It was the perfect feeding ground. Huge numbers of people clustered into a tiny area were normally the best she could hope for, but the Vanguard base was special. The supers, be they caped saps or hardened killers, had so much power that they rarely missed what she took. The Vanguard soldiers likewise never took issue with her; if they felt fatigued or ill, they chalked it up to the stresses of the job. Even if someone noticed what was happening, her best ‘don’t mess with me’ look kept all but the craziest at bay, and the Vanguard “no fighting” rule took care of the rest. Anyone loony enough to ignore both of those stayed on the other side of the transporter. And so Bellona moved through the crowds unnoticed, stealing pieces of their life and absorbing them into herself.
The hard look was so well used it came with barely any effort at all. It was as necessary to survival on the Rogue Isles as superpowers or devious cunning. Today, though, she couldn’t take it off. Her ears were still ringing with the phony platitudes and sappy drivel she’d been subjected to all through the mission. That and the awful food had soured her disposition. She compensated by draining a bit more energy than was prudent from a passing hero. The burst of energy was satisfying, but not nearly as much as seeing him stumble from the sudden power loss. Bellona continued without looking back.
Safe and successful dealings with the residents of the Rogue Isles depended on one’s ability to read people. Either you spotted the phonies, or you died. It was that simple. Bellona knew that Tetsu Sensei was for real. His arrogance and abrasive attitude was not an act; he really didn’t care if you lived or died, only that you remained useful to him. Thunder Dragon was a little harder to decipher. He was probably sincere, but she didn’t know much about his motivations, so knowing he was sincere wasn’t yet useful information. Supa Fly was an act. She sensed that it wasn’t far from his true self, but he was definitely exaggerating certain elements. Harm was there to do a job. His professionalism was obvious. StarDust kept things bottled up. That was one of the hardest acts to crack: the silent treatment. She knew almost nothing about him, but he seemed content to let others take the lead, so he probably wasn’t a threat to her. Firefox was also an act, but to what extent, Bellona wasn’t sure. Shining Crystal, however, didn’t give any indications of being false, but everything she did or said was so unbelievably goody-goody Bellona couldn’t accept that she, or anyone else, could truly be that way.
Or could she? Was it possible that she was so sheltered that she hadn’t yet seen the real world? Or, perhaps, she really was a brainless ditz! This line of thinking created more questions about the super-powered cheerleader, questions that Bellona wasn’t prepared to answer by herself. More information was required. That presented another problem: she had no contacts here in the war zone. Vanguard might have some useful information in their files, but she wasn’t a hacker, and she suspected that trying to kidnap one to do the work for her would mean kidnapping an agent of Vanguard: not the best way to stay in their good graces. That left tricking a cape into doing the work for her or negotiating with a fellow hard case as her only viable options.
While she surveyed the super-powered crowd in search for a suitable mark, a shadow passed over her. Bellona looked up in time to glimpse Thunder Dragon flying overhead just under the lights, his wings casting shadows as he flapped through the corridor. He banked and turned out of sight. A tiny memory of an earlier event floated to the surface of Bellona’s conscious mind. She smiled slowly as she reviewed it and found it to her liking: she had found her mark.
Bellona stopped siphoning the energy of those around her and followed Thunder Dragon around the corner. She didn’t see him at first, but before she could succumb to frustration, she noticed the strange looks on the crowds. The capes looked up with confusion or distain. The hard cases glared at the ceiling and returned a challenge. Bellona followed the looks up to witness Thunder Dragon perched on a catwalk. He had hooked his feet and wings on the metal framework and, as in the meeting room earlier, now gazed upon the world from on high. The smug grin on his tiny face, the posture of a winged emperor; he was back to being lord of all he surveyed, and Bellona fought the instinctive need to challenge any who dared claim dominance over her as she looked up at him.
“Hey, Thunder Dragon,” she call to him. One tiny bat ear twitched. His head slowly swiveled to look down on her. Despite his inhuman face, his expression was easy to read: a heavy dose of boredom tinged with annoyance. The winged emperor was not pleased with this interruption, and he did not bother to reply to her greeting.
Suppressing her own displeasure, she continued, “That thing you did with the phones; can you do it to other electronic gadgets?”
“I can.” The lights blinked out in the hallway, then just as suddenly came back on. Passers by looked about in surprise and confusion.
“What about computers? Can you control them, too?”
“What of it?”
