"The Chimera Is Back!":
Mar. 21st, 2023 06:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"The Chimera Is Back!"
6/19/-6/22/2012
I.
Haley's landings needed so much work. Summoning tornado winds to lift her into the sky and even to travel at a hundred feet up was relatively easy with the Air Gem. But lessening those winds gradually and coming down to the ground safely was much more difficult. The concentration needed was so demanding that she couldn't get it right.
So the Windcatcher was practicing over Lake Schoonmaker, eight miles from her home in Glenville, Long Island. Sitting on the white sand shore were her two best friends and romantic couple for more than a year, Gina and Bentley.
Descending to twenty feet, Haley swept back the heavy blue cloak over her shoulders. It was a big help in guiding her flight while in the air, but a real nuisance at the moment. She dropped her legs down, spread her arms out wide and her thoughts wandered for an instant as a fish broke the surface nearby. That was all it took. She plummeted straight down with a mighty splash.
"Drat this anyway!" she spluttered and began stroking toward shore. Tall at seventeen with long legs, she was a strong swimmer who loved the water but at the moment she was vexed beyond endurance. The wet heavy cloak weighed her down like a blanket. Her chestnut hair was tied back in a ponytail but her bangs were too long and hanging in her eyes, dripping heavily.
Standing with his feet in the water, Bentley held a cork lifesaver ring he had taken from his uncle's pool. This had been his idea. He watched Haley drawing nearer without being able to hide his concern. If she seemed to be struggling, he was going in to help her whether she wanted it or not.
Gina Giacomo had come over to stand beside him. Italian on both sides, she was widely considered by the boys to be the sexiest junior at their high school. That day, she was wearing the bottom half of a blue bikini with a fuzzy white long-sleeved shirt. She had no intention of getting in the water after all the time she had spent preparing her long mane of curly black hair.
"It was that fish, Hales!" she sang out. "I saw it. He deliberately screwed up your landing."
Plopping down on the sand, panting after the exertion, Haley unsnapped the cloak and let it fall to one side. "I'm exhausted. My head is killing me. This flying is like doing trig in your head while riding a bicycle uphill. Movies and comics make it look so easy!"
A few feet away were two white beach towels covered with bottles of sunblock, a bag full of empty soda cans and crumpled up potato chip bags, three cell phones and an oversized pair of aviator sunglasses. Getting up on her feet, Haley lurched over there and dropped to her knees to claim the last can of Mountain Dew. "Whew. Thanks for being ready with the lifesaver, Bentley. You're the best."
"He IS. I landed a great boyfriend," Gina added. "Listen, Haley, while you were up there swooping and soaring and whatnot, I saw something on the news that might interest you."
Winging out the soaking wet cloak to let dry in the warm June sunlight, Windcatcher asked, "Like what?"
"Here, I saved it." Shading her phone's screen with one hand, said, "Let's see. Umm, there have been sightings in Danverton of a mysterious man in a purple costume. He beat up three men who were trying to rob an elderly gentlemen on North Wall Street Saturday night. Wednesday at two AM, he chased away a creep who was following a woman walking home from Rustler's Dance Club and made sure she made it to her apartment."
"That's what I should be doing!" yelped Haley. "As soon as I get a little better control, I will patrolling high crime areas late at night. Well, at least until school starts up."
"Sounds like Long Island has another super-hero," Gina said. "Listen to his description. A tall athletic man wearing a purple jumpsuit with black riding boots and a hooded mask which covered his face except around his nose and mouth. On the front of his shirt was a white silhouette of some strange animal neither witness recognized."
"Oh my God, the Chimera!" blurted Haley. "I read all about him when I was little. That was ages ago. He disappeared around the time I was born, late 1995. I couldn't get enough about him. Officially, the police made statements calling upon him to stop his unlawful vigilante crusade but, you know, somehow they never showed up until he was gone. I figured they watched from a distance and only moved in to clear up after Chimera was off the scene."
"There's more," Gina said. "Known from notes he left naming himself as the Chimera, the masked man subdued a gunman who had robbed a liquor store and left the perp tied up with his own belt and shoelaces. In the summer of 1994, he smashed up two Asian massge parlors staffed by underage Korean girls brought into the country illegally. He left the girls at the local FBI office in Manhattan and their testimony led to the arrest and conviction of the owner on human trafficking charges."
"You see why he was my hero?! I still have a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about him somewhere," Haley laughed.
"How come he never got shot?" asked Bentley.
"What?"
"Haley, I know you're nuts about super-hero comics but they've given you seriously unrealistic ideas. I don't care if you're the world's greatest master of kung fu and karate, you can't charge at armed men without getting shot. And it says he did this not once but at least five reported times." Bentley shook his head. "It smells fishy."
"Aw, your feet smell fishy," Haley scoffed. "Maybe he was very very lucky or maybe he's a former Navy SEAL or something. What I want to know is how he can still be active. That was a long time ago."
Gina said, "Hey, suppose he was in his mid-twenties back then. He'd be forty-five today. That's not ANCIENT! My dad is forty-six and he runs three miles a day in all weather. I bet my dad is stronger than any of the wrestlers at our school."
"Maybe your dad is the Chimera," offered Haley in her sweetest, most innocent voice.
"No such luck. Mom watches him like a hawk. If he tried sneaking out at night, she'd bust his eardrums with her yelling."
Haley had that familiar far-away look that warned of trouble brewing in her lime-green eyes. "So where has the Chimera been all these years? Why has he gone back into action now? What's his deal anyway?"
II.
Saturday night at one in the morning, Bentley was driving his father's Ford Escort around and around the seedy side streets of Danverton. At eighteen, he was the only one who could drive at night. Gina had her day license and Haley had rescheduled a second driver's test after failing the first one for illegal lane change.
Sitting excitedly up against the window in the back seat, she was wearing her Windcatcher outfit of snug blue shorts, blue sneakers and a long-sleeved white pullover. The heavy cloak was fastened around her neck and bore a blue gem that she hoped enemies would mistake for her talisman. The genuine ancient Air Gem was on a choker under her shirt. Haley had been awed by her own cleverness at coming up with this trick.
"The streets are quiet, almost TOO quiet," she muttered.
"You are way too dramatic, Haley," said Gina from the front passenger seat. "I think you should drop the POW GIRL comics and read some real novels. Courtney McKenna has a new book about a girl who goes to Nashville to be a country singer."
"So far we've seen four or five obvious drug dealers, what with them going into the house on the corner and coming out again ten minutes later. A couple of streetwalkers who frankly look Undead to me. Must be crack. And one poor old man with a shopping cart scrounging for empty bottles and cans to scrape together a few dollars. Pretty sad."
"The only thing that's open is that Sunoco station on Main Street," Bentley said. "When the needle hits one quarter, you have to buy some gas, Haley. That's our deal."
"I got you covered," Windcatcher replied absently. "Not exactly a storm of violent crime tonight, guys. If Chimera is prowling the shadows, he's probably as bored as I am."
