Nicole Baritolli grimaced as she looked over the press release. As the head of public relations for Nova Tech Corp, it was her responsibility to issue public statements to the media. This was the press release she had never expected to have to put out. Damn Rusty and his cockiness! she raged. After all they went through; to be destroyed by some stupid giant robot was just too much! She didn't know the details, though she was pretty sure that his overconfidence had done him in. Worst of all, with Rusty no longer around, she would have problems getting the remaining three symbiotes she needed. She would never have admitted it to Rusty's face, but he really angered her over the last year withholding the technology to find them. What the hell did he know what was good for her? If the alien symbiotes were so harmful to her, they would have manifested by now. All his caution was doing was holding her back. "Miss Baritolli, you have a Jon Moore here to see you," the receptionist called on the intercom. "I don't know a Jon Moore," Nicole said with disinterest. "He insists it's urgent. He says it's about Mindshadow." Nicole's heart skipped a beat on hearing the news and her mind raced at the possibilities. She had just gotten back from Chicago where she investigated the recent riots and confirmed that many of the rioters were being subliminally influenced, then later mind controlled into returning to their homes. It all fit in with her misgivings that Angelina was too immature for such vast power. She had meant to talk to the other Dark Saviors about her growing concerns that Angelina was out of control and had to be contained before she went bad. Some of those concerns were admittedly colored by her own dark secret past as a former assassin, but a corrupt or evil Angelina McGee was a thought too terrifying to leave to chance. Unfortunately, all that was now out the window with Rusty's apparent death and new measures would have to be considered. "Send him in." Nicole calmed herself as Jon walked into the office. He had a lean build and was otherwise nondescript. Only his eyes gave him away; they were haunted as if driven by some inner demons. "Thank you for seeing me Miss Baritolli." "I don't make it a point to see strangers without an appointment, but that's a dangerous name to be tossing around," Nicole said. "Miss Baritolli, I appreciate your indulgence. I'll come straight to the point. I'm here to ask you to help me save the future." Nicole folded her arms and looked at Jon again. "Look, I hope you didn't come here from that dumb Sci-Fi Con looking for an autograph by the Dark Saviors." "I'm deadly serious!" Jon shouted. "I come from the future where a powerful metahuman called the Overlord took power and rules with an iron fist!" Nicole shook her head, sighed and pressed a button on her intercom. "Janice, get security up here." "No, you've got to believe me! Listen, read my mind!" "You really don't want..." "Just do it!" Nicole focused her mind on Jon and began to read his thoughts. She paled as his memories began to flow through her head. They painted vivid pictures of troops committing atrocities against even the most minor offenders. Among the government, there was a feeling of total control that would have made George Orwell take a step back in admiration. Through it all, the images were dominated by a single lone figure ruling the entire world with an iron fist. The figure radiated unspeakable power; every gesture created or destroyed entire cities of people at their whim. "Miss Baritolli?" the security personnel asked as Nicole abruptly shook from her trance. "Give us a moment," Nicole whispered. The security personnel nodded and stepped back outside. Nicole looked back to Jon with renewed interest. "What was that...?" "That was my world. The world I grew up in. In that world, I served as a level 3 bureaucrat, in the Ministry of the Interior." Jon shook his head. "The details aren't important. But in reality, I was a mole for the underground resistance. In our time, that resistance is all but wiped out. Within a year; maybe months, the Overlord's forces will have stomped the embers out and the entire world will serve the Overlord's will. I've traveled back in time as a last resort to try and stop that from ever happening." "Look..." Nicole offered, almost desperately grasping at straws, "those images don't necessarily prove your story's true. They just prove you believe them." "Listen to me! Don't you think I know how it looks? I know I sound mad! I wish to God it were just my imagination! But the events leading to the Overlord have already started! If the three of you won't stop it, then no one else will!" "This Overlord... is a meta from our time?" Nicole asked, dreading to hear an answer that was already beginning to nibble at her heart. Jon nodded tiredly. "According to the records we have, the Overlord...in your time... was a female telepath. We believe that she was the one you know as Mindshadow." Nicole's heart sank at the pronouncement. "That doesn't seem possible. The person you're referring to is still just a kid. I've met her. She doesn't really seem the type." Jon shook his head slowly. "The historical records are sketchy, so I don't know the details, or what might change. But sometime in the next fifteen years, the Overlord will begin her mission of conquest, amid a period when the world is still recovering from a worldwide calamity. She will be aided by alien technology and enslave entire armies to do her bidding. Within weeks, hundreds of millions of people were dead and entire countries were surrendering, begging for peace." He paused and looked at the calendar. "Last week was supposed to be an opportunity to end it quick and clean, before it all began. According to our records, it was one of the Overlord's first public manifestations of power. I managed to acquire a local weapon and tried to take her out. I had hoped that, in this early time period, that her powers wouldn't have developed sufficiently to stop it, but..." "That was you?" Nicole shook her head. "I've seen this girl keep half of Chicago's downtown skyscrapers from falling over. I could have told you that bullets wouldn't do much good against her. But conquering the planet? Wouldn't we have stopped her?" Jon looked directly at Nicole's eyes. "You tried." Nicole went pale at the challenge. "We failed?" "You died. Every hero who tried to challenge her; even most of the villains who threw in with them at the last moment were either enslaved or destroyed. If you've read my mind, then you know what I'm saying is true. And if you don't help me now, it will all come true all over again." Nicole only half-listened to the conclusion. She had warned Rusty over and over, but now he