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Our Paranormal Chernobyl Crossfire turned to the PRIMUS agent standing by. "Can you radio in and somehow find out how Pender is doing? We need to find out what’s going on, but we need everyone’s help on this. Pender, Ed…" Crossfire shrugged before continuing. "All of us need to team up to solve this problem." It was clear that Jardine might not have shared Crossfire’s sentiment, but she nodded agreement nonetheless. "I’ll radio Cook County General for a status update. Excuse me," she said, and took a few steps away. Jonathan turned from the agent to watch Stranger walk towards them. He wondered what their next steps would be. He felt confused and disoriented since losing consciousness; whether that was the after-effects of being hit in the head or just a general sense of being left of center, he wasn’t sure. "We’re getting an update on Pender’s condition," Jonathan called to Theo, jerking a thumb at Jardine. "She’s at Cook County, same place I woke up at earlier. How’s Ed?" "He’s fucked," Stranger responded. "Forget about him. The next time you see him he’ll either be on the back of a milk carton or on the cover of Psychology Today. This whole thing is going to hell in a hand basket and we’ve got to figure out what’s happening before we lose more people." Stranger suddenly looked to his left, as if hearing something. "I’ll be back in just a sec, I have to get my stuff." He started walking towards the large black car parked across the street. "Odd place to keep your stuff," Jonathan thought to himself. He quickly wondered after what kind of stuff Stranger had. Shaking his head, he turned to Maggie. "So what do you think we should do next?" Goo was taken aback by the news about Ed and the cavalier way the others seemed to be handling it. Wasn't Ed part of the team? Shouldn't they all be worried about him? Then Goo remembered—Ed had hit Maggie. So, fuck him. "Yeah, Ma-a-aggie. Next?" Maggie was tapping the side of her visor with her finger nervously, obviously deep in thought. "Let’s find some privacy," she said, leading Crossfire and Goo away from the crowd, nearer to the PRIMUS helicopter. Stranger reappeared from behind the black car, a crud-covered, heavy-duty garbage bag full of lumpy objects slung over his back. "Pri-i-ivacy?" Goo asked. "Got it." Goo stretched above Maggie and Stranger’s heads, extended itself into a sort of an umbrella, and finally became a gummy dome around the couple. "Time is of the essence," she began. "We need to find our suspects quickly, lest we have more disasters like this one on hand." She frowned; Ed’s sudden insanity had made the mess worse, and though she hoped it was a temporary lapse, she felt much safer with him in the MCT, at least for the time being. One less problem to worry about in a day filled with them. "And let’s not forget that we also have a missing scientist who may be a suspect or a victim. We need to find him as soon as possible. Hopefully our friends haven’t been tipped off to our trackers, and we can use them to find more victims and hopefully their hunters." She paused. "If we find the Plastic People we need to hit them full force with everyone we’ve got. No stupidly holding back like I did last time. Let’s see if PRIMUS has anyone to spare, though I figure they have their hands full at the moment. We should talk to that consultant, at least, see if he has any insights." "What consultant?" asked the crimson archer. "There’s a tra-a-acker in that woman at hospital," Goo pointed out. Before anyone could answer either question, the chop of helicopter blades again filled the air, but with Goo over them no one could tell where it was coming from. Suddenly a gigantic, double-rotored helicopter appeared just above the roof of the schoolhouse, its shape visible even through the viscous Goo-Dome. The Goo-Dome retracted into an umbrella again, then into a tall form that was humanoid, give or take. It wasn’t a PRIMUS vehicle. It was dark green, almost black against the darkening sky, with the letters "SURVIVAL MECHANICS INC." in white capital letters across the side. It turned slowly above the street. The sound was thunderous, and the backblast whipped Maggie’s long hair behind her and rippled the surface of Goo’s body. "I think Maggie’s ‘consultant’ has arrived," Jonathan said. He raised a questioning eyebrow to her, not that anyone could tell under his white make-shift mask. The tail of the chopper opened and a ramp unhinged like a jaw, spilling ropes. A dozen white-uniformed PRIMUS agents rappelled to the street. A few agents fanned out