H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (7 page)

"Yeeaaaahhhh....  So what's your point?"

"Let's try this another way, how about I fly you up in the air behind your house, and just drop you from a few dozen feet up.  See if your natural instinct is to fly to keep you safe.  Even if it doesn't kick in, your body armor will protect you - right?"

"Wait....  You fly me up, then drop me?"

"Yep."

"And I can't get hurt?"

"You
are
a brick, right?  You are armored.  Bah, let's just try it, okay?  Oh, and please don't grab me hard.  I had a brick do that early this morning and she crushed my shoulder.  It really hurt until it healed."

"Okay, come on in.  Did you want a drink first?  I have bottled water, fruit juices, wine...."

"Oh, I'm fine, thanks.  Let's see how this goes first."

"Great."  I led her through the house to the back deck.  The remnants of paintball goo were still on a few spots on the edges of the deck, although someone must have washed it off in the main area.

She glanced around and said, "If you have people over you'll want to look for the little darts they shot all over."  She walked over and pointed to a row of darts in the wood siding of the deck.

"What do those do?"

"They have a toxin that knocks a person out.  Since it's made for supers, it might be really harmful for a normal person."

"Oh, good to know - thanks."

She's got a really good figure too, I'm surprised she doesn't do a photo shoot and get into modeling herself.  I bet they would love how innocent she looks.
  She turned, grinned at me and walked back over.

"So are you ready to fly?"

"I sure am!"

"One last reminder -
please
don't grab me hard.  In fact, let me hold you around the waist facing away from me.  Just try to land on your feet, but you'll be fine."

"Okay."  I turned my back to her, though I noticed she glanced down and checked out my legs and backside. 
The dress is definitely working.  I
so
need to stop a good crime so the news shows up!

"Here goes - I've got you held, I'll let go about twenty feet up just as a test."

"Okay."  My heart rate went up as she wrapped her hands around my stomach.  I noticed that she appeared to step up onto a stair that wasn't there, and we began floating up.  She did it a few more times and we sped up.

When we were even with the very top of the house she let go of me.  It was exciting as the ground rushed up at me.  My legs absorbed the crunch of the landing.  My feet went into the grass a little ways though. 
Hmm, it's good my mini-skirt is pretty tight or it'd be up around my abdomen doing this.

At least the fall didn't hurt me.  But no flight worked.  I looked over at Psystar as she floated down to me and shrugged.

She said, "No biggie, we just try again from further up.  Did the fall hurt at all?"

"Nah, it was kind of exciting."

She walked up behind me again and slid her hands around my waist.  I caught a whiff of her perfume and turned around to smell her better.

She put her hand on my cheek and said, "That's not perfume, I have pheromones, if you start smelling me you'll just want to dig your face in my hair."

Pheromones?  Isn't that a brand of perfume or cologne?
  She did at least smell really good.  I had to give her style points for that while being a super hero.

She flew us about two full houses high (when looking at the peak of the rooftop as the top).  It was pretty high up when nothing is holding you up but a girl seemingly half my size.  I mean, I was 6' tall now, plus the height of the heels on top of that, and she was what - 5'3" perhaps?

I held my palms against my bare thighs as my heart pounded.  I stared down at the grass and hoped it wouldn't hurt if I hit it. 
Then again, I got knocked through a wall this morning and it didn't hurt - that had to be worse that a fall, right? 
Right
, Daphne?  I can take this fall ... it won't hurt ... I'm a super hero ... it won't hurt....

Psystar let go of me and I fell quickly to the ground.  I can't say as I thought about flying on the way down, however.  I crashed into the ground - I didn't land straight and I ended up on my butt in the grass.  I tested for injuries, but nothing was hurt from the fall.  I noticed that I'd landed on the heel of my boot, but my ankle was so strong now that my foot didn't even twist.  Nothing even felt bruised.  I laughed and watched my pretty friend float down to me.

She grinned at me and said, "Well, if nothing else you know that falling won't hurt you.  Shall we try again?"

