Mike_Halo

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry I missed the Posi, my character could still use that TF if there is a contingent of stragglers.

[/ QUOTE ]

In fact Swan Lee (Emp/elec Def) needs/wants to do Positron, however, she is not a 'forum goer" so I'll pass that on to her.


In other news:
If we are steady and patient, the prestige will flow. I would gently remind everyone that game play across the entire gaming world drops off when the weather turns nice. This can be perceived as a "drop in membership" or "our players left" but it is often simply the great outdoors calling.

A spiff base is very groovy. We will get there, might take a few months, but we will get there.

In the immortal words of Lord Flasheart: Sounds dangerous, Count me in!

(Early works VERY well for me. I do not sleep-in on weekends so I'll go as early as you want.)

This weekend was one heckuva great Paragon-fest at our house.

We enjoyed the Positron TF immensely (Those words have never been uttered by me before). The rest of the long weekend things were very hectic so we did not get back with our friends on Champion to try something else. Thanks again for putting it together. What a RUN!

Someone mentioned Synapse... considering the skill and experience level witnessed during the Posi TF, I think we should make it a Standard CO Policy to hit each TF at level (and crush it!). I submit this to House Super-human Affairs Committee for further consideration!

Just a few of my thoughts as I sit here at work sipping coffee on a chilly Tuesday morning.

I hope to catch someone on tonight. We have two lowbees on Champion now that we would like to bring in: @Mike Halo and @Swan Lee.

Thank you for that. I do not wish to pry, but I must assume that this is very expensive. Do you think you may need to or have you considered setting up some sort of charitable trust?

Best of luck to you and yours.

I want Mr. T in on this immediately.

Your daughter is in my prayers. I hope she has a speedy recovery.

This guide breathed new life into an old 50th level stone/stone/stone tanker I had shelved. Thanks for the information and the inspiration!

Thank you! My intent was to post it all here with some more rewrite/clean-up, but I have not managed to do that yet. If you managed to navigate the website then Kudos to you!

The best compliment you could give me is that something I wrote helped inspire a friend of yours to come play CoH. That is just awesome.

Your words of encouragement mean a lot to me. Training Day 20 is still being written, but has gathered a bit of dust as other projects (rewiring my jeep, for example) have jumped ahead of the line. No more excuses! I better get busy and write!

Training Day 8

The massive fire rapidly engulfed the old warehouse, lighting the night sky, reflecting brilliantly off the murky water around the pier.

“A toast,” Max said.

“A toast.” Halo agreed. They gently clinked their cups together and drained them. They set them on the roof vent and Max refilled them from a bottle.

Another huge ball of fire erupted, expanding and twisting into the darkness like a living thing. Muffled explosions could still be heard filling the structure to capacity pushing flame through every crack and vent, blowing out windows.

"We're destroying evidence, you realize." Max said, completely unconcerned. He passed a cup to Halo, who took it and drank. Max drank from an identical cup.

"You're not old enough to drink either, what's your point?" Halo said, in a conversational tone.

Battle-Star and Halo sat on the roof of a warehouse, their faces illuminated in the darkness by the massive roaring fire rapidly consuming the warehouse on the opposite side of the parking lot. Halo was not in uniform. He wore his usual street clothes: jeans, a t-shirt, and a black jacket. Battle-Star was in his armor, but this was one of the rare times Halo had ever seen Max remove his helmet outside of the lab. Max still wore the white inner cloth hood, with the sensors and leads attached to it, making him look a bit like an astronaut. It was mildly disconcerting to see his young face protruding from the dangerous looking armor.

"I never knew you drank, either." Max pointed out.

"This is sake; it isn't like real drinking, besides, this is a ceremony. Show some respect." Halo did not exactly smile, but his eyes had a merry glint to them.

Max sighed, "Ceremonial vandalism. Has a nice a ring to it. Every felony should have a couple of misdemeanors, kind of makes it into a full meal." The wine was getting to him quickly. He smiled to himself and took another drink. "You know, this reminds me of a time when me and my dad went camping." He spoke looking at the white china cup in his armored hand, examining the delicate flowers painted on it.

"You burned down the forest?" Halo asked.

Max gave him a reproving look, "You, sir, are a mean drunk. No, I mean sitting in the dark watching a fire. It's nice. Primal. We should do this more often."

Halo nodded and then his expression darkened. "Let's hope not, my friend, let's hope not."

Max gave him a thoughtful look. "They really GOT to you, didn't they?"

Halo did not answer immediately. He could not find the words to describe how he felt after encountering the Tsoo. He had seen death before, had even been responsible for it, but never intentionally. Never before had he WANTED to kill. Mike Halo did not kill. It was not the way, not part of the Path. The Tsoo had offended him down to the utter core of his soul. It was a hard thing to come to grips with. He had not killed any of them, but he had wanted to.

"Yeah.” He said, sighing, “yeah they did." He reached for the bottle and poured another round. He leaned back on an elbow against the slope of the roof. "That's okay, though, I'm better now." He said nodding toward the fire with satisfaction. The building was beginning to collapse.

"When do you think the Fire Department will get here?" Max asked idly.

“They won’t.” Halo sipped his drink.

Max gave him a questioning look and was about to ask why not when Halo reached into his jacket, pulled out some stapled-and folded papers and tossed them into Max's lap. He picked them up and activated a tiny penlight built into his gauntlet.

Halo said, “I asked Chief Williams to stay away. He owes me a favor or two.”

"What's this? A deed and a… demolition permit?” Max muttered, as he scrutinizing the documents.

Halo looked up at the stars, breathing the salt air of Independence Port, feeling a sense of release.

"What's the deed for?" Max asked, trying to read.

"That." Halo nodded to the fire. "Can't get a permit to demolish a building if you don't own it."

Max stared at him in utter disbelief. “What!?”

Halo felt his eyes on him, even in the semi-darkness. The fire was beginning to run out of fuel. "Hey, I'm not an arsonist; I just contribute to the delinquency of minors." He glanced over at Max who looked back at the fire, smiling, shaking his head.

“You blow my mind, you know that?” Max marveled.

"Hey, the Tsoo should be grateful I didn't torch the building with them IN it. But I had to draw the line somewhere." Halo said dryly.

Max looked at Halo and Halo looked at Max, they both knew what the other would say, but they said it any way; grinning, they pointed a finger at each other and said in unison, "Now if they were RIKTI...!"

They chuckled and clinked their cups together again. Their laughter rang out into the night. The remains of the warehouse collapsed upon its self rapidly diminishing to a dull red glow.


Wander dashed with amazing speed from bush to bush, planter to planter, methodically searching all around each towering office building. He was dressed in his usual white clothes, with the white headband and, strangely, had a very small, very elegant, black high-heeled shoe partially protruding from his pants’ pocket. He muttered to himself under his breath as he meticulously searched each area and then moved down to the next.

“And I have to ask meself, is it really worth it, boyo?” He paused, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and adjusted his headband. His arms and hands bore the scratches from pawing through the bushes. He rolled his shoulders and head around, producing a satisfying crack from his neck and then gazed down the long avenue in the general direction of a distant apartment on the other side of the city. He sighed and resumed searching.


The rubble pile smoldered and glowed dull red. Bubbles skirted around the hottest parts, half running, half sliding around the heap, working her way around toward her fallen suspect.
“Crime fighting isn’t supposed to be this hard!” She sulked, muttering to herself. She crouched next to the unconscious man beside a stairway, trying to catch her breath. She wiped the sweat from her eyes, spreading a nice dark smear across her forehead. She did not notice nor would she have cared. She was speckled with soot. The smell from the burning rubble heaps was a mix of wood, rubber, and something organic. She did not want to think about that. The acrid stench stung her lungs and forced her to take short breaths. She hauled herself to her feet and set off down the winding street at a jog, “This place is bigger than I thought,” She said to herself for the tenth time.

The area looked like a war zone; ragged, violent people were everywhere. This was all supposed to be part of the exam. It would determine her final grade for completing Cape-Camp. Eight weeks culminated in this one day: ‘Outbreak’. It was a simulation, but you could not tell what was and was not real. The Police Academy used a combination of real actors, androids, and holograms to re-create an actual event that had happened shortly after the Rikti War. For Bubbles McSweet it was all too real. Everything here smelled bad, was too hot, and wanted to kill her.

Somehow, she had managed to turn off her nav. It was a mini pocket computer, like a PDA, with advanced Global Positioning System mapping and compass, text messaging, and two-way voice capability. It was standard issue to every hero license holder. The teleportation grid and the 911 system were tied to it. Unfortunately, shortly after she had synchronized it at the Rivera Hospital terminal, she had somehow accidentally turned it off. Now she could not figure out how to turn it back on. Did that mean her MediCom emergency medical grid patch was off-line too? Instead of obsessing over it she followed her instructions and muddled through the orientation.

During the briefing, the instructor warned the students that this was a live event with real ammunition. Each student had then nervously touched his or her grid patch. To Bubbles, porting to the hospital was the same thing as giving up. She was starting to feel very stubborn. There was no way she would give up.

Her first foray into “The Zone” had not gone well. She had managed to get herself bruised and beaten with a metal pipe before she had subdued her suspects. None of the police officers offered any assistance. They were only there to observe and report.

Finally, she had received some measure of assurance in the form of two auto-injectors from a Sergeant Hicks. “Have confidence! Be inspired!” said the tiny labels. A new pharmaceutical company specializing in the fast emerging market for performance-enhancing synthetic drugs and micro-devices manufactured them. They were designed specifically for military and law-enforcement use. The instructors had gone over their use extensively in class. To Bubbles, the thimble-sized doses were too little, too late, but she would take what she could get. She was beginning to understand why Halo did not like to rely on them.

Hicks sent her back into the zone to find four more suspects. “Gee thanks,” was all Bubbles could say. She was starting to feel frustrated; it did not help that, of everyone in her class of fifty, she was easily the weakest and smallest. Strangely, none of her instructors and no one from City Hall had ever asked any of them what there powers were. Bubbles thought this was odd until she met Swanson. He did not have a single “power” at all. He was just a normal guy, kind of quiet, average sized and physically fit. It turned out that the City had no prerequisites or qualifications for this course whatsoever. Anyone who wanted to try their hand at operating under a hero license could. But even Swanson seemed more dangerous, more determined, more focused than many of her power-endowed classmates. It turned out that Swanson was particularly good with guns and explosives. Some lessons Bubbles was learning for herself, like learning to NOT underestimate people like Swanson. The rest of her classmates were powerful, strong, confident, and not afraid to tell everyone about it. She had seen this all before, in the club, and was not at all impressed. She kept her mouth shut and tried to soak up as much as she could.

The course had started simply enough: They were assigned rooms, did an orientation tour of City Hall, and went straight into the lessons. The classes were not too much different from what Bubbles remembered from high school. The main difference was that the students listened and did not deliberately disrupt class. Everyone WANTED to be there, or they were gone. Bubbles imagined that this must be what it was like to be in college, another unfulfilled dream of hers.

Her instructors varied according to specialty. Most of them were professionals from their fields. Some had been heroes. One of them was from Freedom Corps. The tactics instructor was a Lieutenant from Paragon SWAT who was a normal human but still managed to intimidate the entire class.

The classes were not too hard. A lot of it was common sense stuff. They had classes on law, police procedures, psychology, city history, tactics, and a whole lot more. It was far more interesting than watching some cop-show on TV. Bubbles ate it up. However, the days were long, which was partly the reason they offered dormitories. There was a TON of reading to do. They had one or more major exams every Monday and the classes and homework often stretched into a twelve-hour day.

She did her homework every night, something she had never done in high school. Many of her classmates wanted her to go out and party. The thought was appealing in a way, but she had been in every bar and club in town before she was twenty one. The idea of barhopping with a bunch of flirty strangers sounded too much like the life she was trying to leave behind. She politely turned them down.

She spent her weekends at home studying while Candy played Mother Hen. Candy was sometimes reading her textbooks too and starting to show interest. This made Bubbles smile inwardly. Candy was a very nurturing person at heart and even more of a girly-girl than Bubbles. She grew the few plants they had in the apartment. She adored animals and children. She would have had a houseful of animals if Bubbles had not put her foot down. Candy still put food out in the alley for the strays. Until now all she had ever talked about was settling down with a big, rich, adoring man and raising a bunch of kids. Now she was showing interest in something she had not approved of Bubbles doing. Bubbles could NOT see Candy being tossed around a mat by Uncle Mike. The minute she broke a nail, she’d be done! The thought of it made Bubbles smile. No, Candy was not a fighter; she was a different kind of hero.

Candy had also assumed full control of the day-to-day management of their company, McSweet Entertainment, Inc. She was doing all the scheduling, assignments, and organizing to keep the parties rolling in Bubbles’ absence. Bubbles was profoundly grateful for Candy. She was the one thing that Bubbles could depend on, no matter what.

She shook herself out of her daydreaming. She needed to focus and she knew it. She tapped the grid disk she had just placed on the man’s forehead, as well as the one on his knife, as she had been taught. Suspects were teleported via the police emergency transport grid to a secure medical reception center to be checked, treated, confined, and arraigned as necessary. Weapons and evidence were gridded to an evidence locker for disposition. Everything had a time, date, location, and ID stamp on it. It was a tidy system, eliminating the need for tons of paperwork. She looked around and saw that this section of the street was clear. How many had she arrested? She was losing count. It had been four at least. She headed back the way she came and saw more ragged street-people with glowing eyes walking toward her from between the buildings. “Oh man, this is just crazy!” She took a deep breath and kept running.

She skidded to a halt at the gate, ignoring the police drones. She spotted Sergeant Hicks and jogged over to him. Hicks went over some of the information they had already covered at great length in class about inspirations and how a hero could train and enhance their abilities. All at a reasonable cost, at one of the many licensed stores and individually licensed sales people located throughout the city, of course. Bubbles had heard it all before. It all sounded suspiciously like a scam to her, but she played along.

Finally Hicks said, “You need to see Coyote for the next phase.” Bubbles nodded and then gave him a blank look. Hicks gave her an exasperated look and pointed down the hill.

Bubbles looked where he pointed. “Thanks,” she said sweetly and jogged down the road.

The four lane road rolled down the small hill into a deserted business district. Here there were some very tall office buildings. Near an Information Terminal there stood a muscular man in red and white tights. He had a design like an animal paw on his chest. Bubbles was mildly surprised to see that he was obviously an American Indian. He looked very mean and tough. Bubbles was again surprised to find that his voice was low and soft.

“I am Coyote.” He said.

This seemed neither the time nor place for formal introductions, but reflexively, Bubbles put out her hand to him. “Um, hi, I’m Bubbles. Bubbles McSweet.” He smiled kindly and took her hand in a warm handshake. His hand was huge and thick. He could have crushed her knuckles easily, but he shook her hand gently and firmly, as though he were meeting an equal. “I am honored.” He said. Bubbles sensed that he meant it.

Then Coyote said, “I have been doing some digging and found an abandoned office where the thugs were given what they thought was a common street drug. It was actually a Rikti mutation drug. As you know the Rikti have been a constant nuisance to us since their failed invasion. I spoke with Dr. Miller and he says we can create a cure, but we need the original formula for the mutation drug. I believe the formula is on a computer in that office. I want you to go in there, clear out any enemies you find and find the formula on the computer.” He looked sincere, as though he had not said these same words to hundreds of students before her.

He pointed his nav at hers and pressed a button. Then he said, “I have marked the abandoned office on your map and compass. The door is open. Defeat any enemies you may find there, search the computer for the formula. Bring the formula back to me at once.”

Bubbles sighed and said, “Um, I’m sorry… but I’m kinda lost and, uh, this thing doesn’t work. Can you please tell me how to turn it back on?” Bubbles held her nav out to him.

Coyote looked at her for a second and then took the device from her, tapped it a few times and handed it back to her. Bubbles reached for it but he did not let go of it, causing Bubbles to suddenly look up at him.

Her eyes met his and he said, “We are not allowed to give any help. But a mere toy should not stand in your way. Good luck.” He let her have the device.

Bubbles smiled at him gratefully, “Thank you. I really appreciate it. I’ll be right back!” She jogged down the street, further away from the riot zone. The compass on her nav steered her directly to the correct building a couple of blocks back. “God, this is so much easier this way!” She said.

The door opened with a soft squeak. The inside of the building looked nothing like the clean exterior. Inside it was showing serious signs of neglect, vandalism, and decay. It smelled of dust and mold, like old rotting books. Just down the hall from the entrance, partly concealed in the semi darkness, she could see the outline of two people. Their eyes glowed with pale yellow-green phosphorescence, the telltale sign they were contaminated by the Rikti drug.

Bubbles cautiously approached. One had a knife and the other had a handgun. They seemed to be panting and gasping, either in pain or out of exhaustion.

Bubbles had given up trying to talk them into coming along quietly. The drug robbed them of any ability to reason. She reached with her mind, saw the gravity rings surrounding the one with the gun, and pulled. He launched into the air, slammed into the ceiling and fell to his back. The one with the knife whirled around, screamed and charged. She blocked his knife thrust and punched him in the stomach. Then she flung him into the ceiling too. She stepped to the left of the gun-guy, who had scrambled back to his feet and aimed at her. His shot went wide, striking the wall behind her. She punched him in the face and then tossed him again. Suddenly it was over. They both lay unmoving. She tagged them out and moved down the hall. As long as they did not come at her too fast or with too many guns, she felt like she could handle it. However, it was wearing on her nerves.

She looked at the bullet hole in the wall. “Gee, suddenly dancing in my undies is starting to sound a lot better.” She thought, wryly. This was SO different from that night in the tattoo parlor. Here she had to do everything, and she didn’t have anyone to lead, fight, or magically heal her or make her stronger. That made her think about Wander.


Since their fateful date, Bubbles had heard from him only once: It had been enough. At the end of the third week of school, she came home to find the usual pile of mail and a package. It came with no card or return address, but it contained her autographed theatre program, BOTH of her shoes, which were clean and polished, as well as an exact replacement for her ruined black dress! It also contained a long jewelry box. Bubbles opened it to find a fabulous diamond necklace that matched her diamond earrings perfectly.

Candy’s eyes bugged out of her head and she yelled, “WOW!!!”

Bubbles gasped, “Oh my God!”

“These look real… oh my God!” Candy exclaimed.

They looked at each other, their mouths hanging open. Then they smiled and giggled at each other.

“Still mad at him NOW?” Candy poked her in the side.

Bubbles gulped and then grinned again, in spite of her self. She raised a threatening finger to poke Candy back. She still felt stubborn. The package had been impressive enough, but it also reminded her of how infuriating he had been. She put the necklace back in its elegant box. She held the dress up against herself for size and then hugged it to herself, thinking.

“Maybe a little less.” She grudgingly conceded. “I still want to shoot him though. I know, what I could really use is a nice diamond-studded shot-gun! It would go perfect with my earrings and necklace! It could be like a graduation present! Then I can go ‘Wander hunting’ after I get my hero license.”

They had good laugh about that. A little later Candy walked in on Bubbles lying on her bed studying. Candy wore two baseball hats with the bills reversed to look like a hunters cap and held a baseball bat like a rifle. She crouched and walked around the room stalking. Then she looked at Bubbles and said in her imitation of an ‘Elmer Fudd’ voice, “SSShhhhhhh… I’m hunting WANDERS! Heh heh heh heh.” Bubbles shrieked with laughter and threw a pillow at her.

Bubbles cleared her mind and focused, as HE would have expected, “Thank you, Uncle Mike,” she whispered under breath. “Where would I be without you?” She crept down the hall and peeked around the corner. She encountered and subdued six more thugs along the way, singly or in pairs. She could not really hate them. They were the actual victims here. They were victims of their weaknesses, which made them seek the drugs in the first place, and they were the victims of some sadist who had callously used them.

“Ok,” She thought, “These are not real, this is just a simulation. Get a hold of yourself.” Then she thought, “But this DID happen. How could anyone be so cruel to a bunch of homeless people?”

Finally, she saw a grungy desk with an older model desktop computer sitting on it. She could hear it faintly humming. She quickly found the data she was looking for in the form of an old style floppy disk. “Okay, good enough, time to go.” She said, thinking about what to do next.

She pulled the nav out and discovered to her dismay that it was off again. “Great! Just great!” She poked the buttons to no effect. ”I don’t believe this! What, did they give me a defective one?” She angrily shoved it into her pocket. “Fine!”

Exasperated, Bubbles retraced her steps back to the door. Back on the street, the fresh air helped improve her mood. She stepped out to the curb and looked up and down the rows of deserted office buildings. Everything looked the same. “This just keeps on getting better and better. Where did I leave Coyote?” She fumed.

She set out at a jog in the general direction she thought she needed to go, then doubled back, looking for any landmarks. She eventually found herself in a park area bordered by a tall concrete retaining wall. She looked up and down and saw that to the right it made a sharp slope upward to the next level. “God, I wish that stupid nav worked.”

She climbed to the top and over the chain link fence. She was beside a small park area and the gate to the riot zone was ahead. The yelling and screaming coming from there seemed louder. She trotted out to the intersection and saw Officer Parks and the drones in the parking lot to her right.

Parks had not seemed particularly friendly or helpful. She decided to avoid him because, for once, she knew exactly where she was AND how to get back to Coyote. Feeling relieved, she turned to leave. She started to feel excited about finishing. She began jogging past the first gate toward a movie theatre. Without thinking, she slowed and then stopped, staring past the police drones through the gate at the smoke and chaos. She could see a few desperate people screaming, holding their heads in anguish, or threatening each other with whatever makeshift weapons they had found.

Maybe it was just because she was tired. Maybe it was all the stress catching up to her. She had tried for years to block it out of her mind. Even earlier, when she had first entered the riot zone, she had been concentrating solely on her task and ignoring the destruction. Without warning, the horrific memories of the Battle of Baumton came roaring back to her.

Suddenly she was a high school senior again, staring at the smoldering pile of rubble that used to be her house, her neighborhood, her world. She could hear the screaming children, the crying and yelling adults, the panicked shouting as the too few police and firefighters tried to aide or evacuate everyone. The sinister hum of the enormous Rikti ship hovering above her hit her like a punch to the gut and made her jerk her eyes skyward. The sky was empty, bright blue and clear. She jumped as she realized she was standing right beside a noisy Police drone. She gasped for breath, trying to steady her nerves. She was covered in a sheen of cold sweat. She staggered away from the drone, trying to get some distance from the noise. Each step carried her closer to the gate. She couldn’t take her eyes off the ruined buildings, the burning rubble piles, and the ragged desperate people. She felt tears well up in her eyes and fought them back. She blotted her face with her sleeve and gulped back the rest of her tears, feeling anger rise.

“I gotta do something. I gotta do… SOMETHING!” She muttered. “I… I…” She leaned against the fence, trying to think. “I… don’t care if they’re drug addicts, they’re… victims! They need a doctor. They’re a danger to themselves and everyone else. They DON’T need to… to… to be left to rot and die, they need a hospital! They need help!” She looked up at the sky feeling miserable, tears streaming down her face. She held her arms around her chest trying to calm down. She was tired of feeling as if she were on an emotional rollercoaster. She had to get control. She stayed there for a few minutes, willing herself to calm down. She felt her grief and fear harden into something else.

“This is s’posed to be a… a… test. I’m s’posed to be a hero. A hero wouldn’t just walk away! Even though they don’t want my help, they need it. I’m s’posed to know the right thing to do. I’m s’posed to DO the right thing. Well I, I know what Uncle Mike and them would do.” She was terrified to go in again. She was also afraid to leave. She felt rooted to the spot.

“They were scared to go in and they went anyways. That’s what you’re s’posed to do. That’s the way it works. You do it. It doesn’t matter how scared you are of how much it hurts, you’re s’posed to do it.” She realized she was talking about loud.

She stood up straight and self consciously looked around as she tried to regain her composure. She knew what she was going to do, what she HAD to do. The inevitability of it was strangely calming. There really was no choice. She still had wet eyes but she was no longer crying.

Softly she said to herself, “You do it… or you die trying.”

She walked over to the gate and stood looking into the zone. She was vaguely aware that this may be the dumbest thing she had ever done in her life, but she no longer cared. She pulled a small red auto-injector out of her pocket and pressed it against the inside of her forearm. The stimulant instantly raced through her system, filling her muscles with energy. She set off at a run straight into the ravaged area.

She ran up to a couple of thugs holding makeshift clubs. They stopped arguing and one of them looked at her and yelled, “Who feels lucky?” Without breaking stride, she ran right up to him and knocked him out with one punch. She turned to the other one and launched him into the air, slamming him on his back. She slapped port tags on them both and simply threw their weapons behind a dumpster. Grimly she said, “Today, you’re the lucky ones.”

She proceeded down the street, flipping, throwing, and punching every thug she could find. Her world became a blur of action, her mind turned inside its self. She was shot in the leg and she simply slapped a med-injector on it sealing the wound and numbing the pain. She took a few hits from pipes and fists and gash from a knife, but ignored it, fighting through the pain, and blocking it out the way she had been taught. The surge of adrenaline, anger, and determination which had taken her back into the zone has beginning to wear off as she approached what she realized was the other gate at the far end.

She placed a disk on the forehead of the unconscious thug, still holding him up by the front of his shirt. She looked at his filthy, unshaven face. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know who you are. I don’t even know if you are a real person, but I hope they take care of you.” She carefully laid him back on the ground. She took a deep breath and gently tapped his disk with her pale blue-gloved finger. He silently faded away. She was well past tears.

Bubbles stood up and looked down the road to where she knew Coyote stood, though she could not actually see him. She turned around and looked back up the street. She heard, more than saw, more victims between some of the buildings. She walked away from the exit gate and went toward the buildings. As she walked toward the buildings, she looked with her second sight at the rings of gravity around her, around them, around everything, and gathered them to her.

