Evolution

by R S Penney

  They began their journey through the forest, trudging through hard-packed mud where trees rose up haphazardly, making it hard to travel in a straight line. Fortunately, the GPS on Jack's multi-tool prevented them from going too far off course. It was slow going, and the rising heat as the sun neared its zenith only made the journey that much more exasperating. Even this far north, summers still got hot. Maybe not so hot as what you could expect in Toronto, but warm enough that you would easily break a sweat from even light physical activity.

  The ground began to slope upward at a shallow incline, and every now and then, silver shafts of sunlight broke through the treetops to illuminate a small patch of the forest floor. It was pretty. Jack might have liked it here had he not been distracted by the pain of missing Gabi. Get her out of your head, Bro, he told himself. You don't have time to sit around moping.

  Harry was just in front of him, pausing with a hand braced against the thick trunk of a pine tree. “Melissa was accepted,” he said in a breathy voice. “She'll be joining the Keeper training program in six week.”

  Grinning with a burst of laughter, Jack let his head hang. He rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. “That's wonderful,” he said. “She's an amazing kid, Harry; you must be so proud.”

  “And worried.”

  Jack crossed his arms with a heavy sigh, keeping his head down as he moved past his friend. “She'll be okay,” he said softly. “If a symbiont accepts her, it means she's the kind of person who can thrive in this life.”

  Behind him, the other man grunted and stepped away from the tree he had been using for support. “I suppose,” Harry grumbled. “I'm trying my best to be objective, Jack, but I think worrying is coded into a father's DNA.”

  Once again, they started up the gently sloping hill. The sounds of birds chirping made for a very pleasant morning, and Jack found himself wondering what it would be like to leave the world behind and build himself a little home out here. Of course, that was completely unrealistic – for one thing, he knew nothing about construction – but he always gave in to such flights of fancy when he was feeling sad.

  A few minutes later, they came to a small open spot devoid of trees, a clearing not much bigger than Jack's living room. The sun shone down on dried mud that was littered with dead pine needles. It was almost as if nothing could grow in this spot, as if the very ground had been claimed by something else.

  Harry closed his eyes, breathing deeply. He wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. “GPS says this is the spot,” he muttered, stepping out into the open. “I guess we should get started.”

  Jack squinted as he stared into the distance. “I don't know,” he said, shaking his head. “Something feels a little off. It could just be my imagination, but I'd rather take a look around first.”

  Harry dropped to one knee in the clearing, glancing back over his shoulder. “If you insist,” he replied, setting the briefcase down in front of himself. “Still, I'm going to get the equipment set up.”

  Tapping away at his multi-tool, Jack brought up the screen with the squiggly blue line. “You reading this, Ven?” he asked. “Any special instructions for using the device?”

  Static.

  “Ven?”

  The only response he got was the soft hiss of dead air. Something had blocked his signal, and he was too paranoid to assume this was a natural phenomenon. Not when he knew perfectly well that Leyrian technology could provide a clear signal all the way to freaking Jupiter.

  Biting his lip, Jack winced so hard he trembled. “Something's wrong,” he growled with more venom than he had intended. “Keep an eye out; I'm going to make sure we get some privacy.”

  He stretched out with his senses as he moved back into the trees, beginning a slow circuit around the clearing. Through contact with Summer, he was intimately aware of everything around him, but focusing on those sensations also made him cognizant of the Nassai's emotions. She was tense.

  Perhaps that was why Jack had been uneasy when they arrived at their destination. Aside from his inability to contact Ven, there had been no obvious sign of trouble. Could he be reacting to Summer's apprehension? After four years together, Jack had begun to notice that some of his intuitions were really a case of him picking up on Summer's state of mind. Still, his symbiont was usually spot on when she worried about something. He half considered entering a meditative trance to ask her directly but decided against it. If there was danger, he didn't want to risk even a second's inattention.

  Motion off to his left.

  Jack turned and rushed off through the forest, climbing a small hill where trees rose to blanket the sky with their limbs. If there was trouble, he'd find it.

