So Not a Hero

by S. J. Delos

  So I turned to the only people I could for information; my teammates.

  I approached Alexis first. Her date with Carl had “gone totally awesomely,” according to the teen and the sigh that immediately followed made me wonder if she were under the influence of some type of mind-altering device.

  “What did you two talk about?” I asked reluctantly. “Or did you just go to the movies and stare at each other?”

  She shrugged and looked a little confused. “School, I guess. Mostly comparing notes on who we knew in common and stuff like that. And music. Turns out we’re both Concrete Blonde fans. Isn’t that weird?”

  I nodded, thinking that it would certainly be weirder if I knew who Concrete Blonde was. “Anything else?”

  Alexis shook her head. “Not really. I mean, we just talked about, you know … stuff.”

  I nodded. “Of course. What else would two people out together talk about?”

  “You’re worried about Saturday, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. I don’t have a lot of experience going out on dates. In high school, I paid more attention to my grades than to boys. Then after I Activated, I got into a long-term relationship with a guy who I probably shouldn’t have. After that, I was in the Max for a couple of years.”

  The teen arched a brow. “No dates since getting out?”

  “Not really, no.” I didn’t think having to screw my parole officer on a regular basis to keep from getting sent back to prison technically counted as a date.

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll do fine.” She smiled, but I got the feeling she anticipated this to be a disaster of the highest magnitude. A feeling that was compounded when she got up from the bed and headed out the door mumbling, “Need to put cookie dough ice cream on the shopping list.”

  Mister Manpower had been my main go-to guy for advice since joining the team, but I didn’t feel comfortable asking him about this matter. Hell, for all I knew, it was against regulations or some shit to date members of law enforcement. Likewise, I wasn’t about to ask Richard. He’d probably just tell me to be sure to have a camera rolling if I got laid. Daniel might have had some insight to share, but I got the feeling that he wouldn’t be okay with providing me with suggestions to make my evening out with another man successful. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings.

  So, as much as I figured I was going to regret it, I decided to see if Darla had any advice I could use. While her current relationship with Captain Awesome struck me as downright weird, the pretty blonde had to have been on a ton of dates in her younger days. If I could get past the arrogant, queen-bee aspect of her personality I might actually get something useful.

  “Detective Braddock asked you out? Really? I didn’t see that coming,” she said as she continued to paint her toenails. “And you’re worried about him not having a good time?” The look on her face seemed to mock my naivety on such mundane matters of romance. However, since she was willing to help, I refrained from punching her.

  I shrugged. “I guess. Maybe? I just don’t want it to be all awkward, if you get my meaning. I don’t have a lot of experience here. What do people talk about on a first date?”

  “Usually their past,” she answered. “Where they’re from. What their childhood was like. Their hopes for the future. That sort of thing.”

  I bit down on my lip for a moment. “And what if most of that is comprised of things better off not discussed?”

  “You mean like your time in the Max?” She shrugged and fanned her feet with one hand. “Then I guess you could always switch to Plan B.”

  “Plan B?”

  A sly smile spread over her face. “Sleep with him. If you rock his world hard enough, he won’t give a damn what, or who, came before.” The saucy grin widened. “It’s always worked for me.”

  # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

  “Kayo. Phantasm. Come in.” Even after a week, having Daniel’s voice suddenly appear in my ear was still a little unnerving.

  The Friday afternoon patrol had been rather uneventful. Not even a cat in a tree for a superhero to rescue. After canvassing the city twice, Alexis and I decided to pick up some cold drinks—her a chocolate milkshake, me a low-fat banana smoothie—and hang out on top of City Hall. There was probably some type of statute about using a public building as a hangout, but I justified it by telling myself that we were just keeping watch over the taxpayers’ interests.

  I swallowed the just-above-nasty concoction and responded. “I’m here, Daniel. What’s up?”

  “There’s been a report of Enhanced disturbance near the convention center. EAPF is requesting assistance.”

