Talking Shop

“Modern policing is a mix of normal patrol and crime prevention, emergency response, and dealing with the walking nuclear wars people call supervillains. In the fifties and sixties they were stuck using drugs and extremely heavy restraints to lock down the strongest criminals in manners that would seem more in line with the Spanish inquisition than law enforcement.

“Now when a criminal is taken into custody, depending on their powers, there’s entire suites of prefabricated cell set ups that can be employed. Only the most powerful or bizarre cases require bringing experts in to customize containment units.”

“It’s more humane, more responsible, and has seriously cut down on the number of super-villains who add random acid flashbacks to their more mundane form of psychosis.”

Police Commissioner Karl Larson, 2019 Midwest Security and Police Expo.

“It was lovely to get to punch it, even if it appears things have been handled.” Solaris commented, running fingers through her windblown hair. She looked over at the tall Latina heroine, in her red and gold swimming costume called a uniform. “Ah Luna Fuego right? Pleasure to meet you.” She looked over at the villain who was moaning as he began to fight towards coming to.

“Yes, and you’re Solaris, right? I mean the real one! It’s good to meet you.” The other woman said. “Though a dark ally over a groaning idiot isn’t how I’d prefer to do it.”

“Comes with this type of work.” Solaris said, pulling the helmet off the Stallions head. “Lad, have you already developed your first nemesis?”

"Apparently? Yay me?" Marcus replied with a weak shrug. Nahoa patted his back.

Penny hopped out of the truck. "Luna Fuego, do you mind doing the heavy lifting here? Solaris isn't quite back on active status and this idiot is likely to pick a fight." As she spoke, she pulled out her Unlock credentials and her Smith and Wesson 500 magnum revolver. “And it could be awkward if Solaris knocks him into orbit.”

“Oh yes, far more official and appropriate if I set him on fire.” She joked. "No I don’t mind, I know the NYPD will be very pleased to finally have a reason to properly arrest pony boy here.” From the decorative seeming belt around her waist she pulled a pair of handcuffs with glowing bracelets, snapping them onto the crook.

The Cuban man began struggling, but surprisingly clumsily and weakly. "Let me go, you bitch. ¡Joder, siento que voy a vomitar!”

"Um, here is his gun.” Nahoa said, handing the cloth wrapped bundle over to Penny. “And I also have an audio file of everything that happened since he came at us."

“Can you please tell me about your handcuffs, and why do they glow?” Solaris asked absently.

"Now those are a useful bit of tech." Luna said. “They’re called Neuro-cuffs. Since it’s not possible to negate enhanced abilities without custom built devices or preparations; some tech geniuses created these, and managed to manufacture them. They use electro-magnetic fields and subharmonic sound in some obscure way to disrupt inner ear and voluntary neurological function. Basically instead of negating you, they make you so dizzy, nauseous and clumsy you can’t really do much of anything. I once had a vil decide to try and fly off after I snapped them on, he did a loop-de-loop and crashed back into the street at three hundred miles per hour. Hurt himself more than I had managed to in a fifteen minute long fight.”

“Helpful, and clever.” Solaris observed Penny stepping away from the foul mouthed criminal to talk on the phone, apparently to the police dispatch.

Luna laughed as Stallion stood, still cussing as he fell sideways. "Yes, it is. I must admit, it is wonderful to meet the Original Girl. When I first powered up I was mistaken for you because I had dyed my hair blonde.” She shook her head. “Which was super embarrassing since I am a projector, not a powerhouse.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Projector, no, wait, you use fire so I’m guessing that means you project energy.”

Luna nodded "Did you know, statistically speaking, fewer super heroines actually dye their hair blonde than the average? I know of a couple of natural blondes who dyed their hair darker. Your return may allow new hairstyles for the world of super-ladies since we won’t all be your second coming now."

“I do hope you're joking. I hate to think that every heroine is mistaken for me just because they are blonde! I think I'm more distinctive than that!”

"Not all, just the flying, glowing ones." Luna joked. "Get a golden aura and fly, and even guys have gotten ‘it’s Solaris’ thrown at them before their gender was known."

"To be fair, Elvis sightings are more common. I still don’t know why since the dude would be dead again by now anyhow." Marcus pointed out.

