by P. S. Power
They were captured in a net, one that didn't allow them to even struggle except in a way that would lock them all in tighter over time.
In short, they were well and truly screwed.
"On the good side," he went on, making his voice light, as Jake and Mickey came over. The new man from a totally different reality, gave him a look that seemed a bit troubled. Then he said exactly what he was supposed to.
"We can just do something different, can't we? Find a place where she needs us to jump left, and roll right? Or... That might not be enough, but that kind of thing? Make a sacrifice that will destabilize her plans?"
Brian nodded, his face harder than he wanted it to be, nearly a grimace.
"Except that it's going to be really hard to do. No matter how many times we change our minds, or who's doing it now, the future only has one outcome. Hers. What you just said is what we have to do, but... As odd as it seems, we can't really get out of it that easily. She has us all playing out parts totally. I can't even force myself to not speak, even though that might be enough to stop things. There's no allowance for us to get around her plan." He wanted to explain more, but the words stopped coming. They just wouldn't flow at all.
Trivia, who was loosely a friend of his, shook her head. It was a negative thing, but she wasn't looking at Brian, but rather over Jake's shoulder, at Mickey.
"He's right. The only way to fix this is to break it. So far though, I can't find a way to allow that to happen. It was always hard with Devorah that way. Worse, she knew that I was there to watch her the whole time. I can get it from her thoughts now. I know what she does, and there isn't any room for us to alter anything at all. Even trying is... Argh! I hate this. It's a lot better for the rest of you, who don't really have to know about it. Everything, for the rest of our lives, is planned and controlled. Everything!" She started to hyperventilate, but then stopped herself, closing her eyes. Exactly like she was supposed to do.
Brian nodded.
"That's about the size of it. For the time being..." He shrugged, realizing that Mary had been right, more or less. "Well, we still have to live our lives. It seems like we're all going to be going to try and stop a large battle in a few hours, so there's no reason to not see about that. We win, but... Yeah. So many are going to die."
That got him to sigh, and shake his head.
Jake tilted his.
"So... what if we lose? Just throw the whole thing? Harsh, but if it stops a greater war, or gives us the chance to do that..."
Brian smiled. It wasn't the wrong idea, really. "We can't. Not this time. Somehow we need to try though. I have to agree with Brie though. Argh. This is so freaking frustrating. For now, let's set things up and play our parts. I need to arrange for us to travel, and Director Moore will need to have a speech ready. This revolution is going to be televised." That was a big part of it.
On the good side, for once, everyone would be happy to see them, and even mainly forgive the trick they'd pulled, making sure they survived. That was going to be down to a lot of lying on their part, but it would work.
Brian had to do some things, which included getting Mary to help him, since it was clear that she was just so much better at moving people around than he was. She made a point of standing close to him, and touching him a lot, to reassure either herself or him. Maybe both. It was funny, but when he went to get the rest of the new people, since the whole IPB would have to be involved, more than one person did that with him. It brought up the thing that he was going to have to go through with Mary, so he ignored it all. Again, even being able to know that kind of thing, his power was keeping him from thinking about it, so that he'd do the right thing, at the correct time.
They didn't bother to hide what was happening, just showing up where the other forces would be meeting when the time came. There were cameras, since it was in New York City, but no news people were there yet. The police came, eventually, and of course, tried to pull their side arms.
Because that would have ever made any difference? Almost every single person he'd brought with them could have taken out their entire force, with a little planning. Some of them could have done it on the fly. Not that it would be happening that way, but it was still silly of them to even bother drawing down on them.
"Freeze! You can't assemble here!" This came from a man who was sporting a mustache. One that made him look a little like a school teacher trying to look more manly. Not like a Nazi. That thought reminded Brian of Jeffery Shaw. The police officer that had tried to kill him. Twice, really, if he was going to count each beating separately. That would be handled, eventually. Brian really didn't get a choice in the matter, since the man was going to force him to fight, and in doing so would die.
This cop was full of himself and trying to act tough in front of a hundred and sixty IPB Operatives though. Rather than make a big deal of it, Brian waved, holding both of his hands out as he walked over. Stopping ten feet away.
"IPB. Sorry about this, but if you and your men could get this area cleared? We're about to be attacked. You... I don't think most of you police want to be here for this. A few will stay, but this is about to be the biggest battle of its kind ever." So far at any rate. The damage would be incredible, but if they didn't hold the city there, the creatures and super soldiers coming in would kill over half a million innocent people that day.
If they stayed and fought, out in the open, then that death toll would be about a thousand people over all. Part of that due to him. Most of those being the enemy.
Even knowing what would be happening, Brian was shocked when the police actually just trusted his word, and started getting people out. Not that they got a choice either, but they all did it, which still felt wrong to him.
Then they all waited. It was the hardest part of any battle for him. That point where it was certain that something was coming, but knowing that taking action wouldn't do much of anything to help.
Becky and Bridget came to the front of the battle line, making a point of being right next to him. His granddaughter put her hand in the middle of his back, and didn't move it. She wasn't really nervous though, being pretty much invulnerable.
