Superhero Adventures, UK Style

3^rd of February – Tin-Can Annie

Annie didn’t miss sleep, not really. Since the ‘accident’, the closest she came to REM sleep was her system’s reboot every 15 days when her ‘body’s’ life support systems went offline for exactly 30 seconds. While it restarted and carried out a full diagnostic, her brain relied on its autonomic systems to maintain itself until her systems and sensors came back online. There were times she wondered whether what she was experiencing was a type of sleep or death?

She had elected to regularly switch her body to automatic most days, just for about half an hour so she could meditate and plan but that wasn’t really sleeping and she could take back control of her systems in a nanosecond, which is why no-one ever realised what she was doing.

No, she didn’t miss sleeping, she could probably fake it if necessary, however she did miss the ability to dream. It did mean she had 23 and half hours a day of mental and/or physical activity to fill. No wonder she was bored on a regular basis.

Early Saturday Morning, 23^rd December – Android Annie

Mateo Ferdinand staggered out of the bar swearing in Spanish. It was that bitch’s fault he’d got banned. It wasn’t his fault that Silvia had looked at that guy in the bar, he had to teach her a lesson, didn’t he?

She should know better by now than to look at someone else. To even glance at someone else without his permission, wasn’t acceptable. It was about respect and it had been the second time he’d caught her doing it! If she did it again he’d have to leave her with a little reminder, something a bit more permanent than just a black eye and a broken jaw.

Damn that barman; didn’t he know you don’t interfere in an argument between a man and his woman? Damn him for throwing him out and banning him. Teach him right if he went back and firebombed the dump!

It was cold and Silvia wouldn’t be back home from the hospital’s ER for several hours. It was only 2am, enough time to find another pub, possibly another bit of ass to help pass the time… As he walked down the dark lane towards Castle Street, he saw a tall redhead in a very tight dress walking towards him with a smile. Mario knew he was handsome, knew he was God’s gift to… As she got closer, he realised that she looked cute and wow, she was tall… What was she, 6 and half feet tall? More in those heels. With short-cut red hair and slim build, she had to be a fashion model.

He was considering his ‘strategy’ when she approached him. Should he try and chat her up or just take her, here and now by force? With his father’s diplomatic immunity, he didn’t fear being caught. Shit, he could ‘enjoy’ himself with her until the Police turned up and he’d still be able to walk away at the end of the day. He was invincible and knew it.

She walked right up to him, towering over him and smiled. His decision made, he reached for the knife in his pocket, as he liked the look of fear in their eyes as he… Before he could do anything, he felt his feet leaving the ground.

What the…? He raised his hand to hit her only to find he had been lifted one-handed as though he weighed nothing at all. He tried to kick out and broke his big toe on her thigh, which felt as hard as steel. She tightened her grip on his throat and he found himself struggling to breathe as she grabbed his ‘knife hand’ from his pocket and peeled the fingers open.

She turned him in mid-air to whisper in his ear, “small proximal phalanx” and suddenly he felt a sharp, intense pain as she snapped one of the bones in his little finger. He screamed as she raised her finger to her mouth and shushed him.

“Have I managed to get your attention yet, Mr Ferdinand? Oh yes, I know who you are. What you are.” He started to shout at her, tell her… when she whispered, “shush, or do I need to silence you by breaking your hyoid bone as well?” She tapped his throat and he swallowed in fear. That caught his attention. This bitch was dangerous.

“Actually I’m a friend of Charlene Reynolds? You remember her, don’t you..? Your ex-girlfriend, the one you blinded with acid because you thought she’d flirted too many times with another man; a man who turned out to be her brother?  A woman you left in a dark alley blinded, to crawl towards a main road in search of help? You remember her, don’t you?

You felt sure your threats towards her little sister would make sure she’d never testify. Well guess what, she will never need to.”

She reached up with her other hand and grabbed his right hand again. She whispered, “ring metacarpal” and again he felt a sharp, unbearable pain as she grabbed his ring finger and snapped it in two. Mateo screamed in shock, however part of him was aware that she was completely unmoved by the situation.

Do you know how many bones are in the human body Mr Ferdinand?  No?!? There are two hundred and six bones in an adult and it’s my promise.” He shouted, “how dare you threaten…” only to feel the hand round his throat, the one holding him off the ground tighten and he found himself struggling to breath.

“Ah, Mr Ferdinand I do not threaten, I make promises, promises I always keep.” This time her smile made him shudder with fear. Who, what was she..?

“Now, if you wish to prevent that PROMISE becoming prophesy, you will hand yourself in to the Police. You will refuse diplomatic immunity and then you will write a full confession of all your attacks in front of a police officer. Be warned I will not be happy if you leave any out and believe me I will know. Finally, you will call your lawyer and you will sign over all your finances and property in this Country to Ms Reynolds; I assure you, you will no longer need them. This will be to cover her medical costs and other expenses for the remainder of her life.”

He held up his broken hand in reply. “Ah Mr Ferdinand, do you not think I’m aware you are ambidextrous?  You will do this because if you don’t, I’ll find you and every time I do I will break another, different bone in your body until I have broken all two hundred and six.”

This time she whispered “right radius”, grabbed his forearm and snapped it cleanly in two. One-handed!

