The Mayor's Point of View
"Mayor Strickland! Mayor Strickland! Do you have any comments on the new downtown development plan? What about the property tax hike?"
Ugh, camera flashes. Mayor Claire Strickland held up a hand and tried not to blink too much. "You can read my official statement in the press release on the City of Plano website," she said with a well-practiced smile. She hated reporters, vultures, the lot of them. Why couldn't a queen rule in peace?
Yes, rule. Plano was her queendom, and Claire Strickland was the one who sat on the throne. Who attracted all of those software companies when they were bleeding money after the dotcom bubble burst? She did! Her! Half the city owed their livelihoods to her whether they knew it or not. Even as she passed through the throng of reporters, Mayor Strickland was laying the foundation for making Plano the high-tech hub of the whole Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Silicon Valley? Please! Try Silicon Prairie!
So what was the big deal? Big girl investments required big girl incentives. To make Plano attractive to outside companies, she needed to grease a few palms, and if a little bit stuck to her as a finder's fee? Well, that was just her rightful compensation for a job well done!
They don't pay me enough for all the shit I have to take, she thought darkly. But Stinger? Oh, those ladies had some deep pockets. Office parks, infrastructure, even some actual manufacturing, Stinger was right there, ready to fund it all. Imagine it. They'd be building computers, cell phones, and other gadgets right there in her fair city. All she had to do was make a deal.
It was exhilarating, honestly. Plano was going to double in size in the next ten years, maybe outshine Fort Worth as the second city in the DFW Metroplex. High-paying, high-tech jobs, more housing, more roads, more electricity, more everything to support it all. Her city hall stooges would eat well, and Claire would get the credit. After that, she was about due for a promotion. How did Governor Strickland sound? Maybe even Senator!
Just need to get some boring stuff out of the way first. Petty Mayor Shit like organizing the Fourth of July parade simply couldn't be put off much longer.
"Hit me, gentlewoman," she said as she walked into her two o'clock meeting. Everyone was seated and waiting for her, just as it should be. She was the decider, the deal-maker.
"Ah, yes, Madame Mayor, there's been an issue with procuring local Iraq War veterans for the parade," her aide said nervously.
Claire's eyes narrowed. "Issue? What issue?"
"Well, the thing is, most of them have had their terms of service extended, involuntarily. They call it 'stop-loss'. If they're in Iraq, they can't be here. Additionally, the active duty ones not currently deployed are having trouble obtaining leave. All we've got for the parade are old vets of previous wars and a few...amputees."
Ouch, depressing, and above all, bad optics. Claire sighed. "See what you can do. Tell all the local recruiters I want them there, in uniform. That should be a decent number of people. Tell them they can set up recruiting booths next to the food stands. Oh, and call the CO of Fort Hood and ask if he can spare anyone for a parade. The military wants good optics as much as we do. Frame it as a public relations move."
Her aide jotted all this down. The other stooges just nodded along with whatever she wanted, like the stooges they were. Out of the corner of her I, the mayor noticed a shock of blue hair through the window of the conference room.
My contact.
"Everything else can wait," she said shortly. "Most of these meetings would be better off as emails. Don't disturb me unless it's urgent, and it better not be urgent."
She left without a word and made for her private office.
Her Stinger handler, this young girl named Kleia, promised not only money, but power. At first, Claire laughed in the blue-haired girl's face. Who was a young doe like that to her? Then Kleia showed her what real power was. Stinger could make her different, better. Stinger was building a new world, a world where ordinary human beings would be obsolete. Claire Strickland was a lot of things, depending on who was accusing her, but ordinary definitely wasn't one of them!
"Madame Mayor, good afternoon," the one they called the Tick Queen greeted her. Kleia was waiting for the mayor, already sitting down in her own office. From anyone else, it would be brazen disrespect. For Kleia, it was merely a demonstration. Stinger can do whatever they want. Don't you want to be free like that?
"I assume you have some task for me," Mayor Strickland was always one to get right down to business.
Kleia's eyes lit up. "You're delightfully forthright for a politician. We like that."
Claire hoped they'd do a hell of a lot more than like her. "Never was a bullshitter. In my view, bullshit gets in the way of making deals. I like making deals."
Kleia sat a little straighter. "Then I will repay your candor with some of my own. Indeed, your expertise is required. Stinger likes making deals, too. There are certain recalcitrant individuals in the Chamber of Commerce we'd like dealt with. They have property we wish to acquire, and they've been unwilling to sell."
"Small-minded fools," the Mayor's voice was dripping with disdain. "They've hindered me at every step. These provincial hicks don't understand progress. If they got their way, unemployment would be double what it is. Still, everyone has a lever. Who do you want me to lean on?"
The girl smiled sweetly. "Oh no, you mistake me. We don't want these people persuaded. We want them dealt with, permanently."
Mayor Strickland recoiled. She knew, intellectually, that Stinger did things like that, but to go that far over something petty like real estate? "Is there no other way?"
"We've tried every other way. If a person doesn't want to play the game, it's better to replace them with someone who will. Fortunately, the Chamber of Commerce people will all be gathered together in one place, very soon."
