West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide (4 page)

“Long enough to know
that I like them.” Seawolf had become sensitive lately about her age. She’d noticed
that the webbing between her fingers and toes seemed to be sagging. What had
Jason said?
There are no
old mermaids, are there, Seawolf?
The fur on the back of her neck
bristled at the memory. “What does this have to do with anything anyway?” she
demanded of Gabrielle.

“You stay with a
sponsor long enough and they start to take you for granted. They’ve probably
been rolling out the same endorsement contract that you originally signed a
decade ago! When we get back to West Pacific I’m going to pull your contract
and see if we can renegotiate.”

Seawolf stared at
her blankly. “I like
Waverider
. They give me first
pick of their clothing line each year. They send me custom-made wetsuits.”

“They’re hardly the
only manufacturer of wetsuits or even your precious
lycra
shorts and rash guard tops. I’ll have a competitor analysis run and see if
anyone else is willing to offer you a better deal.”

“No, you won’t!”
Seawolf yelled, surprising the taxi driver, who cursed under his breath -
something about the city being overrun with costumed freaks. Seawolf glared at
him in the mirror and he hunched down and kept on driving.

“What’s with the
hostility?” Gabrielle asked. She sounded genuinely surprised. “Look, I’m just
trying to help you out. You don’t even have to leave
Waverider
,
but going through the motions might inspire them to pay you closer to what
you’re worth.”

“And that’s exactly
what Keystone’s agent is telling him.”

Gabrielle frowned.
“That is not the same situation!”

“Of course it is.
You want me to renegotiate a contract I’m perfectly happy with just because I
might be able to get more money. Isn’t that exactly what Keystone is doing?”

“What Keystone is
doing… ” Gabrielle began angrily as the cab pulled up to the
Taj
Mahal
restaurant.

“See you later,”
Seawolf called as she quickly stepped out and closed the door behind her.

The taxi drove away
only after Seawolf had actually entered the restaurant. There was no going back
now.

The
maitre’d
, a chubby woman in a maroon sari, seemed quite
flustered when Seawolf informed her that she was half of the West Pacific
Supers party of two. “Wow,” she said.

“May I be shown a
table please? Preferably something in the back or in a corner…”

“Oh no!” the woman
said excitedly. “For a superhero, we will put you in the window seat!”

“Window seat?”
exclaimed Seawolf, horrified.

It was too late. The
woman was already chattering away in some other language to a younger version
of herself in an orange sari, who stared at Seawolf for a few moments and then
grabbed two menus and led her across the restaurant to a table set in a bay
window overlooking a busy sidewalk.

“No,” said Seawolf
ineffectually as the woman smiled at her and gestured for her to sit. “I would
much prefer… ” Her voice trailed off as she saw two shoppers stop to look at
her. One said something to the other, who laughed, and they continued walking.
It was like a nightmare. The waitress had already left. Seawolf studied the
menu. She recognized nothing and looked around in hopes of seeing something
decent that someone else was eating, but all that happened was that her eyes
began to water from the strong spices in the food being eaten at neighboring
tables. She looked up to see the waitress returning with a thin young woman
with short brown hair, green eyes, and a freckled face, a young woman who was
beaming at her: Danny Chase. Seawolf stood and forced a smile, feeling
self-conscious in her red and blue ultimesh costume.
I would have been less conspicuous in
a wetsuit…

“Danny, it’s good to
finally meet you in person.”

The girl shook her
hand almost reverentially. “Seawolf, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be
here! You’re one of my biggest heroes – did I ever tell you that I have a
poster of you from the 2002 team?” She blushed as she sat down. “I sound like a
teen fan girl, don’t I?”

“It’s flattering,”
said Seawolf with a smile. “2002 was a great year. West Pacific Supers took the
West Coast Conference and Supersonic Cat was named Best League Super.” She
shook her head.

“The team should’ve
taken the League title!” Danny exclaimed. “I swear the Paragons rigged that
somehow. I actually defaced my commemorative copy of the 2002 League awards - I
drew horns on Count Courageous. Not very mature, but then again, I was seven.”

Seawolf laughed. It
was hard to believe she was 20 years older than this bright-eyed young woman
who was just starting her career. “It was the most incredible experience of my
life to be part of that team,” she told Danny, remembering. In 2002, when
they’d won the West Coast Conference and come so close to taking the League
title, it felt like they could do anything. And then 2003, Sarah was killed and
everything imploded… She shook her head. “You could say all we’ve been doing
ever since is trying to get back what we had then.” She frowned. She shouldn’t
be getting caught up in the past; she was here to discuss the future. “How are
you finding the Super Draft so far?”

“Well, I just came
in yesterday, but so far I can say it’s pretty stressful. Not the crowds or
superazzi - we deal with more people than this in Orlando on a daily basis -
but the level of competition is going to be intense. Not that I’m outclassed or
anything,” she quickly added. “It’s more the personalities. You get this many
high-powered teens in one place and encourage them to show off and well, it
gets snarky sometimes.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry, it probably sounds like I
have trouble getting along with people - it’s not like that.”

“Relax,” said
Seawolf, realizing that Danny was actually more nervous than she was. “I would
never think that Neo-Mermaid, the famed Lifeguard Princess, has problems
getting along with people.”

Danny blushed. “I
guess the movies and everything must seem pretty corny to a real superhero.
It’s how things are done on the Orlando Sparkle, but I know it’s a lot different
on most teams. Believe me, I get plenty of flack about it from the other
teens.”

“Don’t let anyone
make you feel bad about your team,” Seawolf said sternly. “Teen Orlando may
spend a lot of time working on your star skills, but they do plenty of heroics
training too. The NMX is an excellent power armor unit and the fact that you
can handle it comfortably in combat, plus deal with intense publicity
situations – that makes you valuable.”

