The City That Heroes Built

by Daniel Pierce

  Skyborne chased Rush Hour and Slowburn descended on Speedy. The flyers had more maneuverability. Both runners pushed their limits. The chase crossed the city. Slowburn had the ranged attack. He gave Speedy a couple of warning shots, but they weren't heeded. Crossing an open lot, Speedy put himself in a position where Slowburn could open up with a flamethrower attack. Speedy crashed into a fire hydrant to use the water to put out the fire. Desperate, he went into an apartment building, hoping to use the narrow quarters to even the odds perhaps. Slowburn caught up to Speedy on the third floor and melted him where he stood. He recovered the money and flew off to find Skyborne.

  Catchpenny followed Radiation Jane into the parking structure, but was stopped when Jane ran out through a narrow doorway. Catchpenny looked for another way around, reporting the position by radio. Cal had lost Smokey Pete, so he went out to find Radiation Jane. He had to wait until Catchpenny came out. The powerful thermal imager let her locate the radioactive supra running south on the boardwalk, and ducking down a narrow street away from the beach. Catchpenny passed directions to Fiver and he cut her off at the corner of Ocean Drive.

  He struck his most intimidating martial arts pose. Radiation Jane slowed.

  “I'm going to melt a hole right through your skull,” she threatened.

  “Won't be the first time you tried,” Fiver said.

  Jane put the bag down. “Do I know you?”

  “Let's not spoil the surprise.”

  Radiation Jane closed the gap between them. Like most supras, she was fast, striking at Fiver with hands glowing white with intense heat that melted through a bank safe moments ago. Fiver ducked, swept her legs. She was up before he could attack again. He deflected her hands with a strike to the elbow, followed through smashing her into the nearest wall. Her entire body flashed white-hot for a moment and Fiver let go. He retreated a step, calculating his next move. He drew a long knife. Jane laughed. Fiver flipped it through the air and buried it in her eye.

  She screamed. The blade of the knife melted instantaneously, the hilt falling away, while the molten metal splashed into Jane's brain. She died noisily. Fiver retrieved the knife hilt. Cal picked up the money.

  “Didn't expect her to try to kill me,” Fiver said.

  Cal shrugged. “Bad move by her.”

  Halfway across town, Rush Hour failed to evade Skyborne. When Slowburn landed in front of Rush Hour with the huge duffle of cash, he knew it was over. He slowed into a jog and stopped in front of Slowburn.

  “What now?” Rush Hour said.

  “You get a nice cell in the Citadel,” Slowburn said.

  “Why do you even care? It's not your money.”

  “You steal from any of us, you steal from all of us. You make everyone in this city a potential victim every minute that you're free. I don't like that feeling.”

  “I could make this tough on you. Head into traffic, cause a bunch of accidents.”

  “Nah, my buddy here is the capture-you-alive type. I'm the melt-you-where-you-stand guy.”

  “I've been hit by flame blasts before,” Rush Hour said.

  “I know, I hit you with one,” Slowburn said. “That was a long time ago. I was a kid. My powers are all grown up now.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Slowburn. That's Skyborne.”

  “You've never hit me.”

  “Different team, different name. I was with the New Powers.”

  “Yeah, you're not the only one to get tougher,” Rush Hour said. “Still, here you are. You've got me cornered, and I'm guessing Speedy's down. I'll trade you the money for a way out,”

  “Like you said, it's not my money,” Slowburn said. “I don't care what happens to it. I'm here for you.”

  “That's not really a reason for me to make this easy on you.”

  “You undoubtedly know my partner's reputation for not giving a fuck.”

  Rush Hour thought it over.

  “Yeah, okay. I like my chances in court better than my chances against you two.”

  Skyborne and Slowburn escorted Rush Hour to police custody. They turned over two bags of cash along with him.

  “I counted that,” Skyborne said. “Press doesn't release the right number, I'll tell IA what it is.”

  They launched into the air.

