H.E.R.O. - Incursion: H.E.R.O., #10

By Kevin Rau

The Gahranii send an envoy to Earth in search of its leaders. Borgz, ever in search of new bodies and weaponry, stumbles across an alien probe in one of the asteroids near Earth. He accidentally sets off a signal to the owners, who come to the solar system to scout why an ancient probe of theirs is now active. Finding an enemy species, the starships fight, and the hostile alien vessel speeds to Metrocity in an effort to head off negotiations between species. This sets off an incursion of aliens in Metrocity, and the heroes are caught in the middle.

Sparks helps, thinking one of the starships is the pirate vessel holding a friend of hers, and ends up working with one of the groups of aliens in an attack on the other ship to retrieve her friend.

Unwilling heroes aid in the defense of the city, and heroes die. It's a rough night as heroes find some of the aliens to be more powerful than anything they've seen to this point.

H.E.R.O. - Incursion is a full-length novel of 104,000 words.

Check out the entire H.E.R.O. series!
H.E.R.O. – Metamorphosis (1)
H.E.R.O. - New Markets (2)
H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (3)
H.E.R.O. - Dark Research (4)
H.E.R.O. - Horde (5)
H.E.R.O. - Paragon (6)
H.E.R.O. - Illustrated Guide (fits in any order)
H.E.R.O. Shorts – Gatecrasher (7)
H.E.R.O. Shorts – Silverlash (8)
H.E.R.O. - Gene Front (9)
H.E.R.O. - Incursion (10)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Rau
• Release date: Aug 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476280851

Kevin Rau

Born in 1970, I've been interested in fantasy and science fiction since perhaps the age of 10. I believe my love of medieval knights came about when my father built a wooden shield and sword for me to use in elementary school for some event. Through my school years I read hundreds (or thousands? - it's hard to recall at this point) of fantasy and science fiction novels. Comic books and super heroes came a bit later, although I recall seeing the Christopher Reeve Superman movies at a very young age (and loving them). Since my later teens I believe I've watched nearly every major fantasy, science fiction, and super-hero movie that has come out. I still love reading fantasy and science fiction, although I wish there were more novels based on superheroes. This is something that drove me to create my own supers universe and heroes in written form. I love supers, but I've always wanted more character depth than a comic book can provide. (Not to mention the immense length of time it takes for a comic series to do a story is just plain too long to me.) Writing is a hobby for me, I'm a full-time computer programmer and systems administrator for a small company. Fortunately the skills I've learned allow me to work with 3D programs to render the characters (and covers) for my books. My hope is to put out a novel or two a year, time allowing. At this point I'd like to grow the H.E.R.O. Universe with more novels, as well as start a fantasy series at some point.

Book preview

Chapter 1 – Asteroid

Borgz' Viewpoint

I floated far above the planet; inhabiting the craft I stole from the mutant, or rather, what had to be an alien. I assumed that mutants had not figured out how to build spaceships. I had pulled off the vehicle heist of the century, I thought. After all, who else had successfully taken a spaceship from anyone else?

I would have pinched myself, had I a normal body. I looked inside the ship at my metal combat mecha. The metal humanoid body, composed of rods of tungsten steel cables, and plates of tungsten composite alloy worked wonders in my fights to this point, and with my ‘bodies’ not requiring food or air, I was certain I could use it in space. I was tempted to shift my mind back into that body to try to control the ship, but that would have required using the computer systems, and was much less efficient than using the craft as my body.

I shifted my view back outside the ship. It still made me wonder how I somehow saw from any point on the object my mind inhabited, rather than a set head or eyes. I kicked in the engine and flew further from the planet. I took a few laps around the planet to test the speed of the vessel. It was fast ... really fast. I angled toward the moon and chased it. In little time, I was over the barren place, coasting a few hundred feet above the surface. I wondered how long it would take to find the flag left up here by astronauts a few decades ago.

I spotted an odd shape on a mountain some distance away. It was far too perfect a circle to be natural, and as I closed on it, I found giant writing of someone's initials. I mentally smiled. Now that was funny. I wondered if they had come to the moon to do it, or somehow shot a beam that wrote the initials from Earth. I thought I had read that the same side of the moon always faced the earth. If so, then this could have been done from the planet’s surface.

I landed my shuttle body below that point of the mountain, and waited a minute to see if anything would move on its own. Nothing did, so I shifted my consciousness into my robot mecha, opened the door, and stepped out onto the moon. One step for all, er, borgkind! I was glad I no longer had to breathe. It took a few minutes of walking to become adept in the lower gravity, and I walked over to the cliff face near the signature.