More than an hour later Bubbles stepped through the gate, walking slowly past the police drones with her force-field activated. Sergeant Hicks gave her a surprised look but said nothing. He continued to look at Bubbles as she walked by. Bubbles did not care. She reached with her mind and untied the knot that held the force-field bubble in place. Silently it dissipated.

Everything was strangely quiet. Even the police drones seemed quiet. She could hear her own footsteps. She was past tired, past pain, completely exhausted. Numbly she limped down the hill to Coyote. He watched her approach. Bubbles came up, feeling dread suddenly grow. Bitterly, she remembered that she had not followed his instructions. She should have brought the disk right back, as she had been told; But she had not. At this moment, she really could not explain why. She wasn’t going to either. “Screw him,” she thought, “Screw them all if they don’t like it. I don’t need this crap!” She felt her temper well up in her, almost out of control. She clenched her fists, glaring at him.

“You are injured.” He said, unexpectedly. “I have been waiting for you for a long time. I am happy you returned safely.” His voice was so deep and rough, yet so gentle. Bubbles felt suddenly ashamed for being mad at him. He didn’t do anything to her. She realized she was suffering from shock. She couldn’t think straight.

“You are the last one.” He said.

“Yeah, I kinda thought I might be.” She said, her heart sinking.

“They have all been defeated.” He said, stating the obvious.

Bubbles looked at him defiantly. “I hope so. God knows it took me long enough.”

“Why did you return to quell the rioters after you recovered the data?” He asked.

Bubbles looked at him and swallowed, feeling anger instead of tears. She pointed a finger at herself and said, “Because, I AM SUPPOSED TO BE A HERO!!! And heroes don’t just walk away from people who need help! No matter what!”

She violently wiped away her tears with the palms of her hands and sniffed, glaring at him. Through gritted teeth she said, “Listen, I know this has all been a big waste of time, I know I took too long, I blew it. Can we just go?”

She thrust the data disk and her nav out to him. He took them from her and looked at her nav. He poked it a few times and to her surprise, put it in his pocket. From another pocket, he produced a new one and gave it to her. Except it was not new. It looked older and worn. He studied her for a moment and then said, in that serene, sincere voice, “You are very brave for one so small.”

Bubbles looked at him. Time had stopped for her. She felt her anger drain out of her. She did not know what to do. She could not leave until he released her. She tried to calm herself. Focus. Breathe. Focus on being one with your surroundings. Nothing else matters.

He nodded, as if making up his mind about something and said, “Bubbles McSweet, you ARE a hero. You have met and exceeded the requirements for this exercise. Indeed, you have exceeded the requirements for this entire course.”

Bubbles could not believe her ears, “What?” She mumbled, “What did you say?” She felt dizzy.

He put a huge hand on her tiny shoulder, “You passed, little one,” His rough dark face wrinkled into a big smile, “You passed.”


Being teleported no longer made her feel quite as queasy as it had. She found herself in front of the steps leading up into Atlas Plaza. She remembered coming here for picnics with her mom and dad when she was a little girl. She had played on these steps… when was it, ten, fifteen years ago? Was it that long ago? Before the war, before they needed ‘hero trainers” to keep the city inhabitable.

Ms. Liberty stood beautiful and dignified, golden blonde hair shining in the afternoon sun. Bubbles was aware that she was filthy and her pretty uniform was cut and torn. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was here, finally, standing in front of Ms Liberty.

Bubbles walked up to her and handed her the nav Coyote had given her. Ms. Liberty took it without comment and examined it briefly. She pulled what Bubbles saw was a fancier nav out of her belt and pointed it at hers.

“Bubbles McSweet, you are ready for security level 2. This authorizes you to obtain more advanced training and a higher level of responsibility. Do you understand?” Bubbles was caught off guard by the last part.

“Yeah, uh, yes ma’am, sure.” She said.

Ms. Liberty was still reading her nav and looked up at Bubbles, slightly surprised, “Ms. McSweet, do you know that you single handedly defeated over one hundred suspects?”

Bubbles shook her head, “No, I didn’t count.”

Ms. Liberty took a deep breath and put her hands on her hips. “Bubbles McSweet, you have earned a special citation most heroes have not and will not ever earn.”

A lady in an expensive looking black suit came up beside Ms. Liberty and handed her a slim folder. Ms. Liberty took it and unceremoniously opened it. In a loud clear voice she said, “For exceptional bravery and determination in the line of duty, I am honored to present to you the Paragon City Citation for Achievement. You, Bubbles McSweet, were the only one who stayed to face the threat to and from the rioters. Furthermore, you alone stayed to fight until you completely isolated the contamination. You gave no thought for your safety, only for the safety of others at great personal risk to yourself. This reflects great credit upon you and sets the standard by which we measure a hero. Well done.”

To Bubbles’ astonishment, a rustle of applause broke out behind her. Awkwardly she thanked Ms. Liberty, and took the citation folder she handed to her as she shook her hand. Bubbles stepped down from the low dais and saw Candy and Joe, as well as Halo, Max, ApotheCari, and another very tall man all dressed in white. Bubbles tucked the folder under her arm and went to put her nav away. She saw that there was now a bright red hologram of a “2” in the center of it.

She went over and hugged Candy and Joe. Hugs and congratulations from everyone made Bubbles feel teary with joy. Halo touched her wet cheek, “What’s the matter?”

She sniffed back her tears and gave him a smile, “Nothing, I’m ok, I’m happy. I just never… I mean, I just didn’t expect this.” She tried to regain her composure.

She reached up and hugged him, pulling him down to her. She spoke softly in his ear, “I never graduated from anything before.”

Halo gently hugged her to his chest, and murmured in her ear, “You did great.” He broke the hug and held her at arms length by both tiny shoulders. “But this is not the end of anything, it’s just the beginning.”

Bubbles looked up at him and nodded, wiping her cheeks. She went to Battle-Star and he extended his armored hand to her, she ignored it and gave him a hug. “Thanks for all your help.”

“No problem. Congratulations.” His metallic voice said. “Before you ask, Wander is out of the City on a case. He sends his congratulations… and an apology.”

Bubbles looked at him. She could not see his eyes behind the visor. “Ok, thanks.” She said.

“It’s none of my business, but he talks about you all the time.” Battle-Star stopped, feeling a bit awkward.

Bubbles nodded and smiled at him. “Thanks.”

He let her go and she went over and hugged ApotheCari, who kissed her on the cheek and beamed at her, “We are so proud of you, dear. We heard the Special Citation. That is wonderful!”

“Thanks,” she said. As always, she felt a bit overwhelmed by her. ApotheCari, gracious as ever, smoothly saved her from further awkwardness by saying; “I would like to introduce you to someone, Bubbles, this is Star-Paladin.”

The man in white stepped forward. He was enormous, easily over seven feet tall. He knelt on one knee bringing his face to the same level as hers. It looked like he was either wearing form fitting metal armor, or had metal skin. It shone like a mixture of chrome and white porcelain.

“A pleasure to meet you.” His voice was surprising normal, but deep. He did not exactly smile at her, but he took her hand and made a small bow over it. Bubbles was struck by the thought that he might not be human.

“Hi, uh, sir, nice to meet you too.” She said.

“I have been following your progress. You show great promise. Abilities such as yours should be cultivated, trained, and used for the betterment of mankind. Bubbles, I would like to offer to you membership in our team. We call ourselves, ‘The Stars of Paragon’. Halo will explain further, but I wish to offer this to you personally.”

Bubbles nodded her head, “Thank you. I won’t let you down.” Star-Paladin didn’t smile, Bubbles was not sure that serene face was capable of smiling. However, he seemed amused, “I do not demand perfection. I only ask that you do your best and seek always to do the right thing, the best thing you can.”

Bubbles nodded and said. “Ok.”

He held out a small ring-sized box to her. “This is for you.” He said.

She took the small box from him, “Thanks, uh, sir.” Star-Paladin placed it in her hand and wrapped her fingers around it with both of his huge hands. Then he released her hand and stood up.

“Battle-Star will tell you how to use this, when you are ready.” Star-Paladin said. He was so tall Bubbles had to stand back and crane her head to see him. He looked like a white metal statue.

Before Bubbles could say anything else, Star-Paladin stepped back and addressed the rest of the heroes, “We still have some unfinished business. I suggest we attend to it.” ApotheCari, Battle-Star, and Halo nodded.

He looked at Bubbles and help up his hand. “You, dear lady, have done enough for one day, please rest and gather your strength. We will talk soon.”

Then he floated into the air and soared away. Battle-Star’s boot jets made a soft rumble as he too flew away, giving Bubbles a brief wave. ApotheCari smiled and waved as she flew away as well. Halo said, “Don’t lose that box. I’ll see you tonight, if I get a chance.”

Bubbles smiled and nodded, “Ok. See ya.”

Halo smiled and nodded to Candy and Joe. Then he turned, took two steps, and jumped, soaring into the sky. His dark cape billowed and flapped as he rose.

Bubbles stared in utter amazement. Candy and Joe stood next to her watching him go. Candy said, “Hmmm… You never mentioned he could fly.” Then they noticed Bubbles’ stunned expression.

Joe smiled mischievously, “And neither did HE!”

They all turned back to watch him disappear from sight. “Wow,” she said.

Candy scolded her, “You never told me you know Battle-Star!”

Bubbles grinned at her, “Yeah, sorry.” Then, with an evil glint to her eye said, “You should see his super-secret lab. It’s really cool!”

Candy made a mock-outraged face at her, “I think I hate you!”

They looked at each other and smiled. Bubbles was battered, bloody, tired, dirty, hungry, and ready to go home. They started walking toward the tram station.

Joe said, “Maybe we should stop by the hospital before we hit the tram.”

Bubbles nodded, “Yeah, good idea. I think it’s mostly healed though. It doesn’t hurt.”

Candy nodded, “so what’s in the box?”

Bubbles handed the folder to Joe and pried open the lid. In it was a silver brooch in the shape of a star.

Training Day 7

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” Bubbles was already almost awake. She sat up in bed as Candy walked away from her door.

“I’m up, I’m up… sort of…” She mumbled. The smell of coffee tickled her nose. “Oh girl, you are the best!” She hopped out of bed and padded into the kitchen. The apartment they shared was roomy, almost empty. Neither one of them spent a lot of time there, so they had not really accumulated too many belongings. Candy was Bubble’s best friend. They had been roommates almost from the day they met, about three months after their neighborhood, the part of the city named Baumton had become known as Boomtown. They had known each other at a distance in school, but had not run with the same crowds. Candy was a few months younger than Bubbles and had been a junior. Bubbles had been a senior. The classes of ’02 and ’03 never graduated. Many had not survived.

Three years later, they were better than best friends; they were also now business partners. They and a small circle of friends were all the family they had. They were similar enough looking that most people thought they were sisters, which had become a running joke with them.

On a lark, they decided to stop living in minimum wage poverty and dared the unthinkable: they tried out as strippers. There was an ad for “Exotic Dancers” in a local hero bar called “The Paragon Dance Party.” It had been a secret warehouse used by rumrunners in the bad-old-days. It was once renovated into a trendy urban disco. Later it had evolved into a rave club. The rave scene in Paragon City did not survive the war: Neither had most of the ravers.

Then some heroes took it over and renamed it “The Paragon Dance Party.” That was a bit of a joke too, as there was not a whole lot of dancing, and not a whole lot of partying that went on there. It served as a rendezvous point and a meeting room where heroes could exchange tips and trade a new line of designer performance enhancing drugs.

However, a man, whether he is a hero or not, will not usually complain about seeing a pretty girl dance. The manager was clever enough to realize having a few dancers would liven the place up. Candy and Bubbles had been far prettier than average and very popular in high school. Then the war left them homeless and orphaned teens, Too old for an orphanage and not quite ready for adulthood. They took the dare, aced their auditions, and became instant hits at the club. They quickly overcame their natural shyness and became accustomed to running around in skimpy outfits in front of strangers. This was made easier by the fact that those strangers tipped like millionaires. In addition, because mostly heroes frequented the club, they never had to deal with drug dealers or pimps trying to ruin their lives. Every day at work was like a party, a day to dress naughty and have fun. And the money rolled in. Before long, the girls found themselves financially solvent, with a place to live, and a relatively secure future. And they enjoyed the work. Both of them liked men, liked talking to people, liked to party, and drank very little. Neither did any drugs much stronger than aspirin.

The afternoon sun filled the kitchen with golden light. Candy sat at the kitchen table in the drinking coffee, wearing what she had slept in, a black tank top and loose grey shorts. Her pale blonde hair was in a big single ponytail. Bubbles wore an over-sized grey t-shirt.

“Tonight’s the big date, huh?” Candy asked, smiling mischievously.

Bubbles held a hand up like a referee and reached for the coffee with the other, “No fair teasing me about my love-life before my first cup.” She poured, breathing in the aroma, trying to clear the cobwebs.

“So is he cute?” Candy asked warming up for the interrogation.

“Yep.” Bubbles said sipping coffee, ignoring Candy’s expectant look.

“And…” Candy was not giving up.

“And he’s very nice. “ Bubbles said.

“I hear a ‘but’ coming.” Candy was going into full interrogation mode.

“Eh, you know men,” she shot Candy a meaningful look. “He’s a man. He’s also really… pushy… but not in an icky way. He’s just kinda high strung, you know? But he’s funny, and he’s… I don’t know…” Bubbles drank more coffee.

“He doesn’t sound like your type.” Candy observed.

“Yeah, I know.” Bubbles conceded. “But what’s that? Who has time for a social life? We always work nights and weekends, work IS our social life. How sad is that?” Bubbles groused. “If I knew what ‘my type’ was, I’d write it down somewhere so I don’t forget.”

“You’re going out with him because you’re desperate?” Candy asked.

Bubbles sipped her coffee and thought for a moment, “No, I’m going out with him because he is nice. He pays attention to me, makes me feel like I’m more than just a… set of boobs.” She said this without smiling. Candy nodded and looked down at her coffee too. Bubbles stretched and scratched her head through her loose hair and tried to shake off her sour mood.

She grinned at Candy, “On the plus side, he IS a total flirt, but not, you know, not in a icky way. He just likes being outrageous, I think, I don’t know.” She shrugged and went over to lean against the sink near the coffee pot. “Anyway, he’s crazy and fun and I could use some fun.”

Candy was strangely silent. Bubbles turned and looked at Candy. Candy looked at her. “I plan to sleep here.” She said. “Alone.” Candy nodded and looked away. Bubbles stepped over to where she sat and hugged her from the side, stroking her hair.

“I’m not going to leave you, CC.” Bubbles said into her hair, “not yet anyway. We’ll both find nice men and live happy, safe lives.”

Candy forced a smile, leaning against Bubbles’ shoulder and then broke the hug, “Happily every after?”

“Happily every after, after I take a shower.” Bubbles headed back toward her bedroom. “I still smell like yuck from the warehouse.”

“I didn’t want to say anything, but you do kinda reek. Do all superheroes stink?” Candy said, making a big show of pinching her nose.

Bubbles turned and yelled at her, “OH! You...!” She grabbed the dish towel and started popping her with it. “Here’s a super power for you!” Candy shrieked and ran as she gave chase, repeatedly being popped with the towel as she attempted to elude Bubbles through the living room.


Later on Bubbles was in the bathroom finishing her makeup. Candy came in grabbing towels. “You’re my hero Hon, Thanks.”

“Yeah well it’s YOUR turn to do laundry, you owe me, sister. Big time!” Candy tried to pretend to be angry but couldn’t. She stopped in the bathroom door and leaned against the doorframe hugging the bundle of towels.

Bubbles wore an almost knee length black spaghetti strap dress, sandal-strap black pumps and diamond earrings, and almost nothing else. One side benefit of being a stripper, you HAD to have good skin. They both worked at maintaining a perfect, smooth tan. She only wore hose or stockings to show off her legs, not hide them.

She had decided to go for a different look with her hair: She usually wore it in her trademark double ponytails, today she had taken a long time to comb it all out to let it dry straight, taking on a natural wave. It hung in a magnificent golden mane to the middle of her back. In a way, her hair almost covered more than her dress did. When facing an unknown situation, she knew her best weapon was her looks, so she decided to go loaded for bear.

Candy eyed her critically. “Hmm… dressy and sexy. Where’s he taking you?”

“Don’t know. Thought I’d go overboard just in case.” Bubbles said, applying eyeliner.

“You’re getting more buff,” Candy said, appreciatively. Bubbles had noticed too. “Yeah, it’s all the clean living and exercise. Uncle Mike eats like a health nut. I feel guilty if I even smell a French fry.” Bubbles cupped her breasts through the thin fabric of the dress. “The girls are shrinking, but I weigh the same. I’m rearranging the weight.” Candy nodded. She was built nearly identical to Bubbles; having C+ cups on a petite five foot tall frame had advantages and disadvantages. Both women exercised fanatically, but Candy knew all about Bubble’s new ambitions. She did not approve, but she wisely kept her mouth shut. She and Bubbles loved each other more than sisters. She would not do anything to put a wedge between them.

“Do you like him?” Candy asked. Bubbles knew the look and exactly what she meant.

“Yeah I like him, or I wouldn’t go out with him, why?” Bubbles evaded.

“No I mean LIKE him.” Candy asked.

“I don’t know yet. Give me a chance to find something wrong with him, will ya?” She grinned.

Candy smiled and set the towels down on the hamper and folded her arms. “Just, you know, it has been a long time. I’m just a teeny bit jealous is all.” Her expression brightened, “Does he have a hunky friend?” Candy bobbed her eyebrows hopefully.

“I’ll ask him.” Bubbles said sarcastically.

“What about, um, Uncle Mike?” Candy asked, trying to sound casual.

“I don’t think I could date him. He’s not into me. He’s just a different kind of guy.”

“NO, silly, ME!” Candy said. “Could you introduce me sometime? I’d like to meet him… you know… MEET him.” She gave her the eyebrows again.

Bubbles giggled, “I bet he hasn’t been on a date in years, he might go wild on you.”

“I am willing to take that chance.” She said trying to keep a straight face. “I bet he know all sorts of ORIENTAL stuff!” As she said this, she slid her hands up into her hair and rolled her hips seductively.

“CANDY!” Bubbles gasped.

“Well?” Candy said. “Seems like years since I’ve been on a date too! Anyway, I got work to do, someone has to around here. Promise to give me all the gory details!” Candy trudged toward the basement stairs with a huge laundry basket and a romance novel stuck in the waistband of her shorts.

“Promise.” Bubbles said.


The doorbell rang and Bubbles grabbed her purse. The key turned in the lock with a satisfying click. Little things seemed suddenly more important now. Bubbles found that she heard more, tasted more. As she went down the inside stairs she noticed the evening air smelled fresher, the sounds coming from the city were more musical. She was utterly energized. Another thing she noticed was that she NOTICED. The meditation, the training, was having a subtle, yet profound effect on her. She was starting to notice more and more things and tune out less important things. She was listening less to what people said, but paying more attention to how they said it and what they did with their hands. She did not feel like she had to answer or reply every time someone said something. So many things were self-evident. So many things were so simple, yet beautiful in their simplicity. Like the key and the lock.

Bubbles opened the outside door. “Hi, gorgeous,” Wander said. He was dressed all in black, with cuffed dress slacks, elegant shoes, and a fashionable collar-less short-sleeved black shirt which fit him perfectly. It was of some synthetic that clung to him, showing off his muscles.

“Hi! Ooo, nice hat, handsome.” She was in a bantery mood.

His head band had been replaced, most surprisingly, by an expensive looking black fedora, which he removed as he handed her a small box.

“A little something for the lady,” he said bowing slightly and smiling. “I… hope you don’t mind.”

Bubbles was surprised yet curious, and a tiny bit apprehensive. “Uh-oh, I hope he is not getting carried away.” She thought. She covered her sudden apprehension with what she hoped was a gracious smile.

She need not have worried. It was a small rose corsage. “Oh, how nice!” She beamed at him, “That’s so sweet! Thank you!”

He did not miss a beat. “Let’s put it on and be on our way shall we? I have tickets and we don’t want to be late!” He proceeded to gently pin the corsage to what little of her dress came above her breasts. Bubbles eyed the pin nervously, and fully expected him to “accidentally” run his fingers around a bit, but he didn’t. “Hmm… He seems different.” She thought.

“There you go. The poor flower doesn’t stand a chance, you’re too beautiful already.” Bubbles wrinkled her nose at him but loved the flattery.

“Thank you, it’s beautiful,” she said.

“Shall we then?” Wander indicated a waiting cab.

Cabs were a rarity. Paragon City was not a place for cars. Almost four years had passed since the invasion. Each year since, the city had taken a day in November to observe “Omega Day” commemorating hero 1 and Omega Team as well as Alpha team and all the rest of the heroes who gave their lives in the Rikti invasion. Every year the politicians declared the war walls would soon be coming down and the city would open back up.

Only a few cars and trucks ran the streets of Paragon City. No automobile dealerships or service stations survived the devastation, most of the people who owned cars had used them to flee the war. The tram service provided the only reliable transportation between the intact sections of the city, and even then not into all areas. Gradually people moved closer to work or found work closer to where they lived. With all the people who had died, evacuated and never returned there were plenty of cheap places to live. It had become a city of pedestrians.

“Do I get to know where we’re going?” She asked.

“Why of course. But I may want to keep it as a surprise.”

“I like surprises.” Bubbles said, deliberately teasing him. “But I like peeking at my presents too. Is it someplace fancy?”

“Where else would a fancy guy like me take a fancy girl like you?” He asked, innocently.

“I’m almost afraid to ask.”

The confines of the cab were cozy. She could smell his cologne. She sat turned toward him, but was conscious that her seemingly long enough dress was not all that long. He was noticing too.

Instead of answering her he said, “You look absolutely amazing. I did not realize how long your hair is. You should wear it down more.”

“Thanks, you look sharp too.” She fluffed her hair back off her ears, “I wear it down sometimes. The pony tails are easy, they go with my routine. I don’t like to perform with my hair down; it gets in the way and throws my balance off.”

“Could I come and see you dance some time?” He asked.

Bubbles shrugged and smiled at him, “Yeah. I’d like that.”

“Really?” He asked.

“Yeah, of course, why not?” She looked him. “Wander, I’m a stripper. I’m not ashamed of it. It’s fun. It pays well too. Dancing saved my life. God only knows what would have happened to us after the war if the bars had stayed closed.” She grinned wryly.

“Us?” He asked.

“Me and the girls: The McSweet Dancers.” She explained.

“There’s more of you?” He asked grinning toothily. The old Wander was coming back. She thought, “Good!”

“Yep, we have eight girls now. We formed a company. We hire only the best dancers. We negotiate jobs and contracts. We staff clubs, do private parties. The girls make better money and they have certain safeguards against pimps and pushers. It works well.”

“Nice. You make it all sound so upright and professional.” Wander said. He immediately regretted saying it. “I’m sorry luv, I dinna mean…”

Bubbles smiled and gazed out the cab window, “Don’t worry, I hear that all the time. I’m not ashamed of my body. We are all born naked; Naked and beautiful. I was lucky to be able to keep it. I work hard to keep it. Men and even some women like looking at me and they are willing to pay. How is this evil? I’m not a I don’t do photo shoots, I won’t do porn. I’m just a dancer. I love dancing. All kinds of dancing.”

Bubbles looked at him. She noticed that, to his credit, Wander tried to listen intently and tried his best to not stare at her chest bobbing hypnotically in front of him. Good boy. Points awarded.

Wander almost looked relived when he announced, “And we’re here!” Bubbles had barely noticed the cab slow down.

“Well done driver!” Wander handed the cabbie a wad of money and was out and opening Bubble’s door before she could react.

“Here you go.” He said, offering her his hand.

Her eyes swept up the huge marble steps of the theatre as she emerged from the cab and then locked on the marquis. “ELENA!?!” She gasped, “You got tickets for ELENA!?! Oh my God, Wander How? It’s been sold out for WEEKS!” She suddenly shifted gears and looked at him reprovingly, “This had to cost you a fortune. You did not need to do this.”

“Not to worry.” He smiled calmly, “They dinna cost a fortune. There are plenty o’ people in this burg who owe me a favor.”

He gently guided her by the arm toward the steps. “And if’n I wish to blow a sack of cash on a night out with you, I’ll do it, thank you very much.” He paused a moment and looked deep into her eyes. “No strings attached, love, none at all. Okay?”

Bubbles did not know what to say for a moment. “What is up with him?” She asked herself.

To him she said, “Okay. And… thank you...” She could not help but be excited. They proceeded up the steps. “This is so COOL!” She squeezed his arm, “I’m very impressed.”

“That’s the idea, love, that’s the idea,” he said with a straight face. “Did I mention there is a champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception for platinum ticket holders before the show?” He held one of the massive oak and brass theatre doors open for her, ”These…” he waved two long silvery tickets, “…are platinum. Elena said she wants to meet you.”

The echoing murmur of the crowd milling in the marbled foyer was almost loud enough to drown out Bubbles’ surprised squeal of delight. The heavy door swung gently shut behind them as she grabbed him in an exuberant hug, knocking off his hat.

The show was fabulous, as expected. Bubbles even had Elena’s autograph on her program. To her utter amazement, Elena had been interested in her new “career path”. Apparently, she and Wander had known each other for a while. When they emerged from the posh theatre and stepped into the cool evening air, Bubbles felt like she was walking on air.

“Wow, I did not realize how long that was, that was so great!” Bubbles said, beaming at him.

“That was a fine show indeed.” Wander said, still strangely quiet.

They walked together down the street. Cabs did not usually run this late. Bubbles did not mind, did not care. She was having a perfect night. Wander had been gracious and gentlemanly all night long. She’d half expected to spend most of the night fighting him off with a club.

“Have you known her for a long time?” Bubbles asked.

“Couple of years.” He said. Not offering more information. They walked in silence for a few minutes. The evening was not too cold, she felt a tiny bit chilly in her dress, but it felt good. She was still on a high from the concert.

