CHAPTER 23
Kara stood anxiously in the doorway and effortlessly slid in Lucy's holdall and the two pizza boxes from the hallway. Dressed in her blue jeans and deep red leather jacket the heroine was certainly looking like she was off duty. Lucy quickly pushed the door back closed, her heart sinking into her stomach in dread of the questions to come.
Kara glanced at Lucy's wound to her leg, her vision telling her the injury was shallow and the bullet had passed by cleanly. The unspoken nod from Lucy told Kara that she would be fine. Kara walked up to Lisa where she sat near the edge of a lake of blood. Kara's assessment of the detective's injuries was swift. Cracked ribs, bruises appearing in her face, and a bust lip. To think, she only got out of hospital the morning of the day previous.
“They make them tough, these cops,” Kara thought to herself.
Lisa and Lucy glanced at one another guiltily as they imagined how the scene must look to the heroine. How was she going to react? What was she going to say? What was she going to do?
“I .. I knew this man,” Kara said quietly as her blue eyes looked down on the deceased Mr Nordic. He had been one of the people who interrogated her once upon a time, unknowingly letting Supergirl sow her 'Seeds of Deception'.
“Yes, from the interrogation on the plane, he blew up the oil rig too, he was caught in the photo that Selena found,” Lucy nodded as she limped back to the others.
“The plane AND the oilrig? This is one of the people you used to work with, Lu?” Lisa asked. She was in disbelief that Lucy had just killed one of her former comrades. Lisa had been told all about what had happened the day of the plane ride and of course she knew of the oil rig, but she never expected to be caught up in the world of the mercenaries. Lucy gave an apologetic nod as she tracked Kara who was studying the scene. The Asian didn't know if it was her own past that had caused Lisa to end up facing off against the mercenaries or something else.
“And who is she?” Kara asked anxiously looking at Neomi's lifeless bullet-ridden body.
“Apparently her name is Neomi, she is the one who shot me, she is, WAS, my chief suspect in a murder case,” Lisa said bitterly.
“This is her? But why is she with HIM, and why are they here in Lucy's apartment?” Kara wondered aloud.
“They must have followed me, I thought I was their only target but …. shit it's all messed up. If he was after Lucy too won't the others come back? You used to be in a team, didn't you?” Lisa wondered nervously.
“Yes, at lest two more men from my original team remain. I need to get away from here until I figure some things out. I could be putting you in danger by staying,” Lucy said as she began to pat the corpses down for wallets and cell phones.
“But, I have to call this in, you can't go now,” Lisa said as she looked around the carnage.
“Lisa, if you bring the police into this, I … I might not come out the other end unscathed. If they search my apartment or dig too much into my fake past they may find things,” Lucy said as she mentally tallied off weaponry and kit hidden in the apartment.
“Do you even know what you are suggesting? You want me to cover this up? I'm a cop, I can't do that! Fuck, this woman is my main suspect, I can clear up the case! What do you want me to do? Go through the charade of hunting her down? Kara …. aren't you going to say something?” Lisa said with disbelief.
Kara looked between Lucy and Lisa, mercenary and cop, the horrible conflict of interest now tearing them apart. Now the superheroine had to choose between her head and her heart.
“Lisa, I cannot make this choice for you. You have to balance your needs and Lucy's. Do not fear what I will think of you, these people deserved the end they now share.” Kara said, confident that they had been killed in self defence.
“What? Kara, you're meant to be on the side of the law!” Lisa exclaimed.
“No, Lisa, I am on the side of doing what is RIGHT.” Kara retorted.
Kara was speaking from her heart. Many things she did in life were probably illegal, every flight breached some aviation law, every speeding run a speed limit and so far she had just about visited or crossed into every country in the world without showing, let alone being in possession of a passport. She knew that no matter how pure she intended to be she wasn't, it was only by doing what was right was she so highly revered.
“Lisa, I know you are thinking of Van Der Walt, his wife and his family. You want to be able to put Neomi in cuffs and have her face the jury, but you cant. She's dead!” Lucy said gesturing at Neomi's corpse.
“But I could give them Neomi's body! I can place her as the owner of the voice on the recording but now I can't even give them that?” growled Lisa.
“Lisa, Neomi killed Van Der Walt for a reason. She might not have known WHY but the people who paid her certainly do. Neomi was just a weapon, the person who paid her was the one who pulled the trigger. Finding THEM will be true justice,” Kara urged the cop.
“Lisa, I can take the photo of their bodies and have Selena slide it into the grid sometime in the future. No doubt at some point it will fall into the hands of the authorities and they will come back to you. At least you will have something to give Van Der Walt's family. You can tell them she was compromised by your investigation so someone had her killed to keep her quiet,” Lucy explained as she laid out the keys, wallets and phones she had stripped from the two bodies onto her kitchen counter.
Lisa's head dropped as she killed just a little part of herself inside. She was a cop and tried to do everything by the book, playing by the rules. If she truly loved Lucy she would have to play dirty, break the rules and throw away the book, just for one day. Everything screamed at her that what she was about to do was wrong, but ….
“What do we need to do?” Lisa asked resolutely while inside she dreaded the tasks she knew had to come.
“Lisa, you need to go home, get cleaned up and start again tomorrow like this never happened. Trace back Neomi's trail, find out why she was paid to kill Van Der Walt,” Lucy implored Lisa.
“But what about all this?” Lisa said with bewilderment as she looked at the cooling bodies and the congealing lake of blood.
Lucy cocked her head at Lisa wondering if she would ever truly understand the extent of her capabilities.
“I guess I don't need to know,” Lisa realised reading Lucy's expression. The mercenary was no doubt used to having to clear up, something that for a moment made her see the Asian in a whole new light.
“The less the better,” Lucy said. She wanted Lisa to be tainted as little as possible.
“But, what about you?” Lisa asked of Kara wondering what the heroine's role was going to be in all of this.
“I … I have my own path to take now. Go home Lisa, please” Kara said. The heroine knew she had her own sacrifices to make in all of this and she respected Lisa too much to let her see what those were going to be.
The trio looked between themselves realising that each was fighting the whirling forces that were trying to rip them apart.
Selena typed furiously, her commands appearing on the screen as quickly as she could think of them. Using her wits she had tried to discover who at the Sanderson Corporation had been responsible for the cyber attack against the government databases though she suspected she already knew; it had been Molly Matthews.
When she had been lower down the pecking order Molly had been the one to make the discovery about the green dust. It had been impacted onto the solar array of a recovered satellite that the Sanderson Corporation had been tasked with plucking out of orbit. Using the knowledge of her mentor, Doctor Schneider, Molly had figured out the green dust was capable of debilitating the normally indestructible Supergirl, leading on to a terrible chain of events.
Now, rifling through Molly's files it was becoming increasingly obvious that she was involved with many projects. The primary data files had been encrypted and well guarded and Selena guessed it was for a reason. Although it was not beyond Selena's skill to get to the contents she was in grave danger of being detected if she tried. Should Selena try and strike back at Molly now and try and figure out what she was up to, or should she retreat and try and use what limited information she had learned in some other way?
Selena, in a moment of impulsiveness decided the best way to act. She was going to extract the target files to her own system and work on cracking them open locally.
“execute arc_ripper / target_system / operations / ”
Unleashing her file ripping utility Selena began to pull down the encrypted files from Molly's operations archives. It was dangerous but Selena knew that the cyber attack against the government was alien based and the trail led back to someone who could also have been compromised by the green dust. If the last green dust infected people had threatened to blow up the financial world what could this latest iteration be up to? She had to find out.
Selena's heart raced as she watched the file download come flying in on her super high speed connection. There were terabytes of information but the data was coming down quickly, the percentage indicator pushing on towards one hundred.
“Come on come on come on,” murmured Selena to herself.
FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE!
Selena sighed in relief, disconnecting her system from the target. Now she had to work on decrypting the files and try and figure out what was going on. Clattering away at her keyboard Selena set in motion an analysis of the type of encryption in use and get an estimation of how long she it would take to break it open.
BEEP
Selena flinched as a message appeared in basic ASCI text.
HELLO – SELENA – OR IS IT #THE BROKER# - I MAY NOT HAVE PREVENTED YOU FROM STEALING MY FILES BUT YOU WILL NOT DECRYPT EVERYTHING IN TIME – WATCH OUT – NOW IT IS ME HUNTING YOU AND I PROMISE – I WILL BE MUCH QUICKER AT FINDING YOU THAN YOU DID ME....................
!! WARNING – INBOUND TRACE DETECTED !!
“Dammit!” exclaimed Selena reading the bad news coming in at her.
Glancing at the decryption process and then the time to the inbound trace arriving she knew she would barely have time to unlock Molly's secrets before she was found.
VWURRR-VWURRR-VWURRR VWURRR-VWURRR-VWURRR VWURRR-VWURRR-VWURRR
Selena was formulating a plan when her cell phone began to vibrate away on her desk and saw that it was Lucy who was calling. There was a flash of an urge to ignore the call but Selena somehow managed to overcome it. If she and Vel or his monster were at war she had to pay special attention to what her generals in the field had to say.
Selena answered the call, and heard Lucy speak, the tone in the mercenary's voice causing Selena's hair to stand on end. Lucy explained everything, what had happened to Lisa, the presence of Nordic, the arrival of Kara, and what their plans were.
“Lucy, I don't know if it is connected but Vel is up to something, something big. We need to regroup somewhere safe so I can figure out if The Resolution genuinely know you are alive or if you have just been caught up with Lisa's case by coincidence. What I do know is Vel is hunting me down as we speak. I have to figure out what he is doing, it could be important,” Selena explained.
“Where should we go?” Lucy asked.
“We are going to Europe, I will get you more details when I have made travel arrangements. Do you think Lisa would want to come with us?” Selena asked.
“No, she's adamant, she wants to find out what my old colleagues were working on,” Lucy explained.
“I understand. I promise we will return one way or another as soon as possible,” Selena said as she glanced at the readouts on her screens.
“Yes, of course. Kara says she will keep the phone you gave her close to hand while we try and figure out what is happening,” Lucy said.
“Thank you, I will contact you soon. Give my …. tell ….just let Kara know I am grateful to her for helping you and Lisa out of this mess,” Selena said, her voice faltering.
“I will, good luck and talk again soon,” Lucy said before hanging up.
Selena looked at the percentage progress on Molly's trace and her own effort to figure out what she was doing. This battle was going to run through the remains of the night and into the morning.
“This is going to be close!”
CHAPTER 24
It was dawn, a new day, a big day! The remote test range was a hive of activity as preparations were made for the big demonstration. The tests represented a culmination of several emerging defense technologies and today they were going to be put through their paces in front of the senior military, the Joint Chiefs and the President herself.
A large elevated grandstand had been constructed at one end of the range with various artificial urban scenes constructed in the foreground and way out in the distance was the live firing range where the plan was to show off some air defense equipment.
The grandstand echoed with the voice of an announcer as he tested the audio equipment while staff laid pamphlets and brochures on every seat. Meanwhile secret service agents paced the grandstand perimeter and dog handlers guided their canine companions through the area searching for bombs.
Behind the grandstand was a military encampment full of support and transport vehicles together with temporary buildings that housed soldiers who were to take part in the demonstration. A chow tent saw a queue forming and the quiet chatter could be heard along with the clanking of cutlery as the men prepared themselves for the day ahead.
Lucy reverently returned her sheathed sword onto its stand with the others and stepped backwards then turned away. The apartment smelled of bleach and other cleaning products but it was spotlessly clean. Lucy possessed Luminol and a UV light in amongst her field kit and she had checked her cleaning work thoroughly. Even if evidence of a blood stain was present no one was going to know who it belonged to, DNA had been purged.
With a slight limp Lucy began to stow her cleaning products away in her utility room and put a full rubbish sack by the front door next to a waiting hand luggage sized suitcase. Lucy always had a packed case ready to go, just in case, and now was one of those times she needed it. At least with a few days away she could lie low and let her wound heal. It was only superficial and now it was cleaned up and bandaged she should be fine for the journey.
Lucy glanced at her watch, time was growing short. She looked around the room and mentally tallied everything one last time. The bullet that had lodged in her ceiling when one of the attackers shot off the chain guard of her door had been recovered as had the one that had grazed her leg, the bullet holes repaired with filler. The sword she had used to kill Nordic was spotless. The floor was pristine, the blood of her enemies erased from existence and the bedding where Neomi had assaulted Lisa cleaned over and over and over again during the night before being trashed.
There was no reason for anyone to suspect anything had happened in the apartment now, the police were never going to find out what happened. The only thing that concerned Lucy now was if The Resolution were seeking her and she needed time and space to figure that out. Only Selena could ensure the mercenary could keep the life she had. Not the life of money though, she valued the life of belonging, the life with family. She would miss all of them if she had to stay away, even Selena.
Lucy's mind drifted to Lisa. She had sacrificed her values in more ways than she knew to keep her brothers and sisters in blue from turning the apartment into a crime scene. Lucy might have been overreacting, overcautious, but she knew that nothing good would come from exposing her identity to scrutiny. Having Neomi's body wouldn't help in finding out what she had been up to. Lisa just had to be strong and ride this storm out and press on with her work. And as for Kara …...
Lisa Kozy walked painfully to her desk, trying to mask the pain in her ribs and found her partner sat opposite her, a grin on his face. The technicians on the night shift at the forensics department had managed to sharpen up the license plate of the taxi that their suspect, Neomi, had climbed into after her arrival.
“Jeez Kozny, what the fuck happened to you!” Gomez said as he took in Lisa's darkening bruises around her eyes.
“Don't you start, every uniform from the street to here has been asking. It's delayed bruising from where I landed on my face when Miss Delacroix shot me,” Lisa lied.
“Well, hopefully the net is closing in on Miss Delacroix faster than she thinks. I have that license plate – I'm tracking the cab company down now,” Gomez said as he clicked at his keyboard.
Lisa tried to think how she would react now. A good lead like that would be hard to ignore except she knew Neomi Delacroix was dead. Lucy no doubt would have already disposed of the body along with that of the tall fair haired guy.
“Great,” Lisa mustered.
“Well don't sound too happy,” Gomez quipped with a momentary frown.
“It's not that, it's always those crappy cab companies, you go to those places to get their trip sheets and they are total rat holes,” Lisa continued, covering for herself.
“So, what's the plan for today?” Gomez asked, his eyes darting up and down at his screen searching for something.
“Well, I was supposed to see that Wouter guy, the flight engineer yesterday but things got interesting when Oscar showed up. I've got to reschedule that before he leaves for the funeral. I've also got to get names of the replacement crew. If Van Der Walt was killed to get this other crew on his route we have to check them out. Oh ….!” Lisa said, stopping abruptly when she saw an email.
“Hey, I've got the passport photo for Delacroix,” Lisa said calmly.
“Oh, let me see,” Gomez said, rising from his desk and walking around to Lisa's side.
Lisa stared at the image. Not the most flattering passport photo in the world but the piercing eyes of the person in the picture were most certainly of her attacker.
“It's her,” Lisa confirmed, her tone flat. “That's the bitch who shot me”
“You sure?! Well, that's great! You can put the voice to her face and the recording puts her voice as being the murderers. We even have her name too!” Gomez grinned.
To Gomez it seemed the case was really progressing but for Lisa this was nothing useful at all. Kara and Lucy were right, Neomi was a weapon, the person pulling her trigger was more important. Whoever it was though was still a complete unknown.
“OK, I'm going to send this on to the communications department, see if they can get the news channels to re-run the audio clip again but with her face. Any joy with finding the company that runs that taxi yet?” Kozny asked, glancing up at Gomez who was stood over her shoulder looking at Neomi's passport image.
“He's part of a small family operation, I'll arrange to meet and get a look at their trip sheets. Then we can take it from there,” Gomez said seeming distracted as he took in Neomi's picture.
“Want to date her?” Lisa asked, slightly annoyed. Neomi, despite being dead had been dead pretty too.
“Oscar was right, out of his league. Anyway, anyone who shoots my partner kind of disqualifies themself from my dating pool. Besides, I've always got Rochelle” Gomez said as he returned to his desk with a wink.
“Dream on, Gomez. Right, I better tell the Cap' the news about Delacroix,” Lisa said, rising from her seat.
Selena sipped her tea, trying to force herself to be calm and yet the cup quivered ever so slightly in her normally rock solid grip. She had been decrypting the stolen files while knowing that Molly's inbound trace was hunting her down. The work had continued through the night and Selena had maintained a vigil while also preparing to travel. Soon Selena would get to the airport using the services of one of her old confidants and meet with Lucy.
Selena used a separate identity to fly as, and it was her alternate identity that had booked flights and arranged accommodation at their destination. There she could re-establish herself and use her resources to hopefully guide Kara in defusing this latest threat. Some might consider this a retreat but Selena knew it was more like a strategic withdrawal. All her forces were intact, she just needed time to reposition. Also weighing on Selena's mind was Lucy and The Resolution. Selena needed to know if Molly had sent them against her Asian mercenary, one of Selena's most potent pieces in the game of chess she found herself in.
