Rubberta Origins Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Detective

A half a block back and she’s lying on the table in the head gear that makes her nervous. Tracey adds her two cents, “This is perfectly safe, remember? You know the commands. This is a simple get in, get interviewed, get out. Easy peasy.”

Sleep comes, but the dreams are different. No childhood memories. Just the waking up in bed and the day at school up until dropping off Luz. That makes her smile as the darkness closes in. She turns everything on and checks her movements. All systems check.

She turns to Tracey who says, “You’d better go on foot. We wouldn’t want them to recognize your car.”

Rubberta nods and heads out the automatic doors. During this trip she decides to try to change up the speed instead of changing the length of her legs. She sprints and realizes that she’s not getting out of breath. She’s not even breathing. Oh, I’d better work on that.

Paying attention to the monitors inside her, she defines an area of her chest and sets it to moving in and out. Then she trips over a fire hydrant. Note to self. Make changes standing still.

From her prone position, she begins elongating her arms like poles and lifting her body off the obstacle and allowing gravity to lower the rest of herself beneath her. It happens in a flash. A second later, her arms are regular size and she is running again, this time with heaving breaths.

At the police station, she almost smashes into the doors. Once she realizes they aren’t automatic, she’s in and standing at the front desk. “Hello. My name is Rubberta and I’m supposed to see a detective.”

She stops there because the man is staring at her face with a perplexed look. “Wow, you must be really good at ventriloquism.”

“What?”

“Yeah. You’re pro. I’m not even seeing your lips move.”

It takes a moment, but she realizes that her lips didn't move. Crap. No time to deal with that now. "Uh yeah. Right." She hopes this will dissuade the clerk, but his stare at her face is unfaltering. "Say, I'm practicing really hard and it's a little unnerving with you watching me."

Rubberta watches the gears turn in his mind until he realizes she's asking him to stop. Then he stammers, "S s sorry. It's just that you're so good at it. Can you do that while drinking a glass of wa--" Impatient, she clears her throat. "Oh right. How may I help you?"

She starts again, "My name is Rubberta and I’m supposed to see a detective."

“We’ve got a couple here. Which one?”

“I’m not sure. I was just told a detective wants to see me.”

He checks through his papers, “I don’t see any notes here that say either detective is waiting for someone dressed like you. And neither is taking walk-ins, so I guess you are out of luck. Sorry Lady.”

Rubberta turns to go. Nearby a door opens. "Heeeey, Hombre. Que paso?"

The flexible superheroine stops and turns around. She has heard this voice before. She searches her mind and connects it to the dispatcher on Tracey's police scanner. The man behind the desk answers, "Not much. This amazing ventriloquist asked to see a detective, but other than that it's been a slow shift so far.

Frozen and mesmerized, Rubberta watches the exchange between these two. The plump, darkened woman who wasn't there before glances over at her. Her svelte and sexy voice continues, "Lucky. You should have been here when my shift started. Aye yi yi, it was loco."

"I bet. Well, get some rest."

"Oh? You're not going to come out and play with me?"

The man smiles a flustered grimace, "You know I'd love to, but I'm at work."

"Yeah, yeah. That's what they all say."

They say their goodbyes and the woman turns to face the door and by extension Rubberta. She turns back to the man, "You say she's here to see a detective?" He nods. "I think I know which one."

"You don't say."

"I'm taking her back."

"Are you sure? Is she carrying any concealed weapons?"

"In that suit? There's no place to hide anything."

"Fine. I'll buzz you in." A door hums. The woman opens the door and drags Rubberta along. Once the door closes. "Boy, is he going to be glad I didn't let you get away."

"Um. Who are you?"

The woman shakes the hands that are already connected. "Dispatcher Cruz at your service."

"You know which detective wants to see me?"

"Oh yeah, I've heard around that Detective Escalera was looking for someone in purple. You fit that description."

"Oh."

They arrive at a door. The dispatcher raps the wood twice and opens it. Poking her head in, "Detective, that woman you were looking for is here to see you."

"What?!  Send her in."

Her guide pushes the door open and steps aside. Nervous and not wanting to do this, Rubberta doesn't move. At her ear, or what amounts to one, the deep, sexy voice whispers, "Don't worry, Chica. His bark is worse than his bite. Or at least that's what the other girls say." Rubberta turns a startled look her way and gets answered by a mischievous wink.

