The Adventures of Star
Eagle
Episode 1 Birth of a
Superheroine
by L'Espion
Epilogue
“This is one hell of a mess,” Reilly said, shaking his head
slowly.
Drummond nodded. “Strangest
thing I’ve seen in fifteen years of police work.”
“Been a lot of strange things going on since that
superheroine showed up.”
“Yeah,” Drummond agreed.
“Star Eagle she calls
herself. She’s a little
different from the other heroines, or so I understand.”
Damn rights,” agreed Reilly.
“She seems to have none of the superheroine hang-ups about
killing. She’s littering
the city with bodies from one end to the other.”
“Cleaning out the sewers,” responded
Drummond.
“That don’t make it right,” said
Reilly. “It’s still
murder, even if the average Joe does like what she’s
doing.”
Drummond nodded agreement. The
media were calling the heroine
“
Both men turned as one of the uniforms scrambled out of the burned-out building
accompanied by the fire investigator.
“What’d you find?” Drummond said to the
investigator.
“Looks like arson all right,
lieutenant. Someone was very
generous with several jerry-cans of gasoline.”
“But there’s more lieutenant,” interjected the uniform.
“Name, son?” asked Reilly.
“Jones, sergeant,” the uniform answered.
“Appreciate your eagerness, son,” said Reilly, “but let the
inspector finish.”
“I think I am for now, sergeant, and there is something the constable
should be telling you.”
Drummond and Reilly looked at Jones
expectantly.
“Bones, sir,” said Jones addressing
Drummond. “About a dozen
men were cremated in that fire. At
least that’s what the inspector thinks.”
“God damn,” said Reilly quietly, his tone indicating
amazement.
Let’s take a look,” said Drummond.
Following Jones into the ruins of the warehouse, they worked their way toward
the area of greatest fire damage.
“Looks like this is where it started,”
said Reilly.
“Right sergeant,” said the fire
inspector. “Someone went
to a bit of trouble to make sure that this part of the building was
obliterated.”
“Here lieutenant,” said Jones, pointing to a charred heap in the
center of what had once been a room.
“Christ. A mass
cremation,” said Drummond.
They poked about the area for a few minutes, but did not actually enter the
room. They wanted to leave it
as undisturbed as possible for the forensic
team.
“This is strange,” said
Drummond. “Looks like some
sort of electronic apparatus, or what’s left of it.”
“A burner of some sort,” said Jones.
“Burner?” asked Drummond.
“Doesn’t look much like a
stove.”
“Not that kind of burner, sir,” said
Jones. “A
DVD burner.
Used to record movies.”
Reilly and Drummond looked at the constable
inquiringly.
“I used to work in the field for awhile,” said
Jones. For a small outfit recording
weddings and such, before I went into the
force. DVD burners are something
I am familiar with. This was
a commercial unit. There’s
a lot of melted plastic around here too.
Looks like they had a big stockpile of
blanks.”
Reilly stroked his jaw.
“So Wolf Kemper had a DVD burner in his
warehouse. Question is
why?”
“Maybe he decided to get involved in illegal porn,” surmised
Drummond. “Who knows, the
bastard was into everything else.”
“Think that’s him?” asked Reilly, pointing to the pile of
bones.
“We’ll find out, replied
Drummond. I’m sure forensics
can put together enough info to let us determine who the bones belong
to. Maybe one of our crime problems
just got solved.”
“And created another,” said
Reilly. “Now we have to
find out who did this and why.
Things just keep on piling up.
First Vlasov and his thugs are wiped out
and now Kemper. Something nasty
is going on.”
“Star Eagle,” muttered
Drummond. There was no way of
knowing. The double mass murders
could be part of a gang war. But
the presence of the ruthless superheroine certainly complicated
things.
“Melissa,” called Karla.
“Have you considered changing your modus
operandi?”
“My what?” said Melissa from the kitchen, where she was shredding
lettuce.
“Your methods of operation,” Karla
answered. “This TV special
credits you with permanently erasing over three dozen of Grand
Centre’s worst scum in the last month or
so. I don’t think it puts
a very favourable spin on your career.”
