Chương 26: Worth Waiting For

The call we were waiting for arrived two days later, as I was doing the dishes while Nadia took stock of our dwindling pantry. The job was easy, to get our feet wet, nothing difficult to handle. A powered shoplifter had been caught stealing from a grocery store in the city, and we were needed there as escalation insurance.

"The police are already at the location," Vera told us.

"But recent incidents have resulted in a stricter protocol. The suspect is being held at gunpoint until a team of superheroes can provide cover for them." Less broken bones and escape attempts that way, she claimed. We were in the car moments later, the dishes left where they were. They'd still be there when we got back, after all.

"Excited?" Nadia asked.

"This is our very first job as superheroes!" I snorted. Of course I was excited, but the mention of super and heroes in a sentence—twice in a row after Vera also name dropped the title… I don't know. I didn't feel like a superhero yet. At least, many heroes had being broke as part of their origin stories, so there's that.

"You could say that," I said in response, keeping some of my thoughts for myself. Nadia grinned, reading my non-answer as nerves. And, to be fair, she wasn't too wrong about that.

"Don't worry," she said.

"It will be an easy one. Vera is sending me all the information, including the camera feed from the store. Take a left there." I followed her directions for a couple minutes until we parked at a corner. Vera was already waiting for us there, holding a tablet and wearing an earpiece. She perked up when she saw us, approaching with quick but unhurried steps.

"Time to be your very normal civilian girlfriend," Nadia whispered.

"Mind reader protection," our manager said, noticing our gear.

"Clever, but probably unnecessary for this mission. The subject is complying, and we don't expect the need to use force."

"Perfect," Nadia said with a beaming smile.

"Easiest money so far. Adrian, just go there and look menacing. I'll provide tactical support from a safe distance." She looked smug as she said that, winking at me. I changed into the standard-issue uniform for the job. Lacking a superhero costume (which most people did, unless they were really powerful or really famous), it was the best way to be recognized and not shot at.

Then, I walked towards the store, doing my best not to look back at Vera standing there looking completely like the stern, serious manager she was. I hoped I wasn't going to disappoint her, or Nadia who had since disappeared to stalk the area and relay information to me through our matching earpieces.

"Police are briefed and expecting you," Vera said.

"You can move in," Nadia confirmed.

"Moving in," I said, swallowing. Geez, this was worse than killing mutated monsters that could gut you in a moment. But I had this. I had my time stop, and I could use it whenever I wanted to buy myself twenty seconds in which nobody, nobody, could do anything to me and I could do whatever I wanted to them. And the subject wasn't even armed. Nothing was going to catch me unawares, not today.

"You the Supe on watch?" one of the policemen said as greeting. Two others were inside, holding their guns trained on a man between two aisles of hardware tools.

"That's me," I said.

"Adrian Hale, on call." Or something. I had no idea how to greet people, it wasn't like there was a protocol.

"Good," the man said.

"Officer Branston. Let's get this over with quickly and bloodlessly, shall we?" We didn't shake. Instead, he started to powerwalk towards the store, opening the doors with his shoulder. I followed, looking sharp, doing my best not to get distracted by the blaring of the sirens or the strobing blue lights from the police cars outside. The two cops inside made room for Officer Branston and I to approach the man, but kept their guns up.

For a moment, I was more worried about those than the man I was going to help arrest. I still gave him one long, good look. Yeah, he wasn't going to harm anyone. I thought about the data Vera gave us. The man was a D-tier Supe by the new informal lettering, with enhanced strength estimated at 3x baseline as a camera field guess. The cameras had recognized him and tripped the supervillain alarm, but I didn't think of him as an actual villain. I just wondered what he was doing, what he was thinking.

Having superpowers meant you were handled differently, often lethally. It was a small wonder the cops hadn't pulled the trigger on him, and most of the reason could be reduced to they aren't sure if you are hiding more powers, and could still be able to kill them. Harsh but true.

"Careful," Nadia's voice said in my ear.

"He's too calm for this." I spotted her. She was already inside, between the aisles, surrounded by spooked people who had been caught between an enhanced potential villain and the police. How did she get there? She looked at ease, though, which was reassuring. Her power wasn't leaking. I refocused. The officer was waiting for me to approach the man. I took a step.

"If he tries to run, cut him off. He won't be running into the police," Nadia said in my ear. He wasn't going to run. He looked frightened and frozen, his mouth open under the hood of his dark hoodie.

