The Hero Beat

by Nick Svolos

  I shrugged. “To tell the truth, neither can I.”

  She laughed. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Well, Ultiman and SpeedDamon are stuck in stasis fields in your briefing room. We rescued Mentalia and she’s up there with Ben and the security guys trying to get them out. The drilling noise you’re hearing is Mechanista drilling through the flight deck to get at them. Suave’s in his bed. The building’s making sure he stays there. Bill’s stuck in traffic trying to get over here. Glowstikk and Fist are somewhere downstairs probably killing a bunch of LAPD’s finest. We hoped that the defenses in the stairwell would deal with them, but our friend over there indicates that plan’s not working. You guys can’t leave the elevators or stairwells above the eleventh floor without getting zapped. You already know about Archangel. I think that’s about all I know.”

  I felt my numb leg start to come back to life. As we sat there, either the power or Unstoppabull’s body gave out, perhaps both, and his horns pulled free of the wall. He slid to the ground in a smoking heap without a sound. From where he lay, I saw something that peaked my interest. He had a black strap on his wrist that seemed out of place.

  Herculene said, “I think I should head downstairs and help the cops. Can you get Suave on your own?”

  “Yeah, but hang on a second. I want to check something out first.” I picked up the walkie-talkie and asked Steve to disable the sensors on twenty-four again. I trotted over to Unstoppabull’s body. I didn’t know if he was dead or not, but I wasn’t about to feel for a pulse. I took a look at his wrist. He had a rubberized wristband there, with a green LED shining from it. It looked like one of those fitness trackers people wear, except there was no screen. The wristband was in good shape, and a Galestorm logo was embossed on its surface. I thought I knew how he got down the stairwell.

  I removed the band from his wrist and the building’s defenses immediately came to life and applied a stasis field to the prone Omega. I jogged back to the elevator, saying, “The stairwells are supposed to zap any super who’s not in the security database. Yet, that guy waltzed down here like he owned the place. I think this little toy might be how he did it.” I held it out to her. “Care to test it?”

  Herculene didn’t need much prompting. She strapped it on her wrist, but it was way too big. It was about the size of a large dog collar. It had to be in order to fit the minotaur’s frame. She held it tight with her other hand and stuck it tentatively out through the door. Nothing happened.

  She nodded to the grounded scaffold. “Be ready with that thing.” Then she stepped her whole body through the door. To our delight, she remained completely stasis field-free. “Well, what do you know?” she grinned. She released the slack and let the device hang free from her arm. “Looks like it’s based on proximity, not flesh contact. I wonder if it works as a necklace.” She stepped back into the elevator and transferred the wristband to her slender neck. It hung loosely, and wasn’t much of a fashion statement, but at least it would stay in place. She stepped back out to test it, and when nothing happened, she returned to the elevator with a girlish smile. “Gee, thanks, Reuben. You bring me such lovely gifts.”

  “Well, I saw it in a shop window and thought of you.”

  She stepped into my arms and we kissed. As our lips parted, I asked, “You’re not gonna hit me again, are you?”

  She giggled. “No, you’re proving to be too useful. I’ll probably knock you out later, but for now you’re safe.” She nuzzled me for a second before adding. “I’m sorry about that. I just didn’t want you to get hurt. And now, here you are, saving me and taking out the bad guy. My hero.”

  That got me another quick kiss. “OK, back to work,” she said. She took the stairwell down, unhooking the cable from the railing as she passed. I worked to get the cable spooled back up and into the elevator and got it moving back up to thirty-four to free Suave. I got on the radio and asked for Ben. He came on and I updated him on our status, including what I had learned about the wristband. I asked how it was going up on his floor.

  “We’ve got them. We’re heading down now. Mechanista broke through, but Mentalia pushed her out the window.” I could hear him laughing. “She took off running. Looks like she’s had enough. Over.”

  “Hey, is Ultiman there?”

  “No, the team took the stairs. They’re faster than the elevators. Over.”

  “OK, if you see him, tell him I know where the bullets are. He’ll know what that means. Listen, I’m heading up to get Suave, then I’m going back to IT.”