wasn't here anymore. She didn't trust Eddie to handle this properly; his hatred of Garner colored everything he did and something this big needed an objective decision. "If I believe you, then I'm going to need more information from you, but not here." She began to think things through. If she tried talking to anyone, they'd probably dismiss the story out of hand. If she tried confronting Angelina all by herself, she'd probably get annihilated. Knowing that to be true didn't make it any easier on her ego though. "Miss Baritolli," the intercom buzzed. "We're getting a call from the New York Times, asking for an interview regarding Red Nova?" "Get Marcie to handle it," Nicole ordered. "And tell R&D that I need everything Mr. McMiller had on the Ravenglass project, specifically, the technology they were developing to track down the nanite-based life forms, and most of all, don't tell Eddie about it." "Very well." Nicole barely heard the reply as she focused on what her next step should be. She turned to Jon and handed him a card. "Meet me at this address 10 o'clock tonight. We have a safe house there. I'm going to need specifics on this Overlord, and I need to take some steps." After Jon left, Nicole looked out the window and sighed. If she did this, there would be no turning back. Robbing a dead man's technology might be seen as self-centered and even destroy her standing with the Saviors and Eddie, but someone had to take charge. She needed the other three alien symbiotes, if she was to have any chance at preventing this nightmare scenario from coming true. Most importantly, she was tired of playing second-fiddle to Rusty and Eddie; it was time to stop holding herself back. It was time to take a hold of her destiny. Madelyn looked down from the sky as the ground zipped below them at high speed. No matter how many times Angelina took her flying, it still felt new and exciting. "You know, you could probably charge serious money flying people around like this." Angelina glanced over to Madelyn and shook her head dismissively. "Don't you think most normal people would prefer the airlines for this sort of thing?" "Oh I don't know... no sitting on the tarmac... no lost luggage... the airlines would probably pay you not to start your own service. Heck, there are people paying $20 million to spend a week in space." "Let's not go there," Angelina replied tiredly. "Even if I had the slightest interest, chances are the FAA would make me take a pilot's test or something silly like that." "So, like, I saw that Rusty guy on TV in an interview. If he's Red Nova, how come he's still on TV?" Madelyn asked. "The Dark Saviors have a trio of AI nanite shape shifters who call themselves Elsea, Lily, and Yuri. They sort of train with the Saviors while learning more about how to function in society." "Wow... they really have a lot of snazzy stuff, don't they?" Angelina shrugged. "And that's why the same guys who are after me have them on their hunting list." Madelyn sighed; Angelina had been moody since she had heard the news about Red Nova's disappearance and the subsequent rumors of the Dark Saviors breaking apart. The news reports all had conflicting stories; like that was anything new. Her doctor friend Dr. Emily Marshall had mentioned that Nicole Baritolli had also disappeared, though that news hadn't made the papers. On a whim, Madelyn had suggested that Angelina visit whoever was left in the Dark Saviors to try and find some kind of closure, as much for everyone else as herself. These days, whenever Angelina got upset or temperamental, the air around her would get thick and heavy. Temperatures fluctuated wildly and small objects wouldn't stop moving and her parents were already beginning to complain. Hopefully this trip would help sort out some of her feelings. Daniel Nunez typed his notes onto his computer as he listened to the conversation on his hands-free phone. "And you say there was no record of any birth by that name?" "Not at this hospital Mr. Nunez," the voice on the other side said. "We do have a forwarding address for Andrew McGee in reference to a Brad McGee." "Could you send me that address?" Daniel asked as he jotted down additional information on a pad of paper. "Certainly Mr. Nunez." Daniel hung up the phone before gathering his notes together. He had spent the last day and a half putting together a packet, with updated information that Angelina had communicated to him a few days ago. Gaps in her record were now beginning to make sense, but at the same time, presented more questions. "Mr. Weinstein, do you have a moment?" Daniel asked as he knocked on the door to Mark Weinstein's office. "I've got some information you should see." "Sure Danny, come on in." "I've found some additional information about the Clancy case," Daniel began. "Wait a minute..." Mark interrupted. "Didn't I tell you not to worry about that case?" "Yeah, but I recently got some new information. It explains a lot why the case was so weird." Mark grimaced before he sighed. "What've you got?" Daniel spread out several documents and folders across the short conference table in Mark's office. "For starters, Angelina says that she recently found out that her real name is McGee, not Clancy. She also got some information her real parents..." "Hold on..." Mark interjected. "How do we even know any of this is valid? You say she found this out; where'd she get this information?" "She said she met someone who knew her parents," Daniel explained. "She could be talking to a goddamn taxi driver for all she knows!" Mark protested. "I know it sounds strange, but I found some corroborating records that at least partially support her story," Daniel continued as he pulled out other folders. "I was able to track down her parents through hospital and social services records. I wasn't able to find Andrew McGee or Victoria Cross, but I did find a Brad McGee, who's listed as Andrew's father. I spoke with the elder McGee and he was able to confirm that his son did have a baby girl and identified the baby's name." Mark looked at the records, concealing his feelings. "OK, so does Brad McGee know where his son went?" "Mr. McGee said that the last conversations with his son were confused and disjointed and that he moved around a lot. He told me that he felt that his son had gotten into some serious trouble with the government. But the last letter he got from Andrew McGee was about a month before the first recorded evidence of the Clancy family showed up in Chicago nearly twelve years ago. Prior to that, there are no records of the Clancy family anywhere, and there's no birth record for Angelina Clancy." "Is there any hospital records for an Angelina McGee listing Andrew McGee as the father?" Mark asked. "No, but