. Even with her mass to her theoretical maximum, she could still move but she couldn’t sprint; even moving quickly the effects on the world around her could be devastating.

  As Tia finished massing up, Tessa let out a breath and sagged a little, her powers letting go of the wall. The corrugated aluminum was sliced neatly in half, with enough of a gap that Tia could wedge her hands in.

  Tessa nodded and gestured to the hole. “Be my guest. Just do it quietly.”

  Tia kneeled down and slipped her hands in, palms facing away from each other, then gripped the wall and pulled. The aluminum crumpled under her hands, bending apart like tissue paper. She pulled until there was a hole big enough for the two girls to shuffle through. She let go, turned sideways, and started moving in.

  “Careful,” Tessa said. “We don’t know what we’re facing here.”

  Tia smiled. “I’ll be okay.”

  Inside the warehouse it was a maze of tall racks and boxes. The lights were all on, but Tia heard no sounds of workers, no vehicles going back and forth, nothing to indicate a living person. She stepped lightly as she could, moving out of the way for Tessa.

  “Which way?” Tia asked. Back when she was a police officer she usually went into places through the front door—to draw as much attention as possible. Having a bullet proof body had its advantages.

  Tessa tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at her goggles. Tia scanned the heads-up display and realized that all communications with Milton had been cut off. Some kind of signal jamming would be her guess. She shrugged. Tessa pointed in the direction she wanted her to go and Tia led the way. She glanced behind her to make sure her friend followed and had to bite back a gasp.

  Tessa floated behind her, a giant grin on her petite face. When she saw Tia looking, she shot her a wink. Tia just smiled. Her new friends never ceased to amaze her.

  Walking the long side of the warehouse took almost five minutes; in that time they didn’t hear or see anything that would indicate people. It was starting to bother Tia. The hairs on the back of her neck started rising on their own and she felt that uneasy feeling in her stomach she got when she knew it was a trap but had to go in any way.

  When the end of the row appeared, Tia waved Tessa back. She inched up to the corner of the ceiling-high rack and glanced around the corner. The racks were also solid walls; even if they were empty, she wouldn’t be able to see through them.

  When she peeked out, she saw an office with an open door and a blue light coming from it, along with a small card table with five chairs set up outside the office. No people, though. No sign of anyone.

  If I wasn’t so desperate to find Massacre, I would hightail it from here. It wasn’t that she was overly worried about herself, but Tessa lacked the invulnerability Tia’s powers afforded. While her shields were incredibly powerful, they had their weaknesses.

  She looked back at her friend and held her hand up in a stopping motion. “Stay here while I check it out.” She trusted Tessa to listen, which might be a mistake, but she needed to focus on what she was doing without having to worry about her friend.

  With as much stealth as she could manage, she slipped out from behind the rack and jogged over to the side of the wall where the office and bathrooms were. It ran perpendicular to the racks and had to be the back wall. Making herself as small as she could she slid her way along the wall to the office.

  “Oh no,” she muttered. The monitors in the office had images of her and Tessa displayed in HD glory. Then the lights went off.

  FIFTEEN

  It’s a trap, was all Tia could think as darkness descended on her. Of course, it was a trap!

  In hindsight it was easy for her to see. Just like the night vision built into her goggles let her see the three men charging her. They were incredibly stealthy; she couldn’t hear them, and if it weren’t for Amelia’s genius she wouldn’t know they were there.

  Since they were coming for her, she had to assume they knew who she was. Tia stepped back and doubled down on her mass powers. Throwing the spigot wide open, she let the power run into her like a river. The concrete floor beneath her cracked as her mass increased exponentially.

  Then they were on her.

  The night vision goggles turned everything green and black. Their eyes looked like tiny flashlights under the light amplification technology. Tia tagged them mentally as Short, Average, and Tall. Tall came at her with an overhand fist using his height and leverage to bring his hand down on her like a hammer.<
br />
  As his fist hit her, silence enveloped the four of them. How can they see? And how are they so quiet? Whatever, or whoever was aiding them, it was certainly a useful power set for thieves. The blow hit the top of her head, the silent shockwave from the impact rolled out around her. Glass shattered and the computer screens blew apart.

  With her mass at three thousand pounds per cubic foot and still climbing, Tia hardly felt it. She swung directly at him; despite moving slower because of her extra weight she struck home. The three men were completely unprepared for her to see them, Tall didn’t even try to dodge, just took it on the chest.

  Tia almost felt bad for him. Almost.

  They’re the ones attacking two unarmed women in the dark.

  Still, her compassion for others was what made her an excellent PR person for the police and a terrible beat cop. Her open palm struck him dead center; she prayed he had invulnerability to go with his strength. The blow lifted him off his feet, sending him sailing into the blackness.

  Average ducked low and grabbed her ankles. When nothing happened, she spared him a glance; the look on his face was one of surprise. Then she felt it, a slight tingle in her skin.

  Oh, he has electric powers...

  She gingerly lifted one foot up and stepped on his other hand. His mouth opened in a soundless wail that looked really painful—before he passed out. Short came at her with a series of rabbit punches, each one hitting harder than the last.

  When the fifth one hit her it forced her to take a step back. Shocked that he could even touch her without breaking his hands, she didn’t move to avoid the sixth blow. It crashed into her ribs and honest to God pain flared up in her side. He was moving too fast for her to try and block his punches, so she brought her foot up in an arc, landing a blow between his legs.

  He stopped punching her, reeling from the attack and staggering back to fall on his knees. She cocked her head to the side, puzzled. With her current mass she should have sent him through the roof.

  “Are you like me?” she asked but no sound came out. With a frown she lifted her foot off the concrete floor and brought it down as hard as she could. Her size six foot hit the ground with the force of a train, not just one car, but ten. The concrete exploded under her, shock waves rolled out, sending Average flying through the air. The building shook, and every window for five hundred feet exploded from the vibrations.