Binara: Sylph About Town

Tags

character development, set up, superheroine, superheroine origins, Sylph

The larger than what was necessary store that Ami took us to for her ink not only had the supplies and human customers browsing, but a few netjeri and spirits of boredom pacing about the aisles. I was wondering why they hadn’t taken Nerull-7’s route of replicators for such things when an unusual spirit turned the corner in front of us. Ami didn’t say anything as a spirit of writing in a bird form with a pen in its beak crossed her path on the way to the register. Either she was trying hard to ignore it or the medication she said she took was in effect.

I shook my head at her, but noted the blessing as we finished in the store and boarded a bus to Franklin Street.

“I would have taken you to the art museum, but it’s a bit late for that,” Ami said as she looked at her datapad-like device. “And you’ve seen some of campus already. Best to just walk around the most touristy spot in town to get a feel for it.”

“It will certainly help me to navigate after I talk to the local air,” I said, descending the bus’ stairs to the pedestrian walkway.

Ami looked at me like I had said something off. “What do you mean?”

“I am a sylph, a Danannian made of air. I communicate with my element to know the area’s likes and dislikes, to gather glamour energy, and to cast glamours through it,” I said, surprised she hadn’t the knowledge on my kind. “It is how I can affect the mortal world without needing to be manifested.”

“Then why do you need me?” Ami snapped as we turned a corner and found ourselves in an open air older part of town that was yet to be filled to the brim with people.

“As I have said before, there is a limit to what I can do on my own when in a world. The casts of glamour take time to come into effect when bridging the veil, which is critical in many situations, like when I rescued you. Had I relied on the bridging method, you would have been dead before the tornado descended. Then I would have to both deal with your angry soul, the paperwork, and most likely a scolding by Lady Nit. Your presence, therefore, will help me navigate this area better than I can alone.”

Ami looked disturbed at the thought. “You couldn’t prepare beforehand?”

I shook my head and stepped to avoid an awning post. “I do not have the magic of clairvoyance, and cannot manipulate time. That is Chokoris’ specialty, the irritating djinn.”

She gave me a trying look as we passed through a crowd. “Is this djinn as irritating as seeing spirits when you don’t want to?”

I glared at her. “Do not disparage your gift. The protector of yours I talked to when I went to negotiate said your gift is inherited and the bloodline has it for a reason. They would not tell me more, and said to speak to you about why you dislike seeing.”

She huffed and sat down on a bench near a fountain. “If I tell you, you must tell me a bit more about yourself.”

“Very well, but you will not be getting my true name out of this,” I said, my habit of dodging that question showing.

Ami nodded. “What do you mean by true name?”

“Everything and everyone has a true name that the gods have given them. It is their essence, and while some come to learn it, like the King of Kemet and my people once they reach adulthood, many do not. In a way, it may be safer for them.” I sat upon the flowerbed wall. “A question for a question. How come you dislike your gift so much?”

“I could see spirits since I was a child, you know,” she said and looked at her lap. “I was bullied for it, and even my parents hated it. Then I was diagnosed with schizophrenia after…something horrible. I don’t want to think of that night.”

I could sense the traumatic emotions flowing off of her. “It is alright if you don’t want to go into detail.”

“The appointment I went into today was a reevaluation of my diagnosis, since it has been nearly a decade. I see my therapist in two weeks for the results.” She shifted her gaze to look at me. “So who is Chokoris?”

“He is a djinn, and one of my coworkers,” I said and crossed my arms. That hothead always tried to rile me up when we weren’t on a mission. “There are three of us at the rank I am at, and if you ever see either of them with me, you should know that all of this universe is in jeopardy. Especially if it is all three of us.”

Ami’s eyes went wide.

“Now my turn for a question. Why do you study to uphold the law?’

“I want to make the world a better place for those who are underprivileged,” she said, regaining her composure. “The best way to do that is to gain knowledge of the law, practice it for a while, then try and run for senate or another political office when I’m old enough. Who is this Lady Nit you mentioned earlier?”

“She is one of my masters, a goddess of Kemet. I think I heard the land called Egypt at one point. The other is Master Shu. I should think there is some record of who they are out there, since I have seen at least one human pass by with a sen necklace. I was not originally in their service when I became an adult, and I do not wish to talk about how I came to them.”

“All right, I won’t ask on that.”

We sat in tense silence for what felt like hours. I wondered if I should broach the subject now, instead of waiting until we arrived back at the apartment.

“If you’re not gonna ask another one, I’ll go again,” Ami said. “Why do you show up, even after my meds have kicked in?”

“I honestly do not know. I have been meaning to ask—”

“Where did you go when you left for days? Couldn’t you see what was going on and be there sooner?”

I felt as if that question wasn’t just for me. “As a Danannian, I have to do formal contract work whenever I forge a deal with a new liaison. It requires me to travel to the middle Unseen to meet your guardians and akhu so that they are aware of it and have their own say in it. I cannot see into the physical world when there, nor can I protect you when I am away from the world.”

“Why are you telling me all this? You could have left out all the details, like those folklore faerie.”

“You did ask, and I am inclined to be truthful. I do not want you to get hurt.”

“I was lucky that my ancestor pulled me into the spirit world for a moment, otherwise I would be dead.” Anguish burned in her eyes as some passersby stared at her. “How is that upholding your end of the contract?”

“If you would let me finish my earlier thought, I have been meaning to discuss that with you. It is a stipulation one of your guardians has made in regard to the contract, and I want to make sure the protection is there, even when I am not.”

Ami looked at me quizzically.

I took a cleansing breath, talking to the local air as I did so. “I have connections back home where I can have a set of protective items made for you personally and where they are manifest stable and do not require to be placed back in the near Unseen or elsewhere once you have them. A possible prayer at dawn might be required, but I will work those details out with the smith. Would you wish for these items to become reality?”

“What exactly do you have in mind?” Ami asked as she started to make her way back towards the bus stop.

“Nothing as crude as some of the arcane items I have seen, but something that would not be out of place for you. I would need measurements and an approval for them all.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” she said. “Will I owe you my soul for them or something?”

“I am not a crass devil! No, this is part of the contract that has already been made. My funds should be more than enough to commission the smith. He does fine magical work.”

Ami rolled her eyes.

“I am serious, his family has made many of my weapons and my bracelet.”

“…No bracelets, I dislike things on my wrist.”

I nodded. “Noted.”

We rode in silence for the rest of the way back to the apartment. The city was strange and wonderful, not at all like the megaopolises of Hattara-9 or the Earth of my last visit. It felt as if it lay in some sort of transition phase, and a choice would soon be before it. While I could discuss this with Nit and Chokoris after the mission, I needed to focus. I had gotten to talk to more of the local air while the bus moved through town and confirmed the disturbance in the ley lines from it. Hopefully Konk would be forthcoming with connecting with his friends sooner rather than later.

After a bit of rest at the apartment, I let Ami know that I was going to be out of contact for a while, and warned her to keep an eye on her surroundings. After she acknowledged it, I stepped out of the apartment and onto the nearest big green space, and made the jump to Tir to put in the commission with Grandmaster Lazarus’ grandson, Reyvel.

Binara: Precluded Thoughts

Tags

Ethereal, Faerie, fiction, superhero, superhero origins, superheroine, Sylph

I am not proud of falling asleep like I did that first time I stayed at Ami’s dwelling.  Normally I have enough energy to last weeks of this world’s time when on a mission.  It must have been all the jumps and paperwork I was subject to, plus the glamour usage in those fights.  Ami’s squirming around on the way back didn’t help any, either.

Over the next few days, I took it upon myself to both recuperate as best I could, taking some glamour from the strong emotions in Ami’s practicum class when they were talking about racism, and using a few of my legacy titles to strengthen the spiritual wards to her residence, which were laughably weak.  I was unsure as to why the glamour from this class tasted like both passion and near-rage, but didn’t ask Ami while she was studying.

When I did, she gave me a pointed look as we walked down the street towards what she called a “bus stop”.

“It’s a touchy subject for most people that are aware of it,” She said as she searched in her bag for something.  “Generally it is the systemic oppression of those that are of different colored skin than the white European colonizers that came here in the 1600s and never left.  Most overt oppression isn’t as common as it was in the 1960s, but it still happens and the news doesn’t even cover it unless there’s a cop and a death involved.”

I digested this for a moment.  “It doesn’t make sense to treat others of the same species unfavorably,” I said as we stood at a sign with a bench beside the road.  “Even worlds where there are multiple sentient species have some form of egalitarianism to them.”

Ami looked mildly shocked that I told her there was more life out there than humanity.  She took a few minutes before she spoke again.  “There are some people that extend the definition to how superhumans have been treated since the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act.  I can see where they are coming from, but I want to make my own conclusions once I have read the entire law with notes first.”

A stranger on the bus gave Ami a questioning look before sticking their head into a print publication.

