Headaches and Indigestion

Why is it this particular kid has decided to give -me- grief? She is so full of herself, and just doesn't get it. She'd put an ad in the personal section of the paper... and I found her playing stupid pranks at the Oktoberfest at the Point. I chased her over to the stadium... Afterburner, she calls herself. She wants to start up an all-female superhero team. I confronted her with her behavior, and she shrugged it off, calling it "just having some fun." SIGH.

Anyway, I know how to contact her now, and I think I know who she's planning on working with.. Phoenix mentioned someone who's the daughter of the late Iron Knight--and I think she and Afterburner are roommates-- and I've read stories about a female ice-hurler helping out around here. I don't think I'm ready to get involved with one super team, let alone, two-- and this one, I think I'd be babysitting more than anything else. Meh, Afterburner is so full of herself, and she just can't see responsibilities or consequences. If someone she cares about gets hurt because of her...... I need some Advil. And some TUMS.

Now.. that's a GUN.

Yes! I found the gun I wanted, and Van Kirk helped me buy it, and get a concealed carry license for it. It is SWEET!! I'm taking it out to a remote mountain top to practice, to get a handle on how it shoots.

It's one of the latest and greatest from Smith and Wesson-- an S11. It's got binary propulsion, and 3 settings, and I can shoot to disable or kill.. and the killing one uses both internal and external propulsion and should do damage even to parahumans.

I can't wait to test it out...

Checking up

Well, I got some email I'd been waiting for. I needed to know more about VanKirk, and the DA-- Rabenold. HAL sent me a large file, and I'm pretty impressed. If anyone can get a conviction on AM and FM, it'll be Rabenold.. and I guess I'll have to trust her enough to testify in front of that grand jury.

I decided that if I was going to do this stuff often, I'd better figure out something to wear. So I drew up something with some help of an online design program, and I'm sure I can find some costumer in the city to make it for me, no questions asked. I'll just mail them the materials, and measurements, and pay in cash... maybe someday I can have something made with material that will do more than just save me from being found out... But I'll need to make more money than I do, I think. The savings I have... I'm going to buy a gun. One that will do some damage to these people I seem to run into lately. I know what I want... but I think I'm going to have to get Van Kirk to pull some strings in order for me to get it legitimately....

Avalanche!

I got a call from this person named Bane... through HAL, or I'd don't know if I'd have accepted the call. She was looking for information regarding some equipment taken from that fiasco over at Mount Washington... HAL told me that was Bane and someone else. Anyway, I called Van Kirk... that guy--I'm beginning to like him more all the time. He's an honest cop trying to do the right thing. I'm going to help him all I can. He came through for me, called me back, told me the stuff was being held at the PTA facility in Wheeling... and warned me that it was a tough, if not impossible, nut to crack. I called Bane back, and found out they were in Shenley Park, in Pittsburgh.. and when I was on the phone, Bane started yelling about being attacked.

Well.. crap. I hung up, and flew out that way, and called Van Kirk back, and let him know there was something going down, and to bring his big guns. When I got there, this huge super and Bane and someone in metal armor were decking it out. I got into the act, assuming that the only woman there was Bane, and that whomever she was helping was an ally... so I started whirling sand and gravel at the hulking costumed goon. Didn't seem like I could hurt him... but I kept him occupied, with Bane's help, and the armored guy hit him hard enough to knock the big guy out.. I could hear sirens, and figured Van Kirk was coming, and told the others to go. I waited around, until they got there, and let Van Kirk know what had happened, pulling him off to one side.. then I got out of there myself.

I met Bane and her friend at the rest stop on 79 where I'd met Van Kirk before... Heh, I think that's going to end up being sorta my place... anyway, Bane and this other guy came in, and I found out he was called Phoenix. He was rather odd... and they'd found out something on the big guy. It gave them some info, that made them think that someone had been tracking Phoenix. Then I found out they didn't have any cash, nor a place to go, and got them a taxi, and a couple of rooms for the night at the Holiday Inn Express... Sigh. I can't write that off on a business travel form...