  I stood up and Alexis did likewise.

  “Any details on the disturbance?” the teen asked.

  “Negative. Just that it’s a Level One and we’ve been asked to respond.”

  I nodded to the teen. “We’re on our way, PB. Tell the Super Po-Po to keep their shirts on.” I lowered my voice. “Unless they’re really hot, right Alexis?”

  The teen blushed and leapt over the edge of the roof, ghosting on her way down. She drifted gently to the street and became solid again. I followed her, relying on the training I’d been doing to keep from tearing up the concrete upon impact. When my feet touched the ground, I bent my knees and rolled along the balls of my feet, taking a few steps forward. It was a much more delicate landing than I usually made, but still left a two-foot long crack under one foot.

  “Oops.” I said and then bent over so the teen could climb up on my back. I’d found that since Alexis couldn’t move faster than the wind in her phased form, it was just quicker if I carried her with me. I turned my head to look over my shoulder at her. “Ready?”

  She nodded and tightened her hold around my neck. “Go!”

  I took off at a sprint, heading towards the convention center area. I kept my speed under fifty and Alexis provided support by ghosting us through any obstacles that got in our way. I did my best to avoid cars as much as possible, since the driver would probably scream and wreck if two semi-transparent girls ran through their vehicle.

  We made it to the scene about three minute after leaving City Hall and I slowed to a stop near one of the black and gray vehicles marked with the EAPF logo. Alexis dropped off my back and walked over to the one guy in a suit instead of a uniform. Part of me was a little disappointed it wasn’t Kurt.

  “Sergeant,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “How can we help?”

  The slightly pudgy officer looked down at her and then over to me. The look on his face wasn’t too dissimilar than the one I enjoyed on a regular basis from Robert. Guess this guy wasn’t a believer in my reformation either.

  “Twenty minutes ago, a kid in there went Active,” he informed us, pointing at a little coffee shop across the street. “Witnesses say that he was standing in line and just started screaming and growing.”

  “Growing?” I asked, “Like how?” I didn’t give two shits if the officer thought I still belonged behind bars, I had a damned job to do.

  The bushy brows over his hard eyes slid up and he looked at me with a bit of a sneer. “Like how what? He grew. Got bigger. What else do you need to know?”

  Alexis sighed and moved a little, putting her smiling face between the cop and me. “I think Kayo is asking if he grew taller like a giant or got bigger with muscles.”

  He shrugged. “Bigger, I think. One woman said his clothes were ripping while it happened.” He cut his eyes to me and smirked. “Think he went all Colonel Tank? Any chance you can end this without getting thrown through a drycleaners or any of the other businesses around?”

  I took a step towards him, hands curling into fists. I wondered if it would be possible to knock him over the three-story building behind him. Or if it would just be more prudent to knock him through it. Fortunately for one of us, Alexis grabbed my arm and dragged me away in the direction of the coffee shop.

  “Have your men hang back, Sergeant,” she said in a chipper vo
ice. “We’ll have this wrapped up in no time.” When we got out of earshot, she glared up at me. “Karen, you have to keep control.”

  I nodded, frowning. “I know. I know. Before I do something I’ll regret.”

  “Or I do.”

  I blinked and looked down at her. “What?”

  “Oh, I was two seconds away from ghosting that asshat, but not his clothes. Nobody talks to my bestie like that.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “Me-ow! Look out world, little Phantasm has claws.”

  She giggled and then sighed, looking at the front of the shop. The front window was smashed to pieces, the remnants of a large table and several chairs littered the sidewalk, providing more than enough warning of the danger ahead.

  I put my hand on the handle of the front door and looked at Alexis. “I want you to stay intangible. Just in case.” I nodded to the destroyed furniture as an explanation.

  She followed my gaze and then nodded, slipping into ghost-mode.

