by Kevin Rau
Lance landed a short distance from Stephanie and Rael. He straightened from his leap landing crouch, and walked over to them. They walked to the edge of the building top to look over the target building.
He said, “So what’s the plan? I go in the front, you two go in the back?”
Rael shrugged, “Works for me.”
Stephanie nodded, “They might have automatic weapons; the guy I nabbed earlier had a fully automatic submachine gun. They all had some type of rifles from the guy's memories.”
Rael said, “Let me lead the way in, then. I’d rather not see you get shot.”
“Yeah, me either. Last time sucked.”
Rael looked at Lance, “You okay doing this with your injuries?”
The huge hero nodded. “Doesn’t much matter, we’ve got a girl that needs rescuing. I’m doing it hurt or not.”
Stephanie pursed her lips for a few seconds and her eyes glowed more than normal. She asked, “Are you certain, Lance?”
“Yeah. This is what heroes do.”
She shrugged, “Okay then. I don’t think a submachine gun will get through your body armor anyway, so you should be good.”
Lance rubbed his palms together and said, “Got it. Machine weapons. Good practice for me. Let’s do it.”
Stephanie grabbed Rael around the waist and flew to the back of the building. Lance waited until they were over the rear of the building and leaped directly to the front of the garage.
As soon as Lance’s feet hit the ground he ran to the smaller service entrance and slammed his fists into the sides of the door. The metal door blew off the frame and flew into the room. It bounced off the floor and smashed into an old service desk. He barely had time to step into the doorway before a bola struck his left leg, wrapping around it and banging the other leg. The smell of ozone spread as it released a massive electrical charge. Lance’s leg tingled from the charge, but otherwise he barely noticed the effect. He grinned and surveyed the room.
Rael heard the smash from Lance's assault on the opposite door, and kicked in the rear service door. It flung open and he rushed in, trying to survey the room as he moved. A person mostly concealed behind a counter caught his eye. The man shot a bola at Rael as he moved toward the man.
Rael's eyes tracked the bola as it rotated through the air and with a slight jolt through his body found himself suddenly on the other side of it, about ten feet closer to the assailant.
Stephanie moved in behind Rael, but her reactions weren't in his league. When Rael somehow appeared on the other side of the bola, she became the next item in its path. It struck her around the chest, wrapped around her and the weights banged against her body as the massive electrical charge was released. She barely had time to think before her entire musculature seized up and she crumpled to the ground.
Rael saw Lance rush at a man near the front of the garage. Rael moved much faster than Lance did, and leapt over the counter at his target. His claws extended, he reached for the man as the kidnapper fell backward in an attempt to avoid the claws. Rael grabbed the man's shoulders as the man pulled the trigger on a small needler pistol. A burst of darts scored Rael's stomach as his body continued moving over the man. Rael flipped in the air, landing on his feet, and used his claws to dig into the man's shoulders. His own momentum allowed him to yank the man up above him and he threw the man over his own head. The man flew over thirty feet across the garage and slammed into the far wall with a loud thud.
Lance's opponent shot the hero with his needler pistol. The burst of darts were accurate, but failed to pierce the skin of Lance's torso. He felt his skin poked at in a series, and grinned at the thought of his body armor. He almost reached his opponent when he saw the man Rael threw fly past off to his right.
Lance yelled, "No killing!"
Rael smelled burnt flesh, and heard Stephanie fall. He knew that she was out of the fight at this point. He glanced back at her as he heard Lance's yell, and flashed his fangs in a snarl as he saw Stephanie collapsed on the floor. He noticed movement to the side, and sprang toward the motion.
Lance's foe lifted a canister toward him just as he arrived. Lance backhanded the man's hand, and the canister flew across the room and exploded against the wall. A cloud of purple gas expanded from the area. The kidnapper looked up with a surprised expression on his face as Lance lightly punched him in the jaw. Even the weak punch held a ton of force, and the jaw shattered as the man collapsed to the ground.
Rael noticed the room blurring in his vision and felt sluggish as he moved. A third man had been leveling a large rifle toward Rael when he reached the criminal. Rael grabbed the gun with his left claw, and the man's shoulder with his right. The explosion of the canister masked the sound of a bola going off further to his right, and as it struck both Rael and the kidnapper a massive charge surged through the both of them.