I turned around and wiggled my booty at her.  "Ready."

She laughed and held me up against her again.  Having someone pressed up against me with their arms around me made me think about dancing.  I needed to get out to a club tonight.  Maybe I'd try The Rave or Score!

I asked, "What are you doing when you lift us off the ground?"

She replied, "I put my foot up in the air and act like I'm stepping on a stair step.  Then I push off, like I'm moving up onto that step.  If I want to really go fast, I jab my knee up into the air.  Hmm, I've got an idea."

I was about to ask her what she planned on doing when we began floating up, and then she did the knee jab thing and we shot up at high speed.  The ground dropped away really, really fast.

Then she let go of me....  I continued up for a little ways.  When I stopped for a tiny moment I threw my arms out as though to grab something to hold onto.  Of course, nothing was there, but I stayed in place.  My heart pounded in my breast as I looked down at the ground so far away.

I felt ... something.  It was the same sensation I had after the attack on Black Tiger and I on my deck.  It was a mix of something flowing through my body and a tingling sensation all over my skin.

Psystar flew up in front of my and hovered as well.  She said, "Nice, you're doing it!"

"Yeah!"

She used her foot to push in the air, as though there were an invisible wall in front of her.  Her body began floating backward.

"Okay, try to follow me.  Think about walking toward me."

I put my leg forward like I wanted to start walking, and I began floating toward her!

She said, "There you go!  Faster now!  Think about jogging or something."  She pushed several more times off her fake wall and sped up.

I tried pushing back against a wall like she was doing, but it just didn't feel right to me.  I just wanted to move over to her, and I sped up as I followed her.  The ground slowly passed hundreds of feet below me and just wanted to move faster and faster.

I passed Psystar, and the ground really began moving below me.  She rolled over in mid-air and moved her knee up a little ways until she caught up to me.  I felt like racing with her and my speed really increased.  The ground rolled by very quickly.

Psystar jut her knee well up and shot past me.  I laughed and felt the energy surge.  I shot up in speed as well and passed her again.  My hair blew back quite bit, although when I looked at her, it didn't look like her hair blew back much at all.

I yelled over to her, "Why doesn't your hair blow back?"

She called over, "I have a field around me that slows down the wind, and makes everything easier to carry while I'm flying.  I'm guessing you will too."

"My hair really feels like it is blowing back though."

She stared at me for a few seconds.  "You're right.  Maybe you don't have the field because you're a brick?"

I shrugged. 
Like asking me will help, I have no idea how this stuff all works!

It was really cool watching the ground fly past.  I noticed that we were approaching the edge of Metrocity; we were really moving fast.

She called over, "Okay, try putting a foot forward to slow down and hover in the air again."

I tried swinging my waist forward and doing what she said.  I'm not sure why she wanted me to move my waist forward - unless it looked cool or something.  It felt more like a stick shift on a manual drive car.  I simply thought about shifting the gear down and I slowed down.  When I thought about shifting down each gear rapidly I slowed to a stop quite fast, and soon hovered in place.

She used her foot-stepping-forward motion over and over as we both slowed down.  This was awesome!  I hovered for a minute before looking off to the east.  Then I imagined gearing up and I shot through the air in that direction.  It took Psystar a little bit to catch up to me.

She yelled over, "Try turning!"

I leaned in the direction I wanted to go and curved off to the right.  I grinned and began flying great curves in the sky.  Psystar smiled as she flew along with me.

I yelled, "I think I'm getting this!"

"Now for the biggest part!  Head toward an open area on the ground and land - but make sure to slow down first!"

I aimed down toward the ground.  I'm sure my dress would make for an eye-catcher if anyone were watching me fly at them.  I grinned as I thought about onlookers.

I 'shifted' down as we approached the ground until I bumped down onto the balls of my feet and stepped a few times.  It was a bit bouncy of a landing, but I didn't care.  The feeling of energy faded away.

Psystar landed next to me and grinned.  I moved to hug her, but she seemed to anticipate my move and dodged back a few steps.

She said, "Hey, no crushing me!"

