Phantom: Suit unavailable, as it was being repaired.
Siren: Out of town on a mission with The Author.
The Author: Out of town on a mission with Siren.
The Flying Rasputin: Still assigned to the Eastern Europe Office.
Voltbolt: stated he slept through the incident, unaware it was happening.
Chapter 13
"So, that's it, huh?" Franklin said, standing next to Thad as they took the elevator to the sixtieth floor.
The two of them had just come from the mail room, where all the staff threw a congratulatory party for Thad to celebrate his promotion. Even Sly Jimmy wished him good luck. Agnes had told him she had always known it was just a matter of time.
Thad looked up from the official letter in his hands and turned to his best friend. "Yeah. I guess it is. I can't believe it finally happened."
"You deserve, ol' chap. They'd be fools not to give you a suit. Can I take a look at it?"
"Sure." Thad handed the promotion letter to his friend. "And. thanks. Really. You deserve a lot of the credit. Without that gear you loaned me, I probably would've wound up in the bottom of that crater."
Franklin shrugged. "I'm just happy you field-tested it for me. And Becky said she had a great time, too. So, yeah. She's been in a good mood all week, which is nice. We're doing good."
Thad chuckled. He knew Franklin got absorbed in his work, but hearing him talk about the A.I. Becky like she was his girlfriend just reminded Thad how badly his friend needed to get out of the lab occasionally. But they'd had that conversation more than once, and Franklin always told him he felt most alive when he was working in the lab. Thad accepted that, and was happy his friend found his calling.
"I can't believe you went the ninety-fifth floor on Monday," Franklin said. "What was it like? Did you meet the entire Board?"
"Honestly, I didn't see much. And I only met one of them, a woman. Karpinski, or something like that."
"They're so mysterious."
Thad shrugged. "I think they're just more corporate, and busy with Board stuff."
"Yeah, I guess," Franklin said, as the elevator stopped and the door opened.
A woman about to get in asked, "Going down?"
"Up." Thad pointed at the elevator ceiling.
"Oh. Sorry." The woman stepped over to wait on the other elevator, and the door to the one Thad and Franklin were in closed, then resumed its ascent to the sixtieth floor.
"I bet your last week with the mail room went slow." Franklin handed the letter back to Thad.
"Actually, I spent most of the week running all over the building. You'd be surprised how many places you have to go before before you get to become a super."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Tuesday, I had to sit in the waiting room in the Domestic Legal department for an hour, only to then sit through a briefing on liability and whatnot." Thad shook his head. "And my hand is still sore from signing and initially the huge stack of paperwork they gave me."
Franklin chuckled. "Wow. Problems of a super. Who would've thought?"
"Oh, that was part of it. The next day I sat through a brainstorming session with a bunch of people from Marketing. Costume designs, name ideas. I asked how we could even think about these things before any of us even knew what powers my suit would give me."
"What did they say to that?"
"They just laughed and said I didn't understand marketing, and that I should leave it to them."
"Wait. So you don't get to pick your superhero name?"
"No. I get the final say. They just wanted to put a bunch of ideas in my head, I guess. Stuff that did well in polling."
"Like what?"
The elevator stopped on forty-six, which happened to be one of the floors for Marketing. Thad and Franklin both saw the number on the display and laughed. The door opened, but the five people standing outside it were too busy talking to one another to notice. Thad and Franklin glanced at each other, then Thad leaned over and pushed the button to closed the door. A second later, they were going up again.
"Puck," Thad said. "Badger. Whizzer."
Franklin laughed. "Seriously? So, they think your power will be to get hit with a hockey stick, to turn into an angry little animal, or to be able to pee all over the place." He laughed again, then drew a breath to try to collect himself.
Thad cracked up too.
"Thank, God you get the final say," Franklin said. "Maybe wait until you find out your powers."
"Yeah. I already did the physical in the on the supers medical floor. I didn't realize they take a blood sample, though. That was weird."
