by Aer-ki Jyr
He kicked into her midsection as she came up, but the blow never landed. Suddenly he found himself propelled backwards by an invisible force…then he landed on his backside on the soft mat outside the ring and somersaulted backwards into the line of Archons ringing the area as they watched the contest.
“Looks like she’s kicking your ass, boss,” one of the other Angry Chipmunks commented.
“She usually does,” Tyr acknowledged as he got to his feet and ran back into the circle as Kian and Ryan came at Morgan from opposite sides when she moved back towards the center of the circle. The pair circled around her, not making a move until the others got to their feet and headed back in.
Morgan knew what they were doing and smiled as she set herself, glancing back across her shoulders occasionally to get all of them in her peripheral vision.
Jason came first, from behind her, and she back-kicked towards him, but he easily swatted her foot aside with a pair of hands then kneed her in the torso as he got to pointblank range…except she’d already seen it coming and had twisted to her left, bringing his knee out of range. Halfway into the maneuver Aaron came in from the other side, with Kian and Ryan a split second later. As Morgan dealt with Jason and Aaron, keeping them at least arms reach away from her with a fury of punches and kicks, the other two came in from the sides like a pair of gongs and smashed into her with precise timing that didn’t allow her to divert one or another.
She should have gone evasive, which the other two trailblazers were waiting for a few steps back, but instead she held her ground and balled up…then released a spherical concussive wave, a la Starkiller, and knocked the four of them back away from her, with the other two bobbling on their feet as the remnants of the wave hit them.
Morgan stood up tall and laughed once, but kept her eyes moving around, knowing that even though she’d surprised them they wouldn’t let up.
Kerrie moved first, coming in and slide/kicking towards Morgan’s feet, which caused her to hop away a step towards Jason, then off to her left as he kicked towards her feet. She dodged both then nearly fell over as a wave of static ran through her body…then the next thing she knew Kian’s foot was in her midsection, doubling her over as he kicked her back towards the edge of the ring.
Morgan caught her balance just in time for Aaron to blindside her with a spin kick across her chest that knocked her backwards a meter to where she fell across the out of bounds line…stopping the clock at 4:58.
“What the hell was that?” Morgan asked as she stood up.
“You’ve got your new power, I’ve got mine,” Kian commented with a smile. “I call it a disruption field.”
“It jams your senses briefly,” Jason explained. “Now mind telling us what you were doing?”
“Do it again,” Morgan prompted.
Kian blinked, then Morgan’s head got all weird again, this time for more than a second. She tried to shake it off, only partially succeeding, then the sensation vanished.
“Enough,” Aaron said, rubbing his head. “He can’t pick and choose. It hits everyone.”
“Except me,” Kian pointed out. “Think of it like white noise.”
“Useful,” Morgan commented. “I hope there’s a way to defend against that?”
“We’re working on it,” Jason agreed. “Now what did you do?”
“And what’s it got to do with you not wearing a uniform?” Kerrie asked.
“Tougher to hold onto when you’re slick with sweat,” Morgan pointed out sarcastically.
“No shoes is a bit of a disadvantage,” Tyr countered.
“Except when I can project from my feet.”
“So that’s what you did,” Aaron said in realization. “I didn’t think you could kick that hard.”
“If I wear clothes I’ll just tear them off,” Morgan said. “The energy originates from my skin, so even shoes get in the way.”
Jason slipped a finger underneath the shoulder strap on her bra where there was a tear. “And these?”
“Figured you seeing me naked would have been too much of a disadvantage for you guys,” she joked. “I’ve learned to fight with my arms and legs and to avoid the torso and pelvis as much as possible, but that’s not always an option. Luckily I didn’t blow them completely off,” she said, finding another rip in the waistband of her skintight short shorts.
“How close to dead are you?” Kian asked as the other Archons began to migrate in closer to listen to the conversation, some 50 of them in total.
“I have a few more blasts left in me, but I’m nearly out. This power feeds off ambrosia, so with some snacks I can work into some long training days, but my reserves aren’t nearly as robust as I’d like. They’re growing with time and training, but I’m having to hold back my intensity otherwise I’ll drain myself out within 30 seconds or less.”
“I assume,” Kerrie asked, “that when you knocked all of us back at once that you were close to full power?”
“Sort of…with a bit more prep time I can go bigger. Been working on a Kamehameha, but it takes so much out of me I can’t practice it a lot.”
“Still invisible, right?” Jason asked.
“Oh we’ve got to see that,” Aaron prompted as Morgan nodded to answer Jason.
The senior ranger smirked. “Alright, I think I’ve got just enough left, but I’ll need a target…and since it’s your idea, Aaron,” she said, motioning towards the center of the ring.
“Bring it, girl,” he said, setting himself so that he leaned forward a bit to counteract the blow that would be incoming.
“The rest of you need to clear out,” Morgan warned. “I’m not all that accurate yet.”
“Sam is going to love this,” Kian whispered to Jason as they stepped back behind Morgan and the other Archons parted behind Aaron, leaving a large open wedge of space leading back to the far wall.