  Inside the restaurant, almost all the tables and chairs had been splintered or shattered. If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed a super-powered battle had taken place. A soft sobbing sound to my left pulled my attention away from the scene of destruction to its cause.

  The report about the boy’s ‘growth’ had not been an exaggeration. While I didn’t have a ‘before’ reference, the fact that his shirt was nothing but barely-held together tatters and his pants were reduced to ill-fitting shorts told me that he’d increased in mass at least three times. The muscles of his arms and legs were huge round lumps beneath his flesh, raised veins running all over. It was as if his muscles had muscles of their own.

  His face was turned slightly away from us, but I could see that changes had taken place there as well. His lower jaw extended outwards about three inches past his upper lip and was filled with jagged, yellow teeth. That, with an oversized eyebrow ridge, gave him the appearance of a Neanderthal giant.

  The poor kid wasn’t just an Active. He was a Slip.

  “Hey,” I said softly. “You okay?”

  “Go away,” he said, hiccupping another sob.

  Alexis stepped closer. “We’re here to help you.”

  “I said, go away!” This time he swiped backwards with an arm as big as a tree-trunk as he screamed at us. The blow passed right through the teen as if she were no more substantial than the air around him. I was so glad I’d asked her to stay intangible. God only knows what getting hit with a fist like that would have done to her petite frame.

  However, since the blow went through Alexis, it slammed into me without any prior resistance. I managed to get my arms up in a defensive cross position before impact. My feet left the cracked linoleum as I sailed across the room and out the gaping hole of the front window. I landed on my back in the middle of the street, creating a Karen-sized crater in the asphalt before sliding several feet.

  I lay there for a second and then shook my head to clear away the disorientation. Climbing back to my feet, I looked up to see the EAPF had moved closer, gas-guns drawn and ready to open fire. I held up both hands and waved them back and forth. “It’s okay,” I told them. “We’ve still got this.” I waited another second to make sure they understood before I turned around and marched back inside the restaurant.

  Alexis looked over at me as I entered, visual relief flowing across her features. The boy turned his head at my return as well, and I noticed that the eyes beneath the busy brows were pale blue, human, and full of fear. Either he’d been terrified of what he’d possibly done to me or else he was scared of what I was going to do in return.

  I planted my hands on him hips and looked at him. “Do you think maybe this time we could talk without someone getting whacked?” I asked, pushing a smile on my face. “That wasn’t exactly a fun trip.” Even though I wasn’t about to drop my guard around this out of control hulk, but I needed to seem unfazed by his attack.

  “I told you to just leave me alone.”

  “We can’t do that,” Alexis said as she stepped closer. “You need some help and that’s what we’re here to do.” She smiled and touched her chest. “I’m Alexis.” Then she pointed at me. “That’s Karen. What’s your name?”

  “Bobby,” he said. A tear rolled down his cheek and he glanced around behind us before settling his gaze back on Alexis. “Are you here to send me to jail?”

  “Why would you think that?” I asked.

  “Because, you’re Phantasm and Kayo. You’re Good Guys. You are the ones that get the bad guys and put them in jail.”

  “Do you think you’re one of the bad guys?” Alexis asked.

  He nodded and pointed at the mess. I noticed that his fingers were thick and gigantic, the nails blackened into wicked talons. “I broke all that stuff. And I hit you. I didn’t mean to. I’m just scared.” Another sob broke out from between his lips and he looked down at his hands. “I only wanted some cocoa.”

  “Bobby, how old are you?” I had a horrible suspicion the answer was not going to be pleasant.

  “Eleven,” he said. “My birthday’s in July. I’ll be twelve then.”

  I heard Alexis gasp and I winced. Enhancement can happen to anyone who’s been through, or going through, puberty. For some unknown reason, the majority of people who are going to Activate do so between the ages of eighteen and thirty. It was very rare for it to happen to anyone younger. At seventeen, Alexis had been old enough for it to be barely worth mentioning. This kid, however, was a major anomaly.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” Alexis asked.

