Project: MI
Chapter 3

For the living know that they will die,

but the dead knownothing;

they haveno further reward,

and even their name is forgotten.

Their love, their hate

and their jealousy havelong since vanished;

never againwill they have a part

in anything thathappens under the sun.

-Eclesiastes 9.5-6

A woman with striking bronze skin, ambereyes, and dark hair watched the video recording on her desktop, her eyesnarrowed thoughtfully. There was a knock on the door to her office and thewoman paused the video.

“Comein,” Daria Foster said. The door clicked open and she looked up to see a womanwith short, light-brown, closely cropped hair enter, a folder in hand. The twonodded to each other.

“Theinvestigation team has finished their preliminary report of the Romana Paxbreak in,” the other woman said, handing Daria the folder.

“Anythingparticular to note?” Daria asked, opening the file and giving it a quickglance. She furrowed her brow slightly as she caught the words invulnerability and flight in the report.

“Thecurrent theory is that we’re dealing with a heroi suspect of the Beta class,possibly within the ages of twelve to fifteen years of age, based on initialGuardian scans and recordings. Unfortunately there seems to have been somecyber involvement, as some video files and recorded scans have been corruptedor are missing from the data base. Until we can get that cleared up, nothing ispositive.”

“Isthat the reason why there isn’t a Q Field signature in the report?” Dariaasked. “I was under the understanding that initial intelligence stated that ithad been identified by the Guardians.”

Thewoman looked a bit uncomfortable at this and shifted her feet slightly beforereplying. Daria, noticing it, did not comment.

“Yes.There seems to have been cyber involvement as well,” the woman replied. “The QField signature was one of the deleted files. We haven’t been able to recoverthem yet.”

“Makethat a priority then.” Daria turned over a page. “I’d like to know how a heroislipped through the cracks, especially one with abilities such as this.” Sheglanced up at the woman. “Thank you Coleman, you may go.”

Witha nod, Coleman turned and left the room. As the door closed, Daria sighed andmassaged the bridge of her nose.

Gone are the days… she thought, quotinga partial line from a poem she once read in college. Her eyes flicked over tothe clock. It remained far too early for her to step out of her office.

Theline from the poem never rang so true as it did now.

Agitated, shegot up from her desk and walked around to its front. Turning the folder Colemanleft her around, she gave the first page a much more thorough read-through. Notthat it told her anything that Coleman hadn’t already summarized, but it wasenlightening all the same.

Romana Pax being a target of heroiextremists is hardly surprising, given its position as one of the headindustries in the manufacturing of suppressant. It’s been done before, just notin the past decade. So what changed?

Thewords invulnerability and flight stood out far too clearly forher.

Chewingon her lower lip, she wanted to curse out loud. Her first week as director ofthe Center of Heroi Control and this happens.

The higher ups are already worryingthemselves over the speeding up of the Age, she thought. They’re going to put pressure on me to getthis solved so that it doesn’t interfere with their plans to deal with thebigger problem. Daria closed her eyes and sighed again, this time resistingthe urge to rub the bridge of her nose. Damnyou Burton for leaving at a time like this. And damn you universe for makingthe higher ups freak out! If it weren’t for all of you, I wouldn’t be stuck inthis office, behind that desk. I’d be out there trying to solve this and…

Theringing of her cell phone cut across her internal rant. Pulling it out, sheflipped it open.

“Foster,”she said curtly.

“Daria?” came the voice on the otherend. “Richard Steiner is here for your9:30 appointment.”

“Sendhim up,” she replied, flipping the phone closed.

At least I’ll be able to do something otherthan wait for people to give me reports…

Jamieawoke with a start as his alarm clock blared angrily at him. With a heavy groanhe gave the snooze button a heavy thwack, knocking it to the floor with a loudclatter. From downstairs, the sound of a news report diminished slightly, as ifwaiting for any further sounds before returning to optimum levels. Smacking hislips to rid them of their dryness, he took a bleary look around him.

“Iwoke up late,” he muttered irritably to himself before turning his gaze to thesix limbed, two-headed dog that soundly slept next to him, paws strewn over hisleft leg. “You let me sleep in, didn’t you?”

ForMonster, an audible, sleepy huff was his only response. Rolling his eyes, Jamiepushed the Cerberus’ legs off and began to get up.

“Beth!”he called out, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. His left leg feltoddly numb, but he dismissed it. On his desk, a small rod with a light-like eyefixed to its top lit blue and looked at him.

“Yes?” came a computerized, femininevoice. Jamie smiled a little.

“Ioverslept. Did any of the…whoa!”

Theelectric eye of the rod—an Artificial Intelligence Monitoring device known as aCompanion—receded and expanded asJamie collapsed upon his trying to stand up.

“Jamie?!” the electronic voice of Bethasked in alarm. “Are you all right?”

“Ow…”Wincing, the boy massaged his left leg. The numbness he noted earlier was nowrapidly transforming into a million needle pricks running from foot to hip.“Yeah…” he breathed, getting back up. “Leg just fell asleep, that’s all.Anyway, did any of the guys try to get a hold of me while I was out?”

“You have no new messages. I already tookthe liberty of informing them that you were going to be late.”

