G.S.P.
Chapter 11
Fang and the Spirits of the Dead
* * *
“I must ask you citizens of New York. Does the presence of the G.S.P make you feel safe?” Cyclone shouted into the camera and then took a long pause as to let the question ring before he continued.
“Looking at the past weeks you have reasons to feel more secure, but not because the lazy for hire G.S.P group, but because of us honest heroes from my Knighthood of Peace. It all fits the same pattern. G.S.P was never about battling the aliens but always about leaking funds to friends of important people in Washington. I say use the money instead to give the equipment to us real heroes that could do so much good things if we had the superior equipment that G.S.P gets from the government.”
“Can you explain what you want?” the reporter asked.
“I want the G.S.P shut down and their equipment transferred to my team. Our superhero team has on the field proven again and again that we are the better team. I challenge the G.S.P to meet us in a debate on television and try to explain why they should be paid to do, in an inferior way, the same job as we do for free.”
Jennifer cut the transmission and turned towards the team. Everyone of the G.S.P had already seen it, but she had decided to repeat it when they assembled in the briefing room. Everyone was in a foul mood.
“Shall we try to sum up the situation so everyone knows what we know,” Jennifer said, trying to hold an optimistic tone. “The G.S.P and Cyclones group has featured 17 times in the media last week. Just about every one of those has been negative to us. Cyclone has taken the opportunity and is bashing us more than usual and is getting a lot of screen time. He has now taken the opportunity to challenge us for a public debate.”
“It is not totally unexpected,” Thundercloud said. “Entrope is credited with dealing with professor Enigma's robots even though we won that day. Secondly the fact that we defeated the psionics from the Brotherhood was kept hidden since we didn't want to answer questions about all the members from the Brotherhood being annihilated without a trial. Our latest success with dealing with mutant hunters is also kept from the media until the feds has used the information to bring in the rest of the organization from other parts of the country. If we are speaking about fighting aliens we have only had the opportunity to deal with one of those while Cyclone has been very busy stopping a number of minor attacks when we were busy with other stuff.”
“I agree, we have done good things, but the media does not know about it. We got some recognition for dealing with the fake hostage situation, but the general public think Cyclone dealt with the more scary looking monsters,” Firefly commented.
“We also have this religious fanatics standing outside our base who are calling Blade a slut that destroys the moral values of America. They are not exactly helping our public image. They show clips from them just about every time they media want to discuss our team,” Thundercloud said.
“Mindeye, have you managed to find out something about them. I was hoping your new power might give us some insight into why they are outside our base,” Jennifer said.
“They are not paid to stand there so to say, but somebody is spending lots of money to smear your name. The material is produced by some kind of company that is run from Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong has returned to China it is very hard to get solid information from there when you are in the US,” Mindeye said.
“This talk about them working for the common good and we for hire is weird,” Fang said. “I heard Entrope complaining to Cyclone about Hyper not paying his salary.”
“Interesting, is that something we could use?” Jennifer asked.
“I think we need more proper evidence,” Mindeye responded. “Did you see them in costume or in the civil roles?”
“Civil roles, used my nose to track them,” Fang responded.
“That makes it much harder, it is punishable by law to expose the secret identity of a superhero that has not committed crimes and information gained using psionics does not count in court. We can't dare to challenge Cyclone for paying the others unless we have independent evidence that link them with illegal activities,” Mindeye commented.
“What about the challenge to debate with them on television?” Jennifer asked. “Shall we accept?”
“The media will make a story of it no matter if we appear or not. Might be better to be there so we have some say about how the story is,” Eagle commented.
“Agent Anderson said some kind of letter had arrived about the matter targeted at Mindeye. Can you give us a quick summary?” Jennifer asked Eagle.
“Cyclone want me to sign a deal where I promise to not ever use my power to enter the mind of him or his current and future team members,” Mindeye responded.
“Sounds like he is worried about you finding his dirty little secrets. Any opinion about it?” Jennifer asked.
“My current power steal secrets without entering minds at all. I can't use my power in a way that literally break the deal, but in their presence I am pretty much bound to learn their secrets. Besides findings by psionics can never be used during discovery at a trial so we can never end in the situation that I learn something from psionics that we would like to share to a court,” Mindeye answered.
“Would the deal prevent any new G.S.P members from doing psionics on them?” Eagle asked.
“No,” Mindeye responded. “They did not think about the possibility of us recruiting a new psionic.”
“I am still considering if we should accept my sister to the team,” Jennifer said. “For the moment I am glad that her application is still being reviewed in Washington. Cyclone started his crusade against the G.S.P when I was recruited to the team. Adding one more superhero that is totally unknown to the general public would probably not help us now.”
“I could perhaps use my power to learn what they plan. Either by visiting Cyclone or the person leading the talk show where we are going to debate?” Mindeye asked.
“I would rather have you keep digging after who sent those fanatics outside. There must be some person connected to them that knows more. I seriously doubt a person from Hong Kong talked them into coming here. Most of them were recruited to come here by their fellows, but somebody must have recruited the first of them to come here,” Jennifer said.
“I will keep looking, but so far the person has not been present when I have moved past them. The crowd outside does not remember who started the discussion and it seems I can only learn details from their point of view so to say. If I could view their memories I could perhaps recognize clues they have missed, but that kind of power is not available for me anymore,” Mindeye explained.
“Sounds smart,” The Thundercloud said. “Mindeye can learn Cyclones secrets during the talk show. It means he will not be able to tell us in advance, but it might actually be smart and help us not revealing that we can learn their secrets so easily. If everyone of us seems to be on top of their secrets it is easier for him to deduct the pattern so there is little we could do with the information Mindeye found. There is freedom from drawing our own conclusions.”
“It is settled then, prepare for the talk show this evening,” Jennifer ordered.
"One other matter," Mindeye said. "Blade, have you checked the details about the ritual that I and your sister encountered yesterday."
“I have checked it out and as far as I can tell it is a healing spell, but why it would be needed I don't understand. I was hoping you would have some additional information to solve the puzzle,” Jennifer said.
“I am afraid not. The demonlogist that did the magic did not know himself beyond that it was directed at healing in some form. Lack of foresight mean that we did neither get name or the looks of the being that supplied the magic necklace that was intended to brainwash Blade's sister,” Mindeye said.
