Project: MI

Teruo sat at his desk, tapping his pencil rhythmically as he listened to his tutor drone on at the front of the room, wishing that he were anywhere else but there.

Even the MRI room would be better than here, and that’s a couple floors up. He massaged his temples as they throbbed a little, clearly disagreeing with his belief. Oh shut up, he told it mentally before going right back to tapping his pencil. At that moment, the droning stopped and was quickly replaced by the click-clack of shoes as his teacher approached him. Teruo looked up at him, unimpressed by the suit-wearing man. He resisted the urge to comment on the painfully pitiful attempt at covering a bald spot. Instead he opted for something a little more neutral.

“Why’d you stop, Tweed?” he asked, using his personal nickname for the man—Mr. Mark Anthony—due to his penchant for wearing only tweed suits whenever he saw him. Mr. Anthony sniffed dryly as he drew to a halt next to the boy.

“The CHC isn’t paying me to teach you when you aren’t doing anything,” he announced in a low, almost dangerous tone.

“I’m just drowning out my thoughts, sir,” Teruo replied, poking at his head with the eraser of his pencil. “It gets pretty busy, and when it does I can’t focus on what you’re saying.” He smiled. “Don’t worry about me not taking notes. I’ll remember everything you said, no problem.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Anthony strolled over to the chalk board and erased what he had written. Picking up his chalk, he wrote out an equation and then returned to Teruo.

“Solve for X,” he said, holding out the chalk to the young boy. Teruo sighed.

Give me a robot to design any day of the week, he thought bitterly, taking the chalk and getting out of his chair. Mr. Anthony was only the second private math teacher that he had been assigned in the past year since the government decided it was more worth their tax dollars to put him in special classes. Being older than the first one, he had more patience with Teruo’s antics and was more than willing to put him on the spot rather than take a passive approach. He wasn’t difficult to keep up with, but the very fact that it took more effort to do the bare minimum required to do the work and ignore the rest of his lessons than with the previous teacher more than made him wish that he applied himself more.

It would have been easier… It still can be. All I have to do is get him off my back. Coming to a stop at the board, he contemplated it for a moment—the board, not the equation. In his mind’s eye, he envisioned it not as something to write on, but as a mystical monolith from which knowledge was derived upon contact, much like it had been depicted as in one of his favorite science fiction novels, MMDCCLIV: A Space Odyssey.

From the stars, knowledge, he thought, bringing the chalk to rest on the board.

“Very good,” Mr. Anthony said, clapping his hands lightly as Teruo finished writing out his answer. “It’s not often that you prove me wrong.” Folding his hands behind his back, he looked down at the boy as he left the board. “All you need to do is to apply yourself and rid yourself of unnecessary distractions and…” He furrowed his brow as Teruo brushed past him. “Where are you…? Return to your seat!”

“I need to use the little boy’s room,” Teruo said over his shoulder. “My bladder’s got an itch.”

Mr. Anthony’s mouth drew up into one tight line, unhappy about this interruption to his lesson plan.

“Very well,” he said carefully, following after him. “But only that and nothing else.”

Grinning, Teruo, accompanied by his temporary watcher, exited the room.

Within minutes, he stepped into the bathroom and entered the closest stall, plopping himself down on the toilet without even bothering to unzip or anything. Instead, he pulled out his cell phone and checked the time.

Well, this is the right time, so it should be on its way here. All that’s left is to wait. I just hope that it didn’t wander too far off; otherwise I’m going to have to make up an excuse about being constipated.

He drummed his feet against the tiled floor and hummed quietly to himself, counting off the seconds, which rapidly turned into minutes. Finally, he got up with a sigh of disgust and opened the door, just in time to see a small piece of ceiling tile fall to the floor in front of him. Following its course, he saw a familiar, bronze-like device with mechanical spider-legs peeking out at him from a hole in the ceiling.

The device beeped at him and a smile sprang to life on his face.

“Hey! About time! Get down here. We’ve got to get going.”

With another beep, the device crawled out and dropped down into its creator’s waiting hands, landing on its back. Spinning uselessly like an overturned turtle for a moment, spindly legs flexing, it soon righted itself and retracted its limbs into its body.

