Silver Moon Stories

Chapter 5 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

 Mina swallowed the last, smallest piece of the cake flavored door off the tip of her index finger.  At last, she was finally done with job of eating that damn weird door. Now there was a hand sized hole about three feet up the door and nearly three quarters of the way through the door and at the bottom of the door there was a much smaller hole at the bottom of the door that went all the way through. Robed Justice, Marbruja, and The Maw had decided between that a small hole near the bottom of the door would be far less obvious than one that was about chest high. Well, chest high for Mina. Around waist high for the rest of the group.

 Eating a hole at the bottom of the door had allowed The Maw to use her hands to dig a much smaller hole. Fortunately for the team, the door was only about one foot deep, so it didn’t take long to did a small hole. The opening on the other side of the door was about half the size of her index finger. Mina had used her fingernail to scrape the last of the door. She didn’t think it would be noticed and the others agreed.

 “Okay, once I’m inside, I’ll quickly look to see if I can find the locking mechanism.” Marbruja said. She looked around and located Captain Cable still yelling and stomping around, like a petulant child. “Cable, we’re ready to go, Pendejo. Get back here and help in your own mission.”

 She looked back at Robed Justice and The Maw and very quietly whispered, “Cabrón.”

 “Marbruja! I’m shocked at such language!” said Mina with a grin, “To call a fellow hero, and an Alpha no less such names.”

 “I believe the saying is, ‘If the shoe fits” and believe me, the shoe fits, Chica.” Marbruja grinned back. This was the first time that Marbruja have ever bonded with The Maw. Mina was beginning to suspect that they might have more in common than she first thought. Before The Maw could say anything else, Robed Justice started to speak.

 “Don’t let the upper management catch you all talkin’ about another Super that way. That will get more than a simple slap on the wrist. They might upgrade you to a willow switch. From my experience, ladies, I’d guarantee you’d not be able to sit for a week. Do ya’ll know if they still use switches? After all, I’m just a country bumpkin and don’t know no better.”

 “Yeah, a country bumpkin with a PhD in applied physics.” As Mina said that, Captain Cable walked up to the group. It was obvious that he heard the very last thing The Maw had said. His eyes were wide and filled with awe.

 “Do you really have a doctorate in physics, Robed Justice?”

 So formal, Mina thought. He treats me like scum and Robed Justice and Marbruja get treated as if they were royalty or at least elite rich folks. Mina thought about the old comedian who used to try to straighten his tie and talk about how he never got any respect. Mina could relate. Cable wasn’t the first Super to treat an Omega Super like they were something unspeakable that they had stepped in. This is why Mina had decided that this would be the last mission for her. After this she was quitting the Super gig, signing an NDA or whatever you had to do and find a real job.

 “It is in Applied Physics and yes, I do, Captain Cable. That really isn’t important at the moment. Right now, we are ready to move forward with the plan to capture this guy. By the way, did anyone get the mission briefing on this villain? I was at home and rushed right over so I don’t know anything about his powers. I know he caused a lot of havoc with some sort of displacement weapon and that he ran into this building when he saw Captain Cable here. Anyone got anything else?”

 Both Captain Cable and Marbruja looked crestfallen and started to stare at anything but Robed Justice. Really, thought Mina. Robert has an excuse because he was at his home which was twenty minutes away from the headquarters of Supers United Against Villainy and Evildoers, or SUAVE but, the other two lived on the SUAVE campus. The Maw lived in an apartment three blocks away. She had just drifted off to sleep a half an hour prior when the call had woken her back up. She had to get into her car, a 1979 beige Audi Fox, and drive her sleep deprived butt over to the campus, pick up Mr. I Learned my Villainy from Saturday Morning Cartoon dossier, had her phone’s digital scanner and  voice playback read the briefing to her as she booked it another twenty minutes in a different direction, in morning rush hour traffic only to learn that not only was a noob in charge of the mission, no one else had read the damn dossier!

 “I’ve read the dossier Robe.” Mina said, attempting to diffuse the anger that had built up. She hoped it wasn’t seeping out her mouth with the statement. When she looked as the faces of the two Supers, she knew that it had. My big mouth causes me nothing but trouble with this line of work. I’ll be happy to see the backside of the last ten years.