“You say being?” Thundercloud commented.
“An ordinary human would not have access to such an artifact," Jennifer explained. "It could be a minion of some powerful demon that only did the delivery, but that does not match the story about him making deals with this demonlogist named Roger. I have also tried to figure out why demons would like to heal something, but have so far not come up with anything that is even remotely likely. Weak demons would not merit such assistance and strong demons can regenerate whole body parts if given enough time,” Jennifer said.
“I thought demons unleashed on New York was pretty exceptional. Is it expected to have a strong demon moving around in disguise?” Firefly wondered.
“Demon are forbidden entrance to this world unless they are summoned. On the other hand the demon summoner can choose to let the demon possess a human so it can move around undetected. The riddle is that the power of that necklace is so strong that it suggests a demon of might or something more powerful like a demon lord, but those can not be controlled by a demon summoner. Things speak for that the artifact is connected to the enemy that send the demons we fight, but beyond that all is just guesses,” the demon answered using Jennifer's voice.
“What about the artifact necklace, do we need to track it down?” Eagle wondered.
“I think that might be very hard to find. We have no way to track the necklace beyond mundane means and my sister sent those who have the necklace away to hit the roads. On the other hand I don't think the necklace will do much damage. The deal with the demons was for it to stay with the victim for her whole life. I don't think it can be removed before that without the use of very strong magic. If it is removed it will most probably teleport back to its plan of origin,” Jennifer said.
* * *
“They are still having technical problems?” Fang asked as she approached Jennifer.
Jennifer gave her a nod, something about this whole situation made her feel uneasy. Everything about this was new to her. Nothing in the martial skills from the demon gave her any help with how to act to make the general public believe she was skilled superhero and worthy leader of the G.S.P.
This whole idea to meet the Cyclone and his Knighthood of Peace in television seemed like a worse idea now when she waited at the television station. She would be meeting Cyclone that had a decade of training of how to deal with the media. Perhaps she should have instructed Mindeye to learn Cyclone's secrets. The reasoning about how knowing too much might not be an advantage still seemed valid, but a possible middle ground would have been that Mindeye instructed only Jennifer about the secrets.
“I head out to get some air, use the com unit to ping me when they have sorted out their technical problems,” Fang said.
“Don't wander too far, when they are done they probably want to get started pretty instantly,” Jennifer said.
“Don't worry, besides Hyper I run the quickest so I will be there,” Fang said and morphed to wolf form and ran down the corridor. Jennifer smiled, Fang might have a point there.
“Mind if I keep you company?” an unknown female voice asked behind her.
Jennifer turned to find a super heroine clothed in purple behind her. She had long dark hair and skin tight costume that left little to the imagination. Jennifer had thought her own costume was tight, but this one actually looked like it was just paint on the naked body. The only exception was the boots, utility belt at her waist that held different kind of darts and the mask that covered her face.
“You are Bio from the Knighthood of Peace, right?” Jennifer asked.
“Yeah, that is me,” Bio said. “A foreign superhero trying to make a living here and working extra in a super hero team with a silly name.”
“Government Security Powergroup is not that good either, that is why we usually use the G.S.P acronym,” Jennifer responded.
“I understand,” Bio said. “I am sorry about Cyclone being a pain to you guys, he seems to have some kind of obsession about the G.S.P”
“You are saying that like the rest of the group don't share his sentiments?” Jennifer asked.
“I can only speak for myself, but I feel embarrassed when Cyclone go on and on about G.S.P heroes being useless. Makes me feel bad when I have made like literally no contribution to fighting the aliens,” Bio answered.
“Why do you think he did recruit you?” Jennifer asked.
“Officially he wants me to devise poisons that will make Mech more effective in dealing with the aliens, but that is kind of hopeless since aliens leave no bodies I can examine. So far I have just been making wild guesses. Can't say that Mech's weapons seems that more powerful with my new bullets,” Bio replied.
“What is the unofficial reason he recruited you?” Jennifer wondered even though she could already guess.
“He and that girl of his named Hyper want to fuck me. When I was still living in Italy they kept sending me notes about how they would like to come visit and to hook up with local super heroes and heroines for some so called private adventures,” Bio responded.
“I gather you never accepted their offer, but why did you decide to come here and join their team?” Jennifer wondered.
“Simple enough to answer. If it was just Hyper I would not mind, but sex with guys is not really my thing. Fortunately they made no conditions when they arranged for me to get a green card and I wanted to move away from Italy so why tell them I am not straight before I took advantage of their offer,” Bio said amusement filling her voice.
Bio stood quite close to Jennifer, intruding slightly on Jennifer's personal sphere. While talking her hands had slowly drifted down her body. On the surface level she was not doing anything, but the sensual look had Jennifer's attention caught. At many levels they were mirrors of each other with the same height and the same kind of trim body. Jennifer smiled as she looked at Bio's cute nipples that looked so tempting to suck on.
“Nipples!” Jennifer thought. She was in fact seeing Bio's nipples, the skin tight costume was in fact paint on her naked skin and not something very skin tight.
“Finally she catches on,” Bio said, beaming. “I use my powers to generate the costume, but in an open corridor like this I need to keep it looking good on a distance. Much more possibilities if we were alone behind that door for instance.”
“You think we have time for a fuck before the show?” Jennifer asked licking her lips.
“There is always time for a fuck with somebody as sexy as you,” Bio whispered and stepped to the door. Jennifer followed her inside a storage room for cleaning equipment.
Bio's costume was fading away leaving her mask, utility belt and boots on. Jennifer caught her in a tight embrace. Bio was not shy about using the slits in Jennifer's Blade costume to reach bare skin. They rubbed their bodies close together as Jennifer closed the door behind her.
The room went completely dark, neither of them had thought about locating the light switch. Not that anyone of them complained. They did not need light to locate each other. Jennifer's fingers was probing Bio's pussy as Bio's hands was under her costume digging into her ass.
“No bed here, what about if we take turns licking each other,” Bio whispered into Jennifer's ear. Jennifer giggled in delight.
“I can start,” Bio said and tried to slip from Jennifer's embrace.