“I think I understand now,” I said, trying to keep to an open chair where my wings wouldn’t need to pass through solid matter in the near Unseen.  I dislike that feeling.  “Humanity here hasn’t yet reached a point where they consider others different from themselves as valid and equal, and it is one of their active struggles to do so.  Well then, I would wish them to go down the path of ma’at if I were allowed to, but it is not my active mission.”

“What is your active mission, anyways?”

“Now that you have become my liaison to this world, you have a right to know at least some of the details.  I am to find out who or what is disturbing the energy flow in the area and stop them, using force if I have to.”  I felt the pommel of my sword and watched an order spirit float by as we sat at a traffic control stop.

We sat in silence for the rest of the ride to where Ami had an appointment.  She bade me to stay in the waiting room while she went into a different part of the office.  Since I was supposed to see the city with her afterwards, I was inclined to oblige.  There were more people around the clean and stark white walls, sitting in what looked to be mildly comfortable chairs around the room as the early afternoon light streamed in from the partially open blinds on a window on the far side from the entrance.  There were a few small tables that held glossy print reading material a few years out of date smattered among the chairs.

Many of the people that sat in that waiting room had some strange phenomena around them in the near Unseen.  A few had their heads’ energy fragmented, some were pierced with an ethereal screw of their own auras, one’s khu, or protective energy field, was torn nearly in half and the sides were arguing, and then there were the two that shouldn’t have been there.  One was a netjeri of the world who kept on poking the head of a man and laughing when he reacted, and the other was a human male in his near middle years almost encased in shadow.

I knew what the shadow meant, but I wasn’t here for it.  I have to be given orders for most of my duties, otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed to interfere.  I did note its signature for later to give to Alex, one of my coworkers, and have their people assess it once I was done here.

The netjeri, however, was another case entirely.

I gave him a withering gaze.  “Could you not torment one of Netjer’s children?” I asked.  “It is hard enough for them to be mortal as is without being prodded by pranks.”

The goblin-like netjeri turned and sneered at me.  “And who are you to be liking humans, huh?  You should be joining in on the fun, not berating me for it!”

“I do not enjoy harming humans.  In fact, my employer would be annoyed with me if I were to sink that low.”

“Sounds like your employer is a no-fun yuppie.”  He went back to poking the human on the head.

“My employers are Lady Nit-Nebthet-Seshat and Master Shu, you low-bred ingrate!  Have you never even heard of them?!”  My wings flitted fast and the trees outside shook in the breeze.

“Nope, I would have if they had power here.”

I growled.  No one gets away with insulting me without paying a price.  “I’m warning you, for the sake of those I have protected, even went intensive for, stop or you will force my hand.”

“Make me, bitch!”

I brought my hand to my necklace.  “Oh noble House of Reshanuke, hear my cry!  A commoner has defied the law of which I have laid down.  Hear the blood of my veins and the air of which I am borne and help me to enforce the law that has been set forth of which is to not harm one of Netjer’s children for personal gain!”

He looked back at me as I felt the necklace warm and my forehead mark start to hum.  “Bl-blood?!”  He jumped off the man’s lap and hid behind a table.  “S-s-stop please!  I won’t do it again!”

“And there the commoner weeps, the force of name applied stalls his hands from the break and the sword from his neck.  Know, Reshanuke, that I calm thee now, but keep eyes for his misdeeds for a year and a day.  If he breaks his vow, he shall know the full incant.”  The necklace cooled and my forehead mark went inert, acknowledging the deferment of sentence by one of my legacy titles.

He breathed a sighed of relief.  “I thought you were some messenger sylph!”

“I am the first daughter of the main line of House Reshanuke, out on my given duty by the Netjeru themselves.  They are gods, and they have power here.”

“Shit…I apologize Lady Reshanuke.  I haven’t been to Dannania or Tir in some time, but even I know not to mess with that name.”

I sighed and shook my head.  There are times I wish I could get away with not using my noble heritage in the multiverse, but fate and stubborn faerie folk deem my titles be used, in spite of what I have become.  “You and I both.  My work keeps me from there most of the time, anyways.”

“Wait, you mean you’re THAT one?”  He looked at me strangely.

Before I could muster up the words to answer, the shadow enveloped human started squirming and yelling.  His normal companion tried to ask them what was wrong, but was pushed aside as it got up out of his chair and started to swing at me.  It gave me the feeling of what Ami would call goosebumps or the freezies, where it tingles like when Alex and I spar and they get a hit in with an electric spell, but cold as it passed through my arm and shoulder.

I regarded it with a disinterest as the companion went to get the office staff.  It couldn’t hurt me in the slightest unless it wanted to disembark from the human it was possessing, and what creature of that type would give up a ride, anyways?  I rolled my eyes at it as it said garbled nonsense with the next swing.

A few of the office staff in blue uniforms came through the inner door that Ami had went into and hooked their arms into his, restraining him.  He fights against them to break free in vain, flips me a universally insulting sign, and talks garbled more.  At this point, I wondered if the shadow was trying to get a rise out of me, when the netjeri took to hiding again.

He struggled against his captors and finally slipped them as he bit one of them and swung at me again.  The rest of the people in the room seem terrified at this man, but to them, he was just attacking an empty space in the middle of the waiting room.

“It…will…destroy,” The hoarse voice of the man said before being grappled once more by the staff.

I furrowed my brow.  I did not want to hear the nonsense this shadow had to say.

Just then, I felt a glare of dazzling light behind me and the sound of wings as I knew something had come through.  In the fading gleam, I spotted the female companion to the possessed man had her hands clasped together and her eyes closed while uttering something.

That meant one thing to me: trouble.

In one fluid movement, I stepped to the side, kept my wings closed and felt the rush of aetheric air as a small bird-winged humanoid rushed past me in a chain shirt towards the possessed man.

“For His glory,” I heard the winged humanoid say as he swung a mace of silver at the man and knocked the shadow out of him.  The man went limp as the shadow crashed into the far wall and the office staff looked bewildered at where the man’s fight went.

It takes the sickly shadow thing a second, but it starts to panic as it sees the body it had been riding out cold with the bird-winged humanoid standing near it.  It started to look around the room for a vulnerable person to hop into.

It spotted the khu split individual after a few shove offs from some fields around a couple.  I reached down onto my sword scabbard, flipped open the catch on the auxiliary sheath and withdrew one of my daggers.

It leapt, but I intercepted it before the winged humanoid could turn its head and slashed its shoulder.

“Ish’ta mo souri!  Daggers of the multiverse, send the marked to the Lake of Fire that deals with his kind! Kheperu, Nekhtet!” I said and a rip opened up not inches from the legs of the khu split woman and sucked the shadow into it before closing cleanly.

The bird winged humanoid scanned the room for its next target before its unfeeling eyes landed on the netjeri.

The netjeri was cowering behind the table.  “Please, I didn’t do anything wrong to that guy!  Spare me!”

It started to cross the room towards the netjeri, as from the corner of my gaze, I saw a flutter of a small human headed bird race past my wing towards the unconscious man’s body, as if guided by a rope being reeled in.

“Enough!” I said to it.  “You’ve answered her prayer and taken out that foul shadow from her companion’s body.  There doesn’t need to be any innocent destruction today.”

It turned its head towards me and twirled its mace.  “You took the glory of the kill from Him.  He should punish you.”

“I am not one of that god’s brood, nor was I ever.  He does not hold dominion over me.  If that one has a complaint, they should bring it up with my Master and Lady, and if they want to kill that shadow so badly, they should directly speak to Wepwawet-Yienpu.  For now, though, let us have peace.”

The netjeri nodded.  “I’m not going to harm him.  Look, his conscious spirit has almost regained control!”

My eyes flicked to the man, and saw a warm glow radiating from his abdomen as the office staff had him on his back and were trying to revive him.  He took a big gulp of air and his eyes fluttered open.

Suddenly, it was within melee range and swinging its mace at me.  I raised my dagger and caught the mace head with the flat of my blade.

“You are too powerful to not be in His service,” It said, white wings outspread.  “You shall bow down to Him.”

“I refuse to bow down to one who hates my kind and doesn’t give his own servants free will,” I growled and shifted, bringing his forward movement headlong into the window.  “Not to mention the atrocities that I have seen committed in that one’s name!  Return whence you came, your deed is done!”

It gave me a look of mild annoyance, then hooked into the light and was gone.

After I wiped the shadow’s viscera from the blade, I returned the dagger to its sheath and secured it, then wiped my brow.  “I hate angelics.”

Once it had returned to being passably peaceful in the near unseen, the netjeri sprung from its hiding place.  “Thank you Lady Reshanuke!  Thank you for saving me!”

“It was nothing,” I said and walked over to the man, who was still woozy and on the floor.  “I do not wish for us to have a sword fallen on our necks simply for existing in the same room as what was their action.”  I squatted over him as the staff used a datapad-like device to see how his airflow was doing.  I did a little incant to help his healing speed along as his khu started to reform from the shreds the shadow had left when I felt a glare on me.

“How could you?!” I heard Ami say under her breath as she stomped towards me.  “I leave you alone for ninety minutes and you’ve gone and hurt an innocent man!”

