Monday, April 26, 2010

It took just over a week before Oran's public outing as a super stopped being the favorite topic of conversation at Westminster. He had to be grateful both to Janet Devlin for turning up pregnant by a thirty-six-year-old sitcom star and to the fickle, fleeting focus of teenagers. He was still being watched carefully by the staff, especially Drs. Lau and Jolliet and Ms. Navarro though each seemed to be attentive for different reasons.

He had expected the conflict with Eric to come to during the week after the fight, but even when he and Jock had returned the apartment the fireworks never sparked. Eric had made a half-hatred argument that it was Oran using his super powers that had forced him into the alley with the Russian hit squad. Oran chose not to argue the accusation as that was one way to look at the events on the video.

Mariela had demanded the boys establish a truce. "You don't have to like each other, but no more fighting!"

Jock had backed her up, ordering the two to "Cut that shit out and get along."

And that was the end of it. Eric ignored Oran completely, refusing to acknowledge his existence, both at home and at school. The shunning extended to Kirstin to a lesser extent with Jonas, if not Noreen, joining in. It was a situation with which Oran found himself more than satisfied.

The biggest shock of the two weeks was the arrival of the Levalle twins, Ellen, aka Bombshell, and Brad, aka Oddball. Oran had recognized their scent immediately but could not hint that he had identified them. He had met them as Pulsar, never as Oran. Confronting them about their secret would reveal his own.

Other students informed them of Oran's new status within their first day at school. After that they seemed to keep an eye on him while he was keeping an eye on them. Inevitably this lead to them interacting in and out of class. He would not call them friends, but their relations were cordial.

Which was good, because Oran's old friends were distancing themselves from him as his notoriety in the school grew. He was becoming too popular, or at least well-known, to fit in the clique of terminally shy outsiders. Alex had abandoned him completely, changing seats in classes they shared, and avoiding him in the cafe and hallways. Hester was trying to split her time between them but was uncomfortable around the people crowding around Oran. Slowly she was drifting away. And where Hester drifted so went her shadow, Alona. He was sorry to see these links to the original Oran fray, but was not surprised the friendships could not withstand the many changes.

"Hey Bry," Brad said as he entered the tutoring center.

"Shhh..." enunciated Mr. Sawyer, the faculty monitor. Brad clapped both hands over his mouth and hunched his shoulders. At that point the bell range, alerting he school of the end of the activity period. Students exploded from their tables. Most had already packed their bags and were waiting.

"Lavalle," Oran said as he slipped out the door. "You coming in for some tutoring?"

"Nope. Ellie wants to meet after school."

"Sure, why?"

"Said she had something to ask you?" Brad shrugged either ignorance or unconcern.

The boys were making their way out to the courtyard. It was a warm, sunny spring day and students were taking advantage of the courtyard's separation from the crowded sidewalks to stretch out and enjoy the sun. Oran spotted Ellen near the iron fence. She waved to them.

"You rang?" Oran intoned. Ip Jun was seated next to her. He frowned at Oran's arrival. It was obvious he was taking the rare opportunity of finding her apart from her twin to try to get to know her better.

"I was wondering if you ..." She trailed off noticing that several people had stopped and were pointing to the sky. Oran looked up and saw an armed high-tech drone like nothing he had ever seen descending towards the school. An energy weapon of some sort was powering up.

"Incoming!" he cried out. "Take cover!"

Several other people were offering similar warnings. Everyone else was more sensibly scattering. The first plasma bolt exploded the courtyard pavement, sending chunks of debris in several directions. Oran started pushing people towards the building. The twins had moved in a different direction. He assumed they were moving to get free of the crowd, so they could change into their costumes. The drone must be after them? he thought.

Then he realized it was following him.

"What the FUCK!" he shouted as another bolt vaporized metal table.

He bounced off a pillar to change direction and made for the fence. He needed to get away from the others if he was the target. Before the machine could fire again he was over the twelve-foot iron fence and into the street. Cars were scattering or being abandoned as people ran for shelters marked with the blue triangle around a white 'CP', standard response for a super attack in the city. Almost every building had an emergency shelter of some sort. Some, like the school's, were private and marked with a red circle, while other with a blue circle took in anyone.