Then, Brian wasn't either, if for a different reason.
Bridgie tried to look adult, and kind of failed. Her face was serious and her eye contact direct. Even her body language was less twitchy than normal.
"So, what's the plan? We wait for these goons to get here, and just ambush them?"
He wrinkled his nose, since it was a stupid idea. One that would work, but...
"Pretty much. No matter what Braid has going on, we have to win here today. Too many die otherwise. If we could... It's really hard to explain. Not everyone can see it, but..." As he knew would happen, a woman spoke from behind them. At first she looked a lot like Devorah Timberland. It wasn't that particular lady though. She was a bit heavier, and not in as good of shape, at first glance.
Her voice was pretty close though.
"My aunt has managed to lock this reality into place rather well. It won't be impossible to remove that factor, but it's not a simple task. I can see why she's done it however. Things are so silent here! Not the line I might have chosen, but probably the only one that she could manage this with. Yes... It's the one that her key can hold." She looked at each of them, and then bowed, which got Zevros Wyrdcraft to move forward, along with several men that were dressed in very nice clothing. A lot of what seemed like shining silk or satin, cut in strange styles that reminded Brian of an old sci-fi program that he and Doug used to like.
It was ridiculous, but gave him a reason to send them all away. They hadn't come dressed for it, and there was no reason to ruin their pretty outfits.
"Hello! I'm Brian. You're Miranda? We're about to have a battle here. I bet you can see that. Can I get with you later? Devorah seems to think that we can't shake her hold on things here at all. Not even if you help us with it."
The woman, who had very high cheekbones, but looked prettier than Devor
ah did, thanks to the few extra pounds she carried, winked at him.
"We'll meet at the shop owned by Mary Wyrdcraft? That is what the line tells us to do anyway, even if she is a bit suspect in all of this. I think that Zevros can get us all there. Devorah may be correct, but I can sense some small areas that I think she has not accounted for. No being, not even one of my family, can account for the totality of something as large as a world. Plus, this is one that is foreign to her. She's made mistakes. One of which was involving you in this, Advocate Yi. It is her plan, and her strength, but I think perhaps she has underestimated what a being such as you might do in order to be free. We shall talk on this later. Now, I think it would best for us outsiders to go." Her being there, along with the others had gotten Hobbs to come. Elizabeth with her. To his surprise, the healer was standing her ground, dressed in jeans and a heavy shirt, rather than a skirt or dress.
Ready to fight, or at least not leave the field of battle.
"Mary, get Liz back to your place? We can take people there for this. The rest of you... Thank you very much for coming to aid us. It means a lot, and will be important, I think." Then he bowed, the words and actions being the only thing he could do. That let them leave ten minutes before the fighting would start.
Nine minutes and seventeen seconds. The numbers flowed across his mind perfectly, coming unbidden. It was a thing that he had very little control over, he knew. He'd spent too long with only numbers being in his head, when he was young. It was just a part of him now.
"Get ready. When I yell go, the attack will come in about five seconds. They don't know we're waiting for them. That will be coming in a few minutes."
The fighting line was eclectic on their side, since the people from the old IPB were dressed up like police, more or less, without markings on their blue body armor. Team Four had seven people standing there, ready for battle. They all looked different, but he got the idea. Rigs was a lot more powerful than he'd let anyone know. Possibly the most powerful person on the planet.
Filled with rage, but also managing to keep it in check. He wasn't there though, staying in hiding, at a good distance away. It made him almost untouchable.
The new IPB was uniform, and looked like an Army unit, more or less. Some of them had firearms, because low level telepathy or precognition wasn't going to help them a lot in what was coming. Some of them would die too. No one he knew that well. It...
Brian froze, locked into place, unable to do anything at all except what Devorah allowed. Except...
Smiling, almost not able to try and speak, he forced himself to call out. Pain shot through him, for some unknown reason, but he was no stranger to that kind of thing. It felt bad though, like it was killing him. Except that if he died, that would alter the plan too, wouldn't it?
Not that this would really be enough, but if he could do anything...
"Robertson, get off the field. Take those people with you!" He pointed at the six he wanted gone. Sinclair, three others that had come with the military, one of the Marine cooks that had loaded up with them, and one of the six police officers that were helping to hold the line. "You'll die if you stay. The rest of us... Well, we may die now. That... I don't know if it changes anything or not." Not as far as the battle went.
Then he raised his hand, "run! Everyone else, get ready. This is the one minute warning!"
Nothing happened for a long time, naturally. Fifty-five seconds, in fact.
"Go! Go in five, four..." He aimed his nine at the correct point in space, and got ready for what was coming.
The entire world flashed, blue and purple. Space bent and warped around them all, and he fired instantly, before anyone was truly in place. Perfectly, since he didn't have a choice. That bullet hit a black elongated form, before he could do anything really. It was only in the left thigh, but there was groaning and screaming from the others that were coming with him. All of them, several hundred people, were connected to Tesseract, after all. The being ran as soon as everyone else was in place, but they were all a little distracted.
