So Not a Hero (16 page)

He clapped his hands together. “Okay then. That wasn’t nearly as hard as I’d imagined it was going to be. Do you like Italian? Because I know this place over in Uptown that has some of the best Italian food ever.”

I smiled, still holding onto the ends of the towel. Now it was because I was afraid I wouldn’t know what to do with my hands. “Italian is fine. What time?”

“Pick you up at eight?”

I shook my head. “How about we meet there at eight?”

“I’m usually a traditionalist,” he said, holding up one finger. “But just this once, I’ll concede. Amalfi’s on Trade Street. Eight o’clock.”

“I’ll be there.”

The walk back to the elevator and the ride up were done practically on autopilot. Back upstairs, I headed towards my room with what I was positive was a loopy grin plastered all over my face.  Alexis was sitting on the sofa watching a movie in the recreation room when I passed through. She took one look at me and hopped up to follow. “Karen, are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

She gave me a worried look. “You seem all … all floaty and happy,” she said, phasing through the furniture to stand in front of me. “It’s a little scary.”

I shrugged, continuing down the hallway towards my room. “I went downstairs because I thought the EAPF wanted to talk to me about something. Instead, it was only Kurt.”

The teen jogged a little ahead of me and turned around to walk backwards so she could look at me. She remained in her ghost-like form. “Detective Dreampants?” She had spent more than one patrol being my sounding board concerning the handsome Mr. Braddock. “What did he want?” She blinked before I could answer and pointed at me. “You didn’t go down there like that, did you?”

I sighed and nodded. “Unfortunately. I didn’t know it was him. He came by to ask me out.”

Her mouth dropped open and she became solid again just in time to whack her shoulder on the wall. “Ow.” She rubbed at the spot, grinning despite the pain I was sure she felt. “That’s awesome. Oh, we have
so
got to go shopping again.”

“We do?” I asked, already dreading yet another trip to the mall. “I’m sure I’ve got something nice I can wear.”

Alexis whipped her head back and forth. “Nope! We haven’t bought anything suitable for a date with Detective Hot Pants. We can go after our patrol shift on Friday.”

“Fine,” I agreed.

Darla stepped out into the hallway as we passed her room. She stopped with her hand on the knob of the half-open door and looked at me. “So, did you go down and talk to Braddock?”

She’d known that it was Kurt waiting for me in the lobby? If she had mentioned him by name, I wouldn’t have faced him looking like yesterday’s trash. “Yes. I did,” I said. Then I punched her in the shoulder, only putting a fraction of my power into the blow. It was still enough to send her reeling back into her room to land on her ass on the floor. “I did, thanks.”

Alexis blinked several times, looking from the fallen blonde to me. “What was
that
all about?”

I bit down on my lip for a second and then shrugged before going into my own room. “A promise I made myself downstairs.”

CHAPTER 11: THE UNBURIED PAST

I spent the next three days alternating between being really excited about the impending date with Detective Braddock and feeling as if I was constantly on the verge of throwing up from terror.

I pushed my attempts to reconcile with Rocket aside in favor of spending my downtime playing various
what if?
scenarios in my head. Dating, well, actually going on a date, was something I wasn’t too familiar with. Believe it or not, Martin had never been a big fan of the whole “Dinner-and-Movie” date night. Our romantic evenings had generally revolved around either plotting or performing a crime. And I had the feeling that Kurt wasn’t going to be in the mood for anything like that.

So I turned to the only people I could for information; my teammates.

I approached Alexis first. Her date with Carl had “gone totally awesomely,” according to the teen and the sigh that immediately followed made me wonder if she were under the influence of some type of mind-altering device.

“What did you two talk about?” I asked reluctantly. “Or did you just go to the movies and stare at each other?”

She shrugged and looked a little confused. “School, I guess. Mostly comparing notes on who we knew in common and stuff like that. And music. Turns out we’re both Concrete Blonde fans. Isn’t that weird?”

I nodded, thinking that it would certainly be weirder if I knew who Concrete Blonde was. “Anything else?”

Alexis shook her head. “Not really. I mean, we just talked about, you know … stuff.”

I nodded. “Of course. What else would two people out together talk about?”

“You’re worried about Saturday, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I don’t have a lot of experience going out on dates. In high school, I paid more attention to my grades than to boys. Then after I Activated, I got into a long-term relationship with a guy who I probably shouldn’t have. After that, I was in the Max for a couple of years.”

The teen arched a brow. “No dates since getting out?”

“Not really, no.” I didn’t think having to screw my parole officer on a regular basis to keep from getting sent back to prison technically counted as a date.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do fine.” She smiled, but I got the feeling she anticipated this to be a disaster of the highest magnitude. A feeling that was compounded when she got up from the bed and headed out the door mumbling, “Need to put cookie dough ice cream on the shopping list.”

