Chapter Seven: TedGo to chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 Yes, sir. That's the latest report on Team Infinity. Everything we have on the group and then some. I had Alnora check them out, sir; they're doing the standard playing-at-superheroes act. No, sir. The camera in the squad car wasn't working that day, and the backup wasn't pointed in the right direction to catch anything useful. I'm sorry I couldn't get you those pictures, sir. I have physical descriptions in the report from the time I met them, it's the best I can do. Sir, we do have a positive ID on the leader. His name is Alex Brene; he goes by "Reality". He's in his last year of high school, sir. He says he's eighteen, the papers say he's eighteen, but he's a highly skilled metamorph. He could easily be older, especially given the circumstances. But I trust him, if not on age then on what counts. Why do I trust him, sir? It's quite simple: I know he exists. We have reason to believe he revealed his "normal" form to me, for starters. Despite my efforts to apprehend him, he didn't have the team's empath erase my memory, and he hasn't impersonated me or any other HSA agent that we know of, especially not to erase the files on his team. Well, he knows a good lawyer, sir. A very good lawyer, one who's managed to weasel out of anything we can pin on these guys, down to the most minor offenses. However, Alex - er, Mr. Brene - does seem to have a remarkable respect for the law and a tendency to attract and apprehend renegade mutants. Yes, sir, of course, "except when those laws apply to him". I think it says something for him that he has a mutant like Soul under his command - you've heard of Soul, haven't you, sir? - and he has yet to commit any crime more serious than destruction of public property without it being justifiable self-defense. He's more dedicated than most of the new recruits we get in here, sir. He even saved my life once. The full details on that are in your report. I took the liberty of adding a few pertinent details to the preliminary abstract I filed last week. * * * * Because of recent mutant-related riots in New York City over the weekend, when the tip came in from our anonymous hotline that the mutant sharpshooter Minerva was in town, I was the only agent available for the job. Fortunately, it only took a couple hours of Internet searching and questioning to find out where she was. Apparently, she could be contacted in person on Wednesday night at the amphitheatre of the local university. This was the perfect news: since she was being so obvious about her whereabouts, I could not only call for some local police backup if I needed it, I had a good chance of catching the Mutant Activities Division's number one target, a group of kid vigilantes calling themselves Team Infinity. The "team" had never been defeated and thus never caught, but the HSA had a good bit of information on them in the files, so I checked those out in case I needed to target specific individuals quickly. Always good to know your enemy, my boss tells me, and it's especially true when your enemy could have six-inch claws on his feet as well as a pistol at his waist. I spent most of Wednesday getting the necessary authorization to use the HSA's newest, best toy from the Department of Defense: a neuroscrambler that, by interfering with specific brainwaves, would prevent 99 percent of mutant powers from being used. That, plus a new-model dart pistol which would cause unconsciousness within seconds, should be enough to convince Team Infinity to give up quietly, I thought. So I walked into the drama building next to the amphitheatre Wednesday night (no shows going on, thankfully, and not a soul around) rather confidently, in a blue suit and carrying the neuroscrambler in a briefcase. Our predictions were correct: I had barely been in there twenty seconds before what sounded like the whole six-man team came tromping down a staircase behind me. I turned around smoothly, opened the briefcase, and flicked the "on" switch as they came in the device's range. About two seconds later, I flicked the switch off again and back on several times, finally giving up. The thing was dead somehow, and at the worst possible moment. Even prototypes weren't supposed to fail like that - curse those ivory-tower techies and engineers! I couldn't back down now -- the boss would have my head! -- so I had only one recourse: bluff my way out and hope the team still had some shred left of obedience to authority. "Hello. Am I correct in assuming you six are members of Team Infinity?" A couple of the kids glance at one of them, a tall blonde respectable-looking chap in a high school letter jacket with an infinity-symbol ring on his left hand. "Yep, that's us," he says. "Anything you want to tell us, or just glad to see your friendly neighborhood superheroes?" I swallow and take a step forward. Come on, Ted, you've faced more danger than this and come out of it alive, says one part of my mind. Its more sarcastic cousin replies, Yeah, but not much more. I say, successful at keeping my voice under control if not my thoughts, "The former, actually. My name is Ted Kavalec; I'm an agent for the Homeland Security Agency, Mutant Activities Division." I whip out my badge in anticipation; most criminals, mutant or no, usually demand your credentials before they'll give you the time of day. "HSA. Not good." snarls another one in a black trenchcoat with an infinity-symbol pin on the lapel, clenching his fist. I'm aware that there is no love lost between the mutant committee and my division, so this is no surprise. On the other hand, I think I know who this one is, and