That gave his side a bit of a leg up.
The battle was as bad as he feared, doing massive damage to the buildings and streets. Smoke rose, as he ducked, shot, dodged and killed. He probably looked ridiculous, but every action he took was correct. His power not having any other outlet, just getting everything done exactly right at the moment. If he'd managed to pry the universe open at all by sending those others away, it didn't seem to show in the moment. The rest of the battle unfolded exactly how he thought it would.
The whole thing should have been confusing, except that it really wasn't. It all made perfect sense to him. The catlike creatures had to be handled by the strongest of them, and not him, but he went to where he was needed, going against people that had been genetically shifted, and altered. They looked military, but it was pretty clear that they were there illegally. They had some Infected on their side too. Hundreds of them, but they were mainly low powered individuals, except one or two of them. Recruits that Braid was sacrificing on purpose.
Set up to die, one by one. As a show.
He knew the reason behind it, as soon as he witnessed it in person. Knowing what would be going on worked pretty well, but he didn't have the kind of range that a Timberland did, it was clear. The scene was designed to make them, the IPB, look really good, while undermining the military. The Infected that fought against them weren't a real match, being untrained, and not working as a unit. Plus, while a lot of them looked really tough, being huge and muscular, or shooting what looked like death beams...
Most of them were barely above class three, if that.
The whole thing was a trick, designed to start a much larger war.
This then, was the day that everyone else would think it started. The war day.
In the next days and weeks, things would shift, the battles spread out, and a lot more of the innocent people would die. That was the plan. The one that he had to stop. Somehow.
The only thing he knew for certain was that it would hurt. A lot. He felt a nearly crippling flash of pain every time one of the people that was supposed to die didn't. Not being there to catch the claw, or bullet fired from an enemy combatant. It hurt, and was distracting, but his body kept up with what was needed, pushing him to a point he wasn't certain was physically possible. That didn't seem to matter however. He did it, and kept going, killing without hesitation or mercy.
It went on for over an hour, but even as buildings came down under the forces being arrayed, he knew that they'd won. That had never been in doubt though. There were dead strewn about, but all of them were from the other side.
When it was over, he saw the last of the super-soldiers from the other side about to be killed. By a combination of blasts from Impulse and Prime. They'd worked together really well, as it had turned out.
He made himself raise his right hand, the universe punishing him for doing it. Pain, white hot, tried to force him back, so he gasped, rather than sounding good and like he was all hard or tough.
"Hold up! Take... prisoner. You, there, don't fight. Explain later." He managed to look at the man on the ground, who'd done pretty well at fighting, but wasn't going to live much longer if he didn't give up.
Through the agony, Brian moved over, and kicked the man in the elbow. It was angled just right to cause him to go down.
"No... Alive. You need to... Live."
That got Marcia over to him, her face looking hard.
"Are you all right?" The words were slow to come and seemed almost like she was drunk, but she said them.
Even though it wasn't what was supposed to take place. He managed a grin, even as he fell to his knees.
"Perfect! Save that man. We're... Winning. Kind of?" Breaking the pattern didn't mean millions wouldn't just die, but it was, he was, able to mess things up a bit.
It hurt massively, and none of the things he'd done would actually be enough. He could feel the rest of the world sliding back into place, except
for the tiny amount of shifting that he'd pulled off.
Then something very strange happened.
Two things, actually. The first was that his phone rang. He blinked, and didn't get it until Bridget ran over and patted his side pocket.
"Cool, your phone didn't break! I think mine did. Anyway, do you want me to answer it?"
Shaking his head he got to it on the fourth ring.
"Brian Yi." He almost added a stern sounding, go, but skipped it, even if it did make his body and brain hate stab him with agony.
"Um... Mr. Yi? This is Maggie? I... My dad wants to talk to you, but didn't have a number that was working? I got this from Bridget the other day. I told her you said it would be all right?"
"Oh? That's good. Thanks Maggie. Is he there?"
It was clear that was the case, but he knew what he was going to say, just before he did it. The phone was passed over, and the voice on the other end sounded tense.
"Brian? We have some reports, and I saw the news coverage, but no one knows what that was. I... Are those people on our side the ones that died?"
It should have been really awkward, but Brian just cleared his throat, and lied. This call would be monitored, after all. Around him most of the people were milling about or checking the dead and injured. He was standing there like an idiot, about to be shot by a sniper as he spoke to the President of the United States. Instead, he dodged and pointed with his other hand as the pavement sparked behind him.
"Prime, can you go get that man? Try to take him alive." There was no pain on that one, since it was clearly what he was supposed to be saying.
Then he turned back to the call.
"Sorry about that, sir. Someone just tried to shoot me. To answer your question, yes, everyone from the base is alive. Stasis took them all out when it blew up, and hid them. This attack is..." Then he dropped to his knees, since he was supposed to say that it was the military, along with Braid. Instead he forced the words into a different shape. One that was true, but far more exacting. Not what he was supposed to do at all.
