Lodestone

“Halloween H2O” by Martin Maenza



Only after switching off the loud, high-powered equipment that she was working with was Dr. Noreen Kelley able to hear the gentle rapping on the large glass window along the outer wall.  The young woman in her late-twenties with long red hair, tied back into a single ponytail, turned to see someone floating outside the tenth floor of the building.  Recognizing the young woman dressed in gray spandex with red trim, the scientist crossed over the lab floor and unlatched the window. As she swung the window open, she greeted her unexpected guest.  “Lodestone,” the woman said.  “What are you doing here?”

The blonde woman in the red masked smiled.  “Dr. Kelley, I hope its okay that I just dropped by,” she said.

“Of course,” the doctor replied.  “Come in.”  She made a gesture with her hand.  Then, she added with a laugh, “Unless, of course, you’re here to try and arrest me again for something I didn’t do…”

“Oh no,” Lodestone said as she grabbed the window frame and stepped onto the ledge.  Ducking so that the backpack over her shoulder could clear the opening as well, she then hopped into the building.  “It’s nothing like that.”  She looked a bit embarrassed just thinking about the first time the two had met four months prior. 1

“I’m really sorry about that whole mix-up.”

Dr. Kelley smiled.  “Yes, I know you are.  I was just kidding.  So, is there something I can do for you today?”

“I was hoping you might be able to,” Lodestone said.  “I was wondering if perhaps you have a professional association with someone in the field of robotics - perhaps someone who might even work here in the Victoria area.”

Dr. Kelley wrinkled her nose.  “Why do you ask?”

Lodestone tried not to bite her lip; she hated to not be fully honest.  Oh, no particular reason, she thought to herself, just that maybe he might be behind that M.E.C.H. who ferreted out my secret identity in hopes I’d join some group he was forming. 2

Still, she didn’t want to get into all of the details with Dr. Kelley whom she barely knew really. “Just thought I might be able to get some help with a project is all,” the heroine said.

“Well,” the scientist replied, “there is a Dr. Henderson I’ve consulted with before.”  She reached for a notepad.  “Let me jot down an address for you.”

“Great!” Lodestone said.  “I’ll try to go by then soon and visit him.”

“Him?”  Dr. Kelley finished writing down the notes and handed the sheet to her.  “Dr. Cleo Henderson is a woman,” she said.

“Oh,” Lodestone said surprised.  “Sorry.  I just made an assumption…”  So much for the chance Henderson was Eddie/M.E.C.H.’s last name.

“No problem,” Dr. Kelley said. 

The alarm on her digital watch started to buzz. 

“Oh.”  She glanced at the time.  “Is there anything else you need, Lodestone?  I don’t want to cut you off short, but I have to leave work on time this afternoon.  I have a party this evening that I have to go and get ready for.”

Party! Lodestone thought to herself.  I almost forgot!

“No, this is good,” the young woman said as she folded the paper and slipped it into an opening in the backpack.  “Thanks for the reference.  I do appreciate it.”  She headed for the window and started to climb back out onto the ledge.  “Enjoy your party.”

“I will,” Dr. Kelley said.  “And you’re welcome to drop by any time.”

“Thanks,” Lodestone nodded before she flew off across the Victoria, Georgia, skyline, heading north.



***



In a large but modest home in Ashebury, a residential community north of Victoria, Clare Harper rushed through the kitchen backdoor.  Once she got close to home, she found some place private to slip out of her Lodestone costume and back into a pair of jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt.  Her parents, Beverly and Kyle Harper, were watching the 6pm evening news in the family room when the seventeen year old blonde went running past them and headed for the front stairs.

“Clare,” her father called out.  “Where’s the fire?”

“Sorry, Daddy, no time to talk,” she said as grabbed the wooden end banister post and whipped around it like a race car taking a sharp turn.

“Clare, Anita called…” her mother started to say.

“I know, Mom, I know,” Clare cut her off as she took the steps two at a time.  “She and the others are picking me up soon, and I still have to get showered and changed.”  The high school senior’s voice trailed off as the headed for her room upstairs. “I’m running so late.” 

“But…” Beverly was about to call out.  She then heard the bedroom door close rapidly.  She paused for a moment and then looked at her husband inquisitively.  “That was our daughter, right?”

“Don’t ask me, honey,” Kyle Harper said with a smile.  “Remember, I’m the one that doesn’t get her all the time.”  He made finger quotes in the air as he said ‘get her’.  “I’m just the lone bastion of testosterone in this household of estrogen.”

