Light and Shadows II: Dark
by J. Darksong
II.)
I came to lying on the cold hard marble floor. Incidentally, NOT the best way to wake up. It took a moment or two for me to get my bearings, and when it all came back to me, I was pissed. “Mother fucker,” I grumbled under my breath as I made my way to the doorway. As I’d expected, the man and Miss Sanchez were long gone. Taking out my cell phone, I started to dial mom, to let her know what had happened, and see what she wanted me to do... then I closed he phone back down.
“Hell, no,” I grumbled again, opening it, dialing a different number instead. I hadn’t asked for this gig. I didn’t WANT to be any kind of super hero. Hell, I hadn’t even wanted to make this blasted service tech house call! But... I was here, thick in the middle of the situation, and I wasn’t about to hand it over to mom, or dad, or the police, or anyone else. That rat bastard tasered me. Twice. The last one... IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD!
“Hello?”
“Hi, Megan? This is Jimmy. I was wondering... I need some help with something. Are you busy?”
“Jimmy?!? N-n-no! Of course not!” she said excitedly. “I’m free. Just... recovering a bit from yesterday’s training session. Shinobi gave me the day off today to rest. So... what do you need help with?”
Eager to please as ever. Damn... was she always like this, or was this my influence? I didn’t know her well enough from before to tell the difference. “I’ve come across a piece of code that I’d like you to take a look at. It’s a real piece of work... I’m hoping that with your connections you can tell me who would be capable and most likely to have created it.”
“Um, sure, okay,” she said slowly. “Um, is this work related, as in your nine-to-five job, or... extra-curricular?”
“Probably both,” I said with a sigh. I knew Aunt Roni and Uncle Parker had gotten to her if she was now trying to push the ‘caped crusader’ role onto me as well. “Look, I need to wrap up a few loose ends here, and I’ll be right over. Do me a favor, though... don’t mention any of this to your mentor, or my mom and dad, alright?”
“Hmm? Why not? What exactly are you into, Jimmy?”
I didn’t have time for this right now. “Megan! Just DO as I say! NO QUESTIONS! And no comments other than ‘Yes Sir’, got it?”
A slight pause, then, “Yes, Sir,” she replied demurely, submission dripping from every syllable. “Anything you say, Sir.”
Shit. Cue the guilt fairies, you’re on in five. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. See you then.” And I hung up.
Okay. I’m a heel. A bastard. A jerk. I admit it. Not only had I completely fucked up her world, I was using her for her knowledge and talents, and even capitalizing on her submission to me in order to cut short an argument I didn’t want to have. From some of the stories I’ve heard, I’m pretty sure that I’m not the first would-be hero to get caught in this fuzzy grey area on using your powers over other people for the greater good. It still doesn’t make the guilt feel any less potent.
I decided to make a quick search of the house before leaving. The daughter was nowhere to be seen, which I’d suspected, but I found the maid down in the basement, staring wide-eyed at an older model desktop monitor, completely zoned-out. Heh. Nice to know Miss Sanchez was kind enough to provide a computer and Internet access for the hired help. I shut down her computer and woke her from her daze, and explained what was going on. I told her to call the police, and explain that her employer, and possibly her daughter, had been kidnaped. I started to leave then, but she clamped onto my arm, frightened, not sure of what to do or say, and unwilling to let me leave. She was borderline hysterical, and getting closer to the edge second by second... so, damn me, I did the only thing I could think of to calm her down.
Several shadow tendril strikes later, she sat with an almost eerie calm as I explained, again, what to say the police, and told her stay put until they arrived. I left then, quickly, before I could do any more damage, grumbling angrily as the windshield of the van cracked and shattered as the engine roared to life. Great. Just great. So, assuming my draining what bit of will and intelligence was left in her head after the computer virus doesn’t turn her into a mental vegetable, I might have just ended up creating another Techna, devoted and submissive to me. Shit... there’s too much I don’t know about my powers. I’m starting to wish I hadn’t resisted going into the family business so hard, that I’d worked with mom and dad all those years back when my powers first appeared.
The top of the steering wheel snapped apart in my hands, not from bad luck, but from my super strength, and the death grip I’d clenched it with in the midst of my depression. Oh well... at least its still drivable. Putting my hands at three-and-nine, I continued on, finally pulling to a stop at Techna’s apartment building. After what I’d said to her on the phone, I half expected to find Megan waiting for me just inside the living room doorway, naked and kneeling on her knees, which had happened once or twice before, but instead I found her fully dressed in her Techna uniform, her computer up and running, waiting for me. Which made me feel marginally better.
