Tekgrrl

  “I think it’s going to get better, teamwise. At least between Paul and Wesley,” I said. “They seemed a bit more cooperative at the end of dealing with that government official. It’ll just take some time for adjustment.”

  “Selena said every team she’s ever been on has had leader dynamic problems.”

  Of course he’d had to bring her up. “So, how was L’Orange?”

  “Good. Really nice.” He looked like he didn’t want to discuss it with me. “Selena’s a great person.”

  “Uh-huh.” That was kind of a lukewarm reaction. Had it not gone so well? “So, come on, make with the details.”

  “That’s a little weird, isn’t it?” Luke said.

  “What, because I used to have a thing for you? I thought we were past all that. Besides, you talked about your ex-lover’s current relationship; you can’t talk to me about your date?”

  He seemed to consider.

  “Pretend I’m Toby or something. You know he’ll want all the details. And you’ve got to know Selena’s making with all of them to Lainey as we speak.”

  He grinned. “Okay, okay…It was really great.”

  I ignored the way my stomach plummeted. “Such detail, Luke.”

  “Well, I don’t know what to say!” He looked embarrassed. “It was a great lunch. She’s led a really interesting life. And, she’s very outgoing and personable. We got along really well.”

  “Did you kiss her?”

  “Mindy!” He looked embarrassed, which surprised me. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “So that’s a yes. Otherwise you would have said no.” I kept my tone light and friendly, but inside my stomach was forming a cold pit. God, it was truly over, wasn’t it? He liked her and she liked him. Friendship was really all I’d ever have.

  Which, I reminded myself, was all I wanted. Hadn’t I started working toward it?

  “We’re going out for dinner and dancing tomorrow,” Luke continued. “Salsa dancing, if you can believe it. Can you see me salsa dancing?”

  “No,” I replied. I was still shell-shocked. Dinner and dancing, with the option of breakfast the next morning?

  “You know what, Mindy, you’ve not had a serious boyfriend since I’ve known you, and you haven’t dated much lately,” Luke was saying. “You’re so pretty, you must have guys lined up around the block. So, why aren’t you pursuing that?”

  “Work’s been busy,” I said.

  “You don’t want to become a lonely workaholic like Paul,” Luke remarked. “You know, maybe a romantic relationship is just the distraction you need right now, to keep you from thinking too much about blocked memories and the aliens.”

  “Yeah, Luke,” I said halfheartedly. “Lainey was just saying something similar the other day…”

  “That just proves I’m right! Let’s see, who do I know who’s single?”

  The last thing that I wanted was to be fixed up by Luke. As luck would have it, I was saved from having to come up with a reason to turn down a blind date by the sirens that came blaring up from below.

  “Sounds like they’re playing our song,” I said. “We’ll have to discuss my love life later.” Or never.

  “Let’s go,” Luke agreed, snapping into focus and gathering up our trash. We ran down the fire escapes of the building we were perched on, probably waking the tenants with our clanging as we passed. Luke paused by a dumpster to get rid of our garbage, and caught up with me at the mouth of the alley.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  I listened to the sirens. “Towards midtown, I think.”

  “You have good coordinates up there?”

  “Probably the high school’s safe.” I punched in numbers on the pad around my arm, then shared them with Luke.

  “Got ’em.” He glanced at me. “Are you ready?”

  I nodded. “Ready.”

  We both clicked our transporters at the same time. After a moment’s cool tingle of sensation, we were on the edge of the high school roof. Below, it seemed like every patrol car in the city had surrounded the building.

  “What the hell?” I heard from below. I looked down at the cops, who had their guns drawn and pointed at us.

  “I think we just accidentally transported directly into the scene of the crime,” Luke remarked.

  “There’s more of them!” someone below shouted, and Luke and I spun to see who was talking.

  “No, wait,” I called.

  “Isn’t that Sensei?” someone asked a little too close to the police bullhorn. “Who’s the girl with him?”

