Justice Girl: Trophy Hunter (Chapter 1) (Patreon)

Justice Girl: Trophy Hunter

Counting Coup Trilogy #1

By Don Ship

 “Tell me again how there are good men down there, too?” the platinum blonde said.

Justice Girl glanced at her. Platinum Angel scowled down at the crowd, the moonlight gleaming off her metallic platinum bikini and thigh boots costume. The silvery colored wings rising up out of her thick mane made Justice Girl think of Viking Valkyries. The veteran masked vigilante looked so disappointed and sad as the five super heroines stood atop an office tower and watched a rally of Amazon hating men burning effigies of all six members of the city’s super heroine corps.

“You can’t hate a man just because he’s stupid,” Zephyr said. The sky blue and white clad heroine looked to Justice Girl for support. “Right?”

Justice Girl opened her mouth, but hesitated. Zephyr was so young and impressionable. Barely nineteen. She didn’t want to sour the beautiful brunette against men.

“Well, Zephyr,” Night Stalker said. “Ignorance is the foundation upon which all hate and bigotry is built. MAAD men don’t understand Alpha Meta women, so are frightened of our God-given super powers. Their ignorance, fueled by fear mongers in the media, turns them into haters.”

“And thus,” Platinum Angel said. “Men Against Amazon Domination is born and flourishes.”

A great cheer rose up from the MAAD rally below, pulling all their attention back to the crowd. Justice Girl lifted red, opera-gloved hands to her high-tech mask. She pushed three buttons hidden underneath the red pleather covering and activated the camera. A pop-up hologram appeared before her face, which she zoomed in on the speaker on stage. A familiar face made her frown. To the right, a list of the ex-con’s rap sheet appeared.

The heroines all flinched when the man shouting vitriol from the stage, waving a red aluminum baseball bat, suddenly lurched to the right and struck the crudely made “Justice Girl” effigy across the knees. Justice Girl frown, deactivated the hologram, and shook her head woefully.

“Who is that guy?” Ms Crusader asked, eyes narrowing behind her black mask. The yellow and golden-brown costumed beauty shifted, lifting a black thigh-booted foot up atop the barrier as she leaned forward. “He looks familiar.”

Justice Girl nodded. “That is MAAD’s newly elected Golden Dragon. His name is Chad Hatfield. My mentor, Alpha Woman, sent him to prison for carjacking and attempted murder roughly fifteen years ago. He spent ten years in prison, stewing in his resentment of super heroines.”

“And now that ex-con is in charge of all of the state’s Alpha Meta hate mongers,” Platinum Angel sneered. “Way to deescalate the situation, Chad.”

The other heroines nodded. Reports were up to forty percent of MAAD membership were men with criminal records. Most having been sent to prison by super heroines.

MAAD as an organization had started to fade away in recent years. But Chad became the local leader, their Dragon, two years back. He got the base fired up again, and membership started to grow after Chad reinvigorated his followers with the old game of Counting Coup.

“They call him the Trophy Hunter,” Justice Girl said. “He’s been counting coup for the last five years. I know I lost two pieces of my costume to him, and even a handful of hair.”

She’d heard that he displayed her stolen bikini bottoms from her old costume, right glove, and wad of golden blonde hair in the local chapter’s hall. Showing off his ‘trophies.” Others also displayed their trophies there.

“He sucker punched me on live TV two years back,” Platinum Angel said. “My nose still tingles when I hear his name.”

“Ha!” Night Stalker laughed. The dark-maned heroine in a black and purple leotard and boots costume scowled down at the rally. “I know what you mean. That son of a bitch kicked me in the… You know what six months back. Also while I was being interviewed by a local reporter. I felt that kick in my brain.”

Justice Girl winched. She remembered watching that interview live, when a man suddenly rushed out of the crowd and kicked Night Stalker. Hell, she’d felt that kick just watching the incident.

“He has traveled to cities all over California just to count coup against their local heroines,” Justice Girl continued. “Built up his reputation with MAAD, and is now their newly elected state leader, their Golden Dragon.”

“What a stupidly grandiose name,” Zephyr said. “Who calls himself a dragon, much less a stupid Golden Dragon? Jesus.”

She agreed, but she knew the “Golden” part came from California being the Golden State. So Justice Girl thought his hate-mongering title was an insult to the entire state.

“Yes, but MAAD and other critics mock super heroines for the names we take,” Justice Girl said. “As well as our revealing costumes.”

“Shut up,” Platinum Angel said, grinning wickedly. “I love my bikini costume.”

They all giggled. There were many reasons for the skimpy costumes. Mostly it was for positive PR. Though, bikini costumes like hers were quite dangerous. Bad guys always grabbed for their costumes to rip them off. Bikini’s made it infinitely easier to do so. And no one lost pieces of her costume more often than Platinum Angel.

“If anyone would take us seriously as super heroines in street clothes, I’d be the first to change,” Night Stalker said. “But comic book heroes are the standard imposed by the public.”

“There’s nothing we can do about them,” Justice Girl said, and sighed gustily as she waved at the crowd below dismissively. She looked up and around. “We have a bigger problem. Human traffickers.”

“Specifically those two pieces of shit Amazons, Randy Girl and Victory Girl,” Night Stalker said, voice lower and ominous. “It was a bad day for Ocean City when those two hooked up and started working together.”

Justice Girl nodded. Memories of tangling with both Randy Girl and Victory Girl came back unbidden. Both Amazons had gotten the best of her at least once, and did unspeakable things to her. But as much as she wanted revenge, she knew her task was to bring them to justice. She had to let the Judicial system exact her pound of flesh.

“Zephyr and I will…” Justice Girl started, but the situation changed down below.

The Golden Dragon stopped, did a melodramatic double-take, and then pointed his bat at the five super heroines watching from above and behind the rally. The crowd gasped as they turned to stare up at the objects of their ire.

They were too far away to make out the crowd’s shouts, but none of them sounded nice. And then a single gunshot rang out. Justice Girl heard the bullet whiz by between her and Zephyr. All five heroines leapt into the air and spread out, engaging their super powers to throw up shields against bullets.

Justice Girl floated in the middle of a bright bubble of electricity, while Zephyr’s Wind Power left her shield completely invisible. Ms Crusader’s Water Power threw up a wall of steel-hard water between her and the threat, while the Telekinetic Powers Platinum Angel and Night Stalker also had invisible shields.

“Someone just threw the gauntlet down!” Platinum Angel snarled.

The platinum-maned heroine took off like an air-to-ground missile straight into the crowd. Before any of the others could move, the Amazon heroine was in the MAAD crowd kicking ass and taking names. Men were flying away from her in all directions as she became a whirlwind of fury. But then the crowd shouted angrily, and surged at her. The heroine vanished in the melee.

“Yikes!” Zephyr cried. “We have to help her!”