"I heard the have to make sure you're a match for whatever suit they plan to give you."
"Yeah," Thad said. "Allison said as much. I guess she's like a universal donor or something, then."
"Because..."
"She tests out a lot of the suits for the R&D side of it."
"Right."
The elevator bell dinged, and Thad looked at the display showing the floor. "This is it." He turned to Franklin just before the door opened. "How do I look?"
"Like the best hockey-playing, whizzing badger the world will ever know."
"Perfect." Thad grinned and the door opened.
Allison was the first person he saw in the sea of supers and normals gathered in the lobby outside the main banquet room, which would host the promotion ceremony. "My hero." She walked toward him as he came out of the elevator.
"Hi." Thad looked into her eyes and smiled, then gave her outfit a quick once over with his eyes. "You look gorgeous."
"Thanks." She gave him a kiss on his cheek, then looked him over too. "Very handsome."
Thad had worn the dark suit he'd had in the closet ever since the funeral of his childhood friend, Peter. It had been a little big then. Now it fit well. "Well, last time we had a date I was underdressed."
Allison smiled. "It's nice. But...I'm looking forward to seeing you in your superhero outfit. Something tight, I hope." She winked at him.
Thad noticed Franklin step up beside him. He turned a little, clearing the space between Franklin and Allison. "Allison, this is my friend, Franklin. Franklin, this is my..."
"Girlfriend." Allison held out her hand to shake Franklin's.
Despite the huge grin on his face, Thad finished the introduction. "Allison."
Franklin shook her hand. "Please to make your acquaintance."
"Likewise," Allison said. "Nice to meet you too."
Bullfrog stuck his green-suited leg between the two of them. "Bullfrog, Frankie. Bet you'd never get to go to a thing like this, huh?" He looked at Thad. "Either of you."
Allison put her arm out in front of Bullfrog's chest. "Okay, Carl. That's enough. Why don't you head back over to the bar."
Bullfrog glanced at Allison and shrugged. He looked a little embarrassed. "Okay. Yeah." He put his forefinger on Thad's chest. "Seriously, though. I heard what you did out there." He nodded, and it seemed like he was getting a little choked up. "That was...nice hero work." He nodded some more as he backed out from the group. "Nice work." He turned around quickly and walked through the crowd toward the other side of the room.
Thad thought he might've heard Bullfrog tearing up a little.
"He gets that way at parties," Allison said. "He's alright. Just gets a little carried away."
"Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen." Atmosphere was standing at the entrance to the main ballroom. He normally stood a foot taller than most everyone in the room, but Nymph was beside him, using her power to levitate him a couple of feet off the floor. "The promotion ceremony for Supers Incorporated's newest superhero is about to start." He raised a glass of champagne. "Thaddeus Verne, a hero who's been among us since the first week this building was constructed, but only recently revealed the extent of his extraordinary courage and selflessness to us and to the world. To Hero City's newest super, Thaddeus!"
The room filled with applause, as Nymph lowered Atmosphere to the floor.
>
"Oh, wait!" Atmosphere levitated again, with Nymph's help. "Just want to clarify, everyone. Thaddeus is not his superhero name. That's actually his real name. I don't think..." He raised his glass again, pointing his arm in Thad's direction. "You don't have a hero name yet, do you?"
Thad shook his head, then someone in the room yelled out, "He doesn't have his suit yet!"
"Oh, right." Atmosphere nodded and pulled his glass back toward his chest. "Well, let's get inside then and give this man his suit, already. Am I right?"
Several people chuckled and most of them clapped, then slowly the mass of people filed into the ball room.
"Ready?" Allison took his hand as she looked into his eyes.
Thad nodded, then glanced at Franklin, then looked at Allison once more before turning toward the door across the lobby. "Let's do this."
