In the Company of Strangers (story)

[csyphrett]

Just a giant monster story.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

1

Marlowe, Minnesota gleamed in the dim winter sun. Lake Marlowe reflected light like a diamond as the water moved in gentle swells toward the banks and docks that lined its shore. Jeb Casters sat in the middle of the lake, wandering if he had made a mistake venturing out.

 

Jeb had retired just that year. His pension and savings would see him through to the end of his life with no burden on his family. A boat had been in the game plan, and fishing followed from that. He looked at the swells with still sharp eyes, and debated going back to shore.

 

Jeb turned on the engine. The hull was rocking and he didn't want to be turned over in the water. The day was mild and cold. He didn't feel any wind. Slightly crooked hands pointed the bow toward the public pier he used to launch.

 

Why is the lake so rocky today?

 

Jeb kept an eye on the swirling waves as he drove toward the shore. He planned to back the trailer down, and hitch his boat up to be dragged out of the water. Once he planned on the boat, he planned on the trailer to carry it along the roads to the lake.

 

Water splashed on his overcoat, dropping down in his collar, on the back of his neck. The fisherman wiped the liquid off, glad that he was getting off the lake. Something weird was going on.

 

A shadow blocked out the sun. Jeb turned to see what kind of cloud had lurched in front of the hazy star. His eyes widened at the solid monstrosity rearing up out of the water. He urged more speed from the motor, hoping to outdrive the thing sharing the lake with him. A giant paw came down. A geyser and pieces of Jeb's boat went up. The sun came out on the empty lake again.

 

Another fisherman found the wrecked boat a few hours later. The Park Rangers got there. Everyone realized something extraordinary had happened. A fishing boat didn't explode without some kind of munitions. Except the boat was clean from what they could find.

 

The rangers cleaned up the debris, searched for Jeb's body, wondered when they couldn't find it floating on the lake. They notified the sheriff's department, who notified Mrs. Casters that her husband had been in an accident and they couldn't find his body. They promised to drag the lake but warned it was deep in some spots and they might never find the body.

 

Mrs. Casters sat in her easy chair and cried for the first time in five years. She looked at her living room, and wondered what she was going to do.

 

The sheriff's department and the rangers went over the lake again with a dive team, then gave it up. Eventually the body would turn up. Gases from decomposition would force it up. Then they would find it along the shore.

 

They had expected the same in earlier deaths in and on the lake. The bodies turned up with signs of predation. Casters's corpse would do the same thing.

 

The thing at the bottom of the lake disagreed with that assessment. Jeb Casters had gone down with a load of fish and he was never coming back up for air. It rested, watching the mites above. Soon it would have to explore the limits of its territory. And humans tasted good, different from the fish that made up the bulk of its diet.

 

The effort to rise to the surface had been worth it. Instinct told it the lake concealed it beneath the waves, but if it kept trying, rising to the surface and taking what it wanted would be effortless. Nothing the humans did could stop it.

 

It saw a day that it could eat anything within miles of its lair. Perhaps it could even find a mate and produce pups. They would rule as far as they could see.

 

Rivals would feel its fangs and learn the might and power it wielded. It chuffed in amusement. Bubbles headed to the surface. It rolled over in the mud at the bottom of Lake Marlowe, one paw touching the yellow canister that had cracked open near a pile of drums. Something glowed around the rip in the metal, coloring the mud and the mud.

 

The containers had fallen down to its lair years before when it was a pup itself. The glow had permeated its body and allowed it to grow with the passing of seasons. It didn't care that some hero in the East had arrested the owner of the yellow drums. It didn't care that its creator rested in jail with other uncommon convicts. It cared about its next meal, and getting a feast if it could.

 

Marlowe, Minnesota glimmered in the setting sun, the residents on the streets hurrying home as the temperature plummeted. The lake turned to red fire, then black ice, as the calm surface waited for the next day.

 

Occasionally a bubble would appear on the water and pop with the smell of dead fish. No one stood on shore to note the strangeness of it, or the flickering green that drifted with the fish as they swam beyond a man's walking distance from the banks.

 

Soon the town would notice its giant neighbor. Then the struggle would begin.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

2

 

Billy Keys put Mrs. Costa's groceries down on the small kitchen counter. Long, tall, skinny, his green building super uniform hanging loosely, he had made Happy Hills a good place to live somehow. Billy's brown eyes flicked around the apartment, checking for any need to work on it as Mrs. Costa limped over on her cane.

 

"Thanks, Billy." Mrs. Costa started pulling things out of the bags. "Eight flights of stairs is a little too much for me. I appreciate your bringing my things up for me."

 

"See you." Billy turned with a jangle of keys. He had been a super for three years. He knew things about his building that the architects never thought about when they built it.

 

Billy let himself out, brushing brown hair out of his eyes. He liked to walk the halls, checking things with his eyes. He put it down to insomnia and nothing better to do. His renters thought he was dedicated.

 

The only complaint anybody had was he never spoke three words if two would do. Some saw that as unfriendly. Some saw it as the perfect trait in a super. He's there to fix things, not to talk you to death.

 

Billy wandered over to the window at the end of the hall. First year he was on the job, he had to replace every one of them. That had helped cut down on the heating bill. The building's owner had wondered about the cost, but Keys had receipts for every frame and the fact that he had put most of them when he should have been off the job anyway.

 

Billy looked around, checking the landscape with a practiced eye. Eight floors was not the perfect view he could have hoped for. Still he could see a car slow rolling through the lot downstairs. Nothing exceptional about the car from his point of view. The speed was consistent with the posted speed signs. Still it made him twitch.

 

And he didn't like things that made him twitch.

 

Billy went to the stairwell door to his left. He pulled his key ring up, finding the right key. The door was unlocked, but that wasn't why he needed the key. He stuck the tin finger in the lock and turned. He opened the door, and the lot was in sight beyond the threshold. He stepped through the portal.

 

Billy didn't like what he saw.

 

The car rolled slow because the driver was hassling some girl walking from the bus stop down the block. She looked less than pleased by his advances. His buddies were laughing, which put the pressure on to save face. Billy didn't recognize any of them which meant he could let it go if he wanted to.

 

They would move out of his parking lot, and it would be somebody else's problem.

 

"Do you need help?" Billy didn't approach the car. He stood by the door. That made it easier for him to get around with the right key in hand.

 

"I got this, cracker." The driver glared at Billy, who seemed a lack wit. "Why don't you fix somebody's toilet before something bad happens."

 

"Why don't you shove your head up your $^$, *&$&%?" The girl pulled away, straightened black hair moving like a helmet around her angry face. "Oh wait. It's already there."

 

The car screeched to a halt. The driver started to get out of the car, his passengers egging him on. Billy tensed, key ready in his hand.

 

"Eat this!" The girl dropped her book bag, twisted like she was winding up to hit a home run, then brought a baseball bat around as hard as she could. The club connected with the driver's head as he was stuck between sitting down and getting out. He went down.

 

Billy squinted. He was sure that everyone who had seen what happened was wondering the same thing. Where the heck did the bat come from?

 

Maybe she had it concealed in her jeans and he had missed it in the excitement.

