[This issue begins one day prior to the end of Descendants #25]

Laughter echoed down from the foreman’s platform situated at the heart of a heretofore abandoned manufacturing plant. It wasn’t gleeful, or even maniacal. It was the boastful laugh of a man watching his machinations click perfectly into place; proud and deep.

The man laughing was of medium build dressed in a lab coat over a blue button down shirt and slacks. He didn’t look like the type to go on in such a way. His prematurely graying hair and dull brown eyes made him seem the perfect choice for the background of a medical drama.

The illusion was broken by the fact that he was standing on a platform twenty feet above an assembly line as Mayfield’s own Descendants were assailed by mechanical hazards of his own creation and laughing.

Alloy, Facsimile and Zero were trapped on a conveyer belt by locking steel mechanisms that had sprung from the floor to encase their legs. A quartet of buzz saws dropped down from a gantry above to block their forward progress. Chaos was occupied by a set of robot arms wielding welding torches that attempted to hem him in.

“Ready for the end, prelates?” Asked the man, taking time out from his laughter to taunt them. “You may have put up a good fight with lesser masterminds previously, but there’s no escaping this. I’ve planned it perfectly; luring you here with threats against City Hall ensures I can eliminate all threats to my plans before I ever begin!”

“Yeah, your plans.” Alloy watched the approaching saws. “You know you’ll never get away with it, right?” Both he and Facsimile looked back at Zero, who had been looking absently around the factory floor.

“Huh?” She asked of their attention. “Oh, that’s right! Even without us, your plan will fail!”

“Nonsense. You’re only trying to distract me.” The villain scoffed. “Without any prelates in the way, nothing can stop me and my genius inventions from breaking into Genomics Enterprises and stealing the research for their mutant projects. But I won’t use the ability to produce colossal insects to harvest mere spider-silk, or study organic armor.”

“Arachnids.” Zero said offhand.

“What?” the man asked.

“Spiders aren’t insects, they’re arachnids.”

“Stop trying to distract me!” the man roared. “As I was saying; I will use this research to create a superbeast that will possess unimaginable power and answer only to me! Then the entire world will tremble before the name of Dr. Paralus!”

“Dr. Perilous?” Facsimile asked flatly. “How long did it take you to come up with that? Twenty, thirty seconds?”

Dr. Paralus glared at her. “That’s my given name. Anton Paralus, it’s European. Not that I care what you think, because you’re about to die, my dear vigilante.”

“So…” Alloy asked. The saws were within arm’s reach of him now and closing fast. “You haven’t actually done anything yet except try and kill us.”

“I am succeeding in killing you.” Dr. Paralus asserted.

“Yeah, not so much.” Alloy put up his armored forearm as the saws reached him. Sparks flew out in a brilliant cascade as the saws wore themselves down to nothing on his super-hard armor. The contraption holding his legs made a terrible rending noise as he pulled it apart with his power.

Behind him, Facsimile easily stepped out of her own traps as Zero froze and smashed hers.

“Didn’t do the research, did you?” Facsimile asked. Emphasizing her point, Isp and Osp whipped out and cut down the gantry holding the ruined saws, sending it plummeting down onto the conveyor.

“How did you—“Dr. Paralus started to demand.

Chaos reduced the density of the air around the welding torches assailing him, swiftly snuffing them. “Pretty easy, Professor Ego.” He flew out of reach of the defanged weapons. “We needed to find out what you planned to do to City Hall before we stopped you.”

“Thanks for helping on that point by not bothering to pick up the Scribe and reading about what we can do before building your trap.” Facsimile snarked, flying up toward the platform.

“I have to admit, I honestly didn’t expect it to be this easy.” Zero agreed, turning her power on the ladder behind Dr. Paralus. It iced over and let out an ominous creak.

“So, all that remains is for you to surrender and we can get on with our lives.” Facsimile yawned, landing on the platform’s railing.

“Yeah, what time is it anyway?” Alloy asked, “We don’t want to be late, Z.”

Zero rolled up the sleeve of her costume to consult he watch. “Five twenty-two.” She replied. “We’ll be cutting it pretty close with the cleanup.”

Alloy gestured with his arm, causing the length of the ruined assembly line to rise up and smash the robotic arms to pieces. “Cleanup’s done.” He announced. “Fax, grab him and lets drop him off for the cops.”

Facsimile gave them a puzzled look. “What are you two in a hurry fo—aaaaahh!” She clawed at her face as a stream of liquid pain caught her right in the eyes courtesy of a pepper spray canister Dr. Paralus produced from his coat pocket. Shrieking obscenities, Facsimile stumbled off the railing and fell toward the factory floor.

“Preparation and distraction are the keys to final victory.” Paralus called over his shoulder as he dashed toward the far end of the platform where a set of stairs descended to an exit. “You may have won this battle, but the war will belong to Dr. Paralus!”

Isp and Osp caught Facsimile halfway to the floor and deposited her gently beside Alloy where she continued to curse and rub her eyes. “When I can see again, I’m going make you eat that mace, you bastard! First do no harm, remember? What the kind of doctor are you?”

“That’s PhD, Biology.” Paralus noted as he started down the stairs. “And a Bachelors in Robotics, though I also—“He broke off his speech with a scream as the stair beneath him shattered, dumping him ten feet to the factory floor.

“This guy is really full of himself.” Zero said, admiring her handiwork.

The good doctor quickly got to his feet and turned to run for the door, only to find Chaos standing in his way. On instinct, he brought up his can of pepper spray and fired. The liquid ran harmlessly off the prelate’s visor.

Chaos calmly brought up a gauntlet to wipe the substance away before it could reach his mouth. He grimaced only a little as it stung his face. “I don’t guess you were much of a chemistry man, doc, but here’s a reaction for you.” He held up a fist. “What happens when a golden glove is introduced to a glass jaw?”

Dr. Paralus quickly bought his hands up to guard his mouth, at which point Chaos simply punched him in the gut. The villain folded almost gracefully before falling to the ground, breathless.

Shaking his head at the prone doctor, Chaos produced a set of zip cuffs from his belt and began binding the man. “That was pretty anticlimactic.” He noted. “If you all have plans, I’ll drag Dr. Powerless out front and wait for the cops with him.”

“Thanks” Alloy said, watching Zero try to use her powers to condense water out of the air to help Facsimile wash her face.

“No problem” Chaos threw Paralus into a fireman’s carry and heading through the exit.

“Hold on, hold on.” Facsimile said, gently pushing Zero away. Her face grew dull in color, more bronze than gold and far more rigid. Gingerly, she grabbed the edges and removed it like a mask, revealing another golden Facsimile beneath.

“That’s… I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat for the rest of the day.” Zero said, making a face as Facsimile tossed the ‘mask’ aside.

“Hey, I’m not in pain anymore, that’s all I care about.” Facsimile shrugged. “So what’s this thing you two are getting ready for that couldn’t wait until after I removed the chance of being maced by a lame villain?”

“Oh, that’d be our date.” Zero said casually.

Facsimile made a sound halfway between choking and squeaking. “Your what?” She turned a scornful eye on Alloy. “Does coppertop know that you’re going behind her back?” She looked back to Zero. “Though I guess there’s no way Mr. Personality would react in any way to this.”

“Uh, what Z meant to say,” Alloy held his hands out defensively. Isp and Osp looked to one another, then hid behind Alloy’s back. “Is that we’re double dating. You know, my girlfriend, her boyfriend…”

“You can bring you boyfriend if you want.” Zero offered cheerfully, “The more the merrier.”