I finished the incant and snapped my fingers to initiate it before standing.  “I was not the one who did this–”

“Save your excuses, I don’t want to hear them!”

“I am not making excuses!”

“Lady Reshanuke is right,” the netjeri said and drew Ami’s attention.  “I saw the whole thing.  She saved my life, and that guy’s after the angelic knocked a really bad possessor out of him.  Probably would have lost his life after consuming his internal energy so his soul wouldn’t have anything to come home to.”

Ami looked to both of us.  “But she was standing over him…and who are you anyways?”

“Call me Konk,” the netjeri said.  “It’s rare these days to have a human notice us on this side of the veil.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Ami said and gave me a cautious look.

“I was only helping his healing process along,” I said.  “Possession can be quite taxing on a mortal’s body, even to those who are trained.  A near total shutting out of a person’s conscious soul for however long he was controlled for has eaten many years from his life, but stimulating the healing process will help get some of that time back.  This is much like the work on the ley lines I was sent to do, but obviously smaller.”  I dusted the front of my sky blue dress off.  “Usually Alex takes care of the possessors and other things of personal evil.”

Ami looked like she was going to ask a question, but was interrupted by Konk.

“You said ley lines?  I know where the main one is around here.  I can take you there,” He said.

I smiled slightly.  “Would you happen to know of any disturbances in the flow of it, and what the source of those disturbances are?”

“I don’t know about any disturbances, but my friends that live in the area might.  I can negotiate for information about that from them as thanks for saving me from that angelic.”

I nodded.  “That would be helpful, thank you.”

“I could take you today if you want.”

Ami shook her head.  “I still need to get some ink from the store for my printer.”

“It would be better if you got in touch with your friends so that we will be expected first,” I said.  “That way it won’t be seen as rude.  Meet us at the university in front of their library once you’ve finished the arrangements.  We will discuss then what day we will be able to visit.”

Konk nodded.  “I hope I can find them, I’ve lost contact with a couple over the past few human weeks.  Surely they’re just pulling my chain, like they usually do.”  He looked to Ami.  “It’s been decades since I’ve pestered someone who can see me…”

Ami snorted before she started for the exit, to the relief of the rest of the people in the office.  “No way in hell am I going to have you bother me, especially when I have class tomorrow.”

I gave him a sidelong look before we walked out.  “Some netjeri never learn…”

“Netjeri?”

“It’s a catch-all term for non-human and non-god entities like myself.  He is of more common stock, though.”

“I didn’t think that there were levels, just spirits and humans.”

I smiled slightly.  “There’s much you do not seem to know about this side of the veil.”  A thought popped into my head and I tapped it into my red-green crystalnium servitor’s bracelet for later.

“It’s not like my parents taught me about it,” Ami said, looking a bit forlorn.  “They hated anything that didn’t fit their worldview.”

“Well, it is not their perspective that sees me, it is yours.  You will need to know some about the world you see, in order to defend yourself.  Since you are my liaison, I can help you with that.”

“Before that, shopping for ink,” Ami said as we stepped onto the bus.

I nodded and followed suit.  “And seeing the city.”

Then we were off.

Psycat’s Blurbs: The ‘cane that Clogged the Drain

Tags

current events, fiction, patrol, rescue, superhero, superheroine

Hey ya’ll!  An officially overtired Psycat here with an update from the very wet city of Houston.  Sometimes I wonder why I type these up before I go to bed instead of after I get up, but then I remember that I’m shit at getting ready in the late morning.  My night cat tendencies are probably why I work as a pizza driver and not some office job.  That, and I’ve gotten used to doing light checks on the neighborhoods in my delivery area.  I swear, if I had a dime for every fat joke and call out or fashion sense post that one reporter that keeps a running blog about my patrols throws out there, I’d be able to pay the rent without having to dip into my tips.  Let’s see him try to hand make several cheongsam blouses after your first and overall favorite one gets ripped to smithereens by The Mist’s ice shards with bandages on his hands.

Ah, but ya’ll don’t want to hear my complaining about Nick Meyer, one of Houston’s more “reputable” superhero bloggers that occasionally gets his pieces mentioned on the local news.  Ya’ll probably want the low down on the Hurricane Hugh (currently called Hurricane Spew by Marcus and I) and the efforts of the local and out of town heroes to help those effected by the floods and damage.  Lemme tell ya, it is still an ongoing effort, and a big one at that.  Everyone, from more famous heroes to the little guy, to even some villains on probation, have been helping out with this disaster.

Now, in case you aren’t in the US or have been without internet/media for the past few weeks, Hurricane Hugh was a slow moving tropical storm when it went over the Yucatan.  It almost fizzled, but got over the Gulf and rapidly intensified to be a category four hurricane.  There’s only five categories on the scale.  The last category 5 to hit the Gulf Coast was Rita back in 2005.  With Hugh, it sat out over the water for a few days and then slammed into Rockport like that damn Nazi who slammed into protesters a month or so ago.  Then it proceeded to sit on its ass and weaken to a tropical storm, but dump nearly three feet worth of rainfall on the Houston metroplex.  It took its time, going back out to the Gulf, and is now tormenting East Texas and Louisiana as a tropical depression.

As a Houstonian, hurricanes and tropical storms are nothing new.  I was a teenager when Allison blew through here and I barely had a chance to breathe from the Hippo incident that tore up I45 before Ike blew in.  Bast knows that I tried to keep looters down in my area, but I wasn’t confident in switching gears to search and rescue.  I’d only ever dealt with bad guys and sniffing out a few plots at that point, so I kept a low profile and did volunteer work on a few days off for that storm.  When Hugh threatened to Zora scootch through here, I kept an eye on the weather reports and did my usual business until work got flooded in the early morning hours of Sunday.  Thank gods the owner has flood insurance since the building is within the 500 year floodplain, and knows that our city makes a ruler look lumpy.  I’d probably be out of a job if he didn’t.

So, what did I do with the time I usually reserve for work?  When the water took out work, I knew I needed to hightail it out of my apartment complex for Marcus’ place.  His house sits on higher ground than where I live, so I got a few things, Ibet in her carrier, and took my way of earning a living and crashed there.  With some of my stuff and kitty secure, I took initiative (and a custom made poncho) to do patrol and assess the damage.

The first neighborhood I flew to was already underwater.  I could barely see the edges of the roofs of the one story houses there.  The news had said that the Coast Guard wasn’t flying because of the rain still falling.  I can tell you that most of our city’s heroes care little and less about the rain, and those that do typically run support in times like this.  I think I was the first one on the scene, since most of the efforts had been concentrated around the bayous at that point.

I was going down low to the water to call out to survivors when I heard a coach’s whistle crack the air with its shrill noise to my left.  Shrouded behind a grand oak tree was a couple on their roof, soaked to the bone.  I picked up speed and did a sharp bank to get to them, but got branch slapped in the face.  Shows me for showing off.

“Are ya’ll ok?” I asked after spitting out very woody leaves.

“We were until this morning,” the man in a Rice University T-shirt said.  “The water came up so suddenly, it was all we could do to get up here with a small bag.”

I noticed a hole in the roof off to my right.  His wife held a backpack and fanny pack against her legs.

“Alright, I’m gonna get you two out of here,” I said.  “It’ll be a little more unconventional than the Cajun Navy coming in, but it’s something.”  I pulled a length of the high tensile cable out from its winch on the Psydisk and did my best impression of a foothold knot from my time in Girl Scouts.  I checked it to make sure it would hold before lowering it down.  “I can only hold one at a time.  Who wants to go first?”

“Is there no way we can ride up with you?”  The wife asked.

“Not safely,” I said.  “The deck’s slick and I don’t want ya’ll to get injured by the ankhs or get your feet too close to the emitter.  Plus I may need to bank and I don’t want ya’ll falling.”

The couple considered this for a moment before the wife volunteered to go first.

“How do I…?”

“Just slip a foot into the loop and hold onto the cable as best you can.  The cable can hold a good half ton on its own, and the winch and mount are rated for about the same.”

“What about the contraption?”  The man asked.  “Will it hold?”

I smiled wearily.  “The Psydisk can hold me and another six hundred pounds.  I’ve hauled many less savory people with this rig, but this will be a first for rescues.  Shouldn’t be too much different, save the knot.”

The woman stepped into the loop and grabbed some slack.  “Ready!”

I nodded.  “I’ll be back for you after I drop her off,” I said and raised the Psydisk to where the line was taut and off the roof.  I got up high enough that the power lines wouldn’t bother her and slowly proceeded away from the Addicks reservoir.  It took a few minutes, but I spotted a non-flooded area as we cruised down the stream that was Highway 6.  I dropped her off there and got her husband to the Chase before annoying one of the cops at the street blockade to get them to a shelter.

He begrudgingly called in the transport for them.  “You know, it’s only because of the flooding stretching our manpower so thin that I won’t arrest your butt this time,” He said.

“Hey, we all gotta do our part,” I said.  “Houston’s home, and it isn’t my fault that the federal government screwed up in their dealing with supers.”

