As grateful as I am (and especially in today's economy) to have a decently paying and steady job, there are times when I really wish I could win the lottery, and just QUIT. Because the mental stress and hassles is really starting to drive me mad.
Anyway...
As usual, discussions go here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Two - It's Only Just Beginning
"So what now?" Statesman asked Raymond as he came back into the portal chamber, looking at the disarmed bomb with no small amount of trepidation. "Is it safe to move that thing?"
"At this point, probably, and better to have it away from here, at any rate," Raymond replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "We'll take it with us back to HQ and I'll go over it there." He got to his feet and stretched, trying to ease the adrenaline-fueled tension out of his muscles, then pulled on his helmet as the rest of the Phalanx re-entered the chamber.
Heading back up the elevator and through the D.A.T.A. offices, he found the Longbow officer and the ranking PPD members issuing orders to their subordinates. It was agreed that Longbow and the PPD would supply extra security at City Hall for the next week or so, while alerts were issued to other major facilities throughout the city. Several heroes also agreed to provide some extra security, or, as needed, additional manpower for investigative purposes.
For a moment, Raymond hung back to watch the activity outside. Even at four in the morning, there was still a lot going on - proof that heroism never slept.
"Sir!"
He turned to see the members of the PPD bomb squad approaching, carrying a large and empty container.
"Great, thanks. I was just about to come find you guys to ask for something to transport that bomb in."
"Sorry we weren't much help," one of the younger bomb squad detectives said apologetically, but Raymond waved away his remark.
"Don't feel bad, you did the right thing. Listen, we're going to take the bomb back to my lab and run it through a few forensics tests. I'll then compile the data and send it on to you guys and you can run it through your own records."
The next ninety minutes saw the Phalanx, the PPD, and Longbow dealing with the paper trail for the evidence. Everything had to be recorded - the security tapes of City Hall and the D.A.T.A. offices, the contact procedures for calling in the PPD, Longbow, and then the Phalanx, interviewing anyone who might be able to provide information about the attempted bombing, and detailing the handling of evidence.
Behind his helmet, Raymond halfheartedly smiled to himself. On cop shows and cartoons, they make this part look so easy. If only they knew... Still, when it came to justice, such care was needed - all it took was one misstep in the judicial procedures and a savvy lawyer could get even the worst villain off on a technicality. For his part, considering what this bomb could have done, Raymond had no intention of letting that happen if he could help it, so he swallowed his exhaustion and pressed on.
Finally, at close to six a.m., matters were finally under control, the bomb carefully sealed away in its container for transport, and the Phalanx allowed to leave. Heading back to their main headquarters in Galaxy City, the five heroes were quiet, and Raymond guessed that they were either mulling over the current problem, or more likely too tired to make conversation.
And God, I just want to get some sleep, he groaned to himself during the quick flight from Atlas Park. The couple of hours' rest that he'd managed to get at Sorina's wasn't nearly enough for him. As he thought of her, he then debated calling her to tell her what was going on, but on the chance that she might have gone back to sleep, he chose to wait and call her later. No sense waking her up now without more details to share.
Upon arriving at headquarters, Raymond took the bomb containment unit to his lab, but as he started unpacking it on his workbench, Sister Psyche wandered into the lab after him.
"You know, Ray, you should really get some rest first."
"I'm fine," he protested, although the effect was slightly ruined by his barely stifled yawn.
She leaned against the doorjamb, watching him as he pulled off his helmet to massage some of the tension from the back of his neck. "You're not fine, you look half dead. And especially after everything that happened yesterday, you need to get some sleep."
While Raymond rummaged through one of his shelves, grabbed a selection of tools, and pulled up a stool to his workbench, Sister Psyche quietly studied him.
"If you don't mind me asking, how come you didn't bring Dr. Tavarisch along this morning?"
Raymond's hands stilled, but he didn't turn around.
"It's actually something I meant to talk to all of you about later today," he admitted after a pause. "But... Sorina and I agreed to keep our personal and professional lives separate."
"Is that what you want?" Sister Psyche asked softly.
"It's what we need to do," he replied, finally turning to look at her. "When we were in the War Zone, Shalice, I realized I couldn't stand to see her in harm's way. It's not because I don't think she can take care of herself, I just... I just don't think I could handle seeing her get hurt."
"And I gather she feels the same way," Sister Psyche mused, and Raymond nodded. "I also gather something happened in the War Zone between you."
"Yeah, but... right now I'd rather not discuss it. Later though, I will." He met her calm green eyes. "And I mean that, Shalice. Your advice would mean a lot to me on the matter, but now's not the time." He waved one gauntlet-covered hand at the bomb. "I still have to deal with this."
"YOU have to get some sleep," she said firmly. "You're flesh and blood again, Ray. Get a few winks and then deal with this. The bomb can wait, and God forbid another crisis comes up, you need to be rested."
He finally gave her a wry smile. "Are you always this pushy?"
"That depends on whether you're asking Justin that question or not," she admitted. Then she sobered slightly. "Or are there dreams that you'd rather not be dealing with right now?"
Raymond shook his head. "No, nothing like that. But you win. An hour."
"Four," she insisted.
"Two," he countered, but Sister Psyche shook her head.
"Four hours. No less. I'll tell the others to stay out of your hair."
Raymond ruefully rubbed his bare scalp. "Not that that's much of an issue."
Sister Psyche rolled her eyes at him, pointed at the cot, and then strolled out of the lab, closing the door behind her.
Grinning slightly, he disengaged his armor, and thirty seconds later it was carefully stashed away in its containment tube. Half-stretching, half-falling onto the narrow cot he kept in his lab, he yawned and rolled onto his side to stare at the wall. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, especially compared to his own bed or Sorina's, he mused, but he was almost too exhausted to care.
For a few minutes, his brain was still busily engaged, going over clues and reliving moments of disassembling the bomb, plus going over his conversation with Sister Psyche, but with a grunt, he forcibly shoved all concerns out of his mind, rolled onto his other side, and promptly fell asleep.
*****
Four and a half hours later, he slowly emerged from sleep, then groaned and stretched before covering his face with his pillow. After enjoying a dream where he had been spending some quiet time with Sorina, waking up alone in his lab with a crick in his neck and eyes full of sleep dust was not his idea of enjoyment.
"Damn it," he said, his voice muffled. "I hate days that start off like this."
A second later, a loud banging on the door to his lab so startled him that he fell off the cot and landed on the floor with a curse, just as Steve zoomed in, a pot of coffee in one hand and a plate covered with plastic wrap in the other.
"Rise and shine, Oppenheimer. Psyche said you'd probably need this."
"You son of a-"
"Come on, get it while it's still hot." While Raymond picked himself up off the floor, swearing and groaning, Steve vanished in a blur and then re-appeared, heading straight toward the bank of computers that lined one wall of the lab. "Besides, we've gotten some info from the forensic teams at City Hall, and you'll wanna see it."
"Lemme wash my face and finish waking up," Raymond muttered, ducking out of the lab and down the hallway toward one of the HQ's bathrooms. He wished he had the time to shower and shave, but for now it could wait. Instead, he turned the sink taps to 'freezing', and splashed water on his face and the back of his neck to help wake him up. After a minute or so, he felt reasonably more alert, and he had to admit that the nap had helped.
"Okay, so what's the deal?" he asked as he re-entered his lab, detouring to the lab table to pour himself a cup of coffee. Looking at the plate, he saw that apparently the Phalanx had ordered in from one of the delicatessens near HQ. "And what kind of sandwich?"
"Reuben, though why you insist on corrupting it with sourdough instead of rye is still a mystery to me. I guess you can take the geek out of San Francisco, but you can't take San Francisco out of the geek."
"Force of habit from Stanford, and anything that keeps you from stealing my food has to be a bonus," Raymond replied, peeling back the plastic wrap and picking up the sandwich. "All right, what did I miss while I was asleep?"
The smell of the food made him realize just how hungry he was, and he finished half the sandwich while gulping down coffee between bites. While he ate, Steve talked.
"The press has been all over this since the story broke in the morning editions. Over a dozen different groups have supposedly claimed responsibility, but none were able to provide good enough details to really verify to who it might have been. Meanwhile, States-" Steve jabbed one thumb toward the door of the lab. "-has been doing what he can to keep the newshounds off our doorstep, with varying degrees of success."
"Terrific," Raymond remarked, swallowing another mouthful of sandwich. "How's the public mood?"
Steve looked thoughtful. "Well, mixed, I'd say. On the one hand, no lives were lost, we saved the day, hooray for our side. On the other hand, the fact that someone managed to almost pull a fast one has people worried. Requests for additional security are coming in from all over the city."
Raymond sighed to himself. So much for any hope of enjoying a little downtime with Sorina after everything that had happened recently. Admittedly, though, with the bomb scare, it was a good bet that the Star Patrol would be seeing some additional action as well. Then he realized Steve was talking again.
"And we also just got an uplink from the security team at D.A.T.A., they finally finished copying their security cam feeds and sent us over the relevant segments."
Finishing off the last of his sandwich, Raymond poured himself another cup of coffee and took a seat in front of his main computer terminal. "All right, let's take a look."
Five of the camera feeds were from the main portal chamber beneath D.A.T.A., two were of D.A.T.A.'s main office, and three more of the main lobby of City Hall. As the camera footage appeared on the monitors, they saw that all of them had the same time stamp - approximately three in the afternoon, the day before.
"Why a Sunday?" Steve wondered aloud, watching the playback.
"Not as many people there," Raymond replied, his eyes moving from one monitor to another. "Which could work both ways, I suppose. On the one hand, fewer people there to notice you. On the other hand, fewer people there to serve as a distraction, either."
Togther they watched the monitor feeds, focusing primarily on the ones in the portal chamber until at 3:42pm, they both saw a faint flicker of movement in the area where they had later discovered the bomb.
"There," Raymond murmured, freezing the playback. "So at 3:42, whoever it is actually gets to the portal."
Steve was already going back and rewatching the other feeds at superspeed, working in reverse to see when the intruders might have entered the building, but even after going back fifteen minutes, he found nothing. With a grunt, he switched it back to normal play. "Nothing. It's possible that whoever it was teleported in there."
"Invisible teleportation? It's possible, but you'd then be putting out energy on two fronts instead of just one," Raymond mused, studying the screens. "I suppose we could ask them if they detected any abnormal energy spikes or signatures in that timeframe, but..."
He shrugged. "It'd be a damn inefficient way to go about it. No, whoever got this thing inside either teleported in exactly at 3:42, or entered the building just before then."
The footage continued to play on the monitor, with the two heroes occasionally pausing the playback to enhance an image, double-check it, or try to get another angle of view, with no success.
Then Raymond heard Steve draw in a sharp breath, his eyes staring at one of the cameras positioned inside the D.A.T.A. office facing the portal access elevator.
"Steve?" He glanced up at his roommate. "What is it?"
"Go back on that one..." Steve pointed to the monitor. "But take it down to half-speed."
Raymond rewound the footage and then played it back, wondering what had caught Steve's eye.
Nothing.
He rewound it again and slowed it this time to one-quarter speed, but it still wasn't enough.
So he shifted to frame-by-frame progression, manually clicking forward one frame at a time.
Then they both saw it - in the space of a single heartbeat, a shadowy figure had materialized in front of the laser identification system.
"Quick, advance that other footage to the same frame," Raymond snapped, but Steve was already ahead of him, this time using the camera feed that was mounted on top of the elevator facing the laser barrier. Within moments, they had an alternate view of the individual.
"Now, take both feeds forward frame by frame," Steve said, and Raymond advanced the footage one frame at a time. In the next frame, the figure seemed to go translucent. In the next two frames, it moved forward through the laser barrier. Three frames after that, it had reached the elevator door. Then it passed through the still-closed door and disappeared.
"What the-" Steve's mouth was slightly open.
"Of course," Raymond said, his voice betraying his frustration. "Invisibility doesn't mean intangibility - he had to disable his shroud to shift out of phase just enough to clear the barrier. That couldn't have been more a fifth of a second." He glanced up at Steve. "If you hadn't have caught that, we might never have noticed."
Turning back to the keyboard, he backed up to the initial frame where the intruder had appeared, then began zooming in on the image, sharpening it to bring it into focus. However, even zoomed in, the figure seemed to still be shrouded in some kind of darkness, though it was clear that the figure was tall, powerfully built, and judging by what they could see of its build, presumably male.
"What about downstairs?" Steve asked, pointing to the other monitors while still staring at the close-up of the intruder. "If he went intangible, he could just drop down the inside of the elevator shaft."
Raymond brought up the five camera feeds from the portal room, then found one that gave a decent angle on the elevators. Again advancing the footage frame by frame, soon the intruder appeared to 'ghost' out from the closed doors, then vanished again.
"So that's when he got in, but I didn't see him carrying the bomb." Raymond rubbed his eyes and looked again, but still nothing, so he continued to advance the footage, this time keeping his eyes focused on where the bomb had appeared.
"There!" Steve said, pointing, and Raymond saw what almost looked like two lens flares on the screen, except that in the next few frames, they brightened, then dimmed, and disappeared, with the bomb now in place.
"The bomb was teleported in, and the intruder teleported out," Raymond said slowly, studying the frozen image. "Two nearly simultaneous transmissions - one indicating the saboteur's location. Those coordinates are used first to start his retrieval, and once his teleportation is begun, a second is started to send the bomb directly to those coordinates."
"Back up three frames," Steve said, his voice sounding strained, and Raymond glanced sharply up at him to see that the blood had drained from his friend's face.
"What the hell-"
Steve shook his head fiercely, staring at the screen. "Do it."
Raymond backed it up to where the second lens flare had appeared.
"Now zoom it in again."
He did, and this time, he saw what Steve had seen. The briefest image of a face on the intruder... if it could be called a face.
Snarling teeth in an almost skull-like, animalistic visage glared back at him out of the darkness that surrounded the rest of the intruder's body.
"That's him..." Steve whispered, one hand unconsciously drifting to his ribcage and looking as though he were staring at his worst nightmare.
"Who?"
"The one who almost killed me."
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I know, I know, I've made you guys wait an unconscionable amount of time before posting this chapter. But between losing my job, HeroCon, getting the flu, making the GOING ROGUE teaser, and trying to find a job, I think I'm going insane.
However, I give you not only the latest chapter, but art! Yes, courtesy of Brandon McKinney, aka CyberLynx here on the forums, I present to you your favorite nerd lovers fighting the good fight!
(Ironic, isn't it, that right after Sora and Posi agree to keep their personal and professional lives separate, I commission art that has them together in uniform... I wonder what subconscious message that means...)
And as usual, discussions go here.
So, without further ado...
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Three - The Face of the Enemy
"Well, that answers one question."
Raymond's voice was flat as he stared at the monitor, the image of the saboteur still frozen in place. Just when he'd thought the day couldn't get any worse, fate chose to prove him wrong. I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning.
Behind him and Synapse, the door to the lab opened, and Sister Psyche strode in, Manticore and Statesman behind her. Her eyes swept the room, then came to rest on Steve and Raymond in concern.
"Are you all right? I felt-" She paused for a moment, then went on. "Not quite fear. More like horror, really."
"That was me," Steve said quietly, still idly resting his hand over his side where he'd been stabbed. "Seems that now we know who's behind the attempted bombing."
Looking up at his roommate, Raymond could understand Steve's response to the situation. A near-death experience was a hard thing to forget, especially when it came at the hands of a cold-blooded assassin and a misguided shadowy clone of one's current girlfriend.
Manticore moved around his wife to get a closer look at the monitor. "Not someone I'd want to go up against in a dark alley," he remarked. "We got an ID on him?"
"Not quite, but we know who he's with," Raymond replied. "Especially now that we know he's the one who almost assassinated Synapse and me a couple months ago."
"Nova Dominion," Statesman rasped. "Terrific - well, at least we have what information the Star Patrol has on them, maybe we can dig up some more on this one."
"Unfortunately, they didn't have much," Manticore admitted, turning away from the monitor with a faint shudder. "At least not on this guy. I get the feeling this is the assassin they've been chasing for a while, but this may be the first real look anyone's gotten of him."
"At any rate, that's only part of the puzzle," Sister Psyche mused, shifting her attention away from Synapse to the rest of the group at large. "Now we know who planted it, and which group's responsible. We still need to figure out who actually built that bomb, and why they were trying to take out the portal to Recluse's Victory. And there's the matter of what they were scanning for when Positron started dismantling the bomb."
For a few moments, they were all silent, lost in their own thoughts as they studied the image on the monitor.
"I don't think this is an isolated incident," Raymond said at last. "This has more of the feel of an opening move."
"Or a feint," Manticore suggested. "Something to distract us from whatever else they might have planned."
"Well, speculation won't do us much good," Raymond sighed, running one hand over his scalp. "Let's see what we can actually prove and then go from there."
"Suggestions?" Steve asked, leaning against his workbench.
Raymond frowned in thought for a moment. "You, Statesman, and Psyche can go over the info we got from the Patrol, see how many more gaps you can fill now that we've got this. Try and find out if any of their members have the technical knowledge to build a bomb like the one we found at D.A.T.A. Manticore, see if your contacts at Wyvern know anything."
The archer nodded. "Will do. What about you?"
