–Oroborous, 4:51 AM–
Long before the sun appeared over the horizon, a lone figure was sitting on a familiar stone at the top of an old esker. She had been sitting there long enough for the damp chill in the air to migrate to her bones. Cross-legged, she saw the first rays begin to streak the skies above her with dull cherry light, slowly fading to a duller, bloody hue. As the light began to crawl across the land, staining the tilled fields with the same shade of red, it appeared like the earth itself was bleeding in sympathy.
"Every morning since you were Seven, and you’ll still be sitting on this damn rock. I’d be surprised if you haven’t worn a groove into the damn thing." She turned slightly, looking with narrowed eyes at the lanky form standing beside her. The form took two steps towards her, then sat down so his thigh was touching hers. She instinctively shied away from the physical contact, flashes of remembered pain swirling through her mind.
"Go away." She hugged herself tightly, but he didn’t get the hint. Instead, he tried to get closer to her, but was stopped when she pressed the heel of her right hand into his sternum. "I said: go away." He stopped moving, and instead he looked at her, trying to see her eyes through the dull sunglasses she was wearing.
"Bad idea. Tell me why you’re here, then get away from me." He looked at her again, then reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out something that had been crumpled in his hand, placed it on her right thigh, and stood up.
"Read it. You might be interested." He then began walking away, leaving her to sit there, alone once again. She glanced at the crumpled object lying on her leg, but didn’t reach for it until the light had shifted from dull red to a more mellow shade of yellow-orange. Only then did she pick up the object, slipping it into a pocket in her baggy shirt. Looking at the sky, she sighed, then listened carefully as the distant buildings began to show signs of life.
Pulling on a pair of ratty-looking gloves, she flexed her fingers, then unfolded herself from her sitting position. Slowly getting off the rock, she began a series of simple exercises, primarily a mix between karate and shadow-boxing. For almost an hour, she punched and kicked at a phantom, working up a bit of a sweat. After she finished the last set in the exercise, she leaned against the stone, panting slightly from her exertions.
At that moment, she realized that someone was sitting on the rock, and that someone was about to latch onto her neck with a bearhug. Sighing, she leaned back farther, and her head landed in the person’s lap. "Hi mom! How long have you been out here?"
"Before Four. How’d you get here so quickly, especially without me noticing you?" She sat up, and motioned for Sebena to slide over so she could sit beside the smaller girl.
"Not telling." Sebena cuddled closer to her mom, marvelling at the feeling of coiled energy resting inside her mother’s arms.
"Your treehouse is in that tree over there isn’t it? That’s how you got out here without me seeing you."
"Busted. By the way, would you mind if I coloured my hair?"
"Damn right I would. No colouring your hair until you’re at least old enough to gather the attention of boys without screaming about cooties." She smiled, then pulled a long strand of her own hair around so she could look at it. "Y’know, I never really liked my old hair colour. Y’ want a few strands?" Sebena’s only response was a giggle and a playful prod to her shoulder.
"Naaahhh. I already have enough stuff of yours. Grandpa wanted to see you when you woke up, but you had already went out for something."
"Even I want to sit on my rock every once in a while. Grandpa has his, after all." She pointed behind her, at a misshapen rock, lying half-buried next to an old and warped oak tree that barely topped twelve feet. Getting up, she reached out to her daughter and latched onto the small hand that was offered. "Come on, it’s time I got back to the house before Grandma makes her waffles."
"Aww, the waffles are good, but can’t we stay out here? I just wanna have fun." Sebena pouted, but stopped when she was swept up in a hug. Responding quickly, she returned the hug, squirmed free, and skipped twenty metres down the worn pathway towards the old farm. Pausing, Sebena looked carefully at her mother, then pointed at the old buildings.
"Alright. I’m coming. Now, remind me why Grandma would be making waffles." She started walking down the path, avoiding the thicket of brambles resting in front of a centuries-old forest that was resting just inside the fence line. Sebena just stayed out of her reach, moving quickly down the pathway. However, by the time the path had widened out to an old tractor trail, Sebena had tired of her little game, and ended up sitting on her mother’s shoulders.
Soon, the two returned to the complex of buildings, looking at the old hulking farmhouse that had survived almost two hundred years of erosion. Just as the two wove their way to the front steps, the front door opened quietly, and Gudrun’s matronly bulk filled the doorway like some improbable barrier. "Ach! So that’s where you ran off to! Back at your little hidey-hole, eh kiddo? Well, come inside before you freeze and get some food in you. Knowing your habits tells me you haven’t eaten since I forced you to have something yesterday, and you probably wouldn’t have eaten today without the intervention of your daughter."
