Gaining Power - Part One

A Meeting in Independence Port

By Thom Thetford

 

Kate’s brother was the superhero Thunder Childe. He was four years younger than her and yet he was the one in the family to get superpowers. She had always dreamed of being able to fly in the sky or rain down justice on the bad guys, but it was just not her calling. Instead she had to contend herself with going to law school and ‘raining down justice’ from the court room.

She had been working as a legal assistant for two years now, after graduating with the bachelor’s degree in legal studies and her duties had taken her to almost every zone in Paragon City. Each area of the city had its special warnings and problems, but if you watched your step you could manage to get your job done with little to no troubles.

Today, however, she was called on to get a statement from a Button Man in Independence Port. ‘Indi Port,’ as she called it, was a place of almost constant commerce. In addition to the steady for stream of legitimate commerce there was the ‘black hat’ element. The Tsoo had a foot hold there as well as the Family. It was the Family she had to meet with, today. One of the Families lieutenants was willing to testify, in exchange for Longbow protection.

It seems that the Family hijacked a freighter of equipment destined for the Longbow outposts in Bloody Bay. It seems that the equipment was a new type of analyzers they needed to investigate the meteors that had fallen there and the wanted them back. So much so, the Longbow had offered a hefty price and protection for anyone who would turn Heroes evidence in the case. This seemed to be just the thing a mid-level thug named Johnny ‘Two-Penny’ Frankelli was looking for. He could score big and retire for life, with Longbow protection.

Johnny was a ‘Button Man’ in the Family with no idea of how to gain higher status. He almost had accepted his place in the scheme of things until he had gotten word that the Longbow were offering good money and protection for anyone who knew something about a freighter heist and, as things worked out, it was one of the jobs he had helped pull off. He never thought his ‘two-cents worth’ would get him this kind of money. He would be set for life, or so he thought.

 

=O=

 

There was a knock at the door. Kate checked her watch and noticed that her brother was late. This was not normal, he was methodical about everything. It helped him in his studies at PCU. After all not every hero has the time or the inclination to get a degree at the same time as saving the city.

Remembering his achievements there, she smiled. She was very proud of her ‘little’ brother and his junior year at Paragon City University. It was one of the only schools where you could get a degree in Meta-Genetics or any degree in the superhero physiology, really. And he was on the solid path to getting his bachelor’s of science degree in the field of superhero genetics. Still he was late.

Answering the door she noticed there were two heroes there. One was a solidly built hero, about six feet tall and the other was a slight young man, about six inches shorter than his companion.

“May I help you gentlemen?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Your law firm hired us to ride shotgun fer ya.” said the larger of the two. “My names Byte and my friend here is Bit. We are Bit ‘n Byte.” He finished with a broad smile on his face as he offered his hand. Byte was dressed in the typical spandex style of heroes today. His costume was almost bland, but efficient in concealing his identity. It was all black except for a neon green hand on his chest. As she looked closer at the hand se realized the hand had two opposing thumbs on both sides and six fingers in between. With a slight laugh to herself, she realized his emblem was a play in concepts. The hand had eight digits.

‘Eight bits in a byte. Now that is funny!’ she thought.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” she said as she took his hand and shook it. “But I am waiting for my brother. He always escorts me on these sorts of meetings.”

At this the shorter of the two spoke up, “Ah, well, I fear that your brother has been unduly detained and his agency asked your firm to retain other escort for your meeting today. As I understand it, he was detained due to an unavoidable escapade entailing the Trolls of the Hollows region. My companion and I are at your service, my lady.” He finished with a deep bow.

She looked closer at the shorter of the pair. His costume was as garish as Byte’s was simple. He maintained the sleek spandex, but there was a pattern on his costume, it made him look like a large circuit board, with a simple number one on his chest.

“Well, I see,” she began slowly. Realizing she had kept them at the door while she gave them the once over, she concluded they were indeed what they said they were, two heroes.

“Please forgive my manners. This case has us all a little jumpy. Please come in.”