Raymond glanced over at the disassembled bomb on his workbench. "See what I can get out of this thing. Maybe Citadel can shed some light on it."
"Then let's get to it," Statesman said as he turned toward the door.
*****
For the next three hours, Raymond sat hunched over his worktable, methodically cataloguing every aspect of the bomb, from its wiring to its parts, from its metallurgy to its electronics system. As he documented each part, he placed it in a pile on his workbench, soon it was covered with circuitry, metal plates, and wires. To help keep this thoughts straight, he was dictating into a recorder, even as he scribbled thoughts and ideas onto a notepad in his cramped, jagged writing.
He sighed, rubbing his eyes, and turned on the recorder again. "My initial analysis was right - the bomb is comprised of parts ranging from multiple sources. Whoever built this thing got stuff from all over." He picked up a piece of the bomb's shell and studied it as he continued to speak.
"Its exterior metallurgy is consistent with the metal shielding of those forcefield generators that the Sky Raiders have been known to use. The interior power systems, though... they remind me an awful lot of some of the tech we've taken off Crey."
Setting down the metal piece, he picked up a small circuit board and peered at it. "Then there's the electronics system... the components are almost same as the ones I've seen in Council technology, but the design is nothing like theirs. It almost looks like something Aeon Corp would have come up with, but it's too hard to tell at this point."
He tossed the circuit board onto his bench and rubbed his face, then went on. "And I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see that whoever built this thing also had access to parts used by Longbow and Vanguard. The scanner system is almost identical to theirs."
Scowling, he switched off the recorder and glared at the parts that now covered his workbench in carefully labelled piles. "I'm not a demolitions expert," he said aloud. "But whoever built you sure as hell knew what he was doing."
Just then, the door to his lab opened and Manticore came in, a folder in his hands. With a casual flick of the wrist, he tossed it so that it landed in Raymond's lap.
"What's this?"
"Latest intel from Wyvern - picked it up in an info dump about five minutes ago. It just finished going through that decrypt program you wrote. The relevant part is at the bottom of page four."
Raymond opened the folder to see notes from a Wyvern team currently operating in the Rogue Isles. Turning pages, his gaze fell to the bottom of the page and read:
"Increased hit-and-fade theft activity detected on Cap au Diable, Sharkhead Isle and Nerva Archipelago. Number of members uncertain, but descriptions of one member consistent across multiple events."
He looked over at Manticore. "Nerva, Cap and Sharkhead? Why those places? What's there?"
He scooted his chair over toward the bank of monitors and began typing at the terminal, and soon satellite maps of the Rogue Isles appeared on the screens. Focusing on the ones mentioned in the Wyvern report, he zoomed in on them, watching as intelligence data began scrolling past on an adjacent monitor.
Manticore looked thoughtful. "Cap au Diable, that's easy. Aeon Corp. Some of the highest hi-tech stuff in the world there, outside of Recluse's pet scientists in Grandville. Then Crey has one of its main facilities in Nerva, but you've also got Arachnos all over the place there, and the Circle of Thorns..."
"... though I doubt this is related to them," Raymond said wryly. So far as he'd been able to tell, there had been no arcane workings to the bomb's design or creation.
"Still, the place is a hotbed, one more reason why Ms. Liberty pushed so hard to found Agincourt there."
Raymond grimaced to himself. Agincourt, the primary Longbow base in the Rogue Isles, certainly had its uses when it came to the fight against Arachnos. But it was also something of a sore spot between Ms. Liberty and Statesman when it came to her handling of Longbow. Granted, they still fell under the jurisdiction and strictures of the Freedom Corps and the laws governing all metahuman activity, but Statesman's disapproval of Longbow's heavier-handed methods was almost legendary in the Phalanx. That, however, was between Statesman and Ms. Liberty, he thought.
"What about Sharkhead? That whole place is practically under the Cage Consortium's thumb." Not a fact he was happy about, either. Raymond might not have been born on the docks like Statesman had, but he still felt a keen sympathy for the dockworkers' plight as they were constantly being exploited by the Cage Consortium. Statesman had tried on more than one occasion to help, but without a regular presence there, things always fell back to a miserable status quo for the workers there.
"Not all of it," Manticore said thoughtfully. "In addition to their base on Striga, the Sky Raiders have got a sizable holding in the Isles too." He moved over toward the monitors and tapped one finger against a screen. "This is one of their main bases, though they've also got an airstrip somewhere nearby. Also, according to Wyvern, rumor has it that the Council have carved out a piece of Sharkhead for themselves, but ever since the Fifth Column have started cropping up again, they've been moving in on the Council's turf everywhere."
Raymond looked at his workbench again. "So if it is the Nova Dominion, either the Dominion's either working with all these groups..."
"... which is really unlikely," Manticore put in.
"... or they're stealing the tech they need," Raymond finished. "I may not have your millions, but my money's on the latter."
Abruptly Raymond frowned, and Manticore gave him an odd look. "What's wrong?"
"Well, whoever built this did so with tech ranging across a number of organizations. I just spent three hours cataloguing every piece of this thing. But it just dawned on me - there's nothing here I'd point to and say was Arachnos-built or developed. Why?"
Manticore opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again with a frown that matched Raymond's. "Good question. Maybe they don't want this getting backtracked to Arachnos?"
"Still begs the question of why. Especially considering that the group most likely to benefit from the destruction of the portal into Recluse's Victory is Arachnos."
"You think Arachnos maybe 'contracted' the Dominion to take it out?" Manticore mused, but Raymond shook his head.
"I couldn't say for sure, but I doubt it. More like someone in the Dominion is making sure not to step on Arachnos' toes. Plausible deniability or something, maybe." He shook his head again. "Damned if I know, I don't have your head for intrigue and skulking."
"'Skulking'?" Manticore asked with raised eyebrows. "I think I'm offended."
Raymond waved away the comment. "You know what I mean." He went back to reading the Wyvern report. "They give a description on the thieves?"
"Just one. Top of page five."
He turned to the next page and read:
"Based on descriptions, suspect operative is female, tall, with black hair and pale skin. Eyes covered by goggles or other technological device. Wears body armor from neck down. Carries rifle of unknown origin. Expert markswoman. Possible related incidents associated with operative tend to be quick incursions with a minimum of damage, though operative does not seem averse to killing both metahumans and normal civilians. Operative also is almost always accompanied by robotic entities not unlike Clockwork."
"No name, though," he grumbled, closing the folder and tossing it onto his workbench.
"It's a start," Manticore reminded him. "We can run it against what we got from the Star Patrol, maybe match a name to the description."
Raymond leaned over and activated the intercom. "Hey, Synapse."
"Yo!"
"You still got the Nova Dominion files open?"
"I do now, why?"
Raymond quickly read off the description from the Wyvern report. "Sound like anyone in there?"
For a moment there was silence, then Steve answered, "Hmmmm... bit vague, but that might match the description for one of its members."
"Which one?"
"Woman by the name of Soulsteel. The Patrol's not had too many run-ins with her, but apparently she's some kind of technological genius."
"Sounds like our girl," Raymond said with a grim smile. "Thanks, Steve."
"No problem."
Raymond looked back at Manticore. "Can you have Wyvern run a check on her?"
"Sure, but they'll have to be really circumspect about it, unless you want word possibly getting back to the Dominion about it."
That could be a problem, Raymond realized. While information was something they desperately needed if they were going to fight the Nova Dominion, it wouldn't do any of them any good if Banestar and the others found out that the Freedom Phalanx was already on their tail.
"Don't push things," he advised. "Better that they don't know we know."
"We're still gonna need more information than this, though," Manticore sighed. Then he straightened up. "Wait a sec... the Star Patrol said they had members working in the Rogue Isles. Give them a call."
*****
"Star Patrol HQ, Agent Wright."
"Hello, Agent Wright. This is Positron," Raymond said as the audio/video feed synched up with the Star Patrol's communications system. "Listen, we have a possible suspect for this morning's bombing attempt, but we could use your assistance."
"Sure, what can we do to help?"
"You said you guys have members working in the Rogue Isles, correct? Can they investigate a certain operative for the Nova Dominion?"
He saw Wright frown thoughtfully. "Should be able to..." She turned her head to look at something offscreen, and Raymond heard her typing at the keyboard. "Currently, we've got agents on assignment in Port Oakes and St. Martial. What do you need?"
"Anything they can find on a woman named Soulsteel. Wyvern'll be running their own investigation, but anything they could turn up would be a help," Raymond said, and Wright nodded.
"Will do. How fast you need it?"
"Yesterday would be nice," Raymond admitted, and he saw Wright give him a wry smile.
"I'll see what they can do. Anything else?"
Giving Manticore a quick glance, Raymond sighed. "Is Sorina there?"
"Not at the moment, she's leading a rescue team over in the Hollows."
He felt his heart sink, and briefly considered contacting her directly, but they'd agreed to keep their personal and professional lives separate. "Damn... could you please ask her to give me a call when she gets back?"
Wright nodded. "Sure thing. We'll be in touch. Star Patrol out."
"And you don't want to call her because you guys are trying to keep business and pleasure separate," Manticore stated after a moment's silence, and Raymond nodded. "Yeah, Shalice mentioned something about that. When you're ready to talk about it, let me know."
"I will, Justin. And thanks."
Manticore tossed him an abbreviated salute, then strolled out of the lab again. For a moment, Raymond sat at his workbench, staring at nothing, then he found himself reaching for the communications system before he realized what he was doing and pulled his hand back.
"Damn it," he whispered, resting his face in his hands.
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Sorry this took so long. I won't bore you with the real life travails that have been delaying this story.
As per usual, please post comments and stuff in the Discussions thread.
The original story, of course, and all its commentary can be found here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Four - Mixing Business and Pleasure
"Ray? Hey, Ray? Yo, Earth to Positron!"
Engrossed as he was in recreating the bomb's schematics in his computer, Raymond didn't hear Steve calling his name until his roommate finally gave up and zoomed over to smack the back of his head. Startled, Raymond leapt out of his chair with a yell, only to bang his knees into his worktable, sending precariously piled stacks of paper sliding to the floor.
"Damn it, I HATE it when you do that!" he cursed through gritted teeth as he half-fell back into his chair, rubbing his knees and glaring at Steve, who wore an unconvincing look of innocence.
"Hey, don't yell at me, I tried three times to get your attention." But in a gesture of apology, he raced around the lab, picking up all the paperwork, sorting it, and placing it back in neat stacks on Raymond's desk in less time than it would have taken Raymond to get out of his chair. "Anyway, it's past quitting time. Psyche and Manticore wanted to know if you, me, Sorina, and Andrea wanted to go to dinner with them."
"Did they say why?"
"Probably because they're hungry," Steve said dryly. "Other than that, no."
His mind still on his work, Raymond's first impulse was to decline, but then his stomach rumbled loudly enough to be heard and he sighed. "Yeah, why not? Have you already called Andrea?"
"Nope, not yet - I figure we'll swing by the Patrol's base and collect them."
Dinner did sound good, now that he thought about it, especially since all he'd eaten today was a sandwich and about two pots of coffee, and a quiet evening with Sorina would certainly be welcome after the hell of the last few days. It might also be a good opportunity to talk with Justin and Shalice about the recent change to his relationship with Sorina.
He glanced back at his computer, wondering if he should send a copy of his work to his ops center at home, but compared to the idea of spending time with Sorina, it was definitely the less appealing of the two options. Setting aside his paperwork and turning off his terminal, he rose to his feet and stretched, wincing at the twinge in his knees from where he'd banged them against his desk.
"Yeah, that sounds good. Where'd they have in mind? If it's someplace upscale, I'll need to head home to change clothes, not to mention a shower sounds really good right about now." He looked down at his t-shirt and jeans with a faint grimace.
"Lemme ask," Steve replied, blurring out of the lab and re-appearing a second later. Raymond opened his mouth to ask what the others had said, only to close it again when Shalice and Justin came into his lab.
"Actually, I was thinking Chinese," Sister Psyche said in response to his unasked question. "The Plum Blossom Inn on Talos Island is fantastic, if you haven't been there before. It's a quiet little place over in the New Sparta district."
Steve frowned in recollection. "Isn't that near where the Paragon Dance Party used to be?" he asked, and Manticore nodded. "Yeah, I've been there - nice place." He looked over at his roommate. "Yeah, you'll wanna change clothes. Not quite suit and tie but better than the jeans and t-shirt look, that's for sure. But man, I hate eating with chopsticks."
"Oh, stop complaining," Manticore told him. "If it bothers you so much, use a fork."
"Dude, I do have some social standards. I only use a fork with Chinese food when I'm at home and no one's around to care."
Raymond glanced at the clock on the wall - quarter after five. "So, let's say seven? Time enough for me and Steve to collect Sorina and Andrea, head home, clean up and change, and then meet you guys there."
"Sounds good. Mind if I borrow your phone? I just want to make reservations," Sister Psyche explained, and while Raymond finished cleaning up his worktable, she called the restaurant and reserved a table. Hanging up, she smiled and said, "Okay, that's done. We'll see you four there at seven o'clock."
"Deal," Steve replied. "All right, Einstein, let's blow this popsicle stand and go collect the ladies."
"You guys need to borrow the cars again?" Manticore asked, but Steve and Raymond shook their heads.
"Nah, we should be fine. Thanks for the offer, though. We'll catch you guys in about two hours."
*****
On their way out the door, however, Raymond and Steve became aware of a loud and rather heated argument coming from the main conference room of the Freedom Phalanx headquarters. Pausing to listen, they recognized the voices of Statesman and Ms. Liberty, apparently in the middle of another 'discussion' about Longbow's actions in the Rogue Isles. With a sigh and a shake of his head, Raymond kept walking down the corridor. No way am I getting in the middle of that one. While he had no problem with honest disagreement or with actual combat, personal conflict often left him a bit unsettled.
Steve, however, paused and grinned before catching up to his roommate and crossed Freedom Court toward the glowing ring that denoted a base portal entrance. "Well, that at least explains why Psyche didn't even them to join us tonight. The two of them are ready to start trashing the furniture."
"I was wondering about that," Raymond mused as they stepped outside. "But Longbow is Ms. Liberty's baby, even if States helped found the Freedom Corps."
"Word of advice, by the way - don't get Andrea started on the subject of Longbow," Steve said, and Raymond looked over in surprise.
"Really? What's her problem with them? I thought she was a former member like the other Star Patrol leaders."
"Nope - she's the only one who wasn't." Steve's cheerful expression faded, becoming more serious. "She hasn't mentioned all the details, but I gather it's more of a grudge about the fact that there's so much that Longbow could be doing here in Paragon as opposed to harassing Arachnos in the Rogue Isles."
"They do a lot to keep Arachnos and whatnot in check there, though," Raymond reminded him, but Steve shrugged.
"Sure, you and I know that, and so does she. She just doesn't particularly like them as a group."
"Interesting," Raymond murmured. "I'll have to ask her why someday."
"Just not tonight," Steve warned. "I get the feeling she'll rant something fierce if you get her started, and I don't know about you, but I just want to relax after the crises of the day."
"No argument from me there." Together they stepped into the glowing circle, and a moment later arrived at the headquarters of the Star Patrol. Standing in the main entryway were Agents Sharpe and Garrison, who both turned in surprise and then nodded at the newcomers.
"So what brings you two here?" Sharpe asked, coming over to shake hands, while Garrison did the same. "More about this morning?"
"Nope, we are officially off the clock, and it's Miller Time," Steve said, looking around. "We're actually here to see if Andrea and Sorina are around."
"Andrea's here... someplace," Garrison replied, waving one hand toward the living quarters of the base. "And Tava's due back any moment from the Hollows. You're welcome to hang out in the TV room or the library if you'd like."
"What happened in Eastgate?" Steve asked with a frown, and Garrison shrugged while Sharpe answered instead.
"Nothing new, it's just one of the places we use as a training ground for search-and-rescue operations. We do a lot of work with Officer Wincott in the area, freeing up the SWAT teams for actual law enforcement and the like."
Just then, Andrea came breezing into the entryway, and both Steve and Raymond were hard-pressed not to stare. Wearing a skintight black dress that left almost nothing to the imagination, along with black high heels, she was clearly ready to party. "Heya, Steve! Dr. Keyes!"
Steve recovered first. "Well, it looks like you're ahead of me for once - you look fantastic!"
"Thanks!" she grinned, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and then waving to Raymond. "Unfortunately, I can't stay to chat, I'm already late!"
"Late for what?" asked Steve in confusion. "I haven't even had a chance to ask you to dinner yet."
"Oh, sorry," Andrea said, her face falling briefly. "I've already got plans, I was supposed to meet Chris in Pocket D ten minutes ago, but I lost track of time."
Raymond tried not to smile at the irked expression on Steve's face as he asked, "Chris? Chris who?"
"Chris Thales." At his blank look, she went on. "You know - Castle."
"HIM?" Steve's question came out a bit louder than he'd planned, and Andrea grinned.
"Yep - sorry, I gotta run! I'll catch you guys later!" And with that, she headed past the group toward the teleporter bay, leaving Steve staring after her while the others tried not to say anything.
The silence lengthened for several moments than Raymond would have thought Steve could stay silent before Steve finally blurted out, "She's going on a date with CASTLE?! And dressed like THAT?!"
