“Cosa, I don't understand. And I’m an acolyte, not a priest,” he said, raising his voice.
“Gwen, what the hell,” said Uriel, stumbling in from the other direction, scuffs on his uniform but otherwise looking no worse for wear.
Gwen could only shrug as the two men began to bicker. She did her best to ignore them as the twang of Jimi Hendrix’s electric blues guitar filled her ears. “You know, from now on, I want my own theme music. I think Voodoo Child works for me, just the beginning though, with that awesome riff. What do you think, Rodrigo? Hey, is that even your real name? Uriel, don’t you think it sounds made up?” she asked playfully, looking back and forth between them as they continued to argue.
“Cardinal Washington said you were to follow my orders. Stop this foolishness,” Rodrigo said, stomping his feet in frustration like a small child.
Gwen raised an eyebrow, giving him a questioning look before jokingly mimicking his waving hands and angry facial expressions, doing her best to pretend to not understand what he was saying. She happily played a little air guitar, bobbing her head as she felt the vibrations build in her chest. “So which way do we go to find Arthur? That little son of a bitch has a lot to answer for,” she said, screaming over music only she could hear, Jimi’s deep voice growling over the guitar riff and sending shivers all through her.
The acolyte began to shake, his face a wild mask as he began to froth at the mouth. With a laugh, she cupped her hands in front of her mouth. “Just tell me where I can find Arthur and we can get going. You’re just wasting time,” she shouted in his face as loud as she could.
Rodrigo’s eyes went wide with disbelief, his plastic face making her laugh as it grew several shades redder. Finally giving up, he made a vague gesture westward with his hands, pointing to a device he’d retrieved from his pocket. Gwen gave him her best sweet-girl smile and a thumbs-up before grabbing both him and Uriel roughly by their collars. “Let's go! Up, up, and away!” she said cheerfully as she shot like a rocket into the sky, her little harem of cute boys held by their collars, screaming in terror as they rode on the winds of spring.
Chapter 9: Sleepless in Manhattan
May 2076
Rowen had witnessed many of her father's moods over the years. He was never shy to express the way he felt; it made him a good soldier and a great father. She was always amazed at the variety of weird faces that accompanied each distinct emotion, so much so that she and Jonah had gotten in trouble one too many times imitating. But she had never seen this face. He looked like a thunderhead above an exploding volcano, rumbling black ash and red lightning ready to incinerate everything in his path.
His dark eyes narrowed, his gaze drifting slowly back and forth between Mary Beth and Gibbs. When he spoke, his voice was low, hints of menace in every word.
“Are the two of you out of your minds? Why in the world would you think I would let you anywhere my daughter after—”
“Dad—”
Her father put up a hand to stop her before she even began. “No dear, absolutely not—don’t even try. You’re a minor and until you turn eighteen, what I say goes. What this woman is proposing, putting nano machines in your system, would be a death sentence,” said her father bluntly, pointing at Mary Beth. “I sympathize with you, Mary Beth. I do. But it’s a no.”
“I don’t think you understand, sir,” said Mary Beth, taking a step forward, looking directly at Rowen, pride in her eyes, pleading in her voice. “Your daughter has so much potential, but more than that, she’s brave as hell, sir. The day I met her, she stood in front of Scotty here tryin’ to protect him from my brother. She messed up Ariel and Augusta pretty good, protected me from them when I didn’t deserve it. Your kid has the heart of a hero, sir. She should have the powers to go with it.”
“My parents raised me to stand up for other people,” she said with a shrug, looking away, shy at the attention. “I don’t think about what I’m doing.”
Before she could go on, her father put an arm around her. “Listen, Rowen, I’m proud of the way you handle yourself, that the values your mother and I worked so hard to instill guide your actions. But in every fight, every confrontation, you didn’t win because you were bigger or stronger. You made a difference because you were smarter. Your heart and your head are what changed the outcome, not some powers.”