"You can't mean..."
"Yes." Claire noticed she was holding something, something that was moving underneath her fingers. A pet? "The Fourth of July will be the ideal time to strike."
She sat back in her chair, the grim reality hitting her like a rush of cold water. They expect me to do this. "How?" the mayor asked, completely at a loss. She didn't even own a gun. The ones she held in her campaign ads were borrowed.
Kleia opened her hand. A fat blue bug rested in her palm. It writhed and pulsed with an energy Claire had never experienced before. Was this why they called her the Tick Queen? "Take this, and you'll have the strength to do what must be done."
She hesitated only for a moment. As gross as the big blue tick was, Mayor Strickland was already in too deep to back out.
***
"I can't believe you broke my detector rod!" Reka scolded him.
Rich really didn't need this right now. Julie was mad for being made to wait so long outside the concert and had to be placated with a makeout session in the back of her BMW. He needed to rein things in before they went too far.
"Where's Becca?" he asked, trying to distract the scientist.
"Doing remedial mechanics homework. We have two months before school starts again, and I'm determined to cram a year's worth of instruction into that time. Once the school year starts, everything will be review and she'll be able to assist me more readily. You needn't trouble yourself. She can take it."
"Why?" Becca moaned from the other side of the lab. Oh, there she was! It looked like she was grinding on a problem set.
"Keep it up, sis!" he shouted in encouragement. Then, back to Reka, "I sometimes have to improvise in a fight. Stinger mutants attack in novel ways. The last one used sound."
Reka nodded. "Yes, I remember examining you. Using Corrupt energy to directly attack the nervous system and stimulate pain receptors. An ingenious tactic." The woman sounded just a little too impressed for Rich's liking. Weren't they on the same side?
"Yeah, well, I can't keep relying on improvisation. I need weapons, tools, anything you can think of. This whole Future Force exists so you can help me fight them!"
Reka held up her hand in a placating gesture. "Enough, Mr. Rice. I understand. This is not a war as I understand it. Both sides utilize advanced technology beyond the ken of modern science. And you must understand that knowledge is power! The next mutant, see if you can get a piece of her to bring back, something for me to analyze. I've already learned all I can from your ring and the Endram Armor. Perhaps an examination of its opposite will yield further insights."
He rose from his seat, careful not to upset any of the laboratory equipment lying around. It looked expensive, and Chili's did not pay him enough to replace a particle accelerator, or whatever it was. "I'll do what I can, but no promises."
***
The rest of the week, Rich made sure to train extra hard at Alice-sensei's dojo.
"Osu, Richard-chan! Your progress is apparent to all! Keep it up, and promotion is on the horizon!" the giant blonde woman praised him. She'd even spared him herself. Frankly, Rich wasn't sure he could take her, even transformed. Alice-sensei was a machine.
Advanced techniques are just refinements of the basics, he repeated to himself on the way to the Fourth of July parade. Without a weapon from Reka, he'd have to rely on himself.
Rich and Julie hadn't had much chance to talk since last weekend. He'd been busy with work and karate. She was squeezing in as much training with her private quarterback coach as possible before official summer football practices began in mid-July. They needed to have a serious conversation.
The Rice and Cohen families found each other by the side of the road on the parade path. "Hey," Julie greeted him quietly. "Can we talk somewhere, alone?"
Whatever needed to be said, their hands found one another like the most natural thing in the world. Fingers intertwined, Julie led him out of earshot of their parents. "I'm sorry," she said seriously.
Rich looked up, studying those fierce purple eyes. "Sorry, for what?"
Julie swallowed, and he could feel her clutch his hand tighter as if his touch gave her courage. "For pushing you. I was pretty aggressive in the car, touching you all over, trying to stick my tongue down your throat, getting on top of you like that." She laughed in embarrassment. "You know I would never actually push your boundaries, right? I wouldn't try to go further than you were ready for. I was just...worried when you took so long to come back, and, well, you looked so good in the V-neck shirt I couldn't help myself."
Rich squeezed her hand back in reassurance. "I enjoyed it, Julie, really. It was just," he searched for the right words, "more than usual," was what he settled on.
His girlfriend smiled goofily. "Yeah, yeah, it really was. But listen, I swear to you, I won't ever try to take your clothes off, not until you're eighteen and you tell me you're ready. You're...precious to me, Rich. You know that, right?"
"I know," he said softly, and they walked back to their families feeling a little lighter. The parade was about to start.
Their high school band, the PLUH Marching Pirates, was first up. They were playing all kinds of patriotic songs. Rich recognized the Marine Hymn and Anchors Aweigh. They stepped lively in their purple and silver uniforms. Rich pitied them. Texas in July was hot as hell, and those jackets didn't look like they breathed.
"Hey," Julie whispered in his ear. Rich could just barely hear her above the noise. "Don't our parents look just a little bit too cosy?"
He glanced over, and sure enough, the tall form of Esther Cohen was leaning down and whispering in the ear of Oscar Ramirez-Rice, Rich's father. Dad was...giggling.
"Holy shit!" Rich breathed. "You don't think?"