get this...Mr. McGee was able to produce an old medical invoice dated thirteen years ago. He had it in a box of old records from his son's effects. In it, there was an Angelina McGee identified as an infant patient by a family practice doctor only ten minutes away from Andrew McGee's last listed address. I still need to contact the doctor to confirm it..." Mark held up his hand. "Be careful about going there. Patient privacy laws still apply, even for custody investigations. You may have to get a judge ruling to open up a sealed record." "I know," Daniel acknowledged. "I was going to get all this together to present to you before taking that step." Mark sighed. "Well, I agree it all looks very suspicious. I'm worried that you may be stepping into something very serious. I really wouldn't think it would help Angelina Clancy...or McGee... whatever, if she were to find out that her parents were fugitives from the law or something like that." Daniel looked back with determination. "Sir, I know you've been doing this longer than I have, but it's been my experience that children generally do better if we tell them the truth about their parents. Nothing bothers them more than to always be asking those questions and never having answers." Mark nodded reluctantly. "Well, alright. Just make sure you follow proper procedure if you need to dig up sensitive records. If you do find out anything negative about the McGees, then you might want to discuss it with the staff psychiatrist before talking to Angelina Clancy about that kind of news." "Of course, thank you Mr. Weinstein," Daniel said with a sense of relief as he stood up and left the office. He had been worried before that Mark wouldn't be on board with his continued investigations, but now felt better about seeing things through to their conclusion. Mark waited for the door to close before he picked up the phone and dialed a number. His face now betrayed his concerns and his voice was terse and sharp. "Get me Mr. Raintree..." Eddie Bower gulped down another shot of liquor as he sat glumly at the apartment's bar. It had been almost a week since Rusty had disappeared fighting a robot. After everything they've been through together, he gets killed by a fucking robot! What made it even worse was that he was the one originally assigned to investigate that mission, but Rusty had volunteered so that Eddie could spend more time with Nicole. If only I had been there... he asked himself a thousand times. The electromagnetic pulse that had caused Rusty's powers to implode on itself would have had minimal affect on him, if any at all. Then there was Nicole... what the hell was going on with her? A few days ago, he got a message from her receptionist that a stranger had shown up. After a short meeting, she had packed up her personal belongings, stole a few pieces of technology from the company labs, then left a farewell note for Eddie that didn't explain anything. He and Nicole had shared a stormy relationship, but he had never gotten the impression she was happy with the Dark Saviors. More than once, she had mentioned her desire to pursue the other three alien symbiotes that derived her powers. However, Rusty had always urged caution; there were signs that the symbiotes might have been sentient, and since he held the technology that could track the symbiotes, that usually closed the subject. Was that what this was about? Was she so determined to gain more power that she would abandon her friends and steal a dead man's technology to do it? "Eww...!" Madelyn cringed at the strong odor of liquor as she and Angelina phased through the ceiling of the apartment. "I don't need to be psychic to know what he's been up to." "Who the fuck are you?" Eddie snarled as he leaped from the bar with his black tendrils lashing out to attack. Before he could reach the pair, he suddenly found himself flying backwards then landing hard on his back. "Hey," Angelina sternly ordered, as she focused her concentration onto Eddie. "Be nice!" Eddie immediately tried to get back on his feet, only to discover he couldn't move. What the fuck...? "I'm holding on to the motor centers of your brain until you calm down Mr. Bower," Angelina explained. "We're not here to fight." "He's a superhero?" Madelyn said dubiously as she held her nose. "I am, like, so disillusioned." "This should help..." Angelina said as she mentally reached into Eddie's blood stream, grabbed the free-floating alcohol molecules and broke them down into water and sugars as Eddie winced painfully. "Ow...Jesus...! You could have fried my brain!" Eddie snarled as he picked himself up. "I go to a public high school Mr. Bower," Angelina said calmly. "You're not the first person I've seen with alcohol in their blood stream." "I'm not sure whether to be relieved for Eddie's health or concerned for society by that fact Miss McGee," a voice said as a paraplegic man was wheeled into the apartment by a teenage girl. "Hello Mr. Baily," Angelina said without turning around. "Rusty's thinks a lot about you." "You know, you need to learn how to at least pretend you're not hearing people's most intimate thoughts all the time," Jeb Baily remarked. "Conversations are a lot easier when one side isn't finishing the other side's sentences." "Maddie, this is Jeb Baily and Yuri," Angelina introduced. "He's a friend of Mr. McMiller's; used to go by 'Dark Hawk' up in Boston before... well... " "Hmm... I don't recognize that name," Madelyn shrugged. "Man that's cold..." Jeb muttered and shook his head; nothing like obscurity to make a man feel small. "You're a machine?" Madelyn asked to Yuri. "So are you..." Yuri replied snidely. "You're just made of oily goo instead of well-engineered components." "Um... excuse me...?" Madelyn asked indignantly. Jeb put his arm between the girls and pulled Yuri back before things could escalate. "What are you two here for anyway?" "I heard that Mr. McMiller had disappeared and just thought that I could help," Angelina offered. "Yeah, sure you were...!" Eddie scoffed. "And this has nothing to do with you robbing all that money from Rusty before he died?" "What...?" Madelyn exclaimed with surprise. Angelina stared at Eddie for a moment as he snarled back. "Yeah, that's right. Read my mind all you want! It doesn't change what you did! I just found out myself after going through Nova Technology's books!" He turned to Madelyn. "Ask your friend why Rusty left her a $25 million trust fund just before he took off on that last mission! Maybe she even planted another little mental suggestion to lose that fight to make sure he'd never come back so no one would ask any questions!" "No way...!" Madelyn exclaimed. "That's not funny," Angelina retorted sorely. As she glared at Eddie, the