She shot a glare at her daughter, who was busily playing with some of her waist-length hair. "Hey, when Grandma wants someone to do something, we do it because we love her." She sighed, put Sebena down, and entered the house for some of grandma’s world-class waffles.
–Imperial Hotel, 7:20 AM–
Wilson groaned, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and idly swatted a roach into the opposite wall. The medium-sized insect struggled for a moment after its impact, then died slowly in a heap of its own entrails. Wilson stood up, looking at his watch, then he left his room and started walking towards the facilities. After completing the necessary, he went back to his room just in time to hear his cellphone blaring away.
"Huh. Well, let’s see who wants to bug me." Wilson grabbed the phone, hit the talk button, and growled into the mouthpiece. "Yeah, this is Wilson."
The response was definitely not what he expected. "Ah, so that’s the name of my newest antagonist. Well, ‘Wilson’ I’m gonna be your worst nightmare."
"Riiight. Say that to the teen that escaped your clutches yesterday. Oh yeah, thanks for all the C-8 grenades. They’ll be put to good use." Wilson smiled as he carefully put the phone down, letting the volleys of foul invective fill the air as he chuckled. When the caller stopped, Wilson picked up the phone again and spoke, quite calmly. "Is that it? My grandmother is more inventive in her swearing, and you’re gonna be the miserable little worm soon enough. Have a good day, bitch." Wilson disconnected, letting his mysterious caller sputter into a dial tone.
Chuckling, Wilson knocked on the thin wall between his room and Jenny’s. The response was a dull thump, and three knocks a few seconds later. Wilson smiled, then walked from his room over to his friend’s.
Knocking on the door, he waited for a few seconds, then opened it. "Boo. Jenny, get everyone into the conference room in ten minutes, okay?" The confirmation was a towel thrown into his face, with several dozen swearwords interspersed with statements of being a pervert following.
"Now, that just hurts. I haven’t seen anything that I haven’t before, and you are easy on the eyes." Wilson chuckled, tossed the towel back into the room, then walked down to the conference room. True to his orders, ten minutes later the room was filled with the entire team. After they had settled down, Wilson smiled, looking like a bear that had gone without food for a good week.
"Good, you’re all here. Now, we have two things on the agenda. Number one, the boss should be here next week, but she may be bringing along some unwanted attention as well." Wilson let that message sink in, and, noting the concern on each member’s faces, he jumped into the second part. "Also, our position here’s compromised. We’re moving to another location."
He ignored the grumbles, applauded the cheers, and told everyone to pack. Most of them went off with gusto, and just as he was about to leave, the door was closed by a rather pale arm. Sighing, he turned to look at whoever had closed the door, and he saw that the team had managed to pull another prank on him. This time, they had managed to dump at least three packs of lust dust into Jenny’s coffee, and the young member of the team was about to commit a rather sizeable breach of conduct.
Outside, half the team was holding the doors closed, the other half was listening in, and they were all trying to keep from laughing too hard.
–Somewhere Near New LA., 10:40 AM, (PST)–
The room was dark, lit only by the dull bluish glow of cathode-ray screens. Silhouetted by the dim glow, a faint form worked feverishly, tapping madly on a beat-up keyboard. Chuckling to itself, the form looked at a digital readout displayed on one of the screens, then raised an eyebrow when the screen flashed red. Tapping the screen with one long, spider-like finger, it seemed to smile as the screen continued to flash red light over that side of the room.
On the screen was a wireframe of a woman, of which three parts were flashing. However, the part that concerned the viewer was a small line of text saying ‘Dumaine v. 2.3 offline.’ Silent for a few minutes, the being sighed slightly, then turned to the larger monitor in the centre of the row. Looking at the monitor, the being started to laugh, long and hard.
–Undisclosed Location, 8:40 AM–
Dr. Sorbie swore under his breath as he carefully removed the third gel pack from the woman’s body, and mentally thanked providence that the packs were only under the skin instead of embedded in areas that were difficult to access. This pack had been embedded in her left calf, and after Sorbie finished removing it, the pack was unceremoniously dropped into a kidney-shaped pan, next to the two he had removed from each of the woman’s thighs.
*How many more does she have? Dammit! I should’ve retired four years ago! The last major operation I did was that skeletal replacement on Sel, and that was done to save her life.* Sorbie sighed, then turned back to his unconscious subject. He carefully adjusted a scanning system that had been helping him track where the damned packs were, and he found the next one rather easily. Right behind the person’s navel, a rather sizable pack rested, ready to disgorge its explosive payload into its unwilling victim.
Cursing under his breath, Sorbie carefully excised the pack through a thin slit he made in the woman’s stomach, then heard a faint hissing. As he had finished removing the pack, it had somehow caught on something, tearing open the malleable ‘skin’ and slowly letting the thick gel drip out onto his bloody gloves. Sorbie moved with a speed that many younger men could only dream of as he tossed the wrecked pack into the corner of the room, stripping off his contaminated gloves at the same time and sending them flying into a different corner.