“Was it wrong to get rid of all that evil?” asked Melissa entering
the room with a paring knife in one hand.
“No,” said Karla, thinking of her
father. “They probably all
deserved death, but the media are in a
frenzy. A lot of talk
about vigilante justice and the rights of the accused and
such”
“Oh,” said Melissa, “I knew about
that. I studied your legal system
and the rights of individuals. But
when I looked at your society I didn’t notice many people paying much
attention to it, so I thought it didn’t matter.”
Karla didn’t smile at Melissa’s accidental
joke. What had been done to her
had been truly horrifying. Melissa
had told her a little about her ordeal, but there were some things she had
been very vague about. But Karla
could guess what had happened. Her
own ordeal had been horrible enough.
What would it have been like to be chained to a bed and raped over
and over again?
Melissa looked at her pensive friend.
She was really impressed by Karla’s command of the English
language. The
redheaded
Russian girl had improved immeasurably and was using language
that even she did not understand.
More importantly, however, Karla had shown herself a true
friend. She had risked her life
to try and save her and had paid a high price for her
intervention. She considered
her friend’s advice.
As Star Eagle, Melissa had struck terror into the hearts of criminals throughout
Grand Centre. The city’s
crime rate had already dropped several
points. However, it would do
little good to wipe out crime in Grand Centre if she was viewed on the same
level as the thugs she eliminated.
She would take the advice.
From now on she would be a kinder gentler Star
Eagle. No more
killing. She would apprehend
the villains and let the justice system deal with
them.
“Vhat you thinkink,
darlink?” asked Karla shifting into an exaggerated
Russian accent.
“I think maybe you are right,” she
said. “I need to adjust
my technique.” She noticed
a small package sitting on the coffee table in front of
Karla.
Karla followed hr eyes.
“Oh,” she said.
“I got this from a boy in my
class. It’s a
gift.”
“A boyfriend?’ asked Melissa.
“He’d like to be, but we’ll see.”
Melissa wondered what it would be like to have a
boyfriend. It was a part of Earth
culture that she found fascinating.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It’s
nicely wrapped though.”
Karla
pulled on the pink ribbon that secured the foil wrapped
package.
The foil fell away. Karla gasped
and immediately took the package from the
room.
Melissa called her back. “No,
wait.” Her face was pale
and she felt slightly ill, but she had to deal with this problem sooner or
later. “Let me see
it. I have to find
out.”
Karla brought the package back.
“You’re sure?” she asked.
Melissa nodded swallowing.
“Just put it down.”
She pointed to the tabletop.
Reaching out tentatively she picked up a dark, fragrant piece of
zentoc.
“I…, I think it’s
alright.” She raised the
chocolate to her nose.
“Yes,” she said after a long
pause. “No
weakness. No
reaction.”
“You’re cured then? Karla
asked. “Chocolate won’t
hurt you?”
“It seems that way.
“Perhaps it is something to do with my
Terran body.
Somehow the overdose I had burned the influence of the
zentoc out of me.”
“Wonderful,” said Karla.
“Give me back the box.
I thought I was going to have to eat these in
secret.”
Karla bit delicately into a square of
chocolate.
“Mmmm, these are the
best. He must really like
me.” She held out the box
to Melissa. “Want
one?”
“No thanks,” said Melissa.
“I don’t want to push my
luck. No sense in tempting
fate.”
Karla came up to her and placed her hand on Melissa’s
shoulder. The girl turned and
smiled. She had a lot to learn
about Earth, but she had achieved quite a bit in her first month of Earth
life. Star Eagle’s career
was just beginning. She had already
struck fears into the hearts of criminals everywhere in Grand
Centre. And she had learned how
to adjust to the complexities of Terran
culture. But most important she
had made a friend. Karla would
not betray her. Her friend’s
willingness to risk her life had proved
that. It was a good base to build
on. The Earth would soon hear
more of Star Eagle. She was just
getting started.
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