Hero Unit (22 page)

“How’s Angel?” Ace asked.

“He’ll survive. He got in trouble for pushing
himself too hard. Bones is making him take leave for a while. It’s
about time someone did,” Torment replied.

“What about Einstein?”

“He’s fine. Once you vanished Angela alerted
us and we moved in. We took the gunmen you bagged into custody and
found Einstein cuffed to a chair with suppressors. He told us that
the whole thing was a trap, but the device that had teleported you
was a one shot. Not even the technomancers could figure out where
it had sent you. Emily and your sister weren’t happy about that,
hell none of us were. They then went to your place with Maniac. I
heard them say something about putting on suppressor cuffs. The
rest of us have just been waiting. Things have been pretty
quiet.”

Ace nodded. “I’d better go report. I’m so
tired right now that I might fall asleep while doing it if it
doesn’t happen quick.”

“Sure thing, Ace,” Torment said and let her
pass. Ace knew she was concerned, knew she wanted to ask more
questions, but they both knew it was better if they waited.

Ace knocked on Angel’s office door and went
in. Bones would know it was her. Her uncle was sitting at Angel’s
desk typing something on the computer. Ace closed the door and
Bones came to her and gave her a hug. “I’m glad you made it
back.”

“I’m glad I wasn’t teleported halfway across
the world,” Ace replied gently returning the embrace.

“You’re here to report?” he asked. He walked
back to the desk and sat down.

Ace nodded. She sat in one of the chairs and
laid out the events of the past day and a bit. It didn’t take her
long, surprisingly little had actually happened.

“Good work Ace,” Bones said after she
finished.

“All the information on the HSO is on these,”
she held up the drives and then put them on the desk. “I imagine
the old man is going to want them.”

“Probably. I’ll make sure he gets them. As
for you; go home. I’m sure Emily and Angela are getting tired of
wearing suppressor cuffs. We retrieved your equipment from the
scene. It’s all at your place. Go ahead and take a couple of days
off. I think all three of you are going to need it,” Bones
said.

“Thanks uncle, I appreciate it,” Ace said. He
smiled and she left.

She flew home, slowly. It took a little
concentration. Her mind kept wandering. She was amazed at how
drained she was after a relatively short fight with someone of her
own power.

As she walked through the front door she was
met by her sister who wrapped her in what could have been a rib
cracking hug. Could have been, except for the whole being nearly
indestructible. She laughed. “It’s good to see you too.”

“We are just so glad you’re back,” Angela
said through her tears. She stepped back and let Ace come in,
closing the door behind her.

“I’m glad to see you both handled my absence
well,” Ace said.

“I made sure they behaved themselves.”
Maniac’s voice came from the kitchen and Ace smiled to see her
partner there. Ace went and gave her a quick hug. “What are you
doing here?” she asked with a smile.

“Well Bones wanted someone here to keep an
eye on these two and I felt I owed you one after getting pissed
over something stupid, so here I am. Besides I’ve heard that Emily
is a great cook and I’m hoping that now she’s not wearing cuffs she
can whip us something up,” Maniac replied.

Emily came up stairs, it was obvious she’d
been crying but there was a genuine smile on her face when she saw
Ace. “I’d been more than happy to,” she said, having heard Maniac’s
request.

Ace fell asleep before the food was ready and
barely made it through eating before excusing herself and going to
her room. Not for the first time she was grateful for the total
blackout shades she’d installed. She undressed and collapsed into
her bed.

The next few days passed quietly. Ace
recovered quickly, feeling pretty much normal by the next day. She
and Emily enjoyed taking Angela on a tour of the city. Together the
twin Fifths drew eyes. Everyone was familiar with her, but the
secret of her twin had not spread far.

They had visits from the other members of
Ace’s team while they rested. Ace held a barbecue for all of them
the second day after she got back. Captain Angel was there along
with Bones and his family. Even the old man made an appearance. Ace
told everyone who didn’t know him that he was an old friend from
the army. He called himself Tim Hicks.

Again Ace found herself alone on her balcony,
only this time it was because she was manning the grill. “Your
sister is running interference, so I’ve got some questions for you,
kid.” It was the old man.

“You’re wondering about my fight with
Janice,” Ace said as she relaxed in the pleasant twilight. It was
getting to the time when Hellfire let the season shift to fall.

“That’d be it. We have no idea how the hell
she did that. No that’s not right, thanks to those hard drives we
know, but it just doesn’t make a lick of sense,” he said.

That was a surprise. “Can’t you just take it
from her head? She shouldn’t be protected like some people are. Not
with how much of a problem the HSO has been throughout the
world.”

