Walking With Strangers

[bubba smith]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

good writing

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

THanks Bub. I have to get through the boring intros then have Sgt Baloo rescued, then have the Wolf Corps show up. Then the battle for the city takes place.

CES

[bubba smith]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

you're welcome

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

Super Squirrel and Alice the Owl were famous. They both found it odd and perplexing. Before reaching Marlowe, they had tried to avoid people without hesitation. Now kids wanted their autographs. It was a complete turnaround so sharp Squirrel's furry head still spun.

 

Who could have predicted that when the two of them had went against their better judgment and tried to save the small city from the overgrown lake monster? The thought they were going to get killed had been uppermost then.

 

"It feels good to be out in the open." Squirrel and Alice stood on the roof of the hideaway they had confiscated when they first reached town. "I don't know what we're going to do about living in the light when neither one of us has a job."

 

"Tell me about it." Alice smoothed the feathers on her wings with her thin hands. "Hero work won't get us money."

 

"I got an offer from the city to help their parks and recreation guys." Squirrel scratched his muzzle with a sharp talon. "It's not much but it would be enough to put food on the table."

 

"That's better than what I got." Alice smiled, her round eyes blinking in the late sun. This was about the time she went out and hunted and her friend went to bed for the night.

 

"What do you think about being the official super heroes of the town." Squirrel had already said he wanted it. And if it came with a check, so much the better. Alice had said she wanted time to think about it before making a decision.

 

"I'm not for it." Alice frowned, turning her gaze toward the buildings that surrounded their nest. "I still remember how people treated us before we went out to stop that thing. Just because we're famous now, tomorrow the same people praising us will turn on us for any perceived slight."

 

"So we should pass?" Squirrel scratched his muzzle again. Being a hero appealed to his inner swashbuckler, but he wouldn't do it if Alice wouldn't at least give her approval.

 

"I would like to be human again." Alice hugged his thin shoulders. "If Aylwin can help us with that, then we can give her a little help in turn."

 

"Being human isn't all that great." Squirrel smiled. "At least we're together now. You wouldn't even like me if we didn't look like this."

 

"You wouldn't like me at all." Alice shook her head. "At least you're a hero now like you always wanted. Your dream has come true."

 

"What good's a dream without someone to share it with?" Squirrel looked out on the horizon, smiling just a little bit.

 

Alice hugged him even tighter. This wasn't exactly the life she had wanted for herself. Turning into a bird woman, moving from town to town, only daring to show her face at night where she was best suited to move around had not been something she had expected when they asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.

 

"I wonder if we can call for pizza." Squirrel hugged her back. "We can stay up all night watching movies, doing the cha-cha, playing video games, look adoringly in each other's eyes. What do you say?"

 

"I'd like to see you do the cha-cha." Alice laughed. "You're on. But I'd like to take my night flight first."

 

"What movie should we put in first?" Squirrel hopped up and down. "Batman Begins? Iron Man? All three of the Matrix movies?"

 

"The Lake House." Alice leaped from the roof top, wings spread wide. She did a spiral upwards.

 

"The Lake House?" Squirrel stuck out his tongue.

 

"I'll get popcorn on the way back." Alice pointed herself toward town and soared away on silent feathers. "Be ready for some cuddling."

 

Squirrel scratched his muzzle again, before turning away with a fluff of his tail. The Lake House? The only good part of that movie was when it ended. At least popcorn and cuddling would make it bearable. He headed downstairs, walking along the railings of the stairs until he got to the ground floor of their nest.

 

He started humming as he set up the television, a stack of movies, cushions for a sort of couch, empty glasses and a supply of canned sodas even though he could only drink one. The carbonated water made him a little sick if he drank more than one. He debated calling for pizza until Alice was back from her evening flight.

 

He decided to go ahead and call. He didn't know when she was going to be back, but he should give the driver plenty of time to find the address. After all, the two of them were using a tree at the head of the road as a mailbox.

 

No one must know where the super secret Squirrel Cave actually lay. It was a thing men weren't meant to know.

 

Additionally they wanted some semblance of privacy without having to resort to guard squirrels

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

THanks Bub. I have to get through the boring intros then have Sgt Baloo rescued, then have the Wolf Corps show up. Then the battle for the city takes place.

CES

 

 

Good to see I haven't been forgotten. I'm enjoying this and will rep you as soon as I can (I seem to be out this morning).

 

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

Thanks, Baloo.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

9

 

Thia Halmedes smiled as she hung the target on the range rope with clips. She had finally found a place where she could practice, and no one knew who she was, or what she could do. It was good to be anonymous among the other shooters on the line.

 

Her power had gotten stronger since the battle with the Zornwill. She needed practice so she didn't hurt anybody but the person she was aiming at.

 

Thia pulled one of her pistols out of thin air with one hand. She pressed the button to send the target down the firing lane with the other. As soon as it was more than three feet away, she fired with the pistol. She kept pulling the trigger as the paper kept moving away from her. A large hole appeared from the use of firepower. Then the target split apart with the two upper corners still hanging from the clips.

 

That was excellent.

 

Thia pressed the button to recall the clips back to load another target. She frowned as a group of shooters hovered around her cubby.

 

"Can I help you?" She glared at the others, a small mix of men and women.

 

"That was some terrific shooting, miss." One of the men held out his hand. Thia looked at him until he withdrew it. "I'm Tyler Durden. We would like to know if you would like to join our shooting team."

 

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Thia put the target papers back into the unused tray. It looked like her practice was over. "I'm cheating."

 

"Cheating?" Durden looked at the destroyed target.

 

"I'm using ammo that explodes on impact." Thia looked at the amazed faces. "It destroys the target every time."

 

"We have been watching, Miss." Durden looked at the others. Some of them nodded. "You are a really good shot, and we need someone like you. We want to win the grand prize at the end of the year."

 

"What happens if I get caught cheating?" Thia looked at the crowd. "What happens to your team? Don't get me wrong, I like to win every time myself, but what happens to all of you? Is that worth it? I think banning from competition is the common thing."

 

"Could you at least coach us?" Durden held out a hand. "Our averages are good, but not as good as the other teams out there. We want to get to the regionals this year, if not the championship."

 

"I don't how I can help you, but let's see what you guys can do." Thia shook her head. Maybe she should have practiced on some tin cans in the parking lot of her apartment building. "Just go ahead and set up some targets, and maybe I can give you some pointers."

 

Thia walked the line as the shooting team fired off a clip of ammo each at the papers down range. She offered some insights and her advice caused better aim. She didn't see herself as a teacher but the averages did go up by a small margin.

 

Maybe she could be a coach instead of an active participant. At least then she wouldn't be cheating. She had never thought she would have a skill she couldn't use in a game, but there she was.

 

"You guys are great shooters." Thia looked at the papers one by one. "You don't need me at all."

 

"The other guys are twice as good as we are." Durden shook his head. "I don't think we can match them."

 

"Let's go see how good they are." Thia folded the papers up, put them in her bag.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

10

 

Aylwin braked at the yellow and black crossbar, government issue Lincoln covered with dust from following the access road to the hidden outpost north of Marlowe. She had orders to check in on its decommissioning before moving on.

 

The Project had decided to consolidate some of the seized property instead of leaving it scattered across the United States. Most of the equipment Aylwin had seen had been museum pieces from the Fifties and Sixties when Atom America and Blake's Seven had been most active.

 

Of course some of the things still packed a punch for all their quaint looking tubes and miles of wire.

 

"Name please." The guard loomed in her vision, standing close to the window to match her id with the list on a clipboard he held.

 

"Aylwin." Aylwin looked at the face of the guard, struck that she knew him. She couldn't place the face.

 

"Identification." The guard held out his hand for her card.

 

Aylwin stared instead, flipping through the cards in her memory. The Project filed every superhuman captured during a crime. It didn't matter where in the world that happened. And Aylwin updated her memory every month, taking in new faces whenever she had a break from her official duties.

 

She knew this man.

 

"Have we met before?" Aylwin reached under her jacket, supposedly for a wallet.

 

"I don't think so." The guard loomed closer, face blurring slightly.

 

Aylwin pulled her pistol, leaning away from the door. The guard grew fur and too many teeth. She blasted away through the door. The bullets wouldn't do anything to the Garou, just push him back with the blasts.

 

Aylwin turned, firing at the other guard as she put the car in reverse. She didn't want to get caught in a crossfire while standing motionless. The other guard soaked up the energy blasts, transforming into fire. The agent hit the gas, backing away from the gate. Fire struck the hood of the car, melting the metal, scabbing away the black paint in seconds.

 

Aylwin kept the gas down. She couldn't drive the car long, but she couldn't bail out with the Garou on the ground. She had already exhausted her ammunition just buying time.

 

Garou bounded across the open ground as she backed down the driveway. He landed on the hood, uniform catching fire. He ripped the front window out of the way with massive claws at the end of his fingers.

 

Aylwin hit the brakes. A smile crossed her bland face as the werewolf flew forward, grabbing hold of the roof so he didn't fall off. She hit the gas again, trying to keep him off balance. She couldn't afford to have him get inside the car next to her.

 

The other false guard floated down the road. Flames leaped from his hands as he tried to disable the car. He succeeded in melting the tires away. The front of the car dropped on the asphalt. The partially melted rims didn't bother to throw up sparks as Aylwin forced the car along a few more feet.

 

Aylwin grabbed her briefcase and dropped it on the gas when she was close to the trees that lined the road. She bailed out as Garou ripped the roof apart with its claws. The agent reloaded as she vanished into the woods.

 

Aylwin mentally went over the gear she had on her person. It wasn't enough to take down two powerhouses like The Garou and Sundog. The name clicked in as she reviewed all of the fire elementals the Project knew about.

 

Aylwin paused to take a breath as the car went up in a ball of fire. She doubted anyone had seen it, and couldn't count on help. If she could get in touch with Chad Reilly, that might be enough to get a real team of agents with an arsenal of weapons to take care of this before it got to be too much.

 

What would Garou and Sundog want with a decommissioned base? It didn't fit their profiles in the cards she had memorized. They were muscle only.

 

Aylwin grabbed her phone, keeping an eye on the mess she was fleeing. She knew Garou was much faster than she was, and had a werewolf's invulnerability. If he got within reach of her, she could expect to be ripped apart.

 

Aylwin pressed the dial function on the phone. It would automatically dial the closest active agent she knew. No point calling inside the base since it was compromised.

 

Reilly's phone rang three times, then went to voice mail. Aylwin groaned. She left a short message before she hung up. She needed to call someone else.

 

She looked at her phone's screen to push the button to call the next nearest agent. The phone vanished in a spray of metal. She dropped, listening for the sound of a bullet.