Mister Manpower had been my main go-to guy for advice since joining the team, but I didn’t feel comfortable asking him about this matter. Hell, for all I knew, it was against regulations or some shit to date members of law enforcement. Likewise, I wasn’t about to ask Richard. He’d probably just tell me to be sure to have a camera rolling if I got laid. Daniel might have had some insight to share, but I got the feeling that he wouldn’t be okay with providing me with suggestions to make my evening out with another man successful. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings.

So, as much as I figured I was going to regret it, I decided to see if Darla had any advice I could use. While her current relationship with Captain Awesome struck me as downright weird, the pretty blonde had to have been on a ton of dates in her younger days. If I could get past the arrogant, queen-bee aspect of her personality I might actually get something useful.

“Detective Braddock asked you out? Really? I didn’t see that coming,” she said as she continued to paint her toenails. “And you’re worried about him not having a good time?” The look on her face seemed to mock my naivety on such mundane matters of romance. However, since she was willing to help, I refrained from punching her.

I shrugged. “I guess. Maybe? I just don’t want it to be all awkward, if you get my meaning. I don’t have a lot of experience here. What do people talk about on a first date?”

“Usually their past,” she answered. “Where they’re from. What their childhood was like. Their hopes for the future. That sort of thing.”

I bit down on my lip for a moment. “And what if most of that is comprised of things better off not discussed?”

“You mean like your time in the Max?” She shrugged and fanned her feet with one hand. “Then I guess you could always switch to Plan B.”

“Plan B?”

A sly smile spread over her face. “Sleep with him. If you rock his world hard enough, he won’t give a damn what, or who, came before.” The saucy grin widened. “It’s always worked for me.”

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

“Kayo. Phantasm. Come in.” Even after a week, having Daniel’s voice suddenly appear in my ear was still a little unnerving.

The Friday afternoon patrol had been rather uneventful. Not even a cat in a tree for a superhero to rescue. After canvassing the city twice, Alexis and I decided to pick up some cold drinks—her a chocolate milkshake, me a low-fat banana smoothie—and hang out on top of City Hall. There was probably some type of statute about using a public building as a hangout, but I justified it by telling myself that we were just keeping watch over the taxpayers’ interests.

I swallowed the just-above-nasty concoction and responded. “I’m here, Daniel. What’s up?”

“There’s been a report of Enhanced disturbance near the convention center. EAPF is requesting assistance.”

I stood up and Alexis did likewise.

“Any details on the disturbance?” the teen asked.

“Negative. Just that it’s a Level One and we’ve been asked to respond.”

I nodded to the teen. “We’re on our way, PB. Tell the Super Po-Po to keep their shirts on.” I lowered my voice. “Unless they’re really hot, right Alexis?”

The teen blushed and leapt over the edge of the roof, ghosting on her way down. She drifted gently to the street and became solid again. I followed her, relying on the training I’d been doing to keep from tearing up the concrete upon impact. When my feet touched the ground, I bent my knees and rolled along the balls of my feet, taking a few steps forward. It was a much more delicate landing than I usually made, but still left a two-foot long crack under one foot.

“Oops.” I said and then bent over so the teen could climb up on my back.  I’d found that since Alexis couldn’t move faster than the wind in her phased form, it was just quicker if I carried her with me. I turned my head to look over my shoulder at her. “Ready?”

She nodded and tightened her hold around my neck. “Go!”

I took off at a sprint, heading towards the convention center area. I kept my speed under fifty and Alexis provided support by ghosting us through any obstacles that got in our way. I did my best to avoid cars as much as possible, since the driver would probably scream and wreck if two semi-transparent girls ran through their vehicle.

We made it to the scene about three minute after leaving City Hall and I slowed to a stop near one of the black and gray vehicles marked with the EAPF logo. Alexis dropped off my back and walked over to the one guy in a suit instead of a uniform. Part of me was a little disappointed it wasn’t Kurt.

“Sergeant,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “How can we help?”

The slightly pudgy officer looked down at her and then over to me. The look on his face wasn’t too dissimilar than the one I enjoyed on a regular basis from Robert. Guess this guy wasn’t a believer in my reformation either.

“Twenty minutes ago, a kid in there went Active,” he informed us, pointing at a little coffee shop across the street. “Witnesses say that he was standing in line and just started screaming and growing.”

“Growing?” I asked, “Like how?” I didn’t give two shits if the officer thought I still belonged behind bars, I had a damned job to do.

The bushy brows over his hard eyes slid up and he looked at me with a bit of a sneer. “Like how what? He grew. Got bigger. What else do you need to know?”

