Masks XX: The Mystery of the Mechanical Master

by

Rodford Edmiston

Part One

The video conference call was unusual in more aspects than the fact that all three participants were wearing costumes with masks. The members of Tricorne were planning yet another Spring Break together. However, this time the youngest member was proposing something different from previous teamups.

Ponytail bouncing as she spoke, Energia presented her case with her usual enthusiasm. After waffling back and forth for several years on the matter of whether to wear a cape, she had finally decided to reserve that accessory for her formal costume and do without otherwise. She had long settled on the theme of green bodystocking with blue pieces over that, plus a blue mask. These complimented her red hair nicely.

The middle member, Gadgetive, was not in her heroing rig - which looked like a display on a manikin at a military surplus store sale but was so much more - but was her usual skeptical self when it came to changing anything about their team.

Blue Impact, in her current outfit of slacks, shoes, shirt, gloves and mask - all in medium shades of blue - topped with her trademark dark blue leather jacket, was noncommittal.

The energy-force manipulator found herself with a hard sell. Especially to the team's middle member.

To make the call, Energia was visiting the new Intrepids base; Blue Impact was at the security station for the Pine Island Academy; and Gadgetive was "testing" the communications rig she was installing at the college where she was currently a student. (She seemed to change schools each semester, to take advantage of some particular teacher or program. Energia thought she was currently back at MIT but wasn't sure.) The topic was their arrangements regarding getting Tricorne together for the week they had off from school for Spring Break. All three were definitely in favor of that. However, a suggestion by the youngest member was meeting with some opposition.

"I just think she'd make a good addition to our team," said Energia. "Besides sharing some classes with her, I've worked with Vic several times, and both of you know her. She's expressed interest in working with us. I mean, she's never actually been in a super team before. Just more general law enforcement teams, some of them admittedly with super involvement. Even during the war she was more working with the military and other feds than supers."

Energia was shading things a bit - in her mind simplifying them harmlessly for her pitch - but what she told them was generally accurate.

"It's that whole 'working with the feds' thing which makes me nervous," said Gadgetive, sounding suspicious. "What about her being a member of the Bureau? Isn't that her actual job?"

"She's - Not on retainer, what's the term? An intern? - anyway, thanks to the budget cuts she's paid to go to school as long as it's to prepare for her job, but they don't have money to actually hire additional employees right now. Weird bureaucratic accounting stuff. However, she's a badge-carrying federal LEO all the time; she's just not on their regular payroll. Working with us would count as on-the-job training for both her school work and with the Bureau. Which means they'll pay her expenses for interning with us."

"I don't like letting a fed in," said Gadgetive, in a sour mutter. "I mean, she's registered with the Bureau! They know who she is!"

"I'm registered with the Bureau!" said Energia, exasperated. "You let me in!"

"Technically, you were in Tricorne before you registered," said Blue Impact, playing devil's advocate. "Even before our team was named, in fact."

"I can't believe you let them know who you are," muttered Gadgetive, sulking like someone far younger.

"I trust Brade and Doro and the few others who are authorized to access the private information on supers who have registered with the Bureau," said Energia, flatly. "They have all these safeguards to prevent anyone else from getting that information, too."

"What safeguards?" said Gadgetive, perking up a bit.

"If I told you they wouldn't be secret."

"I bet you don't even know."

"Nope."

"If anyone is interested," said Blue Impact, looking to one side at something, "they just interrupted the usual news for a special report on Solomon Harvek."

"Who?" said Gadgetive, honestly puzzled.

"He's the one behind the plot which almost killed Doro," said Energia, hotly. Though she was surprised Gadgetive didn't recognize the name. Maybe she had been busier than usual with "more important" technical matters, and had somehow missed all the news about him. Though Energia wondered why his connection to a death ray hadn't penetrated her usual preoccupation.

"Wait, what?!"

Blue Impact added a news channel to their conference call and turned the sound up.

"It was for the children!" said Solomon Harvek, plaintively. as the segment cut to him making a statement on the way into court. "These men were ruining lives, families! Think of the poverty, the suicides!"

"Who's he taking about?," said Gadgetive, confused, even though she now appeared to be remembering more about what was going on with him. Maybe due to several technical companies being involved, as well as mad science. "Corporate Salvage? They only went after him because they caught him cheating them. Harvek did a lot more harm to the economy than they did!"

"Yeah," said Energia. "I don't see him doing anything for anyone but himself. Especially not the 'little people.' He's one of those who thinks 'poverty' means you don't have a million handy for impulse buys."