  “Roger that. See you on nine. Over and out.”

  When the doors opened on Suave’s quarters, I took a moment to look around and form a plan as I hit the emergency stop. The layout was similar to Mentalia’s place, so I knew the scaffolding wasn’t going to work here. I could hear the high-pitched whine of the stunners coming from the bedroom. I put on the gloves, disconnected the cable from the scaffold and began unspooling it, throwing as much of the cable into the room as I could. Once I had everything into place, I called Steve and he disabled the sensors.

  I started a count in my head and got right to work. I grabbed the closest end of the cable and ran it to the stairwell. Once that was done, I ran to the other end and dragged it into the bedroom. Suave lay insensate on the bed next to a young blonde woman who didn’t look so good. She was pale and I thought she might be in shock. Whatever the stunner was doing to keep Suave under control, she was getting a full dose of it as well. Both were nude.

  I stuck the cable through one of Suave’s clenched fists and a spark of discharging energy leapt from the connection. Suave came instantly awake, his other hand raised in a fist to club me. He stopped short, saying, “Señor Conway? Que pasa?”

  I stripped off the gloves. “No time. Hang onto the cable and put these on your feet. Grab the girl and get to the elevator.” I grabbed a pair of pants from the floor as well as a bathrobe, left the room and tossed the garments into the elevator. Suave followed close behind, the girl wrapped in a blanket. Once they were safe in the elevator, I disconnected the cable and ran to join them.

  As I started re-spooling the cable, I asked, “How’s she doing?”

  Suave looked anxious as he said, “She’s not waking up.” I stopped working on the cable for a second and took a look at her. Her face was white, and when I touched it, she felt cold and clammy. At least she was breathing.

  I tried to remember a first aid class I took back when I was a kid. “’If the head is pale, raise the tail.’ Lay her down and hold her legs up about a foot or so.”

  Suave did as I asked as I got on the walkie-talkie. “Steve, we have an injured woman here. Looks like shock. We’re gonna need medical assistance.” I gave up on the cable and pushed it out of the car so the doors would close as I disengaged the emergency stop and pressed the button for the street level. I figured I could come back for it later if we needed it.

  “The medics are all down on the street, but you can’t get there. The team’s engaged with Omega downstairs. I recommend you come to nine. We’ll see what we can do here.”

  I hit nine on the panel. “Roger. Be there in a sec.”

  As the elevator traveled down, the girl started to come around. Her voice was slurred from the heavy stunning she had endured as she looked up to see the visibly relieved Suave kneeling next to her. “Suave? What happened?” She noticed me and asked, “Who’re you? You a superhero, too?”

  I grinned. “No ma’am. I’m a reporter.”

  Angel Security met us as the doors opened on the IT floor. They put the girl on a stretcher and carried her into the room and went to work on her. It looked like they knew what they were doing. I figured the ex-military guys had far better first aid training than I did and stayed out of their way. The sounds of the battle several stories beneath us echoed up the stairwell, accompanied by crunching impacts vibrating through the Tower’s infrastructure. It sounded like they were really going at it down there.

  Suave emerged from th
e elevator, zipping up his jeans. “Thank you for your help, Señor Conway. Do you know where the fight is?”

  “Let’s find out.” We walked over to where Steve was seated. He had a live feed on one of his monitors and mirrored on one of the larger screens on the wall. He was diligently working at some incomprehensible coding task, and he probably set the feed to the wall monitor to keep people from pestering him. Ben and two other members of his security team were standing there, watching the fight like it was a football game, quietly cheering The Angels on. One segment of the screen showed Herculene pick up a minivan and hurl it at Glowstikk, and I involuntarily winced as the nimble Omega sprang out of the way and pummeled her with twin beams of coherent light that knocked her out of view of the cameras.

  “Where are they?” Suave asked. I could see by the grim set of his face that he was eager for combat.

  “Down on three,” Steve said as he turned to see who was speaking. “Take the stairs.”

