Adam Bowie aka Switch Blade
Orphan who developed powers and helped his other orphans and runaways survive.
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Children
Reunion with Ignis
The communication says that something has opened another portal. I hope it’s not like the last one where that guy came though and said he was going to take over our realm.
I meet Maven on a rooftop and as we look over, I see someone I didn’t expect to see again. Ignis, the L37 member from that sand dimension.
I look down at the street below the building we are on, and Ignis is between two groups. IERA agents freaking out because she is there on fire wings, and 4 large warriors at the other end of the street.
I suggest that Mavis feed on the IERA agents, and she gladly drops down to do so. That ‘thing’ is scary. I turn my back on her and move over towards Ignis.
Ignis is happy to see me again and says that we need to shut down the portal at the end of the street, or more of these huge things will be coming through. At first, we both attack the same one of the big guys, as it is the closet one to us.
Well, I’ll give them credit… They are tough MF’s.
After the first round of blows are swapped, I notice that a couple of the LFER’s show up at the end of the street. Looks like Claws and Red Biker Chick. I guess they kissed and made up, as they seem to be working together again. Last I saw RBC she was locked up in an IERA cell, still being a problem, and not willing to work with anyone else to get free. Let’s see if that has changed.
I call out to the two lfer’s and suggest that they try to drop these big bads into the portal behind them.
Well, RBC is still stuck in her ways of not trusting anyone. It’s not like I told her to go jump in the portal. Guess I’ll just have to do it myself.
I grabbed the big one near me, and start fighting with him and moving it back towards the portal by myself. Ignis finally is starting to make some headway with hers.
The two lfers take out one of their big bads by working together. Maybe there is some merit to that working together thing.
I’m finally able to drop my tall dark and ugly into his portal and turn to start to drop another down the portal. I quickly moved back and take the one Ignis had been fighting and fly it over to the portal.
Now the question is, what are the lfer losers gonna do.
Another Sewer Another Slosh Fest
It’s been a few days since my escape from the IERA prison. I was afraid that I had somehow burned bridges with Level 37.
The usual op drop, short and to the point. Retrieve lost hollow fragments in the sewer. I am told that I won’t be alone on this one. That’s good. It’s been getting more and more difficult to take on these LFER’s here in New York. RBC and Claws are a tough pair. They ‘work’ together but don’t, so it’s been a bit easier to defeat them, as I’m able to take them on one-on-one.
The sent Maven to help me tonight. She is scary, I never know what she’s going to look like. That shape shifting and taking on different bodies is really weird and unnerving.
We start into the sewer when I hear RBC scream at something. I tell Maven that we have company, and I head in the direction that I think the yell came from.
As I’m turning the corner, something almost latches onto me, well it would have if I had been in phase with the tunnels. Ugly thing. I’m not sure what it was before, but it looks like some of the creatures that I’ve seen from other mutations. Some sort of power leak into this world that seems to be causing these things.
I can hear something else down another corridor, but that’s a problem for later. I see a new super at the end of the section I’m in. I change the gravity around where he is and I tell him to bug out and he does, or so I thought.
Something leaps out of the muck and jumps right where the guy was… Is guy the right name? It looked like it was some sort of merman. I thought they was just old fairy tale.
Anyway, I shake my head, and something snaps in the back of my mind, there was some sort of song that I was hearing then it got all messed up, and the guy appeared right where he was. Ok. That is not good.
I fly at him and get as dense as I can. He moves funny just as I’m about to slam into him, and I have to pull up short or the wall will stop me. It was a close thing.
Merman disappears from where he is and appears down the hall. About this time, the giant cricket, with a mouth full of teeth clamps onto my leg. I grab and throw the thing at Merman. It hits and splatters nicely.
There’s that song again, and it’s making me tired. Different than when I was trying to grab those energy fragments.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see RBC moving down the hallway behind me. I drop the gravity field and move over to beat on Merman some more. I have a feeling that he is behind the music that keeps messing with me.
He disappears into a small puddle of water that wasn’t there before and is now behind me. I hear RBC making a break for it and as I turn, there is suddenly a wall of water between me and Merman. I shift my density around and I make straight for where RBC is heading to stop her. Just as I’m about to reach out and grab her, there is music in the back of my mind, and RBC disappears from my sight. She’s gone invisible before, but the crate went with her this time.