"Don't bother confusing the issue with facts," said Gadgetive, sourly. "The rich are different from us. The world does what they want. Until it suddenly doesn't."

"Easy, now," said Blue Impact. "Be careful you don't tar all the wealthy with the same brush you use on the small percentage who are actual criminals."

"Well, that rich criminal is up for multiple murder counts," said Energia. "Some of them federal LEO."

"Anyway," said Gadgetive, getting back to the topic of the call, and deciding to take another tack in her protest against adding anyone to Tricorne, even for just a week, "it's weird that Vic used to be a guy!"

"What have you got against guys?"

"Huh? Nothing! I just think it's weird, is all."

"By most measures, it's more weird that my tissues are as dense as magnesium," said Blue Impact, wryly. "That's not even possible in normal biology."

"Yeah, and Vic is now completely female, right down to the chromosomes."

"It's still weird," said Gadgetive, firmly.

"It's more common than you think," muttered Energia. "Anyway, Vic needs more experience with teams and the Bureau will pay his - I mean her - expenses."

She scowled at Gadgetive.

"Now you've got me doing it."

"Doing what?" said the gadgeteer, confused.

Time constraints meant that they couldn't come to a full agreement that session. However, they still had a few days until the break began. Energia felt she had a good chance to bring at least Blue Impact over.

* * *

"How'd your call go?" said Solange. When Energia exited the video conference room she was leaning against the wall beside the door, playing a game on her smartphone.

The new Intrepids base was... smoother than the old one. At least, that was the word which came to Energia's mind, as she looked around. It lacked the texture - the character - of the old base. The hallways were slightly rounded, paneled, colored in a purpose-appropriate manner, and seamless glow panels in the ceiling lit everything with almost no shadows.

"Well, Gadgetive is understandably reluctant to include anyone else in Tricorne," said Energia, smirking. "Though I think the main reason is that this makes us more than three, so we can't be Tricorne any more. Doesn't matter that Vic will be interning with us to learn about super teams for her planned career, and not with the intent of becoming a full-time member."

She decided not to mention Gadgetive's objection to Vic's gender change, given Solange's own experience in that area. At least these days she was less likely to dress the way a teenage boy would have wanted someone as shapely as her to dress.

"Gadgeteers," said Solange, rolling her eyes as she put her phone away. She pushed off from the wall and began walking. Energia couldn't help feeling a bit envious at the casually sexy way she moved. As far as she could tell that was completely unconscious, simply a product of the geometry of her body. Unlike the exaggerated way she had often walked when they first met. "Anyway, are you ready for the tour of our new base?"

"I've been here before, remember."

"Yeah, but we didn't have half the stuff completed the last time you were here that we do now. We're almost finished! Well, until someone gets an idea for an improvement, which always happens. Anyway, c'mon!"

Solange spent the next hour and a bit giving her younger friend a quick tour of the new base, starting with the subtrain tunnel access deep underground. After scrapping their original plans due to demon problems - and abandoning the initial stages of its construction - the Intrepids had asked Zeep for help. At the direction of Bowman and several other super inventors, Zeep had consolidated and shaped a small nickel-iron asteroid and placed it in the deep hole where the old mountain base had been. Iron of the coldest sort - and a huge amount of it - now sealed one of the portals demons had used to try and invade this world. Dr. Piano - in a classic understatement - had stated "That should, indeed, settle the problem."

"That's why the subtrain access starts well above the demon level," said Solange, grinning, as they rode through the well-lit tunnel back to the base, "and goes out and then down to intersect the Sub-Terran tunnel network."

"Hence the long tunnel with the teeny-tiny subway cars," said Energia. She grinned. "I'd hate to walk this. Especially in the dark."

"Not a problem for you, since you can both fly and generate your own light."

Significant construction had then taken place both inside and outside of the new base. The latter turned the rounded cone into a proper mountain - though with a natural iron alloy core and an exterior of reinforced concrete which was in turn covered with a pseudo-natural limestone facade - thereby producing an overall shape which closely resembled that of the mountain destroyed by the Shilmek. The inside of the new mountain had been tunneled through and equipment installed. All the hard work had been very worth it. The new headquarters could take far more damage without the shields than the old one, and the new shields were four times as potent. Thanks to Zeep's help, the process had actually proceeded more quickly than the original plan, allowing them to complete their new base only a little behind schedule.

