H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (8 page)

I glanced back and saw Psystar pulling a person out of the burning car.  I looked at the semi again. 
I know I'm supposed to be strong and all, but she thinks I can lift a semi?

I couldn't figure out how the big pokey thing stuck into the semi thing, so I tried pushing up on it hard, and ended up popping it off. 
Well, that didn't feel overly hard to do; maybe I can lift it after all.... 
I ran a few steps, leaped up and grabbed the trailer, but it didn't work the first time.  I did move the entire thing a dozen feet.  It bounced to a stop while I steadied it.

The second time I tried it I went up into the air with the giant tank of gasoline.  It felt a lot harder to get any speed with my flight this time, and this thing was
heavy
.

As I flew even the short distance with the trailer the gasoline poured down on top of me.  It smelled awful, but I hoped the wet look would come across well with the bystanders.

The landing was really bumpy, but with a bounce and more splashing of the gasoline it was safely on the ground.  I stepped out from under it and looked back toward the highway.  Psystar flew back to the cars and worked at getting another stuck person out of their car.

I jogged a few steps, leaped up and shifted my flying gear up.  I zoomed back to the highway while looking for the next thing to do.  I landed and looked around.  Two more people were stuck in their cars, one was lying against their steering wheel.  The other woman was screaming about her children in the back seat of her van.

Psystar looked over at me and yelled for me to move the burning car off to the north side of the highway, opposite the tank of gasoline.

"Gotchya!  I'm on it!"

I ran over to the car, picked it up by the back end and lifted it until I could pick it up from underneath.  It was surprisingly light, although it was bulky.  I bent some of the metal stuff underneath it.

I called out, "Woo hooooo!  Check this out, Psystar!"

She glanced over at me from the van with the children - she was helping the driver, who looked stuck.  "Fly it away from the highway!  It'll light all this gas on fire!"

Oh, yeah, good idea.
  I jogged a few steps, jumped into the air and shifted my flying gear up again. 
Once I was in the air this whole flying thing is pretty easy to do....
  I was looking down at an area without plants to set the car and thinking about the gear shifting thing in my mind when I heard an odd whoosh sound above me.

I glanced up to see my hand on fire, and the fire spread nearly instantly down my arm and over my body.  I screamed and began slapping at my hair and face.  The car, no longer being held up, bounced off me and fell to the ground below.  It took a few seconds before I realized the fire wasn't actually hurting me - although it smelled awful.

I heard the car crash below me. 
Oops.
  I shrugged and stared at my hand for a few more seconds.  The gasoline on it burned, but there was no pain and no obvious harm to my hand at all.

But then I noticed my dress was on fire as well.  I screamed again and began slapping at my chest and torso.  My hand hit the H.E.R.O. phone and I grabbed it and patted it a few times to put the protective case out.  Overall, the fire seemed to burn fast, and I was able to save only fragments of my dress.  Not much remained of my boots.

I heard voices from a distance off to my right and I glanced that way.  People were still trying to get out of their cars.  I looked down at myself; the important parts were still covered - barely. 
I'm supposed to be doing this hero stuff, I guess.  I better help out.

It took me little time to fly back over to the highway and land next to Psystar.  She was prying at the door of the car that had been run over by the semi.

She looked at me as I landed and said, "What happened?"

"Gas got on me from the semi and the burning car lit me on fire."  I sniffed.

"Oh - I'm sorry....  Was that a super costume or a normal dress?"

"It was an expensive dress.  Boots too."

"Well, I'll bring you to see a costume maker after this, one that can hold up in fire, okay?"

I sniffed again and smiled.

She continued, "We need to get this guy out of here, but I can't bend the metal.  Can you slowly pull the roof back up a bit more?"

"I'll try."  I grabbed where she showed me and tried to pull up.  The metal easily bent for me.  Within thirty seconds or so I'd removed the door and gotten the steering column off the man.  He was in bad shape.

She said, "I've flown injured people before, I'm going to bring him to a hospital - can you make sure everyone else is out of their cars?"