“She can't make us come. Even if she dig this I doubt she will come from licking us,” the demon commented.
“No, I prefer to giving,” Jennifer said and pulled Bio tight to her.
“Who am I to complain, see if you can make me come,” Bio responded and Jennifer slowly began to slide down her body while leaving a trail of wet kisses. The nipples was just as lovely as Jennifer had imagined. She darted left and right and alternated between licking and lightly biting.
“You tits are so amazing,” Jennifer mumbled.
“Aren't they,” Bio agreed. “Something about my power makes me don't requiring a bra. Perhaps it is somehow connected to how my body generate poison.”
“Could keep a girl happy all day, but I desire a treasure further down,” Jennifer said. She continued her path downwards until she found the pussy.
Moaning Bio spread her legs and Jennifer started to probe the opening. Bio was wet and squirming at the touch of her tongue that danced over her clit and up and down the wet hole that smelled so inviting.
Jennifer devoted herself to worship of the pussy in front of her. She could literally feel the waves of lust raising radiating from the woman in front of her.
Suddenly her com unit started to beep, Jennifer loosened it from her belt to look at the display. The faint light of the display illuminated them and she could barely make out Bio's eager cunt in front of her.
The display read: “Failure to communicate with Com Unit assigned to hero Fang. Message log report: Hull integrity error, Loss of powersource, Running on emergency power, Contact lost during transmission. Shall the G.S.P be put at alert?”
“I was so close, please continue,” Bio urged.
“Sorry, seems to be some kind of problem with Fang's communication device. Give me a moment to think,” Jennifer said.
“No that can wait, I was so close,” Bio said and picked the Com unit from Jennifer's hand. Jennifer was too surprised to block the move.
“Give it back,” Jennifer ordered. The display has blackened so she fumbled with trying to locate it in the pitch darkness.
Jennifer got her second surprise when she felt Bio bite her finger. Not a shallow lovers bite but a bite that pierced her skin, Bio must be able to produce some kind of fangs.
“Ahhrg, what the fuck did you do that for?” Jennifer complained. Pulling back to get distance from Bio. Her finger throbbed with pain.
“Nothing personal, a shame we could not finish, your tongue is like the best ever,” Bio said. In the darkness she had moved to the door.
The door opened to let in light, Bio was standing in the door opening fully clothed. In her hand she had Jennifer's Com unit. The light was also enough for Jennifer to see that her finger was turning black while dropping pus and blood.
“What the fuck?” Jennifer wondered.
“Extremely potent poison that dissolve tissue. Some kind of mystical components in it also, our healing power is literally powering up the poison. Can't talk, must focus, it can destroy us,” the demon responded.
The door closed and Jennifer was again in pitch darkness.
“She acted when she knew I got some kind of alert from the team. What if something serious has happened to Fang?” Jennifer wondered.
The demon did not respond and Jennifer tried to find the door. Her whole body felt intoxicated, she stumbled into a shelf and had to use her hands to catch herself. Using the right hand sent a monstrous pain through her body, she could do nothing else but to collapse on the floor in pain. The pain was getting worse, possibly spreading from her finger up into her hand.
“Help!” Jennifer shouted. She wondered if anyone could hear her. The whole building seemed to be designed to not transmit sound far and disturb any neighboring studios.
* * *
Mindeye hurried down the corridor to get to the studio in time. His fruitless investigation had taken more time than expected, but with the delays to the show it looked like he might be on time still. At a juncture in front of him Thundercloud, Eagle, Cyclone and the studio hostess. Her name was Ann Paulson, his power informed him, almost before he got the time to ask the question.
“There is Mindeye, I understand that your members Blade and Fang is not answering your calls, but we are much too late. Since the recording equipment malfunction we have do it live and our slot is like now. Will you join us in the studio or will you give the floor to Cylone's team?” studio hostess Ann Paulson asked.
“They are stalling because they don't want to face us!” Cyclone barked and the G.S.P members present flinched irritated.
“Of course not, we will attend,” Eagle answered irritated.
Mindeye followed them into the studio, something about the situation was making him wary. He wondered what it could be, but the question was not specific enough for his power aiding him with an answer.
Inside the studio Firefly, Mech, Bio, Hyper and Entrope waited. It was actually the first time Mindeye took the time to get a good look at their competitors. Most imposing looking was Mech that towered almost as tall as Thundercloud. The suit was made in a shiny aluminum like metal with a translucent bubble surrounding the torso and head to give Mech good visibility. The arms and legs was filled with equipment and scary looking weapons.
Actually Mindeye's attention was locked on the sexy woman inside that for some reason had decided to wear shorts and a tank top that hinted she did not have any underwear. It puzzled Mindeye why she would expose her identity like this, both exposing her body and flaunting her curves for the world to see.
Mindeye's power activated and he learned that Mech was in fact a Japanese woman named Eriko and that she had programmed the shell of the suit to present her as blond woman to avoid losing work because of people feeling hostility due to her nationality.
On the right of here Entrope had placed himself, giving the impression of an elderly gentleman. With his superhero power being able to absorb incoming energy he did actually not care about some of expensive Kevlar materials used for most superhero costumes, but actually had something that looked like a silk costume. The black silk mask and wide hat perfected the image of fashion. The difference between Entrope today and the half clothed manic Mindeye and Blade had encountered during the robot attack when he was drunk on absorbed power was huge.
Further on the right was Hyper in skintight latex costume in blue and silver. She was actually showing off to the viewers by making sudden super speed moves that most look like a blur to the television viewers.
On the left of Mech was Cyclone in his blue colored costume with a spiral on the chest. Cyclone was a professional on dealing with media and did not miss any chance to deliver his dashing smile or to show of his well trained muscles.
Slightly separate from the rest was Bio in her form fitting purple costume. She had some kind of mixture of a smug look on her face and discomfort on Cyclone intruding on her personal sphere. Mindeye smiled as her understood that Bio was lesbian and working hard to not be dragged into having sex with the male members of the team.
“Mindeye, we begin shortly. Will you please be seated?” Ann Paulson asked.