around the site where JigSaw had fallen, weapons drawn; the rest were guiding equipment down from the vehicle. Steel cables lowered three car-sized boxes. When the boxes touched ground, the agents released the locks. The sides of the boxes fell open, revealing strange, gleaming equipment. Another figure was rappelling out of the helicopter. The rope swung in a wide arc that carried the man away from the boxes, toward Maggie and the group. When he was a dozen feet away but still well above the ground, metal stilts shot from his oversized boots and dug into the pavement. He let go of the rope, and the stilts slowly collapsed like a telescope. His unelevated height was three-foot-two, by Maggie’s estimation, and her estimates were usually accurate. Safely on the ground, the man mopped the sweat from his brow with a large handkerchief. He strode towards the group, a huge smile on his weathered face. He looked a lot like a Middle-Earth dwarf. He was barrel-chested, with a broad face and a nose that had been broken several times. He was bald, all the hair seemingly collected in the white mutton chops at his jaws. He wore a bulky vest festooned with pockets, thick canvas pants, and those huge boots with metal soles. The closer he got, the harder it was to tell his age. Wrinkles deeply creased his face. He was flushed and still sweating from the swing down from the chopper, but there were obvious liver spots in his forehead. His teeth were yellow from decades of smoking. He could have been anywhere from sixty to a hundred, and not even Maggie would hazard a guess at his age. Jonathan, though, knew the man had to be at least eighty. In his parents’ photo album there was a faded picture of this man, taken at some bar in a fancy club. He was standing on a step-ladder with his arms around Jonathan’s father and his Uncle Darius. The dwarf’s mutton chops were dark brown then. And Simon and Darius Blake were young men barely in their twenties. But this man definitely didn’t move like an octogenarian. Crossfire was starting to feel like destiny was tugging on the threads of the mystery, the tapestry weaving itself together regardless of his actions or anyone else’s. The dream he’d had back at the hospital came back to him then. There was something in it that tugged familiarly at him, tantalizing and frustrating at the same time. The dwarf knew his uncle, and Jonathan desperately wanted to know where Darius was. The little man’s gaze took in the motley crew: the hulking figure in the metal mask, the red-clad archer with a bandage for a mask, the translucent blob, and the young woman in shining armor. "Why, you must be Maggie Thorin!" the man shouted above the sound of the helicopter. "Ma’am, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so, you’re the prettiest thing in mithralite that I’ve ever seen!" He reached into his vest and handed her his card, then handed them to the rest of the group—holding it out to Goo to see what kind of limb or pod would take it. The card read: F.M. BUCK, President and CEO Goo declined to take the card. "Thanks, I’ll remember na-a-ame. "No pockets," it explained with a shrug. Goo—who had the feeling that it, too, had been around for some time—wondered if it had met Buck before. Well, that’s an interesting fellow, Maggie thought. Obviously keeps himself abreast of events in the metahuman field. He must be reasonably competent if PRIMUS calls him in over from… She looked down at the business card and frowned at the absence of an address. From wherever he’s from. And he complimented me, so he’s clearly a man of good taste, she added with a grin. "An eclectic list of skills, Mr. Buck," she said. "I take it you’ve been in this business for quite some time?" "You can take anything you want, mon cherie," Buck said, shouting over the noise, then he grinned. "But I’ve been in the biz since there was a biz. Now, who can give me the low-down on the pile of rocks covered in Elmer’s Glue?" Stranger looked over Maggie’s shoulder and read the card. "Yeah man. That pile of rocks is a walking death machine. It’s killed a few people and it almost killed me. It’s knocked out right now, but when it wakes up all of those rocks are going to form up again around this kinda energy core. Whatever you put it in better be super strong ‘cause that son of a bitch cut me in half." Buck looked down to the open flap of Stranger’s black shirt and the raw pink skin underneath. The grin was still on Buck’s face, but his eyes had a faraway look. Perhaps he was redesigning the Stronghold cell that would have to hold the man. "Oh yeah," Stranger said. "I