The Brave and the Bold: Corona and Arsenal
Girls’ Night Out
by Paladinlgt
A private beach in Australia, where two people are surfing with considerable skill.
The blond headed man starts doing tricks on his surfboard, while the blond headed woman rolls her eyes as they ride the wave toward the shore. The man washes out, while the woman rides the wave onto the sand.
“You are such a child sometimes, Jack,” the woman says as she picks up her surfboard and moves toward her bag.
The man swims towards the shore, towing his surfboard behind him. “Jill, sometimes I wonder if you were adopted when you act so damn uptight. It’s just lucky for you that we are identical twins.”
The woman starts fishing through her bag for a shirt, when she feels her pager buzzing. She pulls the pager out and looks at it with interest. “Playtime is over, my dear brother. Someone wants us to do a job.”
The man looks disappointed for a split second before becoming excited. “It’s not surfing, but our chosen career is almost as much fun. So where is the contact number coming from?”
“Our new client must be quite eager to hire us, since the contact number is local.” Jill flashes a brilliant white smile at her brother as she pulls on a shirt.
Jack grabs his bag and gives his sister a challenging look. “Race you to the bungalow. Winner gets to talk to the client.” Jack races off.
“Hey! Damn it. Stop cheating.” Jill looks irritated for a brief instant before grabbing her bag and racing after her brother.
***
People are busy and hard at work in a Gotham City newspaper, but they stop in their tracks when the editor shouts loudly, “What the devil do you mean that you can’t do the story on the new business opening an office in Gotham?”
The reporter in charge of the business news looks intimidated before replying. “You assigned me to cover that business conference in London two months ago, so I am going to be gone for the next month.”
The editor scratches his head sharply before lowering his voice. “So I did. Who’s available to do the story, then?” the editor says out loud. The business reporter wonders if he is suppose to answer that before the editor notices he is still in the office.
“Why are you still in my office? Get the devil out of my office to go pack your bags for the London trip!” the editor shouts as he starts rummaging through his desk for a pack of gum.
“Yes sir, Mr. Black.” The business reporter slips out of the office, relieved to get away without being shouted at anymore.
Jerry Black finds his pack of gum and pulls out a piece to start chewing it. He tosses the wrapper onto the floor to join the many other pieces of gum wrapper trash. He flips through his Rolodex, looking for someone confident enough to do the story. He calls the first three names in the Rolodex, only to be informed that they can’t do the story, but on the fourth call he reaches Alex DeWitt.
“DeWitt, I need you to do a story for me,” Jerry Black says.
“Who is this?” Alex DeWitt replies as she directs a yellow hand to unpack her bags. The yellow hand moves around the room, pulling open cabinets and putting away clothes. Alex smiles briefly as the hand finishes the unpacking job. The hand disperses into nothing.
“This is Jerry Black, and I need a talented reporter like yourself to do a story for me,” Jerry says as he glares at several of the reporters outside of the office.
“Oh, it’s you Jerry. How’s your wife?” Alex DeWitt wipes sweat off of her face before directing a surge of willpower at the yellow ring on her finger. A yellow beam creates a whirling fan that blows cool air in her face.
“She’s aggravating as usual. Can we get the small talk over so I can get back to work?” Jerry Black taps his fingers on the desk with impatience.
“Tell me about the story you want.” Alex looks at the fan with pleasure as the sweat disappears. Feeling cool enough she relaxes her willpower, causing the fan to disappear.
“A simple story about a branch office that’s opened in Gotham. I need to tell them who will be doing the story so they can get someone to be escort and tour guide, but my usual business reporter is going to be out of town, so naturally I first thought of you.” Jerry Black smiles.
“I have no problem doing the story then. What’s the name of the business?” Alex DeWitt looks at the clock on the wall and frowns. The yellow ring on her finger surges to life, transforming her clothes to the costume of Corona.
“Its called Bishamon Technologies. I’ll send the details of when the tour guide is suppose to escort you through the facilities by mail. No more time for pleasant conversation, since I’ve got some reporters to chew out for wasting the newspapers time.” Jerry Black abruptly hangs up the phone.
“And a goodbye to you too, Jerry,” Alex says with sarcasm as she puts the phone down. “I’m going to be late to my training session if I don’t hurry up,” Alex says to herself as she flies out the window. She becomes a yellow blur in the sky as she streaks into the heavens.
***
A meeting between the twins Jack and Jill and their potential new client is taking place in a secluded bungalow. An expensively dressed man with several large rings on his fingers is gesturing wildly at the sitting twins. “My employer wants you to disrupt certain facilities in a city in the United States.”
Jack looks at the man with contempt before returning to staring at the pounding surf of waves. “We do not operate in the States for several reasons, unless you are talking about a city in Hawaii.”
“My employer would not appreciate the disrespectful way you are reacting to this most generous offer,” the well-dressed man says with anger.
“Instead of listening to you blather on about how great you and your employer is, I could be out there surfing, so chill with your superior attitude,” Jack says, contempt dripping from his voice.
“Damn surfer punk!” The well-dressed man pulls a Colt from a shoulder holster and covers the twins with it as his face twists with rage.
“Oh dear; now look what you have done, Jack. You have made this man angry, and he intends to shoot you full of holes,” Jill says, looking at her fingernails, seemingly unconcerned about the gun being pointed in her direction.
“Yeah. I am going to put some holes in you and your sister, Sorason. I don’t care how much my higher ups want you to do this job for them.” The man sneers as he wonders whom to shoot first.
“Jill, do you think if I take care of this one that his bosses will send someone else out to offer us the job?” Jack asks his sister as he plays with a sand colored bracelet on his right wrist.
“If they truly want us to work for them, I am almost certain they will. Just remember that any mess you make in the room is yours to clean up.” Jill pulls out a fingernail file and begins to buff her nails.
