Chapter 3 - Mr. Roboto

A group of young adults with superpowers team up to fight a villain from another world as well as other small villains. Kethri goes out to save the city and ends up at the circus.

Kethri sat crouched on the windowsill of her room at the Hansen Orphanage for Girls, her bare toes curling around the edge. She was wearing a very Arabian-looking, sand-colored outfit with balloon pants that came back back in tight around her ankles. The same fabric made a scarf that wrapped around her waist with gold coins hanging off of it. Her top was more like a one-piece swimsuit with a large cut-out circle around her navel and three tassels hanging from the top. Blue gossamer fabric wrapped around her lower back, tucking into the sides of the hole. Similar sand-colored fabric formed her sleeves, which were like her pants, coming in at her wrists. The lower half of her face was also covered with a see-through piece of fabric. She looked like a belly-dancer. “Thanks again for this, Ksenia,” she whispered through the open window behind her.

"You know, someday I won’t be able to cover for you and you’re just going to get caught," her friend cautioned.

"Well, until then, I have you to make sure that I don’t."

Ksenia snorted. “I could decide to rat you out to Ms. Unger, or simply not cover for you.”

Kethri laughed quietly. “You’d never rat me out. You’re too nice and you hate her just as much as I do. And besides, if you were going to tell, you would have done it ages ago.”

Ksenia sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Now go already, before you get caught!” Kethri laughed and blew a kiss behind her as she jumped out of the third story window, her short blonde hair streaming behind her. She created a pad of air to land on as she fell.

It was getting close to the second year of her nightly escapades. When she arrived on Earth three years ago, she had pretty quickly become fascinated with nerd-culture, especially superheroes. She came to realize that, hey, she could do that, she had powers. So she took up the job of patrolling the city after hours, looking for crime to thwart.

She flew above the city and saw nothing. No robberies. No shoot outs. Heck, she would even settle for a back-alley mugging at this point. She was about to go home and turn in for the night when she saw the fulfillment of her wishes. Right in the middle of the town square was a gigantic robot.

"Ha ha, jackpot!" She said to herself, changing direction and heading towards adventure.

"Hey you!" She yelled as she flew into his face, immediately regretting it as rockets, bullets, and lasers were suddenly aimed in her direction. She wove back and forth to avoid them, but it was faster than she had expected. At least it had stopped firing at the people below.

Kethri dodged a particularly nasty looking grenade and found herself pinned to the building behind her by a giant robotic arm. Stone cracked and crumbled underneath her. “Uh oh…” She said, trying to squirm free. Without her arms, her powers were useless. The robot opened its mouth and another explosive rocket clicked up and out. “Okay, if it weren’t about to send me to my certain doom, the fact that you have a rocket for a tongue would be totally awesome,” she couldn’t resist saying. She closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.

 

… . .

 

"Why did you stop?" Azaria shouted out the window at Amari, who was looking at the sky in awe. Azaria followed her gaze and saw a huge robot. "Oh." She took in the scene and saw that someone was up there trying to fight the robot off. It looked like she was holding her own but could possibly use some help - the robot had her pinned to a wall. "Should we go help her?"

"I’ll save her because I’m the hero!" Amari parked her bike and jumped off it. She ran through the crowd that had gathered, pulling a ball of rock from the ground as she ran, launching it at the robot’s face where a rocket was about to blow the blonde’s head clear off her shoulders. "Bulls-eye!"

The robot hand let go of Kethri and she went plummeting towards the ground. She regained her senses just in time to land on her feet.

"You don’t mind if we crash the party, do you?" Amari asked. "Looks like fun." Her face emanated sheer excitement. She moved to start fighting and saw a group of terrified-looking people standing a little too close. "Hey, you idiots over there!" She yelled. They turned and looked at her, staring blankly like they were trying to figure out why she was yelling at them. "Can’t you tell there’s a fight going on? Move!" The last word was the loudest for emphasis. The ground rumbled, causing the group to scatter. Just in time, too. Amari had been seriously considering picking up the ground they were standing on and throwing it out of the way. If they hadn’t moved when they did, she probably would have.

