Superheroes In Denim

by Lee French

  Chapter 19

  From his new vantage point, Bobby saw Stephen carrying Dan out to and over the fence. Sunlight glinting on metal pointed him at Jayce. Several squads of soldiers hoofed it towards him. These Air Force folks probably never saw anything like this before, and he felt sorry for them. Screaming distracted him. Nowhere near Jayce, an exploding fireball threw three soldiers for distance. One might have been lucky enough to survive.

  The werewolf ran out and pounced on that soldier, ripping him in half. Bobby revised his opinion of the definition of ‘lucky’. Another soldier on the run emptied his weapon at the werewolf. Although he failed to hit Matthew in the chaos, the soldier got his attention.

  Jayce could take care of himself. Matthew needed to be lured out, now. The swarm dove with all the speed his dragons could muster. He watched in horror as Matthew, to quick for Bobby to prevent it, pounced on the shooter and tore his arms off. The swarm surged in and buzzed around his head, belching fire out to singe his fur and tugging on his ears. Matthew swatted at them, catching and crunching four.

  Rage bubbled up in the swarm, pushing him away. The dragons wanted to deal with this, their way. Bobby held them off. Matthew needed help, not death. No matter what he did, no matter how low he sank, he still deserved a chance to figure out how to control this side of himself. Everyone else got that small favor. It looked like Matthew left the building when he sprouted fur. So did Bobby, when the swarm got angry. How could he look himself in the mirror if he judged Matthew for something he’d done himself?

  He had to flee. The swarm flowed off the werewolf and towards the fence, taunting Matthew by staying just out of reach. Movement distracted him, so Bobby sent a handful into his face to goad him. Another dragon got crunched. The rest of that group hauled it out of reach with them, devouring it on the way.

  At the chain-link fence, the dragons streamed through. Matthew stopped. Too many targets on his side of the fence gave him no incentive to try to climb out and chase the swarm down. Bobby re-formed and clenched his jaw against the pain. “C’mon, buddy, I ain’t leaving you behind, no matter how many of my dragons you swat.” God, he hurt worse than he had before. At this point, his arms hurt from one end to the other, and his feet ached up to his knees. If he kept going, he’d be a walking ball of agony in no time flat.

  Matthew roared at him, grabbing the fence and shaking it violently. Right now, they needed Stephen or Jayce. Either of them could take what Matthew could dish out. Bobby wanted to be able to, but he couldn’t, not even at his best. If he stayed here and kept trying to pull Matthew out, he’d only succeed in getting himself killed. Considering this operation was entirely about rescuing him, that would be pretty rude, not to mention counterproductive.

  Getting away from Matthew became his top priority. He whisked out into the swarm again and, steering clear of the angry werewolf, poured back through the fence. Despite worries about what Matthew would manage to do in his absence, Bobby streamed away to find Jayce. Fortunately, that turned out to be easy. There he stood, glinting in the sunshine next to with Lizzie, Andrea, and Alice. Ice formed a high wall around them in a horseshoe shape with Jayce at the mouth. Alice had to be working hard to maintain it against all the incoming gunfire, and her skin had turned blue again.

  Landing and re-forming in their midst he immediately punched Jayce good-naturedly in the arm. “Hey, you can retreat now. Somebody’s gotta get Matthew, though. I tried, but my way ain’t working.”

  “Good to know. Alice, you shield them out. Andrea, set up an obstacle course for anyone following you. Lizzie, time to stop and run for the van. I’ll go get Matthew. If I’m not back before you see Stephen, send him to help.” He took off in the direction Bobby pointed, running at full speed.

  Bobby breathed a sigh of relief at his words. Jayce not only accepted responsibility for the werewolf problem without argument, he also chose not to punch him back with that big metal fist. Lizzie pouted, of course. Alice pushed a wall of ice out around them and forced Lizzie and Andrea to rush for the fence. Irregular craters blew out with a shower of dust in their wake, which he assumed to be Andrea’s power at work. These women truly terrified him.

  “I should mention I saw fighter planes taking off. Also, I’m going swarm.” Pain went away for the swarm. He might have considered that weird, except everything else about his power fit that definition, too. One more thing hardly rated notice.