Jamiescowled slightly at the machine. “Why’d you do that?”

“Your sleep patterns have been inconsistentwith the recommended hours for your age group, and you woke up in the middle ofthe night. As today is a national holiday and school attendance isn’t apriority, I reset the alarm clock to allow you more time to…”

Jamieinterrupted Beth with a loud groan.

Having a Companion drives me up the wall…his mind began, but he shut off that line of thought as he glanced at the machine,its—her, as he saw it in hismind—electric eye flashed twice, an act that he associated with worry.

“I apologize if I have caused you anydifficulties,” Beth replied, casting her blue eye down toward the floor.Jamie bit his lip, feeling like scum now, and he turned away, only to replace allthree of Monster’s heads up and watching him, eyebrows scrunched downward in away that made Jamie think he was being scolded by them.

“Don’tworry about it,” Jamie said, going over to his still open dresser and beganrummaging around in it, producing a light blue t-shirt and pair of cutoffjeans.

“If I may ask,” resumed Beth. “What was it that caused you to wake up?”

Jamieshrugged nonchalantly. “Just a bad dream,” he replied, tossing a pair ofunderwear and socks onto the floor to join the rest of his day clothes.

“Do you remember any details?”

Jamieshrugged again. “Nope.”

“I see… I am still required to make a reportthough.”

“Goahead,” Jamie replied, turning around. “Um…” He passed his hands over his eyes.“…do you mind?”

“Going dark,” she said, her electric eyeclicking off. Alone with his privacy, Jamie immediately stripped down and beganto put on his clothes. As he slid his shirt over his head, he brieflywondered—and not for the first time—why Beth, or anyone from the Center ofHeroi Control for that matter, wanted to know about his dreams, especially whenthey were so unimportant that he forgot about them almost as soon as he hadthem.

They’re just dreams. The brain’s diarrhea. Helaughed a little at the description, once given to him by his uncle once upon atime. It’s all so stupid.

Bethgave him an answer once as to why his dreams were considered important enoughto inform the government of, but her response was so heavily dressed in termsthat he didn’t understand that he gave up on trying to do so. Just as he didthen, the line of thought quickly dismissed itself as he no longer saw theworth of pursuing it. Buttoning on his jean-shorts, he stood up and turnedtoward Beth. His eyebrows, thick and wooly like the caterpillar of the samename, turned downward into a sharp scowl. Above his Companion, hovering inmidair and turning end over end, was his game play book, The Battle Star.

Nosooner did he spy the item defying the laws of gravity did it suddenly pauseand drop with a clatter.

“Okay.You can look again. Thanks, Beth.” He rolled his eyes as he approached her,detesting the fact that once again heneeded to take his medicine. Snatching a small, orange-colored bottle from offhis dresser, he popped off the lid and quickly swallowed a single white pill.

“You’re quite welcome,” Beth replied,her electric eye returning to life. It swiveled back over to him as he finishedshuddering from the taste of his meds. “Everythingall right?”

“Blagh.”Making a disgusted face, he waved his medicine bottle at her before pocketingit, and she blinked in understanding.

“That aside, you look good today. It matches theweather quite perfectly.” Jamie snorted as he went over towhere his sneakers lay and slid them on. “Yourhoroscope indicates that today will be life changing for you as well.”

“That’swhat you said yesterday,” Jamie laughed, putting the finishing touches on apair of laces that had come undone. “Nothing happened then.”

He neverbelieved in anything she said about his horoscope. He wiggled his toes alittle, testing the tightness of his laces before moving over to his desk.“Ready to go?” he asked. Beth’s eye blinked once at him in affirmation.

“Yes,” she replied. Unplugging theCompanion Module from her battery charger and clipping her to his belt loop.Snatching up a sketch book he whistled over to Monster, who promptly sprang upfrom the bed and hopped down.

“Let’sgo boy,” he said, patting his leg. Together, the trio exited the room andheaded down the hall toward the stairwell. Once more he passed the door with apicture of a white-furred rabbit, marred with pink and blue crayon scribbles.Just as before, he reached out to touch its doorknob briefly…

“Ow!”

Cryingout in pain, Jamie snatched his hand back.

“Are you all right?” asked Beth, her eyeswiveling up at him.

“Justshocked myself,” Jamie said, shaking his hand. The incident forgotten almost assoon as it started, he descended the stairs. Monster lingered for a moment,sniffing at the door before following his master. Beth, for her part, swung hereye at the knob, catching sight of a curl of electricity snaking up itsmetallic surface before disappearing into the keyhole.

“Hmmm…” the machine wondered aloud,logging the scene in its data base and transmitting it.

“What?”Jamie asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Nothing,” Beth replied. Shrugging hisshoulders, Jamie headed into the living room, replaceing his father sitting in hiseasy chair in front of the television, watching a news report. Jamie hesitateda moment, taking in the dark circles and the disinterested, almost zombie-likeexpression in the man’s eyes.

"…there is stillno word as CHC has refused to comment on the attack on Romana Pax,” he heardthe news reporter say, and he quickly turned his attention to the tube.“Sources indicate that the attack was a rogue heroi that was not logged intothe system."

