Hero De Novo - Chapter 1

It's been two weeks and a day since Hero Ad Hoc was released, and two weeks and a day before Hero De Novo comes out. So, I think it's fairly safe to give y'all a taste of what happens next...

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Rey Garcia stared at the woman with the gun, her words ringing through his head. They brainwashed Captain Justice to kill my ex-boyfriend. The Ghost Owl.

No. Tim couldn’t be dead. And how could I have killed him if I was a prisoner in this Corvus lab?

Despite the sick feeling in his stomach at the strange woman’s words, Rey tried to laugh, but pain shot through his side. The monster’s claws had cut deep enough to see bone, but he was pretty sure they hadn’t puncture his lungs. He wouldn’t have been able to draw a proper breath for his weak chuckle if they had.

“C’mon. The Ghost Owl is a Canyon Pointe urban myth,” Rey said. “How could Captain Justice kill a children’s tale?” Despite the drugged haze the morning he was abducted, he definitely remembered the man who looked just like him. Dios, if his doppelgänger had killed Tim, how could he live with himself? Bile rose in the back of Rey’s throat. And if the imposter had infiltrated his real life, that meant Aisha and their baby were in danger as well.

The woman gave him a suspicious look.

“I grew up on the east side of the Pointe.” He shrugged. “Everyone knows the story. Jatz’om Kuh, the Ghost Owl, is nothing more than the Robin Hood tale for this century.”

“No, he exists. Here.” The woman poked around the shelves of the lab some more. She pulled out a set of scrubs and shoved them at Rey. “These will work until we get to the mainland.”

“The mainland?” He accepted the wad of blue-green clothes. “What mainland? There aren’t any islands in Lake Del Oro.”

She paused and stared at him. “You really have no idea of where you are, do you?”

He shook his head.

“We’ll discuss it once we’re out of here.” She continued rummaging through equipment and supplies.

“No. We need to discuss it now.” He was fairly certain he heard the rhythm of the sea, but it could be the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean for all he knew.

A shiver ran through him. What if Corvus had taken him from the U.S.? How would he ever get back across the border? Harri Winters, one of his attorneys, had pulled a lot of strings to make it look like he was born there, even though Mama had said more than once she had carried him to the U.S. from Honduras. But he hadn’t carried any ID the morning he was abducted. No superhero in their right mind would carry their civilian ID with them when responding to an emergency.

The woman sighed and shook her head. “We’re on an abandoned oil rig off the coast of Java.”

“What?” His heart sank at his predicament. “You mean as in the capital island of Indonesia Java?”

“Why are you stalling? You said you were worried about Corvus agents coming back here.” She stopped shuffling through the last supply cabinet. Again, the suspicious look from the woman.

“I am, but for all I know, you could be one of them,” he said.

“How’d Corvus get you here?”

“I’m not sure.”

When she raised her gun and pointed it at him again, he tried to look non-threatening. He couldn’t risk injuring his only potential ally.

“The last thing I clearly remember is getting a text about an emergency and to come into work early.” He shook his head. “I got dressed and was flying—” He swallowed hard at his slip. “Down the freeway.” He hated lying to anyone, but as both Aisha and Harri repeatedly pointed out, total honesty could be a detriment in the superhero business.

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you registered?”

Dios, she was sharp. But given her admitted rage at Captain Justice, telling her he was the real thing wasn’t smart.

“My attorney was working on it before Corvus abducted me.” Which was true if he stretched the definition of truth. He sighed. “I’m not even sure how long I’ve been here, much less if it was really Corvus.” The head of the top secret organization had taken a personal interest in Rey years ago. He couldn’t imagine General Trubble not coming in to gloat over Rey’s capture. But as far as Rey knew, Trubble had never come here.

The stranger lowered her weapon again.

Rey ran his tongue over his dry lips. “What happened to the Ghost Owl in this epic battle between him and Captain Justice? If the real guy is as good as the myth—”

“The Ghost Owl wasn’t a super.” The woman slid into an undamaged chair and popped a flashdrive into a port on the last functioning computer work station. “He had enough tricks up his sleeves to fool a lot of people, but in the end, he was a mortal man.”

“So are you going after Captain Justice?”

“Not exactly.” The woman sagged in her seat. “According to the rumor mill, an unknown female super claiming to be the Ghost Owl killed him.”

“A woman? But you said…”

The stranger looked at him and rolled her eyes. “I know, right? So insecure she couldn’t create her own super persona? What a pussy!” She turned back to the monitor.

“But you just said the Ghost Owl was your ex-boyfriend, and you don’t know who she is?”

“I’m guessing she’s a family member.” The woman’s fingers danced across the keyboard. “An illegitimate daughter or something.”

“If Captain Justice is dead, there’s no one to exact your vengeance on,” Rey said.

“I’m going to find this woman, and then I’m going after Corvus, like I should have done years ago.”

“What’s your issue with Corvus?”

“Besides the possibility they were the ones who were mind-controlling Captain Justice?” She whirled on the chair to face him. Anger sparked in her eyes. “Those assholes used the Supervillainy Act of 1947 to take my daughters from me.”