Kaleb awoke to the sound of his doorbell ringing. He and Roy had helped the Brute Clan for most of the day yesterday. They moved the bodies, cleaned out the mansion, and helped patrol the edges of the territory. A few of the other gangs sent people to watch what was going on but none of them got too close.
Daivor joined them when the rest of the Brute Clan walked to the mansion. The Gnome didn’t seem to put out about being left out of the fight. In fact, He seemed happy hanging out with the lizard kids and they seemed happy chasing the floating Gnome. Once they told him, they would make weapons for the Brute Clan, Daivor seemed far more excited.
After mailing Wulkun’s letters and dropping off Roy at his parents Kaleb drove home. He offered to explain to Roy’s parents what had happened, but Roy said he would handle it himself. Honestly, Kaleb didn’t argue too hard. Once Kaleb was home, he catalogued and put away his loot. After doing some basic maintenance on his guns and armor, he uploaded his Memory crystal footage to HLO along with several reports about what happened in Under-Town.
Loud pounding joined his doorbell on his door as he rolled out of bed. He gathered his lab coat and two guns, Wulkun had returned his Sun Gun, at Kaleb’s insistence. Putting on fresh clothes and his weapons Kaleb marched blearily to his front door. The pounding and doorbell ringing had grown to annoyance levels at this point.
Swinging the door open roughly Kaleb squinted against the bright light shouting loudly. “WHAT?!”
“Professor… Citizen?” Asked a bored sounding male voice.
“What? What kind of name is that? He doesn’t live here.” Kaleb said before slamming the door in the man’s face.
Kaleb was about to get his mandatory morning cup of coffee when the doorbell and door pounding started up again. Kaleb sighed loudly and cracked the front door open again, sticking his head out.
“Yes?” Kaleb said mock sweetly.
“Sir, we know it’s you.” said the voice, which Kaleb realized came from a tall black-suited green man wearing dark sunglasses.
“Well, that seems to make your earlier question rather pointless doesn’t it?”
The green man exhaled harshly through his nose, annoyed. “Sir, we require your presence at the HLO head office.”
Kaleb opened the door wider and asked curiously. “Concerning what?”
“I don’t know, sir. I was just asked to retrieve you.” Said the green-man, which Kaleb was thinking was a Xarthaksian. He was the same shade of green as Claire.
“Ok, well, let me grab a few things, first.” Kaleb said thinking about grabbing his headband and maybe his armor.
But, the suit shook his head and took a step forward. “That won’t be necessary, sir. You need to come with me now.”
Kaleb stared up at slightly taller man. “I’m sure that line works wonders with the ladies at whatever bar you frequent. But I’m not going anywhere without protection, princess.”
The tall man stepped forward into Kaleb’s personal space and glared down at him. But before he could say something menacing, he put a hand to his ear. Kaleb realized that the Xarthaksian man was wearing an earpiece and someone was apparently watching them. Mr. Suit nodded his head to whatever orders he had received before turning back to Kaleb.
“Grab whatever you want.” Mr. Suit said testily.
“There’s a good boy.” Kaleb said before slamming his front door again.
Kaleb blew out a breath as he moved to his garage. Daivor’s home was still dark, so he assumed that the Gnome was still asleep. Grabbing his armor and headband and putting it on, Kaleb looked around his lab. He didn’t think he needed his Magic gun although he wished he had another Taser Egg. They had proven themselves as useful multiple times already. Kaleb was tempted to just build one real quick and let the green bastard stew on his doorstep, But he decided against it.
Once his armor was on and his Spike Launcher reloaded Kaleb made his way back to his front door. Walking out into the early morning sun Kaleb closed his front door and stood next to Mr. Suit giving him a curt nod. Mr. Suit looked Kaleb up and down before snorting in derision. Reaching down, the Xarthaksian man twisted something on his belt and slapped a palm on Kaleb’s shoulder.
