Liss Hendel and her partner, Adrienne Amissano are agents of XII chasing down a Sluss'i con artist which has entered the interdicted world of Earth. Exactly why Earth is interdicted is not common knowledge to extraterrestrial species.
******
"He's here. I know he's here." One of the humans said out loud. The reptauroid twisted into a position which had one leg held high, and the other held low. Its muzzle was hidden by the corridor. Those pesky Twelve agents were on its track as well as some new bunch of suits working for the world government. It was a secret operation, but then the reptaur couldn't exactly reveal it's presence on an interdicted planet, especially with no statute of limitations for burning a crime lord's operation in any galaxy. It had also found why Earth had been interdicted. They had mutations in Asia, Antarctica, South America, and he had only been in the world for the past five days being chased out of each. The first Twelve agent had found him, and had attempted to paralyze him with one of those neuralytic shockblasters. It wasn't even aware that Earth had developed such technology. It should have realized that there was an Earth Defense Command. After all, a world that's been invaded by overt alien invasions, covert vampire attacks, and political coups d'etat would eventually create an organization to repel such attempts. Apparently, even Twelve had national competitors, as evidenced by the RANDS agents whose sonic pistols had been laughable on a species that could take battlefield surgery without anesthetic. Unfortunately, the bright flash emitted by the second agent had distracted it long enough for both of them to retreat. The Twelve agents' movements were smoother, freer, and eminently more capable. It had tried the standard trick of a flash bang grenade, and one had disintegrated the grenade out of the air. The other had made a hole in the wall. The reptaur cursed in the native Sluss'i language. It was beginning to see why galactics avoided this spot. One couldn't turn around without one of those-. It searched for the native parlance that he had picked up, and translated it as 'spook agencies'. The Twelve's agents weren't even human. One it had simply fired an ionizer at, and the energy lightning simply passed right through it, shorting out a lamppost instead. After five days, it was hungry, tired, cold, and couldn't think straight. It had the advantage of advanced technology over the primitive natives, so why were the specimens so different? It theorized that perhaps the organizations such as Twelve and RANDS were an advanced race guarding their nest. That would explain the radical differentiation between the native projectile propellers on fire exhaust in the database, and the Twelve's neuralytic shockblasters and disintegrators, as well as the RANDS sonic pistols. As far as galactic data was concerned, this was a primitive planet, making no mention of such technology. Then again, the database for the planet was extremely sparse."There's no escape! Surrender yourself peacefully, and we will arrange deportation!" One of the Twelve's agents shouted. Unlike the RANDS agents, the Twelve's agents were extremely variant in uniform. One had a black fedora, and wore a cape, except it had a smell like a blood-feeder, but not any type of blood that the reptaur was familiar with. The other had worn a blue jumpsuit that had the words Division 2 under a pattern that looked like two commas smushed together, with dots of the opposite color in the other.
"Hey, this is our collar."That would be the RANDS agents coming in.
"You get me, or do I have to get rough?" The RANDS agent snarled.
"Be my guest." The voice of the one who wore the blue jumpsuit smiled. The woman in the fedora and cape looked at the blue jumpsuit with an astonished expression. The blue jumpsuit waved off the black-caped woman's worry. The reason was apparently later, as the RANDS agents stepped on a tanglefoot trap that the reptaur had managed to jerry-rig through cannibalizing spare automobile parts. The reptaur cursed silently, as the trap had been meant to capture the much more experienced Twelve agents. The two agents spread in a pattern that crossed the entire field, dashing from post to post, and working their way toward him. Its next trap was a local constabulary alarm, which the blue jumpsuit managed to reroute, and the black-caped one dashed with a strength and speed he would not have expected the dominant indigenous biologicals to be capable of. A short scan later, it knew why. Her genetics had been rewritten to require a source of amino acid renewal. She would probably be stronger and faster after imbibing such a concoction. It briefly wondered what kind of ethics the humans had to do such a thing. There was no wonder why Earth was interdicted if it allowed such a haphazard method of genesplicing. It was like they had started with only a piece of cloth, and made up the other bits as it came along. The other one was wearing the uniform as their seemed to be a microweave of circuitry under the cloth. There was a kinetic absorption field which diffused any projectile impact, as well as a pseudo-aramid fiber mesh, which released the kinetic energy as heat. That meant in only a few short centuries, it had achieved what it had taken the Avar'iel millennia, the most advanced race anywhere, to do. Of course, the Avar'iel had become beings of pure energy by now, not needing mechanistic crutches, but the implications of the rapid technological curve of humans were downright unnerving. It could be that in the next two centuries, they would be attempting photon teleportation technology. It was so busy analyzing the frightening implications of such a rapid curve, that it just noticed it was staring down two barrels of shockblasters.
