Qarath mimicked the human nod, "This should be very interesting. I am excited to have the opportunity to research this."
Warden Jamis led the group back out of the facility. Diva mentioned during the walk that she would drop off Qarath, 'swing by' home, and then come back to pick up Chrome and me. Apparently, Chrome and Garrick's work period for the day had ended while we were with the red humanoids.
I was left outside the building with Black Tiger, who asked, "So, how's the research going so far?"
"At this point we are primarily gathering data, or attempting to of gifted we come across. Would you be willing to be scanned to add to our research data? I had been hoping for more scans in the facility here."
"Sure."
It only took a minute to scan the city defender - he stayed with me until the Chrome female left the facility. He said goodbye to her and rode off on his two-wheeled vehicle.
Then the metal woman and I waited for Diva to return....
Chapter 13 - Really?
Diva's Viewpoint
I flew Qarath to his plane quickly, but he had to direct me to it. He pestered me along the way for details on how I flew. I felt bad that I couldn't give him much more than "I jump in the air and think like my flying is a car, and just shift gears to speed up or slow down."
He had no idea what shifting gears meant, and we didn't have the time to discuss cars during the short flight - thank goodness. I knew how to drive one, not all the stuff that was underneath it - except maybe that you filled it with gas and got a reminder from the garage to go in and have them change the oil once in a while.
After dropping off the pointy-eared alien at their nearly invisible ship I flew home to put on sandals, pick up my phone and my H.E.R.O. ID. It worked as a charge card, so it would let me buy some wine on the way to Psystar's place.
I felt less rushed on the way back to the Metrocity Jail to pick up the other two, and hoped that spending some time with the girls would pick up my mood after being slammed by my agent.
As I flew down to the Jail parking lot, I saw Chrome and Tiriffa standing together waiting for me. I flew down and made my typical bouncy landing.
I said, "Hi again."
Chrome said, "Hi - thanks for inviting me. Today's my first day, well, out of a cell - is there any chance you could fly past my house so I can pick up some clothes?"
"Sure - you just changed too, right?"
"Yeah, last Saturday I guess. I woke up in the hospital days later."
"Me too."
Tiriffa asked, "Were your changes painful? Everyone I know was affected by the Dark at birth, although I have heard of others changing spontaneously in space."
Chrome nodded, "It was unbelievably painful. I barely remember the change. My body felt like it was on fire, muscles tearing, ugh."
I said, "Me too. It really hurt - there was so much blood, too. My skin tore, it was just ucky."
Chrome said, "It wasn't pleasant at all. I know that I went unconscious fairly quickly."
"You got taller too?"
"I did - taller, wider, more muscle, and then the metal...."
I nodded and changed the topic, "Oh, yes, well ... shall we go?"
I motioned for them to come up to me and held them against me, leaped up and flew us in that direction. At least this time Chrome wasn't wrestling me to the ground or beating me up.
Since we were coming from the south side of the city, I curved slightly east to swing closer to the skyscrapers in the central area of the city to provide something more interesting to look at. Fortunately, neither of them was afraid of heights, and both were very excited to see the city from above.
We were early anyway, so I took my time bringing us past the pretty buildings. Once past them I sped up to find Chrome's house. I'd been there just half a week ago, when I responded to a disturbance at her house - or so I thought. I'd gone in and mistaken her metal body for a robot in the midst of destroying the house. We fought, ending the fight with her getting me in some kind of wrestling move where I couldn't move. That was when the jerk Psycom had come in and taken a picture while she held me spread-eagled from behind.
I still need to see if he posted that on the web....
I landed us in the driveway, loosening my grip on Chrome because I knew how unbelievably tough she was. I wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt Tiriffa - I had no idea how strong or agile she was.
Chrome's feet hit the ground with a massive thud and she bounced up and away from me. I was still bouncing to a degree myself and couldn't catch her. She twisted and bounced on her metal butt several times on the driveway - she even had a metallic ring each time she hit the ground.
