Series/Universe: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
Disclaimers: M7 characters belong to Trilogy, et al. Jonathan Power, his team, Lord Dread, and all other Captain Power characters belong to Landmark Entertainment. Original characters are all mine ... don't mind if you borrow them, just ask first, give them back intact and give credit where credit is due.
Warnings: The usual ... violence, language, and references to ugliness. Oh yeah, and the original characters. Can't forget them.
Spoilers: both seasons of M7 and the one season of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
JD Dunne felt like he had been kicked in the gut. In the time he had known Billy Travis, the boy never looked at him like that. Until just a few minutes ago, he never looked at JD with anything but trust in his eyes. That trust was gone, and in its place was a warning. Not to hurt any of Billy's family. JD often forgot that he was one of the lucky ones in this war. He and his mother managed to hold onto each other, and a good portion of their belongings, before her death. Until she died, JD really wasn't involved much in the war.
Billy, on the other hand, was right in the middle of it, from the moment he was born to a former Dread Youth cadet and a leading member of the Resistance. The Bio-Dread Empire didn't forgive such trespasses, and from the moment of Billy's birth, he became a target for the Dreadheads. And then, when he was five, he saw his father murdered. He was terribly, terribly young, but in some ways, he seemed as old as Vin.
JD could have brushed off Nora's threats ... but the warnings from Chris and Billy were another matter. Because one had his respect, and the other once respected him. JD didn't really care about Nora. She wasn't anyone important to him. Just another Dread Youth brat who finally wised up and rejoined the real world. But Chris was another matter entirely. And Billy. Did Billy really believe JD would make him choose between friends? Did he really think JD would make him choose between Charlotte and Vin?
It wasn't as if Billy really had a choice, since Charlotte was a member of his mother's team. He had to like her, since he had to live with her. Besides, he was a little kid. Did he really think JD would hold that against him? Evidently so, and if he did, then it had to be Charlotte's fault. She probably told Billy that JD would make him choose between her and Vin. Where else would he get such a crazy idea like that?
JD glared at the two women ahead of him. Nora told him to leave Adriana alone. Why should he? Why should he believe what she said? About anything? He didn't know her. Oh yeah, Chris and Buck used to know her, when she was a little girl. But that was a long time ago, and people changed. Especially when they were in the Dread Youth. Why didn't she ever try to contact Buck, after she escaped? Oh yeah, she said she saw him killed in a vid, but why should they believe her?
He didn't realize he spoke aloud, until Adriana said without turning around, "How do we know that you're not a Dread plant? You think Dread hasn't tried things like that in the past? He did, you know, though in a different way. Nearly fifteen years ago, he used a sweet, innocent boy as a Trojan horse, to infect countless people with a plague. One of them was Matt Masterson. How do I know that you're not the same ... only not as sweet and innocent as you pretend to be?"
"Because I ain't no Dreadhead, I hate him for what he did to me and my mama!" JD replied defiantly. There was no answer ... not immediately. Then he heard a cry, and the sound of blaster fire. JD ducked back into a narrow hallway, pulling his own laser pistol. A quick glance to him that the others had scattered along the corridor, finding various places to hide. At least, until there was the command to cease fire.
A half second after that, Mary called out, "This is Gemini, of the Valkyries! Throw down your weapons. We are prepared to shoot to kill!" There was a long pause, then a chuckle sounded from down the hall. Not one of those snickers which were the specialty of Dread Overunits all over the world, but a real laugh. The kind only another human being could give when genuinely amused, as Ezra would say. Mary peered around the wall which protected her, and called, "Tank Ellis, is that you?"
"No, it's Overunit Wilson ... of course it's us!" came another voice. JD poked his head out of his own hiding place and looked down the corridor. But not a long way down the corridor. Because just about three or four doors down was a man who was about as tall as Buck, and twice as wide. About the same size of Tophat Bob, if the truth were to be known. He was grinning broadly, as the man at his side went on, "Though if it weren't us, that stupid yammering kid would have gotten you all killed, the way he was running his mouth."
It took JD a moment to realize the 'stupid yammering kid' was himself, and he flushed. Mary slipped from her hiding place more fully. Adriana and Charlotte joined her, the former looking around warily as Mary continued, "It's good to see you, too, Rob. I thought you all were hidden further into the compound, and our scanners weren't picking up any Dreadheads inside." She walked forward and threw her arms around the speaker, a dark man around the same height as Vin. However, he was at least ten years older than Vin, if not more.
"Yeah, well, if that's one of Larabee's, he better stick a cork in the kid's mouth, before he gets everybody killed," the dark man replied as he returned the embrace. JD felt his cheeks burning, though he couldn't tell yet if he was embarrassed or angry. Before he could decide, a tall man, about the same height as Buck and the ox, stepped out of the room next, with a small, slender girl at his side. The man in Mary's embrace looked sheepish and muttered, "Busted."
