She could see he was a marvel of a specimen. She also surmised that, if he had flown here safely, maybe she could return to Earth herself. He had also left his ship just sitting there right before her eyes.
***
Trevor, upon hearing the news of the attack in Washington, was being sent with the president and his super bot Galax to the region for personal inspection. The boy was nervous and excited at the news of a battle taking place. He had not witnessed such a large scale event so this would be his first big one.
The child was armored with bulletproof gear and given a laser rifle. The main Y-Wood ship was just about to leave New York as Trevor walked with the president and Galax toward it.
President Purcell called back to his private fleet of ships along the outside walkway and ship yard, "All of you, fly over ahead of us. Take no prisoners. Destroy all rebel flyers, and in the name of justice, prevail." He then saluted his armada and boarded his ship.
***
Omagus and his secret team had been monitoring the situation themselves privately. He found himself in a dilemma as he entered the Martian building.
There was a fight going down, yet he cared little as to who would come out victorious.
Both sides—the Corporation and the sisterhood—were colliding head on, and both hoped to come out on top. Omagus, the most intelligent being in the world, was thinking much further ahead.
***
A very pissed off President Purcell with a slew of soldiers and ships flew fast out of New York.
Galax then turned to him and announced, "Sir, I have recently intercepted a signal from a coded name. There's a plan to erect that woman statue back in Jersey."
The president turned to his bodyguard. "They never stop, those friggin' idiots. Go that way…we'll show them not to fuck with us!"
Their vessel arrived just as the statue was being hoisted up. This was to be a great moment for all rebel forces.
The president focused in on such an insubordinate move. "Let loose a volley of our best missiles and see how they feel about that," called the general. He was no president today. Screw that; general mode it was. "LET THOSE FUCKERS HAVE IT," he screamed. "Shoot down that lady and blast her to pieces."
Galax obeyed, and Trevor looked out the big front panel window as the shots struck hard into the large statue, a massive iron woman holding a torch in one hand. The thing exploded into many pieces.
The explosions made Trevor coil back so quickly that he nearly fell out of his seat.
Galax and several clones on board put country-wide communications back up to let all know what had just gone down. They hacked into all conversations and learned that blatant war had been declared. They quickly went about gathering any useful intel.
Galax found what everyone was searching for on his own.
Someone in the sisterhood's group of allies made the mistake, so he hacked into their text. Such a find would change everything.
***
Captain Hully and his squads of flying mayhem buzzed about Washington creating great havoc. Attacker ships came from all surrounding areas, and both air and ground combat had started up heavily. Mayor Warns' best defenses were in place but currently at a standstill.
The plan was working as the sisters came into Washington to add even more help.
Suddenly, yet again, all communications went down and sent everyone on the rebel ally side into a scramble to get it back up. Yet no one could.
***
President Purcell had just learned that it was that blasted sisterhood responsible for this assault. So they have friends joining them, he thought. He had a huge grin on his face as they continued to Washington.
He said, "Those silly bitches are actually going to attack the Empire State Building thinking that all our attention would be placed here in Washington." Everyone turned his way and waited for further instructions.
He signaled for his most powerful flyer to circle back and take out anyone flying near the Empire State Building. He wanted to still be in the fight in Washington.
Purcell, however, also sent several of his flying ships in another direction. He sent them to Monterey, California to destroy the sisterhood. The general in Purcell was a strategist; he knew how to fight a war and he knew how to defeat terrorism. He sighed loudly. He had no fucking clue where Omagus was. However, the tracking device idea was a genius move by the bot and he knew there was no better time to destroy the Mystical Slayers, the Q- Jin, than right now.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Raegan felt uneasy as communications continued to go down at various intervals. Everything seemed okay; Washington was under heavy assault, Corp flyers were coming to help, and her allies were doing great.
Zaey and D-Marge were on route to destroy the Y-Wood stronghold, and this time, they would not recover. Dropping that massive building would knock them so far down that they wouldn't be able to get back up. Even so, she still felt uneasy. It took nerves of steel to lead such an attack. The danger they all faced was huge. "Everything will work out, I know it. It will be okay…we got this," she kept telling herself as their flyer finally reached the fighting in Washington.
The scene looked like something out of a war movie. The plan wasn't to destroy the region, but war of any kind was still ugly. Anti-aircraft missiles were shooting about like a fireworks grand finale, ships were lined up trying to stop ally ships from passing by, robots ran the streets fighting one another, and fires were set ablaze all over the city.
***
President Purcell was about to arrive.
His plan was to circle behind the attacking aircrafts, and he directed his private fleet to do just that. He also called for a line of his best ships to defend anything and everything important in the main Capitol area.
He still had all airway communications working, which was a great advantage. Ships landed and soldiers were deployed all about his most prized monuments. Yet, strangely, none had been attacked so far.
His top-notch ship flew about surveying the grounds, and at one moment passed close enough to see a rebel ship and a blond-haired woman standing at its main front window. Galax asked, "Sir, shall we blast that vessel out of the sky?"