walls behind him began to crumble as the liquor cabinet split in half and the air began to crackle with energy. Eddie braced in a defensive stance and got his dark tendrils ready for a fight. Madelyn cringed and discretely took a step back out of the way as Jeb shook his head in disbelief. "Oh my God... here they go..." Jeb groaned before wheeling himself between Angelina and Eddie. "You two stop this right now! Metas fighting each other when they first meet was old back when I was running around in a cape!" Eddie glared at Jeb for a moment before pulling back. He looked around derisively at the debris. "Nicole was right; you are out of control!" "Now you're blaming me for Miss Baritolli abandoning you? I have no idea what you're talking about regarding any trust fund. If I wanted to steal money, there are all sorts of ways I could get it without resorting to murder," Angelina said coldly. "I said cut the power tripping!" Jeb ordered. "Eddie, if you have any actual proof of wrongdoing, you can show me now! Miss McGee, if you want to help then let's talk. Because right now, we could probably use all the help we can get." Angelina closed her eyes and focused on calming her thoughts as best she could. A few deep breaths later, she looked at Jeb. "Alright, what happened? How could any robot beat Mr. McMiller?" "According to the information we were able to get, the robot hit Rusty with a powerful electromagnetic pulse. As I'm sure you know from reading his mind, Rusty's abilities are based on a quantum singularity he has in his head. It's what allows him to teleport and manipulate energy. From what we can tell, the EMP hit him right as he was trying to teleport, which scrambled the nanites that regulate those abilities, causing a rift that ripped him apart." "But there wasn't any sign of a body," Angelina observed. "Well, no," Jeb admitted, "but the circumstances of his death wouldn't leave much to examine." "But I thought if you can't find the body, that means he must be alive," Madelyn offered hopefully. "Life isn't a comic book, kid," Eddie scowled. "And even if he was, he could be any place or any time within range of the singularity. Which in his case, means he could be years in the past or future, thousands of miles away." "Well, then we should at least look," Angelina said. "Maybe if we looked at his gear, we could get some clues." Jeb sighed. "That's going to be a problem. Unfortunately, the government beat us to the scene of the battle and immediately threw a blanket over the entire area. It's taken me these last several days and calling in every favor I had to find out that they managed to recover Rusty's sword and helmet and are holding it in a base in your neck of the woods near Chicago." "And like I said, why the hell are we still here and not getting them back!" Eddie demanded. "No way I'm leaving powerful alien artifacts in Garner's hands!" "We been over it Eddie," Jeb warned. "That base is probably crawling with special agents briefed on the Dark Savior's abilities, especially yours. And even if we could overcome them, with your strength, we'd be up to our waists in dead bodies trying to mount a frontal assault." "They're the enemy!" Eddie spat. "Not every government worker is in on Garner's conspiracies!" Jeb shot back. "So you're going to kill anyone it takes to get them back? Secretaries? Janitors? Lunchroom cooks? Fine way to honor Rusty's memory, huh?" "Hmm... Angie, how about you get them back for them?" Madelyn volunteered. "Maddie...!" Angelina protested. "If they're ready for the Dark Saviors, that means they're ready for Miss Baritolli too. What makes you think I'll do any better?" "Come on, you're way better than she is!" Madelyn extolled, ignoring the dirty looks Eddie gave her. "Dr. Marshall told me you're the most powerful meta she's ever seen!" "But these are probably the same government guys who are after me!" Angelina objected. "They probably have a file on me too!" "So what? If the government could actually counter your powers, they would have stormed my house and snatched you weeks ago," Madelyn said assuredly. After a short pause, Jeb nodded gravely. "She's probably right Miss McGee. General Garner's not a man to tap-dance around. Rusty told me that you were at the top of his list and if he hasn't made any overt moves against you yet, that probably means he doesn't have any such options." Angelina turned away and sighed. "It's just... to do what you're asking means taking over hundreds of minds at once. You're right; I probably could do it. But the more power I use, the more it starts to affect my judgment. It makes me want to use it more and more and mind control is more addicting than any other power I have." "If you don't think you can handle it..." Jeb suggested. "No, I... " Angelina paused. Rusty had done more than anyone else helping her to adjust to her new circumstances. He deserved to have his memory honored and not have his personal symbols soiled by a power-mad general and his government drones, so she nodded. "OK, I'll do it. I can take us all down there if you'd like." "Screw that!" Eddie fumed. "I'll go prep the jet." "Told you normal people prefer airlines," Angelina mentally whispered to Madelyn. "That's normal?" Madelyn scoffed. "You're hanging with the wrong crowd these days..." Mark Weinstein lit another cigarette as he sat waiting on the park bench. He was annoyed that the bench had no ash trays; the no smoking Nazis had struck again, he thought idly. But he needed the nicotine to bleed off the stress more than he needed looks of approval from his fellow park patrons. "It's a dangerous risk to be meeting like this," John Raintree grumbled as he approached and sat down on the park bench next to Mark. "Don't tell me about risk, Mr. Raintree," Mark replied tersely. "I'll tell you what's dangerous; it's when one of my co-workers dumps half the Project's history on my desk, asking questions!" "Young Mr. Nunez is becoming a problem?" Raintree mused. "Not only has he tracked down F67's biological parents, he's interviewing her biological grandfather! Now that grandfather's asking questions about his son's whereabouts! Danny couldn't have tracked this down all by himself that fast; sure as hell there's a leak somewhere in your organization!" "I find it rather hard to believe that anyone in the Project would release unauthorized information, given our control measures." "Well, I could care less what your opinion is!" Mark retorted. "I didn't sign onto this Project only to see my name plastered all over the Washington Times political scandal pages!" Raintree sighed and nodded. "I see... very well, I'll handle it. A pity really; he seemed like such a nice young man." Mark's blood chilled at the remark. "You aren't