Project: MI

For the living know that they will die,

but the dead know nothing;

they have no further reward,

and even their name is forgotten.

Their love, their hate

and their jealousy have long since vanished;

never again will they have a part

in anything that happens under the sun.

-Eclesiastes 9.5-6

A woman with striking bronze skin, amber eyes, and dark hair watched the video recording on her desktop, her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. There was a knock on the door to her office and the woman paused the video.

“Come in,” Daria Foster said. The door clicked open and she looked up to see a woman with short, light-brown, closely cropped hair enter, a folder in hand. The two nodded to each other.

“The investigation team has finished their preliminary report of the Romana Pax break in,” the other woman said, handing Daria the folder.

“Anything particular to note?” Daria asked, opening the file and giving it a quick glance. She furrowed her brow slightly as she caught the words invulnerability and flight in the report.

“The current theory is that we’re dealing with a heroi suspect of the Beta class, possibly within the ages of twelve to fifteen years of age, based on initial Guardian scans and recordings. Unfortunately there seems to have been some cyber involvement, as some video files and recorded scans have been corrupted or are missing from the data base. Until we can get that cleared up, nothing is positive.”

“Is that the reason why there isn’t a Q Field signature in the report?” Daria asked. “I was under the understanding that initial intelligence stated that it had been identified by the Guardians.”

The woman looked a bit uncomfortable at this and shifted her feet slightly before replying. Daria, noticing it, did not comment.

“Yes. There seems to have been cyber involvement as well,” the woman replied. “The Q Field signature was one of the deleted files. We haven’t been able to recover them yet.”

“Make that a priority then.” Daria turned over a page. “I’d like to know how a heroi slipped through the cracks, especially one with abilities such as this.” She glanced up at the woman. “Thank you Coleman, you may go.”

With a nod, Coleman turned and left the room. As the door closed, Daria sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.

Gone are the days… she thought, quoting a partial line from a poem she once read in college. Her eyes flicked over to the clock. It remained far too early for her to step out of her office.

The line from the poem never rang so true as it did now.

Agitated, she got up from her desk and walked around to its front. Turning the folder Coleman left her around, she gave the first page a much more thorough read-through. Not that it told her anything that Coleman hadn’t already summarized, but it was enlightening all the same.

Romana Pax being a target of heroi extremists is hardly surprising, given its position as one of the head industries in the manufacturing of suppressant. It’s been done before, just not in the past decade. So what changed?

The words invulnerability and flight stood out far too clearly for her.

Chewing on her lower lip, she wanted to curse out loud. Her first week as director of the Center of Heroi Control and this happens.

The higher ups are already worrying themselves over the speeding up of the Age, she thought. They’re going to put pressure on me to get this solved so that it doesn’t interfere with their plans to deal with the bigger problem. Daria closed her eyes and sighed again, this time resisting the urge to rub the bridge of her nose. Damn you Burton for leaving at a time like this. And damn you universe for making the higher ups freak out! If it weren’t for all of you, I wouldn’t be stuck in this office, behind that desk. I’d be out there trying to solve this and…

The ringing of her cell phone cut across her internal rant. Pulling it out, she flipped it open.

“Foster,” she said curtly.

“Daria?” came the voice on the other end. “Richard Steiner is here for your 9:30 appointment.”

“Send him up,” she replied, flipping the phone closed.

At least I’ll be able to do something other than wait for people to give me reports…

Jamie awoke with a start as his alarm clock blared angrily at him. With a heavy groan he gave the snooze button a heavy thwack, knocking it to the floor with a loud clatter. From downstairs, the sound of a news report diminished slightly, as if waiting for any further sounds before returning to optimum levels. Smacking his lips to rid them of their dryness, he took a bleary look around him.

“I woke up late,” he muttered irritably to himself before turning his gaze to the six limbed, two-headed dog that soundly slept next to him, paws strewn over his left leg. “You let me sleep in, didn’t you?”

For Monster, an audible, sleepy huff was his only response. Rolling his eyes, Jamie pushed the Cerberus’ legs off and began to get up.

“Beth!” he called out, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. His left leg felt oddly numb, but he dismissed it. On his desk, a small rod with a light-like eye fixed to its top lit blue and looked at him.

“Yes?” came a computerized, feminine voice. Jamie smiled a little.

“I overslept. Did any of the…whoa!”

The electric eye of the rod—an Artificial Intelligence Monitoring device known as a Companion—receded and expanded as Jamie collapsed upon his trying to stand up.

“Jamie?!” the electronic voice of Beth asked in alarm. “Are you all right?”

“Ow…” Wincing, the boy massaged his left leg. The numbness he noted earlier was now rapidly transforming into a million needle pricks running from foot to hip. “Yeah…” he breathed, getting back up. “Leg just fell asleep, that’s all. Anyway, did any of the guys try to get a hold of me while I was out?”

“You have no new messages. I already took the liberty of informing them that you were going to be late.”

Jamie scowled slightly at the machine. “Why’d you do that?”

