M&M 7: Auditions 3-Call-Backs
M&M 7: Call-Backs (Auditions 3)
The four of them arrived at the SAT building at the same time, by virtue of the fact that Izzy towed them; the two hoverbikes had convenient handles welded to the front, almost as though someone had faced this problem before.
They saw a figure hovering over the SAT building, but the SAT building was only two storeys tall, and a block wide; there was a taller building behind one end; Izzy carefully set the two hoverbikes there. Police had already cordoned off an area half a block wide around the office building, but that didn't mean the area was unoccupied.
%Hey, Dreadnought,% said Ninety-Nine Percent privately over a mental link. %Whatcha doin'?%
%Chiclet,% he said. %You finally got powers. Not like your folks, though, huh? Last job to free people, and then the Compact is dissolved. We go our separate ways.%
%Why not call it done and go home? Big escape rocks the boat. Let straights believe there's peace and unity and we can all work easier.%
%Silver Storm and the death of Golden Dragon together pretty much nixed that. If you're not going to go home, have to take you down. Big Brain says so.%
Volt got off the hoverbike. He could tell that something was happening…Dreadnought had rotated to face them.
Huitzil and Izzy-sorry, Canadian Lass-were already in the air halfway to him. He opened up with a barrage of machine gun fire at Izzy. It didn't hurt her, but it rattled her enough that she just missed him.
%Sorry, kid. Just a job. Your mom still available to do repairs after this dust-up?%
Ninety-Nine didn't respond.
Huitzil easily hit him, and it was like a child rattling a stick off a fencepost.
Dreadnought then sent a carpet of missiles to the roof of the taller building where Ninety-Nine and Volt stood. Ninety-Nine got out of the way, and Volt didn't, but he was mostly protected by the hoverbikes.
"Aw, man," Volt said. "Those were mint. Well, one of them." To Dreadnought, he said, "You, I don't like," and he went intangible.
Ninety-Nine cut the mental connection and opened the mental link to her teammates. %Open gang warfare soon. They're cooperating to get these guys out of jail.%
%I think he needs a bit of juice,% said Volt, and aimed a bolt of electricity at Dreadnought. It apparently had no effect.
No, there were two figures: Death Magnetic was there, too, but closer to the small treed park at the other end of the block. Now her armour looked intentional and complete.
Izzy-Canadian Lass-took another swipe at Dreadnought but bending the cannon while he had no resistance was a surprise: he just rotated in the air. If I were designing that suit, gyros would hold him steady, she thought. The cannon was electrified, she realized as she grabbed it, but neither of them were grounded, so it didn't matter.
Rather than risk harming Izzy, Huitzil covered the distance to Death Magnetic. "Hey, Fridge Magnet! I've got a score to settle! You broke my phone!" Huitzil punctuated the comment with a powerful blow that connected with the armour. Death Magnetic didn't move, held up by a web of magnetic force.
Death Magnetic smiled, flicked her hand, and a car flew up from the street below, heading for Huitzil. It missed and from arc, it was now ballistic and falling free, toward the spectators who had gathered halfway up the next block.
%Crap,% said Huitzil. %Can someone get that?%
%On it,% said Ninety-Nine. The spectators were scrambling now. A bolt of lambent red energy shot from Ninety-Nine's hands and encased the falling car. Not wanting to waste the vehicle, she slammed it into Dreadnought's back, sending both Dreadnought and Izzy flying forward. Izzy didn't lose her grip.
Volt didn't want to hurt Canadian Lass with his taser snare, so he blasted at Death Magnetic. She was wearing metal, after all. The distance was too great, though. %Wait,% he said, %there are others?%
%Inside,% said Ninety-Nine. She couldn't take a peek and maintain the mental link, but if someone went inside-
%Okay,% said Volt. Intangibly, he started dropping through the tower. Unfortunately, he was above the women's restrooms, and he gave at least one woman a start as he fell. Fortunately, he was facing the wrong way to see anything.
Huitzil tried another shot. This one connected, too, but squarely on the armour. Death Magnetic flicked her other hand, and the working hoverbike flew from the tower and into Huitzil's back. "I have another, dear. Maybe that will break more than your phone." The hoverbike tumbled down through the roof of the SAT building.
