Hero X's Murderous Sound
1
Caleb Kelly had not been a big man. He might have stood 5 feet, two inches in a pair of the brown loafers that he habitually wore, with a weight of eighty-five pounds. The problem for the Reagan City medical examiner was the fact that Kelly's head had exploded in the middle of a Symphony concert, and no one had found the body until the thing was over.
Crime scene analyzers had already gone over the scene as much as they could with the body still sitting in its seat, facing the balcony of the box. No one had noticed, or cared enough maybe, the headless torso spraying blood on everything close to it.
M.E. Reggie Baker could already see his report, and he didn't like it one bit. He hadn't even thought about what he was going to tell the family yet. He didn't have any type of explanation for the event, and he could see the CSU guys were in the same boat from their puzzled expressions.
In the end, Baker had to load the remains on a Gurney in a black bag and take it outside to the hearse he had driven to the scene. Once he had the corpse on the autopsy table, maybe he could figure out what the cause of death was. He certainly wasn't going to put 'exploding head' down on his report.
Reagan City had certainly begun to see a wave of unnormal crimes in the last few months. The police solved most of them in record time. Baker had no doubt that they would do it with this one also.
Baker tried not to dwell on the numerous cases that were unsolved on his desk. Supposedly the reason for the blackout was to prevent others from interfering with open cases, but Baker thought it was because no one wanted to admit a problem, and evidence issues.
There was no way he could point a finger at the police department. He would be drummed out of a job faster than he had pulled on his socks at the beginning of his shift. There were already rumors going around that he didn't have long anyway.
Reggie needed something that would help him crack these things open. He had thought about trying to contact Hero X, and ask him for help. The masked man had stopped some of these criminals and many in the city considered him a sterling example of the heroic mystery men that operated around the country.
An exploded head had to be right up the masked man's alley. It wouldn't be solved by the police force any time soon. Nothing like this ever was.
Baker pondered his choices as he drove to the morgue with the corpse in the back of the wagon. He doubted an x symbol lighting up the night time sky would bring the result he wanted. More likely he would be fired by the powers that be. The administration would never agree to contacting the vigilante, even though it would help resolve some of the open cases waiting for Baker to do something with when the police and district attorneys couldn't.
2
Donnie Suffrett clapped his hands softly as he listened to the violin dance in his cd player. It was an interest that he had never been able to pursue because of his other studies. It was just something that had fell by the wayside as he chased his education and job.
Donnie waited for the cd to end before cooking a small dinner in the microwave, and eating it at the kitchen counter. It was a nightly ritual he underwent as he prepared himself to take on his hundred x forms. During the day, he tried to hold them in check while he was at work. He couldn't afford any slipup if he wanted to keep his privacy. The first thing he did when he made it home was to play both sides of a cd, eat, and concentrate on a book until he felt his inner self unlock.
Then it was nothing for Donnie to take on the plain wrestler body that he used as his base form. Then he could access every other form that he used. He didn't know where his alternates came from, but found they were useful, even the ones he preferred not to use.
Donnie concentrated on his shapes, making sure they were all online and ready for instant use. Everything came back ready to go. The masked x man began to grow into his giant line form. That would let him leave his apartment invisibly and give him a vantage point to spot any trouble that was out in the open.
The giant outline spread from his building, x glowing on its chest as it expanded. The head turned as Donnie did his first look of the night. Everything was quiet as he stepped away from his apartment. That's how he liked to start his night.
He knew that peace wouldn't last long. Reagan City had its share of malcontents that wanted something for nothing. That's why he did nightly patrols in the first place. There was always someone somewhere doing someone else wrong. And the police just couldn't catch all of them on their own.
Donnie let his body shrink into a winged pterodactylnoid. He used his former height as a launching stage to glide over the artificial canyons of the urban sprawl. He had other shapes that could take to the air, but the gliding dinosaur man ranked the best in stealth. His rocket man would help him get anywhere fast if he needed speed.