The president debated his answer for a moment. He replied, "No. Let them hear about what's to come…it will be better that way."
Their ship sped off in another direction.
When satisfied defending forces would win, he directed Galax to turn his ship about and head west.
West? thought Galax.
Looking at his super bot's hesitation, Purcell screamed out, "Where in the world is Omagus? Find me his sorry ass, now!"
He then grabbed his own head in madness and yelled at Galax and Trevor, "THERE IS NO GOD! Nor is this a patriotic country where everyone is free to do as they please. WE NEED DISCIPLINE…we need LOYALTY…and we need RESPECT."
The super bot and the boy beside him both listened without saying a word as the battle in Washington raged on. In a fight for freedom, even the best of people die. The death toll was already rising.
As Galax tried several times to get in contact with the missing Omagus, the frustration mounted for President Purcell and he continued to yell for the mega bot to be located. Galax, as well as two elite clones on board, kept trying over and over. The attacks on D.C., the rebels' home base now known, another pending strike in New York; it never ended.
That's when Omagus finally answered the president's desperate calls. "Yes, sir?" he said.
"WHERE IN THE WORLD have you been? There was an attack in Washington on our Capitol Building, plus an assault on our own home base is going down as we speak, and where are you? Nowhere to be fucking found, that's where! What is your problem?"
Omagus paused, lost in thought while standing in a back hallway inside a domed building on planet Mars.
The time had come to make a decision. What action would be more beneficial for him? That was the question. He could side with Purcell
, who was everything his former boss was not, but the data of Arn Marcou was still inside him, and he still felt him.
After a moment, he spoke.
"I understand clearly, sir. I had lost communication with you, yes, but I have miraculously found a new wormhole and have traveled far into deep space again. I am at our Mars location now, sir."
The president was not happy and tore into the bot. "I have no idea why you went there without approval. We need you here. Now. YOU GET YOUR ASS HERE IMMEDIATELY AND DO AS YOU'RE TOLD."
Omagus felt frustrated. He paused again. After several minutes of the yelling and vicious words being called out at him, Omagus was no longer listening.
Neither President Purcell nor Galax heard any more from Omagus. The line of communication was cut.
Omagus had made his mind up. The Corporation was more of a problem than the sisterhood or any of the other rebel humans that were always seeking to fight. He was smarter than them all.
He was, after all, on a far-off planet right now; he had an excuse to lay low and let the others battle it out. In truth, he could decide the outcome himself. If he helped the Corporation, they would easily destroy the entire sisterhood and all the rebels. If he helped the women, however, the Corporation would go down, which meant, eventually, he would be in charge.
Omagus was beginning to feel like the God that those reckless humans had been speaking about lately.
***
Back on Y-Wood's main ship, Galax twiddled his metal thumbs back and forth. He'd sensed something was wrong with Omagus even before this odd moment, and it could be a huge problem.
President Purcell again changed his mind. "Take the ship back to New York," he called out. "I'll deal with this sneak attack myself."
His ship then zoomed northeast, and as it finally approached the State Building, they hid behind another tall structure. It was easy enough to make their vessel almost invisible in this type of built-up area, especially as it was slowly being taken by the coming darkness of night. They waited for anyone and anything coming near their home base.
They waited for over an hour and a half before spotting a smaller spacecraft coming in from the west. Galax focused his amazing vision on the ship, which appeared to be piloted by two women.
"Do you see them, Galax?" asked the president. "Can you tell if it's loaded with a bomb?" His patience was wearing thin with all that was happening.
The president grabbed the shifter and opened up the main rocket launching weapon himself. Perfectly zeroing in on the spacecraft, without a smidgen of remorse, he let the monster go. The Corporation's killing missile rang true, and the Californian sisterhood's small space flyer was blown to smithereens with just a single shot.
As the sky around the impressive Empire State Building began to clear, President Purcell had a wicked grin on his face. "That's a great start! A few Q-Jin down and more to come. Now we can head to California."
***
Jackson J was trying to get communication back up and running for the sisters, but still nothing could be done. Meanwhile, the sisterhood ships joined the allies and fought on in D.C.
Raegan and the others, including friendly ships, noticed that several Corporation flyers had abruptly turned and headed west. They decided it was best to head back home. Hopefully, the damage was done in New York. All day and well into the evening, they had demonstrated the power of Washington's people. But the fact that these other ships were heading west during this skirmish, was not a good sign.
Chapter Fifty
At least half a dozen Corporation flyers flew towards California. The tracker Omagus had earlier placed on Zaey's bag was now in the possession of Galax, and soon the sisterhood would be sent into obliteration.
In truth, Omagus had robotic drones stationed by a huge bridge at the locale before any regular Corporation flyers arrived. He himself had investigated the area before his trip. This bridge was the route to the sisterhood's hidden home.
He had many secrets and tonight, he would make his decision. The Corporation flyers now came into view.