Mindeye looked towards his own team. Eagle in his silver grey costume looked grumpy and irritated. Mindeye could sense that old irritation about Blade being leader was returning as she had failed to appear. Firefly in her purple costume had her arms crossed, she really hated these kind of stunts for the media and would give anything to not be here. Thundercloud in his blue and gold costume was the only one that came across as confident and liking the situation. In truth Thundercloud was nervous about Blade missing, but he kept that thought to himself. Mindeye joined the others, trying to do a cool whirl of his red robe as he sat down. It did not work as well as intended. Mindeye was used to use his power to improve the perception of those around him, but it did not work over television.
As the hostess started her introduction Mindeye looked over at Cyclone wondering about his plans. His power was there within moment extracting answers to Mindeye's questions. Cyclone did not in fact care that much about the situation with the believed aliens, but had come to New York after being recruited to create a counter initiative to the G.S.P. If he actually managed to get G.S.P shut down the mysterious organization that had recruited him had promised to erase all debs he and Hyper had acquired. Cyclone did in fact have real suspicions about the nature of the organization, but was too desperate about his personal financial situation to dare to ask questions. His greatest fear now was that his girlfriend Hyper had stolen from funds given to them to recruit the rest of the team to do personal shopping. He needed to get the G.S.P shut down quickly before questions were asked.
Mindeye turned his attention to how Cyclone intended to succeed with finishing the G.S.P team. His power revealed that Cyclone intended to use reports from the police about how his team was better at answering distress calls than the G.S.P team. Even more interesting was that Cyclone had managed to bribe the local police to hold off calling the G.S.P until Cyclone's team had the chance to engage the threat. Perhaps not a real master plan, but Mindeye could easily see how this might ensure that the G.S.P continued to get bad press.
“Cyclone is really a crook, might not be easy for us to prove it but I bet Blade will be dying to hear the news when she gets here,” Mindeye thought.
This thought made Mindeye wonder why Blade was not there. Mindeye froze as his power gave him the answer. Bio had answered a contract on Blade's head and used her poison power to assassinate Blade. It was the first assassination performed by Bio in US, but she had a long history of such murders for the mafia in Italy.
Desperately Mindeye wondered about possible antidote to the poison. His power responded that Bio was convinced that there was no antidote except when she elected to use her powers to extract the poison.
“Fuck! Fuck! How can I manage to force her to cure Blade?” Mindeye thought. His power did not give him any answer, what he needed was not information, but a changed behavior from Bio. Something his new power could not give.
Mindeye looked around bewildered, the others were of course clueless of what he just had understood.
Perhaps if they managed to separate Bio from her comrades they could force her to cooperate with the threat of lethal violence. The likelihood of Bio accepting to follow them seemed slim, especially since his comrades would have very limited chances to win in a battle against their greater number. She would know why getting alone with the G.S.P might be a bad idea. Cyclone did not know about the assassination, but had almost a obsession about getting to fuck Bio. It seemed very likely he would back her unconditionally without asking questions.
“What about Fang? Why is she missing?” Mindeye wondered. For a moment he had the hope that Fang was away aiding Blade, but his power soon crushed that hope. Bio had called in a favor from Mech and asked her to eliminate Fang so she could not reveal her role in Blade's death. Mech had shot Fang in the head with a silencer rifle and dumped the body in the sewers.
Mindeye sat frozen as he took in what had happened to his comrades. It all looked desperate, he could see no chance to solve the situation without the aid of psionics.
“Is there a possibility with Linda aiding us? She has no com unit since she has not been accepted into the team, but it seems like a good possibility she is watching this show since it is not during school time,” Mindeye thought.
Briefly he considered instead going through the route of sending a message to the base about them contacting Linda. Unfortunately, Linda had no cell phone so the base would not be able to reach her unless Linda had chosen to see the show from home. Considering his options Mindeye saw few other options, he decided to speak into the camera. If he used the intended codename for Linda's super heroine he would not reveal her identity, but tell her without doubt the situation was critical.
“Avalanche, we have a crisis at hand. Your services are needed here asap,” Mindeye said into the camera.
The whole room halted the discussion as everyone stared at him surprised. The G.S.P heroes did of course recognize the code name, but could clearly not comprehend what the crisis was. The rest of the room was totally clueless about what he had said.
“Is Avalanche yet another unknown hero recruited into your team?” Cyclone asked as he was the first to respond.
Mindeye could see the other G.S.P heroes glancing at their com units to see if there was a message there.
“Damn, I should have written a note to the others before I spoke up. Now everyone will understand that something is fishy with my psionic ability if I start to type on the com unit instead of talking mentally to the team,” Mindeye realized.
Nobody got around to answer Cyclone's question before the doors to room burst open. Blade was staggering into the room while clutching her right arm that was a bloody mess. Most of her lower arm was purple, the hand was swollen and leaking blood and pus.
“Blade what has happened?” Thundercloud shouted as he closed the distance in two gigantic steps.
“I have been poisoned,” Blade responded. “Team to me!”
The G.S.P heroes did not hesitate, but closed around her in a defensive arrangement.
“There is no independent antidote!” Mindeye whispered as he joined his position at the rear. He regretted risking to reveal his level of information, but he needed Blade to understand what was at stake.
“Watch me!” Blade responded and suddenly her energy sword was in her left hand. The red blade cut through her upper arm in a quick swing. The damaged arm was on floor and Blade straightened up relieved even though blood was pumping out from her arm at an alarming rate.
The hostess of the show had fainted, but the camera crew kept both teams in view. Cyclone had responded on the implicit threat from the G.S.P and positioned his team for combat.
“What is the meaning of this?” Cyclone asked.
“I am showing off my healing power that you have bashed so much on the television,” Blade responded and raised her cut off arm to point at him. Bones and tendons had started to grow out from the stump. The blood flowing from the injury had begun to flow in yet invisible veins.
“Mindeye, can the one who did this to me produce poison with a different DNA signature?” Blade asked.
“No, always possible to identify her,” Mindeye responded after his power had probed the answer from Bio's mind.
“Cyclone, you want to know what has happened,” Blade said. “Thing is that your team member Bio attempted to murder me. She tricked me to believe she was a friend and then she used her poison fangs to bite me.”
“That is an absurd accusation,” Cyclone responded. Besides him Bio was acting equally surprised.
Mindeye could tell Bio was indeed surprised. She had never expected Blade being able to move at all after being poisoned. Most of her earlier victims had died before she left the room.