“It’s a tad late, love, but would you care for a bite to eat somewhere?” he offered.

“I’m starved.” She gave him a grateful look. “Could we eat at a club? I want to go dancing.”

“Perfect.”

They went to a popular dinner club which offered dancing. It was nice, but not fancy, but Bubbles had been here before and liked it. They started off with a light meal since it was so late, and Wander ordered a nice wine. She liked wine. She started to become slightly concerned however, when he ordered beer with dinner and then kept ordering refills. After they ate, they hit the packed dance floor. The club was full. The food and the music were good. Wander was back to being his usual self. All seemed right with the world, for a change.

He did, however, seem to be drinking a lot. Bubbles worked in a bar: she had seen men do some serious drinking. She knew that some men could drink a lot and show almost no effect and some could hardly drink at all without getting completely drunk. At one point she glared at the waitress when she came by to offer him more. She got the message, but did not seem to care. She was also a bit too flirty with Wander for Bubbles’ taste. She fantasized about putting her in a force field bubble and bouncing her out the door. She smiled at Bubbles as she left the table. Bubbles quickly smiled back. Neither of them had given a friendly smile.

Wander failed to notice. He became more talkative. During dinner and between dances he delighted her with stories of his exploits fighting criminals and investigating cases. She could not tell where the truth stopped and exaggeration began, some of it sounded too far fetched to be believed. Several times he had her laughing so hard she had tears.

And they danced. She knew she was attracting a lot of attention and she did not care. She just wanted to move to the music and watch Wander watch her. She admitted that she got a thrill out of teasing men, but it was especially fun with Wander because he teased right back. He was a good dancer, and he seemed totally uninhibited.

And he drank. After a while, Bubbles switched to soda water and lemon, just to stay hydrated. Wander seemed to get more and more intoxicated, but his coordination did not diminish. Bubbles decided to try to get some water in him and get him to dance off a bit of the alcohol before calling it a night. But then things got complicated.

A couple of large, handsome, well-dressed men came over to their table and leered at her, “Hey buddy, mind if we take the next dance.” The blonde man said.

“Um, no thanks, darling, I’m sitting this next one out,” Wander joked drunkenly.

Bubbles could not repress a smile, and instantly realized that was the wrong thing to do.

The blonde man still smiled but he stiffened and what little friendliness was in his eyes left, “Funny guy. C’mere baby, lets dance.” He grabbed Bubble’s arm and started to drag her out of her chair.

Wander started to protest but the other guy, the one with the dark hair, put a finger on his chest and pushed him back into his chair as he sat down next to him. “Why don’t we have a drink?”

Wander looked at the finger, his eyes blinking, “Hey, get your big nose picker offa me.” He growled drunkenly.

Meanwhile, Bubbles was half out of her seat when she deftly twisted her arm around and out of his grip. He looked mildly surprised and stared at her, not exactly realizing what she’d done. “I don’t want to dance.” She said, smiling sweetly.

“Don’t be like that baby, all I want is one dance, you need to be reasonable.” He pretended to smile politely but the determination in his eye was unmistakable; He was used to getting his way.

The dark-haired man said to Wander, “Settle down, little man. My partner wants to dance with your date, no problem.”

Something changed in Wander’s eyes. He smiled back at the man but his eyes were sharp. “Quite right, no problem at all. Another drink sounds good, put ‘er there!” Wander shoved his hand out and gave the man a handshake.

Bubbles spoke to the blonde man in an even, polite voice, edged with steel, “I don’t NEED to do anything, YOU need to go away and leave us alone.”

The blond man reached over toward Bubbles again. He had relaxed slightly, perhaps he was only going to give her a condescending pat on the head and try to leave with the last word. For Bubbles it was the last straw. As the man reached for her, she quickly grabbed his hand and stood up, passing under his arm and turning, wrapping his arm behind his back into a half nelson. Unfortunately, she had never practiced this in high-heels. She tripped as she completed the move and wrenched his arm further than she would have, driving both of them off balance. The blond man’s face slammed into the tabletop. He sagged to the floor.

Wander, still holding the dark-haired man’s hand, moved uncomfortably close to the other man’s face and said, “Buuh Bi-yeee!” Just as he did this, he sent a jolt of electricity lancing through his hand up the dark haired mans arm, engulfing him in electricity. Every muscle in his body spasmed causing him to arch his back, rear up and pull hard against Wander’s hand. Wander let go and watched placidly as the dark haired man went flying backwards into the crowded dance floor.

People shouted and screamed as he careened through, clearing a path down the center, knocking dancers everywhere.

Bubbles stared at Wander in horror, “WANDER!”

“Wha? I din’t do nuthin!” He stared at her.

The blond man groaned and began to stir. Wander looked down at his mashed face and said in a mock surprised voice, “BUBBLES!”

Bubbles looked down and then at Wander, speechless.

The blonde man sagged to the floor. The dark-haired man and several of the men he had knocked down were suddenly in a general free-for-all. Women screamed, people were shouting and cursing. The music stopped. The sound of falling tables and breaking dishes spread. Club staff either fled or tried to contain the pandemonium, depending on their job description. The smart people were heading for the door. Problem was it was past two in the morning and almost everyone, including many on the staff, had been drinking. There was a shortage of smart people.

A woman Bubbles had never seen before punched her in the face from the side and then hit her in the head from behind with her purse. She wound up for another swing, and Bubbles, without even thinking, gave her two left jabs to the mouth, and a right hook to the stomach. The woman folded to the floor with a whimper.

Bubbles stared at her clenched fists in disbelief, and then looked up. “This is insane. We need to call the police,” She thought. Bubbles suddenly realized that her beautiful light black dress was very roomy, torn most of the way up one side, almost even with her breasts. She snatched the two halves of the fabric and held it closed with one hand. Her hair was in her face and plastered to her skin, perspiration covered her, partly from dancing, now from adrenaline. She gingerly touched her rapidly swelling lip with her free hand.

“Where’s Wander?” she said to no one, feeling dazed. She shook her hair and wiped it out of her face. She suddenly realized two things, first, she was witnessing the start of a first-class bar fight; second, Wander was nowhere to be seen.

It seemed like people were fighting everywhere. Bubbles dodged and ran around struggling people as she looked for him. She completed most of a circuit around what used to be the dance floor and had still not found him. She turned to search elsewhere and spotted him. He was slouched against the back wall behind one of the bars. His black fedora was perched crookedly on the tops of the bottles lining the wall behind him. He had a fifth of something amber in one hand, which he swigged from as he shot bolts of electricity from his index finger, taking pot shots at the bartender and a bouncer who crouched behind the far end of the bar.

“H’lo luv!” He shouted merrily, waving the bottle at her. He sloshed some on his leg and glared at the men, “Oooh, NOW look what y’ gone and made me done!” and blasted another bolt at the determined men, disintegrating a beer bottle above their heads.

He looked back at her and yelled, “Now this is MY idea of a PARTY! Thanks luv! None o’ this could ha’ been possible without ya!! You’re a first rate gal y’are!”

Bubbles had had about enough. She vaulted over the bar, leaving what little remained of her dignity behind her as her dress flapped wide open. She thought. “Just my luck we’ll survive this and I’ll be arrested for indecent exposure!”

“WOA, Darlin’!!!” Wander said, as she landed with most of her dress trailing behind her. “Good thing ya wore some drawers, lass or youdaUUURK!!!!”

She grabbed him by the throat with one hand and snatched the bottle from his hands with the other, slamming it on the counter out of his reach.

“WANDER! “ She shook him, “WANDER! Stop screwing around! Wander! Listen to me! We have to call the police! We have to stop this before someone else gets hurt!”

He squinted and stared for a moment at the considerable expanse of her side and hip not covered by the torn dress for a moment and mumbled, “Mother of God…” Then he shook his head and looked at up at her, realizing what she had just said.

“Nooo.” He tried to shake himself free of her grasp. She held him tightly by both shoulders, and was ready to shake him again. “Nononono. We canna do that, we be in big troub, uh, trouble.”

Bubbles held his face so she could get eye-to-eye contact, “What do you MEAN!?!” She yelled.

“Well, love”, he said, trying heroically to speak through the booze, “Iss like thiss… YOU sarded it! We cannn call da cops, we ARE th’ cops, sorda. Th’ hava really, really, really, baaaad jail f’ cops likus, we DON wanna go dair, trus me, I been dere! Not good.” He said, shaking his head theatrically, but trying to be as serious and sincere as he could.

The reality of their predicament suddenly sank in. Bubbles felt trapped. “Oh my God.” She looked around. “Oh my God oh My God. Wander, what are we gonna do?”

The sound of a different kind of shouting, through bull horns, was starting to be heard from the main entrance. Brawlers suddenly ceased fighting as if by magic and bolted for a way out. Bubbles felt panic start to rise. The bartender and his team stood up, “Finally, you’ll get YOURS! Now GET OUT OF THERE!!!”

Bubbles looked fearfully at them, then at Wander. Wander suddenly stood straight up. The bartender and his crew dived back behind cover. Annoyingly Wander took a slow deep breath and tucked his shirt into his trousers. He retrieved his somewhat battered fedora from among the bottles and carefully set it on his head.

“Kiss me.” He said.

“What?” Bubbles almost shouted.

“If you kiss me I’ll go.” He said with a goofy grin.

“Stop being stupid, lets get out of here.”

“No.” he said, attempting dignity.

“Wander!”

“Kiss me first.”

“Fine. Here’s a kiss.” Bubbles went to give him a peck on the cheek. Smoothly Wander pulled her to him and took her into a full dip. The move took Bubbles completely by surprise, but his grip was firm, he was not going to drop her. She went to rise out of the dip and Wander planted a firm full kiss on her mouth. His lips were soft and, despite the liquor and sweat, he smelled and tasted good. Without thinking, she just reacted to it and kissed him back. A small part of her brain was screaming alarms at her.

She pushed him off her as he lifted her upright and glared at him, completely flustered. Instead of looking at her, he abruptly swept his hat off and bowed to the bartender and the rapidly approaching riot squad.

He then snaked his free arm around her waist and pulled her close against his side as he called to the bartender and his growing squad of reinforcements. “Th’nkss lads, fora loverly ev’nin’. S’long an G’NIGHT!!!” He pointed his fist in their general direction and they dived for cover again. To Bubble’s utter amazement, instead of a blast of electricity shooting from his fist, everything turned brilliantly white and the world vanished.

A different part of the world reappeared. They stood in the doorway to the club. Squad cars and armored vans filled the street with blaring radio noise and even more blaring lights. A few cops stood around talking. Behind them a line of riot cops were walking in a line through the club arresting people. Bubbles took this all in instantly.

“OH, no good…” Wander mumbled as he adjusted his hat. Someone yelled, “Hey, YOU!” That was all the time she had before another flash of light engulfed them.

They reappeared a block down the street. It was suddenly strangely quiet. Bubbles felt like her ears were clogged. She said, “Wander, what are you doOOOOOOO…” FLASH Again they disappeared.

They were up on the low roof of a nearby building. “…IIIIIIING!” she felt a sudden wash of vertigo.

“I’m jus goin’, Like you wannud me to….” Wander explained in a reasonable tone. FLASH! They blinked out again.

When they reappeared, Bubbles was suddenly aware that she no longer had ground under her feet. She looked down and saw that they were several stories up, hanging in mid air. One of her shoes fell off. Bubbles screamed. FLASH!

They reappeared in mid air again. Bubbles screamed again and violently wrapped both arms around Wander, terrified. This, unfortunately, bumped his arm UP, which HAD been aiming his teleport ring in the general direction of down and away. FLASH!

They reappeared high above the city. Bubbles looked down and saw the tops of the sky scrapers. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” She shrieked, “Wander, stop it you’re scaring me!”

Wander had been concentrating on where he would shoot them next. He paused and looked at her, his face filled with blurry concern, “Oooooh. Um surry, m’Luv. I dint meen to scur you.” Suddenly they started to fall.

Bubbles screamed again, “Wander! Please fly, FLY! FLY! FLY!” She gripped him tightly sobbing and screaming into his neck.

“Wha? I don know how to fly,” he slurred.

“WHAT!?!” She shrieked in horror. The wind whistled by, Bubbles’ long mane of hair flew straight up from her head.

Wanders’ hat flew away. She saw the hat go and buried her face in his neck screaming louder. He looked at the departing hat indignantly and said. “Oh now! That’ll NEVER do!” FLASH!

They reappeared, still in mid air but no longer falling. Wander lurched in her arms, causing Bubbles to cling more tightly to him and look up to see what he was doing. She stared in shock as she realized he was putting his hat on again. He grinned stupidly at her. FLASH!

They reappeared still in the air. Anger was beginning to overcome her fear, “I am going to KILL YOU!!!” She screamed at him.

He was about to argue and she stuck a finger vertically in front of his face, “SHUT UP!!! You stop it right now and get me down!!!” He looked at her finger vacantly for a second and Bubbles felt them start to accelerate downward. She squealed, “NOOO!” and buried her face in his neck again. Wander grinned maniacally and aimed the ring downward again. FLASH!

All she wanted was for this terrifying ride to be over. She was completely frazzled. She did not know if she actually fainted, she just went numb. She lost track of how many more times he teleported them. She was still in Wander’s arms, with her face in his neck. Her arms wrapped around his neck as tight as possible. His arms and hands were strong against her back and under her knees as he carried her. She noticed that they were swaying back and forth, moving. She looked up.

Wander was walking down the street, carrying her in his arms with no apparent effort. The night sky was turning pale around the edges. She was in her neighborhood. She felt limp. She felt that he held her with her torn dress wrapped closed around her. “Considerate.” She thought drowsily.

She was exhausted. She felt the cold air but she was not cold. The warmth from his body soaked into hers. For the moment, she was content to stay there, even though she was remembering all the reasons to be mad at him. She rested, letting her head clear, feeling her anger bloom like a flower inside her. What time was it? How long had he been walking?

Wander stopped in front of her apartment building. “Here, we are love, all safe and sound.” He said, in a sober, normal tone.

He gently, slowly, set her down allowing her to get her feet under her. She was suddenly reminded that she only had one shoe left when she stumbled and almost fell. Wander caught her hand and steadied her. Using him for support, she removed the shoe and stood up. She did not let go of him, but instead, pulled him close.

“Thanks, Love”, She said, smiling sweetly. He smiled big at her and came in for a kiss. Bubble pulled back and slugged him as hard as she could, right in the stomach.

Wander doubled over, almost throwing up. Bubbles stood there, in her bare feet and ruined dress, one hundred pounds of seething mad, threatening him with her remaining shoe. “DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!!” She screamed at him. She looked like she was going to start clubbing him with her shoe.

Wander held up his arms to protect his face and stepped back,”I’m sorry, love, I just…”

“I DON’T CARE!!!” She yelled. “You LUNATIC!!! YOU STUPID CRAZY LUNATIC!!! Look at my dress!” She ranted, venting her frustration, “You scared me half to death! Those people at the club are probably looking for us! The cops are probably looking for us!” She brandished the remaining shoe at him like a billy-club. “You lost my SHOE!”

Wander kept repeating, “I know love, I’m sorry, I, I’m sorry, I dinna mean to, Oh how can I make it up to you.”

Bubbles froze in mid rant, “Make it up to me?!” She glared at him, “MAKE IT UP TO ME?!” She paused. She took a couple of breaths. She said the first thing that came into her head. She could not remember feeling so mad, “Youuuu… FIND MY SHOE!!!”

She turned and started up the steps and stopped. She turned around, walked back to him and slapped the remaining shoe into his hand. Wander flinched, expecting to be hit again. She glared at him. She did not know if she wanted to kiss him, or punch him in the mouth. She turned without a word and stomped back up the stairs and up to her apartment.

She made an effort to get herself back under control. Her breathing slowed down. She did not know what time it was. It had to be after four in the morning, maybe five. She hated to wake up Candy, who would just now be getting to sleep. She went to open the door and realized it had been hours since she had last seen her purse, which contained her house keys.

She sagged against the wall beside the door and deflated. She simply could not believe what had happened. A mixture of warring emotions washed over her as she recounted, in pieces, all the things that had happened that evening. Inexplicably, she started to giggle. She could not control herself. She felt like she had just gotten off the biggest, worst roller coaster on earth. Her knees were suddenly wobbly. Her stomach hurt. She started laughing. Trying to remain quiet, so as not to disturb her neighbors, it only got worse. Tears ran down her cheeks as she leaned against the wall, laughing uncontrollably.

Her apartment door popped open and she was abruptly eyeball to eyeball with Candy who said, “EEEP!” This made Bubbles laugh even harder.

“Where have you been?”

Bubbles draped her arms around Candy’s neck and went into full belly laugh. Candy gave her a big hug and then pushed her back. Candy got a good look at her and was horrified: Bubbles’ pretty blonde hair looked like a hay stack; her makeup was ruined, smeared, and mostly gone. She had a bruise on the side of her mouth and an assortment of scrapes and bruises on her shoulders, legs, and arms. She was barefoot and her dress was torn almost in half. “Oh my GOD!! BB!! What did he DO to you?! Are you okay? Come here and sit down. Are you okay?”

Bubbles allowed Candy to steer her into the kitchen. Her laughing fit had slowed down to chuckling. “I’m okay, really, I’m fine.”

“Well… What happened?!” She almost yelled.

Bubbles looked up at her and sighed, still giggling, “I’m sorry, I’m just… hehehe… I think I just had the best date of my life!”

Note: Training day 1-5 were posted on another thread on this forum. Please check those out as well

Thanks,
MH

Training Day 6

“Ink.” Max held up a corked test tube containing a small amount of dark green oily-looking liquid. Wander and Halo gave him a puzzled look.

”Not poison?” Wander asked.

“Oh it’s poisonous alright. But it’s mostly mineral pigment suspended in a water base. It has curare and a few other nasty things in it as well. Here’s the list.” Max nodded to the large computer monitor.

Wander went over and looked where Max was pointing.
Bubbles asked Halo, “What’s curare?”

Halo looked lost in thought.

Wander answered her, as he continued to stare intently at the screen, “A poison. It’s also a medicine. It can paralyze you.” He looked over his shoulder at Halo. Wander looked back at the screen and then said to Max, “This, my friend, is no mere poison.” He tapped the screen with his index finger in a couple of places. “This is a cocktail of nasty things, and more: There’s spell ingredients here. Whatever it is, they went to an awful lot of trouble to make it.” Wander’s voice trailed off as he continued to study the screen.

Max came up next to him and pointed to a spot of the list, “See that?” He asked.

“Aye, blood, a different blood-type from Mikey’s. They used human blood in it. Like I said, they’re up to a bit o’ hocus-pocus with the home chemistry set. We could use help on this.” He said, giving Max a meaningful look.

“Yeah, I called. She’s on her way,” Max said. They both returned their attention to the screen.

“The poison did not paralyze me.” Halo said softly.

Max looked at him, “Oh?”

“No. It affected me later; it burned, lit up all my nerves like Tabasco sauce, and made me dizzy and numb, almost knocked me out. But that’s not what paralyzed me.”

Wander turned from the monitor and looked at him, “Did you see what it was?”

“Not what, but who. It was them, some of their thugs. They came up and stood behind the ones fighting me and… just stood there, like they were trying to say something, but they didn’t say anything. They just looked at me. But then I couldn’t move. They all kept attacking with knives, shirukens, darts, you name it. But suddenly I couldn’t dodge or block them. I was stuck. I could see it coming but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Bubbles muttered, “Oh my Gosh!”

Halo looked at her, ”Don’t worry, It’s not going to happen again. I brushed up on a technique that should allow me to resist it.”

Wander said, “Should?”

Halo shrugged and was about to say something when then the entry beacon softy sounded.

Wander smiled at them all, “She’s here.”

Halo relaxed a little and gave a smile. Max was smiling too. Bubbles wondered who this could be?”

“Cari!” Wander said, walking up to her. A tall elegantly dressed woman walked in and gently hugged him, kissing him on the temple. She was beautiful, regal even. She smiled broadly as she walked over and hugged both Max and Halo. “My dear friends! How have you been? I have missed you so! And who is this?” She gazed warmly at Bubbles. “This is Bubbles, Bubbles, this is ApotheCari.”

“Hi.” Bubbles said, lamely. Not really knowing what was expected of her.

“Delighted to meet you.” ApotheCari came over and clasped Bubble’s hands in her own. It felt like she was meeting the Queen.

“It is always nice to meet a new member, have they been behaving themselves?” She asked, smiling conspiratorially. Bubbles found herself instantly liking her. It was like meeting a favorite aunt for the first time. She was so elegant and yet so nice. Suddenly Bubbles felt very childish and awkward. ApotheCari did not seem to notice.

“Um…” Max interrupted, “She’s not exactly a member. At least not yet.”

ApotheCari raised an eyebrow at the men, “Oh?”

“I’m getting my license soon.” Bubbles interjected, “I go to the course Friday. They've been training me, getting me ready, you know, sort of showing me around and giving me a head start.”

ApotheCari’s expression turned sad, “We have lost some dear friends, Bubbles. Some very dear friends. Great heroes, great people. So very brave. I understand why they would want to take precautions. Most of us had to learn this alone, through trial and error. Too many of us did not survive it. Now that we are established, it is just hard to get used to. We now have the means to help train our teammates, we should use it. Still this is so very dangerous…” ApotheCari ran out of things to say. A long silence hung in the room. She admionished herself, “Oh listen to me carry on! Please, this is not the time to be sad, I apologize.” She summoned an encouraging smile. “You must tell me all the news. Let’s make some tea.” She put an arm around Bubbles and gave her a brief hug and they walked out toward the kitchenette. As they left, ApotheCari smiled at her and said, “Us girls must stick together, you know.”

They sat in a small kitchen in Max’s lab. If not for the housekeeping and maintenance robots, the place would have been an utter disaster area. Max rarely came here. Usually it was only occupied by the robots. In a way, he had forgotten about it. It was just not that important to him most of the time. He looked around idly wonder about ways to make it more efficient.

ApotheCari sat serenely as Halo told her the whole story. When he was done, she said. “It’s not mesmerism. It’s not regular psionics or ESP either. I am not sure.”

Wander stood up and paced. This was made all the more distracting by the fact that his typical walking speed was twice that of normal. “We’re missing something here.” He shook his head.

Max stood and moved over to the sink, talking and thinking as he walked. “Okay. What we have is a gang. It is mostly an Asian Gang, but not all of them are Asian. They are all not from the same places in Asia either. And it is not a typical street gang, like the Hellions or the Skulls. They don’t wear gang colors. They are not in a turf war. They wear all different clothing, mostly oriental. Some of them do not wear shirts and are heavily tattooed. They carry archaic weapons and practice a variety of oriental martial disciplines. They also practice magic and…”

“What kind of tats?” Bubbles had been keeping her mouth shut up to now. She was as puzzled as the rest of them. She’d said it without thinking. Everyone looked at her and she felt like crawling under the table.

Halo looked at her a moment and said, “They were oriental designs, traditional stuff, tigers, dragons, serpents… like their fighting styles… hold it… They DID match. They fought and like their tattoos and their clothing! It was like they were… impersonating the animals.” Halo turned and moved his hands strangely remembering. “In fact they were identical. They imitated the animal forms - Some I have never seen before.”

“Could they have been posessed?” ApotheCari offered.

“Yeah, but not possessed as much as… obsessed. Like they wanted to become that animal. It can take years and years of training to perfect only one form.”

“Maybe they were whacked on opium, or drank some of that filth they’re cooking up.” Wander offered.

“Maybe, Max said, “But they went to an awful lot of trouble to make the ink if they are just going to drink it.”

“Tattoos!” Bubbles said. She immediately regretted saying anything, as everyone looked at her.

“You have something else to add? Max asked, not too gently.

“Um, no… not really, it just, you know…

ApotheCari put a reassuring hand on her arm, “Please dear, tell us. What you are thinking.”

Bubbles smiled shyly at her. “Well, um, you know, the tattoo thing is really popular. Mostly yourger people,’ she glanced at Halo and Apothcari, “No offence, but these are mostly young guys, right? What if that poison ink is what they use to make their own tattoos? It’s got some kinda magic in it, right? They draw a tattoo in the shape of a magical symbol or, like, a charm using magic ink? Wouldn’t that make them, you know, like magical and strong and stuff? Instead of taking years and years to learn the animal thing, it’s like a short cut.” Bubbles had stood up while talking. She realized everyone was quiet and looking at her. Just before complete embarrassment took hold, Wander slapped his forehead.

“Doh! I don’t believe it!” he said.

Max looked at the ceiling, “Aw man, how obvious.”

Halo smiled.

ApotheCari looked surprised, “Oh my dear. I never even thought of that!

“It’s brilliant!” Wander chuckled.

Max grinned at her, “Out maneuvered by a rookie! I don’t believe it! Yes of course. That’s GOT to be at least part of it.”

Wander beamed at her. “Like you said Max, she’s smarter than she looks!”

ApotheCari gasped, “What a rude thing to say!” Wander tried to look innocent and pointed at Max. Max glared at him. She continued, “But Bubbles, I believe you have it. It all fits. Good job!” Bubble had never felt so proud. She blushed and grinned like a ninny.

“Michael, these criminals who can freeze people in place with a look… That sounds like a psychic attack. There are drugs which can enhance, and perhaps even create those abilities. People who are not ESPers usually get sick from doing that. It can make them physically ill.

“ESPers?” Bubbles asked.

“People with Extra Sensory Perception, mind readers, telekinetics, empaths, are sometimes people with built-in mental abilities. You can get the same effect from some special machinery, magic, and through drugs. A schedule of the right drugs, administered over a long period of time, would do it. But it would have terrible side effects.”

Wander said, “Getting a tattoo with it would be a mega dose.”