After a moment, Rubberta steps into the room. The first thing to catch her eye is the man across the room and behind the desk. Muscles bulge under the long sleeve shirt and slacks. His suit a little wrinkled but dapper. He waves her over. And gestures to a chair. "Come in. Come in and have a seat." His accent is Mexican, but all the words are flawless English. This is understandable because his tan is Mexican as well.

Creeping forward, dread at her throat, she approaches this grim, unsmiling man. She looks around just so she doesn't have to look at him. The walls are bare. In fact the only decorations at all are on his desk. A trio of pictures and a paperweight and a laptop.. As she reaches the desk, he closes the computer and offers his hand. Her hand sensors light up a warning red to show how strong his grip is. After releasing her he looks at his own and then looks to her confused.

"What did I shake?"

"My whole body is made of a rubber, latex, and elastic compound." Still unsure why this man called her here, she pushes her hair behind her ears.

"That would explain some of the things my men saw. Miss ..." He leaves it hanging for her to fill in her name.

"Rubberta."

"Miss Robertaaa ..." Again, he leaves it hanging while writing something down.

"No last name. Rubberta is my name when I am like this."

He scratches it off. With a grimace, he asks, "If Rubberta isn't your real name then what is?"

"And give away my secret identity?" She wags her finger at him. "No, I can't tell you that. Then it won't be a secret."

"So. Rubberta. The reason I asked for you to come in is to better get the details of the events that transpired at the bank the other morning. I've interviewed all the witnesses and bank employees. I spoke to the perpetrator down in lockup, but he refused to say much. But I wanted to hear the story from your perspective to be thorough."

"Well, Iiiii," Crap.I can't tell him about the police scanner "arrived at the bank and saw there was a robbery in progress."

"Uh huh," he says writing things down.

"And so being a super hero, I charged in and attacked the villain."

"Mister Carnage."

"Uh, right! And knocked him out right as he was exiting the bank into your officers' waiting arms."

"I see," He says as he looks up after scribbling more notes. "Anything else to add?"

"Ummm, No?"

"Like a police scanner?"

"Why would I have a police scanner? Aren't those illegal?"

"Because you arrived just after we did. My officers told me."

"Uhhh, no. I was just making a deposit."

"In that getup? Where were you hiding the money?

"Then I was making a withdrawal."

"Where do you keep your identification?"

"Why am I getting interrogated here?

He switches topics, "Then maybe perhaps you'd like to mention how you did in the fight with Mister Carnage?"

"No. I would not. Because the middle part doesn't matter."

"So, what you are saying, Miss. Roberta. Is that the ends justify the means?"

Rubberta clutches her head in frustration, "Urg! I saved the day and the bank and nobody got hurt except the bad guy. Why can't you be happy with that?"

Before he can answer, sirens go off in the hall. The detective springs up and charges through the door with surprising speed. There, he stops and looks back at her. "Don't leave this office."

He closes the door behind him, but it bounces off his back side. Curious as to what is going on, she stretches her neck towards the opening. She hears faint voices.

The detective says, "No. Absolutely not."

The sultry voice of the dispatcher argues, "But she is the only one who has beaten him before."

"Still no."

"What's our force going to do? Tickle him into submission?"

A long pause. "Fine." Rubberta hears the conversation ending. Figuring it has to do with her, she starts retracting her neck. "Just keep me informed on where ..." his voice goes out of range.

The door reopens. Detective Escalera doesn't look happy. "Come with me. And stay out of trouble." They shift and move through the chaotic movements of the rest of the personnel until they arrive in front of the precinct. There, they see a circle of people in uniforms surrounding one huge man.

"Oh crap." Rubberta covers her mouth, even if it would have been ineffectual, as she realizes what's happening. She is supposed to fight and subdue the guy from the bank again.

With a little distain, the detective turns to her, "Well, Miss Superhero, now is your time to show us how it's done."

The circle begins to press her in toward the center and the pacing man. A hand holds her back. It's the dispatcher. "I know you can do it, Chica. Make us proud." Then the push becomes too much and the hand slips off her shoulder. Before she knows it, she is face to face with her nightmare.

Max paces back and forth. The circle of police officers moves with him keeping him in the center. Each face watches him with nervousness, Rubberta notes. They're just like me. But they aren't like me. Sure they have their batons and tazers and beanbag bazookas at the ready, but they don't have my elasticity. That dispatcher is right. I can do this.

She readies for an attack, but stops short as the muscled man calls out, "Bring me Felicity and Sheila back and I'll leave quietly." The whole circle looks to each other in confusion.

