That Strange Blonde Girl Part 5


    Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is our dispatch center,”  the man who invited her to the unnamed team guided.

    As he said that, he led Lara Night down a narrow white painted hallway.  They passed a few doors along the way, and none of them were locked, like the team trusted each other implicitly.  They were labeled things like Locker Room and Office, and there were bathrooms.

    Along the way, she found out that he took the nickname Ice Man, because he could make ice as well as water, and thought it sounded cooler.  And he meant that as a pun.

    The dispatch center was a small glass enclosed room with a single door, that looked like a radio station’s broadcast booth.  It was stocked with a rack of police scanners, and a few computers that monitored various things.  And then, of course, a headset and radio were used to contact the team members.  One of the team members was in there, wearing the headset around her neck and watching the computer screens.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Did you think of a nickname yet?”  he asked Lara.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I dunno.  Lightning Girl or something, I guess.”  She shrugged, not really caring what anyone called her.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Lightning Girl it is.  You can change it later, if you wish.”

    She shrugged again.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re our youngest member, you know,”  he noted.  “I um, better mention that to a couple of our members.  They might not know you’re underage.”

    Lara stopped walking.  “What difference does that make?”

    He smiled sheepishly.  “It’s a team, and like any organization with several anonymous people in it--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Spit it out.”  she urged him.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“A couple of the guys might...hit on you,”  he admitted quietly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Lame.  But I can handle it.”  she rolled her eyes.  “Don’t hurt yourself trying to protect me.”

    Lara walked ahead a little bit, and then looked back.  Ice Man had stopped, and looked a little beaten - his bright, enthusiastic eyes had become more drained.  She knew why - since her arrival, he’d done nothing but try to be friendly, and maybe he didn’t know how, but he was trying.  And she had been treating him like dirt.

    She turned and headed back to him.  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.  It was kind of mean.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, it’s okay,”  he tried to deflect her apology.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, really,”  she continued on.  “You’re just trying to be nice, and helpful.  It’s not your fault I just had a horrible couple of days.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Can...can I ask what happened?”  he asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You just did,”  she pointed out with a smirk.  “My parents broke up, my dad was cheating.  I was the one who kicked him out.  Got into a fight at school, and got suspended, which is why I’m here.”

    Ice Man nodded.  “I guess we’ll wrap up this tour, and let you go to have some time to yourself.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, it’s cool.”  She shrugged.  “I...don’t really have anyone else to talk to.  It’s either hang out here, or go home and watch TV.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s...kind of over anyway,”  he pointed out.  “That last door is an emergency exit.  And...sorry about the locked door.  I learned to do that after our first prospect panicked and ran straight out before I could finish.”

    The team member in the dispatch room banged on the window to get their attention.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s Rapture,”  Ice Man said.  “She has a mental hypnosis power.”

    The door connecting that room with the hallway opened.  “We have a hit,”  Rapture said.

    Ice Man looked at Lara.  “Ready for your first time out?”

    
---


    Sometimes, it’s easy for peer pressure to convince you that you’re ready for something, when you’re really not.

    Ice Man told Lara Night that she was going to be powerful; and Lara took that advice to heart.  And she may have been right to - but not at that particular time.  And that wasn’t the only source of the problems she encountered her first time ‘in the field’ as a superhero.

    She, Ice Man, and Rapture - the only three team members available that quickly - drove downtown in a white vehicle that was some sort of cross between a small bus and a fire engine.  It was powerful, which got them there quickly.  It had red emergency lights and sirens.  But inside, it had lots of room for people, but not much else.  Ice Man did the driving, because Rapture was trying to concentrate on hearing the police dispatch on the radio.

    Lara was not particularly impressed with the uniform she was asked to put on, quickly, just before they went outside to board the bus.  It was mostly white, body hugging fabric that slipped on easily, because it had to be put on quickly.  The boots were white too, and somewhat inflexible.  The outfit made Lara feel self-conscious since she usually wore looser and more comfortable clothing.  She felt like she left home in her pajamas, and everyone was staring at her.  

    Accenting the uniform was a silver belt and a silver stripe down the center of the boots.  Each team member had their own color, she was told.  Ice Man had blue boot stripes and belt, and Rapture had pink.  Lara didn’t really like her accent color, though she though the shape of the belt and the boot stripe was kind of cool.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Don’t you feel weird dressed like this?”  Lara whispered to Rapture.

    Rapture shrugged, and tried to ignore her, since she was concentrating on the radio.

    From what Lara overheard on the radio, they were on their way to some sort of hostage situation - a large bank where someone had gone over the edge and decided to hold all the employees hostage at gunpoint.  The police had set up a perimeter outside, and they had been notified that the super-group had been called.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Isn’t this usually a job for a negotiator, or SWAT?”  Lara asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“The gun he’s using is some sort of gauss gun he invented,”  Rapture briefed her.  “It pretty much electrocutes someone to death.  The cops didn’t know what to do to stop it, so they called us.”

    Lara had more questions, but she didn’t have time, because they had already arrived at the scene.  She got her first rude awakening, learning that things happen really fast in these situations.

    The hostage-taker had apparently threatened to kill one hostage every half hour, and he had just paraded a female employee in a suit outside, pointing the gauss gun at her.  The gun looked like a rifle with wires all over it.  He was wearing a camouflage military uniform of some sort, only an odd blue color, like he had it made himself.