“Good boy,” Teruo nodded. “Did you get anything good?”

The device beeped, red eye flashing.

“Dumb question. I’ll take that as a yes though. All right. Into the pocket you go.”

With that, Teruo stuffed the device into his pants pocket and, after patting it affectionately to make sure that it was safe and sound, he quickly swept up the ceiling tile fragments and dunked them in the trash. Immediately afterward, he went over to the sink and quickly dashed his hands beneath it. An automatic spray of water activated, wetting him down, and he retracted quickly.

All employees must wash hands, he thought. I may not be an employee, but I’ll do it anyway.

Drying his hands on his shirt, he opened the door and stepped outside where Mr. Anthony was waiting to greet him.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“I was born ready,” Teruo grinned.

“I apologize for the rather impromptu meeting,” Richard apologized to the five individuals portrayed on his computer screen, among whom was Elizabeth and Gordon. Elizabeth looked exhausted.

No doubt due to jetlag, Richard thought.

“No need to apologize for anything,” Gordon stated gruffly, his jowls quivering. “You said that there was a situation developing…?”

“Indeed there is, though it isn’t what you would think it would be at first glance.” Clearing his throat, Richard continued. “Yesterday, a heroi exhibited an extraordinary amount of Q-Field radiation within the approximate range of 200 parts per million.”

That caused everyone to take notice. Even Elizabeth’s exhaustion seemed to melt under this news.

“Bullocks!” Gordon scowled. “That is impossible!”

“I’m afraid that I must agree—partially—with Gordon,” said one of the attendees, Alfred. “Such a high amount of activity would have caught the attention of the media. We would have heard about it by now. Long before even.”

“That, unfortunately, is precisely my point,” Richard replied. “Beck is continuing to check all newsfeeds, but it seems that, for whatever reason, there has been no mention of the incident.” He ran his gaze across each attendee, gauging their reaction. “As I’m sure you know, the last time something like this occurred was during the end of the Bronze Age, a rather…apocalyptic scenario that gave us a rather interesting statue in this city’s park.”

“Do you know anything about the heroi in question?” asked Elizabeth, shifting in her seat.

“He was involved in an incident last year involving another heroi named Adam Bishop. I can send you what information I have if you would like. The CHC only recently reopened his case.”

“Please do,” Eblizabeth nodded. “I think I might remember that one. Was there anything that could have triggered such an event?”

“Yes. He became a target by our systems during a test run.”

“And you didn’t tell us immediately when this happened?!” exclaimed Alfred, incredulous.

“An oversight,” Richard apologized. “I was dealing with a problem with our system’s handler… You remember Our Girl, correct? She still retains some of her spirit it seems.”

“Unacceptable!” Alfred exclaimed, his ears turning bright red in anger. “Everything could have been undone because of this! I…”

“Alfred!” snapped Elizabeth, cutting him off. Richard cast his gaze toward her, waiting as she composed herself. “Steiner, Alfred is right. You should have contacted us and apprised us of the situation as soon as it happened. It almost looks like things are falling apart under your care.”

Richard offered her an apologetic smile. “As I said, it was an oversight. The CHC would become involved in any scenario. I just didn’t expect the heoi to have quite this magnitutde of a Q-Field. It won’t happen again, I assure you.”

“It won’t,” agreed Elizabeth, her tone a warning. “However, it should be noted,” she glanced to the side, and Richard surmised she was looking at Alfred’s portrait, “that Steiner is bringing another situation to our attention; one that we didn’t anticipate, but should have. The suppression of information.”

“We already accounted for the CHC…” began Alfred, only to be cut off by Richard.

“It’s unlikely to be just the CHC. Their cyber influence would only apply to a small area confined within the New World hemisphere. The Old World is another matter altogether.”

“Are you saying that Albion…?”

“What I am saying is that there is a possibility that there is a third party taking an interest in certain affairs. The Ages are accelerating in their passing. Albion would not miss that, and they would have the most reason to seek out the heroi in question.”

“What do you propose we do?” asked Elizabeth, regarding Richard with contemplative eyes. Richard smiled.