"My, my, Synapse - if I didn't know better, I'd think you were jealous," Agent Garrison drawled, her eyes alight with amusement, and Steve turned on her in a huff.
"I am NOT jealous, I'm just... surprised, that's all." He looked even more disgruntled. "And damn it, now I don't have a date for tonight."
"I'd offer to join you, but I'm on duty this evening," Garrison said with a grin and a sidelong glance at Sharpe standing next to her, and Raymond knew from Sorina that Garrison and Sharpe were something of a couple themselves.
"On the other hand, Valentino just got into town - maybe we should hook them up," Sharpe suggested.
"Who?" Raymond asked.
"Marisa Valentino - you've not met her, but we've mentioned her before. She's one of our operatives in the Rogue Isles... our insider on the Family, as it were. Normally she works Port Oakes and St. Martial, but she occasionally comes back here for debriefings and whatnot. She got in earlier this afternoon, maybe she'd like to join you."
"Maybe she'd like to decide for herself," came a cool voice from behind them, and Raymond and Steve turned to see a tall, dark-haired woman standing in the doorway from the conference room.
"Marisa, meet Positron and Synapse," Sharpe said, waving her forward, and she approached to shake hands with the two of them. Raymond tried to hide his smile at the look of interest on Steve's face, for the brunette was rather attractive in an aloof sort of way.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Valentino," Steve said, holding her hand a moment longer than necessary. "And if you'll forgive the abruptness of the invitation, would you care to join us for dinner?"
Her eyes went from Steve to Raymond and back, then she asked, "And who else is 'us'?"
"Myself, Einstein here, Sorina, Sister Psyche, and Manticore. A little Chinese place over in Talos."
To his surprise, Raymond saw a brief flash of worry cross her face, but then she nodded.
"I'd be delighted. What time?"
"We're meeting there at seven," Raymond replied. "Steve and I need a change of clothes, and I'm sure Sorina will want to get cleaned up too when she gets back."
The entry portal flared briefly, and on the platform appeared eight figures, all wearing the colors of the Star Patrol.
"Pozhalujsta, Bozhe, skazhi mne na sledujushhij den' zakonchilsja."
At the sound of Sorina's voice, Raymond looked up at the platform, feeling a slightly foolish smile come to his face, but not particularly caring.
"Rough day?" he asked, and she glanced over, surprised, before a smile of her own curved her lips.
"You could say that, yes." She looked at the rest of the group with her and nodded. "Dismissed. Get cleaned up, and I expect your reports on my desk by tomorrow morning. You'll receive your assessments by the end of the week." Her expression softened slightly. "And well done."
The agents straightened up and saluted, then clambered down off the platform, but several stopped to stare when they realized that Positron and Synapse were in the base. Sharpe, however, gave them all a look, and they quickly dispersed.
As Sorina came over, she slipped her arms around Raymond's waist and rested her head on his chest with a slight groan.
"What was that you said a moment ago?" he asked.
"I said 'Please, God, tell me the day is over,'" Sorina replied wearily, and he chuckled quietly and kissed the top of her head.
"Dare I hope you can muster the energy to join me and a few others for dinner?"
She looked up at him and smiled. "Dinner sounds wonderful. Who else?"
"You, me, Steve, Shalice, Justin, and Miss Valentino there."
Sorina turned and saw the other woman in the doorway. "Welcome back. When did you get in?"
"Earlier this afternoon," Valentino replied. "I wasn't actually due back for another week and a half, but word got to me that you needed some info on the Isles, so Agent Wright ordered me back here. Takimura is slated to head out early tomorrow in my place, heading to St. Martial."
"That teenager?" Raymond said in surprise, remembering the petite Japanese girl who had been with the spec ops team at Manticore's party. "You're sending her to the Rogue Isles?"
Sharpe nodded. "Yeah - you might not believe it, but she's one of our best operatives when it comes to the Tsoo. But don't worry - she'll be teamed with another of our Spec Ops team, Cende, and God help anyone who gets in their way. Anyway, if you guys are going to head to dinner, you should get a move on."
"Andrea's not coming?" Sorina asked, looking over at Steve, who looked slightly discomfited.
"She's going out with Castle tonight," he replied, and she chuckled.
"Let me get my paperwork done and then head home to change. Where and when?"
"The Plum Blossom Inn on Talos Island, New Sparta district, at seven."
"I'll meet you there, then."
Raymond hugged her one more time, then he and Steve shook hands with the others and left to head toward their house in Steel Canyon.
The trip to their house was surprisingly quiet, but Raymond had the suspicion that after the morning's attempted bombing, with the heroes on heightened alert, the petty crime rate would subside for a little while at least. He was, however, not expecting the under-his-breath grumbling from Steve most of the way there.
Strange, he thought to himself, I wouldn't have thought he'd get that bent out of shape about her not being available. After all, neither of them is exactly known for long-term relationships, or even monogamous short-term ones. It was possible, of course, that it was just ego, but Raymond decided to leave the issue alone until Steve brought it up himself.
At any rate, all he wanted now was time with Sorina, good food, and good company, and he kicked in some extra power to his flight systems as he headed home. The world's problems could wait until tomorrow... I hope.
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I had to... especially after Castle (the dev) showed up at the Dev Q&A on the Test Server wearing a suit. It was just too easy.
Blake and Castle partying it up in Pocket D
And considering Blake's outfit, can you see why Synapse got a bit huffy to find out she was ditching him for Castle?
Remember, discussions go here. 
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Howdy! I'm just wondering if your ever going to get this finished? The story is great, as well written as the first And if you do have it finished, and posted, can ya tell me where? Your on my global as well, so if you have to, just email me in game
PCool
PseudoCool - Justice - L50 NRG/Elec/Elec Blaster Crazy 8's SuperGroup
CoolShade - Liberty - L50 Dark/Dark/BM Scrapper AlphA Stryke SuperGroup
I have been working on the next chapter as time and unpacking allows. The first story is finished and posted in its entirety in a PDF on my website (in the CITY OF HEROES section).
Just a quick reminder - this thread and the original story thread are strictly for me to post in, to keep interruptions to the story's flow as minimal as possible. Commentary, questions, etc, all go in the Discussions thread (this thread is for all three parts of TCoSR - yes there will be a TCoSR III).
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I know, I know. it's been ages since I updated this thing. But with the job searching, the moving, and other irritating real life hassles, it's been hard to muster the energy to do much of anything. Not a state of mind I enjoy being in.
At any rate, now that I finally have a job again, maybe I can get back into the swing of things when it comes to writing this. I've got a lot of story in me left to tell...
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Five - Dinner, Drinks, and Derring-do
After arriving home, Raymond gratefully shucked his armor and stashed it carefully in its containment tube in the ops center, stretching and groaning as he turned toward the door. From the kitchen, he heard Steve call out, "You want a beer while getting ready?"
"Yeah, but just one." He stepped into the hall and reflexively caught the can that Steve lobbed at him on his way past. "Thanks."
"We need to hit the store soon, we're just about out of beer, apart from that microbrew stuff that Kat had the last time she was here. Blech."
"Steve, we're always 'just about out of' everything, thanks to your appetite," Raymond reminded him, but Steve had already closed the door to his room and Raymond could hear the water running. Shower. Right. He could almost feel the scalding water already, washing away the day, and entering his own room, he pulled off his clothes and padded into the bathroom. While the water heated up, he took a long pull from his beer, half-sitting/half-leaning against his sink, watching the steam slowly fill the bathroom.
I feel like this morning was a year ago, he thought. Since four in the morning, it's been go, go, go, with no time to think. I just hope I don't fall asleep on the table - Sorina would never forgive me and Steve would never let me live it down.
Stepping under the hot water, he let out a loud sigh. And damn it, things have just been insane since Saturday. First the attack on Justin's party, then that whole mess in the War Zone, and now this. I am definitely going to have a word with the Phalanx about some personal time off, and soon, before I end up killing someone.
As he showered, he made a conscious effort to unkink the almost permanent knot in his shoulders, staying under the water until he felt almost human again. He nearly jumped, though, when he heard Steve pounding on his bedroom door and shouting, "Come on, slowpoke, we got to get moving if we're gonna be there on time. And besides, I'm starving."
"All right, all right," Raymond grumbled, turning off the water and reaching for a towel. He hurriedly dried off while trying to figure out what to wear, eventually settling on a sweater and casual slacks. A fast dash of cologne, one last check against the mirror, and he was ready to go. Steve, of course, was impatiently waiting in the living room, having turned on the TV and channel-surfing at a near blur. Glancing up as his roommate walked in, he clicked off the television and picked up his keys.
At first Raymond frowned, but a glance at his watch showed that they were running late. However...
"Uh, Steve, when's the last time you cleaned out the Mustang?" he asked warily.
Steve opened his mouth to reply, paused, then closed it again. "Ummmm..." Making a quick dash outside to the driveway, he had both doors open and the trashcan near the car in the time it took Raymond to get to the front door. By the time he'd locked up the house, the car was clean and Steve was revving the engine. Classic rock music was blasting from the Mustang's speakers as Raymond slid into the passenger seat and pointedly buckled his seatbelt.
"Dude, relax, I have the best reflexes on the road," Steve reminded him as he headed toward the highway.
"You also have a habit of multiplying the speed limit by the number of people in the car," Raymond said, trying not to grit his teeth at his roommate's driving.
"Whatever. Be grateful it's a Monday night and we don't have much in the way of rush hour traffic."
Had they not been running a bit late, they could have taken the tram, Raymond thought ruefully... on the other hand, if he ended up going back to Sorina's apartment with her, it gave Steve an excuse to drive Marisa Valentino home. He just hoped that she didn't have a problem with Steve's overall penchant for speed.
Thanks to Steve's driving, they made it to the Plum Blossom with just under five minutes to spare. Shalice and Justin were already there as they pulled into the parking lot, and while Steve tossed his keys and a ten to the valet, Sorina and Marisa came walking up the block from the tram station.
"Oh, yeah, introductions," Steve said hurriedly as he saw Psyche and Manticore give Marisa curious looks. "Justin, Shalice, this is Marisa Valentino, she's also one of the Star Patrol members. Marisa, meet Shalice and Justin Sinclair."
"A pleasure," she said, politely shaking hands with them both, then Sorina did the same before giving Raymond another hug.
"I don't know about any of you, but I am starving," Steve complained, "so what say we head inside and nab our table?" He offered his arm to Marisa, who took it with an arched eyebrow of amusement. Justin did the same to Shalice, and Raymond then offered his arm to Sorina. As they entered the restaurant, the hostess bowed politely and showed them to a private table, discreetly hidden from the others by elegant silk shoji screens. After they were seated, the hostess returned with a bottle of plum wine and six glasses, then bowed again and withdrew.
*****
"Anyone for a glass?" Raymond asked, and then poured wine for each of them.
Sorina sniffed curiously at hers. "Interesting..."
"Never had plum wine before?" Manticore asked, and she shook her head. "Careful with that stuff then. Two glasses and you'll forget you have feet."
"After the day I've had, I may take a bottle," she said, taking a delicate sip. "Hmmm... interesting."
"Rough day for you, too?" Shalice asked. "I know our day's been hell since that bomb threat this morning."
Marisa looked momentarily puzzled, then her expression cleared. "Oh, that. Wright filled me in on my way back from the Isles. So I take it our friends in the Dominion were behind it?"
"Looking like it," Manticore agreed. "Know anything about a woman named Soulsteel?"
Marisa frowned, resting her chin on her hand. "Name rings a couple bells. She's a scientific genius, by most accounts. Cybernetics and artificial intelligence are her real talents - we're talking beyond bleeding edge. She doesn't operate much in St. Martial, though. Her usual stomping ground is north of Grandville."
Sorina looked mildly alarmed at that. "You mean The Fab?"
At Raymond's enquiring look, Justin explained, "It's a huge scientific facility that's mutually maintained by Arachnos and Crey. Longbow and Wyvern have been trying for ages to figure out just what it is they're working on out there, but with no luck."
"And that's not enough to get Crey investigated?" Steve asked indignantly. "What more do the courts want?"
Justin gave him a hard-edged look, and Raymond felt a brief stab of sympathy for Steve. In his guise as Manticore, Justin's preferred patrol area was Brickstown, where Crey had an extremely high presence. Time and again, along with several other heroes, Manticore would go after Crey in the area to keep their ranks thinned, especially hoping to get some dirt on Countess Crey to shut down her operations permanently. However, the Countess' legal savvy and army of PR representatives always managed to spin things to make it seem like Crey was the innocent victim of harassment by well-meaning but overzealous heroes.
"Let me guess," Shalice said, sipping her wine. "'Crey Industries in no way supports work with an international terrorism organization such as Arachnos. These reports clearly indicate, however, that a rogue group within our organization is operating in the Rogue Isles, and as such are beyond the jurisdiction of US courts.' Am I right?"
Marisa nodded. "That's about the size of it. It's a huge joke in the Isles, actually, especially over in the Nerva Archipelago. Even with Longbow's Agincourt base just across the water, the fact that Crey is operating with impunity down there is just one big slap in the face."
Manticore growled at that, and Shalice gave him a concerned look and a gentle pat on the hand. Raymond could understand the frustration, though - not only was Longbow based there, but so was Wyvern. And that Crey was getting away with almost every crime in the book despite the two groups' best (if not combined) efforts had to be incredibly galling.
"So does this Soulsteel have ties to Crey, too?" Shalice asked after a moment, but Marisa shook her head.
"If you mean allegiance of any kind, nope. She'll steal from anyone who's got the tech she needs, regardless of who they are. Including Arachnos."
"So how is it that Arachnos hasn't taken her out yet?" Sorina asked, frowning. "I doubt they take kindly at industrial espionage and theft when it's directed at themselves."
"Because here's the real kicker." Marisa leaned forward and lowered her voice slightly. "She's also an Arachnos Arbiter."
Raymond nearly spat out his mouthful of wine in surprise. "What?!"
Marisa nodded again, a faint smile around her mouth. "Yep. And there's more. She's not the only Arbiter that Banestar's got on the pay roster."
"You're kidding," Steve said flatly. "Oh, that's all we fricking need."
For a moment, they all sat in an uncomfortable tense silence.
"Can we order now?" Steve said at last, startling laughs out of the rest of them, and so they turned their attention to their menus. For a few minutes there was some negotiation about what to order, then once that was settled, they sat back to wait for their food.
"I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough shop talk for one day," Raymond announced, nibbling on a crisp dipped in sweet and sour sauce.
"Da," Sorina agreed, "but it wouldn't be fair for you and I to talk science around the other four... they wouldn't understand a word of what we were saying."
"True," he admitted, then he grinned at Sister Psyche and Manticore. "Although I'm curious if either of you'd heard through the superhero grapevine that Castle apparently scored a date with Andrea Blake."
"You're kidding," Manticore laughed. "Damn, I'd never have thought he'd be her type."
"I don't think she even has a type," Marisa said, nodding her thanks to the server as he refilled her tea. "In the time I've known her, I can say her strike range is pretty much wide open." Then she looked over at Steve, who once again looked somewhat disgruntled. "On the other hand, the fact that she's gone out with you quite a few times is certainly... interesting."
"How so?"
"Well, let's just say that while she might hang out with a guy more than once while just doing the 'friends' thing, when it comes to dating, she doesn't tend to go back for seconds. You, however, seem to have caught her interest. Which I think is a good thing."
"So if I'm a 'good thing,' how come she's out with Castle tonight?" Steve asked her, and Marisa shrugged.
"I'd normally say she's beyond games, but maybe she's curious to see if you're the jealous type."
"I'm not jealous!" Steve protested, his cheeks turning slightly red, especially at the knowing looks that Marisa, Sorina, and Shalice were now giving him. "Can't we talk about something else? Like Ray's love life?"
"Hey, just because you're comfortable with your name on the front pages doesn't mean I'm the same way," Raymond said hastily. Although...
With a brief apologetic look at Sorina, he turned to Shalice and Justin. "Actually... umm... I meant to ask you guys... well... how do you manage it? Being a couple and still going out and slugging on the bad guys?"
Justin and Shalice glanced at one another, but as Justin opened his mouth to speak, Shalice's eyes went wide and she turned toward the front of the restaurant, half-rising from her chair, her eyes unfocused.
"Shalice?" Steve asked, frowning, making to rise as well, when she suddenly shouted, "EVERYONE GET DOWN!"
The other five heroes didn't hesitate. All of them dropped to the floor just as the front door and the street windows exploded into the restaurant in a blizzard of wooden splinters and shattered glass as several bodies came crashing through them.
*****
Oh, for God's sake, what NOW? Raymond wondered with a groan, sparing a moment to quickly glance to Sorina. She seemed fine, so he peered around the now-shredded shoji screen to look into the restaurant's main area.
Amid overturned tables and chairs and cowering patrons were the slowly rising form of several figures that he recognized by their clothes as members of the Family, plus unless he was mistaken... yep, there were Outcasts among the group, too. And entering the restaurant through the remains of the front door and window... he took another look and sighed. The Tsoo... terrific. Just our luck. We choose a restaurant that ends up smack in the middle of a turf war.