Oran moved as quickly as he could, drawing the drone away from the crowds. He turned down an alley with turned out to be a dead end. A plasma bolt crashed into him. His body absorbed its energy, leaving nothing but a puff of inert gas. That energy supercharged his system, causing him to turn blue.

Over the weeks he had practiced enough that his clothes automatically transformed into his costume. This was his finished outfit, with multiple storage pods on his golden belt, red stripes down the outsides of his arms and legs, and a gold modified Greek style helmet that left the bottom half of his face open, while covering the rest of his head. The helm contained several electronic and other devices Cobalt and the Couturier suggested.

The transformation did not seem to confuse the drone, which continued its attack. Pulsar activated his force field and took to the air. He concentrated on condensing his energy blast into a focused laser, aiming at the drone's plasma weapon. The fraction of a second's delay allowed the device to dodge.

Unfortunately for Oran's hope to capture the device relatively undamaged, it dodged into an explosive burst from Bombshell, and was sent careening out of control. It crashed into a wall and rolled to the ground.

The demolition damsel was hovering beside a fire escape balcony, from which Oddball was hanging in his were-pangolin form. Oran realized they must have seen him transform. Shit! I really suck at this secret identify thing.

The drone started to rise into the air again, another weapon appeared from the fuselage, this one pointing at Bombshell. Her brother took offence and bounced into it, once again smashing it into the cement.

So much for evidence, Oran thought, then sent a full pulse blast at the still-moving wreckage.

"Damn, Pulsar," Oddball said after reverting to his human form. "Don't you think that may have been overkill? We were rethinking having something left to analyze might be a good thing."

"Not to mention someone is going to have to repair that massive crater," Bombshell chimed in.

"This from the flying cluster bomb," Pulsar griped.

"Hey!"

"Ha!"

"Sorry," Oran said. "You're right. I just got over excited."

"Let's gather what we can and take it back to the island," Bombshell suggested. "Maybe N-Forcer can make something out of it."

"Alright," Pulsar agreed.

"Any idea why it was after you?" Oddball asked.

"No. Maybe if we can identify the origin it will give me a clue." Oran said. He created a magnetic field and started sucking up the pieces of the drone, separating the metal remains form the nearby rubble. Once he had gathered all the parts of the drone his enhanced vision could see he sealed the debris into a bubble for transport. "Where to?"

"That's handy," Oddball said.

"You just didn't want to dig it out yourself," Bombshell teased.

"I'm always the one that gets stuck with digging," whined her brother.

"You're the one with specialized digging claws," she pointed out.

"Excuse me," Oran interrupted. "You mentioned an island?"

"Oh right." Bombshell looked embarrassed under her half face mask. "YoungBlood is based on Governors Island. Do you know where that is?"

"Go to the Statue of Liberty and take a left." Oddball quipped. "Or to the Highspire and take a down?"

"Highspire is the city block floating over the Hudson?" Pulsar confirmed.

"Correct," she replied. "I thought you were from New York?" She blushed when she realized she had given away that she knew his identity.

"Let's talk about that someplace more private," Oran said with some asperity.

"I'll lead the way," she said, embarrassed. She slipped a looped cord out of her belt and put it on her wrist. This gave her brother a firmer connection when she lifted him off the ground.

"Take us by the river route, just in case another one of these things comes along. Fewer civilians at risk that way," Oran suggested.

"Good idea." She took off. The trip was short. But there was enough time for Oran to put a call into Kirstin to make sure she had not been hurt in the attack and another to ensure Mariela that he was fine but would likely be out for the evening.

"Good thing you got them to include that self-defense exemption for the use of powers," Oran told her.

"And they promised it would never be needed." He heard the frustration in her voice.

"You may need to remind them of both the exemption and their assertion if we want to avoid Dr. Jolliet coming down on me for jumping the fence to draw the machine away from the other students."

