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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 207: Brown 358
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 65
Derek and Vashti were standing in line in the bank. With as little money as they had, they were dependent on the food at the manse for their meals, but they had been going through bread somewhat quickly. Derek had suggested that they should withdraw a bit of their meager savings and buy a few groceries so they weren't mooching off their hosts too badly. The line seemed especially long for a Wednesday, but it was around lunchtime.
WHOOOMMMMMM.
The sound of an explosion had everyone inside the bank fleeing out the open door to the sidewalk, ducking and looking toward the sound.
"It's from the direction of the prison," one man shouted.
"Oh no, another supervillain jailbreak," a woman behind the two versers sighed.
Derek bent over to Vashti s ear. "I need to--"
"Go, go now. I'll meet you back at the house."
Derek pulled his belt and equipment from his briefcase, which he left with Vashti, then pushed his way out of the crowd and ran around the corner. Shifting to Michael Gabriel took about half a minute during which time he wrapped the belt around his waist and tossed the chain over his shoulders, and he soared up out of the alley next to the bank. Looking toward the source of the sound, he saw a small column of rising smoke and dust. Streaking toward it as fast he could, he pushed himself faster than he had ever flown. If it truly was a prison break of supervillains as that woman in line had thought, then getting there faster before any more supervillains could escape would make things a lot simpler.
Coming closer, he saw the large, heavy wooden gate between high stone walls had been ripped asunder. A red-headed guard near the front gate lay on the ground holding his head. To the side, a metal door hung open, but standing in front of it, facing the door, was a creature shaped like a woman in a black secretary skirt and white blouse made of opaque crystal. Her face, arms, and legs were partially translucent crystal.
Mister Justice came barrelling out the front door, and the crystal woman yelled. He crashed into her, and fell past her, off balance. Michael wondered if Brian's eardrums had been burst from the noise being so loud. Multiple bullets sparked off her crystal body and did no damage. As Michael dove in on her, she shouted into the open prison door from just outside it.
"Give me Blue Ray. He ruined my life, made me a monstress. No one else has to die. Just stand aside."
Using his telekinesis, he slung out his chain, and wrapped it about her arms and breasts. Grabbing hold of it and straining to fly upward, he lifted her off the ground--but she was a lot heavier than the five foot four inch woman had any right to be. In fact, she weighed what a woman-sized statue would weigh. Still, he got her up twenty feet before she turned her head up toward him.
"Let me go, angel. You as an angel must understand the need for justice, for avenging the evil done to me."
"I do, but--" and he remembered New Orleans. "Perhaps you can help me understand."
"I was working late at night, finishing up a six-monthly presentation for my boss to give to the company president, when Blue Ray broke in to Blaisdell. I tried to hide, but I hid in the laboratory he wanted to get into. When he saw me, he threw me at a glass wall of a vat of superconducting crystals. There was so much pain, and when I woke I was like this, no longer a girl who might be able to go to Nashville and be a country music star. Now I'm a freak. Please, Avenging Angel, let me go."
Michael Gabriel considered what to do. He was getting tired quickly from lifting the very heavy woman. Mister Justice was rising to his feet, but swaying back and forth like his balance was all off. That confirmed that his eardrums may have been damaged.
"I understand, but I can't let you do that." Michael Gabriel considered lowering her to the ground to let Mister Justice knock her out with his sword, but the man was swaying like a tree in a hurricane, and holding one hand to an ear. Instead, he reached for his barely used Heavy Telekinesis, and lifted her with it. Holding the chain, he flew with her over the city toward the river. Yes, there it was.
In the midst of the river was a four foot long by two foot wide flat rock with a dry top that rose about three feet above the surface. No doubt in spring flood it was covered. Ignoring her protests, he lowered her down on the rock.
Once released she screamed at him, and he felt his head ring and his ears ache. Flying up fifteen feet higher, he gave her time to scream again. This time it was merely loud and unpleasant, and he flew up ten more feet, and her third scream was just loud. In a confined area with a wall to echo off, and at close range like with Mister Justice, her scream could burst ear drums. At thirty five feet above her in the open air, it was not a threat.
She screamed again and saw it had no effect. Looking around, he saw her trying to figure out a way to escape.
"I have seen you breathe, not just to yell. I do not know all your powers, but I'm pretty sure as a crystalline being you cannot swim. Nor do I think you want to try to walk across the river bottom, and maybe run out of breath."
She looked up back at him, and crystalline tears dripped down her sharp cheekbones, and clattered on the stone islet under her feet.
"I want justice, angel. Why do you deny me this?"
"Is it justice to murder a man?"
"The prison in Denver kills murderers who've destroyed a life. He destroyed my life. Why can't I kill him?"
Michael Gabriel rubbed his face. It was a hard question involving Order and Justice, and he did not think this woman was in the mood for a long lecture.
"I may look like an angel, but I am a man. I can't let you do this. Eventually you'll get tired, and hungry, and you'll have to surrender to the police. I'm sorry." With that he flew away sore of soul. Arriving back at the prison, he saw Mister Justice leaning down over the red-headed guard and offering his hand. The guard took it, and stood, and as he did, his scalp wound and the blood on it was simply not there. One moment he was injured, and the next there was no sign of it other than the dust on his uniform from the exploded front gate.
The two of them spent the next half hour searching the neighborhood, but Red Swasbuckler and his rapier, Reason's Revolution, were gone.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