 

"We don't want to hurt you, lady." Sundog's voice drifted to her. "Give it up, or our guy will shoot you."

 

Aylwin looked around, searching for a passage she could use for cover. She needed to buy time. Reilly was her only hope now.

 

A tree to her right lost a piece of its trunk. The buzz of a moving body convinced her that she was zeroed in. She had to buy time. She couldn't do that if she was dead.

 

"Either we have a meeting of the minds, or we don't." Sundog's voice indicated he stood closer to where she lay. "Which is it going to be?"

 

Aylwin raised her hands. She kept the pistol where she could reach for it if she had a chance. Maybe they would be careless.

 

"Don't move." Sundog cleared some trees. "I'm not getting paid to kill anybody so let's keep this as friendly as possible."

 

Aylwin gritted her teeth as she got to her feet. She kept her hands where he could see them. The first chance she got, she would show him how friendly she could be.

[Fireleaper]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

Love what you are doing

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

11

 

 

Mr. Wolf flipped the cover of his phone shut. Things had gotten worse in a matter of minutes. Collie had reported the capture of an agent at the gate. Her car had been slagged, but they didn't know if she had been able to get a call out.

 

That meant he had to get his team moving faster, and get ready for an assault by members from Project Z.

 

All in a day's work for the Canines.

 

Mr. Wolf reviewed what he knew, eyes closed behind his sunglasses. Then he came up with a plan. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best he could do with the amount of unknowns in play.

 

"We are going to have to get ready for a possible raid." Mr. Wolf stubbed out his cigarette on his boot heel. "Fenris Ulf, head back to the base. Sundog and Garou will need your muscle. Fenris and Stone Dog, head downstream and find that sergeant. We're not getting paid to kill him, but he has to be cut off. Shadowpup, head over and watch the road about a mile or two below where Crosshair has set up his post. If you see anything out of the ordinary, radio a warning."

 

"I welcome the feeding of my axe with the blood of varlets." Fenris Ulf's eyes glowed at the thought, casting green sparks in the air.

 

"Hopefully we'll be out of here before that." Mr. Wolf nodded and the meeting broke up.

 

Mr. Wolf and Fenris Ulf turned north, headed for the base they had invaded. Fenris, Little Fen because of his relative size to the bigger Ulf, and Stone Dog started downstream, following the water. One of Stone Dog's rock hounds carried them on its back. Shadowpup, a kid adopted from the life of a street urchin, faded into darkness, used that to travel west toward the road.

 

They didn't know how long they had before the government arrived, so they had to maximize what time they did have.

 

Mr. R had to be hurried along so they could move to the next phase. That would be fun.

 

Mr. Wolf thought about getting into another line of work as he and Fenris Ulf moved silently through the trees. He found shooting people to be a lot more work than he wanted to do. He was getting too old to fight other people's conflicts. Retirement seemed to beckon as he daydreamed along the path, moving without having to think about where to put a foot down.

 

They reached the fence. A hole let them get on the base grounds. Mr. Wolf pointed for his minion to take to the roof to watch out for incoming. The wolf faced berserker nodded, swinging the axe in his giant mitt in a circle and then letting it carry him to the top of the building. From there, he could hurl his weapon at anything that might approach the main edifice in the outpost.

 

Mr. Wolf looked at the main gate. Sundog waved back at him. Hopefully they had pushed the car off the road and covered it with branches to slow down detection.

 

Shadowpup checked in with a click over the radio. He should have picked a place where he could see the road and no one could see him.

 

Mr. Wolf stepped into the building, decided to talk to the prisoner. That might give him some clue how long he had to get the rest of the mission done. If he had to, his troops would pull out and leave the client on his own.

 

You couldn't spend your money in Leavenworth.

 

Mr. Wolf walked down the hall to the offices they were using for a brig. He opened the door. The three Air Force personnel had been joined by an older woman in a black suit and tie. None of them looked happy to see him.

 

"I'm Mr. Wolf." He lit up a cigarette and took a puff. "I'm wondering what you're doing here."

 

"I'm part of the decommission team." Aylwin looked around for something she could use while she talked. They hadn't seemed concerned about gagging her. That could be good or bad depending on what it meant. "What do you want here?"

 

"I'm being paid to look after things for someone." Mr. Wolf knew that sometimes people were sent out to check on bases when they were being decommissioned. He should have expected this to happen.

 

It was a big kink in the plan, but nothing he couldn't iron out.

 

"I'm willing to let you people stay here in this room and leave you unharmed as long as you stay out of the way." Mr. Wolf didn't bother to adopt a friendly pose. It was better if they thought he might kill them at any second. "On the other hand, if you leave this room, you will be shot. We're going to find what we're looking for and then leave. Someone will be told you are up here and they should come up to free you before you starve."

 

"What if they don't?" one of the Air Force men glared at the mercenary.

 

"Not my problem." Mr. Wolf shut the door.

[Psybolt]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

If you ever need an evil mentalist, Psybolt is available

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

If you ever need an evil mentalist' date=' Psybolt is available [/quote']

 

Thank you. It'll probably be a while.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

Staff Sergeant Baloo hit a rock and was glad. The pain cut through the numbing cold that threatened to pull him under. One slightly blue hand gripped the stone, pulled with the remaining strength in his bearish form. Riding the water down to Lake Marlowe had seemed like a good idea compared to having his head split open.

 

Looking at the dark forest, feeling the cold in his bones, and the drag of his uniform, said otherwise.

 

He wrung his clothes out on the move. He didn't know how much time he had before the wolves caught up with him. He certainly couldn't waste it freezing to death.

 

Baloo jogged along, heading for the lights of Marlowe. If he could get there, he could call in. Worse case, he could ask the local heroes to help out. They had handled Zornwill, but a mindless monster didn't compare to mercenaries willing to inflict anything to win.

 

He wondered what could be in the old vaults that had required a robbery. Surely better technology was on the open market in the decades since Project Z had started. Cutting edge in the fifties didn't hold a candle to what had been unleashed in the last few years.

 

Who was Mr. R? Why had he hired Wolf and his friends to break into a decommissioned base? How had he even known such a base was there? Was that a hound baying back there in the night?

 

Baloo paused, looking over his shoulder. Mr. Wolf was the kind of guy to make sure. Who had he sent to finish the job? The staff sergeant didn't think much of his chances against the superhumans he had observed during his escape. He figured that Fenris would be the easiest to deal with compared to the rest of the mob.

 

Sun dog had his flames. Garou was indestructible. Fenris Ulf was an avatar of berserker rage. Shadowpup could use darkness as a weapon. Stone dog made moving stone hounds. Mr. Wolf was better armed at the moment. All Fenris could do was bite through steel. What kind of super ability was that?

 

Baloo started jogging again. He needed to get as close to Marlowe as he could if he wanted to avoid endangering anyone living close to the lake, if anyone still lived close to the lake. A lake monster and uncovered chemical dumping couldn't have been good for the property values.

 

The sound of hounds calling filled the air behind the Air Force non-com. He didn't bother to look behind him. His feet dragged his lumbering form among dangerous obstacles. He couldn't spare the split second look over his shoulder if he wanted to keep moving.

 

At least he knew Stone Dog was behind him. Any information was good information. How could he use it to better his situation?

 

Baloo reached a clearing, cheered by the fact he had entered a path carved by Zornwill's rampage. If he could traverse its length before the hounds caught up with him, he could maybe play hide and seek among the ruined houses and buildings that must have stood in the way of the lake monster's march before it ended their defiant existence as shelters and places of businesses.

 

If he was really lucky, he might even find a weapon under the debris. Anything would be better than his numbed hands at this point.

 

Baloo heard a scrabbling to his left as he jogged down the furrow he had encountered. He turned. Glaring eyes appeared in the dark. He turned to head into the trees. No way could he fight a stone hound in the open. That would be like handing himself up on a plate.

 

Baloo jumped over a fallen tree trunk, squeezed through where two trees leaned together, and kept moving. Claws scrapped wood behind him and he knew he didn't have a lot of time left. He saw something glinting in the grass ahead. He grabbed it as he ran pass.

 

Someone had lost a baseball bat. Rust spots on the surface of it told Baloo it had been in the rain for a little bit. He expected it had been blasted from one of the stomped houses as Zornwill had cruised by. It didn't matter where the bat had came from. All that mattered was he had it in his hands.

 

Baloo felt movement close to him, turned and swung the bat. The metal hit something hard enough to be a brick wall. The vibration went up in his shoulders. Then the stone dog ran into him like a mini Cooper. He went down under the blow.

 

"Freeze, old man." Stone Dog rode up on the back of one of his hounds, dressed in fox hunting uniform and mask done up in brown. "We don't want to hurt you any more than we have to, but we're not putting up with your guff either."

 

Baloo looked around for the baseball bat. He saw it laying on the ground a few feet away. If he could reach it, maybe he could take the fox hunter down.

 

The hound glared at him, dripping pebbles on his wet uniform. Fenris picked up the bat. He bit it in half, chewed on the metal, swallowed the part he had reduced to pieces. He flung the two pieces away in the dark.

 

"Don't test us." Fenris shook his cowled head, the green and dark red F of his costume reduced to shades of gray. "I had to ride the worse thing to ride outside of a unicycle with no seat to catch you. Biting your head off would make up for that."

 

"You got me." Baloo sighed. This was a pickle.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

13

Quin Martin and Frank Darby stood in a dark alley between two industrial buildings that had seen better days. Quin's coat blew in the rising wind. He held his hat down with one hand while scanning Darby's notes in the other.

 

"You found the body here?" Quin looked around the alley. It matched every version of a dumping ground he had ever seen on television. "Tell me what it looked like."

 

"I came down from that end." Darby pointed at the other end of the alley. "I walked to the end of the loading dock. There were big bins like for construction there next to the wall. I found the body between the loading bay and the first bin."

 

Quin looked up and down the alley, and then at the wall where the bins had been that cold day. He walked the length and started back.

 

"What do you think?" Darby stuck his gloved hands in his coat. "Did we miss something?"

 

"It's cold." Quin's eyes glowed under the mask. "Yes."

 

Quin paused as his power snatched the two answers from his lips. He felt that sensation of hooking into a vast stream of information moving around him. It just waited for him to plunge in and never want to leave its embrace.

 

"What did we miss?" Darby turned a full circle, looking at the crime scene the way it was years ago. "I've looked this place over dozens of times."

 

"The killer was wounded. He left his blood at the scene. There was enough for a blood typing." Quin pointed at the wall where the body had lain. "The detectives investigating the case thought it was her blood. No one knew."

 

"Did the perp go to the hospital?" Darby pulled out a pad and pen. Excitement made him hop in place.

