Best Laid Plans
Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:25 pm
Sorry Eddie, couldn't resist...
______
The crunch was uber satisfying.
She’d lost Eddie somewhere in the lobby but there’d been no time to worry about it. He’d do fine, she was sure, he could handle himself and he’d catch up in a minute. Really, it would be okay. She’d just go ahead and take care of this while he mopped up.
The guy in the trashy blue suit staggered back to his feet, stumbling over the groaning bodies of his gang. He threw a wave of darkness at her but it had no punch, probably some last ditch effort at distraction thinking he could get around her. The blindness sluiced off her armor though, unable to attach and she surged forward, fists cocked, a war whoop on her lips.
That was when she felt it break. The connection to her new friend snapped, unraveled and suddenly everything was clearer, brighter, amped power arcing in her fingers. She staggered for a second, feeling it like a shock to the heart.
“Eddie!” she yelled, half turning on one heel. “Eddie, you okay back there?” Stupid question, the suppression linkage they’d set up was gone. What the hell had happened?
Trashy Blue Suit decided to make his move. He was suddenly under her guard, hands thrust forward as whatever nether realm he’d tapped into tried to channel through his fingers and into her ribs, probably trying to rearrange her internal organs into canopic jars. It might have even worked.
Except now she was at full strength, ice sublimating and forming so fast it was a diamond haze, the power building under her fingertips approaching nova. Almost gently she struck the guy with a hammerhead, a strike that Mr. Asumio had some weird name for that she could never remember. Ashi? Awase? No wonder she never passed any written tests.
He went down without a sound whatever it was called and since he was the last, there was sudden silence in the corridor.
“Muchacho?” She turned and charged back, unwilling to believe that anything terrible could have gone wrong in the last four minutes. Eddie’d been doing fine! Last she’d seen, he’d backed two early birds into a corner and he’d been screaming them into a submission box.
“Hold it right there!”
She skidded to a halt halfway around the corner and immediately tried to back up with the net effect that she just windmilled her arms. Sixteen bajillion cops had their guns out, taking cover behind the available scenery, the doorway bristling with blue and white bodies with a sprinkling of red which meant Longbow. She felt her eyes going wide. Oh, that was awesome! She’d never had a chance to meet Longbow agents before.
“Woah! Hey! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m a good guy!”
“Hands where we can see them!”
“I already got ‘em up, buddy! What more do you want?” She raised her arms higher though, feeling guilty for no good reason.
“Power down, turn around, hands on the wall.”
Okay. Was that supposed to help or something? She turned slowly although she probably could have argued the point. What was a few more bullets? Still, these were the cops, not itchy trigger finger Gunners.
She cast a nervous look over her shoulder though in case they were itchy trigger finger cops. It was a brace of Longbow that came forward to meet, competence in every stride. They stopped a few feet away in a cross fire position. If they felt anything at all being this close to a fully armored tanker, even if she was still in high school, they didn’t show it.
“Power down, please.”
She swallowed but did it, pushing the cold away. The ice evaporated into ragged haze, into an arctic wind that spread out in successive concentric waves. She always felt kind of naked immediately afterwards although she was wearing her body armor. She spread her fingers against the rough paint and tried to remember every Dirty Harry flick she’d ever seen. Maybe she was supposed to have a toothpick in her mouth. All the tough guys had toothpicks. Hey, maybe they’d frisk her!
“Your name.”
“Stasis. Stasis Kiss.”
“You have registration, hero?”
“Um, yeah! Hey, I’ll just get it. Look, you guys got here just in time, my friend Edd…”
“Don’t move!”
The sound of anxious artillery made her eep under her breath, half turned and reaching up to her collar. She froze, unsure if she should bring the armor back up. Her breath misted with the indecision.
“Shit, she’s just a kid!” That from her right, indistinct but disgusted.
“Don’t… move.” The Longbow agent on her left turned out to be a blonde girl, one hand holding a nasty looking taser device and the other oddly outstretched, nearly touching her shoulder. If she heard the comment from her partner, she ignored it. “We don’t want any accidents. Your registration is where?”
