Soda supreme, p.8
Soda Supreme, page 8
“Um... yeah. Yes, it is. I know that this might seem strange, but...”
Hannah shrugged, then pounded on the door to the large room where the woman was being held.
When the door opened, she stiff armed the Agent, who, cleverly, moved out of the way, on seeing who was there. He even hammed it up, making it seem like she’d actually made him move, somehow. Slamming himself back, into the far wall. It was a bit over the top, but he did a great job of it. That wasn’t how it had really gone, but the woman chained to the table looked freaked.
“What’s going on here?” The Agent, the older one, pretended to be scared. It was really well done. If he’d been in a movie, his role might well have won awards.
Hannah spun and grabbed at the papers in the other man’s hands.
“This is! It’s a deal they want you to sign, saying you’ll work with them, in exchange for your life. But they don’t own your life, May. I freaking do! You claim that you didn’t know it was me you kidnapped? That I’m just some kind of thing for you to make money off of? Fuck you!” Hannah hit her, which didn’t knock her down, or out, since she was tiny and the other woman was chained to the table. It didn’t really do much, but the woman screamed.
So it was rewarding that way.
“That’s right. You can scream. You can cry, but no one in the entire fucking world can save you in time. You’re at the mercy of other people and no amount of begging or offering to suck their cocks will save you. How do you like it? Because that’s what you did to me, you bitch!”
She pulled the gun metal forty-four then, and shook her head, actually shaking.
“Do you know the difference though, May Poscant? Do you? How this is different than what you did to me?” She screamed the last words.
The room went silent, the older Agent standing there, looking for all the world like he thought she was actually going to shoot the woman in the head. She did have a weapon out, but not pointed. Technically she was probably brandishing it, but she could argue in court that she wasn’t, if they had video. That might not work, of course.
“No.” The voice was so quiet that Hannah nearly asked her to repeat herself. It would have killed the moment though, so she leaned in.
“The difference is that these people actually have mercy. You aren’t in the control of monsters, you lucky piece of shit! When you were going down for the count, this guy back here came to try and save you. You! Not because you deserve it, but because they believe that, deep inside, you might actually have tricked yourself into thinking you weren’t doing anything all that bad. You have, you know that? Don’t you? Every time you moved a package over ten pounds, it was probably a baby. Over fifty, some little kid. Half the time it was probably to their parents, who loved them enough to go on the run with their child... but the rest? Do you think that someone who did that, even not knowing about it, deserves to live?”
She gripped the gun harder, not certain for a moment if she was going to actually murder the woman. Even if it meant going to prison herself, since it was in front of witnesses and on camera.
Then, the woman, probably thinking she was signing her own death warrant, saved herself. Thanks to the fact that the lucky piece of shit wasn’t in the hands of monsters.
“No. I... No. I don’t deserve to live, if that happened.” She swallowed, thinking she was about to die. At the hands of a tiny mad-woman from television.
Hannah put the weapon away.
“Good. Because that’s what should happen. Instead, you get a room and honest work. Know this though, May Poscant... I will be watching you. You aren’t going to be in prison and no one will hurt you, but if you fail, if you hurt anyone at all, I’ll know about it and I will kill you. Do you understand? I know, you look at me and think, that I’m no one. Some little girl. Even with a gun, what can I do, right? If you aren’t thinking that now, you will, later... When you do, consider this...”
She leaned in, her shoulder touching that of the other woman, her right to the seated lady’s left.
“This is a Federal facility. These men are Federal Agents and Diaspora here is on your side tonight. Ask yourself, if that’s the case, why did they even let me walk in here with a loaded gun? Then, get back to work. Do you understand? When these people get tired of you, when you aren’t useful to them anymore, you better find a way to do more. That is the only thing keeping you alive right now.”
Then, illegal or not, Hannah hit the woman again. Just with her fist. After all, the cunt had literally kidnapped her from her bed. Then she stormed out. As soon as she got into the hallway, the older Agent following, the door shutting with a slam, she stopped.