  Miles away, Smokey Pete slowly and cautiously poured his smoky body out of a ventilation system and into an empty alleyway. He already changed clothes and transferred the money into a big, wheeled cooler. He dragged it to a truck, and lifted it into the back. He took out his keys and unlocked the door. Simon hit him with his mind bolts. Smokey Pete dropped to the ground in pain, then shifted into his smoke form. He slithered under his truck and out the other side to get away. Simon recovered the money, made a note of his license plate.

  Cal had returned Radiation Jane's duffle to the bank. We all dispersed in accordance with our plan, except Simon. He had a good handle on the thought pattern of Smokey Pete. He left the bank robber alone until he returned to the truck. Simon followed him until he stopped at a nice beach condo, a little further south. Content to know the location, he left.

  We met up afterwards at Murphy's. Many beers were had. Fiver declared it the best day ever. I didn't get a chance to see any of it. I've passed on a composite recollection from the group.

  July 27, 2021

  I woke up on Fiver's couch with the sun streaming in the window. I was fully dressed, shoes and all. I went home, stopped in to see Isabelle and get a cup of coffee on my way up.

  “I've never seen your walk of shame before,” she said.

  “You're not seeing it now. I slept on a buddies couch. Mostly tired, a little drunk,” I confessed.

  “An extra shot?” she asked. I nodded. I was no longer getting charged for my coffee which was awesome, if only because it made me feel special.

  Bored, I opened Suprastories.com with the intention of reading some threads. Nigel had built it up pretty quickly. It looked mostly like the site Jen's virus had laid waste to, though the banner now read “Suprastories.com v2”. The first one in the main forum was titled: New Powers Reloaded! It was started yesterday by sentinelfan99 with a simple post:

  I know someone started a thread about the Sunshine Bunch getting destroyed by an unknown group today. I think it was a New Powers reload.

  1) They always went after the Sunshine Bunch back in the day, and lost Apparition in a fight with them. Grudge Match.

  2) The New Powers went after supra-thieves like Midas and Sunshine Bunch. Slowburn and Skyborne went after the Bunch twice last year, but got to the scene of the crime too late.

  3) The New Powers went after supra-thieves. Now they have Catchpenny II. Where did Catchpenny get started? He got the armor after it was stolen by the Sky Bandits, aka some supra-thieves.

  4) Slowburn could be Sloppy Toaster/Free Fry Zone, et al. finally settling on a name.

  5) Rebel wore red high top Converse All-Stars, so did the guy who took out Radiation Jane, which was basically hand-to-hand combat.

  6) Virtuoso was a tech expert. Could be Catchpenny II.

  I screen-capped the post and sent it to the group with a link. There were three pages when I started reading, and four pages by the time I was caught up. Most everyone disagreed with the original poster. Mike got on, screen name dashingmike, and wrote a brief rebuttal:

  1) A lot of people went after the Sunshine Bunch.

  2) Everyone goes after supra-thieves. Free Force fought both the Sky Bandits and were the last team to engage the Sunshine Bunch before the end of the summer.

  3) Doesn't have anything to do with anything.

  4) Sofer's blog talked about the formation of powers. There are something like 165 pyrokinetics in the US. Dozens fly. Slowburn could be a name of Sloppy et al. but it's far more likely that it's any of the other 164 pyros.

  5) I have a pair of red high top Converse. Am I Rebel?

  6) My sister is a tech expert. Could be Catchpenny II.

  Most of the posts we
re a variation of dashingmike's, but then a gif set at the end of page four was posted by nonameonthebeach. The first showed footage shot of Rebel in 2016 during the battle against Midas's Titans. Hyperion swings a flaming sword. Rebel dodges, counterpunches, knocking Hyperion down. The second video showed amateur video from the fight last night that made the news. Radiation Jane reached out with hands glowing white with heat, Fiver sweeps the leg.

  Totally different fighting styles. Wrote the first response.

