Superheroes In Denim

by Lee French

  Soldiers hefted his body onto a stretcher, then into a building. He sent the dragon slipping in through the doors. From the way they shouted and gestured wildly, he gathered the medical facility and personnel only rarely saw gunshot wounds. They carried Walker in right behind him. Strangely, the soldiers accepted the suits without challenge, referring to them as ‘sir’. He might have missed them flashing badges.

  How in the heckbiscuits could he possibly escape this place? After surgery, they’d keep him so pumped full of drugs he couldn’t burst into the swarm until the suits came and took him again. That meant he needed to get away on foot. From a military base. With suits on site. Assuming he ever woke up before they found a better way to restrain him.

  He shelved that problem in favor of getting more information. There might be a way to get a message out. Besides, if the suits stayed more than another day at that facility in Virginia, he’d eat his boot. Knowing the four of them got out, they’d be sugar frosted stupid to keep using it. That meant the others they’d nabbed could be here. Jasmine could be in the basement.

  Two hours later, the dragon had flown through the entire duct system of the building with nothing of interest to report. When he found his body again, a doctor was still working on him. The next time he went swarm, this would get translated into generic pain. They, of course, didn’t know that. Even if they did, they wanted him unable to go swarm anyway. What did they even want him for at this point? They already spent five days doing whatever they wanted, and had plenty of his blood and whatever else they decided to take while he wasn’t conscious. Why not kill him?

  The dragon settled in at the vent over the surgical suite. He watched the doctor pull a lump of bloody lead out of his shoulder and drop it with a clang into a metal pan. It bothered him to wonder what purpose they possibly could have for him now. Thinking about it made the dragon surly, so he stopped. At least, he noted with some small satisfaction, they hadn’t removed his jeans or boots. When he left here, it wouldn’t have to be in a hospital gown.

  When both wounds had been taken care of, the doctor let a soldier come in and wheel his body out. The surgeon followed at first, talking to the nurse. Because he wanted to hear what the man said, Bobby had the dragon follow along in the ducts, rushing from vent to vent. The nurse nodded in a bored, disinterested way at his instructions until he used numbers and words Bobby had never heard before, which he assumed to be drugs and dosages.

  Along the way, they ran into Suit One and Two. The doctor sighed when he saw them and stopped while the gurney kept going. With the dragon confident it could find his body no matter what, Bobby also stopped to listen.

  “Just the man we were looking for.” Suit Two smiled, reminding Bobby of a viper. “What’s the prognosis?”

  Doc nodded. “He’ll be fine, eventually. Nothing major damaged, just muscle and a rib.”

  “Excellent news. How long until we can have him back?”

  “At least twenty-four hours,” Doc said. “Mind, I’m saying ‘at least’. If anything goes wrong before then, he’s staying longer. We’ll know more with certainty when he wakes up.”

  The two suits exchanged looks, their eyebrows raising up over their sunglasses. “We want him kept sedated.” At this point, he had no doubt Suit Two wore the pants for his team.

  “That’s not in his best interests—”

  Suit One gave the doctor a winning smile as he cut him off. “We’re more concerned about the best interests of the US government. If he escapes, that would be…bad.”

  “He’s in the middle of an Air Force base.” Doc rolled his eyes. “We’ll post a guard outside his door, he won’t get away in his condition.”

  “I can appreciate your position, doctor, I really can.” Suit Two’s voice grated for how syrupy sweet he slathered on the sugar. “That man has already killed three of our agents when he should have been easy to subdue, and is a known terrorist.” Three? They put Anita’s handiwork on him? “We’re much more concerned about the safety of everyone else here at the base than we are about his best interests. So long as he can be interrogated, that’s all that matters.”

  Doc sighed and raked his surgical cap off to reveal short, graying black hair. “Fine.” He crumpled the cap and jabbed a finger at Suit Two’s chest. “But in twenty-four hours, we’re waking him up, at least for an hour, to see what condition he’s really in.”