“You must be crazy.” The well-dressed man starts to squeeze the trigger on his gun just as Jack twists his arm bracelet all the way around. Armor appears seemingly out of nowhere to engulf the smiling Jack Sorason. The man frantically pulls the trigger on his gun wondering just what the hell is going on as the bullets streak to the now armored Sorason.
“You must not be as important as you claimed, Fisk, since your employer forgot to mention why we are such well paid mercenaries.” The electronically distorted voice of Jack Sorason booms in the room as he holds out one of his arms to the bullets. The bullets stop in mid air as Fisk gapes.
“I could just redirect these nasty bullets of yours back in your direction, but my sister would probably be quite irritated by the mess it would make.” Jack gestures, causing the bullets to fall to the ground. Fisk turns to run as the armored Sorason slowly moves toward him. A stream of iron particles form in the air as Fisk tries to get away. The iron particles harden into a barrier that captures Fisk in its iron grip.
Jill claps as she looks at the trick her brother just performed. “I see you managed to perfect that one finally, my dear brother. I am almost impressed.”
“Almost? It took me a month to learn how to do that one, Jill, and you have the gall to say ‘almost impressed’?” Jack turns his armored visage to gaze at his sibling.
“I wouldn’t want you to get a swelled head, brother dear. You might not be able to fit in your armor if that happens.” Jill gives her brother a wink as she examines her nails again.
“Mister Fisk, I bet you didn’t know that your blood contains quite a bit of iron, allowing a chap such as myself to do some very interesting things to it,” Jack says as Fisk is pulled into the air.
A stream of liquid falls to the floor from where Fisk is hovering as Jack and Jill look disgusted. Jill makes a gesture at Jack, indicating that it is his to clean up.
“What kind of criminal are they making nowadays to allow such a paltry threat unman them? Fisk, I expect you to clean that up, since I have lost my taste for killing you now. If you don’t do a good enough job, I’ll let my sister take care of you. She’s the really vicious one of the family.” Fisk’s iron bonds fade away as the iron particles return to a pouch on Jack’s armor. Fisk pulls off his own jacket and starts scrubbing away at the mess, looking quite terrified.
The phone on the room starts to ring at about this time. Jill picks it up and listens to the person on the other side. She smiles as she recognizes the voice from her father’s recordings. “Of course we would be quite happy to aid you at double our normal price. After all, the Illuminati is quite a wealthy organization, even if the quality of its help has declined in the most recent years.
“My father would be pleased at the compliment, as it comes from such a well known figure as yourself. Yes, my brother enjoyed terrorizing the man you sent, at least up to the point that your minion lost control of his bladder. He was very willing to clean up his mess after my brother gave him a stern lecture.” Jill gives a small nod to her puzzled brother, indicating she will explain later.
“We generally don’t operate in the States because of all those damned costumed hero types, but in your case we will make an exception. Send the data to our father’s estate, and we will take it from there. It’s a great pleasure to work for such a infamous man as yourself.” Jill hangs up the phone as she gives her brother a large pleased smile.
“That’s a real switch, Jill. You are the one who didn’t want to ever work in the States, and now you have agreed to do a job there. What’s going on?” Jack deactivates his armor, sending it back to the suitcase it came from before giving his sister an intent look.
“It’s the person our father spoke of who gave him the research information to design the first armor that eventually evolved into what we use.” Jill looks around the room, ignoring the still frantically scrubbing Fisk.
“I thought he was dead, or at least somewhere else,” Jack replies as he walks out of the living room into the bedroom. The sounds of drawers being opened and closed are heard before Jack comes back out with three suitcases under his arms.
Jill says, “He didn’t say where he was before but did say he is going to reassume control of the Illuminati. He’s going to send the information on the job to our father’s estate.”
“I packed your bag, too, since you insist on keeping all your clothes in my bedroom instead of your own,” Jack says as he drops one of the suitcases into the lap of his sister.
“What about him?” Jill asks as she grabs the bag and stands up.
“He doesn’t have a bag to pack, sister,” Jack answers as he gives her a sardonic gaze.
“I know that,” Jill replies as she goes to the closest to pull out another suitcase. “I meant what are you going to do with him?”
“Nothing now. What do you want to do about our boards?” Jack dismisses Fisk from his mind as he wonders what to do about their surfboards.
“I’ll get that nice hotel manager to send them to our Australian house as we leave.” Jill opens the bungalow door and steps outside. Jack follows her, shutting the door behind him. Fisk collapses in fear, realizing that he has just escaped some horrible fate.
***
The California branch of Bishamon Technologies in the vice president’s office.
An older oriental gentleman is busy looking through the most urgent requests for his attention. He pauses at the request from the newer branch of the company for someone to play escort to a reporter. Kompera Lee then summons his executive assistant into his austere office. He is busy looking through several pieces of documentation when she walks in.
“How much do you know about Gotham City, Miss Winter?” he asks as he closes the folder.
Buffy Winter thinks for a moment. “Gotham City is the home of Batman, Red Robin, Batwing, and Green Lantern. Many businesses have offices in the city, from Wayne Enterprises to Star Labs. I do believe that Bishamon Technologies has just opened a new research and development site in that area as well.”
Lee gives her a small nod of approval before handing her the folder. “You are flying there to escort a reporter around the facilities. I expect you to make her feel welcomed.”
Buffy Winter flips through the folder before looking at her boss. “Do you know the name of this reporter, Mister Lee? ”
Kompera Lee turns his attention back to his desk before answering the question. “I believe her name is Alex DeWitt.”
“I will pack my bags and acquire a plane to Gotham City as soon as possible. Will I need to pack any special equipment?” Buffy Winter gives particular emphasis to the words “special equipment” as she looks at her boss.
“You will not need to take any special equipment, Miss Winter. Contact Accounts to receive money for the plane ticket and extra cash for the housing arrangements. And Miss Winter, I would prefer that you refrain from your current extra-curricular activity while you are in Gotham. Do you understand me?” Mister Lee gives his executive assistant a stern gaze as she nods her head reluctantly.