“Your sleep patterns have been inconsistent with the recommended hours for your age group, and you woke up in the middle of the night. As today is a national holiday and school attendance isn’t a priority, I reset the alarm clock to allow you more time to…”

Jamie interrupted Beth with a loud groan.

Having a Companion drives me up the wall… his mind began, but he shut off that line of thought as he glanced at the machine, its—her, as he saw it in his mind—electric eye flashed twice, an act that he associated with worry.

“I apologize if I have caused you any difficulties,” Beth replied, casting her blue eye down toward the floor. Jamie bit his lip, feeling like scum now, and he turned away, only to find all three of Monster’s heads up and watching him, eyebrows scrunched downward in a way that made Jamie think he was being scolded by them.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jamie said, going over to his still open dresser and began rummaging around in it, producing a light blue t-shirt and pair of cutoff jeans.

“If I may ask,” resumed Beth. “What was it that caused you to wake up?”

Jamie shrugged nonchalantly. “Just a bad dream,” he replied, tossing a pair of underwear and socks onto the floor to join the rest of his day clothes.

“Do you remember any details?”

Jamie shrugged again. “Nope.”

“I see… I am still required to make a report though.”

“Go ahead,” Jamie replied, turning around. “Um…” He passed his hands over his eyes. “…do you mind?”

“Going dark,” she said, her electric eye clicking off. Alone with his privacy, Jamie immediately stripped down and began to put on his clothes. As he slid his shirt over his head, he briefly wondered—and not for the first time—why Beth, or anyone from the Center of Heroi Control for that matter, wanted to know about his dreams, especially when they were so unimportant that he forgot about them almost as soon as he had them.

They’re just dreams. The brain’s diarrhea. He laughed a little at the description, once given to him by his uncle once upon a time. It’s all so stupid.

Beth gave him an answer once as to why his dreams were considered important enough to inform the government of, but her response was so heavily dressed in terms that he didn’t understand that he gave up on trying to do so. Just as he did then, the line of thought quickly dismissed itself as he no longer saw the worth of pursuing it. Buttoning on his jean-shorts, he stood up and turned toward Beth. His eyebrows, thick and wooly like the caterpillar of the same name, turned downward into a sharp scowl. Above his Companion, hovering in midair and turning end over end, was his game play book, The Battle Star.

No sooner did he spy the item defying the laws of gravity did it suddenly pause and drop with a clatter.

“Okay. You can look again. Thanks, Beth.” He rolled his eyes as he approached her, detesting the fact that once again he needed to take his medicine. Snatching a small, orange-colored bottle from off his dresser, he popped off the lid and quickly swallowed a single white pill.

“You’re quite welcome,” Beth replied, her electric eye returning to life. It swiveled back over to him as he finished shuddering from the taste of his meds. “Everything all right?”

“Blagh.” Making a disgusted face, he waved his medicine bottle at her before pocketing it, and she blinked in understanding.

“That aside, you look good today. It matches the weather quite perfectly.” Jamie snorted as he went over to where his sneakers lay and slid them on. “Your horoscope indicates that today will be life changing for you as well.”

“That’s what you said yesterday,” Jamie laughed, putting the finishing touches on a pair of laces that had come undone. “Nothing happened then.”

He never believed in anything she said about his horoscope. He wiggled his toes a little, testing the tightness of his laces before moving over to his desk. “Ready to go?” he asked. Beth’s eye blinked once at him in affirmation.

“Yes,” she replied. Unplugging the Companion Module from her battery charger and clipping her to his belt loop. Snatching up a sketch book he whistled over to Monster, who promptly sprang up from the bed and hopped down.

“Let’s go boy,” he said, patting his leg. Together, the trio exited the room and headed down the hall toward the stairwell. Once more he passed the door with a picture of a white-furred rabbit, marred with pink and blue crayon scribbles. Just as before, he reached out to touch its doorknob briefly…

“Ow!”

Crying out in pain, Jamie snatched his hand back.

“Are you all right?” asked Beth, her eye swiveling up at him.

“Just shocked myself,” Jamie said, shaking his hand. The incident forgotten almost as soon as it started, he descended the stairs. Monster lingered for a moment, sniffing at the door before following his master. Beth, for her part, swung her eye at the knob, catching sight of a curl of electricity snaking up its metallic surface before disappearing into the keyhole.

“Hmmm…” the machine wondered aloud, logging the scene in its data base and transmitting it.

“What?” Jamie asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Nothing,” Beth replied. Shrugging his shoulders, Jamie headed into the living room, finding his father sitting in his easy chair in front of the television, watching a news report. Jamie hesitated a moment, taking in the dark circles and the disinterested, almost zombie-like expression in the man’s eyes.

"…there is still no word as CHC has refused to comment on the attack on Romana Pax,” he heard the news reporter say, and he quickly turned his attention to the tube. “Sources indicate that the attack was a rogue heroi that was not logged into the system."