  Suit Two shrugged, unmoved. “No problem. We’ll be back in twenty-four hours, then.”

  Doc glared at their backs as they turned and walked away. Bobby had to decide which to follow. He wanted to hear what Doc said to the nurse, but he also wanted to know what the suits would say outside. If only he had two dragons, then he could listen to both. Before he made a decision, the dragon chose to follow the suits. They left the building, and he followed them out the top of the door, tail whipping out as it closed. The suits moved away from the door, finding a spot between buildings where Suit Two lit up a cigarette. Bobby perched in a nearby shrub to listen.

  “I’ll make sure he’s dosed, you set up transport to the depot.” Suit Two checked his watch. “It’s just after one now, so I’ll want to slip the stuff into his IV around noon tomorrow. I’ll stop in on the way to lunch.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Suit One nodded. “Man, Mitchell better be worth the trouble. He’s a serious pain in the ass, not easy like Milani was.”

  “Tell me about it. This time tomorrow, though, he’ll be down for the count and hopefully on his way to being tucked in with the rest of them.”

  Suit One turned his gaze out to the airfield and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Playing them off each other might have been a mistake.”

  “No, that was the right way to go. Martinez just wasn’t secured well enough. Mitchell would’ve broken when Dazai was actually raped. They still think they’re human.”

  Suit One grunted in assent. “You hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  Uninterested in watching them eat, Bobby let them walk off without following. The dragon’s claws had crunched the small branch it perched on, and he found its anger difficult to separate from his own. Yeah, he still thought of himself as human. He’d grown up human and so had the rest of them. Whatever they’d become, they still deserved to be treated like people, not animals.

  Thinking about this got him nowhere. In twenty-three hours, his body would be dosed with something, probably the drug that inhibited his ability to break into the swarm. He needed to prevent that. At the same time, his body needed to rest and heal. So, he needed to figure out how to do that, then kill some time.

  His dragon noted it had gotten hungry, so he added finding something for it to eat to his to-do list. Knowing he prioritized that, it flew off in search of food. It sniffed around and found some spare parts in a hangar to devour. As he flitted around the base, he passed a sign marked ‘Hill Air Force Base’. He’d never heard of it. Most Marine bases, he’d recognize, but not Air Force.

  Before he could come up with any better ideas, he needed to know where he was. He and the dragon climbed into the sky to get an aerial view. The base sat on the north side of a large city, one with a major highway running through the middle of it. Huge mountains to the east and a giant lake to the west gave him a strong suspicion for his location.

  They dove into the city, looking for signs. Sure enough, he passed one confirming he’d been taken close to Salt Lake City. If he remembered geography right, Utah was next to Colorado. Could he reach home base and get back in about twenty hours? Even if he could, would it be worth going? What would he do, have the dragon pantomime everything or try to hold a pencil three times its size?

  He had to try. If he never tried, he’d never know what might’ve been. Besides, he’d be able to find his body again even if he got back late. Maybe he’d miss this chance, but there would be another one. At some point, his body would wind up in a position where one dragon could manage to free it. He had to believe that. Otherwise, he might as well give up an
d die now.

  Turning east, they went up and beat those little wings as fast as they could handle. It flew high enough to go over the mountains that must be the Rockies. From that vantage point, he saw the ribbon of Interstate 80 winding along. He kept it to his left. Understanding the importance of this trip, the dragon pushed itself as hard as it could, and Bobby had no idea how fast it managed to go.

  Up here, with nothing and no one around and the dragon doing all the work, Bobby’s mind wandered. He started with watching puffs of cloud, moved to tracing the contours of the land, and wound up hoping Momma wasn’t worrying about him too much. She deserved better than him for a son. All his life, he’d given her a hard time. Maybe he did it because deep down, he knew he didn’t belong to her.

  He had weird eyes. He could turn into tiny robot dragons. The suits made it clear they thought that made him something other than human. What if they were right? Did that mean he had no right to call himself a citizen? They took his blood and did tests. Did they find some proof? God, if he wasn’t human, what was he? What were they all?