“I hate to rain on everyone’s parade, but Mike did not find an ink factory.” Max said, “That ink is perishable. To manufacture ink and apply the tattoos on dozens, if not hundreds of their people, would be a big operation. It would take at least a small lab, or a big kitchen. They would need room for people, sterilizers, beds, and tattooing equipment. Lots of it.

Halo rubbed his jaw. “No. Traditional oriental tattoos are done without using machines. They use pins and a small hammer. It’s all done manually. They would chant. Burn incense, opium perhaps. The process is painful and very time consuming. They would need some room; depending on how many artists they had working at a time. They would still need a big place, but quiet, and without interruption. Mixing magic potions requires a lot of preparation. The ingredients are bulky and would have to be gathered and stored. Then they would have to be prepared and combined under exact conditions.

“If they ARE dosing themselves like this,“ Wander added, “It wouldn’t be permanent. The initial dose would be large, but it would taper off. The tattoos would stay, but the body would eventually absorb the active ingredients. Anything that is put in the body like that would get used up. And they would have to get the tattoo gone over again, or get something added to it, or get a different one. Eventually they might cover their whole body. They would not want to lose the power, they would be like tattoo junkies.”

“Or mad.” ApotheCari said quietly. “This sort of thing would drive a man mad after a while.”

Halo nodded thoughtfully, “I have a couple of leads to check. I think I know what we are looking for now. I would like to move on this quickly. Can we meet again in a few hours? I want to hit them at night; tonight, if we can.”

They all nodded, already thinking about preparations they would make. ApotheCari and Wander went into another room, talking. Halo headed for the exit. Max headed him off before he got there and handed him a box. “You’re going to want this.”
Halo nodded his thanks, “I’ll try to make this one last a bit longer.”

“I don’t mind making them, but I don’t need you to help test my designs quite so severely.” Max said, trying to sound clinical. Halo could hear the feeling behind his voice and knew that was a close to an emotional outburst as Max would get.

Halo gave him a pat on the shoulder, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Ok, see you in a few, I have things to do.” Max walked quickly into the other room.

When Bubbles suddenly realized that everyone was leaving she had followed Halo out. She stood quietly until Max left.

“What’s the plan, boss?” She asked.

“We are going to find and raid a tattoo parlor, I hope.”

“Am I going?” Bubbles asked, suddenly not wanting to be left out.

He nodded, “You are a key part of this. Remember your training.” Halo had that fatherly tone of voice again.

“Cool!” Bubbles’ eyes were wide.

“Suit up and wait here. Cari will tell you what to do.”

Without another word, he stepped into the ring of light and was gone.
Bubbles suddenly felt very alone. “Ok.” She blew out a breath. “Off to karate land.”


“Commo Check” Bubbles heard Battle-Star’s voice over her ear receiver. “I hear you.” She said, softly. Bubbles was wearing the pale blue outfit Uncle Mike and Max had given her. It was puncture resistant reinforced tights, with transparent rings on her shoulders and down the outside of her legs. She thought it looked sexy and sharp. She didn’t have a mask. She really never even considered getting one.

As Battle-Star, Max looked massive. He was much taller and the armor, though thick, looked form fitting and flexible, like a layer of plate-reinforced steel muscles. From within the helmet, his voice sounded completely different, deeper and more mechanical. The suit was an engineering marvel. Bubbles could not get over being so close to such a celebrity. “If my friends could see me now!” She thought.

They stood on the rooftop of a building in Independence Port. Wander was dressed in his usual white clothes. “I’ve had enough Stars blood on me for one week. Can we do this by the numbers and avoid any unpleasantness?” Wander asked.

ApotheCari sighed, “And when has this sort of thing ever gone ‘according to plan’ old friend?”

Max interrupted. “We’ll be fine. Just stay together. Do this methodically. WE don’t need to be worried –THEY do.” He smacked his gauntleted fists together.

Wander nodded and returned he gaze to the street below.

Bubbles looked at Wander, “Stars blood?”

Wander stood beside her, looking at the street below. “Us love, just us. Stars of Paragon. That’s our charter, our team name. I see too much of our blood. Any blood for that matter.” His voice was low but bitter.

His sudden mood swing left Bubbles speechless. ApotheCari stood slightly apart. She wore tights, similar to what Bubbles wore, but all in dark russet. She wore a cape that flapped softly in the breeze. Some how, she looked dangerous AND elegant. Bubbles heard her voice in her earpiece, ”Coms are all good. We are standing by.” ApotheCari sounded terse.

“They’re a little scared too,” Bubbles realized, “Yet they are still going through with it.” She clenched her fists together and extend her fingers as wide apart as they would go, feeling the gloves against her skin. “I ain’t chickening out.”

The three senior heroes barely moved. Many such long evenings had seasoned them into an efficient fighting unit. Bubbles, however, felt like her nerves were supercharged. She wanted to jump up and down and scream. “Ok, calm down. Breathe. Focus.” She repeated to herself.

“Come.” A soft voice sounded in her ear. Before she knew it, they were jumping down the ledges to the ground below. Battle-Star soared gracefully down.

They ran around a corner and saw two bodies lying on the ground. A dark figure knelt above them. The silhouette stood up and the unconscious figures teleported away. “So far so good.” It said. Bubbles suddenly realized it was Halo, but she could not really see him. He seemed to be out of focus. The dark uniform and cape made him seem misshapen, like a moving shadow.

They entered the building. The lights were out. The only illumination came from the streetlights and the moon. To Bubbles’ over active imagination, it seemed like a monster was hiding in every shadow. They moved as a group, walking silently down the corridor. It was a warehouse, apparently long abandoned and then re-opened by the criminals.

“Ready?” Halo’s voice whispered in her earpiece.

“Ready.”

“Ready.”

“Ready.”

“Um, Ready.” Bubbles stuttered. She suddenly realized that a mere thirty feet away from her stood four strangely dressed men. Some were armed with what looked like swords hung from their backs.

Halo drifted toward them and vaulted over and past the group landing lightly behind them. Bubbles lost sight of him and suddenly all four men’s feet went out from underneath them and they fell to the floor. Much to Bubbles utter amazement the room suddenly lit up like the Fourth of July as twin bolts of blazing electricity erupted from Battle-Stars extended arms, striking the men. Suddenly it was all silent. No one moved, everyone listened.

“Clear” She heard.

“We are getting ahead of ourselves, please gather” ApotheCari’s said. They stepped closer and ApotheCari and Wander both waved their hands, making some quiet fireworks of their own. Bubbles felt her senses heighten and her nerves energize. Suddenly she realized she had forgotten something. She raised her hand and a forcefield appeared around Halo, then Wander, and then ApotheCari. She raised one around herself. Wander gave here a big grin and a thumbs-up. ApotheCari motioned them forward. Reflexively Max felt the wall of the translucent sphere surrounding him and nodded his head slightly. He looked at Bubbles and gave her a thumb-up too. Then he put his index finger in front of his voice plate indicating quiet and jerked his head in the direction they were headed. Bubbles grinned at him and gave him the thumbs-up.

They crept down the hall until they came to a larger group. A taller man wearing a horned mask was talking in Chinese to the other men. Under any other circumstances, he might have looked comical. To Bubbles he looked horrific.

Bubbles saw Halo raise his hand in a prearranged signal. ApotheCari stepped forward and simply walked up to the villains. They stopped talking and looked at her, completely confused for a second. A second was all she needed. Bubbles saw her wave her hands. They all looked astonished and then their heads fell to their chests. The man with the mask shook it off and shot a glare at ApotheCari, just as Halo’s foot smashed into his jaw from a long leaping kick. Battle-Star hurled what looked like a sphere of electricity, about the size of a beach ball. It struck the thugs and appeared to multiply and attach to each of them. They trembled briefly and then sagged to the floor unconscious.

A Chinese man in a large straw hat abruptly teleported right in front of them just at the thugs collapsed. He raised his hands towards his comrades and then, frustrated; he looked at the heroes and said something in Chinese. A loud whirling wind appeared around him, like a mini hurricane, driving them back.

They suddenly heard a long low moaning sound. An apparition of a huge man in wildly colored clothing and an ornate mask flew around the corner swooping straight for them. Before they could react, he slammed his massive hands together in a thunderous clap, which sent a shockwave knocking the group off their feet. He charged at Battle-Star who sprang to his feet and started fighting the monstrosity hand to hand.

Somehow Halo was the only one not affected by the whirlwind. He attacked the hat-man who dodged his kicks and then counter-attacked. They became locked in single combat. Bubbles found she no longer had time to watch him, the hovering apparition was pounding Battle-Star and slammed him backwards, sending him crashing into some wooden crates. It turned, looked at Bubbles and ApotheCari, and charged. Bubbles almost froze. She almost forgot what to do. Then she cast another force field on ApotheCari, Battle-Star, and Wander and then herself, just as the thing attacked. It pounded its enormous fists on her force field. Its hideous face was not a mask at all, but a painted deformed face of a mad man. It snarled at her, ripping at the force field, trying to get at her. She tried to blast it a way from her, but she could not. Her force bolt did not work. She almost panicked. Then the apparition was violently engulfed in electricity, arched its back in pain, and froze. Suddenly it dissipated like smoke. As the hideous form faded away she saw behind it: Battle-Star stood thigh deep in broken crates, feet braced, his metal fist pointed at her like a gun. Wisps of steam trailed from his knuckles. He relaxed his arm and moved back toward where they had left Halo. Bubbles followed.

“Sorcerer.” Halo growled. “And that was a spirit. Black magic. They summon the spirit of an ancestor and bind it to do their bidding. This is much worse than I thought. This is not Chinese or Japanese; it’s a perversion of several Asian faiths. Their depravity disgusts me.”

Bubbles looked down and saw that the sorcerer face was forming bruises. Halo pulled a small disk from his belt and stuck it to the Sorcerer’s forehead and then tapped the spot in the center. The Sorcerer transported away.

He addressed the group in a low but clear voice. “I want them all. Every one of them. I don’t care if it takes all night. “He had a strange look in his eyes. Bubbles had the jarring feeling she was looking at a stranger. Battle-Star, ApotheCari, and Wander nodded but said nothing. Halo moved down the hall.

Bubbles had about a million questions, but this was neither the time nor place. Things were happening far too fast for her. And the rest of the trip through the winding corridors of the warehouse was no better. It was almost a blur. They encountered several small groups of men and quickly subdued them. It seemed like Halo was getting more and more violent with each group. But Bubbles will never forget what she saw at the end.

They found themselves on a balcony overlooking a vast, open warehouse. But it was not a warehouse any more: Walls made of woven reed partitions divided the warehouse up in to areas. The areas had reed beds, tables, reed mats, wall hangings, pillows and tons of tattooing paraphernalia. Over looking it all was a enormous, monstrous, statue of Buddha. However it was NOT Buddha. It had huge horns protruding from its head, like a demon. It sat in a huge low pool of black liquid, which flowed from its out-stretched hands like a fountain. The stench of plants, incense, and chemicals was so overwhelming it almost made her gag.

There were a number of colorfully dressed men down in the warehouse. Apparently, their guards had failed to alert them.

“Too bad for them,” Bubble grimly thought. “Uncle Mike is in the worst mood I’ve ever seen.” She followed the team as they moved toward the stairs and suddenly Battle-Star stopped and looked back, “Halo?”

The group turned around and looked at Halo, who still stood staring at the scene below.

“Halo?” Battle-Star asked again.

He turned around and strode past them, cracking his knuckles, “Yeah. Let’s go.”

He took the stairs five at a time and hit the floor running.

“Oh boy, here we go again,” Wander said.

Without pausing, Halo ran past several thugs and vaulted over the top of the reed wall, disappearing from view. As the men he had just passed attempted to draw weapons, ApotheCari threw out her hands and stunned them. Bubbles ran past them and they looked to be asleep standing up. Battle-Star unleashed massive blasts of electricity, quickly subduing them the rest of the way. On the other side of the partition, bodies were being tossed into the air. Occasionally, a dark blurry form would leap into view, followed by a resounding crash of furniture. Bubbles and Wander cleared the corner or the reed wall and skidded to a halt, witnessing an incredible scene. A dozen men with swords, knives, and shirukens were desperately trying to kill Halo, but he simply was not there, he was a dim blur of darkness, darting and twisting among them. Bodies flew yards away to land without moving. A man bearing a sword was swept off his feet, his sword sent spinning away, a massive double-handed attack drove his head into the floor. Halo executed a perfect back flip and seemed to disappear. Three more thugs were launched into the air and landed hard on their backs. Halo delivered a round-house kick followed by a full front kick which sent his attacker sailing over the reed wall and landing in the huge reservoir of ink at the base of the horned Buddha. Wander found Halo in the churning melee and waved his hands, sending radiant waves of energy toward him. Bubbles recast her force fields and was startled to see a huge bolt of electricity blast outward from Wander’s extended fist, catching a particularly troublesome thug in the chest, and rendering him instantly unconscious.

Before she could ask Wander how he did that, she saw, to her utter amazement, that Halo was attacking her! She gave a yelp and ducked as he flew over her head catching a silent attacker, who had been sneaking up behind her, in the chest, sending him flying. A second thug jumped down from somewhere above her and Bubbles extended her hands slamming a bolt of translucent blue force into his stomach, doubling him over and launching him half way across the room. She suddenly realized she could not attack anything with her own force field on! Nothing could match the satisfaction she felt at that very moment. Any sense of pity or fear about using her powers against criminals evaporated.

She looked up and saw Battle-Star draw a bead and fire on her would–be attacker, knocking him flat. “In your FACE karate boy!” She yelled triumphantly.

Suddenly everything was quiet. Battle-Star turned his helmeted face toward her, but said nothing.

Wander was in the center of the main area, checking pulses and placing a port disc on each criminal. One by one, they were slowly vanishing.

ApotheCari, Battle-Star, and Bubbles walked into the main area looking around. Bubbles felt slightly numb. The adrenaline washed through her, making her shake.

Abruptly Halo emerged from the other side, deftly leaping over the other reed wall to land silently beside her.

He looked at Bubbles and was about to say something when a man groaned near him. He spun and raised his hand. “Michael.” ApotheCari’s voice stopped him. The groaning man rolled on the floor, holding his stomach.

He relaxed and glanced at ApotheCari. “Ok.”

The morning sun peeked between the skyscrapers as they emerged from the warehouse. The time consuming task of collecting the evidence and processing the crime scene was left to the dedicated professionals of the Paragon Police Department. With the amount of drugs and stolen property they’d found, which included some priceless antiquities, as well as a long list of other contraband, deportation or long jail sentences awaited most of the gang.

Though tired and battered, they were relatively unhurt, which surprised Bubbles. Most of them sported cuts, scrapes, and bruises which, through the combined efforts of Wander and ApotheCari were mostly healed. Even Battle-Star’s beautiful armor showed some damage, which, to Bubble’s utter amazement, appeared to be knitting it’s self back together.

She put her hand on a gash on Battle-Stars armored stomach. “How do you do that?” She asked.

“Nanites. Tiny machines built into the armor.” He said.

She smiled at him, “Wow.” And shook her head.

“You did ok. Come see me after camp and I might have some more power experiments ready for you by then.” He said.

Bubbles gave Battle-Star a hug. He gently hugged her in return. His armor was rough on her skin, but she did not mind. He really was pretty amazing. “You bet!”

Battle-Star stepped back and small jets fired under his feet, sending him wordlessly aloft and gone.

Halo was talking quietly to ApotheCari as Bubbles drifted over to them. Physically Halo was large compared to ApotheCari, yet whenever he spoke to her, he seemed to shrink. Bubbles realized what she was seeing was respect. “…purified with fire. That’ll be the end of it.” He said. Their conversation ended as Bubble approached. She had the feeling she had interrupted something.

ApotheCari smiled warmly at Bubbles, “You were wonderful in there. Well done, dear.”

Bubbles tried not to feel shy, but ApotheCari always made her feel that way. “Uh, thanks. Thanks for, you know, bringing me.”

ApotheCari beamed at her and gave her a hug. “Good luck with Cape Camp, dear, I’ll see you all soon.” ApotheCari step back a few steps and floated up into the air. The wind flapped her cape around her as she soared away.

“Wow.” Wish I could fly!” She ginned at Halo.

“Maybe you will.” Halo grinned at her.

“Really?” She gasped.

“Never know. We’ll look into it after you get back.” He said, cryptically.

She almost laughed at him but she was interrupted. “In the mean time…” Wander had suddenly appeared at her side,” As I recall we have a date tonight!”

Bubbles was about to say something. “No, no, that’s quite alright, I will be happy to take some time out of my busy schedule for you, my Bubbly dear. I’ll pick you up at seven, ok?”

“Um, but...” Bubbles started.

“Great! Get some rest. Bring an appetite, gorgeous, and wear something sexy, and flimsy, and tight!!! I’ll do the rest!” Wander stepped back and said, “We need to have us a party before you go off to booty camp! See you fine folks - LATER!” And WHOOSH!!! He was gone, running down the road, leaving a streak of energy behind him.

Bubbles looked at Halo. Halo sighed and gave a brief chuckle. “Promise to be gentle to him?”

Bubbles batted her eyelashes at him, “Are you kidding? I most certainly WILL NOT be gentle with him! I’m a professional party animal! I plan to HURT that boy!”

Halo laughed, “Good.”

Thank you.

I'm going to break this up and post the next few in a new thread.

I welcome (and hope for) your constructive comments, even if you don't like it!

Training Day 5

Bubbles stepped into the dojo, and removed her shoes. She wore white Capri pants and a tight red knit top. Her hair was up in her usual blonde ponytails. She carried her gym bag across the dojo, pausing briefly to bow respectfully to the small shelf holding the image of Buddha. It was Tuesday, just four days ‘till Cape Camp. She was excited, but she also apprehensive; what if she failed? She was consumed with butterflies just thinking about it. So she tried her best to put it out of her mind and focus on the moment. That was what she had been training to do.

She went to change into her workout clothes but stopped. She heard someone whistling. Mike Halo NEVER whistled. She had rarely ever heard him move around the house, much less deliberately make noise. Curious, she went to the kitchen door.

She cautiously opened the door and was startled to see a complete stranger sitting at the kitchen table with his feet up.

“Well hello Darlin’”, He said with a startled, yet delighted expression. “And just exactly where have YOU been all my life?” He sprang to his feet and was in front of her and on one knee before she could even move. He took her hand in his and politely kissed it before she realized what he was doing. It was so gallant, so old fashioned, she could not help but giggle.

“Who are you?!” She said, as she snatched her hand back.

“Allow me to introduce myself, I am the one and only Wander, healer of hurts, righter of wrongs, rescuer of damsels in distress, a one-man power plant. Would you by any chance be a Damsel looking for a little distress?” He asked with eyebrows raised. His outrageous behavior and overblown charm were so unexpected that instead of bolting out the door, she just looked him.

He was dressed all in white, white pants, white shirt, and white headband, confining his short hair. He was not a big man, really not much larger than her, but he was obviously very fit and strong. He looked like a track star, or one of those Olympic runners, except he was short.

Bubbles had been dealing with pushy, flirty men all her life. “Well hello yourself, handsome, I didn’t know Mike Halo had a room mate.”

“Now that is easily the very best thing I’ve heard all day.” He purred. He followed her closely as she walked over to set her bag on the table. He sat beside her, and drew his chair up close, placing his eyes at the same level as her ample chest. ”Because that would mean that you are NOT Big Mikey’s girl and poor little ol’ Wander might have the pleasure of your company some fine evening.” He blatantly roved his eyes over her body as though he were attempting to memorize it.

“Hmm… My, aren’t WE the fast mover?” Bubbles looked at him archly.

He shot over to the refrigerator and back to her so fast she almost did not see him leave. On the table before her sat an iced glass of ginger ale!

“Ya don’t know the half of it, gorgeous! Your fondest wish, I’ll lay before your feet in the blink of an eye!” He made another deep bow and sprang back to the table, pulling out a chair and seating her before she realized what he was doing. Then he was back in his chair, knees touching hers with his arm on the back of her chair, looking deeply into her eyes.

Bubbles could not keep a straight face. The obviously contrived attention was still getting to her. He made her feel suddenly like a princess. “How did you know I like ginger ale?” She asked, feeling a blush start.

He sat back and pointed at his chest with a thumb, “I will have you know that I am a world-class crime fighter miss! I’m a detective; it’s my job to detect things. Such as now: I detect that you are lonely and in need of comfort.” He stated with grave sincerity. “I am here, as a dedicated public servant, to give you all the comfort you could want, and then some.” If he had been wearing red horns his smile would not have looked more devilish.

“Do you actually know Uncle Mike, or do I need to have you arrested for trespassing?” She asked, trying to get control of the situation. This guy was unbelievably fast. In more ways than one!

From out of nowhere he produced handcuffs and put them in her hands, extending his wrists in surrender. “I only ask that you frisk me thoroughly! And repeatedly! Until I confess!” He grinned at her hopefully. “And you know…” he gave her huge puppy-dog eyes, “I’ll never confess…” His words ended softly and his mouth slowly drifted toward hers. She was momentarily stunned and felt herself falling into his eyes.

Laughing, Bubbles pushed his hands away from her breasts and moved the chair away from him saying, “Will you please answer a straight question?”

He have an exaggerated sigh and said, “Yes, very well, I am indeed a friend of “Uncle Mikey” A long lost relative actually, I believe he is related on my mother’s sister’s cousin side. But we do not like to talk about the blue sheep of the family.” He ginned maniacally at her.

Bubbles laughed harder and he continued, “Honestly, my rare and radiant beauty, I have known the Mysterious Mr. Mike Halo since the day he came to town.”

It seemed as though she was watching an actor from a Broadway musical. He was so THEATRICAL. Everything he said, he amplified with gestures!

“You might say I picked him up at the bus.” He stood up and was instantly on the other side of her, playing with a pigtail. “I never met a finer fellow, but he’s a bit of the straight-laced sort. Too much rice will bind a man up, they say. That and the fish, yeesh! But he takes his work seriously, he does. Never met a kinder man. He’d stop the world to pluck a kitten from a tree just as soon as he’d stop a mugger.” He shot around the other side of the table and was back with what Bubbles saw was the cup he’d been drinking from when she arrived. He carefully extracted a teabag from it and took a delicate sip.

He took a loud satisfied breath and swerved his lecherous gaze like twin floodlights back onto her. She could swear that any time she was not looking at him he was ogling her breasts, but she could not catch him at it. “Men are so predictable,” She thought, “But this one seems nicer than most, and a heck of a lot more fun.”

“So,” he said, sitting back slightly, “what would a glamorous lady of quality, such as your own fine self be doing in such a private place as this, eh?” His tone was polite and even charming but there was steel in his eyes as he gazed at her over his tea. Any illusion Bubbles had about being in control of the situation disappeared.

“I… take lessons here. Uncle Mike is teaching me how to fight. I go for my hero license this weekend.” She said, feeling self conscious, all of a sudden.

Wander gave her a strange look, “Pardon me, miss, but what in the world could have possessed you to want to go and do such a thing as that?”

In another time, Bubbles might have gotten offended or even angry at his question. But she realized he was not making fun of her. Beneath all the flirting, he seemed awfully sweet.

“It’s just something I need to do.” She said. “Please put your cup down. Don’t move.” Without getting out of her chair, she simply pointed a finger at him.

Before Wander could say another word, he found himself suspended helplessly in the air. “Well whaddaya know? I always did want to fly!” He did an exaggerated swimming motion hanging in the air, chuckling with delight.

Bubbles giggled and gently lowered him to the floor. “Battle-Star says I have gravity powers. I’m learning how to use them. Really, this all scares me half to death, but I gotta see it though, you know?”

“Battle-Star says this he does?” Wander smiled and sat back down at the table.

“Well ever if there was the biggest egg-head on this wide wonderful world it would be the one on his shoulders. If that lad tells you something scientifical, you had best believe every word, never met a sharper knife.”


Halo was covered with blood, all of it his. His uniform hung in tatters. He found that he could not levitate, or become invisible, or de-solidify. He could not do anything, in fact, except stumble down the street. He could not remember when he had ever been in so much pain. His body burned from dozens of superficial cuts. But it was far, far more than just the cuts. He was also completely exhausted. He could not concentrate or get his wind. “Poison”, he thought. “It must be some kind of poison. Must do something. Gotta give it another try.”

He stopped in the alley and took some deep breaths. He shook his head to try and clear the cobwebs and the world reeled underneath him. “Bad idea.” He muttered. Leaning against the brick wall, he steadied himself and forced himself to concentrate. He did not feel despair. He was not afraid. Death and life were as one to him. He believed himself to part of the universe: At one with himself and everything. But he did not wish to die either. His life was useful and had purpose. It would not serve the greater good for him to die here, today, in this alley. He pushed away the crowding thoughts and tried once again to descend into the deep places his training had revealed to him. He felt the futility of it; it burned at him like the poison. He felt his disappointment and he let it go. He felt frustration over last night’s debacle, and he let it go. He felt his worry about Bubbles, about her future. He let it go. He felt his dread, his sense of failure, and suddenly saw it for what it was. He let it go. He mentally entered a dark room. He allowed himself to inwardly smile a weary smile. At last. He knew he was tired, but here he felt better. Here he could pause. Here he could seek. He slowly walked through the dark cool room. Here he was not Halo. Here he was just a man, dressed in the humble saffron robe of a Master. He walked, bare feet on smooth stone. A slow, timeless eternity passed. He turned and then he saw it. A thin silver circle, about a yard in diameter, hung in the blackness. He stood and contemplated the circle. The silver, unmoving circle, around which all other things moved, did not move. Across from the circle, a huge face appeared. It was a gross caricature of a man’s face, a Chinese dragon. The face was all in various shades of blue. The face floated silently above the floor followed by a long body that stretched away into the darkness. When it spoke, it’s voice was the sound of wind and low thunder.

“We know you.” It said softly. The words thudded into his chest.

“All is known to those who are one.”

