Chapter 13: When to break into a house

When to break into a house, never. Except Kris and Q does just that. Theo and Tae stop an arsonist.

“Bro, you got a date?” Tomas asked, lounging in his seat behind the front desk.

            Theo rolled his eyes as he got up. “It is not a date,” Theo responded. “I’m just going out to get a drink and hang out with a new friend.”

            Tomas shifted his weight, leaning on the table in front of him. “Yeah, then why can’t I meet them, and go get drinks with you guys?”

            Theo shrugged a shoulder. “Because he’s shy, and I don’t want you scaring him off.”

            Tomas quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, ‘him,’” Tomas said, smirking. “How is he? Worth skipping out on Tommy boy?”

            Theo dramatically looked to the metaphorical sky before looking back at Tomas and answering, “Yes, I need more friends than just you.”

            Theo paused as Tomas stared him down with a beguiling smirk. He stood his ground, saying, “Tommy boy, Tae is great, but he is nothing like you. You guys have nothing in common, so I don’t think you’d like to hang out together.”

            “Is that so? Tae?”

            “Short for Taeyeon. It’s Korean, I think,” Theo replied defensively. “And yeah, he’s into theater and you’ve never been to a theater that wasn’t for movies.”

            Tomas nodded and shrugged nonchalant. “Fair,” He said with a chuckle. “But you’ll have to introduce me to Tae further down the line, right? I’d love to meet your other friends. You seem to have so many now.”

            “Yeah, sure, of course,” Theo responded quickly. “Hey, maybe you and I can get drinks tomorrow after work?”

            “Sounds great,” Tomas said before suddenly waving his hand. “Alright, I’ve held you back long enough. Go have fun with Tae and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

            “Bye, Tomas,” Theo said with a smile. “Have a nice night.”

            Theo left the hospital, nervously touching the mask in his pocket. He walked two blocks before spotting Tae walking toward him. He raised his hand in greeting and Theo mimicked him. “Hey Tae, how are you?” Theo asked when Tae was close enough.

            “I’m good,” He said.

            The conversation stalled. Theo snapped suddenly, asking, “Oh, how was the fitting?”

            Tae grimaced, but responded, “The fitting wasn’t terrible because Soman and I had an unspoken understanding about my body.”

            “Well, that’s good,” Theo commented. “Do you want to go?”

            Theo pointed in a direction. “Yeah,” Tae answered. “But do we have to go to a bar? I’m not good at processing alcohol.”

            Theo rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, I offered that out of habit. That’s usually how I end up socializing, but we could definitely do something else.”

            Tae thought about it for a second. “Do you like art?”

            Theo smirked and replied, “I’m always the guy complaining about how I’m too busy to go to art museums when in fact I’m just too lazy. Sure, I like art, and this seems like a good opportunity to go to an art museum and quit complaining.”

            Tae smiled, relieved. “Great, Kattegat’s main art museum is about seven blocks away.”

            Theo nodded and gestured for Tae to lead the way. “Cool, let’s go.”

            Tae started walking in the direction he came from and Theo followed. They took a shortcut through an industrial area per Tae’s directions to get to the Kattegat Art Museum. They were surrounded by warehouses and factories, which were predominantly manufacturers of computer parts and cars.

            Tae stopped while passing by an ambiguous industrial building, probably a former brewery, and pointed at it. “You see that smoke?” Tae asked.

            Theo looked over to see a two-story cement building structured like a house. A closer look revealed a small trail of smoke escaping out of a first story window. Theo spotted a sign covering the main entrance of the building. It had been torn, but he could make out the word “demolition” on it. “You want to check it out?”  Theo offered.

            Tae nodded. “Could be a regular guy, but either way it looks like arson.”

            Theo pulled out his bear mask. He put it on and glanced at Tae, who was wearing his zebra mask. Eon nodded once, and they approached the building. Once inside, it took them a few seconds to find the arsonist in the spacious room adjacent to the foyer. They watched as he laid down little glowing spheres along the one of the inner walls. “3, 2, 1,” The guy counted down before taking a few steps back.

            Suddenly the spheres exploded, setting fire to the wall paper. The man started laughing, when Light interrupted him. “What are you up to, buddy?”

            The man jumped startled, whirling around to face them. He chuckled at them and responded, “I ain’t doing nothing wrong. This building is being demolished later. I’m just helping out.”

            Light quirked an eyebrow under the mask, bemused by his response. “But the way you’re doing it will take out the building beside it,” He replied.