"It's good to see you, Gemini ... and you, Chris," the tall man said, reaching over to hug Mary with one arm, as he continued with a pointed look at the dark man, "and I seem to remember you having the same problem for a few years after you joined us, Scout." Scout? That was Scout? JD grew up hearing stories about Captain Power and his nearly legendary team. For some reason, he found himself believing they were ten feet tall and bulletproof. Except Pilot, of course, but even in her case, it took an explosion to kill her.
Chris shook the tall man's hand, grinning from ear to ear, and replied, "Good to see you, too, Jon. This must be Aislinn?" He indicated the girl attached to the man's waist, and the tall man nodded with a broad grin of his own, gently ruffling the black hair. Chris continued, "And I know Matt's around here somewhere. I believe you know people with our groups?" With that, Vin stepped from his hiding place, while Adriana turned to face the Resistance commander.
Side by side, they stood in front of the man Chris had called 'Jon' ... Jonathan Power, the legendary son of a legendary father. The man swallowed hard, whispering, "Vin ... Drina. If Chris hadn't said something, I would have never recognized you." He put one hand on Adriana's shoulder, and the other on Vin's. If they hadn't been in the middle of a potentially ugly situation, JD had no doubt he would have hugged them both.
"Speak for yourself, Jon ... although, I was surprised when Drina didn't gut the kid. Hell, she almost did worse to you, back when we first found her and Vin!" a voice exclaimed from behind the two teams. JD spun around, raising his blaster to fire, and found himself confronted with the final member of the Power Team, Major Matt Masterson. The man just raised an eyebrow and said, "You might want to point that elsewhere, son, before you hurt someone."
JD swallowed hard and stepped aside, allowing the man to pass. He was miserably aware that he had made himself look like an idiot in front of one of the greatest teams in the Resistance. Hawk moved past without another word, and Adriana said softly, "Had other things on my mind at the time, Hawk. Like making sure there weren't any Dreadheads lurking in the other rooms. Checked that out as we passed each room."
"And we should take this reunion aboard the ship," the big man said, "before those tin cans do show up." Vin nodded, and Tank added, "And you will, as always, watch our backs, Shadow." Shadow? JD looked at his friend in confusion. Did Vin have more than one code name, like his friend did? The sharpshooter turned bright red with embarrassment, and Tank laughed, lightly ruffling the light brown hair. Vin responded with a glare curiously lacking in heat. Then again, given the size of the other man, JD couldn't really blame him.
"Tank's right, we should get going. C'mon, Aislinn ... we're getting out of here," Jon Power said. The little girl nodded, her arms wrapped tightly around her father's waist. As Tank predicted, Vin shifted behind them, raising his rifle to what he and Buck always called 'ready mode.' Damn, why didn't he get a more modern weapon? JD shook his head, turning ... and it was then that he realized Hawk Masterson wasn't the only one who was behind him. He almost ran full tilt into Josiah. The eldest member of the Seven just raised his eyebrows and JD quickly moved out of the way.
The day was going from bad to worse. The worst part of it was, the day wasn't even over yet. There was still the matter of going to Flame Street. Behind him, JD could hear Mary Travis quietly explaining the plan to check into the Web, to see what they could find out about Terry Greer's daughter. Jonathan Power listened intently, then replied, "I can't blame you for being worried, Gemini, but we all take risks."
"I know," came the sighed response, "but I still don't like it. Too many bad things can happen while she's in there, even with the precautions they're taking. I should know. And you know, too. I've got two people flying overhead ... well, it should be one by now. Vox should be in the ship with my son, getting it ready to leave. Sprite will join us once she's sure everything's clear. They'll tell us if we need to am-scray."
"You know, if it weren't for the fact that we have to work with the Seven-and that my brother wouldn't be very happy-I'd be sorely tempted to kick that little brat's ass myself," Adriana murmured as she and Charlotte trailed behind the others. Mary was just ahead of them, still talking to Jonathan Power. A slight cant to Mary's head told Adriana that the commander heard every word she said.
But neither of her friends answered. At least not in words, and Mary was watching the doors, even as she carried on her conversation with Jonathan Power. Just from the tension in Mary's slender body, the second in command knew her friend was struggling to hold onto her temper. Jon Power and Chris Larabee were legendary when it came to protecting their people. But Mary was just as protective.
It was a result, Adriana and Nora had agreed together, of being in the Dread Youth. Once you were on the outside, started learning the full truth ... learning things never before dreamed of, it was a tendency to overcompensate for the years of not understanding what you were feeling. The two former Dread Youth often spoke about being on the outside, about everything which had been kept from the children in the Dread Youth.
Mary could be terribly reserved if she was in one of her moods, often around the anniversary of her husband's death, or if something was weighing on her mind. When she was preoccupied, it was bloody difficult to get her attention ... unless you were Billy. During those times, Nora sought out Adriana, since the second in command had a better understanding the world of the organics, as the denizens of the Bio-Dread Empire called their human enemies. She had only been in the Dread Youth for four years, but there was still a difficult transition when she escaped that institutionalized child abuse.
