Chapter 18 - Thunder in Houston
Part I To live at Olympus is to accept the extraordinary. Our lives are never what you call normal but within our own frame of reference we do have normal days.
This had started out as one of those. A day that was supposed to offer only a small mystery and the usual dangers.
We had reports of a pair of MetaHumans operating in Houston. Nothing big and flashy but a lot of individual crimes. The business that were hit all handled large sums of cash and as a result the total losses were in the hundreds of millions.
As the Mayor of Houston was quick to point out losses of that magnitude fell under my 'no disruption of human society' rule. The pair had not killed anyone as far as we knew so they were just not a priority. Mr. Mayor called Olympus and managed to get to me. I was in Central at the time. His assumption that I would charge out to investigate was a little annoying but I did agree to look into the problem.
We found a bit of a mystery.
The mystery is what actually caused me to take Justice to Texas. There were two parts to this little problem. The first were those reports. They conflicted.
Two MetaHumans was a constant but the powers of the male seemed to vary in a way that made little sense. He was reported growing to 20', flying and changing into some kind of monster. Shape Shifters cannot change their mass. They cannot grow much. And neither that, or Growth, gives you the power to fly.
The female half of the team had used at least 3 different types of energy. That put her in my category. Energy Master. We had never met a female with that power but that was at least possible.
The other part of the mystery? None of the Sensors could get even a trace on the two. Even people like Telepaths who can shield themselves leave little traces. The Scanners know they are around just not where exactly. I jumped out of one of our plane to fly over Houston myself. If there was an Energy Master within 50 miles I should have sensed them.
The two we were hunting? Zip. No contacts at all.
The possibility of a rogue Energy Master brought me to Houston and I brought most of Justice along with me. Psyche was elsewhere but I had Selene handy. Blur was keeping her company outside the city and would deliver her at my request. But we were just planning on finding the two and attempting to convince them to stop. Since they were not out killing I did not even expect to fight.
From Justice I had Thor, Nova and our newbie Valkyrie. Val can fly supersonic when she wishes. She has a low level forcefield that protects her against friction. She and Nova became instant friends. One of the first to graduate from Paul's full 6 week training course Valkyrie is good.
Since we were mostly going to try and convince our two wayward Metas to play nice I thought a little more size might help. To that end I assigned one of the new superwomen to the team. Sif in fact. Yes I knew all about her crush on Thor. Not my problem. If it impacted a mission I would notice and people would wish I had not. Otherwise, not my problem.
She is damn near as strong as Thor and quite skilled. She was the best of the new group of superstrong people and that is why I picked her. Not too long after this little event she proved her worth by earning a permanent spot with Justice.
Kid Flash was also attached to us. I requested Speed but he got tied up in a massive rescue mission overseas. I wanted a speedster to help with the search and to impress the two criminal Metas of the folly of their ways. I'm scary. A Speedster is unstoppable and few doubt that.
We took one of our jets to Houston. I rode this one the whole way much to the relief of the pilots. I did use my forcefields to prevent any change in cabin pressure when I bailed on the previous recon trip. They were still unhappy about it.
We went to our hotel in civilian clothes. Some snacked and we all got ready to work. It was just about noon when we headed out.
I had a simple plan. Since we had no idea where our two targets might be we would be very public about our presence and see what happened. My back-up plan was Kid Flash's search of the entire city and surrounding regions. But even for a speedster that was a hit or miss proposition.
We walked out of the hotel in uniform and masks to put the plan into effect.
Nova, Valkyrie and I zoomed up into the sky while Thor and Sif headed generally north. They would draw a lot of attention but they enjoyed it. I do not think anything we did hurt us but looking back I wish I had been more serious about what we were doing. I made us an easy target.
We flew, or wandered, for a couple of hours. Kid Flash reported constantly for the first hour and then said he would call if he found anything. I made a mental note to tell Speed that the Kid needed to learn to only call me when he finds something. Regular updates from speeders are guaranteed to drive you crazy very, very quickly.
Clouds started to roll in. They looked friendly and fluffy. The girls and I chased each other through them.
About the time I was ready to call it quits for the day the clouds began to turn dark. I could fly around in a lightening storm but Nova and Val try to avoid them. We headed down towards Thor and Sif.
They were sitting at an outdoor cafe drinking from some huge mugs.
I was not pleased. First they were drinking on-duty and second they had their masks rolled up to be able to do so. Both are against the rules. My rules.
When I pointed this out to my buddy he got an odd look on his face.