The old man leaned against the railing and
looked out over the city. “It’s just not there kid. She had a
device in her head that killed the information. So I was hoping
there was something else you could remember.”

Ace thought it over as she checked the meat.
She closed the lid of the grill and said, “Honestly it’s all in the
report. I put in everything I can remember. She jabbed the needle
into her leg, said she had power to rival mine and then set about
proving it. I’ve never been hit that hard in my entire life.”

The old man snorted. “Do you some good I
imagine. Never been challenged before, have you?”

“I’d rather not have it happen again. I don’t
think the world can handle too many more like me and Angela,” Ace
replied.

“I have to say I agree with only part of
that. The world doesn’t need more powers like you and your sister,
but it could sure as hell use more people like you two. You are
good people Ace, you and your sister. You do good work here; you’ve
changed a lot of lives for the better. Don’t you forget that,” the
old man replied.

“Thanks old man, I appreciate that,” Ace
said. She smiled, it was rare to get praise from him.

“Good, now get back to that meat. I’m
hungry.”

“Yes sir,” Ace said still smiling.

When Ace returned to work it was strange. In
her absence both her sister and Emily had been assigned to a new
squad, Ace’s. She’d been given charge of a Hero Unit comprised of
herself, Maniac, Emily, Angela, Duck and Cover and rookie named
Jolt. He was a Speed Class right out of the Academy.

She found this out when she was called in to
speak with Bones the very first thing. “You’ll be happy to know
that the duties of the Aerial Patrol have been passed on to a
different officer,” Ace heaved a sigh of relief. Bones chuckled and
continued, “You did good work getting it organized now anyone
should be able to run it thanks to the ground work you laid. I know
it might not seem like much but we appreciate your efforts.”

“Thank you sir,” Ace said. She tried not to
let her relief show too much.

“However we aren’t about to let your
leadership qualities go to waste, so we are putting you in charge
of a newly formed unit. It will be made up of these officers,” he
put a data chip on the desk. “Good luck.”

Ace took the chip and now was fighting
frustration. She didn’t want to be in charge of a unit, but she
wasn’t about to argue.
It could be worse
, her sister
said.

How?
Ace replied.

They could’ve given you Angel’s job
,
she replied and Ace suppressed a shudder at the thought. Her, in
charge of a whole E.E.D office? That didn’t even bear thinking
about.

Back in her own office she put the data chip
in her computer and pulled up the files. She was happy to see that
the first one was Maniac. She was only mildly surprised to see the
next two were her sister and Emily. Apparently the old man had
pulled some strings and made Emily a full E.E.D officer without
having to go through the Academy.

It was the last file that drew her attention.
It was for a Speed Class fresh from the academy. His Hero name was
Jolt. What impressed her was his completely average file. As a
general rule Speed Class had a tendency towards extremes. Some had
OCD problems, others had discipline problems, like Left Hook.

Everyone knew that Left Hook was going to
mouth off and get in trouble, everyone knew that he was going to
pick fights he couldn’t hope to win, that was his Quirk. On the
other hand there were some Speed Class that organized everything in
their lives to the last detail. Jolt didn’t seem to have either of
those particular Quirks and that made him unique.

He’ll be interesting to work with. He’s
nervous as hell about being assigned to our Unit.

Angela was right about it being their squad.
She was going to be the one responsible for the mental health of
the Heroes in their Unit.

I don’t know if I’m ready for this,
sis
, Ace said.

She could feel the smile in her sister’s
response,
Of course you are. Besides I’m here to help.

Just then Ace got a call on her device. It
was an unfamiliar number and when she answered the screen was
black. “Hello?” she said.

The voice that replied was distorted, and not
even her heightened hearing could work past it. “Thank you for
taking care of Ms. Rodriguez. She was a taint on our
organization.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Ace growled.

The caller laughed. “No most certainly not.
But you did it nonetheless. You will be hearing from us again.”

The call cut off. She checked her device’s
tracker. It came up negative. She shook her head. The mysterious
caller would have to wait until later. For now she had a new unit
to break in. She called them all up and ordered them to the
shooting range. That was as good a place as any to begin. With a
smile she left her office. Maybe being in charge of a Hero Unit
wouldn’t be all bad. At least she had friends with her. For now
that was enough.

The End

Thank you for reading.

About JC Bybee

JC was born and raised in Oregon. His vivid
imagination kept him entertained through his teen years. After
serving a two year mission in Toronto Canada for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he attended BYU. There he met his
wife, who promptly graduated and moved them to the Midwest. JC
speaks Spanish and is currently trying (with some success) to learn
other languages. He is also a practitioner of Historical European
Martial Arts.

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