  The metal briefcase sat open before him, revealing a strange device with blinking LEDs that Ven had attached to the slab of skin no larger than his palm – a thin sheet of flesh with veins that pulsed. Just looking at it made Harry nauseous. He had been there when that thing drove Kevin Harmon into a frenzy. He had seen first-hand the kind of damage a man could do while wielding Overseer technology.

  Worse yet, every time he looked at the thin sheet of skin, he found himself feeling more than a little awestruck. Even after seeing what it had done to a kind and friendly soul like Kevin, a part of him wanted it.

  Harry grinned, rubbing at his forehead to clear away the sweat. “You just want to feel useful again,” he muttered to himself. “Put it out of your head before Jack has to stop you from doing something stupid.”

  The device that Ven had constructed was a fairly simple thing: just a series of metal clamps that held the slab of skin, all connected to a rectangular box with a big red button. He had to give the AI this much credit: it knew how to make its gadgets idiot-proof. He wanted to get started, but a part of him wondered if it would be wise to do so without Ven's supervision. Then again…How hard was it to push a button? “Jack?” he called out.

  No answer.

  Harry pushed the button.

  The Overseer device made a hissing noise so soft it was almost imperceptible, a high-pitched whine that would set most dogs yapping but leave their human companions completely mystified. Was it even doing anything?

  There was a light pulsing sensation under his feet before something began to ooze out of the ground in the middle of the clearing. Skin cells came together to form a lump that rose slowly upward, taking the shape of a pedestal.

  Harry felt his jaw drop, his heart racing. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “It's been here all this time? Undetected?”

  “Astounding, isn't it?”

  He froze; that wasn't Jack's voice!

  A glance over his shoulder revealed a man standing just inside the treeline, a ghost-like figure who wore unrelieved black from head to toe. His dark-skinned face was really quite handsome, but set with a grim expression.

  “Who are you?” Harry growled.

  The stranger stepped into the open, bowing his head to smile down at his own feet. “I'm the man who killed Glin Karon,” he said, approaching Harry. “Really now, is there anything more you need to know?”

  Harry drew his pistol and whirled around to point it at the newcomer, gripping it tightly in both hands. Already, he could feel the tension seizing his heart with icy fingers. If this man could kill a Justice Keeper…

  The stranger thrust out his chin, arching one dark eyebrow to show what he thought of Harry's stubborn defiance. “Do you honestly expect that to do much good?” he asked, striding calmly into the middle of the clearing.

  “Who are you?”

  “It was so easy to distract your companion,” the newcomer went on as if Harry had not even spoken. “A little noise, a few startled animals. Jamming your transmission so we won't be interrupted.”

  He faced Harry with hands folded over his stomach, smiling like the devil ushering sinners through the Gates of Hell. “Your friend might pose a challenge to me,” he said. “Enough to make this little excursion entertaining at the very least. But you, Harry Carlson…Y
ou are useless.”

  Craning his neck to study the other man, Harry narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps,” he said with a curt nod. “But I can't help but notice that you came here anyway. Afraid we'd get our hands on some Overseer tech?”

  The other man turned his head to direct a smile down at the pedestal of flesh. “Oh, you mean this?” he asked, eyebrows rising. “I hate to spoil your sense of victory, Harry, but Slade has known about this device for decades. It does nothing. Observe.”

  The stranger reached out and set one bare hand atop the pedestal, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Nothing happened. For a very long moment, the man just stood there, waiting for some kind of response.

  All this work for nothing…

  “Stun rounds!” Harry growled, getting to his feet with the gun held in both hands. He took aim and fired.

  Bullets flew toward the man who already had his hand outstretched, but before the first could find its target, light blurred and the slug was diverted on a course that sent it speeding off into the trees.

  The blurry smear of colour resolidified into a man in black, who strode across the clearing with a snarl twisting his face into something inhuman. “That was a mistake,” he hissed as he drew near.