Facsimile fixed her with a murderous glare that she entirely failed to notice. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Oh.” Zero said, “But It thought… I mean Griffin’s asked you out so many times…”

“I don’t. Have. A. Boyfriend.” Facsimile said, slowly and sternly.

“Well, you can still come if you want.” Zero said after some contemplation. “I mean I know you’ve been kind of upset that we haven’t been hanging out as often…”

“And I’m not upset.” Facsimile said. “In fact, I’m happy you guys are doing so well for yourselves.” She fluffed her wings and drew up to her full height. “I’ve got plans tonight anyway. I’m headed to the park with Lisa and Kay.”

“Oh.” Alloy said. “Well, okay then. Have fun. Tomorrow’s Saturday though, so how about we all go see Fall of the Thousand Year Empire together tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Facsimile snapped her wings out and took off. “Anyway, I’m out of here. Take care, guys.” She headed for a broken out skylight and was swiftly gone.

Zero gave Alloy a quizzical look. “Do you really think she’s okay?”

“Sure.” Alloy said, forming handholds in his armor. “She may be a trickster, but if there’s one thing Cyn can’t do is hide her feelings. Come on, I’ll swing us home so we can get ready.”

“Are you sure about that?” Zero asked, grabbing on to the handles as Isp and Osp lifted them both into the air.

“Totally. If she really was upset, we’d be the first to hear about it.” He was in no position to see Zero rolling her eyes at his cluelessness.

The Andes-Hoight building was, unbeknownst to its owners and operators, a godsend to prelates, or at least the one that had figured out its many conveniences. Adjacent to Wagner Park in the Flint Row neighborhood, it was one of a cluster of tall buildings, allowing anyone flying by to land atop it without fear of being seen from the ground. More importantly, its roof was a mostly unused public area, meaning that its roof access wasn’t secured. Anyone that could fly to it could change into their civvies and take the stairs down to the elevators without anyone being the wiser.

Cyn was thus far the only one to have discovered this and had gone so far as to stash a few non-perishable energy bars under one of the stone benches. A half hour after the defeat of Dr. Paralus, she found her way to the Andes-Hoight and shifted into her normal form, sprawling on the bench while savaging the aforementioned few energy bars.

“’Why don’t you bring your boyfriend, Cyn?’ ‘Are you upset Cyn?’” She mimicked Juniper’s earlier tone as she chomped. “Of course, I’m upset, sunshine! That’s freaking obvious! It used to be ‘sure, we’ll play some Death Gate, Cyn.’ ‘Hey, got any plans tonight, Cyn?’ Now it’s all, ‘We have to get to our stupid job showing people where some old guy’s bad watercolors are, Cyn.’ ‘Sorry Cyn, I’m going out with my red headed uber-nerd. No time for you.”

Her hair shifted to Tink’s shade of red. “I can be a redhead if I want to.” It shifted back to its natural white. “I just choose not to. It’s not a very good color. No way would any normal guy and especially not any sort of self respecting hero, go for a redhead. White is exotic and sexy.”

She paused in mid-bite, staring up at the sky in shock. “What the hell did I just say?” Going from laying down to sitting up in an instant, she felt her forehead for signs of a fever. “Okay, Cyn, that was just stupid. I’m letting the callus abandonment go to my head. I don’t need to be sexy to my best friend… Or Juniper.” She added quickly.

“Anyway, I just need to call my other friends and hang out. I’ll be fine once I have some basic human contact.” Frowning, she got up and went to the edge of the building. She wouldn’t admit it, but she missed Laurel being around as someone to listen to her and give her advice.

After a brief search for her call phone, she realized that she hadn’t shifted a pocket in the clothes she’d assumed after dropping her Facsimile guise. With a thought, that problem was corrected. “Hey, Kay.” She said when a familiar voice answered the phone. “Is that Lisa shouting in Spanish in the background?”

“Really? I never heard of that show. Anyway, I was wondering if you two had anything planned tonight.”

“They are? Well, good for them, I guess. What about you?”

“Cool, let’s hit the mall or something…”

From concealment, atop a building adjacent to the Andes-Hoight, Cyn was being watched. “Signal trace complete.” The watcher reported. “Receiving party identified as Kimeya Greycloud. Voice pattern matching confirms familiarity.”

“Excellent, Leo.” A voice from the other end of the com replied. “Access archive files for Greycloud and return to base.”

“Request clarification: I am to terminate my surveillance of this target?”

“That is correct, Leo.” The voice replied. “To accomplish our current objective, we have to let her go.”

“Order acknowledged.” Leo replied. “Returning to base.”

-- • --

The rehydration oven chimed its second tone, announcing that its task of transforming the dry, unappetizing brick from a box marked ‘lasagna’ into an actual single sized portion of pseudo Italian cuisine.

A slave to the tantalizing smell that had been drifting to him for the past ten minutes, Ian took a break from his one man pool game and went to the kitchen to retrieve his dinner. After making sure the reconstituted meal was setting properly, he rummaged in the refrigerator for a beer.

“Can I ask you a question, Mr. Smythe?”

Ian straightened in surprise, finding Cyn sitting on the previously unoccupied counter as if she’d been there a while. He quickly became suspicious. “I’ve never heard you call me anything but Ian. Either something’s very wrong, or you’re up to something.”

“I’m not up to something.” Cyn pouted. “And there’s nothing wrong—very wrong. I just wanted to ask you a question. Normally I’d ask Ms. Brant, but she’s not here.”

“So glad I’m your second choice.” Ian smirked.

“Well I sure as hell wouldn’t ask Alexis.” Cyn sneered. “Anyway, will you let me ask the question or not?”

“Fire away.” Ian popped open his beer and took a sip.

“How do you tell if you like someone?”

Ian sat his beer down. “Oh. That kind of question.” He grabbed a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. “Anyone I know?”

“Not particularly your business.” Cyn countered.

“I’m just saying, you know, if it’s that Griffin guy Juniper always talks about that you keep shooting down; he is all state, you know.” Ian joked.

“Then you date him.” Cyn sighed. “No, it’s not him. Sports aren’t my thing.”

“Would geeky types with a thirty dollar a week comic habit and a room down the hall from yours be more your speed then?” Ian regretted it the moment he said it. Not for the icy stare the girl gave him, but because he knew better than that. Cyn prided herself on hiding everything with her shifting, but shapeshifting didn’t change how people talked, their body language. Pointing out that he’d picked up on it was the same as insulting her abilities.

“You know, I’m meeting Kay at the mall in a couple of hours. I think I’ll just wait for her there.” Cyn snapped, sliding off the counter.

“Hold on there.” Ian stood up and caught her by the arm. He knew that if she wanted to, she’d get out of that easily. “Look, I’m sorry, I was just joking. I didn’t know…” A small lie, but it calmed her down.

“Maybe you don’t.” Cyn shrugged. “Maybe it’s nothing. I don’t know.” She slid out of his grasp and returned to her perch on the counter. “See, I never even had a friend before I came here. My brothers and dad made sure of it. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about my friends. And now that they’re not around as much…”

“You think it may be just because you’re lonely and bored.” Ian supplied.

“Exactly.” Cyn nodded. “But I never really liked a boy before either. I’ve thought they were cute or hot—Jonas Griffin is hot—but I never really felt anything… special.”

“Well, a best friend is pretty special.” Ian pointed out. “And I don’t think you’re about to deny Warrick is your best friend and that the feeling there is definitely mutual.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Cyn frowned.

“No ‘maybes’ about it.” Ian said, taking a sip of beer. “I know that for a fact.”

“Then why does he spend so much time with Tina?” Cyn asked sulkily.