Buffy Winter leaves the office, leaving Kompera Lee staring after her for just a moment before he returns his attention to his desk. The phone rings and Lee answers it.
“Ira. A genuine pleasure to hear from you. Yes, I know Maxwell Lord. He wants to meet with me? Certainly I can arrange to take time to fly up there. I’ll tell my secretary to arrange his reservation at one of the restaurants that I won to insure we will not be disturbed.” Lee replaces his phone before rising from his desk to go and arrange a meeting between himself and Maxwell Lord.
***
The Gotham City Airport, where the lithe form of Buffy Winter is exiting her airplane. Alex DeWitt is waiting in the airport, wanting to get an early start on her story and occasionally gazing down at the picture of her contact. Alex recognizes Buffy Winter as she goes to the baggage carousel.
“Miss Winters, I’m the photojournalist assigned to cover your facilities opening in Gotham,” Alex says just as Buffy grabs her bag.
“Actually, that’s Winter with no ‘S’ at the end. You must be Miss DeWitt. I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but I am not sure if our working together will be at all pleasant.” Buffy gives Alex a slight smile before giving a small bow.
“That was terribly blunt but honest. You must not work in the advertising portion of your company.” Alex returns the smile before offering her hand.
“Sorry, but I’ve picked up the habits of my employers in preferring to give a respectful bow instead of shaking hands, Miss DeWitt.” Buffy looks around the airport with a professional interest.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to offer you a tour of the city instead of you taking a taxi to whatever motel you are staying at,” Alex DeWitt says while watching the young Buffy Winter look over the airport.
“I suppose that it’s not terribly inappropriate. Tell me, Miss DeWitt, have you ever seen any of the super heroes that live in Gotham?” Buffy Winter gets a serious expression on her face that belies the slightly amused twinkle in her green eyes.
“You can call me Alex, and I will call you Buffy, if that’s all right with you. I’ve seen several of them. My favorite is probably Green Lantern, though. Do you have a favorite super hero, Buffy?” Alex starts walking to the parking garage, while Buffy follows behind her. The amused look goes to Buffy’s face as Alex turns away.
“I have always found the villains more intriguing, but Green Lantern is interesting enough. I would like to have one of those rings like he has to create stuff. It would be ultra keen.” Buffy tones down her alert posture, trying to portray herself as a slightly naïve young lady to the photojournalist.
“Villains more interesting? I definitely don’t agree with that. Just consider the likes of The Flash, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Mr. Terrific, Hourman, Dr Mid-Nite, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Starman against Solomon Grundy, the Wizard, Ultra-Humanite, Vandal Savage, Sportsmaster, Tigress, Brainwave, and Gambler. All of the heroes outshine those villains a hundred to one.” Alex sounds irritated as she quickens the pace.
“I didn’t mean to strike a nerve, Alex. After all, it isn’t like you are secretly a super hero and I a super villain, so there is no real reason to be so upset. I was just making idle conversation.” Buffy wipes away the smirk on her face as they near the airport exit.
***
Meanwhile, the Sorasons are busy making sure that their special equipment has already arrived undiscovered by the Customs Authority. Jack sees two attractive blonds leaving the airport and nudges his sister. “Look at those babes, Jill. Definitely a seven or maybe an eight on the Jack Scale of Babeness.”
Jill looks up from checking the crates marked “office equipment” and gives a soft whistle when she sees the two blonds her brother is talking about. “I call dibs on the taller one if we manage to find time to track them down. After all, we are here on business and not a pleasure trip.”
Jack gives his sister a big, sincere smile. “There’s no law against combining the two. I’ll go introduce myself before they get away, while you get someone to move our office equipment.”
Jill waves her brother off before adding. “Just remember — I want first crack at the taller one.”
Jack sprints over to the ladies just as they leave the building. He chases them down to the parking garage, where the taller one is unlocking the door to her vehicle.
“It’s a gift from a friend, since I told him that I didn’t have a vehicle here in Gotham,” Alex explains as she unlocks the door to what appears to be an old-fashioned, yellow taxicab.
“You have some friends with really odd tastes in vehicles.” Buffy raises one eyebrow quizzically as a blond, well tanned man comes running over.
The man with the trace of an Australian accent in his voice introduces himself. “Hello, you gorgeous ladies. My name is Jack, and I just had to meet you both.”
“He doesn’t look like a mugger, at least.” Buffy looks over the handsome blond man with an appraising honesty.
“I’m Alex and that’s Buffy. I like your accent.” Alex unlocks her own car door while watching the man called Jack with hidden suspicion.
Jack gives the two his best sincere smile. “I know that this is going to sound like some sort of line, but I’ve never been to the States before and hoped one of you lovely ladies would volunteer to show me and my sister the sights.”
“I’ll consider it, but right now I and my guest are going to be very busy today.” Alex gives Jack her own version of the sincere smile as she slides into the driver’s seat.
“Let me give you my card with the number of the motel we are going to be staying at, so I can at least prove that I am not one of those crazies you get in Gotham.” Jack quickly pulls out a business card and scribbles the name of the motel and the room number on the card before giving it to Alex. Alex looks at the card for a second or two before passing it to Buffy, who has already fastened herself in.
Buffy examines the card with a keen eye before asking, “You must be Jack Sorason, then, of this Troubleshooters, Inc. business. Its funny that I have never heard of you, though.”
Jack gives her a quick grin before answering. “We like to keep a low profile, me and my sister, when we are working. In fact, a client has hired us to investigate several American cities to see what can be done in the high tech field. We thought we would start in Gotham before picking another place.”
Alex starts the taxi which, despite its antiquity, runs excellently. “I’ll call you if our schedule clears up, Jack.”
The taxi backs up as Jack gives the two a slight wave before heading back into the airport to talk to his sister.
She has had the crates resealed and sent them to their hotel room by the time he comes back in. A sly, mocking smile is on Jill’s lips when she looks at her brother. “So did you get their numbers?”