Suddenly the entire restaurant was filled with the sounds of howling winds, followed immediately by several screams from the patrons, and he spotted one of the mystical sorcerers of the Tsoo sending a half-dozen Family thugs flying, until a freezing blast of cold encased him in ice as an Outcast leader caught him from behind. In the entryway, flames raced up the walls as a novice Outcast sent a ball of fire at a Family gunner before the machine gun fire dropped him in his tracks.
Then Raymond heard inside his head, You will remain calm... do not panic and do not rise... we will protect you... you will remain calm... do not panic and do not rise... A look to his side revealed that Psyche was already crouched beside the shoji screen, her hands on her knees in a mudra position, and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the restaurant patrons, while Manticore was already assembling his custom compound bow from the parts he kept stashing in his ever-present walking cane. Steve was already next to him, hand raised to start blasting with electricity as soon as he was sure he could without hitting any innocents.
Marisa, on the other hand, was crouched behind a chair, her expression a mix of anger and fear. Her eyes darted back and forth from the terrified patrons to the Family thugs who were now on their feet, bringing their traditional Tommy guns around to start blazing at the Tsoo on the sidewalk outside.
Raymond met her eyes inquiringly, and slightly waggled one hand as though silently asking, What's wrong?
She looked from him to the Family and back again... then repeated the look.
And Raymond finally got it.
Oh, hell... if she's undercover with the Family... she can't be seen fighting them here, or the Patrol loses an insider. Crap and double crap.
"Stay down," he hissed to her, "and keep Sorina safe."
Sorina gave him a glare at that, but she knew just as well as he did that without her gauntlets, her powers were of no use in this situation, but then she brought her hand to one ear and activated her communicator. He couldn't hear what she was saying over the sounds of the fight up front, but he guessed she was notifying the Star Patrol of the situation.
He reached into his pocket to find the remote-trigger for his armor when he saw a look of surprise cross her face, but before he could ask what was wrong, the noise level abruptly dropped... as though all fighting had ceased in an instant.
Raymond looked toward the front of the restaurant again and saw the entire mob of fighting gang members - Tsoo, Outcasts, and Family alike - were all asleep on their feet.
"What the hell?" he blurted out, then he nearly fell over in surprise as half of them vanished from the restaurant and reappeared in the street outside. Those still inside abruptly jerked awake again and turned toward the front window in anger and irritation... only to find themselves bodily lifted off the floor and held there, while a blue-white ray of freezing energy shot through the remains of the door to coat the entryway, putting out the fire.
"What's going on?" Steve asked, looking just as confused as Raymond felt, when in through the window came a woman in a familiar uniform while three more remained outside, subduing the still-fighting-but-now-losing gang thugs. Sorina, however, was already on her feet, arms crossed her chest and glaring at the newcomers.
"I suppose you have an explanation for this?" she called out, her voice filled with a strange mixture of relief, pride, and annoyance.
"Sorry, Tava," the woman said apologetically, and Raymond felt a slow grin cross his face as he recognized the new arrivals as members of the Star Patrol. "We'd hoped to nail this mess down before they got to the restaurant but we were delayed."
"I meant why you were in the neighborhood in the first place, Flux."
"Oh... that. Um..." The heroine in a red and black version of the armor of the Combat Medics looked rather sheepish as she glanced at the rest of her team outside.
"I apologize for our tardiness in arriving, Sorina," Raymond heard a woman say in a rather distinct accent, and he turned as three other Patrol members approached - one a tall, redheaded woman that looked strangely familiar, another a big man in power armor and wielding a fireman's axe, and the third a shorter, slim woman with dark hair. As the redhead came over and saluted, the man and other woman quickly dealt with the remaining gang members inside, tossing them out into the street with the rest of their unconscious comrades.
"Cende, you want to explain to me what's going on?"
The redhead looked slightly embarrassed, and belatedly Raymond recognized her, having seen her around both Star Patrol and Freedom Phalanx HQ. "Err... well... Sharpe mentioned you were having dinner in the area... and ummm..."
"And he just 'happened' to assign a field training team to the vicinity?" Marisa chimed in, also coming forward as the other Star Patrol members entered the restaurant, while Flux quickly excused herself and began tending to the wounded patrons. She looked over the group. "Good to see you again, Rob, Helena... where's the rest of the team?"
"Pistoleer, Talek, Moon Tide, and Hawthorne are checking the rest of the block."
Justin, Shalice, and Steve joined them, looking more than a little off their stride at the Patrol's unexpected arrival.
"Do I even want to know what's going on?" Justin asked, and Sorina covered her face with one hand.
"Nyet."
As the PPD belatedly arrived to begin carting away the Outcasts, Tsoo, and Family, the Star Patrol team quickly assembled outside to bring the cops up to speed, while the paramedics took over the task of checking on the patrons, leaving Raymond, Sorina, Steve, Marisa, Shalice and Justin standing in the wreckage of the restaurant.
There was a long, long, long silence.
"Would it be too much to hope that we could still eat?" Steve finally asked, but five glares quickly silenced him.
Screw it, Raymond thought. I'm taking tomorrow off.
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
*sighs*
Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. FWIW, I try to keep my fandom writings canon-legit (or at least as close as possible), and for ages, I was lucky in that the good Dr. Keyes was always available.
It seems, however, that this is no longer the case as of Issue 20. 
Word has reached me of in-game lore that now renders THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE as no longer viable.
[SPOILER HINT - if you haven't already, go play the Mortimer Kal Strike Force. You'll understand why.]
I am unbelievably depressed - there was so much story yet remaining to be told. But regardless of whether I AGREE with the decisions the devs made to make such changes to the storyline, that's not my call to argue with it.
So for the forseeable future, it seems that the doctors must part company, and TCoSR is going on undefined hiatus.
Discussions, as always, go here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
So after much internal debate, agonizing, discussion with friends (in RL, on here, and on Twitter), I have decided that the show must go on. Besides, after dropping cash on the following artwork, how could I not?
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, not only do I give you the next chapter of TCOSR II, but I also give you (courtesy of Aen the Artist) this SPECTACULAR piece that I like to call "Down Time."
Discussions, as always, go here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*****
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Six - What Part of 'Day Off' Do They Not Get?
Scowling in irritation at having yet another evening ruined, Raymond shot a quick glance over at Steve, who was quietly talking to Marisa Valentino off to one side, then looked over at Sorina, discussing the evening's gang attack with her fellow Star Patrol members. God damn it all, just once I'd like to have a quiet evening without hell breaking loose on my doorstep. He knew that wasn't strictly true, as there had actually been several times that he and Sorina had been out on dates in Paragon City or spending evenings at home together and not had things go wrong, but he felt like grousing to himself.
In the meantime, Sorina came wandering back over, running her fingers through her dark hair and heaving a sigh. "Well, it looks like the Patrol has things well in hand, but dinner here is obviously out. Do we have alternate plans yet?"
"How does grabbing Chinese from somewhere else and going back to your place sound?"
"Wonderful," she murmured, resting her head on his shoulder. "And the others?"
He turned to Shalice and Justin. "How'd the two of you get here?"
"Limo. Why?"
"Well, Steve might yet be able to salvage tonight with Marisa if we leave them alone - he's got his Mustang, anyway. But damn it all..." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I was really hoping to talk to the two of you and Sorina over a quiet dinner. Any chance we can catch a ride with you, grab food somewhere, and maybe take it back to her place?"
Shalice looked over at her husband, and Raymond had the distinct impression they were having a quick telepathic discussion over the suggestion.
"Yeah, we can do that," Manticore replied. "You live in Founders, right, Dr. Tavarisch?" At her nod, he tilted his head toward Steve. "Just fill him in and we'll bail."
"Thanks, man." Raymond cautiously picked his way through the restaurant, trying to avoid the medics who were helping patrons and the staff who were cleaning up the trashed furniture. Coming up beside his roommate, he nodded briefly to Marisa, then drew Steve aside.
"Listen... me, Sorina, Psyche and Manticore are gonna head over to Sorina's place. We need to talk to the two of them anyway."
"Fine by me, I won't wait up. I'm sure Ms. Valentino and I can entertain ourselves."
"I don't doubt it, but also, I'm gonna call Statesman and tell him I want tomorrow off."
"Like 'off' off?" Steve arched his eyebrows in surprise. "With all that crap from this morning going on?"
"'Off' off. Steve, I am so burned out right now, I don't give a damn about anything, and I'm no use to the Phalanx in this kind of mood. I've got a life now, I'd like to try and enjoy it."
"Hey, no arguments from me, Einstein, I'm on your side. Enjoy your day off." His roommate slapped him on the shoulder, and Raymond slowly smiled. As he turned away, however, Steve suddenly remarked, "Crap, I almost forgot. Next Wednesday - poker night for the first time in hell knows how long. We're hosting. You gonna be there?" At Raymond's hesitation and glance toward Sorina, he shrugged. "Bring her - she's not psychic, so it's cool. Though having two math geeks capable of card counting-"
"I do NOT count cards!" Raymond said in frustration, glaring at Steve. "It's just a matter of a good memory and mathematical probability that-"
Steve held up his hands in a mock placating gesture. "All right, all right, I'm sorry I said anything. Just lemme know if you two plan to show so we can plan. Deal?"
"Haha, stealth pun. Deal. Catch you tomorrow night." Waving goodbye to Marisa, who nodded back, Raymond headed back over to Sorina and the others.
"All right, let's get the hell out of here."
On the way back to Sorina's, the foursome decided it would be easier to order in, rather than stopping off someplace, so upon arrival at her apartment, she called a local Chinese delivery place and arranged for dinner to be sent over. Then she kicked off her shoes and sprawled in one of the available armchairs while Raymond took the other, and Shalice and Justin shared the couch. "They said approximately an hour," she said apologetically.
"Fine by me, as long as no one mugs the delivery guy on the way here," Raymond commented, stretching his legs out. "Crap, that reminds me... phone call of my own. Scuse me just a second."
Getting up again and stepping into the hallway for a bit of privacy, he used his phone to patch in to Statesman's communicator.
"Statesman here."
"It's Positron. Listen, I'm sorry for the short notice, but I'm taking tomorrow off."
At the long pause on the other end of the line, Raymond could almost imagine the surprise on Statesman's face, then he heard Statesman sigh.
"Well... I'm sorry, Positron, but with the bomb threat this morning-"
"I can give all the specs to Citadel - he can handle things if they come up, now that I've gotten some prelim research done."
"We really do need-"
"SIR."
THAT got Statesman's attention, since they both knew full well Statesman hated being called that.
"No calls. No pages. And trust me, after years in that armor, I know JUST how much vacation time I have accrued that I haven't even begun to take. Tomorrow. Day. Off."
There was another pause, longer this time, and Raymond gritted his teeth in frustration. No, I am not letting myself get guilted into work, damn it. They OWE me...
"Make sure you get the specs to Citadel tonight, then." Then came a quiet chuckle. "And don't call me 'sir' again."
"Right." As he was about to hang up, however, he heard Statesman say, "Oh, by the way..."
"Hmm?"
"Give my regards to Dr. Tavarisch, since I presume you're spending the day with her."
"That's the plan. And will do." Hanging up, he grinned and wandered back into the living room to rejoin the others.
"So you were asking earlier about the relationship versus duty thing?" Shalice said with raised eyebrows as he slouched down in his chair again. Or as I believe you put it, "Being a couple and still going out and slugging on the bad guys?"
Turning slightly red, Raymond looked down at the floor. "Yeah, you could say that."
"Mind if I ask why?"
He looked over at Sorina, who nodded slightly, and together they began explaining the problem they had encountered in the Rikti War Zone, where their concerns for one another occasionally overrode their actions regarding the mission. Listening to her describing it, Raymond remembered the sick helplessness he'd felt in the pit of his stomach when Sorina had nearly been sliced in half by a Rikti soldier when her powers had failed her because of the Rikti's dampening fields.
Once they finished, Manticore frowned and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "But it's not been a problem for you two in the past. You've occasionally worked together out in the field before... so what's changed?"
As Raymond and Sorina both turned slightly red as they looked at one another, Shalice covered her face with one hand and groaned. "Justin, I can't believe you couldn't figure that one out on your own."
Justin then went red in the face as well as the pieces fell together. "Oh. Um, right. Well..."
For several moments, there was an uncomfortable silence, and Raymond was just starting to regret even asking the question when Shalice finally spoke.
"Actually... what it really comes down to is trust," she said softly.
"But we do trust each other," Sorina began, but Shalice went on.
"Not like that. Well... not exactly like that. I mean, neither of you is new at the whole hero thing. You both know the risks involved on a day-to-day basis. You've both been doing this for years. I mean, sure, you want each other to be all right and be safe, but 'safe' isn't really an option for the lifestyle we've all chosen to lead."
Manticore looked over at his wife, then shrugged. "And besides, it's not always life-or-death stuff when you're out and about... why not baby-step it for a bit? Work together on the low-key stuff - stomping Trolls, fighting Tsoo, saving the newbie heroes... that sort of thing. It doesn't mean you have to go charging in together to wipe out a Council secret base or anything."
Sorina's eyes went from Manticore and Psyche to Raymond, then back again. "But what about the 'life-or-death stuff', as you put it?"
Justin sighed, "Well, there... you'll just have to agree that one of you goes, and one of you stays. At least until you've grown enough of an emotional callous to set the relationship aside til the job's done. That's not me knocking on you two, either... a lot of folks can't handle that." He shrugged again, then his eyes met Raymond's directly. "But you'll either learn to deal with it... or you won't."
*****
Much later that night, lying beside Sorina in the darkness of her bedroom, Raymond stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what Manticore and Sister Psyche had said. It was true that Sorina's scientific knowhow was of great help on missions... and she was certainly a capable hero in her own right.
And yet...
He looked down at the woman sleeping in his arms, remembering the look of absolute terror on her face when he'd nearly been killed by a Rikti Chief Soldier in the tunnels beneath the War Zone... and then seeing that terror replaced by blind fury just before she'd crushed the Rikti to death in a gravity field.
Silently groaning in frustration, he rested his face against her hair, and in her sleep, she curled up closer to him.
Life was a lot less complicated before I met you.
*****
A low but insistent beeping woke them both the following morning.
"Bohze moi, I know I turned off my alarm," she groaned, staring bleary-eyed at the clock that read 7:15 a.m.
"It's not the alarm," Raymond sighed, recognizing the sound. Reaching over the side of the bed for his pants and pulling his phone out of his pocket, he answered it with a curse. "What?"
"My apologies, Positron," came Citadel's modulated voice. "Statesman mentioned you were unavailable today, but the schematics were never sent over..."
Oh, damn it, I knew I forgot something... Raymond covered his face with one hand, while Sorina pulled a pillow over her head. "Sorry, Citadel... give me a minute and I'll have them downloaded to you."
"Thank you. Citadel out."
Disconnecting the call, Raymond quickly punched in a series of keystrokes, sending remote commands to his armor's systems. In a flash, the armor's databases were synched with the ones in the Phalanx headquarters, which Citadel could access. Quickly notating the relevant information for the big android to work with, he signed off and then tossed his phone back onto his clothes.
"What was that about?" came her muffled voice.
"I forgot to send Citadel the bomb data from yesterday," he said ruefully. "Hopefully that should keep them occupied for a while."
"Good." She rolled over so she lay in his arms again. "Can we go back to sleep now?"
"Sounds good to me."
*****
An hour later...
"Okay, I know that's not my phone," Raymond grumbled, but Sorina was already reaching for her own phone.
"Da? Zat'knis, I thought I'd already told you I wasn't coming in today... Nyet... Already filed... da, tell Helena. Spasibo." Hanging up the phone, she hid her face in her pillow before letting out a loud frustrated sigh, then she began pounding the mattress with her fist.
At the look of irritation on her face, Raymond had to try not to laugh. "Come on, Sorina, it's not that bad."
She flopped facedown into her pillow again. "But now I'm awake..."
"Good," he said in satisfaction.
Sorina turned her head slightly, so that she was peering up at him through the veil of her dark hair. "How is that good?"
He reached for her, and she slowly smiled.
"Ah."
*****
An hour and a half later...
"Oh, for the love of..." Trying to shake off the sense of lethargic bliss, he fumbled for his phone once again, peering at the display, then he cursed. "Damn it to hell, Justin, I *TOLD* Statesman-"
"Hey, don't chew me out, I'm just the messenger this time. We just got a call from Gaussian."
"Gaussian? What for?" At the mention of the name, Sorina's head emerged from under the covers, where she'd taken refuge when the phone had rung again.
"Yeah... he wanted to know if you'd had any insight into the data that had been sent over to us."
"What- oh..." With all that had been going on since Sunday afternoon, he had completely forgotten that the data he and Sorina had obtained during their War Zone excursion had been sent on to his computers at FP Headquarters... plus whatever biodata they'd gotten from the second group of Rikti they'd encountered just before their escape. Sorina had given the scientists instructions that he was to get their results as well. "Um, no. Tell him I haven't. I'll make a point of it first thing tomorrow morning, along with Sorina."
"I'll tell him. Sorry to interrupt your morning." Manticore hung up, and Raymond deliberately turned off his phone before dropping it on the nightstand near his head as Sorina once again pulled the blankets over her head.
"Perhaps we should start getting up," he heard her say reluctantly from beneath the covers.