Because she had only been in the outside world for a little less than a year, Nora often found her emotions difficult to understand, much less control. There were so many things she didn't understand, and so often, other people were at the heart of it. In some ways, Nora was like their child. The collective child of the four older woman of the Valkyries. She was a little younger than the bratchild, as she had taken to calling JD Dunne, but that didn't stop her from considering the boy immature.
Still, in some ways, Nora herself was just a child. She didn't know what was good and what was bad. Whether she was supposed to feel one way or the other. And the girl was starting to learn that being a human was damn messy. She sometimes cried when she was happy, and laughed when she was scared. The only emotion the girl was truly comfortable with was anger. It was the only emotion which was used in the Dread Youth.
Scratch that. It was the only emotion encouraged in the Dread Youth, regardless of what the Dreadheads claimed. They claimed to be machines ... perfect, emotionless machines. But the truth was, they used human emotion to get exactly what they wanted. So now, whenever Nora found something she didn't understand or that confused her, she reacted exactly as she had been trained. With anger.
Usually, Adriana was cool and collected enough to take that burden from her friend. But JD was really starting to irritate her. She knew what his problem was. He was so jealous, he was, as the saying went, blind and deaf with it. Literally, in this case. What she didn't understand was why she was allowing it to bother her. It wasn't his attitude toward her, it wasn't his attitude toward Charlotte. She didn't like either, but it sure as hell wasn't reason enough to beat the living shit out of the kid. Which was exactly what she wanted to do.
"You won't do anything stupid, will you?" Charlotte asked softly, sounding more than a little worried. Adriana reached over and squeezed her friend's shoulder gently, without ever even looking at her. Her eyes constantly darted around, making sure her people were protected. You could usually hear the clinkers coming. Usually. And Adriana trusted Vin to watch their backs. He'd been doing that even when he was a kid.
But then, Vin stopped being a child when he was ten years old ... when he watched Athena Samuels being digitized. She wondered if Chris and the others knew about that. She wouldn't have known about it, except for hearing his nightmares, in those weeks between Mary's disappearance and their discovery by the Power Team. And later, once she started speaking again, he told her the whole story of watching Athena and her team decimated by the clinkers, and Athena's digitization at the hands of Soaron.
In part, she was sure, because she finally told him about that damn vid of Buck's supposed ⤗death.' And as the three teams made their way from the ruins of Babylon Five and into the Fury, Adriana again wished that she could inflict some sort of payback on Overunit Wilson. That was driven out of her mind, as only a moment later, Mary called, "Diosa ... report." There was a scuffling sound, then Billy threw himself into his mother's arms. The commander of the Valkyries spun the child around, much to Billy's delight, before she set him on his feet once more.
Adriana smiled as Billy led them up into the main part of the craft, a smile which died as Diosa said in her cool, collected voice, "Commander Travis ... you should know that Athena Samuels paid the base a visit during your absence. Overunit McCallum is now dead." The first part of the statement didn't surprise the former Dread Youth. She knew that Athena was the engineer who first started tunneling from the old storm cellar to the nearby base.
What did surprise her was the report that Overunit McCallum was dead. Vin asked softly, "Diosa, this is the Sharpshooter, from the Larabee Unit. Why did Athena kill the overunit ... and how did she get inside the base?" Adriana looked at Terry with raised eyebrows. Their communications specialist was the one who had programmed the hologram and upgraded her systems. For that matter, how did Diosa know what was going on at the base? Had Terry discovered a way for the hologram to split herself into two?
"Greetings, Vin Tanner. Ms. Samuels is the engineer who originally began tunneling from the storm cellar to the nearby air base. The locks which she first installed, all those years ago, still function, and can in fact, override my systems, should she choose to use them. In addition, Ms. Samuels considers Valhalla her home, and the members of the Valkyrie team to be her daughters. As such, she has carte blanche to come and go," came the reply.
As the three teams settled about the cockpit and Terry readied the craft for takeoff, Jon said quietly, "Not that I don't trust Athena, but that's risky, isn't it?" Adriana nodded, tapping her password into her own workstation, as her brother once more took up position beside her. Adriana didn't complain. If there wasn't a war going on, and there weren't two little girls who needed them, she would be spending all her time with her brother.
"No ... because I created a chip at Athena's request, and Charlotte implanted it," Terry answered, adding almost absently, "buckle up, we're outta here. Shields up ... Nora will join us once we're underway." Adriana did a quick check ... yup. Everyone was buckled up. Well, everyone but Dunne, but that was his problem, not hers. She heard a yelp and looked over her shoulder as Nathan Jackson buckled the young man into his chair with a reproving look.
As the Fury rose up from the ground and gained altitude, Terry continued, "This chip has a self-destruct mode, which will activate if Athena is captured and she thinks there's even a small possibility she'll be used against us. When the chip self-destructs, it will cause her heart to explode." And she'll die. Terry didn't say the words, but she didn't have to. Everyone understood that.
