H-Bar sat up, his muscles protesting the movement. The pain from his earlier fight at the police station was still there, but it’d changed. Instead of a sharp and biting, it’d been reduced to a dull ache. Something he knew was bound to last the next few days. A nagging reminder he wasn’t strong enough to beat his former teammate. Or maybe he wasn’t smart enough as the kid surprised him by disabling his suit’s lights. Yet that was a trick that’d only work once and he survived it. As soon as H-Bar made it back to the base, he’d be trading this suit out for the older model. Something Liam hadn’t tinkered with.

H-Bar shook his head. After today’s fight there was no hope of taking the kid in alive. The explosions would drive the public for vengeance. Only the young man’s death would satiate it. Something The Hunt was all too happy to deliver. With the public on their side it’d be even easier to carry out that deed.

Turning, H-Bar looked at the doctor standing next to him. The man was old, likely closing in on retirement. His white medical coat matched what little hair he had left. On his chest a pin of a dog running after a ball, it’s tongue lolling out in that goofy dog way, was his only personalized touch.

“Everything looks to be in order,” the doctor drawled as he read over a report, “You’ll have a few bruises, the one on your chin is already starting to swell, but nothing is broken.”

No surprise there H-Bar thought as he rolled the mask back down his chin. He was fine and he’d known it since he left the police station. Not that his team cared. When they arrived after the large explosion, he’d explained what was going on. They’d searched the entire station looking for Liam, only to learn he escaped in the chaos of the blast. To say they were upset was as obvious as saying the sky was blue. They’d assumed H-Bar ran, so he didn’t have to put Liam down not to stop whatever was happening outside.

As punishment they sent him to the hospital, with his suit on. A clear attack on his pride. In most cases Heroes were treated in special facilities away from the public’s eye. After all, it was the best way to ensure their anonymity. Being admitted to the hospital, even if he had a clean bill of health, wouldn’t get him the same treatment. He had a few hours at most until the story hit the media, then weeks of explaining why he was there.

“Am I free to go?” H-Bar asked.

He’d deal with the fallout of this publicity stunt later. For now he needed to make a speedy escape and figure out what Liam was after at the station.

“Certainly. Do you want any pills for the pain?” the doctor asked. Oblivious to H-Bar’s desire to leave.

“No, thank you,” H-Bar said. Voice stiff with annoyance.

H-Bar always avoided pain pills. He’d seen too many people become addicted to the things. He had no intention of following their lead.

“Sounds good. You’re free to leave.”

With that the doctor left the room and H-Bar zipped up his suit. Once he was sure his suit was in order, he followed the doctor out of the room. Finding himself in one of the long sterile hallways of the hospital.

Eyes turned to him as soon as he left the privacy of the exam room. It wasn’t anything new so H-Bar played it off, waving to the patients and staff. Saying a few words as he passed. He had to prove he wasn’t hurt or worried about being here. Show everyone it was only a precaution that brought him in. Or else the rumors about his health were sure to be worse.

As he moved through the halls H-Bar looked around. Hoping to catch a glimpse of his doctor friend. Divulging his identity to the woman had been on his mind for a while now. But he couldn’t do it. At least not yet, with Liam still on the loose. He promised himself to do it once that was solved.

H-Bar didn’t recognize any of the faces he passed. Not a big surprise given he normally visited the children’s wing of the building. Not the emergency room where he found himself now. But it’d still be a pleasant surprise to spot her. It’d almost make the entire trip worthwhile, regardless of what the news said. However that wasn’t to be the case.

Reaching the waiting area H-Bar found the first familiar face. Or mask he corrected as he spotted Skip leaning against a wall. A crowd spread out around him. H-Bar almost had to shout at the man to catch Skip’s attention.

“I’m sorry everyone, but it looks like H-Bar’s done with his checkup. It’s time for us to head out,” Skip said. “Let’s go H-Bar, time waits for no Hero.”

H-Bar frowned behind his mask. Skip was loving every moment of H-Bar’s misery. Happy someone else made a mistake for once.

Skip moved through the crowd. People parted like the Red Sea in the Hero’s path. Coming back together once he was past.

When Skip was close enough, he reached out and grabbed H-Bar’s shoulder. They were gone, no pomp in their teleport. The world draining of color around them. H-Bar shut his eyes as it happened. He’d been through this enough times to know how to respond.

After a nauseating trip that felt much longer than it actually was they were at the police station. A few hundred feet from the first set of explosions. Black smoke was still wafting from the shells of what used to be cars.

It’d taken H-Bar a long time to get used to these sudden jumps. And he found even now, being used to them didn’t mean he enjoyed them.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone screw up as badly as you did,” Skip said in a cheery voice.

And here it was. For the briefest of moments H-Bar had hoped the comments at the hospital would be the end of things. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how Skip was going to play this.