"I guess so," he sighed. "Besides, I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry. Tell you what - you shower first, I want to get in a bit of a workout first." A faint laugh came from beneath the covers, and he went slightly red as he reached over, picked up a pillow and thumped it against the bump that he guessed was her head. "Not that kind. Although maybe later..."
Re-emerging from the blankets, she gave him a smile and then a soft kiss against his lips. "All right. Don't take too long, though."
On the other hand... It was damned tempting to stay in bed, and Raymond would swear that Sorina was reading her mind as she lay beside him, one hand propping up her head as she looked over at him. Oh, what the hell... He reached over, pulled her close, and kissed her hard for several long moments.
"You are one hell of a woman, Sorina Tavarisch," he murmured against her lips.
"Spasibo. Any reason for that declaration?"
"Scientific assertion of a known fact. So remove your tempting self so I can get my workout done, then I'll buy you breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever the hell time it is."
"About ten in the morning." She climbed out of bed and headed into her bathroom, while he padded into her living room. Stretching out on her floor, he began a series of pushups, situps, and crunches; even though he tried to maintain a reasonably healthy diet, there was certainly no room in his armor for him putting on weight, so he worked out at least four days a week. The exercise felt good, especially after the stress of the last couple of days.
Twenty minutes later, though, just as Sorina was coming out of the shower, the phone rang once again.
"Prokljat’e!" she swore, as she nearly slipped and fell while reaching for the phone. "Hello?"
From where he was doing military pushups in the living room, Raymond couldn't hear who was on the other end of the line, but there was no missing Sorina's response as she shouted, "TY SVOLOCH'!" and then slammed the phone down.
"Sorina, are you all right?!" He leapt to his feet and dashed into the bedroom to find her wrapped in a towel, dripping wet, and looking like she was ready to start kicking something. "What's wrong? Who called? Is everything okay?"
Drawing a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, she pulled the towel more tightly around herself and levelled a look at Raymond that made him take an instinctive step backward.
"That," she said acidly, her accent more pronounced as she bit off each word, "was Sharpe. No greeting or anything. Just-" and here she began imitating the other hero's voice- "'Why is someone as smart as you so stupid as to answer the phone on your day off?' Then he hung up."
She looked so disgruntled that he wanted to laugh, but considering he also had been answering his phone since seven in the morning, he knew he wasn't in any position to do so. Instead, he walked over and hugged her.
"Don't let him get to you. Come on, dry off and get dressed while I shower and then we'll grab food."
*****
As he showered, Raymond realized he was half-expecting one of their phones to ring again, but thankfully they remained silent. Twenty minutes later, they were dressed and out the door. Fortunately for them, it was a beautiful day, and after wandering through the harbour atmosphere of Founders Falls, during which they debated going for breakfast or lunch, they finally arrived at a small riverside cafe.
"What else would you like to do today?" he asked as they waited for their meals to arrive. "Catch a movie? Wander around the stores?"
Sorina looked thoughtful, tilting her head back to feel the sunshine on her face. "You know, I have no idea. You surprised me with your suggestion of taking today off. But I just want to relax and spend it with you."
"Does that rule out shop talk?"
"In general, no." She turned to briefly thank their server as their food was set before them, then took a sip of her coffee. "But not 'business' if we can help it. Today is too lovely to ruin."
Raymond turned his head as the sound of tolling bells drifted toward the cafe, and he realized they were actually fairly close to the university. "That reminds me... when's your next round of classes?"
"Next week - I'm doing a seminar on Brownian motion for the advanced computer programming and AI classes."
"That's a different one for you," he began, but then a faint buzzing sound derailed his train of thought. "Oh, for the love of-" Reaching into his pocket, he glared at his phone display, then with a heavy sigh, answered, "What now, Steve?"
"Dude, you're not gonna believe this. I mean, Castle was bad enough, but FORESHADOW?!"
"Whoa, whoa, wait, what are you talking about?"
"I called Andrea today to see if she wanted to have dinner, and she's going out Friday night with Foreshadow! What the hell is up with THIS?!"
"I'll talk to you later, Steve."
"Of all people-" Raymond hung up on his roommate in mid-sentence.
"Do I even want to know?" Sorina asked at the look of irritation on Raymond's face, but before he could answer, her own phone rang.
"If it's Steve, hang up on him," Raymond said sourly, going back to his food.
"I'm probably going to regret this... it's Andrea." Sorina lifted her eyes to the heavens as though asking for divine assistance, then answered, "What a coincidence, we were just talking about you. Mm-hmm. No, I don't want to know. Yes, we heard. No, I don't know what Steve's problem is, and I'm not giving the phone to Raymond for you to ask him, either. Day off, Andrea. We can talk tomorrow... da. Goodbye." She hung up and tossed her phone back into her bag.
Then Raymond's eyes lit up. "I just had an idea. I suggest we go for a sail and a hike."
Sorina looked down at her clothes - jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. Raymond was dressed pretty much the same way. "I could enjoy that. Any particular reason for the inspiration?"
"Yeah... lousy phone reception."
*****
After their meal, the two caught the tram to Talos Island. Heading down to the piers where boats were available for the day, they rented a small sailboat, purchased a small cooler of food and drinks, and were soon heading across the waters of Paragon Bay.
"I didn't know you knew how to sail," Sorina remarked as she leaned against the rail.
"Learned while I was at Stanford - friends and I used to sail around San Francisco bay all the time. It's been a while, but it's kinda like riding a bicycle - you never forget, really."
The faint sea spray felt wonderful against his face, and for once the bay was fairly smooth. Following the charts he'd been given, he steered them toward one of the larger islands, carefully skirting around the shoals and bringing them close enough to land.
For the next couple of hours, they hiked around the small island, where to their surprise, they discovered a small cave with a natural staircase rock formation winding its sharp and twisted way to the top of the island. As they reached the top, they were rewarded with a vista of the entire bay, with the skyscrapers of Talos Island in the distance.
"Makes you wish we didn't have to go back, doesn't it," he said with a sigh, slipping one arm around her waist.
"Mmm. Unfortunately, duty always calls. Next time we should put in for a weekend or even a week."
"I doubt they'd last without us for that long," Raymond grumbled. "It's a nice thought, though."
After enjoying a leisurely picnic lunch, along with a light doze in the sunshine, he reluctantly looked at his watch. "I guess we should be getting back. But we will definitely have to do this again. Or even try this as a camping trip."
"Sounds fantastic." She accepted his hand and he pulled her to her feet. "In the meantime, let's focus on today. Any ideas?"
"Not yet, but we'll see what we can come up with when we get back."
*****
As they were walking up the pier, however, Raymond's phone started buzzing. "Damn it, I thought I'd turned it off-" Then he stopped, looking at the display.
Sorina had kept walking, but noticing that he'd stopped, she paused and turned around. "Raymond? Is something wrong?"
Busy scrolling through his list of missed calls, he didn't answer her right away. For some reason or another, it looked like every single member of the Phalanx had tried to call him over the last couple of hours, along with at least two dozen numbers he didn't recognize. "What the hell...?" he murmured in confusion. "Sorina, check your phone - do you have any missed calls?"
She dug her phone out of her bag and looked. "Actually... yes. About... a dozen, in fact. Bowman... Collins... Andrea... and several numbers that are unfamiliar to me." She frowned in confusion. "What on earth is going on?"
Just then, Raymond's phone rang, and seeing that it was Statesman, he answered. "States? What-?"
"Where the hell have you been?" The other hero sounded like he was ready to blow a gasket, and Raymond was so surprised that he almost dropped the phone.
"Day off, remember? You authorized it yourself last night! And what the hell is up with everyone trying to call me?"
"Have you seen the afternoon editions of the papers?"
Wha-?
"Uh, no... Sorina and I have been sailing around Paragon Bay since about eleven this morning. What's going on?" He looked at Sorina in bewilderment and mouthed, The afternoon papers? She looked just as mystified as he did, but she turned toward the row of shops that lined the pier and began striding toward them, Raymond following more slowly.
He heard Statesman draw in a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself, but he still sounded like he was ready to punch a rather large hole in the nearest flat surface.
"I gather everyone else has been trying to reach you to warn you... and probably Dr. Tavarisch by extension, since this peripherally involves her. The media is going to be all over you as soon as they find out where you are."
Ahead of him, he saw Sorina find a newspaper stand, insert some change, and hastily pull out a paper. Then her mouth fell open and she went completely still for a moment before coming sprinting back down the pier, swearing in fast-flowing Russian.
"But why-"
Then his own mouth fell open and his voice ground to a halt when he got a good look at what Sorina was waving around.
A copy of the Paragon Caper, the largest tabloid in the city... with a full color front-page picture of Statesman and a familiar-looking tall redhaired woman, both in civilian clothes and in what could only be described as an intense clinch.
For several seconds, all he could do was stare, then he was finally able to get words out.
"Oh, SHI-"
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Okay, this isn't the next chapter, but art relating to Book I. Referencing one of my favorite scenes from Chapter 21 of TCOSR I, the artwork is courtesy of Images by Alex over on deviantArt, whose work I cannot recommend highly enough.
The picture is, appropriately enough, titled "Oops."
Discussions, as always, go here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
It's always nice when I make Cende laugh when I take an idea of hers and run with it. I've nearly made her choke a few times on food with the tabloid thing, so now I get to share it with you guys.
The next few chapters are going to see some fairly elaborate intertwining between my story and Cende's, because of how the timelines work out. And if you haven't read her story Prophecy and Dreams, you should. Our running joke is that she's writing THE THORNBIRDS, I'm writing TWILIGHT.
Discussions, as always, go here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Seven - Fertilizer, Meet Ventilator
"Oh, no," Raymond groaned, staring at the enormous font of the tabloid's headline. "No, no, nononono, tell me this isn't happening."
"It is," Statesman said bluntly. "And it's not exactly like anyone is thrilled about this, either. We're having a council of war with the Patrol at their base. How fast can you get here?"
So much for our day off... God damn it, and it was going so well, too... Holding the phone against his shoulder, Raymond turned to Sorina. "Apparently there's a meeting going on at Star Patrol HQ. How fast can we get there?"
To his surprise, she reached out and took his arm, then touched her belt, where he noticed a small device not much larger than a pager, and murmured, "COUNTERMEASURES - dva vozvrashcheniya." The world briefly went white around them-
-then they were standing on the entrance platform of the Star Patrol's base.
"Oh. Okay, I guess that should be fast enough for him," he said after a moment.
Blinking to help their eyes adjust after the bright sunlight outside, they stepped off the platform, where they then spotted Andrea coming toward them from the base's communications room. The petite heroine was in uniform and looking more than a little harassed.
"Great, you're here. I'm sorry that this throws a wrench in your plans of a restful day off, but it's all hands on deck here. The gang's in the conference room, and man oh man, are they honked off about this whole mess."
"What 'whole mess'?" Sorina asked, following Andrea down the hall to the conference room, Raymond falling into step beside her. "I mean, we saw the headline, but..."
"HA! That's not even the half of it!" the younger woman scoffed. "Every newspaper and tabloid in town is practically falling over themselves to break the story. You thought you guys were front page news? This is just fricking unreal."
Raymond paused to take a second look at Andrea. Normally she'd be almost enjoying this sort of scrape, since she'd found herself in this exact position more than once. But he didn't need her psychic talents to realize that she was actually angry about something... but what or at whom, he couldn't really tell.
The three rounded the corner into the conference room, where sure enough, Statesman, Sister Psyche, Manticore, Citadel, Numina, and Synapse were seated around the huge conference table along with Commanders Bowman, Wright, and Sharpe. Everyone in the room seemed to be on edge, their conversation one step from outright arguing, and Raymond shuddered slightly.
Blake took a seat next to Sharpe, while Sorina sat on her other side, and Raymond moved to sit near Manticore. As he pulled out a chair, however, he noticed that three newspapers had been scattered across the conference table. Ignoring the heated conversation taking place, he reached over and picked them up to read them.
He recognized all three - the Times, the Tattler, and the Caper. The Paragon Times was a fairly respectable newspaper, while the Tattler was the leading social and gossip magazine, so he guessed that it wasn't too much of a surprise that neither one had all that much information to start with. The Caper, however, was pure tabloid, and felt no such need for things like discretion, right to privacy, or even fact-checking.
The Times had the headline "Has Statesman Found a New Love At Last?" There was no picture with it, the column beneath the headline was surprisingly short, and it wasn't even front-page news, but instead was the feature story for the CITY LIFE section. It mostly confined itself to a retrospective on Statesman's personal life (such as that was), including a review of how long he had been a widow, brief highlights of the woman he'd been romantically (and erroneously) linked with in the past, a vague reporting of Ms. Liberty's remarks, a few choice interview comments from Freedom Corps and Longbow personnel (including a surprising quote from a Lt. Jameson in Longbow regarding Cende's lack of dating history), and a not surprisingly short review of Cende's background.
"Brief investigations have turned up multiple instances of the couple spending time together, with many more unconfirmed reports on hand. It would appear then that this is not a new relationship but one that has been quietly growing over time, casting doubt on Statesman's comment that "The young lady and I are just close friends." Confirmation of their status was unable to be obtained from Cende, as she has made herself entirely unavailable for comment. Remarkably little information is publicly available about the reclusive Star Patrol heroine, which in itself warrants further inquiry."
The Tattler had the slightly more provocative headline, "Statesman in Love with Mystery Woman, Ms. Liberty Disapproves". Beneath it was a slightly out of focus copy of what he guessed was probably Cende's FBSA ID photograph.
And exactly what in hell is HER problem? Raymond wondered briefly as he skimmed down the page. Then again, I probably don't want to know.
The subsequent column was slightly longer, but still sparse on information, although it hinted that Ms. Liberty was less than happy about the fact that her grandfather was dating a woman that much younger than he. Somewhat more sensationalist but still relatively respectful, it dug more into Statesman's recent dating adventures. There was also considerably more anecdotal information about Cende, some of it contradictory, that painted her in a somewhat dark and mysterious light. If he didn't know better, he'd guess that Harvey Maylor seemed to be painting Cende as an exotic spy of some sort.
The Caper was the one that Sorina had found on the boardwalk on Talos Island, with that picture of Statesman and Cende in a rather intimate position, just beneath the headline, "Statesman and Cende - A Hot Affair, But Will It Last?"
With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he focused on the Caper's article.
"It's no secret that several of the superhero organizations in Paragon often 'team up' to handle related caseloads, fill in personnel needs, or even just for some extra muscle. These days, however, it seems that the Freedom Phalanx is openly mixing business and pleasure with their fellow Freedom Corps branch, the Star Patrol. First came the unexpected hookup of Positron, aka Dr. Raymond Keyes, with the Patrol's resident physicist and Vanguard liaison, Dr. Sorina Tavarisch. Hot on their heels came the on-again-off-again affair between Paragon City's leading contenders in the love-'em'-and-leave-'em department, Steve Berry (Synapse) and Andrea Blake. Now, going for the hat trick, is Statesman, also known as Marcus Cole, who after years of staunch single life following the loss of his wife, Monica (the late Maiden Justice), has finally begun forays into the dating world.
Over the past month, Statesman has been spotted around town with a number of law-supporting lovelies on his arm. According to Ivy Snow, one of Statesman's more recent companions for an evening, "Oh, please, he's too much of a pr-... I mean, too reserved for this sort of thing. The man is barely comfortable even holding hands. God help the furniture if you put your hand on his knee!" By comparison, superheroine and fame hunter Flambeaux was quick to point out, "All he ever does is talk about himself. Whatever happened to focusing on the woman? He didn't even ask me about me, even once! And then he has the nerve to chase after another redhead, and not to mention one with no fashion sense? Hers has to be a dye job, I mean, there's only one true hot redhead in town and you're talking to her!" (For more on Flambeaux's alleged relationship with Statesman, see page eight.)
But these were apparently just testings of the waters before he settled on the statuesque Star Patrol redhead known only by the name of Cende. And what seemingly has Ms. Liberty in a snit is that Cende, like many of the other 'ships' passing in the night with Paragon's leading hero, is no older than she. Ms. Liberty was overheard to remark, "He doesn't need that and he doesn't need some fame-hunting bimbo hanging on his reputation!""
*****
With a sigh, he shoved the papers back to the center of the table and leaned back in his chair. "So what happens now?" He looked across the table at the leader of the Phalanx. "For the record, States, what you do on your time and who you do it with doesn't mean a damn to me, as long as you're happy. I just want to know if it's true."
"Is what true?" Statesman gestured contemptuously at the pile of papers. "That load of tripe?"
"No. Just your relationship with Cende. If you two are a thing, great, I wish you both well. If not..." He looked over at the picture of the two of them. "Well, if it were me, I'd be suing them for libel after photoshopping a picture like that and plastering it on the front page."
To his surprise, Statesman's face went red behind his mask. "That was... it wasn't... it's not what it looks like, and let's just leave it at that."
Uh-huh. Yeah, I don't want to know. "Okay, so we'll leave it. I take it that our unanimous response is to be, 'No comment'?"
"Of sorts," Bowman said, running one hand through his sandy brown hair. "I keep an index card on my desk for just this sort of thing." Taking on an almost sarcastically monotonous voice, he quoted, "'It is the policy of Star Patrol, its command and its members to avoid public comment on the activities of its members, in whole or in part, except through written statements released through the Freedom Corps Office of Public Affairs.""
