Blood Sisters
Chapter 11

A black Cadillac DTS with tintedwindows waited alone on the top of a parking garage that had been'closed for repairs'. The spring night was cool in the city, and theair was clear, though you could not see many stars through the hazeof lights from a thousand streetlamps and a million windows. Aspooky man with perfectly groomed short black hair, in a black suitand sunglasses looked down over the city. Behind each of thosewindows was a story, a life. Hopes and dreams, love and hate, triumphand tragedy. The view from each of those lives as limited as the viewfrom each of their windows.

To people like the spooky guy,only they could see the big picture, the whole city, the whole sky.They moved in the darkness with the monsters that those behind thewindows shut their curtains against, hoping that the things crawlingin the night would pass them by.

Behind him, in the Caddy, spookyguy could hear the radio broadcast that his fellow agent, the bigman, was listening to. An early season baseball game. He could hearthe mind-numbing cheers of the crowd, and practically smell the beerand the peanuts. Athletic clowns distracting the masses from theemptiness of their mundane lives. Which was especially true ofbaseball fans.

“What is it with you andsports, anyway.” “You don't like sports?” “Not really.”“What are you, a communist? All real Americans like sports.”“That's close to the line big man.” “There's a line?” “Yes,there's a line.” “The reason your such a pale and skinny nerd isbecause your mama didn't want you to get hurt so she made you stay inand read. You don't like sports, 'cause you aren't any good at it...did that cross the line yet? Cause I got more.” “Yeah, thatpretty much crossed the line.” “All-right. Touchdown!” “Hey,you know how I get paid more then you, have my own office, a nice bighouse... all that?” “Mmhmm” “Its because I stayed inside andread, did you even learn how to read big man?” “That, ishilarious. Really.”

The low chop of a helicopterinterrupted them, cutting into the night sky. They could see itsrunning lights approaching. He gestured over to his agent to cut theradio and join him outside the car. When the man stepped out of thecar, it raised up several inches. The agent's muscles strained tofree themselves from under his suit coat as he buttoned it. Standingup straight, the man fished out his sunglasses, darker then his blackskin, and put them on. Then, reaching back into the car, he produced an AR-15 which he slung over his shoulder. The big agent came over tostand next to spooky guy. At 6'8” he towered over his boss. The twoglanced at each other and nodded, each was ready. Spooky guy tappedhis earpiece “They're here.”

***

North Star and Titan were in theSpecial Marshal's UH-60M Black Hawk, nicknamed The Henry Dearborn.North Star was stewing, she muttered to Titan “They never let mepilot the Dearborn, never. I can fly a helicopter just fine”. Titannodded blandly, he had been down this road before. She punched him inthe arm “Don't give me that, Todd. How about some teamsolidarity?”. Titan sighed “What'cha want me to say Winter? Theydon't ask me” he shrugged at her innocently. North Star groused“next time we'll just tie up the pilot and...” A laugh came overtheir Black Hawk helmets “I can hear you guys, you know thatright?” the pilot chuckled “and Winter, a little gal like youcan't handle a big boy like the Henry D”. North Star growled andstarted to make a snowball in her hand to throw at him... then shesaw his coffee thermos. She smirked as she reached for it, drawingout its heat with a touch. The pilot felt the chill and looked overas the moisture in the air covered his now frozen thermos with frost.“Hey! ...well, now, that's just COLD, lady. That's justcold.” he said with a grin. Titan groaned at the pun “no more, nomore, please!” Todd looked over at Winter. “Are you always sowarm Winter? I guess I um... never sat so close to you, yourkinda...warm.” Winter smirked. Yeah well, I'm a dehumidifier right?I'm always absorbing water from the air... plus” she pointed at thenow frosty thermos “that heat has to go somewhere” she smirked“I've learned some tricks to manage the heat, but I have to let itgo eventually” Titan grinned “That could come in handy”. Winterelbowed him.

