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rachel-writes101 · 5 years ago

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Konnect: Sewer

Konnect was exhausted and out of breath. Her every muscle screamed. The desire to give up the chase had set in and was growing with every step. But she couldn’t just let her quarry go. He was a prolific armed mugger who had killed one man and left a young woman fighting for her life in hospital. Konnect had managed to find him during his most recent attempt, the blade still in his hand as he had sprinted away from her. She skidded to a halt as she reached the end of the alleyway. The thrill of the chase pumped adrenaline through her and she looked around urgently. Before her was a brick wall, too tall for the man to have climbed without her seeing him disappearing over the top. The alleyway walls were completely free of doors, ladders or windows the man could have forced himself through.

“Where did he go?” she demanded through the constant phone call.

She continued to look around as her partner, Rick, stammered into her ear. She was using her powers to call him while he sat in their base, watching CCTV to ensure she didn’t lose the suspect and checking that no bigger crimes were happening that would require the superhero to intervene.

Before Rick could think of a delicate way to phrase his answer, Konnect’s eyes landed on a manhole cover in front of her. She grimaced.

“Please tell me he didn’t…” she pleaded, already making her way towards the cover.

She couldn’t help but notice one side was a little more raised than the other. She tried to kick it free with her foot but it didn’t budge.

“He did.”

With Rick’s confirmation, Konnect knelt. Thankful for her gloves, she pried up the lid. Immediately she caught a glimpse of her prey. He had been waiting, hoping that she would give up the chase and leave him safe in the sewer. But she couldn’t just let him

Trying to hold her breath, Konnect dropped into the sewer.

The sewer was dark and Konnect immediately went to use her powers, create a ball of sparking electricity between her fingers to light the way. Suddenly Rick’s voice came through the phone link.

“You won’t be able to use your powers down there,” he said.

Konnect frowned. The phone call was using her powers and it sounded absolutely fine. She wouldn’t have been expecting anything less. Her powerset meant she always had signal, regardless of where she was.

“I mean the blasting. The bolts of electricity. You’re in a sewer. Sewer gas is flammable. One spark and it could blow.”

Konnect bit back her complaints, reminding herself that she was after a dangerous man. Even if she didn’t take him down, just knowing where he ran to would help to uncover his identity and put a stop to what he was doing. She took a moment to try and work out how she was meant to find the man in the sewers in the dark. Then she had an idea. She pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket. She always brought it with her when she went out as Konnect in case her powers did ever actually fail. She turned on the torch, hoping that it would not generate any sort of spark.

“Can you bring up maps of the sewer system?” Konnect said. “This place is like a maze.”

She heard Rick agree and began shuffling towards. She flicked her torch down every pipe that led off from the large tunnel she was in and resisted the urge to gag. The Copperby sewer system was incredibly old. It had been built as the city expanded and that meant it was a mish-mash of different styles and sizes of tunnels and pipes. She didn’t want to miss one that the killer might have just been able to slip down.

“Sucks he didn’t have a mobile phone on him,” Konnect grumbled.

Konnect guessed it was bound to start happening eventually. The smarter criminals were getting wise to what her powers could do. They had realised that if they carried electrical devices on them when they encountered her, she could lock onto them and ensure that she knew exactly where they ran to. So they ensured that if they went out to commit a crime, they didn’t carry any mobile devices with them.

“I have maps,” Rick told her triumphantly. “Looks like our mugger will have been forced to follow the main tunnel. You might be able to fit down some of the side ones but not a fully grown man.”

Konnect thanked him and pressed on further. She picked up as much speed as she dared, desperate to ensure she didn’t slip over.

“How does it smell?” Rick asked, wanting to make conversation.

“I am trying not to focus on the smell.”

“Maybe go back to yours instead of coming back here when we’re done for the night. Have a chance to shower.”

So caught up in how uncomfortable she was in the moment, Konnect had completely forgotten that the smell would no doubt linger. She had no clue how she was meant to get it off her and her costume and no clue how she was meant to explain what had happened to her mother who believed she was tucked up in her nice, warm bedroom that didn’t smell of sewage in the slightest.

That was a bridge they would have to come to later. Maybe borrow a textbook from a friend of Rick’s brothers – one who was an apprentice plumber – to see if they could cause a big enough fault in her toilet at home. But one that wouldn’t bankrupt them with repair costs.

She was about to suggest the idea when she heard the sound of footsteps echoing from in front. She hissed at Rick that she was closing in and knew Rick had immediately sobered, prepared for a fight to erupt.

It wasn’t a routine attack. Konnect normally had the use of her powers to defend herself and to take down criminals. Having to fight off a knifeman without the ability to use blasts of electricity to defend herself was going to put Konnect on edge and she knew it was having the same effect on Rick. She wasn’t nearly as good at hand to hand combat.

Konnect froze as she heard the noises from ahead stop. Then she slowly edged forwards. She wondered what had happened. Had her suspect decided to try and change path? Found a manhole and made his way to the surface?

She passed through a narrow arch in the tunnel, tiptoeing along the edge to ensure neither of her boots sunk into the river of sewage beside her. Konnect’s mouth opened wide as she realised that she could not see the man. The tunnel was empty. She looked around, flicking her torch about in the hope she might find a pipe he could have ducked into.

