H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (28 page)

She gave me the address and asked me to meet her at street level and to look for her maroon and fire colored spandex. 
Where else would I meet someone?!  Hello?!

I quickly put on my costume - which consisted of a bluish-purple gradient mini-dress and matching boots - and ran out the door.  After leaping into the air I mentally shifted my 'flight gear' up and rose into the air.  In moments the ground was scrolling below me as I flew over the city.  Metrocity's streets were busy in the mid-morning.

Then I glanced to the south and saw what Firebane was speaking of - a long fire trail came from high in the sky down toward Metrocity.  I sped up so I would get to her faster.

I spotted Firebane waiting for me on the sidewalk.  I grinned as a few people saw me flying down and stared up at me. 
At least the guys are getting a show.

I landed and winked at the onlookers.  As I walked up to Firebane she held her hand out to me.

I gave her a gentle hug.  "Nice to meet you, Firebane."

"You too, Diva."

I looked her up and down.  The maroon and fire patterned spandex half-top and workout shorts were ... interesting.  Not very stylish, but she just destroyed any vestige of style with the non-matching white with black lace tennis shoes.  I sighed and shook my head.

"I see the big fire trail; I'll bring us that way."  I'd seen Psystar fly with others by holding them around their waist, and others by holding onto their wrist.  Holding the wrist just didn't seem like it would be comfortable, so I stepped up to her and put my arm around her.  She put her arm around me as though she were fairly used to being carried - by Psystar I assumed.

I hadn't had much practice flying with other people.  It was made even odder because I had to jump into the air to 'kick start' my flying.  I lifted her off the ground a few inches, took several steps and leaped up, shifting my mental gears up as we left the ground.

I quickly brought us above the five to ten story buildings common in downtown Metrocity before angling toward the south.  As I sped us up and moved toward the ball of fire I found Firebane clinging onto me as though we were at a haunted house and she were deathly afraid.

I asked, "Are you all right?"

"No ... no no no no.  Oh god, I hate flying."

"Really?  You seemed like you'd done it before."

"Psystar does something that makes it easier.  Oh my god, this is awful.  Are we there yet?"

"Hold on, I'll rush us there."  I shifted my mental flight gears up and we zoomed over the city.  I pushed us there as fast as I could, though Firebane appeared terrified the entire way.

The fireball had stopped; I now saw that a plane was heading down for a landing.  Smoke trailed from it.  Further beyond it in the sky were a set of Air Force jets fighting another really big plane.  It was shooting them down pretty fast.  I didn't realize that big planes had laser beam shooters.

We arrived at the plane, it wasn't shaped at all like a normal plane, it had stubby wings, and a much larger engine than I remembered seeing before on one.  The engine thingie wasn’t a big hole, it was a solid crystal at the back.  I shrugged; plane design wasn’t something I’d ever spent time on.  Also, the entire design just didn't look normal. 
Maybe it was a space shuttle or one of those stealth planes.

As we got really close to the plane we bounced off some kind of invisible wall.  It didn't really bother me, although Firebane was jarred a little from me hitting it.  The ship continued moving past us as we recovered.  I immediately kicked in my speed again to catch up with it.

Then some kind of rainbow stuff in a bubble around the plane began flowing like water to a drain - except that Firebane was the drain.  The stuff flowed immediately in front of us.  After it stopped I waved my hand in the air ahead of us - the wall was gone.

Firebane said, "Wow, that was a force field."

"Huh?"

"A force field.  A shield.  Like in science fiction."

"Really?"

"Yeah.  Catch back up and set us down on top of the spaceship, the other ship is coming at us again; all the fighter jets are down."

I flew us forward and set down on top of the smaller plane and let go of her.  I noticed that she rubbed her abdomen and grimaced where I'd been holding her.  I must have been gripping her too tightly at the end.

She stepped forward a few times, planted her feet and I saw some kind of rainbow half-bubble appear in front of her.  I hoped she would hurry, that other ship was coming in fast, and the big gun in front was glowing red at the moment.

