Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 4

Cain changed back to his smaller form and said good bye to Courier. She looked a little paler than before. He can have that effect on people.

I found my new uniform. It was like a totally black unitard, leaving both of my arms uncovered but covering my breasts and tapering to a turtleneck. It also had two opera length gloves. The material was stretchy, Kind of like Lycra, but denser. The whole outfit was very light.

I got into Cain’s Hummer to change. The “uniform” if you could call it that, was Skin tight, and revealed every curve I had. The top part had a built in bra for support, and something akin to panties already incorporated into the garment.

There were no shoes or boots to go with it. The footwear was already a part of the legs.

The whole ensemble was very easy to put on, and was extremely comfortable. I was a bit uneasy stepping out of the vehicle.

Cain and Courier were still talking to each other when I came into view. “Well? What do you think? Too much?”

Courier saw me first and went goggle eyed. “Wow. They said it would be form fitting, but…”

Cain did a double take. “Whose idea was this? She looks like, well, there’s not enough there! She can’t go around looking like that!”

I blushed hard after that. “I feel like I’m naked. I can’t wear this to fight. Anybody would die laughing before I got a chance to do anything.”

“Wait a minute, before the two of you go all Victorian on me, let me explain that garment. It was specifically designed for you. You are looking at a costume, if you will, that cost 3 million dollars to develop. First of all, it is constructed of a new fabric that is based on spider silk. It has the flexibility of spandex, but is bullet resistant, cut proof, and will insulate as well as a parka, while breathing when it needs to, to keep you cool. The gloves and built in boots are constructed of the same material, with a polymer on the fingers and palms that will allow you to virtually walk up walls. Not like a fly, but you’ll be able to use the terrain to your advantage, allowing you to increase your leaping ability and use the terrain in an urban or inside environment to your advantage. They are also shock absorbing, so you won’t run the risk of breaking your hand on someone’s jaw”

I was amazed, but still suffering from shyness. “Okay, I get it. It’s high tech. But I’m next to naked, Courier!”

Rolling her eyes, she replied. “Oh, get over it. If you run into any males, they’ll be too distracted to fight. Another advantage you have. And it will help you blend in to the shadows, as it reduces your infrared signature. Move around, give it a try”

I flexed and stretched, dropping down into a split. She was right. It didn’t pinch or pull anywhere. Popping back up, I did a back flip, then ran to a wall and leapt. She was right again, I felt like I was clinging to the wall. Before I knew it, I was ten feet up, and then I did a somersault off the wall, landing next to Cain and Courier.

I was exhilarated. “Ok, I’ll take it.”

Smiling, Courier replied, “I thought you might. Here’s the sash that goes with it. It’s made of the same material, and can be used as a rope if needed. Why, you ask? Every girl needs an accessory to go with an outfit.”

Cain groaned at that one. “If you to ladies are through with fashion hour, we need to get going.”

I got into the spacious back seat of the super sized SUV. “I need to track this guy down. My last reading was south of here, so we can start in that direction”

“Okay. You’re the boss. Just let me know when you get anything else”

---

Nitro was driving south on Interstate 75. He had lifted his newest ride, a Ford pick up, from an older gentleman that wouldn’t need it anymore. Killing these insects was easy. They we no longer of any consequence. Robert Hunter was dead, only Nitro remained.

“I have the power now to take what I want” he thought to himself. “Anyone who gets in my way will die”

He got on his cell phone and called his Yemeni contact, Aziz. He didn’t know if that was his real name, and he didn’t care. He needed to get his name on the market.

“Aziz? This is Robert Hunter. At least I was. I am now known as Nitro, and I have something you will be very interested in”

“Hunter? They said you were dead”

“Not quite. I have something that will make your jihad into and unstoppable tidal wave. You can have it for the right price”

“What is it?”

“The Jefferson Street explosion?”

“Of course I know of this. It’s been all over the news”

“That was me”

“What? You caused all of that destruction? Our sources say it was an industrial accident.”

“You need to get new sources. I caused it and the explosion in the bank later”

“How are you doing this?”

“Trade secret, my oily friend. But I can say this. My talents are available for the right price. Tell you what, the first one’s on me, the next one you pay for. Watch the news, and I’ll be in touch later”

Twenty minutes later, at a rest stop around Toledo, Nitro demolished the facility killing fourteen more people. He never looked back.

An hour later, he was on the Ohio Turnpike, heading east. He called Aziz. “About that next job. I’ll need a team. Let’s meet.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Cain, I’m getting next to nothing. I can get a general direction, but I can’t lock on to him like before. It’s frustrating, like following someone in the fog, just barely being able to make him out”

Cain turned the radio down. “I know where he’s been. There is a report of an explosion at a rest stop in Ohio, east of Toledo. Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility, but I’ll bet it’s our boy”

“How many people this time?”

“They don’t know, but it’s more than ten”

“Shit! Why can’t I lock on to this clown?”

Shaking his head, Cain answered. “I don’t know kid, just keep your cool and focus. Do you think it’s possible that someone is shielding him somehow?”