 “Just the bullet points, The Maw. Quickly and quietly as possible we don’t want whatever his name is overhearing us.” Robed Justice said in a voice that said it understood her frustration but that he would no longer tolerate any more insubordination.

 “Let’s start there then. His name is Doctor Vincent Sant. He is a scientist with a genius level IQ, however as far as anyone knows, he has no powers.” Mina started and was quickly interrupted by Cable.

 “What, none? How is this a Blue level threat? I thought that normal humans could never rise above threat level yellow and even then, we would leave things up to the normal police and or military.” He now looked very disappointed, like a kid at Christmas that opened a present, expecting the cool newest toy and finding underwear and socks.

 The Maw turned to directly face him,” Okay, first the threat level is correct. He doesn’t have a displacement gun. He has a disintegration beam weapon. Secondly, not only has he managed to destroy six buildings in the area but also untold amounts of people. Cable, do you realize what this means? No regular human in the history of civilization has ever managed to create something so destructive. Personally, I think this should have been a Black level threat but, what do I know?”

 She knew that she might have pushed Robed Justice’s tolerance a bit too far but, what the hell, it was going to be the last mission. She cared what Robert White thought but not what Robed Justice, his hero persona thought. She would apologize later. Captain Cable was obviously angry at several things, questioning the threat level, how informal she was with his hero name, and questioning how much he could comprehend the situation. Surprisingly, he said nothing about it. Instead, he turned to Robed Justice and Marbruja, Mina now completely forgotten.

 “Robed Justice, what would think should be our next move should be?”

 “Well, actually we already have a partial plan in place. The Maw has just finished eating a hole in the bottom of the door and there is a small hole big enough for Marbruja to slip through and assess the situation from the inside. What do you think our next action should be after that?” Robed Justice using the moment as a training session for the inexperienced hero.

 Captain Cable thought for a minute or two and while he was doing so, Mina would have sworn that she smelled smoke. Finally, he said, “I think that we so wait until Marbruja finishes her surveillance and then make an informed plan after that?” He was clearly uncertain if he’d made the right choice.

 “Well, Marbruja, you heard our team leader. Are you ready to go?” Unless you knew him, you’d never be able to tell that Robed Justice has just grinned in the darkness of his hood. Mina was going to miss him. Maybe they’d let her stay in contact with him but that was very unlikely. Once you left any Super organization, that was it. If you violated the NDA or whatever they had you sign, you couldn’t contact anyone from that life, visit any Super campus, or reveal any information about Supers period without getting sued blind and into abject poverty. As she was already hovering just about abject poverty Mina’s only real risk was the blind part. She had come to covet her eyesight over the last thirty plus years of her life. She realized that once again she’d missed someone talking to her. Damn introspective nature of the natural introvert. She felt rather than saw fingers snapped in front of her face.

  “Where did you go that time, Chica?” Marbruja said, obviously annoyed that she’s have to repeat what she’d said.

 “Sorry, Marbruja. Long night without much sleep.” The Maw refocused and tried a quick mental playback of what she’d heard but ignored unintentionally. “ Uh, the hole is ready to go with my last bite, I finally reached the inside of the door. All you need to do is change form and pour right through the hole.”

 “Thanks, The Maw. Okay here I go.” As her spoke the last word, Marbruja began to change. It all happened quite fast. First, she became translucent, next she appeared to melt out of her clothes, and finally, once she formed into a large ball of water, she began to move towards the door. Her shape completely disappeared into the hole created by The Maw.

 Captain Cable looked stunned. “Her clothes don’t shift with her?” he said mouth a gape as he stared at the pile of clothes.

 “Your first time watching a shifter like Marbruja?” Robed Justice said with a small chuckle. “They’ve never been able to create clothes that can shift along with the Super. Marbruja’s one of the lucky ones though. She can actually absorb more water if needed and shape clothes from that. But from what I understand from her, she still feels a bit naked unless the clothes are real.”

 “You most shifter had to go naked into missions?” Captain Cable said incredulously.

