PRIMUS Supers

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"Interesting. Let's look around."

"Yeah," April said. In addition to bodies, they found a swimming pool, sauna and a hot tub.

"Did you notice that the stewardesses all wore gloves?"

"I did. They weren't white, like in the movies," April replied. "I don't even know if they keep them on all the time.

"They do in our reality," Christine said. "My grandmother was a stewardess in the early 60s. According to her, she always kept her gloves on while flying. She also told me that they only wore white gloves for publicity, promotion and advertising photos. Otherwise, they wore black gloves."

"I see. Let's look at the motel's restaurant, then check out the community center."

"Agreed." When they got to the restaurant, they noticed a colorfully-decorated van. "Cheerleaders?" Christine asked.

"Looks that way. I'll pick the lock and we'll look around."

"What do you expect to find, April?"

"Pom-poms." They found them.

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"Okey," Christine said."Does this mean that there are cheerleaders inside?"

"Probably."

"Figures. Let's go inside." They entered, searched, took photos and left. "Where to now?"

"The community center," April suggested.

"Agreed." They walked through the building's parking lot and saw cars with New York license plates. Upon entering, they spotted a cork board with a building map and an event schedule. "There's a wellness fair in the Assembly Room, a flu shot clinic in the Conference Room and, at different times, three belly dancing classes in the Youth Center. The pool, gymnasium and game room are still open."

"Time to take pictures and then go to the dental clinic," April said.

"More women in white uniforms," Christine said.

"Yep. They didn't wear scrubs back then."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"You're right, April. I forgot." They entered, looked around, took pictures and left. "Let's tour the cemetery."

"Why not. That's all that's left."

They crossed the road, entered through an open gate and looked around. "This is a crematorium," Christine said.

"We can cremate the bodies here," April returned. "Do we keep the clothes or leave them on the bodies?"

"I'll let Terry decide that," Christine replied.

They looked through the office and found instruction manuals for the equipment and a list of what bodies were in the building awating cremation. As they left for the bus and PRIMUS Pittsburgh, April grabbed a copy of the local newspaper, The Denver Post, from the lobby.

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

After reporting in, the two agents stayed overnight in the team's base. The next morning, they reported in, wearing navy-blue Nomex flightsuits with PRIMUS patches, grey-leather palmed navy blue Nomes flight gloves, combat boots, and carrying PRIMUS-issue gear on their webbing.

"Good morning, ladies," Terry said as she greated them. "What are your plans for today?"

"We're going to look at the road and cliff areas," Christine replied, adjusting her gloves.

"Remember that drag race I told you about?" April asked. Terry nodded. "It's tonight. I have to have a passanger. Want to ride with me?"

"Sure," Terry replied. "Do I need any special gear?"

"Regulations require you to wear a crash helmet," April replied.

"No problem. What time does it start?"

"Our race is the first one tonight and we report to the staging area at 8 pm. Since I want to run laps in the car before the race, we should roll out at 7:30."

"I'll be there," Terry said as the two agents went through the gate.

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

As they arrived, they weremet by a fellow Intelligence Agent. "Terry wants the bodies cremated," he said. "The clothing. however, is to be removed and cleaned. I've also made an interesting discovery about the bodies. Most of them glow."

"Can we see?" Christine asked.

"Sure," he replied.

After he showed them several glowing bodies, April asked, "Why didn't we see it last night?"

"Our goggles must've filtered the glow out," Christine replied. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know," the male agent replied.

"Thank you for your time," April said.

"You're welcome," he said. They then left and began examining the cliff areas. Finding them, at least, 40-feet from the buildings and the graveyard fence, they examined the road. The part they were on was straight, but it curved right and slightly downhill at the ends. The tunnels went 10-feet into the cliff face before ending.

As they left the second side street, a bright blue glow came from what they were calling the north side of the street.

"What was that?" Christine asked.

"Don't know," April replied. "Let's find out." They walked to the north side and saw a downhill switchback with a straight road that connected to suspension bridge beyond it. On the eastern side of the road was a Japanese garden. A villa was on the western side. They walked to the bridge and looked down. The bottom was 10-feet below the bridge deck.

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"Let's see if the garden's a public place," Christine suggested. "We should also see what we can of the villa from the road."

"Agreed." The garden was to be open to the public. The two women entered, looked around and took photographs. April then picked up a flyer and said, "We're in Springfield, Missouri, in 1973. This is an advertisement for a concert by a Japanese string group on August 23."

"Let's check the villa out," Christine suggested.

"Right." When they looked through the gate in the wall surrounding the villa, they saw 20 luxury cars.

"Looks like a party to me. Why don't we crash it tonight, after the rase."

"Sounds like fun," April returned. "Let's check in at the crematorium, then report to Terry."