Then Firebane made a pushing motion and the half-bubble flew out toward the other ship.  The glowing gun shot a fiery-looking blast toward us, but it stopped when it hit the moving bubble.  Smaller guns began shooting laser beams as well, but they just stopped as well.

Then the bubble hit something around the other plane, causing an odd rainbow effect to flash around the ship.

Firebane said, "I think their shields are down, see if you can fly up and destroy their guns."

"Sure."  I jumped up and flew toward the plane, which was somehow slowing down in the air, and yet stayed up in the sky.  I thought planes had to go fast to stay up in the air.

I closed in on the plane.  When I got near it, I felt like I hit another wall, but then went through.  Then I banged off the plane itself and grabbed a spikey antenna thing sticking out from it - there seemed to be a lot of them around the outside of the plane.  That was odd all by itself.

I leaped over to the nearest gun - one of those laser beam shooters.  Actually, when I got to it I found two guns attached to a single plate - they spun around on a disc together.  I grabbed the barrel of the first.  It felt warm to my touch, but not hot.  I tried to bend it, though it was far harder than the metal of the car I'd bent out of shape just days ago.  I had to use a lot of strength to bend it to an odd angle.  In a few more seconds, I bent the second laser shooter out of shape as well.

I moved over to the big center gun by grabbing one antenna thingie and moving to the next.  Fumes came out of the end of this gun as I moved closer to it, and a big blast of fire or something shot out at the other plane down on the ground.

I tried crushing the barrel of the big gun, but whatever it was made of was too strong.  I tried punching it and began bending bits of it with each punch.  Instead of banging on the gun I started hitting the point where it attached to the plane so it would point the wrong way.

I saw the fiery blast curve toward Firebane - it all seemed to just flow into her, and none of it hit the plane she was standing on.  She might be dressed poorly, but it seemed pretty cool that she kept the plane from getting hit by fire.

I kept punching the base of the big gun when I saw her shoot the big blast back up at the ship I was on.  It hit off to the side of where I was standing, but made a hole in the plane's wall.

The plane lurched, and began flying away from the one on the ground.  A massive shock struck - I believe it was something that went across the entire plane.  It hit me hard, and while it really didn't hurt a lot it surprised me and made me lose my grip on the gun.

I fell off the plane, and it flew ahead of me in a moment without me actively holding on.  I debated trying to catch up to it again, but since it was no longer firing at the other plane, I flew back toward Firebane.

I landed next to her in a minute's time.  I half expected to bounce off the invisible wall again, but I didn't hit anything on the way to her.

I looked at her, "So ... it looks like they flew off, what now?"

She replied, "I'm not sure, I guess we see if they are aliens?"

"Aliens?  In a plane?"

"What are you talking about?  This is obviously a space ship."

"How do you know, it just looks like a weird plane to me."

"This is
so
a space ship."

I looked up in the air, "Well, if it is, then the pilot is going to be green, right?"

"Let's find out.  Have you seen a door?"

"No, but we can walk around it and find where the door is."

"Fine, let's find out."

"Sounds good."

Firebane looked thoughtful, "Of course, assuming it is a space ship, they probably won't speak English.  I just hope they aren't the type to abduct people."

"What?  How are we going to know?"

"Umm, meet them and see if we can communicate.  If they try to probe your … oh … never mind."

"So what if they don't speak English?"

"Then I'll call Psystar.  She can read people's minds - that might work."

"Good idea."

Firebane walked from the big round part of the plane - or space ship if I were to believe her - to the wing, and then hopped down to the ground.  I jumped down from the top part directly to the ground.  In moments we found what looked like a door in the lower side.

The door opened after a moment, it pulled into the side of the room it was on.  A set of metal stairs folded out automatically toward us until it touched the ground.

A blue woman stood in the doorway.  She looked pretty normal, except for the chocolate brown hair with a tinge of pink to it - oh, and the pointed ears, the larger than normal eyes and wider mouth.  She had fiery red irises in her eyes, and a bumpy ridge going from the center of her forehead down the center of her head.  Each hand only had three fingers, with a big tip portion and a large claw on each tip.