As Jamie watched the news report, a pang of fear pounding in his chest, the newswoman—Allison Drew—turned to the woman sitting across from her, hands clasped in front of her.

"Ms. Endo, there are many in our audience who are wondering if this rogue heroi is actually an agent from one of the Eurasian States as relations have become increasingly strained with them in recent times. As someone who once worked with the CHC, can you corroborate any of this?"

"Well Ms. Drew," began the interviewee, sitting back in her seat. "There's no denying that there have been problems between the Old and New Worlds—particularly Albion—but really, there isn't anything that either side would be able to gain by attacking each other at this point, even with a small-time terrorist attack. As things stand, the words 'mutually assured annihilation' come to mind, making any direct power plays like this to be frankly too dangerous to try. I think we can rule out the political chess games."

"In that case, what do you have to say about how this will affect things on the home front? Heroi Civil Rights groups are concerned that this will trigger a new wave of anti-heroi sentiment in spite of one hundred years of good behavior."

"I can certainly understand their concern," Endo replied, readjusting herself in her seat. She seemed awfully uncomfortable, as though this were the last place she wanted to be at this moment. Deep down, Jamie felt his own stomach squirm, sharing that discomfort. “Nonetheless I am compelled to remind your audience that this individual is not registered and could very well be a deviant. We've had deviants before—heroi that manage to hide the emergence of their powers and go under the radar…"

"…which you describe in one of your books, Heroi Control: Plan for Failure…" Allison interjected. Endo chuckled grimly.

"No one's perfect, Allison, which was the point that I was making in the book. But coming back to the topic at hand, there's no—and I repeat,no—reason for anyone to be afraid of any heroi that they meet on the streets. A number of them are like every other law abiding citizen and a great deal of people recognize this."

“Are you going somewhere kid?”

Jamie snapped back to the world of the living room. Remembering that there was somewhere he wanted to go, he offered his father a strained smile. The man didn’t return the smile though. Jamie noticed that he had a considerable amount of stubble growing around his mouth.

“Um…I’m just going to hang out with some friends at the park. Justin and Kyle.”

“You do your chores?”

“I’ll do them when I get home.”

Mr. Grey opened his mouth as if in protest, but then shrugged and returned his attention to the television.

“Be home before dark,” he said, his tone dull. Jamie got the chilling impression that he wasn’t really in the room in the eyes of his father; that he was just a ghost passing by. Almost immediately he tried to think of what that would be like, and in response the image of the rabbit drawing on the door upstairs came to mind.

He shuddered and tightened his grip on his sketch book.

“Okay,” Jamie said, turning away and heading toward the door as quickly as possible. Right now he wanted to be anywhere else but the living room. He paused briefly as he opened the door to outside and turned back toward his father. He opened his mouth but, like the elder Grey, closed it.

Have you been sleeping at all? he wanted to ask, but he knew how his father would respond.

“Either go outside or stay in. Whatever you do, just close the door. You’ll let the flies in.”

Not wanting that, Jamie stepped outside and closed the door, the news report being the last thing he heard before shutting off the cold inside his home.

“…there's no reason for any heroi to be afraid to go out at night…”

The door to Daria's office opened and in walked a young man with curly brown hair and a youthful face that was rather disarming in its appearance of innocence. His eyes, Daria observed, shone with more honesty than his face, revealing to her a canyon’s worth of depths.

She didn’t need to be a psychic to guess that Richard Steiner had been setting up his side of the chess board since he got his appointment made.

"Hello Ms. Foster," the man said in a strong, friendly tone as he stretched out a hand in greeting. Getting up, Daria stretched out her hand and accepted the gesture before indicating the chairs in front of her desk.

"Thank you for arriving on such short notice Richard Steiner. Please, take a seat."

"If you insist," Richard chuckled, glancing at the pair of agents behind him. "I must admit that I don't normally meet with government officials of your standing…or any government officials for that matter." He leaned back in his chair casually and folded his hands together in his lap. "But when the CHC calls, there is no choice but to answer."

"We don't like to project the idea that you have no choice, Mr. Steiner, so please do not misunderstand our mission or your reason for being here. For myself, I simply prefer to talk to people in person. I feel that something is lost in the conversation when people talk via tele-com."

"I'll indulge your preference," Richard nodded in understanding.

"Good." Daria got up from her chair and made her way around the desk, where she leaned back against it, arms folded beneath her breasts. In spite of her lax posture, she might as well have been a rigid tower to Richard. “I must first apologize for the incident from this morning. I had thought that our Guardians were sufficient in dealing with unknown heroi.”

Richard continued to smile at her. “There’s no need to apologize. History tells us that it is impossible to be prepared for every possible problem that may surface.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Daria nodded. “I used to be a student of history myself in university. It was one of my majors.”

“Is that so?” Richard asked. “Well, to each their own I suppose.”

“You aren’t a fan?”

“A bad habit from when I was a kid,” Richard offered apologetically. “Interest never took off with me. I’m afraid I fall on the end of the “those who do not remember history” saying.”