"You what!"

"I ran from it, until some real supers came to destroy it. They are taking me to talk with one of Gramps friends about what this thing was and why it was after me. This was not Fenrir looking for adventure. This was me trying to avoid trouble."

"Alright. Just be careful. And call Dad."

"Will do."

As they approached Governors Island Oran took in the various impressive buildings and training grounds that, according to Oran's memories were used be several superteams and organizations. He saw the US headquarters for The Peacekeepers, the UN's official superteam. The DEMA Academy where they offered educational opportunities in a residential environment for minors with powers, or so the brochure they had given him said. Tucked away in a corner near the Academy, and sharing some of its facilities, was the YoungBlood base, his destination. This was a team that represented the most advanced teen heroes from the Academy and other places that felt they were ready to face real challenges and threats. It was basically the farm team for the Liberty Legion and other mainstream teams. Highspire, which floats almost directly above the island was home to the New York headquarters of both the Liberty Legion and the High Guard. The two, Highspire and Governors Island, combined contained the greatest regular concentration of superheroes in the world.

Bombshell lead him to a walled courtyard, not much different from the one they had all been in at Westminster. Two men were waiting. One was once of the teens Oran had fought beside for the short battle with Amok. N-Forcer wore a powered armor suit in blues, golds, and greys. It was assumed he was a he, but the armor hid such details. With him was an older man in a grey suit. Oran's memories identify him as Dr. Kit Kovacs, aka Kodiak, a Canadian contemporary of his grandfather.

"What have you brought us, Bombshell?" Dr. Kovacs asked.

"This is Pulsar. He's got the parts to a drone or remote-controlled weapon that used plasma weapons and what appeared to be antigravity prolusion. I did not recognize the design."

"I have some video of it in action." Oddball offered what Oran assumed was a specialized smartphone.

"Where would you like me to release the debris?" Pulsar asked.

"Let's bring it into the lab, if we can." N-Forcer was already analyzing the blasted components with a probe attached to his armor. Pulsar followed the others in to the high tech headquarters. The place was furnished in a combination of modern corporate, high-tech lab, and just a few traces of well-worn college dorm. N-Forcer led them in to one of the lab areas and quickly set up a plexiglas bin to contain the drone pieces.

"If you would go about your business I can start ..." the armored hero started, only to break off when Pulsar reached for a piece of debris. "What are you doing?"

Oran had noticed something vaguely familiar about one of the power couplings from the drone. He concentrated, using gravity lensing to zoom into the broken part. He reached in and plucked it out of the pile.

"I think," Oran paused, looking at it for a moment, tracing the circuitry. "Yes! This is part of an extra-dimensional power shunt."

"What!" N-Forcer moved closer, almost grabbing the piece from Pulsar's hand.

Looking around Oran noticed a magnifier tied into one of the computers. He set the piece down and brought the enlarged image if it up on the wall screen. Using his finger as a laser pointer he highlighted the components as he described their functions. "... and I'm sure if we had the whole drone we could find both the hypertap and the power receivers for the flight, sensor, and weapons systems."

N-Forcer followed along, making notes on a tablet. He looked to the container of debris and said "Unless they got vaporized or you failed to retrieve them, all the parts should be in there. It's like a giant puzzle." Then he turned to Pulsar. "How do you know about extra-dimensional power generation? That's beyond bleeding edge."

"I ... That is ..." Oran remembered he was trying to keep the connection between Oran and Pulsar secret. "I'd rather not say."

"Yeah, that's something we really need ot talk about." Bombshell said.

"I know something you don't know," Oddball singsonged.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Oran said, looking the blond youth in the eye.

"Perhaps it might be best if we took this discussion elsewhere while N-Forcer tries to solve this puzzle." Dr. Kovacs gestured for them to precede him from the lab. He nodded to his armored student as he left.

One situated in Kovacs' office, with the Doctor behind his desk and the students in front the mentor began, "I look forward to seeing your reports on the events of this afternoon, but I get the feeling there is more going on here than a fight with a robot."