Then, I dug out my own signature at the bottom of the cliff face. 'Borgz was here too.' I would have used my Gatling gun, but why waste limited ammo on a signature? Blowing up police cars seemed to be much more exciting.

I returned to the shuttle, climbed inside, and sat down before shifting my mind back into the ship as a body. I closed the door and took off again.

Once I was well away from the moon, I focused again on the sensor systems. Some of them confounded me. Simple systems, such as activating or speeding up the engines, appeared to be second nature to me when I took over a mechanical body. Computers were a black box, I couldn't operate them. These sensors were a mix. A few of them were easy to understand, such as a basic radar system. A few made absolutely no sense as to what I saw with them. They probably needed some complex computer program to decipher the information. One seemed somewhat understandable, and as I activated it and tried to comprehend what I saw, I finally realized that it was some kind of long-range radar type system.

Earth and the space around it was a mess, and appeared fuzzy, likely due to all the stupid meteor fragments floating around the planet. A sizable chunk trailed the planet, however. I flew past my home planet and approached the object. It was an asteroid of some kind, but I saw some straight lines on it. The shuttle was wonderful to move about in. I felt like I was flying ... and I suppose I was. The ship was very maneuverable. I approached the big rock, and realized the object was some kind of ship, probe, or missile jammed into the rocky surface.

I searched, or rather sensed, around my body for a moment, and found an arm system on the side with the door. From there, it was easy to extend it out and grab hold of the item in the asteroid. Once I was sure the ship had a solid grip, and would not let go and strand me there, I shifted into the device.

I immediately sensed the engine. It felt quite different from the one in the shuttle. Something about it made me think it was capable of far greater speeds than the shuttle could achieve. It had some sensor systems, what I thought might be a field generator, perhaps some kind of shields. Last, there was a component on one side of the small craft. I activated it to see if it were a weapon system. While I felt energy of some type being emitted, it gave me no clue as to the function. I guessed that it was for communications, for if it were a probe, it would require the means to send information back to the controlling ship.

It was a good thing my very presence somehow animated and activated devices, or I would never be able to use the craft. The power source appeared inactive, although most of the systems seemed fine. It bummed me out that it wasn't a weapon. A super blaster would have been awesome to stop others from taking things from me. These days, everyone was out to screw me over.

I shifted my mind into the shuttle, and then into my combat body, and went out to break the craft free of the asteroid. It took some time to break the surrounding rock without causing more damage, but I felt that a second ship would be well worth having, even if it wasn't made to carry one of my robot bodies. Fortunately, my combat mecha was well suited to smashing things like rock.

Once free, I moved the craft around until the external arm on the shuttle would have a solid grip, and flew back toward Earth. Two ships to study! Too awesome! I debated flying around the solar system, but went into a rough orbit of the planet, and returned to studying the systems on the ship. I wanted to know how to control it, should I need to do something without thinking.

The second craft could wait. Since it was smaller, and wouldn't fit my combat robot body, it would be of less value to me. I needed to know I would have a backup automaton body to shift my mind into, and in a hurry should a problem occur. It had already saved my backside when I died, and when the annoying heroes of Metrocity had torn my first robotic body apart.

I looked at the new craft from a side position on the outside of my shuttle body. It had a design on it, but not of any Earth government that I knew of.

Everyone knew about the nuclear missiles sent up to destroy the dangerous asteroid as it came toward us some 25 years ago. This did not appear to be such a missile. I wondered how it survived the blast of so many bombs. On the other hand, I supposed that the asteroid chunk somehow remained intact, so it merely had to have been in a fortunate position, or had shields on it.

I shifted back into the smaller craft for a moment, and peered inside it. I had a momentary thought about phantom eyes appearing on the side of a wall where I had my 'eyes' at the time, and mentally smiled. There was no space for a crew. I looked around for a while, to make sure it couldn't be for tiny people, but there wasn't space for anything above the size of a rat. It had to be a probe of some kind. I had seen plenty of science fiction to guess that an alien species must have shot the probe at the asteroid to study it, and then left it when finished. Either that or perhaps it had still been active when the missiles went off, and only then did the engines die. Without the means to work the computer systems, I would never know.

With no need for food, air, or anything from the surface, I returned to studying the systems of the two ships.