“Who is going to see?” he replied.
I looked around and saw... nobody.
No people in the cafe. Nobody on the sidewalks. It was raining but not very hard. No wind at all. The clouds were black though, thick and nasty looking. That would explain the darkness cause it was only what... 8pm?
No, that could not be right. 5 something. 6 maybe. But 8 no way.
I had enjoyed flying with my girl and the talented and sexy Valkyrie but to lose that much time? That was not like me. I was relaxed but the possibility of sudden attack was real and I knew that. I did not forget it when we were cavorting 5,000 feet up either. Nova had even chided me that I was being too serious again.
8 pm. I checked and everyone else had the same info. Central confirmed it verbally. They also said sure I had been flying for that long.
Ok, fine, lost some time, no big deal.
Whoosh
“boss we got big trouble lots of big trouble on the way”
Kid Flash had arrived.
“Specifics Kid!” I snapped a little harder than I intended.
“well i boss really you are not going to believe me but 4 dinosaurs are headed this way big big mothers too”
“Dinosaurs? Robots, monster trucks, leggos, what?”
“no real ones clones jurassic park I don't know they are alive no machine has breath like that”
Dinosaurs? I had no idea what was happening. Who could create monsters? But it was a threat and I knew how to respond to those. First thing get the police to block traffic.
Traffic? Cars? I did not see any -- anywhere.
Not on the street next to us or up and down it's length.
“Kid, 10 block radius, run every street, count the number of cars you see, go”
whoosh
whoosh
“none zero not a one this is getting way weird”
"Son of a Bitch!" I cursed.
“Pulsar to Central.”
“Pulsar to Central!”
None of us could raise them. By now we could feel the vibrations of the massive paws of the monsters headed our way. Thor and Sif had taken positions in the street. She uses one of the swords that Geo and I made. Hers is blood red.
I was trying to find the people of Houston. I reached out with my senses and felt them. All around me in fact. The feeling was so strong my eyes snapped open expecting to suddenly see some of them standing in front of me. Nobody was there except my team.
Again I reached out. The people were there but my sense of them was fuzzy. This was not normal were they cloaked somehow? Invisibility would not affect me like this and if there were cars running up and down the street they were not hitting my overly large friends.
A hissing roar brought my eyes open again. The Tyrannosaurus Rexes had arrived.
Right out of a movie. 20' tall and hostile. The sound was not exactly what I was expecting though more hiss and less roar. Creepy like a really huge snake with too much attitude.
Thor let the lead reptile take a snap at him and responded with a blow from his hammer that spun the beast 180 degrees into a slide. Not dead but down for the moment.
Sif did not wait. With a cry of “For Olympus!” she charged straight at beast number two. The monster's great jaws snapped. She rolled and came up just in front of the mighty chest. Her sword came up two handed and cut deeply. Wrenching it out and down gutted the monster lizard. Gore gushed down onto the street. At least it was not red, more yellow.
Thor rounded on the downed beast carefully. It started to move just as he neared it's paws. One of the giant clawed feet thrashed out at Thor. He caught it with his left hand. It pushed. He pushed back. The beast flipped over with a huge THUDDD. His strength never fails to impress me. One more blow from his hammer and the Trex was dead.
I was not worried about my companions for the moment. I was worried about what was going on.
Ok. Work the problem. Examine the pieces. Look for connections.
Odd MetaHuman pair. Weird reports. Time weird.
Whoosh
“boss”
“Yes?”
“more weird stuff is happening around town”
“See any normal people anywhere?”
“nope goblins zombies and Nazis we got them coming out our butts but nobody else at all i just don't get it i hope you do speed said you always do...”
“How many and where on each?” I said breaking in.
“south 2 miles zombies about 50 west 6 miles goblins about 5000 east about at 3 and a half are the guys with guns there are about 30 of them”
Enemies to all four points of the compass including the dinos.
We are being played with and the game sucked.
“Kid go home. I need Selene, Talon and Pathfinder. Get help and get them here.
Whoosh
Whoosh
He was back too fast even for him.
“boss there is a wall 10 miles outside of town forcefield or something I cannot get through”
Wonderful.
“Nobody can project a field that big. Not even me on a good freaking day!” again I snapped. I had to watch that. But as I said it my senses confirmed it. We were in the center of a huge forcefield. Above and below us as well as extending down into the earth.
Great.
To be continued in Chapter 19
Pulsar, Nova, Thor & Kid Flash
Lady Sif & Valkyrie
MetaWar Chapter Nineteen