Bellona smiled. She made her way to the nearest set of stairs, climbed to the catwalk, and returned to Thunder Dragon’s location. He was not there anymore. He had moved to retain his high perch, and now hung upside-down from the ceiling by his foot claws, forcing Bellona to continue to look up at him. She was getting tired of this petty dominance game, but comforted herself with the thought that the rest of the conversation would be more private than chatting in the hallway. “I want a look at Vanguard’s files to see if they have anything on the cheerleader. She was put in charge without any say-so from us. I want to know why.”
Thunder Dragon pointedly ignored Bellona and began inspecting a claw.
“Don’t tell me you’re not even a little curious about that!”
“She’s not in charge of me. Neither is she interesting enough for me to care about her responsibilities.”
“Well, I want to know why Vanguard thinks she’s so special!”
“You’re not interesting enough for me to care about your wishes.”
Bellona’s blood boiled. She clenched her teeth and glowered hatefully at him. He returned her fierce expression with a slight grin of amusement. It was almost enough to push her over the edge. Almost, but not quite. She recalled similar expressions on his face during the most perilous times in the mission and during the blow-up at lunch. The timing wasn’t a coincidence; this was the real Thunder Dragon, the immortal demigod from another universe who though of all mortals as playthings. He slaughtered without a care because he really didn’t. But the up-close look at human suffering and interpersonal conflict had to be new to someone who would ordinarily perceive people as tiny as ants, and he’d already established that his current perspective provided a source of entertaining new sensations and experiences. She realized that Thunder Dragon was a sadist who, until recently, hadn’t been in a position to indulge his interests.
Bellona forced herself to calm down enough to civilly reply, “But I do know something you care about! You like watching people when they’re hurt or upset, and you’ll leave them in life-threatening situations just so you can enjoy the drama!” Thunder Dragon smiled dreamily. Bellona imagined he was recalling some of those memories. She continued, “There’s more than one way to hurt people, you know.”
He broke from his reverie and gave Bellona his full attention. “Explain yourself, human.”
Belona’s fury evaporated and was replaced by the thrill of success. “People can be hurt by more than physical injuries. There’s psychological pain as well. Life’s experiences can damage and scar just as easily as your claws, and sometimes those injuries never heal, making reminders and similar situations as painful as the original. But, those kinds of hurt are harder to see, which is why I need you to go into the Vanguard computer and call up whatever they have on Shining Crystal. They’re bound to have something on file she doesn’t want anyone to know about! Find it, and I’ll use it to make her squirm! When I’m through with her she’ll wish she’d already been killed by the Rikti! I promise, you’ll have your entertainment!”
By the end of Bellona’s speech, Thunder Dragon was practically quivering with excitement. He unhooked himself from the ceiling, flipped over in the air, and, with a few wing beats, landed softly on the floor, looked up expectantly at Bellona, and smiled a nasty grin that was fast becoming familiar to the Corruptor. She descended from the catwalk and rejoined him. Bellona pointed to the vehicle bay and said, “There’s some open terminals this way.” The pair set off. Bellona kept her pace slow to not pass Thunder Dragon; due to his tiny legs he would have had to run to keep up with her normal stride.
The terminals were just outside the vehicle bay. Fortunately, only one of them was occupied; a hulking gray power suit stood in front of one of the terminals and tapped at the interface. The nearest terminal was unoccupied, so Bellona stepped in front of that one and asked, “So, what do you need to…” Her voice trailed off as she realized that Thunder Dragon was no longer standing next to her. Instead, he had descended the short stairway into the vehicle bay and now stood on the other side of the occupied terminal. Bellona frowned, and then followed him into the vehicle bay. “What are you doing here?” she inquired once she rejoined him.
“Accessing the Vanguard computer network,” he replied with a sinister smile.
Bellona pointed at the terminal she had been standing in front of. “That one was open, and the interface is on the other side! How the [censored] are you going to get into the network without using a terminal?”
Thunder Dragon’s grin widened, showing the row of needle-sharp teeth that filled his maw. He did not speak in reply. Instead, he crouched low to the floor in front of the occupied terminal and stretched his hands over the conduits that lead to it. They began to glow a dull red, and then red electrical arcs popped out from the surface, few in number to begin but swiftly growing in number and brightness until it appeared as if the surface of the conduit was composed entirely of raw electrical energy. A harsh crackling sound filled the room. Thunder Dragon reached for the electrical energy, grasped it in his right hand, and pulled it away from the floor. The end nearest the terminal severed and vanished, leaving Thunder Dragon holding a thrashing snake of red electricity in one hand. He held it up to show Bellona, the demonstration and his unwavering smile answering her question.