"Wouldn't hurt to get some photos from the top of the switchbacks."

"True."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

That evening, April and Terry spent 30-minutes running laps in the SCCA region's Corvette pace car. As she came onto the main straight of the 3.19-mile road course for the last time, April pushed the accelerator to the floorboard. When she came close to the Lamborghini Murcielago she was going up against, she pulled the Corvette into a bootlegger's turn, then guided the car to a stop beside the Lamborghini in the lane closest to the grandstand.

The Lamborghini's driver did his first burnout. Then, April did her first before deciding to stage. Forced, by regulations, to the same thing, the Lamborghini's driver staged, too. When the green light came on, April took off. At the end, after popping her parachutes, and easing the Corvette to a stop, April noticed that the Lamborghini was standing still.

After the parachutes were removed, April drove to the Lamborghini and asked, "Did you stall it?"

"I put it into drive, and it wouldn't go," the driver, a 17-year old kid, replied.

"This has a manual transmission, not an automatic one," April said. "You start out in first gear. What kind of car do you usually drive?"

"A Toyota Tercel."

"It was an automatic transmission," April said. "This doesn't. Did you remember to use the clutch?"

"What clutch?"

"I hope you didn't ruin it," April said. "Get out and let me see how badly you damaged it."

"Girls can't drive Lamborghinis," the kid snarled.

"I'm not a girl, I'm a woman," April retorted. "Since I drive a Lamborghini Diablo in SCCA-sanctioned races, I can drive this car with ease."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"You shall not," the boy's father, who owned the dealership that supplied the pace car, said. "It'll be loaded onto the transporter, then taken to my dealership, where it'll be examined by my technicians. There it'll stay until next Sunday, when we bring it to the track to pace the one event out of all of them that's the Pittsburgh Vintage Car Grand Prix."

"The whole weekend is the Vintage," Terry, who was on the race committee, said. "You'll have at the track, ready for April to drive, by 6:30 am on Saturday, or April will drive the region's Corvette pace car and your son'll be pacing the patron parade behind it."

"You don't have any right to speak for the committee," the kid's father snarled at Terry. "If this Lamborghini isn't the only pace car and my son isn't driving it, the charaties the race supports won't get my check for $1,000,000.00."

"Are you trying to blackmail a federal officer?" Terry asked, showing her PRIMUS ID. As the dealer sputtered, Terry said to April, "Guess he didn't read the information on me the race committee made public."

"You wouldn't dare arrest me, you (cuss words deleted). I have connections."

"I don't have to," Terry said. "There are other PRIMUS agents here, as well as local police officers."

"Avenger Kestler is correct about your son not driving the pace car," said a man from the side. "I should know. I'm the Chief Steward the Vintage Sports Car Club of America assigned to this race." He turned to April, noted the name on her racing suit, and said, "Ms. Curtis, there's a meeting of race officials this Saturday night. Since you're the pace car driver, you're a race official. Will you join us?"

"I'd be happy to," April replied.

"Thank you. I'll make sure the time and place are emailed to you tonight."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

The arguement over the pace cars continued until a high-powered local lawyer entered the fray and passed Terry some papers. "According to this, you own this Lamborghini," she said.

"Correct, Ma'am," he said. "Assuming that someone like Ms. Curtis was going to drive the pace car, I agreed to pick it up after the event. Since, in my opinion, the dealer violated our agreement, I'm removing it from his control."

"I won't let you," the dealer snarled.

"You don't have any choice in the matter," the lawyer said. Turning to April, he asked, "Is there a reliable place on the track to keep my Lamborghini?"

"There are two places," April replied. "The track has garages for its vehicles and Conlan Racing and Engineering, a race shop, is in the track's industrial area. Stephanie Conlan, the shop's owner, is the region's chief technical inspector."

"Will she let us keep my Lamborghini at her shop?"

"Yes, I will," said the soft-spoken woman that had staged the Corvette. "I'm Stephanie Conlan. Want me to have one of my flatbed tow trucks take your car to my garage?"

"Please," the lawyer said.

"Fine," April said. "I have a Corvette to put to bed."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

April parked the Corvette in its garage and walked to Stephanie's shop, where the Lamborghini was taken. After making sure the controls were where they should be, April started theLamborghini and drove it to its parking space. Once that was done, they returned to PRIMUS's Pittsburgh base.

April and Christine readied themselves, then went through the gate and walked to the villa. "These are Virginia plates," April said, looking at a car. The year is 1973.

"Let's look around," Christine said. They entered the living room and noticed men in tuxedos and woman in evening gowns and long gloves.

"The owners are having a party," April said.

"They might not be the owners," Christine said. "There are rental villas."

"I didn't know that," April said. She finished taking photos and visited the crematorium before returning to the bus.