"That's barbaric!" Dunne blurted out. Adriana turned from what she was doing and glared at him in silence. The boy continued, "Well, it is! Y'all claim to be so much better than everybody else, but you're no better than Dread!" Oh. Oh, that was a really, really, really bad idea. And to keep herself from strangling the little brat, Adriana reached over and took her brother's hand, taking several deep breaths.
A quick glance told her that Jon and his daughter didn't like it either, but they understood it. Especially young Aislinn, whose face had gone ashen when Terry explained about the chip.
"Wrong again, Mr. Dunne. We make no such claims. And we sure as hell aren't as bad as Dread. Athena made a decision, fifteen years ago, that she would never again be used to hurt the people she loved most. If I didn't do it, someone else would have. Someone who didn't love Athena, and someone who didn't know what the hell they were doing. We don't claim to be something we're not. We leave that to people like you," Terry fired back.
"She's right. I don't like it, but it's Athena's choice to make, not yours," Jon said quietly. JD started to answer, but Jon continued, "Nearly thirty years ago, I was used as bait, to lure my father into a trap. Athena was used by Dread, to do the same thing to me. And while I was taught to prize life by my father, if it came down to giving up my own life to save my child, I would do that. Athena has made her choice. She would have found someone to do it, if the Valkyries turned her down. Instead, they honored her choice out of love."
"In other words," Rob put in, "grow UP!" Adriana ducked her head over her work, trying desperately not to laugh. Both at Rob's obviously disgusted look, and the boy's equally stunned expression. Rob shook his head, muttering, "Sheesh. Kid thinks he has all the answers. I'll be lucky to keep from shooting him by the time this is all over." That makes two of us, old friend, Adriana thought as they flew toward Flame Street, that makes two of us.
Vin wondered if he was the only one who realized Diosa never answered the question. Why did Athena kill Overunit McCallum? And how exactly did she do it? As the Fury slowed to allow Nora to dock her Proto, Vin discovered he wasn't the only one at all. Jon said, frowning thoughtfully, "Diosa, this is Jonathan Power from the Power Team. You never answered how Athena killed the overunit ... and why."
"I believe, Captain, that Ms. Samuels referred to it as a 'object lesson.' As to how ... I am not certain. She was in the cell with Overunit Wilson. Suddenly, Overunit McCallum started choking. Ms. Samuels never touched her ... used no gun or dagger," came the answer. Vin frowned. How was it possible to kill a person like that? Sure, he knew about the various torture devices used by the Bio-Dread Empire, and he had the scars to prove it.
But they didn't have none of those at the Valkyrie base. Nathan murmured, drawing everyone's attention, "In order to be a good healer, ya sometimes have ta cause pain." Vin looked over at his friend, but Nathan wasn't looking at him. Or anyone else from the Seven. Rather, he was looking at Charlotte, a troubled expression on his face. As if there was something she knew, but either didn't realize she knew or hadn't told them about. Charlotte looked blank for a moment, then her face went ashen as Nathan added, "Cassandra?"
"Oh my God. I never even thought of that, but it makes perfect sense! According to the last transmission we received from Avalon, our scientists are still studying the effects of digitization on survivors, people who have been brought out of the machine. It's a possibility," Charlotte acknowledged, looking worried. Vin looked from one medic to the other, then over at Jon. Did he have any idea what they were talking about? Apparently not, because the look Jon returned to him was just as mystified.
"That's great, now could two of you share with the rest of the class?" Chris asked, sounding more than a little annoyed. Vin exchanged another look with Jon, this time seeing the other man grinning openly. Jon mouthed 'testy,' and Vin nodded, rolling his eyes. Chris added, not even looking at them, "Don't start, Tanner ... you, either, Jon." That prompted a third glance between the two men.
"Operation Cassandra, Chris. A series a' experiments by the Bio-Dread Empire, to upgrade natural psychic abilities," Nathan answered, driving the air from Vin's lungs. He jerked his head back toward Nathan, staring openmouthed at his friend. The medic sighed and continued, "According to the theory, digitization has another side effect, in addition to the obvious. It can either trigger, or boost, a person's natural psychic abilities. Just like Operation Cassandra done."
"So what you're saying," Adriana said from her work station, still holding onto Bucklin, "is that Athena has the capacity to kill with her mind ... with a thought?" Charlotte and Nathan looked at each other ... then both nodded. Adriana shook her head, muttering, "Oh, terrific. Wait a minute. If she can do that ... why did she need the chip? I mean, you'd think that if she has the capacity to kill with a thought ... ?"
"Maybe she found out about this ability after the chip was implanted. In any event, there's one other question. Is there any way we could change the codes, to keep her out? If there is, should we even try?" Jon asked. Mary was already shaking her head, and Jon looked at her, asking, "What does that mean, Gemini? That there's no way, and you've tried, or no, we shouldn't even make the attempt?"
