The Original

Horsing Around

“Nike has announced that they will be terminating their relationship with Snapshot, the speedster vigilante from LA. Snapshot has been in the news lately due to an accidental fatality caused during a car chase. A fourteen year old girl died when the speedster threw a metal sphere into the cabin of the stolen Hyundai Elantra she was driving, causing a fiery crash injuring 3 others.”

“Nike Representatives state that, while they understand that heroes are in a dangerous business, that a fourteen-year-old girl was not enough of a danger to herself or others to justify lethal force, which motivated their decision to end their contract. LAPD representatives have sanctioned Snapshot, removing his privilege to operate as a hero within the State of California for a year due to the event.

“Representatives of the hero state that, while Snapshot regrets the death of a misguided young woman, that she was driving at over one hundred miles per hour and at any moment could have come upon another car and crashed, killing innocent bystanders. To that end, he denies any wrongdoing in the case. The family has filed suit against the hero, demanding over one million dollars in damages.

Solaris had gone to bed shortly after the end of their conversation, allowing Penny to write her after action and principal activity reports for the day as well as file a passport request for the other woman online, and make an appointment with both the Apple Store and, at Elizabeth’s request, Burgdorf Goodman. Just making that last appointment had almost scared the woman.

She’d also arranged for a car service to send a car and driver for them, to get around the next day and thought that should set them up nicely for the next couple of days. The next day she learned again, never to make assumptions.

“Yes, I can see that it’s a problem, but I don’t know what to do about it.” She said into her phone, as she looked out the window, as close to straight down to the front of the building as she could.

Solaris tipped her head, wondering what was wrong as she walked down the stairs, checking just outside the door and cheering silently at the presence of a New York Times, then wincing at her own photo being on the front page.

"Yes, I am aware, thank you." Sighing, she hung up.

“Something wrong?”

“Jesus!” Penny yelled, jumping in shock having not heard the other woman come down. “Scare the hell out of a person, why don’t you.”

“Sorry, I didn’t want to bother you while you were on the phone, i was just grabbing the paper.”

“It seems the famous heroine Solaris has returned from a long disappearance, who knew? People found out where you were staying, somehow.” She said, turning on the TV to a live stream, the streamers voice muted but the crowd around them was clearly large, and dominating the space in front of the hotel. “The cape chasers came out in droves, and the car service I arranged our ride with for the day decided to cancel due to ‘safety concerns’.”

“My word, is that crowd just outside?” Solaris asked, shaking her head. “I’m not going to claim it’s not gratifying, but I’m not precisely Hetti Lamar. And I had assumed you would tell the service who I was to start with.”

“I did, and you’re hardly the most at-risk person they’ve driven. They just don’t want to deal with the crowd and traffic, the wimps.” Penny shook off the issue. “On the positive side, I got us a one o’clock appointment to get you a phone and other tech, but Berghoff didn’t have an opening until tomorrow at eleven. I think they might have fudged their schedule a bit to even do that.”

“They’ve always treated me well there.”

“Right. So, anyway, that’s the next two days. I figure we can hit more… basic… stores to get you a few minor sundries after the phone appointment, depending on what is going on with your bankers.”

“Hopefully we’ll have some liquid resources to play with.”

“Right.” Penny said absently, her attention having been pulled back to the television screen. She lifted the remote and rolled back the scene several frames. The drone whatever youtuber was using, was excellent, and got a great shot of one man in particular, milling around the crowd. “Well fuck me sideways with a chainsaw.”

“Penny Ward! Such language.”

“You’re adorable… but we have a larger problem.” She tapped the screen, the latino man dominating the frame she’d paused on, sunglasses covering his eyes. He had a nose that must have been broken numerous times and the rich, dark skin of his face was ruined by pale scars suggesting knives, bottles and fists had come in contact with his face on more than one occasion. “This guy.”

“Well he looks like a long stretch of bad road. Who is he?”

“ Dionisio González. He's on our priority watch list. Wanted for a whole host of crimes back in his home country, including enemy of the state. Unfortunately, that state is Cuba and thanks to that little island and the US not being over cold war insults, there’s absolutely no way to extradite him for anything he’s alleged to have done.”