Selena turned her attention to the hard drives that held Supergirl's darkest secrets. Locked and encrypted to the moon and back they also featured custom data interface connector configurations and had non-standard power requirements. To anyone the connections looked standard but attempt to connect the drives up to anything over than the required equipment and POOF, the data would be gone. In fact Selena's main worry was that the data would be erased, not that it would ever become compromised by undesired parties. Anyway, Selena had a plan to keep the data safe for now at least.
On board a personnel transport helicopter Molly Matthews and a team of field engineers flew towards the test range. Across Molly's thighs rested her laptop which she furiously keyed in commands to, remotely conversing with her mainframe system back at her headquarters. Everything was going to plan, her trace was going to put pressure on Selena to flee, perhaps even her other friends too. And as for the superheroine, Molly had no doubt where she would be when the time came.
“By the time you figure out what I am doing you will all be committed to your paths” smirked Molly.
Sat at one of the nearby seats an engineer listening intently to a voice on a headset peeled one of the speaker cups from his ear and looked to Matthews who looked inquisitively back at him.
“Doctor Matthews, our ETA is still on schedule and the installation team say that the Mechs have been checked out after their trip. There are a few minor things to correct but they should all be serviceable for the demonstration,” said the engineer over the noise of the helicopter's engine.
“When we arrive see to it that our good Captain gets settled in, we want him to give a good display for the president, don't we,” asserted Matthews, her eyes returning to her screen as she did so.
“Of course, Dr Matthews”
CHAPTER 25
President Garrison was aboard Marine One making her trip from Camp David to the test range accompanied by her aides. The trip, as always, was never an excuse to take in the scenery. There was always some meeting or item of business to attend to and this was no exception.
Garrison's chief of staff, Alice, had a series of documents for the president to sign in a folder which she placed on the table separating her boss from the Defense Secretary, Daniel Slater. The pair had been quietly discussing some minor events going on in the Middle East.
“OK.. that's enough of that topic, Daniel. Has there been any further word on the cyber-attack?” Garrison asked casually. Nothing more had been mentioned at her morning security briefings but she knew what she got given had been filtered down to the most important items.
“The guys hit a wall, the depth of the information being sought out just leads to too many potential outcomes. But our analysts are keeping what they have put together on the back burner, if they see anything that fits the pattern in the future they will dig again,” Slater responded with a shake of the head.
The egg-heads had been confident they might learn what the cyber attacker had been looking for but had been unable to put the entire jigsaw puzzle back together.
“It is troubling that this Vel character may be doing something under our very noses and we don't know what it is,” Garrison said.
“Has anyone said if our new friends have used the INFINITY program yet?” Daniel asked.
“I asked that I be informed right away when something happens, but so far, nothing. But it is far too early. Whoever the chosen one is needs time to settle into the idea first,” Garrison answered as she flipped open the folder Alice had left on the table.
“Do you really intend to keep a lid on whoever slides into that program? We are risking a lot that whoever Supergirl has chosen to run this for her is reliable,” Daniel asked as he looked out the window to the scenery passing below.
“I am prepared to risk it, and if anything goes wrong and this all comes to light I will take full responsibility. But I will only take responsibility for what Supergirl and her people do. The program itself? Well apparently that has existed for a while for the exclusive use of the CIA or the NSA. If the time comes it will be for them and people of previous administrations who will have to justify the program they created.” Garrison explained.
“And so they are more likely to want to see Supergirl's people do well, very good,” Slater said with a grin.
“That is the hope. So for now, whoever is in that program stays secret just like everyone else who has ever come before. I wont ask who is in there, and no one will tell,” Garrison replied as she began to sign page after page that was inside the folder.
“Understood,” Slater said with a nod.
Lisa Kozny had just gotten off the phone with the police communications department and forwarded them the passport photo of Neomi Delacroix. It had been hard to be enthusiastic in pressing for the photo to make the news, especially knowing it was a waste of everyone's time. Somebody would urge the local channels to rerun the audio of Neomi murdering Van Der Walt, then someone at the news station would write the piece, someone would do some neat graphics and a banner for the bottom of the screen and then some photogenic airhead would read the segment while even the most diligent members of the public would think how sexy the suspect was as they watched their TVs. In the meantime the body of Neomi was …. well it was somewhere and very much dead.
“Hey, Kozny, you ok?” Gomez asked, peering over his screen at Lisa.
Lisa realised she had been spotted in deep thought, her expression instantly changing as she set eyes back on her partner.
“Yeah, I'm good, just …. never mind, forget it,” Kozny said as she shook her head and carried on with her next task.
“Oh, ok, listen, I am going over to the cab company, see if I can get hold of their trip sheet for Delacroix. Want to come?” Gomez asked as he rose from his seat, getting his side arm from his drawer.
“Errr, no, I need to start going through this, it's the replacement crew list, the airline sent it to me this morning,” Lisa said as she gestured at her screen, stretching her shoulders backwards a moment.
“You sure? I would have thought you would have been all over this, don't you want a piece of the action?” Gomez paused with a frown.
Lisa blinked. Gomez was right, if Neomi was alive Lisa would have been leading a charge out the door. She had to cover for herself quickly.
“Listen, just find out if they have the trip sheet first, don't go anywhere on your own. Find out where we need to go and I will be with you,” Lisa said.
“So! Forget that shit, let's ...” Gomez began, his arm gesturing at Kozny's screen. A crew list seemed no comparison to closing in on someone who had shot his partner.
“Gomez, I know you think this is about getting Delacroix, but it isn't, its finding out why she killed Van Der Walt. I am sure the answer is in here,” Lisa said, her tone artificially abrasive.
Gomez studied his partner. Was she afraid? Had being shot by Neomi changed her? When she had heard Neomi's voice again on the tape she went white. Had she really let her attacker get to her? For a moment a tiny doubt about his partner entered his mind, a doubt he didn't want to pursue.
“I'm not saying that stuff's not important, partner, but.... she shot you, girl.” Gomez said with a slight twist in the way he said 'partner' and then turned to leave.
Lisa's stomach sank as she realised what this case was doing to them. Just as she and Lucy had to defend opposing needs and likewise with Kara here she was failing the one man she really needed to have her back. Worse, she needed him to know that she was there for him and right now she was letting him down.
“Gomez, wait. You're right, give me the cab company address. Let me find out where they took our femme fatale,” Lisa said with renewed vigour.
“FINALLY! You're back” Gomez growled.
“Yes, I will do it but YOU go through that crew list instead. Start with Captain Stevenson, Van Der Walt's replacement and do some background checks,” Lisa said.
“Promise me, if you get a drop off address from the cab company you won't go alone,” Gomez pleaded.
“As soon as I get something I'll call for back up, ok?” Lisa said as she pulled her gear together.
“Good, the uni's are already giving me grief for not being with you the last time. Don't make me let you down again,” Gomez quipped. He tried to say it with good humour but Lisa could just see a hint of regret in his eyes.
Generally the brotherhood of being a cop was as strong as iron. Being on the inside,the right side, you could count on everyone to watch your back. Screw up though and the chatter would begin, usually starting from the locker rooms of the uniformed officers and subtly permeating the offices of the detectives. Gomez was blameless in the shooting of Kozny, but just a cheap jibe, even an innocent one about him not being there for the event could have stuck in his mind. Lisa knew she had to buck up and play through the charade.
The decryption routine hit one hundred percent, the locked files from Molly's systems now free for Selena to read. Unfortunately the trace that had been hunting her down was also about to reach her, the countdown only a minute or so from locking on.
With a few key strokes the stolen and unlocked files were moved to a laptop computer and then Selena glanced about herself, taking in the lair. One of many this particular one had some fond memories associated with it, a few mental images passing by her eyes causing her to smile. Supergirl featured in many of her recollections but Lucy was there too, her nervous expression as the timer to a Semtex filled dildo locked inside her body bleeped ominously as part of some sick joke.
Subtly nodding Selena knew it was time to move on. She could never come back to this place again but no doubt the decaying industrial zones dotted about the city would offer up a new home in New York. With a few key strokes Selena set in motion her self destruct procedure, her servers and mainframe starting to destroy their drives then themselves. Fire would no doubt take hold, destroying any useable evidence of her former presence there and then burn itself out deep in the basement of the abandoned factory, invisible to everyone.
Up on the surface Mr Shepherd, a long time confidant waited patiently, Selena's luggage in the trunk of his car as well as some hard drives she had asked him to hold in safekeeping for her. He had served her faithfully on and off over time since her escape from prison, he was her muscle in times of need and right now she really was in need. Theirs was a special bond but that was another story, save to say they had shared some adventures long before she had ever gotten her claws into Supergirl.
Ahead of her lay the drive to the airport but en-route she would begin to try and discover what Molly was up to before she took to the air. After that it would be less guaranteed she could contact anyone left behind and she really wanted to give her best effort before she left the country.
The Sanderson Corporation helicopter touched down amongst the other parked aircraft on its assigned numbered slot which was painted on to the hard baked soil. Once the wheels settled the handler on the ground crossed his arms above his head making an X with his luminous orange batons and the blades of the helicopter began to slow. Almost immediately the side doors began to unlatch and the steps slowly unfurled with the hinged door which swung downwards on hydraulic struts.
At first a couple of suited men exited followed my Molly herself who elegantly made her way down the steps of the helicopter. Behind them came Captain McAllister and some more engineers who chatted amongst themselves. Waiting to greet them all was Mitchell, the head Sanderson Corporation engineer.
“Doctor Matthews, ah and Captain McAllister.” acknowledged Mitchell.
“Mr Mitchell, I trust everything is in place?” Molly said sternly.
“Yes, of course, Doctor Matthews. The support team is in the trailer completing their installation checks. Would you like to go there first?” Mitchell asked.
“Yes, that would be best” Molly said as she turned to face McAllister and the engineers that had just disembarked. “Captain, my engineers will escort you to the mech holding area”
“Thank you, ma'am. Gentlemen, let's get me saddled up!” McAllister said with a grin. He had been looking forward to getting to put the mech's through their paces outdoors in the real world at last.
“Yes, Captain,” one of the engineers said as they got their bearings with the aid of a paper map of the site.
Mitchell and Matthews walked together towards the support trailer which stood to the side of the grandstand facing out towards the test range. The trailer was more than a simple unit towed behind a truck. It was a sophisticated structure bristling with antenna's and dishes and hooked up to several generators and air conditioning units to keep the electronics and personnel inside cool. This was the nerve centre of the mech demonstration, monitoring the performance of the behemoths while they were in action.
Molly and Mitchell ascended the steps to a hatch and the pair badged themselves in, pressing their identity cards to a reader before the doorway unlocked with a clunk. Sitting back to back in two rows down the length of the trailer there were operators on seats at their consoles while many other positions were empty, the demonstration not yet under way.
As Matthews entered followed by Mitchell heads turned, quickly nodding in acknowledgement to Molly as she locked eyes on her staff. Walking down the line between the technicians Molly could hear the radio chatter and the murmur of her staff welcoming her quietly but she walked on with Mitchell close behind her, not saying a word. At the far end of the trailer there was another hatchway and some steps that led upward to another deck, such was the height of the trailer.
The second floor was similarly equipped as the floor below. They had five mechs to display and each had its own set of consoles to monitor their condition. But, what this floor had that the other didn't was the special remote pilot station. While the military was interested in having a manned combat system they also wanted to see how well they would perform as a drone. Beyond the last doorway was the 'remote and virtual reality control room', this was what Molly had come to see. From here a pilot could remotely control a mech or get a virtual reality experience as if they were on board the mech themselves.
“Everything checked out before we left and the diagnostic program has already been run twice by the installation team,” Mitchell assured her as he badged open the door.
“Good, it will be an interesting virtual experience, being test driven in a mech by an expert pilot,” Molly said as the door swung open.
In the centre of the small chamber was a cockpit equivalent to the ones on the mechs but with a VR headset attached.
“I'll let you get set up then. I trust you will be meeting the president when she arrives?” Mitchell asked.
“Oh certainly, I wouldn't miss that. Now leave me,” Molly said as stared intently at the cockpit.
“As you wish, Doctor Matthews,” Mitchell said with a grin. The boss looked content and if she was content then it meant no one was getting chastised or browbeaten by the stern woman.
Molly closed the door behind her once Mitchell left and she let her finger trail around the frame of the artificial cockpit which was mounted to the hard deck floor and hooked up with a thick armoured cable harness. The chair was what had been in one of the large boxes supplied by Donovan in exchange for the information that had been almost lost on the fire damaged hard drives.
Molly placed herself in the seat, her hands and feet lightly settling onto the controls. Now wasn't the time for the full on experience she was preparing for but to finally grasp the tools of Supergirl's destruction gave her yet more confidence in what was soon to transpire.
CHAPTER 26
Captain McAllister limbered up in his mech, the engineering variant. This was the first giant toy to come out of the box in the demonstration routine and he wanted to make a good first impression. In the distance he had heard the faint sound of the band play 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' and knew the president, the joint chiefs and all the top brass were now waiting in the grandstand for the show to begin.
One of the technicians who had been escorting the mech at a respectful distance listened carefully to the radio chatter in his ear and then looked to the pilot of the machine in front of him.
“OK Captain, you're on!” the technician said as he gestured towards the front of the grandstand.
McAllister glanced down at his first set of display notes that were on a piece of paper inside a clear pocket on his thigh.
“Enter StdRt @ JOG ---> Agility Routine” was the first line in his plan.
“Central, Mike Echo Victor is good to go – all ok your end?” McAllister asked into his radio.
“Mike Echo Victor, Central. The board is green,” replied Mitchell from the support trailer.
“Roger that, leaving the holding area now, onto line one of the program,” McAllister said confidently.
“Understood! Commentary – go!” crackled Mitchell in reply.
VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD - VWER-THUD– VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD
The mech walked forward several strides and then McAllister broke out into a jog, the machine effortlessly covering tens of meters of ground with each bound.
“And so ladies and gentlemen – please welcome our test pilot Captain Martin McAllister and our first mech to be displayed, the engineering variant,” the commentator announced over the loudspeaker system.
McAllister could hear the applause as he appeared into view from the right hand side of the grandstand while working at a jog. The beast kicked up dust as McAllister ran in a wide circle in front of his audience before coming to a halt at the center of the circled marked by the machine's own footsteps.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, as you see the default platform is bipedal, two legs, two arms and has locomotion like a human making it quite intuitive for an operator to use. And also like a human …..” the commentator paused as McAllister went to the next phase.
With a deft flick of the wrists McAllister made the mech seemingly falter accompanied by a gasp from the audience as the machine dropped down, metal palms to the ground. There was an audible collective realisation of what had just happened when the machine began to do press-ups in front of the crowd.
“.... the machine is able support itself on more than just its own feet. Any movement that Captain McAllister can perform in the real world, the platform can perform as well,” the commentator continued.
McAllister gave a good firm push of the mechanical limbs and the machine was quickly back on its own feet again before starting a routine of star jumps prompting more applause.
“Of course, our control systems allow our pilots to offset maneuverability against stability if the need arises meaning that the same machine can be used by experts and beginners alike. For example, with maximum stability engaged a new pilot can perform simple actions with no fear of falling over whilst, with assistance dialed down a more agile pilot can ...”
McAllister set his mech into motion, the hands of the machine planting to the ground before performing a handstand. The machine lingered upside down for a moment before returning to its feet, drawing more applause.
“However, if there was a movement that perhaps a pilot struggled to do themselves but needed their mechanical counterpart to perform it, well, we can always pre-program those for our less dexterous operators. Captain, if you would?”
The machine came to a halt front and center of the grandstand and McAllister removed his hands from the controls before speaking into his mic.
“Mike Echo Victor, Central - Go for showboat one” McAllister said into his headset.
“That's affirm Mike Echo Victor” Mitchell responded.
The machine began to pat its head and rub its tummy while McAllister showed his hands were free of the controls.
“This movement was pre-recorded, the Captain's hands are off of the controls, but they could also be enacted by an operator remotely. This means lesser-trained operators can bring mechs to a work site and do most tasks then pass control to one remote central operator when it comes to doing more sophisticated work. Or, perhaps rely on recorded movements to do repetitive skilled work. For example, our Captain here is a great pilot for this machine but his welding skills? Not so good. But, what if …...” the commentary continued.
McAllister regained control of his machine and strode to a pallet to one side of the demonstration area and picked up a short metal I-beam with one mechanical hand and carefully manoeuvred it into position against another at a right angle. With a few keyboard strokes at his cockpit computer McAllister released his grip from the controls for the audience to see and the mech began to precision weld the two pieces of metal together.
