Project: MI
Chapter 20

“Somethingis not right,” Daria Foster observed, a dark frown on her face as she watchedthe screen at the front of the room display the innumerable swarm of Guardiansas they zeroed in on their target, presently an unknown source of a Q-Field.Red waves raced away from the center of the target. It led them on quite themerry chase, but now it was cornered with nowhere to go or hide. Yet, in spiteof this success, Daria felt as though something were off. Next to her, KellyColeman studied her before tapping on her data pad.

“Targetis entering visual range,” said one of the operators below them. “Contact inthree… Two… One…”

Thetarget abruptly disappeared off their sensors, causing Kelly to blink insurprise. Daria closed her eyes and ground her teeth in frustration.“Recalibrate sensors,” she ordered, feeling as though it were a uselessdirective. The target proved to be far, fartoo illusive. The sense of wrongness grew with her anger and she resisted theurge to pound the table to relieve the tension.

“Targethas reappeared,” said one of the operators. “Three blocks down near thejunkyard on East street. Q-Field continuing to radiate at 20 beats per secondwith a saturation of 10 parts per million.”

“Whatare your orders?” Kelly asked, glancing at her. “Shall we attempt to engageagain?”

Dariaglared at the screen for a moment longer, running the situation through hermind. Three times they chased after the target and three times it had eludedthem.

There’s too much cat and mousegoing on here, and the mouse hasn’t slipped up even once… What’s going on here?

“Kelly,bring up the Q-Field radiation field numbers.”

Kellytapped her data pad a couple times and presented it to her superior, who tookit and ran her eyes over the graph.

“Areyou thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked, noting the single straight linethat went across the graph with little deviation.

“TheQ-Field is remarkably stable,” Kelly observed. “No deviation since the targetappeared.”

“Noteven by a micron,” Daria said, handing the data pad back to her and looking outover her operators. “Stand down everyone. It’s a false flag. Someone’s tryingto lead us by the horn.”

Satisfied,but still frustrated, Daria tapped a finger against her lips, trying to workout what was going on.

“Newobjective,” she said after a moment. “Reposition all Guardians and scan for anytransmissions not directly related to CHC frequency bands.”

“Andif someone is using our signals?” asked Kelly as the operators immediately wentabout their tasks.

“Oneproblem at a time,” Daria replied. “Do you have any other ideas about what’sgoing on?”

Kellyglanced down at her data pad. “None fully realized yet, but after the secondevasion I’ve been taking a look at our flight patterns for any patterns.” Nowit was her turn to frown. “There is the oddity that we’ve been largely on theeastern and southern end of the city…”

“Director!”called out one of the operators. “I’ve got two signals! Big ones!”

“Whereand who?” Daria asked as both she and Kelly approached the operator.

“Oneis emanating from Romana Pax, and it’s like nothingI’ve ever seen before. Very powerful transmission, and it keeps spiking. Theother is coming from the junkyard.”

“Hmmm…”Daria frowned as she looked at the junkyard’s signal on the operator’s screen.“Deploy half of our Guardians to the junkyard and contact the yard master. Tellhim that he’s to shut the area down. No one in or out. Get agents down thereand seal off all possible exits.”

“Whatabout Romana Pax?” asked Kelly.

“Wedeploy Guardians there as well, but contact them and ask them what it isthey’re doing.” She pressed her lips together into one thin line. “Have yourbrother put together a team and go down there. Invoke the Heroi ProtectionPowers Act if you have to. I don’t want them worming their way out of this.”

Kelly’sdata pad beeped as she received a message. Tapping on the screen, she read itover quickly before looking at Daria.

“Itseems that we have another development now,” she said. “There’s a heroi battlegoing on at Adonis Street.”

Therehad been a time when the regular beat cop on the street would have been allowedto deal with a heroi battle. Indeed, for officer David ‘Davey Jones’ Dicciani,he could remember his grandfather telling him about how officers being assignedAI partners similar to Guardians in order to deal with the overwhelmingdifference in firepower. The anti-Q-Field specs back then weren’t pictureperfect good, but they evened things out without losing the human element tolaw enforcement.

