Project: MI
Chapter 17

“Whothe Hel are you?” Teruo demanded of the girl sitting on his bed. At least he thought she was a girl. Her featuresseemed somewhat...neutral and hard to place. The long hair and voice were hisonly clues. The pale skin and the unsettling eye color however did not helpthings.

Metamorphs always muddy things…

“Language,”the girl tsked at him, waving afinger in a scolding manner. “If you had a mother I’d bet she spends a lot oftime with you over a sink with a bar of soap.”

“Myguardian is in shouting distance,” Teruo replied. “I’m already neck deep introuble, so you have until the count of three…”

“Look,I’m only interested in getting help,” she said, reaching behind her. “I don’twant to cause trouble for you or anything. You’re the only person I could turnto.”

Teruohesitated. “The only person?”

Themetamorph flashed him a grin. “Your reputation precedes you, but first…”Raising her hand, she presented to him a Guardian Sphere. Its electric eye wasdark and lifeless.

“Accidentlyknocked this one out earlier today. It needs fixing. Care to play with itbefore we can talk under fake surveillance?”

Thatcaught Teruo’s attention. A layer of security from a dummy system was always aplus. Wordlessly he snatched the orb from her hand and set to work on it withhis Doctor device, popping open the back hatch.

“Wherewere you keeping this?” he asked out of mild curiosity. “I didn’t see it on youwhen you were in bird form.”

“Alady doesn’t kiss and tell.”

“Alady, huh? Is that how you identify?”

Shetilted her head to one side, smirking in amusement. “You’re pretty precociousfor a kid aren’t you? Does it bother you what I am?”

“Meh.”Teruo shrugged. “Clarity helps. He… She… Somewhere in between… If I have torefer to you in third person pronoun I like to know I’m using the right one. Idon’t care if I have to refer to you as ‘hir’.” He coughed. “That’s with an ‘I’by the way. Not an E.”

Themetamorph leaned forward, seeming to take delight in their verbal fencing game.“What about my name? Would that help?”

“That’sonly polite, but…” Teruo clicked off his device and snapped the hatch shut. “…Iget the feeling that you’re in a position where giving me your name or anyalias’ would be bad. Let’s keep that kind of information minimal.”

Grimacingat the thought of further interrogation from the CHC as he turned the orb overjust in time to see the light in its eye turn on.

“Okay,”he said as it floated up in the air. “It’s all set. We can talk in private now,for a while anyway. Er…that is, unless, there are other spying stuff outthere…”

“Frommy eye view, none that I saw that will be bothered by a bird in your house,”the metamorph chuckled. “A girl on the other hand…” She grinned. “That answeryour question?”

“AdequatelyI guess. So what do you want? I take it you’re not in the kidnapping business…”

“Uh…no?”The girl tilted her head to one side. “Why would you ask that?”

“Ihear Albion starts them young.” He folded his ‘Doctor Device’ in his lap. “Youraccent’s pretty good by the way.”

Thegirl scowled. “I’m not looking to kidnap anybody. I’m trying to get help for afriend. He’s in a bit of a jam.” Looking down, she began to twirl herforefinger in the bed’s sheets in a spiraling motion. “He’s a heroi and thecompany, Romana Pax, did something with their latest update.” Reaching behindher, she pulled out a Companion Device. Teruo raised an eyebrow at it. Itlooked like a rather old model. “This one is a dummy version that I used to getsome privacy with him and his Companion. It sent out a pre-prepared falsereport to the same source. They’re doing the same thing. They’re hiding what’sactually happening to him. I can help him but…he…he won’t believe me though.”

“So…whatare you getting at exactly?” Teruo asked, a bored expression crossing hisfeatures. “My network privileges have been revoked. I won’t be able to gohacking or anything.”

Thatwasn’t exactly true of course, but the privilege revocation did complicatethings considerably.

“Great…”the girl muttered, sounding as though she lost her best option. “So you’reuseless to me. Coming here was a mistake.” She looked up at him, her eyesglistening a little. “Are you sure you can’t…? My friend… If he can’t controlhis powers…! If they replace out he’s having dreams!They’ll…”

Teruoraised an eyebrow. “Dreams? He’s a heroi that’s under watch and he’s having dreams?Those dreams? And Romana Pax ishiding this from the feds?”