“What is Bio afraid of?” Mindeye wondered and his power rewarded him by revealing that Bio was afraid the remains of Blade's arm would be cross referenced against the remains from her earlier victims from Italy.
“If Bio has done nothing wrong she won't mind following us to the police station to allow us to test her poison against what happened to Blade's arm and similar earlier unexplained deaths in Italy,” Mindeye suggested. He did not need to use his power to tell that Bio was terrified at his suggestion.
“Never!” Cyclone responded. “I won't let you have any of my members because of wild unfounded speculations. I think you arranged this circus to avoid answering questions about how you protect this city.”
“Citizens of New York,” Blade responded. “Take this as a lesson. My team is taking a bashing in media, but it is Cyclone who refuse to let the police investigate if his team member is involved in a murderer attempt, perhaps already is a murdered. Ask yourself, why should you believe Cyclone's rants about my team’s ability if he is not ready to prove that his team members are not criminals?”
“I refuse to take these kind of insults!” Cyclone shouted. “Knighthood of Peace, prepare to move out.”
“No boss, let us prove these loonies they can't just insult us,” Hyper objected. “They will never see what happens when I hit them.”
“Are you faster than the speed of light?” Firefly countered as the nimbus appeared around her as she charged her power.
“G.S.P stand down unless they take offensive actions,” Blade ordered. “Justice will have its cause, but this studio is not a fitting place for a showdown.”
Cyclone looked like he was hesitant about leaving. He glanced towards the cameras that still was taping everything that happened.
“Boss, let's get out of here and regroup,” Entrope suggested. Cyclone nodded and he motioned Mech to take the lead and Entrope to cover their rear.
G.S.P waited in silence as the other team left the studio.
“Okay, Thundercloud and Firefly, you are to remain here and make sure that nobody tampers with the remains from my arm until the police have arrived and taken samples. I want DNA samples of Bio's poison taken. The rest are with me,” Blade ordered.
Blade marched out of the room and Eagle and Mindeye followed. After they were sure they had sound proof doors between them and the studio crew they gathered to talk.
“Are you okay? I did not know you could fix body limbs like that,” Eagle said.
“Cost me like a ton of energy to regenerate the arm, but it is not critical. It does not take more energy to quick healing so I decided to do it in a flashy way,” Blade responded. “Okay, Mindeye fill me in on the details.”
“Bio tried to take you out because somebody on the Internet contacted her and offered a contract for assassination of you. She accepted and also involved Mech in it since she was afraid Fang would learn about her involvement by her superior sense of smell,” Mindeye said.
“I was afraid of something like this,” Blade said. “Mech must be the one who attacked Fang and made her com unit break, correct?”
“I am afraid so,” Mindeye responded. “Mech shot her repeated times with a silencer rifle and then dumped the body down in the sewers.”
“Poor Fang that is so afraid of guns,” Blade said. “Was she dead or alive when Mech dumped her?”
“Mech was convinced she was dead, she thought she hit her with a bullet through her head. I say that she thought so since my power can only bring answers to questions as the person perceive them so can't use my power to tell if Mech was right or mistaken. With my old powers I would have viewed her memories to learn the truth,” Mindeye responded.
“Where?” Blade asked.
“Don't know, never got around to ask that question while Mech was still present,” Mindeye responded.
“Eagle, I want you out there trying to determine where the attack on Fang happened,” Blade ordered.
“This building has many soundproof rooms, might have been inside one of them,” Mindeye suggested.
“Possibly, but Fang told me she was heading out so I think it happened outside,” Blade answered.
“What are you and Mindeye to do?” Eagle asked.
“I want to try locate my com unit, I suspect Bio dropped it somewhere near where she poisoned me. Keeping Mindeye with me seems like a good idea so I can borrow his com unit in case I need to communicate with the team,” Blade responded.
“Okay, I head out, will beep you when I have located Fang,” Eagle said and went to the window.
“You really think Bio would drop the com unit? What if she brought it with her to fake you being in some other location than this building?” Mindeye asked.
“She could not bring it hidden with such a skin tight costume. Maybe Mech could hidden it within her combat suit, but that require them managing to meet in private before the show. I think the com unit is hidden somewhere here,” Blade responded.
“Let us start looking, we might not have that much time before Eagle beep us,” Mindeye said.
“I hope you are right,” Blade mumbled.
* * *
Eagle hovered over the ground in an ally looking for clues. He was fairly convinced that this was the spot. A trash can had been toppled over, probably to cover the blood marks on the ground. The true give away was the six bullet holes in the wall some distance away.
He did not like the close spread of the bullets. Four was at torso height while the remaining was directly below like if the gun point had followed the body as it collapsed on the ground. It did look like Fang had been taken completely by surprise or had been frozen in panic when Mech attacked. Actually Eagle suspected that both might be true.
He took hold of the lid covering the opening down to the sewers. For a normal person it would take a tool to remove the heavy lid, but he could just use his power to levitate the lid and lift it away.
It was like he had dreaded, the sewer below was filled with flowing water. If Fang's body had been dropped there it could have traveled very far by now.
He sent a message to the base about the need for a forensic team investigating the alley and then he contacted Mindeye's com unit for instructions. The reply came promptly, he was to try locating Fang.
He frowned in discomfort and then levitated down into the sewer. Was he in fact looking for her corpse or was there a chance that Fang had actually survived despite getting shot and thrown into filthy sewers. He refused to think about it as he closed the lid above him. First he must find her.
* * *
“Found it!” Jennifer shouted and fetched her Com unit from a sink. The device was wet but still functional.
“Quite clever actually to put below a water stream to make sure traces she had left on it was washed off,” Mindeye commented as he joined her.
Impatiently Jennifer waited for the com unit to go on line. There were a ton of messages waiting. She flipped through them, they were all past history now.
“Wait a sec,” Mindeye said. Jennifer gave him a curious stare.
“I am being contracted mentally by your sister who has arrived to the area. She is so relieved that you are right, but want you to know that the Knighthood of Peace has lined themselves outside the house and is talking to the media,” Mindeye reported.
“What are they saying?” Jennifer wondered.