She showed them to her living room and offered them a seat. Byte, the larger of the two, plopped his large frame down on a strong looking chair. It was her brother’s chair and just about the only thing he could sit on in her apartment that would not collapse under his weight. Even it let out a groan as Byte sat down hard.

As they two took their seats in her living room, the phone rang and startled her. Before she took her seat, she said, “Please excuse me a moment,” as she went to answer the phone.

From the living room where they sat, Bit and Byte heard part of the conversation that seemed to be filled mainly with grunted acknowledgements.

“Well, gentlemen,” she began as she reentered the living room. “That was my office to inform me that I would be having two escorts instead of my brother. Their timing is normal for the legal community.

“So, Bit, let’s start with you. What are your qualifications” she asked. He seemed almost offended as he answered her question, as briefly as he could.

“I am classified as a blaster, security rating 20 and my companion has been classified as a ‘tanker’. His security rating is a 19.”

“Very good, then. I am glad both of you were available to help. I guess that is all I need to know for now. Usually my brother gets to just walk around looking menacing, but not really having to do anything.” She finished as the got up form her chair.

“Let me finish getting ready and we will be on our way.”

 

=O=

 

The drive to Indi Port was almost deadly quiet as Bit seemed to hold a grudge against her for not trusting his hero status, by the appearance of his costume alone. Byte, however, seemed contented to just get out and on the way. Most of his comments were idle chatter, but a look from his companion caused him to silence most of his comments.

As they approached the warehouse district, Kate was alert for any abnormal activity. Her car managed to keep their passing quiet. This was actually a joy to her as her brother was too large, at 8’ 3”, to be able ride in her car. They usually had to walk nearly everywhere they went. Or, lately, she was carried in his arms as he leaped to their destination. She did not look forward to those trips as it played hell on her long hair and it was nearly impossible for her to arrive without looking like her hair had been in a blender.

The occurrences of the Family, or just about anyone it seemed, began to thin out as they arrived at the particular warehouse where she was to meet Johnny Two-Penny. The warehouse looked like it had seen better days. Even the crane on the docks was old and in need-of-repair. The door the warehouse, at least, looked serviceable, despite its apparent age and is looked like it had seen lots of recent activity.

Kate pulled her car near the door and shut off the engine. As she stopped the car, Bit was out of the back door in a flash.

“I will scout the area for possible interlopers.” He said in a huff. Taking to the air he flew to the roof of the warehouse and began to look around.

Byte exited the car in a more leisurely pass, as Kate exited herself.

“I’m sorry for Bit. He gets to huffy on issues like that. He’s from New York and he feels that everyone tags him and a new hero, instead of the years he spent heroing up there. He just gets testy, he’ll come around.” He said.

“Well, don’t apologize for him. If he has an issue, he will just have to deal with it himself and get over it. Will be do a good job watching though?” Kate asked Byte.

“Oh, yeah! He’s nothing if not anal about checking everything. Part of him being a database admin.” replied Byte.

“In fact, sometimes he is too obsessive-compulsive…” He added with a sigh, almost under his breath.

As their conversation wound down, Kate headed for the door in question and listened at the door before opening it.

Opening the door, Kate saw the entrance way to the warehouse. Around the room was scattered a few papers and in the corner was an aging pile of Major Flander’s Fried Chicken rubbish. ‘Someone had quite the meal recently.’ Kate thought to herself.

Following the corridor to the left, Kate went down the corridor towards the main warehouse. The dust in the corridor was clear in the center of the hall, but gathered at the sides of the floor. This warehouse had not seen any official activity for a long time.

Feeling more nervous about the meeting every second, Kate finally saw Johnny. In the darkened center of the warehouse, he was seated with his head slumped forward in a chair. Hearing the scuffle of shoes, his head shot up and Kate realized he was tied to the chair and there was a large piece of duct tape across his mouth.

As he caught her eye, Johnny began to struggle against his ropes. He fought them so hard the chair began to jump up and down. As he fought the ropes, his head madly thrashed from side to side. Kate thought he was trying to free his mouth from the tape, but she realized his eyes never left hers. He was shaking his head violently, trying to communicate to her. He was shaking his head ‘No’.

