Claire was already fighting in the street when Kaleb arrived. He quickly parked his car on the side of the road and moved in to assist. Normally, the tall woman would toss people aside with each arm swing, but her assailants were surprisingly vertical, even after she hit them. Multiple gunshots filled the streets as a trio of thugs fired pistols at Claire's tall form. The alien woman’s skin was tough, but Kaleb thought it best to handle the shooters first.
He charged across the street and reached into a pocket while drawing his Cybar with his other hand. Taking out a yellow plastic egg, Kaleb chucked it at the closest shooter. The taser egg hit its mark with uncanny accuracy, and the thug went down in a jittery mess. Unfortunately, that meant his friends were alerted to Kaleb’s presence. Both shooters turned on Kaleb simultaneously and he dove toward the nearest cover he could find. He dove across the sidewalk and into an alley, using the building as cover.
Bullets broke away bits of the masonry as Kaleb got back to his feet and approached the corner. Waiting for his moment, Kaleb listened for the shooters to run out of ammo. But they stopped firing when he didn’t stick up his head. Taking a chance, he peeked around the corner and fired a shot. His energy blast sailed toward the two men, but he didn’t have time to see if it hit. More bullets showered his position and Kaleb had to duck back down. It was a few more shots until Kaleb heard the loud clicking of an empty gun. Taking another chance, he rushed around the corner and raised his weapon.
One shooter was already down thanks to his earlier shot, but the other was halfway done loading. Kaleb opened fire again, keeping his shots low and, hopefully, non-fatal. Use of force was tricky at the best of times, but with the cops out for blood, he wanted to at least try. He would’ve used the Sun Gun, but the presence of Enhanced individuals made the stun weapon a crap-shoot.
Kaleb’s shots took the thug in the thigh and he went down screaming. Quickly securing the weapons on the sidewalk, Kaleb made sure the pistols were moved far away from the thugs. He was about to turn to help Claire when he heard the strong woman shout.
“Professor, look out!”
Kaleb managed to turn halfway before a powerful blow caught him in the side. He felt his feet leave the ground and was thrown back into the side of another building. The rough brick of the buildings tore into Kaleb’s back as he bounced off the wall and hit the sidewalk on his side. The sound of footsteps growing closer made Kaleb grit his teeth against the pain and roll away. A blast of air hit his shoulders as a kick missed him by inches. Looking up, Kaleb spotted an angry-looking alien with yellow eyes drawing back his failed kick.
Quickly raising his Cybar, Kaleb fired multiple shots into the thug’s thighs and shins. Blue balls of energy sizzled as they hit the alien’s clothes and burned through. But the alien seemed fine as it roared and reached down toward Kaleb. Rolling into the street to avoid the thug’s grasp, Kaleb scurried to his feet and tried to keep up a steady stream of fire. While his gun did a great job of burning off the goon’s clothes, it wasn’t slowing the bastard down.
Again, the thug threw himself forward, aiming a giant swing at Kaleb’s head. Ducking away, Kaleb reached into his lab coat and brought out his Quad-gun. Setting it to ice, Kaleb raised the weapon and fired a steady stream of frost and ice into the thug. He had to dance around a bit more when the angry-looking thug kept throwing haymakers, but the ice was doing its job. Soon, the alien was stumbling after Kaleb, visibly shivering. But for some reason, the gangster was still trying to catch him.
“What the fuck is wrong with this guy?” Kaleb called over his shoulder. He could still hear Claire fighting behind him in the street.
“They’re on something, I think. I broke one of their arms and they are still coming at me.”
Kaleb risked a glance and, indeed, spotted an alien with a floppy arm, trying to batter Claire to death. She was easily avoiding the blows as she jabbed another super-strong alien in the face. A pneumatic hiss drew Kaleb’s eyes back to his own target in time to see the shivering alien inject himself with something. The thug had a white auto-injector in his hands and had obviously just taken something. He didn’t have enough time to figure out what it was though, as the thug’s muscles budged and he threw himself at Kaleb again.
The auto-injector hit the pavement and Kaleb tried to backpedal away from the screaming alien. The thug’s muscles bulged and his yellow eyes seemed to bulge grotesquely. His speed had increased again and Kaleb had to rely on Shocky several times to save him. The poor little shield took a beating as its stun function seemed to have no effect on the drugged up gangster. Even Kaleb’s quad-gun wasn’t slowing the guy down enough. A thin blue sheet of ice had formed over the alien’s grayish skin, but it kept breaking apart as his muscles bulged and contorted. Kaleb was about to switch to fire when the alien he was fighting seized up. His yellow eyes rolled back into his head and foam appeared around the corners of his mouth.
The alien dropped suddenly and harshly to the street, and Kaleb blinked in confusion. He rushed over to help the seizing alien, but by the time he got there, the alien had stopped moving entirely. Kaleb checked the alien over and searched for a pulse. Finding none, he quickly got to his feet to help Claire, but the strong woman was already done. She had broken the legs of her attackers, which wasn’t a practice exactly smiled upon. But Kaleb doubted anyone would complain. Especially with the way the gangsters were acting.
Claire kicked over a thug and started zip tying their hands. She used multiple ties on the strong bastards and then looked at Kaleb.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What are they on, Professor?”
“I have no idea. But apparently, two doses will kill you,” Kaleb said, pointing to his dead assailant.
Claire’s words reminded Kaleb of the auto-injector the thug had dropped and he left to go find it. Overhead, drones buzzed away as Farrah and her team got footage of the scene. Kaleb was sure that Farrah had recorded the entire fight, and he was interested in what they’d seen. Meanwhile, Claire walked over to the unconscious shooters and shot another question at him.