“If I quote your sister Cyclone talks mostly bullshit. He began by claiming that you accusations against Bio is a dirty scheme to discredit his team member by using old unfounded accusations from Italy that is impossible to defend against since it is just gossip. Further he claims that you with your healing ability could fake your injury without harm for yourself and that he fears you set this up to be able to attack Bio. He will be arranging Bio a safe transport out of the city. Currently he is ranting about G.S.P being corrupt and spreading the taxpayers money to yet another unknown so called superhero who in fact has no real qualifications to talk about,” Mindeye said.
“Unknown super hero? How does he know about Avalanche?” Jennifer wondered.
“That would be me,” Mindeye admitted. “I used her intended codename at the television show when I thought we needed her psionic abilities to be able to force Bio to cure your poisoning.”
“You might need to have some answers to the higher ups about that,” Jennifer responded.
“I never interfered that she was a team member, that is Cyclone's own deduction. Anyway Avalanche wonders if she is to secure Bio before Cyclone whips her out of New York,” Mindeye said.
“Can she really do it without risk to reveal her identity? Cyclone will go nuts if somebody tries to take Bio,” Jennifer asked.
“It seems that Eagle has actually provided her with a costume just in case she is ever needed in the field. The only thing holding her back is the fear that her real acceptance into the G.S.P might get stopped if she does something without authorization,” Mindeye replied.
“Oh, I see. I really don't want Bio to escape so actually taking her now might be a good idea. I doubt Bio will make any more appearances in costume before she bolt and without Fang we can not track her easily. Let me use my com unit to contact agent Anderson and see if I can negotiate something,” Jennifer said.
* * *
Linda Stevens hid within a shop as she kept the Knighthood of Peace within view. They were all standing outside the television building talking to the press.
For Linda, it had been a simple matter to make sure nobody else inside the shop took notice of her spying on Cyclone. The same was not possible out on the street with live cameras. She could not affect the persons viewing the scene from a remote locations.
Through her link she kept open with Mindeye she felt him contacting her again.
“Avalanche, this is your lucky day. Washington very much prefer you to appear in superhero costume now compared to later have to admit Cyclone was right about you being recruited into the team. A big part in this is that authorizes in Italy is very keen on Bio not escaping so they want her taken into custody. The only objections was that they fear you might run into problems if you face the whole Knighthood yourself,” Mindeye transmitted.
“Are you also worried?” Linda wondered.
“Be ready for some of them having protections to individual attacks with your powers, but I think you will be more than able to deal with them with you telekinesis power added into the mix,” Mindeye responded.
“Does sis agree?” Linda wondered.
“She does not realize how much you learned from me and other psionics. I know what you can do, I say: go get them,” Mindeye sent.
“Tell her to have transport ready for transfer shortly, Cyclone's cronies are going to learn why I am named Avalanche,” Linda sent.
Stepping back some she stripped out of her clothes and into the costume Eagle had given her. At least it was not any flowers on it, but Eagle had taken effort to give the costume the innocent girl look.
“First time in years that I wear pink,” Linda thought. She had actually not tested the mask before, but it also fit smugly. The marvels of tailor fit creation of the computer at the G.S.P base. The only thing lacking was having a G.S.P com unit. She paused to consider what to do with her school bag. Superheroines did not carry school bags into battle.
Eventually she settled with giving her bag to one of the shop visitors that would return it to the G.S.P base on his way home. It was not the quickest way for him to get home, but Linda felt that using him in this fashion was justified during these circumstances.
She paused to give herself a final look. Her costume was a cute maid suite with the G.S.P insignia on her back, it actually fit her very well and looked like something from Japanse Lolita fashion. It was very far from Linda's normal fashion style, but there was a point with having a costume that contrasted very much with her normal self, it made her secret identity more safe.
Additionally Eagle had argued the benefit that most human opponents would be fooled by her cute looks. That particular argument seemed not that convincing to Linda, but if he got a kick of seeing her as a cute maid she did not mind. It was fun to dress up.
Satisfied she stepped out onto the street and walked towards the gathering around Cyclones super hero team.
“I suggest everyone do the same!” Cyclone shouted. “Don't remain passive, but do contact your congressman and ask why G.S.P takes all the funds. The scam that leaks the taxpayers funds can only go on as long as you are passive.”
Linda paused her steps, there were too many reporters standing close to the opposing team. The smartest thing might be to attack from a distance when the Knighthood was unprepared, the downside would be that if anyone resisted her initial attack these bystanders would be directly in harm’s way. Giving advance warning would make the crowd clear, on the plus side with the television cameras covering the situation it was a great time for showing off.
Linda formed two dozens of channels and then applied half of them to push the reporters out of harm’s way with her telekinesis. Cyclone was on the way to continue talking when suddenly the reporters in front of him was dragged apart by invisible hands. He raised his gaze to look at Linda that stood in a pose in front of the team.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Do I really need tell?” Linda taunted. “I am that new G.S.P hero Avalanche that Blade has sent to fetch Bio. Guess what Bio darling, you are wanted in a couple of murder investigations.”
“This is preposterous. Do you really think you can steal our innocent team member in this fashion?” Cyclone asked baffled.
“Oh, yeah, I really think I can,” Linda responded. “Blade let you go in the studio because she did not want the bad press about trashing a studio. Unfortunately, things got more urgent when you started to talk about arranging a safe journey for your little team murderer.”
“Enough of this. Take her out,” Cyclone ordered. Hyper was the quickest to respond and dashed forward with her superhuman speed. Linda just smiled and sent a spray of paralysis commands. It looked very funny as Hyper lost control of her limbs and stumbled forward and collapsed on the ground in a pile of limbs.
“Psionic, you made a grave mistake when you challenged us. My armor is insulated against psionic attacks,” Mech cried out. The moment later the Gatling gun at her left arm roared to life.
The unexpected level of deadly violence almost made Linda be taken by surprise. Luckily her channels was already ready and reaction was only a thought away. At the last moment she caught the storm bullets inches in front of her.
“That is what most people call unprovoked violence,” Linda said and pointed at the bullets that hung in the air in front of her. “I say you need calm down by taking a calming bath!”