Rowen was taken aback for a moment as she let the words sink in. She remembered the look on Mary Beth’s face when her brothers had given her the needle; it was burned into her mind. “Answer a question for me,” said Rowen, gently laying a hand on her father’s to quiet him for a moment as she locked eyes with the older woman. “The day your brothers came for me. I know you didn’t want to do it—I could see it in your face—you didn’t want to hurt me. But you did it anyway.”
Mary Beth could only nod, her lips pressed into a thin line. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Why?” asked Rowen, crossing her arms, already knowing the answer. She felt like the rest of the world had fallen away and only they existed, black eyes locked onto green, neither blinking.
Mary Beth crossed her arms under her breasts. Frowning, she began, “You ain’t stupid; you know why. I told you before, people sometimes do shit they ain’t proud of, things they got no control over.”
Rowen looked back and forth between her father and Mary Beth, bowing her head in thought. “You forgot who you were because you were afraid of dying,” she said, running her hand along her scar, “but that’s when you should hold the hardest to what you believe, because at least if you die, you die as yourself. You don’t have to be ashamed of the things you did at the end of it all. My parents taught me that.” Rowen looked back at her father, giving him a warm smile. “My brother and I knew that if they didn’t come back from a deployment or a mission, we would have nothing to be ashamed of, that we could be proud of everything they did.”
“But you have so much potential,” said Gibbs. “You would be amazing.”
Rowen gave him a shrug. “As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be like my parents, to help people. But I don’t want to do it staring down the barrel of a gun, having to hurt someone to save others. I’m sorry, but my dad is right.”
The room went silent, no one daring to speak. Gibbs tossed the data pad aside and walked over to a shell-shocked Mary Beth, who began to sob, tiny little eruptions of shame and sadness tumbling down her pale cheeks as he put his arms around her, pulling her close.
Seeing the moment play out, her father turned away, motioning that she should follow. “You know, I’ve been so busy trying to keep everything together that I hadn’t noticed how much you’ve grown in the last few months,” he said, keeping his voice low.
Rowen shook her head, pursing her lips as she followed him, trying not to catch her sweater on the electronic guts and gizmos piled haphazardly along her path. “Not sure what you mean. I’m the same as always, still no boobs!”
Her father smiled, giving her a playful punch in the arm. “You know that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m trying to say is that you’ve grown up. You’re responsible and talented, and you’re not afraid to make tough calls. What you just did back there, most kids your age would jump at the chance to take what that woman was offering, the chance to be superhuman and damn the consequences, but you used your head and I’m proud of you.”
She tried to stifle it, keep it under control, but she couldn’t help herself. A full-toothed smile exploded on her face, her heart sang with joy, and she had to fight to not do a happy dance. She allowed herself a moment to bask before taking a deep breath and stilling her face, calming her racing heart.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re no further ahead than before,” said her father, suddenly serious, not really noticing how much his words had affected her. “We have a pair of rabid dogs that need to be put down. Ariel and Augusta are a threat to everything we’ve accomplished here.”
“They’re not invincible,” said Rowen, matching
his serious tone. “When I fought with them I was able to knock Augusta out of the fight by shooting him in the privates from directly below him.”
“Below him?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s a long story, and I don’t really want to get into it. That being said, I distracted Ariel by shooting his ankles before attaching a frag grenade to his belt,” she said, pacing in front of him. “Their soft tissues are their weak points. They probably won’t fall for that again, but it proves they are. Dad? What’s wrong?” she asked.
Her father narrowed his brow, blinking hard at her. “I’m sorry. I thought Mary Beth was exaggerating,” he said finally, his eyes big as saucers, like he was seeing her for the first time. “You were able to stop two men who were bigger and stronger than you, remove them from the equation, and get away with no harm to yourself! That shouldn’t be possible,” he said, his tone rising with each word.
Rowen could only shrug. “I surprised them, and I used my SIG. Don’t really need to be strong when you can shoot,” she said, not really sure what else to say.