“G…Got it pinned to my collar. Inside.” She’d nearly lost it so many times she’d wondered if maybe she should just have it welded on. She’d joked with somebody once about having it stapled to her forehead.
The girl.. no, woman slipped her fingers inside the tight stretch of nemex and pulled her pin out. The holo-encoding winked under the overhead fluorescents, flashing a dim rainbow.
“She might be a kid, Random, but she’s certified fifty.”
“Really? What the hell are they doing at city hall now, handing them out with…”
“Random, shut up. Here.” The woman handed the pin back, turning on a crisp heel to wave the police alert down. Men started to swarm past them in stepped rushes. She didn’t have a chance to tell them they were wasting their time. “Now,” the Longbow said, turning back. “ What were you doing in here?”
“Stopping the bank robbery. Me and Eddie… gah! Eddie!” Stasis stopped fumbling with the pin attachment and looked around frantically. “Eddie was in here and then our link cut out and I totally whumped the guy I was dealing with and then I ran back here and there was only you guys…”
“Wait. There’s another kid running around in here? Christ, talk about loss of containment.” The woman raised her not inconsiderable voice. “Officer Parsons! Heads up, we got another stray in here; keep your eyes peeled.”
“Got it, Rose!”
“Hey, Eddie can take care of himself!” Really, he could. Something’d just glitched up, that’s all.
”Yeah? Look, kid. Statis Kind or whatever your registration is. You want something to do after school, go hang out at a mall. Intercepting a police band transmission? You’re lucky you didn’t end up as a hostage and you’re damned lucky I don’t arrest you for obstruction.”
“What?!”
The agent just kept talking. “We’ll keep an eye out for your friend. Chances are he bugged out or the advance team picked him up.” Stasis was given the honor of being speared with a gimlet eye. “If I need you, you bet I know how to find you. Don’t let me catch you playing vigilante again. Officer Johns, if you could escort our wannabe out of the building, please.”
A man in a police uniform appeared as if by magic. “Yes ma’am. This way.”
The hand on her arm was polite but insistent. She walked stiffly out of the bank, fuming. She’d certified fifty, she had and just who had taken out the tacky suit guy? She had, that’s who! With Eddie’s shield on her, she’d been doing just fine, thank you very much. The officer walked her all the way out past the police cruisers into the gathering crowd and with a nod, just left her there. Just like anybody else!
Stasis crossed her arms and glared at the bank like she had those laser eyes she’d read about, ignoring the covert stares that a few of the gathering lunch crowd were throwing her way. Hah. See if she’d ever help out again! She consoled herself that tacky suit guy at least would remember her with a bit more respect. That Longbow chiclet probably ate steel rebar for breakfast.
She managed to hold up her end of the silent rant for about three minutes before her comm chirped. She toggled it onto tight receive.
“Hey! Stasis! Where are you?”
“Eddie! Muchacho, you scared the living daylights out of me. Home in, I’m facing the bank, standing on the .. cripes, west corner? East? I have no idea, just zone in wouldja?”
A minute or so later the low level subsonics tickled her ear, causing her to grin.
“I heeeeear you.”
The humming stopped and the bright form of Amplitude appeared at her elbow. They stared at the bank companionably.
“So, what happened?”
The guy might have been chewing his lip under the helmet or maybe he was just naturally twitchy. With all the humming he did, it might just be a normal reaction to having his bones jarred all the time.
“I’m not sure. I think I got hit with a teleport or a phase cone because one minute I’m just about to come after you and the next, I’m halfway across the city. It jammed my comm for a bit and it took me awhile to get back here.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw his shoulders slump. “We blew it, didn’t we?”
She half shoved his helmet and grinned, pushing aside the sick feeling of being dismissed. “Nah! We did such a fantastic job, they’ve invited us back for tea and crumpets. C’mon,” she said after a second, “let’s go get one of those doughnuts down the street and I’ll tell you all about how it didn't actually happen.”