he's one of the more powerful team members according to the files, so I'd better watch my step. Letter Jacket flicks a glance at Trenchcoat, which shuts him up, but I keep talking to avoid having to answer any questions. "I'm putting you all under arrest for destruction of public and private property, assault with a deadly weapon, and various other crimes. I suggest you come quietly, it'll save you a lot of trouble in court." I move my hand unobtrusively to my sidearm in its holster, one eye covering possible team members in ambush or escape routes. Letter Jacket turns his head to whisper with the guy on his left, another typical pimply-faced high-schooler wearing a homemade Team Infinity tee-shirt. I can't make out most of it, but the last sentence is "He's a friend, for now at least." A response is quick after that from Letter Jacket, who says, "OK. I hate having to do this, but we're on an important job right now, with a tight schedule." He flips out his watch with a flourish and continues, "You have thirty seconds to decide you really don't want to arrest us after all, or Mind here convinces you the hard way by erasing your memory. Your choice... for another twenty-five seconds." The first rule of being an HSA agent is: Never back down, unless you have no hope of winning. Without the neuroscrambler, there was no way I could make a decent escape, much less apprehend all six of these guys, if they didn't want me to. So I held out my hands and admitted defeat. "Okay, you win. For tonight at least, we have a common cause anyway - catching Minerva. I could prove useful to your mission, or a rather annoying witness when we finally catch you. "So, are you too proud to accept the help of a trained professional, or what?" I'm fairly proud of that speech, actually: it gets the concepts across in terms a teenager could understand. Letter Jacket, a smile on his face, nods and shakes my hand. He offers to introduce me to the team members, but I ward him off, asking, "Let me try to identify you guys. I should know you from the HSA files anyway." To Letter Jacket. "You're obviously the leader, so that makes you Reality, the metamorph. Good to meet you." His friend Trenchcoat is also easy to place. "Dark hair, trenchcoat, short fuse... that makes you Power, who shoots energy and sound waves, no?" A nod and a predictable glare. Even the team's enemies know about Power's short temper. Next to Power is a short, quiet Asian girl: "And you must be Soul?" She gives me a surprisingly warm smile, obviously didn't expect me to notice her. "Congratulations, Soul, the HSA has no idea what your powers are, but we assume they're useful, since you always show up with the rest of the team." She gets a mischevious glint in her eye, obviously not about to tell me if I don't already know. Now that I know one girl, the other is a cinch to identify. I point a finger. "Space, with what appears to be access to an alternate dimension. Your power is also fascinating to our research boys, but I'm sure you don't want to hear me talk about that one." I'm on a roll here -- won't the boys back at the Agency be impressed to hear this one! As long as I can put the right spin on it, of course. "A friend, for now, isn't that what you said? That makes you Mind, the empath." A few of the team members laugh behind their hands and the guy replies, "It's good to know the almighty HSA doesn't have us totally pegged yet. I'm Time, in case you haven't guessed. By the way, do your files actually tell you what my powers are?" "Hmmm... Sorry, Mind, but your abilities are relatively well documented; we have a couple mentalists in our employ who were able to sort things out from examining your victims, er, opponents. Time, on the other hand, we suspect has some sort of precognitive ability to see a few seconds into the future." Another big smile from the guy now correctly identified as Time. "And I thought I couldn't be underestimated any further! Oh well, I might as well inform you that I have both precognitive and postcognitive abilities, and they reach a lot longer than a few seconds. Plus I have some related tricks up my sleeve that you may get a chance to see if you watch very closely." Reality breaks in here, obviously still good-natured but even more obviously the team leader, still focused on the mission. "Now that our introductions are over, what can you do for us, Mr. Kavalec?" "Ted is fine, I don't really care. And aside from being reasonably able to protect myself with this," as I draw my dart pistol, "I have some information on Minerva that you might not be aware of." "Minerva?" asks Space. "Is she a new recruit or something?" By way of explanation, Reality adds, "We're here on a challenge from the Olympians. We've beaten them before, so we were wondering what trick they had up their sleeves this time. A new member would certainly explain things." I open my mouth to correct their error, remarkably at the same time Time opens his. "You've been tricked," I say at the same time he mutters, "We've been tricked." I continue unperturbed, "You're actually facing Minerva, a former member of the Olympians who left shortly before you met them. She's also been dishonorably discharged from the military and a half-dozen civilian jobs, so she's not exactly the most stable personality. I'm here on an anonymous tip that she'd be here, but she may have friends." The team shut up rather quickly when I started becoming useful; a sign of a well-trained group. For a bunch of high-school kids, they certainly have their act together, something I feel is due in large part to team leader Reality. He asks, "Is there anything else you can tell us? What she's