Beverly gave her husband a playful punch in the upper arm.

“Ow, you brute,” the man joked.



Twenty five minutes later, as the front doorbell rang, Clare came bounding down the steps once more.  She was now dressed in a pair of tan bellbottomed pants and a multicolored polyester shirt.  The shirt was unbuttoned at the top to reveal a necklace of pooka shells.  She had teased out her hair, using a lot of hair spray to poof it up and to feather it back.

“Oh, honey,” Beverly exclaimed.  “You look great.”

Kyle smiled too.  “She looks more and more like you every day, Bev,” he said softly to his wife.

“Thanks, Mom,” Clare said as she turned the doorknob.  “I hope Anita…”  She stopped mid sentence as she opened the door and saw her friends standing there.

Anita Hanson and Cynthia Brekmann stood on the front porch, both dressed in stylish business suits with short skirts.  The later one was holding a plastic baby doll in a simple white diaper.  “You ready to go, Harper?” Cynthia asked.

“Girls, come in,” Beverly called as she got up from the couch.  “Let me see your costumes.”

Kyle cocked his head as the two girls entered the house.  “Costumes?  They look like the young women who work on the third floor of my office building downtown.”

The brown haired Cynthia smiled.  “Perfect!  That’s just what we’re going for.”

“Huh?” the father asked.

“Honey, haven’t you ever seen Ally McBeal?” Beverly asked.

Clare pulled her African-American friend back and whispered, “What’s this?  I thought we were doing the 70’s thing.”

“Sorry, Clare,” Anita said.  “I tried calling you earlier with the change in plan.  Cynthia thought it would be cool for us to do this instead.  She’d be ‘Ally’, I’d be ‘Renee’ and you could be ‘Georgia’.  I figured since it was thanks to her that we got invited to go this party to begin with that it wouldn’t hurt to go along with her idea.  Didn’t you get my message?”

“No,” Clare said.  “I had to…uh…run an errand on the way home and was late.”

“Oh,” Anita said.  “I hope you aren’t mad at me.”

“No,” Clare said again.  “No, I’m not mad at all.”  What could she do?  She couldn’t very well tell Anita why she never got the message.  “No, it’s cool.  You look great.”

“Thanks,” Anita said.  “You too.”  She gave her long time friend a hug.

“We better get going,” Cynthia said.  “I have my father’s car, and I don’t trust the others not to mess it up while they’re waiting for us.”  She started for the door.

“Drive carefully,” Beverly said.

“Cynthia will, Mrs. Harper,” Anita said.  “She’s a great driver.  You should have seen her when we were out in California.  She’s calm, cool and collected behind the wheel.”

“Don’t be too late,” Kyle called out from the couch.  “Eleven o’clock.”

“Daddy, it’s Friday night,” Clare said.  “Can’t we make it midnight?  We can’t leave the Halloween party too early or we’ll look like babies.”

“Midnight is fine,” Beverly said.  She turned to Kyle and nodded.  He nodded back reluctantly.

“Thanks, Mom,” Clare said as she gave her mother a hug.  “See you later.”

Clare followed her other two classmates out to the driveway where Mr. Brekmann’s car was sitting.  As she climbed into the front seat with Anita in the middle and Cynthia behind the wheel, she glanced into the backseat.  “Hey gang.”

Jo Thomsen sat on the far left; her long dark hair was pinned back and she was wearing a leather warrior’s outfit.  A scabbard was attached to her belt.

In the center of the backseat, wearing an orange puffy parka was Jimmy Parker.  The bulkiness of his coat served the added purpose of keeping Jo from hauling off and smacking Keith Wills on the far right.  Keith was dressed in an orange coat with a green colored hat with earflaps on the sides, and he was zinging his usual witty barbs.  “Far out, Clare!  Can you do a few bars of Sunshine Day for us?”  There was a brief exchange of greetings as the car backed out of the driveway. 

Then Cynthia told them all to pipe down while she proceeded to drive the group to the party.  All along the way towards the lake front community in Buckmore where Michelle Kingston lived, Cynthia reminded the others that she had gotten them all invited to this party in the first place.  Further she lectured the group about not embarrassing her in front of the rest of the cheerleading squad.  She even made Keith swear to behave.



There were tons of cars parked out front of rather large white house with slate gray trim.  The two-story front porch was supported by large white pillars nearly two feet in diameter.  “Wow,” Jimmy exclaimed.  “This place looks like a country club clubhouse rather than someone’s home.”