  Harry pulled the trigger.

  Again, the stranger blurred, only this time, he became a streak of darkness that fell backward and then resolved into a man who caught himself by bracing both hands on the ground. He brought one foot up to kick the gun out of Harry's hand. So much for that, a quiet voice whispered.

  The other man was upright in half a second.

  A fist collided with Harry's face, filling his vision with bright silver flecks. Before he could even get his bearings, something hit him hard in the chest. Harry went stumbling backward, right into a tree.

  He charged forward, trying to tackle his opponent, but when he crossed through the space where the other man should be, he found nothing. Something hit him right between the shoulder-blades.

  Harry tumbled forward, landing hard on all fours in the middle of the clearing. A low groan escaped, and he spit blood onto the muddy ground. Melissa, I'm sorry. I never should have accepted this mission.

  “Pathetic,” the other man sneered. “I'd hoped that you would put up some degree of resistance, but-” A soft shuffling sound cut him off in mid-sentence. Harry wondered if he was about to die.

  Halfway to the spot where he'd sensed the flicker of motion, Jack realized that this was all just a little too convenient. He couldn't see anything or sense anything through his connection to Summer. Nothing but trees that rose up all around him and made it difficult to get a view of anything at a distance. Whatever he'd sensed was probably just a squirrel or chipmunk, and this was drawing away from Harry. Harry, who couldn't defend himself against most of the threats Slade was likely to throw at him.

  Jack turned and ran.

  Pine trees with thin green needles made a haphazard obstacle course, cutting off any hope of finding a straight path. He ran around them, ducking low whenever the odd branch came close enough to brushing the top of his head.

  The ground sloped upward for a few paces, then downward as again as he made his way to the small clearing. He could see it now – a shaft of light that penetrated the forest and made him blink with discomfort.

  Something was wrong.

  A man in black stood just inside the clearing with his back turned, cutting off Jack's view, but it was clear that Harry was sprawled out on the ground before him. God damn it all! I let one of Slade's goons play me! Again!

  The newcomer stood with fists on his hips, shaking his head as he stared down at Harry. “Pathetic,” he said with contempt in his voice. “I'd hoped that you would put up some degree of resistance, but-”

  Abruptly, the stranger whirled around to face Jack, lifting his chin to direct a cold smile up the slope. “Ah, there you are!” he exclaimed. “Finally, someone who might give me a challenge!”

  Jack winced, shaking his head. “You caught me on a very bad day, guy,” he said, starting down the hillside. “Normally, I try to embody the Keeper ideal of restraint, but today, I'm just as likely to go all Frank Castle on your ass.”

  The other man strode forward with casual disregard for Jack's presence, trembling as he chuckled. “Slade told me about that,” he said. “Your tendency to speak in strange, incomprehensible idioms.”

  “What can I say? I have layers.”

  The other man jumped, and Jack felt a strange warping as gravity twisted to carry his opponent up the gentle slope like a bird taking flight. He landed just a few feet away, bowing his head almost reverently. “There is a tradition among my people,” the stranger said. “A worthy opponent deserves the honour of knowing the man who slays him. I am called Arin.”

  Baring his teeth with a soft hiss, Jack squinted at the other man. “You've gotta be kidding me!” he said in a voice thick with disdain. “That's the name that's supposed to strike terror in my heart? Why don't you go with something a little more bad-ass. Like…I don't know…the Pontificator.”

  “Shall we begin?”

  “Well, you know, I've always hated stall-”

  Arin punched him in the face, filling his vision with silver flecks, but the pain was already fading. The man spun for a back-kick, driving a foot into Jack's stomach, forcing him back against the trunk of a pine.

  Arin rounded on him.

  Jack leaped, flipping over the man's head, then uncurling to land on the ground just behind him. He bent over and then kicked out behind himself, slamming one foot into his opponent's backside. Arin went face-first into the tree.

