by Logan Jacobs
“Absolute perfection,” I purred as I walked around and inspected her from every angle.
“It does look pretty good.” Dynamo flashed me a grin as she ran her fingers up and down her covered tummy.
“I was talking about you,” I snickered, “but the suit is fine as well.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth whispered. Her cheeks caught a bit of color as she glanced away from my eyes and down to the control panel on her arm.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, not that button!” I hissed as she almost pressed the one that would shoot electricity in every direction for twenty feet.
“How am I supposed to figure out how to fully utilize this thing if I don’t fuck around with it?” she pouted.
“Let’s take a trip to an isolated wooded area where it’s safer to test their capabilities,” I suggested.
She narrowed her eyes at me.
I rolled my eyes in response. “First of all, I don’t have any nefarious intentions. Second of all, even if I did, I’m not dumb enough to try to act on them. You’d kill me.”
She nodded, satisfied that I was telling the truth. “Okay.”
“Norma, why don’t you grab a few bottles of champagne and some berries, and then get changed into something a bit more rugged?” I suggested.
My brunette, bespectacled little assistant scurried off to do that. Once she returned, she, Dynamo, and I all piled into one of my cars, an inconspicuous modified sedan in charcoal gray, and drove off to a rural field twenty miles out of town. Aileen remained in radio contact, but I didn’t see any need to bring along her physical body on the trip.
Once we stopped in the field that was a safe distance away from the city limits, where no one was around to observe our activities, or at least not close up enough to realize that anything more unusual was going on than someone letting off fireworks, Norma popped a bottle of champagne, unpacked a few boxes of strawberries and raspberries, settled down on a lawn chair, and watched as Dynamo and I started sprinting back and forth and jumping around.
The heroine was doing circus tricks that I couldn’t match, and even if I had been able to squeeze into her version of the suit, I most certainly couldn’t have done them while carrying the extra hundred pounds. But in my own fifteen pound suit, every athletic maneuver seemed to cost only half the usual effort. I knew it wasn’t actually helping as much as that, so part of it was probably just the adrenaline and my exhilaration that my designs were working.
Then, we had some champagne, and berries, and started testing out some of the suits’ built-in weaponry. We carved a few crop circles and obscene designs into the grass with the finger lasers. We blasted holes in a few trees with the mini rockets. We dueled with wrist blades, and it didn’t matter when we scored hits, because the blades couldn’t make a scratch on the body armor. We didn’t have head protection, so if we’d really been trying to harm each other that’s where we would have needed to aim, but I could build helmets later.
I got tired after half an hour, so I flopped down into the extra lawn chair that Norma had set up for me and sipped on a flute of champagne while we watched Dynamo continue to caper around with her seemingly boundless energy. She was doing flips in the air, cartwheels, and high kick splits that looked equal parts sexy and deadly. It was like she and the Killer Kitten had been to the same gymnastics school, although they had a slightly different set of superpowers, there was definitely overlap. I guessed that Wardens were probably selected partly based on what the people liked to watch, and the people definitely liked to watch beautiful acrobatic females with stunning martial arts skills.
“How come you can’t do that?” Norma teased after Elizabeth ran up a tree and then back flipped off from twenty feet in the air.
“The suits just amplify your existing physical abilities,” I explained. “they mostly don’t create new abilities, except for some of the weaponry stuff. Eventually, we’ll get the technology to make everything smaller, and I’ll fit more augmentation into a smaller material. If I wanted to be as strong as her, my suit would have to be ten times the size, and then I wouldn’t be able to move.”
“I get it,” Norma sighed. “I was just making a joke.”
“I know, I know,” I laughed. “That’s why I explained it to you, so that you’d know that you shouldn’t tease me. Also, though, damn. How come I don’t look like that in my suit?”
Norma smirked at me and said shyly, “You don’t look half bad in yours either.”
“Aw, shucks,” I laughed.
Eventually Dynamo stopped playing around and walked over to us to take a glass of champagne for herself.
“So, what do you think?” I asked.
“I love it,” she replied as she ran her hands down her sleek suit-clad torso. “My old one’s fine, I mean it’s not as cumbersome as the ridiculous getups they make some of the girls wear… but it really doesn’t compare. Not remotely. I feel like… I don’t know, I feel like how a human would probably feel if she suddenly received superpowers. Maybe not that drastic? But it’s something else. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
“I guess you want me to join your team and start casually breaking the law and killing off anyone you deem too villainous to be allowed to live in return?” she asked.
“Zero obligation,” I replied nonchalantly as I took a sip of my champagne. “It’s a gift, free and clear. But yeah, that would be nice.”
“Keep on dreaming,” she scoffed, and then she cartwheeled away while popping off little white bursts from her ankles as she went.
“What are those?” I asked Norma. “Just light, or is there some kind of explosive involved? Or electricity? How is she doing that?”
Norma frowned. “I don’t even know, I don’t think I remember all the features we added. It’s been a long week.”
“We spent about three days making the suits,” I laughed.
“Felt like a week,” Norma said as she sipped her champagne. “Which isn’t to say that it was a bad week.”