Then smiled.
“One down. She’ll be watched, for at least a few years?”
The man stopped, looked at Vidya funny, then nodded.
“Ten years, even with best behavior. It isn’t really a prison facility. We could lock her up in solitary, but we try not to do that, if we can. It makes people harder to work with. It... Isn’t even a bad, place, really. A gated community.” He stood very still then, just waiting.
Hannah sighed.
“She really did nearly get me killed. Still, just make sure she doesn’t do it again? If she does... Let me know and I’ll kill her. Even if it means I die, to make it happen, or have to go to prison for life. Now, the other one?”
The man started moving, speaking as he did that.
“This way?”
The other person, the telepath, who like to call himself Stun Bolt, was pretty out of it, when Hannah looked at him through the one-way glass. A different agent was in with him, speaking softly.
“You do know that they were going to rape that girl, right? The one you kept asleep? Kill her, when they were done?”
The guy had a sketchy-ass scraggly beard, black hair and bad teeth. He looked like he’d have a powerful odor, as well. It was probably drug addiction. The kind of thing that she was willing to forgive him for, if he was willing to fix himself. At least she was thinking that, as he answered.
“So? Some cunt gets fucked. Good? I didn’t do anything to her and you can’t prove I did. Nothing I did shows up in any way, if I did anything. Not on a scan of my head, not on anyone else’s... So, you’ve got nothin. I don’t even have powers. If I do, then prove it. Go ahead... You can’t, so I walk. But just so you know, if some girl gets her pussy pounded or her ass stretched, why should I mind? Maybe it will teach her not to be a stuck-up piece of shit to all the men in her life?”
That was the second time in a day that she’d heard something similar, even though it wasn’t really how she lived at all. Sure, she liked ripped, well-dressed men with good senses of humor, but if the man in that room had, before he’d spoken, asked her out, she probably would have been at least polite about it. Oh, she wasn’t dating some homeless guy, but she also wasn’t going to call him names for just trying to get some.
The Agent shook his head.
“They all think that. That if we can’t prove their powers in court, they get to walk. On some crimes it really does work that way. If he’d knocked a girl out and had sex with her himself, then we honestly couldn’t do anything at all. He was paid for a service though, to aid in a kidnapping, and it was a real one.”
She nodded.
“So, what does that mean?”
“That he dies. Probably tonight. Do you want to do the honors?” The man was probably teasing her, but if so, he had a very nice and dry delivery. Still, she shook her head. Killing someone there would give her a bad reputation.
“I have no problem with it being done, but I’m not doing it. Make sure I know what happens? Even if he gets to live in some secret program? I want to know if he’s still a threat. I can check, using other means, so, just tell the truth?”
That was real enough and Vidya nodded, then left with her, the Agent not really agreeing to do anything at all. Hannah noticed that, but it probably wasn’t something inside of his job description, anyway. Forcing him to say anything, when he didn’t have the power to deliver was probably asking him to lie to her.
So she left. They were still at The Society’s HQ. The place was just a lot different than Hannah would have ever guessed. For one thing, it looked a lot like a police station, instead of having cool Super Hero stuff all over the place. The carpets were orange mixed with yellow gold, and the tiles were scratched up white and rust. The walls were painted white, and where there was furniture, it seemed functional, rather than pretty or comfortable.
Hannah glanced to the side and up, to look at Death Princess.
“Did you really tell the President to fuck himself?”
She snorted.
“No. Do you really think the President would have tried to protect that woman? She has a minor power and was probably trafficking in children, even if she wants to pretend not to understand that. I’ve met the President, a few times, the last one too. Neither of them ever asked me to do anything for them, personally. Not like that. The last guy did ask for a blowjob.” She grinned.
Hannah snorted.
“Did he like it?”
Instead of hitting her, Vidya rolled her eyes.
