I know, I know. it's been ages since I updated this thing. But with the job searching, the moving, and other irritating real life hassles, it's been hard to muster the energy to do much of anything. Not a state of mind I enjoy being in.
At any rate, now that I finally have a job again, maybe I can get back into the swing of things when it comes to writing this. I've got a lot of story in me left to tell...
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Five - Dinner, Drinks, and Derring-do
After arriving home, Raymond gratefully shucked his armor and stashed it carefully in its containment tube in the ops center, stretching and groaning as he turned toward the door. From the kitchen, he heard Steve call out, "You want a beer while getting ready?"
"Yeah, but just one." He stepped into the hall and reflexively caught the can that Steve lobbed at him on his way past. "Thanks."
"We need to hit the store soon, we're just about out of beer, apart from that microbrew stuff that Kat had the last time she was here. Blech."
"Steve, we're always 'just about out of' everything, thanks to your appetite," Raymond reminded him, but Steve had already closed the door to his room and Raymond could hear the water running. Shower. Right. He could almost feel the scalding water already, washing away the day, and entering his own room, he pulled off his clothes and padded into the bathroom. While the water heated up, he took a long pull from his beer, half-sitting/half-leaning against his sink, watching the steam slowly fill the bathroom.
I feel like this morning was a year ago, he thought. Since four in the morning, it's been go, go, go, with no time to think. I just hope I don't fall asleep on the table - Sorina would never forgive me and Steve would never let me live it down.
Stepping under the hot water, he let out a loud sigh. And damn it, things have just been insane since Saturday. First the attack on Justin's party, then that whole mess in the War Zone, and now this. I am definitely going to have a word with the Phalanx about some personal time off, and soon, before I end up killing someone.
As he showered, he made a conscious effort to unkink the almost permanent knot in his shoulders, staying under the water until he felt almost human again. He nearly jumped, though, when he heard Steve pounding on his bedroom door and shouting, "Come on, slowpoke, we got to get moving if we're gonna be there on time. And besides, I'm starving."
"All right, all right," Raymond grumbled, turning off the water and reaching for a towel. He hurriedly dried off while trying to figure out what to wear, eventually settling on a sweater and casual slacks. A fast dash of cologne, one last check against the mirror, and he was ready to go. Steve, of course, was impatiently waiting in the living room, having turned on the TV and channel-surfing at a near blur. Glancing up as his roommate walked in, he clicked off the television and picked up his keys.
At first Raymond frowned, but a glance at his watch showed that they were running late. However...
"Uh, Steve, when's the last time you cleaned out the Mustang?" he asked warily.
Steve opened his mouth to reply, paused, then closed it again. "Ummmm..." Making a quick dash outside to the driveway, he had both doors open and the trashcan near the car in the time it took Raymond to get to the front door. By the time he'd locked up the house, the car was clean and Steve was revving the engine. Classic rock music was blasting from the Mustang's speakers as Raymond slid into the passenger seat and pointedly buckled his seatbelt.
"Dude, relax, I have the best reflexes on the road," Steve reminded him as he headed toward the highway.
"You also have a habit of multiplying the speed limit by the number of people in the car," Raymond said, trying not to grit his teeth at his roommate's driving.
"Whatever. Be grateful it's a Monday night and we don't have much in the way of rush hour traffic."
Had they not been running a bit late, they could have taken the tram, Raymond thought ruefully... on the other hand, if he ended up going back to Sorina's apartment with her, it gave Steve an excuse to drive Marisa Valentino home. He just hoped that she didn't have a problem with Steve's overall penchant for speed.
Thanks to Steve's driving, they made it to the Plum Blossom with just under five minutes to spare. Shalice and Justin were already there as they pulled into the parking lot, and while Steve tossed his keys and a ten to the valet, Sorina and Marisa came walking up the block from the tram station.
"Oh, yeah, introductions," Steve said hurriedly as he saw Psyche and Manticore give Marisa curious looks. "Justin, Shalice, this is Marisa Valentino, she's also one of the Star Patrol members. Marisa, meet Shalice and Justin Sinclair."
"A pleasure," she said, politely shaking hands with them both, then Sorina did the same before giving Raymond another hug.
