I went back to the H.E.R.O. phone and called Agent Willman. He answered quickly.
He said, "Agent Willman here."
"This is Psystar. How's the case going, are Spartan and Black Tiger working with you?"
"My team is still working on cracking the mercenary's web site. Apparently someone spread the word that some of them were captured."
"That doesn't surprise me - if those cameras were being watched or recorded, then whoever was behind them knew some were captured."
"That was our line of thinking as well. But no, I haven't spoken with either Spartan or Black Tiger since yesterday afternoon. I thought you were with them."
"Not all the time, we actually split up for the evening; I haven't seen them since then either. Neither are answering either of their phones. That's very odd."
"Simple, just contact H.E.R.O. headquarters and ask them to trace the two H.E.R.O. phones. We could do it, but they have the link available faster."
"Oh, good idea. Thank you."
"Not a problem. I'll contact you when we are ready for the next move."
"Okay, thank you, Agent Willman."
"Good bye, Psystar." Then he hung up.
I looked back at Firebane. "Sorry about all these delays."
She shrugged and said, "I only have a half hour before I have to leave for work, but it's not an issue."
I noticed that Captain McCain had added H.E.R.O. HQ to my contact list, so I called it. I requested a trace on Spartan and Black Tiger's phones. The address they gave me back was their home address.
I hung up and ran my hand through my hair.
I said, "They are supposed to be home, but aren't answering their phones. Can you give me a few minutes? I'll fly there and quick see what's up, then fly back here."
"Sure."
I walked to the nearest exit and stepped outside. The rain must have started during class, everything was soaked, and it was coming down fairly steadily.
I sighed, not like I had many travel options. I stepped away from the building, then into the air and jabbed my knee up to blast up at high speed. It only took me a minute to reach their house. I was drenched by the time I arrived. Apparently my flight aura slowed down wind, but didn't stop rain from hitting me.
There was a squad car and a C.S.I. vehicle outside their house. I flew down quickly and landed in the driveway. The officer noticed me and said, "Hey! This is a crime scene!"
I replied, "I'm a H.E.R.O. agent - Psystar. What happened here?" I ran my hand through my soaked hair.
He looked a little dubious, so I motioned to the house. When under the overhang I set my backpack down in front of him and took my ID out of the gold belt in the pack.
He looked at it, nodded and said, "There was some kind of attack. Large caliber rifle round entered the building in the front here, another over on the side. A bedroom window was smashed out. There's blood in several places in the back yard. You'd have to ask the CSI guys for more."
"Oh, crap. Thanks, can I go inside?"
"Let's call over the C.S.I. guy still here first to make sure nothing is disturbed."
We walked to the entrance of the house; the officer stepped into the already-open door and called out.
A man with a jacked labeled 'MC C.S.I." stepped out. "What's up? You find something out front?"
The officer said, "No, we've got a H.E.R.O. agent here - Psystar."
"Oh, very cool. Hi there." He stepped over, pulled off a glove and shook my hand.
I asked, "What happened?"
"Someone entered from both the front and back doors - both had a pane of glass cut out so someone could reach inside. High caliber rifle rounds were shot into the house into two separate rooms. Blood splatter in both rooms, so the rounds hit. There are tiny needle darts all over the end of this hallway and in one bedroom."
He pointed out each of these areas as he described them. He continued, "Just outside the bedroom window - which was knocked outward with great force, by the way - there's a lot of chemical splatter. We've found some partial spheres and one whole one - they appear to be hollow paintgun balls with a chemical on them that becomes gaseous upon contact with the air. No idea of the gas yet though, that'll be analyzed back at the lab. Hard to see now though, the rain washed the rest of it away. Oh, and there's some blood in the bed, it doesn't appear to be gunshot splatter though, more likely drippage from a body."
He walked us around to the rear of the house, but stayed under the overhang. "Back here we have denting in the siding of the house, it's similar to a body being thrown into the house with a lot of force. Then over here we have grass torn up in a sliding motion, and those bodies were thrown here with massive force. I say bodies because there is blood near each."
I asked, "When did this occur?"
"Sometime in the night. A neighbor called in about the gunshots and shattering glass around three a.m. Fortunately we had a team here getting the evidence before the rain started. How do you know the house owner?"
"I'm a friend of theirs, and I've stayed here overnight recently, if you are wondering about DNA. This is related to an ongoing investigation the F.B.I. and H.E.R.O. are conducting related to supers being kidnapped."
"Oh. I'm surprised they aren't here yet then."
"No obvious connection. We didn't stay in the hospital through to Monday, as it sounds like the other victims did. Though both of them were working on the case already, and had captured some of the kidnappers. It could be a vengeance hit."
