Red Fox Action Log 43:

  Barry woke me up. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was early afternoon.

  “Intel Bay has something we need to see,” he said.

  I followed him down the hall. Even with all the sleep I’d gotten, I felt like roadkill.

  “You ready for this mission?” I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

  “It’s just recon,” Barry said. “I think taking both of us is overkill.”

  “We know they have weapons,” I countered, popping a mint into my mouth. “This could be deadly.”

  “When I go into overheat, my body is covered by a field of plasma. I’m not afraid of bullets.”

  “Have you ever tested it?”

  “Yeah, actually. Bullets just evaporate when the field is up.”

  “What kind of bullets?” I asked, pushing the button to summon the elevator.

  “9 millimeter.”

  “Hmm. I’d want backup. Those guns looked like .223 or larger. Much higher velocity and energy.”

  Barry thought for a second. I drug my fingers through my matted hair, wishing I had a cup of coffee.

  “On second thought,” he said, “you have a point. My suit isn’t really rated for gunfire, just blades. I’ll think about an upgrade.”

  We stepped into the elevator, meeting White Rabbit, who held two cups of coffee. She offered one to me.

  “I am grateful,” I said. “Your grace and beauty humbles us mere mortals.”

  “I know,” she said with a wink, then took a sip from her cup.

  I crushed my mint, and swallowed it. I eagerly brought the coffee to my lips.

  You know I like tea over coffee most days, but sometimes tea just doesn’t cut it.

  The first taste of coffee of the day was, well, I probably don’t need to tell you about it. If you do coffee, you know the first sip of the day is up there with sex or a hot bowl of ramen on an empty stomach. Put in there a swing on the grapple above a hundred foot drop, and you just may get my own personal Mount Rushmore of feelings.

  “Hey,” Barry complained. “Why don’t I get any?”

  “Because you already like me,” she said.

  Barry shrugged cheerfully, a knowing smile hinting at some shared joke.

  Moments later, the doors opened to the Intel Bay again. Parvati greeted us with small, individually foil wrapped breakfast tacos in a box. They smelled amazing.

  “Where did you get these?” I asked.

  “You’re welcome, by the way,” Parvati said.

  “Thanks, kid,” Barry said, giving her a kiss on the cheek, and taking a taco from her.

  “I don’t know why you let him do that,” Bunny said, also grabbing a taco.

  “What can I say? He’s cute.”

  I set my coffee down, unwrapped my taco, and bit into it. Bacon, cheese, egg, a little bit of salsa already applied. Damn tasty. Nothing fancy. My little Texan heart melted.

  “Okay,” Parvati said, “Gunny basically worked himself to death to get this plan together.”

  She pushed a button.

  “Here,” she said pointing to a spot on the map, “is where the heat map of the bay gets slightly hotter. That got Gunn thinking, and he cross referenced building permits going back a hundred years.”

  She pushed another key and the picture changed. Huge zeppelin with a stylized double B painted on the side.

  “This is what he found. Old tech hero named Boltbrain, had a hero lair built back in the old Age of Discovery. Used to house his secret blimp, with a dry dock built right under the water for it. Then,” another picture, this one of a fantastical museum full of hero memorabilia, “they turned it into a museum during World War 2, but that didn’t last long. It’s been abandoned for the last 40 years or so.”

  “Until Lady Lovely,” I said.

  “You’re right. So, what had been just a scouting mission…”

  Sniffer Sleuth walked in carrying a cup of tea.

  “This isn’t just a scouting mission,” he said. “If we play our cards right, we may be able to collapse the whole thing on top of whatever the hell she’s building.”

  “Do we even have the material for that?” I asked. “My explosive tape probably isn’t gonna cut it.”

  “I’m all the material you need,” Barry said with a grin, performatively popping his knuckles.

  “Really?” I asked. “I didn’t think you could be that destructive.”

  “I’ve been waiting for a chance to let loose.”

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  “The place is old,” Sleuth said, “and even with all the work they’ve done on it, it cannot be so well maintained it doesn’t have a weakness. Our goal is to identify what she’s doing, then scare any guards out of the base. After we’re sure it’s safe, we open a hole in the roof and flood it.”

  “I like it,” I said. Maybe if we took decisive action soon enough, we could avert whatever disaster was in Nora’s notebook.

  “We leave in 30,” he said, then turned to go.

  “That puts us 20 after 10?”

  “We’re not the military, Fox,” Sleuth said. “No penalty for being a little late. Go brush your teeth. Relax. We have a full day ahead of us.”

  I did need to brush my teeth. I could also tell I was dangerously tired from all the heroing I’d done this week. Most folks have to do a high pressure physical activity — like a marathon or a boxing match — once a week at most. Two was starting to push it.

  I briefly thought if I needed a stronger stimulant than coffee, but reconsidered. If you mess up the dosage on a powerful stimulant, you may end up multiplying your impairment, not counteracting it.

  Remembering the spiritual grounding techniques I’d read in the Fox Manual, I figured I’d do that instead. Some kind of medicine from the Indian Territories out west. I knew that as a legacy hero from the Age of Discovery, not every one of my antecedents had been as moral as the best of them. I briefly worried if this technique was shared or stolen.

  It didn’t matter, I needed the focus. Maybe I could ask the Foundation later.

  After brushing my teeth, I set the incense, and started the breathing cycle.

  Some moments later, I was interrupted.

  “Heya, cutie,” a woman’s voice said. At first, the voice pinged a memory that I couldn’t place, then I recognized it as White Rabbit’s. I stood.

