Flint, Hercules, and a looming fellow with some crackles of his own about his feathered headdress dropped over a half-dozen more bodies to the ground, none of them struggling.

Mr. Hill’s eyes didn’t move from the men on the ground. “The two best trackers in the world are following that van,” he informed those men slowly and patiently. “They will find where it’s going. If there’s any trace of that little girl, they’ll find her. You can either sit there and stew, hoping she’s alive, hoping she’s unharmed when they go in for her, hoping your people don’t kill her, or that some accident don’t happen and she winds up dead.

“Or you can tell me where she is right now, and that girl with the lightning on her fingers will get there first, and make damn sure she’s alive.”

There was a long, slow, dangerous pause, the air wavering in weight, as if it was going to come crashing down again regardless of what he wanted.

“Which of you mooks wants ta live?” he asked gravely, and the first hands rose desperately. Cigar smoke swirled in the air. “I’m listenin’.”

------------

It was halfway across town, but that just meant up and down, covering five miles in about ten seconds, albeit leaving a trail of lightning the whole way. However, the sonic boom didn’t happen, as a swirl of Repulse/Attract bent the air around me and brought it together in a more controlled manner than was normal for something moving that fast.

It was the back end of a strip mall, boarded up in front and under renovation. I sliced off the back door from its hinge and lock, picked it up and set it aside, and glided in silently.

The guard there in the Zodiac tacsuit and mask got a face full of electricity, and I kept going, moving with the visual equivalent of a breakneck pace, but at x15 reflexes was a slow and careful stroll to me.

I had excellent control of my output power and frequency, and could modulate mid-Bite into a person’s Kirlian field and literally short-circuit them at this point. Normal humans went down like puppets with their strings cut, body armor or no, and didn’t have time to raise more than a startled exclamation before they did.

I shoved the door to the girl’s room opening while I carefully dropped the guard outside, and the guard inside only had time to look up with his pistol drawn before lightning swallowed his face. I stepped forward in time to make sure his firearm didn’t hit the ground as he went sprawling back across the table.

The girl, a cute curly-haired four-year-old, was sitting in the corner, all curled up in what looked to be a school dress, watching me. Her eyes slowly widened as she recognized me. I didn’t let a lot of active pics out of me, but I did let some posters and promos and stuff out there that I approved of personally.

“Dynamo?” she squeaked in amazement.

“Gina?” I asked calmly, holding out my hand. She held out hers, and I effortlessly yanked her to her feet, then up into my arms, sticking her to me so she didn’t have to hold on. “Hey there. Looks like you’ve had a bit of a time there, Gina.”

She tried to wriggle, found out she couldn’t, but also that she wasn’t falling. “How’s my dad?” she asked immediately.

“He’s absolutely fine. Now then, you want to come along as I blast the rest of these guys?” I asked calmly.

She nodded very urgently.

I put up a hard air field over her with my right hand, and with my left hand, went through the building.

Three more Zodiac guys bit the dust. I even stood there and let the last one shoot at us, and let the bullets bounce off for Gina to glare at him before he went dancing and dropping.

Gina on my hip, my fingers wove something in the air. I had seen him on video, so I knew what he looked like, even if I’d never met him personally. -Master Logan, Dynamo. I have Gina. If the man you are tracking is heading uptown past Harlem, you can veer off, and I’ll take him out here. I am notifying SHIELD of events,- I Messaged out to him.

There was only a moment of delay. -Got it. He’s all yours, girl.- came back the unfamiliar /growl of a voice. It probably wouldn’t be good if he was caught on U.S. soil, not that he’d care.

I picked out a number on my Crystal Vaccine a non-SHIELD agent probably shouldn’t have, and called it.

Peggy Carter picked up almost instantly. “Dynamo?” she asked. “Why are you calling on this number?”

“Because it’s after-hours and it’s business, not social. I am sitting in a hideout up in Harlem with nine unconscious Zodiac agents, their former hostage, and another mook due to arrive any minute. There are fourteen more such agents at the Grimm Materials compound right now, enjoying the hospitality of Mr. Hill. I imagine he is making a couple phone calls now to verify if their bosses want their men back alive for a ransom, or if they are going to be entombed and he’s going to take the money out of Zodiac personally instead.”

She swore and I could hear her moving in the background. “Damn it. The first night this week...”

“If you’re going to the Grimm yard, wear civvies, and bring something strong to drink. Oh, bring your husband, too.”

That made her pause, but only for a moment. “Very well. I’ll get Red and a team over to your location. Give it to me.”

I rattled it off smoothly. “Time to interrupt Lemar’s Friday night adventures,” she groused happily, and signed off.

