Thunder
A sound raked at my head as I groggily woke up. I’d drunk a little too much last night and my alarm was pounding a beat into my skull. Slapping the alarm off, I took another moment to try and recover the peace that had already left the room with the sounding of the bell. Shaking my head, I swung myself to the side of my bed. My eyes flickered open to take in a room that had I not known the cause, I would have sworn had been subject to several natural disasters. Red solo cups were crumbled on the floor, my costume was hanging from the door-frame, and several dark stains spotted the floor.
“Time to get up I guess.” I mumbled quietly as I jumped out of bed and began to whirl about the room. Time seemed to stand still as I sped about the room, cleaning up the mess from the party held in my honor last night. Dozens of glass bottles flew through the air as I carried the trash can around my dormitory, catching them in the can absentmindedly as I wiped down the vomit from where Valkyrie had one too many beers.
Figures that they’d take advantage of my room and fridge to celebrate my 21st, but they all disappear when it’s time to actually pick up the place. Not that I can really blame them. Having super-speed makes the party cleanup a cake walk, but still it’d be nice if they’d asked to help out before heading back to their rooms. I grumbled on silently, but wore a smile on my face. It was nice to take a break from patrols long enough to celebrate though, gonna have to pay back Paradigm for giving us time off and taking our patrols so we could enjoy this. The big guy really does look after us, despite his attempts to pretend otherwise. I’d buy him a beer if he drank…maybe he’ll settle for a coke?
The recycling was taken out, dishes cleansed of the day old burritos and burgers, clothes thrown in the laundry, and the bathroom detoxified all within twenty seconds of getting up. “Slow day today. I knew I shouldn’t have drank so much. Never could handle my alcohol, and turning 21 doesn’t seem to have changed anything.” My mind flashed back to a particularly unpleasant memory of the party. “I’m gonna have to talk to Valkyrie about how it’s a little inappropriate to egg your fellow heroes on into chugging that much alcohol.”
Spinning about in place, I pulled on the uniform I’d come to be so famous in over the last three years. The blues and grays looked worn from use, but I still felt a sense of pride as I pulled it on. The armored plates had saved me several times from bullets I hadn’t seen or attacks from Tyrannis members. Sometime soon I’d have to get it upgraded, but not yet. Looking over at the clock, I finished pulling on my boots. “Well I doubt Valkyrie did it, so I might as well get a brew going.” I left my room and took a right as I headed to the communal kitchen. A long hallway stretched in-front of me as I passed the rooms of the other members of Dawnstar. Replica had brought the idea of painting an insignia for each of us on our rooms, and he’d done a pretty good job of it.
I glanced back at my door and saw large-scale replica of my right gauntlet, with a speaker added to the palm and storm clouds gathering above. Across the hall was Automaton’s room: a flying drone, hoverboard, stun pistol, and jetpack each painted on to show support for our tech ace. I continued walking, moving past the abstract splotches of neon paints that was Beacon’s door. He’d chosen to do that one himself, and defended any slights against his “work of art” by making us glow the same neon puke colors. Across from Beacon’s dorm was a woman’s face with a blonde mo-hawk, out-stuck tongue, and strands of what could be interpreted as wind billowing about her, Valkyrie’s room.
A muffled groan from her dorm told me that Valkyrie had just woken up, and from the sounds of it she was feeling worse than I was. What she gets for trying to match bottle for bottle with a speedster. Metabolism burnt off the worst of it before she was even halfway through the night. Hopefully she shakes off the worst of it before our shift today. The press would just love to see one of our senior members drunk off her ass while on duty.
“I’m heading to the lounge to get some coffee on the pot.” I shouted into her room, a little louder than was maybe necessary. “Get out of bed, grab a mug, and get sober! We’ve got a long day ahead, and you lounging around is not helping anyone.” The door to her room creaked up and a pillow was thrown in my general direction. I gave a chuckle as I sprinted towards the lounge to begin the rest of my morning routine, the insignia’s of our four other members streaking past. Replica’s outstretched hands, Overseer’s all-seeing eye, Titan’s rock prison, and Paradigm’s spartan helm. Each of them were painted in subtly differing styles, as if Replica had been living up to his title and trying to replicate the styles of other painters he was familiar with.
Beacon and Automaton should be getting in any moment now. I thought as I turned the corner to the lounge. Hopefully they had an uneventful night on patrol. I know Beacon’s been having some trouble getting rest after we heard that Tyrannis’s elite escaped prison once again. I felt my teeth grind at the thought of having to put Prince behind bars once again, but I shook it off. Not our fault that the prisons seem to have a revolving door when it comes to Tyrannis, and Beacon should know that. We’ll have him in custody again within the month and Paradigm is pushing for our superiors in Sacramento to have them moved to somewhere out of state. Hopefully that will put a pause on whatever mechanism they use to escape so regularly. I arrived in the lounge, and searched through the cabinets to find where the staff had hidden the coffee grinds today. They’d made a game out of hiding them in more and more inconvenient locations every day, giving us the excuse that it would ‘increase our mental focus and ensure timely resource location’. They’re just tired of having to make runs for more coffee every other day. I found the coffee inside one of the ceiling tiles, and after starting the pot continued my routine.