“Now remember, the default mech platform is meant to be interchangeable. A platoon of mech's set up in a military configuration today can be come reconfigured into a team of engineering mech's like this tomorrow. Soldiers can become highly effective construction workers with little training over night, meaning you can fortify positions, or, perhaps quickly construct shelters, hospitals or schools if you are are trying to win hearts and minds,” the commentator explained as the mech finished the welding process.
Up in the grandstand President Garrison watched on impressed. The machine in front of her seemed powerful, agile and precise, not at all how she had imagined it would be. Robotics seemed to have come on a great deal more than she could ever have imagined. If this engineering version could transform a mere man into a heavy lifting construction machine what was she going to see the other versions do? Glancing about the audience Garrison could see that the Generals looked impressed and as for, what was her name? Matthews? She seemed to be very intense. Having met when she arrived Garrison found the genius doctor difficult to read but that was often a character trait of the special ones, to be socially awkward.
Lucy put her boarding pass card to the scanner guarding the large glass panelled door which opened almost silently. Lucy entered conspicuously into the VIP lounge beyond and glanced around her new surroundings, away from the hubbub of the common areas of the terminal.
In one corner Lucy spied Selena who stared intently at her laptop screen, a small untouched glass of red wine close to hand. Lucy glanced around to see if she had been noticed but everyone else seemed caught up in their own little world, either reading or talking to their companions. Lucy kept her head down and walked calmly towards Selena who glanced up when she noticed movement close by. Selena let out a subtle nod before looking back down at her screen, her face anxious as she continued to search for Molly's evil plan.
Taking her seat opposite Selena Lucy saw a young waitress approach the table. “May I get you something?” asked the stewardess-like uniformed woman.
“Yes, thank you, a mineral water would be great,” Lucy replied, her voice indicating her fatigue.
“May I get you anything more?” the woman asked, turning to Selena.
“This is sufficient, thank you,” Selena replied flatly without even looking up causing the young woman to blink.
“It's been a long day,” Lucy said, her expression softening for the waitress.
With a smile and a nod the stewardess turned away allowing Lucy to relax once more.
“I thought Kara had been giving you some lessons in being nice,” Lucy quipped as she rubbed her eyes.
“For someone who has probably spent the night bleaching out the last remnants of your former work colleague's existence you can barely lecture me in niceties.” Selena said coldly, her eyes still focused on the screen.
Lucy glared at Selena who didn't even look back rendering her protest inert.
“I don't suppose you...” Lucy said, trying to change tack.
“Found out if they are looking for you? Sorry, busy!” Selena said, stamping out that line of inquiry immediately.
“What do you have there?” Lucy asked, wondering what was engaging Selena so intently.
“Well..our wondrous government say they were attacked by an alien intelligence, and the trail led right back to our good friend Molly and the Sanderson Corporation. No doubt she has contracted a bad case of 'Vel disease'. So, I've hacked her back to find out what she is up to,” Selena explained in a minimal sense.
“And, what IS she up to?” Lucy asked as she saw the waitress approach with a bottle of water and a glass for her.
“Unfortunately, a lot. The good news is that knowing Vel's monstrous side has a desire to rule the world I can eliminate all the innocuous looking stuff and focus on the rest,” Selena explained, noting the imminent arrival of the waitress again.
“And how long might it take?” Lucy asked as the waitress placed down the glass and bottle of water, prompting the mercenary to look up with a grateful smile.
“Depends...” Selena said, sparing a fraction of her concentration to speak.
Lucy was smart and knew where the icy Selena was leading her to. Asking more questions was going to end in an angry tirade she was sure. It was time to pause the questions and let her work.
“Understood,” Lisa said as she twisted the metal cap of the bottle open and poured herself some water.
Detective Kozny parked her car and exited, locking the door behind herself as she crossed the road towards the small dispatcher's office of the taxi company. Waiting patiently in the cramped reception area was an old lady with a tiny wheeled shopping basket while on the other side of a plexi glass windowed area a harassed dispatcher pressed buttons on his radio system.
“Charlie – ETA to the office? Mrs Hopkirk is here for her weekly shopping trip”
The radio chatter that came back seemed almost unintelligible to Lisa's ears but the dispatcher managed to understand it.
“Two minutes, cheers Charlie!” the dispatcher replied.
Mrs Hopkirk acknowledged the dispatcher, grateful for his enquiry and then she began to check over herself, making sure her purse was secure and that her trolley was ready.
“Yes Miss, what can I do for you?” the dispatcher asked Lisa while his trained ear listened to the garbled transmissions from his radio.
Lisa produced her badge and held it up for the dispatcher to see.
“Hi, my partner, Detective Gomez was in contact with your office, sir. You have some trip sheet information for us?”
“Ah sure, let me buzz you in,” the dispatcher said as he reached under his desk which prompted the door into the office area to become unlocked.
Lisa pushed at the door and entered the small dingy office which stank of cigarettes, coffee and fast food. No doubt the drivers would sometimes convene here when they took a rest break, evidenced by the bin full of wrappers and used napkins that were threatening to overflow from it. Behind the dispatcher a wall was lined with shelves which held large ring binders, all labelled and seemingly in some kind of order.
Lisa produced her notebook and pen, her arms hanging by her side as she waited for the dispatcher to attend to her but he seemed to be busy.
“So ….” hinted Lisa, chased by a subtle cough.
“Sure, see on the the third row, the blue file? It's partially pulled out, that's the one you need,” the dispatcher said, barely turning in his seat.
Lisa spotted the file and drew it out, putting it down on the table to read. The file was full of hand written sheets, daily trip logs of the drivers journeys. Written in rough drivers scrawl under each column the driver had to record where he picked someone up, the time, where he took them and the time of arrival as well as the fare he charged and how it was paid for.
Lisa flicked back through the pages and found the morning of Neomi's arrival. With a finger trailing down the page Lisa scanned for the entry she was looking for. The driver had taken someone to the airport first and had logged a break as they waited for a passenger to return back into the city with. And there it was, the record she needed,directly afterwards.
Neomi had paid cash, smart woman, but she couldn't conceal the address she was taken to.
“Time to continue the charade,” thought Lisa as she set her eyes on a photocopier situated in the corner of the office.
“Now ladies and gentlemen, while Captain McAllister changes mechs for his next demonstration we direct your attention to the range for our first live fire test. For those without binoculars you can watch on the big screen,” the announcer said as a large screen to the side of the grandstand came to life.
Way off in the distance and in the open an unmanned mech stood amongst a sea of life-size wooden target soldiers. Some of the generals in the crowd raised their binoculars and studied the view while others turned their heads to the screen. Dotted around the test area were cameras and the view flicked from one view to another to show what was to come next.
“As you may be able to see, we have our close air defense mech situated within a cluster of targets. The ones painted blue are within the perimeter protected by our defense system and those in red are not. Now such defense systems are not entirely new, but to have them on a versatile and interchangeable platform that is mobile and can move with infantry certainly is. For this demonstration we will begin with something simple. Let's hear it for the men and women of the Fourth Infantry Division's twenty-third regiment,” the announcer continued as polite applause began and the camera feed switched to show a cluster of mortar emplacements that were situated somewhere out in the distance.
Among the mortar emplacements an officer listened to radio chatter that confirmed the announcer had handed the show over to them.
“Mortar one, elevation and azimuth as set, green smoke, one round, FIRE!” barked the officer, prompting a soldier to slot in a smoke round into the muzzle of the mortar and …
P'DUMFFF
With an expert eye the officer raised his binoculars to his eyes and watched the green smoke marker land in among the targets confirming that his earlier settings were still valid.
“And there ladies and gentlemen is the smoke round, just confirming the the mortar crews are set up correctly ...” the announcer reported.
Mitchell in the support trailer listened to his radio, hearing that the mortar crew were ready to start the test.
“OK, activate the system,” Mitchell ordered his technicians at their consoles who began to fire up the mech's systems remotely.
The officer waited patiently, his gaze settling on his men as the loaders grasped a shell ready to slot into their weapons.
“Central to Firebase, system ready, commence firing,” crackled the radio.
“All mortars, H.E., ten rounds, FIRE FOR EFFECT!” ordered the officer.
Each of the half dozen mortar crews sprung to life, the loaders casting their first shells into the mortar tubes. The rounds slid down the tubes and then with a brief pause were let loose, the distinctive hollow sound from the muzzle kicking up dust from their emplacements as the tubes themselves began to ring.
On the big screen the scene switched from the camera overlooking the mortar crews that had begun to fire and returned to watch over the area where the targets stood patiently. The mech, pilotless but active rose to attention, the radar sensors detecting the mortar rounds about to land from overhead. The mech and its mini-guns mounted to its forearms pointed upwards to the sky and …..
BVWRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The mini-guns seemed to hum or buzz like an angry bee as thousands of rounds were fired into the sky, the barrels starting to glow with the heat. The air was painted with neon red lines of tracer as the multi-barrelled guns fired at the incoming targets, the mortar rounds becoming shredded in mid air. Certainly there was debris falling to the ground but for the blue targets under the mech's protection the damage was a lot less dangerous than it was for the unlucky red targets that it could not keep safe. There the mortars landed intact, exploding and riddling the wooden targets with shrapnel and sending wooden chunks flying.
To many in the audience, the humanoid form of the mech battling with the incoming ordnance amongst the dust and smoke looked like something from a science-fiction film. Twisting at the hips then aiming and firing in simple fluid movements the machine seemed to effortlessly execute its duty.
“My god, what have we created?” Garrison said under her breath as she saw the enthusiastic applause of the military men around her in their safe sterile seating area. A short distance away Molly let out a sly grin as she read the face of the President then rose from her seat. Soon this act would be over and the grand finale would begin. Molly wanted to be ready when the curtain rose, she was after all going to be the star of her own show.
CHAPTER 27
Lucy and Selena were sat nearby to one another on the huge jet. Despite its size there was little noise from the engines, only a gentle hum. Selena worked away on her laptop, continuing her efforts as before, her eyes scanning line after line of directories and files.
“Does this seem right to you?” Lucy asked anxiously as she looked around herself.
“What is wrong now?” Selena asked curtly.
“This all feels off. Wrong. It's like I am having deja vu or something” Lucy said as she continued to look about the cabin.
“Of course you are having deja vu, it is because you have been with me here before, remember?” Selena said, rolling her eyes.
It had been some time before when Supergirl had recruited Selena to help sow her 'Seeds of Deception'. In order to do that Selena had organized an interrogation of the superheroine as they journeyed on the type of aircraft they found themselves on now. The interrogators, which had included Lucy when she had been working for The Resolution had been misled by Supergirl. She had fed them lies while she actually thought it was the truth, thus tricking Lucy's sophisticated lie detector equipment.
“Of course I remember, but ...” Lucy scowled. She knew full well that she had been on this type of plane before, but it wasn't that which made her feel ill at ease, it was something else, something that she couldn't place.
“Oh my, what is this?!” Selena said as she leaned in towards her laptop attentively, dismissing Lucy and her concerns from her mind.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen we present to you our next variant which we call, The Spider. Unlike our multi-role platform The Spider features additional secondary limbs,” the announcer explained as Captain McAllister commenced his display routine.
McAllister placed his machine in front of the audience and came to a halt, the machine waving to the audience with one its main limbs before repeating the action with all four of its secondary appendages.
“Now what makes this version useful is the ability to do a mixture of heavy lifting from its primary limbs while being very capable of doing finer, detailed work. This could be useful for example in rescue operations, or bomb disposal or in the handling of hazardous materials,” the commentary went on.
Out in the distance the men of the mortar emplacements were packing away their gear. Having dismantled their weapons the tubes, tripods and base plates were being packed onto wooden pallets alongside a military transporter. The transporter had its own crane mounted to it and was hoisting the pallets aboard, one by one.
“Hey, Sarge, is that thing meant to be moving?” asked one of the junior ranks as he gestured with his thumb out across the dusty plain.
The sergeant looked over his shoulder down range and could see the mech that had stood vigil over the blue painted targets was walking towards them.
“Shit, I don't know, we were just meant to drop some shells on it, not be its babysitter,” the sergeant responded as he checked the next pallet was ready to be hoisted by the crane.
The young lieutenant who had been in charge of the mortar team overheard the chatter of his men and walked around from the back of the transporter and raised his binoculars with curiosity. There in the distance the mech was on the move, marching up range towards their positions.
“Sir?” the sergeant enquired. He wondered if the officer could see what was happening.
“That is the darnedest thing ...” the officer said quietly to himself with narrowing eyes as he lowered his binoculars.
In the officer's mind he knew something was wrong. The test range had been laid out quite carefully so there was no danger of a stray mortar shell or a round from the miniguns ever reaching the rest of the display area. But if the mech was being repositioned without care it could be a hazard if it were to misfire.
“Sergeant, get the Op-Plan from the truck would you?” the officer said calmly as he looked back towards the grandstand off in the distance, then back at the mech.
There were a few nervous glances from the junior ranks and the young officer realised it was own expression that was spooking them. With a sharp clap of his hands he re-focused their minds.
“Come on guys, the sooner we get these mortars back to camp the sooner you can get some chow. If you are lucky the C.I.C. may deign to leave us some cake from the buffet!” he urged them, trying to change their focus.
“Sir, the Op-Plan” the sergeant said, handing over a small booklet having trotted back from the cab of the truck.
“Thank you, Sergeant,” the young lieutenant said as he began to flick through the pages of the plan. He wanted to make sure he knew what he was talking about before sounding stupid across the comms traffic.
Going through the steps of the planned display routine the young lieutenant locked eyes on the entry for the air defense mech. After the mortars were done he was to dismantle his positions and return via the route marked on the map and the mech was supposed ….
“Someone or something has fouled up. Sergeant, we need central on the horn,” the lieutenant said anxiously as he looked back at the mech that was closing in steadily.
“Corporal Horst, the radio for the Lieutenant,”
“Yes, sir!” Corporal Horst called back as he jogged with the radio pack loaded to his back.
The Lieutenant snatched off the mic from its cradle and clicked the send button.
“Errr, firebase, central do you copy, over?” the officer asked.
There was a static-laden pause and then,
“Central, firebase, we copy, what's the problem, over?”
“Firebase, Central , we are just stowing the mortars and I can see the mech is moving towards us. I am just concerned about maintaining safe separation,” the officer explained.
“Central, firebase, understood, I am investigating, over,”
“Firebase, central, thank you, over,” the Lieutenant said as he hung the mic back up onto its cradle.
The Lieutenant surveyed the scene, his equipment was only partially stowed but the mech was moving uncomfortably close. If it had a malfunction of some kind it posed a hazard. This was only an exercise, not a combat situation and the young man had a duty to protect his men. There would be no harm in taking a cautious approach to the situation.
“Sergeant, we are pulling out! Get the men mounted up!” the Lieutenant ordered.
“Sir? But the mort...” began the sergeant with confusion.
“Now, Sergeant! That's an ….” the Lieutenant managed before being cut short.
Suddenly the scene was torn to shreds. The truck was jolted, the wooden drop panels along the vehicle's flank splintering into pieces while the metal chassis sparked and pinged. The truck's tyres were rapidly shredded and the glass of the cab splintered. The truck's metal door panel was instantly ruptured with bullet holes, the screams within the vehicle underscoring the deadly attack.
For the men by the truck the volley of fire was even more devastating. Men were riddled with lead and limbs were instantly torn off, a mist of red marking where each man had stood as their bodies slumped to the floor with hardly a groan. In all some twenty men had been killed in a burst of fire that had lasted barely a second. The signature hum of the miniguns firing fell upon the site as the last man's dying breath wheezed from his bloodied body.
Up in the grandstand those watching the display being performed directly in front of them failed to see the momentary horizontal beam of red tracer fire as the mech committed its deadly act in the distance. The brief duration of the salvo and the relatively short distance between the mech and its target made for only a fleeting and unnoticed spectacle. Those who heard anything above the voice on the loudspeaker system were distracted for only a split second before their gaze returned to the incredible machine performing in front of them.
In the support trailer Mitchell strode back and forth between the ranks of operators who were monitoring the performance of The Spider while one of their number checked in on the mech that had been in the air defense demonstration.
“Anything?” Mitchell pressed, looking at the technician for an answer.
“The telemetry says it's not moving, it's in its parked position in the blue zone,” the technician said with a Gallic shrug, gesturing at the readings.
“Well, firebase says it is ! Check again,” Mitchell insisted. While he had faith in the technology at his command he was equally confident in the men in uniform. He was more inclined to trust their eyes than a mere readout on a screen.
“Maybe it was just idling movement they saw?” the technician countered. As part of their own stability mechanism the mechs would move slightly to retain their balance and joints also flexed from time time to ensure they maintained clean movement.
“This is a multi-billion defense order on the line here and you are going to risk it on a 'maybe'? You can tell me how that worked out when you are living in the cardboard box we gave you to clear your desk,” Mitchell growled.