Just as she realized what he was trying to say to her, his eyes went wide, seconds before three black claws sprouted from his chest. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared. With their absence, Johnny’s head slumped forward again. Kate knew this time it was a permanent condition. He was dead, his ‘two-cents’ worth having run it course.

Rising from the behind the chair a little girl dressed in a tiger suit stepped around her fresh kill and slung the blood from her left set of claws. The girl stepped forward and Kate realized she was about three feet tall and could not be more than sixteen years old. As her claws slid back into her hands, she stepped forward.

“Hi!” she began with a wave of her hand, “My name’s Kit! You must be dinner…”

As the girl advanced, Byte stepped forward in between the feral youth and Kate.

“Stay where you are, ‘Kit’!” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Naughty, naughty grup! You think ah’d be here alone?” she said in a little girl’s voice.

As the untamed tigress spoke, Kate realized that the shadows behind Byte had taken on a movement of their own. There was someone behind him, but well hidden, even as close as she was. Before she could shout a warning to Byte another set of black claws found their way into his back and traced their way back out before he could react.

With a howl, Byte turned to face this new enemy. His right hand swung in a large circle around him. His wild backhand missed its mark as another tiger-girl crouched low and brought her left claws up his abdomen and slashed him open in a smooth, deadly operation. Clutching his midsection, Byte slumped to the floor, never to rise again.

“Damn, Cat! You were sloppy there!” said Kit as she slithered over to her twin.

“Hey, bitch, gimmee a break, yours was tied up and not moving!”

As Kit came over to the other tigress, they hugged and giggled like a pair of teenagers at the mall. With them both closer Kate noticed that, while they were very defiantly twins, neither of them wore tiger suit, instead they were completely nude. In fact the stripes appeared to be tattoos, over their entire body with the only hair on their bodies appeared to be tied up in braids on their head.

“Now, girls, is that anyway to act in front of our guest?” came a voice from Kate’s left. Whirling her head towards the voice she saw three figures. From their suits, they appeared to be more Family. And now from behind Kate, she heard more approaching people. They sounded like they were dragging something heavy.

Kate turned to see two more Button Men dragging the corpse of Bit. With a grunt, the one dragging his body threw his corpse on top of Byte.

“Friggin’ bitch bit me.” He said to his companion.

“What’s that Moll? Who bit you?” said the leader of three previous Button Men.

“Sorry Sal, but before she took out that little mask, Cat was comin’ on to me. Then she turns on me and bites my hand!” he said, holding his bloody hand.

“Cat! Did you do that?” Sal said to the young figure hanging on his left arm.

“Yeah Sal, I did. I couldn’t help it, I got bored. Then that hero showed up and I had to get ready to take him out. Beside, Moll needs to trim his nails. Bruiser!” she added as her face turned back to Moll.

“Well then I will have to spank you for that.” Sal said.

“But Sal, I’m 19, I don’ need no spanking!” she retorted.

“Who… Who are you people?” said Kate, finally finding her voice. As she spoke she realized she had been shaking rather noticeable for the last few moments while this macabre scene played itself out.

“Well! It seems our guest has finally found her tongue.” said Sal. “Well I know who you are and I guess it won’t hurt you to know my name, as you’ll not live long enough to spread it around.

“Name’s Salazar, but everyone calls me Sally Spada.” He said with a mocking bow.

“Boys, why don’t you show Miss Donner a ‘good’ time before you make sure she don’t get back to her bosses.” He said as he turned to walk back out of the warehouse, with a tiger girl on each arm. “And don’t say I never gave you nuthin’ boys!”

As he walked out, Sal said to the girls, “Now let’s go talk about that ‘stiff’ bonus we talked about when you did a good job.”

“Yes, sir!” said Kit. “But, wait, I get a spanking, too, right?”

Feeling the lecherous looks of the four Button Men, Kate simply crumpled to the floor with her head in her hands.