 

"Yes." The Question Man barely showed signs of life. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

 

"What's his name?" Darby smiled. This could be the answer to everything that had haunted his whole career. Countless man hours devoted to this one case had been wasted until this point.

 

"His name is Marcel Marceau." The Question Man shook off the knowledge that shrouded his mind.

 

"I know that name." Darby flipped through his notes. He didn't find what he wanted in the scant pages. "It belonged to someone interviewed in the canvas."

 

"Now is the time to go back and look things over in the evidence bag and see if you can find anything that will connect to Marceau." Quin shrugged. He handed the file back. "I'm sure you will find connections now that you know who you're looking for."

 

"What was the motive?" Darby put the file and his notes in the pockets of his heavy coat. "Why did he do it?"

 

"He didn't like the fact she was breathing his air." The Question Man pulled his coat up, hunching down in the wind. "If you can find him after all this time, and find enough to arrest him and bring him in, I suppose I can help with the questioning."

 

"Is there anything I can do to repay you?" Darby watched the mystery man start limping toward the end of the alley and to the street beyond.

 

"Keep this to yourself." The Question Man looked and turned down the street. He had expected something like this, and his power had not failed him in that respect. He needed to keep questions down somehow.

 

Quin needed to get back to his place. A good lie down and a book sometimes cleared the foggy feeling that hung around after what he called a reading. Then he could sleep and recharge for the next day.

 

Quin hoped Darby didn't do any Dirty Harry type of thing based on a few answers in an alley. The police would think he targeted an innocent man over a crime he had been investigating for decades. Marceau could walk free after anything like that.

 

He wondered if he had done the right thing letting Odd talk him into using his ability for this dead investigation. Maybe he should have said no.

 

Quin limped along until he reached a hidden door he had asked Odd to help him with in case there was trouble at his loft. He looked around. No one seemed to be watching him, or looking his way. He stepped into the alcove, shut the door, and headed up a ladder to his apartment. By the time he reached the top, his right leg and arm hurt like a knife plunging in and out of his flesh.

 

Quin hung his disguise in a space behind his closet after closing and looking the secret entrance to his place. He felt hungry and nauseous at the same time. He decided to get a small bowl of cereal and see if that calmed down the side effects from using his powers.

 

Quin settled at his counter, poured some Cheerios in a plain bowl, poured milk and sugar in on top and mixed it up. He started on his dinner, concentrating on the feel of the oats and milk and sugar. Gradually the drain he had felt faded. He drank the milk from the bowl when the cereal was gone and washed it out under the kitchen faucet.

 

He would have to call Odd and ask him not to refer any other unsolved mystery to him in the future. He hated to do that, but he didn't want to have a stroke solving some crime that happened before he was born. Maybe if he had a better handle on his power, he could do that without fearing his brains leaking out his nose.

 

Saving the city from a giant monster had been necessary. Serving delayed justice on some miscreant seemed okay but not an immediate threat to everyone Quin knew. He would have to pass on that.

 

Quin checked his watch. Odd and Kitty should be having dinner. He should go ahead and talk to Odd in person. That way they could work out some kind of ground rules about letting other people know what he could do.

 

Odd would help him out.

 

Quin pulled on his parka and limped out of his place.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

14

 

 

Oz Mike Michaelson worked his way back and forth through the building. He had found several people that needed to be carried outside. His water slide steamed against the fire trying to push it back. Smoke drifted behind him as he moved.

 

"Thanks for your help." The chief pointed at a stray bush of flames trying to expand out of their cordon. "It looks like we almost have it under control."

 

"Give me some more water and I'll help you finish putting it out." Oz Mike rubbed a sooty hand on his sooty face. "It's no problem."

 

"We're going to shoot it into the bottom floor." The chief pointed at one of the doors. "Once we saturate the floor, we'll start looking for anything still hiding in the walls."

 

"Pour it on." Oz Mike bounced in place. "I can handle it."

 

The chief spoke into his radio. The hoses concentrated on the building. Oz Mike stood in front of the water. It lifted him off the ground and followed where he wanted it to go. The former surfer smiled as he rode the solid spray.

 

The concentrated water beam blasted the inside of the building as Mike directed it along the halls and up and down the stairs. He concentrated on the heaviest areas of heat. That would help the firemen the most when they came in the building after him.

 

Mike let his control go after a few minutes of this riding. He dropped to the floor. So did the water. All he could see was a wasteland of smoke. He slid along the floor toward the door. The dirty liquid gathered itself together and helped him out the door.

 

Mike headed out in the street. He coughed. Maybe he had taken in too much smoke while helping out. He went over and sat on the step on the fire truck. He needed the break at the moment.

 

"Go get checked out, son." The chief spoke into his radio. "Some oxygen might just be the thing you need right now."

 

"Thanks, Chief." Oz Mike coughed again, drawing in some deep breaths. "I have to get cleaned up and meet some friends."

 

"Get checked out first." The chief pointed to an ambulance. "I don't want to tell you again."

 

Mike nodded. What was the harm in having the EMTs check him out before he went on his way. Worse came to worse, he could stop by Odd's for some of that tonic he cooked up sometimes.

 

The paramedic gave Mike some oxygen and checked him over. He asked if Mike felt dizzy or short of breath. When the answer was in the negative, he advised that the surfer go to the hospital, but he seemed okay to get there on his own. Michaelson thanked him, took one last breath of pure air, then started walking away.

 

Oz Mike checked his watch. Odd and Kitty should be sitting down to dinner right about now. If he hurried, he could make just in time for dessert. One slice of one of Kitty's cheesecakes could make a man explode with happiness.

 

Oz Mike looked up at the sky. He figured he could cut straight across town without worrying too much about time. Marlowe had a lot of little twisty streets that went nowhere that he hadn't quite learned how to fit together.

 

Oz Mike started walking. Rivulets of water gathered together under him, carrying him along. He looked down in surprise, then remembered that run off from fighting the fire would be in the street. He had wanted to go and his power was helping him get there as best it could.

 

Oz Mike concentrated on the water shoving him along. There had to be a way to keep it from being anchored at one end and stretching out from that point. Maybe if he told it to pool under his feet. One side stretched forward. The other side contracted. It wouldn't be as fast as using it as Tarzan uses a vine, but it should be faster than walking.

 

Oz Mike crossed town on his improvised skateboard. People on the street glanced at him, trying to figure out what was going on. Mike smiled and waved a grimy hand as he passed. He would have to clean up when he reached Odd's place.

 

Oz Mike turned into the street where Odd lived. He spotted Quin Martin coming down from the other side of the road. The Question Man limped along the sidewalk, head down.

 

Oz Mike let the water carrying him drain away as he fell in beside the quiet fact checker. The look on the other's face prevented him from saying anything as they walked along.

 

They reached the door to Odd's domicile. Quin knocked for admittance. Maybe some of Kitty's food would fix him up.

 

"What happened to you two?" Odd's eyes were round as he looked at his two friends.

 

"Hurt myself using my powers." Quin indicated Oz Mike with a thumb. "Fought a fire."

 

"You two can tell me about it while Kitty cooks something up." Odd stepped out of the door. "I'll tell her you're here."

 

"Can I use your bathroom to clean up first?" Oz Mike let Quin step in first. He looked like he needed a place to sit down more than the surfer needed a bath.

 

"Yes." Odd and Quin answered the question together.

 

"Let me get you some towels." Odd walked to the linen closet and produced a towel and wash clothes he didn't care if he ever saw again. He handed them over. "Knock yourself out."

 

"Thanks." Oz Mike took the things and vanished into the bathroom.

 

"Let me get you a cup of coffee, Quin." Odd frowned at the tired looking Martin, sunk into his coat, head down.

 

"Thank you." Quin closed his eyes. His brain geared up to answer questions instead of toning down to merely listen. Maybe it had been a bad idea to associate with his friends.

 

Odd went into the kitchen, pulling down a cup for Quin. Kitty had her head in the refrigerator, looking for more ingredients for dinner. Odd started the coffee machine working as he thought.

 

"What do you think?" Odd knew Kitty had heard the entire exchange from the kitchen. Their living quarters wasn't that big.

 

"If Quin keeps using his power, he might burn out, maybe have a stroke." Kitty placed her choices on the counter to get them ready for cooking. "We need to help him if we can."

 

Odd stared at the coffee pot, waiting for it to give him an answer.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

15

 

 

 

Tim Buckett decided that he needed to talk to Odd. He made sure no one was behind him as he headed for the closest bus stop to the school. He should call, but decided it was better to talk face to face.

 

He had given Odd's name as a contact for his other identity. The least he could do was tell him in person.

 

He hoped the girl decided to call the cops. That would be the best thing for everyone involved.

 

He should talk to Coach Reilly. He wasn't on the baseball team but maybe the coach would be able to deal with the guys in the car. A little baseball barrage might not have taught them the lesson they needed to know.

 

Tim hoped his gear would be safe on top of the school while he took care of his errand. He needed to deal with that before he went home.

 

At least some of the others knew what he looked like so he didn't have to explain who he was. That could be embarrassing trying to tell a bunch of adults he was the one who threw cars at Godzilla. He knew he wouldn't believe it without a demonstration.

 

He wondered why those guys in the car had it in for the girl. Maybe that was something he could ask the Question Man. He might have to look them up again to see how he could make sure they wouldn't go by the school again.

 

Tim shook his head. He had been a hero for almost a week and he had his first villain. Life was like a comic book.

 

Tim saw a shape leaping from rooftop to rooftop as he rode on the bus. He couldn't quite make the person out from his window but he suspected that it had to be the Enforcer. They were moving in the same direction and the only other person he knew that could fly was a shapely female.

 

He wondered why the Enforcer would be going to Odd's. Maybe it was a new case. He hoped it wasn't another monster. One giant turtle dragon destroying the city was enough for him.

 

Tim got off the bus as close to the book store as he could. He started walking as fast as he thought would still look normal. He would have to go back to the school for his Trebuchet gear and books after he talked to Odd. Maybe he could get a lift from Odd or the Enforcer.

 

He paused when he reached the bookstore. The lights were off. He glanced inside with the hope of seeing someone moving in the darkness within. It looked like he had missed the man in the odd hat. He paused, thinking of his next move.

 

"Gone for the day?" The voice drifted down from above. "Try around back."

 

Tim looked up. A faceless gray mask looked down from the roof. He waved rather than call something back. He had enough savvy not to attract more attention while he was on the street.

 

Tim started to the other side of the building. A look around didn't reveal anyone following him.

 

Tim spotted a light in the window. It looked like Odd was home after all. He looked up. The Enforcer didn't peer down at him. Tim rang the doorbell, listening to the chimes play their musical notes.