“I'll run a diagnostic on the links, maybe the telemetry feed has timed out,” the technician said nervously, his fingers clicking across the keyboard.
“Yes, you do that,” Mitchell said, his tone blunt.
Mike Loughlan was in his office checking everything was set for the weekend to come. Monday was the day of his presentation for the oversight board and he didn't want to inherit problems from the weekend to add to the day. Though diminished the Sanderson Corporation still spanned the globe, there was always something happening somewhere within his domain. By the time he would return to his office on Monday morning Japan, China, Russia and Europe would have had their business day mostly resolved already, he would be behind the curve.
What pained him at the moment was the price action on Sanderson Corporation shares, he was sure there was buying happening at the fringes. It was like they were being targeted for a take over though no one had come forward and made any announcement about such a move. Fortunately while the oversight board was on his side he probably had enough support to fend off a buy out.
“Hmmm, as for that matter...,” Loughlan thought to himself as he leaned over and pressed his intercom key.
“Yes Mr Loughlan?” responded a voice.
“Gina, could you pull together the list of attendees for the oversight meeting on Monday please?” Loughlan asked.
“Yes, Mr Loughlan,” Gina replied.
Lisa Kozny was crossing the city towards the location that the taxi had taken Neomi Delacroix to when she had arrived in New York. Lisa planned to survey the area a little first and if there were obvious places her suspect had gone to next she would get Gomez and a few uniformed officers to canvas the area. With luck once they found wherever Neomi was staying the trail would go cold. Pursuing Neomi to her bitter end would only end up with Lucy and maybe even herself in deep deep trouble.
Lisa's mind drifted to Lucy and wondered how she was bearing up. Lucy had had the dubious honour of clearing up the mess after they had conspired to cover up their attempt to kill Lisa. No doubt that had been a night of gruesome work but Lisa had to repeatedly reassure herself that what was being done was the right thing though totally illegal. Even Supergirl had been there and if …
“Oh Kara, what have I done to you?” Lisa thought to herself. By getting blood on her hands she had somehow gotten Kara's hands dirty too.
Suddenly, just as Lisa's morale was flagging, her cell phone rang.
GOMEZ
Lisa accepted the call, pressing the hands-free controls on the steering wheel of her car.
“Hey, Gomez, what's up?” Lisa said trying to maintain the pretence of enthusiasm.
“Hey, I've been doing those background checks like you asked,” began Gomez.
“Oh, have you found something?” Lisa asked hopefully. Her eyes dancing between the road ahead and her mirrors.
“Well, it might be nothing but, the first officer, there was a break in at his address during the early hours of Wednesday morning, there was flag against it because no one has done any followup,” Gomez explained.
“Does it say why not?” Lisa asked with a frown. Usually someone would follow up on the incident even if it was just a courtesy visit. Wednesday was the day after after Van Der Walt was killed and it was already Friday.
“Well, the uniforms who responded logged that the lady of the house, his fiancée, errrr, a Miss Fairchild, she reported nothing appeared stolen,” Gomez went on.
“But you think there may be more to it?” Lisa responded.
“Hey, you're the one who thinks there is something hinky going on with the crew, not me,” laughed Gomez.
Lisa thought on it a moment. At any other time this would be a 'nothing' incident but anything odd or out of place involving people in this case might be important, no matter how trivial it seemed. At any rate she felt that doing anything other than chasing Neomi's trail to Lucy's apartment would help make the sick sensation in her stomach go away.
“OK, give me the address and I will go check it out before we chase Delacroix down” Lisa said.
Lucy's eyes studied Selena's face as she drove on through the files she had stolen from Molly's computer system. It was obvious to the Asian mercenary that Selena was onto something, her dogged determination was written all over her face.
“Oh no,” Selena said as she raised her hand and looked at her wrist watch.
“What's wrong?” Lucy asked nervously.
“These …. these are details for some weapons demonstration. President Garrison will both be there and it's happening right now,” Selena said, her eyes locked on the documents open on her machine.
Selena's heart raced. On one map were all the firing arcs for something called 'MADV' and the locations for a grandstand and the encampment behind. A red dot marked the location of the president while others noted the location of Marine One and its escorts parked on a large area allocated to visiting aircraft.
“I think she ...she's going for the President,” Selena with alarm. Suddenly Selena felt trapped on the plane, isolated. By the time they landed and took a return flight back to the States they would have probably missed all the action.
“Are you sure?!” Lucy asked with alarm.
“No, but we better get Kara there to make sure,” Selena said as she grabbed her cellphone.
Being in business class on a super-modern jet such as the one they were on came with certain luxuries, being able to make a phone call and even have internet access was among them. Dialling then clamping her phone to her ear Selena made her call.
“It's ringing,” whispered Selena to Lucy who watched on anxiously.
To Lucy the pause seemed to last a lifetime until eventually she saw in Selena's eyes that Kara had answered.
“Kara, listen carefully ...” Selena began.
CHAPTER 28
Inside the chamber holding the virtual cockpit a catsuited Molly was buckled into her seat and enjoying the show. On the floor were her smart clothes which she had worn while she had been in the presence of the all the V.I.P's. The dual cameras mounted to the air defense mech let her view the scene around her in 3D. From her unique virtual perspective she was able to loom over the bodies of the mortar team, confirming they were dead.
“Good, there will be no 'have-a-go' heroes trying to interrupt my plans!” thought Molly as she prepared to enact the next phase of her trap.
With a click of some keys a map was presented virtually in front of her eyes and with a gesture Molly drew a path for the mech to follow.
“ADV AUTOPILOT NAVIGATION SET” responded a computer voice.
With a racing heart Molly's index finger hovered and then she finally decided to commit. If she pressed the engage key she knew the plan would have to come together or it would have all been for nothing. The heroine had to come! She had to fight or else ….
AUTOPILOT - ENGAGE – Molly struck the key. It was done!
The camera view moved as the mech she was monitoring began to walk on its own, driven by the autopilot.
“OK, Captain, I regret your career is temporarily at least going to take a turn for the worse,” Molly said to herself.
VIRTUAL CONTROL - DISENGAGE
Molly saw her virtual view from the air defense mech disconnect. She had confidence that it would continue to its destination unhindered while she switched focus.
SELECT SPECIAL VARIANT ONE – ENGAGE
Suddenly Molly's eyes could see the view from The Spider, Captain McAllister doing some complex handling work, showing off the machine's incredible dexterity. Truly McAllister was a good pilot, for a human, but now it was time for the president to learn what the machine was truly capable of.
VIRTUAL CONTROL – ENGAGE
“Woah, what was that,” was the collective groan of the technicians as suddenly their telemetry feeds froze. Numbers and readings that had been dynamic and constantly on the move suddenly stopped updating.
“Fuck,” Mitchell said seeing what had happened.
“Errr guys!” crackled McAllister's voice over the radio into Mitchell's ears.
“Central, SV ONE – we see it – what's happening?” Mitchell said, pushing the headphone to his ear.
“SV ONE, central – I've lost...” McAllister began to reply before suddenly the radio cut out.
“Central, SV ONE, say again?” Mitchell barked into the radio, not even static responding.
“Central, SV ONE, comms check!” Mitchell demanded.
“Commentary, Central, pull the plug, PULL THE FUCKING PLUG!” The radio message from the commentary booth that was by the grandstand was enough to say something had gone seriously wrong.
“JEEZUS, shutdown procedures, NOW!” Mitchell began as he reached for a red folder on a shelf.
The control room inside the support suddenly filled with hurried chatter as the technicians began to command the mech to come to a halt.
“It's not answering!” one of the technicians cried in panic as he realised he had been locked out.
“Jeezus,” Mitchell said as he stormed to the exit of the trailer, tossing the red folder behind him.
With a racing heart Mitchell placed his badge to the door lock and let himself out. From inside he had been sheltered from the noise outside but now he could hear the screams.
“Oh my god!” Mitchell thought to himself, his body suddenly turning to jelly dreading what sort of scene awaited him. With adrenaline in his veins Mitchell ran around the side of the trailer to look out into the display area to see The Spider was missing. In its place ten to twenty people lay on the hard sand floor of the demonstration area, their bodies lifeless where they had been fatally swept aside.
The primal need to know mixed with the fear of what sight awaited him filled Mitchell with dread. The screaming continued, the cruel siren's song enticing Mitchell to approach closer and closer. Rounding the corner Mitchell stood at the foot of the grandstand in the display area and ...
With limbs flailing the mech had waded into the grandstand. With each of its main arms the behemoth had swept people off the seating, first from one side then the other. Anyone seen to resist was picked up by the smaller secondary arms and brutally ripped limb from limb as the machine carved a path towards...
“Oh my god, he's after the president!” Mitchell held his head in his hands before deciding on what he had to do. He didn't know if McAllister was rogue or if the machine had a malfunction but if they couldn't make it shut down perhaps he could do something else.
In the stands a momentarily paralysed President Garrison found herself surrounded by secret service agents and lifted clean off of her feet.
“Quarterback is on the move to Marine One – get prepped” yelled one of the secret service agents into his lapel.
Garrison was a mere passenger for the whole event. She knew how to expect to be manhandled in the event of some attempt on her life but no matter how much she was taught it was never going to be nice when it happened.
Driven back up the grandstand by the mechanical threat the party of secret service agents and their charge descended the stairs at the rear, their feet clattering on the wooden boards as they ran. Behind them the crashing and smashing of the machine chewing through the stands could be heard, accompanied by the screams of men and women who were in the crowd.
Unseen, Captain McAllister was quickly learning how much of a passenger he had become. The pilot was desperately running through all his options to try and bring the murderous machine to a standstill but nothing worked. He knew from his own studies of the machine that a lot of his controls were not physically linked to anything, it was software behind almost everything and if that software was bad or subverted somehow then …
“Fuck this is useless! SV-ONE, Central? Anybody? Can anyone hear me?” growled the captain as he witnessed the robotic arms through his blood splattered canopy in front of him tearing at the grandstand seemingly in pursuit of the president.
The Secret Service agents ran from cover to cover, some keeping their eyes ahead, some behind while others served as human shields. Just beyond the camp were the row of about a dozen helicopters, the rotors on Marine One and its two identical twins starting to spin up.
“Marine One, this is 'Coach', let me know when you can take-off, then we will put Quarterback onboard, copy?” said one of the agents into his lapel, his finger pressed to his ear waiting for a reply.
Back at the support trailer Mitchell stumbled back inside through the locked door. Ahead of him some of the technicians were pouring through a tech-manual while another ran through some complicated boolean table on a giant fan folded piece of paper.
“Get out of my way!” screamed Mitchell as he burst through up the gangway towards the stairs.
“We can't shut it down!” yelled one of the technicians as they saw Mitchell run out of sight.
Mitchell stormed up the stairs and reached the door of the virtual cockpit and went to badge himself inside. If they couldn't shutdown the machine via the engineering software perhaps the virtual control would accept his commands instead.
The engineer pushed his badge to the reader and waited for it to unlock, but it didn't.
“Dammit!” Mitchell cursed as he tried again but to no avail.
“I don't understand ...” Mitchell's mind was in a whirl. He and Doctor Matthews both should have access to the room, perhaps his card key was faulty. But then, he had just entered the trailer without problems so...
“Fuck, where is Molly?!” Mitchell cursed to himself as he turned to look the way he came. He needed Molly's help if he was going to stop the …
Suddenly Mitchell was confronted by an uncomfortable reality. Was Matthews the one behind all this? It was her project, her control software, her designs.....
“MATTHEWS – OPEN THIS DOOR – NOW!” yelled Mitchell, his palm slamming against the door.
WHAM BAM BAM BAM!!
Molly's eyes instinctively glanced to the source of the noise as Mitchell made his protests but she had no time for him now, she had mischief to make elsewhere.
The Spider tore out the core of the grandstand, wrenching the structure in half, the two flanks groaning as they parted like the red sea. In front of the monster escaping people ran in terror towards the encampment, the flight line and helicopters beyond. Taking some menacing steps forward the mech twisted at the hips, looking left then right then stomped to a nearby military truck.
VWER THUD – VWER THUD – VWER THUD – VWER THUD
The truck stood impassive to the mech's advances before one outstretched limb grabbed the vehicle by the heavy duty towing hook on the back and dragged the vehicle aside, its tyres screeching in protest to being dragged laterally.
“Go go go go ...” whispered the agents, unseen, moving from one tent to the next.
VWER THUD – VWER THUD – VWER THUD – VWER THUD
Molly ploughed the mech through a military tent sending the canvas cover to the ground while ropes snapped and poles splintered. Underneath the fabric the outline of a man was seen as he tried to belly crawl to freedom until....
VEEEWUUUURRRR THUDssshlk
Whoever it was never stood a chance, the crushing foot of the machine literally stamping out their life, leaving a crimson splat oozing through the canvas.
“McAllister is going to PAY for this,” growled Garrison as she saw through her cluttered view the mech executing its grim task.
“Let's get you out first Madame President,” whispered one of the agents.
“Sir, Marine One is ready,” another agent reported.
“OK, here is the plan, me, and you three, we are going to rear guard for Logan and Byrne. You two get Quarterback on to Marine One. DO NOT WAIT FOR US, just get her aboard and go, understand?” said the lead agent.
“Yes sir! But ...” was the reply.
“We need to buy you time and we have to secure The Football. OK, now GO! Use all the cover you can find,” urged the lead agent again.
With a hand gesture the group split up, Logan and Byrne, arms on Garrison's shoulders, kept their charge low as they ushered her away towards Marine One. Meanwhile the other four agents paired up and sought to outflank the mechanical menace.
The Spider stomped on towards another tent, taking a cautious glance around before striking.
VEEEWUUUURRRR THUD THUD
The mech swung its arms through the tent, smashing it to the ground, a glance downward revealing that no one had been hiding inside.
BANG-PING – BANG-TING – BANG – ZING!!
Suddenly the armoured shell of The Spider sang in protest to being shot. A pair of agents firing their distraction at the giant metal killer. The Mech suddenly spun around and saw the positions of its assailants.
VWER THUD – VWER THUD – VWER THUD – VWER THUD
The Spider took chase as the agents quickly looked for somewhere to hide when suddenly from behind the machine more gunfire erupted.
BANG-PING – BANG-TING – BANG – ZING!!
Inside her virtual cockpit Molly grinned wickedly as she saw through the crude plan that the agents had come up with. If those men were in plain sight then that meant they must be about to ….
VIRTUAL CONTROL - DISENGAGE
SELECT AIR DEFENSE VARIANT – ENGAGE
VIRTUAL CONTROL - ENGAGE
Suddenly McAllister found himself in a still and passive mech. The controls still seemed locked out but whatever had taken over his machine had seemingly relented.
“Do you think we damaged it?” asked one of the agents to his partner from their position in hiding, realising something had changed.
“I don't know, but we have to try something. Cover me!” said the second agent.
Approaching from the side, gun raised, the black suited man closed in on the machine. Perhaps if he got close enough he could make a kill shot on the pilot or somehow disable the machine. Meanwhile Logan and Byrne were almost at the line of helicopters.
“THERE YOU ARE!” Molly beamed. She now had control of the Air Defense mech which she had left on autopilot and could see the escape attempt unfold. The monster machine had followed Molly's waypoints from the dead mortar crew's truck unnoticed during the carnage and now stood at weapons range of the grandstand and the encampment.
BVWRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The mech unleashed a horrific quantity of bullets along the length of the flight line, lighting the area up with tracer rounds. Helicopters began to get shredded, the tails of some aircraft were sawn off with lead, the canopy glass of others imploding. Rotor blades began to droop or fall off, the complex flying beasts being slowly dismembered one by one.
BVWRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Marine One, armoured as it was didn't stand a chance, a deliberate burst of fire slicing it in half. The two other identical aircraft began to suffer in equal measure, the cockpits set on fire, their interiors riddled with holes. The blades of the three Marine aircraft slowly began to wind down, one of them spinning off balance so badly the nose of the aircraft spun to end up facing the interior of the rear half of the fuselage that had split off.
“Jeezus fucking Christ,” Logan yelled as he saw their escape route cut off.
All around them people were running and screaming in terror as the mayhem continued, seemingly getting worse by the moment.
“There's two of them?!” Byrne exclaimed as he saw the other mech in the distance.
“There is a Hummer back there, we will have to use that!” Logan said over the din of helicopters that had started to explode.
The agent who had gone to confront McAllister in The Spider cautiously walked into it's field of view, desperate to see the fate of the man inside. Inching further and further around he finally could see the pilot though the blood spattered canopy glass.
“FREEZE!” yelled the agent nervously, setting his eyes on McAllister while one hand shielded his eyes from the light of the fires now raging on the flight line.