Then she saw the light glint on polished metal. She focused in on it as it swung towards her, realising with a sickening jolt that it was a knife. Her immediate thought was to fire a blast. By the time she had fought back the urge, she barely had time to dodge the falling blade.

She felt it slice through the air beside her and swung her torch around.

The man stood there. His face was covered by a balaclava, hands enclosed in leather gloves. The blade in his hand was almost as long as Konnect’s forearm. He cried with rage as he twisted his grip on the knife so the point was aimed directly at her. Then he swung out again, the point being driven directly towards Konnect’s head. She dodged just in time, looking up as the knife narrowly missed a pipe directly behind her. A horrifying thought crossed her mind. The blade was metal. The pipe was metal. If they collided, there could be a spark.

“Stop!” Konnect tried as the knife was swung at her once more. “You are putting us both in danger. You hit one of those pipes and we could both die.”

The mugger merely roared at her once more. He lunged at her with the knife and Konnect decided there was no way she could talk him down. She grabbed his wrist, deflecting the blow from where it would have sunk into her abdomen. The man was far stronger than her, able to break free of her grip was lightning speed. Konnect decided the only choice she had was to use surprise to her advantage, try to knock the knife out of his hand before he had the chance to reaffirm his grip on it.

She let him swing the knife at her once again and slammed a fist into his jaw. He stumbled back and Konnect sprung forward, prepared to try and pry the knife from his hands. He recovered too fast. The knife was flicked, angled just low enough that her attempts to grab it would have resulted in her hands being sliced open. She leapt back just as the man tried to lash out once more with the blade.

“You okay?” Rick called in her ear.

“I’m fine,” Konnect growled back at him.

She just needed to get the knife. She sprung again, this time aiming a kick at the man’s chest. He was thrown backwards, falling messily into the stream. Konnect had the decency to grimace for him before jumping forward. She slammed a boot down on his wrist, forcing the hand beyond to release the knife it gripped. She scrambled to grab it before the struggles of her attacker scraped it across the concrete floor of the tunnel. Then she sprinted away, dropping the knife into the filthy stream and ensuring it was lost to the man. She was sure whichever unfortunate police officers were sent to find it would understand.

She heard a series of splashes coming towards her and turned just in time to see a fist swinging towards her. The fist slammed into her jaw, sending her stumbling backwards. Her phone was sent flying out of her hand, the light disappearing moments later. Konnect’s arms windmilled and she managed to grab hold of the edge of a pipe. She used it to keep herself standing but still slammed hard against the wall of the tunnel. Her head pounded and throbbed as her vision blurred. She heard the man slowly moving closer, feet stirring the sewage he walked through.

He was just as blind as she was in the darkness. Konnect wondered briefly if she should try looking for her phone but thought her focus should be on taking the man down. She listened as hard as she could, working out exactly where he was going to be from the sounds of his movement. He was right in front of her, she was sure of it. She blindly reached out with her left hand. She felt it brush against something and immediately closed her grip. It was the man’s jacket. She tugged, trying to focus on his attention on her left hand. Then she swung her right fist forwards. She felt it land and felt the jacket pull tight in her left hand as the man was knocked off balance. She didn’t give him the chance to right himself again. Pulling hard on the jacket, she dragged him forwards. She slammed him into the wall and rushed to pin him there.

“You’re unarmed, just give up.” Konnect snapped.

He drove an elbow back, hitting into her stomach. Konnect doubled over and wrestled to keep her gulps for breath restrained. She felt sick, the vile stench clinging to the back of her throat. She didn’t want him to realise where she was.

She heard the man turn and forced herself to stand straight. She estimated where his jaw would be and swung out madly. She felt it hit something but wasn’t sure exactly where. From the gasping and spluttering that followed, she guessed it had probably been his throat.

She lashed out with a solid kick, hitting him in the chest. There was a thud with a metallic ring and Konnect assumed he had hit his head. He crumpled to the floor and she let out a sigh of relief.

“I think he’s down,” she said, edging closer.

The lack of movement from him reassured her and she gave him the best check-up she could in the dark. His lack of reaction convinced her he probably was unconscious at her feet.

“Can you get the police here?” Konnect asked.

She heard Rick agree to and then the sound of him getting to work at the keyboard. They often sent the police written messages so they didn’t get samples of them talking that they could use. Knowing Rick would send the police to her location, Konnect decided it was time to get ready to leave.

She reached out with her powers, sensing her mobile phone was lying on the ground nearby. She looked down and grimaced as she saw it had landed in the stream of sewage beside her.

#konnect #story #fiction #superhero #superheroines #superheroine #teen fiction #book #booklr #author #selfpublish

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rachel-writes101 · 5 years ago

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Konnect: Hackers

Taylor Springer winced as she heard a computer in the back room of the shop begin to bleep urgently. She had been helping Rick set up the laptop of an elderly customer who relied on their computer repair shop for all technological advice and sent her friend a look of alarm as she began to slip away. They had been nervously awaiting the inevitable call into action.