"I like it," said Energia, summing up as they exited the elevator at the top level. "Though I do miss the odd nooks and crannies from the old base. The corridors and chambers here are more open. Everything is very orderly and organized. The old base had more character, though. There were all these little areas which actually made it feel more intimate."

"Well, most of those resulted from remodelings down through the decades." Solange grinned as they entered the lock to the outside. "Just give it time. Like I said, we're already seeing places where we need to make additions and changes."

"Sounds promising," said Energia, as the outer hatch opened, revealing a very beautiful - if obviously still new and very manicured - scene.

She stepped outside into the park on top of the artificial mountain and lifted off, waving goodbye to her friend as she climbed away.

* * *

The Saturday before the official beginning of Spring Break, a Toyota Corolla wagon notable only because of its age - and the fact that this was denied by its pristine appearance - drove sedately through an old business district of a major East Coast city. Vic followed the directions she had been given and memorized, and turned Monstro into the designated alley. There, as promised, was a delivery door, which began opening as she approached. She pulled under the awning and inside, noting the small if odd selection of vehicles present. As the door closed behind her she saw Energia waving.

Vic quickly shut Monstro off and exited, waving back. She had vaguely Asian features, though with Occidental eyes. Her hair was long, the color dark brown for most of the length but light at the tips. (Energia knew from college that most of the length - including the frosted tips - was from extensions.) Her skin was a bit too brown for her actually fully Caucasian ancestry but not dark enough for either type of Indian. She had taut muscles, high, firm breasts and slightly broad shoulders, with a torso tapering to a mildly narrowed waist then flaring into very feminine hips. Her outfit could charitably be described as "tomboyish."

Vic now saw the other two regular members of Tricorne. The four of them came together - Gadgetive hanging back a bit and scowling - at their mutual center of mass. There were handshakes, and even a hug between Vic and Energia, which surprised the former a bit.

"Welcome to our humble abode," said Blue Impact, smiling.

"Enter freely and of your own will," said Energia, hamming it a bit. "C'mon, get your stuff and we'll show you to your room; then you get the tour of the rest of the lair."

"I am very glad to be with you folks this Spring Break," said Vic, fervently, as she opened the rear of her station wagon. "For multiple reasons. One of them being that I did not want to go back to tutoring. Since this counts as continuing education, the Bureau's training program will pay me - and more than I get from tutoring - to be here. Though I have to write up a report on what I learned."

She only had one large suitcase and a hard-sided equipment case, both of which she yielded to Blue Impact. They began walking towards the large elevator on the loading dock at the back of the bay.

"Tutoring?" said Gadgetive, puzzled, asking in spite of her resolve not to have anything to do with Vic.

"She did it for a few semesters and still complains about it," said Energia, amused, as the double doors to the elevator opened.

"Kids today are so stupid!"

"To be fair, you were tutoring them because they were having trouble," said Energia, playfully wagging a finger.

"I had this one guy I was tutoring in history. Specifically, World War II. He didn't understand why he had to learn what he called 'ancient history.'"

The doors closed, and Energia pushed one of the buttons. The large elevator began quietly climbing. Vic had the distinct impression the current load was only a small fraction of its capacity.

"You should introduce him to the Sailor," said Blue Impact, dryly, "who fought in the War of 1812."

"That history he liked! I think part of the problem was that technology played such a large part in the Second World War and he didn't like tech. He - maybe deliberately - refused to learn anything technical, despite me having to physically take his smart phone from him to make him focus on the lesson. He just didn't see the connection between the rapid development of technology during and after the war and him being able to text anyone, anywhere, any time."

Vic heaved a great, much-put-upon sigh, just as the doors opened onto the upper floor hallway. They stepped out. Energia led the way down to Vic's room, which already had the door standing open.

"He was actually convinced that only one B-29 was ever built - the Enola Gay - and that it dropped all - not both, all - the atomic bombs in World War II, including those used against Germany. That the plane was developed as part of the same program which built the A-bomb, though he couldn't name the Manhattan Project. Any time I tried to explain there were thousands made, he smugly said 'Why would they build more than one when it was all they needed to drop the Bomb and beat the Germans?' When I explained that none were dropped on Germany he smugly said 'Of course they were. How else did they win?'"

Energia was politely commiserative as she opened the door, while Gadgetive was mildly dismissive that anyone could actually be that stupid and Blue Impact made no comment. Once inside, at Vic's direction, Blue Impact plopped the suitcase on the bed and the case with her armor on the floor at the foot. Vic began unpacking as they continued talking. She still felt a bit odd at having "girl clothes" to put away, but played it casual. Still, she finished quickly.