“All is one. Yet you are here seeking the oneness.”

“Spirit of the Man of the Air. My guardian, my mentor. I seek your wisdom that I may share it. I seek your strength that I may endure it. I ask for nothing, deserve nothing, expect nothing. I merely seek.”

It floated around the circle and came near him. It regarded him with wise and unfeeling eyes for a moment and then floated away. It turned and stopped gazing at him as if it were judging him. Then it moved again, continuing its path around both him and the shining silver ring.

“The ring is the center of all. The universal oneness. Never forget, my son. Nothing else matters. Touch it. Nothing else matters. Stay true to The Path. Nothing else matters.” Halo extended his hand toward the ring.

His body convulsed and his hands went to his sides in clenched fists as a wave of power passed though him. His eyes snapped open. His breathing steadied. He blinked his eyes a few times and rubbed his face feeling a day’s growth of stubble on his chin. He looked down and remembered his gloves were ripped and covered with blood. He blew out a long slow breath, then his feet left the ground and he floated up into the sky, gaining speed and altitude quickly, rising high above the rooftops. Mike Halo rode the dragon. The early morning air was cool on his face. His pain was there, but remote, captured, isolated. Soon it would come back, soon he would need help. But for now, he could do what he had to.


“…I, on the other hand… “ Wander was warming up for another protestation of his good intentions when they heard a loud crash from the other room. The both turned toward the sound and Wander was at the door in the blink of an eye, just in time for it to open in front of him revealing Halo’s haggard face.

Their reactions were simultaneous, but different. Wander said, “Mother of GOD!”

Bubbles screamed.

“SShhh… ” Halo mumbled wearily. His hands left bloody smears on the door jamb. He blinked and looked at them both. “Can I have some coffee?” He said. And then his legs started to sag.

Wander grabbed him before he hit the floor, “Bubbles, make some coffee.” He shot at her, suddenly all business.

“There, there, Mikey, I’ve got you buddy. Let’s get you all nice and comfy here.” He half dragged, half carried Halo over to a chair. He deftly kicked the chair around with his toe and settled him in. “Jeese but you’re a sorry shred o’meat. Who could ha’ done this t’ ya lad?” He said softly, examining the cuts.

Bubbles was in shock, staring numbly at Halo, holding the coffeepot. He was a mass of cuts. His arms, legs, chest back neck and face were sliced, like with razors. His dark blue costume was mostly black, soaked in blood, and hung in taters. Blood was getting everywhere. Much of it was now on Wander’s white clothes.

“What happened to him?” She mumbled, dazed. “Who could have done this to him?”

“Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you. Cost of doing business.” Wander said. Then he looked at her. He snapped his fingers loudly at her and she jumped. “It’s just blood, miss. Let’s make our Uncle Mike some coffee now, like he asked. Trust ol’ Wander to know how to plug the holes.”

He gave her a firm look and returned to his task. He then did something Bubbles would remember for the rest of her life. He placed his hands over Halo’s head and simply healed him. It seemed so normal and so easy; she almost did not realize what she’d seen. Pale green phosphorescence washed out of his hands and spilled over down and onto the floor, washing through the room in a large pool of light. Bubbles felt it too; it made her hair stand up.

Bubbles had seen powers before. Working in the club, she had seen Super Heroes do all sorts of bizarre things. After a while she had learned to tune it out. So much bragging, so much showing off, to see a true Empath actually heal someone, cure someone who was so badly hurt, was… magical, incredible, like watching a baby being born. It was beautiful. The half-dried cuts melted shut to pink lines. And then the lines began to fade.

He expertly ran his fingers over Halo’s chest and pale blue light flowed glowing and pooling. Halo took a short raspy breath, and gagged. He coughed hoarsely and lay back. Wander rolled him over and gently rested his head on his arm, on the table, patting the center of Halo’s back. “There you go mate, a cool breeze to fill your weary lungs.” Without taking his hands off him, Wander walked around him and grabbed him by the shoulders, as if to give him a neck-rub. Yellow light glowed and flowed from his hands. ”C’mon boyo.” He muttered. Suddenly Wander looked older. He looked drawn and haggard, as if the effort to heal Halo was draining him. Halo stirred and sat up, lying back heavily against the chair, breathing, Then Halo opened one eye a little bit and looked at Wander, he made a small smile, “Nice to see you,” he whispered.


A short time later Halo emerged from the shower feeling much better. He still felt weak, but washing off the blood and being rid of the poison made a world of difference. His new costume, or what was left of it, sat in a wad in the sink. It was a total loss. He put on grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt and went out to the kitchen. It was midmorning. Bubbles and Wander’s chatting stopped when he walked in. “Don’t let me interrupt” Mike said, and went for the coffee pot. “How are you feeling,” She asked.

Halo poured some coffee and looked around to see if anyone else wanted any. Bubbles shook her head, Wander drank tea. “I’m fine.” He said.

“Fine he says. You are NOT fine; you need to get some rest!” Wander was surprisingly angry.

“True, and I will.” Halo said, “I just need to check a few things first.” He padded back into the shop and came back and sat down at the table. He set down two metal disks about four inches in diameter. They looked like small saw blades, except a lot more vicious looking. One was in a plastic bag and covered with blood. The other one was not in a bag and was sparkling clean silver steel.

“This one needs to get analyzed.” Halo said, “This one, I’m going to study.”

“What is it, some kind of knife?” Bubbles asked.

Halo did not seem to hear her. He looked at the disc, balancing it horizontally with his index finger under the center. Wander said, “It’s a shiruken, an oriental throwing knife. Nasty buggers often tip them with poison.” Bubbles looked at Halo, “They stabbed you with those?”

Halo nodded. “Yes. Yes they did.” He rolled it over in his hands, revealing intricate and beautiful engravings and oriental writing.”

Wander said, “Can you read that?”

Halo said, “Yes,” he laid it down on the table and slid it over to him. Then he sipped some coffee, “It has an engraving of a Crane on it and it says: “Tsoo.”

“Sue? What does that mean? Is that a name?” Wander asked.

“It is written here as a warning. It means, “’Find your mother’. As if a person were telling a kid to get lost. Basically, it’s a warning from an authority figure to an inferior to go away and mind your own business.” Halo said. “The Crane, however, means only one thing to anyone from southern Asia, when it’s drawn like this: Organized crime. Cantonese Mafia. Tong.”

Bubbles suddenly felt like the room got colder. Wander broke the spell. “Well if that is not the biggest bogey-man this side o’ the Pacific, I don’t know what is. We are on the EAST coast, Mikey, they can’t be many and they are far, far from home. A thing easily done, right? A heap of crooks is just a heap of crooks even if they do it oriental style, right!”

Halo could not share in his joy. “True enough.”

“Well then, what’s wrong?” Wander asked. Bubbles was staying quiet, soaking up every word. She had not seen Halo hurt before, and now she saw something else: He was worried.

“A good catholic like you would feel pretty annoyed if a gang of priests took to organized crime, but still tried to act like they were priests, right?” Halo said.

“I’d be ‘annoyed’ to say the very least”, Wander said, “Is that their game, these Tsoo-people?”

“More or less, yes.” Halo said.

“Well I’ll tell ya what my friend, you get some rest and I’ll take this gastly bit o’ evidence to our young friend and see what he can tell us about that poison. I’ll also see what delightful gadgets he has conjured up in my absence. Care to join me miss?” He eyed Bubbles hopefully.

She turned to Halo, “You do need to rest, we can workout tomorrow, I don’t mind.” She said trying to be supportive. Halo looked at her with that expressionless face he had whenever he was really serious. “Different workout today. Let’s talk about weapons.”

Wander gave an exaggerated sigh. “For the love of God take it easy. You need to recover. “ Halo nodded, “I know. I will. Thanks for stopping by.”

Wander was going to say something else. But instead he just grinned. “And a fine good day to you, Miss. I’ll be seeing for dinner tomorrow night at seven.” And out the door he went.

“He asked you on a date?” Halo asked, surprised.

Bubbles looked startled, “NO! I mean, yes. No, well yes, just now. But… oh… How well do you know him?”

Halo said. “C’mon, I want to show you a few things before I get some sleep.”

He took Bubbles through the dojo in to the unfinished outer area of the warehouse. He set up some straw dummies and some wooden targets. He instructed her how to hang some targets and set some things up and went back into the dojo. Moments later he returned with a large long flat box made of intricately carved, deeply polished dark red wood. Bubbles thought it looked very old.

Halo set it on a small folding table and opened it. It looked like a presentation box, except it held lots and lots of things; enough to equip a squad. It contained numerous swords, knives, shirukens and other things she had never seen. All of the weapons were done in fabulous decoration. She saw that the swords were in sets, in different sizes down to knife-size all with matching colors and scabbards.

“Wow.” She said, “These are beautiful!”

Halo paused and looked at them considering her words. “Yes they are.” He picked up one of the longest swords. “So far we have only talked about guns and knives. There are some criminals who prefer ancient weapons.”

Bubbles listened carefully as Halo described how to deal with a sword wielding opponent and how to cope with thrown knives. They threw knives and shirukens at the targets and he her showed how to strike at the straw dummy with the sword. Bubbles found this to be very interesting and even fun. She even managed to hit the targets with the throwing knives. But there was something nagging at her. During a lull in the session she decided to ask. “I don’t mean to sound critical, but, if you know all this stuff, how did you get… you know… so hurt?”

“It’s a bit embarrassing to say, Bubbles, but I sometimes screw up. That time it almost sent me to the hospital.”

“Oh, you mean the teleporter grid, why didn’t you hit it yourself and get out of there?” She asked.

“I was prideful. I went in there to investigate, do some looking around. I ran into what must have been a huge meeting. There were dozens of them. I was careless, they discovered me, and we fought.” He said. “Lets give these another try here. Stand behind this…”

“How did you get away?” She asked, not letting him change the subject.

He looked uncomfortable, “I just left when it was over.” He said.

“What do you mean?”

“When the fight was over, I left. Why?” he asked, genuinely puzzled.

“You mean you WON?” She gasped.

“I don’t call that winning. I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do. I didn’t learn anything, except for a name. I ported, oh, what was it, forty seven, forty eight of them to the receiving center. A couple might have gotten away. But I didn’t learn very much. It was really a big waste.”

Bubbles just looked at him. “You fought fifty guys? Fifty guys with swords, and knives and these things?” She waved a shiruken at him.

He looked surprised, “Well, not all at once.”

“You blow my mind, you know that?” She said shaking her head.

“I think you miss the point,” he said, “I did not WANT to fight them Bubbles. It just went that way. Other than trespassing or B&E or anything else the cops have on them for priors they are probably back on the street already.” He said. “I didn’t find anything incriminating and I was acting on a tip, not a warrant. In Cape Camp they will explain all that.”

“Please don’t try to change the subject. You always do.” She said. “You’re planning to go after them again aren’t you?”

“Yes. But preparation is the key. This time I’m bringing backup.” He gave her a meaningful look.

Bubbles said, “What do you mean?”

“You know that trick you do with the forcefield? Bring it up and go stand right behind that,” He said pointing at the wooden target with the throwing knives and shirukens stuck in it. He walked over with her and began pulling them out.

Bubbles gave him an uncertain look, “Stand behind the target?”

He nodded, “Yes.”

Bubbles extended her hands and raised her force field, “I knew this job would have a down-side.”

Thanks,
I appreciate the feed back.

Training Day 4

Two days later, Halo was finishing up his workout when the computer emitted a soft chime. He put the barbell down with a soft clank and sat up, listening, reaching out with more than his ears. Someone was about to enter the outer door. “Bubbles,” he thought, “She’s early.” He resumed his bench-press exercise on the inclined bench.

He felt comfortable around Bubbles. She was a very likeable, even lovable girl. But she looked so much like his little sister, it was eerie. Because of that, he found he was not really attracted to her, even though her beauty was considerable. He thought of her simply as a young friend. As usual, once he had something settled in his mind, he no longer gave it much thought. It did not have to be any more complicated than that.

“’Morning Uncle Mike!” Bubbles called out as she entered the kitchen. She wore jeans, a short blue blouse under a blue windbreaker, and matching blue socks. She had kicked off her blue sneakers at the other door. Bubbles loved her clothes.

“Sorry I’m early, hope I’m not interrupting. I wanted to pick-up a few things and I thought I’d be longer at the store.” She talked as she unloaded the grocery bags into the refrigerator, “I picked up a just FEW things, you know, ‘cause you don’t keep a lot here, hope you don’t mind.” She closed the refrigerator and walked to the kitchen table. She got a good look at what he was doing and gave a startled, “Oh!”

Halo’s home was not merely a refurbished warehouse. It was essentially an entire house built inside the old warehouse in an abandoned area of Kings Row. It consisted of several rooms; this was the “great room”; a regular kitchen was in one corner, near the door to the dojo. It was a complete kitchen, with an island, but it was sparse. There were almost no small appliances or gadgets. He did not even own an electric can opener. In another corner was the rarely used “living room”. He did not collect books or have a TV, but there was an old stereo system on a shelf with turntable and a few vinyl records neatly shelved.

Diagonally across from the kitchen was a complete weight room with exercise machines, free weights, and some other wooden contraptions Bubbles had never seen before. In the other corner there sat two low tables with some potted plants located strategically beneath one of the skylights as well as a desk with the computer. In the middle of it all was a big dark oak kitchen table with eight chairs around it. Everything was extremely clean and tidy, decorated here and there with plants, oriental pictures, candles and incense burners, though, at the moment, no candles or incense were lit.

Halo continued to do his reps and said “Hi”. He lay on the weight bench wearing green running shorts, white sneakers, and a black tank top. Bubbles watched him move the barbell up and down with ease. She knew he was strong, but she had never seen his muscles under this much strain before. His chest, arms, and neck were a maze of cords, rippling and twisting under his skin. Bubbles caught herself staring. It was disturbing and hypnotic at the same time. Bubbles pulled her eyes away and noticed one of the weight plates on the barbell had a stamp on the end facing her. “Whoa,” she thought, “I couldn’t pick up even ONE of those weights and he has EIGHT of them on there!”

Halo finished and again set the barbell down in the rack with a dull clank. He sat up, perspiring slightly, and said, “Did you get the forms?”

“Nope, they let me file on-line right there. I got a class date and everything!” She said.

“They’re getting efficient. What did they tell you at Freedom Corps?” He asked.

“I didn’t go to Freedom Corps; I went straight to City Hall”

“I thought we talked about this,” he said, walking over to the chin up bar. He hopped up to the bar and started doing chin-ups.

“Freedom Corps will give you the training in basic law enforcement you need to go WITH that license.” He said, as he exercised.

“I know, but they are so snobby. They act so stuck-up and preppy it makes me sick!” She said. She found the sight of him in the rather small running shorts to be very distracting.

He stopped exercising and dropped down. He went over to a large canvas bag and dragged it underneath the chin-up bar. He then pulled some long straps out of the bag and looped them around his shoulders, pulling the bag up to about the back of his thighs. Bubbles realized it was a kind of weight. Halo jumped back up and started doing chin-ups again, with the weight hanging off of his shoulders.

“Bubbles, you can’t judge people by how they look, only by what they do. Freedom Corps has a good record even if they are a bit showy.” He said, never breaking pace.

“Uncle Mike, how much weight is in that bag?” She asked.

“About one-eighty, I think, I haven’t weighed it in a while. Why, is sand leaking again?” He asked, not at all out of breath for all his exertion. He continued to do chin ups with no apparent end in sight.

Bubbles watched spellbound, ”How do you DO that?”

Halo said, “This? Lots of practice.”

“But I mean why?”

“Ever try to carry a person on your back and climb down an elevator shaft?”

Bubbles made a face, “Um, no, at least not yet.”

“Unless you practice, you won’t know if you can do it. Helps to be ready.” Halo said, as he dropped to the floor.

“And you are always ready?” Bubbles asked.

Halo gave her a wry grin, “No. Wish I was, but no.” He stuffed the straps in the bag before sliding back off to the side. He stretched his back, not breathing hard but slightly sweaty. Standing there in his shorts and a tank top, Bubbles was once again, suddenly aware of how good he looked. Not “good” really, more like powerful, dangerous… like someone who could keep you safe. “He LOOKS like a hero, like from the olden-days” She thought. “He could be like a cowboy or a jet pilot or a fireman. He looks like someone who saves people.” She thought, smiling to herself.

“I’ll be right out.” Halo said, oblivious to her staring, he finished his stretching and went through the door between the kitchen and the living room.

Bubbles busied herself making coffee. As she found what she needed, she heard the shower running, making her think about him in the shower. “I have to stop thinking like that. He is my teacher.” She said. Still, she had to admit to herself that he had a certain animal magnetism she could not deny.

“It would be easier to ignore it if he was jerk, but he is so nice. And he is so NOT like the other men I know.” She thought to herself.

In a few minutes, Halo emerged wearing jeans and a white T-shirt and sat down at the table to put on his shoes and socks. Bubbles brought over two cups of coffee. “Smells good. Thanks.” He said and took a sip and then finished combing back his wet blue hair and tied it in a ponytail.

“No blonde hair today?” She asked.

“No.” He said. “So tell me again what you’re going to do about your hero license?”

“I’m already enrolled. I didn’t have to go through Freedom Corps. I went straight to City Hall, they have a class now. Its part of the Police Academy but it is for heroes. They call it A.L.E.R.T: Auxiliary Law Enforcement and Response Training. Most people just call it “Cape Camp”. It sounds fun!” Bubbles looked across the table at him expectantly.

Halo looked into his coffee as he sipped. He gave a slight smile and shook his head, “What will they think of next? Sounds like City Hall is finally getting their ducks in a row.”

Bubbles nodded excitedly. “It’ll be cool! They got this big thing they do at the end, it’s like a big test. It’s called ‘The Out-Break’. You respond to a 911 call in this big riot area. They won’t tell you what it is and you have to sign a form that says you won’t tell after, but people still talk.”

He nodded. “Must be a simulation of some sort - sounds exciting. When do you start?”

“I am all registered, so I show up next Friday and get my room assignment. School starts the next Monday. Eight weeks. I will be free on weekends, sometimes, so I won’t be gone the whole time. They say they keep you pretty busy there, so we’ll see.”

Halo took all this in and sat looking into his coffee. It was mid morning. Hazy light filtered down through the skylight above. They sipped their coffee together in silence.

He sat his coffee cup down carefully in the saucer. “Max called. He wants to see you.”

Bubbles gave him a big smile, “I’ll bet.”

Halo chuckled. “You probably did not make as much of an impression as you think, Max is a different breed of cat.” Bubbles gave him the “Oh really?” look. Halo continued, “He only really cares about two things, one of them being knowledge. It’s like knowledge is food for him. For now, you are something new and he wants to learn all about your powers.”

“Ok, so what’s the other thing?” Bubbles asked.

“You should ask him this yourself, but the only other thing I’ve ever seen him care about is our team. We have a group of people that often work together on tough cases.”

“Wow. Can I meet them?” Bubbles asked.

“Maybe. We all stay pretty busy,” Halo continued, “But Max – Max is really interested only in his work. He doesn’t have time for a girlfriend.”

“What about you?” She asked, suddenly feeling bold.

“What about what?” Halo asked, not really following her.

“Do you have a girlfriend? No wife? Anyone?” Bubbles asked, plunging in. Halo drank some more coffee without answering at first, “No. No girlfriend, no wife.” He said.

“Um, is that ‘cause you’re a priest or because you don’t like girls?” Bubbles immediately regretting she’d asked it.

Unexpectedly, Halo started to chuckle. He put his cup down and laughed. She had rarely heard him really laugh before. Bubbles started to get embarrassed.

Halo held up a hand, “No, please, I don’t mean to laugh, it’s just… wow, I never know what you are going to say next!”

“WELL?! I’m… you know, I wanted to know. You never date; you don’t have any family, no pictures, no magazines. I thought maybe you were gay.”

Halo kept chuckling, “No, I’m not gay, heh, heh, heh. “

“Well then why are you doing all this?” She asked, exasperated.

Halo wiped his eyes with the back of his hands, “All what?”

“This! ME! All this training! Why do you want to help me?” She asked.

“Ah yes, well. “ He said, still smiling. “You think I have some ulterior motive for doing this?” He moved his eyebrows up and down like in an exaggerated leer.

Bubbles blushed scarlet and started to get defensive. “Well yeah! I mean, come on, what am I supposed to think? You won’t let me pay you for the lessons; you take me places, get people to help me, somehow my hospital bills were miraculously paid off. Yeah, I am starting to wonder.”

Halo gave her that calm mild look she was learning to hate, “That’s bad of me. I should have explained it better. I apologize if I have kept you in the dark.”

Bubbles threw her hands in the air, “And that’s ANOTHER THING! Why do you gotta be so nice all the time? It ain’t NORMAL! You are so polite, it’s like I’m talking to my Grampa or, or, a…”

“A Priest?” Halo asked.

Bubbles smiled in spite of her self.

Halo smiled back at her.

“You are making me crazy!” She blurted. She got up to put her cup in the sink so she would not have to endure his unexpected teasing.

He shrugged his shoulders, “Bubbles, there is really nothing going on at all. I just want to help you.”

“Yeah, but why me?” She persisted.

“What’s wrong with doing something nice for someone?”

She folded her arms, “People don’t do nice things for people for free, Uncle Mike, not normally.”

“You do.” He replied.

“I mean normal people.” She argued.

“You are normal, normal for you, and so am I.” He put down his cup and looked at her calmly, “The ability to be generous comes from a position of power. If you feel powerful, or empowered, if you feel confident and calm and in control, you can give of yourself freely and not feel like you are risking anything. If you have nothing to lose, you can give everything. Once you have made a balance, a harmony, within yourself, you can do anything.”

“Harmony?” She asked.

“Yes. Harmony.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “That’s kind of a funny way to put it, I know, but that’s basically it. Bubbles I don’t have many needs. I am in complete control of myself. I am not compelled by lust or greed or hunger to do things or to make people do things for me. Maybe that makes me lucky, or different, but, even so, I am also not a complete person. Like everyone else, I am a work–in-progress. We live each day and forget that each day is a new day. Each day we have a chance to start fresh. The things that happen to us each day affect us, change us, and make us better or worse, depending on how we react to it. The wonderful part of it is that we can all choose to react better, try harder. We can constantly strive to be the best version of US that we can be. I do not want to change. But I want to grow, and be the best version of me that I can be. I do not want to change you. But I hope that you will want to fulfill your potential, whatever that is, just as I want to fulfill MY potential. That means helping you to become the very best version of you that you can be. Part of my “job” as a priest is to pass along what I know. The only real benefit of knowledge is to answer questions, to solve problems, to create solutions, to make things more harmonious in the sense that it balances things out. Harmony is balance. But it is more than that. It is being able to read the out-of-balance and see a way to restore it. One of our teachings on this is a simple one; it is ‘the rule of ten’.” He said, finishing his coffee.

“Ten? Ten what?” Bubbles asked.

“Ten good deeds.” Halo answered, getting up to retrieve the coffee pot.

“Someone once did a good deed for me and helped me. I became one of his ten. I, in turn, have done a good deed for you and have made you one of my ten. You in turn will take that deed and make ten more. That way, good deeds spread; good things happen, problems are solved; Greater harmony results. This does not require government, or taxes, or a program. Each person of good conscience receives the blessing they were given and bears the burden of passing it on.”

Bubbles looked incredulous, “Are you kidding me?” She said. “That sounds like something from a nursery rhyme or Sunday school.”

Halo said, “Most of the important things in life ARE simple, Bubbles. When people make their lives complicated, when they wrap themselves up in plans, and schedules, and possessions, and forget about the simple things, they become out of harmony with themselves, with the world.”

Bubbles said, “Okay, so what happens when you use up all ten? No more good deeds? Or is there another rule for that?

Halo gave her a straight and solemn face raising his hand in an imitation of Buddha, “In Buddhism, counting is not allowed.”

Bubbles smirked. “Ok, whatever.”

Halo chuckled and got up. “Here, watch this.” He went over to the sink and took a very large empty jar out of the cupboard. He went over to the refrigerator and took out a carton of eggs. He went to another cupboard and took out a bag of dried beans and put them all on the table in front of Bubbles. Next he retrieved the can of coffee and a measuring cup. “Cooking class?” She asked.

Halo said, “Watch closely o insolent one. I will reveal to you my Magic Jar. I will show you some ancient Chinese magic, okay?”

Bubbles smiled, “Ok.”

“I place the jar on the table. Next I put the eggs, carefully, into the jar. I fill the jar up with eggs, right?”

“Ok.”

“Ah, but no, the jar is not empty, the beans fit into the jar as well. See?”

Bubbles was bewildered, but curious. She shrugged and said, “Ok, so?”

Halo continued. “Now the jar is full, but is it? Now I take coffee and pour it in. I shake the jar gently and all the coffee goes in and fills up all the remaining spaces.”

Bubbles was now very curious, but still dubious.

“Now, I either have the making of a very bad soup, or I have an object lesson.” His eyes twinkled at her.

She smiled. “Ok, sensei, what’s the lesson?”
“The eggs represent the most important things in your life; God, your beliefs, your family, your friends, the things you are most passionate about or love to do. If everything in the world went away, but those things survived, you would be okay. Your life would still be full.”

Bubbles thought for a minute. “Ok.”

“The beans are all the things we fill our life up with, like work, and cars, and bills, and all of your clothes and furniture, all your possessions. These things are possibly both good and bad. They start off as necessary to support life, but end up taking over. They become an ‘end’, instead of a MEANS to an end, right?”

Bubbles nodded.

