Not that Athena didn't work out. She spent at least two hours a day in the gym, drilling and sparring, using several different martial arts. Word had it that her teacher, Deryk Shea, had probably been the greatest hand-to-hand fighter who'd ever lived. Not impossible, if you have twenty-five thousand years to work on it.
Amanda didn't spar with Athena. She left that to Nemesis Breed. She could do a spell to match her strength and speed temporarily, but she really stood no chance against the woman and they both knew it. Seemed kind of pointless collecting bruises just to prove it.
Amanda dropped into the guest chair. “Okay, Boss. It's an ungodly hour. What do you want?"
"Nice to see you too, Amanda. And don't call me Boss. Makes me feel like a Mafiosa.” She heaved a deep sigh and locked gazes with the young mage. “Your grandfather wants you to rejoin the family. Take his offer."
"You're asking me to spy on my family?"
"Well, yeah. You got a problem with that?"
"Nah. Jut asking. I don't mind. Grandfather is a heinous ass."
Athena grinned. “Heinous ass? Is that contemporary street slang?"
"More like retro. I got it out of an old movie."
"Ah.” She nodded. We're going to have to give you a good reason to jump ship. A fight in a public place is an old classic. And somehow it usually works despite being a classic good-guy ploy."
"No one said the bad guys gotta be smart."
"Nothing says they gotta be stupid, either."
Amanda knew how Athena thought of her grandfather. Deryk Shea and he had been rivals, and not just because their corporations were competitors. They approached the world from two opposite directions. Shea had been a libertine—allowing his employees more room than most. Room to grow, and room, when necessary, to hang themselves.
Thomas Gray was a despot. He'd ruled his family with the same iron grasp he did his companies. He still wanted to rule Amanda, but she wasn't willing to let him. Of course, she could always pretend. Playing the old bastard would actually be a welcome challenge. And what could he do if he learned she was spying on him? Kill her? Somehow she doubted he wanted to do that, despite the incident in the limo.
"So a public argument, eh? When and where?"
"We'll give it a few days then throw a dust-up over at Coyote Blue. It'll be all over town by midnight."
"That'll work. Then I'll wait a couple more days and approach my grandfather. He'll want to test me, but I'll pass whatever he has in mind without a hitch. So then I'll have some measure of his trust. Why do you want me to spy on him?"
"Not on him. On his business affairs. I want know what his tech sector is up to."
"Corporate espionage? Are you kidding me?"
"Nope. I need to know what they're up to. Word has it that they're making huge strides in cybernetics. Among other things. I don't need a technical report, just a basic overview. That's just a start, of course. I'm not just interested in the corporate stuff. It occurs to me that your grandfather might be involved with the dirty judge."
"Donner? It occurred to me, too. His men snatched me off the street when I was looking for Donner's contact. Thought that was a pretty big coincidence."
"Uh-huh. So do I. You never know—he might give you the whole story himself in a couple of weeks."
"You're more optimistic than I am. So what should I tell Ben?"
"You shouldn't need to say anything. He's going away to the Academy in a couple days. Before any of this comes to a head, hopefully. New students are under sequester for the first six weeks—it's a bit like basic training, when you get right down to it."
Amanda nodded. “Fine. He'll hit the roof when he hears about it."
"I know,” Athena replied with a tight grin. “He seems to have acquired quite a grudge against Grey."
"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy,” the tiny woman replied.
Athena opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a fierce pounding on the window. Both women turned to see a fiery shape hovering some thirty or so feet from the building. The Burning Man. He mimed picking up the phone just as it began to ring.
With a frown, Athena plucked it from the cradle. “Athena here.” She listened for a long moment and slowly hung the phone back up. “Well, shit.” She turned slightly dazed eyes at Amanda. “I think we've just got our first meta-villain. The Wells Fargo downtown just got hit by some screwball in a purple spandex costume. I guess he just tore through the outer wall and started punching his way through the vault. The Sash is on the scene but they wanted to keep us in the loop."