As Jamiewatched the news report, a pang of fear pounding in his chest, thenewswoman—Allison Drew—turned to the woman sitting across from her, handsclasped in front of her.

"Ms. Endo, there are many in ouraudience who are wondering if this rogue heroi is actually an agent from one ofthe Eurasian States as relations have become increasingly strained with them inrecent times. As someone who once worked with the CHC, can you corroborate anyof this?"

"Well Ms. Drew," beganthe interviewee, sitting back in her seat. "There's nodenying that there have been problems between the Old and NewWorlds—particularly Albion—but really, there isn't anything that either sidewould be able to gain by attacking each other at this point, even with asmall-time terrorist attack. As things stand, the words 'mutually assuredannihilation' come to mind, making any direct power plays like this to befrankly too dangerous to try. I think we can rule out the political chessgames."

"In that case,what do you have to say about how this will affect things on the home front?Heroi Civil Rights groups are concerned that this will trigger a new wave ofanti-heroi sentiment in spite of one hundred years of good behavior."

"I can certainly understand theirconcern," Endo replied, readjusting herselfin her seat. She seemed awfully uncomfortable, as though this were the lastplace she wanted to be at this moment. Deep down, Jamie felt his own stomach squirm, sharing thatdiscomfort. “Nonetheless I am compelled to remind your audience thatthis individual is not registered andcould very well be a deviant. We've had deviants before—heroi that manage tohide the emergence of their powers and go under the radar…"

"…which you describe in one of yourbooks, Heroi Control: Plan forFailure…" Allison interjected. Endo chuckled grimly.

"No one's perfect, Allison, whichwas the point that I was making in the book. But coming back to the topic athand, there's no—and I repeat,no—reason foranyone to be afraid of any heroi that they meet on the streets. A number ofthem are like every other law abiding citizen and a great deal of peoplerecognize this."

“Areyou going somewhere kid?”

Jamiesnapped back to the world of the living room. Remembering that there wassomewhere he wanted to go, he offered his father a strained smile. The mandidn’t return the smile though. Jamie noticed that he had a considerable amountof stubble growing around his mouth.

“Um…I’mjust going to hang out with some friends at the park. Justin and Kyle.”

“Youdo your chores?”

“I’lldo them when I get home.”

Mr.Grey opened his mouth as if in protest, but then shrugged and returned hisattention to the television.

“Behome before dark,” he said, his tone dull. Jamie got the chilling impressionthat he wasn’t really in the room in the eyes of his father; that he was just aghost passing by. Almost immediately he tried to think of what that would belike, and in response the image of the rabbit drawing on the door upstairs cameto mind.

Heshuddered and tightened his grip on his sketch book.

“Okay,”Jamie said, turning away and heading toward the door as quickly as possible.Right now he wanted to be anywhere else but the living room. He paused brieflyas he opened the door to outside and turned back toward his father. He opened hismouth but, like the elder Grey, closed it.

Have you been sleeping at all? he wantedto ask, but he knew how his father would respond.

“Either go outside or stay in. Whatever youdo, just close the door. You’ll let the flies in.”

Notwanting that, Jamie stepped outside and closed the door, the news report beingthe last thing he heard before shutting off the cold inside his home.

“…there's no reason for any heroito be afraid to go out at night…”

The door to Daria's office opened and inwalked a young man with curly brown hair and a youthful face that was ratherdisarming in its appearance of innocence. His eyes, Daria observed, shone withmore honesty than his face, revealing to her a canyon’s worth of depths.

She didn’t need to be a psychic to guessthat Richard Steiner had been setting up his side of the chess board since hegot his appointment made.

"Hello Ms. Foster," the mansaid in a strong, friendly tone as he stretched out a hand in greeting. Gettingup, Daria stretched out her hand and accepted the gesture before indicating thechairs in front of her desk.

"Thank you for arriving on suchshort notice Richard Steiner. Please, take a seat."

"If you insist," Richardchuckled, glancing at the pair of agents behind him. "I must admit that Idon't normally meet with government officials of your standing…or anygovernment officials for that matter." He leaned back in his chaircasually and folded his hands together in his lap. "But when the CHCcalls, there is no choice but to answer."

"We don't like to project the ideathat you have no choice, Mr. Steiner, so please do not misunderstand ourmission or your reason for being here. For myself, I simply prefer to talk topeople in person. I feel that something is lost in the conversation when peopletalk via tele-com."

"I'll indulge yourpreference," Richard nodded in understanding.

"Good." Daria got up from herchair and made her way around the desk, where she leaned back against it, armsfolded beneath her breasts. In spite of her lax posture, she might as well havebeen a rigid tower to Richard. “I mustfirst apologize for the incident from this morning. I had thought that ourGuardians were sufficient in dealing with unknown heroi.”

Richard continued to smile at her.“There’s no need to apologize. History tells us that it is impossible to beprepared for every possible problem that may surface.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Darianodded. “I used to be a student of history myself in university. It was one ofmy majors.”

“Is that so?” Richard asked. “Well,to each their own I suppose.”

“You aren’t a fan?”

“A bad habit from when I was a kid,”Richard offered apologetically. “Interest never took off with me. I’m afraid Ifall on the end of the “those who do not remember history” saying.”