The thing was, though, that every ship in the air had a code, one that former President Arn Marcou used. It was an emergency code that meant, if any ships fell into enemy hands, they could be grounded and disabled from flying.
The super bot had his own communication, so he dialed into the drone overseeing all.
"Let's make this interesting. Send out the code," he instructed the intelligent drone to do. "Let my handiwork come to fruition." The large drone then did as commanded and every ship in the sky received the secret code that had been programmed into all their flyers.
Then the entire armada of Corporation ships suddenly slowed down and landed near the bridge in an open parking lot. Omagus hoped Galax would get scolded for the screw up for once.
The drones Omagus had placed as watchdogs by the bridge were then shot down, yet it was too late. The Corporation ships were grounded, and no one knew how to get them back in the air.
Omagus was satisfied with his choice. He would let things settle on the ground and whoever came out on top, well, he'd deal with it later. He had bigger things to think about. God could not spend all his time on small matters.
***
As their ships finally reached California late in the evening, the women looked on in shock as they noticed a large group of Corporation flyers down in the parkway near the connector bridge.
The sisterhood women circled right and flew home as fast as they could.
***
Tyne had been trying really hard to get communications back up for the sisterhood. At that moment, she yelled out, "I've got it!"
Raegan immediately contacted home base. Her first question was to a woman who had picked up her call. Karen Teal was a computer savvy assistant to D-Marge at the compound. When Raegan asked about how the plan went off in New York, Karen's answer was not what anyone on board was hoping to hear.
Karen explained that D-Marge and Zaey had flown to New York, but no one had heard anything since. "They never returned," Karen said over the loud speaker as all the main sisters and Raegan rode in.
There was no time to waste. All of the sisters tried to contact Zaey's ship, but no one found her or made any connection.
As soon as their ship arrived at the vineyard, everyone ran out shouting orders and trying to get people moving. Some were directed to fight at the bridge, while others were told to evacuate.
Every ship that could be flown was prepared and armed as much as possible.
They had to defend that bridge at all costs. None of the sisters mentioned Zaey or D-Marge as they ran about preparing to fight. Each held out hope they were safe.
The youngsters, including Victory, Sun, Naiera, and Cally, the new kid rescued by Zaey, were gathered together and prepared to disappear into the hills for their own safety. Many of them didn't want to leave; they wanted to fight beside their sisters. Tyne explained to them that if anything happened to the main team, they, the younger generation of sisters, would be all that was left to keep their legacy alive. She then shouted, "All of you, get your asses up in the hills now!"
Chaya seemed concerned. Looking about frantically, she then turned to Mahira, "Where is Karma?" Mahira shook her head to say she didn't know. After asking around, it seemed no one had seen or heard her as of late, nor had anyone seen Gavin.
There wasn't time to look for the two youngsters. Raegan and her sisters boarded their flyers and made their way to the bridge.
With communication finally back up, Jackson J was on with Raegan right away. "We are sending our flyers there to help as soon as possible, Raegan," he explained.
Jansa yelled to him over Raegan's shoulder, "Jackson J, what do you know of the Empire State Building?"
There was a moment of silence on the line before he came back on. "It's still there. Word has it that your flyer was shot down."
There was a long pause.
"I'm so sorry," decla
red Jackson J.
The women hung their heads in despair.
Jackson gave them little time to mourn before he screamed, "Look over your right shoulders…this is nuts…the flaming orb is coming! It's heading by you any moment now. Holy shit! Look at that asteroid!"
They all looked about but couldn't see anything as yet. Then, moments later, a burning ball of light that turned into a weird orange-black shade as it approached, suddenly zoomed by.
Raegan said, "Yes, we see it; it's now gone by."
Jackson replied, "It's going northeast!" Another pause. Jackson J was breaking up. He added one more thought, "Good luck, my friends, and may God be with you!"
The women eventually reached the far side of the bridge they were set to defend. They then lowered their ships and contemplated their next move. They needed to defend against anyone trying to pass over it.
The main sisters, Raegan, Chaya, Jansa, Mahira, and Tyne Gem, all stood looking at the scene on the other side. "Why are they not flying over? Why are they not moving forward?" Chaya asked.
No one seemed to know the answer. It looked like a battalion of soldiers had decided to come across on the ground, and it looked like they were ready to march forward very soon.
***
As President Purcell's ship approached the gathering, he lowered it down to join his soldiers. Upon learning about the code and the ships being grounded, he wanted his revenge. More importantly, he wanted to be right in the thick of it all.
He was in full general mode as he came out of his flyer. He barked out commands in all his glory. "They have dropped our ships to the ground. Yes, they have, but we must go forth, brave and true."
He raised a fist. "Behold this bridge, loyal men, for beyond it dwells the last remnants of the rebel sisterhood of Q-Jin." His voice grew louder. "THEIR HOMESTEAD IS NEAR…AND LOOK! EVEN NOW THEY GATHER TO DEFEND THE BRIDGE."
HOPE BRINGERS (Strong superhero women) (Mystical Slayers Book 2) Page 28