"I don't know about any of you, but I am starving," Steve complained, "so what say we head inside and nab our table?" He offered his arm to Marisa, who took it with an arched eyebrow of amusement. Justin did the same to Shalice, and Raymond then offered his arm to Sorina. As they entered the restaurant, the hostess bowed politely and showed them to a private table, discreetly hidden from the others by elegant silk shoji screens. After they were seated, the hostess returned with a bottle of plum wine and six glasses, then bowed again and withdrew.
*****
"Anyone for a glass?" Raymond asked, and then poured wine for each of them.
Sorina sniffed curiously at hers. "Interesting..."
"Never had plum wine before?" Manticore asked, and she shook her head. "Careful with that stuff then. Two glasses and you'll forget you have feet."
"After the day I've had, I may take a bottle," she said, taking a delicate sip. "Hmmm... interesting."
"Rough day for you, too?" Shalice asked. "I know our day's been hell since that bomb threat this morning."
Marisa looked momentarily puzzled, then her expression cleared. "Oh, that. Wright filled me in on my way back from the Isles. So I take it our friends in the Dominion were behind it?"
"Looking like it," Manticore agreed. "Know anything about a woman named Soulsteel?"
Marisa frowned, resting her chin on her hand. "Name rings a couple bells. She's a scientific genius, by most accounts. Cybernetics and artificial intelligence are her real talents - we're talking beyond bleeding edge. She doesn't operate much in St. Martial, though. Her usual stomping ground is north of Grandville."
Sorina looked mildly alarmed at that. "You mean The Fab?"
At Raymond's enquiring look, Justin explained, "It's a huge scientific facility that's mutually maintained by Arachnos and Crey. Longbow and Wyvern have been trying for ages to figure out just what it is they're working on out there, but with no luck."
"And that's not enough to get Crey investigated?" Steve asked indignantly. "What more do the courts want?"
Justin gave him a hard-edged look, and Raymond felt a brief stab of sympathy for Steve. In his guise as Manticore, Justin's preferred patrol area was Brickstown, where Crey had an extremely high presence. Time and again, along with several other heroes, Manticore would go after Crey in the area to keep their ranks thinned, especially hoping to get some dirt on Countess Crey to shut down her operations permanently. However, the Countess' legal savvy and army of PR representatives always managed to spin things to make it seem like Crey was the innocent victim of harassment by well-meaning but overzealous heroes.
"Let me guess," Shalice said, sipping her wine. "'Crey Industries in no way supports work with an international terrorism organization such as Arachnos. These reports clearly indicate, however, that a rogue group within our organization is operating in the Rogue Isles, and as such are beyond the jurisdiction of US courts.' Am I right?"
Marisa nodded. "That's about the size of it. It's a huge joke in the Isles, actually, especially over in the Nerva Archipelago. Even with Longbow's Agincourt base just across the water, the fact that Crey is operating with impunity down there is just one big slap in the face."
Manticore growled at that, and Shalice gave him a concerned look and a gentle pat on the hand. Raymond could understand the frustration, though - not only was Longbow based there, but so was Wyvern. And that Crey was getting away with almost every crime in the book despite the two groups' best (if not combined) efforts had to be incredibly galling.
"So does this Soulsteel have ties to Crey, too?" Shalice asked after a moment, but Marisa shook her head.
"If you mean allegiance of any kind, nope. She'll steal from anyone who's got the tech she needs, regardless of who they are. Including Arachnos."
"So how is it that Arachnos hasn't taken her out yet?" Sorina asked, frowning. "I doubt they take kindly at industrial espionage and theft when it's directed at themselves."
"Because here's the real kicker." Marisa leaned forward and lowered her voice slightly. "She's also an Arachnos Arbiter."
Raymond nearly spat out his mouthful of wine in surprise. "What?!"
Marisa nodded again, a faint smile around her mouth. "Yep. And there's more. She's not the only Arbiter that Banestar's got on the pay roster."
"You're kidding," Steve said flatly. "Oh, that's all we fricking need."
For a moment, they all sat in an uncomfortable tense silence.