The unnatural peace continued as Donnie followed his patrol route. He flew over the government buildings downtown and had to U-turn to check if he had seen right.
Someone had rigged a giant x in glowing paint on the roof of police headquarters. That was enough to interest him if someone wanted to talk to him. Usually the police denied he existed.
Donnie landed on the roof of the city building. He folded his glider form away, so that he could put his base form forward. If something happened, that shape should give him enough of a reflexive action to buy time.
"I didn't think this would work," said a bald man with a goatee, standing by the roof access door. He reminded Donnie of Samuel L. Jackson. "I'm Reggie Baker. I work for the M.E. I was wondering if you could help me out."
"I don't usually do requests," Donnie said, smiling. "But I'll be happy to help you if I can."
"Everyone's a comedian around here," Baker said.
"What can I do for you, Dr. Baker?," Donnie asked. "I thought the police would give you anything you want."
"I'm afraid not," said Baker. "The current administration quashes unsolved cases, which means they block attempts to make cases against anything unexplainable. They don't even think you exist."
"I try to keep a low profile," said Donnie. "It's part of the job."
"Everyone knows you're patrolling the streets," said Baker. "To deny it is stupidity. I didn't rig up a signal to get into politics. I need your help to close these cases even if it costs me my job. Something has to be done, and vigilante justice is my only choice as far as I can figure."
"I don't think you mean that," said Donnie. "Let me have your files, and I'll look them over. Some times it takes fresh eyes."
"Let's go down to my office," said Baker. "I'll let you have copies. Nothing real can leave the building. A defense lawyer would have a field day. I don't even want to think what will happen when people find out I asked you for help."
"It's not like I am going to call the TV station and tell all," said Donnie, trying to smile under his stiff wrestler's mask. "I enjoy my legendary status too much to grant interviews with the press."
"Let's go down to my office," said Baker. "Seeing is believing and all that."
"Lead on, MacDuff," said Donnie.
The two men descended the stairs to Baker's office just a few yards away from the giant refrigerators that housed the city's dead until they could be released to the surviving family, or buried as an unknown in a field just outside town. Donnie stood in a corner as the medical examiner searched through the dozens of cases on his desk for the ones he wanted.
"I have three cases that match a signature," Baker said. "Victims with their heads shattered by some unknown means. The police want us to write them off as natural causes because of the weirdness of it. I'm hoping you can bag whatever it is that's doing this."
"I'm not promising anything but a quick look," said Donnie, taking the files. "I usually just try to prevent disasters."
The blue normal costume faded to a beige on tan as Donnie activated his investigator mode. That body was thinner, taller, and almost hawklike as the lean face bent over the files. Fingers swept through the pages, digesting the report in a matter of seconds.
"Do you mind if I look into this?," Donnie asked Reggie Baker, putting the files aside after reading them. His normal wrestler x appearance took its place from the beige and tan other shape. "It's obvious that sound was used to perform the deed. I think I can use that as a handle to figure out what is going on."
"It's not like I can stop you," said Baker. "Do you need any help?"
"Not yet," said the x man. "I have to know what I am dealing with before I can tell you what you can do to help out."
"This is my card," Baker said. "It's got my cell, and home number."
"I'll call if I need anything," said Donnie, tucking the paper square in his belt for safekeeping. "This will probably be something easy to grab. Nothing to worry about at all."
"You would sound more convincing if there weren't three already dead," said Baker.
"I'm trying to convince myself to be honest with you," said Donnie.
The hero let his shape grow large and insubstantial as the line man was summoned to the front. The giant passed through the walls of the building as it grew into an outline with an x in the middle of it. The x man took one step to clear the place, another to cross a couple of blocks. Then he turned and headed across town.
Donnie wanted to see the crime scenes for himself. Photos in a file meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, but actually seeing the three places could mean a lot to the form he was using to put the facts together.