“Why aren’t these guys cuffed? Do you not have ties or manacles?”
“I was at school this morning!”
“And you took your armor and weapons but not cuffs?”
Kaleb sighed. “Claire, at this point, I think we’ve already established I am forgetful. Let’s stop pointing it out each time it happens?”
Claire grinned. “The hope is that if we point it out enough, you’ll stop doing it. It’s all out of love, dear.”
“Sure.” Kaleb smirked as he found the auto-injector lying on the street.
Carefully, he picked it up and inspected it. It was little more than a handle and a long needle. A seat stuck out at the top where you inserted your dose of whatever you wanted. The glass bottle seated in the injector was practically empty. Although Kaleb spotted a few flecks of orange liquid. He quickly detached the vial and pocketed the injector. He was turning back to Claire when a loud siren echoed through the street.
Looking up, Kaleb saw a squad car stopping in the middle of the street. He sneered at the cops and started walking toward the sidewalk, but the loudspeaker attached to the cop car blared to life. Halting him in his tracks.
“Attention, you are taking evidence from an active crime scene. Return it immediately or be detained!”
Kaleb spun and glared at the cop car in equal part anger and disbelief. They couldn’t be serious. The two cops in the car were glaring at him from behind their front window. Kaleb couldn’t stop himself, even as he felt Claire approach to either stop him or say something. He raised a middle finger to the cops and then pointed to the drones above. Making it clear that whatever they tried would be recorded. The scowls on both cops’ faces deepened, and Kaleb saw the driver bring a small hand mic to his lips.
“We are aware of Looting Rights of contracted heroes. However, we feel that what you possess should be studied in a lab and handled by the police.”
Kaleb growled to himself. “Since you are not great with sign language, allow me to make it easier for you! FUCK OFF! My lab is more than sufficient to handle this, and you cops have proven about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle!”
“Professor…” Claire said placatingly from behind him.
He took a few steadying breaths and closed his eyes. The buzz of the drones was a calming white noise as Kaleb calmed himself down. When he opened his eyes again, he looked away from the cops and walked over to the curb. He took a seat and then spoke over his comm to Farrah.
“Farrah?”
“I’m already on it. We have rights to investigate in our contracted territory. So everything should be fine. Just don’t escalate things anymore.”
“I didn’t…” Kaleb began, but cut himself off.
He knew she was right. But the cops’ attitudes were getting on his nerves. Sure, they were just following orders. But even a blind man could see that they were there to help. Hell, the night hadn’t even fully started and already he’d done so much. Not to mention the others.
Claire stood just in front of him as he sat on the curb. Her eyes locked on the cop car. She didn’t look like she was happy about their request, either. But she was keeping a professional air about her. For a long time, the two sides sat there and glared at each other, neither moving. Kaleb wasn’t sure what conversations Farrah was having, but he hoped whoever was on the other side was cooperating.
It was another few minutes of sitting there before the cop car blared its siren again and then drove down the street. Both men in the front glared at Kaleb as they drove by, and he got a better look at them. Something about them seemed off, but Kaleb put it up to his heighten state of annoyance. At least until Claire mentioned it.
“How much do you want to bet that those two were robots?” She asked.
“Did they seem odd to you, too?”
“Professor, they were either twins or the same person.”
Kaleb blinked as he recalled the two cops he had just seen. Without the haze of anger blocking distorting his view, Kaleb realized she was right. Both men were human, with short buzz-cut hairdos, and pale complexions. In fact, Kaleb didn’t even recall them wearing uniforms.
“Were they in uniform?” he asked Claire.
The tall woman shook her head, her long hair swishing about her back. “No. At least it didn’t look like it.”
“Say Farrah…” Kaleb asked.
“Yes, yes. I’m on it. The local PD claimed to not have a car out this way already. I figured they were just bullshitting me. But maybe they weren’t lying.”
“Wait a minute. What about not having enough drones to follow everyone?”
Farrah sighed over the comms. “That was for useless vendettas. But for a people masquerading as cops on our turf? You better believe we have the drones. Also, another asset presented themselves to me earlier and I’ve been kicking myself at forgetting about them.”
“What asset?” Kaleb asked curiously.
“Your sidekick.” Farrah said simply.
“Farrah, you can’t be serious, Roy?!”
“Yes, Roy. He has been working on his own armor and weapons. He said they are ready for a field-test so he took them out.”
“Alone!”
“YES! He can handle it, Professor. Besides, as a sidekick, he is required to undertake several missions alone or supervised. Preferably supervised. But since this is just general reconnaissance, I figured he could handle it.”
“Farrah, his grandpa will kill me if something happens to him.”
“Frankly, I’d be more afraid of his mother.” Claire quipped, drawing a glare from Kaleb.
“Professor, I have drones watching him and he knows enough to stay back. He’ll be fine. Now I need you two at the north end of Blue Bluff. We have more reports of assault coming from the hunters.”
Kaleb wanted to argue further, but he knew it was useless. Keeping Roy in the workshop was never going to be a long-term thing. Especially now with so many helpers. He just wished he was with the boy for his first sidekick outing. He made a mental note to take the boy out on his next mission and started toward his car. Claire fell in step beside him and he glanced up at the woman.
“What? You weren’t going to make this old woman walk, were you?”
Kaleb chuckled. “Absolutely not, ma’am. I’m just surprised you didn’t take your own car.”
“Naw, I’ve been Super-Jumping and running around the neighborhood. It’s good for the skill growth and experience.”
“And you’re not doing it now because?”
Claire looked offended as they reached his car. “Sir! I am an old woman. I can’t just be gallivanting around everywhere all the time!”
“You’re tired, aren’t you?”
“Extremely. Now shut up and drive the car. Grandma needs a nap.”