 

The door opened a few moments later. Tim didn't recognize the woman looking at him. She smiled but he could recognize the question in her eyes.

 

"I'm Trebuchet." Tim nodded at the way his confirmation changed her face. "Could I talk to Odd, please?"

 

"Come in." The woman stepped out of the way. "We're about to have dinner."

 

"Thank you, Mrs. Dorfman." Tim stepped across the threshold. "The Enforcer is around somewhere. I don't know if he is coming in, but I saw him on the roof."

 

"I'm here, Tim." The Enforcer dropped down from the roof. "Hello, Mrs. Dorfman. I'm also here to see Odd."

 

"We have enough food for both of you." Kitty gestured him inside also before closing the door.

 

Tim and the Enforcer walked in the small living room. Quin and Oz Mike were already there. The Question Man looked half dead. Odd came out of the kitchen with a tray of coffee cups and pitcher in his hands.

 

"How's it going, fellas?" Odd put the tray down. "Coffee?"

 

"I have something to tell you." Tim paused as he tried to think of the right words for the bad news.

 

"We have an alert." The Enforcer looked at the others. They didn't look ready for a fight from where he stood.

 

"First things first, guys." Odd poured himself a cup of coffee and started sipping it black. "Go ahead, Trebuchet."

 

"This girl had problems with these guys at school." Tim didn't think what he had to say was more important than an alert, but he might as well get it out of the way. "I gave her the bookstore's number to call if she needed help."

 

"That's not as bad as I thought." Odd poured some coffee for Oz Mike and the Enforcer. "I expected something like you blew up the school, or something. The alert, Enforcer?"

 

"Aylwin called to tell me she was in trouble." The Enforcer held up a cell phone. "She's not answering my callbacks."

 

"That could be trouble." Odd handed out the cups. "We'll have to get the others if we want to find out what's going on."

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

16

 

 

Billy Keys looked out the window of his apartment as he dialed Odd Dorfman's number. The rat army made him think there was a supervillain in town. That seemed absurd. Why would a supervillain visit Marlowe?

 

That was like robbing Mayberry.

 

Still the others should know a rat king was out there. If things started happening, they could figure out how to deal with him.

 

"Hello?" Billy didn't recognize the voice. It sounded like Mrs. Epstein. Maybe he had called the wrong number.

 

"Is Odd Dorfman there?" Billy didn't see any more rats from his window. "My name is Billy. I would like to talk to him please if he is there."

 

"Of course." The voice smiled. "Hold on. I'll get him for you."

 

Billy started counting as he waited for someone to come back and talk to him. He got up to sixty before Odd's voice said "How's it going?"

 

"I think I have a smart rat problem." Billy turned from the window. "I'm not sure yet."

 

"We're having a meeting at my place." Odd gave him the address. "We're short you, Thia, Alice and S.S. Could you pick them up and bring them by?"

 

"Problem?" Billy looked around his apartment, taking in the look of it. He wanted to remember it as it was before he left.

 

"We don't know yet." Odd sounded cheerful on the phone. Billy couldn't tell if it was real or fake. "We're discussing options right now."

 

"I'll do what I can." Billy thought maybe he could find Alice the easiest. He wasn't sure. "Have you tried to call?"

 

"Voicemail only so far." Odd tapped something on his end. "You're the fastest one of us, so I thought maybe you would be able to locate them easiest."

 

"I'll see what I can do." Billy hung up, thinking. He could maybe find Alice if she was out flying. He got his binoculars from its place on a shelf. If he could do that, she would know where Super Squirrel was. That left Thia. He would have to work a little harder to find her.

 

Billy went to his door, used that to get to the roof of the apartment building. He looked at the tallest building in Marlowe, using that for the place where he needed to start his search. He used the roof exit of his own building to get to that one.

 

Billy searched the skies over the city with his spyglasses. Finally he saw a flying form flitting through the night sky. He used the exit of his launch building to get to a building close to where he had spotted the winged woman. He pulled the flashlight from his belt and played it up where he had last seen someone he hoped was Alice and not another flying creature of the night.

 

That would be embarrassing to mix people up like that.

 

The winged woman drifted down, staring at him with golden eyes. Billy waited until she folded her wings, putting the light away, as he marshaled his thoughts.

 

"Hello, Billy." Alice the Owl almost smiled. "What's happening?"

 

"There seems to be a problem." Billy gave her the polite smile he used on his tenants. "Group meeting at Odd's place."

 

"I'll get Squirrel." Alice spread her wings out. "We'll be there as fast as we can."

 

Billy watched her leave before considering how he could find Thia. She would be a little harder than Alice since she didn't patrol the streets.

 

Billy decided the best thing to do was try her house, then work the neighborhood from there. He had seen her around the apartment building a few times, and visited her house once. A circular pattern from those two points might net him something.

 

Billy found Thia's house was empty. He started moving through the neighborhood, looking into likely places she could be. Finally he found her at the shooting range behind a gun shop a few miles over from where she lived. A crowd surrounded her. They seemed to be taking notes on what she was telling them.

 

"Fan club?" Billy looked at the people. He noted they all had firearms while he only had his tool belt.

 

"Hey, Billy." Thia frowned at the super. "This is the Marlowe Shooting Club. Shooting Club, this is Billy. I thought you stayed close to your building."

 

"Problem has come up." Billy nodded at the members of the Shooting Club. "We might need a shooter."

 

"I hope it isn't as bad as the last problem." Thia waved at the group of competitors. "I'll be at practice tomorrow. Don't worry about a thing."

 

"Thanks, Coach." One of the men waved back and the gathering started breaking up to go their separate ways.

 

"Coach?" Billy led the way to the door of the gun shop.

 

"Problem?" Thia slung her bag over her shoulder as she followed.

 

"Don't know yet." Billy opened the door to Odd's place.

 

Thia frowned, trying to decide which part of the statements Billy was talking about. She decided he referred to whatever had sent him looking for her, and not her apparent coaching skills.

 

"Alice and Super Squirrel here yet?" Billy spoke to Odd. He got back a no from the book seller and a yes from the Question Man laying on the couch.

 

The doorbell rang.

 

"Looks like I was wrong." Odd went to get the door.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

17

 

Mr. R. trundled down the aisles, metal head spinning as he scanned the shelves with electric eyes. Sounds of frustration escaped his barrel body. He should have found the item he was looking for by now.

 

Maybe his robot brain was breaking down faster than he had anticipated.

 

-Mr. R. paused at one shelf. He searched the assortment of labels in front of him for the one that would give him what he wanted. He needed help though he didn't want to admit it.

 

Footsteps reached his metal ears. Mr. Wolf showed himself at one end of the aisle. A cigarette was on his lips. Sunglasses covered his eyes.

 

"Find what you're looking for yet?" Mr. Wolf lit the cigarette.

 

"No." Mr. R. paused in his search to confront his employee. "I can't find it anywhere."

 

"I have an agent." Mr. Wolf indicated the distant storeroom where he had locked his captives. "She said they are decommissioning the base. Maybe they already took your gadget."

 

"Wonderful." Mr. R. spun on his tracked wheels. "Let's talk to this agent. Maybe she has a manifest of what they have already sent out."

 

"And if they have?" Mr. Wolf paced beside the metal monster as it rolled along the aisles.

 

"Then I will pay you to help me secure the items in question." Mr. R. didn't sound as impatient as he acted. "Same working rate, of course."

 

"Naturally." Mr. Wolf walked ahead to open the door for his employer. He had wanted this done today so they could move on to better climes. He might need to kill the witnesses to buy time for his escape of the country.

 

Being a mercenary was a dirty business.

 

"I have very little time." Mr. R. looked at each of the four captives with his electronic eyes. "I wish to procure an item called the Arthur Power Generator. Where is it?"

 

"There's no such thing." One of the base personnel sneered. "You wasted your time breaking into here."

 

"I'm on a strict time table." Mr. R.'s three fingered hand extended at the end of his pipestem arm, a barrel protruded slightly. "Give me what I want, and I will not harm any of you. Waste my time, and I will have to inflict damage until I get what I want anyway."

 

"I'll help you." Aylwin struggled to her feet. "I'll need access to the base computer system."

 

"I have no hesitation about executing one of these others if you try anything." Mr. R. waved one of his tubular arms at the Air Force men. "I have had enough delays for the time being."

 

"There's no need for any threats." Aylwin wondered if she could cripple Wolf, then push the robot over before either one could react. A commotion down the hall caused her to stop and think before she found herself dealing with additional numbers.

 

"We caught your runaway." Fenris showed his enormous choppers in a smile as he and Stone Dog walked a sergeant down the hall between them. One of Stone Dog's hounds growled to prevent any excitement now that the prisoner was ready to be locked in the makeshift brig.

 

"Lock him in with the others." Mr. Wolf puffed on his cigarette. "The agent has decided to cooperate as long as we don't do anything harsh to our hostages."

 

"No problem, boss." Fenris pushed the burly sergeant into the cell with the other captives. The door swung shut and locked as Mr. Wolf and Mr. R. flanked Aylwin and let her lead the way toward one of the small offices the personnel used for their paperwork.

 

Aylwin indicated her bound hands. The two misters looked at each other, before Mr. R. snapped her bonds with his metal claws. She sat down at the desk, booting up the computer. She didn't think they would allow witnesses to the crime.

 

She wouldn't.

 

Aylwin thought about the situation, already thinking that her SOS had not gotten through. It was up to her to buy time and think of a way for them to get out alive. She didn't see a ready situation that would fit that at the moment. If she had a weapon, she might be able to get lost in the aisles until she could think of some kind of plan.

 

The operating screen lit up on the desktop as she still ran options in her mind. She still had a trick up her sleeve. She didn't like to use it, but anything was better than nothing.

 

"The Arthur Power Generator?" Aylwin punched the name into a search bar on the inventory program.

 

"That's correct." Mr. R. lifted himself on his tracked wheels to try to read over her shoulder.

 

"It's been destroyed." Aylwin tensed to make her move.

 

"What?" Mr. R. placed both hands on her to move her out of the way so he could read the screen himself.

 

Aylwin wrapped both arms around his metal body several times. Mr. R squawked as he flew through the air and landed on his side. He bounced against a shelf and it fell down on top of him as he struggled to right his barrel shell.

 

Mr. Wolf went for his slung rifle as he stepped back from the surprise attack.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

18

 

Odd Dorfman served tea and what he and Kitty called pot luck. She had taken a set of random ingredients, mixed them together, and cooked them in the oven. He marveled at her cooking but he was also used to the great taste, and his weight gain.

 

The others took plates, wanting to get things started and find out what was going on with Enforcer's phone call. Odd's calm manner seemed to make them think and cool down before rushing off.

