Secrets of the Guardians

I had spent my patrol time since my change to Shadowblade trying to re-master parkour.  It was hard, much harder than when I had super-strength and was immune to injury, but regeneration did have some beneficial effects.  For one thing, it took me a lot longer to get tired, and when I did I needed less time to recover.

But ascending to the rooftops was just not working for me.  When I saw a crime in progress, it took too long to get back to street level.  I figured out pretty quick that I had to change my patrol strategy, so I decided to do it like Troll… stay on street level most of the time and hide in the shadows.  My all-dark disguise, with no skin showing, helped a lot with that.  I still depended on parkour for my exit strategy… few could follow me up to the rooftops, and no one else could run free as long as I could.

So that night, I started my patrol on the roof of my building.  I did a vault across the narrow alley, crossed some rooftops, and found a convenient place to drop to street level in the shadows; from there, I just basically walked the streets.  With my sword put away, I was kind of a strange sight, but in San Francisco a lot of strange sights walk the streets, night or day.  For a while, until I got a reputation, nobody really even noticed me.

I had walked for a while without seeing any trouble, and was actually getting kind of bored.  Then I saw a small group of people stumble out of a bar.  Something didn’t look right, so I paused, stepping back into the shadows to watch.

Two men helping two women to a vehicle… a single vehicle, a late-model silver crossover.  They looked pretty wasted at first, making me think perhaps I should flatten their tires to keep them from driving.  But as I watched further I realized the men weren’t as drunk as they were trying to look, while the women were seriously out of it.

The men looked familiar, but it actually took me a little bit to recognize them.  Nick and Craig, the two guys who tried to drug and date-rape Zoe and I.  I hadn’t thought about them in a while.  I think it was then that I realized how Zoe had avoided being drugged… her power had just burned off whatever mickey they had slipped us.  But these two girls wouldn’t be so lucky, if I didn’t do something.

I took a step forward, then stopped.  I judged it would be a couple of minutes before they made their getaway, based on the difficulty they were having getting the two women into the back seat of their vehicle.  I made a decision then… I was not going to stop them as Shadowblade.  I was going to stop them as Polly.

I stepped into an alley out of sight, reversed my coat so the pink side was out and put my mask and gloves inside it.  I shook my head to loosen up my flat hair and walked confidently out into the street.

“Hey, guys,” I said, waving at them as I approached.  They were just belting the second woman into her seat… I was not a moment too soon.  I smiled, playing the part of a friend.  “Haven’t seen you two in a while.”

“Do we know you?” said Nick.  Craig looked nervous, whispering something to Nick, but Nick appeared confident.

“Yeah,” I said.  “Remember a few months back, you met my friend Zoe and me at the club with all the mirrors?”

I saw the change in his face… guilt, and nerves.  Then he looked me up and down and said, “I do remember.  I remember you drank too much and your friend had to help you get home.  Too bad, you’d have enjoyed going home with us.”

I smiled.  “I kind of doubt it.  You two losers can’t get dates without drugging them first, so I figure you must have really small dicks.”

Well, that was too much for Nick.  He came at me, fist raised, and I ducked, grabbed his fist and threw him into a nearby streetlight.  Craig worked his jaw, apparently considering his options, then approached me more carefully.  His stance told me he knew how to wrestle, college style, and since he was surely stronger than me I knew I didn’t want him to get a  grip.  I feinted, pretending to overextend; he misread it as weakness and came at me, and I dropped and took him down with the same sweeping kick I had used on the black knight in the plaza of the gate.  I heard him hit his head on the pavement… he was out.

In doing all that, I had turned my back on Nick.  I had expected that throwing him into the streetlight would knock him out, but as I stood up he threw his arms around me, pinning mine, so obviously he wasn’t out yet.  “Nice try, little girl,” he said, squeezing harder.  I couldn’t breathe, which meant I had a very short time to get free.

Fortunately it was an amateur hold, being performed by an amateur.  I couldn’t raise my hands, but I could reach behind me.  So I grabbed his groin and squeezed, and I didn’t let go until he was on the ground.  I kicked his gut a couple of times to soften him up, then rolled him over and tied him up with his own belt.

Craig was out… in fact, he didn’t look very good.  Looking around, I saw people in front of the bar, many of them taking pics or video with their phones.  “Someone call 911,” I yelled.  “We need cops and an ambulance.”

Well, to make a long story short, the cops and ambulance showed up about the same time.  When they saw the two women in the vehicle, still drugged out of their heads, the cops wasted no time in arresting Nick.  Craig had a concussion, and was taken to the ER with a police car following.  I got questioned; I had put a twenty, my office key, and my driver’s license in my boot, which turned out to be a good thing as they insisted on me showing them ID.  It was very, very late when I finally got out of the police station, but I was pretty darn happy with myself.  I couldn’t wait to tell Zoe all about it.

…

The police offered me a ride, but I declined.  Instead I called an Uber driver to pick me up, and had him drop me two blocks from my office.  It was probably around three AM at that point, so the streets were pretty deserted; I took the back street to the loading dock, got my bike and went home.

Zoe was already home when I got there, which was a little bit inconvenient… she’d expect me to take off my jacket when I went inside, and I had my mask stuffed in there.  I parked the Triumph in the garage, took off my helmet and stuck the mask inside it, then put it on the shelf where I had been keeping it.  I faced it backward so the mask wouldn’t show out the front.