            “So?” The man asked, putting his hands on his hips.

            “So how about you leave demolition to the professionals,” Theo answered, mirroring the arsonist’s posture.

            The man’s eyes flicked around the room, searching for something. “Yeah? You and zebra going to stop me then?”

            “If you don’t leave right now.” Light responded resolute.

            The man thought about it with a serious countenance before shaking his head. “Nah,” He replied. “I’m having too much fun.”

            After he said that, the man threw little spheres at Light and Eon. Eon shouted, “Run, Light!”

            Eon took off, heading further into the room as the man laughed. The spheres exploded behind them. “Light? What kind of name is that?” The man asked, throwing more balls at Light.

            Light’s hands started to glow. Bringing them together, Light made a shield that the sphere burst on. “Oh ho ho, that’s why,” The arsonist commented. “Buddy’s got some light up hands. What about short stack? What’cha got for me?”

            Eon raised his hands while he ran. He aimed at the decrepit light above the arsonist. Lightning streaked out of his hands and hit it. The man took cover as glass rained down on him. The man poked his head out from behind a turned over table and taunted the duo, “So, we got Light and Lightning? How interesting. Let’s see if they can handle Bam.”

            Standing up behind the table, Bam threw more balls at Eon. Light ran to catch them on his shield and protect Eon. “What should we do?” Eon whispered, hiding behind Light.

            “We need to get close enough for hand to hand combat and stop Bam from making any more bombs.”

            “How?” Tae asked as another barrage hit the light shield.

            Theo shrugged unsure. “Charge him with my shield?”

            Eon nodded, determined to end this quickly, and Light started running at the table with Eon following close behind. Bam threw more bombs as they got closer. One fell close to Light’s leg and he dove over it, his shield covering the blast. Eon saw an opportunity and took it.

            He jumped and propelled himself off a kneeling Light and straight into Bam, hitting him fist-to-face. Bam fell over with Eon landing on top of him. Eon quickly punched him a few more times, robotically aiming for the temples and checks. When Bam’s eyes rolled back, Eon got up. Light looked at him with worried wide eyes.

            “A little intense, don’t you think, Eon?”

            “I’m sorry, my options were fists or lightning,” Eon answered calmly. “I picked the non-fatal one.”

            Light stared at the unconscious Bam, wincing. “What should we do now?” Tae inquired.

            “Call 911,” Light replied immediately. “Police need to get Bam and the fire department may need to come put out this fire.”

            Light recalled that Bam set a wall ablaze and anxiously turned to face it. It was a slow burn, crawling up the wall. “Must not have a lot of flammable material,” Light commented relieved before hearing sirens in the distance.

            His gaze met Eon’s as Eon said, “Somebody else must’ve already called 911. We have to get out of here.”

            Light agreed and made his way towards the back exit after they moved Bam to the safety the foyer. Once outside, they ran a block or two before taking off their masks. Theo stowed his mask in his pocket and turned to Tae, glowing with pride. Tae likewise seemed pleased, smiling. “So, the art museum?” Theo offered.

+++++

            Wilson shuffled papers, glancing at Maddox occasionally before speaking, “Good evening, I’m Willow Wilson and this is the Katte’s Meow.”

            She smiled briefly before reading. “Burning Man, Cole Fueguito, was sentenced earlier to spend an indefinite amount of time in Flare Mental Hospital for treatment and rehabilitation.”

            The screen cut away to a video of Burning Man covered in a thick suit walking up the hill to Flare surrounded by armed policemen. “As you can see, Mr. Fueguito is in a flame-retardant suit, preventing him from catching fire.”

            “Wahoo!” Paul shouted as the rest of the team cheered.

            Q nudged Kris and whispered to her, “Isn’t weird that the guy was sentenced to a mental hospital rather than a high security prison?”

            Kris shrugged. “He was a pyromaniac, maybe they wanted to treat him for that?”

            Q frowned slightly and after shaking their head, focused on the next news story. Willow Wilson returned to the screen and continued, “Another super-powered criminal was captured. An arsonist, Tony “Bam” Lobamsky, was caught setting fire to a building in the industrial district. He was stopped by two super-powered individuals identified by name as Light and Eon and were noted as wearing animal masks of a bear and a zebra respectively.”

            The screen jumped to a man with unnaturally upright hair. He was grimacing in the image, his face covered in bruises. “Oh, nice one,” Kris joked to Theo and Tae.