Taylor was almost out of the room when their elderly client noticed the noise.

“What is that?” he asked. “Nothing bad I hope.”

Rick sent Taylor a knowing look. It was something bad. The sort of something bad that would require immediate attention. Still, he scrambled to reassure the man, a Mr Hendriks, that it was nothing.

“It’s just a computer telling me it has finished compiling,” Taylor said, flashing Mr Hendriks a winning smile as she hurried from the room.

Taylor rushed into action the moment she had closed the door to the back room. There had been a series of cyberattacks on businesses in the city. She and Rick had managed to work out where the attack would take place and had been monitoring the company’s systems in the hope they might be able to intervene. They were the people best placed to handle it. Taylor was Copperby’s resident superhero, a teenaged girl with the ability to control electrical devices, fire lightning blasts and access a digital world she and her allies had christened the Technosphere. Rick helped her keep sane as she navigated high school, superhero life and running a computer repair store.

Taylor took a seat and shut off the alarm on her computer. She could see that the firewalls were slowly beginning to crumble. The business, Prinsen Industries, was a tech company so Taylor expected it would have the ability to withstand a run-of-the-mill cyberattack. But the hackers they were dealing with were a coordinated group of some of the best non-powered hackers she had come across. And she was friends with some of the best in the country.

She was preparing to go into the Technosphere when Rick rushed in.

“Is it happening?” Rick asked.

Taylor nodded.

“You gonna be okay if I keep the shop open or should I shut it up?”

Taylor considered the offer. There wasn’t much Rick could do. He was very useful if she was out in the city fighting someone as Konnect, he could provide a second pair of eyes, keep her up to date so she would focus more on defending herself. However, he didn’t have the same powers she had – he didn’t have any powers at all. And that meant he could do very little to help her.

“Keep the shop open,” Taylor told him. “I will call you if I need you.”

Rick nodded.

“Good luck,” he said before shuffling back out of the room.

Taylor looked back at the computer. It was continuing to monitor the cyberattack and things were not going well for Prinsen Industries.

She quickly checked that the desk was clear and then slowly lowered herself forwards, her mind latching onto the electricity pulsing around her.

The technosphere felt refreshingly cold. The air crackled with electricity, making Taylor feel as though power was racing through her veins. It was plain, perhaps a little clinical. All the furniture around her was various shades of dark grey. The only splash of colour came from electricity. All the technology in the room glowed light blue and rivers of the same light blue energy filled the air around her.

Taylor took a deep breath, adjusting to the body she had in the technosphere. Her physical form remained behind in the real world. Whatever her form in the technosphere was, Taylor was sure a large amount of it relied on her mind and how she viewed herself. It felt like a version of herself from a dream. She was wearing the usual light blue jumpsuit she wore in the technosphere. She was comfortable in it, it felt like a second skin. Taylor thought it was similar. She had first entered the technosphere when she was a young child. It had terrified her but she had grown used to it as she had gotten older. She had been in the same bright blue jumpsuit when she had first entered. It had just seemed to grow with her.

However, Taylor knew she couldn’t spend too long relaxing. She had work to do.

Thinking about the Prinsen Industries computer system, Taylor reached out for the blue outline of her computer. She just needed to touch it to convey the instructions she had for it. Immediately she felt a tug from the computer, feeling like electricity had latched onto every muscle in her body and dragged her forwards. There was a blinding flash and Taylor screwed her eyes shut.

When Taylor felt the tug on her suddenly fall away, she felt as though she had just stepped off a wild roller coaster. She slowly peeled one eye open, checking that she was where she had wanted to go.

She was standing in a virtual version of the Prinsen Industries lobby. She had never been there in person before but she had hacked the company’s CCTV that morning to see if they had heeded her warning that theirs was the next system being targeted by the hacking group. The lobby was minimalist, full of the same colourless furniture from the shop. Taylor was the only human figure. Although the technosphere looked like the city, it was a virtual version and therefore most people couldn’t enter it physically.

Still, Taylor wasn’t alone. Dozens of pulsing bright blue spheres hung in the air. They were roughly the size of footballs, flicking about furiously, full of purpose. Taylor knew each one was a hacker. She was the only person she knew of who naturally had a human form in the Technosphere. The artificially intelligent computer virus who had given her her powers also had a humanoid form but that wasn’t human to start with so she didn’t think it counted.

Normally she would have no difficulty with tackling such hackers. They were so simple compared to her but the sheer number of them was concerning. And she was just in the lobby, there were bound to be many more scattered throughout the building.

She scanned the room, looking for the best place to land her first blast. They all seemed too focused on their task to have noticed her but the moment she launched her attack, she knew they would all be after her. She noticed a gaggle of the spheres had formed around a computer on a front desk and decided that would be the best place to start.

She fired a blast of electricity across the room. Two of the spheres exploded into binary coding before fizzling away like fireworks. The other spheres spun wildly away from the blast, some lurching about wildly in the air. Taylor watched as the spheres around her began to still. Taylor felt as if there were hundreds of sets of eyes on her.