Kethri laughed and turned to the robot. “Now, where were we?” She flew up with her arms out, spinning and kicking up dust but making a totally awesome tornado that whipped her short hair around her head. “Looking for me?” He fired an eye-laser at her, but she was ready for it this time and she dodged it easily. Looking down, she called, “Coming up?”

"Don’t mind if I do." Amari was more than ready to get into the fight. But before she could even take one step, Azaria flashed past her and used herAssassin’s Creed-like parkour skills to quickly scale the building and leap off of it and onto the robot. “Show off!” Amari yelled up to her friend.

"Slow poke!" Azaria yelled back.

Amari stuck out her tongue but got to work on another boulder. Earth could be hard to get moving - it liked to stay put. According to Azaria, it fit Amari perfectly because it was “as stubborn as she was.” But she did muscle the concrete into a boulder fairly quickly and sent it flying towards the robot’s face. “Heads up!”

Seeing it coming, Kethri sent a blast of wind to help it along. It smashed into the robot’s face, denting it and sending the entire apparatus crashing to the ground. Azaria just had time to hop off and land on a nearby building holding a bunch of important-looking cords in one hand.

Kethri and Azaria dropped to the ground near Amari. “Hey, thanks for that,” Kethri said. “Although death by giant killer robot would be an epic way to go, I think it’s a little too soon for it.”

"Not a problem," Azaria replied.

Something had been bugging Amari, so she said, “Okay, I have to ask. What’s with the getup?”

Kethri looked down at her outfit and shrugged. “It’s my costume, I guess. If you’re going to wear a costume, you might as well make it flashy.”

“But all those jingly coins!” Amari protested. “People can hear you coming from a mile away.” Raised by assassins, she would be caught dead before she made so much noise.

“Well. I’m a superhero, right? Superheroes wear costumes.”

“Superhero?” Amari scoffed. “You realize nobody actually does that, right?” So she said. Inside, she was already making plans to start doing the same thing herself.

"So, when I tell my brothers about this epic fight, what should I call you?" Azaria asked. Mainly she wanted to do a background check. This girl intrigued her.

Kethri smiled. “Whirlwind,” she said simply before taking off dramatically. The fact that she was going towards an orphanage made it a little less awesome, but they had no way of knowing that, so it was still cool.

"Well, that’s not as good as I wished it would have been," Azaria sighed. "It might be a little difficult to find information on a ‘Whirlwind.’"

"I don’t know," Amari countered. "Adamar can find just about anyone or anything. I bet he can find out more about this chick."

"What the -" A voice said from behind them. "What happened here?" They turned to see that Cael-kamahs had woken back up and was now walking towards them.

"We just took out a robot. It was totally epic and you completely missed it," Amari answered. Cael just shrugged. "But anyways, I have some questions for you, mister."

"Well, you can ask them, but I’ll have you know that I reserve the right to refuse to answer."

"And I reserve the right to punch you in the face," Amari countered calmly, only half-kidding.

Cael sighed. “Just ask the questions.”

"Fine. What were you doing at eleven o’clock at night on Monday the third?" She asked, glaring at him.

"Is this an investigation now?" Cael asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Just answer the question."

"Well, for one thing, I was saving your friend’s butt."

"I’m grateful for that, but why were you there in the first place?’

Cael hesitated, but then said, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you. And if I do, maybe you can help me hunt down China Doll.”

"I realize that China Doll is a little, well, evil," Azaria commented, "But why search for her. Why not wait until she pops up again? She always does."

"I was getting to that," Cael replied and then continued with his story. "I had been tracking a new crime ring that had popped up. China Doll seemed to be the center of it, but when I started tailing her, I found out that she had been working for someone else. I don’t know who yet, but I’m getting there. I was hoping that she was going to lead me to the ringleader, but she led me to Azaria instead."

Amari nodded, satisfied for now. “And second question, how exactly do you know Azaria? She’s never mentioned you before.”

"Never mentioned me before? I’m hurt," Cael joked. "But we met for the first time a while back when our paths crossed like they did today, and seem to keep doing every so often."