“Thanks for doing this, Megan,” I said, hugging her gently. “And, um... I’m sorry for what I said to you on the phone earlier. Some guy tasered me in the head and left me lying in a pool of my own drool, so naturally I’m a little bit... snippy. But... that’s no excuse for being short with you. I apologize.”
She smiled softly, blushing. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it. And... well... I kinda like it better... when you’re... um... forceful.”
Now it was my turn to blush. “Um, yeah, well...” Taking the zip drive from my pocket, I handed it to her. “This is what I was telling you about. It’s some kind of subliminal hypnotic computer program. When it runs, it causes the monitor to pulse and display a list of hypnotic commands slightly faster than the eye can see. It completely mind-fried one woman, and did a pretty good job on a second before I shut it down.” I sighed. “I’m a pretty good programmer, all things considered, but the person who created this is out of my league.”
All business now, Techna slid the card in and began analyzing the code. Her glasses slipped down to the end of her nose, and she began chewing idly on the end of an ink pen from her desk. “Hmm.. Nice. It’s both very simplistic in design, and very complex. See these lines here, this section controlling the display? It controls the frequency of the pulsing, and what I suppose is a changing pattern of colors to entrance the watcher. But, see, its not a set value. It takes the values of the computer’s specific optimal display settings and incorporates that value into the equation. So, it runs a slightly different pattern and frequency, depending on what kind of computer its run on!”
“Heh. I hadn’t noticed,” I commented, leaning forward to peer over her shoulder. “So, any guesses on who has enough skill to design something like that?”
Techna frowned. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s a short list, but most of them are legitimate. Hmm.... I can’t imagine someone with her money and connections would be involved in coding like this... and something this subtle isn’t HIS style...” Nibbling lightly on her pen again, she sighed. “If we assume it’s from a local source, my top two guesses would be either ‘The Shark’, or ‘The Kat’... yeah, definitely one of those two.”
My blank look must have expressed my complete utter lack of comprehension, because a moment later she said, “Oh, come on! You call yourself a computer expert, and you don’t know about the two best computer hackers on the West Coast? Fredrick ‘The Shark’ Sievers, and Katherine ‘The Kat’ Hogan... I met them both when I was at Cal Tech. They’re both smart enough to create something like this code. As I recall, Shark is currently living with his grandma here in town, on probation for getting caught hacking into the CIA’s central mainframe. As for Kat... I’m not really sure. We kinda lost touch when she moved back to California to work for the Draupnir Company, but she has a sister that lives over in Portland. I guess we could try her.”
“Thanks,” I said, getting their addresses from her. “I appreciate the help. I promise I’ll make it up to you sometime soon.” I kissed her softly, then turned to leave.
“Wait a minute, I’ll go with you. Just give me a minute to shut down my computer.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t want you involved in this. Whether it was the Shark, the Kat, or the Monkey, or whoever created this code, the guys behind the kidnaping are serious people. I don’t want you getting hurt...”
She gave me a look that was part “you’re so sweet” and partly “are you fucking serious” all rolled into one. “Thanks. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t wear this costume because I look good in metallic silver. I’m a heroine, Jimmy. I can take care of myself. Heck, I’ve been busting my ass for the past several weeks training with your Aunt just for this kind of thing! And if this is as serious as you seem to think it is, then you’ll need my help.”
At this point, it was obvious the only way I would get her to stay out of it would be to ORDER her to sty out. Which, of course, would make me feel even more like a jerk after accepting her help up to this point. And I think I’d just reached my guilt quota for the day. “Alright, fine. You can come with. But... we are NOT partners, understand? You’re my sidekick on this, alright?” I groaned inwardly. That hadn’t come out the way I’d hoped. Super heroes have sidekicks. Dammit, I was even starting to think in those terms now. “You follow my orders, to the letter. When I say jump, you jump. If I tell you to duck, you hit the ground. Got it?”
“Yes, Sir,” she said with a grin, sounding entirely too happy about this situation as she slid her goggles over her eyes. “You’re the Boss!”
The Shark turned out to be clean, which meant a road trip to check out the Kat.
I’m not a big fan of motorcycles. It seems to be a ‘thing’ of some kind among Supers these days, particularly the girls... at least those that don’t fly or run two hundred miles per hour. From a logic standpoint, I suppose I get it. Smaller and more mobile than a car, and I would have been handle to take that dip a whole lot better chasing the train on a bike. Plus you don’t have to get off when criminals you’re chasing decide to run down a narrow alleyway to avoid you. Still... I just don’t like them. You’re too exposed, too open to attack... too vulnerable.