“Because she’s his girlfriend.” Ian said after a minute. “That’s different.”

“How?”

“You seriously want to get into the philosophical stuff behind that?” Ian smirked. “Because a few years ago, I read this book about human relationships and—“

“No, I guess not.” Cyn shook her head. “But either way, it doesn’t really matter if I do like him like that, right? Because he’s taken. If I wanted a chance, I’ve missed it and that’s that.”

Ian snorted. “Hello teenage drama. Cyn; I know that high school seems like everything right now—even when you’re on vacation. But trust me when I say this: It’s not. High school doesn’t reflect the real world, except in a funhouse mirror kind of way. These junior year boyfriend/girlfriend things don’t last.”

Cyn rolled her eyes. “Says the guy who’s dating the girl he liked in high school.”

“Sure, we’re dating now, but back then? You wouldn’t believe the number of other guys Alexis went out with.”

“And did you date other girls? You know, even though you really liked her?”

“Not many. I was kind of a loser back then.” Ian shrugged. He paused with his beer halfway to his lips, realizing with sudden horror that he was at home on a Friday night eating rehydrated food and talking about dating problems. A chill ran up his spine.

“But if you weren’t a loser, and say there was an all-state track star beating down your door… Would you go out with him even if you didn’t really like him?”

Ian snorted. “Nah, track stars aren’t really my type.”

“I’m serious.” Cyn shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself. “Do you think it’d make me feel better to just, you know, have a date. I mean everyone has someone now but me. Even Melissa.”

“Kareem doesn’t.” Ian pointed out.

“Why would he need one, he can eavesdrop on the naughty dreams of every woman in the house.” Cyn grinned.

“I’m infinitely happier that you don’t have psychic powers now.” Ian said slowly. “Look,” He changed the subject swiftly, “I can’t tell you what to do. I don’t think there’s a science or psionic power on Earth that can do that. But if you’re going to do that, at least be honest with the guy. Don’t use him. I’ve been there. It’s not fun.”

Cyn rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t do it the other way. God, I’m not Lily.” She sighed. “You have a point though; maybe I should give those guys a chance.” Sliding off the counter, she smiled at him. “Thanks, Mr. Smythe, that actually helped.”

“Hey, it’s what I’m here for.” Ian nodded. “And if you’re still feeling lonely, I’m up for a game of pool or whatever.”

“Thanks anyway.” She said, heading for the downstairs commons. “But I should change before I go meet Kay.” With that, she was gone.

Ian smiled to himself as he got up and retrieved his dinner. “Yup, I’m going to be a great dad.” He mused to himself.

“Is everyone ready?” Brother Wright asked the members of Aces High as they sat in launch chairs within the passenger compartment of a stealth transport stolen from one of Project Tome’s less used air bases. He was dressed in an imposing red coat with high shoulder guards and a white shirt and pants beneath. The shirt featured a red club symbol inside a black diamond inside a red spade, surrounded by a black heart. A helmet, with decorations resembling that of a crown and an opaque face plate rested in his lap.

From behind him, Legion secured his seat restraints and glowered. “We’ve gone over this plan a dozen times. That doesn’t make me ready in the least. Am I the only one that remembers what happened to your Redeemers squad when they purposefully drew the Descendants into a fight?”

“Scared of a bunch of kids, Legion?” Shine asked from her seat next to Wright.

“Those ‘children’ earned your whole squad trips to Braddock Island. They did the same to Stampede.” Legion countered. “Maybe giving them a little bit of goddamn respect could have changed that, huh?”

“Please, Nothing could have saved that bunch.” Shine laughed. “The only half-way competent one was Wolf and… well, the sin of pride is deadly for a reason.”

“That’s what he’s saying.” Thunderhead chimed in from his seat near the door to the cargo bay. “It’s the height of pride treating them like kids when they’ve beaten us several times before. After the setbacks we’ve had, we need to evaluate our thinking in regard to them.” He had a graphite box in his lap and was nervously toying with the locks.

“They aren’t even all just kids.” Legion added.

“All we really need is to let me give them an eyeful.” Fellgaze shrugged. “It worked on them before. This time I’ll make sure it holds.”

Brother Wright listened to his team’s conversation and agitation and merely smiled. He turned to where Leonardo was sitting. The android was perfectly motionless and belted into his seat. “Nothing to add?” he asked.

“Evaluation of mission objectives and execution are not part of my capabilities.” Leo replied. “I understand and am prepared to initiate my orders when commanded.”

“At least someone believes in me.” Brother grinned. “It’s so nice to have a son who cares.”

Shine leaned over and put a hand on his chest. “Baby, you don’t actually think that machine is your boy, do you?”

Wright laughed. “Call it practice. It may be a very long time before we have a son of our own to carry on our work.” A Cheshire grin came to his face. “Plus, I think it makes me look more eccentric. Image is everything, after all. Hence this get-up I’m wearing.”

“It certainly is eccentric.” Shine shook her head. “But I guess it’s necessary if you don’t want the bitch to recognize you when you’re down there.”

“Exactly.” He turned around in his seat to address his other teammates. “As for the rest of your concerns,” he nodded to Legion in particular. “They’ll be solved very soon. Remember; if all goes as planned—and I expect it will—there will only be one Descendant for us to worry about. Aha, and we will be the very least of her worries.”

As he finished, Shine lowered the helmet onto his head. He gave one last smile to his men before lifting the faceplate into place, replacing his own face with that of a king from a generic deck of cards.

Thusly ensconced in character, Wright nodded to Leo. “Now. Leo, execute your orders.”

“I will comply.” Leo announced, unstrapping and making his way to the cargo bay.

“Excellent.” Wright said brightly. “According to our little shapeshifter’s phone conversation, she should be with Miss Greycloud as we speak. The only question is; will she have the wherewithal to call for help when she could easily hunt down the perpetrator herself.” He chuckled. “Her Academy psych write-up says ‘no’.”

“So basically, everyone is gone all the time, doing their own thing.” Cyn bent Kay’s sympathetic ear. They were eating calzones on the glassed in skywalk that connected both halves of the mall over East Sherman St. The latter had her hair died a green so dark as to almost pass as black. “Work, dates, band practice—No offense.”

“None taken.” Kay assured her. “I don’t know, Cyn. It just sounds like they’ve got a lot of stuff going on in their lives. Maybe you should get a hobby or something. Can you draw? Snackrifice could use some promo posters…”

“You think I’m overreacting to this too.” Cyn frowned. She was starting to believe that herself.

“Maybe a little bit.” Kay agreed. “But it’s only natural. Back when Lisa and JC started dating the first time, I felt like that too. They would go out whenever they had the chance and I either ended up being the third wheel or left out altogether.”

“So it gets better?”

“Yeah. I mean, sometimes I still feel like that, but that’s part and parcel with the whole ‘no dating until college thing’. I just have to find new things to keep occupied, you know?”

“Like your hair?” Cyn smirked.

“Pretty much. But you don’t have to, now do you? Last I checked, you aren’t under your parent’s roof and Ms. Brant and Ms. Keyes don’t seem to be the type to report home to your parents.” Kay gave her a devilish grin. “They didn’t make you make the same stupid promise I made to my dad did they?”

Cyn shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “No, my parents pretty much don’t care what I do.”

Normally observant Kay was too engrossed in her scheme to notice Cyn’s discomfort. “Good. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m tired of hearing you beat all those jocks off with a stick because you don’t want muscle-heads. We’re going to find you a guy you like and make him like you back.”

