It's early morning, way too early infact I'm pretty sure I only wake up this early when it's school, that is to say its 5:50am the sun is barely peaking out and I'm standing in the wreckage of what used to be O.R's fight club warehouse. It's chilly and I'm alone, the others upon my instruction didn't come with me they stayed back at the house just in case this meeting goes wrong and I'm taken.
I'm dressed a pair of skinny jeans, a t-shirt, boots and an overcoat, you know normal teenager clothes.
"Smart of you picking this place kid," says Han as he emerges from behind a bit of rubble. He has a kimono over dark loose fitting clothing, his pistol is visible beneath.
Following close behind is Frank, the goggles he wears to enhance his eyes visible beneath a hoodie. He's dressed scruffily in a half tucked shirt, dress pants and laceless shoes. Next to him is Janice her t-shirt of choice today is a Slipknot shirt.
They all came as I had asked, perfect. But something tells me they aren't truly alone and if that is true I might be surrounded and wouldn't even know it.
"Good to see you too, Han." I say.
"You have a different look in your eyes Terry Barnes," says Frank. As he comes to a halt a little distance from me
"You think so? I think I'm still the same actually, maybe a little more focused and a little better at using my abilities but still the same." I reply
"Well, you requested this meeting. I expected you to bring the same friends you had when you had met Janice for her assistance." He says
I look over at Janice even in the not so bright early morning light I can see she's working hard to avoid my eyes. She must have told him everything that happened including the fact that we got her to not press the button that would have brought him to us.
"You know how it is, not everyone's a morning person and all that. Plus if I am actually surrounded by your people and I don't get out I'll be the only person taken." I say
Frank smiles slightly, "That sounds like you're implying something would happen to you."
"Yeah, I'd die." I say glaring into the part of Frank's goggles where his eyes would be with a cold stare.
"Then why bring yourself out in the open, if we were to be take you now you do know I wouldn't kill you right away. I'd torture the location of your friends out of you first."
"By which time they'd be long gone and doing what needs to be done if after a certain amount of time I don't show up or check in. And as for taking me you can surely try."
Frank shifts where stands. "I could simply shoot you here and be done with it."
"You could but you wouldn't find out how exactly WECA's been monitoring you and I'm sure she told you WECA's monitoring you. And I'm guessing you've been a little more cautious in what you do, maybe you've spread the word to the other anti-WECA set ups around the world that they're being watched but that wouldn't change anything." I say
"We're still doing good work either way."
"Is that what you tell yourself? Don't you want more? Isn't the purpose of your entire set up to gnaw at WECA until you make it fall? Somehow I don't think you're gnawing at it enough to be a mild annoyance." I say stepping forward.
The expression on Frank's face tells me I'm getting to him.
"We're running out of time, people are dying and a lot more people will die. Those things out there killing people they're not gonna stop until my friends and I give ourselves up to WECA and we aren't going back. The only way is to break the entirety of it at once world wide all at once."
Luckily Frank doesn't laugh in my face. So I explain my plan briefly to Frank, Han and Janice who listen attentively. I do leave out a few details like how the true purpose of my plan to set the world on fire is to see what Marlea's got on the other side before she gets impatience and throws it at us any way.
"You're insane." Says Frank.
"I know but you've seen those things on the news. How long until WECA lets loose the other monsters under the bed?"
"Let me take your lives then, all this can end."
"What then? We escaped the cage and this happened, what do you think will happen when you display our heads on spikes for them to see. World peace and fireworks?"
Frank clinches his jaw thoughtfully.
"This the only way Frank." I say
"Then come with me all of you, you live in the building. We do it there."
"Forgive me but I'm not exactly trusting you enough for all of us to shack up. In all honesty, I came here for Janice. She's important for the first phase of the plan." I say
"You've barely explained it and you expect me to just give you Janice?" Asks Frank
"Yeah."
"How is her safety guaranteed?"
"For one thing we haven't killed anyone..... Not directly anyway." And we aren't the ones being watched." I say
"We're leaving." Says Frank. He turns and begins heading out.
"I'll return her Frank."
Janice disappears, well rather is snatched by a speedster, one Carla (I kinda lied about leaving everyone behind I did bring Carla). I stomp my foot with a focused energy projection that shakes the ground beneath Frank and Han which knocks them off balance in that moment I shoot up into the air and fly away rapidly, mostly to avoid getting shot in case Han or Frank fire off a weapon.