“Yeah,”she nodded, hoping desperately that this would spur him into taking some sortof action. “It’s…complicated. It doesn’t look like Romana Pax wants him to besuppressed. They’re loading the deck to make sure his powers are active anddeveloping. His treatment is a placebo!”

Teruoran a hand over his chin thoughtfully. Ifshe’s telling the truth… “Yeah, that’s opening a Pandora’s box of problems.There’s no real reason for me to be involved though. I mean…isn’t the CHCinvestigating Romana Pax or something?” He remembered at least one news report in the past few daysmentioning a break-in or some such that caught their eye. “They’ll get it allfigured out.”

“Andwhen they do they’ll kill him!” thegirl hissed angrily in a barely restrained whisper, her serpentine eyesdarkening dangerously. “He’s not just anyheroi! He’s…” Her mouth snapped shut with an audible click and she glancedaround nervously.

“Goon,” Teruo prompted. “Finish what you were going to say.”

“Ishouldn’t.”

Teruosighed. It was time to force the issue.

“Thenwe’re done talking.”

“No,hang on…”

“You’renot offering me anything, so why should I care?”

Shesat there for a moment, her body shaking before she moved her lips.

“Omega…”she whispered.

Teruofelt his body grow cold at the word.

Lookingat her more fully, Teruo adjusted his posture as the full weight of its meaningand everything it implied settled heavily over him.

“That’s…That’s bullshit,” Teruo said, his voice shaking a little but scathing in itsdelivery. “The government wouldn’t allow an Omega to live.”

“Theyhave!” she insisted.

“Areyou serious? Do you have proof of this?”

“Er…”The metamorph looked embarrassed now. “Not…Not on me. I can’t carry it. I’m notallowed to.”

Although… Apart of him doubted. An Omega… And…righton time for the City to reappear too. That’s…a bizarre coincidence.

Too much of a coincidence. Omegasaren’t a dime a dozen.

“I’mtelling you the truth!” the girl hissed desperately.

“What’shis name?”

Shehesitated but leaned forward. “James Grey,” she said under her breath.

Teruofurrowed his brow, wondering if John had mentioned anything about him. Heroiinvolved his department and he did on occasion discuss them.

Not much of a chance of that ifhe’s an Omega. That would be national security, which is above the civilian paygrade when it comes to ‘need to know’. ‘Course, if he really is an Omega, heshould be dead by now so…potential Omega? Is he emergent? Crap… I need to knowmore.

Teruoleaned back and cracked his knuckles. He looked over at his computerthoughtfully.

“Ineed to know more,” he mused to himself, only peripherally aware of the girl’seyes lighting up with hope.

Ah…serpents… John is going to be pissed.

Thetension in the main control room was knife-breaking from Anderson’sperspective. Beck and Jones, aside from terse questions, responses, or the oddorder, had been silent ever since word came down from Steiner to get Ranprepped and ready for another incursion. Watching Beck unconsciously reachbehind him and tug on his pony tail, he could hardly blame them. After all, hehad been there for each and every one of the girl’s ‘incidents’.

It takes a special kind ofstubbornness to stay the course when it’s clearly showing signs of rockywaters. Either that or a special kind of stupidity.

Atthis point he was unsure as to which it was when it came to Steiner or theindividuals he worked for.

In Steiner’s case, whichever itis, it’s backed by far too much confidence.

Hewas interrupted from his thoughts as the doors swung open and in came twonurses, a guard flanked by a hovering orb, and the girl in question at the verycenter, her body supported by the two nurses. Anderson grimaced upon seeingher. She was thinner than when she first came here all those months ago, andher hair was unkempt and wild. He didn’t understand why this was the case. Noneof the doctors they had on staff could explain her deterioration. She waswell-fed and, under proper suppression, was made to exercise, at least up untilmore recently. The only thing that they could agree on, at the moment, was thather condition was not life threatening.

Forthe moment that is.

AsAnderson watched, the girl’s eyes lit up upon sighting her seat at the centerof the room.