“Uh, Kay, I don’t think that’s such a…” The awkwardness was cut short by the sound of smashing glass from somewhere across the skywalk. Cyn turned to see a man landing in a roll amid a shower of broken glass.

The patrons of the food court panicked. Not that anyone could blame them.

For his part, the stranger ignored them, striding with purpose toward the table where Kay was suddenly rifling through her purse as if it was the most important thing in the world.

“Kay.” Cyn said, getting up and moving to impose herself between her friend and the stranger. “Run.”

“Kimeya Greycloud sighted.” The stranger said. “Initiating capture procedure.”

-- • --

The assailant looked to be in his early twenties, with a sculpted jaw and close cut, brown hair. He wore a black vest with a flame motif closed over a navy turtleneck and fitted, black jeans. Fingerless gloves with the same flame designs as his vest and matching low boots completed the outfit. His steel blue eyes looked right past Cyn to Kay.

“You’re not capturing anyone tonight, tough guy.” Said Cyn, keeping herself between him and Kay. She couldn’t become Facsimile or show off any of her abilities in front of Kay, but she could definitely still put up a fight. The only thing that worried her was the fact that the man in front of her didn’t seem the least bit phased by falling two stories through the glass roof of the skywalk. “Now tell me what you want with my friend.”

Slowly and deliberately, the man settled into a horse stance. “I am now engaging the primary expected contact.” He said in disturbing monotone. Then he paused. “Danger: unexpected variable detected. Psionic theta emissions detected in target.”

Cyn spared a glance back at Kay, who was had dumped the entire contents of her purse on the table and was going through it like mad. As far as she knew, only she, Warrick and Juniper knew about Kay’s powers. So how did this stranger figure it out so quickly?

“Compensating.” The man suddenly snapped out of his fugue and lashed out at Cyn with a lightning fast kick.

Startled, she fell backward dodging and only just managed to roll aside as her assailant stomped where her rib cage would have been. The tile floor cracked. “Shit!” Cyn kipped up and threw a punch of her own.

The stranger blocked with his forearm. Contact sent a wave of pain through Cyn’s arm as if she’d punched something far more solid than bone. Seeing his advantage, he knocked her next punch away, and then dropped down to sweep her legs, sending her to the ground again.

“Okay, I get it.” Cyn groaned, pulling her knees up to her chest and rocking back on her shoulder blades. “Not a normal human.” With all the force she could muster, she kicked out and upward, catching him in the chin and sending him down.

They both came up at the same time and this time, Cyn managed to dodge a few punches before connecting with a knee to the groan. Her opponent didn’t flinch as he slapped her away from him.

“Okay, that usually works.” She noted. “You must special to take one to the boys and not feel it. Kay, why aren’t you running?”

“No, wait, I can help.” Said Kay, still rummaging among the contents of her purse.

“Ooo… kay.” Cyn clinched her teeth and took another staggering blow to the chest. “But make it—“ She reached behind her, grabbed a chair and dislocated both shoulders to swing it all the way over her head in a single motion to slam into her foe. “Quick!” She gaped in surprise as the man merely tossed the bent and broken chair aside. For a split second, Cyn thought she saw a flash of metal beneath his skin, but it was gone as quickly as she saw it.

“Yeah, you’re tough.” She conceded. “But I can do this all day, buddy. How long can you last?”

“My operational life is forty-nine hours between five hour recharges.” The attacker said. “Query: why do you insist on making observations of me while engaged?”

Cyn snarled, grabbing a fork from a nearby table and thrusting it at him.

“Got it!” Kay crowed, holding aloft a wafer of clay about the size of a quarter.

The intended kidnapper raise a hand to block, but Cyn put as much force as she could muster into the blow, driving the implement through the hand and into the mass of circuits and servos beneath. A new circuit formed.

It wasn’t an especially big jolt. It was barely enough to cause a minor burn in most people, but Cyn’s biology reacted very badly to electricity from any outside source, no matter how small. The impulse ran through her entire body, wracking her with spasms.

It only took Leo a second to recognize what had happened and capitalize on it. He grabbed the convulsing girl and threw her across the skywalk. Pulling the fork out of his stricken hand, he gave it a visual once over. “Initializing repairs.” He noted before advancing on Kay.

Kay watched Cyn writhing amid the tables with wide-eyed horror before presenting the clay wafer before her like a holy symbol. “Back off, buddy, or you’ll be sorry.” She declared. She looked at Cyn again. “In fact, prepare to be sorry for what you did to my friend!” With that, she snapped the wafer in two.

Leo paused to take some measurements. “Target’s offensive action has had no effect.” He concluded.

“Oh, it’s coming!” Kay nodded confidently. “Any second now.” She said half heartedly looking at the broken talisman.

Leo lashed out with a simple nerve strike, causing Kay to lose consciousness and fall forward into his arms.

He locked his still under repair hand around her waist and looked up to the mall roof. His uninjured hand came up and the middle and ring fingers folded down to reveal a recess behind the knuckles. A bolt, trailing a thin line was fired to top of the roof. Leo ascended, carrying Kay.

Cyn hunched painfully against the table that her landing had overturned. A thin wreath of black smoke rose around her as her body absorbed the abandoned food court fare that had broken her fall. Rage tinted her vision as she forced herself to stand against the pain of her powers reknitting broken bone.

A quick look around revealed that she was alone on the skywalk with no one to witness her transformation. At the moment, she probably wouldn’t have cared if there was. Without another thought, Cyn became Facsimile and lifted off through the shattered glass roof.

The kidnapper had obviously made good use of the few minutes she’d been stunned, for he was nowhere in sight. Facsimile chided herself; he was nowhere in human sight. As easily as a normal person could raise a pair of binoculars, Cyn restructured her eyes. The world seemed to curl up at the edges as hawk vision suddenly made her farsighted in the extreme.

Like an enormous, golden bird of prey, she scanned her domain and found what she was looking for some fifteen blocks distant. “I’m not letting you hurt her.” She snarled, winging toward her quarry.

“Primary contact has given chase.” Leo noted, glancing back behind him. “Intercept in four city blocks. Estimated time to target: .259 miles.”

“Good work Leo.” Brother Wright’s voice spoke to Leo. “Did she contact anyone?”

“No communications were detected.” Leo replied as he continued his leaping from roof to roof. “Though there was a single, ultra-high frequency tone just prior to capture of Kameya Greycloud. The tone did not last long enough to even register on most bands.”

“Keep an eye out nonetheless.”

“Error: unfamiliar syntax. What is meant by ‘keep and eye out’?”

“Be on your guard.” Brother sighed. “Watch out for other Descendants.”

“I will comply.” Leo closed his com and came to a full stop. He could leap the thirty to forty feet that separated most buildings easily thanks to his advanced design. But now he had come to Burton Boulevard; an eight lane thoroughfare that separated the Northern commercial district from the northern residential areas. Moreover, the apartment towers and related buildings on the other side were too tall for him to gain their roofs with a simple bound in any event.

“Stop right there!” Facsimile fell from on high, her hands shaped into deadly talons to rend her foe.

Leo dropped to a knee and rolled under the blow with surprising dexterity considering he was still carrying Kay. “I cannot comply.” He answered, turning the shoulder Kay was draped over toward Facsimile to dissuade her from trying her feat again. He backed toward the other side of the roof.

“Drop her.” Facsimile said, landing on the side of the roof adjacent to the boulevard.

On Leo’s shoulder, Kay started to stir, having recovered from the android’s nerve strikes. “Wassat?” she slurred.