Allthat changed over the years as officers were killed in the line of duty and thecosts of replacing fully sentient AI’s mounted. Now there were officers, butthey dealt with situations like this afterthe CHC and its soulless, mass-produced Guardians were done. For the man on theground, they had only one order: stand back, radio in the situation, and to notengage under any circumstances except where a civilian’s life is in immediatedanger.

David’sfingers touched the hilt of his weapon, itching. Curling them against the palmof his hand he pulled back and adjusted his radio.

No sign of Guardians yet,he thought, scanning the skies. Anxiously he wondered where they were. Thestreet was on the verge of becoming a war zone.

Deep breaths Dave,he told himself, trying to keep calm. Let’snot get crazy here.

Unfortunately,the sudden appearance of the woman who slammed down out of the heavens like acomet upon his arrival did nothing to still his nerves. Even though he wasn’t aheroi, he could feel the power radiating off her. She didn’t appear like much,being thin and dressed in casual business attire, but he was at once remindedof all the times as a child when he sat in terror of a thunderstorm, waitingfor that one explosive crash that would bring his whole house down around him.

Nowhere he was again, waiting for all Hel to break loose.

Hisfingers touched the hilt of his gun again as he waited with baited breath tosee how things would go.

“Mama~!”exclaimed Ran-Thing from across fromKira. Amanda’s gaze fell on it, eyes narrowing.

“Whoare you?” she asked, her mind turning as she looked the figure over. There wasnothing familiar about it that suggested that she either gave birth to thefigure or raised it. The voice on the other hand was another matter. Glancingdown at the ground, she took note of the absence of a shadow. “Ran?” Amandatook a step forward, still cautious, but quickly starting to figure out whatwas going on. “Is that you? Where are you really?”

“That’s…That’s not Ran, Mom,” Kira piped in. “She… Her illusions aren’t solid and…”

“Hush,”Amanda said with a gentle, yet firm tone while raising a hand for emphasis. She’s right though. Kira looks terrible…Which is partly my fault. She turned toward the girl and gave her asympathetic look. “I’m sorry Kira, are you all right?”

“I…”Kira looked almost surprised by her mother’s concern. “…Yeah. I think so.”

“Shetried to play with me,” said Ran-Thing.“I told her that it wasn’t her turn. She broke the rules.”

“Yes,”Amanda said, returning her attention to Ran-Thing.“She broke a lot of rules. Where are you Ran?”

Something’s wrong with her mind,Amanda thought. Her tone… A lot morechildish than when I last saw her. Someone broke her. Broke her bad.Amanda’s fingers curled into a tight, shaking fist as a fiery wrath burnedinside her. She felt a red haze float over her mind, but she pushed it back.Now was not the time to lose it.

Notyet anyway.

“I’min the dark in a taaall tower,” Ran-Thingsaid in a sing-song voice, stretching her arms out to emphasize the size shewas referring to. “I have a funny hat over my head that helps me do things withmy powers. Makes my dreams real.” She gave a little spin. “Real, real, real.All my dreams…real.” She suddenlygave a choking sob and dropped her face into her hands. “Except one.”

“What’sthat?” asked Amanda.

“Theywon’t let me out. Except to play…” She pointed at where Jamie Grey lay. “…withhim.”

Amandafollowed the figure’s finger over to the boy and grimaced. Another boy wassitting next to him on one knee, his face ashen and eyes wide with fright.

“Lady…I… I don’t think he’s going to… He’s…”

Theboy didn’t finish, but that was all right. She knew what he was going to say.The way his head sat on his shoulders just then… The odd angle it was at…

Neck looks to be broken. He mightbe as good as dead right now.

“Kira…”she said carefully. “Call the hospital. You won’t be able to fly there rightnow. Not with me here. No questions, just call them. Tell them what’s goingon.”