His scream this time was louder, more intense. As she did so, her face and body changed. Several times, “You see I can be anyone, your bar tender, ambulance driver, nurse…” each time varying her apparent height, sex, facial features, race.

“I will find you and I will not stop.” She dropped him to the ground and walked away softly singing the lyrics to “It’s not over yet” by King and Country.

Half an hour later Mateo found himself in the same ER as Silvia had been in earlier. A slightly plump, middle-aged nurse was strapping up his broken fingers after they had been reset.

“Mr Ferdinand, I really do insist that you report this attack to the Police.” She had a Scottish accent and had requested this several times but Mateo was convinced that his best response was to get to the meta through his old girlfriend, Charlene. “No Police.” Suddenly he heard HER voice and saw the nurse apparently change height and voice. He tried to squirm away from the mutant changeling but she grabbed his right leg, whispered “right fibula” and he felt a shock emanate up his leg and, for a few seconds he blacked out. When he opened his eyes, she was gone but he could see that this time the tip of the bone in his leg had pierced the skin.

To his shock, the room filled with people, anyone of whom could be her. “I need the Police, now!”

Outside the hospital, Annie turned off the holo-belt. Her improvements to the negative imagery mapping had meant that it was now possible to alter her height as well as her body shape. She wondered whether she should hold on to this or pass it to Adam as a present so he could complete the Raft’s stealth capacity? Just now it was still useful and as she said, she had a promise to keep, one she’d made months before, in the offices of Steadman Investigations, to make Charlene’s ex’ pay.

Dollface had already agreed to fit her client with cybernetic eyes provided Annie could raise the money. That either meant she needed to take up robbing banks or making Mateo pay. The latter felt more appropriate and she needed to do this before she saw Sam – she knew he wouldn’t approve. Okay, he’d approve of her motives, just not her methods. God, she hoped he’d accept her back. She’d already planned out her Christmas present for him and had purchased a big roll of festive paper and a big red bow.

Still, it was time to see if there had been a change of heart with Mr Ferdinand at last. Humming to herself she headed to the Police station.

Within the hour Mateo had been placed in protective custody within the station, awaiting a flight out of the country. He was aware that the Police Inspector seriously disliked him. Tough, he might know about some of his past crimes but not everything and he knew he had diplomatic immunity so he couldn’t touch him… Hah. Damn the pain!

He’d been put in a special cell with a meta inhibitor and the whole area had meta and weapon sensors. She couldn’t touch him in here, not without the whole station being alerted.

A plump, dishevelled man walked in and put his briefcase on the table next to Mateo’s bunk. Ah, his father’s lawyer had arrived. “Fitzwilliams, I need you to make arrangements to leave the country as soon as possible, my life is being threatened…”

To his horror, it was her voice that spoke, “I told you before it was not a threat Mr Ferdinand, it was a promise. “

“How?  This cell is designed to neutralise powers, the alarm should have gone off as soon as you entered… “

“Ah, well perhaps the universe is in alignment with me and wants you to be punished, or perhaps the Police are turning a blind eye. The question for you is, are you foolish enough to ever believe you can get away from me?”

His height and sex changed as all the camera lights went out in the cell. She spoke calmly, “Which bone? Ah, the ethmoid bone.” Her fist slammed out and broke his nose.

“Please be aware I take no pleasure in this but I did need to prove that there is no place on this planet you can go to escape me. The only way to stop this is to give up your diplomatic immunity, write a full confession and sign over your finances to Charlene, simple. The alternative is my regular visitations. Ah well, I always wanted to play Christmas Future!”

She wiggled her fingers in a farewell as she walked out of the cell and changed her appearance into that of the Inspector. Upstairs the cameras showed Mateo Ferdinand roll over and fall off the bunk to the floor breaking his nose… Annie had to admit Frankie did good work!

A few minutes later and to Mateo’s horror his cell started to fill up with the on-duty doctor, officers, the inspector and his lawyer. Were any of them real?

He couldn’t keep this up, “I reject my diplomatic immunity and want to confess my crimes, all of them just no-one leave. Please! Fitzwilliams, don’t say anything, I need you to make out a legal document transferring all my bank accounts and properties to Charlene Reynolds, a woman I blinded 18 months ago. I’ll confess it all, just don’t leave me alone with anyone ever again. I need to be in solitary confinement, please… No, just leave the nose, this is more important. I need to confess now…”

Outside, Annie smiled as she looked at the stolen feed from the stations’ security network of the cell on her phone. She’d hang around a bit longer to make sure he confessed to everything and declared all of his accounts and properties but she was reasonably sure she could wrap this case up once and for all.

She just had to decide what to do for the rest of the night… After all she wasn’t due to ‘sleep’ for another 14 days and she had to keep busy, keep her mind off her worries that Sam wouldn’t want her back after running out on him. That’s why she’d decided to wait until Christmas Eve before approaching them.

Perhaps she could go and check on ‘her’ office and see just how much a mess Akira had made of it in her absence… Bet he hadn’t even bought the camera drones she’d told him to get. Thankfully, Pseudo-Annie had automated the billing but she did wonder what the current job list was like. Maybe there would be something on there that might keep her occupied for another few hours?

The beginning, Again…