  As Suave raced to the stairwells to join the battle below, I laid my hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Thanks for your help, man. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “No problem,” he replied distractedly. “Now, leave me alone, I’m working. I think I have an idea on how to kick Archdemon out of the system.” I walked away to join the guys watching the fight on the big screen. Ultiman was squaring off with Fist, the two superhumans standing their ground and trading titanic blows with no artifice or even footwork, just slugging it out. Each punch connected and echoed throughout the building, and it was hard not to think that eventually the violence of the battle would bring the Tower down on us all.

  In another section of the screen, we saw Mentalia hovering in her pajamas and shielding herself from repeated blasts of light from Glowstikk. The villain was putting out enough energy that each blast blinded the screen momentarily, but in the periods between the static, we could see Mentalia slowly begin to envelop the Omega leader in her mental energy field.

  Ben noticed me standing in the little group and patted me on the back, “Nice work back there Reuben.”

  “Thanks. Team effort. Did the cops get out OK?”

  “Yeah. They took a few shots when those two showed up, but retreated to the street level. Unfortunately, we’re kinda cut off. Nothing to do but watch.”

  It was difficult to stand by and leave one’s fate in the hands of others, but the battle below us was no place for mere humans. I wondered for a brief moment why they didn’t just force the fight into the street where The Angels would have more room to work, but I realized that the team was deliberately keeping the fight inside the parking area. Fewer civilians around to be caught in the crossfire.

  As Mentalia continued her slow progress towards enveloping Glowstikk, SpeedDamon appeared in a blur behind the distracted Omega and looped a section of fire hose around his neck. The speedster hopped up and placed both knees behind Glowstikk’s shoulder blades and pulled the makeshift garrote tight around the villain’s neck. The black and white striped Omega struggled to escape the attack and finally managed to work one hand around to blast SpeedDamon with a hurried light blast that caught him in the face. SpeedDamon’s limp form flew from view. The damage was done, however, and Mentalia moved in for the kill, encasing Glowstikk in a bubble of telekinetic force. Glowstikk shrugged free of the fire hose around his throat and directed twin blasts of light from his hands, but the shield held. Mentalia tightened her grip and the villain soon found himself constricted and unable to breathe much less move. Mentalia suffocated him, and the supercriminal went limp.

  Meanwhile, Fist landed a jarring uppercut on Ultiman, which carried him into the air and smashed him against the ceiling of the garage. The blow thundered through the building’s structure and an acoustic panel above us fell to the floor.

  Ben muttered, “Come on guys, finish this.”

  Ultiman struggled to shake off the blow and get to his feet as the hulking brute advanced on him. As if in response to Ben’s wishes, we saw Herculene and Suave leap from each side of the humongous villain and latch onto his arms. Fist struggled to free himself and shook them both like ragdolls, but their enhanced strength enabled them to hang on. Their attacks bought Ultiman enough time to recover and launch one of his own. He sprang from the concrete floor and delivered a powerful punch to the struggling brute’s chin. The force of the blow carried the struggling trio to the ground. The building shuddered in protest. Ultiman landed forcefully, knees first, on the man’s torso, forcing the air from his lungs and began to throw punch after furious punch into the villain’s face. Each blow rattled the structure as Ultiman continued the assault. Chunks of concrete flew as Fists head was driven into the floor in a widening crater. Blood and teeth flew from Fist’s face. At last, he went limp and Ultiman threw one last punch before stopping.

  The three Angels drew back to see Mentalia walking towards them with an unconscious Glowstikk floating behind her. She motioned toward where she had come from and said something we couldn’t hear. Herculene raced off and soon came back with the prone form of SpeedDamon. His face looked bad. The side Glowstikk had blasted appeared to be badly burned. Suave turned to the camera, waved his hands over his head and pointed at SpeedDamon.

  Ben didn’t need any further prompting. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and said, “All units, we’re clear on three. We need medical treatment for SpeedDamon, and get containment up there for two guests.” After a second, he added, “Oh, and one more on twenty-four, once Archangel comes back online. Our reporter here took out Unstoppabull. Over.” He released the button and confirmations started coming across the speaker. To those of us standing there he said, “Come on guys, let’s see what we can do.”

