Starbright: Hero Extraordinaire

“Who are you?” Captain Star hovered a few feet above the ground. He looked down at the unfamiliar Superhero costume.

Cap, as many called him, crossed his arms in his favorite “Super Stance.” Under his crossed arms was the chest-sized yellow star that denoted his Super Hero Group, the Star Group, which was financially supported by the Star Corporation. Everyone in the Star Group had stars on their costume somewhere. Captain Star’s seemed especially noticeable since the rest of his armor was nothing but silver with blue trim.

Starbright glanced at the two men. She figured she should stay close in case Captain Star stuck his foot in his mouth. They may have stopped dating, but they had been friends and teammates for much longer: that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. She watched as his short blond hair barely moved in the wind caused by the distant fires. His cape fluttered more than his hair. She allowed herself the hint of a smile as she looked at the new guy’s short, loose locks waving wildly in the wind. It was dark brown and full of loose curls and waves.

“I’m Commando.” His voice was deep, confident, and perhaps a touch arrogant. He was no doubt prepared to prove he deserved to be arrogant. He was, after all, entering the realm of being called a Superhero.

Commando, as he called himself, wore a dark metallic brown bodysuit that gently glinted in the descending sunlight. His hair was dark. His face mask was dark, although it clung to his skin allowing everyone to know his facial expressions. His eye covers were dark and sparkled in the light as he looked toward the two flying Supers. He was covered entirely from his hairline to the bottom of his feet.

Despite being completely covered so that onlookers would have to assume skin tone and race, the costume was especially revealing: every anatomical feature was outlined by the skin-tight material. Every gorgeous muscle and intimate line was on display. Even though he was dripping with masculine sexuality, she assumed the media would focus more on the color of his suit. Those with less color perception would call it black.

Starbright could already guess the news headlines over the next hour: “New Black Super: Friend or Foe?”

“Why is your name Commando?” Captain Star stepped down to the ground. He uncrossed his arms. Maybe he was preparing to shake hands; maybe he was preparing to do otherwise. Captain Star’s shoulders rarely revealed his intentions: as a Superhero, he had lots of practice hiding his intentions.

Cap had made it obvious (at least in Starbright's presence) that he did not approve of the city’s recent, “License for Freelance Supers.” They weren’t bonded (insured), didn’t have to clean their own messes, and if they caused massive amounts of damage, their license was suspended - not revoked. They could basically appeal to the newly formed “Licensing Board for Supers” to have the city pay the fees. The Board would determine if their actions were deemed justifiable enough. To Cap, it was like a slap in the face to all the complaints he’d faced and cleaned up in the past.

Starbright took the opposite stance: she thought of their previous years of work as paving the way for these new Supers to explore their abilities without having to hide out in dangerous or villainous organizations. Although she disagreed with Captain Star, she would never act against him as long as he didn’t actively try to keep them from using the city-approved and legal license.

Commando’s masked face revealed thick lips and a dead-sexy smile. “You know what ‘going Commando’ means, right?” He stretched his hands toward the sky, slowly, before arching back and placing his hands behind his head.

At Captain Star’s appalled face, Commando’s smile grew larger. “That’s right.” He circled his hips as he turned about, posing in all sorts of positions that left nothing to the imagination. Then he looked over his shoulder and winked at Starbright. “Nothing under here but me.”

Starbright covered her mouth to try to hide her involuntary laughter.

“You can’t be serious!” Captain Star stepped back in apprehension and disbelief.

Unlike most Supers, Cap didn’t have a face mask of any sort. He was one of those rare types that were so charismatic, he was basically a spokesperson for the majority of Supers. It also meant that he tried to keep everyone in tow. (Unbeknownst to most everyone else, he only managed the effort with Starbright’s help.)

Commando used a thumb to point at his chest. “That is for me to know,” then he pointed at Starbright, “And for her to find out.” He winked at her again, lifting his chin in an obvious flirt.

Starbright tried to hide her smile but she felt herself beginning to blush - not without delight. She landed on the ground beside Cap, gently waving the tips of her fingers at the flirty stud.

Captain Star knew better than to loudly reprimand her, so he quietly pleaded. “Just stop. Don’t encourage him.” Cap gently touched her elbow and stood between her and Commando. “Let’s just get to work.”

Cap waited for Starbright to go first.

She opened her eye covers to show him her laughing eyes. “You made it sound like we were in the middle of an interview. Don’t let me stop you.”