"Are you going to come quietly?" The blue jumpsuit asked pleasantly.
******
"You know the job is getting to you, when you start enjoying chasing down another Sluss'i confidence artist as a refreshing change of pace."Adrienne Amissano sighed, as she drank her coffee."Aw, come on. You enjoy the adventures as much as I do." Liss Hendel patted her black-caped comrade on the head. Adrienne was one of the special recruits, who had been gengineered by a Nazi eugenics scientist. Of course, the scientist had been brilliant but a bit loony. The Twelve had once fought off his plans to cover the Canadian city in gengineered bluebirds. Adrienne had been one of the scientist's few successes, but unfortunately, once he realized the particular series she was part of were able to rebel, he killed them. To him, this was simply the remnant of a failed experiment that was occasionally an annoyance.
"Adrienne, Liss. You both ready?" The miniature quantum encrypted radio burst to life on the yin-yang patch on the jumpsuit.
"Yup, we're ready." The two stepped on a matter-energy conversion transfer pad, and dematerialized.
******
"Good evening. Report?" Kappa asked as Adrienne and Liss materialized. The transfer pad was an outcome of realizing that time equals energy equals movement. They had managed to make use of this equation by powering a transfer pad with a miniature nuclear fusion reactor"Well, we deported the Sluss'i and he's currently in the penal colony for the Sluss'i." Kappa nodded at the thought of all those confidence man trying to trick each other. The Sluss'i were basically harmless, unless you were furry or brown, in which it triggered their berserker rage. It was to do with their natural enemies on their home planet. The enemies were gigantic teddy bears who claimed that reality lost touch with them occasionally. They were prone to claiming some new arrival as a certain station, and then the visitor had to act that station. If the visitor didn't they were subject to whatever punishment was the requisite in that particular area. Of course, punishment was defined individually, and the action-oriented Centauri had claimed that being forced to sit for four hours and view blorm's daytime dramas was only for death penalties, and they had immediately implemented it upon their system. Crime rates immediately went down on the Centauri home. No Centauri wanted to watch intelligent lumps of protoplasm for four hours doing what amounted to soap operas.
"Anything else?" Kappa asked.
"Yeah, we were wondering about this new prophet. There are rumors of one gathering a fleet to conquer Earth yet again. That's the word on the street. Are we going to be issued military defense weapons, instead of crime deterrent stoppers? Because this neuralytic shockblasters are good for making holes in ships, and inducing organic paralysis, but for an invasion, we're going to need the ICR." Adrienne jumped in before Liss could formulate a reply.
"There's a growing concern over it. However, the leader of the free world is actually extremely interested in electronic advances rather than genetic advances. So we're not going to release the Instant Cryonic Rifle just yet. We are issuing energy KAFs to every agent, active or inactive. If attacked with a projectile or energy weapons, this upgrade will absorb both. Your teamwork with our Canadian wraith was most prudent." Adds a whole meaning to spooks, Kappa thought silently.
"Also there appears to be a new psi at work. One who can manipulate subatomic structures as well as mental energies. The patterns of data analysis indicate that the epicenter of such manipulations is somewhere in New York, as a surge of energy signifying a dimensional warp emerged in New York. XII is a bit leery of sending a XII agent to NY due to the few known psis being either affiliated to a single government or antagonistic to the XII's goals. Therefore, all XII agents are pulling out of all operations within the known zone. Due to our government sources, we know who this psi is. She currently goes by the name Mindshadow. Anywhere within this person, pull out. She can turn your blood to mercury, and has demonstrated no restraint in using this particular aspect."
After Adrienne was dematerialized, the boss appeared silently in hood and cloak.
"Before you go, tell Adrienne about Ultra-3, otherwise she might start concluding we're vampires."The voice was mellow baritone. The boss disappeared again, pausing only for a final wink.
