Allison knew of Skull-Man. She had heard the name, seen his antics pasted across the news and in the papers, and done her own research into the wannabe vigilante to find out what really made him tick. He possessed skills far beyond that of the criminals of Metro Bay, or at least the clear advantage of being unable to be killed by them, but Allison had always thought of him as completely psychotic. She wasn’t the only one who thought that, having seen that Skull-Man was often described by the media as bloodthirsty and insane. More so than most of the criminals he fought, that she was sure of. Now Allison felt like this Red Dragon figure was trying to drag her into his little parody of the league of Super Friends. It was an awful lot to take in, especially with the appearance of that Zakarr creature, and Allison couldn’t help but think that the Red Dragon was taking advantage of her confusion.
Still, none of this seemed to discourage Allison, her feet following after Red Dragon as if they had a mind of her own. She nodded back to him as he did to her, a good enough welcome as any other, and proceeded onwards with him towards the library. As he spoke, Allison listened, and it was only once they were both out of the cold and into the warmth of the library that she spoke again.
“Sounds like a good lead. Which one is he?” she asked, looking out into the library. It was quiet, yes, but there were still several people about. Allison was just happy to get the chance to talk to someone normal today.
And normal he was. A young man, about Allison’s age by the look of it, who barely spoke a word other than pointing out directions to where they could find the (apparently) illusive Skull-Man. How easily he seemed to be able to contact the man surprised Allison. He must be a family connection or close friend, she thought, although jokingly uttered under her breath that this librarian could quite easily be the very Skull-Man they were looking for. As far as Allison knew, nobody had identified his physical characteristics beyond being a white male about five-foot seven-inches tall. If the librarian had been a little taller then Allison might have seriously considered the possibility of them being the same person.
She called out a thanks to the librarian as he hurried off to the back room to make contact with Skull-Man but Red Dragon quickly took her out of the building and back into the city streets. Allison couldn’t believe that he was still in costume, so willing to just wander about in public with it on.
It took her a moment to realise that Red Dragon had grabbed her by the waist. The fearful realisation hit her though when her feet lost contact with the ground, both Allison and Red Dragon travelling tremendously fast up into the air. She managed to hold back a surprised scream, if only just, instead scrunching her eyes shut and clinging tightly to the red-garbed man who was dragging her away from the surface of the Earth. When her feet touched back down again, Allison pushed herself away from Red Dragon, stomping her feet a little as she walked to double check that she was back on solid ground. She was. Specifically she was on the top of a building, exactly where the librarian had told them that they were to wait for Skull-Man.
Allison had intended on spitting out how dangerous that could have been but held her tongue. They had only just been in a fight with an alien warrior; flying was the least of their worries. “Don’t do that again,” she said, folding her arms and continuing to pout.
She eventually decided keeping the tiny grudge was not worth the effort and sat herself down on the ledge that lined the border of the rooftop, just about waist high. Allison dared not peer over the edge but, since they might be waiting here for some time ‘till Skull-Man showed his face, she thought it better not to stand for the entire time. Or speak for that matter. She kept silent as they waited, refusing to utter a word until their contact arrived.
Arrive Skull-Man did, immediately making his presence known with loud, long sentences and his traditional red, black, and white costume. Allison felt shocked, almost, although she couldn’t tell whether it was because she felt star struck or simply surprised by the man’s arrogance. This was her first time meeting the man after all and calling him larger than life didn’t do Skull-Man justice.
Ignoring his comment about being ‘Lady Red Dragon’, Allison only acted when Skull-Man asked if she were a civilian. As if to prove a point, Allison’s hand thrust outwards and grabbed the man’s wrist. Her body crystallised, flesh transforming into metal with a silvery sheen and decorated with thin golden whirls, and her palm burst into flames, searing through Skull-Man’s sleeve and biting into his flesh. To most this would be assault but Allison knew that Skull-Man would hardly feel a thing. His skin and muscle would knit back together in an instant and, while he might make some attempt at a witty comment, it would prove that Allison was not quite as normal as Skull-Man first believed.
Which it did. When Allison removed her hand she saw blackened and burned flesh which cracked and faded, replaced with perfectly healthy skin. “That’s a no,” she said, the metallic shield that covered her body receding and the cinders that sparked from her fingers ceasing. “But we do need your help.”
Allison spent the next few minutes explaining the events that had unfolded with Red Dragon and the alien warrior to Skull-Man. How the figure had attacked the two of them without a word and yet, when he had the opportunity to deal some serious damage to them, the alien held back. She spoke of the alien wanting to gather champions from Earth, mentioning the names “Hercules” and “Skull-Man”, and in turn it seemed as if Red Dragon and Allison had been dragged into the chaos as well. Allison wished that she could explain further but, as much as she had liked to, she didn’t know much more than that. The alien had vanished just as quickly as he had appeared, fleeing from the scene before either of them could question him.