“It’s possible, but he would have had to have gotten an ally, and as far I know, he hasn’t contacted anyone. He’s a loner based on what I’ve been able to find out before.”

“We’ll get him. And when I get my hands on that maggot, he’ll wish he’d never been born”

I called Courier to get an update. I asked her if he had any know metahuman contacts. She said she would find out, but that she didn’t think so. I also told her that I was sure he was heading east, and that I believed his final destination would be either Philadelphia or New York City.

Garrison called me for an update.

“I am having a lot of trouble keeping him locked in. I can no longer get a direct read on his thoughts, but I can still get a general idea of where he is going. It looks like Philly or New York City”

“Just great. Metahuman Affairs is getting involved now, and they are dispatching some of their assets to this. I didn’t object, but we are not sharing intel with them. The last thing I need is that lot of amateurs getting in the way”

“Well, they might be useful in corralling him once we get him located”

“No!” he interrupted. “Under no circumstances are any of those associated with Metahuman Affairs to be contacted. That’s an order”

“Okay, okay. It’s just a suggestion. I don’t know any of them anyway”

“Keep me informed” he abruptly hung up.

“As I looked at the phone, I spoke to no one in particular, “What an asshole”

Cain looked at me through the rear view mirror. “Told you”

Sticking my tongue out at him, a realized we had been on the road for a few hours. The pressure on my bladder had been building for awhile now. “Hey, big guy, I need to pee and get something to eat. How about we stop?”

“I’m fine. Can’t you wait a little bit?”

“No, I can’t. I have to pee! So help me, Cain, I will go all over your back seat if you don’t stop. Surely you have to get some gas or something”

I can go fifteen hundred miles on a tank. Thanks to the extra fuel storage I had installed. I hate to stop to fill up”

“Please, Cain. I have to go!”

Chuckling, Cain said “Alright, alright. You girls are all the same, always stopping to do something in the bathroom.”

“HEY, don’t be a chauvinistic p-i-g! We are just a little different, is all”

We pulled in to a BP station and I threw on the Maxi dress I had as a cover up. I wasn’t fighting now, and no one needed to see my, well, stuff. I took care of business and went to the little food mart to grab something to eat. I got a Diet Coke in a thirty two ounce cup with ice and some beef jerky and went to the counter to pay. I heard the rumble of a bunch of motorcycles pulling up.

The cashier rang me up. “That’ll be $5.25. By the way, I love your hair. How do you do your highlights? Purple is so cute with your hair color”

“Thank you” I replied. “My hairdresser does it, I really don’t know how” Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my wallet and handed her a twenty. She really didn’t need to know that the highlights were permanent.

The cashier looked out of the corner of her eye at the ten or so outlaw biker types who swaggered into the store. They were loud and obnoxious and generally were making asses of themselves.
She sighed. “I hate it when those Guys from the Raptors come in. I never feel quite safe with them in here. They hassle me and any customers that come in. I wish they would just go away. My old boyfriend is one of them. He’s the one by the door.”

She pointed to a good sized bald man trying to pull off a Stone Cold Steve Austin look and doing a fairly good job of it. He seemed to be the leader of the bunch.

“Are you going to be okay, like with these guys here? I can stay a little bit until they leave”

She gave me a faint smile and said, “Thanks, but I ‘d hate to see you get mixed up with these guys, they know me, but a couple of those creeps wouldn’t be above roughing up a pretty girl like you”

“Oh, I can handle myself”

Stone Cold at the door spoke up. “Hey Sarah! How about you and the bitch come on a ride with us. You won’t be sorry”

Sarah, the cashier replied “Joe, why don’t you and your boyfriends go. The manager told me that I would be fired if you guys came around causing trouble again. I need this job to support the baby you never seem to want to have anything to do with. I mean why would you? It’s only yours”

“Ahhh, it’s a girl. I’ll see what she’s like when she’s fourteen. I might be able to get a good price for her then”

I knew this sorry piece was serious. I turned to walk out. “You’re disgusting. A baby is a gift, and you want to sell her?”

Joe lost his arrogant smile. Clearly he had a problem with women, and now one was challenging him. His buddies were oohing and ahhhing. One said “the bitch has you cold, Joe. You gonna take that?”

I hated this creep, and I had never seen him before. I knew he was a misogynist, and had beat Sarah many times. He had killed girls before. Molested children. He wouldn’t again. I walked past him to the door.

He reached for me, but I was faster. “Hey, bitch, no one talks to Killer Joe like that”

I wasn’t going to trash the store. I set my drink and the bag of beef jerky on an ice freezer by the door. Then I turned just as he reached me and fed him a right into his solar plexus. He went down hard, gasping for breath.

His buddies saw what I had done and came running out the door.

“Oh you’re fuckin’ dead, bitch. No one lays a hand on a Raptor and lives!”

I couldn’t fight them like I wanted to and not destroy my new dress. I didn’t want to play any mind tricks on them either. I had a better plan.

“CAIN! HELP ME!”

The bikers had surrounded me. “Oh we are going to have some fun with you before you die” Said one with four front teeth missing. “Get her clothes off, She’s gonna ride naked for awhile”

Then a deep voice echoed behind them. “I don’t think she’s going anywhere with you, dick lips”

“Yeah, well fuck…” he turned around “yewww?”