She hears the detective's words behind her echo through the murmurs of the crowd, "Who's Sheila? Who's Felicity? There weren't any women with him when we picked him up."

Then in a quieter voice he speaks down to the knife that's keeping the circle at bay, "It's okay, Rosa, you're sisters will join you soon."

Behind her, she hears the detective mutter like a curse word, "Calabaza ..." Then he whispers to her, "If you're going to beat him, now's the time."

She steels herself and charges him.

Left. Right. Left. Right. Blow after blow she fires at his chest where they deflate and return doing no damage. He doesn't even wince. In fact, he smiles even bigger. "More of this? I thought you'd have learned something new since the last time."

Once she reaches him, he stabs her bringing her to a stop. She checks her sensors. There is a two red areas in the body shape of green, one on the front side and back side. To the outsiders, it looks different, his fist and part of his arm extend out of her back covered in her "skin".

With his left, he grabs a chunk of her and pulls her off his right. The red blotches dim to orange to yellow and at last to green with tiny spots of red. Returning back to her sight, she finds herself looking at the sky lowering to look at the circle of officers upside down.

Rubberta recognizes this feeling. He's going to throw me again! Even without knowing where her limbs are, she grasps toward where she thinks his arm is.  Max does try to throw her, but she doesn't leave his arm.

From the crowd, she hears the voice of the detective. "It was a fluke. She won't beat him. You and you, taze him." Rubberta sees spots, lots of them on her body radar. "He's using her like a shield! Everyone fire!"

A wide diagonal swath of red lights up the front of her. Good thing I don't feel anything. She then addresses her body, If you are in the red zone and can get out, move. The zone stays red. Crap.

She focuses on the eyes and sees all sorts of wiggly strings against the sky. Those are the tazer wires. Time slows as Rubberta's body can't seem to do anything to subdue Max. After an eternity of three seconds, she hears Max above her, "Ha! Is that all you got?"

Detective Escalera calls out, "Take him down, boys." Rubberta hears the pounding of many feet.  The lines above her swirl and sway. Her head rolls to the side and she sees many officers running toward her batons raised.

The red fades to orange as the electricity dies only to be decorated by polka dots of red where the policemen hit her. She spots one arm swing down just to bounce back up.  Just as the orange fades to yellow, her world spins again and yellow darkens to red again. This time when her head stops, the officers are on their hands and back ends.

"Wow. This is great exercise. I should do this more often," comes from above her.

A heavy sigh reaches her ears followed by, "Fine. We have no other choice. She was a waste. We are useless as well. Bring him his confiscated items from holding."

With a flick of his arm, Rubberta finds herself in a pile on the ground. Once his back is turned, she works on untangling herself and pulling out all the tasers.

"Ha! I win again. Nothing can stop the great Maxwell Carnage." Rubberta hears footsteps approaching.

I've got to stop him. She tries to convince herself.

What are you going to do? You've tried everything and nothing works. She argues back.

There must be something that we haven't tried. She says as the weapons and belts come closer.

Like what the school girl said? We don't have a day to wait --

-- before we try again!

But what are we going to do on our next attempt?

Suddenly the image of the sailor comes back. He eats the spinach and an anvil forms in his bicep. That's it!

We need to eat vegetables?

No. We need more mass. Force equals mass times acceleration. More acceleration wasn't helping. Maybe we need more mass.

She notices the arriving weapons. Yes, that might do it. She tries to stand up. Her legs straightens and her arms lift. He middle, however, refuses to rise. It's orange and not returning to yellow any time soon. At least, that's what her front says. Her back does the best it can making her body with its hunched back look like a purple elephant. I've got to get to those weapons.

Like an animal, she hoofs it over to the employee bringing them, "I'll take those to him."

Detective Escalera blocks her, "No. You've messed this up."

"You don't understand. I need this."

"Sorry," he says. She's sure that he's not really sorry. "The only option at this point is to give him his weapons and hope that he keeps his promise and goes away peacefully." The detective takes the pistol and machine gun and heads toward the muscled man in the center of the circle of fallen officers.

Rubberta looks around for anything else she can use to get more mass. There! Near the recovering officers are the discharged tasers. She shuffles around the circle like a baboon, picking up the devices and stuffing them through her mouth into her right arm. After about dozen, her arm begins to bulge into a very geometric shape. She orders some of those bots to her front.

She looks back at the detective. He is nearing the man. No time! "See Rosa? Here are Felicity and Sheila," Maxwell says.