“Thanks. I can use
the pep talk. Some of the other teens, well, you know how it is.”

Seawolf shrugged. “I
never went through the Draft myself, but I’ve known teens who have. Do you know
Desert Rose? She’s with the Firebirds now, down in Phoenix. She came through
our teen team, back when we had one, and was in the Draft in 2004 or 2005 I
think. Anyway, she was really unhappy with the whole process. She said it’s
counterproductive to set up intense competition between super teens right
before they join teams where they’ll have to work together. Really, the whole
League system just seems to foster more rivalry
than’s
healthy.”

“It’s true. At least
they added the team trials a couple years ago.”

Seawolf had almost
forgotten. “That’s right – you have that tomorrow?”

“In two days.
There’s six of us and right before the event they divide us into two groups and
we have to finish some timed challenge before the other team. It’s pretty fake.
I mean, when are you going to be in a situation that you and two other supers
are randomly assigned to solve some crisis better than some other randomly
determined group of three?”

“It sounds like the
inter-League face offs that they started last year. Thankfully, we haven’t
gotten picked for those yet, but I’m sure it’s coming. The whole thing’s just a
giant publicity exercise so that the Super Channel can make more money,” said
Seawolf with disgust.

The waitress
returned for their order and, with Danny’s help, Seawolf selected something
bland, at least by Indian standards. Danny seemed excited to be eating here, so
perhaps Gabrielle had had a point after all. Seawolf just wished they had a
different table. People kept stopping to stare through the window at them.
Danny didn’t seem to mind but Seawolf was finding it very distracting.

“So who all from the
team is here?” Danny asked, propping her elbows on the table as she drank some
sort of iced mango yogurt drink.

“Just me and
Gabrielle Fox, our public affairs director. Everyone else is back in West
Pacific getting ready for the Season and the Costume Launch.”

“That’s right!
That’s this week, isn’t it? How do you like the new costumes?”

“I hate them,” said
Seawolf.

Danny laughed. “It’s
the same on Teen Orlando. We each have our own costume designers, but the
Sparkle sets annual themes that we all have to coordinate with. My least
favorite was last year’s Western theme. Thankfully, I do my heroics in the NMX,
so I didn’t have to wear one of the red-fringed white leather action suits with
matching Stetson hat, but my parade costume and
ballgown
were all Western, which was annoying.”

Seawolf chuckled. “Don’t
tell Gabrielle that the Orlando Sparkle requires
ballgowns
and parade costumes - or that they call the team uniform an ‘action suit’. We
don’t need her getting any more new ideas.”

“No worries,” said
Danny. “So what’s the team like? I mean, I know all about the supers, of
course, but how about support staff?”

“They’re excellent.
Our operations director you may have heard of… ”

“No kidding!” Danny
broke in excitedly. “Dr. Annie Sterling is legendary! Best Operations Director
for the West Coast Conference for like what - five of the last 15 years? And
Best Operations Director for the whole Super League in 2007. But what’s she
really like to work under? I mean, I’ve heard some stories… ”

“Probably all true,”
said Seawolf with a wry smile. “Dr. Sterling is committed to West Pacific being
the best team in the nation. Her training exercises are - well, brutal. The
worst thing you can do with Annie is blow off a team practice or get a bad
report from your physical trainer. I’d especially warn you as a power armor
pilot that you’d better take physical training seriously. Annie will want you
in the best shape of your life and she’ll expect you to be able to contribute
to the team whether you’re in or out of the NMX. There were some issues with
that when White Knight first joined the team, so definitely keep it in mind.”

“I will,” said Danny
with a nervous smile.

“As for the rest of
the staff, they’re solid. Gabrielle is new to the position of public affairs
director, but she’s been working her way up through the team PR staff for
years. Actually, I guess we’re in a transitional period across the board. Our
team leader, Mr. Awesome, is getting ready to retire from active duty next year
and take over as team president.”

Danny raised an
eyebrow in surprise. “Wow – I hadn’t heard that. Dr. Hodges has been team
president for a while now, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, well, he’s
been talking about handing it over to Awesome for years, but he keeps coming up
with reasons to stick around for just one more Season. I think it’s finally
happening though –
Awesome’s
getting some family
pressure to get out of the field and I think Hodges is ready to step back and
enjoy his role as the father of the West Pacific’s biotech industry. You know –
mutant genetics conferences and honorary degrees, that sort of thing.”
Gabrielle would kill her if she heard this conversation, Seawolf thought with
some amusement. Like she cared. If Danny was coming on the team, she’d learn
all of this soon enough. Might as well give her a head’s up.

The food
arrived and there was a brief silence until Seawolf remembered what Gabrielle
had told her to ask. “Can you tell me anything more about how you got your
power armor suit? It’s an impressive piece of technology.”

Danny looked like
she had been expecting this question. “All I can really tell you is that the
NMX was a gift, she does legally belong to me, and she was made using
technology that’s not readily available on Earth. And yes, there were mermaids
involved.”

“Mermaids?”

“Yep,
honest-to-goodness mermaids!” Danny laughed. “I’m really sorry I can’t go into
more specifics. If it helps, Sparkle legal cleared up a bunch of issues since
I’ve been on the teen team and we’ve never had any problems using the suit in
my movies.”

“What if it gets
damaged?”

For the first time
in their conversation, Danny looked uncomfortable. “Well, fixing her is a
little challenging. She has a pretty sophisticated onboard computer that can
provide instructions on common repairs and so far we’ve been able to jury-rig
replacement parts. Thankfully, the NMX is very strong and durable as well as
quick, so I don’t usually take a lot of damage.”

“So no chance of
mermaid technicians coming back to fix it?”