“Of course. I’m very skilled that way. Plus, I can hold my breath for like, twenty-six minutes. He lasted... maybe four?”
Hannah just nodded, not knowing if they were joking any longer or not. Then, it didn’t really matter if they were. Not that night. They wandered the hallways for a while, or at least it felt that way to her. Vidya clearly had a destination in mind, which was at the top of the building they were in. That, the whole floor, was a good bit nicer than the rest. They also had giant screens all over the place and soft looking gold and black sofas. The kind that might be nice to sleep on.
She noticed that, being tired. It was getting late enough that sleep was a real option for her. So were nightmares, dreaming about waking up with a hood on again. It wasn’t a fun thing, but she’d learned a long time before that you still had to sleep, even if the dreams weren’t going to be about unicorns and cotton candy. She’d spent years, fighting sleep, worried about what would come when she shut her eyes.
“This time, just remember that you won.”
Vidya looked at her then, and she got ready to explain. The powerful woman simply looked sad.
“Yes. That is important. You won, and this time, the monsters didn’t get their way. Hold on to that. When things get dark, when it feels like all is lost, no one can take that feeling from you. Not if you refuse to let them.”
There was a moment there, and Hannah swallowed her tears, not letting them come. It had been a day, but the woman next to her, world renowned for being fierce and powerful and a bit wild, had been through a lot more than she had. There she was, taking time to help Hannah, too. Even if it didn’t really help her, personally.
So she shrugged.
“Oh, you had some people you wanted found? Kate mentioned that once, a long time ago, but you never brought it up. I should probably practice more now. I need to learn to be better at that psychic stuff, anyway.” Thinking of that, she tried to get back into a trance. It started to work, as Vidya flipped her long black hair back.
“Oh, yes, I really do. We have a list here, of about six hundred names that have dropped off the grid. Some of them... well, they’re probably dead. We have to follow the law here, but... The law isn’t always right. So, people who can’t be touched go missing. If that were to be found, well, it shouldn’t be, right? The others? Some of them might just have reformed and gone straight. The rest need to be stopped. You can come here to work on that? We probably shouldn’t let the names out to the world.”
Hannah thought for a bit, then shrugged.
“I can try? We should do the first ones now? To prove I’m not just blowing smoke?”
That got a clap, and Hannah, broken wrist and bruised up or not, was led to a side room. The names might have been secret, but they were on a list that was accessible on the computers in the room. She had to sit for a while, and come near the surface a few times to help Vidya learn to guide her properly, but after an hour they started bringing the names in pretty easily. After that, she lost track of time, until she woke to find someone shaking her.
It was a person that she didn’t know at all. A woman, dressed in purple tights, with a matching top and a cute black cape. The short kind. It was adorable, rather than fearsome seeming. She had a can of soda in her hand. It was orange.
“Hello. Vidya ran out, about ten minutes ago, yelling about having found them? I noticed you sitting here, so... Something to drink?”
“Thanks! Sorry about that. I’m in a trance, so will stop moving, occasionally. We were looking to find where people on the fugitives list are. I don’t know how many we did.”
The woman, who was young seeming and cute, while being too old to date Reese, if only by a few years, stood up then, and moved to the computer on the side of the room.
“It looks like forty, even. There’s a lot of data logged for all of these... That’s... If this pans out, this is big, actually. I recognize some of these, from old cases. Oh, I’m June.”
“Hannah.” She sipped at the can of soda, not used to having such things still in the can.
“Um, I know that one. You’re on the news and have been all day. Trending on Twitter, too. You work here now.” She grinned at the words, cutely. Her curly hair was adorable, in a geeky way. “Notice, that wasn’t a question? I have just enough clout to hire someone for the team on my say so alone and you’re in. Normally we have to vote, but I’m the oldest member of the team, so... You get me, rank has its privileges.”
She winked at the woman, who was either older than she looked, or the mischievous intern. That or someone who had snuck in and was playing make-believe. Oddly, that day, Hannah was fine with all of those options, so she grinned, a bit slowly.