  I followed the security team down to the third floor. The carnage was impressive. Wrecked cars surrounded The Angels and their unconscious enemies. SpeedDamon was awake and suffering stoically as a medical team worked on him. Herculene, with a look of concern for her fallen teammate on her face, worked to get the rubberized bracelets off of Fist and Glowstikk. Stasis fields crackled to life on each of the Omegas. She looked up and noticed our arrival, flashed me a smile and held up the bands. I smiled back as she went to explain the devices to Ultiman. Suave and Ultiman each took one and raced off to the stairwell. They went up, so I assumed they were going to secure Unstoppabull.

  I pulled out my phone and started snapping photos. I walked around the garage, taking pictures of the Angels, the containment team as they secured the prisoners, and the wreckage from the hard-fought battle when my foot crunched on something that felt different from the rest of the detritus littering the floor. It was a piece of lacquered wood.

  A chill filled me and I looked up. I was standing next to my car. Something shaped like a human had caved in the roof and driver’s side door, shattering the windows and pushing the steel chassis all the way down to the steering wheel. I just stood there, dumbfounded.

  I was pulled from my grim reverie by the sensation of a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Reuben.” I looked over and saw Herculene standing by my side. “It was me. Fist caught me with a right cross, and the next thing I knew, I was here.”

  A sense of loss filled me, but I shoved it aside. I reached up and took her hand. I kissed it, saying, “Don’t worry about it. It’s just stuff.” I intertwined our fingers and let our hands hang between us. “Besides, I’m sure this will buff right out.”

  She smiled sadly and I asked, “How’s SpeedDamon?”

  “Alive,” she replied with a sigh. “The burns look pretty bad, but he’s a fast healer.” She giggled. “No pun intended. He should be up and around pretty quick. They’re waiting to take him to the infirmary.”

  “Good,” I replied. “You’re going to need him. This ain’t over yet, you know.”

  She gave my hand a little squeeze, “Yeah, I know. Gale.”

  Our conversation was cut short as Suave entered through the stairwell door. “Archangel is back online. The Tower is secure.” Without further promp
ting, the medical team moved SpeedDamon into the elevator. Suave looked at Mentalia and then Herculene. “Ultiman has called us to the briefing room,” and then to me, “Señor Conway, he requests that you join us.”

  XIV

  We went to one of the elevators and headed up to the briefing room on the forty-first floor. Mentalia stopped us at her floor saying, “I think I’ll slip into something less comfortable. Tell the boss I’ll be up in a minute.” She padded out into her quarters and we continued up.

  The elevator doors opened on The Angels’ briefing room. In the center of the floor was a large, round conference table made of dark, lacquered mahogany. It had the Angels’ logo emblazoned in the center. Off to one side of the table was a pile of rubble, and above it, a hole about four feet in diameter. Pieces of concrete dangled from twisted rebar around the side of the hole. Several workstations, all very high-tech and new-looking stood around the conference table. An outer ring around the conference table consisted of very large flatscreen monitors hanging from the ceiling. Some displayed the status of the Tower, street views, crime statistics, weather patterns and other information. The exterior walls of the room were glass windows, one of which was shattered. Before it, a demolished monitor hung by one corner, occasionally emitting sparks. A warm, humid breeze blew in through the broken window. The sun was just coming up, and an orange glow reflected off the buildings facing the Tower.

  I walked over to the rubble and took a look up into the hole. I saw a long tunnel stretching some twenty feet up and into what I guessed was the flight deck. Mechanista’s handiwork. Reconstructing the events in my mind, I supposed that Mechanista had come through while Mentalia and the security team were fishing Ultiman and SpeedDamon out of the room. Caught unawares, Mechanista had probably been picked up by Mentalia’s psionic powers and thrown from the building before she could react. Mechanista would have had plenty of time to analyze the situation before reaching street level, and probably opted to run rather than try to take on three Angels at once.