"Good for them,” Amanda murmured. “We going there?"
"You want to throw the transit ‘tube’ or do you want me to do it?"
Instead of replying, Amanda grabbed a passing strand and formed a transit tunnel. They leaped through single file, transported instantly to the scene.
* * * *
"The rooftop was a good idea,” Athena told her, crouched next to her on the precipice. A light rain drifted down from the morbid sky onto the street below. It looked like a war zone. A cop car lay on its side, roof pounded flat so it was nearly level with the hood. One of the tires spun slowly as a black and silver clad figure careened off and sprawled on the wet asphalt.
This figure, belonging to a small blond woman with a punk haircut, lay on the street for a couple of breaths before pushing herself to her feet. She turned slowly as another figure, this one nearly twice her size and wearing an obnoxious purple jumpsuit and a matching mask, stalked away from the building toward her.
A sizzling sound drew their attention upward just in time to see The Burning Man let loose a stream of blue-white fire at the figure's unprotected back. It struck and splashed as if it were liquid, setting the tar in the asphalt afire, but doing no obvious damage to its target. He reared up with a roar and whirled toward the flaming meta-hero, tearing a parking meter loose from the sidewalk. He swung it back as if preparing to fling it at The Burning Man.
Athena leaped off the roof and vanished, appearing a few steps away from the big purple Freak. She strode through the fiery asphalt as casually as a stroll on velvet grass. She came up behind him and slammed a foot directly between his legs. Focused on The Burning Man, he didn't even see her coming.
He let out a shriek of pain and rage as he fell to his knees, the concrete at the end shattering against the street as it tumbled from his hands.
His other hand slapped the pavement hard enough to crack it. He pivoted on that arm, twisting his feet beneath him and came at her like an avalanche. She skipped back, slapping aside a couple wild swings. She surged forward, hammering him once, then twice more in a series of straight punches up the middle of his body.
The last blow snapped his head back and sent him staggering back into a flashing attack from the little blond. Unfortunately her strength wasn't even enough to break his stride. He shrugged off her blows and advanced on Athena. She stood relaxed, waiting.
"Who the fuck are you?” he snarled, in a voice like a couple of clashing chainsaws.
In reply, she simply flipped him off, then met his angry charge with sharp precision, her sinewy arm lashing out in a looping left that sent him down to one knee, shaking his head as if stunned.
He surged to his feet, eyes blazing. “Bitch!"
And dashed forward, arms extended, and snatched her up in a massive bear hug. She spread her legs and drove her elbows down into the side of his neck before he could get her off the ground, snapping her knee up into his chest at the same time. She thrust away and broke free, staggering a few yards, then following with a couple of flashing kicks—a front snap and a wicked roundhouse—that sent him reeling headfirst into the undercarriage of the cop car.
He roared as he lurched upright, muscles rolling like a sea of tennis balls beneath his skin. He reached out, dug his fingers into the car's driveline, and heaved it over onto its top. He started to spin and ran straight into a lashing roundhouse from the other direction that sent him stumbling back toward the right.
Amanda grabbed a thread and snapped it out, but rather than opening it and stepping through the center, she flattened it and rode it like a slide. She drew her Sig-Sauer with her right hand as she snatched another mana thread with her left. Halfway down she thrust the thread upward, flinging it with the precision only a mana strand could allow. One end conformed itself into the shape of a huge hand, digging monstrous fingers into the brick edifice. Twenty feet above the ground, she drew it up short and allowed her momentum to carry her toward the big purple guy. With that crazy mushroom shaped helmet, she thought crazily as she whipped through the air straight at him, he looks a bit like a big purple penis.
She fired six bullets directly into the center of his chest, then rode the thread after them. Her booted heels slammed into his sternum, snatched him up, and hurled him thirty feet. He flew through the air to crash into a lamp-post on the other side of the street. It folded drunkenly with a great shriek of metal, striking the top of his head with a sound like a hammer hitting a giant gong.