The officer shook his head.  “I don’t make the laws, I just enforce them.  Now get out of here before the transport shows.”

I obliged him and got back to searching the neighborhood.

 

After a few more rescues like that, I was beat.  There had to be some quicker way of getting evacuees to staging points.  I posted to the Confessions chat (yes, we have a little chatroom and no, I will not add anyone that I don’t personally know in there) asking for help in the rescue effort before laying down for a nap.  Ibet joined me, and lulled me into a very deep sleep I hadn’t had in ages.

That was shot to shit when I rolled over to see Senet-Ra standing over me.

“What the?!” I bolted upright.

“I was wondering when you’d get your butt up,” She said, tail flicking lazily.

“Huh, wha…?”

“You sleep more soundly than my mom.”

Ibet jumped off the bed.  “I don’t normally get sleep that good nowadays.  What are you doing here?”

“Your post on the group chat ring a bell?  Seriously, your one of Bast’s chosen and you can’t remember that?”

I reached for my glasses.  “Sorry, my memory is foggy when I first wake up.”

Senet gave me an endearing look and patted my shoulder before heading out the door.  “Come on, Edfu is waiting in the living room.”

I grouchily meandered to the couch and saw Marcus playing a game of checkers with a hawk on the coffee table.  The laptop I brought was set aside on an edge of the sectional, still whirring in sleep mode.  I plopped near it and took in the almost humorous sight of Edfu trying to move a piece with his beak.

“King me,” He said after placing the piece down with his too deep for his body voice.

“That’s not even a legal move!” Marcus contested.  “You jumped an empty space to get there!”

“Well, that rulebook you showed me is confusing with all its logic jumps.  I much prefer this move.”

Marcus covered his face in his hands and sighed.  “Try to teach a bird to play games…”

I set the laptop on my lap and woke it up.  There was a few messages from Senet-Ra and a surprising one from The Herald.  It seemed as if Marcus got the details settled while I was asleep.  I closed the lid once more as Senet sat down.

“So, when did ya’ll get in?”

“About an hour ago,” Senet-Ra said.  “Edfu wouldn’t let me ignore the chat after I finished my homework, so we hopped the last flight to Dallas and drove the rest of the way.”

“That city is damn confusing by car,” Edfu said.  “Even Cairo is better.”

I snorted.  “You’re not the only one who thinks that.  Did Anicat contact ya’ll?”

Senet shook her head.  “Kinsuke wasn’t responding.”

“Figures, with how bouncy she is.”

“Lapis and Ami aren’t able to come,” Marcus said.  “It’s too sudden of a shift for them, and Binara’s off world.”

“That’s Lady Binara to you, human,” Edfu said and picked a better move.

Marcus gave him an annoyed look.  “I don’t normally deal with faerie nobility, so besa mi cola, bird breath.”

“Watch it, I saw the remnants of a burrito on the counter earlier,” I said with a smirk.

Senet chuckled.  “I guess we’ll see Herald coming in soon, but do we want to wait for her and possibly Kinsuke, since she’s likely to tag along, or do we want to get the operation started?”

I stretched.  “I think we should hop on it, if ya’ll are ready.”

“Quite,” Edfu said.

“Where should we star–” Marcus’ stomach interrupted Senet.

“Hey, it’s not like I’ve been waiting for Psycat to get up for dinner…”

The awkward silence stretched for several minutes.

“I could use some hunting time, unless you have some meat that agrees with my stomach in the cooling box?” Edfu said.

Several smiles were exchanged, and I got up to start dinner.

 

(To be continued!)

Psycat’s blurbs: State of the Pin

Tags

superhero, superheroine, weird moments

Ok, I have a bit of a rant that I need to let off since I’ve been seeing way too much of this on patrol the past few days.  I’m sure you all know by now what has happened in the USA, but for those of you who have been away from the media for the past week or so, let me fill you in.  This past Tuesday was election day, and a man named Charles Dampher was elected President of the USA in an upset by the electoral college while the popular vote went to Lara Flinters.  This man, whom I have pejoratively called the Toupinator to my colleagues and Marcus, beat out a woman who was more qualified than him by standing on a platform of hatred of minorities and generally anyone that isn’t white, straight, and/or male.

What does this have to do with my patrols, you may ask?  First off, the man is an SRA apologist who wants to make the current system stronger and put heftier sentences on operating without registering, but that’s not the biggest thing at the moment.  (I know, Psycat not seeing the SRA as the bigger thing?  Some big turds have to be going on)  The biggest thing of the moment is that I’m seeing a rise in hate crimes while I’m out on patrol from both normal and superpowered people on said minorities.

These jerks have taken the election results as a free pass to do whatever they want to those who are different from them.  It doesn’t matter to them that there are laws in place, cops around, and supers patrolling, they just go for it.  Earlier today when I was down off of Montrose helping the gayborhood’s new super get to know the layout of the roads, a truck full of dudebros was harassing a lesbian couple just walking on their way to one of the restaurants.  We both had our eyes on the scene as they pulled into the couple’s path, a few of the guys hopped out of the car, and started to try to physically assault them.  Obviously Red Jade and I weren’t about to let that happen in front of our faces and not do anything about it.  They ignored both our warnings (and one of the assholes flipped me the bird) and went for the smaller of the two’s genitalia.  That’s when Red Jade rushed the closest guy as I gave the groper a massive migraine, then yelled at the couple to run and call the cops.  I’ve never seen women in stiletto heels run so fast.  While I was admiring their skill in heels, one of the jackholes decided that I was a punching bag and knocked me to the ground with a right cross.  That fucking hurt, even with the psychokinetic net softening the blow and then translating some of it to a headache.  This is why I say I don’t take punches too well, because I was on my back for what felt like hours nursing my hurting jaw.

The puncher got up to me and straddled me, crowing about it being Dampher’s country now and they could do what they want.  He was starting to go for my cheongsam blouse when I kicked him in the nuts with my steel toed boots and shoved him off of me as he cradled his junk in his hands.  I scrambled to my feet to see Red Jade duking it out with the driver of the truck and one of the guys he’d dealt with getting up with a pistol in his hands.  I wasn’t about to have that, so I telepathically grabbed a hold of the gun, hit the guy in the face with the slide several times as I was shaking it loose from his grip, dropped the clip, then ejected the chamber round without firing it and tossed it into a nearby storm drain.  There was a quip about fighting fair I was working up, but I had to migraine the nutbusted guy before he could grab me.  Eventually Red Jade and I had knocked out and/or bloodied the jerks and were in the process of tying the bastards up in the bed of their truck when the police and the SRA showed up to take them off our hands.

The problem with the police having the SRA there is that they’re more dogged about pursuing unregistered supers like myself and Red Jade than they are about hate crimes.  I guess I’ve earned a reputation with the local SRA office as one of the more infuriating supers to attempt to bring in for registration and prosecution that as soon as the sergeant taking our statements went to put them into his computer, they were attempting to stun me with tasers.  Naturally Red Jade, an already twitchy martial artist from the Austin area originally, knocked the taser pistol out of the agent’s hand before running.  This gave me time to flick open the Psydisk from tail form and hop on before the agent could grab his gun and start shooting at me.

I got about to the HCC Downtown building before their chopper caught up with me.  I ended up having to bob and weave through the skyline and medical districts and then duck into a tunnel to completely lose the chopper.  I’ve never had to hide in the Houston underground so long before, and I don’t care to again.  I still can’t believe that Marcus had told me the steel toed boots weren’t worth their weight when I got them last month.  Shows him.

Anyways, situations like this have been becoming more commonplace that I’ve started to wear a safety pin on my work uniform and my regular street clothes to let those who are marginalized know that I’m a safe person to talk to if there’s a harasser bothering them.  I know it’s not much of a gesture for most people, but there are several of the supers community that are supporting this, so don’t be surprised if a super calls you by name if you talked to a safe space person earlier in the day.  We do walk among the civilians in plain clothes, going about our day, the same as you do.  We just happen to serve our communities in more than one way.

See ya!

Psycat

Psycat’s blurbs: Interconnectivity

Tags

fiction, Psychic superheroine, superhero, superheroine

As those of you who keep an eye on our little community blog here should know, Binara and Ami are starting to contribute.  Ami’s told me that she’s a bit busy with work right now, so she’ll be writing on their posts when she gets the chance.  I respect you for that, sometimes I get assigned to evening shift at work too and it cuts into patrol times and any relaxation I get afterwards.  Ah, sometimes I miss marathoning my favorite long series anime…

Anyways, all this activity has seemed to draw another one of our community member’s attention (as she finally got back to me almost six months after I messaged her about this place), and she will be posting sometime soon.  Rai Kinsuke’s one really weird nekojin.  You heard me right, she’s a cat person.  Not the way that Senet-Ra is, but born that way.  Before I’d met her and Herald a few years ago, I thought most supers were science or magic based.  I almost got my hand shredded trying to pet her ears, but it was so worth it.  I hope you’re looking forward to her posting as much as I am.

