Lodestone

“The Talk Of The Town” by Martin Maenza



An African American woman sat in the far left chair of a semicircle of four.  She was in her early thirties with well-styled short black hair and dressed in a cream -colored blouse with a light brown blazer and matching skirt.  The other three chairs were filled with three gentlemen of differing age, race and background.  Behind them was a dark blue backdrop screen with the WVTV Channel 8 logo centered on it.  The woman made sure the microphone clipped to her lapel was straight as a man behind the cameramen counted down from three.

“Good day,” the woman said just as her producer silently pointed to her.  She looked directly into camera one with a warm, pleasant smile.  “I am Monique Hughes, and this is Focus on Victoria.  Today we have a special program in store for you as we discuss our fair city’s colorful costumed heroine – Lodestone.”

Camera two kicked in, switching to a wider view; Monique continued her rehearsed opening without skipping a beat.  “My guest panelists today have all had the opportunity, at one point or another this past year, of meeting this fascinating young woman in person.  In fact, they each can even claim to have been rescued by Lodestone.  How’s that for reversing a double-standard?”  The three men in the chairs beside Monique each sort of chuckled at that.

“We’ll start today first with the man to my left, Mr. Calvin Whitaker.  Mr. Whitaker is one of the city planners here in Victoria and was the most recent of the group to encounter Lodestone.”  Monique turned to face the African American man immediately next to her; he was in his mid-fifties with a receding hairline and touches of gray at his temples and who was dressed in a three-piece dark navy suit with a white shirt and a navy tie with white polka dots.  “Mr. Whitaker, if you would be so kind to tell our viewing audience a little bit about that fateful night.”

Calvin smiled slightly, forming wrinkles in his rather full cheeks.  “Monique, I would more than happy to,” he said in his deep baritone voice.  “It was just a few weeks back after I was leaving my office.  The city planning committee was going over some of the latest urban renewal prospects for some of the more worn-down areas of the city.  On the way to my car I was suddenly ambushed by a number of gang members – four in all. I say they were gang members because they were dressed in the same colors.  They grabbed me and shoved me into their car.  They then brought me to their leader who held me at gunpoint in the old abandoned Kessler building off of Valley Stream Drive.  The situation didn’t look very promising.  They were well-armed and had a stalemate going with the city’s fine officers of the law.  That is until Lodestone showed up and made short work of those young punks.”1

“That sounds like a tense situation,” Monique commented.

“It was very tense,” Calvin nodded firmly in response.  “But that young lady took them out one-two-three, as easy as pie.  Given the growing level of gang activity we’ve been experiencing in our fair city, especially in the inner city neighborhoods, I know I sleep a little easier knowing there’s someone like Lodestone out there to help address the situation.  Victoria could sure use more like her.”



***



Just beyond the fences of an older railroad yard on the northwest part of town, a gleaming metallic figure, humanoid in shape, dropped down out of the sky with the low rumble from engines in its boots. It touched down on the ground on its two feet.

A pair of figures stepped from the shadows of one of the buildings to intercept the new arrival.  “About time,” the tall and athletic young woman with very light brown skin and long, wavy black hair said.  A skin-tight black bodysuit covered her shapely figure.

“Sorry,” M.E.C.H. said in his robotic synthesized voice.  “A situation arose that could not be avoided.”

“The lady doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” the large muscular male figure with long flowing brown haired pointed out.  He was dressed in dark pants and boots and a mesh muscle shirt.  “Maybe you should have called us again on those things of yours to let us know you’d be late.”  He pulled a small silver device that looked like a large make-up compact from one of the pouches on his belt.  The metallic device had a stylized ‘V-C’ on the hinged top cover.

“You mean the visual-communications links that I developed,” M.E.C.H. said in a matter of fact way with a slight hint of pride.  “Again, sorry.  I wasn’t in a position that afforded me the privacy to make contact with you.  I’m sure you understand.”

“Speaking of privacy,” the woman said after a disapproving huff, “how do we know these things are secure?  Anyone could be listening in on our transmissions, that is when you bother to contact us at all.”

“The probability of that is infinitesimal,” M.E.C.H. explained.  “My visual-communications links contain a complex randomization algorithm that cycles their frequency every few minutes to prohibit any external eavesdropping.   Each unit is fully synchronized with the others to insure complete compatibility at all times.”