Leo visually gauged the distance to the other side of the boulevard, the height of the nearest building there, and a dozen other factors most humans wouldn’t be able to comprehend in a combat situation in the space of a second. “Do not move.” He ordered Kay. “My calculation assumes dead weight.” With that, he charged Facsimile.

Kay’s feeble scream, combined with the celerity of the charge left Facsimile with no option but to dodge to the side and try to rake Leo was he went past. He offered no resistance as he claws tore four gashes in his vest and the flesh beneath. There was no blood, only the glint of dark metal. Any surprise Cyn felt at this was completely overshadowed by seeing Leo jump.

Putting all of his speed forward, Leo hit the edge of the wall and vaulted off. He was instantly flooded by stress warnings from his legs and feet. He ignored them, focusing the whole of his processing power to making the proper aerodynamic postures to compensate for the decidedly non-aerodynamic elements of Kay and the huge wound swiftly being closed in his side.

At the apogee of his leap, he extended his free hand and once more fired his grapple bolt. The bolt flew to the maximum length of its wire, which was just enough to catch the railing of a tenth story apartment. Leo shifted both his and the now fully awake Kay’s weight to one side, pulling the line taunt and swinging them out wide away from the building.

The robotic kidnapper landed on his feet on a balcony further down the street, his landing causing the floor there to crumble beneath him. He rocked with it to stabilize himself and get his bearings.

A block away and ten stories down was a service center for Hermes Package Services, a national delivery chain. “Target location sighted.” He stated.

“Oh god… oh god…” Kay wheezed. “What that hell is wrong with you, man? Kidnapping me is one thing, but that… that… what is wrong with you?!”

Leo looked over at her red, exhausted face and stared blankly. “Diagnostics show that I have taken twelve percent damage to my outer skin covering in the abdominal area and my legs have suffered five percent structural stress damage from performing beyond specifications I will be fully repaired in two minutes, seventeen seconds. Why do you ask?”

“What the—I mean mental—wait, you’re a robot!” Kay was torn between still being very upset and excitement over seeing a humanoid robot like those she’d only read about as concept designs in magazines up close and personal.

“I am an android.” Leo confirmed.

“Good.” Facsimile said, tearing toward them, claws out. “That way, I don’t have to feel bad for what I’m about the do to you.”

Leo looked down at the delivery store, then back at Facsimile. He made a fist of his free hand and fired the grapple bolt. It missed Facsimile by a large margin – until Leo snapped his wrist, bringing the sharp hook of the grapple bolt slicing across her body. She screamed in rage and screamed louder when another wrist movement wrapped the line around her left wing and flipped her over, causing her to plummet.

“Leave her alone!” Kay said, wriggling around in Leo’s grasp and driving an elbow into his side. It only hurt her.

“Your part will soon be over.” Said Leo, jumping from the balcony. He landed on the street and nimbly dodged several cars before running full tilt for the delivery store. Behind him, he heard Facsimile scream in rage and take off after him again. He reached into his vest and extracted a black tube as long as his hand and as wide as his wrist. Turning a corner, he twisted the top of the tube and made a beeline straight for the loading dock behind the store.

“Watch out, C—Facsimile, he’s got a bomb!” Kay screamed.

Two workers on the dock heard her and looked up. On reached into his jumpsuit.

“Conveying message:” Leo said as he charged forward. He identified and looked directly at the nearest security camera. “Hello, Simon.” With that, he threw the explosive at the first bay door. The dock worker had only just pulled his gun when the explosion knocked him off his feet.

“Holy shit, you just killed that guy!” Kay hyperventilated. “Oh my god, you’re going to kill me too!”

Leo ran on, jumping up onto the dock. “His vital signs remain stable.” He remarked, as he dashed into the blasted open door. Inside was a package warehouse—at least partly so. The other part was taken up by two heavy cargo transports of the type Aces High stole from Tome.

Consulting previously stored schematics, Leo identified a weak spot and threw another bomb at the floor beneath a pallet of boxes. The floor collapsed amid a hail of flaming packaging peanuts.

“You think you can hide from me in here?” Facsimile roared as she burst through the flaming entryway and into the warehouse. “I’m not going to stop until I get—what the hell are those?” She looked pointedly at the carriers.

By now, alarms were going off in the warehouse. From a door at the far side, four men with pistols and HPS jackets stormed in, weapons trained on the intruders.

“And why are the delivery men packing heat?” Facsimile flared her wings. “Cute. A trap.”

Leo suddenly sneered and in an oddly stilted voice said. “Yes, but not entirely for you.” With Kay still in hand, he turned and leapt down the hole he’d blasted in the floor.

Facsimile dismissed the oddness of her opponent and started after him, ignoring the pistol shots that rang out around her. “Son of a bitch, I’m going to—“She dropped through the hole and found herself in a lab.

Several banks of computers with holographic displays were arranged in the center of the room. One had been unfortunate enough to be beneath the falling debris from Leo’s explosion. The room was full of scientists and heavily armed and armored guards. But what got her attention were the six empty stasis cells lined up against the back wall.

The guards, having previously held Leo at the center of attention, suddenly trained everything they had on her. “Her!” One of the scientists screamed, running for one of the consoles. “Priority Alpha security breech!” Before Anyone could react, he keyed in a code and two hatches opened in the floor on either side of the cells. Two cages rose from them, each containing an inugami.

“I repeat:” The scientist shouted, “Priority Alpha breech! A descendant has breeched this facility!”

Leo let Kay drop from his shoulder and opened his com. “Primary mission objective: accomplished.” He reported.

-- • --

The first shot cracked through the air past Facsimile’s arm. It wasn’t a bullet or the beam of a plasma lance. It was a roiling orange blob of energy that made her shiver with painful sensation from proximity alone. As more glowing shots came at her, she back winged and dove behind one of the computer banks.

Somewhere she heard the snarls of the two inugami.

“Okay.” She muttered to herself. “I need to stay low, avoid the inugami, and get Kay out of here.”

“Gennero, are you crazy?” One of the other scientists was shouting over the gunfire. “You can’t release them here! They’ll destroy everything.”

“That’s what they’re here for.” Gennero replied, “They’re trained only to attack people with the descendant theta brainwave.”

“Shit.” Facsimile cursed as she edged around the computer bank, “Okay, new plan, go all out and get Kay out of here.” She turned directly into the path of a rifle muzzle. The guardsman at the other end sneered and prepared to pull the trigger.

Facsimile didn’t give him a chance. Her arm hyper extended to deliver a quick jab in the face, followed by another, solid hit to the body. She pushed with all her weight and slammed the man backward into a support. He grunted and fell silent. The whole fight was muffled by the sound of another explosion somewhere above.

Breathing hard, Facsimile looked up to see one of the inugami standing at the end of the row, its dark eyes fixed on her. The great beast let out a howl she could feel in her bones and tore down the row toward her. Somewhere toward the other end of the lab, Kay screamed. “I don’t have time for you, Rex.” She breathed, half flying, half jumping to the top of a computer bank.

The fire was no longer directed at her alone. Across the room, Leo was charging guards, arms akimbo, delivering exacting blows to pressure points that laid his foes low. Even more worrying for both Facsimile and the Project Tome guardsmen, A platform was descending from the hole in the ceiling. On it rode Shine, Thunderhead, and a man dressed in a garish costume covered with playing card symbols.

At the first sign of a fire fight, Shine grabbed the masked man and leapt from the platform, leaving Thunderhead to work his craft on the guardsmen. One of the men let out an unearthly scream and turned on his fellows, weapon blazing.

“Quickly now.” The masked man instructed Shine. “We need to access the control schema from node two. With luck, my codes will still work.”

