A New Day (StrikeForce #1) (17 page)

“Daystar, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jarvis.”

Ugh. My codename had started making the rounds. Great. “Jarvis?”

“I’m an Iron Man fan, and when the chance came up to pick a code name, I took the one I aspire to,” she explained.

I shook my head. What in the ever-loving hell had I gotten myself into here? Bunch of nutcases.

“Let’s get your measurements. Stand on the circle, please.”

I stood up and went to where there was a gray circle, about three feet across or so, on the black terrazzo floor.

“Stand straight, and hold your arms out. Legs spread to shoulder width,” Jarvis instructed, and I did as she told me. She hit a button on the small console in the room, and several lasery-looking lights appeared, zipping over and along my body.

“I’m currently mapping your measurements. The measurements are going directly into the computer, and our uniform creators will get right to work. Just stand still for a few more moments.” The lights made their way up to my head, measuring the length of my face, the circumference of my head.

“What kind of mask do you want, Daystar?” Jarvis asked as she input notes into a tablet. “You can pick from eye mask, half mask, full cowl and mask, or something that completely covers your face and head.”

“Full coverage, please,” I said, and she nodded, inputting the information.

“You can step down now.” I did, and I sat in the chair near hers. “We need an insignia for your uniform,” she said. “I’m guessing we’re going with some kind of star, here? Or the sun?”

“Star,” I said.

“Five pointed, eight pointed?”

“Five, I guess.”

“Very well.” She spent some time drawing on the tablet, and then turned it around to show me. It was exactly as I’d asked, a five-pointed star in dark gray, with occasional shading in black.

“Great.”

“I’ll send this along it your measurements and make preference. Your uniform will be delivered to your suite sometime this evening, most likely.”

I nodded, and then Jarvis showed me out. I made my way through the curving tunnel back to the central hub, back to Tower Four, and up to the tenth floor. I walked around my new living quarters a bit, peeked in at the bedroom (a full-size bed, nightstand, dresser, and chair) and the small bathroom. I went to check out the kitchenette, and realized I was starving. Since there was no food in my suite, I’d have to stock it later, I guessed. For now, I supposed it was time to find my way to the dining hall and see if I could grab something there.

And scope out as much of the place as I could in the meantime. The sooner I figured out my escape routes, the better.

Chapter Thirteen

I took the elevator down to the second floor, and when the doors opened, the smell of pizza that hit me had my stomach growling even more. Across from the elevators, there was a set of swinging doors. I walked through them into a small cafeteria. Twelve square, black tables were spaced around the room, the windows looking out on the city along one wall, the usual monitors on the opposite wall. Along one end was a cafeteria-style buffet line. I took it all in without really seeing it; my attention was on the people who had all turned to look at me when the doors opened. Nightbane was with them, and he gave me what I was beginning to think of as his prissy little old lady look, as if something smelled bad. I wondered if he looked like that all the time, or if it was a me thing.

I was betting on option number two.

There were five more people there, three women and two men. All of them wore the usual, black and gray body armor. No masks here, though. Still, I felt underdressed and out of place in my jeans and sweatshirt.

“Thanks to you, I just lost a sizable bet. Odds were about ninety-nine to 1 against you joining,” Nightbane said in greeting, and I didn’t bother replying. He nodded toward the table. “Come sit with us after you grab something. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

I gave another small nod, keeping one eye on the group at the table as I grabbed a tray and pushed it along the counter of the serving area. I grabbed two slices of deep-dish pepperoni pizza, some garlic bread, and water, then I carried it all to the table and set it down as far away from where Nightbane was sitting as possible.

“Everyone, this is Daystar,” Nightbane said. “Though we know her as a thief,” he added, and I kind of wanted to punch him.

“Hey,” I said, feeling completely stupid.

“This is Crystal,” he said, gesturing to the trim brunette beside him. She looked to be in her late thirties, maybe early forties, and her hair was cut into a sleek bob. Brown, heavily-lashed eyes, and a narrow, pointed nose. She gave me a frigid nod, then focused her attention on her meal.