    Without really thinking, Lara jumped off the bus before it really came to a complete stop.  She already knew what to do, even though her teammates didn’t know what she was doing.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Wait!”  she yelled at the hostage taker.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Stay back!”  he replied angrily, widening his stance in case she was up to something.  “Or this girl gets it!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Take me hostage instead,”  Lara suggested, moving closer.  “I’m only sixteen.  The police won’t let me die.”

    He thought for a few seconds as Lara moved closer.  Then he pushed the suited woman to the ground, who shrieked, and then grabbed Lara by the hair.

    That was the second lesson Lara learned quickly.  That there was no code of conduct for bad guys, they just did whatever they wanted until they were killed or arrested.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is bad,”  Ice Man shook his head.  “This is really bad.  Electricity from that gun, and all I have is ice and water.  And Lara got herself captured.”

    Rapture suggested, “I might be able to force a mind change on him, but he has to calm down first.  His brain is all a jumble, and...uh-oh.  He’s also a misogynist.  That explains the hair pulling and threatening females with execution.”

    Ice Man frowned at her.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“But,”  she added with a smirk, “This girl of yours is clever.  She has a plan.”

    The hostage taker pushed Lara to her knees, and pointed the gun at her head.  “See?  You’re about to lose one of your teen super-heroes if you don’t get me a helicopter in ten minutes!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You ass, you pulled my hair!”  Lara protested.  “That wasn’t even necessary!”

    Then came lesson number three - hostage takers didn’t take well to being insulted.  And lesson four - they don’t always shoot out of retaliation.  They had other ways to punish loudmouth heroes.

    Lara had never really been touched by anyone short of being grabbed by the arm at school, or shoved out of the way via her shoulder.  So she found it extremely invasive when this stranger squeezed his arm hard across her neck, and pulled her back against his chest, so his face was over her shoulder.

    Things happened really fast.  And Lara wasn’t used to it, since she had never been on a super team before, so she panicked.

    First, she followed her human nature and tried to fight back.  She pushed his face away, and pried at his arm, and yelled, “Let go of me!”

    When that didn’t work, because he was several times stronger, she released a lot of electrical energy all around her.  Way too much electrical energy.

    She smelled burning flesh, and felt the man’s grip tighten and first, but then loosen.  She felt him fall against her back, and then she had barely a second to crawl away before she would have become trapped beneath his smoldering body.

    Lara then turned around.  The man the police, and her super team, were trying to take into custody for mental evaluation, was reduced to charcoal.  He was now dead.

    
---
    

    Lara simply stared straight ahead the entire drive back to the nameless clubhouse building for the nameless team, on the nameless bus.  She hid in the last row of seats, and wished she was nameless, too.

    She didn’t cry, but she wasn’t sure why.  Lara wanted to, really, but she didn’t feel like she had the strength or the tears left after the problems at home and school.  That worried her a little bit, she wondered if she was becoming aloof, or simply losing her mind or losing touch with reality.

    Her new teammates weren’t much help.  They sat further up on the bus, and didn’t speak to her.  They whispered to each other, though because Lara sat practically on top of the engine, she couldn’t hear what they said above the noise.  It reminded her a lot of being in school, watching people talk and not really knowing about what.

    Finally, the bus stopped.  Ice Man was waiting, now that he was no longer driving, between Lara and the exit.  He obviously wanted to talk to her.

    She stood, and walked toward the front of the bus, sat down in the front row, and looked at the floor.  Ice Man stood in the aisle, and Rapture was just plain blocking the door.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’ve never really had anyone kill a suspect on their first time out before,”  Ice Man said.  “I’m not sure what to say.”

    Lara just shrugged, and continued looking down.  She wanted to say something, but she didn’t feel like she had the strength.  She wanted to quit the team and walk out.  Or hoped that they would only fire her, instead of sending her to jail.  She couldn’t imagine her life getting any worse than that moment.

    Rapture walked past Ice Man, kneeled beside where Lara was sitting, and hugged her.  “I can see how you feel in your eyes, Lara, I don’t need to be psychic.  We’re a family, okay?  A dysfunctional, nameless family.  You’ll learn, we look out for each other.”

    Lara nodded once, but still didn’t have the strength to speak.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I also know this is too much for you right now,”  Rapture went on, after releasing Lara from the hug.  “Take some time for yourself.  Think about what you want to do.  We’ll wait for you.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t really know,”  the blonde finally replied sadly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t always say the right thing,”  Ice Man chimed in, “But the way I see it, you have two choices right now.  You can walk away from this, and pretend it never happened--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Won’t the police put me in jail?”  Lara asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“One of the benefits of operating anonymously,”  he replied, “It protects us from prosecution.  Otherwise every single person we take down would sue.”

    Lara nodded quietly.  She wondered if she deserved so much leniency.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“As I was saying, you can walk away and pretend it never happened,”  he continued, “Or you can redeem yourself.”

    She looked up at that.

    Ice Man smiled the way he did so often.  “Doing this, you’re bound to do something awful.  Sometimes more than once.  The best part about this sort of work is you get a lot of chances to pay it back.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll never pay it back,”  she whispered with a sigh.

    Rapture snorted.  “Why do you think I still do this?” she asked.  “Cause I look hot in this costume?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You did something this bad?”  Lara asked.

    There was a slight nod.  “Not quite so early on, but yeah.  I’ll never pay it back, either.  But I’ll keep trying to.  The difference between us and the bad guys is we want to pay it back.”

    Lara nodded.  She would have to think about that.  She had a lot to think about.


TO BE CONTINUED
    


-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2012 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Chronicles of a New World and all characters therein are property of 
--    Strike Two and Jason Froikin.