“I gave them the number of the motel and our room number. I’m sure the shorter one will call this week.” Jack smiles with confidence at his sister Jill.
He pulls an innocent looking list of businesses out of his pocket and unfolds it. “I can examine the small ones tonight to see if they will meet our requirements. If they don’t, I’ll go to the middle size ones, which will probably take both of us to tour their facilities. We have to make certain that these places meet our stringent safety codes.”
Jill nods in agreement as they discuss their plans covertly. “I certainly wouldn’t want to do business with places prone to accidents.”
“Let’s find a place to eat, then, Jill,” Jack says absently, twisting the metal band around his arm as he looks around the airport. The two of them walk out and head downtown.
***
Alex DeWitt is driving with an unconscious ease as she points out some of the sights to her passenger. “That’s the new stadium where the Gotham Knights play now. I managed to get some shots of Power Girl and Red Robin fighting some costumed maniac just before it opened.”
“So are you a photographer or a reporter, Alex?” Buffy asks as she watches the buildings pass by.
“I am more of a photojournalist, but in the past year or so I’ve branched out a little to more of the print media. I am no Lois Lane, but I can usually manage to string some sentences together that sell papers. I still prefer taking pictures to writing, though. So what about you? Anything you want to do with your life?” Alex checks her rear view mirror as she explains her profession to her passenger.
“I enjoy some parts of my job, I suppose,” Buffy replies, thinking of her battle with the Ray. “Other parts are not as interesting, though, even if they are usually educational.”
“If you find what you love to do, don’t ever give it up, or so one of my mentors says.” Alex turns into a parking garage, where she parks the yellow taxi.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I need to check my messages. If you want to, you can come up to my apartment,” Alex says as she exits the car and moves to a small elevator. Buffy slides out the other side to follow Alex inside the elevator. Alex pulls out a small ID card to activate the elevator, sending it up four stories.
“Wayne Enterprises built these two years ago, and I was lucky enough to get one of the apartments. State of the art security, but the air conditioning still conks out a lot,” Alex explains as she puts the elevator card away.
Buffy gives the card reader a professional glance, hiding her interest from the reporter. “So they must be expensive, then. I mean to rent one of these apartments.”
“Not as expensive as you would think, but I am usually out of town on assignment, so I don’t get the chance to enjoy being here very much. I use to live somewhere else, but it had too many memories of my boyfriend.” A pained look of remembrance crosses the blond Alex’s face.
“A boyfriend. I have never had time to get one of those. Most of the people I run into are work-related contacts.” Buffy thinks back to her encounter with the Ray and smiles.
“Poor Kyle was an artist before he died in an accident. I sometimes have odd nightmares about finding him in a kitchen appliance late at night,” Alex explains before looking self-conscious.
“I didn’t mean to start talking about my personal life to you, Buffy. It just slipped out.” Alex pulls out another card from her purse as the elevator door opens.
The furnishings belay the rough exterior of the building as the two young women step into a thick, luxurious green carpet. Alex ignores the paintings on the white walls as she walks toward her apartment door. Buffy evaluates the paintings she passes and comes up with an impressive figure in her head.
“Those are genuine paintings hanging on the walls. I recognize a Murphy Anderson, a Jack Kirby, a Martin Nodell, and a Mike Sekowsky from just looking from here. All of these are valuable artworks. You must have some really impressive connections to be in this apartment complex.” Buffy admires a Curt Swan painting as Alex looks around at the paintings as if seeing them for the first time.
“You mean these are the genuine articles? I always thought that they were reproductions.” Alex gives Buffy a skeptical look before asking. “How can you tell?”
Buffy visible starts, aware that once again she is acting out of her civilian identity’s character in front of an extremely intelligent, curious reporter as she considers a reasonable explanation. The honest answer that one of her father’s tutors was an art thief who had taught her all about recognizing the genuine from the fake would lead to enormous complications. “I spent some time overseas taking art classes which were about telling copies from originals. The instructor said I had a natural talent at it.”
Alex looks satisfied by the answer as she slides her card through the card reader. A slight chime is heard, and the apartment door opens. Alex waves Buffy into the apartment with a ‘come in and be welcome’ gesture. “Excuse the mess, but I don’t have a lot of time to put into cleaning up. Would you like some sort of refreshment? I’ve got Diet Cola and Orange Juice.” Alex heads to the refrigerator after putting her purse on an in table.
The apartment is a tasteful blend of generic furniture, with a scattering of pictures reflecting the occupant’s personality. Most of the pictures seem to be of people, including several famous personalities. A few are of Alex with a dark haired man that sits on the mantle above the artificial fireplace. Buffy sits gracefully down on one of the chairs and looks at the portrait of Alex that hangs above the fireplace. Buffy makes the connection almost immediately that the dark haired man who died in an accident painted the portrait. Alex brings in a can of Diet Cola to give to Buffy. Buffy pops the top open with her left hand and sips from the can.
“I just noticed something about you, Buffy.” Alex starts toward her bedroom while Buffy looks puzzled.
“Noticed?” Buffy says, putting the can down.
“You are one of those rare people who are ambidextrous. Excuse me while I check my messages. The machine is in my bedroom. Feel free to make yourself at home.” Alex enters her bedroom carefully, locking the door behind her before punching the button on her answering machine. The voice of Alan Scott plays as Alex steps toward her mirror. She touches the left side in a certain pattern, then repeats the pattern on the right side of the mirror.
“I am going to be out of town on a family vacation for a week or two, so there’s no need for you to come by until I come back.” The message ends as a panel opens up two feet away from the mirror, revealing an apparently empty hidden closet. Alex places her left hand into the closet as a yellow ring becomes visible. A yellow power battery slowly becomes visible as Alex places her ring into it. The yellow glow is not visible outside the closet as Alex recharges her ring. The battery and ring both become invisible again as Alex closes the panel by reversing the pattern on the mirror.