“I promised a friend I wouldn’t join any super teams. Seriously. I can do things like this, if my work is any good? I’m not up to the rest of the work here, I bet. I mean, all of this was me against four regular guys, you know?”
The woman nodded.
“Hooded, disoriented and with a broken arm, you stopped four grown men. Even for a strong fighter that’s going to be hard, starting from that point. You had a knife on you? While you slept? That must be scary for your husband.”
Hannah sighed.
“Not even a boyfriend. A part time girlfriend, but I was trying for both, for a while there. Dumped, fairly recently. I’m pretty certain I was dropped for a ghost, too. That isn’t a metaphor. I mean, you know, boo, a spirit? The ex can see them.”
There was a wave from June then.
“Well, there are a lot of men in the world. Women, too, if you’re looking in that direction? Not a lot around here, on the top floor, but Jenkins, down in accounting is adorable and hasn’t had a date in a while. I was considering dating him myself though...”
Looking at the woman, who seemed to be far too young for what she was claiming, she grinned.
“You make the first grab. I’ll be fine, eventually. Like you said, a lot of men...”
She sounded a bit down, but wasn’t ribbed for it, since four people came streaming in then. All in pretty costumes. Everyone except Vidya had bright colors, too.
Christopher, Superion X, smiled at her.
“Hannah! Everyone, this is Damsel.”
Everyone stopped then, so she waved, with her right hand.
“Hey, all. Nice to meet you. Anyway, not to be the person who always leaves, just when the party is starting, but I had a very early morning. You have what you need, Vidya? I can come back, when you need me, or stay now, but... I’m probably going to just fall asleep, if I try for a deep trance again, right now.” She wasn’t certain, but kind of thought that June had woken her up, for real.
Not just rousing her from a deep trance.
One of the other women, who looked a little frumpy, close up, being about thirty pounds too heavy to be wearing spandex, and seeming like someone’s mother, if not grandmother, under her mask, smiled. That was a bit brittle seeming.
“We shouldn’t have had you here working, after that attack on you. I’m certain we don’t need to bother you any longer.” She sounded catty, but on the good side, that was aimed at Vidya, who looked like she was ignoring it pretty well, to be honest.
The woman tried, but it was hard for her to control that kind of thing, from time to time.
June laughed.
“Now, Stoney, don’t mother-hen too hard here. Hannah was put on the team earlier. By me. Without a vote, so the rest of you can suck it up. She claims that she promised not to join a team, however? I didn’t ask about that, pretending I didn’t hear it. What’s the situation there?”
Vidya sighed.
“Cry Diamond set that up. The Underdogs had a chance to grab Hannah up, but her brother is on that team and they don’t want to risk both of them in the same event, so didn’t extend the offer. It was close though, from what I heard. The Requiem works with her openly, and The Defiant have been hinting that she might be in with them. That isn’t true, it’s just Robin Loxley, trying to get her into bed. So, as of this moment, no one in the world has any better claim to her than we do. She was assigned to the team, you say, Liberty?”
June grinned.
“Yep. Now, we pack you off, back to your place, before you realize we can’t actually draft anyone. Don’t make me cover my ears and start humming.”
She didn’t get the idea, until she started to speak. The woman put her fingers in her ears and started to hum, for real. “I can’t hear you... Hum-dee-hum...”
It was cute, if a bit childish. Everyone else laughed about it, at least, so she did too. Then she called an Uber, or tried to. Instead, Christopher summoned one of their unmarked vehicles for the purpose. It wasn’t really any nicer, but it certainly took less time to get there. Then, the poor driver had to wake her up, so she could get into her apartment building. She made it though and only had to enter the code to get in three times.
Then, with her gun next to her bed, and knife in her pocket, she went to sleep, wearing everything she’d had on, except her shoes. Sometime in the night she ended up holding her gun and slept that way until morning.