            The other team members cringed at the image. “No more overkill, team,” Paul declared suddenly, wincing and rubbing his cheek.

            “You did great though,” Alicia said, patting Theo and Tae on the back.

            “This is the second pair of animal masked heroes,” Wilson stated. “So, Maddox, what do you think?”

            “I think that this second pair are either copycats or part of the same organization of the first pair. Clearly, this pair was more violent; whether they planned it or not, they ended up seriously injuring the arsonist.”

            “If you think about it though,” Wilson countered. “As we discussed in the last news story, the amount of good behavior compared to bad behavior of super-powered people could affect how they are perceived by the government and society later. If you look at this situation and the last one by the numbers, there are four superheroes compared to two super criminals, which would indicate that by the by super-powered people are not bad people.”

            “True, it seems this animal circus gang are doing good by the community,” Maddox responded before segueing into a similar topic. “Another organization doing good by the community is the research lab of Lawrence and Shah at Kattegat Institute. They have opened their doors to super-powered volunteers for research. They have not specified the parameters of their research, however they did mention the goals of their research, to find the cause of the powers and to treat it, if at all possible, for those who are interested. They also said that volunteers would receive boarding and a stipend for their efforts.”

            The team turned to Alicia, who looked surprised by the statement. “I’m very glad that the Kattegat Institute is stepping up and taking responsibility for the mishap they caused,” Maddox continued. “I hope that the mayor and other politicians in Kattegat will follow suit and put out statements of the government’s opinion on the matter. The government needs to respond to the issue because public panic has been slowly increasing since Orange Day.”

            Alicia shut off the television. Looking at her teammates with a somber expression, Alicia said, “I’m going to call Pagel and talk to Nicki and try to figure it what the hell Maddox is talking about.”

+++++

            “Fred Horns, Doctor Fred Horns,” Kris muttered, peering at her computer screen. “Says here that he is a general psychiatrist at Flare Mental Hospital after a residency there and schooling at the University of Kattegat. He was born in the small town of Elk River. Blah, blah, blah, nothing really important to see here.”

            Q hovered close by. “So, nothing? No address? Phone number?” Q asked.

            “This is Flare’s website,” Kris replied. “It has his work number. We could look into social media for more information before we call that number, see if we can find any other info.”

            Q nodded, and Kris started typing, searching for other information. It took a few minutes for Kris to find anything of use. “Alright, I have names of family members here, but no number and no address; he’s smart, playing it safe so people can’t find him.”

            Kris pushed away from the table. She got up and paced for a minute. “Okay, game plan,” Kris said. “I’m going to call the work number and we will go from there.”

            Kris pulled out her phone and dialed the number. She ran a hand through her hair and looked at Q, making a face with wide crazy eyes. It rang for a short bit before a woman answered. “Oh hello,” Kris replied, looking down and putting on a voice. “Is this Freddie’s number?”

            “Ah a receptionist, how fancy,” Kris continued sweetly. “Where-”

            Kris stopped talking as she was interrupted. “Mmm, I’m Freddie’s sister-in-law.”

            Kris listened and laughed. “I didn’t say he was married!” She said jokingly. “His sister Margaret married my brother, so I’m his sister-in-law.”

            “Oh yes, I’m Joanna,” Kris lied. “I was wondering where Freddie lived.”

            Kris paused. “Freddie’s birthday is coming up real soon,” Kris explained. “Margaret and I were planning on surprising him, so I need his address.”

            “Margaret can’t tell me the address because she is on a plane for the next four hours,” Kris said, slowly getting short. “I can’t sit at the airport for that long. If you can give me that address, I can head over to his home and start getting ready. Margaret already told me where Freddie stashes his spare key, all I need is his address.”

            “Yeah, feel free to ruin Freddie’s surprise party by asking him about it,” Kris snapped. “Yeah no sure, I’m some criminal, making up some ruse to get into my brother Freddie’s house.”

            Kris stopped speaking, glancing at Q while listening to the receptionist. She lifted her arm not holding the phone to show Q her sweaty armpit. Kris wiped her forehead and kept listening. “Thank you very much, just let me find a pen,” Kris said, her tune changing to the old, upbeat one.

            She waved her hand and Q fetched her a piece of paper and a pen. “Alright, I’m ready,” Kris commented, grabbing the pen.

            She wrote down the address. “Thank you so much, miss. Have a nice day.”

            Kris hung up real fast and flashed Q the address on piece of paper. Grinning, she said, “Let’s check it out.”

