A Well Kept Secret....

After I left Leroy, I went straight to Headquarters. I was used to Dispatch hiding things from people, but this was starting to get scary. I had the feeling that whatever was going on, he had Christopher in the middle of it.

That was even scarier. Christopher was brilliant, true, but his twisted mind didn't compute helping people. I doubt the jail time helped to change his mind about that.

As I stepped inside and began to walk inside, I kept a close eye out for anything out of the ordinary. I purposely didn't walk into the command center. Dispatch spent so much time there that I didn't believe he ever slept. It was as though he was some kind of sentinel, scared to close his eyes in case something happened while he wasn't looking.

I walked quickly back to hallway where I found the locked door. I knew I only had a few minutes before Tony appeared. I managed to reach the door and tried to run my hand print again. Still no luck. Glancing quickly up and down the hall, I placed my hand on it again and concentrated. I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve that even Dispatch didn't know about. A few seconds later, the reader flashed green and the door opened.

I slipped inside and looked around. A cot sat in the far corner of the room. Several bookshelves stood against the walls. They were cluttered with different books and gadgets. I stepped across the room to another door, this one without a reader. As I stepped closer, it slid open.

My breathe caught in my throat. Inside the closet-like space was a suit of armor. Just like the one the mystery hero had been wearing.

"Dammit, Tony," I muttered, just before a voice spoke behind me with enough anger in it to send chills up my spine.

"I should have known you wouldn't leave it alone." I turned to find Dispatch standing behind me, more angry than I had ever seen him.

What should have been a good time.....

Since Kara was still off planet with my father, this was the perfect opportunity to go out and have a little fun. And what better fun than Barry's BBQ.

Of course, Barry seems to just get a kick out of asking me to bring the garden salad. Ha-ha.

I arrived a little late to find that Leroy was already there. Looking around, I spotted almost everybody, including one of the new guys, Ralph. He just happened to be the guy that jacked up Lexi in the bar a few months ago. He definitely got my vote. It was a sore note about Greg, but we should be getting some rainfall soon. If not, I'm going to have to pull a favor from mom; I'll just tell her that I'm dating another human. That should give us enough rainfall to last us through next summer.

I had just managed to find a chair and get comfortable when Leroy came over and asked if I had talked to Tomeika and Jada. I frowned. Now that I thought about it, I didn't see them at the stadium for the baby Snuffles birth either.

I shook my head. "Why don't you just call them?"

I knew Leroy was worried. Tomeika and Jada never miss the opportunity to party.

"Something's wrong." Brice said as he walked over. Hopefully, him and Leroy wouldn't get into one of their little verbal battles. They always seem to rub each other the wrong way.

We all glanced down as Leroy's phone began to ring. I could tell by his face that the news wasn't good. Turning around, I began to shush the crowd so he could hear. One by one, everyone started to sense something was wrong and began to gather around us.

"What hospital?" I heard Leroy say. I could hear Jada yelling hysterically into the phone and was able to pick up some of what she said. His face was like stone as he hung up and turned to me.

“Something’s wrong with Tomieka." Leroy said, his voice vibrating with tension. "She won’t wake up. Bring Brice and Blake. Maybe one of them can go inside her head and find out what’s going on.” Brice nodded as though Leroy hadn't deliberated ignored him.

He nodded, drained his beer and took off.

"We will meet you there." I told him. I turned around to find the new guy, Ralph, standing right over my shoulder. "What was all that about?"

"Tomeika's in the hospital." I told him gathering up my things.

He frowned. "She works with that other girl, right? What's her name?"

"Yeah. Jada. That was her on the phone." I shook my head. "Sounds pretty bad."I walked over to Barry and let him know what was happening. Before I could walk back over to Brice, Barry was in the background taking off his apron. "Okay, everybody. Party's over. We need to get to the hospital. Tomeika's down." Everybody froze. People started handing car keys over to their spouses or whoever they showed up with. Those who could fly immediately took off.

I was scared to think of what could have made her so sick.

Ean's Last Stand

Today...Ean left the Urban 30.

He was always on the fence: more of a rebel than a hero, or in this case, Superhero.

I'm guessing that this last call was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Snuffles.

Until yesterday, not many people believed that Snuffles existed; She usually likes to stay real low key. With a face like hers, I can definitely understand why. In case you've never seen her, snuffles looks like the Kraken from Clash of the Titans. She's really sweet as long as you don't accidentally stick her with your fishing hook. Then it's on.

Nobody believes that there's a 35-foot Sea Monster in the Anacostia. I mean, we all know the water's dirty as hell, that's no news. But something actually living in it?

It happened like this: I had just gotten in to work when I got the call from Dispatch.

"Terra, I need you to get your team together and get over to National's Park. Snuffles decided to take in a game. Luckily nobody's playing."

Oooookay....I sighed and hung up the phone. Looks like I won't be getting much work done today. I called my guys (Ean and Tellico) then left my office. I let the receptionist know I was going out to a meeting (my usual cover story) as I passed her desk . I managed to get the elevator to myself, so I was able to change by time I hit the garage and snuck out one of the back doors.

I flew over just to find everything a total madhouse. I counted twelve people at the scene getting tossed around like it was nothing. My guys pulled up in a cab a few minutes later, but I didn't see the Tin Can. Hell, with him around, this would have been over with in no time. I took out my phone and dialed dispatch. "Hey, where's your boy?"

He hesitated for a minute. "I didn't think we needed that much force to take care of the problem."

I frowned. "Force? Tony, you've got 15 of us on the scene, and more coming! What the hell do you mean too much force?"

"You guys can handle it, Terra." I heard the line drop. It was definitely on between me and Dispatch.

I was kinda glad he wasn't there. None of us really had the heart to hurt Snuffles, she was quiet unless somebody managed to snag her with their fishing line. I'm pretty sure it doesn't hurt her, but I'll bet it's irritating as hell. I was surprised, when in a rare (extremely rare) show of Superhero-ness, he ran down into the center of the fray. I happened to glance at Snuffles and noticed something strange.

"Ean! No! Wait a minute! She's -," I cringed as Ean stopped in front of Snuffles and got covered by some of the nastiest, smelliest looking crap that I have ever seen in my existence. "pregnant" A minute later, she let out a blood curdling yell and out pops this ten foot version of her. Oh god. Ean unfortunately, was standing right in the line of fire. He pushed up, clearly pissed, grabs the baby, and tosses it to Snuffles. She gave her version of a smile and crawled back out of the stadium.

Ean turns to me and yells. "Tell Dispatch, I'm through. I've had it with this shit."

My eyes stretched as he turned and stalked off, everybody opening a wide patch around him. Smelling like that in this part of town? He was gonna have a hard time trying to get a ride.