Tekgrrl (13 page)

It sounded like he was still alive, though that could change. God, I hoped not. We in the EHJ didn’t make a habit of killing villains, and I hadn’t meant to hurt the guy. Paul would be superpissed if he died. Wesley would probably be more forgiving. Having two leaders of opposing minds was like being the kid of divorced parents; you learned how to work both. Still, I hoped I wouldn’t have to spin the villain’s death.

“How are the kids?” I asked the cop.

“We’re evacuating them right now. Apparently the villain who was watching them hightailed it when he heard the ruckus.”

“I’m glad the kids are okay,” I remarked, wincing at a pain in my wrist. I might have fractured it in the fall.

“Are you really Tekgrrl?” one of the other cops asked, helping the first villain to his feet. The villain looked particularly uncomfortable, still groggy from the power whip.

“That’s me,” I said.

“You look different.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s the hair.”

One of the cops held up a cell phone. “Do you mind if I take a picture? My kid will never believe that I met you.”

I shrugged and acquiesced. It’s one of the easier parts of being a hero.

Pictures taken, I teleported down to ground level, still careful of my wrist, and was met by Luke, who also looked a little worse for wear.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I think I may have broken a few ribs, but I’m okay. Got one, the other got away. How about you?”

“Might have broken my wrist. I got two, but one’s in pretty bad shape. He had a hold of me with a jet pack, and when I dropped us with a scrambler he fell before I could grab him.”

“We’ll have to tell Paul and the authorities.” Luke was nothing if not a stickler for protocol.

I nodded, sighing. “Of course.”

“Don’t look so worried, you were just doing your job. I’m sure you didn’t use excessive force. And we both sustained injuries, ourselves.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “It’ll be okay. Come on, I’ll pop for a cab ride to the hospital. We should get our injuries checked out before we go home, and the trip will give us time to decompress that just teleporting won’t.”

I smiled. “Tacos and cab rides. Selena’s a lucky woman.”

If only it didn’t hurt so much to say that.

Because of my injured wrist and my continued headaches, I had gotten a pass on patrol for a bit. I grumbled a bit, but it did give me more time in the lab. Weeks later, it was business as usual.

“All right, Goth Boy, put the nice man down.”

The young villain put down the homeless man from whom he had been draining energy and frowned. “Count Cranium! My name is Count Cranium!”

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. “Like that’s any better.”

Luke appeared out of the shadows. “Whatever your name is, step away from the civilian.”

Seeing Luke, the psychic vampire edged toward the mouth of the alley.

I frowned. Just a teenager, and already a criminal with a bizarre moniker. What was the world coming to? “Don’t you dare run.”

No sooner did the words leave my mouth than Goth Boy tossed the bum at me. I collided with a mound of alcohol-scented flesh and went down. Luke stopped to help me up, and I got a glimpse of the edge of a cape disappearing around the corner. Goth Boy’s outfit proved he took the vampiric portion of his powers a little too seriously.

“I’m all right, just go!” I waved Luke off as I tried to push the weakened and obviously intoxicated bum off me and got groped for my trouble. “Looks like I’m going to get my cardio for the day.”

Luke grinned. “Bet you’re wishing now you spent more time actually jogging in the mornings.”

It was true that, after a few weeks of morning runs with Luke that turned into coffee breaks with Selena, I wasn’t any closer to either him or losing those five pounds I’d being meaning to shed. Darn the lattes!

Luke took off after our villain. The homeless man gave me a gummy smile. “You’re pretty.”

I sighed and followed Luke.

Breathing hard, I stopped for a moment, watching Luke chase our Goth bandit down a hill through midtown, dodging pedestrian traffic and getting looks and curses along the way. From my vantage, I saw Luke was going to lose him in the crush, so I quickly dialed in some coordinates to an alley I knew ahead and hit the button. Luke didn’t like to use his transporter unless necessary, but I wasn’t above using my inventions to make life easier.

A queasy feeling hit as I was transported, and when I reappeared in a new location, it was with the added bonus of a pounding headache. Trying to shake it off, I stumbled out of the alley and got the pleasure of seeing I’d calculated correctly. The villain’s eyes widened. He tried to skid to a stop to avoid me.