Bentley pulled over to the curb at the corner of Main Street and Maple, where he could see the Sunoco station. "Let's take a break for a minute," he said. "This is getting monotonous."
"Oh, all right," Haley grudgingly consented. "If one of those hookers knocks on yor window, don't talk to them. I'm sure they're crawling with diseases."
"More tattoos than teeth," added Gina.
"You know, I've only seen one cop car in the past hour. It just rolled down Main Street, didn't check out the side streets at all." Bentley shrugged. "I like Glenville better. At least people in our town use their garbage cans and paint their houses once in a while."
As Haley started to suggest they try a different part of town, a commotion across the street made them all sit up. A thickset East Indian man was in the doorway, yelling curses at a young guy who was running hellbent across the parking lot with a case of beer cradled in his arms. The clerk did not seem inclined to give chase.
"You guys wait here," Haley snapped as she got out of her door. "The Windcatcher strikes again!"
"Be careful," said Gina.
Sprinting to the corner, Haley's mind reached out to find a tornado forming in central Kansas but she hesitated. It seemed too much trouble to take off only to have to land a few seconds later. Also, taking a tumble landing on concrete was not appealing. There were no cars coming in either direction, so she simply ran across Main Street and swerved left to pursue the running man.
She was one block behind the beer snatcher and closing fast, when a lithe form darted out from between two buildings and slammed into the perp. A gloved fist cracked like a hammer against the young man's cheek and flattened him. Straightening up, the purple-costumed Chimera wheeled around as Haley skidded to a halt only a few feet away.
"Uh, hi there!" she squeaked. "Maybe you've heard of me, the Windcatcher? I work out of Glenville. It's great to meet you, you were my hero when I was..."
"Beat it, you brat!" barked a harsh voice that made her jump. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"
Taken completely offguard, Haley stammered, "But you know... I mean, we're both in the same line of work...?"
"You mean, you want to steal credit after I do all the work. Didn't I tell you to scram?"
"Hey, wait a minute! No matter who you are, it's not right to speak to someone that way." Despite her hurt feelings, Haley's natural assertiveness flared up. "You might be a legend, I guess, but I'VE got a genuine super-power."
The Chimera's right hand whipped up and extended to point at her. For one split-second, Windcatcher had a dreadful expectation of facing a gun but instead a horribly caustic spray hit her square in the face. Violent coughing and retching doubled her up. She couldn't see or breathe. Haley bent forward, hands on her thighs as she struggled.
"Fine, claim this petty thief if you want to," Chimera snorted. "But don't let me see you in the way again."
Seriously worried she was going to die, Haley reached out and latched onto the air from a typhoon in the South China Sea. Stinging icy rain deluged her, scrubbing at her face and hair. It took a few minutes but eventually she could catch her breath again. Her eyes cleared. She was still heaving but no vomit came up. After what seemed like forever, Haley felt able to function again and she eased up on the torrent.
Was that bear spray that Chimera had blasted her with? What a jerk! How uncalled for. If she did meet him again, he'd find out what being caught in a South Pole blizzard felt like or maybe what it was like to lean over an active volcano. He deserved it.
Drenched and shivering, Windcatcher paused to check on the store robber. The man was stirring and grumbling, trying to get up. He didn't seem to be seriously injured. The cardboard box holding the beer had split open and the cans were scattered. She started coughing again and wished she included some tissues among the items carried in her belt. Dripping cold water with every step, Haley crossed Main Street and trudged back to the car in complete misery. She didn't want to even try to explain to Gina and Bentley what had happened. The Chimera had returned, but he sure wasn't the idol she had revered.
III.
Haley slept until well past noon and woke up feeling much better. She still had a tickle in her throat and an occasional cough. A long steaming hot shower helped. Not intending to go anywhere that day, she put on the bottom half of her thick plaid flannel pajamas and a maroon sweatshirt much too large for her. With her hair blow-dried and tied back, Haley felt entirely comfortable. It was their agreement that whatever ungodly hour she came home, she turned off the lamp in the living room to let her mother know. From her own bed, Lisa Lawson could see by the crack under her door whether the light was on or not.
Haley's bedroom was on the second floor of their house, she sauntered down the narrow staircase to the living room. It wasn't until she was on the bottom step that she realized they had a visitor seated on the old red couch. Haley was immediately smitten hard over the best-looking man she had ever seen.
He had to be at least forty, but so handsome. Crisp bright blond hair, a square-jawed straight-nosed face with clear blue eyes and perfect teeth showing in a friendly grin. She guessed he would be maybe six foot two, not much over two hundred pounds. He had a fantastic athletic build in his slacks and green polo shirt, not an overdone body-builder mess of muscle but very natural and lithe. Haley felt out of breath all over again.
"Hi..." she squeaked in a tiny voice.
"Hey there!" replied the visitor in a pleasant, relaxed baritone.
Suddenly worried she looked about twelve in her baggy clothes, with her hair pulled back and no make-up, Haley could not think of anything to say. She was rescued by her mother.
"Honey, this is Ace Woodbridge. I can't remember his first name, he's been called Ace by everyone since Yale. He was in the Midnight War. In fact, he went along with our Heirs of Buliwyf before you were born."
Haley finally stepped down off the bottom step and went over to drop down into one of the easy chairs facing the couch. She was inexplicably annoyed by how good her mom looked. Lisa Lawson had stayed trim and healthy, and although they shared the family's green eyes, the mother had shiny black hair in contrast to Haley's auburn. "Nice to meet you," she managed, trying to stop staring.
"I'm staying in Manhattan this week," Ace said. "And I had to come out to Long Island to visit. I knew the Lawson family before they found those talismans. Almost like relatives, we spent so much time socializing. And I understand you've taken over Lisa's Air Gem."
"Yes. Yes, I mean I'm just starting to learn how to use it. It's amazing," she trailed off lamely.
Ace seemed so warm and reassuring, she thought. He was smiling right at her. What would it be like to kiss someone so old? Why was she even thinking about that?
"The Midnight War runs on gossip," he was saying. "So I've heard a lot about you as Windcatcher. Don't worry that you're not famous to the general public. There are forces that keep Midnight War as secret as possible, but believe me, you're quite a sensation to those in the know."
"Really? I'm so glad to hear that. I mean, you'd think a flying girl would be all over the news but everyone in town just waves and then ignores me. So there's some reason why people are so blase?"
Her mother broke in, "There's a lot about Midnight War that no one understands. So,
anyway. Ace, you were starting to talk about the Chimera?"
"Yes, I'm surprised to see him show up again. We never ran into him back in the old days. There were a lot of wild characters running around back then. Whatever happened to that guy Judgement? Or Chat Noir in her cat costume? She was crazy in a good way. It seems so long ago."
"There has been a turnover," Lisa said. "A whole new generation has turned up. I don't know why this Chimera has come out of retirement now."
Listening patiently, Haley decided not to mention her encounter with the Chimera the night before. She had ranted and complained to Gina and Bentley but those two had an understanding not to volunteer anything to her mother. For some reason, she was feeling like there was more to the situation than she had thought. Her mystery alarms were going off in her head.