“You never know,” Daria said, pushing herself off her desk and moving back around her desk. “If you’re not careful, you might end up on the other end of that saying as well.”

Richard blinked, his smile faltering. "I beg your pardon?"

Reaching in front of her, Daria turned her desktop around to face the man. It revealed an image a mist-shrouded city.

“You’re familiar with this?”

“It’s the reason why the CHC and Romana Pax are operating together,” Richard replied. “As well as other corporations and groups. I am actively involved regarding this you know.”

“I do. You had an interview recently regarding it as well.” Daria turned her desktop around and sat in her seat. “Do you think that it had anything to do with the break-in?” She eyed him carefully. “The thief targeted your office after all.”

“I don’t keep much in the way of important documents on my office computer,” Richard stated. “Which you would know by perusing through my emails.”

“I’m still waiting for a full, detailed report on that, though you did have that image.” She indicated her computer monitor, the image of the city still on the screen.

“It’s not a state secret,” Richard replied. “At least not from what I was told. Of course, we’re not allowed to share much in the way of details about the operation itself, which I told the interviewer…”

“Of course,” Daria agreed. “The senate desires a certain degree of openness with the press regarding this matter. I just find it interesting that your business—your office—was targeted so soon after you gave the interview.”

“I haven’t received any anonymous threats or have been contacted by any groups.” Folding his hands in his lap, Richard met Daria’s gaze. “I do hope that you find whoever is responsible though. The success of the operation depends on it.” A pause before frowning. “Or is that too overly dramatic a thing to say? The individuals involved might not be looking to stop the operation…”

“What would they be after?” Daria asked. Now Richard looked uncomfortable.

“There…was a list on my computer. Of names. Those who were lost. Even today the ‘official’ numbers are kept hidden. I imagine that it would cause a firestorm on the net if it were known.”

Now it was Daria’s turn to frown. “I…see. There are certainly families who would be interested in that.” Raising her hands, she tapped her fingers against her lips for a moment before resuming. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Steiner. You can go now.”

“You’re quite welcome Director,” Richard said, inclining his head toward her as he got out of his seat. As he did so, Daria’s cell phone rang and she dug it out of her pocket, flipping it open.

Upon opening the door, he stepped outside and carefully closed the door just enough to allow him a chance to hear. He felt that he didn’t need to, but habit, engrained into him from many years of practice, told him to eavesdrop if only for a second. Just like the age that was the metal’s namesake, information was gold.

“The Grey Case is being reopened?” he heard Daria say in a hushed voice. His ears perked up at that, but despite his desire to know more he stepped away and casually headed down the hall, hands slipping into his pockets.

The Grey Case… he mused, his lips curling in a smile once more.

Information was gold indeed.

“And what are we day-dreaming about?”

Nine-year old Kira Baker looked up from the porch up at her approaching sister, Ran, as she approached, two glasses of bubbling soda in each hand. Her hair, dark like hers, fell over one eye and her smile, small, teased answers from the younger girl. Not that Ran really had to try. Kira loved her big sister and was more than happy to reply.

“Just thinking about a story I read today,” she said simply. It wasn’t much of an answer, but Ran knew perfectly well what story she was referring to. It was the only one she had been devouring with her eyes for the past week.

“The Warrior Princess, huh?” Ran sat down next to the younger girl and passed her a drink.

“I wish I could be like that,” Kira continued, nodding fervently as she accepted the drink. “Go to other worlds and meet monsters just like the old stories said that all the heroi used to.” She frowned, running a hand over the glass thoughtfully. “Why’d the door get closed?”

“They had to save the world,” Ran laughed and winked at her. “It was either that or let things go Dark. You don’t want that, do you?”

“Well…no,” Kira admitted. “But I would still like to see other worlds and all the old monsters someday.”

“No one’s saying you can’t,” Ran replied, lifting a finger and pointing at the ground in front of them. As if on cue, a tiny, gold-skinned, goblin-like creature popped into existence. It stood there blankly while Kira’s eyes went wide.

“Ran!” she exclaimed, looking frantically around her. “If Mom sees this…”

“…I’ll just tell her it was just a ‘trick of the light’.” She winked again at Kira. “I know you won’t sell me out, right?”

“No…”

“Good.” Ran waggled a finger, and like a puppet the goblin creature sprang to life, waving first at Kira and then flipping over to do handstands, waggling its tiny feet at her. Kira couldn’t help but laugh a little. Its feet came together into a loose pair of points, like socks that had been put on but not tightened, yet there was no sign of any such clothing on them. The creature continued to prance along, making no sound and disturbing not a blade of grass as it did so. It cast no shadow, but the creature looked as real as anything else that walked and talked.

Ran used to be quite the hit among the children in the neighborhood, until playing with her heroi powers caught the attention of Heroi Control. They had a ‘discussion’ with their mother—whom they seemed to take great interest in—and although she didn’t say much about what they talked about, at least not to Kira, it was enough for Ran to stop being the ‘Magician’. Every so often she would perform for Kira. When she was younger, she used her powers to tell bedtime stories.