 

Maybe he had finally snapped and lost his little mind.

 

The girl swung on the car, smashing out the door window in one swing. That made the driver's buddies duck down to avoid the flying splinters. She moved down to the rear driver side. The guys in the back started out the other side. She smashed the glass out the passenger door and all over the back seat.

 

"What are you doing, crazy @#$$%?" The shotgun man stood on the other side of the car.

 

"I told you to leave me alone." She looked ready to chase them around the vehicle. "In three months, I'm going in the Marines. I don't want to see you again. Got it? Next time I'll do more than the car."

 

Billy tried not to laugh out loud. He thought he was coming down to help out a damsel in distress. He didn't think the lady in question would be a Marine in training. Maybe he should call the police to bail the guys in the car out.

 

"All right, ho." The shotgun rider held up his hands. "What about G-lo?"

 

"What about him?" The girl picked up her bag. "Let the %&^&%& bleed to death. That's fine with me."

 

She started off across the lot, bag over a shoulder, bat in hand. Billy heard her muttering as she went. Sounded pissed off to him.

 

Billy waited by the door as the three surviving members of the crew picked G-lo off the asphalt and loaded him up in the car. They placed him in the back, and drove off. He hoped the girl hadn't started a lot of trouble for herself.

 

Well, as long they kept it away from the apartment building, it wasn't his problem. That's how he liked it.

 

Billy opened the door with his key and stepped into his own place. He needed to get some juice to get the taste out of his mouth. He had thought that he would be fighting. He was glad that he hadn't. It wasn't something that he did well.

[Starfighter]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

*Gets popcorn, and finds a seat up front*

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

3

At the same time that Thia Halmedes was busting up her ex-boyfriend's car in front of Billy Keys, Oz Mike Michaelson was lugging his bag through the Marlowe Air Terminal. The slapping of concrete under his tennis shoes felt better than the vibration from the twin engine coming up from the twin cities Minneapolis and St. Paul.

 

Oz Mike, sometimes called OMM, watched his fellow travelers as he walked toward the terminal doors. Everyone seemed to be intent on their own businesses. Good. That meant no one recognized him.

 

Oz Mike adjusted his shades as he stepped out in the late afternoon sun. He hailed a taxi at the curb and gave an address a mile or so south of Marlowe's small Downtown. The bag went into the trunk, and Mike settled in the back.

 

Oz Mike had come home to retire. He had spent fifteen years wandering the world looking for the perfect wave. He had a mass of medals and prize money to prove it. He was still young, still had time to look for something else to do, or not.

 

A lethargy had settled on Michaelson. He just didn't care about winning, about surfing, about anything. If the plane he had been on had crashed, it would have just been an inconvenience. A man in a normal job feeling that way couldn't expect to keep it. And the same was true for Oz Mike.

 

So there he was cruising a small city as far away from the ocean as any in the Midwest, trying to think of where he should spend the rest of his life.

 

"Here you go, Buddy." The driver pulled up to the curb. He got out after popping the trunk. One smooth move dropped the bag on the sidewalk. "$25.85, please."

 

Mike paid the fare with a twenty and a ten, picked up his bag, and wondered why the address he had been given was a book store. Maybe he had been given the wrong number. One hand scratched his wavy blond hair, then he decided he had nothing to lose by going in.

 

A bell over the door rang as the champ walked into the store. Rows and rows of books lined shelves under hung signs that said what section held what subject matter. He spotted a door at the back of the place from where he stood. A table for reading was on his right, the counter was on his left. The man behind the counter nodded, his bowler nearly blinding the visitor with its neon green and purple striped display.

 

"Can I help you?" The counter man smiled, displaying a gold front tooth in front.

 

"I don't know." Mike looked down at the slip of paper with the address on it. "A friend of mine said to meet him here when I got into town. I thought he lived here."

 

"I do practically," said a third man appearing from the shelves with a stack of books in his arms. "I'll take these, Odd. It should round out my collection."

 

"Hey, Quin." Oz Mike grinned. "I see you're still reading everything in sight."

 

"Strictly research." Quin Martin smiled back. "Your phone call was a surprise."

 

Odd took the books and ran them under a scanner with small movements of his hands. They went into plastic bags as soon as he priced them.

 

"I figured since I was coming out this way, I should warn you ahead of time." Oz Mike laughed. "I just didn't expect to meet you at a book store."

 

"I just seem to have a lot of answers for work now." Quin squinted his blue eyes behind the thin glasses frames. "It's hard to explain. I'm off for the rest of the day. I guess I can give you the tour of the town."

 

"Kitty still wants you to come over for dinner, Quin." Odd placed the bags on the counter. "One more shouldn't be a problem."

 

"I don't know." Quin checked his plain watch.

 

"Let's go, Quin." Oz Mike added a couple of the plastic bags to his burden. "I'm here to relax. Dinner out with your friends should be great."

 

"I'll tell Kitty." Odd displayed his gold tooth again. "She'll be in orbit."

 

"We'll be back in a couple of hours." Quin grabbed the rest of the books and headed for the door. "Remind Kitty that I'm a vegetarian."

 

"No problem, Question Man." Odd waved at them like a salute that made his odd hat hurt Oz Mike's eyes even more than when he first stepped into the store.

[OzMike]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

Hey I'm a retired surfer Yay

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

Hey I'm a retired surfer Yay

 

I admit this is lame of me, but I've wanted to build a GLA- one trick pony type team for my story page but I had no ideas for names or characters until I hit on the idea of using handles from the hero boards which suggested powers which suggested a plot better than the one I had at the time which suggested links to earlier stories I had written, or later ones that I plan to write down the road.

 

I'm hoping the result will be cool at the end.

CES

[OzMike]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

I admit this is lame of me, but I've wanted to build a GLA- one trick pony type team for my story page but I had no ideas for names or characters until I hit on the idea of using handles from the hero boards which suggested powers which suggested a plot better than the one I had at the time which suggested links to earlier stories I had written, or later ones that I plan to write down the road.

 

I'm hoping the result will be cool at the end.

CES

 

I've done similar things by imagining which actor would play a character, and taking the one of the onscreen personas of that actor as an initial personality for the character.

 

So no, it's not lame. Use what you can to get the thing done I say

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

Thanks, Mike.

CES

[Trebuchet]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

I admit this is lame of me' date=' but I've wanted to build a GLA- one trick pony type team for my story page but I had no ideas for names or characters until I hit on the idea of using handles from the hero boards which suggested powers which suggested a plot better than the one I had at the time which suggested links to earlier stories I had written, or later ones that I plan to write down the road.[/quote']Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!

 

I did. I hope you like it.

CES

[Trebuchet]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

I did. I hope you like it.

I've always wanted to build a hero (or villain) named Trebuchet. Presumably he'd throw things to impart damage at range.

[death tribble]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

If this is to be a giant monster story are certain members of the boards going to be typecast ?

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

I've always wanted to build a hero (or villain) named Trebuchet. Presumably he'd throw things to impart damage at range.

 

That's the very first thing I thought of.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

If this is to be a giant monster story are certain members of the boards going to be typecast ?

