NBR CHAPTER

Hello NBR Reviewers! Welcome and thanks for reading! The story so far...

Alex is a super-powered human with brain damage so she doesn't remember her past. She rescued Gabe, an alien  draconic humanoid and was forced to take him to her apartment. His brothers, Cale and Rile, don't know what happened to him and tracked him to the alley where he had been ambushed [and subsequently rescued by Alex]. They found Gabe's sword and a radiation badge and headed back to their temporary home on Earth.

***

Cale and Rile met with Dr. Dewey on the first floor of the narrow building behind his larger antebellum home in the Garden District of New Orleans. In the heyday of the South, the narrow building housed horses and a carriage on the first floor and servants on the second floor. Now savvy homeowners turned them into income producing apartments behind their own homes. Dr. Dewey, owner of the carriage house and the brothers' landlord, turned the badge over. He was the only human that the brothers trusted.

"This is a radiation badge, worn by workers in labs and hospitals to measure their exposure to radiation," he said.

"What's radiation?" Cale asked.

"Who cares? Where's this one from?" Rile asked.

"They're standard issue. I can't make out the name, but this looks like the Tulane University symbol." Dr. Dewey pointed at the dirty, cracked face of the badge.

"We want to watch this." Rile shoved the security camera and laptop to Dr. Dewey. "It's from the alley where we found Gabe's sword."

Dr. Dewey, tolerant of Rile's brusqueness, opened the laptop and figured out how to play the video. They saw a strange female attack Gabe with a strange, flaring, energy.

"I didn't know Tulane had super-powered humans." Rile broke the silence.

"They don't," Dr. Dewey said.

"We'll search from the alley to the Tulane University labs. Dr. Dewey, can you help us enter Tulane?" Cale asked.

"I have my electronic ID to my neurobiology lab, but there are a dozen other labs, not to mention the main animal care facility, and the medical school labs. I don't have clearance for those. I'm sure none of them have anything to do with super-powered humans," Dr. Dewey said. "I can take you, but what about the security cameras at the doors? My doctoral candidate is out of town and it's Sunday, but there is always some student or another about. How can you keep from being seen?"

"We'll push our disguising ability to the limits," Cale said. "We have the caps of baseball that you gave us to wear."

"Hurry up." Rile strode out. "We've wasted too much time. We'll start from the alley and track to the Tulane University labs."

*****

Alex adjusted the dirt brown and burnt orange afghan warming both her and Gabe. "It looked like a mugging. You were outnumbered two to one," she explained.

"You could have been killed. You risked your life for a stranger?" Gabe asked.

"They couldn't hurt me with those tranquilizer guns. Even being shot with a real gun doesn't hurt that much unless it hits bone," Alex said with unconcern. "Who were they?"

"I don't know, but I suspect they were from a laboratory." Gabe traced the bruise on her cheek. "Did they do that to you?"

Alex was surprised she wanted to lean into the gentle touch, but wariness won out and instead she said, "I was overconfident. You might be right about the lab."

She was about to question him further, when an expression of alarm crossed Gabe's face.

"My sword, where is it?" He sat up straight on the couch, dislodging the afghan.

"I'm sorry. I didn't see one." Alex pulled the thrift store blanket back up.

"We must go. My brothers will have found it by now." Gabe stood up and the ugly afghan fell to the floor. "They'll think I've been captured."

"I don't know if we should travel in the day, even if this is New Orleans. It's not Mardi Gras all the time." Alex picked up the afghan and offered it to him.

"What do you mean?" Gabe pushed away the afghan.

"Your appearance might cause some undue interest, even if the culture of the weird is accepted here," Alex replied.

"What about my appearance?"

Alex twisted the corner of the crocheted monstrosity at his sudden intensity. "You don't know you're unusual looking?"

"Describe me, please." Gabe said. "What you see."

"Do you want a mirror?" Alex asked the figure towering over her as she further tortured the ugly blanket.

"No, I want to know what you see," Gabe pressed. "What you see now."

As if my day hasn't been bizarre enough.

"You're tall with a lean, muscular body, and a beautiful golden color some humans would kill to have. Mostly human shaped head with a short, blunt muzzle nicely proportional to the rest of your face. Your eyes are a soulful, solid brown, not human eyes. But at a distance, I didn't notice you weren't human," Alex said with sincerity.

Gabe rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully."You can see my true face, even now that I'm awake."