"All of the above, Captain. In the first place, Valhalla is the only home Athena knows. My team all knows about her ability, as well as her PCD ... her personal cloaking device. Athena doesn't know they know ... we have a need for our own secrets. In the second place, all attempts to change the lock codes have failed. She always breaks the codes or overrides the system, like we said," she answered. Well, that answered that. >From Jon's expression, he could tell that the man wasn't that surprised. Then again, Athena was one of his father's lab techs, and Jon's own former lover, the mother of his daughter, so maybe Jon shouldn't have been surprised.
"Yeah," Nora added as she rejoined them in the cockpit and made for her chair, "it would be like y'all kicking out Scout, or the Seven kicking out Dunne." Unspoken was her own displeasure with JD, and the kid just glowered at her. Nora blithely ignored it, sliding into her seat and taking back her controls. She reported, "We have about an hour before we reach Tech City. If I try to put this down inside the city limits, things could get nasty."
"What about taking the little jets down? And I hope you have good disguises," Jon replied. Vin looked over at Chris, who smirked. They had never used disguises in Tech City. Seven men tended to stick out like sore thumbs, especially seven men who were so different physically ... and in so many other ways. However, Jon's suggestion of using the protos was another story. Vin didn't know how many people each would take, and he didn't know how many would be needed to watch Drina's back on Flame Street.
"We don't use disguises, Captain," Mary answered almost absently, "five women don't attract that much attention. Five women trying to disguise themselves in clothes that neither fit them nor suit them does. Okay. We can't all go. Croix, I want either you or the Healer to remain with Adriana while she's under. The other three will provide aid, in case the Dreadheads show up. Sprite and Vox, I need the two of you to stay with the ship. We can take three Protos, two people to a Proto."
"Do you want to go, M ... Gemini?" Chris asked, catching himself before he could use Mary's name, instead of her code name. Mary looked at Adriana, who had returned her attention to her work, and bit her lower lip. She wanted to, Vin could tell. But after a moment, she shook her head, and Vin had a pretty good idea what that cost her. Chris continued, "Okay. I'll go. Vin, you'll be with me and ... Tank." Vin nodded. That was a good choice. Jon indicated his approval, and they got down to planning what the others would do.
It was decided that while they were in Tech City, the others would provide air support ... keeping watch from the skies for Dread activity. Scout would take over at Adriana's post, scanning the air waves. As Nora settled the Fury into a hover over Tech City, Adriana set up a user id and password for the Power Team's communication's specialist. Then she, Chris, Vin Charlotte, and Tank set out for Flame Street in the Protos.
There was very little discussion between the three Protos on the way down. It wasn't a matter of needing to maintain radio silence ... rather, each was focusing on the job they needed to do in Tech City. Since three out of the five going in had never flown a Proto, Nora maintained control on Chris and Vin's craft, since Tank was flying with Charlotte and Adriana was flying alone.
Just as she would be flying alone inside the web, once she jacked in. Oh, Charlotte would be on the outside, watching her back and monitoring her life signs. Nora's sister Lydia would likely be with her. But Adriana didn't know Lydia very well, and so she couldn't trust her. Charlotte, she trusted, but Charlotte couldn't do anything while she was inside the web. And that was what scared her. Inside the web.
She had jacked in before ... but this time, the stakes were higher. This time, the lives of two little girls were on the line, if Will Richmond was telling the truth and his daughter Allison was alive. From what she knew of him, that was a big if. Aislinn Power was safe, at least for the moment, and sometimes that was all you could ask for. The moment. She landed, only seconds ahead of the others, and once they were all down, they all made their way to Flame Street.
None of them spoke ... Chris, Vin, and Tank would remain topside, while Charlotte and Adriana went down into the chamber where they would find Lydia. The current Mindsinger had been contacted by her younger sister, and was waiting for them. When she was a small girl, before her father had her taken from her family, Adriana watched vids of a twenty-first century show called 'Farscape,' and one of the things involved in the story arc was an Aurora chair.
Every time Adriana got ready to jack in, she thought of the Aurora chair, because that was exactly what the set up reminded her of. The Aurora chair was a torture device, a way to extract information from a person's mind against their will. It was like digitization, a mental rape. Adriana was jacking in of her own free will, but she couldn't help the shudder that went through her body as Lydia fitted the helmet over her head.
Charlotte took her hand, holding it tightly, and Adriana curled her fingers around her friend's, grateful for the human contact. Lydia said quietly, "Jackin' you in ... now." It was like nothing she could describe. A jolt went through Adriana's body as Lydia flicked the switch, and her spirit left her body. Whirls of color and light assaulted her eyes, but Adriana didn't dare turn away. Instead, she focused on Olivia Greer's face and the sound of her voice.
And as soon as she found herself in the web itself, she was pulled to the information she needed. A Dread Youth indoctrination center. Surprise, surprise. Olivia was proving difficult for the flesh and blood machines, and they had been unable to break her yet. Good for her. She noted the grid coordinates and realized she knew the place in question. It was just outside what remained of Tucson, Arizona.
