Metas #5 - A Loose End pt. 5

                Laura felt the transformations before she saw them happen. Sensing energy wasn’t a part of her power; at least, she’d never felt it before. But in the split second before Josh Matters enlarged his fists and Melissa Molecule shifted into her liquid form, Laura felt their bodies initiate the change. Her reaction was instinct, and she quickly threw herself to the side to dodge Melissa’s attack. The black liquid flew through the spot Laura was standing in and landed on the ground, quickly forming back into a humanoid figure.

                Not yet, Laura thought as she remembered her promise to Matt about only using her powers if absolutely necessary. But if I go down, I’m taking this bitch with me.

                Meanwhile Arthur was struggling to stand back up after Josh’s sudden attack. Josh was standing in front is Arthur, his fists increased to ten times their normal size and his height nearing eight feet tall.

                “Like this look?” Josh taunted as Arthur got back up. “I borrowed it from that big superhero Fist. Figured it wasn’t a bad look for a fighter.”

                Arthur sneered, knowing that he wasn’t going to walk away from this without a fight. He was not a fighter at heart, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight if necessary. The transformation happened within moments, and Josh was either polite enough to let it happen or was too shocked to react. Soon a ten foot tall, one ton grizzly bear was standing in his living room.

                Arthur let out a mighty roar and charged, teeth and claws glistening in the moonlight. Josh took a few steps back to try to eye up the competition, but Arthur moved faster than Josh’s mind. He slammed into the celebrity and threw him from the house clear into the pool. Arthur continued his charge, chasing Josh down and cornering the metahuman in his pool. Josh tried once to get out of the water, but Arthur knocked him back in hard, leaving Josh dazed and unwilling to try again for the time being.

                Back in the house, Laura was putting up a good fight against Melissa, which surprised her. She had assumed the celebrities would be better combatants, seeing as how they started the fight. But Melissa fought like someone who never had to before, foolishly relying on her powers and a few tricks and not on actual skill. Despite only training with Matt for a few weeks, Laura was almost running circles around her.

                As Laura landed a solid punch across Melissa’s face, her body shifted into liquid and she skirted across the floor out the door. Laura ran outside to catch her but in the darkness she was gone. Laura stopped to help Janet, who was just regaining consciousness. By the pool, Josh made one last attempt to escape the giant bear. Jumping out of the pool and increasing the muscle mass of his legs, Josh was able to outrun Arthur, who gave chase.

                By the time Arthur returned, Janet was leaning on Laura and holding her head. “We need to go,” she said quickly, “they called the police before they even started that fight.”

                Arthur shifted back into his human form and dashed inside to grab a blanket. “What about Matt?” he asked as the trio quietly began to flee the scene.

                “You’re kidding, right?” Janet replied, “Matt is more than capable of handling himself. Let’s just get back to the hotel room, and he’ll meet us there. Hopefully he’ll have found Ty and we can all go home.”

                Sneaking back to the hotel room was no easy task, but Laura and Janet proved they were very skilled at going unnoticed. It helped that once they took off their masks, they could be confident that no one would recognize them. Arthur had a little more trouble, being that he wore only a blanket, but eventually all three made it back in one piece. Once back, they were all quiet, each keeping to their own thoughts. After showering, Arthur and Janet left to get them some late-night food. Laura was on the balcony overlooking the still-bustling tourists section of town when she once again felt an energy signal. She spun around and saw Matt descending onto the balcony behind her. In his arms he carried a teenage boy, only slightly older than Janet and bearing a strong family resemblance. Laura breathed a sigh of relief when Matt smiled at her and nodded to her unasked question of whether the boy was alive or not.

                When Arthur and Janet returned, Janet nearly dropped her bag of food when she saw her brother lying on the bed. He was awake, but dizzy from a serious hit on the head. While Tyrone calmed Janet down by insisting he was fine, Arthur came up to Matt.

                “I hope your night wasn’t as exciting as ours,” he said looking at the teen. “We had to fight those celebrities. Not fun.”

                Laura snorted, “But easy, that’s for sure.”