‘Oh, God, Tom!’ she thought, ‘where are you? I need you more than ever!’

 

=O=

 

Gaining Power - Part Two

Transformation

 

The mission to The Hollows was a grand failure. His information had said several Supa-Trolls were staging and all out war on the Paragon Police to gain entry through the Atlas Park gate and into Atlas Park, itself. Randolph had said Thunder Childe had been needed to help stem the crowd of big green hyped-up Trolls. Trouble is, either Randolph had received some very bad information or Randolph was suddenly on the take. While the former was a possibility, the later was more likely the case.

The realization that this mission was a farce also left a cold feeling in his stomach as he leaped towards the Atlas Park gate. He had been scheduled to accompany his sister on a legal visit for her firm, into Independence Port. His thoughts began to turn onto the fact that he had been delayed to prevent him from assisting his sister. It was a trap to possibility kidnap or even kill his sister for her involvement in the case against the Family. This thought drove an icy cold spike deeply into his chest as he pushed himself harder than ever to get through the city zones and investigate why his sister was not answering her cell phone.

Thunder Childe flew through the Atlas Park gate and jumped immediately to the train station, much to the astonishment of the gate guards. Pushing his leap to the maximum, he was able to make the jump to the train station in on tremendous leap, although this started both his legs cramping from the effort. Knowing he would not be in top form to fight what ever he encountered, Thunder pulled out his cell phone in mid-jump and called for assistance.

“Paragon Heroes Incorporated. How may I direct your call?” came the voice of the receptionist.

“This is Thunder, I need who’s on duty, now!” he said into his phone, in a harsh tone.

“Yes, sir!” was her only reply as he was put on hold.

After a few seconds that seemed to drag into eternity, Thunder recognized the voice of Lord Tygger as he picked up the call.

“Hey, TC. What gives? You got Phyllis all shakin’ and shit.” Lord Tygger started.

“No time.” Thunder started. “Lock onto my phone, bring who you got to Indi Port, now! Kate’s in danger.”

“Oh, fuck.” Tygger said. “I got… shit, never mind. E.T.A. to Indi Port?”

“I should be there in… umpf” grunted Thunder as his feet touched down on top of the train station, partially caving in the roof.

“What the hell was that?” asked Lord Tygger, hearing the scream of tearing metal.

“Nothing, landed on the train station in Atlas. Send a note to City Hall, would you? They are gonna charge us heavy for that.” Thunder replied to the question as he jumped off the damaged roof. “I am going to King’s Row and then to Indi Port.”

“Right. Be there in ten. Hedge is suiting up now.”

“Good. See you in IP.” Thunder said as he put his phone on signal, so that Lord Tygger could find his location in Independence Port.

In the train station, Thunder had to suppress his adrenaline rush to keep from tearing the station gate apart as he waited on the train. The delay seemed to drag on forever, but he knew this was the fastest way to King’s Row and then to Independence Port. Thunder Childe finally boarded the train and was headed for King’s Row. Knowing he was in for another pushed leap ahead, he began to massage his aching thighs, in preparation.

 

=O=

 

Finally in Independence Port, Thunder Childe leaped immediately to a nearby building, near the address he knew his sister had been coming too. They had reconnoitered the warehouse last week, in preparation for this meeting of hers. In his mind he knew that the deception had been complete, but still he blamed himself for letting his sister down. If she was hurt, in anyway, there would be hell to pay.

“Penny for your thought, big guy.” Came a voice, seemingly out no where.

With a start, Thunder Childe dropped to a fighting stance and began to search for the source of the voice. As he looked around the area on the roof of the building, he began to notice a faint outline of someone standing next to him.

Feeling like a target, Lord Tygger continued his greeting. “Hey, don’t shoot partner! It’s me, Tygger!”

“Damn, son, I nearly took your head off, there.” replied Thunder Childe, recognizing the voice of his friend and co-hero. “Since when do you go invisible?”

“Feh,” came the reply out of no where. “Its Hedge’s doing. He learned a new spell and wanted to try it out.”