I arrived at the guild gym, and began my morning workout. It felt monotonous to give the speed bag and treadmill such a pounding every day, but they were the only equipment Dawnstar had that had been built to handle my speed. Automaton was working on getting an obstacle course built into the training room that could adapt to each of our powers and provide a challenge, but he’d been stonewalled by our resource department for weeks now and so I made do with these. I’d run for a good hour when I heard the all-call for the team to head to the briefing room.
It took this long for the night shift to get in? Something happened if we’re only just now changing shifts. I wiped down quickly and then sped off to the room. Automaton and Beacon were already in place with Overseer, and it took only a minute more before the rest of the team had arrived and taken a seat at the table. Paradigm was the last to enter, his fists clenched tightly and a slight stumble to his steps. Something had unnerved him and the rest of the team was picking up on it. He motioned for Overseer to begin the brief, but his attention seemed to be elsewhere as Overseer spouted off the details of what had occurred during the night shift. He reported several burglaries, a missing person’s case, and two attempted muggings, all of which had been successfully dealt with by Automaton and Beacon. Overseer drew in a short breath as he motioned toward the pair of them.
“Automaton and Beacon have some troubling news to report to us. I’ll let them go ahead and give you their side of things before I show you what they saw.” Overseer finished his briefing and waved for the two of them to start their portion of the shift recap.
Automaton cleared his throat and began to rattle off his briefing. “Somebody broke into the Grove last night, and did it in a way that has the LAPD stumped. They’re currently trying to drag up any surveillance footage that may have captured the culprits in action, but their hopes are slim due to the precision of the work. The only group in the area capable of pulling off a breach in this way is Tyrannis, but it doesn’t seem to match with their previous efforts and so we’ve advised the LAPD to remain open to other suspects and let us know if they learn anything new.” Automaton turned to his partner to see if he had anything to add, but Beacon was already sitting back down preparing to assist Overseer with the next portion of the brief.
Automaton took his seat as well, and Overseer began the second part of the brief. I closed my eyes and could feel someone probing about in my mind, adding new pieces of information and stimuli that I hadn’t experienced before. I could see the Grove in front of me, a perfectly circular hole carved into what appeared to be the southern wall of the mall. The hole was large enough for two men to slip through easily, but there seemed to be no sign of debris anywhere in the area. The visions continued for a moment as we relived Automaton and Beacon’s memories exploring the mall. They searched the premises for fifteen minutes to locate any criminals, the events fast-forwarded in our minds, and then the memory faded away as I snapped back to the reality of the briefing room.
I can never get used to his psychic manipulations, but it does shorten up these briefings significantly. All we need is the general context of what happened and where it happened and the memories of our teammates fill in the details. I shook my head to clear out the last of the fading visions and watched as everyone else present did the same. Somethings you never get used to.
“Automaton. Beacon. Thank you for your work last night. Head home and get some rest, you’ve earned it.” The two nodded their appreciation to Paradigm, then stood up and left to head back to their dorms. Paradigm continued, “Valkyrie, Titan, Thunder. I’m assigning the three of you to continue the investigation into the Grove break in. I’ll handle your patrols for today along with Replica until you all can confirm Tyrannis involvement or are left with no further leads to pursue.” We all nodded our assent and began to get up but he pressed on. “Valkyrie and Thunder, if you could stay behind for a moment. There’s something I need to discuss with you.”
That’s odd. It’s not like him to keep information from the rest of the team. Must be whatever gotten under his skin. Titan and Replica gave a shrug as they headed out to gather their gear for the shift, while Val and I stayed behind with Overseer and Paradigm. He waited till the others were gone before moving to the door to lock it and removing his mask. His face had taken on a rather pale shade of white given his normally very dark tan.
“Something the matter boss? You’ve been distracted through the whole brief and something seems to have you on edge. What happened?” Paradigm flashed a brief smile at my concern, but it vanished as quick as it came.
“Someone found out who I am under the mask.” Paradigm was interrupted as Val gave an unconscious gasp. “I was on my way to work today, taking the usual routes to throw off anyone following me before picking up one of my uniforms at the drop-off point in Hollenbeck Park. I’d just taken the uniform out and was beginning to don it when someone stepped out of the shadows and snapped a pic.”
