by K. L. Lewis
All wasn’t well, however. DeMarcus watched Keith as he studied the news-screen and spoke to LaBelle and Mironov about there being another possible attack. Seemed like everything was on alert ever since they came back home, and that was just the tip of the iceberg: DeMarcus glued his eyes on the screen at mention of the Amalgam Concord, and an image of one of their members appeared on the screen.
Her image in full color as she sped on an airbike in a city of the Illina province, along with a mugshot of her face, her name flashed in bold letters as DeMarcus recalled it to himself: Fara Torres.
Stories were all over the place about her: eyewitnesses claimed they saw someone like her sneaking onto a Coalesce Industries freight truck before slaughtering a number of Fronties, while Coalesce officials said they haven’t caught sight of her. Others say she was the one responsible for the attack on Representative Allers months ago. Something had to be up, and DeMarcus browsed the Terranet for any more attacks by the Amalgam Concord. But aside from the current news, none seem to come up after the attack on Allers.
Regardless, that wasn’t important. She wasn’t the woman who attacked him last year, and he couldn’t care less about any Fronties she killed in the midst of their war as long as it never came to him. It wouldn’t get him any closer to the whereabouts of his killers. But he did remember one thing that was brought up alongside Fara’s name: Red Phoenix. They were related somehow, but the questions it brought buzzed in his head like a bunch of angry bees. Did Fara have Red Phoenix? Was it related to the locations on the Amalgam Data Slip? Were his killers after her or with her somehow? No matter how hard he thought over it, it wouldn’t come with any answers, and the mental dead end it brought only irritated him further.
Probably a good thing he kept to his training with Yue and Tyrone at the Compound. It released a lot of stress as he practiced ducking and running for cover from armed androids pursuing them in a shootout simulation. But being weeks out of practice nearly led to them getting shot with practice rounds, and DeMarcus sprawled on the ground at the end of the session with his heart punching in his chest like the gunshots blasting from the pit below. He glanced down into a massive, dimly lit room where Dana wielded a rifle and ventured through the halls in a blue padded suit, shooting down the training androids rising out from cover. Training against militant groups was one thing, but she was fighting like an actual soldier, and he didn’t think this was part of what they signed on for.
At the session’s end, Keith went for his office to make a call to Iuvia. It seemed strange that Iuvia was quiet given everything that happened, and DeMarcus couldn’t help but wonder why? Heck, all this time and he could have reached his father Malcolm by now, if he actually knew how to reach him that is.
DeMarcus joined Tyrone and Yue panting at the benches, both worn out from today’s session. “Tough day, huh?” he said.
“No kidding,” said Tyrone. “This stuff’s been getting more intense.”
“It saved DeMarcus back at the Isles,” said Yue. “So I’m willing to stick it through.”
“So I hear,” spoke LaBelle, approaching the gang with an eye on DeMarcus. “I’ve heard about your little skirmish up in Europe. Good to see our training helped you survive.”
Keith came out of the office, grumbling as he came towards the group. “Well, no luck,” he said to LaBelle. “You and Mironov keep me in touch in case they respond. I need to make a report, and I can’t hold off on this for long.”
LaBelle saluted, and the teens followed Keith out. On the way home, Keith told the three that the Compound will be closed to civilians until next week due to some preparations he had to make. DeMarcus figured it had something to do with Fara Torres or the Fronties. Things went by fast during the time they were out of the country.
Stopping at Tyrone’s house, the three went inside and lounged in the living room as Keith went to speak to James. The three were still exhausted from the sessions, their arms as heavy as lead as they spread on the floors and couch, waiting for the others to return. “I want to see how jealous they’ll be when we tell them everything,” said Yue.
“Yeah, and almost got shot at,” DeMarcus added.
“Always the gloomy bits with you, isn’t it?” Tyrone asked.
The doorbell buzzed. Alisha walked over and opened the door to the outside. “Well, welcome back, you two! They’re passed out in the living room over there.”
DeMarcus lifted his head to Mitch and Sarah walking inside and stopping at the edge of the living room. “Wow, you guys look awful,” Mitch said as he and Sarah joined the three.