"You and Gadgetive should get along great," said Blue Impact, tongue in cheek. "You have very similar tastes in civilian clothes. Now, let's give you the grand tour."

"So, that elevator is hydraulic - the works are under the loading dock in the garage - and goes all the way to the large shed on the roof," said Energia, as they stepped back out into the hallway. "Our big apergy flyer is usually parked there, but we can use the elevator to take it all the way down for maintenance."

"I think the rest should be show, rather than tell," said Blue Impact.

They took the stairs down, the oldest and youngest members pointing out various features as they descended the open stairway along the wall into the large volume which took up most of the lair. Gadgetive mostly stayed silent, only occasionally correcting some technical thing she felt the others had gotten wrong or not given adequate attention to.

Once the quartet was downstairs - back at the same level as the loading dock - they showed Vic the kitchen, com center and lounge; the last two being in the large, central area, with Blue Impact's private corner. The tour ended at the couch, recliners, other chairs and coffee table, which were all in one carpeted corner. These faced - or nearly so - the large TV mounted on one wall. The home entertainment center was on a set of low shelves below that. The four of them sat, and for a moment were all silent. When the conversation resumed, Vic became more of a participant as she talked about what she hoped to learn during the week she would be interning with Tricorne. She even suggested that if she did well they might invite her back for the full Summer... which did not sit well with Gadgetive. After a few minutes, though, her manner changed again.

"Uhm, if you don't mind a possibly personal question," she asked deferentially of the team's leader, "where does 'Blue Impact' come from? I've read a lot of explanations, including that it's from an old comic book character."

"I loved manga and anime as a kid," the oldest present replied, smiling at the memory. "Even learned a little spoken Japanese. So when I was trying to find a mask name I was strongly influenced by the 'Color Noun' names of several manga and anime characters, such as Red Impulse from Gatchaman."

"Hey, I like anime," said Vic, grinning. "Maybe we can have an anime night."

"Oh, please, no!" said Gadgetive. "It's so... unrealistic! Not to mention full of senseless posturing."

"Are you sure she's a girl?" said Vic, in a stage whisper, to Energia. Blue Impact wondered if the youngest Tricorne member had coached their visitor as to how to needle the gadgeteer.

"We had our doubts for a while. However, the fact that she often staggers down to breakfast in panties and t-shirt have removed them. She doesn't show it in costume, but she's at least a B-cup."

"I dunno..." said Vic, peering pointedly at the increasingly annoyed Gadgetive. Though she was hiding her own discomfort at the topic. "I know guys who could carry that off. Just needs the right padding..."

"Do you both want to have your floors painted with nitrogen triiodide?"

"All right, that's enough," said Blue Impact, though she was grinning. "Vic, we need still need to train you in our security measures. You don't want to accidentally trip any alarms."

The same procedure worked at each of the five entrances, including the one on the roof. Just enter a number on the security keypad and either speak a codeword, or allow the scan of a thumb or eye. Given that she had no masked identity to protect, Vic chose the latter. Actually, both thumbs and both eyes, at the recommendation of Blue Impact.

"One thing we regenerators need to keep in mind," said Blue Impact. "If we regrow a finger or eye, the pattern could change. That's why you need to do both thumbs and both eyes."

"Roger," said Vic, though she grimaced at the thought of having to regrown digits or eyes.

Earlier, those already present in the building had been watching for Vic's car and let her into the garage manually. For future access, she was given what looked like a remote garage door opener, only with more buttons, and a tiny camera.

"Just treat it like any of the other security keypads," said Energia.

"It's not too different from what I've used before," said Vic, nodding. "With federal stuff, like safehouses."

"We keep trying to install a biometric ID system," said Blue Impact, "but given the masks and costumes and range of unusual physiologies involved for us and our approved visitors, they just don't work right. So far, our best security measure has been secrecy. Just don't talk to anyone about what's really here unless they're supposed to know. Which is not a long list."

"I still say you should let me install traps," said Gadgetive, sourly. "Wouldn't have to be lethal. Just nets, or stun rifles, or anesthetic gas, or..."

"As I have explained repeatedly," said Blue Impact, sternly, "traps don't have judgement, and are therefore illegal. Now, let's move on to the security center. That's not only were we manage our security electronics, it's our com center. Though it's not the only access location."

Gadgetive was still muttering under her breath as Blue Impact explained how to log in to access the building security systems and the crime monitoring software from any of the terminals in the building.