Kaleb’s vision twisted hard, and he felt like his stomach was doing flips as everything around him went blurry. Before he could feel sick or disoriented though his feet felt like the slammed into ground and he was suddenly somewhere else. What the fuck was that! Kaleb thought as Mr. Suit removed his hand and tapped something on his belt again. Glancing down, Kaleb thought he saw a hint of metal on the man’s waist. Teleportation Belt? Kaleb wondered before he noticed that the green-man had walked off.
Kaleb looked around as he walked, not recognizing the interior of the building. He obviously wasn’t in the HLO building near his house. This building was more rectangular and had the foot traffic of an office building. Multiple people in business suits ran this way and that with briefcases, stacks of paper, or coffee. Mr. Suit lead him to a row of elevators just past a security checkpoint.
Mr. Suit waved a badge, and they were let into the area with the elevators. Kaleb tried to take in more of the building as they stood waiting for one elevator. As he looked around, he noticed that there was no natural light in the building, no windows, no front doors, nothing. He also realized that most of the people in the building were Aliens. Including me. Kaleb thought as the elevator bell dinged.
Kaleb stepped into the elevator and turned to see that Mr. Suit wasn’t joining him. The tall man leaned into the elevator and pressed a combination of buttons before leaning back and staring daggers at Kaleb.
Kaleb nodded as the doors closed, flipping Mr. Suit the bird before the doors finally shut. Kaleb leaned his back against the elevator wall and tried to decide why he was brought here. The obvious answer was because Roy had been hurt while under his care. But he wondered if his footage of the K-Tech employees taking bribes had sparked something within the upper echelons of the HLO. Maybe they needed his testimony on record before they did anything drastic against the giant corporation.
Kaleb looked up to the elevator numbers to see how close he was to his destination. Only the numbers weren’t moving, he could feel the elevator gliding easily beneath him. But according to the numbers he wasn’t going anywhere. He was about to press a few buttons on the console when he felt the elevator slow to a stop and the doors slid open.
Beyond the doors Kaleb saw a large office room with a massive back window facing downtown Austin. There were large bookcases to either side and in the center was a man seated in a wooden high-backed chair behind an oak desk. Kaleb moved forward slowly taking in the ornate room. Behind him on the wall with the elevator was a wall of trophies, plaques, awards.
“Sit.” Said the man behind the desk, pointing without looking up from whatever he was working on.
Kaleb wasn’t a fan of the way the man spoke so, in an act of defiance, he remained standing. He stood behind one of the two short chairs in front of the desk. He heard the man behind the desk sigh wearily before he looked up. Kaleb bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from reacting to the person’s appearance. He looked exactly like a demon with white skin. He had two small horns, pointed teeth and ears, and his eyes were a deep crimson.
“I said: Sit!” The demon man ordered again pointing at one of the two chairs.
“No. You ordered me to sit.” Kaleb said involuntarily continuing. “I defied you because I didn’t like your tone.”
Kaleb’s eyes widened in surprise at the words spilling from his mouth. He hadn’t meant to say the second part. Judging from the smile on the demon’s face Kaleb assumed it must have been a power native to his species. Once he thought about it though, Kaleb mentally shrugged his shoulders. The dude wants honest? I can do honest. Kaleb figured smiling back at him.
The demon stopped smiling and put down his pen before he spoke again. “My name is Syth and I am one of the directors for the HLO. I oversee… disciplinary actions and the out-processing of certain elements that don’t work with what the HLO stands for. So you see I am your superior.”
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“No. You are just higher on the corporate ladder.” Kaleb interrupted.
Syth snapped his attention back to Kaleb, surprised. He had obviously not been expecting that. So he has to activate that little truth power of his. Kaleb filed that thought away for later as he smiled at Syth. Syth studied Kaleb’s face for a while before he nodded curtly, mouth a tight thin line.
“Quite.” Syth said before moving on. “Either way, it has come to our attention that you have committed several infractions that don’t really… jive with what the HLO is about. These offenses are even backed up by your own footage of the events.”
“Such as?” Kaleb asked turning serious and sitting in a chair.
Syth smiled waving a hand over his desk and bringing up a holo-display. “Well, let’s just go through the footage you submitted yesterday.”
