by K. L. Lewis
The gang scattered as a triangular drone dove down and bombed the streets, but the hooded woman stood her ground, jumping up and latching onto the drone. She unloaded her pistol in its underside, then latched off and landed with a roll. She shouted orders in French at soldiers arriving by truck, and an Iuvian took heed and pulled out a rectangular launcher, firing a missile that veered after the drone and shredded the machine into a fiery mess.
The hooded figure turned to the gang, pulling down their visor and hood, and revealing herself as Major LaBelle. “You five okay?” she asked.
They nodded in silence, staring at the charred streets with the corpses of drones and people. They were lucky, but they weren’t in the clear yet.
LaBelle pointed at the soldiers, shouting orders in French for them to scout around. She turned to another group and spoke in English. “You three, with me. Zeese kids need escorts. Let’s move!”
The gang followed LaBelle and her three soldiers to the bridge, running around the pile-up of cars and military trucks. Across the bridge laid bodies of soldiers, militants, and innocent people, all silent as the group ran by. They ducked from an enemy drone soaring overhead while two pursuing Gentilis clawed its body and dropped it out of the air. The group continued their sprint, reaching the other end into their calm, yet devastated neighborhood where teams of NAF and Iuvian soldiers guarded captured militants, and the medics tended to the wounded.
Surprise gunshots rattled the air, scrambling everyone in the streets as more militants launched from the trees. DeMarcus and Yue ran behind a concrete wall at a corner, away from the shots pinging off the surface. A militant ran by, firing out into the streets before a storm of bullets took him out. As the militant laid silent on the ground, his rifle laid near DeMarcus’s feet. DeMarcus grabbed the weapon, and strapped it over his shoulder. And upon spotting another militant jumping by, DeMarcus pointed the weapon and open fire.
The weapon was blocky and heavy, nothing like the paintballs from training, and it sent a hard kick in his chest with every shot he squeezed. Yue flinched at the weapon snarling out at the militant, wounding the man in his side. Then DeMarcus leaned out and shot at more militants fighting LaBelle’s soldiers. He almost hit an Iuvian on accident, lowering the gun as the soldier turned to him.
LaBelle and an Iuvian bounded through the streets toward DeMarcus, firing at the retreating militant before she grabbed DeMarcus and pulled him away from the fight. “DeMarcus, put zat down!” LaBelle yelled, leaning out for another shot. “We can handle zis!”
“I’m trying to help!” DeMarcus protested.
“I know zat, but we didn’t train you to help. You almost hit one of us and you could’ve hit your friends!”
As an enemy drone dive-bombed the streets, DeMarcus paused at LaBelle’s words. He’d never want his friends to die after everything they’ve been through, so he didn’t argue and handed over the weapon to the Iuvian.
As the drone made another run overhead, an NAF soldier took out her missile launcher and fired at the incoming machine. The missile tore the drone apart, sending it careening down onto the pavement and twisting upon impact into a husk of plastic and metal.
The streets were silent, with all the militants either fled, captured, or dead. LaBelle and her soldiers gathering around the one DeMarcus shot down. “Take him in,” she ordered. “Find out what zis was about.”
An Iuvian soldier came up to her. “Ma’am, Mironov has Eastern Detroit.”
“Good,” LaBelle exhaled. “Looks like we’re safe for now.”
But their neighborhood…
A once peaceful area trashed like the devastated city they escaped from. And the parahumans fighting alongside the HDF, it made no sense. As LaBelle escorted them through the streets, they could only hope their families were safe.
“I didn’t think the fighting would reach here,” said Tyrone.
“Just be glad you’re still alive,” LaBelle said.
CHAPTER 27 – FALSE CONNECTIONS
As the gang scattered through their neighborhood, DeMarcus and Yue rushed into their house, shouting for their parents. “Mom! Dad!” Yue cried.
“We’re over here,” said Jun from the kitchen. The two rushed through the halls into the kitchen, and breathed a sigh of relief that everyone was okay by the table. They were all unharmed, all but Jun who was as cut and bruised up as DeMarcus and Yue.