  The dragon didn’t actually say ‘shut up, I’m concentrating’, but the impulse came through loud and clear. Bobby quit thinking so hard and watched the land slide by underneath. To think, he spent his time moping over Mandy not too long ago. He wasn’t even sure how long had passed since then. Two weeks, maybe. He’d liked her, sure. Compared to everything that happened since Privek arrested him, she meant nothing. That thought threatened to spiral into those same topics he already annoyed the dragon with, so he cut it all off again and made an effort to just be and enjoy the scenery.

  Chapter 17

  Bobby guessed it took four or five hours to fly from Salt Lake City, Utah to their plot of land south and east of Fort Morgan, Colorado. When he got close, they had to follow the roads, using the directions he’d memorized to find the right place. They zoomed up a tree-lined driveway to find a decrepit farmhouse in the middle of renovations. The barn off to the side looked much worse than the one in the picture had. He had no doubts, though, that he came to the right place.

  Matthew unloaded boxes from a van, straining with the effort. Despite not seeing him much without his fur, he recognized the werewolf immediately. Until the moment he saw a familiar face, he had no idea how much he needed one. Matthew, though, couldn’t help him right now. Bobby needed someone who would instantly recognize the dragon as being part of him. The werewolf had been focused on Stephen the whole time.

  With no real idea about the layout or where anyone in particular might be, Bobby let the dragon wander. Eventually, he’d find someone that could help. It took a slow, lazy circle around the house. In the back, some Asian guy sat on the ground, eyes closed and hands in the dirt. Dan and Lizzie, hands all over each other, slipped into the woods surrounding the house. They’d be no help, and he had no interest in watching them get naked and sweaty together.

  Voices came from inside the house, promising better results that way. As he neared the closest window, the back door slammed open. A little boy barreled out, naked and shrieking with glee. The sight made him want to laugh. Even better, Lily would be along shortly to collect Sebastian. He chased the boy down and dropped into his sight. Sebastian stopped and recognized it, then put out his little hand. The dragon landed and chirped a greeting at him.

  “Bobby! Mama, Bobby is here!” Sebastian turned around and ran back to his mother. Even with a red bandanna over her hair, she took Bobby’s breath away. If he could have one wish right now, it would be to climb out of this dragon and be there to take her in his arms. He’d wrangle the boy for her, too.

  She peered all around. “Where? I don’t see him.” When her son presented the dragon, she bent down and wrapped an arm around the boy to prevent him from getting away again. “Bobby?”

  The dragon trilled, trying to get her attention. She kept twisting around, waiting for him to come walking around the corner. A minute later, she shrugged and picked Sebastian up. The boy squirmed and wriggled, and she had to abandon the search in favor of handling him. He did have to admit that getting the naked kid into clothes rated higher than him. Sort of.

  “Hannah,” she called out as she opened the farmhouse door, “one of Bobby’s dragons is here,” The inside of the building had more to recommend it than the outside. They’d put up a fresh coat of paint and scrubbed the floors so far.

  “I’m in the meeting room,” Hannah’s voice called out.

  The dragon leaped off Sebastian’s had to follow her voice up the hallway. It passed a large kitchen with a picnic table and Andrew stirring a large pot hanging over an actual fire.

  “I’ve got Seb—” Lily stopped and smiled. “Oh, it’s heading for you.”

  Bobby had to give them all a lot of credit for what they’d done so far with a place that must have been a real dump. They didn’t seem to have electricity yet, and still managed to get the place well on its way to livable in a short time. Lots of hands willing to help at least part of the time made a big impact.

  Another hall branched from the first one, and he kept going until he found a large space. A wall running across the middle of it had been half smashed, and a thin layer of white dust covered everything. Stephen yanked a sledgehammer out of the plaster and drywall with a grin on his face. Good to see him able to help out in a way that amused him. Hannah stood near the door, using her force field to catch the debris he pulled away. They had an ancient, rust covered wheelbarrow she dumped it all into.

