Patriot City Nights - part 1
by Law2

"Far out!" shouted Liberty Lad. "El Diablo, Alche-Miss you've got to take a look at this. "

"Calm down muchacho. "

"What's all the commotion sugah?"

"It's the new computer. It's amazing. Can you believe it has eight kilobytes of memory and two megabytes of on board storage? It's got to be the most powerful computer in the world. And look at the monitor it gets sixteen colors! Also..." Liberty Lad continued to explain the features to the new computer with unbridled excitement. The more he explained the more El Diablo felt that he should not have fixed the drawing for watch duties to include the boy.

El Diablo had been trying to spend some time alone with Alche-Miss for weeks and decided that night shifts would be the best way to do that, as she might not have her guard up and be easier to approach. However, Minute Man required that three people be on duty at all times and Liberty Lad seemed to be the most logical choice. Mentor and Microwave made his skin crawl and the other guys might be competition. As for the other women on the team Sea Urchin was too young, and Law/Order and Eve were just weird.

"Look kid," said El Diablo as he searched for a reason to regain the attention of Alche-Miss. "Why don't you play around with the computer while Alche-Miss and I make some rounds?" Before either Liberty Lad or Alche-Miss could answer the incoming message alert sounded.

"Good evening, Freedom Force this is Detective O'Brien. Minute Man informed the department that you young fellas and the little lace would be on duty tonight. He said I should educate you about what really goes on in Patriot City when most of her citizens are resting peacefully and some super powered megalomaniac isn't loose. I want you all to come down to a crime scene in the northwest district. This is training day."

"You guys can go without me. I want figure out the new computer system. Besides someone should watch the base"

"Trust me, Liberty Lad ah would like to stay here all night and do nothing too, but we decided to become super heroes and this is part of the responsibility."

"To the Freedom Mobile. Vamanos."

It didn't take long for the Freedom Mobile to reach the northwest district of Patriot City. Each of the passengers agreed that it was the best mode of transportation considering the less than stellar performance of people driving in the city. The crime scene was easy to locate. It was heavily lighted and teaming with policemen and firefighters. The movement of the uniformed men reminded El Diablo of a colony of ants meticulously carrying out their tasks. He proceeded to locate Detective O'Brien...

"Aye. I'm Detective O'Brien Freedom Force." He was slightly rotund and stood about five feet seven inches. He didn't wear a policeman's uniform; instead he wore a loose fighting two-piece gray suit, a white button down shirt, and tie. "What we have here looks to be like a case of suicide. The poor sap poured oil all over himself and set fire. A painful way to go I imagine. Why if someone hadn't spotted the burning body and put out the fire we would have nothing for the boys in forensics."

El Diablo noticed that Alche-Miss and Liberty Lad were disgusted by the detective's description of the crime. He too felt his stomach turn as the smell of chard flesh entered his nose. His face must have let his feelings be known as well.

"I don't reckon you kids will be wanting to see the body." Said O'Brien with a subtle smirk as if he was entertained by the fact that he had managed to disgust the three super heroes.

"Suicide," El Diablo managed to say in order to attempt to regain his macho demeanor. "Do you mind if I have a closer look at the body senior O'Brien?" He wasn't sure why he asked the question, but Detective O'Brien surprised expression was satisfaction enough.

"Be my guest kid. Won't be anything you'll be seeing that we haven't and there is no need to pretend to be a man in front of the little lace." Detective O'Brien led El Diablo further into alley, which had become the scene of the crime, to where a white sheet covered a human form. "Take a good look kid. Hope you don't get nightmares." El Diablo kneeled down to take a closer look at the body and lifted the sheet.

"That guy cooked himself real good." Said one of the Police officers in the vicinity.

"No mis amigos." Said El Diablo. "This is no suicide. This...is murder."

To be continued...