So, naturally, Techna owned a motorcycle. And with Jenny still languishing in my garage on blocks, and my work van in less than stellar operating condition, I found myself clutching tightly to my leather and spandex clad partner as we did seventy down the highway. And it wasn’t so much that I had doubts about Techna’s driving ability, but I was suddenly very jealous of Katie and Mom’s ability to fly.
Mental note: get Aunt Sarah to teach me that teleportation trick of hers in the near future.
“Hey! Stop! Pull over!” I yelled, as we neared our destination, trying to make myself heard over the roaring wind. I must have succeeded, ‘cause she slowed down to a crawl before pulling into a nearby parking lot. “Look! Over there, parked next to that big building on the right!”
“Hmm? You mean that old office complex building with that black van parked next to it?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. When that guy came to abduct Miss Sanchez, I caught a glimpse of his ride before I blacked out. He loaded her up into a big black van, just like that one.”
“And they just left it parked here, out in the open like this?” Techna asked, dubiously. “I dunno... it’s just a black regular van, no special markings or anything. There are probably hundreds of them in the city.”
“True, but the Kat’s address is less than a block from here. It might be a coincidence, but I kind of doubt it.” I hopped off the bike. “Come on, let’s take a look around. If it’s not the right place, no harm no foul.”
Shrugging, she cut the engine and locked her bike. I have to admit it... THAT was impressive. I ring of plated metal slid out from some hidden seams, unfolding and surrounding the bike like a suit of armor. A soft PFFFT sounded as a pair of metal pitons clamped down, embedding themselves into the concrete as well, making sure the bike couldn’t simply be lifted away, or fall over accidentally. She even had round metallic shields slide down to cover and protect her tires. No one was messing around with HER bike!
Smiling at my expression, she pulled a device from her belt. “Okay. Let’s see what we’ve got here... one, two, three... hmm.... total of five people in that building... I’m seeing a lot of heat from the west end, probably computer equipment from the energy output... let me switch to xray mode.”
I blinked, peering down at the small iPhone shaped device. “Xray mode? You mean that little thing can—”
“Show us a pretty good image of what’s going on inside the building, yes,” she finished, smirking. “It’s still a beta version, of course, not perfected, the images are kind of fuzzy, and for some reason, copper pipes and wiring tend to distort things even more... Ah! There we go. Take a look.”
Rotating the device with my thumbs, I glanced at a small, but remarkably detailed representation of the inside of the building. From their shapes, there seemed to be two men walking around idly, back and forth, like guards. A female sat in front of the huge heat signature—a small mainframe computer system, I supposed. Most likely the Kat. In the other corner, lying down horizontal, were two other figures, also women, one slightly smaller than the other. It was hard to tell from such a small distorted picture, but I’d have bet a grand that it was Miss Sanchez and her daughter.
“What do you think?” Techna asked. “This the right place?”
“That would be my guess. All signs seem to point to it. Still... it could all be a coincidence. If we burst inside like SWAT and it turns out to be a real estate office or something, we’d look like idiots.” I sighed deeply, rubbing my temples. “Let’s just play this low key. We sneak in, look around, confirm that there is really something shady going on, and THEN bring the noise.”
“Gotcha,” Techna replied, flipping a few switches on her belt. “Going into stealth mode.”
“What the—” I took a step back in surprise. Techna’s form shimmered slightly, then... well, not VANISHED, per sae. Not completely, anyway. It was like she had gone transparent or something... I could still see her, vaguely, but it was like she was made of glass—I could see right through her! “How the hell...?”
“New invention,” she said, her voice sounding muffled, so I had to strain to hear her. “Got the idea from watching Die Another Day—one of Brosnan’s best, by the way. My suit’s fitted with tiny visual scanners on a three-sixty motion axis. My belt computer then displays what it sees on one side of my body—”
“On the other side, yeah, I saw the movie,” I cut in. “Damn. That’s really... clever. My dad was toying around with something like that, but he never got it to work. If you showed him this, you could probably name your price for the patent!”
She blushed deeply. “Um, thanks... maybe later. Yanno, I don’t have all the bugs out of it yet, though... it only works short term... and it’s really hot! I always sweat like I’m in a sauna when I have this on.” She tugged on my arm. “C’mon. Let’s go get the bad guys.”