Over on Dreadnought, Canadian Lass shifted positions. "This was a prototype, wasn't it? I see things that would be fixed in production." She levered herself against the body of the armour and twisted the cannon barrel into a U-shape. "I think Mythbusters showed that would still fire, but your aim will be terrible."
%Almost there,% said Volt. Volt came through in an office. He kept walking once he heard, "Dad? Why won't you help?" from the ghost, Immaterial Girl.
"Because it's not Dad. It's his brother, Uncle Takeshi," said Hellteen. Volt peeked through the doorway.
Hellteen was pressed against his bars, watching. Immaterial Girl followed as the dark-clad ninja guided escaped supers to another room. Volt recognized Cannon, Gargantua, the two who had pretended to be SAT agents, "Lord Etheric," and the squid-like one from the park.
"But he could help!"
The line-up of supers headed into another room. Immaterial Girl flitted back, and started pacing between her cell-the door was still locked-and Hellteen's. Clearly she could have escaped at any time.
Hellteen wasn't going anywhere, and Immaterial Girl didn't seem like she was going to abandon him; Volt pressed on to find where the escapees were going.
Up over the building, Huitzil finally hit an unarmoured spot: Death Magnetic's face. Death Magnetic looked blankly for a second and then started falling. Huitzil let her, and hung there in the sky, panting, wings beating hard to stay in place.
Dreadnought broke free and dove for Death Magnetic. He caught her in mid-air, and protected her as he crashed through the roof of the SAT building.
%Well,% said Ninety-Nine. %Now we've got two to choose from.% She jumped off the tower, floating to the roof of the SAT building, and looked through the hole Dreadnought had made.
"You don't leave that easily," said Izzy out loud, and she dove for the hole as well.
Huitzil had flown down too, but the hole wasn't large enough for the wings; instead, Huitzil had to stop and figure the best way to parkour down to the inside of the building.
All of them saw it: Below and slightly to one side of Dreadnought's hole there were a series of holes, as if the earth had erupted through the foundation, making an enormous straw that connected the SAT building to...somewhere underground.
"Through and down," said a man standing at the edge of the hole. He had wild brown hair and loose purple robe-like pyjamas, liberally fastened with clasps of precious gems. Escaped supers began to jump and slide down the hole. The man glanced up, saw Canadian Lass approaching, and then his skin and hair changed colour, from the colour of loam to the colour of granite.
She paid no attention to him; she grabbed Dreadnought firmly: "How about if I peel you out of that can?" Dreadnought swung one metal fist against her head and her vision clouded for a second but she didn't let go; instead, she scrabbled for a grasp on the rocket launchers, hoping to tear them off.
The rock-hard fist that hit her was totally unexpected. Pain blossomed along her back and she collapsed into Dreadnought's body. "Why waste your time with imposters, when Lord Quake is here to deal with you?"
%Lord Quake?% said Canadian Lass over the mental link.
%Out of towner,% replied Ninety-Nine Percent. %Claims he's last of the stonekin.% Out loud, she said, "Hey, Quakey. I'm crushing your head." But his mind was too alien, or she didn't have a good enough grasp, because it didn't seem to hurt him. I have troubles with other species, she thought.
Canadian Lass tried to use Dreadnought as a bludgeon to hit Lord Quake, but she missed because Dreadnought was struggling too much, firing his propulsion systems and whatever else he could manage.
Lord Quake made a swooping gesture with his hands, and the earth swallowed her up to the neck, encasing everything but the arm holding Dreadnought and her head. "Let the substrata embrace you."
Huitzil was down, now, and thumped the apparently-unconscious Death Magnetic. "I think you're faking. Stay down."
Canadian Lass tried to use Dreadnought to break the stone, but only succeeded in pummelling him to unconsciousness. Or so she figured, from the sudden cessation of movement.
Volt managed to encase Lord Quake in electricity; he shrugged once, and the bands of force were gone. "Au revoir," said Lord Quake, and he jumped down the hole, which sealed after him. They had two unconscious villains to show for it.
Ninety-Nine Percent turned off the mental link and switched to remote viewing. The gang of escapees headed for the sewer system.
