Crossover Earth '98
DAYS OF BEING WILD
MICHAEL SURBROOK
Sitting near the window of his office, Carlos Pochtli stared out the open window. Even now, a week after her rather explosive arrival, his men were still involved with repairs to the various buildings that comprised his ranch. Faintly, the buzz of a saw cutting through wood echoed from the far shop, while below, men erected the timbers that would soon become the new porch. All in all, it was a somewhat innocent scene, except that Carlos had seen the cause of these repairs in action. A gray-skinned woman, dressed in black and white, who danced in the air and flung searing bolts of white energy across the sky with reckless abandon. And now, he hoped, she worked for him; a secret weapon few knew about, and even fewer had tried to exploit.
A knock on the office door interrupted his musings. "Enter," he called over one shoulder, in an almost absent minded way.
A moment later his chief lieutenant entered the room. He was tall and dark haired, dressed in simple white shirt and trousers, all a man could expect to wear in the dry Texas heat. Turning from the window, Carlos smiled, indicating an empty chair. "So, Mark, what do you have to tell me about our guest?"
Smiling at his boss, Mark settled himself into the chair. Along with his brother Ken, he was responsible for seeing that Carlos' orders were carried out efficiently and with a minimum of fuss. If there was one thing he prided himself on, it was efficiency.
"Well," he answered slowly, "it's all going to depend on how much you want to believe..." Dropping a clipboard into his lap, he then began to read from the topmost sheet.
"I asked anyone who spoke with our new recruit pass on anything she might say. We also were able to give her a simple medical exam. She complained a bit about that, but when I told her it was part of her new contract, she shut right up and went along."
"Excellent," Carlos nodded.
"So, the woman's name is Kayli. I've written it out phonetically, since I have no idea how she spells it." Mark looked up from his notes, "She also doesn't have any last name or paranormal codename. It's just 'Kayli'."
"Yes, well, she has said she's not a superhero."
Mark shrugged, "Kayli claims a lot of things, boss. Anyway, according to Kayli she is a member of an alien race called 'Saiyans'." Mark looked up with a slight grin, "Kayli makes the Saiyans sound like Klingons or something, since they're supposed to be some sort of warrior race. As such, she is a mercenary, selling her powers and skills from world to world to whomever will pay her fees."
"Yes," Carlos nodded again, "I presumed as much from our first meeting. The question is, can we buy her loyalty."
Mark glanced back at his notes, "I think so. She looks to be pretty much motived by greed. When we explained the contract to her, she wanted to know how much we were going to pay her, and if that included room and board. Her needs look to be pretty basic. A nice change from some metahumans we've had to deal with."
"Hmm... yes, but we are still unsure if she's human."
Mark chuckled, "There is that." Flipping a page on his clipboard, he continued, "Kayli stands five foot eight inches and weighs one hundred forty five pounds. She has black hair, black eyes and gray skin. As near as we can figure, the skin color is natural and not some sort of body dye."
"And her tail?"
"Henh..." Mark grunted slightly, "her tail... Well, it is about thirty inches long, black furred and strong enough to support her own weight. It pretty much resembles a monkey's tail, and I've seen her pick up beer cans with it."
"Do tell."
"Honest boss, I saw her do it once, although she usually keeps her tail wrapped around her waist. I'll admit the tail and skin tone do lend some credibility to her claims, especially since they don't follow the general pattern of most metahumans."
"Meaning?"
Mark paused to run his fingers through his hair, "Well, usually, a metahuman with some sort of animal traits is more obvious. You know, uh, fur, claws, ears, the works. It doesn't make sense for Kayli to have gray skin, a tail and all."
"I see, continue."
"Anyway, none of that one hundred forty five pounds is fat, let me tell you. When she stripped for the exam I would have figured her for one of those ESPN chicks you see in the mornings working out on the beach."
"You attended her physical?" Carlos' voice was tinged with amusement.
Mark reddened slightly, "Not exactly, but she never noticed the security camera. But she is in fantastic shape... if you discount the scars."
Carlos leaned forward on his desk giving Mark a steady look, "Scars?"
Mark shrugged in response, "Kayli's got quite a few, boss. Claims to have gotten them in a whole bunch of fights. I'm not certain if this is a good or bad thing though. I mean on one hand the scars show she's been hit an awful lot, but on the other, she's still standing, and according to her, her foes aren't."
"Speaking of which, any ideas on her physical prowess?"
Here Mark grinned openly, "Oh, she's perfect boss. We took her to the weight room and she maxed out every machine we've got. Ken estimates she can press a ton, but I haven't pushed it. She'll bench press a thousand pounds easy, though."