Someone who specialized in sonics, perhaps ultrasonics, should be a good place to focus after he had actually seen the spots where the bodies were found. Baker might start looking in that area on his own while he was out on the town.
Donnie hoped the doctor had enough sense to stay in the lab where he was safe. Anyone who discovered the identity of the killer would be the next victim. Three bodies gave an indication that he had a goal in mind, or was a serial killer with a strange gimmick.
Donnie hoped for a goal that could be figured out. That held out that the killer would stop once he reached whatever he was looking for from his victims.
A serial would keep killing until someone stopped him, or he had an accident and couldn't physically do it anymore.
There was no telling the amount of victims he would rack up before that happened.
Donnie reached the first site and shrank down into his beige man persona. Going over the scene gave him a wealth of information. Most of it did not actually point at the criminal responsible. He had to be doing better than the police at least. They had just written the victims off as unsolvable crimes.
Donnie did one last look around before heading to the next place on his list.
3
Donnie sat on a roof top not far from his apartment. He wore his detective face as he thought about the strange case he had agreed to assist with. His tour had taken a total of an hour and he had a lot of facts to process to see if he could fit them into a pattern.
Several things suggested themselves to the x man. He was dealing with a mastery of sound. The victims were connected in some way that he hadn't discovered. He didn't think it was totally random. If it was, he was going to have a lot more trouble than he wanted to admit to Baker.
Donnie needed to know what each of them did beyond what the report said. He was sure there was some nugget that would light things up and point him the right way. He wasn't going to let some fiend pop people's heads like pimples no matter how long it took him. That could happen in other places, but not in Reagan City.
Donnie went through the home addresses and businesses of the victims after his rooftop reverie. He was pleased by the fact that the killer had lured each victim to a picked location instead of blowing their heads off at their homes. It meant that the police didn't consider those areas important yet. That also made it easy for the x man to find the two links that would crack the case.
Donnie knew that the police would have discovered the same things he had done. It would have just taken longer for them to do it. And his investigator form was a virtual Sherlock Holmes, allowing him to make links across gaps of information.
The first link was a photo. It had been tucked away in the second victim's desk under some old bills. All three of the victims were in the picture smiling at the camera. Eight others shared the scene with the same amusement.
Donnie knew that meant that the three that he knew about knew each other, and their group had been specifically targeted.
The other link was the place the picture had been taken. It was Cauley Electronics. The company sign stood in the background in silver and brown. Cauley was famous for research into sonics, and sound conductors of all types.
That meant he could get the names of the other victims from the company files as soon as he could get over there. It meant a search, but he could do that with his Investigator's lightning speed.
Donnie took on the form of the Line Man, growing large over Reagan City. Five strides took him to the Cauley Building. It was a pale c in the middle of a parking lot. There wasn't a guard that Donnie could see, just a symbol and sign for an alarm company.
Time to see what he could dig up.
Donnie shrank until he was his normal form inside the personnel office. Now he could do his thing as fast as possible before the police arrived to check out the alarm he had undoubtedly set off. He would be long gone before then.
The Reagan City Police Department didn't have a great response time in the minds of its citizens.
The x man switched to his beige man persona. He went right to the file cabinet and opened it up with a paper clip from the room's desk. The victim's work history was short and to the point. There was no mention of a connection to the other two victims, or the people in the picture.
Donnie groaned to himself.
This meant he would have to search every file in the system until he found the names he needed to go with the three he already had. He looked at the file cabinets. There were thousands of names to search through.
The x man almost panicked at the thought. He didn't have time to search every file for the right pictures. The police would arrive eventually, and he didn't want to be there when that happened.
Donnie had to try. He opened all of the drawers at once. Beige gloved hands flipped along the top of each file just enough to give him a glance at the photo identification that went with each sheaf of paperwork. After he was finished with each drawer, he closed it. His rapid check gained him all but one of the files he needed before he heard the scratching of a key in a lock close to where he stood. All of the drawers were closed. Whoever was in the missing file had to be the one person he was looking for.
