Girl Power

Girl Power

  By P.T. Dilloway

  Copyright 2013 P.T. Dilloway

  Chapter 1

  The call comes in just after eight in the morning. Midnight Spectre is still down in the bunker, where he’s ostensibly taking a nap before a board meeting at Holloway Corporation, followed by another night fighting crime on the streets. Instead of napping, Midnight studies the most recent surveillance reports from the bugs he’s planted throughout the city. There doesn’t seem to be much happening on the surface, but looking deeper he can always find something.

  The eagle-shaped symbol that begins to flash red indicates the caller is from the Super Squad. With a sigh, Midnight shoves the reports into an icon on the desktop to bring up the call. A stern-faced woman in her thirties comes onto the screen. “Something I can help you with, Major?” Midnight asks in his trademark rasp.

  “The alarms we set on Dr. Roboto’s old fortress have been going crazy,” Major Carrie Dalton says.

  “Probably a rat in the wiring,” Midnight says, but he’s already bringing up the island’s security system on the screen. It’s easy enough since he designed it. Major Dalton is right; there’s definitely something going on there. Something has set off not only the motion detectors but the seismic detectors as well. That can only mean something big.

  “I assume the rest of the gang is on the way?”

  “I thought I’d give you a head-start this time.”

  “That’s generous of you.”

  “Any idea what we might be dealing with?”

  “Not yet. Whoever’s there has deactivated the cameras. I’ll see if I can get more on the way.”

  “Thanks.”

  The screen goes blank. Midnight gets up from his chair. He’s still dressed in his costume, so all he has to do is go into the hangar, where the jet waits. Jasper is already there to fuel it up. “What shall I tell the board?” he asks.

  “Give them the usual excuse,” Midnight says. The usual excuse is Rob Holloway met a pretty girl at a bar and decided to sweep her away to Aspen or Vegas or Monaco or someplace like that. A Photoshopped image to corroborate this will appear on the gossip sites by the end of the day.

  He hops up into the cockpit to run through the startup routine. He hasn’t needed the jet in two months, but everything checks out green. Jasper stands away from the plane to flash him a thumbs-up. Midnight nods and then cuts in the vertical lift jets. The roof of the hangar opens to allow the jet to rise into the air over Holloway Manor.

  Once he’s high enough, Midnight transitions to the normal engines. The jet rockets away at over Mach 3, towards the south Pacific.

  ***

  Kate King is already at her desk when Stan Shaw arrives. He imagines Kate’s been there since before the sun came up. Pundits like to talk about the “twenty-four-hour news cycle;” Kate practically lives it. If she could find a way to go without sleep, she’d never stop working.

  “What are you working on?” Stan asks, as if he doesn’t know.

  “Bank heist last night at Fourth National. Or attempted bank heist, I should say.” Kate looks up from her desk to shake her head. “You’d think after the last ten years, crooks would give up.”

  “Some people are desperate, I guess.”

  “Or stupid.” Kate turns back to her screen. Stan peeks over her shoulder to see a file image of his alter-ego Apex Man in his gold costume and red cape in front of a bank vault. “It’s pretty much a cut-and-paste job at this point. I don’t know why Larry won’t move me off the Apex beat.”

  “Maybe he thinks you have a good rapport.”

  Kate looks up at him and grins. ‘“Rapport?’ Where’d a farm boy like you learn a big word like that?”

  “Probably a crossword puzzle.”

  “Maybe you can talk to Larry for me. I’m honestly going to lose it if I have to do another of these damned stories.”

  “Sure,” Stan says. He wants to say more, but a red light on his watch blinks. That can only mean one thing. “I’ll be back in a minute. That prune Danish really shot through me.”

  Kate barely notices as he slips away, down the hall to the bathroom. There’s no one inside. He locks the door and then hits the red button on his watch. A red-tinged hologram of Major Dalton’s face appears in front of him. “Something I can do for you, Major?”