As he finished, Lord Tygger’s form began to solidify, as his russet fur showed its stripes. While his shape was still of a man, Lord Tygger had fur all over his body, a fact he played to the hilt as he usually wore only tight russet shorts, that blinded into his fur giving the impression of being totally nude.

“Well you made fast time getting your fuzzy butt over here. Thanks.” said Thunder Childe, with a sigh of relief, knowing his companions were there to help.

“Again, weren’t me.” Tygger said with a chuckle. “Hedge ported us here when we knew where your signal stopped movin’. That Witch can move when he wants to.”

“Speaking of ‘Witch,’ where is he?” asked Thunder.

“He dropped me off and flew on to scope out the opposition. He coulda got closer to the roof, though.” Lord Tygger added as he began to rub his feet.

“Wuss.” Replied Thunder, not realizing that he had started their time honored banter in his distraction. It seemed to be a familiar and welcome feeling to have his friend here while he was forced, yet again, to wait. He would have much rather dove right in and started breaking heads, but he knew that the situation was unknown and he was more than likely to meet defeat.

“Freak.” Tygger replied to his half of the banter. Even though form usually kept up the banter past this point, Tygger noticed that his companion was distracted by the mere presence of the warehouse across the way and he decided to let the banter stop there.

The time crawled by and Thunder began to pace the rooftop, trying very heard to contain his frustration. After about ten minutes, Tygger noticed a slight movement near the edge of the roof they were on and he moved to investigate. The movement began to solidify into a form sitting lotus fashion while hovering in mid-air. Since Hedge Witch had chosen to remove his invisibility about 20 feet in front of Thunder Childe, he was not caught off guard quite as much has he had with Lord Tygger. At the sight of their friend, Lord Tygger joined Thunder as he looked at the new arrival.

Hedge Witch was dressed in typical superhero tights, except for the folded boots and a large bow in his hand. His green shirt was dark, but not nearly as dark as the black of his pants and boots. Seeing that his invisibility had completely worn off, he uncrossed his legs and gently set foot on the roof top.

“Hello, my friends,” he began, not waiting on the others to say anything. “The warehouse is crawling with both Circle of Thorns and Family. Marconi’s, I think.

“There was some commotion about five minutes ago. What ever it was did involve Katherine, as I recognize her aura in the main warehouse. However…”

“What?” asked Thunder, his voice rising as he now knew his sister was in the warehouse. “Let’s go in there and get her out!” he finished as he stepped forward towards the edge of the rooftop.

“No, my friend, that is not a wise course of action,” said Hedge as he stepped in front of Thunder to block his path. Lord Tygger stepped back a bit as he saw the growing tension. Hedge had simply put his hand up in front of Thunder Childe. He towered over his mage companion, fully half again taller than Hedge Witch and yet, Thunder Childe’s aggravation seemed to abate as Hedge Witch’s voice remained firm and clear.

“As I was saying, the situation, while it did involve Katherine, was not detrimental to her physical state. Her aura remains strong. The conflict resolved itself quickly and has died down. It would be the best course of action to investigate, but there is enough Circle of Thorns patrolling that we would loose the day and not succeed in our mission.”

Stepping up to the pair, Tygger looked Hedge Witch squarely in the eye, as they were about the same height.

“You, sir,” he began, “Make my head hurt. Okay, oh mighty mystical warrior, what is your plan of attack?”

“Live to rescue the princess.”

“Well, duh, smart man.” Retorted Lord Tygger.

Stepping between them, like a massive wall, Thunder Childe interjected. “Enough, you two.” Turning toward the wizard. “Hedge, you have a plan in mind?”

“Indeed I do.” Hedge Witch continued. “The other rooftop is relatively unattended. There is actually a dead spot where the Thorns are not patrolling. I will fly over and teleport you two there. Since I will have made you both invisible before hand, they will not notice our intrusion.”

“Wont they detect your magical spells?” asked Tygger.

“Ah, there is the rub. Normally yes, but I will be using a device Doctor Evans gave me. The scientific teleport will not be disturbing their magical wards.”