The man immediately went limp, followed by Rael a few moments later. His muscles tightened up, causing his claws to crush into the man's shoulder with great force.
The remaining kidnapper saw everyone down but Lance, and fled toward the exit behind Stephanie's still form. Lance narrowed his eyes and grabbed the nearest medium sized object - a tool chest. His massive fingers dug into the metal, and he flung the entire unit ahead of the man.
The unit smashed into the wall and exploded in a mass of metal parts and tools. The man dodged back from the thrown object, and was caught in the debris. He fell to the ground in an attempt to avoid injury.
Lance sprinted across the room as the man scrambled to his feet. He lightly dove at the man, tackling him as he would in football. They smashed against the outer wall, although Lance locked his arm to prevent the man from taking the majority of the impact or from being crushed by him.
The impact stunned the man. Lance grabbed the man's wrists with one of his huge hands and lifted him off his feet. He looked around for something to tie the man up with, and then noticed that the man had huge disposable tie cuffs on his belt. Obviously the man had expected to capture others.
Lance tied one of them around the man's wrists, another around his neck and through the tie on the wrists. He ran over to check Stephanie's pulse, and found it strong. A quick check on Rael found the same. He checked on the man with Rael's claws still embedded in the shoulder. The man was dead. He looked at the blood loss from the shoulder, it was minor. The man's heart had to have stopped from the electrical shock to keep from bleeding profusely.
Lance remembered that Stephanie was the one who had gotten a call on this task, so he slid her phone off her belt and marked the task closed. He also pushed the button to request medical attention for three people. Then he used the extra ties on the remaining two kidnapper’s wrists and ankles. Lance lined them up together to more easily keep an eye on as he looked around.
He quickly walked through the small office area. The business had to have been closed for a while, no office supplies, computers, or other equipment was to be found. He found one door that had additional deadbolts installed on the outside of the door. All were engaged.
Lance ripped off the deadbolts and opened the door to find a teenage girl lying on the floor, bound and gagged. She was unconscious. He couldn't fit his fingers into the tight wrist ties to untie her, so he carefully picked her up and carried her out to the others. She appeared to be more muscular than he’d have expected. She was much prettier than the pictures her parents had of her. Her arm muscles looked like she worked out quite a bit, that was odd in itself.
One of the men had a knife on his boot, so Lance took the knife and cut the girl free. He gently laid her next to Stephanie. He thought of calling the F.B.I. agents, though he'd forgotten to obtain their cell number while with them. Details, Lance, details! Start carrying a small knife in the belt, too. Your mega-sized fingers can't get into these small places. Well, they could, but you'd have to crush the person's wrist to do it, and that'd be dumb.
He stood gua
rd over everyone while he waited. He looked at his muscles, corded under the skin in his forearms and biceps as he held them crossed. Then he studied Stephanie's form. After she metamorphosed into a super, her body had become more tightly muscled as well. The same applied to Rael, although with Rael and Lance a fair amount of new muscle had grown and enlarged. Not much of that had occurred with Stephanie. He knelt down and gently felt Stephanie's biceps and forearms. He couldn't tell if her muscles were hard or not, he was too strong. Everything felt soft or crushable to him now.
The smell of the gas canister released on the other side of the garage extended far enough to become a concern to Lance. He didn’t know what it would do, so he opened the large garage doors on both sides of the building to let the air clear. He was glad the wind blew from the side with the people toward the other side with the doors open.
As he walked back to the injured friends and foes, he heard vehicles pull up to the building. Several black vehicles pulled up to the garage. The F.B.I. agents from the house exited the vehicles.
One of the agents walked near the remnant of the gas cloud, stumbled and fell to the ground. Everyone else ran back away from it quickly. Lance held his breath as he jogged forward, grabbed the man around his torso and moved him out of the cloud to the vehicles.
He glanced back at the criminals to ensure they weren’t moving. An agent he didn’t recognize stepped forward. Several other agents ran over to the downed agent.
“I’m Agent Willman, head of this operation.”
Lance stepped forward and held out his hand, “Good to meet you, sir, I’m Spartan." He pointed at the downed agent and said, "Sorry about that, I opened the doors to clear out the gas.”
