The Adventures
of Autumn
A Session
With Doctor Dread
L’Espion
with Melissa Gallant
Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Chapter
1 Cocaine
“Shit!” Autumn turned in midair and looked back the way she had come. “There they are,” she muttered. Swooping down she intercepted the lower part of her costume and with a few deft movements put it on and hovered thoughtfully for a few seconds.
“Damn, this high speed flying thing is more difficult than I though it would be,” the heroine remarked. She had been experimenting with her flying ability. Still developing as a heroine, she was learning to control her powers better and was attempting the master the skills involved in flying. Until recently she had only been able to move through the air by levitating to a great height and then gliding in the desired direction. Now she found that by an effort of will she could move quickly through the upper atmosphere. However, that newfound ability came with a whole new set of parameters which she had to learn. One of which was the problem of keeping on her clothing when she accelerated to high speed.
The skin-tight golden bikini bottom always went first and she had not yet been able to devise a way of keeping it on once she reached a speed exceeding three hundred kilometers per hour. The upper portion of her costume lasted a little longer, but eventually it too was blown away leaving her completely exposed to anyone who might be lucky enough to be watching.
The first time it had happened an entire baseball stadium full of fans had been on hand to witness the event. Many of them were there especially to see the home town heroine and had been as shocked as she was when Autumn had demonstrated her newly developed flying ability by swooping over the crowd and then accelerating to close to her maximum speed. Coming to what was supposed to be a triumphant landing at center field, she was stunned to discover that her costume had disappeared, leaving her exposed to the startled, and in many cases delighted, onlookers. She had immediately soared out of the stadium, not even bothering to look for her missing costume which turned up a few days later as an item on EBay.
It had been most embarrassing attempting to explain to the media what had happened, especially when the entire event had been caught on live TV and the numerous cell phones and video recorders many fans had brought to the stadium. Many in the media and public had accused her of pulling off a “Janet Jackson,” and it had taken a good deal of persuasion to convince a few overly officious members of the law not to prosecute her for indecent exposure.
Now she was careful not to fly too fast except when testing out a new costume as was the case today. Prudently, however, she was flying a mile above the city and out of sight (she hoped) of anyone who might object to her costume being blown away.
“Back to the drawing board, I guess,” she thought. “I wonder if Supergirl has any of these problems. You never hear anything about her costume blowing off.”
At that moment a sharp “beep” alerted her to the fact that the communicator fitted to her ear had a message for her.
“Autumn,” she said, speaking into the mouthpiece that curved in front of her mouth.
Err, hi Autumn,” came the voice of Police Chief Ryan. “We’ve just gotten word of a big drug deal going down today. Problem is we don’t have time to organize a team to go after it and we just can’t charge into the area of town where it’s happening with sirens screaming as the pushers will be long gone. Can you help out?”
“Sure thing, Chief,” Autumn replied. “Just tell me where it’s happening.”
“Gastown,” came the laconic reply.
“Gastown,” repeated the nineteen-year-old heroine. “Why does that not surprise me?”
Autumn had visited the local slum on more than one occasion. She was one of the few white women who had. Even the police never went there in numbers of fewer than a dozen or more and the last time they had done that it had resulted in a riot that had lasted two days. It was about as secure a rat hole as any thug could desire and a number of crime bosses had made it their headquarters, secure in the knowledge that any police raid would be detected long before it was executed.
Only heroines like Autumn had any chance of launching a surprise attack and it was for this reason that the Police Chief frequently called on her. Unfortunately, the gangs in Gastown were becoming more and more wary. Lately several of them had set traps for her all of which she had easily avoided. However, the incidents reinforced the fact that she had to be careful when entering the area. The last thing she wanted to happen was to end up a victim herself, or perhaps even worse be captured by one of the gangs. She expected that if the latter happened she would find the experience far from pleasant.
“Alright,” she continued. “What is the address?”
“
“There is a drug deal in
“I think they respect money,” the Chief replied. “Money and violence. Be careful, Autumn.”
“Thanks Dad,” she thought. Although she was immensely powerful the Chief always treated her as if she were his daughter. It was no doubt due to her youthful appearance. Although fully a woman Autumn had not yet reached her twentieth year, but her unblemished record in dealing with the criminal element gave her the credibility she needed to deal with someone like Chief Ryan.
“Don’t worry. I’ve never failed you before have I?”
“Just don’t start now,” Ryan cautioned.
“Relax,” she finished. “I’ll deal with it. Autumn out.”
She circled high over the city getting her bearings, and then dropping to a level just above the rooftops, she flew toward her target. If there was a big drug deal going down in the heart of Gastown she would come across the thugs before they even knew she was there.
“Easy as pie,” she thought. “Just like last week.”
She thought back to a similar situation just six days ago when she had intercepted a shipment of enough cocaine to keep most of the crack addicts in the city happy for weeks. She had taken the crack dealers completely by surprise, ambushing them in what they had thought was a secure location. It had no doubt earned her the hatred of the lowlifes behind the deal, but that was the least of her concerns. Of all the numerous criminal activities drug dealing was the one that Autumn regarded as the most insidious. Not only did it destroy the lives of those who became addicted users, but it often had a similar effect on the lives of those who had the misfortune to be friends and relatives of the user. In her opinion there was no lower form of criminal than the drug dealer, and she was looking forward to the upcoming confrontation.