Suddenly the spheres charged at her. Taylor scrambled to manipulate the world around her. Rectangles erupted out of the floor, rising around her to form walls. It had been a desperate move, one that wasn’t exactly precise. There were gaps through which she could see the spheres pounding at the walls around her, doing everything they could to try and smash their way through. Taylor swallowed hard.

She had really underestimated the hackers she was dealing with. There were so many. She took a deep breath and decided her best move was to try to limit the number that could come at her at once.

The walls around her were beginning to crack from the constant blows coming from the spheres around her. Taylor looked through the gaps between the walls, grinning when she saw a corridor leading away. That should form enough of a bottleneck to level the playing field. She just needed to get to it. She took a deep breath and stood, raising both her hands in preparation. Then she used her powers to lower the wall between her and the corridor. The moment the gap was wide enough, spheres began to spill into Taylor’s box. One slammed into her before she had the chance to blast it but she managed to catch it before it could dart back. With a blast of electricity, she shut it off, killing the computer the hacker was using.

Then she sprinted forward. A sphere swiped her from the side, almost knocking her off balance. She fired a wild blast over her shoulder, catching the nearest of the spheres that were chasing her.

A wave of relief filled Taylor as she was able to skid into the corridor. It wasn’t much of a bottleneck but it was definitely far better than being in the lobby where she could be attacked from all sides. She unleashed blast after blast, watching as the spheres exploded. She was thankful that the damage she was doing seemed to be permanent. No new spheres were forming.

A few were able to get close to her but Taylor dissipated them quickly. One sphere crashed into her arm, forcing her to retreat further down the corridor to stop herself from becoming trapped in the buffeting swarm.

She continued down the corridor, aware that the attack on the company’s system had completely stopped. It was a small victory but Taylor knew it meant that all the spheres were focused on her.

She continued to fire rapid blasts, doing everything in her power to ensure the spheres did not reach her.

She felt the air behind her shift. Then a sphere slammed into Taylor’s back. She was knocked off her feet, sent flying down the corridor. She hit the floor hard and gasped in pain as spheres began to swarm over her.

She covered her head with her arms, biting her lip to stop herself from crying out again. The spheres rained down on her like kicks and punches. Taylor tried to focus enough to bring up the walls once more, desperately hoping for something to shield her. She couldn’t make them rise around her. Feeling panic rising in her, she tried to summon as much electricity as possible.

Then she battled to sit up, forcing the electricity out of her. The air filled with explosions of blue pixels. She stood up, drawing more power into her. She pointed down the corridor at one gathering group of spheres, the ones from the lobby and fired. Blue light flashed and burnt through the air. They were all broken apart, the lobby suddenly clear. Taylor turned sharply, watching as all the spheres from the building poured into the corridor. She raised her hands, preparing to fire another enormous blast.

Then she stopped herself. She couldn’t just stop the attack. There would just be another one. She needed to know where the attack had originated.

She lowered one hand and prepared to fire a more controlled blast. She let the lightning dance between the spheres, destroying them each in turn.

Eventually, she was done. One sphere remained, just as she had intended. She made her way towards it. It was hanging in the air, almost as though it was confused. Then it tried to launch itself towards her. Taylor wondered for a brief moment if it was considering trying to hack her. It stood no chance but the idea amused her a little. She caught the sphere but instead of blasting it and wrecking the computer, she closed her eyes. It wasn’t hard for her to find the IP address of the computer. It had been obscured, trying to convince her the hack was coming from an address in Germany. However, she quickly saw past it and realised the hack had originated from Scotland. She fired a blast to dissipate the sphere and looked around to ensure the hack really had ended.

A quick check of the computer system assured her all attempts to breach the firewalls had stopped and she prepared to leave the technosphere, sending the police the information she had gathered about those who were behind the attack.

Taylor emerged onto the shop floor, blinded by the sunlight spilling in through the large windows. Rick was sitting at the front desk, revising from a chemistry book. He looked up sharply when Taylor entered, desperate to rush to her side and ask what had happened. His eyes flicked onto the customer browsing their collection of restored laptops and Taylor saw Rick force himself to remain calm.

“Everything sorted?” Rick asked.

Taylor gave him a wide smile and nodded proudly.

#konnect #story #superhero #superheroine #superheroines #fiction #teen fiction #book #booklr #author #selfpublish

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rachel-writes101 · 5 years ago

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Konnect: Lightning

It had started out as a request. Their old boss had asked Rick to walk Taylor home because the neighbourhood she lived in wasn’t the safest. Then it had become tradition. He’d enjoyed their walks where they talked about school and work and their hobbies.

Eventually, it had become an inside joke because of the absurdity of Taylor, the city’s superhero, needing to be walked home. They’d talk about the crimes they had stopped, about the homework they needed to find time to do and joke that Taylor should be walking Rick home instead.

It was raining that night and Taylor didn’t have an umbrella – hers had broken during a particularly nasty storm and she’d not gotten round to replacing it – so the two walked close together, sheltering under Rick’s.

They weren’t far from Taylor’s apartment building. Rick thought it was an ugly building but it wasn’t the ugliest building of the four Wraxton Square towers. Although they were meant to be identical, something about the West Tower always made it look bad.