 

Probably.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

4

Tim ‘Trebuchet' Bucket stood on the pitcher's mound, tossing the ball in his hand up and down as he checked the runner on first base. It had been a no hitter until the relief pitcher had botched a couple of throws. That put Tim back in the game.

 

Trebuchet readied his stance. His arm tingled as he drew back his hand. More and more it did that, and Tim took it to mean he was going to throw a strike when he released. His arm swept forward, hurling the baseball. The batter swung and connected. The wooden bat broke into two pieces, popping the ball straight up from the impact.

 

Donnie Dubois, the catcher, threw his face mask down as he got under the ball. He held up his glove. The ball fell gently into the webbing. Donnie slung the ball to second base. Rich Handler snagged it out of the air, slapping the runner out with a call from the umpire.

 

Tim shook his arm out. It felt like something was in his pitching arm, moving on its own. He flexed his throwing hand, the sensation riding up to his shoulder. Could something be wrong with his arm?

 

He caught the throw from second, dropping the ball in his right hand. He bounced the leather globe in the air. The spring in his arm wound tight as he prepared to throw. He could definitely feel it now. The next batter came up, taking a couple of practice swings before settling in his stance. The pitcher drew back and released. The ball crossed the diamond before the batter could swing.

 

"Strike!" The umpire made the signal for those who couldn't hear him.

 

Tim caught the throw from Dub, getting ready to pitch again before the catcher could give him a signal. He blasted another one out. The batter saw it coming. He just couldn't swing his bat fast enough to stop it.

 

"Strike two!" The umpire settled behind Dub and the batter.

 

Tim threw again, letting his arm unwind. The ball rolled dust off the ground as it cut across the infield. The batter chopped at it, trying for a grounder. The ball hopped over the wood, dropping into Dub's glove with a gentle slap.

 

"Strike three! You're out." The umpire stood up, taking his mask off as players ran out on the field. Tim Bucket's Mighty Maroons had won the day. The Screaming Eagles would have to go home crying.

 

"Good job, Tim." Coach Reilly smiled. "Good job, everyone. Shake hands and let's start packing our gear."

 

The teams exchanged handshakes under the watchful eyes of their coaches before returning to their dug outs to collect their equipment. Tim hated this part. No one wanted to shake the hand of the boys who won.

 

"Hey, Tim!" Herb Bucket waved his hand. "Good job. Your mom is waiting for us."

 

Tim nodded. Coach Reilly waved him on. No need to ride the bus back home if someone was there to pick you up. He wouldn't if he had driven his car instead of riding with the team. The pitcher tucked his glove under his arm and headed up to the parking lot where his dad looked down on the Eagle field.

 

"Your pitching is excellent." Herb headed for the family Focus. "I still think you need to work on your batting."

 

"I am, Dad." Tim got in the passenger side. "I'm getting good."

 

"You'll be in college, then playing for the Majors with an arm like that." Herb cranked the engine. "Tim Bucket pitches no hitter for the Yankees."

 

"I have to graduate first, Dad." Tim tossed his glove into the back seat. "I might not be good enough to make any team. High school is nothing like the pros."

 

"You have an excellent arm, Timmy." Herb dodged around a van in the way. "Much better than mine ever was. Scouts will knock down the doors to take you."

 

"I doubt that, Dad." Tim smiled. "There are better pitchers than me out there."

 

"I don't think so, Timmy." Herb took a left and headed for the North Road, a four lane highway across Marlowe. "You're better than anyone I have seen. You could pitch for the Cubs right now."

 

"Anyone could pitch for the Cubs, Dad." Tim settled in his chair, working his arm. He definitely wasn't going to tell his dad about his arm, and the curious feeling it had started to give him. He didn't want to spend half the night in the emergency room.

 

Any kind of injury to his arm would have his father doing everything to make sure it was still usable. Tim would rather live with it until it got worse than be poked and prodded.

 

He sometimes wondered if it would be better just to quit the team. He didn't know how his father felt about him anymore. Did he love him for being his son, or for the golden arm he carried around with him?

 

Tim was afraid to ask.

 

The Buckets rode north along the highway, looking at other people trying to get to where they had to be. Tim thought about talking his problems over with someone. He knew he couldn't with his parents. He needed to talk to the coach about this.

 

Coach Reilly seemed to think about more than baseball and sports. Maybe he could give some advice that Tim would find useful. At the moment the boy felt torn by two opposite forces. He wanted to play, but not to let his Dad relive his own dreams that he couldn't pursue.

 

Tim didn't know his father's dream would end in fire and death.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

5

 

Alice the Owl drifted from her perch, looking out over the rooftops of Marlowe as the sun went down. She spotted Squirrel sitting on the roof, counting money, surrounded by a horde of furry namesakes. She wondered what he had done for the cash.

 

"What's going on, Squirrel?" Alice folded her wings around her, large eyes glowing gold in the light of the setting sun. "Did you get a job?"

 

"Super Squirrel." The man-sized rodent straightened for a second. "And yes, I got a job."

 

"Doing what?" Alice found it hard to believe that anyone would hire someone that looked like an anthropomorphic character.

 

"Bounty hunting." Super Squirrel chattered to his horde. They dispersed with salutes. They bounded to artificial trees he had set up inside the warehouse they were squatting in. "I got a couple bail jumpers while you were sleeping and earned some real money for a change."

 

"I can't believe it." Alice smiled. "We can get real food for a change."

 

"I was thinking of pizza." Super Squirrel straightened his hunched posture, tail wagging a little. "We can have it delivered."

 

"How did you find this job?" Alice's round face frowned. "Who would hire you?"

 

"I was zipping along with my boys, looking around for some money, some food. I stumbled across this guy getting his face kicked in. I had to step in." The Squirrel handed over all but a twenty to Alice. "The guys doing the kicking had money posted on them, so I got half what they were worth. They were beating up the guy who was supposed to take them back to jail."

 

"Only half?" Alice flipped through the money, counting it with the edges of her fingertips.

 

"Even a man as bad as I am isn't going to walk into a police station where the cops will shoot first and ask questions later." Squirrel scratched a round ear before walking over to the edge of the roof. "I'll be right back."

 

Squirrel jumped from the roof, catching hold of a drain pipe. He scrambled down with his bare hands and feet grabbing handholds with surety. He bounded across the empty lot, then hopped the fence in three grab and pulls. He bounded to the corner, keeping to the shadows.

 

Alice shook her head, and placed the money in a treasure box they had liberated from a Goodwill. They had spent a while in Marlowe. Sooner or later, they would have to move on like they always did. Until then, she wanted to enjoy whatever happiness she could.

 

They hadn't always looked like monsters, and she didn't mind flying and being able to see in the dark, but it would be nice not to hide out and run if someone decided to try and lynch them. Squirrel had already bitten one man in self defense.

 

Squirrel came back in a few minutes. He climbed up to join her in the small cabin they had built over the warehouse roof. He checked the toy watch he wore.

 

"Thirty minutes or its free." He settled on his haunches, looking out over the small city fading to shadow. "Where do you want to go to next?"

 

"I'd like to stay for a while." Alice studied his face, seeing the boy he had been before they took up their vagabond life. "I found a couple places that I can raid for clothing, furniture, and things."