She loved the mild confusion on his face a little too much. A second later she felt guilty. “I’m just teasing you.” She tightened her gloves as she made eye contact with Commando. “Are you here to help with the fires themselves or with the firefighters?”

He nodded as he said, “Firefighters. I’m strong. I have super speed, but I’m not so fast that I could help with a fire, Princess.” He stepped forward, putting out a hand like he was offering it. Except he was over ten feet away. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll be right there if you need me.”

“Cheeky.” Cap refrained from adding more to his comment. He turned to see Starbright hiding her laughter again. This time he tapped her elbow. “We have to go, sweetheart. Stop staring.”

As Starbright turned to Cap she glared, no longer amused or tolerant. “I believe you lost the right to call me Sweetheart a while ago, Captain Star.” She began to float. She took a second to wave goodbye at Commando. Then she turned and started flying toward the fires as Cap responded.

“We’re still close friends. I’m allowed to keep an eye out for you.” He quickly followed.

“Yeah? Is that what that was? Keeping an eye on me? Because it sounded more like you were being possessive.”

“You’ve never appreciated flirts before. You’ve even been grateful to me for keeping them away from you.” They were flying quickly now. Below them, they could see Commando keeping up with them, running across the landscape like a tiny storm leaving a trail of dust.

“But everyone else was creepy.” She let herself smile for a second as she watched his superspeed.

Commando's deeply masculine figure still looked beautiful while he was running: that was not something every Super could manage.

They reached the line where the land-based organizations were setting up their defenses.

Captain gave out a chuckle. “I know what’s different about this one: it’s because he looks like that singer you like, isn’t it?”

Starbright raised an eyebrow at him. The noise from the wind, and now the fire, didn’t hinder their conversation. They had earpieces that allowed them to communicate on a secure line. She didn’t bother to respond to his observation, though. There were beeps as the others in their team came into range.

Unlike most groups that advertised their telepaths, the Star Group did not. That was because Starbright couldn’t handle a large group to link with. She could, however, handle Captain Star. She gently probed his thoughts and asked permission to link with him.

Cap nodded as he took the telepathic link. Not everyone in the group realized she helped him out so much. Starbright was capable of a lot more than flying, super speed, telepathy, and controlling air. According to her contract with the Star Group, as long as she worked for them, they would never advertise her strengths and limitations. Because honestly? Anyone who knew that much about her grew scared of her.

Even Captain Star.

He’d thought he was strong enough. After training together since the age of thirteen, she thought he had been strong enough, too. Unfortunately, Starbright’s sleeping habits had pushed him way out of his comfort zone.

It pushed him right into the arms of dozens of eager fans. Each one of them was more than willing to have a fling with the very attractive demi-god. Each one of them was convinced she was easing his pain after Starbright’s rejection. Because for some reason, the secret of their relationship wasn’t a secret after it was over.

Starbright still didn’t understand that piece of logic. She'd given him shit and beaten Cap up about enough though.

Halfway through getting the weather under control so the fire could be contained, Starbright felt another telepathic link nearby. She looked down to see the land forces working in perfect sync. She allowed herself the second it took to watch the dance-like movements. That single second didn’t tell her who the conductor was. She didn’t tap into the link, afraid that whatever task that link sent would cause her to lose her connection with Cap. Plus, she had some weather to work on. She turned back to her own task.

Corporal Star, a robust woman with red hair, could control, absorb, and create fire. She was busy in a distant area where there were fires, but that area wasn’t as close to people’s homes.

The land forces were protecting the homes that were closest to the raging fires. Captain Star was in the thick of the area already afflicted and was using the shields of Lieutenant Star to save people and creatures alike. The Lt loved creatures of all kinds and could usually sense if there were any in distress nearby. To lay shields on them was easier for her than letting them die.

As for the people they found, Doctor Star flew in and pulled them out. Doc was not the youngest member of their group, but she was the newest. Dealing with the raging forest fire seemed almost too much for her to handle. In her near-panicked state, Starbright easily formed a telepathic link with the Doc without the Doc even realizing it. The fires were interfering with their communication devices, so Starbright decided to relay all of Cap’s messages telepathically. There was a bit of a delay, but so far, so good. She made a mental note to talk to the techs about communications during fires.

