Orthosilicic 2.4
(Terry Hess)
March 5, 2011, early morning
Terry Hess was sitting in an alley after his uncomfortable meeting with Fish, waiting for someone to pick up his loot from the night. Having to pay for his mother's stay in the hospital and for his sister's at her daycare was taxing on him. At the moment, looting muggers and dealers paid more than his job at Walmart, which was why he was willing to wait in the alley next to the hospital at two in the morning. After all, he couldn't really expect to visit a bank as he currently looked without seeming like he was trying to rob the place. But he was pleasantly surprised when he'd discovered that after he purchased powers, he received a free bank account as a bonus. A man that went by the name of Number Man phoned him to discuss his financial situation once he had returned home, and happily transferred his previous account's funds to one that was primarily online. Of course, that didn't help whenever he had cash on him, which was why Terry was currently waiting for someone to come and take it off his hands.
He spotted a flash from behind the dumpster and turned around, away from the entrance of the alley. Peeking around the dumpster, he saw a small door in the air, square in shape, with two expectant hands sticking out of it. He plopped his bag full of loot into them and waited as they immediately pulled back and vanished.
1… 2… 3… 4…
His bag was spat out a new hole directly at his chest, and Terry stumbled a little as he caught it. It was empty, of course, but it was still odd how it took exactly four seconds for the hands to empty his bag, no matter where he put the money.
Terry slung his now empty bag over his shoulder while he checked his phone, making sure the payments to the hospital went through.
When they did, he sighed in relief. He hadn't expected any problems, but if he had been forced to enter the hospital and pay in cash…
Well, he didn't think they would like an unregistered parahuman on the premises, even if it was shoving bundles of cash at them.
He left the alley, and looked up to the window behind which his mother lied, and popped behind it to find his mother's face, scrunched up it pain.
Just as it had been for the past few nights.
Just as it had been since she been knocked into a coma.
"Doesn't your mom know you're going out to be a hero to help her get revenge?"
He remembered Fish's words that had caused a part of the uncomfortable feeling inside him, and sighed.
No, Fish, she doesn't know. Terry thought to himself as he brushed the hair out of his mother's face, causing the frown that was present to lessen. But once she wakes up, I'll be sure to tell her.
The sulking, crystalline, figure that was Terry Hess sat before his mother in a hospital room, holding his head in his hands.
A hand on his shoulder shook him awake a few hours later, and he turned to find his sister standing next to him.
Sophia.
Well, Shadow Stalker now. She was in costume.
"You snuck in too?" Terry asked her
"I was allowed a few minutes to drop by during my patrol," Sophia answered "And here I find my brother taking a nap."
He snorted.
"What are you doing here Terry? You're the one that wanted to stay out of the PRT's sight, and if anyone but me came in here, you'd be found out."
Terry leaned back, taking in the sight of Sophia staring at their mother with a look of… distaste on her face.
"If I told you that I had found the ones that did this to her, would you go after them, or would you let me take care of it?"
Sophia jerked her eyes away from the still form of their mother and growled. "You think I wouldn't do it? You think I'd let them be after what they did to mom? What they almost did to Sasha?"
Terry held her gaze and nodded. "Yes. I do." Before Sophia could punch him, as he could see she was itching to do, he spoke again. "After all, according to you, she was weak, right? So she deserved it. The Empire goon was stronger than her, and deserved to win? Isn't that what you believe, Sophia, that if they can't protect themselves, they deserve what's coming to them?"
Sophia was shaking. In anger, or in regret, Terry couldn't tell, but the look she gave his leaned more towards the former.
"Mom was weak, yes. But that doesn't give that EMPIRE FUCKER the right to attack MY HOME." She was screaming in Terry's face, and both turned towards their mother, who twitched in her bed.
Barely a whisper, Terry's voice rose again. "And that, is where you are wrong, little sister." She looked about ready to spit him in the face "If mom was so weak, why is Sasha still alive?"
Confusion flashed over her face as she thought over his words, "What? How are those things even related? They don't…"
"They are related, because of something I forgot to tell you when you spoke to me the night that mom was put in this room. The night you wouldn't let me tell you about what I'd found because you were too busy sneering at me and telling me that mom deserved it."
Terry thought it was satisfying to see his sister's face as it was. So empty, so… confused.
"Our mother was tortured by those fuckers until she wouldn't wake up. And the reason they did this to her wasn't because she was currently dating an ex-Empire member," he saw weariness replace her confusion "it was because they were looking for Sasha."
"What… Oh no…" He could see the blood leave her face, and almost smirked.
