A/N - all recognizable characters are owned by DC. Only the cops, Aegis and our heroine are mine.
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For Lish
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OK, Zee, you can do this.
I took a deep breath, pulled up my big-girl panties, and knocked on the door.
I should have known something was going to happen. Aegis was in Chicago for the day and I had a mid-term I wasn't feeling too confident about. They say 'bad luck come in threes' - and it does - but, more importantly, Murphy's been chasing me for a while to go steady and I think he's even more determined about it than Marty is. Frak him and his law.
At least he let me finish my mid-term before the phone rang.
Not my regular phone but the other one. The Zee-Phone. I took a quick look around to make sure I was alone before I answered.
"This is Zee-Axis."
"Where are you?" Aegis snapped.
… and 'Hello' to you too, oh mannerless leader.
"Campus. Why?"
"I don't have all the details yet but some kind of robot-man just showed up at Kobacker House."
"Wait a … Kobacker? Isn't that –"
"Hospice. Yes."
What the …?
I flew straight from school. I hated to do it; it just added more credibility to the theory that I was a student at OSU – which I was – but, being as large as it was, I'd hoped the sheer number of students there would make trying to figure out my identity too overwhelming a prospect to attempt. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a different hero name.
If you don't know, look it up.
Kobacker House was behind Riverside Hospital, just a couple miles north of campus as the Zee flies, so it only took me a few minutes to get there. SWAT beat me. I didn't see the Captain but Mercer and Phillips were both there, half a good thing. I landed beside Mercer. He gave me a nod and held out his phone.
"Captain wants to talk to you."
It rang before I got it to my ear.
"Zee-Axis."
"Bohacovitch. Listen, kiddo, this is a bigger problem than we thought." Ain't it always?
"I'm not sure what the problem is yet, Captain. Aegis said it might be a robot?"
"It's not a robot."
"Then what …" Mercer held up his tablet and showed me the footage from inside Kobacker. Large, molded chrome barrel of a torso. Small, almost scale-like, plates over the arms and legs to give them protection and flexibility. Heavy boots and gloves and a glass dome over his bald head. Yes, it was a man in metal but definitely not a robot.
It was Victor Fries.
"Fuck me," I sighed before I could catch myself.
"Anytime, babe!" I hadn't heard Phillips come up. He was grinning like the perverted douchebag he was and tried to put an arm around my shoulders. I flicked my hand backwards and pushed, just a little, and he slid about five feet back, away from me. If anything, his smile got wider …
"Was that as good for you too?"
… but he didn't try to step back to me. Faintly, I heard the Captain Bohacovitch yelling something through the phone. I sent it floating over to Phillips.
"Captain B wants to talk to you."
His smile disappeared. Fast. Taking on a 19-year-old girl, even one with some telekinetic abilities, might not scare him but his boss did. "Yes, sir …" he lowered his voice and walked away.
I know I shouldn't have enjoyed that as much as I did.
"So, Victor Fries," Mercer waved the tablet to get my attention. "Have you ever dealt with him before?" I shook my head. I knew who he was but I'd never seen him or met him, much less fought with him, before.
Truth be told, I'd only had my powers a few months and, while I worked with Aegis and helped the CPD, I hadn't dealt with any non-"normal" bad guys before. No one with powers, certainly not any "super-villains". And here was someone who gave Batman a run for his money. And Aegis and the Captain were out of town.
My stomach flopped over and, for a moment, I was sure I was going to throw up. Or cry.
Then I heard Woody's voice in the back of my head: Nut up or shut up!
I'd been "talkin' the talk", and it's what I wanted to keep doing, so it was time.
"Where is he now?" I asked Mercer.
OK, Zee, you can do this.
I took a deep breath, pulled up my big-girl panties, and knocked on the door.
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TBC ...