The meta-villain slumped over, dead or unconscious. Amanda sidled toward him, her weapon's muzzle trained on him like a single, glaring eye.
"That just may have been the craziest thing I've ever seen,” Athena said, walking toward her and brushing off bits of debris at the same time. “What in the hell did you do?"
"Weren't in magesight, were you?” Amanda asked, grinning back at her.
The Amazon woman snorted as she walked past her. She strode right up to the unconscious villain and snatched his oddly shaped helm right off his head. She stared at his lantern jaw and buck teeth with a perplexed expression. “So, you ever seen this guy?"
As Amanda shook her head, fire fell from the sky in the shape of The Burning Man. He snuffed his flames and stood there in a black and silver jumpsuit, a plume of smoke drifting lazily into the dawn sky. “Huh. Who's this guy?"
"We were wondering the same thing. Must be an out-of-towner."
"Huh. Figures Freak City would start drawing the bad ones,” he mused dryly.
Amanda and Athena nodded sagely.
The punk blond limped up, looking a little worse for wear. She ran light fingers over a bruise on her left cheek and groaned. “Can I kick him? Just once?"
"No,” said The Burning Man firmly. “You taking custody?” he asked Athena, who nodded.
She glanced over at Amanda. “You want to do the honors?"
Amanda snatched a thread and thrust her extended fingers toward the earth. The strand snapped out, lancing through the ground to the hidden complex buried deep beneath the city. “Grab Purple Man and toss him in the hole,” she told Athena.
Athena shrugged and complied without comment. Once he was gone, she dusted her hands off and spread a grin around. “Purple Man?” she queried skeptically.
"He didn't exactly give us his handle,” Amanda sniffed.
"True enough. I'm pretty sure it's not Purple Man though."
"He probably doesn't call himself ‘The Penis’ either—though I suppose it's possible,” Amanda muttered. “Renee will wrap him up quickly enough."
"She's on duty at meta holding today?"
"Yeah. I don't care how much a bad-ass he is. He gives her any trouble and she'll have his scrotum for a handbag."
Athena simply nodded at that. She winced as she stretched out her arms. “He's a tough fucker. I'll give him that."
They weren't alone for long. Nemesis Breed jogged up, wearing a black Kevlar vest and carrying her sidearm out in the open. “Is it over?” she asked.
"Yeah. We took care of him. Get some of your people to watch the hole in the bank wall and make sure no human rats can crawl in after the goodies."
"Already on it,” Breed snapped, slipping her weapon back into her holster. Two uniformed officers jogged past and took up positions on either side of the jagged hole in the bank's exterior brickwork. “You drop him in your pit?"
"Yeah,” Amanda said. “He should be under wraps now."
"Or not,” Athena remarked with an edge to her voice. She pointed down the street at a large amethyst figure trotting away from them. Even at this distance they could all make out who it was.
"What the—? How did he get out of holding?"
Athena sprinted after him as The Burning Man ignited and took to the air. Amanda and Breed looked at one another and trotted after them. “This is going to be bad, isn't it?” Breed asked.
"Now there's a silly question,” Amanda shot back. Breed fired off a crooked grin and accelerated away from her. After a few more yards Amanda pulled up, swearing, watching as the tall blond woman cut around a corner a hundred feet ahead of her.
"Well, shit."
* * * *
"You look like fifty miles of bad road,” Loki snorted as the three women filed through the door into his hidden sanctum. “All except for her, at least,” he said, glancing at Amanda. He reached out as if to touch the fading bruise on Athena's cheek and got his hand slapped away for his troubles.
"Get me a beer, Loki, and keep your comments—and your hands—to yourself. Don't make me tell your wife you're getting grabby."
His only response was a toothy grin. “You look a little scraped up yourself, Nemesis.” He nodded toward her left arm, which was bound up in a sling. “She's the only one that isn't hurt,” he said, with a pointed glance at Amanda. “This have anything to do with the big purple dick you sent down to Renee?"
"Yeah,” Athena growled, “you could say that. How'd he get away, anyway? We figured she'd keep him under wraps."