"I hope that's a good thing," Alex said.

She hated those scenes in movies when people were killed for knowing too much. She stood and was acutely aware of their height difference, that her power was drained, and that he was no longer the wounded victim she had saved. She backed away for tactical advantage.

Will he kill me quickly or slowly? Will he just kidnap me? I'm no virgin for a dragon to kidnap. What did those dragons do with those virgins they kidnapped anyway?

"It's an unusual thing," Gabe shrugged and relieved Alex's worry.  "We must hurry. We've wasted too much time.  My brothers will attack every lab in the city to find me."

"Nice family. Glad they're loyal. Do you have any hobbies other than sword fighting and eating beignets?"

"We'll speak later of such things. For now, please return me to that alley and I will find home from there."

"Are you feeling well?"  She approached him and laid the back of her hand across his forehead. "You're cooler and I haven't recharged yet."

"I feel good enough to return home," he insisted. "Please hurry."

Pounding at the door stopped them both. Alex stepped in front of Gabe.

"Alex," a masculine voice growled. "I know you're in there."

Horror crawled down Alex's spine like a spider but a look at Gabe gave her strength. He needed protecting and that was her job now. She had shed her victim status for an avenger role. Alex glowered at the door. "Hide in the closet," she whispered to Gabe and pointed. "It's Morgan. I'll get rid of him. Shouldn't take long.  Stay hidden, okay? You don't want to be seen."

How did Morgan find me?

Alex ticked off her precautions in her mind: frequent name changes, address changes, and temporary jobs only.

"Open this door, Alex, or I'll kick it in." The threat was a low rumble.

"Sounds like trouble.  I will stay and help," Gabe said.

"If he sees you, he'll kill you. I can handle him. He won't hurt me," Alex lied. "You're still suffering from the sedation. Stay hidden, no matter what."

I'm not a damsel in distress to be saved. I do the saving around here. Gabe is hurt and under my protection.

She pushed Gabe into the closet and shut the door.

"Alex, I said open—"

"You barked?" Alex yelled through the closed door.  "What part of my running away and changing my name did you not understand? Take a hike. Get lost. Long walk, short pier, and all that."

My worst nightmare is on the other side of this door. But I won't let him hurt or kill Gabe. Time to hero up.

The ancient doorknob wobbled violently and then turned with a resigned click. She saw the bulky man, a freakish triangle of too much upper body musculature and skinny legs, slip through the cracked door.

He grabbed her by the throat, and shut the door behind him. Alex struggled to breathe in small gasps, tugging at the huge hand clamped around her throat. Morgan's fishy grey eyes bored into Alex and she felt the terrifying block on her powers slam into place.

"No clever words?" Morgan mocked. "Don't you want to know why your powers don't work against me? No 'how did you find me?' Anything?"

Alex didn't care about the 'why's' or 'how's' of her life. She cast a frantic glance at the closet door. 

Gabe. If only there was some way to let him know, to get him out here.

Yelling was out of the question because she could barely breathe.

"You thought you could escape me? What's the matter, wasn't I enough man for you?" Morgan's hot, hormonal breath choked her as much as his meaty hand.

Alex shook her head.  If she hadn't been so emphatic, maybe Gabe would ignore her command to stay hidden.  Morgan was quiet on purpose, whispering to avoid arousing suspicion. She kicked as an attempt to knock something over because she couldn't reach Morgan's knees.

"You've only had a taste of what I can do to you," he whispered. "You belong to me, Alex, your body, your powers. My toy."

Her eyes grew wide with horror as he undid the buttons on her blouse, one by one, with deliberate slowness. To her shame, tears welled in her eyes when he undid his belt with his free hand.

Morgan leaned close to her ear and his hot sticky breath tickled it horribly. "Your powers don't work against me because you're nothing but the toilet tissue I wipe myself with. You know you're trash and your blocked powers are proof.  Otherwise you would blast me. Anyone who saw how useless you are against me would know it, know you really want me, love me and love how I use you."

Desperation fueled her strength and Alex twisted, hitting a lamp with her foot.  The lamp smashed with a wonderfully loud noise. Alex looked at the closet door and Morgan followed her gaze.