Kaleb watched as the footage from his headband played out in fast-forward before Syth stopped it. In the footage he was greeting Blutschläger yesterday morning. Syth brought up another holo-display right next to the first.
“Let’s start with your association with this man. A Mr. Kolya Blutschläger, a known thief and criminal.” Syth said pausing for Kaleb to ask or say anything.
Kaleb’s mind raced for a few seconds before he asked. “If he is such a known entity why didn’t my Handler recognize him when I first encountered him?”
“Ah, a mistake made by a Ms. Etha-Farrah Kyneklos. I have her on the list to be reprimanded this morning.” Syth said sounding cheerful.
Kaleb bit his lip not wanting to say anything to get Farrah in more trouble. Syth smiled and moved the footage ahead some more.
“We can mark Your association with Mr. Blutschläger down as a mistake made by the HLO. However, this next part is a violation made of your own choice.” Syth said pausing the footage of him in the K-tech junkyard.
“Here you are violating a No Trespass sign on Government Property.” Syth said in almost a sing-song tone.
“I was led to believe that was K-Tech property.” Kaleb said.
“It is.” Said Syth.
“I was unaware that the government had purchased a stake in K-Tech.” Kaleb said mock serious.
“They haven’t but as you know, K-Tech holds several contracts with the government. So they have a vested interest in what goes on within their property.” Syth explained sounding peeved.
“So, at best, you got me violating private property. Which I was unaware was our destination. I believed that Blutschläger received his… merchandise from public dump sites.” Kaleb said fudging the truth a little.
Syth didn’t look like he believed him. “And yet, once you discovered the nature of the site not only did you take part in thievery. But, you also ran from the authorities when they tried to apprehend you.”
Kaleb bit back another harsh retort as he asked. “Authorities? You mean the K-Tech guards who were clearly taking bribes to allow access to restricted sites. I am sure they were more interested in silencing me than making an arrest.”
Syth smiled again waving his hand in front of the holo-display. “Oh yes, the secret shady deal you witnessed.” Syth said putting air quotes around the word witnessed.
“Let’s look at THAT footage shall we?” Syth said stopping the footage at Kaleb watching the deal between Deiter and the cat-lady.
The footage was fine and you could just make out the two of them discussing payment to enter the site. But by the look on Syth’s face, he found this footage useless. Kaleb waved his hands angrily at the screen.
“Come on! You can hear them discussing payment to enter restricted sites owned by K-Tech.” Kaleb yelled sitting forward in his chair.
“What I hear Mr.… Professor… ugh!” Said Syth stumbling over how to address Kaleb before starting again. “What I hear is these gentlemen bribing these law enforcement officers. But, when they refuse and are about to arrest the criminals, you interfere! These guards are well within their rights to shoot or detain anyone found on K-Tech property!”
“Oh, now it’s K-Tech property.” Kaleb muttered.
“Whoever’s property it is is irrelevant! You aided the escape of criminals!” Shouted Syth
Kaleb jumped up and gripped the side of Syth’s desk screaming back. “And you are ignoring a criminal element within K-Tech! Why?! Is this city so dependent on a Corporate entity that you fear pissing it off?!”
Syth backed away behind his desk and made an odd sign with his left hand. Kaleb felt a slight push against his chest. He saw Syth make a worried face as he did the odd sign again with his hand. This time Kaleb let the push take him all the way back to his chair. Syth smiled as Kaleb’s mind whirred. He tried to push me but it didn’t work. But why? Kaleb though looking down at his armor. Magic! The Ifirt skin lining of my armor has a slight resistance to Magic.
“Another outburst like that and I will use my full power.” Syth said sounding smug.
Kaleb did his best to look contrite as Syth continued. “Let’s continue: Even without the incident at the K-Tech dump site you have broken several tenets of the HLO.”
Syth waved through several stills of Kaleb’s footage from yesterday listing off his supposed crimes.
“You associate with a refugee camp full of violent aliens.” he said showing images of the Brute Clan.