Cain was gone. The Juggernaut was there. The Raptors, whoever they were, at least tried to fight him. After fifteen seconds, they were down. Bullets bounced off him, knives didn’t scratch him. They were down and in bad shape. Killer Joe had started to get up and I cut him back down with a psychically charged punch to the sternum.

“Stay down, ‘killer’. Cain, would you please take care of these minibikes?”

“What do you want me to do with them?”

“Could you wad them up like paper?”

“Yeah, but it might get a little messy.”

I put on my best puppy face and put my hands together. “Pleeeaase? Show me how strong you are”

Cain smiled. At least I think he did, it was hard to tell through his helmet. “Ohh, okay. I can’t say no to you, kid”

Juggernaut proceeded to take all of the bikes and crushed them like cheap aluminum cans. He set them down where they were parked. Oil and gas were dripping out of the wrecks. I made them all forget what happened, and put a fear of Sarah in their minds. They wouldn’t bother her any more, and no one would know about Cain.
I picked up my soda and took a big sip. “Byee, guys! Have fun.”

After we got back into Cain’s vehicle, he asked me “What did you need me for? You could’ve just done your mind thing and it would have been over”

“I know, but I couldn’t have ruined their bikes like you did, and I wanted them to suffer. I wasn’t going to fight them because I just got this dress and I didn’t want it ruined. They might have torn it”

“Holy hell, girl. I can’t believe…I mean sheesh…women”

I giggled. “Aren’t we wonderful?”

“Okay, beautiful. Have you gotten any closer to finding this guy?”

“I’m still working on that. He’s still heading east. I’m not having any more luck than I was. I can’t help but think something is up here that I’m not getting. He is still in that fog. He’s getting further ahead of us. Can you go any faster?”

“I could, but if we get pulled over, we won’t get any closer. I’ll keep it right here at 80, and hope we’re good. Do you have your get out of a speeding ticket free badge?”

“My what? Oh! I know what you mean.” I dug into my bag and found my HS badge. It had some kind of endorsement on it that would get me out of pretty much any problem I would incur on the highway. “Got it! Now you can step on it”

My phone rang again. It was Courier. “Hi, Jackie. What do you have for me?”

“You might be right about New York. We’ve done some checking on Hunter’s phone records, and he placed a lot of calls to a Mosque in NYC. It’s a known hotbed of Muslim fundamentalist activity. There’s nothing to really pin them down on, they’ve been really good at hiding their tracks”

“Maybe you should get to New York, and do a little ground work. You can infiltrate like no one else can”

“Yeah, I know. I’m already on my way to the airport. I have a charter waiting for me. It’s an F-15, and we are kicking in the ass all the way there”

“Good luck, and we’ll see you there”

I hung up with Courier and called Tracy.

She answered the phone. “Hi baby! Ya miss me?”

I smiled. “All the time. I just wanted to let you know we are on the way to New York City. Unless we can catch creepy before then”

“Okay. You tell that big boob Cain Marko I said to keep an eye on you”

I smiled as I twirled my hair. “He always does. You know that.”

“He’d better, or I’m coming out there and kicking his ass”

That made me laugh. “I’ll let him know. Look, I just wanted to say hello, and that I was thinking of you. I’ve been trying to track this gut all day, and I’m shot. Can I call you tomorrow?”

“You’d better. I need to get to bed too. Sleep well, and I’ll see you when you get back”

“Love you, Tracy”

“I love you too, Betsy. Bye”

“Bye”

“What did Tracy have to say?” asked Cain.

“She said that if anything happened to me, she was coming to kick your ass”

He laughed. “You know, she probably could”

I curled up in the back, and told Cain to let me know when it was morning.

---

Aziz dialed the number assigned to X, the leader of the special projects unit created by Bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks. X was never named, but those who saw him said he was the devil. Aziz didn’t believe such things. He dismissed the superstitions of the people he dealt with as the rantings of a primitive desert culture. Djinn and demons indeed.

Yes, Aziz. What do you want? X spoke Arabic with a strong English accent.

“Hunter has called. He has some new abilities, and he wants to work with us. He is asking for a team. Can we help him?”

“Of course. My experiments are nearly complete. We will be able to help our friend in a much more substantial way by the time he arrives. I have already deduced his particular skill set. He will be most useful. Call me when he arrives”

“Very well. See that you don’t fail us, X”

X smiled. “My dear Aziz. Have I ever failed? Good day”

X disconnected the call. He didn’t know why he tolerated the insolence of these terrorists. They were a means to an end. The breakdown of society. Only the strong would survive. He knew that the little creatures who served him would try to kill him in their ignorance. They would try, and fail. They called him devil. He could hear their petty little thoughts as if they were speaking to him. His experiments were creating more and deadlier Hybrids. Metahumans indeed.

Maybe they were right. In more ways than one. They couldn’t even pronounce his last name correctly. X indeed. It served his purpose. Mystery was his ally.

His name was Essex. And he would show the world who the devil really was.