going to... kill him, are you?" "I would say, the less you know, the better," Raintree warned as he stood up and turned to walk away. "All you need to know is that he won't be committing slander against your good name." Madelyn helped herself to a deli sandwich and soda from the airplane galley then headed back towards her seat next to Angelina. "Well, it might not be as fast as flying with you, but at least it's my first ride in a private jet." She took a bite, but then stopped when she saw Angelina's depressed expression. "Oh wait... my digestive system's probably grossing you out, right?" "No, it's not that..." Angelina sighed then looked at Madelyn with apprehension. "Maddie, what if I lose control again? What if I start enslaving people and never let them go? Turn them into... obedient little dolls..." "Well, then at least you'll have some new fans," Madelyn shrugged frivolously. "I'm serious Maddie." "I know you wouldn't do that to people," Madelyn assured. Angelina shook her head. "I've already done it once! It's been almost two weeks and I can still... feel them... in my head. Even talking about doing this mission has part of me craving to dominate people's minds. I'm not even sure... that I'm doing this for Mr. McMiller and not just using it as an excuse... to play God with innocent people's lives." "Look... Mr. Baily said this base has around 1500 people. That's only a small fraction of what happened a couple weeks ago and you wouldn't even need to dominate them completely. He said you just have to fog their minds a little and once you're done, you can just let them go, right?" Angelina nodded briefly and took a deep breath. "I don't want to be ashamed of who I am. I don't want to lose that part of myself that still wants to live a normal life." She turned to Madelyn. "I still want my friends to believe in me." Lisa Wong stepped into the small kitchen to the smell of sautéed vegetables and olive oil as Daniel Nunez put the finishing touches on a raw pie pastry before putting the dessert into the oven. A paralegal with a firm that specialized in family custody disputes, she had met Daniel during some routine custody court hearings between children a few months ago. A couple cups of coffee later, she decided she like what she saw and the two of them started going out together. She had just recently broken up with another paralegal in her own office when the topic of commitment came up. It was probably for the best; dating co-workers was never a good idea and Daniel was the first guy she met who didn't immediately recoil when the topic of kids came up. "You know, you don't have to impress me with your culinary prowess Danny," Lisa said as she looked over the pots of stew and boiling pasta. "Well, you know how it is," Daniel said with a smile. "I'm just trying to win you over with grandma's recipes." "Pasta primavera was your grandmother's recipe?" Lisa posed with a dubious but amused smile. "Hey, I didn't say it was my grandmother," Daniel laughed back. "You are such a kidder," Lisa said as she looked around the kitchen. "You have something to drink?" "Yeah babe, there's a Chardonnay in the fridge," Daniel said as he dumped the orecchiette pasta into a colander. Lisa poured the wine into a pair of glasses, and then wandered into the dining room. She glanced at the small roll top cabinet and looked through some of the files on the desk. "So how are things in the civil service anyway?" "Kind of strange these days," Daniel said from the kitchen. "I got a weird one I'm working on. Nice kid, but her entire history's full of holes. I think I got a lead on it though, so hopefully..." Just then, there was a knock on the front door. "Can you get that babe?" Daniel said from the kitchen. Lisa walked to the front door and look through the peephole. "Who is it?" "Hello? I'm Special Agent Ramirez, CPS?" a man in a dark suit said, flashing a badge. "I need to speak with Mr. Daniel Nunez?" Lisa shook her head; one more reason to hate working for the Child Protective Services. At least her company had the decency to just page her instead of sending in some goon like the Gestapo. She had tried more than once to talk Daniel into quitting government work and joining her firm as a junior associate. It would have meant an immediate raise, not to mention less red tape. She opened the door; "Danny it's for..." Suddenly the door was pushed open violently as Agent Ramirez along with several other armed men hidden in the flanks surged into the small apartment. Lisa screamed as the glass of wine dropped out of her hand and shattered on the entry hall. Daniel came running out of the kitchen and froze in surprise. "Lisa!" he shouted with concern. "On the floor, now!" the lead agent shouted as he pointed a submachine gun at Daniel. "Mr. Nunez, you will come with us," Agent Ramirez ordered. "Danny!" Lisa cried out. "Don't hurt her!" Daniel demanded. More armed men filled the room. At the agents' prompting, Daniel dropped to his knees as the lead agents cuffed, gagged and blindfolded Lisa and Daniel. Seconds later, the armed team streamed out of the apartment with their hostages and into a waiting van. Almost an hour later, the smoking pie set off the kitchen alarm. Jeb Baily carefully scanned the array of screens in the surveillance van. The Dark Saviors organization kept a number of caches of equipment discretely placed in a few major metropolitan areas for ready use. His memories drifted to happier days. Back in his day, he held his own against several meta-powered crooks over the years with nothing but technology and savvy. However, his luck ran out one night when a particularly powerful psychopathic killer trashed his car and nearly killed him. It was only through the lucky intervention with Rusty and Eddie that he survived; albeit with a broken back forcing him to hang the cape up for good. Since then, he had assisted the Dark Saviors as best he could. So it wasn't the first time he had been on a stakeout. However, this was the first one with a nosy amateur looking over his shoulder. "What's this screen for?" Madelyn asked as she pointed to a multi-colored moving line graph. "Monitoring Eddie's vitals," Jeb said with as little annoyance as he could muster. "It lets us know if he gets in trouble and needs help." Madelyn looked at the other screens; they were tapped into an impressive amount of surveillance from a combination of satellite and security cameras, along with audio taps of police and emergency radio bands. "So, if he gets into trouble, are you two going to go in to help?" Jeb rolled his eyes as Yuri's attentions perked up. "Yeah... I'll just roll the wheelchair in like the cavalry. I mean, even corrupt government organizations work in handicap accessible buildings