“You never know,” Daria said,pushing herself off her desk and moving back around her desk. “If you’re notcareful, you might end up on the other end of that saying as well.”

Richard blinked, his smile faltering."I beg your pardon?"

Reaching in front of her, Daria turnedher desktop around to face the man. It revealed an image a mist-shrouded city.

“You’re familiar with this?”

“It’s the reason why the CHC andRomana Pax are operating together,” Richard replied. “As well as othercorporations and groups. I am actively involved regarding this you know.”

“I do. You had an interview recentlyregarding it as well.” Daria turned her desktop around and sat in her seat. “Doyou think that it had anything to do with the break-in?” She eyed himcarefully. “The thief targeted your office after all.”

“I don’t keep much in the way ofimportant documents on my office computer,” Richard stated. “Which you wouldknow by perusing through my emails.”

“I’m still waiting for a full,detailed report on that, though you didhave that image.” She indicated her computer monitor, the image of the citystill on the screen.

“It’s not a state secret,” Richardreplied. “At least not from what I was told. Of course, we’re not allowed toshare much in the way of details about the operation itself, which I told theinterviewer…”

“Of course,” Daria agreed. “Thesenate desires a certain degree of openness with the press regarding thismatter. I just replace it interesting that your business—your office—was targeted so soon after you gave the interview.”

“I haven’t received any anonymousthreats or have been contacted by any groups.” Folding his hands in his lap,Richard met Daria’s gaze. “I do hope that you replace whoever is responsiblethough. The success of the operation depends on it.” A pause before frowning.“Or is that too overly dramatic a thing to say? The individuals involved mightnot be looking to stop the operation…”

“What would they be after?” Dariaasked. Now Richard looked uncomfortable.

“There…was a list on my computer. Ofnames. Those who were lost. Even today the ‘official’ numbers are kept hidden.I imagine that it would cause a firestorm on the net if it were known.”

Now it was Daria’s turn to frown.“I…see. There are certainly families who would be interested in that.” Raisingher hands, she tapped her fingers against her lips for a moment beforeresuming. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Steiner. You can go now.”

“You’re quite welcome Director,”Richard said, inclining his head toward her as he got out of his seat. As hedid so, Daria’s cell phone rang and she dug it out of her pocket, flipping itopen.

Upon opening the door, he steppedoutside and carefully closed the door just enough to allow him a chance tohear. He felt that he didn’t need to, but habit, engrained into him from manyyears of practice, told him to eavesdrop if only for a second. Just like theage that was the metal’s namesake, information was gold.

“The Grey Case is being reopened?”he heard Daria say in a hushed voice. His ears perked up at that, but despitehis desire to know more he stepped away and casually headed down the hall,hands slipping into his pockets.

TheGrey Case… he mused, his lips curling in a smile once more.

Information was gold indeed.

“Andwhat are we day-dreaming about?”

Nine-year old Kira Baker looked upfrom the porch up at her approaching sister, Ran, as she approached, twoglasses of bubbling soda in each hand. Her hair, dark like hers, fell over oneeye and her smile, small, teased answers from the younger girl. Not that Ranreally had to try. Kira loved her big sister and was more than happy to reply.

“Just thinking about a story I readtoday,” she said simply. It wasn’t much of an answer, but Ran knew perfectlywell what story she was referring to. It was the only one she had beendevouring with her eyes for the past week.

“The Warrior Princess, huh?” Ran satdown next to the younger girl and passed her a drink.

“I wish I could be like that,” Kiracontinued, nodding fervently as she accepted the drink. “Go to other worlds andmeet monsters just like the old stories said that all the heroi used to.” Shefrowned, running a hand over the glass thoughtfully. “Why’d the door getclosed?”

“They had to save the world,” Ranlaughed and winked at her. “It was either that or let things go Dark. You don’twant that, do you?”

“Well…no,” Kira admitted. “But Iwould still like to see other worlds and all the old monsters someday.”

“No one’s saying you can’t,” Ranreplied, lifting a finger and pointing at the ground in front of them. As if oncue, a tiny, gold-skinned, goblin-like creature popped into existence. It stoodthere blankly while Kira’s eyes went wide.

“Ran!” she exclaimed, lookingfrantically around her. “If Mom sees this…”

“…I’ll just tell her it was just a‘trick of the light’.” She winked again at Kira. “I know you won’t sell me out,right?”

“No…”

“Good.” Ran waggled a finger, andlike a puppet the goblin creature sprang to life, waving first at Kira and thenflipping over to do handstands, waggling its tiny feet at her. Kira couldn’thelp but laugh a little. Its feet came together into a loose pair of points,like socks that had been put on but not tightened, yet there was no sign of anysuch clothing on them. The creature continued to prance along, making no soundand disturbing not a blade of grass as it did so. It cast no shadow, but thecreature looked as real as anything else that walked and talked.

Ran used to be quite the hit amongthe children in the neighborhood, until playing with her heroi powers caughtthe attention of Heroi Control. They had a ‘discussion’ with their mother—whomthey seemed to take great interest in—and although she didn’t say much aboutwhat they talked about, at least not to Kira, it was enough for Ran to stopbeing the ‘Magician’. Every so often she would perform for Kira. When she wasyounger, she used her powers to tell bedtime stories.

