Bolts And Feathers

Chapter Four: Small Voice, Heavy Choice

Alexis was exhausted. Actually, that was an understatement. She was more than exhausted. She was almost dead.

Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, she thought as she rubbed her eyes. She wasn't actually almost dead, but she sure felt like it.

And who wouldn't feel almost dead if they had stayed up all night and then drove for almost nine hours? It was after 5 AM when she and Vortex had left the college, and now it was almost 2 PM Mountain Time. They had gained two hours by passing through time zones, so it was nearly four o' clock Eastern Time. Her parents would be at the house, napping maybe. She wondered if they knew about Toby, about the incident. If they did know, she wouldn't be able to talk to them until later. Right now she was going straight to the base.

The heroine struggled to stay alert, quickly moving her eyes from one spot on the road to another. She glanced at Vortex, who was staring absently at the dashboard. The Racarian had a higher tolerance to lack of sleep, but it was obvious that she was almost as tired as her companion.

Finally, Alexis stopped the car. She pulled the keys out of the ignition and closed her eyes wearily. What was she about to do? She was about to walk into the superhero secret base and confront her brother, who she hadn't seen in more than a year, about the murder he had committed less than twenty-four hours ago. She took a deep breath as a stab or pain and sorrow pierced her heart. What was she going to say?

"Hey, Sparrow, are you coming?" Vortex called from outside the car.

Alexis's eyes snapped open. "Yeah, I'll be right there!" She got out of the vehicle and locked it. She had parked on the side of a road running through a quiet neighborhood. Neat, nearly identical houses lined the street, their yards trim. Alexis and Vortex walked towards a brown one on the opposite side of the street. It looked the same as the others on the outside, but the inside was a different story. Underneath this house was a secret set of rooms, more rooms than the house itself actually consisted of. Those rooms were the base of PM City's superheroes, the base where they planned, trained, and became a team.

The two heroines strode up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Hidden cameras recorded their every move. A speaker, which was also hidden, buzzed, and Alexis recognized the voice of Dec, the intelligent computer built by Archer.

"Sparrow, Vortex," the computer recognized. "Password, please."

"Hi, Dec," Alexis greeted. "Uh.... I don't know any recent passwords. I haven't been here in a few years."

"Password," Dec said again.

Alexis looked at Vortex for help, but the Racarian was as clueless as she was.

"I haven't been here recently either," she explained.

"If you do not have the password, you must leave," Dec stated.

"Dec...," Alexis protested.

"If you do not leave, I will fire," warned the computer.

Alexis's heart began to beat a bit faster. The base security system was equipped with laser blasters. If Dec fired them, both of the heroines would be burned to a crisp.

"Listen, Dec, we're really tired, and we don't know the password. Can you go get Archer or Leia please?"

The computer was silent for a moment. Then Archer's voice crackled over the speakers.

"The door's unlocked. Come on in."

Alexis turned the knob, and she and Vortex walked into the house. A long hallway stretched from the front of the house to the back, leading off into a bathroom and the living room on the right and the kitchen and dining room on the left. There was an upstairs, which had two bedrooms and another bathroom, and a basement, which was unfinished. Unknown to outsiders, the basement was the doorway to the heroes' base.