+++++

            Kris and Q walked in a suburb, north of downtown. Kris counted the numbers on each house. Kris stopped in front of 3412. She looked at the house; it was an old, two story Victorian. “Purple?” Q said with some disbelief.

            The house was lilac. Kris touched Q’s arm. She hardly recognized them because they decided not to be Hazel for this mission. Kris and Q found Margaret’s image online and Q decided to be her, a middle-aged woman with a terrible haircut. “What’s up?” She asked.

            “Nothing,” Q answered faintly.

            “Okay, well, go scout it out,” Kris said. “I’ll guard; report back what security he has. I’ll do the actual breaking in. Good?”

            Q nodded, breathing out to steel their nerves, and approached the house slowly. Kris scanned the surrounding area before deciding to lean on a car parked on the street. She watched Q who stood at the front door. Kris turned around and looked at the street and houses close by.

            Q peered in the windows beside the front door. They noted the box on the wall adjacent to the door, a security device. They walked around the house, peeping through every window. They spotted nothing else. Q ran over to Kris. “All clear, the doors have alarm systems attached,” Q said quickly.

            “Alright, I’ll go through a window,” Kris replied. “Your turn for lookout duty.”

            Kris pulled her hood over her head and jogged to the front door. She lightly floated up to the second story. She looked into the closest window, a bedroom; it was devoid of life empty. She pulled on the window sill and it was locked from the inside. She moved on, testing every window on the second story. One facing the backyard was unlocked and Kris got in. Kris carefully stepped in to the room, a bathroom.

            She decided to float through the house and made her way downstairs. Kris went to the foyer. She drifted to the window to wave at Q and assure them she made it in safely. Q smiled and waved back. Kris made a motion for them to stay there and kept moving.

            She found an office with a broad wooden desk. She looked at the wall of bookshelves before spotting a filing cabinet at the end of the row. She went to the desk first, opening all the drawers and looking inside. Kris found a tiny key and pocketed it. The wide drawer was locked.

            Kris tested the key; it didn’t work. Kris reached into her pocket and pulled out a pick. Placing the pick in the lock and with some finagling, she unlocked the wide drawer. She opened it to see papers. Kris took them out to see they were papers from company called Klein. She rolled her eyes and put them back.

            She walked over to the filing cabinet, testing each handle. The first two were unlocked and contained nothing of value. The third and fourth drawer were locked. Kris picked the locks. Opening the first drawer, she immediately recognized the content as patient files. She flipped through them quickly, looking for Faydes. She found the file, unable to contain a grin.

            She tucked Leslie’s folder into her hoodie before shutting the drawer. Kris made sure everything was locked before leaving the room. She floated back upstairs and through the bathroom window. Hurrying out the window, she ran to Q. Nodding once, they both turned away from the house, walking quickly.

+++++

            “Alright, Leslie Faydes,” Kris said, reading the file. “Her treatment and her sessions were with Dr. Horns exclusively.”

            Kris laid the file out on her table, flipping past the page of treatment and medication. She instantly noticed the swatches of black. “What the hell?” She growled.

            Q and Kris leaned in closer. “It’s blacking out a name,” Q commented.

            “Yeah, I would say yours… Damn!” Kris responded, she pointed to a line. “’Subject bonded with a teenaged patient diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder. Blank reminds the subject of her son.”

            “You think I’m Blank?” Q asked.

            “You do not conform well to a male or female body, so I think it would be possible for you to have body dysmorphia. Don’t you?”

            Q stared blankly for a while before nodding. “The term sounds familiar,” Q said quietly.

            Kris flipped through the rest of the pages to ensure that they didn’t miss anything. She shut it forcefully, muttering, “I don’t get why the hell they would black you out though…”         

            Q walked away and sat on the couch. Kris followed them after a minute after rechecking the file. She sat on the couch beside them, placing a hand on their thigh and putting her head on their shoulder. Q shifted, wrapping their arm around Kris’s shoulders. They sat in silence until Kris whispered, “You know what this means?”

            “What?” Q asked softly, resting their head on top of her head.

            “We have to break into Flare to get more information about you.”

            Q sighed and held Kris tighter.

+++++

            “Alright, a few announcements before we begin practice,” Paul declared, clapping his hands together. “Fittings will be next week.”

            “Yay,” Kris cheered sarcastically while the rest of team clapped.

            “You guys have that to look forward to,” Paul continued. “But you also have patrols to look forward to. We are going to find criminals by pairing up for patrols and somehow keeping an ear out for the police radio. I have been thinking that Kris will be essential to any patrol due to her ability to fly; she can easily reach any place much faster than any of us running.”