  “Oh!” Lizzie squealed with glee. “I’ve never blown up a plane before.”

  “And you’re not going to start now,” Andrea said, her voice strained by concentration. “We’re trying not to kill people, remember?”

  Lizzie pouted. “It would just be one guy.”

  “That really doesn’t make it okay.”

  “Spoilsport.” Lizzie reminded him of a kid called in from the playground by her momma. “Maybe I should just go off on my own.”

  “Go ahead. Just keep in mind you’re not immune to bullets and Dan is back at the van now.”

  Lizzie heaved a sigh Bobby considered meoldramatic. How in heckbiscuits had she managed to make it this long without getting herself killed or thrown in jail? She probably had one of those stories that winds up in a crime show, telling the woeful tale of how a rotten childhood can turn a body into a monster. Maybe someday, he’d be forced to listen to it.

  Bobby flew along with the girls, staying low to avoid catching lead. The dragons noticed something coming from the side and he focused in that direction to see a missile streaking in ahead of a jet. Flabbergasted, he directed the dragons around Andrea to roar and point as a group. She could stop it. Right? After everything that happened so far, getting obliterated by a missile would be unfair.

  Andrea flung her hand out and grimaced with effort. It closed in fast, then appeared to hit a wall that reduced it to find dust. “Christ on a cross,” she breathed. “I can’t do that too many times.”

  “Guys, I’m getting tired.” Alice slurred words, and she panted and stumbled. “I can’t keep this up forever.”

  “There’s the fence!” Lizzie sprinted for it, sending a huge ball of fire out in front of her. Immune to its effect, she plunged in and out of sight.

  “I really wish she’d stop doing that.” Andrea blasted another hole in the ground behind them, then scanned the skies.

  Bobby re-formed next to Alice and grabbed her arm. She radiated enough cold to make it a special form of torture. He still tossed her arm over his shoulders. “Lean on me, Alice, I got you.” He grunted in both pain and surprise when she collapsed onto him. Scooping her up into his arms, he gritted his teeth and ran as fast as he could manage.

  Andrea’s eyes widened as she ran along with him. “I can’t disintegrate everything coming at us. Just so you know.” When a bullet whizzed between them, she glanced back and squeaked.

  “Great.” Adrenaline helped Bobby push past the pain to get this done. The flames had died down, so they plunged through the gap in the fence together.

  Alice passed out in his arms and the ice stopped flowing. Her limp arm fell forward, and her body shifted. It knocked him off balance and he pitched forward. Curling around her protectively, he cried out at the agony of hitting the ground and rolling. More dust hit them, attesting to Andrea sticking close enough to help.

  Part of him wanted to lie down and die rather than keep going. Glancing the way they’d come, he saw the soldiers hanging back. They stopped shooting, taking up defensive positions a few dozen feet inside the fence. Maybe they figured out their tactics didn’t work. Took them long enough. “Help Alice,” he grunted at Andrea.

  “Not leaving you behind, dumbass, that’s how we got into this mess in the first place.” Andrea grabbed the waist of his jeans in back and hauled him to his feet.

  “Jesus, woman,” he growled.

  She ignored him and took Alice by the wrists, dragging her across the grass to the street.

  Her actions gave him what he needed to keep going, which meant he had nothing to comp
lain about. He caught up and grabbed Alice’s ankles to suspend her between them. Something about those soldiers staying back bugged him, niggling at the back of his mind. It could be they’d decided to defend against Matthew on his way out, he supposed.

  Then again, they had the planes go past once already. He looked up and saw dots in the sky. With the missiles having failed already, possibly twice, they’d probably try something else. “Fighter jets have regular big guns, right?”

  Andrea’s mouth fell open, her eyes wide with panic. She gulped and nodded. “I don’t think I can stop those. I have to target things specifically, that’s why bullets are hard.”

  “How in heckbiscuits are we gonna get outta here? I mean, even once we reach the van.” The dark blur of Stephen zoomed over the fence and into the base. That meant Lizzie had reached the van, which meant she knew about Dan. Would she fawn over him, or come for the group? Within a second of the thought crossing his mind, the van screamed around the corner and screeched to a stop in front of them. Lizzie at the wheel sounded pretty scary to him. He had no ability to drive right now, though, and maybe crazy would turn out to be the best way out of this.

