Original Design

by William Latoria

  As the sun began to set, he made his way back to the boundary line around the entrance to the Foundation. The guards saw him coming and allowed to him pass the boundary without hesitation. Blackshade went over to a secluded spot, where there was a bench and sat down. It was getting late, and he hadn’t talked to Zahera all day. He pulled up the sleeve that covered his arm and punched in the commands to contact her. His contact indicator vibrated twice before she answered.

  “Well hello there, stranger! I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me!” she greeted him happily. A pop up display came up from his arm, and he could see her faking a pout. It still surprised him how beautiful he found her, now that they were together. He had always known she was an attractive woman, but never had he really appreciated it until they had become a couple. It was a welcome new perspective.

  “Hey, Za! Sorry, I’ve been busy since getting back to the office. Don’t know how they get along without me.” he said, playing along. “How’s Roswell?”

  Zahera rolled her eyes, “Dead.” she told him bluntly, “The camp has been scaled back to just my unit, now that the operation is over, and HQ is debating on pulling us out completely. The investigation into the traitors is concluded, and the IG determined all involved parties were killed during the attack. The trials for the prisoners will all take place in civilian courts, so we turned them over to the local PD. Lots of confinement counseling in their futures if I had to guess.” she told him, frowning before continuing, “It’s too good for those pricks, line them up and use an SMM round to take care of them. Waste of tax dollars to confine them after what they did.”

  Blackshade knew that tone, Zahera was getting mad, and that wasn’t what he wanted, so he changed the subject, “How’s Kara doing?”

  His tactic worked, Zahera perked up visibly, “Great! I talked to her a few hours after you left. She was devastated she missed you but made me promise to tell you how grateful she is for what you did, and Matt says the same. They’re calling you their hero and their daughters both drew you pictures wearing a cape.” she told him, as she sent him two files. As he opened them two new displays popped up to either side of the display showing Zahera. The one on the left was drawn by Kara and Matt’s oldest daughter, Vivian. She was six years old and loved horses. She had drawn her picture with e-crayons and depicted him crudely straddling a massive horse with a green cape on his back, the words ‘HERO UNCLE BILL’ were written in a six-year old’s best handwriting in a multitude of colors. Under the title were the words, ‘Thank you for saving mommy!’ Blackshade wasn’t typically sentimental, but he swallowed hard at a lump that appeared in his throat. Without a word, he saved the picture and closed out the display. He was suddenly very aware that Zahera was watching him.

  Looking at the display to the right of Zahera’s, he saw what Kara and Matt’s youngest daughter, Madison, had sent him. The girl was only four years old, but she was a natural artist. She was a quiet child that loved her parents as fiercely as she loved her stuffed animal collection. Which was impressive, even for a four-year-old. The picture she had drawn was done with real colored pencils and had him centered on the page in full Army Air Corp uniform. The hint of a forest green cape trailed behind him. A bright orange light illuminated him from behind and she had given him massive, bat-like wings. He was smiling in the picture and had Kara cradled in his arms. The words, ‘Thanks for bringing mommy back from heaven!’ were written in Matt’s handwriting, but never-the-less hit him hard. He saved the picture and then wiped at his eyes. He tried to fake a yawn to cover it up, but one look at Zahera’s display showed him his ruse had failed miserably.

  He expected her to crack a joke or make a snide remark, teasing him for showing so much emotion, but she didn’t. She simply smiled at him adoringly, her own eyes glistening slightly with her own unshed tears.

  Blackshade wiped at his eyes again and cleared his throat, he did not like showing emotion like this, especially out in the open, surrounded by voyeur drones. He cleared his throat a few times in an effort to regain his self-control. He looked away from Zahera’s display before attempting to speak, “Tell them I said thank you, and that I appreciate the pictures a lot.” he said, pleased by how steady his voice was.

  Zahera was still smiling her dazzling smile, “Ok, Bill. I’ll tell them.” she promised sincerely.

  He knew she wanted to say more, and he loved her for holding back. He was holding his emotions in check by a thread and was beginning to get irritated at his loss of control. The thought of talking with a police officer crossed his mind, but he rejected it immediately. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat again.