Kira liked the horror stories the best, in spite of their mother’s protests.

The goblinoid flipped back over and made a face at Kira, spreading its lips out with its fingers and sticking out its tongue. Kira made a face back and glanced at Ran.

Kind of rude, isn’t he?”

“He’s just looking for attention,” Ran chuckled, and with another flick of her wrist, the creature vanished, replaced by a rabbit with big, floppy ears. “That better?”

“It’s cute,” Kira said tentatively, bringing her soda up to her lips for a drink. She preferred the goblin though.

“Looks it, but if you’re not careful…” Another flick of the wrist, and the rabbit yawned, revealing a set of very un-rabbit-like fangs which nearly caused Kira to choke on her drink. When it finished, the fangs vanished, but its eyes glowed a dull crimson that left the girl with a little chill running down her back.

Now she definitely preferred the rabbit over the goblin.

“I wish I had your power,” she said, becoming sullen all of a sudden. Reaching out, Ran ruffled her hair, still smiling.

“Don’t worry about it. One day you’ll get something really wonderful that outdoes mine. You’re a special girl, Kira.”

Kira jerked from her spot on her bedroom floor as the sound of her cell phone buzzing on her nightstand like an angry bumblebee broke the silence of her room. Slapping her book closed she rushed over and snatched the phone up, quickly checking to see who the caller was before hitting the answer button.

“Mal?” she said in a hushed voice, making her way to her door and opening it.

“Catch you at a bad moment?”

“Just reading,” she replied, taking a quick peek outside to see if her mother was nearby. “Latest book by Stephen R. Green; Giants and Witches.”

“Sounds good. Everything’s fine and the line is secure. Your phone isn’t tapped. Doesn’t seem like anyone has connected you to the break-in last night.”

Kira closed her door behind her with a soft click, breathing a sigh of relief. “All right, what’s our next move?”

“I’m sending you some information now via email. Print it up quick because there’s a bug in it that will delete once I’m done talking to you.”

“Roger.” Quickly reviving her sleeping computer, she went straight to her Goggle Account and checked for messages. Sure enough, Malcolm’s latest message was right there waiting for her. She quickly hit the print button and waited as her printer warmed up. Licking her lips tentatively, she continued. “Did you find anything?”

She wanted to kick herself for asking the question, as he promised to let her know if he turned anything up, but she had to have some verbal confirmation, if only to relieve the tension in her muscles.

“Hard to say at this point, but there is something I want to investigate. It looks like Romana Pax has become interested in a particular individual. It might be a repeat of your sister or something else that’s connected, but it could be nothing. I’m already gathering some data, but I want you to feel him out and see what the interest is.”

“Chasing ghosts…” Kira grumbled under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“No back talk on this please,” Malcolm said, clearly not believing her one bit. “This could be a big one, and if the evidence is right it might point us in the direction you want to go. I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, but we’re just going to have to accept taking baby steps on this one for right now. Is that clear?”

“Yeah, crystal.” She glanced at the printer to see it finishing up its job. “All done.”

“All right. I’ll keep digging. My informant should be moving into position soon, so I’ll talk to you later.”

“Got it.” With that, Kira hung up and looked over at her inbox just in time to see the message delete itself. Sighing in agitation she lifted up the printout and took a look. The paper contained the face of a brown-haired boy that looked about a year younger than her, a name attached to it, and an address.

She frowned. He looked a bit familiar, but she couldn’t quite place why.

Jamie Grey, huh? she thought, folding up the paper and pocketing it. You’d better be worth this.

Atop a tall building, Teruo brought a pair of goggles down over his eyes. He grinned crazily and lifted up a heavy, metallic pack, and shrugged it onto his shoulders. Buckling it around his chest, he checked everything to make sure that they were safe and tight.

“Okay,” he said quietly to himself. Clicking a button on a bracelet around his wrist, a pair of rocket engines folded outward, jerking him slightly. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out to the ledge, paused, and then jumped.

“Whooo!!!” He let out a loud whoop as he plummeted to the streets below. Before he even reached critical velocity, he hit another button on the bracelet and the rocket engines flared to life, all but halting his drop. He grunted, but his grin remained plastered on his face.

“Yes!” he whispered as he started to rise. “It works. It works! Just like I knew it would! I…”

A loud alarm blared over the roar of his engines, and he fumbled a small pad from his pocket. A word was painted on it in large, glaring red letters.

Incoming.

“Shit!” Tapping on his bracelet again he swerved to the side and took off at a rapid pace. No sooner did he do so a group of flying black spheres descended upon him. As they approached him, they began to flash blue and red lights and emit a loud claxon cry.

“Citizen Teruo Kato,” came a flat, robotic voice from the closest flying sphere. “You are in violation of restricted air space. You are ordered to land and surrender yourself to the authorities.”