She flashes back to the moment her peculiar yellow ring ran out of energy and she had to be rescued by Alan. His generous efforts enabled her to fashion a power battery from a broken piece off of his own power battery. It took several days before the yellow ring would accept a charge from the new power battery, as if the energy was different somehow from what the ring would normally accept, but eventually she had returned to her career as Corona. The battery had changed to the color yellow, as if the ring and battery had become synchronized to each other from constant exposure. Alex’s reflection is broken as she remembers her guest in the living room.
Alex exits her bedroom after unlocking the door to find Buffy wandering around the room, examining the pictures. “I hope you weren’t bored while you were waiting,” Alex says as she shuts the bedroom door behind her. Buffy looks up from the picture of Red Robin and Power Girl battling an out of focus figure.
“I was just admiring your work. You must be very brave to get close enough to take these kind of shots,” Buffy says with a touch of admiration in her voice.
Alex waves off the compliment as she sits down on the couch. “Most of my work is taking pictures of far less exciting subjects. So tell me more about your life in the corporation. I’ve read the brochures and company history, but a first person account helps any story be more accessible to the readers.”
“Talk about my experiences with the company? My boss did say to cooperate with you, so I will start at the beginning.” Buffy puts her hands behind her back, where she crosses her fingers.
“My mother died when I was still a baby, and my father was a man of mystery — as in he had vanished — so I was adopted into the Winter Academy. The Winter Academy was founded to raise abandoned children to be productive members of society.” Buffy is interrupted by Alex.
“You mean you were raised in an orphanage? That’s such a terrible thing, but you seem well adjusted to the fact.” A look of sympathy crosses Alex’s face.
“I never considered it an orphanage, since there was always interesting new things to learn and play with. The Winter Academy is not like the places shown in those pathetic orphan movies but more like a private school geared toward creating creative and intelligent people.” Buffy uncrosses her fingers to sit down on the couch.
“I excelled at the physical and mental training that I was taught which brought me to the attention of the Vice President of Bishamon Technologies. He became my mentor and gave me the choice of working for him if I also excelled at a broader based set of studies that would allow me to operate in a variety of different environments, from Japan to America. I had to work a lot harder at that than the physical training, because parts of it were boring to me at least. Tea ceremonies and the more obscure social niceties practiced around the world nearly made me quit several times, but I persevered until finally I became the Vice President’s executive assistant.” Buffy controls the urge to laugh as she presents a skewed version of her history to Alex.
“Its too bad this is a business oriented story, because your history and this Winter Academy would make a great personal interest story. I do, however, wonder why I have never heard of this school of yours.” Alex is busy writing down the details to what Buffy has just said while it is still fresh in her mind.
“The Winter Academy is a very low-key sort of organization, more interested in unlocking the potential every person has than publicity. It’s just a coincidence that my last name and the academy are the same as well,” Buffy explains.
***
Elsewhere in Gotham City, Jack Sorason is busy doing his own sinister work. Garbed in the sand colored high tech armor, he is using his control over magnetism to arrange a seeming accident for one of the smaller research labs.
“It’s a pity my dear sister decided to sample this urban sprawl’s decadent pleasures, since I would rather be doing that instead of this.”
Jack reaches out to touch the main computer panel controlling all of the fire alarm systems inside the laboratory. He smiles behind the armored helmet as he concentrates on creating a very specific glitch in the system before removing his gauntlet from the panel.
He then leaves the same way he entered, resetting the magnetic locks behind him before flying to a hidden alcove and removing his armor. A pleased smile crosses his face as he walks back out onto the street, carrying a briefcase.
“I just need to call the fire inspection department and report that place as a fire hazard. When their inspection team comes to test the place the computer controlling the system will unfortunately activate all of the sprinklers in the whole building. I wonder what the papers will say about this terrible accident.”
A young, attractive woman walks by, glancing at the man talking to himself before she notices how good-looking he is. She speeds up when he stops to give her an encouraging smile, not wanting to become a victim of Gotham crime.
“I keep forgetting Jill isn’t here,” Jack says to himself as he continues his stroll. Jack decides to stop at a corner bar to plan out his next accident. He walks right into the next place he sees, which is the off duty hangout for the Gotham Police department.
Not even missing a stride, he walks confidently up to the bar and asks for a Foster beer. He winks at the pretty, redheaded barmaid as he gives her a generous tip. “My name is Jack Sorason, and I think I am in love with ya, lass. Now tell me your first name so I can say it with a great deal of pleasure.”
The redheaded barmaid gives Jack a judging smile as she slips the money off the bar. “You can call me Babs.”
“It’s a right pleasure to meet a pretty lady such as yourself, Babs.” Jack sips on his Fosters as he puts the briefcase on the floor.
The barmaid moves off to serve another customer as Jack coolly looks around the half filled bar. A genuine smile of pure pleasure is on his face as he considers that, if any of these people knew who he was, they would be trying to put handcuffs on him.
***
Meanwhile, Jill Sorason is burning up the dance floor in one of Gotham’s most popular nightclubs — Rogues Gallery. Her figure moves with a wild and energetic abandon as she twists and turns feverishly with the music. Several of the men gathered watch her with lust in their eyes as she spirals around the hard tile floor alone.
When the music stops, she moves to a corner table to rest a bit as the waiter brings her several drinks sent over by the various admiring men in the club. Jill gives the waiter a tip and sends all of the drinks back to the bar.
“Hey, baby. I noticed you dancing on the floor and just had to tell you that you are one fine figure of a female. Why don’t you come with me, and I’ll show you how I like to dance,” a blond muscle bound man says with a cocky arrogance as he leans over the table to leer at Jill.
“Why don’t you get lost before I embarrass you in front of all these people,” Jill says as she looks around the room.
The man slams his fist down on the table as his features distort with rage. “Nobody talks that way to Jabio! ”
“Just call me nobody then, pretty boy.” Jill backs away from the table as Jabio smashes it with his fist. He swings at her with more rage than precision as she ducks underneath the blow.