I made sure Tiriffa was safe on the ground before releasing her and walking over to Chrome. The metal woman was laughing.
I asked, "Are you okay?"
Chrome replied, "Oh yeah. It's just funny that even my butt bounces."
"You're a hard ass, Chrome."
She laughed even harder. It made me wonder why she didn't have a robotic laugh. She still looked a lot like a robot to me, but in her guard uniform only her hands and face were visible.
I held out my hand to her, she took it and I pulled her to her feet.
I said, "I need to find a liquor place around here on my phone - how about you go in grab your stuff while I do that?"
I didn't want to mention my trepidation at entering her house. She was bound to have bad memories just from the big holes in so many walls from our fight.
She nodded and rushed into the house. I heard her thumping around a few times, it made me question how much she weighed to hear her walk or run from outside.
I started doing a search on my map app for liquor stores when Tiriffa interrupted me.
She asked, "So ... these are typical dwellings for humans?"
"Yup. Most families either have a house or an apartment."
"This is not very space efficient."
"No, I suppose not, but everyone likes to have space of their own."
"What are the cables leading into the building?"
"Uhh ... stuff? I guess your TV and electricity. I'm not sure what else...."
"Electricity is sent via cables to every building?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Interesting."
"How do you guys do it?"
"Each building commonly has its own power generation device. Some devices use broadcast power."
"What's that?"
"A form of radiation is sent out, absorbed by the device, which is then used to power it."
"Really? That sounds a lot like science fiction."
"Is my definition of science fiction incorrect? Is it not media often about other planets and space travel?"
"Uhh, yeah."
"Would that not apply to me?"
"Oh ... yes, yes it would. Never mind what I said."
"You are an interesting being, Diva."
"You too, Tiriffa. You sure look different."
"What is it you seek on your communication device?"
"A place to buy wine nearby."
"Wine is something you drink, correct?"
"Right. It's a good thing to bring to a social event."
"What will we do at this social event?"
"Eat, drink, sit around and chat."
"Ah, this should be interesting then."
"I hope so. Silverlash is really cool on TV - I'd love to be as popular as she is."
I saw Tiriffa wave - I glanced behind me and saw the woman across the street grab her shades and yank them closed. I smiled. The lady hadn't seemed overly happy to see Chrome the last time I'd been here, and she was probably even angrier seeing a blue woman standing around across the street now.
After a few minutes, Chrome came out with a duffle bag and a plastic bag. She'd changed into sweats, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes, but the clothes were made for someone much smaller.
I asked, "What else do you have?"
"Snacks. We might as well eat them."
"Oh, nice. You ready?"
"Yup."
I pulled the pair against me again, leaped up and flew us to the place my phone directed me. With a less eventful, although still bumpy landing we stopped outside the store.
Chrome said, "I better stay out here with this stuff."
"Okay - did you want to see what a store looks like, Tiriffa?"
The blue alien replied, "Certainly."
We walked inside; I glanced around and headed over to the wine section. I pointed out some of the types of wine and when you would want to drink them to Tiriffa. Then I picked up a box and put six bottles in it for our group. At worst, we'd have extra for the next gathering.
I glanced to the right as a man entered. He'd just finished sliding a mask over his head.
Really? Some guy decides to rob the place right in front of me? Man, it's like Metrocity is a haven for criminals.
I set the box down on the counter, along with my phone and ID. The guy pulled a gun out and aimed at the register, glanced at me, and then at Tiriffa. His eyes got big as he shifted the gun to the left toward Tiriffa.
I grabbed Tiriffa's dress and yanked her toward me as I moved in front of her. The guy corrected his aim and shot the gun directly at me. The first shot hit me in the chest.
I kept my hand in front of Tiriffa's chest to stop her momentum so she wouldn't fly into the counter. It gave the guy time to fire a second shot, which hit my left cheek, stopped and the bullet fell to the ground.