Shine grinned and kicked the weapon out of the hand of one of the guardsmen before slashing twin bloody furrows into his chest. “And without luck?”

“We depend on Leo’s code-breaking.”

A horrendous howl was all the warning Shine had of the approach of the inugami. It was all she needed to pull Wright down beside her as the monster flew over, claws out stretched. It skidded on the metal plated floor and turned for another go.

“Great. The kennel club is here and they’re using psion-seekers. Hurry up and run your codes.” She displayed her orihalcite claws to the snarling beast. “I’ll send Lassie home in pieces.”

The inugami opened its mouth and howled, sending a wave of sound crashing around Shine. Her world was suddenly nothing but agony. Her head pounded, her teeth ground and for a moment, she couldn’t even move. That was when the monster sprang to attack.

A blur of blue flashed before Shine’s eyes and there was Leo, catching the monster by its jaws and redirecting the force of its passage with terrible precision. He pivoted with the force of the blow and turned it into a perfect toss, which sent the beast careening into the bank of stasis cells.

Shine gave her robotic comrade a hateful glare. “What was that all about?” She demanded.

“My primary directive is to ensure the safety of the other Aces.” Leo answered before turning to another group of guardsmen.

Meanwhile, Facsimile threw herself into the air as the claws of the inugami that had attacked her crashed down into the computer she’d been standing on. The howl it emitted made her body feel like it was tearing in two, but she refused to let her powers betray her when Kay needed her. Through sheer determination, she beat her wings and got herself out of range of the terrible weapon.

She spotted Kay huddled under a steel planning table near the main lab area, her arms over her head and her knees folded up to her chest. Dodging stray shots, she crossed the distance and sat down in a kneeling position beside her friend. “Its okay, Kay.” She tried to sound soothing. “We’re going to get out of here.”

Kay looked up and relief was written all over her face. Without hesitation, she hugged who she knew was her friend. “Oh thank god.” She breathed. “I was… with the robot and the guns…” She noticed the turning tide of battle over Facsimile’s shoulder. “Who are those guys? They’re kicking ass.”

“More bad guys.” Facsimile said dryly. “The other Descendants and I will deal with them once you’re safely out of here. And you will get out of here. Even if I have to fight all these bastards alone.” She turned to survey the obstacles ahead of her only to see the biggest and most immovable; the now glass covered inugami Leo had thrown against the stasis cells. “Shit.” She snarled. “Grab on to me, we’re flying.”

Eying the charging monster nervously, Kay jumped for Facsimile’s back and wrapped her arms around the prelate’s neck. Wings buffeted her around as Facsimile threw herself into the air just as the inugami reached the spot they’d previously occupied.

Immediately, the air around them was filled with orange tinged fire from the guardsmen who had taken up more secure positions, out of sight of their fellows driven mad by Thunderhead’s mental tinkering. Facsimile dove and twisted to avoid it, but it effectively hemmed her in above the inugami, which gathered itself to jump at them.

“…forth to strike down those who stand against me. Sacred flame of the Sun! Fireball!” Facsimile heard the tail end of the incantation over the loud buzz of the Tome guard’s weapons just in time to understand exactly why the inugami below her was thrown twenty feet into a wall by a blast of flame.

“It’s about time.” Kay let out a sight of relief. “Looks like we’re not alone anymore.” She said in Facsimile’s ear.

Indeed, Facsimile looked across the room to find Occult descending through the hole in the ceiling on four grey wings that disintegrated into a cloud of feathers the moment she touched ground. With a hand gesture, the spellcaster sent the cloud rolling toward a group of guardsmen. She stepped back in time to miss the second inugami as it barreled flat out toward Shine and Leo’s position.

“It’s ignoring her!” The scientist who had previously berated Gennero noted as the two climbed a gantry to the master input console.

“She must not be a descendant then.” Gennero noted.

“A prelate that isn’t a descendant is in this facility? We have to start the lockout procedure and evacuate. It’s the only way.”

“That’s why we’re going to the master console, McClane.” Gennero retorted.

“Right.” McClane said nervously as the two gained the top of the gantry. “But what do we do in the meantime?”

In answer, Gennero produced a key from his lab coat and used it on a panel next to the master input. Inside was an unlabeled canister with a spray nozzle. He extracted it and offered it to McClane. “This is kill scent. All inugami lines are conditioned to attack anything that has this scent.

McClane stood there, staring that the canister as Gennero started keying in commands. “Spray it on her.” Gennero finally ordered, not looking up from the console.

Taking advantage of the confusion caused by Occult’s explosive arrival, Facsimile flew to meet up with her. “You wouldn’t believe how glad I am to see you!” She said by way of greeting. “Look, you need to get this girl—“

“Thank god you’re okay!” Occult said, smiling at Kay from beneath her hood. “I’m so sorry I didn’t catch up to you right away but—“

“Wait, you two know each other?” Facsimile demanded.

“We’re… neighbors.” Kay said unconvincingly. Facsimile pinned her with a long, searching gaze that was truncated by a blast or energy fire making her duck.

“I think the questions will have to wait.” Occult said, summoning her staff. “But don’t worry, I bought help.”

“Who?” Facsimile asked, looking around.

Nearby, one of the guardsmen stopped firing and looked around, bewildered. “Lord almighty…” he said in a hushed tone. “What am I doing? Shooting at people? Helping secret organizations perform illegal experiments? Is this really what I want out of life?”

The man beside him gave him and odd look, then lowered his own weapon. “You’re right.” He said in a heavy southern drawl. “I want to do something I can talk to my little girl’s class about for career day. And with pride too.”

Before long, a small cluster of men had lowered their weapons and were discussing their higher aspirations amid the raging firefight.

“Good work, Thunderhead.” Wright acknowledged, “Though the swords to plowshares routine wouldn’t seem to be your style.” He watched as the screen in front of him displayed a graphic representing that his download to his remote hard disk was nearly complete.

“It isn’t me!” Thunderhead replied from his perch on the platform. “Someone else is here—getting into their heads too. They’ve been trying on me too, but…”

But you are unreceptive from the Astral side. Thunderhead turned to see a flash of rosy light coalesce into Ephemeral. “Such strong effects only work on weak minds in any event. This will last a shorter time, but will be similarly effective.” He touched his hands to Thunderhead’s temples. The other man made a high pitched, girlish noise, then tumbled off the platform.

“That was really awesome and all, but we need to get her out of here.” Facsimile gestured at Kay.

“I agree.” Occult said, “Fly her out. Ephemeral and I will hold them until you get back.”

Facsimile nodded, only to catch a clawed foot in the back. Shine pushed off her and delivered a second kick to Occult’s midsection. “Sit this one out, Gothy.” The white scaled villainess sneered. “This is my treat for helping out with this little side trip.” With that, she leapt at Facsimile, orihalcite claws slashing.

But Facsimile was ready this time. Not just expecting it, she had been training and practicing for exactly this occasion. When the scything claws sought to sink into her flesh, she let them. And then some. Her abdominals coiled around the intruding appendages like pythons as vital organs shifted away to safety. The shapeshifter smirked at the look of surprise on her nemesis’s face.

“Ever hear of the tar baby?” she laughed. “Well B’rer Rabbit, this is going to hurt all the way back to the briar patch.” She bought both her fists crashing into the sides of Shine’s head and followed that up with a head butt.

Shine screamed curses and kicked out a leg to trip the golden prelate, only to have that leg bend backward at the knee and lock her leg in place.

“Didn’t read the story, did you?” Facsimile asked, raining more blows about Shine’s head and shoulders. “Seriously though, don’t go for the head butt, I don’t want your face in my chest.”