"They were looking for a 'four year old or something' to make an example out of 'nigger families' living in their new turf, and our dear, weakling mother withstood TORTURE to keep her hidden!" If it had been about any other topic, Terry would have reveled in the reaction his sister had, but all he felt for her now was rage. "So forgive me if I don't believe in your fucked up world view, Sophia. Forgive me for believing that protecting others is more important than being strong. Forgive me for not agreeing with you about our mother deserving what happened to her because she wasn't strong enough. Forgive me for believing that protecting Sasha was more important that fighting back and dying."
"I didn't know… I don't… I can't…" Sophia was crouching on the floor now, holding her knees to her chest and breathing rapidly, murmuring faint nonsense to herself as Terry watched from above.
"When you are finally ready to admit that you're wrong, Sophia, call me. But until then, stay the fuck out of Sasha and I's lives."
He turned and faced the risen sun out the window, signaling the early morning, and spoke one last time.
"You are no sister to me, Sophia. Not after this."
As the crystalline man headed towards home to wake his remaining little sister, the room he left filled with screams.
Night
Tucking his little sister in and reading her a story after another day at work was a soothing thing, especially before a night spent punching Nazis.
He was reading her the story of 'The Little Engine That Could', to spite Sophia, of course, because who didn't love a story that promoted trying as hard as you could, even in the face of defeat? Certainly not someone that believed in an extreme version of natural selection, no sir.
He stopped after he finished the story, listening to Sasha's breaths even out and slow, waiting a few more minutes in silence as he waited to make sure she wasn't faking it.
He sighed as he noticed that Sasha had untucked herself during the story, and brought up the covers again.
Terry stood and smiled at his little sister, and turned to leave for his meeting.
He had been lucky last nigh… er… this morning. He had found the man that his neighbors had described as the monster that had entered their house the day of the attack, and had been pleasantly surprised to see it lead him back to a safe house.
Well, he thought it was a safe house, but he couldn't be sure until he and Fish checked it out that night.
Fish was also the reason he was wearing a shirt now.
It really was uncomfortable not knowing whether or not the teenager under the mask was Sophia's age or just not very… shapely… but he didn't want to risk it. The stares from the night before had bordered on perverted, and he didn't want a repeat.
He'd rather not be seen as a pedophile, thank you very much.
He popped onto the roof and noticed Fish sitting on the A/C unit, swinging her legs. Her head tilted downwards towards his stomach, and he could almost feel the pout form on her face.
Hah, take that, perverted teenagers!
Minutes later, Terry had an insight on Fish's sense of humor and another uncomfortable sense of being watched.
He was ahead of Fish, leading her towards the suspected safe house, and had a feeling that she was staring at him.
Terry looked back, only to see her looking up and away from him, avoiding his stare like it was the plague.
Weird.
"You see anything?"
"Nope. Nothing at all."
Terry shrugs and turns back around, popping to the final house across from the target.
The target was everything he expected from a normal suburban house, front porch, two garage doors, plenty of windows covered by planks and bars, and lights on the inside.
The only thing that could possibly be labeled as suspicious was the absurd amount of movement passing in front of the windows on the first floor.
"This it?" Terry heard from behind him
"Yeah, I followed someone back here and he left with a large bag of money, so I'm assuming that this place is important for the Empire."
"You sure this place isn't ABB? We're should be near their border as well. And didn't you say you didn't know what was in his bag?"
Terry rubbed his head and grimaced. "Yeah, sorry, but I really need the cash. I can't split what I find, even if we might partner up every now and then."
"I'm not going to steal any money you find, especially if you need it. I'm a hero, remember? Or, well, trying to be." She paused. "But a bag of money is a much larger clue than a 'bag of something'." She shrugged at him, but kept going before he could respond "Anyway, you're sure they're not ABB?"
"Unless the ABB has started recruiting white people, then yes."
"Cool, so how do you want to go about doing this? Top window? Or sneak around out back?"
She was deferring to him? He hasn't had any experience raiding houses before, but it made sense that Fish wouldn't know that. Was it because he was older? "Err… I was just kinda going to go in and punch them until they're knocked out?" The gaze she was giving him had quickly made his belief in his plan fade into a question.
"That's your plan? What if you get shot? What if they call for backup capes? What if they have C4 stockpiled around the house, ready to detonate? What if they're just frat boys having a party? Do you think this through usually or jump in fist first?" The verbal stream of questions was halted by Terry knocking on himself, causing the soft 'ping' of crystal on crystal to chime out.
Fish rapped on her head a few times "Right, Brute. Most of those questions are irrelevant. How strong are you? How high of a caliber can you withstand before you get hurt?"
"Erm, most things I've been shot with have glanced off me, but one Empire dude shot me with this rifle that cracked my skin, but that repaired after a little bit of time. I don't know guns at all, so…" Terry paused as he waited for Fish to stop pacing on the roof.