Chapter 2 - Reanimated Probe

Third Party Perspective

Kurcet Language Translated to English

Tosk'dar stood in a room approximately twenty feet square. The ebony-skinned Kurcet was 8' tall, had spikey hair-like strands sticking up only at the top back of his cranium, and he was heavily muscled. His completely coal black eyes gave little indication of his state of mind as he stared at the walls of massive monitors around him.

Next to him stood Fael'dar, one of his partners on the small 150' starship used for scouting missions. As with most Kurcet, the two were nearly identical in height, body shape and build. Thousands of years of genetic engineering to bring their race to the pinnacle of strength and durability led to an almost clone-like appearance.

Both men wore black pants of a high-strength fiber, black boots, and went shirtless. The elements did not affect Kurcet bodies, and they wore black harnesses over their torsos, lined with pouches for various tools.

In front of them was a table with the remains of a humanoid body on it, a former slave who acted too slowly upon a command by the Kurcet. The mighty aliens brought few food resources on missions, for they simply ate their slaves when they tired of them.

Tosk'dar bit the end off the small limb he held in his left hand. He closed his eyes as he savored the coppery taste of the humanoid's blood for a moment. He re-opened his eyes and studied the massive view screens surrounding the room.

His partner, Fael'dar, said, The Aselite have an excellent flavor, do they not?

Indeed. We shall have to acquire more as crew when we return to the station.

I see only minor resources of any value in this system. We should remain at most a few more hours.

I agree. I prefer inhabited systems, anyway. Gaining slaves and materials at the same time is more enjoyable.

Perhaps we should seed systems with fast-growing life forms.

The Consortium has a group researching that. Sadly, planets would require terraforming prior to seeding.

The door behind the pair opened as a smaller humanoid, an alabaster-skinned male Aselite wearing only a white tunic, entered and knelt before them.

Tosk'dar turned and said, What, slave?

The slave looked up. For a moment, his eyes flicked across the body of his former companion being used as food, and he gulped. He said, Master, we have received a priority message from a probe.

So?

This probe has not been active for hundreds of years.

Interesting. Channel?

Beta four.

Tosk'dar tossed the limb he was eating onto the table and tapped on the floating keypad display above and behind the table. The center screen in the room changed and filled with information.

He glanced over the projection and smiled. Today is a good day after all, Fael'dar. A system with two inhabited planets. One inhabited by billions of significant life forms.

Fael'dar said, This probe was sent to track a fragment of the rift planet. Why did it come online?

It has no information on its failure. The engines are offline, and it is attached to a Gahranii shuttle.

Petty blue-skins. Are the life forms on the planet Gahranii?

The sensors have no details. Strange. Perhaps the fools activated our transmitter while the rest of the unit was inactive.

This bears examination. The system is well out of our normal operating radius.

It doesn't matter. A planet populated so heavily will be worth the travel. Besides, it isn't as though we are using the old faster-than-light engines. The slipstream engines acquired from the Taranus make such distances meaningless.

On our scout ships, perhaps. A world raider vessel would take far longer.

True, but the value may be there.

Tosk'dar tapped the panel, and the view screens dimmed. He turned, and the slave scuttled out of the way of the far more powerful alien. The pair of Kurcet walked to the command center of the ship.

As they walked, he said, Ship announcement, all partners to the command center. We have a new target.

In minutes, a group of seven nearly identical Kurcet met on the command center of the ship. Several large view screens lit up the front of the room, with groups of seats and displays surrounding the room, filled by slaves of various races. The Kurcet met around a U-shaped control panel in the center of the room.

Tosk'dar said, We have data from a previously inactive probe. It has found a new, heavily populated system. The species is likely Gahranii, and number in the billions on the planet.

The group looked at each other and nodded.

Tosk'dar said, Is it agreed? We leave this pitiful system to examine this new opportunity?

All agreed. Fael'dar asked, Notify the Consortium?

Not until we see this ourselves and perform proper scans. If this is incorrect due to an ancient probe, I will not be responsible for the demotions.

All agreed again.

Yuu'dar, the designated pilot, tapped the center system and aimed the ship for the system with the probe. He then brought the ship into the slipstream, and it shot forward at a speed thousands of times faster than the speed of light.

The group stood silently for a few hours, barely moving around their command center. The slaves around the outside of the room quietly monitored various ship statuses and systems, studiously avoiding looking at the large humanoids in the center.