The doorway to Taylor’s tower, the East Tower, was in sight when a low chuckle rolled through the night like a thick fog. Taylor stiffened, not out of fear but the way a child would when they had been caught doing something they shouldn’t have. Rick knew what normally brought on the gesture in Taylor. She had been dealing with a danger she had neglected to tell him about.

Slowly the two turned. Three men stood before them. All were in their early twenties, wearing scruffy designer labelled jackets. One of them produced a flick blade as he led the way towards them. Rick wasn’t sure if he was the leader but he was certainly the boldest.

“Frankie, don’t do this,” Taylor said.

Rick guessed to the three it sounded alarmed but he knew Taylor well enough to see through any act she put on. She was tired. And trying to work out the best way to handle the guys without having to expose her secret identity.

“We heard your rich boyfriend liked to walk you home at this time,” Frankie said, grinning like a crocodile.

Rick sighed. He wasn’t rich. Nor was he Taylor’s boyfriend. But he guessed, compared to Taylor, and Frankie and his gang if they lived in Wraxton Square, he was rich.

“So what have you got for us?” one of Frankie’s lackeys asked.

He was heavily muscular, looking like he could knock a person out with a single punch. Rick couldn’t help but take a step back when their eyes met.

He noticed Taylor was standing her ground, her blue eyes bright, challenging the trio to try something. Frankie took a step towards her, reaching out towards her shoulder.

“Taylor, think you could tell your boyfriend to play along?” Frankie asked.

The moment his hand touched her shoulder, there was the snap of static electricity. Frankie recoiled like he had been bitten.

“Seems like there’s a storm coming,” Taylor said, calmly.

Rick could sense from the energy in the air that her next move was coming. He waited to see what it was.

And then, a bolt of lightning hit the ground beside Taylor. The flash of light was blinding. Rick would feel the heat. He felt the hair on his arms stand to attention. Frankie and his lackeys gave joint cries of alarm. They turned, sprinting off into the night.

Taylor watched them go. Then she slowly turned to Rick.

“How did you do that?” he asked, hurrying over to her.

“The powerlines going to the tower,” Taylor explained, calmly.

She began to hurry on, leaving the lightning’s scorch mark behind.

“Hopefully that’ll put them off something like that for a while.”

#konnect #book #superhero #superheroines #booklr #story #fiction #teen fiction #superheroine #author #selfpublish

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rachel-writes101 · 5 years ago

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Konnect: The Mistake

Emily Rook hoped this would be the incident that would cause Oscar to see sense but she wasn’t going to hold her breath. Nor was she particularly happy about the way things were playing out.

Despite her ordering (and often pleading for) him not to go to the industrial ring her little brother hung out there almost every day. The ring of warehouses and abandoned factory lots wasn’t exactly old. Most had been built in the 90s during the technological and industrial boom that had decided which companies got to rule the Copperby skyline. But it was still dangerous. There were all sorts of chemicals in the soils and some of the under-maintained buildings had collapsed. And the space was a haven for criminals – particularly with the main streets of Copperby regularly patrolled by a superhero.

Not that Oscar had the sense to not visit the ring because of any of that. He had been there that evening, messing around with his friends. The details of the story were a little unclear to Emily but she gathered one of Oscar’s gaggle of bad influences had heard a noise and the group had decided to investigate. The noise had been coming from an old warehouse and the boys had been right outside when they had heard what sounded like a voice calling for help. The singular brain cell her little brother possessed had convinced him not to go in and investigate. In fact, he had pulled out his phone to call the police and had intended to do so until he had been spooked by a noise from the warehouse. Later Oscar would dismiss it as a prank, say he wasn’t really scared at all. But Emily knew her little brother too well and even if she didn’t, a group of fourteen-year-olds didn’t run scared for no reason.

Emily hadn’t wanted to go out there at all but Oscar had dropped his phone in his mad sprint back and had told her he had no intention of going back alone. She had driven him as close as the road would allow and followed him as he picked his way over to where he believed his phone would be.

She couldn’t ignore the way her brother glanced around furtively. He jumped at every shadow, tried to stay in the pools of moonlight.

“It was probably just some kids playing a trick.”

She just wanted him to get his phone so they could get out of there. Their parents would be getting back soon and, even if she ignored the fact they would be furious at Oscar for dropping his phone, it was dark. Every second they were there was a second they could be mugged.

“It’s that one,” Oscar said, pointing out a warehouse on the horizon.

It was a decrepit building, exactly the sort of place that Emily had feared her brother was hanging out at. She went to head towards it but Oscar caught her arm.

“What if it’s still in there?” he hissed urgently.

Emily shook his arm off.

“It was probably just a kid playing a prank. You said so yourself.”

She had hoped it would be enough to get Oscar moving again but his feet never moved. Emily gave an exaggerated sigh and turned, calling over her shoulder that the faster they found his phone, the faster they could go home.

She was almost half-way to the warehouse when Oscar decided he would rather be at his sister’s side than standing in the middle of an open space alone. He gave a strangled cry and hurried after her, almost colliding with her when she stopped dead.