Ace's watch buzzed on his left wrist and he tapped its stud. "That's my reminder. I'm sorry, both of you, but I have to head back to Manhattan now. I promise I will be back before I go back to California."
"You ought to join us for dinner!" Haley surprised herself. "I'll make my famous meat loaf."
"Sounds great. I'll be in touch but I do have to be at my agent's office at two-thirty." He got up, went over and kissed Lisa on the cheek, then waved at Haley before seeing himself out. "I only wish Charles and Jimmy could have been here, too."
Both Lisa and Haley had risen and repeated their goodbyes until
they heard his car start up outside. Then they gave each other quizzical looks.
"Since when have you been able to make meat loaf, missy?"
Haley tried her most innocent smile, "Umm, I could maybe take credit while you make it, I mean what's the harm?"
"Lord give me strength," the mother addressed to the ceiling. "Haley, you will be a minor for the next eight months. Forget what your hormones are ordering you to do, you don't want to put Ace in prison, do you?"
"Well... no. Course not. I just want to make your friend feel welcome."
Lisa softened her tone. "Since he was in high school, Ace has had beautiful women leap across the room to tackle him. But I give him credit, he has always known right from wrong. I guarantee he will treat you like a five year old and maybe buy you an ice cream cone." Shaking her head, she headed out of the room, she concluded with, "I should let you incinerate some hamburger and see how it works out."
IV.
Haley did not have many chores but laundry was one of them. She spent much of that afternoon with the washer and dryer in their house's back room. Still mopey and feelng down after her encounter with Chimera the night before, she took all the clothes out of the dryer and folded them in tidy stacks on the table. Her mother popped in to say how much she appreciated seeing the laundry taken care of, which cheered Haley up. It also broke any tension between them.
Grabbing a sleeve of Oreos and a can of Mountain Dew, she trudged back up to her room. It was unusual for her to stay home all day. Normally, she would be hanging out with Gina and Bentley or going for a run or spending an hour at the library going through local newspapers. Sitting cross-legged on her bed with the window open wide, she flipped open her laptop and gave in to her curiosity about Ace Woodbridge.
Within a few minutes, she was floored by how much information was available. Richard Alexander Woodbridge had been an athletic prodigy at Yale in the early 1990s, breaking records in track, swimming and gymnasics. He had earned a black belt in Shotokan Karate and won trophies in fencing. As if all that wasn't enough, Ace was an accomplished skier and mountaineer. Several magazines had done articles about him.
His academic record didn't seem to be as remarkable. Ace had graduated in the upper half of his class but hadn't distinguished himself. He had a bachelor's degree in business administration. His career seemed to consist of loosely supervising some of his family's extensive companies involved in real estate and resource management.
That soured her opinion of him a bit. The Woodbridge family had become extremely wealthy by draining wetlands and cutting down forests to make room for new towns. This didn't appeal to her conservationist instincts. Oh well, she thought, he just needs someone to enlighten him. Someone like her, maybe.
Dinner was ready at six. Her mother had made macaroni and cheese with a lot of broiled hamburger bits mixed in and sliced onions for extra taste. They both ate in the living room while watching cable news, both going back for a second plate. Ace's visit seemed to have put Lisa Lawson in a nostalgic mood. She talked about some of the adventures the Heirs of Buliwyf had gone on after finding the Elemental Gems. The four of them had not been warriors but rather explorers of the adjacent realm. They had done mostly rescue work and left the fighting to Tel Shai knights like Jeremy Bane.
At eight, Haley said she was going to read for a while and went up to her room. She found herself waking up at midnight, fully dressed on top of the covers. At least, she finally felt refreshed and back to normal. Her phone had a text from Gina asking to meet at Dallas Hot Weiners the next day. The house was silent.
She HAD to go out tonight. She could feel it was crucial. Her mother wasn't happy about the Windcatcher's nocturnal activities but she remembered all the dangers of being in the Heirs of Buliwyf when she had been even younger than Haley was now. It had been a hard decision to grant her younger daughter such freedom but Lisa stuck to their agreement.
Getting into her Windcatcher outfit with the royal blue shorts and long-sleeved white shirt, then the white sneakers with matching blue trim, Haley was almost unbearably eager to get going. She smirked to herself as she buckled on the thin belt with its eight small canvas pouches along its length. So far, she had only figured out a few possibly useful items to bring along.. a Swiss Army knife, cigarette lighter, powerful pencil Maglite, some Neosporin and band-aids. Haley had vaguely planned on carrying many crime-fighting tools but so far had gone blank. What good would a fingerprint kit do, if she didn't know how to take prints? Where could you buy smoke bombs small enough and strong enough to be practical?
Oh well. She had the priceless Air Gem on her choker. With its powers, she felt capable of handling any situation. Haley fastened the heavy blue cloak around her neck, shaking it out. It had been reinforced with flexible plastic rods along its length to make it more useful in gliding her flight. She loved the thing, loved striking dramatic poses and flinging the cape back over her shoulders. Maybe Gina was right and she was just too dramatic by nature for her own good. Checking to make sure her phone was charged, she tucked it into a pocket of her shorts, next to some emergency money.
The living room was dark. No light showed under the door of her mother's bedroom.
Haley clicked on a lamp next to the couch, part of the agreement if she was going to be out at night. To her relief, no questioning voice came from the bedroom and she could leave without explaining. Out into a warm June night, she stood in the center of the patio and reached out with her mind. Somewhere... yes! A tornado in central Texas. Roaring winds surged beneath her and threw her straight up at two hundred miles per hour.
Much quicker than she would have been able to reach by car, Haley lessened the winds and dropped onto the flat roof of a building right where she and her friends had been parked the night before. An occasional car rolled by, but it was so unlikely that anyone would have spotted her landing that she didn't worry about it. Some of her excitement abated after half an hour of absolutely nothing happening. Drat, this could be a wasted night of sitting around on a roof with nothing to show for it. What else was open at one in the morning? Maybe a bar of club where someone might be the victim of a mugging while leaving? Haley wanted to sit on the edge of the roof for a better view but it would be awkward if some driver saw her and called 911 out of concern.
More than an hour had dragged by. I don't have the temperament for stake-outs, she was thinking as three sharp cracks sounded from far down the street. Gunshots? It sure sounded like it. She hopped up onto her feet, peering off toward the other side of town. Rounding the corner opposite her post came a black and white police cruiser with its lightbar flashing. A second cop car followed a few seconds later.
In another second, Haley would have taken off to follow them but something caught her eye. A plain white panel van was parked on the corner to her right, next to a small bodega which was of course closed at this hour. As she watched, a man in a skin-tight purple costume came out of the rear door, lugging a long canvas sack which he heaved up into the back of the van.
The Chimera! And robbing a little grocery store in the middle of the night? What was up with that? Had her idol really gone bad? With mixed confusion and fascination, she watched him leap up behind the wheel and back the van out into the street, then roll through a red light to turn left on Main Street and roar off.
