Chapter 2
On top of a large clock tower in the center of the city, Talia sits on the ledge. Then, her sister lands on the ledge beside her.
"Now, what is the CEO of Black Inc. doing on the clock tower? Not committing suicide, I hope. I'll miss you dearly." she asked, concernedly.
"Really? Do you really think I would be the kind to kill myself?" Talia replied, bluntly.
"Well, now that you say it out loud. Anyway, what's wrong? I thought you would've loved that you've inherited a multi-billion-dollar company. Is it not all you've wished?"
"Truthfully, I rather work with Dad than dealing with those people." Talia said.
"Oh, Mason. Make sense. He is the definition of an arrogant bastard. And dating him was the absolute worst."
"Gross," Talia said.
"Trust me, it way worse than it sounds. Anyways, what did they do to you to make you come up here?"
"What didn't they do, Dani. Your ex tried to ambush me with the other pathetic sidekicks. He shot me, ruining my favorite top. And he is determined to take over my father's legacy, including the family business."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I looked over your father's will and it explicitly says if any other person besides you tries to get his shares of the company, the company itself shutdown and everything it owns will be sold to an unknown business off the grid."
"Let me guess. That business belongs to a cat-themed sister of mine."
"No, it's a business set up by dad to be yours when he died. You just need to access it."
"Wow, I never knew dad set up something like that. Makes me feel guilty about not going to their funeral."
"Oh, don't worry about it, sis. I'm sure they both know how you felt when they died. Hell, I'm still a train wreck after this long. That's why we need to stick together."
Talia sighs. "What's the job?" she asked.
"No job. Just me and you visiting an old friend who's in town." Dani said as she falls over ledge. Talia smiles and follows her down. Falling into a portal, Dani and Talia rolls onto a building's roof. Quickly getting up, Dani and Talia begin to run to the next building. "Here catch. Wouldn't be fair if I was the only one with a grapple." Dani yelled as she tossed over grapple gauntlet to Talia.
"Thanks, but I think we both know you gave me the advantage." Talia said as she caught the gauntlet and put it on. They both jumped off the building and swung to the next building. Talia, then, noticed something strange was happening with her head.
"Talia, where are you?" Mary echoed in her head.
"Get out of my head. You and the others made it clear. I'm not wanted." Talia said.
"Talia! Wait!" Mary yelled, giving Talia a splitting headache and disorienting her. Crashing through a window, Talia landed in the middle of a drug lord's meeting. "Uh Oh,"
"Well, look at what we got here boys? A wannabe hero. Show her what we do to wannabes." A man, in a white suit, said.
"Got it, Boss," Three large men said as they rushed Talia.
"Ugh, I haven't had a headache this bad since training with Shiva." Talia said as she got into a fighting stance.
As they approached her, Talia lunged forward and punched one of the large men in the face knocking him back into another goon. Then, she forward rolled, and side kicked the last goon in the stomach and spin kick him in the face, knocking him unconscious. She, then, stood up slowly and walked over to the drug lord. However, before she got close, the drug lord ran away.
Talia sighs. "Seriously? Why run?" she thought to herself.
"Well, Manson Stagg was always a coward. He would leave his own mother to get away from the Kaiju that invaded months ago." Dani said.
"Really, Manson Stagg? As in the Roach. The big bad my father had problems with putting behind bars. That's surprising. Oh, and thanks for the help, sis."
"Oh, come on. We both know you had everything under control. Even though, you did mess up with your gauntlet."
"I didn't mess up. Ma…Psyche made me disoriented."
"Ouch, that must be tough. How are you feeling? Can you focus?"
"I can focus enough to win the race. If that's what you're asking."
"Good, let's go." Dani said before running away towards the window and jumping out. She, then, zipped up the building.
"Show off," Talia said as followed her sister.
Thirty minutes later, Talia and Dani landed on top of an embassy building.
"Where are we, Dani?"
"Remember that time we were in Novask, and we met those two girls?"
"Yeah, Avery and Amalia. What about them?"