“Fuck, don't shoot! I know what it looks like but ….” McAllister pleaded
“Just take your hands off the controls, McAllister!” the agent ordered.
“They've NOT been ON the controls !!” McAllister said, his hands raising into plain sight.
“Get out of that thing, NOW, nice and steady,” the agent ordered.
BOOOOOOOM CLANG CLANG CLANK CLANK
The agent flinched as the wreck of a helicopter exploded sending metal chunks showering around them.
“NOW!” the agent repeated wiping his sweat drenched face.
“I have tried already, cant you see, I can't get out of this thing. There is a rescue release lever on the outside, it's yellow, try that!” McAllister protested.
“Keep your hands on your head,” the agent ordered as he approached anxiously. He doubted he would penetrate the canopy glass with his weapon but it seemed McAllister wasn't willing to find out.
With the mech frozen in place the agent nervously approached, inching closer and closer. As he neared he could see the lever. It was high up, but the mech's leg had step points and he eyed his route ….
“No! Look out! It's ...” McAllister pleaded as he realised the machine was coming back to life. He knew that the controls were never going to respond to him but his hands desired to move from his head even if it was going to get him shot.
The agent recoiled in terror as suddenly the smaller secondary arms of the mech lunged for him, McAllister's warning coming just in time. For a moment the two men locked eyes. The agent was grateful for the warning while the other man was envious of his freedom, in harms way or not. Having been a prisoner in the cockpit of a machine that had performed terrible atrocities McAllister would prefer to face death from the sharp end now instead of being a helpless witness from on board.
Molly had watched on cruelly having switched control from the mech that had destroyed the helicopters back to The Spider, after all, time was on her side. Wickedly she had let the machine stand passive, drawing the would be hero in to rescue the innocent Captain McAllister. Her lunge had failed but she had bigger and better fish to catch and the machine spun around angrily and resumed its search.
In the support trailer Mitchell returned to his technicians who were looking to him for guidance.
“What do we do!?” was the collective question in the room.
“Its Matthews, she's done something and locked us out! She's in the virtual cockpit room. We need to shut her down! I need solutions – stop focusing on the mech, focus on HER,”
“We could kill the generators, kill her power” one technician suggested.
“But there are battery backups built into the trailer, it would take too long to make a difference,” said another.
“How about comms, she needs it to operate the machine,” yet another technician offered.
“If she has planned this she would have thought of all that, we need something else. Something from outside of the box” Mitchell said.
“You could always fight fire with fire, she's using The Spider, right? Well, there is the Infantry Variant.... it was supposed to be in the next demo,” the first technician said.
“What's stopping her from taking that one over just like The Spider?” Mitchell asked.
“The virtual control on it was non functional when it arrived after the journey. We didn't need to fix it because we showed off remote functionality during previous parts of the demonstration.” one of the junior technicians said, tapping an entry in a log book.
“OK, but who's going to pilot it?” someone asked.
Suddenly Mitchell felt all the eyes settle on him, and the room fell silent.
“Oh shit, oh that's just great!” Mitchell said, hands rising to his head.
Outside Logan and Byrne were desperately trying to stay out of sight with Garrison but moment by moment their hiding places were being destroyed by The Spider as it tore through the encampment. Things were desperate but they were closing in on the Hummer that had been parked near a small medical tent that remained standing.
“Ok, go go” Logan said as he spied the lead agent, 'Coach' beckoning to them.
“Hey, good to see you,” Logan said, glad to be reunited with his superior.
“Well, that plan screwed up royally, but I guess you saw the hummer?”, 'Coach' asked, gesturing at the nearby vehicle.
“I think you can be forgiven for this,” Garrison said as she brushed herself down.
“The hummer is about our only option left,” Byrne said as he glanced about the camp.
The helicopters had all been destroyed, the large transport trucks were merely going to act as shreddable bullet magnets, but the Hummer at least had a mix of speed and protection.
“Agreed, same drill as before, me and whoever else is left out there with a gun will shoot at it as a distraction. Logan, Byrne, your mission is still the same, get Quarterback out of here, get her anywhere but here, ok?” 'Coach' instructed.
There was nervous glances followed by nods. 'Coach' looked for somewhere to go to, somewhere where he could serve as a distraction. Dashing unseen to some crates on pallets then on to one of the trucks 'Coach' ensured he had a full clip in his gun and waited for Logan, Byrne and Garrison to make a move to the Hummer.
Taking a breath he saw them moving and decided to act.
“OVER HERE!” yelled 'Coach' before firing one steady deliberate shot after another at the mech.
The Spider lurched around to see the agent open fire and charged at him. 'Coach' stood his ground as he fired one round after another, making his clip last. Closer and closer came the mech but at the last moment it stopped and spun around to see the Hummer and President Garrison about to try and escape.
“Nice try” snarled Molly as she snatched 'Coach' up from the ground with one of the main arms and stormed up to the Hummer, the flailing agent trapped in the large robotic hand.
'Coach' could just about see McAllister thumping in protest at the bloodied glass, begging the agent to release him. In his final act 'Coach' fired everything he had left into the canopy. The rounds chipped at the glass but didn't break it and then Molly swung the hand holding 'Coach' downwards towards the Hummer, threatening to crush both man and vehicle in one vicious act.
VWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
Suddenly with a red and blue blur she appeared, Supergirl had arrived!!
With a crunch the swinging robotic arm came to a halt, just a few feet from having used 'Coach's' body like the head of a hammer. Supergirl braced herself against the swinging arm, the ground giving beneath her red booted feet.
“FINALLY!! She is HERE !” grinned Molly.
CHAPTER 29
“Enough, Molly!” Supergirl growled as she took in the carnage around her, holding back the mechanical arm that loomed above her. The glow of fires bathed the area in bright orange light and the din of secondary explosions filled the air.
Selena had warned the heroine there may be trouble but Supergirl had never expected to see things so chaotic when she arrived. The bodies of the dead littered the area, fires raged, vehicles destroyed, it was utter carnage. What she had been warned of was that if anything were to happen it would likely be Molly Matthews behind it all.
Supergirl burrowed into the cockpit of the machine with her vision expecting to find Molly at the contols only to see the face of a stranger instead. Was he the one responsible for all this? Supergirl read his expressions and his body language and realised the man was seemingly a passenger inside the belly of the beast. The robotic hand holding the agent codenamed 'Coach' opened, dropping him to the floor some eight feet from the ground, the man landing with a groan.
“Go, go, run!” Supergirl urged him as she saw 'Coach' groggily pull himself up to his feet.
“YES, RUN!” cackled Molly's voice over a speaker as the other main arm swatted at the Hummer sending it tumbling over and over finally coming to rest on its roof.
Coach, Logan and Byrne grabbed Garrison who was agog at was going on right in front of her and began to run. Smothering Garrison's body with their own they hoped to keep their charge safe while Supergirl put an end to the crisis.
Supergirl's eyes flared red as she decided on her course of action. She was going to dismember this mechanical nightmare and free the man trapped inside before finding Molly.
“No you dont!” Molly said as she swatted at Kara with the mech's large robotic arm.
The blow was powerful and while Kara didn't bend nor break her grip on the ground failed her sending her sliding across the hard baked sandy soil as she tried to resist.
With a grimace the heroine let loose with her heat ray, the bright red flare of energy radiating from her eyes. The machine crossed its long arms and placed one of its big heavy armour plates into harms way. The metal began to discolour, the white paint blackening at the edges of where the beam struck but the armour resisted.
“What is that thing made of?” Supergirl thought.
The heroine blinked in dismay at the metal, it wasn't often she had such difficulties. She decided to renew her efforts, her expression revealing her concentration. With an intense glare she went to unleash another bl...
VEWWURRRRR VWOOOSH
Grabbing Supergirl around her middle the machine took the heroine by surprise. Servo's growled as the mechanical hand applied pressure to its captive. Supergirl felt the air slightly squeeze out from her lungs, an unpleasant sensation despite not actually needing to breath to survive.
Supergirl wriggled and writhed within the machine's impressive grip and managed to get some purchase on the equivalent to a thumb, slowly pushing it away from her chest.
VEWWURRRRR
Raising the robotic arm first Molly slammed the mechanical hand down towards the upturned hummer, opening the palm of the metal hand and exposing the heroine to the impact to come.
CRUNCH!
The Hummer was left shaped like a 'V', the sheet metal under-tray and sturdy metal chassis folding in on itself while glass from the windows exploded outwards. Supergirl's dazed body barely started to move before the machine grabbed at the smashed vehicle and pushed the hood and rear of the 'V' shaped wreck towards each other, doubling over the destroyed vehicle. The mech stepped backwards a few paces and admired the metal tomb it had created, Molly's laughter coming over the loudspeaker.
An annoyed Supergirl wiggled herself inside her metal prison and using her impressive strength began to create space for herself. Unfolding the wreck the warped and fatigued metal started to break, the metal splitting and tearing like it was made of tin until it parted open to reveal an angry Supergirl on her feet, arms apart.
The machine swiped again from the side striking a dazed Supergirl from the side. Having failed to brace herself the heroine was forced to the ground just in time to see a blood drenched mechanical foot come stomping down from above her, blotting out the light.
VWER – THUD
The machine strained as Supergirl placed her knees and the palms of her hands on the sole of the metal foot and pushed away sending the machine stumbling backwards. Machine and heroine were now separated by meters of carnage covered sun-baked sand, the pair sizing each other up.
“Did you think I had been sleeping, since my defeat on the oil rig, Supergirl? You remember how strong the chains were, don't you? I have been improving the metal coating formula since then, just for this moment! ” Molly said, taunting her opponent.
Supergirl looked at her wrists, remembering how she had been bound by strong chains to the ocean floor. It had been the infected Kimberly who had done it but the chains had been created by the Sanderson Corporation. Now it was Molly who was infected and using her employer's resources had seemingly improved the coating to make metals resistant to the heroine's heat ray.
Supergirl considered what to do next. Slicing the machine up wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. Perhaps if she could rescue what she thought was a hostage locked in the cockpit first she could then figure out how to take out Molly directly, rather than defeating her machine.
With limbs splayed The Spider appeared terrifying but Supergirl had courage. The blood splattered canopy looked like a weak spot she could crack open with her fist. She felt she could get the man inside free, rendering him unusable as a bargaining chip in Molly's sick game. Supergirl levitated up to her feet and kicked off, left arm outstretched, right hand wound up tight by her side ready to strike.
WHOOOOOSH
Supergirl flew at high speed up to the mech, stopping just short of the canopy and..
CRUNCH!
Delivering a strong blow to the cockpit glass Supergirl punched through it and with a twist of her arm withdrew. The damaged glass, now entirely frosted over with cracks was wrenched off its frame, the heroine revealing McAllister inside. The curved glass shell fell to the ground, now rendered a floppy weak mass, the surface a web of cracks and splinters.
“Please, help me, she's insane!! I can't stop her!!” pleaded McAllister.
Lisa Kozny stood at the door of the town house and pressed the doorbell which she could hear ringing inside. Lisa cast her gaze at the door frame and noted it had been repaired and the lock for the door looked very shiny and new.
There was a pause for about twenty seconds and then the door swung ajar, the movement arrested by a chain guard. A woman in her late twenties appeared, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, her brown eyes behind reading glasses.
“Miss Fairchild?” Kozny asked, badge raised for Fairchild to see.
“Yes?” Fairchild responded.
“Hi, I am Detective Kozny, nineteenth precinct. I am really sorry to visit unannounced, I was hoping I could speak to you about the break-in the other day.”
Fairchild rolled her eyes just slightly. “Come on then,” she said with little enthusiasm.
Lisa let Fairchild's attitude slide, she hoped that this bizarre event was the lead she wanted. Fairchild edged the door closed slightly and removed the chain before opening the door for Lisa to enter.
“I thought I had told the officers all they needed to know. They said they would send someone to follow up but I only needed a crime number for the insurance company.” Fairchild began.
“Would you mind just explaining to me what happened? I'm really sorry, I've not had a good opportunity to review the full case notes,” Lisa confessed.
“Fine,” Fairchild sighed. “It was a little after three in the morning I think. I heard a noise and got up. I was upstairs. I went to the landing just in time to see a large man, I think he was black, he had that sort of frame, you know? And he was going out my front door.” Fairchild explained.
Lisa made notes as she surveyed the layout of the hall, the stairs and the various rooms leading off the ground floor corridor. “Then what happened?” Lisa asked.
“Well, I came down and, well, the lock was bust open, the part the key goes in was ripped out on the floor,” Fairchild said, gesturing at the door before turning to her alarm keypad. “I went to see why my alarm wasn't working and the thing was frozen or something, like ice. I had to get a new one, that's why I needed the crime number.”
“Frozen? Well that sounds more than just an amateur job. The report says nothing was taken though, is that correct? You've not discovered anything since then that you haven't reported?” Lisa asked with a frown.
“Seriously, nothing is missing. My fiancée, Andy, he stays here when he isn't working, he's a pilot, he couldn't find anything missing either. We are at a complete loss,” Fairchild explained.
Lisa already knew that Fairchild's fiancée was a pilot, that's why she was really there. Knowing he was on the crew to replace Van Der Walt's and then having this bizarre robbery happen not long after the murder; it threw up all sorts of red flags with Lisa.
“Was anything touched or moved? Do you even know which rooms this intruder entered?” Lisa asked.
“Uh huh, well, one room I know for sure …” Fairchild said as she led Lisa down the corridor to a door and opened it, letting Lisa in first.
“Welcome little FLY, now you can truly enjoy my pet, The Spider!” cackled Molly over the loudspeaker as she observed Supergirl struggle
“Let's get you ou...” Supergirl managed to say as she battled the shorter limbs of the spider which were making themselves a nuisance.
Swatting at the heroine, tugging her cape, making a grab for her arms, her thighs, Molly toyed with the heroine who battled to try and free McAllister.
“Ah ah – no you don't!” Molly laughed as she teased the heroine who grew more and more frustrated.
“Is there nothing you can do?” Supergirl said as she fought to keep the smaller secondary arms from getting a good grasp of her while trying to get McAllister free.
“No, she's locked me out, nothing works in here she … wait, the virtual cockpit .. THAT'S WHERE SHE WILL BE!” realised McAllister, twisting and turning his head trying to get his bearings.
In the virtual cockpit Molly heard everything that had transpired. If Supergirl broke free and made it to the support trailer she would be defeated. She needed to keep Supergirl there, with the mech. Suddenly the thrashing arms began to punch into the cockpit itself, threatening McAllister's life. Supergirl had to spin herself around and now rather than dodge blows she had to block them instead to keep McAllister safe.
To Molly's pleasure this change in attack finally began to open the avenue to success. The machine, with one palm open, plunged an arm towards the cockpit only for Supergirl to plant her smaller hand into it to make a block. Suddenly her hand was enveloped by the metal monster, the mechanical hand wrapping around hers. As Supergirl reached with her free hand to try and prise herself free her left leg was grabbed tightly at the ankle. Molly delighted at pulling apart Supergirl's limbs in opposite directions, holding her taught.
Supergirl kicked wildly with her trapped leg, the servos groaning and whining as they resisted. Eyes flaring in anger Supergirl began to charge herself up ready to attack the smaller limbs that were starting to become an exhausting problem. Molly could sense she was slowly getting the upper hand but she needed to work the heroine over a little more before she could get her plan fully in motion.
One of the main arms, having been left out of the fight clenched its fist and swung in towards itself like a gorilla about to beat its own chest. Only, at the beast's chest right now was Supergirl, partially spreadeagled between the smaller limbs in front of the canopy.
VEWWURRRRR groaned the servos as the heavy metal fist was delivered into Supergirls torso before retreating away, ready to strike again.
Supergirl gave only slightly upon impact, her abdominals absorbing the blow. Resolutely the heroine began heating up the mechanical hand that had trapped her wrist-deep in metal. Like a plasma torch Supergirl began to burn into the metal, hoping to get herself free.
VEWWURRRRR groaned one of the main mechanical arms again as it swung in. Supergirl lashed out with her free leg, putting the sole of her foot squarely into the closed fist that sought to strike her. For a moment there was stalemate but yet another of the secondary limbs raced in to claim Supergirl's blocking foot as a prisoner, pulling it taught away from her other leg.
Supergirl only had one free hand left and her head was still free to move. Still burning intently with her heat vision she could feel the metal hand that held her starting to soften. Whatever this metal was it was more resistant than most but nothing could resist her forever.
Molly saw sensors flash red warnings at her as Supergirl began to inflict damage on the limb holding the heroine by the wrist. If Supergirl was able to start cutting up The Spider she was bound to eventually defeat Molly.
In swung one of the main arms again,threatening to strike Supergirl in her middle. Supergirl only had one hand left free and she used it to try and protect herself, only to realise that once committed she was open to being latched onto by the one remaining secondary arm.
“Got you!” Molly gloated as she saw through the camera's eyes the heroine's predicament.