 

"Books?" Squirrel hunched down.

 

"I think so." Alice smiled. "I'll look tonight on my rounds."

 

"That would be great." Super Squirrel yawned. "I have to go out and look for this guy tomorrow. I'm hoping to get another couple thousand. We might be able to get a place to live instead of just living in a place."

 

"Would you like that?" Alice reached out with thin fingers, almost touching his face.

 

"I'd like anything you like." Squirrel smiled. "You're the brains and heart of this operation. I just carry you around on my back."

 

"Don't spoil a tender moment." Alice laughed.

 

"Let me go down and check on our pizza." Squirrel yawned again. "Then we'll have dinner, then I'm going to crash."

 

"I'll do my rounds and bring back anything we can use." Alice always staked several places out when they hit a new town to see if there was anything she could scrounge for them. "I'll get you a book to read."

 

"That will be good." Squirrel headed down to ground level. A few minutes later the smell of pizza proceeded him back to the roof. He handed one of the boxes to Alice, and took the other to his chair. "Meat lovers for you, vegetarian for me."

 

They ate in silence, lost in thought. Squirrel put some feed out for his boys when they woke up in the morning before he wrapped himself in a circle and went to sleep.

 

Alice smiled at his sleeping form and placed the boxes in the trash bag she would dump later. She walked to the edge of the roof, spreading her wings. She leaped into the sky, soaring over Marlowe.

 

Alice's circle started the furthest away from their nest, and worked backward to the empty warehouse. Minnesota was mild at the moment, but they would need warmer clothes if they stayed. Right now she had two sets of clothing which was a short sleeved shirt, pants, underwear, and socks. Squirrel had one shirt with a big s on it, and cargo pants. They would need a better wardrobe than that.

 

They would also need to think about heating and feed so the squirrels would be happy. Hibernation was their natural state in the winter, but they would throw that off for their leader as long as he could give them a warm place to live and food to go with it.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

6

 

Chad Reilly, the coach of the Mighty Maroons, brushed his short gray hair with a blocky hand as he stepped into the office he shared with three other coaches. He still had papers to grade for the next day.

 

Reilly sat down at his desk, looking at the door. He thought he had heard someone outside in the hall. The janitorial staff had gone home right after he had gotten there with the team bus. The sun had already decided to take to its bed. No one else should be in the building.

 

Then knuckles rapped on the door.

 

"Who is it?" Reilly stood up. It had been a long time since any burglar had scared him.

 

The door opened. A woman with features so bland they could belong to anyone stepped in the office with a tug of the tie she wore. Her black suit absorbed the light, making it appear at first just a head and hands floated in the air across the room from the coach.

 

"Aylwin." Reilly sat down. "Don't tell me it's that time again already."

 

"I'm a little early." The woman pulled a chair from one of the other desks and sat down in front of him with crossed legs. "I was in the area on other business and decided to look in on you before I head back."

 

"That's considerate of you." Reilly didn't try to hide the sarcasm. Being forced into retirement had soured his mood permanently. "I'm fine. You can head back to the project with a clear conscience."

 

"I'm sorry, Enforcer." Aylwin shrugged. "You're on the reserve list. You know that I have to make sure that you are still capable."

 

"No problem." Reilly presented his right thumb. His examiner placed the thumb on a palmtop and pressed the button. A spark shot into the coach's digit as the device did its job. "Anything else?"

 

"This should be fine." Aylwin watched the readout until it said done. Then she read the results with a shake of her head. "You're still declining in output. Tests could show how much, but I expect your powers to start fading in and out pretty soon."

 

"I'm retired from active duty." Reilly stood to indicate the interview was over as far as he was concerned. "It's not as big a deal now."

 

Aylwin nodded at the lie as she stood. She concealed the tester under her jacket with a shrug.

 

"I'll see you next year then." Aylwin paused at the door. "I saw the game today. You have an amazing pitcher for your team."

 

"Bucket?" Reilly sat back down, wary of the implied question in the statement. "He might be a pro if he can get his grades up. The school has a policy so I have to keep my eye on what my kids are doing. His algebra needs to come up if he wants to stay on the field."

 

Aylwin nodded, keeping any more interest out of her bland features. She stepped outside with a quiet closing of the door.

 

Reilly knew exactly what had sparked Aylwin's interest in Tim Bucket. His pitching skill was on the edge of getting him posted to a watch list. Smashing that bat had been a dramatic display of throwing power. The project would mark him if they thought he was over the line.

 

They still might do it just to see if he displayed potential for recruiting down the road.

 

Reilly ignored the call of his papers, sitting in the deserted school. The project had been his home for half his adult life. Now that he was out, he should be looking forward to something more normal, something that didn't involve flying around after ninja monkey brains in a jar. Still the urge was there.

 

And he didn't need Aylwin to know his powers were fading. Flying took as much effort as running now. It was a major task to lift his car. The tough armor that had been his skin barely deflected a paper cut.

 

A year or two and he would not even be able to do that much seemed like a death sentence to him as he sat in his chair wondering what he was going to do.

 

"I'm not going to mope about it." Reilly put the papers away. He could grade them tomorrow. He got up, left his maroon Maroon hat on the desk, and headed for the door. Tomorrow he would be teaching, tonight he would take some time to think about things and live it up a little.

 

Not seeing Aylwin for another year was reason enough for a party right there.

 

Reilly locked the school up before heading out to his truck parked by itself in the school lot. He got behind the wheel, and pulled out on the street. He decided to hit his favorite place for dinner, then maybe a drink at a bar, then a movie at home.

 

Maybe he could even get in a bar fight before heading home. That would really make him feel young again.

 

Reilly felt a tingle and looked toward the lake that most of the town spent their time on at one point or the other. He could have sworn he saw a flash of lightning out there. He put it out of mind, instead focusing on how to ask Tim Bucket to watch his pitching in the future.

 

The kid wouldn't want Uncle Sam watching him like a bug under a microscope for the rest of his life.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

Lake Marlowe flashed under the starry sky. It was a yellow dash of light under the water. It looked like reflected lightning. It did that three times. Then the water boiled in a storm of bubbles and wavy lines running from the center of the disturbance.

 

A paw broke the surface first. It was leathery and webbed, perfect for swimming. It curled a little, capable of lifting things. The size said a car was a play toy to it. The other paw broke the surface. Then the head. Yellow eyes glared as it surveyed the shore it headed toward.

 

Sensory input declared food was nearby and more tasty than the fish in the lake.

 

It started forward, lumbering on thick elephantine legs. It couldn't jump with lower limbs like that, but then, it didn't plan to. Trees fell before it as the sea monster trekked away from its watery home. It opened its mouth. A roar of satisfaction thundered out over the land.

 

It was good to be king.

 

It headed to the main road to the lake brushing aside the yellow tape in its way. Lights drew it onward toward the buildings it dwarfed. Lights went out as it knocked over a power line with only a mild sting on its armored hide as it lumbered on like a living tank.

 

One foot hit a house. A wall and part of the roof caved in under the impact. A stunned home owner came out, trying to figure out what had happened. Two paws snatched him up and sent him down the monstrous gullet almost before he had a chance to scream.

