[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEdHPDQZVSU]D R I V E[/url][/center][hr] "Edward, please stop." Edward glared at the disassembled suit in the passenger seat. "Gabbie, d'you think you could relax for two goddamn s...seconds?" He hiccuped, fumbling again for his best friend JD. The bottle--luckily closed--had fallen out of his hand again. "You heard the lady, boss." Dave's voice was gruff, yet melodic. Like Johnny Cash through a vocoder. "We're on the clock, ain't we? Just 'cause I'm driving don't mean you can drink yerself stupid." "Hah, youuu are stupid," mumbled ET, taking another swig. "I'm in charge, mmmmmmhm. Ooooh Lieutenant. Me, Lieutenant." He broke off in a fit of giggles. "Don't be givin' me orders, Davey. You aren't...aren't my [i]mom-my[/i]." More fits. Wasn't he just the funniest fuckin' guy around? "[i]Edward[/i]," said Gabbie. "Please! This is a new low, even for you. You were doing so well, love...what happened?" The suit blinked colors at him--red, then orange, yellow, back to red. An expression of concern from her. "Boss, yer gonna stop drinkin', or I'm gonna take us right back to HQ." Dave's wheel twitched in front of him, but ET lacked the coordination to grasp at it. "Try explainin' to chief Ong why you didn't even make it halfway there, yeah?" ET shuddered. Captain Ong--even trashed, ET knew his place. That woman had put down Razortooth without batting an eye. If there was a mortal woman in the entirety of the world who could match wits with supers, it was Penny Ong. No cyber, no powers; didn't stop her from making shots that ET had never seen before. Better to stay on her good side. "Fine," ET said. He groaned and threw the bottle out the window. Dave, from previous experience, had lowered it previously. It vanished into the night, silent against the highway's roar. ET groaned again, louder this time, and threw himself back in the seat. "How long to See...Cedar Fort?" "Three hundred and sixty miles, boss. Get comfortable." The radio buzzed briefly, then touched down at a lazy night driving station. "And don't think I dunno about yer backup stash in the back seat. Catch some zees, or meditate or somethin'. Just leave the circuitshredder alone." ET snorted. As if he could sleep after what had happened. [hr][hider=What Had Happened]"You're going on an assignment." The file clapped down on his desk with a [i]thump[/i]. ET looked up from his report, meeting Captain Ong in the eyes. "Where to, captain?" He kept his voice even, but only just. Ong's tone of voice implied that she wasn't a fan of whatever came next. "Cedar Fort," she said flatly. "There's been some whispers about a call that went out not too long ago. A hero named Hex is dead, and a police officer is trying to rally up his friends. You're going in to make sure it's not a new cult, con, or evil supergroup." "Cedar Fort, North Carolina?" That was a long way from the Midwestern Sprawl. Ong rolled her eyes. "No, Cedar Fort, Utah. Yes, the one in North Carolina! Second biggest standalone city in the country." "Isn't that a bit outside our jurisdiction?" He saw the look in her eyes and realized that it didn't matter. "Okay, right. Why me?" The captain sat down at his desk, rubbing her forehead with her hand. "As it happens," she said, "The police don't really have that many super'd options these days. They've all either retired, died, or never been with us to begin with." That made sense. ET nodded slowly and shrugged. Most heroes either worked solo, as a part of a group, or with the military. He was one of eight supercops in the entire country, that he knew of. "I'm assuming the rest of them are busy?" he asked. He was easily the weakest super in any police force in the country. Ong laughed, but it was an empty sound. She was too old to be polite. "Not even, Turner. You just happen to have the stealthiest and most useful powers." She tapped the file on his desk. "Read this. It's about the officer who sent out the call. One Addison Reynolds. Don't know too much about her except what the precinct there knew off hand. They also refused to tell us if she was acting under orders." Typical police bureaucracy. ET nodded sympathetically. "Okay, so...a stakeout?" He couldn't help but feel a little slighted. He'd been on the force for years, and they were sending him on a stakeout across the country? "Yes," Ong said, a little snappier than he expected. "And don't argue with me on this one. You're on thin ice, with some of the reports that have been coming in on you recently. This [i]will[/i] be good for you, Turner. Don't fuck it up." His fists clenched. Reports? Suddenly, the innocent mission seemed like an excuse. But Ong wasn't done, and he wasn't looking to get fired. Yet. "You'll be going alone. If you need it, you'll be undercover as a friend of Hex. Your backstory is in the file too. I know you had a few years in your career where we worked with Hex a few times, so it should hold up. You'll have your car, your suit, and as much artillery as we could pack in the trunk." Ong stood, and rapped her knuckles on the desk. "Leave as soon as you can. Hotel's in the file too." Then she left, and the pit in his stomach started twisting.[/hider][hr] ET's eyes cracked open. He'd slept. It was almost two in the morning. Hangover. That's what that mindnumbing pain was. He made a noise halfway between a sigh and a moan, and turned over, fishing into the glove compartment. "Dave, where the fuck are--ah." He pulled out a pack of pills. Two thousand years of progress, and still no catch-all cure for the hangover blues. He popped the Aspirin and pulled water from the back seat. His tongue felt thick as hell, but he managed a few words. "ETA guys?" "Morning, boss!" Dave's voice was cheery as it could be. "You'd best start slippin' into Gabs now--we'll be there in ten minutes." "Oh, [i]god[/i]. Dave! We've talked about phrasing!" Gabbie didn't say anything, just opened up in the passenger seat. Of course she wasn't going to say anything. "You're both on thin ice," grumbled ET, but he slide into the other seat. The suit zipped up around him with a set of whirring and clicking sounds, and in a few minutes he had gone from hungover to monster. He was still hungover, but now he was [i]bulletproof[/i] hungover. "Helmet?" "Helmet check," said Gabbie, and in the span of seconds the uncomfortable hood-thing on the back of the suit had fused together around his head. Then it retracted again, leaving his head free. "Arms loaded?" ET tugged on the gauntlet on his left. Excellent fit, as expected. "Ah, Gabbie, you do know how to make a man feel safe." "Thanks, hot shot. That's what they pay me for." She laughed, a kaleidoscope of digital glass. "Arms are loaded. Say the word and you'll be armed to the teeth." "Swell." He slid back into the driver's seat and looked out the windshield. They were coming up on what looked like an abandoned warehouse. "Classic place for a meetup." Hopefully it wasn't going to turn into a classic place for a bloodbath. "All right, you two. Silence is golden until I can figure out what we're getting ourselves into, check? No distractions." No response--good. ET swigged one more time from the water bottle, braced himself for the dizzyness, and got out of the car. It was dark, but he could see enough to know that he wasn't alone. [i]Time to ring the bell.[/i] "Hello?" he called. "Officer Reynolds?"