"That's the official party line," Wright explained. "If all we'd said was, 'No comment', they'd have accused us of having something to hide."
Sorina covered her face with one hand, clearly recalling her own grilling by the press not too long ago. "Not that THAT's stopped them in the past."
"True, but this at least makes it appear that official policy keeps us from speaking out." Then Wright shot a brief glare at Sharpe and Andrea. "Although these two-"
Sharpe held up his hands defensively. "Hey, they asked for my opinion, I gave it to them."
Raymond glanced back down at the three papers, re-reading them for the comments of the two groups. Not surprisingly, Bowman's spiel had been 'translated' as 'being mysteriously reticent to comment' by the Tattler and the Caper. Sharpe, on the other hand, was being quoted in the Caper in response to the allegations of Statesman and Cende's relationship as stating, "You can get my comments from a more responsible media source tomorrow."
With a grin, Raymond looked over at Andrea. "I'm surprised you didn't speak up."
"SHE wouldn't let me!" Andrea protested, pointing across the table at Wright. "Besides, I can't be the only one who thinks that the reason Ms. Liberty's all bent out of shape is because her grandfather gets more than she does."
The abrupt silence following Andrea's remark was almost deafening, but she folded her arms defiantly across her chest. "Oh come on, tell me I'm wrong."
"That's not the point," Bowman said reprovingly. "We should hold ourselves to a higher standard - just because they indulge in mudslinging and sniping doesn't mean that we should reply in kind."
Raymond then looked over at his teammates. "And I notice a similar blanket on communications from us as well?"
Manticore nodded. "For what good it does."
Citadel stirred from where he'd been sitting besides Statesman. "However, there is a great deal of internet activity and speculation regarding this matter. There appears to be one forum in particular that is defending Statesman in this matter solely because it believes that he is actually involved in a covert relationship with Fa-"
"We are NOT getting into that right now!" Statesman cut him off hastily, slamming one hand down on the table.
It suddenly dawned on Raymond that the eighth member of the Phalanx was strangely absent. "Where's Brawler?"
"Oh, he's still out in front of the Freedom Corps building, as usual," Numina replied with a shrug and a faint smile. "However, he seemed less concerned with the reporters hounding us about Statesman's social life than he did with how they were getting in his way while he was trying to train some of the younger heroes."
Sister Psyche made a face. "As it was, we practically had to sneak out of headquarters to get here. Fortunately, we won't have a problem when we leave, because the Patrol can access any of the teleporter beacons in the city."
Sorina was also looking around, her eyes intent on the various members of the Star Patrol as they walked through the base. "And I notice that Cende is conspicuously missing."
"She's meditating over in the living quarters," Andrea remarked. "And obviously we can't send her to the Rogue Isles now to accompany Takimura, so we'll be sending Talek instead. He's been partnered with her the most often recently, so getting him away from the paparazzi seemed wise. Granted, it means he'll have to keep his head down while on Arachnos turf, but he is good at that." She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "It means that Takimura and Talek's departure has to be delayed a bit because we'll need to reshuffle assignments, so they're both restricted to base until they leave on Wednesday."
"And Moon Tide?" Sorina asked.
"Temporarily seconded by Dr. Caroline Smith in the Shadow Shard. Other than that, Cende's not been obviously linked with too many members, so that should keep any of us from being favored targets by the media."
"For what that's worth," Bowman said sourly. "Although while we're all here, is there anything else newsworthy that we should know about so we can prepare ourselves?"
The members of the Phalanx and the Patrol all looked at one another, then they turned to look at Sorina and Raymond.
*****
"Why is everyone suddenly staring at us?" Raymond asked into the silence.
"Probably because we've not yet had much of a debriefing on what exactly happened while you two were in the Rikti War Zone," Wright said quietly. "It's not exactly made headlines, but most people are aware that the Phalanx leaves fighting the Rikti to the Vanguard. Positron going off to help Gaussian on a mission did raise one or two eyebrows."
Sorina sighed and tiredly rubbed her eyes. "It was the right thing to do, regardless of what anyone else might think. However, Raymond and I still have to go over the data that Vanguard sent to us. Once we finish that, we can convene both groups again and let you know what we find. The important thing is, we managed to take out the Rikti portal and slow things down."
It took all of his self-control not to look over at her, but Raymond was genuinely curious to see if Sorina would mention the new Rikti faction they had encountered during their battles in the War Zone. However, she seemed content to keep that information to herself until it was corroborated by their findings, so he simply nodded in agreement. Especially since something tells me that's going to be a whole new can of worms... no sense in borrowing trouble right now when we have all this other crap to deal with.
"At this point, then, it would seem prudent to continue our chorus of 'no comment', and get on with our current efforts of investigating the attempted bombing of City Hall," Statesman said firmly, looking around the table. He rose and turned to leave, then turned back to face the Star Patrol leaders. "I... appreciate... your discretion. Thank you." With a nod to his fellow Phalanx members, he left the conference room and headed toward the teleporter bay.
"That must have hurt," Andrea commented as she watched him go. "I guess he doesn't like being reminded that he's still only human. Or mostly human and part god, or whatever the hell he is."
"Andrea..." Wright said warningly.
"What?" At the other woman's look, Andrea slouched back in her chair. "Okay, okay. But I'm still right. Besides, we're gonna be catching six kinds of hell over the next few days, so you'd think we'd be snatching at what good times we can instead of grousing about things. At least, that's what I intend to do."
"Does that include your date Friday night with Foreshadow?" Steve asked. Raymond could tell his roommate was trying to act casual, but he couldn't quite seem to pull it off.
"Yep," she said with a grin. "You saw what they called us in the papers - the love-'em-and-leave-'em duo. Except it's not quite accurate on the 'love' part... at least not the romantic love part."
"Spare us the details, Blake," Bowman commented as he stood up, followed by the other leaders. "At any rate, I appreciate you all coming here so we could reach a consensus on this matter. Now all we have to do is get through the next week or so and hope something else catches the media's interest."
"We can but hope," Numina agreed as the rest of the Phalanx got up as well. Raymond also stood, but walked around the table to stand next to Sorina, resting one hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry the day had to end like this, damn it."
"As am I. But it doesn't have to end just yet, or are you needing some time to yourself?" She tilted her head to look up at him, and he gently traced the curve of her jaw with one finger.
"Why don't we call it an early night, and then tomorrow, you come by the Phalanx headquarters and we'll see what Gaussian's thrown our way. It'll save us a lot of needless back-and-forthing if it's important."
"True." Sorina briefly closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, then sighed and opened her eyes again. "So I will see you tomorrow, then?"
Besides, we're gonna be catching six kinds of hell over the next few days, so you'd think we'd be snatching at what good times we can instead of grousing about things...
"Actually, I was thinking more of nabbing a pizza and taking it and you back to my house."
"Oh." A slow smile spread across her face. "So your suggestion about an early night...?"
He gave her a lopsided grin in response. "Shall we?"
"Da, we shall."
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I know... I know. I'm sorry.
Discussions go here, as usual.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE, PART II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Eight - Buried Secrets
"No offense, Sorina, but I don't think you realize exactly what you're dealing with here," Raymond was saying the following morning as he and Sorina entered Phalanx Headquarters. "The raw computational power needed for that kind of work is almost off the scale." Firmly slamming the door behind him to shut out the mob of reporters that had apparently camped overnight on their doorstep, he sighed and pulled off his helmet.
"The theory is perfectly sound," she protested, following him down the hall and pushing her goggles up onto the top of her head. "Besides, I've learned not to underestimate the ingenuity of college students. All you have to do is tell them that something is nearly impossible, and they fall over themselves trying to prove it can be done."
"Prove what can be done?" Manticore asked, coming out of the decrypt room with a sheaf of papers. "And did I just hear the front door slam?"
"That was me," Raymond admitted. "Damn reporters outside."
"Yeah, well, States' dating life is always big news, and 'freedom of the press' is one of those things we're supposed to protect. Anyway, you were saying?"
"Oh... yes, we were talking about a class that I'm teaching next week on the use of Brownian motion for programming advanced computations and artificial intelligences," Sorina explained as she paused to shake hands with Manticore.
"Brownian what?"
Raymond grinned. "It's a scientific theory where you tag a molecule and then try to predict where it's going to end up after a certain length of time. The easiest version is to use a liquid, then a gas, then a superheated plasma."
"But isn't it nearly completely random?" Manticore asked, frowning.
"Almost certainly, considering the laws of probability," Sorina began, "but if you consider that no two molecules can occupy the same space, and-"
The archer cut her off by raising his hands in surrender. "Never mind, forget I asked. Science is Posi's gig, not mine. By the way, since we're likely to be holed up in here for a while thanks to the press, the breakfast fairy paid us a visit - there's coffee and bagels in the kitchen if you two want some. And don't worry, man - there's at least a couple sourdough for you, and some dark Russian rye for the good doctor here."
"What about tea?" Sorina asked hopefully, but Raymond gave her a slight push down the hall in the direction of the kitchen.
"Come on, come on, you're between me and caffeine. If we make some serious progress today, we'll see about getting a samovar and tea set for you that you can keep here."
"Promises, promises," she murmured, entering the kitchen behind him where true to his word, Manticore had left several bags of bagels for the Phalanx members. "As if you could afford a decent samovar..."
"As a matter of fact, I can. And I'm guessing that Steve hasn't been in here yet, or most of these would be-" Raymond was saying when a red-blue blur zoomed into the room, snatched a bag off the table and vanished back out into the hallway. "-gone."
An instant later, Steve was back, glaring into the fridge. "Damn it, who finished off the last of the peanut butter?"
"You did," Raymond reminded him as Sorina sliced a rye bagel in half and began adding lox and cream cheese. Rummaging around in the bags, he found a fresh jar of peanut butter and tossed it toward his roommate, who easily caught it and frowned. "Crunchy?"
"Oh, shut up and stop complaining."
Pouring two steaming mugs of coffee for himself and Sorina, he carried them down the hall to his lab while she followed with two plates of bagels. "So how much data do you think Gaussian actually sent over?"
"I've no idea," she admitted. "I did leave instructions to send over any pertinent information based on what the lab techs found, so it could be a lot, or..."
"... it could be nothing," he finished, handing her a mug after she'd set the plates down on the workbench. She clinked her mug lightly against his, murmuring "Za vas."
"What's that mean?"
"It means 'to you.'"
They drained their mugs, set them aside, and then pulled up chairs side by side in front of the large bank of computer monitors, bagels in easy reach. Out of habit, Raymond pulled over one of his notebooks for the occasional random stray thought, then he gestured for Sorina to get started.
"You're more familiar with Vanguard's data than I am you lead, I'll query as we go."
Her fingers were already tapping at the keyboards as she pulled up the first several files the Vanguard techs had sent. "It looks like this is... energy readings. These are maps... This one is... I'm not sure yet, but it might be the data files we tried to pull off those terminals in their communications room. This must be what they got off the scanners we brought back from the War Zone."
Raymond remembered the room they'd found in the caverns beneath the crashed Rikti mothership. After they'd discovered a highly sophisticated communications center, he, Sorina, and the rest of their Vanguard team had conducted an impromptu data raid, hoping that the scientists back at the Vanguard base would be able to decipher it.
He leaned forward to peer at the monitors. Sure enough, there were charts depicting energy signatures. "Those... see if you can coordinate them into one cohesive chart." Almost without thinking, he started doodling in his notebook, creating a sort of free-form flow chart referencing filenames so that he'd have something to work with later.
As Sorina continued to type, she began compiling the data into what constituted a typical Rikti profile. "So what this looks like is the regular Rikti we were slugging it out with along the way."
He typed in a few commands at a second keyboard and information began scrolling past. "So far, nothing special that I can see... admittedly, I'm not as up on the latest Rikti research as you are." He managed to keep the resentment out of his voice, but they both knew that Raymond and the other Phalanx members still quietly resented Vanguard's 'hands-off' attitude when it came to their ongoing battle with the Rikti.
"It wasn't until those others came through the portal that things went strange," she agreed, continuing to sort through the data. "This segment right here... this is the portal itself. Those are the generators. And judging by the sheer levels of energy, these would be Hro'Dtohz's scans, so..."
"That... right there... can you get more info on that?" He pointed to a particular segment of the spectrum, and Sorina focused in on it. "It doesn't look like theirs the signatures are all wrong. And that's not Circle magic, either." Tapping the keys again, he pulled up his files on the Circle of Thorns, and a depiction of their magical energy appeared on the screen. When compared to the typical Rikti magus, the similarities were clear.
"That's probably Av'Adn and his crew." Reaching across her to type at her keyboard, he created a second profile to compare with the first.
"So if it's not Thorns magic, then what?" she mused, taking an idle bite from her bagel as she leaned back in her chair.
"There's got to be something different about them... something that sets them apart from other Rikti to allow them to use magic."
"Your existence: abomination among Rikti! Your status: nothing!"
The big Rikti leader had been furious when Av'Adn had arrived with his cadre, not only because of their interference in his battle with the Vanguard team, but...
"Hro'Dtohz seemed rather insistent that there was something... wrong with that group," he said slowly, picking up a bagel of his own but not actually taking a bite. Instead, he waved it at the monitors where the two profiles of the Rikti were slowly compiling. "The Rikti already engage in genetic engineering... not to mention they use cybernetic implants to enhance their strength and power."
Then he frowned.
"Sorina, did they send over any biometric data on those other Rikti? Genetic info of any kind?"
She wiped her hands with a napkin and began typing again. "Yes... here, let's take a look."
Another set of side-by-side comparison images appeared and began taking shape Rikti DNA sequences both from the typical Rikti that Vanguard had fought, and the ones that Vale and his group had managed to secure just before...
Raymond grimaced to himself and took a bite of his bagel, trying not to remember those last hellish moments in the War Zone where six good men and women had given their lives to save Sorina's and his. Still, the images came unbidden into his mind...
Phillips disintegrating in a hail of blaster fire and magic...
Etienne, Carleton, and Halley caught in the explosions of the sabotaged generators...
Vale and St. John's suicidal attacks giving himself and Sorina a chance to escape...
Briefly closing his eyes, he wondered if he'd ever be able to forget that feeling of sickening helplessness as he'd stood there and watched them all die.
"What the hell are they DOING?!" he shouted over the chaos, when he saw Major Vale draw his arm back and hurl something, end over end, straight at Sorina. A moment later, the other soldier did the same, and Sorina stretched out her hand. Telekinetically reaching out, she drew the two projectiles toward her, catching them in her palms just as Raymonds blasts blew the portal ring completely apart...
Vales and St. Johns military tags, each one wrapped around a hypo-syringe...
"For... Vanguard..."
Opening his eyes once again, he let out a long, quiet sigh. I may not have been able to save you, but I promise you, all of you, I won't let your sacrifices be in vain...
*****
Sorina abruptly sat up in her chair, then leaned forward, using a pencil to trace a section of the DNA chain.
"Here... this. This is different."
Raymond peered more closely at it, then frowned. "I could be wrong, but those look like an awful lot like recombinant DNA sequences artificial in origin." He glanced at the DNA chain of the typical Rikti, then back at the representation of Av'Adn and his mages. "Whatever those other Rikti were, they were not a mutation or an evolution their difference is a deliberate one."
"Recombinant DNA? As in perhaps deliberately assimilating a specific type?"
"That'd be my guess." He leaned back in his chair again and took another bite of his bagel, looking thoughtful. "Well... you and I both know that Rikti DNA is based extensively on human DNA. Even if Vanguard wants to keep as firm a lid on that one as possible."
That was one secret he could completely understand Vanguard wanting to keep under wraps. Earth had been devastated during the first Rikti War, and it was widely believed that the Rikti were alien invaders. But Vanguard knew, as did Raymond, Sorina, and select others with Omega Clearance, that the Rikti were in fact from an alternate Earth... and they were the altered remnants of humanity.
He glanced over at Sorina, and was startled to see that she had gone absolutely ashen, her dark eyes wide and staring at the monitors in dawning horror.
"Nyet... nyet, nyet, nyet, Ne mozhet byt'... eto nevozmozhno..."
"Sorina? Sorina, what's wrong?" he asked in alarm, turning to face her even as she recoiled from the computers.
Looking as though she were about to be ill, she swallowed hard and shut her eyes tightly before covering her face with her hands. "Oh, Raymond... can't you see?"
Completely confused by her reaction, Raymond turned back to the computer monitors. He tried to clear his mind, allowing the free-flowing chains of thought that so often had served him well in his scientific pursuits.
Two types of Rikti.
Two types of magic-wielding Rikti.
Earth-trapped Rikti using magic stolen from the Circle of Thorns.
Rikti using non-Thorns magic.
Rikti that had subjected themselves to genetic engineering.
With recombinant DNA sequences.
With human recombinant DNA sequences.
Coming through the portal from the Rikti homeworld.
Which has no magic.
And no normal humans.
And no access from Primal Earth in over seven years.
And then it all fell into place.
"Holy Mary, mother of God," he whispered, feeling an icy chill creeping down his spine.
"Da," she whispered brokenly, her face still in her hands.