“I had no choice, at least no one was hurt,” H-Bar said. He moved forward, not waiting for the other Hero to follow.

“How is that a good thing?” Skip asked as he moved to keep pace.

“What are you talking about?” H-Bar asked. It was their job to keep the city safe. Why wouldn’t they be happy with no casualties?

“If there’d been casualties, it’d help turn people against Liam.”

H-Bar wondered if the nauseating feeling in his stomach was the after effects of the teleportation or from what he’d just heard. Either way he fought down the feeling, not wanting the other man to know how much the statement got to him.

“We don’t need that. People already hate him. The explosion will be enough to drive the point home.”

“They want us to bring him to trial. To use him as an example for anyone else who’d turn. We can’t give him the platform.”

“It won’t matter, no one would believe him.”

Why was he defending the kid H-Bar wondered? At the factory he’d realized what needed to be done and was prepared to do it. Same with the hallway in the police station only a few hours ago. Now he was getting all soft and sentimental.

“It doesn’t matter if people listen to him. We have to control the narrative.”

The two entered the police station, with more people around, the conversation stopped. Leaving them to walk on in silence. In this building you never knew who was listening.

Looking around H-Bar noted the broken glass. They were on the side facing away from the last blast and it was still strong enough to blow out windows. Allowing white flakes to glide in, pooling into small mounds under the openings. Whether it was ash or snow H-Bar couldn’t tell, but it left the hallway looking like something from a strange dream. Half nightmare half pleasant vision.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Seeing them enter, a ragged looking officer waved them over. His eyes were screaming of someone who needed sleep.

“The rest of The Hunt’s near the evidence lockers. They asked for you to join them when you returned,” the officer said.

“Thank you,” H-Bar answered with a nod, eyeing the man’s uniform for his name, “Officer Ryan.”

It was important to let the officers know they mattered. Just saying their names could go a long way in achieving that. It made working with them that much easier in the future.

“My pleasure, sir. Will you need help finding your way?”

“I think we’ll be all right. Thanks for the offer.”

With that they left the man behind. Once out of ear shot Skip muttered something under his breath. H-Bar thought he heard the words suck up but he couldn’t be sure and didn’t bother to ask.

The building looked much the way he’d left it earlier. Officers running back and forth in organized chaos. The Heroes avoided the heaviest traffic. Though any officer who saw them made way for the masked men.

Along the way they found a hallway covered in cement foam. A remnant from the earlier fight. They had to wait for an officer with a pick axe to move out of the way before they could pass. He’d been able to cut a hole to the other side, but it was still a tight fit.

H-Bar went first, crawling his way through the tiny space. Only to find Skip waiting on the other side. The man teleported, but made H-Bar crawl. H-Bar bit his tongue to keep from commenting, he had to be professional. A few months ago he’d have let Skip know his true feelings. For now he contented himself by making a mental note of the insult.

Once through the hole H-Bar dusted off. This was a new problem for them. In the past, Liam had a mixture that would dissolve the foam cement. Making clean up a hundred times easier. Unfortunately without him they were left with no alternative other than manual labor.

Once past the encased hallway they found the battle grounds where he’d fought Liam. Nothing much had changed. Scar marks from blasts of light decorated the walls while parts of Liam’s broken devices were sprayed across the ground. Each had little numbers laying next to them. Evidence to be documented and collected by the officers later in the day. On the bright side, the air wasn’t filled with gas anymore.

When they reached the far end of the hall H-Bar found his team waiting, right where he’d been when he spotted Liam. Gladius was staring the other way, into an evidence locker, while Ullr stood nearby. Leaning against the wall, his eyes closed behind his mask. The picture of a man with no worries. H-Bar knew better. The team had asked him for details before sending him to the hospital. Unhappy with what they heard, they’d ask for even more now.

When H-Bar and Skip reached the waiting Ullr, the man opened his eyes. Then spoke in a slow cadence, “Ready to go over what happened? Maybe we can find something useful this time.”

Gladius turned from the evidence locker after hearing Ullr speak. Eyes on H-Bar as he prepared to tell them what happened. She let him know her feelings earlier, now she was waiting for a chance to express them again.

“Here or back at the base?” H-Bar asked.

“Here will be fine.”

H-Bar nodded. He’d keep his story to the parts that the public could know. He’d fill out any dangerous details when they got back to the base. He didn’t expect to have an eavesdropper, but it was always best to be safe.

H-Bar walked the team through the fight. Starting with the bombs going off outside and communications failing. How he’d tried to take control of the situations and what he had the officers doing.

Then he moved to when Liam showed up and their initial exchange. How Liam retreated around the corner to avoid his lights. While he followed only to have his suit’s lights cut off. Liam taking the upper hand in the exchange afterward, then the big explosion that rocked the street. After that things were a blur. He’d rushed outside to stop whoever caused the blast, but never found the person.