"Anything else?"
Mark continued to grin. "She can fight. Cristos saw her smacking a heavy bag around and challenged her to a sparring match..."
"And," Carlos asked, although he felt certain as to the answer.
"Ehh... she broke three ribs and dislocated his jaw."
Carlos sighed slightly. So much for Cristos for a few weeks.
"Oh, and the men say Cristos never touched her."
Carlos waved one hand, "Well, Cristos always seemed a little over confident in his fighting skill. Speaking of which, do we have any idea what that display she put on was all about?"
"That..." Mark looked at his notes. "I have no idea what it is. Kayli says it was her 'battle aura' or something like that. Supposedly it makes her more powerful. Jeff, who works out with Cristos alot, says it looks like she's, and I quote, 'summoning her ki', what ever the hell that means."
Carlos nodded, "Don't worry, I understand the meaning."
Mark shrugged, "Okay. Well, take all that, add in her energy projection powers, body armor and flight and we've got our own fire-and-forget tactical strike missile."
Carlos grimaced slightly, "Hopefully we can work on the 'fire-and-forget' part, eh?"
"Sorry," Mark grinned and shook his head, turning another sheet over on his clipboard. "Lesse, her body temperature is about one hundred degrees, meaning she's warmer than a normal, human... but that doesn't prove anything, since many metahumans have unusual body temperatures."
"But it all does sort of add up doesn't it?"
"Well yes." Mark tapped his note pad, "I'll tell you this, I'm not seeing to many holes in her claims. I mean, when we told her that her next mission was going to be in Arizona, she wanted to know where it was. So I showed her... and then spent about and hour explaining to her that Arizona was a state and not another country... and then I had to start explaining what the countries were."
Sitting back in his chair, Carlos turned to look out the window. "What do our contacts have to say?"
"No one's ever heard of her. Sure, we've got dark-skinned women dressed in black tossing energy blasts, but I show them a picture and everyone shakes their head. And I do mean everyone."
"Any local news?"
"Hmmm... lesse, where do I begin? Okay, two weeks ago we have a report of a plane crash about two hundred miles west of here. Rumor has it that two county mounties that went out to investigate never came back. I've also got a bunch of reports of a bright object flying low overhead; a lot of people thought it was some sort of plane or a meteor."
"And the crash site?"
"Heh... funny you should ask." Mark gave a shrug, "Air Force is all over the local area. They are claiming a rocket went down and they are trying clean up all the wreckage."
"I see. What do the Exchange have to say?"
"Not much, I've asked them to look into any possible reports of experimental planes and rockets, as well as rumors of alien spaceships. They told me to try the Weekly World News for the latter."
"Hah ha..." Carlos chuckled dryly.
"Yeah, anyway, a few days later there's a report about a brawl at a roadside diner. Bunch of bikers mix it up with some strange looking woman. Police report gives two dead, four hospitalized and two of those in IC. I run a check and the guy who runs the place swears that it was our girl."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, you'll love this. Soon after the fight, two government types in black suits come rolling in, asking all sorts of questions. What her name was, what she looked like, where she said she was going."
Carlos steepled his hands before him and looked over the tips, "Will this be a problem for us?"
"I don't think so. If we can keep Kayli under wraps I figure it will be a while before they start getting really nosy."
"Speaking of which, how goes the acclimation?"
"Weird, boss," Mark said with a shake of his head. "I mean, just the other day, Sam tells me he's out near the pool when Kayli comes walking out in a robe, right? He figures she's going to go swimming, so he hangs around. So she dumps the robe and jumps in."
"So?" Carlos wonder what the point was.
"Well, let's just say we've decided to buy her a few swimsuits along with everything else."
Carlos felt the corner of his mouth twitch slightly, "I see."
Giving his boss a smile, Mark flipped another sheet on his clipboard. "We've gotten her some normal clothing, and have even tailored some of it take account for her tail. She speaks the language okay, although with a funny accent, and can read, but doesn't really seem to care to learn that much about what's going on. She watches the tube alot though, usually the superhero channel."
"Wonderful, she's going to learn all about Earth customs by watching Springer..."
"Well... I wouldn't go that far, boss."
"All right Mark," Carlos waved one hand, "What's your opinion?"
"Boss, my gut reaction is that she's telling the truth. I mean she looks pretty much like a person, and not like something outta Star Wars, but damn it, someone like that would have been seen before, right? Especially with her powers and all those battle scars. Boss, when you boil it right down, she's an alien."
"An alien." Carlos looked out the window, to where several lengths of lumber were being placed in position to support the new porch roof. "This should prove highly interesting, don't you think?"