Amari looked at him skeptically. She looked at Azaria for confirmation, who nodded. “Alright, well, I guess I have to leave you alone…for now. But I’m warning you, don’t get on my bad side.” Something about this guy just irritated her. She couldn’t figure it out.

"I’ll keep that in mind. And with that, I take my leave." He saluted them before turning and walking away. Azaria thought about stopping him to find out where he was going, but the assassin in her held her back. She wouldn’t want a practical stranger knowing something like that about her, even one that she had met as many times as she had him. She could always have Adamar find out if she needed him to.

 

… . .

 

When Kethri got back to the orphanage, she noticed something odd - the window wasn’t open. Usually Ksenia left it at least ajar so that she could get back in.

"Hey, Ksenia!" She whispered, rapping on the window. "Let me in." A face appeared in the window, but not the one she wanted to see. "Ms. Unger!" She gasped.

The window opened and Ms. Unger’s hand shot out, grabbing Kethri’s wrist and dragging her inside. She had always been surprisingly fast for her age, which had to be at least fifty, although no one knew for sure, but this was just insane.

"So, I see that you can fly," Ms. Unger commented. Kethri immediately dropped to the ground, but the damage had already been done. "Oh, there’s no use denying it. I already know. Your little friend, Ksenia, told me. I can be very persuasive if I need to be." She motioned to a dark corner where Ksenia was curled up against the wall. Kethri hadn’t noticed her until now. Her face and arms were swollen, the black and blue bruises streaked with red.

"What did you do to her?" Kethri shouted, trying to pull away. Ms. Unger tightened her already iron grip. "Let me go!"

"I don’t think so," Ms. Unger replied, dragging Kethri out the door and down the stairs. "I’m going to make a lot of money off of you." She threw Kethri into the cellar, a room usually reserved for severe punishments - the door locked from the outside.

"I would rather rot down here in the cellar," Kethri spat through the small, barred window at the top of the door.

"I’m sure you would," the hag agreed. "But who knows what I would do to Ksenia if I don’t get my way. I’ve been told I have quite a temper." She smiled and turned away, leaving Kethri to collapse on the floor, defeated. Seconds turned to minutes, then to hours while Kethri sat, curled against the back wall, her mind whirling. She didn’t even want to think of how the Ungermier expected to make money off of her, but she really didn’t want to think about what Unger would do to Ksenia, who was small and weak and sweet and would never be able to defend herself.

Ms. Unger showed up the next morning with two men from a circus. “Now, honey, show the nice men what you can do,” Ms. Unger instructed in a sickly sweet voice. Kethri sighed. The men looked anything but nice. In fact, they looked a lot like thugs, but she started floating around the room anyways. She even threw in a couple of air tricks she had made up back in her temple days on Daimne, her home planet. The Ungermier nodded approvingly. It made Kethri’s stomach turn, but she couldn’t escape now. Until Unger had her money, Ksenia was in danger.

The men tied her hands together and dragged her kicking and screaming out of the orphanage. Just because she was going didn’t mean that she was going to go quietly. But they eventually got her out the door and off into the morning.

 

… . .

 

Cael took the rest of the night to walk back to the circus that he worked for during the day. He was a kind of jack-of-all-trades there, although his specialties were the ranged tricks, like throwing knives, and the daredevil stunts.

When Cael finally walked up to the ring of tents that was his home, he saw that the “cage” truck was backed up to the main tent. The only time it was there was when something related to the circus’s “side business” was happening. He walked up, curious.

"Oh, good, there you are," Giovanni, one of the trapeze artists called out to him. He motioned towards the back of the truck. "This is the new act. She’s all yours."

Cael walked up and looked at the “act,” who was a young girl, dressed all in white, blue, and gold, with short blonde hair. She didn’t look like she was scared, like he would expect out of someone who had just been kidnapped. He respected that. But then, maybe that had something to do with why she had been chosen to come here in the first place. He walked into the giant crate that made up the back of the truck and grabbed the ropes that bound her hands together. “Don’t worry,” Cael said, pulling her up and leading her out. “I’ll show you around. I doubt you’ll love it here” - he did understand that she had just been kidnapped and sold to the circus - “But at least you’ll be comfortable.”