Huitzil studied the rock for a moment, found a weak spot that Canadian Lass couldn't reach, and applied force. The rock cracked, and Canadian Lass could get the rest off.
"Canadian Lass, fly me. I can track them, but I've only got a range of about a third of a mile," said Ninety-Nine. "You others, find the staff. They have to be here somewhere."
∗ ∗ ∗
The escapees came up in a warehouse on the east side of town. Representatives of the different groups were there, for the stormers to choose their allegiances. With the exception of Lord Quake and Uncle Takeshi, all were local. She noticed that the Big Brain was there.
"Take them?" asked Canadian Lass.
Ninety-Nine shook her head. "Too many. We know where their headquarters is, now. They'll be gone by the time we get back with the others. Pick them up and we'll go back to our headquarters."
∗ ∗ ∗
Volt found the SAT teams bound and gagged in an office room, not far from where the hoverbike had landed. Only Gonzales was unconscious; he'd clearly been beaten, probably after managing to radio the heroes. They got Gonzales medical help, and then headed back to the headquarters with the other two heroes.
∗ ∗ ∗
Coming in from the hangar, they heard sounds-people sounds. Following the noise, they found that the foyer was packed with people in homemade costumes, all clutching sheets of paper. Featherstone-Haugh was sitting at reception. "Oh, there you are!" she said brightly. "Someone had to act as reception. I'll bill you less for this time."
"Thanks?" said Izzy.
"What is this?" asked Volt. Then he spotted Sonia, the young lady he had been with in the park on Friday. He stepped behind Ninety-Nine, the tallest of the three women, and resolved not to speak again. Sonia had touched him while he was getting his powers; it stood to reason that she had gotten powers too. She hadn't said anything about them when he checked the other day, but...
Sonia stood next to a punk woman with tattoos of chains on her, behind them stood another fellow was wearing a domino mask, torn jeans and a singlet that showed his knife tattoos. There was a teenager wearing a Black Hole tee-shirt. A young man was holding a drink in a glass and making the fluid surge up out of the glass and back down, so he clearly had fluid control powers of some kind. Next was a teenage girl in a sort of gypsy frock. The next guy in the line was alternating between taking the appearance of the teenage girl ahead of him and the person behind him, a humanoid canid. Behind them stood two older gentlemen, probably not together.
"Applications," said Featherstone-Haugh. "City put applications up on the web site."
Huitzil checked on her phone. There they were. "Forms. Job application forms." The first couple of people in line held up their papers.
"Do we get hazard pay?" asked Izzy.
"Well, you don't even get pay," said Huitzil. "You haven't got a green card."
One of the older men in a suit held up his hand. "You would be Isabelle Traynor? I'm Aldo Mizzuccelli, from INS. We figured you probably didn't have time to come to the office."
"I am," said Izzy. "Sorry it's a little…chaotic. We've got a meeting room somewhere back here."
"We'll handle this," Ninety-Nine told her. Volt nodded too, wondering if maybe he was needed elsewhere. Izzy and Mr. Mizzuccelli went back to the meeting room.
Sonia said, "The problem has to be serious if you got called away during your own press conference. So you need help."
"Right," said Huitzil.
"Of course," said Ninety-Nine, sensing an opportunity. "We'll be sorting through the applications for our, uh, Future Heroes Foundation, and training you all&mdashfor a fee."
"The website says it's free," said the young man with the daggers.
Huitzil checked. "Yes, it does."
"Of course, the initial consultation is free," said Ninety-Nine smoothly. "But this is a dangerous business. You might have noticed that Canadian Lass' city costume has already had to be replaced-"
"This is crap," said the drink guy, and left.
"Sorry you feel that way," called Ninety-Nine after him. "We'll still protect you. If we can."
Huitzil asked the punk woman, "Powers?"
"I got these chains." Her tattoos unravelled off her body and stretched out to touch the far wall. "They do what I ask." She looked hopeful. Izzy noticed she was careful to keep the other woman between her and the man behind them.
"The Future Foundation will train you-" said Ninety-Nine.
"Cool it," said Volt.