“Huh?” the brown-haired young man asked with a dumbfounded look on his face.

The woman just rolled her eyes.  “Whatever, tin-man,” she said.

“Tin?” M.E.C.H. said with some indignation in his voice.  “Hardly.  This armor is forged from a titanium and steel-alloy mixture which…”

“Spare us the technical details!” the woman snapped.  “Just tell us why you dragged us out here to meet.  We’ve just settled in town; we weren’t planning on taking any trips by rail.”

“Fine,” M.E.C.H. said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.  Clearly he didn’t like nor appreciate being cut-off like that.  “My various sources of information provide indisputable facts that there is an exponential rise in organized criminal activity in the metropolitan Victoria area.”

“So what?  You want us to bust up some heads?  We can do that!” the woman said, a bit eager to finally see some action.

Her taller and much more imposing male partner next to her nodded in agreement as he cracked his knuckles.  “Sounds good to me.”

“Yes,” M.E.C.H. said, “eventually we will disband their operations, but not initially.”

“Why wait?”

“We need concrete evidence regarding who is masterminding the consolidation of these typically independent factions.  That’s where you two come in.”

“How so?” the brown-haired male asked.

“I require you two to go undercover,” M.E.C.H. explained, “to infiltrate the operations and perform reconnaissance.  If you can retrieve positive identification on who is behind the unification operations, we can guarantee a take-down the entire infrastructure in one fell swoop.”

“Hold up a second,” the woman said.  “We didn’t come all this way from Miami to be your personal drones.  Why us?  Why not get that Lodestone girl involved?  You did say she was already signed up for your little group, right?”

“She is,” M.E.C.H. said, “but since her image is constantly in the media in Victoria already that would make her rather conspicuous.  And, of course, my armor is not suited for clandestine investigations of this nature.  Having only operated in other locales, the two of you are perfectly matched for this particular task at this particular time.  Besides, what organization would turn down a power-house like him or such a streetwise person such as yourself?”

“True,” the brown-haired man said with a smile.  “I am a power-house.”  He flexed the muscles on his exposed right forearm to emphasize his point.

The woman considered for a moment.  “Okay, you do have a point there,” she conceded.  “Give us the information you have so far and we’ll take it from there.”

“Excellent,” M.E.C.H. said.  “We’ll establish some pre-arranged check-ins to keep up status.  I can also show you how to use the v-comms to send an emergency signal just in case; Lodestone and I will be your back-up, should the need arise.”

“Just make sure you’re ready to answer our call,” the woman said.  “When the time comes and things go down, we’re not going to wait forever.  Got it?”

M.E.C.H. nodded and proceeded to give a demonstration of his communication device’s capabilities.



***



When Calvin Whitaker finished talking, the hostess of the show turned to the man to Calvin’s left.  “Next we have with us Harold Brekmann,” Monique Hughes said.  “He is both a programmer and project leader for WCM, Worldwide Computing Machines, here in Victoria.  Mr. Brekmann, can you tell us about your encounter with Lodestone?”

The man in his early forties with thinning brown hair and dressed in a sports jacket, khakis, a white shirt and a paisley tie nodded.  “Of course, Miss Hughes,” he said.  “And thank you for having me.”

“It was last May at the computer exposition downtown.  My staff and I were demonstrating a machine we had dubbed ‘Deep Purple’, an IS/9000 series computer that had been especially customized with a learning interface for chess.  Things were running along uneventful, that is until the whole convention center was stormed by men in purple jumpsuits with high-tech rifles.  After trapping all the other attendants inside the center,  they escaped with the computer we had developed and myself as their hostage.”2

“That sounds like a very dangerous situation,” Monique said.  “Tell us how Lodestone figured into all of it.”

“I later learned that she arrived on the scene mere moments after our departure, and that she managed to destroy the equipment that was keeping everyone else prisoners.  She then came after my kidnappers, saving me from becoming road-kill on the highway when they jettisoned me out the back of the escape vehicle.  Sadly, they were able to escape with that very expensive equipment.”

“So, like Mr. Whitaker, you would not be here today if it wasn’t for this amazing young woman?”