“Not half bad,” I agreed. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Thanks,” Norma replied. “I like it when you appreciate me.”
“I know,” I said, “and I do.”
I was glad that Norma seemed to enjoy watching the results of our work in action. I had been a little worried that she might get jealous or feel left out. But making an effective supersuit for Norma just didn’t seem to be possible. Somehow, her superpower seemed to neutralize any enhancement that a high tech suit could provide. She could test out the exact same component that I tested out, without making any changes to it, and yet when she put it on, nothing would happen. It was like her body would become temporarily heavier or more sluggish by just enough to cancel out whatever technological advantage was bestowed. No matter what she wore, Norma was bound to deliver an average performance. It was both a blessing and a curse.
At that point, Dynamo returned. Some of her giddiness had worn off, and now she had a sort of serious look in her turquoise eyes.
“I’m not signing a long-term contract or anything,” she announced, and I waited while she took a deep breath and bit her lip. Then eventually she concluded, “But, I can’t wear this thing in front of The Wardens, or they’ll start asking questions. And it would be a shame to just let it sit in my closet unused. So, I’ll go on one mission with you. I’ll help you take down The Chief. Deal?”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I popped a strawberry in my mouth. “I said no strings attached, you could take it back to The Wardens, tell them I gave it to you, and they would probably let you keep it after they turned green with envy.”
“Are you saying you don’t want me anymore?” she asked as she crossed her arms.
“Oh, I want you,” I said as I stared into her piercing turquoise eyes, and I felt a bit of excitement because she knew I was telling the truth.
But she didn’t know if I meant for the mission or general desire. Although she probably assumed both.
“Well?” she whispered after we had stared at each other for a few moments.
“Well?” I repeated.
“I’ll do the damn mission with you!” she groaned as she rolled her eyes.
“Excellent!” I exclaimed as I leapt to my feet. Then I handed her a champagne glass so that I could clink mine with hers. Norma raised her glass too.
“To the brutal downfall of that terrorist crocodile motherfucker!” I said.
“Cheers,” Dynamo and Norma said in unison, and both women wore wide smiles on their faces.
“Cheers,” Aileen added in my earpiece.
Miles Chapter Thirteen
Dynamo left for her house after we returned home, with the car driving itself since all of us were intoxicated. She said she couldn’t be around most of the time when The Wardens had her on assignment, but that she would show up sometime the next night whenever they let her off.
“My door is always open,” I replied. “Well, don’t take that literally. Wait for me to buzz you in. Otherwise… well, just wait till I buzz you in. But we can change that. I’ll register your iris with my security system.”
She nodded, waved, and exited by elevator.
Norma scrutinized my expression and accused me, “You’re in love.”
“No, I’m not,” I scoffed. “Love isn’t really… a thing I do.”
“Okay, well, you have a serious crush on her,” Norma amended.
“Could be,” I said with a shrug, “but we’ll see how she does on her first non-Warden-sanctioned mission first.”
“You already know that she’ll be brilliant,” Norma sighed.
“There’s no data on that,” I insisted.
For most of the next day, I wasn’t able to get any tinkering work done, or any planning work for the attack on The Chief’s lair. I had too many meetings with potential investors, potential tech clients, and members of the press to promote the launch of the C.D.S.
But I made sure to keep my schedule open after dinner, and sure enough, around nine at night, Dynamo showed up in her red work uniform.
“Welcome back, how was work?” I asked cheerfully when she entered The Cellar.
She scowled. “… I think my supervisors are tracking my whereabouts, even when I’m not on the clock.”
“Oh?” That didn’t surprise me one bit, but judging from how furious Dynamo looked, I guessed that it surprised her.
Dynamo observed my distinct lack of surprise and began, “They’re not--”
“--supposed to do that?” I guessed.
She deflated and let out a heavy sigh.
“So, they questioned you about last night?” I asked her. “When we went off to that field to test the suits?”
“Yeah,” she said. “But I didn’t tell them anything. I made something up about a midnight workout session.”
“You mean you lied?” I gasped with false horror.
“It’s none of their business what I do on my own time when I’m off work,” she snapped. “As long as I’m not putting Warden operations in jeopardy, and I wasn’t. I’ve never even told you anything confidential about them.”
“Do they know you’re here now?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I made sure to disable the GPS functions on all my equipment. Work and personal. And I took a circuitous route here, and I changed vehicles.”
“Okay, great,” I said. Hopefully Dynamo’s tactics had succeeded, but if The Wardens knew that she was visiting me, well, then they knew now, and there was nothing I could do about that. It wasn’t illegal for her to visit me, anyway. We hadn’t gotten to the illegal parts of our operation yet, nor did they have any reason to suspect that my crime fighting ambitions had grown.
“I’m not a supervillain,” Dynamo grumbled. “They have no right to track me. I don’t know, though. Perhaps they know something’s up.”
“No point in worrying about it now, we’ll deal with it if there’s a confrontation,” I said. “Aileen, can you pull up the diagrams of The Chief’s presumable lair?”