Huitzil added, "Says here the mayor also has a say in our membership. 'Anyone approved by the mayor's office or the existing team.' That's going to cause problems."
"Do you think I'm not good enough?" asked the punk woman.
"Hey, Ally, calm down," said Sonia. "She just needs some meds. You took your meds today, right?"
"Of course I took them! They just-they don't last now!"
"That's okay, we'll just get-"
"Maybe I don't need them now! Maybe it's all your fault. Everyone's." She turned and walked out.
"Well, that was helpful," said Featherstone-Haugh.
"Sorry," said Sonia. She handed her application sheet over.
"You bring origami to life?"
"Stuff I've folded," said Sonia. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small folded bird. It took off from her palm and flew around the room. "Does whatever I tell it to."
"Okay," nodded Huitzil, and asked the singlet-wearing young man, "And your tattoos? They come to life?" Really, he might have been a gang member in another context.
The man swore, and added, "No. They generate knives. I can control'em and cut through damn near anything with'em, too."
"Could have used them today," said Huitzil. "Great. I have to ask: are any of you minors?"
The two obvious teenagers stuck up their hands. "For insurance reasons, we can't hire you. When you're of age, though, come back."
"The Future Foundation will train you, though, and accepts monthly payments," added Ninety-Nine.
"Hey," said Huitzil. "Read my mind." Looking in, Ninety-Nine heard, %Quit it with the Future Foundation. We have no paperwork. Don't make promises we can't keep.%
Ninety-Nine replied, %What'd LBJ say? Better to have them inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in. This way we keep track of them, and pay our expenses for doing so.%
%We don't have paperwork yet. No promises. They have email addresses on the forms, if we set up a Future Foundation, we can email them.%
%Fine.% Ninety-Nine broke the mental link and thought of the things she could do with a list of civically-minded sheep. Her thoughts were cut short by the buzzing of her phone. "Excuse me." She stepped into the other room and made herself invisible. She trusted that her mother would erase any recordings from the system.
Huitzil took all the forms and shooed people out, promising to contact them by the end of the week.
Somewhere, a toilet flushed. "What is that?" asked Volt.
The remaining gentleman said "Alarm" as Featherstone-Haugh said, "Troubalert." She looked sheepish. "You can set the sound, so I've been playing with it."
"Change it back," ordered Volt. "I didn't get your name, sir."
"Roy Elson. Formerly Blue Dynamo. Grace said I should look you up, and I didn't have any meetings this afternoon, so I figured no time like the present."
"You," said Volt. "We should hire you. Consultant."
"No," said Elson. "My ex-wife gets half of anything I do connected with superheroing or the Sentries. I don't want her to get a penny."
"Really?" asked Huitzil. "That's why you gave up superheroing?"
"And the team folded, but that was the main reason."
"What if we used your company exclusively when we need a taxi?" asked Volt. "You know stuff we can use."
"Like accessing the pocket dimension in the vault," said Huitzil.
"There's a button, near the top. Placed where you can't hit it by accident. I'll show you later. No, not even that arrangement. She has sharp lawyers, and they might be able to make something of that. Now I'm just a businessman."
"Replay what was on the alarm," said Huitzil. Elson reached forward and fiddled with a few controls. On the screen on the back wall, they saw Hightower leaving the hospital…and saw the giant brain floating nearby, and Hightower kidnapped before their eyes.
In the other room: "Hey, Chiclet," said her editor at io9. "So why are we being scooped on superhero news in Steel City? I thought you were on it."
"I am. I've got, uh, personal interviews set up with them, and real in-depth stuff-"
"So why don't you have anything on the Big Brain taking Hightower? The Gray Ghost already has it."
"I'll have something for you by the end of the day. I promise."
"I have to protect you against the higher-ups, you know-"
"Gotta go-by the end of the day." She dashed back into the foyer.
"Three crimes," said Huitzil. "Hightower kidnapped, Lord Quake in the diamond district, and the ninja guy at the art museum. Do we split up?"
"Don't be stupid," said Ninety-Nine. "One's a person; the other two are just things. We get Hightower."
"Where's Izzy?"
Izzy appeared, a foot off the ground. "Come on….we know where the Big Brain has his hideout."
"Your green card?"