Wanting to get control of the narrative, before the twins could blurt out his secret, Oran began. "Like some other supers, I transform from my civilian identity into this form. These two saw me transform, therefore they know my secret identity. What they are not aware of is that I know their real identities too."

"What?"

"How?"

"I think we are at a point of delicate balance here. Sort of a state of mutually assured revelation. I have no desire to be outed, something I am sure they too would rather avoid," Oran continued, ignoring their protests and questions, talking to their leader. "Let's keep that in mind as we continue this discussion."

"You know who he is?" The Doctor asked. Both twins nodded. "Would sharing this knowledge avert any immediate danger?"

Oddball shook his head while Bombshell gave the question more deliberate consideration. "I can see no immediate need to know," she answered carefully.

He turned back to Oran, "Then is see no need to pry further."

"But how come you have two super identities, Bry?" Oddball blurted, seemingly unable to keep it in any longer.

"Jesus, Brad," Oran complained, shifting back to his normal form. "You couldn't keep that in until the teacher was out of the room?"

"He is such a doofus," Ellen said fondly, removing her mask. She turned to Oran, "How did you know?"

He simply tapped the side of his nose. "Keen sense of smell. I knew from your first morning at Westminster."

"Bry?" Kovacs considered. "Oran Bry? Cobalt's new protégé Fenrir?"

"Yeah," Oran agreed. "We may want to bring him in on this. He's talked about you a few times. Only good things, I assure you."

"Again, how are you both Fenrir and Pulsar?" Oddball whined at being ignored.

Oran considered how much he wanted to tell this kid, who seemed to lack a regulator on his mouth. He already knew one secret Oran was uncomfortable with him knowing. Finding out that Oran was also scamming DEMA might be a step too far. "Would you believe weird mystic shit?"

"Don't know but it sounds good," the boy answered. "Besides I already know a couple of weird mystics, so yeah."

"Why don't you go out to the lounge and call Cobalt, while I take a quick look at the video from the event," Kovacs suggested. "We can get back together after that to go over the details? Feel free to invite him over. If you're training under him he needs to be part of this."

Twenty minutes later Cobalt was landing in the courtyard. He and the good doctor greeted each other like the old comrades in arms that they were. Pope recognized and missed that sort of deep friendship tempered in the fires of combat and strife.

This time the group had convened in a conference room. Everyone was back in costume, including N-Forcer and two new faces; Titan, a veritable giant of a man with dark skin and long black dreadlocks and a close cropped beard and Hecate, a small middle eastern girl with dark red highlights in her short hair. Oran recognized them both from past publicity and from the fight with Amok. Bombshell had the video of the drone fight cued up. Oran hoped it did not include his transformation and was ready to shut down the system if it looked like it was going to show that part.

"Just after Westminster Academy let out for the afternoon this drone descended from the sky and opened fire on a courtyard crowded with students." The video illustrated her report. She paused on a shot that showed the drone firing its weapon. Its size could also be established in scale to the cars and people in the shot. "N-Forcer, any initial information on the device?"

"There is no evidence as to whether the device was remote piloted or autonomous," the armored teen began. "You can see that it is using some sort of anti-gravity tech for propulsion and flight. Its weapon appears to be a type 3 plasma beam. The power requirements for all known versions of these two technologies is significant. That this device was as small as it was, yet maintained flight and firing from as long as it did could not be accomplished with any known terrestrial technology. Our guest," he gestured to Pulsar, "has suggested that it is utilizing a compact hypertap generator, drawing power from an extra-dimensional source. At the moment I can neither confirm nor deny this hypothesis."

"Thank you," Bombshell continued. The video jumped to the point in the alley where Pulsar was beginning to combat it. Shortly thereafter Bombshells blast knocked the Drone down and Pulsar obliterated it. "As you can see the device was not particularly sturdy or well armored, but its danger is self-evident. The device seemed particularly interested in targeting you, Pulsar. Can you explain that?"

"No," Oran answered. "I have been attacked several times recently with escalating levels of force. This may be part of that string."