Patchwork Magisters Supernatural enforcement for a superhuman world.

Kryptonite, Part Two

Agent Cinderstorm was a tall man, lanky and fit, with short black hair and a neatly-trimmed beard. He smiled wryly as the Magisters stepped off their plane, stepping forwards to shake hands. “Welcome to Detroit, everyone. I wish Danger Ace hadn’t sent you, though. There’s really nothing here worth your time.”

“Probably not, but we’ll take a look around anyway,” Catherine said after a moment. “Where are Turbine and Shatterdrive?”

“Vacation. Nothing much is going on right now, so they took a week off, right before Director Lee decided that we were knee-deep in the damned out here.” Cinderstorm shook his head.

“What about Sunderstorm, Cinderstorm?” Roland asked.

“Call me Chad.” Chad paused, and then added, “Seriously, call me Chad. You cannot believe how many problems I’ve already had from having a moniker almost identical to that of the town’s biggest supervillain. It’s driving me insane.” He considered, then shrugged. “Sunderstorm is also taking some time off. I guess when his vaunted superweapon turned out to be a flop, it took the wind out of his sails. You know how it is when a scheme goes sour.”

“I do not,” Roland said after a moment. “I never really got the whole villainy thing.”

“Trust me, it’s no fun. One of the reasons I got out of the game myself,” Chad said, leading the group through the terminal.

“You’re a former supervillain?” Blossom said in surprise.

“Oh, sure. Used to run the whole circuit. Tangled with Nightlord, once.” Chad smiled fondly at the memory. “Good times.” He glanced back to the others. “Oh, hey, how’s Oliver doing? I was sort of hoping that he’d stop by.”

“You know the director?” Blossom asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Practically my whole life, yeah,” Chad said. “He helped me a lot when I was a kid. Haven’t seen him in a while, though. You know how it is, you drift apart, and I’ve been pretty busy in the last couple of years, what with Rex Mundi and rebuilding the SEA.”

“How many kids did Oliver mentor?” Blossom said with surprise. Chad raised an eyebrow, and she gestured to Roland. “I mean, he worked with you, too. Kind of a funny coincidence.”

“Maybe everyone he mentored joined the SEA,” Yousef suggested. “There aren’t that many of us, so it wouldn’t be as big a coincidence as that.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Blossom said thoughtfully. “You should share Director Henry stories!”

“Maybe later,” Catherine interrupted. “For now, we’d really like to have a look at this superweapon.”

“You can if you like, but there’s really nothing to it. There was no superweapon,” Chad said with a shrug. “It was just a mistake. Sunderstorm thought he had something, but he didn’t. Somewhere along the line, there was a crossed wire, and the Director-General heard this as us trying to cover it up.”

“Then why are you still here?” Catherine asked bluntly.

“Well…” Chad paused, and then blushed. “Turbine’s kind of in to me,” he muttered under his breath.

Catherine stared at him. “What.”

Chad swallowed, and said, “Look, not a lot of women are, okay? So I made up a reason to stay around for another week. If I’d realized that Danger Ace was going to go pscyhonuts about it, I wouldn’t have done it!”

“Wow,” Catherine finally said.

“I know,” Roland said with a nod. He stepped up to Chad, and slapped him on the shoulder. “Nice! Turbine is smoking hot, and I hear she’s smart, too.”

“And funny,” Chad agreed. “And great in a fight, which is honestly something I wouldn’t be comfortable not having in a relationship, given my line of work.”

“I don’t believe this,” Catherine said, rubbing her forehead. “Roland, stop congratulating him!”

“What? She is!” Roland shrugged. “Look, if there’s really no problem, than it’s all good. It’s not like we were pulled away from anything important to come here.”

“Nonetheless,” Catherine almost growled, “I would like to look at this totally-not-a-superweapon.”

“That’s not really necessary…” Chad started. He trailed off at the look in her eye. “On the other hand, it couldn’t hurt. I tossed it into one of our storage rooms based at the local SEA base. I’ll drive down with you.”

“Can’t you fly?” Blossom asked.

“Sure,” Chad said, “but it’s always nice to chat with people. I don’t get a lot of chances, you know?”

“Not enough false emergencies to create?” Catherine snapped, striding forwards.

Chad bit his lip, and Blossom stepped forwards to put a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head. “Sorry,” she said softly, mask frowning slightly. “Catherine hasn’t been herself lately.”

“The thing with Agent Nimble?” Chad said sympathetically. Blossom nodded. “I can get that. Hard to have one of your pals not on the front line with you.”

“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Yousef murmured, stepping up to watch Catherine pull open the car door. “She feels betrayed.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of big on everyone being honest and not… uh…” Roland trailed off, thoughtfully. “Oh, I get it. That’s why she’s so mad at you. Because you didn’t just ask Turbine out like a normal person.”

“Thank you, Roland, I figured that out,” Chad said.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Don’t mention it,” Chad sighed. “Alright, we’d better follow her, and I’ll see if I can’t make up for my mis-step.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Roland said with a shrug, patting Chad on the back. “Catherine gets mad at everyone. She’ll come around.”

“I think she mostly just gets mad at you,” Yousef pointed out.

“But she does come around,” Roland insisted.