I smiled at Gina, who was watching all this with wide eyes. “That was Director Peggy Carter, the most famous Shieldwoman in the world!” I told her. “She’s sending the Red Shield here to clean these nasty people up.” I flicked up a nice holo of Lemar, and Gina squealed in delight. “Now then, there’s one guy gonna be driving up to the back, so let’s go meet and greet him nicely, okay?” My hand sparked dangerously, and she nodded very eagerly indeed, giving the men on the ground looks of little girl hate that they deserved everything that had been done to them.

---------

As it turned out, I didn’t need to zap him from where I stood on the roof as the van came up. I saw Lemar swooping in, Shield out, and he jumped down from his hoverbike as the Zodiac guy was getting out of his van, not noticing the back door wasn’t there until it was a little late.

Lemar hit the ground right next to him and straightened up, meeting the shocked Zodiac agent’s gaze calmly.

Then, of course, the mook was backfisted into the van, and slumped down it to the ground.

“The things I do for a lady on a Friday night,” he spoke up as I glided down to the ground. Gina was as wide-eyed as when she’d seen me after she saw him there in the spotlight of his hovering bike, big and muscular and Shield all ready.

“This definitely needs a picture, doesn’t it, Gina?” I asked her, and she nodded hard enough to almost shake off her head. Lemar just laughed, took her in one arm, and happily posed with her for the camera.

-------

He already knew Director Carter was at my destination, and went into the building fearlessly behind me to take charge of it, the ground team only a couple minutes behind him.

I put Gina on a Disk and flew leisurely back.

A quiet Resist Cold kept her nice and warm for her first-ever flying experience, surfing back and forth on the Disk as I held her hand and we swooped over New York City by night. She oohed and aahed and took pictures on my phone for me to send to her email, and we returned to the Grimm Materials Yard where her father was waiting for her.

There were two hovercycles parked on the ground outside, and a bunch of men buried up to their necks in the dirt there, not looking very happy... but at least they weren’t dead.

“Hi, everyone! Look who I found!” I announced as I walked in.

“HI, GINA!” a bunch of very deep voices and a trio of higher-pitched ones called back, waving at her, as her father came running forward to sweep her out of my arms and hug her.

Everyone watched them for a moment, just enjoying that rare moment of appreciation you have for the kinds of things worth being extremely violent for.

Steve and Peggy Rogers were indeed both in civvies, something more suitable for farm gentry than a metro night out; casual jeans and more casual button-ups. There was some strong stuff on the table in front of them, they had chips piled there, and Dealer’s normal table had a full arc of ten players now, which meant she was dealing to half of them at a time, alternating turns for the deck.

I patted Joey on the arm. “Is there anyone else at home?” I asked him softly. His wife had passed away during childbirth, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have someone else.

He shook his head, however. “Zack!” I waved over the other nightshifter, watching the activity at the poker table now sitting in the middle of the production floor. He was a little wide-eyed at seeing a bunch of obvious Tribals, and important ones by their headdresses and cloaks, settling down to some hard liquor with the stoneheads...

And was that the Patriot and his wife?! And HERCULES?!

“Night off with pay. Not a word of this. Hold a moment.”

“You got it, Miss Dynamo.” He waited patiently.

“Joey, I’m calling a couple members of the crew. They are gonna make sure your house is clean. If it’s not, Zack’s driving you somewhere else he thinks is secure.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I made the calls, and if the guys were irritated I’d interrupted their Friday nights, they shut up, grabbed their guns, and got into their cars when they heard someone had taken Gina and compromised Joey.

They called back shortly and said the lock to the door was busted in, but the house was clear. They didn’t advise staying, however.

I thanked them, told them to draw straws and someone stay there the night with pay.

“Crew’s safe room for the night, Zack,” I told him. “You stay with them all night.”

He nodded, flashed his shoulder holster – the guys were allowed to bring guns to work, but not wear them at work, given the kind of people they were – and waved Joey along with him. Joey didn’t argue, and still holding his little girl in his arms, followed Zack out of the building.

------

That little matter all taken care of, I finally wandered over to the table and sat down on the Disk I pulled out next to Mr. Hill, who had his phone sitting right out there on the table for everyone to see.

Straight five-card draw, given the number of players. Three Stoners, the Rogers, four Tribals, one god. They were all talking in a casual, easy way, with everyone, even the women, smoking cigars and with strong drinks in front of them.

Dealer and I were kind of the odd ones out, but I didn’t care.

“You want in, girl?” Mr. Hill asked me.

I just shook my head. “I’m running sixth-dimensional phase differential equations in my head, and figuring out how to generate them with E-Selenium configurations on six Bands of different positron wavelengths. Just ignore me.”

They all looked at me, I looked back, and they decided it was good advice. They got back to the game.