There was the sound of a motorbike’s engine in the air. Emily looked back at the road and grimaced. The bike looked just like any other motorbike but the rider was instantly recognisable: Konnect. The city’s superhero.

The moonlight made her white hair look like a trail of smoke behind her and her costume, all silver and blue, shone like metal. She stopped her bike a short distance from where Emily had parked and seemed to be speaking to someone as she killed the engine.

“Konnect?” Oscar gasped. “Maybe she can help me find my phone.”

Emily shook her head and began to usher her brother towards the warehouse. Konnect rarely came to the ring unless there was a crime that had brought her there. Emily did not doubt that a fight was about to erupt. She wanted herself and Oscar on the other side of the city before that happened.

“Let’s just get your phone and get out of here.”

Sensing the urgency in her tone, Oscar nodded. He let her lead the way over to the warehouse and grinned when he found his phone nestled in a bed of weeds just at the edge of the concrete border. There was a door ahead of them, the door Oscar had been considering going inside just then.

“You got it?” Emily said, grinning when she saw her brother hold up his scuffed mobile. “Let’s go.”

Oscar chewed on his lip, his eyes playing across the door.

“Maybe we should look inside. If there is someone…”

He trailed off.

Emily bit the inside of her mouth and felt like shaking some sense into her brother. However she stopped herself. She strutted forwards, grabbing the handle of the door. She desperately hoped that it was locked. When she felt the door give at her turning of the handle, she knew she had mistakenly hoped for one thing that day to go right. She edged the door open and peered into the gloom. Oscar shifted closer to her, partly so he could look into the room and partly out of the need for comfort.

The room was too dark for them to make anything out for a few moments. Emily squinted, sure she could see something in the centre of the room. She fumbled along the side of the wall for a light switch and yelped when there was suddenly light from her side. Oscar turned to her, shining the torch on his phone directly into her eyes.

“Oscar!” Emily snapped, turning away.

She rubbed her eyes as black spots swum through her vision. Oscar moved past her, ducking into the warehouse. Emily went to call him back but her words caught in her throat when she heard her brother speak.

“What on…?”

His voice trailed off, snatched away by a wave of confusion. Emily battled to clear her vision and followed him inside. Oscar’s torch was trained on the object she had seen before. It was a cage, narrow – not wide enough for a person to lie down in – but tall enough for a person to comfortably stand in. It was completely bare, nothing to indicate what had been inside it. However, Emily knew exactly how the thing had gotten out.

One wall of bars was completely bent outwards, torn up from the bottom and wrestled upwards like a garage door. Oscar looked at Emily, eyes wide.

“What could have done that?” he hissed.

Emily sent him a look that was meant to ask how she could possibly know an answer to that. However, the moment was snatched by a terrible growling from behind them. Emily felt her heart stop. Her stomach twisted. She went to look over her shoulder but couldn’t bring herself to turn the entire way. Oscar looked and screamed.

Something slammed into him. The torch went flying, skidding across the floor. The light was fixed on the ceiling. Emily could hear the terrified cries and screamed Oscar’s name in response. He never managed a clear reply, terror stealing all sense from his words.

Emily began to sprint towards his phone. If she could get to the torch, get some idea of what was going on, she might be able to save her brother.

Suddenly blinding light flooded the warehouse. Emily rubbed her eyes feverishly, trying to make sense of what was going on. She heard Oscar’s cries fade, replaced by a horrific growling sound. Then she sensed movement nearby. She forced herself to brave the brightness and realised every light in the warehouse had been turned on. Beside her stood Konnect, staring defiantly at something across the room.

Emily turned. She bit her lip to hold back the yelp that almost escaped her. A monstrous creature was bearing down on her brother. It was the size of a lion with tufts of black hair erupting from blistered, rash-ridden skin. Uneven serrated teeth hung from its open mouth. It was on all fours over Oscar but rose up onto its back legs when it saw Konnect. Emily watched as the bones in its hips mashed into place. Then a roar forced itself from the thing’s throat.

“What is that?” Emily screamed as it took a step towards the two of them.

Konnect raised a hand, electricity arcing between her fingers as a warning. Emily almost stumbled back as the creature let out another deafening roar.

Then it lunged towards them.

The three fingers on its hands were each tipped with a long claw that swung through the air millimetres away from the two of them. Konnect let a blast fly out of her hand, the electricity slamming into the chest of the creature. It collapsed onto its knees, arching in pain.

Konnect shoved Emily in the direction of Oscar as she made her way towards the creature. It snarled at Emily as she edged towards her brother but Konnect clapped her hands, bringing the beast’s attention on her once more. It forced itself to its feet again and charged. Konnect dodged just in time, firing a shot of electricity at the creature as it passed her.

Emily reached Oscar and scrambled to check him over. He was bruised, a little confused and the skin around his neck was covered with shallow cuts. He stammered over a response, clinging to his sister as she pulled him close.

Emily looked up just in time to see the beast charge at Konnect again. The hero wasn’t able to dive away fast enough. A sharp claw cut through her costume, drawing blood as it slashed her arm. Konnect cried out, a hand immediately flying up to stem the bleeding. The creature seemed satisfied, something akin to a cackle falling from between its jagged teeth.