 

That was good. More food.

 

The reptile clawed through the remains of the house, looking for more snacks. The talons narrowly missed the man's wife and kids, cowering from the front of the house. She hurried her kids down in the basement and urged them to be quiet. The lake monster moved on, frustrated by the hill of debris.

 

The monster continued carving a path toward downtown. It thought it would eat its fill and then return to the lake to rest and recover. Drivers spotting it coming toward them stopped and tried to flee. Some with cell phones and blue tooths called 911 to report a beast as tall as a radio antennae, as wide as a highway, and moving ten feet with each stride.

 

The flood of reports had Major Weston, the officer in charge, dispatch a car to see what was going on. Five minutes later, a deputy reported the reptile picking up cars and cracking them open to get at the people inside. Major Weston called the radio and television to get a warning out to those in the path as he tried to think of his next move.

 

Unfortunately Marlowe had never needed monster fighting gear, special weapons, or anything associated with bigger cities' special problems. Weston's people only had shotguns and some automatic rifles. He didn't think that would do a lot of good at the moment.

 

Weston sent the call out to every able bodied deputy to assemble at the station. He called the sheriff who could call the governor for help from the National Guard. Then he put a bird in the air to keep the behemoth under watch while he tried to think of something he could do.

 

Fighting a giant turtle crocodile had not been in the training he had taken. The best he could come up with was to keep everyone out of its way. So roads were blocked and people were cleared out as fast as possible with the limited manpower he had as the giant marched toward the heart of town.

 

Weston got a cup of coffee before clapping on his vest and checking the loads for his rifle. Too bad Minnesota didn't have a hero around to help out. The town could use one.

 

They really needed someone like the Leaguer right now.

 

Weston checked on the small amount of arrangements he could do with his dispatcher before walking out to his cruiser and throwing his bag in the seat. He might as well see the beast for himself. Maybe a good look would suggest a place to shoot it to do the most damage.

 

As the lake monster and sheriff's department started to move into squaring off positions, neither side realized that a third party would enter the picture.

 

The party itself didn't know until Quin Martin, the Question Man, answered the question his host, Odd Dorfman said out loud without realizing it.

 

"What the heck is that?" Odd froze in the act of passing salad dressing to his vegetarian friend as a roar filled the air in his living quarters at the back of his store.

 

"It's the roar of a giant monster." Quin took the bottle and covered his salad lightly. "Have you got any croutons?"

 

"You're kidding." Oz Mike Michaelson stood up. "What's going to happen?"

 

"We're going to stop it." Quin ate a bite of his salad. "I just need to figure out how."

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

8

 

Alice the Owl saw the giant monster marching toward town. She couldn't believe her eyes. The term gigantic hallucination sprang to the front of her brain as she considered what to do.

 

Alice had reached the edge of her flying circle, close enough to see the lake. She had dropped on a roof to rest her feathered wings and look at things nearby for other places to forage from when she saw the wide body snap a tree aside. Yellow eyes glared around the leviathan maw.

 

Alice knew she had to do something but the only thing on her mind was to warn Squirrel and get out. They hadn't counted on Zornwill, or Godzilla, marching through their town. They weren't heroes. They couldn't stop it.

 

Alice spread her white wings and took to the air. She poured on the speed toward their nest. Squirrel had sharp senses, but Alice didn't think he would run in the face of danger. Their life on the road was making him braver with every day.

 

A job as a bounty hunter would have been out of the question a week ago.

 

Alice hit the roof running. Squirrel and his boys were waiting, looking at the distant silhouette blocking the horizon like a mountain. His furry tail twitched. His posture told the tale. He was already considering staying and fighting.

 

He was considering committing suicide.

 

"We have to get out of here." Alice touched his arm. "That thing will wreck the town. There's nothing we can do to stop it."

 

"You go." Squirrel looked at his rodent friends. They stood at attention, saluting him. "We're going to stop that thing."

 

"You can't stop it." Alice grabbed him. Large brown eyes stared at her gold ones. "You can't expect to beat that thing."

 

"We can sure slow it down for others to get away." Squirrel smiled. "You'd be surprised what a Super Squirrel can do."

 

Squirrel pulled out of her embrace as gently as he could manage. He went to the edge of the roof and climbed down. His friends looked at Alice, bowed, and started after him with a clicking of nails. They were across the yard and through the fence in seconds.

 

"I can't believe this." Alice the Owl knew there was one thing she could do. She didn't like it but it was the only course of action she could see.

 

If Squirrel wouldn't leave with her, she wouldn't leave him behind. They had something like love between them. They had forged that bond over years of traveling on the road. She wouldn't break it, not even for a giant monster.

 

Alice looked at the juggernaut approaching at its own lumbering pace. She raised her fist and shook it.

 

"I'm coming for you, you (&^(& monster." Alice spread her wings then took flight.

 

Alice's sharp eyes spotted her love moving through the streets. He was at the head of an army of rodents. More and more joined his procession as he raced across town. They were coming from everywhere.

 

This must be what the Pied Piper had looked like walking through Hamelin playing music for the dancing rats.

 

Alice dipped down to let him know she was with him. She thought Squirrel smiled for a second. He waved at least. Then he doubled his speed with his hopping leaps along the sidewalk.

 

The two settlers paused at the edge of town as more and more squirrels joined them. Rotating lights showed them where the police had set up their efforts. Squirrel bounded over to the closest car, pausing with his hands up.

 

"Hey cop man!" He waved his hands to get the deputies' attention. "We're here to help. Don't shoot at us."

 

One of the deputies almost did when he got a good look at their visitor.

 

"We're going to try and distract it until the heavy artillery shows up." Squirrel made hand gestures to indicate his planned moves. "We don't want an accident. Could you spread the word, please?"

 

Squirrel and his entourage bounded away. They were confident the police couldn't do anything but shoot at him, and they wouldn't do that.

 

He hoped they wouldn't shoot.

 

Alice floated overhead, nodding her head as the deputy talked into his radio. It looked like the easy part was over. Now came the death and dying.

 

She followed the squirrel army toward their massive enemy, already thinking in her head she would go for the eyes.

 

She hated them.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

9

 

 

Oz Mike wondered if his friend was crazy. Then he wondered if he was the crazy one for listening, instead of running. Then he wondered if they really could save the city. It could be cool to try.

 

It wasn't like he had anything better to do anyway.

 

"What's the game plan, Quin?" Oz Mike looked at the monster in the distance. "How do we beat this thing?"

 

Quin Martin started writing things down on a pad with a pad. His eyes glowed eerily as his hand flowed smoothly across the page. Then he snapped out of it, trying to transcribe what he had just written in his trance.

 

"All right, we need to hold it right there so it can't come further into town." Quin grabbed his cell. "We need to start by getting reinforcements."

 

"What can we do?" Oz Mike looked at Odd Dorfman. The book seller seemed just as confused as he felt.

 

"Mike, I need you to get down to the lake and wait for the call." Quin looked around. "Take my jeep. Here are the keys. Odd, call this number, talk to Billy Keys. Tell him to get over to 2343 Ursa and pick up Thia Halmedes. We need her on a roof facing the monster's left."