She actually had to use all her available channels to gather the necessary power to use her telekinesis to hurl Mech westwards toward the Hudson river. The effort was sure impressive as Mech was sent flying like she was a kite. Linda hoped that she had assembled enough power to launch as far as the river. It might look bad if Mech crashed into some civilians.
She turned her attention to the remaining enemies, Bio and Cyclone had collapsed from her paralysis command, but Entrope was unfortunately still standing and had moved in front of Bio.
“To bad for a newbie like you that you don't know I absorb all incoming energy. That include your telekinesis so your lucky day ends here,” Entrope boasted.
“Is that really so? What if I say that I really do know who you are,” Linda said as she searched through Mindeye's memories for details about the legendary super hero. The memories were mostly calming, Entropes flexible powers might even allow him to absorb regular psionics but he had a problem dealing with multiple attacks and that was sure something that Linda could do well if she didn't restrict herself to using her telekinesis.
“I can't believe the G.S.P recruited another useless Psionic,” Cyclone complained from the ground. Paralyzed as he were he talked literally into ground and could barely be heard.
“If you are down on earth defeated in humiliating way you need to talk louder if the press shall hear you,” Linda taunted.
“He means your ability is useless against the aliens since they are immune to psionics,” Entrope countered.
“Oh, you missed that part when I caught the bullets and threw Mech into the river?” Linda asked.
“Granted that your powers would be more useful than Mindeye's, but they won't prevail today. I am very resistant to psionic manipulation and as for your major telekinesis ability I can just absorb,” Entrope replied.
“Two things,” Linda said. “One is that you can't do a thing towards me unless I give you power to use, right? Second thing, you are mistaken about what I can do against you psionic wise.”
“You are bluffing, everyone know psionics only have one major ability and possibly some minor powers. Such minor power will be easy for me to resist. Besides I don't need your power to beat you up. What can a little girl like you do against a man like me?”
“Let's see,” Linda said as Entrope started to walk in her direction. “I could for instance use my main ability to take you out. I am not called Avalanche because of my telekinesis.”
She loved the look of surprise in Entrope's face as he took in what she said. The moment after she hit him mentally with all she had. A shower of metal commands that rained over him. He absorbed most of the attacks at first, but Mindeye's memory was accurate. More and more of her attacks came through and after one and a half step and about twenty thousand separate mental attacks he collapsed on the floor unconscious.
“See,” Linda said and posed towards the cameras. “This is why I am Avalanche.”
The G.S.P transport came flying and Linda picked up Bio with her telekinesis and went towards it. She heard Blade's voice from the speakers on the transport even though she by reasoning understood Blade and Mindeye would not have time to board the transport yet.
“Good work Avalanche, but you sure took a lot of time to get Bio,” Blade said.
“A girl like me must get to have some kind of fun when sent on such an easy mission,” Linda responded, giving a smirk in the direction of cameras taping the encounter. She entered the transport and it took off from the ground and levitated upwards.
“Please get you and the murder suspect Bio securely seated,” the metallic voice of the G.S.P base AI urged.
Linda complied, Bio just stared back at her with a desperate look in her eyes.
“Please let me go, don't send me to Italy. I have hidden cash so I can reward you,” Bio begged.
“How much can you offer?” Linda wondered.
“Is this recorded?” Bio suddenly wondered as she looked around the empty transport.
“To bad, I was hoping you would admit more,” Linda said. “You should never have taken a contract on killing Blade.”
The transport slowed down and doors opened again. For a moment Linda tensed, then she saw they were hovering over at the roof of the building where Blade, Mindeye, Thundercloud and Firefly waited.
“You sure have a habit of making jokes during combat,” Thundercloud said as they entered the plan.
“You know, fifteen minutes of fame, best to make good use of them,” Linda said. “Where are Eagle and Fang?”
“Eagle is searching the sewers after Fang that was attacked by Mech. His latest report says it is lots of corridors to cover, it might take him days to find her body,” Blade answered.
“So what now? Are we to join Eagle searching?” Firefly wondered.
“We would move too slowly to matter,” Blade responded. “Avalanche do you think your abilities could be of use?”
Linda considered the question, she so wanted to assist her depressed team members, but making mental contact with Fang was hard.
“Maybe if Eagle carry me, I need to be nearly on top of her to contact her mind since it is beastial. On the other hand, Eagle will with me be more effective with me since he won't have to guess about things below the water surface and such,” Linda said.
“Okay, we report back to base so we can get Bio into a cell at our base. I prefer you to handle her with your telekinesis to avoid her poisoning any of us. I am worried that Cyclone might try to make a rescue mission so I want her taken within the safety of the base. Then the transport will take you back to a place where you can meet Eagle,” Blade said.
“Please observe that the G.S.P transport will not be available after we have reached the base,” the metallic voice of AI reported.
“Explain!” Thundercloud ordered.
“The G.S.P team has been put on notice that this transport lacks permissions needed to fly over populated areas. Since Morning Heights is a populated area the transport will be grounded until the necessary paperwork is at hand unless you can provide ground transportation to the nearest airfield,” the AI responded.
“What the?” Mindeye complained. “We are like federal. Why do we need such permission.”
“Records indicate such an application was made from Washington when the G.S.P was formed, but this has been pending since with a temporal permission. When the application finally was handled it was discovered that it lacked certain supplements needed for such flight permission for technology created by criminal mastermind Professor Enigma. The New York Port Authority Police was forced to reject the application,” the AI answered.
“It is ironic considering that it was we that provided the government with details about Enigma's betrayal,” Firefly said.
“Somebody must deliberately be messing with us,” Blade complained. None of the others objected.
* * *
Fang woke to the feeling of pain. She had expected to be dead, but in the absence of that, the pain seemed fitting. She trembled in fear at the memory of Mech aiming her riffle at her.
Something was weird with the surroundings, she sniffed, but there were no smell present. It was the first time ever she sensed no smells. The strangeness of this made Fang decide to force herself to open her eyes.
Nothing could have prepared her for the surroundings, she rested on eye shaped rock that levitated high up in the air. Above her was a night sky that looked like normal, but there was no wind blowing.
Carefully Fang dragged her battled body to the edge of the rock to look down. Far below her she could see a myriad of lights that moved around in some kind of net of red light. She was at too far distance to tell if the net was connected to the lights moving around or not.