The three of them walked with the tail-end of the crowd toward the ballroom entrance. Thad glanced around, a little overwhelmed at how many people had turned out for the event. He spotted several of the people he had been delivering mail to over the last year, as well as most of his co-workers from the mail room. He made a mental note to say hello to them later, when he had the chance. He also saw Lady Druid, Voltbolt, and Tatiana.
He glanced at Allison and saw she was watching him scan the crowd as the moved closer to the door.
"All the supers are here," she said. "The ones here at the headquarters building, I mean."
Thad looked around the crowd again. "Mr. Awesome?"
"No," Allison said. Sorry. But I think he's still on the moon. Everyone else though. Even Leprechaun came."
"Isn't he retired?" Franklin asked.
"Yes," Thad replied.
"Don't worry," Allison said. "He's not wearing his superhero outfit. No bad luck tonight." She winked at Thad and squeezed his arm.
Chapter 14
"So, the suit's red?" Franklin glanced down at the briefcase in Thad's hand.
"Not here." Thad glanced around, to see if anyone on the buss was paying attention to them.
Everyone was either staring out one of the windows or playing on their phone. It was six o'clock in the evening. Most of people on the bus had just finished a long day's work, or in the case of a young couple with backpacks in their laps, had been in classes all day.
Thad glanced to the bus driver five feet ahead of him at a diagonal. The gray-haired lady, green plastic-framed sunglasses pushed up onto hair, looked like she'd been going since the morning too.
"When we get there," Thad said to his friend. Both of them were standing near the steps at the front of the bus, both holding onto the vertical bar in front of the first passenger seat.
"Nobody's listening, but I'll whisper."
"Fine."
Thad had tried on his suit the night before, after the promotion ceremony, but he didn't get to test it out. Allison surprised him with late-night movie tickets after the celebration ended. They went to Fluffy's Tacos, which was three blocks from the Supers building, then took a stroll through the park across the street from there until it was time to head to the theater nearby. The suit was supposed to stay locked in his new superhero locker until word had come back from Legal that all his paperwork was done—something about getting the supers rider added to his company insurance policy.
It had been there since just after he was allowed to try it on briefly to make sure it fit well, and had been sitting in his locker all day today—until he and Franklin snuck it out after work for a secret test drive.
"You sure you don't want to hop out at the next stop?" Franklin asked as they approached the corner next to the playground area of Bear Creek Park.
"No. Too many people there. The back trails, by the field."
"Yeah, okay. You're right. We could hop the fence and go to the abandoned warehouses too."
"Maybe."
"Probably some good testing stuff there," Franklin said.
"Testing stuff?"
"I don't know. I'm used to being in my lab."
Thad chuckled. "Yes, this is a big adventure for you, I'm sure."
"Shut up." Franklin grinned, showing Thad he knew his friend was just giving him a hard time.
Half the passengers got off at the next stop, then three more exited at the one after that. The last of those three was an old man with white hair, wearing a shirt with a single word on the front, 'Excelsior!' He paused as he walked past Thad and Franklin. "You two don't get into any trouble, okay?" He glanced at briefcase in Thad's hand, then look him in the eye. "I'm sure these new superheroes don't want any more problems around here after what happened last week."
Thad and Franklin were speechless as the enigmatic old man went down the stairs out of the bus and headed down the sidewalk.
Thad turned to his friend. "What was that?"
Franklin shook his head. "I have no idea. You don't think he knew, do you?"
"How?"
Franklin shrugged.
"Coincidence?"
"Sure. Let's go with that."
The remained silent until they got to their stop, three blocks down the road.
The sun was getting low as they headed into the park, and by the time they got to the trails at the back, most of the joggers were heading the opposite way, back to the parking lot by the road. The air was a little cool, and clouds had moved in overhead, but Thad had checked the forecast on his lunch break. It said no rain tonight. He hoped that held true. Concealing the fact that he snuck the suit out before he was supposed to be using it would be difficult if he had to put it back in his locker wet, he realized.