going to be using to kill us, for example?" "As a matter of fact, I'm intimately familiar with her weapon. You're looking at it." I hand my dart pistol to Time, who whips out a well-worn pair of glasses to investigate. "It shoots darts filled with a toxin that causes unconsciousness within seconds, even against mutants with a weird metabolism. The design is a new one designed to be accurate at rifle range while keeping the size of a pistol, and for someone with sniper training like Minerva, that was recommendation enough. We think she picked one up on the black market a couple weeks ago; she used it to rob a grocery store on Sunday night, for sure." "A well-built weapon," says Time, pulling off his glasses. "And there are no serious problems with the neuroscrambler, it's just got a busted power supply. Should be easy to fix, as soon as you get it out of Soul's range." He grins at me and at Soul, but she doesn't hear us, already engaged in a side conversation with Power. Is this a possible clue to Soul's powers or just a red herring to distract my attention from Time's ability to analyze machinery he's never seen before in a matter of seconds? I need more time to consider, but with an antsy sharpshooter waiting for us, time is in short supply. "I don't normally condone an aggressive course of action, but Minerva is obviously waiting in ambush at a specific spot, i.e. behind the amphitheatre, and she's too well-trained to be flushed out of her hiding spot without a good reason." Power adds soberly, "Plus it's probably illegal to attack Minerva unless she fires first, unless you want to send Ted out to apprehend her alone, which may not be such a bad idea." Mind rolls his eyes -- it's good to know at least one of them is on my side, or perhaps he just dislikes Power -- but declines to comment, instead noting, "Well, Reality, there goes the 'turn into a flock of pigeons and peck her eyes out' idea, ehh?" Reality sums up the situation. "Well, we've been in traps before, and it's six against one, and we know what we're facing, so we just have to go out there and do it. Don't use your powers until she fires, in case she's confused on whom to shoot first." I cough loudly behind my hand; he turns to me and says ironically, "Right. Seven on one. Space, will you keep James Bond here out of trouble, please?" Space has caught Mind's ironic humor, or perhaps vice versa, considering Mind is an empath after all. "Anything for you, Alex. I'll make sure I cut the shield extra close." The team arrays themselves in a clump, with me and Space in the back, and walks out into the performance space of the amphitheatre. Reality puts up a hand to stop in the middle of the stage, and we all look around nervously. The "thunk" sound of a fired dart makes everybody jump, including me and a couple birds over in the trees nearby. There's a flash of white light somewhere in the team to my right, and Soul crumples, clutching her shoulder. Everyone turns their head to look, but only for a split second, as Reality calls them back to order. "Team Infinity, defend yourselves!" If I had a notepad, I would be scribbling on it furiously, because here is Team Infinity in action as no federal agent has ever seen them. Reality plants his feet in the ground and a metal skin grows over his body within a couple seconds. I had no idea he had such fine control over his shape-changing powers, but that certainly explains why the paper-pushers in the Agency rate him so high on the threat list. Power, next to him, takes a step away from the team, throws the trenchcoat to the side, and sets himself on fire, which lends a kind of surreality to the whole thing because the fire doesn't look very hot or threatening, and doesn't appear to affect his clothing, but is obviously the best this guy can think of. Maybe it's an energy-gathering state for a projectile attack or something. Time stays where he is, but puts his glasses on and glances at Soul. Mind is in a crouch, watching Time to see if he can find out where Minerva is. Apparently Minerva's emotions don't stand out at this range enough for Mind to detect her. Space drags me back, almost to the door, pulls me close to her by my suit collar, and grabs a heart-shaped locket from around her neck. She holds it out with one hand, undoing the necklace with the other, and suddenly there's a whirling globe of mirrors around us, only a few inches from the pair of us. She wasn't kidding when she said extra close, so I assume this must be her shield: a portal to an alternate dimension, constantly changing shape and location so it can provide coverage from dart shots without Minerva being able to compensate for it. I've seen footage of a gateway from one of our captured mutants, and this is definitely what one looks like from behind: since nothing enters backwards, it's like a perfect mirror, and maybe a little brighter from some of the light rays that get through the gateway as it changes shape. The feeling of being so close to a power that would slice me in two if I stumbled into a gateway as it opened or closed makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, but I'm determined not to show weakness in front of this bunch, so I stand my ground and make sure my pistol is ready. With another thunk, the mirrors disappear and Space crumples beside me, a dart in her shoulder. The timing for that shot was so close that the back half of the dart was chopped off by the gateway as it spun and is now removed from this plane of reality entirely. I knew Minerva's mutant power made her an excellent shot, but not THAT good, and apparently neither did the rest of the team, who glance over their heads at