Jiao and Shen zipped over and squeezed DeMarcus and Yue with tight hugs. “Thank heavens you two are okay,” said Jiao.
“Yeah, the whole school made it out,” said DeMarcus.
Then the moment was interrupted by the doorbell. Shen checked the monitor, seeing the Iyrons and Capt. LaBelle standing outside. Everyone except James. Shen opened the door and welcomed them inside.
“Is everyone alright?” Keith asked. “They really tore up the streets.”
“We’re fine, Keith,” Shen answered. “Where’s James?”
“Watching over the northern area. They say it’s worse up there.”
“Those militants came out of nowhere,” said Alisha. “There was no alert or anything when they hit.”
“I figured something like that would’ve been seen a mile away,” said Zhen. “Who were they? They couldn’t have been the HDF and definitely not the Amalgam Concord.”
“To our surprise,” Keith began, “It was—”
His OmniMorph beeped on his wrist, and his eyes stretched at the ID on its display. “That’s weird. Now they answer?”
He pressed on his phone, and an image of two men in suits projected in the air. One was a tall human, with a dark amber-brown complexion, short black hair, and a small goatee on his chin. The other was a slimmer, tanned-skinned parahuman who lacked facial hair, and had long golden-brown hair draping to his shoulders.
LaBelle and Keith saluted them. “Imperator RA,” Keith addressed the human, “I apologize for not keeping you updated, but I’ve been unable to contact you.”
RA? Of Iuvia? DeMarcus’s ears twitched as he watched from the sidelines.
“I’m aware,” said the human. “Thoth informed us there was a block in our terrestrial communications, leading to our officers to act on their own.”
“And to think our comm network was made to avoid that problem,” said Thoth, the tanned parahuman. “How did the trip to the British Isles go, by the way?”
“There were complications. Other than that, would’ve been better if I wasn’t on my ass most of the time,” Keith joked.
RA chuckled. “Figures. We give the man some rest and he complains. I guess it’s pointless to convince you to retire.”
DeMarcus gazed at his human grandfather with the same mix of shock and awe as everyone else. He couldn’t remember a time he ever saw his actual grandfather’s face, even around his mother. Yet there he was. What was more surprising was the fact that his grandfather was human, something his mother never told him about—or at least got the chance to anyway.
He jolted from RA glancing his way and greeted him with a nervous wave. The man smiled and waved back. “Good to see you,” said RA, before turning to Keith.” May we speak in private?”
Shen pointed at the room near the front door. “Um…my office is right over there if you need it.”
Keith entered the office as Jiao brought everyone into the kitchen. “Would you all like something to drink?”
“Water is fine,” said LaBelle.
“I’m sorry – we know you’re with Keith, but we never caught your name,” said Zhen.
“Major Ara LaBelle of zee Joint NAF-Iuvian forces, sir. I escorted your children during zee attack.”
“Ah, I hear you’re the one training DeMarcus and Yue?”
“Yes, sir. Zhey, Tyrone, and zheir friends have been excellent students, and zhey kept calm during zee attack.”
“Keith never skimps out on the best, huh?” Alisha quipped.
Jiao set their drinks on the table and shifted the discussion back to the militants. “So, Keith was abo
ut to say something about these militants. This looks like something the Fronties would do, but parahumans were with them.”
LaBelle took a sip of water. “Judging by zee troops, equipment, and our intel, zey are likely Monumans.”
Everyone’s mouths were agape. “Monumans?” Shen repeated. “A group of cavemen all the way here? How?”
“We assume from an unmarked vessel zat originally belonged to zee HDF,” LaBelle answered. “Some even hid among zee Fronties before attacking.”
“But why are they here in the first place?” Jiao asked. “They’re all the way in Mid-Asia.”
Why indeed. DeMarcus wondered why this group came so far across the oceans as he listened to the conversation.
“From what we know, zey planned zis out,” LaBelle continued. “Zey were tracking another militant group here in zee Great Lake region, and supposedly zat group had some dangerous tech from Iuvia.”
