-------------
Chapter 07
-------------

Adamast Cross reached the Peregrine Beach district for the umpteenth time in her life. Every time she came here now, she thought someone else from her love life, past or present, was going to show up and complicate things.

She stopped short of the police barricade ahead. Did she really just include Saelum Blaster when thinking about her love life?

Shaking her head at herself, Adamast slipped under the yellow tape and was greeted by a few officers on her way to the house they were guarding. The houses in the Peregrine area were stacked side by side, so it was more like the police were guarding a flight of steps going up to their waists, and the door atop it. Some officers were likely behind this residence as well.

The inside of the house had little illumination, with or without the portable lights that the police and one of the other heroes brought in. The windows were boarded off from the inside, so the sun was hardly coming through. Two male heroes were standing by a cluttered table and a gun that had fallen on the floor, one of the better lit spaces in the house.

One of them, with crazy, white hair and goggles to go along with his one cybernetic arm and one biological arm, looked Adamast Cross’s way. He waved with his human hand, his left one. His other one had a thin monitor sticking out of its underside.

“Hey, look who it is!” exclaimed Dock.

His buddy, and practical partner in crime, Bucht, faced Adamast with a snide expression at first that turned into a grin. “Well, well.”

“What brings you around here? We haven't seen you since before your transformation.”

Adamast Cross said, “Oh, you know. I was just in the area after Mortar handed me something of his and said that you two might be around. When I saw the barricade outside, I had a feeling that this is where I’d find you two.”

“Mortar sent you this way? Too bad he didn’t come as well.”

“He’s been busy. So, what have we got here?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out. There’s hardly any sign of struggle aside from the gun and the bullets. The door was locked when the police arrived. The windows were blocked off. No one saw the owner of this residence leave after neighbors heard the gunshots.”

“Sounds like some sort of portal or teleportation.”

“It’ll probably take too long, even with this thing,” Dock pointed at his screen, “to calculate the bullet trajectories, and process all of the fingerprints and hair follicles.”

“Plus anything else we might find,” Bucht said.

“Yes, anything else we might find. Adamast, you said Mortar Mage gave you something before sending you our way?”

She pulled out a strange device from a small pouch she kept on her backside, hidden away between her matching skirt and cape. Adamast Cross showed it to the other heroes, and Dock put a hand out. The screen retracted and disappeared inside his closing arm.

“Oh, yes! I love his little inventions,” Dock said.

Adamast said, “You’ve no idea how weird that sounds, do you?” She let Dock take and examine the device.

“Nah, he’s always come through for me in a pinch. You always make it sound like one of his inventions might level the entire city. What’s the worst he’s done?”

“In recent memory?” Cause a blackout. Blow up a mountain, perhaps. “I’m not sure even I believe it sometimes.”

Dock set the device on the ground and pressed a button. “There, now to see what this thing’s supposed to do.”

“You’re testing that in here? You do know we’re surrounded by dry wood, and Mortar loves fire, right?”

Bucht said, “Tell you what, Adamast; if it’s anything to worry about I’ll buy you your favorite drink. If it’s nothing, then you’re buying.”

“You’re waging beer over a house burning down.”

“A beer versus whatever sissy drink you’ve been enjoying these days.”

A blue light engulfed the room and dimmed. Numbers and figures etched in the air around the trio. Dock brought his screen back out, presumably to record everything.

“I suppose it’s a good thing we didn’t shake on it,” Adamast said. "I'd hate to have to drink you under the table."

For a moment, it looked like the table had a bright, light blue shadow going out by what Adamast would call a hair. A gun of the same color appeared and shot several silent rounds at a target. The bullets bounced off of the target and landed where the real ones now lay. The figure holding the gun jerked its head and fell against the table, where the blue shadow merged with the real object. The shadow of the gun joined its partner in reality as well after dropping separately from the second figure’s vanishing body.

The target, a second figure, that was shot at vanished. Everyone in the room turned their attention to a third figure, who backed into a wall and sidled against it toward the door before it too vanished.