The van was almost out of sight beore she realized she was letting him get away. Haley summoned the strongest winds she could find and launched herself full speed after him at rooftop level.
V.
As she followed the white van from fifty feet up, Windcatcher fretted over what to do. Flying took every bit of concentration she had. If she had been standing on the ground, maybe she could have bowled the van over with a tornado blast or obscured the windshield with sleet from an ice storm but she didn't have that sort of control. There was so much to learn.
The van heading out of the densest part of town, past a residential neighborhood and then a stretch where three car dealerships took up some acreage. Pulling onto a access road between the car lots, the van slowed to a stop where rows of SUVs would hide it from sight of traffic. Chimera had planned this out pretty well, she thought.
Shutting off the engine, the man in purple hurried around to open the rear doors. Haley dropped lightly down twenty feet behind him, a perfectly poised landing where she didn't even stumble. Only the whoosh of air as the winds dissipated gave her artival away. The Chimera wheeled around and yelped, "What the hell...?"
"I'm a little mad at you for that bear spray," she said.
"How did you get way out here? Where's your car? Did you hang on to the van or something?"
Grinning, Haley jabbed a thumb at her own chest. "You're dealing with the Windcatcher now! What's the deal with robbing that bodega, anyway?"
The Chimera regarded her for a few seconds. The snug hood and goggles only left his nose and mouth exposed, and she realized instantly that this guy was not Ace Woodbridge. No way. That had been a vague theory brewing in the back of her mind, the Chimera and Ace didn't look at all alike.
"I don't want or need a sidekick, honey. This is a game where people find bullet holes in their bodies. Go home. Go on a date and see a movie or something."
From behind Haley, arctic winds howled at seventy miles per hour and twenty below zero, whipping her cloak violently around her. Caught in that chilling blast, the Chimera gasped and almost fell, catching himself with one hand on the open van door.
"Jeez! I guess the stories are true. You ARE Midnight War," he managed to say while catching his breath. "Don't give me pneumonia, kid. Here, I'll show you what I confiscated as evidence. That store was the hub of local crack imports."
Reaching into the van, he tugged open the canvas sack with a gloved hand. "Take a look for yourself."
Hands on her hips, cloak thrown back, Haley moved closer as Chimera took a few steps to one side. She bent forward and pulled the mouth of the sack open. "Hey, it's all cash. Lottery tickets. Cigarette cartons..." As her attention was fixed on the loot, Chimera crouched to seize her ankles and flip her up into the van's interior. Instantly, he slammed the rear door shut and slid the bolt closed.
"Keep quiet in there!" he yelled. "We're going for a ride down by the river where I can decide what to do with you. Don't make a racket. Maybe we can work something out."
Inside the van interior, Haley got herself straightened out after that impromptu somersault. She wasn't particularly angry at being tricked, just irritated. The van was solid metal with no windows. There was nothing in that compartment except the sack with its loot. It had been nothing but a low grade robbery, after all, she thought. She wasn't even dealing with a high class heist of diamonds or rare stamps or something cool.
The mechanism to unlock the doors from inside wasn't working. Chimera must have fixed it somehow. Haley looked around and dismissed the idea of waiting for them to get wherever they were going. She was going to escape. This might be tricky. She got down on her knees and pressed a hand to the ancient jewel worn at her throat. Windcatcher summoned ordinary air from the vicinity into the van interior, forcing it into a solid mass in front of her. More. She was starting to feel uncomfortable. Hope this doesn't pop my eardrums, she worried. Drawing on the power of the Gem, she pulled more air, compressing it as densely as she could. It was getting hard to breathe.
With a sudden sharp crack of metal snapping, the bolt snapped and both rear doors flew open. Half the contents of the canvas sack whirled out the opening. Haley yelled, "Hey, mastermind! You're losing your goodies!"
The slamming of brakes was so abrupt that Haley lost her balance and landed sitting up. "Hah!" she said to herself, "Got his attention." She vaulted out through the open doors and laughed at seeing Chimera frantically trying to snatch up the loose twenties which were scattered on the road.
"See what you get when you mess with me?" she began but froze where she was as he whipped up a Glock 19 from a flap holster on his belt.
"Last chance!" he yelled. "Help me recover all this and I won't blow your head open." As soon as he got the last word out, a gloved fist from seeming nowhere detonated against the side of his jaw with a smack sound like a hammer hitting a slab of beef. Chimera's legs buckled and he dropped to his knees. The gun was yanked none too gently from his grip.
The newcomer stepped into view from around the corner of the van. He was clad in an identical skin-tight purple jumpsuit, polished black boots and leather belt and all. On his chest was the same white silhouette of the bizarre mythological creature. But this costumed man was much taller and brawnier than the robber was, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. He looked like a dynamite next to the other's gunpowder.
"Oh, I KNEW it!" squealed Haley, making a high-pitched sound of a delight a dolphim might envy. "The real Chimera! You came back to protect your reputation."
The costumed man affected a raspy, strained voice that was obviously not natural. "You should fly off, young lady. The police will be here in a few minutes."
"No, no, tell me everything. He was trying to smear your good name, right? Why did he have a grudge against you? Where have you been all these years? What's your story?"
Chimera gave a half-smile of chagrin, as if embarassed. "This man did some armed robberies. I nailed him and there was enough independent evidence to put him away for twenty years. He wanted to get back at me, that's all. Listen! Hear that?"
Police sirens were coming up the road, the cars themselves might not be within sight yet. Haley moaned with exasperation, "I hope we meet again!" and shot straight up within a blast of hurricane winds that sent all the loot whirling aside. Satisfying himself that the robber was still dazed and wouldn't be inclined to run off in the next few minutes, the Chimera raced over to where his fire engine red Ford Mustang was idling and peeled out.
High overhead, Haley tried to hover so she could watch the scene. It was tricky, keeping herself balanced fifty feet up, since any lapse in concentration could send her tumbling end over end. Here came those same two cop cars, red and blue lights going crazy and sirens on. Her brain was boiling with a hundred questions. How had the fake Chimera decoyed the police away with those gunshots? He must have had a partner on the other side of town who took off after shooting. Yeah, that made sense.
Staying in one spot was too difficult, she kept beginning to lose her balance. With immense regret, Windcatcher propelled herself further down the road. There. That all-night Cumberland Farms. Haley dropped down in its parking lot and went around out of sight to sit down. She leaned back against the brick building to rest for a few minutes. Hopefully she would get more endurance but right now using her powers felt like running a marathon with someone on her back. She thought she might go in the store in a minute and get some high-protein energy bars or something.
Still, disappointing as how it ended, that had been quite a night! She replayed everything in her head several times, piecing together all the confusing moments. When the van had screeched to a halt, the real Chimera had pulled up beside it in his car, but on the passenger side where the robber hadn't seen him yet. The fake was too focused on retrieving his loot to look around. So that meant, the real Chimera had been following the van in his sporty red car....
Haley's eyes bugged out. Ace Woodbridge had been driving the same kind of little red sport car.