her. Time shouts, "There!" and points at Minerva, barely visible behind a stand of trees at the other end of the amphitheatre. He suggests immediately, "If it's OK to show the HSA dude, we'll mindmeld and take the stairs while you guys try a frontal assault." Mind nods, and is already moving to the door as Reality gives them the thumbs-up. I hold the door for them and fire off a couple ineffective shots in Minerva's general direction to give the impression of a retreat. While I'm doing so, Reality and Power are already moving in a rather more impressive fashion than our flank attack. Power takes a running jump in her direction, and on his way up is caught by Reality in the form of a giant birdlike creature, and they're off. As I close the door behind the three of us, leaving Space and Soul where they lie out of necessity, Minerva takes another shot, this time at Reality, who throws Power forward at one of the last rows of seats before losing control of his flight path and taking a nosedive into the ground. Fascinated, I keep watching from the doorway as Power throws a jet of some kind of energy behind him like a rocket, propelling himself forward so he clears the amphitheatre proper and lands right in front of Minerva. As he lands, he puts his hands together and sends her flying into the nearest tree with what I identify as a low-frequency shockwave from the rumbles I can feel in the floor. Mind is already at the foot of the stairs, so I let the door slam and follow them. The two pause at the foot of the stairs to get their bearings and have a little discussion. They're some distance away from me, but not bothering to lower their voices, so I can still hear them. Maybe they just forgot, maybe they intended me to hear: you can never tell with a mentalist around. Time says, "Should we show this guy?" Mind answers, "We have to. She just took down Reality." It seems strange that neither one appears to care that a third team member has been shot, until I realize Reality's shapeshifting ability will make short work of any wounds he has incurred as soon as he wakes up. Mind turns to me and announces, "Today's your lucky day. You're the first person outside the team to see our mindmeld." I nod automatically, thinking: Yeah, right. Everyone knows a mindmeld requires two telepaths, and neither one of them fits the bill. They do the standard Star Trek-like mindmeld thing, then Mind notices my skepticism, which has to be as obvious as a strobe light for him. "Quick, say something random," he says. I shrug and say the first sentence that comes to my mind, wondering what trick they have up their sleeves. To my surprise, all three of us say "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country" in perfect unison. "How did you do that?" I ask, suddenly curious. Time answers smugly, "Rather easily, in fact." "Don't believe everything you read!" puts in Mind, naturally, and Time continues. "I read your lips and he reads my mind. Just a parlor trick, but it demonstrates the effectiveness of our technique, n'est-ce pas?" I certainly can't let them see how astonished I am that something approaching a real mindmeld has been achieved by one two-bit empath and one amateur precognizant, so I say, "Let's go." They affirm and head up the staircase in their attempt to flank Minerva from the rear, Time whipping out a pair of glasses. As I follow them up, pistol at the ready, I wonder why they took so long showing off for me. Obviously, one or the other of them knows something I don't know, but lacking a way to ask without looking uninformed, I keep my mouth shut and follow. Sure enough, at a landing halfway up the stairs, the two teenaged vigilantes run into Minerva, coming the other way. She's a bit scuffed, reloading her pistol as she goes, and has apparently been running. It's obviously her, as her mutant "power" gives her huge, supersensitive eyes (barely covered by her oversize sunglasses, which shield her from bright light and prying eyes) and the specialized brain hardware to translate that into world-class vision. How Power managed to avoid getting shot by a lady whose mutation enhances her marksmanship ability off the scale is another matter entirely, and I'll get to that one later. For now, she fires a shot at each of them, and to her surprise, they both dodge. I duck back to a position where we can't see each other, but I can see the two heroes. Any lingering doubts about the "mindmeld" have been removed, as Time has been observed to dodge bullets in this fashion using his future prediction ability and Mind has not. However, Minerva has seen something I couldn't, perhaps some miniscule delay between the two's reactions. Unlike most villains, she goes for the fastest target first: from her military training or hubris at her powers, I'm not sure, but neither one is especially good for their (and by extension my) chances of victory. She unloads the rest of her clip except for two shots in a precisely measured pattern at Time, who dodges the first three and runs smack into the fourth. Given the reports on Time, only another mutant could have predicted or anticipated his movements fast enough to catch him with a weapon as slow-firing as a dart pistol, so I have another tidbit of information: Minerva's been practicing on moving targets, and she's better than we thought. Time crumples and Mind grimaces in pain. Minerva shifts her aim to her second opponent, and I decide my time is up, so I lean around the edge of the door, ready to shoot. Fortunately, Mind has bought me some time: she grabs her shoulder in the same place Time was hit, then her head in confusion, moving her aim slightly off the empath. Feeding