The USSM Henry Dearborn circledin for a landing. Titan pointed out the window “Suits”. Winterglanced over his arm. “Ah crap, I hate Suits”. “Who is it thistime?” she wondered aloud. The pilot clenched a fist over his mikeand yelled back into the cabin “You didn't hear it from me, but Ihear these guys are from that Joint Meta-Human Task Force thatHomeland Security organized a few months back”. Titan looked overto the man at the controls “How would you know that?” he yelled.The pilot grinned at him, and winked at Winter. “You guys thinkyou're the only people I fly around?”. He laughed and looked backfront, muttering some pilot-speak into his mike.

Titan and North Star disembarkedthe Black Hawk, the wind from its rotors whipping around them and theagents standing a few yards away. Spooky guy signaled the pilot andthe Henry Dearborn took off back into the night. In its wake, thecity around them now seemed silent. Spooky guy and his driver walkedcalmly towards the two heroes. Winter pulled her silver-white hairfrom out of her face, and looked over at them. Despite the gale-forcewinds, neither agent seemed to have even a hair out of place. Shesmirked. Wonder if that hair-gel is bullet-proof.

“Marshal North Star, MarshalTitan” spooky guy broke the silence. “That's right” Todd said,who are you?”. Spooky guy didn't blink an eye as he said flatly“I'm David, and this is Goliath”. Winter started to protest, butAgent David cut her off “Our names don't matter” he had anauthoritarian manner about him that was unsettling, and the twomarshals held their tongue while he continued. “You are governmentemployees sworn to the Marshals Service. I am the government. I amalso who is in charge of you for this mission”.

David reached a hand over toGoliath, who handed him a USB memory drive. The agent then producedan unusual looking PDA from his jacket and plugged the USB in. ThePDA opened up a split screen, one towards Agent David, and onetowards the marshals. The big agent held out two pairs of sunglassesto them as David said “put these on, otherwise you wont be able tomake sense of the screen. Pay attention, we're only going throughthis once. Also, I am now patching in to your comm system, once westart the briefing, say nothing except through your earpiece”.Titan nodded. Winter was just mad.

At first the PDA screen justlooked like colored static, then suddenly there was a mild buzz asthe sunglasses activated and at once the screen came into focus.Against a black background the marshals could read in red letters:PROJECT BLOODSISTER, TOP SECRET. They heard Agent David talking intotheir ear. “Alright folks, you don't have the clearance needed tosee this whole file, so I am only showing you what you need to know”.He paused. A picture of a young blonde girl with corpse like paleskin and vacant blue eyes came up on the screen. Winter gasped andsaid “What the... that's my niece! That's Jenny!” she took a steptowards David. Agent Goliath took a step towards her.

David spoke calmly “Oh yes,that is true. We had to terminate one of the team for that. Seems thepervert had a thing for your teenage relative.” Winter just stoodthere, appalled and open mouthed. Agent David did not miss a beat “Itis not, obviously, your niece. It is not even, in the strictestsense, anyone. It is, to put it colloquially, an artificially createdgovernment asset. It looks like your niece, but that is only becauseone of our geneticists wanted it too.”

Titan looked a bit ill. Winterspoke much louder then needed to be heard into the comm system

“What the hell are you people uptoo?!” “Quiet down marshal” came the deep voice of Goliath.Winter just glared at the two Suits, her sapphire eyes glinting. Theair around them started to chill as Winter became more upset, andfaint vapor rose out of her shoulders. David seemed completelyindifferent. “Listen. First of all, it is not you peoplemarshal, you are one of us, you gave an oath to that effect infact. Second of all, when you apprehend the asset, It is going totell you a pretty horrible story, and the more she remembers, theworse it is going to sound” Agent David paused to let that sink in,then continued in his dry tone “Now, most of what the asset islikely to say, is true, and your likely going to hate it. The factthat the asset has apparently broke its conditioning and developed apersonality is irrelevant to our mission.”

Winter continued to glare atDavid “and I thought my heart was cold, you make me sick”.“Marshal North Star, I don't care about who your sister is, or thatyou got New-Hum superpowers froma street hack. The people you killed as Frostbite, or thepeople you've saved as North Star. I don't care that you fuck women,that you once had an abortion that you think no one knows about, orthat you haven't been to church since you were 19. All that mattersis that you are a US Marshal, and this is your job” Agent Davidmatched her glare with a even calm that was unsettling.