  The poster of the gifs wrote: I saw the first gif a couple of years ago, on my phone with a bad connection, took a while to load. Watch it slowed down: He posted it again. The pictures flickered slowly, frame by frame. Now watch the fight last night. Again, the gif slowed down frame by frame.

  Several responses suggesting nonameonthebeach was an idiot. One asking how far the forum had fallen that we were arguing about a defunct suprateam that wasn't very powerful when they were active. Then nonameonthebeach posted: Rebel moved first. Look at the second gif. The guy from yesterday moved before R-Jane came at him. That's the same power detecting the movement in both of those gifs.

  I looked at the pictures again. And again. So did everyone else. Nonameonthebeach won some support for his theory. He furthered it to suggest that Rebel had ESP and that's how they were able to intercept the Sunshine Bunch, and why they had to come out of retirement to catch the thieves that had been running free for the last 4 summers.

  Jen texted.

  I don't know what to say, she wrote. Did sentinelfan99 just luck into that or what?

  Broken clock, I replied.

  Matt's miffed/amused that S/S is not getting more credit.

  They are in the other thread.

  Think RR has ESP?

  Yeah. But only sort of.

  About an hour later, Cal texted: Meeting in the clubhouse, soonest.

  Gotta meet the girl. I'll come by later, I wrote.

  Lame.

  But hey, I've got a girl… something, and I know better than ditching her. Isabelle came up at 2, and left around 8. I felt like she wanted to stay, but I told her I had to interview someone for my project.

  After she left, Cal came and got me. He filled me in when we were all together at the back table at Murphy's.

  “So Fiver got a call from Bobbi Cannon today. Rush Hour told the cops that Slowburn was Sloppy Toaster of the New Powers. Cops are putting together evidence that he killed Speedy McCready, but it's tough to prove. Witnesses have them going into the same building, but grand juries tend to let supras walk. New DA may change things though. He already wants Skyborne. Charging Slowburn gets them both in trouble. Both of them are coming around to joining up. As a default, New Powers is a decent name. Fiver's not keen, but we're not very creative in this bunch and we don't want Slowburn naming anything.”

  “That's good news,” I said. “Six of you.”

  “Five,” Simon said. “I can't do this full time. Besides you guys need me running the finances, and I need to be alive. I'll help out for non-combat stuff, training, advising. But I'm going to stay in our safe little six-block area here. Also thinking about starting karaoke nights on Tuesdays.”

  “Five is pretty good,” I said.

  “Meh,” Fiver said.

  “How many were you going for?”

  “Eight to ten,” Fiver said. “Strength in numbers. Especially if we're going to try to stop LEGION from doing whatever it is they are doing.”

  “Stealing dead bodies?”

  Fiver looked at me like I was an idiot. “No one cares if they're stealing dead bodies,” he said. “Didn't we talk about this. It's what they are stealing them for that we're concerned with.”

  “I thought that they were doing it because they're creepy, gothy villains,” I said. “What? I can't be the only one.”

  “You're the only one,” Jen said.

  “Hey, you make any progress with recruiting your barista?” Cal asked.

  “Who is your barista?” Jen asked.

  “He thought she was a supra.”

  “Which one?” Jen asked.

  “I thought she was late to work a couple of time that Moccasin was out fighting gangs, and she had a black eye one day and it happened the night Moccasin did something,” I said.

  “So did you talk to her?”

  “I mean, we're sort of dating.”

  “Nice.”

  “But we're not talking about powers and stuff.”

  I saw Cal and Fiver exchange a look.

  “No following her or anything,” I said.

  “Please, we won't follow her,” Fiver said. “Catchpenny is going to hack her email before out next round.”

  “Seriously, don't,” I said.

  “Okay, I won't,” Jen said. “By the way, has anyone seen this?” She held up her phone. “Zombie outbreak in Sacramento. Fed supras and locals are trying to handle it.”