I can hear Maven screeching her mating call, or is that her dinner bell, back behind me, either way it grates on the nerves. I try to take Merman out because I’m tired of this music in the back of my mind. I hit him again but didn’t succeed in removing him from the equation.
Claws is trying to make her escape, so I fly over towards her and try to stop her. I hit her solidly, but she didn’t drop to the ground. I can see those little ‘cartoon’ stars over her head when suddenly, it feels like I’ve just woken up in my room. I know everything has happened, but I’m not there anymore, like I just woke from a dream.
I shake my head, I know that I didn’t just dream all of that, and just like that, I’m back in the sewer, looking at swaying Claws. Her eyes clear and she takes a swipe at me. Her claws are sharp, but not as sharp as they were a couple of days ago when we fought in the park.
The cricket things wake up and start going after Merman as I turn and try to chase Claws down, but she’s just a bit too fast for me.
I return to one of the safe houses, content in the knowledge that Maven failed too.
I’m not sure what I can do to make up for these failures. I have to support my gang, my family since my parents died. I was on the street thanks to IERA, and LFER didn’t do anything to help either. My people rely on me to bring in food and money. I’ve utterly failed them these last two missions.
One thing is for sure, No more Mr. Nice guy. I see any one of those three again, I don’t care where, I’m doing my best to take them out, … permanently and with extreme prejudice…
To Beyond Infinity?
I’m sent to retrieve some genetic fuel rods, whatever those are.
I get to the lab that they say the rods are in. Dark and spooky, just my kind of place.
I get in there, and there are these six-legged creatures crawling all over. What a place? What in the heck were they doing here? I don’t know, but it just makes my job all the more difficult.
I start to fly over them, but man can they jump. Wherever one of them makes contact with me, there is some sort of electric shock. Land crawling electric eels, yuck.
I make it further in, and there is some REALLY old equipment in that room. It reminds me of some of the old sci-fi movies that Mom liked to watch.
I found this ‘Level 10’ that I’m supposed to deliver those rods too. Strange, I thought that Level 10 was going to be somewhere else.
Upstairs there are more of those strange legged electric eels. Using the furniture in the room I smash them to pieces and collect all the rods that I can find.
After quickly making my way back to ‘Level 10’ with the rods I start into the green lit room. He moves towards what looks like some sort of reactor or doorway, I’m not sure which. I step through and suddenly, I’m up to my shins in sand. Looking up, the sky looks like what I would see from earth, but nothing else looks the same.
I hear something behind me as I turn to look there are two bug men pointing some sort of rifle at me. “ተንቀሳቅሱ! በዚያ መንገድ!” I have no idea what they said, but the pointed with the guns. I turn and, in the distance, I see some sort of large industrial complex. So, I start that way. To be safe, I turn desolid, mostly because that is the easiest way to walk on the sand.
We get to the complex and there is a woman there. Oh, thank God, she speaks English. She’s still speaking gibberish to me though what she is saying is incredible. I’m on Earth, but in a different when? I don’t really understand.
Apparently, the rods are some sort of fuel or power source. These bug things have taken over the complex and Ignis is ‘working’ with them, but against them at the same time. She needs the rods, that dropped to the ground as I passed through the portal to this earth.
I fly back and the bug guys, I think she called them Tropus, fire at me. I’m glad that I an out of phase here too, as they are pretty good shots, but the energy just passes through me.
I get back to the complex fairly quickly and have to take out a few of the Tropus so that we can put the rods back in place.
Ignis flies up on some ‘black flames’ and between the two of us, we get the generator working again. All of the Tropus who were still standing dropped to the ground twitching.
Ignis thanks me for my help “We may be seeing each other again soon.” If that is the case, I hope it isn’t on this ‘earth’…
I return through the portal, and I’m back in the green room. Some of these missions for Level 37 are really weird.
I go back to the meeting point, and I’m told that I am now owed a ‘confidence’. I can either ask one question that they will answer fully and truthfully, or I am owed one favor.
I have no idea what to ask, so I just hold on to my question or favor…
Escape from New York
I wake in a holding area.
As I start to move around, I realize that my hands are bound, and that I’m still in my nano-suit. Well, at least there is one good thing going for me.
I lay still for a while, making sure that I have recovered all my energy, and I’m listening to see what is happening around me.