He definitely couldn't be caught now that he had a definite trail to follow to the source of the problem.
Donnie crammed the files under his shirt. He let his body fade into nothing as he expanded out of the building. The door opened as his nothingness hid him from view. Two steps allowed him to settle on a rooftop not too far away from the Cauley Building.
Donnie went over the files quickly. He placed the picture on top of the spread out paperwork. He had been right about the work connection. He didn't like the only file he hadn't found was the only unsmiling person in the group picture. That didn't bode well.
He marked out the three dead people. He closed their files. He had a sudden inspiration. He found the name of the next person in the group, the lady standing next to the trio of black Xs.
That was the person he needed to talk to before she wound up dead.
4
Donnie stood on the sidewalk in front of the address in the file from Cauley. He hoped he was in time. He knew that his presence at this one place wouldn't stop the killer from changing his pattern and going after someone else.
The x man couldn't be everywhere at once.
He also knew that Baker couldn't help him. There was nothing the examiner could say that would move the police into protecting the group sooner than what the masked man was already doing. They needed evidence and probable cause. As a myth, he had no constraints.
As a myth, he had no backup plan if things went south.
Donnie took a breath. He had committed himself to help Baker and get to the bottom of things. He would see it through to the end. He had a feeling that missing personnel file was his key to the solution to the murders.
This was the second such case he had dealt with recently. He idly wondered if there was something in the water to make smart people suddenly flip out and start killing their colleagues. That thought made him shudder slightly as he rang the doorbell of the house he was visiting.
Donnie waited on the wooden porch, looking up at the small windows over the door frame. This place was better than his apartment by exponentials. Still he wouldn't trade his whole building, noisy neighbors and all for a place that he had to commute more than a half hour to his job.
It was bad enough that sometimes he had to use his shapeshifting ability to fly into his workplace so he wouldn't be late.
The door opened slightly, a woman's thin face partially revealed in the narrow crack. This was the right lady all right.
"Can I help you?," she said, not friendly, but not hostile. That was good since Donnie was in his normal blue masked wrestler form.
"I need to ask you some questions about this picture," Donnie said, holding out the one clue he had gained from his search. "I was wondering if you could tell me who this woman is on the end."
"I haven't seen that picture in months," said the lady, closing the door a fraction. "Why are there x's on Caleb, Armando, and Bru?"
"They're dead, ma'am," said Donnie, not wanting to put it so brutally, but not able to think of a more diplomatic way to put it. "Someone killed them. I'm trying to find out who. The only connection I could find was this picture and employment at Cauley Electronics. I couldn't find out who this woman is. Do you know her?"
"That's Janice Crimm," said the lady. "We worked together until she was fired. She was an expert in sound applications."
"Sound applications?," said Donnie. "I don't understand."
"She knew everything about sound, and how to apply it to new ideas for research. She was an expert. There was an accident with one of her experiments that caused an uproar. The head of division was told to let her go."
"Who was the head of division?," Donnie asked.
"Bru," said the lady, door almost shut now. "Jim Brubaker."
"I want you to call the coroner's office and leave a message for Reggie Baker," Donnie said. "I want you to tell him what you told me. Maybe he will arrange protection for you from the police."
The door closed completely in his face. He could hear sobbing through the wood.
5
Donnie Suffrett sat in his easy chair, normal face on halfway through the night. He had tried to trace Janice Crimm through the usual means, and nothing had checked out.
She had taken the time to erase her trail from the files at Cauley, the city files, even the records at her college. She didn't exist after all the work she had thrown into it.
Donnie contemplated his next move. There wasn't much he could do unless he set himself up as a bodyguard for the survivors. He didn't think they would go for that. His other forms were scary enough to the normal people he dealt with in the course of things.