 

Mike took the keys as Odd started calling. The lake was on the other side of the monster. He would have to do some fancy driving to get down by the water. What did Quin have in mind?

 

"Chad Reilly?" Quin watched his friend drive off. He hoped that wasn't a mistake. No solution worked perfectly. "You don't know me but I need someone called the Enforcer. Your number was given. There's a giant monster trying to clobber the town if you haven't noticed. I need him to try and hold it back until we can stop it."

 

Quin listened to Odd talking on his phone to Billy Keys, while listening to the question being directed down the line to him. He automatically answered he was trying to get some people together to help out. Then he cut the line before more questions triggered more displays of this new power.

 

Only he knew it wasn't a new power. It was something that had built up in strength until now it was blooming full force. It was better to use it as fast as he could because he didn't know how long it would last.

 

"We need someone named Tim Bucket to the right of the monster." Quin checked his notes again, marking out part of his notes as already taken care of. "Get Billy Keys to do it. We have to get close enough to be effective planners."

 

"Billy and this Thia woman are arguing." Odd handed the phone over while he fished out his keys for his own car. "He got there fast from what I heard."

 

"We don't have time for this." Quin listened to the conversation while they got in Odd's tie dyed beetle. "I need her on that roof in two minutes."

 

An angry voice shouted in Quin's ear. He held the phone away until he was sure the expletives had died down.

 

"Listen to me, lady." Quin concentrated on his notes. "I need you and whatever you can do on a roof in a minute and a half so we can save the town. Everything else does not matter. Do it or you won't have a pot to pee in. Got me? All right, put Billy on the phone. I need him to pick up someone else and I don't want the phone cutting out before we get down to the battle zone."

 

Quin waited for a moment, hoping that he hadn't gone too far.

 

"Keys here." Quin didn't recognize the voice. "Talk."

 

"Get Thia to the roof at the corner of Wall and Broad. Make sure she can see the monster to do whatever she can do. Then I need you to get over to 245 Walnut and pick up Tim Bucket and take him to the junkyard at the other end of Wall. I don't know what he can do to help but he's essential to the plan. Can you do it?"

 

"Can do." Billy hung the phone up.

 

"How's the master plan going, Question Man?" Odd glanced over, purple and gold hat gleaming under the street lights they passed.

 

"Better than I expected." Quin looked at the burning horizon. "Ask me again if we come out of this alive."

 

"What's next?" Odd steered around something in the road. He wasn't sure what it was.

 

"We look at how things are going and decide if we have to switch to plan b." Quin looked down at his notes.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

10

 

 

"I can't believe I'm standing on a roof with a skinny *&^*& janitor trying to save the city." Thia Halmedes glared at the much taller Billy Keys. He smiled down at her. She noticed he had a scar on the edge of his forehead. It looked kind of like a rabbit's head. "What you grinning about, #$*%?"

 

"Have to get the kid." Billy pulled out his key ring, using the roof door to slip across town.

 

"Oh yeah." Thia glared at the monster hovering above her city. "Go get the *&^&*^ kid. Do that janitor man."

 

Thia had discovered her talent when she was six. A pack of wild dogs had attacked her, thinking she was easy prey. She had needed something to defend herself. She had needed it bad. As the first dog swept in to rip at her leg, she swung a baseball bat that had formed out of her sweat and terror. One hit made them all think maybe they should go after someone else.

 

After that, Thia had always been able to call up something. She had researched every known weapon that had ever been built, or imagined. It had taught her the limits of what she could do.

 

And here came Billy Keys with a proposal she couldn't turn down. She just didn't know if she could carry through with the job. She glared at the monster. She said she could handle it. She was going to handle it.

 

All right, she needed the right tool for the job.

 

Thia started with a club. It was a simple cylinder. She held it up to her shoulder, willing the material to change around. It became a rifle much like a sniper rifle. A scope popped out of the top. She smiled when it came on line, to give her range and wind speed.

 

She frowned at what she saw.

 

A bird woman flew around the monster's head, trying to claw it with her hands. The fingers looked like talons. She was raking at the big thing, but making little headway.

 

Thia swung the scope around. An army of squirrels with one big human looking one were exercising their teeth on the tough scales of the giant crocodile that walked like a man. Go squirrels.

 

Thia dropped her scope down the barrel of its body to the short stumpy legs holding all that weight above Marlowe. The guy on the phone wanted the thing held until they could turn it somehow. It definitely wasn't going anywhere if it was missing a leg.

 

Thia thought, shaping her rifle into something bigger. She modeled it after something she had seen on a cartoon. The problem was she could build a model, but she could never match the sheer power in reality. The devil takes the butt end, her grandma used to say, but he isn't taking mine.

 

Thia pressed the trigger on the oversized weapon. The end opened up. Thousands of miniature missiles blasted out of the weapon, reducing it to vapor as its life crossed the space between her and the monster.

 

The missiles exploded on impact. Clouds of fire surrounded the leg. The turtle croc jumped up and down on its other foot. It glared right at Thia. Then it roared its hate as it looked across town at the girl.

 

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Thia reached into herself for another of the missile guns. Good idea or not, she was committed to fighting it out as best she could.

 

A man in gray appeared, floating in the air. Thia had a scope again checking the range. The man in gray pointed one of his hands at the thing's head. He seemed to pause as if thinking about what he was doing. A ball of light struck out at the monster's head. Thia watched as the man drifted down as if finding it hard to stay in the air, like a balloon losing helium.

 

A huge paw grabbed the gray man and threw him in its mouth. Thia blinked. No way would he survive something like that as hard as he had it just floating there.

 

"*(&(*."

 

Thia took aim at the other leg. However things went from that point on, she knew she was going to do the best she could. She took a breath and held it. She squeezed the trigger until the end popped open, squeezed some more until the missiles fired away. A cloud of fire erupted around the other leg. That made the turtle croc sit down on its rump, tail lashing behind it.

 

Thia reached for a rifle to shape, making sure she had another aiming scope to look through. The bird woman and the squirrels were going to town. They seemed intent on trying to get it to open its mouth. She didn't know how they were going to do that.

 

Thia checked the wounds she had already inflicted. She didn't like what she saw through the scope. The burns already had blisters that were flaking off. Anything she could do would heal up in a matter of minutes.

 

That's when the cars started dropping out of the sky in a slow metal rain.

 

"*(&(*."

 

Thia shook her head as she thought of her next shot.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

11

Herb Bucket looked at the man in a janitor's uniform like he was crazy. He started to shut the door in the man's face. No way would he allow Tim to go with this stranger.

 

"I need to speak with this Tim Bucket." The janitor looked pained that he had to say so much at one time. "This is important."

 

"I already told you no." Herb tried to press the door closed against the man's body. "Get out of here before I call the cops."

 

"Cops are busy." The janitor pulled a key and pressed it into the door and suddenly he was inside the door, pushing Herb back from the wood. "I need to talk to Tim Bucket."

 

"I'm Tim Bucket." A boy stepped out of the hallway, holding a baseball bat. "What do you want?"