  “Is it Tekgrrl?”

  “No way, she’s too pretty. Tekgrrl’s the one with that purple shit in her hair.”

  Before I could retort, Luke took control of the situation. “We’re here to help,” he called down. “If someone could tell us what’s going on…”

  “We said no heroes, or the kiddies in the dance buy it!” a voice shrilled behind me, a split second before I got cracked on the head.

  I went down hard, but in my haze I could see the culprits: a group of five villains who looked like they had stepped out of an old movie version of what the future would be, with shiny silver suits and goggles.

  Though my head was ringing, I managed to reach down to grab my energy whip. My assailant had swooped in from above with a jet pack. (A jet pack? Seriously? How pathetically twentieth century could you get?) As he leaned over me, I seized the opportunity and cracked my energy whip. The quick movement wrapped the cord around his neck. His hands went to his throat to try to free himself, but I hit the power button. A jolt of electricity thrummed through the whip’s fibers, and the villain went down like a felled ox.

  One down, four to go.

  I stood up and leaned over the side of the roof to yell down, “Hey, can you get up here to cuff these guys?” The cops could cart the bad guys away; we had to focus on stopping them.

  I saw Luke, who had been dodging swooping attacks from another of the villains, finally outmaneuver his foe. He took a flying leap, tackling the guy, but the jet pack continued over the side of the roof and the two men’s combined weight was too much; they vanished downward.

  I gasped in horror, dropping my whip and running for the edge of the building. It was at that moment that I was grabbed from behind and lifted off my feet. I wriggled in the grasp of whoever held me and managed to head-butt them with the back of my head.

  “Hey, you want to fall?” my captor growled. “Keep wiggling, bitch, and I’ll drop you.”

  We climbed higher and higher into the sky, and I was afraid that was his intention, anyway: to take me up high and then drop me. I had to put a stop to him. “Why are you messing with a high school dance, anyway?” I asked, trying to keep him talking as I fumbled for the scrambler on my utility belt. “You angry because no girl asked you?”

  I heard him sneer. “Ransom, of course. No one wants to see a kid get blown to pieces, so imagine how much money we’ll get if we threaten a school full of ’em?”

  “I bet you were the head of your class,” I said before I twisted the dial on the scrambler and slapped it onto his jet pack. My fingers slipped and missed the activation button.

  Nonetheless, the scrambler turned on with an audible hum. I didn’t have time to think about it; instantly the jet pack stopped working and we started to plummet. The villain shrieked like a girl and let go. I tried to reach for him, but it was in vain and I missed. The ground was coming up fast, so I hit the teleport button and prayed for the best. It was still locked onto my former coordinates, and I zapped back to the roof of the high school, landing hard enough to knock the wind out of me but not break anything. My ex-captor was nowhere in sight.

  I lay for a moment, curled up in a ball, gasping for air, until I finally got it together.

  “You all right?” one of the cops now on the school roof asked.

  I gave him a subdued thumbs up and stood. “Where are the rest of the gang?”

  “We’ve got two: this one, and the one your partner de
livered. He went after a third.”

  “What about the guy that dropped me? Did you see what happened to him?”

  “They’re calling for an ambulance right now.”

  It sounded like he was still alive, though that could change. God, I hoped not. We in the EHJ didn’t make a habit of killing villains, and I hadn’t meant to hurt the guy. Paul would be superpissed if he died. Wesley would probably be more forgiving. Having two leaders of opposing minds was like being the kid of divorced parents; you learned how to work both. Still, I hoped I wouldn’t have to spin the villain’s death.

  “How are the kids?” I asked the cop.

  “We’re evacuating them right now. Apparently the villain who was watching them hightailed it when he heard the ruckus.”

  “I’m glad the kids are okay,” I remarked, wincing at a pain in my wrist. I might have fractured it in the fall.

  “Are you really Tekgrrl?” one of the other cops asked, helping the first villain to his feet. The villain looked particularly uncomfortable, still groggy from the power whip.