“Hey! What gives? I was using that! Go get your own terminal!” protested the huge suit of armor.
“Get lost, tin man,” Bellona sneered.
“That’s Dark Sentinel!”
“Ooo, I’m so scared now! Dark Helmet is mad at me!” Bellona switched from sarcastic to serious. “Back off, Captain Rust Bucket, before you get hurt.”
Dark Sentinel stood a little bit taller. “Yeah, right. I doubt you could manage that.”
A blinding flash of lightning and a peal of thunder filled the vehicle bay. Lights flickered and swayed. Thunder Dragon gazed balefully up at the giant suit. “Do you, now?” he inquired in a tone that left no illusions about his opinion of the match up.
Dark Sentinel silently stared his otherworldly adversary down for a moment. Finally, he spat, “Fine, whatever, but if you mess with me again, I’m getting the fire hose!” He sidestepped to another terminal and resumed his work.
Not wasting a moment on gloating, Bellona faced Thunder Dragon and leaned over slightly. “Is that the data stream?”
“Yes.” Thunder Dragon seized the head of the electric snake with his other claw. He pulled and stretched at it as if it were taffy, forming it into a thin oval sheet covered in bizarre marks. His scaly lips curled into a scowl. “It’s not easy to read. Only the center is legible.”
“Try stretching it into a rectangle,” Bellona volunteered.
Thunder Dragon worked his fingers. The curves of the oval morphed into rounded corners and straight edges. “Better. What should I look for?”
Bellona peered closely. The marks still hadn’t turned into anything legible. “What do you mean, better? I still can’t read it!”
“This is my language, not yours. I can’t read human. You will have to assist with this search. Now, tell me what you had in mind.”
It wasn’t what she expected, but there wasn’t time to teach Thunder Dragon to read, nor could she learn his language quickly enough. “Get whatever Vanguard has on Shining Crystal. They probably group that sort of thing under ‘special volunteers’. And don’t let then catch you going through their files!”
“I do not fear Vanguard,” Thunder Dragon growled.
“It’s not about fear,” said Bellona, who felt a little differently than her co-conspirator on that point. “If they catch you, they’ll try to lock you out or break the connection, and then you won’t find anything useful.”
The alien characters flashed across the energy screen faster than Bellona could follow. Pictures eventually joined the characters. She thought she could make out some of them, but Thunder Dragon did not pause long enough for her to get a clear look. She hoped the extra-dimensional responsibilities he mentioned earlier involved some kind of record keeping.
It was a tense few minutes before the image stabilized. A small picture of Shining Crystal, done entirely in shades of red, appeared in one corner. Surrounding it was more of the unintelligible characters, also in red. Thunder Dragon unnecessarily announced, “I have found her file.”
Bellona rubbed her hands together in fiendish glee. “Good. You can start by telling me her real name.”
“Crystal Faith da Silva. What does that mean? Why does she have so many names?”
Bellona murmured, “Oh my [censored]! She used her real name!” Louder, she answered, “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a name. The last name is the name of her family, and the other two are her personal name. What else can you find?”
Working together, the two scanned the file for anything useful. Her Paragon address, permanent address, birth date, parents’ names, and other personal information were quickly uncovered, and just as quickly forgotten. Her educational records were likewise too dull to bother committing the details to memory. The data Vanguard had on her powers was also useless to the cause; either it contained nothing they hadn’t already witnessed in combat, or it was too unfamiliar to Thunder Dragon for him to translate. There were no criminal or civil infractions in the records, not even traffic tickets. Bellona began to suspect she’d found the world’s most boring superhuman.
As time passed with no juicy gossip and her patience wearing thin, Bellona suggested, “This isn’t helping. Are there any notes about what she does? How she lives? Someone must have put in an activity log, a list of known associates, et cetera. There has to be something about what she does outside of school or law enforcement!”
Thunder Dragon willed the characters to dance across his screen. It was several minutes before he ventured, “This might be what you seek. There is a section labeled “Personal Accomplishments”.”
Bellona sighed and said, “OK, read it to me.” It was closer to what she wanted, but still didn’t sound promising. She tuned Thunder Dragon out after listening to the first few items, but soon something he said jolted her out of her fugue. “Wait, go back! What was that again?”
“Ms. Paragon semifinalist, 2007. Is that significant?”
Bellona laughed in sinister triumph. “Oh my [censored], that’s awesome! She’s a beauty queen!”
Thunder Dragon growled, “That still doesn’t mean anything to me, human. Explain!”