******
"Hmm. Rumors of an alien invasion fleet, a psi who can manipulate subatomic structures, I wonder what else they'll throw at us." Adrienne grumbled as she stepped outside. In response, the sky began to crackle with lightning and start raining."Join the XII. Be part of the best; defend the earth, and the rest of the spiel." Liss laughed.
"Oh, come on. You know how many of us were with the Elite in the Ireland War? None, zero, nada, zilch, nope." Adrienne growled.
"Don't worry about it. We were hit by the communications blackout too, you know." Liss dismissed.
"Yes, but the boss doesn't get affected by those things. The boss has been the boss since we joined up which was around twenty years ago, and the boss doesn't retire or age or anything. Isn't it just strange?" Adrienne pointed out.
"No, it's not; she probably just took the Ultra-3 retrovirus." Liss explained. Adrienne frowned.
"It's a genetic formula researchers in Powers Corp. came up with years ago. No one's ever explained how our boss has obtained it, but our boss thought it had potential. She combined it with really weird bits of alien genetic blueprints, and came up with the immortality pill. It's not actually, but the only way one can die is if your brain is severed from your spinal cord. She finds it useful to give to agents she expects to send into high-risk tactical and strategic scenarios frequently." Liss explained.
"Such as you and me."Comprehension slowly dawned on Adrienne. Liss shook her head.
"No, we simply know about it. Those who are sent into high-risk situations are those like say, Kappa. She's the only one I'm sure of who has it. Imagine being the focus point of a firefight or in a politically unstable government such as the current Ireland government mediating between the Protestant and Catholics, and where death will deal XII's plans a major setback." Liss explained. Her jumpsuit badge immediately blipped.
"We're here." Liss responded.
"Your next assignment is to bring in someone extremely hazardous. Be careful, the people in Trends believe he may be another one carrying a potential Sword, Gem, or Mirror. Last known location New York, right up your alley."
"Don't worry, we're on it."Liss assured the person at Communications.
******
"We're on it, you say." Adrienne groused."We are on it. We may just be a bit late, is all." Liss relaxed. Being the senior agent has its perks. The traffic inched along, until they finally got to the destination. There was a man. He appeared to be an ageless, white-haired man, but then his blue eyes looked up, and Adrienne had a chill after seeing the crazed laughter in his eyes.
"Good morning. So, it appears my irksome brother does not know about you yet. Finally, I'm free of his altruistic impulses. I can just explore and see what strikes my fancy.
"What happened to your arm?" Liss asked, as she noticed the lacerations for the first time.
"Oh, my brother panicked, and we were split at the opening. Of course, he didn't notice he drew on his power so there is now him, stuck in the Void, and me, out and free. Since we have the same powers, I can hear the spirits talking to him. I can draw on all of my powers, unlike my brother who is so hesitant of harming bystanders that he can only let loose upon supernatural evil." The vagrant smiled at them.
"Um, we're here to help you, Mr. Superperson. There's a nice white place just for you." Adrienne spoke in the manner of someone talking to a mentally disabled person who hasn't been trained to talk to a mentally disabled person.
"I am not an incompetent."The man looked in Adrienne's eyes and made a clenching gesture. Then he blinked.
"Your body doesn't pump blood!" He said, astonished. Liss whacked him on the head with a mallet with a lightweight handle and a superdense metallic head. The man collapsed soundlessly.
"Okay, how did he know that you don't have blood in your body?" Liss asked to the sky.
"We've got the package, delivering him for pickup." Adrienne reported
******
"He's displayed a remarkable facility with powers. What is that pentagram for anyway?" The scientist in charge asked"It's to contain his magic" The boss in a hood and a cloak said quietly. On cue, the subject woke up. The man knew why he could operate in both technological and magical areas, as opposed to the magicians and scientists who were completely on opposite sides of the same paradigm. He kicked the pentagram and it was rock solid. He closed his eyes and concentrated, envisioning his powers as nanites communicating with the atoms and initiating interactions. He stepped through the pentagram and slammed hard into the clear tube that was used to contain hazardous and gaseous materials, rebounding back into the pentagram. He sighed, and unleashed fire from his eyes scorching the pentagram beyond all recognition. Soporific gases descended, but he ignored the gas as if it was fresh oxygen. He slammed the fist into the tube. Cracks spider webbed across the tube. Another crack and the tube fell apart.