"Set for a bit…same deal as for co-op students. Let's go!"
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The four of them arrived at the SAT building at the same time, by virtue of the fact that Izzy towed them; the two hoverbikes had convenient handles welded to the front, almost as though someone had faced this problem before.
They saw a figure hovering over the SAT building, but the SAT building was only two storeys tall, and a block wide; there was a taller building behind one end; Izzy carefully set the two hoverbikes there. Police had already cordoned off an area half a block wide around the office building, but that didn't mean the area was unoccupied.
%Hey, Dreadnought,% said Ninety-Nine Percent privately over a mental link. %Whatcha doin'?%
%Chiclet,% he said. %You finally got powers. Not like your folks, though, huh? Last job to free people, and then the Compact is dissolved. We go our separate ways.%
%Why not call it done and go home? Big escape rocks the boat. Let straights believe there's peace and unity and we can all work easier.%
%Silver Storm and the death of Golden Dragon together pretty much nixed that. If you're not going to go home, have to take you down. Big Brain says so.%
Volt got off the hoverbike. He could tell that something was happening…Dreadnought had rotated to face them.
Huitzil and Izzy-sorry, Canadian Lass-were already in the air halfway to him. He opened up with a barrage of machine gun fire at Izzy. It didn't hurt her, but it rattled her enough that she just missed him.
%Sorry, kid. Just a job. Your mom still available to do repairs after this dust-up?%
Ninety-Nine didn't respond.
Huitzil easily hit him, and it was like a child rattling a stick off a fencepost.
Dreadnought then sent a carpet of missiles to the roof of the taller building where Ninety-Nine and Volt stood. Ninety-Nine got out of the way, and Volt didn't, but he was mostly protected by the hoverbikes.
"Aw, man," Volt said. "Those were mint. Well, one of them." To Dreadnought, he said, "You, I don't like," and he went intangible.
Ninety-Nine cut the mental connection and opened the mental link to her teammates. %Open gang warfare soon. They're cooperating to get these guys out of jail.%
%I think he needs a bit of juice,% said Volt, and aimed a bolt of electricity at Dreadnought. It apparently had no effect.
No, there were two figures: Death Magnetic was there, too, but closer to the small treed park at the other end of the block. Now her armour looked intentional and complete.
Izzy-Canadian Lass-took another swipe at Dreadnought but bending the cannon while he had no resistance was a surprise: he just rotated in the air. If I were designing that suit, gyros would hold him steady, she thought. The cannon was electrified, she realized as she grabbed it, but neither of them were grounded, so it didn't matter.
Rather than risk harming Izzy, Huitzil covered the distance to Death Magnetic. "Hey, Fridge Magnet! I've got a score to settle! You broke my phone!" Huitzil punctuated the comment with a powerful blow that connected with the armour. Death Magnetic didn't move, held up by a web of magnetic force.
Death Magnetic smiled, flicked her hand, and a car flew up from the street below, heading for Huitzil. It missed and from arc, it was now ballistic and falling free, toward the spectators who had gathered halfway up the next block.
%Crap,% said Huitzil. %Can someone get that?%
%On it,% said Ninety-Nine. The spectators were scrambling now. A bolt of lambent red energy shot from Ninety-Nine's hands and encased the falling car. Not wanting to waste the vehicle, she slammed it into Dreadnought's back, sending both Dreadnought and Izzy flying forward. Izzy didn't lose her grip.
Volt didn't want to hurt Canadian Lass with his taser snare, so he blasted at Death Magnetic. She was wearing metal, after all. The distance was too great, though. %Wait,% he said, %there are others?%
%Inside,% said Ninety-Nine. She couldn't take a peek and maintain the mental link, but if someone went inside-
%Okay,% said Volt. Intangibly, he started dropping through the tower. Unfortunately, he was above the women's restrooms, and he gave at least one woman a start as he fell. Fortunately, he was facing the wrong way to see anything.
Huitzil tried another shot. This one connected, too, but squarely on the armour. Death Magnetic flicked her other hand, and the working hoverbike flew from the tower and into Huitzil's back. "I have another, dear. Maybe that will break more than your phone." The hoverbike tumbled down through the roof of the SAT building.
