Modern Age Online

Kaleb sighed as the door closed in front of him.

“Yeah, sure. I’m glad you and the little Hellspawn could be reunited. What? Come in for a glass of tea? No, I couldn’t. I’m on the job and have other pets to save from fucking trees.” He mumbled under his breath as he walked away.

His face and arm hurt from where the scraggly cat had clawed him, and he was sure the cat’s owner had seen the wounds. But all he got was a muttered ‘thank you’ and a cautious look before the door was closed in his face. No one was being outright hostile, but Kaleb had been dealing with weary stares since he went on patrol.

Farrah had given him a more suburban area of their contract. Which differed greatly from the gang infested stores and drug dealers of the main street. Here, there was nothing more troublesome than a lost pet or a mechanical failure. So far Kaleb had chased down one dog, rescued one cat, and repaired two air condition units.

“Super Hero.” He sing-song’d sarcastically as he got in his car.

“Oh, get over it. The cops don’t want us dealing with gangsters. So you guys get the dregs. That’s how it has to be until the locals figure out what the cops are doing.”

Farrah’s voice in his ear was a welcome distraction from the most boring afternoon patrol ever. She had stuck him with a snotty teenage hunter as his handler for the first hour. But the little shit couldn’t handle the boredom. So he passed the buck onto Farrah. Kaleb hoped the rabbit-woman gave the little snot the lowest of grunt work.

He sat back in his seat and sighed as he scanned the identical houses on the identical block. It was a pleasant neighborhood, truly. But Kaleb really wanted to be smashing heads together. Supposedly, the police were running themselves ragged on the main road of their contracted territory. Jewelry store heists, carjackings, new gangs testing the waters. Still, they hadn’t reached out.

“So, when will these locals figure shit out? And how can I help things along? I think I’d rather be on a rooftop taking pictures of crooked cops than rescuing fucking cats from trees.”

“We don’t know if any of them are crooked, Professor. They just don’t want us here.”

“Yeah, cause their corporate masters told them to get rid of us.”

“Hearsay. We have no proof that is happening.”

Kaleb smacked his steering wheel angrily. “Then let’s go get some, Farrah! You can’t tell me that we are catching all this heat after stopping a fucking demon incursion. Even if they’ve kept things from the population, the cops should still know what we did. But do they care? No. In fact, they are trying even harder to cut us out. Something is up and we need to investigate.”

Farrah sighed. “What, exactly, is your plan? Investigate the police and then report them to… who? Internal Affairs? City Hall? All that would do is make them start their own investigations. Which would take time and put us even deeper into the precinct’s shit-list.”

“Then let’s not go the lawful route. Let’s find some dirt and nuke the bastards.”

“And when the locals find out, they’ll treat you like the rest of the criminals.”

“Not really different from how they are acting now.”

“That’s because they don’t know you. The team’s focus has been on gangs, so the store owners and the Hunters love you. But the everyday civvies? They only know that a new Super Group has moved into their area. Now, here you come. A giant six-foot lizard with an attitude problem. How would you take it?”

Kaleb snorted and started his car. “Gee, I didn’t know getting clawed up by a cat and then wanting to be thanked was an attitude problem.”

“You don’t do it to be thanked. You do it because it’s right. People only very rarely thank somebody for doing what’s right. Most times, they’ll hate you for it.”

“Great.” Kaleb said, steering his car out of the neighborhood. “Wonderful pep talk.”

“Look. These missions…”

“Busy work.” Kaleb interrupted.

“MISSIONS! Are so that the SG gains some reputation with the locals. Like I said, we are great with the shopping district. But the residential area needs some love. So you and the others are all out and doing the work.”

“Anyone else get mauled by a cat?”

“No. Although Two Gun did almost shoot a parrot they were supposed to catch.”

Kaleb stifled a laugh and was about to ask Farrah for another Good-Will mission when he spotted a car stopped on the side of the road. The hood of the car was up and an irate-looking alien was pacing in front of a steaming engine. Kaleb wrestled with himself for all of two minutes before he pulled his old car over a short distance from the stranded driver. Sure, Good-Will missions were thankless jobs, but Farrah had a point.

“Got a guy on the side of the road with a busted car. Going to see if I can help.” Kaleb reported.

“Check. Your drone is still on you and watching.”

“Copy.”

Kaleb sighed as he got out of his car and slowly made his way over. The other driver was still angrily pacing in front of his own car and didn’t seem aware of Kaleb’s approach. Not wanting to scare the guy, Kaleb gave a shout.

“Hey, need some help there?”

The gray-skinned alien man whipped around really fast, almost tumbling to the ground in his haste. Kaleb took a few worried steps closer. But the alien raised a hand, palm-up. Kaleb scanned him for a bit. The guy’s black suit looked rumbled and his shoes were scuffed from kicking the ground. But otherwise, he seemed like a normal businessman. The alien looked terrified for a few seconds before he rallied and went back to angry. Although Kaleb could tell the anger wasn’t really directed at him.

“Not unless you’re an M-rated mechanic with a focus on TekNik Motors T-Series engine.” The alien snapped.

Kaleb shrugged, mentally reminding himself to look up the Mechanic ratings. “I’ve never been rated, but I’ve built my car and I handle all the equipment for my Super Group.”