“Really,” Jo added.  “I thought I saw tennis courts out back.”

Cynthia locked the car, straightened her jacket and proceeded to lead the group up the long front walk which was lined with neatly manicured hedges.  “There are tennis courts,” she said in a rather casual tone, “and a pool too.”

“A pool!” Kyle chirped.  “Cool!”

Clare put her hand on his shoulder.  “Easy there, cowboy,” she said.  “Remember, we’re on our good behavior tonight.”

“Harper, can you please keep him in line?” Cynthia snapped before ringing the doorbell.

When the door opened, the loud music from inside could be heard very clearly.  Michelle Kingston, dressed in a shimmering off-white camisole, answered the door.  “Cynthia,” the brown haired head cheerleader said.  “So glad you could come.”

“I couldn’t miss ‘the’ party of the year.”

“Too true,” Michelle said.  “Love the outfit.”

“You too,” Cynthia said.  “Very Sex In the City.”

“But of course.”  The two cheerleaders stepped inside and continued talking; they quickly made a bee-line to the rest of the squad who were mostly costumed following Michelle’s lead.

Clare, Anita, Jo, Keith and Jimmy let themselves in to join the party where over three dozen teenagers were hanging out, dancing and celebrating the holiday. “Let’s go find the food,” Keith said to Jimmy.  The two boys took off to the left where they could see through the clustered groups of people what appeared to be a large dining room table with various bowls and such spread out.

A guy in a dark suit with matching slate-gray monochromatic tie and shirt approached the trio of girls.  He turned to Jo first and said, “Hey, Xena!  Care to dance?”

Jo didn’t even bother to look the guy up and down.  “Sorry, you’re not my type,” she dismissed him flatly.

The guy grinned.  “Is that your final answer?”  Clearly he was ecstatic to use the famous line.

Jo just scowled at him.  “Look, buddy,” she said as she patted something attached to her belt.  “I’ve got a chakram here that I picked up at MythiCon last month and I’m not afraid to use it!”  As she let the threat sink in, she then turned and headed off to see if anyone else she knew was in attendance.

The guy dressed as the popular game show host turned to Anita and Clare.  “How about you two?  Either of you want to dance?”

“Sure,” said Clare.  “Anita?”

“Oh, go ahead, Clare,” her friend replied.  “I’ve got a cute soldier boy eyeing me.”  She winked at someone across the way and gave him a warm smile.  One of the guys in a group dressed like a platoon out of Saving Private Ryan stood a bit taller and smiled back.

“Let’s go then,” ‘Regis’ said as he took Clare’s hand and led her through the crowd to the area in the living room where the furniture had been cleared away for dancing.  They found a spot between two insects out of A Bug’s Life and another couple, a guy in a rubber mask of the President and a girl with a ‘stained’ blue dress, and proceeded to get into their groove.



It was nearly two hours before most of the friends managed to regroup.  Clare approached the guys just as someone in a long black robe and a white mask brought down a plastic scythe upon Jimmy’s back; the later was lying prone on the floor.

Kyle, who was standing nearby as the Scream killer raised up his weapon in victory, couldn’t help but yell out, “Ohmigod!  You killed Kenny!  You bastard!”  Then Kyle busted out laughing.  Others nearby joined in the laughter as well.

Clare offered Jimmy a helping hand to get up off the floor.  He undid the tightly tied parka hood and said, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said.  She turned to Kyle.  “Do you really find that so funny?”

Kyle grinned.  “Yup.  It never gets old.”

“Have either of you guys seen Anita?”

“Over here,” a familiar voice called. 

Clare made her way over to a couch where her best friend was sitting. 

“I think we’ve got a problem,” Anita said as she gestured down beside her.

Clare came around from the back of the couch to see Jo with her head in Anita’s lap.  “What happened?”

Anita made a silent gesture by forming her hand into an imaginary cup and tossing it back quickly towards her mouth.

‘She’s drunk?’ Clare mouthed.

Anita nodded.

Jo groaned a bit and started to raise her head.  Her eyes were half-closed and droopy.

“Easy, girl,” Anita said.

“Yeah, take it easy, Jo,” Clare said as she sat down next to her.  “We’ll find Cynthia and get you home.”

“Oh…no….” Jo said faintly.  “That’s s’okay.  We can s’stay.”

Clare shook her head.  “I don’t think we should.”

“We’re having fun…right?” Jo asked.

“Yeah, but we don’t want to overdo it.”