“Look out!” Occult and Kay said as one. Facsimile looked up to see the other inugami barreling toward them.

Facsimile relinquished her hold on Shine and kicked the other woman away, hoping to distract the inugami with multiple targets. It didn’t work. The thing just came on.

“Levanto este pared!” Occult’s red pentagonal shield snapped into being in front of Facsimile cutting off the beast’s charge.

From behind, McClane saw his chance and rushed Occult, spray canister raised.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Kay hit him low with a flying tackle. Her diminutive weight alone wasn’t enough to knock him down, but he tripped over her, landing on top of the spray canister. The bauble discharged a dose of its contents directly into his face.

It took a moment of absolute horror for the full weight of what had just happened to set in. He looked back at Kay, who was sitting up with wide eyed horror. “Y-you’ve killed me!”

“Huh?” She asked woozily.

“That was the kill scent. The inugami is going to attack me now!”

“And you were going to do that to my best friend?!”

They were interrupted by the sound of Occult’s shield breaking. With renewed vigor, the inugami lowered its head and crashed through, its eyes fixed on McClane. The scientist threw up his hands in a feeble attempt at defending himself.

But Facsimile got to him first. Executing a shoulder roll with her wings, she grabbed the scent canister from the floor and positioned herself between the monster and its quarry. “I have no idea why I’m doing this.” She moaned as she extended a spike from her arm and jammed it and the canister into the onrushing mouth of the great beast before her.

There was a tiny pop as the canister exploded, but the injury wasn’t enough. The inugami tossed Facsimile aside like a rag doll and closed its jaws on McClane’s right leg. There was a sickening crunch as bone splintered and the scientist was lifted off the floor.

Kay screamed as she watched the events unfold before her. Then the other inugami appeared, smashing down another computer bank to collide with its fellow, scratching and roaring. The two clashed, snarling and biting and rolling across the floor in mortal combat, leaving the broken form of McClane behind.

“That was painful.” Facsimile said, reforming her hand from where it had been bitten off somewhere in the process of breaking the canister inside the inugami’s mouth. Her eyes fell on McClane. “And he needs a doctor. That’s it; Occult, Ephemeral, we’re getting out now. We need to get this guy to a hospital as soon as possible. Let the bad guys fight it out and see who the marines can pick up later.”

Feeling the bruises forming and the bruises to her ego forming even faster, Shine returned to Brother Wright’s side. “They’re retreating.” She wheezed.

“Good.” Wright replied, noting the lockout icons appearing on the screen. “We’re pulling out as well. Fellgaze and Legion have done their part, and Mr. Gennero has finally begun the lockout procedure. Too bad it won’t work.” He turned to where Leo was putting down a late arriving guardsman. “Time to go, Leo.”

“Query: What about Ace Thunderhead?” Leo asked, noting the man lying on the floor beneath the platform.”

“Leave him.” Shine sniffed. “He can’t even handle one mindbender.”

“Negative.” Leo said, “My primary objective is to ensure the safety of the other Aces. I will carry him.”

Shine gave him a dark looked. “Why did it ask if it was just going to do what it wanted anyway?”

“He was being polite.” Wright grinned under his faceplate.

-- • --

The sun was a red sliver on the horizon and the automatic floodlights along Mercy Memorial Hospital’s roof were coming on when Facsimile exited the front doors and winged her way over to a nearby rooftop where Occult, Ephemeral and Kay were waiting patiently as per her rather brusque orders.

Kay was sitting on the stairs leading from the roof up to a platform holding that building’s satellite dishes, clutching a large, paper bag and looking fretfully on as Occult and Ephemeral sat on the concrete below her, talking. She was the first to look up in response to her landing.

Before she could ask what was on the tip of her tongue, Facsimile told her. “He’ll be fine.” She said, wanting to be reassuring, but sounding positively haggard. “Well, healthy. He won’t walk for a few weeks; nasty break and all—but when the cops and the layers upon layers of other guys whose laws he was breaking show up, he’ll wish he were kibble.”

“I almost got him killed.” Kay said in a small voice.

Occult sighed. “Kay, we’ve been over this; he was trying to get me killed. You saved me.”

“Yeah, in my book, that makes you a hero.” Facsimile pointed out. “Especially since you feel bad about it.”

“And you as well.” Ephemeral added. “That man would have done many horrible things to you, myself—any psionic he could—if given the chance. Yet you still dropped everything to get him to a doctor.”

“Don’t remind me.” Facsimile groaned. “Anyway, I called the General and the ROCIC is on its way. I just hope saving that guy didn’t give all the Tome guys time to get away.” She heaved a heavy sigh and dropped into a sitting position. “So, all the loose ends are still lose ends.”

“Sorry…” Occult offered.

“Except…” Facsimile interrupted. “You two.” She nodded to Ephemeral. “Actually you three. How long has this whole thing been going on behind my back?”

Occult feigned ignorance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“There is only one person in the world Kay would call her best friend, super-magic powers or not.” She folded her arms across her chest. “In fact, I feel pretty dumb not to have figured it out after the whole ‘Morganna and the demons’ thing. I mean Morganna was the only one that had magic, and suddenly there you are with magic. Connecting the dots should not have been that hard. The only thing I can’t figure out right now is how long you’ve known who we are.”

“Since the uh... first Morganna thing.” Kay admitted. “You thought you got me out the door in time, but I saw War… Alloy do the tentacle thing.”

“And I pretty much remember everything that happened that day.” Lisa admitted. “I pretended not to remember the next day because I didn’t know why you were keeping it secret.”

“And didn’t want her prelate status to affect your friendship.” Ephemeral chimed in.

“I’d actually really appreciate it if you kept this from everyone but Ephemeral and Codex, actually.” Occult added, “As a prelate, I think I should stay solo for now. Especially since I don’t want Chaos to hate me as me as well as Occult.”

Facsimile got to her feet haltingly. “No argument from me. As much as I love being a prelate, it’s not exactly good for your social life.” She smirked. “But I’ve just got to gush about how awesome it is that my friends are prelates too—“

“I’m just the sidekick.” Kay interjected.

“You still count.” Facsimile smiled through her aches, “Anyway, I would give you a demonstration of what I can do, but I feel like crap on fire right now and I’m not entirely sure I’ve even got enough in me to shift back to Cyn mode at this point.”

“Oh!” Kay thrust the bag into her hands. “Ephemeral told us about that, so being the only one among us not wearing slick costume, I went down the street to the sub place and got you a couple of cheese steaks.”

For the first time, Facsimile noticed the tantalizing scent reaching her nostrils and tore hungrily into the bag. “For this…” she said between great mouthfuls, “I will build a temple to you. If the whole sidekicking for Occult doesn’t work out, you can come work for me.” She didn’t stop until one of the sandwiches was entirely gone.

The edge taken off her hunger and her strength returning, Facsimile reached out to the two people nearest her, Occult and Kay, and put her hands on their shoulders. “You know, I’m glad to have you guys. You too, Kareem. I’ve been so pissy lately over what I don’t have that I didn’t really think about what I did have until Tome and those Ace guys nearly took it away.” She sniffed and in extending her arms, caught all three of her companions up in a group hug.

Kay found herself with her head pressed against Ephemeral’s chest and looked up at him with a blush as Facsimile’s hunger got the better of her and the hug ended in favor of more tooth on cheese violence. “Hey, You’re pretty cute, how come I don’t see you when I come over to the house? You know, if I was dating…”

“That is probably for the best.” Ephemeral said apologetically. “You see, what you see and what you feel is actually an astral projection made real. I have only been able to maintain it so long because of our current proximity to an astral transponder device tied into the hospital’s transmitter. My real body is comatose and may not be well for many months, if at all.”