“Screw you!” the youth laughed, taking a sharp turn between buildings. The spheres quickly followed suit. There is a click and a whir, and a small tube emerged from the center of one of them.

“This is your final warning Citizen Teruo Kato,” the sphere said. “Land and surrender yourself to the authorities.”

Teruo responded by tapping his bracelet again, and his rocket pack’s engines kicked out as flames spat from their nozzles with increased force.

“We shall take that as a negative response,” the sphere acknowledged, and at once all of them increased their pace, tubes emerging from their hidden compartments. Bright light flashed at their tips, and lanced out towards Teruo’ engines. Sparks flew as metal was sheared off, sending him spiraling out of control. Teruo howled a number of curses, frantically tapping the controls on his bracelet, trying to stabilize himself.

“Shit! Shit! Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!!!” The pack blew apart via a series of carefully placed explosive bolts, and the fragments went crashing into the streets below. A large parachute billowed outward behind him and caught the wind. Slowly, almost carefully, it deposited him back down to the ground, where it deflated and collapsed. His boots scraped the ground upon landing, and he peeled back his goggles. The spheres, still flashing red and blue surrounded him. With a goofy grin, Teruo pushed his hair back and bent his head slightly to get a better look at them. He licked his lips and raised his hands.

“Sorry for the commotion,” he chuckled, glancing around at the wide-eyed bystanders watching the spectacle.

“Up and at ‘em, Teruo,” said the female officer as she approached the boy where he sat—or more accurately lounged. He turned his face away from the game he was playing on his cell phone, the bored expression on his face quickly evaporating into eagerness.

“About time he got here,” he grinned, quickly exiting the game as the star fighter portrayed on its screen died in a cute, but fiery explosion. Stuffing it into his pants’ pocket, he followed the officer, a grin blooming on his face.

“So, Jenny,” he said in a teasing tone. “Are you sick of my face yet? This is the third time in the past month that I’ve been in here.”

“Knock it off,” Jenny replied in a stiff, professional tone. “Do you realize how much it costs just to file the paperwork every time we bring you in?”

“Not quite.” Teruo folded his arms behind his green and white colored hair, grinning all the while as they neared the front desk. “I’m getting a clear idea though. I imagine all it would take to solve that problem would be to charge me rent for the use of that chair I was just in. I can see it now.” Teruo unfolded his hands and brought them before him, spacing them out dramatically. “The first chair to be rented by a repeat offender. I ought to take a picture.”

“It’ll certainly last longer,” muttered Officer Jenny.

“You are getting sick of my face,” laughed Teruo. “Take it easy. I won’t be able to come up with a plan in time to get brought in a fourth time before the month ends. Ha!”

Jenny didn’t respond to the boy’s jab as they drew to a halt. Instead she raised her right hand to her head, snapping a salute to the grey-haired man standing before the desk, talking to a considerably younger man with dark hair and brown eyes, who was in the process of filling out some paperwork.

“I’ve brought the perp as ordered, sir. Request permission to hand cuff him to his guardian this time.”

Teruo laughed. “Didn’t know you were into cuffs, Jenny,” he hooted delightedly. “Now I absolutely have to get arrested a fourth time, just to see if she’ll break them out for him.”

The young man groaned and appeared to resist slumping forward. “Teruo…”

“Take it easy, John,” the boy winked conspiratorial manner at Jenny, whose was now glaring venomously at him. “I get the feeling that you’ll need that kind of attitude with Jenny here.” He jerked a thumb at the woman, her eyes narrowing into deadly slits. “I think she’s got a bit of a mean streak to her.”

“That will be enough out of you, Teruo,” snapped the grey-haired man, leveling a dark look on the young boy. Something passed behind his dark eyes that made Teruo’s mouth—normally ready with a snappy comeback—consider asking his fingers in helping sew itself shut to ensure future silence.

“Thank you Captain Cooper,” John sighed, shaking his head. He placed the pen down and turned to the boy. “All right, kid. Let’s go.”

Teruo nodded. He cast a look at Jenny’s direction and his lips twitched, wanting to make one more shot at her expense, but the wiser part of his brain took hold of the reins and pulled them taut. Properly restrained, he followed John out after he made one last apology. Once outside however, his mouth broke free from the gate, and quickly clamored to reach its finish line.

“She’s got the hots for you, you know,” he said bluntly, withdrawing his cell phone and browsing through his messages. “That’s the only reason I keep doing this.”

John fixed the boy with a hard glare that spoke more volumes than what Teruo believed he ever had—or would—in his life. That was all right, he supposed. The idea of John getting riled up pleased him a little.

I just wish he would be more out in the open about his feelings. He’s not going to get anywhere if all he does is let people walk all over him.

“You have a funny way of ‘helping me’,” John replied over his thoughts as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Do I even need to point out that you’re the reason that I haven’t been on a date in over a year?”