She dodges and ducks the increasingly angry Jabio’s blows as they move out onto the dance floor. Jill moves with the same wild abandon as she dances a grim martial ballet with the powerful Jabio.
Jill makes her move, sending one of her steel-toed white boots into the privates of Jabio, causing him to bend over screaming in agony as Jill then kicks the bent over Jabio in the head with her other boot.
Jabio collapses to the dance floor unconscious as Jill smiles ruthlessly. “Thanks for the dance, pretty boy. I enjoyed it, but it’s too bad the same can’t be said for you.”
Jill goes to another table as Jabio is picked up and removed from the club. Several of the young women in the club come over to the table and start talking with Jill about how she dealt with Jabio. Jill laughs and flirts with one of the more admiring women.
***
The next day Jack is nursing the after-effects of one too many drinks and being stood up by the attractive barmaid. He knocks on his sister’s hotel room and hears two women giggling. His sister opens the door a crack, dressed in a short towel. A canary-eating grin is on her face as she looks at her brother.
“Sorry I was in the shower, brother dear.” Jill scans her brother’s bloodshot eyes and irritated expression. He mutters disagreeably about finishing the last of the small time surveys before stalking off to his room. Jill watches him leave for a second before dropping her towel and going back into the bathroom. The giggling starts up again as the bathroom door shuts behind Jill.
***
Meanwhile, Alex and Buffy have already gotten through the official interview that will be the basis for the newspaper article and are now in an old style movie theatre run by Wayne Enterprises. Surprisingly enough, or perhaps not, the two have found that they have a lot of common ground and are fast becoming friends to both their surprise.
***
One week later at the Bishamon Research And Development facilities.
Buffy Winter claws her way back to consciousness to find herself tied to a chair. Sitting directly across from her is the still unconscious Alex DeWitt, who is also tied to a chair. Scattershot memory images go through Buffy’s mind as she takes stock of the situation.
Memories of meeting Jack and Jill Sorason at one of the clubs and all four of them hanging out. Jill Sorason hitting on Alex and just throwing her all out of kilter. Jack Sorason becoming overly friendly and being tossed onto the floor. Alex and her coming to Bishamon for a guided tour late at night. The last concrete memory was of her and Alex coming out of the dining facility and seeing two armored figures. Then the rose color armor hit them with a sonic beam that caused unconsciousness.
“Alex, are you OK?” Buffy askes as she tenses her arms up to try to get some release of pressure on the ropes. Alex’s eyelids begin to flicker as she struggles to consciousness as well. Buffy sighs at the skill of whomever tied these ropes.
Alex opens her eyes to see Buffy sitting tied to a chair directly across from her. Her power ring has protected her from the worst of the sonic blast, so no side effects of random memories afflict her as she comes to full consciousness.
“I didn’t recognize our two friends before I passed out.” Alex looks down at the ropes tying her to the wooden chair. It would be easy to bust loose if only Buffy wasn’t in the room with her, she thought to herself.
“I would say two high tech armor bandits or thieves. At least we know one of them uses sound-based weaponry,” Alex says, trying to think of a way to cut the ropes without revealing her secret identity to her new friend.
“The other one is probably based on some sort of magnetic fields, since that’s what protects the main lobby doors and most of the first floor security systems.” Buffy considers her own options as she goes over the material in the dining facility.
“Just our luck, Buffy, that no super-heroes have shown up to save the two damsels in distress.” Alex says, trying to hide how ridiculous she feels being tied up in the chair.
Alex watches Buffy tilt her chair back, causing it to fall backwards. She thinks silently to herself that it is now a chance for her to use her power ring without Buffy seeing it in operation. She twists the invisible ring around on her finger and directs it to rot the wood composing the chair.
Meanwhile, Buffy is using her advanced ninjitsu training to escape the ropes, hoping that Alex will believe that she cut them with a knife from her belt buckle.
***
Outside the dining facility the two armored mercenaries are having an argument about how best to destroy the Bishamon facilities.
“According to both my magnetic and your sonic scan, this place is too well built to fall to any of our usual tricks,” Jack says in his sand-colored, magnetic armor.
Jill frowns behind her helmet as she reads the scans again, searching for a hidden weak point. “I still think we can bring this place down by inducing a harmonic resonance on the rooftop combined with a controlled magnetic pulse.”
“It has only a fifty percent chance of succeeding, though, which is why I think it should be a last resort.” Jack sends a metal rod through the dining facility double doors and bends it into a circle to make sure that no interference comes from that direction.
“At least our two little friends will be safe in that room, no matter what we do. Whoever designed this facility is a genius. I think it would even survive a hurricane or an earthquake strike,” Jill says with a sort of perverse pride.
“I would like to teach that little blonde a lesson in how to treat a man, but our employer is only paying for us to destroy the labs.” Jack lets his anger show as several more metal objects in his immediate vicinity begin to warp and twist.
“I would love to play with her friend, too, for rejecting me, brother dear, but we can’t let personal pleasure or revenge get in the way of our job. Besides, if they showed up deceased the police would look for any immediate associates that could lead to them finding us.” Jill sends a sonic blast at the metal desk Jack has already bent, destroying it.
***
The two blonds in the dining facility have managed to free themselves from their chairs and are busy trying to find an escape route. Alex is trying to think of a graceful way to disappear to change to her secret identity of Corona, while Buffy is mentally cursing Kompera Lee for making her leave almost all of her special equipment behind.
Buffy snaps her fingers as a thought occurs to her. “There’s an emergency escape passage to the outside from this dining facility. I’ll open it open up, and you can get out to call the police.”
Alex thinks to herself what a stroke of luck this is. “Aren’t you going to come with me? I mean, it’s hardly the safest place to stay in here with those two nutcases running around.”
Buffy shakes her head, indicating that she can’t leave the building. “Sorry, Alex. It’s my responsibility to the company to stay on site to see if I can minimize the damage they do.”
“Just be careful, then. You aren’t, after all, a super hero or a police officer.” Alex gives her friend a quick hug before entering the passageway that Buffy opens up.
