Time of The Bat Comics Presents: Apollo # 2

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Time_Phantom

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Time of The Bat Comics Presents: Apollo # 2

AN/ So I've been sitting on this. No real good excuse why, I should have before my vacation to Florida. Sorry. If you're following @batkevin74 and I started this project about a month ago. He's definitely faster at posting than me.

Related reading: Xlibris # 1

Impossible Man # 1

Mark # 5*This chapter contains Mark and Carla's fight

Thank you for reading!

Carla White was at a homeless shelter she volunteered at between her missions for the Mark Metcalf had escaped with his family, Carla was reprimanded by the president himself and she was put on restriction to her apartment and the soup kitchen. Carla knew that they couldn’t stop her from doing whatever she wanted, duty however demanded that she comply and she did.

The afternoon serving period had just ended as Carla, went to lock the front doors to the shelter, Agent Cooper from Homeland Security pushed her way through before Carla, could lock the door. The agent scowled at Carla and stood defiantly in her way.

“I want a word.” Agent Cooper said, anger boiled beneath his words. “Apollo, what happened with Metcalf?”

Carla blatantly ignored his question.

“I’m talking to you!” Cooper snapped. “I’ve seen you and him up close. He’s strong, Jesus is he ever, and resilient and that’s about it. You shoot fire from your eyes, toss tanks and heal! But somehow he beat you and got away. Do you know h…”

“We’re closed.” Carla locked the door and turned around without answering his accusation. She answered to the President, not a field agent who was going beyond his station. Carla wandered to the dining area as agent Cooper kept running his mouth about something she hadn’t even began to listen to.

“I’m not scared of you!” Agent Cooper shouted as he followed Carla to the dining area. A few people were eating still, the shelters staff were cleaning and breaking down the serving lines and emptying the salad bar into the trash.

Carla just looked at the last few diners and finally she said, “We’re closed Cooper. You should come back for dinner, we’re having spaghetti.”

“No, F*&#! That!” Cooper whispered harshly to avoid making a scene in the shelter. “When I F$%& up I answer to my superiors. You, you work with total impunity and have no idea how bad shit rolls downhill!”

Carla sighed and then looked at agent Cooper, her eyes very slightly started to glow and she looked at him as if he were comparable to the trash the shelter’s workers were throwing out or worse, that he was less than the trash. Agent Cooper put his hand on his weapon he had on his belt and then Carla shifted her gaze on to the diners, her eyes cackled with energy like a downed power line.

“You… you wouldn’t.” Agent Cooper’s words shook with the rest of his body, he went from being hot with anger to being frozen by anxiety and unlike Mark Metcalf, Carla White’s threats were backed up by a certain unspoken violence that he could feel coming from her as clear as if Carla had yelled it to the whole shelter.

Carla powered down. She turned toward him and repeated, “We’re closed Cooper.”

Agent Cooper left through the exit with the last few diners that exited. A sweat had soaked his clothes, Carla could smell him as he left and hear his heart beat pound in his chest as she shambled his way out. Carla was annoyed by the audacity of the agent, the Department of Homeland Security had no power over her. They had no business here and Carla would not suffer anymore chest pounding. Agent Cooper was one of the few government officials that knew of her existence as it was necessary for her to work with multiple agencies during her missions. The “super bitch”, she heard them say when talking about her. Carla did not care, she was untouchable and they couldn’t stop her.

Carla locked up that night and walked to the parking lot. Agent Cooper was in a car, even at night she could see him clearly and could smell tobacco smoke coming from it. Carla supposed he had a purpose for still being around. Carla moved to the passenger side and sat down in Cooper’s car. Carla adjusted the seat so she was lying flat on her back.

“Hope the smoke doesn’t bother you,” Agent Cooper twirled a lit cigarette, he wasn’t smoking it and seemed to be just letting it burn.

“Shut up.” Carla said without even looking at the agent, “Listen.”

Carla paused for a moment, still she didn’t look at him and only paid attention to the ceiling, “My heat vision is comparable to the energy released by a nuclear bomb. I can lift an aircraft carrier like you could lift a pillow. It takes an artillery barrage to even give me a bruise.”

Carla leaned forward and snatched the cigarette Agent Cooper was fidgeting with and took a long drag, “That meant absolutely F%$# all to Metcalf.”

Carla savored the menthol flavor in her mouth, she let the smoke fill her lungs and felt a slight head rush. Carla exhaled, “You don’t even smoke. I can hear your lungs. You sound fine.”