It turned out, I needn’t have worried.  She was in the shower when I came in… it gave me time to strip out of my “costume” clothes, which were really not the look I went with normally when I was clubbing, and throw on something more appropriate, jeans and a dark top and low pumps.  I went back downstairs just in time; I sat down on the couch and looked at my phone, trying to look like I’d been there for a few minutes.  “Polly?” she called, after the shower had been off for a minute or two.  “Are you out there?”

“Yeah,” I said.  I got up and went back to the downstairs bath.  She was toweling off, and I saw my costume hanging out of the hamper.  “Busy night?”

“Not really,” she replied.  She looked at my outfit and said, “Looks like you were busy, though.”

“Yeah, funny story,” I said, leaning against the doorframe.  “I visited this bar one of the girls told me about.  She said it was a good place to meet guys, and I was in the mood for one, y’know?  But when I got there I saw some old friends of ours… Nick and Craig.”

“No!” she said.  “What did you do?”

I smiled.  “Followed them to their car where they were putting a couple of drugged-up girls inside, and took them down.”  I told her all about the fight, and when I got to the part where I grabbed Nick’s junk, she almost cheered.

“That was awesome!” she said.  “I wish I’d been there.”

“I told the police all about the previous time we saw them.  They had it all on file, but it took them a while to find it.  I overheard someone say the whole fight was on surveillance, so it should be easy to put them away.”

“That’s great!” she said, hugging me.

“Hey, hey, go easy, Zoe!  Don’t forget how strong you are!”

“I’m sorry,” she said, still smiling.  “I’m just so excited!  You finally got them!”

“Thanks,” I said.  “What I am right now is tired, and we have car salesmen to deal with tomorrow.  I think I need a shower and some sleep.”

“‘Night, Polly,” she said as I went up the stairs.

“‘Night, Zoe.”

…

“After this, we’re getting lunch,” I said to Zoe.  “No point in adding hangry to annoyed.”

She laughed.  “I don’t know.  I mean, I enjoyed that last dealership.”

“You like getting lied to, hit on, borderline coerced, and then having your ass grabbed?”

“Well no,” she replied, giggling.  “But when you ‘accidentally’ tripped that guy and he fell over his desk, yeah, I enjoyed that.  And then you made like you were so sorry that happened, that you were so clumsy and all.”

I couldn’t help it, I had to laugh with her.  “That ass thought he could grab ass.  Totally deserved a trip to the ER.”

“This is the place,” she said, pointing, even as the GPS said “You have arrived at your destination.”  “Reaction Motors.”  I turned my bug into the crowded lot and pulled up in front of the building.  I saw the salesmen watching us from just inside the window, like vultures in green polo shirts, and I already dreaded getting out of the car.

I opened the door and heard, “Welcome to Reaction Motors!”  I turned to look at the… woman… in a green polo shirt, smiling at me.  Somehow I wasn’t expecting that.  I mean, women can sell cars, sure, but this was our fourth dealership and she was the first woman I’d seen actually doing that.

I managed a smile and said, “Hi.  My friend Zoe here is looking for a used car.”

“Well, let’s get you fixed up,” she replied, holding out her hand.  “I’m Keri, and I’m sure I can help.”

It was different, I’ll give you that.  She didn’t talk down to us, didn’t hit on us, didn’t put her hands on us.  If she was lying, she was doing a really good job because it sure wasn’t obvious.  Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a lot of options in Zoe’s current price range; we looked at several cars, but nothing really worked for her.

Then I heard it… Zoe’s ringtone, coming from her purse, but it was off somehow.  She looked at me, and I knew it was her G-comm.  She quickly put her wireless earbud in her ear and tapped it to answer.  “Hi Mom!” she said, walking a few paces away from Keri and I.  “What’s up?”

“So Keri,” I said, distracting her from Zoe’s conversation.  “I really appreciate you helping us today.  You don’t know what we’ve been through at some other car dealers today.”

“Oh, I know.  I’m not sure these guys,” she said, nodding toward the building with a kind of pained grin, “would be any better, honestly.  I try to watch out for unaccompanied women when I can.”

“Like I said, we appreciate it,” I replied, giving her my best smile.

Just then Zoe came over.  “Polly, I’m sorry, I need to go.”

I handed her the keys to the bug.  “Go ahead,” I said, “I just saw something I want to check out.  I’ll get an Uber or something if I need to.”

She looked confused, but took the keys.  “Thanks Polly!”

“No problem,” I replied.  “Keri, if you don’t mind… tell me about this car,” I said, pointing to the little black convertible with an electric blue line from front to back.

“Oh, this?  Saturn Sky Blue Line electric, thirty-nine thousand miles.”

“Blue Line?” I laughed, pointing at the stripe on the side.  “Kind of on the nose.”  She laughed, more politely than amused.  The car was a couple of years old, and had what looked like a reasonable price tag

“Do you think your friend would like it?”

“I think I would like it,” I replied.  “Test drive?”

“Sure, let me go grab the keys.”

So to make a long story short, I bought it and drove it home.  Driving it sealed the deal… the car was so quiet.  If I needed to get in and out of somewhere without being noticed, that might be a big help.  And it looked really, really good.

Later that evening when Zoe finally turned up, having been called away to deal with some kind of giant mole situation, I made her an offer to sell her the pink bug, and she agreed.