3/25/2023
6/19/-6/22/2012
I.
Haley's landings needed so much work. Summoning tornado winds to lift her into the sky and even to travel at a hundred feet up was relatively easy with the Air Gem. But lessening those winds gradually and coming down to the ground safely was much more difficult. The concentration needed was so demanding that she couldn't get it right.
So the Windcatcher was practicing over Lake Schoonmaker, eight miles from her home in Glenville, Long Island. Sitting on the white sand shore were her two best friends and romantic couple for more than a year, Gina and Bentley.
Descending to twenty feet, Haley swept back the heavy blue cloak over her shoulders. It was a big help in guiding her flight while in the air, but a real nuisance at the moment. She dropped her legs down, spread her arms out wide and her thoughts wandered for an instant as a fish broke the surface nearby. That was all it took. She plummeted straight down with a mighty splash.
"Drat this anyway!" she spluttered and began stroking toward shore. Tall at seventeen with long legs, she was a strong swimmer who loved the water but at the moment she was vexed beyond endurance. The wet heavy cloak weighed her down like a blanket. Her chestnut hair was tied back in a ponytail but her bangs were too long and hanging in her eyes, dripping heavily.
Standing with his feet in the water, Bentley held a cork lifesaver ring he had taken from his uncle's pool. This had been his idea. He watched Haley drawing nearer without being able to hide his concern. If she seemed to be struggling, he was going in to help her whether she wanted it or not.
Gina Giacomo had come over to stand beside him. Italian on both sides, she was widely considered by the boys to be the sexiest junior at their high school. That day, she was wearing the bottom half of a blue bikini with a fuzzy white long-sleeved shirt. She had no intention of getting in the water after all the time she had spent preparing her long mane of curly black hair.
"It was that fish, Hales!" she sang out. "I saw it. He deliberately screwed up your landing."
Plopping down on the sand, panting after the exertion, Haley unsnapped the cloak and let it fall to one side. "I'm exhausted. My head is killing me. This flying is like doing trig in your head while riding a bicycle uphill. Movies and comics make it look so easy!"
A few feet away were two white beach towels covered with bottles of sunblock, a bag full of empty soda cans and crumpled up potato chip bags, three cell phones and an oversized pair of aviator sunglasses. Getting up on her feet, Haley lurched over there and dropped to her knees to claim the last can of Mountain Dew. "Whew. Thanks for being ready with the lifesaver, Bentley. You're the best."
"He IS. I landed a great boyfriend," Gina added. "Listen, Haley, while you were up there swooping and soaring and whatnot, I saw something on the news that might interest you."
Winging out the soaking wet cloak to let dry in the warm June sunlight, Windcatcher asked, "Like what?"
"Here, I saved it." Shading her phone's screen with one hand, said, "Let's see. Umm, there have been sightings in Danverton of a mysterious man in a purple costume. He beat up three men who were trying to rob an elderly gentlemen on North Wall Street Saturday night. Wednesday at two AM, he chased away a creep who was following a woman walking home from Rustler's Dance Club and made sure she made it to her apartment."
"That's what I should be doing!" yelped Haley. "As soon as I get a little better control, I will patrolling high crime areas late at night. Well, at least until school starts up."
"Sounds like Long Island has another super-hero," Gina said. "Listen to his description. A tall athletic man wearing a purple jumpsuit with black riding boots and a hooded mask which covered his face except around his nose and mouth. On the front of his shirt was a white silhouette of some strange animal neither witness recognized."
"Oh my God, the Chimera!" blurted Haley. "I read all about him when I was little. That was ages ago. He disappeared around the time I was born, late 1995. I couldn't get enough about him. Officially, the police made statements calling upon him to stop his unlawful vigilante crusade but, you know, somehow they never showed up until he was gone. I figured they watched from a distance and only moved in to clear up after Chimera was off the scene."
"There's more," Gina said. "Known from notes he left naming himself as the Chimera, the masked man subdued a gunman who had robbed a liquor store and left the perp tied up with his own belt and shoelaces. In the summer of 1994, he smashed up two Asian massge parlors staffed by underage Korean girls brought into the country illegally. He left the girls at the local FBI office in Manhattan and their testimony led to the arrest and conviction of the owner on human trafficking charges."
"You see why he was my hero?! I still have a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about him somewhere," Haley laughed.
"How come he never got shot?" asked Bentley.
"What?"
"Haley, I know you're nuts about super-hero comics but they've given you seriously unrealistic ideas. I don't care if you're the world's greatest master of kung fu and karate, you can't charge at armed men without getting shot. And it says he did this not once but at least five reported times." Bentley shook his head. "It smells fishy."
"Aw, your feet smell fishy," Haley scoffed. "Maybe he was very very lucky or maybe he's a former Navy SEAL or something. What I want to know is how he can still be active. That was a long time ago."
Gina said, "Hey, suppose he was in his mid-twenties back then. He'd be forty-five today. That's not ANCIENT! My dad is forty-six and he runs three miles a day in all weather. I bet my dad is stronger than any of the wrestlers at our school."
"Maybe your dad is the Chimera," offered Haley in her sweetest, most innocent voice.
"No such luck. Mom watches him like a hawk. If he tried sneaking out at night, she'd bust his eardrums with her yelling."
Haley had that familiar far-away look that warned of trouble brewing in her lime-green eyes. "So where has the Chimera been all these years? Why has he gone back into action now? What's his deal anyway?"
II.
Saturday night at one in the morning, Bentley was driving his father's Ford Escort around and around the seedy side streets of Danverton. At eighteen, he was the only one who could drive at night. Gina had her day license and Haley had rescheduled a second driver's test after failing the first one for illegal lane change.
Sitting excitedly up against the window in the back seat, she was wearing her Windcatcher outfit of snug blue shorts, blue sneakers and a long-sleeved white pullover. The heavy cloak was fastened around her neck and bore a blue gem that she hoped enemies would mistake for her talisman. The genuine ancient Air Gem was on a choker under her shirt. Haley had been awed by her own cleverness at coming up with this trick.
"The streets are quiet, almost TOO quiet," she muttered.
"You are way too dramatic, Haley," said Gina from the front passenger seat. "I think you should drop the POW GIRL comics and read some real novels. Courtney McKenna has a new book about a girl who goes to Nashville to be a country singer."
"So far we've seen four or five obvious drug dealers, what with them going into the house on the corner and coming out again ten minutes later. A couple of streetwalkers who frankly look Undead to me. Must be crack. And one poor old man with a shopping cart scrounging for empty bottles and cans to scrape together a few dollars. Pretty sad."
"The only thing that's open is that Sunoco station on Main Street," Bentley said. "When the needle hits one quarter, you have to buy some gas, Haley. That's our deal."
"I got you covered," Windcatcher replied absently. "Not exactly a storm of violent crime tonight, guys. If Chimera is prowling the shadows, he's probably as bored as I am."
Bentley pulled over to the curb at the corner of Main Street and Maple, where he could see the Sunoco station. "Let's take a break for a minute," he said. "This is getting monotonous."