“Have you noticed how competitive we are? Humans, I mean.” Thunder Dragon nodded. “Well, some people compete with their physical appearance. Those people are totally retarded!” Bellona considered this new bit of information in light of past clues. “Go back to her educational records. See if you can find anything about aptitude tests. If there’s any psychological testing listed there, read that as well. You’re looking for an IQ score.”
“IQ?” Thunder Dragon gave Bellona a puzzled look.
“Yeah, it’s just two letters: IQ.” She traced them out in the air with her finger. “It stands for Intelligence Quotient, and it’s one way of measuring intelligence. Almost everyone in this country takes an IQ test at least once in their lives. There’ll be a number that goes with it; either two or three digits long, and shouldn’t be much more or less than one hundred.” Bellona smiled smugly as she considered which end of that range she would find her answer.
Characters flashed, danced, and vanished in the energy field. Minutes passed with no word from Thunder Dragon. Bellona tried to remain calm; while she wasn’t especially anxious for the answer, the longer they were at this the greater the chance that someone from Vanguard would discover them and try to make trouble. Depending on the amount of trouble they wanted to start, she’d either have to intimidate her way out, or, worst case, get Thunder Dragon riled up and make a break for the portal while he “distracted” the Vanguard soldiers. That would get her out of this mess, but most likely would put herself on Thunder Dragon’s hit list, a list she had no interest in making.
“I found it.”
Bellona sighed inwardly.
“Test dated December 2, 2002. The test score number is one four two.”
Her eyes widened.
“What does that mean?”
“You sure you read that right? A score of one hundred forty-two?”
A few of the characters grew in size, and expanded to fill the screen. “You may read the data for yourself, if you wish,” Thunder Dragon snapped. “What does this number mean?”
Bellona could think of nothing else to look for. She was stymied, and it rankled her. “[censored] it! This is [censored]! They don’t have a [censored] thing I can use.” She turned and stomped off.
Thunder Dragon watched her leave. “What does this number mean?” he repeated more forcefully.
Without turning around, Bellona gave him a gesture, the significance of which was lost on him due to his unfamiliarity with earth culture. She climbed out of the vehicle bay and lost herself in the foot traffic.
A low growl rose above the noise of the crackling energy screen. Thunder Dragon abruptly released the energy. It fell back into its regular place inside the conduit, returning the vehicle bay to relative silence. He stared at the last spot he saw her and angrily considered his next actions. Seconds later, he launched himself into the air, flew to the terminal Dark Sentinel was using, and landed heavily on it. The terminal instantly lost power.
Dark Sentinel stepped back and waved his arms in exasperation. “Oh, come on!” he howled, “What is this? You can only use the occupied ones?”
The predatory snarl interrupted any further protests. He leaned forward and put his maw as close as he could to Dark Sentinel’s face. “Answer my questions, human! What is an IQ, and what does a score of one four two signify?”
The bulky suit almost sagged in disbelief. “You want to know WHAT?”
“Speak truthfully and quickly! I grow impatient with you creatures!”
Dark Sentinel crossed his arms. In a voice one might use when lecturing an idiot, he explained, “The IQ test is used to predict academic ability. Most people think it’s a measure of intelligence, and, though that’s not completely accurate, it can be said to measure one kind of intelligence. An average score is one hundred. A score of one hundred forty-two is in the ninety-ninth percentile.”
“Ninety-ninth percentile? That means nothing!” Thunder Dragon roared.
Sighing theatrically, Dark Sentinel continued, “That means if you took one hundred people, whoever scored one forty-two would be smarter than ninety-nine of them.”
Thunder Dragon’s snarling face softened, then vanished, and was then replaced with a nasty, smug expression.
“Hey, Lightning Lizard! Whose score is that?”
Thunder Dragon did not answer. He spread his wings, leapt into the air, and flew off through the hallways.
Dark Sentinel watched him go. Once he was out of sight, he returned to his restored terminal. As he resumed poking at the interface, he muttered to himself, “I wonder if anyone’s bothered to determine the electrical resistivity of Impervium…”
Thunder Dragon swooped and banked through the hallways, his mastery of electrical signals guiding him unerringly on his course. He pulled above a catwalk shortly after passing his target, rolled underneath, snagged the underside with one hand and foot, then dropped down in front on Bellona, surprising and infuriating her more. “What do you want?” she snapped.
The smug, toothy smile widened before he answered, “You were true to your word, human! That WAS entertaining!” He laughed a booming, thunderous laugh in her face. Bellona did an about-face and stomped away, the peals of laughter continuing to pelt her back throughout her retreat.