I think I hear RBC near me, but I haven’t opened my eyes yet to see if she is awake yet.
I think I hear an IERA agent walking towards my cell.
“Well, looks like those cuffs are doing their job. The blue one seems to still be asleep. I’m surprised that those two even lived after getting blasted full force. I hope that R & D is working on something stronger to take out these overpowered freaks.”
“Hey, just be glad that you didn’t get gassed like I did. I’m still adjusting to it, and they still treat me just like a regular agent.”
“Yea George, we all thought you bought the farm back at that lab on the west coast. Some of the REA supers on Force 5 can be real dicks.”
I hear the two of them pass on by my cell. I lay there a bit longer to see if they are making regular rounds.
Now to see if I can get out of these cuffs. I concentrate on making myself less and less dense, slowly this time as I don’t want to be too open to attacks. I can tell that I am getting less and less dense as I can feel myself sinking into the floor a little bit, but my hands are still bound. Ok, that sucks.
I activate my Walking On Air, hoping that works. I feel myself pull free of the floor and can tell that is working too.
I open my eyes and settle to the floor looking to see if there are any windows in this cell. No, of course not, why would they make it that easy. I have no idea where I’m at or which way to head out.
Einiey Meaniey Miniey Moe… It’s that way that I go.
I shift to my least dense form and head out of the wall to my right.
As I’m passing through the wall, there she is, RBC. “Well, well, they got you too. Did Claws leave you to be captured? Some teammate there. That’s why I work alone. You know, if you had agreed to hold on to me and the box, I would have flown us away and we could have continued our argument alone and one of us, I mean I, could have left with the box.”
"I knew you we're a Ray and attack!"
"Really? I'm a Ray as you call them? You see these cuffs still on my hands? Apparently, you didn't listen to what I said. I WORK ALONE. I fail or succeed on my own. If anyone was a 'Ray' as you call them, I'd say it was Claws that was with you. She took off pretty quickly when she could see that you were beat. Some teammate."
"Energy rebels are a tough cell we are trained to live to fight another day and accept some losses!"
"You may be tough, but you don't think long term, do you? If you had listened to me before that ship fired, we would both have gotten away. Oh, well, you ain't gonna listen, so, I'm outta here."
“Good go you have bad breath!”
“Goodbye and good luck. Beat on you later.” He laughs at his own joke as he continues to the wall directly across from where he entered her cell, moving parallel to the hall outside of the cells. At each wall, he pushes his face through just enough to see what is on the other side. He continues moving carefully, and listening for alarms that someone has escaped. Once he sees an outside wall, he’ll quickly take to the air and fly up and away from where he has been kept.
Once up and away, he’ll get his bearings and begin heading to the general area of the closest drop point. He quickly pens a note about the fact that he is bound in something that is changing its density as he does, and he needs help at a burner location to get them removed, just in case they are being tracked somehow.
He moves to a secondary pickup point and watches from hiding to wait for an answer.
Twenty minutes later he sees someone drop something in the box. He waits another 10 minutes afterwards to be sure that no one is around. He deactivates the suit and pulls the hoodie up over his head and tucks his hands under the hoodie and makes his way over to the drop box. He retrieves his reply.
“5th and Broadway, 20 minutes.” He destroys the note by placing it back in the drop box and activating the self-destruct. He smiles as there is a small puff of smoke that rises from the box and realizes that he can just barely make the location in the time he has left. He tucks over and makes his way towards the location.
Once at 5th and Broadway, he goes into an alley, and charges up the nano-suit and drops into the ground. He finds a hooded figure waiting in a small room. He drops into the room and solidifies and makes the gesture as best he can. The hooded figure nods and turns. Adam follows him.
After a short walk, the hooded figure stops and makes a gesture. Adam steps up next to him, and they both vanish and re-appear in a brightly lit room.
“Show me the cuffs” I lift my hands towards him as he reaches out. “Interesting, Hollow energy. You were right to be careful. We could track these, so I’m sure that THEY could too.” The hooded figure looks me straight in the eye. “This is going to hurt.” I’m not sure, but I think he smiled at that.