______
The crunch was uber satisfying.
She’d lost Eddie somewhere in the lobby but there’d been no time to worry about it. He’d do fine, she was sure, he could handle himself and he’d catch up in a minute. Really, it would be okay. She’d just go ahead and take care of this while he mopped up.
The guy in the trashy blue suit staggered back to his feet, stumbling over the groaning bodies of his gang. He threw a wave of darkness at her but it had no punch, probably some last ditch effort at distraction thinking he could get around her. The blindness sluiced off her armor though, unable to attach and she surged forward, fists cocked, a war whoop on her lips.
That was when she felt it break. The connection to her new friend snapped, unraveled and suddenly everything was clearer, brighter, amped power arcing in her fingers. She staggered for a second, feeling it like a shock to the heart.
“Eddie!” she yelled, half turning on one heel. “Eddie, you okay back there?” Stupid question, the suppression linkage they’d set up was gone. What the hell had happened?
Trashy Blue Suit decided to make his move. He was suddenly under her guard, hands thrust forward as whatever nether realm he’d tapped into tried to channel through his fingers and into her ribs, probably trying to rearrange her internal organs into canopic jars. It might have even worked.
Except now she was at full strength, ice sublimating and forming so fast it was a diamond haze, the power building under her fingertips approaching nova. Almost gently she struck the guy with a hammerhead, a strike that Mr. Asumio had some weird name for that she could never remember. Ashi? Awase? No wonder she never passed any written tests.
He went down without a sound whatever it was called and since he was the last, there was sudden silence in the corridor.
“Muchacho?” She turned and charged back, unwilling to believe that anything terrible could have gone wrong in the last four minutes. Eddie’d been doing fine! Last she’d seen, he’d backed two early birds into a corner and he’d been screaming them into a submission box.
“Hold it right there!”
She skidded to a halt halfway around the corner and immediately tried to back up with the net effect that she just windmilled her arms. Sixteen bajillion cops had their guns out, taking cover behind the available scenery, the doorway bristling with blue and white bodies with a sprinkling of red which meant Longbow. She felt her eyes going wide. Oh, that was awesome! She’d never had a chance to meet Longbow agents before.
“Woah! Hey! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m a good guy!”
“Hands where we can see them!”
“I already got ‘em up, buddy! What more do you want?” She raised her arms higher though, feeling guilty for no good reason.
“Power down, turn around, hands on the wall.”
Okay. Was that supposed to help or something? She turned slowly although she probably could have argued the point. What was a few more bullets? Still, these were the cops, not itchy trigger finger Gunners.
She cast a nervous look over her shoulder though in case they were itchy trigger finger cops. It was a brace of Longbow that came forward to meet, competence in every stride. They stopped a few feet away in a cross fire position. If they felt anything at all being this close to a fully armored tanker, even if she was still in high school, they didn’t show it.
“Power down, please.”
She swallowed but did it, pushing the cold away. The ice evaporated into ragged haze, into an arctic wind that spread out in successive concentric waves. She always felt kind of naked immediately afterwards although she was wearing her body armor. She spread her fingers against the rough paint and tried to remember every Dirty Harry flick she’d ever seen. Maybe she was supposed to have a toothpick in her mouth. All the tough guys had toothpicks. Hey, maybe they’d frisk her!
“Your name.”
“Stasis. Stasis Kiss.”
“You have registration, hero?”
“Um, yeah! Hey, I’ll just get it. Look, you guys got here just in time, my friend Edd…”
“Don’t move!”
The sound of anxious artillery made her eep under her breath, half turned and reaching up to her collar. She froze, unsure if she should bring the armor back up. Her breath misted with the indecision.
“Shit, she’s just a kid!” That from her right, indistinct but disgusted.
“Don’t… move.” The Longbow agent on her left turned out to be a blonde girl, one hand holding a nasty looking taser device and the other oddly outstretched, nearly touching her shoulder. If she heard the comment from her partner, she ignored it. “We don’t want any accidents. Your registration is where?”