She withdrew from the web, since it was decided the longer she spent inside at the time, the more difficult it would be for Terry's jammer to work. Besides, she needed more information from Charlotte about Allison, if she wanted to find out if the child was still alive, and where whe was being held, if she was, indeed, still alive. She inhaled sharply as she returned to the outside world, to find Charlotte watching her anxiously.
Adriana said hoarsely, "Found Olivia. Need a picture, or something, of Allison. Makes it easier. How long's it been?" She had learned from previous times inside the Web that what felt like a matter of seconds inside the web often translated to several hours outside. She was guessing that was the case this time, since Charlotte looked so worried. That, and her shoulder ached. Not because of the weight of the helmet, but because of Charlotte's grip on her shoulder.
"About two hours. Gemini said you might need a picture of Allison, so I brought my locket with me," Charlotte answered softly, removing her necklace and opening it. Adriana accepted it, peering at the image of a five year old girl smiling happily for the camera. Charlotte continued softly, sadly, "I always used to call her my little Ally Cat. Drove her batty, because her middle name wasn't Catherine or Cathleen."
Adriana returned the necklace to her friend, gently closing her fingers around the locket, and said, "If she's alive, Charlotte ... I'll find her." The medic nodded with an attempt at a smile, but Adriana could see her friend was on the point of tears.
Adriana looked away, not wanting to embarrass Charlotte by bringing anyone's attention to those tears, and nodded to Lydia. Again, the Mindsinger flipped the switch, and once more, Adriana found herself careening down a tunnel of color and light. She forced herself to focus on Allison's smiling little face, and the nickname 'Ally Cat.' What happened next shook her to her very core, as she landed where she shouldn't have.
She found herself in the Dread Youth Indoctrination Center from her own childhood, and saw a small child sitting in the corner, softly crying. A quick glance told Adriana that the little girl was, indeed, Allison Richmond. Adriana looked around warily. No one was in here. Now. Just the two of them. The little girl was a little older than she was in the picture, and Adriana whispered, "Are you okay, honey?"
"I want my mommy," came the piteous reply, and Adriana's heart turned over. She remembered being like this little girl, so many years earlier. Taking another look around, the second in command of the Valkyries slid slowly to her knees in front of the child. She didn't touch Allison. The little girl sniffed, then asked, "Are you being punished, too?" It took Adriana a moment to understand. Oh, those sick bastards ... those sick, sick bastards!
Adriana shook her head and said, "No, honey, I'm here because I'm helping a friend. My name ... my name is Hecate. And you're Allison." The little girl's head came up at that. Adriana continued, "They gave you another name, didn't they? For your new life, in the Dread Youth. But hard as they try, they can't make you forget your mommy. They can't make you forget the truth, and when they can't, they punish you for your own failure."
"They ... they told me that my name is Rachel now. Not Allison," came the response. Adriana canted her head to one side, frowning. Rachel? Wasn't that the name of Jon's mother? Of course. Taggart was in love with her ... no, he had been obsessed with her. Allison continued, "They say my mommy's dead ... they say that my mommy gave me to them. But I know she didn't! They hurt my mommy! There was a big boom!"
"They lied, honey, on both counts. I know your mommy ... she's the friend I'm helping," Adriana told the little girl. Allison's eyes widened, and Adriana continued, "For the last two years, baby, your mommy has thought you were dead. It was just recently that she found out you might have survived the explosion. I know this place. They tried to do to me, what they're trying to do to you. We'll come for you ... but we need your help."
Allison listened intently as Adriana continued, "We need you to be strong a little longer. Another little girl was captured by the Dread Youth, the daughter of another friend. If they transport you before we come for you, they'll take you to the Dread Youth Indoctrination Center outside Tucson. If they do that, try to find a girl named Olivia Greer, and tell her that Charlotte is your mommy. She'll take care of you until we get there."
Allison nodded, then asked, "Hecate? Could you do something?" Adriana started to reply, but sensed a presence behind her, even before Allison's eyes widened with fear. Without pausing to look behind her, Adriana grabbed Allison and threw them both to one side.
All the time, her mind was racing, remembering what Jon told her in the months she and Vin lived with the Power Team. If you die in the Web, he told her, psychosomatic shock will kill your body. Something else you need to remember. When I was in the web, I couldn't do things I wouldn't do in the outside world ... like pull a weapon and kill someone. It is your essence within the web, and you cannot change your essence.
Alrighty, then, she thought grimly, imagining a spear in her hand, keeping Allison behind her protectively, let's see what happens when someone who has no trouble killing ends up fighting for her life and the life of a child. She wouldn't kill the overunit who had joined her in the web ... but she would leave her in a world of hurt. For what she had done to Vin, Adriana knew Mary and Charlotte had a few things to say to Overunit Gisele Chase.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Dread clone. Now you're putting little girls in the web when you can't twist their minds to suit you? Then again, I shouldn't expect anything better from you," Adriana hissed. The point of the exercise was to piss off Chase to the point she made a mistake. Fortunately, she had a short fuse ... and Adriana had long years of practice in pissing off the other woman. The others teased her that she had raised it to an art form.