“You are absolutely right, Alex. I’m neither one of those things.” Buffy waves to her friend as she disappears into the passageway leading to the outside.
Alex quickly escapes the passageway and emerges in a back alley two blocks away from the Bishamon Research and Development facility. She searches for any observers before using her ring to transform into the heroine Corona. “This isn’t something the police can handle, but Corona can.”
Corona takes off into the sky, heading toward the top of the Bishamon building. The two costumed mercenaries have also gone to the rooftop, where they plan to bring the house down by shaking it apart.
***
Inside the building, Buffy is busy scanning through the project listings from a computer terminal inside the dining facility. She pauses at one particular project before shutting down the computer. She tries the double doors, but they are firmly jammed. “It’s time to improvise,” she says to herself before heading into the dining facility’s small but well furnished kitchen. A quick search reveals the ingredients she is looking for, which she stirs into a bottle. The chemical concoction is used to blow one of the doors off the hinges, allowing an angry Buffy Winter outside.
She enters the elevator and pushes one of the buttons marked B-4. A panel opens up, and a beam of light shines outward. A mechanical voice chimes on. “Please identify by retinal scan and voice code.”
Buffy holds her eye to the light while saying, “Buffy Winter, authorized access code 19ADDK.” The light blinks off, and the elevator starts moving downward.
***
Corona has arrived at the rooftop and is busy making plans of her own. “I’ll catch them by surprise and have them locked up and in police custody in no time.”
She swoops in and puts the two armored villains in yellow globes. Both seem surprised by the presence of a costumed hero arriving so fast on the scene. “That was easy enough,” Corona says to the villains.
Jack grins behind his helmet. “Look — we attracted the attention of a Power Girl wanna-be. She didn’t even get the costume right.”
“The name is Corona, not Power Girl. Those globes you are in will prevent you from escaping,” Corona says with confidence as she has crafted the globes to cancel out the powers of the two armored villains.
“Well, at least she has the right costume for her name. Corona beer is yellowish, but I do not understand how she justifies having a yellow power ring,” Jill says mockingly out loud to her brother.
“I am not named after the beer but the aura around the sun, you idiot,” Corona says with some heat to her voice.
“She seems too damn sensitive to be a real super hero to me.” Jack sends a magnetic pulse at the bubble only to see it nullified. In the other bubble Jill tries a sonic blast, only to see it nullified as well.
Corona grins in triumph. “I used my ring to scan your armor and then created these bubbles to counteract your powers. Escape is virtually impossible.”
“Normally you would be right, Beer Girl, but you see, just before you arrived on the scene we linked our armor together to shake this building apart.” Jack raises his arms, aiming them at his sister, while she repeats the same motions. A loud humming is heard as the combined powers of the two armors are utilized at once.
Corona quickly tries to compensate, but it is too late as the two hi-tech armored mercenaries pop the bubbles they are contained within. Waves of energy fly at Corona, sending her reeling.
“Let’s deal with her before we take out the building,” Jill says as she sends a pulse of sound at Corona.
“Agreed,” Jack replies as various bits of metal rise up and are sent streaming at Corona.
Corona thinks to herself, I’ve got to remember everything Alan taught me, so I can defeat these two, as she spirals around the attacks.
“You can’t dodge us forever, Beer Girl.” Jack concentrates on the scattered bits of metallic dust in the air, forming them into a wicked-looking, metal blade, which is sent after the spiraling Corona.
Jill is using her sonar capabilities to keep an exact track of the location of Corona and transferring the information directly to her brother’s armor targeting systems.
Corona smashes the blade with a giant ring-forged hammer, but the metal bits just reform and attack again.
***
Inside Bishamon, Buffy Winter is busy going through the inventory of projects listed in the shielded computer station. A frown is on her face as she rejects project after project as being useless in a fight. The name of the next project flashes across the computer screen and is almost rejected until Buffy catches the words ‘prototype unit.’
She swiftly expands the menu, reading that data before heading to the lab where the project Knight Saber is located. Buffy overrides the security locks on the metal door before entering the lab of Shinji Aramaki.
She bypasses the mechanical pieces of equipment to go directly to a small computer hooked up to what appears to be a clear plastic booth. A few quick keystrokes are entered on the computer before Buffy strips and enters the booth. She attaches a breathing mask to her face and closes her eyes as the booth fills with a liquid.
She concentrates on forming a mental image as the booth fills all the way to the top. The liquid slowly begins to change, shrinking inward as it becomes a hard metallic substance in various shades of blue. Buffy’s eyes open as the armor finishes forming around her. A gold A is the last to form on her belt and chest piece as the remaining liquid drains from the booth.
The now-armor-clad Buffy Winter exits from the booth, ready to fight the high tech mercenaries who dared to attack Bishamon Research and Development as Arsenal. A ghostly voice seems to echo inside her head as she leaves the lab.
***
Outside on the rooftop, Corona is starting to lose her fight. Not because she isn’t powerful or skilled enough, but because the duo she fights work together as a perfect team. Already she had taken several hits from the various bits of metal that the sand colored armor figure had sent her way. Anytime she switched from playing defense to going on the offense, either a metal blade or an intense sonic blast immediately hit her. Even becoming invisible had failed, since somehow her two opponents knew her exact position.
“We don’t have time to keep on playing with this Corona chick. Either we take her out now and wreck this place, or we go ahead and take off now to come back later,” Jack says to his sister as he reviews his armor power supply.
“If we follow the second course, there’s no telling who might be waiting for us on a return visit. I do not relish the possibility of fighting that overly-endowed Power Girl,” Jill replies as she checks her own armor power supply.
“Let’s switch tactics to Operation 59,” Jill says as her brother wakes up from his little daydream about rolling around with Power Girl on the rooftop.
The two armored figures take flight, coming in from opposite angles to Corona. A sudden wave of dizziness overcomes the heroine as she loses all sense of up and down. Then a wave of metal particles begins to surround her protective field, blocking her sight as she struggles to stay aloft.