"Well, I tried to stay in touch with them as much as I could. And you wouldn't believe what they became."
"Well, Avery became the world's most powerful hero. And didn't Amalia go back to her country."
"And became queen. Which is why we're here. She's in town, establishing an emergency relief checkpoint here. So, I thought we could visit her."
"At ten o'clock at night. Yeeeaaahh, what could go wrong?" Talia said.
"Oh, don't worry. I called her ahead of time. She's expecting us." Dani said as she walked to an open window and went inside. Talia followed unknowing what to expect.
"Good to see you again, Talia." A teenage girl said as she walked into the room.
"Amalia, how have you been?" Talia said happily as she hugged Amalia.
"Great, how you've been? I heard the terrible news."
"I've been better. But it's still kinda hard."
"I heard. Dealing with Sentry's sidekicks and with the board of your father's company."
"How?"
"Your father's databases are easily hackable. It took me a good five minutes to get in." Talia said.
"Good to know the first thing I need to upgrade."
"If you want, I could set that up for you." Amalia said.
"Odd, I thought you said you couldn't share Savarian technology with the outsiders. Some part of a huge tradition."
"Well, tradition went out the door when my brother sold our country's secrets to some unknown buyers. So, I can do whatever I want with our tech. Speaking of… A little gift." Amalia said as she held out a box.
Opening the box, Talia and Dani were surprised by the gift. Inside, there were two necklaces, each with Dani's and Talia's insignias with claws marks through them, and two sets of black fingerless gloves.
"Are these?"
"Yes, these are nanotech suits made with Caleaxium, completely indestructible. They're capable of absorbing all kinds of energies, including magical and demon nature. They're one hundred percent undetectable, even Savarian's satellites will have a hard time tracking them. And the best part about it is that is connected to Avery's communication network."
"Avery's what?"
"Right, you two don't know yet. Avery has a headquarters of her own, with the universe's most highly advanced technology, on the moon. I should take you up there someday. Anyway, the fingerless glove is something that is exclusive to my friends. They're keys to underground caches around the world. They're store houses filled with custom made vehicles and weapons I made just for you two. And if you're wondering how you'll find those caches, I already put their locations in your suit's systems." Amalia said.
"Woah, thanks for this Amalia. This suit is amazing." Talia and Dani said as they hugged her simultaneously.
"Aw, you're welcome, you guys. Anything for my two of my best friends. Besides, I want to talk to you about an idea that Avery's guardian had."
"Avery's Guardian? Idea?"
Meanwhile, Mary and Minerva are driving through the streets in Sentry's car, while Mason flies above in the SentryJet. They were looking for Talia everywhere in the city.
"Does anyone have eyes on her?" Mary asked telepathically.
"She's not on the rooftops. Are you sure felt her swinging from a rooftop?" Mason replied.
"Are you questioning my ability to track my stepdaughter, Mason? Let's not forget who drove her away in the first place." Mary said.
Mason sighs.
"If you're both done, I just connected to the Black Satellites and started scanning the city for Talia. We should have something in a few minutes." Rook said.
"Alright, let us know the first minute you see something." Mary said. "Even though that might be useless. She and her sister can hide from every detection technology we have available." She thought.
"Cass, are you on patrol tonight? We can surely use your help." Mason asked.
"I told you. I'm not going to help you all jump a little girl. It goes against everything I fight for." A girl said while sitting at a desk in her room, doing homework.
"Even if she's the daughter of Sentry's greatest enemy, DeathDemon."
"What! I thought she was Sentry's daughter. Ooh, that'll be an interesting story."
"She's DeathDemon's adopted daughter and she was taught everything he knew. Wait, what you mean interesting story?" Mary said.
"Uh nothing. Anyway, are you sure she's trustworthy?" Cass asked.
"NO," Mason said simultaneously as Mary said "YES."
"And Malcolm thought she would be the perfect replacement for him." Mary continued to speak.
"Really? Give me a second. I need to change, and head out. I want to see for myself."