Supergirl, her limbs spreadeagled mustered a ferocious growl, her red cutting beam brightening to the point McAllister had to turn his head away from the intense heat and light.
“OH – NO – YOU – DON'T!” Molly snarled as she finally let loose her first big surprise.
OPEN APERTURE MODULE – 75 PERCENT.
Within the torso of The Spider the aperture module began to slide open, the green glow from within the chamber and its lead coated iris escaping into the air behind the heroine.
Supergirl screamed as she sensed the sickening glow fall upon her, the familiar sense of her power waning. Although not as nearly debilitating as the first time around on the oilrig Supergirl knew she was in danger. Where this threat had been kept hidden she didn't know but here she was in yet another dangerous trap.
Molly felt delight in Supergirl's suffering, her screams making beautiful music to her ears. Molly had needed to be sure Supergirl was truly in her grasp before unveiling her green poison. If the heroine had seen it before she would have been able to keep a safe distance. Now though she was enveloped in the mech's embrace and weakening with every moment.
With her heat ray faltering Supergirl knew her chance to break free was gone. But now the limbs were mostly occupied, their need to struggle with her over she knew McAllister could escape.
“G..go, run....” Supergirl managed to say, her head turning on her shoulders before dropping weakly.
McAllister fumbled with his harnesses, unclipping himself from the various connections in the cockpit. Carefully lifting his leg over the rim of the broken canopy McAllister found a step position and let himself fall to the ground before sprinting away gratefully.
“Yo..... you have failed, Molly, Vel, whatever you are. Garrison is going to escape!” Supergirl managed to say.
“FAILED?” Molly said with disdain before she broke into laughter. The mechanical limbs performed a gentle set of movements slowly turning Supergirl around to face the canopy, the four secondary limbs pulling the heroine taught, being mindful of her weakened state.
“When they come here, they will come in force. This machine won't be able to stop all of them!” Supergirl said as she looked into the torso of the machine, seeing the emerald glow emanate through the iris.
“You FOOL! Do you think I did all this just to KILL the PRESIDENT!” Molly retorted, the air filling with her laughter.
Supergirl pulled with all her might, resuming her attempt to escape.
“Oh, poor foolish KARA, can't you tell, this is all about YOU!” Molly goaded.
“You have had me once and failed in your sick plans to make me 'pretty', you WILL fail again!”
“You think your friends will come to rescue you, don't you? Do you think I am afraid of SELENA WALSH, THE BROKER?!” Molly taunted.
Supergirl froze as she heard Molly call The Broker by name, her eyes betraying her fear for Selena.
--------------------------------Lisa found herself inside what she guessed was like a small den. A PC sat on a desk, a keyboard, mouse and a big flight simulator like joystick right by it.
“He flies in his spare time too, your fiancée, or is this yours?” Lisa quipped, her pen pointing at the joystick.
“Yes, he absolutely loves flying. This is his room where he chills out, especially if he is trying to get his body clock back in line after a long duty cycle. I rarely come in here unless he is home,” Fairchild explained.
“So, what makes you so sure that the intruder came in here?” Lisa asked as she looked around. Nothing seemed odd to her that she could see.
“Well, Andy's chair, it was flipped over....like this ...” Fairchild explained, drawing the chair towards herself then tipping it forward and away, the underside of the chair pointing towards them, the back of the chair lodging almost level and even with the surface of the desk.
“Exactly like that?” Lisa asked, drawing a nod in reply from Miss Fairchild.
Lisa knelt by the chair and examined it. To her it seemed strange for the chair to have been tipped forward, not backwards. It was almost like someone wanted to get access underneath. On first glance nothing about the chair seemed remar....
“Wait, was something stuck to the underside of this?” wondered Lisa to herself as she noted two short strips of adhesive residue. Looking more carefully Kozny noted the residue flanked a small square patch of wood that seemed paler than the rest of the wood around it.
Lisa shook her head dismissively and went to rise. Just then her eyes fell level with the desk, the keyboard and the under edge of the monitor in her field of view. Just behind the monitor, peering out from one side was a photo in a frame. Miss Fairchild stood in the half that was visible next to the flank and shoulder of someone alongside her, their face obscured by the monitor's edge. Then Lisa noticed a hand resting on the second persons shoulder, certainly belonging to a third member in the picture off to the right.
Lisa rose to her feet, her head bobbing for a better view of the photo, triggering a frown from Miss Fairchild.
“May I?” Lisa asked as she gestured to the picture.
“Sure, it's just a picture,” shrugged Fairchild.
Lisa reached for the frame and gathered it up finally revealing the people in the shot. Fairchild herself was at the left, and to her right was a dashing young man who was wearing a smart white shirt and aviator's 'wings' pinned to his chest. Lisa guessed the man must be her fiancée, Andy and flanking him to the right of the photo was …..
Lisa went pale.
“Wait, that's ...” Lisa faltered.
“Oh yes, you know Andy's sister? I thought Molly was just famous in the science world...” Miss Fairchild said with a surprise as she looked at the captured memory fondly.
“Your fiancée's sister is Molly Matthews!? Wh...where is Andy now?!” Lisa asked anxiously.
“What? Andy? He , he's on duty, he's covering for some other crew ….” Fairchild said with confusion.
“I'm sorry, I have to go ….” Lisa said wide eyed, the enormity of what was happening unravelling rapidly in front of her eyes.
“Is everything ok? He, he's not in trouble is he?” Miss Fairchild asked nervously.
“If you can think of anything more about the break-in please get in touch...” Lisa stalled, handing Fairchild her contact information.
“But, Andy, he is ok, right?” Fairchild said, rapidly becoming concerned about the turn of events.
“I'm sorry Miss Fairchild, I cannot say any more at the moment. Thank you for your co-operation,” Lisa said as she spun around and made her way purposefully to the door while drawing her cell phone from her pocket.
Inside her virtual cockpit Molly began to unzip the crotch of her catsuit, ready to activate her next module, uncomfortable as it was going to be.
“I've found out who your precious BROKER friend is! Did you think I was completely asleep in the back of the helicopter when you and your treacherous bitch for a friend, LUCY WUAN spoke about her...” Molly explained.
“NO! Leave …” Supergirl protested as she wiggled in the vice like grip of the machine.
“LEAVE THEM ALONE? Oh it is a little late for that NOW. THEY came for ME, REMEMBER? No matter! They will get exactly what is due to them, your detective friend LISA KOZNY included!!” Molly said, her voice twisting in Supergirl's mind like a knife.
“You won't catch them, they are far away from here by now!” Supergirl growled angrily as she tried to summons another heat blast from her eyes.
“Don't you think I know that?! Right now they are in my TRAP. Even as we speak, my brother, YES, my BROTHER is about to become their undoing!” Molly sneered.
“A.. a trap? No … how could..” Supergirl stammered weakly. Now she felt vulnerable on so many levels. Her life was in peril, just as were some of her best friends. Molly was going to destroy everything!
Selena and Lucy kept vigil of their cell phones, anxiously waiting for news, the sudden voice on the loudspeaker bringing them back to the moment.
BING-BONG
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain, Jo Stevenson up on the flight deck. Right now we are cruising at about eleven and a half thousand meters, or about thirty-eight thousand feet and cruising at nine hundred kilometres per hour, or just under five hundred knots. We currently have a favourable tail wind and we expect to arrive a little ahead of schedule in Amsterdam where it is forecast to be a little cooler than it was in New York. As we head out into the North East Atlantic we will be transitioning in the Shanwick control area as we reach nightfall. Our flight attendants will be turning the lights down soon so those who wish to get some sleep may do so. This will be my last message until we begin our decent into Schipol so from myself and Andy we wish you a pleasant night,”
Lucy felt her stomach sink, dread filling her mind, while Selena read her expression like a book.
“What is it?” Selena asked with a frown.
“This is ALL WRONG!” Lucy said, her eyes darting around herself, the sense of being trapped overwhelming her.
“You're making a scene,” Selena whispered back, seeing a flight attendant glance at Lucy.
Mitchell nervously ascended the Infantry Variant Mech, releasing the canopy and entering.
“Oh god, oh god,” Mitchell nervously said to himself as he clumsily flung himself into the pilot's seat.
The man's hands were visibly shaking as he began to strap himself in to the machine, putting a headset on over his head and plugging himself in.
“Do you guys hear me?” Mitchell asked anxiously as he took in the sight of The Spider on the other side of the camp, occupied in its fight struggle with the superheroine while in the distance the Air Defense Mech stood idle.
“Yes, Mitchell, we hear you,” replied a young voice into Mitchell's ear.
“Oh thank god, ok, so ... talk... talk me though it,” Mitchell stammered. He may have been a lead engineer on the project but just as a good car mechanic doesn't make a good racing driver his skills didn't make for a good pilot.
“OK, Master Switch to ON” said a voice.
“Master Switch to ON” Mitchell replied, the machine responding with illuminating cockpit lights.
Molly held Supergirl up in her field of view, spreadeagled, taught, vulnerable though still defiant.
“You don't remember, or do you? Your little clandestine flight! From Century21?!” Molly asked, her tone vicious.
“You brother? … He was on that plane?” Supergirl replied with confusion. Was he one of the mercenaries she wondered.
“On it? He FLEW IT !!” Molly hissed.
Supergirl's eyes darted from side to side, her mind replaying out that day with vivid clarity.
“Oh no.....” Supergirl managed as she finally remembered...
Suddenly cast back onto the plane that fateful day the heroine remembered the latex catsuit. Inside her a thick dildo filled her pussy while harsh ceramic studs inside her suit stung her flesh. On her feet a set of boots designed specifically for her discomfort and misery dug at her soles. Supergirl was forced to sit at Selena's side, restrained, while Selena sipped red wine, preparing to tell her some tale when …
“GOOD EVENING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I'M FIRST OFFICER ANDY MATTHEWS HERE WITH YOUR CAPTAIN JO STEVENson on the flight deck …...” The loud announcement began causing a stewardess to dial down the volume.
“OH NO!” squirmed Supergirl only to hear Molly's laughter as she saw the heroine remember everything.
“Yesssss! Now you understand! My brother harmlessly told me about his peculiar flight but it was only when VEL entered my life did I ever realise what it could mean. I searched and searched and eventually discovered its significance. I learned where The Broker went, her secret travelling alias, what flights she would take, and engineered it so my brother would be at hand to fly the trap she would willingly walk into the very moment I would be here …. defeating YOU!”
“It was YOU who had Van Der Walt killed!” Supergirl realised.
“Yes, I hired assassins to kill him and oh so many others!” Molly bragged.
Supergirl truly understood now how some events had come full circle. She knew that Selena and Lucy were in the air that very moment. If this sick union of brother and sister had played out again, just as it had with Bobby and Kimberly then they would be in great danger, just as any other passengers would be.
“MOLLY, please, you have ME, let THEM go! I will do what…...” began Supergirl.
“No, SUPERGIRL, you WON'T! You lied to me on the oil rig, and you are lying to me now! I am NEVER going to risk them rescuing you from me again!” Molly said, her voice laced with vengeance.
“Molly, if you are in there you HAVE to FIGHT!” Supergirl pleaded, hoping to somehow inspire the host mind of Molly to rebel against the alien that had infected her.
Molly grinned wickedly as she decided the time was right. With a few clicks on her controls she activated the next secret module. Squirming in her cockpit seat Molly could feel the warm jets of lubricant spraying their fine mist into her crotch and ass from hidden nozzles below. Inching up slowly against her flesh two metal spheres approached, their smooth surfaces rising to meet her flesh.
“Ohhhh,” Molly moaned as she felt the cool metal touch her anus which clamped with involuntary resistance.
Adjusting her posture Molly tried to relax as the lubricated metal sphere pressed against her. Carefully she pushed back letting herself slowly absorb the metal visitor, just as the second sphere began to test her labia.
“Tha.... that's it ...yes …. yes ….yes ...” Molly said to herself, encouraging herself to complete the difficult task as the sphere at her pussy eased forward and backwards in its quest to open her up.
Molly's eyes rolled as she felt herself become impaled on the pilot's seat, the two spheres navigating deeper inside of herself all the while the lubricating nozzles ensured the intruders passage was made as easy as possible.
ONLINE – REM DECODE MODULE – USER READY
“Now Supergirl, it's YOUR TURN!” Molly thought to herself as she prepared to hit a button.
CHAPTER 30
Molly watched on as the helpless heroine struggled and strained, desperately trying to get free of the mechanical limbs that held her spreadeagled. Held in mid-air directly in front of the open iris Supergirl bathed in the crippling green glow.
EXT ENCODE MODULE – ENGAGE
A second module in the torso of The Spider opened, a mechanical arm elegantly unfurling with a whirr of motors and servos. The head of the arm had some kind of rotary barrel with different attachments in place and Supergirl's eyes widened as she spied a rotary cutting disc spin into life.
Molly looked at her readings feeding back from the mechanized monster. Supergirl was barely testing the machine right now indicating that she was in peril of being damaged for the next phase of her plan.
“Hmmm, I need to back off a little if I want to keep you intact for what is to come,” thought Molly
OPEN APERTURE MODULE – 10 PERCENT
The lead coated iris narrowed, restricting the poisonous field reaching the heroine as the cutting disc spun up to speed.
“Ngh. … what....... what are …. you …..doing!” Supergirl managed to grunt as she saw the robotic arm get closer and closer, the blade whirring ominously. Edging up into position the blade caused Supergirl's skirt to skip off it as it passed up underneath and between her legs…..
VWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVWURRRRRRRR ZIINGGGGGGGG
“Oh no no no no ….....” Supergirl protested not knowing if to fight or stay perfectly still.
Unseen under the heroine's crimson skirt the rotary blade had begun to score a slit in the crotch of her blue one-piece. Nicking, slicing, ripping, the blue fabric first seemed to puff out as each little strand of thread ruptured before parting. The sensory feedback in the disc knew when it started to slice too deep the moment resistance was felt, the Maid of Steel's flesh still more than capable of blunting the blade. The cutter edged on, Supergirls labia slowly bursting from her costume unseen under her skirt.
“Molly, you've GOT to LISTEN to me! Vel's demons are going to betray you! You DON'T have to do this! Fight them! They are going to hurt your BROTHER!” Supergirl pleaded, only to receive laughter in reply.
“Oh, Supergirl, you have NO IDEA!” Molly said after her laughter subsided.
The cutting disc continued its work, skipping carefully along the fabric frontier being careful not to engage the blunting flesh of the heroine until its work was done. The rotary head switched positions, the blade coming to a halt. Supergirl sighed a moment with hearing the blade power down only to flinch as the sensation of warm lubricating ooze was jetted into her crotch.
“If it is any consolation, Supergirl, I too have to share in the indignity you about to suffer, but it is all in the name of science I can assure you!” Molly goaded.
Bucking, flinching, the heroine looked around herself for help. Was anybody going to give her some respite from the attack?
Mitchell finally had the Infantry Mech up and running though his first few steps were faltering ones.
“That's it, we've set the internal stabilizers to maximum. You won't be able to make moves like McAllister but at least you won't fall over.” said a technician into Mitchell's ears.
“OK, once you think you have my settings in place you HAVE to get out of the trailer. I'm going to be punching a hole right through the virtual control room upstairs and I don't want any of you to get hurt, understand?”
“Yes, we hear you!” was the collective reply.
Mitchell looked around him memorizing the location of all the controls before taking a deep breath. The support trailer was on the opposite side of the grandstand from where the mechs had been standing and he needed to get there without getting caught up with The Spider. If he could avoid that encounter he could destroy the virtual control room and end the crisis.
“OK, I am on the move, I am going around via the display area, hopefully The Spider won't see me,”
“OK, and Mitchell … good luck,” said one of the voices.
“Thanks, you too,” Mitchell replied, his heart racing.
VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD
Mitchell got underway, the mech taking steady yet slow steps. With a trained pilot the compensatory software could be dialed right back, giving the machine as much movement of any human. But with someone unfamiliar with the machine at the controls the self balancing mechanisms traded away agility for stability. Mitchell's first steps were going to be those of a toddler, not of a titan.
VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD
“Hey, I'm doing it!” whooped Mitchell nervously as he edged forward.
Rotating the multi-tooled head of the robotic arm the dual shafts with their metal spheres atop of them came into the fore.
Supergirl felt the changeover happen unseen under skirt but having seen the array of tools at the robotic arm's disposal her imagination was running riot with what was happening next. Exposed and lubricated Supergirl finched as she felt the metallic touch of the spheres against …
“Nghhhhh NO!” bellowed Supergirl.
Inching up firmly against her sphincter Supergirl clamped down, refusing entry. No matter how well lubricated she was she wasn't going to cave that easily. Molly's instruments reported Supergirl's resistance was on the rise, her recharging ability able to overcome the debilitating green aura around her.