I looked back toward the gunman, released Tiriffa behind me and walked up to the gunman. His eyes were huge as he shot the rest of the bullets in the gun into my chest. His eyes had locked onto my own, and I'd known that he was no longer aiming at Tiriffa.
I grabbed the gun and crushed it in my hand. The outer door was yanked off its hinges as Chrome tried to rush into the building. I glanced back at Tiriffa - she was on one knee, protecting her satchel with her body.
The robber looked behind him toward the shattering door as I grabbed his shirt and pulled him to me.
He said, "I give up! I give up!"
I walked him over to the counter with me and grabbed my phone. I saw him lift his right arm a bit and look at the broken gun as though he was going to hit me with it.
I said, "Oh no you aren't."
He looked at the gun for a moment, looked at me, back at the gun, and then dropped it. I kept my right hand wrapped in his shirt as I used the left to request a normal paddy wagon and to call in for a new event.
Chrome set the door against the outside of the building. "Sorry! Sorry! Didn't mean to do that. I shouldn't have wandered around the building; I might have been able to stop him outside."
I looked at the person working at the counter, "Hey, could you ring that up while we wait for the H.E.R.O. agent?"
The guy looked at me and nodded. "Sure. Sure. This is really cool. Is this a real H.E.R.O. ID card?"
I nodded, "Of course it is."
He looked at the card and then whispered, "Diva...."
Then he looked up at me, almost in awe. I had a warm fuzzy feeling all of a sudden and grinned.
"Sorry I'm not wearing my costume, I didn't plan on being at a crime...."
"I'm glad you're here. Are you all right?"
"Sure. The bullets are all on the floor now."
The police beat the H.E.R.O. agent to the scene, so we chatted with a pair of officers for a while. They were kind enough to cuff the criminal so I didn't have to hold him the entire time.
After a while, Agent Carson of H.E.R.O. arrived. He stared at Chrome and me for a few seconds before beginning his questioning. Everyone gave odd looks at Tiriffa, but we didn't offer up any information, and she spoke English extremely well, so she was able to answer the questions about what had occurred as well or better than I was.
Finally, we were able to leave. I had Tiriffa hold the box of wine, since she didn't have to use her hands to hold her satchel. Then I leaped up and flew us to Psystar's home. The delays caused by waiting for Agent Carson put us right on time for the gathering.
Chapter 14 - Good Times
Psystar's Viewpoint
The boys were extremely excited to have been flown by Diva. Seeing the visuals from their minds told me exactly why as well. I smiled - it didn't surprise me any more. I'd caught so many random thoughts and images from people wandering the halls just at the University of Metrocity that it didn't seem like much would surprise me any more. A lot of things humored me now, though.
My afternoon class with Professor Gently went fairly well. I had some loud, unusual thoughts strike me every now and then. When I finally pushed back Megan's mindview from filling my entire vision I found a guy and girl on either side of me sitting and staring at my eyes.
Apparently, they liked the way the schlera - the white of the eye - glowed golden from behind, backlighting my amethyst iris. I talked with them for a few minutes, but then let them know I had to pay attention to class and went back to my connection with Megan.
The special class session to analyze me came after that. That session was slightly easier as the Dean's group and some of the professors didn't come. Quite a few professors did, however - the immediate finding of the odd structures in my blood interested everyone.
We spent a few minutes analyzing the chilled samples again, but we found the structures either dead or somehow inactive in the blood taken from two days prior. Professor Gently was apprehensive about me giving blood again only two days after doing so before, but I said we needed to try in order to analyze the differences in cell counts anyway.
So we drew blood one more time, it certainly didn't feel stressful on me at all. Everything appeared nearly identical to Monday's findings with the fresh blood samples. Something in the new structures appeared to become inactive after the two days, yet the red and white cells were relatively the same as a normal person's - at least the counts and general appearance were similar.