Sometime later, I wake up again. I have no idea how long I was out, but he was correct, that hurt a lot. I have no idea what he did, but at least my hands are free and the cuffs are gone, not my problem now. I’m still in the same room that I was in when I passed out, so, I get up and look for an exit. There isn’t a regular one, so I make my way out of the upper corners of the room. I move slowly so that I don’t just appear out in the open. I get to the edge of the street and start to look around. Good, another alley. I make my way up and change back into my regular clothes and move out to figure out where I am.
I’m not in the city I started in, and I’m a bit of a travel away from where I need to be. Well, I hang my head, and make my way to the debrief. This isn’t going to be a good one. This is the first mission that they sent me on that I have utterly and totally failed. I shake my head and keep going.
I also think I finally figured out what my favor is... I need protection from the energy fragments of the Hollow, those things really wore me out.
Playing Chicken with IERA
We were sent to Seabrook to take out some IERA monitoring stations with some of their gas. Not sure what it does, but Level 37 seemed to be confident that it’s use would stop the problems here in Seabrook.
I’m casing the place in my ‘normal’ id, with my suit on, but under my clothing.
Walking down the street, the IERA proves that they are just thugs, and bother me. They attack, but thanks to my suit, it doesn’t do much damage. I take them out enough to get away.
Maven and Dominic were in the area. They found one of the entrances, but couldn’t get it open, so, I did my thing and dropped underground. Maven sure is ugly in her normal form, and quite blood thirsty. I’m still not too sure about Dominic but he was helpful.
I dropped off the canister in their monitoring station and threatened to fire it off if they don’t stop the darkenings. They finally do, so, I don’t allow it to go off. I wanted to, but I was told to only let it happen if they didn’t follow through with stopping the darkenings.
We make our way out and away.
Good news, we helped Seabrook, but the IERA wasn’t stopped completely. I’m not sure what those canisters did, but it sure scared them enough to back down.
I guess some of the IERA are human after all… But, I could be wrong in that too.
And Another One Bites The Dust
So, who knew that there was such a thing as ‘negative’ energy. Well, that’s what my handlers called it. Something about the energy of The Hollow or something. I really don’t need to know a lot about it though as I’m not a ‘tech’ guy. Ok, so maybe my suit is high tech, but I don’t really know much about that either. All they told me was to collect the energy fragments in the box that they were going to give me.
I arrive where I’m told to go. I can see the energy fragments, well, kinda see them. This park has a lot of trees, and it makes it hard to see. I take off after the first one that I see. It’s fairly far away, but I’m not moving as fast as I can. Hindsight, I should have moved faster, but not knowing what the situation really was, I thought it was smarter to be more careful.
About the time I get close to the first one I’m after, I hear that RBC’s bike in the park. That thing is loud.
Getting close to the first one, movement takes a lot more energy than I’m used to. It would have been easier if I didn’t have to bulk up to carry this stupid crate to hold these things in.
I open the crate and capture the fragments. Moving became much easier after that. Hum… So, the fragments seem to affect gravity in a way similar to what I can do, but not close enough that it doesn’t affect me like my ability.
I see my second target and turn towards it. RBC and Claws are on the bike and start making their way towards me. I can’t take the chance and move all out like I should. I get as close as I can while they are approaching me. I am able to capture the second fragment before they arrive.
I'm about to get the third fragment when RBC gets froggy and tries to kick me. Ok, well she does, but the body armor blocks most of what she does. There is a bit of a shock to my system but not too bad. While she’s doing that, Claws steals another fragment from me just before I can get to it.
So, they want to fight, fine, I’ll give them a fight. I rare back and swing the crate that I’m holding into the two of them. It breaks apart as I send them flying. I have no idea how Claws kept ahold of her crate, but she did.
I hop on over to her and kick the snot out of her, knocking her away from the crate. I reach down and pick it up and start to fly away.
What is it with RBC, doesn’t she just know when to quit? She jumps up and latches onto the crate.
An IERA fighter jet decides to get in on the act also. They tell us to cease and desist. I’m not letting go of this crate and RBC isn’t letting go.
I suggested to her that she grab onto the crate and to me so that I can fly us away. I can tell that I’m running on fumes. No, she has to try to claim the crate just for her. I stole it fair and square. Ok. If she wants the crate, she can have the pieces of it so I slam it into the ground as hard as I can.
I mis-calculate how tired I am. The crate hits the ground, and then so do I, just as the IERA jet lets loose with some sort of energy blast. The world goes black around me…
Now that’s the Spirit
Several days after the fire at the train station, I get notice that there is something going on near our safe house.