I did ask about Herald’s story, but all I got from Rai is that she’s been busy with work.  It’s understandable, I’m sure we’ll hear from her once work lightens up.  Speaking of work, Lapis has been keeping Marcus and I busy recently with some sort of tech analysis for a case she’s working on.  Something about a techie villain calling card written into a ritual item of some sort.

My injury that I got from work is almost completely healed now (thank the gods).  It’s kind of embarrassing really how it happened.  Basically, I threw out my back while on my way back to the car from delivering an order because I slipped on a wet sponge on the guy’s tile porch.  It’s damn good that worker’s comp picked it up or else I wouldn’t be able to afford the meds and diagnostics they had to do.  I’ve been off work for a couple of weeks and Marcus wouldn’t let me go out on patrol for most of it.  I’m eager to get back to work and not let the jerks of the city have the run of the place, either.  Thankfully one of the cross-town heroes has been generous enough to pick up my slack until I am able to get back on my feet.  Heck, I might go see who’s at Comicpalooza this year before I have to return to work.

I know it’s belated, but I hope that all of our readers found time to honor the fallen for Memorial Day.  I treat it as a day for the ancestors.  There are also several of our superhero brethren who have fallen in the line of duty and they deserve that moment of silence as well.  Go West, and be judged in right Razorwhip, Neutronia, Velvet Gem, and Ectarr.  The world was better for you, and will mourn your absence.  And for those who wish to pick up this mantle, think long and hard about it.  It is not a game, but a calling.  Make sure you have your affairs in order should something go awry, and until we have the SRA straightened out, I’ll advise against registering.  Save yourself from the pain that Velvet Gem went through when Lodestone found her on the database, tortured and killed her and her husband.  It still happens, even to those starting out.

Psycat

Binara: Immortal Gaze, Questioning Voice

Tags

Faerie, fiction, superhero, superheroine, superheroine origins, Sylph

Greetings, dear children of Netjer.  I am Binara, observer of your world and corrector of transgressions towards ma’at on a universal and multiversial scale.  I have been contacted by an acquaintance through the near Unseen plane in order to tell my specific story to this world.  While I don’t understand why a human would want to know my origins, they are valuable in keeping the local balance in order, so cooperating is in our best interest.

Yes, I said “our”.  I have a human I work with in this plane that knows the oddities of human culture better than I do.  I tend to let her do the translation and working of technology for me so I don’t “short anything out”, as she likes to say.  While my story does include her, it starts well before this star system fully settled, so I will get to her involvement in time.  For now, however, let me summarize my existence up until my current assignment here.

I was created much around the time that this star was forming and the atoms for air and water were coalescing in the area.  The gods that created me aren’t the ones I serve currently, so I only see them as respectful elders, not ones to be obeyed.  Things weren’t as interesting as many of the scientific community here would like to believe, so I will gloss over most of my early history of helping the worlds become what they are.  I am what most humans would call a sylph by creation, and I serve along with two others who are more aligned with fire and light.  I do have a younger sibling, but she does not travel the worlds like I do.  Instead I believe she is only able to exist within a certain world, which is not this one and I will not divulge which one, lest they find out how us faerie reproduce.

I’ve been on many a balancing trip, but what tied me to Shu and Nit was managing the creation of an inland sea, upon which they learned my true name.  To all beings, even a human, the learning of the ren by someone other than their creators and themselves can bind you to their command.  In all my millennia of service to these Netjeru, they have been nothing but kind and have only but once had to use it.  In their service, I have blossomed.

It was on one of these balancing missions that I met my partner Ami.  I had been charged with coming to this world and investigating the cause of a disturbance that was blocking the ley lines of the earth on the eastern seaboard of the North American continent by Nit, and while peaceful resolution is preferable, force was authorized if necessary.  Within a earth day I was prepared to make the jump, and when I sealed the gate I had stepped through I was in what Ami calls Charlotte, North Carolina.  It had been many centuries since I’d been to this world, instead working off towards a different cluster of dimensions and star systems, so I didn’t know that the human population had exploded here.

I was quite fascinated by all the ways that civilization had been built up that I had lost my way in my wandering.  I tried to reach out to those humans on the street, but even those I stood in front of ignored me and several walked through me.  It was such a rude gesture, ignoring me, that I ended up even more lost in the near Unseen of the city and near a coliseum many times that of the Roman one I was familiar with.  I could hear the cheers of many people from inside the building, and saw how much collective energy it had from the position I was in.  The nearby minor ley line danced in its pulsing to the time of the music that played, seemingly happy that the humans were there.

I was curious as to what festivities were going on, so I took wing and circled over the open air of the arena.  The protrusions on top of the structure looked stable enough, so I landed upon one to get a better view and not use my wings so much.  I had been much more used to traveling the in-between at the time, so I was still getting used to being back in atmosphere.  There were these humans playing a game on grass unlike any game I’d seen before in this world, carrying around a ball of some sort.  When the runner got to the edge of the field, the crowd roared with delight, and the music played again.  The language that was over the loudspeaker wasn’t one I was familiar with, but the emotions of the crowd were as timeless as the human race.  I could feel the energy pouring off them, and since I was getting a little winded from the journey, took a little from the burst of the cheer for myself.

I was feeling a bit more refreshed when the wind changed and a shadow came over the arena.  Looking up, I saw a balloon of some sort flying extremely low, but not many of the humans looked up.  It wasn’t until the balloon started firing laser shots at the field that they took notice.  I could sense an imbalanced air from that balloon as the screen on the side spouted the language and then the fear level rose.  The figure on the screen held up a device waveringly and then the screams started.  I could sense the imbalance growing as the people tried to run but froze as the man said something.  However, the imbalance was smaller than my action threshold, so I continued to observe the scene as the man on the screen laughed.

It was then I felt a change coming from the north.  It was far, but it would arrive in a few minutes.  It was of an equal caliber of the imbalanced man, but on the side of ma’at.  I sighed, told the air in the area to switch to a slight wind that would give him a tailwind, and waited for it to translate to the Seen world.  While I wouldn’t involve myself directly in this imbalance correction, I could at least support the one who would in some way.

It did seem to help, as the wind kicked up a few seconds after the command and sped the balancing presence up a bit, arriving a minute earlier than he would have.  They had some words, this flying human and the blimp screen man before the white and blue outfitted man charged the blimp and drew from it the man who was on the screen moments before.  Their fight started a chain reaction of innocents fleeing in terror, the sides of the arena being damaged, and general mayhem.  It wasn’t until most of the place was cleared when the imbalanced tech man dropped the device that the explosions started happening.  With that, I could see the evil radiate off of him as he laughed.  The strongman punched him into the protrusion I was standing on then, making it wobble.  The tech man then in turn grappled it, ripping it loose from the stadium and threw it at the strongman, to which he mostly dodged.

This left me without a perch and a bit disillusioned about how sturdy it was.  I drew up in altitude to see the ley line quivering, shrinking, as if in fear.  If the fight were to go on long enough, it could lose power entirely.  Then I noticed it.  The now unattended balloon made its way towards the arena’s sign, and the way it hit pushed it towards the outside of the arena.  The balloon kept going, and broke the bonds the sign had on the arena, sending it freefalling towards the innocents still trying to clear the place.

With the effect on the ley line, combined with the sign, there was no time to call from the unseen.  I slipstream manifested under the path of the sign’s fall and even with the binding that manifestation gives me, called the tornado that is my kin and stopped the sign’s fall feet from the tallest mortal head.  I pushed the sign back into the arena, gently setting it upon the now empty seats and then settled the wind in the area.  I looked around to the humans, now staring in shock at me, including one that had tripped and was sitting upon the pavement.

“A’ho la sigh laugh?” I called.  “Shimasha?”  Their stares didn’t beg comprehension.  I sighed.  “Seneb?  Farshouta?  Minna-san, daijoubu ka? Ah, fre’katoum…”  I was frustrated by their lack of understanding of the languages I know.  Walking over to the woman on the pavement, I offered my hand.  She reluctantly took it and I helped her up.  She said something and then the air that was around me understood.  It poured the knowledge of the language into my being, like it had many times before.

Releasing her hand I called again.  “Is anyone hurt?  I don’t want injured humans on my watch.”  I looked around, and they were in shock again, but this time understood.  Most shook their heads, which I discerned by their body language was a negative.  A few said yes.  “Those of you who aren’t injured and can bear the weight, help those that are to the nearest healer!  The fight’s still going on in there and I intend to stop it.”

They stared at me some again before the woman I helped up seemed to ascertain what I was saying.  “Alright people, get those that have wounds out of here!  Someone’s bound to have called 911 by now since Manifesto attacked, so there should be ambulances on the way.  Let’s not let anyone else get hurt by staying here!”

I smiled slightly and nodded, then took to the air to put an end to the fight.  When I got close, I drew a pocket of air into a super concentrated ball, then sent the blast out, separating the warring humans.

“Enough!” I yelled.  “Your fight is not only damaging the arena here, but is weakening the ley line near here and almost killed many of Netjer’s children!  If you intend to fight more, I will be forced to step in.”  I could feel my shining heart forehead mark blazing with my determination.