 

"I know we need to answer the distress call, but first we have to help Quin." Odd looked at his empty plate, wishing he had time for seconds. The adventure stories he read cautioned him against killing too much time.

 

Besides he could get leftovers later if they lived that long.

 

"How do we do that?" Tim also looked at his empty plate. That was the best meal he had ever had.

 

"Hypnotism." Quin smiled. "I can be hypnotized to ignore questions that aren't important."

 

"You know I have just the thing." Odd smiled. "I used it on my nephew."

 

"Do we need to ask why?" Oz Mike frowned.

 

"He was a smoker." Odd headed for the closet. "He was always trying to quit."

 

"So you zapped him?" Super Squirrel found that it was hard for him to move from where he and Alice rested against the wall.

 

Alice nudged him with an elbow.

 

"Sure did." Odd brought out a handgun with a satellite dish around the muzzle. "Worked like a charm."

 

"How is it supposed to work?" Thia looked at the ray gun, imprinting on her memory. She had worked with her powers to expand her repertoire. A hypnotizing ray could be better than a bullet in the right situation.

 

"He shoots me in the face. Then he tells me to ignore any question that seems irrelevant." Quin nodded. "I like it."

 

"Let's see if it works." Odd aimed the ray gun as everyone else cleared out of the way. He pulled the trigger and gave the command as Quin's eyes rolled up in the back of his head for the brief seconds that the beam was on.

 

"How do we know if it worked?" Trebuchet concentrated on Quin's face as it became more mobile.

 

"What is the color of the third bird on any branch in Washington, D.C.?" Enforcer crossed his arms. "You pick the branch."

 

"I don't know." Quin smiled. "I don't know. This is great."

 

"Glad to help out." Odd went back to the closet to put the ray up on the shelf. "Now we have to concentrate on Enforcer's distress call."

 

"I'm pretty sure it's from Aylwin." Enforcer checked his phone again. "She hasn't answered my call backs. The phone sends my calls to voice mail."

 

"So we need to know exactly what's going on." Quin felt his mental hook up come to life. Facts were waiting for the right question.

 

"Why did Aylwin call me?" Enforcer started with the obvious question. More would surface from the answer he was sure.

 

"You're the closest agent of her agency." Quin smiled. His mental screen spat out the answer without the overload he had encountered earlier.

 

"Why did she call at all?" Super Squirrel stood, his tail flickering behind him.

 

"She came under attack by mercenaries." Quin rubbed his hands together. This was definitely much better. "Next?"

 

"Let's focus on the five W's and the H." Oz Mike sipped his tea. "Who did it, what do they want, why do they want it, where are they, when are they leaving, and how do we stop them?"

 

He ignored the looks from the others. He had covered all they needed to know as far as he was concerned.

 

Quin's eyes lit up from within, spilling green fire into the room. The smile he wore told the others he didn't feel the effect that lit his skull from within.

 

"Garou and Sundog caused the call because they were hired to guard a base from intruders. They are leaving when their employer finds what he wants. Garou can be imprisoned as long as we make sure he can't claw his way free. Sundog will have to be put out with fire extinguishers then we can deal with him with ordinary means." Quin's eyes slowly dimmed to normal.

 

"That was pretty concise." Enforcer nodded. "Let's get going. We can figure out the rest on the way."

 

"Hold on." Odd held up a hand. "Where is this base, Quin? Can you put it on the map?"

 

Quin nodded. He searched the shelves until he found an atlas of the Midwest. He turned to the map of Marlowe and its environs. He pointed to a spot on the other side of the lake.

 

"Can you reach out there, Billy?" Odd frowned at the wilderness markings on the page.

 

"I can get us close to one side of the lake." Billy indicated the area he meant. "There's a house I used when Zornwill came out of the water."

 

"There's where we'll start then." Odd smiled. "I'll need some equipment."

 

"I'll need to get my stuff too." Trebuchet indicated the absence of his padding and mask. "I need to call my dad. He's probably freaking right now."

 

"Let's go." Billy went to the door. "The right tools for the right job first."

 

"My stuff is at the school." Trebuchet put his plate aside. "It's on the roof."

 

"No problem, kid." Billy opened the door on starlight and the Marlowe skyline.

 

"That's cool." Trebuchet stepped on the roof of his school. He went to his bag and gathered his equipment. He stepped back into Odd's living room with the gear.

 

"You can change in the bathroom, Trebuchet." Kitty pointed to the room.

 

"Thanks." Trebuchet dragged his bag into the bathroom and shut the door.

 

"Let's go, Billy." Odd gave him an address. "I have just the thing in mind."

 

Billy opened the door on a busy street blocks away from the little apartment. He waited for Odd to step through before closing the gate. They returned after a few minutes. Odd carried a steel case in his hand.

 

"This should help us against the two we know about." Odd adjusted his bowler. "First we reach the house, then we go out to where this base is and look things over."

 

"I can look at it from the air." Alice looked at the others. She didn't know what they expected, but if Squirrel was going into danger, she would go too.

 

"That's a good idea, Alice." Enforcer nodded. "Be careful. If they see you, the game is up."

 

"I can handle it." Alice squared her shoulders. She had been avoiding people for years. A night flight over a secret base should be a snap.

 

"Hurry up, Tim." Enforcer called. "We're leaving."

 

"I'm coming." Trebuchet came out of the bathroom, pulling down his mask. "I'm ready for a no hitter."

 

"Let's go, guys." Enforcer wondered when he became the top kick of a unit. Was he the top kick here? "Let's save the world."

 

Billy opened the door to the house he had indicated was the limits of his range as Quin pulled on his own mask to protect his face. The Strangers walked through, sliding across space in an instant. The super shut the gate, taking a deep breath of cool air.

 

"I'm off." Alice spread her wings, flapping into the air.

 

"Be careful." Super Squirrel moved out into the yard. The trees were close enough for him to use them as a highway to wherever he needed to go. The others would have to find their own way to the fight.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

19

Aylwin had to deal with her enemy, get back to the hostages and free them, and send out a call for back up. Her bullet list seemed easy when she took a second to form it. Getting it done seemed to be the major stumbling block.

 

One thing at a time said her training. Start with your current enemy.

 

Aylwin grabbed Mr. Wolf's rifle with a hand at the end of an elongated arm. She pushed the muzzle away from pointing at her before he could pull the trigger. Her limited stretching would not protect her from bullets cutting through her body.

 

Mr. Wolf grabbed her wrist. He turned, pulling on her already stretched limb. The appendage stopped stretching and started pulling her closer to him so he could fight close in.

 

Aylwin retracted her limb to speed up the process. Mr. Wolf let go of the limb to get out of the way. His reflexes were too slow to avoid the sudden human projectile. They both hit the deck and rolled with the impact.

 

Aylwin jumped to her feet. Mr. Wolf rolled some more, pulling a pistol as he finally came to a stop near some empty shelves. The agent ran down an aisle to get out of the line of fire. The crack of a firearm followed the whiz of killer bees in the air.

 

Aylwin considered her options. Nothing really appealed to her. She could turn to try and deal with Mr. Wolf. She could try to get the hostages. She could try and call for back up to put a stop to this robbery.

 

Everything looked equally dangerous and fraught with risk.

 

The agent paused to look around. She had wandered into a section of the warehouse where some of the equipment still remained on the shelving. She started looking for something that she could use. She needed a weapon if she confronted her current enemies again.

 

Aylwin started moving down the aisle, looking for something that wouldn't blow up a wall, or half of the state. She heard footsteps hurrying along. Mr. Wolf was faster than she thought.

 

Aylwin grabbed the top of the shelf. She pulled herself to the top of the metal rack. She looked around. She could jump over to the other aisles without any problem. She spotted Wolf and a couple of other Canines searching for her.

 

She didn't have to imagine what would happen if she got caught.

 

Aylwin jumped over to the next shelf. Then she crossed to the one after that. She dropped down behind cover before anyone got a shot off. She decided that escape was the most feasible option at the moment.

 

Aylwin knew an exit had been built in the north wall. She needed to get there before the goon squad caught up. She paused to listen. No one was close, but she could still hear faint sounds of movement circling around.

 

Then the baying of hounds reached her to urge to keep moving. They had set dogs loose to find her.

 

Aylwin decided to get more height. That would allow her to orientate herself to point at the door. Then she could try to make it there before the dogs caught up with her.

 

The agent grabbed the nearest rack with her elongated arms and pulled. That was enough to allow her to vault to the top again. She dropped down to the other side after a moment to look around. She had to go to her left. That meant going over every shelf in her way.

 

That wasn't unexpected.

 

Dogs barking told her to move faster if she wanted to get loose before the net closed for good.

 

Aylwin pulled herself up and started running. She jumped the gaps with longer legs. Her stretching had lessened in power over the years but it was getting the job done.

 

Heavy pattering focused her on the pursuit for a second. It sounded like dogs running, but they must be as big as VW beetles from the sounds erupting from the shelves.

 

Aylwin dropped down from the last shelf. The walls were lined with empty racks. She pulled at one of the edges. The furniture moved away from the wall smoothly. A door stood next to a key pad. She dialed the pass code as fast as she could. She pressed the key.

 

The door slid open. Aylwin stepped inside the secret tunnel. A dog made of rock charged forward as she pulled the shelf closed. She winced as it smashed into the metal covering. She closed the exit and started for the other end of the tunnel.

 

Aylwin ran with the knowledge that the hidden door wouldn't slow them down for long. She had to reach the outside before the dogs got through. Her stretching wouldn't help in the confined space of the corridor.

 

She hoped the metal of the cover would hold them long enough for a head start. She knew she wasn't faster than those dogs, much less a bullet.

 

Aylwin reached the other end and opened the door there. She pushed the camouflage away so she could step out under a stand of trees. She looked up at the sky to read the stars long enough to get a direction to move.

 

Marlowe rested in the south. They would expect her to head that way. She needed to head in a direction that would carry her somewhere unexpected so she could loop back to the city and call someone.

 

And she had to be fast about it if she wanted to get a good lead before Wolf's boys broke through to take up the chase.

 

Aylwin grabbed some of the lower branches of a nearby tree and pulled herself up. She pulled herself across to another tree. Once secure in her new perch, she swung across to the next one in line. Let them try to track her now.

 

She hoped they couldn't track her the way she was moving.

 

Aylwin also hoped they wouldn't expect her to head west away from city and lake. Both of those would be the promise of some kind of help. If she fled away from them, and then circled back, maybe she could slip them.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

20

 

"I think we need to know what we're getting into here." Enforcer looked at the group. They didn't have a lot of training, but he had no doubt they were formidable as a force.