Corona quickly expands her protective field, expanding it into a large globe, but the metal particles continue to obscure her sight. A clapping noise distracts all three as they turn to look at a blue armored woman looking on from the rooftop.
The woman stops clapping to wave at the three. “Really quite an excellent team you two make, it seems. Ordinarily I love seeing heroes and heroines humiliated by defeat, but I really must ask what your intentions are toward this building after you defeat her.”
Jack smiles inside his helmet. “We intend to shake it to the ground after we take care of Beer Girl, not that it’s any of your business.”
“Oh? Then you leave me no choice but to play hero, since I intend to rob this place when they have something worth my time. I really can’t rob it if I let you destroy it, now can I?” Arsenal springs into the air, aiming at the Sand colored armor.
Jack chuckles sadistically as he tries to catch the armored Arsenal within the grips of his magnetic manacles. “Damn it,” he curses when the scans indicate that the armor is immune to his own powers. Some of the debris realigns into a metallic shield that diverts Arsenal to the side.
Jill auto targets both Arsenal and Corona with her sonic blasts as she scans for weaknesses. Corona has time to catch her breath as the added element of a new unknown is mixed in. Arsenal uses her increased speed and agility to avoid the sonic blasts and bits of metal that try to destroy her.
“Jack, my scans indicate that it’s some sort of organic version of metal,” Jill says, relaying her findings to her brother as she tries to destroy the two annoying females.
“Well, duh. I had already figured that much out. We need to get out of here. My power levels are getting critically low.” Jack powers up a special subsystem that fires a series of small metal disks into the air.
“I hate to say it, brother dear, but you’re right about it being time to cut our losses and run.” Jill activates her own special subsystem.
The two synchronize their systems and activate them at the same time. A series of metallic needle bombs go off amidst an ultrasonic wail of sound. Arsenal and Corona are caught by surprise. Corona throws up a barrier, catching most of the shrapnel, while Arsenal dives in and smashes the sonic producing devices. Sand and Rose use this opportunity to escape, disappearing off the side of the building and quickly go to ground.
Corona runs her hand through her blond hair as she creates a large vacuum cleaner to suck up the metal debris. Arsenal pockets the left over bits of the sonic producing device for later examination.
The two look at each other and consider what to do. Arsenal is reluctant to take on Corona in something she hasn’t trained in, while Corona is feeling slightly weary from the battle earlier.
“I shouldn’t do this, but you did help me out, no matter what you might have said to those two.” Corona re-directs her ring creation to spew all the metal up in one corner of the building as she watches the blue armored Arsenal out of the corner of her eye.
“Don’t make me out to be some noble soul. I did what I did for entirely selfish reasons.” Arsenal is looking directly at Corona, ready to act if one of those ring creations is aimed in her direction.
“Far be it for me to make you over into a noble hero, then. I just wish I had some of those moves you used to dodge those blasts,” Corona says with some envy to her voice.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Blondie. I saw the creative ways you used that ring to keep those two from crushing you. Even if I hadn’t interfered, you still might have won,” Arsenal concedes with reluctance. “So we go our separate ways, then, until next we meet. When we do, it will be on opposites sides.” Arsenal offers her armored hand to Corona.
Corona takes it and shakes it, smiling just a bit. “If we do, your fancy moves won’t be enough to keep you out of jail.”
Arsenal nods before moving toward the side of the roof. “I never use the same move twice, Corona, so you had better get a whole lot better at your heroing before we fight.”
Arsenal jumps off the roof and vanishes from sight as Corona flies in the opposite direction. The sounds of police sirens is heard coming toward the Bishamon building.
Alex DeWitt meets the police near the front of the building explaining that she is the one who called them. She leads them inside the building, looking for Buffy.
Buffy comes out from her hiding place, and the two embrace quickly. Buffy explains to the police and Alex that she was in one of the auxiliary control rooms restarting the security system. A long night of answering questions, followed by clean up operations at Bishamon Research and Development doesn’t allow any time for the two to talk until later the next night.
***
Over coffee the two compare notes about what took place, their friendship firmly bonded into place by the shared danger.
“So after I called the police, I went looking for a nearby building to take pictures from, but everything was locked up tight,” Alex explains as she sips her coffee.
“Well, it’s good thing that I got that auxiliary security station operating, then.” Buffy pulls out an envelope containing pictures of most of the rooftop battle and hands it to Alex.
Alex looks surprised by the gift and then gives her new friend a quick smile. “These ought to pay my rent for quite a while. So you are heading back to California on Monday?”
“I’m afraid so. Mister Lee is still in Washington, but he wants me make certain everything is running smoothly there before I go anywhere else.” Buffy spoons some sugar into her coffee, stirring it in before sipping at it.
“At least we still have tonight and tomorrow for a real girls’ night out before we go our separate ways.” Alex raises her coffee cup in a toast.
“As long as it’s not as eventful as yesterday’s night out,” Buffy wryly says as she raises her own coffee cup.
Two cups click together as Alex DeWitt, the hero known as Corona, and Buffy Winter, the villain known as Arsenal, celebrate their friendship.
***
Elsewhere, the defeated Jill and Jack Sorason are making plans for revenge.
“Savage isn’t going to be very happy with our performance,” Jack says as he repacks the crate containing his armor.
“Fortunately I made sure that the contract covered such an eventuality, so no blame can be directed our way.” Jill pats her brother on the back.
“I now see why so many of these American villains get sidetrack by heroes. I thought perhaps it was because of their own lack of professionalism, but…” Jack trails off as he tries to put his own thoughts in order.
“It becomes a matter of pride to defeat them is what you are trying to articulate, brother dear,” Jill says, summing up what her brother is trying to say.
“That’s it exactly.” Jack slams the crate shut.
“Don’t worry. It may take a long while, but someday we will be back to make both of those interfering women pay for what they did.” Jill’s eyes smolder with anger as she plots a future rematch.
The End