We made our way around to the back of the building. I didn’t see any cameras, and Techna didn’t notice any electronic survalience. “Kinda figures,” she whispered, “no reason to guard the fortress when no one’s looking for you. And even if someone DID find the connection between the virus code and Kat Hogan, why would they look here, instead of searching her home?”
Very good points. As she knelt down to pick the lock, I felt a buzzing in my back pocket. I took out my cell phone, then winced. Crap. Six missed calls... all from mom. Must have called while I clinging to Techna for dear life on the back of her death machine. I cycled through her voice messages, groaning inwardly. I should have seen it coming, though. When the police found Miss Sanchez’ maid, they called the best deprogrammer they knew to try and help her—Dr. Eva Snow. Parker Albinn’s aunt, and my mom’s best friend. So, naturally, once she probed into the poor girl’s mind and saw what had happened, she told my mom... who had apparently gone into ‘Overreacting Parent Mode’.
It doesn’t happen very often. She’s a pretty good mom, all things considered. But, well, when you’re a high profile Super, you tend to make a LOT of powerful enemies. It tends to make her and dad a wee bit paranoid at times. For instance, once, when I was seven, we went on a trip to the Mall of America, that gigantic conglomeration of all things capitalist. Katie kept going on and on about wanting to do the ‘Build Yer Own Bear’ thingie, but heading that way, the giant Aquarium caught my eye, so I wandered that way. I was pretty taken with all the different kinds of fish, so much so that I didn’t notice that THEY had kept walking. By the time I DID notice, they were long gone. One of the aquarium workers, a nice young man with a name tag and uniform, asked if I was lost, and offered to take me to the Child Center to wait while security tried to locate my parents. He’d taken my hand, and was leading me out towards that area... when mom, in her Omega Girl persona, burst through the crowd. She yelled out loudly, “LET GO OF MY SON!” and Omega Blasted the entire crowd, stunning everyone into unconsciousness.
I turned my cell phone off, grimacing at the thought of her zooming through the skies at six hundred miles an out, scanning for me. She NEVER overreacted like this on Katie. I was tougher, stronger, and, sorry to say, SMARTER than my sister... but because I didn’t have ‘magical good luck fairies’ fluttering around ME, I was considered the problem child. So unfair.
“Anything important?” Techna asked, glancing over at me as the lock clicked open.
“Nothing that can’t wait. Parents checking up on me. C’mon,” I said, pushing open the door, “let’s do this.”
Okay. I have to admit to myself now, at this moment, that I was a bit cocky. I was here to kick ass first... and to rescue Miss Sanchez second. I was here primarily because that guy with the sunglasses had pissed me off by tasering me in the back of the head! I wanted payback... in a strictly, doing the right thing for justice sort of way, of course. And, sad to say, I was kind of feeling a bit of a rush from the whole ‘hero’ thing, despite my best efforts not to get caught up in it. I wasn’t wearing a uniform or leotard or anything like that... but even my trademark black-on-black ensemble with black leather jacket DID kind of give the feel of a costumed crime fighter. I had a good feeling about this... I’d used logic and reason in finding this place, and I’d even decided not to go busting in like a maniac, or a rookie—I was playing it cool. Playing it safe. Again, I had a very good feeling about the way things were going.
Typically, that’s when things went all to hell.
The moment we picked to step through the doorway, one of the guards decided to head out that door to have a smoke. He bumped into Techna, knocking her off her feet. He cried out in surprise; even semi-invisible, it’s not difficult to tell when a big busted beauty bumps into you. He whirled around, and saw me, and yelled again, drawing a gun.
Getting shot at point blank range hurts like you wouldn’t believe.
Knocked back a few feet from the impact, I staggered a bit, stunned at how suddenly things had gone bad. I’d just been shot. I’d never been shot before. Was I bulletproof? Mom was bulletproof. Katie... well, guns didn’t even go off around her! All I knew at that moment was that I’d been shot in the chest, and it had HURT! Regaining my ballance, I ran at him... stupid, I know, his gun (what? A Berretta 92, I think?) held ten rounds? Smart people don’t charge straight into the line of fire, but I was hardly thinking like a rational being at the moment. Sure enough, the punk fired again, and a third time before I reached him. I crushed his weapon with my left hand, heard his scream in pain, meaning I’d probably broken his hand in the process. With my right hand, I punched him, somehow managing to hold back on the strength enough not to pulverize his skull. He flew backwards, landing hard on his back, groaned softly, and lay still.