  “So, when will you know if they’re going to pull you out of there?” he asked, looking away.

  Zahera didn’t seem happy with the sudden subject change. She seemed about to say as much, but then hesitated and sighed instead. “Hopefully in the next couple days. I think all the decision makers are currently focused on what’s happening over at the Foundation.” she told him disinterestedly. “I saw your speech on the internet today. The one where you are talking to the gym rat with the dirt bag hat on. I thought it was really good, Bill! You always were good at those.”

  Blackshade barked a laugh, he needed that, “Yeah. Thanks, Za. I just hope people listened and that it helps. I meant what I said, I believe we need the Omegas.” he said, thinking about what they told him about the degeneration.

  Zahera nodded, “Well, the gym rat listened. He’s been interviewed by about six bloggers now and has basically been parroting everything you told him. He’s even said he’s planning to go talk to a recruiter tomorrow when he gets back to school. He said he wants to be his own man, just like you.” she said, laughing slightly, “I guess you made quite the impression!”

  Blackshade smiled, if the meat-head did enlist, it would probably be good for him. He wondered for a moment how the guy’s father would take the news. He was about to voice the concern to Zahera when a large flock of voyeur drones flew over him, heading towards the east side of the building. If there was one thing a person could count on when a flock of voyeur drones were headed in the same direction, it was that something significant was happening there. He stood to try to see what it was, but with the setting sun and the mass of protestors surrounding the boundary line, he couldn’t see anything.

  Zahera noticed his change in demeanor, “What’s wrong, Bill? Did something happen?” she asked, concerned.

  Blackshade shook his head, “I don’t know, Za.” he responded distractedly, “A bunch of voyeurs just flew past me heading east. You got anything on the internet?” he asked, worried. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he could hear people shouting.

  There was a flurry of movement on Zahera’s display, and she went out of frame for a moment. When she returned, she looked anxious, “No one has reported anything yet, but the voyeur drones are showing that a few of the religious groups are starting to clash with each other. Mobil Detention Centers and pacification drones are moving in, but no action has been taken yet. The MDC’s aren’t going to be able to get through the crowd, but if you need to detain anyone, they’re on the outskirts of the protestors.” she said, looking at something off display.

  Blackshade spat, “Shit, where’s the perimeter now?” as he tried to determine if the MDC’s would even be a feasible option.

  Zahera looked angry, “Ten blocks back, you idiots didn’t think to have MDC’s stationed inside the protest?”

  Blackshade shook his head, he could hear people yelling now, the voices sounded angry. “No, it was determined that it would be too aggressive and possibly spark violence.” he explained.

  Zahera scoffed, “Great call. Sounds like it made a real impact.”

  Blackshade didn’t respond, he was walking towards the sound, he wanted to be there, and he wanted to try to help.

  “Put your helmet on, Bill.” he heard Zahera say. He looked down and saw her looking back at him, clearly worried. He almost told her he didn’t ha
ve his helmet and that he hadn’t put on his armor because he didn’t want to intimidate the protestors. He didn’t though, because he didn’t want to worry her any more than she already was.

  “I will, Za. Let me call you back.” he told her as he began walking fast towards the sound of the voices. They were getting louder, and he thought he heard fighting.

  “Bill, where’s your armor? Where are you going? Get back inside the Foundation!” she yelled at him from his display.

  He looked down at her, “Zahera. I’ll call you back. I need to go.” he told her as he hit the terminate input on his arm. His arm hadn’t swung down to his side before it began to vibrate at Zahera’s frequency. He slapped at the inputs putting his communicator in ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode and then broke into a run heading towards the source of the disturbance.

  Chapter 16

  When Blackshade finally caught up to the drones, the situation was as bad as he feared. He paused about ten yards from the drones, in order to better assess the situation. From what he could tell, there were three separate groups screaming at each other. Most of what they were saying was the typical rhetoric, with the occasional misdemeanor threat thrown in that landed the individual in cuffs. The posted guards and security details were doing what they could to maintain control, but there were thirty of them trying to control around four hundred protestors; and the crowd was just beginning to realize that. Blackshade also spotted a handful of younger people moving amongst the protestors, and it seemed to him that wherever they went the crowd seemed to get riled up and would surge toward another group of protestors. He knew who they were almost immediately and couldn’t suppress a growl.