 

A giant turtle lizard could vouch for that.

 

"Ask me." The Question Man smiled under his mask. He didn't feel the pain from overusing his ability now.

 

"Let's stick with the basics." Enforcer checked his phone again. "Who, what, where, and how. Then we can take them."

 

"Could you be a little more specific?" The Question Man's eyes started to glow.

 

"Who else is out there besides Garou and Sun Dog? Is there anyone else with them?" Enforcer put the phone away. "And where are they?"

 

"Mr. Wolf, Stone dog, and Fenris are at the base trying to find Aylwin. Shadowpup is ahead of us near the road. Garou is at the base's gate. Sundog and Fenris Ulf are inside the base. Mr. R. is in the base somewhere." The glow faded from the masked man's eyes.

 

"Shadowpup is watching the road?" Super Squirrel looked north toward their unknown destination. "He could spot Alice."

 

Squirrel raced into the forest, chattering as he went. He vanished within moments. The group heard the branches of the nearby trees move. Hordes of miniature gray warriors took up the battle cry and followed him.

 

"There goes the element of surprise." Thia raised a long rifle to her eye. "How do we take this Shadowpup guy down?"

 

"We'll need a bright light." The Question Man frowned. "I didn't think to bring one."

 

"I got it covered." Thia's rifle changed a little. "Let's see if we can catch up with our loose cannon."

 

"Anyone have an idea how we're going to do that?" Trebuchet looked around in his helmet. Only Billy seemed to have a way to move around and that only worked when there were doors around.

 

"I do." Oz Mike laughed. "I just need to get to the lake. You guys get something to stand on. Come on, Billy. I need some of your magic."

 

Billy flipped the door of the house open to a snack bar near the lake. Miraculously it had survived Zornwill's rampage from the lake bottom. It had recently reopened for business now that the government had cleaned up the lake.

 

"You heard the man." Enforcer and Odd started talking at the same time. They looked at each other.

 

"We need platforms to ride on." Odd finished.

 

The heroes gathered together fallen logs. Odd produced rope from his emergency kit and they lashed the logs together. It looked like a decent raft. Enforcer wondered what was next, having a good idea what Oz Mike could do.

 

Billy stepped out of the closed door. He gave the others a thumb's up when they looked at him.

 

A wave appeared a minute later. It looked like half the lake made up its body. Oz Mike stood at the crest, holding his arms up. The Strangers boarded their makeshift boat as the water rushed down on them.

 

The wave flowed under the raft and picked it up. The heroes struggled to keep their balance as the water carried them into the road and away from the lake.

 

"This is awesome." Tim laughed. "This is the greatest."

 

"Don't get used to it." Oz Mike pulled on the lake water to keep his wave moving forward. "I don't know how long I can stretch this out. We might have to set down long before we get to where we're going."

 

"Which way is Shadowpup?" Thia had her rifle to her shoulder again.

 

"That way." The Question Man pointed into the darkness at an angle from the road.

 

"Excellent." Thia turned, fiddling with the scope on the top of the rifle. "Let's see if I can give Squirrel a helping hand."

 

Thia looked through her scope, panning it left and right. Super Squirrel and his army of rodents filled a section of the forest heading right where the Question Man said the enemy waited. No way they would be unnoticed the way they were chattering at full volume.

 

Thia shook her head. If he didn't watch out, someone would take him down.

 

Thia rolled the scope to point back on target. She had no idea where the target actually stood. She did have an idea how to fix that problem.

 

Thia pulled the trigger of her rifle. A swarm of darts arced out into the trees. Light exploded along her firing line from the flares. A man in black appeared, but she couldn't tell if he was surprised by the barrage because of his full face mask.

 

Thia smiled. That was all she needed to do. Squirrel plowed through the vegetation with his war cry echoing through the forest. The man in black raced to the nearby darkness to disappear again.

 

The army of squirrels prevented that. They swarmed over him with sharp claws and sharper teeth. Shadowpup went down with one of the rodents trying to rip a long ear off of his hood. He tried to shrug the monsters away so he could step into the darkness again.

 

Super Squirrel leaped across the space. He kicked out. The mercenary went back down. The mutant landed on top, swinging with his squirrel strength behind the blow. The man went down and stayed there.

 

"Take that, villainous scum." Super Squirrel and his squirrels danced with their hands in the air.

 

"One down." Thia put her rifle up. "Now we have to deal with the rest."

 

"The guards on the gate won't be that easy." Odd clutched his bowler to his head with one hand, held his bag of tricks with the other. "They'll see us coming unless Mike shuts his wave down before we get there."

 

"I'll put you down short of the gate." Oz Mike looked around at the edges of his behemoth. "I'll keep some of it to help deal with this Sundog."

 

"We need to find Aylwin and anybody else that might be in trouble." Enforcer cracked his knuckles.

 

"Got it covered." Billy spoke up. "Just get us close to a door."

 

"Us?" The Question Man looked around.

 

"Yep." Billy took his keys off his belt and put them in his pocket with a rubber band to hold them together. "Can't do it without you."

 

"Sounds like we got a plan." Odd laughed. "Let's save the day."

 

"There's the base." Thia pointed. "Two turkeys are waiting out front like the QM said."

 

"Let's do it." Enforcer leaped from the wave. "Stay close, Trebuchet."

 

"I'm right behind you." Trebuchet used his right arm to push off from the raft, baseball dropping into his hand from his ammo bag.

 

Garou saw the two heroes dropping from the giant water hand. His furry side came to the front with his berserker blood heating up. He loved to rip things apart. Why should a bunch of meddlers be different?

 

Sundog activated his own transformation. The night retreated from his fire bursting in the open. He didn't mind burning some guys down if they got in the way. He considered it a fringe benefit.

 

Billy grabbed the Question Man's arm and pulled. He wasn't a combatant. He was a mover. And the Question Man held the key to getting everything done without any loss of life.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

21

Enforcer gathered his strength. He was still as strong as ten men. He hoped it would be enough to get the job done.

 

The werewolf came at the veteran adventurer, drool hanging from his muzzle. Claws reached for the gray costume intent on ripping the hero apart. Wet work was what the Garou was all about.

 

Enforcer knocked the grasping paws away, grabbing for Garou's neck. He hooked a forearm under the monster's chin, clapping his mouth shut for the moment. They struggled for brief moments before the mercenary threw his aged opponent clear with a shrug of his powerful shoulders.

 

A baseball bounced off Garou's head. That knocked the werewolf off his feet. He felt a hand clamp around an ankle and wrenched double to tear the grip away. He almost laughed at the boy holding on to his limb. Then he vanished into the air.

 

Sundog heard his colleague howl on the way up, but he had his own problems.

 

He faced Oz Mike Michealson, Odd Dorfman, and Thia Halmedes. They rode a wave. The water loomed above him like a giant hand. He fired a bolt of fire into the water to try to slow it down.

 

Oz Mike smiled as his friends jumped clear. He rode the wave down, crashing into the fire slinger. Sundog turned the water to steam on impact before he went out like a snuffed candle.

 

Sundog tried to get to his feet. He needed to dry out so he could relight. He should have expected some kind of water user showing up. It was the way his luck ran.

 

A giant hand of neon blue and silver wrapped around his middle. It squeezed. He took a deep breath, but found that air refused to fill his lungs. Then a baseball bat slammed against his head.

 

"That felt good." Thia shook the bat away. "I could really get into this do gooding."

 

"You'll be a credit to the Marines." Odd flexed his hand. A gauntlet covered it, lights flickering around the fingers.

 

Garou slammed into the ground. He hit so hard he dug a crater in the road. He reached for the edges of the hole to pull himself out. No one threw him to orbit, let him crash to Earth and lived.

 

The kid's arm would come off like a chicken wing.

 

"Give it up, dog boy." Enforcer braced for impact. The power gained from Project Z's experiments could let him battle Garou toe to toe for at least a minute.

 

"I'm going to kill all of you and leave your bones scattered across Minnesota." Garou leaped to his feet. He looked over the small group. None of them had the stopping power to put him down. He could keep fighting until he had dealt with them.

 

"I don't think so." Odd held out his gloved hand. The giant hand appeared in the air. He flexed the fingers. "We want you to give yourself up, or we're going to have to pound you. I don't want to do that because I'm a peaceable man, and my wife wants me to be careful about how I exert myself with my lumbago. What do you say, big guy?"

 

"I'm going to kill you first, big guy." Garou leaped, covering the distance in a gray streak. He could rip this guy apart despite his fancy glove.

 

Baseballs flew like meteors. Garou had committed to his charge. The leather projectiles smashing against his back and head threw him off target. He still had enough to get within reach of Oddhat. Then the world turned to bright white. Garou landed in the guard checkpoint.

 

"We should wrap this up." Thia dropped the missile launcher from her shoulder, letting it fade away.

 

"How do we do that?" Trebuchet pulled out another baseball. "This guy is tough as heck."

 

"We just need to wrap him up until we're done." Enforcer headed for the smashed kiosk. "Then we can turn him in to the Project. They'll be able to hold him."

 

Garou smashed out of the wooden wall, grabbing Enforcer by the neck. He went to bite the masked man's face off. Rage blinded him to the back up. He wanted to kill everything that opposed him.

 

Enforcer grabbed his snout and jaws. He pulled on his remaining power, feeling it burn away as he tried to keep the deadly teeth from his face. A switch in grips was called for before he gave out completely.

 

Odd's giant hand reached out. It wrapped around the werewolf. He squeezed his gloved hand, and the energy hand closed on the furry menace. Garou yelped from the pressure even if it didn't hurt him.

 

"I like a workout as much as the next guy." Odd lifted Garou off his feet. "But you are taking this too far."

 

Garou howled in frustration. He tried to wiggle out of the tight grip. That left him snapping at the air.

 

"It looks like we're done here." Thia smiled. "I wonder how that fur coat will look on my bed."

 

"Let's get with the others and deal with the rest of them." Enforcer stretched the kinks out of his arms. "Bring them along, Odd. We can't leave them alone out here."

 

"Billy and Question Man probably have the rest of them wrapped up by now." Trebuchet gathered up the baseballs he could find. Some had bounced off into the treeline.

 

"You know better than that, kid." Thia pulled the out cold Sundog closer to Odd's floating hand. Oz Mike picked up his feet and the both of them lifted him so that one finger could hold him against Garou.

 

"If Billy can find any bystanders and get them out, that will make our job that much easier." Enforcer shook off the sudden weariness he felt. "Let's go."

 

"How do we get in?" Trebuchet took one last look around for his ammo before he joined the others walking through the shattered gatehouse area.

 

"Hopefully my retinas will get us in." Enforcer gestured at his eyes.

