Free New Markets - 02 by Kevin Rau

heart out or something.  Man, he's got these evil looking cat eyes.  I just sent them to the hospital, they just got back here after finding out that you'd checked Psystar out."
    "Put one of them on the phone, I'll talk to them."
    "Sounds good."  He walked over to us and held out the phone.  "Agent Willman's on the phone, he's in charge of the kidnapping investigation."
    Lance began reaching for the phone, I reached faster.  I'd noticed I was far faster than Lance when I wanted to be.  I said, "Black Tiger here.  I'm the one with the evil cat eyes."  I smiled at Dunsworth, making sure my fangs showed.
    "Agent Willman here.  Black Tiger, I'm with Psystar now at the hospital.  We're currently with one of the kidnappers."
    "Put her on."
    "One moment."  I heard him in the background saying, "Psystar.  Hey, Psystar, come out of it.  Black Tiger's on the phone.  Shit."
    "Black Tiger, she's not responding.  She's doing her mind thing.  Right now she's just staring off into space and her eyes are glowing.  I tried shaking her shoulder, but she's not responding."
    "That normally only takes her a few minutes."
    "She only started a minute or so ago."
    "Assuming she's doing that, and comes out of it in a minute or so.  She'll either be fine, or fall unconscious for a few more minutes, roughly.  I've only seen her do it once to someone, she was out for only a few minutes that time."
    "All right.  Should I have her call you back when she snaps out of it?"
    "If she's awake, have her call me within fifteen minutes, otherwise you call me in that time frame.  If not I'll assume this is another ruse, and that Dunsworth here is involved in it."
    He huffed on the other side of the phone.  "Christ.  Listen, I just finished talking with her about this.  Let's not start up any interagency squabbling, all right?  It won't help either side, and I'm assuming that we're both trying to accomplish the same thing."
    "I'll assume that everything is as you say it is.  Just call back in fifteen."  I gave my H.E.R.O. phone number to Agent Willman and handed the cell phone back to Agent Dunsworth.  He checked for a signal and closed the phone.
    "Satisfied, Black Tiger?"
    "Not yet.  I'll assume everything is the way it should be.  What's the latest on the kidnapping case?  We're here; we can handle the raid on the kidnappers for you once Psystar gets the details.  We won't have to worry about getting hurt."
    "Psystar made the same type of comment before she went to apprehend the kidnapper she's with.  I heard she got shot up pretty badly.  Besides, it’s not so much you getting hurt that’s the problem.  It’s the victims getting injured during a fight."
    That shocked me.  "That's odd, she's not a fighter."
    He shrugged.  "I don't know much more than that.  I wasn't at the scene.  I take it you guys are combatants?"
    "Pretty much.  One would think the claws, and Spartan's giant size would make that obvious.  I’m not concerned about being shot too much.  Spartan here could probably laugh off a machine gun, perhaps even a sniper rifle or rocket launcher.  Hey, Spartan, we need to test that on you."
    "One can't be sure of anything with a meta you're meeting for the first time, I’ve heard that even some small women like Psystar could be armored."
    I nodded my agreement at that.  Even among mutants there was a great variety in strength, speed, and potential off abilities.  Like that Shrinker mutant that was still on the loose.  At first glance you would think she was a normal mutant, but she could also reduce a person down to action figure size.  Stephanie was shrunk down the last time our groups met.  I should check on that metal super lady that changed the other day.
    Spartan said, “Not sure where we’d be able to buy that stuff.  Too bad we don’t have any military contacts; I could give them a moving target to practice on.  In return I’d get to see what live fire feels like.”
    I replied, “Actually,