OPEN APERTURE MODULE – 50 PERCENT
Molly grinned as she watched Supergirl become bathed in the the intensifying green field. Molly estimated that it would only be a moment before …
VWERRRRR
The servo's increased their effort as the first sphere slowly began to make its way. Supergirls most intimate pathway first began to bow inwards following the contour of the sphere until it had nowhere to go except begin enveloping the metal. Supergirl felt her ability to resist falter, her flesh unable to grip and push back the intruder having been so heavily lubricated.
“Ngh, no no no!” Supergirl managed to say as her eyes widened. For a split second as her muscles failed her and the widest point of the sphere passed through there was a momentary sensation of secret pleasure which was quickly quelled by the cruel reality of all that was happening to her.
Promptly the second sphere made itself known to the spreadeagled Superheroine. The first defences fell easily, her soft labia slipping around the metal seemingly welcoming it in. Once past though the complex servos and sensors detected that some subtle forcing was required to get inside the heroine's body. Back and forth the sphere rocked, in to the resistance point then back. Then in once more, pushing slightly more firmly, then out again. Each repetition getting the sphere a little closer to …..
“Ahhhhhh ….. FUCK” shrieked Supergirl as the walls of her sensuous cavern widened just enough for it to then wrap around the invader, gratefully dragging it inside of herself.
With flickering eyelids Supergirl tried to glare into the eyes of the robotic monster and Molly who no doubt was observing her.
Molly checked her readings and confirmed everything was set.
ONLINE – EXT ENCODE MODULE – USER READY
“MOLLY – WHY are you doing this?! FIGHT, MOLLY! FIGHT!” screamed the heroine into the beast, now impaled on the seemingly sexual appendage extending out from the groin of the mechanical nightmare in front of her.
COMMENCE QUANTUM STATE TRANSFER
“Oh SUPERGIRL, you think that ….. oh how can you even begin to understand?!” Molly began, her soft laughter completing her words.
“TELL ME! You don't have to kill the others...” Supergirl pleaded, resigned to whatever fate this physical abuse was going to lead her to.
“Oh but I do...” Molly replied forlornly.
Inside her virtual cockpit Molly closed her eyes sending herself into her personal darkness, the realm of the void.
“Do you hear me, BROTHER?” hissed the monster's voice.
“Please … sis ..are … are you sure? Please, it hurts so bad … you.... you promise if I do this ...” moaned the voice of Molly's brother.
“YES, do this and you will know peace from my voice, little brother”, hissed the monster.
“Th . Thank you ….” whimpered Molly's brother.
High over the North Atlantic the giant plane continued its cruise eastward in the night sky, its periodic strobe lights painting the clouds beneath with their pulsing glow.
In the cockpit a sweating first officer glanced at his watch then over at the captain. Inside his mind the battle raged, the voices plaguing him, urging him to do what must be done.
“OK, I'll do it!” Matthews snapped.
“What?” the captain said, turning his head having been noting the readings from the weather radar.
“I .. I need the bathroom,” Andy said, covering for himself.
“Oh Sure, ok , I have the controls,” the captain said. It was customary to declare who was assuming primary control of the aircraft even when, as it was then, being flown on autopilot.
Andy unbuckled himself from his harness and rose from his seat, his hand sliding into his pocket.
“Let me just organise my babysitter...” Captain Stevenson said preparing to summons a flight attendant. It was standard procedure now to have someone sit in with the remaining pilot while another took a bathroom break.
SCHIFSH - SQVISHH– SMISSSH – SMISH
“Gluc-glah-claa-glaaaa” gurgled Stevenson as the side of his throat bled profusely, Andy's sharpened ceramic blade leaving him fatally wounded.
The captain's eyes widened in disbelief as he felt the river of blood run down his neck, seemingly betrayed by his own colleague from out of the blue. Quickly the man passed out, the flow of blood to his head ebbing away with every moment until his twitching body fell still in his seat. Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket Andy had prepared his own little check list of things he had to do to make the incessant voices go quiet.
“Set door lock to 'deny' ” Andy said to himself as he reached to the big dial switch in the center console. No one would be entering the cockpit from now on, no matter how much they keyed in the right code at the door.
“Pull fuse CVR1 and 2 – Pull fuse FDR 1 and 2 ….”
“Pull SAT COMMS 1 and 2 and DATA COMMS 1 ...”
Andy disconnected some fuses from the fuse panel at the rear of the cockpit then returned to his seat, buckling himself in.
“SET TRANSPONDER TO OFF”
Reaching to the center console Andy turned a switch, killing the transponder. No radar was going to see his plane's demise.
“SET CABIN PRESSURE TO MANUAL”
Overhead of Andy's seat was the cabin pressure controls. At their altitude it was necessary to keep the plane's atmosphere artificially pressurised as if it were at a much lower height. Otherwise the thin air would quickly lead to hypoxia and death. With a nervous hand Andy flicked the switch from AUTO to MANUAL and then placed his hands on his thighs, eyes closed.
“WAIT” was the last line in his instructions.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 10% COMPLETE
“Please, Molly, you can still save them!”, Supergirl exclaimed, her head turning this way and that looking for any avenue of escape.
“When my mind met those of Bobby and Kimberly they were merely children. I tried to help them but the monster was too strong. I did my best for the boy but the girl, the monster made friends with her and I couldn't stop it ….” Molly explained, somehow talking of events she had never been there to see.
“SO! TRY AGAIN!” pleaded Supergirl. She knew of the three way split inside of Molly's mind. If the good man, Vel, could help Molly defeat the demon within him she had a chance.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 20% COMPLETE
“But you don't understand, FOOLISH girl! When we met Molly, I tried to warn her of my monster but she willingly let me in!” Molly said, though speaking of herself as someone else. Supergirl had no doubt this was Vel speaking through his host.
“VEL, LET HER GO!” Supergirl growled, shaking her head.
“OH BUT HE CAN'T!! It is MOLLY who won't let go of HIM! When we met Molly I promised her VEL's genius,” the monster within Molly explained, her voice laden with venom.
“And so she has used me, to benefit herself, to get everything she wants!” Vel continued.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 30% COMPLETE
“MOLLY ! You have to LET GO! Let VEL help you beat the monster” Supergirl pleaded, her limbs struggling as hard as they could in the vice like grip of the robotic hands.
“Let go? Now? When I am about to get what I truly want?” Molly grinned from her cockpit, her eyes delighting in Supergirls suffering.
“Wh.... what is it you want, Molly?” Supergirl asked, hesitant to find out.
“I – WANT - SCHNEIDER!” Molly growled.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 40% COMPLETE
Supergirls mind whirled. Did Molly really mean Dr Schneider? The one who had mentored her? Molly read Supergirl's confusion and decided to educate her ….
“I loved HIM and all he did was squander our time together progressing his work. His work studying YOU!” Molly snarled, almost childishly.
“I'm sorry, Molly. But …” Supergirl began to say. She wasn't apologising but she thought she could sympathise with her captor.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 50% COMPLETE
“SHUT UP – SHUT UP – SHUT UP! I LOVED him and all he could do was think about YOU. He would deny it by I KNEW when I dressed up like YOU he fucked me oh so much better. Oh HOW WET I felt when he talked about how your powers worked and how they could be taken AWAY. And then I realised, not only was I turned on by thoughts of DEPOWERING YOU, or even DESTROYING you but by BECOMING YOU too. All so I would know what it felt like to be fucked by someone who really wanted me!” Molly ranted.
“Oh my god!” supergirl exclaimed as she realised the true horror of it all.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 60% COMPLETE
“And now you understand, you stupid creature. When our minds met, when I began feeding off Molly's desires it was EASY for us to enter. Kimberly, Bobby, THEY were easy because they were CHILDREN. Molly was easy because she WANTED it. When I told Molly my hunger for revenge against you she reached for ME and my promise of VEL's genius!” explained the monster.
“Oh MOLLY, What have you done?!” Supergirl cried out in despair. Molly had sold herself out to this monster in some horrible bargain.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 70% COMPLETE
“As we SPEAK I am STEALING you, Supergirl. I am going to BE you and THEN I shall be loved. Finally Schneider will see me. No longer will I be second to his work and his departed wife.” Molly growled.
“No Molly, he won't see you, it will still be Supergirl he is looking at, if that is what he really wants,” Supergirl said. Her fight was ebbing from her body as she grew weak from struggling while the green glow sapped her of her power.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 80% COMPLETE
“Molly is prepared to wait and SEE! And at least without your friends to put things right you will meet an inglorious end! Divided you have fallen!” the monster hissed.
“If you kill me you don't have to harm the others!” Supergirl begged.
“Kill you?! Ha ha ha ha ha ha oooooooh, Supergirl, it won't be us who does THAT!” Molly gloated.
QUANTUM ENCODING – 90% COMPLETE
“I don't …. I don't understand ...” Supergirl stammered.
“You will, Supergirl, you will!” Molly said solemnly.
VWER-THUD – VWER-THUD – VWER – THUD
Mitchell's difficult steps in the mech were getting slightly easier but what mattered now was he was getting very close to the support trailer. So close that …
“WHAT?!” Molly suddenly exclaimed as she felt the vibration of the other mech through her seat.
From inside the trailer Molly was eyeless, her view of the outside world only visible from the mechs she could control.
Suddenly The Spider which had stood perfectly still as it manhandled the Superheroine came to life. With a quick rotation of the hips the mech sought out the source of the vibrations that Molly felt inside the support trailer.
Molly gasped as she realised that in her effort to make sure the heroine was kept away from the trailer housing her control room she had positioned The Spider out of the line of sight from where she was. Molly decided the best solution, just take control of the new mech and kill its occupant.
QUANTUM ENCODING PAUSED
VIRTUAL CONTROL - DISENGAGE
Molly looked at the list of powered mechs to take control of.
AIR DEFENSE VARIANT SPECIAL VARIANT ONE INFANTRY VARIANT
With a sneer Molly could see someone had taken the infantry mech for a ride. Well, now they would pay for their meddling!!
SELECT INFANTRY VARIANT – ENGAGE
VIRTUAL CONTROL - ENGAGE
COMMUNICATIONS ERROR – REMOTE LINK NOT ESTABLISHED!!
Now Molly was in a panic. If the infantry mech was able to take out her control room before she could complete her plan...
SELECT AIR DEFENSE VARIANT – ENGAGE
VIRTUAL CONTROL - ENGAGE
Molly was now in the driving seat of the Air Defence Mech. In the distance she could see the ruins of the encampment, the fires and all her destruction along with Supergirl spreadeagled in the other mech's grasp.
On the other side though was the trailer and ….
Molly gasped as she saw the Infantry Mech closing in on her physical position inside the trailer. With a few clicks she zoomed in her view. Closer, closer, closer she spied until the other cockpit filled the full frame of her field of view.
“MITCHELL!!” Molly gasped.
Molly manoeuvred her mech and took aim ….
BVZ......TINK TINK TINK TINK TINK …...the barells spun, the motors whirred but the mech's reign of terror was over, the last volley of bullets discharged from its guns.
AMMUNITION EXPENDED!!
Having fired its guns during the test, for the slaughter of the soldiers by the mortar emplacement and then the destruction of the flight line, the mech's guns had run dry.
“NO!” snarled Molly as she realised she couldn't stop Mitchell in time, unless ...
VIRTUAL CONTROL - DISENGAGE
SELECT SPECIAL VARIANT ONE – ENGAGE
VIRTUAL CONTROL - ENGAGE
QUANTUM ENCODING RESUMED
Deciding to take the ultimate risk Molly made her last roll of the dice.
“Aaarghhhhhh” howled Supergirl as the mech that embraced her began to jog, her body still impaled on the two metal spheres mounted to rods deep inside her body. Supergirl tried to steady herself, trying to cushion her weight by using her tired arms to hold still.
VWER-THUD – VWER THUD – jogged the mech as it closed in on Mitchell, preparing to stop his attack.
Mitchell edged forward and stopped alongside the trailer, his cockpit almost level in height with the second floor.
“I don't give a fuck who is in there …...” Mitchell growled as he wound up a punch with his robotic right arm.
Molly's mech jogged quickly and watched as Mitchell swung his mighty arm, preparing to smash through the trailer and kill her inside.
VEWWURRRRR – CRUNCH
QUANTUM ENCODING – COMPLETE – READY FOR DECODE
Suddenly Mitchell found himself in robotic hand to hand combat, his mech versus Molly's. Metallic arms swung, motors and servo's whirring and armour plates sparking from the blows while Supergirl could only watch over her shoulder as she sat on the invaders impaled into her body.
QUANTUM DECODING – 10% COMPLETE
Lucy waited anxiously with Selena in the slightly darkened cabin. Many passengers had settled down to sleep, their soft blankets wrapped around them while others were bathed in the glow of their own personal screens as they took in a movie.
“She should have reported in by now! What do you think is taking so long?” Lucy whispered.
“I have NO idea,” Selena said ruefully.
Suddenly, from overhead the oxygen masks deployed from the ceiling panels prompting a nervous glance between flight attendants.
BING BONG
“Ladies and gentlemen, as their appears to be a situation on the aircraft we kindly ask you to return to your seats, placing them and your trays into the upright position. Please place the provided oxygen mask over your nose and mouth and breath normally,” played an automated message.
Now Lucy had gone from merely being anxious and suspicious that something was wrong with the flight to definitely knowing there was. Lucy and Selena reached for their masks, their knowing glances confirming to each other that they understood the danger they were in.
VEWUUUUUUR CLANK- CRASH-CLANK
Mitchell's struggled with his mech, fighting hand to hand with The Spider which prevented him from making his final blow on the trailer. Supergirl's cloak and skirt fluttered in the wind as the mech that held her moved elegantly, blocking Mitchell's attack.
QUANTUM DECODING – 20% COMPLETE
Mitchell glanced around himself looking for the solution. How could he defeat the mech that somehow seemed to have Supergirl herself trapped in its grasp.
“Maybe, this ?” Mitchell grunted as he managed to dodge a kick from the other mech, the bloodied metal foot lashing out at his own machine.
WEAPON MODULE ACTIVATED !!
QUANTUM DECODING – 30% COMPLETE
On Mitchell's HUD a targeting reticule appeared, the two red circle's tracking with his arms. This mech had been configured to do a demonstration with infantry in the artificial urban scenery in the display area. And of course that meant that the weaponry was relatively harmless except, perhaps, it might be just disruptive enough !
PHUT PHUT PHUT PHUT PHUT PHUT !!
Suddenly from the mech's mini guns a volley of paintballs were unleashed at Molly's mech, showering it with red dye as they struck their target.
QUANTUM DECODING – 40% COMPLETE
Molly's laughter echoed from The Spider, the harmless shower of missiles incapable of damaging her machine. However as she was gloating she found herself of the defensive as Mitchell followed up his weak attack.
Lucy looked at the in-flight information that was displayed on the entertainment system by her seat. One of the options there was to see the status of their flight. So far they had not changed course, not changed speed and more crucially they had not changed altitude. Lucy knew for sure that the emergency oxygen supply was intended to last sufficient time for the aircraft to descend to a point where oxygen was no longer required. They were quickly burning through that time with no effort to reach a safe height being evident.
Looking at the flight attendants it was obvious something was wrong. They had small personal air bottles so they could move independently within the aircraft but it seemed they had a problem. One flight attendant had the outward appearance of someone with hypoxia and another had resorted to using a mask from the passenger system.
Something was seriously amiss and within minutes no one would have the air they needed to survive. Lucy knew it, Selena knew it and it was obvious the flight attendants suspected it. Lucy looked at the steps that would take her to the deck below where the cockpit door resided.
“I have to do something!” Lucy said, her voice muffled by her bright yellow mask on her face.
“You will never make it to the flight deck!” Selena exclaimed. She knew it would be impossible to enter the cockpit, they were built like fortresses.
“I ….. I have to try!” Lucy exclaimed.
“Are you crazy? You will black out before you make it!” Selena pleaded.
“Selena..... I …..... I am prepared for this. We will all die in our seats if we just sit here,” Lucy said firmly, unbuckling her seatbelt and wrenching the yellow mask from her face.
“Prepared? But...” Selena reached out with her hand to prevent Lucy from going but failed. Trapped in her seat Selena felt powerless to move, her Asian companion striding purposefully away from her.
Selena thought about her previous steps. Where had she gone wrong? How had she walked into this trap? And what fate had she led her beautiful Kara …. beautiful. Why had she never told her what she thought of Kara? Always she was controlling, chastising, dominating her ….
“Perhaps if we had had more time ...”
QUANTUM DECODING – 60% COMPLETE
“GO FOR HER CAMERAS !!” yelled Supergirl suddenly as she realised the potential of this new saviour. Supergirl knew that if Molly was able to control the machine from somewhere else she must be getting her visual cues from equipment on the mech that held her prisoner.