Kira liked the horror stories thebest, in spite of their mother’s protests.

The goblinoid flipped back over andmade a face at Kira, spreading its lips out with its fingers and sticking outits tongue. Kira made a face back and glanced at Ran.

Kind of rude, isn’t he?”

“He’s just looking for attention,”Ran chuckled, and with another flick of her wrist, the creature vanished,replaced by a rabbit with big, floppy ears. “That better?”

“It’s cute,” Kira said tentatively,bringing her soda up to her lips for a drink. She preferred the goblin though.

“Looks it, but if you’re notcareful…” Another flick of the wrist, and the rabbit yawned, revealing a set ofvery un-rabbit-like fangs which nearly caused Kira to choke on her drink. Whenit finished, the fangs vanished, but its eyes glowed a dull crimson that leftthe girl with a little chill running down her back.

Now she definitely preferred the rabbit over the goblin.

“I wish I had your power,” she said,becoming sullen all of a sudden. Reaching out, Ran ruffled her hair, stillsmiling.

“Don’t worry about it. One dayyou’ll get something really wonderful that outdoes mine. You’re a special girl,Kira.”

Kira jerked from her spot on herbedroom floor as the sound of her cell phone buzzing on her nightstand like anangry bumblebee broke the silence of her room. Slapping her book closed sherushed over and snatched the phone up, quickly checking to see who the callerwas before hitting the answer button.

“Mal?” she said in a hushed voice,making her way to her door and opening it.

“Catchyou at a bad moment?”

“Just reading,” she replied,taking a quick peek outside to see if her mother was nearby. “Latest book byStephen R. Green; Giants and Witches.”

“Soundsgood. Everything’s fine and the line is secure. Your phone isn’t tapped.Doesn’t seem like anyone has connected you to the break-in last night.”

Kira closed her door behind herwith a soft click, breathing a sigh of relief. “All right, what’s our nextmove?”

“I’msending you some information now via email. Print it up quick because there’s abug in it that will delete once I’m done talking to you.”

“Roger.” Quickly reviving hersleeping computer, she went straight to her Goggle Account and checked formessages. Sure enough, Malcolm’s latest message was right there waiting forher. She quickly hit the print button and waited as her printer warmed up.Licking her lips tentatively, she continued. “Did you replace anything?”

She wanted to kick herself forasking the question, as he promised to let her know if he turned anything up,but she had to have some verbal confirmation, if only to relieve the tension inher muscles.

“Hardto say at this point, but there is something I want to investigate. It lookslike Romana Pax has become interested in a particular individual. It might be arepeat of your sister or something else that’s connected, but it could benothing. I’m already gathering some data, but I want you to feel him out andsee what the interest is.”

“Chasing ghosts…” Kira grumbledunder her breath.

“Whatwas that?”

“Nothing.”

“Noback talk on this please,” Malcolm said, clearly not believing her one bit. “This could be a big one, and if theevidence is right it might point us in the direction you want to go. I knowit’s not what you wanted to hear, but we’re just going to have to accept takingbaby steps on this one for right now. Is that clear?”

“Yeah, crystal.” She glanced atthe printer to see it finishing up its job. “All done.”

“Allright. I’ll keep digging. My informant should be moving into position soon, soI’ll talk to you later.”

“Got it.” With that, Kira hung upand looked over at her inbox just in time to see the message delete itself.Sighing in agitation she lifted up the printout and took a look. The papercontained the face of a brown-haired boy that looked about a year younger thanher, a name attached to it, and an address.

She frowned. He looked a bitfamiliar, but she couldn’t quite place why.

Jamie Grey, huh? she thought,folding up the paper and pocketing it. You’dbetter be worth this.

Atopa tall building, Teruo brought a pair of goggles down over his eyes. He grinnedcrazily and lifted up a heavy, metallic pack, and shrugged it onto hisshoulders. Buckling it around his chest, he checked everything to make surethat they were safe and tight.

“Okay,”he said quietly to himself. Clicking a button on a bracelet around his wrist, apair of rocket engines folded outward, jerking him slightly. Taking a deepbreath, he stepped out to the ledge, paused, and then jumped.

“Whooo!!!”He let out a loud whoop as he plummeted to the streets below. Before he evenreached critical velocity, he hit another button on the bracelet and the rocketengines flared to life, all but halting his drop. He grunted, but his grinremained plastered on his face.

“Yes!”he whispered as he started to rise. “It works. It works! Just like I knew itwould! I…”

Aloud alarm blared over the roar of his engines, and he fumbled a small pad fromhis pocket. A word was painted on it in large, glaring red letters.

Incoming.

“Shit!”Tapping on his bracelet again he swerved to the side and took off at a rapidpace. No sooner did he do so a group of flying black spheres descended uponhim. As they approached him, they began to flash blue and red lights and emit aloud claxon cry.

“Citizen Teruo Kato,” came a flat,robotic voice from the closest flying sphere. “You are in violation of restricted air space. You are ordered to landand surrender yourself to the authorities.”