“You charge into a den of criminals without requesting back-up.” Images of Kaleb charging the faceless.
“When that fails you get yourself captured by said criminals.” Images of Kaleb’s interrogation by the Faceless.
“Once free you take part in what I can only describe as a gang turf war. Killing multiple people, some of whom cannot even fight back.” Images of Kaleb executing his Jailer and the Phreak’s Lion-man leader.
“They were criminals.” Kaleb defended lamely.
“The HLO does not go around pretending to be judge, jury, and executioner. Our mandate is the apprehension and detention of super-powered criminals.” Syth snapped back at him.
“Finally,” Syth said waving his hand over the holo-display interface. As he did multiple images appeared in front of his desk. All of Roy during the fighting at the Faceless’ mansion.
“You knowingly took a civilian along on what should have been an HLO sanctioned mission. Not only do you take him, but you get him severely injured and almost killed.” Syth said.
“He…” Kaleb started to say.
“Sure,” Syth said putting up a hand. “He might have come along through his own volition. But as an HLO-sanctioned Super you had a duty to get him out of that building and what did you do? You took him along!”
Syth was panting now as he adjusted his suit. “That was unacceptable and not in line with the standards of the HLO.”
Kaleb sighed sick of this whole charade. “So what’s the verdict?” Kaleb asked sounding bored.
“The Verdict,” Syth snapped angrily. “Is that we have suspended you for the next two months. You will not attempt any acts of heroism, you will not meet with any other HLO members, and we forbid you from interacting with Roy Nova.”
Kaleb hissed a question through gritted teeth. “And what am I supposed to do for money?”
Syth scoffed and adjusted his tie. “I don’t care. If it were up to me I’d have you thrown out of this organization. Why don’t you go work at a tech store? I hear you people are good at such work.”
Kaleb’s vision flashed red and suddenly he was over the desk and gripping Syth’s vest and necktie. He vaguely saw Syth making wild motions with his hands but he barely felt anything. Drawing his Cybar pistol, Kaleb fired a shot into the large glass window overlooking the city. The window shattered and fell as it did Kaleb realized it was a screen in front of a brick wall. That disappointed him, he had wanted to dangle the smarmy bastard out a window, instead he put his gun between the devil man’s small horns.
“Take that tone with me again, you slimy fuck, and I’ll swear to whatever god you believe in I’ll…”
The sound of several electronic charging sounds interrupted Kaleb. Turning he saw six identically suited men and women. Each having stepped from an elevator that had appeared in the wall. Some held large energy rifles, others summoned their Magic, and others still just stood there looking menacing. Kaleb stared at them for a few seconds before he removed and holstered his pistol. Syth’s legs seemed to give out, collapsing, as Kaleb released him.
“Professor, we will have to ask you to leave the building.” said one of the black-suited security guards.
Kaleb nodded his head as he walked around the desk. “Gladly.”
“You’ll pay for this you fucking lizard! I’ll make it so you will never work for the HLO again! I swear it!” Syth screamed as he used his desk to prop himself up.
Kaleb kept walking, moving around a pair of guards and entering one of the elevator. A guard stuck his head in and hit another combination of buttons. All the while Kaleb stared daggers at Syth. Soon the doors shut and Kaleb breathed a sigh of relief. Well, this fucking sucks. I wonder if everyone is having this kind of game. Kaleb thought as he leaned against the side wall.
He knew he had messed up with Roy, but he thought that at least the HLO would take the news about K-Tech seriously. Why would they remain so willfully ignorant? On top of it all, they had taken his assistant from him. Although he doubted Roy would obey such an order. He needed a plan, something to do with his time while he stuck out his suspension. If it was still only a suspension.
He also briefly wondered what was happening to Farrah. Would contacting her go against his “not meeting with other HLO members.” Probably. He thought As the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. This time they open out onto a street in downtown Austin. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was but as he exited, he looked back to see the elevator disappear. He was in front of an abandoned building with no signs of the HLO.
Fuck it! Kaleb thought as he walked down the street. I’ll show them. I’ll show all of them!