Mitchell heard Supergirl's cry, her plan making perfect sense. If he couldn't outfight the beast then he had to blind it instead. Stepping backwards Mitchell gave himself space and raised his robotic machine's arms, putting The Spider in his sights.
PHUT PHUT PHUT PHUT PHUT PHUT !! Mitchell's mech unleashed its volley of paintballs trying to get a hit on the optic units dotted around the cockpit area of the machine.
Gina, Mike Loughlan's secretary received the last of the emails from the various banks that composed the oversight board. Now she could prepare the list of attendee's for next Monday's oversight committee meeting.
Gina looked through her files and found the attendee list from the previous meeting, re-saving it with a new file name which included the next meeting date. The young woman then began to update the names. Usually it was the same names, over and over, rarely were there changes to make ….
“Oh ...”, Gina said, as she began to find some changes in her list.
Placing her mouse over one name she clicked and dragged over it turning it blue before hitting delete. Gone was Bank-Deutchland's Kurt Draxler, in was Hans Moissel.
Next, Bank Nacionale-Paris. Out was Robert Dubois, in was Patrick Legrande.
Banco di Roma. Giancarlo Liazzi, not attending, Marco Giulini now taking his place.
Viennese Investment Bank - Gerhard Meyer unavailable, Willem Thessens attending.
“Did Loughlan know of these changes?” Gina thought. She was left wondering if these new committee members were going to see everything his way like the previous members had.
QUANTUM DECODING – 90% COMPLETE
“Almost there!” Molly sneered as she sensed victory. Any moment now and she would win. So far she had managed to fend off the battling Mitchell but he was improving with every passing moment. With her field of vision narrowing, crowded out by the encroaching dye on the lens she just had to stay in the fight a little longer.
“Damn you MOLLY!” growled Mitchell as he lined up another shot.
PHUT-PHUT-PHUT-PHUT-PHUT-PHUT-PHUT blasted out another volley of paintballs scoring a direct hit around the canopy and peppering Supergirl's back.
“NO!” Molly shrieked as she realised she was in trouble, The Spider was blinded by his last shot. Looking at the quantum module it had only decoded ninety-eight percent!! Mitchell might kill her if she were to wait to get to one hundred percent but if she rushed the procedure it might not work properly, if at all!!
“You did it!” cheered Supergirl as the area around her was awash in coloured paintball dye covering up what she guessed might be the optical systems helping Molly control the machine.
Molly's index finger hovered, her hand flexing a moment waiting as long as possible before committing to her final act. The vibrations of the enemy mech controlled by Mitchell rumbled through Molly's seat as he approached.
“Damn you, Mitchell!” Molly cursed as she struck the button.
ACTIVATE REWRITE!
Suddenly The Spider began to whine, the power system spooling up for some unknown reason. From the slatted grills of the honeycombed cooling matrix The Spider's powerplant began to glow a bright electric blue as the system began to approach overload.
“Oh god!” Supergirl and Molly moaned in unison as the Spider's power core began to scream louder and louder.
From deep within their bodies unspeakable sensations permeated through them. A tingling sensation travelled up their spines and stimulated their brains while the core of their bodies were filled with an electrical spider web of pleasure and pain. Both women lost control of their bodies, their torsos shivering on the metal spheres inserted into their most intimate of places.
“Now you are going to PAY!” Mitchell snarled as he stomped his mech up to the trailer by-passing the stumbling, flailing Spider with Molly no longer able to control herself or her machine.
VEEEWWUUUUUUUUUUR screamed the servos of Mitchell's mech as he wound up a punch. The area around him began to bathe in the brightening pale blue light of the power core as it screamed louder and louder.
Mitchell swung his punch for the trailer, his mech's metal fist closing in on the external wall as the Spider's howling power core threatened to erupt.
In that moment the two women clenched tight on the metal orbs within their bodies, their clits engorging from the energy washing over them. Molly's sick mind revelled in knowing that the sensations she now endured were the same she was inflicting on her nemesis. Better yet, she knew Supergirl's final defeat neared. Not only had she been rendered powerless but any moment now she was going to be cast into a mortal body and …..
“Oh, yes … yes ..” whimpered Molly as the orgasm cut through her.
For Supergirl her orgasm was not so sweet. The sensation while pleasurable had been a stolen moment. Stolen, but not from the heroine, but from Selena, the one who she secretly gave sole rein of her body. Before that an orgasm had been a gift only fleetingly found by herself. Only Lucy with her gentle yet cruel torture had been rewarded with a climax and even that was with Selena's guiding hand. Now though Molly and her inner demon had forcibly added herself to the small list of names who had seen her during her most primal, private and intimate moment.
“Nooo nooo ….” moaned Supergirl in shame as she turned her head, her body tormented by unwanted pleasure.
As the women reached their climax the power core of The Spider overloaded, the quantum pulse seeking its targets. From the Air Defence Mech's position hundreds of meters away the area where Mitchell, Molly, supergirl and all the others had battled was too bright to see. The pulse from The Spider exploded outwards in all directions and was strong enough to cast shadows though it subsided as quickly as it had happened.
With faltering steps Lucy edged down the stairs from business class on the upper deck to the area near the lower deck galley. Her judgement was slowly fading but she managed to keep walking. She didn't know what drove her but she knew she had to get to the cockpit door.
“Got to get there. I can do it,” Lucy thought to herself as she focused on the last few steps.
With her hand on the handrail Lucy drunkenly sought the floor of the lowerdeck with her extended foot and stepped down. The flight attendants in their jump seats glared at her in protest that she was out of her seat and beckoned to her to sit down.
Lucy had the presence of mind to see that one flight attendant who clung to her personal oxygen bottle was suffering from hypoxia, just as the one on the deck above. It was as if their air bottles had been compromised somehow. The people using the drop down masks however were fairing better, their alertness and their anxious faces revealing they were still getting air.
Lucy's head turned in an exaggerated way, her eyes struggling to focus as she she saw the cockpit door ahead with its keypad. There was no point trying to defeat the lock. Even in a perfect state she would struggle to open one of these very well engineered and very secure doors.
One of the flight attendants who was a prisoner to her tethered oxygen masks pulled it from her face to speak.
“MISS - YOU MUST SIT DOWN! NOW !” she ordered.
Lucy looked dizzily back at the source of the voice, then back at the door. Lucy didn't know why but she had to keep going. She had to get to the door, it was like the only thing she was living for.
Step after step Lucy got closer, her mind shutting down as her brain slowly began to suffer from the lack of oxygen. Then the first stumble happened but she recovered. Then she stumbled again, dropping to her knees. With a strained look on her face she began to crawl, one arm advancing then the next, then her knees catching up behind until eventually....
With her palms resting on the base of the door, her forehead too, Lucy slammed her eyes closed as she sought the words.
“De..... descend …...descend.....you can do it ….An....” Lucy slurred as she slowly lost consciousness and collapsed at the foot of the door.
The lucid flight attendant sipped at the air from the oxygen mask that had dropped from an overhead panel. She was powerless to help anyone, even her colleague who looked to be awake yet was unresponsive. Someone, somehow had left their personal bottles slightly open before the trip rendering them useless.
Worse, the overhead oxygen mask system was going run out at. Out any moment. And effects. Hypoxia. Set in. Hypoxia. Set in. Girl. Door. Hyp. Set in. Mask. Worse....
Mike Loughlan studied the attendee's list for the oversight committee meeting due the following Monday and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Some of his strongest allies were not going to attend, instead replaced by unknowns.
What would ordinarily be a non-event now had some uncertainty to it. While the people attending normally were mere mouthpieces of their banks own policies they still had some sway and if they went back to their employers with recommendations then …
Loughlan shook his head again still unable to believe what was going on and pressed his intercom button.
“Yes Mr Loughlan?” replied Gina.
“Have you learned any more about the reason for these changes?” Loughlan asked.
“They are being pretty cagey about things but I just got one of the administrators at Bank Deutchland to tell me what happened with Mr Draxler. I am really sorry Mr Loughlan, but he has been killed in a car accident. It happened just a few days ago.” Gina explained solemnly.
Mike Loghlan slumped into his seat as the news sank in.
“Oh no...” Loughlan said, pausing to think. His mind had been filled with conspiracies and corporate politics and hadn't considered more mundane things such as real life.
“Thank you, Gina. If you hear any more about the others let me know. I will talk to the people in Germany when their office hours resume and sort out some flowers. Kurt was a good man …. his poor wife....children too,” Loughlan said somberly.
“Of course, I will let you know right away,” Gina said as Loughlan rested his forehead in his hands, his elbows on his desk.
Mitchell awoke from his daze and found himself still strapped into his mech. The controls were dead, not a single LED was lit in the cockpit.
“Son of a bitch!” Mitchell growled as he tried to figure out where he was. Ahead of him was the side of the ruptured grandstand, and the outstretched arm of his lifeless mech. A few clicks and button presses confirmed his machine was dead.
Turning his head he strained to see what had happened about him and saw that perhaps the punch from his mech had tipped the support trailer over. At any rate The Spider had collapsed on top, seemingly having ruptured its power core in some kind of overload and splitting the trailer beneath it. With some effort Mitchell managed to push open the cockpit canopy and clambered out.
Mitchell limped towards the support trailer which had been forced over, the side wall, now the roof, ruptured by the wreck of The Spider laying across it.
“I'm going to fuck you up, Molly” grunted Mitchell as he hobbled towards the wreckage.
Working his way down the side that was formally the roof of the support trailer Mitchell found a torn out opening, the inside now open to the elements.
Laying close together and unconscious, Supergirl was in her shredded and torn costume while Molly Matthews was completely naked. The pair, their thighs glistening from the copious amounts of lubricating gel barely moved at first, only the shallow movement of their chests offering up proof of life.
“Supergirl, are you okay?” Mitchell called out as he sought to navigate his way into the wrecked trailer which proved difficult while it was on its side.
Supergirl flinched, her limbs pulling into herself a moment as her mind seemed to reboot. As she began to move she felt herself get caught on dislodged cables and panelling and with a sudden jerk she began to take in her surroundings.
“Oh thank god!” Mitchell said as he saw the heroine respond to his call.
Then Molly began to awaken, rolling onto her side on what was formally a wall of the trailer. She felt the cool air on her naked skin, her nipples hardening in response and her arms wrapped around herself, a natural reaction.
“Ooooooh, where am I?” groaned Molly.
“You fucking murderous bitch!” growled Mitchell as he flung obstacles from his path.
Both the women could barely respond as they groggily began to pick themselves up. Mitchell angrily picked his way through the wreckage and closed in just as Molly and Supergirl began to rise to their feet.
“Nghhhhhhhhhhh” grunted Mitchell as finally he felt the satisfaction of punching Molly down.
“Ughhhh” Molly groaned as she slumped to the floor.
“GET UP!” Mitchell demanded, his anger rising with every moment.
“Stop .. stop ….” Supergirl said as she raised her hand.
“YOU FUCKING MURDERER!” growled Mitchell as he beckoned Molly to get back to her feet.
“Stop! Please … what happened …. where am I?” sobbed Molly, her arm reaching out defensively.
“Don't give me that horseshit!” Mitchell growled.
“What happened to us?” Supergirl asked as she rubbed her wrists, sore from their encounter within the The Spider's vice like grip.
“There was something like a pulse, an EMP or something,” Mitchell said as he loomed over Matthews who tried to protect her modesty.
“Jeezus, is anyone alive over there?” said an unseen yet familiar voice. It was McAllister. Having taken shelter in the wreck of a military truck he had see only the fancy footwork of the mech's during their battle. Now he had closed in on Molly's position seeing that her protector, The Spider had fallen and the support trailer was a wreck.
“McAllister ?! Over here! It's me, Mitchell! We have her!” Mitchell said aloud as he heard the footsteps of McAllister clambering through the wreckage.
“Did the president get away?” Mitchell asked of Supergirl.
“The president?...I ...I don't know,” Supergirl replied, her head groggy.
“Someone please, tell me what is going on! Supergirl?” Molly begged.
Stepping through a torn open hole in the side of the support trailer McAllister entered. In his hand was a pistol, no doubt taken from a fallen secret service agent. Entering cautiously, weapon raised McAllister saw Supergirl stood over Molly and began to relax.
“Is everyone okay?” McAllister asked.
“I'm fine, these two are just shaken up from the pulse,” Mitchell responded, glaring at Molly.
“What the hell was that thing? It was like a nuke went off!” McAllister asked as he glanced around the wreckage.
“Ask HER,” Mitchell said pointing at Matthews who eyes darted between the others like a deer in the headlights.
“You did all this?!” growled McAllister.
“I don't even know who I am!” Molly protested, conscious of the eyes falling on her naked body.
“Well, save it for the authorities. The army is coming, I saw their helicopters on the horizon. Get her on her feet, she's coming with me!” McAllister said.
“Su...Supergirl? You're not going to let them take me, are you?” Molly begged as she defensively rose to her feet.
“They .. they need to find out what happened here...” Supergirl said with confusion, barely remembering what had happened herself.
“Put some fucking clothes on, bitch!” Mitchell said, thrusting the clothes she had been wearing while she had been watching from the grandstand, the ones that she had discarded inside the virtual cockpit chamber. Mitchell glanced at Molly as she dressed nervously at gunpoint, McAllister supervising her.
“Supergirl,” whispered Mitchell.
“Yes?” she answered, turning her head having been looking at her hands as she flexed them.
“The module, the one in The Spider. You need to take it, before the authorities figure out what it can do to you. Whatever is inside of it seemed dangerous,” Mitchell said, pointing up at the mech laying over the top of the trailer.
“The …. the green glow?” Supergirl replied groggily, vaguely recollecting what Mitchell was referring to.
“Yes, take it! I just don't want to see that stuff in the wrong hands, understand? Honestly, it was something to do with HER, not US.” Mitchell said anxiously.
“I … I think I understand. You are a good man,” Supergirl said as she reached to him for an embrace.
“Good luck,” Mitchell whispered into her ear as the pair patted each other on the shoulder before Supergirl stepped back and nodded with a soft smile.
“Do you have this under control now?” Supergirl asked of McAllister.
“Yes, I have her,” McAllister confirmed as Molly finished dressing.
“Good. See to it she is handed over unharmed. Now I must go,” Supergirl said, a weak nod coming back as a reply from McAllister.
Hovering clumsily upwards Supergirl reached the torso of the wrecked Spider and pulled firmly at the sealed aperture module, wrenching it from the frame of the machine. The trio of people below watched as Supergirl flew, first a little unsteadily then rapidly off into the distance, the large module in her embrace.
“Wh...what will happen to me now?” Molly asked of McAllister as he grabbed her by the upperarm and began to guide her at gun point.
“HELL is coming for you, Matthews, but if you are lucky you'll get the chair or hanging instead,” McAllister said.
CHAPTER 31
Molly Matthews in her pristine white laboratory tunic stares in wonder at the readouts on her computer screen, seemingly entranced by what she sees. Then suddenly she snaps back to reality realising you are there and clicks off her screen with a sly grin. Reclining back into her seat Molly forms a finger pyramid with her hands, a thoughtful expression forming across her face before speaking.
Musical Cue - Right Click and Open in New Tab
“But the question is, will they see through my own deception before it is too late?” Molly says with a smirk.
“I have planned it to the finest of detail. My brother, oh my sweet sweet brother will be my redemption. As we speak his mind grows poisoned by the little green speck that he alone encounters in his fiancées den. And once I know he has let my monster in I can use that same speck to cripple that impudent Supergirl before I infect my next victim.
I have given up my desire to make Supergirl pretty. Why focus on merely one person when I can change the world? I am going to STEAL her body and rule over ALL you weak minded FOOLS. And who will try to stop me? Of course I know Supergirl has friends, her sword, her shield and those wretched eyes but my cyber attack is about to find them. Once I do, I will send them scurrying like cockroaches from the light and into the flying trap my brother will make for them! And how will I rule the world you wonder? Even as Supergirl I cannot be everywhere at once.
No, I will need help of my own, but it is coming, the fruits of the Albino Man's work! By manipulating Mike Loughlan's fate I can place him where I need him to be, producing my legions of followers, a new breed of soldier. All I need are the votes of those leeches, the bankers. Those votes will swing my way as Loughlan's allies fall to my hired assassins, leaving Donovan to buy his soul. Then he will be ripe for infection!
At the end of it all when my quantum transfer is complete I will fly free, to finally be loved and wanted! And the mind of Supergirl? She will be trapped in my former body to face her fate. And what a fate! For who will care what happens to someone who has committed horrific acts. And I promise you, the body count she will inherit once I am done with my murderous tools will lead to a fitting end, the death penalty! How ironic that mankind will unwittingly kill their saviour for me.
No, my plan is flawless and of that I am sure. BUT, even after revealing all my wicked schemes you still won't see my best deception, but of THAT I will never tell!”
THE END