Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2021 20:02:38 GMT
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Late Night at the Shipyard
IntroductionA new mystery villain in San Francisco sets a trap for AVant Guard
Setting
San Francisco : Summer, 1961
Night Hunt
“The tip from that Quentin guy was right; it’s definitely Jade Rouge and her gang, Stretch. I recognize their soniprints,” Miss Music’s disembodied voice whispered directly into the ear of her partner, Palette. She had given the name 'soniprints' to what she heard because it was way easier than saying “I recognize the distinct and unique as a fingerprint gestalt of normally inaudible noises generated by the life processes of a human body”, especially for Tammi Paige, Miss Music. That was actually a quote from Dr. Will Craig, a police scientist who had once explained her ability in a courtroom. “There are 8 of them, plus Rouge, lurking around that door ahead of us, and their hearts are beating a bit fast - definitely waiting to ambush us.”
The two heroines of AVant Guard were moving quietly through the outdoor assembly area of the abandoned facilities of the Reiter Shipyard. During World War II, Reiter Shipyard had poured out Naval vessels at the average of one ship every 5 days for over three years - and then gone out of business less than 11 years after the war was finished. Though the yard was almost pitch black under the overcast sky for normal humans, they moved through a weird landscape of black, gray and white - Palette had her sight tuned to infravision, and they were trying out a new use of the Colorful Crusader’s powers - she was projecting the image of what she was seeing on the inside of the opaque lenses of the goggles Miss Music was wearing.
It was better than bumbling through the pitch black, but it wasn’t a perfect system. Miss Music’s view ran a small fraction of a half second behind real time and the perspective was different because Palette was much taller. And…
Alex (Palette) Silverstone was startled by a very loud, low, rumbling sound that rattled the factory, a giant foghorn that couldn’t be more than a hundred yards away. Her head snapped around - and inside her goggles, the world whirled around Tammi.
“Hey, Stretcho, take it easy,” Miss Music’s distress was evident even in her projected voice. “Quick recovery break!”
Alex stopped moving instantly. When they had first practiced with this new application, Alex had scoffed about the weak stomach of her incredibly athletic, aerialist, internationally ranked tumbler and gymnast partner - and then she’d had an instant attack of nausea and retching, matching her partner's almost exactly, which lasted for almost 5 minutes, and which Tammi vehemently denied was caused by infrasonics. But Alex hadn’t scoffed at her partner’s sensitivity since, and she hadn’t had another similar attack since, either. Probably just coincidence…
Tammi quickly removed her goggles, and her alarmed whisper sounded instantly. “Alex, I just saw a red spark in the doorway - did you see it?” Alex was puzzled, then Tammi added urgently, “Use your basic eyes!”
Ahead of them was the doorway into the indoor factory area, a big, mostly empty room the size of an airplane hanger. In the visible light spectrum, it was pretty dark. Alex stepped up the light sensitivity of her vision and zoomed in and she still wasn’t sure if she could tell the pitch black of the room beyond that open doorway from the pitch black outside, or the pitch black of the wall of the building, for that matter. Then there was a bright green flare - without enhancement, it would probably have been less bright than a partially obscured flash of a firefly a block down the street.
Tammi whispered “THERE! But it was green this time.” Her whisper was clearly audible, even over the next blast from the foghorn.
They watched the opening for a few seconds. There was something invisible blocking that doorway, something that occasionally flashed a very dim spark of red or green light, and the flashes were getting more frequent, apparently as mist from the fog started to close in around them, and float through the open door into the interior of the building. In a couple of minutes, they could make out a pattern, a half dozen thin strands of normally-invisible energy floated in that doorway, and they flared into red or green visibility when a wisp of fog floated through their paths. Alex flipped back to infrared, and the strands totally disappeared.
The two heroines discussed this phenomenon. Although by now, the booming rumble from at least 3 or 4 foghorns near enough to hear was almost continuous, Tammi’s powers allowing them to speak clearly to each other in inaudible whispers. “Looks like Jade Rouge is using her energy powers to set tripwires,” Tammi noted. “I wonder what would happen if we had just walked through that?”
“Good thing you took off your goggles, Tuneful Titan,” Alex replied. “There’s not enough infrared from those threads to show up in my infravision!” And then the faint sparkling just stopped. “Guess she realized that the fog was spoiling her trap.” She thought for an instant. “We had better spring their trap now and get this over with. The fog and the foghorn are going to interfere with our powers more and more, and I don’t feel like going home empty handed.”
Flash, Crash, Dash and SMASH!
“YAHOO! COMIN’ THROOUUUUUGH!”. It was amazing how much excitement Tammi could pack into an almost inaudible whisper. “They think we’re walking into a trap - we got ‘em right where we want them! FLASH AND CRASH! Then we DASH and SMASH!”