Inside, her front chest area begins to turn yellow spreading from the upper right side. She straightens up as best she can and loads her left arm to match.

Rubberta turns, bent over like a hunchback rather than a heroine.. The guns are in his hands and true to his word, he is heading toward an edge to the circle. Yellow begins to trickle from the upper left as well. "Stop!"

Maxwell turns to face her with a smirk and then his eyes go wide as he notices that she has  muscles that are comparative to his own. She charges him, straightening up as she goes. I'll be able to get the guns out of his hands, so I should go for those first.

Rubberta pulls back with her right arm willing it to stretch as far as possible. Coming back, her enlarged fist connects having the desired effect. Pistol and machine gun go skittering off. Now for the man. She pulls back her left to copy the right. Her fist makes contact right in his gut. He grunts.

He felt it! She cheers. Yes!

With renewed vigor, she pummels him right after left. He starts laughing. She looks up just as a fist hits her face. Uh oh. He's not grunting anymore. Rubberta pauses to re-evaluate.

Once his hand clears her face and she can see again, she notices that he is smiling. "I'll give you that you have spunk. Now it's time for you to go down and stay down."

Punch his face! Rubberta rears back again. Her punch, though, is caught inches from his face in his hand. He pulls her fist behind his back and further away from her.  She tugs while turning her torso. He lets go spinning her even further. I've got the mass, but I don't have as much speed.

She pivots back. I need more force. Her massive arms lumber after her. This triggers an idea into her head. Centrifugal Force!

Like she's seen the sailor man do countless times to his arm she does to her waist and legs. Soon her legs are a twisted together like a corkscrew. Then she lets go. Her body begins to spin, faster and faster.

Maxwell steps back to avoid the swinging limbs. The surroundings begin to blur together. Now! She commands the arm nanobots, Stretch!

Blow after blow lands and assaults the muscled man. He tries to shield himself with his arms, but the attacks are too much. She hears a crack and the 'shield' go limp. She hears him wheeze and finally the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.

Good job, guys. Now stop. Nothing changes except she might be going faster. "Crap."

Nearby she hears Detective Escalera mutter, "Great. How are we going to stop THIS now?" She passes the straightening out point and starts twisting herself back up. She begins to slow.

Without warning, she sees brief red at her feet and then she is on her back. Her massive, heavy arms are on the ground. The momentum, unable to spin her torso, converts to her waist and legs. She scrapes the asphalt shredding chunks of the skin.

Above her, she sees Detective Escalera giving orders to his crew, "Get a doctor here ASAP. We can't let him get away again. Somebody search him for more weapons. We can't let him escape again." He looks down at Rubberta, "And you, return the police department property at once."

Rubberta orders the movers to take the tasers out of her left arm. Once that arm has shrunk, she uses it to pull all of them out of her mouth.

"Now, Miss ... Roberta, I'll need you to come back inside so we can finish our discussion on the events that transpired at the bank. We can include the events from today as well."

Remembering the interrogation in that room, "I think I'll pass."

"I don't think you understand. That wasn't a request."

"No. You don't understand. I just kicked that guy's butt twice. The one you guys haven't been able to capture. On my score card, that's 2-0. Not to mention, this body is in bad shape. I need to get it back and repaired, so I need to go."

The detective grabs her arm. She pulls away causing her arm to stretch. Because of her weakened state they are at an impasse. That is, until a dark colored hand rests on his shoulder. Her velvet voice sooths his shoulders, "Feliz, I'm tired after my long shift and want to go home. I'm sure it's the same for her."

He releases her arm causing it to launch up into her face and then return to her side. She then, rushes off to the safety of the lab.

Epilogue

"Dude, girl, what happened to you?" Tracey looks at the holes and scrapes and chunks missing on her friend's former body.

Randi, still reeling from the memories of the fight copying back into her brain, mutters, "It was quite a fight."

"Yeah, but what happened?"

"The hole in the front and back are from a knife --"

"He stabbed you?" Randi nods. "Hadn't figured for that. Continue."

"And the scrapes and hunks missing are from my feet spinning really fast."

"More things to work on."

"And the nanobots are half dead from all the tasers hitting my body."

"You were hit by tasers?" She pauses after that one, "Not much I can do for that one."

"All in all, the battle went pretty bad. Not as bad as last time, though. I broke his arms."

"You did? Go Rubberta!" Tracey slaps her friend on the back. "So, are you going to do it again? Maybe this time with a little training?"

"Yeah," says the teacher with a small smile.