 “Only if it is a solo mission, and they don’t have abilities like Marbruja. Otherwise, they generally just have one of their teammates collect the clothes for them for after they shift back. I knew one Super back in the day who never bothered to change back from his shifted form until he got back to the Super campus when I first started down in Baton Rouge. He said that is was kind of a pain to have a colleague carry his clothes because half the time, he’d burn them up shifting back from his fire form. Said it was a waste of good money and better clothes.”

 Captain Cable looked thoughtful and was still thinking when Marbruja came back through the hole and moved over her discarded clothes. The clothes slowly began to take her shape as the water slowly flowed upwards in a very unnatural way until Marbruja was standing before then looking almost as if she’d never left. A smirk was on her face when she reformed and looked towards Captain Cable, “Enjoy the show?”

 “Actually, yes. Your power is amazing. Question for you. Are your clothes wet after you reform?”

 Marbruja’s face went from a smirk to a look of annoyance quickly. “No, they are not wet. I control every drop of water in my body and more if necessary. My clothes are never wet,” She tried to suppress an eye roll but as Mina watched Marbruja’s face changed, she stifled a laugh at the obvious reaction to Cable’s stupidity.

 “Can we move back to the mission at hand?” Robed Justice’s voice cut the tension like a sharp knife, “Marbruja, what is the situation inside the building?”

 Marbruja’s face became neutral and bored looking as she relayed the scene to the team. “ I think he got bored waiting for us. He put his gun down and sat on a bench just inside the doorway. He is doing something on his phone. He was so distracted that I was able to take a full look around without tipping off my presence. I was able to locate the switch for the door.” She turned to Robed Justice, “ MY suggestion would be that Robed Justice, and I go in through The Maw’s hole and one of us discreetly unlock the door. Then, The Maw can open the door and let Captain Cable inside while Robed Justice and I apprehend Dr. Sant. He’s a pudgy little guy. I don’t think it will be all that hard.”

 “Thank you, Marbruja.” Said Robed Justice. Then he turned to face Captain Cable directly, “you’ve heard the scoutin’ report, team leader. What do you think our best move is?”

 Captain Cable appeared to think about it, but The Maw knew that Marbruja had made up his mind for him. They were going to use the plan she’d laid out. The Maw just hoped that Marbruja had seen the situation correctly. Her gut said that something was bound to go wrong with such a simple plan.

***

     Ten minutes later, they were ready to go. Captain Cable was standing directly behind the door ready to charge as soon as Marbruja said go. The Maw was to ‘stand out of the way and do nothing.’ Per Cable’s orders. Yup, here it is, she thought, my usefulness is finally at its end. She wished that she had brought along a book or something, hell she’d even take a cigarette right now, if she smoked and if it wouldn’t simply turn into the nastiest tasting food as soon as it hit her hand. The tobacco tasted like it normally would, which was gross enough. She had no idea how people chewed. Nasty! But the filter would be worse. The flavors would linger for days in her mouth, making her gag every time she swallowed. She’d eaten one many years ago when she was testing the limits of her abilities and one had been enough. More than enough.

  Normally she’d be okay just letting her mind wander until the others were done but, that ache in the pit of her stomach kept her from effectively turning her mind into standby mode. Which as it turned out might have saved her life.

 Mina had found a pillar to lean against just under the covered entrance to the building. She had turned away because her input was not needed and in at least Captain Cable’s mind, unwanted. She heard the door open and the breeze as Captain Cable rushed through the doorway. She’d figured that it would be over shortly as Robed Justice should have disarmed the perpetrator and Marbruja opened the door, so all Cable had to do was subdue the Doctor before he knew what was happening.

 Unfortunately, something had indeed gone wrong. Because instead of sounds of victory and maybe a cry of defeat, she heard them all say nearly at the same time, “The Maw, watch out!”, from Marbruja, “Maw, forty- two Forty-two!”, from Robed Justice, and lastly “Catch the son of a bitch, The Maw!” from Captain Cable. The last has been unnecessary because forty-two had told Mina everything she needed to know.

 It was a part of the Supers code book that some teams used for shorthand. One it prevented the target from knowing what was coming and two, codes like this told the others on the team a lot information in a short time. Fifty-four would have meant all clear, mission complete. Forty-one would have been loose, unarmed, and headed towards you. Forty-two meant the target was loose. armed, and headed towards you. Which Dr. Sant was with a pistol sided weapon aimed at her head.