Speed hurts

(RL Date: Sept. 2005)

Whoever decided that teens with egos needed superpowers needs a good swift kick to the head.

I was invesigating that latest bank robbery site over on Forbes, when I heard an old woman scream for help.. got there in time to see a blur go by. I sent a bolt of lightning into the pavement in front of the blur, and it knocked this girl onto her ass. She started cursing me, when I told her to give the purse back to the woman, and making comments about "fun" and "why not." Feh. She threw a hubcab at me, then I blew her over bassackwards.... then she sped toward me, jumped on a car, and then tackled me in midair, knocking us both onto the bank roof. When I came to, she was gone, damnit.

I think she called herself "Afterburner." I'm going to keep an eye out for her.

Later, that evening, I saw a news story where the police chief was asking that the person who turned in the video about the robberies to contact him. His name was VanKirk, and I debated about it a long time. I don't want those guys to go free, but I also don't want to be exposed as a "parahuman." But... Sigh. If I don't do something about it, I'm not any better than they are. So I ended up calling the police chief, and getting him to meet me at a rest stop, on 79. I kept my face hidden, at first, and we talked a long time. His name is VanKirk, and he seems to be driven man, and he has his work cut out for him--the PTA, in particular, is making his work even harder. He asked me to help him, and.... wasn't this what I had been looking for? Something more? I agreed, though I asked him to keep my identity a secret...

We talked about the video, and somehow, he persuaded me to testify before a grand jury. Ye gods, what have I gotten myself into now?

Dream Clues

I have to write this down, and I'll look it over again in the morning... I dreamed about that storm again. Only this time..., not only did I see the hole, but I saw through it. There was somewhere else in the hole... not just another section of storm, but someplace with green hills, sunshine and blue skies.

What if the planes didn't merely get hit with lightning, but were sent through the hole? That would explain the one reappearing, I think... I need to get back up there again, and look to make sure-- but I have to do it somehow where I won't get blasted from the sky... Maybe Greywolf knows someone....

The Sky is Falling

Some more of those storms came over, while I was at the hotel, and I decided to go up to see what I could see. Even my slicker and fatigues couldn't keep me warm, or dry.. the winds were terrible... if not for my powers, I wouldn't have been able to get up high enough to see those megalightning bursts...

I've never been so close to the fury of storms before.. and these.. didn't seem natural. And they were so strong, they knocked me clear out of the sky, and I fell... I'm not sure how far, before I came to. I was looking straight at a spot, when thunder defeaned me, and the lightning flashed. I thought I saw something, before I blacked out. Something I can't quite believe... how would it be possible for lightning to create a hole, as if it tore out a piece of the sky?

Wolf Moon

I drove out to Kansas, to check on that missing retired Air Force pilot. Marty Spenser was the tower geek I was trying to remember... took out to dinner, and she drank a little too much, and spilled what she probably shouldn't have... but damn, she was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. She took me over to the airport, and I got the security video... But I made sure no one knew... didn't want Marty to lose her job. There was shots of a... werewolf, of all things, inspecting the wreckage...

I decided while I was there, to go look at Hollis house... and nearly got myself killed. Damn it, I am never going into a situation like that again without a gun, or some other sort of weapon that I'm good with. I just am not good enough with my control of the wind, yet.... and that werewolf showed up, and took out the two who attacked me, after I stopped them from running away. He stayed to meet the police-- he held out his business card of all things! I snatched it and flew away. He has no idea who I am... but now I know who he is... Loup Garou, of AlertForce.

The Dating Game

Lately, it seems like everyone at the office has hit on me, or talked about asking me out. I don't like bars much, and while I get along with everyone well, it seems like I'm mastering the art of the polite decline. There are a number of good looking people here, though... Hell, I need to go out for dinner, though. I've never been much of a cook.

(A few days later...)