I felt more useful after helping her get him out, so I nodded and headed over to check the remaining cars near the semi.  A few of the guys standing near their cars were holding up their cell phones toward me - they were probably taking pictures.

Well, I can either mope, or at least look as good as possible for them.
  I straightened my shoulders and got to the cars.  No one was stuck in their car at this point, but a few guys asked if I could help them get some items out of their trunks (which were now mangled and couldn't be opened with the key).  It was nice seeing their expressions as I bent the metal easily.

I heard sirens in the distance.  By the time the police arrived a group of all the guys from the crash area had gathered around me and were chatting.  Their mood seemed pretty good for people just in a big crash.

The first police officer arrived and checked first if anyone was injured.  One of the guys mentioned that the super was 'over there' and pointed to me.  The officer looked at me a moment and walked over with an eyebrow raised.

He asked, "You're a H.E.R.O.?"

"Yeah, my name is Diva.  My dress and boots got burned up from the fire.  I pointed toward the burning car over in the dirt field.

"How did it get over there?"

"I picked up and flew the tanker over there, and flew the burning car to the other side so it wouldn't start a big fire."

"Did you call in Haz-Mat for the leaking tanker?"

"What's Haz-Mat?"

Psystar landed near us and walked over.

She said, "Hi, I'm Psystar."

The officer said, "Officer Banks."

Psystar continued, "I just dropped off the guy from that squished car over there at Mercy Hospital.  I think the scene is safe, would you like us to move all the vehicles off to the side of the road?"

He answered, "Sure, I can get traffic flowing again if you two will do that."

"Great."  She looked at me and said, "How about you lift the front end of each vehicle, I'll get the back and we move them?"

I grinned, "Sure!"  It was great being useful, and it didn't take us long to move the vehicles into a big line over to the right.

Psystar asked me, "Do you know anyone that can suck up liquids or anything to get this gasoline off the highway?"

"No, I just became a hero this morning."

"Oh, okay.  Hmm."

The officer jumped in, "Do you have a way to contact Muckman?"

I asked, "Who is that?"

"He's this weird hero that can do a lot of stuff with rocks.  He's helped before on, err, moving that type of thing off accident scenes."

Psystar said, "Let me see if he's in the hero list on my phone."  She suddenly turned and looked at the mass of men, "Really guys?  Do you have to stare at her like that?"  She shook her head.

I stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder as she looked in the hero contact list. 
Huh, that's pretty cool.

Psystar looked up over her shoulder at me and said, "Yeah, it's got some cool tools in it."

I remembered the scene this morning when Psycom took a picture of me being held by Chrome and said, "I think it has some way to figure people out by their picture too."

She stared at my eyes for a moment.  "Wow, he took a picture of you like that?  That's pretty rude."

"Yeah, not like I could move, she's really, really strong - wait a second.  How did you know Psycom took a picture of me?"

"I'm a telepath; I hear and see what everyone thinks around me."

"How does that work?"

She shrugged, "I see T.V.'s out here for everyone near me.  That and voices.  All the time ... everywhere.  Well, except for when I'm flying."

I had no idea how that worked, but it sounded confusing. 
I'm glad I'm super strong, can fly, and am burn proof then.  I don't want some weird powers that make no damn sense.

Psystar pointed out Muckman in the contact list.  She was about to click on his name when Agent Carson from this morning walked up.

Psystar said, "Hi, Agent Carson.  I'm about to contact Muckman to deal with the fuel spill."

He replied, "I'll do it.  Muckman takes a special touch to deal with.  He's, hmm, special."

Psystar asked, "Wow, is that how he really talks?"

He said, "How what?"

"I'm seeing what you are thinking about.  Hold on a sec."

She looked into my eyes, started waving her hands around and all of a sudden I saw this huge creature made of rock and earth that rose out of the ground.  It was looking at me, and kept repeating "Muckman is here!" and "I is Muckman!"  He sounded crazy.  Then my sight went back to normal.

I said, "Whoa, what just happened?"

Psystar said, "I just, umm, stuck the video I got from Agent Carson onto your mindview.  That's pretty cool, first time I got it to work right."  Her eyes glowed brightly with a golden light behind the whites of her eyes.