I make my way over there quickly. Weird that there are a bunch of floating sheets. Again both other factions are there, IERA and LFER, fighting these things.
Oh, now that’s bad. Getting touched by them and that person becomes bones. Not good. They don’t seem to have much resistance to damage though.
I see that chick got her bike out of the waterway. She’s using it to run over some of the floating sheets, well, let’s just call the ‘Halloween ghosts’ as that is what they look like. Old time cheap costume. I remember going as a ‘ghost’ a couple of times as a kid, before my folks died. It was all that we could afford even though Dad worked hard. Damn IERA killed them both. Forced me onto the streets…
Well, I guess I have to thank them in a way also. If it wasn’t for that, I would have never found this suit which is allowing me to fight back against their evil ways.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. At the end of the street, I see some sort of gateway that these ghosts are coming out of. I solid up and grab a light pole and start playing street hockey with them. Nice thing about using a light pole for a hockey stick, it’s easy to high stick several of these things at once.
While I’m making headway with this, Red Biker Chick comes riding down the street, doing donuts to try to take out some of these sheets, and up pops someone else who I don’t remember seeing before.
About this time, this guy starts trying to come out of the gateway… Did he say something about The Hallow? I’m not sure, it’s hard to understand him. Well, I know he did say something about trying to take over here. Not gonna happen on my watch dude.
I start trying to push him back to the other end of the gateway, and RBC (Red Biker Chick) and this other guy are doing the same thing. I’m not sure I like working with them, but, for the moment, our goals are the same, keep this guy from trying to turn everyone into a sheety ghost.
RBC and I stay on this side of the gateway, but the other guy that can seem to move underground also dips back behind BB (Big Bad) and starts trying to pull him back.
Once we get BB over to the other side of the gateway, it starts to collapse. I’m not ready to die yet, so I hot foot it back to my side. I watch long enough to be sure that it is closed then head out.
BB, who I think called himself Maru screams that we haven’t seen the last of him yet.
I don’t know, but I’ll be around if he does show back up again…
Get the Supplies
Well, after dropping off the body, somehow the other factions found out that I was there again. So, off to the races we go again.
Our stool pigeon told us that there was a stash of the chemicals needed to create GENO, so I was tasked with retrieving them or destroying them.
After dropping off the body, I begin to go looking for the stash. The only information that I had was that it was in an older storage area that wasn’t being used anymore.
The first area I tried to go into, some sort of field blocked me from passing through it. That was a first for me. Sometimes areas are harder to get into but I can usually find a way around it. This time I was met with some sort of huge creature that could hit me while I was phased out of the ‘normal’ world. It knocked me back for a ways so I decided that I would come back to that later.
Lucky for me that I made that decision, unlucky that the other factions showed up, so I let them play with Rocky. I think that is the first time that I have been hit while out of phase. It really hurt.
I made my way down the tracks to the next storage area. Ah, finally hit pay dirt. This is where the supplies are being stored.
While this may not put a stop to the process, it will definitely put a dent in it. I didn’t bring anything to start a fire with but there were some propane tanks in the room, so I opened them up and filled the room with gas. Now to find a flame. Well, those old machines that still have power, getting them to spark up would be a good way to start a fire.
It worked, and I hotfooted it outta there…
Getting Away
I got the ‘Doc’ away from the other supers. I think I was up against both other factions. The IERA and LFER’s. It was a bit difficult to get away with just one of my targets. It really would have been nice to have some other backup, but I didn’t, and I at least partially succeeded.
Ok, so after I got my target back to the safehouse, I find out that I actually did not get the correct target. The guy I brought back wasn’t really Rolly aka ‘The Doc’.
After they got done with him and got all the information out of him that we were going to get, he was terminated, and I had to stash the body.
I thought it was going to be a good idea to stash the body near where I picked him up. Let those other stooges find him there and think that he was the real deal. Oh, how wrong I was….
Down in the Bowels
I get down to the bottom of the stairs and turn and see one of the secondary targets to be eliminated if I can’t get him to come with me on his own. I fly at him and scoop him up. “If you want to live, come with me, otherwise you have to die.”