She had to be a mutant, being blue and having such big ears, although only the gray skinned guy with the wings looked quite so extreme when I helped in the Metrocity Jail the other day.

She wore a purple gown or dress, along with high purple boots and long gloves that reached up to the center of the upper arm.  Each piece had a wavy neon yellow design.

Overall her outfit looked stylish, and her hair was in an elegant ponytail with some small braided locks on each side, so I was reasonably impressed.  She could have used some eye shadow and lipstick to help set off her face a bit better, though.

We stared at her, and she stared back at us for a dozen seconds.  Then a man walked up behind her.  He had the same blue skin and odd body features, although he had red hair.  While he didn't have the braided ponytail, he did have some braids along the sides as well.  He wore green pants and a top, had knee-high boots as well, but didn't have the separate arm sleeves due to the shirt.  His clothing also had a wavy design about an inch thick running around it, but his was white.

She looked back at him and said something in another language.  Man, I hated when people chatted in another language around me - unless it was French.  I loved the sound of French.  They weren't speaking French, however.  It sounded like a European language, slightly harsher sounding in parts.

He waved his right hand forward and said a few words in reply.

She looked back at us and smiled as she walked down. 
Holy shit - this chick's got a mouthful of fangs!

In American-sounding English she said, "Hello, I am Tiriffa Ziiphlan.  I am a Gahranii scientist here with fellow scientists researching the meteor that has broken up and mostly surrounds your planet.  We intend no harm, although the other vessel that you ran off - the K'Vor - these are pirates who intend to attack us and steal our ship."

I replied, "Is Gahranii a country in Europe?"

Firebane slapped her forehead.  "Really?  I'm sorry, Diva isn't fully informed.  Gahranii is another planet, right?  Like on Star Trek?"

Tiriffa touched her watch and a foot-diameter screen just appeared.  It kind of looked like one of those displays where they shine a projector at a waterfall, but there wasn't a waterfall, or a projector for that matter.  The screen flashed through a number of different visuals, although she wasn't even touching anything to make it move.

She said, "Star Trek, one of the television shows?  Gahran is indeed another planet.  It is quite far away from here.  But I have not reviewed all of these television shows of Star Trek, I can't say if it somehow appeared on them.  I apologize, behind me is Kazhan Liessar, he is the leader of our expedition."

I looked at Firebane, "How does she know English?"

She gave me a confused look, "Ask her, how should I know?"

I looked back at the blue-skinned woman, "How do you know English?"

"We used our systems to interpret various languages from all of the broadcasts your systems send out."

Firebane stepped forward once and said, "Well, uh, I'm Firebane, and this is Diva.  We're H.E.R.O. agents from Earth.  You know, I don't think you can stay here.  If you do, I'm pretty sure some government agents will show up and want to arrest you and take your ship or something."

I said, "Aren't we government people?  I thought this card was supposed to be like a badge or something."

She looked at me, "Well, yeah, I guess we are - but we aren't
that
type of government agents.  I'd be pretty surprised if they don't show up soon.  The government can be kind of paranoid about the idea of aliens showing up."

Tiriffa said, "Do you intend to apprehend us?"

I said, "I don't care much either way.  You know, Firebane, while I'm pretty sure the press will be out here in droves as well, I don't know that it'll be the kind of media coverage we really want.  They'll pretty much focus just on these guys and their plane."

Kazhan spoke, "If others will be arriving here soon, then I can move us.  Please, hmm, ladies, join Tiriffa on the stairs."  He disappeared into the plane for a moment and came back out with something small in his odd three-fingered hand.

He stepped past Tiriffa and jumped up onto the wing nearby, and then jumped up onto the top of the plane.  He began walking around while looking into the cylinder.

I looked at Firebane with a look that clearly said, 'Are we getting on the stairs?'  She shrugged and walked up onto it, and then held her hand out to Tiriffa.

Tiriffa said, "This is a greeting?"  When Firebane nodded she held her hand out and let Firebane grasp it and shake hands.  "In my culture we do this."  She held her big fingers up as if she were pressing them against a wall, and waited for Firebane to match her.