Agent Willman shook his hand, glanced at Lance's huge hand and raised an eyebrow, and then said, “What’s the status here?” He'd noticed that the hero didn't close his grip, and the fingers felt more like solid rock than skin and flesh, barring the feel of the skin itself.
“Everyone’s unconscious or dead. The kidnapped girl has been freed, she’s out right now too. They’re back here.” Lance motioned, and then walked toward the far side of the garage. He gave the corner with the gas cloud a wide berth.
“Do you have armored gloves on, Spartan?”
Lanced grinned, he knew that the man was wondering about his hands. “No, my musculature is just that hard. Sorry about not shaking your hand like normal, I don’t close the grip out of safety.”
“No, no, I’m fine with that. It’s just, well, interesting I guess. I saw a news clip of you moving that locomotive up in Metrocity. That’s unbelievable.”
“You caught that? Cool.” Lance grinned at the thought.
“You’ve got some kind of blasting power too?”
“Huh? Why would you think that?”
“You glowed on the footage. I figured you must be able to blast out energy or something.”
“That’d rock if I did. As far as I can tell my, uh, energy glow is more like a type of adrenaline than energy that is blasted out.”
“Energy as adrenaline?”
Lance shrugged. “It seems like it. I’ve not had any chemical testing or anything like it done though. But then my entire metabolism has changed from what it was pre-super.”
“I suppose so.” He studied the hero standing next to him. The costume was tight fitting, and showed the massive muscles on the hero clearly. He felt like he stood next to a giant.
They arrived at the bodies of the injured. Agent Willman yelled, “We need ambulances here!”
Lance said, “I already called in for medical attention for three. I’m sure that Psystar and Black Tiger will shake off their damage shortly, and the girl appears uninjured. One of the men is dead. I left him where he died, and wanted to point out a few things to you.”
They were joined by Agent Dunsworth. Agent Willman asked, “How did he die?”
Lance replied, “Black Tiger had grabbed the man’s shoulder when they were both hit by one of these bolas. They put out a massive shock, like a super taser. I can tell his heart stopped bleeding before Tiger’s claws dug in much because there isn’t much blood on the ground. A pumping heart would have forced much more out.”
“I agree. Is that how they took out Psystar as well? They shocked her?”
“I believe so, though I didn’t see it from where I was. Her arms were burned where the cord wound around her though. I see that’s almost gone now.”
Agent Dunsworth asked, “What about these darts?” He slipped on a rubber glove, leaned over and carefully pulled out one of the darts embedded in Rael’s abdomen.
Lance replied, “Huh, I missed those. They shot me with one of those needle guns, but none pierced me. Maybe those took him down.”
Agent Dunsworth collected the various weapons and set them on the counter. “Boss, these aren’t normal weapons. Bola rifles with custom electrical charges? Needler pistols? This guy has a paintball gun, want to bet these have something strong enough to drop a horse … or a super?”
Agent Willman studied the tiny dart in his hand and nodded. He looked at Lance, “They were expecting one or more supers.”
Dunsworth set one of the canisters down on the counter. “Want to bet this is a spray form of chloroform? High potency?”
Willman nodded again. “That must be what was in that cloud over there. I noticed one of those canisters back on the other side. We’ve also got cameras attached on the poles in here, and they don’t look like something left behind. Tom! Get a short ladder in here and get those down!”
Lance looked around at the poles. He spotted six small cameras with a battery pack and a small antenna extruding from them. They were focused at the entrances. He said, “I don’t think those were there for internal security. Someone else wanted to see what occurred here.”
Willman said, “I agree. I don’t think this is the end of what is happening here.”
They heard groaning from off to the side, and saw Stephanie slowly sit up. She winced and began stretching out her limbs. Lance stepped over to her and knelt down. “Hey, how you doing?”
She looked up at him. “A bit tight, but generally okay.” She looked around, taking in the sights of Rael, the downed kidnappers, and the F.B.I. agents searching the building. Then she noticed Zena and smiled. She began stretching her arms and legs.
She said, “We got her?”
Lance nodded, “Yeah, I found her in a back room, it had extra locks on it.”