Well, I've tried not to show any favoritism-- I'm not ready for a commitment right now, of any kind. I'm too busy, too many things to explore, to do... The dinners were good, though, and hell, some of them were damn good in bed. But no one seems to have taken offense to no repeat dates. Which is a good thing as I work with a few of them... I just can't seem to get attached, either. It's rather like I'm waiting for something to happen... and my dreams, lately... where is this place I'm dreaming about? It seems almost real, but the only pictures like what I'm dreaming of seem to be artists' renderings of ancient Greece, and that's simply not possible.

But... even though I'm not really lonely, I would like someone I can talk to about things. And I can chat at work about weather stuff... But my powers... everytime I use them, it seems like I'm gettng better, and I want to use them more, and to do something with them. And who can I talk to about that? ...I keep hearing about this AlertForce group... maybe someone there....

NightFlight

I can't believe it... gods, it was wonderful. I flew over the city... I flew. I soared! I haven't done that except in dreams since ... heh, it's been years, at any rate. I just had to get out of the apartment, for a while..... and I've been feeling, lately, that I should be doing something... -more. I just wasn't sure what it was... but I don't want anyone to know it's me. I don't understand the mindset of these (what do they call them now? Supers? Parahumans? Bah. ) people who do things just because they can, or to get on the news. Real people need real help, right?

Anyhow, while I was out glorying in the night sky (I'm going to have to get something better than my old fatigues if I'm going to do this more often), I decided to fly over that latest robbery site. And you know? I found something that the police missed. Those robberies were done by someone with some sort of specialized equipment. And I, um, got some video of the two cretins who did it... well, guess I can't really call them cretins, they have pulled off some big heists, but still. Anyway, I was able to call up some fog to shield myself, and used that and flying about to get it. I'm sending a copy of the video off to that VanKirk guy--- hope he's smart enough to use it to pull these two in. And if they can't identify the robbers from that video, I'm gonna lose all respect for our police force....

More than Work

There've been some odd things happening around P'burg lately... bankrobberies by earthquake? I'm no expert, but these things are odd... I've gone to the USGS Earthquake reporting site, and they got picked up by local seismographs, but that's all.. the only damage was localized, but extremely violent. I've shot off an email to the geology chair at Carnegie Mellon, and we'll see if he can share some info with me. He's one of the local news headbyte guys, so I'm sure he knows something....

And I've been monitoring the air traffic-- the FAA has had to do alot of rerouting, and those airports in the midwest are pretty much shut down, 18 or 20 hours of 24... the damned fools who set off those nukes in Korea didn't realize what havoc that was going to cause to the global weather patterns. I'm looking at these charts I've generated, and I hardly believe it. Damn, what a mess... and those missing planes and pilots.. these storms, and the blasts of lightning.. if those planes got hit, they'd have an ice cube's chance in Hell of getting down intact. I'm going to see if anyone from the old squad is about and can give me some inside info... seem to remember someone planning on being a tower geek..... Hmm, lemme see if I can dig up a name...

And.. I've not flown in weeks... still trying to get stuff in the apartment. I forgot how much stuff I'd need, after being in the Air Force for so long... Maybe I can go out for a ... nah.... too dangerous, what if someone saw me? But still.. .wouldn't it be glorious?

Coming Home

(RL Date: August, 2005)

I can't believe it... I've finally gotten home after all that time overseas, and landed a sweet job with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. I get to do all sorts of interesting studies with weather, 'cause I'm in the applied meterology division. We're studying global climate change, and some of the maps I've been creating rock!

But.... even though they look cool, those pattern changes, over time, are not very reassuring. And they're going to make flying hell. I have to apply to get my military licensures switched over to civvie certs, too... I can't live without flying... My salary is pretty good, but I'm not going to be able to afford to do more than fly enough to keep my certifications current... flight fuel is outrageously expensive..... not to mention the plane rental fees... Oh, well.... no dinners out, or some of the other things I was thinking about.

But there are some cute people here at the office.... hmm.