think it’s crazy too, so good luck talking to it." "I think talking to it may be last on his list of priorities," Jonathan said. "There’s more to this story than you already know." He turned the card over in his hand. He wouldn’t normally have trusted the dwarf with much right off the hop, but any friend of his uncle’s and his father’s was worth knowing. Crossfire gave a Reader’s Digest version of the day’s events. "There’s a lot going on today, we were just trying to sort out our next actions. Not to mention an old friend of mine has gone missing in all of this. Darius Blake." Jonathan wanted to see what the little man’s reaction would be to his name-dropping. Buck squinted at the archer. "Old geezer? Kind of a cross between a Zen master and Fibber McGee? He owes me ten bucks!" He put away the card that Goo had declined, and came back up with a cigar. "Don’t worry, kid, he’ll turn up. Always does. Now I better get t’work. I got an hour to build a mini-Stronghold for all the metas that’ve been poppin’ up. ‘Course, most of ‘em ain’t breathin’, so it won’t be too hard." The man suddenly glanced at the school building, where the remains of maybe a dozen people still lay, and his face fell. PRIMUS had obviously filled him in. "Aw, shoot." He turned back to the group. "I didn’t mean to be flip, folks. My apologies especially, Ma’am." He glanced at Goo, as if trying to guess its gender. "Anyways, I’m just the first wave, ‘cause I was close. Half of PRIMUS is rolling into town, and Mark Forrester’s flying in personal. We’re taking this serious. You can contact me through PRIMUS if you need me." He pivoted on a heel and walked toward where his crew was setting up their equipment. "Agent Jardine!" he shouted to the pilot. "We need to talk!" The rest of his words were drowned out by the double-rotored Chinook helicopter, still hovering over the street. Jonathan turned to everyone else. "PRIMUS is heading into town in force. If they are involved, then who do we trust when they show up?" The question was rhetorical, followed quickly with the archer’s own answer. "Pender may be the only one we can trust. I think we all need to talk to her. It would help if we’ve got everyone back together, including Q-Ball." "One other thing, this Darius Blake I mentioned. Some of you may remember I was with an old guy earlier today. Normally, I’m just fighting drug lords in New York. Blake is the sole reason I’m here at all." Jonathan then proceeded to tell the others about the deaths of Simon and Madeline Blake, leaving out the fact that they were also his parents. "Darius is Simon Blake’s brother. We’re here because the murderer is in Chicago. If I find Darius Blake, chances are likely I’ll find the killer too. If you’re with me, you will as well." "The killer’s name is Woodbridge. He’s a young looking kid in a suit with a red tie. Don’t let the age fool you. He’s extremely powerful. He’s with a young lady named Purity who seems to be a martial artist and an old guy I nothing about. Just wanted to give you all the head’s up. I’ll help with all of this of course, but I’ve got to find Darius Blake as well." "That’s the guy I saw at the hospital!" Stranger exclaimed. " I was going to get the MRI when I saw Darius dressed up like a doctor going down a set of stairs. I didn’t have time to talk, so I’m not sure what he was doing there. I also saw those guys you were on the roof of the museum with, and they were getting a tour of the hospital. I think we need to get back there as ASAP to check out what’s going on and follow up on what Goo said about the tracker in the woman without a tongue. You know, set a trap or something. I mean it might be too obvious, but what better place to look for robot doctors then a hospital?" "Trap. Like it," Goo said in an approving tone. "Get ‘em!" "The question is, how are going to get there?" Goo extended a periscope-like thing from the top of its head and looked around. "Acting Pender came here, so-o-omehow," Goo continued. "We use her car? Acting Pender isn’t using it." Maggie looked horrified. "God no. We are NOT stealing anything, and especially not PRIMUS’ stuff. We can ask the policemen to give us a lift—I think we can trust them, much more than most of PRIMUS, anyway. In fact, I think we should let Hammersmith in on our plans." Maggie smirked. "Or we can just ask PRIMUS to let us check on Pender and they’ll lift us to the hospital. I’d like to get ahold of Q-Ball, too—he has awesome surveillance capabilities in that thing." "But, Ma-a-aggie," Goo objected, extending a tendril toward a Lincoln Towncar that looked like the kind of thing Pender would be driving. "Acting Pender wouldn’t mind. And besi-i-ides…" Goo, who had just tapped the Towncar’s touchpad key panel, was interrupted. "STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!" the car announced. "IF YOU DO NOT STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR, AN ALARM WILL SOUND, AND THE POLICE WILL BE SUMMONED! "REPEAT: STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!" "Goo", Maggie said calmly. "Move away from the car." "Ack!" Goo blurted. "STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!" the car repeated. In a panic, Goo tapped a code into the touchpad. 