West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide (21 page)

“I thought he was
only sitting out publicity stuff?” asked Cosmic Kid.

“So he says, but
that sort of thing has a tendency to escalate,” said Camille, “Anyway, I
suspect Annie didn’t push the point because she wanted you to take part –
usually it’s the rookie who sits out something like this.”

“I’m not a rookie,”
muttered Cosmic Kid.

“Rookies whine about
their assignments, professionals just do what they’re told,” said Blue Star.

“I’m not whining,”
said Cosmic Kid.

“Fooled me,” said
Blue Star.

“Ignore him, Cosmic,
Blue Star is too old to remember what’s it like to be the new kid,” said
Camille. “Just be patient; you’ll have plenty of opportunities to prove
yourself.”

Cosmic Kid sighed
but kept pacing. Camille started counting to herself, probably mentally
reciting maneuvers or the steps in the plan, though Blue Star wasn’t sure – she
could be counting the stitches in her costume. Supers were a superstitious and
neurotic group. Everyone had their routines before a crisis. Blue Star knew he
was no different. He had a dozen routines from how he checked his uniform to
the power cadences he performed, like creating small snowflakes in quick
succession. Right now he opted to just keep reviewing the map of the hotel
downloaded into his HoloBerry. He hated waiting.

“Alright, time for
you all to move in,” said Dr. Sterling over the headsets. Blue Star nodded and
took to flight with Camille; Cosmic Kid began running on the ground after them.

Blue Star gained
some altitude to get a better view of the Grand Colonial Hotel. It was a
striking building, patterned on older style hotels from the turn of the 20th
century though it had been built within the last decade. Most of West Pacific
went for a modern look, so the more retro style of the Grand Colonial gave it
faux elegance. There were a good number of lights on in the hotel though most
of the rooms in the upper levels were dark. If they handled things well then most
everyone could just sleep through the night without ever knowing about all the
excitement on the third floor, but that was probably wishful thinking. He
angled down towards the main entrance – it was time for action.

Blue Star landed in
front of the revolving door and pushed his way into the main lobby followed by
Camille and Cosmic Kid who must have really pushed himself to keep up with the
two fliers. It was fairly quiet inside. Three men were spread out in comfy
chairs: two working on portable computers and the third reading a book. A young
woman sat behind the lobby desk. All of them looked up at the three entering
superheroes. The young woman started adjusting her hair and flashed a welcoming
smile, but the three men were scrambling – going for cell phones, or maybe
weapons.

Camille reacted
first and flew for one of the men. He didn’t have a chance to do anything
before she grabbed him and his chair, lifted them over her head and hurled them
at one of the other men who had just gotten out his cell phone. The crash was
fantastic, resulting in a pile of men and furniture on the ground. The third
man stood and started to run back into the hotel. Cosmic Kid sprinted forward,
quickly overtook the man, and smashed into him, crashing into a wall and pedestal
and in the process knocking over a potted plant, which smashed when it hit the
ground.

“Damn it you two,
we’re trying to minimize collateral damage!” snapped Blue Star.

“Hey, I just threw a
chair – I could have melted them with an energy blast or two, so I think I’m
showing a lot of restraint,” said Camille who looked practically giddy with
excitement as she heaved the two whimpering men onto a couch.

“Good throw,” said
Cosmic Kid.

“Thanks,” said
Camille. “I liked the tackle, very East Coast.”

“Well, I’m pretty
traditional when it comes–” started Cosmic Kid.

“Shut up you two!
Kid, secure the lobby and Camille get going,” snapped Blue Star. He always
hated that a lot of supers loved to chitchat during a crisis. Focus on the
mission not the banter. Cosmic Kid headed for the front desk and the young
woman whose eyes had gone wide in shock at their rather violent entry. Camille
took off at a reckless speed up the staircase, which meant that if Blue Star
didn’t get moving he would be the last one at the party upstairs.