 

"Tim Bucket?" The janitor blinked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

 

"Tim." Herb put himself between the two of them. "Get back. He's crazy."

 

"What kind of power do you have?" The janitor frowned. Maybe he had been told the wrong address.

 

"Tim doesn't have a superpower." Herb looked confused. "That would ruin his future. Powers aren't allowed in the major leagues."

 

"Wrong, Mr. Bucket." The janitor shook his head. "The guy who sent me knows Tim has something. That's why they sent me."

 

"I got a super power?" Tim laughed. "Cool. I wonder what it is."

 

"You can't have a power, Tim." Herb looked frantic. "You won't be accepted by any team. It'll ruin your life."

 

"Won't have a life if he doesn't help me." The janitor looked from father to son. "We don't have a lot of time. The town is counting on us."

 

"You can't be serious." Herb shook his fist at the stranger. "You're talking about giving up everything we worked for. I can't allow it."

 

"It's not your call, Dad." Tim put the bat down. "Let me get my jacket."

 

"You can't do this, Tim." Herb went to go after his son. A hand fell on his shoulder. He looked up at the sad face of the visitor. "This is all your fault. You caused this."

 

"Can't hold him forever." The janitor looked even sadder. "I'll look after him. He'll be as safe as I can keep him."

 

"I hate you." Herb Bucket glared at the man in green. "You're causing my son to throw his life away."

 

"His decision." The janitor lifted his key ring, picking one out. "He'll still be your son tomorrow."

 

"What does that mean?" Herb's anger dimmed in the face of implacability. "Of course he'll be my son tomorrow if he lives."

 

"Remember that." The janitor held his key at his side.

 

"Remember what?" Tim came back in the room with his team jacket, and baseball cap, on. "What did I miss?"

 

"Nothing." The man in green went to the door. "Let's go."

 

"I want to go too." Herb's face had a collection of things on it that didn't look pleasant.

 

"Great, Dad." Tim smiled. "Come on."

 

The key went into the door. One hand pushed. A junkyard sat in the dark beyond the threshold instead of the Buckets' front yard. Herb almost choked at the sight.

 

"Let's go." The janitor ushered them across the frame into the darkened car graveyard. He walked through last, letting the door shut behind him. "What's your power, Tim?"

 

"I don't know unless it has something to do with the way my arm feels." Tim held up his right arm like he was flexing the muscle. "It's been feeling funny for a while."

 

"Why didn't you say anything about this before?" Herb had his hands on his hips.

 

"Cause I didn't want to spend all night at the hospital." Tim didn't look at his father. "You're all baseball this and baseball that. I don't even like baseball."

 

"What?" Herb's mouth fell open.

 

"No time." The janitor flipped open his phone, hitting the dial button. "Hash that out later."

 

"The kid doesn't know what his power is." The janitor spoke into the phone when it was picked up at the other end. "What is it?"

 

He listened for a moment, then hung up.

 

"He said try to throw something." The janitor shrugged. "That's your power. Throwing things."

 

Tim went to one of the cars. He wanted to show his dad he did have a super power, but on the other hand he didn't quite believe it himself, so he picked the biggest thing he could throw from everything around him. He braced himself and started to pull his arm back after securing a grip on the undercarriage. The junker sprang off the ground as he wound back to throw it. He paused and the weight started coming down on his small frame. He released his arm and the heap flew through the air at the monster in the distance.

 

"Did you see that?" Tim jumped up and down. "I threw a car."

 

"Don't stop." The janitor stepped back, reaching for a key on his ring. "We want to keep the monster where it is."

 

Tim looked around, grinning at the amount of ammunition available.

 

"The Trebuchet strikes!" He began lofting cars as fast as he could grab and pull his arm back. Some of them fell short as he sought the range, but then he started beaning the monster in the head one throw after the next.

 

"He'll have to quit the team." Herb Bucket watched the cars vanish into the night sky. "They'll think he's been cheating all this time. I'll have to think of some other way to get him through college."

 

"Get him through tonight first." The janitor looked at the flying cars. "Maybe the guy who called me can make a deal, or something."

 

"College is a lot of money." Herb Bucket stared at the stranger who had thrown his life in chaos as surely as the beast towering above them a few blocks over. "Would this ‘guy' do that for Timmy?"

 

"I don't know." The man in green shrugged. "We can ask him when this is over."

 

Herb nodded. He looked at Timmy. His son grinned as he flung another car over the fence. Maybe he had been wrong about everything. That was a bitter pill to swallow. But he would do what was right.

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

12

 

 

Chad Reilly floated at the back of the giant Zornwill's mouth, and almost laughed in relief. A few seconds slower, and he would have bounced down the gullet of the beast like some modern Jonah. As it was, he had hit a set of teeth and almost been knocked out.

 

"Should have stayed retired, idiot." The Enforcer decided he had one course to try. He didn't like it. On the other hand, he didn't have much choice if he wanted to get free and smell clean open air again.

 

Reilly pointed a finger down the throat of the croc turtle. He was getting out. The problem was he only had enough for two more shots. He hoped it worked.

 

Reilly summoned the energy he had given by Project Z those decades ago. It built around his finger, then his hand. He released the ball of light when he reached the limit of holding it in. It vanished down the throat of the beast, heading for the stomach. The resulting blast told him that it hadn't made it all the way down.

 

The mouth opened in a reflex action. The teeth looked like some weird portcullis from the inside. Reilly saved his last blast as he flung himself over the lips. The monster glared down at his gray form, somehow knowing he was the cause of its problems.

 

Reilly's flight cut out as he sailed into clear air. He saw the street coming up, wondered if he would survive the fall with his toughened body and padded suit. He thought it was like falling a mile from an airplane and your chute didn't open.

 

Walking away was like winning the big lottery. It was doable, but a one in a million chance almost not worth thinking about.

 

Strong arms wrapped around Reilly and slowed his fall. He looked around. A face at once a bird and a woman smiled at his surprise.

 

"Need a hand?" The owl woman dropped down toward the ground.

 

"I'm too old for this crap." Reilly smiled under his full face mask. "I don't think we can take it. I'm almost out of juice."

 

"You did better than I and my boyfriend have done." The owl woman blinked her wide eyes. "I see a couple of guys who might be with us by their masks. My name is Alice."

 

"I used to be called the Enforcer." Reilly looked down, barely making out two men standing by a car painted a mass of colors. "I thought I was retired from stuff like this."

 

Alice descended gently to a landing beside the car. One of the men wore a bowler that looked like Uncle Sam had fell into a drug factory. His companion had taken the time to blacken his face, and pulled his collar up over the bottom of his face. Reilly looked at the two.

 

Which one had called him back to action?

 

"How you doing?" The bowler tipped his hat. "Pretty impressive taking on that monster like that."

 

"You know who I am." Reilly frowned. "Who are you?"

 

"I'm Odd." The bowler made a gesture at himself that looked like a half-bow. "This is the Question Man."

 

"Time to call Mike and tell him to get ready." The Question Man referred to a sheaf of notes he had rolled up in his hands. "We'll have to move our artillery up to give him a hand."

 

"What about Squirrel?" Alice looked up. "He's in this too."

