Chapter 6
"With or Without You"
By Don Lund
Mickey caught herself in a daze as images sped past the windows of the subway car when the lights flickered momentarily and snapped her back to the present. She looked around to see a few tired faces among the other passengers joining her on an early morning sojourn beneath the city.
She glared at the papers in her lap and rolled her eyes, "I can't believe the nerve of that guy giving me a C minus on my journalism ethics paper," Mickey thought to herself. She had finally found a subject the filled her with enough passion to pursue it as a career and here was a Professor who had nothing but negative feedback for her ideals. Either in the classroom or reflected directly with consistently poor marks on her opinion papers.
"What does he mean I'll never sell any papers with this kind of attitude?" as she continued her conversation in silence with herself. "Just because I think the media should consider the emotions of the people we write about?"
And then she accidentally broke the morning quiet as her next words slipped out, "What attitude?! Oops, sorry."
She didn't want to worry about it anymore, not on a Saturday morning. She didn't want to deal with parents either, so she was searching for a complete escape from the mundane routine that her college schedule had become. She was looking for her fellow Warriors and on a trip to a place that always provided a little comfort and solace since the lives of her friends weren't any easier. Heck, she even hoped they would find a little trouble, she almost felt like she needed to be a hero today, to be Turbo again.
The rest of the trip to the home away from home, affectionately called, the Crash Pad went without incident. As she entered through the doorway, she stopped after only taking a single step into the main room. The couch was over on its side, newspapers and pizza boxes were strewn in every direction, and she glanced to the right only to see a smashed end table and broken glass from a lamp. She instinctively powered up her Turbo outfit and reached for her com badge to alert the team. Mickey knew her pals weren't exactly neat freaks in the upkeep of the place, but it looked like a fight had destroyed most of the interior of their haven.
Turbo then heard a slight groan from under a pile of papers and what looked like a torn blanket over in the far right corner of the room. She ran over and with her wristband she created a gentle breeze to push back the papers and blanket to see who was hurting. "Ohmygosh, Elvin? Are you okay, what happened here?"
Elvin let another groan slip out and then he rolled over and continued to remain unconscious. "Rage, what are you doing here? Wake-up!" her voice betrayed a slight sense of panic as she examined him for potential injuries.
"Hey, he's still tired Mickey. What, you sounded a general alert just so we could wake the big guy?" said the very familiar voice of Robbie Baldwin.
Turbo turned to see Robbie and Rina coming from out from a side door hand-in-hand.
"I didn't know," Turbo said. "What did you people do here last night?"
Robbie let go of Rina's hand with a slight blush. "Oh, you mean the little mess?"
"Little mess? Robbie this is hundreds of dollars worth of damage," Turbo started the big sister lecture.
"C'mon Mickey, you ever try to play Twister with Elvin?" Robbie said. "We just had a slight accident is all. Elvin couldn't get his leg crossed over to the yellow circle on that last spin. Me and Rina were stuck underneath him, so I powered up when he lost his balance, so he wouldn't squish us and he sorta bounced off me."
"Then Elvin wasn't happy about being bounced and he tried to tackle Robbie," Rina continued the story. "Robbie kind of tried to run away and they only wrestled around for couple minutes."
"I guess it would only take a minute or two to wreck the place with you guys goofing off," Mickey replied. She sighed. "I was trying to get away from stress. Oh gosh. I hit the com badge, how am I going to explain this to-"
"Hey, where's the fire Toothpick?" asked Nova as he flew in from the top bay window. "Cheezus, what did you guys do last night, is that Rage in a heap over there? And who the hell got me up early on cartoon day without it being a real emergency?"
"I made the call," Turbo said. "I'm sorry, I jumped to conclusions when came in. I was a bit edgy coming in."
"Where's Carlton, Cloak and Dagger?" as Rich continued his questions without pause.
"Cloak was having some weird headaches and flashbacks, so Hindsight helped Tandy get him over to see Doctor Strange," said Rina. "He had worked with both Cloak and Dagger before and Tandy thought that was the best way to help him. I tried, but I still can't seem to get any more than random looks into the timeline."
Robbie knew this still bothered Rina about her inability so he reached our gently massaged her shoulder.
Elvin worked himself up into a sitting position and started wiping the sleep from his tired eyes, "Wow, what are all of you doing here, what time is it?"
"Time for you party animals to clean the place up and for me to get some sleep of my own," Rich said. "Rage man, aren't you supposed to be learning somethin' somewhere?"
"Not on Friday nights," Elvin replied with a smile big enough to melt Nova's groggy tantrum. It was also enough to start a chain reaction of laughter that eliminated any tension the Warriors were feeling. Nova ditched his monkey suit and joined in the banter.
The team started picking up the remnants of the old warehouse and utilizing the time as a chance to catch up with each other. As they restored some order to the Pad, the police scanner blared loudly near the computers. It took a moment for the team to realize the events being described were about Night Thrasher.
"Well Mickey, you said you were looking forward to playing around in costume today, you wanna' help me baby-sit our new Thrash?" Rich asked.
"Sure," Mickey responded. "What is it with you and the men who wear that armor?"
Nova grumbled and the two flying Warriors departed quickly in search of the trouble spot. Moments later it was worse then the Human Rocket had imagined, as he looked down below to an ally where Thrash was locked in hand-to-hand combat with a half dozen of New York's Finest.
"Wait, Nova," Mickey warned, "There might be a reasonable explanation."