Confused Fang tried to figure out what she saw. Finally she saw a pattern in where there was an absence of lights and net. The widest patch with no light below her matched the shape of the Hudson river. The lights she saw below her matched Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. It was the same kind of view as she had seen from the G.S.P plane, but from a much higher position.
Fang looked towards what must be New Jersey and could see lights there too, but at a less frequent rate. The density of the lights seemed to match the population.
Fang paused, at a distance inland she could see a tower raising towards the night sky. The tower seemed narrow, but reason told her that the structure must be wider than a city if she could see it from this distance. She looked down again, she could not see the skyscrapers of Manhattan, so how could she see that single implausible building over there?
Suddenly Fang felt like somebody was looking at her, she turned from the edge of the flying rock. A large male werewolf stood on the other side of flying rock with his gaze locked at her.
“I welcome you Nat'il'gar to my Eye,” the werewolf said.
“You know my real name?” Fang exclaimed. Her werewolf name almost felt unfamiliar after all this time.
“Nothing is hidden from me on the Eye,” the werewolf responded.
“You call this place the Eye?” Fang wondered.
“Indeed, it is the greatest secret of our tribe of packs. The Eye is the forerunners tool to divine the future,” the werewolf said.
“I recall mother talking to me as a pulp about Kait'lin'gar that carried the sight of the people. Never got around asking what she meant, but you are Kait'lin'gar, right?” Fang asked.
“Aye, I am Kait'lin'gar, bravest of the forerunners that for 600 hundred years has guided the pack,” Kait'lin'gar responded.
“Are you here to heal my injuries? I was shot by an evil woman,” Fang said, hope filling her.
“The eye only permits spiritual contact. You have to deal with injuries yourself,” Kait'lin'gar responded.
“How could I possibly?” Fang complained. “She caught me off guard and shot me at close range. There was nothing I could do, just like when the hunters killed my pack.”
“Nonsense!” Kait'lin'gar barked. “The Eye can not fetch the spirit of a werewolf that has a fresh injury from a silver bullet. The fact that I could find you is evidence enough that the fool that attacked you used ordinary bullets. There is no way she could ever kill you in that way.”
“Silver bullets?” Fang mumbled. “What about my pain?”
“Pain induced on yourself by your fear. You are raising magic to wound yourself so you know that you are alive since you still feel pain,” Kait'lin'gar answered.
“Magic?” Fang mumbled. As she said the words she could feel the pain fading from her body. The bullet wounds was closing themselves.
“All forerunners have the potential of magic, you especially. Marked from your birth as the one who have the potential to face the hidden demon that threaten to break the balance between heaven and hell. A horrible future awaits us all unless you can be the pebble that alter the outcome of this struggle,” Kait'lin'gar said.
“Why was I never told?” Fang asked.
“I think your pack judged you too young to hear. They were fools to refuse my help and keep you in the dark about your role as a forerunner. A misplaced desire to give you a happy childhood that ended in tragedy. Had your training began from the day you were born you would had the magic to save your family from the assassins that came hunting for you,” Kait'lin'gar replied.
“What is a forerunner really?” Fang wondered.
“Forerunners are shamans of our tribe of packs that guide the battles against the forces of evil. They are forerunners because they must run in front of the packs to find dangers. Your instincts are formidable. Even without training you have traveled to the city of men where the showdown will take place,” Kait'lin'gar said.
“Have you brought me here to train in the use of magic?” Fang asked.
“The Eye permits much, but not teaching from a distance. We must meet in the real world, but I dare not bring the Eye into the human city. The net of evil is much to strong there. Travel north to meet me, but be aware there is a price to be paid,” Kait'lin'gar said.
“Is that the red net I can see below among the humans what you call the net of evil?” Fang wondered.
“Indeed it is, I choose this height in the Astral plane to be safe from the influence of that foul sorcery,” Kait'lin'gar replied.
“Is the net connected to demon summoning? The city is attacked by demons from unknown origin,” Fang asked.
“The Eye does not allow me to see that. When I scry for the demon's you are to face it only shows me the image of the tower and that you will be killed if you don't know the defensive spells of the packs,” Kait'lin'gar said.
“I see," Fang said. "When are we going to meet?”
“Time is of the essence, look towards the east,” Kait'lin'gar said.
Fang did so, but she could see nothing but darkness. She tried to make out any details, but what possibly existed out over the ocean was well hidden.
“I see nothing,” Fang admitted.
“That is indeed the problem,” Kait'lin'gar responded. “The Astralplane is limitless, it inconceivable to claim so much of the space so that the eye can not find a viewpoint that makes the threat possible to perceive. Still no matter how I try I can not tell what is hidden in that approaching darkness. Possibly it is a thing with equal destiny finding qualities as the Eye and such objects must be blind to each other since they else risk causing a paradox when their magic battle about who will predict the other one first. Different kind of destiny magic does not work well together.”
“I reckon there is a more dangerous explanation,” Fang said.
“Indeed, the being or item that approaches might be something that threaten the very existence of the Eye itself. If it is an old enemy of the forerunners that we thought already defeated for good it could happen that it knows of the Eye and plans to destroy it. The Eye is by design blind to such dangers since a prophecy about how the Eye might be destroyed would block the Eye to be used for other purposes.” Kait'lin'gar told.
“So you want me to come to you as soon as possible so you can get the Eye to safety before this unknown bad arrives here,” Fang said.
“Indeed that would be best, but if the Eye really easily could come to safety so easily then its existence would not truly be threatened. Let us hope that what approaches is a destiny seeing item and not the threat I fear,” Kait'lin'gar said.
“How do I find you?” Fang wondered.
“It is up to you. I can smell the city and do not dare to get closer due to foul sorcery here. How close I am to the city I don't know, I don't read the human language. The only thing I can tell for sure that I am directly north of you. It seemed like the only safe direction to approach with the unknown darkness in the east and the tower in the west,” Kait'lin'gar responded.
“I will find you,” Fang promised.
She woke with a startle in a wet and stinking place. The stream seemed to have pushed her up on a platform of some kind. She was in her wolf form.
“Sewers!” Fang spat as she turned humanoid and pulled herself up from the water.
The pain was gone from her body, a