“That must have been one hell of a surprise! In any case, we need a way to neutralize them. If we can get them off base, time will do the job for us, and they won’t be a long-term problem. Maybe together we can figure this all out,” he said, looking over her shoulder at Mary Beth and Gibbs. “C’mon, let's figure this out while we’ve got a window.”
Her father walked over to the hapless couple, Rowen in tow. “Scotty, I need these assholes off my base, and I need to put enough fear into them that they stay off. Any ideas?”
Mary Beth had just finished cleaning herself up, wiping away the tears and shrugging her armored duster back on. “You’re not gonna kill ’em?” she asked in a small voice.
Rowen looked at her father, already knowing the answer. “My father doesn’t think that way, and neither do I. We can’t just kill them in cold blood, and we don’t have anywhere we can lock ’em up. They gotta go,” she said, matching her father’s posture, placing her hands behind her back and squaring her shoulders.
Mary Beth gave her a grateful nod just as Gibbs spoke up. “Well, from what I’ve learned scanning Beth and from the drone attack in the park, they can be hurt. We just have to make a weapon that can do it,” he said, thinking aloud. Walking over to one of the workstations, he began projecting holograms of schematics stored in the database for the 3D printer. Most items were print on demand these days, including weapons. The only limit to what they could make was the raw materials.
The three of them stood watching him as he tapped away, mumbling to himself. After a moment he stopped, his blue eyes darting back and forth between them all. “What are you guys doing staring at me? This isn’t the movies or some book. I can’t just make up a magical solution. It's going to take some time. Go find something else to do and leave me alone!”
Chapter 10: Second Skin
December 2073
Negry felt nothing as he crushed the man’s windpipe. His cracking bones and cartilage were nothing to him. He watched, fascinated, as the light faded from his eyes, arms flailing, his face beet-red from asphyxiation.
The sliver of crystal behind his ear still glowed, flashing from red to amber, then on to cobalt. His own crystal did the same, they all did, pulsing in tune to some song no one heard. Twisting the man’s head to the side, he slipped his fingers under the tiny sliver of space between the dead man’s skin and his prize.
“Is this how it happened last time?” asked Colonel Anton from behind the glass security barrier, his voice tinny over the intercom. They were in one of the expanded medical facilities. Negry, for everyone's safety, was placed in an isolation chamber for the experiment.
Negry gave the colonel a brief nod, his eyes never leaving the dead man.
“Excellent, proceed.”
The crystal made a horrid sucking sound as he tore it away, cracking and tearing like a limb being ripped from a body. What fascinated him the most were the filaments trailing after it. Thin and translucent, longer than his arm, writhing and coiling like a mass of snakes.
Even knowing what to expect, Negry tensed as the filaments bore into his stomach like a thousand hot needles digging into his flesh, squirming beneath his skin and into every organ. Once the blinding pain subsided, a smooth sheen of crystal material covered the lower part of his torso, smooth and slick, similar to what covered his arm now, although it had grown thicker over the last few weeks. The crystal itself sat on top of his belly button, feeling like it had always been part of him.
“And how do you feel now?” said Anton, adjusting his round glasses before his fingers raced across the tablet in his hand.
Negry bowed his head, running a finger from his unarmored hand along his belly, marveling at how smooth it was, amazed that it didn’t feel heavy or any different from his own skin. “Stronger, better,” he said, flexing his armored hand. The crystal there was still visible, glowing brightly with the rest. “Did you know this would happen?”
On the other side of the glass, Colonel Anton frowned at him, shaking his head. “We have a saying in Russian: zdes' yest' drakony,” he said. “Here there be dragons, meaning that we are beyond explored territory. This is new for everyone.”
Negry flexed his shoulders, stretching like a cat. “I understand. So what do we do now?”
The colonel shrugged, his eyes never leaving the tablet. “We will take the time to evaluate, make sure you are well enough. Do you need to rest?”