  He nodded. “I was waiting in line. Mom lets me stop here on Fridays instead of coming straight home from school. And this man cut in front of me. I told him that it wasn’t nice to do that and he just looked at me and laughed. He was being so mean and I got mad and … and …”

  I sighed. “And you suddenly got big enough to make the man wait his turn.”

  Activations came in one of three flavors. Event-Driven Activation was when something catastrophic or life-threatening made someone become Enhanced in order to survive. It’s what had given Alexis the ability to survive her building coming down on top of her. The second type was Spontaneous Activation. In those cases, the Activation wasn’t even realized until it got used. Some, guy woke up feeling normal and by lunch discovered he manifested x-ray vision or something. The last was Stress-Induced Activation. A situation became too emotionally overwhelming and the person’s Enhancements suddenly kicked in at full power. I knew how upset and disoriented the kid was feeling, since I’d been there myself.

  “Nobody’s going to arrest you, Bobby,” I told him. “What happened wasn’t your fault. The policemen outside just need to take you someplace safe until your parents can come and get you. Understand?”

  “Where will they take me?”

  Alexis looked over at me and mouthed the word ‘Max?’ I shook my head to her and reached out to put my hand on Bobby’s forearm. “It’s a place called the Superhuman Containment Center. But we refer to it as The Shack.”

  “And they won’t hurt me?”

  The teen shook her head and returned to a solid state. I held my breath, readying myself just in case the terrified boy attacked again. “No,” she said. “They won’t hurt you.”

  “Will I be able to get some cocoa while I’m there?”

  I smiled. “I’m sure you can. Let’s go outside, okay?”

  Bobby nodded and looked around the room again. “I’m really sorry for the mess.”

  Outside, Bobby allowed the officers to put him in the holding area of the transport craft. Alexis volunteered to ride with him—in her ghost state—to the Shack. As I watched the ship lift off the ground, I sensed someone standing right behind me. I turned around and saw the mouthy detective from earlier. His beady eyes were focused on me and the expression on his face set my teeth on edge.

  “Good job, hero,” he said with a note of disdain. “You managed to get Little Tank subdued without tearing down the rest of the bui
lding. Isn’t that against your usual policy?”

  “His name’s Bobby and he’s just a scared boy who went Active. Not some supervillain.”

  The officer shrugged. “Whatever. He’s bagged, tagged, and now an EAPF problem. You’ve done your job, now we’ll do ours.”

  I stepped closer, bringing my nose a few inches from his. “Listen up, shithead. My partner is with that boy and she’s going to stay with him until his parents arrive. If she comes back and informs me that you or any of your asshole buddies were mean to him, I’m going to take it very, very personally.” I held up one hand and squeezed my hand into a fist, cracking the knuckles.

  The detective’s eyes widened and he took a step backwards. “You can’t do that. You’re a hero.”

  “So people keep saying. The funny thing about that is that I’m still not completely convinced they’re right. So let’s just say you err on the side of not finding out if I can stuff you into a soda can, okay?”

  He took another step towards his vehicle. “You’re crazy. I’m a police officer. You can’t talk to me like that. I’m going to call Mister Manpower about this.”

  I smiled. “And I’ll discuss your behavior with Lieutenant Braddock. Isn’t he your superior?” For all I knew, Kurt wouldn’t think his man had been out of line. I’d met a lot of EAPF officers who felt that the Enhanced were nothing but ticking time bombs better off locked away from polite society. However, seeing as we were going out on a date the next evening, I was betting that the good detective was of a different opinion.

  “Braddock,” the officer practically spat the word. “Fine,” he said glaring at me. “You keep your mouth shut and I’ll do the same.” He straightened his tie and stomped over to a small crowd of people on the other side of the barricade. He took a pad from inside his jacket and gave me one last glare before beginning the process of gathering witness statements.