“I…”

“NowKira!”

Theyoung girl scrambled for her cell phone and pulled it out of her pocket. Nosooner did she do so did it start ringing. Reflexively, upon seeing Malcolm’snumber, she hit the reply button.

“H-Hey…”she began shakily, only to have the phone snatched from her as Amanda abruptlyappeared in front of her, giving her a hard glare.

“Kira! I’ve got your sisterslocation!” she heard a voice—an all too familiarvoice that caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end—speak fromthe other end as she raised the phone to her ear. “She’s in a subbasement at the Romana Pax building. There’s a lot ofheavy shielding, but I think you can get in the…! Oh shit! The CHC! They’reheading your way now! They’ve figured out what I was doing! Get out of there,Kira! Get out of there no-!”

Amandahung up with a low click and passed the phone back to her daughter.

It seems like we have a lot totalk about…

“Doas I told you, Kira. I’ll see you later… Hopefully.”

“Mom…?”

Amandaignored her daughter’s voice as she turned toward the shadowy figure—Ran—andfaced her fully.

“Playtimeis over, Ran,” she said firmly. “It’s time for you to come home.”

“Playtimeis not over!” Ran shouted, suddenlyangry, and with that the air began to warp again. Dark sores began to appear onthe street, rotting the pavement and causing gaping holes to appear around thegirl. “It always ends too soon! Thedoctors don’t give me enough time! I want to play! I want to be outside! I wantto see the sun!”

“Youwill,” Amanda replied in a gentle tone, trying to remain cool. “But first youneed to come home. Your sister and I miss you.”

“Notuntil I’m done playing with him,” Ran continued, stabbing a finger in Jamie’sdirection.

“Youdon’t want to do that,” Amanda said, her Q-Field starting to rematerializearound her. Gods know if he’ll surviveeven if she stops now…

“Ofcourse I do,” Ran replied chirpily. “How else is he going to learn?”

Withthat, a tremendous, reptilian foot slammed down on the pavement. Turning in itsdirection, Amanda craned her head upward and followed it all the way toward itsowners head. It appeared to be some kind of dinosaur, but not one that sheremembered seeing in a natural history museum. The creature was emerald greenwith vicious, long, hooked claws that curved away from its arms like sabers. Anevil, red light burned within its eyes and in the depths of its mouth. Throwingback its head, the beast let out a tremendous, thundering roar that causedAmanda to wince slightly. It was almost comical in a way, but it was also noless of a threat.

Kneelingdown slightly, Amanda’s Q-Field surged around her and she launched herself atthe creature. A fist snapped outward, and before Ran or anyone else couldreact, the beast’s head vanished in a shower of sparkling light. Its body tiltedto the side, as though half confused by the sudden loss of its most importantlimb and then began to topple, crashing to the streets and crushing a carbeneath its heavy weight.

Amandafloated to the ground as the beast’s corpse evaporated.

“That’senough, Ran…”

Howling,Ran brought her hands together and a burning fireball materialized betweenthem. Thrusting her hands outward, she hurled the blazing sphere at the olderwoman who strode toward it unflinchingly. Her Q-Field flared briefly as it impactedher, dissolving into billions of shining particles, leaving her completelyunscathed. Ran fell back, completely stunned by this development.

“Ma…Mama…” she whispered as Amanda came to a stop in front of her. Raising herhands, Amanda took hold of Ran’s shadowy form and pulled her into a hug.

“Goback to the tower,” she said. “I’ll be there to pick you up in a second.”

Givinga horror-filled sob, Ran disappeared from the woman’s arms, vanishing into athin curl of dark smoke. Amanda stood there for a moment, blinking back tears,before turning toward Kira, who watched her with a mixture of confusion andwariness.

“Theambulance,” Amanda said, her voice cracking a little. “Are they…?”