In his
rush to catch up, Blue Star overshot the third floor a little, but he recovered
quickly enough that he doubted anyone noticed. He remembered how in his first
year with the Paragons decades ago he had overshot the 39th floor by four
floors and ended up barging into a Kaplan testing center instead of the
lawyer’s office where a disgruntled client was holding people hostage. It had
all ended okay, but he was teased about that by the rest of the Paragons for
years. He was definitely not going to make a similar mistake today on his first
real mission as a West Pacific Super.

His entry on the
third floor was accompanied by the sound of gunfire, yelling, and all the signs
of chaos and carnage. As he exited the staircase to the main hallway, a group
of three men in suits ran in his direction. Two were visibly armed with
pistols, but that didn’t really concern him. He created a snowstorm in the
hallway to blind them, moved in, and then dispatched them with a few kicks and
punches. Once they were on the ground he stopped the snowstorm. Just like a
snow globe, the snow and ice stopped spinning and lazily dropped to the ground.
Gunfire and yelling were still echoing from the direction of the conference
room, but this area was secure, except for the three injured goons on the
ground, two with broken bones, and one unconscious, probably with a concussion.

“Operations, what’s
the situation? I hope ambulances are en route,” said Blue Star.

“Obviously,” said Dr.
Sterling over the headset. “Seawolf and White Knight have hit the conference
room, but are facing resistance from two mutants. Camille is moving up from the
main stairwell, but has come under fire from a large group fleeing the scene.
Cosmic Kid has the lobby secure.”

“Understood,
continuing towards the conference room to engage hostile mutants,” said Blue
Star. “What do we know about them?”

“Very little at this
point, but Seawolf and White Knight are not in control of the situation.”

“Understood. Have
Cosmic Kid move up to assist Camille; we might need everyone if these mutants
are really dangerous.” Blue Star turned the last corner before the hallway in
front of the conference center and the super brawl.

The area outside the
conference room looked like a warzone. There were holes in the walls from
bullets, pictures and furniture smashed, and people lying about in various
states of injury. White Knight was nowhere to be seen, but Seawolf was fighting
a mutant… or ghost. It was human-shaped, but defused and transparent and it was
literally flying around Seawolf, who was delivering a whirlwind of claw attacks
against thin air and looked winded from the futile effort.

“Hey, why don’t you
pick on someone else for a while,” called Blue Star. The intangible mutant flew
towards Blue Star who plummeted the temperature around him in the hopes that
the cold might cause the mutant to coalesce or at least slow down.

“Watch out!” yelled
Seawolf.

Blue Star braced
himself, but wasn’t prepared for the intangible mutant to fly through his body
and then become solid behind him. By the time he turned to see the wiry man
standing behind him, the mutant drove his fist several times into Blue Star’s
back and then dropped and did a sweep kick knocking Blue Star to the ground. Before
Blue Star could hit back, the mutant had gone intangible again and was flying
around the hallway.

“He’s fast,” grunted
Seawolf as she ran forward and gave Blue Star a hand up. They both watched the
ghostly mutant circle about and then land at the end of the hall. He quickly
solidified, picked up a pistol lying on the ground and started shooting at the
two supers. Blue Star dove for cover, but not before his leg got hit by a
bullet. Seawolf drew and threw a knife, grazing the mutant right as he went intangible
again, dropping the pistol to the ground.

“We need to keep him
intangible while we regroup,” said Blue Star, who looked at his leg and saw
that the ultimesh had caught the bullet, though it likely had caused a massive
bruise on his leg. “Where’s White Knight?”

“He took off after a
few of the primary targets who fled with another mutant, a woman with gold skin
and a black dress. White Knight hit her with live ammo and it didn’t do
anything,” said Seawolf, who was watching the intangible mutant hover down the
hallway.

“Great, so this
one’s pinning us down so the others can escape or deal with White Knight
without backup,” said Blue Star angrily.

“I can try to keep
him busy while you get to White Knight,” offered Seawolf.