“Flash and Crash it is, partner. Let’s get a little closer, first.” Alex agreed. Miss Music put her goggles back on, and Palette switched to infravision to lead them closer to the door. They hugged the wall next to the open door, where they both switched back to ‘basic eyes’. They still couldn’t see any sparks, even though the fog continued to grow thicker. Rustling in the room indicated that the ambushers were getting restless. Between the blasts of foghorns, Tammi enumerated their foes and their positions.
“Two on each side of the door, maybe 10’ down the wall. Four more directly in front of us, hiding behind things, like maybe old desks. I can barely make out Jade, she’s back about 40 feet, up near the ceiling, and there’s something in front of her. I’d say they are waiting for us, but they don’t know we’re here. And hey, don’t forget your earplugs!”
“OK, I’ll hit the floor and the other side of this wall, as far as I can reach, and once we’re in, I’ll outline targets as I see them. Earplugs are in. Keep your goggles on, countdown when you’re ready.” Alex was always practical.
Alex cast the illusion of normal daylight on the inside Tammi’s goggles, and the Tuneful Titan waited until her eyes readjusted to normal light. She projected her voice under Alex’s earplugs. “Ready, countdown, three, two, one, GO!”
An incredible event, like an explosion without the blast, erupted in the next room. The concussive force of the sound itself was like a solid punch which shattered windows, blasted loose debris across the room, and thudded into the bodies of the ambushers. Light brighter than the brightest spotlights blasted momentarily from the floor and the walls as far as Alex’s power could reach, strong enough that it even leaked slightly through the opaque lenses of Miss Magic’s goggles. The Flash and Crash only lasted for an instant, then AVant Guard doffed their protective headgear and charged through the door. Alex cast the illusion of sunny daylight on the ceiling so they could see, and Tammi screeched her traditional battle cry: “YAAA-HOOOOOO!! GANGWAY!! Comin' THROUGH!”
The two heroines split up and easily took out 6 of the ambushers, who were dazed and only partly conscious after being at ground zero of the Flash and Clash. Though the super powers of both heroines were weakened by such a massive energy output, their physical powers were unaffected. Alex made good use of her shinai (a Japanese bamboo sword), a gift from her friend Liling Kam, and Tammi fought dirty, using tumbling stunts to build up momentum and then launching herself feet first into her dazed foes’ must vulnerable areas.
Two of the ambushers were missing; they’d been blasted through another door by the noise, and had begun running as soon as they got to their feet. Which left only… Jade Rouge herself!
Jade Rouge
Jade Rouge was a new mystery villain who had made her first criminal appearance only a couple of weeks ago, and nobody knew much about her. She was able to manifest an unknown type of energy and had some control over that energy. Her manifestations came in two colors, bright maroon and bright green, and there was some correlation between what she wanted the energy to do and the color. She could form a red spherical shield which made her impervious to bullets, and the red energy seemed able to strike with physical force. She used the green energy to create energy duplicates of physical things, such as the tiny, single seat green jet airplane in which she often flew (and which looked like it had broken free from a carnival ride) and the silent green motorcycle which she often rode. She’d escaped from AVant Guard in their two prior encounters, the first time because they’d had no idea about her powers, and the second time by threatening bystanders. San Francisco’s premier mystery hero team was grimly determined that she wouldn’t get away again!
Jade had been overlooking the assembly floor of the big building from a supervisor’s booth, high off the floor in the far wall, and distance and her thin red force field had blunted the effects of the Flash and Clash. She saw 2 of her men run away, and the other 6 get flattened almost instantly, and she was furious! Anger and adrenaline overcame the lingering effects of AVant Guard’s attack, and she flashed into an attack of her own.
The concussion had cleared the window frame of whatever shards of glass had remained through years of decay. She dove through the window and her appearance changed as she moved. An armor breastplate of what appeared to be shining green metal appeared around her torso and anchored to the back was a short column topped by a green rocket-shaped nacelle, which spewed red fire, propelling her through the air. She flew with her arms held out from her sides. A red beam blasted from around her head, and blew a shallow crater in the concrete behind a leaping, tumbling Miss Music. Palette created the illusion of pitch dark on Jade Rouge’s face - and nothing happened. The patch of darkness Alex expected to see never appeared, and the villainess was clearly not blinded.
“Blackout!” Alex yelled loudly. She didn’t know what good the warning would do. She switched to infravision and canceled her ‘sunny day’ illusion, and the room plunged into darkness. A beam of brilliant red flashed upward from the head of Jade Rouge and a brightly glowing red sphere appeared, just below the ceiling. It was also radiating brightly in infrared, making infravision useless. Alex gave up on darkness, returned her vision to normal, and restored the sunny day. It was a lot easier to maneuver in daylight than in the weird red illumination.