 

"If they don't, I got a key." Thia took her belt off. She spun it around Garou's muzzle and tightened as far as she could. "Quiet down, you."

 

A plain delivery van sat beside a truck and a jeep issued to the Air Force beside the block building's loading door. Enforcer walked to the door on the side of that. He pressed his eye to the scanner next to the personnel door and let it do its job. The scanner told him he was denied.

 

"They took my scan out of the system after I retired." Enforcer stepped back. "I guess we go with plan B."

 

"No problem." Thia pulled out the biggest gun she could think of and waited for the man in gray to move back out of the way. "This will be loud."

 

"Might as well attract all the attention our way." Enforcer covered his ears. "Do it."

 

The Strangers backed from the door to give Thia plenty of room. She took aim at the center of the metal facing. A pull of the trigger created a jet of flame that melted a hole through the barrier with a roar vaguely similar to the rush of a jet engine. She paused to examine her handiwork. The door had turned to a puddle, along with part of the wall.

 

"I think we can go in." She replaced the demolisher with her customary rifle. "Let's see if Billy needs any help."

 

"What about the Question Man?" Trebuchet held a baseball as he tried to crowd in behind her to get through the carved out door.

 

"QM can look after himself pretty good." Thia looked both ways before heading into the depths of the warehouse.

 

"We can't let them run amuck." Odd dragged his prisoners through the opening with much bumping of heads.

 

"No, we can't." Oz Mike gathered what water he could before stepping in after his friends.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

22

Alice the Owl drifted across the night sky. She enjoyed the soaring and the wind beneath her wings. Being on the ground made her feel clumsy and slow compared to this arrow flight.

 

She drifted above the building where the trouble was taking place. It looked like any other warehouse she had seen since she had went on the run with Squirrel. The others would be arriving soon, and the only thing she saw that matched what they were thinking was the burned out wreck that had been concealed under some trees and the two guards that didn't look like guards at all to her.

 

Alice circled the building again as silently as drifting leaves. Dropping in on the goons could be done, but she didn't want to get into a rumble and have to run if she couldn't win. That would let everyone else inside know something was up.

 

The baying of hounds attracted her attention. The sound carried but didn't seem to concern the two at the gate. She put it down to them being used to dogs chasing someone in the dark.

 

Alice landed in a tree and looked around as quietly as she could. She didn't want the hounds to catch on to her scent and alert their master she was watching.

 

A movement through the treetops caught her eye. A woman with a round face leaped from tree to tree with the help of her arms stretching out to cross the feet wide gap, secure a grip, then pull her over the drop. The woman wore a black suit, but had lost part of her jacket somewhere.

 

Alice looked back along the path the woman had followed from the warehouse. Three men struggled along in the dark. They followed a pack of hounds made of rock. The strange dogs sniffed the trees and then bayed when they were sure they were still on the trail.

 

Alice decided the woman must be Enforcer's Aylwin. He hadn't mentioned she had powers.

 

Alice took wing, floating through the trees until she was ahead of the woman in the suit. She waited until the woman landed in the tree she had picked out before grabbing her, placing one hand over her mouth. The night flyer made a small shushing sound in the other's ear. The woman nodded.

 

Alice expected one of the three to be in control of the hounds. She didn't know what the other two could do. She didn't want to challenge them head on. She had to be sneaky and get Aylwin away before they found the two of them.

 

She could do that if the older woman cooperated. Living on the run had taught her about having to move without being seen. The night cloaked her as effectively as invisibility. She didn't know how much she could extend that protection to her companion.

 

Alice decided to circle around the trio and head back to the building. Maybe she could lead them into an ambush. The others should have reached the front of the warehouse by now.

 

There was strength in numbers.

 

A roar turned all eyes to block sitting in the dark. The three men turned and started running toward the explosion of sound. The dogs coursed ahead, barking and howling for blood.

 

Aylwin swung down, extending her legs like battering rams. She caught one of the masked men in the back. That drove the masked man into a tree. He hit and went down. The dogs stopped, broke apart, sank into the ground.

 

The other two turned, caught by surprise. The one with the rifle turned to aim in the night. Alice thought he was the most dangerous since even a stray bullet could still kill. He couldn't be allowed to fire.

 

Alice dropped her full weight on his shoulders about half her speed. That was enough to drive him into the ground with her on top. She darted back up into the trees as he tried to throw her off. She didn't want to get close up. She had a feeling she would lose any real fight if she stuck around.

 

The woman in the suit grabbed the last man with his oversize choppers and slab of a jaw. She flung him into a trees as hard as she could, driving the back of his head into the wood. She kept her limbs clear of the wide mouth. He went down with a bullfrog sigh.

 

That left the third man who went for his rifle. Alice dropped on him again. He collapsed. Then he rolled. Alice floated to her feet instead of falling down to the ground. The commando pulled his pistol so he could point it at a hostage instead of an attacker. A long arm knocked the weapon away into the night.

 

"I think this is where you give up, Wolf." Aylwin's voice drifted from the trees. "It's over."

 

"What's next?" Wolf held up his hands.

 

"We put you in the system for attempted murder, and let you have your day in court." Aylwin didn't descend to get close to the mercenary. "That's what we do with criminals."

 

"I'll pass. Jail doesn't appeal to me." Wolf made a flexing motion with his hand. Bright light turned the night to day for brief seconds. When it faded, he had vanished.

 

"Aylwin?" Alice couldn't see. Her eyes were geared for the night. A sudden flare affected her more than a normal human. She decided to stay still in case she ran into a tree by accident.

 

"He's gone." Aylwin looked around for something to tie her two victims up. She decided on utility belts after emptying the contents into her own pockets. No point in leaving anything useful behind.

 

"What do we do now?" Alice blinked several times, feeling tears running from her eyes.

 

"We make a call and let the others know that we're okay and they only have to rescue the four Air Force men trapped inside the building." Aylwin searched the stolen contents until she came up with a cell phone. "We also tell them that a robot is also in there looking for something."

 

"What do we do next?" Alice wiped her face. Her vision was blurred but returning. She looked around, glad that she hadn't moved. Several trees penned her in.

 

"We wait until we get an all clear." Aylwin dialed the number. "We can't let these two getaway like their boss. It means we'll have to sit the rest out, but at least we can get some back up for your team."

 

"I wouldn't say we're a team." Alice blinked the last of the blur away. "We're a loose collection of people."

 

"If you stay with it, you'll be a team." Aylwin hung up, then dialed another number. "Maybe a family."

 

Alice frowned at that. She had left her family behind when she had grown feathers and wings. Squirrel was the closest thing to a family she had at the moment. She couldn't see that expanding beyond the two of them.

 

Aylwin spoke into the phone about troop movements and transportation. She waited for a few seconds. Then she gave a password. She nodded at the answer she received then hung up.

 

"We have a few hours before troops from the Project show up." Aylwin looked at the building. "We should take our prisoners and hook up with the others."

 

"I'll take the guy with the teeth." Alice figured he was the lighter of the two mercenaries. She might struggle but she should be able to drag him through the forest to the warehouse.

 

"See if you can round up some help for us." Aylwin grabbed the two men by the scruff of the neck and started dragging them slowly along. "That would be better than helping me drag these lumps."

 

"I'll be right back." Alice spread her wings, then launched into the air.

 

Alice circled the facility, disappointed that no one was around the brick edifice itself. She expanded her search. She spotted an army of squirrels coming down the road. Squirrel hopped at the front of the still expanding horde, carrying someone on his back.

 

He was just the person she wanted to see.

 

"Hey, Alice." Squirrel waved, pausing in his run. His minions gathered around him. "I bagged one waiting for us."

 

"There's two more behind the place." Alice landed, looking at the rodent army. "I left someone to guard them, but she's alone."

 

"No problem." Squirrel smiled. "Where are everyone else?"

 

"I haven't seen anyone else." Alice shrugged. "They must have gone inside after clearing the outside."

 

"Let's get with this woman and put our prisoners under guard until we have everything straightened out." Super Squirrel chattered for a second. Three of the squirrels broke off and headed for the light reaching from the opened storage site. "Then we can see if the others need any help."

 

"I think they got the rest of this handled." Alice petted one of the squirrels looking up at her.

 

"It wouldn't hurt to make sure." Super Squirrel whistled and led his wild entourage off the road and into the dark trees.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

23

Billy Keys pulled the Question Man towards the gatehouse door. That should get them across the parking area. The others kept the two watchdogs busy while he opened the door to the interior of the warehouse.

 

"Which way do we go from here?" Billy looked around the small open area they stood in.

 

"This way." The Question Man started left, eyeing what remained on the shelves as he passed.

 

The two rescuers proceeded with a small amount of caution. They didn't want to run into anything dangerous. They weren't equipped to deal with anyone more dangerous than thug with a gun. The Question Man couldn't answer eyebeams, and Billy couldn't move things without a door to use.

 

They found Fenris Ulf leaning against the wall next to where the Question Man wanted to go. He rubbed a rock down the edge of his axe. Sparks flew from the blade.

 

He eyed the two of them, a grim smile on his wolf face. He rubbed the rock against his axe's blade one more time before putting the stone away.

 

"What have we here?" Fenris Ulf straightened, giving his weapon a swing to limber the arm. "I expected not two varlets to intrude on my repose, but your coming is welcome for I feel a bit restless and inclined to violence."

 

"I would like to take a rain check." The Question Man raised both hands. "We're just looking around. Ignore us."

 

"I'm afraid my axe longs for the splitting of skulls with a laugh on my lips and fire in my eye." Fenris Ulf advanced, chuckling as the other two retreated. "Ready weapons and prepare for your deaths with a warrior's pride."

 

"Run." The Question Man pushed Billy into a side aisle while he headed back the way they had walked from the front door. Maybe splitting up would help them out.

 

Fenris Ulf swung his axe. It sliced through the shelf in his way, splitting the metal bars so the top of the rack fell into the next aisle. The contents scattered to the floor around his ponderous body.

 

The mercenary grunted. The janitor had already made it pass the next piece of furniture, and moving fast. The other man sprinted for the front of the building. He didn't seem that much of a challenge to battle, but he couldn't be allowed to go outside and warn anybody about what was going on.

 

It didn't occur to the berserker that it might already be too late to keep up the masquerade of normality.

 

Fenris Ulf drew back his axe and threw it. The weapon whistled as it went. The target threw himself behind cover. The blade sank into the wall, slicing bricks in two.

 

The Question Man considered whether or not he had done the right thing. That took long enough for him to catch his breath, and dodge down the aisle with the storage racks on either side. At least the big monster couldn't see him.

 

Fenris Ulf walked forward, holding out his hand. The axe freed itself from the wall and spun through the air to its owner. He caught it as he reached where the masked man had ducked for cover. A quick glance told him the man had reached the other end of that space.