“I think my doing something has caused enough trouble for the time being. So why act when our enemies can take care of the job for us?”

Kira waded through the crowd as classes changed once more, her eyes furtively scanning each and every face for Jamie Grey. Thanks to the reappearance of Monique she hadn’t been able to touch base with him immediately. She felt bad, thinking of her friend in such a way, especially after how long it had been since she last saw her.

Never mind that it’s my fault for her getting hurt, she thought, reflecting on the ugly scar that crisscrossed her forehead. With great effort she brushed the image out of her mind, opting instead to focus on what she needed to prepare for. How am I supposed to talk to this kid? Just walk up to him and say ‘I found your Cerberus’? She wished that she or her mother had taken the time to look up the SPCA and see if there were any postings. For all she knew the kid didn’t do any such thing. She just had to talk about her day and pester me about mine. And that mess with the mirror… She shook her head, amazed that she managed to talk herself around corners. I swear it’s almost like she’s looking to see if I’m getting into trouble or something.

‘Course, with the way things have been between us, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Ran would be mad at me for this. Ran would be mad at me about a lot of things right now.

More and more she felt like she was simply wasting her time being here and wanted nothing more than the school day to be over so that she could get down to what really mattered.

I used to like being here, she thought, turning a corner.

Why did there have to be a pop quiz today?

Jamie curled his fingers through the mess of his hair as he struggled with a question, trying to decide which of the multiple-choice options were correct.

What was the name of the tribe first encountered by the settlers in Nova Britannia?

a.) Iroquois

b.) Inca

c.) Abenaki

d.) Anishinaabe

Jamie circled B, half-remembering something about a Latin ship being blown off course during a trip to Africa and winding up at the tip of the southern half of the New World. He sighed despondently, wishing that they were in a later period of history, such as the Three Ages. The Golden Age especially, as he had extensive knowledge on it. Hoping that he was right, he worked his way through the remainder of the exam and turned the paper over, just in time for the teacher to speak up.

“All right,” Mister Miller announced, glancing up from his stop watch. “Time’s up. Finish whatever you have in front of you and turn ‘em in.”

There were a number of groans at this, leading Jamie to believe that more than a fair amount of the class had not done any studying in the three weeks since school started. He felt a little bit better, having a certain degree of companionship with those who were in his boat, but only a little.

Not like my parents will ask any questions, he thought. A part of him wondered if that could even be called a silver lining in that particular storm cloud. He tried to imagine what his father would say if he had a failing grade and for the life of him he came up with nothing. His mother was a slightly different story though, as she was often at work.

At least she has an excuse…

“All right, break out your notebooks,” Mister Miller continued, flipping off the lights and turning on the overhead projector. “From here on out this week we’re covering the next stage of the industrial revolution and how it impacted the colonies in the New World. You’ll want to know about the Hispania and Britannia Cold War that went on at the time and the Hispania and Novia War that came out of it.”

Jamie shifted in his seat. Out of all history, this was decidedly the part he hated the most. Raising his hand, he waved it urgently.

“Yes, James?”

“Can I go to the bathroom? I need to take my pills now.”

While it wasn’t true, Mister Miller frowned at him and nodded. In spite of being a heroi, Jamie never caused any trouble so it was easy to allow him out for bathroom breaks. “Sign yourself out and take the hall pass.”

Getting out of his seat, he quickly strode toward to the front of the class. As he did so, a foot came out in front of him and he tripped over it. Barely recovering, he shot a sharp, angry look at a thin, dark-haired boy that Jamie instantly recognized as one of the boys that ran with Bradley Moore, Josh Roberts.

“Watch where you’re goin’ James,” the older boy grinned.

“Behave yourself, Josh,” Miller said, handing Jamie the hall pass.

Fuming, Jamie went to the front of the room and signed himself out. Exiting the classroom, he sighed.

Well, that’s something that I didn’t need on my mind, he thought, remembering the scuffle in the park from yesterday. He hadn’t seen Bradley at all since then, for which he counted his blessings, but it already made him wonder how much interest he was going to have to pay as a result.