"Right, stay away from anything high caliber and you'll be fine. Got it. Anything else?"
"Yeah, I haven't found anything that can hurt me in shield mode, even a car going about forty."
"Shield mode? I thought you teleported? You have a second power? Can I see it real quick?"
"If you would stop asking so many questions, I could answer them." He waited for Fish to nod, and continued "Shield mode is this:" Terry quickly focused on the shard of crystal within him that was the 'loudest' to him, and flicked the imaginary switch.
Immediately, a spire of purple crystal sprang up from around him, encompassing his body and immobilizing him. He watched Fish walk up to him and aim a finger at the bottom on the spire and spray some water. It glanced off with ease, even when she appeared to be strengthening the beam of water.
He tapped at Fish from inside the spire and waited for her to stop before turning it off.
"That is really strong." Fish was staring at him in awe, and Terry felt a little sheepish under her gaze.
"I know it's pretty cool, but it can't be that good, right? I mean you were only spraying water at it."
"No, no, no, you don't get it. Have you heard of an industrial water jet cutter?" At his head shake, she continued "It's a tool that engineers use to cut all sort of things, but the strongest thing it's able to cut are diamonds. And I just doubled the pressure of that." Terry stared at her, and hoped his armored face conveyed his shock well.
He was at least twice the strength of diamonds in shield mode? Shit, that was cool.
A noise from across the street interrupted their little stare-off, and they watched as a man with a shaved head being thrown out of the house.
The man stumbled a bit before he fell, and laughter poured out of the house behind him.
Another man walked out afterwards, and patted him on the back, loudly yelling back at the house about 'drinking while pokering'. The two then stumbled off as the man who was thrown out hung onto the arm of the other. Fish tapped Terry on the shoulder, and pointed at the house, which still had the front door open.
Terry held up a hand and counted to himself, waiting for someone, anyone, to shut the door, but nothing happened.
Did they forget? That seemed... a little too convenient.
He leaned over to where Fish was watching him and whispered "It might be a trap. They could have seen me in shield form. You still in this?"
Fish looked away, back at the house, and he waited for her response.
He almost gave up hope of having a partner when she turned back towards him.
"I'm in. I think the best bet were to be if you teleported in and shielded, while I went through the back door. So while you take all the gunfire, I try and knock them out."
Terry blinked.
"You have a plan already?"
Fish shrugged at him. "Hey, I'm up for suggestions if you have any, but it looks like it's our best bet unless we want to try another night."
Terry nodded, and she faced the house once more.
"Besides, this place seems pretty fishy to me."
Terry stopped moving and stared at her.
"What? I thought it was good."
He sighed as Fish giggled beside him.
"Anyway," she stopped at his words "do you think the plan's good? I've never really done a house raid before."
"Er, I haven't either, but it sounds good!" He gave her a thumbs up. "Just give me a signal and I'll pop in."
He could barely hear her as she hopped off the roof and darted across the street. "I'll spray some water up!"
A minute passed with Terry twiddling his thumbs the entire time before he noticed a small blob of water burst upwards from behind the safe house.
'That's my cue.'
Terry quickly buffed out his crystal armor before popping inside the house, immediately using his shield power to stop any bullets that targeted him.
But none came.
Terry waited a few more seconds.
But still, nothing came.
Then, a crashing sound from the room to his left.
"Fish!" Terry almost screamed as he charged through the door, which splintered as he reached the other side.
Terry refocused on the scene in front of him, and found something hitting his chest that he never would have expected.
It was Fish.
The 'thump' of her impact sounded across the room, almost overshadowing the sound of another teenage girl screaming at them.
Terry looked up after checking to see if Fish was okay, and froze.
In front of him was someone he had hoped he wouldn't see tonight, because if anyone in the Empire would be able to interact with his shield mode, it would be Rune.
Rune, the telekinetic Nazi.
"I was winning that game you FUCKERS!" Rune screamed at them as Fish rose to her feet. "And you just knocked over the table, spraying water all over the fucking place!"
'She seems mad' Terry thought to himself as the table began to float behind her.
"If you wanted to win the pot you could have just played! I mean, I can't tell if fish girl over here is a nigger or chink, but your face looks white enough. Why didn't you join us?"
Fish was laughing beside him.
"I AM NOT A NAZI!" Terry bellowed out as his fist flew towards Runes face.
The table flew back at him and stopped his charge as Rune held her hands out.
"So we're doing this?" At Terry's angry face, she sighed "Fine, let's get this over with."
At her 'get over here' wave, he charged again, barely noticing the annoyed sounds of Fish behind him.
"Goddamn it Crystal, you don't charge at people. That never works."
But it was too late.
Because at that moment, he was flying through the ceiling, floorboards beneath him.