"I hope not," Julie said in disgust. "That wouldn't like...keep us from getting married, right? Would it count as incest?"
"Probably not." Rich let Julie put her arm around his shoulders and leaned into her touch. "And it's probably nothing. I mean, you come over for dinner all the time, and we've been to your place, too. Our parents being friendly is totally normal, right?"
"Right," Julie agreed a bit too easily, but there was something in the concerned way she kept watching her mother that made Rich uneasy.
They watched Soldiers in uniform march by, and the sounds of the band faded in the distance. Mayor Strickland was riding on a float, wearing a ridiculous Uncle Sam outfit. Did they have Uncle Sam here? Maybe it was Auntie Samantha.
Light glinted off the mayor, and Rich looked at her costume, really looked. Was that armor? She also looked bigger, like she'd been working out.
CRASH! The mayor jumped off the float and landed right in the middle of the road, leaving a crater behind. Rich could tell she wasn't just more muscular, she was taller. How did a middle-aged woman get taller?
"It looks like somebody's been unpatriotic!" The mayor snarled, and stomped like a red white and blue Godzilla in the direction of a group of women in business suits. They had a sign that read "City of Plano Chamber of Commerce."
People were running in all directions, scrambling for cover. Men and children were screaming. Women tried to whisk their families away from the danger. Julie's mom was doing it for Dad, and Julie was doing it for him. "Come on, Rich, we have to get you to safety!" She pulled him away.
Rich locked eyes with Becca, trying to say with body language what he couldn't with words. I have to do something. When Julie's grip proved too strong for him to break away, Rich was left with no choice. He raised his right hand:
"From a future dark
To a post not set,
Stinger hasn't won just yet,
With Pureheart Power, a noble mission,
Come forth! Future Hero! Henshin!"
Now, up close, Rich was able to observe the "flashbang" effect. Julie, Becca, and everyone around just stood there, slack-jawed and frozen. Future Hero took that as his cue to reverse directions, into danger rather than away.
BUT HE WAS TOO LATE!
The women of the Plano Chamber of Commerce were already dead at the mayor's feet. The giant woman was gloating and roaring. "I'm the queen of this city!"
I wish it was another skinny rock star type, Rich complained in his head. This one looked strong. Well, at least she was looking the other way. Rich gathered Pureheart Power in his boot and broke into a run. "Future Kick!" He nailed her right between the shoulder blades with his strongest move. Future Hero's attack left a singed shoe imprint, but the mutant didn't go down.
"Pearl Harbor! Pearl Harbor!" she yelled, and turned to face him.
No mutant had survived one of his special moves before! What the hell?
"It'll take more than that to bring down the United States of America, especially on the Fourth of July!" She swiped at him with a huge and meaty red claw, and Rich leaped backward. Her clawed fingers dug deep gashes into the road in front of her. "You just woke the giant, little boy!"
Nothing that big had any right being that fast. Sparks went flying as she swiped and swiped, hitting parked cars, utility poles, anything that was in the way as she advanced on Future Hero. Those reckless, looping swings that threw the mutant off balance were just the opening Rich needed to counterattack. He darted in and gave the mayor mutant a nice little three-piece combo with his fists. Those were thudding, hurting blows, but hardly affected the monster.
"My armor is made out of bald eagles and courage, Future Hero! A traitor like you has no defense!" Rich tried to dance out of range again, but she grabbed him. "Shock and awe!" Future Hero was in the air!
"She tossed me! She tossed me!" Rich sailed through the sky for a while and landed in a rock quarry. The mayor mutant wasn't far behind.
"All alone, boy! You've got no coalition of the willing! You're either with us, or against us!" The poor walls of the quarry were torn to pieces as she slashed, trying to cut Rich in half. He didn't dare launch another counterattack.
With desperate hope, he wondered if the star on her chest might be a weak point, but couldn't think of a way to get close enough to hit it. Then he remembered he wasn't actually alone.
"Come forth! Future Roller!" His faithful purple truck had followed them to the quarry. "You're heavy, Madame Mayor, but I bet you don't weigh two tons!"
She kept chasing, but that was just what he wanted. Rich lured the mutant into a flat, clear section of the quarry where Future Roller could hit her at top speed. "Arrragh!" Wheels whined and dust was kicked up everywhere as the truck pinned the mutant to the quarry wall.
When Rich noticed her clawed hands were sticking out to the side, he remembered what Reka said. "Lend me a hand, would you? Future Chop!" With the blade of his hand lit up with a penumbra of purple energy, Rich severed both of her arms at the elbow and tossed the limbs into the back of Future Roller. With her helpless and pinned, Future Hero jumped up on the hood of the truck and closed in for the kill.
"What? No! Please! They promised!" She struggled pathetically, but Future Roller had her trapped against the rocks.
"Serves you right for trusting Stinger, Madame Mayor, Future Punch!"
When his purple fist met her silver star, the mayor mutant screamed in pain. "This is worse than 9/11!"
"I'm afraid that Pureheart Power can melt steel beams!" She exploded in red, white, and blue sparkles, like the best firework ever.
"Happy Independence Day, Plano!" His voice echoed in the empty quarry.