Baker might be able to galvanize the police department into protecting the group for the little bit of time he needed to find Crimm. On the other hand, it could also lead to policemen without their heads. How much of a danger was he putting them in?
The RCPD was not ready to deal with the strange threats that sometimes popped up. That was a rarity in this world of super criminals and unexplained mysteries. It was almost as if a spell compelled the department to ignore the evidence that sat in front of them.
Donnie stood up. He needed to be out tracking down leads. There had to be some way to track down the missing woman.
Donnie put on his robot form as he headed for his window. He should at least patrol the area. Maybe something would come to him.
Flying had that effect sometimes. Freewheeling across the sky allowed him to sit back and relax. Then an idea would spring to life in his mind out of whole cloth.
Donnie soared on trails of flame, pushing his problem out of his mind so that he could enjoy the pleasure of flight. He decided to head up out of the city, rushing to the edge of the atmosphere. He cut his jets off, readying a change to a form he rarely used. The x man spread his arms out as he fell, waiting until he could feel the temperature and oxygen become normal. Then he became a pink neon square spreading out to catch the wind like a flying squirrel.
Donnie didn't like the flexible shape. He was more concrete in his thinking, and preferred shapes that were functional and he could use as naturally as his own body. The pink stretcher was as fluid as water, and it took a lot of thought for him to do what he wanted with it. He should practice with it, but felt it was something to use in case nothing else worked.
It was something he wanted to use as a surprise to be effective enough that his own misgivings didn't get him killed.
Donnie floated high above the city, watching its lights as he descended. The castle that was the city hall and municipal building was the best landmark for a night landing in his opinion. It stood among the skyscrapers in the middle of everything, and that gave him something to shoot for as he dropped on his air grabbing body.
Donnie grabbed a flagpole drifting to him with one long hand. A second later he was standing on the pole, happy that had worked just like he thought it would.
Maybe all he needed was practice with this shape.
Donnie switched to his line man form, growing to stand above the city's skyline. Everything looked so peaceful from up here. He knew it was different on the street.
He needed to check in with Baker, see if the coroner had been able to arrange protection for the rest of the group. That was the best he could do at the moment.
As he walked through town, he reviewed the special shapes he had. Some were obviously useless in this situation. The wound healer, smoker, fire starter, and a majority of them were not meant for something like this. He didn't know how they would take a fight against someone using sound as a weapon. The line man gave him a means to stay on the look out but he couldn't do that twenty four hours a day until he caught Crimm. The investigator needed more information before it could help him any more.
Donnie needed something like a hound that would hear the sound waves and locate them. He flipped back through his list. There had to be something. Then he saw it. It was perfect.
6
Donnie sat on a rooftop, pleased with his latest shape. He had taken a break for the night, went to his job in the city's Engineering Department, and then went through his nightly relaxation. Then he had flown to a skyscraper near the city of town.
Now came the tricky part.
Sound was the weapon of choice for Crimm. It had to be ultrasonic, and beyond the normal hearing of human beings. In addition the normal traffic of a crowded city would help mask the beam's operating area.
Donnie hoped his new sense of hearing would compensate for that. It was his only hope unless he wanted to guard one of the Cauley group while the rest were picked off like ducks in a shooting gallery.
Donnie closed his wolf eyes, took a deep breath, and listened. The noises of the city drifted to him in waves, like surf coming to a beach. Some of the sounds were things he would ordinarily do something to stop. This night he would have to stay where he was until he heard the one sound that told him where he needed to be to stop the crime spree he was currently working on.
That didn't mean he would forget what he had heard later after the current case was done. That was an advantage for a masked vigilante.
Donnie heard a whine in the distance. This might the thing he was looking for. He fixed on the direction of the noise, then switched to the line man. His tremendous height and ability to focus showed him a small person in a hooded poncho standing outside the house he had visited earlier. The police had accosted her with guns drawn.
Baker came through for him after all.