“What tech?” Alisha asked.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. But zat is classified,” said LaBelle.
There was only one thing DeMarcus knew that was top secret – Red Phoenix. That had to be the tech LaBelle meant. But he couldn’t say anything about it.
“If that’s the case, how’d it end up in the hands of some random militants?” Jiao asked.
“Zat part we are trying to figure out,” said LaBelle. “Something like zis shouldn’t have gone unnoticed, but we know zat a splinter group intended to sell it to zee Monumans in zee British Isles. I believe you were zhere when a shootout happened?”
“Yeah, don’t remind us,” said Yue, turning to DeMarcus and Tyrone.
“Zee marshal had been making constant calls to zee Iuvian capital, New Eden, but all of zem went unanswered until now.”
“I had the same problem when trying to contact a relative of DeMarcus’s there,” said Alisha. “Keith was the only person I knew with connection to Iuvia, and when I spoke to him about it on his way from the Sinic Republics, he told me he’d take care of it.”
LaBelle smiled. “Well, zee timing’s perfect.”
DeMarcus heard enough. After all the cryptic signs he had received, he wanted to know what ate at him for the longest: what happened to his mother? With everyone focused on LaBelle, he left the kitchen for Zhen’s office. Leaning on the door, he listened to the conversation on the other side, hearing Thoth talk to Keith about some missing tech.
“I can only imagine the catastrophe a small group could use Red Phoenix for,” Thoth said.
“Fortunately, it would take a while for that group to develop and control,” said Keith. “They can’t just make it overnight.”
“We’ll get it situated,” said RA. “Now, about DeMarcus. You don’t know how happy I am to see he’s alive. Some of us were in a panic when Sekhmet sent out that emergency call before you sent her up here, and then a Councilor from Themiskyra asked about him when our comm network came back online. I assume the Sun family is treating him well?”
DeMarcus’s heart skipped a beat. His mother’s alive? Finally, after all the doubts, he can rest easy knowing she was still out there. Somewhere.
“When they found him, they took him with open arms,” Keith answered. “Zhen’s all too happy to have a son around. By the way, how’s Sekky doing in the Deimos Region? No doubt she’s been miserable about all this.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” said Thoth. “I haven’t seen her so angry since the war. At least the Seralian immigrants have been silent with her around. Only Malcolm has been able to calm her down, which seems to worry him more than his Overseer position.”
RA chuckled. “That Martian red probably isn’t doing her any favors either.”
“Well, she’ll be glad to hear the news,” said Keith. “Although I doubt she’ll get her hopes up from us simply telling her. Always a skeptic that woman.”
“We’ll let her know ahead of time,” said RA. “It’ll be a while before she can return to Earth anyway, so let DeMarcus enjoy his time with his new family. And make sure he keeps quiet about Sekhmet – we don’t want an uproar down there. Continue as you were.”
“Understood. Marshal Iyrons, out.”
Hearing Keith’s footsteps approach the door, DeMarcus hauled into the living room and into the dining room just as Keith left the office. He joined Jun, Yue, and Tyrone at the table, listening to the news. The Great Lakes, the Southern Gulf, the North and South Pacific, multiple cities in the main regions of the NAF were struck by the Monumans, triggering a nationwide state of emergency. “Investigators are still wondering about the assault, with some saying it was an attack by Monumans. Monuma, however, has denied any allegations, claiming it was a random militant group acting on their own…”
“I knew it,” LaBelle huffed.
Yue eyed DeMarcus as he sat down. “Where’d you go?”
“I was just checking on something,” DeMarcus answered.
“You mean eavesdropping?” Tyrone questioned. DeMarcus shrugged at him, and Tyrone grew curious. “So what’d you hear?”
“Nothin’ important,” DeMarcus lied.
The news continued. “Several schools have been closed down indefinitely while the damages are repaired and investigations continue, such as the recently destroyed Iyrons Academy…”
The teens jumped out of their seats in cheer. “No school! No school!”