Over on Dreadnought, Canadian Lass shifted positions. "This was a prototype, wasn't it? I see things that would be fixed in production." She levered herself against the body of the armour and twisted the cannon barrel into a U-shape. "I think Mythbusters showed that would still fire, but your aim will be terrible."
%Almost there,% said Volt. Volt came through in an office. He kept walking once he heard, "Dad? Why won't you help?" from the ghost, Immaterial Girl.
"Because it's not Dad. It's his brother, Uncle Takeshi," said Hellteen. Volt peeked through the doorway.
Hellteen was pressed against his bars, watching. Immaterial Girl followed as the dark-clad ninja guided escaped supers to another room. Volt recognized Cannon, Gargantua, the two who had pretended to be SAT agents, "Lord Etheric," and the squid-like one from the park.
"But he could help!"
The line-up of supers headed into another room. Immaterial Girl flitted back, and started pacing between her cell-the door was still locked-and Hellteen's. Clearly she could have escaped at any time.
Hellteen wasn't going anywhere, and Immaterial Girl didn't seem like she was going to abandon him; Volt pressed on to find where the escapees were going.
Up over the building, Huitzil finally hit an unarmoured spot: Death Magnetic's face. Death Magnetic looked blankly for a second and then started falling. Huitzil let her, and hung there in the sky, panting, wings beating hard to stay in place.
Dreadnought broke free and dove for Death Magnetic. He caught her in mid-air, and protected her as he crashed through the roof of the SAT building.
%Well,% said Ninety-Nine. %Now we've got two to choose from.% She jumped off the tower, floating to the roof of the SAT building, and looked through the hole Dreadnought had made.
"You don't leave that easily," said Izzy out loud, and she dove for the hole as well.
Huitzil had flown down too, but the hole wasn't large enough for the wings; instead, Huitzil had to stop and figure the best way to parkour down to the inside of the building.
All of them saw it: Below and slightly to one side of Dreadnought's hole there were a series of holes, as if the earth had erupted through the foundation, making an enormous straw that connected the SAT building to...somewhere underground.
"Through and down," said a man standing at the edge of the hole. He had wild brown hair and loose purple robe-like pyjamas, liberally fastened with clasps of precious gems. Escaped supers began to jump and slide down the hole. The man glanced up, saw Canadian Lass approaching, and then his skin and hair changed colour, from the colour of loam to the colour of granite.
She paid no attention to him; she grabbed Dreadnought firmly: "How about if I peel you out of that can?" Dreadnought swung one metal fist against her head and her vision clouded for a second but she didn't let go; instead, she scrabbled for a grasp on the rocket launchers, hoping to tear them off.
The rock-hard fist that hit her was totally unexpected. Pain blossomed along her back and she collapsed into Dreadnought's body. "Why waste your time with imposters, when Lord Quake is here to deal with you?"
%Lord Quake?% said Canadian Lass over the mental link.
%Out of towner,% replied Ninety-Nine Percent. %Claims he's last of the stonekin.% Out loud, she said, "Hey, Quakey. I'm crushing your head." But his mind was too alien, or she didn't have a good enough grasp, because it didn't seem to hurt him. I have troubles with other species, she thought.
Canadian Lass tried to use Dreadnought as a bludgeon to hit Lord Quake, but she missed because Dreadnought was struggling too much, firing his propulsion systems and whatever else he could manage.
Lord Quake made a swooping gesture with his hands, and the earth swallowed her up to the neck, encasing everything but the arm holding Dreadnought and her head. "Let the substrata embrace you."
Huitzil was down, now, and thumped the apparently-unconscious Death Magnetic. "I think you're faking. Stay down."
Canadian Lass tried to use Dreadnought to break the stone, but only succeeded in pummelling him to unconsciousness. Or so she figured, from the sudden cessation of movement.
Volt managed to encase Lord Quake in electricity; he shrugged once, and the bands of force were gone. "Au revoir," said Lord Quake, and he jumped down the hole, which sealed after him. They had two unconscious villains to show for it.
Ninety-Nine Percent turned off the mental link and switched to remote viewing. The gang of escapees headed for the sewer system.