She swept over
There were a number of people in the square and over in one corner was a cluster of vehicles including a box van that would have contained enough cocaine to supply users of the city with enough of the drug to keep them in a state of mindless ecstasy for over a week. As usual not one person was looking up, except a rather small boy who pointed at her, his dark face grinning in pleasure at seeing a heroine in action.
Autumn wasted no time. Although she was immensely strong it was speed that won these battles. She swooped down on the dealers and was among them before they even knew she was there.
“Hey waz happening?” one of them managed before Autumn’s precisely planted fist lifted him from his feet and threw him halfway across the square. She made no effort to be gentle. The desk sergeant at the main police station had once told her that a drug dealer who was arrested by Autumn often received a much worse punishment than the courts handed out. But Autumn had been injected with drugs too many times in her rather short heroine career to feel any sympathy for the occasional drug dealer she injured. As she swept through the stunned thugs bodies careened in all directions.
The brief exercise didn’t even cause her to break a sweat. She stood triumphant, hands on hips, her brief costume displaying her magnificent body. She even arched her back a little to more properly display her full breasts and tossed her chestnut curls to further emphasize her superiority.
“Easy,” she said aloud. “Just like I thought.” Sprawled around her were the moaning bodies of more than a dozen men. All it remained for her to do was load them into the box van and drive them to the local police station.
An angry muttering distracted her. To her surprise a crowd was slowly gathering around her. Not yet bold enough to confront her openly the growing number of people was nevertheless threatening.
“Fucking white ho. What she be doin’ in the hood? This be our turf.”
The comment was definitely menacing and was accompanied by several more. “You be bustin’ up our bizness you white-assed bitch. You bad for the hood.”
There were a number of other comments voiced in Ebonic accents that were so thick Autumn could not understand them. However, she was not about to back down over busting a bunch of drug dealers. She turned on the crowd, daring it to challenge her physically. “Come on,” she said. “I’ve got lots left. Who wants to be next?”
“Honky ho,” someone yelled. From the far side of the crowd a broken chunk of pavement was tossed in her direction.
“What the hell’s the matter with you people?” Autumn yelled at the growing mob. “You’re coming to the defence of a bunch of thugs that are poisoning your children.”
“Not my children, ho,” came a woman’s voice. “Just some honky’s spoiled brats.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Autumn shouted above the shouts of the crowd. “The most serious drug problem in the city is centred in Gastown.”
“This be our hood, ho. We be dealin’ with any problems.” Another chunk of concrete came her way.
Autumn was not worried about flying chunks of concrete. She could deal with them without any problems. What was concerned her was that dealing with the crowd might allow some of the thugs she had flattened to get away. She could, of course, have simply dealt with the ungrateful citizens of Gastown the way she had dealt with the drug dealers, however, she suspected that might just make matters worse. She could easily visualize how the media would distort any violent confrontation into a major racial issue.
There were now more than a hundred Gastowners, not all of them menacing. A few had just come to see what the disturbance was about while others had come to goggle at the scantily clad heroine. And not all of them were unfriendly.
“Don’t you listen them, girl,” one hefty woman shouted. “Those scum you bagged been giving Gastown a bad name for years. It be good you got them off the streets.”
That remark created an argument among the pro and anti heroine elements of the crowd, an animated discussion that gave Autumn the chance to finish what she had come to do. While the members of the crowd argued about the merits of a honky heroine cleaning up their streets, Autumn tossed the bodies of the unconscious thugs into the van and slammed the door shut. She was just about to hop into the driver’s seat when a slender young man came running toward her. In his hand he held a plastic bag containing a white powder.
“Hey, honky ho, you be forgettin’ something.”
Autumn stared at the man, a bit caught off guard by his hostile greeting and the fact that he seemed to be returning a bag of cocaine she had overlooked when she had taken out the street thugs. He raised the bag as if intending to give it to her and then tossed it in her direction. One-handed Autumn reached out to catch the bag.
POP! The explosion was not very large, certainly not big enough to take out a heroine, but it enveloped her in a cloud of white powder.
“What!” Autumn exclaimed. And then she took a deep breath of the choking cloud.
“Aahh!” A chemical surge swept through her. It was so intense that it completely overwhelmed her defences. Had she been a normal person Autumn would most certainly have been killed. As it was it sent a cocaine rush through her bloodstream that staggered her. She had seldom experienced anything like it, even when she had been subjected to the cruel chemical injections given to her by her former nemesis Darkstorm. For a few seconds she experienced a sense of power and euphoria that went beyond even her normal superheroine qualities. Her heartbeat accelerated to speeds that would have caused a normal heart to rupture and a wave of heat passed through her and set her skin afire. Gasping in shock, she fell to her knees.
“And that be how you deal with a heroine ho,” laughed the young man ho had tossed the bag to Autumn. Through eyes whose pupils were so dilated that the were almost blinded by normal light, Autumn saw him weave toward her, moving in the typical ghetto swagger affected by so many young black men. This time, his movements were distinctly aggressive, but Autumn stood paralyzed as he move in on her.
In a last desperate effort, Autumn managed to get to her feet. It was a valiant but futile effort. She didn’t even move her head as the young man’s fist slammed into her jaw. Her head snapped back, her legs buckled, and then everything went black.
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