Alexis sighed and moved a little, putting her smiling face between the cop and me. “I think Kayo is asking if he grew taller like a giant or got bigger with muscles.”

He shrugged. “Bigger, I think. One woman said his clothes were ripping while it happened.” He cut his eyes to me and smirked. “Think he went all Colonel Tank? Any chance you can end this without getting thrown through a drycleaners or any of the other businesses around?”

I took a step towards him, hands curling into fists. I wondered if it would be possible to knock him over the three-story building behind him. Or if it would just be more prudent to knock him
through
it. Fortunately for one of us, Alexis grabbed my arm and dragged me away in the direction of the coffee shop.

“Have your men hang back, Sergeant,” she said in a chipper voice. “We’ll have this wrapped up in no time.” When we got out of earshot, she glared up at me. “Karen, you have to keep control.”

I nodded, frowning. “I know. I know. Before I do something I’ll regret.”

“Or I do.”

I blinked and looked down at her. “What?”

“Oh, I was two seconds away from ghosting that asshat, but not his clothes. Nobody talks to my bestie like that.”

I laughed and shook my head. “
Me-ow
! Look out world, little Phantasm has claws.”

She giggled and then sighed, looking at the front of the shop. The front window was smashed to pieces, the remnants of a large table and several chairs littered the sidewalk, providing more than enough warning of the danger ahead.

I put my hand on the handle of the front door and looked at Alexis. “I want you to stay intangible. Just in case.” I nodded to the destroyed furniture as an explanation.

She followed my gaze and then nodded, slipping into ghost-mode.

Inside the restaurant, almost all the tables and chairs had been splintered or shattered. If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed a super-powered battle had taken place. A soft sobbing sound to my left pulled my attention away from the scene of destruction to its cause.

The report about the boy’s ‘growth’ had not been an exaggeration. While I didn’t have a ‘before’ reference, the fact that his shirt was nothing but barely-held together tatters and his pants were reduced to ill-fitting shorts told me that he’d increased in mass at least three times. The muscles of his arms and legs were huge round lumps beneath his flesh, raised veins running all over. It was as if his muscles had muscles of their own.

His face was turned slightly away from us, but I could see that changes had taken place there as well. His lower jaw extended outwards about three inches past his upper lip and was filled with jagged, yellow teeth. That, with an oversized eyebrow ridge, gave him the appearance of a Neanderthal giant.

The poor kid wasn’t just an Active. He was a Slip.

“Hey,” I said softly. “You okay?”

“Go away,” he said, hiccupping another sob.

Alexis stepped closer. “We’re here to help you.”

“I said,
go away
!” This time he swiped backwards with an arm as big as a tree-trunk as he screamed at us. The blow passed right through the teen as if she were no more substantial than the air around him. I was so glad I’d asked her to stay intangible. God only knows what getting hit with a fist like that would have done to her petite frame.

However, since the blow went through Alexis, it slammed into me without any prior resistance. I managed to get my arms up in a defensive cross position before impact. My feet left the cracked linoleum as I sailed across the room and out the gaping hole of the front window. I landed on my back in the middle of the street, creating a Karen-sized crater in the asphalt before sliding several feet.

I lay there for a second and then shook my head to clear away the disorientation. Climbing back to my feet, I looked up to see the EAPF had moved closer, gas-guns drawn and ready to open fire. I held up both hands and waved them back and forth. “It’s okay,” I told them. “We’ve still got this.” I waited another second to make sure they understood before I turned around and marched back inside the restaurant.

Alexis looked over at me as I entered, visual relief flowing across her features. The boy turned his head at my return as well, and I noticed that the eyes beneath the busy brows were pale blue, human, and full of fear. Either he’d been terrified of what he’d possibly done to me or else he was scared of what I was going to do in return.

I planted my hands on him hips and looked at him. “Do you think maybe this time we could talk without someone getting whacked?” I asked, pushing a smile on my face. “That wasn’t exactly a fun trip.” Even though I wasn’t about to drop my guard around this out of control hulk, but I needed to seem unfazed by his attack.

“I told you to just leave me alone.”

“We can’t do that,” Alexis said as she stepped closer. “You need some help and that’s what we’re here to do.” She smiled and touched her chest. “I’m Alexis.” Then she pointed at me. “That’s Karen. What’s your name?”

“Bobby,” he said. A tear rolled down his cheek and he glanced around behind us before settling his gaze back on Alexis. “Are you here to send me to jail?”

“Why would you think that?” I asked.

“Because, you’re Phantasm and Kayo. You’re Good Guys. You are the ones that get the bad guys and put them in jail.”

“Do you think you’re one of the bad guys?” Alexis asked.