“Definitely not,” Harold replied.  “And as you said, she is an amazing young woman.  For someone her age, she is very brave and resourceful.  She is definitely someone who thinks quick on her feet.”



***



The engine roared with a deep guttural sound and smoke rose from the top of the machine.  A large yellow bulldozer with its blade raised up off the ground lurched forward with increasing speed.

Tom Bower’s heart was racing as his legs carried him across the construction yard, barely keeping ahead of the metal monstrosity that was bearing down on him.  He glanced back over his shoulder, enough to see the crazed look in the blood-shot eyes of the man behind the bulldozer’s controls.  “Jim, no!” the construction site manager cried out as he ran directly towards his make-shift office at the far end of the yard.

At the bulldozer’s controls, Jim Hatchel just laughed and then coughed before spitting something from his throat out the open side of the vehicle.  “I don’t have to lissen to you any more, Bower,” Jim slurred, clearly still drunk from drowning his sorrows an hour or so before.  “You fired me this morning, ‘member?”  The man squinted a bit, allowing the blurring images before him to focus for a second.  He then shifted the vehicle into the next gear to make it move faster.

Tom Bower reached the wooden structure and grabbed for the doorknob.  He turned it but the door would not budge.  He cursed himself for having locked it earlier; he thought Hatchel might come back possibly to steal something.  He certainly hadn’t anticipated this turn of events! 

Tom reached into his pants pocket, pulling out a ring of keys.  He started to thumb through them quickly, and at the same time glanced over his shoulder.  Seeing the bulldozer blade raising up higher as the whole machine loomed closer, he fumbled nervously and dropped the entire key ring.  The metal keys clattered in the hard dirt.

Tom reached down to pick them up quickly just as the shadow of the blade fell over him.  He gasped in sudden terror, ducked his head between his legs and prayed.

The blade did not come crashing down on him as he feared it would.

Tom Bower glanced up with a bit of shock and relief.

The bulldozer, its engine still roaring, was suspended in the air perpendicular to the ground with the back end furthest to the sky.  The large wheels continued to spin uselessly in the air.  Jim Hatchel’s legs meanwhile were flailing in the air off to the other side as he held onto a part of the bulldozer’s metal frame with both hands.  “What the…?” he was screaming in confusion.

Tom glanced across the yard as a petite figure was walking towards them.  At first the late afternoon sun made it hard to make out the details, but then it all came into focus when the figure blocked the sun a bit.  With one red-gloved hand raised in the air towards the floating bulldozer, a blonde woman in a gray bodysuit with red trim and a red mask smiled.  “Are you okay, sir?” she asked looking at Tom.

“I am,” Tom said with relief.  “Lodestone, thank God!”

The young heroine glanced up at the metal machine that her magnetic powers were keeping aloft.  “Do you know this man?” she asked, referring to the one clinging to the equipment.

“Le’me down, you freakin’ witch!” Jim cursed.

“He used to work here,” Tom said as he rose to his feet.  “He was fired this morning.  I guess he didn’t take it too well.”

Lodestone simply nodded.  She wiggled her fingers of her raised hand, causing the whole bulldozer to shake firmly in the air.

Jim Hatchel fell to the dirt, a bit disoriented from the sudden upheaval of the equipment and then being shaken off to the ground.

“Where can I put this?” Lodestone asked.  “It is a little heavy.”

“Anywhere,” Tom answered.  “But you have to turn it off…”

Lodestone had already used her other want to gesture.  The key in the ignition of the bulldozer clicked to the left, and the engine cut off.  The wheels slowly spun to a stop.  Satisfied, the young woman carefully lowered it to the ground.

Tom wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief from his pocket.  “That’s good,” he said.  “Thank you again.  This whole situation could have gotten out of hand.”

“I’m glad no one was hurt,” Lodestone said.  “Do you need me to call the police or something?”

Tom glanced over to where his former employee had passed out on the ground.  “No, I think I can take care of calling them,” he said.

Lodestone nodded with a smile, raised an arm and lifted off into the sky.

Tom Bower was glad someone was there to answer his prayers for help that afternoon.