  “Same thing that happened in Washington?” Cal asked.

  “Looks like it.”

  “Might be something to get involved in if it happens any further south.”

  “I say we let the feds handle it,” Fiver said. “Those guys make seven figures. Let them put their lives on the line.”

  “Fair enough,” Cal said.

  We spent a couple more hours talking about nothing. I called for a lift home. A minute after I walked in, someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find Calliope standing there.

  “Come on in,” I said.

  She strolled in, 5 foot 7 inches of gorgeous in leather pants and a tight t-shirt. Damn, she looked good.

  “I owe you for the other night,” she said. “You wanted to know something about Glory Knight. I'll answer your questions.”

  I was shocked to stuttering. “Uh, yeah, I mean, what did you guys talk about when he came to see you?”

  “I don't remember him coming to see me. When?”

  “Right after you opened up shop here.”

  “I haven't seen him in years.”

  “He bought a coffee downstairs. $5.33 on his credit card,” I said. “He had a bunch of random visits to coffee shops across California. This was one of his first stops before he headed out further to meet up with people.”

  “Seriously, no idea what you're talking about,” Calliope said.

  “Weird.” I shook my head. She had to be lying. Why offer to help just to lie about that?

  “Who else did he meet up with?” she asked.

  “I don't know, it's just a theory, based on his sudden spending habit for coffee all over the state, and once in Kansas City.”

  “What's in Kansas City?”

  “I don't know, he went there for a weekend, saw a baseball game. I could only find one connection, so it's either something I can't discover, or he went there to see Cronos of Midas' Titans.”

  “Why?”

  “Assuming that he did go to Kansas City to find Cronos, my assumption is he is questioning people who have been released from the Citadel. Maybe he was checking up on them? Is there a supra-parole I don't know about?”

  “Hell of an assumption.”

  “Everyone else is in California. If you're a parolee, you can't leave the state. It's the only pattern that fits.”

  “You're assuming all these trips were related,” she said.

  “It's what I've got. Could he have gotten a list of addresses of people released from the Citadel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Cronos is David Arthur,” I said. “There's no listing for him, but there are other Arthurs in Kansas City. I could track him down and ask him what Glory Knight wanted to know.”

  “And then what?”

  “I'm hoping it'll be a clue to find out why he was killed.”

  “And then what?”

  “Find his killer.”

  “And then?” she asked. “Bring the killer to justice?”

  “Something like that,” I said. “Maybe it's part of a bigger plot.”

  “And you're going to stop the bigger plot?” Her
voice dripped with condensation bordering on disgust. I shrank, intimidated, and ashamed. She struck at the truth. I wasn't going to do anything, even if I did make it past one challenge, I couldn't handle them all. If I came close, I'd have to turn things over to the team to sort out.

  Still, I squeaked, “Yeah.”

  She stared me down. “Okay, we'll work on it tomorrow.”

  “What?”

  “Be ready by ten.”

  She let herself out.

  July 28, 2021

  At ten, Calliope knocked on my door. I grabbed my bag and answered. I'd already gone downstairs, grabbed a coffee, and told Isabelle that I would be out working and researching.

  “You're driving,” Calliope said.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Guadalupe,” she said. Guadalupe was the neighborhood west of us, about halfway to the beach. It had been pretty small, before the boom, the original town was now the “old town” after the surrounding area transformed into suburbs overnight. One of Glory Knight's coffee stops had been in the old town, but Calliope directed me to a mom-and-pop hardware store down the street. I parked.

  “Stay,” she said. She looked over at the store. I did too, not sure what I was looking for. After about five minutes, an employee helped a customer carry bags to the back of his pick up. “Recognize him?”

  “The employee or the customer?” I asked. “No in both cases.”

  “The employee is Salute,” Calliope said. “Far-right extremist group leader. Almost telekinetic, in that he can lift things with his mind, but he has to be touching them. Can reverse it, so he can repel anything, like a force field.”