Brass Ring Chapter 5: The Storm Gathers

Late morning sunlight streamed into the room. Paul stretched, almost hitting Bruno. He smiled, happy that he had taken the day off and, better yet, had convinced Bruno to play hooky as well. He lifted the blanket the two shared, appreciative that Bruno was as trim as he was in his Corsair days; he'd bet a million dollars that Bruno could still defeat a swarm of crazed swordsmen even today. He got up, deliberately keeping himself to "normal" speeds, and walked to the kitchen.

He started the coffee machine, then grabbed a couple of bagels and tossed them in the toaster. He reached into the refrigerator and grabbed two schmears. He hated waiting, but his therapist said it was necessary for him to exist with "regular" people. He was so tempted to run a mile or two while the bagels toasted but tamped down the desire; he had promised Bruno a day without anything special. The toaster dinged, so he grabbed the bagels, put them on a saucer, and grabbed their mugs. He took all this to the coffee machine just as it finished its cycle; he took a long sniff, taking his time enjoying the rich smell of coffee now hanging in the air.

Bruno was in the doorway, smiling. Paul couldn't help but smile himself.

Paul pushed Bruno's cup to him. The two men quickly fixed their coffee and then returned to the bed, bagels, schmears, and coffee in hand. It was hard to not giggle like schoolgirls, considering that they both knew that they should be knee-deep into meetings. They were quickly back under the covers.

They finished the bagels and then just held each other. Then Paul faced Bruno, and Bruno frowned, knowing what was to come.

Paul's voice was a whisper. "I have those yearnings again. I'm feeling the need to race along the streets, wind in my hair, pushing myself for every little extra mile of speed."

Bruno rolled his eyes. "Why couldn't I have settled down with a nice little drug?" He smiled at Paul.

"Instead, I'm married to the fastest man on the planet." Paul returned his smile even as Bruno frowned. "You sure you couldn't just do some volunteer work at a shelter or food pantry?"

Paul smiled a little wider. "A food pantry could be nice."

Bruno smiled a bit more. "Yeah, you'd like that: Speeding from shelf to shelf, filling up bags and boxes in less than a second, having all of that food ready for a long line in less than a minute." He tried to muster a father's stare. "You sick, sick man." He failed miserably and started chuckling.

Paul kissed him on the forehead. "You so get me."

Paul got up to remove their plates and the schmears. On the return he passed the kitchen island and made a fatal error: He looked at his phone. There were 73 messages waiting for him, and only half were employees trying to figure out where he was. He would need to remind them that a day off was a day off. He started scrolling through the other messages, and a pit in his stomach opened up. He looked at Bruno.

He walked slowly into the room. He looked at Bruno. "Telemachus has been killed."

Bruno rose to one elbow. "That's a shame. He was such a great guy. I sort of wished I could have gotten to know him a little better, but he always was a bit aloof."

Paul sat down. "Yeah. His knowledge of where the bodies were buried put him off forming anything close. I feel sorry for the guy."

Bruno was massaging his forehead. "Do you think you have much to fear from his ultimatum?"

Paul thought for a moment. "I don't think so. Neither of us has really done anything wrong and it's not like we really kept our identities secret." Paul smirked. "Heck, I bet there were some that were happy to see us go into retirement."

Bruno returned the smile. "I'll bet."

Bruno got up and crossed to Paul. His phone started buzzing, so he walked past a mildly miffed Paul and grabbed his own phone off the island. He scanned through some of the messages and let loose with a dozen muttered curses. "Looks like I need to call our dalliance off. I get to deal with Telemachus' death in my own way."

Paul smirked. "You called me a 'dalliance'."

Bruno smiled as his head dropped for a moment, then rose when he regained his composure. "The problem with the mayor's office employing supers is that when those supers come under legal attack the assistant mayor gets to deal with the crisis."

Paul grimaced. "Especially given your past, assistant mayor."

Bruno's eyebrows went up for a moment. "Yeah, especially as it means that I need to obtain legal assistance from lawyers who are not themselves enhanced. There are a surprising number of said lawyers on my contacts list."

Paul started getting dressed. "I guess I should check out a few things. I've got my own messages to deal with."

Bruno had already unlocked his phone "Sounds good. Let's meet together for lunch. I'm going to need a break by then."

Paul grabbed a jacket. "Sounds good."

Bruno didn't turn around to say goodbye. He knew Paul was already blocks away by then.

* * * * *

The old pick-up stopped in front of CAPES HQ, sounding like it would never run again. Cass grinned; she knew it was just being dramatic. The truck would start fine when she needed it again. She looked again at the cardboard box between the suitcases in the bed; she should have known that Oliver would have made her something so she wouldn't have to remain in that town without him. Now she just had to meet up with him.

She debated fighting her way through the crowd of people at the door, but she decided against it when she saw that a lot of them had mics and video cameras. She checked her phone; the two had put a locator app just so they could find each other easier on their phones so finding his current location should be easy. She scowled when she noticed that he was several miles away and moving; she decided she had better start moving if she wanted to catch up to him. The truck started with its usual protests, she swore at it, and, after establishing she was the alpha, it started.

She hoped that he wasn't on a mission, but his rate of speed was too slow to be flying, so he was probably on a run for parts. If he was in his van, catching up should be simple; it was made for cargo not speed, after all. As she moved to intercept, the debate returned: She hoped he wouldn't be angry at her for wanting to join him, but she figured that if he hadn't wanted her to come then he wouldn't have made her the suit.

And a nice suit it was: Matte black finish and form-fitting, making it an ideal stealth suit. The suit had a photonic manipulator array, allowing it to become virtually invisible, as well as matter dephaser, giving it intangibility as well; she could be directly in front of someone and they would be unable to see her or feel her. The dephaser also allowed for limited teleportation, provided she had set a previous waypoint. Throw in the gravity destabilizers, and she had access to flight and simulated super-strength backed by limited damage reduction as well. It may not be able to take a tank shell, but it would do rather nicely.

It took her almost half an hour to do so, but she finally caught up to him; better yet, he had just parked. She honked at him and the surprised look made her grin. She waved at him and he looked surprised. Then she parked and ran over to him. They hugged.

He smiled at her. "Took you long enough. I was expecting you last night."

She ruffled his hair. "I had to get in one last night of sleep in the comfortable bed."

He smiled wistfully. "Definitely comfortable."

She punched him. "Boys."

He motioned for her to follow. "I take it the tutorial for the suit was okay?"

"Very clear. I was able to get to everything but something called an 'MGTS'." She looked at him confused.

He smiled without returning the gaze. He shook his head to remove the smile. "So you could run the armor with no problem?"

Her eyes looked up as she went through the tutorial. "Yeah. I even put it on so I could do a basic systems check. I didn't get to the dephaser and its functions, but the destabilizers did okay. Seemed a little wonky, and flight was a bit shaky, but otherwise it seemed okay."

He walked up to the door. "Cool." He looked at her. "I may have a job that would be right up your alley." He looked up at the sign of the store. "But you may want to stay out here for now."

She looked up at the sign. They were outside a small electronics retailer; she noted the sign: "Osa Electronics. If we don't have it now we will soon!" She looked for Oliver but was glaring at his dust, as he had taken advantage of her looking up to run into the store. "Jerk. But yeah; that would be a good idea." She walked inside anyway. "Figures it would involve Nishi somehow."

She didn't know what was in stock at Osa Electronics, but she thought it was too bad that one of the things that they always seemed to have in stock was Nishimura Osa.

[The last chapter can be found here. The next chapter is here.]