***



Monique Hughes now focused her attention to the final member of her panel.  “Last, but certainly not least, is WVTV’s own cameraman Rick Gates,” she said.  “Rick, you’ve had your own encounters with our city’s newest super-celebrity as well, right?”

“Indeed I have,” the tall brown-haired man said with a smile.  He was dressed casually in a white polo shirt and dark jeans.  He wore his tan field-jacket as well, with the news station logo over the left breast pocket.  “I was on the scene when Lodestone first made her debut back in January, when this gun-toting villain named Assault took hostages at a local library.  Assault was looking for a showdown with his former sparring partners, Magnet and Steel.  He had to deal with her instead.  I was also on the scene a few month later when Lodestone stopped a bank robber called Pincushion, this guy who could launch steel projectiles from all over his armored shell.”3

“Sounds like you happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Monique said.

“Most definitely,” Rick agreed.  “You never know what you’ll encounter in field work.  Sometimes the news just finds you.”

“A lot of your work for the station has fallen into that ‘man on the street’ category as well,” Monique continued.  “So, tell us – what’s the buzz in Victoria about this young woman?”

“The buzz is pretty good,” Rick said.  “In fact, I brought along with me a little bit of tape I put together that can show you just what Victoria thinks about Lodestone and her exploits.”

“Sounds good,” Monique said.  “Let’s take a look.”

The cameras switched over to the feed of the film that Rick Gates had mentioned.  His voice could be overheard asking the opening question - “so, what do you think of Lodestone?”.

A lovely, thin Hispanic woman with straight black hair appeared on the screen.  The caption underneath identified her as Carmen Verde, single mother.  “She saved my children trapped in a building fire,” the woman said in slight accent.  “They could have died if not for her.  She is a blessing from God.”

The scene switched.  A group of teenaged males, dressed as if they had just finished a game of basketball on a nearby vacant lot crowded in the shot.  “She’s pretty fly,” one of them identified as Tyrone said with a grin, “even if she ain’t a sister.”

“T, don’t let your old lady hear you saying that,” another male identified as Jason joked.

“You saying she ain’t fly?” Tyrone asked his friend.

“No,” Jason shook his head.  “She’s fly, definitely fly.”

The scene switched again.  A uniformed police officer named Tim Murphy was next.  “She’s definitely a big help to those of us on the force,” he said.  “It’s good to have someone with the extra abilities when those costumed crazies are tearing up the town.”

Another switch.  A blonde-haired man in his late thirties, dressed as if he was on his way to one of the office buildings downtown was next.  “I grew up in Victoria when Magnet and Steel were doing their thing,” said David Chapman, businessman.  “They kept the city safe, and it is good to have someone else picking up that torch for the future.  In fact, Lodestone reminds me a lot of Magnet.  They’ve got similar features.”

And another.  “If you ask me – and you did,” said an elderly black man with curly gray hair identified as  Louis Trotter, retired, “anytime one of these costumed types shows up it seems like a whole bunch more trouble comes out of the woodwork too – people who’ve got something to prove.  Maybe we’re better off without all that hassle.”

And another.  “She got Mr. Mittens down from being stuck in our old oak tree,” said an older black woman identified as Mabel Clark.  “She must’ve heard me calling to the cat as she flew by.  She swooped down, scooped him up and handed him to me.  She couldn’t stay long enough for some pie, but she was very polite.  She must’ve been raised right - I can tell.”

And one more.  A little girl, identified only as Callie, about six years old with strawberry blonde hair and missing one of her teeth in front blushed as she turned away from the camera.  Someone off camera, her mother perhaps, nudged her to go ahead.  She turned back and smiled.  “I think she’s real pretty,” the child said.  “Like a princess!”

The footage ended, and then the camera focused again on Rick Gates seated in the studio.  “I’d just like to add, Monique, that I think Lodestone is a great asset to this city.  And, I am sure given what I’ve seen of her in action, that she can handle herself in any tough situation.”



***



Lodestone dropped down out of the sky, having seen a lone figure on the side of the road waving and trying to flag her down.  Her red boots gently touched down on the pavement of the road, and as she walked towards him she asked “is everything all right, sir?”