Jiao snickered at them. “Seems like too much.”
“Wouldn’t want to take any chances,” said Keith. “Besides, they’ll still get their assignments sent to their tablets.”
“Well, let them enjoy their break,” said Alisha. “They’ve been through a lot already.”
It was the month of October, two weeks since the day the Monumans struck the city, and DeMarcus sat cooped up inside the Sun Residence with the gang in the living room. They were tending to their homework on their school tablets, and if there was one thing he couldn’t stand it was his English homework on the so-called paradoxes within the work of Othello.
He grumbled at the remaining questions on his tablet that bored the hell out of him, then set his tablet aside to game on his OmniMorph. None of his friends seemed to care that he wasn’t doing any work—he was almost finished anyway, and Yue was doing the same thing he was—up until he received a surprise call from Gabby. He couldn’t resist seeing her face again.
“Hi, DeMarcus,” Gabby greeted. “What’cha up to?”
“Hey Gabby, just here studying with friends,” he answered.
“While playing a game on your OmniMorph?” Gabby giggled. “You’re such a bad boy.”
“I can hear you two over there,” said Yue.
“Why are you always blocking, Yue?” DeMarcus sassed.
“You mean me or the thousands of miles between you two?” Yue said with a tilt of her head.
DeMarcus grumbled and looked away. He had nothing to say for that.
“Sup Gabby, nice to see you again,” said Ty.
“Likewise,” said Gabby. “I heard about the attack and wanted to see how you guys were holding up. I figured you knew how to handle yourselves.”
“We appreciate the thought regardless,” said Yue.
“Yeah, but we’re kinda stuck here waiting for the whole thing to die down,” said Mitch.
DeMarcus groaned. “Wish we could go to the Compound right now. It’s better than this junk.”
And with their days training at the Compound being spread out, he and his friends couldn’t let off any steam as they remained indoors.
“Calm down,” said Sarah. “It’s not that bad. Speaking of which, me and Mitch are about to finish our beginner training and catch up with you guys in the survival drills.”
“Get ready for hell then, because that stuff is no joke,” DeMarcus warned. “They’ll put you through everything. Last session I slipped up and got shot in the face by the dummies.”
“Wow, is it that hardcore?” Gabby asked. “At least it’s better than actually getting shot.”
“Though I’m still wond
ering how room clearings will help us,” said Mitch as he flipped through the TV channels.
DeMarcus caught a glimpse of the news showing a recent attack at the edge of the Illina province. “Wait, go back!”
Mitch returned to the news broadcasting several dead bodies around the outskirts of Grand Detroit, either the Fronties or Monumans—it was hard to tell which one—along with an image of Fara Torres onscreen. “Authorities have lost sight of whom they’ve identified as Fara Torres being a possible suspect responsible for the killings. With the many attacks from Monumans and other militants however, they say that they may be spread too thin to initiate a search.”
Mitch chuckled. “Sounds like this Fara’s doing the country a favor.”
Sarah looked at him like he was crazy. “You honestly think having someone like her running around is a good thing?”
“Let’s hope she’s not too close,” said Yue. “We’ve had way too many close calls as is.”
Maybe so, but hearing Fara was still out there somewhere made DeMarcus hunger for answers, answers he was sure Fara had. He already found out his mother was alive. But who were the ones who tried to kill him? And what was their deal with Red Phoenix?
November 7th, 892 RNC.
Almost a month had passed since the Monuman’s attack, and many damaged roads were repaved and retiled for normal daily traffic. Having enjoyed the break—but not the paranoia—the Monumans graciously gave them, it was time for the students to return to school. Few were happy about it, of course. Along the way, DeMarcus noticed more Iuvian and NAF troops and drones on patrol, and as he and his friends got off the bridge tram, he caught sight of a Gentili fluttering behind them at every turn they made.
Upon reaching the rebuilt Iyrons Academy, the Gentili perched itself on a streetlight and kept its sharp eyes on them. No doubt it was there to protect them, but it and the greater abundance of soldiers drew a lot of attention from the people in the city.