 

"Tell him to get down." The Question Man's eyes glowed in the reflected fire light. "We better tell Keys to do his thing."

 

Alice took wing, smiling. Maybe tomorrow they would have something to say about how she looked. Right then they needed her, and it felt good to be needed for who she was and what she could do.

 

And she admitted she and Squirrel had been lucky not to have been hit by a flying car, or the missile shooter.

 

"Hey, Squirrel!" Alice winced as the giant beast got to its hind legs and swept its tail around as it turned. Anything caught in the limb's path turned into junk and pieces. "Squirrel! Let's go."

 

Squirrel blinked, standing up. All of his followers looked up too. Squirrels could bite through leather work gloves like they were nothing. They had been putting that talent to good use, partially foiled by the rapidly healing skin.

 

"What's going on?" Squirrel leaped for a tree that hadn't been knocked over by the kaiju-the giant monster. He cleared the thirty foot gap easily. The rest of his followers descended and dropped off from a safe height.

 

"We have help." Alice smiled. "I think they have a plan besides annoy the monster to death."

 

"I'm all over that." Squirrel wiped his chin. "Biting and clawing didn't seem to do anything but annoy it."

 

"Let's meet the others." Alice floated down, keeping pace with him. "They might as well know you're on their side so you don't get caught in whatever they're doing."

 

"Let's do that."

[csyphrett]

Re: In the Company of Strangers (story)

 

13

Oz Mike Michaelson stood by Lake Marlowe and wondered if his friend has lost his mind. On the other hand, Quin had been right about everything else so far. They had got some others involved, and the monster was coming back to the lake, down the path it had already plowed.

 

Now all he had to do was hold it until the others could carry out the rest of the plan.

 

That sounded a whole lot easier in his brain than it did when accompanied by images of the small city being blasted to pieces by the thing he had to stop. He should get in his borrowed car and take off. That would be the smart thing to do. What could one man do against something like that?

 

On the other hand, Steve Irwin had been catching Kaijus in the Pacific for his zoo for years before his accident. He had done a lot for the regions afflicted by giant monsters. And he didn't have any powers at all.

 

Oz Mike stared at the giant dashing down the flattened road for the water behind him. He had said he would help, and it was time he did that. It was time to figure out what power he did have locked inside.

 

Oz Mike stepped into the shallow water. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the beast barreling down on him. The water around his bare feet felt energetic. He opened his eyes, looked around, realized he was ten feet off the ground on a jet of water.

 

He was surfing a wave he created.

 

Mike turned and the water carried him along the shore. He didn't have to balance like he would on a board. The wave adjusted to what he wanted. He looked behind him. The water declined like a falling trail behind his path of travel.

 

Mike asked for more speed as he circled the lake. The wave grew behind him as he went. His mind reckoned it to the bow wave of a big ship. This might be what the doctor ordered.

 

Mike circled the lake at increasing speed. It looked like pudding in a blender from his height. Now how could he use it to stop the water dwelling monster?

 

The champion surfer gathered as much water as he could in his wake and headed for shore. The turtle crocodile roared at him. He couldn't tell if it was fear, or rage. That didn't matter. What did matter was avoiding those oversized choppers while buzzing it like a mad hornet.

 

At least his legs felt normal again, the lethargy gone finally. He wished it hadn't taken a mobile WMD to wake him up. He could have done with a simple breakfast and walking tour.

 

Oz Mike circled the monster, buzzing its head like an old biplane going after King Kong. Too bad he didn't have one of those old time machine guns. He wasn't too sure bullets would work but it would have made him feel better.

 

Mike kept at his harassment until he felt his bridge start to give way. He turned and headed back for the lake. His surfing would expire without a new supply. The lizard had smashed through his wave with its forearms and upper body. He figured that had cut his supply low.

 

Mike hovered over the lake, drawing in more of the dark water as fish dove for cover. The croc turtle was two steps away from diving into the water and making a clean getaway. The surfer concentrated on building the biggest wave he could make, extending his control over the liquid until it hurt to think about it.

 

Mike raised his hand, then chopped it down. Every bit of water under his command rolled forward in a liquid stampede. He stood at the top, held firm by the very substance he forced forward. The champion stepped to the left, splitting off a side spray as the main force kept going uncontrolled. The tidal wave hit, forcing the monster back a step.

 

Mike flew over the lake, drawing more material for his strange horse. He looked at the beast as it made a honking noise. It looked at the lake as its lair, and now it was disturbed to be blocked from its natural home.

 

"It's all fun and games until the chicken wings decide to change their attitude." Mike felt a twinge of pity, but beat it down. If he let it get away, it would keep surfacing to eat people until someone else dealt with it.

 

He wondered what was taking Quin so long to get there.

 

A winged girl in cast off rags arrived with another girl in her arms. Mike noticed the girl being carried had a rifle in her hands. It looked like one of those elephant guns from a safari movie.

 

"Hello ladies." Mike didn't think his new power extended to carrying others. "What's going on?"

 

"We have an antidote for the monster." The winged girl sounded out of breath. "We just have to get him to open his mouth."

 

"That Odd guy made it with his (&*^ hat." The other girl sighted down the barrel of the rifle she carried.

 

"Why am I not surprised?" Mike shook his head.

 

"Can you hold us steady? I can't shoot it if you can't, girl." The rifle woman looked up at her transport.

 

"Switch up." Mike held his arms up to catch the shooter. "I can hold her on my back on this as long as I concentrate."

 

The bird woman gratefully handed the shooter over. Mike held her piggy back, rifle barrel extending over his right shoulder. He concentrated on making sure his column didn't collapse under the both of them.

 

"Hold it steady." The rifle woman growled as she looked at her giant target. "I can't get a clear shot. Its mouth is closed."

 

"Hold on." Mike pushed forward, holding his passenger tight against the wind he was generating. "Get ready."

 

The monster saw them coming, opened its mouth to roar out a challenge. A cloud of smoke crossed in front of Mike's vision for a second, then the bang deafened him slightly. The giant's maw clamped down. It raised one forepaw as if trying to think of what it should be doing.

 

"Let's give it a minute to see what happens." Mike reversed course to hover just above the lake. "Have you got another one of those antidote bullets?"

 

"Odd could only make one." The bird woman drifted beside the water walker. "Something about limitations on his hat."

 

"I just think he's &*&^* crazy." The rifle vanished from the girl's hands.

 

"You curse a lot for a kid." Mike watched the monster. If it got back up, he would drop his rider on the shore and try to get back to stop it from getting in the water.

 

"First off, you're not my daddy." The shooter's voice climbed a notch. "Secondly, I'm going in the Marines in a few months which makes me an adult. Don't forget it."

 

"Keep squirming around, and you'll be going in the water in a few seconds." Mike smiled at a thunderous snore. "It looks like you did it, ladies. It's asleep."

 

"We all did it." The bird woman smiled. "I just can't believe it."

 

"Believe this, I want to be put down on dry land." The rifle woman pointed at a spot close to the lake in the direction of town. "I want to go home."

 

"Let's talk to Quin first." Mike headed for shore, eyes still on the sleeping monster. "We still have to get it out of here before it wakes up."