Winter looked stung as her angerwashed away leaving shame behind. Titan put an arm around her andfired back “And you are an ass-kissing government lapdog that wouldrape his own mother for a nickle if whatever slimy agency you crawledout of told you too.” David gave a thin smile, the only show ofemotion so far “Actually, I would do it for free. Now that weunderstand each other, lets continue.” Titan had nothing, he juststared at the guy in disbelief.

“Now, if you are thinking thatI am the boogeyman, you are absolutely correct. Our government hasboogeymen and we all pay for them with our taxes”. He paused“Speaking of which, Mr. Scott, your late to file, you should get onthat.” Titan couldn't believe this guy.

Agent David continued smoothly“The only reason that people are scared of the boogeyman, is thatwe boogeymen stop the things that are worse, and one of those thingsis Bloodsister 187. Who now refers to itself by the charming epithetof Cricket. 1-8-7 has already killed a federal agent ...wholeaves behind a wife and two young kids... and injured many others.It tore up that police station over there, wounding many officers”he pointed at the station as he continued “I have witnessed allthis destructive behavior personally, and I assure you that It willcontinue to become more unstable, and unless it is stopped, a lotmore people are going to die, and a lot more property is going to getdestroyed. Not to mention the political cost if all this dirtylaundry spilling everywhere is connected back to us by the Liberalmedia, we must prevent them from needlessly undermining ourgovernment.

“I vote Democrat” Winter andTodd said, annoyed, almost in unison. They glanced at each other.Agent David said “Those aren't the Liberals I'm talking about.”He continued as a picture of a big tattooed old biker came on thescreen “This man is Jake Harris, he has a rap sheet littered withlarceny, drunk and disorderly, assault, weapons and drug charges.However, he has been clean for almost 20 years, and is now a smallbusiness owner with a reputation for looking after the kids in hisneighborhood, trying to keep them in school, off of drugs and out ofgangs, that sort of thing. He also now votes and pays his taxes.”Winter rolled her eyes. “We don't care about this man, in fact Isupport his responsible citizenship. His association with the assethas apparently overcome his better judgment and he is currently asuspect wanted for questioning with a warrant out for his arrest”the agent paused. “For our purposes, this man is bait for theasset. It thinks that it cares about this man.” Winter Ashtondecided that this man thoroughly disgusted her, and the respectableface that he put on all this barbarism was even more horrifying inthat there must be people in power that were in charge of this manthat thought the same as him. The North Star shivered.

Next came a series of pictures,names and backgrounds as Agent David went over Jake's knownassociates. Then a map showing the various abandoned buildings thatCricket had been seen at.

Lastly the man-in-charge handedover a PDA to each of them. “Make sure you hold on to these, theycontain all the classified information that we just went over, andthey are the way I will contact you, and you will contact me. Don'tmess with them, or lose them. They have small explosive charges toprevent them from becoming compromised.” Then, like it was just anafterthought, he said “Oh, and as you have most likely guessed, theasset is incredibly strong and nearly indestructible” somehow heseemed pleased at that. Agent David then said dismissively “Well,that's it for now Marshals. Go retrieve the asset, it is unlikelythat you could destroy it, but that would be fine as well.”

Winter replied “Just so wereclear, I hate you.” David gave a thin smile and looked back at thetwo marshals “Just do your job. That is all your country requiresof you.” Titan nodded stiffly “We will. David” Toddlooked over at the big agent “you know, David killed Goliath.”The big man smiled, all teeth as Agent David said dryly “Well,everyone needs a retirement plan” he waved his chin at Titan andNorth Star “Were done here.” The two agents turned and walkedcalmly back to their Cadillac. The two marshals staring daggers intotheir backs every step of the way.

Goliath started the car, turnedthe radio back on and started to drive down the garage's ramps. AgentDavid said “I think that went rather well, don't you?” “mmhmm.”“You ever met Allison Ashton, big guy?” “Nope.” “I like hermusic, most of it. She seems nicer then her sister. What about you?”“Do I like her sister?” “No, her music.” “Nah. Don't carefor country.” “What's wrong with you agent? All real Americanslike country music.” “Nope.” “You know what? Were donetalking.” David activated the partition between the front and backseats. Goliath turned up the radio. He smiled.