“That’s Chance,” Nightbane said, gesturing to the woman beside Crystal. She looked to be of middle-eastern descent, maybe. Golden skin, dark eyes, and long, thick black hair braided over her shoulder. She gave me a nod, and held her hand out. I shook it.

“And that’s Toxxin,” he said, pointing to the woman at the end of the table. She was petite, with dark hair streaked with blond, large eyes the shade of whiskey. She looked to be about my age, maybe younger. She reminded me of one of my neighbors, and remembering her gave me a little pang of emptiness, a momentary spike of panic as it hit me that I wasn’t going back anytime soon. I took a breath, trying to calm down.

Toxxin held out a gloved hand, and I shook it briefly.

“Sorry about knocking you out like that,” she said with a smile as we shook.

“That was you?”

She nodded. “Does it help to know that I was terrified you’d turn around and see me there?”

I shook my head and looked at the next person Nightbane was pointing to.

“That’s Forge,” Nightbane said, drawing my attention to the dark-haired, blue-eyed guy sitting across from Crystal. He flashed me a wide grin.

“Welcome aboard, Daystar,” he said, in a voice that was as smooth as honey. I smiled at him and shook his hand, then looked at the final member of the group. Another giant of a man, this one completely clean-shaven, including the shining dome of his head. Dark skin, dark eyes, a flash of white teeth.

“And this is Caine,” Nightbane said with some distaste, more similar to the tone I’d begun to associate with how he spoke to me, which made me like Caine immediately. Caine took my hand, shook it firmly, meeting my eyes for just an instant before looking away.

I settled into my seat and took a sip of water.

“You’re on the tenth floor, aren’t you?” Toxxin asked, and I nodded.

“If you need any help getting settled in, let me know. Is your stuff here yet?”

“I’m just going to make do with what I have here,” I said, thinking of my cash-stuffed dresser back at my apartment. It made me a little sick, thinking about how it could be cleaned out now that I wasn’t there.

Irony, eh?

“Well, if you need anything at all, let me know. I’m the first room to the right of the elevator on the ninth floor.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what’s your thing, other than Hulking out?” Toxxin asked. “I mean, we all have seen you on the news, but better to hear it from the source.” I was in the middle of taking a bite of pizza, so all I could do was look at her.

I chewed, swallowed. “Flight. Strength and stamina,” I said with a shrug. “What about you?”

“I secrete a poison in my skin that can kill on contact, and a lower level one that can knock out unsuspecting super villains,” she said with a grin, and I stared.

“Wow.”

“Yeah. It pretty much sucks, for the most part,” she said. “They think there’s probably a way to control it, but I haven’t figured it out yet. So, gloves, full body armor,” she said.

I didn’t even want to think about how she found out she had powers. It couldn’t have been a pretty situation.

“Crystal can turn invisible,” Toxxin said, and Crystal gave her an icy glare.

I glanced at Chance.

“My powers are still kind of jaggy. I can influence the outcome of random events,” Chance said.

“What do you mean?” I asked, then took another bite of pizza.

“Like, say there’s a car driving down a street, and they have to turn in one direction or the other. I can influence which way they go. Or, if someone’s about to fall, and they’ll either fall on the street or the grass, I can influence which way they fall. I honestly have no idea what I’m doing here instead of downstairs with the rest of the low-level abilities,” she confessed.

“Nightbane and Alpha think you belong here,” Crystal said, and Chance shrugged.

“Forge manipulates fire,” Chance said, gesturing toward him. “That’s a superhero power. Mine? Useless.”

I glanced at Forge, who shrugged. “But I can’t actually make fire. I can only manipulate what’s already there,” he said, and I could tell he was trying to make Chance feel better. “So if we’re in a wet environment, or there’s no fire, not even a spark, then I may as well have no powers at all.”