The ship exited the slipstream at the calculated time Yuu'dar had set, near the asteroid belt in the center of the solar system. The group immediately began a series of scans to analyze the region and search for other starcraft.

In a short time, they discovered a pair of Gahranii starships in orbit around the heavily populated planet, and that a shuttle of theirs had landed. They quickly ascertained that the primary inhabitants of the planet were not Gahranii.

Tosk'dar said, This is a new species. The Gahranii will be here to forge an alliance.

Fael'dar said, The technology on the planet appears primitive. Mostly ground-based vehicles are in use, and communications are also backward.

Yuu'dar said, One of the starships is a noble cruiser. The other is a warship of some type. New classification, we don't have it in our database.

Tosk'dar said, I advise that we pass the two ships, approach the shuttle on the ground, and kill their nobles.

Fael'dar asked, What of this warship?

Their ships have been of no consequence in the past. The priority is the shuttle. This is where their nobles will be. Stop any negotiations before they progress.

The group agreed. Yuu'dar set the ship into motion to rush the planet.

Chapter 3 - Cryptic Letter

Psystar's Viewpoint

When Sparks, Tiriffa and I left Captain McCain’s office, it was only 9:50 in the morning. I hugged and kissed Sparks goodbye, shocking her, and she stepped back and looked at me strangely. It was Tiriffa's thoughts that stunned me, however. With only the two of them in mindview range, her thoughts were extremely clear about how odd my behavior was, when compared to every other female human she had seen. Maybe there's something to what Diva keeps saying. People weren't acting this way when I first changed, were they? I don't remember anyone backing away from my hugs then. Did I always kiss people? Yes ... no. A voice in the back of my head said, You must always hug and kiss people goodbye. I tried asking why, but the voice was quiet. I shook my head, smiled and shrugged at Sparks.

Sorry.

Yeah. Uh, never met anyone that did that. So ... I'm gonna get going. I need to get my armor fixed. By Jazz ... and hope that she's found a place to turn in that mutant for a reward. After talking with that Captain, he may be an option, though. If they wanted that Lady Nocturne witch, then they may want her accomplices. Nerdy's going to be so pissed at me for getting the armor torn apart. Oooh, that damn Psycom. I will hunt your butt down and shoot it.

I raised an eyebrow while listening to Sparks' mental tirade.

I said, Hey, good luck on everything, and your armor. Hope it's fixable.

She nodded with a sour look on her face. Happy heroing. Uh, thanks for showing up and all. You know, with the ice...

I smiled. I'm glad we were there for you.

Tiriffa also gave Sparks a tight hug, mimicking me, but she skipped the kiss. Sparks leaned her head back quite a bit, as Tiriffa grinned broadly, all her sharp teeth showed, and the blonde woman was well aware of them.

Sparks said, Yeah. Have a good day. She walked to her awesome four-fan flight cycle and climbed aboard. We watched as she lifted off, the fan systems tilted, and she shot off into the sky.

Tiriffa said, Perhaps flying craft are not so far away for your people after all.

We have airplanes, you know.

Yes, a group flew toward the Selestor when we first came to the planet, as I recall.

Oh, yeah.

I was speaking of general use vehicles. You would no longer have to repair and build these ground surfaces.

Yeah, but how do you move freight?

Freight?

Yeah, stuff to buy and sell?

Cargo is moved in larger vehicles, the concept is the same.

But fans like that probably won't lift twenty tons.

Hmm. True, antigravity systems are more efficient. It is a beginning, nonetheless.

I suppose. Hey, we still don't know what the military is going to do, and we could make it to class. Want to join me?

I thought you preferred for me to stay out of sight.

Well, I did. But I would rather have you with me at school, than sitting at home when some military people show up and try to nab you.

Nab?

Take. Kidnap.

Ah. Hmm, I am fine with accompanying you. An educational facility would be interesting to see at this stage in your society.

Er, gee, thanks, I think. Oh, crud, we need to hurry. Ready for some fast flight?

Flying with you is always interesting.

I stepped up to her and pressed against her body, with my left leg outside her right. Then, I pushed off my fictional air step to begin floating, and kneed up to kick our speed up fast.

I heard a strange laugh or giggle from Tiriffa. She enjoyed the rush of the leap in speed. I felt the clock ticking down; we would just make class if I rushed. We blew past Mach 1 and perhaps doubled that speed, taking about three seconds to cover each mile over the city. I approached the University campus from the north side; I still feared blowing past the downtown skyscrapers over Mach speed due to possible property damage from sonic booms.