"Uh, guys, I think the satellites found her. It says she and two others are on the roof of Exo Industries. But why go there?" Rook said.
"To steal high-tech Exo suit technology. We all need to hurry." Mason said as he turned the plane around.
"Mason… don't do anything too reckless until we all get there. Unless you want a repeat of the butt whooping Talia gave you… Twice."
"What?" Cass said.
"Now is not the right time for that." Mason said.
Meanwhile, Talia, Dani, and Amalia are catching up with each other while testing out their new suits.
"Wow, Amalia. These suits are amazing. I never felt so powerful before." Talia said.
"Not to mention, all the great features that come with it. Camouflage, Spectrum Vision, Weapon creator. And let's not forget that you installed grapples in them."
"Actually… those aren't grapples. They're highly dense malleable cables, that the suit creates by using thought."
"How?"
"Do you really want the extremely long science explanation of Caleaxium?" Amalia asked.
"Never mind."
"How does the suit work?" Talia asked.
"It works by thought. Just think of what you want. And you can even connect to Sentry's database to get blueprints of his weapons, allowing you to recreate them."
"Not so fast!" Mason yells as he lands in front of Talia and the others. "Hey, I'm too late. She and two others are here with high-tech suits on. Get here quickly. I hold them off." Mason whispered.
"What do you want now? I already gave up on being this city's protector. Just leave me alone." Talia said loudly.
"And you turned to a life of crime." Mason said as he charged at her. Punching with all his strength, Mason aimed for Talia's face. However, he didn't expect a blast of wind to push him back. "What was that?"
"A simple warning. Stand down." Amalia said.
"And if I don't,"
Amalia shot a stream of fire at the ground in front of Mason. "You'll be burned." Amalia said.
"Woah," Dani and Talia said.
"You think I'm afraid of fire. I fought fire freaks all the time when I was a sidekick. You're no different." Mason said as he drew his guns.
"Same old Mason, shoot first ask questions later. And people call him a hero." Dani said.
Mason pulled the trigger and shot at Amalia, Talia, and Dani. Instantly, their suits reacted and formed helmets, which shocked Talia and Dani. Bouncing off their suits, the bullets hit a security panel, setting off the alarms.
"Crap," Amalia thought. "Talia, Dani, watch your surroundings. This place's security system consist of highly trained droids that we use to train our elite warriors." She said.
"What?" Talia and Dani thought.
Suddenly, five large droids appeared behind them.
"Did I mention that they have the abilities of ten superheroes?" Amalia said.
"Why?" they shouted as they dodged the droid's punches. Creating a sharp katana, Talia defended herself. However, the droid suddenly punched Talia off the roof.
"Talia," Dani and Amalia yelled. They both ran towards the edge and jumped off.
"Come back here." Mason yelled following them.
Dani aimed and grabbed Talia with the cables. Amalia, then, grabbed them both and flew towards the embassy.
"I'm on their trail. Track my location." Mason said.
Back at the embassy
"Ugh, what happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck." Talia said.
"Well, you might as well have been. That droid had the strength of both your uncle Merica and Mt. Fear. You might need a hospital."
"No, I'll be fine. Why did you make those droids so strong?" Talia said as she sat up in pain.
"To protect the data we have in Exo Industries. However, they should've recognized you as my allies and friends. Must've been because the idiot's bullet." Amalia said as she summoned a holographic screen in front of her. "No, impossible! I made those personally. How could someone brea… Akayo!"
"Amalia, talk to us. What's going on?" Dani asked.
"My brother hacked Exo Industries and changed those droids' protocols. Instead of, protecting the company like they're supposed to be, they're programmed to go on a rampage when they activate. And we just activated them." Amalia said.
"We need some help?" Dani said.
"And, you'll have it." Mary said as she and the others swoop into the room.
Talia sighs.
"You are bold after everything you've done to my sister." Dani said as she walked up to them.
"Down kitty… don't want a repeat of what happened last we met. We're here to help." Mason said.