Just get through the day. If no one’s seen Monster then I’ll go out and look for him. He’s a smart Cerberus, so he might head toward our usual hangout in the park.

He grimaced, knowing that he was fooling himself. That is, if he got away. I mean, that guy jumped into the air! He might have flown too! I… He arrived at the Men’s room and paused at its entrance. I really wish that I had something to go on. Anything.

He pushed open the door and headed over to the nearest stall, not paying attention to the student washing his hands near the entrance. Reaching down, he unclipped Beth from his belt.

“Anything new about Mo-.” He blinked as his words trailed off. Beth’s electronic eye was dull and without light. Did her battery wear out? was all he had time to wonder before all at once his vision vanished into darkness as a hood swept over his head. Jamie gave a muffled shout of surprise as he grabbed the sides of the hood, trying to pull it off. Its owner bore down on him and the cloth sack pulled tight against his face.

“Just calm down…” he heard a voice hiss, but Jamie barely heard it over his panic. Thoughts of Bradley Moore sent a shiver of panic across his mind. Without thinking, he dropped an arm and swung to the side. He felt his fist connect with something hard and sure, causing his attacker’s hold to fall from his head with a grunt. Jamie’s hands returned to the hood and the cloth began to lift…

…only to fall back down as he felt something hard—a fist he thought—smash into his right kidney. Giving a garbled cry, Jamie collapsed to the floor like a ton of bricks, sparks flashing across his darkened vision.

What’s going on?! his mind exclaimed in utter shock, bringing up images of him destroying a tree yesterday with just a punch and suffering none the worse for wear from it. My powers…! The answer, of course, came to him right away. The pills.

Sure picked a godsawful time to work all of a sudden… his mind painfully rasped, remembering yesterday’s incident as he struggled to right himself. Once more his hands reached for the hood, but at once a powerful, commanding voice boomed in the quiet of the bathroom, causing his hands to stop dead in their tracks.

“Leave it on,” the voice said from behind the darkness. “I only wanted to have a quick chat with you.” There was a sudden change then in the tone of the voice as its owner continued to speak. The sounds changed, becoming softer and more feminine. “Sorry that I had to be rough with you. It’s just… Well… You…” There was a hesitant pause. “I’m sorry,” the owner said finally, as if at a loss for words.

“Wha… What the heck do you want?” Jamie’s mind was racing, trying to figure out just what was going on. “Is this about Bradley?”

Jamie felt a hand gently trace a reassuring hand across his face, rubbing his hair—or would have, were it not for the hood that covered his face.

“No,” the voice answered. “Would you hear me out?”

Jamie grunted, trying to sit up, but the pain shooting through him caused him to think otherwise. He weighed his options. So far his attacker wasn’t attacking him anymore but still could if the mood suited. And here he was, completely helpless.

“Don’t got a choice, do I?”

“Sure you do,” the voice said, sounding a bit perplexed. “I’m asking aren’t I?”

You attacked me! he wanted to shout, but decided against it, not wanting to find out what her response would be if he did. “Fine,” he groaned, finally getting into a sitting position. “Shoot.”

“I need to meet you after school in the park. Down by the Gilgamesh statue. Will you meet me there?”

If it gets you out of here faster… “Yeah… Sure. I’ll be there.”

“Good to hear. Thank you.” The voice sounded relieved. “After school,” she—or he, Jamie was no longer sure at this point—emphasized. “Come alone.” There was a pause before the speaker continued. “If you don’t come alone…if you bring anybody with you, there will be consequences. Please… Don’t make me hurt anybody.”

There followed a brief pall of silence before the door opened and shut. Jamie quickly tore off the hood—a gold cloth mask—and pressed a hand to his back where he had been punched.

Jeez… Oh gods, what the heck is going on?!

“Jamie?”

Beth!” His head snapping up, he saw his Companion Device alive and awake once more, electric eye buzzing as it swung around, trying to locate him. Wincing, the boy snatched her up off the floor. “Are you all right?”

“I am fine. For some reason I deactivated. What about you? Why were you on the floor and…” Her eye swiveled down to his hand where he still held the hood. “Jamie… What happened?”

The boy swallowed. “I’m in trouble.”