Chapter 2

Waking up Bob can't see anything as something seems to be covering his face. His hands, legs, and torso seem to be bound to a chair with ropes as he tests them.

"Struggle all you like Mr. Ziegler, you won't get out, I guarantee it." An all too familiar female voice says. Bob kept this fact to himself, not wanting to tip his hand.

"What do you want with me?" Bob asks.

"Come now detective, surely you called about the two missing marshals. You don't strike me as someone stupid." Candice says.

"How could you know that unless you were following me?" Bob asks.

"Fishing detective?" Candice asks with amusement in her voice.

"Can you blame me?" Bob asks.

"I suppose not." Candice says.

"So ... I'm guessing I'm about to be tortured?" Bob asks.

"That would be unfortunate. I would much rather prefer you join us. Your abilities would quite useful to our organization." Candice replies.

Turning his head to the right, Bob notices light coming through the sack covering his face.

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Bob says.

"A pity. Take him to the other room. We don't want anyone to hear him." Candice says.

Someone unties him, while two hands grab him. As soon as he gets to his feet, Bob rushes for the window catching his captors by surprise. Glass bursts outwards as he charges through, only to be met with empty air. His body immediately goes into freefall as he accelerates towards the ground. Smashing into the ground at high speed broke most of his bones and knocked him out. Bones quickly reset themselves and Bob took a pain-filled breath and picked himself up as a crowd forms around him.

"Well that sucked. Ow!" Bob says walking away on unsteady feet.

The crowd parts, watching him go. Candice ducks out of view on the tenth floor as she considers this new development.

"Well that was unexpected." She says.

"Should we go after him?" One of her henchmen asks.

"After this little fiasco? We'll be lucky if the cops aren't already on their way. Vacate the building. We'll have to move our operations elsewhere." Candice says, with a smile creeping over her lips as glance at the broken glass on the floor.

Pete meets Bob at a local motel in the private eye's room, and sees his bloody t-shirt.

"What the hell happened to you?" Pete asks.

"My former client paid me a visit. She wanted to know what I know, and mob or not, she had something to do with the disappearance of Smith and Strebeck." Bob answers.

"She actually told you that?" Pete asks in surprise.

"In her defense she didn't expect me to get away. I was ten floors up and surrounded by her goons." Bob admits.

"You didn't jump out the window again did you?" Pete asks.

"Torture/jumping out the window. A lot of pain all at once/ tremendous pain delivered bit by bit possibly for hours." Bob says using his hands to illustrate.

"I see your point. Well you can't stay here." Pete replies.

"Why not?" Bob asks.

"Because if they can find and get at you inside of the police station, there is only one place I can think where you'll be safe." Pete says.

"And what place is that?" Bob asks.

"Hero Central: it's the headquarters where our new superheroes reside and train prospects. I think you would rather fit in." Pete says cheerfully.

"I would rather be tortured by Candice and her buddies." Bob says with all honestly.

"Please Bob. This is the biggest case of my career." Pete begs.

"Fine, but you owe me!" Bob says.

Pete dropped Bob in front of a building that looked way too small to be anything but a small motel. The sign out front labeled "Blue Springs" confirmed it.

"This is it?" Bob asks.

"Pretty good disguise huh? The headquarters are actually underground behind a bunker door, though you would have to be insane in my opinion to try to break it down." Pete said.

"And I'm going in there voluntarily. Lucky me." Bob says.

"Are you ever going to tell me why you hate superheroes so much?" Pete asked.

"Maybe another time." Bob replies.

"Alright, see you later." Pete says.

They had stopped briefly at a few stores to buy him some clothes, a traveling bag, and toiletries so they wouldn't have to go to Bob's home and possibly lead the bad guys to this place. Heading through the double doors, Bob saw the front desk clerk behind the counter and headed over.

"Hi I'm Bob Ziegler. I'm supposed to have a reservation." Bob says

"Of course sir, just a minute." The clerk said bringing something up on her computer. While he waited Bob took in her red wavy hair and brown eyes. She had a nice complexion and good bone structure.

"Please come with me sir." The clerk said heading to the elevator. Bob followed her and stepped inside as she directed, watching her insert a key that she produced from a string around her neck. After turning it a hidden cover in the wall slid away revealing a security keypad. Bob watched with a critical eye as she punched in the code.

When she was finished the doors to the elevator slid open, "Please step inside Mr. Ziegler. Here is your room key. The elevator will now take you were you need to go."

"Thank you." Bob said carrying his bags into the elevator.

Taking it down Bob exited it as it reached the bottom. The doors opened and he stepped out into a large room. Looking up he saw a high flat ceiling that reminded him of a warehouse. When he brought his eyes down again he looked across to see a hallway with a lower ceiling that curved around the corner out of sight.