  Jack turned to find the evil bastard clutching the tree trunk, breathing deep and hard. In a flash, Arin whirled around with his teeth bared, saliva dripping from his mouth.

  He threw a punch.

  Jack ducked and let the man's fist pass over his head. He slipped past Arin on the right, then flung his elbow out to the side to strike the other man's skull. It took only half a second to spin around and find his opponent ready and waiting.

  Jack threw a hard punch, but Arin leaned back and caught his wrist in both hands. The next thing he knew, he was being forced to bend double, held pinned with two hands clamped onto his arm. Arin drove him right toward the nearest tree.

  Jack ran up the trunk, then pushed off and back-flipped through the air. He uncurled to land behind his opponent.

  Arin spun around.

  Jack snap-kicked, driving a foot into the man's belly, forcing him to double over. He jumped and brought up one knee to strike Arin's face. A sickening crunch would have indicated a broken nose in anyone else, but a man with a symbiont healed quickly.

  In the blink of an eye, Arin blurred into a streak of colour, then resolidified a few steps to Jack's right. He grabbed the back of Jack's collar, then gave a hard shove with the strength of someone with a symbiont.

  Jack stumbled.

  He turned to his right in time to see four dark knuckles collide with his face, and then everything went fuzzy. His mind could still track everything around him through contact with summer, and it was clear that Arin was drawing a knife from his belt. The man spun for a hook-kick.

  Jack hopped back in time to watch a black rubber sole pass right in front of his eyes. He waited for the other man to come around.

  Arin tried to stab.

  Jack leaned back, one hand coming up to seize the man's wrist. He snapped himself upright to deliver a hard jab to the face. Blood leaked from Arin's nostrils as he stumbled about in a daze.

  With a growl, Jack jumped and kicked out, planting a foot in the other man's belly. He pushed off, knocking Arin to the ground, then back-flipped through the air. A touch of violence was good for the soul, it seemed; he was already less cranky.

  Jack landed.

  His opponent raised a hand to point the gleaming blade of a knife at him, and then there was a sharp twisting sensation. Bent Gravity.

  On instinct, Jack called out to Summer and put up a
time-bubble, the world around him seemed to blur, light stretching until there was nothing but a smear of green or brown where trees and ground should be. And black where the other man had fallen. He saw the knife as well, flying point first toward him. The fact that it was moving at all meant that in a normal time-frame, it would be traveling fast enough to rip right through him. Once it crossed the barrier of his time bubble, it would speed up instantly.

  Jack crouched down.

  He let the bubble vanish, and felt a light stirring in the air as the knife passed over him and embedded itself in the trunk of a tree, wobbling on impact. Arin was stretched out on his backside, staring up with sweat glistening on his face. “No!” the man hissed. “No! You can't! They said you would be an easy kill!”

  Grinning triumphantly, Jack let his head hang. He wiped sweat off his brow and let out a sigh. “First thing you should learn about Earth: false advertising is everywhere. No matter what it is they're selling, it never quite works as promised.”

  Arin scrambled to his feet.

  The man turned and ran down the hillside, huffing and puffing as he made his way toward the clearing where Harry knelt before some strange fleshy pedestal and gripped it in both hands. Uh oh…

  “Harry!” Jack growled.

  “Shall we begin?” a soft voice said in the distance. Jack replied, but he was too far away for Harry to pick up the words. Then the sounds of combat filled the air. His vision was beginning to clear, but Harry knew there was nothing he could do to aid in this fight. The pitiful attempt he had made to stand up to this Arin had ended badly to say the least. It was pathetic. He was pathetic.

  There had to be something he could do, but he couldn't think of anything. Maybe if he tried to secure the Overseer tech.

  He looked up to see the fleshy pedestal just a few feet away from his right shoulder, its skin seeming to writhe. Overseer technology was just so creepy. If this thing contained data on where he might find the Key…But what could he do with it? Arin had touched it with no visible effect. Still, there was no reason Harry should take the other man's word for it. For all he knew, Arin hadn't even tried to activate it.