“Oh my God!” Techna said, shedding her invisibility, rushing to me as I sank to my knees. “Are you okay? Jimmy! Say something! Are you alright?”
“Not... really sure, yet...” I said weakly, sliding open my jacket. Damn. Another leather jacket ruined. Likewise, my Master of Puppets shirt was trashed, with three rather large bullet holes. Thankfully, my shirt was still black, not red. I shook my jacket slightly, and three crushed, dented, bullets clanked to the concrete. I sighed deeply, muttering a silent prayer.
If I get out of this whole thing alive, I SWEAR I am begging my parents to train me in the use and limitations of my powers.
The darkened room suddenly flooded with light, causing Techna and I to wince and cover our eyes. By the time my vision cleared, I wished it hadn’t. Standing before us, looking entirely too pleased with himself, was Mr. Sunglasses again, holding a rather familiar looking taser. Accompanying him were Miss Sanchez, and a girl that looked enough like her to be her daughter. They both had blank, empty expressions on their faces, and were both completely nude.
They also both held Uzis.
“Well, well, well,” the hood said with a shit-eating grin, “fancy meeting you here. Yanno, I thought there was something special about you, that you were more than just some simple computer geek techie. You took a full charge of fifty-thousand volts to the back of the head last time. A normal guy, he’s in a hospital about now, drooling in his food, barely able to say his own name, if he’s lucky. Or pushing up daisies, if he ain’t. But you? Hah! Just a few hours later, and yer up and about, tracking down the bad guy that roughed you up and left you for dead! Impressive,” he said, clapping in mockery. “Really impressive.”
“Okay. So now what? Are you planning to have your two zombified slaves shoot me? In case you didn’t see what happened to your partner on the floor over there, he tried the same thing. And now he’s lying on the ground, and I’m still here.”
“Oh, no, I saw,” he assured me, still grinning. “I saw the whole thing. You’re pretty tough. I respect that. I also saw how worried you were about being shot. I’m guessing yer still new to all of this,” he said, gesturing about the room. “So, maybe you’re bulletproof, maybe you’re not.” He snapped his fingers and gestured, and the two slaves pointed their guns at Techna, who gasped. “But I’m willing to bet your little friend in the shiny sparkily ‘Bat Suit’ isn’t quite so bulletproof. You want me to test that theory?”
Sighing deeply, both Techna and I put our hands up. “Sorry, Boss,” she said softly, as Mr. Specs made his way over to us. “Looks like we’re not getting out of this one after all.”
“It’s not over yet,” I said bravely, trying to pick up her spirits. “It’s not over til its over.” Although, really, that’s all I had to give her. I’m really not much for super hero banter, or encouraging speeches. Frankly, neither is Katie. Ehh... she tries hard enough, but she usually just ends up sounding confused more than witty.
Once Techna was properly secured, Shades turned his attention to me once more. “Now, the real question is, what to do with you? You seem like too much of a hard case to ‘play nice’, even if Miss Hogan had the time to reconfigure her little virus and write a program for male slaves... although, I am a bit curious as to what it would do to your brain as it is now.” He chuckled darkly. “If I had the time, I’d probably feed you and your little friend into a wood chipper,” which made me wince, “but our time table is rather delicate right now.” He sighed dramatically. “One of the problems with working for other people... you don’t get to call the shots.”
“So... you’re basically just a hired thug, then?” I said, getting in a parting shot. “From all your big talk, I thought you were the man in charge, but I overestimated you. You’re just a minion.”
His expression went hard. Looks like I touched a nerve. Maybe there was something to this bantering thing after all? “Minion?” He snarled, striking out with that damned taser again, making me shudder. “I’m no one’s minion! I’m a mercenary, got it? A thug for hire. I don’t give a crap about this little operation, other than the fact that its success means I get paid!” He finally removed the taser, and I slipped down to my knees once more... trying not to vomit or pass out. “Minion! Hah! I’m my own man, punk!”
“Coulda... fooled... me...” I managed to gasp before losing the battle against nausea. I threw up, hard, then doubled over onto my side. It was bad enough getting tasered twice before, but add to it being shot in the chest, and then tasered again... and I was really not having a good day.
Mr. Hired Thug stood over me, glaring at me. “Well, well. Still got a bit of fight left in you, huh? I knew you were a hard case. Well... looks like I’ll have to think up a proper way of getting rid of you, after this little deal goes through. For now, I think I’ll just put you in ‘cold storage’ for a while.”
The taser, again. Then sparking. Shuddering. And finally, blessedly, darkness...