"Oh, all right," Haley grudgingly consented. "If one of those hookers knocks on yor window, don't talk to them. I'm sure they're crawling with diseases."
"More tattoos than teeth," added Gina.
"You know, I've only seen one cop car in the past hour. It just rolled down Main Street, didn't check out the side streets at all." Bentley shrugged. "I like Glenville better. At least people in our town use their garbage cans and paint their houses once in a while."
As Haley started to suggest they try a different part of town, a commotion across the street made them all sit up. A thickset East Indian man was in the doorway, yelling curses at a young guy who was running hellbent across the parking lot with a case of beer cradled in his arms. The clerk did not seem inclined to give chase.
"You guys wait here," Haley snapped as she got out of her door. "The Windcatcher strikes again!"
"Be careful," said Gina.
Sprinting to the corner, Haley's mind reached out to find a tornado forming in central Kansas but she hesitated. It seemed too much trouble to take off only to have to land a few seconds later. Also, taking a tumble landing on concrete was not appealing. There were no cars coming in either direction, so she simply ran across Main Street and swerved left to pursue the running man.
She was one block behind the beer snatcher and closing fast, when a lithe form darted out from between two buildings and slammed into the perp. A gloved fist cracked like a hammer against the young man's cheek and flattened him. Straightening up, the purple-costumed Chimera wheeled around as Haley skidded to a halt only a few feet away.
"Uh, hi there!" she squeaked. "Maybe you've heard of me, the Windcatcher? I work out of Glenville. It's great to meet you, you were my hero when I was..."
"Beat it, you brat!" barked a harsh voice that made her jump. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"
Taken completely offguard, Haley stammered, "But you know... I mean, we're both in the same line of work...?"
"You mean, you want to steal credit after I do all the work. Didn't I tell you to scram?"
"Hey, wait a minute! No matter who you are, it's not right to speak to someone that way." Despite her hurt feelings, Haley's natural assertiveness flared up. "You might be a legend, I guess, but I'VE got a genuine super-power."
The Chimera's right hand whipped up and extended to point at her. For one split-second, Windcatcher had a dreadful expectation of facing a gun but instead a horribly caustic spray hit her square in the face. Violent coughing and retching doubled her up. She couldn't see or breathe. Haley bent forward, hands on her thighs as she struggled.
"Fine, claim this petty thief if you want to," Chimera snorted. "But don't let me see you in the way again."
Seriously worried she was going to die, Haley reached out and latched onto the air from a typhoon in the South China Sea. Stinging icy rain deluged her, scrubbing at her face and hair. It took a few minutes but eventually she could catch her breath again. Her eyes cleared. She was still heaving but no vomit came up. After what seemed like forever, Haley felt able to function again and she eased up on the torrent.
Was that bear spray that Chimera had blasted her with? What a jerk! How uncalled for. If she did meet him again, he'd find out what being caught in a South Pole blizzard felt like or maybe what it was like to lean over an active volcano. He deserved it.
Drenched and shivering, Windcatcher paused to check on the store robber. The man was stirring and grumbling, trying to get up. He didn't seem to be seriously injured. The cardboard box holding the beer had split open and the cans were scattered. She started coughing again and wished she included some tissues among the items carried in her belt. Dripping cold water with every step, Haley crossed Main Street and trudged back to the car in complete misery. She didn't want to even try to explain to Gina and Bentley what had happened. The Chimera had returned, but he sure wasn't the idol she had revered.
III.
Haley slept until well past noon and woke up feeling much better. She still had a tickle in her throat and an occasional cough. A long steaming hot shower helped. Not intending to go anywhere that day, she put on the bottom half of her thick plaid flannel pajamas and a maroon sweatshirt much too large for her. With her hair blow-dried and tied back, Haley felt entirely comfortable. It was their agreement that whatever ungodly hour she came home, she turned off the lamp in the living room to let her mother know. From her own bed, Lisa Lawson could see by the crack under her door whether the light was on or not.
Haley's bedroom was on the second floor of their house, she sauntered down the narrow staircase to the living room. It wasn't until she was on the bottom step that she realized they had a visitor seated on the old red couch. Haley was immediately smitten hard over the best-looking man she had ever seen.
He had to be at least forty, but so handsome. Crisp bright blond hair, a square-jawed straight-nosed face with clear blue eyes and perfect teeth showing in a friendly grin. She guessed he would be maybe six foot two, not much over two hundred pounds. He had a fantastic athletic build in his slacks and green polo shirt, not an overdone body-builder mess of muscle but very natural and lithe. Haley felt out of breath all over again.
"Hi..." she squeaked in a tiny voice.
"Hey there!" replied the visitor in a pleasant, relaxed baritone.
Suddenly worried she looked about twelve in her baggy clothes, with her hair pulled back and no make-up, Haley could not think of anything to say. She was rescued by her mother.
"Honey, this is Ace Woodbridge. I can't remember his first name, he's been called Ace by everyone since Yale. He was in the Midnight War. In fact, he went along with our Heirs of Buliwyf before you were born."
Haley finally stepped down off the bottom step and went over to drop down into one of the easy chairs facing the couch. She was inexplicably annoyed by how good her mom looked. Lisa Lawson had stayed trim and healthy, and although they shared the family's green eyes, the mother had shiny black hair in contrast to Haley's auburn. "Nice to meet you," she managed, trying to stop staring.
"I'm staying in Manhattan this week," Ace said. "And I had to come out to Long Island to visit. I knew the Lawson family before they found those talismans. Almost like relatives, we spent so much time socializing. And I understand you've taken over Lisa's Air Gem."
"Yes. Yes, I mean I'm just starting to learn how to use it. It's amazing," she trailed off lamely.
Ace seemed so warm and reassuring, she thought. He was smiling right at her. What would it be like to kiss someone so old? Why was she even thinking about that?
"The Midnight War runs on gossip," he was saying. "So I've heard a lot about you as Windcatcher. Don't worry that you're not famous to the general public. There are forces that keep Midnight War as secret as possible, but believe me, you're quite a sensation to those in the know."
"Really? I'm so glad to hear that. I mean, you'd think a flying girl would be all over the news but everyone in town just waves and then ignores me. So there's some reason why people are so blase?"
Her mother broke in, "There's a lot about Midnight War that no one understands. So,
anyway. Ace, you were starting to talk about the Chimera?"
"Yes, I'm surprised to see him show up again. We never ran into him back in the old days. There were a lot of wild characters running around back then. Whatever happened to that guy Judgement? Or Chat Noir in her cat costume? She was crazy in a good way. It seems so long ago."
"There has been a turnover," Lisa said. "A whole new generation has turned up. I don't know why this Chimera has come out of retirement now."
Listening patiently, Haley decided not to mention her encounter with the Chimera the night before. She had ranted and complained to Gina and Bentley but those two had an understanding not to volunteer anything to her mother. For some reason, she was feeling like there was more to the situation than she had thought. Her mystery alarms were going off in her head.