Jason stared at Morgan as she took up Goku’s patented stance, pulling back her arms on her right side, palms connected at the wrists.
“Ka…meeee,” she said aloud, summoning up a cascade of tingles throughout her torso like a fireworks display.
“Haaa…meeee,” Morgan added, shifting them through her body and into her arms, then forcing the energy to pool in her hands and wrists, with a lot backing up all the way to her elbows because she couldn’t fit it all in. When the pressure got as much as she could handle she reached her hands forward, still touching at the wrists, and launched the energy from her palms, cradling the blast between her energy-laced fingers and directing it forward like a fire hose with plenty spilling out between the gaps.
“Haaaa!” she yelled as she released the torrent directly toward Aaron who was standing about 5 meters away.
He thought he was ready for it, but the blow came so fast and heavy that he was taken completely off guard, and the angle of his chest leaning forward actually helped to propel him upwards into the air a foot or so as he was slammed backwards all the way into the wall some twenty meters back where he bounced off it gratifyingly and fell to the floor.
“Whoops,” Morgan said apologetically as he smacked the unpadded wall and was slow to get to his feet.
“Wow,” Jason commented, walking up beside her. “You definitely got the big guns.”
“You should be able to do that too eventually, right?” she asked, glancing across her bare shoulder at him.
“Ha…maybe in a few hundred years. My telekinesis is good for lifting tiny objects and playing with water droplets in the shower right now. I have no idea how you’re generating that much power.”
“Medics think it has to do with a number of growths spread throughout my body. Power cells, emitters, maybe both. They haven’t been able to make much out of it yet.”
“Have you had the specialists take a look?”
“I did on Corneria, but there wasn’t much more they could offer. The energy fries their equipment, so they can’t measure anything active. Oh yeah, did I mention I can also walk through force fields?”
> “Get out,” Kian said, giving her a ‘there’s no way’ look.
“Did it on accident at first,” she said, nodding so that he’d know she was serious. “Saved my life actually.”
“Oh?” Jason asked as Aaron came walking back over rubbing the back of his head.
“I’ll tell you later,” she promised, and Jason got the feeling it was a bit of a sensitive subject she didn’t want all the others to hear about.
“That’s the last time I play target dummy,” Aaron said. “I didn’t think you could knock me that far.”
“Neither did I. Sorry about that.”
“No you’re not,” he said with a wry grin.
“I am a little,” she countered. “Now, I’m out of juice. So unless you want to do some conventional training I need to suck some ambrosia. Wanna take a run then hit the cafeteria or cafeteria first? I want a chance to pick your brains one way or another.”
Aaron glanced at Jason, and Morgan followed his eye line. “What?”
“I’m up for a run,” Jason said, glancing down at Morgan’s bare feet. “As soon as you grab some shoes.”
“What’s wrong with you, besides the obvious?”
“Later,” he said, glancing out at all the other Archons around. “Show’s over people. Needless to say, if any of you start developing this ability we’d very much like to know…because right now you seem to be it,” he said, looking back at Morgan.
“Another lone ranger,” Kian said, pun intended.
“You’re the only one?”
“So far. I don’t even know what the disruption feels like, let alone how to train against it.”
“Same here,” Morgan said as she looked around for her shoes, knowing that she’d need to learn how to defend, and potentially block against someone else’s concussive energy.
“I’m sort of in the same boat,” Jason added, “and I’m kind of hoping it stays that way until the medics can figure out an easier transition. A few of the others are starting to get the headaches.”
“Looking for these?” David asked, holding up a pair of shoes with crumpled socks tucked inside them.
“Thanks,” she said, taking them from him and unceremoniously plopping down on the floor to put them on while everyone else remained standing around her.
“By the way,” David added, looking at Jason. “I’ll be heading out for a few days. Local mission for Davis.”
“What’s up?”
“Potential Word operative in the colonial training facilities. Hopefully if it pans out it’ll give us some other leads.”
“Who’s us?” Kian asked.
“Green Team.”
“I heard one of them blew themselves up?” Aaron asked.
“Who blew what up?” Morgan asked from below as she wiggled on her second sock.
“Long story,” David said. “Check the files, it’s all in there. He did blow himself up, on the other side of a shield from Nathan and took out the entire cell. Aside from some bone shrapnel Nathan just got his bell rung, but if the shield hadn’t been so robust he’d have been killed.”
“Good hunting,” Aaron offered.
David nodded his thanks then pulled back out of the quickly thinning group and left, heading back to his quarters to pack before hitting the Antarctic transit system that crisscrossed the snow-covered continent with high speed rail lines.
“Somebody talk to me,” Morgan said, lacing up her shoes.
“The Word is a new bad guy,” Kerrie offered. “Sort of a SPECTRE wannabe. Green Team busted up one of their bases in Colorado, after which they pretty much declared war. I haven’t heard that they’ve done anything since then though?”
“Neither have I,” Jason said, offering a hand to pull Morgan to her feet. “Is your power separate from the rest of your energy?”