Apparently, this drug makes people lose their minds because he starts fighting me. I don’t have time for this, so I start reaching in for his heart. I’m not sure exactly what is going on, but I can’t seem to get a good grip on his heart to stop it. This is taking too long. I’ll come back for him later.
One of his friends seems to have changed into a bear and something from inside of the building hits me with some sort of ray. My mind goes a little numb and I must concentrate hard to stay on target. I drop the one I have and make my way down the tracks.
I hear a train coming, and out of dumb luck, I choose the right track to follow.
Some guy with a gun takes a shot at me. Hard to hit what isn’t fully in phase with the world. The bullets fly through me. That should have messed with the guy’s head a little bit. Who knows. I hit the guy and he flies in front of the oncoming train. Opps. At least he isn’t going to be coming after me now.
There is my target. I reach out and grab him, “If you want to live, come with me….”
He sputters something, but I really don’t understand what he is saying. Fine, I don’t have time to play so I start to spin him towards the train that is just starting to slow after pancaking the shooter. As his back starts to brush the train, his brain finally starts working and he says that he wants to live.
“Good choice” I pull him into me and start flying down the tracks as fast as I can.
You know, there is a downside to being fully in the physical world, that’s getting hit. That flying female comes flying down the track and I’m just barely able to dodge her.
I try to out fly her, but she’s faster than I am. She slams into us as I try to roll with her attack.
Damn, she hits hard. If I hadn’t rolled with that, she would have knocked me out.
It takes me a moment to get reorientated after that blow. Of course, Rolly decides to try to brake free of my grasp just about that moment, so, I’m also distracted by that.
Here she comes again, as I roll to try to deflect her punch, Rolly ends up between her and I. She nails him hard. Thanks, that makes it easier for me as he is no longer struggling in my arms.
Time to beat feet.
Doc's Retrieval
I’m glad that the leadership has so much confidence in me but is sure would be nice to have some backup that I know about.
Anyway, the current mission is to retrieve the chemist that is making the ‘super’ powered drug that is on the streets. I am supposed to capture him alive, if at all possible, otherwise, eliminate him so that the other factions can’t get their hands on him. Those poor fools that have either taken the juice or been forced on the juice, are marked for termination.
I finally get to a point where I can see the target clearly when I notice that some agents of the IERA show up. They are apparently following my target also. I hate being out in the open, but it is the only way to get to my target before they do.
I begin flying towards where ‘doc’ is getting out of their vehicle. Damn, he’s heading for the subway… Wait, that could be a good thing, he won’t be able to run as far if I can catch up to him.
Very shortly after I cleared the building top, I notice a flyer on my left. There are three others on the road to my right.
I watch in disbelief as someone in red attempts to jump the canal on a motorcycle to get to the other side. Well, they made it, but that poor bike hit the drink.
The flyer on my right attacks me. Good thing I was out of phase with the real world, as she passed right through me. Bad thing is I can’t do much against anyone while I’m like that. I switch over and do what I can to knock her out. That didn’t work, so we trade a couple of blows. I really shouldn’t let myself get distracted like that, my target has made his way into the subway.
I drop down through the building and see the person in red, might be a female, coming in through the door at the top of the stairs along with some dude that is sparking. Mind on the target.
Mile High in the Mile High
Well, one good thing about what I am doing, is that I get to see a lot of the country. I get a new letter from Level 37. I need to get a package from the stairwell on the 50th floor of a building in Denver.
I press my thumb on the letter, and off we go. Meet Jerome at 2:07 am.
I get there early to scout around. After making my way up the building across the street, I begin watching to see if there is an easy way in.
Just about 2 am, I notice a flyer drop down and begin messing with the doors. What a Noob, those doors wouldn’t be unlocked at this time of night. Most of the lights are off in the building. I ‘walk’ across the air to be behind the person at the doors. I make sure that I’m insubstantial just in case this is some IERA agent or LFER agent. Not a good idea to get shot down while flying. The fall doesn’t kill you, it’s the sudden stop at the end that does the trick. And from 50 floors, that would be a painful sudden stop.
I make the hand gesture for Level 37, but in reverse, just to be safe. Don’t want to give away all our tricks if this is an IERA agent. It could be one of those LFER jokers too. At least they kinda have their thoughts in the right direction.
No go on the call sign, so definitely not a level 37 member. At least I don’t have to train this one on B and E. I toss a field of energy at her, and she dodges out of the way.