  “We got a problem on Dr. Roboto’s island. The alarms are going crazy. Midnight’s pretty sure someone’s up to something.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “Don’t go rushing in there too quick. We aren’t sure how many booby traps have been reactivated yet.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “I’m sure.” The hologram fades away. With a sigh, Stan drops his clothes on the floor. He’ll leave them in the storage bin on the roof before he heads out. First he unlocks the door.

  Once he’s airborne, Apex Man ponders the situation. It was tempting to tell Major Dalton they wouldn’t have these problems if the military had allowed him to simply hurl Roboto’s island lair into the sun. But they had made some excuse about endangered birds that lived on the island.

  In reality he knows the military kept Roboto’s lair so they could study it. The mad scientist had left behind technology more advanced than anything on Earth. While it might have been simpler to hurl all that into the sun, it would have denied scientists the chance to study it.

  Of course Apex Man could still have thrown the island into the sun. There isn’t much the human militaries can do to him, but he had sworn long ago to respect the authorities of his adopted world, which sometimes made his life more difficult.

  Maybe this time they will listen to him and do the right thing.

  ***

  Alan Bass rolls over in bed to see he has overslept. The alarm had gone off an hour earlier and he must have slept right through it. That happened after he spent half the night on patrol and a good portion of the remainder in Jenny’s room to assure her there weren’t monsters in her closet.

  He finds a note from Sally on the refrigerator door. “Took Jenny to Grandma’s. Lunch is in the fridge. Be back later.”

  Alan stares at the note for a minute before he remembers Sally has a job interview today. They had decided—she had decided and he’d acquiesced—Jenny is old enough now for Sally to rejoin the workforce. That Alan makes more than enough money at T.U.R.B.O Labs to support them doesn’t matter to her; it’s about self-respect or some damned thing.

  He crumples the note and then tosses it in the trash. It takes him five-point-two seconds to shower, shave, and dress. He shakes his head; that’s slow from his personal record by point-two seconds. He pats his midsection, which has begun to get a bit paunchy. “Need to start working out again,” he grumbles.

  He is halfway across the city when his watch alarm goes off. Alan slows down in the middle of an alley; it’s too dangerous to chat with Major Dalton while going supersonic. “Help you with something, Major?” he asks.

  “Looks like we’ve got trouble at Dr. Roboto’s island. I’m mobilizing the team to check it out.”

  “I can be there in two minutes,” he says.

  “Actually, I need you to make a stop first. I haven’t been able to get hold of Ellis yet.”

  “You tried his apartment?”

  “And the palace. No one’s seen him. Thought you might be able to find him.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Alan says. “See you there.”

  The hologram of the major’s face fades away. Alan leaves his work clothes on the fire escape of an abandoned building. They should still be there when he gets back.

  With that, Velocity Man starts out. In five seconds he’s left the city and is racing across the Pacific. It takes him
only thirty seconds to get past Hawaii. He shakes his head; he’s ten seconds slow. It seems impossible he can be getting fat with all the running he does, but it’s happening. He’ll need to run a full set of tests on his biochemistry to see if there are any discrepancies.

  First he needs to find Ellis Pate, aka Lord Neptune. That Ellis isn’t at home or at his undersea palace leaves only one option. At least one option Velocity Man knows about. It could be Ellis has decided to take a vacation somewhere and since three-quarters of Earth is water that is pretty easy for him to arrange. For all Velocity Man knows, Ellis might be swimming with some dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico.

  But more likely he’s at that atoll of his, the one they jokingly refer to as the “Love Shack.” Ten years ago they would take their conquests there for a little after party. While Velocity Man no longer has such conquests, Ellis has yet to grow up.

  They’ll have to discuss that again later—after they save the world.

  ***

  Ellis feels next to him on the clamshell-shaped bed to find it empty. With a groan he sits up and then looks around. There’s no one in the bedroom. He can smell bread baking down the hall.

  He finds Paul in the kitchen, bent over the oven much in the same way he’d been bent over in bed last night. “Are you making me breakfast in bed?” Ellis asks.