Konnect fired a blast at it. It dodged and sprung towards her.

The hero stood there, staring down the monster. She let it come closer and closer, so close that Emily was sure she was going to be taken down. Emily looked away, trying to cover her ears with her shoulders to keep out the inevitable screams.

Then there was a flash of light. Emily felt the hair on her arms stand on end at the energy in the air. She heard something heavy hit the floor and turned her attention upwards.

Konnect was standing over the supine form of the creature, hands raised in preparation for having to deal another blow. Emily could see the blood on one of Konnect’s gloves, the wound on her arm stopping her from raising it fully.

Seeing her injured, standing over such a large beast, Emily realised Konnect wasn’t much older than her younger brother. She removed her coat and folded it neatly, tucking it underneath Oscar’s head. He barely seemed to notice, staring in terrified awe at the hero and the creature. Emily crossed towards Konnect.

“Are you okay?” Emily asked, nodding towards the cut on her arm.

Konnect looked at the wound as though she had forgotten it was there. Emily supposed it was possible when adrenaline took over. Konnect carefully slid her hand back in place covering it and told Emily it was fine.

“Going to be hard to cover.”

Konnect paused for a second before signalling for Emily to stay quiet for a moment. Then the hero tapped her own forehead.

“Hey, it’s down. Image should be coming through now. Can you ensure the police know what they are dealing with?”

Emily waited for some voice to sound, unsure exactly who Konnect was talking to. However, after a long moment of silence, Konnect gave Emily an expectant smile.

“What is that thing?” Emily asked eventually, looking at the crumpled form of the creature.

Even unconscious, skin slightly singed from the blast that had taken it down, it was still terrifying. Emily was certain she would not be standing so close if not for the presence of the superhero.

“Lab accident. I received word it was being smuggled into Copperby as part of a cover-up,” Konnect explained. “Thought I should get it into the hands of someone responsible before someone got hurt.”

Emily nodded, looking past Konnect. Konnect crossed the room silently and picked up Oscar’s phone. She gestured to Emily’s little brother.

“He should be seen by a doctor. He doesn’t look too bad but I think he hit his head when…”

Konnect looked down at the creature and Emily nodded. She carefully guided Oscar to his feet. He was a little unsteady, his eyes a little unfocused. Konnect handed her Oscar’s mobile and asked if they had a way of getting to the hospital. Emily reassured her they did. She began to help Oscar out, looking back at the creature and Konnect when she reached the doorway.

“Do they happen a lot? Lab accidents I mean?”

Konnect paused for a moment and then grasped what Emily was carefully enquiring. She sighed.

“More than you’d think. But sometimes good comes out of them.”

“Thank you,” Emily said before leading Oscar out into the night.

#konnect #superhero #superheroine #fiction #teen fiction #story #book #booklr #selfpublish

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rachel-writes101 · 5 years ago

Text

Konnect: Gloves

It was a cold day but Taylor Springer didn’t care. She had never minded the cold. She was used to it given how temperamental the heating in her flat was. And the day had been too good to let a cold snap worry her.

She was walking through a charming residential neighbourhood with her oldest friend, Bethan Pettit. The two were heavily laden with shopping bags, most full of Christmas presents but one was crammed with snacks for their festive film marathon at Bethan’s house that night. They had been planning the event for several weeks and the day had been perfect, just cold enough to put them in a festive mood, enough icy patches that they could chuckle when the other slid slightly. But neither were too bad for it to be unpleasant. They would have a cosy night taking over the Pettit lounge before retreating up to Bethan’s room for a sleepover.

It was only because they had almost reached Bethan’s house that Taylor was wearing her gloves and scarf. She didn’t feel like she needed them but she knew Bethan’s father was always greatly concerned for the health of her and all of Bethan’s friends. And Taylor was the one he worried about the most as he always thought she looked concerningly pale.

Bethan had just finished gossiping about the sixth former who worked behind the counter of the video game store they had visited on the edge of town when there was a wailing of sirens in the distance.

Taylor frowned and tried to give Bethan all the signals she was still listening as her powers searched the police systems for some information on what was going on.

Her heart stopped for a moment.

“You okay?” Bethan asked, immediately recognising the panic on her friend’s face.

A car had failed to stop for police. The car was stolen. The suspect was believed to be carrying a knife.

“Didn’t forget something, did you?”

Taylor had hoped she might have a night off crime-fighting. She had looked at the crime statistics. She knew crime increased around Christmas and had been willing to accept that she would have to work as Konnect more over the holiday season. Still, she had hoped she might be able to spend some time with her mother and friends before the crime rate picked up too dramatically.

“No. I’m… I’m fine,” Taylor said.

She would leave the police to handle it. It seemed they had it in hand after all and she couldn’t step in every time someone broke the law.

She offered Bethan a winning smile in the hope it would placate her friend. Bethan grinned back before stopping abruptly. Taylor’s own smile instantly died away as she watched her friend. Bethan wrestled with her coat and bags for a moment and grumbled beneath her breath. Sensing what her friend was trying to do, Taylor held out her hand.