Ace's watch buzzed on his left wrist and he tapped its stud. "That's my reminder. I'm sorry, both of you, but I have to head back to Manhattan now. I promise I will be back before I go back to California."
"You ought to join us for dinner!" Haley surprised herself. "I'll make my famous meat loaf."
"Sounds great. I'll be in touch but I do have to be at my agent's office at two-thirty." He got up, went over and kissed Lisa on the cheek, then waved at Haley before seeing himself out. "I only wish Charles and Jimmy could have been here, too."
Both Lisa and Haley had risen and repeated their goodbyes until
they heard his car start up outside. Then they gave each other quizzical looks.
"Since when have you been able to make meat loaf, missy?"
Haley tried her most innocent smile, "Umm, I could maybe take credit while you make it, I mean what's the harm?"
"Lord give me strength," the mother addressed to the ceiling. "Haley, you will be a minor for the next eight months. Forget what your hormones are ordering you to do, you don't want to put Ace in prison, do you?"
"Well... no. Course not. I just want to make your friend feel welcome."
Lisa softened her tone. "Since he was in high school, Ace has had beautiful women leap across the room to tackle him. But I give him credit, he has always known right from wrong. I guarantee he will treat you like a five year old and maybe buy you an ice cream cone." Shaking her head, she headed out of the room, she concluded with, "I should let you incinerate some hamburger and see how it works out."
IV.
Haley did not have many chores but laundry was one of them. She spent much of that afternoon with the washer and dryer in their house's back room. Still mopey and feelng down after her encounter with Chimera the night before, she took all the clothes out of the dryer and folded them in tidy stacks on the table. Her mother popped in to say how much she appreciated seeing the laundry taken care of, which cheered Haley up. It also broke any tension between them.
Grabbing a sleeve of Oreos and a can of Mountain Dew, she trudged back up to her room. It was unusual for her to stay home all day. Normally, she would be hanging out with Gina and Bentley or going for a run or spending an hour at the library going through local newspapers. Sitting cross-legged on her bed with the window open wide, she flipped open her laptop and gave in to her curiosity about Ace Woodbridge.
Within a few minutes, she was floored by how much information was available. Richard Alexander Woodbridge had been an athletic prodigy at Yale in the early 1990s, breaking records in track, swimming and gymnasics. He had earned a black belt in Shotokan Karate and won trophies in fencing. As if all that wasn't enough, Ace was an accomplished skier and mountaineer. Several magazines had done articles about him.
His academic record didn't seem to be as remarkable. Ace had graduated in the upper half of his class but hadn't distinguished himself. He had a bachelor's degree in business administration. His career seemed to consist of loosely supervising some of his family's extensive companies involved in real estate and resource management.
That soured her opinion of him a bit. The Woodbridge family had become extremely wealthy by draining wetlands and cutting down forests to make room for new towns. This didn't appeal to her conservationist instincts. Oh well, she thought, he just needs someone to enlighten him. Someone like her, maybe.
Dinner was ready at six. Her mother had made macaroni and cheese with a lot of broiled hamburger bits mixed in and sliced onions for extra taste. They both ate in the living room while watching cable news, both going back for a second plate. Ace's visit seemed to have put Lisa Lawson in a nostalgic mood. She talked about some of the adventures the Heirs of Buliwyf had gone on after finding the Elemental Gems. The four of them had not been warriors but rather explorers of the adjacent realm. They had done mostly rescue work and left the fighting to Tel Shai knights like Jeremy Bane.
At eight, Haley said she was going to read for a while and went up to her room. She found herself waking up at midnight, fully dressed on top of the covers. At least, she finally felt refreshed and back to normal. Her phone had a text from Gina asking to meet at Dallas Hot Weiners the next day. The house was silent.
She HAD to go out tonight. She could feel it was crucial. Her mother wasn't happy about the Windcatcher's nocturnal activities but she remembered all the dangers of being in the Heirs of Buliwyf when she had been even younger than Haley was now. It had been a hard decision to grant her younger daughter such freedom but Lisa stuck to their agreement.
Getting into her Windcatcher outfit with the royal blue shorts and long-sleeved white shirt, then the white sneakers with matching blue trim, Haley was almost unbearably eager to get going. She smirked to herself as she buckled on the thin belt with its eight small canvas pouches along its length. So far, she had only figured out a few possibly useful items to bring along.. a Swiss Army knife, cigarette lighter, powerful pencil Maglite, some Neosporin and band-aids. Haley had vaguely planned on carrying many crime-fighting tools but so far had gone blank. What good would a fingerprint kit do, if she didn't know how to take prints? Where could you buy smoke bombs small enough and strong enough to be practical?
Oh well. She had the priceless Air Gem on her choker. With its powers, she felt capable of handling any situation. Haley fastened the heavy blue cloak around her neck, shaking it out. It had been reinforced with flexible plastic rods along its length to make it more useful in gliding her flight. She loved the thing, loved striking dramatic poses and flinging the cape back over her shoulders. Maybe Gina was right and she was just too dramatic by nature for her own good. Checking to make sure her phone was charged, she tucked it into a pocket of her shorts, next to some emergency money.
The living room was dark. No light showed under the door of her mother's bedroom.
Haley clicked on a lamp next to the couch, part of the agreement if she was going to be out at night. To her relief, no questioning voice came from the bedroom and she could leave without explaining. Out into a warm June night, she stood in the center of the patio and reached out with her mind. Somewhere... yes! A tornado in central Texas. Roaring winds surged beneath her and threw her straight up at two hundred miles per hour.
Much quicker than she would have been able to reach by car, Haley lessened the winds and dropped onto the flat roof of a building right where she and her friends had been parked the night before. An occasional car rolled by, but it was so unlikely that anyone would have spotted her landing that she didn't worry about it. Some of her excitement abated after half an hour of absolutely nothing happening. Drat, this could be a wasted night of sitting around on a roof with nothing to show for it. What else was open at one in the morning? Maybe a bar of club where someone might be the victim of a mugging while leaving? Haley wanted to sit on the edge of the roof for a better view but it would be awkward if some driver saw her and called 911 out of concern.
More than an hour had dragged by. I don't have the temperament for stake-outs, she was thinking as three sharp cracks sounded from far down the street. Gunshots? It sure sounded like it. She hopped up onto her feet, peering off toward the other side of town. Rounding the corner opposite her post came a black and white police cruiser with its lightbar flashing. A second cop car followed a few seconds later.
In another second, Haley would have taken off to follow them but something caught her eye. A plain white panel van was parked on the corner to her right, next to a small bodega which was of course closed at this hour. As she watched, a man in a skin-tight purple costume came out of the rear door, lugging a long canvas sack which he heaved up into the back of the van.
The Chimera! And robbing a little grocery store in the middle of the night? What was up with that? Had her idol really gone bad? With mixed confusion and fascination, she watched him leap up behind the wheel and back the van out into the street, then roll through a red light to turn left on Main Street and roar off.