  At the end of the street, two puffs of dirt and debris plumed into the air. Bobby and Andrea dove for the van and threw Alice into the back seat. More pairs of plumes marched up the street to greet them. Lizzie slammed on the gas and launched the van sideways, out of the strafing line, then managed to get the vehicle turned around. She floored it towards the plane, which seemed crazy until they screamed down the next street without getting shot up.

  Flanked by houses, Bobby thought they might be safe for the moment. If those planes were willing to strafe through the houses here, they had bigger problems than he thought. Peering out the back window, he saw no more plumes, and figured the planes must have diverted to go after Jayce, Stephen, and Matthew.

  “We need radios,” Bobby croaked, in fresh agony. When the van had turned, he, Andrea, and Alice had all tumbled around, and now both lay on top of him.

  Andrea levered herself up and into the front passenger seat. She buckled herself in. “Probably not, but I bet they noticed the color.”

  “Stop someplace and I’ll send a dragon to show the guys the way to us.” He shoved Alice off himself, wishing he could protect her from whatever else Lizzie might do. At the moment, he could barely protect himself. The swarm could get him up into a seat. It couldn’t help him get Alice into one. Besides, they refused to touch her skin when it went frosty blue. He didn’t like that either, but could suck it up if he had to. Raising himself up on his arms made him whimper.

  Lizzie slammed on the brakes, throwing him into the front seats and pulling a sharp, short scream out of him. He heard Dan hiss in pain from the cargo area in the back, too. “Don’t do that again, baby, it really hurt.” He sounded like heckbiscuits, and they had eight hours of driving ahead of them.

  “Dan,” Bobby groaned, “you get bandaged up yet?”

  “Not really.”

  “Great.” He gave up trying to move. “We’re gonna have to stop someplace and get him some genuine medical attention. ‘Less one of you ladies has some experience pulling bullets outta shoulders.”

  “I could try?” Andrea looked back and patted Bobby’s arm, which made him wince. “I don’t think I can disintegrate living matter.”

  The van had stopped moving. Bobby said he’d do something. It took him another second, then he popped off a dragon and sent it out the window Lizzie lowered. He sent it on a mission to find Stephen and lead him back to the van, wherever it wound up. “We can’t go far, on account of Jayce. He’ll have to run to catch up. Maybe drive around the neighborhood some? Park in a driveway?”

  “No offense, Andrea, but I don’t want to be your guinea pig only to have my shoulder disintegrated.”

  “None taken, and I don’t want that, either.”

  “Is it still in there? You sure about that?”

  “Yeah.” Dan groaned as Lizzie hit the gas again. “It didn’t come out the other side.”

  Bobby groaned, too. They drove around, both men making pained protest every time Lizzie turned a corner. As he lay there, trying to brace without hurting himself, something occurred to Bobby. He hated it, but a solution was a solution, and if he turned his nose up at weird, he’d be in a world of confusion. “You think it might be small enough for one of my dragons to crawl in?”

  A few seconds of silence passed before Andrea finally said, “Ew.”

  “Maybe?” Dan sounded more hoarse and less clear.

  “Nothing for it but to try.” Deciding not to worry about the state of his body, Bobby popped ten dragons off and chose one to send his mind into. The small swarm zipped to where Dan, ashen and panting, lay on the floor of the van with one hand barely holding a wad of bloody cloth to his shoulder.

  “This is gonna hurt, isn’t it.” His hand shook as he pulled the cloth away, revealing a ragged hole in his flesh. Blood glurped out in time with his heartbeat.

  Bobby felt confident the answer would be ‘yes’. The dragons converged on Dan’s shoulder. Neither Bobby nor the dragons wanted to do this. What if he made things worse? He could cause more problems than he solved. He could kill Dan by accident. One dragon chirped, and he agreed they either had to do it or give up and figure something else out.