“About time you guys came back!” DeMarcus said.
“Don’t act like we’re so late when you guys went to Europe,” Mitch sassed.
“How was it by the way?” Sarah asked with a sly look at DeMarcus. “No doubt some hearts were broken.”
“See for yourself,” said Yue, showing the videos and photos on her OmniMorph and adding to Sarah and Mitch jealousy. They teased DeMarcus over Gabriella’s attraction towards him, as well as Jade’s shyness, and they snickered at the image of DeMarcus’s eyes wide in shock at Gabby kissing him.
“Wow, you sure know how to take pictures,” said Sarah.
And to his surprise, DeMarcus felt his OmniMorph buzz on his wrist, with Gabriella’s name flashing on its screen. All eyes were on him as he turned away and answered the call, projecting Gabby’s face onscreen, and the sultry look she made when their eyes met made him forget that his friends were around him. “Hi, DeMarcus,” Gabby greeted. “Just calling to make sure you didn’t forget about me.”
“I could never forget you,” DeMarcus said, with the irking snicker of his friends behind him making his ear twitch. “How’re you and Jade?”
“I’m not with Jade right now, but she’s doing alright.” Gabby looked over his shoulder and waved at Sarah and Mitch. “Hi there!”
“Hey,” Sarah waved back. “Nice to see DeMarcus has it on with someone.”
Mitch gave DeMarcus a nudge. “Yeah, who needs Crystal when you can have this woman?”
Gabby smirked. “What is it with this Crystal person I keep hearing about? You trying to make me jealous too? I’d almost be if we weren’t thousands of kilometers away.”
“Yeah, that’s what sucks,” DeMarcus grumbled.
Gabby giggled at him. “Well, there’s plenty of ladies out there, and if Crystal’s your kind of girl—” Gabby’s father called her, and she let out a sigh. “Well, I’ve got to cut this short, guys.”
“Glad you had the chance to speak to us,” said Yue, turning a sly glance at DeMarcus. “Especially when someone never told us they had your number.”
DeMarcus had a nervous chuckle while Gabby kept smiling.
“Later, guys.” Gabby said before logging off.
DeMarcus’s eyes shifted between his friends teasing faces. “Are you guys done?” he spat.
“Oh, I almost forgot to ask,” said Mitch. “When do we join you guys at the Compound?”
“And the sooner the better,” said Sarah. “My parents got worried about Fronties in Chicago and want me to handle myself asap.”
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until next week,” said Tyrone. “Granddad said he needs to prepare some things. So, the Compound’ll be closed to civilians.”
The doorbell buzzed again, and Alisha answered it once more. “Bianca! Amy’s here to see you!”
Horror grew on the gang’s faces, and they bolted out of the living room. “Quick! To the Megaplaza!” said DeMarcus, leading the gang past Alisha and Amy outside and leaving the two in confusion on their way to the bridge.
Next week couldn’t come any sooner, and by the time DeMarcus and his friends returned to the Compound, their summer neared its end. Prior to that, he along with Yue and Tyrone prepared Sarah and Mitch in Ty’s backyard over the basic lessons they’d learn on their first day. Then the day afterwards, when the Compound was open, they took the tram into the city all the way to the Tavilla Terraport. I
t was a quick trip to the Compound, and upon arrival, they did their basic warm-ups and began a sparring session with LaBelle and a few Iuvian assistants.
DeMarcus didn’t expect Sarah and Mitch to last long in the sparring, but they received a few points of praise from LaBelle before they later separated into two groups, with him following the intermedia group with Tyrone and Yue. LaBelle led them into a separate room where she opened a large locker with blue padded full-body suits and face-visors. “Alright everyone, suit up!” she said.
The group took the suits from the racks and slid into them, intrigued at the dense padding that hugged their body. DeMarcus noticed these were the suits Dana wore during her lessons, and it gave him a strong feeling of what they’re doing next when LaBelle opened another locker lined with rifles, pistols, and grenades.