44909. "IF YOU DO NOT STEP AWAY FROM THE—bleEP BLoop. Disarmed," the car concluded. Goo retracted its tendril, snaking it back from the car and pulling it into the mass of its body. "Sorry, Ma-a-aggie," Goo apologized. "Nice of Pender to give you the code there, Goo," Stranger said, nodding his head. Then he seemed to shake himself. "Why the hell would she do that?" he shouted. "What are you, some kinda car jacker or somethin'? How did you get that code?" Maggie quirked an eyebrow. "How did you know what the code was?" He can’t have punched that right randomly. The odds are one in a hundred thousand. Goo looked at Maggie. Then looked at the car. Then Goo extended the guilty tendril and looked at that. "I," Goo began. Goo paused. Thought. Tried to remember. The only thing that came to mind was something about Barbra Streisand. Which made no sense. Goo looked Maggie in the eye. "No idea," it said. There’s a PRIMUS agent in him, Maggie thought. Maybe he knew the code to Pender’s car. Or maybe it’s not Pender’s car, and it belongs to another of those who make him up. She shuddered, lightly. Weird. "I still think we shouldn’t take that car," she said. "Let’s ask the cops to drive us." Then Goo trailed off into thought. Don’t tell me… Don’t tell me… In one giant, step, Goo swooped its body next to the car door. Acting as if it were moved by hidden strings, it opened the door. Goo dropped into the driver’s seat of the Towncar, assuming a very humanoid form. Dialing a code into the steering column keypad—42442—Goo started the engine. Its right-hand pseudopod flicked on the CD player, selecting a Streisand track. Again, the motion seemed puppet-like. Barbra sang.
Goo’s left pseudopod slapped a small stud near the visor. A pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses dropped down. Goo deftly caught them and placed then onto the appropriate area of its headlike structure. Barbra continued.
Goo threw back its head and joined in the song.
Goo struck the stop button on the CD player. Peering over its Ray-Bans at the other heroes, Goo spoke. "This," it said. "Is my car." Maggie stifled a laugh. "I’m convinced," she said. "And now we’ll know at least part of who you are." She tuned her radio to the police band. "Dispatch? This is Maggie Thorin speaking. Could you give me information on a license plate? Illinois, BLU RJA." Goo heard Maggie’s voice come faintly from a speaker somewhere in the Lincoln’s dash. There was a pause. "Get off this frequency, Ma’am," a female voice said brusquely. Goo heard that as well. "Interfering with police communications is a felony offense." "What are you two talking about?" Stranger asked. "How can this be Goo’s car? It was parked here when I arrived and I’m pretty sure that Pender and Ed drove here in it." She went to the passenger side and opened the door. "Mind if I rummage a bit?" Barely leaving time for Goo to reply, she clicked the glove box open. She started looking for car registration, insurance papers, and other clues. Goo extended its dark-spectacled head into the passenger seat to see what Maggie might find. She found: One box of ammo, .357 magnum hollow point Half a roll of Mentos breath mints ("The Fresh Maker") One leather hard-shell RayBans sunglasses case One small black book One takeout menu for the India Pavilion restaurant One white business envelope One Lincoln Towncar owner’s manual One PRIMUS parking tag Maggie flipped through the black book. It seemed to be a log of mileage and gas receipts, with several loose gas station receipts tucked in the pages. In the envelope were the registration and insurance papers, made out to PRIMUS, Chicago Office. No help there. "Guess we’ll have to ask the PRIMUS office to tell us," Maggie said. "PRI-I-IMUS will know?" Goo asked. "Then ask Ja-a-ardine." Goo extended a tentacle out of the window and slithered it toward Jardine. "Ja-a-rdine," Goo asked, coalescing the tip of the tentacle into a rough face. "Whose car is this?" The