“They’recoming,” Kira replied. She was tense, wondering what her mother was going todo… To say. She wasn’t sure at all what her intentions were. “Mom…”

“I’mgoing to get Ran,” Amanda interrupted. “Your friend Malcolm, gave me the information.” She looked up at the skyin time to see the first swarms of Guardians fast approaching. “That’s what youbroke into Romana Pax for, isn’t it?”

“What?I…” She grated her teeth as her face flushed hotly. There was no point indenying it now. “Yeah.”

“Isee.” Amanda swallowed, a hot lump in her throat. “Go home. I’ll see you later.”

“What?But…I can go with you and…”

“Mypowers are interfering with yours,” she quickly cut in over her daughter. “Twoheroi with the same abilities have a tendency of doing that, especially whenthey’re related. The stronger one usually has the least trouble dealing with itbut…” She frowned. “Go home,” she repeated. “Don’t make me drag you theremyself. Not when we’re this close to Ran…”

Aftera moment of silence, Amanda’s Q-Field flared and she vanished from sight,shooting off into the sky at a rapid pace.

Kirastood there, fists shaking as she bit down on her lower lip.

“Leaveyou to rescue my sister?” she growled under her breath with bitter sarcasm.“Like you did before?”

Lightmaterialized around Kira’s body… A faint light, causing the girl to lift intothe air but do little else. Her body refused to budge from its spot as she wasaccustomed to whenever she desired flight. Setting herself back down she took adeep breath and let loose an anguished cry. Light still surrounding her, shetook hold of her fury and let it all loose upon the street below her with thethunderous crack of her fist.

Painshot up the length of her arm, but enough of her invulnerability was back thatit quickly diffused itself and disappeared without her so much as flinching.Still seething, she looked in the direction that she knew Romana Pax lay in.

“You’renot leaving me out of this,” she gratedbefore taking off at a run.

Itwas just then that an energy bolt struck her square in the back as the first ofthe Guardians swarmed in on the scene.

“Letme go!” Ran exclaimed, panicking and straining against her bonds. “Let me go!Momma’s coming! She’s coming! I’m in so much trouble right now!”

“Calmdown!” Jones said, eyeing the giant monster that continued to tower over theyoung girl. “Ran! Just calm down! Noone can hurt you while you’re here!”

“Justwhat is going on?” asked Beck, looking over at the remaining computers andadjusting his glasses. “Did she completely lose it or something?”

“I’mnot at all sure. She says her motheris coming…”

“Hermother is Amanda Baker,” clarified Anderson. Beck rolled his eyes.

“Thankyou for sharing irrelevantinformation. Do you have anything to add that’s useful?”

“Didn’tshe say that a ‘real hero’ showed up just a second ago?”

“Hermother is a norm! We’ve got therecords and…”

Beckwas cut off as the room shook violently. A crack splintered across the ceilingand dust spilled down to the floor.

“She’shere…” whimpered Ran. “Oh gods, I’m in deep, deep trouble…”

Theroom shook again and the crack in the ceiling grew. Beck and Anderson took astep back, the former bumping up against the computer consoles.

“Activatingsecurity,” Beck said, his hands trembling as they numbly keyed in a series ofcommands. “Anderson, call Steiner. Give him the lowdown.”

“Whatabout the girl?” he asked as orbs dropped down from the ceiling and rose fromthe floor, all with blue-glowing electric eyes and aiming directly at theceiling.

“Jones?Can you get her to let us unplug her?”

“Ran?Will you let us?” Jones asked. “We can protect you.”

Ransvoice quavered as the room shook again. “You can’t protect me. No one canprotect me from Mama…”

Theceiling exploded and shining light flooded the room. Beck threw his arms overhis face, shielding his eyes.

“Where is my daughter?!”thundered a voice full of fire and fury. Beck’s body trembled at the sheerforce of will that hit him and he went down to his knees. Peering past his armshe saw a female figure clothed in golden fire floating down into the room. Themonster that previously stood over Ran was gone, whether destroyed by thesearing light or simply dismissed by its owner, he did not know. Lyingunconscious on the ground, half buried by ceiling and with a bloody gash in herforehead, was Jones. Summoning the tattered remains of his courage, Beckstaggered back to his feet.