The plan was to ask for Janice but the real plan was to take Janice incase they resisted, but of course it wouldn't be that simple, for me anyway. Burly 1 and Burly 2 are on my tail they're flying rapidly and given flight is theor forte they're fast. In the air I can't out muscle them. Speaking of which we've really gotta work on using more than one ability at once.
I arch upwards and add a kick to accelerate faster then pivot, release my flight ability and fire two crisscrossed waves of energy at both Burlys. Wind rushes past me as I plummet downward, they both just barely dodge, splitting apart.
I switch back to flight and kick out hard shooting at a speed that alarms Burly 1. I switch to augmented strength mid flight and meet him fist first, he blocks with a open palm which he quickly draws back from the force of the punch with a wince, could have broke a bone in there.
Burly 2 crashes into me and locks his arms around me, he doesn't stop shooting downward.
I catch a glimpse of the ground and see why, there's about ten if not a dozen people on the ground. All of them probably have abilities, if I reach the ground I'd be in trouble.
"Sorry about this." I say
Switching to energy projection I let an energy pulse flow through me and into Burly 2, I feel it explode within his body. He gives a pained grunt and his grip goes limp, I shoot out of his arms and fly right past Burly 1 who stares wide eyed for a moment before shooting after Burly 2.
Burly 2 won't die, at least I hope not the little energy explosion within in would have done something to his heart. Almost like someone physically grabbing it and squeezing it hard then releasing it.
I take the opportunity to fly away as fast away as I can, without looking back.
------------------------------------------------------------------
It would be false tough guy of me to say I'm not hurt, Burly 2's grip around me aggravated my injury. It's now early morning and I've just landed in the backyard breathing hard with pain shooting up my back, I almost punch Marc as helps me to my feet. I hadn't seen him coming.
He helps me inside and I stop him while we're walking through the kitchen and sit on the floor leaning against the counters.
"Get Toni." I say.
As he walks away I grab his foot. "Is Carla back?" I ask
"Yeah she got here just before you landed outside." He replies and walks away.
Marc returns with Toni a little bit later. He lays healing hands on my head and I feel better, well as good as whatever this back pain condition is.
"Thanks Toni. Now let's go see our guest." I say, Marc helps to my feet.
Janice is seated on the couch being watched by Carla and Nicole closely as I enter the room they take a step back and all five of us stand in front of her. I glance over at her backpack with her laptop and gesture at it.
"Is there anything in there they can find you by?" I ask, Janice remains defiantly silent.
"Look Janice we're not gonna hurt you, you can read our minds if you like." I say
"She's a mind reader? You're a mind reader?" Asks Nicole
"Yeah she is.... Look Janice, this can be one of two ways. You tell me if there's anything in there to be removed that can track where you are or Marc here can just fry it all but your phone has definitely gotta go I'm sorry. So which is it gonna be, I'm sure you've got stuff on there you'd like to keep?" I ask
"Already took care of the phone." says Carla. I glance over to her and nod
She analyses all of us for a moment before she speaks. "There's a chip behind a Witcher 3 sticker on the back."
Marc rummages through the pack, removes the laptop and tears through the sticker of Geralt revealing a small blue chip which he places into his hands and turns to black ash.
"Okay I'm kinda tired, I'm pretty sure you kinda are too Carla. Let's sit guys."
Carla and Toni sit on the couch with Janice. Marc grabs a stool. Nicole and myself grab a couple of weirdly shaped chairs.
"Look I wasn't lying about the plan back there," I say, " it was all true but we need help and I'm not exactly willing to wait and measure dicks with Frank or his people."
"Look at you all mature..... I thought you needed us." Says Janice
"You know I thought Frank would maybe be reasonable, see the possibility through the insanity but if thats him alone what about the hundreds or thousands other leaders of anti-WECA cells around the world, are they just as thick? I hope not because with your help Janice I'm gonna hand them all armies to do physically take down WECA." I say
"And what exactly is my role in this Grand scheme of yours?" She asks
"Same role you've had before, as a hacker tech goddess. We need to get past things that none of us are equip to." I say
"Which is?"