"Am I really that dangerous?" The man asked mildly. "Good."
"Now whose idea was it to hit me on the head with a mallet? Come, come, there's a raffle prize for the winner, after all." The man turned around.
"Good evening. Who am I speaking to?" The boss with the hood and cloak addressed.
"Oh, come on, you realize that I am the fusion of technology and magic. By freak accident, if you can believe that a three thousand year-old magegift lineage coming into existence with an experimental genetic infusion disseminated by a prototype months before it was due for testing is considered a freak accident. Unfortunately, my poor brother didn't realize what the power of balance is actually capable of." The man let both hands glow with refined energy in ancient times known as dragon's breath.
"That's your life story, but what is your name?"The hooded boss asked.
"My name is...Hmm. I never bothered to think of a name. Never needed one before, but I need one that says me don't I?" The man whirled around and slammed Adrienne back against the wall. The unfortunate agent had been attempting to knock the man unconscious. "All these powers are great! My brother doesn't even bother to exercise them in offense and defense analysis. Now I have a whole room of subjects!" The man enthused. All the objects in the room began to float, encircling the man in a defensive array.
"And he'll have fun, fun, fun, all night long, until his aunt takes the T-Rex away!" The man sang. He peered at the figure in the hooded cloak.
"Hey, you're not floating. That's not joining in the spirit at all!" The man pouted. The rest of the room had cleared of scientists, while Kappa, Church and Lappa were floating in the air, held by the man's power.
"I know what to do! It's a lift lighter than air!" The man frowned. "Wait, I need my brother's combined power for that. Aww, and here I was hoping I didn't need him at all!" The man shouted. The man strode out, making a hole in the wall, and dropping all the agents lightly on the floor.
"That man's a menace!" Adrienne wheezed when she had her breath back from being whirled around by a maniacal telekinetic.
"What we're seeing here is the separation of two sides. A classic example of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The boss said gravely.
"How do you know that?" Adrienne demanded. Liss restrained her.
"Our boss always knows. Our employer will not compromise any sources." Kappa calmly said. "You are as of now, both assigned to the case of hunting down his Dr. Jekyll half. You have a head start, since our Mr. Hyde mentioned his counterpart is in the Void. You are both issued icers."
******
Behind closed doors, Kappa screamed."What the hell were you thinking? How do you know that man's a Mr. Hyde? How do you know that man isn't Dr. Jekyll and whatever they end up bringing back won't be worst? How do you know-?"She was silence by the upraised hand.
"I know, because I have the Mirror."Kappa saw the features of the robed woman, and she switched off the cloak and hood. She took out a book.
"This is what is keeping me alive. The Mirror of Wisdom has a purpose, and it shows itself in the form of a book. It can be in any form that distributes knowledge. However, that's how I know." The founder of the XII immediately robed herself once again.
"This is one of the three artifacts that can unlock the doors of a sealed supernatural. I have not yet found the way to completely eliminate the supernatural, mostly because I doubt the supernaturals of the world realize they are creating it in their frantic quest to kill angels and demons that are hoarding up belief. The other two artifacts is the Sword of Force, and the Gem of Power. This is why I believe that we need to retrieve those artifacts before anyone else. The Black Priest gains his power from a perverted form of chaos, and believes that Earth must be purified so Ahura Mazda can once again win back the light." The woman smiles."He wasn't always evil. Once he was the best of men, and he knew it. His false pride started his downfall. Those who are evil never start out being so, and on the contrary often have the best of intentions. Remember, evil always deceives itself that it is good and right, and it treats other people as objects and a means to an end. The Black Priest believes in his heart that he is doing right and no one else can sway him." The robed figure sighed.
"Isn't Chaos evil?" Kappa asked.