“Here they are,” she replied. Elaborate 3D blueprints appeared on the nearest screen. “These are the originals, anyway. To figure out what it looks like now, you would have to go in person.”
“Wait a second, this tunnel is underwater?” I asked as I examined one of the diagrams.
“Yes,” Aileen said.
“Well then,” I said. “Who’s up for some scuba diving?”
“Right now?” asked Norma.
“No time like the present,” I replied. “Norma, I know you’re okay at scuba diving. Dynamo, do you know how to do it?”
“Yes, that was part of my Warden training,” she replied.
“Okay, Norma, why don’t you go bring our gear, since you’re already familiar with the layout of this tunnel,” I said. “Dynamo and I will review it more closely now, and Aileen, you can explain what you think too. What do you think our best options are for taking out everyone inside the tunnel?”
“You could collapse the tunnel and allow it to flood,” she suggested. “Those who were not crushed would likely drown.”
“Hmm, I like that,” I said.
“But what would happen to the new auto tunnel that was built on top of this one, the one that’s still in current use?” Dynamo asked as she reviewed the diagrams too. “Can we avoid damaging it?”
“No, the new tunnel is structurally dependent upon the old one,” Aileen answered.
“What if we do it at night when there are no cars in the tunnel?” I asked. “That way no one else gets hurt besides our targets.”
“Many of the supervillains who use the tunnel as their headquarters do not remain there at night,” Aileen replied. “According to surveillance records, at least the majority of them seem to return to their own fortified homes in various parts of Pinnacle City.”
“I don’t like that,” I said. “The Chief is my primary target, but I want to take out as many of his henchmen as I can at the same time, if they’re all the kind of supervillains who would attack random partygoers at a gala, just to express their displeasure with the C.D.S.”
“Can’t we just break into the tunnel?” Dynamo asked.
“Hang on there, cowgirl,” I said. “The Virus claimed that there are usually about twelve villains in there. Those aren’t very good odds, since there’s only one of you, I’m not a super, and Norma… well, she’s a super, but she’s only an average fighter. And average by normal person standards which means not much good at all by super standards. So I don’t want to waltz into their lair and give them the home field advantage. We need to find a way to drive them out, preferably killing most of them in the process, and then pick them off one by one as they exit.”
“A fire?” Dynamo suggested. “That would force them to evacuate.”
“Hmm, yes, that’s closer, but how would we start a fire in there without entering, and without introducing some kind of explosive?” I asked. “We can’t use any explosives, because we won’t jeopardize the new bridge on top. See? You don’t have to be a Warden to set boundaries.”
“Poison gas,” Dynamo said, and I felt my heart skip a bit when I realized that her goody-good barriers were starting to crumble.
I blinked. “Aileen? Is that feasible?”
“Hmm, if you introduced it through the air ducts on the right-hand side, it would rapidly disperse throughout the chamber… ah, but if they detected it within two minutes and activated a fan, the air filter system would renew the supply of fresh oxygen and casualties would likely be minimal,” Aileen replied.
“Activated a fan?” I asked. “And relied on their air filter system? … That would require electricity, wouldn’t it? What if the power was down?”
“They would be unable to activate a fan, the air filter system would be nonfunctional, and they would have no means of disposing of the gas,” Aileen said. “They would be forced to evacuate, or choke on it. But this lair is powered by the city’s electric grid.”
“Can you bring th
e grid down?” I asked her.
Dynamo stared at me in shock.
Aileen hesitated. Then she said, “For a short time, I calculate that that would be possible.”
“Just the smallest section that you are able to isolate in order to cut power to the underground tunnel,” I said as I glanced sideways at the brunette beauty.
Dynamo looked a little more comfortable with that idea.
“I can isolate those four and a half square blocks,” Aileen said.
“Perfect,” I said, but because Dynamo still looked like she was kind of wondering what kind of operation exactly she’d gotten herself wrapped up in, I asked, “No hospitals within those four and a half square blocks, right? No fire departments? Nothing like that? No one likely to die due to a brief loss of power?”
“Just the shopping mall, some other stores and restaurants, and private residences,” Aileen replied.
“Excellent,” I said.
Dynamo swallowed but made no objection.
Norma returned hauling scuba gear for the three of us, including full oxygen tanks, on a cart. I started checking over the equipment.
“The entrance to the lair is on land,” Norma said as she watched me. “So what are we…”
“We’re not going in tonight,” I said. “But, see that window there? If we approach from the side, we might be able to get a visual on the occupants. If there are any occupants. Before we progress any further in our plans, we need to verify that The Virus was telling us the truth. That this isn’t really just some random abandoned car tunnel.”
“We can also scope out the air vent that we’ll use to pump gas in through,” Dynamo added.
Norma looked at her with some surprise. “Gas?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s the tentative plan,” I said. “Poison gas. It’ll help even the odds a bit.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Norma agreed.
Dynamo looked a little taken aback by her casual tone. But even though my newest team member had seen more combat with supervillains, Norma had spent more time with me and was no longer fazed by most strategies that I proposed. And she hadn’t been instilled with Warden doctrine to limit her thinking on what was and wasn’t acceptable.