"Every precaution and bit of security WECA has when it comes to the Pledge program," says Carla, "we need you to find a way to get in and deactivate the monitoring on every Pledged person but at the same time ensuring that it still seems like they're being monitored under WECA protocols."
"Thats... I can't do that alone." Replies Janice slowly
"You're gonna have to." I say
"It'll be harder, it'll take months Terry." She says
"That's fine," I say, "there are other things we'll be doing as well."
"Frank will throw every resource he's got into finding me." She says
"We'll move regularly." Says Marc
"People will keep dying out there Terry... You can't take WECA. For crying out the anti-WECA can't do it and they've been trying for over a year now, world wide. They've become a pastime at most a refugee redistribution centre, the biggest win that's happened was when we got you and Marc and even that didn't last long. This won't work, Terry."
"Where there's a will, there might be a way.... Maybe." Replies Toni. "We have our reasons for this, for trying the impossible the if we are destined to fail anyway what's the harm in helping?" He asks
Janice looks at Toni then back at me. "I guess there's no harm. I'm gonna need things."
"Carla and Toni have got you with anything you need." I say.
"Can I ask you a something, all of you?" Asks Janice.
Myself and the others exchange curious looks and I shrug.
"I get that you're the leader," she says with a gesture my way, "but what do you hope accomplish, individually?"
Damn come to think of it had any of us really thought of that?
"I want to go home, back to Minneapolis. I wanna see my family again." Carla says quietly
"Me too. Not Minneapolis but I too want to go home and also find my mother." Toni says
"I guess.... I want to be part of something bigger than myself, I don't have a home. And I've never had a family, these four are the closest thing I've ever had to that so far. And although we don't always see eye to eye I'll follow Terry anywhere." Says Marc
"I wanna change the world and by the this ends that's exactly what will have happened." Says Nicole with a shrug
"I want ..... Answers and this is the only way I'm gonna get them. Once I have my answers then yeah we'll take it from there. But until then Nicole, Marc it's time." I say
"It's that time already?" Asks Nicole
"Yeah." I say as I stand. Marc and Nicole stand with me.
"One more thing, did you go to that facility?" I ask
"Yea. There wasn't anything, just a fire red colour suit of some kind."
That would be Nicole's suit. We're gonna need that at some stage better not say anything for now. I just nod
Toni eyes me with a concerned look as I leaving with Marc and Nicole, I smile reassuringly even though what we're about to do isn't filled with a whole lot of reassurance.
"You sure this is the best way to spent the rest of the day, cap?" Asks Marc
"Yeah, I mean it's not everyday one gets to potentially get their asses kicked by the real life version of their computer simulation monsters." I say nervously, "you got the camera?"
Nicole reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a camcorder which she shows to me.
"We won't have Toni to heal us." Says Marc
"Yeah and that means we might actually be a little sharper without that bit of help," I say, "and we gotta have our wits about us, Frank's people will be on the look out."
"I just realised I didn't ask this but can you fly?" I ask Nicole.
She smirks as she hands the camcorder to Marc and removes her jacket. She cocks her head slightly she unclinches her jaw and grows larger, her skin becoming grey and purple scales, her hands turning into tallons and her eyes more reptilian. She then hunches over as a pair of wings painfully thrust out of her back, they are slightly translucent but large in wingspan, she flaps them twice gathering a massive gust of wind as she does so, they pack a wallop.
We might have to move when we get back from our trip because this is almost certainly gonna attract some kind of attention.
"Okay then let's go and record ourselves a propaganda video of us going head to head with the Blackforms, let's at least maybe get a minute of us looking like we might win. We bail out as soon as it looks bad."
Marc and Drago-Nicole both nod.
"Good, Marc you're obviously riding with Nicole. We're gonna have to be faster than a bat out of hell, we got at least 80 kilometres to cover in a short space of time." I say
"Climb my back." Says Nicole in a deep voice that catches me off guard so much i take a step back. "I know, it's not a lady like voice."
Marc does as instructed and we lift off and shot across the sky, strangely I'm the one finding it hard to keep up with Nicole. Nicole who is the big gun in this particular operation, given that WECA holds no data on what she can do, in other words the element of surprise. I hope it works because we're gonna be risking our lives to get people's attention on us, this being my first logical step on the how to get an army manual.