these days." "OK, maybe that was a little silly," Madelyn admitted. "I could do it," Yuri declared proudly. "You're not ready," Jeb cautioned. "The soldiers in there have equipment that can detect and disassemble nanite technology, which includes you. If that weren't the case, then we wouldn't have needed help to pull this off." "Well, don't worry; with Angie in there, nothing can really go wrong," Madelyn said positively. "You're that confident in Miss McGee's abilities?" Jeb asked. He had read an evaluation report Rusty and Dr. Emily Marshall had written about Angelina McGee, but had trouble believing it. "Put it this way... Angie and I went out to a junkyard a couple weeks ago so she could do a little practicing and I watched her turn a wrecked jalopy into a brand new car easier than I can iron shirts." "The way you're dressed, I'm not surpr..." Yuri said snidely. "Impressive..." Jeb interrupted. "But hardly infallible. A well-prepared opponent can overcome any meta power, given sufficient preparation and resources, and the people in there are about as well-prepared as it gets." "Don't worry," Madelyn emphasized. "If anything happens to Mr. Bower, Angie can fix him. She can control molecules, you know, even the ones in people's bodies when she has to." Jeb shook his head dismissively, but then paused and turned back to Madelyn. "What kind of molecules?" "Head to toe," Madelyn shrugged. "You know, there was this one time I was asking her if she could do some really snazzy hair color highlights..." "Oh yeah...?" Yuri challenged. "I can change my hair color too if I wanted to..." Jeb tuned the rest of Madelyn's and Yuri's ramblings out, but the initial thought stuck in his head hard. She controls molecules...including the ones inside a human body...? Eddie Bower walked uncomfortably through the hallways of the government building. On his own, he would have waited for the night shift, made his way through the building's ventilation systems, electronically bypassing alarms and cameras as best he could. Guards he couldn't stealth past would have had to be dealt with, most likely with lethal results. Instead, he found himself following Angelina as she levitated through the base in the broad daylight of late afternoon. He felt horribly naked and exposed; all around him personnel from security guards to secretaries were going about their business. However, none of them paid him or Angelina any notice. "Are you sure you can maintain this... mind fog trick on all these people?" Eddie asked. "I told you, this isn't any strain. No one in the building can see us, and I'm scrambling the surveillance cameras so they won't record anything either," Angelina confirmed. Eddie walked right up face to face with a stationary guard and shook his head. He was both amazed and intimidated at the power he was witnessing; it certainly was making this mission easier than he could have imagined doing it solo. On the other hand, the same power that was making this mission a breeze could easily be used to waltz into Fort Knox - or maybe the White House. "Fine, but do you have to float like that?" he asked with annoyance. "Or are you trying to send a message that you're above us mere mortals?" "Focusing on my own body's molecules helps me keep my mind from wandering and fiddling with the molecules in the air and building around us. Besides Mr. Shadow Spawn, it's not like you're any stranger to flyers." "Keep out of my head," Eddie snarled. "If you've got this so covered, then you can cover the microphones too." Angelina glanced uneasily at Eddie then looked at a large metallic wall in front of them. "Something's up with this section. There's some kind of energy field going through these walls that's altering the frequency of the atoms each second. I can't phase us through without destroying the wall." She glanced at the group of guards that protected the entry checkpoint and made a subtle gesture. Two of the guards stood up, produced electronic IDs and headed to the door. As they did so, Eddie noticed Angelina's face beginning to flush and her breathing grow slower and deeper. "F-follow them through. They won't remember doing this once the door closes behind us." "Are you hitting some kind of limit?" "N-no... it's not what you think. I just that... controlling this many minds is really...soothing to me and it's making me a little giddy." Eddie jaw clenched. Nicole had warned the team several times in private meetings that Angelina was a risk for psychotropic addiction to her own powers. Combined with her emotional immaturity as a teenager, Nicole concluded that it wouldn't be long before Angelina would be using her powers on everyone around her all the time for the sheer ecstasy they gave her. Eddie had dismissed those concerns at the time, as much as he didn't want Garner to capture her as any hard evidence, but the events of the last few days had made him reconsider that stance. "You think I'm a threat..." Angelina sighed. "You needed telepathy to figure that one out?" Eddie scoffed. "I'm not your enemy Mr. Bower. I'm here to help you help Mr. McMiller," Angelina said as she turned her attention to a large vault door in the inner chamber and began concentrating on the locking mechanism. As she mentally felt her way through the complex wiring, she double-checked the minds of the guards in the vault area to ensure they were still not seeing anything untoward. "According to the minds of the security chief, Mr. McMiller's gear is behind these vault doors. Apparently, they were found in Lake Michigan a few days ago, so maybe Mr. McMiller's still around somewhere in time as you speculated. For now, I should have his equipment shortly though." Eddie kept his silence, but his feelings of discomfort refused to go away. It wasn't watching Angelina disassemble a vault lock while virtually enslaving an entire base full of people that really bothered him the most. It was the look of pleasure on her face while she was doing it that really terrified him. How long before Angelina finally succumbs to this addiction? How long before people become merely food to a voracious unstoppable beast? The military base at the Farm was a beehive of activity as soldiers scrambled into Black hawk helicopters. In addition, a group of modified Apache gunships were standing by to lift off as well. "What's this immediate scramble all about?" Master Sergeant Fred Fredrickson asked as he scrambled aboard the lead chopper with the senior officers. This better not be some dumb-ass drill! "Your guess is as good as mine," Colonel Joel Scott admitted. "All I know is we got a CRITIC alert for immediate scramble to these coordinates. Apparently our hosts have hot-intel that our quarry will be at this warehouse within the