Lone Star: Targeted (Chapter 4) (Patreon)

Lone Star: Targeted

Chapter 3

“What a night,” Megan mumbled, stopping to unlock her condo door.

Roger took her home, and kept her “occupied” until past 2 AM, and then woke her up for round two. She didn’t escape his clutches until after 11 AM, and now it was almost high noon.

Mrs. Allred next door came out with her bagged trash. The seventy-something widow looked Megan up and down, sniffed, and muttered, “Tramp.”

“What?” Megan cried. “How dare you!”

“She says slinking in after a night of debauchery,” Mrs. Allred sneered. “I recognize the signs of a walk of shame. No makeup, tousled hair, trashy clothes.”

The elderly woman thrust her trashbag into the garbage chute, and strode back into her condo. Megan stared open-mouthed.

Does she wait for me at the door? Megan thought. It never fails. When I come home after a sleepover, she comes out and belittles me. She shook her head, opened the door, and entered. Everyone needs a hobby, I guess.

Megan’s phone alerted her to a problem. Ding-ding.

Her personal phone only ding-dinged when a police alert was forwarded from her heroine phone number. She opened her phone and checked the alert.

Hostage situation. Botched liquor store robbery. Suspects are the Gaines Gang.

“Gaines Gang?” she asked. “Botched robbery? They are too professional to botch something that simple.”

It had to be another trap. Megan rushed to her hidden closet, and quickly got her red mask out. Putting it against her face, she then pressed six hidden buttons at once to make it seal. Now no one could remove it without her help.

No other Sisterhood heroines were logged in. Most of them had day jobs, so only patrolled at night. She had no way of knowing if any of the FEM Fighters were out and about, since they had a different secure network.

Pressing another two buttons simultaneously, she spoke while continuing to hold them in. “Be warned! I think this Gaines Gang botched robbery is another trap for me, or any other heroine.”

With the voice-alert in place to warn her Sisters the second they logged in, Megan pulled out her leotard. Then she stripped, pulled on the leotard, and headed into the bathroom. She quickly fixed her hair and face.

Returning to the heroine closet, she pulled out her red thigh boots, pulling them on. Next came her red opera gloves, choker with her gold Sisterhood ankh, and then she was ready to mete justice. Since her condo was one of four on the top floor, she had direct access to the roofdeck. Indeed, only the four condos had roofdeck access. So she accessed a secret camera with an app on her phone, and checked to ensure no one was up there.

It was empty.

Lone Star turned on her TV, turned up the volume so Mrs. Allred would hear it, but not loud enough to inspire the old witch to come over to complain. Then she rushed up to the roofdeck and flew away at top speed.

Sisterhood heroines made it a habit of landing atop all tall buildings, surveying the land around them, and then flying away. Lady Texas and Ms Texicana frequently visited her roofdeck when patrolling Uptown. It was the tallest luxury condo building in the area. So she didn’t worry that someone might see her fly away and think she lived there.

The police alert put the botched robbery and hostage standoff over in Lake Highlands, east of Uptown and not that far away. In less than a minute Lone Star was streaking over the crime scene. She accessed her Power to form an incredibly dense shield between her and the ground. It remained completely invisible to the naked eye.

She flew over the liquor store several times, trying to pull in sniper fire. All senses alert, her sharp eyes scanned the surrounding structures looking for a sniper. He had to be there.

Pressing the “phone” button on her mask, a small blue screen appeared before her face. She chose the police dispatch number. It rang twice before answered.

“This is Lone Star. I’m above the hostage scene. How many hostages?”

“One, Lone Star. They have the owner, a fifty year old African-American man.”

“Can the officers on the ground see the suspects and hostage?”

“Yes, they have eyes on them through the glass doors. One of the men has the owner in front of the door, using him as a human shield.”

“Acknowledged. Lone Star out.”

She ended the call, and then stopped to hover above the cops

When she failed to draw any fire, Lone Star descended to about twenty feet off the ground, and well behind the clustered cops. She used her mask to place a crosshairs on the liquor store, and pulled up the building’s blueprints.

She looked more closely at the front doors. It looked like Tommy Gaines standing behind the store owner. He was waving a pistol around, while his big brother shouted into a phone behind him. She couldn’t see Eddy. She glanced at the police, and found their hostage negotiator speaking into his phone.

“It’s time,” she whispered, full red lips curling into a wicked grin. “Time to dazzle with my Telekinetic glory.”

Lone Star took off flying to the right, performing a wide loop around the cops and flying straight up to the front door. She heard a collective gasp from the cops when she stopped above the door. The store owner was visible through the glass, but not any of the Gaines boys.

Reaching down with her Power, Lone Star seized the glass doors and RIPPED them out and away. She released it as the glass shattered and scattered. In a fraction of a second, the busty heroine seized the store owner with her Telekinetic Power and yanked him straight out and up to her side.

Boom!

She heard the high-powered rifle shot before she realized what happened. Havoc took his shot! Looking to her right front, she spotted the stopped .50 Cal round, floating within her shield. She quickly set the store owner down atop the store, and took off in the direction of the gunshot.

Boom!

She spotted the muzzle flash coming from a nearby upper floor window. The building she’d been hovering above a moment ago. So Lone Star kicked it into full blast, and went into that window like an air-to-ground missile. At the last second, she spotted a tall, male shape in all black with a rifle in hand.

“Gotcha!” she cried, and tackled him around the waist.

Lone Star drove Havoc across the room, and through the sheet rocked wall. They burst out into the next apartment over’s living room. He kicked her across the room, and tried to bring his high-caliber rifle to bear. She flew straight at him.

“No!” she screamed, spinning in midair to kick the barrel aside half a second before he pulled the tripper. She continued to spin superfast, and smashed the back of her other foot into his head. “Take that, you murderous jackwad!”

Havoc threw his arms wide as he fell back, giving her the chance to fly past him and yank the rifle away. She threw it out the window and turned in time to see him lift his arm to point it at her. His other hand reached over to trigger the stun beam.

The hovering heroine instantly formed another shield between them, blocking his attempt to put her down. Then she whipped around the room so fast he couldn’t turn in time to stop her from body-checking him through another wall.

A gas line broke. Lone Star saw a spark as she formed her shield…

Ka-Boom!

She saw Havoc blasted out of the building, while she was knocked back against the far wall. Turning toward the window to go after him, Lone Star stopped when she heard a woman scream.

She hesitated.

“Dammit, I can’t,” she muttered, and turned toward the scream.

Lone Star flew through the burning apartment to find a woman and toddler in the apartment’s bedroom. Fire blocked their escape. Her heart sank into her belly. Her fight had endangered an innocent bystander!

“Don’t worry. I got you,” she shouted above the roar of the fire. There was fire outside the window, plus Havoc might have found his rifle. So she smashed through the wall into the next apartment, and led the woman and child through.

“Hurry. Start pounding on doors and warning the residents of the fire,” Lone Star cried, as she turned to do the same. “But head for the exit while doing it.”

Moments later, cops flooded into the apartment building. Together, they got everyone outside by the time the fire department arrived. Lone Star immediately lifted up and looked for Havoc and the Gaines Gang.

Gone.

“Did you see where Havoc went?” she asked a cop.

“The man in black you fought?”

“Yes.”

“East. On foot, until the robbers picked him up.”

If she hurried, she could locate them from above.

“What kind of vehicle? Make? Model? Color?”

He froze, mouth open. “I don’t remember. Sorry.”

Lone Star’s shoulders slumped. Another explosion filled the air. She turned to the fire, ready to help where needed.