"Sooo ... I just saw something from Carson's head?"

"Yep."

The guys at the crash scene were extremely thankful - a group of them lined up to shake hands, a few gave me hugs.  Psystar had this odd humored expression on her face and backed off to stand by the officer as the group had approached.

Chapter 8 - Dr. Turnquist

Stephanie's Viewpoint

Agent Carson said, "Before you leave, I'd advise getting a real costume made.  You'll go through a lot of normal clothes, and, well, end up like this fairly often."  He waved his hand up and down at her.

I said, "I'll bring her to Dr. Turnquist.  Well, assuming you want a real costume made...."  I looked at Daphne, err, Diva.  Damn Rael, he's gotten me thinking of her by her real name all the time.  Perhaps I need to dig into his memories and see just how much time he spent with her....

Diva replied, "Oh.  Sure, that's a great idea."

I looked at Agent Carson, "You have the rest of this handled?"

"The officer and I will clear it up.  I need to wait for Muckman to show up and clean up the spill.  No one else appears to need emergency medical attention.  You're good to go."

"Thanks.  Have a good evening, Agent Carson."

"You too, ladies.  Glad to see you in your first real aid situation, Diva."

She replied, "Yeah, I'm glad to help!"  She immediately lamented the loss of her pretty mini-dress and boots, though. 
I think I can help Dr. Turnquist 'see' what Diva really means if she wants the same type of costume.

I stepped up into the air a few times and watched Diva jog a few steps and leap up to begin flying as well. 
At least this time all the nearby mindviews are looking at her rather than me.

I turned and flew through the city, making sure Diva was keeping up.  She seemed to pick up on her flight rather quickly - although it was interesting that she kept thinking of it as shifting gears to speed up or slow down rather than my method of pushing off or stepping down to do the same.

I noted that she really didn't even mind being nearly naked.  If anything, she seemed to enjoy the attention of the people that much more. 
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

We landed outside the plain building Dr. Turnquist had her office in.  I walked up and tried the door, but it was locked.  Then I realized that I didn't even know her number - Lance had been the one to contact her for our costumes.  Hmm, he'd gotten the number from Ms. Casey, his mother.  She was much like a mother to me as well; I spent so much time at her place in my teens.  I pulled out my cell phone and called her.

The phone rang a few times and her voicemail recording picked up.  I sighed.  "Hey mom, this is Steph, can you get me the number of Dr. Turnquist ASAP?  I'm standing outside her office and the door is locked."

I hung up and looked at Diva.  "Sorry.  We'll have to do...."  My phone rang.

I answered, "Hello?"

"Hi dear, this is Janey."

"Oh, hi, Ms. Casey!"

There was a lot of background noise as she said, "I just missed your call, I was moving a beam."

"Are you at work right now?"

"Yes I am.  I'm up on a skyscraper, holding the beam while we talk, why do you ask?"

"There's a lot of background noise."

"Oh, that's the wind - it's fairly heavy right now."

"Did you say you are holding up a beam right now?  Like one of those big metal I-beams?"

"Right.  Why do you ask?"

"Isn't that hard to do?"

"Nah, this one weighs around eight tons; it's not a big deal."

I heard a voice in the background through her phone, it sounded like she put the phone against her while she yelled, "I'm answering a phone call!  Yeah, whatever, it's not that heavy, just hold on a second!"  Her voice became clear again as she said, "Sorry about that, dear.  So what can I do for you?"

"Oh, I'm standing outside Dr. Turnquist's building with a new H.E.R.O. agent, and she, well, desperately needs a costume.  She's practically naked right now.  Can I get her number from you?"

"Sure, I don't have it memorized, but as soon as we hang up I'll send you her contact info from my phone, will that work?"

"Great!  Thanks, mom!"

"I love that you call me that, you know.  How are you and the boys doing so far?  No one has bothered calling all week, and I was beginning to get concerned."

"It's just been really busy.  Lots of hero stuff, helping in kidnapping cases, the boys
got
captured, we got everyone out.  Yeesh, it's been busy.  That's not even counting school or learning our powers better."