“Mike, it’s good to meet you in person,” Strong greeted him. “Welcome to the Arch City Guardians headquarters.” The older Black man turned to his team. “Everyone, this is Mike Zielinski. Former Army medic and newly relocated to St. Louis. I’ve invited him here to take a look at our operation. Mike, this is Caleb, our tech specialist. Sonica, Frost, and Stardust are field members. Helios is across town helping Ignite with a building fire and we have a few other heroes who aren’t here right now as well.”
Zielinski briefly made eye contact with each of them in turn. “Good evening,” he said crisply.
Stardust ran his gaze over Zielinski during Strong’s introduction. He assumed the other man was enhanced and wondered what his powers were. Maybe he was a super soldier like Lieutenant Strong. Going by his height and muscular build, that was definitely a possibility. When Zielinski made eye contact with him, Stardust pursed his lips and silently blew him a kiss. The Army man didn’t react, other than a slight stiffening to his already stiff posture. The restrained reaction intrigued Stardust. Was the man shy or impossibly uptight? If Mike Zielinski was going to be sticking around, Stardust wanted to find out the answer to that question sooner rather than later.
After the brief introductions, Strong and Zielinski disappeared into Strong’s office behind a closed door, and Sonica popped into their quiet room to lay down. Stardust turned to Frost. “What do you think?”
“What do I think about what?”
“About the possibility of adding a new guy to the team.”
Frost shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me.”
“Might throw off the group dynamic. We’ve already got one uptight superhero.”
“I’m not uptight. I’m reserved.”
“If you’re not uptight, then how did you know I was talking about you?”
Frost narrowed arctic blue eyes. They brought a hand up, ice and snow quickly swirling into a small ball in their palm. Once it was solid, they flung it at Stardust.
Stardust quickly twisted in his chair, snapping a leg up to kick the snowball away before it could hit him. It went flying across the room, sailed over Caleb’s command center, and hit the opposite wall with a wetsplat. Both of them looked at the slush sliding down the wall, then at each other, before they burst out laughing.
“Hey!” Caleb snapped. “If you two damage any of my equipment, I’ll put the emotional suffering of every fan disappointed in the latest Star Wars movie into your heads.”
The threat was enough to have both of them straightening up in their chairs and apologizing.
“Sorry, Caleb.”
“Won’t happen again.”
After Caleb’s reprimand, they sat there and quietly speculated about the possible recruit for a few minutes before Frost pushed up from their chair.
“I have to go. I have an appointment to keep.”
Caleb nodded in acknowledgement without taking his eyes off whatever he was looking at on his screen. “We should be fine for the rest of the night. Don’t forget that we have an official meeting coming up soon. Everyone needs to be there.”
“It’s on my calendar. See you guys later.”
After Frost left, Stardust cast a quick glance at Strong’s closed office door. “I think I’ll stick around for a little while longer.”
Caleb nodded again, his fingers now flying over one of his three keyboards.
Stardust settled back in his chair to wait for the meeting to end.
∞ ∞ ∞
When Mike walked into the headquarters for the Arch City Guardians, he took the time to look around. The building was an old firehouse the heroes had taken over for their use. It was impressive, but clearly still in the early stages of use. For one, it was too neat, missing the personal clutter of a broken-in headquarters. But the bones of a good set up were there. The technology was in place and top of the line, apparently run by the young Hispanic man with the royal blue hair. There were several club chairs facing the main command center. To the right, a vending machine, open shelving, and a locked cabinet took up the wall in the front of the room. In the back area, a small gym had been set up, with three treadmills, a couple of bikes, a multi-purpose weight machine, and a thick blue floor mat for sparring. On the loft above, there was a small kitchen area, with a long table taking up most of what he could see of the space. And on his left were several small offices, all with their lights off and doors closed except one.
After everything Mike had learned about Strong and his history, he’d expected to be greeted by the organized, high-tech set up. He hadn’t expected to walk in and come face to face with the most beautiful man he’d ever seen in his life.
Slender and elegant, the man lounged in one of the club chairs, an arm tossed across the back, one leg crossed over the other at the knee. Skin tight liquid-latex black pants with a holographic gold shimmer on the fabric clung to those long legs. Black boots embellished with thin gold chains laced up to his knees, and an intricately tooled leather holster was belted around his waist, with straps to hold a pair of gold sai buckled around his thighs. A cropped jacket made from the same material as those sinful pants opened to a smooth, bare chest. Black half-palm gloves partially covered delicate hands, and a gold face mask dangled from his fingers. The man’s hair was as dark as a country night sky, confined in a long braid that reached to his narrow waist with shorter strands framing his face, while his skin was pale as moonlight. His lips were a rosy pink, the top lip slightly fuller than the bottom, making them appear as if they were just shy of pursing for a kiss. And his eyes. Set beneath gently arched brows and framed by long, thick lashes, they were a shocking intense gold, like a tiger’s eyes caught in sunbeams.
He was gorgeous. The name Stardust suited him, as he appeared to be touched by ethereal starlight. Mike didn’t let on that he was affected by the other man’s beauty, however. He ignored the beefcake comment, greeting him politely along with everyone else.
“Good evening.”
“Come into my office and we’ll talk,” Strong said.