"You mean on your knees begging for more punishment." Dani said.
"Gross," Talia said, mistakenly loud, causing everyone to look at her. "Oops, did I say that out loud." She thought.
"Anyways, we need to find those droids before someone gets hurts." Mary said.
"Alright, Talia, Dani, and I will head to the north. Pysche, you, SentryKid, and Minerva head to the…
"No, I want to go with Talia. I need to talk with her about something important." Mary said.
"Is it really important?" Amalia asked.
Mary nods.
"Fine, we'll take SentryKid and Talia will go with you." Amalia said.
"Fine," Talia said.
"Channel two," Amalia whispered to Talia.
"Channel two?" Talia thought.
"Opening channel two!" A computerized voice said.
"Huh,"
"Oh, looks like the new inter-dimensional communication system is working well." A voice said in Talia's ear.
"Avery, is that you?" Talia said.
"Yes, who is this? Wait, is this Talia? How have you been?" the voice said happily.
Later that night, Talia, Mary, and Minerva landed on top of a building, where the android was last picked up on. However, there was nothing there.
"So, what was you wanted to talk about?" Talia asked.
"I just wanted to let you know. I had no idea of Kid Sentry's plan. I was just showing you the bunker because you were the one Sentry wanted to be his successor. And I thought you should see and learn about the technology he… no you have."
"Well, as you can see, I got the technology covered. And my skills are superior to anything he could teach me."
"Says the person who had to flee from the cave." Minerva said under her breath.
"You want to say that again. A little louder this time." Talia said, throwing a knife past Minerva's face.
"The hell's your problem!" Minerva yelled.
"That's my line. You and the others of that man's side projects have had it out for me since Psyche found me."
"What are you talking about?" Minerva said.
"SO, you're just ignoring the fact that you and the other tried to kill me in the cave now? Okay, but answer this. What purpose comes from killing me? Huh," Talia said. Instantly, an android assembles behind her. She sighs. "Yea, that was sloppy." Talia thought. With the force of a crashing meteor, the android punches Talia, sending her flying into Minerva.
"Talia! T'wanda!" Pysche said, worriedly. The android instantly appeared beside Mary and attacked her. Fortunately, Mary was able to dodge and throw some smoke pellets at its face, releasing a cloud of smoke. She, then, made her way to Talia. "Here put this on." She said, giving Talia an utility belt.
Talia looked at it for a minute and sighed. "Fine," she said as she grabbed it. Putting it on, her suit immediately assimilated it into itself, slightly upgrading it. "Cool," She thought as she stood up. She then charged at the android. As the android punched, Talia dodged by sliding underneath its fists. She then jumped on its back. Forming a katana in her hand, she quickly stabs it through the android's nape, shutting it down. "One down, four to go." She said into her communicator.
"Two down, we just finished ours, too." Rook said.
"Four down, we had two to deal with. Surprisingly, it was easy. Too easy." Amalia said.
"You're right. Let's meet back at the cave and compare notes." Talia said.
"Alright, make sure bring you the androids. See you there."
"Can't believe she shared that top secret info with you? A civilian?" Mason said, unhappily.
"A queen and she didn't tell me anything. I already knew about Malcolm's secret cave."
"How did you…
"I have access to the world's greatest technology known to mankind. It's not hard to find a cavern under a city. Generating as much power as it does, it's screaming out come get me." Amalia said.
And, on that note, I'm going back to my hotel. Call me when you find something." Dani said.
"Alright, Talia and I can handle it from here. We'll be over later."
"Wait, what? There's still one out there." Mason said.
"Don't worry, I can hack into their system and send out a distress signal. Dragging the last one to the cave, where I can disable and deactivate it." Amalia said.
"Hence the reason why I'm going back to my hotel. I'm not needed. If anything bad happens, my sister is more than enough to handle it." Dani said as she walked to the edge. "Thanks again, Amalia. See you later." Dani said. She then jumped off.
Mason sighed. "She's still the same."
