There is a New Villainess in Town
© 2011 by: Mr. David R. Dorrycott
Chapter Twenty
The Detector looked over his readings, carefully adjusting controls that looked more at home in a nineteen forties era science fiction movie than twenty-first century reality. He had finally discovered a way to detect Captain Fluffball’s favorite weapon without triggering it, before him was a battered work table with his test material, exactly ten grams of very dry Nitrogen triiodide. Checking his readings he found that his modified spectrometer worked as planned, the only problem was he had to be within ten feet of the material to detect it and ten grams was exactly what the furred alien used to trigger her traps. Ten feet was rather too close for the mans comfort but ten feet was still further away than stepping on the stuff. A movement to his right reminded him that his assigned partner was watching.
“Questions Truss?” he asked, stepping further away from that too delicate explosive.
“None Detector” the raven haired woman answered. “You have been quite adequate with your briefings. Will you be able to increase your detectors range?”
“You see it too” Detector observed. “Too close for comfort, what with those insane traps she puts together. I don’t really know, I can’t even use a gamma emitter on the stuff, it just triggers the reaction.”
“Much like many of our companions” Truss agreed. “Hair triggers set on top of much too much power. She is turning us against each other, slowly yes still she is being effective. Do you believe that she is from another world?”
Detector shrugged, pulling a coin from his pocket. “If anyone is, she is” he answered, tossing the coin. It landed square in the middle of the explosive, or would have except the minuscule air pressure wave of its approach triggered the explosive. With a sharp crack and a cloud of purple smoke the coin vanished to end up clattered to the labs floor a dozen feet away. “Every year we’ve had villains pop up claiming to be from another world, another time or reality but every time it was easy to prove that they, like you and I, were nothing but garden variety humans with a few unique abilities. Professor Q has examined the DNA recovered from her fight with Flash and Bouncing Boy. There is nothing human in it, at least none of the markers are where hominoid markers should be. There are feline markers of course, but not in the places they should be either if she were a terran feline. Whatever else he discovered I don’t know, remember biology isn’t my primary field though I understand it. I can tell you that nothing on this planet could pray to have a snowballs hope in Hell of successfully breeding with her, yet she is perfectly evolved to live and thrive on Earth. So in my opinion Fluffball is either from another planet, another reality or a very, very good construct.”
“Construct” Truss repeated, for the first time turning her face towards the man. “A creature created from whole cloth? Detector, I have read of such things in science fiction but could they actually be done?”
“With enough money, enough intelligence and luck. Yes, I think it could be done” the man admitted. “In Fluffball’s case though, this would have had to be a complete build from scratch and considering her age impossible with the technology we had when she would have been born.”
“Alien or construct” Truss mused. “But not human and either-or though whichever is the truth she is very intelligent and very brave. It would be a sad day should she die, I admire her abilities. Perhaps it you used a five milliwatt laser spectrophotometer sweeping on a rapid, random pattern? I noted earlier that your own laser pointer did not trigger any reaction.” Turning away from the mad scientist known as Detector the woman known as Truss departed.
Detector watched as his companion departed the lab. Truss’s ability was to bind with energy, but she had to be near an electrical grid in order to draw that power. Each of them had their major weakness, his was probably his insatiable curiosity, his need to know. If somehow Fluffball could ambush Truss more than five hundred feet from an electrical power source, other than her natural defenses one would think that she would be helpless. What one wouldn’t know was her constant training with Kato. Though she was not his equal by any means, she had surprised more than one assailant in the past.
Still she was absolutely spot on about one thing, that feline was slowly breaking the fragile trust between the Professor’s group. Most hated the new team rule and more than once simply ignored it. Still others liked the rule and like himself had discovered that their assigned partner was fun to be with. For all of Truss’s airy ways she had turned out to be a good friend, along with being a very dependable partner who came up with excellent, well thought out ideas. Most who stuck together only did so because it suited them, they were playing off each others strengths and weakness’s, trying to one up each other. It had gotten Flash probation when he used deadly force against Fluffball. There were few terminal rules in this organization but using deadly force against an opponent who hadn’t was one of them. Personally, he would have ejected the man, his arrogance was getting out of hand. Returning his attention to his new machine he stepped back and studied its design. Yes he decided, he could mount a rapidly rotating first surface mirror....
Truss meanwhile was headed for the Library to do her own research. Unlike Detector she was comfortable with biology, though she preferred art herself. Unlike most of the rest she was well aware that Professor Q always posted his complete reports on the server, though in rather high level medical jargon. Having grown up in a family of medical professionals herself, as long as it was medically related it wasn’t too far above Truss’s comfortable reading level. Being Detectors newly assigned bodyguard she knew that she was going to have to face Captain Fluffball one day, so knowing everything that she could about this strange feline would be important to her. It could mean the difference between victory and defeat and though the feline apparently didn’t kill it was amazing the damage that a super could survive. Truss much disliked pain, either giving or receiving after all.