“G…Got it pinned to my collar. Inside.” She’d nearly lost it so many times she’d wondered if maybe she should just have it welded on. She’d joked with somebody once about having it stapled to her forehead.
The girl.. no, woman slipped her fingers inside the tight stretch of nemex and pulled her pin out. The holo-encoding winked under the overhead fluorescents, flashing a dim rainbow.
“She might be a kid, Random, but she’s certified fifty.”
“Really? What the hell are they doing at city hall now, handing them out with…”
“Random, shut up. Here.” The woman handed the pin back, turning on a crisp heel to wave the police alert down. Men started to swarm past them in stepped rushes. She didn’t have a chance to tell them they were wasting their time. “Now,” the Longbow said, turning back. “ What were you doing in here?”
“Stopping the bank robbery. Me and Eddie… gah! Eddie!” Stasis stopped fumbling with the pin attachment and looked around frantically. “Eddie was in here and then our link cut out and I totally whumped the guy I was dealing with and then I ran back here and there was only you guys…”
“Wait. There’s another kid running around in here? Christ, talk about loss of containment.” The woman raised her not inconsiderable voice. “Officer Parsons! Heads up, we got another stray in here; keep your eyes peeled.”
“Got it, Rose!”
“Hey, Eddie can take care of himself!” Really, he could. Something’d just glitched up, that’s all.
”Yeah? Look, kid. Statis Kind or whatever your registration is. You want something to do after school, go hang out at a mall. Intercepting a police band transmission? You’re lucky you didn’t end up as a hostage and you’re damned lucky I don’t arrest you for obstruction.”
“What?!”
The agent just kept talking. “We’ll keep an eye out for your friend. Chances are he bugged out or the advance team picked him up.” Stasis was given the honor of being speared with a gimlet eye. “If I need you, you bet I know how to find you. Don’t let me catch you playing vigilante again. Officer Johns, if you could escort our wannabe out of the building, please.”
A man in a police uniform appeared as if by magic. “Yes ma’am. This way.”
The hand on her arm was polite but insistent. She walked stiffly out of the bank, fuming. She’d certified fifty, she had and just who had taken out the tacky suit guy? She had, that’s who! With Eddie’s shield on her, she’d been doing just fine, thank you very much. The officer walked her all the way out past the police cruisers into the gathering crowd and with a nod, just left her there. Just like anybody else!
Stasis crossed her arms and glared at the bank like she had those laser eyes she’d read about, ignoring the covert stares that a few of the gathering lunch crowd were throwing her way. Hah. See if she’d ever help out again! She consoled herself that tacky suit guy at least would remember her with a bit more respect. That Longbow chiclet probably ate steel rebar for breakfast.
She managed to hold up her end of the silent rant for about three minutes before her comm chirped. She toggled it onto tight receive.
“Hey! Stasis! Where are you?”
“Eddie! Muchacho, you scared the living daylights out of me. Home in, I’m facing the bank, standing on the .. cripes, west corner? East? I have no idea, just zone in wouldja?”
A minute or so later the low level subsonics tickled her ear, causing her to grin.
“I heeeeear you.”
The humming stopped and the bright form of Amplitude appeared at her elbow. They stared at the bank companionably.
“So, what happened?”
The guy might have been chewing his lip under the helmet or maybe he was just naturally twitchy. With all the humming he did, it might just be a normal reaction to having his bones jarred all the time.
“I’m not sure. I think I got hit with a teleport or a phase cone because one minute I’m just about to come after you and the next, I’m halfway across the city. It jammed my comm for a bit and it took me awhile to get back here.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw his shoulders slump. “We blew it, didn’t we?”
She half shoved his helmet and grinned, pushing aside the sick feeling of being dismissed. “Nah! We did such a fantastic job, they’ve invited us back for tea and crumpets. C’mon,” she said after a second, “let’s go get one of those doughnuts down the street and I’ll tell you all about how it didn't actually happen.”