The gel on the gloves detonated, flaring up into a blast of light and heat that smashed the door to the operating room off its hinges. Sorbie had covered his patient’s body with his own, knowing that he could at least make a difference before the larger pack blew the entire room to bits. However it wasn’t necessary for such a degree of self-sacrifice as someone ran into the room, grabbed the leaking pack, and dumped it down the bio-hazard chute that Sorbie had missed when he had thrown the thing away. Less than two seconds later, the pack blew up, shaking the room.
"My god. That’s what I call overkill. And she has how many packs left?" Sorbie got up, moved away from the still-unconscious woman, and sighed as he used the scanner to see if there were any packs remaining. Thankfully, there were none, and Dr. Sorbie shut down the scanner before calling in two nurses to do any follow-up exams and relocation.
–Jose’s Mansion, 10:47 AM–
"You know, I’m beginning to wonder if these things will work." Jose stood on a footstool, carefully adjusting one of the cybernetic components on the Augmented Fixed Idea. Sighing irritably, he finished his adjustments, then hopped off the stool. Walking over to a computer, he activated a program, and sat back as the program activated the cybernetics implanted in the four Ideas. Each Idea stood up jerkily, but the augmentations made them easily strong enough to snap the flexible titanium straps that had held them down.
Each Idea stretched to its full height of eight or nine feet, then looked at Jose with their unnatural red eyes. "Program... Activated. Awaiting Instructions." Jose cackled after the Ideas finished speaking, then looked at a map of the city he had tacked up on the wall.
"Alright, your mission is to wreak havoc. Kill as many civilians as possible, any way possible. Also, when the law enforcement shows up, your second objective is to destroy as many police vehicles as possible. Got that?" All four nodded in unison, then, showing a surprising amount of initiative, each one instantly trooped into the armoury, where they armed themselves with heavy slug-throwers which had reputations for punching through two inches of steel plate at close range. The four Augmented Ideas then trooped out of the mansion, walking towards the city with murder on their minds.
–Meridiana General Hospital, 12:37 PM–
Reba walked into the miniward, looking slightly pissed as she finished hollering at another resident. Inside the ward was only one occupant, but she had already turned the air purple with enough invective to cause the short doctor to blush.
"Well, you seem to be healthy. So, do you wanna get out of here before something bad happens?" Mikae grinned at the slightly exasperated tone barely hidden by a mask of cheerfulness, and nodded enthusiastically.
"Damn right I’m ready to get out of here. So, can I leave?" Mikae tried, and failed (miserably), to keep the excitement out of her voice, but it bled through anyhow, causing her doctor to smile slightly.
"As soon as your mother gets here. Just hang on, get your ‘clothes’ on, and get ready to face the music." Reba chuckled as Mikae once again purpled the air with a volley of invective. Reba moved over to the small ‘closet’ in the room and pulled out the tiny tee and super-tight pants. "I’ll wait for your mom to see you ‘kay? After all, I’m wondering how long she’ll ground you for."
Mikae flipped Reba the middle finger, then got out of the bed, motioned the diminutive doctor to turn around, and struggled into the shorts and shirt. "Blah. This is just too damn aggravating. Hey! No laughing." Mikae was pointing one of her slim fingers at Reba, who was trying hard not to laugh at the almost Lori-like appearance of Mikae in her current clothes.
"I’m trying not to *mmmph* laugh too *snerk* much, but you *giggle* look too funny." Reba gave up, succumbing to gales of laughter as Mikae grumped for a few minutes. Just as Reba was about to pull out a small camera, Mikae’s mother walked into the room, saw her daughter, and flushed beet red up to her hairline.
"Mikae Kreubens! What in the name of the Holy Virgin are you doing wearing clothes like that? Do you want to be called a slut for the rest of your life?" Mikae’s reaction was predictable, entertaining to innocent observers, and loaded with more swearing than a shipful of randy Russian sailors. Mikae’s mother grinned, looking at Reba, who was barely keeping from falling over in laughter.
"Well, she seems to be in good health. Now young lady, you’re grounded for the rest of the year." Sarah looked at Mikae and smiled like a cat that had eaten a dozen canaries.
"Whaaattt?!? Mooommm!!! Dammit, I was abducted from school! What did you expect? Didja want me to escape stark naked? Or didja want me to just hang around, waiting to be raped by a stunted little bastard with a superiority complex?" Mikae managed to convince her mother to drop the grounding down to an extra week, primarily by hollering about the injustice of it all.
Eventually, the two left the hospital after being given a clean bill of health, and the two started to bounce jokes off of each other as they went home.