Tiriffa wrapped herself around me with a death grip when she saw the speed at which we descended. I shoved my left foot forward, and we slowed from perhaps 1200 mph down to a few dozen in seconds. I smiled; I loved my flight. I had a feeling that if Diva could slow down quickly, the person with her would be flung forward at full speed. I still had no clue why mine didn't.

We hit the grass somewhat harder than I wanted due to my rush, and I held Tiriffa at arms length. She breathed heavily, and somehow her huge orange starburst eyes were even larger than normal. Looks as if widening the eyes in fear is similar in our species. I tasted her fear through our mindview link. It was uncomfortable, and due to our proximity made me slightly afraid. I debated kicking on my pheromones, to force her into a happy mood, but she recovered in a short time, once her feet were on the ground.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me as I quickly walked to the entrance of the Kensler Building, where all of my biology-related classes were held. I removed my H.E.R.O. phone out of my back left jeans pocket and glanced at the time. We only had a minute.

The students we passed in the hallway all stared at Tiriffa. Their mindviews registered shock at her odd blue skin with its white scale-like markings on her bare shoulders, neck, and forehead, long pointed ears that stuck out to the sides, fangs, and her huge, orange starburst eyes. For once, few people even bothered looking at me. Some people wondered if she were dressed in a cosplay costume.

We reached the auditorium. The lower entrance I always used was already closed. I knew the top ones would be open due to the stragglers always found in the huge room, but I could barely walk past all the people in the huge seating area, much less sit there with all the mental noise. I pulled one of the double doors open and looked in. Professor Stonewall was setting up his gear on the stage, but he hadn't begun class yet.

I glanced to my left. My thin friend Megan sat in the front row, as she had taken to doing after I transformed into a super. Her closeness to the front of the room allowed me to sit in the back corner of the stage. I was still able to maintain a mindview with her and look through her eyes for the class, and yet remain far enough from everyone else to keep all the mental chatter to a minimum.

The seat to Megan's right was open, so I pulled Tiriffa along behind me over to Megan.

I pointed at the chair and said, Tiriffa, sit ... ugh. Twenty mindviews appeared, covering my entire visual space, and the mental chatter of all the people within perhaps 35 feet barraged me with a cacophony of sound.

I blinked and shook my head from the assault. It was almost enough to overwhelm me and knock me out. I stumbled backward until I bumped the stage. Some of the noise cleared up, and I was able to think on my own again. I looked to my left, where the stairs up to the stage ought to be. I couldn't see anything; my vision was still filled with a dozen mindviews.

Someone's hand grasped my right elbow and guided me up the stairs and to my seat. Mindviews disappeared as the people passed my roughly twenty-foot range, and six remained. Megan was at my side.

She whispered, Are you all right? Why do you have so much blood on you?

Now that I could distinguish her mindview from the others, I pulled it up to fill my vision. She was right, I had forgotten about the four massive stab wounds Lady Nocturne did to me with her nasty spider legs. My jeans each had a two-inch tear in the thighs, and were soaked by all the blood from my own body. I healed well before we finished chatting with Captain McCain, and hadn’t thought more about them in my rush. The other pair of spider legs had torn through my blouse in the right shoulder and abdomen, staining it horribly as well.

I said, Damn. I didn't have time to change. I got stabbed.

Her whispers were loud, and were punctuated by the thought behind the words, which were almost at a shout. What the hell did you get stabbed by? Those are huge holes! Do you need a doctor?

No, I healed them.

Another mindview had approached from behind Megan, and Professor Stonewall said, I'm glad to hear you healed them. Are you sure you want to be in class right now, Ms. Quinn?

I pushed Megan's mindview away and looked at him. Yeah, I'm fine. I heal really fast, Professor. I didn't want to miss another class.

All right. I would love to hear about it after class.

Um, okay. Sorry about the disruption.

I'm not going to lament a heroine disrupting my class. Your friends apparently rescued Professor Gently and I last night, as I recall. I'd like to talk to you about that as well. But for now, class time.

I nodded, and shooed Megan back to her seat. Go sit. That's Tiriffa that'll be next to you.

The professor turned and walked toward the podium. I noticed him looking closely at Tiriffa as he did. He had seen us enter, hand in hand, so he knew she was with me, and was interested in her as well.

She smiled, I've met her, Steph. Where's your notebook?

Huh? Crud. I forgot it. If you take notes, I'll copy them later, okay?