agent, deep in conversation with F.M. Buck, held up a hand, not taking her eyes off the short old man. "Once we find out whose car it is, then can we please get going to the hospital?" Crossfire’s voice was anxious. His mind wondered what his uncle was up to; if Woodbridge was involved it might not be good. "Those other people Stranger saw at the hospital are dangerous!" Goo’s larger, sunglassed head spoke to Crossfire. "Speaking dangerous," Goo said. "Pellet in woman. Someone told doctors remove, ri-i-ight? "Ri-i-ight?" "I’m not sure," Maggie said. "It may not be important anymore, if it’s done releasing its chemicals, but we’d best make sure." She looked at Goo in the sunglasses. "You ought to ask agent Jardine to tell them to make sure." "Ahem," Goo’s smaller head said. "What is it already?" Jardine said, turning. "Hey! That’s SA Pirhu’s car! Get out of there." Both of Goo’s jaws dropped. "Silver Avenger," Goo said, in the car. "She says this… SA Pirhu’s car. "Wo-o-o-ow." Goo seemed somewhat lost in a state of amazement. "Whoa," said Maggie, similarly shocked. "Um," Goo said through its smaller head. "Ja-a-ardine. It’s okay to be in car." Goo was speaking more slowly and deliberately. "Could you come to car for moment?" The agent walked toward them, her hand resting beside her holster. "Wait a minute," Stranger said to Jardine. "Who else besides this Pirhu guy would know the security codes for this car?" Maggie looked at him oddly and couldn’t suppress a smirk. "Nobody." "No-o-obody," Goo repeated softly. "Nobody," Jardine said firmly. "You have to have the keys or the codes, and only Raj has the codes." Goo was trying to sort through its thoughts. Which wasn’t easy. Still, things actually made a little more sense now. The vague memories of being in uniform. Snapping orders at Jardine. Knowing Jardine’s name. Goo’s half-hearted defense of PRIMUS. Barbra. Then one thought came to the fore. "Acting Pender’s gonna be pissed," Goo observed. "She’s not the only one," Jardine said. "SA Pirhu is very particular about his car. Please step out of the vehicle." Goo retracted the smaller head, tendril and all, into its mass. "Agent Jardine," Goo said, looking at the agent through its sunglasses. "It’s o-o-okay. "I’m SA Pirhu." The familiar way the creature looked at her gave her pause. For about a nanosecond. "Of course you are, sir." Crossfire stared at the creature. A few minutes ago, Goo had spoken to Jonathan like she was his grandmother. That didn’t jive with her knowing the car codes, but being SA Pirhu did. Whatever changes the pellet had caused may have been the most dramatic seen yet. If they could ever understand what the full extent of the changes were. But if the Silver Avenger was involved in it all, then the Chicago PRIMUS office was too. "Ja-a-ardine," Goo said. "Need to tell hospital. Woman? Tongue cut out? Has two of these pellets. Doctors should remo-o-ove." "I’ll second that, Jardine," Crossfire said. "Stranger also said he saw some people at the hospital earlier today. Metas that are suspected killers, metas I came to Chicago to get. We’ve got to get over there now." "Then I suggest you hurry," she said evenly. "But you’re not taking the SA’s car. I’ll call over to the hospital as soon as you’re on your way." "No, re-ea-ally, Jardine," Goo protested. "Okay for me to drive car. It’s me. My car." Goo strained to remember. Something. Anything that it could use to prove to Jardine that it was, at least in part, SA Pirhu. Maybe she had some secret that Pirhu would know. Or a tattoo! Maybe they’d even dated! No, that didn’t feel right at all. Nothing came to mind. "I’m of the opinion that one of the people who make up Goo is, indeed, Silver Avenger Raj Pirhu," said Maggie. "It certainly fits the available data, and Goo would not have guessed both codes on the first try—that’s a one in ten billion chance." She looked sideways at Goo and added, "On the other hand, I don’t think you should be driving anything just yet, Goo. There’s no telling what a combination of multiple driving styles might do to your driving. And PRIMUS is probably going to want to investigate this whole thing a bit more before they let you drive their car." "But, Ma-a-aggie. Ja-a-ardine," Goo protested. "Not fair. My car. It’s… I’m…" Goo huffed. "O-o-okay. Fine." Then it added, quietly, "But keeping the sunglasses." Goo stared at the combination pad on the steering column. How does this thing switch off, anyway? Worst case, yank the ignition wires. But it didn’t want to damage the car. Ah. Goo spotted the off button, and pressed with one tendril. The quietly