“Elvis? Is he a hero.” Solaris asked

“No, just a King.” Luna Fuego chuckled.

"Depends on a whole lot of opinions." Marcus countered.

“He was a singer and musician who got really popular a little after you disappeared.” Nahoa said, seeing her confusion. “And it is nice to meet you both, Miss Solaris, Miss Luna.”

“Such a polite young man. And yes, he was a rock and roll star.” Luna Fuega said with a grin.

“She hasn’t really been exposed to that yet.” Penny said, coming back. “Think Jazz but with vocals and you start to get an idea."

Solaris shrugged. “I’ll have to listen to it and see what I think. I do love the fidelity of the music now. It’s so clean and clear. Do you need assistance getting him to a station?”

"Station? What? Elvis has been dead for years." Marcus was confused, but then he was still catching his breath.

Solaris chuckled, “No I meant taking the ‘Stallion' to holding.”

"The way he's flopping, no." Luna shook her head, then nodded towards a police vehicle that was approaching, something between an armored bank truck and paddy wagon from the old days. "They can help me load him into the ECT. Then they’ll take him to super-crook holding where the idiot would have to be a special kind of stupid to keep fighting. We have this down to an art, nowadays. I can't imagine dealing with this sort of thing back in your day, before we had the tools and infrastructure."

Solaris smiled “Human sized foes like this weren’t too bad. Between Toth and I we could manage most people. It was when you got to monsters like Chimera things got a bit dicey.”

"Madre' di dios, Chimeria is that old?" Fuego Luna said, unconsciously crossing herself. The pissed off looking Stallion shockingly doing the same. Penny even flinched slightly at the name.

"Yeah, he's one of the Originals, but that's not common knowledge. But then the Chimera back then isn't what it... he is now." Penny said.

Solaris sighed “Is he still a drug addicted, power mad, idiot with a penchant for turning into large monsters? I once had to fight him, at a Yankees game, and he’d grown to eight, nine feet tall.”

Penny shook her head. "Worse. He's called the Living Catastrophe. Given a choice between a force three hurricane and him showing up, most cities would choose the hurricane."

"There'd be less death and property damage. I believe Haiti is still recovering from him appearing there three years ago."

"And the mutates." The large boy added.

“That sounds bad. Does he still revert to mostly human when his liver processes out all the chemicals?”

Penny made a 'kind of' motion. "If enough damage is done to him, when he's driven off, he seems to come back weaker, but his abilities are so changeable and destructive it’s hard to tell. He doesn't reset to anything approaching zero, I can tell you that."

"He also is... infectious?” Luna said, hesitating over the word. “You know the flawed formulas the rumors said the Reich played with back in your day? Or the cartels have in play sometimes. Think that, only crossed with rabies."

“Of course he is, he’s eaten enough zombies.” She sighed. “Can you get me a file on him? I’m sure at some point he’s going to want a rematch.”

Penny nodded. “I can do that, I’ll see if I can talk to Helen about getting you info on some of the bigger hitters in the field right now.”

Solaris nodded “It's getting to rush hour and I am not don’t feel like sitting forever in traffic. I’ve already seen that circle of hell in the city. Were you bringing your friend home?” She asked Marcus. "If so, hop in the bed and I'll bring you back for the car tomorrow.”

““In the bed?” Are we allowed to do that?” Marcus asked.

“Well one of you can take my seat, but someone has to go in the bed, you're not all going to fit in the cab of the truck” Solaris said rolling her eyes.

“You can take the seat, I'll ride in the bed, I used to do it on the beach all the time.” Thud said.

“Okay sounds good. Let's get out of here." The boys climbed into the car, with Penny getting in behind the wheel. "Not sure why I sat here, she's carrying us."

“Wait, what!” Marcus said, turning to Penny.”

"Fly safe. I'll see to Our Little Pony here." Luna waved.

Solaris smiled. “You, too.” She picked the truck up shifting to balance it over her head and took off in a stream of light. She loved flying and the early fall was perfect weather for it.

“Okay this is awesome.” Thud said, leaning his back against the cab, looking down at the ground, then up at the clouds.

"Yeah... cool... " Marcus swallowed. He wasn't quite ready to admit he was a little intimidated by heights and was now doubly glad he hadn’t gotten in the truck bed.