by P. S. Power
“Thanks. I don't get cold, but this is a bit awkward. Especially since I'm probably going to be interviewed in a few minutes. Good job with the cops by the way. I'll note that in my report to the Director.” She spoke casually as she slipped on the top and it took a lot of willpower for him not to comment on her assets. She really did have nice breasts... She punched him in the arm after a second, light for her, which meant it stayed attached. Probably leave a bruise though.
“Hey, eyes up here buddy.” She smiled. It was almost even charming and didn't promise anything more than words at least.
Denis shrugged and started to censor his speech but then didn't, it took too much work and he didn't have the energy at the moment.
“Come on, I haven't even seen a playboy in six months, cut a guy a break.” The words sounded exhausted too, a smile curled, something less than a sneer he hoped.
Marcia just nodded.
“I did, notice how you're still able to walk? Come on, we need to get with the Director and be available for grilling and par-broiling by DHS.”
To the general surprise of all present, the footage made all the difference, the other government guys threw in with the IPB, which shocked everyone, including the Director, and arranged for the terrorists, they actually called the police that, to be taken away. Galley did let them know that most of the cops would probably walk.
“If they were just following orders, even illegal ones, they're functionally immune from prosecution. We can maybe get a few of them as enemy combatants, the actual ring leaders, but don't hold your breath. Stupid shit. They attack a Federal facility and we have to play nice because some of our agents happen to be Infected? What kind of crap is that?”
Everyone nodded, except Proxy who looked about ready to kill all the cops right then and there, handcuffed or not. It was scary. The looks he gave were bad enough that Lady Glory walked over, glowing all blue and peaceful and took his hand. The second she did she turned back into Karen though. The red-head, his new squad mate he remembered, looked right at him.
“Denis, would you stay by us? If anything happens...” It was clear she meant if Brian broke and started slaughtering the cops he should try and stop him. That didn't seem likely. He owed Yi too much to puss out on him now.
Not because Brian wouldn't kill them, just... if Yi wanted to ice these jerks... he'd help. They'd nearly slaughtered the people he was with. That Denis had been standing right there didn't win the creeps any brownie points with either. It felt personal, even if they'd been aiming for someone else.
“Right, if anything happens I back Brian's play. These scumbags are terrorists and will still probably walk. If they manage to do anything else here at all we need to take them down. Got it.”
Karen winced, but Brian nodded and held his girlfriend's hand a little tighter.
“Thanks. Nice to know I actually have backup. It... hasn't always gone that way here. I don't think they'll do anything, but if something happens we need to be ready. Watch the military out there too. They could get orders to attack from Washington and if that happens they don't get a choice. I'd rather stop them without using force, since I kind of like most of them, which means you two.” Yi looked directly at Denis a serious and dark thing that sent a chill down his spine. The man went still, that reptile kind of thing that always looked out of place on a human.
“That's not just me being a cop or military hater by the way. I got that directly from the head of a Delta Force unit, sort of a friend of mine and Marcia's. They've been having to run practice drills simulating an attack on us for a while now. We were all told to stay ready and not trust them if anything happened.” The look in Yi's eyes was grim, but serious.
“What the crap? I go away for six months and the whole fucking world turns against us? I mean, we weren't popular before, sure, but this? Attacks by the police and terrorists coming here for fuck's sake? It's the middle of freaking nowhere! They shouldn't even be able to find it with GPS...”
Karen had stiffened and gave Denis a hard look. At first he thought it had to do with his language, which he agreed, could use toning down, but when he turned around he saw that there was a line of police cars being let in the front gate.
That... seemed a really poor plan at the moment, but they got in anyway. They stopped about a hundred meters inside the fence line and headed directly toward the Director as soon as the men got out, all of them armed with heavy looking military weapons. Machine guns and things like that. Stuff cops weren't issued as a rule. Things that were insane to bring into a situation like the one they'd just walked into.
Proxy turned and started running toward them instantly, there were about ten of them, most drew a bead on Yi as he ran, weapons suddenly in each hand.
“No!” Karen yelped, suddenly glowing. “Denis!”
He paralyzed the cops. It was a good trick, one he was glad he'd thought of. They all fell over before any shooting started. Brian didn't stop running, of course, then... he didn't shoot either. Marcia and Galley moved to strip the men of weapons fast, the older man taking the lead almost instantly, since it was his case and all, that made sense.
They complained about not being able to use their hands easily though. Wimps. The little girl hadn't whined about that at all. Denis couldn't speak at the moment or he would have pointed that out to them, splitting his attention and focus two ways was a lot harder than just one. Way more than twice as hard.
Brian had stopped and stood – shaking – ready to kill, a cold rage for certain, not fear now. Prime, of all people, saw all this and moved over to the man his voice low and gentle, Denis couldn't make out what the large gold colored man said, too far away and too soft, but he put his body in front of the cops and didn't make any sudden movements at all. It got Brian to back up. Not let go of the blade in his left hand, or put away the handgun in the other. Still, slow, smooth steps backwards took place. He didn't stop until he got back to where Denis stood.
Prime had come with him and move carefully between the police, who were being handcuffed, and Proxy the whole time. The large gold colored man didn't look relaxed about doing it either.