Will do.

And pay attention to the professor, not to Tiriffa, or I can't see the board!

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Wait, I guess I could watch through her eyes as well. Hmm, whatever. Go.

Megan turned and walked quickly off the stage and down to her seat. Professor Stonewall waited for her; well aware of the dozens of faces all watching my slim friend as she did so. He attached the mic onto his shirt and began speaking.

Megan was extremely distracted, and constantly glanced to her right to study Tiriffa. She tried not to, but her curiosity at being so close to the alien overwhelmed her. We had spoken about Tiriffa numerous times over the last week, although Megan had only seen Tiriffa once, after Andre had suped me up, and I crashed into a wall when my flight went out of control.

After a while, I shifted to Tiriffa's mindview. At least she was much more interested to hear what the professor had to say. Fortunately, I spent so much time near her over the last week that pulling her mindview up close was as good as Megan's.

Her thoughts were more unusual at times, as she wondered at the primitive nature of our teaching systems. Apparently, her people trained at computer consoles. She had such intense concentration that she helped me maintain more focus than normal, especially since she didn't drift off and think about the latest shirtless hunk from the newest movie coming up. Not that I minded the occasional diversion, but Megan did have a habit of drifting off into rather naughty daydreams about them.

I still heard the thoughts of everyone else nearby, even with Tiriffa's mindview pulled up close, and many people had questions about both the blood and tears on my clothing, as well as Tiriffa's unusual appearance. I mentally kicked myself about wearing jeans and the blouse to see my mom ... Lady Rapture. I needed to learn to remember to take my clothes off at the very least before trying to take down a villain.

I debated sending out pheromones to control everyone, and force them to pay attention to the professor. Unfortunately, he was closer than most students were, and would probably stand in front of the room and stare at himself.

As class time went by, I became more aware of the wet, sticky feeling of the blood on me. I wasn't certain why I had not focused on it before, perhaps due to the proximity of others up until then. I occasionally flexed my muscles, just to test how they felt, but everything felt normal. I got very hungry by the end of class. I remembered Agent Carson saying something about needing to eat more in general, or was it after healing? Either way, my stomach growled at me by the end of class. I was very glad when it ended.

The professor packed up his equipment and notes, and Megan came up on stage with Tiriffa. I stood up and glanced at the seat. The stains on the back of my jeans had left blood behind. I looked around and debated what to use to clean it off, and Megan pulled some tissues out of her purse.

Here.

Thanks. I wiped down the chair, and noticed more mindviews approaching. Some hovered nearby; students I barely knew who were interested in hearing about the blood or Tiriffa. Others were from Odes and Kell, my study buddies. My thoughts became very busy from the extra mindviews and mental chatter.

Kell said, Hey, you okay, Steph?

I nodded, Yup. Can't say that for my blouse and jeans, though.

I thought that's what costumes were for?

Yeah, I forgot.

So ... you brought Tiriffa in, huh? Want to get food with us?

Food. Hmm, I haven't gotten together with Jim and Mike recently. Ugh. Not enough time in a day.

Professor Stonewall joined us, Mr. Lamphiear, Mr. Yarnell. Perhaps we can chat over lunch, Ms. Quinn?

I glanced back and forth at my study group and the professor. I hated having to decide between people.

Odes said, Aw, man. We wanted her for lunch.

Tiriffa said, The simple solution would be to eat together then.

The professor preferred to discuss things in private, but understood the desire of the other students to want to talk with the mutant woman. I realized then that he didn't know she was an alien. I had told my closest friends about her, but not the professors.

Professor Stonewall scratched his chin, and said, I'll pay for pizzas from the pub if someone will run and pick them up?

Odes said, I'll do it.

The professor took out his cell phone, looked up the school directory, and called in an order. He gave his credit card information, and let them know that Odes Yarnell would be there shortly to pick them up. He thanked Odes, and told him to meet us in the Biology Staff meeting room up near his office. My friend took off to get them.

I noticed that the bystanders hadn't left, and stepped past Kell. Guys, I was stabbed a few times this morning during a…uh…villain takedown. There's nothing to see, the wounds are healed. It's just leftover blood.

Some of the guys spent more time than necessary checking me out, but then most of the attention shifted to Tiriffa.

I huffed, Go. God, not all supers look normal. You guys are being rude.

Several immediately rolled their eyes and walked off, a few remained until I put my hands on my hips and gave them a look that hopefully said I had