Jo smiled as she reached up and gently stroked Clare’s blonde hair.  “You know…you’d’ve made a great Gabrielle…”

Clare nodded.  “You’re probably right.”  She looked at Anita and mouthed ‘find Cynthia’.

Anita nodded, helped Jo to sit up next to Clare and got left the couch.  She quickly moved to the left to avoid the long tail of someone dressed in a Godzilla costume that was walking past and took off to search the house for their driver.

Anita was careful to work her way around a number of tall guys that she recognized from the basketball team.  One of them was dressed up as Maurice Jansen, number twenty-three for the Tradewinds’ Oxen.  He was getting heckled by a couple other guys who were wearing uniforms for the hometown Victoria Sky Hawks.  She knew she was on the right track though.  Where there are jock, she thought, there are bound to be…

Anita spied the some of the cheerleaders including Cynthia.  She hurried over to them.  “Cynthia, can I talk to you for a moment?” she asked.

Cynthia turned.  “What’s up, Hanson?”

“It’s Jo,” Anita started to say.  “She’s…”  She stopped when she noticed what was in the hands of the other girls standing around.  She pulled Cynthia away from the group.  “Cyn, is that a beer?”

“No,” the brunette replied.  She pulled back the napkin that covered the can to show Anita it was a diet soda.  “What’s the deal?”

Anita sighed.  After everything the two of them had been through with Cynthia’s mother, she was relieved that the young woman wasn’t following down that same path. 3

“Where are your car keys, Cynthia?” she asked.

“Right here.” Cynthia patted her jacket pocket.  “Why?”

“Jo’s had a little too much,” Anita explained.  “We need to get her home.”

Cynthia nodded without hesitation.  “I need to find Michelle and say goodnight,” she replied as she handed her friend the keys.  “It wouldn’t be cool just to leave.”

Anita nodded.  She understood the rules of the popular crowd and knew that Cynthia at least needed to adhere to some of them.  “I’ll get the others and meet you outside at the car.”  The two girls split up.



Anita got back to the others just as large guy with blonde crew-cut hair dressed up like Wess Adventa, the professional wrester running for Minnesota governor, grabbed Keith by the front of his jacket. “You think that’s funny, punk?” the jock asked.

Keith wrinkled his nose as he smelled beer heavy on the guy’s breath.  “Chill, dude,” Keith said.  He held up the three inch long, roughly cylindrical shaped brown item in his left hand.  There was a tiny knit cap on one end along with some stickers for a face.  Kyle flipped it around and took a huge bite out of the other end.

A couple folks that had gathered around to watch the scuffle let out a collective “eeeeewww!”

Keith chewed and swallowed the bit quickly.  “See?  It’s not real.  It’s a Baby Ruth!”  There was a collective sound of relief from those gathered around.  Keith just looked at the candy and said, “See what booze does to you, Mr. Hanky?  It impairs your judgment.”

The jock’s response was to just shove Keith backwards into a tall wooden bookcase.

Clare, sitting nearby on the couch with Jo’s head on her shoulder, noticed a couple trophies on the top of the structure starting to wobble to fall.  Without moving, she concentrated on them and latched onto their metal composition.  With her thoughts, she manipulated the magnetic forces to put them back steady once more.  She figured with everyone focused on Keith that they probably didn’t notice.

Anita approached the couch.  “I found Cynthia and got her keys,” she stated.  “Let’s roll, gang.”



Cynthia’s car was barely a mile down the road when the group’s conversation was drowned out by the sound of a honking car horn.  “Oh, what now?” the young driver asked.

Jimmy and Keith, who were in the front seat this time while Clare and Anita tended to Jo in the back, both turned their heads to get a look out the back window.  “Someone’s following us,” Jimmy said.

There was a slight bump in the rear of the car as the approaching car nudged the rear bumper.  “Following too close!” Keith said.  “Step on it!”

“Oh, this is ridiculous!” Cynthia said.  Still, she didn’t want anything to happen to her father’s car so she increased her speed a bit.

This only prompted the car behind them to increase speed as well.  It then pulled out into the other lane, accelerating faster still until both cars were going down the road side by side.

From the other car whose window was rolled down, the driver shouted out.  “Hey, punk, get back here!  We’re not through yet!”

Keith’s eyes grew wide as he glanced past Jimmy and Cynthia to see it was the big jock-wrestler.  In the car with the loudmouth were a bunch of other guys, all rowdy and encouraging their friend’s threat.  “Cynthia, can you lose them?” Keith asked.  “Please!”