  “That’s me,” I said.

  “You look different.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s the hair.”

  One of the cops held up a cell phone. “Do you mind if I take a picture? My kid will never believe that I met you.”

  I shrugged and acquiesced. It’s one of the easier parts of being a hero.

  Pictures taken, I teleported down to ground level, still careful of my wrist, and was met by Luke, who also looked a little worse for wear.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I think I may have broken a few ribs, but I’m okay. Got one, the other got away. How about you?”

  “Might have broken my wrist. I got two, but one’s in pretty bad shape. He had a hold of me with a jet pack, and when I dropped us with a scrambler he fell before I could grab him.”

  “We’ll have to tell Paul and the authorities.” Luke was nothing if not a stickler for protocol.

  I nodded, sighing. “Of course.”

  “Don’t look so worried, you were just doing your job. I’m sure you didn’t use excessive force. And we both sustained injuries, ourselves.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “It’ll be okay. Come on, I’ll pop for a cab ride to the hospital. We should get our injuries checked out before we go home, and the trip will give us time to decompress that just teleporting won’t.”

  I smiled. “Tacos and cab rides. Selena’s a lucky woman.”

  If only it didn’t hurt so much to say that.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Because of my injured wrist and my continued headaches, I had gotten a pass on patrol for a bit. I grumbled a bit, but it did give me more time in the lab. Weeks later, it was business as usual.

  “All right, Goth Boy, put the nice man down.”

  The young villain put down the homeless man from whom he had been draining energy and frowned. “Count Cranium! My name is Count Cranium!”

  I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. “Like that’s any better.”

  Luke appeared out of the shadows. “Whatever your name is, step away from the civilian.”

  Seeing Luke, the psychic vampire edged toward the mouth of the alley.

  I frowned. Just a teenager, and already a criminal with a bizarre moniker. What was the world coming to? “Don’t you dare run.”

  No sooner did the words leave my mouth than Goth Boy tossed the bum at me. I collided with a mound of alcohol-scented flesh and went down. Luke stopped to help me up, and I got a glimpse of the edge of a cape disappearing around the corner. Goth Boy’s outfit proved he took the vampiric portion of his powers a little too seriously.

  “I’m all right, just go!” I waved Luke off as I tried to push the weakened and obviously intoxicated bum off me and got groped for my trouble. “Looks like I’m going to get my cardio for the day.”

  Luke grinned. “Bet you’re wishing now you spent more time actually jogging in the mornings.”

  It was true that, after a few weeks of morning runs with Luke that turned into coffee breaks with Selena, I wasn’t any closer to either him or losing those five pounds I’d being meaning to shed. Darn the lattes!

  Luke took off after our villain. The homeless man gave me a gummy smile. “You’re pretty.”

  I sighed and followed Luke.

  Breathing hard, I stopped for a moment, watching Luke chase our Goth bandit down a hill through midtown, dodging pedestrian traffic and getting looks and curses along the way. From my vantage, I saw Luke was going to lose him in the crush, so I quickly dialed in some coordinates to an alley I knew ahead and hit the button. Luke didn’t like to use his transporter unless necessary, but I wasn’t above using my inventions to make life easier.

  A queasy feeling hit as I was transported, and when I reappeared in a new location, it was with the added bonus of a pounding headache. Trying to shake it off, I stumbled out of the alley and got the pleasure of seeing I’d calculated correctly. The villain’s eyes widened. He tried to skid to a stop to avoid me.

  “I told you not to run,” I snarled, holding up my prison-cell transport gun. “If your molecules get scrambled, don’t blame me.” I had run enough tests to know they wouldn’t scramble, but a dose of healthy fear in a villain isn’t a bad thing.

  I pulled the trigger, and the beam blasted toward the villain’s chest. I waited to see him vanish into nothingness, hopefully transported to a maximum security prison cell across town. The beam sizzled into nothingness.