A well-built man in his mid-twenties with blonde crew-cut hair and deep blue eyes was standing near the shoulder of the road.  Behind him, front end forward into a deep ditch was a delivery van with Kentucky license plates.  “Yeah,” the man said.  “I swerved to avoid hitting a rabbit and my truck ran off the road.”

“Are you hurt?” the heroine asked.

“No,” the man said as he rubbed the side of his head.  “Just a little shaken is all.”

“When did this happen?” Lodestone asked as she walked around, assessing the vehicle with her eyes.

“Just a few minutes ago,” the man replied.  “I was just about to start walking to get some help – I don’t have a phone – when I happened to see you in the air.”

“Hmmm,” Lodestone said absently, “then it’s a good thing I happened by.”

“I’m just glad I could flag you down.  What a lucky break for me!” the man said with a slight smile.  Her back was to him so she didn’t catch the look.

“Definitely,” she said.  “Now, if you could step back…” She motioned with her one hand for him to step away; the man quickly complied.  Lodestone then concentrated, focusing her abilities to manipulate magnetic forces.  She directed her powers towards the marooned vehicle and gave it her complete focus.

There was a slight groan of metal as the van shifted slightly.  Then, after righting itself a bit, the vehicle started to pull back out of the ditch as if by an unseen rope.  The dirt pushed aside as the tires rolled backwards out.  Both the man and Lodestone continued to step back on the pavement, allowing for room for the heavy van to move to a level setting.

Once all four tires were completely aligned on the road, Lodestone relaxed.  “Whew,” she said with a bit of shortness in her breath.  “That’s the second heavy load I’ve had to deal with this afternoon.”

“Tired?” the man asked as he stepped closer behind her.

“Just a bit,” she said absently.

“Maybe this can help,” the man said as he firmly grabbed both her shoulders.

“Hey,” Lodestone began to protest.  Her first thought was who does this guy think he is?

Suddenly, a surge of electricity emanated from the man’s hands and ran through her entire body.  The sudden shock to her system lead to her screaming out.  “Aaaaaaaah!”

Lodestone summoned all her strength and jerked herself free from the man’s grasp.  She stumbled forward, a bit disoriented.  “What the…?” she gasped.  “What…did you…?”

“Do?” the blonde man said with a wicked smile.  “Why exactly what we had planned all along?”

“We…?” Lodestone asked, confused.

The back doors to the delivery van burst open suddenly and another blonde male, identical in features and build, leapt out towards the young woman.  “We,” he said, “as in he and me!”  With great strength, he shoved Lodestone across the way into the awaiting arms of the first man.

“Meet my twin brother,” the man said as he grabbed her firmly about the arms.  Lodestone tried to struggle but his grip was like that of a vise.

“Yeah, and we share a lot more in common besides our handsome looks,” the second one said as he approached.  When his brother spun the captive heroine around, he placed his hands about her shoulders as his brother did before.  Another surge of electrical current coursed through her body, causing her to scream once more.  “Shocking, isn’t it?” he said with a wicked smile.

His brother, seemingly immune to the effects of the powers he and his sibling shared, laughed as well.

“Enough!” a gruff voice called as another male figure appeared from the back of the van.  He was a rather muscular man in his mid-forties with receding hair and black ponytail.  He was dressed in a tight black t-shirt with camouflage pants and boots.  Across his chest was a bandolier full of ammunition and other weapons.  “I just need her unconscious, not dead!”

“Sorry, Assault,” one of the blonde men said.  “We were just having fun.”

“The fun begins later,” Assault said as he held open the back doors so that the brothers could put the unconscious young woman in the back of the vehicle, “after we get to the location for stage two of my plan!  You two just keep her quiet and sufficiently stunned until we get there!”

The brothers climbed into the back of the vehicle.  “And stage two is what again?” one of them asked.

Assault smiled.  “A trap to snag and kill my old enemies – Magnet and Steel!”  He slammed the back doors of the van, moved around to the front, hopped into the drivers’ seat, started the ignition and sped off.



(to be continued)



1 See last issue's tale “Young Guns” - the Editor.
2 Read all about it in our eighth issue “The Color Purple” - the Editor.
3 See our sixth issue “Bright Lights, Big City” – and our first issue “Under The Gun” – respectively.  – the Editor.