Kay nodded as if she understood any of that. “Well, for the best anyway, I’ve got a deal with my dad, see? I don’t date until college and thus don’t involve him in having to have any of those conversations he thinks I should have with mom when she’s ever home, and he pays my way through college and for my car. But you know, a lot can happen in a year, right?”

It was Ephemeral’s turn to nod in confusion.

“Aren’t they cute?” Occult asked, taking a seat on the stairs beside Facsimile.

“If that’s how she’s going to flirt, I don’t think her dad’s going to have a problem.” Facsimile shook her head.

Somewhere in rural Pennsylvania, the members of Ace High, including a newly resuscitated Thunderhead stood in the cavernous hanger the carrier had landed in. Wright had sent his workers there away for the day after offloading the cargo Fellgaze and Legion had procured and running the post flight diagnostics on the carrier.

They were gathered, some seated on crates, some standing, around a nondescript wooden crate innocuously stamped ‘supplies’. Legion was fitting a crowbar under the lid.

“We could have had this done ten minutes ago if you’d just levered the stupid thing open with that pig sticker of yours instead of stumbling around looking for a crowbar.” Shine drawled, sprawling across the crate she was seated on as well as Wright.

“My sword isn’t a pry bar.” Legion snapped, hauling on the lever. Wood groaned and snapped under his attention. “It is a tool, a precision tool with a specific purpose. I’m not going to randomly use it to chop firewood or open a can.”

Shine lazily raised one hand that still bore the orihalcite claws. “I use these for everything.” She remarked.

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Thunderhead said offhanded, making it sound dirty.

Shine raised her middle talon in his direction just as the crate gave up its battle with Legion’s strength. The lid came free and without that for support, the sides collapsed outward, spilling straw and other packing material out from around its contents.

“I don’t get it.” Fellgaze said, gazing at the captured technology. “It’s a stasis cell, like every other stasis cell I’ve ever seen except for those funky tanks on the sides and the ConquesTech logo on it. Is the plan to beat them to market with this new model?”

There was an uneasy silence. None of the others wanted to admit that they too thought that this device wasn’t worth the trouble they’d gone through, but none wanted to admit it in case Wright’s explanation made them sound ignorant.

Wright merely shook his head like an understanding father seeing his son try and fail. “It may look like a stasis chamber, and in fact, it’s based on the same design. But it isn’t. I’ll spare you the technical details and just explain how I knew about it and why it is important to us.”

He settled into a more comfortable position with Shine still leaning against him, half dozing. “While I was working with Project Tome, I came upon a rather ingenious plan that involved leaking the basic conceptualizations of this device to ConquesTech in the hope that Lester Mendel’s more public connections and personal drive would succeed in making it a reality where Tome could not. ConquesTech did succeed… after a fashion. They branded it Become More and offered as a type of gene therapy cure for protomorphism.”

“I hope there’s more to this than fixing people’s aesthetic problems.” Legion frowned.

“Oh, it does.” Wright smiled. “You see, Become More doesn’t ‘cure’ protomorphism, it only retriggers the psionic manifestation; the shapeshifting power that changes a protomorph’s body. In at least one case, the process actually made a secondary psionic gene manifest.”

Wright gently moved away from Shine, laying her fully on the crates, and stood to pace among his team. “You see, the system uses retroviruses to force re-manifestation by stimulating new cell growth. The machine directs the viral spread and controls the new growth. The caveat is that a retrovirus can only act on structures that are already there. But what if we had something like a retrovirus…” He produced a vial from his pocket. “Something like Potentia.”

Thunderhead leaned forward, intrigued. “You could force new organs and cells to come into being.”

“You could make psionics.” Fellgaze completed Thunderhead’s line of thought. “But… how do you know what to make to get what powers?”

Wright smiled impishly. “Our good friends at Tome supplied that, Fellgaze. You see, while I was working my sabotage and making sure Tome would have their hands too full to trace us, I also uploaded their entire database of bio-maps to Dr. Ramsey, one of the Tome scientists I wooed away. Those maps can tell us exactly how to trace any power we want onto anyone we want.”

“My god.” Thunderhead intoned. “You could build your own army.”

“And have every government agent and prelate on Earth hunting me? No thank you.” Wright dismissed the idea instantly. “No, Thunderhead, I’ve got something more… interesting in mind. When you were a child, before your gifts made themselves known; what would you have given to have superpowers?”

“I wasn’t that kid.” Thunderhead shrugged, “But most kids, hell, even most adults would give their right arm for that.”

“Many adults would sell their soul to become a prelate like Infinity or Zero Point.” Brother nodded, “Not just the powers, but the fame and adulation. You face on cereal boxes and companies printing fake stories of real heroism all about you. It’s the American dream on steroids.” He tapped the machine with one finger. “And we have the means. Perhaps even a way to ensure that they depend on us to maintain those powers. Favors for power. That’s how my world has always worked.” His smile darkened, “And once they get a taste, they really will do anything to keep them.”

Simon Talbot stomped into the board room, casting dark glances at his subordinates. It was early morning and he was in no for apologies, only for action. Devon Matthews, head of the pharmaceutical section started to speak, but Talbot cut him off. “Situation report. Now.” He already knew the worst of it, but he needed to ensure that the board knew the weight of what was happening.

Matthews collected himself quickly and nodded to Brandy Dillinger, head of superhuman psychology. The mousy brunette balked, but started the rundown of the past day’s events. “Last night, the transfer facility in Mayfield, Code 13X4A, was breeched by an unidentified entity and an unidentified descendant.”

“Unidentified entity?” Talbot asked. This was the first time he’d heard the term, much less so in this context.

“Our term for a superhuman that fails to trip our theta sensors. Presumably, they’re descendants whose manifestation didn’t alter their theta pattern, but we can’t be sure.” Dillinger explained. Talbot nodded and motioned for her to continue. “At the time of the breech, the UE made a statement to the camera.”

“I saw that.” Talbot grimaced.

“Voiceprint confirms that it was Wright’s voice.” Thomas Cross supplied from Talbot’s right hand.

“Wright again.” Talbot snarled.

Dillinger nodded. “He’s living up to his reputation for using people.” She confirmed. “His agent led Facsimile right to the transfer station and the ensuing battle was the perfect cover for his sabotage and theft.”

“What’s the damage?” Talbot groaned.

“ROCIC arrived before we could clean.” Matthews fielded the question with great chivalry. “Gennero and most of our guardsmen escaped after initiating the cleaning program on the computers. McClane was injured and somehow ended up at Mercy Memorial with his own staff of ROCIC guards to prevent elimination. We have no idea what he’ll give up. Materially, we lost two inugami, the entire base and Wright got away with the resequencer.”

Talbot glowered wordlessly until Cross piped up. “That isn’t the worst part, sir.”

Talbot fixed him with a glare. “And what was the worst part? If losing the device that represents the singular goal of our entire existence as an organization isn’t the worst part, then what is?”

Cross swallowed, trying to give relief to his suddenly parched throat. “You see, Wright interrupted the cleaning program before he pulled out. While most data was destroyed, we never received confirmation of the transfer schedule being deleted. Sir, the transfer from tomorrow’s Virginia Beach operation was noted there and now the ROCIC has it.”

A mighty blow made the table shake. Talbot rained down another along with a few choice expletives. Finally getting control of himself, he hunched in his chair and rasped, “And if they know, the Descendants know.”

End Issue #26