“Iget to go outside again?” she asked breathily, her eyes shining with hope.

“Yes,”Jones replied, turning toward the girl. “But you have to remember ouragreement. Complete your mission and we’ll allow you some ‘free’ time.”

Andersonglanced over at Beck in surprise. The man’s expression was impassive, leavinghim with the impression that he knew full well about this. Pausing in hissystem checks, he went over to him.

“Sir?”he asked. “What is she talking about? I don’t remember…”

“Itwas decided just now,” Beck interrupted under his breath. “We’re reaching ourlimits in our ability to control Ran’s behavior and Steiner wants her on the job. Simple suppressionand hypnotic suggestions don’t seem to be working as well as we would like themtoo, so we’re going with a bargaining approach. And before you ask, yes, I knowhow stupid this is. I said as much to Steiner.”

“Butthe signal and power strains…”

“Steiner’sgoing to work something out with our power company. They’re part of the ‘cabal’anyway.”

“I…see.”Anderson ran a hand through his hair. “We’ll need to schedule something withour tech department then to make the necessary modifications as well.”

“Youmake it sound like that is so out of the ordinary that we would get in troublefor it.”

“It…complicates things.”

Beckturned at him with an annoyed expression and pointed meaningfully at Ran as sheslowly, carefully, half-staggered her way over to her chair.

“Shealready complicates things! You wantto raise a complaint now?!”

Andersonraised his hands in a placating gesture, feeling a little irritated himselfnow.

“Idon’t mean any offense, sir,” hereplied. “I am simply concerned about the security of the project.”

Atthat, Beck deflated a little and turned back toward his computer readout.

“Inwhich case I think you are the best candidate to make sure that security ishandled and handled properly.”

Andersonraised an eyebrow. “Sir?”

“Jonesand I are going to have our hands full meddling with this girl. We need tobreak up the leadership roles. Is this sufficient?”

“I…”

“Rain,rain, go away,” came the sing-song voice of the girl as she stopped at herchair, interrupting the two men. Turning in her direction, Anderson shivered asshe slid an almost loving hand over the chairs arms and over the shackles thatwould keep her in place. “Come again some other day…”

“Thesooner this is over with, the better,” Anderson replied with a grimace.

“Thenlet’s get this over with,” said Beck, tapping a few controls. “All right. I’mkeying into the alpha wave band and preparing to transmit. Anderson, Jones willneed you to help her with the wave form emitters…”

Shesettled herself down in the chair and smiled as the shackles clicked closedaround her wrists and ankles. The familiar cool feel of metal on skin brought awarm smile to her face as she thought of the outdoors and everything she wantedto do once she got out there.

Hurry…she thought, looking up at the helmet that descended toward her and would takeher to where she desired most to be. Hurry.Hurry!

Shewanted to laugh excitedly in elation as the helmet settled over her head andher vision transformed from one of darkness to the bright light of day.

Herform was different. A large, broad-brimmed hat sat on her head, keeping herfrom being blinded by the light that cast a golden glow on the clear blue sky.Back in her chair, she blinked back tears, relishing in the transmittedsensation of the breeze flowing over her body like a lover from thehalf-forgotten memories from the beforetime. Below her, in the streets below, she heard the sounds of vehicles drivingand honking at each other. People swarmed around the sidewalks, ants to herview. Above her a plane flew, its engines roaring

Shecurled her toes in the fake boots and giggled. The sensation was almost toomuch for her.

“Ran…”whispered a voice from off to her side, the side that existed back in RomanaPax. “Focus. Remember your mission.”

“Okay,”she nodded, adjusting her hat. “I’ll remember.”

Herlong coat fluttered like a cape in the wind as she stepped toward the edge ofthe building. Taking but a single breath, she took flight.”

“Well,”Beck said, folding his arms over his chest as he observed the scene unfold onthe big screen, “the line is cast.”

Jonesstepped back from her control panel, adjusting her earpiece so that she wascovering the attached microphone.

“Thesystem is already searching for Grey’s Companion,” she said. “It will guide herto it and him. We’ll see what catch we get then.”