“I warned you about getting into trouble,” Cynthia reminded him, “but did you listen?  No!”

Maybe I can help, Clare thought from the backseat.  Seeing as she was sitting on the driver’s side, she was closest to the opposing car.  It started to swerve towards them as if the jock were trying to side-swipe Cynthia’s car to get her to pull over.  Clare concentrated, putting a bit of a magnetic field between the two vehicles.  By creating an opposing force, the two cars almost repelled one another and pushed apart.

Cynthia gripped the wheel.  “Whoa!” she said as she compensated for whatever caused her car to veer.  “I think my father needs to get this alignment checked.”

“Cynthia, look,” Jimmy pointed out just ahead of them.  “There’s a bridge.” 

It was one of the low bridges that spanned the inlets to the lake front community.  Cynthia steadied the wheel and followed the road towards it.  She wasn’t all that familiar with the winding, twisting roads in this area.  It would take a good bit of time before they could get to a point to get onto the open interstate.  She hoped that they might run across some police before that though.  Maybe it was time for her to hit up her father again for her own cell phone.

The other car accelerated again and was trying to inch up past Cynthia’s car.  “Pull over, punk, so I can pound you into the ground!” yelled the jock.

“Go away!” yelled Keith.

“Stop yelling!” Cynthia screamed.  “I’m trying to concentrate here!”

“Look!” Jimmy yelled.  From the far end of the bridge up ahead a pair of headlights could be seen in the other lane.  The jock’s car was right in line as the bridge approached.

Anita and Clare looked up and saw the headlights too.  “Cynthia, look out!” Anita yelled.

Jo, who was passed out in the backseat jerked up from all the yelling.  “What?”

Clare saw the jock’s car not slowing down.  Either it would hit Cynthia’s car as it came back over into the correct lane or it would hit the oncoming car who was rightfully in its own lane.  In either case, things could end up bad for everyone.  She knew she had to act!

Clare concentrated once more, this time solely on the jock’s car.  She reached out to it with her magnetic abilities, grasping down past the fiberglass shell to the metal frame and axels beneath.  Out of the corner of her eye she watched too for the approaching vehicle as it crested the center of the bridge.  She was running out of time!

Then, with contact made, she mentally shoved the vehicle with all her might.  Her magnetic powers reacted in kind, forcing the jock’s car off the side of the road.  It cleared out of the way just before colliding with the oncoming traffic.

Behind the wheel, the jock lost complete control of his car.  He and his passengers panicked as the car bound down the low embankment, through a white wooden picket fence and right into the dark waters of the lake.

“Cynthia, pull over!” Keith yelled.  “They went off the road!”

“Why?” the driver asked.

“Cynthia, please!” Clare said.  As their vehicle came to a stop, she was already opening the door.  She rushed across the roadway and noted the third car had also pulled over too.  Jimmy and Keith were out of the car quickly as well.  “Jimmy, go see if those people are okay and see if they have a cell phone or something.”

Her classmate nodded and took off down the road.

Keith was already heading down the embankment.  “Come one, Clare!” he called.  “We have to make sure they got out okay!”  The two made it down to the fence; wood was splintered everywhere from the impact with the car.

They both looked out to the water.  There were still many ripples from the car plunging into the depths, but so far no signs of the passengers.

“Stay here!” Keith told Clare as he stripped off his jacket and shoes.

“Keith, that guy wants to pummel you,” Clare pointed out.

“They might be drunk jerks, but we can’t let anything happen to them,” he said firmly as he ran down towards the water.  Within in seconds, he dove into the cool body of water and was swimming hard out into it.

Clare knew that Keith couldn’t do this on his own, though she was very proud of him for even trying.  He’s definitely more than just the class comedian.  She closed her eyes and concentrated, again reaching out for the car.  She focused her abilities on the area of the lake at the center of the ripples, searching for the massive item.

For a moment, she struggled, searching.  Come on!  Where are you?

Then, she found success!  Her magnetic powers latched onto the vehicle’s framework.  She concentrated further, willing it to rise back up towards the surface.  The water all about the car provided some resistance, but she pressed on further.  Come on!  Just a little more…

The car finally broke through the water surface as did Keith.  At the sound, Clare opened her eyes but kept her focus.  Now, gotta keep it afloat until Keith can get them out.

Her friend swam over to the side of the car that was most out of the water and grabbed onto the handle.  He pulled and yanked and eventually got one of the doors opened.  The driver and the three other guys inside the vehicle escaped into the water.

