Chapter 22 - On the Move
Rael's Viewpoint
After sitting for an hour or two under the overhang of a building I realized that waiting until nightfall would just be a waste of time. I was a fast runner; if I jogged I'd probably be able to get well away from most people before they'd even notice anything was off. Plus, it was raining fairly heavily, which would be harder to see through.
My injuries had healed. The large shells took longer to push out than the small slugs from pistols, and were actually slightly painful when they did so.
I was fairly certain that healing so many large wounds at once slowed down the entire process. Probably something in the body wanting to stay alive rather than heal a single wound.
I took the shirt off and wiped off the blood still on me, and then threw it off to the side. There were so many gaping holes in it that the shirt wasn't doing much of a job covering me anyway.
My stomach growled and I felt a hunger pang. Obviously giving in and biting that guy wasn't enough to fill me for long.
Damn, that was stupid doing it too. You idiot, Rael.
I looked at my hands and feet - nothing had turned into a sword on me, so that was good.
I looked around at the nearest buildings. There were various industrial buildings in the area, some were fairly tall. Several had to be at least five stories high if I counted some of the equipment on top.
I hopped to my feet and jogged toward one of these buildings. I went to one that didn't have a security fence, yet did have enough projections to easily climb and quickly moved to it. Climbing the building was easy between my claws, agility and strength. Jumping twenty or thirty feet was doable, and I could hang easily by one clawed hand - which also gave excellent gripping power with the claws digging into the concrete wall.
Once several stories up I looked around. Not horribly far to the southeast I spotted some of the famous towers in Metrocity. It was easy enough to figure out where I was from there. Home would be generally south from here, and I was sure I'd recognize more once I was closer.
I looked down the long wall and thought,
Screw it. I need to see how this goes.
I hopped off the edge of the building, with the intent to crouch at the landing and also use my arms to reduce the overall shock.
The ground came at me slowly - I had plenty of time to react just before I hit the ground. It stung my feet and knees a bit, but otherwise the drop didn't hurt. The sting faded within a dozen seconds.
I grinned and stood upright, and then began jogging on the road toward the south. I pushed myself and the ground sped by fast. I passed a few cars driving on the slower road I was on.
What the hell was I worried about with people seeing me? I can outrun cars in the city, barring perhaps a highway.
The concrete and blacktop roads and sidewalks didn't even tear up my feet. They healed the initial roughness within a minute of running barefoot, and seemed like they adapted completely shortly afterward so it wasn't much different than running in shoes.
It was definitely far less than a normal workout time for me to get home.
Police tape hung around our house. As I approached the front door I saw the circular hole cut in the glass. The hole in the wall of my bedroom stood out as well.
I entered and listened for a moment. The house was quiet. Odd smells hit my nose, perhaps some chemicals, cleaning agents or something CSI used.
I called out, "Lance, you here?" He didn't answer.
Let's see, he's probably with Steph and Willman looking for me.
When I reached my bedroom door, I glanced back toward the living room. I saw the armed men in my mind’s eye. Their faces were covered. I now saw that each of them had a bola shooting crossbow hanging at their belt, along with at least a few other guns hanging off them. I visualized the initial hailstorm of darts flying out of their needler pistols as I ran to Lance’s room when they attacked.
Was it last night? Two nights ago?
I walked into my bedroom, both of my cell phones were moved, someone obviously had picked them up. I looked at the call logs; I'd missed some calls from Stephanie earlier in the day. No missed calls from Lance though. No surprise there, he knew I'd been taken.
Ah, we were hit last night. Lost only about twelve hours.
I used my H.E.R.O. phone to call Spartan's number. I heard his cell ring in the other room. I looked up and walked that way, his phone sat next to his bed alongside his personal cell.
Tiny darts were all over the place. His sheets still had blood on them, probably from when I grabbed him and threw him out the window to escape.
Where you at, Lance? Why don't you have your phones?
I looked out his window. Glass lay in a pattern out in the grass from when I tossed him through the window. A few splotches of some goo stuck to the wall near the window. I put my nose close and sniffed.
It had a similar smell to the cage area I recently awoke in. Nothing else stood out to me in his room, nor out the window.
I went to the bathroom, quickly cleaned up, put on my costume and ate some protein bars in the kitchen. Then I made a call to Agent Willman.
He answered, "Agent Willman here."
"This is Black Tiger."
"What? Psystar called me a few hours ago and claimed you'd been kidnapped last night."
"I was. I escaped."
"Did you get all the supers out?"
"No, they are under sedation. I barely made it out myself - they stopped trying to knock me out and changed to machine guns. Is Spartan working with you now?"
"Spartan? He was captured with you."
"Shit. Are you serious?"