“There we go then. That should be fine I think. Brian, maybe you should put the weapons away for a bit, just in case these guys don't deserve to die yet?” Scott sounded very calm and rational, reasonable even. It wasn't what Denis would have always expected of the man. There wasn't even a hint of patronizing in the tone. It sounded nearly... humble.
“Right.” Brian said, still glaring with pure focus on the men who laid on the ground. A few DHS agents were cuffing them all. Denis held the cops unmoving until they were all taken care of, then let them go, kind of wishing he could justify a bit of discomfort for them first. Acute stomach cramps maybe? Those sucked and it would be hard to pin the feeling on him, they could just claim it was nerves after all. Or like they were going to wet themselves, their bladders full to bursting. It didn't hurt them at all, but it would make them uncomfortable as all get out. If he did it long enough they'd really wet themselves too.
It still took a few seconds but Yi finally relaxed and put his gear away. Karen took the guy away by the arm, gently, having dampened her glow again before she did it. Taking a breath Denis moved in to see what the hell this had turned into. It didn't make sense at all anymore. Marcia saw him coming and waved him in, almost as if he had a right to be there or something and wasn't just a pot scrubbing ex-con.
“Good work again. Almost makes me glad I didn't kill you. Keep this up and we may even have to start paying you again.” She grinned, the look out of place and wry.
“That's a direct appeal to your first mode there. Good behavior and work gets you stuff. Brilliant psychology, don't you think?”
He nodded. It really was. Use the part of his personality he couldn't really control, greed, to control the rest.
“Yeah. Don't forget other things though. Sex, friendship and all that. My greed covers everything pretty much. But then, it's constant too. So deliverin
g the things does almost nothing, except teach the greed that you pay off when you promise something. You could probably use that against me if you're clever. I always want more.” Just the truth, if an annoying one.
He wanted, but having didn't help make that go away, not for a second. It was one of those constant refrains that guided his whole life. It sucked.
Marcia laughed at him.
“You've got some work to do if you want anyone here to screw you Denis. That's going to take time. Still, I can promise praise if you do well. That's a thing, right?”
“Yep.” It was and he really did want it just as badly as anything else.
“Good job then... and there's more where that came from if you keep up the good work and behavior.”
They walked together, Prime in front, toward the new police to see what the heck they'd been planning. That or they were going to kick their asses. Either way, after the day everyone here had undergone, Denis would back it. Maybe a bit of torture would finally be in order?
The police guy in charge looked a lot like Galley, except a few years younger and seemed to have about fifty fewer IQ points. Kind of a dull look to the eyes. At first Denis thought it might be shock, or even just anger. That could make it hard to talk clearly. So could fear. The man had a good reason to be afraid after all. He didn't know it maybe, but Yi really had been about to kill him.
“I demand you release us at once. You... you're under arrest for obstruction of justice and interfering with a law officer performing his duty!” Nope, he really was just that dumb. The guy tried to look menacing. It didn't work too well sitting on the ground handcuffed like that, Denis decided. It was the difference in positions.
To his surprise the man that answered wore a black suit, the same one that had spoken before. The blond one.
“Sorry. This time it works the other way around. Now, before we have you sent off to a secret prison out of the country for “questioning”, why don't you start telling us why you came into a Federal compound armed with illegal weapons like that, when half your police force has already been subdued and taken into custody for terrorism? Make it good and don't lie, we have a telepath checking you all out.” He waved slightly toward Chris who raised her head and stared at the man meaningfully. A psych out job, of course. She didn't have to have eye contact or anything like that at all. If she wanted she could read your mind anywhere. at any time. She could even take out specific information if she wanted, like looking it up from a book, you didn't have to be thinking about it.
The man clammed up instantly. It didn't help him.
“They came to get their people. We've already taken the chief, who, and this is a quote, has a “hard-on for Proxy”. This one was supposed to come in and threaten us with arrest if the attack didn't work. They don't seem to be in on the first attack directly, and these men didn't know what the second action would be, but they knew that coming in here with those weapons wasn't legal. Technically they stole them from evidence.”
Director Moore didn't smile but he stared at the guy on the ground.
“I see. So aiding and abetting terrorism with a set of illegal acts? I think that makes them needed by the DHS, unless I'm incorrect there Agent Galley?”
“That's not wrong. We don't coddle terrorists anymore in the U.S. Especially domestic ones.”
Denis watched for a while, just standing and making sure no one did anything too stupid. Their people had stayed good, except little Bridget roughing up those cops earlier, but no one mentioned that at all. Who would? If the police whined about it they'd look ridiculous. Especially since they hardly made an arrest without more violence than that themselves anymore. They tasered grannies on the internet and no six year old was safe from their mighty wrath and all that. The claim was that they had a right to get home safe, and since anyone could be Infected and have super-powers, everyone had to be treated as if they were armed and dangerous all the time now, six, sixteen or sixty. Maybe it was true? Even Denis could see they had a hard job. Well, the real ones did. These guys didn't count.