hour. Our orders are to establish a perimeter around the warehouse and wait for her to come in. Once she enters, we're to seal the area up. No one in or out." How the hell did they know that? Fredrickson wondered, but really couldn't ask. He was fairly sure Scott would have mentioned it if he knew and was free to share that information. "ROE?" he asked. "Rules of Engagement, Option Bravo," Scott answered. "Primary target, all necessary force to capture or kill. All other considerations, secondary." Including civilian bystanders, Fredrickson though chillingly. John Raintree watched as the vans returned from their mission and the two bound captives were secured in separate rooms. The plan they had come up with required some degree of luck, but that was unavoidable with an adversary this powerful. After he was manacled to a table, one of the guards removed the hood from Daniel Nunez and shined a spotlight in his face to minimize his ability to perceive details of his surroundings or captors. "Hello there, Mr. Nunez," Raintree said charmingly. "I have to say, you've been a very productive man these past few days, haven't you?" Daniel shook his head fearfully. "Listen... whatever you want, you have the wrong guy!" "Now, now... don't be modest," Raintree chided. "Your research has indeed uncovered some embarrassing holes that really should have been covered these last dozen years." "Look... I'll tell you whatever you want! Just let Lisa go!" Daniel pleaded. "She's got nothing to do with any of this!" "I'm afraid I really can't do that Mr. Nunez," Raintree shook his head as he gently patted Daniel on the shoulder. "You see, for the person I'm really after, I need all the emotional duress I can muster against her." "Who...?" "The remarkable young girl you've been working with this past month. We've put together our own profile on her, of course. For instance, did you know she can hear your thoughts from halfway across town?" Raintree noted the momentary confusion on Daniel's face before continuing. "No, it's true," he assured. "And just as a normal person with sharp hearing will notice his own name from a crowd, our girl will hear someone specifically calling her from much further away than just random background noise. What's more, the more... emotional impact that call has, the stronger it will get her attention." "Wait a minute...!" Daniel asked with confusion and disbelief. "You're talking about... Angelina? You're claiming...she can read minds?" "Oh, she can do far, far more than that. Let me put it another way. Tell me Mr. Nunez... do you believe in God?" Raintree asked curiously. "Wha...?" Daniel gasped in shock. "I admit to previously being somewhat of an atheist myself. In the world that I operate, it's often... troublesome to believe in a higher being judging your thoughts and actions for the next life. But the last few weeks have been a...revelation to me. I've come to realize that we are indeed the recipients of good will from higher beings. I've come to accept that Gods walk the Earth. That's why I want you to call out to her." "That's crazy...!" Daniel said shaking his head. "Now, is that anyway to express faith in the one who would save you?" Raintree chided. "Remember Mark 9:23; 'Everything is possible for him who believes.' What are you prepared to believe?" He nodded to one of the other figures in the dark. A few seconds later, a piercing sound came out of the darkness. Daniel's eyes widened with shock as a long, large-diameter spinning drill bit slowly descended towards left hand. "Call out to her Mr. Nunez. Call as if your very life depends on it..." "Oh Jesus...!" Daniel said with terror. "That's the spirit Mr. Nunez..." Raintree said sinisterly as he leaned close to Daniel's ear. "Let us pray..." Inside the government base, Angelina suddenly screamed in pain and doubled-over in mid-air. Eddie snapped to a combat stance instinctively and looked around with horror as he saw every single person on the base writhe in agony. "What the fuck...!" Eddie cursed as he tried to figure out what the hell Angelina was up to now. Some new kind of attack? he wondered. Maybe Garner's men finally did come up with some counter to Angelina's abilities after all. But why wouldn't they have activated it sooner than now? Angelina gasped as she frantically tried to regain her equilibrium. She shook her head, clutched her left hand and looked at Eddie in desperation. "They're... torturing him...! They're going to kill them both! I...I have to stop it....!" "What... now?" Eddie demanded in surprise. "I'm sorry...! I have to stop it...! Angelina cried out before flying straight up and blasting through the reinforced ceiling, disappearing in the distance almost instantly. "This is bad...!" Eddie muttered to himself as he looked up at the open hole in the ceiling. "You there! Freeze!" the guard nearest to Eddie ordered as he began to recover from the painful attack. Behind him, several additional guards immediately followed suit, readying weapons as the base klaxons lit up. "...very bad..." Eddie swore as he assessed the opposition and braced himself for the attack. "Eddie!" Jeb Baily shouted into the microphone as the sounds of sirens suddenly pierced the dusk sky. "Ai...!" Madelyn gasped in pain as she collapsed to the ground. She clutched her left hand and tears of pain began to flow from her eyes. Yuri quickly grabbed her and looked her over as Jeb focused on Eddie. "What is it? What's going on?" Yuri asked. "My hand...!" Madelyn gasped as her mouth went dry and she started shivering as her body began to drop in temperature. Her breathing began to grow fast and shallow. "Jesus...!" Jeb muttered; he recognized symptoms of first stage shock when he saw them. "Keep her warm and elevate her legs!" Yuri grabbed Madelyn's hands, looking frantically for any sign of problems. "There's nothing wrong with your hands!" "There's a big hole through my hand!" Madelyn almost screamed. "Jeb!" Eddie called angrily over the radio, "get the hell out of there! McGee freaked out in the middle of the mission and just took off!" Jeb looked at the surveillance screens; there were dozens of soldiers converging to the middle of the base as the perimeter went into immediate lockdown. He then looked back to Madelyn, who was still holding onto her left hand. "Madelyn, listen to me carefully... there's nothing wrong with your hand! Whatever you're seeing, it's not real!" "It... it's real to me...!" Madelyn cringed. "Angelina's feeling someone else's pain and she's transmitting it into your mind!" He turned to the radio. "Eddie, give me a sit-rep!" "They've got me pinned down!" Eddie shouted back over the scrambled radio. "They're using some kind of nano-tech disassembler weapons that's doing