            “Great,” Kris droned.

            “Police radio is not an option yet, so we are just going to patrol certain areas at night and hope to come across some crime. For now, this will be practice for the real thing. Speaking of practice, let’s get to it.”

             “Hey Tae,” Alicia interjected. “I have your rods.”

            Alicia dug in to her large handbag to pull out two eighteen-inch iron rods wrapped in copper wire. Alicia handed them to a surprised Tae. He took them, feeling the copper coils. “See at the base?” Alicia commented. “There’s a loop where the wire starts before it wraps around the iron. It would be best to place your thumb there and conduct electricity through it.”

            “Okay,” Tae said, nodding.

            He placed his thumbs against the loops as directed. “Now there are a few things you can do with these-”

            Tae let out a bit of electricity and watched as it jumped between the rods. “Yeah,” Alicia said with a smile. “That. It kind of works like a Taser or a defibrillator; it can run a current through a person. Other options are lightning blasts or electromagnetic fields. The lightning blasts should be ‘diluted’ and electromagnetic fields can affect metals in the surrounding area.”

            “Cool, we should test out the lightning on my shield,” Theo commented.

            Tae hesitantly agreed, and Theo walked to the other end of the clearing. He put up his light shield. Tae held up a singular rod and took aim. Lightning emerged from the end and hit Theo’s shield.

            Lightning scattered around the edges leaving it undamaged. “Nice,” Paul cheered. “I’d like a turn.”

            Paul summoned his vines and wailed on the shield. He ran closer, taking out his scythe. Theo kneeled and held the shield above him. Swinging it down on the shield, Paul tried his hardest to break it, but it didn’t work. Paul let his weapon disappear and reached out to touch the shield. It didn’t hurt and felt smooth like glass. “What is this made of?” Paul asked fascinated.

            Theo shrugged and grinned. “I don’t know, but it’s pretty darn effective.”

            “My turn,” Alicia said, causing Paul to step back. “Let’s see what my powers can do to your shield.”

            Theo held up his shield for her. She held out her hands and ordered, “Disappear.”

            It didn’t. Theo let it fade, still smiling. “That’s a little revelation, you can’t negate my powers.”

            “Or anybody else’s,” Alicia added. “Which is a good and bad thing.”

            On the other side of the clearing, Q and Kris practiced fighting. Kris floated up only to drop into a superman punch. Q ducked with a gasp so that the punch flew over their shoulder. Q ran over to Theo and touched him, transforming into him. “No fair,” Kris said lightly.

            Flexing, Q turned around and threw a cross. Kris floated backwards away from the blow, coming back at Q with hip-high kick. Q grabbed the leg and pushed it up, sending the floating Kris spinning away. Paul watched with growing amusement. “Free for all!” Paul declared suddenly before wrapping a vine around Theo’s arm.

            Alicia nodded to Tae who politely dropped his rods to make it a fair fight. He ran at her as Theo blasted off Paul’s vine. “Trip,” Alicia whispered.

            Grass grew and wrapped around Tae’s feet. Tae fell. Tucking himself into a ball, he managed to roll back on to his feet. Paul summoned his scythe as Theo threw a punch. Paul blocked the punch with the side of the blade. Theo stepped back, shaking the pain out of his hand while glaring at Paul. Tae jabbed at Alicia. Alicia dodged to the side. Tae put his hands together as Alicia hit his shoulder. “Ow!” Alicia shouted, jumping back.

            “No fair,” Alicia said with a laugh. “Using static shocks.”

            Tae smiled and shrugged as Alicia kicked at him. On the other side of the clearing, Kris was flying up to the treetops and dive bombing Q. Kris confidently plummeted down fist first at Q. Q let her hit them and get in close before grabbing her. Once in the embrace, Q started wailing on Kris as she struggled to escape.

            Paul got rid of his scythe and went into a fighting stance. Mimicking his stance, Theo threw a cross. Paul easily dodged. He jabbed at Theo using his vine to extend the attack. Theo rolled his shoulder with the blow and countered. Paul put his arms up, taking the punch. “Nice!” He shouted, causing all the fights to pause.

            He was panting and smiling when he said, “I think we’re good for tonight, right?”

            The others were out of breath and nodded. “Great,” Paul continued. “I’ll see you guys for fittings later this week and we can figure out when to start patrolling soon. Good night everybody.”