"But we have to be sure... Sorina, how many of Av'Adn's group do we have profiles on?" She turned to look at him, her dark eyes filled with a deep sorrow. "You're thinking it too... I can tell," he said softly. "God, Sorina, I..."
Turning back to the computer, she sifted through the files that Gaussian had sent and eventually had five distinct biometric data sets created on the monitors Av'Adn and his four lieutenants. One by one, she isolated the recombinant DNA sequences from each the biological chains of data that separated them from the rest of the Rikti.
Then she moved slightly to access another computer, and Raymond recognized the familiar logo of Vanguard. She entered a series of passcodes, and glancing over her shoulder, he saw:
DNA REGISTRATION
PROVIDE SEARCH PARAMETERS
For a moment, she lifted her hands from the keys and closed her eyes, and Raymond saw a shudder rack her body. Instinctively, he moved his chair closer to hers and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, wishing that he was wrong, but suspecting that he wasn't.
Slowly at first, then more quickly, she began entering the DNA sequences into the system.
SEARCHING...
MATCH FOUND: Bearer of Aegis
MATCH FOUND: Hero 1
MATCH FOUND: Infernia
MATCH FOUND: Plum Blossom
MATCH FOUND: Ill Wind
MATCH FOUND: Glacia
MATCH FOUND: Prestidigitator
MATCH FOUND: Mystic Maiden
MATCH FOUND: Ruin
MATCH FOUND...
The list went on and on, with almost fifty names appearing.
"Is..." He swallowed hard and tried again. "Is there any chance that..."
"... it could be wrong?" Sorina finished. She slowly shook her head. "Even with only partial matches, the chances that any two individuals, except perhaps identical twins, will have the same DNA profile can be as high as one in one billion or greater."
Together they stared at the monitors and the stark truth revealed there.
"So Av'Adn and his mages..." Raymond whispered, feeling the same sick helplessness once again, "they've been created from the DNA of the members of Omega Team."
*****
For a long time, they sat in silence, staring at the monitors without really saying them. Jesus... he thought, his mind flashing back to the last days of the first Rikti war. The invasion had been going on for over six months... and humanity had been losing. With the Rikti forces becoming more and more entrenched, it looked as though Earth would be completely lost... until Dr. Steven Sheridan, aka Doc Science, had come up with a last-ditch, desperate plan to save the world. With the help of Statesman and Hero 1, two of the world's greatest heroes, he devised a stratagem to take the battle to the Rikti, and hopefully cut off their connection to their homeworld.
Statesman led Alpha Team, a group of over a thousand united heroes, in a frontal assault against the Rikti. Raymond had originally insisted on joining, but Statesman had ordered otherwise. Instead, he had teamed with relief workers and emergency services, using his scientific experience to keep the citizens of Paragon City alive after the Rikti had destroyed much of the city's infrastructure.
Hero 1, on the other hand, had led Omega Team, a group of fifty magically talented men and women, on a stealth mission to take out the Rikti portal. Knowing that destroying the portal from Earth's side would only be postponing the inevitable, they had opted to travel through to the Rikti homeworld, and disable it from there.
Forty-nine went through... with only the hero Ajax surviving because he'd been caught in a Rikti stasis ray moments before passing through the portal. The rest arrived on the Rikti homeworld and destroyed the portal, but with their only way home gone, and hopelessly outnumbered, it was assumed that the team had perished.
At least we thought they'd all died... Raymond shuddered. But three years earlier, there had been definitive proof that some of Omega Team had in fact survived their assault. First had been the unexpected return of the sisters Glacia and Infernia. At the start of the second Rikti War, when the earthbound Rikti succeeded in creating a portal back to their homeworld, the sisters had snuck through on a transport, bringing back with them a veritable mine of information on the Rikti homeworld. They'd immediately been seconded to Vanguard, and even now were still helping in the war effort.
But the second... Raymond's hands clenched into fists as the memories washed over him.
Sister Psyche's screams as Rikti energy blasts had torn into her from behind, killing her in an instant.
Synapse's spinal cord severed as he went down in a bloody heap, nearly carved in half by a Rikti gunblade.
Manticore's neck broken by a single brutal blow.
His own armor breached by a Rikti sneak attack... before he'd exploded with the force of a nuclear blast.
And just before he'd died, he'd seen an abomination that had followed the Rikti through the portal to Earth... a twisted and powerful mutated warrior that had almost snapped Ms. Liberty's neck, had nearly killed Statesman...
The Rikti called him the Honoree... but Raymond had known him as Hero 1.
The greatest hero of Omega Team had somehow survived... but the Rikti had warped him, remade him into a weapon against his own race, and the Honoree had only been stopped when Lady Grey and the other leaders of Vanguard arrived and drove him back through the portal, or so Raymond had been told after the Dark Watcher had drawn upon his mystic talents and resurrected the fallen members of the Phalanx.
Since that day, every time the Rikti managed to create a portal to their homeworld, the Honoree would repeatedly come through, aiding the Rikti war effort and demoralizing the hero forces of Earth with the unavoidable fact of his fate. And it was one every hero would share if the Rikti won the war.
"Damn them," he whispered. "It wasn't enough that they warped Hero 1 into whatever godforsaken mutant he is now... this is just..."
"It's worse than that, Raymond," Sorina said quietly, the tremor in her voice not quite under control. "Think about it the only thing capable of stopping the Rikti was magic. That's why they wiped out the Midnight Squad in the earliest days of the War... as soon as they realized they were vulnerable, they went after the Squad with a vengeance and destroyed them almost overnight." She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "And if you believe the rumors, the only reason the Rikti didn't gain more of a foothold underground is because they ran into the Circle of Thorns down there. Vanguard was never able to confirm it, but we suspected that the Rikti had stumbled onto Oranbega, and the Circle fought back."
"That would at least explain where the earthbound Rikti gained their magical powers, then," Raymond said, fighting to keep his emotions under control and trying to treat this as one more scientific investigation. "They encountered the Circle, and somehow mastered the most rudimentary elements of their magic."
Then he realized where Sorina was going with her line of thinking. "Oh good God... if Av'Adn takes control of the Rikti on Earth, and they genetically engineer themselves as capable of using magic... our last advantage over them is gone."
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Well, Cende and I are taking advantage of NaNoWriMo 2011 to try and get our respective stories done (me - TCOSR II, her - Prophecy and Dreams). Especially since we both fear that the longer we wait, the more... umm... wonky, retconned, or outright trashed actual canon will become.
(And we actually figured out a timeline! Based on events of our stories, this is set approximately one year ago.)
So here's the next chapter of TCOSR II! Discussions, as always, go here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE, PART II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter Nine - Up to Speed
"What do we tell them?" Sorina asked, her voice slightly husky. "For that matter, HOW do we tell them?"
Raymond frowned at her. "'Them' who?"
"The rest of the Phalanx... the Star Patrol leaders... not to mention Gaussian and Vanguard... oh, bozhe moi, we'll have to explain this somehow to the Midnight Squad." With a wave of her hand, she gestured at the bank of monitors, still displaying the data they'd been poring over for the last couple of hours and the nightmarish truths that the Rikti had managed to keep secret.
"Oh, like that's going to go over well," he groaned, covering his face with his hand. "Neither one of us is all that adept at magical dealings. Any chance that we can hand that one over to someone else?"
She shrugged, her mouth curved in a thoughtful frown as she rested her chin on her hand. "Perhaps Sharpe will be willing. Numina might not be a bad choice, either after all, she is also a member of the Midnighters. And as you said, the more magically talented may be able to find ways to deal with this matter that we cannot see ourselves."
"God, I hope so. This is going to turn into a major furball, just you wait."
Sorina's dark eyes turned to him in confusion. "'Furball?'" she repeated. "Is that not a slang term referring to animals of some kinds?"
"Wha- oh... it's also a more polite way of saying that everything is going to go straight to hell." It was also a lot more polite than the term he'd originally wanted to use, he thought ruefully.
"Ah." She shook her head in bemusement. "You would think after living here this long, I would be more conversant with the quirks of the English language, but it seems there are still some gaps."
"How about on our next day off, I teach you about English slang, and you can teach me how to swear in Russian?" Raymond suggested in an attempt to lighten the mood, and he was pleased to see her smile in return.
"As long as the day doesn't end like our last one did," she sighed, pushing her dark hair back from her face. "So... first things first. We tell the Phalanx-"
"And cross the other bridges when we get to them," he finished. "Sounds good to me." Then he peered at her a little more closely, taking her chin in his hand and turning her face toward his. With a frown, he saw that although she was doing her best to keep her emotions under control, tears were still visible in her eyes.
"Sorina?"
She closed her eyes and briefly turned her head away, swallowing hard before letting out her breath in a shuddering sigh. "I'm sorry... it's just... I helped them, Raymond. Omega Team... I was part of the science team that was working with them. I didn't know all of them personally, but... they were tovarisch... comrades."
"Fellow soldiers," he said softly, and she nodded. "Well, we'll do our damnedest to avenge them, no matter what advantages the Rikti have taken away. You can count on it."
*****
They worked in relative silence for another hour or so, organizing the information they'd uncovered into a more cohesive and detailed report. As scientists, report-writing was a skill that Raymond had joked more than once was something they could do in their sleep, and before too long, they'd come up with a précis that covered the salient points each group would likely want addressed.
"I don't know about you," Raymond remarked, getting up from his chair and stretching. "But I think we deserve a short break."
"In a moment," Sorina replied, still typing at the keys.
He waited for a few seconds to see if she'd finish, but when she kept going, he moved to stand behind her and started massaging her shoulders. At first, she continued to type, but eventually her hands stilled and her head fell forward with a slight sigh.
Raymond smiled to himself he'd discovered fairly early on in their relationship that Sorina loved a good massage, and he'd used that discovery often to good effect whenever she got too focused on something. Of course, he'd had no complaints when she then insisted on reciprocating. As his thumbs kneaded the muscles of the back of her neck, he could feel them slowly start to relax.
"Mmm," she murmured softly, "that feels good."
"It's supposed to," he said flippantly.
"Of course, given what the rest of the day will probably be like, you may have to do this more than once." She turned her head slightly so that she was looking at him through the dark fall of her hair, and he thought he saw her mouth quirk into a smile.
"My tough luck, I suppose. You can pay me back when we're done with work today."
Now he was certain he saw her smile.
"Well, they say anticipation makes things all the sweeter."
"True."
She also stood up and stretched, and he leaned back on his heels to watch her, a faint smile of his own on his face. He might be tired and more than a bit stressed, but he could still appreciate the sight of her in her spandex Star Patrol uniform, especially during moments like these.
"You know, I wonder sometimes if that's why women like you wear uniforms like that," he commented before he could stop himself, then he abruptly blushed.
She froze in mid-stretch, her cheeks turning faintly pink, and then her dark eyes twinkled in amusement as she laughed at him. "And to think that all this time, I'd been wondering if you ever really noticed." His blush deepened, and still laughing, she stood on tiptoe to kiss him lightly on the lips. "But thank you."
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Positron," they heard from the doorway, and they abruptly leapt apart, turning to see Sister Psyche there, a wide and all-too-knowing smile on her face.
"MUST you do that?" Raymond grumbled, turning away in embarrassment that the psion had picked up on his emotional and physical response to Sorina.
"Lock the door next time," she remarked cheerfully. Then the smile faded from her face as she glanced over her shoulder to look down the hall, then back at them. Stepping into the lab, she shut the door behind her. "Actually, I'd wanted to mention a couple things to you both."
"Such as?" Raymond waved her to a chair while Sorina resumed her seat in front of the computers, and he idly leaned against one of the mainframes.
"First, I take it you two found something seriously unpleasant in that data that Gaussian had sent over."
He grimaced in frustrated disgust. "Yeah, you could say that. Actually, we were just finishing up prepping a report for the rest of the group. I won't ask how you knew... I gather the shock was easy to pick up."
"Definitely that," the redhead agreed. "And I'll leave you to explain the details during our meeting. But I also wanted to give you guys a warning to... well... keep out of Statesman's way today unless you absolutely have to."
"Any particular reason?" Raymond asked.
"Well, he'd probably deny it if he heard me say this, but he's seriously pissed off, and more than a bit upset."
"About what?" Sorina asked with a frown.
"You two were busy when he arrived this morning, but the reporters practically came crowding in after him. I'm surprised you didn't hear his teeth gnashing from the other side of the building."
Raymond winced. "Oh, terrific. And let me guess... his 'let's just handle this calmly and quietly' policy is wearing thin really quickly."
"You could say that. It's one thing when it's work-related, but now it's personal."
"What do you mean, personal?" Sorina asked.
"This whole mess with your teammate Cende. He can go on and on all he likes about how they're just friends, but we're not as stupid as he thinks we are, nor are we as blind as he is. Mix in the fact that part of him still feels a little guilty about falling in love again after losing his wife, plus the fact that he and Cende now have to stay away from each other. It's got him just a bit riled up."
"Great," Raymond said flatly. "So it's walking on eggshells time."
Shalice nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. He's been snapping at people all morning, I'm not sure we'll be able to properly close the conference room door any time soon without having a carpenter come in and look at it, and he nearly took off Ms. Liberty's head when she called earlier."
"Can you blame him, though? If she hadn't thrown a hissy fit, this wouldn't have happened. Christ, I feel sorry for Alexis, though, having to clean up this mess."
"At least she's good at it," Sister Psyche admitted. "And if office gossip is to be believed, she's arranged for Jessica to go out on a jaunt to Firebase Zulu, a surefire way to get her away from Statesman and the press if there was one. But I did want to give you two fair warning, just in case he takes your heads off for no discernable reason."
"Thanks for the warning," Raymond said wearily, while Sorina nodded her thanks. "By the way... what's your take on those two?"
"Marcus and Cende?" Shalice shrugged. "He seems happy with her. I mean, sure, there's the age gap of course, but who am I to talk?"
Raymond could sympathize with that. Since Sister Psyche didn't age while mindriding, despite her relatively young appearance, she was actually over eighty years old a fact made difficult by the unavoidable truth that her husband, Manticore, was significantly younger than she... and that he would age and die while she remained young. It was one of the harder challenges the couple had to face, and it was one that he was grateful he and Sorina did not have to deal with.
He brought his attention back to Shalice, who was saying, "Besides, until this happened, he was actually... more relaxed. Not nearly as uptight as he'd been before he started his forays back into the dating world." She sighed. "I so hope this doesn't set him back even worse than he was before, or the man will be completely unbearable."
Raymond glanced over at Sorina. "Then I suggest we get this meeting out of the way now so we can get off the minefield."
"A meeting about what you found going over Gaussian's data?" Sister Psyche asked, and they nodded.
"Yeah... and you're not gonna like it one bit."
*****
Fifteen minutes later, the Freedom Phalanx was assembled in its main conference room, with Sorina seated next to Raymond. Statesman had been the last to arrive, and the moment he walked in, Raymond was grateful for Shalice's warning. The man looked like a thundercloud, his jaw set angrily and his posture tense.
And considering what we have to tell him... Raymond sighed to himself. This is not going to go well.
Once everyone was seated, Statesman looked over at the two scientists. "I gather you two made some in-roads into that Vanguard data."
Raymond nodded, and started tapping the console in front of him, pulling up displays that the whole Phalanx could see. Using the précis he and Sorina had worked on, they gave the rest of the group a rundown of everything they had learned the presence of an entire underground facility, the destruction of the portal, the appearance of a new Rikti faction, and their challenge to Hro'Dtohz's authority.
"All of this, however, was what we'd learned before we analyzed the data we'd gathered from that mission. Vanguard has this information as well, from our debriefings after we'd returned to the compound." He paused and glanced over at Sorina, who tapped a few keys and modified the display.
"However, we were then sent the scans we'd taken underground in the War Zone, plus the bio-data that Major Vale and Captain St. John had taken from Av'Adn and his mages. We then confirmed what Lieutenant Phillips had stated... that this new Rikti group was using magic, but not Circle magic. And..." Her voice trailed off, and she swallowed hard, her hands clenching into fists.
"... and?" Steve prompted. "What else did you find?"
Sorina entered another command on her console, and suddenly the list of names appeared from Vanguard's DNA Registration database. As the names began scrolling by, it was clear from the Phalanx's reactions that they recognized the Omega Team roster.
"Oh, my God," Sister Psyche whispered. "Hero 1... Branforth... Alejandro... you mean..."
Sorina slowly nodded. "Yes. Av'Adn and his mages were created from the DNA of Omega Team. As Rikti are modified and mutated humans, they apparently created recombinant DNA sequences to take on their magical talents. We think it's why Hro'Dtohz reacted so negatively to them when they came through the Rikti don't use magic, so this must be abhorrent to them."
"However, this does not necessarily mean that Omega Team is in fact dead," Raymond cut in. "After all, Infernia and Glacia made it back alive... as is Hero 1, although what the Rikti did to him is just beyond the pale."
"But now... unless I'm mistaken, this would mean that these new Rikti aren't susceptible to magic," Numina said slowly, and Raymond and Sorina nodded.
"Unfortunately, yes... which is why we'll be bringing this to the attention of the Midnight Squad as well. Perhaps they'll be able to shed a different sort of insight on this. Neither Sorina nor I really know all that much about magic."