"I always am. You didn't see him there?"
"No. Let me see, I saw two men, and a chick coated in metal. I didn't get to see all the cells, though. They came at me, so I fought some of them and got out. I figured I'd get Spartan and go back in."
"That might be somewhat difficult now. We should meet and compare notes."
"You've found something new out?"
"We're working at Iron Cross; we think there's either a mole here, or a hacker."
"The hospital? Okay, I'll head there. Was it your guys that put up the police tape here?"
"No. You're new, so I'll give you a tip - call H.E.R.O. headquarters and talk to your main agent. Have him work with the police to classify any information they found at your place, including identity information and such. C.S.I. will generally do that anyway for an officer, but you'll want to make sure you're in their systems."
"Good idea, thanks."
"Sure. So where are you at now?"
"At home, that's how I knew about the police tape."
"You have the location of where you were being held, though?"
"Uh, only roughly. It was raining, and I had a whole bunch of big holes in me as I ran."
I heard him sigh on the other end. He said, "You might be able to work with some of my people to find the area. We can send agents to try to get more information."
"Okay, I'll show you what I can when I get there. I take it you are on the floor where the supers are all being held unconscious?"
I still need to find out who authorized kidnapping all those people and keeping them sedated in the hospital for days. Then I can kick the asshole’s ass.
"Yes. I'll see you here shortly."
I looked through the contact list on my phone; found Agent Carson listed, and called him. After a few minutes I'd filled him in on the situation with our house, and about C.S.I.'s involvement. He said he'd contact them and take care of it.
I flicked my status on the phone to active duty, and then went out to the garage to get my new cycle, but when I opened the garage door I saw the rain pouring down.
Well, no use riding the cycle there in this rain, more running I guess. This sucks.
I shut the garage door and locked the house up. Then I took off jogging to the south east where Iron Cross General Hospital was located. Fortunately my jogging speed was pretty fast for in-city running.
Why the hell was I worried about running home? You’re an idiot thinker after you’ve been shot up, Rael. That’s Black Tiger to you. Great, now I’m arguing with myself….
The sidewalks were busy, many people had umbrellas out. Those without hung closer to the buildings to stay under the overhangs. I had to weave in and out of people, occasionally running in the street to be able to keep my pace, which was as fast as most cars moved. I leapt over intersections in some places. A lot of people stopped to stare at me.
My phone buzzed halfway there, so I stopped under an overhang and checked which it was. It was the H.E.R.O. phone. Rather than a call, it was a robbery in progress only about a mile to the south of me. I knew that if I ran there in the center of the street I could sprint and be there in about a minute.
Shit. Hospital or robbery? Can’t be sure you can act immediately at the hospital, and heroes are
supposed
to stop crimes. Fine, Rael. I’ll quick hit the robbery.
I pushed the button to answer the task, and pushed the map button to see where exactly it was in relation to me. Then I sprinted out into the nearest street heading southbound at full speed. I was moving about twice the speed of the faster vehicles.
I dodged a few vehicles at intersections along the way. The downpour made it harder to see at this speed. Rain kept getting in my eyes. At one busy intersection I had to leap, push off an SUV’s rooftop and flip over a few cars.
I reached Karma Street, hooked a quick right and moved the two streets to the location. The jewelry store was on the left side. I burst through the front door, still running fast.
It took a fraction of a second to glance at the scene, where two employees behind a pair of counters scooped jewelry into a bag or box behind the counter. The criminal stood facing them with a gun.
He glanced back at me and grinned, then fired. I was almost to him, so I dove in front of the shot rather than allow it to hit the innocent person.
A burst of liquid hit me. I expected perhaps acid or perhaps a focused stream of water like they use to cut metal. Instead, it exploded upon impact. I slammed my hand down on the counter so I didn't get thrown into the man behind the counter. My body flew up and over him into the wall. I crashed into the wall and fell down onto another counter.
I looked down at my gut; it was like I'd been hit by an explosive bullet. It hurt, and I was bleeding. The effect of the water was as effective as the large machine guns that had been used on me just hours ago.
I pushed out of the mess of the counter, and he shot another stream while grabbing the bag the employees had been filling. I noticed his eyes had the backlit glow indicative of a super.
A stream of small explosions blasted along the wall and counter, finally hitting me as I tried to twist out of the way. There wasn't enough room to maneuver to avoid it.
This blast hit me in the shoulder, knocked me back into another counter and flipped me over it into the rear portion of the room. That hurt. I climbed to my feet and saw him pull open the door.
Good, go outside, you'll just give me more room to maneuver.
I flipped up to my feet and dodged around the counters to get to the exit. He was pulling a car door open when I got outside the store. He shot his pistol at me again, though I easily dodged the water stream this time.