"Keep the civilians in sight, and pin him." I suppressed the urge to nod. The police officer looked at me, and I gave the go-ahead. He approached, taking out the handcuffs.

"Slow and steady," he told the man.

"Palms always visible." He guided his hands from above his head into the cuffs. They locked with a click. I relaxed a fraction. Nothing bad happened. It was over.

"Take him—" That's when he snapped. And my first thought wasn't that anyone had mis-tiered him. The letters were brand-new, unofficial, and nobody knew yet what a D could break. Still, though. Perhaps a D could break handcuffs. He snapped them and threw the policeman to the side and into a pile of discarded cardboard boxes. It reminded me of a few months ago, when I had been the one holding the boxes, powerless to do anything as the store was being robbed.

Then the Supes came, and they handled it and then delivered their pitch. I was the Supe now. I sprung into action, running after the man. Thanks to Nadia's instructions, I had put myself between him and the civilians, between him and her. His only path was deeper into the store, and I kept it that way. I ran after him, following the trail of mess he was leaving behind. A knocked-over endcap, bottles rattling off the shelves.

Then he tripped and fell through the stockroom door flaps, and I saw Nadia already at that door, pulled back to a safe distance. Always in the perfect position. Back here, there were no cameras, no phones. Only her. The spare pair of handcuffs the officer had given me dangled from my belt.

"Now," she said into my earpiece. Time stopped. When it resumed, the wannabe villain was on the ground, cuffed again, out cold. We had practiced ways to knock someone out without giving them brain damage, but this was my first application to a real human. Frozen time made everything so much easier, and now I stood above his motionless body with the racket from the sales floor rushing in its wake, blaring sirens and guns pulled.

There were five seconds where I felt alone with my actions before the police officer arrived, followed by the other two, and they began to haul the man away. I finally realized, as they did, that being here was the right call and I had been naive in thinking my (or another hero's) presence was overkill. But in those five seconds that preceded that, another thought gripped my mind. Stolen novel; please report. His power. His… super strength. Stronger than it looked, and I could just… take it.

In fact, my nanomachine swarm almost made it a no-brainer. I could hoard powers. Why not take his, improve it, make it better, and then put it to use for good? After all, given what I'd seen, I was sure I could use it better than he ever did. With me, it would be useful. All I'd have to do was touch him. Nobody would even know. But I didn't. I almost did, impulsivity getting the best of me, but I felt the weight of the little piece of Nadia still stuck in the nanites' output slot—her fae, elf looks—and stopped.

She saw my hesitation and nodded, pride on her face. Then she was again my little loving girlfriend, no trace of the cold fighter, and she was hanging on my arm and swooning over me.

"They found odd components, pieces and parts on him and in a bag he left behind. There, they also found chemicals and bleach," Vera said after we gave our statements to the police.

"I'll handle the rest of the paperwork, good job team." Her smile was thin but warm.

"Why the odd loot, though?" Nadia asked.

"It's not what I would steal if I were trying to get by." I recalled our own shopping trip the other day, when we bought cameras and equipment to fortify our home.

"You don't have to follow any leads if you don't feel like it," Vera said, towering over her tablet, adjusting her glasses.

"But if you want to, you can. I will, of course, help. I already pulled some information from our Civic Response Center databases. We will know more as they question him. Unless, of course, you want to take the lead on that too?" Nadia shrugged.

"I'll let the police handle it. Neither my Adrian nor I know anything about interrogation techniques."

"Well," Vera said with a smirk.

"I suppose we have found something that you two can't do. In this case, let me treat you to a coffee while we wait. I have a hunch it won't take long and, between you and me," she leaned in.

"Halford's CRC has quite a generous allotment of money they give to managers to coddle their favorite heroes with. And you just happen to be mine." I rasped a laugh.

"Aren't we also the only ones?"

"Only one," she corrected.

"Tactically competent civilian girlfriends are generally not part of protocol, but I suppose I can make an exception." ◈◈◈"As expected," Vera said, sipping her piping-hot American coffee.

"He cracked rather quickly."

"Did he?" Nadia asked. She had inhaled her espresso. Our manager cocked an eyebrow.

"He did."

"You were right, then," Nadia teased her.

"I'd have wagered it would take much longer. You know your stuff." She studied Nadia for a moment, then shrugged.