“I told you not to run,” I snarled, holding up my prison-cell transport gun. “If your molecules get scrambled, don’t blame me.” I had run enough tests to know they wouldn’t scramble, but a dose of healthy fear in a villain isn’t a bad thing.

I pulled the trigger, and the beam blasted toward the villain’s chest. I waited to see him vanish into nothingness, hopefully transported to a maximum security prison cell across town. The beam sizzled into nothingness.

I stared at the gun and then back at Count Cranium in confusion. “What?”

The villain held up a pentagram amulet that I’d thought was just a weird homage to Dracula. “Personal defense shield,” he crowed. “My girlfriend’s a magic user.”

“She’s got bad taste in men,” I retorted.

“I’ll bet heroes are better to drain than regular humans,” he said, suddenly edging toward me with a strange smile. “And I’ll bet you’re particularly tasty.”

I held up my Shocker. “Come near me and you’re going to jail unconscious,” I warned.

He laughed. “Your little sci-fi shit won’t work on me.”

“Let’s find out,” I said, and pushed the button.

The shock that would normally take out a full-grown adult fizzled without any obvious effect. I cursed magic in general. I needed a weapon that would circumvent it. Maybe Lainey or Wesley could help, and if I threw together some neural-transmitter transducers…

This is so not the time to focus on wish lists,
I reminded myself. The villain had decided he had the edge, and was running toward me. I stumbled back.

He made a grab for me and I dodged, managing to land a kick as I did. He doubled over as the wind was knocked out of him. Apparently physical blows could penetrate his shield. Ha, take that, magic!

“Tekgrrl?”

I looked over to see Luke approaching. “It’s okay,” I said—but then the vampire grabbed me by the hair and yanked me close. It was the second time in recent history that I had been grabbed from behind, and I made a silent promise to myself to never ever turn my back on a villain again.

“I’ll drain her, Sensei,” Goth Boy snarled. “Step back.”

Luke took a few steps back, hands in the air. “Let’s all stay cool.”

“Don’t use your patronizing negotiator tactics on me,” Count Cranium said. “Now, you two heroes are going to do what I say.”

The very fact that I was going to get munched by a psychic vampire pissed me off. And how humiliating, being taken out by a minor villain in front of the guy I was trying to get over. My headache was back with a vengeance, and I was again feeling like someone shoved an ice pick into my brain.

I focused the pain and humiliation into rage at the villain yanking my hair. I hated Count Cranium, and hated his stupid name and stupid vampire getup, and most importantly, I hated his stupid medallion. I wanted to rip that stupid medallion off of his neck and throw it on the ground and stomp on it until it was nothing but itty-bitty pieces. And then I’d smash
him
into itty-bitty pieces.

Something round and metallic came flying over my shoulder and skidded across the sidewalk. The villain released his hold on my hair. “What the hell? How’d you do that?” I turned to see he no longer wore his medallion.

Without knowing what I was doing, I threw all of my remaining rage at him. The villain flew off his feet and slammed into the mailbox behind him, making a huge dent in it, and he crumpled to the ground, moaning. Luke leapt forward and rendered him unconscious with a nerve-pinch maneuver he had perfected.

I immediately whirled and threw up in the gutter. I felt light-headed, like I might pass out. Stumbling to my hands and knees I breathed deep, trying to focus on staying conscious. The blinding pain in my head slowly receded until it was only a dull throb.

“What was that, Mindy?” Luke’s quiet voice brought my attention back, and I found I was able to stand up again.

“I-I don’t know,” I said, shaking but managing to walk over to where the medallion now lay, shattered to nothing but itty-bitty pieces.

“Was it someone else? Is there some other hero around?” he called out. He was gazing to his right and left, looking nervous.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so.” I remembered the ghost in my lab. The instruments floating in the air, the light switch shutting off a split second before I wanted. The scrambler turning on when I couldn’t reach. “Is it possible to develop powers late in life?”

Luke shrugged. “You’re the scientist, you tell me.” His eyes widened. “You think you’re developing powers?”

“It was, like, something psychic.” I looked down at the unconscious villain. “I was just so mad at him and the situation, and I kept thinking that I wanted to rip that stupid magic medallion off his neck and beat the tar out of him.”