  I stared at the gun and then back at Count Cranium in confusion. “What?”

  The villain held up a pentagram amulet that I’d thought was just a weird homage to Dracula. “Personal defense shield,” he crowed. “My girlfriend’s a magic user.”

  “She’s got bad taste in men,” I retorted.

  “I’ll bet heroes are better to drain than regular humans,” he said, suddenly edging toward me with a strange smile. “And I’ll bet you’re particularly tasty.”

  I held up my Shocker. “Come near me and you’re going to jail unconscious,” I warned.

  He laughed. “Your little sci-fi shit won’t work on me.”

  “Let’s find out,” I said, and pushed the button.

  The shock that would normally take out a full-grown adult fizzled without any obvious effect. I cursed magic in general. I needed a weapon that would circumvent it. Maybe Lainey or Wesley could help, and if I threw together some neural-transmitter transducers…

  This is so not the time to focus on wish lists, I reminded myself. The villain had decided he had the edge, and was running toward me. I stumbled back.

  He made a grab for me and I dodged, managing to land a kick as I did. He doubled over as the wind was knocked out of him. Apparently physical blows could penetrate his shield. Ha, take that, magic!

  “Tekgrrl?”

  I looked over to see Luke approaching. “It’s okay,” I said—but then the vampire grabbed me by the hair and yanked me close. It was the second time in recent history that I had been grabbed from behind, and I made a silent promise to myself to never ever turn my back on a villain again.

  “I’ll drain her, Sensei,” Goth Boy snarled. “Step back.”

  Luke took a few steps back, hands in the air. “Let’s all stay cool.”

  “Don’t use your patronizing negotiator tactics on me,” Count Cranium said. “Now, you two heroes are going to do what I say.”

  The very fact that I was going to get munched by a psychic vampire pissed me off. And how humiliating, being taken out by a minor villain in front of the guy I was trying to get over. My headache was back with a vengeance, and I was again feeling like someone shoved an ice pick into my brain.

  I focused the pain and humiliation into rage at the villain yanking my hair. I hated Count Cranium, and hated his stupid name and stupid vampire getup, and most importantly, I hated his stupid medallion. I wanted to rip that stupid medallion off of his neck and throw it on the ground and stomp on it until it was nothing bu
t itty-bitty pieces. And then I’d smash him into itty-bitty pieces.

  Something round and metallic came flying over my shoulder and skidded across the sidewalk. The villain released his hold on my hair. “What the hell? How’d you do that?” I turned to see he no longer wore his medallion.

  Without knowing what I was doing, I threw all of my remaining rage at him. The villain flew off his feet and slammed into the mailbox behind him, making a huge dent in it, and he crumpled to the ground, moaning. Luke leapt forward and rendered him unconscious with a nerve-pinch maneuver he had perfected.

  I immediately whirled and threw up in the gutter. I felt light-headed, like I might pass out. Stumbling to my hands and knees I breathed deep, trying to focus on staying conscious. The blinding pain in my head slowly receded until it was only a dull throb.

  “What was that, Mindy?” Luke’s quiet voice brought my attention back, and I found I was able to stand up again.

  “I-I don’t know,” I said, shaking but managing to walk over to where the medallion now lay, shattered to nothing but itty-bitty pieces.

  “Was it someone else? Is there some other hero around?” he called out. He was gazing to his right and left, looking nervous.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so.” I remembered the ghost in my lab. The instruments floating in the air, the light switch shutting off a split second before I wanted. The scrambler turning on when I couldn’t reach. “Is it possible to develop powers late in life?”

  Luke shrugged. “You’re the scientist, you tell me.” His eyes widened. “You think you’re developing powers?”

  “It was, like, something psychic.” I looked down at the unconscious villain. “I was just so mad at him and the situation, and I kept thinking that I wanted to rip that stupid magic medallion off his neck and beat the tar out of him.”

  “And you did.” Was it my imagination, or did Luke look scared?