“No, you can’t do
anything against him. I’ll distract him and wait for backup while you go
support White Knight,” said Blue Star. While he could get to White Knight
faster, he was worried Seawolf was going to be killed by the intangible. “Okay
- straight ahead and contact Operations for directions!”

With that Blue Star
created a snowstorm throughout the area, which Seawolf ran through to get
towards White Knight. Blue Star kept up the storm, plunging the temperatures
even lower when he suspected Seawolf was out of the area. There was no sign of
the intangible.

“Man, and I forgot
my snow saucer,” said Cosmic Kid jogging up.

“Where’s Camille?”
asked Blue Star, relieved to see Cosmic Kid alive.

“She went through a
window to head to the service alley where White Knight is fighting some big bad
mutant,” said Cosmic Kid. “I’m here to support you.”

Blue Star stopped
the storm. As things cleared, he could see the frost covering everything; there
was a small layer of snow over the carpet. “We have an intangible mutant, who
seems to have left the area.”

“Uh, an intangible –
that sounds fun, but not a very hands-on fight, is it?” asked Cosmic Kid as he
headed for the conference room. Blue Star followed, still looking around for
the unseen mutant.

“Operations, what is
the situation?” asked Blue Star.

“White Knight,
Seawolf, and Camille are engaging a hostile mutant, but they now have the
situation under control,” said Dr. Sterling. “WPPD and ambulances are en
route.”

“Alright, we’re
checking the conference room,” said Blue Star. “We’re still looking for—” At
that there was a massive explosion outside the hotel that rocked the building
and sent hundreds of car alarms blaring. “Operations, what was that!”

“Camille, she just
blew up an SUV, nothing to worry about,” said Dr. Sterling nonchalantly.

“Minimizing
collateral damage is the goal!” snapped Blue Star.

“It was a Honda,”
said Dr. Sterling. “Don’t worry, it seems to have incapacitated the hostile
mutant so everything’s under control.”

“You know, next time
you could have Camille shut down the elevators and talk to the lobby staff,”
suggested Cosmic Kid. “Though I did get asked out.”

“The receptionist,
huh?” asked Blue Star.

“Yeah, but she’s in
shock so it probably doesn’t count, does it?”

“Nope it doesn’t, though
I did get Linda to agree to marry me a second time when she was suffering from
a concussion.”

“How romantic, I
don’t think that was in the movie about you.”

Blue Star flinched.
“Kid, never mention that movie again – understand?”

“What movie would that
be, Blue Star?” asked a voice from the far end of the conference room. There
were a number of people lying about the room with Taser darts sticking to them
and a few slumped across a table along the wall filled with snack food, but the
voice was coming from a large television screen with a digitally distorted
image.

“Mr. Darwin, I
presume,” said Blue Star.

“Yes, yes, it is,
I’m impressed that West Pacific Supers is back on its feet so quickly,” said
Mr. Darwin. Blue Star realized that while the voice was male it was just as
likely Mr. Darwin was female, it was a common but effective trick for female
supers to add an extra layer to their secret identity.

“We aim to please,”
said Blue Star.

“It appears you want
to escalate our conflict,” said Mr. Darwin. “You lost two, almost three supers,
at the Boardwalk and it can happen again. Or maybe family members, like a
granddaughter intern, might have an accident.”

“Emily is your
granddaughter?” Cosmic Kid asked Blue Star in surprise. “Wow, I’d never have
guessed – she’s actually good-looking. She must get that from the other side of
the family.”

Blue Star glared at
Cosmic but didn’t respond. Mr. Darwin, however seemed annoyed, and his voice
became angrier. “Stop your attacks on the Infinite Circle or there will be a
war - and it won’t involve ratings but blood!”

“Good buffet,” said
Cosmic Kid, putting some food on a plate. “You can threaten my dad too if you
want, I mean why should only Blue Star’s family get threatened? Honestly, I
feel insulted.”