  “I was going to,” Paul says. He turns with a plate of muffins in his oven-mitt-covered hands. “I guess now you’ve ruined that.”

  “I can always go back to bed,” Ellis says with a wink.

  “Didn’t you get enough of that last night?”

  Ellis puts a hand on Paul’s shoulder. “What’s the matter, sweetie? We had fun last night, didn’t we?”

  “You had fun. You always have fun.”

  “You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”

  “Sure, when we’re in bed it’s awesome. It’s just the rest of it that’s getting to me.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I’m sick of being dragged out of my apartment and carried halfway across the world by that goddamned dolphin of yours to this rock.”

  “Manny didn’t try to get frisky with you again, did he? I told him you belong to me.” Ellis tries to kiss Paul on the cheek, but he turns away at the last moment.

  “What I’m saying is, we’ve been seeing each other for two years now and we’re still sneaking around. Are you ashamed of me?”

  “No, of course not. But you know how things are. The people of Pacifica aren’t that understanding. And the people on the surface aren’t much better.”

  “So you are ashamed of me.”

  “No! I’m only worried about you. If Baron Triton or one of those other fuddy-duddies found out, they’d try to have you killed. And I don’t want anything to happen to my Pauly-Wally.”

  Ellis snuggles up against Paul, the muffins falling to the floor. The oyster shell plate is too sturdy to shatter, though. This time Paul lets Ellis kiss him. When they pull apart, Paul smiles shyly at him. “I didn’t know you cared that much about me.”

  “Of course I do. It’s been two years. You’re not just a booty call anymore.”

  “I will be if you want.”

  “Oh, you.”

  They are in the middle of another kiss when Ellis hears someone else clear his throat. He turns to see Alan in that tacky silver-and-blue uniform of his. “I’m a little busy,” Ellis snaps.

  “There’s trouble on Roboto’s island. Major Dalton is assembling the whole team.”

  “Can’t Stan or Rob handle it?”

  “We’re supposed to be a team, Ellis. You used to know that.”

  Ellis sighs and then pushes hair back from Paul’s face. “Duty calls. I guess I’ll have to take a rain check on that booty call.”

  “Don’t take too long.”

  They kiss not quite as passionately as before Alan showed up and then Ellis stomps into the bedroom to get dressed. That Major Dalton better have a damned good reason for this.

  Chapter 2

  Despite the head start, Midnight is still the last one to the island. Even flying at Mach 3.5 he can’t match the speed of Apex Man or especially Velocity Man. Even that queer Neptune can swim faster than he can fly. That’s the problem with being the only non-super hero on a superhero team.

  He sets down on the edge of the beach, where the other three have assembled, along with an Osprey full of Marines. Midnight climbs down from the cockpit and then goes over to where his fellow costumed heroes wait. “Find anything out yet?” he asks.

  “Someone’s shielded the inside from my IR vision,” Apex Man says.

  Midnight grunts at this. That’s another piece to the puzzle that doesn’t fit. After they’d taken Roboto down the first time, Midnight had gone through to set up the security system. There should have been an alert if someone had installed the kind of shielding that could block Apex Man’s infrared vision.

  On the way to the island, Midnight went through every hacking technique he could think of to get a look inside. There seems to be no way to revive the cameras or to access the island’s central computer. How someone could manage that, he doesn’t know. Dr. Roboto himself is the only one with the necessary skills and he’s doing life in the ultra-secure wing of Guontonimo Bay. Major Dalton of course had already checked his whereabouts—and verified the good doctor was the genuine article.

  “Guess we’ll have to take a peek inside then,” Velocity Man says.

  “We should wait here and let Stan smash his way in,” Lord Neptune says. There’s a whine in his voice. He must have been dragged away from his boyfriend, probably with his dick still up the other sodomite’s ass.

  “You do that, pansy,” Midnight says. “I’m going to get in through the air shaft.”

  “I’m the pansy? You’re the nutjob in the gray leotard.”

