“I can’t give you my number right now. It’s a little top secret.” Craig winked at the girl selling flowers.
She giggled at him, her eyes checking over his well-defined physique, which was displayed through his tight clothing. “So, James Bond, what sorta work do you do?”
Chase yanked on his arm to pull him away from this scene. “He’s busy. Come on.”
“Hey, I was just getting info.”
“You were just getting your ego stroked.”
Craig said, “not true. I found out that she saw a woman running away from the explosion.”
Chase stopped, “oh? The shop keeper saw nothing. What did that vendor see?”
“Said this woman was holding her face and running like mad down this street, this way.” he pointed ahead of them.
“Good work. Just remember, we aren’t in the habit of using sex appeal to get information. We’re not that kind of agency.”
He grinned. “I got the info first and then flirted. Nothing wrong with being admired by a cute chick.”
Chase was just about to scold him for that comment when they both heard screaming. A building shook and all the windows on the front of an old warehouse blew out, scattering glass across the street.
The doors opened to the warehouse, and two men came scrambling out. One had a severe burn on his arm. Chase and Craig rushed inside. They found an almost empty warehouse with a middle-aged woman pacing around the floor.
“Ma’am, you might want to leave.” Chase said.
The woman looked up, her eyes wild, her hair a mess, and a large blue crystal in her right hand. She screamed, “I must destroy everything!” following that with a strange light blast from her mouth that cut a hole in a wall.
“Holy crap!” Craig yelled and ducked behind a metal girder.
Chase hid behind an empty shipping crate. “Ma’am! We’re from BADGE. We can help you. You need to stand down!”
“THE WORLD WILL BURN!” Another light blast hit and part of the ceiling came crashing down.
Chase dodged broken shards of sheet metal and found herself in the direct line-of-fire. Another light blast came from the woman’s mouth, but Craig intercepted it. His body flashed a silver sheen, and the energy bounced off of him.
“Good move.” Chase said and then threw a blade at the woman’s hand holding the crystal. It made contact, and the crystal flew from her grip.
Craig picked up an old crowbar and slowly approached. “Look, lady, you gotta stand down.”
Chase said, “we won’t hurt you.”
The woman went wild and screeched. Her mouth produced another ray of light and this time blew an entire wall off the warehouse and destroyed part of a building nearby. The energy didn’t stop coming. She moved her face and more of the warehouse was destroyed, along with part of the street and two cars.
“She’s gonna blow up the city!” Craig said, he rushed toward the woman to tackle her. A blade hit the woman in the arm, and this stopped her for a split second. In that time, Craig got to her, slugged her in the face and then plowed her to the ground.
Chase walked over and checked the woman’s neck. “She’s alive. Good. I didn’t want to have to kill her. Call the local authorities. I need to talk to Nova. This problem just got much, much worse.”
***
Nova stepped out of a BADGE shuttle that landed in the middle of a large industrial compound. Gates and guard towers protected several buildings. The central building was a cavernous storage area where crates were being filled with collected crystals.
A hero rushed up to meet him. “Sir, we’ve found no info from the World Corps here, but they left all the crystals they had collected.”
“Good work. Get out there and help find more of those crystals.” His wrist comm beeped, and he flicked it on. “Nova here.”
Chase appeared on the screen. “Sir, we have encountered something new, and you will not like this.”
“I’m used to bad news. Go ahead.”
“We encountered a civilian holding a crystal. Somehow, it had given her super powers and driven her insane. She destroyed our Fight Club in Oxford and then nearly took out the whole town. Craig and I were able to take her down, but the damage is pretty bad.”
“Any casualties?”
“Not that we’ve found. Fortunately, she chose a pretty abandoned part of town to lose control.”
Nova said, “this further complicates the situation. However, we had a big break today. One of our heroes uncovered a plot by the World Corps to gather and store the excess crystals. They fought off the guards, and we have taken their facility.”
“What does this all mean? How do the World Corps and the crystals connect?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. I want you and Craig to get the undercover heroes to gather those crystals. We do not need more incidents like the one you just encountered.”
“Understood. Chase out.”
Nova clicked off his comm and met Dr. Henderson as she stepped out of another shuttle from BADGE. A small team of scientist came out with her and immediately went to work unloading equipment.
“Doctor, we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Dr. Henderson looked at a tablet with a checklist of equipment. “We have spent too many years using these crystals without understanding them enough. At least, that’s how I have always felt. So, this is an opportunity.”
“I just wish we had time to spend on this and not a strict schedule. We need to know everything we can about these crystals and why they are acting strange.”
Dr. Henderson laughed, “we need to first discover what they are all about. We barely know how they work, just that we can use them for special tools and enhancements. I have never been entirely comfortable with the way we use them without fully understanding them.”
“Now’s your chance. As for me, I have an...unfortunate job to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I need to ask for help from someone, and I’m reluctant to admit it.”
She frowned, “who?”
He cleared his throat, leaned closer to her, and whispered, “I need EB’s help. He...OOF!” A bright white blur blazed past all the security checkpoints and slammed into his side.
EB, clinging to Nova tighter than his own uniform, said, “OMG, OMG, OMG, you said it! You really, really said it! I love to help. I am sooo awesome at hero stuff. I know, I know I have been working for you for a long time now, well not so long when you consider how old I am, but what’s age got to do with anything? This is going to be amazing, EB and Nova, on the job. We’ll be like Sherlock and Watson, Batman and Robin, Laurel and Hardy. Hey, we should get matching hats, or badges, or hey, what about I make us a special chocolate that will be just our own flavor, the Nova and EB Bar. I don’t normally put my name on my own candy, I...” EB was unceremoniously peeled off Nova and dropped to the ground.
Nova let out a calming sigh, which toned his red face down just a few shades. “I’m going to need you to focus. This isn’t about fighting villains, this is about something strange happening that could be fracturing time. You’re very powerful with magic. I’m going to need your help.”
“I’m your magical rabbit. Show me the problem and I will...” he snapped his fingers and a flash of magical light exploded next to him.
Nova said, “you know, I might just ask Santa.”
EB grabbed his leg. “No, let me, let me, let me, pleeeeeeeeese!”
“Fine.”
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