The alien seemed surprised before he nodded to himself. “Oh, you’re with that one group that just came out here. The Hounds?”

“The Lone Star Hounds. Or just Lone Star for short. Although, I’m willing to bet you won’t be the only one to call us the hounds.”

Kaleb moved closer to the engine as the alien man made room. He was studying Kaleb just as hard as he’d been studying the engine. Kaleb didn’t mind the stares. His lizard-features and rough voice drew a lot of them, anyway. But the man’s next question made it clear he wasn’t concerned about Kaleb’s species or demeanor.

“So, what? Y’all couldn’t hack it in Austin, so you came out to the boonies to roam with the Hunters?”

Kaleb chuckled as he spotted the problem with the car. Someone had improperly mounted a lot of the tubing, going from the large silver engine to other parts of the car. The thick rubber tubes were shaken loose and were now laying about the engine housing. Thankfully, the housing had automated ventilation, otherwise the smell would’ve been god awful. He set about reattaching the tubing as he explained.

“No. I just butted heads with some HLO pencil-pushers. They wanted to slap me with all kinds of fines and kick me out. I told them to stuff it and came out here. Some of my friends came with me and we are making a go of it.”

“So you know better than a company that’s been around for almost a century?”

“The company? No. The wang-rods currently steering that company? Maybe. Look, all I know is that I want to help people. The HLO was getting in the way of me helping people. Thankfully, Texas has a way for Supers to still be Super without the HLO. So now, my friends and I are free to help whoever we want, whenever we want.”

“Without oversight or protections.” The alien pointed out.

Kaleb shrugged. “I take the good with the bad. But hell, the Hounds just recently stopped a Demonic Incursion. So I like to think we are still doing our best.”

“Is that right?” The alien asked, sounding dubious.

Kaleb just shrugged again and connected the last bit of tubing to the primary engine. He scanned everything again, searching for anything he missed. But everything looked fine. Nodding to himself, he turned back to the driver.

“You wanna give it a try? See if I didn’t make things worse?”

“You doubt your own skills that much?”

“No. But I’m told I need to be more humble.”

The alien grinned, showing off two rows of sharp teeth. They quickly tested the car and waited to see if anything happened. But everything stayed in place and nothing exploded, so Kaleb counted it as a win. The alien smiled at him and reached into his pocket, pulling out a credit stick. Kaleb put up his hands and shook his head.

“That’s not necessary. We get paid monthly by the city.”

“I know. But you are also allowed to take some gratuity, aren’t you?”

The alien held the slim sticks out for Kaleb. He was tempted. But with the city’s investigator coming to check their Super Group, it probably wasn’t a good idea. Kaleb shook his head again.

“No thanks. I don’t need the HLO saying I’m taking bribes or something like that.”

“You really think they’d do that?”

“Wouldn’t put it past them. They’ve already made some waves out here with us. They’ve pitted the cops against us and even scheduled a visit from some city hall stooge.”

“Stooge?”

“Some guy coming to look our Super Group over. We wager the guy is going to be a real pain in the ass.”

“Well, if they aren’t giving you a hard time, then they ain’t from the government.”

The alien pocketed his credit sticks again and Kaleb sighed to himself. He’d done a good thing and he would get paid for it later. Maybe, once the HLO was off their asses, they could take some gratuity. But, for now, Kaleb wanted to be on his best behavior.

He was getting ready to wave goodbye to the alien driver when he realized the man was holding out a slim piece of paper. It was a business card being held out of the driver’s side window. Kaleb sidled up to the window, getting a look into the guy’s back seat. Multiple suitcases and different suits were strung about the back of the car. Kaleb raised an eyebrow, but took the card.

“Well, maybe when things calm down, you can give me a ring. We’ll do lunch or something.”

Kaleb gave the driver his best customer service smile and palmed the card. He was sure he was not going to meet the guy again. He was clearly on his way out of town with his luggage. The alien rolled up his window and eased the car back onto the road. Kaleb waved as the car left and then looked down at the pure white business card. Farrah hissed in his ear suddenly, anger making her slightly incoherent.

“Damn your fucking ridiculous luck.”

“What?”

“Do you not know who that was?”

Kaleb held up the guy’s card as if showing it to Farrah. “Maxwell Madden, City Alderman.”

Farrah sucked in a breath and waited. But Kaleb merely shoved the card in his pocket and started walking back to his car. He was rounding the hood when Farrah screamed in his ear again.

“He’s a fucking Alderman now?!”

Kaleb got the sense that he was missing something important.

“What’s an alderman?”

“It’s someone that works in the government! Maxwell Madden has been one of the few voices in the city government openly against the HLO. He’s someone that can help us, Professor.”

“Oh, well, that’s good.”

“But that’s only IF we can convince him to hear us out!”

Kaleb got back into his car and started it up. He was back on the road as Farrah was rattling in his ear about all the ways Mr. Madden could help them with the HLO. Kaleb was skeptic about using the same system that put the HLO in charge to fight it. But Farrah was smarter about this stuff. So he let her brainstorm in his ear while he drove around. The good thing was he didn’t have anymore missions that afternoon. The bad thing was that he had to listen to Farrah plan the perfect lunch with Alderman Madden.