She cracks her knuckles and says something about fighting. Ok, she wants to swing, I’ll swing. She’s obviously some ‘powered’ wanna be, so I respond “So, you want to Rumble? Let’s Rumble.” I dense up and put it all behind my swing.
Man, that felt sweet. Nice right cross to the chin. She goes flying back through the brick wall and into the building. Well, there goes the quiet stealthy approach. I follow her through the hole in the wall and look down at her on the ground. I shake my head, it's got ta be a LFER, not IERA. The IERA is better trained than that. I whisper over her, “You’re too dense to move, sweetheart. Just lay there and sleep.” I then walk through the wall behind her.
Well, if I needed a bathroom break, I went to the right place. As I step through the next set of walls, looking for the stairwell, there is a custodian about to walk into the bathroom. He makes a call over his radio. I swipe at it to mess it up, but my hand passes through it and him. I know that I’ve messed with electronics before, but I must have been solid when I did that. Something to try out some other time. Better to move on quickly.
A female custodian screams something in Spanish about “Dios”. So, either two or praying to God. She runs away from me, and I hear a door open. I follow her around and, thanks lady, you showed me the stairs.
As I step into the stairs, there’s a guard coming down the stairs from the floor above. He asks me what I’m doing in there. “Are you Jerome?” Surprisingly he replies that “No, I’m Samwise” He don’t look like no hobbit, but what do I know. He tells me to stop, and he calls over his radio about an intruder.
This job has gone south pretty quickly. I step back behind me and luckily into the elevator shaft. The elevator is making its way up the shaft. I’ll wait here for it to get to me. Suddenly, I notice that some sort of force slices through the cables moving the elevator. Great, someone else to mess with.
Naw no sense getting into another fight tonight. I’m hoping that the person in the elevator is Jerome. I dive down the shaft towards the car. The emergency breaks catch the car about halfway between two floors.
I land on the top of the car and stick my head down through. “You Jerome?” The guy stammers for a second, then gives part of the pass code. I give the counter sign and he sighs. “You got the package?” He says that yes, he does, but it’s now too hot for him here, and he wants out. Not really part of the mission, but I can't leave a fellow 37 in harms way.
I drop on into the car, and dense up and pull the inner doors open. I then reach up and open the outer doors to the floor above where we are. That’s the easiest way out. I climb up and stick my hand in to pull him up and out. He hands me the canisters, and I attach them to my belt to free my hands. “Climb on, and out we go.”
Jerome climbs on my back and I grab an arm to help hold him in place. With my free arm I punch the window, so we have a way out. I hear a noise in the stairwell just as we’re walking out of the window. Jerome says some IERA agent just came out of the stairs and ran over to the window.
“Thanks for the notice. Hang on tight, and up we go.”
I head up a bit higher and move around the corner of the building before heading back down to the ground.
“Ok, Jerome. Here’s your stop. I hope you know how to get to the safe house in Denver, because that’s above my pay grade. Thanks for the package. Good luck buddy.”
I turn and walk away from him. I find some shadows and deactivate my suit and pull my hoodie up over my head and head to my exit point.
Fast but NOT Furious
After getting the note telling him to go to Tennessee, Adam makes his way there. Bus fare ain’t cheap, but at least it is a lot less than trying to get a flight last minute. Not that it is real easy to get a flight without id…..
He arrives late in the afternoon the day before. Long bus ride, but at least he got a little bit of sleep.
He walks around the neighborhood where the address is. It is a high-tech warehouse / factory type place.
Everything looks like it is running normally. Nothing stands out. Adam heads away from the area and looks for an abandoned building to spend the night. After casing a likely place, he makes his way into the building and finds a hidden away area to get some sleep. Using some of the debris in the area, he sets his warning traps, and curls up to get some sleep.
He wakes in the morning, and heads towards the warehouse so that he gets there at least an hour early. He finds a place to hide, while he watches the building.
At 10 am, he makes his way towards the building and is escorted inside warehouse. There are a couple of others there, both dressed ready for a possible combat mission. Adam had changed into his 'suit' before going to the building. One of the guys introduced himself as Revered Takashi and the other guy as Disciple Garcia. I think, I’m associated with some sort of cult. Ah, what the heck, they can call themselves what they want, as long as I get to help stick it to ‘the man’, or in this case, the IERA.