“Pass them here,” Taylor said, gesturing to the number of bags Bethan held.

Bethan looked hesitant for a moment and Taylor guessed Bethan had managed to covertly buy Taylor’s present when they had been out. Still, she had no intention of looking. She had already accidentally found out what her mother had brought her by reading the email using her powers.

Eventually, Bethan decided to accept the help. She dropped her bags into Taylor’s hand, a little disappointed her friend had no trouble with the weight of them. Then she began to fumble with her zip.

“I should have worn gloves,” Bethan said.

“You want to take mine?” Taylor asked.

Bethan knew about Taylor rarely feeling the cold but also had come to suspect her friend didn’t enjoy the feeling of wearing gloves. She shook her head good-naturedly and turned her attention back to getting her coat on. As Bethan’s cold fingers struggled with the small pieces of metal, Taylor found herself unable to resist the urge to check on the car chase. She could hear the sirens had gotten closer but was still shocked when she realised that the car was just one street away. Her stomach dropped as she heard the screech of overworked breaks. Then a car careened around the corner.

Taylor watched as determination melted into panic as the driver of the speeding car wrestled with the steering wheel. The tyres skidded wildly on the icy road. A terrible realisation fell upon Taylor like a pile of bricks: the car was going to crash. She scanned the road as quickly as possible, looking for anyone who might be in danger. It was just her and Bethan alone on the residential street. Relieved she turned back to see where the car was going to end up.

It was heading straight towards her and Bethan.

Instinct took over. Taylor tackled her friend to the floor. They skidded and slid and rolled over each over until slamming against a wooden fence. Taylor heard Bethan shout a protest before it was drowned out by the sound of the car slamming into the wall they had just been standing next to. Taylor prepared to leap off her friend, wanting to be free to make a move the moment it was needed. She had landed on top of Bethan, her friend dazed and confused by the sudden events. Taylor twisted about to check on the driver of the car only for the sound of metal crumpling and glass shattering to fill the air once more. Taylor snapped around to stare, realising the pursuing police car had hit the same patch of ice and spun into a lamppost. The lamppost was dented, the car’s front bonnet crumpled, the police officer lying dazed with his head against a deflated airbag.

Taylor immediately drew all power from the lamppost, wanting to ensure the situation didn’t get any worse. Bethan was beginning to recover, her attention drawn to the police car with its siren fizzling out.

Taylor looked back at the first car, wondering if the driver from that vehicle was also dazed. She was amazed to see him wrestle open his door and take an awkward step towards them. There was a gash on the side of his face but he didn’t seem to notice it. He didn’t seem to notice anything but the police officer dazed in his car. Taylor watched as he jammed a hand into his back pocket and swallowed hard. She wasn’t surprised when she saw the hand return with a gun. Still, she knew she would have to make her move fast.

She spared a glance towards Bethan and saw her friend was still staring in horror at the police car. She probably hadn’t truly registered the first car’s collision with the wall. Taylor decided to use it.

She raised her hand, firing an arc of electricity from her fingertips. It slammed into the man’s chest, knocking him down. The gun went flying from his hand, skidding across the icy road until it stopped out of reach.

“He’s got a gun!” Taylor shouted, peeling herself away from Bethan.

She heard a panic cry being drawn from her friend as she raced towards the man. Knowing the gun was out of his reach, Taylor knew she could pin him safely. She quickly rolled him onto his back, forcing his arms behind him and holding them there as she shouted for Bethan to call the police.

Once the police and ambulance crews arrived, Taylor and Bethan were mostly abandoned to the side of the road. Taylor was used to dealing with police from her adventures as Konnect so she managed to race through the questions they had for her. They offered to call her mother but Taylor suggested she make the call herself from Bethan’s house as her mother would be working and she didn’t want to worry her. Taylor took a seat on the curb, watching as the officers did what they could to clear up the scene. A crowd had gathered to watch, a few journalists trying to catch her attention so they could ask her questions. Taylor stared decisively down at her feet and then at her hands, doing all she could to ensure she didn’t catch anyone’s eyes. Then she noticed snatches of her pale skin through her gloves. She turned her right hand over and stared at the five holes, each hole matching up with a fingertip. They had been burnt through by the blast of electricity – she could see the singeing around the edges. Grimacing, Taylor peeled off the gloves and stuffed them into the shopping bag that rested beside her. She had no way of explaining that sort of damage.

“I think they’re willing to let us go now,” a voice from above her said.

Taylor jumped and looked up to see Bethan standing over her. She had her shopping bags in her hand and a smile on her face. Taylor knew her friend well enough to know she was still shaken but that it was something time and a little distraction could fix. She grinned at Bethan and stood.

“Where are your gloves?” Bethan asked, frowning.

Taylor glanced down at her hands and hopelessly fished for an excuse. Bethan gave her a knowing smile that told Taylor she was being petty for removing her gloves in such bad weather.

“Must have lost them in the chaos, right?” Bethan said.

She linked arms with her friend and they turned towards the barrier of police tape to finish their walk home.

#konnect #story #writing #book #booklr #superhero #fiction #teen #teen fiction #superheroine #author #selfpublish

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