“Thanks. I’d probably try it if I knew it wouldn’t kill me.” Agent Cooper said. Cooper slouched in his seat and while it was only slight, but for Carla and her senses it was as subtle as a fire work display. Agent Cooper had started to relax. “Must be nice, eh?”

“The point is…” Carla looked at him as she blew a stream of smoke at Cooper. “More super humans are coming. Imagine a world where governments form armies of people like me or even stronger than me.”

Carla flicked the cigarette out of the window as she continued, “If you think terror is a threat now, imagine a threat that can’t be stopped by the military alone and how many people will die.”

Agent Kyle Cooper immediately thought of both of Carla’s, fights with Howard Leach. The Chicago neighborhood where it happened was devastated by fire, the hospital was destroyed and hundreds of patients died. Even armed, Mark Metcalf had still got away from him. His gun didn’t matter when a target could catch the bullets. What could normal people do when the world was being introduced to gods?

Carla adjusted her seat and looked Agent Cooper in his eyes and frowned, “The people deserve to believe that the world is safe for just a little bit longer, Agent Cooper. What you did today was nearly spoil that for those people in the shelter. “

Agent Cooper squeezed the wheel of his car as he sucked in air, “I just…”

“Wanted all those people to die, apparently!” Carla interrupted. “My identity is supposed to be above top secret. My standing orders above all else is to ensure that stays that way.”

Agent Cooper looked on at Carla in horror, he knew she meant every word and he knew when he confronted her in the shelter that despite their power that these people weren’t heroes and they weren’t gods. How Carla spoke so dismissively about life scared him more than any firefight he’d been in. The Homeland security agent’s head swirled with different thoughts.

“Don’t come here again.” Carla warned Cooper as she got out of the car. She walked around to the driver’s side, she grabbed a phone out of her pocket and tossed it on Cooper’s lap. “Here is a burner phone for you. If you feel the need to vent again use it.”

Carla jumped and midway through she launched herself through the air. The burst of wind shook the car and, Agent Cooper. Cooper watched as the super human gained more and more distance until she was out of sight. He opened the phone and there was only one phone number in it and an address. Cooper assumed it was Carla’s and put the phone on the glove compartment of his car.

Carla had no intention of killing the people in the shelter, of course Agent Kyle Cooper had his mind already made up about her and it was easy to play the monster he had probably imagined. Carla just didn’t care and wanted the one place where being, “Carla White” was just what she needed people to think. It was her mask and Cooper had no right to threaten it. Carla, felt better after establishing the boundaries of their working relationship and knew Cooper would be cooperative.

Carla was on the home with her handler on a different phone. Carla, reported the incident and was assured that Agent Kyle Cooper would be reprimanded. But also, that they would have to occasionally work with each other still. Carla kept any protest to herself. As they said in the Army, “embrace the suck”.

Carla’s devotion to duty however, wasn’t so blinding that it took away what was obvious to her. Military operations on U.S. soil, the illegal detention of civilians and unlawful orders that she had followed. America was not just the military. The ideals were bigger than that, the constitution made the ideals the law and her oath of enlistment gave her a duty to protect it.

Carla read through classified documents, analyzed pictures of people and other documents. Agent Cooper and Deputy Director of Homeland Security, Brock Cissna approached Carla, about their concerns. Carla almost reported them to her handlers, in large part because hiding a micro usb card in the filter of a disgusting cigarette that she had to hold in her mouth until she got home made her want to gag and the spy movie level precautions seemed paranoid. As she read on she could understand why the felt the way they did and why they shared this with someone they considered was a monster.

Government black sites had been compromised, plans to make malls and large department stores prison camps and pictures of missing government officials that had been investigating federal funds. Deputy Director Cissna and Agent Cooper suspected a conspiracy and entrusted, her with the information. “It’s not like they can make you disappear”, they had said. That Carla was certain of or was until she was humiliated by, Mark Metcalf.

Carla stopped at a hospital. The super powered assassin, immediately scanned through all the pictures she was given and made one face out. It was a man. The picture of this mystery man had shown up at a secret hospital that Carla was being treated at after her fight with, Howard Leach. A still shot taken from security camera footage and that wasn’t the only place he had shown up. He wore strange white clothes under a lab coat. Carla looked at the date on the time stamp, it was on the same day she had been being treated and he had shown up in other pictures, mostly at military sites.

“Xlibris…” Carla had said out loud. Carla wasn’t sure why she said that word or why she associated it with this man that showed up and couldn’t be identified.

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@time_phantom: Every time I read these stories, I want to jump back on my own little universe. Good stuff here.

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