  Five dragons gripped the sides of the wound and forced it open, eliciting a whimper from Dan. Two watched, and the last two grabbed a corner of the cloth and daubed at the blood. Bobby’s dragon folded its wings down flat and crept into the injury. Warm and squishy, the hole felt gross. Bobby and the dragon both wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

  Dan’s whimpers turned into screams. The dragons didn’t like that at all, and Bobby pushed his to wriggle faster. He found the bullet lodged in a bone and had to grab and yank, yank, yank to pop it out, making Dan shriek. Worse, it had mushroomed enough to cause more damage on the way out.

  If he had teeth, he’d have gritted them. Bobby maneuvered around the bullet, knowing it made things worse, and pushed the bullet as hard as he could. Another dragon reached in and grabbed from the other side. Together, they tore the bullet out. Dan had gone past the point of screaming, now shaking so hard his teeth rattled and his whimpers sounded like a tiny helicopter rotor. When Bobby pushed out of the wound, awash in fresh blood, he saw Matthew’s face looming over him.

  “That’s freaky.” Haggard and wiped out, Matthew reached down and put pressure on the wound, using the already sacrificed wad of cloth. “Anybody got a needle and thread? Some alcohol? I won’t lie, Dan, whatever we do, it’s going to hurt, at least as much as that did.”

  Bobby saw that Dan had a pen in his mouth, keeping his teeth apart. Those two dragons thought to get that. The ten of them lifted out of the way, his work there done. On their flight back to his body, they bathed each other with fire, burning the blood off. He left them to that, returning to his body now sitting upright in a seat. Jayce stretched the seat belt across him and clicked it. Stephen sat between the two front seats, murmuring to Lizzie, probably keeping her calm while Dan made all that noise.

  “Welcome back.” Jayce sat back and the metallic sheen faded from his skin.

  “Yeah, you, too.” Bobby lifted his missing fingers to rub his face. The dragons arrived and re- formed them.

  “I have some dental floss in my purse,” Andrea offered. She rifled through the glove compartment. “There’s duct tape, and a wad of napkins.”

  “He really needs actual medical care,” Matthew said, shaking his head. “I only have basic first aid training.”

  “Can’t.” Bobby winced as the van went over a bump. “What d’you need to do the best job you can?”

  “The duct tape should work well enough, but I’ll need something to clean the wound. If we can stop at a drugstore, we can get rubbing alcohol and gauze.”

  “Does anyone have any money?” Bobby’s question got him a couple of head shakes.

  Stephen shrugged
. “I have money, but it’s for gas.”

  “Well, heckbiscuits, we can push the van if we gotta. Lizzie, you see a drugstore, you stop. Hey, did anybody think to swap out the van’s plates yet?”

  “No, but it’s a good idea, and we can do that when we stop.” Stephen pointed to a place, then directed Lizzie to a place to park. It put them out of obvious sight so they could swap the plates and still not have to walk far to get into the store. The second she shut the engine off, Lizzie darted out with tear streaks down her cheeks and went to Dan. Stephen nodded for Andrea to drive while Jayce headed into the store. “Bobby, give me a hand.”

  Although he knew what Stephen meant, he let his hand fall into dragons and sent that group out with the vampire. More conventional assistance required him to be less chewed up and spit out.

  Stephen snorted. “Smartass.”

  “Starving smartass,” Bobby corrected.

  Andrea grabbed the cooler and shoved it at Bobby. “Take whatever you want. Andrew packed plenty.” She watched him wince and open it. Without paying much attention to the contents, he grabbed a sandwich and stuffed it into his face. “It’s nice to meet you, Bobby. Don’t take this wrong, but I hope you were worth it.”

  His mouth full already, he glanced around the car. Matthew and Lizzie both tended to Dan. Alice lay slumped on the other seat. These people had all gone to bat for him, and most of them almost died, himself included. “Yeah.” He swallowed the bite and sighed. “Me, too. There any leads on Jasmine or the others?”

  “Not yet, no. That name you and Stephen got, we can’t find him, either. It’s like he doesn’t exist. His son, too. Both of them are ghosts.”

  The sandwich tasted like sawdust. Bobby still chewed mechanically, but they’d hit a dead end. “We’ll figure something out.” Inside, he fretted over what kind of torture Jasmine had to be enduring right now. With what he knew they’d done to him and Ai, it made his stomach churn.