He gave her a steady look. “Despite the fact that she can operate during daylight hours, she is not omnipotent. He blinked in down there, ripped his way through the restraining door, and blew through the security crew like they weren't even there. Renee held him off for all of about three minutes before she went down, too.
"If it weren't for the fact the bastard didn't know what he was dealing with, I'd be more than pissed right now. He knocked her out—yes, vampires can be knocked unconscious with a severe enough blow—and left her for dead. Where he went from there, I have no idea."
"Back upstairs,” Breed muttered, falling into the recliner with a groan. “Where we chased him around for several more hours. It would've helped if the mage could've kept up,” she added, affixing a gimlet eye on Amanda.
"Screw you, Breed,” she snarled in response. “I may be a mage, but I'm just a normal human being. You two left me eating your dust when you went after him."
"And you couldn't ... what do you call it? ... transit behind us?"
"I'm the one who took him down the first time, remember? Where the hell were you? Don't even start chewing on my ass for—"
"Enough!” Athena roared. “We don't have time for this shit. We weren't able to recapture him, but at least he's gone to ground for now. Nemesis—magic isn't unlimited. She can't just throw spells and mana effects around on a whim. It's exhausting, especially for a mortal."
Athena would know. She was also a mage. Immortal, of course, which meant she had a much greater supply of mental energy to work with. She simply had more magical stamina than Amanda did.
I could have followed them by transiting, she mused, but I would've ran out of steam soon enough. I would've been able to do it ten, maybe twelve times, and then I would've been down with a blinding migraine and been no help at all.
She squeezed down on the little voice that whispered, you weren't a hell of a lot of help anyway. It wasn't as though she had much of a chance once they'd gone haring after the big purple weirdo. Had he circled back she might've been able to toss a couple of fairly effective spells at him, but she never caught sight of him again. Neither had Athena or Breed, for that matter. For a big purple penis, he sure disappeared quickly enough.
The fact was that she'd been neglecting her spell web lately. Prepared spells only lasted so long without being renewed. Mana effects were so easy that she sometimes forgot to bother. A twinge of guilt made her wince inwardly. She'd been assuming too mu
ch—eventually she'd have to deal with buggers like this one, and worse. If she didn't have her shit together, it could kill her. Or worse.
She didn't admit to any of this aloud. Hell, she didn't have to. Athena had to know she hadn't been updating her spell web. The immortal had a total of fifteen fully functional spells orbiting around her. At this point, Amanda had four. Frankly, she was surprised Athena hadn't said anything about it. She'd gotten lazy.
She wasn't sure she'd be as tolerant about it as Athena had been.
"So what's our next move?” she asked, a tad hesitantly. Breed's icy glare hadn't faded much, despite the immortal woman's intervention. She knew, somehow, that Amanda had been negligent. She wasn't going to let go of it no matter what Athena said.
That's just something I'm going to have to deal with, she thought.
"We know what he looks like under that funky helmet,” Athena said. “Can we borrow one of your sketch artists?” she asked Breed.
The blond cop nodded, releasing Amanda from her chilly gaze and turning her cold blue eyes on Athena. “I can manage that. We've got to catch this guy."
"I agree. Can you keep your ear to the ground?” she asked Loki.
He shrugged. “I'll put the word out. I can't guarantee anything."
The Coyote Blue had turned into a clearing house for back street information. Loki paid people for data no one else had, and he was known to pay well. His connection to the PAC was tenuous, so most of his informants didn't know what he did with the information. All for the best. Not all the Freaks in Tacoma had signed up with the PAC. Some of them just wanted to be left alone. But Loki, as well as the agency itself, knew the value of keeping a line open into the underground community.
"You never do,” Athena chuckled, “but somehow you always manage to find what we're looking for."
"Yeah, well, I do my best."
"Okay ... is this kiss-fest going to go on forever, or can we partake of some liquid painkiller?” Breed looked disgusted and spun the recliner toward the table sitting in the middle of the room.
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