“Screw off you mystic freak!”  The tech man said.  “I came to defeat Captain Crusader once and for all, and I won’t have you messing it up!”  He fired a laser at me, barely missing my wingtip.

I sighed.  “You leave me no choice then, imbalancer.  Let it be known that you are interfering with my mission here.”  I pulled the Ice Stars from my belt pouch while the strongman looked at me in wonder.

“Hah, you think those little toys will defeat me, the great Manifesto?”

“They have defeated galactic terrors that would make even the bravest among you go catatonic with fear.”  I charged him, getting within range to throw.

That’s when the strongman decided to bull rush him into the seats.  Manifesto wasn’t down for long, and fired a beam at Crusader, hitting him in the shoulder.  Once he was back in the air, he gave an evil laugh.  I got within range again and threw, nicking his leg.

“So much for your weapon, woman!”

“Oh, really now, imbalancer?  Sluka’augh, Icitaan kutani!” The star I threw came arcing back, nicking his left arm before I caught it.  I looked to Crusader.  “Don’t touch him yet.  There’s a reason these stars are shaped the way they are.”  Crusader nodded and I took a deep breath.  “Ashimia’ata sigurun mietra codai!  Icitaan, tivere!  Ice Stars, work your magic!”  I snapped my fingers at the activation, and the cuts that Manifesto had from the stars flash froze, growing their crystals until he was frozen solid and fell upon the seats again, busting the ice open and wounding him a great deal.

Crusader went to check on him as I replaced the stars in my pouch.  “He shouldn’t be dead,” I said and landed close.  “I cannot kill unless authorized by my Netjeru.”

“He still has a heartbeat,” Crusader said.  “I’ll get him to the SRA branch for treatment and trial.  Now, who are you?’

“Just the corrector of multiversial balances,” I said, then flew off to check and see if the innocents were being cared for.  What I did find were multiple vehicles with flashing lights and that one woman I’d helped up still standing there.  I landed close to her and asked “Why didn’t you run?”

“Because I never got your name.  I’m Ami, Ami Storm.” She extended her hand.

“I am called Binara,” I said and shook her hand.  “Now if you excuse me…”  I slipped back into the near Unseen to check on the ley line and replenish my energy used by manifesting.

“Wait, I have some questions!” She called as I started to walk towards a better position to see the line, which was starting to recover.  “Are those wings grafted or mechanical?  How could you make that whirlwind?”

“You can see me still?”

“What do you mean, of course I can see you.”

I smiled slightly.  “Finally, someone who can see the near Unseen.  Ami, my wings are the ones I was created with, and I’m a sylph, master of the air.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I think your people call mine faerie, and what I did was magic.”

She looked shocked for a moment, then fainted.

Senet-Ra and Edfu: Senet and the Toppled O

Tags

climax, fiction, Magical Woman, superheroine

With midterms finished, the day of the reveal came.  I was quite antsy during prayer to recharge the collar that morning, and the usual soft music I listen to when I’m studying didn’t help much either.  It wasn’t until the full moon rose over the horizon that I calmed my nerves and reminded myself I wasn’t alone.  Agent Brenner would be busting her for her crimes, and I was going to be there if things got out of hand.

It wasn’t until the bus came when I got a call from him on the contact phone to go over the final plan.  I could barely hear him, but I did recognize the parts that we’d already talked about and promised him I’d show.  I’m glad he didn’t know what my real face looked like, or else I’m sure that I would have gotten a visit in class one day.  I definitely did not want that to happen.

The reveal was supposed to be at Entech’s offices, but was moved to a conference center close to there because of the expected attendance level exceeded fire code, or so their website had declared.  Honestly, I was glad that the change was made, as it would allow me to slip off and change partway through the presentation.  As I got off the bus, I noticed the hawk again, sitting in a tree leading to the center, but ignored him in favor of steeling my nerves.  There was a crowd gathered with their tickets to be let into the building, and thankfully I’d gotten mine before midterms had started.  While I knew my mother would hate me using my trust fund to go to an event to bust a crime ring, it was necessary.

Once I finally got in, I noted the nearest bathrooms to the auditorium entrance before I took my seat.  The place was almost packed once the presentation began, and many were dressed in formal attire.  I chose to go a little more low key, as I was there for the bust and not the refreshments afterwards.  The MC droned on a bit about the history of the company, what lead them to greatness, and then introduced Innis.

Once she took the podium, she started a speech about how she came to the company and leading them to even greater technological heights.  The big reveal was one of a serum of nanobots in suspension, that had the potential to heal internal damage and help skin to regrow after being burned severely.  I’ll admit, the tech did intrigue me.  However, after seeing the pictures, I just couldn’t get as excited as the rest of the crowd.

It was at that point that I took my leave to the bathroom and transformed into my super identity.  I went looking for the AV booth and found that one of Agent Brenner’s men was already behind the monitors.  He told me not to worry about the presentation of the audio and to go queue up for the Q&A line.  I stepped over the knocked out Entech booth guy on my way out.

It took a while to get up to my turn on the mic, with various people asking various questions or joking a bit, but as soon as I came forward, I got straight to the point.

“Excuse me, Ms. Innis, but for all your boasting of this tech, I didn’t feel like you had your heart in it.  Perhaps your baby lies in your side business?”  I asked and my tail swished.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She responded.

“Oh, I think you do.  The one that involves trafficking women, girls and some men in the sex slave trade that stretches from here to Cabo.  I know, I’ve got proof and have busted some of those locations here in the city,” I sneered.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong person.”

“Oh, I’m sure I have the right one.  Hit it, AV dude.”

The audio file played over the speaker, loud and clear, of Innis talking to a human trafficker from San Diego and making a deal with him.  She referred to the women being talked about in a very incriminating way and told him that she’d pay a couple of thousand for the lot, but they’d earn back more than twice that in their run up in Portland.

Innis’ eyes went wide, and then livid.  “How did you-I mean that must be doctored to sound like me!”

“I don’t have the equipment to doctor audio files, and before a month ago, I hadn’t heard your voice before.  Give up while we’re at this point, so at least you’ll have some dignity in your fall.”

“Why you bitch!  You’re the one that my right hand warned me about!”

She was just about to step in front of the podium, when Agent Brenner stepped onto stage.  “Claire Innis, FBI.  We’re here to arrest you on charges of conspiracy, human trafficking, kidnapping, distribution of child pornography, and prostitution by proxy.”  He flashed his badge.  “Now I’d rather you come quietly, as Miss Senet-Ra said, than have to pursue more extreme measures.”

I smirked smugly at what I thought was her being cornered.  It turned out that not only was she not cornered, she could both flip me off and run in heels at the same time.  I was stunned for a second as Agent Brenner missed with his taser and she made for backstage.  I made my way up to the stage to chase after her.

When I got backstage, I noticed several FBI agents knocked out and Brenner cursing his luck.  When he noticed me, he said “Well this could’ve been better.  She busted through my team, then ran out the back door.  Do you happen to know where she’s headed?”

“No, but I have an idea.  What would you do if you’ve been implicated in a big crime ring, but only certain pieces of evidence have been brought against you publicly that you know of?”

He thought for a minute.  “I’d go destroy what other evidence there is and make my accuser look like a fool, which would make any judge throw the case out.”

“Exactly.” I said and started for the back door.  “Meet me at Entech when you can.  I’m gonna try and stop her.”

“Okay.”

With that, I was racing in boots across several city blocks to get to the Entech building.  Innis had a several minute head start, and not once did I spot her on the street.  I was glad that I had block heels by the hill, else I would have had to slow my pace some.  Running in a miniskirt however presented some other problems, namely a guy that catcalled me as I reached the top of the hill.  Annoying bastard.

Once I got to the triple five, I saw that the glass front door was smashed in.  Inside, I found an FBI agent knocked out cold against the cold marble floor and the gate before the security area raised.  Another agent was knocked out close to the elevators.  As I waited for the elevator to come down, I checked his pulse.  It was slow, but steady.

That elevator ride felt like an eternity.  Entech’s offices were near the top of the high rise, and with as amped as I was to take care of it, I got fidgety and started to chase my tail.  Yes, that’s right, I did a dog thing, even though I’m a catgirl in magical form.  All it did was make me dizzy though, so I stumbled a bit out of the elevator when the door opened to the corridor.

Shaking it off, I noticed a pair of feet sticking out of Entech’s office door.  Apparently Innis had knocked out the agent there and he was now acting as a door block.  I stepped over him and thought about how could she knock out all these guys.  Even if she were a bodybuilder, she’d be exhausted by the pace, plus she was in her 40s by my age guess.  If she had a taser, I would’ve spotted spent pin cartridges on my way up there, and the agents would still be conscious.

While I wondered this, I saw several agents knocked out along a war path to her office, save for one.  He had his service pistol in his hand and was bloodied to a pulp.  He was still slightly conscious, and moaning in pain.

“She was so fast…” he said as I got within view, “I didn’t have time to fire.”