“The coffee is all the small stuff, sometimes annoying stuff. The things people say, the way you react to things. But it is also fun stuff, watching TV, eating out, having fun. It is also all the little things we forget to do or that we put off doing until it becomes too much. If you put the coffee in and then the beans, there would be not enough room for all of the eggs. If you are absorbed by the small stuff, you find yourself always just reacting to what happens, you tend to look for an escape or relief from the hassle. You focus on a possession, a hobby, a book, to take your mind off your problems without really dealing with the problems. Some people's jars become so full of problems, and useless hobbies, and mental baggage they start to abuse food, alcohol, or drugs, and ignore others around them: ANYTHING to take their mind off of their problems. They tend to ignore other people’s needs, because they are so focused on their own. That is completely out of balance, out of harmony.”

He turned the jar slowly looking at the partially obscured eggs ands spoke softly. “Eggs are fragile, like friendships, like friends. And they hold a treasure inside, like friends, like the ones we love. We must be careful with our friends, treat them gently. Sometimes, the more familiar we are with friends, especially good friends, the more we forget that. The easier it is to really hurt someone you care about. Maybe they are hard-boiled; maybe they are raw. Do you want crack them just to see? No. People have to come first, even if you do not know them. Property can be replaced. The things we own are just so much stuff. But people are different. You can take a stranger who needs help and make them one of your ten. Briefly, you have added them to your jar. Maybe they will go, maybe they will stay. Maybe you will get a bigger jar."

He paused for a moment and looked at her. "When you listen to other people, help them, work beside them, you see what REAL problems are. Your problems shrink, as if by magic. You find yourself taking a less selfish, a healthier, more positive approach to the way you live your life. As if by magic, your world becomes better. That is why this is a Magic Jar."

"That 's really cool.” She said. “Is that why I am here?”

Halo gave her a warm smile, “Yes. You are one of my ten, but you are more. You are one of the eggs in my jar, and I in yours. We come together in mutual respect and friendship to solve our problems. For too long my Magic Jar has been out of order.” His smile faded a bit.

“This is an awful, nasty business, Bubbles, it really is. There is so much bad stuff out there; it will break your heart. It can turn you mean and cold. I began to feel that. I began to question what the point of it all was. I allowed myself to fall out of balance because I lost purpose and started dwelling on my own problems instead of helping others. I started to withdraw, even though my years of training and study have taught me better, I still slid into that trap. It can happen to anyone, it happens to many people and they don’t even know it. I woke one day and I suddenly knew what had happened. I had to fix it. I had to find those eggs and make sure they were safe in the jar. So I went to the club, and saw you guys there. Joe, and Candy, and you, really the only people I know in the city who were not working cases. You were the only people I knew socially, and even then, I barely knew you.”

“You thought of us as your friends?” She asked, “Everyone was scared of you, you're not what you'd call "approachable" you know."

"Yeah, I know. I don't do it on purpose." He looked a little bit vulnerable suddenly, which was jarring for Bubbles.

"I think of my friends as the family I get to pick for myself. I pick them carefully and try to keep them safe."

Bubbles nodded. “Yeah. Especially when all your real family is gone.”

“Yes,” He replied, “But even when your family is there. The child grows to be an adult and adult passes away. The child must learn their own place in the world and find the people they will put in their jar, and they in theirs. The child will grow and find another and make their own children and also add around them all those they trust. The community of people grows through love and trust.”

“And we all hold hands and sing Koom Bye Yah?” Bubbles asked. “I hear what you are saying, but there does not seem to be much “community” or happiness around here.”

“It begins with me. And it begins with you.” He said. “If something is wrong in the community, you must act to make it better. So many things to fix, so many problems to solve, it can be overwhelming. The work is hard and dirty, but it is helpful and it needs to get done. What more can a person ask for? Hard work, nice friends, good food, I try to keep it simple.”

“Simple works for me.” Bubbles said.

"Me too. Let’s go see if it works for Max." Halo smiled and pulled a black knit cap over his blue hair.

“I thought you said we were going shopping?” She said. Halo gave her a blank look and said, “We are.”


They entered Max’s lab from the same building, in Skyway. Bubbles asked, “Is this the only way to get in the lab?”

Halo said, “As far as I know.” Bubbles nodded and into the lab they went. They found Max sitting on top of a giant metal contraption in the room Bubbles thought of as “The Shooting Room.” As they walked up, they could see he was half way into an opening on top of it, with a mass of multi colored wires and cables sprouting out and dangling down like wilted flowers. Bubbles suddenly realized it was a giant robotic arm big enough to fill up the average hallway.

They stood there for a good minute before Halo picked up a fist-sized chunk of metal, held it out at shoulder level and dropped it, producing a satisfyingly loud clang. Max jumped and pulled his arm out of the hole as he faced them. Bubbles was startled to see that Max was wearing what looked like a metal arm.

“Hey, cut it out!” He shouted angrily. “What do you want?”

Halo said, “You asked me over, remember?”

“Yeah, I said noon. It’s only eleven thirty. You’re interrupting me!”

Bubbles waved, “Hi Max, whatcha doing?”

Max looked at Bubbles. “Being interrupted. Go away! Go… play with the teleporters. I’ll be done in a minute.” Max returned to whatever it was he was doing.

“Cheery guy.” Bubbles said.

Halo shrugged. “Ever see a Teleportation Array?” and walked off. Bubbles skipped after him, “No! You mean he was serious?” As they wandered around Halo showed her the equipment he knew. Some of the stuff they just stared at, neither having any idea what purpose it served.

Less than thirty minutes later, Max found them looking at a workbench. “Ok guys, sorry but you caught me at a bad time.”

Halo said, “And?”

Max said, “…and its ok now. That arm still had an active power source in it. I needed to deactivate it.”

Bubbles blurted, “Where did the arm come from?”

Max glanced at her then at Halo, “Yeah, well, before you start learning about that kind of stuff we need to talk.” He walked over to his conference table, strewn with papers and boxes. It seemed to be a kind of giant desk. Max handed Halo a box, “That’s to replace the last one. On this one the kinetic resistance is enhanced through refined micro fibers. There is a higher visible and ultraviolet albedo value so your ratio of incident radiation reflected will be higher.” Halo gave him a blank look.

“Your bullet-proof vest is better and you will be even less visible.” Max said.

“Gotcha.” Halo said and nodded his head, “Nice, thanks pal.”

“Don’t mention it, and don’t forget I want the old suit back for analysis.” Max stabbed at Halo with his ‘doctor’ look.

Halo looked appropriately guilty, “Right, I’ll get them all back to you right away.”

Max gave him a disappointed sigh and went back to his stack of papers, muttering to himself and then abruptly turned to Bubbles and shoved a piece of paper at her, “Here is your City Health certificate.”

“Health certificate? What for?” Bubbles asked.

“You didn’t read your packet,” Max said, “It’ll streamline the hero application process and make it easier for you to get into Cape Camp.”

“I already AM in Cape Camp, smart guy, I start next Friday.” Bubbles said, defiantly.

“You are in-processing on Friday.” Max corrected, in an overly weary tone. “They will decide then IF you can start on Monday. Read the whole packet. Don’t lose that health slip. I’m a Doctor not a photocopying service. Without that slip you don’t get in.”

“Hey, wait, how did YOU know I got in? The only person I told was Uncle Mike!” Bubbles asked. “Have you been spying on me?”

“Yep,” Max said, putting down the clipboard and walking away. He rummaged through some boxes and found the one he wanted. Bubbles had expected a denial and wanted to argue. His admission left her speechless.

“Sometimes I think I’m running a sporting goods store. Here.” He handed Bubbles a box and sat down on a stool.

Bubbles was miffed, but said, “What’s this?” and looked at both men. Both gave her a blank look. Bubbles opened it and almost squealed with delight, “No! You didn’t!!!” and pulled the pale blue costume out of the box.

Max and Halo were smiling. “Yeah, we spied on you. We know Serge too. He told us what you’d been in there looking at.”

Bubbles was so happy she was overwhelmed, “Oh my God! But this was so expensive, thank you!” She came over and hugged Max and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. She failed to notice Max’s discomfort as she turned and hugged and kissed Halo. “Oh guys that was so nice! Oh wow! I got a super-suit!!! YAY!!!” She held it up and laughed and giggled with tears running down her face.

Halo said, “Go try it on.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! I’ll be right back!” and she took off for the changing room. Halo and Max exchanged glances.

Max looked smug, “Well THAT went well”.

Halo grinned back at him. “Yeah. Standard tracking?”

Max said, “Yes, her frequency is already programmed into your new suit,” he waved his hand at the box under Halo’s arm. “The rest will have it too; next time they key their mics they will upload the new codes.”

“Ok. Well we should be able to keep her out of too much trouble until she’s fully trained. Then I don’t think anything will be able to hurt her.”

Max nodded thoughtfully, “Nice to be able to do this for such a nice girl.”

Halo took a breath and started walking back toward the changing room. Max walked with him. “Do you think she’ll still want to keep the job as a dancer, you know, maybe on a part-time basis?”

Halo said, “Why don’t you ask her?”

Max blushed.

Halo smiled and gave him a gentle punch in the shoulder.

Training Day 3


Halo looked at himself in the mirror. His newly blonde hair hung wet and loose past his shoulders. The package and bottles he’s used to color it lay scattered on the bathroom counter.

“The eyebrows are always the worst”, he muttered to himself. He gave up on trying to color his eyelashes or wearing contact lenses years ago and simply wore sunglasses. He was not terribly concerned about his secret identity. It was not all that secret. But he valued his privacy. Walking around with bright blue hair and eyes while in street clothes always attracted too much attention.

He cleaned up the mess and tied his long, newly blonde hair back and went into his bedroom. A loose pair of old jeans, a white T-shirt, black socks, and soft black shoes completed his semi-disguise. People who knew him well would still recognize him. Most people did not know him. They only knew him from the occasional photo in the paper, in costume, poorly lit, and always slightly out of focus. Another small gift from his accident: He did not photograph well.

He grabbed a black windbreaker and descended the stairs into the basement. He entered a network of passages once used by the garment industry to shuttle materials from building to building throughout what was once a vast manufacturing complex. The racks and conveyor belts were gone, what remained were a series of interconnecting passages at different levels leading to several buildings. Now it served to allow him to leave unnoticed by any one of several routes. He emerged from another building a block away and walked at an unhurried pace toward the tram plaza. Out of habit and necessity, he reached out with his awareness and took in his surrounding with more than his eyes. The chipped and worn bricks, the cracks in the sidewalks, the lost prosperity of Kings Row, could not mask the stately elegance of the old buildings. It had been such a beautiful town once. The usual teenage gang members loitered here and there, trying to look tough. Ahead, around the corner, he heard voices, and “saw” what was happening.

A young woman was being harassed by a “Skull”, a member of one of the local gangs, while a couple of his buddies watched and laughed.

“C’mon, baby, you don’t need to struggle, you just need to let me see what you got in the purse.” The mugger brazenly sneered at her.

“Let me go! Leave me alone!” The lady cried. Halo mentally awarded her points for courage. If she was lucky, she would escape such a confrontation with little more than her pride bruised. If she was not lucky, she could be in deep trouble. And that was the problem with leaving these decisions up to the hoods, thought Halo, dryly. You can never be sure what they’ll do.

He knew what he would do. Halo walked around the corner and “bumped” into the thug causing him to suddenly let go of the purse. She fell to the ground, but quickly got to her feet and backed away. The thug spun to face him. The other two thugs stopped laughing and stood up straight.

“What do think you’re doing, Man?” the would-be purse mugger sneered. Halo stood there and removed his sunglasses.

“I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?” Halo stared at the thug until he blinked. Dismissing him utterly, Halo turned his back on him and looked at the other two. In an even voice, filled with command, he simply said, “Get going.” Like startled rabbits they bumped into each other and ran down the street. They did not even bother to yell curses at him. They ran past other gang members without noticing them and kept on running. The lady was gone. He could not sense where she’d fled.

“Good. Go home and hug your kids, lady.” He thought.

Such encounters had the tendency to depress him. It would be much harder for gangs to recruit here if the poverty was not so bad. Still. People made choices; they did not have to make bad choices. But it’s hard to preach about good character to desperate people.

But today was not a day to be depressed. Bubbles waved to him from a cross the tram plaza, her usual blonde ponytails waving like flags. She was oblivious to the admiring gazes of the men and the critical looks of the women. She seemed to have no real grasp of how beautiful she was. She wore low cut jeans and a short tight pink blouse which did nothing to conceal her curves. Matching pink tennis shoes and a open pink jacket completed her outfit.

“So much for going unnoticed”, Halo thought. Still, it was hard to be down when you were around Bubbles. She was a bundle of happy energy that never seemed to have a bad day. Her positive attitude was, to say the least, infectious.

“Hiya!” She said beaming. “I LOVE the hair!” she said fiddling with his ponytail. He smiled at her, in spite of himself.

“You could keep it down a bit,” he said quietly. “We don’t really want to attract a lot of attention.”

“OH, right,” she said in a not-so-quiet stage whisper, “Sorry boss.”

“That’s ok. But next time wear something that isn’t so… bright.” He said, taking her by the arm and steering her gently toward the platform.

“Hmm… If we have a dress code, you need to tell me, and then you gotta take me shopping!” She said in a little girl voice.

“Have you always been a spoiled brat?” He said, raising his eyebrows at her.

“That is so impolite! I thought you monks were supposed to be kind and polite.” She said, enjoying herself way too much. Halo just shook his head and went into the tram.


They emerged in Skyway City, a district of Paragon City noted for excessive use of highway overpasses. The traffic had never become heavy enough to justify the cost of construction, yet the soaring highways remained. The net effect was that Skyway was a district in perpetual semi-shade and muffled sound. A few blocks from the tram they stopped at a non-descript brick storefront whose windows were tightly covered by shades.

Instead of using the door knob, Halo placed his hand on the top portion of the metal plate which extended above the knob. A soft click was heard and he pulled the door open. They stepped into a large, empty, silent room. A few old counters and merchandise displays collected dust along to far back wall. The floor was clean, but the place had the faint dusty smell of long abandonment.

There was, however, a softly glowing ring of pale blue light pulsing from no apparent source on the middle of the floor. They entered the room and Halo stopped a few steps in from the door, quietly looking at the lights. “This is exciting.” Bubbles whispered. “Is this the place?” Halo was looking at the blue ring, like he was waiting for something. After a moment he replied to her in a similar whisper “Yes, but… you need to know something.”

“What?” she whispered suddenly concerned.

“You don’t need to whisper.” He whispered back, with a straight face.

“Oh fuuuny.” She said out loud.

The blue ring started crackling softly as the ring of lights rose up to the ceiling onto a cylinder about ten feet in diameter, causing Bubbles to jump.

“Here we go.” He took her hand and stepped into the circle. The immediate sensation was like when an elevator starts moving, but she could not tell whether it went up or down. They emerged in a similar room except this one had a high ceiling and a wide corridor going into another room. Halo walked in and Bubbles trailed slightly behind. They walked through room after room all filled with strange equipment of varying sizes all throbbing, humming, and beeping.

“This looks like Dexter’s Laboratory!” she exclaimed with delight.

“Who’s Dexter?” Halo asked.

Another male voice said, “Dexter is a cartoon character Mike. You really need to get a TV.”

The voice belonged to a young man in a lab coat wearing some strange looking goggles bent over a workbench. At least Bubbles thought it was a workbench. It was not like any table she’d ever seen before and it was covered with tools and parts and wires and all manner of junk. The man in the lab coat stood up and stretched his back and then took off the goggles.

He turned and walked past Halo, ignoring Bubbles. “You’re late” he said.

Halo grinned, “Nice to see you too. Max, this Bubbles. Bubbles, Max.”

Max glanced at her. “Nice to meet you” he said, not sounding like he meant it. Before Bubbles could answer he said to Halo. “I have the prelims from the hospital. They’re junk. I need to do a full work-up. Hmm… Nice hair.” Bubbles suddenly realized how young he was. “He looks younger than me!” she thought.

He walked over to a nearby table which might have been a conference table except for the boxes and stacks of paper on it. He went to the relatively clear part of it and sat down, flipping open a file folder on a clip board.

“They did the basics, but that’s all and they didn’t follow up. Bubbles, I want to give you an exam to see if I can determine the source of your… ah… abilities.”

“Okay.” She said. “Um… are you the doctor?” she said, looking around.

“Yes.” Max said, closing the file. “I’m the doctor.” He said it in that oh-so-adult voice doctors like to use when they don’t want any argument. Bubbles knew how to deal with men.

“Okay, examine away!” she said, giving him a sexy smile and spreading her arms.

Max looked startled for a moment but recovered fast. He turned and went over to a large machine. “Go in there and change. Take off all jewelry, watches, rings, everything. Put on the scrub top and pants. There are some slippers there too.”

“Okay.” She beamed a big smile at him and walked to the changing room, knowing he’d watch.

Once the door was closed Max turned to Halo and said, “Where did you find her?”

Halo looked at the door for a second and said, in a distant voice, “On a pool table in a peeler bar with three bullets in her stomach.” Then he looked at Max. Max looked momentarily startled and only said. “Oh” before returning to his notes.

Halo said, “She’s the real deal, my friend. I can feel the energy in her. She just needs to do a bit of growing up and learn to concentrate. With some training, she could be very powerful.”

Max gave him a long look. “She’s a stripper? I bet she makes a fortune! But dancing on tables is not exactly our specialty. You have your work cut out for you.”

Halo said. “You might be surprised. She is not a dingbat. It’s an act. It’s almost like a disguise. She’s strong and she’s smart.”

Max walked over to another big machine and started adjusting it. He was about to say something when Bubbles came out. She looked even younger and smaller in the over-sized scrubs.

“Stand by this board.” Max said. Bubbles smiled at his rudeness and got a mischievous look in her eye as she strolled over to him. Halo closed his eyes and sighed. This was going to be a long day.

After about two hours, Bubbles was starting to get very impatient. Max had examined her with three different machines that looked like nothing she had ever seen before. Finally Max said. “Okay”, in a satisfied tone. “You can get off there now.” He walked over to a computer console with a large monitor. They followed and stood behind him as he hit buttons. His fingers flew across the keyboard. The display finally stopped changing and it showed a group of three dimensional displays. “You want the details or do you want this in English?” He said, still typing.

“I vote for English,” said Bubbles.

“What did you find?” asked Halo.

“She is not a mutant, at least not in the traditional sense. Her DNA is well within accepted normal parameters. However, her brain is emitting energy that I have not yet identified. It’s like a sphere of neutrinos, or a field. Like an energy field, but it’s inside her head. There are no abnormal growths, no extra lobes, no unusual organs. But this area right here…” he pulled up a small display and enlarged it to fill the big screen until they could clearly see a 3-D revolving diagram of a human brain. Arrows and lines blinked and changed, pointing to various areas of the brain. A portion of the brain was highlighted in yellow.
“…this area is showing abnormally high activity. This is an area of the brain we humans do not use very much. A lot of our brain is like that. We still don’t know what all of those “dark areas” do. Neurology, as a science, still has a long way to go before we fully understand how the human brain works. Obviously Bubbles can tap into areas of her brain that most people can’t. How this relates, and IF this relates to her reported abilities is the real questions.”

“What does that mean?” She asked.

Max turned around and looked her. “I don’t know yet. What it does NOT mean is more important at this point. You do not have an injury, or tumor, or a parasite or something else that could harm you. So that’s good.” He stood up and kept talking. “It means we need to do some more research too. But it also means you should be able to make some use of it with out harming your self.” He picked up a clip board and started writing. “Mike tells me you were shot recently.” She was startled by the abrupt question and was immediately self-conscious. She looked at the floor, uncomfortably, “Yeah about seven months ago why?”

“I’m forming a theory. I can reasonably suspect that you experienced hydrostatic shock and then additional trauma when you fell and hit your head. This could have activated a latent talent you have had in your brain all along. Another theory would be that something happened in the hospital which did not get on your record, but I have nothing to build on that with. The surgery was a straight forward abdominal procedure. No spinal cord injury. No unusual anesthetics or medications, no odd allergies. So I’m ruling out the hospital angle for now. My premise is that you have probably have always been this way but nothing ever triggered it before.”

“Okay, so… what is hydrostic shock?” She asked.

“Hydrostatic. The human body is basically a big bag of water mixed with chemicals. If you slap a rubber hot water bottle, the whole bottle shakes, because the water moves back and forth throughout the whole bottle. When a bullet hits the human body, sometimes it can cause a huge shock wave of fluid to move through the body. Just this shock alone can be enough to kill a person if it is bad enough. Then, after you were shot, you fell down, which could have caused further shock to your head when it struck the table. Pool tables have a slate surface under the green felt cloth. That’s a slab of solid stone.”

“You think that, because I got shot, it jarred something in my brain that was always there…sort of turned it on… and now it’s still running?” She asked.

Max looked up from his notes. “Yes. Exactly.” He looked at her for a moment and went back to his notes. “We are done with your exam. You can change now.” He waved his pen toward the changing room.

“Ok.” Bubbles went into the dressing room, thinking about what she’d just heard.

Max looked at Halo, “She IS smarter than she looks, by the way.” Before Halo could answer, Bubbles spoke from inside the dressing room, “I heard that!”

Max blushed and Halo just sighed. “How do you know that using her powers won’t hurt her?” He softly asked.

Max’s expression became earnest, “The human body is a magnificent and bizarre machine, Mike. A normal human body is not designed to harm itself. I have every reason to believe she is this way naturally. So whatever she can do with her abilities, her body can probably tolerate. Otherwise, there would be some sign by now that her body is suffering damage or deterioration caused by using her powers. The master designer, whether that is God, or nature or whatever, is a great designer. True mutants, on the other hand, are not always so lucky. Sometimes their bodies do not fully adapt to the mutation. Sometimes there are fatal consequences. I don’t see anything like that here.” Halo looked at him, too many questions came to mind. “This is kind of hard to swallow, she’s normal but she is not normal?”

Max sat down, removed his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Without his glasses he looked even younger. “Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this makes any sense. The instruments and the samples don’t lie. She is not a mutant, at least not in the way mutants are defined genetically. There are no chemicals or impurities in her blood. Considering where she works, I expected some traces of drugs, alcohol, etc. She shows none of that, so nothing Scientific has altered her accidentally or on purpose. She has no growths or tumors or implants that would suggest some sort of technological source. And lastly, she has no markings or traces of any sort of arcane influence. All I can do is look at facts. Sometimes the facts lead to strange conclusions. I am not ready to make a conclusion. All I can do is accept what I am seeing and make a recommendation. She falls well within “normal” human parameters.”

Bubbles emerge from the dressing room and Max led them through to another area. He carried his ever-present clip-board and turned on lights along the way. They stopped in a large open area that was about the size of school gymnasium. Various pieces of equipment and a few targets were set up in separate areas. Max went over to a console in the corner and more noises started happening. Bubbles noticed a large square block of concrete toward the back of the empty side of the room.


He turned to them, “Time for a couple of small tests.” He looked at her.
She said, “Okay. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to do deliberately what you have been doing accidentally.” Max tapped on a key board. Bubbles looked at him uncertainly, “Ok. I guess.”
Max looked at her through is thick glasses. “It’s up to you. But my tests indicate it is perfectly safe. This is a controlled area. I have tested people with powers here before. I would like to test you. Bear in mind my theory is only a theory and it’s only marginally supported by anecdotal evidence. We need to collect some more data, and at the same time, give you some more experience under controlled conditions.”

Bubbles looked at him. “For a young guy you sure are smart.”

Max shrugged, “I’m a genius. I didn’t ask to be one. I can remember every word on every page of every book I’ve ever read. I never forget anything. Even some things I want to forget. But I did not earn it. I was just born this way.”

“Like me.” Bubbles said.

“Like you.” Max nodded and said. “You take what you are given and do the best with it, right Mike?”

Halo just grinned at him like it was some inside joke.

Bubbles asked stalling for time, “So what do YOU do with “it”, work here in this lab, do research on heroes and stuff?”

Max turned on some more lights that illuminated a recessed alcove behind her near the door. She turned and saw what looked like a large robot in pieces hung on a rack.

“What’s that?” She asked.

“Work clothes.” He said without looking up. “When I’m not working here, I wear that battle suit and see how many Rikti I can find. The Rikti destroyed my home, killed my family. I’d like to do the same for them.”

“Where did you live?” Bubbles asked.

“At PCSU in Baum Town. My mom and dad taught there and we lived on campus.” Max said.

“I lived in BT, on Willow, near the cathedral. The Rikti blew up my house. I don’t even know what happened to my mom and dad. I never saw them again.

“The whole city would have ended up looking like BT if not for the heroes.” Max said. “I was twelve.”

“I was seventeen.” Bubbles said.

An awkward silence settled on them. Halo had been silent but now spoke up. “When Max wears the suit, he goes by the name, “Battle-Star”. Bubbles turned around and stared at Max. “YOU’RE BATTLE-STAR?!” She exclaimed. She quickly walked over to the suit and got a better look at it. “You’re BATTLE-STAR! You’re a HERO! A REAL super hero! You saved all those people in that office building; and you fought those gangsters, you do all kinds of stuff! I’ve seen your picture in the paper and on the news!”

Max seemed genuinely flattered. He shrugged slightly and said. “I’m not a super hero. I’m a guy with a really good suit. If I have a “power” it’s only right here.” He said tapping his temple with his finger.

“Speaking of which, let’s see what’s hiding in your head,” Max said, returning to his console.

Halo put his hand on her back and guided her up to a line on the floor. “Come over here, and face that block.” Halo said.

“Okay,” Bubbles said, slightly confused.

“I want you to try to hit that block.” He said.

She glanced at him. “But…”

“I know, I know, don’t worry about it, this is not the club and that is not another person. This is just a test. Ok?”

Bubbles took a breath and then gave him a determined look. “Ok.”

