The last time I'd been given a delivery away from the City, I'd ended up in Detroit of all places.  It hadn't gone well at all.  Daimon had sprung this 'trap' on me that basically sold me off to a team of metahumans fighting a gang war up there.  I got nothing against fighting gangs but nothing went right from the moment I set foot in the place.  First guy I got near took a swing at me, then sicced some 'speedster' on me.  It was like he was moving through molasses or something he was so slow.

Well, it went down hill from there.  Here's the group of super-powered people playing cops and robbers, all undercover and stuff.  I'm supposed to fit right in ... trouble was, they sorta skirt the edge of legality all the time.  First job they gave me was an easy one, scout a waterfront.  Piece of cake ... except that they wanted me to get into as many buildings as I could, search the place, photo stuff, look for kidnapped kids and get out fast.

Fast I can do, in spades.  Breaking and entering ... not so much.  First, it's wrong without a warrant if your cops, right?  AFTER I did the deed, I asked about the warrant, they said they had one, but didn't show me.  Said being undercover meant sometimes breaking the rules.  I asked if they had just cause to believe a crime was being committed, no one would answer that.

That night, they had a tip on some slime ball they wanted to pick up and interrogate with their mind reading mentalist type, probably illegal too.  They knew where he was, what route he was taking, and so they set up an ambush. My job?  Pull innocents out of the line of fire if needed.  They moved a truck into position to cut the guy off ... but no one told the guy driving to turn into the roadblock, he just turned the other way and put the pedal to the metal.  That limo had some horses.  It out ran me in about three seconds and that's hard to do.

When we got back to the base I had a couple thousand questions that nobody wanted to hear so I shut up and they gave me another mapping job, pretty much the same thing, except this time, in broad daylight, in an occupied research lab where they suspected kids were being experimented on.  Okay, that's bad in my book, so I was willing to over-look the whole warrant thing, that, and the fact that they had no evidence a crime was being committed.  Yeah, a judge would have thrown them out of the courtroom.

So, after the meeting, Christmas trees started sprouting right out of the floor or something and it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet, but it was I guess, because a bunch of people showed up and a lot of food was served.  Ever been the newbie in a school?  Pretty much the same thing, like a family dinner with in-laws you've never met or something.  I hit my room and my social standing dipped below the floor of Death Valley, especially when I said 'no Christmas'. I didn't feel I needed to explain myself, it was none of their business anyway.  Of course it pissed someone off.

Anyway, this mission thing.  I needed more info so I went to the woman in charge, well third in charge and it took her about two minutes of calling me immature before I went immature in her face and told her 'fuck you'.  Didn't go over well.

I was worried, I'm not exactly super spy material, other then a couple of Bond movies and stuff, so I went around the base looking for someone who could tell me things, teach me.  The cook, her name's Pat, was more than willing to teach me to cook, which is cool, just I have to do it the SLOW way ... My second stop was the guy in charge of the guns and stuff.  I set up a time to learn about weapons, cool.  The third guy, though ... he told me to get out of his garage and no I couldn't learn about cars from him and no I couldn't buy one of my own to take apart and no I couldn't do it in my room.

Next day, I got up with the two girls I was supposed to work with and we cobbled together a plan, bailing wire, duct tape, bubblegum and a lot of spit. Turned out there was some weird stuff going on.  As we, the three of us playing a bunch of girl-friends picking the fourth up for lunch, were leaving after I'd zipped though all the the building that wasn't in a CONTAINMENT area, we spotted this guy leaving with a kid whose parents had just turned him over to this lab for experiments.  Got on my running shoes and trailed the guy to this 'COMPOUND', read that as razor wire, armed guards, machinegun towers, minefield ... okay, just the fence and guards.  I took a couple months worth of pictures until the sun started down, and then hauled it back to the top secret base.

Soon as I got back, I hit the computer madam up for computer lessons.  She was somewhat helpful but I had a feeling she was imagining me stripped and tied to a rack, ready for my spanking.  I headed for the meeting before she could suggest it ... and walked into an emergency.  Seems some bar was on fire just a couple miles up the road.  It takes me under 90 seconds to get there and the place is engulfed.

First things first, get everybody out.  I'm very good at this and by the time the first of the team showed up, like two whole minutes later, I'd gone into paramedic mode and was sorting the wounded.  The fire guys showed up along with the second of the team, about four and a half minutes after me ... Those two had some inside info and jumped into the building to haul two more victims out.  The guy in charge, the second-in-command overalls, sent guy three off to the hospital with one of the victims, while he took the second back the the base. 

I'd kept telling them they had no idea what a speedster can do.  It took him almost four minutes to cover the same distance I did in 90 seconds.  I felt that had put the victim's life in danger ... plus his paramedic skills are shit ... So I got mad and went off, and got called to the boss' office, again but not before I took a little run and found every hospital in the area within about ten miles.

Talk got postponed and I got a new assignment, back up for a pair of the team that had to go into a legit business and hack their computers.  Why not get a warrant?  They didn't want to tip off the company.  Gee, ya think? Anyway, no problem but they needed me to provide a little distraction, in shorts and thigh boots and a low cut top.  Okay, not their idea, but it worked and they got their hack.

Then the talk hit.  I wasn't being friendly enough.  I wasn't taking part in the Christmas stuff ... So I told him I was Jewish ... which didn't seem to matter, he still wanted me to take part in a Christian celebration regardless of my feelings ... then someone put a menorah in front of my room.  It was the first time someone had done that, ever.  I figured I could do a little fence mending ... only that guy in the garage?  Wouldn't let me in to help the guy I wanted to talk to.  I had to get out and figured I'd run to Pittsburgh for a Hanukah fest I knew was happening.  Why not ask around to see if anyone was willing to go.  If they'd go to a Jewish fest, I figured I could do something Christmas.

Well, it didn't work out, but at least I'm in the right state now and San Diego is a lot like San Francisco ... I just hope this group is more ... flexible ... but, the girl I am replacing is a speedster like me, so at least they have some idea what I can do ...