When the warped closet door opened with a screech, Morgan's grasp on Alex loosened, and she slid her hand between his and her throat. Morgan looked back at her which gave Gabe the opening to dash across the living room and punch him, quick as a snake. Startled by both the punch and the sight of the draconic face, Morgan's enhanced reflexes and strength failed him. He released Alex and she fell to the floor gasping. Morgan tried a roundhouse punch that Gabe blocked. Gabe grabbed Morgan's face in his clawed hand and bashed him to the ground, using the physics of a lever arm rather than raw strength.

"Garbage belongs outside." Gabe dragged him out the door and into the stairwell with great effort. Gabe re-entered, locked the door, jammed a chair against it, and knelt down beside her. "Alex, are you all right?"

She nodded, gasping and sobbing at the same time.

"Where did he hurt you? Your throat?" Gabe lifted her chin and looked at the ugly purple marks developing.  "What's this?" Gabe dabbed at the tiny drops of water on his hand. "He's gone. You'll be okay."

"You . . . must . . . think . . . I'm . . . stupid," she choked out between sobs.

He put his arm around her shoulders. "Not at all."

"I can stop muggers and mercenaries, but this one creep and I cry like an idiot." Alex continued to weep, as much from anger and frustration as sorrow.

"It'll be all right." Gabe gently dried away more water from her eyes that had dropped on his hand. "I'll make sure that one creep never touches you again."

"Thanks. I'm sorry that I can't explain."  This seemed to make her feel worse and she cried harder. "It's a unique way humans hurt each other."

"Don't explain if it makes you feel worse," Gabe soothed. "Tell me how to make you feel better."

"You already have." Alex dashed the last of her tears from her face.  She stood up, clutching her blouse. "Let me change and we'll leave."  She paused at the bedroom door. "I like you better than any human."

Alex shut the door behind her, leaving him to ponder her statement.  When she re-emerged she was wearing all black, a leather jacket zipped to her throat.

"We've wasted too much time.  We'll take the direct route since the hall is blocked." With an effort Alex shoved open a complaining window, warped from the rain, heat, and high humidity. "Hold my hand, unless you want to fly yourself."

"I cannot fly." Gabe looked away and his hand clenched.

Alex winced. "Sorry. Sounds painful."

Perfect. I insulted the guy who saved me from my worst nightmare.

"I'll tell you later the story of how my kind lost the ability to fly. Please tell me how you fly."

"If you hold my hand, you won't fall because my slipstream surrounds you. It's why I can fly with things that are too heavy for me to carry. I can also speed burst for a short distance and be almost invisible. I know the slipstream generator implanted in my chest is pouring radiation into my heart and lungs and shortening my life. Other than that, I don't know how it works or care," she said. She jumped and his wings spread through the slits in his shirt.

"That is sad it is cutting your lifespan prematurely short. Did you agree to this device or was it forced on you ?"

"I don't remember but it's worth it. Wouldn't you agree for the chance to fly ?"

"That is a difficult question I cannot answer without considerable thought."

"Ah, you're a deep thinker. Well, no one should have seen us. Now we can skim along the rooftops until we're far enough from my building to hit the streets." Alex frowned at how cold his hand was. 

After a time, Gabe pointed down.  Alex paused as a lone car passed by and then dove to the streets. Gabe's wings folded neatly back under his shirt. They walked unnoticed, but Gabe slowed after a block.

"Gabe, are you sure you can make it?  You feel cold."

"It isn't much farther. Maybe if I rest a minute."  He ducked into an alley and slid down the wall into a sit.

"I can't fully charge without sleep, but let me give you what I can." Alex knelt beside him and placed her hands on his chest.  They glowed whiter until sparks sizzled.

***

NBR Questions below

A/N

Again, dedicated to Red_Leasia

Who noticed huge discrepancies by reading the whole book and coming back to comment! She rules! Her science fiction book New Elysium is gripping! Take a look! Believe me, she's a diamond!

Also edit is dedicated to KCSSHD
Since one does not ignore Deadpool's critique

Thanks to all who commented and I promise to edit again with your suggestions in mind !

Re-edit dedicated to DerangedBlueCat
Thanks fir the sharp eye !

For ease, NBR Comment Topic answers can be put here:

Q1. One of my biggest flaws pointed out is lack of detail. Is there sufficient detail?

Q2. One of my second biggest flaws pointed out is that the plot meanders along and then speeds up too much. Do you notice good flow?

Q3. My original question for NBR was for another chapter and no longer makes sense.  Instead I would ask : Is there enough characterization to understand who Cale is and that he is spiritual. [since I screwed up, feel free to ignore. Sorry! My first spotlight]