"Reasonable my @$#, we're supposed to help the cops, not beat 'em up," Nova said as streaked toward the scene. Thrash never saw the streak of blue and gold as he was swept off his feet moved into the air at a high rate of speed. As the people and buildings below began to shrink from view, Trash regained his composure and swept his hands out from his body, breaking Nova's tenuous grip on his arms.
"Go ahead and fall," Nova said. "I'm tired of dealing with your crap."
"Like I ain't tired of all your self-righteous hero-speak," Trey said as he fell away and began to plummet toward the city skyline.
"Damn, it is too far up, his armor will not help him from this height," Nova exclaimed. As he started to descend in order to help Thrash, he saw Turbo flying up from between the buildings and she caught Trey and eased him onto a nearby rooftop. When Nova reached the same roof, the argument resumed.
"Would you two stop it! Mickey screamed, "Rich this isn't Dwayne, it's Trey, stop taking out old frustrations." "I got plenty of new frustrations with Trey," Rich replied, "He's using Dwayne's armor and rep to beat down gang bangers from his old neighborhood, he doesn't have the heart of Warrior."
"What you know or care about my 'hood white bread," Trey hissed. "You ever seen your best friend shot in the streets out there in the suburbs?"
"Oh, it's like that now," Rich said. "No, I didn't see any big gang problems where I grew up, but you can't possibly believe you're the only one who has seen nasty &*# happen in his life. My brother lost a finger to criminals because of who I am, I didn't go off and kill the bad guys or beat them bloody. For cryin' out loud, we all just lost Sil. You think any of this is easy?"
"Fine, I don't need Dwayne's armor to get done what I need to get done," said Trey.
"Resignation accepted," replied Nova through clenched teeth.
"Who made you responsible for who is and who isn't a Warrior" Turbo asked.
"What, you going to bail him out of jail when the cops finally catch up to him?" Nova said sarcastically.
"Maybe we should take a just minute to find out what was going on down there," Turbo replied. "Didn't you jump my case this morning for jumping to conclusions. You know, Thrash isn't the only with a temper that can get out of hand around here."
"He don't want to hear my sob story and I'm not sure I care enough to tell him," Trey said as he continued to peel off the high tech armor and slam pieces of it down onto the rooftop.
"Then tell me," said Mickey.
"You guys have regular picnic up here if you want, I'm done with this guy," Nova said as he moved off the roof in the direction of the Crash Pad.
"The police arrested someone from my neighborhood," Trey said, his eyes following Nova's flight path across the sky. "They got the wrong person, an innocent person and they roughed him up pretty good. I was trying to explain that to the arresting officer when he called for back up and claimed I was in on this robbery somehow. I shoulda' asked the team for help on this, I know that now. I was just defending myself down there."
Mickey reached out as if to offer a hug, but Trey put his arm out to hold her back, "I really appreciate you believing in me Mickey, it means a LOT. Rider was being a jerk as usual, but maybe he is right. Maybe I'm not ready to deal with this hero stuff just yet. I still punch first and ask questions later. Just let me think on it a bit." "Okay, Trey take your time," Turbo said. "Rich was right about one thing, this isn't easy, making quick decisions that effect other people's lives. My costume was a shared one, but my first partner died protecting the ideals of it and me. The fact you recognize your temper means you're moving in a good direction. I think you have what it takes to be a part of this team."
"Thanks again Mickey, but I do have some thinking to do," Trey said. "Could you take this armor back to the pad 'til I figure this out? And, I might need a decent lawyer, you know any?"
"Just a few volunteer lawyers at the campus, but we will help you get through this," Turbo replied. "Why don't you hold on to Night Thrasher equipment until you decide what to do."
"Alright, I'll hold onto it," Trey said. "Tell Rider..tell Nova we still have some things to discuss."
"That's one thing I'll have to leave you macho types to work out," Turbo said as she took off toward in the direction Nova left, giving Trey a wave goodbye.
The morning was fading away as the sun moved toward the middle of the sky by the time Turbo caught back up with the others back at the pad.
"Turbo, you know Rich's friend, Laura?" Robbie asked as Mickey got her feet to the ground.
"No, I don't, nice to meet you," Mickey said. "Rich we need to talk."
"Hold up there Turbo, you can talk up Thrash all you want after I find out why Rina called Laura here," Rich said.
"As I was starting to explain," Rina continued, "I had a vision with Laura in it and I called her over here to see if she knew anything about what I had seen. When she got here, she set off a proximity alarm Hindsight set-up to detect communication devices and bugs."
"You aren't going to like this Buckethead, we found this on her, a Xandarian thingamajig," Robbie stated with authority.
"That's not all," Rina said. "The reason I called Laura here was because my vision was of her and Xandarian ship. I think that ship is on the way here to earth. I don't know when or how, but it was as clear of vision that I have had since I lost my powers."
"Nobody from there has contacted me through the monkey suit, maybe it is a vision from the distant future? Rich asked.
"Or maybe they don't want you to know they're coming," Robbie suggested.
"Well, ain't that idea just dandy," Rich added.
"Tell him Rina," Robbie motioned.
"Tell him what?" asked Rich.
"In my vision, Firelord was there with Laura," Rina said in a serious tone.
"I'm not sure what I can do with this info 'til we know where and when," Rich said.
"I'm sorry I can't see more," said Rina with a note of frustration.
"Just a guess, since we found this hardware on Laura, it can't be too far down the road," Robbie concluded.
"Great," Rich said. "In the meantime, I need some cartoons or something mellow to do. Anyone up for Superfriends reruns on TV?"
"It's about noon Rich, you missed it," Elvin said. "But we can catch Johnny Bravo in a half hour."
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