The Hollenbeck drop off is in a disused access tunnel. City officials have the tunnel blocked off for safety concerns, which provides a wonderful avenue for Paradigm to change between his identities. a front to ensure that If someone was in that tunnel, they were trespassing in a condemned location and Paradigm should have taken them in. The fact he hasn’t mentioned he did yet is worrying me.
Paradigm continued, “The man looked like he was out of a period piece from the early 20th century. Three-piece suit, bowler hat, and a camera that looked like it hadn’t even heard of color prints.” He stopped himself before he bothered going into further detail, and simply nodded toward Overseer. Once again, my mind was filled with visions, this time of Paradigm in the tunnel with the man standing across from him.
I watched through Paradigm’s eyes as he saw the man he’d described standing a few yards away with a grin pasted across his face. I could feel Paradigm’s muscles tensing as the flash from the camera faded and his feet began to bring him towards the intruder. “Oi, free press mate. Step off will ya?” The trespasser spoke up as Paradigm approached. “Lay off will ya? I’m with the news. Richard Baker with the Daily Mirror to be precise. I’m sure the world would love to know who you really are, mister Sosa.” Paradigm stopped in his tracks as the reporter dropped the bomb that he already knew who the boss was. “What did you think I was here on accident? I’ve been following you for sometime. Just needed to find the right moment to catch you tossing on the old suit and take a photograph. Hope you won’t mind if I take my leave now.” The reporter began to step away, but that seemed to snap Paradigm out of his shock.
“You’re trespassing on city property and I’ll have to take you in. Surrender quietly, hand over the camera, and I’m work with the city to ensure they don’t press charges.” Paradigm began to stride over to the man after issuing his statement, but the reporter did not seem to be bothered.
“Oh, even more scoops for the paper. Do give me a smile while I dance away!” The man tipped his hat and then began to sprint away through the tunnel. I heard Paradigm curse under his breath before setting off in pursuit. It should have been a short chase. The longer Paradigm ran the more he built up kinetic energy, and for a super whose power allowed him to absorb and then expel kinetic energy to increase his abilities the speed he’d gradually gain should have allowed him to easily close the gap. I could feel Paradigm’s distress as the reporter instead managed to continually outpace him, the pair of them sprinting through the tunnel at a pace that would put Olympic runners to shame. The reporter even took the time to backpedal and snap pictures of the chase, cheering Paradigm on to hurry up and look good for the camera.
The chase came to an end when the reporter rounded a corner and when Paradigm arrived only a second later the man was nowhere to be seen. The tunnel continued on with no doors or access ways providing alternate methods of escape, but the man was gone nonetheless. My mind came back to me as the vision faded.
“I searched the tunnels for another half hour but found no trace of the man. It was as though he was never there.” Paradigm took a moment to breathe as a vein on his forehead pulsed. “The man is a criminal, even if it was a simple trespassing. I don’t want it to seem as though I hold a grudge against the man for finding out my identity. I’ve always known that was a risk in this line of work, and I accepted that. What I can’t accept is a criminal knowing who I am, let alone one that seemed to be a super. I want the two of you to keep this to yourselves. If the criminal intends to use this for leverage instead of going to the papers, then there’s no need to worry the rest of the team. If you spot the man though, bring him in for questioning. I’d like to know more about this Richard Baker. But I won’t hold you all here any longer, I’m sure Titan’s waiting to head to the Grove.” Paradigm pushed himself up from the table and excused us from the room. Pulling his helmet back on he made his way over to the door and left the three of us to head to our assigned tasks.
Val and I weren’t a step out the door before she whispered over to me, “No shit, someone found out who Paradigm was and got away? No wonder he’s pissed. Man’s managed to keep his identity secret outside of Dawnstar for a decade and now it may fall apart. I’d hate to be that reporter when Paradigm catches him.” I gave her a questioning look and she stammered on. “It’s not like I think Paradigm would do anything bad to him, the guy’s a stickler for the rules. Still he’s got a stare that’ll shake a villain to the core. He’d have that guy confessing for anything he’d ever done wrong since he was born after just a few minutes.”
We met up with Titan just outside the guild. He’d already geared up for the patrol and was waving us over with a grin as we pulled on our helmets and tested our wrist comms. Titan spoke up as we walked over. “Hope you guys won’t slow me down, you seem to be dragging your feet today. The party didn’t knock the two off you off your game did it?. What took you both so long anyway? Paradigm give you a talk for staying up too late and not sticking to the alcohol limit?” His smile faded as we dismissed his questions, simply smiling back at him.
I don’t mind working with Valkyrie, even if she can be a bit over the top at times, but Titan grates on my nerves. He’s may be one of our best heroes for subduing criminals , but he’s gotten an over-inflated ego from the amount of times his mug has been on the front page for bringing in some petty thug. If the break-in really was the work of Tyrannis, he’ll need to bring his A-game. “Something like that Titan.” I finally replied. “The party didn’t slow me down at all, though I can’t say the same about Val. I’ll race the pair of you to the Grove, last one there buys lunch.”