"Chaos is evil to those who wish to keep Order. I intend to keep the Chaos and Order in balance, which is what the yin-yang symbol symbolizes. It's like a pattern of five dots. If someone looks at it one way, it's a star. If it's looked at another way, it becomes a pentagon. Harmony is being able to visualize both the pentagon, the star, and the five dots and integrate it seamlessly into a whole. That's why magic and science is really the same thing, an attempt to explain the workings of the universe through knowledge." The woman elaborated
"Anyhow, the man who just busted out isn't actually evil; he's simply the dark half. He has a lack of judgment, not any actively malicious traits. He's not going to torture a squirrel, unless he finds it amusing for some reason. He won't worry about consequences, so be extremely careful." The woman warned.
******
The man was alive with the joy of freedom from conscience and altruism. New York was full of opportunities. He headed immediately for the disreputable part of the neighborhood. He wanted money and a fight, and a gang turf was a good place to do it. He also wanted to test the extent of his powers. His brother had never let loose, even in a fight. Whereas he, on the other hand would ram a fist full of explosive energy down someone's throat. How would one go about this? Oh, yeah.The man shape shifted into a girl. He then turned the corner, and immediately ran into a neighborhood. The place seemed to have seen recent gunfire judging by the pockmarks, and the absence of visible police indicated it was turf held by an either influential or weak gang.
"Hey, cutie. We don't see your kind around here." A guy suddenly leered at him. He smacked the guy on the nose, and shifted back into a guy.
<Well, now, I'm never doing that again> The man thought
"Hey, he hit Miguel!" One of the boys cried. The man arched an eyebrow. Captain Obvious to the rescue.
"Let's see how he likes the taste of a bl-gurk!"The untimely interruption was the interloper stuffing his fist down Miguel's throat. The five others, who charged like a bunch of amateurs, stared in shock as their switchblades, boxcutters, and assorted knives skipped off of the guy's back.
Bunch of crunchies, the guy thought to himself. A lazy knife hand strike and he broke the guy's arm. He had hesitated for a moment, not wanting to kill the assailant. His habits make one soft, he said silently. A whirling flying side kick smashed the guy behind him in the ribs. The guy screamed in pain.
<That's music to my ears.> The interloper smiled for the first time as he began to enjoy himself, flowing into the fight. A few minutes later, the fight was over, the five gang members were unconscious along with their leader, and he robbed their pockets.
"Who says you can't go bandit hunting?" The man whistled. He wasn't quite sure why he hadn't killed them, but it didn't matter after all. They were down anyway.
******
"I'm telling you! There's this guy who comes in like some kind of martial artist, he changes from a girl into a guy, and knives skip off of the guy's back!" Miguel exclaimed."Yeah, right. All we saw was a martial artist who beat us up." Jose said, his ribs aching from the kick being planted.
"I mean, who here thinks that a girl beat us up and then robbed us?" Rafael said. There was an unsurprising lack of raised hands.
"See? So, it's a martial artist, and that's that." Jose closed the case.
******
"Hey, Adrienne, Liss, there were five cases of injury near you. Um, strange, you said that the man you were hunting is a real nutcase right?" One of the people in Communications asked."Yeah."
"Strange. He didn't kill anyone, and the worst anyone got was a broken arm, and cracked ribs. In fact, cases in question all admit to having attacked him first. The one case that didn't admit to having attacked him, said that they attacked because he smacked the leader in the nose. He also appears to be a martial artist."
******
The man whistled while he worked. That last exercise had been fun! His brother didn't cut loose that often, always restraining his powers and abilities so he didn't accidentally harm any innocent bystanders. Of course, he hadn't cut that loose either, but loose enough to enjoy having his powers. Of course, being a white-haired blue eyed oldster was the benefit of shape shifting. He wanted to have white hair and blue eyes. The oldster was something other people inferred from him being white-haired.******
"This is NYPD! Freeze! You're under arrest!" The two people driving a police automobile stepped outside behind the doors. He dropped into astral sight, and recognized their auras. They were the agents from the place. He stepped back as a bolt of ice flew by him and froze the lamppost. He arched an eyebrow. He could get through that, but it would take time. He snapped his fingers."Ah, you obviously want me to reunite with my brother. No thanks, I'm having too much fun! I want time to be me! He drones on in his mind about projects, and duties, and deadlines, and goals, and objectives, that's he's too busy planning than to do what I want. Ta-ta!" The two cryonic rifles flew to him.
"Won't you join us for dinner?"The white-haired blue-eyed man intoned in a deep baritone, in perfect mimicry of James Earl Jones. The man then disappeared.