When the rains finally formed to quench the area at the origin of the fire, Starbright took a deep breath. Summoning storms while keeping the area under surveillance and relaying messages telepathically was a trying set of simultaneous tasks, but she had done it before. She was hovering in the air, seemingly watching as the events unfolded. To the uneducated eye, she did nothing.

“Captain,” Starbright looked at where he was and what was around him. “There is a large supply of propane tanks warming up near your right, to the southeast. Advise you to change routes.”

After a few moments came the Captain’s unhappy reply. “Negative. The Lt senses a grizzly hiding in that exact direction.”

Starbright shook her head. “Shield it and run.” She flew in close and began to lower the temperature of the area directly around her. Causing extreme temperature fluctuations wasn’t a great idea, but the Lt’s shields wouldn’t hold against an explosion. Even if it did, the shock wave might hurt her and cause all of her other shields to drop.

But Starbright’s cooling trick seemed to be working.

“Nevermind. I’m here. Let me get it.” Starbright went straight to the problem area. “You two back off in case it blows.”

“In case what blows?” the Lt asked, her line full of static.

Starbright could have sworn she’d given her recommendation out loud, so the Lt could hear. She couldn’t mind-link with her. The Doc, Cap, and the storm were enough for Starbright.

Then she remembered the communication interference. Had Cap not relayed the message? Surely he was still in the habit of verbally verifying orders.

Thunder clapped across the sky and rumbled for several seconds afterward. The storm was gaining strength as it moved from the fire’s origin toward Starbright’s location. She could just hear Cap trying to direct the Lt through the noise.

Starbright used an invisible force shield of air to push the Cap and Lt back. Perhaps all the Ltnt needed was motivation to go in the correct direction.

“Is there a tornado?” The Lieutenant’s voice sounded panicked over their communicators.

“No. We’re changing directions, Lieutenant.” Captain Star sounded winded. “Just like I said a second ago before you tried to run off.” He had to push the Lt physically to get her to move in the direction he had ordered her to go.

Starbright was relieved to hear Cap’s thoughts as he tried to communicate to the Lt in a way she would understand. He was leading her toward civilians that needed help. It seemed obvious to him that the civilians needed help more than the grizzly, but tried to assure the Lt that Starbright could handle the grizzly bear.

Ice formed around the propane tank. Starbright sent waves of cool, calm air toward the bear, slowly pressuring it to calm down as if she were a mother trying to get a screaming infant to calm down. Unwilling to leave the tank full, she opened the valve. Immediately she formed a wind tunnel to send the propane high into the atmosphere to dissipate. Soon the problem would be solved.

“Lieutenant!”

A deep baritone echoed over the sound of the miniature wind tunnel, cooling air, and coming fire. Starbright heard the Captain screaming in person, not over the comms.

She turned to see the green armored Lt running in the direction of the grizzly bear. Starbright shook her head. She was too busy to deal with that idiot: why wasn’t she following orders? Did she have a thing for grizzly bears? Seriously… grizzlies weren’t in the Lt’s file.

“We have a job to do, Lieutenant!” Captain Star could make his voice extremely loud when he wanted to.

Starbright had calmed the grizzly enough to be safely in sight of it, but that was as far as she had gotten. The Lt running in, and the Captain screaming at the top of his lungs, broke not only the bear’s concentration but Starbright’s.

The eight-hundred-pound grizzly bear opened his eyes wide, saw a giant fire and a crazy woman running at him, and panicked.

Lieutenant Star had yet to grasp what had gone wrong.

“I told you, I had this.” Starbright ran to stand between the grizzly and the Lt.

A barely visible shield formed. When necessary, Starbright could make a shield that let light pass through it. But it only looked invisible when no one was touching it.

When the bear stood and tried to squash the closest woman - Starbright - the shield came into clear view. With the bear’s touch, the shield appeared as a crystalline wall. Where the bear touched it, the shield altered to look like fractured ice and glass. To complete the involuntary effect, there were the sounds of shattering glass and cracking ice.

But the shield would never break. The noise was a scare tactic. However, Starbright had no control over the involuntary feature. The sounds could be extremely disturbing to many animals. And to many people. People like Captain Star.

The grizzly roared and ran. It did not run in a direction that was safe for it.

The Lt open-mouth stared, her uncovered eyes bugging out at the sight of the shield. “If you can make shields, why haven’t you been helping?!”

Cap grabbed the Lt’s shoulder roughly. “Why can’t you follow directions!?” He looked at Starbright. “Sorry for this. Go take care of it.”