"Thank you. We have a name and a place. Shall we check them out, or have you changed your mind about letting the police handle this?"

"We haven't," I said.

"I expected nothing less from you," she said, smiling slightly again and making eye contact with me.

"We can take my car, if that's alright with you. I don't have any intention to get it scratched, though."

"Your car will be fine," Nadia chuckled.

"Let's go." Minutes later, we were in front of a door in a run-down part of town. Rows upon rows of squat condos crisscrossed by access roads, surrounded by withered and struggling trees that hadn't seen maintenance or proper care since they had been planted. The houses all looked the same under the grey overcast sky, terracotta bricks that were just fake covers peeling away and revealing rusted concrete pillars beneath. Up the stairs, third story, then last door to the right.

The elevator was busted, its lights flickering, and the landing was dark, but as soon as we got near the door a sensor picked us up and a powerful floodlight blasted us. Well, Nadia and I. Vera was in the car, keeping tabs on us with the earpiece and watching the road. No movement. I knocked. Nadia tensed as we heard footsteps, then the door opened with the sound of at least four different locks being dragged open, sliding or clicking.

Through the sliver of light—the rest of the door still held by at least four chains limiting how much it could open—I saw our man. The guy who sent the robber who had pretended to be a shoplifter. He was… short, bald, and fat while at the same time managing to look malnourished. His head didn't reach my chest, and his eyes were sunken and dark, especially with the light coming from above and behind him.

"Who are you?" he asked, voice raspy but quick and energetic.

"Adrian Hale, with the Civic Response Center," I said.

"Here on superhero work. Can we come in?" He huffed and his eyes narrowed, then the door slammed shut. More locks clicked, chains rattled, and then the door opened. Good. My power wouldn't have helped if he decided to turtle.

"Do come in, heroes," he said, showing us inside. His apartment was cramped, full to the brim with machines and contraptions built from random junk just like the stuff we saw on our shoplifter.

"What's all this stuff?" I asked, taking the lead and letting Nadia snoop around.

"Trinkets?" the man said, almost a question with how unsure his tone was.

"To what do I owe your visit?"

"Your runner snitched on you," Nadia deadpanned.

"Adrian here caught him. He didn't stand a chance."

"What are you talking about?" I opened my mouth to speak, but then Vera's voice came through the earpiece. Nadia grinned.

"Kimberly Hopkins," she said, relaying the info she was also getting through our channel.

"28. Enhanced-intellect type, tinkerer flavor. Deemed non-dangerous at screening. You are building some interesting stuff here, aren't you?"

"Nothing illegal," he blurted out.

"It is if you send people to steal to get the components," I said.

"Steal?" he quizzed. Now he looked genuinely dumbfounded, not just defensive. Nadia frowned, then chuckled.

"Steal, yes. That's what it's called when you take stuff by force and refuse to pay. Five successful runs in random hardware and grocery stores around town, supplying chemicals and mechanical parts. One unsuccessful attempt at an electronics store, and then today."

"This is strange," the man said.

"Nate never mentioned… he said he was getting stuff on the cheap because the shops didn't need it anymore."

"Stuff like this?" I asked, pointing at a 50 gallon drum of brand new motor oil. What did he even need that for?

"Yes?" Kimberly stammered out.

"Nate said it's close to expiry."

"It says it expires in May 2030," Nadia said. The man blinked.

"I'll be damned, it does. But…"

"What is going on here, Kim?" I asked.

"I can call you Kim, can I?"

"I suppose," he offered.

"I was sending Nate out, I've met him a few years back, when we both lived under the Serian bridge. I was sending him to fetch some stuff, you know, to build some gadgets? Try to eke out a living?" There was a blinking mechanical clock, with a disturbingly anatomically accurate eyeball in the middle, between the hands.

"Right," I said. The situation was beginning to turn surreal, and our surroundings didn't help me feel grounded at all.

"And you never thought he might be stealing the stuff."

"No? I gave him money to buy it!"

"There we have it," Nadia grumbled.

"A silly buffoon of a mad scientist."

"How was I supposed to know?" the man complained.

"Well, I never told him to buy the supplies, and I might have yelled at him once that I needed him to get his hands on them however he could, but… I never intended stealing. That's illegal!"

"Updates?" Vera's voice came through the earpiece.