“Security!”he shouted angrily. “Open fire!”

Therewas a whine as over a dozen Guardians powered up and cut loose with a burst ofenergy. Still garbed in her light, the woman slashed her arms upward. Beckcried out as a terrible wind slammed into him, causing the world to lurch andsuddenly pain struck the back of his head, causing a new light to explodeacross his vision.

Aneternity seemed to pass for Beck until he next awoke. An eternity it was not,unfortunately for him. Darkness was in the room, broken only by the dimillumination of a swinging ceiling light, sparking and flashing erratically. Heheard the sound of something crunching beneath a shoe. Lifting himself up, hecraned his head—an act that took far more effort and pain than it shouldhave—and found a tall, lithe woman with flowing dark hair standing over him.

“Areyou in charge here?” she asked, her voice cold, but hinting at the furiousstorm that lay behind her ice-blue eyes. Beck shivered, and in the back of hismind he wondered where Anderson was and if he managed to get word out toSteiner. He wondered about Jones and if she was all right. He wondered what theappropriate response was here.

“Inlieu of anyone else,” Beck croaked, “yes, I am.”

“Youhave a young girl strapped to a device. How do I release her?”

Slowly,carefully, Beck rose to his feet. He took in the condition of the room aroundhim. It was a wreck, to put it lightly. Rubble lay all over the place, GuardianOrbs littered amongst it in various stages of ruin. Ran, amazingly, remainedcompletely untouched, as was the setup that linked her to Romana Pax’s systems.

This… This is the real thing,Beck swallowed. High level heroi,possibly Beta or Delta. This… I don’t… Her Q-Field must have been at leastequal to Jamie Grey when he let go just a little bit. A monster like this wasthe mother of our girl? He almost wanted to break down and laughhysterically. Of all the luck to be visited upon them. Really should have known. Karma always comes around in the end. Wereap what we sow. Steiner… You idiot…

Impatient,the woman grabbed hold of Beck’s shirt and hauled him off the floor. “Answerme,” she grated. “How do I release her?!”

“Thecomputers,” he coughed, pointing at the stations lined along the walls of theroom. None of them looked damaged in spite of the rubble covering them. “Thecommands are there. All I need is access to them.”

Hopefully our girl won’t resist,he thought as the woman hauled him over to the nearest station.

Beckcracked his knuckles before setting about his task. Steiner, he knew, wouldn’tapprove, but there was little choice in the matter right now. With the forceand power presented to him… He shivered, keying in the last of the commandsthat released their charge into the care of her rightful guardian. He wantednothing more than to be rid of her as quickly as possible.

“Ran,”Amanda whispered, running a hand over the girl’s face. Hollow-looking eyeslooked up at her, and her heart cried out seeing the fear inside them as theysighted her.

“Momma…”Ran whimpered, struggling briefly as Amanda pulled her out of her chair.

“It’sall right,” she replied soothingly. “I’m taking you outside. There, there… It’sgoing to be okay.”

Amanda knew she was foolingherself. Nothing was ever going to be the same again. Lifting her daughter intoher arms—the girl having now given up all attempts at resisting—her Q-Fieldflashed around her body once more and together they began to rise into the airand through the hole in the ceiling.

She feels so light,Amanda noted. And not because I’m justusing my strength. She’s so thin… Were they starving her?! She resisted theurge to tighten her hold around her daughter. She could only imagine thehorrors her daughter had to go through since disappearing. Anger flashedthrough her body, urging her to tear the whole building down around her—to buryit and everyone involved with this horrid building. But no… She couldn’t. Shewouldn’t. Her daughter came first, just as they both always did.

Touchingdown on the broken floor of Romana Pax’s main lobbey, Amanda carried Ran outinto the light just in time to greet the flock of Guardian Spheres swarminginto view.