“Yeah, except you’re built like a goddamn tank, so I think you’ll manage somehow. And if you keep like, a match or a lighter around, you’re good,” Chance said with a roll of her eyes. I transferred my gaze to Caine, who seemed to be studying me.

“Stealth, super hearing, x-ray vision, keen sense of smell… basically I’m hypersensitive,” he said.

“That… was not at all what I was expecting you to say,” I said, and he smiled.

“Well, he’s also a trained assassin, so…” Chance said, and I raised my eyebrows.

“It’s a long story,” Caine said.

“I’m sure.”

“I’ll have to tell you about it sometime,” he said.

I shook my head and took a few more bites as they continued talking around me.

“And you’ve met Alpha and Portia, I guess,” Toxxin said.

“And Beta,” I said. “I know Beta’s thing is speed. What’s Portia’s?”

“Teleporting,” Caine said. “We need to go somewhere, she gets us there in an instant. Very handy power.”

I made myself finish my pizza and bread, even though it had somehow pretty much turned to sawdust in my mouth. It was all hitting me, that I wasn’t going home for a while, that I was locked in here with a bunch of superhero types, that Damian and his team were out there and they knew things. That Killjoy, for some reason, had stepped in on my behalf. My mind went over it all as I sat and chewed, and none of it got any better. I was well and truly stuck, and I had no one to blame but myself.

I hate it when that happens.

“Are you patrolling today?” Chance asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“I think I’m waiting for my uniform,” I said with a grimace.

“She thinks the uniforms are dumb,” Nightbane said.

“She’s not the first to think the uniforms are a stupid idea,” Caine said, and I glanced at him.

“Oh, that’s right. Caine fought the uniform idea too,” Nightbane said.

“I still think it’s stupid, for the record. The only reason I finally gave into that shit was because it was wear the uniform or leave, but leave with the dampener on,” he said, and I noticed a thin metal band around his throat, just a glimpse of it. It was the same as the one I was wearing. I wondered why a team member would still be wearing a dampener, filed it away for later. “I feel like I could do more good here than on my own, anyway,” he added.

“Well thank god you didn’t become another Killjoy, then,” Crystal said with a sniff. I looked down. Even the sound of his name was enough to make me flustered and stupid. I’d have to get over that at some point, right?

“Killjoy’s all right,” Caine said, taking a gulp of water from his water bottle. The rest of the team erupted in protests. I heard the phrase “insane” thrown around more than once, both in regard to Caine and Killjoy. “You guys want to hate the guy because he didn’t join up. Point to one thing he’s actually done wrong,” he said, raising his voice to be heard above the din. “Other than make us look like idiots, I mean.”

“How does he make you look like idiots?” I asked.

“He gets to the bad guys first, a lot of the time. Beats them up all on his own before our little super team can arrive. Takes them somewhere else,” he added, and I nodded, remembering what Killjoy had told me, that he wouldn’t work with StrikeForce. “Pisses them all off,” he said, nodding his head toward the rest of the team. Crystal got up and walked out, and Chance followed her.

“And, when we asked, multiple times, for help, he refused to try to go after you, and I’m wondering why that is,” Nightbane said.

That made two of us.

“Doesn’t piss me off. He can deal with them all he wants,” Forge said.

“He makes us look like morons,” Nightbane said, glaring at Caine. “And he does it on purpose. He loves throwing it in our faces, that he gets them first. The more publicly he can do it, the better.”

“Maybe you all should have recruited him,” I said.

“They did try. Dude told them to fuck off,” Caine said, and I bit back a smile, imagining how that conversation must have gone now that I’d met Alpha and Nightbane. I leaned back in my chair and looked around, taking in more steel, more glass.

“I should go check out my apartment, I guess,” I said, thinking of my sterile-looking apartment. I stood up, and Caine stood up as well. The rest of the team murmured “see you laters” and I walked out of the cafeteria, Caine at my heels. I glanced at him questioningly and he shrugged.