“Almost completely separate. I can be dead in one and energetic in the other, but it does take a lot of physical focus to pull off, so if I’m really fatigued I won’t get as much out of the ability.”
“Four laps then?” Jason asked, referring to a circuit around the pyramid’s interior that was quite long.
“At least,” Morgan scoffed. “I may have spent the past 4 years on a warship, but I guarantee you it hasn’t slowed me down.”
“That I don’t doubt, but we’ve extended the main lap a bit to include the lower sections.”
“Goes through the fish tank now,” Tyr added.
Morgan smiled. “I can take whatever you dish out.”
Jason stared straight into her eyes, holding the gaze for a moment before smiling. “Ok, let’s go,” he said, jogging off out of the chamber that now only held the 7 trailblazers.
The others went with him, but Morgan only got a few steps before realizing one of her shoelaces was untied.
“What the…?” she asked, dropping to a knee to retie it while the others hurried out. Ryan was grinning from ear to ear, having seen what Jason had done.
“Let’s go slow poke!” Jason said before ducking out of the door with the others and taking off sprinting, trying to get as far ahead of Morgan as they could while she retied the shoe that Jason had telekinetically unlaced.
6
July 15, 2406
Solar System
Earth
David sat in the security station of Colonial Transition City/Building #35 studying surveillance data from the hallway cameras that were placed everywhere public and built into the walls and ceiling as to avoid notice. Such was standard for civilian habitats, with a lesser amount of surveillance on other Star Force infrastructure, but having cameras in place to monitor internal activity was a necessity for dealing with large numbers of people living and moving about in such small areas.
Some people found it intrusive, but David did not. It gave potential victims an ‘eye in the sky’ and a lifeline for help that a dark alley didn’t allow for, not to mention allowing security to track threats in realtime as they moved about. Back in the day the first colonists had complained about the intrusive nature of the surveillance…which was not placed in personal quarters…and suggested that it was too much power for any government to have, and that abuses of power were sure to follow.
David had scoffed at the idea then, and by now most of those silly notions had been laid to rest with regards to Star Force. Power was not the enemy. Power did not corrupt. Power wasn’t to be feared. Power gave the good guys the ability to stop the bad guys…as well as allow David to backtrack Seamus Kilmeade’s movements throughout the city/building for up to a year before the records were purged to allow for new data space.
The surveillance records at the terminals were another story. Those camera feeds were permanently saved, allowing David to monitor Seamus’s movements over the past 6 years since his employment began. Where he went when he left the train system was sketchy, but a number of purchases popped up at various venues that allowed him to confirm the approximate locations he’d been, as well as establishing a pattern that David was currently using to search through thousands of recent surveillance footage from individual cameras at one of the coastal cities.
Seamus went here often…or, rather, regularly, coming out randomly within a two month period that belied any repetitive schedule, but like clockwork he’d reappear within the given timeframe and hit one of the busiest sections of the tourist sector, where millions of people, mostly non-natives, would be congregating for holidays and vacations, allowing him to mix with the masses and lose himself in the Antarctic travelers.
Except that with the ‘intrusive’ surveillance there was a record of his movement…hard as it was to track. David had to go through frame after frame, losing sight of the man behind obstacles and other people, then reacquiring view of him again briefly before repeating the process. He had building security helping him go through the local feeds, but the ones he was pulling down from other Antarctic locations he was accessing by himself, having identified 3 probable drop locations and working on a fourth as he tracked Seamus’s movemen
ts to another sector of the coastal city.
The man didn’t carry any luggage or packages to be exchanged, he simply traveled about and ducked inside various venues where the security feeds didn’t go. He’d come back out at a reasonable time and return to the civilian flow, working his way back to the transit terminal and promptly back to the colonial building where he worked.
David was convinced he was up to something. Had he been going to the same location, then there could possibly have been an explanation…a friend or relative, or perhaps even some activity he was fond of, but by switching venues in a circuit at random, it pretty much ruled out any habitual activity.
All of that had already been confirmed by Davis’s investigation, but David was trying to pick out a bit more from the raw feeds. The man had to be doing more than just relaying messages, and David was paying close attention to the man’s bodyline whenever he had a clean camera view…which he could then zoom in for closer examination.
He was looking for a clean shot of Seamus’s chest on the current footage, flipping between different cameras as he walked down a crowded internal boulevard that sported a slew of shops, one of which the man had spent all of 5 minutes in, coming out with no visible package.
David stopped one of the feeds, backtracking a few frames and then enlarging what he had onto a side monitor. From there he zoomed in, confirming a slight bulge using an analysis program on the man’s clothing.
Left chest internal pocket…same as before.
Which again confirmed him as a recipient of another drop rather than the courier. That made sense, given that the people he was theoretically contacting were on a one-way trip towards a new colony. The question was…what was he passing along?
So far none of the local cameras had caught any potential contacts, and the classrooms were on the surveillance grid. Davis’s people hadn’t found anything suspicious in them, and he imagined they’d listened through session after session trying to glean any tidbits of information that could have been verbally passed on in a number of different languages.