“Screwyou!” the youth laughed, taking a sharp turn between buildings. The spheresquickly followed suit. There is a click and a whir, and a small tube emerged fromthe center of one of them.

“This is your final warning Citizen TeruoKato,” the sphere said. “Land andsurrender yourself to the authorities.”

Teruoresponded by tapping his bracelet again, and his rocket pack’s engines kickedout as flames spat from their nozzles with increased force.

“We shall take that as a negative response,”the sphere acknowledged, and at once all of them increased their pace, tubesemerging from their hidden compartments. Bright light flashed at their tips,and lanced out towards Teruo’ engines. Sparks flew as metal was sheared off,sending him spiraling out of control. Teruo howled a number of curses,frantically tapping the controls on his bracelet, trying to stabilize himself.

“Shit!Shit! Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!!!” The pack blew apart via a series ofcarefully placed explosive bolts, and the fragments went crashing into thestreets below. A large parachute billowed outward behind him and caught thewind. Slowly, almost carefully, it deposited him back down to the ground, whereit deflated and collapsed. His boots scraped the ground upon landing, and hepeeled back his goggles. The spheres, still flashing red and blue surroundedhim. With a goofy grin, Teruo pushed his hair back and bent his head slightlyto get a better look at them. He licked his lips and raised his hands.

“Sorryfor the commotion,” he chuckled, glancing around at the wide-eyed bystanderswatching the spectacle.

“Up and at ‘em, Teruo,” said the femaleofficer as she approached the boy where he sat—or more accurately lounged. Heturned his face away from the game he was playing on his cell phone, the boredexpression on his face quickly evaporating into eagerness.

“About time he got here,” hegrinned, quickly exiting the game as the star fighter portrayed on its screendied in a cute, but fiery explosion. Stuffing it into his pants’ pocket, hefollowed the officer, a grin blooming on his face.

“So, Jenny,” he said in a teasingtone. “Are you sick of my face yet? This is the third time in the past monththat I’ve been in here.”

“Knock it off,” Jenny replied in astiff, professional tone. “Do you realize how much it costs just to file thepaperwork every time we bring you in?”

“Not quite.” Teruo folded his armsbehind his green and white colored hair, grinning all the while as they nearedthe front desk. “I’m getting a clear idea though. I imagine all it would taketo solve that problem would be to charge me rent for the use of that chair Iwas just in. I can see it now.” Teruo unfolded his hands and brought thembefore him, spacing them out dramatically. “The first chair to be rented by arepeat offender. I ought to take a picture.”

“It’ll certainly last longer,”muttered Officer Jenny.

“You are getting sick of my face,”laughed Teruo. “Take it easy. I won’t be able to come up with a plan in time toget brought in a fourth time before the month ends. Ha!”

Jenny didn’t respond to the boy’sjab as they drew to a halt. Instead she raised her right hand to her head,snapping a salute to the grey-haired man standing before the desk, talking to aconsiderably younger man with dark hair and brown eyes, who was in the processof filling out some paperwork.

“I’ve brought the perp as ordered,sir. Request permission to hand cuff him to his guardian this time.”

Teruo laughed. “Didn’t know you wereinto cuffs, Jenny,” he hooted delightedly. “Now I absolutely have to getarrested a fourth time, just to see if she’ll break them out for him.”

The young man groaned and appearedto resist slumping forward. “Teruo…”

“Take it easy, John,” the boy winkedconspiratorial manner at Jenny, whose was now glaring venomously at him. “I getthe feeling that you’ll need that kind of attitude with Jenny here.” He jerkeda thumb at the woman, her eyes narrowing into deadly slits. “I think she’s gota bit of a mean streak to her.”

“That will be enough out of you,Teruo,” snapped the grey-haired man, leveling a dark look on the young boy.Something passed behind his dark eyes that made Teruo’s mouth—normally readywith a snappy comeback—consider asking his fingers in helping sew itself shutto ensure future silence.

“Thank you Captain Cooper,” Johnsighed, shaking his head. He placed the pen down and turned to the boy. “Allright, kid. Let’s go.”

Teruo nodded. He cast a look atJenny’s direction and his lips twitched, wanting to make one more shot at herexpense, but the wiser part of his brain took hold of the reins and pulled themtaut. Properly restrained, he followed John out after he made one last apology.Once outside however, his mouth broke free from the gate, and quickly clamoredto reach its finish line.

“She’s got the hots for you, youknow,” he said bluntly, withdrawing his cell phone and browsing through hismessages. “That’s the only reason I keep doing this.”

John fixed the boy with a hard glarethat spoke more volumes than what Teruo believed he ever had—or would—in hislife. That was all right, he supposed. The idea of John getting riled uppleased him a little.

Ijust wish he would be more out in the open about his feelings. He’s not goingto get anywhere if all he does is let people walk all over him.

“You have a funny way of ‘helpingme’,” John replied over his thoughts as they reached the bottom of the stairs.“Do I even need to point out that you’re the reason that I haven’t been on adate in over a year?”