She continued, talking over the overunit's usual babbling about the will of the machine, "Oh, do be quiet! You forget, Gissy, I was in the Dread Youth for four years, I know all your slogans and all your crap. And I know for a fact you ain't worthy to wear the same face as your sister. You'll never be even half the woman Jennifer Chase was. You don't have that capacity. You don't have that courage."
That was Adriana's trump card. One thing she had learned about Gisele Chase ... the overunit hated her late twin sister. Hated her for leaving the Bio-Dread Empire, hated her for the house of torture which Gisele herself endured after Jennifer's flight from the Dread Youth. The Overunit hurtled forward with a scream of fury, but Adriana was ready for her. She had no intention of killing the overunit with a heart or head shot.
Instead, she gripped the spear tightly and drove it into the incoming overunit's abdomen. In the outside world, if she sustained such a wound, it would kill her in time. But after receiving the wound in the web, it would leave her with one helluva tummy-ache ... but it wouldn't kill her. Chase doubled over and screamed, falling to her knees. Adriana kept her eye on her, growling, "That was for Vin, you bitch! Ally-Cat, go on back, and remember what I told you."
"Yes, Hecate ... tell Mommy I love her!" Allison answered, then disappeared. Adriana turned her attention back to the moaning overunit and knocked her unconscious with a kick to the jaw. She had the information they needed. At the moment, Allison was in what remained of Calgary, but that was subject to change. Once they all got back to the Fury, she would ask Terry to monitor the Dread Youth channels.
Her work here was done ... it was time to go back and find out exactly how long she had been under this time. But as she closed her eyes and pulled back from the web, returning herself to the mundane world, she found a nightmare waiting for her.
Things almost always started out quietly ... but they seldom finished that way. That was the way of things, with all the Resistance units ... not just the Valkyries, not just the Power Team, and certainly not just the Seven. And while Chris didn't fully trust Charlotte Richmond to watch his sister's back, at the moment, he didn't have a choice. They were to patrol outside, so it wouldn't need watching on the inside.
According to Vin, Adriana could be in the Web for several hours. In a way, it was like surfing the Internet, back in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries ... a person could spend hours without realizing any time had passed. Especially when they were in pursuit of something. Lydia added that it wasn't finding what you were looking for that was the trouble ... it was getting everything you needed.
Things were more complicated in this case, because you were talking about the Dread Youth. Adriana knew what she was looking for, because she had been Dread Youth, but it was no less complicated. Lydia didn't like it ... inquiries into the Dread Youth usually brought trouble. Ever since Dread completed his turn to the machine, downloading his brain into an android, his insanity had reached new heights.
But at the same time, Lydia knew this was necessary. She had her little sister back, when Nora had been in the Dread Youth, she would have taken the same chance. She had taken the same chance. But that didn't mean she had to like it, and she said so. More than once. Well, hell, Chris didn't like it either. Neither did Tank, neither did Vin, and he knew for a fact, Adriana didn't like it.
But Dread didn't ask whether they liked anything or not, he just decided for himself that he knew what was best for everyone else. He had decided he would raise those children to be flesh and blood machines, that he would take them from their families. He was, as Stuart Power once said, trying to save the world by destroying it. When he made that decision, he left no other choice for Chris and others like him.
And so now, the men patrolled the area around the Mindsinger lab, as they had taken to calling it. While Chris knew from conversations with his cousin that Tank could trade quips with Scout and Hawk with the same ease Buck could do the same with JD and Ezra, the big man was quiet today, his eyes flickering around. And the leader of the Seven wondered if Tank was as on edge about this whole situation as Chris himself was.
It wasn't just the matter of Jon and Aislinn ... not just the matter of working with the Valkyries and finding out that his little sister was still alive. It wasn't just the kidnapping of more children from their families, it wasn't just the lingering fear from almost losing Vin a few months earlier after being tortured by Gisele Chase. It was all of those things combined, and combined with something else.
JD. What in the hell was the kid's problem? In the year since JD had decided he would join the Seven, Chris had never seen him behave like this. Part of it was jealousy ... the kid was so jealous of Adriana's reappearance in Chris and Buck's lives, he was blind and deaf with it.
Part of it was his continuing fury toward Charlotte ... but there was something else there. Chris didn't fully understand it, and he certainly didn't trust the Valkyries' medic. But he also knew that if the Valkyries were pushed too far, they would push back, and the consequences would be downright ugly. The women believed in taking care of their own. Just as Chris did, and he knew that he would defend one of his men, even after they made a mistake of that magnitude.
So why should Mary be any different, where her own people were concerned? Chris hadn't missed the comment about the double standard. Two sets of rules, based on what was convenient for one group, regardless of whether it was fair to both groups. Mary had no patience with that nonsense, and neither did Chris. He was willing to work with another commander, so long as the other group didn't put any of his people in danger.