"Who's it going?" Christine asked the agent tending the equipment.

"Not too bad," the agent replied. "We can cremate 63 bodies each day here. Right now, we're cremating the bodies from the church. See the bags on the floor?"

"I see them," April replied.

"Those bags contain clothing that can be washed. Another bag contains shoes, purses, and other stuff that needs spacial attention."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"There are bodies in the Japanese garden and villa," Christine said.

"We'll take care of them the agent handling the cremators said.

"Has the team working here cremated 63 bodies yet?" April asked.

"No. The figure is a rough estimate based on the information in the manuals we've looked through," he replied.

"Understood," April said. "Good night."

"Good night."

April and Christine left the building, went to the bus and gated home. "Think we'll see more stuff on that road?" Christine asked.

"Probably," April replied.

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

"The team handling the cremations reported another burst of light in the area north of the bus," Terry told April, Beth, Christine, Denise, Mariko and Rhonda when the group got together."

"April and I will check it out," Christine said.

"Agreed," April returned.

"Next thing, in case anyone wants them, the clothes from the medical office and church are ready for use," Terry said.

"Old style white uniforms, right?" Denise asked.

"Probably," Rhonda replied. "Look at that article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. White uniforms are comming back. They'll give nurses the respect they diserve and help people identify them."

"Last thing, April, did you get the email you were expecting?"

"Yeah. I printed it out and put it on the board."

"Fine. April, Christine, good luck."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

As they were about to go through, there was a burst of energy and the agent currently doing the cremations was sent through before the gateway vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Want me to carr Warder and find out if she knows anything about what happened?" Betyh asked.

"Please," Terry said.

Beth did so. After finishing her conversation, she said, "Warder was informed by "The Powers That Be" that we weren't meant to have that gate. They will, however, find one for us."

"Noted," Terry said.;

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

That night, April attended the meeting of race officials, then, the next morning, appeared in court for the Lamborghini case.

The judge ruled that the car's owner had the right to take it because the dealer violated the contract (actually a bailment) by letting his 17-year old son drive it instead of having someone like April drive it and because he wanted to have it there Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday morning at 7 am, when the track would be inspected by the pace car driver and other race officials and corner workers.

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

The next day, Warder arrived with information. "The new gateway will arrive tonight at 6:30 pm," she said. "It'll be a road with a cenetery that has a crematorium on one side and seven structures on the other. The gate will be in one structure. Like the past one, all bodies will be in stasis until they're touched."

"April, Christine, you're going through the gate tonight," Terry said. "I want a full report."

"Understood," April said.

They left at 8 pm and returned three hours later. When everyone was seated at the table, Christine said, "The gate's in a large hotel in Dallas, Texas in 1960. According to the hotel's board showing the events that were going on, a waltz demonstration by a club devoted to them was in the main ballroom, a blood drive was going on in the Drawing Room, a display of bridal and evening gowns and accessories, all for sale, was in the Adam Room and a regional conference of Islamic women was going on in the mezzanine level meeting rooms. Meeting Room One had a display of clothes for sale while the others were set up for discussions."

"To the right of the hotel, as you face the cenetery from the entrance are a water tower, a bar and a church," April said. "There's nothing special about the water tower or bar. The church, however, was a food bank distribution site and two student nurses from a local university were giving blood pressure checks, an Intermediate Girl Scout troop was getting a tour of the church, and the church's female custodian sings Country-Western, is a Patsy Cline fan, and has a wardrobe of Western clothes."

"How do you know they were getting a tour of the church?" Beth asked. "They could've been a troop sponsored by the church."

"They were wearing gloves," April replied. "An aunt of mine was a girl scout back then. From what she told me, they never wore gloves during meetings."

"I didn't know that," Beth said.

"No problem," April said.

"To the left of the hotel were a community center, a restaraunt, and a dental office," Christine said. "A flu shot clinic was being held in one of the community center's first floor rooms and a belly dance class was going on in a sceond floor room. A group of high school cheerleaders were in the restaraunt. There was nothing unusual about the dental office."

"Any restaraunts or bars in the hotel?" Terry asked.

"Both," April replied. "They, a beauty salon, a barber shop, a travel agency, a news stand and a tobacco shop were all on the ground floor. The house physician's office was on the mezzanine level."

"Anything else?" Terry asked. After both women shook their heads, she said, "That wraps things up here. Good night, all."

[Mark Rand]

Re: PRIMUS Supers

 

Two quick notes.

Guardian, being very religious, doesn't approve of magic. Dispite her powers, he tried to accept Warder, but can't and has requested a transfer to another PRIMUS superhero team. That request has been granted. A new hero will replace him.

When she's not working on an electronics project or a case, April can often be found working out either in the exersize rooms or the danger room.