“You’re on!” Val shouted as she began to summon the wind to herself. “Try not to let those lead feet of yours slow you down too much.” Valkyrie and me shared a grin before taking off into the city, Titan’s cries to wait up left in the dust. Val soared through the air with ease as she wreathed herself in air currents, pulling herself forward as she began to scan the city below us. I sped through the city beneath her, dodging pedestrians and cars as I wove through the traffic.
The people of L.A. were used to seeing us on patrol, but that didn’t stop them from calling out friendly greetings as we zoomed past. The pair of us arrived at the Grove long before Titan, and we were already gathered by the break-in point when he finally showed up a few minutes later. He jumped off his hoverboard, an in house special made for him by our resident techie Automaton, and slugged me in the back of the shoulder.
“You didn’t mean the whole paying for lunch thing did you? I mean like, how the hell am I supposed to keep up with you two? You’re the fastest heroes Dawnstar has, and Thunder might be the fastest super in the state. I was just joking around about you two being slow today, you know that right?” Thunder looked at us pleadingly, while Val and I simply glanced between each other. We let him beg for a moment more before our faces cracked and a grin spread across them.
“Serves you right for picking a fight with the fastest supers in L.A., but no you won’t have to buy lunch. Thunder will, I beat him here by a second.” Val stuck her tongue out at me while I rolled my eyes. When she didn’t hear an immediate refusal, she gave a fist pump before turning serious and bringing Titan’s attention to the crime scene. “To catch you up on what I’ve already told Thunder, it wasn’t the Baron who made this hole. The wall is too cold, but not cold enough that we can suspect the Baroness either.”
“Who are we suspecting then? Anyone else in town specializing in break-ins that could make a hole like this?” Titan looked the wall over before he placed a hand near the hole, his geokinesis feeling out the stone for any anomalies. “Hmmm, the neighboring stone wasn’t moved at all when the break in occurred. It’s like someone simply plucked that portion of the wall out like it was the lid of a pot. Perfectly clean cut too. If I hadn’t been playing League last night I’d say I was the most likely culprit.” He chuckled to himself while Val and I rolled our eyes.
I pulled myself through the hole, scanning the surrounding area as I spoke up. “Tyrannis must have gotten a hold on some serious hardware to break in like this, but this whole thing just doesn’t seem like their style. They’re usually a lot more flashy in how they go about flaunting their power. Do we know if the mall has reported anything missing yet?”
Val shook her head. “Haven’t heard back from Captain Richards yet. He’s coordinating the investigation between his department in the LAPD and Dawnstar. He said he’ll contact us once they’ve looked over the CCTV footage, but until then it seems that the mall is trying to keep the break-in as low profile as they can. He may have told me that their worried about certain heroes running their mouths and scaring the public.” She gave a pointed look at Titan who was too busy investigating the stone in the area to notice.
“Seems like this opens up into the electronics section.” I sped through the aisles, quickly taking note of the stock on the shelves. “Maybe they were trying to grab some spare parts? There doesn’t seem to be anything missing that I’m seeming immediately, and this just doesn’t feel like the work of Tyrannis.”
Everything seems to be in place, so what happened here? A lure to get us out of the way for something else happening or a genuine purpose we’re just not seeing? If Tyrannis had broken in I’d expect to see alot more broken merchandise, graffiti’d tags on the wall, probably a few spray-painted likenesses of their elites, but there’s none of that.
“I’m thinking this is a new player.” Val stepped through the breach to meet me as I returned from my search. “Nothing about this break in lines up with the typical Tyrannis playbook. I think we’ve got a new super in town, or a new group with the hardware to pull off such a unique break in.”
“Perfect. Capturing those royal jerks was getting boring.” Titan stepped through the breach as well, his survey of the stonework concluded. “Be good to show everyone that Titan can hold his own with any evil doer this city has to offer.”
Holy hell this guy is full of himself. Does it make me a bad person that I hope he get’s that mug of his pushed in by whoever did this? Just a little bit, nothing serious.
I shrugged off my annoyance and signaled for the other two to spread out through the mall. “Not much to do till we get the camera footage from the mall security. I’ll patrol the perimeter to see if anyone comes in or out of the mall, you two keep looking and seeing if anything is obviously missing.” The two of them nodded their agreement and then split up to do an inventory. I exited the breach and then began my patrol around the building, stopping in with the LAPD officers who were on stakeout to let them know that we here to help them before I headed off to secure the area.
Gonna be a long morning while we wait for any new developments. I might as well get some exercise in. Who knows, the new super may make an appearance and I’ll need to put on my best showing.