  “Glory-hounding anarchists.” he spat, his anger at them spurring him towards the crowd.

  On the internet, there was a group of people that believed there shouldn’t be a government and that people should just be free to do whatever they wanted. They believed that a natural order was preferable to an intelligent one and touted that if it was good enough for nature, it was good enough for humanity. This group advocated for the abolishment of any form of authority, the removal of police, and they also tended to push for a more primitive society. Typically, they were as ineffectual as any other group of internet warriors striving for internet fame, but where this particular group excelled was in protests. They would show up at any large organized gathering and do everything they could to rile up the protestors to the point of rioting. One of their biggest successes was a few years ago when they infiltrated a group of protestors that had rallied in order to stop the sale of a new children’s toy that allowed the child to swap around its reproductive organs. It was supposed to be a break out toy that would put a new company on the map. They touted it as the first ‘gender-fluid’ children’s toy, which allowed kids to express their gender, dependent on how they felt. Groups of parents brought their children to the protest in order to better show that they didn’t want that kind of toy on the market. The anarchists, or as they referred to themselves, ‘Humanity’s Paragons’, were not only able to make the protestors riot, they had their voyeur drones record everything, so that when the military moved in to stop them, they got super high-definition streams sent straight to the internet showing drones firing coma-tabs into not only the men and women taking part in the protest, but the children as well. Three children were trampled to death by the parents who had hoped to protect them, with over thirty other children having to be air lifted to various hospitals. The backlash on the internet saw the company close down and disappear into obscurity, multiple parents getting jail time, and the group officially being labeled as societal disrupters, which meant that they weren’t allowed at protests or social gatherings without police permission. This was more of a symbolic gesture than anything else, because the police had no idea who they were. The few they had been able to arrest were pretty young, ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-four. For the most part, they seemed to be affluent teenagers and young adults that were rebelling against their parents, but the violence they spread was grown up, and in this situation it was the last group of people he wanted to see here. He kicked himself for not anticipating their arrival, and the anger he felt towards his oversight was immediately transferred to the situation.

  Blackshade stormed over to the perimeter where the sides were clashing. As he strode up against the barrier, two guards saw him and stepped out of his way. Both of the guards were fully armed and armored in red and black, fully upgraded, OGTS. He felt naked in comparison with just his Omega robe on. Still, with these troops flanking him, he at least felt the illusion of security. Turning his attention back toward the crowds, he realized it wasn’t just two groups screaming at each other, but three. Judging by the signs they were waving around and the religious jargon they were spitting back and forth, he guessed that the groups belonged to the Christians, the Wiccans, and a large, pro-Omega group. How they all got near each other was beyond him. Their individual protesting areas were in different locations, but he didn’t have time to worry about how they had come together, he needed to deal with this situation quickly before it got any more out of hand.

  Blackshade slapped at his arm inputs, “Soearth, I think we’ve got some Paragons stirring the pot out here. Have your drones ready. We may need to put these people down quick.” he growled into his tissue ware. Twenty drones hovering over his head was all the response he got. He assumed Soearth was too busy trying to control all of the drones to speak.

  Irritably, he came up to the line that was barely being held by the guards. A pair of Air Soldiers amongst the protestors hit a middle aged woman carrying a large foam crucifix with the words, ‘OMEGAS AREN’T GOD’S CREATION!’ scrawled across it. She had been trying to hit one of the Wiccans with it and caught one of the guards with her back swing. Blackshade moved out of the way as the guards dragged her limp form past him. He assumed they would charge her with battery of an officer when she woke up in the detention center later. He kicked away the woman’s crucifix in order to stand at the line. People were still screaming at each other, quickly working themselves into a frenzy.

  “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth!” a man from the Christian protestors was screaming at the pro-Omegas.