 

Fenris Ulf braced powerful arms against the shelf closest to him and pushed. His mighty muscles ripped the shelving up from the floor. The thing's weight took over and dropped it on the next one in line. That shelf bent and then came free and the both of them knocked a third down. The rest fell like dominoes to the far wall.

 

The Question Man winced at the destruction. He ducked down to avoid the flying axe while he tried to think of some other way to keep Fenris Ulf from killing him. His mind had blanked out everything but the need to run.

 

He needed a question he could use to his advantage.

 

The Question Man dove in the triangle caused by the shelves propping each other up. He climbed in, moving as much as possible around the old weapons that had fallen to the floor. The deadly blade would have to strike blind while he kept moving.

 

Fenris Ulf walked to the front of the space where he had seen his enemy duck into. Killing the man would be as easy as pie. All he needed was to destroy his cover and reveal him to his death.

 

Fenris Ulf grabbed the edge of the shelf and picked it up. He grinned at the coward crawling there. He freed his axe with one hand for the killing stroke. The masked man flung one of the useless relics at the mercenary to fend him off a few seconds more. The shining blade sliced the round cylinder body of the thing easily. The two pieces fell to the floor with a clinking of metal on concrete.

 

"You were far braver than I thought." Fenris Ulf released the axe on the backswing. "Perhaps you will sit at Valhalla's table with the others that have opposed me to their regret."

 

The Question Man swung with the next closest object that he grabbed. He didn't want to die, knew that the furry marauder possessed more strength and toughness and should be avoided, and knew that the others would breach the door at any moment. His thirty year old artifact deflected the thrown blade at the last second, spinning it away over his head.

 

The Question Man threw the notched relic at Fenris Ulf before jumping over the fallen shelf and running. The two pieces of metal rebounded off a furry arm as the mercenary tried to turn to keep up with the smaller man. He held out his hand for his axe as the masked man ducked behind another rack still standing upright.

 

Fenris Ulf laughed. The wood and steel axe handle slapped in his hand as he started to pursue his prey. He should be angered, but instead felt some elation of having a worthy opponent to battle. He wondered how long the mortal could duck him before the head came off.

 

He had forgotten about the janitor in his bloodlust.

 

Billy Keys kept an eye out as he circled back to the room the monster had been guarding. He pushed a key into the lock and opened it. Men in Air Force uniforms shouted questions. One of the men, a sergeant, had managed to get his bound hands in front of him somehow.

 

"Quiet." Billy held up a hand. "I am going to get you outside so we can talk."

 

Billy started helping the personnel through the door to the boat rental cabin on the lake. It was far enough away that any mercenary wouldn't be able to get to it fast without being able to do what Billy could do, but close enough that help could arrive if there was a problem.

 

"Get me out of these cuffs." The sergeant held out his hands. "I want to get some licks in."

 

"I don't have anything to do that." Billy shook his head. "Wait here. Someone will come get you when this is over."

 

"What if I don't want to do that?" The big sergeant shook his manacles.

 

"Not my problem." Billy stepped through the closed door of the boat rental place and landed back at the cell. Now he needed to do something about the crazy axe thing whatever it was.

 

Billy grabbed something that looked like a baseball bat with a hand guard as he headed back to where the Question Man fled from the furball. This was totally a bad idea. He should be running far away from the monster instead of walking toward it.

 

He hoped he could drop the Viking critter with a swing of his new weapon. Otherwise the monster would drop him like a bad habit.

 

Billy swung. His weapon connected with the wolf monster's winged helmet. It went flying across the room. Its wearer glared at the super with fire dripping from its eyes. The axe went up. Then it came down.

[csyphrett]

Re: Walking With Strangers

 

24

 

 

Thia Halmedes raised her weapon and fired. She had provided herself nonlethal ordinance. Their failure prompted her to think she had made a mistake.

 

The hulking thing impersonating a Viking didn't move from the trio of hits she inflicted. It merely glared at her as if sizing her up for a pine box. And it didn't look afraid of her friends either.

 

"More troublesome meddlers to vex me with your desire to outlive a blow from my faithful companion." The wolf monster grinned slightly. "We shall see how hard your skulls are before I am done."

 

"I don't think so." Trebuchet let fly with his readied baseball. The projectile split in two as the blade of the axe swept through it. "Maybe I was wrong."

 

"Come, youth." The canine advanced on the group at the door. "Young blood is the best."

 

Enforcer leaped forward to confront the menace. His glowing fist rocked the giant back on his heels. A backhand sent the retired hero flying. He hit the wall hard enough to leave a crater in the brick and concrete.

 

Thia worked on her rifle as Trebuchet unloaded a barrage of baseballs. The leather missiles came apart as the axe worked its own defense. Fenris Ulf laughed until the water caught him in the face and tried to drown him.

 

The warehouse had water so the men stationed their could use the bathroom, wash up, have something to use to boil for food. It was nothing for Oz Mike to summon some of it to add to his own supply from the lake and use it to batter at their enemy.

 

Thia raised her rifle again. She fired what looked like rubber balls into the cold water. The round spheres hit and started expanding, started hardening into connecting bans. She kept up the barrage until the target quit moving.

 

The group paused to watch Fenris Ulf struggle in his prison. The hardened foam should hold an elephant.

 

The Viking wolf ripped the cocoon away after about a minute. Fire boiled from his eyes as he regarded his enemies. Valhalla would welcome their spirits at the feasting hall.

 

"How do we stop this guy, Question Man?" Trebuchet held another baseball in his hand. He looked to work an angle. A straight throw would just be cut down before it reached a target.

 

"Get rid of the axe." The Question Man ducked behind cover as the said weapon tried to cut him down before he could speak.

 

"That should be easy." Trebuchet threw his own weapon, letting it spin in a curve against the side of the villain's head. The monster shrugged it off as he reached for his spinning axe.

 

Oddhat reached into his leather bag with his free hand. He had put it on the floor at the back of the group. His other hand still kept Sundog and Garou suspended in the air. He made sure to keep them in front of him while he searched for the tool he needed. He found a disc with a mike attachment to fit over his mouth. He put it on.

 

"We need you to send the axe somewhere else, Billy." Odd's voice sounded in his head and in Billy's. No one else seemed to hear it. "He'll have to throw at you in front of a door."

 

"That should be easy." Billy grimaced at what he was about to do. He had never been good at attracting attention, preferring to keep to the background. Now he had to step into the spotlight. "Hey, moron! Is that your face or did a cow take a crap on your neck?"

 

Fenris Ulf glared at the super, raising his axe to throwing position. Foam covered the sides of his mouth.

 

"You mother must be the terror of every Labrador in the neighborhood." Billy kept his hand on the cell door handle, ready to use it. "The howling to get away could be heard for miles. They would have chewed their legs off to get away."

 

Odd warned the others with his mike. He didn't want them to attract attention away from Billy. They were winging it, but it looked like their notion would work as long as the super didn't get killed.

 

"Who's your daddy?" Billy forced a grin. That was better to turn the screws. "That's right. You don't know."

 

The axe flew with its deadly grace. Billy ducked, pulling the door open as he stepped away. The spinning blade entered the portal to the other side of the lake. The door shut before it could return.

 

"What have you done, varlet?" Fenris Ulf advanced, hands flexing as his roar filled the open space.

 

"Now we hold him until his time runs out." The Question Man regretted saying the words out loud. The wolf monster turned at bay for the first time.

 

"I shall never be held by the likes of you." Fenris Ulf headed for the wall, punching through it with a fist of fury. He followed through with a shoulder, smashing the concrete like a wrecking ball.

 

"Everyone cover for Trebuchet." Odd picked up his bag. "He's the only one of us who can really stall for time."

 

Thia and Trebuchet raced outside the melted door to cut off their opponent. Oz Mike pulled the water to give him a wave to ride into the hulking monster. Billy doubted he could do anything else to Fenris Ulf. He went to make sure the Enforcer was still alive after the blow he had taken. The Question Man joined him as Odd Hat walked outside to help the others.

 

Thia fired her foam gun again. She didn't need it to stop Fenris Ulf. She only needed it to get Trebuchet close. The kid could throw a car. The fleeing mercenary had to weigh less than that. The globs wrapped around the Viking's upper body and neck before she blasted his legs. He went down under the yellow blobs. Muscular arms struggled to rip the stuff away.

 

"Straight up, Trebuchet." Odd spoke into his mike. "We need him to be stalled until whatever happens, happens."

 

"No problem." Trebuchet grabbed a free leg. He jerked and the bundle flew into the night sky like a rocket. He stepped back, looking up at the yellow vanishing against the velvet darkness.

 

"Good job." Oz Mike searched the air from the top of his water column, gave up after a few seconds.

 

Trebuchet must have hurled him into orbit.

 

"If the axe flies back to his hand while he's up there, we'll have to separate them again and start over." Odd made sure his two prisoners were still secure in his energy fist. "If it doesn't, we'll have to stop him from hitting the ground on impact and dying."

 

"No worries, mate." Oz Mike drew more water from the warehouse pipes. "I think I can handle that part of things."

 

"Let's hope we have him where we want him." Odd pulled a set of eyepieces out of his bag. "I promised my wife I wouldn't get killed."

 

Odd searched the night as a horde of squirrels arrived. Alice the Owl perched in a nearby tree as Squirrel and Aylwin dropped their catch on the road.

 

"What's going on?" Aylwin looked up at the sky too, wondering what everyone was looking at up there.

 

"Trebuchet just threw a big monster into the air." Thia held her own scope to her eye. "We're waiting for it to come back down."

 

"Awesome!" Squirrel waved his hands. "I wished I had been here to see that."

 

"Shouldn't he be coming down?" Trebuchet frowned under his helmet. "I threw him hard, but a body isn't designed to travel far."

 

"Here he comes." Odd and Thia focused their equipment on one part of the starry expanse. Odd smiled. "It looks like he still doesn't have his axe."

 

"I got him." Oz Mike lifted up, pulling more and more water from the warehouse for height. He created a slide under the falling mercenary who seemed smaller under all the goop that remained. The two of them spiraled down to the ground as the surfer ate away the speed from his catch and slowed him to a crawl. They reached ground level, and Fenris Ulf fell the last few inches to the ground with a human yelp.

 

"It looks like we have everyone but their boss." Aylwin smiled. Chad had praised his friends, and he had been right.

 

"Let's get him." Super Squirrel helped shove the mercenaries into Odd's much bigger grip. "He can't be tougher than these guys."

 

"He might have cut his losses and fled the scene." Aylwin led the way into the warehouse, wincing at the hole where the door had been.