Huitzil studied the rock for a moment, found a weak spot that Canadian Lass couldn't reach, and applied force. The rock cracked, and Canadian Lass could get the rest off.
"Canadian Lass, fly me. I can track them, but I've only got a range of about a third of a mile," said Ninety-Nine. "You others, find the staff. They have to be here somewhere."
∗ ∗ ∗
The escapees came up in a warehouse on the east side of town. Representatives of the different groups were there, for the stormers to choose their allegiances. With the exception of Lord Quake and Uncle Takeshi, all were local. She noticed that the Big Brain was there.
"Take them?" asked Canadian Lass.
Ninety-Nine shook her head. "Too many. We know where their headquarters is, now. They'll be gone by the time we get back with the others. Pick them up and we'll go back to our headquarters."
∗ ∗ ∗
Volt found the SAT teams bound and gagged in an office room, not far from where the hoverbike had landed. Only Gonzales was unconscious; he'd clearly been beaten, probably after managing to radio the heroes. They got Gonzales medical help, and then headed back to the headquarters with the other two heroes.
∗ ∗ ∗
Coming in from the hangar, they heard sounds-people sounds. Following the noise, they found that the foyer was packed with people in homemade costumes, all clutching sheets of paper. Featherstone-Haugh was sitting at reception. "Oh, there you are!" she said brightly. "Someone had to act as reception. I'll bill you less for this time."
"Thanks?" said Izzy.
"What is this?" asked Volt. Then he spotted Sonia, the young lady he had been with in the park on Friday. He stepped behind Ninety-Nine, the tallest of the three women, and resolved not to speak again. Sonia had touched him while he was getting his powers; it stood to reason that she had gotten powers too. She hadn't said anything about them when he checked the other day, but...
Sonia stood next to a punk woman with tattoos of chains on her, behind them stood another fellow was wearing a domino mask, torn jeans and a singlet that showed his knife tattoos. There was a teenager wearing a Black Hole tee-shirt. A young man was holding a drink in a glass and making the fluid surge up out of the glass and back down, so he clearly had fluid control powers of some kind. Next was a teenage girl in a sort of gypsy frock. The next guy in the line was alternating between taking the appearance of the teenage girl ahead of him and the person behind him, a humanoid canid. Behind them stood two older gentlemen, probably not together.
"Applications," said Featherstone-Haugh. "City put applications up on the web site."
Huitzil checked on her phone. There they were. "Forms. Job application forms." The first couple of people in line held up their papers.
"Do we get hazard pay?" asked Izzy.
"Well, you don't even get pay," said Huitzil. "You haven't got a green card."
One of the older men in a suit held up his hand. "You would be Isabelle Traynor? I'm Aldo Mizzuccelli, from INS. We figured you probably didn't have time to come to the office."
"I am," said Izzy. "Sorry it's a little…chaotic. We've got a meeting room somewhere back here."
"We'll handle this," Ninety-Nine told her. Volt nodded too, wondering if maybe he was needed elsewhere. Izzy and Mr. Mizzuccelli went back to the meeting room.
Sonia said, "The problem has to be serious if you got called away during your own press conference. So you need help."
"Right," said Huitzil.
"Of course," said Ninety-Nine, sensing an opportunity. "We'll be sorting through the applications for our, uh, Future Heroes Foundation, and training you all&mdashfor a fee."
"The website says it's free," said the young man with the daggers.
Huitzil checked. "Yes, it does."
"Of course, the initial consultation is free," said Ninety-Nine smoothly. "But this is a dangerous business. You might have noticed that Canadian Lass' city costume has already had to be replaced-"
"This is crap," said the drink guy, and left.
"Sorry you feel that way," called Ninety-Nine after him. "We'll still protect you. If we can."
Huitzil asked the punk woman, "Powers?"
"I got these chains." Her tattoos unravelled off her body and stretched out to touch the far wall. "They do what I ask." She looked hopeful. Izzy noticed she was careful to keep the other woman between her and the man behind them.
"The Future Foundation will train you-" said Ninety-Nine.
"Cool it," said Volt.
Huitzil added, "Says here the mayor also has a say in our membership. 'Anyone approved by the mayor's office or the existing team.' That's going to cause problems."
