Chapter 8
Mike walked the streets of the adult entertainment district with Stardust for another patrol together. He was officially a member of the Arch City Guardians now and had received messages from every member welcoming him to the team—including Stardust. His official superhero status hadn’t changed anything between them, not that he expected it to.
Their interrupted conversation from a few evenings ago during the team meeting was on his mind tonight. He’d been wondering ever since what Stardust meant by, heknew his type. The obvious assumption was that it had something to do with his military background. Especially after he’d hit up Google to figure out what it meant to be the Riley.
It took some searching, but eventually he’d found his answer at the bottom of a Wiki rabbit hole about a vampire slayer and her lovers. Riley had been the strait-laced soldier to come into the world of vampires and demons as an outsider, without a true understanding of how that world worked. Now that Mike understood the comparison, he was less than flattered. He wasn’t about to put on a long leather coat to prove that he was cool enough to fight villains on the streets of the Playground. But he understood it would take time and effort to gain the trust of both Stardust and the Playground Players. Conversation would be a good way to start building a rapport with Stardust. Unfortunately, they’d been walking next to each other in silence for ten minutes. Mike cast a glance at Stardust out of the corner of his eye, searching for a topic that wouldn’t have them immediately sniping at each other. He figured asking what made him decide to protect the Playground couldn’t hurt.
“I know that you work here, but you seem to care a lot about protecting the area more than someone who is just an employee would. Why is it so important to you to keep the Playground safe?”
Stardust’s gaze remained straight ahead when he answered.
“They had my back when I needed it.”
“The whole district?”
“No, but enough to show me that the people here care for their own.”
That had Mike even more curious. “What did they help you with?”
Stardust stopped and looked up at him. Mike didn’t know what he was expecting to see, but it wasn’t for those golden eyes to be uncharacteristically somber behind the mask.
“That’s none of your business,” Stardust said stiffly.
Regretting that he’d inadvertently brought up what was clearly an uncomfortable memory for the other man, Mike immediately backed off. “Understood. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
Stardust watched him for a moment longer before he resumed looking straight ahead. They walked in silence once more.
Mike sighed to himself. Mission failed.
∞ ∞ ∞
Stardust was surprised at Zielinski’s attempt at learning more about him. Although he couldn’t fault him for it, since much to his chagrin, he’d spent far too much time over the past few days thinking about his partner. He wondered about basic stuff, like where Zielinski was from. It couldn’t be St. Louis with that hint of a country boy accent. He wondered how he’d come by his powers. He wondered what he looked like beneath those damn long-sleeve shirts that he always wore. And he wondered why the hell he couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Stardust didn’t let on that thoughts of his partner were on his mind however, even now when they walked side by side, keeping an eye out for trouble in the Playground. They didn’t speak, walking in silence after the short conversation that he’d shut down, until he spotted something that was out of place.
Three vehicles turned onto the street they were on, the purple lights on their rooftops joining in with the rest of the colorful lights that lit up the dark night. “Purple lights. That’s weird.”
“What’s weird about purple lights?”
Stardust answered without looking at his partner. “The purple emergency vehicle lights are only used for Pruitt Inc.’s artificial intelligence police bot units. They don’t usually come to this side of the river, since Pruitt’s power isn’t supposed to bleed over into Illinois, and definitely not into the Playground. There’s a local precinct that works this area and we don’t even call them unless it’s really necessary.”
He watched with narrowed-eyed suspicion as the vehicles continued through the streets of the Playground. “I wonder why the P-Bots are here tonight,” he said mostly to himself. Deciding there was no point in wondering when he could easily follow them and see what they were up to, he picked up his pace. “I’m going to check it out,” he said as he started to follow after the P-Bots.
“I don’t think you should,” Mike called from behind him. “We’re supposed to be watching for any sign of the muggers.”
Stardust didn’t stop but he did slow down and turn to walk backward so he could speak to his partner face to face. “It’s cute how you think you have any say in what I do.” He shrugged. “Come or don’t. It’s up to you.”
“You really need to learn what it means to be partners,” Zielinski grumbled. But he jogged forward and followed along without any further complaint.
Thanks to the crowded streets keeping the speed of the vehicles low they were able to easily keep an eye on where they were going and caught up to them soon after they stopped. The bots had arrived in front of a small club. On the roof of the building, a giant red heart wrapped in black barbed wire spun in a slow circle.
“That’s the Barbed Wire. One of the mugging victims works there. That can’t be a coincidence,” Stardust said with even more suspicion than earlier. “Let’s go and check it out to see if something else happened.”
They made their way to the Barbed Wire, which was on the other side of the street and down toward the end of the block. When they arrived, the three silver SUVs were parked in front, their sliding doors open, purple rooftop lights swirling in unison. Six of the Pruitt Inc. police bots had exited the vehicles and lined up in front of the club.
The bots were big—seven feet tall with a frame built like that of a human skeleton. Except instead of white bone, its limbs were gun metal gray. The head was also human shaped but the front was absent of features, an unbroken expanse of metal with the exception of a narrow black screen where the eyes should be. The torso was solid, in that same gray metal with the Pruitt name and logo stamped across it in purple and black.
Zielinski and Stardust hung back in the shadows, hidden from view behind a party bus, but close enough to watch and listen. The manager of the Barbed Wire had come out to see why the P-Bots were there. One of the bots spoke, it’s machine voice loud and carrying.