purring engine went silent. Stepping out of the car, Goo said, "Get going, team. Lives to save." Jonathan agreed with that one, but so far the team had stood there stumbling. "I don’t care if we take a cab, but let’s get going." He turned his attention to Magnitude. "Can you radio this Q-Ball character? From what you said, he can get us all to Cook County quickly." Maggie nodded and hit the radio after making sure it was back on the frequency she and Q-Ball were using earlier. "Q-Ball, this is Magnitude. Please come in." "I’m here, Maggie." DuFord sounded a bit shaky. "I’m about a quarter mile east of you." "Is something wrong?" Maggie asked. "How’s Pender?" "Wrong? Everything’s wrong! Pender may be dead. The paramedics took her inside, but I—" The mic cut out. A long moment later DuFord came back on. His voice still ragged. "I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell. I think she was breathing. I couldn’t tell." "Relax, Q-Ball", Maggie soothed. "You did everything you could, and medical science is pretty miraculous these days. She was breathing, you got her there in the Golden Hour, her odds are better than eighty percent. Now if you could, we need transportation over to the hospital," Maggie requested. "I’d like to see Pender, and we need to have the doctors extract the pellets from the pregnant woman." "Right. I can do that." Maggie heard him exhale. "But—where is Ed?" "Ed…" Maggie paused, frowned, and continued. "Ed has been taken away by PRIMUS in an MCT van. I figure he’ll have shrinks all over him trying to figure out what happened very soon. I don’t think he’s going to be a factor in this case anymore." "Good." A whirring noise started up in the background. "I’m coming for you," DuFord said. "I can’t get to the street with that helicopter overhead—and I don’t particularly want to explain to F.M. Buck what I’m doing in the Q-ship. Can you get to the roof of the building? Not the school house, the one across the street. I’ll put the ramp out there. See you in… twenty seconds." Maggie turned to the group and pointed to the roof of the building. "He’s going to pick up us there," she announced. I wonder what his history with Buck is? And does that make a link with Crossfire? He seemed to know Buck as well…. "Excellent," Crossfire said. "But uh, would somebody mind giving me a lift?" The scarlet archer shrugged his shoulders. "I’m out of cable arrows." "Sure thing man, climb on," Stranger said. He squatted in front of Crossfire, inviting him to climb on for a piggy back ride. "It’s a meta thing, right?" Jonathan climbed on, getting a good grip on Stranger’s shoulders. "Something tells me I won’t be that heavy for you." "Yeah, whatever." Stranger put his arm around his back and secured Crossfire. "All set? Good. Let’s away." He took a couple of steps towards the building and jumped. A few seconds later they landed on the roof of the building, and he set Crossfire down. The archer went to the ledge and looked down. On the ground, Goo took one last look at the Lincoln, sighed, then began to Slinky its way up the building. "So what do think we should do if we see those guys I saw at the hospital again?" Stranger asked Crossfire as they waited. "That’s a good question." Crossfire turned away from the ledge. "First off, I know the young guy is a killer. Worse, he’s a zealot. Therefore, his killing is justifiable. He has a reason, and whatever it is, he has his troupe believing in it just as fiercely. Woodbridge is in a position of power and influence; how or in what way I don’t know. That makes him even more dangerous." "He’s mixed up in all of this, so I guess all of your actions will be based on how and why he is involved. He’s already hurt people very dear to me, and he may have hurt Darius Blake as well. My plan is simple." Crossfire looked Stranger hard in the eyes. "I’m going to hurt him back." "That’s fine by me," Stranger said. "Maybe we should—" He was interrupted by a loud SHLORT as Goo heaved itself over the top of the roof. Maggie touched down in a blaze of jets beside it. The chopblast from the helicopter sent her long hair whipping past her face. Q-Ball became visible a moment later, rising like a moon from a building a block away. It glided silently to the roof and hovered a few feet above it. The door slid open and the ramp extended. "WATCH YOUR STEP," Q-Ball’s electronic voice said. "IT’S A BIT SLIPPERY." The group went inside. The place smelled like Lake Michigan, and the decks were wet. DuFord was stationed at his elevated pilot’s seat. "MY APOLOGIES. I HAD TO DO A QUICK CLEANUP. TO THE HOSPITAL THEN." |