“And he’s a real threat?”

“Class B Speedster and Tank combo. No projective abilities, but tough as hell on his own. You could pretty much take him with your arm behind your back, except you don’t have a reason to start anything and he’s in the thickest part of the crowd, and I’ll give you three guesses as to why he’s in that crowd.”

“Someone’s looking to make a name for himself. Still, getting him out from amid the crowd shouldn’t be too hard, though having to wait for him to act could be a problem.”

“Yeah, he’s trying to make a name for himself with the local talent, particularly the Cuban gangs. Calls himself Semental, means Stallion in Cuban.”

“Lovely. Someone’s a narcissist, or compensating.”

Penny nodded, but frowned, looking closer at the screen. ‘Definitely. He was something of a big deal on the island, but that’s not the same as being big in the US.”

“I’m assuming that him assaulting me would give an excuse for his arrest. And I’ve had larger opponents with less space. Just need to get him out of the crowd. With calling himself Stallion I’m guessing he’s a melee type.”

"Oh yeah, total tank." she nodded. "Low grade speedster as well. call him a top speed on par with a sports car? General athletics at Olympic level. He’s about a class B, from our estimates so not really a threat to you. I would give me even money in my old armor. But yeah, the crowd. And NYPD would love to arrest him for something,"

Solaris walked to the window and looked down. “Mmm. How polite are crowds these days. I do not mind going down and showing the flag, if we can open a working area and if he pulls an assault I can get him away from the crowd if I have space.”

"Problem is, he's not stupid. He won't come direct. He'll mask up, and attack out of the blue." She mused. "And to be frank, he'd be an idiot to not think in terms of trying to limit you. He might want the crowd around to make you pull punches."

" If I don't want to make a paste out of him I will have to hold back anyway. What style of combat does he use, and can he fly?”

"No flight, though he jumps well. A couple of stories." She mused the report she'd read on him. "He's a straight brawler, so no particular skill, but stubborn and experienced. He grew up rough and hungry, which made him mean... and we might not be getting a choice. Shit." She turned to the door, snatching her bag off the desk as she burst out.

Solaris followed, pulling her robe off and dropping it on the floor. Glad she'd put on the comfortable stretchy pants and shirt. "Do you think he will attack the crowd?"

"No, someone in the crowd is about to attack him." She growled, pushing through the stairs door, pulling a device out of her bag as she jumped over the railing, plummeting down the narrow tunnel between banisters.

Solaris followed, flying after her. letting some of her light spill from her skin, “I am with you, what is your plan?”

With a snap and hiss a grapple grabbed a rail and slowed Penny for the last dozen feet, allowing her to land easily. "You keep the idiot kid alive." She yelled, bursting out of the stairwell, pulling a huge revolver from her bag as she ran for the hotel's front doors, ignoring the cries of shock and people ducking away from her.

As they burst out of the glass doors, the fight had already started without them and gone badly. A small man, or teenaged boy based on the ganglynes of the struggling figure who fought for breath in the Stallions grip, swinging a glowing crowbar at the criminal’s head.

The Stallion, now wearing a helmet shaped like a horse’s skull, shrugged off the blows, in spite of the cracks forming, and seemed dedicated to squeezing the life out of the kid.

Solaris flew, a golden streak of light towards the man, bringing an arm up to block a roundhouse kick the man threw at her head. In return she delivered a punch, strength pulled to not send the man flying, receiving a grunt and hop back, the criminal dropping the masked kid in the process.

“This is not the way to impress a lady, she growled

"Fuck, bitch! They said you’re strong, but that hurt!" the man yelled, shaking off the hit faster than Solaris expected. He took a step forward, only to stagger back several steps, grunting in pain as the revolver in Penny's hand barked twice, shockingly loud, the shots both hitting the man in the chest but failing to penetrate the skin.

Solaris stepped in front of the boy, using her light to keep his eyes on her. “Such language. There are children present sir!”

"Damnit." He grunted.