Teruo shrugged nonchalantly. To theaverage passerby, one might be shocked at hearing such a statement, especiallyas John Smith was Teruo’s appointed guardian. To those that were a bit morefamiliar with them, it was a perfectly normal—to use the term loosely—facet oftheir relationship. If nothing else, they believed in being honest to eachother, and while John was reserved often, they didn’t hold back from eachother.

In all fairness, Teruo started it.

“Not my fault. You’re always soserious,” Teruo said, flipping from one message to the next with absolutely nointerest. The one he was looking for had not arrived yet it seemed.

“Don’t start that up again,” Johnreplied, attempting to hail down a taxi and failing. He frowned at his chargeand with lightning reflexes snatched up the cell phone out of Teruo’s hands.

“Hey!”

“Listen to me when I’m talking toyou,” John said firmly, jabbing the corner of the phone in his direction asthough it were a parental finger expressing frank disapproval. “If I’ve toldyou once, I’ve told you a thousand times. Don’tmake a spectacle…”

“…ofyourself,” Teruo finished, annoyed. “I know. And you haven’t said it athousand times. Just forty.”

John continued to glower at him, notwanting to reveal his surprise that the child had bothered to keep track.

“It sure feels like a thousandsometimes. Remember, you get to walk around free as long as you keep a lowprofile. Keep up what you did today and the CHC cannot protect you anymore.There are still too many people out there that are…” John clamped his mouthshut and looked around him before returning his gaze back to Teruo. “Just keepyour head down, if not for my sake then for yours.” John handed him back hisphone. “Okay? This would a lot easier for the both of us you know.”

“I hate having to hide,” grumbledTeruo, taking back his phone.

“You were just telling me to take iteasy,” John sighed.

“It’s not the same thing…”

“It can’t be helped. That you’ve atleast been told a thousand times.”

“Only one hundred and seventy four.”Teruo paused. “For this sort of thing anyway.”

Great,he’s keeping score… He gave the boy a sympathetic look. “Sorry about that.How about I pop in your favorite movie when we get back to the house?” That usually takes the edge off our littlearguments…

Teruo surprised him by shaking hishead. “Can’t. I’m busy.”

John raised an eyebrow at that. He’s turning down his favorite film, FiveFolds Eight? An alarm bell sounded in his mind. “Not to pry, but may I askwhat with? You’re not in school right now…”

“Private project.”

Uhoh. John thought back to the jet pack incident. “Another machine you’vebeen tinkering with? Teruo…”

“I don’t have anything like that inthe works. That backpack was all that I had time to put together recently.”Teruo scowled. “I can’t believe that the CHC confiscated it. I worked hard onit too.”

“They’re going to destroy it too.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Teruogrimaced. “It took me months just to get everything to work right withoutrisking burning my butt off, and I don’t have near enough the budget to buildanother one.” A devilish grin appeared on his face just then. “Guess I’ll justhave to cheap it for my next trick if I want to get you and Jenny to see eachother again by the end of the month. I mightmake it after all. She’s waiting on you. Why don’t you make the first move? It’s so sad that you look likeyou’re depending on me just to have an excuse to see her.”

“Teruo…” began John warningly. Theboy laughed heartily, but John couldn’t help but notice that the laugh rang abit empty.

Life for the Heroi is never an easyone when it’s unfulfilled…

Upon reachinghome, Teruo was upstairs and in his room at such a rapid pace that he felt surethat John would be insulted. He craned his head a little and glared at thewooden door behind him.

“Notmy problem,” he said finally, pushing away from the door and making his wayover to the other end of the room, where his computer sat at attention. He hitthe power button and while he waited for it to boot up he stepped over to thesmall cage sitting next to it.

“Hey, Gerbil,”he greeted, pulling out a small bag full of dark-brown pellets and scoopingsome out. Unlatching the cage, he spilled the nuggets into a light-coloredbowl. A brown-furred rabbit sitting in the corner, fat and furry, stared up athim expressionlessly, nose and mouth working endlessly. As soon as Teruowithdrew and closed the cage, the long-eared critter hopped over to the bowland began nibbling on its meal. Teruo smiled briefly at his pet before turningback to the computer. Sitting down he typed in his password and it quicklyfinished loading up his screen. Signing into his email he checked his messages,his light-green eyes lit up as he spied one and he instantly clicked on it.

Teruo. Saw what you did today. Thought you weregoing to take it easy after what you told me about last night.

-Kitsune

Teruolaughed and signed into his instant messenger, hoping with the feverish hope ofthe damned that his contact would be on. A smile broke upon his face as he wasrewarded with their presence.

Hi,” came the instant response from theowner of the name Kitsune.

Hi yourself,” Teruo wrote back. “Did you like today’s show?

Kitsune: It was interesting. How areyou not still in jail?

Teruolaughed aloud, his fingers making their clacking sound on the keyboard as theytyped.

Teruo: I’m what they call a special exemption.Not sure why, but it keeps me from having to be on the Pax. Because I’m so goodwith machines they don’t even dare give me a Companion module to keep an eyeme.

He hitthe reply button, and within short order he received Kitsune’s response.

Kitsune: It was a rhetorical question.

Teruogrinned at that and simply shrugged. He just liked to hear himself talk—or inthis case, write.