"And you said that Hro'Dtohz views these Rikti as... traitors or abominations of some kind," Manticore said, leaning back in his chair and looking thoughtful. "This could work to our advantage, if the Rikti on Earth are now caught up in some sort of civil war. Get them so busy fighting each other that they have no time for us, give us some time to bolster Vanguard's ranks..."
"Unless Av'Adn takes control of the Rikti forces on Earth," Raymond reminded him. "If he does, with what scientific resources they still have? They could start creating armies of magic-wielding Rikti. Those regular Rikti Magi have been giving us fits... and you didn't see them, Justin. They hammered Hro'Dtohz's forces like they were insignificant insects. Not to mention Av'Adn himself..." He shook his head. "No. The only way the Rikti would be able to stomp on him would be for both Earthbound factions to unite, and that'll never happen."
Raymond looked around the table at his teammates. Synapse, Manticore, and Sister Psyche were all pale. No surprise there... after all, that's when we all died... Numina looked troubled, while Citadel was quietly uploading all of the data into his own circuits for further assessment.
A glance at Statesman, however, showed that the big man had gone absolutely ashen. Raymond couldn't blame him after all, he and Hero 1 had been friends, and they had agreed on the plan that eventually had saved the Earth, though at the cost of Omega Team's lives.
This is just not his week... first this whole mess of his love life, and now finding out that the Rikti have turned one of our own weapons against us... or more like fifty weapons against us.
"Does Vanguard know yet?" Manticore asked. "About-" He waved a hand at the display. "-this?"
Sorina shook her head. "No. Not yet, anyway. They're next on the list, though."
"So what's the plan?"
Raymond glanced over at his roommate. "Technically... we don't have one. Once Vanguard and the Midnighters are brought up to speed, then maybe, but right now?" He spread his hands in a frustrated gesture. "What can we do? We're not exactly in a position to fight the Rikti ourselves. All we can do is wait. Wait and be watchful."
*****
Later that afternoon, the two headed back to the Vanguard base in Atlas Park, where they were ushered through the portal that led to the Rikti War Zone. Sorina had called ahead to warn Gaussian of their arrival, and as they stepped through, Raymond saw that Gaussian had apparently called Lady Grey and the other heads of Vanguard.
Gaussian's eyes glanced over to Raymond with a slight frown, then he turned to Sorina. "I wasn't aware that you had invited Positron to this meeting as well, Dr. Tavarisch."
Raymond was ready to open his mouth when Sorina beat him to it.
"He was with me on this mission," she replied coolly, meeting him look for look. "And he helped me analyze this data. It only makes sense for him to be here." She glanced over at Lady Grey and briefly inclined her head to the other woman, then nodded in greeting to the rest of the group. "I assure you all, this will be unpleasant enough as it is."
"I do not doubt it, Doctor," Lady Grey said, her voice as coldly elegant as always. "Come with us."
A few minutes later, seated in one of the Vanguard compound's conference rooms, Raymond and Sorina gave the Vanguard leaders the same report that they had to the Phalanx. To Raymond's profound lack of surprise, their reactions were almost exactly the same as the Phalanx's.
"This... is a complication we could have most certainly done without," Gaussian said heavily when they were finished speaking. "The struggle between the Restructurists and the Traditionalists has been difficult enough as it is on our resources. Adding a third faction to the mix is potentially more than even we can handle."
"Especially if what you say is true about their facility with wielding magic," the Dark Watcher rumbled from where he sat at the far end of the table. "They already had the advantage of superior technology... technology we're still trying to unlock."
"It's a morbid sense of payback, that's for sure," Levantera groused. "They have the technological advantage, and we start adapting it for ourselves. Now they turn around and turn our own magical advantage against us."
"Indeed," Lady Grey said quietly. "But we may still find hope in the fact that there are only five such mages among the Rikti at present. We must bolster our own magical personnel in response." Then she gave a soft sigh. "As for Omega Team... I believe it is time for further discussions with Infernia and Glacia."
"You're telling me that in three years, you haven't already gotten all useful information from them?" Raymond said, trying and not quite succeeding at keeping the disbelief from his voice. Apparently the Vanguard leaders caught it, because they turned as one to look at him.
"There has been the little matter of an ongoing war, Positron," Borea said with a faint sneer, but Lady Grey stilled her with a lift of her hand.
"Now is not the time for recriminations... there is far too much to do. We thank you both for your efforts, and I assure you, we will investigate this matter with all due haste. Your work in this matter has been exceptional, but that is to be expected from scientists of your caliber."
"So what happens now?" Raymond asked as they all rose to their feet.
The Dark Watcher gave them both a measured look. "Dr. Tavarisch mentioned that you two would be speaking to the Midnight Squad at the earliest possibility, a mission I agree is of the utmost urgency. After that..." He gave a slight shrug. "We see what hand fate deals us."
As the couple left the conference room, Raymond glanced over at Sorina, who had stopped in the hallway and had one hand to her ear.
"Da, idti vpered, COUNTERMEASURES." She listened for a few moments, then frowned. "Priznannyi." She covered her face with one hand and softly started cursing in Russian.
"What's wrong?"
"Emergency meeting at Star Patrol Headquarters. And you are not going to believe why."
"Do I even want to know?"
Her dark eyes were filled with worry. "Cende's going back to Nepal... tomorrow."
To be continued...
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I apologize for making my fans wait so long before Book 2 started. I really didn't want to wait this long, but real life and jobs and stuff just insisted on getting in my way.
As per usual, please post comments and stuff in the Discussions thread (I'm not creating a new Discussions thread, just a new story thread).
The original story, of course, and all its commentary can be found here.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*******
At any rate, welcome back to the misadventures of Raymond Keyes and Sorina Tavarisch in...
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING
Chapter One - No Rest for the Weary
The sound of a low, persistent beeping slowly filtered its way into Raymond's consciousness, and he groaned, rolled over, and blindly slapped his hand down in the direction of his alarm clock...
"Ouch!"
As his arm connected with something warm and very definitely not his alarm, Sorina's muffled yelp brought him fully awake, and he sat up, briefly disoriented.
"Wha- oh..."
The events of last night came back to him, and he belatedly remembered that he had spent the night at her apartment rather than returning to his own house in Steel Canyon. With a sigh, he flopped back onto the bed, one arm across his face.
"Sorry about that."
Next to him, Sorina was rubbing her cheek where he'd accidentally hit her with his arm while reaching across the bed, and at the same time frowning blearily at her alarm clock.
"It's not even four in the morning," she complained. "And that's not my alarm. Or my phone."
"Four a.m.?!" Leaning over the edge of the bed and rummaging one-handed through his pile of clothes on the floor, Raymond bit back a curse. "I swear, if this is Steve calling, I'm going to kill him."
But then he frowned as he finally located his cell phone, and Raymond realized that the sound was coming from someplace else.
"Your armor, maybe?" Sorina suggested with a yawn, rubbing her eyes and looking over at him.
"You're probably right," he sighed, but before he could get up, Sorina rolled over onto her side and slid her arm around his waist, resting her face between his shoulderblades.
"Come on, Sorina," he said halfheartedly, but she didn't move.
"Shhhh," she murmured indistinctly, and they stayed like that for several seconds.
He closed his eyes again, letting himself simply enjoy the feeling of her holding him, the warmth of her body against his, and the quiet pleasure of her presence.
If only we could just stay like this... he thought. Just for a little while longer.
Then she finally released him with a slight push.
"Go. Before I change my mind and decide not to let you leave."
Looking over his shoulder at her, he saw the slight smile that curved her mouth, and he rolled over to kiss her lightly.
"Stay just like that, with that smile, and I might not leave anyway," he told her, then he kicked off the covers, scooped up his clothes, and padded barefoot into Sorina's living room where he had left his armor the night before when they'd returned from the Rikti War Zone.
As he pulled on his clothes, he cursed the yet-again intrusion of real life onto the fragile peace he'd managed to find lately. In the two months since he and Sorina had begun dating, life had thrown one problem after another at them, culminating in yesterday's nightmarish excursion to the War Zone. Upon their arrival back at her apartment, they had finally agreed that their personal lives and heroic lives could no longer interact.
He looked wistfully back toward Sorina's bedroom. Which is why she's still there and not out here with me to find out what the crisis of the day is.
Once dressed, he donned his armor, and his retinal displays indicated that the incoming transmission was coming from Freedom Phalanx HQ - and on a priority one signal. Whatever it was, he thought, it couldn't be good.
"Accept transmission," he sighed, and the audio/visual link to the Phalanx headquarters was established.
"Positron here, go ahead."
Manticore's image appeared on his displays. "Sorry to wake you up, Pos," he said apologetically.
"I doubt you want to be awake this early, either. What's the situation?"
"PPD just called us - someone had phoned in a bomb threat to City Hall. But when their bomb squad got there, whatever they found, it's not your typical bomb. They're asking for our assistance on this one, and specifically for yours."
That was a surprise - the PPD rarely had to call in the Phalanx for problems at City Hall, considering the contingent of Longbow that could generally be found stationed there at any given time. On the other hand, until he found out more information, it could well be that Longbow had initially been called in, and then decided it would be better to turn the matter over to the Freedom Phalanx.
"Understood. That thing got a timer of any kind? Note indicating when it'll be set off?"
"Not that we've found... PPD is still analyzing the call, but I get the feeling that this is a message."
"Any idea from whom?"
"Not a clue... yet."
"I'll meet you guys at City Hall, then. Ten minutes."
"Will do. Manticore out." As the call ended, Raymond removed his helmet long enough to rub his eyes tiredly, wishing he had time to at least get some coffee into his system.
He glanced over at Sorina's room, and saw her standing in the doorway, a sheet wrapped loosely around herself and her hair around her shoulders.
With no small amount of reluctance, he turned to leave. "I have to go."
"I understand," she said quietly. "Be careful."
He could only imagine how hard it was for her not to ask him what was going on, but that was the deal - they could spend time together as Raymond and Sorina, but not as Positron and Agent Tavarisch.
Grateful that she was taking it stoically, if not happily, he got as far as the door, then turned around, crossed the living room to stand in front of her, and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
The Freedom Phalanx needs Positron. Paragon City needs Positron... so... so it doesn't matter that I need... that I want Raymond Keyes.
I don't care if the world needs me as Positron. Right now, the only thing that matters to me is that you need me... and want me... as Raymond Keyes. And what I want... what I need... is you.
He was briefly tempted to stay, to let the Phalanx deal with this one, but he knew that it was a luxury he couldn't afford right now.
So he kissed her one more time, and then was gone.
*****
It took him just under eight minutes, flying at maximum speed, to fly from Sorina's apartment in Founders Falls to City Hall in Atlas Park. As he approached, he saw that the PPD and Longbow had cordoned off the building itself. Since Atlas Park was also usually teeming with heroes, they were out among the crowd, helping to keep order and rendering assistance as necessary. Statesman, Sister Psyche, Manticore, and Synapse were inside the cordoned zone, talking with Ms. Liberty and the higher ranking Longbow and PPD on the scene.
Statesman glanced up as Raymond landed. "Good, you're here. The building has been evacuated, although Longbow and the PPD are still checking for any other surprises that might be waiting for us."
The Longbow officer drew himself up and saluted. "Sir. Thank you for coming."
"What have we got?" Raymond asked as he and the others turned and started up the stairs to head inside.
"Energy signature reads as a bomb, but it's no design we've seen before."
"How so?" Statesman entered first, then stepped aside to allow the others in. The Longbow officer then led them down the stairs, past the MAGI office and into the DATA office. Flashing his ID at the sentries on duty, he led the Phalanx through the security checkpoint.
"Wait a second," Synapse said. "They got the bomb down by the portal?"
"Yes. That's what worries us."
The six heroes descended into the vast technological chamber that housed one of the few dimensional portals not physically located Portal Corporation on Peregrine Island. This one, and this one alone, was programmed for a single destination...
... an alternate Earth where good and evil were so closely balanced in power that Atlas Park was caught up in a moment-by-moment struggle for control.
The dimension was formally designated by Portal Corporation as Delta Mu 66-06.
Those in the know, however, referred to it as "Recluse's Victory."
Longbow and DATA kept constant surveillance on the dimension, using it to study Arachnos in an attempt to foil their machinations in that dimension, but Raymond was aware that Arachnos was doing the same. He and the rest of the Phalanx had squared off against Recluse and his lieutenants there on more than a few occasions, not to mention slugging out it with some of the superpowered villains who had also managed to infiltrate Recluse's Victory.
Now the Longbow officer led them over toward the portal, where near one of its massive generators, Raymond and the others could see a bomb half-hidden in the shadows of the generator. His scanner systems were already assessing the device and calculating information, none of which was looking very good.
While he studied it, the officer went on. "From what we can tell, there are no motion detectors on the thing, no proximity monitors, nothing. The strange thing is, it's been here almost 12 hours."
"How do you know that?" Sister Psyche asked, frowning at the device as though trying to mentally penetrate its mysteries.
"Once it was discovered, we checked the surveillance feeds. God only knows how, but someone managed to teleport in here past all the security, but only just long enough to place this thing and disappear again. Ten, fifteen seconds at most." He shrugged helplessly. "With all the energy spikes around this place, no one noticed one more, and as I said, this thing seemed to sit almost dormant."
"Until about half an hour ago, you said," Statesman said thoughtfully. "I wonder why."
Carefully approaching the bomb, Raymond knelt down beside it to look at it more carefully. No markings on the casing, no gang symbols, nothing to indicate a particular group. The shell was some sort of dark metal - a lead compound of some type, he surmised when he tried to scan through it. Six access panels, connected by circuitry and a few external wires. The design vaguely reminded him of something they'd taken off an Arachnos unit a while back, but the resemblance was superficial at best.
He cautiously pried open a panel to get a better look inside, and then frowned behind his helmet.
"This thing could certainly blow City Hall to kingdom come, but damn, whoever built this thing was smart."
"Any ideas on who might have built it?" Synapse asked.
"Hmmmmm... the components seem to be from a jumble of sources, probably to make it harder to trace. The primary detonator appears to be of Crey design, but that kinetic amplifier looks like something I've seen on a few of the Malta Group's Titans..." His voice trailed off as he looked at the circuitry again. The last time he'd seen anything like this, it had been when he and Synapse had gotten hold of a forcefield generator after stopping a group of Sky Raiders from blocking the shipping lanes in and out of Talos Island. The Raiders were skilled at stealing and combining the technical advances of other groups, but this didn't quite look to be their style, either.
Based on the bomb's readings, the thing was easily powerful enough to completely devastate City Hall, but more likely, it was meant to take out the dimension portal to Recluse's Victory. An ugly idea, considering that it was the only way for anyone in Paragon City to access the dimension.
Prying another panel off to better expose the innards of the bomb, he saw a tangled mess of wires, crisscrossing the inside of the bomb's structure. "Wait, there seems to be something else-"
Resting on top of the wires was a small blinking device that suddenly glowed brightly as the panel came away. A red ray of light shot from the device and lengthened into a triangular beam that abruptly swept in a circular pattern around the bomb.
"Oh hell!" Raymond shouted, nearly falling over as he leapt to his feet. "A scanner!"
It completed a full circuit, having swept over all of the Phalanx members and the Longbow officer, then the scanner flashed from red to green, and a sudden rising hum began to emanate from the bomb.
"How long do we have?" Statesman asked, concerned.
"No idea!"
Raymond was already once again on his knees beside it, mapping wires and leads and likely connection points. If he just started pulling wires at random, he could very well set the thing off prematurely.
With no idea how long he had before the bomb went off, he knew that he'd have to discard methodical research for blind inspiration - not the sort of thing he particularly enjoyed.
As he worked, his armor's scanners were constantly assessing and reassessing the bomb's energy levels, attempting to extrapolate how much time he'd have before it went off. Unfortunately, whoever built the thing seemed to be one step ahead of him, because the power would randomly spike and then drop before rebuilding, preventing him from accurately calculating a detonation point.
He was only dimly aware of Manticore, Sister Psyche, and Synapse racing out of the building to warn people away from City Hall, and of Statesman standing behind him, ready to plow him out of harm's way if necessary. Focused absolutely on his task, his fingers seemed to move of their own volition, tracing cables, comparing circuits, eliminating possibilities until he'd finally narrowed down the optimum means to deactivate it.
"Oh, please, God, let this work," he whispered, then carefully began severing wires one by one. Just as the hum reached almost unbearable levels, he pulled one last wire, and suddenly the scanner went dark and the hum cut out abruptly.
Letting out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, Raymond was grateful he was kneeling on the floor, because he didn't think his legs would support him much longer. Pulling off his helmet, he gasped in fresh air and wiped the sweat from his eyes.
"Good job, Positron," he heard Statesman say, and he nodded weakly.
"Thanks." Drawing in a deep, shuddering breath, he tried to relax from the massive surge of adrenaline in his system. "I'll want to take this thing back to HQ and study it, see if I can get a lead on who built the thing."
"Any ideas?"
"Not a one. But whoever built this thing was innovative, I'll give them that."
"I'll let the others know," Statesman replied, and left the chamber, leaving Raymond kneeling alone in front of the portal, staring thoughtfully at the disarmed bomb.
To be continued...
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)