“Just reach with your power and try to hit it, like you did that other time, and let’s just see what happens.” He was standing close, looking straight at her with an encouraging smile. Suddenly he seemed more like her father, teaching her to ride a bike.
She took another deep breath and looked at the block. It was across the room, about twenty feet away. Nothing was happening yet, but, since she was now thinking about it, she could feel the power, like a tiny headache, hovering at the edge of her awareness. Awareness. That was the trick, she thought. Focus. She took a deep slow breath and suddenly she was alone… just her and the block. The rest of the room seemed to be slightly in the shadows, like there was a path of light between her and the block. The block was surrounded by six thick blue circles, slowly orbiting and revolving around it. She mentally felt for the small ache and poked at it. Suddenly one of the bands of light stretched and elongated straight as an arrow forming a rope from the block to her hand. One of the rings of light surrounding her suddenly and violently peeled off and shot toward the block in a pale blue stream of throbbing energy. The power sliding down her arms felt like a cold, soft plastic. The effect quickly dissipated, but her senses were now heightened. She could see the rings very clearly now.

Max quickly walked over to the block and examined it. Then he looked back at Bubbles.

Bubbles said, “Aw man! Let me try again.”

Max looked at her. “You moved the block! It’s about a foot back from where it was.

“Oh!” She said brightly, “Then that’s good!” Max walked back toward her, he was looking at her like she was a lab rat. Suddenly he did not look so young.

“How hard did you try just then?” Max asked.

“Not too hard, why?”
“That block weighs four thousand pounds. If that had been a person, they would have been knocked clear across the room.”

“Oh!” Bubbles said. “Then I need to turn it down?”

Max looked at Halo and then back at her. “Yeah, I want to see not only how powerful you are, but also how much control you have.”

“Ok, next time, tell me how HARD you want me to hit it and I’ll try.” Bubbles said.

Max had her try it a few more times. After a couple of tries, Bubbles started to see that she could not change the amount of power in the blasts very much. She did not really damage the cement block, but merely pushed it back.

“That’s enough for now.” Max said. Bubbles was starting to perspire. She took off her light jacket and sat down on a stool. As if he was reading her mind, Halo was beside her with three bottles of water and handed her one. “Thanks.” She drank the water and watched Halo set one on the console next to Max. Max muttered something. Halo opened his bottle and drank water too.

“So Max was really ‘Battle-Star.’” Bubbles thought. “Wow. Was he all brain and no heart?” She wondered briefly what must have happened during the war that made him this way. Sure he suffered, a lot of people suffered. A lot of people died. But he must have had it especially bad. Hmmm…

Her reverie ended when Max turned on his stool and looked at her. “Ok, that was good. The bolts of force you are sending out have a consistency to them that can be measured. I’m still not sure if we are measuring gravity or just the effects of gravity. Raw gravity, as a power-form, does not exist in a theoretical construct, not one that we can use anyway. So what we are really talking about is Gravometrics. That’s pure science fiction, really. At least until now. “Max returned to writing on his clipboard.
Bubbles gave Mike a blank look. Mike looked back at her and shrugged.

“What else can you do; anything useful?” Max said, abruptly. Bubbles was starting to get tired of his bad attitude. “I can cook. I’m pretty good on roller blades.” Bubbles said, smiling sweetly.

“That’s nice.” Max said, sarcastically. “What other things can you do with your powers?”

Bubbles stood up and yawned, stretching her hands above her head and going up on tip-toes. When she finished she looked at him and his mouth was slightly hanging open. She ignored that and walked out to the “firing line” and looked at the block.

Halo came up next to her. “How do you feel when you use your powers?”

“I feel good. It’s fun. Kinda makes me hyper, though.”

“What do you see?”

“Rings. Rings, all over everything. Lots of different sizes. Lots of different colors. Some are very faint, some are bright and thick. The bigger something is, the darker and thicker the rings are.

Halo said, “When you look at the block, tell me about the rings.”

Bubbles looked at the cement block. “It has six thick blue bands all revolving around it slowly. Some are thicker, slightly and some are… softer.”

Max said, “You can… touch them?”

Bubbles looked at him and said, “Oh yeah, I touch them all the time. They are soft. That’s’ how I know if someone is behind me. Everyone has rings and they go out around you. Like, I don’t know…”

“An aura?” Mike said.

“Yeah! Like an aura! But it has hoops.”

“Can you touch the hoops?” Max asked.

Bubbles said, “Oh yeah.” She stretched her hands in the air and reached with her mind and "touched" the rings surrounding the block. She stuck her fingers between them and pulled slightly. The rings collapsed into a bundle and the block suddenly vaulted straight up into the ceiling, smashing into the acoustic tiles and light fixtures. The block then fell to the floor with a thunderous crash, accompanied by a shower of sparks, glass, and other debris from the ruined ceiling. Bubbles did not flinch or even look surprised but muttered, “Sorry, that was too fast… here… here… yes…“ She held her hands up like she was finger painting in the air. Max and Halo moved back behind her, toward the door. Mike whispered to Max “Sorry about that, I’ll help fix it.” Max whispered back, “Don’t worry, I have repair bots to fix it, happens all the time. “

Bubbles was standing there looking at the block, “It’s ok now. I have it held.” They saw with amazement that the block was now suspended a foot above the floor. A small patch of glowing energy was below it. “It will fall down in a few seconds. I can’t hold the knot that tight.”

As if on cue, the block once again slammed to the ground. Max and Halo walked over to the block. It was looking somewhat worse for the wear. The corners were chipped and pieces of glass and ceiling tile were all over. A strand of dangling wire sparked as it slowly swung from the destroyed ceiling.
Bubbles looked at Max, certain he would be furious at her. He turned around and, said, “Excellent.” And make some notes on his clipboard and then walked briskly back over to the console.

Halo quietly said, “Bubbles, what do you see when you use your power, anything besides the rings?” Bubbles thought for a moment. “It’s like I think about it and then I see this web… or a… net. Except it is not just a net, it’s thick…” She stepped a little and turned around the room, looking and pointing at things. “It’s like a tangle of circles, like hula-hoops all wrapped around everything. Big hoops around big things little hoops around little things. Some are thick and darkish some are thin and pale. They are like… like they are alive.”

Max said, “Can you see this all the time?” Bubbles shook her head. “No, only when I think about it, it’s like I got a little headache or a stiff neck. I ignore it most of the time, when I look at them too long… it gets confusing.”

Max was starting to get excited. “Is it like a “wave” like waves of water or air? Or is it like dust, like, uh, like particles or bugs flying around in a circle?”

“It’s like light. And music. Like you could SEE music but not hear it. All the hoops are like light circles tangling everyone together. Every thing too. Its like they are dancing in place.”

Max looked like he was mesmerized. He swallowed hard. “You can see gravity.” He stated flatly. “You can SEE gravity! He stood up and turned around with his hands in the air. “I don’t believe it!!! That’s incredible! That's amazing!

Max spun around and looked at her and, for the first time, smiled at her. “This may be one of the most significant scientific discoveries since Newton dropped an apple! Even Einstein never thought of this!!! Rings! Light rings! Not waves, not particles… music. Amazing. Absolutely astounding! Bubbles, do you have any idea what this means?”

Bubbles shook her head, “No. But you’re not mad that I smashed your roof? I didn’t mean to, really.”

“NO! NO! Girl, you can SEE gravity! Nobody even KNOWS what gravity IS! Scientists have been trying to figure out gravity for centuries, but YOU! You don’t have to figure it out, you can SEE IT! You can TOUCH IT!” As he talked, Max walked up to her, like she was his favorite person on earth. “That is astounding!” For a second, Bubbles thought he was going to hug her.

Halo said, “What do you feel when you touch the rings? Is it like electricity?”

She shook her head. “Oh no, it’s nice! It’s like petting a dog, like running you fingers through dog’s fur. It feels nice.”

Max looked at her and said. “What happens when you touch your own rings?”

She shrugged, “I'll show you...” She slowly moved her hands around, like she was picking at a spider web. “There… there’s a soft string…” She pushed it out and it wrapped around her hand. “I… I can feel it like a sponge or a plastic sheet, its’ soft but… here… I can pull it apart… “ Suddenly a sphere of pale glowing light appeared all around her. “AAAGH!” Bubbled screamed and stood there rubbing her bottom. Halo and Max were on their feet and standing close to her, but not too close, neither wanted to touch the sphere. “What’s the matter are you ok what happened?” They both shouted at once.

Quietly Bubbles said, “I’m ok, It just… snapped me,” in a hurt voice.

“Snapped you?” Max said. “What do you mean?”

“It SNAPPED me, like a rubber band!” She said. “Stretched it around me and it popped into a ball. It… snapped me. On my butt! “

Halo grinned and shook his head, “Oh good grief.”

“It’s NOT FUNNY!!!” she said indignantly. “I let go of it too fast and it HURT!”

Max said, “What is ‘it’ Bubbles?” He touched the sphere and it appeared to dent slightly but it stopped his finger. “It feels like I’m pushing against solid… air!”

“I held two rings and touched them together and they snapped crossways. Now I can’t see them but I can see this ball-thingy.”

Max said, “Mike, try to hit it.”

Halo poked it a few times and then punched it. “It’s like hitting a mattress. It’s like a soft wall or a… “

“Forcefield” Max said. “It is a text-book example of a force field! We will need to test this and see what it can stop.” He looked at her and said, “How do you feel? Are you ok, can you move?”

“Yeah I feel fine, I can move, see?” She walked around the room and the translucent sphere stayed around her wherever she went.

“Amazing” Max said.

Halo looked puzzled, “Why is it amazing? We’ve seen force fields before.”

Max looked at him and said, “Yes, but where is it coming from? How is it powered? A generator? A helmet? A door? No. It‘s coming from her. And she’s not even a mutant. That, my friend, is amazing.”

Halo nodded. They both turned to look at her.

A few hours later Halo and Bubbles emerged into the afternoon shadows of Skyway City. They walked toward the tram plaza without speaking. Bubbles had a swollen lip and a bruise on her neck. Halo walked slower than usual, with a slight limp and a small bandage on his forehead. Halo, as usual, did not say much. He scanned around them by habit, taking in every detail of their surroundings.

They ascended the ramp to the tram station and, as they got to the top, Bubbles touched Halo on the arm, “Uncle Mike.”

He stopped and looked at her. Bubbles gave him a determined look. “I want to go to City Hall. I want to apply for my hero license.”

Halo gave her a long, quiet look. “I think that's an excellent idea.”

Bubbles smiled big and blurted, “REALLY?”

Halo smiled, in spite of himself, “Yeah, really,” and chuckled.

Bubbles was animated now. “Wow, that’s great, what made you change your mind?”

He stepped up the platform, waiting his turn to file onto the tram car. He massaged his jaw with his free hand and he put his other arm around her shoulders and gave her a brief half-hug and whispered in her ear, “I think it was when you sent me flying across the room after I popped you through your force field, you big bully.”

Bubbles blushed and giggled and they entered the tram.

Training day, Part 2

Three weeks and several demanding training sessions passed. Bubbles arrived a little early that Tuesday. She wore her usual over-sized white T-shirt, blue sweats, and carried a gym bag. She carefully opened the blue metal door and stepped inside. After removing her shoes and socks she looked over at the small shelf against the wall to her right. In spite of herself, she made a little bow. “Well, HE thinks it’s important. I suppose I should keep him happy.” She thought.

The kitchen door, which led to the rest of the apartment, was closed. She set her bag down with her shoes and wandered out into the middle of the floor. Slowly she raised her hands over her head and stretched, then stepped into fifth position and went through several brief ballet moves, entered a grand plie’ and rose into an arabesque’. She held the pose. Then she slowly lowered her hands to the floor and went into a hand stand and rolled out of it into a round over and a front flip, hands free cart wheel, and a back flip. She stopped and slowly descended into a back bend. Her loose T-shirt fell around her neck, revealing her bare midriff and her grey sports bra. It wasn’t a bra really. More like a half top. And it was thick elastic designed to keep her considerable breasts from being bruised while exercising. It was advertised as “extreme sports grade” and had taken her a whole day of shopping to find.

She continued over and out of the back bend into a hand-stand. The T-shirt obstructed her view. She puffed air out of her mouth and shook her face to shake the T-shirt away from her face. Feeling suddenly clever, she shook her shoulders and head letting the shirt fall all the way to the floor, pooling at her wrists. Then she walked on her hands out of the shirt and continued to hand-walk a few feet away, leaving the T-shirt it in a pile where it fell. She rolled in to a somersault and leapt into the air onto her feet, slowly lowering herself into a full split. She tucked her legs in and stood, spun around and saw Halo standing in the door.

Without hesitation she waved and said, “Hi!” and did another back flip.

As he walked toward her, he picked up her T-shirt. “You’re stronger than you look.” He held it out to her, “Need this?” He asked.

“Nah, it’s warm enough in here.” Then she stopped. “OH! I’m sorry, you said this was a temple, did I do something wrong?” She held her arms across her chest.

He shook his head, “No. I don’t think Buddha would mind. But that reminds me of something.” He handed her the shirt and quickly walked back and returned in a few seconds carrying a shopping bag. “I took the liberty of doing some shopping for you.” He handed her the bag.

Her eyes lit up, “Ooh, what’s this? You bought me a bathrobe?” She held up a black jacket. “This is real silk!” She exclaimed.

He said, “It’s not a bathrobe, its workout clothes, Chinese style. There’s matching pants too.” She was already pulling it out. “Wow, this is nice! Hey there’s more! Let’s see… Another suit?”

“I didn’t know which you would like better. Some people like a Japanese uniform better.” He watched her examine the clothes.

“Can I try them on?” She asked.

“Yes, that’s the idea.” He said. She made a face at him and trotted off to the bathroom.

He again picked the T-shirt off the floor and folded it, shaking his head.

She emerged wearing the black silk cheongsam. “This is nice! It feels like PJs. But won’t it get ruined?” She asked, fingering the material on the sleeve.

He said, “Silk is pretty tough. How does it fit, can you move around in it with it all buttoned up?”

“Yep, fits nice,” She said waving her arms around. “Loose, but not too loose. THANK YOU! This is really, great!” She beamed a big smile at him and ran back into the bathroom. She came out wearing the karate uniform. It was black cotton.

“This is nice but it’s stiff. I’ll need to wash it a few times to soften it up.” She held a long black belt in her hand. “Am I supposed to wear this? I’m not a black belt. Aren’t I supposed to start off white and change colors?” she asked.

He said, “It matches the gi. The color business is not that important. Not like you think.”

“Oh,” she said. “I thought you earned, you know, a black-belt.”

He said, “I guess you could if you want, I don’t know how that works. I could find a karate instructor if you want.”

She looked at him disbelieving. “You don’t have a black-belt?”

He shrugged, “No. Why?”

“Oh, I’m sorry I just assumed, you know, you fight so good.” She said.

“The martial arts you might study these days are taught like a sport. They are great for exercise, and for basic fighting, don’t get me wrong, but they are not what I do.” He said.

“What do you do?” She asked, innocently.
“In a real fight, I do a combination of things that work best for me. The only thing that really counts in a real fight is winning. In a real fight someone usually wants to kill you.” He said. “But, if you need a name for how I learned it, it’s mostly what people call kung-fu.”

“Oh, I figured it was something like that. Where did you learn it?” She asked.

His expression softened a bit. “From a very kind old man. We called him Uncle Han, He was a Buddhist Priest. But you wouldn’t think of him as ‘Master Han’. More like a father. He was a great man.” He said, looking at the floor.

“He’s… um… dead?” She asked, immediately sorry she asked it.

“He passed away in ’90. He was 112. He lived a strong life to the very end.”

“That must have been hard, you were a little boy, what, ten, twelve years old?” She asked.

“No, Bubbles, I wasn’t.” he said flatly.

“You were younger?” She asked.

“No. Sit down here and I’ll tell you.” They sat on the square cushions. Halo ran his hands over his blue hair to the band of the ponytail.

“Bubbles, I haven’t been completely up-front with you. I’ve been waiting to see how this would work out.” He looked at her.

“I had an accident that changed me. It made my eyes and hair this color and it did some other things. At first I thought it was a curse, like a disease. Uncle Han taught me to take this BAD thing and make it into a GOOD thing. He taught me to read and write Chinese and to fight. Well, he taught me a lot more. I became a monk and adopted The Path. Then I became a priest. I was honored to be recognized by the few remaining Masters as a Master. But the Shaolin do not really exist anymore as an order. It was more like a family. Anyway, I studied in other places with other masters too. I trained and lived with them for over fifty years.” He was looking at her, but not really seeing her. He looked at a place somewhere behind her, decades away. It took a second for her to let it sink in.

“Fifty years? You’re kidding me. You aren’t fifty years old! You… how old ARE you? You look like you’re my age or maybe a little older.” She said, not taking him seriously.

“I was in the Navy in World War II. Our ship had a very bad accident. A lot of men were killed or went missing. I was hurt, almost electrocuted, but I survived. The Navy discharged me after I got out of the hospital. I was twenty two when that happened. I’ve pretty much stayed twenty two since.” He took a deep breath and looked at her.

“Bubbles, I was born in my parents’ bedroom on a farm in Pennsylvania in 1921. I grew up on that farm. When World War II started, all the boys joined up. I went into the Navy. ” He said, simply.

Bubbles noticed her mouth was hanging open and she closed it. “You… You’re… WHAT? You are eighty…eight three? No way! You aren’t eighty three!”

Halo sighed, “I’m not lying to you. However, I know it’s hard to believe. I find it hard to believe myself sometimes, until I look in a mirror.” He said wryly.

He stood up and stepped back. “I have something to show you. This is the quickest way to show you I’m telling the truth. Please do not be afraid.” He concentrated for a brief second and seemed to tense his muscles. Suddenly, amazingly, he vanished.

Bubbled screamed and jumped up, except she stumbled over the pillow and landed flat on her rear, momentarily stunning her. She looked back at Halo except he was not there.

“I did not expect such a strong reaction. I apologize.” He faded back into view, but only barely… he looked like a ghost. His ghostly face said, “They say; seeing is believing.”

She stood there with her mouth open. Then he faded completely back into view and stood there looking at her.

“Oh my God! Oh wow!” She gasped.

”That’s from the accident. It is not much of a “super-power” but I find it useful in some situations.” He said it as casually as if he were talking about the weather.

Bubbles found out that she could speak. “You, you, you, ah, you’re ok? Uh… you’re not a ghost are you… I mean you’re alive?” She stammered.

Halo shrugged. “Yeah. I’m alive alright. I just don’t age. And there are some other things no one has been able to explain. Anyway, I just live with it. It comes in handy so I use it. Please, sit.” He gestured to the cushion.

Bubbles continued to stare at him as though he would disappear again. “That’s just so wild. How do you do it?”

He gave her a mild look and slightly shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not sure. I focus and think about it and it happens.”

Bubbles sat back down. “Ok, so let me get this straight: you are over eighty years old, you are a Priest, and you can turn invisible. Did I cover everything?” She asked, nervously.

He pursed his lips and scratched his forehead and nodded. “Yep, that’s the Reader’s Digest version, but yeah, that’s basically it.”

“Riiiiight. Well I have to hand it to you, if had not seen you beat those Nazis with my own eyes I would not believe it. Still that’s an incredible story.”

“Bubbles. I didn’t tell you to impress you. I wanted you to know. You deserve to know what you’re getting into. I don’t want you to think I am something I’m not. I know you want to get a hero license and fight crime. You could go right now to City Hall and get one. But you would get yourself killed. I want to help you. I don’t want to see you hurt, not again.” His voice faltered.

“That wasn’t your fault.” She put her hand on his. “Those guys shot me, you tried to stop them.”

“Bubbles, you must understand something; this is basic to… to being a… to being in the crime-fighting business. It may not be my fault directly but it is my responsibility. I could have let them take the money and leave. They might have done just that. Or they might have shot everyone anyway. We will never know because I did not let them make that choice. I chose to intervene. When I did that, I became responsible for the outcome of my actions: MY choice, MY responsibility.” He seemed to change before her eyes. His face hardened.

“When you put yourself into a situation which, in reality, is none of your business, and MAKE it your business, you must accept the consequences of your actions. You must be powerful enough to control the outcome. You are not ‘above the law’, but your actions are held to an even higher moral standard which sometimes eclipses the Law. Sometimes the law is wrong. Sometimes the law is corrupt. Sometimes, all you have is your character, your faith, your trust in your moral standards to guide you. This is the essence of justice. The law does not care about justice. There is no such thing as a court of justice, there are only courts of law. YOU are the justice that sometimes the law can’t satisfy. Your powers, your knowledge, your will, give you the power to act in a way most people can’t. They give you a responsibility most people, even many heroes, can’t even comprehend. People will hate you for this. People will mistrust you, and accuse you of being a vigilante. You can’t be afraid of being unpopular. You can’t rely upon other people’s opinions of you to make you happy and motivated.”
Bubbles looked at him. “I understand what you are saying. I guess I kinda knew it, but just not the way you put it. If you feel responsible for me getting shot why do you want me to go out and get shot at some more?”

He looked at her. “You’re sharper than you act sometimes. That’s good. One thing does not cancel out the other. I still feel responsible, but I can’t fix the past. Luckily no one was killed, so I learn from the experience and do better next time, or, I insure there never IS a next time. You asked me to train you. That was an adult decision made by an adult. I may have accepted you as a student even if the robbery never happened. I have not deceived you into thinking this would be easy. Quite the opposite, I’m doing everything I can to show you how hard it can be.”

Bubble stared back at him. “Trying to scare me off?”

“Nope. I’m trying to scare you ON. I want you to get a sense of how serious this is. You can act anyway you want, but deep down inside, you need to feel the badness of this. This is a bad business, Bubbles. It steals part of your soul, if you let it. So you can’t let it. You have to harden and train you body AND your mind. That’s why we begin with meditation. But there is no reason to dwell on the past. We have to concern ourselves with the here and now.” He stated flatly. “Meditation helps you control your thoughts and concentrate, which you desperately need.” He gave her a meaningful look.

“Aw no. God, do you know how awful meditating is for me? ” She asked.

“Yes”, he said. “It’s good for you.” She sat down.

Once, when he was showing her a move, he had bumped her in the mouth with his elbow. It felt like she‘d been hit with a hammer and it gave her a fat lip. But even getting hit in the mouth was better than meditating. They settled into their relaxation exercise. She found this part to be absolute agony, but she was learning to cope. She had a harder time concentrating than usual. All the things he had said kept running through her mind.

After meditating she put away the pillows and Halo said. “Come here, you tied that wrong, let’s put your belt on and see how you like it. “ He undid the ties on her jacket. Part of her sport bra was clearly visible above the wide deep v the gi jacket made when it was closed. Halo opened up her jacket getting a clear eyeful of her ample bosom barely restrained by the grey spandex. He pointed to her side. “See this tie? This goes here, and this… this ties. Then this one goes here with this one. See?”

“Ah gotcha.” She said. He knelt in front of her.

“And this belt ties like this.” He wrapped the belt first around her stomach and then passed the ends around her back. Doing this brought them together in a brief hug as he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. She eyed him as he tied the knot in front. He was concentrating only on his task.

“And then around and up behind the first wrap end then a simple knot.” He tugged the knot snug and jerked her unexpectedly.

“Ooh!” She said. He gave her a reassuring smile.

“There you go, all dressed up and ready to fight.” She tugged at the belt and rearranged herself a bit.

“That feels a little weird, but I can live with it” she said.

“Good. You can take it off or loosen it up if it starts to bug you. Let’s begin.”

He walked over to the wall by the kitchen and picked up his own black jacket and put it on. It looked like an older, more faded version of what she wore. Instead of a belt, he wrapped a wide black strip of black fabric around and tied it as a sash. Like her, he was dressed all in black.

He walked over to the corner and dragged out some mats that were stacked there. He spoke as he worked, “The uniform keeps you from getting scraped up and gives us something to grab onto. Today we are going to learn some falls and some basic takedowns.”

The session was rough but fun. She soon realized the tough canvas cloth was necessary to practice grabbing and throwing a person. She was learning fast. And her positive attitude and enthusiasm were infectious. Also, Halo seemed to be having fun and loosening up around her a little.

As he taught her the moves, he gave her situations. He talked about criminals. While he demonstrated, he talked about what motivates men to become criminals. He talked about what they were thinking when they pointed a knife or a gun at someone. She started thinking about people in a different way. She did not like what she was hearing. Were people really that bad?

Almost everyone she knew either worked at the club or were customers there. The men who came into the club were not really bad. Naughty maybe, bored and lonely mostly, or showing off for their friends. But they were not evil, were they? Most men only want a woman to smile at them and make them feel appreciated. It was amazing what just sitting down and talking with them would do for their mood. Instead of being afraid of the customers, she’d gotten to know all the regulars. She even knew some of their families. Were some of her customers criminals?

But he made it clear to her that not all men could be charmed. Some did not care how pretty or sexy she was. Some of those men would see her simply as a threat and try to kill her. This was a lot to digest.

In addition to throws and take-downs, they practiced the usual kicks and punches. This time he held a big square pad for her to hit. She even got to throw him, which she loved. She got the wind knock out of her once, when he was teaching her how to fall, but she quickly got the hang of it. After another grueling session, she was again perspiring heavily and he was not. He walked back from this kitchen holding two bottles of water.

“Can I ask you a question?” She asked.

He raised his eyebrows, “Of course.”

“Um, what should I call you, anyway? Like um, you know, Mr. Halo, or Sensei, or Master or what?” He ran his hands over his hair to the band of his blue ponytail. He seemed to do that whenever he did not know what to say. “I dunno, Mike’s good, just call me Mike, everyone else does.” He smiled at her.

He did not smile often, but when he did, it lit up his rough face. How could someone so tough looking be so cute? “Um, no, I don’t think that’s right. How about ‘Uncle Mike’”? Mind if I call you that? You’re old enough to be my uncle, right?” She said jokingly, giving him a playful punch in the arm. It felt like she had punched a wall. He gave her a funny look and suddenly he laughed out loud. It was so abrupt it completely startled her!