"Is it safe to come up? I might be able to help." ◈◈◈"I believe him," she said smoothly after a quick round of questions.

"Just like that?" Nadia asked.

"Isn't there like, protocol here?"

"Superheroes and their managers are given a lot of leeway in these matters. I will be filling paperwork all day, don't misunderstand, but we can handle this however we see fit, as long as it won't be a problem in the future for the CRC." She shot a look at Kimberly.

"Which I am positive it won't be. If it's alright with you, I think we can cut him a deal." she added.

"Do go on," Nadia said, interested. Vera grinned.

"His name stays out of the final report, but he owes us," she said.

"A favor for a favor. On call, whenever we might need his technical expertise." A look at the stuff he had filled his house with, the yellowing walls barely visible behind the mountains of trinkets. The man nodded.

"Of course."

"And you will be more careful with how you word your requests?" I asked him, feeling silly for even formulating such a demand.

"I will, certainly." I shook my head. This went entirely in unexpected ways. But it wasn't all too bad. I left Nadia and Vera to hammer out the details, sitting on two cramped sofas and a chair, and took a look at the various stuff on the many tables and workbenches scattered all about. The machines were odd, bulky, their innards on display. Nothing like the polished cleanness of my grandpa's lab under the hill house. We wrapped up soon after.

Vera called the police and told them our man was not a threat, and I was surprised by how quickly they dropped the matter. It was like her decision was final as far as they were concerned. Not their problem anymore, let the CRC deal with it. And I was more than happy when she ensured she'd deal with the CRC and not me, or Nadia. That's what she was here for. Meanwhile, the runner remained in custody.

He was demoted to just a thief, not a supervillain, although his public use of his power to escape will cost him at the trial.

"Gosh," Nadia grumbled as she removed her mind-privacy patches and put them on the small table by the door.

"My head feels like it's been jackhammered all afternoon." I removed mine and sighed in relief as the mental pounding headache slowly subsided.

"Yeah."

"Well," she offered.

"I can think of some other jackhammering that I might actually enjoy, my prince."

"Dinner first?"

"On it!" She asked to be allowed to cook while I relaxed, claiming I deserved the rest. She beamed like sunshine all the while, because after today's job, more money was coming very soon, even tomorrow according to Vera. The pantry just had to stretch until then.

"And let's not forget our trial number 42 veggies!" she sang.

"The least deformed my power has produced so far!" The cheery atmosphere carried over to dinner, then a play session with Nero, and then to the sofa. We threw the last of our wood in the fireplace and kissed for a while, taking it easy. I could tell that Nadia was vibrating, eager to get to the next part of the evening, but she was restraining herself.

"I saw you pause, back in the store," she blurted out. Seeing my face, she explained.

"When you were standing over the thief after incapacitating him. Were you thinking about taking his power?" I nodded, feeling my throat go dry as the desert. The weight of her Fae looks, of the lie by omission—"You didn't take it."

"I considered it, for a moment," I said. So far, the truth.

"Good," she said with a nod.

"It's healthy. But you didn't take it, which is even more healthy. It would have been a mess. And, Adrian, remember. Any power worth killing for is worth waiting for." Because of course, I would be leaving behind a corpse if I ever took a power from someone. That's a fact. No witnesses, or it's a one-way ticket to the dissection lab.

"Yeah," I said somberly.

"Now," she grinned wide.

"I recall asking for some jackhammering. Will my prince deliver?"

"Hmmm," I pretended to think about it. She looked at me with wide, wet, teary eyes.

"Please, sir?" she begged. I lifted her up and made her yelp.

"Get ready, woman. Your begging won't make me stop, not until you are a shivering mess."

"Yes!" she moaned, as I kissed her neck.

"And we do some more time-stop CNC too?"

"You mean you want me to freeze time and fuck you over and over."

"And all the sensation rushes to me all at once, yes, Adrian, please please please?"

"Once," I said, smirking.

"No fair! Five times!"

"That would mean three hours of fucking, lady, given the cooldown."

"Well," she made circles on my chest.

"How about you only take me when you freeze time and I spend the other three hours sucking your cock? Is that acceptable, master?" That look she gave me. Suffice to say, I didn't just lay down and let her suck my cock for three hours, only fucking her when my ability was up. Oh no. I had every intention, come morning, of making her regret her absurd asks. Unfortunately for me, I only ended up making her want it even more. And I loved it.