“Damn,” said Bucht and Adamast Cross.

Dock said, “I wonder how admissible something like this would be in court. Mortar outdid himself with this little device. If this is accurate it could save us countless hours or days of work in any crime scene.”

The full scenario played again. This time, everyone could see a vague representation of the figures’ faces. Once the second play-through was finished, Dock collected and turned off the device.

“I’ll have to compare this with whatever the lab folks find when they’re done examining everything.” One forensic investigator gave Dock a thumb up for appreciation. “While I wait on that, I’ll have to run a face diagnostic on those three men. I know I’ll have seen at least one of them before, knowing my luck. Could you tell Mortar I’m borrowing this, and thanks for me?”

“Sure thing,” Adamast said.

The heroes headed for the door, where their conversation continued.

Bucht said, “Did you see the new hero that’s in town? Diamond Grace? She looks like she has similar powers from you. Same hair color, too.”

Adamast replied, “Also the same eyes, and the same parents.”

“Oh, you have a sister! Is she available?”

“That depends. Is your ass available for one of my boots? Besides, I couldn’t really tell you. She’s going through a bit of a rough time right now, and has been taking time off from nurse school because of it. She’s a big enough girl to make her own decisions, though.”

Jackie stretched as she sat up in bed, in the middle of the early afternoon. Her clothes were on the other side of the hotel room. Her instincts were telling her to freak out, to run and scream bloody murder for what she had done.

Instead, she turned and leaned on the big man lying in bed with her.

He said, “Wow, lady, I don’t think I had a night that wild in a long time.”

“I’m pretty sure we went past the whole morning,” Jackie cooed.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d consider kidnapping you when I leave for Europe in a week.”

“Promise?”

In fact, what reason she had left was banging on the window outside, demanding to come back in. There was only one thing she was letting inside that moment, and it looked like her new lover was up for giving it to her.

“On second thought, I don’t think I’ll risk it,” said Bucht as the trio entered the street.

Adamast said, “Good choice.”

Dock chuckled. “So, what about you, Adamast Cross? I remember hearing that you were dating a cute young lady shortly before your big change, that she turned out being a villain, and now she's one of the good guys." She had to go through a long process for that, even. "Likewise, we’ve been hearing rumors that you’re seeing a stud of a man.”

“I really don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

“Oh, come on. What would it hurt to be a little social? Bucht here seems to think that you’re with that Saelum Blaster guy, but that can’t be right.”

Bucht said, “You’re only saying that because you want him for yourself.”

“Hardly anyone dresses like that, and is still able to be straight. You should see the hot fanfic I once wrote about . . .” Dock cut off when Bucht cleared his throat. “Fine! I, on the other hand, think you’re with Ohm Wire.”

“You put a bet on it, didn’t you?” Adamast had to ask.

“There may or may not have been a wager brought up when we were talking to the police lieutenant that Bucht sometimes flirts with. What was her name again, Bucht?”

“If you must know, then I’m seeing both of them, and I’m at different stages with each one. There. Happy?”

She looked at both men defiantly, but, deep down inside, Adamast was screaming at what she just admitted regarding Saelum. What was she thinking?

Dock pulled down his goggles with one finger. “Dude, save some for the rest of us.” His goggles returned upward.

Bucht asked, “Is he really a generic dunce like everyone thinks he is?”

“No,” Adamast sighed, “he’s just emulating the Captain Patriot comics.”

“But does he kiss like the Captain Patriot in the comics?”

“There’s no way I’m ever answering . . . that. What?”

Out in the back of the crowd outside, there was a man with a gaunt face looking at the trio of heroes. The man turned and walked away, but Adamast Cross gave pursuit upon recognizing him. She slipped through the crowd in a hurry and tried to catch up.

He was gone. Maybe she was seeing things. Adamast hoped she was seeing things.

Dock and Bucht arrived seconds later. The former said, “What was that all about?”

“I thought I saw someone,” Adamast said, “someone dangerous who shouldn’t even be here.” There was real trouble if he was.