Teruo shrugged nonchalantly. To the average passerby, one might be shocked at hearing such a statement, especially as John Smith was Teruo’s appointed guardian. To those that were a bit more familiar with them, it was a perfectly normal—to use the term loosely—facet of their relationship. If nothing else, they believed in being honest to each other, and while John was reserved often, they didn’t hold back from each other.

In all fairness, Teruo started it.

“Not my fault. You’re always so serious,” Teruo said, flipping from one message to the next with absolutely no interest. The one he was looking for had not arrived yet it seemed.

“Don’t start that up again,” John replied, attempting to hail down a taxi and failing. He frowned at his charge and with lightning reflexes snatched up the cell phone out of Teruo’s hands.

“Hey!”

“Listen to me when I’m talking to you,” John said firmly, jabbing the corner of the phone in his direction as though it were a parental finger expressing frank disapproval. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. Don’t make a spectacle…”

“…of yourself,” Teruo finished, annoyed. “I know. And you haven’t said it a thousand times. Just forty.”

John continued to glower at him, not wanting to reveal his surprise that the child had bothered to keep track.

“It sure feels like a thousand sometimes. Remember, you get to walk around free as long as you keep a low profile. Keep up what you did today and the CHC cannot protect you anymore. There are still too many people out there that are…” John clamped his mouth shut and looked around him before returning his gaze back to Teruo. “Just keep your head down, if not for my sake then for yours.” John handed him back his phone. “Okay? This would a lot easier for the both of us you know.”

“I hate having to hide,” grumbled Teruo, taking back his phone.

“You were just telling me to take it easy,” John sighed.

“It’s not the same thing…”

“It can’t be helped. That you’ve at least been told a thousand times.”

“Only one hundred and seventy four.” Teruo paused. “For this sort of thing anyway.”

Great, he’s keeping score… He gave the boy a sympathetic look. “Sorry about that. How about I pop in your favorite movie when we get back to the house?” That usually takes the edge off our little arguments…

Teruo surprised him by shaking his head. “Can’t. I’m busy.”

John raised an eyebrow at that. He’s turning down his favorite film, Five Folds Eight? An alarm bell sounded in his mind. “Not to pry, but may I ask what with? You’re not in school right now…”

“Private project.”

Uh oh. John thought back to the jet pack incident. “Another machine you’ve been tinkering with? Teruo…”

“I don’t have anything like that in the works. That backpack was all that I had time to put together recently.” Teruo scowled. “I can’t believe that the CHC confiscated it. I worked hard on it too.”

“They’re going to destroy it too.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Teruo grimaced. “It took me months just to get everything to work right without risking burning my butt off, and I don’t have near enough the budget to build another one.” A devilish grin appeared on his face just then. “Guess I’ll just have to cheap it for my next trick if I want to get you and Jenny to see each other again by the end of the month. I might make it after all. She’s waiting on you. Why don’t you make the first move? It’s so sad that you look like you’re depending on me just to have an excuse to see her.”

“Teruo…” began John warningly. The boy laughed heartily, but John couldn’t help but notice that the laugh rang a bit empty.

Life for the Heroi is never an easy one when it’s unfulfilled…

Upon reaching home, Teruo was upstairs and in his room at such a rapid pace that he felt sure that John would be insulted. He craned his head a little and glared at the wooden door behind him.

“Not my problem,” he said finally, pushing away from the door and making his way over to the other end of the room, where his computer sat at attention. He hit the power button and while he waited for it to boot up he stepped over to the small cage sitting next to it.

“Hey, Gerbil,” he greeted, pulling out a small bag full of dark-brown pellets and scooping some out. Unlatching the cage, he spilled the nuggets into a light-colored bowl. A brown-furred rabbit sitting in the corner, fat and furry, stared up at him expressionlessly, nose and mouth working endlessly. As soon as Teruo withdrew and closed the cage, the long-eared critter hopped over to the bowl and began nibbling on its meal. Teruo smiled briefly at his pet before turning back to the computer. Sitting down he typed in his password and it quickly finished loading up his screen. Signing into his email he checked his messages, his light-green eyes lit up as he spied one and he instantly clicked on it.

Teruo. Saw what you did today. Thought you were going to take it easy after what you told me about last night.

-Kitsune

Teruo laughed and signed into his instant messenger, hoping with the feverish hope of the damned that his contact would be on. A smile broke upon his face as he was rewarded with their presence.

Hi,” came the instant response from the owner of the name Kitsune.

Hi yourself,” Teruo wrote back. “Did you like today’s show?

Kitsune: It was interesting. How are you not still in jail?

Teruo laughed aloud, his fingers making their clacking sound on the keyboard as they typed.

Teruo: I’m what they call a special exemption. Not sure why, but it keeps me from having to be on the Pax. Because I’m so good with machines they don’t even dare give me a Companion module to keep an eye me.

He hit the reply button, and within short order he received Kitsune’s response.

Kitsune: It was a rhetorical question.

Teruo grinned at that and simply shrugged. He just liked to hear himself talk—or in this case, write.