He stopped laughing and apologized, “Oh, I’m not laughing at you! Uncle Mike! Hah, I like it!” He said with a twinkle in his eye. “Do I seem like an uncle to you?“ He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah, kinda,” She said smiling, “A big scary uncle.”

“Who me? Scary?” He said, in mock surprise.

“Yeah YOU.” She said, poking him in the stomach. “You scare everyone, everyone but me. You used to scare me, but now I know you are just a big [censored] cat; A big… scary… killer [censored] cat with huge claws and fangs.” She made a face with her fingers pretending to be fangs.

“Ah, so my secret is out. I am ruined.” He laughed and then his smile faded. “You don’t need to be afraid of me, ever.”

“Ok, but if you are going to pull anymore scary stuff like your vanishing act I’d like a little more warning next time, okay?” She said in a mock scolding voice.

“Agreed, next time I’ll tell you.” He nodded.

“You mean you have more stuff to show me?” She said, eagerly.

“I mean it is time for you to go. You have to be at work soon.” He said smugly.

“Very funny. Okay. I’m not even going to ask how you know that.” She said as she walked off to the bathroom.

Halo stacked the mats and tidied up the room while she changed. She emerged wearing her white T-shirt and blue sweats. She walked over to him and bowed. He bowed to her. “Eyes up.” He said. “Right.” She said.

They turned to the small statue of Buddha and both bowed. “Thursday we’re going to visit a friend. We’re not going to work out, so wear something casual.” He said as he walked with her to the door.

“Can I ask who it is?” She said with raised eyebrows. “You can ask. He’s a friend, he values his privacy. He is going to give you a check-up and see if he can figure out your powers.”

“Oh COOL! Thank you! I am SO waiting for this!” She said, overjoyed.

“Good.” He said, and opened the door.

Without hesitation she gave him a big hug. “Thanks so much. I’ll see you later.” She said smiling.

Halo was not used to being hugged. He was also not used to smiling so much. It made his face hurt. He grinned at her. “Good by.”

She trotted off and then turned to wave at him before she went though the outer door.

He muttered, “This is ok. This is working out ok.”

I feel like a disclaimer should be here but I am not sure where to start. Unfortunately, my forum name is the same as my first hero in CoH. That hero is a main character in these stories. Any resemblance between me and Mike Halo is accidental. Hope you enjoy.



Training Day

“This must be the place.” She thought as she compared the small piece of paper to the faded sign on the old warehouse. “Talk about your ‘fixer upper!’”

The instructions said, “Enter through the side door and cross the room to the blue door.” The dim light filtering through the dirty windows revealed some equipment, or what remained of it, gathering dust in small clusters here and there, but the cavernous room was mostly empty. And it was quiet. Not even the sound of pigeons competed with the occasional sound of a passing car to make a dent in the silence. She took a deep breath and headed across the room to the blue door.

It was a large metal door with a big handle and it was, in fact, dark blue. She expected it to be difficult to open. The lever moved easily and the massive door swung silently open. She peered in.

The room did not bear any resemblance to the warehouse. For one, it was clean. It was a large open area, as high as the warehouse, but this was finished with a polished dark wood floor, cream-white walls that went way up to a finished white plaster and dark wood beamed ceiling with skylights. Cushions, mats, and various other small items sat on the floor along the walls. It was beautiful, in a stark, simple way. There was very little furniture and even less on the walls. “Okay, this is different” thought Bubbles, as she closed the massive door.

That was not her real name. “Bubbles McSweet” was her stage name, but now, it was basically the only name she went by. She was an exotic dancer, a business owner, and now, a semi-pro crime fighter. Or so she wished. Coming in at exactly five feet tall, 102 lbs, with blue eyes, blond hair, and a toned, curved body any model would have killed for, she was hardly a menacing presence and she knew it. If she ordered a criminal to stop, would he just laugh at her or ask her for a date?

She was used to having men not take her seriously. From former employers to bank presidents, men had either treated her like a sex object or like an idiot. One by one they had learned differently. She had learned to make the “dumb blonde” act work for her. It’s amazing what people will say around you if they think you are an air-head.

Then it had all changed. Five months ago she had almost been murdered in an attempted robbery at the club. When she awoke in the hospital, she discovered she had the ability to move things without actually touching them and she could make a shield out of thin air. The doctors called it “A latent mutation” even though no such thing existed. They had finally admitted they could find no trace of a mutation in her DNA. For absolutely no reason she or anyone else could understand, she awoke with the ability to use the laws of physics the way a child uses finger paint. Unfortunately, she could barely control it. That was making life complicated. During an incident at the club, a customer who’d had a bit too much to drink had grabbed Bubbles and started pawing her. Before any of the other people could react she had panicked and shoved him away. The problem was he had sailed half way across the club. Other stuff had been happening too, weird stuff such as things jumping and floating around when she touched it. She was scared. She was afraid for herself and afraid she might accidentally hurt someone else.

Desperate for answers, she had finally gone to the only person who she thought might be able to help her. Though she was fed up with being scared, she’d done something even scarier: She had asked for help from the most intimidating person she had ever met.

His name was Mike Halo. He had never said so much as a sharp word to her, but he scared her. The night club, The Paragon Dance Party, catered to super heroes. Many heroes of varying abilities came there. She had long ago become accustomed to the garish, bright costumes, the amazing displays of powers and… the incredible arrogance. Far too many “heroes” did not have a very heroic attitude. He was not like that at all. In fact he was not really a “hero” in the usual sense. For one, he did not dress flashy. He dressed all in dark blue, so dark it almost looked black, like navy blue. For another thing, he did not go around shaking hands and introducing himself to everyone acting like a celebrity. He kept to himself. None of the other heroes made any attempt to speak with him. Word on the street was he was more vigilante than hero. Some of his methods made people in City Hall nervous. Other heroes spoke of him with disdain making vague accusations of excessive force, illegal searches, and unauthorized investigations. Yet he was polite in an old fashioned way, like the old guys in the park. When he came into the club, which he did fairly regularly, he did not hoot and leer like the other men. He just watched. He watched her, the other girls, and he watched the customers. It seemed like he was always watching.

They struck up a conversation one day and it turns out he was nice. He was friendly, in a quiet way. However, even in the dim light of the bar, he looked very tough. And yet he was calm. Calm like no one she’d ever met. His casual confidence was so understated, it was strange. And he seemed to look right through her. It was odd at first. He always seemed to be looking at a place somewhere behind her. He had these weird eyes; bright cobalt blue. She had never seen bluer eyes. Did he wear contacts? And, most interestingly, he had blue hair. In a city full of exotic characters, blue hair was not THAT unusual, but it matched his eyes. He wore it long, but it was always tied in a ponytail; A long blue pony tail. It seemed to fit him. But why blue?

And he looked strong. His muscles rippled underneath the fabric of his dark blue costume. He was not sleek, like a body builder; every muscle seemed to have little muscles attached to it, like ropes all twisted together. His costume was not just a set of tights. It was thicker than it looked. But it clung to him like a second skin.
And he was fast. He was not a “speedster” like some of the showy heroes who frequented the bar, but he was very fast. And he was… graceful. Like a dancer, but NOT like a dancer, different somehow. She could not describe it. The really amazing thing was that he could dodge bullets. She would not have believed it if she had not seen it herself.

When the goons had tried to rob the bar a few months ago, they had busted in waving machine guns and pistols, screaming orders. There was almost no one in the club except the staff. Everyone raised their hands and dropping to the floor as ordered. The music blared on so you could barely hear, but when their mouths moved, you knew what they were saying. And then they stopped and stared - at HIM. He just sat there at his table, sipping coffee. She had never seen him drink beer, always coffee. They leveled their guns and barked orders at him. It seemed like slow motion. He carefully put his coffee cup down on the saucer and closed his eyes for just a moment. Suddenly he was NOT in his chair.

And all hell broke loose.

In the blink of an eye, five of them were on the floor. He moved around them, but he was a blur, like he was out of focus, a living shadow. He dodged, spun, and struck, kicking and punching with smooth, even movements. It took a second or two for them to even realize they were being attacked! Then they started trying to shoot him. “They managed to shoot the bar, the floor, the pool tables, the ceiling fan, and even me”, she thought, “but they never even knew where he was!” He had been everywhere at once! Leaping, ducking, and spinning he had FLOWED between them, beating all ten of them into unconsciousness-BARE HANDED!

When she was hit, she did not lose consciousness. She lay there on the pool table, not able to move. Suddenly it was all quiet. It was over so fast. They were all either unconscious or writhing in pain on the floor. He put something on each of them and they were instantly teleported away. He had somehow drifted back into focus. It was so odd.

He looked around the room and she watched his mouth move “Is everyone all right?” Joe, the bartender, pointed at her and his mouth moved. Halo was instantly beside her. She could not talk. She was numb, cold. Her eyes were open. Blood poured from between her fingers where she clutched her stomach. His face had been so close.

He looked into her eyes and said, “Oh God… Sandy…” He put something on her forehead. She remembered how blue his gloves were. They were unexpectedly thick and rough on her skin as he gently held her face. He smelled of gun smoke, and leather, and blood.

He was saying something, “…you’re gonna be ok, they’ll take care of it…” and gently tapped her forehead with the tip of his blue finger. She floated away.

He visited her in the hospital, maybe more than once, she wasn’t sure. But he did not come during normal visiting hours. She’d seen him once in his dark costume, crouched on her window ledge one night. She looked up suddenly and waved, almost startling him off his perch. He gave her a grin and a thumbs-up and was gone. The mysterious Halo was now her guardian angel? How did he get up there? How did he get OFF there without breaking his neck? The day she was released from the hospital, he had not been there. Joe and Candy, her best friends from the club and the only “family” she had, picked her up. Then she had not seen HIM again until he’d shown up in the bar again a couple of weeks later, same as always. He’d never talked to her about it.

Another odd thing was that, unlike every other man she had known, he did not try to hit on her. Bubbles knew she was very pretty; beautiful, even. The mirror did not lie. After one too many cold nights and one too many hungry days, she’d finally become desperate enough to use her natural good looks to her advantage. She’d decided to take a chance and pull herself out of minimum wage poverty by auditioning to become an “exotic dancer”. It had been another scary, but successful risk. It seemed like a degraded and sleazy way to make a living at first, but she was not a degraded or sleazy person. She was just hungry. She’d learned the ropes and had found ways to make it fun. Every day at work seemed like it was not really work, more like a party and a “naughty dress up day”. In short order, she no longer paid any attention to being seen undressed. She decided if they wanted to pay her that much money, then she would keep right on dancing. She negotiated her own contract and formed her own entertainment company. She trained and hired out dancers for parties and clubs. She was working on building up a catering business to go with it. Bubbles still danced, to stay in shape and to train the other girls, and because she loved to dance. She was used to being noticed by men. She expected it. He, however, did not seem to notice her, not in that way.

Now she was about to take another risk. No matter what else she might think, Halo was an unpredictable, dangerous man. Though he had saved her life, he was not necessarily her friend. He was a licensed hero and saving lives was a regular thing for heroes, right? She was nothing to him. He was not what you would call, “approachable”. It was the eyes. He just looked at people and they went away. She couldn’t walk up to him and say, “Hiya Halo, what’s up?” like she could with any other customer. She had begun to think of him as Mr. Halo. She’d gathered her courage two days ago and asked Mr. Halo for help. To her utter surprise, he’d said yes.

And here she was. She was wearing her normal workout clothes consisting of an over sized white T-shirt, light blue sweatpants and sneakers. Her blonde hair was in her customary two ponytails, but she wore no makeup. She was not here for a fashion show; she was here to learn how to do karate stuff, and beat up bad guys!

Silently he stepped into the room from the other door. He was not in his costume. He was barefooted and wore some strange puffy black pants and a black tank top. Without the mask, cape and boots he looked even more muscular and even more dangerous. He was good looking, gorgeous in fact, in a tough-as-nails-rip-your-head-off kind of way. Not handsome, like a movie star. He was just so… scary.

He stopped and made a short bow to the other wall to her right. There was a small shelf with some knick knacks and oriental pictures above it. Then he looked at her and said, “Hi, remove your shoes and socks. Leave them by the door. Don’t come in wearing outside shoes, okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” she stuttered. “Good morning to you too!” She thought, as she quickly yanked off her shoes and socks and dropped them by the door.

“Glad you could make it.” He said. “Sorry about the shoes, I should have told you that in the message. Outside shoes are hard on the wood floor and this…” he said spreading both hands, “this is a dojo. It is like a gym for fighting, but it’s also like a shrine. We don’t wear shoes in here.” He looked at her, expecting an answer. “Okay.” She said.

He continued. “So this is my place. The kitchen and the rest of the place is through there and the bathroom is that door there.” He said, pointing. She waited patiently, watching him move around the room. “You can go in the kitchen and the bathroom. I keep bottled water in the fridge if you need it.” He gestured to the small shelf, “this is kinda special, so I would prefer you don’t touch it unless I ask you to, okay?”

“Ok.” She saw there was a statue of Buddha as well as what looked like statues of a dragon and a tiger. “You collect oriental stuff?” He gave her an odd look, like he did not understand what she meant.

“Uh, no. That’s not a collection, it’s just special to me.”

“Oh, she said, “You pray there?” She’d seen this sort of thing on TV.

He made a slight smile, “Yes. I do.”

“I’m sorry,’ she said, “I didn’t mean to… I mean, this is a really cool place! Like the real Karate Kid. ” She said giving him what she hoped was a charming smile.

He gave a small laugh,”Yeah, I guess so, who is the Karate Kid, a hero?

“No, silly, the MOVIE!” She said.

“Oh, well I don’t see a lot of movies, must have missed that one.” He seemed so normal now. “But that’s ok, are you hungry or thirsty? Need anything before we get started?” And he was nice!

Bubbles felt encouraged and said, “No, and thanks, uh, Sir, I just wanted to say thank you for teaching me…”

He waved his hand and said. “No reason to thank me. You would not be here if I didn’t want you here, so it’s no problem.” He walked to the center of the room and gestured to two flat, square cushions lying on the floor.

“Please have a seat.” She walked over and sat on the cushion. He did too, except he did not really sit down. He just descended into a sitting position.

He sat a few feet away, facing her. She had never seen him up close and in this much light. In fact, the club was so noisy; she’d never really heard his voice before. She noticed his arms, neck, and shoulders were, as expected, a maze of ridged muscles and veins. No bodybuilder was as defined or “cut” quite like this! The muscles were not round and even, they were like a mass of cables twisted together. His skin looked like he had no fat at all and it was marked with dozens of faint spots and lines. There were three faint lines on his forehead above his right eye. “Those are not wrinkles, those are scars!”, she suddenly realized. “He’s younger than I thought,” She said to herself. “But how the heck did he get so cut up?” Then she realized how small she was compared to him. “I barely know this guy, I’m afraid of him, and I’m here alone in his house in the middle of nowhere. What am I doing?”

He sat there for a minute and ran his hands over his hair. She waited, not knowing what else to do. He looked at her and rested his elbows on his knees. Suddenly he was serious again. “Miss McSweet, I want you to know that I don’t usually do this. I… well… I’m not a regular martial arts instructor.” He sat up straight. “After what happened in the club, you know that this hero stuff is very dangerous. See all those statues of heroes around town? They are all dead. If you get killed doing something heroic, chances are you won’t even get a plaque, let alone a statue. Either way, you will still be dead.”

Bubbles’ heart sank. Halo went on. “This is not a business for amateurs. I don’t want you to…”

“I understand”, she said, a cold feeling growing in her. “I understand completely.” She stood up. “I’m sorry I wasted your time, sir.”

She turned to leave and Halo said, “Miss McSweet, don’t get angry. Come and sit down.” She looked at him. He looked up at her from his cushion, his oh-so-blue eyes boring into her.

She said, bitterly, “I’m sorry you changed your mind, that’s fine. I’ll get angry if I want to. I don’t need you telling me what to do.” She turned to him and pointed her finger at herself, “I am not going to change my mind on this and I don’t need you or anyone else trying to talk me out of it. I’ll get my help somewhere else.” She turned to leave.

His expression was mild, his voice was soft. “If I did not want to teach you I would not have asked you here.” He said, “Please sit down”. She stopped and looked at him with her hands on her hips. She gave an exasperated sigh. “Then what do you want? What are you talking about?”

“I just think you need to know what you’re getting yourself into.” He looked into her eyes. He gestured with his open hand to her cushion. She went back over to it and sat.
“I am not going to lie to you. You may not like what I say, but I’ll always tell you the truth. I’m not going to get you into something without you knowing exactly what the risks are, fair enough?”

“Fair enough,” she replied.

“You also need to know that if you do anything stupid with what I teach you, I’m the one who will have to deal with it. Do you understand?” She felt suddenly aware that all of the muscles in his arms and shoulders rippled every time he moved.

Her mouth suddenly went dry. “Um… if I use what you teach me wrong you will be mad?”

He nodded slightly, “What it means is we are all responsible for our choices. I am partly responsible morally and legally for what you do with what I teach you, because I chose to teach you. That does not mean you are not responsible for yourself. If you do something immoral or illegal you will be held accountable.”

A cold shiver ran down her spine. “He will GET me if I mess up.” She thought.

But she was not going to be scared off that easily. She screwed up her courage. “Ok, I know what I’m getting into. I still want to do this.” She said. “Mr. Halo, I have to do something. I can’t keep going on like I am. I don’t know who else to go to. I’m not exactly Freedom Corps material, you know? I mean, they… they don’t like people like me.” She looked at the floor, suddenly self-conscious.

“Miss McSweet...” Halo began. “Oh just call me Bubbles ok?” she interrupted.

“OK, Bubbles. I told you I would help you and I will.”

She looked up at him. “Thank you. This means a lot to me.”

He gave her that look again. “Good. It means a lot to me too.” He said, cryptically.

“Okay, let’s start with a few basic things.” He got up and walked over to the small table and knelt on both knees in front of it. He bowed and said something that sounded like Japanese and lighted some incense sticks.

“There, that’s better.” He said.

“He’s into aromatherapy?” She thought. He walked back over and sat down, crossing his legs.

“Sit like me. Straighten your back and sit up. Head up, shoulders level.”

“We’re going to do yoga?” she asked.

“Nope,” He said. “This is not exactly yoga. Take a slow deep breath. Let it out. Close your eyes and relax your mind a little.”

She did as she was told. “Here we go” She thought, “Off to Karate-land!” She breathed in and out. She was so nervous. She breathed in and out. It felt unnatural, funny. She kept peeking at him, trying to match his breathing. The silliness of it was overcoming her. She got the nervous giggles. She tried to keep taking long deep breaths like he was doing. She could not stop giggling.

She opened her eyes and said, “I’m sorry, um, but this is just so corny, I’m just, you know, this is … “Her voice trailed off as she looked at him.

He had not moved. He sat there slowly breathing with his eyes closed. “I know. I thought so too - once. Sit still and breathe.” Admonished, she closed her eyes again and started breathing again.

“Breathe and be still. Listen to your breath. Feel it. Picture in your mind: You can see your breath flow… like smoke… in and out.” His deep voice was low and slow and soft, almost hypnotic. “You must learn to clear your mind and focus. Your breath comes from the center of your body. Control your breathing and you can control yourself. You need to learn to do this to focus, to be aware.”

She did as he said and tried breathing. She felt funny all over. She was painfully aware of her clothes, her skin, her hair, she felt like she had ants on her. She was also very aware of him. He was at least four feet away, but she could almost feel heat coming off of him. She could feel her breasts in the new sports bra rubbing as she breathed. She felt naked, sitting there. She had been undressed a thousand times dancing in the club. But she never felt naked, not like this. Suddenly she opened one eye a little bit and peeked.

He sat there, eyes closed, slowly breathing, barely moving at all. She closed her eye. “Okay, he’s not looking at me.” She was being silly. She was feeling trapped. She was feeling panicky.

“Wait, okay, this is just confusing me. I mean, I just keep thinking about things. I can’t concentrate, can’t we, you know, do some karate stuff?” She said.

“You have not tried. You must calm your thoughts and try harder.” He said, in that annoyingly patient tone. She was starting to get frustrated. She was mad at herself because she could not do something so simple. She was going to go crazy if she sat here much longer.

“Open your eyes.” He said. Relieved she yawned and stretched and rubbed her eyes.

“I said open your eyes, not “move around”. Please sit still. If you are going to learn how to control your abilities and learn how to fight, you must first get control of YOURSELF.” He had not raised his voice, but it felt like he had.

“Yeah, but you said we were going to learn karate. When can I learn to do kicks and stuff?”

He looked at her and said, “I said I would help you. Everyone is different, Bubbles.”

“But I thought you were going to teach me karate! That’s what I asked you to do, to be my teacher, or sensei, or whatever!”

“Please be still.” he answered, still without raising his voice. “Your gifts are not there. You must look to YOUR gifts, YOUR strengths, and we will work from there. Fighting is all in the mind, Bubbles. It is your mental approach to a problem which determines how you deal with it. If your mind is weak, your fight will be weak. I will teach you fighting. But that is merely as a tool to help you to discipline your mind. But you are not a hand-to-hand fighter. You are more.”

She wanted to complain more but did not know what to say. Was that a compliment? She was feeling confused and embarrassed. “He’s treating me like a kid.’ She sulked. “I’m not a kid. I’m almost the same age he is.”

“We will do this for ten minutes without interruption. So far we have done this for two minutes.” She groaned inwardly, but he continued, “Then we will do something else. But for ten minutes you must be… alone with yourself.”

He paused, to let that sink in.

“Most people have never spent anytime alone with themselves, Bubbles. It can be an unsettling experience. I understand that. But to be able to deal with the ugliness in the world, you must be at peace. Peace with yourself. You must face and accept every thing about yourself. Think about nothing. If your thoughts start to wander, stop them. Look at that thought and accept it. Then return to thinking about nothing. Listen. Listen to your breathing, your heartbeat. Listen to my breathing. Listen to your stomach growl. Listen to the noises coming from outside. Be still. Listen to everything. Think of nothing. Breathe.”

This was perhaps the hardest thing he could have asked her to do. She was in mental agony. All she wanted was to kick and punch a punching bag. She had never stopped talking and moving in her life. Her whole world was a constant blur of talking, sound, music, and motion. She concentrated, she tried to relax. Each moment stretched into an eternity. Her thoughts raced around, disorganized. Gradually, her panicky mind began to slow down and she found her thoughts drifting from one thing to the next.

She gave a yelp when she suddenly realized someone was touching her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open and HE was there, kneeling close to her. “Are you ok?” She mumbled, “Wha, huh? Yeah, what… Why? What’s wrong?” He helped her to her feet. Her legs were tingly.

“I called your name. You’re ok?”

“Oh” she said, feeling suddenly self-conscious. “Sorry, I guess I fell asleep.”

“That’s ok”, he said. “That was just the first time. You’ll get the hang of it.” He picked up the cushions and set them against the wall. “You are a dancer, so you should have no problems with this part. We will do some stretching.”

“Finally”, she thought, “something I understand!”

The afternoon wore on. They practiced foot-work, punches, and kicks and put them together to make a short routine. Her dancer’s skills came in handy as she was able to quickly memorize the moves and the patterns. But they did it over and over again until she thought she would die of boredom. But she quickly understood what he meant about her not being a martial artist. Halo was not the biggest man she had ever met, or even the strongest, but at a little over six feet tall and well over two hundred pounds of solid muscle, she would never be his match physically no matter how good she got at fighting. But she was not giving up.

About two hours later she was completely exhausted. “And I thought I was in shape!” She said, as she sat soaked with perspiration drinking water from a bottle he’d given her. “You are. You are doing fine.” He said, slowly stretching at various angles from a full leg split. “He’s as flexible as I am”, she thought. “And he has not even broken a sweat”.

“It just takes some time. Speaking of time, that’s enough for today. When do you want to meet again, next Thursday morning ok for you?” He asked.

She smiled wearily at him, “Okay, you want to do this, what, 2-3 times a week?”

“Yes, that’ll be okay for starters.” He said standing up. “Okay” she said, suddenly feeling awkward. He walked over to the center of the room. “Come stand by me” He said. He pointed to the table, “Bow, please.” And he bowed. She made a quick jerky bow. He turned toward her, “Turn and face me - bow.” She bowed. “Better”, he said. “Look at me when you bow, not the floor.”

“Can I ask a question?” She asked. He said, “Of course, you can ask me anything.”

“What’s all the bowing for? I mean, I don’t mind, it just seems… you know… kinda formal.”

He looked at her for a moment. ”Yes, it is formal. Bowing is a sign of respect. This is a temple - holy ground. We bow to the symbols of peace, strength, and wisdom with reverence. We must approach the business of confronting and possibly harming people with reverence. Also, I treat you as my student, but I must treat you with respect.”

She suddenly brightened. “You respect me?”

“Yes, of course,” he seemed concerned, “why wouldn’t I?”

She once again found herself speechless, staring at him. “’Cause almost no one does. They think that because I’m a “stripper” that I am a lowlife.” She looked defiant.

“Bubbles, you are not a lowlife. You are a very strong, very sweet girl. You are not nasty or mean; at least you don’t act nasty around the bar.”

She smiled at him. Who would have thought this incredibly tough guy would be so nice?

He continued, “I am not here to judge you, I only want to help you. There is nothing wrong with what you do. You work hard, you make people happy, you abide by the law. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it, you’re right. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. You did well today. Make sure you practice at home, Okay?”

“Okay, I will.” She replied.

He walked her to the door. “If you want, next time you can bring extra clothes and change in the bathroom so you don’t have to go home sweaty.”

She smiled at him, “Thanks, I will.” He nodded. Another awkward silence settled. Impulsively, she kissed him on the cheek and then ducked out the door. She looked back at him and said, “Thanks, see ya!” and trotted through the old warehouse.

He stood at the door briefly and watched here leave. He ran his hands over his hair and thought, “That’s not the way I planned this.”

Is this the proper forum to post stories?