The van was almost out of sight beore she realized she was letting him get away. Haley summoned the strongest winds she could find and launched herself full speed after him at rooftop level.
V.
As she followed the white van from fifty feet up, Windcatcher fretted over what to do. Flying took every bit of concentration she had. If she had been standing on the ground, maybe she could have bowled the van over with a tornado blast or obscured the windshield with sleet from an ice storm but she didn't have that sort of control. There was so much to learn.
The van heading out of the densest part of town, past a residential neighborhood and then a stretch where three car dealerships took up some acreage. Pulling onto a access road between the car lots, the van slowed to a stop where rows of SUVs would hide it from sight of traffic. Chimera had planned this out pretty well, she thought.
Shutting off the engine, the man in purple hurried around to open the rear doors. Haley dropped lightly down twenty feet behind him, a perfectly poised landing where she didn't even stumble. Only the whoosh of air as the winds dissipated gave her artival away. The Chimera wheeled around and yelped, "What the hell...?"
"I'm a little mad at you for that bear spray," she said.
"How did you get way out here? Where's your car? Did you hang on to the van or something?"
Grinning, Haley jabbed a thumb at her own chest. "You're dealing with the Windcatcher now! What's the deal with robbing that bodega, anyway?"
The Chimera regarded her for a few seconds. The snug hood and goggles only left his nose and mouth exposed, and she realized instantly that this guy was not Ace Woodbridge. No way. That had been a vague theory brewing in the back of her mind, the Chimera and Ace didn't look at all alike.
"I don't want or need a sidekick, honey. This is a game where people find bullet holes in their bodies. Go home. Go on a date and see a movie or something."
From behind Haley, arctic winds howled at seventy miles per hour and twenty below zero, whipping her cloak violently around her. Caught in that chilling blast, the Chimera gasped and almost fell, catching himself with one hand on the open van door.
"Jeez! I guess the stories are true. You ARE Midnight War," he managed to say while catching his breath. "Don't give me pneumonia, kid. Here, I'll show you what I confiscated as evidence. That store was the hub of local crack imports."
Reaching into the van, he tugged open the canvas sack with a gloved hand. "Take a look for yourself."
Hands on her hips, cloak thrown back, Haley moved closer as Chimera took a few steps to one side. She bent forward and pulled the mouth of the sack open. "Hey, it's all cash. Lottery tickets. Cigarette cartons..." As her attention was fixed on the loot, Chimera crouched to seize her ankles and flip her up into the van's interior. Instantly, he slammed the rear door shut and slid the bolt closed.
"Keep quiet in there!" he yelled. "We're going for a ride down by the river where I can decide what to do with you. Don't make a racket. Maybe we can work something out."
Inside the van interior, Haley got herself straightened out after that impromptu somersault. She wasn't particularly angry at being tricked, just irritated. The van was solid metal with no windows. There was nothing in that compartment except the sack with its loot. It had been nothing but a low grade robbery, after all, she thought. She wasn't even dealing with a high class heist of diamonds or rare stamps or something cool.
The mechanism to unlock the doors from inside wasn't working. Chimera must have fixed it somehow. Haley looked around and dismissed the idea of waiting for them to get wherever they were going. She was going to escape. This might be tricky. She got down on her knees and pressed a hand to the ancient jewel worn at her throat. Windcatcher summoned ordinary air from the vicinity into the van interior, forcing it into a solid mass in front of her. More. She was starting to feel uncomfortable. Hope this doesn't pop my eardrums, she worried. Drawing on the power of the Gem, she pulled more air, compressing it as densely as she could. It was getting hard to breathe.
With a sudden sharp crack of metal snapping, the bolt snapped and both rear doors flew open. Half the contents of the canvas sack whirled out the opening. Haley yelled, "Hey, mastermind! You're losing your goodies!"
The slamming of brakes was so abrupt that Haley lost her balance and landed sitting up. "Hah!" she said to herself, "Got his attention." She vaulted out through the open doors and laughed at seeing Chimera frantically trying to snatch up the loose twenties which were scattered on the road.
"See what you get when you mess with me?" she began but froze where she was as he whipped up a Glock 19 from a flap holster on his belt.
"Last chance!" he yelled. "Help me recover all this and I won't blow your head open." As soon as he got the last word out, a gloved fist from seeming nowhere detonated against the side of his jaw with a smack sound like a hammer hitting a slab of beef. Chimera's legs buckled and he dropped to his knees. The gun was yanked none too gently from his grip.
The newcomer stepped into view from around the corner of the van. He was clad in an identical skin-tight purple jumpsuit, polished black boots and leather belt and all. On his chest was the same white silhouette of the bizarre mythological creature. But this costumed man was much taller and brawnier than the robber was, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. He looked like a dynamite next to the other's gunpowder.
"Oh, I KNEW it!" squealed Haley, making a high-pitched sound of a delight a dolphim might envy. "The real Chimera! You came back to protect your reputation."
The costumed man affected a raspy, strained voice that was obviously not natural. "You should fly off, young lady. The police will be here in a few minutes."
"No, no, tell me everything. He was trying to smear your good name, right? Why did he have a grudge against you? Where have you been all these years? What's your story?"
Chimera gave a half-smile of chagrin, as if embarassed. "This man did some armed robberies. I nailed him and there was enough independent evidence to put him away for twenty years. He wanted to get back at me, that's all. Listen! Hear that?"
Police sirens were coming up the road, the cars themselves might not be within sight yet. Haley moaned with exasperation, "I hope we meet again!" and shot straight up within a blast of hurricane winds that sent all the loot whirling aside. Satisfying himself that the robber was still dazed and wouldn't be inclined to run off in the next few minutes, the Chimera raced over to where his fire engine red Ford Mustang was idling and peeled out.
High overhead, Haley tried to hover so she could watch the scene. It was tricky, keeping herself balanced fifty feet up, since any lapse in concentration could send her tumbling end over end. Here came those same two cop cars, red and blue lights going crazy and sirens on. Her brain was boiling with a hundred questions. How had the fake Chimera decoyed the police away with those gunshots? He must have had a partner on the other side of town who took off after shooting. Yeah, that made sense.
Staying in one spot was too difficult, she kept beginning to lose her balance. With immense regret, Windcatcher propelled herself further down the road. There. That all-night Cumberland Farms. Haley dropped down in its parking lot and went around out of sight to sit down. She leaned back against the brick building to rest for a few minutes. Hopefully she would get more endurance but right now using her powers felt like running a marathon with someone on her back. She thought she might go in the store in a minute and get some high-protein energy bars or something.
Still, disappointing as how it ended, that had been quite a night! She replayed everything in her head several times, piecing together all the confusing moments. When the van had screeched to a halt, the real Chimera had pulled up beside it in his car, but on the passenger side where the robber hadn't seen him yet. The fake was too focused on retrieving his loot to look around. So that meant, the real Chimera had been following the van in his sporty red car....
Haley's eyes bugged out. Ace Woodbridge had been driving the same kind of little red sport car.
3/25/2023