Crimm moved. The policemen fired their weapons. Donnie couldn't blame them for that. He wouldn't want his head exploded from his neck either. The bullets hit something between the two cops and their suspect. The line man could see the steel shells crumple into semi-flat discs as he walked through the city's skyline.
She was using her sonics for more than just a weapon.
Donnie tried to hurry as Crimm pulled a wand, aiming at the policemen. He couldn't see her face under the hood. A wave struck out at the leading man in blue as he threw himself down. A piece of the sidewalk flew up from the near miss.
Donnie switched to his robot man form. He had to get there before she escaped to kill again.
Donnie soared on trails of flame as he closed to where he had spotted the battle. He hoped that this dramatic entrance would force Crimm to reevaluate taking the time to kill two policemen, and battle him before backup arrived.
He certainly had an exciting life as a superhero.
His robot man persona had a small laser built into his right arm. He charged it up as he swooped down on the scene. Hopefully her sonics couldn't stop his light as it had the bullets.
The policemen had managed to take cover behind their car. Crimm stalked away, bullets pinging off the field created by her gadgets. One blast fixed it where the car wouldn't be able to move after her.
Donnie took cover. This was exactly the break he was looking for. All he had to do was follow her to her home and take her by surprise. No fighting, no one would be hurt. He just had to get the policemen to stop shooting and let her go.
That would be easier said than done.
Donnie had a radio built into the jet flier. He sent out a signal over the police net. He hoped that was enough to get the cops to quit shooting. He didn't trust an open message with Crimm's mastery of sound making it likely she could hear a complete message as if it was in the clear.
He couldn't let her know he was close to tracking her to her home, and putting a stop to this rampage for good.
He couldn't let her know he was on the scene so that she would act to prevent his scheme from being carried out.
Donnie smiled behind the mask of the robot man. The policemen stopped firing, calling for help. Hopefully that would buy Crimm enough time to get away from them while Donnie's shapes kept him on her trail. Hopefully he could take her unaware in her lair.
He couldn't allow her to murder any more people.
The hero code said so.
Donnie flipped through his bodies until his line man was the uppermost form. He activated it, keeping his eyes on Crimm as she activated some kind of skates to slide along the street. The x man knew this shape wasn't fast enough to keep up. He would have to keep an eye on her from above and move in when she had settled in place.
That was the best he could do at the moment.
Donnie's towering outline passed through buildings as he followed the escaping villain. He grimaced as much as he could when he saw that his quarry was headed for an elevated platform for the city's railway. It ran in a single loop around Reagan City. Branches were supposed to be added but funds had been limited for as long as the x man could remember.
The mistress of sound went up the steps, hopping the turnstile, and jumping down beside the tracks. Her skates picked up speed as she raced toward her destination on the concrete bed provided for the rails.
Donnie walked behind her, his giant steps a slow motion stroll compared to her concerted effort. There was a real chance he could lose her in the warren walls of the city. He might need to switch to something faster. His worries increased when she left the track and headed for the street.
Donnie couldn't jump in any way as the Line Man. The giant legs wouldn't support that. Instead he could switch at the highest point he could reach standing. It was enough of a difference that he switched back to his normal x man form, then to his flying pterodactyl man. He began to glide through the air almost silently.
Donnie caught up with the sound mistress, and followed her from a distance, gliding with the help of his large wings. He concentrated on the shadowing, so he could find her bolt hole. Dealing with her would be a priority when he knew where to find her.
One problem at a time was always the best way to overcome any obstacles.
Donnie followed the fleeing Janice Crimm to an apartment building in a rundown section of town. He watched her go inside the place through an outer door. He circled the building in case she ran out some other door like a spy in a movie. He was pleased that she remained within the place.
Donnie landed on a nearby roof, switching to his werewolf form. He gave a wolfish grin as he heard the sonic pulses from inside the building. Now all he had to do was track the sound to its source.
That should be easy with his enormous ears.