Things got cleaned up slowly, the military pulled out and took the cops and the show crew away, just the bad ones, and nearly an hour after that they started clearing up the other things, trash and leftover cake. No one had been that hungry for some reason. That meant that at only three in the morning Denis finally got to fall into bed.
The room didn't have light in it, except the light blue glow of his digital bedside clock. It was a pretty color he thought as he closed his eyes, not able to keep them open any longer. At about eight-fifteen a.m. someone started pounding on his door. He woke with a start and realized that it didn't come from his door at all, but the one next door.
Penny's room.
Denis poked his head out into the hall, not seeing anyone there at all. So yep, Penny. She couldn't be heard if she was too close, so she'd worked at a distance. Kind of clever.
“Uh, hey, Penny? I don't know if you're out here... Is something up?” It sounded stupid, talking to an empty hallway, but if it really was empty, no one would care. In answer Denis fell into the hall, not able to control himself. When he got up a sharp jolt from behind pushed him into motion.
“That's a yes then? OK. Just don't kick my ass until I wake up, alright? Can I get dressed first do you think? I guess push me again if it's really important and I'll just go with you like this...” Nothing happened so he hurried in and got regulation sweats and running shoes on. There were a half dozen sets in his closet and all his old clothes had been taken a long time back... and possibly burned. No one but him really liked the look.
This would be faster anyway, no picking outfits or trying to color coordinate, just slip on the stuff and go. Less than four minutes later he was ready. Not clean and shaved ready, but good enough for an emergency.
In the hall he put out his right arm slowly. “I guess, um, you lead?”
That seemed a good enough plan, since he started moving on his own toward the elevator. It felt creepy, like falling when drunk, the world moving without controlling it at all. Even knowing intellectually that an invisible girl had his arm right now, he didn't feel it at all. Just the motion of his own body through space. Running, since that got less pulling. A bit less. It occurred to him that Penny, whoever she really was behind her veil of not-being, seemed a little faster than he was. Either just in better shape or an actual ability, or possibly both.
The buttons in the elevator worked themselves, taking them to the second floor with that rapid pressure that tried to make Denis' knees buckle like it always did. On the second floor the gold and tan colored box opened and the running started again. Or as he liked to think of it, the half mad scramble not to be dumped on his face.
The room they ended in held about thirty people, most were admin types that he'd seen around but didn't know by name, but all the members of his new squad were there along with Charlot Chambers, Proxy and all the team leaders.
They were watching TV.
Cool. It was just a news show and the footage looked familiar, but that worked for Denis. He hadn't seen a working television in... forever it felt like. Proxy waved them over and pulled up two chairs. One for Penny, and one for him? Nice of the guy considering everything. Denis felt himself pushed into the outside chair a little roughly, probably so that Penny wouldn't have him sitting on her lap.
“Easy there inviso-girl, I may need my spine later.” It sounded a bit snappish. Denis covered with a smile. “What's up?”
Brian pointed at the screen.
“Hooper.”
Ah. The footage being shown had close-ups of the police being apprehended by a tiny red-head. Blurry close ups were shown of each kick and tickle she'd given them, spliced back to back to make it look like she'd horribly beaten a single cop that kept changing position and skin color. It was a kind of neat effect he thought, the form on the ground distorted to try and make it look like a single person, though it didn't really look anything like what had happened.
T
he news caster was “horrified by the brutality”.
“I can barely look at it. To think that harmless looking little thing took out over sixty law officers like that... It's incredible and terrifying at the same time.” The woman said, her eyes scared and light brown hair looking silky, make-up perfect and skin flawless.
“That's right Jan,” the man speaking was older than Denis remembered. Fitter and wearing nicer clothing. But it was him.
Denis went cold. Then hot, sweating as he listened for about ten second. It was him.
Him.
“Fucking cock smoking whore!” He screamed, standing and walking toward the screen. He stabbed his right index finger at the man's giant face. “What the fuck is this creep doing on television!”
The Director looked shocked and walked over quickly.
“A problem Mr. Tompkins?” The older, heavy man said, a concerned look on his face after a few moments.
“Fuck yeah there is! That a-hole is a child molesting and abusing psycho Christian cult leader. It's freaking Prophet Darren! He should be doing time in ass rape prison, not chatting up hot chicks on TV!”
The man had continued to speak while Denis ranted, what he said made the room go silent.
“Yes, a darling little girl, but Infected. Just as we saw with little Melanie Miller a few months ago, even the most innocent of children become monsters when the Infection strikes them down. Why I myself was once tortured for several days by a youngster whom I tried to council in the ways of our lord, unable to control himself when the plague took his mind and heart from God. The feeling of being helpless as you watch a good but troubled soul sink to the evils of Infection... It's heart breaking.” The tone seemed sincere, but it wasn't. Monsters don't get broken hearts. It was a rule.
Denis growled. It wasn't his kind of thing normally, but words just didn't have the power to convey his feelings at the moment.
“Damn straight I tortured him! Twenty-seven kids abused by that fucker. Twenty-seven! For years, more by now I'm sure. All the girls raped over and over again, sometimes while he made the rest of us watch. When I could I made him pay. I should have killed the fuck, but I was too afraid back then. We need to take him down.”