Thinking for a moment, he crossed his arms over his wide chest, his face a mask as he endured the occasional jolt of pain in his stomach as the filaments continued to settle in place. “I want more, many more!”
Chapter 11: Times Square Souvenirs
May 2076
“I know I’m startin’ to sound like a broken record, but that boy’s sexier than a prize stallion,” said Mary Beth with a soft chuckle. They sat off in a far corner of the lab, hidden by stacks of FEMA batteries piled high. Rowen always wondered if it was really as safe as she was told, given that the batteries used radioscopic decay to generate power, meaning that they were radioactive. But according to Gibbs, they were heavily shielded and unless someone blew them to bits, they were harmless.
It had been a few hours since Gibbs had banished the lot of them, and Rowen had found herself in deep conversation with her would-be mentor when the realization hit her hard. Mary Beth behaved like a girl Rowen knew from back home who had fallen hard for her brother, Jonah. The way Mary Beth carried on about Gibbs was her first clue. It was strange, but the more they spoke, the more she began to see her in a different light. The details were small at first, her graying hair worn in the current fashion, youthful eyes that didn’t match the cracked lines surrounding them, agile hands covered in age spots. Rowen had just assumed that she was much older, but in listening to the way she spoke, watching her mannerisms, everything began to fall into place. “How old are you, exactly?” asked Rowen suddenly, narrowing her eyes.
The busty woman cocked her head and gave her a half smile, staring out blankly for a long time before answering. “You know it ain't polite to ask a woman’s age,” she said, running her hands through her salt-and-pepper hair. “I was thirteen when my pa enrolled me in the program, buck-toothed and flat as a board, just like someone I know,” she said, tossing Rowen a sly wink.
“Well, I guess there's hope for me still. Your boobs are like rockstars!” said Rowen, smiling back, crossing her fingers and quickly saying a silent prayer to the boob fairy.
“I didn’t really want to do it,” she continued, her tone growing more serious, “but our family had served in the military since General Lee crossed the Potomac to invade the north. It was in our blood; we’re patriots. I still remember the day my pa came home from the base, tellin’ us that he had finally figured it all out and that we were gonna be more than human, like angels, he told us. He was so happy, and since our momma had passed from the cancer a few years before, he never smiled anymore.
Hell, that was the reason he started with the damn research in the first place. But by the time he had figured it out, she was long gone. His team figured out how to enhance normal folks. So I did as I was told…and he was so proud of me. I’d never seen him like that. That would be almost ten years ago, now.”
Rowen shot to her feet, her mouth agape as she stared at her. “But that would mean…you can’t be serious,” said Rowen, scowling.
Mary Beth’s face went blank, her head bowed. “I should be out gettin' drunk, livin’ it up, maybe havin’ a serious boyfriend or two…instead…” She couldn’t finish, simply shrugging, her eyes bright with tears.
Rowen took a deep breath, scrunching up her face. “If I let you puncture me again, give you the spinal fluid, how much time would that give you?”
Mary Beth gave her a sharp look before shaking her head. “Nah, I can see my time’s almost up. Even with a shot or two, I got a few months at best…but thanks.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Rowen with a frown, looking away.
“I don’t need your pity, sweetie. Don’t feel sorry for me. I made my choices, and I managed to do a lot of good with my time, more than most folks do in a whole lifetime,” she said, standing. “Besides, I plan on using the rest of my time to finish what we started.”
Rowen could only nod, a small smile touching her lips as she stood and embraced the other woman, holding her tight.
“Alright, I’ve had enough girly feelings for one night. Let’s go see if that pretty boy Gibbs is done messin’ around,” she said, strolling away, whistling a haunting tune.
***
They returned to the main lab to find Gibbs hard at work, flitting around like an over-excited puppy. Rowen marveled at the image floating above the tracks. A massive holoprojection of a weapon similar to her SIG glowed brightly. Not far off, she could see her father at another workstation, engrossed in something she couldn’t see.
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