Read Action Figures - Issue Two: Black Magic Women for Free Online Page B

now?” I say. “There’s a crazy woman out there with flaming hands and serious impulse control issues. Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, be back out there looking for her?”
    “She’s got a point,” Nina says.
    “First things first,” Mindforce says. “We need to know exactly what we’re up against.”
    “You mean you don’t know who she is?” I say.
    “Based on your description of her, no, she’s no one I’ve ever heard of.”
    “Me either,” Concorde says.
    “I think we should call in Enigma,” Nina says. “This sounds like it might be in her wheelhouse.”
    Concorde makes a noise that’s half sigh, half grumble. “Yeah, you’re right,” he concedes. “Hold on.”
    While he fires up his helmet-phone, Matt and I check in on our wounded. Missy is perched on a stool next to Stuart’s bed, eyes wide with worry. Stuart offers her a wobbly smile.
    “I’m good, Muppet, don’t you worry,” he says, propping himself up on his elbows.
    “You better be,” Missy says. “Otherwise I’m kicking your butt.”
    “Warning received.”
    “Enigma’s en route,” Concorde says, rejoining us. “Should be here in ten, fifteen minutes.”
    The room suddenly goes black — not as in, the lights have gone out, more like the light has pulled a 180 and become impenetrable darkness. Things return to normal as quickly as they went wonky, and there’s a soft
whoof
of displaced air.
    “Or now,” Concorde says.
    “Everyone,” Nina says, “this is my girl Dr. Enigma, our resident expert on all things magical, mystical, and supernatural. Enigma, this is the Hero Squad.”
    “Hey, guys. Where’s my patient?” says the most drop-dead gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen in my life. I may be attractive (I say immodestly), but next to her, I’m a monkfish. She’s tall, shapely, and has a face I can only describe as angelic. Hair a vivid shade of flame red, which I refuse to believe is natural, cascades from her head in wild waves. Two matching locks of pure white, one above each temple, frame her face, giving her a slightly punky edge that only makes her more fetching. Jeans and a T-shirt shouldn’t look that amazing on anyone.
    Nina gestures at Stuart. Enigma shrugs off her leather jacket, then slides in next to Mindforce to take in Stuart’s injuries. Eager to impress, he chokes back the pain and offers his best roguish smile.
    “Hey. How you doin’?”
    “Hey there, cutey,” Enigma says. “And what happened to you, hmm?”
    “Injured in the line of duty,” Stuart says. “Protecting the public. Fighting the good fight. You know how it goes.”
    “Oh, please,” Concorde mutters.
    “Pay no attention to him,” Enigma says. “I don’t.”
    “Stuart’s invulnerable,” Mindforce says.
    “Uh-huh,” Enigma says, her curiosity piqued. “Someone want to tell me who or what did this to him?”
    “He got burned,” Matt says, his eye glazed over in adolescent lust. I can’t blame him, honestly, but come on.
    “He was blasted by a woman who shot impossibly hot fire from her hands,” I say, and Enigma shoots me a hard look.
    “Fire from her hands?” she says. “You’re positive?”
    “I’m positive. Not the kind of thing you see every day.”
    “Shoulder-length brunette hair, by any chance? Little on the chunky side?”
    “No, blonde and slim.”
    “Son of a...” Enigma says, mumbling something under her breath I can’t quite make out, something that sounds like “jumped hosts.”
    “Then we
are
dealing with someone or something supernatural?” Mindforce says.
    “The evidence doesn’t lie. Sorry to break it to you,” she says to Stuart, “but physical invulnerability doesn’t count for jack against magic.”
    “And you know who did this?” Concorde says.
    “Oh yeah.”
    “Suggestions?”
    “I want to check a few things first.”
    “Make it quick. She’s still on the loose.”
    “Ask me nicely.”
    “This is part of your job.”
    “No, it actually isn’t,” Enigma says with