“And you did.” Was it my imagination, or did Luke look scared?

I bit my lip. “I don’t know. I was certainly focusing my rage on him. Like a telekinetic or telepath would.”

“And you’ve never displayed any sort of telekinesis before?”

I shook my head. “No, I was tested when I was young. I’m just smart; that’s all. No powers.”

Luke stared off into the distance for a moment. Then, clearly not relishing his words, he asked, “Do you think this has something to do with your aliens?”

I cringed. “I hope not.” But in the back of my mind I believed he was right. Even though the tests Paul had run detected nothing, I was beginning to wonder if those aliens hadn’t blocked something else in me besides memories, and those blocks were now failing.

“You need to go tell Paul right now. I’ll take care of this guy, but you need to make sure everything’s all right,” Luke was saying.

“Everything doesn’t have to be about the aliens, you know,” I growled, my nerves jangling. “Maybe I’m just developing powers late in life. It could happen!”

Luke looked as if he didn’t believe that any more than I did. “You need to go see Paul,” he repeated.

“No, I don’t! Paul said I could stay on roster as long as nothing unusual happened. If I tell him about this, not only will he do a bunch more tests, he’ll take me off the team!” I had just gotten back on the streets, I didn’t want to be taken off again.

Luke’s mouth was a thin line. “Maybe he needs to, Mindy.”

I stared at him in shock. His words hurt me more than I could say. I couldn’t believe he would suggest I wasn’t fit for duty.

A sound like a teleporter buzzed behind me, a split second before I heard, “Hey, guys!”

Luke’s face immediately brightened. “What are you doing out on patrol, baby?”

“Making sure you’re not getting into trouble, sugar,” Selena replied. Their relationship had barely started, and they already had pet names? Gag me.

“We just took care of this guy,” Luke said, motioning to the unconscious villain. “I was just about to take him in and Mindy was heading home to talk to Paul.” His eyes narrowed on me.

Selena gave me a questioning look. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” I said, in a fake bright tone. I didn’t want to go into the whole thing with Selena, who was nice but not a superclose friend. I didn’t even know if I wanted to talk to my best friends about my condition.

I gave Luke an equally sharp look. “I’m fine.”

“Well, do you mind if I tag along while you escort this man to jail?” Selena asked.

Luke grinned. “I wouldn’t mind the company.” He turned back to me. “Go on home and talk to Paul, Mindy. I’ll see you later.” He and Selena typed coordinates into their transporters and soon shimmered out of sight, taking the unconscious villain with them.

I frowned. I couldn’t believe Luke thought it might be better for me to be off the team. Weird new powers and blinding headaches and nightmares aside, there wasn’t anything interfering with my work. The new powers certainly weren’t a deterrent to fighting crime. And really, why did Luke think he could just boss me around? He wasn’t my father or my husband or even our team leader. He had no right to tell me what to do!

On the other hand, maybe it wasn’t just bossiness. While I had to admit I was prickly where my “condition” was concerned, I was also rational enough to know that there was some truth in what he had to say. Weird new powers didn’t just occur in people past puberty unless there was some sort of outside intervention. Powers were a genetic condition that usually showed up when a person’s hormones did. The very fact that they were coming out of nowhere with me was a bit troubling.

My cell phone rang, jarring me out of my worries. I pulled my cell phone from its holster on my belt. “Hello?”

“Hey, girl, where are you?” It was Toby, and by his boisterous voice and the background noise he was in a bar and likely on his third mojito.

“Just finished putting a villain to bed,” I said.

“So, you’re off duty?”

“For the foreseeable future,” I replied.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Well get your cute little butt on over to Cozumel’s.”

Okay, maybe he was on his fourth mojito.

“I don’t know, Toby,” I hedged. “I’m still in uniform and I don’t really feel like partying tonight.” Despite my words, I starting to walk in that direction.

“Honey, I’ve seen women wearing crazier getups than yours already in here, and they’re trying to make a fashion statement, not rid the world of crime. Their fashion sense
is
the crime.”

“Tobe, exactly how much have you had to drink? You’re really starting to sound like a stereotype.”