The whole sequence, bright sunlight, really dark, dim red, bright sunlight, had taken about 2 seconds. Alex ducked behind a pile of metal junk that had once been a massive machine and tried to figure out what to do next. As usual, Miss Music was attacking.
A tremendous roar filled the room, the low rumbling roar twined with the high pitched whine of the jet engines of a Stratoliner powering up for takeoff, amplified about twice, and projected at the head of the flying villain. A red energy shield slipped down from Jade’s head to cover her entire body, with only the green nacelle pylon and rocket protruding through it. Miss Music changed her tactics and hit her foe with alternating blasts of infrasound and ultrasound. Jade Rouge’s flight path shuddered with each blast, but she rocketed straight toward the Tuneful Titan. Miss Music dodged, zigging and zagging as she leaped and tumbled, and the mystery villain jetted after her, firing bolts of red energy that just barely missed, time and again. And then one bolt, fired directly in front of her, hit something invisible, and she was moving too fast to swerve, and she smashed into something big, massive, metallic, and invisible. The impact stunned her, and her armor and energy shield faded away as she fell to the concrete floor. A large pile of junk, which probably had been a powerful metal press years ago popped into view as Palette canceled the illusion that had made it seem invisible.
“Glad you heard me, partner!” Palette greeted her teammate. “Secret Plan Number Seven works again!”
“One of the best ideas I ever had!” MIss Music agreed modestly. Alex just smiled - they often had mock disputes about credit whenever one of their planned scenarios worked out, but perhaps now wasn’t the best time. She knew whose idea it had been.
Just Hangin’ Out - with the SFPD
Even in a fog, in a mostly abandoned industrial neighborhood, the two loud roars that had blasted out of this abandoned factory had commanded attention, and they could hear sirens approaching. “I’ll bet your boyfriend’s almost here already,” Tammi teased her friend.
“Hunter works in Homicide, and besides, he works the day shift. And he’s NOT my boyfriend!” Alex snapped back. “It’ll probably be Detective Duncan, and he’ll go all gooey over her!” she muttered sourly, under her breath.
“Remember, I can hear you! He is pretty dreamy, isn’t he?” Tammi laughed at her partner while the two did some due diligence, making sure the defeated bad guys were separated from any weapons and would stay defeated until the police arrived. As they watched the police arrive, Tammi added, a little wistfully, “We sure spend a lot of time with the cops, don’t we?”
Alex was right, the lead cop on the scene was Detective Stuart Duncan, and he was annoyingly attentive to her partner as the police took their statements, and Tammi lapped it up.
“Like that’s all she needs, yet another guy just fawning all over her!” Alex muttered again, a half hour later. Tammi was across the room, engaged in serious conversation with several cops, but she turned her head, pointed at her ear, and smiled. “You’ll get yours, later you little monster!” she promised, still whispering almost silently. Tammi laughed, and Alex couldn’t help but smile. Tammi would do what Tammi did, and nothing and nobody would change that!
“It’s part of my charm,” Tammi’s voice whispered in her ear. “And you know I hate being called little!”
Inevitably they ended up back at the police station, looking at mug shots. “According to the other guys, the two who’d escaped are Max “Stoney” Stoneham and Dave “Big Wheel” Green, Jade’s top enforcer and second in command. The other guys seem to be pretty scared of them. Even Jade Rouge is relieved not to be in a holding cell with them.” Duncan was talking to both of the mystery heroines, but he was only looking at one of them as he talked. “I’m sure we’ll hear from them again.”
“And they'll hear from AVant Guard again, when we catch them,” Tammi promised. “After checking out their records, Palette knows them right down to their fingerprints, and I can recognize their heartbeats from two blocks away. Unless you guys get them first, Stuart, we’ll find them, sooner or later!” She winked, and Duncan got flustered.
“Detective Duncan, we’re through now, right?” Alex spoke forcefully. Duncan tried to think of some reason to keep them around longer, but before he could, the Colorful Crusader pushed her partner towards the door. “If we learn anything new, we’ll keep the SFPD informed. We have a stakeout planned in a few minutes.” She spoke over her shoulder as she herded the Tuneful Titan out the door ahead of her.
“Geez, Alex, you never let me have ANY fun!” Tammi’s voice sounded sadly in Alex’s ear as they walked down the corridor to the front door. “You’re never in a rush to leave when Donna’s around!”
“Our tip says that the Sea Serpent is going to steal that rare oar fish from the Aquarium on the Bay this morning. We don’t have time to fight about police!” Alex insisted as they raced off on their big electric motorcycle, The Silent Streak, and they zoomed off toward the Aquarium.