  “Just one of his dragons?” Stephen set the sledge aside and wiped dust and plaster off his face with his gray shirt. “He won’t be able to talk through it. We’ll have to ask it yes/no questions. Oy, dragon!”

  Thank God. Bobby nudged the dragon to land on Stephen’s hand. It danced in a circle and trilled at him. Much to Bobby’s surprise, it also belched out a tiny puff of fire.

  Stephen flinched away and put his other hand up. “Okay, okay, you got my attention. Christ, don’t do that again.” He smirked. “Okay, Lassie. What is it, girl? Is Timmy down a well?”

  The dragon stuck its tongue out at Stephen, then nodded. Bobby had no idea these things even had tongues. Also, he appreciated that it translated what he thought the best it could.

  A grin flashed on Stephen’s face, then he schooled his face into a frown. “Is Bobby in trouble? ” Nod. “Is he hurt?” Nod. “Damn. How are we going to figure out where he is?”

  “A map? I’ll see what I’ve got.” Hannah hurried out of the room.

  “Can you lead us to him?” Nod. “How many hours did it take you to fly here, little guy? Can you tell me that with fingers or claws or whatever?”

  Without knowing the time, Bobby had no clue how long it took. He saw Stepehen’s watch on his other wrist and had the dragon walk to where it would be. There, it sniffed and prodded until Stephen got the hint and held up his other hand so the dragon could see the watch face. At his direction, the little dragon held up four claws, curling the thumb partway under.

  “More than four but less than five?” Nod. “Okay. Bobby can go about the same speed as me, that’ll put him someplace between four and five hundred miles away, give or take. Is there a time limit? Is Bobby going to be moved in some amount of time?” Nod. “Hm. If you have any ideas about how to express that, I’m paying attention here.”

  How should he explain noon? It took Bobby a few seconds of furious thought to come up with something. The dragon rolled onto its back and showed him twelve little claws.

  Stephen’s lips moved while he counted. “Twelve? Midnight or noon? Er, is it midnight?” Shake. “Noon tomorrow?” Nod. “I can get that far by then. Violet can, too. Actually, we could drive that far. Is Jasmine there?” Shake. Stephen sighed and shook his own head. “We’ll find them, all of them.”

  “I hope he’s still in America.” Hannah rushed in with a simple map of the country, showing only state borders and capitals.

  “Four to five hundred miles away, so yeah, he should be.”

&
nbsp; “Huh.” She crouched down and set the map on the floor so the dragon could walk on it.

  He jumped down and scurried to Salt Lake City, tapping north of it with a claw.

  “Salt Lake. Okay. If we had internet, we could get more specific, but that’s close enough for right now. Let’s see, we need to make sure there’s at least one person with defensive ability here, and we’re not taking anyone who can’t handle a fight. I wish Jayce was here already.”

  “We smashed all the phones,” Stephen explained to Bobby. “A suit called with yours. Er, Bobby’s. Hell,” he turned his attention to Hannah, “I don’t even know if he’s in there or it’s just the dragon. Anyway. You stay here, I’ll take Lizzie and Dan, Violet, and—”

  “Not Violet, she has no idea how to fight. All she can do that we know of is fly.”

  “I’ll go.” Matthew stood in the doorway. He had a quieter, more intense voice than Bobby expected from listening to him roar.

  Stephen pursed his lips. “No offense, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

  “None taken, and I agree, but I’m going. If there’s going to be a fight, I should be there.”

  Hannah frowned and stood. “I’ll go talk to Andrew.”

  “Wait.” Stephen put out a hand to prevent her from getting up. His eyes stayed on Matthew. “I can handle it.”

  “This is going to be messy enough already.” Hannah sighed and rubbed her neck. “At least bring an insurance policy.”

  Bobby saw Matthew and Stephen exchange tiny nods. Seemed like they’d connected on the trip up here. From his perch, that seemed a good thing. “I’m enough of an insurance policy. We’ll be fine. No need to put Andrew in harm’s way. He can’t fight, either.”