I nodded.  “I’ll get the bitch, you wait here.”

Unsurprisingly, the door to her office was locked.  It took me a couple of kicks to break it down, but when I entered the room, there she stood at the desk, her hands bloodied.  She was doing exactly as I thought she was going to do, deleting evidence on the laptop.

Innis turned to face me.  “You’re too late, I’ve already begun the wipe.”

“Oh really?  I thought your background was in business.” I said and pulled my staff from its resting position.

“I still know some IT,” She leered. “You had a little helper in here a few weeks ago during that tour that I took my leave from to meet with some Japanese business associates.”

“Oh, you mean the yakuza that were courting your favor?  Wait…” I looked back and up and saw the camera node.

“Yes, we caught her on camera.  Nice touch telling her to wear gloves.  I could run her face through recognition software, but I have a bigger catch to take my frustrations out on.  You.”  She jumped up on the desk, still in heels.  “The one who sent my assets in the city to shit and got the FBI on my ass.  I’ll beat every last penny of it out of your cheerleader hide.”

She launched herself at me and I parried her.  Unflustered by it, she charged at me again, getting in a body blow and knocking me into the desk.  I reeled a bit, but was able to get a jab in with the staff as she closed the distance.  This off put her for a few seconds as I got into a more ready stance, but before I could throw a Ra’s Wrath, she was on me and the staff.

“Carlos told me about your strange abilities, so I have come prepared,” she said as she struggled with me.  “The serum we unveiled has much more uses than medicine and antiaging.  The bots can be programmed to do anything, really, including enhancing the body to levels of a super for a short period of time.”  She punched the glass by my head as I dodged it, fracturing the window.  I threw a side blow, but she shrugged it off, knocked my supporting hand loose and pinned me to the glass.  “Here, let me give you a demonstration, ya fucking pussy!”  She then repeatedly body blew me until the glass behind me could stand no more, then hit me right out of the building.

I could see her flip me off and turn around to go back to the desk before the office was out of my view.  I knew that the Aegis couldn’t take the damage from a fall that high, so as I braced myself for what might be my end, I heard a voice say “Use Nut’s Embrace!  It’s Nut, Akhyt if you don’t remember it!”

I figured it was better than falling to my death, so I tried it.  “Nut, Akhyt!” I said, my arms spread wide.  Suddenly, I wasn’t falling anymore.  In fact, I had stopped two stories above being street pizza.  The spell’s operation came flowing to my mind then, and I charged back up the air I’d lost.

Once I got within a few stories, I slowed my pace some.  The blows she’d delivered hurt, even though they were softened by the Aegis.  I gave myself a few seconds of rest before appearing at the broken window.  That scum would get what was coming to her, even if I had to bust her eardrums to do it.

“You know, it’s impolite to throw people out of tall buildings,” I said once I reached the window, “Most would consider that murder.  With me, however, you’ll get attempted murder on that list of charges lined up already.”  I landed back in the office, looking very peeved.

“How did you–”

“What can I say?  I’m magical.”

“I’ll kill you this time, for sure.”

“We’ll see about that.”

She threw a kick at me, but missed and I tagged her on the thigh with the staff.  At this range, I knew I wouldn’t miss.  “Roar, Sekhmet-Mut!” I shook the staff head and made her back off, her ears bleeding from the sonic attack.  She then rolled under the cone and tackled me to the wall.

“The bots will heal that in no time,” She said.  “With it, I’m immortal!”

I hit her with a kick to the groin.  Now, it may not be as effective as hitting a guy with it, but it still hurts.  That was enough to slip out of her grasp, but not enough to keep her from dodging the next couple of staff strikes I put at her.  I did get one in, but she parried me, knocked the staff out of my hand and me to the ground.

“I win, you fucking pussy,” She said and stood over me.  “Have fun in hell!”  She started to wind up for a big punch, but then I heard a cry of a hawk and her stumbling backwards.  “What the?!  Get off me, you stupid bird!”

I opened my eyes to see that same hawk trying to rake her eyes out.  “What the in the name of the Duat are you doing girl?  Get up and finish her off!”  I heard the same voice again from the fall.

I did a flip to get up, called my staff to me, but a compulsion ran through my head.  Stowing my staff, I drew up a Ra’s Wrath, but let it grow in power for a bit before releasing it.  “For the crime against Ma’at of creating more isfet in the world, Ra’s Eyes bring his wrath upon you.  Iryet Ra, aha!”  As soon as I let go of the spell, the hawk was knocked out of the way, onto the cancel button of the laptop, and the blast hit Innis dead center, knocking her into the wall and unconscious.  It also knocked the wind out of me.  I was glad that the fight was over though.

The hawk hopped onto the desk.  “That’s the poorest performance of a collar wielder I have seen since they made the damn thing!” It said in a too big for his body voice.  “You should have had her in chains even before the window broke, and damned if you didn’t know the basic spell to fly already.  The collar should have taught you that when you first transformed!”

“What the…you can talk?” I said, still out of breath.

“Yes, don’t tell me humans have lost the ability to talk to animals, or at least know to read their behavior,” He said.  “It’d be on a long list of things that have changed in the past 2500 years.  Like people that worship the Netjeru on this continent.  It took me weeks of trying to hide in those metal bird-like things to even get here!  Then when I finally find you, you were sneaking around like a thief and not a proud warrior.”

I couldn’t believe it, I was getting lectured by a talking hawk.  “Well, who are you supposed to be then?”

He sighed.  “Didn’t they tell you anything?  I’m the guardian of the collar, but I’ve been stuck as the guide for the collar wearers until the death of Padibast, when they decided to seal me in that statue.  I was one of the Shemsu-Heru, the army division before I was given the duty.”

“Okay, snarky hawk, whatever you say.”  I could feel the irritation in me rising.

“My name isn’t ‘snarky hawk’.  Call me by one of my Lord’s places, Edfu.”

“Whatever.”

I spotted Agent Brenner coming into the office.  “Wow, you really did a number on this place.”

“More like she punched me a lot and then threw me out the window before I knocked her unconscious.  The agents are her doing.” I nodded to Innis’ slumped form.

“I hope you were able to save the data.”

“I haven’t checked it yet, but a hawk did land on it.”  Edfu gave me a nonplussed look.

“I’ll have our guys check it out.”  His phone went off.  After a minute of disdainful looks, he hung up.  “The SRA are on their way.  You better get out of here before I have to officially detain you for your involvement.”

I nodded, then cast Nut’s Embrace again.  “You coming?” I said to Edfu and flew out the window.  He followed wing and we weaved through the San Francisco skyline.

We were almost home when I mused “You know, this would have made getting around the city a whole lot easier.  I’d love to not have to take the bus to get around.”

Edfu scoffed. “The collar’s power is only to be used in the name of ma’at.  It is not a tool of convenience.”

“Says one who has natural wings.”

“I didn’t choose this form, it just saves energy.”

“Whatever.  I guess I have to get a bird set-up next week.  For now, I’m bushed.”  I said as I landed on the balcony, which I forgot to lock the door to.  “You’ll have to sleep out here in the interim.  Please don’t shit on my neighbors plants again, they were pissed about it.”

“You humans and your bathroom rituals.  Fine, I’ll use the flowerbeds.”

With that, I went into the apartment, powered down, showered, and passed out.  Thus ends my origin story, but Edfu and I still have many stories to tell.  By the way, the next day he both shit on the plants and left a dead mouse on their patio furniture as compensation.  I had one hell of a time apologizing and had to try to bring him up to speed on human culture of our era.  Figures I’d get stuck with a netjeri that hadn’t socialized since the Late period.

((END))

Senet-Ra and Edfu: Catgirl goes Hunting

Tags

fiction, Magical Woman, superheroine

At last, the day had finally come for the tour.  While that date hadn’t panned out as well as I hoped it would, it afforded me a bit more free time to brush up on my html code that I’d learned a bit of while managing a forum for roleplaying when I was in my early teen years.  Things were quite a bit different than back then, but the core idea was still the same.  Still, putting glittery graphics on everything wasn’t the same as hacking, but I had to try.

When I got to the tour, they had us go through the usual security and sign-in procedures as anyone in today’s society would.  After we got past that phase, the guides lead the group of about twenty people up to the office, where we got to see the laboratories that didn’t have classified projects going on, a few of the conference rooms, the marketing department, and the CEO’s office.  Along the way, a few people asked questions, and thankfully one did as we were exiting Innis’ office, or else I couldn’t have slipped back into there to do what was needed.

I found it somewhat odd that she wasn’t at the office, but it was more fortuitous for me.  The work computer entry, however, wasn’t as good of a situation.  I tried so many passwords that I thought would work, but ended up denied at every turn.  I was just about to give up, when I slammed my hand on the desk drawer.  It hurt, but it made a compartment I didn’t see on the printer stand pop out.