“Now for your new lesson: we’re going to play a little paintball,” LaBelle explained. “Here you will apply everything you’ve learned in a survival simulation, hopefully so zat you have better chances of escaping any militants zat might surprise you.”
“So what haven’t you guys prepped for?” Tyrone asked.
“Only what we don’t know,” LaBelle remarked. “Remember: zeese people aren’t some backwater terrorists, zey’re professional soldiers. If you want any chance at surviving zem, it helps to train like one. Now, each of you grab a gun.”
DeMarcus remembered having a gun back at the Isles. The rifles here were heavier than that pistol he had there. To think he’d train with one now. It made him wonder if Shen and Jiao knew this was part of the training.
With everyone equipped and ready, LaBelle taught them the basics of their weapons and gun safety, pointing out how their paintball guns were almost like real guns used by the military and SWAT police. That, and all licensed guns were ID-tagged, easy to track, unlike militant small arms and untagged weapons which people can get in trouble for owning, hence why they played hide and seek with the armed forces.
LaBelle’s brow raised at some of the trainees playing with the guns, and her voice grew firm as she continued. “It should be common sense to never point zee barrel at yourselves or others, or spin zee guns on your fingers. You never know if zey are loaded. Sound’s obvious, but a lot of morons tink it’s cool until zey blow off someone’s head.”
LaBelle led them downstairs into a shooting range, a series of lanes where dozen dummies splotched with paint stood at the end. Everyone took a lane and started shooting at the training dummies approaching them. Not that any of them did well—DeMarcus hardly came close to hitting the target on the dummies, but it did show where to improve.
Proceeding down to one of the underground domes, where the dizzying odor of dry paint hit everyone’s noses, they stood before a pale labyrinth of alleys and debris. It looked so drab and empty, with the eerie wail of the fans soft breeze giving the group a slight chill as they lined up and tensed at clack of a pebble echoing through the dome.
“Alright, now pay attention,” said LaBelle. “In a scuffle, zee last ting you want to do is run blindly into militants ready to shoot you. Your life would flash before your eyes. In zis simulation, you will each navigate a hostile area and fight past zee aggressors. You shall begin with three people before shrinking to just yourselves.”
Three androids approached the group and stood behind LaBelle. “Allow zem to show you a useful trick.”
The androids lined against the wall towards a door as LaBelle summarized their actions. “Before entering rooms, line up and cover each other, checking your surroundings for any suspicious movements.”
The android in front nodded to the ones behind. “Zee lead will signal zee ones behind.”
The androids tapped each other on their shoulder. “Zee ones behind will signal zey’re ready. Zen you enter.”
The androids blurred into the room, taking their positions beside each other as they shot at the dummy. “Notice zheir positioning: zee first one enters, and his partners cover his blind spots, watching his side for any surprises.”
DeMarcus took mental notes and prepared himself as the androids set everything back. Sounded easy, but LaBelle warned there were a few surprises inside. “As we continue, zee drills will become more difficult in zee two person and solo training. You must learn to adapt to zee changes in numbers and zee environment.”
Shrinking teams, difficult drills. That’s good to know.
Everyone broke into teams, with DeMarcus grouping with Yue and Tyrone. When the drills began, each team rushed through the halls and rooms, shooting at the mechanical dummies preparing to fire. It was harder than they thought – they sometimes missed corners and almost got nailed by the dummies, and DeMarcus heard LaBelle mumbling in French as she watched and spoke through their headsets. “DeMarcus, you were too slow and held Tyrone up. You got lucky, but you could have been killed.”
Then she chastised another group where a teammate laughed at her partner falling over a tripwire. “Sally, zat wasn’t funny! You wouldn’t be laughing if zis was real. John, make sure to keep watch of your surroundings! And you, I saw zat! You want to stay on zis program or not?”
The teams shrunk into two people, with DeMarcus and Yue sticking together, and oh did things get harder than hard. Those same mistakes were worse when someone isn’t watching a blindspot, often leading to them getting shot in the face. Ouch!
Then came the solo clearings, as if they weren’t intense enough.