"Do you think I'm not good enough?" asked the punk woman.
"Hey, Ally, calm down," said Sonia. "She just needs some meds. You took your meds today, right?"
"Of course I took them! They just-they don't last now!"
"That's okay, we'll just get-"
"Maybe I don't need them now! Maybe it's all your fault. Everyone's." She turned and walked out.
"Well, that was helpful," said Featherstone-Haugh.
"Sorry," said Sonia. She handed her application sheet over.
"You bring origami to life?"
"Stuff I've folded," said Sonia. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small folded bird. It took off from her palm and flew around the room. "Does whatever I tell it to."
"Okay," nodded Huitzil, and asked the singlet-wearing young man, "And your tattoos? They come to life?" Really, he might have been a gang member in another context.
The man swore, and added, "No. They generate knives. I can control'em and cut through damn near anything with'em, too."
"Could have used them today," said Huitzil. "Great. I have to ask: are any of you minors?"
The two obvious teenagers stuck up their hands. "For insurance reasons, we can't hire you. When you're of age, though, come back."
"The Future Foundation will train you, though, and accepts monthly payments," added Ninety-Nine.
"Hey," said Huitzil. "Read my mind." Looking in, Ninety-Nine heard, %Quit it with the Future Foundation. We have no paperwork. Don't make promises we can't keep.%
Ninety-Nine replied, %What'd LBJ say? Better to have them inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in. This way we keep track of them, and pay our expenses for doing so.%
%We don't have paperwork yet. No promises. They have email addresses on the forms, if we set up a Future Foundation, we can email them.%
%Fine.% Ninety-Nine broke the mental link and thought of the things she could do with a list of civically-minded sheep. Her thoughts were cut short by the buzzing of her phone. "Excuse me." She stepped into the other room and made herself invisible. She trusted that her mother would erase any recordings from the system.
Huitzil took all the forms and shooed people out, promising to contact them by the end of the week.
Somewhere, a toilet flushed. "What is that?" asked Volt.
The remaining gentleman said "Alarm" as Featherstone-Haugh said, "Troubalert." She looked sheepish. "You can set the sound, so I've been playing with it."
"Change it back," ordered Volt. "I didn't get your name, sir."
"Roy Elson. Formerly Blue Dynamo. Grace said I should look you up, and I didn't have any meetings this afternoon, so I figured no time like the present."
"You," said Volt. "We should hire you. Consultant."
"No," said Elson. "My ex-wife gets half of anything I do connected with superheroing or the Sentries. I don't want her to get a penny."
"Really?" asked Huitzil. "That's why you gave up superheroing?"
"And the team folded, but that was the main reason."
"What if we used your company exclusively when we need a taxi?" asked Volt. "You know stuff we can use."
"Like accessing the pocket dimension in the vault," said Huitzil.
"There's a button, near the top. Placed where you can't hit it by accident. I'll show you later. No, not even that arrangement. She has sharp lawyers, and they might be able to make something of that. Now I'm just a businessman."
"Replay what was on the alarm," said Huitzil. Elson reached forward and fiddled with a few controls. On the screen on the back wall, they saw Hightower leaving the hospital…and saw the giant brain floating nearby, and Hightower kidnapped before their eyes.
In the other room: "Hey, Chiclet," said her editor at io9. "So why are we being scooped on superhero news in Steel City? I thought you were on it."
"I am. I've got, uh, personal interviews set up with them, and real in-depth stuff-"
"So why don't you have anything on the Big Brain taking Hightower? The Gray Ghost already has it."
"I'll have something for you by the end of the day. I promise."
"I have to protect you against the higher-ups, you know-"
"Gotta go-by the end of the day." She dashed back into the foyer.
"Three crimes," said Huitzil. "Hightower kidnapped, Lord Quake in the diamond district, and the ninja guy at the art museum. Do we split up?"
"Don't be stupid," said Ninety-Nine. "One's a person; the other two are just things. We get Hightower."
"Where's Izzy?"
Izzy appeared, a foot off the ground. "Come on….we know where the Big Brain has his hideout."
"Your green card?"
"Set for a bit…same deal as for co-op students. Let's go!"
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