"Can we order now?" Steve said at last, startling laughs out of the rest of them, and so they turned their attention to their menus. For a few minutes there was some negotiation about what to order, then once that was settled, they sat back to wait for their food.
"I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough shop talk for one day," Raymond announced, nibbling on a crisp dipped in sweet and sour sauce.
"Da," Sorina agreed, "but it wouldn't be fair for you and I to talk science around the other four... they wouldn't understand a word of what we were saying."
"True," he admitted, then he grinned at Sister Psyche and Manticore. "Although I'm curious if either of you'd heard through the superhero grapevine that Castle apparently scored a date with Andrea Blake."
"You're kidding," Manticore laughed. "Damn, I'd never have thought he'd be her type."
"I don't think she even has a type," Marisa said, nodding her thanks to the server as he refilled her tea. "In the time I've known her, I can say her strike range is pretty much wide open." Then she looked over at Steve, who once again looked somewhat disgruntled. "On the other hand, the fact that she's gone out with you quite a few times is certainly... interesting."
"How so?"
"Well, let's just say that while she might hang out with a guy more than once while just doing the 'friends' thing, when it comes to dating, she doesn't tend to go back for seconds. You, however, seem to have caught her interest. Which I think is a good thing."
"So if I'm a 'good thing,' how come she's out with Castle tonight?" Steve asked her, and Marisa shrugged.
"I'd normally say she's beyond games, but maybe she's curious to see if you're the jealous type."
"I'm not jealous!" Steve protested, his cheeks turning slightly red, especially at the knowing looks that Marisa, Sorina, and Shalice were now giving him. "Can't we talk about something else? Like Ray's love life?"
"Hey, just because you're comfortable with your name on the front pages doesn't mean I'm the same way," Raymond said hastily. Although...
With a brief apologetic look at Sorina, he turned to Shalice and Justin. "Actually... umm... I meant to ask you guys... well... how do you manage it? Being a couple and still going out and slugging on the bad guys?"
Justin and Shalice glanced at one another, but as Justin opened his mouth to speak, Shalice's eyes went wide and she turned toward the front of the restaurant, half-rising from her chair, her eyes unfocused.
"Shalice?" Steve asked, frowning, making to rise as well, when she suddenly shouted, "EVERYONE GET DOWN!"
The other five heroes didn't hesitate. All of them dropped to the floor just as the front door and the street windows exploded into the restaurant in a blizzard of wooden splinters and shattered glass as several bodies came crashing through them.
*****
Oh, for God's sake, what NOW? Raymond wondered with a groan, sparing a moment to quickly glance to Sorina. She seemed fine, so he peered around the now-shredded shoji screen to look into the restaurant's main area.
Amid overturned tables and chairs and cowering patrons were the slowly rising form of several figures that he recognized by their clothes as members of the Family, plus unless he was mistaken... yep, there were Outcasts among the group, too. And entering the restaurant through the remains of the front door and window... he took another look and sighed. The Tsoo... terrific. Just our luck. We choose a restaurant that ends up smack in the middle of a turf war.
Suddenly the entire restaurant was filled with the sounds of howling winds, followed immediately by several screams from the patrons, and he spotted one of the mystical sorcerers of the Tsoo sending a half-dozen Family thugs flying, until a freezing blast of cold encased him in ice as an Outcast leader caught him from behind. In the entryway, flames raced up the walls as a novice Outcast sent a ball of fire at a Family gunner before the machine gun fire dropped him in his tracks.
Then Raymond heard inside his head, You will remain calm... do not panic and do not rise... we will protect you... you will remain calm... do not panic and do not rise... A look to his side revealed that Psyche was already crouched beside the shoji screen, her hands on her knees in a mudra position, and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the restaurant patrons, while Manticore was already assembling his custom compound bow from the parts he kept stashing in his ever-present walking cane. Steve was already next to him, hand raised to start blasting with electricity as soon as he was sure he could without hitting any innocents.
Marisa, on the other hand, was crouched behind a chair, her expression a mix of anger and fear. Her eyes darted back and forth from the terrified patrons to the Family thugs who were now on their feet, bringing their traditional Tommy guns around to start blazing at the Tsoo on the sidewalk outside.