“Source spent months with us. He knows our weaknesses, and found counters to use against us,” H-Bar finished. Making sure the team captured that important detail.

“Is that the suit Liam worked on for you?” Ullr asked.

“Yeah it is.”

“I thought I said destroy everything he made. Why are you still wearing it?”

“I… Source made the lights. I didn’t think he could do anything to them.”

“His name is Liam. He lost the right to use the other title,” Ullr said. His voice was hard as stone. “Get rid of that suit and go back to the old one.”

That’s right H-Bar thought. Stupid mistake to make. Liam made the suit, it only stood to reason he’d know how to destroy it.

“You only saw Liam?” Gladius asked. Changing tactics in the questioning.

“Correct, I never found out who was outside.”

“Then how do we know there were multiple people? It could’ve just been Liam.”

“You think he set up the explosion as an escape plan?” H-Bar asked.

“It’s possible,” Ullr said as he rubbed his chin at Gladius’s idea.

H-Bar said nothing. He’d known how the fight was going. Without the lights on his suit he would have lost, eventually. He half thought he’d run away because he’d subconsciously known that. But for the life of him he couldn’t remember thinking it. Or much of anything from the end of the fight. Just the need to find out who caused the explosion outside. That one thought was still etched into his brain the desire was that strong.

“It also worked as a distraction. It gave him enough time to get into the evidence locker then leave,” Gladius continued.

“Not much time with how fast all of you got here,” H-Bar countered.

“But enough to take a quick look. Maybe he built a scanner and ran it on everything while he was in there?” Gladius said.

“Not like he’d find anything,” Skip said. Leaving unspoken how they’d already been through the police files. Making sure it showed the corrected information.

“Let’s see what he was looking at,” Ullr said.

The team leader pushed off of the wall and moved into the evidence locker. The rest of the team following in his wake. They looked through the files scattered across the ground. All police reports on Liam and Blue Feather. Was he trying to find similarities between the two cases? There were, but he had to know they wouldn’t be found here. Was this a desperation play? A last ditch effort to clear his name?

It just didn’t make sense. All of Liam’s moves, until this point, had been calculated. Now he goes for something this risky with little chance of a reward? Even if he was desperate, which H-Bar didn’t think he was, he had to know better than to come here. Just what was he really doing? The radio blared to life, nearly causing him to jump.

“Ullr this is Matt,” the voice on the radio crackled through.

“Go ahead,” the team leader said.

“I’ve been looking into shipment records over the last year. Trying to find anything similar to what was sent to the safe-house,” Matt said. His voice held for a moment. H-Bar could imagine the kid taking a deep breath before he pushed forward, “I’ve found four more apartments receiving the same shipments. That was just this year alone. There might be more, I’ll have to go back farther to know for sure.”

“How much was delivered?” Ullr asked.

“Was all of it used here?” H-Bar followed up before Matt could answer.

“Initial data says no. Today was a fraction of what was delivered to the first place. There’s enough for dozens more bombs like the big one we saw today.”

Everyone in the room stopped talking. Their brows wrinkling as a cold sweat started to bead on their foreheads. If this information got out, there was no way they’d be able to work the case on their own. Other teams would come in. How could they deal with Liam if that was the case?

While the team was digesting the news, an officer knocked on the door.

“Sir, I umm… the security tapes you wanted… they were deleted,” the officer managed to say.

“What do you mean?” Ullr asked.

“The man who was on duty went to help with the explosions. While he was away no one was guarding the security room, and they were somehow deleted.”

“He left the room unguarded?”

“Umm… that appears to be correct,” the officer said as he shifted from one foot to the other.

“Do you think Liam destroyed the tapes?” Gladius asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I doubt he expected to find H-Bar here. Without H-Bar he would’ve been able to sneak in and get whatever he wanted without leaving so many clues. He must’ve deleted the video on the way in.”

There was some logic to what Ullr was saying, but H-Bar couldn’t get behind it. There had to be something they weren’t seeing. Not to mention Liam having almost no time from the last explosion till the team showed up.

“Can we bring in an expert to look at the security system? Maybe they can recover something?” H-Bar asked.

He had little hope of figuring out what Liam was really doing. This request was their last chance to uncover it.

“Matt did you hear that?” Ullr asked.

“Yes, I did. Let me ask around, but I expect it’ll take a day or two to fly the best out here.”

“He could’ve done something else with the system,” H-Bar said. Spewing his concerns to his team.

“I won’t be surprised if he added his own feed into the system,” Gladius said.

No that wasn’t it H-Bar thought. Whatever he was after, there had to be a specific reason for it. If it was just for a feed into the station, why’d he come in guns blazing?

“We need to find out what he’s after,” H-Bar said.