Long Arm of the Law 6

The wind died down and the light debris of litter and dust fell slowly back down as the two police officers stared up into the air.

Hewitt broke the silence, clicking the mike on his shoulder, ordering a car to pick up these suspects, all without looking away from the top of the office building Fastback had seemed to run up. "So," Hewitt said wiping some grit from his eyes, "Nice to know that they don't just fight invading Starfish From The Stars."

"Huh," Brown said disgustedly. "That's a lot of effort to make us think he moves at superfast speed." He holstered his weapon and walked to the wall. He touched it gingerly.

"What are you some sort of Zoo Crew Denier?" Hewitt zip-tied the suspect's feet. Procedure to keep them from running away. Worked to keep them from surprising a cop with a kick while he was checking their pockets. "Where were you when Starro attacked?"

"Hospital" Brown stepped back. "No seriously, that much speed generates a lot of energy. I would have felt the vibrations and that many footfalls drumming into the ground. Admit it, you didn't see Fastback run up the building, did you?"

"I saw his blur and the after image." Hewitt pulled out a wallet, confirmed that it was indeed Luka, and then plopped it in an evidence bag. "He moves faster than the eye can see. Everyone knows that."

"This wall still has dirt on it from the Industrial Revolution." He slipped out of his uniform shoes, letting his throwback talons. He belatedly holstered his weapon and then proceeded to climb up the wall.

"What are you doing?" Hewitt asked, bewildered.

"I am getting at the truth,"

"You're going to get your uniform all dirty..." Hewitt called out, and then felt Brown's withering glare from two stories up, even though he was practically invisible in the shadows he'd just climbed into.

"I am getting at the truth, and don't be lame."

"You're going to hurt yourself."

"Lame." Then Brown was back in the dim light and then he was on the roof.

Fastback stood they with his hands behind his perfectly rounded shell. Big myopic eyes blinked slowly as Brown stood up, and brushed the grime from his shredded uniform shirt. "Brother," Fastback drawled in a softly false Southern Accent.

"Cousin," Brown said mimicking the accent. He stopped about 3 yards from the creature.

"Ah, I thought I noticed a throwback tongue in your mouth." Fastback nodded and then the air around him seemed to shatter into a clingy spiderweb design about the squat body. It grew taller, slight thinner. Within the cocoon of shattered time and space, the beak flattened and grew broader. The neck longer. In two seconds, Fastback was gone and in his place stood Rubber Duck.

"Hello Cousin," Rubber Duck said with a bow.

"Keep going," Brown said, wiggling two off his fingers.

"Forgive me, Cousin, but I have to keep some secrets. Innocent lives, not to mention my stipend, are at risk."

"Why are you imitating Fastback?"

"Look, I'll answer three questions because I like you Officer Brown. Plus I need to catch my breath until my battery recharges. But none of my answers make it into your report. Deal?"

"How do you know my name?"

"I have an eagle eye for details and that better not be one of your official questions. Do we have a deal?"

Brown looked around at the scenery. Five stories up made the neighborhood seem prettier. "Deal," he said, facing the "duck" eye to eye. "Why pretend to be Fastback?"

"My cryptic answer, is that, if Fastback didn't exist, someone would have to invent him. Which is truer than you will ever know. Also, watch my arm." Rubber Duck held arm out to the right at 90 degrees. "What do you see?"

"You're stretching your arm," Brown said watching the hand move easily seven feet from the bird's shoulder. The arm was a thick as a board, and even. The feathers seemed to elongate and pulse to a breeze that Brown never felt.

"Look closer," So Brown did. It was an odd sight but he didn't see anything but a stretched out arm, which was sorta freaky, but he knew this was Rubber Duck.

After a moment, some niggling detail began to eat into the back of Brown's brain. "Isn't your arm getting tired of getting held like that?" Brown reached out a clawtip to touch the arm. At a millimeter to the arm, the claw suddenly evaporated into a smear across the duck's extended arm. Brown snapped his arm back and was relieved to he hand was perfectly normal.

"You see, I'm not stretching myself... I'm making reality warp around me."

And then Brown saw it. It sucked his mind in. The shattered air was some sort of mosaic mirage as light passed through different densities are air. The mind insisted it was just a very long arm... but when you knew... when what you were looking at... this... thing that looked like a duck... talked like a duck... and was not a duck...

It was a frigging walking, talking rift in space with a Avi stuck into it like some sort of cork!

Brown turned and tried to flee, but instead fell to his knee amidst dry heaves.

"It's OK," The duck said. "There's something unstintingly adverse and primal about finding one's self staring into a space-time vortex. When people think I'm the little Turtle Speedster, it's easier on the nerves. I usually just save the spook show for creeps like those two."

Brown got to his feet, but didn't look at the bird. "Two more questions,"

"Sure," Rubber Duck said. "What's with all the wind?"

"Equalization from the air warping to all different sizes and time-mass energy conversions. Otherwise, you know... I'd get the bends."

The bird laughed at his own joke. "Pun intended. Now, third and final question."

Brown nodded repeatedly, but slowly. In a moment, he turned his head to face the duckthing. "Why are you following me?"

The duck smiled with an elastic grin. "Oh, if only you had asked me that first. You're a good detective."

Brown frowned, it wasn't that hard to guess. What were the odds of encountering a superhero in a neighborhood like this? And then he'd stayed to speak to Brown, not once. But twice. The Avi could have been long gone before Brown got to either the unconscious suspects or the roof top. "Tell the brass that."

"Honestly, I might just do that, Brown. Again, cryptically, we are in need of a hero... and you are one of our candidates."

"Candidate for what?"

"And that's why I said you should have asked that first."

Then Rubber Duck was gone in a nauseating ripple of air.

Brown took the fire escape down. His old, cold body now ached something fierce. He needed a salad and a handful of Cocoa Nibs. Maybe a fermented stalk of sugar cane. He got down to the ground floor in time to throw his shuddering suspects into the back of a police van.

"So," Hewitt asked as they climbed into the van. "Did you get the truth you were looking for?"

Brown shook his head. "No, but I least got his number."

Hewitt laughed and settled back against the van's inner wall. "Wow, and I thought Fastback moved fast."

Brown didn't correct the rookie. He had no idea what to say, and besides... he was pretty certain he was going to hear from the Avi again.