“I think we need to make contact with Hercules too. You know him, yes? Can you take us to him?” Allison asked, battering Skull-Man with questions. “He’s supposed to be some kind of genius, right? I think if anyone could help us get to the bottom of this then it would be him. He might already know about this sort of thing happening. If not, maybe he could point us to someone who does know?”
Allison ran a few fingers through her red hair, turning on the spot to look off into the distance for a moment. She glanced over the city, taking in the view. It wasn’t often she got to look over Metro Bay from a rooftop, even if many of the buildings off in the distance dwarfed this one in height.
Her hands slipped into her jacket pockets, feeling for her mobile phone. When she found it, unbeknownst to Skull-Man and Red Dragon she punched in a few buttons and dialled it in silence.
“Unless you have any other plans, Skull-Man?”
xXx
Richie’s ears pricked up at the sound of extra-terrestrial activity. He himself had picked up some strange mesosphere activity, aircraft moving out of their normal patterns, unusual albeit brief weather anomalies, and on more than one occasion his observation drones had been rendered completely inoperable. Most had been damaged by the weather, unfortunate placing on his part it would seem, but more suspiciously some of them had been wiped clean of all information and sent hurtling back into the ground in a metallic heap. Some had even been riddled with what looked like bullet holes although it was hard to tell with the collision damage to account for. Richie knew something was happening to his security efforts though, whether the A.P.C.A. had gotten more adept at finding his toys or another faction was trying to bring him down, but he had hardly expected it to be anything more than that.
He smiled and shook his head. “Extra-terrestrial? As in aliens?” Richie repeated. “That’s a big claim to make, Miss Frost, and I hope you can understand my scepticism. I won’t deny that something’s been happening to my observation systems lately but I don’t have any proof of anything quite that bizarre. Still, if that is true then why would you be sent here to warn Skull-Man and I? That implies that we’re the target of something and, if I’m quite honest with you, I’m not sure what that would be.”
“And I don’t know where Skull-Man is before you ask again,” he added. “I never know where he is until he shows up.”
As if to purposely change the topic, Richie’s watch beeped, a short and sharp yelp that brought him out of his trail of thought and back into the real world. He pulled back his sleeve to examine the watch, placing his cup of coffee on the table beside him and using his thumb and forefinger to press two buttons on the device. It stopped beeping but Richie never stopped moving, moving quickly out of the room for a second only to return a short time later with a laptop under his arm. The light signalling that it was on flickered gently.
Richie sat himself back down in his seat and opened the laptop, watching as bright lights began to flicker across the screen and waiting for it to boot up properly. Natasha would see him clicking and typing frantically, his eyes darting back and forth, scanning through files and programs that loaded quickly and furiously. If she spoke then he would have ignored her, until Richie clicked on another button and began to turn up the sound.
“Sorry for drawing away from the topic but this could be more important. I’ve been keeping tags on one girl in the city. Metahuman, I think, but she’s a loner so it’s hard for me to tell what her motives are. She’s probably just a scared girl out of her depth but I’m worried she might be plotting something. She doesn’t talk to many people, only one, and I’ve got alerts coming through every time that she tries to phone him. It’s just about the only way I can tell without going up and talking to her. This’ll only take a minute.”
“Hey Al. What’s up?” asked a male voice coming from the phone. It did not receive a proper response.
While Richie expected to hear a conversation between his target and her friend, Allison Lost and Walter Heywood, the question was met with muffled and unclear voices that never answered his question, clearly not targeted towards the call. The voices spoke but they sounded as if they were far off in the distance, only just loud enough for him to pick out over all the background noise. Richie expected that the phone might by in the girl’s pocket, switched on accidentally.
“Unless you have any other plans, Skull-Man?” said Allison, just understandable.
This couldn’t have been an accident. Both Lost and Heywood were confirmed metahumans and now it semed as if Allison had gotten in contact with Skull-Man of all people. Richie hadn’t heard Skull-Man’s voice though. Was she definitely with him or was this some kind of ruse that Richie hadn’t picked up on? When Richie heard a response to Allison’s question he definitely recognised the tone of voice. They were together and, if Richie’s tracking software hadn’t been tampered with in any way, they were on the roof of a building somewhere near to the city’s largest library. Richie closed down the laptop, glancing to Natasha.
“I know where Skull-Man is,” he said, smiling.
Standing up and placing his laptop on the table, Richie swallowed the rest of his coffee in a single gulp and almost leapt out of the room, only stopping when he realised that Natasha was not following him. He turned back, calling out to her as loudly as he could. “Meet me outside in two minutes. I’ll take you to him.”
Just under two minutes later, the sound of whirring engines and great gusts of wind filled the air. Richie arrived at the front of the house, circling around from the back, fully equipped with his combat gear and standing atop his glider. His arms were outstretched as if for balance, his lowest pair of hands covered in holographic glyphs and lines that most assumed were used to control the systems of his glider. Richie grinned as he moved to hover in front of Natasha, although his mask would hide it.
He held out his hand, inviting Natasha aboard. The glider barely looked stable enough to hold Richie, let alone a passenger. “It’s safe, promise,” Richie said, chuckling.