Curious, I pulled it out more to find a laptop in sleep mode.  It was unlocked, which is either arrogant or unusual for this day and age, and had a file pulled up for a spreadsheet of human trafficking numbers.  It was the evidence I was looking for!  I knew I had to work quickly now, for the tour guides had probably started looking for me.  I copied everything I could about the trafficking business–numbers, emails, addresses, dates, pricing, pictures, even a audio recording that looked suspicious–onto the flash drive I had brought with me.  Once I got what I could, and listened to that danger sense I’d acquired since obtaining the collar, and put the laptop back where and how I found it.  Then I hightailed it out of there and headed towards one of the bathrooms.  The lady guide found me not five minutes after I’d gone in.  I’d made an excuse about having something for dinner the night before not agreeing with my innards, and her objections to my disappearance dropped.  She lead me back to the group, where they talked about a reveal of their newest project to the public and invited us to attend.  Most were noncommittal, but a few of the group said they would come.

Once the tour let out, I did a few stops on my way home to make sure I wasn’t being followed, and was finally able to peruse the information on the flash drive at my leisure.  Thank goodness I had an old laptop that took flash drives and didn’t connect to the internet, because otherwise I think that one of the photos would have net tagged me and I would’ve been an easy target.  Even the disapproving hawk that now sat outside in the apartment garden trees couldn’t take down my relief.

I will spare the details of what happened next, but in retrospect I had time to burn until the public reveal, which I had decided would be the reveal of her side business as well, and wanted to put some pressure on her.  I ended up hitting a few of the “storefronts”–as she’d labeled them–freeing the women (and a few men, in one of the places) and tying up the operators in the fashion of their now freed product.  At the last one, I was able to have an interesting conversation with an FBI agent about my motives and gave him a copy of the flash drive I’d made (sans trace picture) before being accosted most of the way back home by the unapproving hawk.  Thankfully, he didn’t care for the SRA guys that were sure to show up once a report of a super was on the wire, but he did give me a choice and a number to call once I’d made that choice.

It was a week before the reveal when I called the number.  Special Agent Brenner answered the line, and we talked for a while.  He made me a deal–tell him who the suspect I had was and testify in court against them, and he would feed me information to other cases that were baffling his guys under the table, with the promise to help him out on said cases from time to time.  I tried to get him to have the SRA kept off my back, but he couldn’t do it.  I accepted, but reserved the right to refuse if my own load was too heavy.  We then coordinated to what would go down at the reveal, and that damn hawk then knocked the phone out of my hand.  It also tried to get into my apartment too that time, but I was too quick for it.  It ended up leering at me from the balcony and pooping on my downstairs neighbors’ plants.

Hawk or no hawk, it was almost time for midterms.  The final showdown too, but I had to study for my tests.  Taking down a crime ring lady would be easy compared to tests, I thought at the time.  I wouldn’t need to train for that.

Ah, how naïve I was.

Senet-Ra and Edfu: Catgirl Finds a Snake

Tags

catgirl, fiction, Magical Woman, superheroine

It was a good few weeks before I could find a lead on what Delilah had said.  With classes in full swing and my job wanting my attention otherwise, it was a wonder that I made it down in the area to investigate that Friday morning.  I was wandering downtown, trying to find the building, when I spotted that Carlos guy come out of a donut shop.  It was the same one alright, he had the same scar on his cheek and glare to him.

I followed him from the shop, staying not too close on the crowded sidewalk, to a small park near the old Bank of America building.  There, he met a woman and gave her a coffee.  I hid behind a tree as to not be seen and strained to hear the conversation.

“You sure you want to meet out in the open like this boss?” Carlos asked, looking nervous as they sat down on the park bench.

“As far as anyone knows, I’m here meeting a friend for coffee,” She said and took a sip off her cup.  “The local gangs are too afraid of my influence and the cops don’t know where to start looking, so I can relax for now.”

“But that one vigilante–”

“Oh?  Like one woman dressed up like a hussy can stop me?  You’ve got better things to do with my time than spout that ridiculous story about a catgirl with a gold staff.”

Carlos sighed.  “Fine, but I’m warning you, Ms Innis, trouble could be coming our way if we ignore it…”

After a minute she shook her head.  “I’ll beef up security then.  Now, how is the product flow doing in Oakland?”

“Quite well, we’ve got some Vietnamese stock headed up to Portland, since our guys up there have demanded a few fresh ones, but most of them are staying in the Bay Area.  Profits are through the roof, and an ambassador from the local Japanese family wishes to meet with you to discuss business arrangements.”

“Good, but tell them my schedule is blocked next week for a business trip to Rio, so we’ll have to allot time after that.  Entech has been really busy since we have licensed the new nanotech to Dowline.”  She looked at her watch.  “I do believe I need to get back to the office, I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes.  Care to escort me?”

“With pleasure.”

The two walked side by side off towards the Triple Five, and I was barely able to snap a picture of them with my phone before they crossed the street.  I did get a good shot though, as Innis had turned her head towards my direction when I was taking the shot.  I hope she thought I was a tourist taking a picture of the Triple Five, because she didn’t pause after that.

Walking back through the park, I was inputting what I’d overheard into my phone when I noticed a hawk.  Normally I wouldn’t mention something like this, but it seemed to like me, as it followed me through the park and towards my area of town.  I ignored it most of the time, but what was odd was that it seemed to give me an unimpressed look.

After class let out that day, I went to the library and thankfully found a computer to use to do my research on what had been said.  With a good bit of Google-fu, I found Entech’s website and cross-referenced the picture I took to their about page and found that Ms. Innis was in fact Claire Innis, the current CEO of Entech and one of the highest ranking women in the city’s tech industry.  To think someone so powerful would stoop so low as to traffic women for the sex trade was unconscionable.  I had to get evidence to her crime–and soon–before any more innocents were hurt.

That’s when I spotted a public tour of the office and lab was being held in two weeks.  It was a perfect opportunity to sneak in and find incriminating files to her side business.  I marked down the date and RSVP number before heading out, that hawk giving me the stink eye from a copse of trees across from the library.  I didn’t care at that moment, because I had both a date and a mission to prepare for.

Psycat’s Patrol notes #1

Tags

patrol, Psycat, superheroine

Today was an interesting day.  I had a few customers at work that were more out there than most, and we had a Rabbit-guy come in for a carryout pizza.  While patrol was mostly quiet, I did have a few break-ins to deal with and one–make that two robberies of storefronts.  That last one had a telekinetic on it.  Called herself Willbender, of all things.  I’m sorry if I’m not as wordy as I am normally, I’m still working off that bonk to the side of the head by a iPad she slung at me.

Anyways, when I got to the store, she was dressed like a Final Fantasy character and was just floating merchandise out of the front door and into an awaiting car like it was nothing.  Of course I had to stop her, it wasn’t like this was a megastore or that Bast would let me slide if I didn’t.  I did tell her to desist, and when she opened up her mouth, she sounded like a bratty teenager that I detested in high school.  She also had a major chuunbiyo complex–that is similar to an overinflated ego, for those who don’t know Japanese culture or anime–and tried to get me to join her.  I looked at her like the nutcase she was and that’s when the extraneous objects started flying.

I think she was surprised that I was able to send most of them back at her, save that lighting pole that I had to dodge and landed somewhere on the eastbound lanes of Westheimer.  She was enraged by a psyche bolt hitting home and started tossing her stolen loot and a car at me.  A freaking car!  I was too busy dodging that to block some of the little stuff, and when I cracked a ex-boyfriend leaving her joke, that’s when the iPad hit.  You know, those things hit like a truck when propelled by pissed-off teenage telekinetic psychopath’s powers.  I fell off the Psydisk because of it, and she started gloating because I landed on my face.

She crossed the line though when she started insulting my weight as I was smarting from the fall.  I got up really quickly once she got to a fashion sense comment and called the disk down to get back up.  I’m pretty sure I had anger blazing in my eyes, because she took it as being wounded and kept on going, along with tossing a phone or two at me.  By the time she got to the no boyfriend comments, I had had enough and had a Psyche Blast the size of a volleyball floating above my hand.  It struck true and knocked her out, and a good portion of the parking lot she was standing on.  I don’t remember much after that besides activating the auto altitude button for the Psydisk on my cuffs and passing out for about three hours.

What woke me up was Marcus yelling in my ear that the SRA guys were coming and that was enough to get my butt up and have the disk hobble me over to Memorial City mall.  Here I sit, for the moment anyways.  You know, while I’ve had flawless victories and some scary near death experiences, that was the first super that I’d encountered that had insulted me enough to get a blast out of me through words alone.  I guess I don’t have as thick a skin as I thought I did to the insults through the years of doing hero work.

On a different note, I love that Memorial City Mall’s Wi-Fi reaches this high up.  It means I don’t have to use my data while I type this!  Oh yeah, I discovered the WordPress app and installed it on my phone, so I can post on my downtimes between patrol calls.  I guess it makes up a bit for our community being a bit silent recently, and my general laziness of my off days.

What the…?  What’s that guy doing, peeking into cars?  Looks like another patrol moment.  Anyways, before I head off to keep an eye on him,  I hope ya’ll have a good one, and lurkers, feel free to comment.

Happy Holidays!