DeMarcus’s heart hammered in his chest as he stood next, staring down the length of his gun as he ventured to the corner at the edge of an alleys. He shot one dummy down then rushed into a room where he shot down the next one.
“Don’t rush,” said LaBelle. “You see how your barrel was in zee room?”
“Yeah,” DeMarcus answered.
“So zhey saw you walking in before you actually went in.”
He crept to the other end, deep breaths fogging his visor as he peeked around the corner at the dummy raising its weapon. A few paintballs whizzed past his face before he shot back and covered the dummy in paint.
“You were lucky zat time, DeMarcus,” said LaBelle.
“I know.” He always seemed lucky. It frightened him to think when that luck would run out. He stepped over a tripwire into the hall, jumping at another dummy leaning from end and barraging the hall with paintballs. DeMarcus dove behind a fallen shelf and shot back, tucking away from the paint splattering near his feet and tail. When the barrage stopped, he peaked out and shot at the dummy’s torso, ending the simulation.
As he came out, he noticed LaBelle looking at him in confusion, as if he did something wrong. “I had to do something,” He said with a shrug.
LaBelle smiled. “Good ting you did. Alright, everybody, zat’s it for today!”
Everyone removed their suits and visors, returned their paintball guns, and ascended upstairs. Sarah and Mitch stood near the guardrails waiting on the trio. “Man, you guys were awesome!” said Mitch. “Can’t wait ‘til I get a shot.”
“It’s harder than it looks,” Yue panted.
Keith came out of his office toward the group, his face filled with disappointment. “Still no word from zee Imperial Union?” LaBelle asked.
“I’m not sure what’s going on up there,” said Keith. “You think they’d answer by now.”
Yeah, you’d think. DeMarcus figured they were busy given he hadn’t gotten any response, but to not answer their marshal? Seemed odd.
Today couldn’t be any odder for DeMarcus as he walked alone toward the Rula Megaplaza. For one, Yue went ahead of him instead of going together as always. That went at the back of his mind when he saw a familiar girl in the Rula parking lot – a girl with long ears, raven black hair draping to her shoulders, and shadow grey skin.
He thought his eyes were playing games as he called out to the girl. “Gabby?”
The girl turned around, and sure enough it was her. “DeMarcus?” she said with a smile. “Hey!”
They ran and embraced each other,
with DeMarcus catching a whiff of Gabby’s jasmine vanilla perfume. “What are you doing here?” DeMarcus asked.
“Well, me and my dad wanted to visit the NAF, and I figured I’d look around,” Gabby answered. “Jade’s taking her sweet time though.”
“Jade’s here? Where?”
“She’s on her way. But in the meantime,” Gabby took his hand. “Wanna come by my apartment?”
Like he’d say no. It was like a dream come true to see Gabby again, and a bigger one to see Jade running toward them through the lot.
“Gabby! DeMarcus! Wait up!” Jade shouted.
No doubt his friends would love to meet them. But when DeMarcus dialed Yue on his OmniMorph, a rocket howled overhead and exploded in the middle of the lot. They ducked behind a truck as cars flung in the air and metal rained from the blast. People scattered through the lot, screaming in terror as more rockets flew from the skies and swelled into balls of flame around them.
DeMarcus saw Crystal running through the lot with the crowd. “Crystal!” he shouted, rushing to save her. But she ran straight into a rocket, her body vanishing in the blast.
Then came the Sun family running on the sidewalks, everyone except Yue. “Mom! Dad!” DeMarcus shouted.
And they too were hit by a rocket. DeMarcus gasped as the flames engulfed his adoptive family, watching Shen shield Jiao, Jun, and Amy as the flames grew. When the flames cleared, he fell to his knees. They were gone.
“DeMarcus!” cried a voice behind him.
DeMarcus turned to Yue running through the lot with the rest of the gang. They gathered around him and the girls, wondering what happened. DeMarcus didn’t want to tell them, but he had no choice. “Yue…mom and dad…Jun and Amy…they’re gone!”
A tear ran down Yue’s face. “No…no, they can’t be!”
“We…tried to reach them,” Jade said, “I’m sorry.”