She looked at Agent Willman, “So we’re done here?”
“We need statements from each of you, but the important thing is that Zena is safe, and we can get her checked out and back to her parents. There’s more to this than just Zena, I’m thinking I’d like you to help us interrogate a few more of these kidnappers.”
“With Zena safe, is there a rush? Can it be done mid or late afternoon?”
“Well, I suppose so. Several of them need a doctor’s assistance before we’d do anything anyway.”
Stephanie looked at Lance. “Good. Spartan, will you handle any debriefing for me for now? I’ll come down and see Zena later on when I can, and seek you out, Agent Willman. Can I get your cell number, please?”
“Sure, here’s my card.” He pulled out a business card and handed it to her. “What’s the rush?”
“I’ve already missed a class, I can make the other one if I haul butt.” She stepped up onto her air step and kissed Lance on the cheek, and then floated back down to the floor. “Thanks for covering for me, and for finishing this.”
“Sure thing, St … Psystar.”
“I’ll call you later on, Agent Willman, I promise. I just can’t afford to miss a lot.”
“We’re fine, we’ve got the details from Spartan here, give me a call when you get a chance.”
She quickly stepped out the garage door, and stepped off into the air, then quickly shot up and disappeared from sight. They heard a bo
om a moment later.
Lance looked at Agent Willman and shrugged. “Okay then.”
Agent Willman asked, “Was that a sonic boom?”
“I think so.”
“Wow, I wonder how she breathes at that speed.”
“The magic of superpowers. I know that she can do it with a passenger being carried along, so it must be a field around her.”
“Hmph. To be able to fly, read minds, and heal so fast. That certainly would be useful.”
“There’s always a downside, Willman. Look at my strength, yet that same strength causes me to damage things all the time. Being a brick is getting expensive.”
“Hmm. I suppose so. She mentioned that she always hears what people think. That could be annoying.”
“Yeah, she said a lot of people check her out continuously. She joked the other day that she was glad she’s a little narcissistic. She kept looking at herself whether she wanted to or not.”
“Now that would be annoying.”
“Sometimes. At other times I think I’d appreciate the fact that so many people are either interested or like what they see that they keep looking at me.”
“Is that why you wear the costume like that?”
“You mean the skin tight, colorful costume? It’s what super heroes do, isn’t it? Since that’s my goal, I want to look the part. I want everyone who sees me to know that if they need help, I’m here.”
“Hmm, interesting viewpoint.”
“What does your uniform say about you, Agent Willman?”
“It’s a business suit.”
“Right. You don’t seek to stand out, except perhaps from the average person. You want to look sharp, yet not proclaim what you do for people. No one will look at you and cry for aid because it’s more a type of camouflage. That’s not a bad thing, but it sends a different signal to people.”
“True. I wouldn’t have realized a brick thought about things like that.”
Lance grinned, “I hope I’m full of surprises.”
Ambulances arrived and took away the injured kidnappers. A paramedic performed a brief check on Zena and stated, “At a glance she appears to be doing well, though she's been drugged or sedated. A doctor should do a full exam."
Agent Willman said, "Bring her to the hospital, I'll notify her parents and meet them there. Dunsworth, stay with her."
"Sure thing, boss."
A man walked up to us, clearly heading for Lance. He said, "I'm Agent Pierce of H.E.R.O. Psystar called in a complete on a task?"
Lance held his hand out and shook Agent Pierce's hand. He said, "I pushed complete on the task for her, she was late for a prior meeting, I told her I'd fill in her part."
Agent Pierce pushed a few buttons on his own H.E.R.O. phone and looked at Agent Willman. “Was Psystar able to help with the kidnapping investigation?"
Agent Willman replied, "Yeah, not only with the interrogation, she captured and interrogated the perp that gave us the information, and then came here with Spartan and Black Tiger after the kidnappers and rescued the girl. The ambulance is loading the girl up now." He pointed outside the building at the ambulance.
"Was her participation in both captures core to them?"
Agent Willman looked thoughtful a moment, then said, "I'd say so. Our tactical guys were in a standoff with the first kidnapper. He had an automatic weapon, and we couldn't chance hurting him or even incapacitating him for fear that we'd be unable to question him. She took him out, got injured pretty badly during the fight, too. Could have worked a little better with our teams though."