The large room was practically empty with only a few costumed heroes spread across the many chairs. Bob had expected more. Wanting a good night's sleep he continued walking until he came to a hallway which led him to his room. Unlocking the door Bob stepped inside and set his bags down before slipping into bed. Exhausted from the day's happenings Bob immediately fell asleep.

When he woke up and headed back into the main room he exposed to what looked like a Comicon convention. Superheroes and or superheroines, whichever you prefer to call them were talking and eating as he walked in. On several tables spread across the middle of the room was a nice breakfast selection.

One male server approached Bob and said, "Hello sir, what would you like to eat for breakfast today?"

"That's ok, I can serve myself." Bob said.

"Of course sir, enjoy." The server said handing him a plate and some silverware before heading off to serve someone else.

Loading up on waffles and some fruit he got some milk and orange juice to drink. Sitting down at a table by himself he started to eat wondering how they paid for all this.

Before he could completely relax and just enjoy himself a man who looked like a Superman reject sat down across from him, "Hello I'm Captain Amazing."

Trying to ignore the cocky superhero Bob pretended like he hadn't heard him.

"I've never seen you here before." Amazing said.

"No you haven't." Bob said wishing he would just go away.

"That's great. I love meeting new arrivals." Amazing said cheerfully.

"You really love torturing me don't you?" Bob mumbled, referring to yours truly.

"Excuse me?" Amazing asked with a confused look on his face.

"Nothing. Look fella I would just like to eat my breakfast in peace so if you don't mind..." Bob began to say.

"You got waffles? I love waffles!" Amazing said.

"Of course you do." Bob said with a pained look on his face.

"By the way what's your name?" Amazing asked with a smile.

"Bob." Bob answered reluctantly.

"Bob..." Amazing said fishing for the rest of Bob's name.

"Ziegler." Bob said giving up on any chance that the annoying man would go away.

"Well Bob what is your superpower?" Amazing asked.

Bob having had enough decided he didn't really need to finish his breakfast, "Look at most I'm here for only a couple of days until things cool down, I'm not looking to make any friends."

As Bob got up to go back to his room he came face with one of the trainers, whose name was Carla Chavez, "Hello Mr. Ziegler. We've never actually had someone with your ability here before. I mean a true immortal. It will truly be pleasure."

Carla shook his hand eagerly while Bob tried to piece together how she knew that, and then it hit him, "Pete told you."

"Yes I talked to a Detective Pete. My name is Carla Chavez; I'm one of the head trainers here. I would love to see you in action." Carla said.

Sighing Bob said, "Sure why not?"

"If you'll follow me I'll take you to one of our training rooms." Carla said leading the way.

The room she led them to seemed normal enough outside of the two reinforced double doors. Midsized pillars were spread throughout the room.

"So what happens in here exactly?" Bob asked.

"You have to safely get to the other side of the room." Carla explained.

"What's the catch?" Bob said looking around the room.

"There are several beam weapons spread throughout the ceiling that are programmed to fire on any living thing in the room. See you later." Carla said heading out of the room.

"Wait ... what?" Bob exclaimed in alarm.

"Don't worry I'm still here." Captain Amazing said standing right next to him.

At that moment a cannon popped out of the ceiling and fired at Amazing hitting him. Bob managed to get out of the way in time in time, and hid behind one of the pillars. Two more cannons popped out and started firing at the pillar he was hiding behind. The pillar was taking the brunt of it, but it was slowly being worn down from the powerful shots. Glancing over at Amazing he saw the larger man was covering his face as yet another cannon started firing at him, forcing him to brace his feet.

"Why aren't you hiding?" Bob asked him.

"I can take it." Amazing said.

"What were you planning to do: wait until they run out of shots?" Bob asked.

"Or they overheat." Amazing replied.

Peeking around the corner Bob looked for a way to end this very dangerous situation. Eventually he spotted a control panel of to his right on the wall facing him. Pulling his gun Bob fired into it. Once the bullets struck panel it blew up and cannons stopped firing.

Captain Amazing who was now halfway across the room peeked out from behind his hands in surprise, "What happened?"

"I shot the control panel." Bob said.

"With what?" Amazing asked.

"With a gun." Bob replied.

"You always carry a gun on you?" Amazing said.

"Yeah." Bob said with a shrug.

Both of them walked across the room without any further trouble.

The doors opened and Carla came back in saying, "That was amazing! I think that was our fastest time yet."

"You've got to be kidding." Bob said.

"So far mines been one of the best at one minute and twenty seconds." Amazing said.

"That's because you just kept walking across the room when you were being shot at." Bob commented.

"Of course." Amazing said.

"Doesn't it hurt?" Bob asked.

"A little." Captain Amazing admitted.

Rolling his eyes Bob mumbled, "Superheroes really are idiots."

"What was that?" Amazing asked.