Lone Star: Targeted (Chapter 1) (Patreon)

Lone Star: Targeted

By Don Ship

Dallas, Sunday, mid-morning…

A brightly clad feminine figure streaked across the sky. Lone Star squinted into the fierce wind, sapphire eyes scanning the streets below. A pulsing red holographic screen sat before her eyes at forehead level. It was an alert from the police, and a request for super heroine help, projected from her high-tech mask.

I have to find and stop them before someone gets hurt.

Five heavily armed men had forced police to break off a high speed chase when they opened fire with automatic weapons. She thought about all the innocent bystanders they endangered with such reckless behavior, heart pounding.

She had the general area and direction of the would-be robbers. And a description of their vehicle: black four-door Jeep Wrangler. Five men inside.

Lone Star dropped lower to the ground as she came to the area, sharp eyes darting all over the place until she spotted a black Jeep. Zeroing in on it, she flew faster as she descended even lower. The Jeep passed through a busy commercial area, before turning into an industrial district. She didn’t see any other vehicles on the road, or even people outside of the many businesses and factories.

Perfect, she thought. Time to put the fear of law and order in their bones.

The Jeep was open-air, with three men standing up and facing back with submachineguns in hand. Rollbars behind the front and back seats help them stay up and provided support for their weapons. And then the vehicle quickly slowed and rolled to a stop in the middle of the road.

“Out of gas?” she asked. She stopped to hover, looking all around for trouble atop nearby roofs. “Maybe engine problems?”

The three men in the back seat had turned to speak to the driver and other man. It looked innocent enough, but all her senses went on alert. Bad guys didn’t just stop in the middle of the road like that.

Lone Star pressed a hidden button on her red mask. It opened a line to a police dispatcher.

“This is Lone Star. I have the Gaines Gang stopped at this GPS location. They will be disarmed shortly.”

Pressing another button, she closed the line before the dispatcher could respond. The police alert vanished, replaced by a light blue popup. That screen show she was the only Alpha Meta heroine logged in. Many of her sister heroines were probably in church. Where she would be if it wasn’t her weekend for Sunday morning patrol.

The busty brunette in the Texas flag themed leotard, red thigh boots and opera gloves, dropped very low and eased in close enough to make out faces. A resting bitch face quickly claimed her lovely masked face.

Yep, it’s the Gaines boys. Why am I not surprised?

The Gaines Gang were all tall, broad-shouldered, and vicious career criminals. They had a similar look, since they were related. Two sets of brothers, three from one family and two from another. The families were cousins, and the family business was armed robbery.

Chase and Tye were brothers, both tall, blonde, and blue eyed. They could’ve been twins, except for Chase’s nose. Lone Star broke it two years back, leaving a large bump there. They were in the front.

Their heavily armed cousins, Jerry, Eddy, and Tommy, had a familiar resemblance in body type and square jaws, but with light brown hair. Except for the eldest, Jerry. His shoulder-length hair was as dark brown as Lone Star’s.

Using her Telekinetic Power, Lone Star moved with lightning speed, whipping around in front of the Jeep. Her tall stilettos clattered when she landed on the hard concrete, making the submachinegun wielding brothers cry out and turn to face her.

Lone Star waved her hand, while seizing hold of their weapons with her Power. Then she ripped the automatic weapons out of tight hands, hurling them atop a nearby warehouse. The Gaines Boys didn’t look so much surprised as angry.

“Stupid mutant freak,” Jerry snarled, leaping down to the street.

The other four men quickly joined him and formed a semi-circle before the shapely super heroine. Lone Star struck a sassy pose, hands on hips, and grinned at them.

“If I’m not mistaken, every one of you is currently on parol,” she said. The heroine wagged her brows. “Looks like you boys are all going back to prison.”

“In your dreams, bitch,” Tye sneered. “The five of us are going to kick your stuck up ass.”

“I’m Alpha Meta, little boy. That means I’m ten times the strength of a man,” she replied, smoothly gliding into a fighting stance. “Do the math, I’m twice as strong as the five of you little girls.”

One and all pulled long hunting knives.

“We’re going to slice and dice you, Lone Star,” Chase snarled, eyes narrowing.

“Sorry, but it’s kind of hard to take a man with a man-bun seriously.”

“It’s ponytail, you idiot.”

“Seriously? Oh my God, how pathetic.”

Chase snarled and lunged at her, leading with his knife. Lone Star used her superior athletic and physical attributes to seize his wrist. She twisted and pulled, thrust her hip, and tossed the career criminal all the way to the sidewalk. Tye, Jerry, and Tommy attacked in the middle of it.

Lone Star spun into a savage kick to Jerry’s head, before pushing herself straight up and way from Tye’s blade. Tommy slashed out at her, too, and almost cut his cousin instead. That’s when she noticed Eddy standing back with a pistol pointed at her chest.

The dark-haired beauty used her Power to form a super dense shield between her and Eddy a split second before he pulled the trigger five times. The bullets all stopped midair, a good ten feet from her. He cursed, and then emptied the magazine at her to no effect.

“Will you morons ever learn?” she scolded. “Guns are useless against us.”

With that, Lone Star whipped around them twice, before driving in feet first. She slammed her booted feet into Tye’s chest, putting him down gasping for air.

Stopping between Jerry and Tommy, she spun around to kick both men in the head. They dropped like rocks, before she surged straight at Eddy. The thug cried out in surprise, pulling back a fist to strike. But she proved too fast, and slammed a knee in his face as she flew past.

“Ouch, bet that knocked a few teeth loose.”

The sound of sirens approaching reached them. She smiled at Chase and Tye. The other three remained on the ground, but were recovering quickly.

“Uh oh!” she mocked. “Looks like your one-way ticket to prison is fast approaching. That sucks for you.”

A pair of Dallas PD squad cars turned onto the road for the commercial district. She glanced at them, a tiny smile tugging at her full red lips. Then a red light flashed across her eyes.

Laser?She thought. Panic flashed, and she flew straight up.

At the same time, she started to form a shield with her Power. Too late.

Something hit her left thigh like a train. Lone Star was flipped head over heels as she flew back behind some parked cars. The Gaines boys whooped and hollered in joy after she hit the ground and rolled to a stop.

The most exquisite pain lanced up and down her leg, which she realized was broken by the bullet. What the hell was the sniper using? A .50 caliber?

The police skidded to a stop, cops rolling out with pistols drawn. She thought it over, but Gaines boys jumped into their Jeep and took off again.

It was a setup!she thought. A trap to snipe me?

Another shot hit the ground between her legs.

“Sniper!” she cried. “Get behind cover!”

She scrambled behind a parked car, where three more shots slammed in. Two of them went completely through the car, but missed her. The pain was too intense for her to concentrate, so she couldn’t form a shield with her Power.

Her mask alerted her that another heroine had logged into their secure network.

“Too little, too late,” she grumbled, clutching her leg. “Someone is going to pay dearly for this.”