A nice-dressed man, and one who was in street clothes were also brough into the same area.
After the introductions, which Adam didn't say much more than his name, another woman walked over to the group and waved some sort of tablet at us and was satisfied with whatever it showed about all of us. These people are paranoid…. Well, I guess you can’t be paranoid if someone REALLY is out to get you.
Our ‘mission’, yea, whatever, is to pull some rich guy out of a moving secure van and bring him back with us. Supposedly, he has been working with these Level 37 people, and helping to fund some of their research or something. I don’t really care. I get to beat up on IERA’s.
We all get into a couple of supped up SUVs and head out to a section of the interstate where the exits are 10 miles apart.
When we get close, Takashi fires some weird gun at the van carrying our mark and then speaks over the radios that they gave us and talks to someone. She comes back over the radio and says something about shutting the van down.
It slows down and pulls off to the side. Another car dives over in front of it and pulls to a stop too. As soon as we stop, I switch to my ‘ghost’ state and run up to the van an inside.
As I step in, there is our mark. He is one cool customer; all he did was straighten his tie. There were two SWAT guys in the back of the van. They were slightly surprised when I stepped into the back of the van without opening the door.
I smiled behind my mask and said, “So, we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?” They both smile and look at each other. One of them pipes up, “Hey, we’re getting paid pretty good just to sit still and protect this guy until you can get him out safely.”
This sent my mind spinning for a second, but I couldn’t let them see that. “Ok, so we gotta make this look good, why don’t you two handcuff yourselves and I’ll take this gentleman off your hands.” They both shake their heads, “Not yet.”
Ok, so this isn’t going the way I thought. I was itching for a fight, but these guys aren’t the cause of all of our problems. No sense in getting in a fight when you can talk your way out of it.
I mull over in my head for a couple of seconds their actions and their words…. I switch over to my heaviest, and the suspension on the truck breaks. That got a slight reaction out of them. About time. I start rocking the van like we’re having a knockdown inside.
“Ok guys, how about you give me your guns? They aren’t your personal property, are they?” They smile and say “Nope, SWAT supplies them.” They hand me the guns. “Sorry about the damage, but, you know, can’t have you trying to shoot me in the back.” I hold the two rifles and twist the two barrels around each other and toss them to the floor of the van.
About this time, I get the call over the radio that it’s clear enough to extract the mark. I look over my shoulder at the rich guy, “Follow right behind me.” What is it with rich businessmen and their freaking ties? He adjusts it again and stands to follow me. I punch open the doors and step out, doing a quick check of where the IERA agents are, then quickly make for the front SUV.
As I am holding the door for the guy, this ‘thing’ jumps out of the weeds towards the first SUV. As it is landing, it’s form blurs and in the next step, the mark is walking towards the second SUV. I glance in the back of the SUV and the guy is putting on his seat belt, then straighten his tie again. Rich men, waste of good air….
We all jump back into the SUV’s and we’re off. The two drivers take off and make their way to a field back in the woods. They stop and everyone gets out. At the back of the field, stands some guy in robes and two ‘MIB’ type guys.
We walk over and the robed guy tells us to stand closer. He begins muttering and waving his hands around like he is doing some ‘magical’ spell or something. Suddenly, we are bathed in some sort of blinding gold light. The field we are standing in gets like we are looking at two different shows in one spot. When the light goes out, we are standing in some office. The mark makes his way over to the desk, and the robe guy waves his hands around and this time, I’m ready for the bright light. Still hurt the eyes though. Now, we’re standing in the warehouse again. No one seems all that surprised that we just showed up.
We’re told we did well, and that we’d be called upon again. I think, she said something about us being some sort of group or something. The guy who stayed in the van, Dominic I think, talks to the girl who is standing there with us now, and offers her some card and says something about anger management issues. I just shake my head and look at the girl. “Gonna be interesting recognizing you in the future, ain’t it.” The crazy girl does some sort of weird grin, and her face almost splits in half as her smile exposes a grill full of pointy teeth. Reminded me of that real old movie about some aliens that came to earth with pointy heads. I almost asked her if she was one of them….
Thanks, and congrats are great and all, but I can’t feed my family back home on those. I go get my hoodie and pants and slide them on over the suit, and head out. I pull up the hoodie as I step out the door and let the head gear fade back into the rest of the suit.
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