But the trouble this time wasn't with someone else's group, it was one of his own men, who kept putting the lives of other in danger. That was what bothered Chris. And as the hours passed, his sense that something was wrong began to bother him even more. More than five hours had passed since Adriana and Charlotte disappeared into the lab, and while Vin told him that wasn't unusual, how quiet the streets had gotten was another story.
Finally, he sidled up to Tank, murmuring, "You've been here in the past ... is there any other way in?" Chris couldn't shake the feeling that someone had slipped in past their defenses, and it was something that occurred to him, after remembering the conversation about Athena Samuels. Tank shook his head, though he didn't look particularly certain of that. Like he didn't know of any, but that didn't prove anything.
Damn, Chris hated when he went into a situation without all the facts! Chris gave a low whistle, drawing Vin's attention, and the blond man indicated the chamber with a nod of his head. They were drawing close to the entrance when a pop-pop-pop filled the air. A woman screamed, and there was no more time. Chris bolted down the stairs to the lab, to find Lydia struggling with one man, and no sign of Adriana or Charlotte.
He didn't stop to think about what that meant ... especially not after a figure bolted past him, slamming into one of the attackers from behind. Tank stormed down as Lydia went to something on the ground, and Vin grappled with someone who had been circling around the back of the machine. That left one for Chris, and as the marauder raised his laser pistol, Chris fired first. Within seconds, all the marauders were disabled or dead.
The man with whom Vin had been grappling was face down on the floor, Vin's foot pressed into the back of his neck. Vin said hoarsely, "Fancy meetin' ya here, Eli Joe. What were ya doin,' tryin' to kill my friend?" For the first time, Chris saw Adriana slowly picking herself up off the floor. She made a motion forward, her face twisting with hatred, and Eli Joe screamed in pain. Vin smiled coldly, saying, "Reckon she mighta broke some of them fingers!"
"Are you all right, little princess?" Chris asked and Adriana nodded, her face returning to a more calm mask, though Chris could see the fury in her eyes. Looking around, the leader of the Seven realized someone was missing.
Lydia had gone to help Adriana to her feet ... that was why she dropped to the ground once she was released. But where was Charlotte? He wasn't the only one who was wondering that. Adriana looked around, saying, "I'm fine ... I came out of the Web, to find that pile of shit aiming a gun at Mindsinger. She was standing between us and them, and Croix took off the helmet as soon as it was safe, then pushed me to the ground."
"I ... I'm right ... here," a weak voice said from the shadows against the wall. Adriana and Lydia both turned as Charlotte moved forward haltingly, out of the safety of the shadows, and into the light. Chris thought at first that her ashen face was a trick of the light, until he noticed the way she was gripping her side ... until he noticed the blood seeping through her fingers. Charlotte whispered, "Adriana?"
And then she collapsed, Adriana catching her in her arms and gently lowering her to the ground. She cried out, "Charlotte! She must have been shot while she was pushing me out of the way. C'mon, Charlotte, stay with me! Mindsinger ... send a tight beam to the Fury, with this verification code. Noin-Une-Une. My friends will understand what it means. C'mon, Charlotte, you're not gonna let some dumb ass marauder take you out ... your baby still needs you!"
Lydia began to set up communications with the Fury. Tank placed himself in front of her, while Chris and Vin knelt beside Adriana. The second in command pulled the other woman's shirt free of her trousers, muttering, "Damn. We're gonna need to get her back to the base, double time. Those twits were using old time ammo. I'm not finding an exit wound, so your man Nathan will have to remove the bullet. Shhhhhh ... just lie still, I'm gonna stop the bleeding."
Without looking up from her job, Adriana continued, "Vin, hand me Charlotte's bag. She has bandages in there. I'm gonna bind the wound until we get back to the ship. Lydia, do you have the Fury yet?" This time, she did look up to see Lydia's answering nod, and Adriana continued, "Good. Let them know that Nora will have to fly two of the Protos from the ship. And we'll need the lower level ready for wounded. Tank!"
The big man circled around and Adriana said, "I need you to carry Charlotte back to our ships. We'll cover you. Lydia, is there any way you can suspend operations until things quiet down?" The Mindsinger nodded, and Adriana continued, "Good. Then I think you should come with us. We'll drop off the living prisoners at the Passages, and the dead ones in the nearest ditch. Is there anyone you can trust to do that?"
"Yeah. Is she gonna be okay?" Lydia asked as Tank gently eased the medic into his arms. Adriana didn't answer, and Lydia continued, "There's one other thing you need to know. How they got in. There's a secret passage under here, a tunnel which leads into the lab. I just found out about it when they came in ... Hildy never said anything about it. Instead of throwing the dead marauders into a ditch, we could throw them back out the way they came in."
"Good idea ... we'll take care of that. Lydia, if you'll tie up these jackasses. Little princess ... you said Charlotte's baby still needed her. Allison Richmond is alive?" Chris asked and his little sister nodded. Chris swore under his breath as he and Vin picked up the first marauder. Things just got real complicated!
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