“How’s
the weather back home?” Steve stood in his suite overlooking West City. The sun
was still shining strong, despite it being mid-October. He had just spent the
last five weeks in this city helping the new Western Frontier team get up and
running, and now that his time was wrapping up he was proud of the team they
had become. There was still plenty of work to do, especially for their
liaisons, but he could go back to Hopling happy in the work he’d done.
“Getting
cold, and rainy off and on all week. A great time to come back from sunny
paradise!” Natalie was sitting in their office at the Frontier mansion, working
on reports. She had patrol duty later, but for now she was dressed down in
comfy sweats and a sweater, which was more practical for in-house desk work
anyway. She was filling Steve in before his flight home, which would give him
time to think things over.
Steve
laughed, “Paradise? I don’t think so Nat. These kids needed a lot of work. But
they should be all up to snuff now. How are things back home? Is Marian any
better?”
“Oh,
she’s still moping around, but every day it’s getting better. It helps that
Tony’s keeping his distance.” Steve muttered affirmatively, so Natalie
continued. “But there is still the matter of those killings that keep popping
up all over Hopling. The GMA is continually looking for any leads, but so far
all they have come up with is a scattering of different witnesses and
confessions. All we know for certain is it’s a metahuman doing it. And we’ve
found nothing ourselves.”
“Well
keep looking, Nat. But have everyone be careful. So far whoever’s doing this
has just targeted criminals, but there’s no telling when they will start aiming
higher. Anyone who can kill so easily has major psychological issues and cannot
be trusted.”
“I
know, honey. We are playing it safe.” Natalie checked the clock, “I must be
going now; it’s my turn for the evening patrol. I will see you soon Steve.”
“Take
care of yourself, Nat. I love you and am looking forward to coming home to a
complete family again.”
After
straightening up her desk, Natalie headed towards the changing rooms to put on
her uniform. Tony watched her walk by, and waited until she was through the
door to make his call. After a few rings, the receptionist answered.
“Yes,
hello,” Tony said, swallowing beforehand to regain his composure. “I’d like to
schedule an appointment to speak to Mr. Kenneth Bridge.” A pause as the person
on the other end replied. “I know he doesn’t normally take appointments, but
tell him my name is Tony Wilson, and it’s about that offer he made me.”
Natalie
flew through the air, the cool night sky rushing past. She was excited for
Steve’s return; despite becoming the media center of Frontier since the super
villains’ big attack, she did not enjoy it one bit. She preferred Steve to be
the leader and center of attention, with her providing support. Plus, ever
since her injury at the hands of Snake Eyes, she was growing more and more
tired of the superhero life. First she was shot, then Tony, and Marian has
already almost been killed plenty of times as well. It was getting more
dangerous, and she feared something terrible would happen and rob her and Steve
of their well-earned retirement and old age. Natalie was ready to step down,
let the younger generations take over, and spend the rest of her life with
Steve out of their Frontier uniforms.
While
lost in her thoughts, Natalie was shaken by her radio as it crackled out a
police bulletin. A mugging had happened only a few blocks away from her, and it
had apparently gone bad. Natalie kicked her telekinesis into high gear and flew
there as fast as she could, landing a block away. She didn’t want to get to the
scene right away; instead she wanted to hang back and look for any suspicious
bystanders. The police had a theory the killings were to send a message, and
that the killer hung back to watch the public’s reaction.
While
she was looking around the streets, a young woman almost ran right into her.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Natalie said, looking at the girl. She had long dark red hair
and piercing, bright green eyes. The woman avoided direct eye contact, but
Natalie could tell that she recognized her.
“Hey
you’re Teleka! From Frontier!”
“Yes,
but I’m working, so-” but Natalie didn’t get a chance to finish. The young
woman called to everyone, pointing out Natalie. Soon too many were crowded
around Natalie wanting to talk, and she needed to excuse herself and take off
to a nearby rooftop. After taking a few breaths of air, Natalie started looking
around again for any clues as to what happened during the mugging.
After
a couple of minutes, Natalie heard a chuckle behind her. She turned and saw a
homeless man leaning up against a rooftop doorway to the apartment building
they were on. “You lookin’ for what happened down there, eh?” He pointed
towards the block were the mugging happened. By this time a duo of police
officers had showed up and were roping off the alleyway.
Natalie
looked him over, and aside from the smell of unwashed human, figured he
couldn’t be much of a threat. “Yes I am. You wouldn’t happen to have seen
anything, have you?”
“Oh,
I seen it go down all right. Well, at least I think I did.” He shrugged as he
grinned, “Maybe I did; maybe I didn’t. It’s hard keeping my memories straight
living on the streets like this.”
Natalie
sighed. Hopling didn’t have a large homeless population, but they were still
there all the same, and needed help just like everyone else. “What would you
like?” Natalie motioned to her suit, which clearly did not have any pockets.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any money on me. But I can put in a good word for you.
Maybe even get your name in the paper for helping out the investigation.”
The
man thought for a few moments before nodding. “Well usually money is what I’m
after, but I suppose a kind word from such a pretty lady will do this time.”
He smiled again and walked
towards the edge of the building where Natalie stood. He pointed towards the
alley, “I was up here, minding my own business, when I saw a cute little lady
walk into that alley. Nothing weird about that, in this part of the city. I
figured she wasn’t much of a lady and was meeting someone there. But then I
heard a couple screams, and they were definitely not from a little lady. They
were a grown man screaming, that’s for sure. Next thing I know, the lady walks
out the alley, quickly like, and disappears into the crowd.”
“I know it’s a bit of a
distance, but did you get a good look at her?”
“Oh, I sure did. Like I said,
she was a cute little lady. She looked around before she walked into that alley
and I got a good looksee at her. Dark hair, past her shoulders, and she was
wearing a brown coat. Not that that’s a good description, seeing as how
everyone’s wearing coats now that it’s gettin’ colder. But there was one thing
I just couldn’t believe. Even from all the way up here I could see her eyes.
They were glowing and looked all eerily like, as if they were some ghostly
headlights of a tiny car. Definitely not a normal human, I’ll tell you that. Ain’t
nobody but a metahuman who’s got glowing green eyes like that.”
Natalie grunted, shocked by what
she was hearing. Female, dark hair, brown coat; those descriptors weren’t much.
But it was the bright green eyes that hit Natalie hard. She looked back towards
the disappearing crowd where she was a few minutes ago, desperately hoping to
see her but knowing it was too late. The young woman who bumped into Natalie
and caused the crowd to gather matched the description perfectly.
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