"How did she help here, if she were badly injured?"
Lance said, "She heals extremely fast."
Agent Willman said, "That also occurred around 3 a.m."
Agent Pierce said, "So all three heroes apprehended the kidnappers here?"
Lance held up his hand. "Agent Pierce, I want to make sure that any news attributes the F.B.I. with the rescue. It was just the three of us that assaulted the building, but we agreed that we weren't here to steal their headlines."
"That's fine, Spartan. We normally don't release much to the press, pretty much just your involvement if asked. We don't give details." He looked around at the old vehicle garage, so obviously unused for some time. He spotted the weapons on the counter and walked over to them.
He said, "Hmm, did they use these on you?"
Lance said, "Yeah. One of them killed their own partner when he took down Black Tiger with that bola, it lets out a massive shock."
"Silverlash disappeared this morning when she responded to a call at the scene of a new super – a brick with metal skin. Witnesses mentioned an odd device shooting a weighted cable that hit her when she dropped. The perps kidnapped her."
"Whoa! They kidnapped a H.E.R.O. agent?"
"Yes. We’ve recovered her phone, it looks like they threw it out at the scene. I believe this tells us that there is an organization involved. One that is obtaining weapons designed to take down heroes, and using agents likely with a military background."
"That really sucks, she’s a cool hero. Can we be tagged as being notified of any news? We'd like to help, and with Black Tiger's senses he might be able to track someone. Or Psystar might be able to interrogate someone with telepathy."
"Excellent, I'll tag you on her file. Agent Willman, is there anything else to add as far as the hero involvement goes?"
Agent Willman looked deep in thought for a few moments, and then slowly shook his head. "No, we appreciate the help. Psystar agreed to contact me later on to assist further with the case to see if we need to follow any leads deeper."
"That's great news. I'm glad to hear of some heroes working well with the F.B.I., we could use more of that."
Agent Willman and Lance looked at each other a moment, then back at Agent Pierce. Lance said, "Well, I hope we can do it more often."
Agent Pierce nodded and left the scene.
Lance looked back at Agent Willman. "I mean that. I'm hoping we can turn a, ah, rough start into something positive."
Agent Willman nodded, "I'm willing to try."
"Listen, if you ever get a situation where you are worried about the safety of your men, you're welcome to call me for help. If I can get there fast I'll come. If Psystar's around the chances are I'll be able to. You keep any busts in your name, I don't care much. Well, I do, I'd rather get news, too. However, it’s more important to me to keep your guys safe."
"I'd like to avoid deaths in our busts, though. You three ended up with a dead perp here."
"Yeah, that makes me mad, too. None of us did the killing though, one of their own did that. The other two injured guys might be injured, but they'll live."
"Good point." He held his hand out to Lance, who carefully shook it.
From across the garage Agent Dimmer watched them through narrowed eyes. Agent Willman's dealings with these mutant freaks was getting out of hand....
Lance looked at Rael – he was still unconscious. He asked one of the paramedics if he was all right. After a confirmation that Rael was unconscious, but otherwise appeared uninjured, he decided to take Rael with him. He sighed, picked up his friend, and began to leap back to Rael's car for the long drive home.
****
THE END OF H.E.R.O. – NEW MARKETS PREVIEW
****
If you enjoyed this novel, please look into the other novels in the H.E.R.O. series at the author's website: https://www.kevinrau.com
The H.E.R.O. series includes:
H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis (1)
H.E.R.O. - New Markets (2)
H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (3)
H.E.R.O. - Dark Research (4)
H.E.R.O. - Horde (5)
H.E.R.O. - Paragon (6)
H.E.R.O. - Illustrated Guide
H.E.R.O. Shorts – Gatecrasher (7)
H.E.R.O. Shorts – Silverlash (8)
H.E.R.O. - Gene Front (9)
&nb
sp; H.E.R.O. - Incursion (10) Coming late August/early September 2012
Wondering what the characters look like in detail? https://www.kevinrau.com has images of many of the heroes.
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https://www.facebook.com/herobooks
Thank you for reading H.E.R.O. - New Markets.
-- Kevin Gerald Rau