Donnie leaped from the roof, sailing over the edge of the rampart without a concern. He landed against the side of the opposite building without a strain. He bounced down to the ground, claws scoring the brick of the apartment building as he slowed his descent. He gathered himself on the sidewalk before ducking into an alley between buildings.
He hoped he was doing the right thing.
Donnie circled around to the back of the building. He looked up, glad to see that there was a door that he could get through without too much trouble. Two body switches got him in and back on track. He found a set of emergency stairs to climb to where he still heard the sonic pulse.
Donnie paused when he got to the right floor. The pulse had shut off. That was good. That meant that Crimm had unloaded her weapons. It should make this an easy arrest. He could just turn her in to the police she had shot at earlier without worrying about evidence.
Things couldn't have worked out better if he had planned it this far.
Donnie didn't overestimate his capabilities as he approached the door. His werewolf form had it zeroed in, so he knew right where he needed to go. The problem was if he wasn't as stealthy as he thought he was, then he wasn't taking anybody by surprise.
He didn't want another mad chase across town.
He definitely didn't want to screw up and get somebody else killed.
Donnie slammed against the door. The wood came apart without a second try. He fell inside the apartment. Intense sound deafened him as he tried to figure out where Crimm had gone that he couldn't see her.
Of course she would have a booby trap ready for anyone breaking in. He should have expected that. Now he couldn't track her, because he couldn't hear.
7
"I should have expected you to show up," said Crimm, regarding the stricken Werewolf X on her threshold. "It was only a matter of time after all."
Crimm pulled her harness back on, buckling the power pack together. A glove fitted over her hand, chittering to readiness. She didn't have time for her coat and glasses.
"Hero X," she said, aiming her glove at the green furred shapeshifter. "The man of a thousand faces. There won't be enough for one face after I am done."
She directed a beam of sound at the intruder as he struggled to get out of the way. She missed his furry body, ripping up the floor. A grimace marred her face for the moment as she readjusted her aim. Too bad about the couch. The second blast smashed the piece of furniture in half. No bloody mess greeted her eyes.
"Over here," the suddenly wrestler looking form said, hefting the only chair she kept for her visitors. "Catch this."
Crimm pointed at the flying chair, almost laughing. She gave the small button on the side of her hand a single short push. The chair stopped flying, falling to the floor in pieces. The blue clad Hero seemed like a sitting duck as she quickly shifted her aim to point at him. She touched the button again.
The x man flung himself to one side, landing on his hands, and flipping back to his feet. He used a shelf to fling himself at the mistress of sound, hoping to take her down with one easy move. His base form was stronger, more athletic, than his normal body by a factor of ten.
He wasn't fast enough to stop himself from slamming into the force field she had used to stop the bullets from the policemen earlier.
"Bet you didn't see that coming," said Crimm, not caring if she could be heard over the buzzing of her protective field. "Now I can get rid of you, and move on with my life."
Crimm took point blank aim at the woozy hero. Her field went down as she triggered the sonic blast. She was unprepared for Donnie jumping over her. She tried to turn around to keep him at bay. He was a lot faster with a right hand that made the lights flicker for a moment.
"Give it up," said Donnie, ready to continue battling if he had to. "I am a lot faster and stronger than you. I think that turning yourself in will allow you to make a deal so you don't get the needle."
"I would rather kill you," said Crimm, pressing the button on her glove and holding it. The beam chased after the x man as he tried to stay out of its way as she backed to the window. Her apartment was ruined, but she had already written it off as soon as the vigilante had shown up at her door.
Crimm jumped through her window, using her skates to slide down the side of the building. She needed somewhere else to live now, but she could still carry out the rest of her agenda and take control of the city.
All she had to do was get away from her pursuer long enough to hide until he gave up the chase.
She had really liked that apartment. She planned to pay back Hero X for his meddling.