  “The Goddess does not inhabit the Omegas!” a woman shouted, “There is no divinity in the aliens! Therefore, they are evil and wrong! We must resist them!”

  A large African-Candaerican man jabbed a finger at them both before bellowing his response, “Who the fuck cares whose likeness we’re made in? And who the fuck are you to claim the Omegas aren’t divine?” he asked them both condescendingly, “I don’t recall either of your fake-ass gods ever bringing anyone back to life like the Omegas did! I know neither of them have ever done anything to help humanity! The Omegas cured that Ambassador’s cancer! Why the fuck would you want to shun them for some made up god? These guys are REAL! Wake up, you low-tech Denisovans!”

  A woman from the Christian group carrying a sign that said, ‘GOD DOESN’T BELIEVE IN THE OMEGAS!’ jumped at the man, “The Lord brought Jesus back from death!” she shouted with all the fervor of a fanatic, “The Grave is empty! Jesus is risen! This is what we testify! Glory to the living God!”

  People in the pro-Omega group laughed at the woman’s declaration. One of the women in the group shouted back, “So your God brought one guy back thousands of years ago, big deal! The Omegas brought back a hundred million! Where was your God then, huh!?”

  Her words were met with a loud roar of approval and agreement from her group. To Blackshade’s surprise, it was a man from the Wiccan group that came to the Christian’s aid. “And who killed those two-hundred million?” the man asked angry, “I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t humans!”

  This time, the roar of approval came from the Christian and Wiccan groups. The pro-Omega protestors
were not deterred. This time one of their leaders came to the front to face off against the Christians and Wiccans. The person that came forward was tall, Blackshade guessed around six and a half feet, Hispanic, and well groomed. He had what was known as a, ‘sun & moon’ style haircut where the left side of his face was clean shaven, and the right side of his face had freshly cut, close cropped brown hair, a pencil mustache, and a beard that was just as well-groomed as the hair on his head. Hints of grey were showing in both his hair and beard. He was overweight, but not overly so and had the air of a man that was accustomed to power. The smug look on his face gave no doubt as to how the man felt about the people in the opposing protest groups. Blackshade noticed a young woman with an equally smug look on her face, standing beside him. The people around them parted so that they could pass without being jostled.

  “I’ll answer that, sir.” the man said, amused. He was shouting to be heard over everyone else, but his voice carried easily. “As we all know from the blogs on the internet that the generous Omegas made a deal with our woefully inept Presidents for South America. The Omegas promised not to harm any humans when they took over the continent and used their awesome technology to teleport every human off the continent and dispersed them all over the world. They had hoped the generosity and…well… humanity we should have had for our fellow people would keep them safe after their removal from the continent. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the Omegas, humans are a cruel, savage, and homicidal species desperately in need of purpose and control.” the pro-Omega leader explained. Blackshade could see the hate and anger on the faces of the people in both the Christian and Wiccan groups, but the words, ‘Confused’, ‘He has a point’, and ‘FEAR’ were popping up on many of their foreheads. What shocked him more than that though, was the fact that everyone was listening. All three sides had quieted down to hear what the man had to say, it was a little unnerving. The man seemed to expect this and continued, pointing at the man in the Wiccan group that had asked the question, “Humans killed the South Americans. Humans are the ones that rounded them up and put them in cages. Humans are the ones that ransomed them to friends and loved ones, and humans are the ones that killed them when they couldn’t pay, or when they just felt like it. Yes, the Omegas were culpable in putting them in those situations, but did they kill anyone? Has an Omega personally taken the life of a single human being? I say to you no, they have not. However, when it was brought to their attention that their actions resulted in human-on-human murder, they brought over one hundred and twelve million people to life. More than that, they showed us that they can cure death and prolong our lives. Which is far more than any of your Gods have ever done! So maybe get off your religious high horse, and give the Omegas the respect you seem to only have for the invisible beings you claim to worship! The Omegas have done more for us in the past month than your Gods have done our entire existence!” As the man finished his rebuttal, he folded his arms in front of him and grinned. The words, ‘Simple bastards’ flashed across his forehead.