A minute later they were at the head of the dirt trails which wound through woods on either side of the creek. Thunder cracked in the distance, and Thad noticed the clouds were darkening.
"What do you think?" Franklin said.
"Warehouses. Just in case it rains."
"Good call."
They abandoned the trails and walk across the corner of the adjacent field until they reached the old chain-link fence bordering the abandoned National Guard depot area. Both of them glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then Franklin hopped over the fence, getting one foot on the top with the help of a jumping pull-and-push maneuver with his hands. Thad tossed the briefcase to him. A moment later, he landed on the concrete yard beside him, and Franklin handed the briefcase back to him.
The sky flashed and a second later a loud crack of thunder sounded and Thad felt it in his chest. "Come on." Thad broke into a jog, heading for the nearest warehouse.
Franklin followed, catching up with him.
A light rain started to fall on them, so they picked up speed, weaving around stacks of busted wooden pallets and a couple of rusted wheeled axles, which looked like they had been made for one of those oversized heavy-duty military trucks with the camouflaged tarp over the metal fram on the back, at least that's what Thad pictured when he saw the size of the wheels.
They made it to the nearest warehouse without getting too wet, and the awning protected Thad while he waited for Franklin to duck under the partially-open metal garage door. Thad then handed the briefcase to his friend and went under the door himself.
The warehouse had seen better days. Half of the windows lining either side of the building were broken or missing, the others were so caked with years of dust and dirt it was impossible to see anything through them but the shapes of subtle lighting changes from the movement of the scrub trees which had grown along the outside of the building. Some of the hanging industrial-style lights were broken too, but it didn't matter either way, since the building had no electricity. The hangar-sized interior was heavily shadowed in the corners, but large rectangular openings, which had once been covered with fiberglass skylight panels let in a considerable amount of light from the still-setting sun. And despite the clouds, a full moon, already high in the sky, promised to take over from the sun when the time came.
It was secluded, large, and devoid of anything of value to anyone. So, power mishaps d
idn't matter, Thad thought, as long as he and Franklin could both walk out of the place when the super suit test drive was over.
"The rain should keep people away," Franklin said, tilting his head a little so that one ear was pointed up. The rain had picked up and the drops hitting the roof were making hundreds of soft, metallic pinging noises.
"Yeah. I didn't think of that, but I guess we're lucky it's raining." He looked toward the middle of the expansive concrete floor to where small puddles were forming below the openings in the roof.
Franklin walked over to the edge of one of the puddles and held his arm out to catch the raindrops. "Hurry, up. Maybe you can control the weather."
"No," Thad said. "I mean, I'm putting on the suit now, but it doesn't have weather powers. It came with a memo. I know the basic power set. It's just a matter of actually trying them out, seeing how to use them properly."
"Cool. Don't tell me them yet. I want to be surprised. I bet they're really cool." Franklin continued to hold his arm out, letting the water hit his hand and spill out into the puddle under it, while he looked up at the sky.
Thad put it suitcase on the floor, opened it, and in under a minute had changed from his regular clothes into his super suit, keeping his form-fitting UnderArmour boxers on beneath it. "Okay. Check it out."
Franklin shook most of the water from his hand, then wiped it on the side of his pants and turned to look at Thad in his suit. "Smashing."
Thad held his arms up a little and looked himself over. "Yeah. Good thing I've been hitting the gym all year, otherwise this could be embarrassing."
"What about the watches?"
"Oh, right." Thad leaned over and retrieved the new, smaller wrist bands Franklin had made him. Only the left one resembled a watch now. Franklin modified the design of the other one to make it look more like one of those health-monitoring bracelets, a function he actually added to it as well.
After Thad put on the wrist devices, he tapped the left side of his suit at his neck, activating Becky. She greeted him, sending an undetectable vibration from the chip into his skull. To him, it just sounded like she was talking to him the same way she had from inside the helmet.
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