Teruo: I keep telling John that he needs toask out that hot officer I told you about. This is the best way I can think ofto get them in the same room long enough to even talk.

Teruocould almost hear the exasperated, yet amused sigh of his invisible contact onthe other end.

Kitsune: I am certain that there are othermethods for consenting adults to meet up with each other, though I believe thatthey aren’t the most…entertaining to someone like you.

IfTeruo’s grin hadn’t already split his face in two by now, it was surethreatening to do so by now.

Teruo: Well, that goes without saying.Anyway, do you have the information that I asked you about?

Therewas a brief hesitation in Kitsune’s response.

Kitsune: I’m surprised. No code?

Teruoshook his head.

Teruo:I’m pretty sure The CHC would want me to look into this for them anyway.

Kitsune: Where does this confidencecome from?

Teruotapped his cheek and typed out a response.

Teruo: The info? Teruo paused beforeadding one of their safe codes to the message. Teruo: Black Lab needs to be brushed.

Thechat box blinked again. There were no words in it this time; instead there wasa document. Teruo smiled and clicked on it.

Doingso caused his computer to shut down immediately, leaving the young boy sittingthere, flummoxed for a moment. His eyes narrowed dangerously as realizationsettled squarely on him.

“Youcheeky bastard…” he murmured. He cracked his knuckles and got up. “Figuresyou’d have an additional layer of security, just in case I was The CHC fakingyou. All right…where’s my laptop?”

Teruo: You’re an ass.

Theyoung boy wondered if Kitsune felt any amusement to his message upon therestoration of his computer. He believed that he did, as the mythos behind hisonline name indicated as much, but one could never be too sure.

Kitsune: It doesn’t hurt to be cautious.You know how I am…and how dangerous TheCHC is. You’re not the one who had to skip the country after all.

Teruofrowned as he typed back.

Teruo:Yeah, yeah. I get it. Now no more tricks. I want to see this for myself.

Kitsune: Oh? All right then…

Withthat, Kitsune promptly dropped off their Instant Messenger, leaving Teruo alonefor the time being. Licking his lips, he reopened the document, a part of himwaiting in paranoia on the chance that his friend left still another layer ofsecurity for him to hack through. Nothing new developed as a program screencame up, and he felt his heartbeat drop in its rhythm in relief.

Looks like it’s a video clip, he mused,leaning forward curiously. Sure enough, his thoughts were confirmed as hisvideo player fired up and began buffering. Teruo entwined his hands and crackedhis knuckles again in great anticipation. TheCHC’s been going to a lot of trouble keeping this from getting to the media.Whatever it is…it’s big. Kitsune’s been monitoring naval movements along theeastern coast. He says that the navy is gearing up for some kind of bigencounter…one that hasn’t been seen since the end of the Bronze Age.

He feltgreatly excited by that knowledge. The BronzeAge! The era that brought the end of the Dominion of Heroi and the end ofthe Great Conflict. Oh, for certain the Great Conflict wasn’t over. Not by along shot. Just as nations and empires took on different rulers, it merely tookon a different name. What did it matter who fought the war, so long as someonewas fighting it?

“C’mon…C’mon…” he whispered impatiently as the small circle on the screen spun,informing him of its progress… Or rather the lack of it in his modest opinion.Finally, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the screen changed andbegan to show the image of an ocean, shrouded in mist. Teruo frowned. “That’sit?” he muttered in puzzlement. No…there’sgot to be something more.

Therewas. As he watched, a dark shape began to emerge, tall and tower-like. Teruocouldn’t be certain due to the fog obscuring whatever lay behind it. He couldhave been looking at the Loch Ness Monster and he wouldn’t know for certain.

Secondsticked by like minutes, and as Teruo continued to watch, more of those darkshapes came into view. Some were smaller, some were taller, but they all sharedthe same, towering appearance. Much like…

…buildings? Teruo tilted his head to oneside, a suspicion suddenly forming in his mind. Where is this? He reached for his mouse and scanned around thevideo screen, trying to see if there were any clues…some kind of land mark or aregistering of longitude and latitude. Unfortunately, he found nothing thatcould help him.

Piss… He grimaced. Leaning back in hischair, he went back to watching the film. Nothing new had occurred, thoughthere was definitely movement from whoever—or whatever—was recording the scene.Teruo reasoned that it was one of The CHC’s orb drones.

They’redisposable enough for this sort of operation.

Heshifted in his chair as he spied something new amidst the fog and its ‘towers’.A new shape. He paused the video and rewound it, replaying it so as to confirmwhat he saw.

Yeah… There’s something there all right.Something’s moving.

Whateverit was, apparently the recorder had picked up on it as well, because the imageshifted through two different light spectrums to try and pick up on it. Theobject disappeared promptly, and Teruo felt his mouth dry up.

Oh no… You have got to be kidding me.It…can’t be that place… It disappeared along with the Bronze Age. Why is it…?

He wasinterrupted from his thoughts as suddenly the camera perspective lurchedviolently, as though something had slammed into it. The last image that ittransmitted was that of water flying toward it and then…static.

Teruosat in his chair, mystified and stunned by what he saw. Worse yet, he felt…fearfor what it might mean.

I think this Age is going to be a Dark one...