Read Online Corpies (Super Powereds Spinoff Book 1) by Drew Hayes - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Drew Hayes
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child? They are also fireproof, as well as less necessary to be seen on camera.”
“The fire was coming from fear,” Owen said, not about to let Galvanize try and absorb anymore blame. “Powereds’ abilities often tie to their emotions. She was scared because she lost control and that fear fed her ability, causing a chain reaction that almost torched a whole building. Hexcellent’s demons aren’t what anyone would call child-friendly, so I seemed like a smarter pick for calming her down.”
Mr. Greene remained silent for a few seconds then seemed to relax.
“Very well. Our first job is to provide emergency services, and it appears your choices were made with the public’s safety in mind, so missing a photo-op is an acceptable loss. Just make sure everyone, Titan included, writes up their standard post-response report. Every detail, every action, every name of every person encountered. There were no injuries today, but we all know that doesn’t preclude reports surfacing later. Good day.”
Mr. Greene strolled out of the room, eyes staring straight ahead as he headed down the hall.
“What’s this about reports now?” Owen looked around, finding that the rest of the team didn’t seem to share his confusion.
“Post-response reports,” Galvanize told him. “PEERS are big targets for the occasional lawsuit. We’ll have people we pull out of cars claim we caused exacerbations to their injuries, or that our presence made things worse, stuff like that. The company can usually beat them with telepaths, but those can get muddy, legally speaking, so one of the ways they combat it is to have us document everything we did. A lot of lawsuits have fallen apart when the person’s story didn’t match up at all to what we recorded.”
“Sounds like a massive pain in the ass,” Owen said. “No one mentioned paperwork.”
“Why don’t you blow it off then, like you did doing camera work?” Zone had been silent for most of the trip back, but it was immediately clear that it hadn’t been because he had nothing to say. “Just let Galvanize stand in for you again. God forbid the legendary Hero cop up to his own fuck-ups.”
“Zone, that’s enough,” Galvanize snapped.
“No, let him go.” Owen patted Galvanize’s shoulder then turned to face Zone. Looking the younger man in eye required Owen to tilt his head at a noticeable incline. “He’s been biting back his tongue since I got here; that shit isn’t healthy. Come on, kid, if you’ve got something to say then say it.”
“Gladly! I think it was a mistake to bring you on. Mirror Fog was a Hero, but he wasn’t like you. He was a decent guy, humble, never looking down on us. But you? From the minute you stepped in here you’ve acted like Babe Ruth sitting at a tee-ball game. Missing the photo-op is just one more example of the real problem: you think you’re better than us. You didn’t want to be seen with us. And while I’m used to that from Heroes, to see it from you just chaps my ass, because you are in no fucking way better than us. ”
Zone’s face was red, a vein bulging near the top of his forehead. He looked half-ready to swing; likely the only thing holding him back was the knowledge that it would injure his hand if he struck Titan’s legendarily tough body. Owen leaned closer, until he was less than a foot from the fuming man’s face.
“And what, pray tell, makes me so much worse than the other Heroes?”
“Because you’re a goddamned coward.” Zone spun around and stormed out of the living room, off toward the gym.
Owen stood there, frozen in place. He’d expected any number of things to come out of Zone’s mouth: bigotry, arrogance, outright hate, but he hadn’t been braced for that little bastard to cut to the quick of him.
Coward. That was what he’d called himself countless times over his years in exile. He’d tormented himself with that word for so long, but it had been a private pain. It had genuinely never
“The fire was coming from fear,” Owen said, not about to let Galvanize try and absorb anymore blame. “Powereds’ abilities often tie to their emotions. She was scared because she lost control and that fear fed her ability, causing a chain reaction that almost torched a whole building. Hexcellent’s demons aren’t what anyone would call child-friendly, so I seemed like a smarter pick for calming her down.”
Mr. Greene remained silent for a few seconds then seemed to relax.
“Very well. Our first job is to provide emergency services, and it appears your choices were made with the public’s safety in mind, so missing a photo-op is an acceptable loss. Just make sure everyone, Titan included, writes up their standard post-response report. Every detail, every action, every name of every person encountered. There were no injuries today, but we all know that doesn’t preclude reports surfacing later. Good day.”
Mr. Greene strolled out of the room, eyes staring straight ahead as he headed down the hall.
“What’s this about reports now?” Owen looked around, finding that the rest of the team didn’t seem to share his confusion.
“Post-response reports,” Galvanize told him. “PEERS are big targets for the occasional lawsuit. We’ll have people we pull out of cars claim we caused exacerbations to their injuries, or that our presence made things worse, stuff like that. The company can usually beat them with telepaths, but those can get muddy, legally speaking, so one of the ways they combat it is to have us document everything we did. A lot of lawsuits have fallen apart when the person’s story didn’t match up at all to what we recorded.”
“Sounds like a massive pain in the ass,” Owen said. “No one mentioned paperwork.”
“Why don’t you blow it off then, like you did doing camera work?” Zone had been silent for most of the trip back, but it was immediately clear that it hadn’t been because he had nothing to say. “Just let Galvanize stand in for you again. God forbid the legendary Hero cop up to his own fuck-ups.”
“Zone, that’s enough,” Galvanize snapped.
“No, let him go.” Owen patted Galvanize’s shoulder then turned to face Zone. Looking the younger man in eye required Owen to tilt his head at a noticeable incline. “He’s been biting back his tongue since I got here; that shit isn’t healthy. Come on, kid, if you’ve got something to say then say it.”
“Gladly! I think it was a mistake to bring you on. Mirror Fog was a Hero, but he wasn’t like you. He was a decent guy, humble, never looking down on us. But you? From the minute you stepped in here you’ve acted like Babe Ruth sitting at a tee-ball game. Missing the photo-op is just one more example of the real problem: you think you’re better than us. You didn’t want to be seen with us. And while I’m used to that from Heroes, to see it from you just chaps my ass, because you are in no fucking way better than us. ”
Zone’s face was red, a vein bulging near the top of his forehead. He looked half-ready to swing; likely the only thing holding him back was the knowledge that it would injure his hand if he struck Titan’s legendarily tough body. Owen leaned closer, until he was less than a foot from the fuming man’s face.
“And what, pray tell, makes me so much worse than the other Heroes?”
“Because you’re a goddamned coward.” Zone spun around and stormed out of the living room, off toward the gym.
Owen stood there, frozen in place. He’d expected any number of things to come out of Zone’s mouth: bigotry, arrogance, outright hate, but he hadn’t been braced for that little bastard to cut to the quick of him.
Coward. That was what he’d called himself countless times over his years in exile. He’d tormented himself with that word for so long, but it had been a private pain. It had genuinely never
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