  Midnight’s costume is actually made of a special Kevlar alloy that allows it to be light and flexible while preventing too much damage from bullets, knives, or other weapons. Lord Neptune surely knows this; he’s just trying to get under Midnight’s skin. The bastard would probably like to get under more than the skin too.

  “You want to go, I’m free any time,” Midnight growls.

  Major Dalton steps between them. “We don’t have time for a dick-measuring contest,” she says. “Midnight, go in through the air shaft. Neptune, check underwater to make sure there aren’t any hidden surprises down there. Apex Man can punch a hole for the rest of us to go through.”

  Midnight bristles at this. He doesn’t like Dalton giving him orders like he’s one of her gun-toting drones. He doesn’t need the woman’s permission to go in there. None of her Marine stooges can keep him out if he wants to go in.

  “Fine with me,” Midnight grumbles. Then he sets out into the jungle.

  ***

  Apex Man sweeps over the jungle, but Midnight Spectre has already vanished into the trees. He could use his IR vision to see his friend, but there’s no point to it. Midnight will get into the fortress. Despite his lack of powers, Midnight’s shown himself to be more than capable at getting the job done.

  In the meantime, it’s up to Apex Man to bust their way into the fortress. He wishes they had a better idea of what’s going on inside Dr. Roboto’s lair. He doesn’t like the idea of smashing into an unknown situation. His adopted father always told him to look before he leaps.

  He lands at the base of one wall that looks like ordinary rock. Even without his IR vision, he knows there’s a lot more to it than that. Most of this island is really a metal skeleton, inside which are all manner of booby traps.

  Velocity Man is already there when Apex Man lands. “Better stand back, Alan,” Apex Man says. Then he rears back to punch the side of the mountain.

  The whole mountain shakes from the impact. An ordinary mountain might shatter, but Roboto’s island is strong enough so that only a crack forms in the stone wher
e Apex Man punched it. He hits it again in the exact same spot. This time the stone gives way to reveal the metal beneath it. A short burst of Apex Man’s fire breath turns the metal into slag.

  Before Velocity Man can take off through the hole, Apex Man stops him. “Hold on. We don’t know what’s going on in there. Let’s take it slow.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Velocity Man says. Apex Man knows for him, “slow” is a dirty word. Just to walk the same speed as a normal man must seem like an eternity for him. “After you, chief.”

  Apex Man ducks through the opening, followed by Velocity Man. The second they’re both through, the metal reseals itself. Apex Man cries out in surprise. He’s about to punch their way out of the trap, but then the whole room lights up with green light.

  The room around Apex Man begins to spin. His knees wobble and then he collapses onto all fours. Velocity Man bends down next to him. “What is it, Stan?”

  “Gamma…radiation.” Apex Man might be more powerful than ordinary people, but that doesn’t mean he’s invulnerable. The evil Rad Geiger had been the first to discover gamma rays made Apex Man ordinary. It wasn’t exactly a secret; it was just difficult for an ordinary criminal to get the hardware to create the amount of gamma radiation needed to make Apex Man ill.

  “Stay here, buddy. I’ll find a way to turn that thing off,” Velocity Man says. Before he can start to run, there’s a faint buzz. Then Apex Man finds himself lifted into the air, except this time it isn’t his own doing.

  Velocity Man is lifted along with him. He flails at the air as if trying to swim through it. It doesn’t get him far. “Shit. Must be some kind of anti-gravity engine too,” Velocity Man says. While he might be the fastest man on the ground, Velocity Man can’t get very far in zero-G.

  “We’re…trapped.”

  ***

  Ellis glides through the water with the grace of a dolphin. As much as being Lord Neptune, king of Pacifica can be tiresome, he does still love the water. To be practically weightless is so liberating after too much time spent on the ground.

  A tiger shark coasts nearby, trying to decide if he’s food or not. Ellis taps into the shark’s thoughts to tell it he’s not its next dinner. He reads its thoughts, but there’s nothing helpful about Dr. Roboto’s island. There are plenty of thoughts of the fish the shark gulped down a few hours ago.