                “I heard from Laura,” Matt said, pulling a hamburger out of a bag. “Sorry about that, I really didn’t think they would jump into a fight after the beating I gave them. They shouldn’t pursue this though, since I don’t think their egos would let them admit to losing so badly. But yeah, you could say my night was exciting.”

                Matt explained how he had to subdue Basher, which was more difficult than Matt imagined since he was refusing to use any energy-based attacks. After that, Matt quickly moved through the base, taking out whatever guards he found until he located Tyrone’s energy signal. The stealthy meta was indeed stuck, hiding where he wouldn’t be found but couldn’t leave either. After that it was a quick pick up and escape, unfortunately made more difficult by Basher once again, who seems to get stronger each time Matt sees him. During the fight Tyrone suffered a hit to the head, but Matt assured everyone he’d be fine.

                After explaining everything, the group sat down to eat something finally, with Tyrone happy to actually have real food again and not his emergency nutrient bars he brings with on missions. While eating Arthur and Laura learned more about Tyrone, known as Arach, and his connection to Matt.

                A couple years ago, Matt was scouting out the ruins of Old New York, which has become a poor, lawless metahuman community. Even the GMA won’t send agents in unless something drastic happens, and life goes about according to whichever crime lord is currently on top. Any metahuman on the run from the law or just generally lost in life eventually finds their way to Old New York, and it’s there that they usual end up staying or dying. While Matt was wandering around, he stumbled across Tyrone, Janet, and the group of thugs trying to kill and rape them both. Matt ran the thugs off and after spending a day with the siblings and seeing their quality and potential, he offered them a job as his go-to duo for covet missions.

                At this point, Arthur stopped Matt. “Okay, I have to know once and for all. How often do you do these little covert jobs? I had no idea this was such a large part of your life.”

                Matt shrugged, “Every once in a while. Usually at least once a month. It depends, if I know someone needs help I help them. Ty and Janet are my infiltrators if I need someone to be sneaky.”

                “But how do you never get caught?” Laura questioned, a little nervous now that the adrenaline of the fight was over. If Matt and she were caught doing something like this, into a cell they both go. Well, maybe not Matt, she thought, but I’d definitely be put away for a very long time. And I do so enjoy my relative freedom.

                “Oh, I know a guy,” Matt started, and after everyone giving him looks to continue he did. “There’s this metahuman my Dad knows called Techbit. He works for the GMA now, but he’s able to build anything, given time and as long as it isn’t an obvious weapon. Don’t ask; it’s just how his powers work. Anyway I did him a favor, and in return built me a nice little robot helper that gives off an energy signal that equals what mine normally is. All I do is charge it up, program where I want it to go, and set it loose. As far as the energy satellites are concerned, I’ve never left my area of residence.”

                Arthur was genuinely amazed, but Laura was skeptical. “They can track you with digital satellites though. What if they take a close look at you and find your little robot instead?”

                Matt shrugged again, clearly not worried. “Why would they? They track energy because it’s cheaper. Plus every time they use those powerful digital satellites they need to file a public report with the government cuz of those privacies acts. I’m sure the public won’t like to hear they’re spending extra taxpayer dollars on taking clear pictures of me while the energy satellites work just fine.”

                “That’s a huge assumption, Matt.”

                “True,” Matt said with a smile, “but what did you say a few days ago, Arthur? I always come out on top.” Matt laughed, and the rest gave in to join him. Soon they were heading to bed for a few hours of sleep before the flight home tomorrow, which they were all taking. Before laying down for some rest, Matt pulled the USB drive out of his pocket and sighed. Both Janet and Tyrone swore this was the only copy of the videos, and Matt believed them. Matt smiled before slipping it back into his pocket and closing his eyes.

                The following night, after an evening out on patrol, Marian returned to her bedroom exhausted and ready for bed. As she stripped down she noticed a folded piece of paper on her nightstand that she didn’t put there. On the paper was a short and simple note.

                “Now they have nothing on us. I hope this is a start to mending things between you and me.”

                Marian picked up the USB drive and smiled.