"Sorry, sorry!  That was awesome!"

"Yeah, flying rocks."

"Think you've got how to speed up, slow down and turn working fairly well?"

"Yup, it seems to, well, just work."

"I know, mine did too.  Now to get down how to take off."

I thought about starting up my car and the energy began flowing again.  I grinned.

I imagined shifting up in gear, but nothing happened.

Psystar said, "Perhaps you have to be in the air first?"

I shrugged.  I jogged a few steps forward and leapt into the air, and as I went up I shifted gear.  I shot up into the air cheering as I went.

I moved down to the ground, slowing as I got close.  I landed, jogged a few steps, leapt back up and shifted up again.  It seemed pretty easy to do.

Psystar followed me and caught up with me again.  When even with me she said, "You know, your dress is really, really short...."

I grinned, "Yeah, I know!  Great, isn't it?"

She stared at me for a moment, shook her head, smiled and said, "Yep, I ... guess it is.  As long as you like it...."

We spent a good hour flying around above the city, testing my flight going in different directions, landing and taking off.  We tried changing directions quickly - that didn't work quite as well.  I seemed to have a longer slow-down distance than Psystar had, and I ended up kind of gliding backward for dozens of feet before I began moving in the other direction.  My landings weren't overly good either - it seemed I had a habit of coming down too fast.  Not that it hurt me, but there was an impact against my feet every time I did it.  Several times I landed hard enough on the heel to notice my ankle strength again.  I grinned at my fashion choice.

She mentioned that it's not a big deal - being able to fly was the important thing, and that I'd learn how to move around even better the more I did it.

I asked, "So do you fly often?"

She answered, "Every day.  I don't take a car back and forth to school any more, and occasionally I bring someone along."

"Like you did with me?"

"No, I usually hold them tight up against my side with my arm around their back.  I guess more like I would if I were going to kiss them, but slightly sideways."

"Awesome, I'll try that."

"You'll want to be careful of your strength.  Any idea how much you can lift?"

"No idea.  Why would that matter?"

"If it's dozens of tons, then you could crush someone with just a hug or a tight squeeze."

"Oh.  Yeah.  Like with shaking hands.  That Nick guy at the hospital talked with me for a while about that."

"Nick?  The construction guy?  But, yeah, exactly.  You're gorgeous, but you have a ton of power in those arms and hands of yours."

I grinned; she must have been checking me out.  My phone beeped - a crime was in progress!

Psystar pulled hers out as well and said, "Hey, major auto accident on the highway - want to do this together?"

"Yeah!  You know where it is?"

She pushed a button on her phone and said, "Yep, a minute at our speed.  Follow me!"

She curved off to the right and led the way.  Momentarily, I spotted the bright red and orange of a fire on the highway.

Chapter 7 - Fire on the Highway

Diva's Standpoint

We flew directly toward the fire.  It was easy to see the accident from above.  A semi hauling a gasoline tanker was in a v-shape in the middle of the highway.  Dark liquid ran out from the side onto the concrete.

A group of cars were smashed against it - apparently they had crashed into the semi.  A small car farther back looked mostly flattened; it looked kind of like it had been run over by the semi.  Overall it looked like about twelve cars were in the accident.  Some of them were in horrible shape, and then I noticed the two that had rolled over in the ditch and lay upside-down.

We landed nearby and I looked at Psystar.  "What do we do now?"

Psystar looked at me.  "We've got a car on fire - I'll get the person out of there, but there's fuel everywhere.  Can you fly that tanker out into the field a few hundred feet over there?"

"Err, how do I pick it up?"

"Take a few steps, leap up and grab those big metal supports under the tanker.  Just fly it over there and land with it."

I walked over toward the semi when she called out again, "Hey, Daphne, pop the semi off it first, only take the tank part!"

How'd she know my name?  Didn't I say I was Diva?  Whatever.
  I stomped toward the semi, but then noticed the people stuck in their cars staring at me.  I began striding slightly more sexily until I reached the semi and worked at pulling the trailer off it.