Teruo: I keep telling John that he needs to ask out that hot officer I told you about. This is the best way I can think of to get them in the same room long enough to even talk.

Teruo could almost hear the exasperated, yet amused sigh of his invisible contact on the other end.

Kitsune: I am certain that there are other methods for consenting adults to meet up with each other, though I believe that they aren’t the most…entertaining to someone like you.

If Teruo’s grin hadn’t already split his face in two by now, it was sure threatening to do so by now.

Teruo: Well, that goes without saying. Anyway, do you have the information that I asked you about?

There was a brief hesitation in Kitsune’s response.

Kitsune: I’m surprised. No code?

Teruo shook his head.

Teruo: I’m pretty sure The CHC would want me to look into this for them anyway.

Kitsune: Where does this confidence come from?

Teruo tapped his cheek and typed out a response.

Teruo: The info? Teruo paused before adding one of their safe codes to the message. Teruo: Black Lab needs to be brushed.

The chat box blinked again. There were no words in it this time; instead there was a document. Teruo smiled and clicked on it.

Doing so caused his computer to shut down immediately, leaving the young boy sitting there, flummoxed for a moment. His eyes narrowed dangerously as realization settled squarely on him.

“You cheeky bastard…” he murmured. He cracked his knuckles and got up. “Figures you’d have an additional layer of security, just in case I was The CHC faking you. All right…where’s my laptop?”

Teruo: You’re an ass.

The young boy wondered if Kitsune felt any amusement to his message upon the restoration of his computer. He believed that he did, as the mythos behind his online name indicated as much, but one could never be too sure.

Kitsune: It doesn’t hurt to be cautious. You know how I am…and how dangerous The CHC is. You’re not the one who had to skip the country after all.

Teruo frowned as he typed back.

Teruo: Yeah, yeah. I get it. Now no more tricks. I want to see this for myself.

Kitsune: Oh? All right then…

With that, Kitsune promptly dropped off their Instant Messenger, leaving Teruo alone for the time being. Licking his lips, he reopened the document, a part of him waiting in paranoia on the chance that his friend left still another layer of security for him to hack through. Nothing new developed as a program screen came up, and he felt his heartbeat drop in its rhythm in relief.

Looks like it’s a video clip, he mused, leaning forward curiously. Sure enough, his thoughts were confirmed as his video player fired up and began buffering. Teruo entwined his hands and cracked his knuckles again in great anticipation. The CHC’s been going to a lot of trouble keeping this from getting to the media. Whatever it is…it’s big. Kitsune’s been monitoring naval movements along the eastern coast. He says that the navy is gearing up for some kind of big encounter…one that hasn’t been seen since the end of the Bronze Age.

He felt greatly excited by that knowledge. The Bronze Age! The era that brought the end of the Dominion of Heroi and the end of the Great Conflict. Oh, for certain the Great Conflict wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. Just as nations and empires took on different rulers, it merely took on a different name. What did it matter who fought the war, so long as someone was fighting it?

“C’mon… C’mon…” he whispered impatiently as the small circle on the screen spun, informing him of its progress… Or rather the lack of it in his modest opinion. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the screen changed and began to show the image of an ocean, shrouded in mist. Teruo frowned. “That’s it?” he muttered in puzzlement. No…there’s got to be something more.

There was. As he watched, a dark shape began to emerge, tall and tower-like. Teruo couldn’t be certain due to the fog obscuring whatever lay behind it. He could have been looking at the Loch Ness Monster and he wouldn’t know for certain.

Seconds ticked by like minutes, and as Teruo continued to watch, more of those dark shapes came into view. Some were smaller, some were taller, but they all shared the same, towering appearance. Much like…

…buildings? Teruo tilted his head to one side, a suspicion suddenly forming in his mind. Where is this? He reached for his mouse and scanned around the video screen, trying to see if there were any clues…some kind of land mark or a registering of longitude and latitude. Unfortunately, he found nothing that could help him.

Piss… He grimaced. Leaning back in his chair, he went back to watching the film. Nothing new had occurred, though there was definitely movement from whoever—or whatever—was recording the scene. Teruo reasoned that it was one of The CHC’s orb drones.

They’re disposable enough for this sort of operation.

He shifted in his chair as he spied something new amidst the fog and its ‘towers’. A new shape. He paused the video and rewound it, replaying it so as to confirm what he saw.

Yeah… There’s something there all right. Something’s moving.

Whatever it was, apparently the recorder had picked up on it as well, because the image shifted through two different light spectrums to try and pick up on it. The object disappeared promptly, and Teruo felt his mouth dry up.

Oh no… You have got to be kidding me. It…can’t be that place… It disappeared along with the Bronze Age. Why is it…?

He was interrupted from his thoughts as suddenly the camera perspective lurched violently, as though something had slammed into it. The last image that it transmitted was that of water flying toward it and then…static.

Teruo sat in his chair, mystified and stunned by what he saw. Worse yet, he felt…fear for what it might mean.

I think this Age is going to be a Dark one...