 “Get out of my way, you stupid bitch or I will disintegrate you!” he yelled as loud as he could. The man was obviously unhinged and scared out of his mind.

 “Dr. Sant, I can’t do that. Please put the weapon down and surrender. You will not be harmed.” The Maw said. She could see that the others were scrambling and trying to run towards her. They would not be in time.

 “You will be. Die!” he pulled the triggered as he ran. Mina knew she was dead. Still she instinctively put her hands up in front of her face. In hindsight, that move had saved her and doomed Dr. Sant.

 The beam that shot from the gun was black and shimmering. It reached Mina so fast that to the human eye it appear that a bar had sprung into being and disappeared in the fraction of a second. The team cried out in anguish. Or least part of them did. One voice screamed in fury. Captain Cable. Really, Mina thought, even in death he can’t give me a break? Wait, how was she still thinking? Was she still alive? She must be because her hands hurt like hell.

 “That really hurt, you jerk!” Mina said, surprise and pain tinged her words.

 The doctor lowered the gun uncertainly. “Hurt? You should be dead! Why aren’t you dead?”

“You got me, doc. Maybe you had it turned on stun. You should really read your phaser’s instruction booklet next time.” Yup, Mina was very much still alive if she could throw shade.

The pain in Mina’s hands suddenly faded. All of a sudden, she felt strange. She felt hungry. Now she always felt hungry but, this time, she was HHHUUUNNNGGGRRRYYY! Like that character from the Muppet Christmas story about otters and a band contest. It consumed her and she realized that she was about to black out.

“Blue Maw needs food badly. Blue Mina is going to die.” She remember the lines from an old video game that she’d played with her older brother. Gauntlet, she thought it was called.  The blackness filled her vision and she thought no more.

***

 When Mina woke up, the first thing she thought was, Wow, I did not expect to wake up. The second thing was, where am I? I was at the building with the team, and the doctor guy had just got loose and he shot me… Mina sat up and opened her eyes. At least she tried to do both. The only thing she managed was opening her eyes.

 “What the… !” she started to say as she realized that she was staring into the very angry face of Captain Cable. “Listen, I really hope you bought me a drink first because I don’t normally go in for bondage until at least the third date.”

  “What did you do! Where is the villain?” He nearly screamed into her face.

 “What? What do you mean? I was the one who got shot, dude!” Captain Cable lend back as though she had tried to assault him.

 It was then that she realized she was no longer at the building. She was in some kind of transport. A prisoner transport and she was cuffed and strapped to a bench. She also finally saw that Marbruja and Robed Justice were here too.

 “Robert,” she invoked Robed Justice’s real name, “What is going on? Why am I bound like I’m a villain?”

 “You really don’t remember?” Robert looked as though he wanted to believe her but that he had evidence to the contrary. “Mina, you ate him.”

 “What? Like in pieces? I know that I felt hungry at he struck me with that stun ray but I really think I would remember eating him. I’ve never, ever eaten a person before. I’m not a cannibal.” She felt her stomach lurch at the merest thought that a person was floating around inside of her. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was going to retch.

 “No. Not in pieces, Mina. He was there and then, he wasn’t. He’d been sucked in to a void that you created.” Marisol said but wouldn’t look at her. She shuddered afterwards as if remembering the moment.

 “Marbruja. Marisol, I can’t create voids. All I can do is eat. That’s all I can do!” Tears began to form in Mina’s eyes. She’d taken a life. She’d created a void and somehow consumed a person. This couldn’t be happening.

 “Mina, I think it has something to do with the disintegration weapons that the doctor made. I think the beam affected your power. I believe you that you didn’t mean to consume that guy.” Robert looked serious and then his expression turned to sad, “And Mina, there was no stun setting on that thing. All there is a trigger. He was trying to kill you. I think that go in your favor, and I’ll speak on your behalf but, as of now I think you need to prepare yourself that you are no longer free. In one way or another, you are a prisoner of SUAVE.”

 I should never had got out of bed today, Mina thought. She never get to go back to that bed again.

“I hate being a Super!” she shouted at the universe.