Anita ran down from the road.  She noticed Clare just standing on the shore, staring intently at the water.  Given what she deduced a few weeks ago, she knew instantly why Clare had not dove into the water as well.  “Keith!  Are they all out?” she yelled down to the lake.

“Yeah!” Keith called between swim strokes.  He reached back and helped the impaired jock driver along towards shore.  “All clear!”

“Clare, let’s see if they can use our CPR training any,” Anita said to her friend.  “They’re all clear.”

Clare let her concentration lapse, releasing the hold her powers had on the car.  The automobile, in response, began to sink back into the dark depths of the lack.  She turned to Anita who just smiled at her.  “Keith’s a hero,” Clare said.



It wasn’t too long before the police and an ambulance arrived.  The emergency medical team made sure the young men who had plunged into the lake were fine.  The police were talking to the drivers, especially the one under age driver who had been drinking at the party.  They also commended Keith for his quick thinking and for pulling the trapped young men out of the car before they drowned.

“They were lucky,” Jimmy said to Anita and Clare.  “It could have ended a lot worse.”

“Definitely,” Clare said.

“Yeah,” Anita added.  “There must have been an air pocket or something that brought their car back up, huh, Clare?”

Clare just nodded.  “Yeah, probably so.”  The blonde looked out across the shimmering lake.  “It definitely could have ended a lot worse.”



*** Epilogue ***


“Aaaaah uggggh!” grunted a large muscular male figure, with long flowing brown hair.  Dressed in dark pants and boots and a mesh muscle shirt, he pulled hard on the cable that descended down into the elevator shaft to which, seconds before, he had torn open the doors.  As he stomped backwards, pulling, the cable moved with him.  It was almost like a deep-sea fisherman trying to land a big catch.

Seconds later, a rectangular metal service elevator car tore through parts of the floor and door frame.  The small enclosure flew across the air and came to rest, on its side, on the floor of upper portion of the warehouse. 

Faint groans came from inside the closed box.

A young woman with very light brown skin and long, wavy black hair sat perched patiently on a large wooden crate.  Dressed all in skin-tight black, she licked her lips in anticipation.  “Be a love and open that box for me, will you?” she said to her partner.

The handsome young powerhouse who looked as if he stepped off the cover of a bodice-ripping romance novel complied after a slight nod.  Grabbing the metal box with his bare hands, he flipped it around effortlessly until the seam of the doors was now visible on top.  Hopping onto the box, he wedged his large fingers into the seam on either side and pulled the doors apart with a loud screech.

Inside the car, a much shaken man in his early sixties cowered.

The strong man reached into the elevator car with his large hands and yanked the man out by his leg.  As he presented the man in the same manner one would present a prize fish just pulled out of the ocean, holding him upside down, he said “here you go, Dee!” and then tossed him casually across the way.

The elderly man fell a few feet to the hard floor, feeling additional aches to his already tossed-about body.

The woman leapt down from her perch like a jungle cat pouncing on her prey, her high-heeled boots clicking as she landed on the floor.  “Well, well,” she said.  “Not barely a month out of prison and you’re back to your old ways, eh?”

“Por favor, tenha a mercê...” the old man began to beg.

The woman just laughed.  “Save it, Alvarez!” she snapped.  “Drug runners like you are the vermin that’s brought Miami and the rest of this country down.”  She reached down and hoisted him into the air by the front of his suit jacket.  She brought him up to where his face was on level with hers.  “You’re going back to prison where you can rot until you die.”

“Well done,” a mechanized voice said from behind them.

Both the black haired woman and the brown haired man turned and saw an armored figure floating in the air outside the shattered third story window they had burst through only minutes earlier.

“Who the…?” the strong man asked.

“If he’s looking for a fight…” the woman was about to say.

The armored figure stopped his gentle clapping and put his hands out in front in an open way.  “No, don’t misunderstand.  I’m M.E.C.H., and I’ve been trying to contact you both.  I have an offer I think you’ll both be very interested in.”

The strong man turned to the woman, looking to her for guidance on how to proceed.

She pursed her lips, intrigued, and turned back to the newcomer.  “We’re listening,” she said.


(to be continued)




1 See issue 9 “Just Like Dad” for additional details. - the Editor.
2 See issue 17 - “I Know What You Did Last Summer” for more details. - the Editor.
3 See issue 14 - “Vacation (part 2): California Split” for further details. – the Editor.