  “I was done anyway,” I said.

  “Yeah? What was that?”

  “It’s a Fox thing,” I said.

  She shrugged.

  “How about we warm up?” I asked. “We’re both heroes that need to stay limber. Up for a spar?”

  She closed the door, and smiled.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”

  I smiled too, then leaned past her to open the door.

  “You’re stunning. But I did mean spar.”

  Without a hint of embarrassment, she turned on her heel, and walked to the padded mat in the middle of the gym.

  Wait. Hold up. Let me explain what happened. I didn’t turn her down out of the old boxer’s superstition. I had, um, tested that superstition and found it to be false. And I didn’t think she was too forward. On the contrary, it’s exactly the kind of thing I would have done in her shoes. Big fight coming up, chance of death, you don’t want to go out with anything left unsaid or undone. I imagine, were I single and at the beginning of my career, and she had shown up to my neck of the woods, I would have made a pass, too.

  No, I turned her down, because I didn’t think I’d learn much from it. I’d only ever been with two women in my life, and one was clearly just a rebound after my college girlfriend. I wouldn’t be able to really tell who she was, because I barely knew who I was.

  But a fight? I knew who I was in a fight. I put on the light sparring gloves.

  “I hope you don’t regret this,” she said, strapping her own gloves on. “I am not a fun spar. I’d much rather we do the other thing.”

  I did a couple of high knees then bent at the waist to stretch out my legs.

  “I thought you and Barry were doing the other thing,” I said.

  “We are,” she said. “Sometimes,” she stretched each leg individually, making dynamic triangles with her body. “But I’m not dating anyone right now. I’m not the ‘settle down’ type.”

  “Fair enough. You ready?”

  ”Are you?”

  I shifted into my neutral stance, settled slightly forward, hands in front, open, but with fingers slightly curled. The training manuals and videos mentioned that Fox Style martial arts has a relatively modern lineage, derived primarily from Savate and Judo. The hands reposition and keep the opponents standing, letting in ‘little nips’ like elbow strikes, palms, and back of the wrist strikes. Once you have your opponent where you want them, you finish them off with a head kick.

  In many ways, it was similar to what I’d expect from my opponent, with her taekwondo background. She seemed very confident, and I knew not to underestimate smaller, female-bodied opponents. A head kick was dangerous from just about anyone. Can’t use your superior size and strength if you’re knocked the hell out.

  Jill had taught me that, before she’d even taken the serum.

  Her stance was quite high, low hands, bouncing on the balls of her feet back and forth. Kept her legs free, but didn’t protect her head much at all. Then again, I was much taller than her. A high stance could let her reach me quicker.

  I stalked forward, throwing a couple jabs to test distance. I should have been right on top of her, but each jab was just a little too short. She gave exactly as much ground as she needed, no more.

  Her head juked to the side, and a quick jab of her own rolled in from seemingly nowhere. It was a polite sparing jab, but it surprised me completely. I backpedaled. She advanced, keeping the momentum up with two more jabs.

  I threw out a leg kick, tried to create some distance. She raised her right leg to block it with her shin, did a quick hop, switching into a jumping front kick with her left leg that caught me on the chin.

  My vision swam. There wasn’t a friendly way to get kicked in the face. I stumbled back.

  She took two steps back.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  It seemed genuine. I was still standing. I was fine.

  “Yeah, just wasn’t expecting that.”

  “You seen enough?”

  “Let me try something first.”

  “By all means,” she shrugged.

  Now that I’d tested her out, I figured I’d pour on the heat a bit. Even if she knows I’m coming, I could overwhelm her with speed and size.

  I came rushing in with first a low leg kick, then a side kick, classic savate foote to chasse — immediately chambering for a tornado kick. All whiffed. I knew they would. I was waiting for her counter head kick. If I could grab it, maybe I could take it to the ground. She swept my leg.

  I crashed to the mat.

  Do you ever replay your mistake in your mind’s eye immediately after you did it?

  She hopped over the low kick, sidestepped the sidekick, then ducked under the flying kick, all with her hands behind her back. Then, a quick little spin, a sweep, and I was on the mat.

  I had to acknowledge that the tornado kick was way too high for how short she was. I’d also overextended myself a bit. If I’d actually connected, it would have been too hard for a simple sparring session. It also set me up for an easy sweep.

  She’d wounded my pride. I’d taken it too personally.

  She sat down next to me, and placed her hand on my chest.

  “I told you I’m not a fun spar. I don’t like getting hit, and with my powers, I don’t have to.”

  “What’s your weakness?”

  She paused for a moment.

  “I mean, I am small. If I ever get cornered without a way out, I can still get hurt. And the way my life’s gone, I don’t have much experience with getting hurt. I’m not the ‘get back up again’ type. If I was fighting Barry, I could dodge most of what he has, up until he makes a beam too big for me to dodge, then I’m screwed. With Levitron, he could overwhelm me with knives and debris until I just can’t dodge anymore.”

  “What about me?”

  “You’re screwed baby boy. You don’t have anything I can’t dodge.”

  “Good to know,” I said with a laugh. I thought for a moment. “So, I need to make sure you don’t get cornered.”

  “I mean, that’s good advice for anyone. But yeah, make sure I don’t get cornered.”

  I sat up.

  “I’m just glad you’re on my side.”

  “Me too,” she said, grabbing my shoulders, and giving them a friendly massage. “Now let’s go get ‘em.”