"Can I see your ID, Miss?"
I pulled out my H.E.R.O. ID and showed him. He took a picture of it.
I asked, "Why take a picture?"
"I could write down the info ... or just take a picture. If you are already working on the case, should I contact you with any information?"
"Please do. This is worrisome - they were the heavy hitters on my team."
"Heavy hitters?"
"Combatants. So far I do mostly interrogation. It means that whoever attacked them can take down a brick and a mutant."
"Well, no bodies at all were found, so we can't be certain anyone died or was kidnapped. However, it's odd that we have tire tracks leading back by the rear window over here."
"They would need the vehicle right by Spartan to get him in it, he weighs a lot. I'll be calling a normal H.E.R.O. agent, a non-super, to contact you about the details. I've never worked with another agency where information should be classified, but in this case the details about this house, Spartan, and Black Tiger need to be confidential."
"Got it."
I felt sick.
How the hell can someone take down Rael and Lance? How'd they know where to find them? Now I really need Firebane's help to find them too. Oh, shit, Firebane!
I said, "Gotta run, guys, I need to meet another H.E.R.O. about this."
"Sure thing. I'll let you know what we find out."
I stepped up quickly and jabbed my knee in the air hard. I went as fast as I could back to the door I'd left Firebane and, spinning when close to the ground and pushing down to slow down. I rushed it yet again, and the rain made it harder to gauge the exact distance. I ended up slamming into the grass and fell to my knees. I swore.
I slowly climbed to my feet. My knees ached, though I knew that would go away soon. I wiped some grass off my feet and went back into the building. Firebane stood talking with a few students.
I interrupted them, "Hi guys, can I nab her?"
Firebane turned around and said, "That took a while, everything okay? Dang, you're soaked."
"No, both are missing, a fight occurred there in the late night. Yeah, I can't do much about the soaking thing."
Thank goodness I've got the costume on under this white shirt....
I hooked her arm and walked to a less busy area. "So how does this sense of yours work?"
"Well, I know a direction and a rough distance, as well as how many supers are there."
"Okay, we need to find a map."
From behind me I heard, "Steph! I've got a map on my tablet."
I turned and saw my new friends from yesterday, the 'nerds' so to speak, Jim and Mike. They both just stared at me a moment ... I looked like I'd just climbed out off a pool while fully dressed in their mindviews.
I said, "Hi guys. Umm, I'm not sure I can do lunch today, I've got some business to take care of."
Jim tapped his tablet computer a few times and showed me a website with one of the pictures from the supers rag and a heading of 'Super Psystar attends Metro University.'
I stared at it a moment and sighed.
Jim said, "So there's no secret, and I've got a map right here." He waved the tablet around a few times. "So how about Mike goes and gets the food while we start in that alcove?" He pointed a short ways off to an empty alcove.
I shrugged and said, "Okay." I pulled out some money for Mike and gave it to him. At least my backpack was generally waterproof. Then the rest of us walked over to the sitting area.
Firebane said, "So how do we want to do this?"
Jim said, "Gimme a sec ... there, I've got the map app up. I'll pin a note by each general area you give me. One sec ... there, I've got the direction aligned with how I'm facing."
I said, "Wait, we don't need to detect the entire city. If they caught Spartan and Black Tiger, then they must have between four and perhaps eight supers right now, I'd think they are all going to be pretty close together."
Jim said, "You say caught? So we've got a what, kidnapping?"
"Yeah. Multiple. Supers only."
Firebane closed her eyes and looked thoughtful for a moment. "There's a whole bunch of them about ten miles south of here." She pointed. When she opened her eyes they were backlit with a white glow.
Jim used a distance gauge and found a rough spot. He showed popular locations in the city and zoomed in a bit.
I pointed, "There, that has to be Iron Cross General Hospital. They brought in all the new supers they could find there. I'm surprised so many are still there."
Firebane concentrated some more and pointed, then said, "About a dozen that way, another three miles southwest of that hospital."
Jim checked the distance and moved around the zone. I pointed at a location.
"Metrocity Jail. A lot of mutants were brought in the other day. Only a dozen, though? I figured they'd have some previous prisoners, and we definitely brought down more than that.
Mike returned with food for us.
I said, "Hold on, how many here?" I swiped across the tablet until we reached the northwest part of Metrocity and found the H.E.R.O. headquarters.
Firebane said, "How far is it?"
Jim said, "About fifteen miles northeast of us."
Firebane said, "Hmm, only a few in that area."
I felt stumped.
This makes no sense. How the heck can H.E.R.O. HQ not have a bunch of supers in it right now?
We all tore into the food while Firebane looked thoughtful.