"Alright, let's go." Amalia said as she pressed her gauntlet, uncloaking a Stealth jet.
"Was that there the entire time?" Mason asked."
Back in the Sentry's Cave,
"Where are they?" Minerva asked.
"Would you sit down? Anima's plane should be landing in 3,2,1."
Suddenly, a jet flies into the cavern and hovers over a platform. Opening the back door, Amalia drops the android onto the platform before jumping down herself. "Delivery," Amalia said.
"See, you were worried for no reason. Your little boyfriend is back safe and sound. Anyways, you need to calm down. You can't fight if you're distracted. I'm sure my father taught you that at least. Right."
Minerva sighed.
"Besides, I don't think he'll ever realized your feelings." Talia said.
"What! I don't know what you're talking about! I don't have feelings for…
"Hey, love who you want. I don't judge. Even if its someone like him." Talia said.
"Hey, Talia, come here for a sec. I want to talk." Mary said.
Talia sighed as she walked to Mary.
"Talia, I know that you have your doubts. But I really want to be there for you. So how about a deal?"
"I'm listening." Talia said.
"A year… No six months, give me six months to prove to you, I don't mean you any harm and only want what's best for you. If I can't, I'll let you go on your own and stay away from you. And I won't even telepathically track you. Six months, to prove to you're not alone in the world. That's all I want."
Talia looked at Mary and saw she was genuine and truthful. "Okay, I'll give you the chance. And to give you a better chance, I'll give you a year instead of six months." She said.
Mary smiled. "Thank you," she said.
"Uh, we got some bad news." Amalia said.
"What is it?"
"The android left the planet and is headed for Avery's HQ. Once there, it will have access to the universe's greatest technology." Amalia said.
"Then, let's get up there. Call Avery and tell her what's going on?" Talia said.
"Do you how hard it is to get up there? The Sentry Jet can't make that trip." Mason said.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't being clear. Amalia let's get up there and call Avery. The rest of you can stay here." Talia said.
"I guess you weren't listening. There's not a pla…
"Okay, let's go. Avery said she couldn't come, but her dogs should be able to help. But we should head to one of the caches for some equipment. Your suit isn't prepped for the vacuum of space." Amalia said.
"Alright, let's hurry." Talia said as she walked pass Amalia.
"Right behind you,"
"Talia, wait!" Mary yelled.
"No time Mary. On a time-schedule." Talia said as she walked onto the plane.
Zooming into the sky, Talia and Amalia were prepping themselves for a fight.
"Do you want to talk?" Amalia said.
"About what?"
"You know. About the recent events that happened to you?"
Talia looked at Amalia. "Seriously?" she said confused.
"Yes… You know we understand you better than anyone on the planet. I know you're upset." Amalia said.
"Right… tell you what, let's postpone our girl talk and handle this for now. That way we can do it just like old times." Talia said.
"Okay," Amalia said.
"Arriving at the moon in five minutes." The ship's on-board computer said.
"Okay, so how are we going to do this? Frontal assault?" Amalia asked.
"No, in the vacuum of space, your powers won't work."
"I won't need my powers. Besides, I can't leave you to fight that thing alone." Amalia said.
Five minutes later, Amalia and Talia are shocked by the sight of three large wolves, ripping and toying with the android.
"Uh, Amalia?"
"Yes, T,"
"Didn't you say that Avery had dogs? Are these supposed to be … Talia gulps nervously as she looked at the large wolves, who still ripping the android apart. "Them?"
"Yes, but they weren't that big last time I saw them. I didn't think they could get that big." Amalia said.
The wolves stopped and carried the pieces of the android to Talia and Amalia. They dropped the pieces. "Here you are, humans. Your trash has been dealt with." Fenrir, the Alpha wolf, said.
"Thank you, Fenrir, Skoll, Hati."
"Anytime, Auntie Amalia… Auntie Talia." Hati said.
"You know about me!?" Talia asked.
"Really? Of Course, Momma talks about you a lot. You're her two of her best friends." Skoll said.