She only nodded. She turned, grateful for his appreciation. If there was one thing about Cap, he knew when to let her take care of things.

Starbright disappeared in a thin flash of light.

Cap turned to his unlucky teammate. “Lieutenant Star, Starbright said she had it handled. If you’re finished questioning orders, we have work to do.”

The Lt looked at him like he was crazy. He looked like he was about to blow a fuse, which wasn’t like him at all. Had it been that crazy breaking glass sound?

He gripped her shoulders again. “Are you with me, Lt?” His voice echoed.

Lt Star stood up straighter. “Sir, yes, Sir.”

Cap’s eyelids fell in dismay. They didn’t actually have ranks, military or otherwise. They were just superhero names. But this woman had a military father. She took her name seriously. Her father probably did, too.

As they walked back to make sure her previous shield was still holding, the Lt held her tongue. Cap wondered if she was actually going to refrain from asking questions.

When they saw the person they had most recently shielded still under a full shield, they called for the Doc again.

“Are the comms not working?”

Cap shook his head as he realized his connection with Starbright had been broken. She was too occupied chasing down a terrified grizzly running toward raging fires to connect again. “I’ll get the Doc.”

Cap flew up and waved the Doc over. He stayed in the air as she drew near. “Comms aren’t working,” he yelled at her over the thunder and fire. “We got someone that needs a lift.”

No sooner had the Doc touched ground to grab the person in need, when the Lt rushed forward and said, “Did you know Starbright could-?”

“Lieutenant Star!” Cap grabbed her arm. “There are civilians that need medical attention! This is no time for chit-chat!”

“Oh.” Her shoulders drooped. “Right.”

“When you’ve dropped her off,” he said touching the Doc’s shoulder to get her attention, “fly back to this area and catch up to us.”

“Why aren’t comms working? They were fine earlier.”

“That’s a great question, Doc. For LATER.” Cap didn’t know if he was more upset at the comms or the Lt for breaking Starbright’s concentration. She had never broken her concentration in the middle of a rescue and not initiated again.

Corporal Star’s lone efforts had created an escape route for the creatures caught near the fires. Cap had the Ltnt set up barriers to divert their direction away from the fires behind them. And amongst all this, she decided her curiosity could no longer wait.

“So why isn’t Starbright here if she knows how to do barriers and shields?”

He might have taken the time to explain things in a calm fashion if the woman hadn’t asked with a truly awful attitude. “You know what-?”

Thunder echoed over his response. He felt the request for a telepathic connection and turned to see Starbright making a path for herself between the flames. Relief washed over him.

“We’ve been working together for over a year now. It’s always, Lt put a shield here: Lt put a shield there.” She stalked up to Starbright like her superior had done something wrong. “Why haven’t you been helping down here?! This is stressful!”

Starbright didn’t always play arrogant. But when she did, Cap stayed out of her way. The only reason he was called the leader was for clarity when the media came calling. Starbright had some serious stage fright. He didn’t.

“I was busy.” Starbright looked down her nose at Lt Star. “Since shields are what you can do, why would I do your job and mine?”

The Lt stopped in her tracks. That’s when she noticed the shielded grizzly bear floating behind Starbright. He was injured. Burns were all across one side of his face.

Without being asked, Starbright explained. “A panicked bear will run into flames. I’ve stabilized him, but he will need medical treatment for a while.”

Seconds seemed to tick by as the Lt stood there. “You stabilized him?”

Starbright sneered like she really wanted to say something nasty. “I can heal people and creatures but at the expense of my own health. So yes, he is stable. Now, if you don’t mind shielding him until he can be airlifted out, I have some rain to realign to our position and some lightning to absorb.”

“You what…?” The Lt was barely heard.

Starbright didn’t wait. She flew straight up. Not two seconds later she caught a lightning bolt as if it was nothing.

Cap walked up behind the Lt. “She summons rain to help put out the fires but catches the lightning so more fires don’t start. She doesn’t have time to do shields, but you do. Or do you have the ability to fly, catch lightning, and fix the mistakes of your juniors?”

Lt Star stared at Cptn Star like he had two heads.

“Just shield the bear before he wakes up.” He shook his head.

He looked up as Starbright sent a message to the Doc to get someone to airlift a grizzly bear. She also provided a time frame for them to get here before the storm hit. Because she was good like that.