a hell of a job on my bio suit! You need to get the hell out of there! Once I go down, they're going to sweep the whole area!" Jeb swore a curse to himself... and it was going so well. How the hell had things gone into the toilet so fast? Their most powerful operative just flew the coop in mid-mission. Eddie was now trapped behind an entire division of armed troops, specially equipped to deal with his abilities. Red Nova and Dark Fury would not be coming. And he was stuck in a van with a pair of non-combatants, one of them now at risk for going into hypovolaemic shock because her brain was being convinced that she was suffering from a massive trauma that was apparently taking place somewhere else in the city. Cripple or not, it was all up to him now. Time to earn your pay, old man... Angelina cried out as she rocketed straight up through the air. Her mind was still half-blind with pain and emotional panic. She desperately needed to get some distance to clear her mind. Her mission with Eddie was a distant memory; she needed to find the source of the mental attack and stop it right away. Until she stopped it, her mind was going to lash out reflexively at everyone around her. The pain began to fade as she managed to get far enough away from the source for her mind to regain her equilibrium. She was hovering near the edge of the breathable atmosphere far above the ground. There was a tight bubble of compressed air molecules hugging her body; something she had been teaching herself to do instinctively. If she didn't, she might have asphyxiated. Once she recovered from the pain, she looked back down to the surface of the Earth. From her perspective, she could sense the massive sea of human thoughts and emotions scattered across the country. However, specific thoughts stuck out to her; someone down in Chicago was calling out to her specifically. Someone who knew her was screaming in agony and pain. She couldn't tell who it was from this distance, but whoever it was, she needed to save them and do it fast. General Garner stepped off the military transport helicopter as the rotors were still spinning. Behind him, an entourage of staff followed him as he walked down the stairs to the lowest level of the base. One of many bases under his purview of top secret metahuman-related military projects, the government had managed to acquire Red Nova's sword, helmet and some tattered scraps of his costume a week ago and immediately moved them to quarantine for study and analysis. Nova himself was never found, and Garner didn't believe the Nova Tech press release for a minute. But maybe now he would get some answers. "This way General Garner," the head of security motioned, unlocking the secure doors with an electronic key. "What else do we know?" "He was found near the vault where we're keeping Red Nova's gear. The troubling thing was how he managed to get so close without being detected, not to mention get that vault door open. Our security tech guys are trying to figure that out, but nothing about his profile suggests he's capable of bypassing all that security alone. We're also trying to figure out who or what blasted through the vault chamber." "Subject F67 could have done that; and if she doesn't want to be seen, you won't see her. In fact, we have an Op going on right now that's intended to smoke her out," Garner grumbled as he looked at the damage. "Any casualties?" he asked. "A few injures and one death; the poor guy nearest to him got caught in the crossfire, but the new weapons we've developed did a great job suppressing his bio-containment suit's powers." At Garner prompting, the door to the detention area opened. He smiled at the sight of Eddie bound and gagged in heavy chains. He almost winced at the ugly bruising and contusions; some of the security personnel took a little extra zeal in subduing him, but Garner wasn't going to complain. "Well, well... the prodigal son returns. Not so tough now, are you?" "He didn't go down easy General," the senior security guard said. "Swore he'd never go back to Project Tanguska." "He did, did he? Well then... if we can't get him to serve the Project as an operative, then we'll just have to make due with what we can learn from his remains..." Jeb wiped his brow as he drove through the streets of Chicago. He needed to get some distance from the base and lose himself in the urban jungle; security protocols, not to mention common sense told him that the base security's next step would be to sweep the area for support personnel and part of that sweep would probably be aerial, possibly even by satellite. There was, in fact, a chance they already had a visual on the van itself, so getting to a hiding place was crucial before they had a chance to put out an APB to the local authorities on a bogus trumped up charge. The adrenaline rush was like a remembrance to the old days when he was a costumed vigilante in Boston. Unlike most of them though, he didn't have any powers, other than skill and combat experience, and that proved to be a crucial liability one night when a psychotic killer tossed his car into a building, trapping him in the wreckage. Since losing the use of his legs, he did his best to continue fighting for justice by supporting those who could participate in the new dangerous arena of metahuman battles. However, with the rest of his team now captured or missing, his options were growing thin. "OK, I've given her the shot like you told me to," Yuri said as she injected Madelyn with a pistol-grip hypodermic. Madelyn almost immediately stopped struggling and collapsed into a deep sleep. "Since she's not suffering any actual physical trauma, hopefully keeping her unconscious will block or at least minimize her brain's ability to receive telepathic suggestions," Jeb said. "Hopefully?" "We're dealing with a telepath of unprecedented power; stuff that works against other psychics may not mean much here. All we can hope for right now is that whatever caused McGee to lose control of her powers gets resolved as quickly as possible. If it doesn't, then Madelyn's life could very well be in jeopardy." "What about Eddie? With Rusty and Nicole gone, how are we going to help him?" Jeb thought long and hard about the situation. He didn't have a lot of options and he didn't consider leaving Eddie behind one of them. He owed Eddie his life and he would be damned if he didn't pay that debt back somehow. "Did Rusty ever talk to you about a 'second-skin' protocol?" Yuri's face wrinkled in disgust. "Eww... that was so icky! Besides, I don't think we ever tried it on a crip... err... someone with physical limitations." "Well, we're out of options," Jeb sighed. "I'm going to need your help to rescue Eddie. I have to be Dark Hawk once again." |