Raymond met her eyes inquiringly, and slightly waggled one hand as though silently asking, What's wrong?
She looked from him to the Family and back again... then repeated the look.
And Raymond finally got it.
Oh, hell... if she's undercover with the Family... she can't be seen fighting them here, or the Patrol loses an insider. Crap and double crap.
"Stay down," he hissed to her, "and keep Sorina safe."
Sorina gave him a glare at that, but she knew just as well as he did that without her gauntlets, her powers were of no use in this situation, but then she brought her hand to one ear and activated her communicator. He couldn't hear what she was saying over the sounds of the fight up front, but he guessed she was notifying the Star Patrol of the situation.
He reached into his pocket to find the remote-trigger for his armor when he saw a look of surprise cross her face, but before he could ask what was wrong, the noise level abruptly dropped... as though all fighting had ceased in an instant.
Raymond looked toward the front of the restaurant again and saw the entire mob of fighting gang members - Tsoo, Outcasts, and Family alike - were all asleep on their feet.
"What the hell?" he blurted out, then he nearly fell over in surprise as half of them vanished from the restaurant and reappeared in the street outside. Those still inside abruptly jerked awake again and turned toward the front window in anger and irritation... only to find themselves bodily lifted off the floor and held there, while a blue-white ray of freezing energy shot through the remains of the door to coat the entryway, putting out the fire.
"What's going on?" Steve asked, looking just as confused as Raymond felt, when in through the window came a woman in a familiar uniform while three more remained outside, subduing the still-fighting-but-now-losing gang thugs. Sorina, however, was already on her feet, arms crossed her chest and glaring at the newcomers.
"I suppose you have an explanation for this?" she called out, her voice filled with a strange mixture of relief, pride, and annoyance.
"Sorry, Tava," the woman said apologetically, and Raymond felt a slow grin cross his face as he recognized the new arrivals as members of the Star Patrol. "We'd hoped to nail this mess down before they got to the restaurant but we were delayed."
"I meant why you were in the neighborhood in the first place, Flux."
"Oh... that. Um..." The heroine in a red and black version of the armor of the Combat Medics looked rather sheepish as she glanced at the rest of her team outside.
"I apologize for our tardiness in arriving, Sorina," Raymond heard a woman say in a rather distinct accent, and he turned as three other Patrol members approached - one a tall, redheaded woman that looked strangely familiar, another a big man in power armor and wielding a fireman's axe, and the third a shorter, slim woman with dark hair. As the redhead came over and saluted, the man and other woman quickly dealt with the remaining gang members inside, tossing them out into the street with the rest of their unconscious comrades.
"Cende, you want to explain to me what's going on?"
The redhead looked slightly embarrassed, and belatedly Raymond recognized her, having seen her around both Star Patrol and Freedom Phalanx HQ. "Err... well... Sharpe mentioned you were having dinner in the area... and ummm..."
"And he just 'happened' to assign a field training team to the vicinity?" Marisa chimed in, also coming forward as the other Star Patrol members entered the restaurant, while Flux quickly excused herself and began tending to the wounded patrons. She looked over the group. "Good to see you again, Rob, Helena... where's the rest of the team?"
"Pistoleer, Talek, Moon Tide, and Hawthorne are checking the rest of the block."
Justin, Shalice, and Steve joined them, looking more than a little off their stride at the Patrol's unexpected arrival.
"Do I even want to know what's going on?" Justin asked, and Sorina covered her face with one hand.
"Nyet."
As the PPD belatedly arrived to begin carting away the Outcasts, Tsoo, and Family, the Star Patrol team quickly assembled outside to bring the cops up to speed, while the paramedics took over the task of checking on the patrons, leaving Raymond, Sorina, Steve, Marisa, Shalice and Justin standing in the wreckage of the restaurant.
There was a long, long, long silence.
"Would it be too much to hope that we could still eat?" Steve finally asked, but five glares quickly silenced him.
Screw it, Raymond thought. I'm taking tomorrow off.
To be continued...
"Yeah, about City of Heroes.. I have this awesome idea for the sequel.. first, there is the Planet, let's call it Zeist..."