Donnie Suffrett ran to the window, dialing through the forms in his possession. He was less than pleased with the results he had gained so far. Destroying part of a building and endangering bystanders was something he should have thought about before breaking into the fugitive's living quarters.
He must have been expecting her to give up even though there was almost no chance she would go along with the program.
Donnie threw himself out the window, switching to the dinosaur form he used to glide around town. His reptilian face showed a moment of self mockery before he concentrated on his prey sliding down the brick surface of the building. He folded his wings and fell silently behind her.
Donnie had two choices as far as he could tell. He could let Crimm go, and pick her up after another attack. Choice two was to keep after her until he brought her down. He weighed the options as he fell. Neither appealed to him.
He decided to keep after her. Risking someone being killed because he was on guard duty was less appealing than risking someone being killed because they walked into a crossfire. He definitely hated the position he was in.
So he decided to get out of it as fast as possible.
Donnie needed to fall faster than the dive he was in. He switched to the Jet Flier, using the powerful engines to push himself faster toward the ground. Crimm saw him coming, fired her sound gun in hopes of hitting him as she neared the ground herself. The x man switched to the neon colored form of the Stripe, becoming a rubber ball as he plunged forward.
Donnie hit the ground and bounced as Crimm fired at him. She missed as long arms grabbed her harness. There was a moment where everything spun around on its own. Then she crashed into the sidewalk.
Donnie flipped back to his wrestler mode, still holding the sound equipment that had come apart in his grip. He landed lightly, wincing at Crimm's bloody face from where she had slid across the concrete. At least he could fix that before he turned her over to the cops.
Donnie made sure she was out from the impact before switching to the Wound Healer. Clothed in white, the customary x, a shifting cascade of nonsense, he drew out her pain so that her body would be whole. He didn't know how well that would do, but at least she wouldn't die of injuries before he turned her over to the police.
Crimm's pain became a servant of ghoulish countenance with burning red eyes. Donnie realized she had been hurt more than he had thought from the size of his empathic creation. Now all he had to do was use the creature up so that none of the pain would go back to her.
He had just the thing for it to do.
epilogue
Donnie Suffrett smiled as he walked home from a bus stop. Things had worked out better than expected from his point of view. Now he could take the night off, relax in front of the TV, and then grab some shut eye.
Janice Crimm confessed to the three murders, pled guilty at court, and then calmly accepted the life sentence she had been given by the judge. The police had uncovered enough evidence to back up the confession once she was captured that everyone agreed it was for the best that she was off the streets.
She did not tell the police technicians how to repair the sound harness she had used to commit each crime. She said it was better that they didn't know.
The police department took all the credit for the capture, even though Donnie had handed Crimm over to Baker, who had called the police to take her off his hands. Neither Donnie nor the medical examiner had been mentioned in the reports, so Hero X's folkloric status remained intact for the moment.
Donnie didn't care about being denied a small amount of notoriety by the RCPD. After all their chief of detectives had to explain how three murders had been carried out and they brushed it off instead of investigating it like professionals. Everyone who wanted to stay at work was trying to hunker down and avoid the media spotlight.
Donnie wasn't going to make the situation worse by exposing how he had been called on the case by a junior member of the coroner's staff. That would put an unhealthy amount of attention on Baker who hadn't come forward himself with those details. A code of silence seemed the best thing right now. Anything else would put Baker on the street, or in jail.
Donnie made it to his place, and let himself inside. Everything was beautiful for the next few hours he needed to recharge his batteries and relax. Tomorrow he could go back on patrol and protect the city as much as he could.
Tonight was for dinner, a movie, and some reading. The police could handle things without him for one night. Baker could signal him if he had another investigation to follow up on. He should rig out a dummy phone for the poor guy to call. That would be better than shining a big x in the sky for everyone to notice.
The last thing they needed was someone to start asking questions and trying to use their arrangement for something else.
Life was complicated enough without that additional hassle dropped on his back to keep him awake in the middle of the night.