******
"Did you see that?" Adrienne asked in shock."Yes. Apparently, a form of interpersonal teleportation. XII has been trying to duplicate a personal transporter for years." Liss said.
"He took our rifles with him."Adrienne realized.
"We're going to have an interesting time explaining why there are two military-grade weapons floating around on the street."Liss observed.
******
The white-haired man walked away, having obtained two cryonic rifles. After all, just because he thought his brother was too focused, didn't actually mean he didn't like the guy. Now there was one for him, and one for the guy stuck in the Void. He whistled as he walked, attempting to get into mean territory. New York had been cleaned up since Giuliani was mayor, but there were still pockets of violence. Mostly around Chinatown, where leaving your car meant that when you came out of the store, you'll only have four wheels and a floorboard left. Of course, the time between 1 'o'clock and 4'o'clock was violence central, so all he had to do was zip around for a bit. There was something that looked promising, somebody staying in the door. Criminals were getting smarter, being extremely unobtrusive in their attempts at armed robbery. He blinked as an emaciated, grayish figure leapt at the guy, and carried it away."Halt! I compel you to halt" The white-haired blue-eyed man knew he could exorcise the creature, as he recognized a curse laid on something, and he could expel such curses. He wasn't sure if he could actually command the creature though.
"Hungry, so hungry" The emaciated figure's words could just be made out. The guy started screaming, once he realized what the creature holding him was.
So that's what the Ghoul looks like! Fascinating! was the white-haired man's first thought.
Wait a minute, so that's why the streets are so deserted in this part of town! was the white-haired man's second thought
I wonder if I can raise zombies with my powers? was the white-haired man's third thought. He walked to the nearest cemetery, paying no attention to the creature's chewing on the screaming man.
"We've got to have the proper atmosphere." The white-haired man smiled to himself.
"Arise, minions of the great Whydini!" For a moment, nothing happened. Then skeletons and corpses began to rise up from their graves, smashing their wooden lids. Something that feels no pain, won't hesitate in smashing a lid. Around him, corpses, and skeletons began to shamble to his side.
The Ghoul came back to the cemetery.
"Good morning, Mr. Bones. I'd like to make a deal with you."
"Good food..." It moaned softly. It noticed the zombies and skeletons surrounding the sorcerer.
"Bad food, rotten food. No deal." The emaciated figure groaned out. The white-haired man was about to lash out with a telekinetic grip of force when he hesitated. Calling up zombies and skeletons was one thing, especially when his power didn't call back a soul, but simply animated non-living things. Calling back a soul was the province of doctors, although they called it spontaneous remission. To him, it was simply bringing something to movement, like a lamppost. Killing a creature under a curse went against his fiber; no it went against his brother's fiber. He gritted his teeth, as the Ghoul vanished while he had been distracted.
******
"Err; we may have a small problem."Liss said hanging on a stick that she was tied to, hands and foot bound. Adrienne was too tired to respond, as she was in the same position, and her sustenance had been several hours before, reducing her to only slightly above human. If she went several more hours without her peculiar liquid refreshment, she'd be sliding below human levels. The skeletons and decayed flesh hanging off zombies holding the stick only made the silence of the night stand out."I did not know he could bring corpses to life."Liss remarked into the night sky.
"Ah, the two lovely ladies who have been pursuing me so ardently. I must say, such an avid pursuit speaks well of your desire for my affections." The white-haired man proclaimed, smiling. Adrienne gritted her teeth, resisting an urge to punch the infuriating man.
"Come over here, and I'll show you affection."Liss promised seductively. Adrienne gaped in shock.
"Oh, I think I'll play hard to get. After all, females do it all the time." The white-haired man laughed in ringing bells. Adrienne blinked. That's not how he sounded before. In fact, his voice seems to change each time it spoke.
"Besides, every necromancer at the dead of night must have lovely ladies flanking him, even if one of you has a peculiar anatomy for a human female.
"However, all of you back into your boxes. Shoo, shoo." Zombies and skeletons clambered back into their graveyard. The lids remained smashed." I think I will find my brother now. You can tell your employer that on October 31st that not just ghoulies and ghosties came out to play. Sometimes, your dark shadow often comes as well." The white-haired man vanished.
To be continued...
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