emotions to an enemy is always a good offensive tactic, and Mind just happened to have someone about to fall unconscious ready at hand to project into Minerva's mind for that extra bit of confusion. Time drops to the floor, and Mind's trick stops working, but as Minerva regains her composure, she's knocked down the stairs headfirst with a thunderclap as Power runs up behind her and zaps her from behind. She rolls toward me, firing at Power as she gets up, and now I see how he managed to avoid being hit in the first place: the whole "lighting self on fire" trick wasn't just a preparation for a kinetic energy blast, it's actually a self-defense field that disintegrates the dart before it reaches him. While her attention isn't focused on me, I drop her with my own pistol. Mind, who had dropped to his knees by the effort of channeling Time's mental trauma to Minerva and is still feeling a little woozy, says, "Thanks. That was a close call." I smile and tell him, "I've had closer. You still had two team members left, and she was down to one shot in the clip against three people anyway." Still, behind the bravado, he can tell I'm impressed. Carrying Minerva's limp form between us, Mind and I meet Reality at the foot of the stairs, who is not even ruffled -- metamorphs have a tendency to comb their hair and brush their teeth automatically when transforming back into their normal forms, it comes in handy when one oversleeps -- and he takes the weight from both of us with ease, meaning he's obviously got more muscles than he had ten minutes ago. Although he'd demonstrated his ability to change form selectively just a few minutes ago, it still impresses me, as that sort of thing gives trouble to even the most experienced metamorphs in our files. I wonder how old he really is, and where he picked up that trick - something our research department should definitely look into. As we leave the building, he says, "Thanks for the assist, Mr. Kavalec. If you ever need something done in the future, give us a call and we'll be glad to help you out." Power adds that their team is probably less likely to get angry calls from citizens than a pack of HSA agents, a point I could debate if I had time. As it is, the important thing is getting Minerva to a protected facility before she wakes up, and fixing that neuroscrambler while I'm at it. I do have a parting shot for the kids, though, after Minerva has been deposited in the back of the squad car: "Anything but turning yourselves in, eh? Everybody has to follow the laws except you, because you're working for the good of humanity or something? Doesn't sound very heroic to me." I don't wait for an answer and instead drive off. Let them mull it over for a while, and maybe I'll get results. And that's the real recommendation I have for Team Infinity: I actually expect results from them, both in their line of work as heroes and as responsible citizens. They may not be ready to face the consequences of their actions, but then again, most kids have that problem already! * * * * LiveJournal user evilken [Rick] wrote on 2003-02-05: Quick update today, have homework to do. Yeah, I'm still doing homework, 'cause I'm a loser. Gotta keep my grades up or my parents will kill me, it's, like, the one thing they care about. So anyway, last night Alex tells us we've got a job today, I mean today today, not yesterday today, you know what I mean, and it's this big rematch against the Olympians. I thought that was pretty cool, was looking forward to springing some of my new tricks on the whole crew, cheered me up right quick. Today though, we drive over - well, I drive over, it's always me, don't know what they did without me being truck driver, Alex doesn't even pay for the gas - to the university and not only is there no big battle, there's the HSA! One step away from the General if you ask me. Plus their agent dude did nothing but get in the way, steal my thunder, and then try to arrest us. Puh-leeze. Like a scrawny suit guy like him is going to be able to touch me if I don't want to do something, no matter what fancy equipment he has. So he insists on tagging along, and we come out and it's not even a real fight, it's this one lady with a sniper pistol, like in Halo where you get 3 headshots for an easy kill. She got Soul and Space before we got to respond, and then we go into action. The rest of the team is still packed in a close area, so I take an airlift from Reality, then airdash myself out the rest of the way across the theater thing to where she's hiding. She obviously hadn't done her homework, since she fell for the super-obvious shockwave blast as I landed, but at least she could take the heat. I figured, hey, we have plenty of time, you know? So I just put on my shield, let her waste a few shots until she finally got the message, then followed her into the building as she tried to make her escape. She couldn't even get past Time and Mind by the time I got there, and I was all set to finish the job properly when the agent dude steals my kill and pops her with another of those dart guns. Nothing really new, just your standard lopsided six-on-one battle. I would've liked to make it six on two, but Reality wouldn't let me. Sometimes I still feel like just blowing him up where he stands, it would be soooo satisfying. He gets on my nerves, can you tell? And that was basically my day. When am I gonna get a chance to show anybody but Lia what I'm really capable of? Ben won't listen, he's got his precious little ranking chart and nothing's gonna change it. I'm part of the team again, but that doesn't mean I have to like all the team members. That ain't written nowhere. |